My third comics site, created, at least for now, just to give me a place to write this article about MoCCA 2009.

Site by Yakov Hadash.

My favorite new discovery at the convention was Danny Dutch by David King (Sparkplug Comic Books). The central picture in the headline on the top of this page comes from Dutch. I found a good review of the book at the Daily Cross Hatch, and the author has a web site as well. Mostly I’m into the art. The author has a beautiful, classic drawing style. The first thing I thought of was Spümco and Al Columbia, but the influences here run very deep.

MULTI-FORCE by Mat Brinkman (Picturebox): The long-awaited book that most people thought would never actually appear. This is a BIG saddle-stitched book containing, one would imagine, the complete Multi-Force adventures from the last fifteen years or whatever. Or at least a good selection of them. Mat Brinkman is  a representative of the classic Fort Thunder scene. I’m too lazy to write an actual review of this comic. But trust me you should read it.

TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE #5 by Michael Kupperman (Fantagraphics): I actually think this series looks better in black and white than in the new fancy hardcover color version. I picked this comic up to complete my Thrizzle collection thus far. I tried to flip through it during the Seth and Tomine lecture but as I erupted in imperfectly stifled guffaws I quickly realized that this would be a bad idea.

Michael Kupperman, looking dapper in a John Deere t-shirt, kvetched about the poor quality of the second printing of his book, and bestowed upon my copy a lovely inscription:

Drawn & Quarterly was hawking the new Seth book and the new edition of Adrian Tomine’s 32 Stories, but I bought neither. Even so, Seth, armed with a full array of drawing tools in his vintage Charlie Brown pencil box, graciously sketched this self-portrait in the inside back cover of my journal.

I guess that’s it… if you want to make me feel better about having spent so much time writing this, post a comment on the TCJ thread or drop me an email (my address is: firstname.lastname@gmail.com, but replace that with my actual names).

From the Buenaventura booth:

1. •Tom Gauld, Three Very Small Comics #2 and #3. I love Gauld. He has a new book coming out soon that they had out for previewing but unfortunately it’s a board book, about nine pages long.
   

2. •Kevin Huizenga, Sermons 1.
   

3. •Huizenga, Zettwoch, and May, The Factoids of Life. A silkscreen-covered collection of the hilarious webcomic.

Disquietville by Dan Spottswood. I bought both volumes of this strip from Kansas City. Disquietville seems to be influences by Eightball #22 in that it uses a colorful, faux-anthology format to tell a long story with an extended storyline that goes between the various strips. His cute, large-headed characters live in a 2-D world, like Peanuts. They all seem to be artists in one way or another, but even the struggling-cartoonist-with-writer’s-block scenes are interesting and endearing in their own way, because of the way they fit in with the whole.

On the other hand, some of the characterizations get a little tired after a while – in a project like this you have to use the space to build some complexity. The strip could benefit from a little more advance plotting, and I would also like to see if Spottswood’s drawing skills increase over time as well.

Overall, Dan Spottswood is one to watch.

He has a slightly buggy website that archives some of the strips, plus this blog.

TinyKittenTeeth was another discovery. I bought a full-color minicomic that I would describe as sort of the retro-tiki version of LOLcats. It’s a little bit over the top in cuteness but the earnestness and the beautiful renderings put me over the top with this one. (Also I was pretty sure the girlfriend would like it.) Several samples are available on the TinyKittenTeeth website, which also includes lots of other content.

Wrap-around covers for Disquietville #1-2.

JP Coovert’s Simple Routines #11 documents the dull-as-dishwater life of a recent CCS grad. It’s like Jeffrey Brown without the sex, or John Porcellino without the nature drawings. We get observations such as “There’s just something about getting lost in a story playing on a giant screen” and “I love my wife’s butt!” Even so, it’s nice to get a cleanly drawn, clearly told minicomic for the $1. The cover is nice too, and there is one funny picture inside.

Sam Sharpe’s Poop is a collection of mostly off-color, one-panel gags, consciously styled after Ivan Brunetti’s work. If you liked Brunetti’s Haw! series, you’re sure to like this. Sharpe has published a variety of books and you can get a sampling of his range of styles on his blog.

I also picked up Patricia Burgess’s The Tiny Little Tale of Spaceboy Sam, a watercolor picture story minicomic for only $1, but I haven’t read it yet.

I also grabbed Smoke Signal #1 which is a large comics newspaper published by Desert Island in Brooklyn and distributed for free. It is great, not what you would expect from a freebie. It includes a large centerfold by Theo Ellsworth, a gorgeous cover, and lots of top notch content. My favorite story is a Joe Matt-style confessional about a crush on Gabrielle Bell.

I also would have liked to walk away with:

1. •Gilgamesh by Kevin Dixon: Move over, R. Crumb.
   

2. •Neon Girl by D. Pacheco: This is what we were all w

   

   aiting for – the indie version of T&A superhero comics!
   

3. •Dirtbags by Dave K
   

4. •Syncopated vol. 3 by Brendan Burford
   

5. •Teatime series by stef lenk
   

6. •Exhibition guide by Chris Ware
   

7. •Flashlight by Megan Baehr
   

8. •The Moth or the Flame by Joshua Ray Stephens
   

9. •Argh! series from Spain (mostly wordless) from Bodega Distribution
   

10. •Everything by Jesse Moynihan
    

11. •Swallow Me Whole by Nate Powell. This is from Top Shelf, so I could get it any time, but I’ve been meaning to read this for a while.
    

Also I saw breathtaking preview copies of Asterios Polyp and Abstract Comics, Wow, amazing stuff.

(The black area up top was where he had originally wrote my name as “Yacob.” The stars are made of silver Sharpie. He was a super nice guy.)