Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Frank Santoro

Posted on September 12, 2013May 29, 2019

Explore

09/22/2017

Sally IngrahamSeptember 22, 2017NewsSally here with Jenny Zervakis (in real life!), a big announcement from Caitlin McGurk, and other comics and news of note. ———————————————————————————————— One of the highlights of going to the Small Press Expo last weekend in Bethesda, MD, was getting to meet Jenny Zervakis (above). Her comics are my favorite discovery of the past year, and I have been harassing everyone I know into getting The Complete Strange Growths, the collection of her work published by John Porcellino and Spit & a Half Distro. I wrote about this collection back in June (read the review HERE) and more recently about Strange Growths #14 (HERE). Buzzing around SPX in the last hour of the last day, after having spent most of my time running workshops for Comics Workbook, it was a delight to catch sight of 3 more issues of Strange Growths on the corner of a table, and a thrilling surprise to see that Jenny herself was standing behind them. I burbled something about how much I liked her comics, and how much I appreciated that they were about her own impressions of the world and what she saw as important or strange or beautiful, told with poetry and humor. She said her comics had been turned down a lot, and not published in comics anthologies in the 90’s because they lacked a focus on “women’s issues”. That’s exactly what I like about them – they speak of her as a person and an artist, and not “just” as a woman. The new (to me) issues pictured above round out my collection of the “complete” Strange Growths, compiling stories and dreams and poems from 2002-2013. They are excellent! You can get copies of Jenny’s work from Spit & a Half Distro, HERE, or if you’re at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus next weekend stop by the Spit & a Half Distro table. ———————————————————————————————— Above is a clip from one of the panels at SPX, featuring November Garcia (speaking), and Marc Sobel (moderating), Keith Knight, Jennifer Hayden, and Glynnis Fawkes. The panel was on autobio comics, and was just one part of a great lineup of programming that was heavily dominated by female makers. Many kudos to the organizers who made this happen (especially Rob Clough!) ———————————————————————————————— The greatest bit of news I came across last week is this: Caitlin McGurk (associate curator of The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum) has been tapped to write the text for IDW’s upcoming Library Of American Comics Essentials collection of Edwina Dumm‘s Cap Stubbs and Tippie comic strip (coming out in 2018)! I knew that Caitlin had been pouring over the Edwina Dumm items in the BICLM collection throughout the summer, and I guess this is why. She is “thrilled” about the project. On IDW’s The Library of American Comics blog Bruce Canwell wrote in the official announcement: “You see, over the span of time we’ve intermittently been working on bringing Cap Stubbs to you, we’ve met one particular Edwina fan, a highly-respected comics historian, who knows more about Edwina than I do and is even more enthusiastic about writing this Introduction than I am (and that’s saying something!). Which is why I’m pleased as the well-known punch to tell you that Caitlin McGurk, associate curator of The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, will be your guide on this particular tour of Edwina’s fine comics creations. Since one of our overarching goals is to provide you with the best information available for this, and for every book we release, I’m more than willing to yield this particular floor to Caitlin.“ Bruce Canwell and Dean Mullaney have had this project in mind for over a decade, and it’ll be the first of at least two projects involving the work of Edwina Dumm. You can read more about the book HERE. Congratulations to Caitlin for getting to be involved in bringing more of Edwina Dumm’s work to the general public. I personally can not wait for this book! ———————————————————————————————— Chicken Noodle Soup Heidi MacDonald shares her SPX 2017 report on The Comics Beat – The Year of Getting Woke. There’s a new comic by Ulli Lust up on her site, part of her series in the magazine Exberliner – read it HERE. Cathy G. Johnson recently published her graduate thesis – Developing the Cartooning Mind: The History, Theory, Benefit and Practice of Comic Books in Visual Arts Education – and she has shared some of it on her website, with the option to read it all via email request. Check it out HERE. Robert Kirby reviews Hannah K. Lee‘s Language Barrier on The Comics Journal – read it HERE. The A. V. Club has an exclusive preview of Language Barrier by Hannah K. Lee available HERE. Smash Pages interviews Glynnis Fawkes, and talks about her Greek Diary – HERE. Kim O’Connor reviews Simon Hanselmann’s Portrait. There’s a new comic up on Mutha Magazine – The Enormity of the Everydayness by Sophia Wiedeman Glock. Sophie Yanow is serializing her new comic on Patreon – a 192-page book that is already thumb-nailed. She just needs a few cheerleaders and a bit of rent money to get it done. Check it out HERE. Whit Taylor was a recent guest editor for the Illustrated PEN, and chose to excerpt Ben Passmore’s Your Black Friend, and Robyn Smith’s The Saddest Angriest Black Girl in Town – read them both HERE, as well as Whit’s commentary. Whit also reviewed Katie Skelly’s My Pretty Vampire, and Keiler Roberts’ Sunburning over on Roar. The Guardian features Tillie Walden and talks about her new comic Spinning – HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-22-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

