Doing StickerCon while I was on deadline for final art of my debut graphic novel, Squalo & Mage, wasn’t a great idea to be honest. It was as if working on my book and raising a toddler who shapeshifts into a T-Rex didn’t already take up whatever energy I had charged up from my 5-hour restless sleeps.
But gosh darn it, doing StickerCon was a dream. Heck, I even listed “join an art market” as one of my goals for 2025. So in late April, when they announced they were mounting the first four-day StickerCon in the south of Metro Manila (my homecourt), I didn’t have a choice. The cosmos brought it my way, so I had to answer the call. I signed up, and luckily enough, KARAKUGAKI made the cut. I was to table at my very first major art market. Yipee!
Those four days turned into a long and tiring blur of extroverting like I’d never done before. I had my biz partner, Antonette, help me out as my shifter; we each took 3-hour shifts to Khajiit-has-wares-if-you-have-coin then switch up for breaks. And back home, my husband, Sho, watched over our little T-Rex, Kazuki. Sho is a live sound engineer for two of the biggest rock acts in the Philippines, and it was a miracle that he only had one out of town show that weekend. That one day that he was away, the kid stayed at my childhood home with his cousins. Childcare, thank the Mother Goddess, wasn’t a problem at all.
I’d only been to a handful of art markets as a buyer of little trinkets and things (my friends know I don’t go out), but in those moments, I was so inspired to do The Thing. Creative energies were boundless and it was the same at this StickerCon, where I came as a vendor.
Day 1—Thursday—was okay. No, actually that’s a lie. Thursday was rough. For Day 1 reasons, I wouldn’t recommend doing ingress an hour before the mall opens. That was a terrible, terrible move, since we were given 2.5 hours for it. I should’ve trusted my gut to come early, but Antonette—who is experienced in doing bazaars—advised me to come at 10:00 a.m. instead of 8:30 a.m. since I only had half a table (2ft x 2ft in size) and lived close by. Even if I had such a teeny-tiny space, I ended up having to set up by myself, because my shifter had a bout of anxiety that kept her up all night.
Despite the low to average foot traffic, it was a very stressful day. We hadn’t even set up a POS system and were tallying sales through manual ticks on a list like total amateurs in the Dark Ages. And of course, I wasn’t without fault. In fact, I had a lot of faults. Due to ADHD and excitement, this total n00b would forget to mark down sales, have trouble doing on-the-spot basic math, and get swallowed up by shyness. Everything we did for Day 1 was a big learning experience, and come Day 2, we were ready to tackle a bigger crowd.
There was a little bit (read: a lot lot lot lot) of anxiety that reared its ugly head, since the table next to mine was extremely popular and drew in huge crowds for their anime fan art. It’s hard not to compare yourself to these seasoned merchants (especially since they’re younger), but I tried my best to look past it. I ended up learning a lot from them and in those four days, also turned my neighbors into friends. We all had a shared love for Pedro Pascal and traded stickers and secrets. I honestly couldn’t have asked for better tablemates (Ric, Gaegan, and Cat! You guys are the best!).
Another thing I had prepared was early promo for Squalo & Mage. For a simple follow, customers get a free sticker of my magical dynamic duo. It picked up a lot after Antonette came up with a little “Can I offer you a free sticker?” script. And it was so cool to see so many people excited for my upcoming book. Plus, it was added pressure to finish coloring the remaining 40 pages of my 233-page book. (Spoiler alert: I do finish it).
Friday cruised on by a lot smoother and we got a better grip of things. Saturday got pretty crazy; I sold out some stickers and prints and had to replenish stocks during my break. But Sunday—wow, Sunday was a beast of its own. As soon as the after-church crowd walked in, it was almost impossible to sit down. I was constantly on my feet, calling out, “Shark stickers! Art prints! Candles! Pedro Pascal! Sleep Token! K-Pop Demon Hunters!” And it was pretty cool to actually catch the attention of some people who liked the things I do.
“Pedro Pascal stickers?? Where??”
“Did you say Sleep Token? WORSHIP!!!”
“I’m taking all the Derpy stickers.”
Then sometime after Antonette and I switched shifts from my lunchbreak, a bunch of my friends dropped by. Wave after wave, friends from different circles—college friends, band friends, work friends, Kazuki’s teachers—swooped by. My heart began to soar. They all bought my stickers! My prints! My birthday cards! I wasn’t so nervous anymore and I couldn’t stop smiling.
During my last break, I met with my buds, Camille, Fran, Derra, and Peavey for dinner, where I got hit by an allergic reaction from some squidballs. I rushed to the nearest pharmacy for an antihistamine, ran into another friend on my way back to the restaurant (told him to swing by the booth too), and rejoined my friends. As I drank my Coke Zero (another cure for allergies, you’re welcome), I spotted two familiar shapes outside the window—Sho and Kazuki! They commuted from home via jeepney (Kaz’s first jeepney ride!) since the car was with me. I held my baby, melting with joy and relief. It wasn’t until then that I realized how much I missed my kid. After they had dinner, we all went back up to StickerCon for the final hour of the market.
The rush was insane. Last minute customers came over and bought a lot of my stuff! I even had to whip out LAST STOCK tags for some items (pro tip: these tags help sell them faster!). My new friends and I, we all cheered each other on. Adrenaline was high and I was extroverting double time. My displays were getting empty and a bunch of my items even sold out! And by 9:00 p.m., StickerCon was over. We rolled in our carts and wagons, packed up out displays, and shot some videos for the Gram.
After we loaded up our trunks, Antonette and I walked over to Yushoken for celebratory shoyu ramen and money splitsies. It was well-deserved, especially after seeing the math from our sales over the past four days. I honestly didn’t expect to make so much just from stickers alone.
Moving forward, I’ll definitely be adding more merch beyond stickers and prints to my catalog. Maybe even offer live portraits? Haha, we’ll see. But sitting there at our favorite ramen spot, I realized how exhausted I was. My feet were dead. My throat was tired from all the sales talk. And I just wanted to go to bed.
Would I do it again? Definitely, but maybe not when I have a very important deadline to hit. For now, I’ve got some book stuff to take care of, and you can be sure to see KARAKUGAKI at another art market really soon.
Here’s a lil recap video:
This post originally appeared on my Substack newsletter, Karaland.