MoCCA Fest 2015 review

MoCCA is still one of my favorite conventions and I was excited to see how a new venue and a new book debut would effect sales. Luckily there was near constant foot traffic on every floor of Center 548 this weekend. Alison Wilgus and I were towards the back of the 4th floor and my sales were only slightly less than last year when we were along one of the main thoroughfares along an outer wall in the armory.

While heading over to the new venue to set up on Friday afternoon, I bumped into Megan Brennan and Rel (School of World, Pencil Pup) at Penn Station and hijacked their cab. We rode up to the 4th floor in the amazing and kind of creepy freight elevator.(It got stuck between floors on my way to the table on Saturday.)

Center 548 was a gorgeous light-filled space for MoCCA. Sadly I heard rumors that the building will not be available next year due to it becoming yet another high priced apartment building. The consensus seemed to be that Center 548 as the venue for MoCCA Fest was a nice change of pace. Everyone I spoke to seemed to enjoy the airy, well lit space despite the narrow stairs and distance from public transportation. It reminded many of us of the Puck Building days of the festival minus the 100 degree temperatures.

What a brilliant idea to paint the event schedule and map right on the wall on the way to the stairs of the venue.

The Drink & Draw Like a Lady party on Friday night was a wonderful success! Here is Clare DeZutti who designed the stickers we had for people who donated and also drew this cool chalk welcome sign.

Following two photos courtesy of Lisa Aurigemma. You can see more of her photos on her Vermilion Ink Flickr.

Possibly the classiest photo of my table mate Alison Wilgus and I.

I didn't take many MoCCA photos, but that means that I was too busy catching up with animation and comics friends and meeting new people! Here are Alison and Drew Brockington who I sat next to at Locust Moon Festival in Philly last fall. They both do comics about cats and space!

The highlight of my weekend was meeting Tomm Moore and his wife Liselott who run the animation studio Cartoon Saloon (Song of the Sea, The Secret of Kells) based in Kilkenny, Ireland. This was their first MoCCA and it sounded as though they sold out of everything they brought including art prints, original paintings and art books of The Secret of Kells. My awesome husband bought us a print of Pangur Ban to add to the wall of cat art.

I also got to chat a lot with my Irish cartoonist friend Cliodhna Ztoical and compare European comics festivals with those in the US. I met lots of new readers, spoke with several librarians, critics and editors along with tons of other awesome friends, creators and fans.

One of the drawings I did in a copy of The Collected Counter Attack! over the weekend. I met a bunch more cat lovers and some friends from Twitter which is always fun.

There was access to the roof with some tables and chairs set up, so my husband and I ran up there to check it out. It was rather windy on Saturday but the views were great.

Lisa got this photo of me on Sunday as she describes, making the same face as my character on my banner. Best!

I didn't get a chance to walk around the festival on Saturday, so I ran around on Sunday before I went to my table and caught up with a few more people. I didn't have much of a spending budget this year but couldn't leave such a great festival empty handed.

Aside from the long haul from Penn Station and weekend MTA construction messing up the C,E train, I had a fantastic weekend at the new MoCCA space. Taking the High Line on Saturday evening and Sunday morning was a nice alternative way to get to the venue. Everyone seemed in good spirits all weekend, the weather was agreeable and it finally felt like spring in New York. Thanks to everyone who came out to say hi and support what I do.

MoCCA this weekend!

Drink & Draw Like a Lady is tonight and then MoCCA this weekend! Hurray! Also, it looks like Alison Wilgus and I have our Kickstarted books featured on the Kickstarter blog for MoCCA! We'll be at table #446. See you there!

Upcoming Appearances at MoCCA and TCAF

I will be tabling at two conventions this Spring: MoCCA in NYC and TCAF in Toronto! This will be the first time The Collected Counter Attack! will be available at a convention in both New York and Canada. I will also have copies of my Urban Nomad autobio series, limited copies of the full color Cooking Up Comics mini comic and cat buttons and stickers.

MoCCA will be held next weekend April 11th and 12th at Center 548 (548 West 22nd St. New York, NY). The convention will be held on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors. I'll be sharing table #446 on the 4th floor with my friend and fellow cartoonist Alison Wilgus (she wrote and drew the wonderful cat-centric comic A Stray in the Woods among other cool content.) Here is a handy map of the 4th Floor. You can see more artists and their work at the MoCCA website.

If you are a woman who makes or enjoys comics and will be in NYC that weekend, please come out to Drink and Draw Like a Lady which will be held on the evening of Friday April 10th at The Productive.

TCAF will be held at the Toronto Reference Library (789 Yonge St. Toronto, CAN) on May 9th and 10th and is free to attend. It will be my first Canadian convention so I'm very excited about that. Check out this amazing poster for TCAF Kids Day made by Japanese art team Gurihiru! I don't have an assigned table number yet, but I'll update when I do.

