This weekend the MoCCA Arts Festival takes over Metropolitan West for two days of art, entertainment and enriching talks with artists and publishers of comics, graphic novels and more. Guests of Honor for the 2018 edition are:
Roz Chast, who needs no introduction, will participate in panels both days and be on hand to sign books as well. Liniers, the Argentine comic artist will give a talk on Sunday and sign books both days. Mike Mignola will do a Q&A on Sunday and sign books both days. Nate Powell,graphic novelist (March), will be on a panel Saturday, and sign books both days. Andrew Aydin, graphic novelist (March), will be on a panel Saturday, and sign books both days. 

The complete signing schedule for Guests of Honor and Featured Guests is hereThe Saturday programming schedule is hereThe Sunday programming schedule is here

The 2018 MoCCA Arts Festival Awards will be presented at the After Party on Saturday, April 7 at Society of Illustrators. Info

The 2018 MoCCA Arts Festival will take place April 7-8th, 2018 at Metropolitan West, on West 46^thStreet between 11^thand 12^thAvenues, NY, NY, with programming mere steps away at Ink48, 653 11th Avenue, NY, NY Info  

 MoCCA Fest 2017, photo: © Tom Motley, courtesy SVA

Among the more than 400 exhibiting artists on hand, these are a few whose tables I’ll be sure to visit:

AMELIA HUANG / H 248

Member of LaGuardia High School's illustration club.

CHRISTOPHER LUCERO / E 173

Christopher Lucero is a New York City born illustrator, comic artist, print maker, and co-founder of Part-Time Pigeon and Lucky Risograph. 

CECILIA RUIZ / J 283

Cecilia Ruiz is a Mexican author, illustrator and graphic designer living and working in New York City. She obtained a BFA in Graphic Design from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and a MFA in Illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. The Book of Memory Gaps, her debut as an author was published in 2015 by Blue Rider Press (Penguin Random House). A Gift from Abuela (Candlewick Press) and The Book of Extraordinary Deaths (Penguin Random House) will be published in 2018

DAVE KELLY / A 105

Dave Kelly is a Brooklyn-based writer and publisher of comics. Alongside Lara Antal, he is one-half of So What? Press and co-creator of the series, Tales of the Night Watchman.

FIRST SECOND BOOKS / E 162

First Second Books publishes great graphic novels for every reader -- books for kids, teens, and adults from authors like Gene Luen Yang, Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, Faith Erin Hicks, Penelope Bagieu, Tillie Walden, Jen Wang, and Ben Hatke. With a dedication to the best in storytelling and in artwork, First Second's graphic novels are the new mainstream.

FRANÇOISE MOULY / C 143

Françoise Mouly is the publisher and editorial director of TOON Books, which she launched in 2008. She has also served as the art editor of the New Yorker since 1993, where she’s been responsible for over 1,000 covers. In 1980, she founded RAW, a comics anthology that had a profound impact on the alternative scene and first published MAUS. After observing how her children learned to read, Ms. Mouly established a division to publish comics for kids, which lead to the creation of the TOON Books.

GLYNNIS FAWKES / E 178

Glynnis Fawkes is a cartoonist and archaeological illustrator. This year she has published several comics on the New Yorker.com. Her memoir (in progress) Alle Ego won the MoCCAfest Award of Excellence in 2016. Greek Diary won the award in 2017 and was also nominated for the Slate Cartoonist Prize. Her autobiographical comics are collected in Reign of Crumbs, published by Kilgore Books in 2017.

JAIME HERNANDEZ / D 152 , 151 AND C 143

Jaime Hernandez is the co-creator, along with his brothers Gilbert and Mario, of the comic book series Love and Rockets. Since publishing the first issue of Love and Rockets in 1981, Jaime has won an Eisner Award, 12 Harvey Awards, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The New York Times Book Review calls him "one of the most talented artists our polyglot culture has ever produced." Jaime’s TOON Book, The Dragon Slayer: Folktales from Latin America, is his first book for young readers.

JOHN HENDRIX / C 135

Professional Drawer (not furniture.) Author + illustrator of "Drawing is Magic" and the upcoming "The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler," Fall 2018, Abrams Books. Creator of the webcomic The Adventures of The Holy Ghost.

KELLY ALONSO BRAGA (POUPÉE ROUGE PUBLICAÇÕES INDEPENDENTES) / B 123 B

Writer, illustrator, painter and embroiderer She is the founder of Poupée Rouge Publicações Independentes, which in addition to publishing adult and children’s books, develops the series of magazines “Take your magazine and get lost!,focusing on aspects of everyday life and on the psychological disturbances present in all of us. As an embroiderer she has created “Canned embroidery” which, using recycled sardine and tuna cans . She teaches in workshops at cultural centers.

