Live-Tweeting from the 2010 MoCCA "Best Comics of the 00s" Panel

Back on April 10th, I attended the MoCCA Fest panel called "Best Comics of the 00s."  The panelists were Eric Reynolds from Fantagraphics, Becky Cloonan (Demo), Alex Robinson (Box Office Poison), Nick Bertozzi (The Salon), and comic critic Douglas Wolk.  The panelists were asked to talk about their favorite books from the last decade.  Here is a recap of the panel from moderator Brian Heater of The Daily Cross Hatch.

And . . . I actually live-tweeted during the entire panel.  Because the panel was not recorded or otherwise preserved for posterity, I thought I would re-post my tweets here.  (By the way, you can follow me on Twitter here: @iloverobliefeld.)

Here are the tweets:

At the "Best Comics of the 00s" panel, watching everyone futz with their mikes. 4:07 PM

Eric Reynolds thinks Wally Gropius is a masterpiece. 4:08 PM

Nick Bertozzi (The Salon) is finishing up a graphic novel on Lewis and Clark. Neat. 4:09 PM

After Demo, Becky Cloonan will be doing an 8 issue series for Dark Horse written by Gerard Way. 4:10 PM

Alex Robinson just started a 500 page book called Career Killer. 4:11 PM

Douglas Wolk picked David B's Epileptic as one of the best of the 00s. 4:14 PM

Becky Cloonan picked Scott Pilgrim, says it's bringing new readers to comics. 4:15 PM

Nick Bertozzi picked Little Nemo, the supersized version as one of the best of the 00s. 4:16 PM

Alez Robinson picked Grickle. 4:18 PM

(Make that "Alex.") 4:19 PM

Eric Reynolds picked Jimbo. 4:20 PM

Says page composition is unbelievable. Unlike anything else you'll ever see. 4:22 PM

Douglas Wolk also picked Fun Home. "Incredibly funny writer dealing with painfu memories." 4:23 PM

Cloonan picked BPRD. Guy Davis is her favorite contemporary cartoonist. 4:24 PM

It gets her choked up. "Nothing is wasted in this comic." 4:26 PM

Dave Stewart, the colorist, is incredible. First color comic that blew her mind. 4:27 PM

Bertozzi picked Jack Kirby's Kamandi. "A complete rip-off of Planet of the Apes." 4:28 PM

"The man was ON FIRE, when he was doing Kamandi." 4:31 PM

Alex Robinson picked Guy Delisle"s travelogue Pyongyuang. (sp?) 4:33 PM

Pyongyang? 4:33 PM

Nick Bertozzi is winning this panel. 4:35 PM

Cloonan says the storytelling is cinematic and lush. Says he "picks his shots" well. 4:37 PM

Reynolds picked Jimmy Corrigan. One of the most influential graphic novels, he says. 4:38 PM

Pushing the formal envelope, runs the gamet of human emotions, perfectly drawn. 4:39 PM

"How particular is Chris about the format of the book?" Reynolds: "What do you think?" 4:43 PM

When Pantheon printing it in 2001, Ware flew on his own dime to Singapore to make sure they printed it right. 4:44 PM

Wolk picked Charles Burns's Black Hole. 4:44 PM

Reynolds thinks it is very readable, but it has a lot of subtext that gives it a deeper resonance as you go back to it. 4:45 PM

"The unquestioned master of the brush in comics." Reynolds on Burns. 4:47 PM

Becky Cloonan picked Blade of the Immortal. Now it has devolved into torture porn, but volumes in the middle are incredible. 4:49 PM

Bertozzi picked Town Boy, by Lat. Hilarious, quick smooth drawing style. 4:52 PM

Robinson picked Mike Dawson's Freddie and Me, which Robinson is actually in. 4:54 PM

Reynolds picked Deitch's collected works. Says he is the one of the original underground cartoonists who is at the top of his game. 4:56 PM

Reynolds called Deitch a "yarn-spinner." 4:59 PM

I asked what their favorite books of this year are. Reynolds said Footnotes in Gaza, Wolk said Weathercraft, and Cloonan said ... 5:02 PM

Fraction's Uncanny X-Men. Panel over, and I'm signing off. 5:03 PM

My Top Ten To-Do's for MoCCA Fest 2010

I'm heading to the 2010 MoCCA Festival tomorrow in New York City.  This is what I'm looking forward to doing/seeing/buying:

1.  Attending the 2:00 pm panel "The Art of the Superhero: When Singular Vision Meets Popular Mythology." With Frank Miller, Jaime Hernandez, Paul Pope, Kyle Baker, and Dean Haspiel. In my opinion, this panel includes four of the best comic book creators ever (I'm not putting Haspiel in the same league, perhaps only because I don't know his stuff as well -- the only work of his that I've read is the Toon Books children's comic Mo and Jo: Fighting Together Forever).  And one of these guys -- Frank Miller -- is, basically, my favorite.  For a long time he's been my favorite.  I have everything he's written, except for that issue of Spawn, and I owned that at one point but sold my Spawn issues a couple of years back.  I saw Miller at a convention at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City in ... 1994, I think?  Dark Horse had just launched its Legend imprint with new work from Miller, Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Geof Darrow (Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot), Art Adams (Monkeyman and O'Brien -- never went anywhere with that), and John Byrne (Next Men).  Miller, Darrow, and Adams all did a panel together, and I remember that somebody in the audience asked how long it took each of them to make one page of a comic book.  Adams said it took him one day to draw one page.  Miller, who was in the middle of his Sin City phase, said that he could layout, draw, and ink four pages in one day, which astonished Adams and Darrow   Then Miller and Adams looked at Darrow together, who smiled, and everyone cracked up because, as everyone knows, Darrow's drawings are RIDICULOUSLY DETAILED.  Darrow then revealed it took him about four days to draw one page.  I'm not sure why I remember this.  But maybe I'll ask the same question at this MoCCA panel; I kinda like it.

2.  Hunting down the long-lost Soft City, by Pushwagner.  This is something that Tucker Stone gushed about after finding it at last year's MoCCA.  I went to MoCCA last year too, but had no idea about this book until reading about it later.  It's worth clicking that link to read the story about the book, but I'll quote this part of what Tucker wrote:

It's a knockout. While I'd have a difficult time naming what the number two book of this year's show would be, for my personal taste, Soft City is the only contender for number one. I'm really excited to dive into all of the purchases I made this past weekend, but they're going to have to be comic books that french kiss me while singing At The Drive In's entire catalog to knock Soft City out of the top spot. It's beyond remarkable, and I can't stop wondering what the "canon" would look like if the original pages hadn't been lost in a suitcase since the mid 70's. There were a ton of comics and creators at this year's show that are possessed with a talent I remain in awe of--people like Gary Panter, Frank Santoro, Seth, David Mazzucchelli and more--but my experience of Soft City is best described as being kicked in the stomach by skill alone. It's a brilliant work of art.

I've found that Tucker is right about what comics are good, so, yeah, I'll be looking for this.

3.  Buying -- maybe -- Dash Shaw's new book, BodyWorld.  I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere that BodyWorld will be debuting at the show, but I'm nearly certain that this sure-fire addition to the year-end "best comics" list will be available.  Follow my logic on this one.  At last year's MoCCA, the publisher Pantheon brought copies of the then-unreleased Asterios Polyp, by David Mazzucchelli, to the show.  Mazzucchelli also attend the convention to sign copies, and the book got a lot of good buzz, helping to build momentum for it to eventually be named as the Best Comic Book of 2010 on the Meta-List.  Similar to last year, Pantheon, which is publishing BodyWorld, will have a table.  Shaw will be in attendance.  The book is being released next Tuesday, the 13th, which means it's been printed and is ready to go.  I would be shocked if Pantheon didn't take advantage of this opportunity to roll out its highest profile 2010 comic book.

4.  Picking up the "MoCCA Special" from Traditional Comics.  This $10 four-pack of comics by Ben Marra includes Night Business #1-3 and Gangsta Rap Posse.  I've heard good things about these books, and even in a year in which the number of blaxploitation-parody comics created by white dudes is at a peak (see Night Business, Afrodisiac, and Vatican Hustle), I'll give 'em a shot.

5.  Pood.  Yeah, the name & manner in which the creators rolled it out kind of annoyed me too, but this newspaper-sized anthology debuting at MoCCA sounds pretty great.  And it's only four bucks!

6.  Asking Faryl Dalrymple about The Wrenchies.  Dalrymple drew one of my favorite super-hero comic books, Omega: the Unknown, and he's working on The Wrenchies, to be published by First Second at some point.  But he's never said when it will be published, and I plan on cornering him to ask him that very question.

