It’s time for our annual look at some of the comics coming out for this weekend’s MoCCA Festival, being held this year at Center 548, is located at 548 W. 22nd Street, just off the Westside Highway, with programming at the High Line Hotel on West 20th Street and 10th Avenue.
And here’s the books we got information on. This is just a teeny tiny smattering of the new stuff available — but scroll down for signings from Fantagraphics, NBM and more. And scroll around Tumblr for more more more, especially the MoCCA Festival tumblr.
Jeremy Nguyen:
I’m debuting a 20 page collection of my webcomic “Stranger Than Bushwick”, which is currently being serialized on Bushwick Daily. This collection explores a lot of New York by way of Brooklyn, millennial lifestyles, and hot-button issues like catcalling and gentrification.
What may also be of note is that I’ll be giving away limited “Gentrify White” crayons with purchase of the book. The crayons have been featured on Bedford and Bowery here.
Drew Brockington
BEACON, Five
The epic conclusion to the serialized graphic novel by Drew Brockington.
In the fall of 1903, when the new lighthouse keeper arrives on the shores of the small New England fishing village with the promise of a better future the town grows uneasy.
Fishermen are superstitious lot, and don’t take kindly to change. The local police soon find their hands full playing mediator between the locals and the government as well as solving the mystery of an unidentified corpse found on their shores.
Drew will debut the book at Mocca 2015 at table 224B, along with plenty of back issues for those who want to start at the beginning.
The first chapter of the series can be read at www.beaconcomic.com
Jamie TannerTHE CONSUMPTIVE #1, the first issue in a new ongoing mini-comics series. A sort of throwback one-man anthology grab-bag thing. Like a smaller, cheaper, lesser Eightball or something.
Uncivilized Books
Borb tells the story an urban Candide who’s misfortunes pile high at an alarming rate. It stings with bits of black humor, yet challenges the reader with the day-to-day details facing the urban homeless. Calling upon the depression-era imagery of Harold Gray (Little Orphan Annie) and Frank King (Gasoline Alley), Borb follows the tradition of the comic strip slapstick vagabond, weaving a well-crafted narrative through elegant four-panel gag strips.
Incidents in the Night follows a fictional version of the author who’s obsessed with a mysterious literary journal and its occult editor. This second book entangles David B.’s previous, autobiographical work Epileptic with that of this series’ fantastical, adventurous tone. The questions posed by the first volume grow more complicated as the lines between dream and reality further blur. This edition is translated by novelist Brian Evenson (Immobility, The Wavering Knife, Fugue State) and Sarah Evenson.
Travelogue collects the first strips from http://traveloguecomic.com. The comic follows a group of nomadic friends as they travel a fantasy world, and focuses heavily on quiet, introspective moments and world-building.
NBMOn April 11th & 12th, NBM Publishing (Tables 401, 402) once again heads to the MoCCA Arts Festival and we are happy to have attending both cartoonist Annie Goetzinger, who will be appearing to promote the debut of her luscious new book, GIRL IN DIOR and writer Julian Voloj who will be signing copies of his book, the powerful GHETTO BROTHER: WARRIOR TO PEACEMAKER along with the colorful subject of the book, Benjy Melendez.
The Girl in Dior is Clara, a freshly hired chronicler, fan of fashion and our guide in the busy corridors of the brand new house of Christian Dior. It’s February 12, 1947 and the crème de la crème of Paris Haute Couture is flocking to the momentous event of Dior’s first show. In a flurry of corolla shaped skirts, the parade of models file down the runway. The audience is mesmerized: it’s a triumph! Carmel Snow of Harper’s Bazaar cries out: “It’s quite a revolution, your dresses have such a new look!“ Dior’s career is launched and Clara’s story begins. Soon, she is picked by Dior himself to be his model…
A biography docudrama marrying fiction and the story of one of the greatest couturier in history, it is also a breathless and stunning presentation of his best designs such as Lauren Bacall wore, rendered by bestselling artist Annie Goetzinger, seen for the first time on this side of the Atlantic.
