For the first time, we attended the MoCCA Art Festival in New York City, a fabulous gathering of cartoonists and publishers (small and large) dedicated to mainly non-superhero work.

We arrived in NYC in anticipation of my Ditko book appearing at the festival on Saturday (and you probably know how that went), and I blogged three entries prior to my time at the festival, and then one from Monday when the books arrived...

...but now we'll back up to Saturday/Sunday and I'll share my observations.

#1 - bigger, and a more open feeling, than SPX. I haven't been to a show outside of Canada since SPX in 2003, and as much as I loved SPX, it felt a bit more claustrophobic, all of the artists there in a small area, really wanting you to look at and buy their stuff. I didn't feel as bad this time if I didn't engage every single artist at their table.

#2 - the diversity of the material that extended beyond even sequential art. Take away all the middle men, and people really pour their hearts into their work. Not all good, but when it's good, it proves comics is maybe the one medium where it's so easy to go from unique, original vision to completion that you can physically hold.

#3 - NYC brings out all sorts of interesting people. Even without my book being ready for the show, I had to open the MoCCA programming with an hour-long slide show and talk at 11am on the Saturday, and the audience was filled with email friends and professionals who had come to share a "Ditko moment." Dean Mullaney, former Eclipse Comics publisher and now ensconced at IDW doing great work (Eisner-nominated work) with Caniff's Terry and the Pirates books, was on hand and it was fabulous to see him. He was a big help with my Ditko book back in 2005, bringing some really key material to light that made the book a whole lot better. Also, Marvel Comics alumni Carl Potts, Danny Fingeroth and Jim Salicrup were on hand, and I had the pleasure of brunch with Danny and dinner with Carl on Monday. We couldn't pull Jim away from his duties at Papercutz, but we'll try harder next time!

#4 - a great selection of cartoonists on hand too. I had some wonderful conversations with Kim Deitch about Ditko, but also Bill Everett. Kim and Jay Lynch showed up for my Ditko event at Jim Hanley's Universe, as did Dave Simons. Finally. Fred Hembeck and Neil Vokes and I got to shake hands in person. Dash Shaw was signing at the Fantagraphics booth right after me, and I'm looking forward to taking his mammoth graphic novel "Bottomless Belly Button" on my vacation with me. (Below: Kim Deitch and me looking at my Ditko book electronically whilst Paul Hornschemeier signs away on Day 2 - pic by Mike Baehr)

#5 - Ditko is still the King of NYC! No matter what the demographic, people kept asking about the Ditko book, and wanting to talk Ditko. Someone even had one of those early 1990s Mr. A t-shirts! MoCCA is a show where people who don't make a living as an artist can bring their wares and set up for a small fee, and Rob Imes gave me a bunch of Ditkomania #65s for the show, and I kid you not: I could have sold a HUNDRED of those puppies! At $1.50 for a really nifty looking fanzine, they were gobbled up in NO time.

#6 - you can still do a book signing event without a book to sign. At 8pm, we started our event at Jim Hanley's Universe, which resides right outside the Empire State Building, and it was packed even though people knew there was no book. I did a shortened version of my presentation, and then we launched into the first North American viewing of the Jonathan Ross documentary "In Search of Steve Ditko." The DVD would freeze every 10 minutes, so we just did the Q&A during the breaks and it was great fun. In fact, there was one young woman there - maybe in her late 20s, early 30s - and (besides being very attractive) she seemed to know a heck of a lot about Ditko. Kudos to her! Same thing happened near the end of the show on Sunday. I was rolling up the giant poster (of the cover) created for promoting the book and a woman from London, England (why are all the attractive women in the world fans of Ditko?) visiting friends in NYC for a couple of weeks (Hi Jess!) saw the poster and said, "Hey, that's the background of my desktop" (or her screen saver - can't remember which now), so that was pretty cool. Hanley's interviewed me before and after the event, as well as taped the innards, and said they were going to put something together that we could share with everyone. Stay tuned! (Below is a picture of the event, courtesy of Ben Herman)

#7 - Janice Headley is one of the nicest people on the planet. If you know who she is, you know what I mean. Nuff said!

