Doujinshi are the fan-created comic-books which have become a huge sub-culture here in Japan. The word literally means “same-person-magazine” and grew out of the tradition of like-minded writers forming literary circles and publishing their short stories and poetry in the form of small-run magazines that they each contributed to financially. The history of comic doujinshi circles began in 1953 when manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori formed a group called the East Japan Manga Research Club, with another landmark coming in 1967 with the publication of Tezuka Osamu’s COM, a magazine that invited readers to send in their own manga to be published. By the 1970s, university artist circles were commonplace, and early doujinshi paying tribute to the anime series of the era flourished; attendance at the nascent Comic Market doujinshi convention would grow 600 in 1975 to more than 500,000 today. Over the years, the underground comic world has served as an incubator for talented manga artists who want to go pro, and a huge number of big names started out drawing doujinshi, including CLAMP, Rumiko Takahashi and Lupin III creator Monkey Punch. This creative “DIY” esthetic extends beyond comic books, and there are many kinds of self-created works sold as doujin, including novels, BGM compositions and fan-produced computer games.
