Wandering in the Walk of Fame, APCC Manila 2017

Wandering in the Walk of Fame

Asia Pop Comicon Manila 2017 is one of the biggest conventions in the Philippines. On it’s third year, organizers continue to bring great guests to visit the Philippines. Many of these special guests can be found at the Walk of Fame, where visitors can meet them up close and personal. Each of them are friendly and have a collection of merchandise you can bring home as a tangible memory of your time at Asia Pop Comicon. Here’s a few tidbits of info about the guests you can meet at the Walk of Fame!

Haiden Hazard

Haiden Hazard is an up-and-coming cosplayer who’s travelled the US convention for a while, including major ones like Anime Expo and Anime Matsuri. Asia Pop Comicon 2017 is her first trip to a convention outside her home country. She arrived early to experience more of the Philippine before the convention bustle, although she was a bit bummed at bad weather intruding on possible beach time. Naturally, anime was her first exposure to cosplay, being absolutely bewildered when she the characters in her favorite shows walk around in real life.

Back in 2012, the first anime Haiden cosplayed was Rozen Maiden with it’s amazing gothic Lolita vibe. She still loves that particular aesthetic, leading her to make a Police Miku costume for Day 1 of Asia Pop Comicon at the Walk of Fame. It wasn’t until a few years later where she sewn her own costume, a pirate themed costume from a obscure webcomic. Her other favorite costumes included characters from Smite and Dragon Age. She still has lots of time here in Manila yet she’s preparing herself to bawl her eyes out watching Your Name on her flight home.

Carl Potts

At the Walk of Fame, Carl Potts is a prolific comic creator, with more than a decade of experience. His long tenure at Marvel had him oversee many talented comic creators like Jim Lee and fellow guest Whilce Portacio. Some of his most famous work included Punisher War Journal, Prowler, and Alien Legion.

Carl Potts has an intriguing new project in the works with Bill Reinhold. Titled “The Flying Column: Road To Manila,” the story recounts the journey of Carl Potts’ grandparents in the Philippines during World War II. Illustrated using inkwash, he wants to capture the struggles of being an American married to a Japanese War during the occupation. It is only when the Flying Column, travelling from Lingayen to Santo Tomas, were they finally free. Carl Potts is the first of his family to visit the Philippines since then and he wants to have a launch event for the comic at University of Santo Tomas in the future.

Pion Kim

A native of Seoul, South Korea, Pion Kim is one of the rising stars of the cosplay community. She is most famous for her amazing Sombra cosplay from Overwatch, dubbed the best Sombra cosplay in the world! Unsurprisingly, Pion was really attracted to the hacker aesthetic of Sombra and she plays the Talon agent a lot in Blizzard’s recent mega-hit. She’s also partial to the smooth tunes and speedboosting of the Brazillian DJ Lucio. Tekken is another franchise she enjoys, sporting a killer cosplay of Tekken’s resident vampire, Eliza. Her favorite character though is the always graceful Lili. She doesn’t play the Tekken fighting games, but she’s always open to try new things. She wants more people to try cosplaying. It’s a great endeavor and it brings you closer to an amazing community. Drop by the Walk of Fame to meet her!

Whilce Portacio

Whilce Portacio is a stalwart in the Philippine comics community. He’s had many years of experience at Marvel and one of the co-founders of Image Comics. Currently, he’s back to working on independent projects with Image and illustrating several coves for DC and Marvel. Whilce has a few secret projects that hopefully will allow him to work closer home to the Philippines. Whilce also has a few travel plans to Cavite with fellow guest Carl Potts, to help the latter experience more of the country. Meet him at the Walk of Fame!

Canvas Cosplay

Philip Odango, aka Canvas Cosplay, is an award winning artist, designer, producer, director, and actor. He discovered cosplay through his experience in theater production. After doing everything from directing to set production, he never tried doing costume design. Turns out, he loved it and took on the moniker Canvas Cosplay and now he has a booth at the Walk of Fame.

