David Taylor opens the week at Love Manga with an interview with A. Neculai, editor-in-chief at Drama Queen and editor of DQ’s new anthology, Rush. The first issue of Rush will debut at Yaoicon, and the magazine will begin its bimonthly schedule next year. Each issue will be $7.99 and will carry four (or more) boys’ love stories by Western manga-ka. As for distribution:
For the time being it will be distributed only through the DramaQueen shop, we’re also going to have a subscription program in place and maybe in time we will look into other online outlets. Due to some of our creators explicit content [we do not censor at DQ], some distributors might be unwilling to move Rush, and so for now, only time will tell.
This puts it right on the line: There’s not going to be any we-had-to-cover-that-up-or-Borders-won’t-stock-it lameness from DQ! The stories will be continuing stories, as in Japanese magazines, and will be collected in tankoubons. This neatly sidesteps one of the biggest problems with global manga as currently imagined by Tokyopop and (at least some of the time) Seven Seas: The long time between releases. Getting an installment every two months will keep reader interest high. If someone were doing that with Off*beat or The Dreaming, I would totally go for it.
One interesting aspect of Rush is the attention it is attracting in Japan. Contributor Tina Anderson writes:
Many Japanese BL-manga bloggers visited the Rush web site, and many of them cannot understand [besides colorful commentary on what’s licensed – or what America finds interesting in terms of BL] why the art in Rush looks to represent such a ‘masculine focus’. One commenter at Hedena demanded at her own blog: Is it even BL if it’s made outside Japan?
Apparently there are already requests for Rush in Japanese, but Tina says it won’t be translated.
At Icarus Publishing, Simon Jones discusses just who will be reading Rush in Japan—a country which, he points out, already has plenty of comics.
But the very fact that American BL does not strictly adhere to the styles of its Japanese forebearer could be an unexpected advantage… even if it is not accepted by the hardcore fans, it may very well find a completely new audience, straddling the middle ground between pure BL and pure gay manga.
… which I suspect is what’s happening both here and there, as BL finds a new audience and new creators spring up to meet their needs.
In regards to the audience in Japan, the creators are not told what to write, so the stories they present sometimes are true to the pure BL canons, while others are indeed one step further from the Japanese BL style.
Rush is not about creating a new genre, it is about freedom of expression. The artists get to tell their own stories and if a new genre does happen to spring out it is purely because of their different social backgrounds.
While I understand everyone’s questions and statements, I personally think Rush shows a great diversity in themes and styles so anyone interested should try out the magazine since its very likely they will find something in there that will capture their imagination.
Thank you very much for the interest and coverage of Rush, it means a lot to the team and I knowing people are talking about the project.
Hi, Brigid
I’m Japanese and I’ve really enjoyed your blog.
I usually just read your blog, but today I feel I have to leave a comment.
You quotes Tina Anderson’s blog:
“One commenter at Hedena demanded at her own blog: Is it even BL if it’s made outside Japan? ”
That’s my blog from which Tina quotes. (It’s not Hedena, but Hatena. Hatena is a net-community’s name, though.)
I’ve never wrote anything like that! It’s just incorrect. It’s just mistranslation. I actually quote Publishers Weekly’s positive comments about Dramaqueen in the artcle.
I wrote the article because I root for them. Personally, I think it IS BL even if they are made outside Japan.
I bought OEL manga and OEL BL manga. And I really enjoy them.
After writing that article, I got a lot of response from Japanese bloggers and all of them are positive ones, I didn’t get even one negative response.
I don’t know why this happen. I tried to leave a comment at Tina’s blog, but it failed. I tried to touch base with Tina, but I couldn’t. I just wanted to let people in Western countires that Japanese manga fans are very happy that American BL are available. I’m sure I’ll buy one copy of RUSH from DramaQueen.
Excuse my messy English here.
Hi Ceena!
Thanks for your comments! It sounds to me like Tina is not saying that you wrote that, she’s saying someone who commented on your blog said it, which may explain the misunderstanding. But I’m glad you wrote, as it’s interesting to hear from someone in Japan who likes OEL manga. I think we’re just waking up to the fact that Japanese readers enjoy foreign manga!
And your English is fine—much better than my Japanese. ^__^
I’ve never wrote anything like that! It’s just incorrect. It’s just mistranslation.
Hi Ceena, relax. I was commenting that someone else in ‘their own blog’ made these comments, but she too was not being ‘rude’ and she in fact, did get in touch with me ^^. I changed my blog entry there to reflect this, that she meant no ill will. My email works just fine so if you contacted me, it might be something on your end that caused the email to fail.
Rush and Dramaqueen are very interested in the Japanese ‘interest’ in Rush, and I am a creator in this book so I too respect all forms of interest in it. If you wish to discuss this further you can contact me at tanderson @ elegantmadness.net
Hi Brigid,
Thank you for your quick response!
>It sounds to me like Tina is not saying that you wrote that, she’s saying
>someone who commented on your blog said it, which may explain the
>misunderstanding.
OMG! It’s ME misunderstanding here! Tina’s quoting my blog just surprised me so much that I took it too personally!
Tina actually writes:
“One COMMENTATOR at Hedena demanded at her HER OWN BLOG”
Tina means that it’s that commentator’s blog… I am so sorry, Tina. How dumb I am…. （←a pose for “I’m really sorry”)
Thank you for correcting my misunderstanding, and again thank you for your response! (^^)/~~~
Well, looks like Tina and I submitted the comments almost at the same time?
Hi Tina,
I’m sorry! I’m the one who misunderstood here. I’ll try to email you to say hello and sorry again.
…Before the phrase （←a pose for “I’m really sorry”)bin my comment above, I put a kind of mark that means “I’m really sorry” on Net in Japan. It just disappeared.
It’s ok. I commented at your blog …since I misspelled ‘Hadena’… LOL! This is SO VERY BAD of me. ^_^ I will personally have DramaQueen send you a copy of Rush 00. Is this ok? Email me and I will connect you to my editor.
-Tina