#8 - I rocked out a lot of good stuff at this show! Normally I'm adverse to buying big (especially big books that I have to cart back) at conventions unless they are 1950s comics that I can't get easily in Toronto, but there was so much fun stuff that I just had to indulge. I think these three pictures capture it (had to squish some stuff in, and whoops! there's my Ditko book, a book from the Met, some 1950s Bill Everett books, and a couple of Dave Sim books too)...

I've tackled a few since last weekend - Rabid Rabbit #7 (great cover), and was able (because she was present there) to renew my one-way love affair with Stef Lenk's material. She's doing a lot of events this month related to the next installment of her graphic novel. She's just a lovely artist and a really fun person to be in the presence of (yes, I'll dangle a participle for her!).

But you also pick up cute little things, like the very small, very square "Voids" comic by Shayna Marchese that's quite good and you didn't expect it to be so (always must throw away your biases at show's like this).

Other notables include Alex Robinson's "Too Cool To Be Forgotten" and Hope Larson's "Chiggers" (but you knew that already). I'm looking forward to Sarah Glidden's "How To Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less" (see? it DOES pay to get mentioned on Tom Spurgeon's The Comic Reporter site). Another issue of "Tales to Demolish" and "Reich" by the fine folks at Sparkplug Comics. Big up to my T.O. buddy artist Willow Dawson for "No Girls Allowed" and "Violet Miranda" (why am I not trying to get an Ontario Arts Council grant for my stuff? Grrrr). Finally will be able to begin Brian Wood's "DMZ" opus (broke down and bought the 1st trade - something I never do). I loved the look of "We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball" by Kadir Nelson. And hello to the brother-hunting kutie Caitlin Plovnick for her "Dead Air" beset upon us by "Creepy Loser Productions" (can't be that for a company name). And someday I'll get over being rejected-without-words by Danielle Corsetto and be able to start her "Girls With Slingshots v1" big book (nice to have something to hold of hers!). (Below: me signing on Day 1 with Miss Lasko-Gross - pic by Mike Baehr)

Ahh, but a highlight of the show for me (besides the honor and privilege of signing beside Miss Lasko-Gross) was having one of those head-swiveling moments where you think you see famed director (of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "The Science of Sleep") Michel Gondry but it couldn't be true? Turns out, it was true (I'm on your left)...

Wicked. Completely unbeknownst to me, the only man who has made a movie that has made me forget Jim Carrey was in it was in attendance at the show, promoting his own freakin' comic!...

Damn, and it was quite entertaining too. Of course, if Dave Sim had produced it, it would have been labeled more misogynistic drivel, but since Michel is cute and cuddly, French (they can't hate women, can they?), and famous (i.e. "Hollywood famous"), he gets the "Robert Crumb free pass" that Dave is not afforded, but alas, I digress into objective thought...

Gondry was so cool that he was doing head sketches of everyone buying the book! Here's how I look to Gondry...

Nice. Now stop diddlin' in comics and do another frickin' amazing movie, buddy! When I got home from NYC, I really had this overwhelming urge to piece together my own comic in time for San Diego. I was four pages into the pencils of a graphic novel back in 2003, but stopped to get the Ditko book done, and I recently dug up a myriad of my old sketch books with drawings, water colors and paintings, and was thinking of how to get them all into something concrete. Such is my dream: to be a comic-book artist, yet I'm always haunted by Dave Sim's immortal words (and I paraphrase): "You have to get out the 2000 bad pages in you before you can start with the good ones." He followed that up with "And in ink" and I have shuddered ever since.

#9 - nothing beats Manhattan from the top of the Empire State Building after midnight. Nuff Said.