Singapore Toys and Comics Convention - Sunday

STCC finally came to a close last night, and I think overall it turned out better then many of us had expected. There were complaints about the size of the exhibition space, crowdedness and teething problems with queue-organization...but I guess its difficult to avoid these things at a first time event. Attendance was probably bout 50-70,000, which is impressive given even San  Diego CC is bout 125,000 a year.



One great thing bout STCC was seeing so many fellow creators together; left to right above are Tan Eng Huat,  Kenny Chua, Rixou, Michael and Julian 'Lefty' of Gilamon, Derrick, and Kai and DCJW from IFS (the name of the girl in blue escapes me :p)



Not to mention the ever ebullient Jerome Hinds , Skan Srisuwan and Zemotion (who had to run off for an assigment in Paris on saturday, so its her sister assistant (?) and Geraldine and fellow Wacom exhibitor in the pic :p).



Left is super helpful Winston Goh from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose has a folder full of excellent Wonder Women sketches by various artists and far right is Gary Erskine, guest artist whose credits include 2000AD and Dan Dare! :)



"3 Guys in a Booth" reunited: me and two of Singapore's most intriguing and talented cartoonists, Troy Chin and Ken Foo.



Us again, and Eddie from Collatarel Damage Studios....



Before you knew it, it was closing time, so it was goodbye to the Booth That Didn't Exist, and a near miss as I almost tossed out a box before noticing neat drawings on it by Danny Yee (L-R: Oliver, Danny, Sue, Atari!) . End-of-convention hour is always kinda sad; maybe its the (re)realisation of the transitory nature of it all. Sub specie aeternum, right? :)

The organisers have already said there'll be another convention next year. They'll probably secure a bigger space. Personally I don't have a lot of reference points for what conventions are like beyond SDCC, so it's hard  to envisage any model to aspire to besides San Deigo, though maybe that's always going to be a touchstone rather than realistic goal.

Aside from attracting more artists, creators and publishers to attend, I guess what STCC might need in the future would be more exclusive launches, maybe a seminar or three, maybe some tie-ins with Mediacrop etc for TV serial or movie launches to add a bit of celebrity razzmatazz :p And maybe some  easy access rest/food/beverage areas! :)

Still all in all it was an excellent start, but now its back to work work work.  But last but not least: students from CHIJ with their first runners-up Lego model and my favourite costume of the day! :)

Singapore Toys and Comics Convention - Saturday

It was the first day STCC was open to the public today, and many of us had thought it might turn out to be a sedate affair, so it was a real surprise on arriving in the morning to see the queue that had  built up by bout 11...



Not quite the San Diego Comic Con , but given its a first time affair, the turnout and buzz was pretty impressive, and those of us who had rented booths were left frazzled (in a  good way) by the end of the day by the activity involved - meeting fellow fans and creators, selling merchandise, all that.

There was also was great toys on display, including an excellent Star Wars section that had a whole bunch of storm troopers, the debut of the Clone Wars toys line, and best of all the full old school line up from the 70s and 80s, including two of my faves, Han Solo and Darth Vader in all their limited-articulation glory :) The presence of stores like Basheer Books, offering proper convention discounts, debut showings of the Manga Batman anime and all sorts of competitions also added to the general atmosphere.



One letdown was the absence of Lao Fu Zhi/ Old Master Q artist Joseph Wong Chak, who was unfortunately unable to make it due to 'urgent  personal circumstances'. Generally the number of celeb-level artists present was on the low side, and too few people had risked taking on Artist Alley booths (on unfounded fears as it turned out), but in general it did feel like a small -scale SDCC, with lots of growth potential. A lot of publishers and companies approached apparently want to wait for the second STCC  before committing resources to taking part, and I do hope that the convention gets bigger and better every year :)

As was most the Singapore fraternity was there: from IFS, to ACAS, Ken Foo, Troy Chin, plus some from across the causeway like Gilamon and Gempak; even Tan Eng Huat was wondering around for a bit ...more pics of everyone tomo! :p



For lots more photos go:

http://sgfrag.net/?p=3689

Chinese People Know Kung Fu

finished version of the painting... thinking of trying it out the UOB painting thing... might not be their cup of tea but what the hey :p *

*as it turned out i totally missed the small window of 6 hours they had for submissions, as i was playing footie instead :p

Singapore Toy and Comic Convention

Will be at STCC next weekend (27-29 June) at the Artist Alley, along with fellow creators like Troy Chin, Ken Foo, Zemotion and others :)

Its the first comics convention we've had here since the 80s i think, so do come and support the event! :)

http://www.sgtoyandcomiccon.com/