So yeah, the MoCCA Art Fest, that big comic show that I was at this past weekend [And once again with links for certain folks since the subject is their comics, and it worth looking at if you're not familiar with them]…
To be totally honest, I’d be lying if I said that MoCCA 2006 was the “awesomest show evar!” Because it certainly wasn’t, at least for me. My reasons are mostly selfish really, though I have heard others also voice certain similar complaints, but I’m not going to dwell on them, at least for too long. But that’s not to say the show flat out sucked (nothing’s gonna top SPACE, I’m sorry Columbus, Ohio). It certainly had it moments. Going in, I knew well in advance that the best part would be see and hanging with certain folks that I never get much of a chance to see, and it was certainly the case this year. Plus I did get a few decent books…
Things kicked off Friday night when Liz and Robin came over with Travis in tow, who had just flown in from Texas. The guy was uber impressed with my pad; he said it was the nicest, and most spacious home he had ever seen in Brooklyn (and I suppose he might know since he used to live here). And therefore his comment about the upstairs bathroom being as big as some people’s apartments in NYC were not totally off base. We then all drove over to a favorite eatery of myself and MK?s in Park Slop, Rice, then went to Rocketship for their big pre-MoCCA party. Within ten seconds of arriving, Farel & I gave each other very manly hugs, cuz that’s the kind of friends we are. There were tons of other folks there as well, including other awesome folks like Jamie Tanner, Alec Longstreth, Rob Donnelly, and Joe Flood, but I mostly just kicked back in a corner of the store with MK and Travis to chat, drink (the free) beer, and flip through a new Carl Barks/Ducktales collection that I guess just came out. But we couldn’t stay for too long, since MK was slowly becoming sicker, so myself, MK, and Travis headed back home. I showed Travis a few minutes of Indian Superman and then he played Katamari 1 for the remainder of the night while MK used some NyQuill to become comatose and simply I stapled together some books and watched Travis play.
The next morning we all got up bright and early, including my roommate Stephy, who was extremely excited to be part of the gang and the show. Unfortunately MK was feeling worse, hence why she made this huge serving of green tea for the rest of the day. We got into the city in style, via car (actually van, and that’s because of the wood for the big display was so big it couldn’t be transported by simple car). The ride felt like the taxi scene in Quick Change (the awesome Bill Murray dressing up a clown to rob a bank then trying to get the fuck out of New York City flick that everyone should run out and see) because the guy simply didn’t understand where we wanted to go, and every-time we tried to clarify, he’s just smile and nod his head. Oh, and once we got there, he tried to rip us off by charging an extra $10 over the quoted price.
Once inside, we went right to the task of putting together the big wooden structure that would support all of Stephy’s paintings, plus give our table a bit more visibility during the show. In just about a minute into the construction, MK’s power drill ran out of juice and we all went “Oh Jesus Christ…”. But Steph grabbed us some screwdrivers and duct tape, and soon Robin showed up with Katie, and next thing you know everyone’s toiling away like the Amish in Witness and Kingpin…
Best part of the production was when an acquaintance of Robin’s came up to talk and he told her he was too busy and she went all “Well fuck you very much!” and flipped him the double bird. Anyway, the thing came together in the end and was actually nice and sturdy throughout the show (thank God)! Did the big display help get us noticed? Maybe. At the very least, it helped to counter the annoying, and large, pole that was right next to our table. At least we had awesome neighbors. To our left were Liz and Joe…
And to our right was Todd and Toby…
Along with Dalton Webb, who unfortunately is not pictured. It’s perhaps worth mentioning that throughout the entire weekend, Todd kept greeting me by saying my name in a cockney British accent, which harkened back to our chimney sweep routine from SPX last year (in case anyone who overheard was wondering… which I guess is primarily the guy who was sitting to the other side of Todd, who kept giving me funny looks whenever it happened, but he seemed really weird, so who cares).
