MoCCA Art Festival 2007: A Report

I didn't take any pictures, because unlike a normal comic-con, the MoCCA fest is a nice little small press show and it just feels too intimate to snap photos of everyone. That's my excuse anyway.

But here's what I bought at the show:

Atlas #1, by Dylan Horrocks. I'm not as enamored of Hicksville as everyone else seems to be, but I really enjoyed the first two issues of Atlas. It's like a year or two between issues at this point, so I don't even remember what's going on, but I was happy to pick this up today. I'm hopeful.

Pulp Hope: The Art of Paul Pope. This was the first purchase I made today, and I guess I could have waited in line to get Paul to sign it, I just can't bring myself to do such a thing. Pretty cool-looking book! Lots of text too, written by Paul. It's like his autobiography in art, except incomplete, and with lots of pretty pictures. I'm reading this tonight!

Superior Showcase #1 and 2. I'm a ginormous fan of Project Superior and how can you not like the line-up in these two issues? Bertozzi, Trippe, Dalrymple, to name just three (--the best three, but still...) My local store doesn't carry stuff like this at all, although James, if you're reading this, carry this stuff! I will buy it!

Tales Designed to Thrizzle #3, by Micahel Kupperman. Not only did I buy this, but it's always fun when Gary Groth is the one making change for you. If you haven't read this comic book series yet, you must read it right away. Not every page is a winner, but 98% of them will make milk spew from your nose (even if you haven't had milk to drink in years, which is weird).

Stuff from Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier. Lots of stuff. I own most of their work already, but I picked up Life Meter #2 (the anthology of comics inspired by video games), Astronaut Elementary 8-9-10, Teen Boat #7 (obviously!), and Agnes Quill: an anthology of mystery. I'm looking forward to all of these books. Keep up the good work, guys! And Raina, keep that Dave in line. Don't let him get all cocky just because I said he was awesome the other day. Don't forget the reason for awesomeness #1!

The show was a good time overall. We didn't stay as long as we might have if we were less grumpy and less tired (from staying up late last night putting together minicomics...more on that when I get scans of the artwork), but we got to chat with some cool people. I met Karen Berger, Vertigo founder--who is eagerly looking forward to reading my Grant Morrison book. Well, that's how I interpreted it. Her actual words were, "I haven't read it yet. But I will." The eagerness was implied. And I talked to Tim Leong about doing some stuff for Comic Foundry. I chatted with Cameron Stewart for a while, embarassing him with my recollection of his fan letters to Grant Morrison--something I discovered when I was researching my book. But as I told Cam, I am also a Morrison fanboy from way back, and a letter in Animal Man #5 will attest to that (plus, I wrote a freakin' book on the guy. Nerdtastic!)

We also hung out with RAB from Estoreal for much of the day. He took us to a great burger place for lunch and he and I chatted about all things Jeff Parker-y, Legion-esque, and Kirby-tastic. He's not only contributing to my Legion book, but he also came up with some thoughts for a future Sequart project, so that was cool.

I'm going to go read all the great stuff I bought. Discuss.