Over the evening I just got word on this from the Boys Next Door girls, and then Brigid mentioned it today over at MangaBlog: apparently a new yaoi publisher called Yaoi Generation, who will be at Yaoi-Con (and, according to BND’s Cynbaby, possibly at Otakon as well).

GloBL comic writer Tina Anderson and blogger/writer/editor Kethylia trade speculation, including the possibility that Yaoi Generation is being established by Yaoi Press (the company is based in Fremont, CA, where Iris Print’s Kellie Lynch lives and now works for Yaoi Press) or DrMaster (also based in Fremont).

I’m a bit skeptical on the YPress idea– I didn’t get the sense that Lynch was especially interested in doing the licensed manga thing, and I’m not sure why Yamila Abraham would launch a whole new company for that when Yaoi Press has an established reputation and sales. As for DrMaster, I suppose it’s entirely plausible.

A whois on the domain shows that the registrant as a “Thuy Duong.” I can find plenty of Thuy Duongs online, even ones in Fremont and ones who are into manga, but I can’t find any that seem particularly affiliated or connected with the industry, so I guess that’s mostly a dead end.

I suppose only time will tell. I’m shipping out an e-mail, though I don’t know if I expect a response. But if I bump into them at Otakon I’ll certainly get the details!

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention– do look around their site. They talk a bit about what they’ll be up to, including publishing “Yaoi mangas, English edition” and a bi-monthly magazine, plus merchandise. It looks like they’ll be going for Internet sales only, with no mention of trying to get books into brick-and-mortar shops (though the online versions of real shops like Barnes and Noble and Borders’ websites are mentioned).

Posted by gia in Gossip, Manga, News, Western News • Comments (9)

Something I didn’t mention in my Yaoi Press report was that Yamila Abraham, when asked about publishing yaoi novels as well as comics, said that it tends not to work very well, and pointed to Iris Print as an example– saying that the company has actually closed up shop.

I’ve fired off an e-mail to Kellie to get her take; while I was googling to make sure I hadn’t missed some kind of announcement I noticed that Boys Next Door’s blog has some statements from Iris writers, while C.B. Potts offers her own response.

So, things aren’t looking too good for Iris, but for the moment we do NOT know anything about Iris’ status officially, so we can file this one in the “rumor” box.

Posted by gia in Con Reports, Features • Comments (4)

There wasn’t a lot of new stuff mentioned at the Yaoi Press panel, and I was so frantic about trying to get Internets that I don’t have a full write-up like I do for Bandai Entertainment and FUNimation, but the main announcement was that Dany&Dany are doing a new book for Yaoi Press titled Anima (which is pronounced ah-KNEE-mah).

This was actually announced at the Dany&Dany panel the previous day, but I wasn’t at it, unfortunately. The series is going to feature a lot of lush costumes, a la Bram Stoker’s Dracula we’re told, but it’s actually set in the future and involves love between humans and androids. We got to see the cover and the inside art and it looks really nice, so I’m looking forward to checkin’ it out.

Posted by gia in Con Reports, Features • Comments (1)

So, Anime Central is this coming weekend, and the live programming schedule is up, so I now have a list of companies whose panels I’ll be attending (I’m so excited! They’re all on Saturday and they’re all in the same room. And there’s even a lunch break between them! Go ACEN schedulers!):

- Yaoi Press
- Bandai Entertainment
- FUNimation (coincidentally, Host Club panel– I assume fan panel –at the same time?)
- ADV (!)
- VIZ Media

Yes, ADV will actually be running a panel, if this schedule is correct. That should be interesting to sit in on. And no, don’t tell me to ask questions like, “how the hell did you f!@# up Gurren Lagann?” I don’t want to bully them, and if they’re willing and able to tell us they probably will. And someone else will probably ask it anyway.

Posted by gia in Anime, Cons, News • Comments (12)

So. Borders isn’t doing so hot and Barnes & Noble is thinking of buying up their store fronts. This is bad for manga, because B&N doesn’t like manga. This is extra-bad for fans of mature titles and BL, because B&N REALLY doesn’t like them. In fact, I’d suggest that they only reason that they carry the limited selection of them that they do is to keep them competitive with Borders, so if they buy Borders…*cough* Yeah.

But wait! An idea appears! From none other than Yamila Abraham, who suggests that Borders find a way to turn itself into, primarily, a seller of graphic novels.

At first it sounds like just a happy manga fan pipe dream, but she makes the very valid point that bookstores have too much other product to really cover the fans, and so do most comic book shops.

Now, I think most Borders locations would probably be a bit oversized for just graphic novels, and I presume that they rent their space (i.e. can’t physically divide it into multiple stores and lease off the other spots), so perhaps they’d have to share it– perhaps with comic book shops, game stores, and other geek industry?

Or just regular stuff? Who knows. It’s a cool idea, but if Borders has money trouble I don’t see how they could do it unless someone invested a bunch of money for them to do so. But hey, I can dream.

Posted by gia in Commentary, General • Comments (6)

In the midst of complaints about and even calls to ban yaoi paddles and the like from conventions, Yaoi Press has a blatant attempt to cash in on their popularity: yaoi parasols. Only instead of a single word or obnoxious slogan to indicate affiliation, the parasols - which will hopefully be done in time for Yaoi Con, according to Yaoi Press’ Yamila Abraham - will offer actual yaoi art.

I already like it better than the yaoi paddles - and their younger cousins, the yaoi paper fans. Seriously, they’re kinda cute, but they’re not all that exciting, people. What’s next, whips with YAOI written on the handle? Gimme a break.

(Note: If I see yaoi whips at the next round of cons I go to, I am gonna have to - as the kids say - choke a bitch.)

Via ComiPress, by the way.

Posted by gia in News, Toys / Swag, Western News • Comments (3)

Warning: yaoi be discussed here.

But Yaoi Press president Yamila Abraham posted to her blog about an e-mail she got from a bisexual guy who is into yaoi and doesn’t like the “by women for women” women’s-only-club feel the subgenre gets.

At first I’m inclined to say, “well, it IS.” Not that guys aren’t ALLOWED to like it - anyone who says as much is an idiot - but the fact of the matter is it IS almost always by women, and it IS created with women as the target market. Right?

But Abraham notes that 25-30% of her web orders for yaoi come from guys, which is quite a bit more than I would have expected. I certainly know a handful of guys into the stuff, but not that many. However, she also says that she has never had a gay guy not like yaoi, and I have also definitely known a few who thought it was terrible stuff.

So yeah, torn. I’ll repeat that I think trying to exclude male fans from yaoi is really stupid. But do they have a legitimate complaint when people market a genre created almost entirely by women for women as such? I dunno.

Posted by gia in General, Western News • Comments (5)