In addition to having super great neighbors, we were thankfully once again in the “cool” room (cool as in all the truly cool folks were there, and its also the one with the AC that actually works… it wasn’t as bad as last year, but the other two rooms got super hot, and the stinky room as got quite pungent on Sunday), where I was actually also very close to number of good friends, including Dave and Raina…
Aside from the usual stuff they have to offer (Dave’s QF, Teen Boat, and Astronaut Elementary, and Raina’s Take Out mini’s and her Babysitter’s Club graphic novel), Dave had the Life Meter mini, which was definitely one of the cooler things I got at the show; Rob asked the night prior if I was going to do something and I had totally forgot that I had promised something for Dave when the thing first launched. I think I still have some breakdowns I made for a Rocket Knight Adventure comic somewhere…
And of course, next to Dave and Raina was John and Marion…
Also in addition to the usual stuff from John, he had demos of the his game Nearly Departed with really snazzy printed CD. I wanted to grab one, but figured it would be best that those who have had no previous exposure to the game get a chance to have a copy instead. It’s also why I hesitated taking the limited edition mini that Farel had for sale, since its a reprint of something he had at the very first MoCCA. Here we are in my perhaps my most fave pic from the whole show…
But yeah, things were really packed over at my end, with MK, Robin, Steph, and Travis… unfortunately it was almost too packed. The problem was, there just wasn’t enough room for everybody to sit. In fact, I barely sat at the table at all; of the two days, I think I was there a grand total of 30 minutes. Which meant no chance to really sell my books, which is one of the best parts of any con. But what really sucked was how I found after the show that a few folks stopped by to grab my book and say hello and I totally missed them. They also wanted to get my books from me directly; I’m sure anyone else would have loved to sell them… I guess some folks are just like that. That’s another thing: my sales were pretty bad. I know its totally silly to complain about poor sales, simply because it true, and besides, most everyone has the same at one point or another, especially starting out. But it was still a blow to the ego; I guess cuz it was the hometown show. But hey, in the end, I’d like to chalk it up to “paying your dues.”
So with no where to be, I ended up just walking around and talking with folks a lot.
Here’s Alec, sporting his Trading-Friendly button…
Long story short: Liz came up with the idea, along with MK shortly after SPACE I believe, for a means for a cartoonist to tell another that they are interested in trading their work. The act of asking someone to trade can often be a harrowing experience, but vitally essential (as better explained here). By the end, quite a few tables has the circle t logo, and Lize made like a hundred and by the end, had only two left!
Here’s Andy Runton, and I know I’ve said this like a billion time, but he’s like the nicest and warmest person you will ever meet. He’s like that guy that EVERYONE likes, and when you meet him, you go “gee, and now I know why!” Oh, and his comics are super cute.
Later in the afternoon, “the other Matt” (actually, in MK’s eyes, I don’t where he “ranks”, but I’m like the 6th Matt she knows) showed up, that being television’s Matt Singer…
Aside from being on IFC, Matt also reviews movies for the Village Voice, but what he really wants to do is review comics for them. And I personally would like to review games for them since I honestly don’t think they’re doing a good job at that.
Oh, and here’s me and Raina Lee. She’s the creator of the 1Up-Zine, which was a fairly influential collection of video game journalism when it debuted I don’t know how many years ago. I wrote a piece for issue #4 I believe… four years ago? I guess the reason why I am showing this picture is for people to know that she is still alive and still intents on publishing another 1Up.
I wasn’t the only one who had no real place to sit throughout the show. I constantly saw Steve roaming the halls like I was. As you can see, he’s sporting his ultra fine Tron jacket, which I’m still sorta jealous of.
And here’s Toby, obviously very tired.
Travis took this picture of MK & I…
… then decided to also mark another occasion, that being how rad his bagel was with a second picture…
As you can tell by my expression, it did look pretty fucking good.
BTW, some might recall me stating that one’s attire is quite important at a function such as MoCCA, and everyone call tell, I am proudly wearing my TATE shirt from click-stick, which no one know what it was about, meaning I had to explain it about twenty times, which is the true sign of an awesome video game shirt!
So day one wrapped up in a fashion that is easy to predict: everyone asking “So what’s the plan for tonight?”
Dave and company invited us to see an Aquabats performance that night, but most of us felt like just taking advantage of “happy hour” and we also really wanted Japanese food, especially since Travis knew a really good joint near St. Marks. Happy hour took place almost immediately after the show and on the seventh floor of the Puck Building. No one knew what to expect, so we were all surprised to say the least when we walked in all received drink tickets and saw a pile of food. The thing was, we were all confined in this really tight area, meanwhile there was this huge open room that was closed off, unless you paid $10 since it was reserved for the “proper” MoCCA party afterwards. And being the cheap bastards that most cartoonists are, almost no one was crazy enough to pay ten bucks for some extra leg room when the food and booze was free. Even though the food was less than stellar; MK almost bit into a grape that had inset holes in it, which I guess further reinforced how cartoonists and fruit just doesn’t mix (I say that because I distinctly recall Raina Telgemeier having some waffles with strawberries one morning at SPX and there were maggots in them or something). Travis also came up with the idea of grabbing two beers at once, to avoid going back in line, so needless to say, I got buzzed pretty quick-like.
