Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Santoro SchoolTagged composition competition 2017

Frank Santoro

Posted on July 24, 2017August 22, 2017

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01/20/2017

Sally IngrahamJanuary 20, 2017NewsSally Ingraham here to round out your week with an All-Star group of cartoonists and their work: Marie Severin, Dale Messick, Ramona Fradon, Trina Robbins, Em DeMarco, Audra Stang, and more! ————————————————————————————————— I am excited to see that this year Dori Seda will join the 7 other women who have made it into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame (their work is pictured above). The 2017 nominees were announced recently, and Dori is a Judges’ Choice for automatic induction. Out of 17 other nominees, 4 will be chosen by voters, and among those 17 cartoonists are 5 more female candidates. Here’s the whole list. A perk of working somewhere like Copacetic Comics in Pittsburgh, PA, is that when the need calls, I can tear the store apart and come back a few thrilling hours later with an armload of work by every woman listed above, plus all of the women on the 2017 nominees list. I have been sharing my findings this week over on the Comics Workbook Roller Derby League Instagram account – @cwrollerderby – and will continue to do so for the next few days. Here’s a taste of the tremendous talent and influence of a few of these masters of the comics medium: Marie Severin – (inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2001) – spent most of her professional career working for Marvel as a colorist, penciller, and inker. She drew stories for Sub-Mariner and the Hulk and other series. Pictured above is one of her Incredible Hulk stories, from Tales to Astonish #93 (1967), and a story she drew for Wimmen’s Comix #10 (1985). Dale Messick – (inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2001) – is best known for creating the strip Brenda Starr, Reporter in 1940. At it’s peak in the 1950’s the strip ran in 250 newspapers around the country. She drew the strip until 1980, and when she retired she left the ultimatum that Brenda Starr must continue to be drawn by other female cartoonists. Ramona Fradon – (inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2006) – was the artist who took over Brenda Starr, Reporter when Dale Messick retired, although she had been working in the industry since 1950. She worked for DC Comics throughout her career, drawing Aquaman stories and co-creating Metamorpho among other projects. Trina Robbins – (inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013) – is an incredibly influential underground cartoonist who has worked tirelessly since the 1970’s to provide opportunities and platforms for women in comics. She established the first all-female comic book anthology – It Ain’t Me, Babe – and was one of the main editors of Wimmen’s Comix for 20 years. She worked on the Wonder Woman series, and is also a widely published comics historian – or “her”storian. Pictured above is one of her covers and a story from Wimmen’s Comix #10 (1985). I’ll be back next Friday with more ladies of the Will Eisner Hall of Fame – Marjorie “Marge” Buell, Lynda Barry, and Tove Jansson! ————————————————————————————————— I got a chance to get to know Em DeMarco better last night through a live interview at The ToonSeum – part of the Pittsburgh Comic Salon‘s Lecture Series. She is a cartoonist, journalist, and educator based here in the city of Pittsburgh. Between composing her monthly investigative reporting comics feature for the City Paper, photographing the local punk music scene, teaching comics classes through a partnership between The ToonSeum and the Lauri Ann West Community Center, and venturing into long-form comics projects, Em keeps herself busy…! Her experience with creating stories for radio programming informs her current comics journalism projects (the connection between oral reporting and visual storytelling is worth investigating fully at a later date!), and her insights into translating live interviews into compelling comics made for a lively and thought-provoking discussion. Check out more of her work HERE – and if you happen to be around Pittsburgh on a 3rd Thursday of the month, come join us at The ToonSeum for another conversation with a local comics creator. ————————————————————————————————— Jillian Fleck‘s Lake Jehovah was reviewed over on The Comics Beat – “Fleck mixes all the elements very skillfully, with a deadpan humor that alternates with frantic despair and an otherworldly creepiness that blends into its own tenor. The fantastical elements do well in elevating the psychological ones, and Fleck ends up perfectly plumbing the depths of the bottomless lake, both literally and figuratively, for a portrayal of what it is like to be overwhelmed by the invisible and burdened by the incoherency of the universe.” – John Seven Tom Spurgeon offers some commentary on the first round of voting for the Angouleme Festival Grand Prix over on The Comics Reporter. The artists who have made it to the final round are Chris Ware, Cosey and Manu Larcenet. There has been very little “buzz” around the process this year, which is surprising considering the volcanic eruption surrounding the award this time last year…! Tom delves a bit into the steps taken to oversee a more balanced and inclusive nomination process – and despite my own reaction of “YES!! Chris Ware for the win!” I agree with how Tom concludes: “…even with all three of those great artists in play I think my heart would rather see Posy Simmonds on that list than on the committee to help things run more smoothly.“ RESIST! was printed at 58,000 copies and is being handed out for free today in Washington, D.C. during the Inauguration and tomorrow during the Woman’s March, as well as at similar events around the country. For a complete list of where you can get a copy visit this page. Check out the work of Iona Fox – she’s a cartoonist and farmer working in Vermont. Her stories are always interesting, and while you’re browsing her website be sure to take a peak at the Beaver Cam! There’s a nice review of Inés Estrada‘s Impatience on The Comics Journal. Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— This is Audra Stang‘s second visit to Pittsburgh, and she was getting so much done during her Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency that she extended it for another week! It’s been exciting to watch the story she is working on develop and see her commitment to the form and to her future in the industry and community. If you’re interested in applying for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency visit our info page or email santoroschoolATgmail. Follow the @rowhouseresidency Instagram for regular updates on the program and the cartoonists who visit us this year. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-20-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-20-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-20-2017 – by Juan Fernández 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: [...]

