MoCCA 2026
Programming Schedule
Our 2023 Programming has been recorded and will be available with a Digital Membership to the Society of Illustrators: learn more and get access here.
Programming is being hosted by the School of Visual Arts at the SVA Flatiron Gallery, located at 133 West 21st Street. Tickets to MoCCA Fest will be available for sale at this location.
Saturday March 28 | Programming
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM | SPACE ONE
Deb JJ Lee in Conversation
Deb JJ Lee; moderated by Morgan Boechner
Illustrator and comics artist Deb JJ Lee drew this year’s stunning SI MoCCA Fest poster and will sit down in a spotlight conversation with artist and writer Morgan Boecher (Chicken Heart, What’s Normal, Anyway?). Lee’s body of work includes commercial illustration for clients including Apple, BMW, Faber-Castell, and Google, and several books including their 2023 graphic memoir In Limbo, about the intersection of Korean-American diaspora and mental health.
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM | SPACE TWO
The Jack Kirby Way
Rand Hoppe, Patrick McDonnell, & Roy Schwartz; moderated by Kim Munson
Late in December, the New York City Council approved the naming of the intersection of Essex and Delancey St. as “Jack Kirby Way,” honoring the artist whose influential career spanned the comic book industry’s first five decades and whose creativity gave life to Marvel Comics’ universe of characters. Art historian Kim Munson (Comic Art in Museums) will lead a conversation about Kirby’s legacy with Rand Hoppe, director of the Jack Kirby Museum; Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell, who reflects on Kirby’s impact in his book The Super Hero’s Journey, and Roy Schwartz, who led the effort to name the street and is a board member for the Jack & Roz Kirby Awards.
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM | SPACE ONE
Kim Deitch:
How I Make Comics
Kim Deitch; moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos
Legendary artist Kim Deitch is one of the founding members of the underground comix generation, starting his career in the mid-1960s at the East Village Other. In the years since he has authored an entire library of brilliant, complex graphic novels that reliably offer readers a visionary tour through the border lands between art and insanity, filled with love for the cherished moments and cultural artifacts that redeem our struggling human race. He will discuss his latest graphic novel, How I Make Comics, in an in-depth conversation with moderator Bill Kartalopoulos.
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM | SPACE TWO
Funny On Demand
Caroline Cash, Mattie Lubchansky, & Brad Neely; moderated by Nat Towsen
From the daily comic strip pages established in American culture more than a century ago to the demands of a social media culture driven by fast consumption and wide virality, cartoonists have often had to produce quickly and regularly for demanding andfasmew fickle audiences. How do artists develop the discipline to be good, fast – and funny – on a neverending deadline? Comedian and writer Nat Towsen (Esquire, The Onion) will talk creative flow and staying funny with Caroline Cash, who recently took over the Nancy daily comic strip; cartoonist and former Nib editor Mattie Lubchansky (Simplicity); and Brad Neely, whose Creased Comics have just been collected by New York Review Comics.
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM | SPACE ONE
MoCCA Presents:
R. Sikoryak’s Carousel
R. Sikoryak with Tobias Aeschbacher, Kris Dresen & JD Glass, Caitlin Du, Hyena Hell, & Yashin
Cartoonist and Master of Ceremonies R. Sikoryak returns with another installment of Carousel, his long-running series of comics readings! Join us for a fun and mesmerizing hour of performance and projection featuring Swiss artist Tobias Aeschbacher (In the End We All Die), Kris Dresen & JD Glass (Punk Like Me), Caitlin Du (Jialin’s World), Hyena Hell (Demons), and Taiwanese innovator Yashin (Deeper Blue). Don’t miss Carousel, where comics and performance collide!
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM | SPACE TWO
COPRA: Post-Mortem
Michel Fiffe; moderated by Tucker Stone
In 2012 Cuban-American artist Michel Fiffe began a singular creative journey with his self-published comic book series COPRA. Blending influences from second-tier superhero team books (Suicide Squad) and independent comics (Love and Rockets), Fiffe brought an auteurist approach to the 24-page, full-color comic book while navigating the machinery of the direct market system. This past year, with the releases of The Death of COPRA and COPRA #50, Fiffe has realized his vision and steered his series to its conclusion. He will reflect on thirteen years of COPRA in conversation with Tucker Stone (Fantagraphics Books).
4:30 PM - 5:30 PM | SPACE TWO
Professional Development:
Comics and Education
Tom Hart, John Hendrix, & Whitney Sherman; moderated by Viktor Koen
In art and design schools across America, students have increasingly shown enthusiasm for comics education, and schools have responded with dedicated courses, minors, majors, and programs. At the same time, institutions face severe infrastructural challenges and students confront the prospect of high tuition and a challenging economy. SVA Comics & Illustration department chair Viktor Koen will lead a conversation on comics and education with Tom Hart (founder of the Sequential Arts Workshop), John Hendrix (chair of the Illustration and Visual Communication MFA at Washington University in St. Louis) and Whitney Sherman (founding chair of the MFA in Illustration Practice at MICA).
