Well, it's been a rather un-summery summer for me this year. I've started seeing products hyping the next season like on beer cans that made me realize I should take a "time out" and maybe go to the beach or something. I did manage to hit a bunch of festivals over the course of July and August but it still didn't really click with me for some reason.
Anyway, I hit up Comitia and mistakenly Comic City this past weekend with Eric. I say "mistakenly" cuz when I got to Big Sight, I just wandered into the big hall I'm so accustomed to going to where Comitia usually sets up but oddly had a show called Comic City in it's place. I assumed they had changed the show name without telling me but after walking around for about a hour and realizing 90% of the artists and fans there were chicks and an equal 90% of the books were yaoi and BL based it quickly dawned on me I'd made a mistake. I did find this awesome Initial D/Oishinbo mash-up comic, though, so all was not lost.
I asked around and was told Comitia was in fact here but on the other side of the convention center. Dammit... I had to grab Eric who wasn't carrying a cell and finding an asian person in a massive crowd without a cell phone is a high ordeal. Luckily we had agreed to meet up but it was still about an hour till the agreed time. So, shit. I was way too pissed at the show and myself by this point so just hung around and people watched until Eric showed up. As I type this I'm still annoyed at myself for not being more observant but, above all, there were no big banners or signs put up by Comitia directing the crowd. Motherfuckers...
Pictures of Comic City:
Fast forward. We make it to Comitia. The hall is a lot smaller and L-shaped. I'm wondering if the show downsized this year or was just beaten to the punch of reserving the bigger con space. Whatevs... I really like this show. For one thing, the people are always nice and polite but I guess that's across the board for any con in Japan but mostly cuz it sticks to touting original creations and characters. I picked up a couple of books this time and marvel at the high-production values of the comics once again. It never ceases to amaze me how everything is glue bound and professional looking. Very few stapled zines. Also, no big-ass and unnecessary displays. It's all very uniform and grounded. I took a few pics but I apologize for their rather pedestrian nature. I wasn't in the mood to get crafty after wasting 2 hours prior.
The demographic is pretty evident when comparing the photos from CC and Comitia. They had editors doing portfolio reviews again but I opted to just watch this time and not participate. I've got my own thing happening very soon so I wanted to save my nerves I guess. There was a portion of the room where they'd erected partitions and had illustrations up like a mini-gallery. That was kinda neat and different.
I don't have any enlightening observations this time around. I think I've done the show too many times now. It was nice seeing familiar faces behind the tables with new work, though, and seeing their stuff evolve and improve artistically and thematically but mostly thematically. If anything, the impression I got was one of movement. Not standing still.
TAK
Anyway, I hit up Comitia and mistakenly Comic City this past weekend with Eric. I say "mistakenly" cuz when I got to Big Sight, I just wandered into the big hall I'm so accustomed to going to where Comitia usually sets up but oddly had a show called Comic City in it's place. I assumed they had changed the show name without telling me but after walking around for about a hour and realizing 90% of the artists and fans there were chicks and an equal 90% of the books were yaoi and BL based it quickly dawned on me I'd made a mistake. I did find this awesome Initial D/Oishinbo mash-up comic, though, so all was not lost.
I asked around and was told Comitia was in fact here but on the other side of the convention center. Dammit... I had to grab Eric who wasn't carrying a cell and finding an asian person in a massive crowd without a cell phone is a high ordeal. Luckily we had agreed to meet up but it was still about an hour till the agreed time. So, shit. I was way too pissed at the show and myself by this point so just hung around and people watched until Eric showed up. As I type this I'm still annoyed at myself for not being more observant but, above all, there were no big banners or signs put up by Comitia directing the crowd. Motherfuckers...
Pictures of Comic City:
Fast forward. We make it to Comitia. The hall is a lot smaller and L-shaped. I'm wondering if the show downsized this year or was just beaten to the punch of reserving the bigger con space. Whatevs... I really like this show. For one thing, the people are always nice and polite but I guess that's across the board for any con in Japan but mostly cuz it sticks to touting original creations and characters. I picked up a couple of books this time and marvel at the high-production values of the comics once again. It never ceases to amaze me how everything is glue bound and professional looking. Very few stapled zines. Also, no big-ass and unnecessary displays. It's all very uniform and grounded. I took a few pics but I apologize for their rather pedestrian nature. I wasn't in the mood to get crafty after wasting 2 hours prior.
The demographic is pretty evident when comparing the photos from CC and Comitia. They had editors doing portfolio reviews again but I opted to just watch this time and not participate. I've got my own thing happening very soon so I wanted to save my nerves I guess. There was a portion of the room where they'd erected partitions and had illustrations up like a mini-gallery. That was kinda neat and different.I don't have any enlightening observations this time around. I think I've done the show too many times now. It was nice seeing familiar faces behind the tables with new work, though, and seeing their stuff evolve and improve artistically and thematically but mostly thematically. If anything, the impression I got was one of movement. Not standing still.
TAK
posted by TAK at 8:43 PM
