And about time, too! Thanks for your patience, everyone. It's taken me a long time to recover from this past weekend, in large measure because of the heat. I took over 40 pictures and saved the best 30 or so for this report; hope you like them!
Laurence Klein founded the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, and was in town from the Berkshires (where he lives now with his wife and 9-month-old kid) to see what's become of his baby. He does look like a bit of a proud papa, doesn't he?
DC Comics' Fletcher Chu-Fong says hi, along with Friends of Lulu Marion Vitus and Val D'Orazio. My main reason for coming to the con, other than to socialize of course, was to work the FoL booth, as they'd guaranteed me a seat. Val has the pictures to prove it; I'm so glad she got one of me next to Alitha Martinez, as I'd totally spaced out taking a photo of Alitha! I'd also forgotten to snap a shot of Barry Deutsch, Spike, and about a half dozen others. But I'm glad I remembered as many as I did! So here's the thing about the MoCCA Art Fest: if you're not working a table, there's really no place to sit, unless you want to hole yourself away in the makeshift cafeteria for two hours. I can't really stand for that long any more, and the heat kinda gets to me anyway (my face didn't feel as red as it looks in Val's photos, but there you are), so I have to really pace myself at these things.
Three out of the four members of the Comics Bakery: Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman and Marion again. John Green's off somewhere, perhaps hiding in a Boba Fett suit. (That's an in-joke that goes way, way back.)
Jim Ottaviani had a lovely display up on the 7th floor, which was not air-conditioned. He said this was nothing to him, he gets used to it the way one gets used to pain under morphine. Which led to an interesting story about how he came to be under morphine, which had to do with him falling off a mountain. Next time you see Jim, do ask him about falling off a mountain. Oh, we writers, we're such racounteurs! I fall off my sneakers sometimes.
In the makeshift cafeteria where I'd holed myself away for two hours, Dean Haspiel tells Martha Thomases that, given the conditions upstairs, he might just have to strip off some of his clothing in order to deal with the situation. And a grateful nation sighs.
Jay Lynch remembers me from my INSIDE JOKE days. No, strike that, he remembers me from INSIDE JOKE 1.0, back when it was an Uncle Floyd zine! This was over half my life ago, in the days before I read comics, but I still corresponded with a lot of comics people. Go figure.
Yeah, Barry and I had lunch and I completely spaced on taking his photo. But August Pollak, who was next to him at the Cartoonists With Attitude table, greeted me ebulliently. August being such a happy guy in real life is somewhat scary because he so successfully cultivates a rather punk persona online. He told me about his wonderful new job, about which I can say nothing but congratulations, August! Oh, and I bought his Some Guy With A Website collection. Look at those puppy-dog eyes, could you do any less? I ask you.
Makesha Wood and Abell "Ben" Smith. Ben was one of those people I swore I'd never met but who insisted he knows me. I'm getting this more and more lately. Can I chalk it up to being over 50? I missed Makesha's lovely wife Mikhaela Reid this time, but I'm sure I'll see her 'round again soon. Barry was staying with them this trip, and fortunately his luggage had arrived there by Saturday night.
Jamal and Karine Igle with their new little peanut! Big Daddy and La Mère have arrived!
Catie slept the whole time. Hey, wake up kid, it's your first convention! I sat with Jamal for his signing at the Lulu booth, and he showed me the first few pages of Tangent: Superman's Reign #6, which I dutifully snapped for Robin who was finishing up inking #5. Alas, he can't work from my photos so we'll have to await the arrival of the actual boards.
How cool is this? Randi Mason and John of Comics Oughta Be Fun are an item! From a few little hints here and their on their respective blogs I thought this might be the case, but it's nice to have it officially confirmed. I was surprised at how relatively small Bully is (not to mention his kid sister Marshall). All four of them look unbearably cute together. Le sigh.
And now Bully and Marshall apparently have another friend!
Rafael Kayanan swung by the table to introduce himself! I feel like I've known Rafael for ages, but amazingly we didn't meet until this past weekend. He's doing some really gorgeous stuff over at his art blog, you should totally check it out. His Conan is da shi-- oh, never mind, I just can't get away with saying stuff that younger and hipper people say. His Conan is quite nice.
