Make it Two Days [Sat/Sun]. Allows more programming, more browsing, more people, and more sales. Keep it at the PUCK Building. Brings all kinds and keeps it classy. The cost across the board will weed out the punters in the cheap seats. Hold the Harvey Awards at the NEW SCHOOL Auditorium on Sat. Nite [ @8:30PM - allows time for quick dinner ] w/an after party close-by or at another venue that has an auditorium/dance floor/bar in lower Manhattan [below 14th street, please]. Friday evening is the night where Highwater, Alternative, Art Spiegelman, Frank Miller, and whoever else, get to party naked w/all the folks who are flying in the day before the weekend event [a bar like Parkside Lounge w/it's pool table, juke box, and back room, is always fun -- the first Comix DeCode was held there]. NO franchise publishers allowed. Sunday night BBQ and Frisbee toss to be determined...
Hiking up the MoCCA costs for a 2-DAY event will make for better exhibition. Poor yet talented cartoonists have a year to break bread w/publishers and/or get noticed so they can buddy up and/or crash a table w/like-minded exhibitors. That's what these shows are about. Get noticed. Hawk wares. Shake a frickin' hand and swing a deal. Everyone else? Go fly a kite. I know I work VERY HARD just to get my measly comic out there and I expect nothing less from everybody worth their salt.
Also, I'm sure there are a few local galleries near the PUCK Building that could hold a show concurrently w/MoCCA's weekend event. The two events should launch together and the gallery should run for a month, selling the leftover comix from MoCCA to folks who dig the art hanging on the gallery walls. Your comix are STILL working for you 3-4 weeks AFTER MoCCA closes its annual doors.
http://www.moccany.org/events-festival-03.html
