Archie #631

Creators | Dan Parent discusses an upcoming Archie storyline that will bring Valerie Brown from Josie and the Pussycats to Riverdale, causing sparks to once again fly: “The fans can expect the next step in what I think is the most romantic story in Archie history. The chemistry between Archie and Valerie was hot the first time they got together, and now you’ve really got to see it simmer, all the way from the rekindling of their romance to getting much more serious than we’ve seen before.” [USA Today]

Editorial cartoons | Cartoonist Jeff Stahler has resigned from The Columbus Dispatch following accusations that he lifted ideas from other cartoons, including one that ran in The New Yorker. [Poynter]

Creators | Former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter responds to a video that highlights the strange and disturbing events of Avengers #200, in which Ms. Marvel was raped and then gave birth to her rapist: “I take full responsibility. I screwed up. My judgment failed, or maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention. Sorry. Avengers #200 is a travesty.” [Jim Shooter]

Batman: Noel

Sales | ICv2 and John Jackson Miller offer additional analysis on the November and year-to-date sales charts. [ICv2, Comichron]

Retailing | Patrick Rosenkranz checks in with retailers in Chicago, Hollywood, Brooklyn and Portland, Oregon, for a “seasonal snapshot” of the current comics retail climate. [The Comics Journal]

Publishing | AnnaMaria White, director of marketing and public relations for IDW Publishing, is leaving to start her own marketing company. [The Beat]

Creators | Paul Gravett interviews Shaun Tan, the award-winning creator of the wordless graphic novel The Arrival. [Paul Gravett]

Creators | Atomic Robo creator Scott Wegener guests on the latest Comic Book Diner podcast. [Comic Book Diner]

Creators | Archie Comics writer and PR guy Alex Segura talks about the Archie Meets Kiss arc in the latest War Rocket Ajax podcast. [Comics Alliance]

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise, Part 1

Manga | Deb Aoki picks 25 manga she’s really looking forward to in 2012. [About.com]

Exhibits | A new show at the Kyoto Manga Museum in Japan showcases the art of three Americans who work in the manga style: Takeshi Miyazawa, Felipe Smith and Svetlana Chmakova. [Anime News Network]

Publishing | Mark Millar’s hint that some sort of big change is about to rock the industry has Rich Johnston speculating on five possible big events, aside from the domination of digital, that could change comics forever in 2012. Here’s a fun idea: Set a reminder on your calendar for December 31, 2012, to go back and check how he did. [Bleeding Cool]

Design | French designers Thomas Blanc and Florian Amoneau have kicked off the Comic Sans Project, which “tries to re-imagine the much-maligned font by posing a simple aesthetic question: What if the world’s most recognizable logos used Comic Sans?” I don’t think the redesigned logos, which include Star Wars, Microsoft, Playstation and McDonald’s, really make their case. [Mashable]

Reviews | Rob McMonigal reviews Zahra’s Paradise, First Second’s webcomic-turned-graphic-novel about a protester who disappears during the Iranian elections. [Panel Patter]

Comics | When historians, academics and other nobs gather at NATO headquarters in Brussels to celebrate the 30th anniversary of martial law in Poland, comics will be there, too: Marzena Sowa and Sylvain Savoia will do a presentation and signing of their graphic novel Marzi, the story of a girl living in Poland at the end of the Communist era. The comic was published in the U.S. by Vertigo. [Forbidden Planet Blog]

History | Mike Lynch presents a gallery of old photos and caricatures of the late Jerry Robinson from National Cartoonists Society events of years gone by. [Mike Lynch Cartoons]

Jerry Robinson

“What struck me in all the phone interviews was what a small fraction of Jerry’s life was getting covered. I don’t think most people realize how politically involved he was in issues of Free Speech (especially that of cartoonists) in countries where they don’t cotton to any kind of dissent. I don’t think most folks know how involved he was in the mid-seventies campaign to establish a credit line and pensions for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster on Superman. Most folks know that Neal Adams spearheaded that campaign and his efforts were vital in making Time-Warner realize that a horrendous situation had to be rectified and put right. Not to take anything away from Neal but it was Jerry Robinson who negotiated with senior Time-Warner execs of behalf of Siegel and Shuster. It was Jerry who closed the deal.”

