I got an email yesterday from the contact form of my webcomic Artifice. The email itself was actually fairly thoughtful and the writer had more than a couple intriguing suggestions about ways to treat same sex relationships in a sci-fi setting without evoking the concept of a gay identity. But they also had a couple questions and concerns that I wanted to respond to. Artifice has a story that might appeal to some readers who aren’t that familiar with what’s it’s like to be gay and thus might have similar questions.

This was the email (quoted in its entirety with permission from its author):

Subject: Artifice story vs. presentation

I’m sort of offended by the Gay heading in the upper-left corner. If this is to be a story of some sort of same-sex affection, can we simply put it in the context of a future with artificial people? At least this would be a refreshing approach to realize that if you could manufacture people you couldn’t likewise manufacture their personalities.
-Or is the Gay heading supposed to mean that you shouldn’t be reading this comic unless you’re gay?
Frankly, what offends me the most is gays saying that they’re special when all they mean is they have sex differently than heterosexuals (who don’t go around telling people they’re different.) Why should it matter if this character who has been artifically created finds some emotional level he has not been programmed for- except for that emotion itself which is a declaration of uniqueness and identity?

And this was my response:

Hello!

Let’s see if I can answer your question.

I’m sort of offended by the Gay heading in the upper-left corner… is the Gay heading supposed to mean that you shouldn’t be reading this comic unless you’re gay?

No. I’m delighted to have anyone read my comics. And looking at the demographics of my mailing list and Facebook Insights, it seems to break down to about 50% gay and 50% straight readers (mostly straight women, but there are straight guys there too). I work very hard to be inclusive on my blog and elsewhere and I’d like to think the tone of my comics isn’t “inside baseball”—meaning that non-gay readers will understand the references and that I am respectful of people of all orientations.

I use the “gay sci-fi” heading in the title of my pages for search-engine purposes. It’s not to be exclusive in any way; it’s to make it easy for readers who like sci-fi and gay romance to find my comic when they search for it on Google and such. You see, there aren’t a lot of gay male romances set in a sci-fi world and so I think readers searching for that might particularly enjoy Artifice. So, I’m trying to make it easy to find my comic when they search for “gay sci-fi” or “gay webcomic”. That’s the only reason I’m doing that.

Frankly, what offends me the most is gays saying that they’re special when all they mean is they have sex differently than heterosexuals (who don’t go around telling people they’re different.)

Because you wrote me a thoughtful email, I’m going to assume that you’re looking to understand why gay people like myself would tell people they’re different (even announcing to the world that their webcomic is gay!), so I’m going to respond to this as well. (Please forgive me if you were just venting.)

If you’re not gay yourself, I can understand why it can be confusing why gay people would feel the need to “come out” and tell others that, unlike 90% of the population, they don’t fall in love with members of the opposite sex. The truth of the matter is, most of us (including myself!) wish we lived in a world where such distinctions were irrelevant. It certainly is no fun having to say to someone who is assuming you’re straight (and asking what kind of girl you like or making an anti-gay joke) that actually you’re gay and then wondering how they are going to react. Honestly, sometimes, it’s exhausting.

But unfortunately, we live in a world where most people assume everyone is straight. We live in a world where the word “fag” or “queer” is the ultimate put-down in the school yards and the word “gay” can be used to mean anything “sucky” or “weird”. We live in a world where in many places you can be denied work, education and housing simply because you were born to fall in love with members of the same sex. We live in a world where people can marry members of the opposite sex and get tax breaks, hospital visitation rights and lots of family and social support; but if you fall in love and want to marry a member of the same sex, in the vast majority of places you can’t do it. Here in the U.S., if you can actually get married, you won’t get any federal benefits (thanks to the Defense of Marriage Act), and many folks will see you as a threat to family and children for even wanting to get married. And this isn’t even getting into the parts of the world where if people found out you were gay, you could expect to be attacked, arrested and even executed (such as in Iran and Saudi Arabia). These are things many straight people never have to think about if they want to start dating someone. They can just do it because it’s considered “normal”.

When I was growing up, there were those who would argue that gay people didn’t need explicit protection under the law for things like work, education and housing. That asking for that protection was asking for “special rights”. But it’s not a “special right” if everyone else gets to do something without a second thought and you can’t. I would argue it’s an “equal right” if you get to do the same thing as everyone else. Straight people can apply for a job and don’t have to hide that they date people of the opposite sex. Same for applying for an apartment or even just talking about how they spent their Saturday night. In many places in the world and the U.S., that’s not true for those who are attracted to the same sex. And in most of those places (including most of the states in the U.S.), it’s perfectly legal to deny gay people that apartment or that job, just because they are gay.

Now, if you live in the U.S, you probably have noticed this is changing. Twenty states now have anti-discrimination laws that forbid denying people work or housing because of sexual orientation. Five states even give equal access to marriage. The U.S. military has just been ordered to change its policy of firing soldiers because of their sexual orientation. This is good news—both for gay people and, I’d argue, for all citizens of the U.S. And none of it would have happened if gay people had kept their mouths shut and just let everyone assume they were straight.

I’m going to end this with one of my favorite quotes from Pastor Martin Niemöller, but before I do, I just want to point out that while I’ve framed this response mostly in terms of equal protection under the law and personal safety issues, that there is one other very real reason why gay folks tell others that they are gay. It’s because falling in love is a huge part of the human experience and it feels wrong to lie or be evasive to the people in my life who care about me about such an important thing. Telling someone I’m gay isn’t just saying I “have sex differently than heterosexuals”. While others may define you by it, speaking as a gay man, I can tell you that sex is actually a very small part of the experience of being gay. It’s really about who you want to spend the rest of your life with.

I wasn’t always “out” and so I can tell you, to not be able to talk to my friends and family about those romantic hopes, dreams (and yes, failures and even successes) is like being buried alive in concrete and it created a wall between myself and those who cared about me. You see, people talk all the time about love and romance. If you’re straight, you don’t have to make any special declarations to answer those questions or start conversations of your own. I’m sure you’ve had conversations with friends and co-workers about dating. Imagine if it were a very real possibility that those around you would be “offended” if you were simply being honest in those conversations—that they might actually seek to hurt you for joining into that conversation as an equal—and then you might be able to begin to understand why it is important for many gay people to try to create a world where you don’t have to lie about or hide who you fall in love with. And that world can only happen if you’re willing to “go around and tell people you are different.”

