Otagonzo: Metro Comic Con 2009
by otaking on Aug.09, 2009, under Otagonzo
Yoo-hoo! I'm over here! Cobra t-shirt and lightsaber, just like I said! My neck's ready for punching nao!
(Again, like the previous Otagonzo, this isn’t a comprehensive two-day report. This is just what it was like for me to attend Metro Comic Con 2009, nothing more.)
I arrived at Megatrade Hall shortly after lunch with the First Mate and Marielle, her niece, who was excited to attend a con with us and her friends. Unlike me, she didn’t have any other agendas — no need to check out the local comic book scene, no need to meet artists, no need to look out for neck-punching assailants.
Unlike me, she had no expectations.
There were two lines for tickets, P100 per person. I stood on the left, and Ian stood on the right. My ticket lady immediately closed her booth. I cut in line in front of Ian on the right line and the left ticket booth reopened shortly after.
“I think someone warned them I was coming,” I said.
We noticed that ahead of us in line, being frisked by the guards, was Pedobear. There was a little girl who wouldn’t leave Pedobear alone, and kept hugging him and tugging at his arm and talking to him.
“Run, little girl, run for your fresh, unspoiled life!” we whispered, wondering if her parents understood the wrongness of the entire scene.
Thank heaven for little girls!
Probably not.
Upon entering the hall, the first thing I noticed was how much space there was to walk around in. None of the insane shoulder-to-shoulder crowds of Ozine, but more people than at the Komikon at UP Bahay ng Alumni. A happy medium, I guess.
The next thing I noticed was the chunky Stormshadow on stage, and how for some reason the hosts were promoting another con, a cosplay con to be held at some point in the near future, which really made no sense at a comic con.
Before leaving the dojo to join Cobra and get a cool code name, Stormshadow was affectionately nicknamed 'Chunkybutt' by his fellow ninjas. This is the true reason for his vendetta against Snake Eyes.
As usual, great big toy displays featured prominently in the hall, as well as a centrally-located G.I. Joe video display. I guess you have to plug your sponsors.
Then I noticed what I WASN’T noticing — where were the comics?!
I wandered the aisles of toys and accessories and doujin t-shirts before I discovered the comic creators, tucked away in a little, poorly-ventilated corner on the other side of the hall from the stage.
"Why are we relegated to a dimly-lit corner at a con that supposed to be for us?"
I was appalled — and a little relieved that I ended up not plugging The Vigilant at this con. Sitting along a cramped table, bleary-eyed, hoping the people who paid to get it would pay for my stuff… not my idea of a fun afternoon.
Especially since for some reason, I began to itch.
My wife, who is far more sensitive to allergens than I am, was scratching a lot and was already starting to feel ill. What was going on? Did someone plant black mold spores into the ventilation system? Whatever it was, the longer I stayed, the less well I felt.
Why did things turn out this way? The dolls and sculptures, many of which having nothing to do with actual comic books, had a far more prominent display than the comic books themselves. People posed for pictorials with cosplayers and rode a Harry Potter broom I call the Nimbus 1 on account of its shabby, old-looking condition. An agitated-looking middle-aged man wearing a sponsor tag who reminded me of Milton from Office Space kept shooing us away from the tables, even though we, intrepid troopers that we were, had been at the con all afternoon without sitting and should therefore be rewarded for our efforts, instead of the drive-by cosplayers who took over the tables before us without ordering a single thing from the food stalls.
I bought a few black-and-white indie comics, and one the artist thanked me profusely, and eagerly wrote down her Deviantart site. Unfortunately I lent my copies to K after I read them and I’ll add the address later. 
Marielle met up with her friends, who as it turns out all cosplayed as countries from Hetalia: Axis Powers. Being ignorant of the series, I didn’t realize that Marielle herself was going as Canada, despite being unable to tell whether Canada is a country or a continent.
"Don't tell them that!"
Suddenly I spotted Mica, the increasingly-famous cosplayer known for her spot-on portrayal of Taiga from Toradora! Inspiration hit and I decided that it would be a very good thing for all otakudom if I somehow got her to pose with my lightsaber instead of her wooden practice sword. I looked at K, who had my Canon 10D, and grinned. She nodded.
You may all thank me now.
Shuu, the artist for Vigilant, arrived with her friends. Unfortunately I now had to hastily head home to prevent the First Mate from keeling over from anaphylactic shock. The rest of the crew, who stayed behind, but were now developing sniffles, had ice cream sundaes with her and eagerly took photos of character designs and unfinished pages of upcoming issues.
Jenner and his bodyguards, Jaden in his broadcast booth from Vigilant: Radio Free Morningstar
Afterward, they all headed over to the Geekdom for drinks, lightsaber duels, and Chowder. Not the soup, the cartoon. Everyone discussed the Comic Con, what they should’ve done differently, what they did better than other cons, and so on. We talked about how the comic creators were marginalized, how cosplay seemed to be taking over even marginally-related cons, and what the hell was in the air that made us all sick.
Marielle, on the other hand, seemed content to quietly play Pirates! on my PSP. I asked her what she thought of the Metro Comic Con this year.
“Awesome,” she replied.
I envy her.
33 Comments for this entry
4 Trackbacks / Pingbacks for this entry
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Open Forum: What do people want from cons, anyway? - Project Otaking
August 10th, 2009 on 4:29 pm[...] the widely divergent opinions about last weekend’s Metro Comic Con 2009, especially in the comments section of my coverage of the event, I’ve been wondering, what exactly do people want out of conventions? I mean, there are the [...]