– Mark Evanier, reflecting on the accomplishments of legendary artist Jerry Robinson,
who passed away Wednesday at age 89

Susie Cagle

Legal | Cartoonist Susie Cagle, who was arrested last month while covering Occupy Oakland, says she has been cleared of all charges by the Oakland Police Department. The Society of Professional Journalists sent a letter to the Oakland police condemning the arrest, which ultimately assisted in getting the charges dropped. The letter called out the department’s crowd management policy, which says, “Even after a dispersal order has been given, clearly identified media shall be permitted to carry out their professional duties in any area where arrests are being made, unless their presence would unduly interfere with the enforcement action.” [Fishbowl LA]

Conventions | San Diego City Council approved a plan to have San Diego hotels pay for a $520 million convention center expansion. The plan moves to a second hearing in January and requires a vote of two-thirds of the hotels that cast ballots for approval. [NBC San Diego]

Retailing | Mesa, Arizona, comic store Evermore Nevermore has closed after a little more than two years. Co-owner Bob Leeper blames the recession and light evening traffic downtown. [The Arizona Republic]

Retailing | Duff Franco, owner of Earth 383 Comics & Games in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, has launched a campaign to save the store following a break-in that resulted in the loss of most of his gaming stock. He plans a gathering on Dec. 17 to solicit ideas from customers on how to keep the shop open. [The Daily Advance]

Marvel

Creators | Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso and Editor Jeanine Schaefer discuss female characters and creators at Marvel, with Alonso noting why it’s important for the publisher to hire creators from a variety of backgrounds: “In following the discourse about women and minorities in comics, the one thing I see brought up so often is the idea that people don’t see gender. ‘Oh, I don’t see gender,’ they say, ‘I just want good stories.’ There’s an idea that actively looking to hire women is counter-intuitive to good stories; the simplified version of this is ‘hire good writers, regardless of gender.’ Of course, I agree that the people we hire need to be good at this, first and foremost. But what this argument misses, in implying (and sometimes outright stating) that actively hiring people with different life-experiences is somehow creatively bereft, is that having a variety of viewpoints is the best way to not only tell better stories, but to grow your market, so that you can continue to tell those stories.” [ComicsAlliance]

Creators | The Comics Journal posts an interview with comics legend Jerry Robinson from 1994 about his life and career. The creator of the Joker, who passed away this week, is also remembered by Ty Templeton, Peter David and the Hero Initiative’s Jim McLauchlin. [The Comics Journal]

Organizations | Diamond Comic Distributors helped the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund raise almost $30,000 through a retailer membership drive. [CBLDF]

Conventions | WonderCon, scheduled for March 16-18 in Anaheim, California, has announced several additional special guests, including Jim Lee, Mark Waid, Art Adams and Joe Hill. [Comic-Con International]

"The Sport of Tycoons," by Carl Barks

Carl Barks’ 1974 painting “The Sport of Tycoons,” which features the iconic image of Scrooge McDuck swimming in his gold-filled vault, sold at auction last week for a record $262,900.

The painting is based on Barks’ often-reprinted 1952 tale “Only a Poor Old Man,” the first story in which Scrooge was the main character (in which, while swimming in his money bin, he says, “I love to dive around in it like a porpoise, and burrow through it like a gopher, and toss it up and let it hit me on the head!”). “The Sport of Tycoons” debuted in print in 1981′s The Fine Art of Walt Disney’s Donald Duck by Carl Barks.

The piece, part of the Kerby Confer Collection, was accompanied by the Heritage Auctions sales of two other Barks originals — “Sheriff of Bullet Valley” ($107,550), and “McDuck of Duckburg” ($101,575).

The auction also saw Jerry Robinson’s original cover art for 1942′s Detective Comics #67, the first Penguin cover, fetch $239,000, which Heritage dubs the second-highest price for a piece of American comic-book art.

