MoCCA Wrap-up and Round-up

Before I get into the whole show, I want to thank everyone who linked and read my interview with Tom Spurgeon at Comic Book Galaxy. That's probably my favorite thing of anything I've done online. I'm hoping I can keep up the interviewing momentum between things for CBG, and a few interviews for Comic World News that I'm lining up.

If it wasn't for the MoCCA Art Festival, my weekend would have sucked really bad. Friday night was dreadful, and Saturday night was even worse. Luckily, MoCCA's such a stellar show that the entire weekend wasn't a total wash and, in retrospect, probably averaged out better than most weekends.

To be honest, I was nervous about working the Fantagraphics booth. Eric Reynolds was great, though, and Gary Groth was also fun to be around, so I didn't feel too out of place (and only a few people actually thought I was Greg Zura, whose badge I was wearing, so I didn't get too many "it's nice to put a face to the name" comments). I didn't stay there too long, only helping to set up in the morning and provide a short hour or so of relief to Eric and Beatrice (who volunteered for the whole day) in the afternoon. Also, doing the shift for them wasn't as physically strenuous as volunteering for the show itself last year, so all the nasty sweat and body odor can be blamed squarely on the nasty, sweltering weather.

I always enjoy meeting people I've spoke to online in person, and catching up with people I've met before, so a quick shoutout to Kevin Church, Chris Butcher, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Jim Rugg, Sal Cipriano (and sorry for thinking you were Lex, Sal--I'm a moron), Pat Lewis, Ed Piskor, Adam Suerte, Damon Hurd, Neil Kleid, Trisha L. Sebastian, Richard Mammana, Lena Gomez, Michael Pullman, Rachel Gluckstern, Alex Cox, Kyle Baker, Chris Pitzer, Rich Watson, Tom Beland, Heidi MacDonald, James Smith and anyone else I'm forgetting (I tried going in chronological order to make sure I didn't forget anyone, but that's not foolproof).

Sadly, I didn't shop as much as I wanted to, but I am happy with what I walked away with. I haven't read much of anything yet, but here's the list:

• Neil Kleid's Pilgrimage minicomic, Brownsville ashcan, and David... minicomic? Preview? I forget which.
• Five minicomics from this Ayo cat I've seen on the TCJ forum and the CBR forum.
• Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World volume 2.
• Bob Levin's Outlaws, Rebels, Freethinkers & Pirates: Essays on Cartoons and Cartoonists.
• Adam Suerte's Aprendiz issue three.
• Damon Hurd and Rick Smith's Temporary #3 (also, on the off chance you're reading this, Rick, congratulations on the new addition!).
• The Project: Telstar anthology from AdHouse Books, which I've only borrowed copies of before.
• Pat Lewis's latest mini, Abominable
• An issue of Squa Tront for the wifey
• Brandon Hanvey's The Stereos: Battle Of The Bands and The Stereos: In The Garage.
• Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey's Action Philosphers! All-Sex Special.
• The Mome anthology from Fantagraphics.
• The latest Smut Peddler anthology from Saucy Goose Press.

A few of us left the show a little early to grab a drink across the street at Puck Fair. Kevin knew Ryan from before, we both knew James Smith from online stuff, and I knew Michael and Rachel before. What's odd, though, is the way a shared interest in comics can make a random gathering of semistrangers to be intimate, comfortable and amusing.

Between the shopping, the camraderie and the entire atmosphere, the entire daylight portion of Saturday is something I very much needed.

Proving that there's no rest for the wicked indy comics nerd, SPX is just around the corner, and they've already got a preliminary exhibitors list posted. I'm going to try to make it out for the entire weekend, so I don't have to bail on the evening festivities like I did with MoCCA.

As this is by no means comprehensive coverage, here are a few MoCCA-related links:

• Some of the people I walked around with have already posted their thoughts on the show, or their shopping list, or what have you. Here's Kevin's wrap-up and his
take on the minicomics of Pat Lewis, Lena's shopping list, Michael's take from a more mainstream reader's perspective, and Alex's minicomic finds.

• Neilalien has his "Best of MoCCA" list, including Action Philosphers #2, which will definitely make mine once I get through reading everything.

• Heidi MacDonald probably has the most MoCCA-related coverage, including the first (I think) Harvey Awards winner list, a shorter-than-normal photo parade, a show write-up and a round-up of her own.

• Over at Glyphs, Rich Watson interviews Keith Knight.

• The Pickytarian was at the show Sunday, geeking out on some creators and on the Clowes/Lethem panel (which I hate that I had to miss for other craptacular obligations that made me want to rip my hair out).

• There are lots of people posting their MoCCA related photos: Mike Manley, Comic Foundry's Tim Leong, Kevin Church (with three photos of me, no less--I prefer the two where I'm stuck in the shadows, where you can't see the nasty clogged pores of the first one), and the wonderfully antagonistic photos of Brian Musikoff.

• Neil Kleid has thoughts on MoCCA at his LiveJournal.

• Marc Sobel shares some quick notes on the show as well.

• Update: Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier have their pictures posted, too.

I'll probably update these links when new stuff comes along, at least for as long as this post remains on the front page (and, given my lack of blogging productivity lately, that might be a while).