Known as the Comic Market ( Komikku Māketto?), is the world's largest handmade comic book fair, held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan.

Comiket was founded in 1975 by Yoshihiro Yonezawa and a circle of friends including Teruo Harada and Jun Aniwa, while they were studying at university.The first Comiket was held on December 21, 1975, with only about 32 participating circles and an estimated 600 attendees.

Attendance has since swelled to over a half million people. It is a grassroots, DIY effort for selling dōjinshi, self-published Japanese works. As items sold in Comiket are considered very rare (because dōjinshi are seldom reprinted), some items sold at Comiket can be found in shops or on the Internet at prices up to 10 times the item's original price.

The continuing operation of Comiket is the responsibility of the Comic Market Preparatory Committee (ComiketPC).

Time and Date
Comic Market is held twice a year; once in August, and once in December. These are referred to typically as Summer Comiket and Winter Comiket respectively. Summer Comiket is three days long, and usually is held during the weekend around August 15. Winter Comiket is two to three days long, and usually is held between December 28 and 31.

The current convention location is the Tokyo Big Sight convention center near Ariake, in Odaiba, Kōtō, Tokyo. The major part of the convention runs from 10AM to 4PM, though the company booths run all the way until 5PM. On the last day of the convention, the company booths and Cosplay Square close an hour earlier, at 4PM and 3PM respectively.

Due to the popularity of the event, the official Comic Market website advises first-time attendees to arrive in the afternoon to avoid having to wait in line. Those arriving at 10AM can expect to wait in line for about an hour before being able to enter.

Attendees who arrive on the first train, can expect to wait about five hours before entering at roughly 10 or 10:30AM. The most recent Comiket, Comiket 77, was held from December 29 to 31, 2009. The next Comiket, Comiket 78, will be held on August 13 to 15, 2010.

Size
Approximately 35,000 sellers, known as circles, participated in Comiket as of 2001. An estimated 510,000 attendees converge in the course of three days, but this number continues to increase. With the addition of police, guards, staff, volunteers, there are over half a million people.

Because of the extreme number of people gathering in a single place, mobile phone companies set up temporary antennas that are usually employed when stationary antennas are out of service.

Area hotels, trains, and bus services also make special arrangements to accommodate the large crowds. Comiket 76 from August 14–16, 2009 attracted an estimated 560,000 attendees.

footballgirl.com

The views and opinions expressed in this article and from external websites and/or links are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of footballgirl or www.footballgirl.com

back up top