MARVEL COMICS’ Stan Lee (real name: Stanley Martin Lieber) is heading to Manila to grace ComicCon Asia 2018, a two-day event on March 24 and 25 at the SMX Convention Center which is meant to bring “the best of the region’s comics, movies, series, manga, animé, toys, gaming and cosplay… together in a massive arena of fandom explosion,” said a company press release.

The former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief and the man behind many of Marvel favorites (Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, among numerous others) alongside artist collaborators Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, will be joining ComicCon Asia 2018’s roster of artists. He will be participating in meet-and-greets during the event, according to Pauline Sofia Laping, ComicCon Asia organizer and PSL Entertainment producer, during the launch of the pop culture convention on Jan. 17 at the Heritage Hotel in Pasay City.

“Before we knew Stan Lee was coming, ComicCon is [already] expecting 20,000 people, and now that we have Stan Lee on board, I’m really expecting and hoping that more people will come and support [the event],” she said during a press conference held the same evening.

THE CONTROVERSY
ComicCon Asia 2018 might have snagged big names — Mr. Lee, Disney’s Armand Serrano, among others — two months before the actual event and promised that more artists will be announced in the next few weeks, but the road from the outset wasn’t easy as upon the event announcement in September last year, its choice of ambassador — athlete/politician Senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao — was met with resistance mostly due to his disparaging comments towards the LGBTQ community.

The resistance’s loudest voice was that of Gerry Alanguilan, the creator of the graphic novels Wasted and Elmer (the latter was nominated for the 2011 Will Eisner Industry Awards, said to be the “Oscars” of the comics industry), who announced on his blog that he would not be participating in the convention because of Mr. Pacquiao.

“I cannot forget the statements made by Manny Pacquiao in the past. He called same sex couples worse than animals. Worse, in a now deleted Instagram post, he posted Bible quotes that preach that gays should be put to death. As someone who believes in equality for all, I find these statements reprehensible and dangerous. Dangerous because Manny Pacquiao is in a position of political power that would enable him to make his personal beliefs a matter of national policy. That is something I cannot abide,” he said in a Sept. 14 blog post.

“If people have no problem with this, then by all means, attend and participate. I am NOT advocating a boycott. I am simply saying that I will not be going. My decision shouldn’t affect anybody or cause anyone to freak out and bring down lightning from the heavens. It’s just another event I won’t be going to, simply for personal reasons,” he added.

The presence of Mr. Pacquiao at the ComicCon announcement led to rumors that he was one of the funders of the event, a rumor Ms. Laping denied clarifying that Mr. Pacquiao was only there because of his role as a tourism ambassador.

“We knew we wouldn’t be able to please anybody. So regardless of what they say, we will continue to do our best in terms of putting this all together,” Ms. Laping told BusinessWorld shortly after the launch on Wednesday.

“When we started everything, it’s already an expectation that there will be bashers,” she added, saying that the funding for the convention comes from Ms. Laping and her friends.

PSL Entertainment partnered up with Vietnam’s Nam Entertainment, a full-service media company, to organize the event. PSL Entertainment also produces the beauty pageant Miss Global Philippines.

Mr. Alanguilan’s announcement “didn’t get in the way,” Ms. Laping said. “We were surprised, we got even more support [afterwards],” she said, explaining that they got more sponsors, including Philippine Airlines.

The ambitiousness of the event — which is being held for the first time — also drew raised eyebrows from the cosplay community as Pablo Bairan, president of Cosplay.ph (a company which specializes in organizing local cosplay conventions such as Cosplay Mania), noted that considering the organizer’s lack of experience in creating conventions, it might have been better to do a smaller one instead for its first run.

“It might have been better if the organizers of ComicCon Asia started out with a smaller event in order to be better equipped to stage a much larger event similar to AsiaPOP Comicon Manila or ToyCon,” Mr. Bairan told BusinessWorld in an e-mail interview.

“At this point, I think people are still waiting to see how [the event] shapes up. The ticket prices are much higher than the usual conventions so we’ll have to see how receptive the community is to the new pricing structure,” he added.

ComicCon Asia tickets are going for P800 for a one-day pass and P1,300 for a two-day pass. In comparison, AsiaPOP Comicon Manila’s 2017 ticket prices were P600 for a one-day pass, P900 for a two-day pass, and P1,100 for a three-day pass.

Mr. Bairan also noted that meeting and getting Stan Lee’s autograph usually costs a pretty penny.

“I’m also interested in seeing if people are willing to shell out that kind of money,” he said.

“I honestly don’t [have the experience of organizing pop culture conventions] and I won’t pretend that I know so much about it. I have many things to learn but the reason I got into this is because I have good people with great minds putting it together [with me],” Ms. Laping said.

THE CONVENTION
The two-day convention has attracted the participation of several celebrities such as Walter Jones, the original Black Ranger from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers which ran from 1993 to 1995, and NBA superstar Ray Allen who is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of his movie He Got Game at the event.

The cosplay community will also be represented by artist/cosplayer Chad Hoku (a.k.a Hoku Props), and cosplayers Linda Le (a.k.a Vampy Bit Me) and Nana Kuronoma who will all conduct workshops about their cosplay secrets. Meanwhile, cosplay photographer Jay Tablante, alongside cosplayers Anna Redei and Enji Night, will be giving tips on how to capture cosplay through the lens.

ComicCon Asia will also be doing a Cosplay Match-Up contest where cosplayers duke it out in several categories — Animé, Gaming and Western/Filipino.

Aside from cosplaying, the convention will also see Filipino creators like comic book artists Harvey Tolibao and Carlo Pagulayan “give expert comic book illustration techniques designed to help beginners turn to pros,” according to a release.

Armand Serrano, Walt Disney’s Visual Development Artist who has done work for Mulan (1998) and Big Hero 6 (2014) among others, will conduct workshops on how to bring characters from page to film, while LEGO’s senior concept artist, Ian Sta. Maria, will give tips on how to create futuristic character designs.

Temple University’s Dr. John Lent, publisher and creator of the International Journal of Comic Art, who will talk about “the span of the comic industry in Asia and the role of comics in the progressive growth of Asian comic culture and its significance on a global scale.”

ComicCon Asia is holding several competitions such as the Great Filipino Graphic Novel contest (the finals will be during the event); Project X: The Search for the New Pinoy Superheroes, done in partnership with DV Tech Media, where contestants are tasked to create a new Pinoy superhero; and One Shot, a Shark Tank-style, competition where those with a “big video game and/or animation idea” will be given a chance to pitch to venture capitalists and investors. The competition is done in partnership with The StartUp Village, the Animation Council of the Philippines, and the Game Developers Association of the Philippines.

Finally, there will also be an auction of the “rarest memorabilia” at the Auction Hero event, with most of the proceeds earmarked for the Marawi evacuees and the survivors of the soldiers who died during the Marawi conflict.

Tickets for ComicCon Asia will go on sale starting Jan. 25 at www.comiccon.asia.

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