Category Archives: Comics
[ROUNDUP] February, March, and April/May to Come
I hope you’re all doing well <3
I’ve been working on a few things and it’s tough because a lot of them are just behind the curtain and I can’t show them to you for a little while, but I’m very very excited for the moment when I can.
February
I feel like February was a lot of working on things that will be due to come out soon, and nothing that I can actually show off. I drew some stuff that I posted on social media and I will collect to post here at a later time! I would like to have all my fandom art in a pile, isolated for convenience.
March
Young Lady Albert is Courting Disaster Volume 2 is complete, and you can now buy the ebook!
Young Lady Albert is Courting Disaster Volume 3 is now being serialized!
I started taking driving lessons!
Beloved friend of the show Ashley Lauren Rogers has a play available for purchase at Next Stage Press. Check out and pick up Chasing the Ghost here! Ashley also has her own Patreon here!
Another beloved friend of the show, Kai, has been working hard on their comic, Ukiyo! They have a Patreon as well where you can support them, here!
April
Fujoshi Guide to Web Development Kickstarter launched. I helped!
Finding God in No Man’s Land—Christian Influence in Trigun: Essay posted on Easter 2023! Because I thought it was funny. I’ll be writing up a few elements that I didn’t get to work into the essay itself for Patreon that I also hope to make available on ko-fi.
More stuff to come?? Maybe??
May
Hideo Kojima’s Memes and Torquil Campbell’s DNA – Artists on Art as Genetics: Coming out on Unwinnable Exploits on May 1st. Might only be available for subscribers right away, so keep your eyes peeled. I’ll post it as soon as I see it!
Also on May 1st, playerprophet friend and supporter Mirth Turtle is having a very special livestream. Details to come.
I have another Author Spotlight Interview coming out soon with Nightmare Magazine. I believe it’s out in May but it could be June. They don’t tell me these things (but I also don’t ask).
I’ve signed up for a course to learn about making TTRPGs late in May: Designing Games that Matter with Avery Alder. I wanted to go last year, but full-time work left me very little room for fun. Looking forward to it this time! I bet I’ll have some fun things to share afterward. :)
I also now have a discord server that you can join with extra perks for patrons!
Also I’ll probably be working on a Trigun doujinshi (as short as possible) because the fandom is on fire and I have more stuff I want to say. Now’s as good a time as any, right?
ESSAY: Finding God in No Man’s Land — Christian Influence in Trigun on womenwriteaboutcomics.com
I worked my butt off writing this essay in December/January and it’s finally here! Please enjoy it on wwac.com.
Sixty billion double thanks to everyone who supported me with tips on ko-fi to buy these books, to wwac for hosting this piece, to Kat Overland for her editorial guidance and wisdom, and Lena LeRay for help with some translating. xoxo
2022 List of Credits
Lots of people in the manga industry like to post collections of the year’s work, but it’s difficult when you do proofreading because the list gets pretty massive pretty quickly.
Here’s all the stuff I worked on this year, and it’s probably not comprehensive because it’s just based on what I wrote down in my planner. I’ve been thinking it would be good to collect all the titles I’ve worked on as a reference just for job searching, so this is just a start. This also doesn’t include volumes of series that I started working on in previous years.
Young Lady Albert is Courting Disaster
High on the list of “stuff I’ve been up to” is editing this fantastic manga for J-Novel Club, Young Lady Albert is Courting Disaster.
If you’re not familiar with J-Novel Club they have a very unique style of subscription service that gives you access to a chapter-by-chapter serialization of their manga and light novels. When the book is complete, they compile it into an ebook for purchase and (sometimes) make print versions. I’m a big fan of physical books so I’m hoping we’ll get a version for print.
There’s a popular trope in isekai for women/girls (josei) that involves a girl being reborn into an otome game as the villainess. The protagonist often tries to reorient her life to become a better person–but not in the case of Mary Albert. Mary decides that her future is set in stone so she might as well go ahead and drive this metaphorical train into a pit.
I’m not a huge fan of isekai, but I think I am a fan of otome isekai. There are some really delightful series out there that are all doing something a little different. As such I now feel as though Lady Albert is kind of my baby. It’s a great series with good characters, great jokes, and I’m going to do my damndest to do right by it as its editor.
If you’re interested in giving it a read, volume 1 is available now via J-Novel Club’s subscription service, and chapter 1 I believe is available for free. (It won’t be forever!) Volume 2 will be starting serialization early in January 2023.
You can read it on J-Novel Club here: https://j-novel.club/series/young-lady-albert-is-courting-disaster
Alternatively, you can also buy the ebook which will be released in full (with bonus content) on Amazon or on BookWalker.
The volume 1 ebook is coming out on December 28th! I’ll let you know when volume 2 is coming out, too.
Manga Recommendation: Pompo: The Cinéphile
No fun screenshots of panels for this recco because I apparently didn’t save any of the PDFs.
I LOVE comics and zines that can entertain me while also teaching me stuff. A good diary comic like My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness can really scratch an itch of introspection, but my favorite are manga that go further in what an industry or hobby is like, such as Manga Diary of a Male Porn Star or the upcoming I’m a Terminal Cancer Patient, but I’m Fine. (I recommend both of these, by the way. I hope you’ll also join me in preordering Kate Beaton’s Ducks as well.)
Pompo: The Cinéphile isn’t a diary comic, but the amount of education involved in its creation is similarly as compelling. It’s a fictionalized tale that ruminates on an industry or culture from someone who clearly knows a thing or two about it. Similar recommendations for this kind of story from Seven Seas would be Blue Giant, BL Metamorphosis (both which will get their own post at a later date), Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, or even My Brother’s Husband, Tokyo Revengers, or Bride’s Story. Either based in personal experience or thorough education, these books speak like a teacher, and it rules. (At least, I think so.)