11/28/2017

Aaron CockleNovember 28, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Alyssa Berg; Art from Guantánamo Bay; Louise Bourgeois; David Hockney; SF&FB&ZF; Conor Stechschulte ————————————————————————————————— Handmade Riso Postcard Workshop with Alyssa Berg Join SVA RisoLab Fall 2017 Artist-in-Residence Alyssa Berg for a workshop exploring handmade layers for Risograph printing. After a brief introduction to the basics of Risograph printing and a group demo, workshop attendees will use a variety of materials including tracing paper, pens, pencils, and collage materials to create artwork for a set of two-color Riso printed postcards. No experience is necessary and materials will be provided. We will be making our layers by hand (no computers!). Participants are encouraged to bring four small grayscale/black and white drawings (4.25 x 5.5 inch) or any text/collage materials they might wish to work with to create a set of four postcards. Alyssa Berg is a painter, comic-artist, and craftsman originally from the Great Northwest and currently living in Brooklyn. After studying painting at Parsons Paris and Hunter College, she began to focus on making painted comics in 2012. In these comics, she investigates and experiments with an array of materials, including collage elements. Her work has appeared in Smoke Signal, INK BRICK, and on the Comics Workbook website where she won the 2015 Composition Competition. alyssaberg.com Sunday, December 3, 12-3pm: RSVP ————————————————————————————————— Ode to the Sea: Art from Guantánamo Bay Open through JANUARY 26, 2018; PRESIDENT’S GALLERY, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, NYC Detainees at the United States military prison camp known as Guantánamo Bay have made art from the time they arrived. The exhibit will display some of these evocative works, made by men held without trial, some for nearly 15 years, who paint the sea again and again although they cannot reach it. One of the co-curators, Erin Thompson, has an NY Times op-ed piece about the artists and their work: But last week, the Miami Herald reported a change in military policy: The art of Mr. al-Alwi and the other remaining Guantánamo prisoners is now U.S. government property. The art will no longer leave prison confines and can now legally be destroyed. Attorneys for several prisoners were told the military intends to burn the art. Art censorship and destruction are tactics fit for terrorist regimes, not for the U.S. military. The art poses no security threat: It is screened by experts who study the material for secret messages before it leaves the camp, and no art by current prisoners can be sold. Guantánamo detainees deserve basic human rights as they await trial. Taking away ownership of their art is both incredibly petty and utterly cruel. ————————————————————————————————— David Salle on the Louise Bourgeois currently at MoMA You feel that Bourgeois wants to dig down to the basic fiber of form itself en route to creating an image; it’s what drawing can do, after all. A subset of the marks that she uses, especially those made with a brush and ink, have the length and start-and-stop quality of a stitch of thread or embroidery: graphic stitches, which are bundled together and become in turn the building blocks for many of her images. These include the skein or hank of hair or yarn, as well as nerve and muscle fibers, including flayed skin and tissue, which cluster, bale up, and twist, and can become in some works undulating curtains of hairlike walls, or take the form of river currents and ocean waves. The equivalency that Bourgeois draws between hair or yarn and muscle fibers or tissue is one of her principal inventions. Hair, women’s hair, is all over Bourgeois’s art. It is the perfect graphic element; like water, it can go anywhere and take virtually any shape. It can flow like a river, pass through keyholes, or twist around another form, strangling it. It can take the form of a flying carpet, or be made to cover, or smother, another surface. Or it can be parted to reveal what’s underneath. Hair is something to hide behind, or a memento left behind. The eroticism of hair was also a Surrealist staple, and Bourgeois makes good use of it. ————————————————————————————————— David Hockney Retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Working in a wide range of media with equal measures of wit and intelligence, Hockney has examined, probed, and questioned how to capture the perceived world of movement, space, and time in two dimensions. The exhibition offers a grand overview of the artist’s achievements across all media, including painting, drawing, photography, and video. From his early experiments with modernist abstraction and mid-career experiments with illusion and realism, to his most recent, jewel-toned landscapes, Hockney has consistently explored the nature of perception and representation with both intellectual rigor and sheer delight in the act of looking. ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— ‘On a basic, lifestyle level, moving here and attending school has allowed me to stop working a non-art-related day job (at least for now).’ Conor Stechschulte is interviewed at Just Indie Comics. Water, of course… It is a recurring element in your comics, and sometimes plays a major role. It may be the ritual river in The Amateurs, the rain from which the facts of Generous Bosom develop, the lake of impalpable but sharp tensions in Glancing, the sea where the games of Water Phase unfold, and Christmas in Prison’s narrative stream. If we consider water as a symbol, it is necessarily multifaceted, fluid, and seems to be related to desire, change, epiphany. It is the place where things happen, stories are told, secrets come to light. Why is water so important to you? Thank you for tracking this image so comprehensively throughout my work! You’ve done such a good job of outlining how I’ve used water that I’m not sure if I can add anything… Of the symbolic meanings you’ve listed I identify most with the idea of change. Water is a place where boundaries break down, things dissolve, definitions shift. With how clear and declarative one must be in telling a story, especially with comics (here’s a guy, now here he is again, see? He’s wearing the same shoes and hat, except now he’s dropped his umbrella, and here he is again but now he’s bending to pick it up), water provides a needed space for vagueness. It’s a place where the closure occurring between each panel might be suspended (or maybe it’s a way of depicting that no-space in between). You can draw a clean, clear black-outlined character for most of your book but if you reflect the same character in a bowl of water, their lines go all wavy. They can be different. ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 11-28-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 11-28-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 11-28-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Love and Rockets Dolls

Juan FernándezJune 19, 2016Photos“Gilbert & Jaime playing with their Luba, Maggie and Hopey dolls sent to them by a fan who made them out of barbies” – Carol Kovinick Hernandez Share this page: [...]

01/04/2018

Sally IngrahamJanuary 3, 2018NewsSally here with work by Laércio George Mabota, Djialeu Martial Ngande, and many other African cartoonists! ————————————————————————————————— I recently found a new database that I’ve been digging into – the Africa Cartoons: Encyclopedia of African Political Cartooning. It is being built by Tejumola Olaniyan, who is the Louise Durham Mead professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is originally from Nigeria, and his interests in African diaspora have led him write numerous books on music, literature, drama, and cultural identity. Somehow these interests also condensed into the desire to build this database, which lists 180 cartoonists from many African countries, and aims to represent the entire continent eventually. The artist whose work is represented above is Laércio George Mabota, a cartoonist from Mozambique. According to an article in The African, written when some of his work was featured at the Studio Museum in Harlem, his comics often feature “a braided, warrior-heroine in action packed panels that are as reminiscent of D.C. and Marvel comics as is the cross-hatching shadow technique in which the artist rendered her. As the heroine fights against marauders one can see that even this piece can be easily placed in the wider thematic interplay of justice/injustice prevalent in the exhibition.” Here’s another piece by Mabota that was featured on the Africa Cartoons database: Explore Africa Cartoons and discover more great comics artists – HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Africa Cartoons led me to Africa Comics, and the Africa e Mediterraneo Award for best unpublished comic strip by an African author (an award that Laércio George Mabota has won). This project operates within Italy and the African continent, offering workshops and lectures in schools in addition to the award. The award has been given out between 2002-2015, and I hope it will continue, as it gives the award winners an introduction to the European comics market. You can see the list of winners HERE – and some of the comics that won are featured and written about. Mabota’s strip Metamorphos da arte is featured HERE. A winner of the 2011-2013 award, first prize in the “Food Sovereignty” category, was this comic by Cameroonian cartoonist Djialeu Martial Ngande: The title translates from the French to For a history of plantain – the story is described thus: A man in a village is sent by his angry wife to look for food. He goes to the banana orchard, where he sees a man who has just taken a bunch of bananas: he threatens him and makes him carry the bananas back to his place.“ Read the rest of the story HERE. Be sure to check out this whole website – lots of really interesting stuff here, and especially interesting to me because these comics definitely have more of an “underground” feel to them. They’re each 4 pages long as well, which provides a more complete look at the work of these artists than I’ve chanced upon in my internet searches. ————————————————————————————————— I can across an article by MariNaomi in Issue 4 of Midnight Breakfast, which is about Writing People of Color (if you happen to be a person of another color). It is a good read, with interjections and digressions in comics form, and finishing with comics and bits of advice from a number of other artists, including Yumi Sakugawa, Keith Knight, Whit Taylor, and Maré Odomo. Read the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 16th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. His experience and ideas have influenced the likes of Connor Willumsen, Michael DeForge, and Simon Hanselmann (quote “I consider Frank Santoro to be my L. Ron Hubbard”) among many others. Dig into something new in the new year! Full details and how to apply can be found HERE. Share this page: [...]

