Last weekend marked my very first foray to Comic Market (a.k.a. "Comiket"), the seventy-first (!) biannual convention for Japan's legions of amateur comic artists. For those unfamiliar with the scene, it's three days of what essentially amounts to copyright amnesty, allowing tens of thousands of amateurs (and the occasional moonlighting pro) to sell illustrated fan-fiction to massive crowds of manga-hungry fans. (In previous years, more than a quarter million of them.) It's a mob scene of aggressive pop-cultural appreciation, and here's this year's hot picks:
1) Yamato Tribute Illustration Book (Vols. 1-3)

An ultra-slick (for a Comiket release, anyway) full-color three voulme set of unofficial Yamato art ranging from dramatic renderings of space battles to Mori Yuki in bondage. Featuring the handiwork of a wide array of artists both part-time and pro, including mecha designer Yutaka Izubuchi. Glossy, drool-inducing Space Cruiser eye-candy.
2) Mugen no Hiraiasu ("The Unlimted Hirai-ath")

I purchased this crudely-drawn amateur comic in the hopes of seeing Kelloggs characters "get it on" with one another, but the reality was even sweeter: page after page of Tony the Tiger beating the shit out of various anime characters with a nail-studded baseball bat. "There are only two ways to truly understand Tony's heart," explains the author in the preface. "By subsisting on nothing but Frosted Flakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, or by drawing a manga about him."
3) The Ghost Zock

A dojinshi drawn by a random guy, in the style of Matsumoto Reiji, as a parody of the WWII manga classic The Cockpit, featuring an obscure amphibious mecha from the first Mobile Suit Gundam series. (Got all that?) "Recommended for Children Thirty-Five and Up."
4) Hellbon: Volume 2

Hell...baby? A totally unofficial series of Hellboy side-stories drawn by a fanatical female fan in a super-deformed style. Volume One apparently sold out within minutes of the show opening.
5) Seisenshi TALIBAN ("Holy Warrior: Taliban")

The star: a doll made from Osama Bin Laden's head glued to a Space Sheriff Gaban figure. (Gaban... Taliban... Get it?) The plot: Cheered on by Adolf Hitler and (in an omen of things to come?) Mecha Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden (a.k.a. "Holy Warrior Taliban") fist-fights George Bush and former Prime Minister Koizumi, just like in real life.
Stay tuned fer freaky pix of cosplayin' chicks... And the men who love them.