Guests
SCARLET BERIKO
Since last July thanks to Taifu, French yaoi fans can hold dear in their hands the work of the highly successful mangaka Scarlet Beriko. Japanese readers have fallen in love with the best seller, award-winning Scarlet and so have we!
The Dazzling ascension of a talent
Scarlet Beriko is a young mangaka. Her first publication occurs in 2014 with Amefurashi by publisher Shinshokan. No less than a year after, Minori no te and Yondaime Ooyamatsu Tatsuyuki are published, two stories sharing the same universe (and some characters). Instant success: Yondaime Ooyamatsu Tatsuyuki is 5th at the Kono BL ga Yabai Award 2016 and 6th at the Chil Chil BL Awards 2016. It’s also in the Top 10 of the BL best sales.
Ever since, Scarlet Beriko blesses us with her talent: Jackass !, Jealousy, Joou to Shitateya, each new title increasingly sets her as an essential BL mangaka and a must-read.
A new generation
Scarlet Beriko‘s works are elegant and appealing, she shows a real talent for scenario building and character development. Many of her characters hold a complex and intriguing relationship with their past, haunted by memories or old acquaintances. The mangaka also deals with well-known yaoi themes such as fetishism or yakuza, handling them with the fresh eye of a young artist.
We are very proud to welcome Scarlet Beriko in France as our Special Guest at the Y/CON 7!
BROOKE BLAINE
Brooke Blaine is a USA Today Bestselling Author of contemporary and LGBT romance that ranges from comedy to suspense to…well, pearl-clutching. The latter has scarred her conservative Southern family for life, bless their hearts..
If you’d like to get in touch with her, she’s easy to find – just keep an ear out for the Rick Astley ringtone that’s dominated her cell phone for years.
Find Brooke Blaine at the Y/CON for conference and dedication.
CALY
Caly (Magicaly) is a french BD artist that is known online for her first manga MaHo Megami, which tells the story of an ordinary young woman who is becoming the apprentice of a real life witch. It’s quite a refreshing take on the magical girl archetype! Self-edited since 2008, the series, still in the making, has five volumes to this day, an artbook and a special issue.
Thereafter, Caly Caly joined H2T editions with her new Girl’s Love series Hana no Breath. The first volume of the series, whose preview was available on Weeklycomics in 2016, talks about a young woman who does not understand her friends’ interest for yuri or yaoi. However, she is really interested in that awesome guy: Gwen… until she finds out that Gwen is a girl! Caly uses mangas’ rules and tricks as well as her sweet colorful graphic design to tell a lovely soft story.
Caly considers herself to be part of “global manga”, an international category of manga rather than “French manga”. In addition to her ongoing stories, she has been participating in various collaborations and fanzines. This year, she is working on the second volume of “Hana no Breath” which should be coming out in july 2018 with H2T editions.
Even if Caly works most of the time with China ink liners (that she can’t live without to create her BD pages), she is happy to use ink, watercolour, paint, colour pencils or even a little bit of everything to create a breathtaking result.
DANIELA VIÇOSO
A painter and illustrator from Southern Portugal, Daniela Viçoso, or Danibonbon, really likes folkloric devils and saint figurines.
She graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon, and in 2016 she completed the Design Communication: Illustration MA at Kingston University of London. Her masters’ project wasO Infante, a love story between a prince and his squire and also the first Portuguese Boy’s Love story. First published in Portugal (El Pep edições, 2016), it was later translated into English by the author and later Japanese (by Conn). As of 2017 she is one of the co-founders of the Portuguese art collective Suspiro Press with artist Catarina João.
Her work is mainly homoerotic, with influences of classic literature and Portuguese folklore. Besides working on her own projects and doujinshi, she likes taking part in a number of collective or solo exhibitions, workshops, comic/art conventions and international anthologies.
ELLA FRANK
Ella Frank is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Temptation series, including Try, Take, and Trust and is the co-author of the fan-favorite Preslocke series. Her Confessions series has been praised as “scorching hot!” and “enticingly sexy!”.
A life-long fan of the romance genre, Ella Frank writes contemporary and erotic fiction.
