South-East Asia seems to be the hot spot that comic-convention organizers are targetting recently. The convention market is getting rapidly saturated in North America, with a burgeoning number of conventions held stateside in the last couple of years. There are all these various Wizard World Cons, Comikaze's, Walker Stalker cons, Creation Cons and several others, held in different cities around the continent.
Red Dot Diva has noticed that the spillover appears to have also hit Australasia and the U.K. Over in Australia, different editions of Oz Comic-Con are now held regularly in the various major cities throughout the year. Even in small Red Dot Island, there were several anime-cosplay type fests almost every other month last yea. Not forgetting also, that there was GameStart 2014, which saw the return of a gaming convention in the island after a 5-year absence. In addition, exhibitions company Reed-Pop kicked off the Indonesia Toy Games and Comic Convention in Jakarta not too long ago in November 2014.
So, with the Philippines being one of the largest English-speaking countries in the region, and the homebase of a notable list of well-known comic book artists, it is not a big surprise that another player would be keen to tap into the sizeable and active fanbase there.
Set to kick off in Manila sometime this year (September, it seems?) is Asia Pop Comic Con, run by a Dubai company called the Al Ahli Holding Group (AAHG). These are the same folks who own Comicave located in Dubai Outlet Mall, which they claim to be "the largest comics and collectibles superstore". After all, it does have a jaw-gaping store space of over 17,000 square foot of geeky goodness.