Here I am, striking a pose with Marc…
And here’s Robin downing a beer since we all wanted to get the hell out (the place was becoming more and more a fire hazard every minute).
The whole event was being supervised by all these buff guidos, with the slick hair and black turtlenecks, which you normally see manning the doors at upscale, yuppie bars. One had this look of “I can’t believe these fucking nerds…” look on his face the whole time. Also worth mentioning is how, if you tell Robin to chug, he will in a heartbeat.
The walk to the Japanese restaurants had two highlights. First, while walking across Houston, Travis pointed out this guy who was standing out on the fire escape of a building; he was totally nude except for a pair of white boxer shorts, but for some reason, his wiener was totally sticking out. Second, as we walked up 1st Ave, I heard Pat Lewis, who had joined our party at the happy hour (and who was also slightly inebriated in my opinion) yell out “It’s not my fault!” And as I turned around, I just saw this bike that was chained to a parking meter, and that was right next to Pat, crash to the ground. You simply had to see it.
Then, later during dinner, Pat accused MK of being the one who knocked down the bike! “Come on, you can admit it!” he kept insisting. I perhaps would be more offended by the idea of my girlfriend being accused of knocking some bike on the street over if it wasn’t so damn funny. Also, I have this really loud and strange ringtone on my cellphone, which is a rooster crowing, along with assorted wacky beeps and books (including a duck quack), so whenever my phone ran, everyone at our tables thought it was hilarious (well not everyone… Travis was embarrassed like hell), meanwhile this large group of people next to us would grow silent. Two women even kept giving me this look of “You fucking asshole…”
I should also add that the restaurant, whose name I forget, but its between 11th and 12th on 1st Ave (right next to Atomic Wings) was fucking amazing; the prices, especially for sushi were amazing. I heartily recommend the sweet potato sushi.
We all then went to St. Marks to hit the Evergreen Tavern (I think that’s what its called), MK & I’s fave local bar. Along the way, we saw a Mister Softee truck, and since Pat made it clear that it was his mission to eat a cone from every Softee truck he saw, and since it was pulling away, I made a mad dash after it, and actually managed to have it pull over just for Pat. I took a picture to mark the occasion, but Pat refuses to divulge it due its apparent embarrassing nature.
Once settling into the bar, I had a deep conversation with Pat, Joe, and Travis about old Saturday morning cartoons from the 80′s, like Alf Tales and Galaxy High, among others, plus Power Rangers and all that jazz, which was so intensely boring for Liz that she ended up storming off, which was also pretty funny. Didn’t end up staying too long, since MK was feeling super tired, and Travis wanted to play video games really bad, so the three of us, along with Pat headed out. Here’s Pat talking to MK while Travis plays either Katamari 1 or 2…
Later I showed both guys Karate Ruler (you know, that film that was conceived, written, produced, directed filmed, edited, and starring retards, but instead of actually featuring karate, its pro-wrestling) and needless to say, they were awestruck.
The next day we all had a very splendid subway ride into the city thanks to all the angry loud and obnoxious boriquas that filled up our train once in Manhattan. The Puerto Rican parade was taking place later that afternoon, and any native New Yorker can tell you how mindblowingly obnoxious such a day usually is, especially when it comes to riding the trains, when you have packs of people yelling and screaming amongst each other, as well accosting and harassing other passengers all in the name of “cultural pride”. But you get used to it, hence why everyone else in our party became all quiet, except for Stephy who also is used to such nonsense. Best part was when she asked me jokingly “So what’s the point where you get into a fight?” All I can say is that when you look me like, you pretty much have to develop thick skin with such bullshit (it’s also nice to have friends who are Puerto Ricans who are well adjusted and hate such self-stereotyping on a whole different level). Though it certainly didn’t get us in the best of moods to start the morning off.
