This year’s MoCCA Fest was a lot more relaxing and fun, and most importantly, a lot cooler. None of us were boiled to a crisp like last year, and I think that was good for all of us, buyers and vendors alike. I saw a lot of people, so sorry if I seemed a little out of it. It was a little hard to keep up with everyone and who knows who/who does what (I’m sure much much harder for those famous types who get tons of fans coming to their table all the time!). People should wear their art on themselves (actually this does work for me – when I do a Glass Urchin doodle on my badge, I feel people “recognize” me a lot easier).
Anyway NERD Comics kicked off this MoCCA, like last time, with Hope Larson’s Drink & Draw like a Lady event in Chelsea(ish) on Friday. It was cool and, like MoCCA itself, improved from last year! We had ample lighting (maybe too much lighting?), and it wasn’t red. We weren’t in a loud and crowded bar (but a loud and crowded book store). And there wasn’t a singles mixer happening at the same location! So no guys snuck in this time! 
At DDLL, I met some other cool people to chat with and some other artists! We met Kelly Thompson who does CBR’s “She Has No Head!” column. She said she didn’t have time to get business cards, so she instead draw all her business cards… Besides that not making much sense, I got a cute little Lucy Van Pelt illustrated card from her 
. We also met Tara O’Connor who had cute little business cards and cool looking comics I must check out. Diana Mallery (links?!?) gave me a very neat comic called Singularity, which was awesome, especially for having been made the day before. Jenn (and we later met more of Jenn’s cool friends at the table) of Run Lil’ Jared gave me a new comic called Mimolette Bakery (that had beautiful colored pencil art!). It was very adorable… I just love the cake decorating business in that Ace of Cakes fangirl style, so I think a comic set in a bakery would be just awesome! The Soda Pop Comics people gave us a very cute mini minis, mine was about a lonely astronaut. Lastly, Bree and I gave Hope Larson one of Bree’s Self Aware Totes filled with some minis as thanks for putting on DDLL again this year!
Then on Saturday came MoCCA! The room was cool and it started on time… Totally different from last year! And speaking of which, our table was actually very well set up and neat for once! We consolidated and pooled our books together and got it much better organized! Plus Bree had made a quite large NERD tablecloth which made us stand out even more. At our table was the usual Bree n’ me, but we were also joined by Claire and, eventually, Foley. Claire had a great little mini called “The Last Artist on Earth,” which I can’t believe was a 24-hour comic because it was so well put together! I highly recommend it! 
Our neighbors were the famous Chris Yates and R. Stevens! We also met Gary briefly as he manned the table for them. And we were at the end of the aisle, but luckily not at an end cap (those are always annoying spots to be in). On Saturday I didn’t do much buying, but I mostly browsed and scoped out the many many cool artwork and books available at the con. There’s really so much at MoCCA to see! I especially oogled over Christiann and her sister’s stuff, especially the hilarious tshirts! It’s hard to believe it’s their first show, as they’re both so talented! We attempted to go to the after party but it was a crowded room in a nonsensically frat bar-ish place, so we left.
On Sunday I bought most of my goods. I picked up Hope Larson’s latest book, Mercury which is, so far, excellent, I love Hope’s flowy art style. I also had brought Flight 4 (my favorite of the Flight books) with me and got Raina Telegmeir, Dave Roman, and Scott C to sign it! Thanks for obliging everyone! While I was at the Double Fine table, I pestered Scott C (he’s a very friendly guy!), gave him a mini, and bought a beautiful print that I’m saving for the new apartment. I also picked up some nice prints in a trade with our friends at the Tapir Tooth table… Then I traded with Miriam Gibson for a hilarious mini from her Centaur-A-Day blog! Continuing trading a few tables down, I traded my mini for Neil Brideau’s Trugglemat mini. It was well put together, and I love that heavily crosshatched inky look! Thanks! I also traded with Alisa Harris for an adorable mini called Counter Attack! She tells me she’s working on an upcoming webcomic that sounds very exciting called Cooking up Comics. It’s a vegetarian webcomic and, being a vegetarian myself, am really looking forward to this one! While I was in that area, I also checked out Megan Baehr’s amazing dolls. They’re pricey but so detailed and very gorgeous. One day, one day! Heading 
back to my table I picked up David McGuire’s beautiful first Gastrophobia book, The 12 Labours of Gastrophobia. He drew a cute black widow spider inside! At the same table, I traded Tina Pratt for her latest issue of The Paul Reveres and bought 1 & 2 so I can force my friends to read it. I also picked up Willie’s bandana, which is stylish and totally matched my outfit that day. Lastly I traded for a comic by Max Ink called Blink FYI IDK. We also drew his own characters in his sketchbook! That’s a good idea…
Oh man was MoCCA gigantic, amazing, and tiring. Sort of like this news post (*hands fall off*)! I probably missed some people, but I’m down and out for now. Please be sure to look for your favorite NERDs at our next con on May 15th-16th…
Wild Pig Con!
Edit:The aforementioned Kelly Thompson who we met at DDLL mentioned me on her DDLL write up here! Thanks Kelly!!!
