Week of 3/25/2024
Interrogation time on The Shapes, last shop announcement in a while, and my experience at MoCCA Fest this week.
The Shapes
Struck v. Struck 24-25
News
Final Shop Updates (in a while)
The Shapes #4 is available in The P.I.T (Brooklyn) and Village Works (Manhattan). Jim and Joeseph are great shop owners who serve their respective communities well, so give them your support!
My Experience at MoCCA Fest 2024
Once upon a time, there lived a comics geek and aspiring cartoonist who, while reading the latest Adrian Tomine book, was caught in conversation with the bookstore employee wherein he learned about a little indie comic convention that would be happening in a week known as MoCCA Fest. This made the young geek ecstatic, prompting him to immediately purchase weekend tickets for the con. Sure enough, the spectacle was as exciting as he had hoped as his fantasies of meeting some of his favorite cartoonists and publishers (mainly Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly) were fulfilled, including the likes of Derf Backderf, Rosemary Valero O’Connell, and Mattie Lubchansky. To make matters better, this marked his introduction to the expansive and even more diverse world of the small press and self-published artists that were previously unknown territory.
Fast-forward to nearly two years later, and this same guy went from zero material to over a season's worth of comic strips (and 4 comic book issues and counting) and attended and tabled at several more conventions both big and small. But this year, it was back to square one where it all began, so the question crossing everyone’s mind is, could the second time ever match up to the first?
The answer is yes and no. There’s nothing quite like the exhilaration a first-time experience induces, but at the same time, it’s also pretty overwhelming to be swamped with so many equally desirable choices. On the other hand, greater familiarity comes with a general sense of comfort and decisiveness. Half of this year’s show (which I only attended on Sunday) could be summed up as a reunion with all the amazing, skilled cartoonist friends (seriously guys, thanks for being so welcoming and such good sports). The other half was seeing new faces as usual showcase their talent of which there was much worth looking at.
I only went to one panel that day which was the Postpandemic Rise of Comic Books one with Tom Kacynski, Kevin Huizenga, Caroline Cash, and Nate Garcia. Moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos, the panelists were discussing their unique experiences dabbling in the world of single-issue comics. Kacynski and and Huizega have about 17 years and over 2 decades worth of experience respectively so they had the most insight to give on the evolution of that format, particularly in relation to the rise of the graphic novel during the 2000s. Cash and Garcia being the younger cartoonists who are relatively new to the scene shared their stories of what led them to self-publish comic books (Garcia, if you’re reading this, you brought a lot of life to the panel with your hilarious anecdotes). I will say though Cash did not fully answer one of my questions about what got her into looking at underground comics. Nevertheless, she’s still a great panelist and makes dope comics.
To put the cherry on top, there was the Mocca Arts Festival Awards of Excellence later in the afternoon which, unlike most comic awards, is made to financially reward cartoonists tabling at the festival. The ceremony procedure is pretty unorthodox, to say the least. Instead of holding it after the show in some conference room, they just announce it through the intercom while an event volunteer brings balloons and other celebratory paraphernalia to the artist’s booth. Since the award is not treated like a separate occasion, the average attendee will likely miss the announcement amongst the crowd. For the artist, however, I imagine it’s a cool surprise to have someone walk up to your table saying you won something, almost like those mythical lottery winners who are greeted at their door by a person holding a giant paycheck.