Established | October 2001 |
---|---|
Dissolved | July 9, 2012 |
Location | 594 Broadway, New York City |
Coordinates | 40°44′N73°59′W / 40.74°N 73.99°W |
Type | exhibition of narrative art, cartoons, comic books and graphic novels |
Director | Ellen S. Abramowitz (chairman) |
President | Lawrence Klein (founder) |
The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) is a not-for-profit arts organization and former museum in New York City devoted to comic books, comic strips and other forms of cartoon art. [1] MoCCA sponsored events ranging from book openings to educational programs in New York City schools, and hosted classes, workshops and lectures. MoCCA was perhaps best known for its annual small-press comic convention, known as MoCCA Fest, first held in 2002.
MoCCA was founded by Lawrence Klein in October 2001. It was located at 594 Broadway in New York City.
On July 9, 2012, MoCCA announced that it would be closing its physical location, effective immediately, due to fundraising difficulties. [2]
On August 2, 2012, MoCCA announced plans to transfer their assets to the Society of Illustrators, providing MoCCA with a street-level location in the Society's Upper East Side building. [3] It was confirmed that MoCCA Fest would continue to exist. [4]
The MoCCA Festival (or MoCCA Fest) is an annual fundraiser for the museum (and now for the Society of Illustrators). It is New York's largest independent comics showcase,[ citation needed ] featuring hundreds of creators and publishers on the main floor, typically accompanied with additional rooms devoted to educational panel discussions, slide shows, and interviews. From its inception in 2002 until 2008 it was held at the Puck Building. From 2009 to 2014, it took place at the 69th Regiment Armory. In 2015, the event was split between two locations, with the exhibitors in Center548, and the programming at the High Line Hotel. [5] [6] Plans to convert Center548 to a residential property forced the Society to find new venue. From 2016 through at least 2019, Metropolitan West has hosted the exhibitors with programming taking take place at Ink48.
From 2002 to 2012, the museum presented an award at MoCCA Fest to an artist whose outstanding work elevated the comic art form. Originally known as the MoCCA Art Festival Award, it was renamed the Klein Award in 2009 in honor of MoCCA Founder Lawrence Klein. MoCCA Fest hosted the comics industry's 2004 and 2005 Harvey Awards. [7] [8]
In 2003, MoCCA opened its art gallery with the debut exhibit "Gag Art!", focusing on single-panel magazine cartoons. Subsequent exhibits included the relationship between New York City and cartoonists, an exhibition of women comic-book artists, retrospectives devoted to Stan Lee and Will Eisner, and "From Richie Rich to Wendy the Good Little Witch: The Art of Harvey Comics".[ citation needed ] Their The Art of Archie Comics exhibit was promoted with a story in Archie Digest Magazine #260, March 2010. The seven-page story, MoCCA Madness, was written by Arie Kaplan and drawn by Fernando Ruiz. It featured appearances by MoCCA President Ellen Abramowitz and then-Director Karl Erickson, and was subsequently reprinted in Archie: A Celebration of America's Favorite Teenagers by Craig Yoe (IDW, 2011).
The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued in 1987.
Gary Panter is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of Arcade: The Comics Revue and the initiation of RAW, one of the main instigators of American alternative comics. The Comics Journal has called Panter the "Greatest Living Cartoonist."
The Cartoon Art Museum (CAM) is a California art museum that specializes in the art of comics and cartoons. It is the only museum in the Western United States dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of all forms of cartoon art. The permanent collection features some 7,000 pieces as of 2015, including original animation cels, comic book pages and sculptures.
Notable events of 2005 in comics.
Carol Tyler is an American painter, educator, comedian, and eleven-time Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist known for her autobiographical comics. She has received multiple honors for her work including the Cartoonist Studio Prize, the Ohio Arts Council Excellence Award, and was declared a Master Cartoonist at the 2016 Cartoon Crossroads Columbus Festival at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.
Greg Cook is an underground cartoonist and comic book artist who has been published in Nickelodeon Magazine, Pulse magazine, The Believer magazine, New Art Examiner, Arthur, NON, and L'Association's Comix 2000 along with numerous other publications.
The Society of Illustrators (SoI) is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition.
Arie Kaplan is an American writer and comedian. He is the author of the book Masters of the Comic Book Universe Revealed!, and a writer for Mad magazine. He lives in New York City.
Geppi's Entertainment Museum was a 16,000-square-foot (1,500 m2) privately owned pop culture museum located at historic Camden Station at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland. The museum chronicled the history of pop culture in America from the 17th century to the early 21st century, as made popular in newspapers, magazines, comic books, movies, television, radio and video games. It featured a collection of nearly 60,000 pop culture artifacts, including magazines, movie posters, toys, buttons, badges, cereal boxes, trading cards, dolls, figurines, and other memorabilia.
The Baltimore Comic-Con is a comic book-oriented fan convention held annually in Baltimore since 2000.
Dave Kellett is the creator and cartoonist of two webcomic titles, Sheldon and Drive, the co-author of How To Make Webcomics and the co-host of Comic Lab. He has been nominated for the prestigious Eisner Awards, as well as a Harvey Award, and won a Reuben Award.
Fiona Staples is a Canadian comic book artist known for her work on books such as North 40, DV8: Gods and Monsters, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Archie, and Saga. She has been described as one of the best artists working in the industry today. She has won multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards.
Mark Arnold is an American writer and commentator who grew up in Saratoga, California. He has contributed to several publications in the United States, including The Comics Journal, Hogan's Alley, Back Issue!, and Comics Buyer's Guide. Arnold also worked with Jerry Beck and Leslie Cabarga on their Harvey Comics Classics series for Dark Horse Comics.
Notable events of 2010 in comics. It includes any relevant comics-related events, deaths of notable comics-related people, conventions and first issues by title.
Alice Meichi Li (李美姿) is a Chinese-American, New York City-based visual artist and illustrator for comic books, magazines, and album covers.
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.
Cartoonists Remember 9/11 is a series of comic strips run on the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. It included cartoonists from King Features Syndicate, Creators Syndicate, Tribune Media Services, Universal Press Syndicate, and Washington Post Writers Group.
Notable events of 2015 in comics. It includes any relevant comics-related events, deaths of notable comics-related people, conventions and first issues by title. For an overview of the year in Japanese comics, see 2015 in manga.
A comic book convention or comic con is a fan convention emphasizing comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels, or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activities and panels, with a larger number of attendees participating with cosplay than for most other types of fan conventions. Comic book conventions are also used as a method by which publishers, distributors, and retailers represent their comic-related releases. Comic book conventions may be considered derivatives of science-fiction conventions, which began during the late 1930s.
Bill Kartalopoulos is a New York-based comics critic, educator, curator and editor. From 2014 to 2019 he was the Series Editor for the Best American Comics series of annual comics anthologies published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He was a co-founder of the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival and has also directed programming for the Small Press Expo and the MoCCA Festival. He teaches courses about comics at Parsons School of Design and the School of Visual Arts.