07/19/2017

Juan FernándezJuly 19, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con Sole Otero; La Polola EN VIVO; Vanesa R. Del Rey y Jordie Bellaire; Laura Vazquez; Pablo Vigo; Las charlas del Tenderete; Carmen de Mairen; y los tebeos de Cómics Workbook! ————————————————————————————————— “Oscilando entre claros y oscuros, entre momentos luminosos y agobiantes” Sole Otero charla con Micaela Soquiransky en Indie Hoy sobre su novela grafica más reciente, Poncho Fue: MS: Hay mucha síntesis en tu dibujo, pero a la vez es un trabajo súper gestual… SO: Esto tiene un poco que ver con que trabajo hace más de 15 años haciendo libros para chicos. Esos rasgos de dibujo infantil ya me quedaron y no se me van más. Supongo que ya es como un agregado del libro que una historia que es más bien oscura tenga ese contraste con el dibujo. Y en el libro me salió así porque yo dibujo así. De hecho ahora se me ocurrió hacer una historia que quiero que estéticamente sea oscura y me estoy empezando a proyectar de guionista para otra persona. Ese dibujo más macabro, estilo Edward Gorey, que a mí me gustaría para esa historia, no me sale. MS: ¿Y qué autores considerás influencias tuyas? SO: Mis influencias no son solamente historietas. Cuando arranqué con esta historia pensaba en Nick Hornby, por ejemplo, el de Alta fidelidad o En picado. Me gusta cómo analiza los vínculos entre las personas y trata de encontrar algo positivo en las cosas medio hostiles. También me gustan Boris Vian, Ítalo Calvino, Helen Oyeyemi, Sofia Coppola, Miyazaki, Murakami, Tezuka, Manu Larcenet, Marjane Satrapi… PowerPaola, por más que sea una amiga, también es una gran influencia. Como dibujantes también me gustan Isabelle Arsenault y Olivier Tallec. Ya no los miro tanto, pero en otro momento fueron los que me ayudaron a forjar un poco más el estilo. Un montón de cosas; hasta hice manga durante un tiempo… quería dibujar como Masakazu Katsura. Fui pasando por un montón de estilos; hubo una época en la que cambiaba de manera de dibujar de un año a otro. Léanlo todo AQUI. ————————————————————————————————— Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con la dibujante argentina Sole Otero EN VIVO en la presentación de sus libros “Poncho fue” y “La Pelusa de los días” en Galería Plop!. Hablamos de como se gestaron esos proyectos, sus vivencias personales versus la ficción de sus historias, compartió con los asistentes sus procesos, bocetos e ideas, proyectos para el futuro y mucho más. Vanesa R. Del Rey y Jordie Bellaire hablan con Multiversity Comics sobre su nueva colaboración, “Redlads” – Brujeria y politica en tinta. Revista Kamandi les ofrece una reseña crítica de Laura Vazquez sobre “Lo Salvaje” de Pablo Vigo. Tenderete, Festival de autoedición gráfica y sonora por excelencia de Valencia ha grabado y compartido las charlas y los debates del festival 2017. Todos los videos estan en línea (Me resalta la charla: “Anarco: Gráfica y movimientos sociales“, un grupo de Ilustradores en debate.) “La mujer perfecta: tiene pene y tiene teta”: Elizabeth Casillas habla aquí sobre la biografía en cómic de Carmen de Mairena en Revista Cactus. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-19-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

