The Changing World of MoCCA Fest

This past weekend, I attended the premiere event in the east for indie comics.  In case you haven’t made it to MoCCA Fest, it is a fundraiser for the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art.  The festival is also a great opportunity to truly hobnob with the indie creators of today.

Like last year, I attended as a volunteer, not only to get the perks of volunteerism, but to hang out with a amazing group of geeks.  I was assigned to the A/V team, which meant I was working all of the panels.  Unlike last year, I didn’t get to watch any panels this time around.  I did get plenty of time to wander the floor and meet some new people as well as catch up with some old friends.

Gary Panter accepting the Klein Award

In my opinion, the floor of MoCCA Fest had a much different feel than last year for a few reasons.  The individual creators were more likely to try and get your attention.  I felt that more and more people were stepping up to show me their creations.  This is exactly what the fans need, and I think it helped the energy in the room.  Another great addition was the presence of Boom! Studios and Archaia Entertainment.  These publishers represent a more mainstream presence at this event, but they didn’t take away from the indie feel.  As one Boom! representative told me, they’re trying to bring their more indie titles, not big names like Irredeemable.    Despite all of these great things, the floor still seemed fairly uncrowded.  I imagine that holding it the same weekend as Stumptown on the west coast hurt attendance.

No matter what, MoCCA Fest is still the premiere place to find new indie comics on the east coast and hob nob with all of these awesome creators.  With each table, I had the chance to meet the brains behind great comics, and every purchase I made went straight to the creator.  Especially in this economic climate, that makes me feel great.  I highly recommend that you add this to your con list next year.

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Sunday Links for August 7

Another hot and humid summer week with some fun news updates....

Shockingly this week, there were mean people on message boards. This time, they were bitching about the new Ultimate Spider-Man, because he is not white. *gasp* Really people?! I would love to just say "grow up idiots" really loudly, but Elliott Serano says it much classier.

(via Geek to Me)

Despite only releasing a single, though critically acclaimed issue, NonPlayer has been optioned by Warner Bros. I would love to see how they bring that vibrant and beautiful world to life.

(via Comics Alliance)

MoCCA announced their 2012 dates....which are the extact same weekend of Stumptown. Indie comics will be covering each coast but the indie creators will suffer having to pick only one show to attend.

(via The Beat)

Some moron tried to steal a cop car by telling the cop it was part of The Dark Knight Rises. I just don't understand how someone could be that stupid.

(via Robot 6)

Until next week...

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Smurf's Up! NYC is Going Smurfy!

It seems like everything's coming up smurfy as New York City gets ready for the premiere of you guessed it - The Smurfs!

To celebrate, there are a bunch of events happening around NYC this week.

On Location Tours - Through Friday, 3 pm, starting at the Belvedere Castle at Central Park. You will be taken to the various locations featured in the movie as well as other iconic film sites. You can learn more here. Reservations are required.

New York Botanical Garden - Through Friday, 10 am - 6 pm. There's a Smurfs Scavenger Hunt where you can learn all about the types of vegetation the Smurfs love. On Thursday, you will be able to meet Papa Smurf and Smurfette.

Brooklyn Children's Museum - Wednesday, 10: am -2:30 pm. Make your own smurfy mask and later on, the museum's educational department will give some love to the smurfiest homes around by presenting "Extraordinary Laboratory: Fungus Among Us." It will explore everything from food molds to mushrooms.

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) - Though Friday, 12 pm - 5 pm. A Smurfette animation cel is on display and smurfy coloring books and activity sheets will be given out.

Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre - Wednesday, 10:30 am and 12 pm. Smurf character cameos, creating smurf-like puppets, and more will be available. Learn more here.

Build-A-Bear Workshop - Wednesday, 11 am - 1 pm. Located at 565 Fifth Ave., you can walk the blue carpet, meet the Smurfs, and make your very own custom smurf.

FAO Schwarz - Wednesday, 2 pm - 4 pm, drop by 767 Fifth Ave, Level One, for a chance to win smurfy prizes, take pictures with Smurfs and even see the real "Smufalator" from the movie.

Sci-Tech: Smurf Animation - Wednesday & Thursday, 3 pm - 4:30 pm. Sony Wonder Technology Lab allows you to create your very own smurfs digital animation.

The Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden - Friday, 10:30 am. A museum tour, story time, crafts, and books all dedicated to exploring all that is blue.

Regal Cinemas E-Walk 13 - Friday, 3 pm - 6 pm. Meet the Smurfs and partake in the celebration with games, activities, family fun, and more!

Hope you have a smurftastic time! (Yes, I was trying to see how many times I could use the word smurf.)

Art Spotlight: MoCCA Fest Edition

This month's Art Spotlight is featuring some of the amazing artists that I met at MoCCA Fest this past weekend. These are only a few of the talented artists in attendance at MoCCA, but they truly made an impact on me.

This is Classic Hollywood Monsters from a fellow volunteer, Savark Dicupe. I wish I had realized how talented he was when I was working with him; I would have pressed him for more art to post!

Amy Lynn Duengfelder makes amazing jewelry, which I purchased at MoCCA, but she also creates great, happy, twisted artwork like this Ice Cream Cone.

Remember that guy who asked me about caffeine? Well, he is actually Greg Houston, creator of Vatican Hustle and Elephant Man from NBM. After going through his site, this Electric Tree kept appearing on my screen. Just love it!

Justin Peterson, creator of Very Near Mint, had a lot of fantastic work out at MoCCA, but this just stood out on his website. Who doesn't love some Doc Brown?

Did you see any fantastic art that I should share in the next Art Spotlight? Email me at insertgeekhere@gmail.com.

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My Time at MoCCA Fest!

I went to MoCCA Fest for the first time this year and I went as a volunteer. Volunteering is an awesome, fun way to support your show and your comic addiction all in one. I highly recommend it as a unique way to see the show. While you won’t have as much freedom than if you went as just a fan, there are a lot of benefits to volunteering. You meet and work with amazing people who are as passionate as you are about geek culture. You also get to see the show in a way fans never realize. The work that goes into these festivals and cons is insane and crazy and not always organized, but the passion is always there and it shows in every worker that is there. The show also provides you with great incentives. For volunteering I received a free pass to the show, meals, a t-shirt and a ton of free books at the end. If you are going to volunteer though, please honor your commitment. These organizations only succeed because of volunteer support and dropping out at the last minute is unfair to them and the other volunteers.

I was working on the programming team, which meant a few things. There was a lot of technical setup, some actual responsibility in making sure that the panels ran smoothly and the panelists were happy, and the opportunity to see a lot of awesome panels. I promise, I did work, but it was great to see panels I never would have gotten to see if I was on my own. Plus, I got to meet and hear some amazing people at the panels including Jerry Robinson, Jackson Publick, R. Sikoryak, Bill Plympton, Al Jaffee, Kate Beaton, Sarah Glidden, Lisa Hanawalt and Jeffrey Lewis. Even when I was standing outside of the panel guarding the door, I got to meet Greg Houston, an illustrator for NBM. While at the time he was just looking for caffeine, we chatted, and I have had the chance to look at some of his work and it is fantastic. I really hope to learn more about his upcoming projects soon.


The most entertaining panel I attended was The Cross Hatch Carousel. It was a live comic reading starring Kate Beaton, Lisa Hanawalt, Jackson Publick, Julie Klausner, Jeffrey Lewis and R. Sikoryak with my Programming boss Brian Heater moderating. For all of you thinking how can reading comics out loud be entertaining, you just have no idea. The excitement that they brought to the reading really made it fun. Also, the comics were just super funny. Because of this panel, I actually cornered R. Sikoryak (He told me to call him Bob! Squeee!!!) and made sure that he put me on his mailing list for the next reading. I will make sure to bring Wysefyre and Getsuyobi for all of the fun.


The most interesting panel I attended was the Batman, The Joker and Beyond: The Career of Jerry Robinson. I loved hearing all the side stories about his work. Two tidbits stuck in my mind. Mr. Robinson’s brother was a champion bridge player and his family played a lot of cards. When he was up one night working, the idea struck him for a new villain and he grabbed a deck of cards from them and The Joker was born. The second tidbit was in the creation of the sidekick for Batman. Despite popular belief, he didn’t name Robin after himself. When they were working on a name for this character, Mr. Robinson thought back to his favorite story, Robin Hood, and that’s where we got the Boy Wonder from. It was neat to learn about comic history from someone who was there living it.

