Archive for the LGBTQ Category


Lesbian Graphic Novel: Skim

March 14th, 2008

There are many things to like about Skim, by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki.

Right from the start, I was intrigued. The book is hardcover, larger than I expected, with a decidedly “classical” Japanese face on the cover, reminiscent of Heian art. A face with heavy cheeks, high, plucked eyebrows and a small, shapely mouth. And, when I opened the covers, this is indeed what our heroine looks like. A classic Japanese face. If she had ever smiled, I’m sure I’d have been surprised if her teeth weren’t blacked out. ^_^

The story is constructed as a series of diary entries, which gave it the feel of a pillow book, and just added to the classical ambiance.

The art is not manga-style. It’s not really American comics either. There’s a distinct style to it, informed by both Japanese and western art, but it’s completely it’s own thing. I liked it quite a bit.

Kim, known as “Skim,” is 16, a Wiccan-in-training, and Gothic, but not at all Goth. She’s a smart girl, perceptive and incredibly down to earth, surrounded by adults who think they understand what it’s like to be 16 (is there *anything* more galling?), friends who haven’t the vaguest clue what she’s really like or what is really important to her and peers who, well they aren’t her peers, anyway.

She’s romantic, realistic, full of hope and hopelessness, and everything else a real person is. She might also be gay, but it’s kind of hard for either her or us to know at this point.

Above all, Kim is someone that not only would I have over for lunch, I’d have her over again and again, until she got past 16 and was allowed to be human.

Then there’s the bitter humor of a person smarter than most of the folks around her. She’s taken to a Wiccan coven that also turns out to be a AA meeting. Both the wife and I thought that was hysterical. (Our Druid grove isn’t an AA group, but it is awfully like attending a meeting for Adult Children of Co-Dependents Anonymous, or something equally as sad.) Her response when her friend Lisa fills her in – after the fact – about it being an AA meeting, “You think you’d tell someone that beforehand.” She’s just sayin’.

When Kim falls for her teacher there’s nothing at all icky about it. The teacher isn’t really abusing her position, Kim isn’t making a bad choice. It’s an honest attraction that, in two more years, wouldn’t be that much of an issue at all. Kim isn’t quite sure what to think, while it’s quite obvious that the teacher’s feelings are serious enough that she ends up having to make hard decisions. I thought the whole love thing was handled beautifully. (I’d like to say more about it but I don’t want to spoil anything. Just – it was nice. And mature, the wife says.)

In fact, I thought the whole book was handled beautifully. I finished reading it and handed it to the wife – which I NEVER do, because she and I like completely different things. She read it and amazingly, she liked it as much as I did. (I know that that will meaning nothing to those of you who haven’t met her, but those of you who have, will understand how significant that is. ^_^)

To sum up, for character, for the story, for the art and for a realistic, but not at all angsty look at teenage angst, I really cannot recommend Skim enough.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 0

Overall – 9

Speaking of “top ten” candidates…..





Yuri Manga: Gunjou

March 6th, 2008

A few months ago, I mentioned that I created a page on the Japanese social networking site Mixi. It’s been a very good exercise so far. For one thing, I have to be semi-coherent in Japanese when I post there, so I’m forced to practice my appalling communication skills. Because I am a shameless American, I’ve been wandering around the Mixi communities, introducing myself and pimping Yuricon & ALC Publishing where it seems to fit.

Well, one day I got a message – always an occasion of entertainment, (I’m not afraid of rare hunters who just want me for my strangeness.) This message, however was a very polite comment from someone named Nakamura who thought that since I seem to like Yuri manga, I might be interested in their new manga series. The post they linked me to starts “A non-moe Yuri manga.” My cute little ears pricked up because, of course, I *long* for non-moe Yuri stories.

Let me side-step a second. The day before I received this message I was trawling the Yuri board at 2chan and saw a picture which interested me greatly. I didn’t read the post, because I was in a rush. But the art really stuck out because it was two adult women, looking decidedly grim and I liked it instantly.

So, when I popped onto Nakamura-san’s page and find myself staring at the same exact picture, I think my heart rate increased a little. Probably got a little color in my sallow cheeks as well. After reading the description of the series, I fearlessly added Morning 2 magazine to my last order from Amazon JP.

Friends, I just want to say this, Gunjou is awesome and Nakamura Ching is da BOMB. Thank you, thank you, Nakamura-san for pointing out your new series to me!