Detective Comics #67

Art | Jerry Robinson’s cover artwork from Detective Comics #67 is expected to bring in more than $300,000 when it goes up for auction Nov. 15. “Robinson penciled and inked this cover and the detail of his art is amazing close-up,” said Todd Hignite, consignment director for Comic Art at Heritage Auctions, “particularly his shading lines on Batman and Robin, and on the feathery details of the ostrich being straddled by that bird-of-prey, the Penguin.” [Art Daily]

Business | Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment Inc. and Vuguru, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s independent studio, are partnering to produce “original digital content.” [press release]

Comics | Darryl Ayo has a small manifesto about comics that makes a lot of sense: “Things that don’t make sense in North American comics: 1) comics that exist after their creators have ceased to. 2) these comics’ existence continues despite minimal effort to applicable to contemporary culture. Things that make perfect sense in North American comics: people’s general lack of interest in comics.” He points out a number of reasons why the comics audience is small and challenges creators and publishers to “Do better.” One point he makes that is rarely mentioned: The critical importance of editors. [Comix Cube]

Light Yagami, from "Death Note"

Manga | Japanese readers picked Death Note as the greatest Shonen Jump manga of the 2000s. (One Piece, the most popular manga in Japan, and Naruto, the most popular in the United States, didn’t qualify because they launched in the 1990s.) [Crunchyroll]

Creators | Sam Kieth and Jonathan Wayshak discuss When The Chickens Revolt, their “stream of consciousness web comic.” [MTV Geek]

Creators | Jim Ottaviani discusses his graphic novels Feynman and Laika, his storytelling techniques, and why science and graphic novels go so well together in an hour-long podcast with interviewer Jerzy Drozd. [Comics Are Great!]

Creators | Colorist and illustrator Jose Villarrubia is briefly interviewed. [Windy City Times]

Alan Moore: Conversations

Creators | Editor Eric Berlatsky talks about the recently released interview anthology Alan Moore: Conversations: “… This book is an effort to collect Moore’s assertions at various moments in his career, so that critics and readers can see what he was thinking at the time, and also to track some of his changes over time, some of which I discuss in the introduction to the book. For example, in a 1984 interview with Guy Lawley and Steve Whitaker, Moore talks about how great it is to work for DC, how they don’t interfere with his creative process, and what an improvement it is over 2000 AD, etc. You won’t get that kind of effusion about DC these days from Moore. So, you can trace how things started to go bad in ‘real time,’ as it were, instead of getting a retrospective — and necessarily revisionary — view. I think those things are valuable to scholars, but they are also interesting to a more general readership.” [The Morton Report]

Creators | Longtime Dick Tracy artist Dick Locher gets the hometown-boy-made-good treatment from his local paper. [DailyHerald.com]

Craft | Crogan’s Adventures creator Chris Schweizer has put together a field guide to tangents, lines that interact with each other in awkward ways, and he has some suggestions for avoiding them. It’s interesting reading, even for non-artists. [Chris Schweizer's LJ]

Manga | Shaenon Garrity weighs in on Kazuo Umezu’s The Drifting Classroom as part of a Halloween roundtable. [The Hooded Utilitarian]

Webcomics | Here’s one that’s worth a look: Don Aliff reviews Out at Home: “What sets it apart is that it takes that familiar formula [family dynamic], twists it a little, adds a dash of wit and eccentricity, and then throws in a few explosions for the hell of it.” [Spandexless]

Comic Book Comics, by Ryan Dunlavey and Fred Van Lente, chronicles the history of comics in comic-book form. Their latest story, posted in full at their blog, is a short history of copyright grabs by comics publishers, featuring Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Jack Kirby and Joker creator Jerry Robinson make appearances as well. It’s interesting history and a painless way to learn a bit about copyright law and its pitfalls.

(Via Comics Worth Reading.)

