Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in News

Juan Fernández

Posted on November 28, 2016November 28, 2016

Explore

06/18/2018

Caleb OrecchioJune 18, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with a brief discourse on the fundamental prowess of Steve Ditko, and more! ——————————————————————————— This Ditko spread is breathtaking. To me at least. It’s so simple. Simple and balanced colors, simple shapes, strong silhouettes, and I love the way he uses hatching to convey the foggy atmosphere. I understand the action immediately. It’s beautifully structured like a painting. Fundamental. Every comic student should be made to copy it. Consider the left page. Notice how the top and middle tiers make an “X” so to speak. They correspond or “rhyme.” You see what I mean? And look, that bottom wide panel opens it up while maintaining the flow of images. And that’s just the obvious stuff I notice! It is not terribly complicated, but it’s smart comics. Ditko is like a good quarterback. He patiently stays in the pocket – he waits he waits – then bang – right in the bread basket! He’s not resorting to hail marys or 180 degree flipping of perspective. The entire page is essentially from the same camera angle, he just pulls it in and out to create tension. Then, on the next page, he flips the perspective to show spacial relations and to keep the action moving towards the center of the page. The result is great sequencing on top of the fact that the spread itself is pleasing to look at as a whole. I can’t stop looking at it. Oh yeah, also check out the Pat Boyette strip in this issue of Haunted #14 (1973) if you can find it – – it’s really good too. ——————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Did you see the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum announcement for the 2018 Lucy Shelton Caswell Research Award winners? One of three recipients was our own Frank Santoro! Go read all about what Frank and the other cartoon researchers will be getting into. Scott Cederlund takes a look at the newest Love and Rockets over on Panel Patter. Elijah Brubaker is the latest guest on Inkstuds. ——————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-18-18 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

01/17/2017

Aaron CockleJanuary 16, 2017NewsAaron here today with Drawing Center events; RESIST!; Cosplayers; ‘Unquotables’; Notes on Zip-a-Tone. ————————————————————————————————— This week at The Drawing Center, work by Mateo López, Jackson Mac Low, and Amy Sillman. Opening January 20, 2017. Sillman will be presenting her animated drawing, After Metamorphoses. She talks about it here: But we don’t care about “the grid”—we are committed to something different: something scrappy but complex, earnest but smart, ironic but not cynical—a strange FORM! We’re not in it for the money and WE’RE NOT MONEY. We’re not coins of the realm, easily identified by our denominations; we’re definitely not thin paper currency meant to slip inside a wallet. We don’t make sense. We have rough edges and contradictions. What the fuck is “thing theory” anyway—we’re like things that talk back. Where is emancipation located? Should we split our time between art and politics? Is art enough? Is it possible that our work, our love, our beliefs, our symbolic gestures, our senses of humor, can amount to any meaningful resistance? Does resistance come in different lengths; a long game and a short game? Does everyone have to do it the same way? We haven’t figured it out but we love art that offers change above all: insistent, unremitting change that won’t resolve into finality or finesse. We don’t know quite what to do but the qualities that mean something have shifted: knowingness is out, a goddamn “good” painting seems irrelevant, smug… we don’t need someone to tells us which painting is “better.” Fuck that. Image above from Mateo López: Undo List. ————————————————————————————————— ‘So, it is using old fashioned like printing presses and trucks and you know, just sheer physical get together that will make little cells out in the open and we publish a link so that people can sign up for those local distributions.’ Betsy Gomez at the CBLDF talks to Francoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman about the forthcoming release of the Resist! anthology comic on Saturday, January 21: Resist! revives the tradition of using comics for protest. What precedents inspired you in developing this project? FM: Well, the first thing was being asked by Gabe Fowler to guest edit a special issue of Smoke Signal, which is a tabloid printed on newsprint that he wanted to release at the time of the inauguration and the women’s march. When he got in touch with me specifically, like “I want a woman guest editor,” and because he asked right after the election and that was my feeling as well — since we’d just been robbed of our first woman president, there was a sense shared by so many — Gabe’s request seemed natural at the time… My friends were saying, “I’m going to Washington.” We didn’t know where or what. I mean, we knew it was the day after the inauguration, but there was some sense of wanting women’s voices heard. NS: About historical precedent, and I think Francoise can talk very eloquently about historical precedents in France like L’Assiette au Beurre and Charlie Hebdo. One of the things is: there is a long historical precedent for political protest. But one thing that there isn’t, is enough contemporary parallels and enough space in American culture right now for political images as an act of resistance… We’re hoping to create more of that space. ————————————————————————————————— Over at Calm Undertones Now Transmitting, an in-depth look at Dash Shaw’s A Cosplayers Christmas: Shaw’s conception of cosplay shows how the exploitation of individuals that has been opened up by the postmodern ethos can be circumvented by those with the confidence to make their own meaning (even naïveté within certain bounds is enough) against the will of the myriad influences directed at them (e.g. marketing, social norms, political processes etc.). In A Cosplayers Christmas, the obliviousness of Annie and Verti to considerations of the monetary value of the gifts they exchange is endearing and humorous but it also points to the way that cosplay, by allowing its participants to claim partial ownership of the fictions they enmesh themselves in, serves to subvert the traditional paradigm of the separation between cultural producer and cultural consumer that has allowed space for capitalist interests to take hold. Annie and Verti have no interest in purchasing merchandise based on the properties that hold their interest, instead they would prefer to create their own related objects that they can attach personal meaning to. ————————————————————————————————— R. Sikoryak will be signing his newest work, The Unquotable Trump, this Friday, January 20, 6-8pm at Jim Hanley’s Universe, 32 East 32nd Street, NYC. Parodies of comic book covers with actual Trump quotes from the 2016 presidential campaign. The mini comic edition also features a Public Service Announcement comic strip and extensive footnotes. ————————————————————————————————— Could this piece have been done on the computer?…Could this piece exist without the fields of tone? Back in 2009, Alex Holden was thinking about Zip-a-Tone in comics: Zip A Tone has been on my mind because I recently received “Two Eyes Of The Beautiful” from Ryan Cecil Smith, who is currently living in Japan. Some equivalent of Zip A Tone (in virtually unlimited variety) is still widely available in Japan, despite the advent of the computer. “Two Eyes of the Beautiful” is all about Zip A Tone, from simple dot patterns, to trees and foliage……even buildings. Indeed, it is pretty easy to recreate the same effects of the adhesive sheets in Photoshop. Kevin Huizenga frequently employs this technique. Whenever Zip A Tone is mentioned, I can’t help but think of Matt Wagner’s “Heist”, printed in BATMAN BLACK & WHITE #3. Could this piece have been done on the computer? I suppose so. Could this piece exist without the fields of tone? Absolutely not. ————————————————————————————————— Pompeii by yours truly Frank Santoro – get a copy HERE. “The book itself is about drawing, really. It’s also about two artists who draw in order to see the world around them. So, the book itself IS drawing—and at the end it breaks down the barrier between what’s “real” and what is “drawn”. That’s what is great about the medium—that I can use drawing to illustrate that breakdown. There are a lot of visual rhymes in the book—where the “reality” is mirrored by a painting or a drawing. I’m trying to get to the core of visual storytelling by amplifying the process of drawing and making that the subject of the story as much as the interaction of the characters.” – Frank Santoro in an interview with Publishers Weekly ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-17-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-17-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-17-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

