Instagram ads strike again. This time they blessed my life with the fantasy BL webcomic, The Words in Your Snare (Hyanghyeon Text) by Chepali & Aeju. Lee Jooin, a reclusive café owner with a secret ability catches the eye of the infamous gang member, Mookya. Through circumstances beyond his control, Jooin finds him himself dragged into Mookya’s dangerous world, dredging up secrets from both their pasts that threaten to tear them apart.
Lezhin did it again, sucking me right back into webcomic hell and I have to give it to their marketing team—if it weren’t for their aggressive ad campaign on Instagram, I may have never discovered this series in the first place. Painter of the Night is an ongoing Korean historical BL webcomic series by Byeonduck. The entire series is being released in English every Friday over on Lezhin.
I have been burned by ongoing series before, so it really takes A LOT for me to invest my time in an incomplete series, especially one on Lezhin—but, I am a sucker for gorgeous artwork and anything historical, so I fell headfirst into Painter of the Night and there’s no going back!
Like many of you, I dived head first into Mystic Messenger hell back in 2016—between the quirky characters and real time chatrooms—the game’s unique gameplay style quickly stole the hearts (and sleep) of everyone in the otome community. And even now four years later, Mystic Messenger is still going strong, spawning new events and stories—but, did you know that Cheritz’s wildly popular mobile game had an official webtoon?! Invitation of the Mystic Message is the official webtoon adaptation of the dating sim, Written by GIMAN with Art by meriG.
Synopsis
Hana is usually a glass-half-full sort of person, but lately, nothing seems to be going her way. After yet another fruitless day of job hunting, she finds herself pouring out all her frustrations to a stranger in the street. The kind stranger disappears before they get a chance to exchange names or numbers, however, leaving behind a phone with nothing but a single messenger app. “Can you read this message…?” As soon as Hana logs on, username “Unknown” tells her they know the person she is looking for. Although a little suspicious, she is intrigued. Who was the stranger that lent her a shoulder to cry on? Who is this “Unknown” she is chatting with? To find the answers to her questions, she must first accept a mysterious invitation. Time to get reacquainted with Jumin, 707, Zen, Yoosung, Jaehee and the rest of Mystic Messenger!
Currently the Prologue and the first 2 chapters are available for free over on Tappytoon with the next three chapters going live on 7/11/2020! And what self respecting otome fan would I be if I didn’t immediately read the available chapters?! This won’t be an official review, since there are only 3 chapters available right now, but I did want to share my thoughts on the comic.
When I was faced with the prospect of weeks/months stuck inside my one bedroom apartment, I began stockpiling things to keep me entertained while I waited out the pandemic raging outside. Among my early purchases were several volumes of manga, some games, and print copies of Alice Oseman’s ongoing webcomic series, Heartstopper. I’d been seeing snippets of this series on Tumblr for ages, but I wasn’t quite ready to commit to another ongoing (see: D.N. Angel is the Reason I have Commitment Issues with Ongoing Series). But, with an overabundance of free time on my hand, I figured now was as good a time as any to give the series a try, so I plunked down and ordered not one, but, all three of the available print volumes from Amazon. The series is also available online over on Tapas, but I think there is just something special about holding a physical book in your hands… and I will readily admit that Heartstopper was more than worth the investment!
Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. An LGBTQ+ graphic novel about life, love, and everything that happens in between – for fans of The Art of Being Normal, Holly Bourne and Love, Simon.
Charlie and Nick are at the same school, but they’ve never met … until one day when they’re made to sit together. They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance.
But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realized.
Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie’s lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.
HoverGirls is a webcomic series by artist Geneva B. (GDBee) that combines the kickass crime fighting of superhero comics with the girl power of the Japanese magical girl genre and a heaping handful of #BlackGirlMagic! HoverGirlsfollows cousins Jalissa and Kim Vasquez as they navigate the ups and downs of their life in the bustling city of Los Aguaceros. By day they’re baristas in at Big Chain Coffee slinging coffee and trying to make ends meet on a minimum wage salary. But, by night the duo masquerades as the monster-fighting duo the Hover Girls! After a freak storm, mysterious fish monsters started wreaking havoc on the city and it’s up to Jalissa and Kim to take them down…
The series just entered it’s second arc and you can read it for free over on Webtoons (modified for mobile reading) or directly from the HoverGirls site in a standard comic format. I also included a short interview with the creator of HoverGirls, Geneva B. at the end of the review!
With the prospect of a three day weekend ahead of me, I decided to pick up a new BL webcomic and it was so good, I just had to share my thoughts! I originally planned on reading a few chapters and then moving on to something else, but wound up spending six hours binging the entire series in one sitting. So what pray tell is the name of this series that so captivated me? It’s the Korean webcomic series, BJ Alex by Mingwa. First off, BJ doesn’t stand for ‘blow job’, but rather BJ is short for Broadcast Jockey, which is a term used in Korea to describe online streamers, BJs can stream a lot of content from games to music to live talk shows, but since this a boys love series BJ Alex focuses a streamer that specializes in adult content.
Every night at 10PM, college student Dong-Gyun locks himself up in his room, grabs a box of tissues, and tunes into his favorite adult live cam show hosted by BJ Alex. Like many others, Dong-Gyun is captivated by the handsome and charismatic BJ, who night after night delights his fans with tales of his sexual exploits or better yet his perfectly ripped body… For Dong-Gyun and many others, Alex is just a face on a screen, but when Dong-Gyun has a chance encounter with a sexy senior at a school networking event it seems Alex may not as out of reach as he once thought… What’s a boy to do when the object of his affection is close enough to touch?
