Paper short abstract:

Drawing on an ethnographic case study, this paper examines the practices employed by Japanese fan artists to navigate the visibility of their own works within the infrastructure of dōjinshi culture and their effects on the spreadability of this form of fan comic in a transcultural context.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the practices employed by Japanese fan artists to navigate the visibility of their own works within the infrastructure of dōjinshi (amateur comic) culture and their effects on the potential spreadability of this form of fan comic in a transcultural context (Chin/Morimoto 2013). Beyond the vast market for commercially published graphic narratives (manga) in Japan, there lies a still expanding and particularizing market for amateur publications, which are exchanged in printed form at specialized events and not primarily digitally over the internet.

Most of the works exchanged at these gatherings make use of scenarios and characters from commercially published media, such as manga, anime, games, movies or television series and can be classified as fan works, poaching from media franchises and offering a vehicle for creative expression. The fan artists publish their works by making use of the infrastructure provided by specialized events, bookstores and online printing services (as described in detail by Noppe 2014), without the involvement of a publishing company and without the consent of copyright holders. In turn, this puts the artists at risk of legal action, especially when their works are referring to the content owned by notoriously strict copyright holders such as the The Walt Disney Company, which has acquired Marvel Comics a decade ago.

Based on an ethnographic case study of Japanese fan artists who create fan work of western media franchises (the most popular during the observed timeframe being The Marvel Cinematic Universe), the paper identifies different tactics that dōjinshi artists employ to ensure their works achieve a high degree of visibility amongst their desired audience of other fans and avoid attracting the attention of casual audiences or copyright holders.