MoCCA Fest 2012 Gearing Up for Grandness

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is entering it's tenth year as a fine institution. This year's festival will bring some great guests to the museum. Guests that you may want to stop by and see.

First off the Klein Award will be presented to Gary Painter by Bill Katalopoulos. The guest of honor at the show will be P. Craig Russell, who provided the artwork for the 2012 MoCCA Fest poster.

Meanwhile, other guests at the show will include Jessica Abel, Derf Backderf, José-Louis Bocquet, Joyce Brabner, Box Brown, Domitille Collardey, Leela Corman, Mike Dawson, Stephen DeStefano, Matt Forsythe, Drew Friedman, Tom Gauld, Dean Haspiel, Jason, Daniel Johnston, Michael Kupperman, Peter Kuper, Matt Madden, Nicolas Mahler, Catel Muller, Kevin Pyle, MK Reed, Joseph Remnant, Hans Rickheit, Alex Robinson, Olivier Schrauwen, Raina Telgemeier, GB Tran, Lauren Weinstein and Shannon Wheeler.

Tickets will set you back $12 a day or $18 for the weekend presale ($15 and $24 at the door). You can get them early at the Mocca Fest website. The fest happens on April 28 and April 29.

Full details below.

As we enter MoCCA Fest's tenth year, we have much to celebrate. With a record number of exhibitors joining us from all over the nation and the globe, we're ramping up for a banner year.

Since 2002, MoCCA Fest has supplied New York with a great venue for comic lovers and creators alike to showcase and celebrate the diversity of the medium: discover comics, mini-comics, web comics, graphic novels, animation, posters, prints, original artwork and more. The festival brings established and emerging talent together for the comics community and the public at large to enjoy. Each year, the Festival invites dozens of established and emerging creators, scholars, and other experts to participate in two days of lecture/discussion panels on a variety of comics and cartoon topics. Find out what the buzz is all about -- and where the buzz will be coming from -- below.

KLEIN AWARD RECIPIENT 2012: GARY PANTER
The award will be presented by comics critic and educator Bill Kartalopoulos.

Born in Oklahama and raised in Texas, Gary Panter has been a prodigious painter and multimedia artist since his youth. Equally influenced by art history and the psychedelic counterculture, Panter emerged as a visual force in the L.A. punk scene of the late 1970s. While illustrating album covers and fliers for musicians including Frank Zappa and the Screamers; Panter began publishing a series of comics in Slash Magazine featuring his post-apocalyptic punk/hillbilly alter ego, Jimbo. Panter’s groundbreaking comics, which introduced the expressiveness of painting and the aesthetics of printmaking to the comics form, subsequently gained an international audience in Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly’s avant-garde anthology series RAW. Throughout the 1980s, Panter also collaborated with Pee-Wee Herman, winning three Emmy Awards as production designer on the innovative children’s television series “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.” Panter continues to paint and his work has been exhibited internationally. He regularly performs and records music and has collaborated with Joshua White on light show projects. His books of comics include Cola Madnes, Jimbo in Purgatory, and the forthcoming Dal Tokyo. Panter’s work was included in the 2005-2007 traveling exhibit “Masters of American Comics”, the Phoenix Art Museum in 2007. He was the recipient of a 2000 Chrysler Award for Design Excellence. He is currently represented by Fredericks & Freiser in New York. Gary Panter lives and works in Brooklyn.


GUEST OF HONOR: P CRAIG RUSSELL

P Craig Russell provided the stunning artwork for the 2012 MoCCA Fest poster.

P Craig Russell has run the gamut in comics as a writer, artist and illustrator. His evocative artwork has defined dozens of titles, including his Eisner-award-winning work with Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Elric: Sormbringer, Dr. Strange, Ring of the Nibelung, as well as Sandman #50: Ramadan, the highest-selling issue of the series. More recent work includes graphic novel adaptations of both Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and Gaiman’s Sandman: The Dream Hunters. His latest book is The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince, from NBM Publishing.


OTHER GUESTS
MoCCA Fest is pleased to feature great talent at this year’s festival with programming and special signings & appearances, including Jessica Abel, Derf Backderf, José-Louis Bocquet, Joyce Brabner, Box Brown, Domitille Collardey, Leela Corman, Mike Dawson, Stephen DeStefano, Matt Forsythe, Drew Friedman, Tom Gauld, Dean Haspiel, Jason, Daniel Johnston, Michael Kupperman, Peter Kuper, Matt Madden, Nicolas Mahler, Catel Muller, Kevin Pyle, MK Reed, Joseph Remnant, Hans Rickheit, Alex Robinson, Olivier Schrauwen, Raina Telgemeier, GB Tran, Lauren Weinstein, & Shannon Wheeler !

MoCCA Fest News & Updates
Where do I go for news about the festival? If you’re not already doing so, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin, but that’s not all!

- Use the official MoCCA Fest site (moccafest.org) to find out official listings about exhibitors, programming, special guests, and soon — tickets too.
- Use our MoCCA Fest Tumblr (moccafest.tumblr.com) to find out about, or to repost, the latest news about your favorite comics creators.

Expect to see upcoming tie-in events and programming related to MoCCA Fest on all these sites!

ONLINE TICKETING
Will be available this week! You save money when you buy in advance. MoCCA Members will be able to get their special discount online.
Ticket prices are as follows:

Online Pre-Sale: $12/ day, $18/ weekend
Members: $12/ weekend

At The Door: $15/ day, $24/ weekend
Members: $15/ weekend


The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts education organization dedicated to the preservation, study and display of all forms of comic and cartoon art. The museum promotes greater understanding and appreciation of the artistic, cultural and historical significance of comic and cartoon art through a variety of events, exhibitions, and educational programs. The museum is located at 594 Broadway (between Houston and Prince Streets) in New York City. MoCCA is open to the public Tuesdays through Sundays from 12:00-5:00 pm. Suggested donation to the museum is $6 but free for MoCCA Members as well as for children 10 and under (when accompanied by a paying adult).