Jewish Side of MOCCA Fest 2017 - April 1st & 2nd

This weekend, the annual MOCCA (Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art) Festival will take place at the Metropolitan West in New York City, with programming taking place at Ink48.

Among the creators & publishers of Jewish comics, Jewish graphic novels, and other Jewish graphica are :

* Abrams ComicArts is the publisher of the Hereville books, the English edition of Pascal Croci's Auschwitz, Yiddiskeit, and the English edition of Boxer: The True Story of Holocaust Survivor Harry Haft by Reinhard Kleist

* Julia Alekseyeva is the author-illustrator of the graphic novel Soviet Daughter: A Graphic Revolution.

* C Cassano is one of the artists who contributed to the Schmuck graphic biographical anthology.

*  The Center for Cartoon Studies is the publisher of Houdini : The Handcuff King. 

* Fantagraphic Books is the publisher of Jewish Images in the Comics, Palestine, and Barracuda in the Attic.

* First Second Books is the publisher of Klezmer : Tales of the Wild East, the Rabbi's Cat books, and the Resistance series.

* Drew Friedman is the cartoonist who illustrated "What If Chris Rock Performed At A Bar Mitzvah?" (MAD Magazine #419) and "Marnin Rosenberg in 'Bad Luck with Women'" (National Lampoon - June 1987).

* Dean Haspiel is the illustrator of the Harvey Pekar autobiography The Quitter, Ego & Hubris : The Michael Malice Story and Jonathan Ames' The Alcoholic.

* Keren Katz is an artist who adapted the story of Solomon ibn Gabirol's golem for Jewish Comix Anthology volume 1.

* Peter Kuper is the author-illustrator of the short biographical story "Promised Land"(Bleeding Heart #2), as well as the book-length autobiographical Stop Forgetting to Remember : The Autobiography of Walter Kurtz and illustrator of some stories which appeared in the anthology Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular and the New Land.

* NBM Publishing is the publisher of the Jew in Communist Prague books, Brownsville, The Big Khan, and the Isaac the Pirate books.

* Josh Neufeld is the author-illustrator of A Few Perfect Hours.

* Pantheon is the publisher of Maus, Unterzakhn, and The Jew of New York.

* Hadar Reuven is a visual artist and storyteller employing a variety of mediums; collage, painting, installation, video, sound, graphic novels and artist books. 

* Ellis Rosen is the illustrator of the story "Aaron Lansky and the Recovery of Yiddish", published in Yiddishkeit, a 1 page of an adaptation of "Fire" written by Isaac Bashevis Singer, as well as the adaptation of the Moshe Yess song "My Zayde" in Jewish Comix Anthology volume 1.

Robert Sikoryak is a cartoonist who has adapted classic stories into comic-style retellings, including a Dagwood-style "Adam and Eve", which was reprinted in Masterpiece Comics.

____________

Programming

SATURDAY, APRIL 1 PROGRAMMING

12:30PM / Helvetica Room
Drew Friedman: Heroes of the Comics
In Heroes of the Comics and his new follow-up volume More Heroes of the Comics, illustrator and cartoonist Drew Friedman has produced a series of affectionate, beautifully rendered portraits of important figures from the history of American comic books, accompanied by short informative biographies. Friedman will discuss selected figures from his two books with Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth, special guest Al Jaffee, who is featured in the first volume, and Karen Green, ‎Curator for Comics and Cartoons at Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library, who provides the second volume’s introduction. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 2 PROGRAMMING

2:00PM / Garamond Room
Rutu Modan and David Polonsky in Conversation
Israeli artists Rutu Modan and David Polonsky are both known for the excellence of their artwork and for their provocative approach to blending historical and current events into their imaginative works. Modan is best known in North America for her graphic novels Exit Wounds and The Property and for her short story collection Jamilti. Polonsky is best known in North America as the art director for the animated film Waltz With Bashir, directed by Ari Folman. He is also the illustrator of the graphic novel based upon the film. Modan and Polonsky will discuss their work with comics scholar and writer Tahneer Oksman (How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses?).  

3:30PM / Garamond Room
Anthologies as Art: Kramers Ergot and Lagon
The great anthologies of comics history — Zap, Weirdo, RAW, and others — have both made an assertion of comics’ aesthetic ambition at a certain time and place while functioning as a personal expression by each series’ editors. Sammy Harkham is the editor of Kramers Ergot, the anthology which, since 2003, has generated excitement with each volume as a strong statement about contemporary art comics in North America. Alexis Beauclair is the co-editor of Lagon, which debuted in 2014 as a risographed encapsulation of French avant-garde comics, and has metamorphosed with each volume leading to the latest, Gouffre. They will discuss their work as artists and editors with Bill Kartalopoulos.