Archive for the LGBTQ Category


Lesbian Comic: Batwoman Elegy

October 1st, 2010

Two years ago, I had the pleasure of a guest review by David Welsh on the issues of Detective Comics in which the Batwoman arc ran.

This week I read the collected volume of Batwoman: Elegy by Williams and Rucka for myself and I find that I don’t have a substantially different opinion than David did.

I was an American comics reader for decades before I discovered manga. However, I was almost exclusively a Marvel reader. Not for any philosophical reason – Marvel series were just more appealing to me. So this was probably the first comic in the Batman world that I had read in more than 30 years.

Batwoman: Elegy tells the story of Kate Kane, the daughter of soldiers, who has been busted out of West Point and ripped from an exemplary military career for being gay. This section is poignant, as Lt. Dan Choi was consulted. I expect that the conversation Kate had with her C.O. was not unlike the one he had with his. Lost, flailing for purpose, she has a relationship with Renee Montoya (wow, really, what a shock, not) which breaks up eventually. Because of this and a conversation at the beginning of the book we are supposed to see Kate as incapable of holding a relationship together. Really, three relationships and she’s a commitment-phobe? Um…

Eventually, she finds purpose fighting crime and, eventually, metamorphoses into Batwoman.

The book opens as she fights a new high priestess of crime that plagues Gotham.

Batwoman Elegy has an artistic design that I described to myself as Burton meets Mucha. There were individual pages or spreads that worked well but, on the whole, I found the emphasis on color overwhelming. And man, the faces just were not consistent across the story. It’s obvious in those two sentence that reading manga has strongly affected the things I look for in a comic. With all the color, I find it hard to *see* American comics these days.

Above all things, what I like best is a good story.  Batwoman Elegy is an okay story.

I know that Rucka is a massively popular writer, but I am just not getting what people see. I think he’s competent, absolutely, but nowhere near excellent. Here’s why I say that. About halfway through the book, Colonel Kane gives the entire story away. In one word. This is not foreshadowing. To call this “foreshadowing” is like saying that me beating you senseless with a bat, then saying “you’re going to have a bad day today” is “telling your fortune.” The worst part about it…it was obvious anyway!!! I guessed within 3 pages what the deal with Alice was. I don’t mean to cast aspersions on American comics readers but…really, this is what passes for “excellent writing?” Wow. (I asked my comics store owning friend about this “foreshadowing” and she said she never really noticed. I wonder…when you have like 12 pages of content in a 32 page comic, if the reason people don’t notice is that they are on overload from all the crap they have to wade through to get to the meat. That would kind of explain a lot about American comics, too…)

There were, definitely, things to like about this book. The color scheme is striking, no doubt about that. And the four pages spent on Kate’s evolution from paramilitary crimefighter to Batwoman were fantastic. Really fantastic. Those four pages made the entire book work for me. Which is where my one genuine complaint comes in – four pages? The best part of the story gets *4* pages? In a manga it would have gotten an entire volume. At least a whole chapter. Here, it gets 4 pages.  Oh well.

So, here’s what *I’d* like to see. Let’s redo this story from scratch, get someone who can really write on it and give it some time to develop, instead of shoving each section into 4-8 overcrowded pages.  Give us more. More time, more room, more growth and more development. More of Kate. Less of ridiculous badguys with realllllllllllllly obvious provenance. How about we just get more crime, less shark jumping right off the bat? (This is something I see *a lot* with female-lead series. The new crime drama Rizzolli and Isles went *right* to a previous stalker/serial killer who is ba-ack! arc….in the first episode. Gawd.)

The New Batwoman standalone series is starting soon. DC, here’s your chance to show you don’t suck, you understand how to tell a story. Here’s you chance to create an American superhero comic as interesting to women as manga is. Go for it.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Kate’s personal story – 8, the Alice arc – 3
Characters – 8, what little we got to see of them
Lesbian – 5
Service – 5

Overall – 7

The best part about this book is undoubtedly the fact that it was sponsored by newly minted Okazu Hero Ashley R! Ashley, thank you so much. Email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com to receive your very own Okazu Hero badge to proudly display on websites and social media profiles!





HER Manga

July 25th, 2010

HER, by Yamashita Tomoko, is a series of character portraits, loosely strung together by everyday circumstances.