I want to thank you for taking the time to write me your email. You could have just kept your thoughts to yourself but instead you reached out to me to share them. I don’t imagine you expected to get this lengthy reply back. But the truth of the matter is that I do care about all my readers, both straight and gay. You took time to reach out and write me. And so I wanted to give your words a thoughtful response.

Alex

The quote from Pastor Martin Niemöller (shared with me originally by a straight friend after I came out):

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

We live in a world where bad things quite often happen to good people. And it’s important to remember that sometimes the only way to stop it is by speaking up. Even when we don’t “have to”.

So that was my response and I’m happy to share here that it was well-received and that, in their reply back, the author of the email went out their way to say very nice things about Artifice. For both gay and straight people, it can be easy to jump to conclusions about how open someone is going to be to understanding another person’s view. But I have to say one of the most gratifying experience of starting this blog is the happy discovery that the vast majority of people out there are cool and thoughtful, if only you’re willing to engage in a real conversation. I’m glad this person wrote to me and proved, yet again, that I have the absolute coolest readers in the world.

In addition to the webcomic Artifice I’m also offering some of my other yaoi comics as free PDF downloads for my mailing list subscribers, How do you get them? Well, it’s easy! Just fill out the form on the Free Comics page and the links will be sent right to you!

Find articles like this one interesting and useful? Don’t miss out! Get Yaoi 911â„¢ blog posts emailed right to you — for free!

Learn More!

• I’ve had other interesting and provocative reader questions. Want to read another response? Then check out Why This Gay Man Is Creating Yaoi!
• In my day job, I got the chance to edit a video made for gay teens at risk for suicide also talking about coming out and what it’s like to be gay. Find it at It Gets Better: Google Employees!
• Want to learn more about why I decided to start a webcomic? Then read Gay Sci-Fi Webcomic Artifice Now Online!
• Want to read reviews of yaoi books that might or might not offend you? Take a look at our in-depth Yaoi Reviews!
• Interested in creating your own comics? Start with How to Write a Full Comic Book Script and How to Find the Perfect Yaoi Artist for your Graphic Novel!

One of my most popular posts is How To Find Bara in English — bara being a term commonly used to refer to gay comics created by Japanese male creators. In that post, I link to sites that host bara scanlations. As a creator myself, I have mixed feelings about doing this — on the one hand, the vast majority of these scanlations are certainly being distributed without the creator’s permission; on the other, the vast majority simply aren’t available for purchase in English and it’s my hope that by increasing awareness of bara, I will also increase demand.

But I had another purpose for that post: to make readers aware that there are legitimate ways for non-Japanese readers to purchase bara manga and thus compensate the creators for their hard work. It’s sort of a stealth plan — come to see sources for free downloads, but wait! Here’s where you can go do the right thing, support the creators and even find bara (and yaoi) manga not available through piracy.

Based on some of the feedback I’ve gotten, it’s seems like a lot of readers are interested in doing the right thing, just so long as they have a way to — and purchasing e-manga straight from Japan is one of the most direct ways to do that. But seeing as many of us don’t read Japanese, navigating a Japanese Web site has felt… daunting. To help out, I linked to an excellent walkthrough by *elee0228 showing how to use the Webmoney service to purchase and download works from the very popular Digiket market.

Alas, for the past several months, readers in the U.S. have been having problems using this method and thus there hasn’t been a really awesome way for us to purchase e-manga straight from Japan.

Well, now reader UltimaST has come to the rescue! On his own, he created a walkthrough for Surpara.com and has given me his kind permission to post it here. Surpara.com is an e-manga site that has lots of yaoi and bara downloads. And, even better than Digiket, it allows you to use your regular old credit card to pay!

So, here’s the step-by-step:

1) The Japanese gay comics can be found at

http://mk2.surpara.com/

so start there.

2) You’ll be taken to an age-check splash screen. If you’re over 18, click yes. (And click the images below to enlarge.)

3) After you find the manga you want to download, click the marked location to add the manga to your shopping basket.

4) You are taken to this screen which displays your shopping basket. You can either continue to shop or just press the next button (marked):

5) You are then taken to a screen where you could enter your ID and password if you were a registered member — but you don’t need to. Instead, just check the marked box next to the red message:

6) Scroll down the page to find the choice-of-payment section. Fill in the spaces as follows:

1 – enter your email
2 – retype your email

And then check the marked location next to the credit card icons.

7) The next screen is a summary of your purchase. Just click the marked location to continue.

8. You are now taken to the screen to enter your credit card information. Fill in the spaces as follows:

1 – enter the name of the credit card holder
2 – enter the number of the credit card
3 – enter the expiration date of the credit card

Then press the marked continue button.

9) If the transaction went through as intended, you will get this screen. Just click the blue link. (If you get anything else, the transaction didn’t go through.)

10) After that, you will get an email with a link to a download page that looks like the one below. Click the marked download icon and you’ll be able to save your manga to your hard drive!

So, there’s you have it — a walk-through on how to download manga from Surpara.com using your plain old credit card. I tried it myself and it worked fine. And they seem to have a nice selection of bara/yaoi downloads.

That said, I just want to give you a heads-up about a couple things. First, is that about a week after I downloaded my manga from Surpara, I received their newsletter in my email inbox. I’m not wild about getting marketing materials I didn’t specifically sign up for (especially when it’s all in Japanese!), so here’s what I had to do to unsubscribe.

1) First I clicked the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email: http://mk2.surpara.com/mag.php

2) Then I was yet again taken to the age-check screen. Being over 18 years of age, I clicked “yes”.

3) Then I was taken to the unsubscribe screen. I needed to enter my email into the 2nd (marked) field and click the grey button next to it.

