The second and final day of the MoCCA Festival 2012 was just as active as the previous one. I started out my day with a lunch at the Murray Hill Diner on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 33rd Street. After finishing, I walked alongside the March of Dimes charity walk until I got to the 69th Regiment Armory and went my way from there. It was quiet at first when I got to MoCCA Festival 2012…but it didn’t stay that way for long.
There were still plenty of people out there browsing and exhibitors hawking their one-of-a-kind creations. One table there was 789 Studio, which had a QR code on their business card much like I did. I chatted with them for a bit and browsed their work. I also met Eric Leland, who was selling handmade cards, prints, and even some books. I even bought a thank you card from him. It’s nice to see in this age of computers, that people still like to make things by hand with paper, ink, and paint. In fact, I chatted with him for a bit on my own encounter with letterpress (his tool) at the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair last month.
MoCCA Festival 2012 turned out to be a reunion of sorts, as I did see some familiar faces there. Matt Madden, one of my mentors, was there and the second volume to his book will be out soon (I reviewed it sometime ago). I also met up with Josh Bayer, one of the guests at the School of Visual Arts independent comics seminar a few years ago. He had praised Sunnyville Stories episode 1 – in fact, Josh viewed page 14 as being genius!
Also present was another illustrator from that same comics seminar, Susanna Plotnick. She had her own table and her own book, which is just gorgeous (check out the link to see more).
Probably the highlight for today with MoCCA Festival 2012 was meeting Sean Von Gorman. This talented individual has done his own work called the Secret Adventures of Houdini. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Von Gorman gained some fame when he actually handcuffed himself to a traffic light outside Forbidden Planet (a Manhattan comics shop) to promote and sell his work. Yikes! That’s more than I’ve contemplated to sell Sunnyville Stories. I was just considering a sandwich board myself. But there’s still more. Sean Von Gorman did an actual straight jacket escape at MoCCA Festival 2012!
Yikes! That hurts me just looking at it. Please don’t try this at home!
All in all, MoCCA Festival 2012 was very fruitful for me. I may just get a table next year here!