09/23/2016

Sally IngrahamSeptember 23, 2016NewsSally here to finish the week with Carol Tyler at SPX, the women who took the Ignatz Awards, Anya Davidson, Dame Darcy, V. Vale and RE/Search, Phoebe Gloeckner, and other Friday tidbits. ————————————————————————————————— One of my favorite parts of helping with the Comics Workbook hosted workshops at SPX last weekend was getting to meet Carol Tyler and dig into the process and story behind the making of Soldier’s Heart: The Campaign to Understand my WWII Veteran Father. It was a long and difficult journey, and one that favorite pens and a good scanner helped get her through – the type of details that other cartoonists in the audience ate up! We will have our own video footage from that excellent talk soon, but for the moment Derek Royal has a podcast interview with her over on Comics Alternative – “They spend a good deal of time talking about the current state of veteran’s affairs, the debilitating effects of PTSD, and how Soldier’s Heart both has and hasn’t resonated within the veteran’s community. Carol also discusses the current projects she has underway, including a follow up (sort of) to her father’s story and a project documenting the days leading up to her attending The Beatles concert at Comiskey Park in August 1965. As she tells Derek, in that work she’ll be channeling her inner 13-year-old-girl self. This is a moving and, at times, a deeply personal interview, one that reflects the sheer impact of Carol Tyler’s writing.” – Comics Alternative Check out the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Although the list of Ignatz nominations was tipped toward male creators, in the end it was women who soundly won the day, with Tillie Walden earning two nods. “Walden was voted outstanding artist for her debut graphic novel, “The End of Summer,” and named most promising new talent for “I Love This Part.” Elsewhere, former Brooklyn studiomates Kate Beaton, Lisa Hanawalt and Meredith Gran all picked up Ignatz “brick” trophies. The event was held at the Bethesda North Marriott convention center.” – Michael Cavna at The Washington Post Michael Cavna has the full list of Ignatz Award Winners HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I didn’t get a chance to say hello to Anya Davidson while running around SPX, but I am eager to find a moment to sit down and read Band For Life, with debuted at the show last weekend. Keep an eye out for it in your local comic book shops in the coming weeks! ————————————————————————————————— Over on The Portland Mercury Dame Darcy gets a shoutout for her Meat Cake Bible – which is part of the proof in the pudding that history is full of female cartoonists – “When the great authorities of comics leave women out of their history, we listicle and fume. It feels like a victory, but I also worry such rants are only seen by people who already care about gender equality. That’s why it’s important to see Darcy’s groundbreaking comics wrapped up in a book so worthy of them. This tome cements it. Dame Darcy is an irrevocable part of comics history. I dare those French comics dads to ignore her now. Like any true independent spirit, Darcy is arriving, even if it is later than her due. The world is catching up.” – The Portland Mercury Read the rest of the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Over on Vice Nick Gazin digs into a different comics-related event that took place last weekend – The New York Art Book Fair. He wasn’t overwhelmingly delighted with it, but his report is worth scanning through if just for the few moments he spends with V. Vale, creator of RE/Search. “While other people at neighboring booths were making bootleg merchandise that ripped off cultures they weren’t a part of, Vale created and steered culture with these books. The Industrial Handbook, the book he’s holding, informed and helped give birth to whatever industrial turned into. Modern Primitives helped spawn the modern body piercing and giant full body tattoo culture. The RE/Search book of Pranks (titled Pranks!) is just one of the best books ever made and will give any oddball or misanthropic recluse hope.” – Nick Gazin Check out the full report HERE. ————————————————————————————————— When I think about RE/Search I think about Phoebe Gloeckner and The Atrocity Exhibition. I’ve always been interested in her background as a medical illustrator – in an interview with Varoom! she talked about working on The Atrocity Exhibition – “The illustrations inside are cold but soft. I wanted them to be harmless and approachable, like doing a fuzzy animal, so they have some humanity. It isn’t because of what they are but because of that softness, not rejecting of humanity. I tried to make them beautiful. I didn’t want it to be horror. It has impermanence but this is beauty as we live it.” – Phoebe Gloeckner Read the whole interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— A few other things that have caught my eye recently – The animation in this video is by Jon Vermilyea (who was a production manager for PictureBox back in the day). ————————————————————————————————— Sophia Fs was working on a comic for the Comics Workbook Composition Competition earlier this month when she was hospitalized – she recently posted the finished work on her tumblr – check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Help send Connor Willumsen to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in October! He will be teaching workshops with Frank Santoro and Aidan Koch while there – if you’re in the area check it out. To help him get to the show, Comics Workbook is offering two new Connor publications. Portraits and Swinespritzen – both limited editions, both incredible. Details about both and where to order them can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Have a good weekend folks – Happy Autumn, and Happy Birthday to John Coltrane too. Drink some pumpkin beers and listen to some jazz, won’t you. See you next week. – Sally Share this page: [...]

05/27/2016

Sally IngrahamMay 27, 2016NewsSally here with new stuff from Sacha Mardou, wise and funny words from Dan Nadel and Alexi Worth, clowns with Nils Balls, and a Philadelphia walkabout from Meghan Turbitt. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou has a double hit today on our news, with a comic she made for The Common Reader (a publication of Washington University in St. Louis) and a review she wrote for Comics Workbook. First up, Sacha’s review of The Complete Wimmen’s Comix is a rumination on an important and challenging anthology, recently collected into a two volume set by Fantagraphics. “Reading the two-volume release of The Complete Wimmen’s Comix made me think about those sort of cultural assumptions and blank spots. The first volume in particular feels like a powerful raw gust of real comics history. … Another aspect that occurs to me is that volume one is essentially my mother’s generation making those comics (I was born in ’75) which makes the lack of respect for cultural niceties and cartooning norms seem even more punk rock and revelatory, as well as being somewhat nostalgic. It reminds me of looking though my aunt’s closet in the early 1980’s and finding all her old platform shoes and boots. My childish trespassing got me yelled at after the event, but I’m glad to own that childhood memory of trying on and walking around in those beautiful and weird, too-big-for-me ‘space’ shoes.” Read the rest of Sacha’s review HERE. For a different look at The Complete Wimmen’s Comix, check out this in-depth review by Alex Duebin on The Comic’s Journal from March 2016. Well, I say “review”, but it includes conversations conducted via phone, skype, google chat, and e-mail over a period of a year or so with many of the women who made comics for the anthology – a true “oral history”, well worth a gander. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou’s comic for The Common Reader (above) was published in “The Aging Issue”. It feels very, very real somehow…! ————————————————————————————————— Art in America published a followup to Dan Nadel‘s killer essay on Paper Radio recently. It’s a conversation between Dan, Alexi Worth (who wrote an article in January for A.i.A about Jack Kirby’s superhero art) and A.i.A‘s editor Julia Wolkoff. They dig into the complexities of comics, and more specifically, the intentional and accidental wonders that appeared under a culture of crushing deadlines. As Alexi Worth describes: “The earlier comics artists were, for the most part, pencil serfs. Kirby began as an inbetweener for film, and much of the work he produced early on wasn’t credited at all. But there was something productive and interesting about the lack of art expectations. Kirby was reflexively creative. And his creativity was, somehow, enabled by the ruinous deadlines and enormous production demands of the industry. At one point he was pretty much drawing all of Marvel himself—one guy. Instead of making him more of a hack, it made him more of an artist.“ Dan Nadel breaks out some more stories about the Paper Radio guys – Benjamin Jones and Christopher Forgues, or CF – whom he continues to call “the two most important cartoonists of their generation.” “One famous story: they sent Gary Panter, who was their artist spirit-god, one of their early zines that was baked in chocolate. Gary thought it was LSD and immediately threw it away. It’s one of the only copies of that work they made.“ It’s good stuff – check out the whole discussion HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Nils Balls is staying on top of the Pittsburgh City Council with his comic reports for The Glassblock – see above and more HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Meghan Turbitt released her Philadelphia Sketchbook this week! Developed for Comics Workbook between 2015-2016, it features full-color sketches of her varied adventures and the details that caught her eye around the city during that period. Get a glimpse at more pages here, and a copy for yourself HERE! ————————————————————————————————— See you knocking round the universe next week folks! Cheers – Sally Share this page: [...]

Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2017

Posted on July 24, 2017August 22, 2017 by Frank Santoro

thee SANTORO CORRESPONDENCE COURSE

and thee Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency presents

thee COMICS WORKBOOK COMPOSITION COMPETITION 2017

————————————————————————————————

1st place – A week-long Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency (valued at $500 – travel and expenses not included)

2nd place – $250 credit at Copacetic Comics

3rd place – $100 credit at Copacetic Comics

plus four $50 honorable mention prizes from Big Planet Comics

————————————————————————————————

Create a 16 page signature comic book narrative to the specifications below

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DEADLINE: Tuesday, September 5th 2017 at 11:59 pm NYC time

————————————————————————————————

HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE are last four years if you haven’t heard of the contest. HERE are all of the 2016 contest entries. This isn’t a scam, silly.

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Here are the 2017 composition competition specs:

Contest take 1 from Frank Santoro on Vimeo.

PAY ATTENTION!

Watch the video above!

Take an 11×17 inch piece of paper and cut it down to 10 1/4 x 13 1/2 inches. Fold this piece of paper in half.

Measure in 3/8ths of an inch from the top and the sides, and 3/8ths of an inch in on both sides of the center fold. Measure in 3/4s of an inch from the bottom. This will make two 6 x 9 inch live areas on your 10 1/4 x 13 1/2 inch paper – as you can see in the example below. Watch the video for clarity.

Make three equal “landscape” oriented tiers on each live area. Make copies of this “spread”.

Do your layouts at this size.

PAY ATTENTION!

***Draw your original artwork at 10 x 15 inches. Use 11×17 inch paper – make a 10×15 inch live area on the paper. Measure in 1/4 inch on each side and a 1/4 inch from the top to situate your 10×15 inch live area within the 11×17 inch paper. See video.

The top tier and the bottom tier must have two 5×5 panels. The center tier may be open completely to make one 5×10 inch panel or two 5×5 inch panels. Again see video for clarity.

The top tier and the bottom tier MUST have two panels. The center tier may have one panel or two. You may use the 6-panel grid throughout the entire 14-page story but one of the pages MUST have an open center panel. All of the pages may have an open center panel. Each page will have either 5 or 6 panels.

Watch THIS video and THIS video for context. Pay attention to the parts about opening up the center. Also read Layout Workbook 1 and 2 for more info about traditional North American comic book proportions.

You may break up your panels like this:

14 pages and two covers. Meaning seven spreads and a front and back cover. A 16 page signature.

Work may be in color OR black and white – OR – a combination of both.

International students must use the same specs. No complaining.

It is recommended that you draw the pages on 11×17 paper with a 10×15 inch live area. It is recommended that you print your comic at traditional North American comic book size – which is 6 3/4 x 10 1/4. Again, see video.

THE STORY MUST BE COMPLETE. SERIAL INSTALLMENTS of a longer narrative ARE NOT ELIGIBLE. THE STORY MUST BE NEW. IF YOU REPURPOSE AN OLD STORY THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN PUBLISHED YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.

Consider this an exercise in short story writing. I think the 16 page signature is ideal to contain a short story. Adaptations of existing works are not eligible. Like, you can’t copy a sequence from a movie.

To submit your comic to the composition:

Photograph or scan your pages and post them on your tumblr AS SPREADS. If you don’t have a tumblr – make one just for this contest. No exceptions! No complaining! Post the front cover as the lead image and the back cover as the final image and put your name and the title of the work in the text field and that it is for the Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2017.
Email me – santoroschoolATgmailDOTcom – that you have posted your entry to your tumblr and give me a direct link to the post – and I will reblog it on to the comicsworkbook tumblr.

