Five Points Festival 2017: Designer Toys, Comics & NYC

Press Release:

The Five Points Festival is a collision of toys, comics, and counterculture curated by Clutter Magazine and sponsored by Midtown Comics and Playcrafting NYC. A designer toy and comic convention coming May 20-21, 2017 to Pier 36 on New York’s Lower East Side, Five Points is two days and nights of comic artists and writers, vinyl and plastic toys, original art, food trucks, and craft breweries – bringing together 15,000 tastemakers, misfits, and rebels in a one-of-a-kind marketplace! Get your tickets now at the link…

• The Midtown Comics booth will present mega signings with comic royalty including Greg Capullo, Scott Snyder, Nick Spencer, Dan Slott, and Bryan Lee O’Malley! And be on the look out for Five Points exclusives, too, with details coming soon to our Facebook, Twitter, and blog!
• Meet amazing Designer Toy Artists including Ron English, Amanda Louise Spayd, Chris Ryniak, Gary Ham, Huck Gee, James Groman, Jason Freeny, Jeff Lamm, Peter Kato, Simone Legno, Tara McPherson, and many more!
• Rub elbows with 150 amazing creators in our Artist Alley including Amy Reeder, Andrew MacLean, Annie Wu, Ben Templesmith, Christopher Hastings, Cliff Chiang, Jamal Igle, Mags Visaggio, Ronald Wimberly, Sean Gordon Murphy, Tini Howard, and more!
• All of our vendors can be found here and the list keeps growing every day.
• Outside Pier 36, you’ll find all delicious food trucks including Korilla, Nuchas Empanadas, and Big D’s Grub – and a craft beer garden!
• Grab an exclusive Dunny designed by Gary Ham! Available in three colors, 3″ tall, and limited to 1000 pieces total (across the three versions), this is the first production Dunny created by Gary Ham in the world!
• Want the yellow and black Gary Ham Dunny? You’ll want to be a VIP, as it is included with the VIP ticket! Our yellow and black Dunny is limited to only 250 pieces, and being a VIP is the only way to guarantee this colorway! You’ll also get a ticket into the Designer Toy Awards on Friday night, early access into Five Points, and access to the Saturday night party by Sonicboombox!
• All the awesomeness kicks off at the Designer Toy Awards presented by Lagunitas! The entire art toy world comes together on Friday, May 19 at Webster Hall, and a a VIP ticket is the ONLY way for you to join ’em!

RSVP on Facebook!

MoCCA Arts Festival 2017 Programming Announced

Press Release:

Programming for the MoCCA Arts Festival 2017 will take place at the beautiful Ink48 Hotel (653 11th Avenue at 48th street), steps away from our primary venue, Metropolitan West at 639 West 46th Street. Organized by Best American Comics Series Editor Bill Kartalopoulos, this year’s programming will feature spotlight sessions from distinguished creators and historians. A full schedule of events will be released in the coming months.

To view past MoCCA Arts Festival lectures please visit our youtube channel, which includes videos from past speakers Rebecca Sugar, Cece Bell, Fiona Staple, Robert Williams, Alison Bechdel, Bill Griffith, Jillian Tamaki, and many more!

For directions please visit our Directions and Ticketing page.

SATURDAY, APRIL 1 PROGRAMMING

12:30PM / Garamond Room
Reading Without Walls: Diversity in Comics
Gene Luen Yang is the National Book Award-nominated author of graphic novels including American Born Chinese and Boxers and Saints. When he was named the fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, he chose as his theme “Reading Without Walls” to promote diversity in reading. Gene will be joined by a panel including Damian Duffy (Kindred, Black Comix), Hazel Newlevant (Chainmail Bikini), and Whit Taylor (The Nib) in a conversation about issues of diversity in comics. Moderated by Jonathan W. Gray (John Jay College- CUNY).

12:30PM / Helvetica Room
Drew Friedman: Heroes of the Comics
In Heroes of the Comics and his new follow-up volume More Heroes of the Comics, illustrator and cartoonist Drew Friedman has produced a series of affectionate, beautifully rendered portraits of important figures from the history of American comic books, accompanied by short informative biographies. Friedman will discuss selected figures from his two books with Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth, special guest Al Jaffee, who is featured in the first volume, and Karen Green, ‎Curator for Comics and Cartoons at Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library, who provides the second volume’s introduction.

BREAK

2:00PM / Garamond Room
Blutch in Conversation with David Mazzucchelli
Internationally renowned artist Blutch joins us from France to celebrate the publication of his graphic novel Peplum in an English-language edition by New York Review Comics. His work marries the lush grace of an informed observational artist with a playful and sophisticated approach to form that marks him as a devoted maker of comics. In this special event, he will appear in conversation with his friend and colleague David Mazzucchelli (City of Glass, Asterios Polyp) for a conversation moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos.

2:00PM / Helvetica Room
Covering Trump: Steve Brodner Edel Rodriguez in Conversation
Illustrators Steve Brodner and Edel Rodriguez have produced some of the most striking and memorable artwork of this past year’s U.S. Presidential election. Brodner’s work has appeared widely in multiple venues, including the covers of the Village Voice and The Nation. Rodriguez’s “Meltdown” and “Total Meltdown” covers for Time captured key moments in the Presidential campaign, and his stark covers for Germany’s Der Spiegel have been among the most widely seen political images since the election. Legendary art director Steven Heller will speak with these two artists about their careers, their election coverage, and the function of art in politically fraught times.

BREAK

3:30PM / Garamond Room
Fit to Print: French Artists in The New York Times
Art director Alexandra Zsigmond searches widely for artists to commission as illustrators for The New York Times. Over the past several years, she has worked with many artists who graduated from the Haute école des arts du Rhin (HEAR), an art school in Strasbourg, France. Zsigmond’s work with more than a dozen of these artists is currently the subject of the exhibit Fit to Print, hanging at the Society of Illustrators and The New York Times Building. At MoCCA, she will speak with artists including Lucie Larousse, Mayumi Otero, Eugène Riousse, Simon Roussin, and Raphael Urwiller to discuss their unique work, the influence of Strasbourg, and how they collaborate to produce work for the Times.

3:30PM / Helvetica Room
Cliff Chiang Q+A
Comics artist and illustrator Cliff Chiang made his mark working on numerous titles published by DC Comics, including Human Target and Beware the Creeper. He achieved greater prominence with the serial Doctor 13: Architecture and Morality and a long run on Wonder Woman, both written by Brian Azzarello. He currently draws Paper Girls, written by Brian K. Vaughan and published by Image Comics. He will discuss his work and his career with writer and former President and Publisher of DC Comics Paul Levitz.

SUNDAY, APRIL 2 PROGRAMMING

12:30PM / Garamond Room
David Lloyd in the Spotlight
British comics artist David Lloyd began his career working for Marvel’s UK division and then gained international fame with his collaboration with Alan Moore, V for Vendetta. A perennial classic of ultimately hopeful dystopian fiction in the comics form, V for Vendetta has not only spawned a successful film adaptation but continues to provide resonant iconography for protest movements including the Anonymous collective. Beyond V, Lloyd’s body of work includes the graphic novel Kickback and the online comics project Aces High. Lloyd will discuss his work and his career with comics scholar Kent Worcester in this rare conversation.

12:30PM / Helvetica Room
Teaching Comics Internationally
For much of their history, comics have been a self-taught discipline. Now students are learning how to make comics in a variety of academic environments, from dedicated schools to majors to minors to electives. This panel will bring together a group of international comics educators to discuss the programs they teach in and the different ways in which they approach teaching comics. Bill Kartalopoulos will lead a conversation with Jessica Abel (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, US), Guillaume Dégé (Haute école des arts du Rhin, France), Ben Katchor (Parsons The New School for Design, US), and Merav Solomon (Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Israel).

BREAK

2:00PM / Garamond Room
Rutu Modan and David Polonsky in Conversation
Israeli artists Rutu Modan and David Polonsky are both known for the excellence of their artwork and for their provocative approach to blending historical and current events into their imaginative works. Modan is best known in North America for her graphic novels Exit Wounds and The Property and for her short story collection Jamilti. Polonsky is best known in North America as the art director for the animated film Waltz With Bashir, directed by Ari Folman. He is also the illustrator of the graphic novel based upon the film. Modan and Polonsky will discuss their work with comics scholar and writer Tahneer Oksman (How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses?).

2:00PM / Helvetica Room
RESIST!
In the weeks between the 2016 Presidential election and the 2017 inauguration, Françoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman edited RESIST!, a newsprint anthology of comics and cartoons, mostly by women. 58,000 copies of the newspaper were distributed for free by a grassroots network of volunteers during the Women’s Marches in Washington and across the country. RESIST! used online networks to solicit contributions and in the process became a new kind of hybrid platform: both an ongoing online forum for urgent expression by diverse voices and a print publication that has its roots in the Sixties underground press. In this special session, Mouly and Spiegelman will discuss the development — and the future — of RESIST! 

BREAK

3:30PM / Garamond Room
Anthologies as Art: Kramers Ergot and Lagon
The great anthologies of comics history — Zap, Weirdo, RAW, and others — have both made an assertion of comics’ aesthetic ambition at a certain time and place while functioning as a personal expression by each series’ editors. Sammy Harkham is the editor of Kramers Ergot, the anthology which, since 2003, has generated excitement with each volume as a strong statement about contemporary art comics in North America. Alexis Beauclair is the co-editor of Lagon, which debuted in 2014 as a risographed encapsulation of French avant-garde comics, and has metamorphosed with each volume leading to the latest, Gouffre. They will discuss their work as artists and editors with Bill Kartalopoulos.

3:30PM / Helvetica Room
Becky Cloonan Q+A
A graduate of SVA, artist and writer Becky Cloonan first made her mark with her collaborations with Brian Wood, Channel Zero: Jennie One and Demo. Her first graphic novel, East Coast Rising, was published in 2006. Her self-published works include Wolves, Demeter and The Mire, which earned her an Eisner Award for Best Single Issue. In 2012 she became the first woman to draw a main Batman title. Following Batman, she did the art for The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys and later created Gotham Academy for DC Comics. She is currently writing the sci-fi horror Southern Cross for Image Comics, and The Punisher for Marvel. She will discuss her career and her work with SVA MFA in Visual Narrative Chair and illustrator Nathan Fox.

TX – Paper Girls Signing

Artist Cliff Chiang (Paper Girls, Wonder Woman) appears at Austin Books & Comics on Friday, April 28th from 4:00 – 6:00 PM.

RSVP on Facebook!

Austin Books & Comics
5002 N. Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78751
(512) 454-4197

Guests of Honor Announced for MoCCA Arts Festival 2017

Press Release:

The Society of Illustrators is proud to share this year’s stellar list of Guests of Honor for the MoCCA Arts Festival, taking place April 1-2 at Metropolitan West in New York City. This year’s featured Guests of Honor are:

• Acclaimed French cartoonist Blutch, whose graphic novel Peplum marks his second English- language translation, makes his first ever appearance at a North American comics festival.
• Cliff Chiang, known for his “fluid and confident storytelling” in work on comics including Human Target, Beware the Creeper, Wonder Woman, and Paper Girls.
• Artist Becky Cloonan, whose best-selling comics include Demo, East Coast Rising, American Virgin, Gotham Academy, The Punisher, and many others.
• Illustrator Drew Friedman, recognized for his body of comics work as well as his unforgettable caricatures of celebrities and legends, political figures and performers.
• British comics artist David Lloyd, best known as the artist of V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore, and the designer of the iconic Guy Fawkes mask since adopted by Anonymous.
• American Born Chinese and Boxers & Saints author Gene Luen Yang, the current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and a prestigious MacArthur Foundation fellow, who will appear on Saturday only.

This diverse group of artists exemplifies the limitless aesthetic and social power of comics and cartooning. The MoCCA Arts Festival will take place April 1 – 2nd from 11:00AM – 6:00PM at Metropolitan West (636 W. 46th St.) with programming mere steps away at Ink48 (653 11th Ave).

Price of admission is $5 per day and will grant attendees access to the Fest including the Exhibitors Hall, on-site Gallery space, and programming. Tickets will be available for purchase at the door. Children under twelve are free. Further scheduling information regarding our Guests of Honor’s visits will be available in future announcements.

Applications to table at the Fest are now available online, and will close on December 31st.

ABOUT THE GUESTS OF HONOR

Blutch
Born Christian Hincker in Strasbourg, France, comic artist and writer Blutch is widely recognized for his incredible draftsmanship and his affectionate, outsider’s take on American culture including cinema and jazz. His comics debuted in the magazine Fluide Glacial in the 1980s. Since then he has published many books with publishers including L’Association, Cornelius, and Dargaud. His books So Long, Silver Screen (Picturebox) and Peplum (New York Review Comics) have been translated into English, and his illustrations have appeared in publications including Libération and The New Yorker. In 2009, he won the prestigious Grand Prix at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême, France. His visit to North America is supported by Europe Comics

Cliff Chiang
Comic artist Cliff Chiang began his career as an illustrator for Disney Adventures Magazine and Vertigo/DC before moving on to freelance. His client list includes DC Comics, GQ Magazine, Lucasfilm, Warner Animation, Dark Horse Comics, Dynamics Forces Entertainment, and the ACLU. His artwork was used in the comics Human Target, Beware the Creeper and Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre, Green Arrow/Black Canary and Wonder Woman. He is currently working on the series Paper Girls with writer Brian K. Vaughan.

Becky Cloonan
At only 36, New York’s School of Visual Arts alum Becky Cloonan has already paved the way for women in comics. Her breakout hit, Demo (2004), a collaboration with Brian Wood, received numerous accolades and recognitions. Her first solo project,
East Coast Rising, released by Tokyopop in 2006, earned her a third Eisner nomination for Best New Series. In 2012 she became the first woman to draw a main Batman title. Following Batman, she did the art for The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys and later created cover art and stories for Gotham Academy for DC Comics.

Drew Friedman
Award winning artist Drew Friedman’s comics and illustrations have appeared in Raw, Weirdo, American Splendor, Heavy Metal, National Lampoon, SPY, MAD, The New Yorker, BLAB!, Time, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The New York Observer, Entertainment Weekly, among many others. His work has been collected in several volumes, and The New York Times called his three volumes of Old Jewish Comedians “A festival of drawing virtuosity and fabulous craggy faces.” His books of portraits, Heroes of the Comic Books and More Heroes of The Comics, published by Fantagraphics, have received high praise and recognition from the comics community. He is the subject of the upcoming documentary Drew Friedman: Vermeer of the Borscht Belt.

David Lloyd
British comic art David Lloyd’s career began in the 1970s creating art for Marvel UK titles. In 1982, author and editor Dez Skinn started production on Warrior magazine, and invited Lloyd to create a new pulp character. With the help of writer Alan Moore, the two conceived V for Vendetta, a dark comic featuring an anarchist anti-hero who battles with a fascist government while donning a Guy-Fawkes mask. DC Comics would later pick up the comic and transform it into a full graphic novel. In 2006, V for Vendetta became a full-length feature film, while the Guy-Fawkes mask illustrated by Lloyd has been used widely in protests throughout the world. Since the widespread popularity of V, Lloyd has worked on numerous other titles including Wasteland, Espers, War Story, The Territory, Kickback, among others. In 2012, Lloyd launched an online comics anthology called Aces Weekly.

Gene Luen Yang
Gene Luen Yang found early recognition in 2006 through his young adult (YA) book American Born Chinese (First Second Books), which became the first graphic novel to be a finalist for the National Book Award and the first to win the American Library Association’s Printz Award, as well as an Eisner Award. His next title, the diptych Boxers & Saints (also published by First Second Books), continued his winning streak, receiving the L.A. Times Book Prize. In January of 2016, Yang was appointed as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress, Every Child A Reader, and the Children’s Book Council; then later that year, he was named a MacArthur Genius.

About the Society of Illustrators and the MoCCA Arts Festival
Founded in 1901, the Society of Illustrators is the oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to the art of illustration in America. Notable Society members have been N.C. Wyeth, Rube Goldberg, and Norman Rockwell, among many others. Our Museum of Illustration was established in 1981. We offer year-round themed exhibits, art education programs and annual juried competitions. Our Permanent Collection houses 3,500 pieces that are cataloged for scholarly use and displayed periodically. In 2012, we created the MoCCA Gallery with a focus on curated exhibits of comic and cartoon art.

The MoCCA Arts Festival is a 2-day multimedia event, Manhattan’s largest independent comics, cartoon and animation festival, drawing over 7,000 attendees each year. With 400 exhibiting artists displaying their work, award-winning honorees speaking about their careers and artistic processes and other featured artists conducting workshops, lectures and film screenings, our Festival mission accelerates the advancement of the Society’s broader mission to serve as Manhattan’s singular cultural institution promoting all genres of illustration through exhibitions, programs and art education.

NYC – Drink & Draw Holiday Fundraiser 2016

Comic creators Cliff Chiang, Paul Azaceta, Frank Tieri, Khary Randolph, Ivan Brandon, and more appear at Mary O’s on Wednesday December 14, 2016 at 6:30 PM for a Drink ‘n’ Draw party with proceeds to benefit the ACLU.

Mary O’s
32 Avenue A, New York, NY 10009
(212) 505-5610

UK – Peter Milligan Signing

Writer Peter Milligan appears at The Base on Saturday, August 27, 2016 from 2 PM – 5 PM for a comic book signing event. Peter is known for writing New Romancer, The Discipline, Batman Confidential, Hellblazer, X-Statix, 2000 AD, Human Target, Shade the Changing Man, and many more well known comics.

RSVP on Facebook!

The Base
14 Victoria Passage, DY8 1DP Stourbridge, UK
+44 7783 079092

NY – Image Creators Signing

Artist Cliff Chiang (Paper Girls, Wonder Woman) and writer Ivan Brandon (Drifter, NYC Mech) appears at Aw Yeah Comics on Saturday, April 9, 2016 from 1:00 till 3:00 PM to sign comics!

RSVP on Facebook!

Aw Yeah Comics
313 Halstead Ave, Harrison, NY 10528
(914) 732-3600

NYC – Cliff Chiang Signing

Artist Cliff Chiang (Paper Girls, Wonder Woman, Ms. Marvel) appears at Comic Book Jones on Wednesday November 18, 2015 from 5:00 – 9:00 PM!

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Comic Book Jones
2220 Forest Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10303-1700
781-448-1234

NC – Spider-Gwen/Paper Girls Signing

Jason Latour, Cliff Chiang, Rico Renzi, and Jared K. Fletcher appear at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find on Saturday, October 17, 2015 to sign the debut issues of SPIDER-GWEN #1 and PAPER GIRLS #1!

JUST ADDED:
Skottie Young will also be joining us to celebrate the release of I HATE FAIRYLAND #1!

Please note: Spider-Gwen artist Robbi Rodriguez and colorist Matt Wilson have had to cancel their appearances at this signing.

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Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find
1957 E 7th Street, Charlotte, NC 28204
(704) 375-7462

NYC – Paper Girls Release Signing

Writer Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, We Stand on Guard) and artist Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman) appear at on Thursday, October 8th from 8-10pm for a special signing for their new comic PAPER GIRLS.

Forbidden Planet
832 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
212-473-1576

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