08/11/2016

HarrisonAugust 11, 2016NewsComics and arts news, here is that news. ————————————————————————————————— Stay Drawing MOK: There are many side and ¾ back views of you, but as usual, there aren’t really any direct views of your face. Like the withholding in the text, what does it mean to you to sort of withhold your gaze from the viewer? ODOMO: I didn’t want to draw my face a million times. And everyone is like “god, cartoonists are just so in love with their own faces and love the sound of their own voice”. Well so what? Fuck you. I’m still drawing myself and making it about ME, but like trying to keep it visually interesting and not too same-y. Backs of heads are like… allowing a little bit of intimacy between me and the reader / viewer but like… stopping them before they get too close. I’m setting the boundaries. For me, the back of the head view is like… there’s a person standing there and you want to reach out to them, but you can’t. The withholding thing… that’s fun too, haha. That’s more in my writing than my drawings. I love scratching something out and making it so no one will ever be able to read it. I started using paint, too, so there’s like sometimes an entire pages that I end up covering up and wiping out. It’s my book, I can withhold what I want. I can have blank pages if I want. I like the way it looks. Annie Mok and Mare Odomo over at TCJ. ————————————————————————————————— Still Drawing More Annie Mok, with Natalie Andrewson for Hazlitt. ————————————————————————————————— https://comicsworkbook.tumblr.com/post/148762935662/comicsworkbook-pale-sick-and-magic-414 ————————————————————————————————— https://mitografia.tumblr.com/post/148756254036/223-of-366 Kenneth Rocafort ————————————————————————————————— KING OF THE FLIP Share this page: [...]