Juan Fernandez @ CAB 2016

Juan FernándezNovember 14, 2016Festivals and ShowsComic. Arts. Brooklyn. 2016: Comics, zines, prints. A shmorgasbord of color. A dazzling display of print. The 2016 Comic Arts Brooklyn (CAB) presented by Brooklyn’s Desert Island Comics was held on Saturday, November 5th. Organized by Desert Island proprietor Gabe Fowler, this marks the fourth year that the show has been called CAB and the eighth year of the show, which was originally called The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. Gabe has turned the fest into a well-oiled machine and this year featured satellite events the day before and the day after the Saturday exhibitors showcase at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church. Friday saw Altcomics 8, a night of music, live comics readings, and art hosted by 2dcloud, along with the opening of Buzz Saw, an exhibition of art from the Sequential Artists Workshop. Sunday saw Color Giants, the Brooklyn Animation Expo, which was held in conjunction with Art Brooklyn Fireproof. Screenings were programmed by Kenneth Filmer. There were no panels or artist spotlights this year. A bummer in some ways, but given the last minute green lighting of this year’s CAB, it makes sense to not have wanted to rush programming only to wind up with subpar panels. I exhibited as Comics Workbook and tabled next to the great Julia Gfrörer and Sean T. Collins, alongside Patrick Kyle(and Lala Albert who set up shop at Patrick’s table towards the end of the day). The Comics Workbook table consisted of myself, Jenn Lisa, Ronald Wimberly and Simon Reinhardt. I thought it was a wonderful show. Rumors had been going around earlier this year that it wasn’t going to happen. Well, IT HAPPENED! A huge thank you to Mr. Fowler for the last minute opportunity to exhibit at this year’s CAB. Comics Workbook got word late in the week that there was a need for another exhibitor. Of course, we agreed to go. You don’t miss CAB. We hunkered down prepared a wide array of comics to bring to the good folks of New York. Unfortunately Frank’s car had been giving him trouble all week and was in the shop. We planned everything carefully. I would leave with Jenn Lisa and haul what I could. He would get it out of the garage Saturday morning and he would book it to make it in the afternooon Saturday to catch the second half of the buzzing show. Unlike Frank though, I can’t haul short box after short box of comics in my VW Bug… We had to decide what would go first and then did some intense tetris outside the Rowhouse Residency to fit in as much as we could. We slammed the trunk and hauled ass to NYC! Frank would bring the rest in the morning. Jenn Lisa and I hit the road, spirits high. We arrived early Saturday morning, got some shut eye and then booked it for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in the morning. I was worried about parking, so Jenn and I took off to set up as early as we could. Frank’s taught me how critical these kind of considerations are for making these exhausting days fall into place. We lucked out out and found a spot right in front of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Unloading and setting up was a breeze. We were tabling next to Patrick Kyle, Lala Albert, Julia Gfrörer and Sean T. Collins. Good folks. I told Jenn to get ready, because CAB’s prime time is 11-1:30. A choc-a-bloc that builds to a fever pitch. Everyone’s oogling and oggling round that time. Most attendees hope to make a full tour of the show before breaking out their wallets, but within that first hour I heard that attendees just couldn’t wait on buying so-an-so’s latest book or zine. They knew that things were going to fast. We sold a Truth Zone within the first 20 minutes of the show. That set the tone for the show. It was wonderful to meet so many people. Lots of people were familiar with what we’d been doing over the past year in Pittsburgh with the house and with the residencies. It emboldens the spirit to know that what we’re doing is rippling out. A HUGE shout out to all former students that came by and traded your books with us! You know who you are <3 Jenn and I brought a lot of our own books and were excited to share them with New Yorkers. I sold out of my zine I Can See the Birds, which was awesome. What else sold well? Connor. Willumsen. This is his show! Everyone was asking for his stuff. We sold out of all the copies of Swinespritzen that we brought which was a real thrill. That Connor… The great Ronald Wimberly stepped up to the plate at 2PM to do a signing and the fans start piling up. He brought the goods. While his fans waited, to chat with the shinobi himself, they dug through our shortboxes. We riffed on the primo comics Frank had curated. It was a good time. They found some 80s gold. No one curates a small selection of comics like Frank… Ron had brought the Artist edition of Prince of Cats, the Attack on Titan anthology he was in and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Ron is one of the most exciting comics makers I can think of right now. His blade cuts across a thousand forms. He gives his fans, new and old, the attention they deserve while he signs. It was a real honor to work by his side on Saturday! Image did right by this edition of Prince of Cats. It’s glorious. Lots of people asked for Frank. In the end his mechanics in Pittsburgh let him down. This CAB was lacking in it’s requisite levels of Santoro. Alas! For all of those who left messages, rest assured, we passed along all the memos to Frank. There were so many amazing books of all shapes and sizes. Here are some of my favorites: Lale Westvind’s Breakdown Press book, Hax Anya Davidson’s Gloom Planet Alabaster Pizzo’s Mimi and the Wolves Act 3: The Howl Conor Stechschulte’s new self published print masterpiece, Christmas In Prison. Richard Short’s Klaus Magazine 2 On a personal level, I was especially startled by how many people were familiar with my own zines and comics. Comics Workbook has been sharing some of them through our social media network over the past year, but I never expected people to be hep to my work just yet! The reach that the blog and the social media network has is really inspiring. There’s still some viral mystery to it all… CAB is such a whirlwind of a show. It’s definitely the New York City atmosphere. It all just goes by so fast. It was busy. Sales were solid. There are so many comics festivals these days (curated and non-curated) that I know for a fact that I can’t handle more than regional shows around Pittsburgh and the heavy hitters around the East Coast. It’s a delight to end the season with CAB, you leave inspired with work that invites you to pore over it all winter long. I firmly believe that the most interesting, and arguably pioneering comics makers are all in a room at CAB(some come every other year). Wish that I could have gone around and interviewed people about their work! That’ll be for next year. I wound up holding down the fort at the Comics Workbook table. The comics weren’t going to sell themselves 😉 Towards the end of the show Simon M. Reinhardt arrived to hold it down and I was able to make the rounds. Thanks Simon! Here are some photos of only a few of the many amazing people I bumped into. Gabe’s got the market place down to a science. So, naturally, I’m interested to see the ways in which CAB continues to evolve. Will it stabilize into being an amped up zine fest and wild style art book fair that focuses exclusively on the marketplace? Will someone step in to lend a hand to the team to develop some track of programming during the weekend or the week before? To return to it’s BCGF format. Does that matter? Who’s ready to step up to the plate? On the floor I heard some people discuss this being the last CAB. And damn, that’s a little pessimistic. For what it’s worth, CAB can’t be beat for a lot of reasons. Easy access via transportation. Trains, plains, buses, cars all make their way easily to NYC. For the most part either you know someone in the City or there’s an affordable place to stay for a night or two. The crowds are great. People are squeezing CAB into their busy Saturday. It’s just one of many things they’re doing so they bring an incredible energy into the space. Most people likely just heard that there was something cool with comics going on in that one church in Brooklyn. That’s a good place to be. Gabe’s curation can’t be beat. You wan’t to find the coolest books published in a year? You can’t do any better in the US than coming to CAB. Oh and people come ready to spend money. Real money. I think it’s been year of a lot of change for comics shows. A new regime of shows is definitely falling into place. CAB showed that it is definitely a part of that new regime. As a show, it does what so few comics can do. It’s got the verve of Montreal’s legendary Expozine. When it comes to art comics and accessible art from the outer limits – It can’t be beat. Mr. Fowler’s extensive knowledge of “what’s happening” in comics comes directly out of his experience as a retailer and it’s clear he curates the show like he curates his store. Desert Island is a great store which serves its community. In my eyes, it’s a must stop for an any all comics pilgrims that travel along the East Coast. I urge everyone to go to CAB next year. It’s a different show than TCAF and a very different show then SPX and CXC. Whether you are a maker or a reader, it’s good to go to them all if you can. It bears repeating – to soak up all these shows and to be at the epicenter of new work and current conversations – YOU DON’T NEED TO BE EXHIBITING. Just pack your bags, grab a bunch of your zines and hop on a bus. While you’re there, give away some books, maybe trade some, take some photos and notes! You’ll come home with lots of ideas and inspiration. There’ll be a lot of new encounters with other makers known and unknown. These shows are where it all happens. You get to meet the authors who are making some of the most amazing work in the world at the moment. Worth it’s weight in gold. -can’t wait for next year, Juan Share this page: [...]

Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2013

Posted on September 12, 2013May 29, 2019 by Frank Santoro

I just wanted to write something the composition competition I ran over at Comics Workbook on Tumblr.

Tumblr is an interesting phenomenon. It’s sort of like Facebook, sort of like Twitter, and sort of like Instagram. But it’s different. It feels perfect for sharing short comics. You can “reblog” a post similarly to how on Twitter you can “retweet”. So the post that you reblog shows up on your own Tumblr homepage. Forgive me if you know all this.

I’ve been surprised how Tumblr has taken off within indie comics. And I’m surprised how many comics makers I have gotten to know all over the world simply from following different people’s Tumblrs. It’s really widened my eyes to how many different kinds of comics are out there. For example, I became aware of Simon Hanselmann, the Australian cartoonist, because I was seeing some of his comics being reblogged. I think Tumblr has really changed the indie comics landscape for the better.

The thing about Tumblr though is that if someone posts something on the other side of the world while I am sleeping I may just miss it entirely. Posts just seem to disappear. There are specific url links of course that you can locate – however when you go back to look through someone’s Tumblr usually they have added so many new posts since the last time you visited their homepage that it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.

So, I wanted to share the amazing comics that poured into the Comics Workbook Composition Competition with the TCJ audience who may not be on Tumblr.

Now that the Xeric Foundation no longer exists there are very few institutions that offer cash rewards for making comics. The Xeric grants also provided something for makers to aim for on the calendar. Having a deadline is often the thing that really kicks one in the ass to MAKE something; to finish something.

I was truly humbled by the response. There were, in the end, over 70 entries. I thought there would be about a dozen. I was surprised when it went over 20. In fact, with only two weeks to go before the deadline there were under 30 entries. Then the floodgates opened. Deadlines work wonders apparently. (Add smiley face icon here)

Myself and the other judges (three women and three men) crafted this response when we announced the winners:

“The evidence is piling up: comics is THE ascendant art form. The sheer amount of energy and talent that poured into this competition during its relatively brief window provides ample testimony to this. It is our belief that artistic creation is a two way street. An artist, or any other creator, grows in the process of creating; the greater the efforts, the greater the growth. By this measure, comics creators in general – and those who submitted work to this competition in particular – are growing by leaps and bounds, and so, by definition, is the comics form; as in the final analysis, the value of a form is coincident with the work that it contains. It is our hope that all of the makers who participated in this contest have been TRANSFORMED in some way – artistically, personally, spiritually, and/or physically (improved eye-hand coordination? yes!) – by the time and energy dedicated to the creation of their submissions. Everyone who took part in this exercise has completed a hero’s journey.”

When I took part in the Eisner Award judging this year, I learned that everyone has different tastes (duh). For some judges on the Eisner Awards, the art in the comic book is the most important factor. For other judges it seemed that the story was the most important thing. Obviously, the combination of great art and great writing makes for great comics. However, I was very surprised for example when a fellow judge didn’t care for a comic that I thought was brilliant. I asked why and the response was,”I just don’t like the art style.”

The same thing happened when judging the Comics Workbook contest. Certain comics that I thought were stunning registered a “meh” by some of the other judges. And vice versa. It was a very difficult process. Everyone has different tastes.

So, with that in mind I hope that the TCJ audience will sift through these wonderful comics and discuss them in the comments section. Feel free to “vote” for your favorites. However, please refrain from taking the time to bitch about the ones that you don’t like. Cool? Cool!

The requirements for the competition were that each entry had to use the same page size and panel arrangement. Each comic had to be 14 pages in length plus a front and back cover. This, of course, creates a 16 page “signature” which can easily be made into a comic book. The requirements, I believe, leveled the playing field and allowed the maker to easily print the comic up when complete.

