The past weekend of April 2 and 3, 2016 was a good one. It was my first time back at MoCCA Fest since 2013. Like back in 2013, I had shared a table with two other associates: artist/writer E.J. Barnes and writer Paul Curtis.
This time around, I mainly focused on the latest WitchesBrewPress releases. Okay, my own self-published comics. Also on hand was my line of greeting cards, featuring Krampus, Lemmy Kilmister and Wendy O Williams valentines, and a steampunk Cthulhu.
In my opinion, MoCCA 2016 went well.
Inside the MoCCA Fest was a small gallery. On display was artist Rick Meyerowitz, known for his work with National Lampoon.
Also on display inside the MoCCA Fest gallery was work by T.P. Moynihan. T.P. Moynihan was a self-taught artist who went under the pen name of “M.” He was also known as the son of U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. “M” passed away earlier this year after a battle with cancer. As I was snapping these pics, his friend sat in a chair watching. Still mourning over his best friend, he got up and spoke about “M.” It was touching to hear his friend speak about “M” obviously a bit still shaken up about his death.
Went back to my table as I noticed lack of sleep creeping up on me. It had been busy prior to MoCCA, so getting shuteye was far and few in-between.
There was an after-party for MoCCA exhibitors at The Society of Illustrators. An awards ceremony taking place, along with a generous bar and dinner. The Society of Illustrators is located inside a townhouse on the upper east side. Various floors had different galleries and art on exhibit.
The main exhibit downstairs was a retrospective on Zap Comix. Zap is best known for Robert Crumb, but it also had work from Gilbert Shelton (Fabulous Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy’s Cat), Spain Rodriguez, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, Paul Mavrides, S. Clay Wilson, and my personal favorite, Robert Williams who did many albums covers for Marc Almond and J.G. Thrilwell, and Guns and Roses.
Next day back at MoCCA Fest itself. I took time away from my table to attend a panel about Wimmen’s Comics.
On the panel was Diane Noomin, Phoebe Gloeckner, and Leslie Sternbergh. The long running anthology founded by Trina Robbins was discussed. What struck me most about this panel was when Phoebe Gloeckner discussed receiving payment from Screw Magazine’s publisher, Al Goldstein. Gloeckner had sold artwork to Goldstein. Apparently Goldstein wanted to pay Gloeckner in person. They met for dinner, and somehow the dinner ended by Goldstein taking out a huge amount of cash to be paid to Goldstein. He slowly started to count the amount of dollars he was to pay her, and then says to Gloeckner: “Now you know what it feels like to be a hooker.”
Hearing that took me back. While we all knew what Al Goldstein was all about, hearing this was still hard to stomach. It was like as if he was trying to demean not just her talent, but her as a person. When one hears recollections such as this, it shows how silly the current fourth wave internet pseudo-‘feminists’ really are. They don’t realize what women had to endure prior to 2016. In fact, disguised misogyny is what women still deal with on a regular basis. So while these current internet feminists complain about silly things, like shirts that scientists wear, or about a particular Milo Manara variant cover (Marvel’s Spider Woman, issue # 1, 2014), there lies deeper problems. Variant covers and pin-up shirts have nothing to do with real feminist issues.
Enough of the soapbox. I went back to my table at MoCCA. In all, despite my lack of sleep, it was a good weekend.
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