I’m out having some fun without you, so no Yuri Network News this week. I hope you’re out having fun without me.  ^_^

Surely, you’ve noticed. Manga artists are no longer holed up in their apartments, appearing in public like groundhogs only for the occasional event. For one thing, events are becoming more and more common, so even the most reclusive manga artists are enjoying the company of their fellow artists and fans more than once or twice a year now. A mere 48 hours ago, thousands of fans and the artists they like were hobnobbing at Comitia 100. And Twitter has connected more of these artists together and more of the fans with those artists, than ever before. (Follow my Yuri Mangaka list on Twitter to see what your favorite artists are up to.)

But as small as the world is getting these days (and as glad as I am about it,) that’s not what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about the increasing role technology is playing in getting the artists, and their work, in front of fans in real time.

Last week, I took Yuricon into the live video age and a lot of manga artists are doing the same. Technology has reached the point where live video hangouts and streams not only make sense, but are accessible to nearly everyone, world-wide. Even at events, it makes sense for artists to show, rather than tell. At Comitia 100, creator of Dogs, Bullets and Carnage (a series I read regularly, but have not reviewed here,) Shiro Miwa, drew live and projected it on a large monitor for people to watch.

This is not a comprehensive list of live video sketching, but here are three mangaka of note that I know of who have been drawing live and doing tutorials, that you might want to check out:

Serial Experiments Lain, Haibane Renmei creator Yoshitoshi Abe has put some coloring demonstrations online for your viewing pleasure.

Iono-sama Fanatics, Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan creator Fujieda Miyabi often sketches live on his Ustream site. If you have a Twitter account, you can sign in and chat with him.

Wedding Peach, Moon and Blood creator Yazawa Nao is doing a series of online demonstrations and Google Hangouts that you can join, for her Manga School Nakano. She’s got a Youtube channel with her videos, as well. (Yazawa-sensei has very good English, and is very friendly, so definitely drop her a message!)

These are only three of the many folks moving their work online. I think that the more we see how much work goes into even a single drawing, the less likely we, as fans halfway across the world, are to discount the amount of skill and effort that goes into a manga.

Technology has been kind of cruel to mangaka, so let’s support these technologies that give us access to them and to appreciate what goes into their work.

I am indeed back from The Netherlands and Yaoi and Yuri Con there, but have managed to rather severely injure my cornea in the process. There will be no new posts until I can see again. Please feel free to read old posts to console yourself while I am out of service. ^_^

Back at the end of January, I announced a contest in conjunction with my review of Houkago Kanon and yes, I am *finally* getting around to announcing winners. (It’s only been about 6 weeks, so not the worst delay ever.)

Here were the rules of the contest:

The name of this book is Afterschool Kanon, where Kanon is the name of a Japanese deity.

Using this same formula, come up with the title and a *one-line* description of a Yuri story. For example, “Bathtime Hecate: Keiko discovers a Greek deity living in the medicine cabinet in her bathroom, how will she keep the goddess of witches from ruining her new life at the sorority house?” Yes, that’s awful. That’s the *point*. Make me groan with awfulness.

Well, damn, a few of you blew me away, both good and bad.

I have a pile of books here, from which I will pick utterly random things to send to winners and as usual, I make no promises or guarantees that it’s a good book. (In fact, the point of this contest is to get rid of a few crappy books, so…erm, yeah.) Winners, if you’d kindly email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com, I will get your prizes out to you asap!

The grand prize winner is Jennifer Linksy with a genuinely faboulous pitch:

Gloaming Eos: When Sakura arrives to take up her new position as activities director at a retirement community, she finds herself surprised by how energetic… and surprisingly beautiful… one of the residents is.

Not only did Jenny have a fun pitch, but went so far as to actually write it up!

Winner Stephen mixes and matches Greek mythology and Shakespearean drama in classic style:

A Midsummer Night’s Hera: Tired of Zeus’ infidelity Hera decides to turn the tables by seducing all the women of Athens but soon finds herself unable to stop there and plots to re-make the world as one filled only with women… women completely devoted to Hera.

Winner Atarun made me laugh out loud with this entry:

Dear Shub-Niggurath: cute, ditzy Hikaru unknowingly enters a hellish high school where all men are cultists and she gets chosen to be sacrificed to tentacle-adorned Cthulhu – her only hope for survival is to surrender to the calling of unpredictable, dark, showy Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, all-powerful goddess of fertility.

And Natalie sent in this romantic comedy idea:

Midnight Eros: Shy, lonely Miyu had given up trying to get the attention of the girl of her dreams – until one night she discovered the Greek god of love and passion living under her bed! Can Eros help Miyu finally find love?

Thank you for all the entries, which were funny, wonderful and painful…sometimes all at the same time. ^_^

I love the stuff you guys come up with. You’re all so darn smart and creative!