[X] My Assistant

Proposal – Comic Scanning Project

Introduction

Have you ever wanted to contribute to the exciting and rewarding world of scans and yet not found yourself able for a number of reasons? Is the thought of scanning hundreds to thousands of pages something you dread? Would you be embarrassed if a close friend or family member were to discover a pornographic H-comic in your room with strange content? Could you get in legal problems if the customs agency of your nation were to inspect your package from Japan and were to discover H-comics? Do you not know enough of the Japanese language to locate books online much less navigate the often confusing Japanese shops or even more confusing and difficult to use, but very rewarding, Japanese auction sites? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions or combinations thereof, there’s no need to worry. With this newly proposed Comic Scanning Project, you can contribute to scanning by simply allowing our experts to find what you want, paying for the item itself, and paying a fair, reasonable fee to have your requested item purchased, scanned, processed, uploaded to E-Hentai for your viewing enjoyment.

Who are we?

As of now, there are two main members of this proposed Comic Scanning Project. With a combined total of 13 years of locating, purchasing, scanning, and sharing experience, we are seasoned veterans of the Japanese scanning scene having contributed greatly over the years even perhaps to your very enjoyment. We are deeply fond of Japanese comics and have had great success in scanning not only new or popular books but also many rare and old books that other people may be discouraged from ever finding. We have found many of the rarest of books, items published over 20 years ago and items published in quantities of less than 100 units. Although neither of us lives in Japan, the person handling the scans lives in a nation that is permissive when it comes to the importation of H-Comics. So you can rest assured that customs will not be seizing your requested comics that you’ve paid for. We are also able to find items that even Japanese otaku whom we have spoken to have considered the items that we wanted (and often eventually purchased and scanned) as being nearly impossible to find.

Pricing

As highly experienced buyers from Japanese online stores and auctions, we always try to find the lowest priced item for you. However, some things must be said about pricing. First, there is the price of the item itself. This is obvious. What are not so obvious are the other necessary, additional costs. There are two types of shopping to distinguish for the sake of this section. The first are those sellers that ship outside of Japan. The second are those sellers that do not ship outside of Japan.
For all shops, those that ship outside of Japan and those that do not, you will have the same set of the following additional costs. First and foremost, Japan charges a small sales tax on items sold through normal shops. Therefore this fee is included irrespective of whether the item seller ships or does not ship outside of Japan. Second, there may be a tax fee for importation of items from Japan into the nation of the scanning member. This fee is also low and, if many books are purchased simultaneously among a group of buyers, the tax will be evenly distributed over all members. Third, there is the fee for shipping the items from Japan to us. Like the import tax, this fee will be evenly distributed over all members items contained within the package. We will always try to combine shipping when possible to make the prices as low as possible for our contributors.

For shops that do not ship outside of Japan, we have to use a contact of ours within Japan who receives the item(s) for us and then ships it (them) to us. This person charges a small, reasonable fee for his service. Next, there is shipping fee within Japan from the seller to our contact. And finally, there is a fee for the bank wire service used by the contact to purchase the item from the seller. Sadly, the use of convenient debit or credit cards to make payments is not as common in Japan as you may think. All of these extra fees increase the price of an item by quite a lot but when it comes to auctions, often the best way to get the rarest of items, we have no choice but to pay these fees. And even with these fees, the price of the item may be less than what you would expect to pay for such a rare item compared to many other overpriced sellers that sell their items in the West on EBay or their own private, online shop.

Finally, there is the fee for scanning your item. For normal sized doujinshi, anything under 100 pages or so, we charge a flat $10.00. For a normal sized commercial publication, anything around 180-250 pages or so, we charge a flat $20.00 fee. For exceedingly small items, we may combine them with other purchases you made or charge a lesser fee. For very large items, we may charge more than $20.00 but it will go by a case-by-case basis. Before we obtain the item for you, we will let you know the fee for scanning the item. Of course there are some items that don’t even require scanning such as doujin CG but this may require special hardware, in the case of old floppy disc materials compatible only with old Japanese computers, or even special expertise with new stuff protected by DRM. Again, we will do our best to let you know in advance of such complications.

What we scan

It is our goal to try to help you get any comic related item including but not limited to doujinshi (h or non-h), commercial h-comics, commercial non-h comics, commercial magazines (even old back issues), doujin CG, commercial CG, light novels, and anything else with comic related drawings such as calendars, shitajiki, telephone cards, posters, and more. We scan any H contents - everything from normal straight sex to loli, shota, yaoi, furry, and even weird stuff.

