Photos: MoCCA 2009 Star-Studded Explosion!

The calm before the storm...the first day of MoCCA 2009 got off to a late start, so I got to snap a picture of the floor mostly free of attendees. Since MoCCA's usual space caught on fire last year, this year's Art Festival took place at the Regiment Armory in Murray Hill, a gigantic high ceiling auditorium space that made the show feel less like a small press fair, and more like a major convention.

That's not to say there weren't plenty of indie creators and publishers at the show, but I was particularly struck by how many big name creators were there as well. It seems MoCCA has continued to gain traction as a place where indie creators come to be discovered as well as a way for more major presses to promote their new, more artsy releases.

Comic stars, fresh talent, awesome sketches, and neat tablecloths, after the jump...


PART 1: Big Names

Adrian Tomine signing at the The Drawn & Quarterly booth. Growing up in Berkeley, I was a fan of local sensation Tomine since I was a teenager, and Shortcomings was my favorite book of 2007. He was taking meticulous care in his autograph dedications, it was awesome just to watch him do the lettering!


Seth, creator of Palookaville, was looking very dapper during his Drawn and Quarterly signing.

Writer Joe Kelly and artist Rodney Ramos were giving away and signing copies of Bang! Tango at the Vertigo booth. I mentioned that I loved the Free Comic Book Day edition of Four Eyes, another of Kelly's books, and he pulled out the second issue and gave me an autographed copy of that as well. Sweetness.

Brian Wood with DMZ aplenty at the Vertigo Booth.

David Mack had Kabuki titles and original art for sale, as well as his recent kids book, The Shy Creatures.

I am of course a huge fan of the Act-i-Vate gang, represented at their booth by Molly Crabapple and Dean Haspiel.

Becky Cloonan was selling advance copies of Pixu (review coming soon!) and promoting her webcomic KGB with co-author/artist Hwan Cho.

Evan Dorkin was promoting Beast of Burden, his upcoming book with Jill Thompson.

Tara McPherson was signing her illustration work as well as her awesome line of Kid Robot toys.

Action Philosphers artist Ryan Dunlavey was just about dwarfed by his booth's immense signage!

Part 2: Webcomics

The boys of Dumbrella.

Oh. Man. Randall Munroe of xkcd had the most consistently big crowd I saw all day. This dude must be like, a millionaire!

Ryan North! I had no idea he'd done these amazing instructions for time travel that have been making the internet rounds. He was selling poster versions that you can put you and post inside your time machine in case of emergencies.

Ben Rosen of White Cat, with his neon killer sign.

These buttons feature "Admiral Snackbar", a fastfood mascot featured in The Rack by Kevin Church and Benjamin Birdie. I'm a big fan of puns, particularly Star Wars puns, and apparently so is Benjamin Birdie. Suffice to say, I bought one of these.


Part 3: Art and Stuff!

Cute overload....Mice doing martial arts by Stephanie Yue.

Some pretty brilliant t-shirt designs by Joanna Mulder (talk about an awesome geek name).

Okay; this is the best thing I saw all day. I'm sorry. I love creator-owned work, I love innovative, experimental comics that push boundaries, but I will always have Star Wars deeply implanted in my heart and soul, and these mini-anthologies of Star Wars comics are freakin' OUT OF CONTROL. I bought the first one, Harvest Is When I Need You Most. Just think about that title. That is beautiful. Each story is a wonderfully thoughtful and funny take on the Star Wars universe, and I may have to go buy the other two tomorrow. These are edited by Shelli Paroline, who autographed my copy along with a little picture of an Ewok.

This is a mural by Michael DiMotta, the colorist of my new favorite DC title, Ink. Turns out DiMotta is an extraordinarily talented penciller as well, and this double tryptic of animals was actually painted as mural for a school. Lucky kids!

More Michael DiMotta. Man, this is good stuff. Be sure to check out his homepage for high-res images of this print and much more.


Artist Jerry Ma was sketching at the booth for Secret Identities, the first ever Asian Superhero Anthology (which I recently covered for Midtown comics). This was just his "warm-up" sketch, so I think we can safely assume his sketches throughout the day were pretty badass.

