Check out Day 0 and Day 1, and then read on for the final day of the MoCCA Art Festival for 2008.

Sunday was a bit mellower than Saturday at the Festival... at least until the now-infamous fire alarm evacuation! Our first signer of the day was Leah Hayes, seen here, seated, with the just-arrived Ted Stearn and Dash Shaw:

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That's what you would have seen if you were among the first attendees to visit our table at this year's MoCCA Art Festival. Check out our "Day 0" recap here, and read on for the full rundown on Day 1 (Saturday, June 7, 2008).

We got to the Puck Building (traditional site for the Festival) early (so very early) on Saturday morning to meet Alex and Mary from Rocketship. This year we arranged to have our books shipped to their store, and they made two trips across the river from Brooklyn to deliver everything to us at the Festival. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Alex and Mary, who were solid-gold superstars, going above and beyond the call of duty and providing us with invaluable assistance the entire weekend (not to mention loaning us a spare spinner rack). If you're in the area, get your butt over there ASAP and have yourself a spending spree -- you'll be giving your comics budget to two of the nicest folks in the business. (Plus, their store is fantastic.)

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So as not to overwhelm, I'm going to split up my recap of the 2008 MoCCA Art Festival by day, so stay tuned for further posts and be sure to hit those "Read More" links to read the full report from each day.

This year's experience began on the evening of Friday June 6 at the Museum's gallery space on Broadway at the exhibitor reception and early check-in, where enthusiastic volunteers were distributing badges:

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Here's a bunch of autographs by EC/MAD folks -- Jack Kamen, Al Fedlstein, Angelo Torres, Russ Heath & Marie Severin -- as well as Michael Chabon. 

"[W]hen I start painting I think of where's the water. You don't necessarily see the water, but that's the first thing I think about. You already have air, or you'd be dead. You have a while to find water. In the paintings, that's what I think about. That's the first moment, anyway. "

(Above: The Fantagraphics House.)

A two-fer this time around, since I was out last Friday. I need to come up with a better name for these link roundup posts. Any suggestions?

• When Comic Books Ruled the Earth is enthusiastic about The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez

• Sequart on Amor Y Cohetes by the three Hernandez brothers

• Also at Sequart, their in-depth look at every issue of Love and Rockets Vol. 1 has reached issue #33

• Joe McCulloch (a.k.a. Jog) reprints his Comics Journal review of the first two issues of Gabriella Giandelli’s Interiorae

• Chris McLaren, in discussing Jules Feiffer's Explainers, reveals that this Feiffer print hung at one time (and possibly still does) in Neil Gaiman's bathroom

• Boing Boing boosts Bottomless Belly Button by Bash Dash Shaw

• Largehearted Boy's Book Notes also looks at Bottomless Belly Button

• The Oregonian, Jog again, and Sequart again, all on Jason's Pocket Full of Rain and Other Stories

• The Forbidden Planet blog on Jason's The Last Musketeer

• Shuffleboil on Ray Fenwick's Hall of Best Knowledge

• Panels and Pixels says Willie & Joe: The WWII Years by Bill Mauldin "might be the most important comic reprint project of the year"

• The Comic Book Bin on R.C. Harvey’s Meanwhile… A Biography of Milton Caniff

• Sequart once more, on the Comic Arf anthology

• Again with the Comics starts a series of posts on the work of Peter Bagge by looking at his series Neat Stuff

• The Floating Lightbulb looks at E.C. Segar's Sappo as it appears in our Popeye collections

• Fantasy writer Icats Nitram takes a look at our 1986 release Children of the Night Tide by Jan Strnad, Dennis Fujitake and Tim Solliday

Plus...

• Our own Eric Reynolds explains Mome to Comic Book Resources (with a preview of the forthcoming Vol. 12)

• See Paul Hornschemeier's photos of Kevin Huizenga, Anders Nilsen and the trio's artwork at the Bilbolbul festival in Bologna, Italy

• Presspop has photos of a Jim Woodring exhibit in Japan

• WFMU apparently has more Fantagraphics clutter to auction off; this time it's the first collection of Kaz's Underworld

• Rod McKie spotlights the work of Jason

• Ty Buttars reports from Tuesday's Jason event at The Beguiling in Toronto

• And finally, from our Flickr group pool, a cat reading Peanuts upside-down:

Our beloved Ray Fenwick has been busy lately, check out his New print:

And his Limited edition Hall of Best Knowledge bookplates from Tiny Showcase (available with or without the book):

And his amazing hand-painted Friendship Bracelet slideshow: 

And his most excellent recent illustration work for The New York Times, The Stranger, and Swindle magazines. See here.

And his Hit List. And most especially, the slow jams mix tape he made for you.

Our fourth and final preview today is of Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell. Unfortunately we weren't able to debut this book at the MoCCA festival as planned, but here you can take a quick virtual tour, and of course it is available for pre-order! Watch the video above and click here for a gallery of preview photos. (And don't forget you can also read the intro and, if you're logged in, get a downloadable PDF preview too.)

Our third preview of the day is of Our Gang Vol. 3 by Walt Kelly. This book is due in July and is now available for pre-order! Watch the video above and click here for a gallery of preview photos.