MoCCA Festival, Part II

So many great things at the MoCCA Festival--I have space to mention only a few:

* Sara Antoinette Martin: Welcome to Sara-Land, you know, where skulls abound.

* Templar, Arizona: "This is a slightly irregular Arizona that fell off the back of a truck somewhere, and now all the power outlets are a weird shape and a couple of wars never happened."

* Is It Justus?: A very worthy successor to the Boondocks (taken from us far too soon!), this series combines great graphics with trenchant social analysis. Reginald "RNB" Butler is the creator. This should be required reading in schools.

* Zuda Comics: Lots and lots of stuff here, created by users, voted on by readers.

* Stef Lenk: Get her graphic novel The Details . I especially like the "Teatime" segments: eerie, moving, wordless, echoes of Alice down the rabbit hole.

* Theo Ellsworth: Another favorite. "He has a miniature city inside of his head that is overrun with funny monsters..." This appears to be true, judging from the overgrown, densely populated pictures he produces, vaguely reminiscent of the seas through which the Yellow Submarine floats.

* Matt Kindt: Atmospheric backgrounds, very individual characters, and check out the 3-D glasses. Kindt is widely recognized for his work (Harvey winner, etc.), deservedly so.

* Sho Murase: Elegant, stylish, delicious use of color, lines like the bold tracings of a feather.

* The Bazaarium: "Your Victorian inspired emporium." A fabulous conceit, superbly well executed.

*David Mack: Mack is one of the giants of the field. And there he was taking all the time in the world with each and every one of us at his booth, animated, warm, enthusiastic about being with the fans. Mack is a mensch on top of being one of the best draftsmen and designers around!

* Tara McPherson: Another one of the giants in the field, and, yep, there she was conversing with each of us. I bought doubles of several of her postcards ("How They Fly Away So Easily"), to give away to friends.

Special mention to two great comix stores who were present: Desert Island in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) and Jim Hanley's Universe in midtown Manhattan.

Super-special kudos to two art schools training up the next generation, whose students and professors were represented in force: School of Visual Arts, and Parsons The New School for Design.