In Between Panels

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

I always underestimate the time spent photocopying at the shopping centera in UP Diliman. Normally photocopying shouldn't take more than just a few minutes, tops. That's the amount of time I thought I would only spend the same time last year. In preparation for the upcoming Toys and Collectibles Convention (which were graciously granted to our group by the hosts) I thought of updating the indie comics for CLASS and coming out with the first indie comic for West Side. So I spent enough time collating the strips into pages, gathering enough sketches to fill in some pages, and writing an introduction of sorts for new readers. With the convention nearing its date I thought a day or two before the event would be enough for me to got to the photocopying place. There would be plenty of time for me to do my other stuff anyway, most of it involves printing posters and other artworks in Makati. That's what I thought anyway. And I thought wrong. Big time.

I even dawdled leaving the house sometime after lunch. When I got there I took my pick of the only place where there wasn't much people around. I probably tried out three to four shops before I buckled down to stick with the one that gave me no attitude. They were reluctant to print my stuff anyway, complaining that it would deplete their toner faster than anything else. But no matter where I went, they all told me I couldn't get it any faster than three hours. That is if they weren't giving me a snooty or apathetic attitude that they cannot do it. Good thing the service included a collating and stapling service. It was pretty cheap anyway so I couldn't compalin about the time they gave me. Fast forward to the present, I've completely forgotten what I went through last year. I still dawdled, miscalculated the amount of time used for printing the pages, and I still got the same snooty attitude from those I thought wouldn't give me a hard time. My first stop this year was the old place where I previously got my comics printed together with Lyndon. They were charging me Php5.00 per page printed after seeing what I had in hand. They had the gall to charge me that much when everyone around them were charging ¢60 per page. I settled down with one small shop that didn't have that much people inside (which I thought would translate to "not busy") but the one in charge gave three and a half hours' time, charged me higher than what I remember I got last year from another shop, and that didn't include collating services and stapling. You might be asking yourself why I just didn't return to the original shop that did my pages last year. I didn't want to hear the same grief they're sure to give me because of the toner thing, besides I was sure they'd turn me down this time. Feeling frugal and all I just hung around waiting for the time. I should have brought a book with me to make the time pass faster. What happened was I spent the entire time staring at the jeepneys and the people passing by. I spent what money I had on hand on ice cream and banana cue. The time waiting was even extended for a good (good?) thirty minutes more when I got there earlier than usual and found out that they haven't even started on my pages yet. I swear I'll either have to go a lot earlier next year or change shop again.

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