Archive for the 'Merchandise' Category

The year is coming to an end soon, and with the New Year less than a few hours away, I have to clear my posts.

Pardon me for my outdated post, as I was dragging myself to work with my ill body for the past weeks.

Singapore Toys, Games, and Comics Convention was held over 10th – 12th Dec this year.  This year planning was very thoughtful and the lineup was great.

Let me start with Day 1 – 10th Dec 2010.

I reached the venue early and got to walk around the halls before the crowds from level 3 enters and got to see some of the behind the scenes preparation and rehearsals. Media kit provided for the medias are very helpful and informative, it comes with the time table of the happenings, catalog of the exclusive releases and collectibles, opening media release, fact sheets, and  introduction of conference and panels and it also came along with a media kit CD medium, with PDF, reference  pictures and photos.

During the media preview, the director of the convention gave the opening speech and with him are some guest invited to the event; Alex Maleev, Esad Ribic, C.B. Cebulski, Tim Tsui, Matt Fraction, Gail Simone, and Leinil Yu.

A short QnA were held before the doors were opened.

Here are some of the extracts.

Media : What's the greatest challenge in your profession?

C.B. Cebulski: As talent scout for Marvel Comics, I travel around the world and meet so many talented artists, and  the biggest challenge that I find is actually getting the artist into the system because there are so much good,  artistic, creative talent out there, that finding a home for all of them is impossible.

Matt Fraction: American comics come out every 30 days, whether or not you are in the mood to write it, it has to come out. We have to work consisently and not even a day off.

Gail Simone: This is as Matt said, something that has to come out on time, consisently, all the time. And as  scriptwriters, we have to get the work done on time, so the artist have the time to do their best work. If we were late, it really has a terrible ripple effect. But I don't find it a challenge to be one of the female up here,  alot of people asked me this question. I enjoyed my work and to me I don't really think about a female writing comic until other people bring it up to me. 

Tim Tsui: To be on schedule, because we always need to fly here fly there and we need to prepare everything for the worst.

Media : How has social media and new digital technologies impacted the comics industry?

Gail Simone: I'm pretty excited about it actually. One of the issues we have been dealing with comics is how to bring readers in, readers maybe have a hard time getting the actual books. And with DC we are doing alot of digital comics right now and we are seeing to reach a much wider audience, much more worldwide, which is another reason I'm very excited about this particular convention because western comics are no longer just in America, we also have online content that is available only online. I think its all for the good that the business is growing in getting more and more diversity, more different types of content.

C.B. Cebulski: From the fan point-of-view, its easy for the creators to communicate with the fans, and get the message out there using social media like Facebook and Twitter, and it brings the comics community close together. Back in the days we used of have just the last issue box, fan letters at the back with comics, thats the form of communication with the publishers, but now we have instant access, in the international level it had brought the world more closer together. Gail and I have been tweeting here in Singapore the response is fantastic. From the business point-of-view for me, from a talent scout point-of-view is that it makes my job mush easier because I'm able to get instant access to artists around the world through Facebook and Twitter and its easier for them to find me and me to find them. And the last aspect is from the publishing point-of-view, which is still an uncharted territory because we have so many mediums out there, that there is no set kind of platform. From the publishing pov we are still learning and growing, and publishers are all working with the distributors trying to find a "happy medium" for everyone that both can exist; printed comics and digital mediums. The comics business will keep growing and need to learn to adapt with it.

I would like to comment on the way this convention was organised, the organizers plan for space to queue, example the entry queue at level 3 before the crowd can enter the halls, the AKB48 queue for the handshake at the stage, the walk of fame where the fans get to meet their favorite artists to get them to draw and sign for them.