As I reported in my Yuri News report a few weeks ago, Gunjou by Nakamura Ching is the story of a woman who asks the lesbian who is in love with her to kill her husband, and their life on the road after the deed is done.

The woman, whom I will refer to as “BN” for “brunette,” because she as yet has no name, is not a nice person. If I was her husband, I’d probably be abusive too. She’s manipulative, self-absorbed and nasty. Her friend, who is also nameless, so will be referred to as “BL” for “blonde,” is a lesbian who has been in love with BN for some time. She identifies as a lesbian and she’s prone to fits of violence. Needless to say, as I read Gunjou I practically shuddered with ecstasy. A nasty woman and the EPL who loves her. Sounds like my household. LOL

In chapter 4, which is where I picked the story up, they are casually discussing how they would want to kill themselves. BL suggest self-immolation with gasoline – and buys some just in case they want to try it. They return to BN’s childhood home, since her parents are safely dead. She tells BL how much they and her husband trapped her for her entire life. She heads off to have a cigarette and take a walk – we later see her at the public phone. BL finds some ero-magazines and picks one up, only to find that the girl in the story being schtupped looks scarily like BN. They find a game of LIFE and start to play, but in a fit of nasty, BN trash talks BL, then tells BL that she called the police on her. BL beats the bejeebus out of BN, then threatens her life with a broken bottle. BN begs for her life, they drink, they eat some sushi and go outside for a walk. Whereupon BL douses herself in the gasoline. But then worries when BN takes out a cigarette. The chapter ends with them both sitting on the ground outside the car, BN’s hand on BL’s thigh and BL carefully holding BN’s lighter.

Chapter 5 starts with some color pages, and BL with wounds that look like knife marks on her chest. No hospital, she says, in her near dementia. BN has no clue what to do, but she remembers BL talking about an older cousin she used to visit in the area where they went to school, so BN heads there. They park, BL saying she doesn’t want to go to a hospital, and BN saying that she isn’t – they are at her cousin’s place. “I don’t have a cousin,” BL says, just as her (obviously) ex-lover walks up. Woops. LOL

BN is laying on a futon on the floor when BL starts to gag and vomit. The lover comes in and comforts her, and in case we were very stupid, she holds her close, they have a lover’s reunion right there, while BN eats her own liver out. The whole thing is massively awkward. As BL recovers, the lover takes BN out to dinner, blames her for the failure of their (BL x lover’s) relationship, and the current state of things. After gently tipping her dinner over BN’s head, the lover proceeds to try to strangle her to death, saying she won’t give BL back now that she has her again.

BN drops the car keys into the car and starts to walk away, but BL leaves her lover with an apology. As the chapter ends, the two of them walk off arm in arm.

The art is a bit unusual, josei meets action drama – but don’t get me wrong, this is NOT a josei manga. Morning is a guy’s magazine and this is a manga for an adult, male, audience. The characters aren’t attractive, but that’s more because their expressions are often distorted by rage, frustration and bile, than anything else. Every once in a while they soften and you instantly begin to like them.

While I’ve focused on the major drama in the synopsis, there’s actually quite a bit of softer character development going on. And despite the dysfunction and manipulation, the relationship between BN and BL has some moments that are really quite tender. Since Nakamura-san describes this series as a Yuri series, I’m very interested to see how their relationship develops. I don’t see a *happy* end in the future, but I bet it’s interesting. I’ll definitely be following the series as it comes out in Morning – hopefully a tankoubon will be out soon.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 6 for anyone sane, 9 for me
Yuri – 4
Loser FanErica – 10

I cannot *wait* until the next chapter. I might just die from anticipation!





Lesbian Comic: Honey & Honey

February 24th, 2008

One of the questions I get quite often is “Are the terms seme and uke used in Yuri (or do lesbians in Japan use them) the way they are used in BL?”

Like just about every question I get, the answer is yes – and no. (I’m starting to sound positively Elvish these days, with my inability to provide straight answers to deceptively simple questions.) ^_^

Since educating people on lesbian relationships and gender roles is part of what Takeuchi Sachiko’s Honey & Honey is about, this seemed like a good time to address that question here.