4) Which brought me to this screen, letting me know my email address was unsubscribed from their marketing materials:

The other heads-up I want to give you is that some of the manga and pin-ups you can download from Surpara feature manga characters who are supposed to be under the age of 18. It is currently illegal in the U.S. to receive obscene cartoons depicting minors in sexual situations through the mail or the Internet. Yes, I consider the law tremendously misguided—and at the moment, at least in the U.S., prosecutors seem to mainly use it to add extra punishment to those who also possess and distribute actual child pornography—but because I care about your safety, I would advise you to choose your downloads with the local laws in mind.

All that said, I believe UltimaST has done a great service to both us and the creators we admire by creating this walkthrough. Please let me know about your experiences in the comments—and be sure to give UltimaST a special “thank you” shout-out!

Hey! Want links to full-color yaoi/bara comics sent to you — for free? Just sign up over at our Free Comic page and we’ll send you the download link to our first comic right away!

Enjoy reading articles like these? Don’t miss out! Get Yaoi 911â„¢ emailed right to you — for free!

Learn More!

• Curious about the next comic we’ll be sending out to our newsletter subscribers? Then read all about our High School rescue-and-romance Boys Love story, Tough!
• Want to read about other creators’ yaoi? Take a look at our in-depth Yaoi Reviews!
• Interested in creating your own manga? Start with How to Write a Full Comic Book Script and How to Find the Perfect Yaoi Artist for your Graphic Novel!
• Would you like to read more about how the law treats readers of manga with underage characters? Read about the Christopher Handley case in How To Keep Manga Fans Out Of Jail and then be sure to check out Cartoon Teen Sex and the Law!

I recently read a self-published comic book that contained explicit sex involving a 16-year-old character—something I wasn’t expecting when I picked it up. Originally, I mentioned that book by name in the following discussion, but the last thing I would want to do is cause undue attention and trouble to a young creator who had no idea she might be breaking the law, so I’ve removed mention of the specific details of that book from this post and the attached comments. What law am I talking about? The US PROTECT Act of 2003. It’s a federal law that most people have absolutely no awareness of—and here is where I feel a bit… protective myself of my fellow yaoi self-publishers and their readers.

Among other things, the PROTECT Act punishes with jail time

Any person who, in a circumstance described in subsection (d), knowingly produces, distributes, receives, or possesses with intent to distribute, a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, that–
(1)
(A) depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; and
(B) is obscene; or
(2)
(A) depicts an image that is, or appears to be, of a
minor engaging in graphic bestiality, sadistic or masochistic
abuse, or sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-
genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of
the same or opposite sex; and
(B) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value;

and follows that provision with the provision

(c) Nonrequired Element of Offense.–It is not a required element of any offense under this section that the minor depicted actually exist.

(You can read the complete text of the Act here. And FYI, the circumstance referred to in “subsection (d)” mandates that the offending work be sent or was intended to be “communicated or transported” across state lines via any method including computer or be sent/received via mail even within a state. Obscenity is defined in the U.S. by a failure to pass the three-pronged Miller test. And yes, a “minor” is any character under the age of 18, including as part of a story involving two 17-year-olds engaging in consensual sex.)

Now, I’m going to lay my non-lawyer cards on the table here and state for the record that I think these provisions in the Act are examples of crazy bad law that protect no children and are, in fact, unconstitutional. That prohibiting cartoon images involving no real young people—and which never involved any real young people—is punishing fantasy and imagination and thus is essentially creating a class of thought-crimes. It spits in the face of the First Amendment using the inflammatory rhetoric of protecting children to punish unpopular speech. I will also state that I have a horse in this race because I am writing a graphic novel that involves a 15-year-old hero and it is likely that he will engage in “sexual conduct” before the story is finished.

That said, I’m confident the work I’m creating is not pornographic and thus, while I’m not writing War and Peace here, I’m also fairly confident that Mike’s story would be considered something with “serious literary or artistic value” by a reasonable judge, for that reason not be considered obscene and thus that the PROTECT Act would not apply to me. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly have no desire to go through the expense and hassle of a Federal trial to defend my right to create Tough, but if it comes to that, I will fight and I have every belief that I will win.

But did the publishers of the book I read feel that their explicit comic also had “serious literary or artistic value” and would not be considered obscene? Were they aware that if they were prosecuted and their book failed the Miller test, then their only recourse (short of a plea bargain) would be to challenge the constitutionality of PROTECT Act itself, most likely all the way to the (now rather conservative) Supreme Court? Are the readers who have ordered this book aware of their exposure to this Act (or to a similar Act in Canada and elsewhere)?

I suspected the answer was no. I suspected that most likely the publishers of that book and certainly the majority of their readers hadn’t given much thought to their exposure to these laws at all. And why would they? Less than 1000 copies of the comic was printed, the story itself was just a silly fantasy involving no actual 16-year-olds, those provisions in PROTECT Act are stupid, idiotic, unreasonable law that no one would assume had any reason to exist and the book itself was being published by very lovely young people who certainly wouldn’t have any interest in harming kids nor the funds to run each comic by a legal team before putting it out there.

And as it turned out, after speaking with the publisher, I was right—she wasn’t aware of the risk at all. And as for the readers, well, perhaps this post can help make us all more aware of the current, badly broken law.

Now let me state the obvious here: I’m not a lawyer and as this law in the U.S. has barely been tested, things are murky: on the one hand, U.S. Code seems to focus mostly on whether the images are indistinguishable from actual children, specifically exempting cartoons; on the other hand, we have defendant Dwight Whorley convicted and losing an appeal for possession of anime images of underage girls (PDF) (he also was convicted for possessing child pornography involving actual children; the Supreme Court refused to hear his case. That whole PDF I just linked to is actually worth reading if only to see how broadly the PROTECT Act can be interpreted by very reasonable sounding judges.) Also, the comic I read may very well be deemed to have serious literary or artistic value—I’m certainly not claiming that it doesn’t. Nothing bad at all might happen to the publisher or its readers, there’s no reason for me to think a DA would take a particular interest in this book, its publisher or its readers, and I’d trust your own lawyer over my blogger concerns any day.