I will be posting them – reblogging them – on comicsworkbook as they come in. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I will, however, only be posting stories that stick to the RULES. If you don’t follow the rules, I will not reblog the story and you won’t be eligible for the prizes.

I will reblog them as quickly as I can and keep the list of entries updated – if you do not see your entry right away do not panic – I will make every effort to keep the list up to date but as long as you get your entry submitted correctly via email before the deadline your work will be in the competition. Last year we had over 100 entries and near the end things were hectic – so be patient.

Any questions about the competition – please email me – do not leave a comment on this post – I will not reply here. Just email me.

The competition is open to all. You do not have to be a former student of mine. Former students of mine ARE eligible to compete, as are winners of previous competitions.

Again, if you have any questions about the rules please ask. Better to ask and be safe than to be mad when I disqualify you over some missed detail. Seriously.

Work may be in color OR black and white – OR – a combination of both.

You MAY have panel gutters. You MAY work digitally. And you MAY work as a team.

Remember! Email me – santoroschoolATgmailDOTcom – that you have posted your entry to your tumblr – I will reblog it.

DEADLINE is Tuesday, September 5th 2017 at 11:59 pm NYC time

Winners will be announced the following week.

Please share this announcement

GOOD LUCK!

signed Frank Santoro

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Santoro SchoolTagged composition competition 2017

Frank Santoro

Posted on July 24, 2017August 22, 2017

Explore

10/14/2016

Sally IngrahamOctober 14, 2016NewsSally here, reporting live from Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, OH! I drove over from Pittsburgh, PA, yesterday with my car loaded down with materials for this weekend’s Comics Workbook-hosted workshops at CXC (details on those HERE), making it to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum on the OSU campus just in time to catch Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes in conversation with CXC festival director Tom Spurgeon. Their conversation was interesting and entertaining, detailing the complexities of making editorial cartoons, especially as a woman in the industry. Ann spoke of the necessary sense of urgency that a good editorial cartoonist must posses, and about how the cartoons are the QUESTION, not the answer. Regarding her famous caricatures, she said it is about drawing “how a person IS, not just what they look like – them INSIDE“. Then she drew Hilary Clinton for the audience, real quick: Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes draws Hilary Clinton for us at her CXC presentation at the Billy Ireland Library & Museum @cartoonlibrary @anntelnaes #cxc16 #femalecartoonists A video posted by Comics Workbook Roller Derby (@cwrollerderby) on Oct 13, 2016 at 8:16pm PDT Check out Ann Telnaes’ most recent animated gif HERE – this is the format she has been using lately to get her point of view across (and that is the most important thing for an editorial cartoonist to have – a point of view!) ————————————————————————————————— After meeting up with fellow Comics Workbook representatives and cartoonists Kurt Ankeny, Alyssa Berg, and Whit Taylor for dinner, I joined forces with Kurt and Caleb Orecchio to check out the Winsor McCay presentation at the Wexner Center for the Arts, put together by John Canemaker. It was a fantastic exploration of the animated films made by the famed creator of the Little Nemo in Slumberland strips. Totally blown away by the Winsor McCay presentation hosted by John Canemaker at CXC – this is part of McCay’s first animated film, drawing on characters from Little Nemo #cxc2016 #winsormccay #animation A video posted by Sally Ingraham (@sally_ingraham) on Oct 13, 2016 at 6:40pm PDT The CXC festival program claimed that John Canemaker‘s lectures were not-to-be-missed, and I found this to be true (in case you didn’t know, he is an Academy Award-winning animator himself!) It was thrilling to watch McCay’s first animated film on “the big screen”, and then Canemaker really won the audience over by taking on McCay’s roll in the vaudeville performances he used to do using his animated character Gertie the Dinosaur. John Canemaker stepping into Winsor McCay’s roll in the type of vaudeville act McCay used to do with his animated character Gerdie – at CXC tonight #cxc2016 #winsormccay #johncanemaker #gertie A video posted by Comics Workbook (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 13, 2016 at 8:10pm PDT Terrific stuff. I sat in awe behind Lucy Caswell (founding curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum) throughout this presentation and enjoyed the deference that John Canemaker showed her on any McCay details he felt iffy on (and he actually wrote THE book on Winsor McCay). It was a good first day of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, with plenty more to come for me and the rest of the Comics Workbook team! Here’s that complete schedule of where we will be throughout the weekend. As you can perhaps gather, we are live-reporting all weekend via social media and especially through Instagram, so follow @comicsworkbook, @cwrollerderby, and @sally_ingraham for updates! (Also give a look to Juan Fernandez, Alyssa Berg, Whit Taylor, Caleb Orecchio, Kurt Ankeny, and Emil Friis Ernst for other CXC stories!) Next week keep an eye out for a full CXC Festival report brought to you by Whit Taylor – stay tuned! ————————————————————————————————— LICAF opening night A video posted by @santoro.frank on Oct 13, 2016 at 2:17pm PDT Frank Santoro, Aidan Koch, and Connor Willumsen made it to the U.K., and for live reporting from The Lakes International Comic Art Festival this weekend, check out @santoro.frank on Instagram. Get tickets to Frank, Aidan, and Connor’s workshops on Saturday HERE. Hang out with the crew in the Comics Clocktower Saturday and Sunday! ————————————————————————————————— Check out the Pompeii Medallion HERE – for an interesting artistic collaboration. Connor Willumsen has new work – this way please! ————————————————————————————————— Regular reporting will return next week – but for today, this is Sally signing off. I have to run and catch up with Sacha Mardou, get a tour of the special collections at the Billy Ireland, and check in on the state of the comics industry, before meeting Garry Trudeau, and then partying the night away with Katie Skelly – and that’s just the stuff on the CXC program schedule for today that I’ve highlighted… Cheers! Share this page: [...]

