So, your guy Saturday JackBauerstein went to Day 1 of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival in New York City yesterday and let me tell you, the event was pretty amazing.

Now for this year’s event, MoCCA had a location change. Once stationed at the Puck Building, the event had grown too big and just too awesome to be contained in such a small space. Enter: The 69th Regiment Armory at Lexington Avenue and 25th Street. This massive building would be perfect for such a large gathering of indie comic fans and as usual, I had to be front center, smack-dab in the middle of the event.

I arrived at the location 20 minutes before the event was about to begin and already there was a line in front of me.

Fans of such big indie names as Evan Dorkin, Seth, and Adrian Tomine are some of the most loyal bunch around and gathered early, a fact I knew beforehand so I did not mind waiting. But, if you have ever been to MoCCA before, you would know that something always delays the beginning of the show. Last year, someone on the show floor needed medical assistance and the show was delayed slightly. This year, apparently there was an issue with the cash registers that stopped the show from starting for at least an hour. The line of people remained calm though, since the weather was so nice and not hot at all. Plus, we were treated to a bunch of marching army folk, on what appeared to be their daily exercise.

Finally at noon, we were let into the event. The organizers felt bad for making us wait so everyone on line got their tickets at half price, meaning my original $10 ticket turned into $5 (HUZZAH!)

Once inside, I took a look around. The place is huge.

I beelined to one of my favorite artist’s around, Kean Soo, who is just “Soo” Awesome (I’m sure he has heard that before but I just had to say it. I mean, the picture tells it all.)

He was at the show promoting his newest book Jellaby: Monster In The City, which is out in comic/book stores everywhere. The story is great and the art is super-duper cute, which is why I contacted him earlier about a commission.

I know: The commission is definitely the cat’s pajamas!

I then went over to artist and the nice guy in the yellow shirt Andy Belanger .

Andy was super friendly and drew me his favorite comic character Ghost Rider. I think he nailed it. What do you think?

Sha-Daisy that is a fine looking piece! Andy is currently working on Kill Shakespeare from IDW and will also be working a top secret DC project, which he told me will rock your socks off. After looking at this Ghost Rider piece, I think it is safe to believe him.

I stopped by other booths and snapped pictures as I went along and noticed a sizable group of indie and mainstream talent, all together like a big melting pot.

As the day went on, it seemed the place got more and more crowded. In the morning, there was a lot of people on line…

But when I left the building it looked more like this…

The turnout was incredible and the crowd inside was just as good.

The only problem? As more people came in, it appeared as if all the air was sucked out of the room. Much like the event last year, the room got hot fast and was extremely uncomfortable. This didn’t seem to stop people from coming into the festival though.

Overall, I really enjoyed the festival.

More pictures on the bottom. Hope you enjoyed this report as much as I enjoyed going to the festival.