It’s been a rough year for anime and comic conventions, but the biggest manga convention in Japan (perhaps even on Earth) still plans to celebrate its 45 years with a special Comic Market 45th Anniversary Book. The book will come out at the end of December.
Starting from a small event (only 700 people attended!) in 1975, Comiket has grown into an absolutely massive biannual spectacle. Naturally, Comiket’s anniversary book will also be gigantic, with 205 groups of creators involved. The book will be 236 pages long.
What’s Inside?
In addition to illustrations by dozens of people, there will also be some special articles. Comiket Graffiti will show the history of Comiket through photographs. Comic Market Chronologywill provide a chronological table of the history of the event on its 45th anniversary.
The book will also include a special edition of Comiket’s Sanbiki Ga Kiru!, or Three For The Kill!. Unlike the Edo-era jidaigeki drama series of the same name, this version features an interview with the preparatory committee. The interview feature is also serialized in Comiket’s catalog booklet.
Because cosplay is a huge part of any convention, cosplayers Moe Iori, Tatsumi Inui, Enako, Rosiel Kasho, Ayaki Miyamoto, and Liyuu will also participate in the book.
Gosho Aoyama (Detective Conan), Chica Umino (Honey and Clover), and Mitsurou Kubo (Yuri! On Ice) will provide illustration essays.
The book will contain too many illustrators and manga artists to name them all. But they will include Nobuhiro Watsuki (Rurouni Kenshin), Koge-Donbo (Di Gi Charat), Peach-Pit (Rozen Maiden), Ume Aoki (Hidamari Sketch), and many others.
Comiket History and Culture
Comiket’s first convention was on 21 December 1975. Otaku-themed anime series ranging from Lucky Star to Genshiken to Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid have poked fun at the event. It has also inspired the anime series Comic Party.
Comiket 98 was canceled because of COVID-19. (It was already looking like it would be different because of the Tokyo Olympics.) Comiket 99, scheduled for December, was postponed to 2021. The convention created an online event called Air Comiket so Comiket fans would have something this year.
The book will come out on 28 December 2020. The websites for Animate, Toranoana, and Melon Books have already started accepting reservations from today, 1 December.