11/17/2016

Sam OmbiriNovember 17, 2016NewsSam Ombiri brings more thoughts on originality and Sally Ingraham follows up with comics by Shannon Wright and Keith Knight, a quick visit with Yona Harvey and Roxane Gay, the Winter Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course, and Connor Willumsen’s Punisher pages for sale – plus March: Book 3’s big award. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri: A Shout-out to David O’Reilly I had more thoughts I wanted to share about originality that I didn’t mention last week, or I guess I feel I didn’t clarify. This is all concerning me, and how I approach originality – I am not an authority to impose. I’m not anti-originality, I guess I’m more thinking I’m anti-concern and preoccupation with originality. I’m not fully sure in which particular context that this struggle for originality would fit. I’m not sure even how to fully name a context of originality. The only thing that comes to my head is how when Lil Dicky became popular, he kept saying in interviews how he’s “different and original” and he repeats that so many times in different interviews to the point where it feels like a joke. Even if you forsake all these other underground hip hop artists, like say Heems, Busdriver, Open Mike Eagle, Danny Brown, Kitty, of course I have to mention Ride, or even if, as some of Lil Dicky’s fans were claiming, Lil Dicky meant in a more mainstream context that he’s so different – there’s the other context. (But even in that context he’s not in any way different.) Even then, as much as anyone can insist they’ve achieved originality and therefore they should be praised, someone can always come along and deny that. In the essay by David O’Reilly that I’ve been thinking about there’s an awesome quote by Tarkovsky – I won’t quote it for a couple reasons, a minor one being that it’s irrelevant. So I’ll just quote a different one, and for the sake of me making a point we’ll pretend he used this quote instead. Tarkovsky said that when he saw The Trial of Joan of Arc, he was touched by “the absolute independence of the spectator in regard to this film. A total independence in the sense that the film never appears to be a spectacle, but rather nature, life itself. If one wants to watch, one watches, if one doesn’t, one doesn’t. If one wants to see it as art one may, otherwise not. Such a strong independence from public and critical opinion remains for me the exemplary attitude of a director towards his audience.” He says later in the interview “when people tell me during the shooting of my film that a certain scene is in a way reminiscent of Bresson – and this has happened – I will immediately change the approach to avoid any resemblance. If there’s such an influence, it doesn’t show on the surface of my work. This is an influence of a deeper nature. It’s a moral influence between artists, without which art cannot exist.” Sammy Harkham said how he was really influenced by Brian Chippendale’s Ninja mini comics while Sammy was doing Somersaulting where the “melodrama is demilitarized” and the events made minor. It’s probably that type of indirect influence. I don’t know if Tarkovsky’s intentions were concerned with originality. It seems to be an altogether different impulse, similarly to the other quote in David O’Reilly’s essay (disregard the first sentence in the quote in relation to the last quote): “A preoccupation with originality of form is more or less a fruitless thing. A truly original person with a truly original mind will not be able to function in the old form and will simply do something different. Others had much better think of the form as being some sort of classical tradition and try to work within it.” I think everything but the last sentence is on a different wavelength than Josh Bayer’s idea of originality being a red herring. I think I would replace the last part of the quote with Josh Bayer’s thoughts on originality being a red herring. ————————————————————————————————— Sally here with some other comics and news from this week. From the Washington Post: “ “March: Book 3,” a graphic novel about the later years of the civil rights movement, won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature on Wednesday night in New York.“ Congratulations to Rep. John Lewis and the creative team behind the book (including illustrator Nate Powell)! Co-writer Andrew Aydin had two take-aways from the big win, one being that the story of the civil rights movement could continue to be passed on to young people. The other was “Let the prejudice against comic books be buried once and for all!” We applaud that sentiment. Read the rest of the Washington Post article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright is still making almost daily comics and sharing them on her Instagram. A recent strip: Because I’m not asking whether or not you wanna sleep with the dude or marry him. Get over yourself fellas. #comics #masculinitysofragile #blackartist #womenartists A photo posted by Shannon Wright (@shannondrewthis) on Nov 13, 2016 at 7:09pm PST Follow Shannon at @shannondrewthis for more. ————————————————————————————————— Essence has a feature on Yona Harvey and Roxane Gay’s work on the Black Panther spin-off series World of Wakanda – they talk about some of the challenges of taking on a Marvel Universe storyline. “Storytelling is storytelling, so it’s not that different, save for working within the comic format of panels,” said Gay. “The biggest difference for me was thinking more explicitly in terms of scene.” Harvey’s challenge was the formal outline. “I felt so resistant to the outline. In poetry, I experiment and draft and then shape the story through the placement of the poems. Total opposite of writing comics.” via Essence Read the rest of the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Keith Knight on The Nib recently: He has more Th(ink) strips on his website – check them out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook has announced the Winter Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – course starts Dec. 29th 2016! 10 spots available – apply by Dec. 13th 2016 and get $100 of course fee! Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. 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 me small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls -specific url links to any comics work you have done. Send applications to: santoroschoolATgmail ————————————————————————————————— Connor Willumsen is selling his Punisher pages http://connorwillumsen.com/punisher/ #connorwillumsen #comicsworkbook #punisher #frankcastle A photo posted by @santoro.frank on Nov 16, 2016 at 5:39pm PST Connor Willumsen is selling the original pages from his Punisher story – check them out here. Share this page: [...]

