The Society of Illustrators has unveiled the first round of creators leading the guests of honor for the MoCCA Arts Festival, taking place April 4-5, 2020, at Metropolitan West in New York City. This year’s featured guests of honor are Patrick McDonnell, Trina Robbins, Jillian Tamaki, Chris Ware, and Ronald Wimberly.

McDonnell is best known for his comic strip Mutts, which appears in over 700 newspapers and recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Prior to creating Mutts, McDonnell drew the Russell Baker Observer column for the New York Times Sunday Magazine, created the Bad Baby strip for Parents Magazine and co-authored Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman. McDonnell’s work has also been animated for television commercials and he is the author of several award-winning children’s books. 

Cartoonist Robbins has been creating comics since the 1960s and is one of the first artists of the underground comix movement. Her credits include contributing to The East Village Other, editing It Aint Me, Babe Comix, co-founding the feminist comics anthology Wimmen’s Comix, and being the first woman to draw Wonder Woman for DC. Robbins is also a historian, has published many notable non-fiction titles, and won multiple awards and recognitions. 

Award-winning illustrator Tamaki is the co-creator of the graphic novel Skim and the first graphic novel to receive a Caldecott honor This One Summer. She is the author and artist of SuperMutant Magic Academy, Boundless, and the children’s book They Say Blue – which earned her the Boston Globe-Horn Book Picture Book Award and another Caldecott Honor. Most recently she was the Guest Editor of The Best American Comics 2019. Her work appears regularly in the New York Times and other venues. 

Since his work appeared in RAW Magazine in 1990, Ware has published a number of groundbreaking works, including his ACME Novelty Library series, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Rusty Brown and Building Stories – a set of 14 interconnected narratives that can be read in any order. In addition to his graphic novel work, Ware has created many covers for The New Yorker and has been exhibited in many art museums.

Wimberly is an author, illustrator, and comic artist known for his work on Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Prince of Cats and Black History in Its Own Words. In 2018 he launched the annual art tabloid LAAB Magazine, focusing on issues of identity and visual culture. Wimberly has also produced work for The Nib, The New Yorker, Nike, Marvel, and Dark Horse.

The MoCCA Arts Festival will take place April 4-5 from 11 AM to 7 PM on Saturday and 11 AM to 6 PM on Sunday. Admission is $10 per day, or $18 for weekend passes, and will grant attendees access to the Fest including the Exhibitors Hall, on-site Gallery space, and programming. Children under 10 are admitted free. 

For more information on the MoCCA Arts Festival, or the guests of honor, visit societyillustrators.org/mocca.