Lolicon

Legal | The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly is resurrecting a revised bill to tighten regulations on the sexual depictions of minors in manga, anime and video games. An earlier version of the controversial proposal was voted down in mid-June. The new bill removes vague defining terms like “nonexistent youth” and reportedly avoids references to “characters younger than 18,” increasing the likelihood that the proposed legislation will pass. [Anime News Network]

Retailing | As the small independent retail chain Joseph-Beth Booksellers files for bankruptcy protection, its president warns of even tougher times ahead for bookstores. “I think in the next three to five years, you’ll see half the bookstores in this country close,” Neil Van Uum says. [Lexington Herald-Leader, via ICv2.com]

Awards | The Webcomics List Awards is accepting nominations until Dec. 20. Winners will be announced on Jan. 31. [via Forbidden Planet International]

Conventions | A solid report from this year’s King Con, held Nov. 6-7 in Brooklyn, N.Y. [Secret Acres News]

L.A. Diary

Best of the year | Frank Santoro names his favorite comics of 2010, from Gabrielle Bell’s L.A. Diary to Daniel Clowes’ Wilson to Brandon Graham’s King City. [Comics Comics]

Creators | Sam Adams talks to Sergio Aragonés about his influences, his first exposure to Mad, his work process, Groo and more: “When I’m doing Groo, and suddenly there’s a double-page spread that takes a lot of cartoons, I have to do at least a page a day for Groo. So when my telephone rings, I put it aside and take this massive drawing and start adding things to it. After the conversation, I take the massive drawing and put it aside. So any breaks I take, I start adding things. So that page will take probably the whole month to draw. They say, “How can you do that?” They think of it as a one-pager or a two-pager. But it’s not true, that page took so long to draw because it’s not a regular page. It becomes natural.” [The A.V. Club]

Creators | Brian Heater continues his multi-part Q&A with Jaime Hernandez. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | Jeff Greenfield profiles cartoonist Garry Trudeau as Doonesbury turns 40. [CBS Sunday Morning]

Fishtown

Creators | Kevin Colden discusses Fishtown, and the pitfalls he experienced serializing the comic online before collecting it in print: “I spent so much effort promoting the serialized version of the book, that by the time it hit print, I think it was old news and had worn out its welcome. Also, the book was released at the end of 2008, and the economy had just shit the bed. In my decidedly biased opinion, as a book with as much buzz as it had, that won the Xeric and later went on to garner an Eisner Award nomination (Best Reality-Based Work), it had all the makings of a massive hit. There may have been a lot of people reading it online, or borrowing copies, or reading library copies; I don’t actually know! That might be the big negative.” [Go Home Paddy]

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Chris Mautner talks to Jerry Robinson about his sale of Fred Ray’s original art for the cover of Superman #14. [Patriot-News]

Creators | Writer Brandon Montclare chats about Marvel’s Chaos War: Chaos King #1. [Cosmic Book News]

Comics | Douglas Wolk sifts through 33 years of Spider-Women and Spider-Girls. [Techland]

This could be yours, if you have the dough

Like those mothers of legend who used to toss entire comics collections in the trash, comics artists used to throw away their original art, too, with little regard for its future worth. Back in the day, original comic art wasn’t considered valuable—it was the printed item that mattered.

Fortunately, Jerry Robinson, the creator of The Joker, had a bit more foresight. Back in 1942, he rescued the art for a couple of covers from the trash. One is his own work, Detective Comics No. 69, which featured the first appearance of The Joker, (apparently not—as our commenters noted) and the other is an equally iconic Superman cover by Fred Ray, a motif that came to be known as “The Superman Patriotic Shield,” according to The New York Post. Now he is selling both, via the online auction site ComicConnect.com. While the Post estimates the two will bring in $1.4 million, ComicConnect owner Stephen Fishler is a bit more restrained, estimating about $1 million. Said Robinson,

So obviously this was a very hard decision, they’re going to be very hard to part with — they were a big part of my youth, but I’m 88 now. I think it’s time to see that they get into the proper hands to be preserved. I’m hoping whomever buys them will donate them to the Library of Congress or the Smithsonian.

