Silent Sanctum Manga: Elbi Metal

As promised (last March 4 to be exact,tee-hee!),
an event so EPICALLY fun that it deserves it's own entry.
Ladies and germs, we give to you ELBIKON 2014.

Again, just like in BAGUIO. This wasn't our first time either.
So we'd know what to expect and if our memory serves us right, we did have a fun time back then.
And surely enough, this event even surpasses our preconceived expectations.

As we've mentioned early on (and pretty extemporaneously) and in our native tongue.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.211297165737033.1073741845.161666594033424&type=3
That this event was by far one of the best by our standards.

And this is saying a lot since we've been through the BEST and the WORST.
And we couldn't stress this enough: kung wala ka dun, WALA KA! Ba't ka pa nasa mundong ito?
Ba't ka pa nagkokomiks?
Because seriously, if you missed out on ELBIKON...the remainders of your life ain't worth living.

We arrived pretty early, which would come as a shocker but not entirely because we carpooled with our buddies from HAPPY LOCKJAW.

The venue looks promising and sort of cemetery-ish even.

Oh and that's not a diss on the venue.
We actually have a thing for cemeteries, no seriously!

The place looks great as it is. With plenty of greens and breeze all around.

A definite change from the usual conventions set anywhere within the metro.

We had to bring this up again but the centerpiece of the venue kinda looked like the WARP ZONE from dem CASTLEVANIA game. And a lil' bit of WWE's Elimination Chamber.

And again, not a diss on the place for we are really big castlevania guys.

Evidently within our books and we even had an engaging conversation about it with one of the attendees.
Yeah, it was THAT serious!

Once more, kudos to THE GRAPHIC LITERATURE GUILD of UP LB for making life worth living again.
And why you might ask?
I mean, why the hell not?

For the first time in our miserable lives we were treated like KINGS (QUEENS even for the girls).

As food were served on an hour to hour basis.
We shit you not, the hospitality and service that they gave was incomparable to none.

Take your pick, will it be NOODLES, COOKIES or HOT SOUP?

And it's not like : "Have you eaten, No? Now, go fuck yourself!"
That would've been the norm at a run-of-the-mill convention setting.
But not at ELBIKON.
Elbikon is what Spongebob would've refer to as

"ADVANCED DARKNESS"

You'd feel ashamed to have seconds because the people are so gracious and that you'd develop that guilty feeling that you should be paying for some of the food you're munching down.

What broke our heart was an inside tip in with regards to the event 'sort of not earning as much because
of all the free food. We really felt sorry for ourselves and if there were any means possible that we could give something back to them (like right away)then that would've been just right for the hardworking men and women of Elbikon.

But alas, we are not some rich philanthropist playboy with an iron suit or some random vagrant disguised as a magical fairy. We are but humble artists.

And with that in mind, every single request, every drawing...we see to it that we give something EXTRA.
Making every sketch count, making it EXTRA special/memorable and that all their efforts were well appreciated.

Well, PUNS are a bit of our forte so this was how some of them looked like.

We do regrettably had missed out on one. And she's quite a darling even!
We sincerely hope to see her again so that we could correct the wrongs of the past and undo the future
that is AKU!

Guest speakers for the event were as follow,
Jesie Castro

(We sincerely wish we could have zoomed in on this or something, we're terribly sorry, m'man!)
Tepai Pascual
(Argh, no picture available. But here she is at her table.)

Manix Abrera
(Argh, no picture available either. But here he is signing his books.)

Met some familiar faces like,
RASEL & SHEENNA

HAPPY LOCKJAW

CHED

NOEL

AERON

GIOGA

BOKIMKATJE

DAYO KOMIKS

ELBERT OR

RUSTICO LIMOSINERO

Kuya JON ZAMAR

and NIKKO VALENZUELA (yeah, but he's a lil' busy right now. Let's check back on him a little later on.)

Still busy I guess....

The sights and sounds:

Friendly Visitors to our noble booth:

Fur Buddy

Physicists

Sheena

Super Zoom

Ched

Neil

Prof. Xtian

We sold a lot of komiks namely COSMIC FRIENDS OSMOSI.

And quite frankly, we're very proud of this book.
And it makes us even more happier that so many people could learn to appreciate a collaborative effort
from the greatest supergroup of all time, THE QBCCC OSMOSI CREW.

We sold 10 copies of THE BODYSHOTS.

We could have sold more but quite frankly we weren't expecting any of this.
The stocks we brought were the same stocks from BAGUIO.
And truth be told we didn't have that many stickers. Refusing to sell incomplete books....yeah, that's a SSM! tradition right there!
Need I say more about PUNCHPUNK/PUNKPUNCH?
The reality is just starting to sink in and we are nerding to fuck out because we just realized that this right here is one helluva sweet deal.
And surprisingly enough all proceeds were going straight to our pockets....SWEEETS!

We've saved the best for last.
For the bakers of the said heavenly cookies are finally here.

We kid you not but this our very first time to sign a copy for collection purposes and another for reading purposes.

That sort of thing has NEVER EVER happened before.
And what else is a swell surprise?
THIS!
Bra money....

How else could you go wrong with that?
The answer is you can't, so quit trying!

We also scored us some cool freebies like FREE SNACKS from Tepai x Kuya Jon.

Tote bags.

THIS free sketch form MIKE.

And THESE bad boys from Benj. Not exactly free but STILL, well worth every peso spent on it!
Most especially for Fallen Ash #2!

We cap off the evening at this LUCHADOR place.

~~I sincerely wish I could remember the name but the place~~ (The name of the place is EL BURRITO,thank you pictures and magnifying glass) played ALBERTO DEL RIO's theme music which seemed pretty rad and the food and service ain't so bad either.

We also went upstairs, where we saw Ungga Ayala Snuka

and AANG give a passionate blowjob to EGON.

We did however missed out on UP FAIR but that would have to wait for that must have been a totally different beast altogether.

That's that, ELBIKON, UPLB, THE GRAPHIC LITERATURE GUILD, PAULINE, BRET, APOL, JAPS, TOBY, KAROL, DAN, AJ,ELAI (oh god are we missing anyone?), THANKS SA LAHAT at sa uulitin.
Hugs and kisses
-SSM!