Ghetto Brother
An engrossing and counter view of one of the most dangerous elements of American urban history, this graphic novel tells the true story of Benjy Melendez, son of Puerto-Rican immigrants, who founded, at the end of the 1960s, the notorious Ghetto Brothers gang. From the seemingly bombed-out ravages of his neighborhood, wracked by drugs, poverty, and violence, he managed to extract an incredibly positive energy from this riot ridden era: his multiracial gang promoted peace rather than violence. After initiating a gang truce, the Ghetto Brothers held weekly concerts on the streets or in abandoned buildings, which fostered the emergence of hip-hop. Melendez also began to reclaim his Jewish roots after learning about his family’s dramatic crypto-Jewish background.
Signing Schedule, Tables 401, 402
Annie will be appearing on the panel, Biography: The Lives of Artists on Sunday April 12 at 12:30pm alongside cartoonists James Romberger, Marguerite Van Cook and Barbara Stok.
Annie, Julian and Benjy will be appearing at the NBM Table throughout the weekend.
SATURDAY
11:30 – 12:30 Annie Goetzinger
1:30 – 3:00 Julian Voloj and Benjy Melendez
3:30 – 5:00 Annie Goetzinger
5:00 – 6:00 Julian Voloj
SUNDAY
12:00-1:00 Julian Voloj
1:30-3:00 Annie Goetzinger (immediately following her panel)
3:30-5:00 Julian Voloj and Benjy Melendez
Annie, Julian and Benjy are available for select media interviews. So come on by, meet some cool folks and celebrate comics!
Dean Haspiel
My new Billy Dogma comic, HEART-SHAPED HOLE, published by Hang Dai Editions, debuting at MoCCA. Described as “Billy Dogma and Jane Legit punch the apocalypse right in the kisser as their eternal war of woo breaks a Trip City-wide hymen.”
28-pages. Full color. Magazine size. Only available for sale directly from me, Dean Haspiel, or from Hang Dai Editions:
Ken Wong
Origami Comics, table 222 will be debuting “Bonetti’s Defense: I Know Something You Don’t Know About Swordplay in The Princess Bride.” Wong, a former fencer, has definitely studied his Agrippa and his analysis provides history and context of the many fencing terms and actual fencing masters referenced in The Princess Bride movie and book. Who were they? What does it all mean? And does Thibault really cancel Capo Ferro?
This is a standard, 20-page, saddle-stitched comic; this is NOT one of my folded-shape origami comics (but those will also be available for purchase at my table).
2D Cloud
Independent comics publisher 2d Cloud is debuting their Spring Collection books en force at MoCCA this weekend. All of the collection authors will be attending the festival and participating in a special signing event at Bergen Street Comics, Saturday night at 8 PM, with fellow publishers Koyama Press and Fantagraphics Books.
2dc author Blaise Larmee will also be participating in a MoCCA panel discussion, “Plagiarism as Practice,” also Saturday, at 3:30 PM in the Rusack Room at the Highline Hotel.
The Spring Collection books – 3 Books by Blaise Larmee, Qviet by Andy Burkholder, and Salz and Pfeffer by Émilie Gleason – are now available for pre-orders at 2dcloud.com/shop.
Blaise Larmee’s 3 Books, the much anticipated follow-up to his critically-acclaimed Young Lions, and his first graphic novel in four years, intertwines three separate narratives on sex and love, revealing Larmee at his most vulnerable and his most arrogant.
Andy Burkholder’s Qviet is the sum total of a multiyear series that focuses on the abstractions sex and of seeing, and the fluid relations between the two, available for the first time as a collected edition.
French author Émilie Gleason’s first English language graphic novel, Salz and Pfeffer, is an absurdist tale of magical kingdoms, alien abduction, and fart jail, evoking amusement and disturbed thoughts in equal measure. See more on the spring collection books at 2dcloud.com/shop. For more information
Youth in Decline
This weekend, Youth in Decline will be exhibiting on Floor 3 at Table 319B.
