As I sat down at my computer to begin studying for my third midterm, I couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty for ignoring a little voice in my head just BEGGING me to walk away from the 16-page review sheet in front of me to go have some fun. The urge to get out and explore the beautiful city around me is too tempting to shrug off. And so I googled a museum I have not visited in a while- the MOMA. Except something happened that would change mankind forever, something revolutionary, something extraordinary; I made a typographical error. That’s right, a typo. Instead of googling “MOMA” my screen showed 15,800,000 results for “MOCCA”. I cannot explain to you why this happened, only my findings.

As I clicked on the first link (and here it is: http://www.moccany.org/), I was instantly thrilled with my mistake. The site is home to New York’s very own Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. Located between Houston and Prince, the museum’ s mission is to “educate the public about comic and cartoon art, how it is crafted, and how it reflects history.” If you have ever wondered what comics can reveal about the time period in which they were created, or why certain comics made it big while others didn’t, this is the museum for you. On display is every genre of art, including “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.” And if you are a new budding artist yourself, make sure you check out MoCCA’s “MoCCA Fest” (April 28-29), the museum’s annual fundraiser, which allows new artists to submit their work for public viewing.