000099 - doujicon! 06

orochi. photo from sirive lj (who i regrettably didn't say hi to either)

doujicon! was a blast.

we got to the venue, pretty much right on time, after a quick scan and search for the nearest and cheapest (free) carpark. the convention itself occupies 2 levels of one of the main buildings in the monash caulfield campus. the artist tables and theatres on one and the classes and discussion panels on another.

avi, the mastermind behind doujicon, looked pretty much like he was about to have a heart attack but was still running around yelling orders and putting things right. we setup our table and our neighbours for the day were storm publishing (owen and tanya).

while the attendance was never quite a crowd of people, there was pretty much a steady flow of people walking around artist alley for the whole day until about 5pm. i hope those of whom that bought some knight-edge comics, really enjoy them. the Q&A roundtable talk went well, too. i was a bit nervous walking in and there was like only 2 people sitting in there but eventually we got to like about 7 people asking us questions about how to self-publish comics. i think it has been reported that there were over 300 people in attendance, which is pretty much amazing for an event that had almost no publicity other than word of mouth, posts on various online forums and a website.

i bought some comics myself, including mojo & fuzz 1 & 2 from steve, sureshot 1 & 2 from mark, meus officium est abyssus I & II and crumpleton experiments #6 (was hoping to get that directly from daniel himself but he wasn't at the con) from tonia, and raven & zombie from mark & tom. i missed out getting quite bit too, like meeting the other adelaide crew, saying hello to david bird and ian thomas. tonia introduced me to scott beattie who makes the seven swords and i totally didn't realise until like sunday. i did catch up only very briefly with dean, darren, kevin, mark and aaron. and it was good to see everyone else if not with just a "hello".

the whole con ended with a mini live concert in a lecture theatre of all places (that was a bit surreal) with a band by the name of orochi. they describe themselves as a "japanese samurai kabuki rock band" and they basically play j-rock music. i think those who stayed back really enjoyed it as i saw most in the theatre eventually rocking their heads and putting their hands in the air. apparently they sold out of their cds and their t-shirts! i'm glad i got a copy of the cd myself, that's for sure.

i didn't take any pics from the day, but you can check out some on comics australia and at pulp faction forum here.

overall, well done to avi for stepping up and organising a long overdue comic book convention in melbourne. big thanks also to all the volunteers and the oztaku gang. let's hope the next doujicon will be an even bigger and more successful event!

we ended our day with a hearty full dinner meal at a local steak restaurant called hog's breath cafe. the wait for a table and the food itself was quite long but well worth it for the delicious food that we got to scoff down. i went for the rib and steak combo with mushroom sauce. i'm a big sucker for ribs. i love ribs. a well cooked piece of steak, too. and potatoes, anything with potatoes.