Although I was only able to attend on Saturday, I’m prepared to call MoCCA Festival 2015 a success: the new venue was airy and light-filled (if a bit daunting), the location of the panel discussions was fancy — schmancy, even — and the weather was beautiful. Okay, that last one wasn’t up to the Society of Illustrators, but it was a bit of good luck, as the exhibit venue and the panel locale were about five minutes walk apart and if it had been an April-in-New York spitty, squally, rainy day, that would have been a miserable five minutes.

Center 548, the replacement for the Armory of the past four-five years, is arranged vertically rather than horizontally; in practice this means a few things:

• There was one hell of a steep, narrow staircase to navigate as soon as you enter to get up to the second through fourth floors
• The crowds marginally thinned out as you went upwards¹
• I’m told there was a rooftop lounge, which I never found but many I’m envious of those that did

Along with the aforementioned light and windows and blue skies; it felt old and new simultaneously inside, not unlike the onetime location of the Puck Building (presently spending its day as an REI store and a bunch of Starbuckses).

The High Line Hotel (formerly some famous dude’s home, laid out like an Ivy League quad with courtyards and vaguely connected subsections and echoing staircases that feel like they should be in a cathedral) hosted the panels in a pair of rooms that featured stylish, minimal decor (I felt like I was in a very tasteful Scandinavian loft apartment) with enormous stained-glass windows; okay, they were covered by shades, but they were still stained glass.

Accenting the Chelsea vibe, the courtyard entrance of the hotel was hosting a small marketplace aimed at fashionable dogs and the people that care for them, so there were corgis in tutus and handbag foofoo pooches to add a little color.

Oh, and there were comics, too.

• Evan Dahm and I discussed what classics he might work on after Moby-Dick (as I got to thumb through a sample copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), and he allowed that he’d like to tackle The Illiad and The Odyssey as a two-volume box set some day.
• Bill Roundy and I discussed the best neighborhood in Brooklyn for bars with outrageously creative drinks-mixers, as he had a half-dozen volumes of his Bar Scrawl minis to choose from, each covering a neighborhood and a dozen or more bars in more-or-less a straight line walking. He’s begun to look at the history of particular drinks and had an eight-pager about the first of them: the Floradora. He may have offered to make me one on the spot, and I may have enjoyed the hell out of it. With any luck, he’ll do one history per month.
• Raina Telgemeier (unsurprisingly) and Scott McCloud (only marginally less so) had fans in the sub-teen age range that waited through hour-long Qs and As to talk to them — the next generation of comics is in good hands.
• Tom Siddell and Magnolia Porter tabling together is remarkably convenient if you want to talk to the greatest concentration of webcomics talent without having to walk any further than absolutely necessary; as mentioned previously, both are on career-best streaks right now, both are sending characters in new directions that will change their respective statuses quo, and both are (fortunately) getting more positive feedback than negative for their choices.
• I was lucky to make the acquaintance of Carey Pietsch, who is illustrating from Meredith Gran&rsquo’s scripts for the newest Marceline miniseries from Boom!; as I told her, I love Gran’s words and pictures, but I think that writing for another artist (and doing so in a way that shows off her strengths), I think that she’s sharpened her writing skills even further. They’re a good creative team, and I’d be interested to see them collaborate again in the future on a story that they own.
• It is impossible to get past the adoring crowds to Scott C; dude was swamped every time I went by.

The only real negative I can think of is that the floor was pretty loud; the Armory had that problem too, but it was greatly improved the last couple of years when tall drapes were put behind tables to cut down on echo. Drop those into Center 548² and I think you’ve got a great MoCCA Fest venue for the foreseeable future.

The MoCCA Festival was on shaky ground for a couple of years, but since the SoI took over, it seems to be assured of a successful future; I’m not sure how you can do everything that they do with a door price of five dollars, but I’m impressed that they do. See you there next year.

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¹ This may have been an illusion, as it appeared the aisles were narrower on the second floor than the third and fourth — presumably to make room for the food service and Wacom lounge. Speaking of which, the food service was tasty, plentifully-supplied, and fast, but there needed to be places to sit and eat. Had I known about the rooftop lounge, that would have been a different story.