While he would like to have made that donation himself, Robinson said he was selling the covers so his family would be financially secure. If you’re interested, bidding starts today at noon, Eastern Time.

Wolverine #1, the top seller in September

Publishing | John Jackson Miller delves into September’s grim direct-market sales figures and discovers a (relative) bright spot: Sales of lower-tier titles — those that don’t crack Diamond’s Top 300 — appear to be increasing, to record levels. “How do we know?” Miller writes. “Believe it or not, a record for high sales was actually set in September. The 300th place comic book, Boom’s Farscape #11, sold more copies to retailers in September than in any month since November 1996: 4,702 copies. That’s a record for the period following Marvel’s return to Diamond. This bellwether tells us about the shape of the market, and how prolific the major and middle-tier publishers are; when many of their titles are being released and reordered, higher-volume titles tend to push farther into the list.”

However, the higher you go on the list, the worse things look: “The average comic book in the Top 25 is selling more poorly in 2010 than in 2003. At the very top of the chart, 2010′s average top-sellers are about 25% off what the best-sellers of 2003 were doing.” [The Comichron]

Comic-Con International

Comic-Con | A last-minute reminder: Four-day and single-day passes for Comic-Con International go on sale today at 9 a.m. PT. [Comic-Con International]

Creators | AdHouse Books Publisher Chris Pitzer puts out the call to help cartoonist Joshua Cotter, whose apartment was damaged last week by fire. The publisher is donating all money from sales of Skyscrapers of the Midwest, Driven by Lemons and AdHouse Sticker Pack #2 over the next three weeks to Cotter. [AdHouse Books]

Conventions | Greg Mellen reports on this weekend’s Long Beach Comic Con. [Contra Costa Times]

Conventions | Wizard Entertainment will add Miami to its expanding convention stable, debuting with an event scheduled for Feb. 26-27 at the Miami Airport Convention Center. [press release]

Publishing | Viz Media announced in the December issue of Shonen Jump that it’s launching a digital manga supplement for magazine subscribers. Andre Paploo has the sparse details and speculation. [Kuriosity, via MangaBlog]

Publishing | Deb Aoki rounds up recent title acquisitions by Digital Manga Publishing. [About.com]

Publishing | DC Comics is hiring an editorial scheduling coordinator for the New York City office. [Comix411]

Jerry Robinson

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Chris Maunter interviews legendary artist Jerry Robinson who discusses, among other things, the creation and legacy of the Joker: “… Every great hero had a counterpart as a protagonist. That’s what I wanted to give [Batman]. At the time in the ’30s, he fought all these gangsters and embezzlers, bank robbers, occasionally there was a mad scientist. But mostly they were prohibition-era villains. That’s who Batman was fighting. There was no mind behind the opposition. Strangely enough there was a feeling at the time that a stronger villain would detract from the hero. Now from our standpoint, that’s not true. The great villains provided a platform for the hero. So what if he was stronger, the hero had to win in the end. On the other hand the heroes had to be heroic. Villains could be bastards and they’re always more interesting to write about. More provocative. I think that was part of it.” [TCJ.com]

Charlie Adlard, in zombie form

Creators | The Walking Dead artist Charlie Adlard is profiled by his local newspaper, and talks about the comic and playing a zombie in the AMC adaptation. [Shropshire Star]

Creators | Cartoonist Garry Trudeau is the subject of a brief article about the 40th anniversary of Doonesbury. [Vanity Fair]

Creators | Tom Horgen spotlights Death-Day, by Sam Hiti, describing the cartoonist as “like H.R. Giger with a softer brush stroke and a sense of humor.” [Star-Tribune]

Creators | Faith Erin Hicks answers questions about her work process. [Livejournal]

Creators | Stumptown Trade Review posts an audio interview with Drinking at the Movies cartoonist Julia Wertz. [Stumptown Trade Review]