09/17/2018

Caleb OrecchioSeptember 17, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here, writing from my hotel the morning after SPX 2018 ————————————————————————————————— Like an idiot, I didn’t take any photos at SPX 2018. I don’t like taking pictures at comics festivals for some reason, but usually I suck it up because I know I will have to write about it on Monday. This year I did not suck it up. A bunch of us from Pittsburgh met up at our Pittsburgh Comics Salon headquarters Kaibur Coffee and caravanned up the turnpike to the Marriott here in Bethesda (or North Bethesda or Rockville or wherever this is) where SPX is held. It’s fun to go as a pack. You know there will be someone you can hangout and tag along with. Once again at SPX, Comics Workbook held workshops all weekend. Sally Ingraham brilliantly facilitated the workshops and kept the engine oiled. We didn’t have a table this year which gave us plenty of time and energy to channel into the workshops which filled the Glen Oak room to the brim with hungry learners almost every time. Comic enthusiasts young and old, green and seasoned lined up along the walls to make comics with Juan Fernandez, Dash Shaw, Molly Ostertag, The Latin American Youth Council, Mosi and yours truly. Liz Reed and Camilla Zhang broke up the comics-making pattern by instructing a sculpting class and giving a presentation on Kickstarter campaigns respectively. Saturday, I was the doorman for the Glen Echo room and was able to catch a glimpse and sit in on most of the workshops. Juan as always began the batting line-up as the sure hitter. Juan is a natural educator and genuinely wants people to learn and understand the way comics work. His workshop was energetic and comfortable for all. Dash was an unsurprisingly great instructor. As the attendees drew comics from his prompts he gave constant feedback and helped to instill the fundamentals in them. Sunday I had a bit more freedom and was able to catch Rachel Miller’s interview with Julie Doucet. Doucet is a humble badass who has no intention of not following her own path. What can I say? You had to be there. In theory a video recording will be available to watch soon. Got to take some time to walk the floor between Doucet’s panel and my workshop. I didn’t have a whole lot of time but managed to say hi to Jim Rugg and buy Lauren Weinstein’s new book from Youth in Decline and then head back down to the Glen Echo Room. I had a really fun workshop. Juan helped me figure out exactly what I wanted teach and made a few suggestions to work out the kinks. I made the attendees make a six-panel comic, and then redraw that comic in different ways with different layouts. We started with a six-panel grid, then redrew it as a nine-panel comic, then redrew that as a three panel comic. Same story each time with a different layout. Everyone quickly caught on to the idea of how to expand and simplify the amount of information depending on the layout. It was really fun to watch. That’s it for me, I gotta get to Pittsburgh before the rain does. Special thanks to the team at SPX, especially Warren Bernard, Lynda Bernard, Rob Clough, Danethin Mejia and Eden Miller for helping us with making these workshops happen! WE had a great time! Also thank you to all of our workshop instructors! Personal thanks to Sally Ingraham and Juan Fernandez who move mountains to ensure Comics Workbook is a fun and interesting team to be on! ————————————————————————————————— 9-17-18 – By Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