² Also find a way to completely retrofit staircases that are less vertiginous; easy, right?

This Friday has been the least Fridayish I can recall in quite some time; it’s all worked out in the end, but man I was up to my ass in cocodylomorphans for a while there. Here’s some thing to consider:

• Ryan North (aka The Toronto Man-Mountain) and David Malki ! (aka The Jack of All Trades) both hit on the topic of How Not To Be Terrible In Society And/Or On The Internet in their strips today. I propose we take them as guides for all future human conduct. We can all wear sea lion shirts while we do so.
• I don’t know much about the prior work of Jules Faulkner, but I saw way too many people whose work I do know tweet today about the launch of Faulkner’s new webcomic to ignore it. Knight and Dave — the story of Sir Iris and his caprine sidekick, Dave — will run on Fridays with Mondays and Wednesdays possible if you make with support over at Faulkner’s Patreon. Too soon to tell where this one is going, but so far, it’s hella cute and cartoony.
• TopatoCon¹ haven’t announced any more exhibitors, but they did announce that they’re now allowing half tables, so we may see the number of guests increasing from the 70 or so expected to 100 or more. Neat!

I have to clean house a little, so for the first time please enjoy the plural majesty of the
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¹ I started wondering why TopatoCon’s twitter is @topatocon2015 and not @topatocon, and then I found out: @topatocon is a dude that’s a fan of the LA Lakers and an LA TV meteorologist.

It’s coming up fast, folks! And you’ll see lots of webcomics (and webcomics-adjacent) folks there; usual disclaimer, there are others I’ve undoubtedly missed.

• Table 231: Tony Breed, cartoonist, DJ, gentleman about town.
• Table 314: Josh Neufeld (I love his collaboration with public radio’s Brooke Gladstone, The Influencing Machine).
• Table 320: Koyama Press; if they are the not great hope for comics, they’re damn close.
• Table 326: Evan Dahm; dare I hope that he has copies of his Wonderful Wizard of Oz with him?
• Table 328: Sam Bosma and Kali Ciesemier, of many different things.
• Table 340: Rachel Dukes has been tearing it up on the BOOM! books, and working on her first graphic novel.
• Table 354: the creators of Strong Female Protagonist, Brennan Lee Mulligan (words) and Molly Ostertag (pictures)
• Table 352: Sophie Goldstein (half the team behind Darwin Carmicheal Is Going To Hell and all of the team at Red Ink Radio). Along with her, Sylvan Migdal, who’s been at MoCCA since forever.
• Table 383A, Jordan Witt of The Organization of Ghost Hunters.
• Table 404: not an error, but the fine folks of :01 Books (the best folks).
• Table 423: Michelle Czajkowski of Ava’s Demon.
• Table 424: Magnolia Porter and Tom Siddell are, between them, on career-best streaks right now. So good, both of them.
• Table 425: Carey Pietsch has been paired up with Meredith Gran on the latest Marceline series; she’ll be joined by Janet Sung and Arielle Jovellanos, together forming creative forces behind Ladies of Literature.
• Table 450, Scott C of the Great Showdowns, adorable childrens books, and fine art collections everywhere.

Fun start at 11:00am on Saturday and Sunday, weekend after next, at Center 548 in Manhattan. See you there!

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I trust that I’ll see you there? We’ve already mentioned that many fine creators who will be in attendance, but somehow missed including David McGuire on that list so let’s address that now: David McGuire will be at MoCCA Fest, at table C5.

The longtime readers among you may recall that I don’t usually list table numbers with regards to MoCCA, since the venue is essentially one large room, but there are two others in particular I want to share, and one thing in general.

The first particular is Magnolia Porter, who is sharing table space with Tom Siddell at G5, and not at table A8 (as she is listed on the MoCCA exhibitor’s page). The second is Evan Dahm, who is at table C3, but who by rights should be at table B9, no? Let’s see if we can make that happen next year.

