Komikon X + ESGS = An Epic weekend recap

It's quite rare for me to have two back-to-back weekend events to attend, and last weekend is definitely an awesome way for me to end the week!! :D

First off; Komikon X!!

My small little company; Powerplay Wear, made its debut on Summer Komikon 2014, and I really found it fitting for it to return for Komikon 2014.

And this time, I brought something special along with me that I introduced back in Toycon 2014; the videogame sword replica collab project with Hello Knightmare by Louie. And I got me the Parallel Falchion from the game Fire Emblem: Awakening.

We setup the booth early on and despite the much more crammed space, the atmosphere in the event is simply... electric!! :D Here's a shot of our humble table that's crammed with stuff to sell!! :D

As soon as the crowd came rushing in, I had very little time to go around the event and cover it myself. I was too busy marketing our product and generally taking care of the booth. I'm simply glad that our products got alot of loving during Komikon!! And even if our replica swords didn't sell, they managed to get alot of curious onlookers to enjoy and appreciate the sword up close! :D

And one thing I love about Komikon, is that cosplayers are starting to get more and more accepted in the event! As a cosplayer, I love it as well, and I hope I can cosplay as one of the local komik characters that's in Komikon.

Sadly, as much as I enjoyed Komikon, I ended up with a very slim loot during the event. :( Since I could barely go around, and most exhibitors set-up late, I didn't get to buy alot of komiks during the event. :( Here's my Komikon 2014 loot:

Kanto Inc. compilation book
Story by: Joanah Tinio Calingo/Taga-Ilog
Art by: Kilayman

Dragon Breed Vol. 1
Story by: Maria Cornelia Damaso
Art by: Elmer Damaso

Pasig Book 2: Issue 4
Story & Art by: Taga-Ilog

I've yet to read all of my Komikon loot (days have been busy with me doing client work and preparing for the next convention), but I'm simply surprised with the amount of amazing works coming out of Komikon!! The creators are really putting out their best foot forward, making sure the readers get their money's worth, and its a win for us fans. I look forward to next year's Komikon releases!! :D

But the absolute best loot I got during Komikon, wasn't even a komik itself, but this:

This lovely piece of art was a limited edition print run by Mr. Carlo Vergara, creator of the popular superhero; Zsazsa Zaturnnah.

Seeing the piece in person was simply breathtaking, and considering I'm a huge fan of the style of Alphonse Mucha, and I'm proud to be hanging this wonderful art on my wall. Mr. Vergara even made a nice Certificate of Authenticity, which is a really nice touch.

Moving on to day 2; which was ESGS!!

It was a gaming centric event that focused more on e-sports and videogames. I definitely appreciate the effort put into it, and I hope the event grows bigger next year, but as of now, its a little bit fewer in attendance than Komikon. 

I was finally able to try out the local games made for the Occulus, and safe to say, it does show potential. However most of the games presented during the ESGS, does lack some polish (with controls not exactly responsive, the map layout is confusing and abit too large) however it can only get better in the future. I look forward to seeing more locally made content soon!

One thing I do appreciate though is that gaming cosplay is becoming more and more mainstream here in the Philippines:

Whew!! What a weekend!! Still having some weekend hangovers due to the epicness, but I definitely had tons of fun!! Till next time!! :D

100 ARAW ng KOMIKS: Knight of Grey (aka My First Attempt at making Komiks)

In commemoration of the “100 Araw ng Komiks”, I’ve decided to share to everybody my very first attempt at making a komiks.
(NOTE: This article is a pretty long read and contains a lot of large images and may take awhile to load, so read at your own risk. Thank you!)
I’m an avid fan of pinoy komiks, growing up reading Funny Komiks and Bata-Batuta Komiks. I was weaned by local heroes made by local artists that opened my eyes to the world of komiks. So, being an ambitious young kid, I told myself that I’d one day make a komiks too (aside from my dreams of making videogames, but that’s for another story…)
1996, I was still in highschool back then, I made my first 10 page komiks entitled “pH2: The Psychic Police”. Here’s a sample art:

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is an updated version of the original art that I did back in college I believe. I lost all artworks I ever made back in highschool because I had no scanner or PCs back then)
Basically the plot was my take on X-Men/Psychic Force 2012, and as to how “psychics” (my version of mutants) formed a taskforce to help find and arrest evil psychics that abuse their powers. It is because of this story, that I met my long-time friends Jon Infante, along with Ria Lu, and the three of us started dreaming of making our mark in the local komiks industry forming what would later become “Komikasi Enterprise”. Technically, “pH2: The Psychic Police” is my “first” attempt at making komiks, but considering that it wasn’t made available publicly and that only my 2 friends had the chance to read it, I decided to give that honor to my first published komiks that was actually distributed and read by other people…

