We participated February 2017 Komiket and
boy we had a blast!
It's our first time attending Komiket so we really were excited in going and bringing our delightfully different comics to new readers.
I was the first one to arrive at Centris Elements because Guadix attended the confirmation of my niece. Being her godparents, we decided at least one of us should attend her confirmation and one of us has to be early at the event.
I arrived there a bit late, this was due to
the fact that Guadix and I woke up late because we stayed up all night cutting and stapling
our comics the night before. We really didn't to cut our printing and comics production this close to the convention, but you'll know why by the end of this article.
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| Our announcement that Kuro Saku will be at Komiket. If you can translate what the potato trio said, then you win a Clowder gift set. :3 |
But alas, as I got there, everyone has their table set up already and I think I was the last to come in to do so. I find my table, just
caught my breath for a second and lay down my comics as quickly as I can and pretty soon after the table was
set I was able to speak with people and before you know it, I made our first sale!
Here are some of our Kuro Saku comic
buyers:
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| Klarizze wanted a seinen manga and I recommended her Yakuza Boy! She writes as well so I also suggested her to get Guadix's E & D :) |
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| Andrew is making a thesis about independent comics, good luck with your thesis!! |
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| Sam bought E & D and as well as Samurai Takeover which was fitting because the main protagonist of that comic is also named Sam :) |
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| Mike is also an artist and tells me that he's submitting works to Marvel comics and was recently asked to submit more works! Good luck Mike!! |
The comic book Mike is holding on his
left hand is The Hunger.
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| The Hunger and The Thirst all in one book! Get it now to quench your craving for blood and gore :P |
The
second part of the story is The Hunger, a 10 page comic I first released it
with Komikult's anthology back in 2013. And now I'm re-releasing it as an
individual book with both of the stories under The Hunger title.
Here are more of our comic book buyers as
the day went by. We were lucky enough to meet artists who make their own indie comic
books as well and is always fun having to share stories with them.
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| Mitzee wrote and drew Karnival and it's beautiful! |
One of the artists we met is Mitzee, she
wrote and drew this beautiful book entitled Karnaval.
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| Karnaval - words and art by Mitzee |
It's about the story of a boy who trades one of his eyes
with a big cat. It's really quite something and I would suggest you check it
out if you have the chance to see it at comic conventions.
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| Thank you Jiro for your never ending support to our works at Kuro Saku! I hope you enjoy Samurai Takeover! |
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| Thank you Yana & Andrei for buying the first four chapters of Clowder! We hope you enjoy its first arc! :) |
I also released Non-premium copies of the
first arc of Clowder! You can now enjoy the story of Angel and Fries even if
you're on a tight budget ;) For only Php50 per issue, you can already read about
the Cat Killers, Nyao World, The Glaring Rescue team, their great escape, an enlightenment
and much much more! :3
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| Clowder chapters 1-4 special non premium covers |
Here's my wife Guadix enjoying our booth at
Kuro Saku.
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| :P |
And here's what our booth looks like:
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| Our delightfully different comics has many genres, it ranges from: Slice of life (E & D), adventure (Da-ib and Delivery Boys), love horror (The Man from the Planet of the Masochists, dark fantasy (Clowder), seinen (Yakuza Boy), dark shonen (Satanhigh) and mature reading (The Hunger and Samurai Takeover). Take your pick! |
And here's what the entire Komiket February
2017 looks like:
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| With 300 registered artists we all know what this means... Comics are back baby!! |
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| Thank you Noel for purchasing Delivery Boys! I hope you like it!! :D |
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| Ian bought a lot of out comic books! Thank you!! :D Guadix and I wish that you love our comic book series! |
And of course its not only Pinoys who appreciate our own work but as well as non Filipinos! :D
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| Thank you very much Hamish! I hope you enjoy our books! |
And in case you haven't noticed, Guadix
released her second issue of Da-ib!
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| Da-ib #2 story & art by Guadix |
We actually just printed our books the night before that's why we woke up late on the day of the event. We had them printed and did the stapling and cutting ourselves so we were really tired the night before...
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| Proud momma of her second issue! <3 |
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| All smiles now :) |
It was also our first time at Centris Elements and
was able to admire some of the blooming flowers it has just outside the event
area. Here are some of the shots I took while I took a break outside:
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| I just love blooming flowers! :D |
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| As well as the blue sky and rich clouds! Man, what a beautiful day! |
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| My name maybe Marius Black but I also appreciate colorful stuff :P |
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| Brought some with me inside to even up the dark books we have and liven our table a bit more :) |
Here are more comic book enthusiasts who bought our books!
We also had the chance to meet Ava and her
friends who are artists as well.
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| It was nice to meet you guys! We hope to see you at the next convention :D |
She even liked Guadix's E & D so much that
she made an entry about it on her Tumblr account. You can read about it here: http://avahaine.tumblr.com/post/157762516149/ed-estiny
Thank you very much Ava for reviewing Guadix's work and for your support for Kuro Saku! :)
Aside from our independent comic books I
also sold some postcards of my artworks and paintings. Most of them are from
my Tarantino Fiction and Landscape Portrait series. I just love movies! Growing
up my dad ran and owned a Betamax / VHS shop at our house, I was always
exposed to movies and grew up loving them.