——————————————————-

——————————————————–

COMPLETE LIST OF ENTRIES to the COMPETITION

(Triangle Circle Square) by Alexander Tanazefti

A Cramped, Well Pressurized Place by Scott Kroll

A Kat, A Brick, A Mouse, A Dog or Comics: A Vast Waste Land by Paul

A Poorly Edited Ending by Alison Crofts

A Tender-Hearted Beheading by Nick Francis Potter

Arachnodacks by Rowan Tedge

Attempt 101 by MK Stangeland Jr

Baba’s Accordion by Jared Cullum

Bibo by Lauren Molina

Big Wheel (AKA The Curse of Santoro) by Tyler Luetkehans

Black Goo by Moonpulse

Blue Dusk by Mica Agregado

Boxes by Whit Taylor

Clangor by Derek Timm-Brock

Close One by Nick Alexander

Death of Spot by Bill Wehmann

Dog Dead Afternoon by Eva Houzard & Tarquin Pons

Escape to the Top by Andy Frederick

Exile from Cyclops Island by Pat Guppy

Freefall by Alexey Sokolin

Glory Trolls by Nicky Minus

Goldie Over There by Jeremy Sorese

Good Night Billy Moon by Ian Chachere and Jesse Dewyer

Hacienda by Dave Ortega

Hiccup by Mike Centeno

House of Bees by Jillian Fleck

JAS by Phillip Dokes

Joey by Melissa Mendes

July 99 by Suny Gao

Late Night by Jack Reese

Lesbian Sunrise by Rick Manlapig

Little Dreamers by Dan Tabata

Loner Anger by Mike Olson

Meet by Harrison G Prince

Molarhead by Mou

Moon Festival by Todd Webb

Moonling by Lydia Grace Henderson

Mouth by Tristan Wright

Object Memory Featuring Mother Koala and Mi the Yellow Dolphin by

Saicoink

Off the Grid by AT Pratt

Old Port by Evangelos Androutsopoulos

On The Way by Michael Fikaris

One Woods by Brad A

Post Fallout by Blake R. Sims

Problem Child by PR Gamlen

ProcrastiNation by Camilo Vieco

Prof Lewis by KL Ricks

Real Real Deep by Nick Jankowski

Red and the Wolf by Michelle LaPlante

Redneck Beach by Gabrielle Mulholland

Repetition is a Form of Change by RM Rhodes

Ringed Planets by Bob Schofield

Sea by Rosie Haghighi

Searching by Andrew Pannell

Shield by Zoe Coughlin

Stay Frosty by Ben Duncan

Strange Outpost by Pablo Selin

Swampy 93 by Bjorn

Symbolon by Lucas Teixeira

Temple by Jared Morgan

The Abridged History of a Moon by Patt Kelley

The Bad Unicorn by Yuliya Sobotyuk

The Green Fly Theater by James Dale

The Grid is the Thing by Derik A Badman

The Perfect Human by L. Nichols

The Quest by Kalen Knowles

The Secret Life of Steven Seagal by Mat Barton and Adam Cooper

The Steganographer’s Dream by Miranda

The Story So Far by Royce Icon

Then They Stand Stationary Again by Derik A Badman

They Live by Night by Cole Johnson

Thin Virtual Cloud Structure by Shawn Eisenach

Tides by Andrew White

Transaction by Joseph Lambert

Valley Post by Mark Wang

Vespers by Alexander Rothman

——————————————————

The winners, as chosen by the judges:

FIRST PLACE – $500 cash prize

Hacienda by Dave Ortega

Our decision to award “Hacienda” First Place recognizes Dave Ortega’s creation of an ambitious, multi-layered narrative that cuts through history, class, status and power in a deftly constructed story which takes the reader back and forth in time to reveal the conceit and illusion undergirding dominant paradigms in a way that only comics can. This complex concoction of culture and character made for a winning combination.

————————————————————————————-

SECOND PLACE – $250 gift certificate at Copacetic Comics

Shield by Zoe Coughlin

In Second Place, Zoe Choughlin’s “Shield” puts an inventive twist on the mutant superhero theme, and in so doing gives new meaning to the phrase, “prickly personality.” Here is an adolescent power fantasy right where it’s needed most: the hallways of high school. Bullying takes many forms, some invisible to all but the victim. By recognizing this in a convincing and dramatic fashion, Ms. Coughlin has effectively demonstrated the power of comics to contribute to the eventual remedying of this unfortunate human trait.

————————————————————————————

THIRD PLACE – $100 gift certificate at Copacetic Comics

Old Port by Evangelos Androutsopoulos

The Comics Workbook Competition’s Third Place, “Old Port”, clearly embodies excellence in both conception and execution. In telling the story of youth’s first forays into independence and how the discovery of a nurturing space and mentorship can lead to creativity’s first flowering, the story provides an apt recapitulation of the very ideals powering this competition; its excellence in execution is plain for all to see.

————————————————————————————

———————————————————————————-

HONORABLE MENTIONS – $50 gift (each) at Big Planet Comics

A Cramped, Well Pressurized Place by Scott Kroll

Prof. Lewis by K. L. Ricks

Goldie Over There by Jeremy Sorese

Arachnodacks by Rowan Tedge

————————————————————

———————————————————-

SPECIAL MENTION – $25 gift certificate at PictureBox

The Perfect Human by L. Nichols

————————————————-

————————————————

———————————————–

THANK YOU to everyone who participated. The plan is to make it a yearly event. I think it worked out to have the contest deadline so close to SPX. It seems like everyone in the small press community furiously makes comics over the summer to debut at SPX. So for those who can’t make it to SPX this contest and the deadline allowed them to join in that special mania. Many of the comics that were created for the contest will be on display at SPX, so check ’em out! Thanks again. This was a truly humbling experience for myself and the folks involved in making the contest possible. Cheers.

Share this page:

12 thoughts on “Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2013”

AJ says:

September 12, 2013 at 11:57 am

Is anyone else having as hard of a time reading these as I am? When I open them in a full screen browser and click on a single image to bring it into focus – the panels are still only around 1.25 x 1.75 inches, which makes all lettering very difficult to read. If I download the images seperately and open them at original size they are easier to read – but its annoying to do for every comic every page. Maybe different browser settings or screen resolution would help – I dunno?

The quality is very good for the ones I have read so far though.

Reply
1. Jonathan says:
  
  September 12, 2013 at 1:24 pm
  
  For what it’s worth, I’m using Firefox and this has been my tactic: Right click the image and have it open in a new tab. Then you can zoom in to full size. But agreed, not ideal. Really cool contest idea though. Big ups to TCJ/Big Planet/Copacetic/PictureBox.
  
  Reply
2. Andrew says:
  
  September 12, 2013 at 10:08 pm
  
  Just on the easy to read thing, this was driving me crazy so I knocked up this bookmarklet to magic all the images to full size without having to open each separately:
  https://gist.github.com/andrewfulton/6546035
  
  If you make a new bookmark in your browser, then paste that in as the URL, you can click it while on a comp entry page and it should turn the images big. Seems to work most of the time.
  
  Reply
Robert says:

September 12, 2013 at 2:29 pm

I open each image in a new tab to read them. Don’t know if there’s an easier method than that.

Reply
JuicyJ says:

September 12, 2013 at 3:56 pm

The Perfect Human by L. Nichols & Arachnodacks by Rowan Tedge are really fantastic.

Reply
Derik Badman says:

September 13, 2013 at 9:20 am

I posted a bit on my favorites here: http://madinkbeard.tumblr.com/post/60841353639/my-favorites-from-the-comicsworkbook-competition

Reply
Dave O says:

September 13, 2013 at 10:16 am

I also heard from people that they couldn’t read these on Tumblr.

I re-posted my entry as individual pages here:

http://grandpapier.org/dave-ortega/hacienda#page1.

Cheers

Reply
Scott Kroll says:

September 13, 2013 at 12:45 pm

I re-posted mine here: http://kingcrowcomics.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-cramped-well-pressurized-place.html

It’s slightly easier to read there.

Congratulations to you, Dave Ortega. Hacienda is an amazing read.

Reply
pablo says:

September 13, 2013 at 12:54 pm

Nice post, I was really surprised with the winners because I also had some personal favorites that didn’t make it to the prizes, but I liked that the judges had differents point of view, anyway the quality was overwhelming and the process was a real challenge for me, it helped me understand a lot of the mechanics and elements that come into play when you develop a story. Tumblr has been an eye-opener about alternative comics and I hope this continues to go on because the non-verbal communication of reblogs and likes is also really stimulating for making stuff.