The general thing is the layout of the floor. In the years that the Society of Illustrators has been running the show, MoCCA Fest has been dong a bang-up job. The taller backdrops last year made for a smart-looking show floor, and this year they’re making another big change: the aisles are turned 90° to their previous orientation. In past years, entering from the main staircase on Lexington, a MoCCAgoer would duck around the showrunner table and then head up the center aisle of tables

Now, they’ll be heading into a center travel aisle, with exhibitor aisles branching off to the left and right. I can’t help but suspect that this may distribute showgoers throughout the hall more uniformly upon entrance. I’ll be sure to watch the traffic patterns.

Time prevented me from talking with other creators extensively, but even brief conversations are fun.

• For example, Box Brown’s been working much of the past six months on Retrofit Comics, which is now down to a familiar process. The back catalog is pretty much sold out, and the project will run its course as planned; Brown may or may not keep the “Retrofit Comics” name for future projects.

  The project most consuming his time would be his comics biography of André Roussimoff, professional giant and haver of posses. Brown has gone so far as to communicate with Mr The Giant’s brother¹, and expects to work the rest of the year on what may well be the definitive biography of André. Oh, yes, and he’s also doing webcomics again, you know, in his free time.

• Magnolia Porter, meanwhile, is splitting her time, with the first project being the ongoing Monster Pulse, which mixes a quirky visual style with lots of heart². Speaking of visual style, I finally figured up what it is that makes Guuzy so appealing, despite that fact that he may be the most dangerous of the monsters, what with being an acid-filled stomach monster and all. It’s the way that his forelegs are so much shorter than his hindlegs, giving him the same posture as a dog that’s got a tail wagging high and a head down low and eyes that say Play, play, play time to play!

  That same instinct for creating appeal in non-human characters carries over to the human characters as well; Bina and the other players we’ve met all act like whole, real people; their anger, their exhaustion, their bewilderment and denial all come from an organic place and make you want to know them more.

  It’s something that Porter has had a lot of practice with, what with years of Bobwhite under her belt — Marlene, Ivy, and Cleo lived and breathed and influenced each other, and shortly their story will be collected into print. That would be the other thing that Porter is working on, and I can only believe that Bobwhite will read beautifully as a continuous story. Personally, I’m holding out for a bonus story that reveals more of the main cast’s feelings for Ben Bailey.

• Shifting gears for a moment, all those books will surely require some Kickstarting, which put me in mind of a conversation that took place on the Armory steps. It started with some catching-up with Rick Marshall³, and we were by chance joined by a passing Johanna Draper Carlson and Heidi MacDonald. Kickstarter discussion about sweet spots, Smut Peddler’s ultimate total (I’m putting it in the range of US$55-60K), and Shaenon Garrity’s clever use of unlocked rewards on the Skin Horse 3 campaign.

  I tried laying out some of my (very early) analysis and desire for a Grand Unified Theory of Kickstarter, but so far my attention has been on the numbers and not the words to describe it. I should have just waited a few days more and I could have pointed them towards yesterday’s Penny Arcade, because (as usual) Jerry’s words do the trick:

  You’ve seen Stretch Goals before, if you’ve ever watched one of these things succeed: mechanisms to maintain funding momentum after success, with whispered promises of more…. Goodies you can add a la carte, independent of your pledge level. They’ve essentially developed an RPG, where your money is the XP. [emphasis added]

  There it is, maybe the key element I’ve been grasping for. Kickstarter reward design isn’t just a min-max problem for the creator, it’s one for the supporter as well. We’ve established that you need an audience that’s crying out for whatever you’re offering, and you have to give them a compelling reason to back you. Those things are still true.

  But now, shift the perspective: instead of trying to manage the money you take in, you should be setting up a structure where your backers will seek on their own to maximize the money they can possibly contribute. There’s a weird mixture of industrial-grade psychology and probability math at the heart of it, which is to say — it’s a game. Don’t try to play it yourself, try to make the most appealing set of rules.

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¹ Or at least attempt to; a letter has been written to an address in France that reportedly once belonged to the surviving Mr Roussimoff. He hopes for a reply, but acknowledges the odds are long.

² I’m so, so sorry.

³ Will, and Holly.

