Komikon 2005

Saturday, October 22, 2005 marked the First Komikon, which was, all considered, a rousing success. It was a success in that the event was truly a venue for the celebration of local comics, from new indies to classic komiks by great Filipino artists. The range of participants ranged from big publishers and bookstores (Fully Booked, Seven Seas, Adarna House, Psicom) to longtime comic groups (Alamat, Blitzworks and Gerry Alanguilan’s Komikeros) to new kids on the local indie comic biz.
I sat at the Comic Quest table with El and Camy for most of the day, selling our hot-off-the-copier comics- Kunoichi Boy and Camy and Me. Other releases on other tables include the latest issues of Maskarado by Reno Maniquis, Askal by Bong Leal, new horror novellas from David Hontiveros, Trese, the supernaturally-themed detective comic from Budjette Tan and Ka-Jo Baldisimo, and Psigns of the Season from Fero McPiglet.

The day was HOT though… no airconditioning in this Kon, and it didn’t help that the nearby Pearl Drink booth from Greenwich ran out of stuff to sell early on (the resto on the second floor of the Bahay Alumni, Chocolate Kiss, must have made a fortune on softdrink sales that day).
But while everyone seemed to be hot for comics, toys and art stuff, I seemed the notice that the response to the actual Komikon program was pretty half-hearted. You have to commend the emcees trying to keep things going even when NO ONE seemed to want to participate in stuff like contests and quizzes. Even then, there were contests aplenty like on-the-spot comics drawing and other stuff (btw, K.I.A. and Angel Ace contributor Jon Mallari won first place in one of the contests… congrats, Jon!) to occupy people.
I found myself getting miffed during the Glasshouse Publishing segment, where the smarmy Mr. Campiti once again took to the stage, looking for the next J.Scott Campbell clone-to-be. The highlight of the program though was the comics talk onstage with Gerry, Arnold Arre and other big-name local comic personalities.

In between all the hubbub, it was basically a day of sitting, watching people go by, chatting with Fero (and getting a K.I.A. review), greeting the occasional comics comrade like Jennyson Rosero, Taga-Ilog and James Palabay, troubling over how to find change to give to customers, signing off copies of K.I.A. or Kunoichi Boy and trying not to get too dehydrated (I failed miserably with the last one). But it was all worth it.
At the end of the day, we sold off most of our comics, and I went off after the closing with Arnold and Cynthia to have a nice, long dinner and chat.

Darn cool Kon. I’d like to commend the organizers and I’m looking forward to the next one. Next time, I’ll want to my own booth, and an even better showing of new comics to enjoy. Seeya all next year, folks!

See my pics of the Komikon at My Phlog.