MoCCA Art Fest & Lulu Awards In Photos

Wind beneath our wings Marion Vitus
taking memberships at the MoCCA Art Fest Friends of Lulu booth

Cliff Chiang draws some lucky person a Batman pinup;
Cliff donated his time and skills to help out Friends of Lulu

Alitha Martinez presents her new comic
Yumi and Ever at the Friends of Lulu booth

Elayne Riggs is not only a Comic Mix reporter,
she's also a Lulu member and volunteer

Brian Wood would be happy to know
that I purchased the floppies, not trades...

If you were Jamal Igle, you'd be smiling too.
Helping us out at the Lulu booth & sketching...

Proud Friends of Lulu member Dan Slott
donates some time for the cause...

High Moon's David Gallaher at the Zuda booth

Cecil Castellucci signs copies of the Minx book "Young Janes In Love."
The Minx booth was giving away galley editions of all of their new titles.

Comic creators Shaenon K. Garrity, Steve Ellis,
and David Gallaher all volunteer at the Friends of Lulu table

A good party, NYC Friends of Lulu Chapter President
Danielle O'Brien assures us, starts with dishes...

...and ends with napkins

Danielle is not only a great chapter president --
she also pours a mean glass of wine.

The Lulu Awards were attended by a full house;
people eventually had to be turned away at the door
because we had reached capacity.

The Night Owls' Peter Timony and some dude

Friends of Lulu Chapter Vice-President Marc Wilkofsky
gives the refreshments a thumbs-up

Rachel Nabors announces the Kim Yale Award

Kim Yale Award winner Martina Fugazzotto

Lulu Awards emcee Emily Flake

Heidi MacDonald

Vertigo's Angela Rufino accepts the Woman Of Distinction
Award on Shelly Bond's behalf

Marion Vitus

Abby Denson

After 6+ Lulu board meetings over Yahoo Chat,
I finally get to see what Leigh Dragoon looks like!

Dennis Calero sketches for a good cause and
becomes honorary "Friend of Sluggo"

By the end of the show, Miss Danielle O'Brien
could be found throwing my camera into moving traffic

Girls With Slingshots artist Danielle Corsetto
draws a Secret Invasion cover as Elayne Riggs looks on

How many comics professionals can you spot in this evacuation photo?

MoCCA Art Fest 2008: Introduction

Paping

Note: This is the first of several posts on MoCCA Art Fest and the Lulu Awards that I will be writing over the next few days.

MoCCA Art Fest 2008 began with an ambulance and ended with fire trucks; I don't position that as a criticism of the event, but as symptomatic of the intense energy an unique convention like this generates. And the f**king heat in NYC that weekend, let's not forget that.

The sheer number of wildly talented people at this function -- most unstamped by the Machine that can be mainstream comics production -- was absolutely staggering. At a regular comic book convention, you figure that a number of the tables are going to be comic book dealers, toy companies, movie promotions, etc. At MoCCA Art Fest, it's wall-to-wall talent.

My question: how do we sufficiently get the works from these talents into the hands of people who will appreciate them? In many cases this is not the audience who frequents mainstream comic book stores. Should these ultra-small press books -- many created by hand, stitched, block prints, etc -- even be distributed by Diamond? Is that the wrong model for this sort of work, anyway?


A lot of the DIY comics on display at MoCCA Art Fest should really be sold in gallery-type settings. We're talking one-of-a-kind and/or low print run. These are, for lack of a better term, "boutique" comics. Now, some artists might balk at that description because they think of their work as far more universal than that; I understand that. But, it's like saying oranges and bananas are both fruits. Yeah, they are. But they are not the same. Shifting gears from the mainstream event-of-the-week to a hand-stitched and -printed comic using an actual subway map as paper is quite a shift.

That said, there really needs to be mechanisms in place to focus on just these small-press books -- getting them properly distributed, helping some of these artists to promote and sell their work. But, that system also has to be set up so these artists get to keep as much as those profits as possible. These artists have to make a comfortable(ish) at least part-time living off their work so they can focus on producing more. We can't let these artists fall through the cracks and give up after putting out an issue or two because it's just too damn difficult to make ends meet, and that administrative 9-to-5 job behind the desk in Midtown Manhattan looks so alluring.

There has to be a bridge put in place for these people before they make it to Fantagraphics or Top Shelf or Vertigo or wherever -- so they can actually get there. And I know some of those bridges are already put in place, but there needs to be more.

I mean, my God -- it wasn't like there were a few diamonds-in-the-rough in a sea of self-published comics at this convention. Any talent-hunter, editor, etc would have their pick of at least 25-50 solid new talents minimum at MoCCA Art Fest.

***
Towards the end of the convention, a fire broke out in the basement of the building (something about the boiler). I of course found out about it on the seventh floor, as I was waiting in line to talk to Greg Pak, watching him sketch the Hulk. The MoCCA staff handled it really well, but it was still a bit worrisome. We picked up our bags, and the bags of friends we knew who weren't there at the moment, and evacuated the building.