Some of her favorite authors include Tiffany Reisz, Kresley Cole, Riley Hart, J.R. Ward, Erika Wilde, Gena Showalter, and Carly Philips.
Find Ella Frank at the Y/CON for conference and workshop. And also signing sessions.
JAY NORTHCOTE
Jay Nortcote lives just outside Bristol in the West of England with his husband, his two kids and his cats. He comes from a family of writers, but always used to believe that the gene for fiction writing had passed him by.
Jay Nortcote spent years only ever writing emails, articles, or website content. However, one happy day of 2013, he decided to try and write a short story and found it rather addictive. Ever since, he hasn’t stopped writing modern-day MM love stories, moving mostly but also a bit naughty.
Since 2017, some of Jay Nortcote’s works are translated by the french publisher Reines Beaux: The Little Things, Nothing Serious and Nothing Ventured. Surprises await you this year, stay alert.
RINACA AND SURINE
Nice to meet you! I’m Rinaca Cosplay and I have been cosplaying since 2010.
In 2014 Surine and I represented Denmark at Tokyo’s International Film Festival. Here, they had a Gainax theme, so we got to wear our Neon Genesis Evangelion cosplays in Japan. It was a dream come true.
In 2015 my wife and I went to the World Cosplay Summit (Japan). I was so happy and proud that we succeeded in what we set out to do and made a performance I’m still very happy with.
Half a year after we were married, our wedding photos and cosplay photos went viral. In the end, even we were sick of seeing our own faces pop up on our newsfeeds (haha!).
Joke aside, we were extremely happy to share a message of doing what you love with the person you love, and to be able to represent LGBT and cosplay.
I absolutely love going on cosplay photoshoots, and really try to bring a character to life. Since “roleplay” is such a tiny part of cosplaying, I think it’s fun to live out the series in photos. I hope my photos can make someone as happy as they make me when they bring my favorite characters to life! My wife and I try to film as much as we can on shoots and upload videos from behind the scenes, so other people who are not familiar with how it works can see what it’s like.
I am thankful for the adventures cosplaying has brought me; that I get to travel with the love of my life and meet so many amazing people from all around the world.
Facebook – Instagram – YouTube
Hello! I’m Surine Cosplay and I have been cosplaying since 2005. I was selected represent Denmark at the World Cosplay Summit and the European Cosplay Gathering in 2011 (What a crazy busy year!).
In 2014 (my then girlfriend) Rinaca and I was asked to Tokyo’s International Film Festival along with representatives from other countries participating in the World Cosplay Summit.
The year after we placed 4. In the World Cosplay Summit 2015 where we performed with our Drakengard 3 Cosplays.
When Rinaca and I got married, we made quite the splash on Social media with our wedding- and cosplay photos, we got featured on Huffington post and George Takei even shared our story. Those weeks were just surreal, and we have been extremely fortunate to travel abroad to conventions and show what Danish cosplay is all about.
When it comes to creating costumes I really pride myself in my sewing skills – I love to create mockups and replicate the shape and fit of clothes. From 13 years of cosplay experience, I have become extremely set in how I want to make certain elements (usually the difficult and most time-consuming way! *Sobs*). I’m no stranger to worbla, craftfoam, resin and LED either. I love styling difficult wigs!
SARADEEK
Spanish illustrator living in Spain. SaraDeek studied comic illustration and animation on ESDIP.
Since she finished her studies, her career has been highly related with yaoi. She participated in different projects like: the visual novel To trust an incubus, the Comic anthology DOKKI and, right now, she’s working with the author Rohan Lockhart in Desire.
Since she has memory, she has had a passion for manga, especially those related to yaoi. SaraDeek always fantasizes about creating her own stories, entertaining people, that’s why she chooses to become an illustrator.
Find SaraDeek at the Y/CON for conference and workshop.
YATUU
Yatuu is a comic book’s author, she has to her credit eight paper books which talk about social realities she needed to denounce with humor. Also really present on the social media and on her blog, she establishes herself on every media. On her website, find out more than 300 funny plates, all in free access!
