The 2009 MoCCA Festival may have taken place at a new location, but it still drew crowds of comic art enthusiasts eager to meet some of their favorite creators and bask in the medium.

Hosted by the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, the festival gave fans the chance to meet established voices in the independent comic scene, as well as to see the work of up-and-coming creators. In many cases, recognizable names like Drawn and Quarterly, Evan Dorkin, and Fantagraphic Books had tables just a few short feet away from first-year MoCCA exhibitors selling $3-$5 mini-comics.

Although the first day got off to a late start (due to reasons partially-associated with the new venue, according to MoCCA Director Karl Erickson), throngs of people still poured into the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and with them a sense of energy and excitement.

This enthusiasm wasn?t lost on exhibitors. ?There?s always a really great crowd at the MoCCA Festival,? said Gina Gagliono, who stood behind the frequently-mobbed First Second Books table. ?New York City has a diverse population, and that?s reflected in everyone who walks through the door.?

The two-day celebratory event and fundraiser, which in previous years had taken place at the Puck Building in Lower Manhattan, was MoCCA?s biggest to-date. Over 800 artists and publishers took part as exhibitors, lecturers and panelists, and by signing copies of their work.

Erickson said the success of the festival showed it is, ?a truly great time to be in the comics and cartoon community.?

That sentiment of ?community? was echoed by countless exhibitors, some of whom were locally-based, while others traveled in from abroad. According to Erickson, as the festival expands each year, roughly one-third of the artists and publishers who take part are newcomers, making this particular fraternity especially vibrant.

For indie comics? creators, such a sense of camaraderie appeared to be especially valuable this past weekend (and not just because of what ?Palookaville? creator Seth, who took part in a panel discussion on Sunday, said about comics-making being an extremely solitary endeavor); several tables consisted of friends who had agreed to split the cost.

?Often, friends will split a table,? said Tim Piotrowski, the New York-based creator of a mini-comic called ?Kool-Aid Gets Fired.? ?Then you get to hang out for the entire weekend. It gives artists a chance to see friends they otherwise don?t see for a while.?

J. P. Coovert, co-founder of One Percent Press, a familiar face at MoCCA since he and some friends started publishing in 2004, also praised the overall sense of community, which made up for how occasionally stuffy the Armory became.

?It?s always nice to see friends,? said Coovert, who added that his best interactions had been with fellow exhibitors.

While the festival as a whole has grown, not all of that growth consists of local or even American creators. 2009 marked the first appearance of U.K.-based Fan Fare/Ponent Mon, which specializes in translating Spanish and Japanese graphic novels, as well as an entire section devoted to Scandinavian comics.

?The international exhibitors are a growing and important part of MoCCA Festival,? Erickson said. ?This year, we not only had [Fan Fare/Ponent Mon], but also a whole section devoted to Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, as well as artists from Ireland and Romania! We hope and expect to have even more nations represented next year.?

In general, the foreign publishers agreed the MoCCA Festival was a good venue for attracting new readers. ?It?s a very good festival because there are all kinds of publishers,? said Espen Holtestaul, publisher of the Norway-based No Comprendo Comics. ?This year, it?s a better field, but we?re all on the same wavelength.?

There were, of course, quite a few first-time exhibitors who had previously visited the festival as fans. They said the transition from one side of the table to the other was enlightening. ?People you wouldn?t expect to come up and be interested have come up, and you get a better idea of who likes your work,? said AC Campos, one half of the Brooklyn-based Twinkletoes Gang, who put out a colorful matchbook-style mini called ?Scary Ghost Girl.? ?Normally, you put the book out there and you don?t know who buys it.?

While the exposure might be even more important than the number mini-comics he sells, Campos wasn?t the only first-year vendor a little wistful about the old days. ?You can?t really look around,? he said. ?I love interacting with people on this side, but I really want to check out all the tables.?

During the first evening of the festival, the 2009 Klein Award, given annually to individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of comics and cartooning, was presented to legendary cartoonist Jerry Robinson, best known as the creator of the Joker.