Bill Griffith’s Weird Pittsburgh

J KellyMarch 25, 2016Art Trip / SketchbooksLegendary Underground cartoonist Bill Griffith has often set his long-running daily newspaper strip Zippy the Pinhead in the city of Pittsburgh. Griffith has visited Pittsburgh several times, including in 2009 when Pittsburgh’s cartoon museum, The ToonSeum (then still located in the Children’s Museum), put on the show Zippy’s Pittsburgh and More, which included some of the strips seen below. On April, Griffith will return to Pittsburgh to talk about “45 Years of Zippy” at the ToonSeum on April 1st at 7 pm and to take part in our Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo (PIX) on April 2nd. As part of PIX, Griffith will sign books during the day, run a cartooning workshop for Comics Workbook at the Carnegie Library at 3:30, and speak about his new book, Invisible Ink at 7:30. In preparation for all that activity, we thought it was a good time to re-visit a few of those Zippy strips, as well as take a look at some never before seen pages from Griffith’s sketchbook composed during a 1990 trip to Pittsburgh. But first, here’s a couple where Zippy, Griffy and others note Pittsburgh’s “more enlightened and weirder” culture: Here’s a few (and there are many more) Zippy strips that are set in familiar Pittsburgh locations: Ritter’s Diner in Bloomfield. The Big Day Wedding & Event Center, Strip District. Charlie’s Diner (now known as Peppi’s, and also once known as Scotty’s, as well as Downtown Diner), Lincoln Highway. Glowing Sculpture Thing, PPG Place. In early June of 1990, Griffith visited Pittsburgh to take in the Thomas Rowlandson show at the Frick Art Museum. The images below are taken from sketches he made at the time. While in town, Griffith also spent some time at the historic Kennywood Amusement Park in West Mifflin, as seen below. Griffith, who arrived for that trip via the rail road, also sketched the train ride and station. “For me, Zippy is funniest when his craziness bumps up against the ‘real world’, which is why I put him in diners and have him talking to Bob’s Big Boy,” Griffith said in 2009. “It doesn’t get much more real than Pittsburgh, PA – it’s Zippy Country!” Hopefully he’ll find some additional examples of that “more enlightened and weirder” pop culture on his trip back here in April. Share this page: [...]

05/20/2016

Sally IngrahamMay 19, 2016NewsToday, on scene reporting from Alyssa Berg, an amazing comics show in Germany, comics with Georgia O’Keeffe, tips from Benjamin Marra and Noah Van Sciver, and a few other things we’re excited about. ————————————————————————————————— Alyssa Berg provides this snapshot of a recent evening spent with Rokudenashiko, MariNaomi, and Anne Ishii (pictured above, left to right) – “On Wednesday evening (May 18th, 2016), the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in NYC presented a conversation between MariNaomi (Turning Japanese, 2dcloud, 2016), Rokudenashiko (What Is Obscenity? The Story of a Good For Nothing Artist and her Pussy, Koyama Press, 2016) and Anne Ishii (moderator of the conversation, translator and co editor of Rokudenashiko’s new book). MariNaomi did a reading from Turning Japanese accompanied by projected images from the book. The first part focused on her experience in an illegal hostess bar in San Jose. The second part presented was a quieter section of the story based on a visit to the temple of the Goddess of Mercy in Japan. (Check out that excerpt HERE.) MariNaomi also discussed curating the Cartoonists of Color Database and the Queer Cartoonists Database and her fear that “diversity is a fad right now.” Rokudenashiko presented a wide variety of manko (pussy) artworks that appear in her new book What Is Obscenity? The Story of a Good For Nothing Artist and her Pussy and discussed details of her arrest for breaking Japanese obscenity laws for posting online, open-source blueprints of her pussy. She also talked about being an easy target for police because she is an unrepresented, female, freelance artist but “people in a position of weakness need to show resistance.” Rokudenashiko presented this video piece and if you have 4 minutes 34 seconds to spare, I recommend having a look.” – Alyssa Berg ————————————————————————————————— The German show …and Other Stories opens today in the Zeitraumexit gallery in Mannheim! The show explores current American self-publishing trends and will feature a collection of booklets, original drawings, mini comics, zines, and other printed materials by American artists Alyssa Berg, Julia Gfrörer, Aidan Koch, Laila Milevski and Maggie Umber. What a lineup! Maggie Umber and Raighne Hogan (of 2dcloud) will be presenting two free workshops at the gallery on June 11th and 13th – find details on how to attend HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out a new feature on Comics Workbook: ART TRIP – a continuing series that offers reflections on art and comics, and the adventures that transform those who seek it out. First up, my own (Sally here!) recent run-in with Georgia O’Keeffe. “…I’m looking at her stuff and seeing comics, yes. That’s where my brain lives constantly, these days. The index card is a panel for a comic. The Palo Duro Canyon drawings aren’t a series – they’re a sequence. Her paintings without lines prove how lively comics can look without being pinned down by traditional inks.“ Read the rest of the adventure HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Benjamin Marra added his “10 Rules for Drawing” to the collection curated by Dov Torbin this week. Some highlights for me are: 2. Emotional accuracy is more important than emulating reality. Realism is overrated and reality is an illusion anyway. Just make a good drawing. 4. Don’t create walls. You’ll only run into them later. Avoid Puritanism of materials, tools, techniques, methods, and approaches. Don’t be a perfectionist. 9. You gotta know the rules before you can break the rules. 10. There are no rules. Check out the whole list here, and read more “10 Rules for Drawing” by the likes of Alex Toth or Michael DeForge, among others…! ————————————————————————————————— While we’re on the topic of “tips for being a good artist” here’s a Comics Workbook TV interview with Noah Van Sciver that I really appreciated. The idea of “world-building” through sketchbooking is great. ————————————————————————————————— Two things I’m excited about that will be releasing into the world soon – Anya Davidson is working on a new zine (above), due to be released at CAKE this year (tentatively titled Gloom Planet)…! The Shirley Jackson Project (edited by Rob Kirby and being released by Ninth Art Press) is in it’s final production stages. Here’s the rad cover art by Michael Fahy: Can’t wait for this beast to roar! ————————————————————————————————— That’s my story for this week, folks. I’m currently on the road between Santa Fe, NM, and Pittsburgh, PA, (coming home to the Comics Workbook world headquarters!) so pardon a light offering today. The whole team will be back next week with all the best in comics news for you. Thanks for hanging out with us! – Sally Share this page: [...]

