MoCCAfest: Day One

MoCCAfest. I know, you're scratching your head wondering what it is. It's certainly not your standard comic convention, but yet, it's not all that different from Montreal's EXPOZINE. Every year New York City’s Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art puts on a festival to showcase and celebrate innovative and alternative comics (usually the last weekend in April). And yes, I did say alternative comics, which means nary a Spider-Man to be found anywhere. This year marked their 10 year anniversary. P. Craig Russel was the guest of honour, and there were several other big names in attendance, but, to be perfectly honest with you, I was attending to discover the unknown.

While this was my first MoCCAfest, each event has a feel to it and I always got the impression that because it was located in New York there would be a higher calibre of local cartoonist. I mean, you have not just one school to learn how to create comics there, but five (the Pratt Institute, Parsons The New School of Design, the Rhode Island School of Design, the School of Visual Arts, the Joe Kubert School). Half these kids are being taught by masters like David Mazzucchelli and Peter Kuper; it's practically a recipe for genius, and in that regard MoCCAfest did not disappoint.

In my first few hours of the fest I met two artists with tables neighbouring a friend’s: Micheline Hess, and John Hazard. Micheline had created a comic series called Malice in Ovenland. It's going to be online and interactive in a “choose your own adventure” kind of way; she even had a sample on tablet you could play with. The cool thing about Micheline was that she was just there to get feedback. She didn't even have anything to sell. Now that's commitment. John’s comic is pretty self explanatory (Frankenstein + shenanigans + sexy babes) but his art style is slick, in an animated cartoon way, and begs to be tattooed.

On the first day, I explored the outer ring of tables. The first highlights was Zachary Garrett's Doom Carousel. Beautifully water-coloured tracts about how we are damaging our earth and its creatures. My favourite story was “Up the Intake Valves”, or as I like to call it, “The Rise of the Jellies.” Fascinating and educational, Doom Carousel had a shrewd dark humour to it, which made it even more enjoyable.

I then came across Dakota McFadzean, who impressed me with his two books, Last Mountain and Unkindness. Last Mountain is a collection of four short stories and Unkindness is one long one; his construction of story is riveting, making both books hard to put down.

Emma SanCartier dazzled with her carved wooden creatures based on her whimsical water colour style. She also had a fantastic kids book called The World is Your Oyster. Speaking of kids books, there was a real snazzy one I snapped up by Galen Goodwin Longstreth and Maris Wicks called Yes Let's. It's in full colour and follows a family embarking on a camping trip. Also written in rhyme, it's a busy little affair with lots to keep kids eyes occupied. I've already read it a few times at the daycare I work in and the kids love it, as it appeals to all ages.

Is it fitting that at the edges of the fest, I found my first transgendered comic? Entitled What's Normal Anyway?, it's written and drawn with great humour by Morgan Boecher. It’s a weekly webcomic that encompasses Boecher's transition from female to male. Then I stumbled onto All Rumours Are True by Laurel Lynn Leake, a stunning black and white about an androgynous dancer named Scratch becoming an actress for Pansexual Pantheon (“An on going video series....that has defiled 18 religions, so far”). I'm not kidding when I say this book was stunning. Not only was the art full of life, movement, supreme accomplishment, and intensity, but the writing was just excellent. This book has drag queens, sex, battling Japanese gods and goddesses and gorgeous kimonos. It's more fun than a bag of kittens. I really enjoyed it on all levels.

The other comic standout was Ken Wong's Origami comics. I obtained Schrodinger's Cat. In the form of a fortune teller, Wong lays out the Schrodinger conundrum. The reader interacts with the story by discovering the various outcomes of the cat while playing the fortune telling game. It's comic genius. Wong has other shapes, like Pandora's Box, which regales the tale of Pandora, or the sci-fi tale in the shape of a flexagon! The first one came about after an argument with a friend over the things web comics can do vs. the things paper comics can do. They are really clever little pieces of comic art, and I love that the reader participates in the story.

Now one of the mega-interesting things for me at MoCCAfest is that there were these mass contingents of cartoonists from other countries. There was a Danish collective, a Norwegian group, a small swathe of Swedes, as well as the Caravan of Comics (a group of 11 cartoonists from Australia). While all the groups were filled with talent, I had to be picky and bought one Swedish book and two Australian ones. The Swedish book was actually a sketchbook by Niklas Asker and while the art was quite photo-realistic, it was how he composed his images that left you staring. The cover alone has a stoic skinhead with a blossoming tree man in his lap(?!). Asker is very accomplished as an artist. The book is full of unfinished pencilled comic panels, pages from his sketchbook in pencil or sharpie, fully inked covers and interior illustrations for magazines. It seems like your basic sketchbook from the outset, but I have found myself looking at it over and over again. So, of course, it's now my mission to find comics by this guy, even though I won't understand them.

From the Australian group I snapped up a copy of Mad Bonaz 4 Lyfe, written and illustrated by Andrew Fulto. I found his style reminiscent of Scott C’s, but still very appealing. Fulton's weird, wobbly inking style looks like it was drawn by a pen from the 1800s. It’s super charming and the story, though sparse, is a true love tale for gay men everywhere. Matt Taylor's Lars the Last Viking goes to The End of the World, on the other hand, threw itself at me. It’s not the typical comic I gravitate towards, but the amount of effort (Viking font!), style (all in rhyme!) and bombastic inks made it a lot of fun to read. A very cool but incongruous piece of work from a resident of the southern hemisphere. There were other comics I picked up on Saturday, but these were the best of the best.

Besides all these fantastic comics in the offering, MoCCA also had a series of panels occurring all day. Really great ones, too, like the Comic Carousel hosted by R. Sikoryak and featuring Micheal Kupperman, Shannon Wheeler and Leslie Stein. This also included voice re-enactments with famous folks like Scott Adsit from 30 Rock.

There was also a Nordic Roundtable, and a How to Make Comics instruction panel by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden. The only panel I attended all weekend was the interview with Hans Rickheit; while I was interested in what Rickheit had to say about his wicked and weird surreal comics, I found the interviewer really fell short. The program listed Hans as a musician and performance artist. I was very interested in learning more about his work outside of comics and how it informed his comic work, but it wasn't even mentioned. In this regard, I expected better of MoCCA.

-Robin F hosts the Onomatopoeia Show every Sunday from 3-4pm