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stifledlaughterao3 · 8 months

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Genuinely Something Else: Comiket & comic-related events reflection

I recently attended Comiket 102 in August 2023, and had tons of thoughts on it. I've been attending comic-related cons for years - indie cons, zinefests, anime cons, you name it. I'm a huge fan of doujinshi, specifically fandom doujinshi (mostly shippy stuff, although I love a good platonic / gen focused doujin!), so my main goals at Comiket were to find those, as well as find small, personal works by amateur creators that were more autobiographical in style. Since I have Japanese language skills, I figured this would not be overly difficult to do.

Because of how much I love these genres of work, I've gone to some big conventions, including the Angoulême International Comics Festival ('Angoulême' for short) and Otakon in DC.

Comiket was genuinely something else.

What you 'do' at these comic events

At Comiket, which does stand for Comic Market, it is definitely a place where you go to purchase items in a 'market' setting - there isn't any aspect of socializing, and as far as I can tell, if there were events, they were in the minority and mostly seemed to be held in the South Hall where the vendors were. I also feel that you can get a lot more chatty at American cons, but that may be due to the general cultural differences between Japan and America. Even though I was a foreigner, I still didn't observe many people chatting and sticking around a specific booth the way I have observed in other countries. It was also so crowded and busy that if you spent too much time at a booth, it was difficult for the artist to help anyone else out as there was literally not enough room to stand next to you as you browsed to be helped.

At most American fandom-related cons, the same artists are there throughout the con (2-4 days. usually). At Comiket 102 it was held Saturday and Sunday, and there was a complete overhaul from day 1 to day 2 of who was selling their work. I am used to the purchasing technique where you see something you may want to buy, do a loop of the artist's alley to see if something else grabs your attention/money more, and if you decide to go for that first item, you loop back and purchase it. At Comiket this is ill advised as the conference center is enormous and doing so is exhausting, especially if you were to do this going from the East Hall to the West Hall. If you see something you like, you either purchase it immediately, or assume you will never see it again.

The scale of Comiket was just overwhelming. At Angoulême, held in Angoulême, France, the entire small town is turned into a festival for comics, averaging 200,000 people (pre-COVID). Comiket has ranged in the numbers but it was estimated to have more than this at Comiket 102 (the one I attended). At Angoulême it was far more spread out across four to five venues, so I did not feel the same sense of crowding I felt at Comiket, even though the conference halls were large. I could chat away with vendors at Angoulême easily and didn't feel like I was stopping them from getting sales as there was plenty of room for a chatter and a browser at the table. At Angoulême, the entire town became the festival but you could still slip away for a breather. (I found, much like in the rest of France, I could easily hang out in a semi-abandoned cathedral for a while as I pored over my purchases.)

(The shops participating in the comics festival in Angoulême, as it took over the whole town (2016))

At the average anime/fandom/gaming cons I go to, which range from 10,000-40,000 attendees, the scale is just significantly smaller than the aforementioned larger events, and the artists (usually) attend both days, meaning you can get to know an artist if you stick around enough and they want to connect and chat. I didn't feel like that was as permissible at Comiket, as you were blocking sales since they were only there for that one day, and had a lot less time to sell their stock. (Not that it stopped some booths from selling out by noon!)

Day 1 of Comiket 102 I spent most of my time in the 'fandom' areas of the East hall, and noticed that, unlike American and European artist alleys, the Comiket artist tables generally stuck to one fandom, or perhaps 2-3 if they were really out there. In American or European artist alleys, you could see up to a dozen or so different fandoms based on what the artist felt like selling, mixed in with original works. In some cons, such as Otakon in Washington, DC, you are required to have a certain percentage of original works (see the 50/50 rule), which would not fly at Comiket, as fandom ("parody") and original works are on separate days. This rule with Otakon is, to my best guess, due to IP and copyright law fear, where fanart definitely walks a thin line and often just gets away with being sold at these sort of conventions due to the low chance of Nintendo actually suing a con vendor who made $40 off of Zelda themed keychains, although I have heard the horror stories from Western copyright holders such as Disney and Paramount. There are many commentaries on 'parody' works in Japan and how they are tacitly allowed by (most) IP holders, which creates a wholly different creator & IP holder environment.

The lack of fandom diversity per table at Comiket's 'parody' section is likely due to how the tables are grouped by genre- for example, all of the Genshin Impact tables were in a specific area, all of the Bocchi the Rock tables were together, etc. There were a few outliers here and there in regards to this (erotic doujinshi were sometimes sold with various characters, but even they stuck to the 'genre' where they were at - video game, Vtuber, anime, etc).

Comiket having the day 2 books that were travelogs, how-to booklets (I saw one explaining how to use Excel with a cute anime girl, for example), food and photo based zines, etc, reminded me a lot more of a casual zine fest in America. These were truly made out of a deep and narrow interest in a particular topic; I bought a zine that was photos of signposts near a rural train station in Hokkaido, and then a small travelog of this person's experience in that small town, including the food he ate. He had several others in this series.