At the show, we’ll be debuting the new issue of our ongoing monograph series, FRONTIER #7: JILLIAN TAMAKI. This issue features Jillian’s new comic “SexCoven” – a 32 pg color story about IRL and online relationships, the seductive and secret world of early internet file-sharing, and life inside a commune (cult?).
Jillian will signing books on Saturday from 12-1pm, and on Sunday from 1-2pm.
In addition to the new Frontier issue, we’ll also have copies of previous Frontier issues, RAV 1ST COLLECTION by Mickey Zacchilli, Snackies by Nick Sumida, Wacky Wacko Magazine #1 by Seth Bogart, Love Songs for Monsters by Anthony Ha, and our stickers and patches!
Seth Kushner
Seth Kushner’s SECRET SAUCE Comix #! published by Hang Dai Editions, debuting at MoCCA Fest on April 11:
36-pages. Full color. Standard comic book size. For now, only available for sale directly from me, Seth Kushner, or from Hang Dai Editions: http://hangdaieditions.com/
Josh Neufeld
VAGABONDS #4, published by Hang Dai Editions (HDE), which will be debuting at this year’s MoCCA Arts Festival.
“Josh Neufeld’s The Vagabonds #4 serves up a spicy blend of journalism, social commentary, memoir, and literary fiction. This issue features Neufeld’s story of racial profiling at the U.S./Canadian border and three collaborations with Neufeld’s wife, writer Sari Wilson. Throw in a couple of light-hearted travel tips, and The Vagabonds #4 is chock-full of the thought-provoking and witty comics Neufeld is known for.”
24 pages. Full color. Only available for sale directly from me, Josh Neufeld, or from Hang Dai Editions.
It’s been wonderful to be able to revive The Vagabonds (previously published by Alternative Comics) after an eight-year “hiatus.” It’s really nice to have a place to collect assorted pieces of mine from the last few years, as well as have a venue for new work. I’ve spent the last half-decade or so in the trade books graphic novel arena (publishing A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge with Pantheon and The Influencing Machine with W.W. Norton) and pursuing comics journalism (including winning a Knight-Wallace journalism fellowship). As wonderful as it was to work with those major publishers, I really missed the world of alternative comic books and indy shows. What draws me to Hang Dai is the emphasis on creator-owned publications and personal interactions with readers. There was a great quote from an interview with the HDE guys that went like this: “You’ll get the books made by hand from the hands of their creators, which puts the ‘artist’ back in ‘comic arts,’ and puts you, the reader, in a position to engage directly with creators.” I cut my teeth in this business through self-publishing, and it’s refreshing to go back to my DIY days.
I’ll be with the rest of the HDE gang at table 314, Third Floor (Yellow Zone), at the new location, Center 548, 548 W. 22nd St., NYC.
Nobrow/Flying Eye
Nobrow is thrilled to be exhibiting again, and this year’s MoCCA is extra exciting because not only will it be held at a brand new venue, but we will also be debuting three amazing titles from Flying Eye Books!
The latest from our Dahlov Ipcar collection of reprints, Black and White, will make its debut at MoCCA alongside Rilla Alexander’s inspiring Her Idea, and David Lucas’ hilarious This Is My Rock. We’ll also be carrying some of your old favorites like Luke Pearson’s Hilda series, Society of Illustrators Gold Medal winner Bianca Bagnarelli’s Fish, our handsome line of Leporellos, and plenty, plenty more. Don’t forget to mark your calendars, this is going to be a big weekend! The Nobrow team will be in attendance at tables 208 – 211 on both days of MoCCA, April 11th & 12th, at its new location Center548, 548 West 22nd St. in New York City. We can’t wait to see you there!
Birdcage Bottom Books
- Dakota McFadzean’s “Last Mountain 2″ (2-color risograph)
- Sara Lautman’s “Macrogroan 6″ (riso cover)
- Vincent Flückiger’s “Inside Salmeck”
These will be debuting at MoCCA Fest 2015 in NYC on April 11 & 12, but are available for pre-order now.
Also in the works is the first issue of Jamie Vayda & Alan King’s “Left Empty” in which Alan relates the aftermath of losing his wife to cancer.