I hope to meet some of you at one of these events! I don't have any more conventions planned for 2015 yet, but you'll hear about them here if I do. You can always follow my Twitter, G+ or Facebook for ramblings and new art.

Drink & Draw Like a Lady party next Friday!

If you are a woman who makes or enjoys comics and will be in NYC for MoCCA on Friday April 10th, please come out to Drink and Draw Like a Lady which will be held at The Productive starting at 7 pm. This years' event flyer was designed by Savannah Zambrano.

This years' event is again sponsored by Work Made for Hire. They help freelancers and creative businesses handle their legal problems and negotiate like rock stars.

We're also accepting donations via PayPal before the party to help offset costs and cash and food/drink donations at the party. We're having cool stickers made that we're giving in exchange for your donation!

There is a Facebook event page here if you want to RSVP. See you next Friday!

MoCCA 2014 review

MoCCA weekend was a blast. Friday we had a very successful Drink and Draw Like a Lady party despite the terrible weather. I think we had a record turnout or at least equal to last years' party. I was too busy running around to take any photos, but Lisa Aurigemma helped out as our official event photographer so I'll link to hers once they are up. Thanks once again to Work Made for Hire who co-sponsored the party and to everyone who donated a few dollars, food and drinks and their time to making the party awesome!

The convention itself was also great and my most successful to date! I took last year off after somewhat dismal sales in 2012 and planning my wedding in the beginning of 2013. But the Society of Illustrators seems to have taken complaints from the past to heart and lowered the entrance fee to $5 which I think had a LOT to do with the increased foot traffic this year. It seemed like the curtain dividers between the tables also made the armory less cavernous.

The giant Charlie Brown balloon was a topic of discussion and photos of it took over my Instagram and Twitter feeds.

There were little pop-up galleries right near the entrance which I didn't get nearly enough time to explore.

I'm totally going to grab a photo of my table mate Alison Wilgus and I from the MoCCA review at Comics Worth Reading since I didn't get any with my camera phone.

Speaking of Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson purchased the very first copy of Cooking Up Comics in print!

I gave away a bunch of stickers to backers of The Collected Counter Attack! who were all so nice and interested in the progress of the book. A number of Cooking Up Comics readers stopped by to say hello and it was nice to hear people mentioning that they'd seen my work in the wild at Bluestockings Bookstore or that we'd met at another convention in another city. I also saw a lot of Sketchcrawlers and former animation co-workers who I haven't seen in years. I got a surprise visit from Ashley, my print specialist from Print Ninja who was here all the way from Chicago! Print Ninja is the company that will be printing The Collected Counter Attack!

Cartoonists and friend stopping by on Sunday including Patricia Burgess, Steve Flack and Zack Giallongo.

It's always great to meet fellow cartoonists in real life that I know online like Connie Sun, Ashley Quigg, Evan Palmer and Alina Chau. I also got to meet several Twitter friends including Carlos who was rocking an awesome Cat Bus shirt:

MoCCA this year was also a great showcase for new talent by soon-to-graduate cartoonists like Olga Andreyeva, (aaa I don't remember your name!), Molly Ostertag and out of town talent like Philadelphia cartoonist Carey Pietsch who drew the wonderful DDLL poster this year. Sorry about the blurry photo ladies!

The very stylish Emma T Capps who is not only a cartoonist but designed and made her own outfits for the convention!

It was lovely to chat with my fellow vegetarian Cliodhna Lyons who had an adorable accordion book of dragons among other works and came all the way from the UK.

I didn't get away from the table much on Saturday, so I did a quick round or two on Sunday to say hello. I met Sung Yoon Choi who does cooking comics of Korean-American dishes!

Jennifer Hayden and Glynnis Fawkes' table.

More Queens-based cartoonists! Ashley Quigg, Patricia Burgess and Daniel Vasquez.

Marguerite Dabaie with her great patterned pillows and coasters and comics about the silk road.

Cary Pietsch and Claire Folkman at the Dirty Diamonds table. Go check out their Kickstarter for a women's comic anthology!

And finally, my trades and comic purchases from the weekend. I had a really small spending budget this year but I'm quite happy with what I got. I also had a few short interviews at the convention, I'll link to them when they're online. Thanks again to everyone who stopped by and especially to those who bought comics!

MoCCA Fest and Drink & Draw Like a Lady this weekend!

MoCCA is my home town comic show and I'll be there this weekend at table H9 with my friend Alison Wilgus. I'll have copies of my other self-published comics like Urban Nomad, mini zines about freelancing and shuttered music venues, and Cooking Up Comics magnets. I will also have some new cat stickers from The Collected Counter Attack!

If any of you are in New York, I would love to meet you in person!

I'm also helping organize the Drink and Draw Like a Lady party which is a women in comics event on Friday April 4th. If you are a woman who enjoys comics, please stop by The Productive (an awesome, woman-owned, co-working space) starting at 7 pm. The beautiful art for this years' flyer was done by Carey Pietsch and the party is sponsored in part by Work Made for Hire (Creative business advice for creative people).