But this law is on the books. People have been prosecuted under it. And that’s something any publisher, small or otherwise, should be aware of and it should at the very least inform their choices and actions. (And why all of us should be supporting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.)

Overall, I think it’s fantastic that high quality yaoi is being self-published by Western yaoi creators. I feel proud to include myself in their number. Mainstream publishers, even small ones, can be cautious, conservative and slow; self-publishing gets rid of all the bureaucracy which can pressure creators to compromise their visions. As an artist, being able to realize your vision without limits is often a good thing.

But sometimes there are good reasons for caution and if we’re going to distribute our work to hundreds or thousands of readers, we as self-publishers need to be aware of those reasons. We might still choose to put that work out there, but at the very least we’ll be doing so knowing what the consequences might be. We can then take appropriate actions based on that information (including content warnings for our readers), and thus protect ourselves and our fans as best we can.

The PROTECT Act is designed to create a chilling effect for legitimate, yet unpopular free speech. This sucks and the last thing I want to do is encourage folks to give in to unconstitutional pressure. But it’s important that everyone involved knows what they’re getting into.

Create awesome yaoi. Buy awesome yaoi. But protect yourself so you can do it all over again.

ADDENDUM: This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about this issue. The last time I did so (about the Christopher Handley case), a commenter felt strongly that those who are prosecuted for reading comics that include minors engaging in sexual activity (shota and loli, in particular) deserved what they got. I wound up writing a mini-essay defending the right to engage in unpopular speech in response. Because this is a point that often comes up, I thought I’d include the text of my response here in the hopes of helping to move the discussion forward:

@Robyn –

Robyn, thank you for your thoughts. While I don’t presume to speak for everyone who is troubled by this prosecution, I don’t think your experience of shota & loli would be all that different from that of most of those who feel that the government has overstepped here. Personally, I don’t care for shota or loli. Not being a medical or psychiatric professional, I would not use words like “sick” to describe those materials but I often find what I’ve seen of shota/loli to be very disturbing. I’ll never be a fan.

But that’s not the point here. We live in a country founded on rights. One of those rights is the right to free speech. In order for rights to have any meaning, they must represent a special claim against the majority. Even if a view is tremendously unpopular, that cannot be the basis on which to suppress it. The fact that something turns our stomach — that we think it is “crap” — is not enough. If we truly are to value free speech, then we have to allow the dissemination and viewing of things we dislike so much we want to call it names like “sick” and “crap”. Otherwise, it is not a fundamental right — it’s merely a permission granted by the majority that can be revoked based on current tastes at any time.

If we are to suppress speech — and of course I am using the term “speech” here to mean anything publicly communicated including anime and manga stories — we need a much more compelling reason, usually one that involves the serious endangerment of other fundamental rights, such as the right to personal health and safety. The classic example of unprotected speech is shouting fire in a crowded movie theater — the very real risk of immediate physical harm is clear and difficult to deny and it’s fairly easy to see that it outweighs the harm in suppressing that speech. Likewise, threatening to murder someone also falls outside of protected speech for similar reasons.

But in the case of shota and loli, one is forced to ask, who exactly is being harmed? The reason child pornography is so heinous isn’t because people take “great offense” — we’re a cranky species, people take great offense at a lot of things — rather it’s because child pornography involving actual children has clear, awful and often lifelong consequences for the real children involved. This is why even though there is plenty of pornography that falls under the classification of protected speech, no form of child pornography does. The clear, actual harm to real, living young people is just too great — their right to safety and health far outweighs the pornographer’s right to free speech. But if no actual children are involved in the making of a shota/loli manga — and the work is only viewed by consenting adults — you can’t make that argument.

Of course, you might try to claim harm through indirect means. You could argue that those who view shota/loli are more likely to be encouraged to eventually act out their fantasies with real, live children. But this is a question of fact that must be proven — and it’s my understanding that there is little evidence to support this even with pornography involving actual children. (PDF) You might also argue that shota/loli manga could be used by pedophiles to seduce minors into believing that underage sex is appealing and thus its possession might be harmful in that way — as a means to “groom” young people. But just because we can picture a potential possible misuse of a literary work is not sufficient justification to prosecute those who own it. I might potentially choose to beat a flight attendant over the head with my copy of War & Peace, but that doesn’t mean that the TSA should be detaining me for packing Tolstoy in my carry-on.

Now if we can establish through factual evidence a clear connection between owning shota/loli and actual harm to real children or adults, then yes, we would absolutely need to take action in spite of the right of free speech. But that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening in Handley’s case. What seems to be going on is that a handful of materials that Handley owned turned the stomach of a postal inspector and an overzealous DA. And instead of doing what you choose to do — which is to do your “absolute best to avoid that crap like the plague” — they chose to arrest him and expose him to great legal expense and potentially years in prison.

Now you might say “Good for them! Anyone who likes that stuff deserves what they get!” But we live in a diverse country. Is there nothing in your library that those in power could take “great offense to”? There were many people who felt not only that the Harry Potter books were “crap”, but that they were actively, perniciously satanic and evil. Being in the comfortable majority who do not agree with that view, we might smirk at those people, comfortable that we are safe from any prosecutions they might lobby for. But at least for me, as a gay man, I am fully aware it was not that long ago that people like me could be arrested, incarcerated and institutionalized for owning erotic material that turned the stomachs of those in power. Even though everyone involved in the making of those erotic materials would be consenting adults — even though that material would be owned by a consenting adult for use in the privacy of his own home — that didn’t matter. What mattered is that those in power thought it was “sick” — and so they were going to enforce a “cure”.

And this is why I feel this is a battle worth fighting. Not because I think you or President-Elect Obama or anyone else should develop an affection for cartoon kiddie porn. But rather because it is not right for my government to be prosecuting its citizens for owning drawings that harm no actual living beings.

I doubt anything I say here is likely to convince you that Handley is being unfairly prosecuted. But when you do argue against this issue, it’s important for you to remember why people like me think it’s important. Not because we approve of what Handley was reading, but rather because we find it dangerous for the government to arrest its citizens for owning “child pornography” that never involved any actual children.

