We’re a) kinda pooped and b) on deadline, and don’t have room for a full MoCCA Roundup except to say that it was a ultra feel good festival. It wasn’t too hot, it wasn’t too cold, nothing smelled. The new exhibitors in the upstairs room were treated to a breezy, light-flooded room with views of lower Manhattan that would put anyone in a good mood.
All this despite the fact that no one was boasting about record sales. Things like PULPHOPE, EXIT WOUNDS and DESTROY ALL CIVILIZED PLANETS cold out likkety split (as did LIFE METER and many many mini comics) but there was such an abundance of riches that no one could afford it all. (We spent a fortune — you can’t really ask someone who flew in from Oslo for the show for a $30 review copy — and simply ran out of money ourselves.)
No the good mood was more about the possibilities and exciting new vistas. Every one is launching, signing, announcing. Vertigo/Minx set up at the show, by far the biggest publisher ever at any indie show, and an idea unthinkable even a few years ago. But the difference between a Minx offering and Oni, or Vertigo and Drawn & Quarterly has shrunk drastically.
There were a few news tidbits at the show, but we’ll leave others to announce them. Here’s a brief round-up of some more notable reports on the show from Sunday night — doubtless over the next few days every moment of the show will be blogged and Flickr’ed, but here’s an early snapshot.
§ Alison Bechdel had a swell time (with pictures):
MoCCA gave me the festival award yesterday, which was a great honor. But it meant that I had to put together a new, slightly different powerpoint talk, which of course I worked myself into a swivet over for no good reason and consequently hardly got any sleep Friday night. The festival is really lovely, though–I’m going back today just to wander around. Of all the comics festivals I’ve been too, this is my favorite.
§ Brian Heater at The Daily Cross Hatch has a near-definitive account:
I can honestly say, as clichéd as such a thing might sound, money seems the further thing from most of the exhibitors’ minds, in this setting. These are by and large people who work day jobs or go to school, for whom—at least at the moment—comic books are a passion, rather than a career. People who, like the non-exhibition attendees, are more than likely losing money to attend—not to mention the fact that, almost everyone on the showroom floor, whether they had a booth or not, had some manner of comic-creating aspirations. I was asked a few times, whether I had some sequential project waiting for me at home, and most were genuinely surprised when I answered with a “no.”
§ Jog has all the news and buzz books. This was, by the way, kind of a blogger’s paradise, with Jog, Ed Cunard, Kevin Church, Neilalien, Chris Mautner of Blog@, the Daily Cross Hatch gang, the ComicMix crew, and whoever we left out because we’re lame.
§ Fanboy.comhas about fifteen stone of links and pictures and so on, including the one we nicked above, by Rabid Rabbit’s S. Y. Choi.
§ Mike Dawson’s excellent photo set and report
§ Occasional Superheroine had a swell time!
§ MK Reed has the hijinx report.
§ Rocketship has excessively cute photos of the Gabe Soria family.
§ This guy went to the Big Apple Con. Oh well.