The series is complete with 83 chapters and can be read over on Lezhin, like most series on the site, the first chapter is free but you’ll need coins to read the rest (3 coins per chapter). But, if you’re still on the fence about the series, check out my thoughts below!
Earlier this month Crunchyroll announced that they’d be partnering up with digital comic publisher Webtoon to develop exclusive animated content based on Webtoon’s extensive collection of webcomics. This is huge! There are a tone of webcomic producers out there, but Webtoon offers a wide range of titles from a ton of different genres from romance to action to horror, there is sure to be a comic there that will appeal to anyone. Some of my favorite webcomics are available through the Webtoon app and the partnership with Crunchyroll means that I might get the chance to see the characters and stories I loved in comic form brought to life on the screen!!
I mean there are so many to choose from and with such a huge large selection of titles to choose from. So far Crunchyroll and Webtoon have been hush hush about which titles will be getting the animated treatment. So this got me thinking, about which Webtoon comics I’d want to see animated. With so many great series I compiled a list of the 10 Webtoon I’d love to see get an animated series through the Crunchyroll/Webtoon partnership!!
It’s Melanin Monday and I can’t think of a better way to kick off the week then with a little Black Girl MAGIC! I am a huge fan of indie webcomics and I’m always on the lookout for new ones to dive into, whether they be LGBT friendly romances, sci-fi epics, or slice-of-life, I read them all. But what I love most about webcomics, is how diverse they are, not just in the types of stories they tell, but in the types of characters they feature. I’ve always noticed that indie works tend to feature more characters of color in prominent roles, and while mainstream media isn’t far behind in the diversity department there is just something organic about indie works. Mostly because the authors themselves are people of color, so there is an added level of relatability that only comes from someone telling their own story. While I admit to reading a lot of BL themed webcomics (like A LOT), I also gravitate towards comics that feature strong female characters and of course women of color.
We’re living in a post #BlackGirlMagic world and it is important to celebrate media that doesn’t just include women of color for the sake of “diversity”, but instead creates narratives that allow them to thrive! So I came up with a list of webcomics I found that are full of positive Black Girl energy!
TGIF!! This has been a long time coming, but I’m finally bringing back Fangirl Friday!! I’ve been slowly getting back into my blogging stride and I’m going to be honest, these are my favorite posts to write since I’m really just fangirling about random stuff I’ve come across be they movies, webcomics, anime, books, dramas… I even wrote one about Barack Obama. So, this is one segment I’m excited to bring back from the dead! Since this is the first post in a while, I wanted to make this one really special, so I decided to go with something that combines two of my loves: Boys Love and Webcomics… Don’t believe me? See for yourself, most of my previous Fangirl Moment posts are either BL related, Webcomics, or BL Webcomics… I have my vices and BL is at the top of the list most days.
So, for this week’s post I wanted to cover MunZi’s ongoing BL webcomic Wistful Summer. It’s a drama filled comic about a guy who spent most of his life crushing on his best friend, but just when he starts to get over his crush a handsome stranger appears. Things only get more complicated when the best friend divorces his wife and starts hinting that maybe he’s been harboring some unrequited feelings of his own… O_O
First. First lie, first kiss, first love. When Henry and Sam first met that summer long ago, Henry learned the power of first love. But…time goes on, people part, summer ends and so too did their blink of a relationship. All but a distant memory now, when Henry and Sam gradually become close again, Henry finds himself feeling those fiery emotions for the first time since that wistful summer.
The comic was first published online in 2018 by Kakao, a Korean webcomic site, but you can read the comic in English over on Tapas. This is a paid release, but you can read the first couple of chapters for free. In order to read the non-free chapters you’ll need to use Ink, which is just Tapas’s internal currency. Tapas also has weekly free episode rotations, so if you plan accordingly, you can read the whole thing for free. I am not that patient, so I broke down and bought enough Ink to binge the available chapters… and it was worth every damn penny!
Hey Hey Heroes, Travelers, and Wandering NPCs, last year comic artist Aero Zero reached out to me about their poly positive fantasy bara comic, MEN+MONSTERS and I absolutely loved the gorgeous, vibrant art and unique premise. Well, Aero Zero hit me up again about another one of their Bara comics, Knights of Alanoc, a prequel to their action-adventure bara comic ACE OF BEASTS. I really enjoyed my first excursion into the MEN+MONSTERS/ACE OF BEASTS world, and I was excited to get my hand on this delightful standalone.
KNIGHTS OF ALANOC Volume 1 by Aero Zero
Title: KNIGHTS OF ALANOC Volume 1 Author / Artist: Aero Zero Publisher: MEN PLUS MONSTERS Genre: Bara / Fantasy / Mature / Graphic Novel Released: 2018 (online), JAN 2019 (print) Length: 60 pages
Summary:A ruthless lieutenant gives up on pursuing love… until a swordsman from a faraway land enters his life! Slow-burn romance SFW prequel to ACE OF BEASTS, with a NSFW epilogue.
Anyone that is familiar with Aero Zero’s works will recognize both Osric and Xerxes as main characters in their other long running series, ACE OF BEASTS. While this is a prequel series, you don’t need to have read BEASTS to understand what’s going on in KNIGHTS. However, this comic does provide some neat background on Osric and Xerxes and the origins of their relationship.
KNIGHTS OF ALANOC follows the exploits of Osric, a jaded lieutenant fresh off a recent break-up and Xerxes, a wandering swordsman who wants to train to become a knight. Though the pair are initially at odds, they soon strike up a friendship that quickly turns romantic. A slow-burn romance between two burly knights, unfolds against a beautiful fantasy backdrop. While this is a much more laid back Bara offering, the slow-burn romance and expressive characters make for a rather enjoyable read.
