Thursday, October 26, 2023

Nov 5: Anne Ishii in conversation on the work of gay manga master Gengoroh Tagame.

On Sunday, November 5 at 3pm, Fantom Comics will host Asian Arts Initiative executive director Anne Ishii in conversation about her career editing, translating, and agenting the work of gay manga master Gengoroh Tagame. From a comics scene perspective this is one of the most important "gets" we've had at Fantom since I returned to DC earlier this year, so I hope as many of you can come through as possible!

Ishii co-founded MASSIVE GOODS in 2013, through which she introduced an entire generation of queer Japanese artists to the English-speaking world—sometimes publishing their work uncensored for the first time in any language. Her survey omnibus MASSIVE: Gay Erotica Manga and the Men Who Make It helped bring Gengoroh Tagame to U.S. audiences, and we did a launch party with her for it at Fantom in 2015.

Tagame has been a Tom of Finland-esque figure in gay erotic manga for decades—Ishii edited and translated the two-volume The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame collecting his erotica in the U.S. for the first time—but he has also achieved mainstream success with his breakthrough non-erotic work: the Eisner-winning My Brother's Husband, which Ishii also agented, edited, and translated. She did the same for his newest work, Our Colors (published in English by Pantheon last year, and I can't wait to chat with her on November 5 about all of it.

Jacob Shapiro, manager & co-owner
Fantom Comics

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