Day two was much like day one: just walking around the show floor over and over and over again. While that can normally be fun in itself, for whatever reason, things just didn’t click for me this year. I got plenty of time to take a good look at all the stuff available, but I gotta say, this was the first show ever where there was no single “OMG I gotta get that!!!” surprise. That’s not to say there wasn’t good books… there were plenty, just from the usual folks, like new stuff from Travis, Pat, and Jamie. Also picked up a few things I’ve been meaning to for a while now, such as Scott Pilgrim volume 3 and a book from Hope Larson (when I told her that I was MK’s boyfriend, she went “Aww, geez, if I knew, I wouldn’t have sold you a book!” so to “make-up” for it, she gave me a very beautiful print). Also finally got one from Lauren Weinstein (who teaches comics at SVA and who brought a number of minis to her class for them to pick and choose their favorite; my Cheap Ass Mr. No Penny ended up being the top pick, which was nice to hear) and the lastest from Dave Kiersh. Plus, I was happy to see Jannie Ho at a show (I believe she said it was her first), finally picked up a book from Gia-Bao Tran, and also finally got a copy of Batman Trapped in the Closet from K Thor when he picked up his copies of Unlucky from me (they were made for SPX, but I believe he ran out in like twelve seconds). And I did discover someone new: Lucy Knisley, who’s mini which I grabbed at Hope and Byran Lee O’Malley table which I thought was definitely tops. So I suppose I should take back some of what I said, since there was some pleasant surprises. But once again, something felt sorta “missing” for me. I guess because a lot of it did feel sorta the same ol, same ol, but honestly, that’s really no dig on the artists and their work… anyone who’s seen my stuff will know that I have no room to talk.
Some have complained about the arty-farty-ness of MoCCA, and my particular beef is not with the arty, just the farty, if that makes any sense. And while it might be rather pointless to complain about any “scene”, for whatever reason, I just don’t equate the general comics scene, at least the one I enjoy and am even a small part of, with MoCCA scene, which is its own strange beast. I like to describe it as a mishmash of folks who like comics and comic art, which are distinctly different groups, with strong dose of Brooklyn hipsters sprinkled liberally about. Hence why I absolutely hated seeing all the Paper Rad wanna-be’s at the show. BUT, as much everyone knows how much I hate hipsters, I have no problems with hipster art per say. In fact, I like it quite a bit, and the primarily reason for being bothered… and I know some folks are gonna hate me for saying this… is that I’m a big fan of Paper Rad’s. I also agree with the notion that its best to ignore such things, like the idea of a scene, but I also believe that one’s tolerance for a thing is somewhat affected and determined by their willingness and ability to be marketable and appealing to such a crowd. And truth be told, if everyone in Willamsburg decided to buy all my shit, I would gladly take their money.
I’ve heard complaints from people regarding some of the comics at MoCCA, that some really weren’t comics but just random drawings all assembled together in a book form. Or how some folks are just there to sell prints or silkscreened shirts and have nothing to do with producing comics. And that’s certainly the case, no doubt about it, but is that such a bad thing? I think not… hell, I look forward to buying shirts at every con I go to! Plus its a comic ART show in the end. But I can see why it can get under people’s skin, that being more “pure cartoonists” as exemplified in this Comics Journal Message Board thread (I agree with some of the sentiments, but I really can’t follow most of the argument since I’m not that into comics, plus I’ve long heard that the bitchiness at TCJM is highly annoying… hence why it totally screams like a comic book version of the Gaming Age Forums). Again, I don’t agree, but I can see where they’re coming from. I suppose it helps that I simply find any content vs. form arguments in general endlessly fascinating. Though my personal definitions of what constitutes a comic book are rather loose, and in the end, if something makes me chuckle, I could give a rat’s ass (I know such a sentiment doesn’t necessarily apply here, but I figured its worth mentioning before everyone decides to lynch me for being Mr. Negative… again).
Speaking of, I also got the new Paper Rad DVD, along with a mini. When I told him that I remembered him when he was first at MoCCA, about four or five years ago, with just a small table in the corner of the show, selling just a few modest books and VHS tapes, he just gave a slightly embarrassed laugh.
Another “big” thing at MoCCA are the celebrity sightings. For myself, the one big name that truly mattered was Rodney Greenblat, and once Abby told me he was around (she’s good friends with the guy… aside from art, they even made music together), I knew I had to give me a copy of my mini. And thankfully, he totally remembered me, and even liked the interview I did of him for Gamasutra, so I didn’t feel like a total goof.
Aside from all the annoyances, my biggest dilemma was in regards to buying a particular shirt. Long story short, and without naming specific names, there was a shirt that I thought was totally rad, but I simply can’t stand the guy selling it. So I asked for some opinions from folks who would be sensitive to such things: Robin and Steve. Robin pointed out, with eloquence and wisdom might I add, that I shouldn’t, simply because we would be “shirt buddies”. Excellent, excellent point. As for Steve, he said no simply on the basis that the joke/cultural fad it was playing off from is like seven years old.
