The late A.C.M.E. report

A.C.M.E. took place some weeks ago. After some nagging, it was with some melancholy that I produce this event report. There will be other better event reports out there anyway. With more pictures and praises. But then again. This is, after all, going to be the last event before a relatively long drought of events for us doujin groups. It deserves something. And so here we go…

Our humble booth. At least the backdrop. Picture from Sgcafe.

So on that lovely Saturday, we sat in that small, quaint structure with our humble booth to wait for the day’s proceedings and sales.  The main attraction of the entire event was of course, the sales of KKnM’s booty from Japan. The queue did not seem long at first since it did not exactly stretched out of the compound. Then someone pointed out that the queue was a real life game of snake as it twisted and turned to fit itself snuggly within the small area. The fans came and the fans spent. The ringing cash register must have sounded very much like music.

As the day drew on, a crowd drew upon the center of the room. The Touhou Hisoutensoku competition was in full swing. Message2God, our resident Touhou doujin mangaka took up the challenge on my encouragement to kick some (other people’s digital) ass. It was unfortunate that there was no controllers available for him to unleash his touhou-fu on the unsuspecting victims and thus, he could not claim victory. Nevertheless, you guys better fear him when he gets his controllers. With those controllers, he will nunchucked your Shinku-colored Sakuya to oblivion. Otherwise, the doujin gaming competition provided much mirth and cheer to the crowded hall with the mass cheering their favorite characters on.

Somewhere out there, a WS and Victory Spark contest organized by The Card Geeks was on going.  Since it was out there but ain’t here, I did not get my chance to witness it. However, I heard it was fun. And possibly interesting.

The main hall was where we parked ourselves most of the time. The collective heat from both the crowd’s body heat and the oppressive humidity kept us sanguined and harmless. The poorly functioning air conditioner did nothing to elevate our  heat-induced drowsiness. All around us, the other artists were in full swing. Those lucky bastards with booths closer to the air conditioner seemed to survive a little better than us. There were a number of impressive stuffs even though I only got a coaster from Comix Pandora in the end. Note to self: Get that BRS poster from Daiyaku.

By the end of the day, there wasn’t much goods left at KKnM’s booth. Plenty of happy people on that day with their expensively acquired grails from Comiket. Happy people with the experience of games well played and happy people with a bit of local animanga artists’ work in their expanding collection. Packing up was a slow, tedious and reluctant process. Then one of our artists came back from his break to help out with the packing up. He brought with him a holy grail. Two in fact; but only one is within our reach for now. One out of two is good enough to stimulate our adrenaline and put a kick in our pace.

We hastily kept everything and made a beeline for the arcade at Illuma, leaving our memories of this short event behind us.

There is something wrong about the placement of the A.C.M.E. coaster and the holy grail.

Merly in thumbnail by Haimerejzero. Copyright of YOG Singapore 2010. It was fun while it last!

Update: Updated with new URL for Daiyaku.