Oh MoCCA!

This weekend was the MoCCA (Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) Art Fest, my favorite event of the year barring possibly Christmas and my yearly bath (joking! gosh!).

It's hard for me to articulate quite why MoCCA makes me so happy... but a big part of it is certainly the joy of spending a day or two in the company of several thousand people who love beautiful comics as much as I do... and people who make beautiful comics for me to love.

I think for a lot of us who are into comics as an art form, it's a bit of a solitary pleasure, experienced on the subway reading the latest Lynda Barry book, or on the internet, writing blogs and reading scanlations. I have the extraordinary good luck to make my living in comics as an art form, but even for someone like me, who is already steeped in narrative art on a daily basis, events like MoCCA remain something special - a reminder of the sheer awesomeness of my profession, and of the reason I got into it in the first place.

So once a year I haul ass down to the Puck Building and join a crowd: a few friends, and a whole lot of strangers who feel like friends. This year was no exception. I was only there Saturday, but it was a pleasure from start to finish. Setting up the table, talking to people who came by, wandering around the floor, buying beautiful things, having meetings, seeing friends and colleagues I rarely get to see in person, meeting more new and awesome people than you can shake a mini comic at, eating dinner with old and new friends, attending the Friends of Lulu awards for the first time, going to a party in a cavernous bar, and staggering home, late but not too late, overwhelmed and blissed out.

(Plus, I got a super-secret gift of awesomeness, which is at the frame shop right now. Photos to follow when it returns.)

This turtle is named Leo, I think...

...but we gave it to a little boy named Darwin two days ago, so I'm thinking Leo isn't so much a turtle as he is a tortoise (get it? eh?).

(The first thing Darwin did was stuff Leo's entire head into his mouth.)





Leo came from a pattern in "Let's Make Cute Stuff by Aronzi Aronzo: FUN DOLLS" called "Turtlies." As you can see, I deviated from pattern with his eyes -- I don't have any crafting felt, so I embroidered them on with embroidery floss. I should probably get some felt, though... you can do a lot of fun stuff with it...

little white lamb

Here's a friend for the little blue lamb, also from the "Lambkin" pattern. Soon these two will be winging their merry way off to their new owners -- two little babies of my acquaintance. So... many... babies!

I included the above photo to show off how my modification to the pattern had solved a bunching-and-pulling issue I'd had with the underside of the first little lamb.

D'awwwwwww.

Catching up!

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. New job is keeping me busy. But this weekend I finally managed to finish work on a new stuffed animal. I'll post pics of it soon -- once it has found its way to its intended owner, whose mother may well be reading this post! How's that for cagey?

BUT: in the meantime, I'll be making a few posts with photos of some of the animals I've made since the little blue cat, starting with...

Little blue lamb!











This little blue lamb came from a free online pattern at Pattern Bee.