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Fan Art Week

Reading fanfics about your favorite series or manga is kinda common, but sometimes you can find images of the manga that look genuine but show the characters in unusual situations that you would never see in the canon. These are the so called 'doujinshi' or fancomics.

Before begin with tips and tricks about make a doujinshi, let's see some definitions:

Doujin [同人]
Japanese word which literally means a group of people with the same interests, but it is often used as a shorthand for doujinshi.

Doujinshi [同人誌]
Doujinshi is amateur manga publications, featuring either a cast of original characters and plot or characters from another manga or an anime (a 'fan manga'). There's all sorts of doujinshi, though it isn't as widely circulated as more popular mangas, such as CLAMP works. Doujinshi is often cheap but is just as good as regular manga (well, some of the time...), and is sold on eBay, jpqueen.com, and other sites.

These definitions came fron the Urban dictionary , and having this in mind we can learn some tips and tricks to do your own doujinshi.

Paper Size
First, lets talk about the size of the paper (or the canvas) that you would use to capture your own ideas about your favorite characters.

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There are some stores that actually sell ruled paper for comics, and the most usual sizes are B5 (is the final size, the sheet is A4 size) and A5 (where the sheet is B5), if you use Comic or Manga Studio you can even find a folder with doujinshi sizes in different resolutions.

If you will work traditionally choose the size that better fits to your needs.

Number of pages
Before you start drawing your doujinshi is important to take into account that if you would print it the number of total pages should be multiple of 4 because of how printers work.

Why do you need a page count that is a multiple of 4?

Pages of a booklet are created by printing four pages (2 in the front and 2 in the back) on one sheet of paper and then folding that sheet in half. In the illustration you can see that each page is connected to 3 other pages. Because of the way a booklet is produced, you can’t have a random number of pages. It has to be a multiple of 4.

Taken from:opusdesign.us

If your story is not long enough you can invite your friends as guest artists. It's not only funny but it could help you to advertise your doujinshi. Of course you can invite them to make their own stories to make an anthology and form your own circle (even when you have your own circle, it is always nice to have some guest artists).

Cover of a circle's work
Guest art in Ginmaart doujinshi

Story
But, wait! I have no pairing in the serie/manga that I like, Can I still make a doujinshi?

Yes! It's not a problem at all, not every doujinshi is about romance or contains sexual content. It's the same as fanfics; you can write about Alternate Universes, alternative endings, stories that give more depth to a certain character. The variety in the themes that you can make is as vast as the sky.

In Japan it's really common for some renowned authors to make doujinshis of their own stories, because in some cases them can't be published in its editorial.

Printed or Digital
Now that you have your story, almost all of the pages of your doujinshi and some guest artists, an important question appears: Printed or Digital?

Well, it depends a lot on your own preference. Of course it is really nice to see your doujinshi printed, but even if print-on-demand services are now cheaper than before you still need to have some funds to print. If you don't have a lot of money and only want that people enjoy your story, you can always share it digitally, either to download or read online. And if you want to print it you can open pre-orders in shop websites and specialized online direct distribution sites. Even some anime conventions allow the sale of doujinshis provided they are of your authorship or you have worked on them.

In Japan there are even a convention specialized in selling and exchange doujinshis named Comiket .

Of course if your doujinshi is printed you should publish in small numbers to maintain a low profile to avoid possible legal intervention. This makes a talented creator's or circle's dōjinshi a coveted commodity as only the fast or the lucky will be able to get them before they sell out.

Print sizes have some variety, according to your original size you can choose between some sizes:

Image by: Kaoyux

There is a much smaller size named 'manga size' of aproximatelly 13x18.1cm (5x7in) and the B5 sheet could be adjusted perfectly to this size.

Now, you can start your own doujinshi, Enjoy making it!

If you have any doubt or question please note or message me.