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OtaGonzo: The First Philippine Cosplay Mini-Summit - Project Otaking
August 16th, 2009 on 10:44 pm[...] remembered my wife’s niece and her friends at the Metro Comic Con, happily cosplaying in a hodge-podge of hastily thrown-together clothes, without a care for cosplay [...]
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OtaGonzo: Otaku Taiki 2009 - Project Otaking
August 24th, 2009 on 1:22 pm[...] August, eliciting doubts from the community whether the organizers could pull this off. Compared to Metro Comic Con, Otaku Taiki had less than half the space, and was held on only one day — Sunday — [...]
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black men rape white man pics and movies
December 25th, 2011 on 3:11 pmbondage rape forced fantasy…
boys don’t cry rape scene…
August 9th, 2009 on 5:12 pm
I wasn’t sure if it was a country or a continent! Like… AUSTRALIA!
Yeeeeees~ envy my happiness XD
Comic Con was awesomesauce! XDDD
August 9th, 2009 on 9:52 pm
I’m glad you enjoyed yourself! Let’s go to the next one!
August 9th, 2009 on 5:55 pm
Mica + Lightsaber = WIN.
August 9th, 2009 on 6:40 pm
Lightsaber looks good on digital images. o_o
August 9th, 2009 on 9:53 pm
Yeah, that’s a strange thing about lightsabers. They look better to cameras than to the naked eye.
August 9th, 2009 on 7:54 pm
Oh yes. And I need pictures of moi
Compy class is on Friday though 
XD But yeah XD
August 9th, 2009 on 9:53 pm
I’ll try to send them to you.
August 9th, 2009 on 8:48 pm
niceness. i mean, really.
August 9th, 2009 on 9:33 pm
Good to see you again o> and yeah I was expecting something more from MCC like comics???
August 9th, 2009 on 9:54 pm
Yeah, I mean, it’s in the name, right?
And it was great hanging out
August 9th, 2009 on 10:45 pm
And I was sooo waiting for someone to punch you in the neck and it didn’t happen! Soli nyo 100 pesos ko! XD
August 9th, 2009 on 10:03 pm
I envy you for having the chance to go there. And I am glad for Hetalia cosplay! Canada is one cute country really XD Glad Marielle had fun at the con.
And I hope you and your First Mate will both feel better especially since tomorrow’s a Monday.
Take care!
August 9th, 2009 on 10:50 pm
LOL. You really did wear the Cobra shirt and even brought your lightsaber.
The biggest regret of not getting to Comic Con was to buy some of the comics you have. =[
I really do think that if someone takes a smack of your neck, he'd get it back 10x times over. =]
August 11th, 2009 on 4:12 pm
Haha! Vigilant isn’t out yet though, but keep posted!
As for the smack on the head — thanks for the vote of confidence
August 9th, 2009 on 10:51 pm
Here’s what I can say about Metro Comic Con ’09 (and this sorta relates to the Change Manifesto too)…
I plan to critique the event as constructively as I can, on my blog.
If it means getting snarky at times, then so be it. (That’s how I like to write.)
If it means taking second guesses about the resources and initiative of the organizers, then so be it. (But i’ll check my facts, beforehand, as much as possible.)
If it means some hurt feelings, then so be it. (What they say about making omelets…)
And if my critique gets totally ignored, or it doesn’t foster discussion, then so be it.
Why? Because I will learn from the arguable strengths of the event (great sound system; efficient program scheduling; extensive sponsorship) and its relative shortcomings (uninteresting booth designs; limited scope of panel discussions; lack of actual comics related content). And I will put on an independent publishing expo, on my own terms. And nobody will hear another word about it, until its ready to be promoted.
I realize this can be seen as fostering divisiveness, but it’s like Otaking (or one of his allies) said in another comments thread: there’s a difference between offering credible competition, and just taking potshots because you can. I just want to broaden the range of content, and provide real alternatives.
August 11th, 2009 on 3:53 pm
I disagree with broadening the scope. I’d prefer narrowing it down to niches, as you alluded to with limited scope panel discussions. Thanks for your two cents.
August 10th, 2009 on 12:15 am
and on a vaguely unrelated note, i got some pretty good deals on toys.
August 10th, 2009 on 12:41 am
Haha! It’s a pity that Taiga wasn’t able to pose with the lightsaber for very long, considering that a crowd formed around her at the time. She said it was too heavy. XDDDDD
August 10th, 2009 on 9:16 am
To be fair, between the toy booths, there were peeps selling comic book sets (even weird ones like an entire set of the “Suicide Squad,” or even a book that said “297 Pages of the Tick”) for decent prices, and some old second hand stuff. There was also a middle aged lady was arguing with her husband (he looked like her husband) about why “From Hell” was on their sell pile. So comics? yeah it got a showing. The independent guys in the corner by the food booths? not so much.
At least their patrons had space to walk around, was close enough to the booth to eat, and waren’t being disturbed by the stage people.
We really need a comicket.
August 10th, 2009 on 5:32 pm
my expectations were a tad bit high myself i think. for a comics convention there weren’t tha many comics and there was a whole lot of toys and other merchandise being sold.
as a any other con it was okay, but it was disapointing for a comcis convention.
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