Last month I was in New York seeing a friend on Broadway as the title character in the musical, Cry-Baby (now closed, sadly) and the timing of the trip couldn’t have been better, as it just happened to coincide with the MoCCA Art Festival 2008, where I got the opportunity to meet a bunch of cool comic and webcomic luminaries.

After milling about the show floor(s), I ran into the Squid Works booth where Stan Yan(artist half of the hilarious geektastic webcomic, Subculture, creator of The Wang comic/webcomic, and writer of the webcomic Revvelations) was exhibiting his creations. I’d been wanting to meet both Stan and Kevin Freeman (the writer of Subculture) as they had put up a very flattering write up of JEFBOT on their site and I wanted to thank them in person. Although Kevin wasn’t there (I’ll have to thank him another time) Stan and I got a good amount of talking in and he imparted a lot of great info about what I can look forward to when I start hitting the convention circuit in the future. Really cool.

All of his projects have a different look and feel to them so check them all out; there’s sure to be something you’ll like.

Another webcomic writer/artist I talked to was none other than Danielle Corsetto of  Girls With Slingshots fame. Many of you may remember I did a guest strip for her a couple months back (there’s a good chance you’re here now because of that), and I wanted to introduce myself and let her know how cool her fans have been to me and what a boost in traffic I got from doing that strip.

Of course, she was totally cool. She signed and sketched my GWS book, said some kind words about JEFBOT and gave me some terrific advice about the wild world of webcomics, from promoting my site to what to do at conventions as an exhibitor. I came away from our meet feeling totally ready to start promoting JEFBOT on the road.

Girls With Slingshots is one of my favorite webcomics. It’s sort of a younger, hipper, more realistic Sex and the City. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Only a few minutes after I said goodbye to Danielle, I found myself at Alex Robinson’s booth where he was signing copies of his new book, Too Cool To Be Forgotten. Alex is one of the coolest comic book creators I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. He’s very approachable, sincere and talented. I had met him at the San Diego Comic Con a couple years back, where he did a sketch for me in a hardcover of the graphic novel Tricked, which I absolutely loved. This time I bought the hardcovers for Too Cool and Box Office Poison, both of which he sketched in and signed. While he was doing the signings, we had time to talk about comics, webcomics (he noticed me holding the GWS book, which was a great opportunity for me to tell him about my guest strip and JEFBOT), conventions and the comic business. When I left his area he said he looked forward to seeing me in my own JEFBOT booth at a convention, soon. He might tell all budding comic creators that, but I cannot tell you how awesome and powered up that made me feel the rest of the day.

If you like your characters real and your stories complex, pick up any of his graphic novels (Box Office Poison, Tricked, Too Cool to be Forgotten). They’re all good and I can’t recommend them highly enough.

So those were some of the highlights of MoCCA for me, although I saw a bunch of other neat tables and booths, and met a bunch of other cool people there, including director Michel Gondry, who was there selling his comic, We Lost the War But Not the Battle, which he signed and drew a little caricature of me on! I’ll have to scan it and put it up on the site later.

So, lots learned and new acquaintances (and friends!) made, and another step closer to being on the other side of the table. Rad.

Just wanted to let you guys know that my webcomic partners-in-crime over at SubCulture recently released a trade paperback titled, appropriately enough, SubCulture: the TPB, collecting their four-issue SubCulture comic mini-series. Written and drawn by the same amazing team that does the webcomic, my buddies Kevin Freeman (writer) and Stan Yan (artist) have created a book that’s a must for fans of the strip and of geek culture in general.

Although at first you might think you’re reading a typical “Beauty and the Geek” type story, you’ll soon find that the girl, Noel, is no typical beauty, and the guy, Jason, is no typical geek. Noel’s a somewhat snobbish, avant-garde artist, who looks down on “the mainstream” and is new to the whole “fanboy” scene (and the neighborhood). Jason’s a guy who, although he loves reading comics and playing videogames, hasn’t entirely embraced his inner geek. In fact, that’s one of the things I liked most about the book – it doesn’t blindly embrace the geek lifestyle of many of its characters, and isn’t just a bunch of Star Wars references and D&D jokes. In fact, in many cases it casts a critical eye on this behavior, most notably when Noel and Jason head down to the “Super Con” with his comic store friends. When Noel starts lashing out at all the costumes, adolescence and testosterone on display on the convention floor, it only seems especially harsh because of the truth behind the words. 

So how does it all end up with this seemingly mismatched pair? Can they reconcile their differences and make it work? Is Noel’s artwork just too “out there” for Jason? Will Jason’s geeky roommate and friends down at the local comic shop ruin it for him? Well, you’re gonna have to read the book to find out. And with Kevin providing the great dialogue and story, and Stan providing the visuals that continue to impress me twice a week at SubCultureComic.com, it’s worth buying the book to see what happens.

Now’s a great time to buy, too, since they’re having a sale on the book right now. Go check out your options here (they have a regular edition and a signed-and-numbered edition). And while you’re there, check out the SubCulture webcomic if you’re not reading it already, since if nothing else, you just know the characters have impeccable taste in clothes and webcomics, as evidenced by this strip.