Blog Hiatus.

Due to a family issue, I’ll be away for some time. I will be back on when I feel I can.

-Tina Anderson

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Virtugo: A Snarky Virtus Walkthrough.

Let’s get back to the real reason this blog is popular, shall we?
Lord knows it has nothing to do with me!

Over at Eye Weekly, Paul Isaacs seeks ‘porn comics’ from a retailer’s perspective by talking to Chris Butcher, manager of the Canadian store The Beguiling. I found this article via Mr. Butchers blog, where he sort of apologizes in advance for it, [I think] because he got the feeling that the interviewer may not have picked up on exactly what he was trying to convey. I thought it was good, though as someone who isn’t a fan of furry, I think the kemano references could’ve been left out [not a critical slam—seriously, that’s just my quirk]. I did notice they had a thumb of Virtus. :/ I don’t know if I ever went out of my way to talk at GGY about Virtus [which I picture-read in installments in Gekidan] but overall, I didn’t like it from a picture reader’s perspective. Somehow I doubt if I’d dig it, even if it had been translated for me.

ON TO THE SARCASM:

Fix It, Before It Breaks Down.

I’m genuinely disturbed by the Pilot Program. I won’t go into breaking it down with snark or point out why it’s ethically revolting, because – this – has – been – done – all – over – the – internet.

I opened an email from my artist this morning; she’s currently illustrating our original German manga release ‘Games With Me’ for publisher The Wild Side. Artists like her draw comics for a living—they live and breathe comics, and do it fast and efficient. On top of working on our book, she’s completing her own series which runs in China, and ran in Rush from Dramaqueen [when it was still printing]. She has a lovely Asian style that sells books to the right kind of fans—so it’s no surprise that Tokyo Pop’s been trying to recruit her to draw one of ‘THEIR SCRIPTS’, but on top of that, she’s considering the Pilot Program. As far as their script query was concerned, I told her if they can match your page rate—go for it. I may not personally like WFH, but I don’t begrudge anyone that engages in it to make a solid wage. Yet when she expressed interest in the Pilot Program, my stomach just turned.

She, and artists like her, can churn out pages of manga in a short time and so to her, a possible $750 isn’t so bad for what amounts to a quick job…but what bugged me was: ‘and I can have Tokyo Pop work on my resume.’ Ugh. This is what I call the ‘Tokyo Pop Crush’: teen-style emo-crushing that goes on with unpublished creators who could care less about actually getting paid but care more about having their work in print—from Tokyo Pop.

While I can see that some of the fault for this T-Pop-crushing lies in the minds of young artists, I also blame those they look up to for reinforcing this notion that—hey, draw like this and submit to Tokyo Pop. Who in their right mind does this and actually cares about a young creator’s future?

Now I wont deny that’s I’ve submitted to them; Yep, I submitted to Tokyo Pop once upon a time—why? They have an established presence in book stores, and direct market distro; and their page rates are nice enough that any artist I work with would be happy with them. It would’ve been an excellent way to get my book to as many readers as possible and get my artist paid for their labor. I submitted my outline, exchanged emails with an editor…and it was fine until I expressed that I had no intention of handing over exclusive multi-media rights to my work. I wanted to share them. What happened? My script [which was complete, with artist attached] went unread. It was a polite ‘well we have our way of doing contracts, sorry—’ and that was that. So no I’m not commenting here out of sour grapes because I don’t look at my attempt as being rejected—I’m pretty confident that, if I had played by Tokyo Pops rules, I could’ve sold the pitch. My goals and their goals weren’t the same and I could reasonably sit back and look at it from both sides and make a decision that best benefited me.

I don’t feel that many young unpublished creators are capable of doing this. This is not an insult, or me calling young creators amateur n00bs—I just know from experience that the desire to be published is so strong that it gets in the way of logical thought. I’ve been there [seriously, I really have been there] and I can tell you, regret sucks. It sucks the life right out of you. Perhaps not at the moment you sign the contract…but later, long after you’ve spent the money paid to you up front. Regret is a skanky feeling that sours your creative juice, I don’t wish a bout of it on anyone.

You know the expression they have in prison: You ain’t down up in here until you been fucked up in here? I just hate to think that creators might feel that ‘being fucked over’ by Tokyo Pop, is a rite of passage on the way to publication. It’s disturbing.

To me, this is what best summarizes the Pilot Program [which will ultimately be fueled by creators infected with the T-Pop Crush]. Sadly, if it succeeds and it probably will, we’re going to have other companies following suit and my predictions made here, will most likely come to pass. [Sadly, I wasn't even talking about Tokyo Pop in that post.]

More Keita Saiki

Because I’m evil!

NIGHT ALL!

Funny.

Working Today.

I have a script due to a friend by the end of the day, her time– so this will likely be my only post.

Five Things I Saw Before Lunch:

1. There’s a new fumetto blog in town. It isn’t in English, so if you’re looking to learn stuff, fugetabowdit.

2. The Ormes Society flyer’s came in from Nara; I’ll be sending these off to friends at the upcoming A-Kon in Dallas. I follow the Torchbearers Com, but sadly I can’t post comments there because they don’t allow OpenIDers to post comments, but I did watch the Com, to get updates. The curator has been posting entries that feature artists from the group; I’m now going to check out the book ‘76, because Sam Jones just sounds like a great female character I’d love to read.

3. I agree, that Pilot Program at Tokyo Pop is a joke, and I wouldn’t rec it to anyone either. Sorry.

4. and OMG…here’s a thought guy: Why not BUY the friggen issues of Deimos? It’s not that expensive. Don’t want to buy from Canada? Then there’s always tlavideo.com And duh, I’ve reviewed both issues of Deimos, you could’ve linked to those instead of that ‘post-rape’ response snark that features one measly panel from Deimos! I laugh at you, hear me laughing.

5. R.W. Day heard back from Iris Print. I haven’t touched base with my rep yet today but I wonder if I got an email as well? I do thank Becky for being concerned enough to email me about it, and hopefully she’ll blog or let others know that all is ‘almost’ well.

Remember…Watch Andromeda Strain tonight!

Happy Endings in Gay Historic Romance?

There’s a great post over The Macaronis Blog about how the ‘happy ending’ is a somewhat bothersome institution in books categorized as ‘romance’. I’m inclined to agree, and while it works wonderfully in historic hetero romance novels and comics, it’s a bit harder to pull off in a believable fashion in gay theme romances. Sure, HEA crops up in ‘BL’ all the time, particularly in the teen-reader manga offered from companies like Juné or Deux Press. Even manga-ka writing for older fen and known for their angst-ridden stories [Kawai Touko, Sadahiro Mika, or Yamane Ayano] tend to deliver the happy endings—I learned that this is often due to editorial mandate. It doesn’t surprise me that the most popular manga featuring unhappy or unresolved endings are typically historical in setting. I’m not saying Japanese BL or even gay comics set in the past, don’t have their share of HEA stories—they do—but these HEA dramas tend to be unrealistic throughout; it’s a virtual requirement to suspend belief in order to enjoy them, since the relationships are so unrealistic given the reality of the time period. That’s the point right? Pure Escapism. Graphic novels written to remain as true to the time period as possible tend to have less than joyful endings, and the primary reason is obvious–it wasn’t easy being queer in the old days.

I’ve found tragic endings in historical-based romances occur with more success in western Gay-themed comics, then they do Japanese BL; BL from Japan was never about trying to depict what is considered ‘the gay male experience’, nor was it trying to really ‘remain authentic’ to history or real events. The ‘realism’ found in many historical BL today is something that’s come about only within the last few years; I’m curious if exposure of the genre to the west has anything to do with why mangaka and their editors are making attempts to be more realistic.