No, I might not want to have a beer with Mr. Handley, but I certainly am not so naive to think that what the government is doing to him could never happen to me. It’s not about whether we approve of any particular genre, it’s about government abuse of power. And if there is any way that the new administration is relevant to this discussion, it’s in the hope that we might just see a little bit less of the latter…

Anyway, hope to see you and any number of tits you’re willing to give here again sometime. Our High School BL story “Tough” might be a bit young for you, but the characters in “Artifice” are all full-on grown-ups, both hunky and sweet. Perhaps we can get you on the side of that.

Find articles like this one interesting and useful? Don’t miss out! Get Yaoi 911â„¢ blog posts emailed right to you — for free!

Learn More!

• Read about the PROTECT Act case that brought this law to mainstream comics attention, the Christopher Handley case in my post How To Keep Manga Fans Out Of Jail!
• Curious about the legal issues facing creators, retailers and publishers who publish work with mature themes? Then read Why Comics Need Age Ratings!
• Want to read reviews of yaoi books that might or might not get your own butt throw into jail? Take a look at our in-depth Yaoi Reviews!
• Interested in creating your own manga designed to piss off The Man? Start with How to Write a Full Comic Book Script and How to Find the Perfect Yaoi Artist for your Graphic Novel!

(If you would like to purchase a printed copy of one or both of the first two chapters of Tough, click here.)

Exciting news! I’ve started using the industry leading print-on-demand service ComiXpress so you can now order your own actual, physical copies of the first two chapters of Tough! And let me tell you, those guys do an amazing job. The comics are super-sized at 8 x 10.5 inches and printed on really nice glossy paper stock. The colors are vibrant, the text is crisp and it’s awesome to actually be able to hold the comic in your hands — the way it was meant to be read!

The truth is, I’ve been planning this for a long time. So to celebrate, in August I decided to send out a free printed copy of the first chapter to anyone who had commented about their experience reading Tough here on this blog or on our Facebook page — in other words, long-time fans who responded right away. This wasn’t a promotion or a way to get more comments — it was just a special thank you to folks who had taken the time to sign up, show their support and share their thoughts in writing here. As I’ve said before, making these comics is a lot of hard work and your kind words and encouragement are what make it all worth it. Some days, it’s the only thing that keeps us going. I just wanted some way to show my sincere gratitude.

Anyway, many folks who received these comics wrote back with their reactions — and some even included pictures of themselves holding the comic! So, with their permission, I decided to post those reactions and pics up here. I have to tell you, it’s really great to see my readers’ smiling faces holding one of my comics. Honestly, it puts a big smile on my own face!

(And who knows? Maybe this will turn into a Yaoi 911 tradition. So hey, if you like one of our printed comics, take a picture of yourself holding it [G-rated, please!], tell me what you thought and I’ll add you to this blog post! )

(Oh, and if you want to buy your own hard copy, here are the details: After you place your order on their site, ComiXpress sends the comics to you in a standard, plain white US Postal Service Priority Mail envelope with just their return address on it [so there's no mention of yaoi or what's inside if you're concerned about that.] And they ship all around the world, so there’s no problem with international orders. Now, just a heads-up, though: because each comic is printed to order, it can take them a little while for them to ship — sometimes up to a month (yikes!) — but it’s totally worth it. You can get your own copy of “Tough” or “No Kissing” from ComiXpress for just $4.99.)

Anyway, here are the reactions!

When I received this in the mail, it really made my day. (I jumped around and screamed and people were looking me at strangely) The colors are so vivid, It’s a much better read when it’s in your hand and you can turn the pages yourself! What I really like about this yaoi comic are the characters and how realistic it is from other yaoi comics I’ve read before! It’s a beautifull comic, thank you.

- sweetnita

I received my copy!!! I loved the print copy of Tough, the quality of paper impressed me and the colors are very beautiful. I’m very happy.

- Sandrinha

hi i just got my copy today..i made this lil noise when i opened it and got odd looks from my husband…took a pic with it…..It looks amazing on paper, the art looks even better in person…..i love the feel of the paper it is printed on and the size of it…

- ladykazumi

I got really emotional when I took it on my hands! 8DDD

- Gus

now i can look at Rob without turning on my pc… =) thank u very much for the comic!!!!

have i mentioned that i absolutely love the cover?

- Shang Dynasty

it’s so much more relaxing to be able to lie on the sofa and read it, and having the actual thing is way cool as is the story!

- Rory

AWESOME Chapter!!! The drawings are so much better in print! I can’t wait to buy the next Chapter. ^.^ The next one has the yummy part! lol

- Rachel

Alex, thank you so much for the copy of Tough, I must say I was really excited to get it! lol

It was soooo much better reading the comic again in hard copy, it just doesn’t get old.

- Danika

I loved this! It was so kind of you to send this comic my way. The art and story so far are a real pleasure to look at/read.

THANK YOU!!!

- Yochie

the comic is awesome, it’s standard paper and awesome colors, well, without talking of the quality of the comic itself, awesome, of course.

- Jonas

o m g u still impress me every time u send me an Email like i say before i love the comic i have read it like 80 times no i still think is awesome

- ralph

I have it, and I LOVE IT. The quality is exceptional, and I can’t wait for upcoming chapters to be printed.

- Hayden Thorne

I loved it!!! I definitely prefer having it in my hands

- Kirsten

Would you like to get your hands on one too?

Click here to get your own copy of “Tough” or “No Kissing” from ComiXpress!

So, this is cool. I’ve been invited to speak at a panel at the New York City Comic Con, talking about what it’s like to read and enjoy yaoi as a gay guy. There are a bunch of other cool folk speaking on the panel as well, including Christopher Butcher of the awesome comics blog, Comics212; Leyla Aker, one of Viz’s senior editorial managers; Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, an editor of BLU from Tokyopop; and Erica Friedman, President and Founder of Yuricon & ALC Publishing. Robin Brenner, Creator & Editor in Chief of NotFlyingNoTights, a “Web site reviewing graphic novels for teens”, will be moderating and discussing the results of a survey of reactions from queer folk.

