Comiket

Comic Market
Elaborately dressed cosplayers at Comiket 69, circa December 2005
Status	Active
Venue	Tokyo Big Sight
Location(s)	Ariake, Tokyo
Country	Japan
Inaugurated	December 21, 1975
Attendance	590,000 in 2013 (summer)
Activity	Marketplace, industry floor, cosplay
Website
www.comiket.co.jp/index_e.html

Comiket (コミケット, Komiketto^?), otherwise known as the Comic Market (コミックマーケット, Komikku Māketto^?), is the world's largest dōjinshi fair, held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan. 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, and in certain cases, more than 100 times. The continuing operation of Comiket is the responsibility of the Comic Market Preparatory Committee (ComiketPC).

Comiket was founded in 1975 by Yoshihiro Yonezawa and a circle of friends, including Teruo Harada and Jun Aniwa, while they were studying at Meiji University. They wished to study manga and explore its potential, as commercial offerings were unchallenging and mainstream, following the closure of COM. Comiket was also founded as a freer form of the SF Taikai convention.

Comic Market is held twice a year; once in August, and once in December. These are typically referred to as NatsuComi (夏コミ, Natsukomi^?) and FuyuComi (冬コミ, Fuyukomi^?) (contractions of Summer and Winter Comiket) respectively. NatsuComi is three days long, and usually is held during the weekend around August 15. FuyuComi 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 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., though the company booths run all the way until 5 p.m. On the last day of the convention, the company booths and Cosplay Square close an hour earlier, at 4 p.m. and 3 p.m. 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 10 a.m. 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 10:30 a.m.