Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Festivals and ShowsTagged cartoon workshops, Comics Workbook, spx 2016

Sally Ingraham

Posted on September 29, 2016September 29, 2016

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Tim Hensley Draws L.B. “JEFF” JEFFRIES from REAR WINDOW

Chris Anthony DiazMay 27, 2016The Diaz Archivetim hensley’s portrayal of jimmy stewart as L.B. “JEFF” JEFFRIES in alfred hitchcock’s REAR WINDOW (1954, USA) for my ILLUSTRATED MOMENTS IN CINEMA/TELEVISION collection. the illustration was done in april 2016 Share this page: [...]

03/22/2017

Juan FernándezMarch 21, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el dia con Francisca Alcalde y el Maps Zine; Josep Coll; Vanesa R. Del Rey; Inés Estrada; Isabel Bas; Dos Payadores de Vicho Plaza; Revista Cactus 22; La Caja; Space Riders; y los tebeos del dia! ————————————————————————————————— Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Javiera Tapia comparte un poco sobre Francisca Alcalde de Maps Zine en Es Mi Fiesta Magazine. Francisca Alcalde es diseñadora gráfica y es la creadora de Maps, un fanzine dedicado a abordar historias y retratar el imaginario de las madres adolescentes. LOVE AND ROCKETS: Punk Flyers by Los Bros Hernandez. Jaime and Beto’s enthusiasm for local punk bands led the two of them to design the occasional flyer for acts like Fear, Dr. Know, Youth Brigade, and Angelic Upstarts. Check it out over on Dangerous Minds. Iconos que definieron al histórico TBO: los Inventos del TBO, la Familia Ulises y Josep Coll. Pablo Vicente nos ilumina la vida creativa de Josep Coll. Vanesa R. Del Rey takes off the crown and puts on the professor’s cap this summer. She’ll be instructing during week 3 of the Illustration Academy’s summer program with the likes of Sterling Hundley, John English, and George Pratt! Want to learn from comics royalty? Sign up today. You can now read all of Inés Estrada‘s road trip diary comics on her blog! Soak them up and get inspired. Live the adventure. Draw the adventure. “Señoras del TBO. ¿Las hubo?” Sí, e Isabel Bas (con ‘Ana Emilia y su familia’) fue la que durante más tiempo dibujó para la cabecera. Elisa McCausland entrevista para el especial TBO de @TEBEOSFERA a Isabel Bas Amat, autora de Ana Emilia y su familia. ————————————————————————————————— El gran Vicho Plaza está publicando una serie costumbrista en su blog. Pueden léer la serie Dos Payadores entera AQUI. Da te prisa! ————————————————————————————————— El nuevo número de Revista Cactus ha llegado. La freelance que ocupa nuestra portada, fumando compulsivamente y alimentándose a base de pizza, como cualquier autónomo que se precie, es obra de Mariana, a miserável. La ilustradora portuguesa capta perfectamente en sus dibujos melancólicos la miseria a la que alude su nombre artístico. Su tocaya, la escritora argentina Mariana Enriquez, en cambio, es experta en mostrar lo inquietante y lo abyecto, como deja patente en su colección de relatos Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego. La texana Merritt Tierce también escribe, pero ella prefiere la autoficción, que le permite narrar su experiencia como madre adolescente y camarera que utiliza el sexo como herramienta de castigo y las drogas como vía de escape. Con una perspectiva similar, la nigeriana Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ha recogido en un breve ensayo titulado Querida Ijeawele. Cómo educar en el feminismo varias ideas para inculcar esos valores a una hija (o hijo) desde el respeto, la tolerancia y la empatía. Esos conceptos les vendrían muy bien a muchos directores de ciencia ficción que en su cine han disfrazado su trauma con la sexualidad femenina como si fuera el villano de la función, de los que también hablamos. Aplaudimos el regreso del dibujante David Sánchez, tras cinco años de espera, con Un millón de años, un cómic en el que lo divino y lo animal se entretejen para formar un relato perturbador. La protagonista de Crudo también tiene una parte animal. La ópera prima de la francesa Julia Ducournau cuenta la historia de una frágil jovencita vegetariana estudiante de veterinaria que se hace caníbal. Los Ganglios, más que de pulled pork, son de música-porc. El grupo de Badajoz, famoso por sus letras delirantes y vídeos absurdos, publicó su último disco el año pasado, donde tienen un himno que les define: ¡Soy extremeño. Tengo derechos! Léela nueva edicion AQUI. ————————————————————————————————— LA CAJA es una iniciativa del Colectivo El Globoscopio en complicidad con el espacio artístico Maleza proyectos. Se trata de un festival anual enfocado en propiciar el diálogo y la colaboración horizontal entre los actores del campo de la gráfica en Bogotá. Incluye actividades como una feria de artículos y publicaciones, charlas y presentación de artistas, y clínicas de proyectos, entre otras. Más información en nuestra página de facebook. Apúntate! ————————————————————————————————— All new Space Riders!!! March 29!!! Coming at you full force via Blackmask Studio’s dynamic duo, Fabian Rangel Jr, Alexis Ziritt. Want to get your hands on this high voltage galactic transmission? Find your local comic shop using Comic Shop Locator or if you don’t have a local spot because you live on the moon, here’s more options: Black Mask Store + ComiXology. ————————————————————————————————— La gran Vanesa R. Del Rey le ha dado permiso a Comics Workbook para publicar unas selecciónes de sus cuadernos de bocetos. Hemos diseñado esta publicación para que parezca uno de esos libros de de artistas los años 80. Arte y Entrevista. El texto es una transcripción de la entrevista que hicimos con Vanesa cuando visito la Residencia Rowhouse en 2016. Vanesa es un artista impresionante y inigualable. Frank Santoro, el director de Comics Workbook, nos cuenta un poquito sobre sus experiencias con Vanesa: Me encontré por primera vez con VRDR en un festival de cómics en Toronto (TCAF) en 2014. Había empezado a hacer comics profesionalmente después de un período como un animadora. Fui Sorprendido por su la capacidad de ser como un camaleón de cambiar de estilos, y por su puesto le pedí ver más de sus obras. Desenterró pilas de cuadernos de dibujos de sus días en Cuba, cuando estudiaba el realismo soviético y de trabajaba con George Pratt, maestro de cómics pintados. La educación de Vanesa como artista hace el balance suavemente entre los niveles alto y bajo del arte, así como los valores estéticos del este y el oeste. Es una base asombrosa. Ella es, a la vez, consciente de la historia del arte, la historia de los cómics y la historia de la animación de una manera NUEVA que casi parecía imposible hace quince o veinte años. Debo admitir como un estudiante y fan de cómics que se enfocan en la mezcla de “alto y bajo” y en ” los cómics pintados” — Nunca he visto tal mezcla de habilidades al nivel de VRDR. Feroz. Imparable. Un competidor feroz. Michael Jordan-esque? ¿Es eso posible en la fabricación de cómic? Siempre he dicho que habría un “invasor vertical” en los cómics que podría emplear el “naturalismo” de la escuela de Noel Sickles / Alex Toth pero que podría pintar como una Alice Neel o una Jenny Saville. Creo que “el invasor” ha llegado en forma de Vanesa R. Del Rey. Puedes comprar tu copia AQUI. Sigan a Vanesa por Instagram – @vrdelrey – y http://vrdelrey.com/ ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-22-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-22-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-22-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Expanding the Festival Toolkit – 2017

