Now in its 72nd session (it’s been held twice a year since 1975) Comiket was held the weekend of August 17-19 and attendance was estimated at 550,000, with 35,000 different "artist circles," or fan studios, exhibiting. Both professional and amateur artists came together to share their latest works with their peers. There were also 150 industry professionals from the anime, manga and video game world set up in their own hall far removed from the excitement and long lines of the doujinshi halls.

Doujinshi are often parodies of existing anime and manga properties; however, they are not limited to the world of Japanese fandom. Doujinshi have been made about sports figures, politicians, famous military battles and even subway systems. Like indie comics in the West, print runs and production qualities vary by artist circle, from self-printed booklets to 300+-page full-color anthologies.

Comics make a second outing in the venerable Best American series, with nary a fluttering cape in sight. This collection isn’t about such heroes or villains, it’s about humor, fear, the finely observed details of life, and things of a generally more personal and less world-threatening nature. That (as well as a predilection toward Midwestern artists) is what you get when Ware (Acme Novelty Library) is guest editor. The book includes work from 39 different artists, but it’s hard to find a weak entry, even if the editors are cheating a bit by including sections from already thunderously (and rightly) acclaimed book-length works like Charles Burns’s Black Hole, Miriam Katin’s We Are on Our Own and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. Gilbert Hernandez contributes a particularly funny bit of his patented soap opera-comedy, while Adrian Tomine’s selection from Optic Nerve, an epic of self-loathing and confusion, shows why he’s one of the comics artists best worth watching. There are plenty of familiar names, and though the roster of usual suspects is starting to make comics anthologies look like annual class reunions, Ware has done a particularly good job here of celebrating the greatest, saddest and bravest in American comics. (Oct.)

In the past three years, the growth of the boys’ love genre has mirrored the growth of manga with an increase in publishers and steady expansion of its readership. One of the first boys’ love comics to take off was Satoru Kannagi’s Only the Ring Finger Knows (DMP), a heartfelt romance filled with anxiety and internal conflict about two high schoolers whose clear annoyance with each other is rivaled only by their growing mutual romantic interest.

• Notes for a War Story (First Second)
• 10 20 And 30 Vol 1 GN (Netcomics)
• Akira Club (Dark Horse)
• Showcase Presents Wonder Woman Vol 1 (DC Comics)
• Biowulf Pocket Manga (Antarctic)
• Flock Of Angels Vol 1 (Aurora)
• Strangers In Paradise Vol 19 Ever After (Abstract Studios)
• Miss Fury (Pure Imagination)
• Robot Dreams (First Second)
• Amazing Fantasy Omnibus Vol 1(Marvel)
• Planetary Brigade Vol 1 (Boom! Studios)

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