Despite my busy panel working schedule, I did get a chance to walk around the show a bit. I got to meet a ton of interesting people. I actually hit up a lot of the same places that Wysefyre and Getsuyobi went. I swung by Jeph Jacques to pick up my own copy of Questionable Content after reading Getsuyobi’s copy. I also visited Pronto Comics and Lush Comics and had a blast talking with those two publishers. We really hope to bring you more from them soon. I stopped by the Evil Twin Comics table to say hi to Fred Van Lente and Greg Pak, who was sharing the table on Sunday. I got a copy of Greg Pak’s Vision Machine, which was a fantastic story. I encourage you to read it and I will be posting more about it soon. I got an awesome necklace from Amy Lynn Duengfelder’s table. She had some fantastic stuff and I am looking forward to really exploring her work. At Richard Codor’s table, I picked up a signed copy of the Joyous Haggadah, which is totally getting me in the Passover spirit. I also saw some great Star Trek, Star Wars and X-Men artwork at Justin Peterson’s table but at that point I was out of cash and totally kicking myself. His website is on my list to visit next payday! Same thing happened at Braden Lamb’s table, where I saw some terrific Star Wars art. Serves me right for being conservative at the ATM. One thing I did miss on the floor was the freebies and discounts that a lot of the volunteers were getting from the vendors. I was so focused on the tables I wanted to see that I missed out on some good deals but maybe next year!

I really enjoyed the feel of the show. It was a group of creators that really wanted to just hang with their fans. Yes, Wysefyre is right that there were creators that didn’t sell themselves correctly, but this is a nice change from a big con. I really didn’t miss the tables and tables of back issue sellers and was totally happy to be in a giant Artist Alley. Next year, you should join me as a volunteer if you can because it is a great experience for a great organization.

Let us know what you thought of MoCCA, did you love it, hate it....

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MoCCA Fest Musings & Tips

MoCCA Fest was this past weekend, and it was an interesting experience. Part of what was appealing to me about it was that it's a great place for indie comic creators to display their work. I didn't know what to expect, but I went in hoping for a good time and a chance to be introduced to new works.

Saturday, Getsuyobi and I arrived around 2 pm, Wilderowens was already there volunteering (she'll tell you all it),  and we walked the exhibition floor. We stopped at few booths, but other than a few exhibitors who we were familiar with, we didn't meet a lot of new people. There was something about the vibe of the show that didn't seem to work for us. Talking about it later, we came up with some reasons why.  Here they are as well as a few tips on how to make things better for next year.

1 - The accessibility of the exhibitor. It is hard to approach someone when they are deep in conversation with their friends or when they appear to be intensely concentrating on their latest piece. We want to be able to talk to you about your work but when your head is down and you don't even notice us standing there, then we will walk on by.

2 - Lack of assertiveness. The exhibitors are there to show off their work, so what aren't they calling us over or simply saying hello when they see us look their way? There was a guy from Pantsless Comics who was saying the most random things but also calling attention to himself and his group. It was impossible to ignore him and they were great to talk to. I'm not saying randomness is the only way to get people's attention, but it doesn't hurt. A little assertiveness goes a long way.

3 - Have a business card. I understand that many of the exhibitors might not be comfortable in this kind of environment. It might be their first time or they're not used to the crowds or whatever, so I get that it might be a little difficult for them to sell themselves and their products. They also might just be very busy. BUT if I want to get in touch with you and find out more about your work and maybe even help promote it, I need to be able to contact you. Vista Print offers free and low cost business cards. Get some and then hand them out to everyone who expresses an interest. 

And finally, this last tip might not be doable for everyone but it definitely can only help the creator - try to bring with you someone who knows and supports your work. That way if you have to go to the bathroom or need a break, someone will be there to promote your work while you're gone. I bring this up because one of the more fascinating comics I saw was from Origami Comics. The comic was shaped as a fortune teller. I loved those as a kid. It was beautiful to look at, and I definitely wanted to talk to Ken Wong, but he was nowhere to be found. The people next to him gave me his card but they could not answer any questions about it. That one made me really sad. I'm definitely going to try and find him at NYCC. So please try to bring someone who can give you extra support.

Now that I've talked about some of the not so great experiences, let me discuss the good. The people that we did speak to were great. I came across a most unexpected find with Ryan Sias' children's book "are you eating something RED?" It's the perfect gift for my niece.

