Very graphic

By Thomas Tracy

Independent comic book doodlers will rub elbows with fine artists from matchless metropolitan magazines on Dec. 4 as the second annual Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival touches down in Williamsburg.

Get a load of this lineup: New Yorker Art Editor Francoise Mouly; Lynda Barry ("pictured" at left in a self portrait), long considered the queen of non-mainstream cartoonists thanks to her 20-year run writing and illustrating “Ernie Pook’s Comeek”; comic book legend Irwin Hasen, who began his career drawing “The Green Lantern” in the 1940s; and Charles Burns, author of the acclaimed graphic novel “Black Hole.”

There will also be symposiums and exhibits, organizer Gabriel Fowler explained.

“It’s going to be amazing,” Fowler said from Desert Island, his independent comic headquarters on Metropolitan Avenue. “Last year’s festival was a sleeper hit that gave us the power to draw more astounding artists to this year’s event.”

Much like the current comic book scene, Fowler’s festival will be a pot luck dinner of talent: Guests and exhibitors represent all shades of the illustrated storytelling spectrum. Experts in printmaking, silk screening and album cover art will also be in attendance, Fowler said.  

“In one sense, the festival has a narrow focus, but we’re going to have people from throughout the art world,” Fowler assures us. “Most people think that festivals like this are for comic book nerds, but this is not a nerd only event. It’s for the artists.”

Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church [275 N. Eighth St. between Havemeyer Street and Union Avenue in Williamsburg, (718) 388-5087], Dec. 4, noon-8 pm. Admission is free. For info, visit www.comicsandgraphicsfest.com.