Marvel

Publishing | Retail news and analysis site ICv2 concludes its two-part interview with Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley, who addresses the struggle between “tightly interwoven continuity” and accessible comics: “… You run the constant battle of people saying ‘we need one-shots for people to jump on to,’ but the ordering trends don’t play to that a lot. The ordering trends play to ‘is this tied to an event.’ It was very evident with DC’s Brightest Day and Darkest Night orders. It was very evident during Civil War. So you hear that said a lot but most of the sales are very contradictory to those desires. Making books as easily entered into as possible is something we try to pay close attention to. I’m not going to deny that we don’t get lost in our own soup sometimes which is the nature of serialized story-telling. It’s hard to keep the revenue numbers without tying in books to leverage off the big books.” [ICv2.com]

Kodansha Comics

Publishing | Christopher Butcher, Katherine Dacey and Daniella Orihuela-Gruber offer commentary on Monday’s announcement that Kodansha will begin publishing its own manga in North America through its partnership with Random House. The latter previously had released licensed Kodansha titles through its Del Rey Manga imprint. Anime News Network has a list of Kodansha books that the imprint hadn’t finished publishing. “It looks like Del Rey has divested themselves of _all_ of the risk of manga publishing,” Butcher writes, “moving into a packaging and distribution relationship. Smart move for the bean-counters at Del Rey! And I guess Kodansha USA gets to call themselves a publisher, which I assume will impress someone back in Japan, but they’re not really doing anything other than putting their logo on the book, so far as I can tell.” [Kodansha Ltd.]

Michael George

Legal | Retailer Michael George will get a second trial sometime next year following the refusal of the Michigan Supreme Court to overturn a judge’s decision to overturn his first-degree murder conviction in the 1990 killing of his first wife. Attorneys met Monday with Macomb County Circuit Judge James Biernat, who set a Nov. 4 pretrial in the case of George, who was found guilty in March 2008 of fatally shooting his wife Barbara in the back room of their Clinton Township, Mich., comic store. Biernat overturned the jury verdict in September 2008, citing prosecutorial misconduct and the discovery of new evidence. [Detroit Free Press, Daily American]

Publishing | Atom! Freeman, who joined Top Cow Productions in August as direct market liaison, has been promoted to director of sales and marketing. [press release]

Organizations | Alex Cox, former co-owner of Rocketship in Brooklyn, N.Y., has been hired by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund as development manager. [press release]

Conventions | David Brothers highlights 15 “must-see panels” from this weekend’s New York Comic Con. [Comics Alliance]

The Outfit

Creators | Darwyn Cooke talks about The Outfit, the follow-up to his acclaimed graphic-novel adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s The Hunter: “I lay awake at night wondering to what degree Donald would have argued or agreed with me. There’s a situation at the end of this story [in it's original prose version]  that I have never bought, as a reader and fan. I went ahead and made a change based on my understanding of Parker as a character and everything that Donald has ever said about him. He does something at the end of the book that flies completely in the face of everything he is as a character, and I did change that. I think it makes for a more succinct and ruthless ending. But, believe me, when you’re doing these things, you have to be really careful. I hope longtime fans will see the why of what I’ve done, and I hope it strengthens the material.” [Hero Complex]

Creators | George Gene Gustines profiles legendary artist Jerry Robinson, focusing largely on the creation of the Joker. [The New York Times]

Red Light Properties

Creators | Dan Goldman discusses Red Light Properties, his webcomic about a Florida real-estate exorcist. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Justin Giampaoli wraps up his sprawling 10-part look at the work of Brian Wood by interviewing the creator himself. [13 Minutes]

Creators | Brandon Graham talks about King City, Multiple Warheads, his influences, and sexually explicit comics: “I do think sex is something worthy of real and expressive art. It’s defiantly a big part of being human. I’m hoping to do some work in the future that has more sex, but where it isn’t the main focus of the book. As far as widespread acceptance, I imagine not … these Romans are crazy.” [Exquisite Things]

Comics | Ethan Kaye counts down the 10 greatest skulls in comics. [Topless Robot]

Batman #1 logo

As you may have guessed, we’re big fans of the Logo Studies feature letterer Todd Klein runs over on his blog, where he looks at various comic book logos and how they evolved over the years. Yesterday he shared a bit of history about the original Batman logo from the 1940s, which was designed by comics legend Jerry Robinson.