In her comic books, Yatuu expresses herself freely with any filter on. In Génération mal logée she talks about her poor housing and her taking of independence. She shares her background as an exploited intern in Moi, 20 ans, diplômée, motive… exploitée! Yatuu also deals with topics such as school bullying and street harassment, always with humor of course, in her two-books released in 2014 Sasha, survivre au collège and Hé! Mademoiselle!. In 2015, she published at Marabout publisher her comic book Pas mon genre!, which approaches with humor and casualness the gender’s stereotypes.
She has also participated to a collective book on Japan Kokekokko, in association with some people to give sixteen views about the Land of the Rising Sun.
Yatuu currently works on her last online comic book Erika et les princes en détresse. The story takes place in an heroic fantasy world dominated by women. They are the stronger sex and has all powers! Erika et les princes en détresse is her first comic book successfully self-financed on Tipee!
Yatuu has just launched her Ulule for a paper version of Erika et les princes en détresse! Support her on Ulule!
Come to meet Yatuu and her lovely characters at the Y/CON 7, during conferences and workshop!
Speakers
Chez Papa Papou
Emil 30 years old’s video maker, is at the head of the first French Youtube channel of two gay fathers: « Chez Papa Papou ». In his video at the same time funny, inspiring and committed, Emil talks about baby and parenthood, but not only… Thanks to his perception about homoparenthood’s family, he gives us, filterless his amused eye to this own right world: moods, tricks, actualities, products’ testing, books’ column and interviews.
For these two dads, this channel’s idea was to take back a word that had been take away in 2013 by the opponent to Mariage pour tous (“Wedding for everyone”). Emil and Yo think that the equality go through the visibility and that it’s necessary to show the reality with concrete ways, to knock over the fantasy and the prejudice of some people. That’s why, their approach wants to be sweet and optimistic, to simply and kindly say that yes, it’s possible to have a family when we are homosexuals. Their belief “because we are more than parents” is a way to affirm that the parents’ sexuality doesn’t disappear when the child is born. They try to fade step by step the lifeless parent’s stereotype.
Beyond Youtube, the two dads are also active among association, such as contact association which promote the dialogue between LGBTQ+ and their family and friends.
Chez Papa Papou will be at the Y/CON 7 for the homoparenthood’s conference with Eli Easton and Murielle Douru.
Chi-tan
Chi-tan is the BL enthusiastic alter ego of Japanese born manga artist Chie Kutsuwada.
After graduating Royal College of Art, London, now she is based in Brighton, working as a professional manga artist and creating many comics and illustrations, which are often very delicate and romantic, very much in BL/Shojo style.
One of her latest commercial projects are the every two month illustrated columns for Mainichi Weekly, which is published by one of the major Japanese news paper companies, about life and culture in the U.K. As the personal projects, Chi-tan is trying to transform Shakespeare’s Sonnet into BL manga format and also restart the long stagnated original BL web comic, Nobody Kisses Me Like That.
Her commercially published books are available at the most of English speaking countries. Also some of them are translated in Turkey, France, Italy and Spain.
Besides creating manga comics, she also attends many manga-related events in and out of UK and runs manga workshops at schools, libraries, and museums, such as the British Museum, the British Libraries and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Chi-tan will attend our Y/CON 7 and will participate in our conferences and debates!
Eli Easton
Eli Easton has been, at various times and under different names, a minister’s daughter, a computer programmer, a game designer, the author of paranormal mysteries, a fan fiction writer, and organic farmer, Eli has been a M/M romance author since 2013. She has published over 30 gay romances. Eli has loved romance since her teens and she particular admires writers who can combine literary merit, genuine humor, melting hotness, and eye-dabbing sweetness into one story. She promises to strive to achieve most of that most of the time.
In romance, Eli is best known for her Christmas stories because she’s a total Christmas sap. These include Blame it on the Mistletoe, Unwrapping Hank and Merry Christmas, Mr. Miggles. Her Howl at the Moon series of paranormal romances featuring the town of Mad Creek and its dog shifters has been popular with readers. Her series of Amish-themed romances, Men of Lancaster County, has won genre awards. In 2018 Eli hopes to do more of the same, assuming they reschedule the apocalypse. Eli currently publishes with Dreamspinner Press and Riptide as well as self-pubbing titles.