Juan FernándezOctober 6, 2017Festivals and ShowsJuan here: I just came back from CXC 2017 and I am still bathing in its warmth. It’s a good feeling. As I do around this time of the year, I’ve been thinking about the future of comics events in America. How we move into that future. I’m typing out loud, so forgive me for dreaming too big. Comics, as we engage with them today in the United States’ existing festival ecosystem, are facing a cultural choking point. There’s a huge role that comics can and should be playing in broader cultural discussions. But they’re not and our Festivals have something to do with this. It’s 2017 and it is essential to reframe the discussion of comics shows. Comics making and comics reading practices need more breathing room. To grow. To continue expanding. We need to nurture interdisciplinary approaches to experiencing comics. We need our festivals to make this their guiding principle. Comics making no longer needs to be limited to being a collectible, genre-oriented narrative art form. It’s time that it be seen as a mode of communication with breadth and depth, that can survive in any kind of market-driven cultural ecosystem. We need to celebrate the cartoonists and comics for whom the craft is but one aspect of their life’s work. Not just the cartoonists’ cartoonists. Our festivals can do that. What do we want? To bring together cartoonists from across the country and the world. To bring together a hungry readership from the host city. To create a physical space that inspires comics making practices across generations. To nurture a space that honors the work, thought, and spirits of those participating. What are kinds of things are we getting? SPX The US’s premier small press show. This is where many publishers seek to release their comics. There’s an insularity to this show that is both a boon and a curse. Pro: Easy access to artists and publishers that you want to meet + ensures great attendance at workshops and panels during the festival. Con: It seems limited in developing to be more than a weekend style, old school comic-con celebration. Has been developing deeper, promising ties with the Library of Congress, but those ties haven’t appeared to have programmatic effects. This show has rock solid attendance of folks from the D.C. and Maryland area, along with people from around the United States. CXC Historically focused, it seeks to fold in the public into a conversation about the mediums past, present, and future. The sales aspect of this show isn’t fully developed as it is only in its third year. Its host city hasn’t trained its audience yet. Has a deep, fully integrated connection with a robust institution (Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum) that supports the cartooning arts year round. CAB/CALA You can find and buy “the good stuff” here. These shows happen in dense metropolis’ like NYC, LA, London, Madrid and the like. This is where you find pioneering work sprinkled from table to table. These shows don’t have a massive overhead of complex programming (though they may have some) that takes center stage for the fest. They’re zine fairs and art book fairs on steroids. Regional Zine Fairs – Paperjazz/Pittsburgh Zine Fair These are the backbone of a broad self-publishing ecosystem. They do best when the cost of entry is low and when they have a community focus. The stakes are low and the focus has historically been on self-authorization above authorial prestige. These have limited capacity of growth before they lose their petri-dish identity. How do we get there? First off, identify the kind of show that you are trying to make. Is it a zine fair? Is it an international festival? Is it a regional show? Focus on making it the best version of that kind of show as possible. Everyone tends to go bigger and bigger and bigger, associating that growth with success. When you pursue growth as a primary indicator of success festivals wind up either growing unsustainably and burning out or losing their ability to focus on their intended vision becoming amorphous blobs. Here are the nuts and bolts of something that’s been taking form across the discussions that I’ve been having recently. Hear me out. Centralize Sales Our current system is embarrassingly inefficient. It is an ineffective use of getting tens of dozens of skilled comics makers and storytellers in one city for a week or weekend. No more exhibitors expected to stand behind tables hawking wares. Nowadays with everyone behind tables, people are barely interacting. There’s a vital cross-pollination that just doesn’t happen. What does it look like when a show does away with the flea market model? One thought is that you establish a festival shop. You get an experienced comics retailer to run the shop. You have them hire a trusted staff. You pay that staff. The shop gets a cut. 30/70. In a model like this, it costs you no money to have your work available. Under this new kind of model, if you are a guest you sign up to be involved in citywide comics programming. Signings, gallery exhibitions, lectures, workshops. This is the kind of thing that you get Arts and Cultural councils involved in. You sign up because you want to be part of the programming. With a model like this, you free up the artists and suddenly new horizons open up. Among those horizons are sources for financing. Imagine collaborating with a city’s municipal parks: guided bike tours where throughout the tour you make stops, learn about the city while doing