I will admit, I’m a bit intimidated to be on a panel with such heavy hitters, but I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of fun. And I’d love it if some of you going to NYCC would stop by to say hi. Hope to see you there!

Here’s the details:

Gay for You? Yaoi and Yuri Manga for GBLTQ Readers

Date: Saturday, October 9
Time: 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Location: Room 1E12
Speaker: TBA
Track: NYCC/NYAF Panels
Description: Depending on who you’re talking to, yaoi and yuri manga are adored or reviled. These same sex romances challenge manga conventions of sexuality, romance, intended audience, and appeal. Or do they? Join a panel of manga commentators, reviewers, creators and librarians to debate the joys and disappointments of GLBTQ fans reading yaoi and yuri manga.

(Oh, and a heads up! I’m just now putting the final touches on some preview pages for Chapter 3 of Tough that I’m eager to share with you here on the blog — so please stay tuned for that as well!)

Since Baralover, a very popular site with lots of English-language scanlated bara manga, went down at the end of July, I’ve received a number of questions from users about what happened to it. I wrote to Kyo, the webmaster, shortly after I noticed Baralover was delivering a 404-error message and just now have gotten a reply:

unfortunately due to 110MB no longer supporting adult websites, I have decided to let the site be shut down.
it wasn’t a fun decision, but it was the conclusion I came to after a month of thinking it over.
I meant to put up a nice goodbye note on the site, but unfortunately by that time it was already too late (they took down the site a WEEK before the deadline!!)

i’m sorry to disappoint you guys but i’ve moved onto some other things in my life right now.
HOWEVER, if you know Saru-X, then you’ll be glad to know that he and a friend are hoping to make a site to be the next Baralover!
or at least they’re hoping too eventually…

in the meantime, just be sure to keep up on the Bara Board ( http://ib4f.com/board/bara0 )
and watch for anouncements – once my home server comes back from the dead, i’m going to upload ALL my bara manga onto a public Mediafire account for everyone to access.

also note that the Bara chat is still up and active, since it wasn’t run on the website itself. it can still be accessed by http://www.xat.com/baralovers
i’m hoping that stays alive enough to put into another website, if i ever make another one.

So, there you have it. 110MB was the hosting provider for Baralover and it looks like they changed their terms of service so it was no longer acceptable for Kyo to host bara scanlations there. These things can happen, but it’s a shame they took down the site before Kyo could post up an explanation for his readers. While I am somewhat ambivalent about scanlations in general, I wish to thank Kyo for his contribution to popularizing this genre. It is my hope that as interest catches on that it will be more likely that a Western publisher will print bara books and Kyo’s Web site offered a very nice, accessible introduction to bara to English-language readers. I wish both Kyo and Saru-X luck with their plans to create new Web sites and will let you know when they are up.

In the meantime, there are still some other nice places to find bara in English, which you can find (along with some other thoughts I have on bara vs. yaoi) in my post

How To Find Bara In English

If you haven’t already, feel free to give that a look!

So, I just spent the most awesome hour reading through an online webcomic called OGLAF.COM. Here’s the author’s description:

This comic started out as an attempt to make pornography.

It degenerated into sex comedy pretty much immediately.

And yep, from the very first comic (incredibly NSFW!), I can tell you it is often pretty gosh darn explicit. But it’s often more than a little hot as well. And pretty much always really, really funny.

While it’s not gay per se (there is lots and lots of heterosexual stuff — WARNING: boobies!), there is certainly a lot of gay content as well (and many weenies to view throughout, if you like that sort of thing ).

Here’s an example:

Click to enlarge. Pixelation added by me in lame attempt to protect those subscribing to blog posts via email. If you use her art, the author has requested you include a link to OGLAF.com.

Click here to see original at OGLAF.com.

In some ways, there is an air of mystery about this comic. No “About Page”. No copyright information. No author description. I’m guessing the name of the site comes from this very NSFW comic, but that character has only appeared a few times and his creation could be very well be a ret-con. (EDIT 7/24/10: The creator just responded to this question on Twitter…) Using my Google-fu, I was able to find out who the creator is and that she is a woman, but it seems that she wishes to remain somewhat anonymous which I will respect here.

My overall review: It’s well-written and well-drawn. Both women and men are made to look powerful and foolish in equal capacity. It’s quite geeky — if you’ve ever played a role-playing game, you’ll get more than a few in-jokes. There are many little surprises that show the creator has put a lot of thought into the site (for example, there’s a really adorable 404 page — try entering a non-existant page on oglaf.com in your location bar to see it). And it’s very funny — while reading through the entire series, the time just flew by. I know not everyone can handle the heterosex, but if you can, this comic gets my strongest recommendation.

Where to start? There is an Archive page which helpfully points out which comics are NSFW and which are safer (there are a few non-sexual ones). But I suggest you start with the first comic (very NSFW) and just read your way through by clicking Next Page. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

Oh, and be on the look out for an “Epilogue” link to appear in the right sidebar at the end of certain stories (the first one is at the end of Glove) — it’s like a hidden bonus comic.

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So on Saturday, TheYaoiReview (recently moved to San Francisco) took me to a BBQ at Deb Aoki’s house. It was a delightful time with tasty food (chicken and edamame rice!) and fun, geeky conversation that lasted several hours. Gia of AnimeVice was there — as vivacious and trenchant as I remember her being from previous YaoiCon encounters — as was Jason Thompson, author of the must-read Manga: The Complete Guide, who greeted everyone, including yours truly, with an enthusiastic and sincere “Wow! You’re the one responsible for (the Yaoi Review/Yaoi 911/Kasumi/etc.)?!” (Very flattering — must remember to invite Jason to all future BBQs I attend…)

The ride up with TheYaoiReview — quick-witted, insightful and stylish as ever — afforded the opportunity to deepen a friendship with my new neighbor while opening up my mind to stunningly novel uses of cream cheese (and I thought it was just for bagels!). Once arrived, I sat next to the delightful Surt Lim, writer of the Del Rey fantasy-shojo manga Kasumi, and swapped stories about the benefits and pitfalls of being a Western writer working with foreign artists — a rare and validating experience. And I finally got the pleasure of meeting About.com’s Deb Aoki in person and discovered she is a wonderful, generous host with a private manga library whose bookshelves rival those of Kinokuniya Bookstore in San Francisco’s Japantown. So generous a host, in fact, that she wouldn’t let any of us leave without placing some personally-selected manga choices into each of our hands and thus I wound up leaving the party four mangas richer than I came. (Thanks, Deb!) So, I thought I might take a few moments to give some quick reactions to a couple that I’ve read during my Sunday recovering from all the fun and food.