LIZ SUBURBIA / J 286, 285

Liz is an ARMY brat born during the Reagan years and raised by the DC punk scene. She is also a recipient of an Alex Award for her book SACRED HEART (Fantagraphics), which was listed as a top 10 Graphic Novel for Teens by the Young Adult Library Services Association in 2016. She is currently working on the next chapter of SACRED HEART and a collection of her CYANIDE MILKSHAKE zines.

MARCELLUS HALL

Marcellus Hall is a New York City based illustrator. His first cover for The New Yorker was published in 2005. His debut graphic novel, Kaleidoscope City, was published in 2018 with Bittersweet Editions. Hall has illustrated children’s books that include City I Love (Abrams 2009), The Cow Loves Cookies (Simon & Schuster 2010), What's New? The Zoo! (Scholastic 2014) Duddle Puck The Puddle Duck (Simon & Schuster 2015), and the self-penned Everyone Sleeps (Penguin 2013).

MATT ROTA / C 138

Matt Rota is an illustrator working out of Brooklyn. His clients include The New York Times, The New Yorker, The LA Times, The Criterion Collection, The Village Voice, McSweeny's, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Chronicle Books, Pro Publica, Vice. His comics have appeared in the anthologies Rock Bottom, Top Shelf 2.0, Amazing Forrest, Study Group, Rabid Rabbit, and Gutter. He's the author of the books The Art of Ballpoint, and Pencil Arts Workshop, from Rockport Press.

PANTHEON / E 171

Pantheon is part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and continues to publish world-class literature. Our groundbreaking, award-winning graphic fiction and nonfiction artists include: Marjane Satrapi, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Ben Katchor, David Mazzucchelli, Chip Kidd, and Craig Thompson. 

PM PRESS / B 134

PM Press was founded at the end of 2007 by a small collection of folks seeking to create radical and stimulating fiction and nonfiction books to entertain, educate, and inspire.

R. SIKORYAK / I 271

R. Sikoryak is the author of Masterpiece Comics, Terms and Conditions, and The Unquotable Trump (Drawn & Quarterly). His adaptations of literary classics have appeared in The Best American Comics 2015, The Graphic Canon, Drawn and Quarterly, and Fable Comics. His illustrations have appeared on the cover of The New Yorker, Fortune, and The New York Times Book Review. Sikoryak teaches at Parsons School of Design and hosts the live cartoon performance series, Carousel.

SVA's Risolab at MoCCA 2016. Demonstrations this year on Saturday and Sunday

RISOLAB / 302-305

The SVA RisoLab will allow attendees to explore the Risograph medium and learn how to use it effectively as a tool for self-publishing. Demonstrations by top artists will provide background information on mark making, color and form, along with how to approach color separation, pagination, and self-publication. And a raffle for a free Riso workshop! The SVA RisoLAB comes to MoCCA through the generous sponsorship of SVA, Riso Inc. and LDI Color Toolbox. Risolab will raffle off 2 spots in the workshop at their booth.

SELFMADEHERO / F 219, 220

SelfMadeHero publishes ground-breaking and beautiful work by authors and artists from across the globe, from the quirky and humorous to the political and profound. Based in London, the company is proud to bring readers graphic novels and visual narratives that provoke, entertain, inspire and inform. Recent releases include Nick Cave by Reinhard Kleist, Magritte: This is Not a Biography by Vincent Zabus and Thomas Campi, and The Smell of Starving Boys by Loo Hui Phang and Frederik Peeters.

THE CENTER FOR CARTOON STUDIES / I 276

The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) is dedicated to providing the highest quality of education to students interested in creating visual stories. CCS’s curriculum of art, graphic design, and literature reflect the wide array of skills needed to create comics and graphic novels. CCS emphasizes self-publishing and prepares its students to publish, market, and disseminate their work. CCS programs include a two-year MFA degree, one- and two-year certificates in cartooning, and annual workshops.

WORLD WAR 3 ILLUSTRATED COLLECTIVE

Radical Comix from the Heart of the City Founded in 1979, by Seth Tobocman and Peter Kuper, World War 3 Illustrated was among the first American magazines to treat comics as a medium for serious social commentary and journalism. For 35 years, the magazine has been a labor of love, run by a volunteer collective of political activists and artists, both first-timers and established professionals. We're based in New York City and seek to provide a home for comics from around the world.

ZACH HAZARD VAUPEN/ /E 179

Zach Hazard Vaupen is a cartoonist and printmaker living and working in NY who loves printing on unexpected materials and loves writing unexpected stories. Pick up his book Combed Clap Of Thunder from Retrofit/Big Planet Comics