Alien Occupation

So here we finally have a late report from TC on Comic World Seoul 97, which was an unexpected, if pleasant surprise for CDS in a sneaky stealth participation at the event. Much was gleaned from the experience, which will be valuable for future overseas events.  As usual, we apologize for the crappy photography. Read more to find out.

The AT convention centre, actually an Agriculture convention hall, but converted into the Korean counterpart to Japan’s comiket every so often…

Held in a slightly more accessible (if distant) location in the middle of the busy Gangnam district, this event was evidently a ‘precursor’ of sorts for the next event, which will be held in the same area for an entire weekend at the end of november. Even though the event was only for a day, the place was already packed to the gills by eager fans and cosplayers, who we were informed camped in the wee hours of the morning to get a headstart on the queue… if anything, it goes to show that queuing is indeed a pastime enjoyed by all Asians. As expected, the crowd was handled efficiently by a ready horde of event volunteers and staff who had some wonderful riot control skills. While setting up the booth, we managed to get a glimpse behind the scenes of the event.

This is the view from the OUTSIDE of the centre (the queue goes all the way to the second floor and requires substantial management) 2 hours before the event actually starts…

On the inside, everyone is busy setting up. As mentioned in an earlier post, the majority of participating artists are female, which presents an interesting twist on expected audience and creator demographics…

For those who dont get it, this is the listing for artist booths. It also means that we got the very unusual privilege of getting the legendary corner booths, which are usually allocated to hot sellers…

For those wondering how CDS managed to get a booth: TC somehow talked his way into sharing a booth with a light novel writer (who writes some very cool Inception fan-novels), hence this quaint half booth set-up (novel writers usually dont have a banner of their own)…

As usual, the standard of art from the Koreans is astounding.

This Fate banner in particular was really awesome; some people in Singapore would have killed for this piece, which was up for auction and got sold at a whopping 55,000 won (SGD $65)

And so, after some huffing and puffing, set-up was completed and the hordes of overeager fans came swarming into the halls to check out the latest and greatest local artists had to offer. It was observed that booth presentation played a huge part in attracting sales, and the prettiest booths typically also had the largest crowds.  Huge cloth banners, colorful posters and loud advertisements about products are the norm here, and to enter without any display of any sort is a recipe for disaster.

Proof of concept, at least in a Korean environment…

My favorite booth of the lot. Turns out, just like in Singapore, trinkets sell like hotcakes. Items include keychains, badges, canvas bags, transparent folders, card holders (TCG people take note) and even mugs!

Touhou and BRS is everywhere, it seems.

Unexpectedly,  the CDS booth turned out to be quite popular, and all items were sold out by the end of the day. TC notes that it is the first time he had to sell the sample pieces and displays to appease the crowd… More importantly, we learnt that the reason why the  local booths were able to put up items of such high quality was because they were printed in bulk at the early quarters of the year and then sold regularly at the events, which are monthly affairs. In this way, the Korean market is unique in the sense that it effectively supports high cost ventures as vendors are able to make their investment back over time while ensuring that their goods are of an unusually high quality for doujin products. Presumably this makes for a healthy relationship between printers, fans and artists alike, as there is no worries over low quantity printing or lack of supplies/events to attend to.  Unfortunately, with the Singapore scene being what it is, it is unlikely events of this scale will ever happen in the next 4-5 years, which makes this an unlikely proposition for the local scene.

As is the norm for these sort of events, there is a hugely popular cosplay contest and karaoke segment. Just look at that crowd…

Well known manga support company Deleter was there as well to hawk their wares; its about the only time in Korea where you can buy the infamous Deleter XP pen tablet, which, incidentally, is used by many CDS members…

Speaking of hawkers, many snack food stalls also open up around Comic World, ensuring that fans and artists alike never go hungry. Awesome takoyaki stand is Awesome.

In any case, the participation was an eye opener in many ways, and valuable lessons in booth display and marketing techniques were gleaned from this grueling event. Currently, TC is hedging his bets on another participation in November, but this seems unlikely as the queue for tables has already gone past saturation point, with as many as 58 individual circles waiting in RESERVE for a spare table on registration day itself…