Interface: Let's Play Nice And Name Drop Edition

Lots of stuff happening since the last time we did one of these, so some of this may and is Old News.

Over at comiXology, Tucker sat down with Tom Adams from Bergen Street Comics to talk about his store, what it's like to get started in comics retailing, and a little bit about the "new wave" of comics retail inspired by James Sime's Isotope out in California. While there's no director's cut of the interview in the works, rest assured that what looks quite long was even longer, and an unreported follow-up conversation that involved punching and cursing was had. If you haven't checked out the store, and you can, do so soon. That way you can sneer at the johnny-come-lately's in 2010.

Also at comiXology is Tucker's wrap-up of the 2009 MoCCA festival. In an attempt to stick to the word limit that recent columns over there have recently ignored, there was a decent bit of "yay comics" that got left out. Let's hit that here:

For what it's worth, any conversation that includes Timothy Callahan telling hilarious stories about his children's refusal to allow any survivors in a game of Dungeons & Dragons because they don't want to deal with "carrying them around" is pretty much a win, even if MoCCA's sole guest had been Yancy Butler and the only retailer was a guy selling reprints of Sliders scripts. Callahan wasn't the only blogger that the Factual Opinion's satellite team met up with--we also got a chance to sit down for a lunch with Laura Hudson, who is so bright that we're worried about keeping up with her when she isn't hungover from all the late night parties serious comic people get invited too. Sandy Bilus of I Love Rob Liefeld thankfully told his gyro chef to hold the fuck on to get in a quick handshake, and anybody with that kind of cajones is worth organ donation. We also finally got the chance to meet one of the actual human beings behind the Hooded Utilitarian, the talented Miriam Libicki, whose comics you'll read about soon enough right here on this very website. As is the priority when attending any Picturebox related convention, Nina batted her eyes and stammered out compliments to Frank Santoro, and then he and Tucker went outside and told each other how much they could bench press, right up until Dan Nadel reminded Santoro that there were more interesting people to talk to inside. There was a couple of chance encounters with Douglas "Doug" Wolk, who can sing a mean fucking Costello better than just about anybody short of Elvis himself, a brief "I don't hate you--let's buy a duplex together" conversation with Heidi MacDonald, and a too brief meeting with some of the guys from Funnybook Babylon. (Tucker was never able to find Pedro and show him some of the crazy ass Milligan stuff that was shoved in the backpack, so let's call raincheck on that one.) Karen Green was an able partner for a lot of table-lurking and confrontation--at one point she grabbed some cartoonist by his skull and said "I run a library, you little twerp: i will make or break your career." Seriously, she's fucking awesome. If we were going to run a list of links and names of all the people that we couldn't track down due to a lack of planning, this would go on even longer than it already has. Still, it was kind of funny when the first words out of Frank Santoro's mouth on Sunday were "did Jog find you, dumbass?" Single tear.

There's one guy that deserves a serious bow though, and that's Mr. Matthew J. Brady from Warren Peace Sings The Blues. Not only did he hang out and listen to some of the most ridiculous of monologues, he even helped to turn them into actual conversations by saying things like "Shut up for a second, you arrogant fucking prick." Convention-goers take note: if you want to hit a show, and you're an asshole, just ask Brady to look after you. He's got experience wiping the spit-up off your face, and he knows how to talk like a grown-up.

The various comic purchases and praise for thier creators will trickle out over the next few weeks, and Nina Stone will be posting her own little MoCCA reflections soon enough, but beyond that, there isn't much more to say about it. You put enough great artists and great comics in a room, and yes, cool ass shit will occur. For the people and comics involved, it was a damn fine weekend. For everything else? You probably already know about that.

Economist Updates: MoCCA pushed back the minor relaunch that feature is getting, but there will be a small dump of last week's post before Sunday's comic book feature. After that, keep an eye on Wednesdays, which is the planned new home for it. This will be the last time failed promises are made for that feature--next time something goes wrong with it, we're just going to pretend it was your fault.

Comments

[seth hurley]

See what happens when skinny people talk about MoCCA?

They talk about the good time they had & the people they met.

[Matthew J. Brady]

How did you know I was skinny too? I'm probably the only person who went that hasn't bitched about the heat (although Tucker's concerns about health were pretty legitimate). Really, it didn't bother me that much, but I used to live in Texas, and I also used to work in a lumber mill, so an increase in temperature really isn't that big a deal to me. Whatever; people like to complain, I guess.

[seth hurley]

I guess from the fact that you talked about the books you bought & liked?

I can totally understand exhibitors who had to spend 10+ hours in there or Tucker's points about kids or the elderly. I mean, I'm fat & was sweating at NYCC in February!

but yeah, I work in a glass hot shop & have worked craft conventions where five figure pieces have broken & nobody holds up the gate for you.

[Karen]

Oh, man, Tucker, there you go blowing my "mild-mannered librarian" cover. Does this mean I have to give up my bun?

[Kenny Cather]

The past week's Economist was *really* good, so I'm excited to see what you have to say about it. I feel like they did about as good of a write up on why GM failed as anyone, although their analysis on what the future holds was the same daydreaming from people who don't have a clue how manufacturing works or how the Chinese economy is working. (The Economist falls into the same trap everyone seems to these days - China is a growing market with the potential for future explosive growth. I want to know how a populace that makes on average $50/month is going to be able to buy cars.)