Canvas Cosplay loves doing challenging costumes and he’s done a lot semi-obscure cosplay from Indiana Jones to Big Trouble in Little China. In fact, he did an intricate cosplay of evil sorcerer Lo-Pan from the John Carpenter cult classic. Canvas Cosplay even has quite the set of lungs on him, happily singing The Rock’s Moana Song “You’re Welcome” to a young con-goer. Dynasty Warriors fans can look forward to his new cosplay of the fearsome Lu Bu. He wants to dabble in creating intricate armor and the Dynasty Warriors franchise is a great way to start that skill set.

White Merang Comics: Bringing Digital in Myanmar’s Comics Scene

White Merang Comics Studio is on the verge of a breakthrough. The app’s creators are all passionate comic book geeks who want to introduce something new to the Myanmar comics scene. This passion project is all about giving something new back to the comic book industry.

Aung Ye Kyaw, founder and chief executive officer, told What’s-A-Geek! that the White Merang Comics app aims to give Myanmar comic artists the opportunity to showcase their artistic content in a digital medium.

Moreover, the app supports a wide variety of comics genres. This ranges from action, romance, and adventure, to mystery, horror, fantasy, and science fiction.

The team launched the app last September 2016 with Garuda, a story about a vigilante who, unbeknownst to himself, is actually part garuda, a Myanmar mythical beast.

Meanwhile, they also launched its new series, R.O.U. (Rage of Universes) in APCC 2017. This new comics series tells the tale of five powerful countries fighting for five powerful artifacts.

Pocket Fulla Pillz: Giving that Filipino “Touch”

Fred “That Guy” Corder is back with his team of artists for the newest in Pocket Fulla Pillz Comics. The series has now brought some of their more popular characters into the limelight. All these characters now have solo stories that are sure to attract readers looking for new kinds of narratives.

Corder aims to bring a signature Filipino “touch” to PFP works, and his background as a clinical psychologist helps bring more realistic stories into his work. PFP aims to show a more neutral aspect of human character instead of the usual good and evil dynamic in comics.

Corder and his gang will bring Pocket Fulla Pillz abroad for the first time. PFP will fly first in time for Baltimore Comic Con 2017 and then at the New York Comic Con 2017 .

Magic: A Community Transcending Lifetimes

Fans can expect more cards and more fun with the upcoming expansion of Magic: the Gathering. The Wizards of the Coast booth offers tables for newbies to learn one of the most iconic card games known to geekdom. Its newest expansion has four tribes fighting for supremacy. Which side would gamers choose?

Teoh Tse Liang, Wizard’s associate branch manager for Asia, told What’s-A-Geek! that it is perhaps the growing community that helps players keep go back to Magic.

Being an avid player himself, Teoh Tse Liang said he himself found the game attractive. Not only is its art a sight to behold, but the opportunity to mix and match cards is quite an invigorating experience.

Mars Ravelo, Darna: Reviving Interest in Local Komiks

If Liza Soberano’s Darna reveal was jaw-dropping, ABS-CBN and Mars Ravelo has more fans for the local komiks scene. Folks at Balangay Entertainment recently launched a Darna card game that is sure to perplex puzzle lovers and entertain Darna fans.

Karlo Senga and Marx Rulloda from Balangay Entertainment introduced What’s-A-Geek! to the card game. It involves finding Narda’s Puting Bato amongst you and your opponents.

Players each get secret “bato” cards that may or may contain the coveted stone. As players are not allowed to look at their cards, they use character cards to shuffle other cards in the field. If players feel lucky (or smart), they can shout “Darna!” and look at their secret card. If the card is the coveted bato, they win. If not, the game continues.

Meanwhile, Xeleb Technologies Inc. has mobile apps in the works not only for a Ravelo Komiks Mobile App but for a La Luna Sangre game app as well.