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| Blood tears and flowers... Only at Kuro Saku :) |
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| Get your art postcards only at Kuro Saku! :D |
Lunch time!
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| Shawarma rice and chicken nuggets in a banda box. Yum!! :D |
More buyers!
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| Thanks for buying the last copy of Delivery Boys, Sandy!! We hope you enjoy reading it! :D |
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| Thank you Anthoneth for buying Clowder chapter 1! I hope you like it :3 |
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| Good luck with your report Therese!! I hope you also enjoy the Diary of Death! :) |
Even more Kuro Saku buyers!
Later in the night we were able to get
Mharz's newest release The Robonoid Fan! It's a one shot story but it looks like a graphic novel for it has a lot of
pages, and we really look forward in reading this Mharz! :D
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| The Robonoid Fan - art and story by Mharz |
We were also lucky to have the Comic
Odyssey table beside us, and asked if they had any Shonen Jump with them and
luckily they did! And what luck! Look what they had! :D
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| Yeah that's bad ass! It even has Yuyu Hakusho in it! Wah!!! |
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| I saw this and just had to take a picture of it.It looks like a top doesn't it? A top on top. :P |
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| When it's downtime, we read comics! :) |
And here are the last batch of buyers we
had:
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| Thank you Julius for buying the second issue of Da-ib! :) |
Guadix's best friend Mimi was able to come to Komiket and bought my wife's comics!
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| We hope you like Guadix's work Mimi! |
And last but not the least, our the last buyer we had
was Carlorozy Clemente! It's always an awesome feeling when someone buys your work, but
doubly so when it's another artist! Thank you Carlo and Ellie! :)
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| Hope to see you guys at the next convention!! :D |
And here's me at the booth before we packed
our books and call it a day.
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| Nice shirt. Oh wait that's a guy. Still, a nice shirt. |
We had a bite for a well deserved dinner
and had some very well deserved ramen! :)
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| Ittadakimasu! :) |
To end this entry I shall share something that I was thinking about after the event.
"So the last shall be first, and the
first last:
for many be called, but few chosen."
Matthew 20:16
This part of the entry should have been the
first thing I wrote on this blog but decided to place it in the last part and
I'll get the reason for that as I explain why. To tell you guys the truth we
were never really supposed to be a part of February 25 Komiket 2017. I've always had an eye
out for comic convention registrations because they tend to fill up and run out
of slots for exhibitors quite fast. I wasn't able see the registration was open for
Komiket at their FB page therefore it was too late when we saw promotions of our
fellow indie comic book artist friends that the registration was already
closed.
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| Do you see Kuro Saku there? No? Well that's because we really weren't able to join Komiket! or so we thought... |
We really wanted to participate at Komiket so we were really bummed out about it when we realized that we weren't able to. Guadix had Da-ib #2 to release on this
event and it would be perfect to do so there, but we didn't make it. We messaged
Komiket's page to ask if there are still slots open but they said they were
already full. They did say however there are people who haven't paid for their tables
yet and to check back with them after a week. And it seemed that there's still a
chance to participate, but the week went by and when we messaged them again,
they said that the remaining people has paid and will be participating still.
So for us, we really didn't have any choice but to just wait for the next
Komiket later in the year if we wanted to participate.
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| At least we made it to Elbikon 2017 we thought. :) |
Things weren't too bad,
we still had Elbikon to sell our comic books so we just did our best there. A
few days after Elbikon, Guadix and I were up late in the morning about 4:00am
because she was putting the finishing touches on Da-ib #2. She then checked her phone
and saw an e-mail; it was from Komiket, at first she taught and said:
"How
come Komiket is still sending us an e-mail if we still want to join the convention when we've already paid for the table?"
She got confused a bit with Komiket and was actually thinking about the Summer Komikon which we have reserved and paid for. And then I said;
"Wait you said Komiket sent you an e-mail??"
So we double checked and sure enough it was actually from
Komiket! They have a booth available!
They opened up another slot because someone backed out of the event. So we looked at each other, saw that it was just 30 minutes sent and
then jumped on the opening and that was it! We were in! Good thing we were up all
night still making comics and artworks and doing God knows what, but yeah
that's how we were able to participate in February Komiket 2017 and it was really
a blast for us!
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| When you give up. You lose everything. |
After the event, I was pondering and
thanking God of the blessing he gave us. I kept thinking of the "So the
last shall be first, and the first last."
and maybe it wasn't exactly what or how Jesus meant when he said it, but what happened to us, this phrase
was in my head the whole bus ride going home.
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| This is also good to keep in mind and have found it very much true in my experience. |
Sometimes you just have to give your hopes up, but still plow through the dirt and mud. Sometimes we really just have to work hard and try our best in any given situation, sometimes the hardest wall just needs that one more blow to break open for the
light to pierce in and a way opens... or is made.
-Marius Black
Manila
2/28/2017
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