Organizers address rumors surrounding ComicCon Asia 2018

“[Let’s start with] the first question in everyone’s minds, the elephant in the room.”

The bloggers and guests present at the ComicCon Asia 2018 press conference fell silent as event producer Pauline Sofia Laping took the microphone.

“Mr. Manny Pacquiao is not funding ComicCon Asia 2018,” Laping stated matter-of-factly, in an attempt to definitively put to rest one of the most persistent issues surrounding the newly announced pop culture convention.

Laping explained that she and her fellow organizers — business development consultant Jay Bernardo and program director Boboy Yonzon — brought the senator on board due to his designation as the Philippines’ tourism ambassador.

The controversial southpaw’s appearance at the event’s official launch last Sept. 15 raised eyebrows among industry stalwarts  and convention-loving fans  alike. Aside from the fact that the sportsman-cum-statesman isn’t exactly the first name that comes to mind when it comes to geek culture, his popularity has yet to recover from the blow it took after his disparaging comments on same-sex marriage.

"Those statements are not insignificant and trivial. I'm sure a lot of the people who got mad at me for a personal decision I made went 'Yon lang? Para d'on lang hindi na siya mag-a-attend?' as if my reasons were insignificant and trivial. No, they're not. Ask any LGBT person whose lives are being judged and threatened," comics creator Gerry Alanguilan said in a separate interview with GMA News Online via email. 

"As I said in my blog post, the problem with Manny Pacquiao is that he is in a political position to make his personal beliefs into national policy. It's one thing for an ordinary person to hate gays, but if you are a politician who hates gays, that's a whole different level, because you can turn your hate into law," he added. 

However, the organizers believe that Pacquiao will be instrumental in presenting the Philippines to foreign exhibitors and investors as “[the] destination of choice for international conventions” — one of the reasons why ComicCon Asia exists.

Here comes a new challenger

The idea for ComicCon Asia, shared Laping, began when she visited the DC Universe exhibit at the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles. Her exposure to the set pieces and actual costumes of the characters in the DC movies made her realize what the preponderance of convention events in the Philippines has reinforced over the last decade: there is great potential in the geek market.

Through Laping and PSL Entertainment, the organizers partnered up with Nam Entertainment Group, a full-service media company based in Vietnam, to bring this idea closer to reality.

“[ComicCon Asia] is bigger than all of us, or any personality,” Yonzon declared.

It certainly is a bold and ambitious venture — a fact made apparent from the choice of name alone. While not affiliated with San Diego Comic-Con International (SDCC), which currently holds the trademark to the hyphenated “Comic-Con” name, ComicCon Asia seems to draw from the same well of inspiration as SDCC, giving it just the right qualities to make it feel like an official extension of the world-famous convention. “‘Yong “comic con” para sa akin, parang generic na ‘yan,” explained Yonzon, adding that they already registered ComicCon Asia as a trademark.

An observant blogger noticed that the logos of ComicCon Asia and SDCC seemed quite similar. Yonzon clarified, however, that the similarities were purely coincidental. The logo creator incorporated the comicbook medium’s distinctive elements — sequential art, framing, paneling — into the final design.

The addition of the eye on the ComicCon Asia logo was a deliberate attempt to emphasize the significance of visual perception across the various fields of interest that ComicCon Asia plans to cover: comics, movie, TV shows, manga, anime, toys, and gaming.

The ComicCon Asia logo and the SDCC logo.

Three-hit combo!

In addition to boosting tourism, ComicCon Asia aims to introduce “new and exciting convention experiences” to the public and provide a venue for Filipino artists and creators to showcase their work (likely in the same vein as the annual Komikon and its satellite events).

“This is a conducive place to make all of this happen,” beamed Yonzon, pertaining to both the Philippines and ComicCon Asia itself. “We want this event to have an Asian ‘face’.”

The founders plan to bring in artists from different Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam. As Yonzon stressed, inclusivity is the name of the game — which was why the founders confirmed that they had already reached out to other local convention organizers for a potential collaboration.

ComicCon Asia will also include a series of special events in its program, including One Shot (an opportunity for aspiring Filipino creators to pitch their artistic concepts to potential investors, showcase their portfolio, or simply find employment) and The Great Filipino Graphic Novel Contest (a venue for submitting graphic novel drafts for industry veterans to review, endorsed by Yonzon as the “first” competition of its kind in the country).

As for the guest list? “There are really big names,” said Yonzon, explaining that at this point, they simply do not want to jump the gun.

Ready! Fight!

Currently, only a handful of details about the event have been set in stone — the date (March 24-25, 2018), venue (the SMX Convention Center, a popular venue for similar events such as AsiaPOP Comicon and ToyCon), and planned layout of the event area, to be precise.

However, according to Bernardo, he and his co-founders are preparing to deliver a unique, tech-boosted convention experience. Among the plans for the convention are an all-in-one mobile app specially made for the event, incorporating functions developed by Bernardo’s very own company, StartUp Village.

During a short presentation right before the Q&A session, Bernardo posed a rhetorical question: “How much impact can your idea generate?” 

In the case of ComicCon Asia, the founders seem confident that this newest addition to the ever-expanding world of Philippine pop culture events is destined to make waves. — AT, GMA News