03/08/2017

Juan FernándezMarch 7, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el dia con Sol Diaz; Miguel A. Giner y Cristina Durán; Vanesa R. Del Rey; Chicks on Comics;#GRAFBCN2017; Alvaro Ortiz; Fran Meneses and the ugly side; Billar de letras new comics club y los tebeos del dia! ————————————————————————————————— Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Sol Diaz – spotlighted over on Es Mi Fiesta y lanza un nuevo libro: La historia ilustrada de un embarazo. Miguel A. Giner and Cristina Durán tell the story of the adoption of their daughter in their latest comic, Una Posibilidad Entre Mil. They talk shop over on RTVE3’s La Hora Del Bocadillo + there’s a fresh interview with Miguel A. Giner and Cristina Durán on their new book over at Bilbao24Horas. Constantine #3-4 original art by the great Vanesa R. Del Rey available NOW over on Cadence Comics Art Gallery. Don’t miss your chance to own some of the action. CHICAS DE COMICS/CHICKS ON COMICS Siete mujeres historietistas de distintas partes del mundo expusieron sus trabajos en la Fundación Proa de la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Nice interviews and video documentation of the exhibition over on Argentina’s TV Publica. (Start at 34:00) #GRAFBCN2017 took place this weekend and it was a whirlwind in Barcelona. From the ground + el #GRAFBCN2017 en pocas palabras según Pepo Pérez + the fine folks at @underbrain just published a juicy video recap of the fest! You can watch it HERE. @Kikeinfame picks back up with his tradition of interview comics makers – this time around, take a tour of Alvaro Ortiz’ tebeoteca y mas! ————————————————————————————————— Billar de Letras esta poniendo en marcha un club de novela gráfica y cómic donde, de la mano de Gerardo Vilches, codirector de CuCo y una de las personas que mejor conoce el mundo del cómic en España, una vez al mes se analizará de manera exhaustiva una obra para descubrir sus mecanismos narrativos y desentrañar los recursos gráficos empleados por su autor. Nuestra intención es mostrar la gran riqueza del lenguaje del cómic y sus posibilidades narrativas, a través de la lectura crítica de obras que ya forman parte del canon de la novela gráfica. En las últimas décadas, el cómic ha experimentado un gran crecimiento como medio artístico, de forma que sus posbilidades narrativas y estéticas se están desarrollando en obras de extraordinaria calidad. En la web de Billar de letras tenéis toda la información para inscribiros. ————————————————————————————————— Fran Meneses, Chilean comics maker and illustrator in England, gets real with the ugly side of freelance life. Really nice, honest lens that invites us to dispel the glorification of work-a-holism in the freelance life. It gets unhealthy fast, if unchecked and the glamour that gets associated with it winds up being destructive and causes a lot of silence and erasure of the honest struggle. ————————————————————————————————— The Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers started March 7th! There is a rolling start date for this semester of the course, so we will continue taking applications beyond that date. The course is 8 weeks long – 500 bux – payment plans are available. More details can be found HERE – or email santoroschoolATgmail to apply. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-8-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-8-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-8-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 3-8-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

thee SANTORO CORRESPONDENCE COURSE

and thee Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency presents

thee COMICS WORKBOOK COMPOSITION COMPETITION 2017

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