04/27/2016

Juan FernándezApril 27, 2016NewsFumetto 2016; Begoña García-Alén’s El Espectador; Dr Fausto Fanzine 10; Daryl Seitchik’s Missy for sale; a first look at Tim Hensley’s Sir Alfred No. 3 ; Al Jarnow & Edwin Rostron. ————————————————————————————————— FUMETTO 2016 Fumetto, one of Europe’s leading international comics festivals wrapped up this past weekend in Luzern, Switzerland. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the festivities lasted from April 16-24. Among the many guests this year were Lorenzo Mattoti, Joost Swarte, Gabrielle Bell, Caroline Sury, Fremok, Max and Ben Katchor. Fumetto has captured glimpses of all the lectures, workshops, pop-up studios, gallery exhibitions, market places, and parties in a recently posted archive of photos. (If you want to get lost into the nitty gritty of the social media coverage of Fumetto, explore Fumetto’s social media wall here.) Among all of the goings on this year was Fumetto’s annual competition exhibition. The theme this year was “Temptation”. View the winning entries from the 2016 competition here. For those of you really hungry for more of Fumetto’s competitions, you can read all of the winning entries from 2014 and 2015. ————————————————————————————————— (the spectator) The fourth installment of Begoña Garcia-Alen‘s El Espectador (the spectator) is now up over on TikTok cómics. Her spectator series is a nice collection of work that explores the idea of observation and reflection. It’s done in a playful, formalist Koch/CF hybrid. Check it out here. ————————————————————————————————— Llegó nuestra Décima Edición. 10 Autores de Colombia, Argentina y Chile. Toda la info en: https://t.co/0OsmwQUpyN pic.twitter.com/Qhq901Nfmf — Dr Fausto Fanzine (@DrFaustoFanzine) April 25, 2016 Dr Fausto The 10th edition of the Colombian publication, the Dr Fausto Fanzine is here! This edition comes out thanks to the support of Editorial Universidad de Caldas. Ya llegó! It’s now available in cities throughout Colombia, starting in Bogotá. This is issue features 10 cartoonists from Colombia, Argentina and Chile: Edward Muñoz (Editor) http://eddmunoz.tumblr.com/ Un reptil http://relampagarto.tumblr.com/ Truchafrita http://www.truchafrita.net/ Wil Zapata http://wilcomix.blogspot.com.co/ Lutocorps http://lutocorps.blogspot.com.co/ Pablo Bofelli (https://www.facebook.com/PUNCH-590883774340172/?fref=ts)http://felipunch.com.ar/ Toto Duarte https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergalletas/ Javier Fabregas http://www.javierfabregas.co/ Pablo Pérez http://periodistailustrado.tumblr.com/ Jko Sánchez http://jkosanchez.net/ ————————————————————————————————— Digital Missy Daryl Seitchik has collected and made all of her issues of her comic Missy available digitally over on gumroad. Check it out. The first one’s free 😉 ————————————————————————————————— https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJZjfcMR2fc Comics Movie Tie-in Fantagraphics has just shared a detailed look at Tim Hensley’s latest book, Sir Alfred No. 3. It’s beautiful stuff, full o hyucks. Sir Alfred No. 3 is an oblique biography of the world’s most famous film director, Alfred Hitchcock. In fact, despite being numbered “No. 3,” no other issues exist. The comic book is composed of multiple gag strips based on anecdotes found in tomes of film lore in the public library and used book shops. As Hensley’s previous work Wally Gropius referenced the ’60s teenager genre, Sir Alfred pays homage to ’50s personality comics and movie tie-ins. It ends up being something of a cross between Marge Buell’s Tubby, who bears an unforeseen resemblance to the famous director, and Miss Beverly Hills of Hollywood. Have a closer look at the book over on Fantagraphics’ site. ————————————————————————————————— Asymmetric Navigations Take a walk and join Al Jarnow in conversation with Edwin Rostron over on Edge of Frame as they reflect on his life of creation that has move seamlessly across artistic mediums. Paintings, animations sculptures, software, exhibits – his ideas have taken every form you can imagine. Tune into his frequency for a little energy and inspiration. EoF: In the documentary Asymmetric Cycles you describe your process onCelestial Navigation as “setting up an experimental environment in which I could more or less improv and riff off of different ideas to do with time, the passage of time and the passage of light.” Was this typical of how you worked with your animations? Did this kind of experimental process relate to how you worked as a painter? Was there a lot of material generated through this kind of process that didn’t make the cut? AJ: Yes, always! In painting as in film, the process has always been a dialogue. What happens with the first stroke is a determining factor in what happens with the next. An experiment is an act in which you don’t know the outcome. It’s a learning process. You might have expectations and anticipate your results, but those can color your results. In film, a lot of snippets ended up on my cutting room floor (or at least in cans still stored in my attic). In painting, pieces ended up in re-cycling, painted over, cut in half, and again stored in my attic studio. ————————————————————————————————— Have a good one and see you soon. Here’s one some reverie for the road. Share this page: [...]

11/28/2016

Posted on November 28, 2016November 28, 2016 by Juan Fernández

Juan here with Ghengis Con Cleveland Check in; Gou Miyagi; Suzanne Ciani; Appplications for the Santoro Correspondence Course.

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Ghengiscon Cleveland 2016 – Jenn Lisa and Sally Ingraham

I was just in Cleveland with the CW gang at Ghengis Con Cleveland. Sally Ingraham, Caleb Orecchio, Frank Santoro, Jenn Lisa and yours truly. I had a great time. Lots of fun. I love my team.
John “draw hard” G. organized a cozy, profitable afternoon of comics sellers. He did an amazing job for this special show. This is my third year attending. I grew up in Cleveland, so there’s something very personal about coming back to where I grew up annually. It’s a good rustbelt comics reunion.The local seasons cycle is nice. Healthy. Ghengis Con in Cleveland November as winter sets in. PIX in Pittsburgh in April as spring cracks apart winters icy clutch.

I’ll be sharing my experience there with you later this week in my Ghengis Con 2016 Report. The who’s who, the what’s what and favorite books from the show. Stay tuned Got some great photos.Lots of smiling faces, good conversations, hot coffee.

No news for today.
This is more important.

Watch this:

Listen to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73hRNJ0YkiM&t=395s

Do your drills.

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Oh yeah, and don’t you forget that we’re still taking applications for the Winter term of the Santoro School Correspondence Course. Applications are coming in left and right, don’t get left behind!

The Winter Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – course starts Dec. 29th 2016!

8 week course – 500 bux – 10 spots available – apply by Dec. 13th 2016 and get $100 off course fee!

