Last week, I wrote about Comiket, Japan’s largest doujinshi market.

Believe it or not, this week, a mere two weeks after Comiket, we’re having another similar event. It’s called Comitia, and unlike Comiket, this one is all about original books and items, no commercially available properties allowed!

This year is the 30th anniversary of the event, and this week’s is Comitia #109. It’s held in the same venue as Comiket, on a smaller scale, and of course there’s going to be a lot of the same people and even books, but it’s all original and that’s awesome! I actually like this more than I do Comiket.

I’m going to have very little time at Comitia this year, so I decided to actually get the catalog (“Tia Magazine”) in advance and try to prepare. Here’s what it looks like:

It’s a flipbook, this side being a magazine-style layout with a few essays and introductions of a few notable books, and the other side being the actual catalog. By the way, the catalog actually acts as the ticket to the show, and unlike Comiket they do check for that.

The first thing on the catalog side is the floor map, I’ve translated the categories so you can get an idea of what’s on display: (click to enlarge)

(JUNE, by the way, is the “official” term for Boys’ Love, or male x male romance books)

After that, an introduction to the event (by way of a manga from artist Kumichou), an overwhelming index list of all participating circles and their booth no., an intro of which editors are available in the review area, ads for books and seminars being held at Comitia, intro to exhibiting companies (they get little booths at the outskirts of the hall), and then of course 150 pages of….

Yep, that’s all circles get to try and grab your attention! I’m going to put a few hours into this and see if I can figure this out! I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’ll leave you with this gem I found in the catalog at lunch. Definitely going to have to check this book out.