Are they really? Aisuru Hito was the first thing I read of hers and it was not only sexy but funny as hell.

Wait… Viz??? Viz licensed her? I’ve not read Chou yo Hana yo but this should be interesting.

And I’d like to break a lance for one of my favourite BL mangakas, Naono Bohra, and her art (and her stories that so often have older men). I don’t like all her stories but there are some lovely ones out there. I don’t think she’s done a big multi-volume series yet… but I haven’t been following the BL released for about a year now.

You can’t stand Yamane? I know some people don’t like Kodaka’s and Nitta’s artwork, but Yamane’s is beautiful. And the only two series she has in print over here are a harmless comedy romance and a fantasy romance. I didn’t think anyone would hate those.

A lot of people get turned off by her Finder series (which is no longer in print), but I generally find it’s because they either they don’t read enough of it (the first volume really has little to do with the rest of the story, being unrelated oneshots) or don’t understand how to read the story Yamane is telling. I had to be taught by a Japanese friend how to read it, and I think most Western readers face the same drawbacks I did because I see them making the same interpretive mistakes I did. Some things just aren’t told in dialogue; in fact two of the main characters are revealed in art rather than in dialogue for most of the story. Their dialogue is for the most part misleading.

I like most of the BL mangaka you do, but I love my three favorites more, along with Yuki Shimizu. They are simply better at telling stories that touch my heart than the new kids on the block, though a couple of those come close. The stuff Deux puts out is mostly good, though all of those mangaka have their own drawbacks. Of them, I think Yugi Yamada is best. I’ll read any book she puts out. I was sad to hear her books weren’t selling better.

I loved DQ’s books. I’m so sad that they’re gone. :(

Totally Captivated just grabbed me from books 3-6, when the romance takes off and the manic comedy tones down a bit. It honestly didn’t drag to me at all during those volumes, until the epilogue chapters. The first two volumes weren’t so good though.

Luv Luv and Aurora have said that they’ll know by summer whether or not they have to close, but they’re on the brink of it. :( There are no new Luv Luv titles planned at the moment.

In your biography, you say the holy triumvirate of yaoi is Ayano Yamane, Kazuma Kodaka and Youka Nitta. I can’t stand almost all their works. I’m very aware I’m one of the minority as they seem to have huge armies of fans!

I prefer the works offered by Deux Press (Saika Kunieda, Kano Miyamoto, Yugi Yamada, Shuiko Kano, and Est Em), some by Drama Queen (Akira Honma, Minase Masare and although she drove me crazy with her eccentric plotting, Uki Ogasawara is quite original) and a few selection by DMP. By now, you may have an idea what my taste is like.

Netcomics has an interesting range of offerings. I enjoyed so far: S-Kun, Yeri Na, Youngran Lee, Hae Lee, Wann (9 Faces of Love), and whoever did Let Dai.

I wasn’t keen on Totally Captivated. It has had funny moments but like many South Korean comics, the pacing was erratic and occasionally draggy. Let Dai is very South Korean. Melodramatic and draggy in some parts which sorely tried my patience, but the quality of narration kept me reading to its bitter end.

All English comic publishers seem to share this affliction: poor editing or proofreading. I haven’t yet come across any that doesn’t have typos, grammatical mistakes, typesetting mistakes, and awkward sentences. It drove our office resident Grammar Nazi totally crazy!

Comparing with other comic publishers, Netcomics is still an underdog but I think it will go far. The recession is hitting all comic publishers badly, especially Tokyopop and DMP, but I’m reasonably certain Netcomics will survive. I’m not so sure about Luv Luv.

cm0 is quite different than you may be expecting Estara. In fact, it didn’t especially seem to fit that line because it was more josei about relationships than about sex. I do recommend it.

My favorite story at Netcomics is Totally Captivated, but it’s not for everyone since it’s BL and rather melodramatic at that. I’m writing a review on some of the BL there now, some of which is good, some of which isn’t.

I guess I’m just too old for those spicy ones with not much plot ^^.