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We know that MoCCA”s statute of limitations has run out and no one wants to talk about it any more, but we’ve collected a few last links of note — let’s just call it Rashomocca — it seems everyone had something to say.

For a little perspective, we’ve dredged up MoCCA 2002 — “BIG APPLE GOES INDIE!”, the story we wrote about the very first MoCCA for the now-vanished SPLASH page at Comicon.com, not because it’s such a great story but because it gives some kind of idea of he impact that the first show had on the New York and indie comics crowds. (It’s also instructive to see how the fashion of Who is Hot has changed in seven years, written as it was in the midst of the “Team Comics” era.) We even found some of our photos from Back In The Day. (Above, James Kochalka at the Highwater party…ah yes, remember Highwater.)

And now back to the present:
Tom Spurgeon prints the “Thank you” letter from the show organizer which has been going around (we got forwarded it a few times as well), which did not seem to sit well with a lot of exhibitors.

Ed Sizemore notes that mini-comics are not cheap any more:

I saw asking prices of $5.00 for a twenty-page mini-comic that was only three inches square. For that price I could get a full-sized comic professionally printed from either Evil Twin Comics or Blacklist Studios. I know the tables were expensive, but you have to price yourself competitively.


Jog One
Jog Two
Tucker Stone with some financials on the costs of exhibiting at the Armory.
Tom Devlin
Jessica Campbell
Vice Magazine’s Nick Gazin
Hope Larson
A discussion of the hot vs. comics argument in the comments.

1 COMMENT

  2. Heidi,

    Thanks for resurrecting your 2002 MOCCA piece. It reminded me how much I loved going — it felt like classic SPX show convened in NYC — and how smart and great Kristen is. If you wanted an intimate show and had been burned out on SD, MOCCA was the place to be.

    And it was the last time my lovely wifey went to a comics show with me too…

  3. $3-5 for a mini is pretty standard these days. You need to take into account all the costs associated with production as well as the cost of tabling and wholesale. If you sell a mini at cost, you lose a huge amount of money. I know minicomics aren’t exactly a get-rich enterprise, but that doesn’t mean creators should be expected to take a huge hit in the pocket either.

    A lot of people nowadays also do screenprinted covers, or hand-bound, or other little touches that can be quite labor intensive and/or expensive. If I/they wanted to get the thing printed on demand for cheaper, I/they would do so (and some people do), but the great thing about minicomics is that you CAN customize them in artsy ways. I think it’s worth paying a bit more for something special like that.

    I’m talking about minis that are in the 20+ page category, not the little one-page-folded-over category, and definitely not anything with a plain white photocopied cover. THAT I can understand being annoyed about paying $5 for.