Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art Festival

The Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art (MoCCA) held its annual spring arts fest on the weekend of April 10-11 in New York City. I attended this show for the first time last year and was very impressed with both the quantity and quality of the independent creators and publishers that MoCCA had assembled. In fact, I picked up three graphic novels at that show that turned out to be three of my favorite books for the entire year: Kevin Cannon’s Far Arden (Top Shelf), Matt Kindt’s Super Spy (yes, also Top Shelf) and David Mazzuchelli’s Asterios Polyp (Pantheon). With such a great experience the first time around, it was a no-brainer to go back again this year.

I again had a great time at the show and picked up a bunch of books while I was there, including Matt Kindt’s Super Spy: Lost Dossiers (Top Shelf), Jane Yolen’s Foiled (First Second), Richard Sala’s Cat Burglar Black (yes, also First Second) and Brittney Sabo and Anna Bratton’s self-published Francis Sharp in the Grip of the Uncanny. I’ve always found the indie comic world to be somewhat inaccessible since most comic book stores tend to carry a very limited supply of indie titles – if any at all – so events like the MoCCA Festival, Small Press Expo (SPX), Alternative Press Expo (APE), and S.P.A.C.E. really present fantastic opportunities for comic readers to dive deep into that world.

In addition to the great roster of indie creators and publishers at MoCCA, I was psyched to find a few of our good friends from mainstream comics in attendance. Chris Giarrusso and Jacob Chabot were sketching up a storm for fans when I visited their table. I picked up a great Mini Marvels piece from Chris featuring the Silver Age X-Men and I also discussed a couple of promotional pieces that he’s going to do for Mid-Ohio-Con 2010. I also got to spend some time with David Mack, who gave my iPad Adobe Ideas sketch application a try with his autograph and also reminded me that his new title, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Ant had just hit the stands that week.

After lunch on Sunday, I headed south from the 69th Regiment Armory where the MoCCA Festival was held toward Union Square and the fabled Forbidden Planet. I never pass up an opportunity to visit Forbidden Planet, since it’s easily one of the best comic and collectible stores in the world. I also wanted to pick up a copy of Electric Ant because my local comic store apparently didn’t have any in stock. I made it to Forbidden Planet and worked my way through what seemed to be an unusually large crowed out front for a Sunday afternoon and set to shopping, finding Electric Ant #1, the Kick-Ass hardcover that I’ve been chasing for a while, and a few other goodies.

After settling up at the register and walking toward the front door, I discovered the source of the unusually large crowd: G4’s Olivia Munn had just arrived at the store for a signing as part of her OMFG tour. (For the record, OMFG stands for Olivia Munn Fan Group, not what you first thought…..) There was no way that I was going to wait in the around-the-block line to get her autograph, but I certainly did gawk as I walked ever so slowly out of the store. I did some Googling and found a great set of photos from the OMFG NYC visit on fe505’s Flickr page, a few of which I’ve included my gallery below. Thanks, dude! Ok, that’s it for my MoCCA Festival report. Excelsior!