More details can be found HERE – or email santoroschoolATgmail.

Santoro School Application guidelines:

-3 figure drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards

-3 landscape drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards

-3 still life drawings done on blank 3 x 5 cards

-draw in a contour line style – Think Matisse – no under-drawing – draw directly in ink

-just send small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls

-specific url links to any comics work you have done.

Send applications to: santoroschoolATgmail

Share this page:

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in News

Juan Fernández

Posted on November 28, 2016November 28, 2016

Explore

01/18/2017

Juan FernándezJanuary 18, 2017los Cómics / NewsJuan José con un poquito sobre las Tetastristes; #GRAFBCN2017; 1er Festival Sudestada de Dibujo e Ilustración; Tarifas de Correos; La Distri;La nueva sangre de la poesía colombiana; de Rivera, de Keko y Altarriba; Gabriel Ebensperger Satt y discriminación homofóbica. Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atencion esta semana: Miguel Ángel Martín lleva 30 años provocando con sus historias de sexo, violencia y tecnología. , en profundidad: Los que estén en Buenos Aires en febrero no se pierdan el 1er Festival Sudestada de Dibujo e Ilustración el 24 de Febrero. Apuntense! El 1 de enero de 2017 Correos ha eliminado la tarifa especial del paquete postal para los profesionales del sector editorial (libreros, editores, autores, impresores…) que ofrecía a través de la Tarjeta Post Libris, que permitía hacer envíos con número de seguimiento a un precio inferior que los envíos del resto de mercancías. Juan Lassalle a creado una peticion para recuperar estas tarifas. Ayuda a los libros. La Distri en Mentes en Disturbio – Punks de Medellín-Colombia charlan sobre el fanzine – “Tu mirada sigue firme, tu espiritu sigue en alto” – Comics: La nueva sangre de la poesía colombiana – Una corriente de poetas jóvenes, editoriales independientes y espacios de difusión no convencionales, quiere impedir que esta tradición literaria se estanque. Hay una apuesta por la ilustración y lo visual, llegando a bares y ferias para acercarse a un público juvenil. El Museo del Prado sigue apostando por el cómic. Presentación de EL PERDÓN Y LA FURIA, sobre “Las furias” de Rivera, de Keko y Altarriba. Laura Barrachina habla con ellos en @Bocadilloradio3. Resumen/Scene Report de la Feria Libre Feminista “Las Tetas se toman el puerto” en Valparaíso, Santiago de Chile por Emma Truek. Gabriel Ebensperger Satt cuenta sobre su experiencia con discriminación homofóbica en el Infante1415 de la nueva Municipalidad de Providencia, Chile. Puedes ver la conversacion en el FB de Satt. Echale un vistazo a este medallón estilo Pompeii! Hecho en Pittsburgh. Frank Santoro le encarguo a la gran Airi Maeno que le hiciera unos medallones de plata utilisando uno de sus dibujos. Este dibujo viene de su libro Pompeii. Es algo que podrias imaginar que alguien se pondría hace dos mil años. Unico. Clasico. Un simple medallón de un ser querido. Un retrato. Algo permanente para desafiar a la desaparición. Suzy and Cecil – 1-18-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-18-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-18-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

