Western Comix: Paris in the 20th Century

November 11th, 2014

paris20Ana DuPre is both the heroine we want and the heroine we need. And luckily for us, Brian Gardes and Keri Grassl of Kilted Comics have created her especially for us.

In the alternative Paris of the alternative 1920s, along with airships and goggles, Ana DuPre, thief extraordinaire steals rare items, fights with laser guns and does other expected acts of derring-do. And she wears a leather pilot’s outfit and has a famous girlfriend…what more could we ask of her? Well…early 20th century literary references, of course! And luckily, Brian and Keri know what we want and give it to us. Which brings us to this lovely little comic, Paris in the 20th Century, starring charming adventuress Ana DuPre.

Ana has been hired by Michael Verne, the not-famous son of the famous French science fiction writer to retrieve a book from his father’s publisher. Of course, nothing goes easy for Ana…if it did, we wouldn’t have a cool story now, would we? ^_^

Gardes and Grassl have done a fair bit of homework and the people, places and situations among which Ana treads are real, including her bombshell girlfriend, Tamara de Lempicka, who was “notorious”ly bisexual during her life.

You may have guessed that I’m a sucker for this kind of comic, and I am. But what really got me, were Grassl and Gardes’ interest in and love of pinup art, combined with their love of throwing things to the wind and letting them be carried off in a zeppelin. Who doesn’t love a smart, sexy, bisexual, whimsical, gentlelady thief?

Ratings:

Art – YMMV, but I liked it – 7
Story – 8
Character – 7
Yuri – 2 Implication only
Service – 2 Pinup-y art

Overall – 7 and I definitely want more. ^_^

You can read sample pages of Paris in the 20th Century on the Kilted Comics website, along with the ongoing adventure, Ana DuPre and the Eye of the Kraken. You can buy Paris for $7 plus shipping. Totes worth it, but you won’t get it inscribed “Thanks for last night” like I did, unless you pick it up at a show. ^_^ (I always get people to inscribe it that way. I want my heirs to have something to think about as they clean my crap up after I’m gone. We even got some of the doujinshi artists at GLF to inscribe books to me that way. ^_^)

If you like Kerri’s art, do check out her page, Hooligan Lili (great name…!), where she has some lovely pinups and chicks on motorcycles and other things that make me happy. ^_^

Posted in LGBTQ, Western Comic/Comix, Yuri Webcomics | 2 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Kanojo to Camera to Kanojo no Kisetsu, Volume 5 (彼女とカメラと彼女の季節）

November 10th, 2014

kanocame5As Volume 5 of Kanojo to Camera to Kanojo no Kisetsu (彼女とカメラと彼女の季節）opens, we’re facing a terrible moment. Yuki, who has never before been obviously malicious, is showing Akari a picture of Rintarou, half-naked in bed. Akari refuses to be cowed and asks Yuki about the picture, at which Yuki crumbles. It turns out that she’s always desired Rin, but he sees her more like a sister. In the guise of a photo session, she stripped him down and tried to seduce him. Rin’s reaction was much like Akari’s when he tried to seduce her. He throws Yuki off and they have a honest talk, in which she is forever rejected as a woman by him.

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Akari’s reaction to this revelation is to set the timer on her camera and film herself and Yuki making love. This Yuki, Akari thinks, is perfect.

They go their separate ways, Yuki in Tokyo, Akari and Rin in town, working towards their exams. They meet up by accident after exams, and it’s clear that the ties between them have unraveled. Friends, obviously, but no more. Even when they finally graduate, and Rin offers them both a button from his jacket, they laugh at his presumption. Everything between them is gone…until an underclassman asks for Yuki’s tie. All of a sudden, Akari realizes nothing at all is resolved and drags Yuki away from the crowd to finally make her feelings clear to both herself and Yuki, once and for all.

Seven years pass. Rin is a salaryman, Akari teaches at a pre-school. Rin and Akari stay in touch, but neither have heard from Yuki in seven years. When an exhibit of Yuki’s photography comes to town, Akari hurries over to see it, but just as she starts to feel sad, because what she had really hoped was to see Yuki herself, Yuki appears behind her. They embrace as the narration asks if we want to go take some pictures.