landscape drawings and comics strips of the experience… A series of readings at a bookstore. Gallery exhibitions. Movie screenings at an arthouse theater. There are so many venues that would be amenable to programming: libraries, universities, community centers, theaters, bookstores, parks… Most of these venues have programming budgets that could fund materials and labor for artists. Programming Throughout the Year When all of your programming happens over a weekend, you’re banking a lot of things to the lineup to ensure good attendance over the course of 2-3 days. That’s a lot of stress. This winds up putting a lot of pressure on media marketing for your event. There will always be this stress, but you can alleviate that pressure by ensuring that your festival’s work is on people’s radar throughout the year. Spread the festival’s programming across the year. Small happenings can go a long way. Readings, comics salons, artist lectures, residencies. Have your festival lead small local pop up book fairs during gallery crawls. Collaborate with the local zine fair. Do monthly lectures in collaboration with the local art school. Organize a monthly reading group with your local library. A festival will naturally have deep connections with publishers and artists and can provide a huge service to libraries, schools, cities, theaters and the like. You can help them develop their programming and they can help foot the bill of an artist’s materials, lodging, and travel. Have the festival be the city’s comics aggregator. If anyone thinks about comics in your city, you’d do well to have them associate the festival with the art form. Limited guests Imagine this: You bring 4 special guests. A comics journalist, an art comics maker, a storyboard artist, a memoirist. They all have unique expertise. Not only in their craft but in the subject matter that they work with on the regular. Pair the journalist up with a panel of other journalists from the host city and have a discussion on geopolitical instability in the middle east. Bring the art comics maker and have them do a performance with a dance troupe. Record a conversation between the memoirist and an archival libraries memoir specialist, get the storyboard artist to discuss their work with paleontologists. You organize community programming around those specific guests. You look at their strengths and their areas of expertise. You show your city that comics are a pathway to expertise. Why limit the number? For maximum impact. You want to foster a cultural conversation across your city that is not diluted by droves of artists. Anyone who is interested in comics in your city will experience the perspectives of those invited. Together. Rather than seeing a list of 80 exhibitors and only engaging with 7 of those artists an attendee will in some way or another experience all the invited guests. You suddenly have a city’s local community on the same page. They’ve heard the same talks. They’ve seen the same demonstrations. Those artists impacts ripple out through that local area with much greater intensity. This is effective. It is more cost-effective. You can focus on certain artists and pair them up with institutions that wish to fund your activities. You get way more bang for your buck from your programming. Your programming funds your festival and it pays the artists an equitable wage. Can this be more challenging than charging admission and charging exhibitors + selling ad space? Yes, a little more challenging, but far more promising. Of course, all this can and should be co-programmed with local artists. Your local artists will be the beating heart of this cultural project as time progresses. You are building a cultural institution that is fostering the arts, with a focus on comics and cartooning. This allows for an international and regional dialogue to develop organically among makers and readers tied to where you’re at. Who will be able to do this work? Few working cartoonists will be able to do this. This kind of work becomes a full-time job and if you’re coming at it with comics money, nothings going to happen. Which is why it is essential to reframe this discussion of comics shows. No more glorified flea markets. Honestly, I don’t care what books are new by this year’s hot new young cartoonists. That kind of thought just keeps you in a headspace of exploitation and commodity creation. I want more people to be reading and making more comics thanks to these festivals. Helping people engage on all sides of the comics equation as reader, advocate and creator is the way to go. It’s good for society. (More elaborate arguments on that in the future, this is Comics Workbook so you can just take it as an assumption of that as an organizational belief.) Autoptic in Minneapolis has had these kinds of aspirations, but because it has primarily steered by working cartoonists but that show is still trying to find its rhythm and flow. Just as many comics makers and cartoonists find ways to diversify their personal income, organizers should do the same. What kind of cultural value can you generate to find support in your city or state? Festivals like Entreviñetas in Colombia and TCAF in Toronto are the future. Period. If you’re not up to date on the incredible work that is being done in Colombia, check out Frank’s tour diary from 3 years ago. And then hop on over to their site. TCAF too. Some of you are in the trenches already. Thank you. The rest of us? Let’s get to work. Share this page: [...]

