AltJapan: Comiketiquette

January 01, 2007

Comiketiquette

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.

Jan 1, 2007 5:25:34 PM

13 Comments

That's some stuff...ranging from the amazing to the mind blowing. I need those Yamato dojinshi, good thing they're all over Yahoo! Japan auctions (altho will your bringing attention to them suddenly cause a run on the market? Nooooo!). Izubuchi has a strong Yamato connection, having worked on mecha design for Yamato III (and likely other things Yamato before and after, I'm just ignorant), as well as providing some lovely image illos for the two 'This is Animation' Yamato books.

That Taliban dojin however..wow. Like an entire Twisted Toyfair theater epic production, complete with 'in style' metal hero logo. That looks *really* messed up. Naturally one might suggest working a deal to publish a translated version in Toyfair, I'm sure it fits their politics and won't offend at all :)

Posted by: Steve Harrison | January 02, 2007 at 06:50 AM

As crazy and pathetic as it sounds... You wouldn't be willing to take a couple photos/scans of the pages from "The Ghost Zock", would you?

Posted by: lalahsghost | January 02, 2007 at 02:29 PM

Yes, "The Ghost Zock" looks like a real winner.

Posted by: wildarmsheero | January 02, 2007 at 03:23 PM

By popular request, here's a few samples:

http://altjapan.typepad.com/photos/dojinshi_samples/

Bonus nerd points if you can identify the obscure mobile suit flying at the top of the lower left panel of The Ghost Zock (1).

Posted by: Matt Alt | January 03, 2007 at 07:57 AM

What, you mean the MSN-01 'psychomuu test base' Zaku from the MSV kit line?

That's obscure?

What is everyone looking at? what?

Posted by: Steve Harrison | January 03, 2007 at 08:16 AM

HA! I shoulda known that'd take about .00005 seconds for Steve to figure out.

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/sh/g-explanation/3dm96.html

(And yes, to 99.9% of humanity, this qualifies as "obscure.")

Posted by: Matt Alt | January 03, 2007 at 08:50 AM

I would pay you to scan the Tony the Tiger one. I would pay with my liver.

Posted by: Ubershep | January 03, 2007 at 09:11 AM

aw, shucks...I just...I can't help it. I can't remember my own phone number but crap info like that is instantly at hand. I am painfully otaku.

I shamefully find myself yearning for those Yamato dojinshi.

Ya know, Im really surprised Bandai hasn't had a 'MSV 2k' contest to move product. But there's been so much oddball MS churned out in the past few years, and the stupid thing would probably be SEED-centric anyway...

Or work with Namco and make Plamo Sanshiro a reality. Build a model kit, bring it to a Namco game center, have a staff pro enter the stats into a flashrom card and you can battle other people for only 500 Yen a game....

Posted by: Steve Harrison | January 03, 2007 at 11:41 AM