And through all my discussion of Aaron Diaz yesterday, I never mentioned the suit; it’s beautiful, it fits him perfectly, it classes up the immediate environment. His tablemates, Yuka Ota and Ananth Panagariya, were not to be outdone — they had their own black three-pieces, and resulting in a localized dapperness singularity and made my midweight fleece jacket seek a means of exit from the vicinity, so great was its shame. To distract from my suitless disgrace, I had to ask Panagariya about everything he and Ota are working on. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.

As if the warmest, most generous¹ journal comic weren’t enough, the pair are a quarter of the way through production on Lucky Penny, their project from Oni, overseen by the ubiquitous George Rohac². That means that 200 page have to be done in time for all the production work to be completed to enable an 2013 release. A year, a book, lots of people work to that schedule.

Except that more is already in the works — Johnny Wander book 3 is due this fall (with a goal of a book a year), and a fuller version of Girl With The Skeleton Hand. Other projects, too; Panagariya wants to make sure that in addition to JW, there’s a book a year, and in his copious free time, he’s getting back into the narrative webcomics game. No name of either comic or artistic partner to share with you yet, but he’s got story planned to the extent that he knows it will take a “television season” approach: 25 to 50 pages per episode, six episodes to the season, keep those writing skills sharp.

It’ll be a stretch, naturally, to work with an artist other that Ota, especially when their skills are so complementary. Yuko noted that while Ananth tends to focus on character, she centers on story structure, making the combination stronger than what either could accomplish on their own. Turns out that Jeph Jacques was right — they really are like Voltron.

Naturally, while Panagariya is collaborating with others, Ota has plenty to keep her busy. Her trade-off sketching with Evan Dahm via the Exquisite Beast is just the most public of these. Dahm, by the way, indicated that the Beast has no planned endpoint — it will just keep evolving³ for as long as they have fun with it. Likely there will be a book at some point, which would make a nice shelf companion to the (as yet hypothetical) Diaz Dinosaur Compendium mentioned yesterday.

Dahm, meanwhile, continues with the largest, most sprawling story he’s ever tackled. At more than 270 pages long, Vattu is perhaps one fifth of the way through the story he wants to tell. And consider: even once he’s done — in five years, or maybe seven — he will have chronicled only a few discrete years distantly separated in the 5000+ year history of Overside. Every odd species, every writing system, every story he’s told so far fits into a few temporal niches on (mostly) one continent.

The scope and scale of this particular Overside story also means that the one-volume editions we’ve seen of Rice Boy and Order of Tales are probably not practical to attempt with Vattu. The complete story would be more than twice the size of the OoT one-volume. Instead, Dahm plans on releasing a series of impressively thick reprint volumes, 300 – 400 pages each, in both paperback and deluxe hardcover presentations.

In keeping with his prior releases, he’s experimenting with wordless cover designs, with an eye towards releasing the first volume of Vattu in early 2013. Rumors that MoCCA staff are arranging with Armory personnel to reinforce the floor in anticipation of Dahm’s expanded catalog at next year’s art festival could not be confirmed at press time.

_______________
¹ Not to mention true-to-life; for those wondering, the Punishment Shirt is real.

² For somebody not at the show, Rohac loomed large in numerous conversations; I must have words with him, long words about the direction of independent comics and the direction that he seems to be steering them in.

³ Which at this point has evolved through every ecological niche and environmental habitat and keeps on cranking. I have a feeling that eventually it will have evolved through more forms than an actual biological entity could manage in the entire lifespan of the universe.

I can’t reveal that.

Aaron Diaz is full of ideas, and it pains him when he can’t share with you an idea that’s not ready for inclusion in Dresden Codak. Concrete plans about books, sure; dinosaurs, he’s all over that conversation. But questions regarding the nature of science/speculative fiction that might reveal where he’s going with his current story arc, Dark Science? That’s where he draws the line. So let’s focus on what he will discuss.

Firstly, there is a Dresden Codak book in the works, which he hopes will be out for Christmas¹. So far, so good, people do books of their webcomics literally every week. But this book is from the man that puts minute detail into single “pages” that keep scrolling on and on, and that requires space. When I first met Diaz, he was musing about putting together a book for Hob, and I speculated it might require a size approaching that of a coffee table book. We chuckled.

