LAUGH LINES

If you’re weary of the sensory overload of stormtroopers from the Galactic Empire milling around Eleventh Avenue and the gunfire erupting from the video game booths at that other New York comic con, the MOCCA Festival this weekend offers a more contemplative experience. Attracting publishers ranging from solo artists hawking their color-Xeroxed epics to the eclectic volumes turned out by Fantagraphics, First Second Books, and Drawn & Quarterly, MOCCA Fest is the thinking fan’s getaway. Erudite panels this year include “Reciprocal Influence: Comics and Graphic Design,” “The Enterprising Will Eisner,” and New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff leading a discussion about the future of the magazine’s cartoons. It’s all a fundraiser for the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art.

Sat., April 9, 11 a.m.; Sun., April 10, 11 a.m., 2011