“One of the things I expected when I started doing my Logo Studies was that I would never be able to find out for sure, or at all, who designed many of the original comics logos from the 1940s,” Klein wrote on his blog. “Today I proved that expectation wrong when I spoke to Jerry Robinson, one of the first Batman artists, and involved with the character almost from the beginning.”

Klein had originally gotten in touch with Robinson to ask about the Robin logo that appeared on the Boy Wonder’s first appearance, and Robinson told Klein he also designed the original Batman logo, seen above.

Check out Klein’s complete rundown of the Batman logos over the years here and here, and his commentary on the Robin one here.

The 2009 MoCCA Festival poster, illustrated by Molly Crabapple

While I did not attend Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) Art Festival 2009, held back on June 6-7, I was struck at the amount of constructive feedback that came out of people’s reports after the festival. It goes without saying that almost everyone thought the new venue (the 69th Regiment Armory) needed air conditioning and many folks were understandably dismayed with the logistical challenges and delays that occurred at the festival’s start. While reading a great deal of reactions from attendees and exhibitors, I was curious to get a lessons learned perspective from the organizers. Fortunately, Karl Erickson, MoCCA Director, was willing to take my email questions. In his answers, Erickson seemingly made it clear he was open to constructive feedback. While my questions aimed to cover a great deal of various concerns, I welcome folks to chime in with additional thoughts in the comments section. My thanks to Erickson for his time.

Tim O’Shea: The first question has to be–did you explore the possibility of air conditioning this year? Was it deemed just too cost prohibitive? If you’re staying at the Armory, do you intend to have air conditioning in 2010?

Karl Erickson: We did explore air conditioning for the Armory, but, yes, it was just too expensive. As far as staying at the Armory we are looking at dates earlier in the spring to help alleviate the heat.

O’Shea: Can you speak to what happened to cause the hour-long delay on Saturday and logistical challenges (like delayed book deliveries, only one trashcan on the show floor [by some reports], names missing from the guide book)–and are you establishing measures to try to minimize these situations next year?

Erickson: The delay was due to a few different factors, the major being a severe miscommunication with the trucking company that was to deliver not only many of our exhibitor’s books, but all of our supplies for the festival, not least being our cash registers and other check-in essentials. Of the problems that we did have, having one trashcan for the entire show floor was not one of them. We definitely had many trashcans.

We are certainly taking steps to contain and minimize the mistakes of this year, the most important of which is getting a much earlier jump in the planning and execution of the Festival. This includes a lengthy review of the 2009 Festival with practical solutions suggested. These include moving the Festival earlier in the spring (as this is not the first year we have had heat problems, AC or no), starting on every aspect of the Festival earlier, and creating a new MoCCA website that will deliver information much more effectively to exhibitors and attendees.

O’Shea: Every show has snags, I know, but I was curious if there were scenarios that you know now how to avoid going forward–what are some of the lessons learned?

Erickson: Certainly, and I think I went over a lot of them above. Of course, one of the main lessons is to be in touch with our exhibitors earlier and more regularly.

O’Shea: Am I correct in thinking the dates have not been announced for next year? With that in mind (and please correct me if I’m wrong) how realistic is it to ask exhibitors to make a commitment and pay a $50 nonrefundable deposit for table reservations without knowing MoCCA’s 2010 dates?

Erickson: We are still researching dates for 2010. The Armory isn’t able to commit dates until later in July, the beginning of New York State’s fiscal year, so that is part of the delay in announcing dates. Also, as mentioned, we are also researching dates earlier in the spring.

Nearly 50% of our 2009 exhibitors renewed their tables for the 2010 Festival, which is pretty close to par. As far as the $50 non-refundable deposit: if an exhibitor reserved their table at the 2009 Festival and aren’t able to attend once we announce the date, we are happy to completely refund their money within 30 days of the date announcement.

O’Shea: How much of a priority is it to improve promotions/communications for the MoCCA festival overall and gain a stronger web presence?

