Komikon Awards 2009: Online Voting

I’ve mentioned the on-going voting for the 2009 Komikon Awards, as well as the nominees, but for those without easy access to participating comic book stores (which is, let’s face it, everyone outside of Metro Manila) you’ll be pleased to know that you can now vote for your favorites online via two methods:

The first is through a poll on deviantart which is accessible for deviantart users. It’s not all that difficult to register on deviantart, so don’t look on that as an obstacle.

You can also vote at the official Komikon website–look for the drop down awards menu at the top of the site. Registration (on the Komikon site) is required, as is to be expected to avoid a scenario where the winners are determined solely by dint of which nominee has fans with the most free time. One difference between the Komikon site and deviantart though is that on the Komikon website, you can see the current tally of votes before casting your own.

Voting is until September 20, so I urge everyone to take the time to familiarize yourselves with the nominees before voting–try not to just vote for the nominees already familiar to you @_@. Consider it as practice for the research we’ll all (well all of above 17 that is) have to do for May 2010.

Metro Comic Con 2009: August 8-9

Don’t forget everyone, the 2009 Metro Comic Con will be held this weekend at Megamall. I’ll post a rundown of the schedule here, but you can find a more detailed description of each event here.

August 8, 2009 – Saturday

10AM – Ribbon Cutting

Onstage Activities
11-AM – Band Performance – Matilda
12PM – Suspended Animation Media
1PM – Creativoices Panel
2PM – PTK: Show me your desk Awarding
2:30PM – Craze Cosprsay product launch
3PM – Band Performance – Gupit Binata X
4PM – Indie Film Panel – Alessandro Productions
5PM – Indie Comic Panel
6PM – Pinoy Mainstream Artists Panel
7PM – Band Performance – Giniling Festival

Floor Activities
Costrip Day – Cosplay.ph booth
Toy Customization Contest – Cosplay.ph booth

August 9, 2009 – Sunday

10am – Opening

Onstage Activities
11am – Band Performance – Los Chupacabras
12pm – International Game Developers Association – Manila Chapter
1pm – Creativoices Voice acting contest
2pm – E-games
3pm – Band Performance – Gorgoro
4pm – Animax Cosplay Competition
7pm – Band Performance – Nexxus

Floor Activities
Comics Creation 101 – Conference Room SM Megatrade Hall.

Deadlines Ahoy! Shine Anthology (EDIT: August 2)

Just reminding everyone that the (previously extended) deadline for submission to the SHINE Anthology, “an anthology of optimistic near-future SF, edited by Jetse de Vries, published by Solaris Books” is fast approaching.The deadline was originally June 30, but this was moved to August 2.

Submission guidelines are here. Remember, Mr. de Vries has stated that he is very keen on getting submissions from beyond the United States. He’s been providing a lot of helpful tips with regard to what kind of stories he’s looking for, and I thought I’d index a few of them here, for those authors whose spirits are willing, but whose muses are weak (like myself *sob):

• Things to Keep in Mind When Writing A Story for Shine
• Crazy Story Ideas
• Optimistic Literature and SF Around the World
• Why I Can’t Write A Near Future Optimistic SF Story: the Excuses
• An Update on the Shine Submissions

Good luck everyone!

Market! Market! Mad About Books Bookfair 2009

Found myself at Market! Market! this evening, and caught an announcement for a Book Fair of sorts there next week from 27 July to 1 August; I’d be a bit more excited if there were a Fully Booked or Powerbooks or Different Bookstore there… but hey, they might participate anyway, and any book fair is reason to celebrate. Besides, maybe Buy-the-Book will have further reductions on their secondhand books.

There are a few other activities as well, including book donations for Children’s Hour for those more interested in giving than receiving. Anyway, here are the details, courtesy of an image pulled from PH Best Deals:

GBB Aftermath: Receipts, Evidence and Testimony Wanted

Sure, the Great Book Blockade is over, but the price of peace (or duty-free books in this case) is eternal vigilance–let’s not forget that even before the GBB, there were already people being taxed when they sought to bring books from abroad into the country. If you’ll recall, Chingbee Cruz shared her own experience here:

I’d heard that books were tax-exempt but didn’t know enough to have any conviction in making that argument, and so all I really wanted to do then was pay the right amount, official receipt and all. As I was fishing my hard-earned thousands of pesos out my wallet, I told CD that he made it very hard for people like me not to be corrupt. That his dramatic tossing of documents and convoluted explanations to my questions made it clear that he was discouraging me from doing the right thing. (When I asked him to please explain why his clerks were handing out tiny pieces of paper with the wrong tax amount for cheaper, resibo-less claiming of packages, he said he wasn’t at liberty to talk about such things. WTF?) Of course, he had nothing to say to all this. The only time he had something to say was when I mentioned that maybe next time I should keep my purchases to fifty dollars or less so I wouldn’t be charged taxes. “Ikaw bahala,” he said. “Kung may paraan ba lumusot sa rules, e, di ba’t di gamitin?” To which I quickly pointed out, short of biting his head off, that no, I wouldn’t be breaking any rule to begin with if I did my theoretical fifty-dollars-or-below purchase, and so no, I wouldn’t be getting away with anything.

UP Law Dean Marvic Leonen had a similar experience (as Chingbee narrates here) and RockEd Philippines has been trying to gather proof of similar cases of illegal taxation–receipts, or even simple narrations of the events–so that Atty. Leonen or another able lawyer might be able to file the appropriate legal suit. However, over at Twitter, in response to a query from @MLQ3, @gangbadoy of RockEd told me that people have stopped emailing such receipts and stories since the GBB was lifted.