Speaking of shirt buddies, I might have mentioned about the one I made the year prior. Long story short, in the beginning of day two, I was wearing a brand new Threadless shirt (in my defense, they weren’t as nearly popular back then as they are now… and again, it just goes to show that as much as I hate hipsters, I like their stuff… guess that’s why I hate them, because they ruin awesome shit for me!) and Steve came up to me and said “Dude, there’s like this huge fat guy who has the same shirt as you!” which instantly deflated me. Later in the afternoon, the inevitable confrontation took place, and what should have been a twenty second “Hey, we have the same shirt on, that’s interesting” conversation was dragged out for a whole solid three minutes, and made even longer when his buddy stopped by to drag things out for another two with even more inane and awkward chatter. Anyway, that far guy was back, and wearing the same shirt (plus once again, he had it tucked in, PLUS he was wearing Bermuda shorts). I told this story to Farel and Paul Hornschemeier, then Paul topped it with his tale of the guy which was basically an angry fan letter from him all because Paul failed to respond to his email in a timely manner. He said such crazy things like “How DARE you treat a TRUE fan such as MYSELF like this!” And that was followed by a very short third email that simply said “I will be looking for you at MoCCA” which naturally put some fear into Paul. Apparently, when he was finally found, all the guy had to say, and in an apparently very scary tone of “I do not hate you.”
One final piece of disappointment was the absence of Nate Powell, which I was expecting, and others as well. All due to some piece of misinterpret comment from Farel’s blog, which I apparently helped to perpetuate I believe. If so, sorry about that.
Anyway, when the show finally wrapped, I think everyone was glad since most were just tired and wanted to unwind, relax, and maybe get some rest. And naturally, the whole process took much longer than necessary because Toby, Todd, and Travis kept goofing around, for everyone’s amusement…
Also, much like if you ask Robin to chug a beer and he will, so will Todd if you ask him to eat paper…
The plan was to wrap things up, cab it to Brooklyn, fire up the grill, and project movies in my backyard. I offered invites to Toby, Todd, and Dave’s gang, and while some of the guys were very interested, everyone was just too saddled with comics and luggage to be in any position to do much traveling (just as joining Dave for dinner would have been a pain for the same reasons on our end). And we had to not only cab it because we had these huge planks of wood, some over 7 feet tall, there was no way in hell we were going to take the subways, especially since the Puerto Rican parade had probably just wrapped up. But we couldn’t just take any cab, but a van cab, which are like one in every fifty cabs. So while waiting at the corner of Houston and Lafayette, if I saw a van cab stop at a red light, even if it was like forty feet away, I would run towards it to ask for it to pick us up before anyone else could snatch it up. My first attempt got a guy to pull over, but he went past MK, Robin, Steph, and Travis and right up to another group of cartoonists, and they immediately opened the door and started packing their stuff. As I ran towards the van, and in the middle of traffic, I could see my group all run up to this other gang and explain to them that it was our cab, which we hailed. And once at the scene, I realized that one of them was Dean Haspiel, and his crew all seemed super annoyed. I apologize best I could, though my risking my neck for a ride did nothing since the guy didn’t want to go to Brooklyn; he had to “go back to the shop” which is a classic excuse that cabbies will use when they don’t want to leave Manhattan. But so we waiting and waiting, and everytime I saw a van, I ran (due to it being near sunset, it was difficult to see if the free occupancy light was off, complicating things further). Eventually we found one, and that cabbie was super cool.
Once back in Brooklyn, we scarfed down flame broiled some burgers and hot dogs, and analyzed (as well as bitch about) the show. Because Steph’s boyfriend and his buddies came over and decided to commandeer the party (they brought over Chronicles of Narina, which is great and all but the rest of us had already seen it, and I had a feeling that they would perhaps not be the ideal bunch for The Fuccons), and with Robin deciding to go home to get ready for work, MK, Travis, and myself all just went upstairs to watch Travis play even more Katamari. Travis left in the early morning for a flight back to Texas, plus I had work the next day, so we all had to go to bed at a relatively decent hour, but not without first showing him Taste of Bread, as well as discussing the possibility of him moving in this upcoming winter (like I said, he absolutely loves my place). And the idea of Travis as a roommate is pretty damn neat.
And I guess that’s it… again, MoCCA was fine and all, I just had various issues here and there. Next one is SPX, and given the change in venue, the lack of an associated collection (I’m still shocked and annoyed by that one), and certain key folks being missing, who knows what it’s going to be like. At the very least, it’ll be enough time after my book is done so I’m certainly I finally have more stuff at that show.
Oh, one last thing from the show (sorta): MK has been nominated for best new female talent! Sweet.
BTW, for those interested in seeing other points of views, or just other pictures in general, then check out these other reports from MK, Liz, Dave, and Pat.
Another BTW: I got a chance to finally play a game for the Wii yesterday! Well, sorta. But I’ll save that for later.