Our purpose

As huge fans of Japanese comics, we wish to preserve them online for our own future viewing pleasure and for the enjoyment of others. We also are firm believers in digital preservation and wish to spread knowledge of great comics and otaku culture around the world. Due to increasing technological advances of digital storage and communication through the internet as well as superior digitization technology, it is now possible, far more than former years, to form such a scanning community as this proposed Comic Scanning Project and be highly successful in spreading our work with a large community of fans.

Examples of purchasable items

Suppose a person, using the Doujinshi & Manga Lexicon website, locates the following book by authors Ebi Fly and Neriwasabi called Matatabi Carrot 3. Suppose further that this person is a fan of these authors and is interested in getting any books not yet scanned by them. This is an old book from 1990 and checking this book’s availability on both E-Hentai and hashdb.com will not result in any hits, which makes it safe to conclude that this book is probably not scanned and shared online. Therefore, this is a candidate for this person’s purchases. We of the proposed Comic Scanning Project can then search for this book and find that it is currently for sale on Yahoo Japan Auctions (http://page2.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/b93214621) for an initial bid price of 800 yen and buy it now price of 1000 yen. All this fan has to do is pay money to the Comic Scanning Project to have this book purchased, scanned, processed, and uploaded to E-Hentai for that users enjoyment.

Here is another example regarding a much newer publication. Another person likes the following work previewed on Pixiv, [www.pixiv.net] http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mod...ust_id=19006076. Members of the Comic Scanning Project can locate the book for sale on a number of places such as Yahoo Japan auctions with a starting price of 890 yen and buy it now price of 990 yen (http://page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n120302671), Nagomi Anime Recycle for 630 yen (http://nagomiweb.jp/cgi-bin/detail.cgi?user=et080948&id=A1-CK0335-N0042), and Suruga-Ya for only 450 yen (http://www.suruga-ya.jp/database/ZHOU10354.html?gcsct=0ChMIuIyfkpDEuAIV4kGmCh0uXgAAEAE). Although these shops or auction sellers may not ship out of Japan or have troubles due to the “language barrier”, the members of the Comic Scanning Project can order these books for potential buyers without any problems due to our expertise in this matter.

What you need to do if interested

Simply tell us what you are interested in purchasing. You can leave a message here or send a private request. All requests and purchases, if written in a private message, will be kept confidential. No personal information of collaborators will be revealed by us. We would be happy to help you find even the rarest of items. You can give us as much or as little information to go on when trying to find your item. For those who are looking to get the rarest of materials, we can even teach you how to look online so that if the item ever does appear, which it often will with enough persistence, you can tell us immediately upon appearance to buy the item so that you do not miss it.

So this is kind of like one of those deputy services I've heard about, but with scanning? In which case, I'd like to ask that since you're able to locate hard to find books, could you or would you mail someone their sought out book to them? Like, let's say I wanted you guys to locate an art book by a doujin author or just a previously scanned doujin I wanted in physical form (for my own amusement). Would you guys mail it to me if I were willing to pay the (why is it so fucking expensive!?) shipping and extra fees?

This post has been edited by Super Shanko: Jul 23 2013, 04:16

Super Shanko,

Thank you for your reply. When purchasing an item with us, you must pay all the shipping fees for us to get the book and associated extra fees. Artbooks, if they are commercial works, can probably be obtained from a regular shop and not an auction, so the price will probably be not so high with extra fees. As for doujinshi, it may require the use of an auction to get if it is especially rare.

We are not a deputy service. There are no such services under that name that scan and upload books or search them out so carefully as we can.

As to whether we will ship an item to you after we scan it, first we need to ask whether the book should be taken apart before scanning or not. Some people may insist that a book is taken apart while others may not care as long as the scan is of a high quality. But if the book is taken apart, would you want it shipped to you as loose pages?

The purpose of this group though is for scanning. Even if we ship to you, we will not ship if we do not first scan the book. If the book is already scanned well then we wouldn't accept your money to buy the book unless, perhaps, you wanted to make a combined purchase of various books to scan with a few that, being already scanned, you simply want shipped to you.

But remember, if you are trying to receive anything with H-content, we cannot be responsible if customs seizes the book or you have any legal troubles.

This post has been edited by tooecchi: Jul 23 2013, 04:34

What resolution do you use for scanning?

Thot,

Thank you for the question. I think we will be using 300 DPI but we can go higher also. I am going to speak with the other member and post some samples in here of some completed works.

