Use The Pores

We are a lil' behind with this post event review sort of thing (most especially with some of the events no longer THAT current/talked about anymore).
So we've decided to speed it up a little with as less explanation and non-sense as possible.
So here is your SSM! Monthly Report (2013-2014).

WINTER KOMIKON 2013
https://www.facebook.com/events/538191652905125/
The event that WE got banned from.

?

Yeh, IKR????
It's as crazy as not getting picked for the SULYAP 2 anthology...wups!
But lucky for us, we had genuinely caring friends such as ROB & APOL.

Whom took us in like the squatter that we are.
But alas, we're here and time to thank the following individuals.
the cutest couple of them all, Mervin & Princess

Vintage SSM! customer, Nico Patiño

Lorna Lovelace

Jeffrey Apostol

Señor Benj

Hubster & Paige.

Mr. & future Mrs. Balita.

and this lovely girl who chooses to remain anonymous.

Side quest : Apol's OIL ON CANVAS

The crowd.

Our favoritest panel ever.

Highlight of the event (not pictured here) finally met our MWAHAHA idols, MARCUS NADA & BRU SIM.

And this is how we spent our Christmas.
Teaching indeed has it's own rewards....LITERALLY!

Received these gifts from our students.
Most of which were hair care products(and most of which were for girls even) and an alarm clock!

Hahaha, thanks for reminding us that we stink and we're never on time.
You guys are the best!

Not knowing that we were gonna receive anything for christmas. We initially bought this OISHI BIG BAG.

Which we eventually emptied even before the yuletide season ended.
But the nifty Oishi Tin Can is for keeps and it's well worth the entire purchase.

Ok, enough goofing around. Back to the very first event of the year.

SMO COMICCON
https://www.facebook.com/smo.comicon
which took place in De La Salle University - Manila.

Which was a fun experience in itself.
The venue was pretty spacious and suprisingly enough it looked more like an actual CONVENTION rather than some crummy-ass school fair.

Sales wise, we did get to sell one book within the whole afternoon.
So YAY to this really really pretty lady right here.

I'm not gonna say I'm disappointed but hey, we got in this industry not knowing what to expect.
Some events are good and some events would be not so much.
This would rank as ok since they venue makes up for the lackluster sales.
Which is quite understandable since we're practically nobodies and if it wasn't for
ROB's introduction, it would've even remained that way for the entire day. So three cheers for ROB!

And besides we are not in the proper position to complain since the booth was practically given to us by Rob for FREE and out of the kindness of his heart. So to bash the event right out would be disrespectful and downright mean.
And besides, we did receive complimentary mineral waters.

Hey, that's something!

Better than nothing, amirightpeople?

And speaking of ROB, he was one of the guest speakers for the event.
OK NA SANA YUNG INTRODUCTION....
but wait let's let him talk right after we raffle some unnecessary prizes.

Rob did a splendid job. We were actually expecting him to drop a pipebomb because he clearly did a very CM PUNK move by sitting in the middle of the stage and what not.

There are also talks from those dudes from ANIMAHENASYON.

Sorry , we didn't catch their names and besides not that they're gonna visit our website anytime soon.

So no worries, bee happy!

The last panelists for the program were the cosplayers from JUSTICE PH.

Where they share their hobbies, interests and various outreach projects that they were part of.
Making them real life heroes rather than just costumed individuals.

Rather JUSTICE FOREVER-ey brotherhood/alliance too if we must say so ourselves.
*that's a KICK-ASS reference, for all you ignoramuses!

Met WINA WONDERS and the boys from ZILCH GAMES.

Also present were the boys from KOMIKULT.

Not to be outdone by the boys from the one and only, OSMOSI CREW.

Oh here are the winners for the cosplay competition.

And might we add that the judges were all VA-VA-VOOM themselves (Picture unavailable, darn it!)
Oh wait, there it is!
Save Image as, type a clever title,crop-crop here and THERE!
Done!

KOMIKON BAGUIO
https://www.facebook.com/KomikonBaguio

Which took place in BAGUIO (obviously!)
Was late again and was made even more embarassing when the entire bus of people had to wait for our tardy ass to arrive.

That's alright (I guess?), now off we go!