Yeah, so the new book might have to be trimmed down by 15% or so, but right now he’s looking at a 17×23 inch treatment. In color. Hardcover. Covering from the first introduction of Kim (presumably this story) and every subsequent story prior to Dark Science (he didn’t say if the guest week that immediately preceded DS would be included), including all of Hob. I remarked the only book he could work on that would require more space would be a collection of Moebius tribute art, which caused an eye twinkle and a terse, “Don’t tempt me.”²

It is worth noting that while having this conversation, his exhibitor’s wristband was configured in a möbius strip, which he incessantly traced with his fingers. That prompted a discussion of spatial mathematics, which led to a discussion of the philosophy of science, and how he believes he’s on a unique track with Dark Science.

Some of what he said is pretty obvious: it’s about a third done (the last update fairly screams “end of first act reveal”). It’s in tribute to Metropolis. Ayn Rand is in for some mockery in Act II (which he described as “intense”) and Act III (“surreal”). The key concept of Dark Science hasn’t been revealed yet, but as far as he can tell, it’s not an idea that’s been done before in SF:

It’s not a “go here, get this, bring it back, fix the problem” kind of story. Hob was about having different points of view with respect to the unknown, Dark Science is about science, the philosophy of science, what it’s for.

That’s when I asked him if he was using “science” as a verb and not a noun, and that brings us back to his inability to reveal things up there at the top. Between now and us learning what he can’t reveal at this time, we’ve got four or five years, a hardcover (at least one), and a lot of days besotted by the newest discoveries in maniraptor locomotion and neck structures. The world comes rushing at Diaz, and comics are how he does science to it. Pretty, pretty science.

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¹ Perhaps noting his update schedule, Diaz did not specify Christmas of which year.

² I continued to tempt him; while deep in a conversation about how coelurosaurs invaded every ecological niche, I remarked how I’d love to see him do a book containing the likes of the enormous Charles R Knight murals of dinosaurs that have been mainstays at natural history museums for half a century.

Knight worked from the best paleontological information of his times, and Diaz would certainly work from the state of today’s art, meaning feathers everywhere. “I want to see your take on pterosaurs,” I said. He got that twinkle again and muttered, “Ooooh. I could … you’re giving me an idea.”

The thing about Frank Gibson and Becky Dreistadt¹ is that they are living proof that all you need to be super-successful in any creative field is reasonably talented, a little lucky, and a completely insane, work longer and harder than anybody else and eat their friggin’ lunch machine. Like Becky does. She paints nonstop, moving from project to project, dropping beauty via gouache and watercolor the way other people accidentally drop a gum wrapper out of their jacket pocked while fumbling for their keys.

Much of this you will never get to see. Some of it, shortly, nobody will ever get to see again, and that is a goddamn shame². And if a few things come together in the offices where such things are decided, Dreistadt will be doing more of it than she ever has before, with a higher profile than ever before. And even if none of that comes to anything, she and Gibson have enough projects confirmed and in-progress to make anybody this side of a meth freak on a coke bender wonder where the requisite energy to do all the work might come from.

And the infuriating thing about them is, they are so damned cheerful about the whole thing.

They’ve got their new hardcover collection of Tiny Kitten Teeth to finish up, naturally (since it will undoubtedly see the influence of the rapidly-approaching mythical status George Rohac, it will no doubt look as gorgeous as the Benign Kingdom hardcover, and — Gibson tells me — three or so times thicker). There’s the Capture Creatures gallery show and book to do this year, as well as finishing up Ryan Sohmer’s The Bear, and whatever else people may pay them to do. At this point, the only limit on them is time.

Speaking of B9, three of the four creator teams were at MoCCA (all except KC Green), and I got to express to Becky/Frank, Yuko/Ananth, and Evan Dahm how beautiful their work is. They spoke seemingly with one voice about what happens next with B9 (or at least I didn’t write down which of them told me): the Kingdom was not a one-shot, there will be future releases in sets of four, perhaps new hardcovers even. Then there was this from the original solicitation:

If this goes well, it could be the foundation of a much bigger project in the future: Benign Kingdom could print more books, and maybe involve other artists! Thank you very much for your support!