Super Shanko,

Thank you for your reply. When purchasing an item with us, you must pay all the shipping fees for us to get the book and associated extra fees. Artbooks, if they are commercial works, can probably be obtained from a regular shop and not an auction, so the price will probably be not so high with extra fees. As for doujinshi, it may require the use of an auction to get if it is especially rare.

As to whether we will ship an item to you after we scan it, first we need to ask whether the book should be taken apart before scanning or not. Some people may insist that a book is taken apart while others may not care as long as the scan is of a high quality. But if the book is taken apart, would you want it shipped to you as loose pages?

The purpose of this group though is for scanning. Even if we ship to you, we will not ship if we do not first scan the book. If the book is already scanned well then we wouldn't accept your money to buy the book unless, perhaps, you wanted to make a combined purchase of various books to scan with a few that, being already scanned, you simply want shipped to you.

But remember, if you are trying to receive anything with H-content, we cannot be responsible if customs seizes the book or you have any legal troubles.

I'm not worried about customs or loose pages. Alright, I see what you're, and I'm glad you're a bit lenient when It comes to not scanning a book unless I actually pay for your services first. That aside, I'm also interested in knowing how to find rare books. It would be really helpful to me.

I'm not worried about customs or loose pages. Alright, I see what you're, and I'm glad you're a bit lenient when It comes to not scanning a book unless I actually pay for your services first. That aside, I'm also interested in knowing how to find rare books. It would be really helpful to me.

We won't even accept your money just for us to buy a book for you to receive that doesn't get scanned. Our purpose is to scan items not merely buy an item for a person. That's the job of the deputy.

Here is an example of what I think is acceptable. Suppose you wanted to buy 10 books. Among those 10 books, 6 are not scanned and 4 are scanned. Of the 4 that are scanned 1 is scanned badly. The remaining 3 are scanned nicely. Then we would want to scan 7 of your books. The other three we can leave alone and ship to you along with the other 7 if you so wanted. However, we must scan all un-scanned books and we may also re-scan badly scanned books. We have no reason to exist as simply a deputy service.

I also thought about the issue of teaching others how to buy rare books. If a person wishes to scan their purchases, then I am very much in favor of teaching this to others. However, if a person simply wants to purchase and not scan rare items (and I mean truly rare items not merely things people think are rare but are rather easy to find with a little bit of persistence), items that I or others may want who intend to scan them, then my teaching them these techniques of finding very rare items is counterproductive to my goals and the goals of other comic scan fans.

This post has been edited by tooecchi: Jul 23 2013, 05:12

No, I get what you're saying. You don't want to waste your time with some book-greedy shmuck. That's fine with me. I'd have to scan it anyway or else I couldn't get it translated to actually read it.... Anyway, I wanted to know because I'm interested in finding [doujinshi.mugimugi.org] this old book (16 years old counts as rare right?) from an artist I like.

And a question about scanning: If I wanted them in higher res (like 600dpi), would that be extra, and is it $10.00 per book (under 100pgs)?

No, I get what you're saying. You don't want to waste your time with some book-greedy shmuck. That's fine with me. I'd have to scan it anyway or else I couldn't get it translated to actually read it.... Anyway, I wanted to know because I'm interested in finding [doujinshi.mugimugi.org] this old book (16 years old counts as rare right?) from an artist I like.

And a question about scanning: If I wanted them in higher res (like 600dpi), would that be extra, and is it $10.00 per book (under 100pgs)?

Yes, we can help you find that book. Each average sized doujinshi costs $10 to scan unless perhaps a book is very small. Suppose you bought one doujinshi with 30 pages and a 8 page copy book. I think we wouldn't charge you an extra $10 just to scan such a tiny book along with the other.

As for scanning in 600 DPI, I think we can do it but I will confer with my other member on it.

Also, we are open to scanning commonly found books too. One of the issues though is with new books. A brand new popular book may get scanned by someone else before we are even able to, so always be careful when considering buying brand new, popular books. I think trying to find this old book of Luck & Pluck is one that no one is in a hurry to scan so the chances of someone scanning it before we do are low.

my scanners better.

>.>

my scanners better.

>.>

You don't even debind books.

You don't even debind books.

debinding is a crime against books.

debinding is a crime against books.

It's just a small price to pay, and it's only one step over bending the crap out of it anyway. Plus it's fine when you know how to cheat it afterwards.

Books do not need to be unbound in order to scan them well. I'll post a guide that I wrote on scanning later on.

Here is an excerpt from the guide that I mentioned above showing both a high quality scan made from a book without de-binding it and the lack of damage produced on the book.