First, let’s talk about the terms, seme and uke. Seme (pronounced “seh-meh”) refers to the pursuer, the person who initiates a sexual relationship. Uke (pronounced “oo-keh”) is the receiver, the person who receives those advances. These positions in the relationship are based on power, and preference. They date from early Japanese male homosexual relationships, where the uke was traditionally younger and had less power than the seme, who was an adult male with some social status. These terms are similar to what we mean today when we say someone is a “top” (seme) or “bottom”(uke.) In BL stories, the seme is the more masculine in terms of gender role, while the uke tends to be more feminine. These are of course generalizations and yes, I know, there are exceptions to the rule. In general, the positions of seme and uke represent who has the power in the relationship. Why do I say “power?” Because this is modeled after a heterosexual model where the man  (or manlier man or woman) is presumed to hold the power and status.

In contrast, the commonly used lesbian terms tachi (pronounced “tah-chee”) and neko (pronounced “neh-koh”) are more aligned to our English terms “butch” and “femme,” rather that a direct match to seme and uke. As I discovered for the last Now This is Only My Opinion, tachi comes from tachiyaku, the kabuki term for an actor of a male role. Neko, in the only etymology I could find, was supposed to be from the combination of nemu and ko – e.g., the girl you sleep with. In Honey & Honey, Takeuchi says that tachi tend to play the male role, and neko the female, in a lesbian couple. (Women who switch back and forth are called reba, because they “reverse” roles.) As with butch and femme, there’s a certain natural tendency in some women towards one or the other.

When tachi are, in fact, playing the “man’s role,” they, well, they treat their women kinda crappy. Because that’s what men do, you know. In the US, butches tend to be way more solicitous of their femmes, because they are the Queen, and we live to serve, as I once found myself explaining in a lesbian bar in Japan. I was assured at the time that American butches are way nicer than Japanese tachi. If Masako in Honey & Honey is indicative, I’d say that I was told right. But I’ll get there in a sec.

Here’s where it gets weird. ^_^ The reason that I find the terms seme and uke awkward when it comes to lesbian relationships is because when it comes to female couples, it’s the femme that tends to be the seme. They make the rules, they call the shots. So, while yes, seme and uke are used, if you look at, say, Haruka and Michiru from Sailor Moon, there is no doubt whatsoever that it’s Michiru who is seme there, despite Haruka’s role as tachi. Seems counterintuitive, but that’s how it looks from this side of the mirror. ^_^

Now that we’ve cleared all that up, let’s talk about Honey & Honey. Like the sequel, Honey & Honey Deluxe, this book was designed to explain lesbian and sexual minority life to straight women, with gentle humor. Everything from “how did you know you were lesbian?” to breaking up, from debunking “all lesbians were abused by men” to dating basics. Sachiko (neko) and her girlfriend Masako (tachi) go out together to buy underwear and have dinner and face confusion, derision and misunderstandings from friends and family, as well as find support, love and community.

I can’t say I really *like* Honey & Honey, in part because Masako, as both tachi and a bisexual, tends to behave very callously, and stereotypically. Instead of representing bisexuality as simply finding both sexes equally appealing, Masako acts like an omnisexual pervert, acting like she’ll stray at any second. And as a tachi she tends to treat Sachiko unsympathetically. I realize that this is probably meant to be played for humor, but it sort of wore on me.

However, as with the sequel, the story does what it is supposed to do – it educates the nonke (straight/heterosexual) audience, explaining what lesbian life is about; the good, the bad, the annoying, the funny, with a cheerful attitude of “you’re a woman – you’ll understand what I mean.” In the beginning note Takuechi makes it plain that lesbian life is not painful or sad or lonely at *all* – in fact, she’s having a blast. For that alone, it’s worth reading the book. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Lesbian – 10
Service – 0

Overall – 6

If you’re a young person, trying to swim upstream against all the “but…” questions from friends and relatives, grab a copy of the this book and hand it over to the questioner – that’s *exactly* what it’s for.





Event Report: Book Signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe and Comic: Dolltopia

January 20th, 2008

Here’s a quick report on the book signing I did the other night, and a little review, too!

Jim Hanley’s Universe, seen on the left, is immediately across the street from the Empire State Building. I took a picture looking up at it from below, but it didn’t really come out. Oh well. I like the ESB – so deco, so excessive, so phallic, so shiny.

I arrived early. I always arrive early. It’s my nature. And not only were we expected, with a table set out and all, it even had good placement right up near the front of the shop. The staff at Jim Hanley’s Universe were *fabulous*. Every last person we dealt with was as nice as can be and they really did a great job of making us feel welcome. Thanks Vito and Harry and everyone at JHU!

