Williamsburg 30-Second Mystery Theatre: What Happened to Elmo's Cool Comic Books? 7/7

The mixup involving Elmo's Linty Pupik Comiks and the Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower Magazine sows confusion on Metropolitan Avenue.

Williamsburg 30-Second Mystery Theatre: What Happened to Elmo's Cool Comic Books? 5/6

Claudia discovers that Elmo's Linty Pupik Comiks were mixed up at the printer with a certain publication of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and when she straightens everything out back at Desert Island Comics in time for the party, Mr. Ratmansky again expresses his gratitude to Claudia for solving the mystery.

Williamsburg 30-Second Mystery Theatre: What Happened to Elmo's Cool Comic Books? 4/6

Deciding to investigate why copies of Linty Pupik Comiks have failed to be delivered to the Desert Island Comics store for Mr. Ratmansky's party celebrating their publication, Claudia descends to the Metropolitan Avenue/Lorimer Street subway stop, where, in the corridor between the L and G lines, she discovers that a girl is trying to give copies of Elmo's comic books away for free!

Williamsburg 30-Second Mystery Theatre: What Happened to Elmo's Cool Comic Books? 3/6

At Desert Island Comics, Mr. Ratmansky's party to celebration the publication of his tenant Elmo's Linty Pupik Comiks seems to be going well -- except that the comic books have not yet arrived in the store!

Williamsburg 30-Second Mystery Theatre: What Happened to Elmo's Cool Comic Books? 2/6

At Desert Island Comics on Metropolitan Avenue, the Hasidic landlord Mr. Ratmansky hopes everything will go well at the party he's throwing to celebrate the publication of his trustafarian tenant Elmo's new comic book.

Williamsburg 30-Second Mystery Theatre: What Happened to Elmo's Cool Comic Books? 1/6

To fight rumors that she has forgotten her roots, Claudia heads to the McCarren Park Greenmarket in preparation for the party her Hasidic landlord friend, Mr. Ratmansky, is throwing at Desert Island Comics.

Saturday Afternoon in Williamsburg: The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church

Late this afternoon when we got home from teaching at the wonderful Borough of Manhattan Community College, we strolled over to the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel for the 2011 Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival,

where we had a terrific time among the cornucopia of great art and brilliant ideas committed to print in all its myriad forms.

The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival is an annual curated event organized by Desert Island, PictureBox and Bill Kartalopolous. It consists of three parts: artists and publishers displaying and selling publications; a gallery of original art; lectures and conversations on comics.

We just had time -- and not enough, really -- to see the exhibitors on two floors of the church.

Wow, there were so many!

Wednesday Night in Williamsburg: Nordic Book Frenzy at Desert Island Comics

Tonight we were able to briefly attend the Nordic Book Frenzy at our great neighborhood store for the best comics and graphic novels, the wonderful Desert Island.

April 10 and 11 are the dates for The MoCCA Fest 2010 at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue. It's "a unique venue to experience comics, mini-comics, web comics, graphic novels, animation, posters, prints, original artwork, and more. Each year, the Festival invites dozens of established and emerging creators, scholars, and other experts to participate in two days of lecture/discussion panels on a variety of comics and cartoon topics."

The Desert Island event was to honor and welcome the artists from the Nordic countries who've come to MoCCA Fest, presented with the consulates from their respective nations. (The press material says "respective Scandanavian countries," but we are never sure about Finland, so we'll stick with "Nordic.")

Some of their books were on sale at the store.

There was food and wine and the always-wonderful atmosphere at Desert Island, made even nicer by the summerlike weather.

The artists there included Sara Granér,

Johan F. Krarup,

Anna Sailamaa,

Tommi Musturi

and many others. Here's the complete list:

Finland:
Tommi Musturi, Ville Hänninen, Anna Sailamaa, Mari Ahokoivu, Kaija Papu, Kaisa Leka.

Norway:
Per Jørgen Olsen, Martin Ernstsen, Erik Falk, Espen Holtestaul, Kristoffer Kjølberg, Sindre Wexelsen, Flu Hartberg

Denmark:
Ib Kjeldsmark, Johan F. Krarup, Ingo Milton, Cav Bøgelund, Henrik Rehr, Lars Jakobsen, Søren Mosdal

Sweden:
Jakob Hallin, Sara Granér, Sofia Olsson, Åsa Grennvall, Benjamin Stengård, Johannes Klenell

These artists do some terrific work, and it was nice to see it at Desert Island.

Saturday Afternoon in Williamsburg: Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival at Our Lady of Consolation Church and Secret Project Robot

In a cold, driving rain - we are already counting the days until we migrate to our winter retreat in the Arizona desert - we trudged across Metropolitan Avenue this afternoon to drop in on the all-day Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, whose main exhibition space was in Our Lady of Consolation Church.

It was really, really crowded, filled with comics, graphic novels and related stuff.

The first table at the door belonged to our favorite neighborhood comics store, the fabulous Desert Island.

As we walked around, we took some pics of the exhibitors and their printed works and the crowds of comics congnoscenti.

Because we were spending the afternoon with our landlady/BFF and her (and our) favorite aunt and then going with them to an early dinner at Il Passatore on Humboldt Street, we couldn't stay for as long as we would have liked.

But we did get to see some of our favorites, including Paping, Dash Shaw, Leslie Stein, Gabrielle Bell, Adam Suerte, Kim Deitch, R.O. Blechman, Ben Katchor, et al.











We're grateful to Picturebox and Desert Island for presenting the festival.
























Unfortunately, we could only just drop in for a moment to the events at Secret Project Robot, which included presentations all afternoon.


You can find really good coverage of the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival on some excellent blogs: The Lightening Revolt (R); ArtLoversNewYork (Nancy Smith); Glory, How Stupid (Devin KKenny); The Cool Kids Table! (Rickey); Try Harder (Carrie); Like the Donkey Calling the Dog Big-Headed (Jess Ruliffson); and BabyTiger (Linzi).