Batman Doujinshi

Though a fair bit behind, I’ll answer the question posted through the comment on this blog.
Libby asked me about the genre in Comiket I referred.

Question:
When it says "American comics", does that mean doujinshi about American comics, or just imported comics? Because if someone's selling Nightwing/Robin yaoi, I may have to learn Japanese and buy myself a ticket to next year's event.

Answer:
I can assure you that the books sold at Comiket are doujinshi regardless of the genre because the Comiket Committee prohibits circles (sellers) from selling any book that has ISBN on the cover.
Because the doujinshi market has become such a big event for us to count on the publishers to ignore our doujinshi in which their manga characters play a naughty role, we must show them that we are not self-publishing doujinshi for the purupose of gaining profits but to share our love for the original manga with other fans.
Sorry, I got off the track…
I found some information about Batman doujinshi on the web.
TZ SQUARE
BATMAN BEYOND. BIZ
ARKHAM ASYLUM
NEKOMISO+
I think you can mail them in English to ask about their doujinshi because they are so into American comics that they might be learning English to read them in their original language.

Wonder Festival, the biggest garage kit sales event in Japan

Wonder Festival, the largest figure-sales event in Japan in which nearly 1,400 dealers take part, took place on August 21st. It is significant in that all fan-made garage kits in there are given a one-day license by the copyright holders through the intermediation of Wonder Festival Executive Committee. You can participate in it as a dealer and sell your works without any anxiety of violating the copyright law. So, you can find a lot of figures based on manga, anime, and games there besides many original works.
It is fun to see the fan-made works even on the screen. You can view them in the following blog.

RedBrickRoad /ZERO

It seems that many cos-players attended it.

Overview of the 68th Comic Market

In my previous note about Comic Market, I inadvertently dropped some information I should write, like the number of total seller attendees.
Here is the official information about the 68th Comick Market in Japanese. Don’t get discouraged by the offhand website. They don’t need to promote their website. Comic Market, aka Comiket or Comike, needs no spectacular commercials because it is very famous among manga/anime fans in Japan already. The organizer, Comic Market Committee, have to turn down more than one third of the applicants for the seller booths due to too many applications.

I translated it skipping uninformative parts such as how to get to the venue for those who live outside Japan and not attending it. But I carefully translated the dos-and-don’ts part for it explains the characteristics of this gigantic event.

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Information on the 68th Comic Market for general (buyer) attendees

Place: Tokyo Big Sight

Date : August 12,13,14, 2005
Open 10:00, Close 16:00
You must wait in-line to enter the venue in the morning hours. First time visitors are recommended to come after lunch. Average waiting time is as follows.
Those who come

• by first train will enter at 10:00 - 10:30 (5 hours waiting)
• at 10:00 will enter at 11:00 - 11:30 (1 hour waiting)
• at 12:00 will enter at 12:00 (no waiting)

Notice:

• Don’t wait overnight around the venue.
• No vehicles. (There is no parking offered by the organizer)
• Admission free. But we recommend you to buy a copy of the catalogue beforehand and read well. Every time Comic Market is held, it has some notice and information to be modified; we publish the catalogue as the means of information for the attendees.
• We don’t give out any numbered tickets.
• No registration is required for the cos-play.
• For more information, refer to the Comic Market Catalogue.

Number of Circles (Sellers) : approximately 35,000

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Location of each genre; subgenre, examples or the specific authors are added right after the main genre for convenience. Some anime or manga titles such as Fullmetal Alchemist and The Prince of Tennis draw so many circles that they are classified as a genre.

First day

East Hall 1 - 3

• Anime (by Sunrise) : The Five Star Stories, Super Robots War
• Anime (others) : Voice actors, anime songs, critics on anime, anime from overseas, magical girls, for kids/Studio Ghibli, Slayers, hack(including games), Sailor Moon, Digimon, Pokemon
• FC* (boys) : Shonen Sunday, Shonen Magazine, Shonen Champion, Coro Coro Comic, Comic Bon Bon, Dengeki Comic Gao!, Shonen Ace, Tezuka Osamu, Takahashi Rumiko, Ishinomori Shotaro
• FC (Gan Gan) : Young Gan Gan, Comic Blade, Comic Zero Sum, Shibata Ami, Igarashi Mikio, Peach Maker, Saiyuki, Ragnarok
• Hagane no Renkinjutsushi(Fullmetal Alchemist)

East Hall 4 - 6

• Game (fighting games)
• Game (RPG)
• Square Enix (RPG)
• Gundam : all Gundam series, Gundam A, All Gundam games (except online games)
• FC (girls) : all shoujo magazines, horror manga magazines, CLAMP, Gakuen Alice
• FC (seinen) : Young King, Young Magazine, Young Animal, Young Sunday, Young Jump, Business Jump, Ultra Jump, Afternoon, Morning, Comic Birz, Comic Gum, Dengeki Daioh, Takada Yuuzou, Azuma Kiyohiko, Naitou Yasuhiro, Initial D, Ookiku Furikabutte

