5th Komikon Tales

The staging of the Komikon festival in SM Megamall, Mandaluyong on October 18 was successful. More than 10,000 people trooped to the convention area just to mingle with over 100 comic artists, publishers, writers, enthusiasts, collectors and sponsors.

charity auction for victims of Typhoon Ketsana and Typhoon Parma

There was a comic auction where proceeds of the said event was donated to the victims of Typhoon Ketsana ( Ondoy) and Typhoon Parma ( Pepeng) The combined proceeds amounted to over Php10,000 .

on the spot  caricature contest winners

Contests like the Independent Comic Book Creation Contest, On the Spot Comic Strip Making and the Original Character Making Contest hopes to bring out the next generation of Comic Book creators to the forefront. Various comic works by the legend Mr. Alfredo Alcala, Mr. Larry Alcala (cartoonist), Tony Velasquez, Mars Ravelo, Pablo Gomez, among others were displayed on a gallery type setting. Friendly marshals, staffs and the secretariat offered help and assistance to the people visiting the convention site. Unlike other event, this convention caters to the teenagers, generations x, y,z , the yuppies  and young professionals who were avid fans of the comic industry.

This convention aims to promote the camaraderie and to foster the artistic nature of the Filipino comic industry. While the comic industry of the Philippines may date as far as the early 20^th century with popular Filipino comic heroes such as Kenkoy , Kalabog en Bosyo , Larry Alcala works , Darna, Panday , Gagambino were turned into movies and depicted on stamps , let us not forget that hundreds or even thousands of Filipino cartoonists from all over the world working for the top anime or comic companies such as Marvel, Disney- Pixar Thus Filipinos are ranked as one of the “World’s Top Cartoonist”. FilCartoon , Philippine Animation Studio Inc. were some of the foreign based companies which set up their outsourcing jobs in the country. FilCartoons, for example, does work on Flintstones, Mad Jack the Pirate and Toonsylvania, cartoon shows for the American firms Saban and Dreamworks SKG.  Their artists have done much of the acclaimed work in Fox Studios’ Anastasia and Disney’s Mulan, Finding Nemo among others. Cartoonists find affinity with their fellow nationals doing multinational and overseas contract work.

They are hired because of their pleasing personalities, command of the English language, high skills, western disposition, and their acceptance of lower salaries than their counterparts. However, Just like in any industry, there are pitfalls in the Philippine comic industry examples are  lack of government support, high production cost among others.

Love in the Bag comics

ASEAN countries like Thailand and Malaysia minimum volume of comic print over 5,000 per issue , while one artist publisher Mr. Ace Vitangcol revealed to me that his orginal work ” Love is in the Bag ” series have about 1,000 copies!!!!! In the comic and book publishing industry 1,000 copies is indeed a very limited series…. a collectible item !

Mr. Mike Unson

I personally met the dynamic duo host Mr. Mike Unson and Mr. Stanley Chi in Philippine prime time comedy skit ” Front Act ”  which is beingaired every sunday on TV channel 5 .  The show is one of the  event media partners together with Jack television .  Mr. Mike Unson is a stand up comedian, actor, comic collector among others while Mr. Stanley Chi is the producer, host, comic artist, graphic master etc…

Mr. Stanley Chi

Mr. Chi is well-known in the Tsinoy community as a comic illustrator and was once featured in Tulay Forthnightly Digest a bi-monthly digest and Manila Bulletin among others . The friendly hosts gladly took some time in chatting  with me despite of their hectic schedule. Kudos for the organizers , sympathizers and to all the people who went and support the Komikon 2009 !!!! With this , everyone is hoping for the best in the Philippine comic industry !!!