Over 150 artists are expected to gather and meet their fans at the much-awaited Kwentoon Fest happening this July 1 and 2, 2023 at the SM Megamall Megatrade Hall.
Pinoy comics and manga fans are expected to have a blast meeting artists such as Pol Medina of the highly successful Pugad Baboy, Aj Bacar of Sskait, Ivyree del Rosario of Little Things PH, and Drew of Hunghang Flashbacks .
The so-called Coachella for Pinoy comics also promises to be a fun and educational event for kids with animation workshops to be conducted by Mookie Tamara, who has worked on Big Hero 6: The Series, Ducktales, Oggy and the Cockroaches, and Lackadaisy.
Aspiring artists can also learn more from the panel talks with Tristan (character designer for Disney, Cartoon Network, and Dreamworks), Tepai Pascual of Duty Ka Ba Komiks, and Elmer Damaso of (Titan Comics and Robotech), who will share their insights about the creative industry as well as character design, storytelling, and manga creation.
About 40 new Pinoy manga will also be launched during the event. This is a product of a collaboration between Kwentoon and the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPhil) that aims to help create an original intellectual property through intensive manga training involving various professional mentors from the Philippines and Japan.
IPOPhil and Kwentoon are both geared towards reducing if not totally eliminating, piracy by helping provide world-class content for Filipinos.
Kwentoon, a Philippine-based digital publishing company, and IPOPhil earlier teamed up to launch the country’s first Manga Bootcamp. This is an online three-month training program that gives aspiring manga creators the opportunity to learn from industry experts such as Tristan Yuvienco, James Atillo (Sampay), Tepai Pascual, Elmer Damaso and Japanese Mangaka Mikey Maeda, who has worked with Shonen Jump and collaborated with authors of One-Punch Man, Shaman King, Boruto, and other famous Japanese manga series.
IPOPhil director general Rowel S. Barba said that the creative reputation of Filipinos is well known globally, which is why IPOPhil is constantly finding ways to encourage Filipinos to nurture and develop their creative prowess while also pushing them to register their creative works so that they can protect their copyrights.
The Kwentoon Fest will also serve as the venue for the graduation of the participants at the Manga Boot Camp. Outstanding works from the boot camp will be recognized.
Games and toy aficionados can get to support Pinoy creators and sellers with affordable toys and stickers to be made available during the event. There will also be a Jack En Poy competition, which will be open to participants 15 years of age and above and with cash prizes at stake for.