PD. I also uploaded some higher resolution versions of my work if anyone is interested in checking it:

Part 1: http://abandonboy.tumblr.com/post/60180790413/strange-outpost-larger-one-page-post-part-1

Part 2: http://abandonboy.tumblr.com/post/60181071105/strange-outpost-larger-version-part-2-of-2

I still have a long way to go comics-wise, but working on this competition felt really good!

Reply
John B says:

September 13, 2013 at 1:25 pm

I think the contest is a great idea. I live in the middle of nowhere and can’t go to a comics shop and peruse comics. I also can’t afford to buy comics online at the moment. Tumblr has allowed me to see all kinds of comics that I would not have otherwise seen. And the contest made it even better. A bunch of great work in one easy to find and organized place.

I feel like the contest submissions (and comics on tumblr in general) show of how far comics have come in the last 10 years or so. It was not long ago that (speaking strictly for myself) I felt like I could count all the cartoonists worth following on two hands and possibly a foot. Now I see interesting new things by new cartoonists nearly every week.

Thank you (!) to those who organized and participated.

Reply
Tristan says:

September 14, 2013 at 2:13 pm

I want to thank Frank and everyone involved in this competition. My submission is the only comic I’ve been able to finish this year and I doubt I would have found the motivation to come home from my day job and draw til 2am every night if there without a tight deadline. I only have about four hours of free time a day so deadlines are key in maintaining steady energy in comic making instead of being consumed by other endeavors. Artists and writers only get better by making and this sort of friendly competition does nothing but increase the quality of artists and comics out there. I hope more competitions pop up as a result of how well everyone responded to this one. I look forward to seeing all the makers who submitted here growing and drawing a lot more.

Reply
Pingback: James Romberger

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in News, Riff Raff

Frank Santoro

Posted on September 12, 2013May 29, 2019

Explore

11/23/2017

Sally IngrahamNovember 22, 2017NewsSally here with Egyptian comics, cartoonists on immigration, and a Happy Thanksgiving. ————————————————————————————————— The Atlantic has a great article about Egypt’s cartoonists – sort of a scene report of the Cairo Comix Festival, which took place in September, and an on-the-ground report of the comics scene as a whole in Egypt, where telling the truth is difficult and increasingly dangerous. “Despite a small readership—or perhaps thanks in part to their relative invisibility—comics in Egypt are blossoming in the shadows. “There is no distribution in Egypt. There are no graphic novel publishers. There is no real way to make a living publishing comics here,” says Sara El Masry, co-owner of an organization called MAZG that runs cartooning workshops throughout the country. But as other means of expression have been shut down, the cartoonist festival has grown, according to its organizer. With few eyes on them, these graphic storytellers are depicting the truth as they see it.“ The article profiles a number of comics makers from the country, including Mai Koraiem whose work is pictured above. “Other cartoonists at the festival approached their subjects with bare fists, particularly when it comes to gender politics in Egypt. In Traveler’s Diary, Mai Koraiem uses a rough, expressive inkwash technique to detail the history of women’s rights in Egypt and the Middle East. Through a journalistic narrative, Koraiem tells the story of the ascendance of a violent misogynist culture, and the unraveling of liberal feminist values she argues first found purchase in Cairo in the 1960s. In a small ongoing thread at the bottom of the page, Koraiem links the personal and political by including a comic strip narrating her own experiences with street harassment and sexual assault.“ Read the rest of the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Columbus Alive features the new exhibit at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, which looks back at how the topic of immigration has been covered by cartoonists over the last 150 years. “The resulting exhibit, “Looking Backward, Looking Forward: U.S. Immigration in Cartoons and Comics,” reveals that while the particulars of immigration may not have remained constant, the push-and-pull of public opinion as reflected in comics — and shaped by cartoonists — is something that hasn’t changed as the United States has considered the philosophical, political and practical implications of immigration. “There is a very rich history of cartoonists commenting on what’s going on in the world in terms of immigration to the United States, reflecting what people are thinking and saying, but also, we think, impacting how people are thinking about it,” Curator and Assistant Professor Jenny Robb said. “So we wanted to take a look back at the past 150 years and see how cartoonists dealt with it in their work. And not just editorial cartoonists, but in comic strips and comic books and, more recently, graphic novels.”“ The image above is the exhibition’s featured comic. “Robb and Gardner chose Joseph Keppler’s 1893 artwork “Looking Backward” as the exhibition’s featured image because of its timeless message, Robb said. The cartoon depicts “people who have immigrant pasts and have benefited from the opportunities in the U.S. in 1893, are now trying to stop new immigrants from coming over, forgetting their own past,” Robb said. “You could run that today; it would just be a different group of people.” “ Read the whole article HERE. The exhibit is up through April 15th 2018. ————————————————————————————————— On The Nib Rawand Issa details why Being Illegal is Unbearable – for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. ————————————————————————————————— Here in the USA we are celebrating Thanksgiving today – an often controversial holiday, as many cartoonists take note of. Lauren Weinstein‘s weekly Normal Person for Village Voice details the types of politically tense turkeys that grace many tables – HERE. Lauren’s also got a Thanksgiving comic in Seattle’s The Stranger: Here’s Roz Chast for The New Yorker of course: ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 11-23-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