04/14/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 13, 2017NewsSally here to wrap up the week with new work by Ulli Lust; an Easter Comix reading at KGB Bar; a conversation with Carel Moiseiwitsch; a look at Saving Grace; plus much more! ————————————————————————————————— Ulli Lust has printed up a small comic that collects the strips she has been making for the magazine EXBERLINER. She will have copies available at TCAF in May! Meanwhile you can read the strip HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out the Annual Easter Comix & Graphic Novel Night on April 16th, 7-9PM at the KGB Bar in New York City. Five local cartoonists will offer slideshow readings that are “sure to entertain, bewilder, and amuse.” Co-hosted by Robyn Chapman and Robin Enrico, the reading will also feature Lauren Barnett (some of her work is pictured below), Jim Campbell, Ada Price (above), and Kelsey Wroten. ————————————————————————————————— RJ Casey interviewed 76-year old Carel Moiseiwitsch for The Comics Journal this week. Carel was born during the Blitz, and her first memories are of playing in the rubble of London following the war. This is probably why she drew, as RJ Casey puts it, “dangerous comics“. Among many interesting stories about hanging out with the Rolling Stones and getting drunk with Francis Bacon, plus the complexities of making art and raising kids, Carel answers a question posed by RJ Casey that I’ve been thinking about almost constantly for the last year: “I was thinking about your era of comics and how many fantastic artists just drew for a couple years, then got out completely. Or ones that went into fine art and never made comics again. Why do you think that time period of the late ’80s to early ’90s had so many artists like that? It’s not fruitful and it requires such hard work. Also everything became kind of corporate. It’s very hard to survive in that kind of atmosphere. Where I came from — London and Paris in the ’60s — you could go there and draw, record music, and create art, then shuffle around to the cafes and have a drink, meet up with friends, write poetry, or whatever it is you wanted to do. People took you seriously without you having to be famous or successful. You just had to be true to yourself. But now it’s like if you’re not famous or successful, you’re nothing.“ Carel has continued to make comics and other artwork, has worked as a teacher, and has spent a lot of time turning her attention to mental health activism. The whole interview is fantastic and it’s a real treat to get a look around Carel’s head space – she’s a powerhouse. Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— A good friend of Comics Workbook and her fellow artists are in need of your signature – Naomi Nowak (painter/jeweler/fashion designer extraordinaire) is in danger of losing her studio space. “sad news! your signature is needed. me and my artist friends/colleagues are being evicted from our beloved studio space in stockholm, pannrummet (the boiler room). it’s practically already a done deal and we haven’t been given a fair chance to have our say or be part of the proceedings around this. so this petition is our very last, desperate plea to our landlords that they reconsider their decision and let us continue to work and create in the space we have loved and cared for. last year we renovated the place and built a bar + showroom where we have barely had time to show art and host exchanges, something were very much looking forward to. please sign to save studio pannrummet! we’ve never disturbed our neighbour and all 9 of us are now without a studio #savepannis“ Sign the petition HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Saving Grace by Grace Wilson just turned up at Copacetic Comics – it was published late last year in England. The Guardian has a review of it that should spark your interest: “Saving Grace is, first of all, a brilliant commentary on the housing crisis. Its author, Grace Wilson, knows all about the queasy feeling that comes with not knowing where you will soon be sleeping, and the way it affects everything – everything – else in your life, from work to relationships to, ultimately, your self-confidence. But it’s so much more than that. It’s hilarious, not only about rapacious landlords and their creepy ways, but about friendship, work, holidays and sex, too. It’s hard to imagine a funnier scene than the one when Maxine, drunk and having rowed with her boyfriend yet again, makes the mistake of going home with an Iggy Pop-alike who wants to spank her with a bit of precious rock memorabilia (“Did I ever tell you about when I used to roadie for the Who, Max?”). On the tube, where I read it, people looked at me warily, this sniggering woman with a large rainbow-coloured comic book in her hands.” – Rachel Cooke Read the rest HERE. Get a copy of the book at Copacetic Comics! ————————————————————————————————— I thought Lauren Weinstein‘s strip in The Village Voice this week was particularly funny – but maybe that’s because I am increasingly of the opinion that cats are the cartoonist’s true enemy…! ————————————————————————————————— Scallions or Chives The winners of 2017’s Cartoonist Studio Prize are Eleanor Davis for Libby’s Dad (Best Print Comic) and Christina Tran for On Beauty (Best Web Comic). A recent New Yorker cover illustration is being reproduced be female surgeons around the world – check it out HERE. Katherine Collins will be inducted into the Giants of the North hall of fame this year – and the nominee list for the Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning includes Julie Doucet among others. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-14-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-14-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-14-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Richmond, VA Scene Report