An Extreme Example of Success

To further illustrated the success that I have had with scanning without de-binding and also correcting the subsequent damage incurred to the scanned books, I am providing an extreme example. I use the word 'extreme' for this example since the book I am showcasing here is the largest I have ever scanned. It is also the largest doujinshi that I know in existence. (I now know of much larger books that are over 1100 pages.) This book has 700 pages all bound together as a single volume!

The title of this giant is "Sono Go No Evangelion Ai" and the circle is Bijutsubu. The toranoana page for this item is here.

First I shall show that I was completely able to scan this book while keeping it bound and still produce high quality scans. In the next illustrative example, I am showcasing page 373 out of 700. This is a page near the middle of the book, which is usually the most difficult to flatten. Additionally, this page 373 does not have a blank margin (gutter) near the spine, making the book even harder to edit.

The rough unedited scan is as follows:
[postimg.org] (IMG:[s24.postimg.org] http://s24.postimg.org/5zcmvtb8x/edit_IMG_0371_before.jpg)


And its subsequent edit is as follows:
[postimg.org] (IMG:[s24.postimg.org] http://s24.postimg.org/l1ov6hvsh/edit_IMG_0371_after.jpg)



I cannot honestly say that the damage incurred to this book after scanning it was nearly so minor as the others. The spine was bent so much and the book no longer laid anywhere near flat as the following photos show.
[postimg.org] (IMG:[s24.postimg.org] http://s24.postimg.org/mjabi20j5/bending_due_to_scanning_Picture_029.jpg)
[postimg.org] (IMG:[s24.postimg.org] http://s24.postimg.org/b87ntoto1/bending_due_to_scanning_Picture_031.jpg)


I applied my technique described above of heating the spine of the book, bending the spine to be perpendicular with a flat surface and then flattening the biding of a book to this giant. I could have probably put the book back into the oven after this process for a second attempt to further refine the book bringing it even closer to its original state.
[postimg.org] (IMG:[s24.postimg.org] http://s24.postimg.org/u875ts10x/heat_spine_Picture_002.jpg)
[postimg.org] (IMG:[s24.postimg.org] http://s24.postimg.org/dt8n3gto1/heat_spine_Picture_004.jpg)
[postimg.org] (IMG:[s24.postimg.org] http://s24.postimg.org/q99yaycdt/heat_spine_Picture_005.jpg)
[postimg.org] (IMG:[s24.postimg.org] http://s24.postimg.org/lonrw0soh/heat_spine_Picture_006.jpg)
[postimg.org] (IMG:[s24.postimg.org] http://s24.postimg.org/dmzje49wx/heat_spine_Picture_007.jpg)
[postimg.org] (IMG:[s24.postimg.org] http://s24.postimg.org/58jwq18vl/heat_spine_Picture_009.jpg)


CONCLUSION

The photos that I have posted here show (1) that it is possible to scan even a gigantic book without taking it apart and produce high quality scans and (2) that it is possible to return the book nearly to its original state after scanning.

This post has been edited by tooecchi: Jul 23 2013, 07:48

And a question about scanning: If I wanted them in higher res (like 600dpi), would that be extra, and is it $10.00 per book (under 100pgs)?

I conferred with my other member and we think that although 600DPI is overkill, we can do it on a purchaser's request. Since it doubles the scanning time though, we would like to charge a bit more of $5.00 extra for a normal sized doujinshi and $10 more for a normal sized commercial book. Again, for very small items or very large items, we will price it on a case-by-case basis.

Here are examples of two scanned and processed scans from the middle of a commercial manga, a volume of Uppote. Please note that you must double click the image after it initially loads to see it in its full size.

One scan in 300 DPI.
[postimg.org] (IMG:[s23.postimg.org] http://s23.postimg.org/sfbacw387/scan1.jpg)

Another scan in 600 DPI.
[postimg.org] (IMG:[s13.postimg.org] http://s13.postimg.org/xdl91eprn/scan2_600.jpg)

This post has been edited by tooecchi: Jul 23 2013, 09:55

Do you all only accept wire transfers.

I could possible pay in steam/gog.com games (or currency?), visa (possible paypal account), or in e-hentai currenty (gp,credits,hath... which would run out super fast).

We can accept payments by paypal.

We can accept payments by paypal.

Good. I wonder if I can have a 2nd paypal account, for adult stuffs!

I don't need it shipped outside Japan, you can have someone in Japan place and order, and scan it. (to cut down on shipping)

The scanner can re-list the book on yahoo auctions, to further cut down on the cost.
Do you have a scanner that does that? (I remember and older scanner doing that)