Many of the zines/booklets/doujinshi I saw at the second day of Comiket were as if people printed out their blog posts and formatted them and then printed them, that sort of travelog/diary feeling. There were also of course many erotic doujinshi and fandom based doujinshi both days, although the first day had more fandoms I was interested in. The range of art quality and styles was refreshing to see - it really felt like anyone could apply and give it a shot to be at Comiket (although I heard the 'circle' (artist/group) applications are bureaucratically harrowing, so there's that barrier to entry.)

I could best compare Day 2 of the East Hall of Comiket to SPX (Small Press Expo) in Bethesda, MD, which is a small comics event held for 2 days in the DC area. It usually has 3,000 or so people. I have both been an attendee and tabled at it, and of all the events I have been to, SPX is the one to make the most niche, bizarre works, and then chat with people about them (or anything else, really). They make the table aisles far enough away that you can both stand at a table with someone moving through the aisle behind you, and the very connected “we’re all weird here” sort of mentality makes conversation flow. I’ve had extended talks with people when I tabled for a small indie comics press who just noticed something I was wearing or recognized one of our artists or authors. Even though they didn't always purchase something, I got a lot out of the interaction. Even though the social aspects of SPX still didn’t quite apply over to Comiket Day 2, the “make what you love, you beloved weirdo” feeling was persistent as I went up and down the aisles of the food/travelog/explanation doujinshi.

While obviously people in the other sections of Comiket were making what they loved too, there was something different about someone selling a doujinshi made about their travelog in Berlin or a book on the sake that had come out in the Chiba area and their takes on it as a sake master. I was able to chat with the artists for the aforementioned works, no doubt due to the nicheness of their products their booths were not overflowing with people. My gain, I suppose!

(One of the pass-through areas to get between halls.)

Cosplay

Cosplay also differed at Comiket from my experience at similar American events, because you had to sign up beforehand to cosplay and change at the center (you cannot show up in cosplay), and you cannot be on the merch hall floors in cosplay - you can only be in cosplay at the specifically structured pavilion. (Exception - vendors could cosplay in the main halls.). It meant a lot less spontaneous cosplay connections of 'I love your cosplay!' 'Thank you! [Insert follow up comment if the person felt up for that]", etc.

I've had many conversations with con-goers at Western anime/fandom/gaming cons based on their cosplay but given that at Comiket it was usually vendors I say in cosplay (who, as I mentioned before, I didn't feel I should/could chat with), I ended up only briefly complimenting the cosplays I liked before purchasing my item or moving along.

It should also be noted that the ‘cosplay photos’ doujinshi section of Comiket is huge, and obviously the vendors selling photos of themselves in cosplay often were in cosplay behind the table. I also suspect that due to the cosplay books being sold on Day 2, the cosplay participants in the cosplay hall dropped significantly in number on that day. I don’t have the numbers to back that up, however.

(Side note: I was also pleasantly surprised to see the sort of ‘soft gravure’ doujinshi in the cosplay section. One book I regret not getting was of a thirty-forty-ish year old woman in soft sweaters drinking a hot beverage while walking or sitting around a cozy fall urban park setting. I cannot imagine I would find that even at the most niche of American zine events I’ve been to.)

Closing thoughts

I wish I knew someone that knows Comiket well that would be willing to answer some questions I have, as there were many genres and conventions of books I didn't understand. When I talked to the vendors at Comiket, my Japanese just wasn't nuanced enough to get into the subculture and sociological aspects of my questions. I also didn't want to bother the vendors too much, as I didn't want to block them from possible other purchases by taking up table space. I am definitely making do with limited information, even with my research prior to the event.

Overall, to call Comiket a "con" would be inaccurate- it is primarily for purchasing items, where as a 'con'/'convention' feels more like a gathering of people to engage, whether it indeed be at the artist alley, at panels, at cosplay meetups, and the spontaneous interactions in the halls. I feel that, at Comiket, it's difficult for the attendees to get to know each other and make connections but I absolutely can see where vendors would gain familiarity and friendships with other sellers, especially if they attend year after year. Also, this is all with the huge caveat- I am a foreigner with middling Japanese proficiency! It is far more likely that I missed out on this spontaneous attendee connection due to this very large elephant in the room that was my language proficiency. I spoke to several vendors in areas where it was slower and made some connections but not nearly the depth I did when I was in America or France.

I would love to attend Comiket again (perhaps the winter one, as waiting in line for 3 hours in the blazing sun was an experience in Suffering (™).) Next time I'll be a little more prepared and do my research on which vendors will be where so I can hit up their booths first and then leisurely browse after. And hey, maybe my Japanese will be better then, and I'll be able to understand a little more of what the hell was going on!

#comiket #comiket 102 #doujinshi #fandom

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