Frank SantoroOctober 23, 2011Riff Raff / Scene ReportsThis week’s scene report is brought to you by AdHouse Books brainiac, Chris Pitzer. AdHouse is one of the best publishers around – and Chris is one of the nicest guys around (a rare combination!). He lives in Richmond, Virginia and was kind enough to write up a report on the local comics goings-on there. Check it out below the new DeForge cartoon. Speaking of Mr. DeForge – holy shit – I can’t stop looking at his story in the new Thickness – I can’t stop looking at the whole issue more precisely. It’s a perfect object. Editor slash publisher Ryan Sands is a print genius. Students of the form will wanna pick this one up. It’s a clinic on how to print your own magazine and make it look better than anything you could ever get from “professional” printers. ————– Top 5 Marvel Lay Offs of All Time 1. John Byrne 2. Jim Shooter 3. Pond Scum 4. Alejandro Arbona 5. Jody LeHeup **Honorable Mention: The guy who got fired for writing nasty things about his boss in the backgrounds. I think this past week’s Marvel layoffs news is reflective of how corporate comics culture eats its young. Marvel doesn’t give a fuck about supporting folks who make good comics for them – who work for them. Boycott Marvel! ————— MINI-COMICS LEGEND JOEL ORFF NOW AT WHATTHINGSDO WEBSITE!! Stop the presses! One the biggest influences on my work in the early ’90s was Joel Orff. He made slow moving “landscape comics” about working on riverboats or driving taxis or being trapped by winter. Orff self-published sincere, heartfelt comics that read like poetry – and WHATTHINGSDO has archived one of his best works here. Don’t sleep on this unearthed gem from the ’90s zine scene. Also – Looking at WTD – I feel like it’s a type of digital anthology that has been around for awhile – like since the dawn of websites – but now I look at it differently than before… in a good way. Maybe it’s just that Jordan’s a good designer and he makes it all look so new every time I look at it. ————– Don’t forget! My CARTOONING CORRESPONDENCE COURSE starts the first week of November! Hurry up and apply – you can do it! I will make you a comics expert in eight weeks! Applications due this Friday the 28th! ————— INTERMISSION FUNNIES by MICHAEL DEFORGE —————————– Richmond VA scene report by Chris Pitzer So the other day I get an email from good ol’ Frankie asking me if I’d be interested in giving a “scene report” for my locality (Richmond, VA). The James River This is Frankie, so how could I not? I mean, I look at this as if him and let’s say Jim Rugg or Tom Scioli or Dan Nadel were coming down to RVA to visit and this is what we’d do! Now, I hate to admit it, but sometimes, my mindset is to NOT share this type of info. Because what if some of my favorite haunts become to crowded, picked over, or popular? Ugh! But again, THIS IS FRANKIE… and I just can’t say no. So, I guess I’d imagine those guys getting in around noonish, so we’d probably have to get a bite to eat. Since our first couple stops would be in and around the VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) area, I think we’d hit The Black Sheep for a bite. And I do mean a bite. This place has become VERY popular over the last couple years, and has even been on at least one foodie show. One of the things they do is take your typical submarine and upscale it to a battleship. One weekend while my wife was away, I got one of these battleships and made it last into three meals. And the decor is to die for. Their menu changes throughout the year, so enjoy what you can. Also, save room for that fantastic peanut butter pie! Now the next two places we’d hit are actually in walking distance to The Black Sheep, so if parking was OK, we’d probably just leave our car there and walk on up to Broad Street and hope that the Richmond Book Shop is open. The Richmond Book Shop is one of those weird funky places that you NEVER know if they’ll be open or not. Most of the times I drive by, they aren’t. So, if you stumble upon them being open, it’s like finding Shangri-La. It’s run by Bob Lewis, who is himself sort of an “establishment” to the scene. Before I “knew” Bob, I knew of his selling spots. I would covet the original Montgomer Flagg, Seth or Charles Vess illustration that he had in an antique store. Bob has had his pulse on comics since forever, so you can talk about the old days and wax nostalgic… But back to the shop! The last time I was able to get into the store, I came away with the following: Eclipse Magazine #1 (oddly, the only one I was missing from my collection), something called The Mercenary (which I haven’t read yet) and the first three volumes of Pluto… which I fell in love with! Here’s a pic of Bob with Greg and Joel from the great DC-Area Big Planet shop. You can sort of see the shop in the background across the street. I took this photo as we were walking towards our second destination: Velocity Comics! Of the few places I’ll talk about in this report, Velocity is probably the biggest scene. It’s just the best comic shop in Richmond (if not Virginia?), so a LOT of customers, creators, etc. stop by and peruse it’s fine selection. Also, with it’s proximity to VCU, it always seems to be hopping. Patrick Godfrey runs the store, and he does a great job of it. I like the fact that I’ll more or less find anything I’m looking for, as well as enlighten me to some locally produced work. He also organizes get togethers with local creators that I wish I could attend… but it seems I’m always busy. After we hit Velocity, I feel like I need to take them to one of those “great American comic shops”. You know the one. It’s the one we all know. The one that is like the Simpson’s comic shop. Comics in the front, porn in the back, and untold riches in between… Stories. Stories actually has three locations. (I think at one point they had five?) But for the sake of this trip, I think we should hit the mothership… even though that means we have to cross the James to go to the Southside. Once there, the mural will let you know you’ve hit your destination. Once inside, it’s tough to really figure out what you want to look at first. They essentially have outgrown one store and become three in this one location. They really do seem to have everything. I tend to hit this shop when there’s something old I’m looking for. Back issues, old graphic novels, toys… whatever. I found one of those Floyd Farlands at either this one or the West End location once. And I actually found a few mini-comics here one time too. After all this exploring, I’m sure we’re bound to be hungry, so then we’d hop back in the car and actually head back to where we just were. Two of my favorite RVA restaurants are in walking distance of Velocity Comics. Those establishments are Ipanema and Edo’s Squid. I’d probably hit Edo’s first, but if the line was crazy long, we’d end up at Ipanema. Edo’s is fantastic Italian & Seafood. Probably the best calamari and eggplant parmagian I have ever had. Ipanema is vegetarian, but still have a few meat entrees. Great bar and was used as a scene in the series Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly. Heck, I guess we could hit both if we had it in us. Now, before I close, I know that when Frankie was asking about a “scene report” he was asking about all the wonderful people who live in Richmond, and the fantastic stuff they do. Honestly, I don’t make it out all that often. I’m old. I try, but sometimes I just can’t get out there. But there are a LOT of great comic-associated peeps. A few weeks back I was lucky enough to have lunch with Johanna Draper Carlson, who writes that fantastic blog Comics Worth Reading. The other day I picked up the local magazine RVA, and there was a feature on Julia Scott. (Julia just happened to with the Afrodisiac contest we had at Velocity Comics back on the tour.) And this weekend I’ll probably see our pal Oura at the Richmond Zine Fest. He did do the poster, after all. (And there are MANY, MANY more people I could mention… like Rick Spears having his party for his new book release, or the fact I need to schedule a fall dinner with Tom De Haven… but down that road lies the names I will eventually forget…) Well, I hope this helps convince some of you to visit Richmond, VA. It’s a nice place. Share this page: [...]