Once Upon A Glashma was the first book I sunk my teeth into — the tagline of “Before wizards or magic, the world was filled with girls. But one day, the girls disappeared and only wizards remained…” was intriguing and the art was just too adorable to resist. Alas, adorable art is all this book has to offer. First of all, despite a cover that screams taciturn seme and cuddly uke and a premise of “a world without girls”, this is not BL. Rather, it is what I what I like to call faux-BL: a completely slashable premise with no sex, no kissing (of other men, that is) and only the vaguest, most easily deniable innuendos that some guy-on-guy loving might be occurring somewhere far, far off-stage.

Second, the story is a confusing mess with cliché relationships. The first chapters throw us in the middle of the action with little explanation — our heroes, magic-investigating government agents, are seen fighting a dragon, wrestling with an exploding man or fighting a trash monster with almost no set-up — and the resolutions that are offered to these crises feel rushed. The artwork, while beautiful, unfortunately makes the action difficult to follow and the characters’ behavior — mostly consisting of hot-tempered “sempai” Gotanda bullying wimpy underling Nippori — is consistently baffling. (Why exactly does Gotanda treat Nippori this way? He’s seems to have done nothing to deserve it. I constantly had to refer to previous, better written works in my head for an account of why these characters would treat each other as they did. ["Oh! I bet here she's going for an Roy x Ed dynamic but with a bit of Al thrown in..."]

This manga has a ton of great ideas and intriguing characters, but creator Kumiko Suekane just doesn’t take the time to flesh them out. Even the obligatory humor chapter — where a bunch of frat boys try to convert our heroes into beautiful girls complete with maid uniforms — feels perfunctory and rushed. Only in the second half, when we start to learn the reason why all the women have disappeared, does some form of coherent storytelling start to take hold — but even in these final pages, the answers feel hurried, one-dimensional and cliché. I would love to read a well-written fantasy-yaoi with clean-lined characters as cute as the ones depicted in these pages — and perhaps if this had been three volumes instead of one, that could have happened here — but I can only recommend this book to you if don’t have to pay for it and you are desperate for reading material. As one reviewer put it, “read it at Borders.” (For other takes, the author of MAYBE YOU’RE LOOKING FOR ANOTHER BLOG… finds the book “craptastic… in every sense of the word.” Otaku News has a bit more patience with it.)

Chocolate Surprise, on the other hand, is very much true BL where the seme is always the dark-haired one and the ukes always, always cry out “No!” during sex (no matter how much they were begging for it in the beginning). A collection of nine short comics, the character art is nowhere near as good as Suekane-sensei’s Once Upon A Glashma — not only is the linework somewhat dull and predictable, the ukes are very, very feminine, often chicks-with-dicks level feminine which kind of makes you wonder why Lily Hoshino bothered telling these as yaoi stories at all. (As one woman at the BBQ put it, “Hoshino-sensei should just throw a skirt on the uke and be done with it!”)

That said, the sex is as explicit as I have ever seen in yaoi, in all senses of that word — not only do you get hard-core activities, but what’s happening is always clear and almost nothing is obscured. You get to see it all — including pubic hair, a rarity in my yaoi journeys — while the sex still manages to hold on to the delicacy and sweetness we would expect from a yaoi work (with these tender first encounters, no one would ever mistake this for bara…) I have to admit it — despite the feminine (and often very young) depictions of some of the characters, I did find many of the sex scenes actually hot — and if it’s enough to get my motor running, I would imagine that hard-core yaoi fans will need to keep some extra heart medication on hand, just in case. Finally, the storytelling itself, while not especially memorable (each of these stories are first-time love encounters involving one very interested boy and one not-so-interested-oh-I-guess-I-really-am-interested boy) is solid with often quite satisfying endings (narratively as well as romantically).

I wouldn’t buy this book for a night of great literature, but if you can get past the feminine character art and are looking for a little one-handed meditation, it’s definitely worth your $12.95. Gay boy Alex says “Check it out.” (That said, while it got my boat afloat, Connie C. of Manga Recon was “singularly unimpressed” with the book, finding it “explicit in a way I was not comfortable with”. [Perhaps highlighting a gay boy/fangirl divide?] Read her short take for a different perspective.)

Ultimately, I found myself wanting the best of both books — the lovely artwork and cool ideas behind Kumiko Suekane’s Once Upon A Glashma coupled with the more accomplished restraint and actual guy-on-guy loving found in Lily Hoshino’s Chocolate Surprise. Who knows — perhaps I’ll find what I’m looking for in the other two books Deb lent me: Saemi Yorita’s Brilliant Blue and You Higuri’s Ludwig II.

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A lot of folks I showed this video to — both straight and gay — found it to be perfect to show to their friends who don’t quite “get it”. It certainly helps bring home the subtler forms of prejudice and ignorance that are hard for all of us to shake. Since cool people come to this blog, I decided it was worth sharing here. And let’s face it – he’s a cutie.

Check it out and pass it on.

Are You Straight?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ1I_-MY_NY

(Found on Colin Thornby’s blog Conservatio Morum: Conversion of Life)

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EDIT: Amazon responds to my email! See below.