Fantagraphics
• Angry Youth Comix by Johnny Ryan Now, for the first time, all fourteen issues of Ryan’s career-defining comic book series Angry Youth Comix (2000-2008) are collected in one place. All the comics, the covers, and even the contentious letters pages, in one toilet-ready brick shithouse, taking full advantage of the medium’s absurdist potential for maximum laughs. Out in Stores: April 2015 $49.99
• Violent Girls by Richard Sala (FU Press) A limited edition portfolio featuring 44 action portraits lovingly inspired by the kind of dangerous females who have populated pulp fiction and B-movies throughout the history of pop culture-blazing their way through every kind of genre, potboiler, cliffhanger, and fever dream imaginable. Available exclusively at comic conventions and at the Fantagraphics online store, $35.00
First Second Books
First Second will be exhibiting at this year’s MoCCA Art Festival! You can find us at table 404.
We’ll be there with amazing authors Box Brown (Andre the Giant), Jillian Tamaki (This One Summer), and MoCCA Art Festival Guest of Honor Scott McCloud (The Sculptor)!
Here’s our signing schedule:
Saturday
12:30pm — Scott McCloud In Conversation (at the High Line Hotel)
2:00pm — Jillian Tamaki (This One Summer) signing
2:30pm — Scott McCloud (The Sculptor) signing with the CBLDF
Sunday
12:00pm — Scott McCloud (The Sculptor) signing
2:00pm — Box Brown (Andre the Giant) signing
Rebus Books
Rebus will be exhibiting along with Domino Books andSpider’s Pee-Paw. They’ll have a bunch of VERY LIMITED QUANTITY of imported international books, including Yuichi Yokoyama Baby Boom (above) the first edition of Olivier Schrauwen’s My Boy and much more. Go to the above link for details, but if the names Yokoyama and Schrauwen for you excited, I’d make a beeline if I were you.
Rebus Books will also host Ilan Manouach and Gea Philes. Manouach will have with him a sample board from Shapereader, his 57-plate graphic novel for the blind and visually impaired.

Copies of books by Manouach will also be available, including his book Écologie Forcée, the détourned comic Riki Fermier, and MetaKatz, chronicling the publication of Katz. A privately owned copy of Katz will also be available for on-site viewing.

Gea Philes is a Chilean-born, multidisciplinary artist based in New York. Her work encompasses drawing, painting, illustration, comics, photography, and film, including music videos for Momus and Jeffrey Bützer. Philes’s new zines, including I Sold My Soul to the Devil, will preview her forthcoming art book from Toulouse-based publisher Timeless Editions.

Finally, submissions for The Best American Comics 2016 will be accepted at the Rebus Books table. Any new, North American work published between September 1, 2014 and August 31, 2015 is eligible for The Best American Comics 2016. If Series Editor Bill Kartalopoulos is not present at the table, material can be given to anyone working Table 226 and it will be included with BAC 2016 submissions.
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You’re right; comics purging is not easy. It took me 25 years to get here. It’s much easier, though, if you submit yourself to a major life change. Get married, have a kid, limited closet space, and a mortgage. That makes it a lot easier. ;-)
The first step is perhaps the hardest though: Don’t go to the comic shop every Wednesday any more. Once that happens, the rest flows naturally. It will completely reset your brain.
I allow myself a total of 5 longboxes and two shelves for trades. That’s it. If it’s close to filling up either, I start selling. I’m into comics to read, not to collect.
I’m also down to a few longboxes and a couple of shelves of trades. That’s all I want to keep. I’m fortunate that my public library has a good graphic novel section, so I can read without buying.
Purging definitely does terrify some people. I know fans who have DOZENS of longboxes full of comics they haven’t read in 20, 30 or 40 years, but they can’t bear to part with them. And more longboxes full of comics they’ve NEVER gotten around to reading. And comics they don’t even like, but can’t or won’t get rid of. These people are really hoarders, not collectors.
Rule of thumb: If you own a comic book or trade you haven’t read in 20 years, you’re probably never going to read it again. Might as well ditch it.