The story begins with a woman who wants to be loveable – and loved – and who has a fixation on shoes. Her hairdresser’s fear of the future is the subject of the second chapter. A schoolgirl whose hair she cuts sees her older female neighbor kissing her female lover goodbye. In the past, the neighbor had a difficult relationship with her mother. The neighbor’s lover was rejected by her first love. The couple sitting next to them at the cafe have their own issues.

As an omake, each chapter is summed up by a one-line subtitle with an accompanying 4-panel comic: i’ve not known HER; i’m detested by HER; i’m nothing like HER, i gonna get at HER; i still love HER; i always lost to HER. [sic, in all cases]

The lesbian chapters are quite excellent. They realistically portray an older woman, Yoshiko, who has already reconciled herself to the choices she’s made and can discuss them honestly with a young woman who doesn’t know what to do about her own life. Even as Kozue realizes that everyone she goes to school with can, in one way or, another be considered “strange,” she comes to realize that her neighbor Yoshiko isn’t that “strange” at all.

For one thing, Yoshiko is older – as in late 50’s-60’s. Not only is it not typical so see women that old in manga at all (even mothers seem eternally 30 unless they are 70) but almost unheard of to find a lesbian that old outside a “lesbian bar” scene. For another, Yoshiko is not bitter, regretful, or…well…anything. She’s just a person, as Kozue begins to understand. Yoshiko has thought about kids, for instance and, for several reasons, has not pursued having them. She’s a photographer, she grows flowers. She’s not moralizing, or warning Kozue away from the life – she’s just living her life as honestly as she can. Ultimately, that’s what allows Kozue to accept her.

The chapter about Yoshiko’s youth is not about her sexuality. It’s not about coming out. It’s about her discomfort with her mother’s behavior and the many reasons why she rejects an offer of sex from a guy she otherwise trusts and likes.

Yoshiko’s lover, Honmi, in her younger days had fallen in love with a straight co-worker. Despite her attempts to be a good friend, she’s suffering when the woman she loves suffers, more so because she can’t really do anything to comfort her. Although she’s long moved past this, that first love lingers on in her heart.

HER is a great example of skilled story telling. It’s a book that begs for a re-read or two, so one can pick up things missed on the first or second read. It’s the kind of book that – were it in English – I would give to an adult, female friend who doesn’t read manga. Readers of Octave who enjoy the story for the adult interactions of the characters would also enjoy this manga.

There’s nothing here to appeal to children or children in adult bodies. This is a story for adults, about adult choices, becoming an adult and most of all…what it’s like to be HER.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Lesbian – 9
Service – 0

Overall – 9

Like a whipped cream, sprinkles and cherry on top of the yummy ice cream of this series, this book was sponsored by Okazu Superhero Dan P – the first of several from my Amazon Japan wishlist. Thanks Dan, this was way awesomer than I anticipated!





Yuri Manga: Aoi Hana, Volume 5

April 22nd, 2010

You know the 5 Stages of Death? Well, Coming Out also has certain stages. 1) First, you have to admit to yourself you are /fillintheblank/. 2) Then you admit it to someone close to you. Just one person, because your sure it’s going to turn them against you. 3) Then you admit it to someone else – sometimes a perfect stranger, because that’s safer than family or friends. 4) The biggest hurdle is vocalizing it to your family. If that stage is not horrible (and for many people it is,) you start becoming more comfortable with the whole thing, until the final stage 5) Acceptance. For that to happen you have to accept yourself. It’s a bonus if the people around you accept you too, but it’s most important that you accept yourself.

In Aoi Hana Volume 5, Fumi has made it past the third stage. And really, she’s not sure how she got there. But it’s okay, because she’s well on her way to accepting herself. And she’s also already incredibly strong, although she doesn’t yet realize it.

It’s once again time for the Drama Club to put on their play and emotions are running very high. Despite themselves, last year’s first-years are turning into rather mature second-years that are admired by the new students. Kyouko stuns people with her performance in Mishima Yukio’s Rokumeikan. (The link is to the collection of plays in which Rokumeikan is included.) Even Akira, who comes down with sudden nerves, finds herself caught up in the moment and shines on stage.

Haruka learns that Fumi, too, is a lover of women, and we follow a flashback when she learned of her sister and Hinako’s relationship. When Fumi meets Haruka’s sister, she is keenly aware – and a little jealous – of their comfort level with each other.

Even Mogi’s clandestine relationship with Akira’s brother is noted.

Everyone is growing up.

I only wish I had “met” Fumi when I was young. I could have used a media representation like her.

