La Disputa

A bit on a different track today, I feel like indulging my love for comic art. This year, I went to two comic conventions that NYC had to offer. What I expected was crowds of people who really love comic books and that’s what I saw at both places. Regardless, the experience at each place was completely different.

New York Comic Con was pretty much what I expected, but much bigger and better. Thousands of people convened to appreciate the commercial side of the art, shell out big bucks, and dress up. I laughed at a Wolverine and a Storm fighting over who’s going to change Nightcrawler’s diaper (a child of two, painted blue). There were hundreds of Princess Leias, all decked out in gold and string. Pale skinned and wide-eyed, the children of geekdom had found their home at Javitts Center that weekend of April 20th. I had a wonderful time and hauled home a volume 7 Bone comic, a magazine made by the students of Pratt and tons of fun swag. The nerd inside me blossomed.
This past weekend, I went to the MoCCA festival and was surprised how different it was. Even though the idea of it was similar – bring people who love comics together – it didn’t have a geek feel to it. It felt more like a social event between artists, writers and the independant comic book afficianados. It was a fun event but it also a learning experience. People were friendly, doling out advice about how to navigate the field and the smaller quarters made the whole thing feel cozier, like hanging out with tons of friends. The most important swag was the business cards everyone shared (and I got to say, some people had really gorgeous ones).
I thought that both conventions were fantastic really. NYCC was an explosion of awesome, and its a good place to discover different things. MoCCA is exciting in a completely different way. Basically, NYCC is for the fan and MoCCA is for the creator (even though there were some cool celebrities to fangirl over), but I believe both types would have a fabulous time at both events.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 6:44 am and is filed under Art Alert. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.