New York’s Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is hosting its MoCCA Festival 2009 this weekend, 6 and 7 June 2009, at the 69th Regiment Armory at 68 Lexington Avenue (between 25th and 26th Streets) in Manhattan.
The festival is “an incredible weekend of comic and cartoon art exhibitors, panels, lectures, sketches, autographs, and more! Thousands come every summer to meet and purchase works from some of the world’s best cartoonists, animators, and graphic novelists.” This year, the festival will feature more than 800 artists, publishers, and exhibitors, including Molly Crabapple, David Mazzucchelli, Jessica Abel, Becky Cloonan, John Green, Tara McPerson, Jerry Moriarty, Peter Kuper, Raina Telgemeier, Arnold Roth, Frank Santoro, Adrian Tomine, Gary Panter, Al Jaffee, Dave Roman, Tom Kaczynski, Tom Hart, Ruben Boling, Dash Shaw, Brian Wood, and Marion Vitus. Publishers will include Pantheon, Picturebox, Vertigo, Drawn and Quarterly, Fantagraphics, and Top Shelf.
Events during the weekend will include:
* the awarding of the Klein Award (see below)
* the premiere of David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp
* the MoCCA Artist Sketch Table
* the Make/Bake Sale, featuring handmade goodies by MoCCA Volunteers
* Animation From Hell! Cartoons by Peter Ahern, Danny Antonucci, Hisko Hulsing, Scott Kravitz, Arthur Metcalf, Nirvan Mullick, Bill Plympton, Pat Smith, and J.J. Villard
* panels and programs including Arnold Roth and Al Jaffe in Conversation, Tom Hart, Tom Kaczynski, Heidi MacDonald, Gary Panter, Dash Shaw, Raina Telgemeier, Adrian Tomine, and Jennifer Tong
The Festival will be open from 11AM to 6PM both days. Admission is $10 per day or $15 for the weekend.

Jerry Robinson is the recipient of the 2009 MoCCA Klein Award. Robinson is best known for his work on the DC Comics’ Batman series, most notably his creation of the Joker, as well as his vital role in the development of Robin, Alfred, and the Penguin. Robinson has been a creator, champion, and historian of comics and cartoons for more than 60 years, during which time he was president of the National Cartoonists Society and founded the Writers Syndicate/CartoonArts International. He also wrote The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Book Art and 30 other books. In addition, he has been an internationally-syndicated political
cartoonist for thirty years, and has had numerous exhibitions including The Superhero: The Golden Age of Comics, currently at the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles and Human Rights, which was developed for the United Nations.
The Klein Award is given annually to acknowledge significant contributions to the field of comics and cartooning. Past winners have included Jules Feiffer, Art Spiegelman, Roz Chast, Neal Adams, Gahan Wilson, Alison Bechdel and Bill Plympton. The award is named after MoCCA’s founder, Lawrence Klein.