After meeting Vinnie, Dorian and Shugie for dinner to celebrate Dorian's birthday (we went up to a really lovely deli on 72nd Street, after which they dropped me off back downtown at the MoCCA building) I headed up to attend the Friends of Lulu Awards ceremony and party. I'd been joking with Val for months about how it wouldn't be an official FoL Awards without chocolate-covered strawberries, and look! I feel like she got them just for me! They were delish.
The drop-dead gorgeous Leigh Dragoon was dressed to the nines. So were a number of other folks. I felt like a schlub. On the other hand, I got interviewed by someone named Leah about my old FoL-NY t-shirt, and I got to tell her the story about how those t-shirts came about. Other old-timers will recall that the back of the shirt has an illustration of Leah Adezio's rendition of the organization's mascot reimagined as the Statue of Liberty, holding a brush and pencil in one hand with the other displaying a sketchpad featuring FoL's founding date. Leah A was really the one who got the project going, as she worked at the time for a screen printing place. I really like that shirt, and apparently this "other" Leah did too.
The ceremonies got underway with Marion Vitus introducing emcee Emily Flake.
First up was the Kim Yale award for best newcomer, presented by Rachel Nabors, last year's winner. Rachel was also a total knockout
And the winner was Martina Fugazzotto of gURL.com, which had a sizeable cheering section in the packed-to-capacity room. Rachel generously "crowned" Martina with her lovely tiara, which Martina in turn promised to bestow on 2009's Kim Yale winner. And another Lulu tradition is born!
Heidi MacDonald, who looked so lovely with those highlights in her hair, announced the award for the Woman of Distinction, given for non-creator work in the industry.
Angela Rufino of Vertigo accepts the Woman of Distinction award on Shelly Bond’s behalf.
Abby Denson also looked terrific. I know, it's a broken record, but everyone was dressed so classy and shiny that it really took my breath away.
Val announced that Nell Brinkley was voted into the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame, and will be receiving a webpage of her own, with lots of input from Brinkley expert and premier comics "herstorian" (and my occasional affectionate "sparring partner") Trina Robbins.
There are lots more photos of the evening at the official Friends of Lulu blog, by the way.
On Sunday I decided to be a bit smarter about things, and didn't show up until shortly before my table shift. Danielle Corsetto, on the other hand, seems to have worked the table just about the entire weekend! It was a real kick watching her draw, and I've just subscribed to Girls with Slingshots.
Laurence Klein founded the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, and was in town from the Berkshires (where he lives now with his wife and 9-month-old kid) to see what's become of his baby. He does look like a bit of a proud papa, doesn't he?
DC Comics' Fletcher Chu-Fong says hi, along with Friends of Lulu Marion Vitus and Val D'Orazio. My main reason for coming to the con, other than to socialize of course, was to work the FoL booth, as they'd guaranteed me a seat. Val has the pictures to prove it; I'm so glad she got one of me next to Alitha Martinez, as I'd totally spaced out taking a photo of Alitha! I'd also forgotten to snap a shot of Barry Deutsch, Spike, and about a half dozen others. But I'm glad I remembered as many as I did! So here's the thing about the MoCCA Art Fest: if you're not working a table, there's really no place to sit, unless you want to hole yourself away in the makeshift cafeteria for two hours. I can't really stand for that long any more, and the heat kinda gets to me anyway (my face didn't feel as red as it looks in Val's photos, but there you are), so I have to really pace myself at these things.
Three out of the four members of the Comics Bakery: Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman and Marion again. John Green's off somewhere, perhaps hiding in a Boba Fett suit. (That's an in-joke that goes way, way back.)
Jim Ottaviani had a lovely display up on the 7th floor, which was not air-conditioned. He said this was nothing to him, he gets used to it the way one gets used to pain under morphine. Which led to an interesting story about how he came to be under morphine, which had to do with him falling off a mountain. Next time you see Jim, do ask him about falling off a mountain. Oh, we writers, we're such racounteurs! I fall off my sneakers sometimes.
