Gay Comics Review: Nightlife

Nightlife – Dale Lazarov & Bastian Jonsson
Colors by Yann Duminil
Review Copy Supplied by Author.

Review submitted to DoorQ.com

As a veteran reader of romantic gay-theme comics from Japan, I can appreciate the works of Dale Lazarov and his chosen artists’ moreso I think than many of my western slash-reading peers.  In its infancy, the BL fandom in North America reveled in comics we were unable to read, because many of us just didn’t know the Japanese language.  We didn’t care to learn Japanese because we liked the romance, the intimacy, and the money-shots.   To this day I avoid ‘bara/menslove’ scans that are translated because it takes all the fun out of it for me as a fan of “hardcore” yaoi.  […the true meaning of “yaoi” being a story where men meet for no reason, and then screw for no reason].   Not one word of conversation ever need be understood…I was a proficient reader of facial expressions and hand gestures – often making up my own scenarios.

That being said, it’s going to be impossible for me to NOT recommend any Lazarov title from Bruno Gmunder.  Lazarov’s books appeal to that romantic and immature side of me, a side neglected since American publishers have seen fit to translate and publish nearly every Japanese series I’ve ever cared about.   I look forward to a Lazarov book because I know it won’t have dialogue in word-balloons, or sound effects where I don’t want them.  I can make-up what’s being said before the sex, during the sex, after the sex.  Interpretation is fun when left to me as the reader – and it’s why I find Nightlife, irresistible.

Spoiler <– Do you know what this means?  It means I’m going to tell you what happens in each story, so don’t read any further if you don’t want to know.   My words above more than give you my thoughts on Nightlife…

Some Legal Advice

I’m being internet-harassed and I’m not quite sure what to do about it. On the one hand I’m very aware it’s all down to the harassers mental condition and I should be able to laugh it off. On the other, I’m extremely weirded out by this and I don’t want to contact the police – but what can I do?

I fully disclosed any issues I was having with a certain yaoi creator and an online magazine whose launch date is getting real close.  I posted on the situation over a month ago, stemming from my blocking the creator at Facebook, and then having her accuse me of ‘reporting’ her or ‘convincing’ DMP of allegedly bothering her about her ‘Ai No Kusabi’ novel-doujinshi.  I did no such thing and I even shot an email off to my contact at DMP, the man handling my releases through them and asked him what was going on.    I didn’t hear back from him, so I assumed none of it was true and just shrugged it off.   This creator is known for her flights of fantasy.   I was advised however, just to be on the safe side, that should start collecting evidence now, because I was told that this person doesn’t go away so easily.  =_=;  I contacted my web host and asked for documentation on visits to my site, referral links, etc.  I then contacted my service provider and obtained printed logs of my own activity, including emails in and out, and my IP activity.

I’ve been absent on the net these days – I acquired a ‘real life’ job, and spend more time with my family and friends – nothing glamorous, nothing scandalous, nothing major. I come online mostly to write, so when internet-drama invades my mailbox, it’s extremely unsettling.

This arrived in the inbox this morning at the ‘elegantmadness.net’ address from the ‘online magazine’, it was CC’d to the creator harassing me,:

Ms. Anderson,

This is a legal notice for you to IMMEDIATELY cease and desist your
FALSE and insulting public notices regarding [name redacted]. Failure to
comply will bring swift punitive consequences. We will NOT tolerate
this outrageous behavior from you or anyone else.

On a personal note, stop harassing [name redacted] or you will find
myself at your door.

[name redacted]
President, [name redacted]
www.[name.redecated]

I made my response through Carrie, because that’s why I utilize her – she’s my mouthpiece for calm, cool, and collected, response.

Tina Anderson
DBA Gynocrat
1305 Waterfall Ave
Leander TX 78641
B: (xxx) xxx-xxxx
H: (xxx) xxx-xxxx

October 10, 2009,

Dear [name redacted]

My name is Carrie Kube and I represent Mrs. Anderson’s interests on the
internet pertaining to her vocation as published author, and self-publishing creator.