03/01/2016

Aaron CockleMarch 1, 2016NewsThe 5 Obstructions This is a collaboration from 2008 wherein Matt Madden presented Tom Hart with a number of constraints, in the spirit of the Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth documentary from 2003. Charlotte Salomon: Leben? oder Theater? All of Salomon’s Leben? oder Theater? can be found at the above link. It is an astonishing achievement. Paul Gravett has a piece about Salomon and her work on his blog. BDSM: Eleanor Davis via Youth in Decline New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium The 146th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 7pm at Parsons School of Design, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. Theodore Barrow will present and discuss his paper, “From the Easter Wedding to the Frantick Lover” — an exploration of the relationship between text and image in the long eighteenth century. Theodore Barrow is a PhD candidate at the Graduate Center, CUNY. His area of focus is intertextuality in the art of John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer. PUSH/PULL Share this page: [...]

Richard Diebenkorn’s Sketchbooks at the Cantor Museum

Comics WorkbookJanuary 15, 2017EssaysJesse Rimler reports on the Richard Diebenkorn Sketchbook show that hung at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University last summer. ————————————————————————————————— The painter Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) is probably best known for his abstracts, especially his large Ocean Park series. He also painted from life, and is included in the group of artists now known as the Bay Area Figurative movement, along with Elmer Bischoff, David Park and Joan Brown, among others. These painters moved in and out of abstraction while never abandoning the figure and landscapes as subjects. The Cantor Museum recently acquired 29 of Diebenkorn’s sketchbooks. My favorite works by Diebenkorn are his prints and drawings, so I was excited to see these up close. Plus, as someone who keeps a sketchbook and has spent the last several years trying to learn how to draw better, I’m always curious to see anyone’s sketchbook and raw drawing style. It turns out there isn’t much difference between Diebenkorn’s sketchbook drawings and his etchings – he had a lively, spontaneous line and an unfailing sense of composition no matter the medium or size. Here are few of my favorites from this great collection: Though these are worth seeing in person, one cool thing is that the Cantor has scanned all of his sketchbooks and put them online HERE. This exhibit made me think about the general use of a sketchbook. Diebenkorn called his sketchbook his “portable studio,” and it’s clear he took drawing in these beatup spiralbounds as seriously as he did etching on a copper plate or painting on a canvas. I think some comics makers, myself included, tend to treat their sketchbooks as something completely different from their final art. The idea of closing the gap between the two is appealing to me, and Diebenkorn’s example is inspiring. On the practical side, I liked how Diebenkorn used fairly inexpensive sketchbooks, often with a low page count. He felt free to glop on gouache or use heavy ink washes, and so almost always used one side of the page. This was exciting to me, as I’ve found the use of a pricey, bound, moleskin-style sketchbook to be a little inhibiting. It’s nice to work with a pad with few pages – if you dislike the run you’ve been on in your current sketchbook, you’re not tied to it for very long. I also love the look of the old Strathmore books. I went out and got a bunch of Strathmore drawing pads. The covers aren’t as nice these days but the size and lack of pretense freed me up a bit. These little ones are 4 bucks and have pretty good off-white paper. At 24 pages, I filled several up pretty quickly. Satisfying! Here are a few of my recent sketches: ————————————————————————————————— Jesse Rimler makes comics in the Bay Area. You can see more of his sketches and comics by following him on Instagram – @rimblecomics. His submission to the Comics Workbook Composition Competition can be seen HERE. Share this page: [...]

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