Didn't remember a whole lot about the bus ride. Didn't get much sleep either.
Guy coughing out a lung is still there.
We arrived in the morning. Around 5-6-ish.
And mornings in Baguio ain't no sunshine stroll in the park.
It's pretty damn cold, man!

But nothing a lil' strawberry taho can't fix! Hurray!

(pic courtesy of I NEED ATTENTION!)

One thing we noticed other than the change in venue is that every driver in BAGUIO seems to be in a hurry or some sort.
We'd swear that every driver must have got their license from SEGA.
Because hitching a ride literally feels like a scene from either CRAZY TAXI / OUTRUN.

We went on a side quest yet again.
This time to the LILY OF THE VALLEY Organic Farm.

Which looks fine and pretty relaxing if we must say so ourselves.

Played us some MAGIC THE GATHERING.

Then we've finally decided to have breakfast at a really fancy looking place called CAFE BY THE RUINS.

(pic courtesy of A Dose Of Happy.)
Where in we had a  really tasty burger that came from the ruins.

(pic courtesy of Where To Eat In Baguio.)

So that's that, no reason to be late, right?????

WRONG!

We got

not only did we got...

we got SUPER LOST, man!

and in the most embarassing display of old age and fatness(sweating & catching our breath and all).
we have difficulty catching up with everyone on all those merciless inclined and uphill zones.

Curse Baguio for all those uneven terrains and even harder to find venues like BBCC.
And for those not in the know, BBCC stood for BAGUIO-BENGUET CONVENTION CENTER.

We're not so sure if the venue got smaller or are there more people but it's definitely not the same.

The marshalls and crew were all more than supportive and helpful as always.

Let's just say we didn't sell as many as we did last year.
Which was a little bit of a let down since we did get to buy a whole lot of discounted but more in good condition books from Mt. Cloud
Bookshop. A thing we weren't able to do if we weren't too sleepy/tired/bothered by all that unnecessary walk-a-thon we did just moments ago.

Trizha/Wina/Josel and April left around 12pm.
Which left us 4 people less for the 2nd QBCCC IRON MAN invitational challenge.
We were already  short of one extra playable character. A character more popularly known as

So far, all that's left were Kowtow Komiks

and Silent Sanctum Manga (hey, that's us!)

But despite our losses we do have some new tributes.

New challengers, namely RASEL TOKWA and CARLOROZY both backed up by their significant others.

Met the folks from FUM Magazine,

Giodesk and wife,

Ikos Komiks,

Point Zero Comics,

502 Komiks  + UP Grail,

Baguio's very own, Majic Asbucan,

Black Ink Comics,

& last but not the least The Komikon Committee.

Guest speakers for the event were Mark Rosario (not photographed,we're very sorry),
Sir CARVER,

JP Palabon (no picture available either),
and Sir Michael "Kanal" David.
No picture on stage but here's a picture of him manning his booth.

And we strongly believe that both Sir David and JP didn't really have their own air/facetime other than
being part of the panelist which was a free for all and had not really highlighted their individual artistic prowess.

Plus we were also lucky enough to have snapped away on some of the more interesting things like the very cute SUPERGIRL.

Spider-man in absolute fan mode.

Sir Randy Valiente's 'Murica shirt.

Aj's geekery.

Aj's probinsyano pose.

Orange lady...ok this one actually came from the Komikon Baguio Like page.

And of course our beloved SSM! customers.

Proud to have met Derek Dumasi from the Currency Store.

They are giving away free money and they are neither DYING nor NIGERIAN!

Like them.
Do it, do it naow!

Everyone went home with a "souvenir".

Surprise-surprise,

IT'S A BARREL MAN!

Disappointingly enough this was our only loot from the said event.

And while the other one was essentially a trade so we only bought one book and
4 pieces of art prints from Trizhie. And that's that!

Ah oh yeah, we also bought a box of MISTER DONUT.

Awww how Baguio-ey!
Sorry nalamog, nahigaan ko kasi. Kaya nga kumalat din yung mga fillings.
Hahaha, sorry mommy at kuya!

And of last but not the least....the most recent one, ELBIKON.
ELBIKON is so epic that it deserves another entry by itself.
So say farewell to all these loser events and see you on the next entry where we talk about the really fun and really out of this world experience that is ELBIKON.
Tata, Faqkers!