Indie Comics

The MoCCA Festival at the Lexington Armory a few days ago was a fun weekend -- the numerous photo shows filled with smiling faces of dedicated artists and publishers show that. Look at Peggy Burns' engaging set or Dan Nadel's. Fun is fine, of course, but that's not entirely why people go to indie shows like MoCCA, SPX, and TCAF. I'd argue that the social aspect of hanging out with fellow cartoonists is a major motivation for attending, but that's not why D&Q or PictureBox or Fantagraphics attends. These are important shows for promoting authors and selling books.

The Stumptown Awards were given out at the like-named festival on Saturday night, and we haven't checked twitter or Facebook for the evidence of hijinks but hopefully Beat reporter Jen Vaughn, who was on the scene, will have all the dish in her report. We do know the eremont was hosted by Bobby "Fatboy" Roberts and winner were chosen on a public ballot. Here is the very fine bunch of winners:

The Walking Dead finally becomes the top selling non Marvel/DC book in the direct market, the second True Blood book from IDW debuts lower than I'd have expected, the Garth Ennis written Jennifer Blood launches from Dynamite, and Dark Horse launches another Conan series.

The Walking Dead finally becomes the top selling non Marvel/DC book in the direct market, the second True Blood book from IDW debuts lower than I'd have expected, the Garth Ennis written Jennifer Blood launches from Dynamite, and Dark Horse launches another Conan series.

Been too busy with my regular Monday duties for a full MoCCA Festival wrap-up -- look for more photos and observations tomorrow, but in the meantime, as usual, it was a fun filled festival of comics and camaraderie. All of the many social events were great; the turnout at Saturday's Strange Tales/Beat/CBLDF fundraiser party was fantastic and we kept hearing all about what a great time everyone had. The same night there was a Comics Journal party at an LES bar which was also off the hook with great cartoonists, conversation, dancing and carrying on. As for the show itself, the crowd was perhaps a bit lighter than last year and the Law Of The Show came down from the mountain again: people with lots of great new books like D&Q and Fantagraphics did great. People without a lot of new material didn't do as well. More in the full report.

Moving on to the fast approaching Stumptown, Floating World is debuting a new issue of DIAMOND, with a cover by Paul Pope and other good stuff. Jason Leivian writes:

WHEW we're done. Just wander around and find good stuff.

Some exciting debuts and signings and panels, including Galit Seliktar, Al Jaffee, Archie...and more.

Better late than never, new stuff by Austin English, Chuck Forsman, Rina Piccolo, and dozens more!!!!

One of Harvey Pekar's posthumous projects, CLEVELAND, will be published by a new publisher, ZIP, and distributed by Top Shelf. Drawn by Joseph Remnant, one of the Pekar Project artists (shown left and below), CLEVELAND is, as the title suggests, an ode to Pekar's muse, the city of Cleveland, with a history including the Indians, the great Cuyahoga fire and more.

ZIP is owned by Josh Frankel, author of several self-published comics, who is looking to get increasingly involved with the publishing end. Top Shelf will offer publishing and marketing support.

Coming to this year's MoCCA-fest and wondering where to grab a quick lunch to eat in between selling your mini-comics? Look no further! Although considered drab by New York standards, the Rose Hill/Gramercy/Flatiron area surrounding the the Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory, setting for MoCCA Fest, still offers a colorful array of authentic, delicious and affordable cuisine from around the world within a radius of only a couple of blocks. (It IS New York City, after all.) Bearing in mind the small budgets of most MoCCA attendees/indie cartoonists, we're going to highlight places where, for $10 or under, you can still get a decent meal -- some of them even prepared by Iron Chef level celebrities. At a few places, if $10 isn't enough for a meal it is still enough for some rare treat that will make your trip one to remember. For dinner you will want to grab some friends and a subway or cab and head to one of the great restaurants of the city, but your lunchtime is definitely covered right here.

Besides being a lovely flyer, several new guests are revealed in this flyer by Craig Thompson, including Diane Noomin and Chester Brown. Thompson's long awaited HABIBI comes out this fall and should be a HOT topic of conversation.