Surviving the Manila International Book Fair (Part 2)

Wednesday and Thursday at MIBF were super productive for me. It’s the best time to conduct business, meet people, and get things done before the massive weekend crowds hit SMX and it just turns into nuts-to-butts a sea of people.

So by Thursday late afternoon, I slipped out of the convention center and headed straight back to Makati. Manila traffic and heavy rain meant getting from SMX to Makati took forever.

Makati and the Side Quests

One of my first Makati stops was at Solar Studios for a secret project we’ve been cooking up. Keeping the details under wraps for now, but it's always fun linking up with comic heads who work in film and TV.

While making my rounds, I caught up over coffee with authors Gabriela Lee and Karl R. De Mesa. I’ve been following both of their writing for a while, so sitting down to talk genre fiction was awesome.

Hopefully we’ll have their books under Hot Tropiks soon… stay tuned! 

I also ran into the Difference Engine crew from Singapore over at Everything’s Fine PH. Turns out everyone had the same idea to take a break from SMX.

Next, I headed over to iACADEMY's campus to link up with Keith Sicat. We’ve been putting in work behind the scenes and we’re getting ready to announce a joint project very soon. While on campus, we caught a talk by two-time Eisner winner Derek Kirk Kim (Same Difference, Tune), who gave a talk to young creators on visual storytelling and navigating graphic novels and TV animation.

On Saturday I skipped MIBF for a side quest to Purveyr Fair. This was my old scene. Back in the day, I used to run a club called Black Market Makati, and so many of the kids building this creative culture were regulars at my club. Seeing what the scene has become was amazing. Congrats to Marvin and Sara Conanan on what they’ve built at Purveyr.

I reconnected with Meme, who runs Bastard Clothing and was my co-founder at Bad Decisions at Black Market. This will get its own blog...

Getting to see art-focused publishers like Istorya and Archivo 1919 was another highlight, Istorya pushing beautifully designed illustrated work and Archivo 1919 documenting underground art and culture through zines and art books. Seeing that level of print quality in the local scene was dope.

Back to MIBF

On Sunday I was back at MIBF! I had to make sure I caught Rexy's book launch for In Other Worlds, I Love You… a collection of five stories blending "toxic love, cosmic absurdity, and tentacled heartbreak." It's a book with Avenida, which we will have soon! Lucia Asul, who designed the gorgeous (and pleasantly unsettling) cover, was there as a special guest. The launch ended up being a blast with a packed crowd.

While navigating the floor, I caught up with Wincy Ong to hand deliver his book. Hot Tropiks published his horror book, Tales for a Rainy Season, in the US, so sitting down with him to talk about the reader response and seeing the excitement of fans for his new projects was rad.

Most of my day was spent hanging out and planning with the Raygun team. Take a look at this team photo! We spent hours brainstorming, getting on the same page, and mapping out our next releases.

Finally, we made our way over to Rexy’s panel on Building Filipino Worlds Across Mediums, co-hosted with Katrina Olan, creator of Tablay. The stage was stacked with local creators like Julius Villanueva (Ella Arcangel), Keith Sicat (OFW), Lucia Asul (Lucia Dreaming), and Borg Sinaban (Malaya). They talked about taking local Pinoy sci-fi, mecha, and myth comics and bringing them to an international audience.

After the panel wrapped, I hit the show floor alongside Derek Kirk Kim. Having a 2x Eisner winner on the floor turned heads and opened up some great conversations.

To close out the trip, I had to sprint straight from the show floor, throw my bags in a cab, and hustle to the airport to catch my flight back to the US just in time for Fil-Am Creator Con!

The global book hustle is wild, moving back and forth between Manila and the States. I can’t wait until we finalize our upcoming deals so we can show you everything we have cooked up for next year!