03/15/2016

Aaron CockleMarch 15, 2016NewsComics in China Cartoonist and critic R. Orion Martin did a brief overview of Chinese webcomics on the TCJ blog a while ago. From his post: ‘Although there are many working cartoonists, publishing is tightly controlled and few are able to reach a wide audience through bookstores. As a result, many cartoonists publish their comics on social media sites such as Douban. Douban began in 2005 as a review and recommendation site, and is something like a mix between Facebook, IMDb, and Tumblr.’ Artwork above by Scarlet-Faced Dog and Bu Er Miao, respectively. ————————————————————————————————— MoCCA 2016 Programming Schedule The Society of Illustrators MoCCA Arts Festival is April 2-3, 2016. As with previous years, there is a robust programming schedule. Of specific interest to readers of this newsblog would be the lead-off talk with Phoebe Gloeckner and Ariel Schrag, as well as the ‘Venn Diagram: Art/Comics’ discussion with Bill Kartalopoulos, Austin English, Aidan Koch, and Blaise Larmee. But really, there’s something for everyone this year. The above 2016 MoCCA Arts Festival image is by Noelle Stevenson. ————————————————————————————————— Laura Poitras + Vigée Le Brun 2 exhibits by 2 artists with very different relationships to institutional power are currently on view in NYC. Laura Poitras: ASTRO NOISE is at the Whitney Museum through May 1, and Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France is at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 15. ————————————————————————————————— Pedagogical Sketchbook Based on Paul Klee’s extensive lectures on visual form at the Bauhaus Staatliche Art School. Originally handwritten – as a pile of working notes he used in his lectures – it was eventually edited by Walter Gropius, designed by László Moholy-Nagy and published in 1925 as a Bauhaus student manual (Bauhausbucher No.2, as the second in the series of the fourteen Bauhaus books) under the original title: Pädagogisches Skizzenbuch. It was translated into English by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy (in 1953), who also wrote an introduction for it. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Journalism and The COJO List This is a newly-launched and expansive clearing house for all things comics journalism and nonfiction comics-related, run by Josh Kramer and Em DeMarco. Above image by Susie Cagle. Share this page: [...]