A funny parallel: While traditional Japanese BL is making more strides at realism, gay manga is taking an opposite road [differing greatly from the early angsty-realistic offerings]. Since the recent mini-renaissance of Gay manga in Japan, most of which is marketed as ‘BL’ despite being mostly drawn by and read by male readers, there’s an overwhelming amount of HEA and unrealistic erotic romances. This might be a direct result of gay mangaka [Tagame being one of the more notable hold-outs] trying to break with the gay genre of old. Current BL by gay creators and aimed at male readers is a far cry from the gay manga produced only five years ago; most relationships in these books were set amidst violent times and were taboo dramas where someone was either emotionally [and often physically] tortured, or died or lost someone they loved, due to their ‘forbidden passions’. I wonder if western male interest in BL has been instrumental in the sudden marketability of ‘gay manga’ and if so will mangaka will continue to throw realism out the window and deliver pure escapist fare for their male readers. Time will tell.

Form my own personal experience, I was asked to change the ending of Roulette because, according to my editor ‘no one dies in her BL!’ (^_^) I changed it, but I can’t say it’s a happy ending. No one gets married, moves in together, and defies the world with their love. LOL! I suppose if one sits down to write something with the purpose of making the reader close the book with a smile on their face, writing HEA is easy. Life for most of the gay men I’ve known and cared for, has never been easy. It honestly doesn’t occur to me to write stories featuring happy endings that I know just wouldn’t be possible considering the time period upon which my stories tend to play out. Am I capable of a happy ending? Sure. My upcoming novel ‘Lost Along The Way’ is contemporary work set in New York City in the early 90’s. Oddly enough, the ending is not a massive emotional let down and no one important dies because of love or lack of it. On the other hand, I took critical heat for ‘Only Words’ because of it’s ending [ungraciously spoiled by a reviewer at Amazon—who then preceded to enhance her review with how ‘she would have done it’. :/] Most the ladies who read it and spoke to me at cons and via email, were not happy that I ended it the way I did. Some understood that there was no way a relationship between Koby and Oskar could’ve carried on considering the time and place it was set in. A few male readers [and one female friend in her review] pointed out that Oskar’s actions at the end seemed like just another case of self-hatred rather than acceptance—two went so far as to tell me I shouldn’t have perpetuated this notion. ‘In Motion’ didn’t have a happy ending either, and while no was physically hurt or killed or dying, our young hippie and ex-vet spent a passionate night together, and they said goodbye forever at the airport. It was 1971, no—they weren’t going to ride off into the sunset together. 0_o. Even my most accepting fans were unhappy about this, and felt they should have at least changed numbers and kept in touch. That’s just not possible given the time period these two men were living in, and the cultural climate reflected in their backgrounds.

To me, if the ending closes out on a happy note with all strings tied up nice and neat…then I walk away from the story after its initial reading, and never think about what transpired between the characters again. I want my characters and their drama to come alive in the minds of my readers—and stay there, long after when they’ve put the book down. I think historical gay romance makes it easier to write angst-ridden stories, and allows for a more palatable close…one that doesn’t need to be saved by a Happily Ever After.

PRIZM Books Is Here

I failed to mention this, and caught it over at author Erastes LJ; but Torquere Press has launched it’s PRIZM Books imprint, for young adult GLBT fiction.  Unlike parent publisher Torquere, all PRIZM titles will be published in paperback format, and distributed to bookstores and libraries.   I don’t see a mention of graphic novels on their submissions pages, but I did post this here because Torquere is actively seeking cover artists right now.  [Thank G*d, at least one company is trying to move away from Stock Photo covers!]

PRIZM Books will be showcasing at the Book Expo America in Los Angeles in June.  They’ll have previews of their upcoming titles, and will be taking orders for September 2008 deliveries.  Here’s hoping that if they’re popular enough to make a dent in the GLBT youth market, graphic novels will be on the horizon. (^_^)