With vacation planned and old flames coming back into the story, Volume 6 promises to be full of fireworks – can’t wait!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 9

Does *anyone* like Chizu? The more we see of her, the less I like her.





Yuri Manga: GUNJO, Volume 1

April 9th, 2010

(Note to people looking for scanlations of this book. The author does not work herself to the bone and pay money out of her pocket so you can steal her work. Scans are not cool – they are theft. You want the book, click the picture and go buy it. Otherwise, you’re devaluing her time and effort and there is no justification for it, other than you are selfish.) 

“Is it settled?”

“It’s settled.”

With these few words begins one of the most profound, most emotionally engaging manga I’ve ever read.

Gunjo, Volume 1 (羣青 上)by Nakamura Ching is a journey from madness to madness, from profound misery to profound misery and from derision and fear into depths of despair where there is respect and even love.

It begins in the moments after a horrible crime has been committed. A woman has asked someone to kill her husband for her. She has asked someone she knows she can use – another woman, a lesbian, who has been in love with her since high school. The woman who requested the death is abusive, derisive. The woman who committed the crime is passive, almost apathetic. She flinches in the face of the other’s harsh words, but doesn’t fight back.

In between incredible, sudden violence, at moments when their existence is most tenuous, there is tenderness. No, it’s more like that there is only tenderness in the moments when they are most fragile.

We only learn later that the one woman has been serially abused by her husband, after a life with an abusive father. And we only learn later that the other woman walked away from a relationship and a life to commit this act of violence for her.

There is no real moral ambiguity here – these two women are violent and broken. They are insanely bad for one another and have together done something unspeakable. And yet, in the darkest moments, they realize they want to live and try to create something like a life out of the chaos they’ve created.

Nakamura-sensei’s art is detailed and realistic – and in those moments of terrifying violence it reaches the level of sublime. Her writing is subtle – and painful and hurtful – and breathtakingly beautiful especially when the situation is uncertain. There is a mastery of tension of just about every kind in every word and line of this story.

Moving, brutal, sublimely gorgeous and profoundly disturbing.

I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say this – Gunjo is the best manga I have read to date.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 10

I would love to hear from those of you who bought Volume 1 of Gunjo – what did you think of it, now that you’ve had a chance to see it for yourself?





ChinMan Manga

March 7th, 2010

Before a manga artist gets a serial, they usually start with a few one-shot stories for a magazine. In this case, before she began drawing GUNJO, Nakamura Ching drew a number of one-shot manga stories that have been collected into a single volume, ChinMan (short for Ching Manga.) This collection is eclectic, odd and intruiging. Just the way I like it. :-)

The first story follows Sae, a young woman with a mysterious disease that causes extreme nosebleeds and some kind of internal convulsions when she’s over stimulated. ….Ahem. When’s she’s kissed deeply by a worried female friend, she realizes that her illness might not be so bad, after all.

Nanako listens to her grandmother’s story of how she and her grandfather lived through hard times and were parted during the war, but doesn’t really understand her grandmother’s feelings until she herself finds love.

“Sonny” is a boxer, whose son does not respect him, until he sees him give his all in the ring.

Noboru is a 19-year old slacker who decides that he wants to become a tattoo artist. He apprentices himself to a woman who really runs him through the traditional method of apprenticing – he cleans constantly, endures physical and emotional abuse until he proves himself worthy of taking ink and needle to the skin of his master. This was far and away my favorite story of the collection.

A local boy and girl have a very contentious relationship that ends with the boy becoming a hero eternally as a Kamikaze pilot.

“Lady Stanch” is a look at life among the bosozoku and the relationships that develop between friends, enemies and lovers in that world.

A young man faces the harsh real life of someone he admired when he was younger in “Cheerio.”

And the final story is a hyper-intensive look at an artist’s tools. I mean that literally. This is a manga about the pens, pencils and brushes and one woman’s over-the-top relationship with her writing utensils.

Each story in this collection is filled with remarkable intensity. The female characters really stand out as having some strength and every character shows resolve in a way that is bound to make a reader feel like s/he too can overcome any obstacle. But these are not comforting stories, even when they are funny. They are edgy in a very real sense.

I’m particularly glad to have had the chance to read the tattoo story, and in general to have gotten a glimpse at the early work of a woman I not only respect as a manga creator, but respect personally.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Variable – 6-8
Characters – 7-9
Yuri – In the one story, 7
Service – 1, just on principle

Overall – 8

Before there was GUNJO, there was ChinMan.

And it was good.