A thought kept running through my head: a fire at a comic book convention would be most unfortunate and unlucky. Packed rooms full of paper.

Also -- here is our talent, a good portion of the future of comics, all in a building that's on fire.

***

I have to create something to help these artists market and promote their stuff.

The Stars Come Out To Support Lulu At MoCCA Art Fest

Big Apple Con won't be the only New York venue this weekend to feature big-name comic creators from your favorite Marvel & DC titles.

The Friends of Lulu table at MoCCA Art Fest will feature a number of talented artists and writers who are generously lending their support:

Saturday
Cliff Chiang: Green Arrow/Black Canary, Dr. Thirteen, Beware The Creeper
David Gallaher & Steve Ellis: High Moon
Jamal Igle: Tangent: Superman's Reign, Nightwing, Firestorm, Teen Titans
Alitha E. Martinez: Iron Man, Marvel Age's Fantastic Four, Yume and Ever
Dan Slott: Amazing Spiderman, Avengers: The Initiative, She-Hulk

Sunday:
Dennis Calero: Legion Of The Superheroes, X-Factor

Plus, Danielle Corsetto, creator of the very popular webcomic Girls With Slingshots, will be at the Lulu booth both days. She does amazing sketches and commissions, and you should really check her work out!


Really, this is an unique opportunity to meet these comic creators in a very creative, more intimate setting than a standard comic book convention. And MoCCA Art Fest is chock full of other great artists, signers, panels, and so much more.

MoCCA Art Fest is being held this weekend, June 7 & 8, at the Puck Building in Manhattan. Admission is $10 a day or $15 for a weekend pass. Please click here for more information.


And my thanks again to all these talented artists and writers who are taking the time out of their busy schedules to show their support!

MoCCA 2007: Thoughts & Reactions

As I settle down to write this I've just received a call from Doug Bratton of the comic strip "Pop Culture Shock Therapy" that I've just won his raffle. This is good. I spent a long time debating whether or not to purchase one of his books at the Con, as $ was a little tight at Casa Del Superheroine this month. But now I've got all 3. I got good swag karma. Swag. I'm up to my ankles here, typing this, swag from MoCCA all over my floor.

The MoCCA Comics Festival (Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) was a two-day event that featured the best of the independent comic scene. It was held the same weekend as The Big Apple Comic Con. I heard that a bus would shuttle people between both shows. I would think MoCCA would have cut in a bit on Big Apple's business. To be fair, Big Apple has professional wrestlers. But I've never been to MoCCA, so I decided to give it a try.

First thing I noticed, there were no people dressed as Captain America there. It was disorienting.

Then there were all the female comic book creators. I would say that the gender breakdown at the show was 50/50.

I wondered how many of these talented women had any inclination to work for mainstream comics at some point. There isn't that much of a place for them at the moment, outside of Minx/Vertigo & Marvel's assorted indie projects. But it seems that this is where all those female comic creators -- the ones that some blog pundits (me included?) sometimes complain there is not enough of. They do exist. In numbers. They were at this show.

There were two DC tables -- Minx & Vertigo. Chatted with Vertigo editor Bob Schreck. He has new stuff a-brewin' but nothing that can be announced before San Diego. With his experience at Oni, Comico, & Dark Horse, I would expect indie books that fit the general Vertigo framework but with a twist. I've enjoyed various Vertigo titles over the years but I think that twist would really spice up the line.

Next was pumping Vertigo assistant editor Brandon Montclare for news on the Minx line. I asked him about the ratio of female talent as opposed to male talent in the Minx line. He said that actually, women make up roughly half the talent working for the line -- which is apparently going full-speed ahead in terms of pub plans. A "Plain Janes" sequel in the works? Maybe. Some serialized, multi-volume works? A possibility.

This Minx book "Confessions of a Blabbermouth," about a female blogger, sounds interesting.

I chatted with Tim Leong, editor-of-chief of the new magazine Comic Foundry (debuting in September) -- which looks awesome. Gushed to Rick Veitch over his Vertigo book "Can't Get No" -- which I rarely do to any comic creator: "it's literature, man...it's $%*^$# literature. it moved me man..." Thankfully there was no one to witness said geekery. There was also Dean Trippe (who drew that awesome Supergirl piece I've ran in an earlier post), Tim Fish (from the webcomic/anthology "Young Bottoms in Love,"), artist/burlesque dancer Bonnie Voyage, Papercutz editor-in-chief Jim Salicrup, "Fishtown" creator Kevin Colden, Eisner-nominated "Onion Head Monster" Paul Friedrich, Christine Norrie ("Breaking Up"), "Soon I Will Be Invincible" author Austin Grossman, Pop Image co-editor-in-chief Ed Matthews, and Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf's "Essex County" series).

Bumped into The Beat's Heidi MacDonald, who hadn't seen me in at least three years. She looked really awesome, and she said I looked very awesome...I'm thinking that there is some link to blogging/looking awesome.

But the highlight of MoCCA?

Bacon-Man.