there it is, plain as daylight.

A couple of months ago, I wrote up a little entry to discuss what I don’t like about yaoi, which turned out to be a great thing for me, bringing forth a whole slew of very nice folks with recommendations. I’ve found some titles I can enjoy in the genre, and made a few new friends, too! One odd side-effect, however, is that people have somehow gotten the idea that I’m a yaoi fan. Just this week, in fact, I’ve received two yaoi-related requests from readers passing through.

The first was a request from an author to review her yaoi e-book. Since I read a very small amount of yaoi, and rarely write proper reviews of anything, I have recommended that she may want to seek out a more suitable voice, though if she really wants me to do it, I’ll try. The second, was a request from a woman who is working on her Master’s thesis, asking me to link to a survey on yaoi, and to quote the following text:

Continue Reading »

I’ve been plugging away at a post about global manga, but it’s just not coming together quickly, so I’ll take a brief rest to talk about some of the manga I bought at NYAF!

Some volumes are yet unread (Dororo v.1, Galaxy Girl, Panda Boy, Seduce Me After the Show), but here’s a quick rundown on what I’ve plowed through so far.

Continue Reading »

A few people have expressed interest in knowing a bit more about my comic-in-progress, and though I think it is really too early to talk about it publicly in detail, I’ve created this short public info page to try to satisfy the curiosity somewhat. I’m afraid it reads a lot like those horrible blurbs on the back of books, and may, in fact, do my comic more harm than good. I guess we’ll see. Please feel free to ask questions, or to tell me that it makes my comic sound awful and that I should kick myself for having put it up, which I strongly suspect to be the case.

In unrelated news, I just read some spoilers for chapter 201 of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. Wow. More on this when the chapter comes out, but. Wow.

This blog has become pretty exclusively a manga/anime blog, but initially it was intended to have a broader scope, and I’m going to use it as such today. These are the things on my mind right now.

First of all, I haven’t talked at all about politics here before, but it’s hard not to with the presidential election looming so close. I think Joe Biden was correct last night when he said that this is the most important presidential election I’ve been a part of in my lifetime. Others have felt important at the time, but the weight of this one is overwhelming. I feel it everywhere, too. I’ve been enjoying (and cringing at) Shaenon Garrity’s stories of her mom’s experience campaigning for Obama in Ohio. They remind me of my own mom, arguing with conservative relatives and friends over e-mail and on Facebook. I saw a bunch of old friends last weekend in New York, and with each one of them the conversation eventually turned to politics. My host’s ten-year-old daughter wouldn’t let me leave the house without my own Obama button. People are excited and terrified and energized. I’m not going to pretend this is a non-partisan blog. I’m obviously an Obama supporter. It’s hard for me to imagine, though, why anyone wouldn’t want to participate in a historic election like this one, regardless of ideology. So on that note, I’ll just remind everyone that you can register to vote online at declareyourself.com.

On a completely different note, I’ve been doing a lot of work on my comic over the past few days, and though I know people mainly come here to hear me talk about other people’s work, I’m going to talk about mine just a little.

Continue Reading »

I mentioned last week or so that Plastic Tree’s new album was due out while I was at NYAF, and now that I’m home I’ve finally got a chance to listen to it. This does not resemble a coherent review or anything, but I do have some quick reactions on the new tracks that I can share. These are pretty much stream-of-consciousness, which may give you a clear idea of why I do not usually allow myself to write that way. Also, keep in mind that these impressions are based on music only, as I haven’t read any translations yet. And so…

Notes on Utsusemi: Continue Reading »

I’m finally home from NYAF! I had a very nice time, both visiting with old friends and at the con. Everyone else has already reported on the manga industry news and so on, so I’ll just talk about my personal experiences.

Many thanks to dear friends, Laura, Gavin, & James for making time to catch up with me at early hours of the morning, and to my dearest EA, little (or not so little!) Moo, and Malcolm, for putting up with me all weekend. I was also lucky enough to meet a couple of people I’ve become acquainted with through this blog. Here is my report (in order of appearance):

Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane: Friendly, fun, professional. I was very happy to spend time with her at a number of panels over the weekend!

Ed Sizemore: Kind, generous, BEST SHOES EVER. I wish I’d had the opportunity to chat with him more!

Overall, I really enjoyed this con. It was smallish, and with the exception of Saturday, felt actually kind of intimate, which is maybe not profitable if you’re running a con, I don’t know, but certainly enjoyable as an attendee.

Continue Reading »

Heading out shortly to the train station for travel to NYAF! I’ll be staying with a dear friend in Brooklyn, and have plans to inundate her and her daughter with anime while I am there, specifically Princess Tutu, Mushishi, and/or Kino’s Journey. I’m also trying to work on getting her daughter interested in manga (she doesn’t read a lot, but I thought maybe comics would help her enjoy it more). I guess we’ll see how it goes. I’m not exactly sure what to try to start her off with. She’s ten, but has spent a lot of her life hanging out with adults, so she’s definitely not typical ten. She’s the kind of girl who would (and did) dress up for Halloween as “Dorth Vader,” a cross between Dorothy (from The Wizard of Oz) and Darth Vader. If you have suggestions, bring ‘em on!

I’ll be at the con all three days, from opening to whenever I get too tired, so if you see me wandering around, please say hello! Just got my hair cut. Look approximately like this.

Just a quick note on xxxHolic chapter 166 before I go. Continue Reading »