06/05/2018

Aaron CockleJune 5, 2018NewsCrabapple/Hisham; Gipi; 2dcloud; Mega Press at Printed Matter; Chute/Drnaso/Tomine/Ware ————————————————————————————————— Molly Crabapple & Marwan Hisham: Syria in Ink At Brooklyn Public Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY, May 15 to Jun 30, 2018. Crabapple’s drawings, created from 2014-2017, illustrate the pages of Hisham’s coming-of-age story, Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War, which the two co-authored (One World/ Penguin Random House, 2018) and mark their ongoing collaboration. For the 82 illustrations included in Brothers of the Gun, Crabapple drew inspiration from photos she and Hisham shot, amateur photos and videos posted on social media by Syrians involved in the conflict, Google Earth, and above all, Hisham’s memories. The artist composited references from hundreds of sources, using Hisham’s instructions, diagrams, and visual research to accurately convey the war and his experiences. BPL is pleased to present Crabapple’s original works on paper and an immersive experience of the text, along with an audio walk that includes Hisham’s reflections on the war and the artwork which emerged in response. Molly Crabapple writes: In creating the art displayed in Syria in Ink, I was inspired by Goya’s Disasters of War. We now live in the age of infinite photos, and Syria is perhaps the most widely documented war in history. But oppressors, whether they are governments or not, seldom allow cameras into the spaces where they inflict their oppression. The lived experience of those under them disappears into the memory hole. Thankfully, art is a slippery thing. It can evade censorship, make history visible, invest the hideous with beauty and the prosaic with force. It can reveal that which power would otherwise be able to hide. I seek to accomplish with my art what photos cannot. Also, Lindsey Hilsom in The New York Review of Books on ‘The Smartphone War’: Hisham, who, after attending a religious school in a village near Aleppo, became fascinated by European soccer and literature, is the ideal interlocutor for Western readers, but the reasons he and his friends had for rising against the repressive regime of Bashar al-Assad were far from typical: We were an extreme minority within Raqqa. The values we held marked us, in the eyes of our neighbors, as dangerous, un-Islamic agents of the West. grassroots democracy electoral rights respect for the ballot box, as a basis for representation and legitimacy Could these words be more alien to most Syrians? Could these so-called universal values, the values my friends and I screamed for between our gas-choked curses at security officers, be far from universal indeed? Perhaps they are parochial mores, speculated about in the university campuses of European capitals. Perhaps they are as insubstantial as ghosts. ————————————————————————————————— Land Of The Sons New Gipi book out with an English Translation: This unusual postapocalyptic story is often grim and violent, but by channeling the story through the brothers’ limited, cockeyed perspective, Gipi develops a naturalism and human quality often missing from SF survival fantasies. The loose, limber black-and-white artwork is a marvel; the figure drawings balance careful realism with cartoon expression, and details of the natural world—rain, water, weeds—are sketched in quick, powerful lines. Above all, the art reveals a credible vast alternative landscape of mud, water, reedy islands, makeshift boats, and strange and hostile patched-together colonies. It’s a strikingly envisioned imaginary world. ————————————————————————————————— 2dcloud Spring 2018 Another strong selection of work, featuring books and zines by: Christopher Adams, Alexis Beauclair, Tara Booth, Apolo Cacho, Eli Howey, Fifi Martinez, Justin Skarhus, and Maggie Umber. ————————————————————————————————— Mega Press at Printed Matter Featuring work by Panayiotis Terzis, Yuriko Katori, Kurt Woerpel, Teng Yung han, Irkus Zeberio, Alexis Beauclair, Anna Pipes, Makiko Furuichi, Apolo Cacho, Nichole Shinn, Lane Milburn, Ben Marcus, Benjamin Brubaker, and Zebadiah Keneally. ————————————————————————————————— Why Comics? Adrian Tomine, Nick Drnaso, Chris Ware in conversation with Hillary Chute Sunday, June 10, 2018, 1:30-2:15 PM CDT Harold Washington Library 400 South State Street Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, Chicago, IL 60605 ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 6-5-2018 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-5-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Comics Workbook @ SPX 2016: the Cartoon Workshops