If you are into any of the above titles, you might also enjoy Pompo: The Cinéphile, which is a story where the titular Pompo (a producer) starts her assistant, Gene (an aspiring director) on the road of his dreams. The story walks the journey of the creation of a film from casting actors, shooting on location, cutting trailers, and witnessing a complete film as the culmination of all the work done by everyone involved.
It helps that the adaptation of the manga was done by Jay Trust, who I’ve been told is a director in their own right… though it appears they may be doing their manga adaptations under a different pen name than their directorial ones, as I can’t find them anywhere.
If you’re a nerd about filmmaking, I recommend reading Pompo. There are two volumes of the manga released so far and a third one on its way. It’s a dense read, but a joy.
The manga takes place in Nyallywood, which is obviously a fictional stand-in for Hollywood, but there are a lot of funny little Japan things all over the story. This manga has also been made into an animated film, which I haven’t seen! But maybe that is more your speed.
Either way, this is a definite recommendation from me. These are books I’m proud to have in my collection. I hope you check them out.
Manga Spotlight: Level 1 Demon Lord & One-Room Hero
Hello all! Long time no post. I started a new full-time job after 35 years of freelance in 2020, and I’m now a Senior Copy Editor at Seven Seas Entertainment! I read manga all day on the lookout for forgotten sound effects and other such things.
I love my job, but I have to read a lot of stuff I don’t like. But it also fires me up because there are a lot of comics I like a lot, and you will probably never read. So I’m going to make these Manga Spotlight posts now and then to highlight really special manga that I think you should check out. Some of these might be NSFW but this one is not. I need everyone to know about Level 1 Demon Lord & One-Room Hero.
I have to read a lot of isekai for work (and if you don’t know what isekai is, that’s a whole other blog post) so one of my favorite new tropes is “playful subversion of isekai and the fantasy genre.” Level 1 Demon Lord is one such book.
Ten years in the past, a classic RPG party went to save the world and killed the demon lord to save the day. The world settled into a comfortable peace, but demons have seven lives. The demon lord awakes ten years since his death, far too early and in an extremely weakened state. He runs off to find the hero that killed him years before to see what kind of future he’s made for himself. Instead, he finds a deadbeat who sleeps all day in his bachelor apartment, a man who has given up on life.
Our hero, Max, is living a regular life in what appears very similar to modern-day Japan, but is still the fantasy land that was saved ten years ago. Our demon lord asks questions and struggles to understand why the hero isn’t living large in the way that he deserves. Max is cagey about answers. It becomes clear before long that the media has taken advantage of Max for his fame, twisting all of his actions into a scandal. He does as little as possible so he can stay out of the spotlight, but with a demon lord in his company, trouble has come to find him again.
This manga is mostly a gross fanservice comedy, but Level 1 Demon Lord doesn’t shy away from inter-country politics, corruption, and the tempestuous relationships of shitty adults who once were friends. It’s a bit about how fame is a double-edged sword, a bit about wrangling with depression and disappointment, and a little bit about how your idols are real people.
Not only that, but there’s a weird little romance going on between the Level 1 Demon Lord & One-Room Hero. Is it gay? The demon lord, when pressed, won’t clarify whether or not he’s a man or not, though he proceeds to present as a woman more and more as the series goes on.
I feel like it’s difficult to express the charm of this series because I’m trying to spoil as little as possible. But I look forward to every volume that passes my desk. It’s one of my favorites. I find the artwork charming and the story funny, and this post-fantasy land is devolving into war and terrorism with neighboring countries. Old allies struggle to get Max to take a stand politically, but he avoids it while also keeping his new allegiance with demons a secret. If the public finds out about the new company he keeps, he will be seen as a traitor to humanity and kick Max while he’s already down.
The stakes are high and hilarious… until they aren’t! Please read Level 1 Demon Lord & One-Room Hero. It rules.
[Metal Gear Solid] The Last Nine Years
The Last Nine Years is a collaboration between playerprophet and cephiedvariable. A look at the highs and lows of Otacon and Snake’s relationship between the scenes and throughout the years.
To better understand the content, see the working title: “Emotionally Repressed Supersoldier and Annoying Nerd Try – and Fail – to Talk About Their Feelings”.
Order your hard copy here, or message me. I know the storenvy link is down right now…
I’ll never really forgive Jenn (cephiedvariable) for making me draw so many mustaches.
[Hatoful Boyfriend] Broken Birds 1/2
Nanaki Kazuaki and Sakazaki Yuuya are in the beginnings of a strange and unconventional relationship; they’re two birds who will always care about someone else more than each other. Could two people possibly be better off in a situation like this?
Broken Birds is about healing in an unconventional relationship. The comic takes place in the world of Hatoful Boyfriend, right after the sequel, Holiday Star.
Now that this doujinshi is a few years old, I decided to put it up online for free. You can download the PDF on itch.io, or read it on AO3, or Pixiv.
Really the cheapest and easiest way to get image hosting from my domain is through here. I’m sorry for people who come here for narrative criticism.
Continue reading[DRAKENGARD 3] Cruel Miracle COMIC
Posting this here because I want a reliable source to upload the art.
Created for the Snow in Summer exchange @drakenierswap on twitter, for kadamidee who asked for angst about Accord knowing about Zero’s bad end. This was a fic that turned into a comic at the LAST POSSIBLE MINUTE because I thought it would work better. I think it does, but because of the quick heel-turn, it’s very unpolished. Oh well, I still like it anyway. :) I hope you did, too!
