Time is running out! You have two days to submit your application for MoCCA Arts Festival 2015. At this point, I recommend faxing your application or scanning it and emailing it to kate@societyillustrators.org. (The MoCCA Fest is the only convention I’ve applied to in the last year that still required I put pen to paper.)
Something caught my eye when I was reading the festival guidelines:
“Exhibitors are restricted to comic and cartoon artists and their representatives. This includes: Artists of creator-owned comics, publishers, and writers, selling only comic/cartoon art, comics and graphic novels. Exhibitors must display published material (self-published accepted) to be eligible.”
Does this signal a move away from exhibitors who sell merchandise only or primarily, and towards a more “pure” book festival? I would certainly applaud an effort to champion books and their creators first and foremost. But is this a ban on merchandise? I think that would be going too far. What is “comic/cartoon art?”
The truth is, MoCCA Fest is an expensive show for exhibitors–one of the most expensive indie comics shows around. Like many exhibitors, I rely on sales of merchandise, in addition to book sales, to cover my table cost (or attempt to cover it–it’s something I often fail at.) A ban on merchandise (if that’s what this is) would really cripple me financially.
I do like the idea that exhibitors have to sell books. This is a book festival. There should be one book on the table (kind of like the “one foot on the floor” rule). But does that mean we can ONLY sell books?
If anyone has more information on this, please chime in.
Se my 2014 MoCCA recap here.
THE TINY REPORT 
Hey, I accidentally titled this post “Applications for MoCCA Fest 2015 Close Friday.” Since Friday is the last day to apply, they actually close Saturday. I fixed the title. Sorry about that!