Eli Easton will be at the Y/CON 7 for the homoparenthood’s conference with Chez Papa Papou and Murielle Douru.
Eva Carlton
Eva Carlton has always loved two things: dance and drag. At 16, after attending a drag queen show, he decides to try out the art. He drops out to enroll a dancing school where he meets Mia Fry! It was the start of a succesful journey.
If Eva learned about dancing and make-up at schools, he’s a self-learner at hairdressing and styling though he orders his dresses. After several years of performing abroad, he settles in 2003 in Paris at infamous cabaret Chez Michou.
Eva Carlton will perform a glamourous show and he will lead a workshop about drag!
Fabrissou
If you’re a fan of bara, then Dokkun is a name that should ring a bell: French fanzine created in 2010 by Fabrissou, DY and other artists, they count 12 issues to this day and several artist-focused artbooks. Fabrissou mostly draws homo-erotic comics in Dokkun (did I told you that “dokkun” was the Japanese onomatopoeia for ejaculation?) but he also participated in Japanese and Korean fanzines.
Being one of our regular since the beginning, we’re happy that Fabrissou will be there for a very interesting discussion with Ella Frank about sexual protection biases in fiction.
Inko
Inko is UK based Japanese manga artist. Her visual works often imply cross overs of modern & traditional Eastern and Western cultures, which comes from her studies at Kyoto Zokei university of Art & Design in Japan, and Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in UK before she kicks off her career as a manga & comic artist.
She frequently joins various conventions, art projects, gives talks at museums, and deliver manga workshops in and outside UK.
Her ongoing webcomic of a funny personification of London underground Go! Go! Metro Line!
Muriel Douru
Born in 1976 and graduated from Graduate School of Applied Arts in Paris, Muriel Douru is a professional illustrator for fashion, publishing and decoration, blogger and author for kids and adults.
She has published the first kids’ books about homoparentality (Dis mamanS in 2003) and Cristelle et Crioline in 2011, a tale which talks about homosexuality for kids, and L’arc en ciel des familles in 2014 which describes all kind of family nowadays (heteroparenthood, homoparenthood, single-parent or blended family). In 2016 her first graphic book for adults is published by Marabout Edition: Beyond the lipsticks – Chroniques d’un coming-out which is followed in 2017 by Chroniques d’une citoyenne ordinaire engage by the publishing house Hugo&Cie.
Committed against homophobia, for the equality, the environment and animal’s protection, it’s on her blog that she shares her reflexion: Atelier Août à Paris
Murielle Douru will be at the Y/CON 7 for the homoparenthood’s conference with Chez Papa Papou and Eli Easton.
Anna Madill
Anna Madill, is a researcher in Social Sciences deeplys interested in Boy’s Love. Indeed, she wrote 9 research papers and held severals conferences on that matter. Funded by the British Academy, she aims to further understand readers and producers of manga, particularly YAOI, from an Anglophone perspective.
Currently, she’s conducting her research with an online survey. You speak english, you’re at least 16 years old, fluent (enough) in English, and a reader and/or producer of manga, particularly of YAOI? The link is available at the bottom of this presentation.
Anna Madill is Chair of Qualitative Inquiry in the School of Psychology, University of Leeds, UK. She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and of the Academy of Social Sciences. She co-founded and chaired (2008-11) the BPS Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section. Anna’s projects include research funded by the British Academy on Boys’ Love manga.
Anna Madill will join us at the Y/CON to participate in debates and conferences, as well as Yao Zhao, a doctoral student she supervises for her research on Chinese Boy’s Love.
Rohan Lockhart
Rohan Lockhart, formerly known as 6san, is the author of Gmo-Project, a Boy’s Love online fiction started in 2011. Dreaming of someday sharing his stories as webcomics, he started to write them since drawing is not his forte… Regularly illustrated by talented artists, Gmo-Project eventually ended up as a novel on paper at the insistance of readers. It was even published in the USA via Yaoi Revolution!
Now, the series has almost countless volumes, and bonuses that Rohan Lockhart regularly offers to the fans. Forever expanding his universe, notably through doujinshis, the author also keeps writing other series…
Rohan Lockhart will attend a roundtable besides SaraDeek.