[More after the cut]

KOMIKON AWARDS 2009: Nominations Now Open

Every artist likes affirmation right? God knows a lot of our wonderful creators out there deserve more credit and accolades than they are currently receiving. If you want to support your favorite komiks creators, you might want to nominate them for the Komikon Awards–only the second in history–and wouldn’t you know it, nominations just opened yesterday (July 1); hurry though as the period for nomination is only until July 15.

Here are the details, taken from here. I also found an equivalent deviantart post here with a tad more detail, but I can’t seem to get into DA this evening.

The first ever KOMIKON AWARDS was held back in 2006 on the 2nd year of the Philippine Annual Komiks Convention. It is with great delight that we bring it back in a bigger and better venue and in celebrating the event’s 5th year. Once again, let us give recognition to those who continue to pour their heart, soul and income to a said “ailing industry” that still thrives to bring entertainment to future generations.

The categories are as follows:

Best Comic

This is for the ultimate… the chosen one. This is for the best among the rest. This means that the comic has achieved its ultimate potential; it’s all that and then some. This covers the mainstream comics, published and sold in the major local bookstores. This is for those that have reached the pinnacle of comic making; it’s up there, head and shoulders above the rest, looking down on us through a magnifying glass. This is for the comic that embodies all the things that made us love comics in the first place. The Best Comic award is divided in four categories:

Best Graphic Novel / Anthology*
Graphic Novels are defined as novels whose narrative is related through a combination of text and art, often in comic-strip form. On the other hand, an anthology is a collection of stand alone comic book stories collected in one publication by a group or one author. This award aims to honor the best comic book creator or group of creators for their exemplary work.
Best Serialized Comic*
A comic series published regularly in a magazine, newspaper or comic book publication.
Best Comic Magazine
This award is given to the best comic book magazine still seeing print be it a single story or made up of several.
Best Comic Strip Compilation

Here’s a step from the day-to-day print to more lasting impressions. One strip is never enough.

Best Comic Creator/s*

This award recognizes the talents of a solo artist or team of artists in making the best comic there is.

Best Cover*

A cover dictates how people see your comic. Sales also depend on the cover. And here we salute those covers that made us look and look hard. And the effort to it took to conceptualize, pencil, ink, and in some cases, to color the cover. The award shall go to the artist or group of artists that created such masterpiece.

[More award descriptions after the cut]

Deadlines Ahoy!: Shine Anthology, Black Gate and Destination: Future

It’s only into the second week of June, but already it’s been quite the busy month here in the Philippines, from railroad farces in the House of Reps, to twisters in the city, to the closure of an entire University due to swine flu (and a consequent delay in the return to school of college students–but not, ironically, elementary school kids); no matter what’s going on in the world around us however, there is one thing that writers cannot forget:  a deadline. Quite a few in fact. Thought I’d remind everyone of a few in particular (aside from the Crossed Genres Flash Fic contest I recently mentioned) while there is still time for you to cram a story or two or three.

EDIT (22 June): The deadline for the Shine anthology has been extended: http://is.gd/19AnT

BLACK GATE: The excellent Black Gate is currently open for submissions until June 30, and is looking for “epic fantasy fiction at all lengths, including novel excerpts, as well as articles, news and reviews.” I do love me some epic fantasy… if I had time I’d definitely give this a shot:  Lord knows I’ve got more stories of the Mongrels than my submission to the Farthest Shore. Submission guidelines are here.

DESTINATION: FUTURE: Hadley Rille is looking for  “science fiction stories, particularly Hard SF, Space Operas, Alien Worlds, Alien Encounter Beyond Earth, Exploration, and Quest Stories. Positive-future scenarios. (We prefer not to receive alternative and historical fiction, fantasy, steampunk, post-apocalyptic, or horror for this anthology, but other than that it’s pretty open.)” You can check the submissions guidelines here.

SHINE ANTHOLOGY: Last but certainly not least, we have the SHINE Anthology, “an anthology of optimistic near-future SF, edited by Jetse de Vries, published by Solaris Books, and is planned for an early 2010 release.” Submission guidelines are here and the deadline is once again June 30. What makes SHINE interesting to me is not only the theme, but the very transparent way by which Mr. de Vries is conducting his selection process. He does a very good job of giving writers a clear idea of what he is looking for, providing links to stories that exemplify “near future” or “optimistic” and he’s also very keen on getting submissions from beyond the United States.

EDIT (22 June): The deadline for the Shine anthology has been extended: http://is.gd/19AnT

FCBD 2009: Fully Booked Details

Got an email reminder from Fully Booked about their upcoming time-delayed Free Comic Book Day. Please note the benefit to cosplayers and the different opening time for the brand new Eastwood Mall store:

Dear Fully Booked Customer,

Free Comic Book Day is coming up! Drop by any Fully Booked branch this Saturday, May 23 and enjoy the following:

• One free comic book, no purchase required!
• An additional free comic book if you come in costume
• 20% off on all graphic novels and comics, including manga, humor titles, children’s graphic novels and comics, and graphic novel encyclopedias!

Comic giveaway starts at 10AM in all branches, except Eastwood, where it starts at 11AM. First come, first served. Good until supply lasts.

See you there!

All the best,
The eZine Team

I hope I have better luck nabbing a comic than I did at Comic Odyssey @_@

On a tangential note I’m saddened that the sci-fi workshop was canceled for today, to reset to a better time. Will let everyone know when I receive word on that–I’m glad that the organizers were prompt in sending out word this morning of the cancellation.