Sunday March 29 | Programming
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM | SPACE ONE
A Mostly Unfabulous Hour with Eric Orner
Eric Orner; moderated by Tom Mellins
In 1989 Eric Orner began drawing The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green for queer newspapers and alternative weeklies; the strip ran in 100 publications at its peak. He retired Ethan Green in 2005, the year the strip was adapted as a live-action feature film. Since then he has storyboarded at Disney, drawn Smahtguy: The Life and Times of Barney Frank (about the first openly gay member of the United States Congress), and has been a fellow of the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. He will discuss his career and his passion for political art and storytelling with New York architectural historian, author and curator Tom Mellins in this special spotlight session.
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM | SPACE TWO
Narratives of Resistance
Ben Passmore & John Vasquez Mejias; moderated by Jonathan W. Gray
John Vasquez Mejias’s woodcut graphic novel The Puerto Rican War chronicles a 1950 insurrection on the island of Puerto Rico and an associated attempt to assassinate American President Harry S. Truman. Ben Passmore’s decades-spanning Black Arms to Hold You Up examines and reflects upon the history of Black armed resistance in America. Both books consider the intersections of race and power, and both reflect on philosophical questions of resistance. John J. College of Criminal Justice and CUNY professor Jonathan W. Gray will speak with these authors about the histories they’ve chronicled and how they relate to the present moment.
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM | SPACE ONE
Pierre-Henry Gomont in Soviet Land
Pierre-Henry Gomont; moderated by Martha Kuhlman
Acclaimed French graphic novelist Pierre-Henry Gomont joins us for a fascinating conversation about his newly translated graphic novel Soviet Land. Set in the days immediately following the fall of the Soviet Union, Soviet Land follows the misadventures of a disillusioned young painter who falls into a milieu of swindlers and scavengers within Russia’s emerging gangster economy. Gomont himself was a sociologist before turning to comics full-time; he will discuss his interest in the post-Soviet milieu with Bryant University professor Martha Kuhlman, an expert in Central European comics.
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM | SPACE TWO
The Comics Journal at 50
Austin English, Gary Groth, & Sally Madden; moderated by Sam Thielman
In 1976 Gary Groth and co-founder Michael Catron bought a failing advertising-driven tabloid called the Nostalgia Journal. Within months they reinvented it as The Comics Journal, a new magazine of comics news and criticism and the cornerstone of what would become Fantagraphics Books. The Journal distinguished itself with no-holds-barred criticism and fearless, muckraking industry journalism. New York Times comics critic Sam Thielman will lead a conversation about the magazine’s past and present, with Groth and current Comics Journal editors Austin English and Sally Madden.
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM | SPACE ONE
Anna Haifisch: The Artist is Present
Anna Haifisch; moderated by Chantal McStay
German artist Anna Haifisch’s comics synthesize the fragility of Charles Schulz’s line with the introspection of alternative comics to depict and satirize the intimate melodramas that constitute the creative life. Her own artwork is infused with saturated colors informed by her background as a printmaker and is peppered with art historical references ranging from Japanese ukiyo-e to Western conceptualism. America is a frequent subject in her work as well, a subject she treats with fondness and amusement. She will discuss her work in this special spotlight conversation with arts writer and former BOMB comics editor Chantal McStay.
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM | SPACE TWO
Modern Horror
Julia Gfrörer, Gigi Murrakami, & Yu-Tung Yeh; moderated by Sally Madden
The mundane horrors of everyday life are often amplified to otherworldly levels in literature, film, and comics; the monsters that we treat as “other” are often revealed to be our own dark reflections. At a moment of historical turmoil, horror becomes a way to process contemporary anxieties. Indie film offers a personalized, auteurist approach to horror, as do comics, like the popular and influential works of Charles Burns and Junji Ito. Comics Journal editor Sally Madden will discuss contemporary takes on horror with Julia Gfrörer (World Within the World), Gigi Murakami (Resenter, RazorBlades), and Yu-Tung Yeh (A.I. Meets Ghost).
4:30 PM - 5:30 PM | SPACE TWO
Professional Development: Kids’ Comics Today
LIana Finck & Emily Flake; moderated by Liza Donnelly
The graphic novel came into its own as a category of American publishing at the turn of the twenty-first century. The category was originally driven by works considered to be the visual equivalent of contemporary North American literary fiction. However, the most durable types of graphic novels have proven to be translated manga and original graphic novels for middle-grade and YA audiences. Bill Kartalopoulos will discuss the current state of kids’ comics publishing with a distinguished panel including Claudia Bedrick (Enchanted Lion Books) and Janna Morishima (Kids’ Comics Unite!).
4:30 PM - 5:30 PM | SPACE ONE
Screening and Discussion: Women Laughing
LIana Finck & Emily Flake; moderated by Liza Donnelly
Women Laughing is a new short documentary about women who draw the cartoons that give The New Yorker so much of its tone and visual identity. Co-directed by cartoonist Liza Donnelly and Kathleen Hughes, the film brings together a vibrant roundtable of artists and examines the magazine’s storied history. A screening of this 45-minute film will be followed by a discussion with Donnelly and featured cartoonists Liana Finck and Emily Flake. Do not miss this special opportunity to see this film and laugh with the women who give the iconic magazine its sense of humor.