Cheryl Lynn isn't quite sure who she is, but she's pretty sure of what she wants to be. A warrior woman. A bad-ass mamajama. Perhaps an earth goddess extraordinaire. She spends her days abusing keyboards and screaming at computer screens while she waits for her cult following to finally show up.

She changes her mind more often than extras in rap videos change thongs.

Remember: save to your own server, sweets!

Reading SELF Magazine.

Writing To-Do lists.

Hearing Thunder.

Watching General Hospital.

Building Nothing.

Eating Vitamins.

Drinking Iced Tea.

Buying Comic books.

Thinking "It is HOT!"

Playing Episodes from Liberty City.

Adoring Cold water.

Saying Very little.

Abhorring Bigotry.

Feeling Calm.

Hoping To get in gear.

Convention-A-Go-Go!

MoCCA first, y'all. Let me first start by saying that the Puck Building is perfectly located. Jumped off the F at Broadway and walked right across the street to the main entrance. Perfect. Barely waited in line for five minutes before I was stamped, given an information packet and allowed access inside.

Let me get my one and only complaint about the show out of the way right now. There is no decent area to sit in! There was more than enough room on the second floor to provide a small row of seats so that weary customers could take a moment or two to rest their feet and sort through their purchases. Almost all conventions have a seating area provided for visitors. I'm surprised that the MoCCA Art Festival had no such area available. Yes, there were a couple of chairs in the small room where food and drinks were available for attendees, but that room was (1) tiny, (2) lit like a prison cell and (3) contained a large open container of garbage. Wait, I have two complaints. Three dollars and seventy-five cents for a small bottle of club soda and mango juice is in-fucking-sane.

Now for the awesome. Usually I do a full circle of the entire con before buying anything, but I couldn't pass up a slick-looking twenty-five cent preview of the upcoming Comic Foundry magazine. I can see why Wizard is staring to branch out. New magazines like Comic Foundry and Urban Voice in Comics are set to snatch up all the potential customers they ignored over the years. I'm really digging CF's look. If Wizard is Maxim, then Comic Foundry is Details or Esquire. It's a bit more upscale and there's no tinge of embarrassment when reading it.

Wizard doesn't seem as if it's going to be content letting another magazine snatch up all the customers they now realize exist, however. Wizard also had a table at MoCCA facing the steady stream of hipsters floating up from the first floor, and representatives were on hand to gather information about projects by independent creators. Three cheers for broadening horizons. Let's hope they really follow through. Comic Foundry and UVC are on my reading list. Wizard still has some more persuading to do.

Okay, rapid-fire name time! Here are the awesome people I got to talk to. Go see how awesome they are.

Mikhaela Reid.
Masheka Wood.
Elayne Riggs.
Carol Burrell.
Heidi MacDonald.
Ivan Brandon.
Andy MacDonald. (Where's your site?)
Brian Wood.
Kevin Tinsley.
Tyler Chin-Tanner.

I won't go into detail concerning each person I talked to. Y'know why? Because everyone was nice. And everyone seemed to just love comics. And that felt good. I expected an air of pretentiousness when I walked in. Not from the people I encountered, but just in general. There was none of that. Of course, this still wasn't the sort of convention where you could have a deep discussion about race and representation in comics and then talk about how World War Hulk is the shit. The convention was lacking an element of "fanboy euphoria". I do think a wee bit of "fanboy euphoria" is a good thing. But, this isn't the convention for that. And that's okay. NYCC will likely grow into the perfect blend of the mainstream and the art crowd. MoCCA is doing just fine as is.

The crowd was happily diverse. There seemed to be just as many women present at the convention as there were men. There was also a wide range of people from different ages attending. I can't recall seeing any children, but I did see older people, which was just as encouraging. Besides, it's not like any one there was selling Naruto. I didn't expect to see little kids swarming through the aisles.

There were also people of different races and ethnicities there as well. There were black women! More than I could count on one hand even! Sweet! And a few cute guys! And aside from one dude in the elevator with me, everyone bathed for the occasion! Thank you.

The products being sold? Fantastic. And don't think there wasn't a diverse selection of books to read just because the superheroes weren't invited to the party. Romance, action-adventure, crime...it was all there. It just wasn't wearing spandex. And there was material there for readers ranging from teen to elder.

I can see why the convention organizers are so determined to keep the festival at the Puck. The building is gorgeous. High-ceilings. Brightly-lit rooms. Natural sunlight. Moderate temperatures. The atmosphere is perfect. And kudos to the staff, who were very kind and patient in answering my dopey questions when I was attempting to find the free shuttle the organizers provided to take visitors to the Big Apple comic convention on 32nd street.

Anyway, that's all for MoCCA, y'all. If I remember anything else, I'll add it here. Next up? The Big Apple.

Cheryl Lynn @ 09:37 AM EST Link