Fred Van Lente and the fake Ryan Dunlavey (Fred's wife) were wonderful. Had a lot of fun with them at the Evil Twin Comics table. Mrs. Van Lente knows how to sell. She saw us looking at the table, told us about the various works and encouraged us to pick stuff up and mess everything up (within reason, of course), and Mr. Van Lente talked to us about his work and was just very approachable.  

Pronto Comics was there. They do a lot of work helping creators self-publish projects, collaborative and solo, as well as helping creators build their portfolios. One of these days, I will make it to one of their meetings. I want to see how it all works.

TopatoCo was awesome as always. They have great stuff and given my slightly unnatural love for Questionable Content, it's always nice to see Jeph Jacques. Getsuyobi got an autographed QC book complete with a Pintsize drawing.

Finally, we got to talk to Lush Comics. Lush Comics is a comic book publishing platform for folks who want to share and sell their art. It was great talking to Justin Mound about it and we plan on getting more info so we can pass it along to you. 

So overall, for Getsuyobi and I, the Fest was a mixed bag. Some good, some not so good and some just okay. Now that I have an idea of what it is like, next year I'll be better prepared. 

Did you go to MoCCA Fest '11? What did you think? Do you agree or disagree with my tips? And do you have any suggestions? Let us know!

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Sunday Links for April 10

This weekend is being spent working at MoCCA Fest 2011, so this is a short and sweet Sunday Links.

The Eisner Award nominations were announced this week and here is a list of nominations from Nominee Heidi MacDonald at The Beat. Congrats to everyone who was recognized.

Marvel announced this week that they are releasing a Flashpoint:Venom comic at the same time that DC will be in the middle of their Flashpoint event. I agree with Newsarama; considering that the Venom comic just started, do they really need a special event?

Bluewater Comics announced that they are going to start their own Superhero universe to show all of us that they are more than unlicensed biography books. Since they are basing the characters on Greek myths, it's not really anything new.

I have been spending a lot of time getting ready for Game of Thrones on HBO, and while I have done a variety of fun things, there is some help for those who are trying to catch up. The Discriminating Fangirl has a cheat sheet to help you study up on the characters and Bleeding Cool has a great Behind the Scenes video.

Finally, Thomas Katers at iFanboy wrote a great article about what comics failed to teach him about life. It is an interesting insight into what kids and adults can get out of comics.

Comic Fun in NYC this Weekend!

This weekend, NYC is filled with great comic events that we are so excited for! The whole IGH team is going to try and make it to as many of these as we possibly can, so keep an eye out for us!


On Friday 4/8, The Strand Bookstore is holding their first ever Strandicon! The Strand celebrates the comics art form with an afternoon of special appearances and a panel discussion with the founder and editors of the re-launched The Comics Journal.


The event starts at 2:30pm at the Strand Comics & Graphic Novels Department on the Second Floor at 828 Broadway & 12th St.


On Friday 4/8, Drink & Draw like a Lady East is happening to help kickoff MoCCA Fest weekend! If you are a woman that writes, edits, letters, draws, studies, sells or reviews comics, then this is the gathering for you! It looks like a great chance to see and discuss some great art!


The event runs from 7-10pm at 192 Books, 192 Tenth Avenue at 21st Street.


On Friday 4/8, the MoCCA Fest kickoff party is a fundraiser for MoCCA! There are some special guests including anti-folker/cartoonist Jeffrey Lewis, folk legend Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders and cartoonist Dean Haspiel, along with R. Sikoryak doing some live painting.


The event runs from 7-10pm at Sutra Lounge, 16 1st Ave @ 1st St. $5 donation at the door.


Then the big event of the weekend: MoCCA Fest! This year looks to be a great one, with programming that looks so interesting. One event that I want to see is the 2011 Klein Award to be given to Al Jaffee of MAD Magazine. I am sure his speech will be a good one! I especially hope to get to meet Dean Haspiel!

For those of you not in NYC, Saturday 4/9 is Mini Comics Day! This is a day where you can create your own mini comic in one day. There are events happening all around the world. If there isn't an event near you, you can still take part by creating your own comic. There are resources available on their website. If you do create one, send it to us and we will feature it!

As always, we will do our best to tweet during all of this fun and if you happen to be at any of these NYC events, come and find us!


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