The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) announced that legendary underground cartoonist and graphic novelist Kim Deitch will make two special appearances at the museum in association with MoCCA’s current exhibit, Kim Deitch: A Retrospective.

Tomorrow, on October 30, Kim Deitch will host a Cartoon Movie Night featuring rarely seen animated cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s hand-picked for the occasion from Deitch’s own personal collection.  This period of animation inspired Deitch’s signature character Waldo the Cat and is the subject of his acclaimed graphic novel The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, which is featured in the exhibit.  As a special Halloween treat, MoCCA will also display for one night only selected specimens from Deitch and spouse Pam Butler’s extensive collection of antique toy cats.  The blurring of fact, fiction and autobiography in Deitch’s work is a major focus of Kim Deitch: A Retrospective, and this display will present a rare opportunity to see the historical artifacts that motivate the fictional narrative in Deitch’s graphic novel Alias the Cat.

On November 13, Kim Deitch will appear at MoCCA for a Q & A session with exhibit curator (and Parsons Illustration Part-time Faculty) Bill Kartalopoulos.  In a unique and wide-ranging conversation, the two will discuss Deitch’s work and career to date. Deitch will present examples of recent work and will also preview images from his current works in progress.

Both events are free and open to the public, and run as part of a regularly scheduled series of “MoCCA Thursdays” events at the Museum.

Kim Deitch’s career spans the entire post-war history of avant-garde comics, from the underground to the literary mainstream. As an early contributor to the East Village Other, Deitch was a charter member of the underground comix scene that exploded with the 1968 publication of Robert Crumb’s Zap #1.  Forty years later, he stands alongside Crumb, Bill Griffith, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Art Spiegelman as one the most notable and prolific artists to emerge from that milieu.  Kim Deitch: A Retrospective features ninety-seven pieces spanning the artist’s entire career, including comics originals, preparatory sketches, prints, and animation cel set-ups.

The exhibit runs through December 5, 2008.

MoCCA is located at 594 Broadway, Suite 401 (between Houston & Prince)
New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212 254-3511
MoCCA is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 12 – 5 pm
Suggested Donation during museum hours: $5
For more information please visit: http://www.moccany.org