MOCCA, HARVEY HOT & HEAVY Part 1

I rolled back into Philly this evening from a whirlwind weekend in what certainly was the hottest and most humid weekend I have ever spent in NYC! In the picture below you can see the thick humid air cling to the city like a sweat soaked shirt on the back of a migrant farm worker in July...and it's only June!


I was tagging along with my buddies Ande Parks and Scott Cohn as we did the MOCCa Festival and the Harvey Awards.

I went along as Ande's guest to the Harvey awards as he was nominated in the Best Inker catagory. Dispite the heavy heat the city was bustling with people having weekend fun, including the Puerto Rican Day Parade.



Of course I like it when it's hot because the pretty girls are forced to wear skimpier, cooler clothes.The MOCCA Festival is held in the Puck Building, a historic Romanesque Revival structure near the trendy neigborhoods of SOHO and Greenwich Village. The building is listed on the National Historic Register. The building was named after the famous Puck Magazine which was publisher there from 1887 until 1916 when it was canceled.


Here is a pic of Ande outside, right before we went in to the festival.

The show was packed despite the oppressive heat. The festival was basically broken down into 3 rooms, the first which you see above

seperated by a passageway

and the big room you see here which was the only room with air conditioning. The third smaller room in the back was sweltering! I already felt like Frosty, melting away with each step, so I didn't stay long in that room at all...drippity, drip, drip, look at Mikey melt! But the atmosphere was up and positive, everyone seemed to be having a good time and selling plenty of comics despite the heat. It's a really completely different, more intimate atmosphere than Wizard Philly or San Siego. Lots of smiling faces and artists seeming to feel at home here. Emo kids , punks, slackers, retro hipsters, R-teests, and Lisa Lobe glasses unite!


But despite the heat I saw a lot of great comics! I bumped into a lot of old friends and some new ones too.

Alberto Ruiz and his daughter Megan draw for some fans


Philly Cartoonist Society Represent!
I have to say there was way more good stuff than I thought there would be and I tapped out my wallet early! I'll scan and post some of what I bought tomorrow.