Salimpusa @ Metro Comic Con 2009 (8.8.9 - 8.9.9)

Yes you read it right. Two days. For the first time in my history of con-going I (err... we) are present for two days. It's also OUR first time in MCC (which I still haven't heard the reason why suddenly it's Metro not Manila Comic Con), first time to sell our stuff in Megamall, first time I wasn't by the stage to watch the 10 second poses of cosplayers/costrippers, first time that Wilvic's on the booth, first time to wear an exhibitor's (well, ours was written SPONSOR. Sir Heubert said they ran out of EXHIBITOR's) id passes (UP Komikon's doesn't have those IDs), first time I get to call cosplayers to actually come to our booth since I rarely have the time to roam around, first time to 'actually' do sales talk (which is primarily caused by Tepai and Maika next to us). first time to see Czarina out of her Otaku's Den, first time a friend of mine who actually went there just to visit and buy our stuff, and a whole lot of first times.

Day 1 --------------------------------
Mark and Wilvic can't come, Jin's going to be late, and I was there, nervous of missing my meet up with Sir Heubert for the passes because no one was able to come to the ingress the day before. I came there so freakishly early that I spent so long at Jollibee (French Baker wasn't open yet, Krispy Kreme, though the smell of fresh baked donuts tickled my nose, I chose not to go because I was appalled by the site of the overly airy people outside drinking coffee). Jin came around 2 hours later with a bad news that we don't have anything to sell because he hasn't found a good photocopier. By the time that we are allowed in (after he having breakfast at Jollibee too), he went to look for Copylandia which he hasn't found and settled for National Bookstore instead while I waited in the entrance awaiting Sir Heubert. I just saw the line and again it was so long I was lucky I'm an exhibitor and don't need to wait in line anymore.
After our passes was given, I saw (Jin was currently photocopying at that time) the Indie Go! Valley booths right at the-- wait for this-- the very corner of the huge halls! Yes! There we are at the other end of the hall near the foodstands. If I can put it as sarcastic as I can, we are at the far corners of the universe, far from the eyes of the regular bystander, placed in a small confined space to be discovered by those brave at heart or probably just hungry and needed to eat without going out. And when I say confined, it really is. Me and Jin can't even stand alongside nor sit (each group are given one (1) chair no matter how much each of the members of the group pays for the passes) at the same time on our space unless Maika and Tepai (MegaNon Comics, Mark 9 Verse 47) stand aside. And speaking, we just met the two on this day and we ended up promoting each of our works to everyone, doubling our chances to have people buy us.And somehow, I guess it really did work. Met Czarina again, both of us startled to be seeing each other; she said she'd be an Indie exhibitor at Komikon next time (wish her well with her plan). Around 3pm we are already sold out and has to just go and leave our space to them who came prepared with their 'bundles'.

But before actually going out, we went around for a while first, seeing a few cosplayers here and there and when we had our fill, we've settled down at Red Ribbon, finally, since we haven't sit on our reserved chairs for the entire day. There we decided to look for a photocopier around Pasong Tamo, which we did, one was pricier and the other Copylandia, just recommended us to the other one at Greenbelt because the guy in charge said that their copier wasn't available. We walked there alright and seeing the 'CLOSED' sign somewhat made me more exhausted than I already was. After those futile attempts, we decided Jin to have it all printed at home (theirs) since we really have no other choice left. We bought paper from NBS (I also bought the special Time issue with Mrs. Cory Aquino on the cover), ate Shabu Shabu at SM Foodcourt (oh I really missed the entire Ayala area... oh college days...) then finally went home. Argh. Headache setting in... or was it the driver who caused it?

Day 2 --------------------------------
I was on church half of the day, I didn't know what happened but it was Jin and Wilvic on the first shift and when I came there was like a reduction to about 50 percent of the people from yesterday. Bad for business, bad for my photo archives. And I didn't know what happened, but our excitement from yesterday was also reduced, we weren't as hyper as we were, even with an addition to our group there. Tepai introduced me to Martha (if my memory serves me right she was one of those responsible for Shizen) and then there was Leo who was cosplaying as well.

If we've sold out yesterday, today not even came close, but I did see a whole lot of cosplayers. If yesterday the one who played Taiga was a hit (today we got her pose in front of our booth on a casual dress!), this time around, the one in the red dress who was either Isabel or Giselle or whatever her name is who had so many guys asking her for poses (she was very nice actually because she oblige for pose requests and she smiles so sweet even after asking her so many times) that no matter how long I went out to go for snapping a photo of everyone else on the rest of the hall, there she was, still right in front on our booth, raiding crews of guys. Talk about celebrity eh?

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Other than a few celebrities (Maverick, Arnel Ignacio), local artists (most often it's Taga-Ilog, David, Abrera, Tortosa etc) are there as well. I don't know it with other groups but I rarely see anyone in costume actually doing an indie purchase unless they knew the artists involved. With that in mind I realized that it's probably a good idea that they had the indie on the far end of the hall. It filters out the oblivious and who still can't appreciate local talent... well, almost.