In the makeshift cafeteria where I'd holed myself away for two hours, Dean Haspiel tells Martha Thomases that, given the conditions upstairs, he might just have to strip off some of his clothing in order to deal with the situation. And a grateful nation sighs.
Jay Lynch remembers me from my INSIDE JOKE days. No, strike that, he remembers me from INSIDE JOKE 1.0, back when it was an Uncle Floyd zine! This was over half my life ago, in the days before I read comics, but I still corresponded with a lot of comics people. Go figure.
Yeah, Barry and I had lunch and I completely spaced on taking his photo. But August Pollak, who was next to him at the Cartoonists With Attitude table, greeted me ebulliently. August being such a happy guy in real life is somewhat scary because he so successfully cultivates a rather punk persona online. He told me about his wonderful new job, about which I can say nothing but congratulations, August! Oh, and I bought his Some Guy With A Website collection. Look at those puppy-dog eyes, could you do any less? I ask you.
Makesha Wood and Abell "Ben" Smith. Ben was one of those people I swore I'd never met but who insisted he knows me. I'm getting this more and more lately. Can I chalk it up to being over 50? I missed Makesha's lovely wife Mikhaela Reid this time, but I'm sure I'll see her 'round again soon. Barry was staying with them this trip, and fortunately his luggage had arrived there by Saturday night.
Jamal and Karine Igle with their new little peanut! Big Daddy and La Mère have arrived!
Catie slept the whole time. Hey, wake up kid, it's your first convention! I sat with Jamal for his signing at the Lulu booth, and he showed me the first few pages of Tangent: Superman's Reign #6, which I dutifully snapped for Robin who was finishing up inking #5. Alas, he can't work from my photos so we'll have to await the arrival of the actual boards.
How cool is this? Randi Mason and John of Comics Oughta Be Fun are an item! From a few little hints here and their on their respective blogs I thought this might be the case, but it's nice to have it officially confirmed. I was surprised at how relatively small Bully is (not to mention his kid sister Marshall). All four of them look unbearably cute together. Le sigh.
And now Bully and Marshall apparently have another friend!
Rafael Kayanan swung by the table to introduce himself! I feel like I've known Rafael for ages, but amazingly we didn't meet until this past weekend. He's doing some really gorgeous stuff over at his art blog, you should totally check it out. His Conan is da shi-- oh, never mind, I just can't get away with saying stuff that younger and hipper people say. His Conan is quite nice.
After meeting Vinnie, Dorian and Shugie for dinner to celebrate Dorian's birthday (we went up to a really lovely deli on 72nd Street, after which they dropped me off back downtown at the MoCCA building) I headed up to attend the Friends of Lulu Awards ceremony and party. I'd been joking with Val for months about how it wouldn't be an official FoL Awards without chocolate-covered strawberries, and look! I feel like she got them just for me! They were delish.
The drop-dead gorgeous Leigh Dragoon was dressed to the nines. So were a number of other folks. I felt like a schlub. On the other hand, I got interviewed by someone named Leah about my old FoL-NY t-shirt, and I got to tell her the story about how those t-shirts came about. Other old-timers will recall that the back of the shirt has an illustration of Leah Adezio's rendition of the organization's mascot reimagined as the Statue of Liberty, holding a brush and pencil in one hand with the other displaying a sketchpad featuring FoL's founding date. Leah A was really the one who got the project going, as she worked at the time for a screen printing place. I really like that shirt, and apparently this "other" Leah did too.
The ceremonies got underway with Marion Vitus introducing emcee Emily Flake.
First up was the Kim Yale award for best newcomer, presented by Rachel Nabors, last year's winner. Rachel was also a total knockout
And the winner was Martina Fugazzotto of gURL.com, which had a sizeable cheering section in the packed-to-capacity room. Rachel generously "crowned" Martina with her lovely tiara, which Martina in turn promised to bestow on 2009's Kim Yale winner. And another Lulu tradition is born!
Heidi MacDonald, who looked so lovely with those highlights in her hair, announced the award for the Woman of Distinction, given for non-creator work in the industry.