I sold a book or two before Abby or J.D. even arrived, which set my whole evening off on a good footing. :-) Then Abby came and got herself all set up. We chatted a bit until at about 6:30 when people started to arrive – except JD, who was stuck in traffic. :-) Patty and David from Prism Comics came and made sure we were all good to go.

I was so pleased that some friendly faces showed to provide support. Mari, John, Chet and Yuri Monogatari 5 artist Jess B. who made a stealth appearance! I made her sign books, but she sneaked out when I wasn’t looking. lol

J.D. finally made it and before she even got her coat off, I made us take pictures together, because I would have completely forgotten to, otherwise. :-) From the left, it’s J. D, me, and Abby.

We really had a terrific time. All three of us sold each other’s books, which was pretty funny. “Now that you’ve bought this book,” we’d say, you should buy one from these two.” And for the most part, people did! Since people came for each of us specifically, it was a very cool way to get our books in front of people who might not otherwise have learned about us. After it was all over, we decided that it was so much fun, we’d definitely try to do this again in the summer as a Pride event. Prism continues to be the least sucky GLBT group I’ve ever dealt with.

Abby quite generously gave me a copy of her Dolltopia comic and I absolutely wanted to tell you all about it immediately. You’ll love it. Run right out and get a few copies for yourself and friends – it would make a great “thinking about you” gift for someone. In fact, next time I see Abby, I’m buying a handful and giving it to friends. It’s like 2 bucks, so there’s really no excuse when you figure it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Dolltopia is a mini comic series about doll interior lives and what they do when they break free from the constraints of their molded characteristics. Dolltopia is the world that dolls have constructed for themselves. Inhabiting this world are many dolls that have taken freedom into their own hands, including two modified “Darling Candy” dolls, Candy-O and her partner Candy-X. And yes, that’s parter, as in “life partner.” Abby says of the “Darling Candy” dolls, that they are based on a popular doll model that everyone would recognize. She told me that as a kid, she always used to hack their hair off, make her own clothes for them and drawn makeup and tattoos on them. This was, in part, the inspiration for Dolltopia.

The themes that permeate this comic, “who am I?” “what is my role?” “how can I be free?” are the same as in many an anime and manga relating to artificial intelligences. And they resonate with people because despite our apparent freedom, many of us find ourselves trapped in our bodies, our roles, the perceptions of what we can and cannot do – just like the dolls in Dolltopia. This is a mini-comic that packs a pretty solid punch. And it has non-creepy lesbian dolls, what more can you ask for? lol

Thanks to Abby for turning me on to this series, I now await the next volume impatiently. ;-) And thanks to everyone who came to the event, (I was told that we drew a bigger crowd than a well-known DC artist with the explanation, “But he’s an asshole and you guys aren’t.” LOL) Thanks again to the staff at JHU, and J.D. for setting this all up and Prism Comics for being in existence. It was a fantastic evening all around.





Lesbian Novel: American Goth (and Event News)

January 16th, 2008

In honor of the fact I will be joined *tonight at 6:30* for a book signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe, by author J.D. Glass, today’s review is something I wrote for her brand-new shiny novel, American Goth.

C.S. Lewis once said that myths “are lies…breathed through silver.” Perhaps, then, we can see fiction as a golden filigree of words forged by a smith into an ornament that decorates our lives with tales that are not real, but are not really lies.

American Goth is such a book – an alchemical reaction of ink, paper and intent, forged in the mind of a writer to tell a tale of a quest, of a destiny, of the life of a woman.

In American Goth Glass combines and balances many tensions, as a young woman grasps at her chance to make a life after tragedy; rebuilding herself and her emotional stability with unfamiliar (to her) surroundings, people and rites. Glass’s blend of music, ritual and sex forms a bond of its own, as we find ourselves drawn into Samantha’s life, her quest and her growth.

Less hard-edged than Glass’s previous novel, Red Light, this novel is no less edgy. Like a piece of Celtic knotwork, the reader will be following multiple threads through many connections, until the whole resolves itself into a powerful and exquisitely detailed pattern.

This was the book that I was waiting for when I was 20, when a large part of my time was spent combing through literature searching for some reflection of myself in the universe. I imagine that there are quite a few young, pagan, lesbians out there who will be delighted to train with Samantha, to find themselves part of a destiny greater than themselves and most of all, to find love.

**

Join us tonight to get your own copy of American Goth signed by JD, Shoujoai ni Bouken or Yuri Monogatari signed by me and Tough Love signed by Abby Denson, for a faboulous triple play of fun! I hope to see you there!