MoCCA Festival


The MoCCA Arts Festival, or MoCCA Fest, is an independent comics showcase that typically includes artist booths, slide shows, and educational panels. It was created by the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in 2002 by bringing together over 2,000 artists, publishers, editors and enthusiasts. It was named "Best Small-Press Comics Nexus Anywhere" by The Village Voice.
Since 2013, the MoCCA Fest is produced by the Society of Illustrators, following their acquisition of the Museum the previous year.
WWW moccafest.org

History

The MoCCA Festival was held at New York's historic Puck Building from 2002 to 2008. The MoCCA Festival hosted the comics industry's 2004 and 2005 Harvey Awards.
From 2009 to 2014, MoCCA Fest took place at the 69th Regiment Armory. The Society of Illustrators took over management of MoCCA Fest beginning with the 2013 show.
In 2015, the event was split between two locations, with the exhibitors in Center548, and the programming at the High Line Hotel. Plans to convert Center548 to a residential property forced the Society to find new venues, and beginning in 2016 Metropolitan West hosted the exhibitors, with programming taking place at Ink48.
The 2020 Festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 Festival was held as an online only event with six days of virtual events.
In 2022, the Society of Illustrators announced plans to hold the event in-person at a new venue, Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood.

Dates and locations

June 23, 2002 June 22, 2003 — guests include Jessica Abel, Signe Baumane, Amanda Conner, Howard Cruse, Evan Dorkin, Phoebe Gloeckner, Klaus Janson, Denis Kitchen, James Kochalka, Peter Kuper, Jason Little, Patrick McDonnell, Mike Mignola, Bill Plympton, Ted Rall, Jeff Smith, Art Spiegelman, and Craig ThompsonJune 26–27, 2004 — event expands to two daysJune 11–12, 2005 June 10–11, 2006 June 23–24, 2007 June 7–8, 2008 June 6–7, 2009 April 10–11, 2010 April 9–10, 2011 April 28–29, 2012 — guest of honor: P. Craig RussellApril 6–7, 2013 — first under the administration of the Society of IllustratorsApril 5–6, 2014 April 11–12, 2015 — guests of honor: Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Scott McCloud, Raina Telgemeier, J. H. Williams IIIApril 2–3, 2016 — guests of honor: Cece Bell, R.O. Blechman, Phoebe Gloeckner, Sonny Liew, Rebecca Sugar.April 1–2, 2017 — guests of honor: Blutch, Cliff Chiang, Becky Cloonan, Drew Friedman, David Lloyd, Gene Luen Yang.April 7–8, 2018 April 6–7, 2019 April 4–5, 2020 — CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19 PANDEMICApril 2–3, 2022 April 1–2, 2023 March 16-17, 2024
  • '''March 15-16, 2025'''

Awards

MoCCA Festival Award/Klein Award (2002 - 2012)

Presented to an artist whose outstanding work elevated the comic art form. In 2009, the MoCCA Festival Award was renamed the Klein Award in honor of MoCCA founder Lawrence Klein.

MoCCA Arts Festival Awards of Excellence (2013 - present)

Under the administration of The Society of Illustrators, the Klein Award was replaced in 2013 with the MoCCA Arts Festival Awards of Excellence, intended to recognize the most outstanding work on view at the festival. Artists winning this award are acknowledged with an Award of Excellence and have their work exhibited at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art at the Society of Illustrators. All materials chosen in the jury's initial survey will be acquired by Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library for a newly established MoCCA Arts Festival collection, to be expanded annually.

2013 recipients

  • Gregory Benton
  • Kim Ku
  • Jane Mai
  • Nicholas T. Offerman for the comic Revenant
  • Kenan Rubenstein
  • Andrea Tsurumi
  • Honorable Mention: Simon Arizpe
The winning artists' work was exhibited in the second floor MoCCA gallery at the Society of Illustrators May 21-July 6, 2013.
Judges for the 2013 MoCCA Arts Festival Awards of Excellence included Karen Berger, Gary Groth, Nora Krug, David Mazzucchelli, and Paul Pope.

2014 recipients

The winning artists' work was exhibited in the second floor MoCCA gallery at the Society of Illustrators April 29-May 17, 2014.
Judges for the 2014 MoCCA Arts Festival Awards of Excellence included Gregory Benton, Tracy Hurren, Chip Kidd, Chris Pitzer, and James Sturm.

2015 recipients

  • Tyler Boss
  • Keren Katz
  • Greg Kletsel
  • Kris Mukai
  • Daniel Zender
The winning artists' work was exhibited in the second floor MoCCA gallery at the Society of Illustrators July 27-August 15, 2015.
Judges for the 2015 MoCCA Arts Festival Awards of Excellence included Charles Burns, Annie Koyama, David Plunkert, Andrea Tsurumi and Alexandra Zsigmond.

2016 recipients

The winning artists' work was exhibited in the second floor MoCCA gallery at the Society of Illustrators May 3-June 4, 2016.
Judges for the 2016 MoCCA Arts Festival Awards of Excellence included Calista Brill, Cliff Chiang, Charles Kochman, Mark Newgarden, and Lauren Weinstein.