Erickson: We feel that promotions for the Festival in 2009 were fairly strong: we had active presences on the Onion, Village Voice, and Time Out NY, as well as strong chatter over blogs and other internet sites. With over 4,000 attendees (our most yet!), we are pleased with the number of people coming to the Festival, though we always want more. As mentioned above, we plan on being more in touch with our exhibitors and other stakeholders earlier in the planning stages, especially through our soon to be launched new website.

We also sent out a steady stream of press releases leading up to the festival, and we look forward to partnering with others to strengthen our press relations. Except for a few key personal, this years festival was put on by a new team at MoCCA, starting nearly from scratch, including having to rebuild our press lists.

And yes, we are in the process of re-designing our website into a much more user-friendly experience, which we expect to have up soon.

O’Shea: While there have been a great deal of complaints about the festival and concerns about the MoCCA Art Festival going forward, it was almost always in the context of “there’s so much I love about MoCCA, but …”. Did you take solace that while people were making negative comments it was frequently in the context of accompanying praise?

Erickson: Yes, we do take to heart all of the positive comments people have made both publicly and privately, as well as the criticisms. We also realize that people are very vocal about their negative reactions because they care very much for the MoCCA Festival. It should also be said that the quality and variety of comics, books, and other great items on view this year were just great.

O’Shea: Enough about the festival’s challenges this year–what were some of the highlights/successes of MoCCA 2009?

Erickson: Well, of course, the brightest highlights are all of the fantastic comics, cartoons and graphic novels! It would take up to much space to list individual favorites and delights! For me, being able to give the Klein Award to Jerry Robinson was pretty special, having Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth on stage was great, comics from Derek Van Gieson, The Moth and the Flame by Joshua Ray Stevens, Sugar Booger, Sara Edward-Corbett, Becky Cloonan, the entire Scandanavian contingent, Hard Comics from Romania, and just everything else was a highlight. Another major positive factor is the dedicated volunteer core that puts the Festival together. The panels were incredible, and very well attended. And the Festival was a successful fundraiser for the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art.

O’Shea: In terms of exhibitors how many did you have in 2009, compared to years past? And how much growth did the festival experience in terms of international exhibitors?

Erickson: We had over 250 exhibitor tables, with more than 750 individual artists, publishers and creators exhibiting. We had 43 artists and creators from Scandanavia, and Ireland, England, Romania, and Japan were all represented. We keep getting more and more from around the world. It is great and a vital part of our Festival to have the international comics community represented.

O’Shea: What were the biggest benefits gained by moving to the Armory (as compared to years past at the Puck Building)?

Erickson: The biggest benefit to moving to the Armory is having all of the exhibitors in one area, no one was hidden away are stashed around a corner. Plus, we were able to have all of our programming on site, which greatly benefit the excellent talks and lectures MoCCA hosted. We understand how attractive the character of Puck Building is to people, however, it is just not available to us, given their rising fees and space redesign. Plus the Armory has a significant bit of history itself, for those into modern art.

O’Shea: What’s on the horizon at the museum this year? I know the Conversation with David Mazzucchelli and Dan Nadel is set for July 16, but are there other events you are busy arranging for in 2009?

Erickson: Immediately upcoming we have the Mazzucchelli/Nadel conversation, we have Molly Crabapple talking about her new book on July 21st. By the time this sees print, we have had an evening with TYPHON and Carousel with Danny Hellman and R. Sikoryak. Upcoming we have shows planned with Archie Comics, romance and love in comics and cartoons, and a whole host of youth workshops. We have on view “Meanwhile… at 594 Broadway: The Art of MoCCA’s Volunteers” as well as the Mazzucchelli show.

O’Shea: Any final thoughts you want to share?

Erickson:  MoCCA would like all of our exhibitors, attendees and press to know that we value them very highly and we are working diligently on making the 2010 Festival the best yet.

We would also like to thank all of the volunteers that make MoCCA and the Festival possible. Neither would exist without their dedication and efforts.