Yaoi-Con 2011 - Pics!!!

So, Yaoi-Con was fun~

Michael and I aren't big spenders, which is hard to do at the Con with all the great art, stories and merchandise overflowing the booths. We just followed a few threads.  For him, he bought a Naruto & Sasuke poster (with them kissing, of course).  We both invested in the first couple chapters of Teahouse, one the best American yaoi comics going on right now.  I got a novel called Kaminishi after attending the author's panel and we picked up Blind Eye Books' newest release Smoketown, both of which are pretty good so far.

The cool thing about the yaoi community is there's a lot of free content -- it has what's called a gift economy.*  For example, at the Teahouse link above, you can practically read the whole comic for free.  At the completion of every chapter, lots of people buy the comic to get extra content, but the free content outweighs the extra (however, I would say that the extra tends to be more deliciously naughty than the free, so if you look at it that way... plus, the fact that you have an actual book in your hands and you're supporting the artists whose stuff you love -- it equals out).  The Con reflects the gift economy concept, too.  During an auction where boys literally took off their costumes garment by garment for the audience, individuals and groups bidding against each other could ultimately join forces, reducing the cost per person, and share their "prize."

For me the Con was inspiring, since my next novel will be geared toward this market.  It was great to see all these people interconnected with no shame, living their passions, thriving.  Although there's an obvious element of escapism to much of the stories and art, that element falls away slightly if you're a producer in today's rough economy.  So, it was good to feel that I don't have to fall back on safe monotony and should push forward with my aspirations.

Some pics.  I'm Avan Hardins from Valkyria Chronicles II (a costume I made from scratch), and Michael is Noba from Bleach:

Created a cosplay.com account (a couple more pics there).

I might use the costume again for Sakura-Con (here in Seattle) in April 2012. I'll have longer hair by then. xD

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*See Donovan, Hope, "Gift Versus Capitalist Economies: Exchanging Anime and Manga in the U.S." in Boys’ Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre, eds. Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry and Dru Pagliassotti, 11-22. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010.