At this point, I say that the runaway success of B9.1 pretty much ensures that other artists will be brought into the fold. I sense that Mr Rohac has plans where all of this might go, plans that he and I must needs discuss, because I have often commented on the need for webcomics to have a shadowy genius providing specialty genius-type services in a financially self-sustaining fashion, and I have a suspicion we might be looking at the seed of such now.
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¹ The hive mind that is the artist/writer combo is nearly always referred to as “Becky and Frank”, so I decided that just this once I’m puttin’ Frank first. Also, the majority of the time I have news from the Tiny Kitten Teeth duo, it comes from Frank, since he is like me an inveterate talker.

² You may have heard about the Adventure Time gallery show which is going on in Austin, Texas about now. Follow that link, and check out the photos . See the murals, with the squarish Finn and Jake and the all-swoops-and-curves Fionna and Cake, and the Rainicorn that meanders along the walls? Better get your ass down to Austin and see ’em in person, because when the show’s over, they’re getting painted over.

Every art conservator that puts an Old Masters painting through X-rays and MRIs trying to look under the layers of paint and see what’s underneath ought to be descending on the world’s art galleries and carefully disassembling every piece of drywall they can find, because there are friggin’ masterpieces under all that Behr matte white hi-cover and the thought of it makes me want to drink until I can’t cry anymore.

As you might imagine, I’m horribly behind on webcomics news as a result of MoCCA; I’m not even going to weigh in on the whole Marketplace Morning Report thing except to say that the reporting oversight was pretty thoroughly refuted. Reports on MoCCA itself that I particularly recommend include Dave Roman‘s and Evan Dorkin‘s; gotta say that it’s a real treat to see a guy as unrelentingly positive, level-headed, and pleasant as Dave Roman refer to a show as a “death camp”. He and Dorkin are right on the money though, regarding the improvements that MoCCA needs to make if it’s going to be a viable show in two – three years.

Book news! Digger volume 4 will be available for preorder on 10 July; Kate Beaton‘s book is back in stock at Topatoco. And Aaron Diaz is offering a limited-edition softcover of Hob, and there are even (as of this writing) still some left from last night’s announcement. Go get ’em.

Pictures! How to sum up MoCCA ’09? It was hot, leading to a weary, but still game crowd. It’s not a t-shirt intensive show, but books, prints, promises of sex, and interesting knick-knackery do well (even when they’re just preview items). In any event, moustaches and beards rule, Dylan looks better in a suit than you do, Magnolia is willing to get her photo taken with random vagrants, and outside air was good. Also: there were visitors to our shores from the far antipodes and the near frozen north.

Photo guide! Roughly in order of the links above, you had crowd shots, merch selections from various creators, printed-on water bottles from QC, fair-trade, microfinanced Red Robot dolls, Andy Bell‘s newest toy (availabe at SDCC), Jon Rosenberg‘s first major-publisher book (available in a few weeks), Dern rockin’ the Snidely Whiplash, David Malki !, Dylan Meconis, Magnolia Porter (with Kris Straub), Bernie Hou & Rick Marshall, Becky & Frank and Joey Comeau. Please note that the red-eye filter was working in that last photo; the residual eye weirdness is because Joey’s evil.

With the tax permit thing behind us, anticipation for the MoCCA Art Fest is beginning to take on serious momentum. Although we don’t have a floor map of exhibitors (and to be fair, not every convention does that), we do have a list of webcomickers who now know their table assignments and have shared them with us below the cut. We will update the list as we hear from more creators.

Update to add: new info!
Speaking of MoCCA, Neil Swaab will be premiering his new Rehabilitating Mr Wiggles book (that would be #3) at the show; after the weekend, it will be available via Amazon and some comics stores in New York and California, starting on 1 July. If you want it before then, your only real option is to buy directly from Swaab’s store or come see him in person this weekend.

Finally, don’t forget to Drink and Draw Like a Lady, if you are a) a lady, who likes to b) drink and c) draw. Dudes, you will have to find a way to contain their disappointment at not being ladies once again.

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