In his Livejournal post today, Mark R. Probst revealed this shocking news:

On Amazon.com two days ago, mysteriously, the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books: “Transgressions” by Erastes and “False Colors” by Alex Beecroft. Everybody was perplexed. Was it a glitch of some sort? The very next day HUNDREDS of gay and lesbian books simultaneously lost their sales rankings, including my book “The Filly.”

Now “sales rankings disappearing” might not mean a lot to the average reader. What matters is the result — that hundreds of LGBT books were now no longer showing up in Amazon.com searches!

After writing Amazon customer service, Probst got this response:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.

Best regards,

Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage

Yes, you read that right: Amazon is now classifying LGBT books as “adult material” and excluding them from searches. Remember Manly, the book I reviewed last fall? Back in September, when I reviewed it I was able to find that book on Amazon by typing in the name of the book and the author’s name in the Amazon.com search box. Now when I type in that information, this is what I get:

Ah but, you say, Manly actually is an explicitly sexual comic — that’s not so strange to label as “adult”, no?

Well, it’s not just the sexy books that are being hidden from search. Here’s Pete Cashmore from Mashable:

In the comments of that post, and elsewhere on LiveJournal, readers have been searching Amazon to find bias in the books removed from the rankings. The examples found do appear to hold water: for instance, the aforementioned post claims that the raciest section in The Well of Loneliness, one of the novels no longer ranked, is the phrase “And that night they were not divided.” Another, False Colours is a historical novel about a gay relationship with a single, non-explicit sex scene, explains the same source. The classic novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover has also been removed from rankings.

(Cashmore somewhat misleadingly uses words like “accused” and “alleged” in his post, I assume in an attempt to appear balanced – the reality is that these results are easy to confirm for yourself and have been confirmed by others online. More on the broad brush Amazon is painting with at Queers United.)

As it turns out, Young Adult books with gay characters, prominent romance novels and many other titles have been made inaccessible via Amazon’s main search function. It would be one thing to give customers the option to have their Amazon searches be “child safe” – certainly giving readers the option to be shielded from explicit sexual material seems reasonable. But to paint with so wide a brush (including what seems to be ALL GLBT fiction as “adult”) and to take the choice out of the customer’s hands. Well, that’s just wrong.

Here is the email I sent to Amazon customer support:

Hello,

I’ve been a very frequent Amazon customer for many years and am an Amazon Prime customer as well. I am horrified by the hamhanded new policy you have of excluding LGBT books from search and sales ranking. I use Amazon search to find nearly everything I buy on Amazon and to have that limited is insane. In a regular bookstore, if I was looking for a book, I could just ask the shopkeeper and she would bring it to me – but if you are limiting your search based on LGBT content, you are effectively hiding those books from me and keeping me from buying them.

Even using the author’s name in a search box with the name of the title gets me no results!

Instead of this: http://ow.ly/2GkG This is what my Amazon search for “Manly Dale Lazarov” returns: http://twitpic.com/388qk

And you’re even excluding gay classics with no sex at all! http://ow.ly/2Ggj

This is awful! What were you guys thinking?!

I buy nearly everything from Amazon and now I’m going to have to rethink whether I want to be your customer at all. It’d be one thing if you instituted a safe search provision that gave people the option for a “child safe” search – but just to make these changes for everyone with a sweep of your mouse… This is hateful!

Please, rethink this policy. I want to stay your customer but if you continue to discriminate against LGBT work, then I won’t be able to do so.

Sincerely,

Alex Woolfson

If you would like to express your thoughts to Amazon about their actions, their Executive Customer Service email address is ecr@amazon.com and their U.S. Customer Support number is 1-800-201-7575. This won’t change unless people speak up. If it matter to you at all, you should take the 5 minutes to let them know your thoughts!

(Amazon Customer Support reps apparently also encourage you to log in your Amazon account and use their internal email to complain as the best way to get their attention. I agree as is shows you are an Amazon customer and I did this as well. To send them an email, go to their home page http://www.amazon.com/ click Help (upper right), click Contact Us (yellow button, middle right), enter your username and password, click Email and choose “Other Questions & Comments” as the Issue in the dropdown menu. Then let them know exactly what you think of this change.)

For more on this, I recommend reading this excellent article at Dear Author and this smart business focused article from the net.effect blog of foreignpolicy.com on the growing reaction on the Internet and how Amazon must respond. And now, the always excellent Simon Jones of Icaraus Publishing discusses the bigger picture of having companies like Amazon.com be the monopoly gatekeepers of digital content.)

Please, don’t just sit there shaking your head. Let Amazon know how this choice will effect their business now!

EDIT 1 (Monday morning): Amazon is now claiming it’s all just “a glitch”. The Dear Author blog responds with some very compelling evidence that it was clearly targeted against LGBT, making a “glitch” seem unlikely. (And in that same link offers a good explanation why A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality was spared the axe and thus became the #1 search result for the word “homosexuality” in Amazon.) Also, writer-superstar Neil Gaiman, of Sandman and Coraline fame, weighs in.

EDIT 2 (4/13 5:00 P.M.): Amazon just responded to my email from yesterday, stating there was an “embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error”. Well, more of a mea culpa than a “glitch” at least…

Here’s the text of their email:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Amazon.com.

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles – in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon’s main product search.

Many books have now been fixed and we’re in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.

Thanks for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.

Sincerely,

Customer Service Department
Amazon.com

EDIT 3: And now here’s a plausible account of what happened — about what I figured, user error lead to painting with too broad a brush. That said, I still think search filters for “adult material” should be in the hands on the individual customers. And the response of the Internet community still speaks volumes to how far we’ve come in the last decade.

EDIT 4 (4/14/09 12:30PM): And now that the dust settles, editor Cheryl Morgan offers this excellent re-cap and commentary on the whole thing. (Although while I do think that if “WH Smith or Waterstone’s decided to put gay literature on more obscure shelves” it wouldn’t have been as big a deal, a more analogous example to items not appearing in the main search would be if shopkeepers acted like the gay books you were looking for weren’t on the shelves at all — and I do think that would have gotten noticed! ) And a link from that article gives the blow-by-blow of what was happening inside of Amazon as the problem got noticed.

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