Mrs. Anderson stated online, in public form at GGY-Meta, that she demanded
[redacted 1]  and ‘[redacted 2]‘ refrain from contacting her or using her name in order to bring attention to interests that are not her own.  She also stated no email-contact.

Your email today constitutes the first step toward violation of the  Stalking by Electronic Communications, or statute SB1139 of the State of  Texas.

In preparation for filing an official complaint, Dreamhost (Mrs.  Anderson’s web provider) and AT&T (Mrs. Anderson digital service provider)  have provided records of Mrs. Anderson’s internet activity 90 days prior today’s date. Facebook has been contacted in order to procure Mrs.  Anderson’s Facebook activity for the past 90 days; Mrs. Anderson has been  assured that this hard-copy information is in the mail.

[name redacted], you have no legal grounds to pursue anything against Mrs.  Anderson because she’s made no overtures toward you or your ‘internet magazine’.

Sending this email looks as if you’re trying to establish a pattern of  public and private harassment that is non-existent; this email and all  subsequent correspondence to and from ‘[redacted]’ indicates that Mrs.  Anderson has in fact, asked you to remove her name from your Meta-Tags,  and in good faith, has answered questions put to her by other creators and genre pundits, about her experience with ‘[redacted 1]‘.   She did in fact notify ‘[redacted 2]’ at Facebook of her desire for compliance in  regard to her name ‘not’ being used in reference to ‘[redacted 2]’ and  ‘[redacted 1]’ on the internet.  ‘[redacted 2]’ informed Mrs. Anderson that she had no knowledge of any issues with Mrs. Anderson and [redacted 1],  and subsequently stated that she didn’t know Mrs. Anderson and had no
reason to ‘name-drop’ her anywhere.  This satisfied Mrs. Anderson,  however, Mrs. Anderson still enacted an ‘account block’ to prevent ‘[redacted 2]‘  from accessing her Facebook page and halt further ‘direct messaging’.

‘[redacted 2]‘ then contradicted her own statements to Mrs. Anderson  when allegedly contacted by publisher Digital Manga Publishing over her  fan-writing activities.  She accused Mrs. Anderson of being the cause of her dilemma in a semi-public digital forum open to genre pundits and online media journalists.  When contacted about this, Mrs. Anderson stated  ‘no comment’ but promised to clear the record.  She did not contact ‘[redacted 2]’ privately nor did she never contacted ‘Digital Manga Publishing’, nor did she personally contact ‘[redacted 1]’ regarding statements made in conjunction with the above accusation.  She did post a public request that these accusations cease, and did so at the following URL:  [url redacted]

This is the last word on the subject of “[redacted 2]” or “[redacted 1]“  from Mrs. Anderson.

As requested by Mrs. Anderson, any email indicating ‘[redacted 1]‘ or [redacted 2] or any identifiers connected with the two named prior entities, are now ‘blocked’ at this email address and others connected with Mrs. Anderson’s sites’ and name: gynocrat.org, and gmail.com

Mrs. Anderson issued a public statement asking to be left alone, and she expects this to be honored.  There will be no more public or private  correspondence between Mrs. Anderson or anything associated with ‘[redacted 1]‘  or ‘[redacted 2]‘.

Please be advised, continued electronic or written correspondence from you or anyone else associated with [redacted 1] or [redected 2] or anyone associated with [redacted 2], will be forwarded to local law enforcement as it constitutes elements of off-line risk to Mrs. Anderson.

Thank you,
Carrie Kube,

BCC: Tina Anderson
CC: Carrie Kube

This is all I can do.  I just want them to leave me out of this folie à deux.

So a few moments later, I get this email from the creator harassing me:

LMAO. Oh my God, this is rich. Tina, you really have no idea what you’ve
just gotten yourself into. I would feel sorry for you, except you’re a
complete BITCH and I am going to be loving every minute of this. I hope they
drag you into court and suck you dry for libel.