This print by Lucy Knisley caught my eye, for obvious reasons. I asked when she did it, wondering if she drew it before or after the zombie explosion of the last few years, and it turns out she did it specifically for the convention, and turned it out just two days before the show! I should probably go back and buy this.

Nathan Stapley and Scott C at the Doublefine booth. I have to say I had no idea Doublefine, a studio I know best for creating the brilliant Psychonauts videogame and the upcoming Brutal Legend, did comics as well. But they do! Like I didn't have enough stuff to check out...JEEZ. Also they gave out free stickers.

Here's JoeGP, creator of the Talking Guinea Pigs webcomic. I'd never read it before, but I liked the art and writing so much on my initial flip-through, I had to buy one of the hard copies. He also drew me a sketch which I will post tomorrow at a more reasonable hour.

These two creators win best tablecloths of the day...

Martina Fugazzotto, recipient of last year's Friends of Lulu Kim Yale award, was displaying her awesome sex-positive sex-ed comics on an equally awesome psychadelic tablecloth.

Box Brown, author of Love Is A Peculiar Type of Thing which came out last week and looks great, had this exquisite 1970s Disco Peanuts tablecloth. Every Charlie Brown is happy when he's dancing to disco music! I asked Brown if he had a particular affinity for Peanuts, and he responded with an enthusiastic yes, adding that any comic featuring a character with a perfectly round head is a big draw.

That's just Day 1, folks! And there's even more on Geekanerd's Flickr.

Geekanerd And The Mystery of The Mocca Murder

It's been days since I came upon the biggest mystery of my career as a geek-interest blogger/freelance investigator, and I'm still trying to fully understand the events that transpired. I arrived at the Mocca Art Festival Sunday afternoon, ready for a day of fun and comics, what I got instead, was murder... What follows is a summary of what took place that fateful day, be warned, it's not pretty.

I showed up at the Puck building on Lafayette on that sweltering June day to a surprise. Firetrucks! The building had been evacuated due to a fire alarm and the Firemen were sweeping the area, leaving countless comic collectors and creators cast out into the heat. I took a look around as the firemen were packing up and a distinct odor hit me square in the face - charred flesh. I knew at once that this was no false alarm, someone had been murdered, and the body had probably been burned to get rid of the evidence. The firemen I questioned acted as if they didn't know what I was talking about, likely the body had been removed before they arrived. They began letting us into the building, and I decided that I wouldn't rest until I had solved this mystery.

Everyone is a suspect...

I walked in and headed to my left, into a wing full of tables and comic creators hocking their goods. People shoved past in anticipation of new books. I stopped off at the Top Shelf booth figuring the comic powerhouse would know what was up. Liz Prince, author of Will You Still Love Me If I Wet The Bed? paused for a moment to talk and sell me her book, but claimed ignorance about the murder. She said no one at Top Shelf knew anything, and they were in the business of comics, not murder. I moved on in my search, if there were answers to be found, they wouldn't be at Top Shelf.

Liz Prince: Probably not a murder

I stopped off at Liz Baille's table to grab a couple issues of "My Brain Hurts." The lady looks like someone I wouldn't want to challenge to a knife fight, but torching a corpse didn't seem her style. I moved on to famous artist and creator Evan Dorkin, creator of such comics as Milk and Cheese and Dork. He was swamped with fans and had little time to talk, but I managed to ask if he believed his characters Milk and Cheese could have been involved in the murder. He responded "Milk and Cheese aren't real and couldn't possibly kill someone, what the hell are you even talking about?" He was miffed and I didn't want to rub him the wrong way, so I took off, noting that I should keep an eye on him.

Dorkin irked at my line of questioning

I stumbled over to the Picturebox table, where Director Michel Gondry and his son were signing their books. I was hesitant to bother the man, but someone had definitely been offed, and justice had to be served. I paused to buy his book along with his son's, and while he was signing, asked if he had heard anything about a murder or a burning body. He looked up at me and just stared, as if he hadn't understood a word I had said. Knowing Mr. Gondry, anything he would tell me would be laced with indecipherable metaphor and dream-like allusion, so I thanked him for his book and made myself scarce. I didn't think Gondry would be involved anyway, after all, he directed Eternal Sunshine and a short involving David Cross dressed up as a turd. That guy wouldn't hurt a fly.

