This year’s MoCCA was the best ever, in my opinion.
The feedback I got from a lot of people at tables was that traffic was light, but it didn’t seem that way to me. Sunday was much less crowded than Saturday, but that’s to be expected.
Here’s some random highlights and memories:
* Is it just me, or does MoCCA really need to sell coffee?
* Meeting Jaime Hernandez for the first time was a real thrill. I was surprised that he was familiar with Shelf Life and relieved that he didn’t immediately leap over the table and stab me in the neck with his pen when I introduced myself. Actually he couldn’t have been nicer, and as Gil Roth alluded to, I had him sign my issue of Fandom Circus #2, a rare 1978 fanzine that published his first professional story. It was cool watching him flip through the book and reflect to Charles Burns that “this was the story I learned to ink on.” Amazing!
* It seems like oversized newsprint comics are becoming a new trend in the indie scene (if such a scene even exists anymore). No doubt inspired by Kramers Ergot 7 and DC’s underwhelming Wednesday Comics, many artists were showcasing cheaply printed, oversized pages in color, not unlike the original version of Frank Santoro’s Storeyville. I personally really like this format. It allows the artists to work big while keeping the price low, and hearkens back to comics’ newsprint origins. I picked up three such comics, including Pood, an anthology from the crew at Blurred Books, Street Prison and Caboose, both of which were free handouts.
* After procrastinating for years, I finally became a MoCCA patron. I’m looking forward to taking in more exhibits this year, and generally becoming a more active member of the comics scene in NYC.
* The four big purchases I made:
- The Art of Jaime Hernandez (this seemed to be the buzz book of the con this year).
- Penny Century - the latest phonebook-style collection of Jaime’s post-L&R solo stories. There’s some excellent stuff here, and Jaime was kind enough to do a quick sketch of Hopey for me.
- Body World by Dash Shaw. Prediction: this is 2010’s book of the year. Dash was on-hand to sign the books, but was feeling a little under the weather.
- Craig Yoe’s The Art of Ditko book. After reading Blake Bell’s Strange and Stranger, I couldn’t resist this sumptuous, oversized collection of Ditko’s non-Marvel/DC highlights.
There were many other books I wanted, but for budgetary reasons had to pass on, including Dan Nadel’s Art in Time, Top Shelf’s Swedish anthologies, Craig Yoe’s new Milt Gross and Dan DeCarlo (Jetta) books, Hope Larson’s new book, Mercury, the new MOME, and Newwave and the Basil Wolverton Bible book from Fantagraphics.
* Abrams had promo flyers for Charles Burns’ new book, X’ed Out, which looks absolutely amazing!
* I wish I had been better about pulling myself off the floor to attend a few of the panel discussions, but I always get too excited looking at books and lose track of time. Next year!
** Frank Santoro’s “magic” long boxes were one of the highlights of the show. Like Frank, I revel in the lost classics of the ’80s. I admire the way Frank is single-handedly sustaining the nostalgia of growing up as a collector in the ’80s while simultaneously curating what is considered “classic” from that unique period in comics history. Frank’s hand-picked selections reflect his own personal tastes, including his fascination with the evolution of the coloring process, but there’s a lot of diversity to marvel at in his collection. His boxes included all kinds of comics from artists like Marshall Rogers, Klaus Janson, P. Craig Russell, Garcia-Lopez, etc.
It also was fun chatting with Frank about various comics, although his attention was understandably distracted by the large crowd at his table. I personally bought Silverheels #3 (with that rare backup story by Jaime Hernandez), the first Outsiders annual (with astounding pencils/inks by Kevin Nowlan), a random Dennis the Menace comic from Fawcett (the Spring Special), Paradax #2 (collecting Brendan McCarthy’s stories from Strange Days, beautifully re-colored). Frank was even kind enough to throw in P. Craig Russel’s Elric #3.
* PictureBox also had a stack of back issues from Ace Comics. I grabbed a copy of The Cosmic Book, an obscure one-shot featuring amazing talents including Wally Wood, Pat Boyette, Alex Toth and Fred Himes.
* Here’s some of the other schwag I got:
Eschew #1-2 - The cartoonist Robert Sergel has produced two really nice looking issues of a mini-comic called Eschew. The first is available through Secret Acres and the second through Sparkplug Comic Books. Sergel has a really clean style, with figures that resemble John Hankiewicz only without the obsessive cross-hatching. Sergel demonstrates a strong sense of composition and black/white balance, and is only an extended narrative away from turning some heads in the industry.
Freewheel - This is a collection of the first five issues of Liz Baille’s breakthrough mini-comic into a really lovely, digest-sized book.
I Want You #1 - I couldn’t resist this comic by Lisa Hanawalt, from Buenaventura Press.
Winter - I own everything by the brilliant cartoonist/painter Stef Lenk. Her latest book is a beautiful narrative poem.
I also picked up the two latest minis from her table-mate, Shannon Gerard, as well as a free preview of her upcoming IDW graphic novel, Sword of My Mouth, which looks fantastic.
I Dreamed of You, Mr. Eybyaninch #3 - Is there anything more mind-blowing than Justin Fox’s wild, indescribable psychodrama? It’s like Jim Woodring on speed. Check out the first issue here.
Kevin Mutch is a cartoonist I’ve been fascinated with ever since I read the first volume of the Blurred Vision anthology. He’s also a lot of fun to talk to, always brimming with enthusiasm and ideas about the medium. This time around I picked up the final two issues of his webcomic-turned-graphic novel, Fantastic Life, as well as some older works, including The Revenge of the Lesbian Folk Singer and Captain Adam.
The Last of the Real Small Farmers – This is a sort of oral history by the husband wife team of Robbi Behr and Matt Swanson who run Idiots’ Books.
Yearbooks and You Can’t Be Here (another large format newspaper comic) by Nicholas Breutzman – I bought these based on Rob Clough’s recommendations (Yearbooks was #24 on his 2009 top 50 list).
Never Forgive, Never Forget - the new self-published OGN from Israeli cartoonist, Rami Efal.
I also picked up the following books from some very cool cartoonists who were kind enough to trade for some of my mini-comics:
- Cragmore Books 2 and 3 by Pat Lewis – I really enjoyed the first book in this four-part story which I picked up at last year’s MoCCA.
- Haberdash and Chance Vance by Chris Sinderson
- Egg Hard Boiled Stories #2 by Eric Skillman, Ming Doyle, Victor Kerlow, and Evan Bryce
- Denia #1 by Daniel Kim and Juan Romera
- More Great Moments in Western Civ – a 24 hour comic by Caitlin Cass
- Oak & Linden #2 by Pat Barrett
- Spy Guy Minis – by Mike Kitchen (something about this book’s art reminded me of Cerebus)
- Short Notes on Long Comics by Tim Stout - This is not a comic, but rather a series of critical essays looking at “10 great examples of story structure in graphic novels.” Sounded interesting.
- Everything Dies #1-2 by Box Brown
- Unpleasant People #1 and Brain Partz #1-2 by Holly Flotz, a student at the Center for Cartoon Studies.
That’s about it off the top of my head. For someone who spends most of my comics-related time alone, reading and writing, it was really cool to meet so many people I know only through the internet in real life. Wish we could do it more often.
— Marc Sobel
