JAPANESE COMIC EVENTS AKA ~ COMIKETS

A japanese comic convention or fair by today standards is an event in which manga authors and illustrators present and sell their works to the public.

The first comic convention was the Comic Market 01 or Comiket (コミケット) and it was held at a small theatre called Nissho Hall (ニッショーホール) in Minato prefecture on 21th December of 1975, in which only 700 people assisted and 32 publishing circles were signed in.

Nissho Hall (ニッショーホール). Image source: Wikipedia.

Right next year in 1976, the event was scheduled for April, July and December, and even though the attendance was not huge, the event doubled assistance in only one year, which was extremely positive.
This magnificent event was then held three times every year, up until the mid 80’s in which they decided to maximize assistance by making it biannual, always in Summer (August) and Winter (December), days for the event may vary, usually from 9th to 16th Aug, and 26th to 31th Dec, and always lasts for three days.

WHERE IS COMIKET HELD?

Nowadays Comiket convention is the largest of it’s kind in the world, it has more than 700.000 visitors from Japan and around the world, and more than 35.000 publishing circles. In the past two decades due to the audience growth, the event moved to Tokyo Big Sight which is a largest International Exhibition Center in Japan.

Since the recent Coronavirus health crisis, in 2020 both events were cancelled for the first time in its history and moved to the japanese Golden Week in May 2021.

By the time we are writing this (Dic 2020), we truly wish that by May 2021 everything is again as it was and these wonderful events and others can come to fruition once again.

Tokyo Big Sight (東京ビッグサイト) front entrance. Built in 1996. Image source: Wikipedia.

Through the years, many more conventions like Comitia, Sunshine Creation or COMIC1 were created, making it easier for newer illustrators to present their works.

What do they sell?

What you can find inside a comic market are the very authors that show and sell their works to everybody, most of all doujins, then light novels and magazines. You can also buy some special merchandise which sometimes can only be found in events like these, Items such as illustrated bags (to carry purchased goods), tapestries, posters and some other nice stuff.

I will introduce briefly what each of the main products are:

Doujinshi

Doujinshi (同人誌) are thin books (usually around 20-40 pages), similar to the american comic, but in B5 size, and refers to independant or self published works which many times diverge from the original story. Most of the time are small press releases, that’s why many collectors run at the conventions opening to grab their limited copies. Even though doujinshis are usually done by amateur artists, you will find famous illustrators mixed with them. You can imagine that since it’s beginnings, some illustrators started as amateurs, and through the years they became more and more famous. Typical examples of this are Crimson and Asanagi.

One Hurricane by Kiyosumi Hurricane (清炭ハリケーン).

Novel or light novel

Novel or light novel (ライトノベル) are small books (A6) which contain mostly text and some manga style illustrations. These novels are usually targeted to young adults or teenagers and are very popular in Japan, usually 200 pages long.

Dangel by Aizose Ai (逢瀬藍)

Magazines

Magazines (雑誌) are thick books that contain around different stories that will later be published as doujinshi. Each month a magazine is published and continues the story for each doujinshi that contains in the past month. Usually contains from 20 to 30 different
separate stories, that is why magazines are usually 400 to 600 pages long, usually in B5 size.

Comic X Eros 47

You can see here the different sizes to compare (i always like to see different examples when looking at photos so i can wrap my head around closer to the real thing)

Curiosities

Since the event is becoming bigger and bigger every year, the organizers created separate locations inside the building to put famous circles (best paying ones) and less known ones in best selling positions.
Below is a map of one wing of the building for the event Comiket 73, some of years ago:

Comiket Floor 2 disposition (コミケ７３). Image source: www.comiket.co.jp

Below is an actual image of the event. You can clearly differentiate each booth as represented before in the map.

A bird’s eye view of Comic Market Insides, East Side Halls 1-3. Image source: www.comiket.co.jp

Another thing you need to know is that depending on what your interests are, you must check which would be your best day to assist the event. If you are planning to go, i enormously recommend you checking this wonderful guide made by TheOtakuReport

In the website of each convention, you will find useful information, such as Catalogs to find which artists and circles will assist, as well as which day and booth they will be. Believe it or not, finding one artist among thousands can be painful, and the time is limited.

Usually about 30% of the works that are presented in this convention is adult material and it’s presented on the last day of the fair.

So as you could see, it is a great event that is being loved by more and more people as the time passes.

If there is anything you want to add or ask, please use the comment senction below!

Wish you a good day, and thanks for taking your time reading!