My First Komiket: 3 Amazing Things (2 of 2)

There are three things I find amazing about Komiket: one, you will bump into old friends and make new ones whom you share the same interests and passions; two, you will get a good feel of the komiks industry and its artistic siblings; and three, it is a place where you buy the same things as the most konyotic girl you ever saw to the avant garde artist. Plus, you will find a good number of titos and titas here and there who truly are fans of komiks.

The friends I met there are young and not so young Filipino artists and creatives. Many are full time professionals who have day jobs but manage to find time to create art. I met  Olan Amago, one of the creators of Carnal: Banahaw, a komiks recommended by Prof. Igor Cabbab when he did a guest post in the blog last month. I didn't get his works but, I have his calling card. I also met the komikeros who are engineers, landscape artists, businessmen, teachers and college students. Their works range from genre fiction to non-fiction. Mer Malonzo, Manix Abrera and Pol Medina Jr. were the bog names who were present during the Komiket. Big time komikeros as they are, they are simple and down to earth.

The format of the komiks and zines on sale at the Komiket were varied too. From the cheapest 8-fold A3 bond paper to the well designed zines, these self published, DIY reading materials have truly gone a long way since my first encounter with the media back in 2012. The message and themes are diverse as well as the language used. Not only are there zines written in English, but also in Filipino and in different mother tongues like Kapampangan and Ilokano. There were zines about social development, human rights, LGBTQ, race and religion, and issues that established publishing houses would not support. I look forward for more daring, risk taking topics that the Filipino komikero and zine maker will produce in the future.

I did not pass acquiring works by Gerry Alanguilan, Sarge Lacuesta, Jess Santiago and Andrew Villar.  

Laslty, the Komiket is such a wonderful place to be because, the GenXer that I am, I never felt out of place in there.