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: This was the first banner for my komiks which was put online)
Fast forward to 2008, I was a graduate of Fine Arts Majoring in Advertising, but I ended up taking calls at a well-known call center company. Feeling frustrated that I haven’t had the chance to fulfill my childhood dreams and losing a sense of direction in my life (because that’s what working at call centers can do to you… suck the fucking life out of you in exchange of huge amounts of money) I got a call from my friends who asked me if I’m available to go on a meeting with them at SM Bicutan (and by defintion, the word “meeting” is another way for me and 2 other friends of saying “we’re hanging out”).
So I arrived at SM Bicutan, and met up with Ria and Jon at Tokyo Tokyo. There Ria laid out her plan of releasing a komiks for Komikon that year. Considering that all 3 of us were busy with our respective work lives, we decided to do a 1-page komiks, that we will then compile and distribute it for free on Komikon. At the time, to my knowledge, most komiks at Komikon were for sale and only a few artists allow people to see glimpses of their work. For me, giving away free sampler komiks would be a real nice way to introduce most people who are apprehensive on paying for komiks and ease them into being komiks fans themselves. So I went home with renewed hope and started thinking of what kind of story I’ll be working on…
After much deliberation, I ended up working on a medieval themed story, with a vampire hunter as the lead. This choice in story simply reflected my love and passion for a particular game series…

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: This fanart is my own drawing around circa 2005)
Yes, I’m a huge Castlevania fan.
And since I’m so inspired and in-love with the series, I decided to base off my story from this game, along with other anime/movies I watched at the time as inspiration for my komiks. And the result was “Knight of Grey”.

The title came about when I wanted a title that would suit a story for a vampire hunter that is also born a half-human, half-vampire or a “dhampir”. I had an idea that since he’s half-good (white) and half-evil (black), he would be somewhere in-between (grey). Thus I ended up choosing that as my title for my komiks. Along with my 2 other friends who also made their own komiks series:


Mars Mag (Ria Lu) & Para Xi (Jon Infante), we decided to take the plunge and went ahead to Komikon bringing along our very first printed komiks. Our game plan was to give away the teaser komiks to people which will in-turn entice them to go to the komikasi website where we will be continuing the series releasing them 1-page per week. Here’s what the site looked like back then:

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is what’s left of the site as it was already taken down. This is an offline version of the site stored on a PC.)
Komikon came along and we finally released our teaser komiks to people. I helped along by distributing the komiks to any passerby who visited our booth as well as distributing fliers at the entrance to let them know they can get free komiks at our booth. It was a very interesting and memorable experience for me, as I kinda felt the feeling of how most komiks creators went thru in going out of their way to make their works known and the amount of work they put into their komiks, even if mine was a pathetic 1-page teaser. I had a deeper appreciation of what a komik artist goes thru each time they go to Komikon, hoping someone would atleast notice them. I also felt my heart break whenever I see people just throw my work into the trashcan, tear it to shreds, dismiss it or see copies of my komiks on the floor being stepped upon by people. It was a mix of sadness and happiness for me; happiness in a sense that I finally have something that people are reading, and sadness whenever people reject your work. It was an experience I will never forget.
As I look back now, while my first attempt at making komiks is pathetic to say the least, it did teach me a lot and gave me a lot of insight in terms of entering the komiks industry. It also gave birth in a way to another project we did at Komikasi; The Espresso Komiks Magazine. And this coming Komikon, I look forward to my second attempt at making a komiks, and not a 1-page teaser. Thank you for reading and long live pinoy komiks!

PS: For anyone interested in reading “Knight of Grey” I uploaded all of the teaser pages on my DeviantART account. You can view them all here: http://diobrando.deviantart.com/gallery/8201614

My Komikon 2010 Experience!!

Yep, this is abit of a long overdue post. Sorry I was caught up with a lot of work these past few days.

Anyway, all I can say was Komikon 2010 was…. AWESOME!! You can literally feel the love for the industry as long lines start as early as 10AM. It was such a blissful feeling seeing that the local komiks industry is getting more and more support every year.

I was also surprised that despite the change of venue, the crowd was even more larger than last year. And to think I was worried that putting it in Starmall, instead of Megamall would be an issue, I was dead wrong.

Anyway, I came in hoping to get the latest issues of comicbooks that I was waiting for (namely; Trese book 4, ZsaZsa Zaturnnah book 2, Cat’s Trail 3, Pasig, Kubori Kikiam 3 and The Marvelous Adventures of the Amazing Dr. Rizal) sadly some of them weren’t there.

But atleast Kubori Kikiam’s new book was there, and here’s it’s creator Taga-Kanal happily getting moniez, then signing my copy. LOL!!

Instead of walking out of the convention, I opted this year to be more open to try out new titles; namely get more indie komiks. And boy, was there A LOT of indie komiks this year!! I mean this is just a FEW of the many indies out there:

And here’s some pictures of the artists who’s work I got this year:

And yes, I got the one and only Pol Medina Jr. to autography my copy of Pugad Baboy 22!! XD

Man, and I’m actually impressed with the quality of works the indies are churning out this year. I guess competition just got better eh? Overall I bought tons of indies this year, and here’s a picture of my Komikon haul this year:

Gawd tons of indies. And as usual, here’s my annual “I got broke at Komikon” photo: