About MoCCA

The purpose of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is the collection, preservation, study, education, and display of comic and cartoon art. Every genre of the art is represented: animation, anime, cartoons, comic books, comic strips, gag cartoons, humorous illustration, illustration, political illustration, editorial cartoons, caricature, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and computer-generated art. Further, the museum's rigid collection policy ensures that the art collections are maintained in an environment of the highest integrity.

It is the mission of the museum to promote the understanding and appreciation of comic and cartoon art as well as to detail and discuss the artistic, cultural, and historical impact of what is the world's most popular art form. Comics and cartoons have been instrumental in effecting significant dialogue on issues involving society, culture, philosophy, and politics. History has shown them to be instrumental in documenting--and interpreting--historic events and social change. Artistically, comic and cartoon art is created at the highest levels by some of the world's finest graphic illustrators.

The main goal of the museum is to educate the public about comic and cartoon art, how it is crafted, and how it reflects history. What does the art tell us about the time period that it was created in? How does it stand the test of time? What First Amendment issues regarding content come into play? How does censorship determine what is (and isn't) published?

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is chartered by The State Education Department, organized and operated as defined in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns or would like to donate please e-mail us at info@moccany.org You may also donate on-line by visiting our donation page.

Board of Trustees

Ellen S. Abramowitz Chairman
Ellen received her BFA with an emphasis on photography from the University of Arizona and worked as a professional photographer before receiving her real estate certificate from NYU and entering the world of corporate real estate. She remains active in the arts community as a collector of contemporary art and as a member of PWP - Professional Women Photographers. Ellen joined MoCCA's board of advisors in 2002 before becoming a trustee in 2004. She is active in a number of other civic and charitable organizations including Women's American ORT, The Real Estate Board of New York, and NYCREW (New York Commercial Real Estate of Women).

Lawrence Klein, Esq. Chairman Emeritus and Founder
Lawrence founded MoCCA in the summer of 2001. In New York City he worked as in house counsel for high-technology companies. Currently, Lawrence lives in Berkshire County, Massachusetts with his wife and son. Since his retirement from active leadership of MoCCA, Lawrence has joined the board of the Storefront Artist Project (SAP) in Pittsfield, MA. At SAP Lawrence created the successful Comic Book and Cartoon Art Comes Alive programming. As part of this programming he curated "The Art of Joe Staton" in August of 2008 and "The Art of Scott Hanna" in August 2009. He serves on the boards of several local non-profits. Lawrence is proud of MoCCA's success under its current leadership and still enjoys his visits to MoCCA.

Steven Brezzo
Steve Brezzo is a museum specialist, lecturer, writer on topics of popular culture, and an arts administrator with an extensive background in the visual and performing arts.
He served as Director of the San Diego Museum of Art for twenty years and subsequently served as an international museum and non-profit consultant. He has been Director of the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts / Pageant of the Masters and was Director of Sotheby"s Institute of Art in New York.
His writing has appeared in publications as diverse as The Atlantic Monthly, Apollo, and Ring Magazine.
In addition, he has worked in a variety of mediums including television and radio, and has organized exhibitions on topics of art and popular culture ranging from Dr. Seuss, the Muppets, Maurice Sendak, Laurent de Brunhoff, Star Trek, Star Wars and Hollywood Movie Posters.
He resides in New York and Connecticut.

Ken Fisher Trustee, Financial Committee
Ken is the creator of the weekly comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug, which he creates under the pseudonym Ruben Bolling. Tom the Dancing Bug is distributed by Universal Press Syndicate to over fifty newspapers, and also appears on Salon.com. In addition to producing the comic strip, Fisher has worked as an attorney and a banker.

Mark J. Lerner Trustee, Financial Committee
Mark is the President of Morgan, Evan and Company an investment banking group created in 1992. In addition, he is currently the vice president of the Asia-Pacific region of M&A International. A collector of contemporary art, Mark has served on the board of directors of the Vassar College Art Museum for five years and has been the chairman for the past two.

Keith Mayerson Trustee

Roger Reed Trustee, Collections Committee
Roger is president of Illustration House, America's foremost gallery dedicated to illustration and cartoon art. He has written many articles and papers on the subject and edited the definitive reference work by his father, Illustration House founder Walt Reed, The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000. In addition he has been curator to exhibitions of such artists as J.C. Leyendecker, Joseph Clement Coll, and John Held, Jr.

Jim Salicrup Trustee, Public Relations Committee
Jim is editor-in-chief at Papercutz, publishers of the new Nancy Drew, Classics Illustrated and Tales From The Crypt graphic novels. Jim began his career at Marvel, where he edited X-Men, Fantastic Four; Avengers, the best selling Spider-Man # 1. As editor-in-chief of Topps Comics, Jim edited Bram Stoker's Dracula, The X-Files, and a line of Jack Kirby super-hero titles. At Stan Lee Media, Jim was senior writer/editor and the writer and voice of Stan Lee's Evil Clone.

Jeff Trexler Trustee

Fred Van Lente Trustee, Collections Committee, Fundraising Committees
Fred Van Lente is The New York Times bestselling author of Incredible Hercules (with Greg Pak) and Marvel Zombies 3 & 4, as well as the American Library Association award-winning Action Philosophers. His other comics include Comic Book Comics, MODOK's 11, X Men Noir, and Amazing Spider-Man.
Wizard magazine nominated him for 2008 Breakout Talent (Writer). Comics Should Be Good named Fred one of the 365 Reasons to Love Comics. He's been called "one of the most idiosyncratic and insightful new voices in comics."

Karl Erickson Director

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Board of Advisors

Nick Barrucci
Signe Baumane
Liza Donnelly
David J. Ennis 2
Christopher Forbes
Steven Guarnaccia
Jeff Gural
Lance Festerman
Michael Filan
Danny Fingeroth
Stan Goldberg

Bunny Hoest
Charles Kochman
Peter Kuper
Tim Lasiuta
Stan Lee
Heidi Leigh
R.J. Matson
Patrick McDonnell
Moby
Terry Nantier
Bill Plympton
Wendy Wick Reaves
Alex Simmons
Deborah Snyder
Zack Snyder
Art Spiegelman
Joe Staton
Terry Stewart
Hillary Tisman
Mo Willems
Kent Worcester

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Accounting Counsel

Richard Terrano CPA
Partner
Not-for-Profit Services Division
Rosenberg, Neuwirth, and Kuchner, CPAs

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