This comic is a love letter to doujinshi. It summarises some of my early research while using the the format and style of doujinshi to give a material explanation of what doujinshi actually is. So, factually, this is a doujinshi about doujinshi! This book is the first instalment of a series of comics about manga culture, informed by my PhD research.
Let's keep the conversation going: doujinshi are cheap, small and highly mobile, so, pass this comic on to someone else and show them this fascinating aspect of Japanese creative culture.

Below is an excerpt. Read the full comic here.

Contextual Information
As many as two thirds of the publications sold at Comiket are "parody works", meaning they use the intellectual property of pre-existing works, such as manga, anime, games, novels, et cetera. We might call these fan-works. That these derivative works can command such cultural capital is a situation unique to Japan. Outside of Japan, the sale and distribution of such work would be considered illegal, while inside Japan this activity is protected by a law: Shinkokuzai. This means that without complaint from the rights owner, it is considered that no crime has been committed. As manga artists often retain the rights to their work (instead of selling them to a publisher) it is very uncommon for doujinshi creators to ever be asked to cease and desist. Indeed, most manga artists learned their craft through the production of doujinshi, and therefore recognise the need for parody works.