So, Comic con.

A lot happened in comic con

Honestly, a week later now trying to accurately sum up the whole thing is just impossible for me. So let's do a rundown of what happened or a general rundown of the event.

 

 

First, the artists’ alley. 

That place just eminanted talent. Everybody is either crazy talented or offered things for talented people. 

My favourite booth was Know Me’s booth.

 

 

 I actually got to meet the exceptional individual behind the project! Soroor is beyond sweet and extremely hardworking. You can clearly see the passion behind the project projected in her actions and especially acts of support. I carried an empty sketchbook that she was real enthusiastic for (if had a few sketches in it, but it was fairly new for the most part. She loved what I did, and that encouragement is really amazing to hear when you’re in a creative slump, or even otherwise). 

She had an amazing artist with her in the booth which I guiltily didn’t get to talk to much, but I’ll link her here as well as Soroor. 

I got these two things from her booth, and she signed the book. I did also draw in her sketchbook, and it was real fun (I’ll add a haul picture at the end of the post). 

 

Next, meets + main stage.

The meeting area was wild with tension. 

I met Kevin Sussman first, and he was really nice. Like, extremely nice. I didn’t know him much prior but the way he acted encouraged me to get to know the work this man produced.

 

 He wrote this cute little note in my sketchbook after asking me if I draw.

 

That’s what he said about the note.

He even did a Q&A session later in the day, which I attended and asked the question of how you deal with negativity in the face of unrealised ideas ( a question I like to ask creators), to which he said:

“I am searching for something profound to say but really you just have to realise that a million people can say amazing things about you and it takes one jerk to tarnish that perception. Don’t let them do that to you”.

 

Later in the day we got to briefly meet Jason Momoa, that’s when the crowd really went wild. He did take pictures and such with people but he occasionally passed by the line to say hi to people and talk to them. He was, like kevin, a really nice man. He is much larger in person let me tell you that. 

 

In addition to Jason, we met Kris Holden-Reid. Which I didn’t also know really well before meeting him but my sisters did brief me in, haha. He was really nice, honestly he was sweet beyond belief! 

 

 

All the “celebrities” we met that day were very nice people. I did ask him to sign my sketchbook, he kindly proceeded fo flip through it before signing it during which we had a two-sentence long exchange on a Stranger Things drawing I did. I am embarrassed by this sketchbook because it is empty and messy, nevertheless he was really sweet as he expressed admiration and drew me a self-portrait of himself along with signing it. 

 

The only shows we sat down to watch on the main stage were the talk about manga publishing and the manga industry vs. the comic industry (those two were one show but I didn’t know how to label it) which was interesting. However, I wasn’t impressed with the manga artist alley. I just didn’t really appreciate the objective and unencouraging nature of it; like if you weren’t one way then we don’t want other ways.. So that was kind of disappointing. 

 The second one was the Kevin Sussman Q&A, yet we watched that from the waiting line but still we were there for it and asked questions. 

 

Another thing was visiting Ironix.

Ironix is a saudi manga publishing house that had a booth there. The stories they had were really interesting but I was interested in a particular one that instagram hyped up for me. Which is this one:

It seemed death note-y even though the artist of the manga, who was present at the booth, said it was slightly influenced by death note but the story doesn’t run its course like death note does. Plus the story takes place in Saudi Arabia! As an arab book blogger, I want to offer more saudi and arab content in regards to books on my blog so I decided to purchase all the available editions of his manga to look into, to which he responded with gratitude. He was really articulate in explaining his story and knew his story pretty well prior to my purchase, and after my purchase he signed all three editions of the manga as an act of gratitude for my purchase.

Once I read his work, I’ll be sure to let you know via goodreads or the blog what I think about it.

 

Finally, everything else.

Other than those two prominent events, everything was calm, fun, and quick. We took pictures in the various booths provided, and browsed the available selling booths. The booth that piqued our interest the most was a booth called Re:Team which sold a small console that houses either 6,000 or 60,000 games from nintendo 64, gamecube, PS1, PS2, Atari and a lot more. We were so into it, and I really want it so anybody reading this wants to send it my way my address is..

No, I’m just kidding haha. 

But seriously, I want it! 

 

 

We also went to the Japanese Embassy’s booth were we got our names written in Japanese. Correction, got my entire family’s names written in Japanese. I always wanted to do this, especially during the Riyadh Book Fair, but I never get the chance to do so. So I was really excited when I got the chance to do that. I do not know if this is correct, nevertheless I will cherish it because it is real cool.

To conclude this post, let me just show you what I got.

 

From Know Me, I got her first publication called:

سنتين من التغيير

Which translates to Two Years of Change, and it is a book filled with interviews from a bunch of middle eastern artists. I have been eyeing it for the longest time and the con presented itself as the golden opportunity to finally get it. While I was at it the 3

mini sketchbooks pack piqued my interest (and I also witnessed Soroor working on them and making them via snapchat; seeing the effort she put in them just made me more appreciative. Plus with my current artist’s block, trying to fill a small sketchbook won’t be as intimidating). 

The other things I got were the Ironix manga:

قيود سوداء 

Which is a manga made by Naif Khairallah and Abdulrahman alTamimi. What drew me to this manga is the saudi nature of it. I mean even if you do pick up saudi or arab made manga, there is basically none that are reminicist of culture and our homeland; this manga supposedly does it, and I’ll only know if this is a well done execution by reading it so let me get back to you on that. Nevetheless, I have to give them credit for the idea and concept. 

That seems to be a wrap for my comic con post, it was a super cool time. Next time, I hope a volunteering opportunity presents itself because I do think it is an amazing and rewarding experience to be a part of such an event. Nevertheless, I am thankful to have had the opportunity to visit the convention with amazing people and to have met equally great people.