Angela Rufino of Vertigo accepts the Woman of Distinction award on Shelly Bond’s behalf.
Abby Denson also looked terrific. I know, it's a broken record, but everyone was dressed so classy and shiny that it really took my breath away.
Val announced that Nell Brinkley was voted into the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame, and will be receiving a webpage of her own, with lots of input from Brinkley expert and premier comics "herstorian" (and my occasional affectionate "sparring partner") Trina Robbins.
There are lots more photos of the evening at the official Friends of Lulu blog, by the way.
On Sunday I decided to be a bit smarter about things, and didn't show up until shortly before my table shift. Danielle Corsetto, on the other hand, seems to have worked the table just about the entire weekend! It was a real kick watching her draw, and I've just subscribed to Girls with Slingshots.
Paul Curtis was at the table opposite us with his Micro Comics collection.
My fellow ComicMix'ers mix it up! Left to right, Kai Connolly Raub, Martha Thomases, Mike Gold, Rick Marshall and Mike Raub.
Mike, Kai and Rick stop by the table to say hi. Of course, you know ComicMix had lots and lots of articles about MoCCA, don't you?
I invited Jill Friedman to sit at the table as well. We had some great, intense conversations, and I told her I'd add her to my sidebar, so you can now find her blog there.
Anne Bernstein and I go way back as well. She's blogging for Frederator Studios now, and has submitted her own con report.
I was snapping so many photos of friends, I figured, why not a complete stranger as well? Besides, this guy had such a great smile and he bought a sketch from Danielle.
After my shift was over I scampered over to the Bank of America to refill my wallet, as I'd intended on spending the rest of the afternoon buying stuff. I'd really only gotten August's book, a couple minicomics from the Comics Bakery gang, Spike's amazing Templar, Arizona (oh yes, that's now on my Bloglines feeds too, it's kinda like Finder meets Northern Exposure or something) and Karen Luk's Sea Rover mini, when I swung by her table to say hi again to Leigh and Rachel in the hopes of also meeting Theresa Tschetter, so I had a lot of buying to do! As it was, the NY Fire Department had other plans.
A smoke condition in the sub-basement, apparently, which evacuated the entire building. And after watching everyone milling about for nearly half an hour in 90-plus degree heat, I decided it was time to go home. So, not as much stuff purchased as I would have liked, and I missed seeing some folk and missed snapping photos of others, but all in all not too bad. Except that the con and the heat wave have wiped me out to the point where it took me this long to post everything!
My fellow ComicMix'ers mix it up! Left to right, Kai Connolly Raub, Martha Thomases, Mike Gold, Rick Marshall and Mike Raub.
Mike, Kai and Rick stop by the table to say hi. Of course, you know ComicMix had lots and lots of articles about MoCCA, don't you?
I invited Jill Friedman to sit at the table as well. We had some great, intense conversations, and I told her I'd add her to my sidebar, so you can now find her blog there.
Anne Bernstein and I go way back as well. She's blogging for Frederator Studios now, and has submitted her own con report.
I was snapping so many photos of friends, I figured, why not a complete stranger as well? Besides, this guy had such a great smile and he bought a sketch from Danielle.
After my shift was over I scampered over to the Bank of America to refill my wallet, as I'd intended on spending the rest of the afternoon buying stuff. I'd really only gotten August's book, a couple minicomics from the Comics Bakery gang, Spike's amazing Templar, Arizona (oh yes, that's now on my Bloglines feeds too, it's kinda like Finder meets Northern Exposure or something) and Karen Luk's Sea Rover mini, when I swung by her table to say hi again to Leigh and Rachel in the hopes of also meeting Theresa Tschetter, so I had a lot of buying to do! As it was, the NY Fire Department had other plans.
A smoke condition in the sub-basement, apparently, which evacuated the entire building. And after watching everyone milling about for nearly half an hour in 90-plus degree heat, I decided it was time to go home. So, not as much stuff purchased as I would have liked, and I missed seeing some folk and missed snapping photos of others, but all in all not too bad. Except that the con and the heat wave have wiped me out to the point where it took me this long to post everything!
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