West Hall 1 - 2

• Game (non-electric) : board game, card game, table talk RPG, games played by mail, trading card game, Magic the Gathering, LEAFFIGHT

• Online Game : Massively multi-player online, games played by web, games played by e-mail

• Game (others) : critic on games, information on games, action, shooting, simulation, adventure, puzzle, quiz

• Game (dating simulation) : original boy's love (including books based on the game), original dating game (including books based on the game)

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Second day

East Hall 1 - 3

• FC (Shonen Jump and others)
• One Piece
• Naruto
• Historical : kabuki, Sangokushi (excluding games)
• Music (Western, Japanese) : Yaen, DA PUMP, w-inds, FLAME, Lead, GLAY, L'Arc-en-ciel, B'z,access. TMR, TMGE, HIPHOP, Kishidan, Gorillas

East Hall 4 - 6

• FC (ball-game manga in Shonen Jump)
• The Prince of Tennis
• Original works (literature, novels)
• FC (novels) : mystery, juvenile, Tolkien and others

West Hall 1 - 2

• SFX, Sci-Fi, fantasy : critic on SFX, information on SFX, American comics, Hayakawa SF Bunko, Sougen SF Bunko, Ultraman series, Masked Rider series, Sentai (Power Ranger) series
• Train, travel, mechanic military : motor bike, bus, car, motor sports, toys, garage kit, camera, radio
• Music (male idols)
• TV, movie, show business : TV drama, stage, female idol, female singer, comedian, Asian movie, RPS
• Sports : soccer, baseball, F1, sumo, gamble, horse race, pachinko, slot machine

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Third Day

East Hall 1 - 3

• Original works (for men) *
• Anime (for men)
• Leaf & Key ('s game)
• Gal Game
• TYPE-MOON ('s game)

East Hall 4 - 6

• Original works (for boys)
• Original works (for girls)
• Original works (for men)
• Anime (for men)
• Game (for men)

West Hall 1 - 2

• Original works (JUNE)*
• Gakuman (manga club at school)
• Critics and Information
• Doujin software
• Others

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FC : Fan Circle or Fan Club, but for the most part it is an individual artist.
for men : usually means it's for adults
JUNE : rather an old word for Boy's love

Brief note about the history of Comic Market and the trend

The 68th Comic Market will take place from August 12th to 14th this summer.
Needless to say, it is the pioneer first held in 1975 and the biggest doujinshi event that constantly attracts more than 150,000 people per day.
In the early years of its history, every doujinshi was the anthology made by a manga club at university. The word “doujin” means “fan group” or “club” in the first place and “shi” is for “magazine” or “book.”
In the early 1980s, female artists began to self-publish male/male manga doujinshi whose characters are borrowed from the manga or anime they love. Just around the same time, it got an underground trend for male artists who love manga and anime to draw cute young girls in their doujinshi.

Nowadays, existing manga/anime based doujinshi seem to surpass the original doujinshi.
No one would deny that Shonen-Jump-based doujinsh is the most attractive category in the Comic Market. It is the barometer of the manga trend among fanatic fans. The area for Shonen Jump category itself is divided by manga tiles.

Nuru Wota ga Kiru blog focused on how many fan circles (actually they are not a circle but an individual artist) will attend for each manga title in Shonen Jump.

The Prince of Tennis: 1,572
Naruto: 576
One Piece: 414
Gintama: 356
D.Gray-man: 294
Bleach: 253
Death Note: 222
Katei Kyoushi Reborn: 202
Eye Shield 21 : 164
Mr. Full Swing: 74
Hunter x Hunter: 40
Muhyo to Roji no Mahouritsu Tantei Jimusho : 6
Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: 1

＊Followings are the manga titles that have already come to an end in Shonen Jump

Yu-Gi-Oh!: 242
Hikaru no Go: 170
SLAM DUNK: 122
Whistle!: 116
Captain Tsubasa: 82
Houshin Engi: 61
Yu Yu Hakusho: 55
Shaman King: 42
Busou Renkin: 27
Waq Waq: 7

An encounter

Comiket Special 4, an irregular event of Comic Market (often abbreviated to Comiket or Comike), took place on March 21st.
I can imagine many otakus who were on their way home hanging around in the town of Akihabara.
A Japanese anime fan run into 12 fans from England in Akihabara.
He reported about the encounter in his blog that is one of the most popular blogs on Japanese pop culture.
To his (and my) surprise, they didn't know it was the Comiket's day; they happened to stay in Tokyo around that time. How lucky!