>Hugz<

Recently I had a chance to read Ramuneikki by Sansuke Yamada. If you have read my previous posts, you would know, by now, how I love his artwork. His artwork, though seemingly raw and simple, is very lively and well-proportioned. (c) Sansuke Yamada, photo from Amazon(Japan) I almost bought this book just because he drew some figures for the book. Anyway, Ramuneikki is filled with short stories which were previously published through magazines. Each time I turned the page, I was suprised to see how freely his mind goes when he creates. I ENVY him!!

I did not know till today that Jiraiya released his newest comic, Two Hoses, a story about two firemen, through Big Gym (in Japan) and Massive (in US). The picture above is from Big Gym (a gay store chain in Japan) twitter. As you can see, this comic seemed to be based on his previous artwork, which was used for several items. (I really love this artwork, even though I generally love his artwork. Actually I love all of his artworks.)  The 2nd image seems to be a promotional postcard. And the 3rd image is the US version of the comic. The image is from Massive.

I posted her previous work, Lies are a gentleman's manners. I also purchased another work of hers, Almost Paradise. It was set in a high school in a small city. And a new art teacher and one student became more closer than they expected. The book also contains another story featuring sort of a werewolf and a wizard, I recalled. The story and artwork are very impressive. But the thing is that she does not release many materials.

It's been while since I read or posted about any BL comics. Recently I had a chance to read Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas. It was set in a boys-only boarding school in Germany, sometime in the 20's century.      I did not recall her name but I had a book of her, They Were 11, an award-winning SF comics.      And she also wrote famous/notorious "Cruel Gods Reign" which I have not even tried but am familiar with the tile of. The story and the artwork of The Heart of Thomas were charming. Though I cannot found it realistic that nobody in the school worries about sexual orientation at all. Everybody takes it as it is!! Isn't it a little bit ideal? Of course classmates tease when one falls for another male student. But that's not because of homosexuality but because that's how children react when they are not accustomed to the feeling of loving someone outside family. This comic was written in 1972!!! OMG. Even that early some readers embraced BL ...

According to Japanese Wikipedia, the most recent comics from Jiraiya are following: 青い空 入道雲 通り雨【前編】（216号 2014年1月） 青い空 入道雲 通り雨【後編】（217号 2014年2月） 恋人たちのありふれたやりとり（236号 2015年9月） (c) Jiraiya (from his personal blog) This seems to be the cover page of first comics (part 1 and 2), whose title seems to mean "blue sky, fleecy clouds, and passing rain." Jiraiya explains on his blog that A(on the left) lives with C(on the left) and B(in the middle) is a father of C. I don't know how the story would go. And the following image is one of scenes of second comics, whose title seems to mean "lovers' very common give and take" or something. (c) Jiraiya (from his personal blog) As you can see, it has been a while since he published new comic. But my post on his comic is one of the most popular posts among mine and this motivated me to write this article. He regularly updates his works and everything on his personal blog but only in JAPANESE. :) Happy new year, guys.

For last month, my article about Pontaro was the most popular one among my posts. See the link. Click the link That's why I decided to post another article on Pontaro . I found that he draw covers of Samson , a Japanese gay magazine, all through 2003 and 2004. I could not find wikipedia page of his in Japanese wikipedia so all I could find about him is from Doujinshi & Manga Lexicon. I guess that he chose his penname ' Pontaro ' from a Japanese word, ぽん太郎(written as pontarou, but sounded as pontaroː with long "o"), meaning a fool, as a joke.

I found this gorgeous illustration while surfing Jiraiya. The illustration is from Brute & Brawn . (Click to visit the site.) I don't know how to call him but his work is magnificent. He is kind enough to post his drawing and painting steps. Go and visit his blog from the link.