MoCCA Festival Rundown - The Best of the Rest

Now here's some of the highlights from the rest of my experience at the MoCCA Festival 2011.

The best free swag:
BAD JU JU by MC Blackwolf

I saw this dude sporting the coolest Flash hoodie, so I just had to stop him and compliment him on it, as well as find out where I can get one for myself. Turns out he was a nerdcore rapper, a field I've been entertaining exploring recently, as I've always wanted to split lyrics. This really well-designed 8 track album was thrown into my CD player with low expectations, but damn, this kid is good. The beats are solid, the hooks are catchy, and he's got a lyrical flow that stands strong. There will be a lot more news from this kid as I've now got a new favorite underground rap star.

Check out his show this Sunday in Brooklyn with the SpaceLAB crew.


VISION MACHINE by Greg Pak & R.B. Silva.

I read the free copy of Vision Machine when it first came out online. I was really into the idea of the technology in the story (reality altering goggles) and what it means to be a content creator. This is about as natural an evolution of today's iGeneration that I can imagine. The fact that this comic was put out free under Creative Commons with help from the Ford Foundation, well this is a benchmark comic now isn't it? Add to the fact that it's a solid story with really well-rendered artwork, and you've got the coolest free swag from a mainstream creator available at the indie comic convention. I hope you got a copy, if not swing by Greg Pak's site to download it.


Saleswoman of the Show: Lena H. Chandhok

This lovely young lady with the charming smile brought me over to her table with her hopeful yet bashful glances, and I was glad to sit and look over her books. A theme I noticed this year was making books that didn't look like books or interactive books of a sort. Ms. Chandhok was the queen of this. From a mini that looked like an iPod Nano to an oversized playing card, to a fridge shaped comic that ran one story in the 2/3 of the lower half, with another slimmer one across the top for the freezer, most of her comics didn't look like books, something she said she was intentionally going for. And it worked. Her books looked cute, different, something that stood out and you might want to have laying around to show how you support awesome indie creators. But alas, I had spent a lot of money by this point, so though she went through her selection of comics with me, I left with a 50 cent comic about the abominable snowman, which is short but a nice sampling of her work, and really, you can afford 50 cents now can't you? Now I'll remember her work and keep an eye out for future comics that resemble other things.

Impulse buy that didn't quite work out:
TWISTED JOURNEYS - Kung Fu Masters

Now, I buy anything with kung fu in it, so when I saw that there was a new graphic novel approach to 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books, AND there was a kung fu version, well I was sold. The art is fun, the book is a small and slim manga size, with good production values. The story hasn't dragged me in as much as I hoped. I found it a little annoying that I died a few times right away no matter how I played things out. The story starts off pretty cool, and very true to the old school feel of kung fu adventure, but the coolness of its exterior doesn't quite match up to its interior. I like the concept but the execution seems not as fun as it should be. I imagine this will be something I re-discover later on and enjoy, but for now, I choose another adventure altogether.