03/14/2018

Juan FernándezMarch 14, 2018los Cómics / NewsJuan, on selling comics in Pittsburgh and “hypergeography” via the grid on tumblr y más! —————————————— Inaugural Mini-market @ Pullproof The weekend before last I sold and shared comics in Pittsburgh, PA during the Penn Avenue Unblurred gallery crawl. I set up shop at PULLPROOF Studio’s inaugural Mini-Market. All in all, it featured zines, prints, and jewelry by a crew of great local artists. It was really nice company. Among us were Jenna Houston, Lizzee Solomon, City Slicker Press, Max Emiliano Gonzales (GEMS), Jerome “Chu” Charles, Asia Lae, Lilian Kababa! PULLPROOF Studio is an in-progress printmaking studio in Pittsburgh, PA. They intend to offer a fully equipped silkscreen printing facility with a shared workspace and small storefront gallery at 5112 Penn Avenue in the Garfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their mission is to provide affordable access to silkscreen printing equipment, space, and time to artists in the Western Pennsylvania area. It’s going to be nice to have them in addition to the Artists Image Resource on the North Side. It’s a cool project. I did my best Frank Santoro/Bill Boichel impersonation and brought comics to the people. Frank loaned me a stash of Colombian comics from when he’d been invited to Entreviñetas in 2014. They sold well. It was nice to sell those and see them make their way into the hands of Pittsburghers. I’ve been collecting and curating a wide array of zines and comics that express the vision of visual literacy that I’d like to see more of in the world. Among those collected comics, I also sell comics that I’ve helped produce, my own and those of the Pittsburgh Comics Salon. It’s a healthy mix. I like to make it concretely clear to people, through in-person experience, that, yes, whatever you’re into, there’s a comic or zine you’re going to love. It’s nice to proselytize as a vendor, not just an educator or artist. Frank Santoro has been on this grind for ever, both because it is a better way to make money at show, opposed to selling solely what you make, and also because it’s more honest with one’s real experience with comics. You’re just as much a consumer as you are a producer. There’s a really organic back and forth, that this kind of tabling set up allows for. A huge thank you to PULLPROOF, Christina Lee in specific, for inviting me and hosting this event. This is the kind of selling and sharing of comics and culture I want to see more of in Pittsburgh. ————————————————————————————————— Hyper Geography Hyper Geography es un Tumblr creado por Joe Hamilton. Hay 100 posts tipo “loop” que se unen horizonatalmente y verticalmente. Hamilton esta usando Tumblr y las possibilidades del template como medio para crear su arte. Este proyecto es un buen ejemplo de cómo el navegador se convierte en el lienzo y la plataforma social la herramienta. Todo gracias a la cuadrícula. ————————————————————————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ en Español ~ El Duende y la Ilustración en Tres minutos… En Revista Cactus, Klari Moreno entrevista a Ana Galvañ y luego lo plasma así de bonito: Cartoonist Ramón Esono Ebalé finally released from jail in Equatorial Guinea. Un estupendo artículo escrito por el dibujante Mauro Entrialgo sobre Forges. Un gran homenaje. Texas Latino Comic Con returns! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 03-14-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

01/03/2017

Aaron CockleJanuary 3, 2017NewsAaron here today with some NYC shows of note; Leanne Shapton looks back at 2016; New Sikoryak; Connor Willumsen; Joanie and Jordie & Suzie and Cecil ————————————————————————————————— Agnes Martin at the Guggenheim Museum through January 11 Hilton Als wrote about Martin in the New York Review last July: Martin contradicted all that nihilism. She used the grid as a forum for belief—a space where the viewer as well as the artist could contemplate the hand making the thing being observed. In her well-considered 1971 appreciation of the artist, Kasha Linville wrote: Once you are caught in one of her paintings, it is an almost painful effort to pull back from the private experience she triggers to examine the way the picture is made. The desire to simply let yourself flow through it, or let it flow through you, is much stronger…. Her paintings exert themselves differently, depending on their line, their pattern, and the quality of the ground color on the canvas. Some are less lyrical, evincing aggression or tension…. Others suggest spaciousness or vast space, again without using illusionistic devices or the egotistical implication of infinitely extendible surface. One pauses at the extraordinary line “the egotistical implication of infinitely extendible surface.” Unlike her male predecessors, not to mention contemporaries, Martin didn’t use the grid as a means of describing the infinite—the infinite “I” of being an artist. Instead, her work ends at the canvases’ edge.One begins and then one finishes; the grace is in the doing. Her touch was her personality; looking at canvases such as Friendship, of 1963 (made of incised gold leaf), or the ghostly Grass of 1967, one sees various lines that begin with verve, grow faint and then run out, slowly and calmly, like a swimmer beginning strong and then using wide, unhurried strokes once they see the shore. “Line is where she speaks most personally,” Linville said. “It is her vocabulary as the grids are her syntax.” Kerry James Marshall: Mastry at the Met Breuer through January 29 Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round so Our Thoughts Can Change Direction at the Museum of Modern Art through March 19 ————————————————————————————————— The Top Pinks and Purples of 2016 Via Leanne Shapton at the New Yorker. 9. Willy Wonka’s frock coat, as worn by Gene Wilder in the 1971 movie; 10. Sky at dusk over Greenport, Long Island; 11. Cotton candy at the Four Seasons Restaurant; 12. Supermoon; 13. Hillary Clinton’s lapels; 14. Walls of Cecily Brown’s show at the Drawing Center ————————————————————————————————— The Unquotable Trump R.Sikoryak with a new mash-up for 2017. ————————————————————————————————— Connor Willumsen’s Portraits continues to enthrall. This magazine sized 16-page beautifully printed booklet (by WestCan – who also printed thee Santoro School Handbook) is available HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-3-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-3-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

01/31/2018

Juan FernándezJanuary 31, 2018los Cómics / NewsJuan empieza el día con un PSA y con Bombas Para Desayunar! ————————————————————————————————— Friendly PSA to Santoro School Students past,present, and future: Ever get that feeling when you’re trying to write plot and explore narrative, but your brain only provides you with out-of-sequence snippets built on vague ideas and an endless number of potential outcomes that develop and branch out unnaturally over an unspecified timespan? This is how our brains work. Recent findings in neuroscience confirm this notion. (Baldassano, Chen, Zadbood, Pillow, Hasson & Norman – Zacks, Speer, Swallow, and Maley) When we work on narrative art we’re reverse engineering much of our brain’s natural event and detail segmentation. Straight up, it’s hard work to create work that reads like it’s own reality. This is why we at the Santoro School use index cards. We crystallize thought through action onto index cards, and then can, theoretically, stand outside of time in the editing process to make narratives come together. So remember, do your warm ups, then jump into your index cards and let the thoughts flow. Don’t be precious, just keep the thoughts, feelings, images and words flowing. Jot that “noise” down. When you pull away from that flow, rest assured you’ll be able to rearrange them into coherent sequences for readers or viewers to parse. -JF ————————————————————————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ In English and en Español ~ Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con Panchulei (Francisca Cárcamo) dibujante, escritora, editora de Pánico Ediciones y dueña de la librería del mismo nombre. Hablaron acerca de la injusta diferencia en la cantidad de hombres versus la cantidad de mujeres invitadas a festivales, conversaron acerca del mundo de la historieta, los festivales, las mejoras que pueden construir y los espacios que aún faltan por explorar. Aquí hay fanzines de Bombas para Desayunar para leer de gratis – Bombas para Desayunar es una microeditorial de fanzines que nació en 2009 en Oviedo de mano de Andrea Galaxina. Después ha estado unos años afincada en Muriedas (Cantabria) y en Bergen (Noruega) y en la actualidad tiene sede en Madrid. Te invito a leer: ‘Dolores Sánchez’, el segundo capítulo del comic biográfico sobre Emilia Pardo Umaña (1907-1961), primera periodista colombiana. una historia de @canelaflorez y @altais Crítica de Sadboi de Berliac a cargo de Álvaro Arbonés en CuCo 9. ————————————————————————————————— Convocatorias + Deadlines: ¡¡Convocatoria abierta del I Concurso Nacional de Cómic Biblioteca Insular de Gran Canaria!! 3 premios y 9 accésits con una dotación de entre 3.000 y 400 euros y la publicación de las obras ganadoras en un volumen conjunto editado por Astiberri. Bases. Deadline Reminder: submissions for Ink Brick no. 9 are due Monday, Feb 19, 2018! Do yourself a favor and submit your comics-poetry, won’t you? Call for Chapter Contributions: Comics Beyond the Page in Latin America. ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-31-2018 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-31-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

