America’s first English-language self-published douinshi market, Manga Ichiba, is set to take place at San Jose’s Fanime 2026. For FAQs and specific information, check out the Fanime site here. The event will take place from Friday May 22nd to Sunday May 24th, at the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel Oasis where the Fanime Night Market is held.
It’ll take place away from the Artist Alley as Manga Ichiba is specifically for artists selling English doujinshi manga. Artist Fai shared the tables were relatively cheaper than Artist Alley ($200-$600 per table), and is likely not expected to be “profitable,” but the goal is to encourage more U.S. conventions to host doujin specific events.
Doujin is category of non-commercial self-published work, which includes different forms of art, such as manga, music, games, etc. Doujinshi are derivative publication works, where a manga, novel, or magazine are based off an existing story. The author(s) put out these work under a given name, which are known as a circle. A famous example is CLAMP, who drew doujinshi of JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure, and 07th Expansion, the creators of the When They Cry visual novel series.
The aim of Manga Ichiba is to cultivate and support a U.S. based doujinshi comic community. It’s separate from Artist Alley as it’s meant to focus only on doujinshi books, whether its an original story or one based on an existing story. Similar to indie zines, the doujinshi marketplace is comprised of small creators to connect with readers but with a focus on a Japanese style rather than a Western one.
Although Manga Ichiba’s website lacks a full list of participating artists at time of writing, artist Allie Pascal has posted an ongoing thread on both X (formerly known as Twitter) and BlueSky for those who wish to scan through an unofficial list.
Editor’s note: an official list was posted on May 12th.
Pascal has also written a two part visitor guide on her website. Visitors can expect self-published comics for well-known fan ships/couples, such as Kuramochi and Miyuki from Ace of Diamond.
NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, posted a documentary on the fifty years of Comiket, Japan’s largest doujinshi convention.