Although I COULD sue you for harassment for the threatening note you
publicly posted about me on Facebook, I’m not interested in legal action at
this point (that, however, could well change, depending on what you do
next).

I will tell you this. You are fucking with the wrong person. Last time, you
threatened and warned me. This time, YOU consider YOURSELF fully warned.

Tina Anderson, you are a snake. I will bring you down and delight in your
fall, and no one in the world will cry for you.

[name redacted]

0__0 Needless to say I didn’t respond to her, nor will I.  >_<

If either of them contacts me again personally, what should I do?

Do I call the police? Will they even help me? I don’t think they’re going to hunt me down and kill me so would the police even care? Or do I have to get a lawyer? Should I just ignore this noise and walk on?

Public Letter to Kira Takenouchi.

Dear Ms. Takenouchi,

I would like you to leave me alone – this includes name dropping me either as ‘Kira’ or as one of the many sock-puppets you’ve created over the years.

I have long been an advocate of your work, bringing your titles up here at GGY when it was open to that sort of thing; when you had your breakdown I stopped.  You are not mentally better, this is obvious.  The letter I sent you via Facebook was in connection to your obvious inability to grasp reality.  I did threaten you when you friend-ed me at Facebook because I just knew that my rebuke of Yaoi World would lead to drama – I told you point blank to leave me and my name out of your Yaoi-World nonsense, and any fallout that would come from my refusal to be involved in its “debut Issue”.

That was my threat, very simple.

Now you are trashing me on your Facebook page [I have not seen it, I blocked you ages ago] telling people that DMP has lowered the boom on your Ai No Kusabi doujinshi selling activity and it is the ‘fault of Tina Anderson’?  And your false-FB accounts – mainly the one running Yaoi World – is also joining in?  Let me remind you that I have letters also, the ones you sent me as this Takehito or Yukihata person.  I CC’d the entire Yaoi World correspondence with the other creators you invited to ‘Yaoi World’, so it’s all there in their hard drives as well.   Don’t even go there with me…

No.  I do not rat other doujinshika out, no matter how much they aggravate me - so NO.  IF DMP EVEN SENT YOU THIS NOTICE it was not because of me.  To quote your own pathetic nonsense ‘you think me too powerful, but the thought is appreciated.’

PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE.

I dealt with your nonsense when they deleted you at Wikipedia, I dealt with your nonsense over this Yaoi-World thing, and now you are trying to bring me more nonsense with this DMP situation.

Stop it.  Now.

-Tina Anderson

GGY Meta – Since 2005

Thanks everyone who’s followed my posts on fandom, then my career, and then fandom again, since I started on LJ in 1999 and moved to WordPress in 2005.

It’s been a slice.

Ships Today

Because it’s today in Japan.

My bara updates are now at Twitter.   I also have a TWIBE is anyone else wants to post their bara announcements to that. 

Whore of Turfan Card

This is going to be an oversized card for the program bags at this year’s Yaoifest!

Click on image for full size.

Whore of Turfan – Art by MT Copyright -  story by Tina Anderson.

Is Your Heart Fonder?

Sorry I’ve been MIA.  I do Twitter regularly so I’m not dead.

I got a temporary writing gig – I wont talk about it because it sucks massively.

I’m going to be closing up GGY in a few months, I’ve given my reasons elsewhere so I won’t drone on about them here.  I’ve been asked to kick-start my Polish blog again and with it add the occasional German post, which I fully intend to do because Only Words is doing quite well in Germany, and the buzz about Games is positive.    I think my luck with the American market is pretty much over, shoot I have friends far more talented then me and their agents can’t even get them comics work.  :/   Unless I want to write adaptions of established material, there’s just no room for me here at the Inn.

Whore of Turfan will still be updated because MT Copyright and Lissa Patillo are two brilliant and dedicated partners in crime – I love them both, even though I virtually ignore them and I shouldn’t.  >_<

Whore of Turfan Updated

Still going strong…

[New site design by Lissa Patillo!]