Michel Gondry: not a suspect

I made my way to the elevators, maybe someone on the upper floors would know what had happened. There was plenty to take in, but I stopped off at this crazy looking joint
to ask a few questions of Skeightfast Dyephun! creator Vic Giannini. This guy was no friend to authority, but I thought he might be able to give me some dirt. Before I could even get word one out he was in my face. "Get lost flatfoot, I don't talk to no private dicks." I tried to reason with him, but he was having none of it. I could tell I was in dangerous territory so I backed away slowly. Giannini might be the type of guy to tear a man to pieces, but he certainly wouldn't get rid of the body, more likely he'd keep it as a trophy.

Victor Giannini, about to lose his cool.

It was around this time that I ran into three guys from Indie Spinner Rack running some game on the Templar, AZ booth. I asked them what all the commotion was about and they asked me if I was a gambling man. before I knew it I was sucked into their little game of dice and comic creation. Traveling around the floor they had a ready-to-play board game where the players were comic creators who had to pick up an artist, publisher, writer and supplies and make it to distribution first. I got well into the game when suddenly I realized, this was just a distraction, someone was trying to keep me from finding the killer! I shoved past the spinner rack boys and hauled tail away from the intoxicating sound of clattering dice.

You almost had me Indie Spinner Rack, but I've got a killer to catch!

As I tried to collect myself I heard a voice. "Hey Mister!" It was Insult To Injury creator Ben Rosen. "I hear you're looking for information." "That's right," I said, "I'm investigating a murder and the burning of a body." Rosen glanced around. "Lissen, I don't no nothin about no murder, but it sounds like you're lookin' for some sorta deviant, so you're in the wrong area." He had my attention. "So where am I supposed to be looking then?" "You want to go see those webcomic boys down on the bottom floor, if anyone's involved in something like that, it's them." He had hit the nail on the head, and I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner! I bought his most recent book to thank him for the info, and took off toward the stairs

A book for a tip, a fair trade

I hurried into the webcomics wing and walked straight to the big man, Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics. North may have donated a bunch of his own hair to locks of love, but that doesn't mean he couldn't murder someone and torch their body. I asked him a couple questions, and his overwhelming niceness eventually convinced me that he hadn't killed anyone, so I moved on down to the next table to talk to Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content. This giant of a man was adamant that he had never had anything to do with any murder anywhere and proceeded to give me the patented "Jacques Stare." I continued on, determined to find the murderer.

Ryan North: Too Damn Nice

The Jacques Stare

I was running out of leads, if I wanted to close this case I needed to do it fast. I headed over to the Dumbrella table to see if they knew anything. Diesel Sweeties creator R. Stevens took a hard line that no one in his collective could possibly have killed and burned someone, and that I should "seek professional help."

R. Stevens was uncooperative in the investigation

I was just about ready to give up, when I noticed that someone from the collective was missing. Indeed, Jeffrey Rowland, creator of Overcompensating and Wigu was nowhere to be seen, in fact, he had been missing from the Dumbrella table since the alarm. Rowland's "autobiographical" comic Overcompensating paints him as exactly the time of man who would both murder and incinerate someone. Unfortunately, he was gone, and while various Dumbrella members and passerby noted that he was probably "getting food" or "would be back later" I knew he was gone probably already on a plane to a sunny little spot in South America till the whole thing blew over. Stevens was obviously covering for him, and he would no doubt stick to his story. Lacking physical evidence, I'd have to wait until I could sit Rowland down and pull a confession from him. It was only a matter of time before he returns to the scene of the crime...

Jeffrey Rowland took flight, probably because he was guilty of murder

That's all I've got for now, tune in next time when I try to solve The Case of the Missing D&D Miniatures.

MoCCA 2007 - A Geekanerd Special Report!

Intrepid Geekanerd Special Ops Correspondent BRICE was at MoCCA last weekend, and he's provided us with exclusive pix and a special report of what went down - dig it!

Greetings to all you readers out there in the tubes! I stopped by the MoCCA Art Festival this weekend to spend too much of my money and feed your undying hunger for all things comic. The MoCCA fest has been going on annually since 2002, and if you haven’t made a point to hit it, you’re missing out. Unlike many comic conventions, the focus is set towards smaller and more independent print and webcomics, and if you’re looking for something new or just need a break from a constant barrage of ret-conning in your monthly issues of major labels, MoCCA is the place to find stuff you’ve haven’t seen in your local shop.

This year there were the usual three main rooms covering the first floor, and an additional floor upstairs. While artists mentioned that table prices have gone up for them, they said that the large attendance this year made up for it.


Like I said, one of the great parts about the MoCCA fest is the focus on independent artists and writers. “Bigger” name publishers like Top Shelf were of course on hand, but there are tons of guys and girls writing a wide array of comics for you to sample. I was excited to find a comic about Souxsie Sioux’s (of Souxsie and the Banshees fame) childhood by Dalton Webb, who also contributes to the anthology You Ain’t No Dancer which like the popular anthology Flight is a great way to get a sampling of a bunch of different artists and writers, always a good purchase.

I picked up the newest graphic novel from artist Christine Norrie (Hopeless Savages, Cheat) called Breaking Up, as well as the latest issue of author/artist Liz Baillie’s Queer Punk drama My Brain Hurts. Both books explore high school through the eyes of two completely different female protagonists. Tom Motley’s Aline the Alien included a splash page with honeycombed panels, written and designed in such a way that provided you moved to an adjoining panel, you could go in any direction and continue with a cohesive narrative.

I made my way into the webcomic area, where, if you stand in one spot for 30 seconds, you will hear no fewer than 7 different euphemisms for the word “internet.” I stopped by the “Playground Ghosts” table, featuring such wonderful comics as “Wondermark,” “Reprographics,” and the always lovely “Fluff In Brooklyn.” Chris Yates of Reprographics was happy to chat as I purchased one of his handmade puzzles and then pose for a picture with a completely appropriate sign (it’s a well known fact that 94% of webcomic creators are obsessed with fecal matter).

I stopped off to snag a shirt and a shot from “Dinosaur Comics’” Ryan North, who was one of perhaps two people attending the con who were taller than I (the other being Jeph Jacques of “Questionable Content,” who as everyone knows is approximately 11’ tall and was barred from the NBA out of fear that he might one day trip and crush Muggsy Bogues). Speaking of Jeph, he was nice enough to provide a lovely photo and equally lovely sketch for GAN, which will go up as soon as I can find a scanner.

I made my way over to the table of internet comic collective giant “Dumbrella” and picked up the newest installment of Jeffrey Rowland’s Wigu: The Case of Atlantis. Dumbrella is a powerhouse collective with comics “Overcompensating,” “Goats,” “Diesel Sweeties,” et al., churning out stylish T-Shirts and knocking over other webcomic artists’ lunch trays out of sheer spite. I had a short conversation with R. Stevens of “Diesel Sweeties” fame in which, after learning my profession (working in TV and Film) he promptly told me that he hated movies, as well as most television programming, insulted my job, and may also have made a comment about my mother as I walked away. “Absolute power…” and all that. However I can’t fault a man who shares my love of all things Jon Cusack.

But seriously, one of the great things about MoCCA is having the time and the leisure to swap a few words with the writers and artists selling there. All of them were great and more than happy to chat. And it’s a excellent opportunity to find some good books/sites that you hadn’t seen before. If you couldn’t make it, do yourself a favor and head over to http://www.moccany.org and check out some of the exhibitors that were there. Most everyone has a website and you’re sure to find something that piques your interest. Tell them Geekanerd sent you.

Thanks Brice! Check out more of Brice's hot pix, check out the first part of our MoCCA coverage, which includes links to all the webcartoons mentioned.