What is Comifuro? 'Based on Comiket Japan, we are trying to establish the Indonesian Comic Market called Comic Frontier,' according to Comifuro's official Twitter account. It's basically a convention where you can buy anime-manga merch that other fans make and sell on their own, go cosplaying or participate in the karaoke. Sounds awesome, no?! It's exciting to see my artist friends printing their own drawings, promoting and selling them. They are all great artist, if I buy from them I get to support them. Plus, what I will get is a legit merch, not some stuff people take by googling without actually getting the permission for commercial use (yes, this is serious, guys!).
I don't go to this kind of event very often, but last year I decided I wanted to open a booth there with my two friends for the first time! Wtf I was super nervous.
....And we did not get a good spot.
Super Kumatcha at F1. It was a bit hard selling stuffs there. Not many people passed by.
Anyway, here are some stuffs from our circle!
Suikoden IV and Suikoden V's hero phone straps by me! I spent days working on this chibi crap--wtf I work veeeery slowly and I'm not very satisfied with the result. I wanted to draw more stuffs but we were short on time (I wish I could work faster...). Might be because I always use Photoshop too, my friends have been telling me to switch to SAI but I have gotten too used to Photoshop it's a pain to switch to other software.
Gatchaman phone straps by my friend! Don't tell me they are not cute.
Her Mondaiji buttons! And many Kagepro buttons. And prints. Wow she made so many, I adore her productivity.
If you are wondering about my other friend's work (there was supposed to be three of us at the event), she couldn't make it on time. She actually finished it, but she couldn't come to the event. It was very unfortunate of her. She made JKT48 trading cards, she showed me some of the finished pictures, they are pretty!
Aaaaand our first day! Please don't expect photos from other booths--I really looked for the chance to be able to take some but I didn't want to leave my booth often and I didn't want to be seen busy with my phone when there were potential customers--oh well, I'm sad too, they all were selling really cute merch!
My friend cosplaying as Momo from Kagerou Project!
We had to bring our own tablecloth because they did not provide you any, so I brought my mom's brand new waterproof tablecloth (yes, important, my friend spilled water on it and no mess was made!) with cute fruit pattern! At first, I thought it was normal that they did not provide you tablecloth, but apparently my friend said all events she had attended in Malaysia provided every booth with tablecloth. Comifuro staffs definitely need to keep this in mind for the next event (I forgot to write it down on the survey paper they gave out though HAHAHA).
My dad made this acrylic display for us.
Our buttons and prints.
Our name cards. I used different email there!
Neighbor booth, selling Vocaloid stuffs, free music all day during the event! If only I had Vocaloid merch, I would have given them some to thank them!
Our side view. We got our booth outdoor, our spot was not really great, but at least we got wind breezing so it was not too hot, although sometimes the wind blew too strong we had to tape the tablecloth and the prints.
If you could see the pink-haired girl, she was cosplaying Kurousagi from Mondaiji (from what my friend told me), there was a photo shoot going on.
Second day!
We didn't look very energetic--the day before was tiring enough, we took a shower and went to sleep as soon as we got home. I didn't know coming to an event as a circle like this could be that exhausting, I knew from the start that it would be very tiring but not to that extent! NEVER underestimate those circles who often appear at events, guys!
Uttatemita Stage! The only air-conditioned room. Not a karaoke competition, so feel free to sing your heart out on the karaoke stage!
Neighbor booth doing some cool DJ stuff with Vocaloid songs.
Now, of all buyers, there were two memorable person who bought my Suikoden straps. The first day, when I was keeping the booth alone, bored, spacing out. Until I heard a loud gasp, I turned and found a short-haired girl standing before our display, looking so surprised with her hand covering her mouth. She shouted 'aaaahhhh! Suikoden!' as she grabbed my Suikoden V strap excitedly. 'I want! Oh my, it's so cute! Aaaahhh I love the prince (the protagonist of Suikoden V is a prince) so much!'
We talked for a while, I found out that she had been looking for my Suikoden V strap for a while. She came to the front booth who was selling Suikoden fanbooks, people at the booth mentioned about 'other booth who sells Suikoden merch too'. She went to my friend Riisu's booth (who also had Suikoden merch). Kind Riisu and her kind friends told her about our (remoted) booth. Finally, she found our booth and she was very happy! The pleasure was mine, I was surprised that my drawing could actually make someone's day like that.
The nice girl then excused herself and told me that she was going to tell her fellow Suikoden fan friend and that she was going to come again the next day.
The other memorable person is a guy who walked in a rush with his wallet ready and eyes fixed to something---from afar. He stopped at our booth, with his eyes turned out to be fixed to my Suikoden straps.
'How much?' he asked. He did not even glance to me, the seller. Before I could answer, he answered it on his own. 'Two for 25.000, right? I'll take two.'
'Okay! The Suikoden V one is the last stock, but we still have a lot of---'
He took down the straps from the display on his own. He handed out the money to me and left me speechless.
Then the girl from the day before really came again, she pointed at our display, saying 'ah, it's sold out already! I'm glad I had bought one!' She also showed me her phone with my strap on it proudly, 'look! I love it so much that I didn't wait to attach it on my phone!'
Oh. My. God.
I thank you those who visited our booth, you don't know how much happiness it gave me.
It was hot and tiring, but we sold our merch unexpectedly pretty well, I got to greet my artist friends and buy their stuffs, and I bought beautiful merch from other circles too.
I tried my best to restrain myself from crazy shopping--but I still had only Rp 11.000,- (less than a dollar) left in my wallet in the end, wow. I got some freebies as well, thank you!
I enjoyed the event!!