This was a surprisingly cathartic volume, for a series that has been building tension without release for 5 volumes. And in many ways, that was what I liked best about the series. Yuki’s desire to take photos, she says right away, is to see people in their realest moments, and we’ve been doing nothing but seeing those moments, with hardly a break. So when finally Yuki’s cool mask shatters, the tension releases utterly in a way it could not have when Rin had his moment of pain or Akari hit her wall.

I’m fascinated also, that for a series so enraptured by photography, that the art itself makes no attempt at photorealism, but does a fantastic job of capturing facial expression and body language.

The ending was unexpectedly pleasant, which is always a nice bonus. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 4

Overall – 8

If you’re a reader that likes seriously intense, Dear Brother-levels of emotion, you might well enjoy Kanojo to Camera to Kanojo no Kisetsu. I know I did.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 3 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Gakuen Polizi, Volume 2 (学園ポリーチェ)

November 9th, 2014

gp2jpIn Volume 1, we met new school-police force member, Aoba, whose life goal is to be a champion of justice and her unenthusiastic and jaded partner Midori. Together they push the boundaries of their assigned duties and helped a bunch of fellow students as a result.

Volume 2 of Gakuen Polizi (学園ポリーチェ), begins with Midori and Aoba being called into Headquarters…presumably for a dressing down over their out-of-school efforts.  What they actually get, instead, is the presence of Midori’s former partner, Akari at their own school. Whether she is an ally or an enemy is hard to tell – and this remains true through most of the volume.

One of the things I really enjoyed about Volume 1 was the use of real-life issues high school girls face. Unfortunately, Volume 2 ups the ante on the nature of the crimes, without the sense of decency from the first volume. I won’t spoil anything, but do be ready for some creeping yuckiness and implications of violence. But it’s worth noting that these situations are not the main plot.

The bulk of the book focuses on Aoba and Midori’s feelings about being a Polizi, what they want to do with their lives and how they feel about each other.  (We might guess the outcome, it is a Morinaga Milk-sensei story, after all. ^_^)

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The end of the volume offers a glimpse of future Aoba and Midori. If you, like me, were a fan of Morinaga-sensei’s early doujinshi work, you may not be surprised to see them at all. ^_^

Volume 1  and Volume 2 are out in English. Seven Seas can be always counted on for solid reproduction and translation, so no fears from that quarter.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 6
Service – 8 Way more service than the first volume

Overall – 7

I didn’t enjoy this volume as much as the first, but for a 2-volume manga, it was a nice bit of action/adventure/comedy from Morinaga-sensei.

 

Posted in Morinaga Milk, Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – November 8, 2014

November 8th, 2014

YNN_Lissa

Yuri Light Novel

This time last year, I reported on a Light Novel called  Yuri Gra-doru Yui: Forbidden Girls Love (百合グラドル・優衣 禁断ガールズラブ). “Gra-doru” is short for “gravure idol” one of the bikini-wearing models that adorn Japanese men’s magazine covers. I have it sitting here and haven’t so much as cracked the cover other than to scan the pictures – which were so appealing, that it sits there on the floor, untouched. Well, hey, if you loved the fictitious story of the exploitation of Japanese gravure idols, you’ll be pleased to know that there’s a sequel! Yuri Gra-doru Yui and Shiho Mechaku Love Shot (百合グラドル優衣&詩歩 密着ラブショット), presumably follows the explicit adventures of Yui and Shiho. Let me know how it is. ^_^

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Adult Yuri Manga

Well, since I started out on such a high class note, I might as well keep going. For fans of adult entertainment in manga form,  there’s Onna no ko-doushi no ecchi ‘tte, Iroiro Sugosugirundaga (女の子同士のエッチって、色々凄すぎるんだが), which  I, with a loose hand and tongue in my cheek, would translate as something like “Speaking of girls doing it, it’s way zOMG”.

Also likely to be questionable is “Yuri Violence Comic” (according to Comic Natalie,)  Murcilago. To get an idea if this is your kind of Yuri and/or violence, there is a Youtube commercial for Volume 3 . The ad says there’s no good guys, which appeals to me.  If you want to give it a chance, here’s links to Volume 1 and Volume 2. Don’t expect much, it’s from Young Gangan. ^_^;

Birz is getting into the Yuri swing of things, as well. They are running a Yuri collection in their December issue, and have an upcoming Yuri anthology from Birz Comics Deluxe, Yuribon (ユリボン). Which is not all that surprising to me, as they’ve been working with Morishima Akiko-sensei on the Yuri Kuma Arashi manga (Volume 1 of which has a street date in two weeks.)

