MoCCA Hosts ARCHIE Artists and Writers Panel, Feb 25

The Museum of of Comic and Cartoon Art - MoCCA is pleased to present Archie Comics and Writers Panel.

with Paul Castiglia, Angelo DeCesare, Dan Parent, Fernando Ruiz and Alex Simmons; moderated by Jim Salicrup

**Thursday, February 25th, 7 PM**

Admission: $5 | Free for MoCCA Members

Join Papercutz editor-in-chief and MoCCA Trustee Jim Salicrup for a lively discussion with Archie Comics writers and artists about what it is like to work with America's most popular teenager!

Paul Castiglia has been associated with Archie Comics for 20 years.
He's written for the flagship Archie title, Little Archie,
Archie's Superteens, Archie 3000, various digests, licensed titles,
and enjoyed a three year, 34 issue run on "Archie's Weird
Mysteries." He is also an Archie Comics archivist and Compilation
Editor for the "Archie Americana Series" of classic Archie
reprints.

Angelo DeCesare writes, "My sister Martha and I grew up reading
Archie comics. I loved the humor and inventiveness of the writers,
especially in the Jughead stories. My favorite Archie comic was
"Archie's Madhouse", which I tried to imitate in my early attempts to
create a comic book. I wrote and storyboarded my first Archie story
about 15 years ago. An editor, Daryl Edelman, hired me to write a
Little Archie story. Victor Gorelick must have liked my work and gave
me more assignments. Over the years I've written stories involving all
the major Archie characters, and I also wrote Sonic for a few years.
My proudest moment was when Victor allowed me to write Archie's 500th
issue. Inside, I'm still the same kid, reading Archie comics with my
sister, except now some of the stories are mine! I'm honored to be a
part of the Archie family and to participate in MoCCA's celebration of
a great comic."

Dan Parent's professional career began in 1987, when he graduated
from the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. He was hired by
Archie Comics soon thereafter, where he worked on all phases of comic
book production and licensing, which included designing toys, apparel
and varied collectibles. His first big comic book project was
Veronica's first solo comic. He then went on to write, draw, and
even co-edit various Archie titles. Going freelance in 1996, he
continued to work on titles like Cheryl Blossom, Betty & Veronica
Spectacular and Archie & Friends. Dan continues to work on various
Archie titles, as well as updating the looks of the Archie characters,
especially Betty and Veronica . He also keeps busy doing web design,
children's book illustrations and spot illustrations for various
publications.

Fernando Ruiz is graduate of the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon And
Graphic Art. While in school Fernando showed his work to Victor
Gorelick and was hired right out of the school. "I was very lucky. I
graduated from school and the next week I was working on my first
Archie story." Fernando has been with Archie comics for the last 16
years and has also been a teacher at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon
And Graphic Art since 1995.

Alex Simmons is a professional freelance writer, teaching artist,
and public speaker, as well as an arts & education consultant. As a
writer of comics and graphic novels, Simmons has created and written a
critically acclaimed adventure series, BLACKJACK, about an
African-American soldier of fortune in the 1930s. He co-created an
African-American hero for DC Comics in their Batman books, authored
several other comic book stories, including tales of Scooby Doo, and
several mini series for Archie Comics. Simmons also created 12
interactive mysteries for the Tiger Toys electronic game WHO DONE IT
(which received three educational awards). Simmons is the founder and
co-producer of the KIDS' COMIC CON (an age appropriate comic book
convention for children and families), as well as the curator of the
COLOR OF COMICS art exhibition (containing images from artists around
the globe representing the portrayal of people of color in comics).

Please join MoCCA in congratualting Alex Simmons' 2010 Glyph Award
nomination for Best Writer, Archie & Friends! Way to go, Alex!

For more information, visit http://www.moccany.org/