7.  Checking out the 4:00 pm panel "Best of the 00s: Artists On Their Favorite Comics of the Decade."  If you are a regular reader of this blog, you might have figured out that I like it when people talk about their favorite books, preferably by ranking them in a year-end or decade-end list.  This panel, with board-certified interesting people Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics), Nick Bertozzi (The Salon), Alex Robinson (Too Cool to be Forgotten), and Becky Cloonan (Pixu), should be right up my alley.

8.  Getting a doodle in a self-published comic book from Lucy Knisley.  I kinda love Lucy Knisley's drawing style, and last year I got her Pretty Little Book. I was so excited about it that I completely forgot to ask her to sign it or draw in it, which is one of the best things about comic book conventions.  I won't make that mistake this year.

9.  Buying Twin Spica.  Manga publisher Vertical (Black Jack, Buddha) is debuting Twin Spica, a comic about a group of Japanese high school students training to become astronauts.  Tom Spurgeon wrote that it is "a surprisingly compelling read" and that "there's a cogency to the final package," and I'm all about cogency.  Seriously, though, I keep coming across good reviews of this one, so I'll be picking it up.

10.  Walking around the show with my Dad.  I've been giving comics to Dad to read over the past year or so, and he seems to like them!  Or most of them, anyway.  (Quick rundown of Dad's responses: liked Astro City, Tamara Drewe, Britten & Brulightly, Daredevil: Born Again, and Batman: Year One; lukewarm on Parker: The Hunter; disliked The Ultimates and All Star Superman vol. 1 -- he's not a fan of Frank Quitely's drawings.)  We're going to grab a sandwich at the Beat-recommended Lamazou and wander the aisles at the show.  I can't wait.

So, anybody else going?  If so, what are you looking forward to doing?

Related: Here is my recap of last year's MoCCA.

SPX 2009: Yes.

Along with everybody else, I am planning on going to the Small Press Expo 2009. I'll be there Saturday.

And I think this is the panel that I am looking forward to the most:

Critics’ Roundtable, 3:30 | Brookside Conference Room
A murderers’ row of comics critics will address general issues facing comics criticism today and will candidly discuss several new and recent works in a lively, no-holds-barred, roundtable conversation. Rob Clough, Sean T. Collins, Gary Groth, Chris Mautner, Joe McCulloch, Tucker Stone and Douglas Wolk will share their acute critical insights with moderator Bill Kartalopoulos.

I saw the critics' panel last year and enjoyed it.

Here's my only suggestion to improve the panel: Model it after Tucker Stone's fantastic "Speed Round" reviews (see 6:39 minute mark) so that each critic is given a minute to review as many small press comic books as possible, with each comic being thrown at them by moderator Kartalopoulos. Would Jog blow our minds, but only get through one book because he wants to talk about the history behind it? Could Rob Clough catch all those teeny tiny mini-comics that he likes to review? Would non-blogger Gary Groth participate? Come on, you know you want to see this!

RELATED: Here are my posts about SPX 2008 and MoCCA 2009.

My MoCCA

I had a great time at the MoCCA Festival 2009.

There were wonderful, beautiful books on display in the main hall of the Lexington Avenue Armory, but the high point for me was getting the chance to meet many of the people who populate the comics world. I talked to a raft of comic book creators, including Scott Campbell, Lilli Carré, David Malki, Kate Beaton, and Molly Crabapple. I wandered around the hall for a while with Matt Brady, and I got to talk very briefly with Heidi MacDonald and Tucker and Nina Stone.

Matt and I also attended the "Making Good Comics in a New Era" panel, which discussed how the current economic problems are impacting small comics publishers and comic book creators who self-publish their work. The panel was held downstairs in a room where all of the walls were covered with paintings of war, like this one:

Will the economic crisis turn comic creator against comic creator?
Tom Neely, Brett Warnock, and Heidi MacDonald,
and a bunch of dudes with bayonets.

By the way, it was quite hot in the Armory, particularly downstairs. I wonder if audience members looked with envy at the guys in the following painting:

Did you know that Valley Forge was cold?

But hey, I also bought some things!

Here's what I got:

The Blot, by Tom Neely

I'd been wanting to get my hand's on Neely's self-published book for a couple of years, and he drew a neat little sketch in the back of it for me.

Asterios Polyp, by David Mazzucchelli

I cannot wait to read this. Two questions for you:

1. What other books would you put on the short list for "comic book of the year"?

I think the race is shaping up nicely, with Asterios Polyp, The Photographer, and A Drifting Life all in contention and more heavy hitters on their way, like Osamu Tezuka's Swallowing the Earth, Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis, and Bryan Talbot's Grandville. That's a pretty impressive list of books.

2. Could 2009 be the best year for comic books ever?

In addition to those six books I mentioned above, this year will see a glut of other incredible work published before it is over. How does the total output match up with other great years for comic books?

Just some fun things to ponder. But let's get back to the list:

Johnny Hiro, by Fred Chao

This book looks like a lot of fun, and Fred Chao even seemed to recognize my blog's name, which is always a plus. He also mooned over my copy of Asterios Polyp.

The Rack: Year One (Mostly), by Kevin Church and Benjamin Birdie

I'm very glad that I got to meet Kevin and Benjamin in person and pick up the first collection of their web comic.

Pretty Little Book, by Lucy Knisley

I really like Knisley's colored work. I got this instead of her awesome zombie poster, because I have children at home and can't really put something like that up on the wall. But that poster is great.

Egg #1, by Eric Skillman, Connor Willumsen, Jorge Coelho, Jhomar Soriano, Dan Duncan, and Joe Dellagatta

I have no idea what this is about, but I'm a sucker for crime comics.

Thought Cloud Shrines, by Theo Ellsworth

I think Ellsworth's drawings are fascinating, so I grabbed this 28-page collection.


That's it for my haul. As happened at SPX, I was pretty overwhelmed by the amount of incredible stuff available, and I could have spent many, many hundreds of dollars. But I think I came away with some great stuff, so I'm happy.

Finally, I'd like to thank my wife for watching the kids so that I could go and look at comic books all day. You rock.

------
RELATED: I wrote about my trip to SPX 2008.

What Not To Do At SPX

So here's a tale that I had blocked out from my memory of my trip to SPX that came flooding back last night for some reason. What follows is a true story, recounted as best as I can remember it.

-----

FADE IN:
The 2008 Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland. The convention hall is packed with people moving among many tables where comic book creators sell their wares. Our hero, SANDY, approaches the table for Top Shelf Productions. SANDY eyes one of the books on the table.

Out from behind the table pops ENTHUSIASTIC MAN.

ENTHUSIASTIC MAN (enthusiastically): I see you're looking at this book! Have you heard about it before? It's by Jeffrey Brown! It's called Incredible Change-Bots! [Note: Amazingly, his speech contained working hyperlinks.] It's like Transformers, only really funny!

SANDY: Yes. I've been thinking about picking this up for a while.

ENTHUSIASTIC MAN: YES! You absolutely should. It is HILARIOUS. Great stuff!

SANDY: Yeah - I saw a few pages of it in a review I read online, I think. Or maybe on Top Shelf's website.

ENTHUSIASTIC MAN: YES! You mean this preview?

SANDY: Yeah - I remember that preview. But there was another part that I read somewhere that was really, really funny.

ENTHUSIASTIC MAN: ALL RIGHT!

SANDY: It was this great bit where the transformer robot is a pick-up truck with a refrigerator in the back, and it's being driven by a guy, and then the robot transforms and the driver gets smushed. It was so funny!

NOT-SO-ENTHUSIASTIC MAN (face crumbling): No, that wasn't in Incredible Change-Bots.

SANDY (remembering now): Oh --

NOT-SO-ENTHUSIASTIC MAN: You're thinking of a comic strip from Perry Bible Fellowship, by Nicholas Gurewitch.

SANDY (mortified): Right --

NOT-SO-ENTHUSIASTIC MAN: Luckily he didn't make many strips about transforming robots.

SANDY: Of course! I knew that! I'm so sorry! I knew that!

Six members of the SPX Enforcement Squad encircle SANDY.

SPX ENFORCEMENT SQUAD LEADER: Excuse me, sir. You'll have to turn over your visitor's badge immediately. And any mini-comics you may have purchased. And your password to your comic book blog; you no longer deserve to write about comics. You disgust me.

SANDY is thrown out of the convention.

SANDY (screaming): I didn't mean it! Of course I knew the difference between the two comics! Please! Please!

END SCENE.

------

Ok, maybe that last part didn't happen, but everything else was true. I felt like such an ass. That guy was so excited to show me this great comic -- that I really did know about -- and I felt like I had taken it and ripped it up in front of him. Such a schmuck. So, here's another apology to you, ENTHUSIASTIC GUY, wherever you are.

The SPX Haul

Well, I'm back from the 2008 Small Press Expo. I arrived a little late due to I-95 getting shut down because of an accident. Then I got totally overwhelmed by the amount of amazing-looking stuff available; I could have spent several days and several thousand dollars without seeing everything worthwhile.

But I got it together enough to buy some stuff, and I said hi to a bunch of folks that have been nice enough to send me review copies, including Eric Reynolds at Fantagraphics, Cory Casoni at Oni Press, and Chris Staros at Top Shelf. (Anyone know why First Second was not at the Expo? They seemed like the only publisher that should have been there but was not.) I also introduced myself to a bunch of artists and writers, including Becky Cloonan, who seemed to remember that I had reviewed her book Pixu #1, so that was neat.

And I got to see the Critics Roundtable, which was sort of interesting and sort of too short to really go into depth on anything. Jog comes off as just as smart in person as he does in his writing, and seemed to be a good listener. He also interviewed Bryan Lee O'Malley, creator of Scott Pilgrim, and seemed to know more about O'Malley's history and influences that O'Malley did. But the interview was fun, and it was interesting to see the amount of fan love for that comic on display in the room -- people really do like it. (edited to add:) And I do too!

But man, did I mention the amount of awesome comic book goodness? Fantagraphics, Top Shelf, Drawn & Quarterly, Oni, AdHouse, Picturebox, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, Buenaventura: all had tables packed with what seemed like their entire back catalogs. And there were tons of other publishers and people with their self-published comics. I really wanted to get Skim, which ended up winning the Ignatz award for Best Graphic Novel, but I held off. And the only thing that I wanted but couldn't get because it sold out (I saw it, but when I went back it had disappeared) was Gerald Jablonski's Cryptic Wit #2.

So here is what I got:

5, by Becky Cloonan, Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba, Rafael Grampa, & Vasilis Lolos (self-published). This is a mini-comic published in 2007. I loved Pixu, so I was happy to grab this.

Crogan's Vengeance, by Chris Schweizer (Oni Press). I love pirates, and historical fiction, and this book about a pirate is the first in a series of adventure graphic novels following the history of various members of the Crogan family. So count me in. Plus, it seemed like something that my kids would like when they got a little older. The author Chris Schweizer was very friendly and drew a great little picture in there for them.

Escalator, by Brandon Graham (Alternative Comics). This is an older work, but I really can't get enough of Graham's stuff. If you haven't read King City or Multiple Warheads yet, go get them IMMEDIATELY.

Ganges #1 & 2, by Kevin Huizenga (Fantagraphics). I've been thinking about getting these for a while, so now here they are.

How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, Chapters 1 & 2, by Sarah Glidden (self-published). This was nominated for an Ignatz Award, and it looks like the book has been picked up by Vertigo.

Otto's Orange Day, by Frank Cammuso & Jay Lynch (Toon Books). This was published by the new kid's comics company run by Francoise Mouly and her husband, Art Spiegelman. I already have the company's newer stuff, so I got this. And Frank Cammuso drew a picture in it for my kids, which is cool.

Superf*ckers #1, by James Kochalka (Top Shelf). I dug his kid's comic Johnny Boo, and he was very friendly. I also got Rainbow Frog, a comic made by his five-year-old son (promising work; good use of negative space, har har). When I went to buy this he was talking with Heidi MacDonald from The Beat about being famous, or something like that.

So that's my story from SPX. I had a good time, and hopefully I'll head back again next year.

The Small Press Expo Awaits

I'm heading to SPX this weekend! Sweet.

Here is their programming schedule. I'll be there Saturday, and I'm going to try to see the Critics' Roundtable at 1:30, then head to the "Background, Setting and Subject" panel at 2:30, which I'll probably leave early to see the Bryan Lee O'Malley Q+A at 3, and then I might still be around to see the Kramer's Ergot 7 panel at 4, but I might turn into a pumpkin at that point.

Hopefully I'll be able to grab some of the books that Dick Hyacinth tossed out as "best of 2008" candidates, or perhaps get my hands on a few of Tom Spurgeon's 50 Things That Every Comics Collection Truly Needs, or maybe I'll just get those early issues of Solar: Man of the Atom that I always wanted back in 1993. Nothin' beats Solar!