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Yuri Game News

ANN reports on Yuri game imprint, Sei Michael Joshi Gakuen, that is looking to gain Twitter followers by offering up an anime if they reach 50,000 followers. Sono Hanabira fans are going to want to look into this, as this project shares some of the same team.

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Goods News 

ANN has a “wrap-up” of all the cool Sailor Moon paper goods available for the holiday season from Premiun Bandai and household goods from the Family Mart convenience store chain. Oh heck, let’s just bomb this, topic, with all the Sailor Moon things ever.

Again, we turn to ANN for this report on a Homura-themed hoodie that, clearly, we all need. And here’s a terrific Card-Captor Sakura stained glass charm for all your high-class jewelry needs. ^_^

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LGBTQ News

The fine folks at Geeks OUT! have begun a Kickstarter for an LGBTQ Comic Con, which they are calling Flame Con. With 25 days to go, they are over halfway on hitting their first goal. They’ve got the breakdown on what they plan on using the money on, and while I think they are being optimistic on costs, and they don’t have a date or venue yet, I think they are great folks and if I can I’ll be supporting this. My only concern is that they’ve chosen May as their possible date range and the Queers &  Comics Conference and TCAF are already in May. I’d hate for them to lose potential guests to bad timing.

Library Juice Press is calling for papers for their collection Queer Library Alliance: Global Reflections and Imaginings, a collection dealing with Libraries and LGBTQ issues.

Comic Natalie (and my entire FB feed!) reports on  the awarding of the Japan Medal with Purple Ribbon to one of the mothers of Boy’s Love, co-founder of the Magnificent 24-year group,  Takemiya Keiko-sensei. The Purple Ribbon is awarded for significant academic and artistic endeavors.

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Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Posted in Yuri Network News | No Comments »


Yuri Manga: Mebae, Volume 1 (メバエ)

November 5th, 2014

mebae1Nature abhors a vacuum, we’re told and apparently that goes for Yuri anthologies, as well. With the retirement of Tsubomi and Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari (although several of those titles have migrated to web format),  a new anthology has jumped into the space.

Mebae (メバエ) is decidedly male gaze, but it had only a few stories I found completely unpalatable. And it’s a good reminder that the Yuri audience is varied in both demographics and intent. For every Yuri fan that is looking for a Takemiya Jin story, there’s another looking for  something by Kurogane Kenn.

With such a service-y cover, it was not really a surprise to find the opening story was in fact by Kurogane Kenn. (And along with Kurogane-sensei’s work, there were a few other Tsubomi contributors in the pages.) It was a little surprising to find the opener bereft of emotion or connection. He usually works a little harder than this. Two girls have sex in a restaurant booth, with little setup, in a classic PWP.

The next story is a complete contrast, “Paanto,” which is a melancholy look at admiration and competition in ballet.

I very much liked  “kitsuku! DAITE Honey”, which was a cute little twist on a superheroine and the girl she protects and loves, who turns out to not be who she seemed. In fact, Mei turns out to be Kurara’s arch enemy. Despite her spectacular defeat, Mei finds Kurara waiting for her after school anyway.^_^

Akamurasaki’s “Nibi-iro Nokosu,” was a pleasant look at a woman’s reluctant affection for her unfashionable friend.

The final story in the collection “Aoi Honoo Kaoru Tsuchi,” by Naruko Hanharu, appeared, I believe, actually in Tsubomi magazine, and is re-cast here as a nice ending piece in which time heals several wounds.

While I didn’t find the more explicit stories particularly appealing, I certainly didn’t hate this collection. In fact, Mebae Volume 2 is in one of the piles, waiting to be read. I’m kind of interested how many of the Tsubomi contributors just picked up and another anthology jumped in to fill the gap.

Ratings:

Overall – 6

For those of you interested, Volume 3 hits the streets at the end of this month.

Posted in Mebae, Yuri Anthology, Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »