MoCCA 2010

I wasn’t planning on going to MoCCA this year. I didn’t have any new work and I was pretty broke so it seemed pointless. But then I looked at how low ticket prices to New York were and I just couldn’t turn it down. It’s amazing what a shit economy does to the cost of airfare. So I flew out for the weekend, crashed with my sister and checked out my first ever MoCCA Fesitval.

MoCCA Fest 2010 Poster by Dash Shaw

I was very surprised to find that nearly everyone I met at SPX earlier this year remembered my name (some of them even remembered the name of my comic!). I found this somewhat touching but mostly was just completely in awe of it because I am the absolute worst at remembering people’s names. I don’t understand how these people could have shook my hand once months ago and remembered me. So way to go everyone I met at SPX.

Douglas Wolk obviously considered this issue with the astounding number of people you meet at conventions and made business cards that attempt to fix the problem. He absolutely wins hands down for having the best business card at the show. One side is filled (and I mean FILLED) with useful information about him, while the other side has blanks to fill in reminding you where you met him and what you talked about. These would be incredibly effective business cards…if I was at all in danger of forgetting who Douglas Wolk is (which, barring a sudden case of early onset Alzheimer’s, is not going to happen any time soon).

Pranas (of inkdick fame) and Box Brown (Bellen!) totally win for most approachable table. I stopped by their spot a few times and chatted them up. Two top notch dudes if you ask me.  Box Brown had a bunch of new stuff, including both issues of Everything Dies and some originals to look at of an adaptation he’s making of some religious spam he got. I always find it really interesting to look at original pages and see people’s pencil lines and fuck ups, and these pages were really well composed. Pranas had some minis out for sale that were really intricately made, with cut-outs and crazy packaging. It makes me smile when people treat minicomics as a form of book art instead of just slapping together some crap at Kinkos (even though I totally just slap my own crap together at Kinkos).

Celia Bullwinkel had what I thought was one of the most interesting items for sale: pillowcases! I’d never seen pillowcases at something like this before, and I absolutely had to buy them. She said that they were kind of a pain to have made, but they turned out beautifully and they go with my sheets.

Photo of my new pillow cases stolen from celiabullwinkel.com

After the show on Saturday I made some friends in Steve Seck and Sara Lindo who were tabling with Darryl Ayo, a friend from SPX. They were nice enough to invite me along for dinner with Sam Carbaugh and Andrew Hoepfner. We talked about art and comics and drank a lot of beer, and honestly, that’s what I came to New York to do. I came to MoCCA to meet cartoonists and get drunk and talk about what kind of ink cartridges we like and how expensive Bristol board is. Talking to other cartoonists makes me feel like I’m not COMPLETELY INSANE for doing what I do. So, mission accomplished.

After dinner I ended up at Bill Kartalopoulos‘ party in Brooklyn (right by my sister’s place – how convenient!) where I ran into Cody Pickrodt, whom I met at SPX, Gabe Fowler and briefly met Charles Burns. I chatted for a while with Swedish cartoonist Simon Gärdenfors about Stockholm, and drunkenly made a bit of a fool of myself in front of Drawn & Quarterly’s Peggy Burns! (Hey, what’s a convention without making an ass of yourself in front of at least one person you have respect for?)

The second day of the show, I thought, was considerably more low key (although maybe that was just the hangover). I picked up a few of the larger items I’d had my eye on the first day: a book on Swedish Comics History, the brand new print version of Gastrophobia, Lucy Knisely’s French Milk and a rad jellyfish t-shirt from Sticky Comics. Talking to a lot of the exhibitors I head many complaints about the show, mostly from the tables in the back that felt foot traffic was being cut off from them by a huge section of “reading tables.” I also heard a fair amount of grumbling about the high table costs/admission prices. L. Nichols does a fair job of explaining her concerns in this blog post, and I think her issues with the show are valid. As a spectator I didn’t experience any of the problems the exhibitors were having, and it being my first time at MoCCA (and only my second major convention ever) I don’t really have much to compare it to anyway. I thought it went pretty well over all. The turn out seemed pretty good and the panels were interesting and well organized (aside from a few technical difficulties). I had a good time at MoCCA and definitely plan on attending next year, although I doubt I will be able to afford a table. As always it was fantastic seeing my sister and it’s always good to have an excuse to go to New York.