appearances

Eisner Award nominee + JAMS@Anime Expo

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Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards logo on a background of the San Diego Comic Con logo.

I’m thrilled to say that Manga’s First Century is a 2026 Eisner Award Nominee, in the Best Academic/Scholarly Work category. Thank you so much to the judges, and to my editor Enrique Ochoa-Kaup. Congratulations to all the nominees!

While I won’t be at SDCC, I will be at Anime Expo in Los Angeles. Specifically, I’ll be at the JAMS@AX Academic Symposium, speaking on July 2, 2026, as part of the “Representations of History, and History in Anime” panel. I’m very much looking forward to being back at AX, and I hope to see you there!

CasaCon 2025

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Thanks to everyone who came to my talk at ULB in Brussels last week. Next up, on December 14 at 1pm Pacific, I’ll be speaking at CasaCon 2025 on “Framing Fans in Manga History: Manga’s First Century.”

CasaCon is free to join and all online, taking place on Discord! You can register to join the con now and check out all the other great programming on the website. I look forward to seeing you there!

Manga’s First Century out next week in North America + events!

/ ahorbinski

Manga’s First Century is out next Tuesday, October 28, in North America, and copies are starting to ship from warehouses. You can still preorder a copy!

For those who have read the book, please do consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Reviews help the book get noticed by the algorithm so that more people can find out about its existence.

For those with tight budgets (and isn’t that all of us these days), please do consider requesting your local library purchase the book for their collection. A purchase request means the book will be available to everyone in your library system and beyond.

Events!

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be doing an AMA on r/askhistorians next Wednesday, October 29. Starting at 9am Eastern, you can ask me your questions about manga history and I’ll respond over the course of the day.

I’ll also be giving a book talk in Brussels in the last week of November, and I’ll probably be doing some more events in the Bay Area in winter 2026. Stay tuned!

BayCon 2025 (/ Westercon 77)

/ ahorbinski

I’ll be at BayCon 2025 in Santa Clara this weekend! My panel “There’s a Hell of a Good Universe Next Door: Unstoppable Isekai” is tomorrow (Saturday, July 5) at 11:30 am (with a special appearance from a surprise GoH), and I’ve just agreed to join “The Long Haul: When It Takes Years to Write a Book” at 20:00. Hope to see you there!

Also, last month I was quoted in this Metro UK story on Watashi ga mita mirai.

Mechademia conference 2025

/ ahorbinski

I’m delighted as ever to be back at the Mechademia conference in Kyoto next week. As I continue slowly working towards a new project, I’ll be talking about “What’s the Matter with Comiket? Uncovering Early Strife in the Dōjinshi Sphere, 1975-1985.” According to the latest version of the schedule, this will be on Saturday, June 7, at Kyoto Seika University. Hope to see you there!

Events

/ ahorbinski

Books with Pictures, Portland, OR – 31 May 2026

Anime Expo, Los Angeles, CA – 2 July 2026

Worldcon, Anaheim, CA – 27-31 August 2026

World Fantasy 2026, Oakland, CA – 22-25 October 2026

I’ll keep this page updated as more events are scheduled.

Want me to come to your area? Talk to an organization or an event that can invite me!

BCNM 20th Anniversary Alumni Conference

/ ahorbinski

I’m delighted to say that I’ll be speaking at the Berkeley Center for New Media’s 20th Anniversary Alumni Conference, held in-person at Berkeley on April 10-11. I’ll be speaking on the Race and Popular Culture panel and on the alt-ac panel on Thursday, April 10. My talk is titled “Whose Manga Is It Anyway?: Race and Creativity in the Development & Historiography of Japanese Comics.”

You can view more information about the conference and register to attend (it’s free!) on the conference page. Hope to see you there!

Cinema Scope podcast: An Anime Odyssey

/ ahorbinski

A few months back, Rayna Denison and I appeared on the Cinema Scope podcast to discuss 10 influential anime films from throughout anime’s history with host Andy Nelson. It was a very good conversation, and I’m sorry that book revisions have meant such a delay in my sharing it here. The video is embedded below, and you can find downloads and more info at the podcast page.