| 10.14.2019 – When you talk about local comicons there’s that thought of grand festivities that featured famous personalities based from films or known artists that break the mold of the usual proverbial status quo. And then there are local cons that promote the grassroots that fuel original creativity.
But there is also an event call Komiket that has been around for the last five years not only promote Filipino Komiks, but drives the creativity beyond that with other things like pins, stickers, key chains, and prints to name of the stuff you see in this event that has become the backbone of what makes it popular with the youth. |
Komiket in such a way you’ve never heard of this event is quite the busy place to be, but for a Filipino family with smaller kids it is way out of their perspective as compared to the recently concluded Papercuts Comics Festival in Adelaide last month that almost have the same vibe as Komiket. But Papercuts catered to the wider spectrum that includes families, although Komiket has been around longer that it could have been more popular due to their pocket events.
In the Philippines, there’s a difference for what is a target market for this type events. But mostly it is geared towards the young adults due to the content of what they have now as compared to a few years ago. It is considered one of the best “comics” related events out there aside from the Komikon that pioneered this genre.
Wild Chaotic Crowd
Despite its massive success over the weekend it is chaotic in perspective with a bit of challenging to go through each narrow isle that doesn’t follow what is a standard measurement for people to have a parallel access. It really is also busy to navigate through the confusing set up in some of the tables, but you can’t argue how the organizer manage to have them all bunched up in this aesthetic.
What makes it wild is the way each vendor interacts with the con visitors. Close to the tailend of the event there were more people still interacting with one table gaining a lot of attention that creates huge traffic for a narrow isle and that makes it’s more challenging to have that opportunity to see the other tables.
Stickers for Cheap Thrills
In the past two years the prints where the popular merchandise next to original Filipino Komiks, but with the dawn of stickers there’s too many to go around and there’s even a dedicated Sticker Con that was born from the huge following. Back then stickers were just commodities as “trade-ables” for graffiti artists.
Now in 2019 it is one of the easily sold products because they’re cheap and can be a collectible. They’re like considered as ‘bubble gum’ with produced as part of merchandise without any tie-up material connected to a comicbook or any form of media. They're basically produced based on an existing IP that is popular in trends like recent films or viral from social media that include DC Comics’ Joker Movie that had stickers based on them in this event as an example.
Sights for the unusual Kind
There are other things that were sold at Komiket like art toys and some interesting prints that are interpreted by the artists that produced it. There are keychains too that are also becoming popular aside from the stickers. Although some of them are not directly an original creation it drives interest and what’s popular too.
Display set-up calls out attention in some of the vendors in this event, but majority of what they have are stickers and keychains that like “bubble gum” they don’t have lasting appeal unless a tie-up to an original comicbook. But how they present their product in this event are the ones that stand out and Komiket is not short on that.
Make a Komik for Kets
At the end of the day, Komiket is still a Filipino Komiks-driven event despite the overflowing amount of merchandise. This is where Arnold Arre launched the 20th celebration for his very first graphic novel, which is The Mythology Class that produced a new cover for the compilation and a limited edition shirt.
There’s always room for Filipino Komiks as it is what made this event known. It’s just that the balance of content has been swayed through the popularity of stickers and keychains with other merchandise come to mind as the main draw for the youth. But there’s hope for the organizers would rethink about their content not to lose of what made them put this event in the first place.
Overall the event is not perfect but still draw interest for the young adult, that may be someday can attract families too due to the content they have that are child-friendly. For every event there’s always room for improvement and next year their next big event goes international that they can draw from feedback and past experience as na event to be more in line of what put them there.
Komiket 2019 was held from 11-13 October 2019 at the Eaton Centris in Quezon City. For more future events and updates follow them via Social Media on Facebook and on Instagram!
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