Seen @ STGCC 2012: Artist Alley

This year's "Artist Alley" at the Singapore Toy Games & Comic Convention boasted 94 booths, featuring a variety of artists and practitioners in the largest gathering yet for this local event, which no doubt left attendees bludgeoned with eye-candy! From ornately-illustrated foam cups at "I Am Boey", to adorable Deego-customs at "Boo Loves Berry", to character graphics of Gunawan Lo, MonsterLittle and Nana Roomism.

The Artist Alley is fast gaining steam primarily as an "affordable" opportunity to display and showcase your products/skills/services at this geekfest, and the sheer number of booths is proof of that! Will the following year see as much booths? Or even more exhibitors? Can our little island nation sustain such a number in the forst place?

A part of me hopes to see this aspect blossom into a "village" all of it's own (Would love the notion of "kampung spirit" tho ;p), and not necessarily be seen as the "poorer" aspect of the convention, and at the same time, I hope it does not transcend into a "poor practisioner's alternative" as well, with booths toting discounted goods and such "pasar malam" banality. But I/m sure the organizer's got that well under control :)


One of my biggest regrets is not having the opportunity to peruse the Artist Alley booths, and visit folks like Rocket Raygun, Noval Hernawan, Shawn Siow (of Draw Slowly), HairyAsHell, Ray Toh and Abs Lee (of AbsoluteLEE ME), or even check out D'creativeholic to have a look at Lofing (made by Creo Design), and one booth I was really intrigued to check out: Trobok Toys.

I remember things were much different in 2011, when I was instead covering the event rather than helming my own booth (this year), where I could visit anyone and literally spend an entire day (or maybe even two) JUST at Artist Alley itself!

Truth be told, I'd imagine spending loads of cash here, to somewhat support these indie-artists in whatever little way I can afford, because I know first hand how running a booth and preparing for it, can be either fulfilling, or dreams-crushing, IMHO.

Regrettably, I do not have a huge album of images HERE on my Facebook, with images taken by Cindy Heng and Mdm Lee (Sister and Mum, respectively!). So if you've snaps you don't mind sharing in my album, do feel free to email me at toysreviler [at] gmail.com :)

And thanks to the folks at "Callous Comics" (diagonally in front of my own booth) for reading my blog!