11/10/2017

Sally IngrahamNovember 9, 2017NewsSally here with Cricket magazine, work by Madeleine Witt and Audra Stang, your CAB reminder, and tons more comics and news! ————————————————————————————————— There is an article about the “secret history of Cricket magazine” on Electric Literature. Written by A. J. O’Connell, it details the creation and life of the beloved children’s magazine, with insights from founder Marianne Carus, quotes from long time art director Trina Schart Hyman (my FAVORITE illustrator as a child), and lots of love from authors and illustrators who read the magazine when they were kids. I myself found Cricket in my local library and enjoyed every new issue I read – and was lucky in that the library had an archive of many of the old issues. It was the very best sort of magazine, full of stories and glorious illustrations by the greatest working creators of the time – and it never really felt like it was “for kids” – which was Marianne Carus’ goal, after all. She felt like kids could handle stories that were darker, that might make you cry, just as well as funny, lighthearted stuff. Like many others, I was inspired by Cricket to make my own “magazine” and published some of the stories I wrote along with illustrations for my family. Read all about Cricket HERE. Trina Schart Hyman was a Caldecott Medal winner for her work on St. George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges, and earned a couple of Caldecott Honors as well. I adored her fairy tale illustrations and wrote her a long letter when I was 11 or 12 (and received a lovely response and an autographed book in return). I think I didn’t know that she was the art editor for Cricket magazine until later – I just knew that her illustrations showed up in the magazine frequently. I also didn’t really understand that the SAME Trina Schart Hyman drew the Cricket and Ladybug comic in the magazine. Each issue had a four-panel strip, and additionally the characters Cricket, Old Cricket, Ladybug, and Sluggo would scamper and scurry throughout the magazine, popping up to comment on the stories or merely harass each other for a moment. ” “ just had such a wonderful way of drawing them,” said Leonard. “They served as explanation of difficult words so if there was a vocabulary word that might stop a kid reader the crickets would explain what that word meant. They also had their own little life in the four-block cartoon.” “ They were great, and a big part of what made the magazine beloved to me and so many others. Again, read all about it HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Madeleine Witt has been making a comic a day this month. She and a number of others I know are doing the “30 Days of Comics” challenge that was begun by Derik Badman in 2009 or 2011 (depending on how you count it). Madeleine’s take on the challenge offers a good insight into why things like this can be good for creators: “I’ll be drawing 1 comic a day for the month of November. I admire & bless all those who draw a comic a day EVERY day, but especially for people who can be paralyzed by internal expectation (me) / aren’t sure of their voices (also me, particularly circa 2014), Novembers have been a fruitful time to experiment and grow. If you’re a young cartoonist or an old cartoonist or a not-yet-cartoonist looking to explore an artistic practice, I think November is a very good time to pick some constraints and try doing 1 thing a day for a little while. Big general caveat: This sort of thing is not healthy for everyone—you know yourself & your needs and please don’t do this if it isn’t be healthy for you! Everyone please care for yourselves! Thank you! Goodbye!“ I like that Madeleine has expanded the context of the challenge beyond just “draw a comic everyday” to include formal restraints. She suggests picking colors, medium, panel setup, or subject matter and then sticking to those choices for the whole month. From my own experience over the past year of drawing a Suzy & Cecil comic every other day, I can vouch for the freedom and creative rush that (perhaps surprisingly) comes from forced structure, discipline, and regularity. I like the work that Madeleine has been making – you can see all of it HERE. The hashtag #30dayscomics will lead you to more work, both on Instagram and Twitter, and you can follow the 30 Days of Comics Tumblr to keep up with many of this year’s participants. Audra Stang is another cartoonist who is releasing her latest comic in this fashion (hot on the heels of the comic she made during the month of October – not necessarily for “Inktober”…!) Her comics all exist within the world and lengthy timeline of “Star Valley”, and this current story catches up with her character Owen (who appeared in last month’s Little Minnow, as a significantly younger version of himself – read that story HERE) and the irrepressible Adelaide, last seen, briefly, a year ago in Secret Knowledge and in April 2008 (in April 2016). Read the new story so far HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Katie Ball a.k.a. Katbus has a new endeavor – My Lucky Sticker Book is a monthly newsletter that showcases sticker artists from around the world. You can check out issue #4 – Halloween edition! – HERE, and subscribe to the newsletter HERE. Katie is putting together an extra large issue for release in late November, and has sent out the message that if YOU include sticker-making in your bag of tricks, and would like some hype leading into the holiday season, let her know! She will finish compiling her list around the 25th, so send her your website and details about your stickers if you want to be listed. Write to Katie at katie.brawl@gmail.com ————————————————————————————————— Katie Fricas has a “cartoon scrapbook” detailing the first year of Trump’s presidency on The Guardian – read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— If you’re in NYC go check out Comic Arts Brooklyn tomorrow. Here’s a write-up on the new location of the show – via Hyperallergic. Comics Workbook will be there, and I will be too with a few copies of Suzy & Cecil. See you Saturday! ————————————————————————————————— Post Script Mardou‘s Some Day My Witch Will Come is reviewed by Rob Clough on High-Low – check it out HERE. Rob also reviews recent Santoro Correspondence Course alum Drew Lerman’s course-made comic Boucher’s House, (and his comic Milk Debt) in the same post. Paste Magazine‘s Hillary Brown talks to Brigitte Findakly and Lewis Trondheim about their comic Poppies of Iraq – interview HERE. Check out Liana Finck on The Awl – loads of comics and comical commentary. Sara Lautman illustrates the 280-character “microficitions” that were created for Electric Literature‘s Twitter-inspired contest – HERE. Sara Lautman is the comics editor for Electric Lit‘s Okey-Panky. Here is a recent comic on that site by Shing Yin Khor, called A Tiny Ritual to Talk to Your Past Self. Sequential State (Alex Hoffman) reviews Tillie Walden‘s Spinning – HERE. Part 2 of an interview with Katherine Collins is up on The Comics Journal – read it HERE. Also on The Comics Journal, Carta Monir reviews Higu Rose‘s Titychop Boobslash. MariNaomi has a new book coming out from Lerner Publishing – Losing the Girl (May 2018). HERE is a cover reveal and giveaway on The Book Smugglers. Lauren Purje on Hyperallergic – Is Any Artist Truly Satisfied? Julia Wertz‘s Drinking At the Movies was featured on Fumetto Logica, for the Italian speakers out there. Meanwhile the A. V. Club offers their take on Julia Wertz‘s Tenements, Towers and Trash – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 11-10-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 11-10-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 11-10-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

12 thoughts on “Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2013”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply