The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame

Dear Future Shipwreck readers,

I’m thrilled to announce a project very close to my heart: The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame.

Gengoroh Tagame is an extraordinary, prolific artist widely recognized as the master of bara manga. Tagame comes from a long line of sexual provocateurs like Jean Genet, Yukio Mishimia, and Tom of Finland. His comics and paintings are scintillating, drenched in masculinity, and rife with sadomasochistic fantasy.

Tagame’s comics are nearly impossible to find in English. I felt like that was a criminal oversight, and it turned out I wasn’t alone! After I made a video for Future Shipwreck about gay manga last year, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my friend Anne Ishii had privately translated some of Tagame’s comics for the collection of Chip Kidd. Chip is not only of the world’s greatest graphic designers, but also a connoisseur of obscure Japanese comics (see also: his awesome collection Bat-Manga: The Secret History of Batman in Japan) and a huge fan of Tagame’s work.

So the three of us got together, and now we’re working with Tagame and the fantastic art book publisher Picturebox to put out the first offical English-language collection of Tagame’s work! The volume will include 10 stories from Tagame’s prolific catalog as well as a brand new story commisioned by Chip, exclusive sketches, and an introduction by gay literary icon Edmund White.

Read the full scoop on The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame over at The Comics Reporter. I’m visiting Tagame in Japan this fall, so expect plenty of fun surprises! Stay tuned as we get closer to the book’s Spring 2013 release. I hope you’re as excited as I am! It’s time Tagame got his dues.

Comments 1 Comment
Author Graham Kolbeins
Date July 16, 2012
Categories Art, Comics, Personal, Queer

One Response to “The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame”

Patrick July 19, 2012 at 9:50 am #

Congrats Graham! This is so exciting!

Weird Butt Rash, 2013
by Mia Schwartz

Matt Furie

Always in tha Doghouse, 2013
Mix tape by Carlos Rosales-Silva
From his contribution to the online zine Image File Press

gaymanga:

Gengoroh Tagame (田亀源五郎) expounds on the virtues of using sci-fi, fantasy and costume drama to create fictional worlds ruled by S&M!

From an interview with Anne Ishii and Graham Kolbeins at the cat café Die Katze in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Read more from that interview in The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: The Master of Gay Erotic Manga from PictureBox!

Check out my new NSFW video with Gengoroh Tagame!

“La Cara Infinita,” 2013
by Dorian Wood (feat. Eddika Organista)
video directed by Dorian Wood

Read L.A. Record’s great interview with Dorian:

[…] “La Cara Infinita” was born from my high regard and respect for all women and also inspired by this piece that was heavily publicized and took place at MOCA. It was spearheaded by Marina Abramović and I was one of the participants. The performance piece involved approximately a hundred artists incorporating themselves into this dinner gala filled with trustees and celebrities. It was a five-thousand dollar plate type of event, at the cheapest. All of the performers were placed in specific areas, almost as endurance pieces. One of the performance formats involved the invitees sitting around a table and in the middle was a lazy susan, and there was a naked woman on it slowly moving as these people watched. The piece was interesting and powerful. Then they questioned Marina Abramović as to why there were only naked women and the director of MOCA blatantly expressed, even at the event itself, that male nudity makes businessmen very uncomfortable.

Wow.

I was so horrified to hear that. So why are you having naked women? Because it makes them comfortable? It just totally ties in to my utter disgust for the way women are treated in media and have been portrayed for centuries. So many things are still socially acceptable. Anything that hints at femininity is seen as a form of weakness and submission. The song came from this fury.