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I Went to the MoCCA Festival and Got Kicked in the Stomach

Probably for being irreverent...

I've been an attendee at the MoCCA Festival each year since its inception ten years ago. MoCCA stands for Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art and the festival is a yearly alternative comic convention where people sell and trade their books, prints, and crafts. MoCCA's always a good time but this year it seemed kind of routine. The turnout was lower than in previous years and it didn't feel like there was any big-name special guests apart from Daniel Johnston. A lot of the local New York cartoonists were there but I didn't see a lot of standout artists who'd traveled far to be there. It seems like the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival which was held this past December may have supplanted MoCCA as New York's main alternative comics event. I could just be projecting my inner world onto MoCCA though. I had a good time, I'm not trying to knock it. I walked among the attendees and took a lot of photos of people where I would ask them to hold up their best thing.

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This is Rob Corradetti. He used to be in Mixel Pixel and now he makes a lot of great silkscreened things under the name [Killer Acid](http:// http://killeracid.com/). He made a poster advocating being a jerk on the world wide internet.

This is a comedian who dressed up as a zombie clown to sell comics about himself in which he is in space.

This guy has several tattoos of his characters, Pissed Off Panda and Pig Benis on his arms. They are the worst.

This is Kris Mukai. She's a talented young lady who always seems kinda awkward but is a pretty good artist. She's holding up one of her spreads from Slow Youth Volume 1 in this photo.

This is Anthony Cudahy holding up one of his spreads from Slow Youth. His lines are great but his anatomy still needs work.

This man showed up in a suit with outlines and shading marks painted onto it.

This is [Leslie Stein](http://majesticcreature.tumblr.com/ ). I love Leslie. She makes comics that are very loose auto-bio with drifting plots that are inspired by Raymond Carver and never boring.

These are little felt things that Leslie made with the contents of her grandmother's sewing basket. I bought the felt flower pin.

This is Box Brown holding up his comic, Chubby Chasers. He's a hot young talent that a lot of folks are chattering about.

Daniel Johnston was there selling his first comic, a hardcover full-color book called Space Ducks. I bought a couple of copies and he would not meet my gaze or look up at me. He only seemed to acknowledge his female fans. Someone told me he was really tired. I told him I was listening to his music over and over lately and his only response to that statement was "Goodbye." It was kind of a letdown but I'm not sure what I expected. His comic is great.

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Here are some of my friends singing the chorus to a song about the comic that Jeffrey Lewis had performed earlier.

I got this [Matt Furie](http://mattfurie.com/ ) shirt. Matt Furie doesn't have one yet though.

That's Jeff Bowers holding up his zine, [Prism Index](http://www.prismindex.com/ ) on the left. I'm in that zine. In the middle is John Malta with his comic, [The Professor and the Paperboy](http://www.johnfmalta.com/ ). On the end is Nichole Senter holding up her comic, [Woe Is Me: The Tragic Life of Baron Von Badtooth](http://thewizardparty.tumblr.com/ ).

This is megatalent [Mickey Duzyj](http://www.mduzyj.com/ ) with his eight-week-old baby, Luciano, who he has covered in a blanket of comics. Way to survive the comic-book gauntlet and make it to maturity, Mickey. Congratulations on fatherhood! I kept talking about how much his baby looked like Don Rickles.

This is French cartoonist, [Domitille Collardey](http://www.domitille-collardey.com/ ) holding up one of her mini-tote bags.

This is [Abby Boeh](http://abbyboeh.blogspot.com/ ), an illustrator dressed as Fiona from Adventure Time.

This is [Roxie Vizcarra](http://roxination.com/ ), holding up a drawing she made of two people sixty-nining. She is a dirty drawer of the highest caliber of dirtiness.

This is Jacq Cohen, Fantagraphics PR person, holding up a Nancy book. She fell over the other day and got three stitches in her chin.

MoCCA is held in an armory that belongs to the 69th Regiment of something. So there are 69s all over the place and it has this crazy bathroom.

Look at these stalls. It's like they buy the same hollow doors that slumlords use in badly remodeled tenements.

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On top of being the 69th Division, it is also the Rainbow Division. I thought this was pretty-looking.

MoCCA ended and everyone applauded and boxed up their shit.

While I was taking photos of this big metal 69 in the floor a soldier warned me that I was going to piss off a lot of people if it looked like I was making fun of the 69th Division.

Then I took this photo and a lady kicked me in the stomach for being irreverent.

Bye, MoCCA. See you next year!

@NicholasGazin