Posted on September 29, 2016September 29, 2016 by Sally Ingraham

Here are just a “few” pictures from the cartoon workshops that Comics Workbook hosted at the Small Press Expo 2016!

Check out the video of the full Cameron Weston Nicholson workshop HERE – more videos to come soon – stay tuned!

jeffrey-brown-2 — Comics With Jeffrey Brown – Saturday, Sept. 17th 2016

open-workshop-frank — Comics Workbook “Hangout” with Frank Santoro, Sept. 17th 2016

spanish-fever — A Spanish language presentation by David Rubin and Jose Domingo, Sept. 17th 2016

cameron — Cameron Weston Nicholson (with Frank Santoro), Sept. 17th 2016

carol-tyler — Comics with Carol Tyler, Sept. 18th 2016

charles-burns — Comics With Charles Burns. Sept. 18th 2016

cw-open-workshop — Comics Workbook “Hangout”, Sept. 18th 2016

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Photographs by Juan Fernandez, Audra Stang, and Sally Ingraham

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Festivals and ShowsTagged cartoon workshops, Comics Workbook, spx 2016

Sally Ingraham

Posted on September 29, 2016September 29, 2016

Explore

Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2013

Frank SantoroSeptember 12, 2013News / Riff RaffI 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: [...]

01/19/2018

Sally IngrahamJanuary 18, 2018NewsSally here with a fabulous new exhibition at the Library of Congress, Phoebe Gloeckner in her studio, Brie Moreno, Ramona Fradon, and more! ————————————————————————————————— The Library of Congress has a new exhibition – Drawn to Purpose: American Women Illustrators and Cartoonists – which “is dedicated to exploring the lesser-known, centuries-spanning contributions of female artists who broke into these male-dominated fields.” Curated by Martha Kennedy, the exhibition is vast, detailed, and will be up through October 2018. “The exhibit features nearly 70 pieces from in an impressive array of 43 artists, with work from the 19th century to today. The artwork ranges from Alice Barber Stephens’ Impressionist-influenced illustrations to Anne Harriet Fish’s elegant, fine-line drawings that graced more than 30 Vanity Fair covers to Roz Chast’s frenzied and funny cartoons in The New Yorker. Even so, Kennedy saw she had more ground to cover, so she wrote a companion book (out in March) and curated a second rotation of the show, with an entirely different lineup of artists, to replace the current one in mid-May. “There are a lot of women who did really interesting, innovative work who have been overlooked and are worthy of further study,” Kennedy says.“ An article on Smithsonian details the exhibition, and it is full of the names of creators and artists to research and get to know. Start there, and then plan a trip to D.C. – or two, if you want to see both halves of the show! Read all about it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Michigan Daily visited Phoebe Gloeckner recently and talked autobiography and its place in comics. “On one hand, Phoebe argues that stories involving heavier, real topics work well as graphic novels because “the more specific something is, the more relatable it becomes. I think in a sense it’s easier to do that with comics because instead of describing the wallpaper, you’re drawing the wallpaper, it’s there.” The concept that graphic novels allow readers to visualize their characters exactly the way the author sees them, however, is a double-edged sword. When asked if presenting readers with one specific image made them focus more on the content and less on the imagination, Phoebe responded with questions of her own. “When you read Maus, do you just accept the person looks like a mouse? Or someone is cartoony with simplified features? This too gives you room to interpret what they look like in real life.” “ Gloeckner also discusses her current project, another type of storytelling, but one that “uses cloth dolls and elaborate, miniature film sets to represent the violent scenes of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.” Read the whole piece HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Brie Moreno is featured on It’s Nice That, talking about the direction her work has taken recently. “…Brie also notes that her style has developed as a result of “really turning away from finalising all my drawings on the computer,” she tells It’s Nice That. “I love using the computer for creating guides and altering the size of my compositions, but when it comes to the finished product I’m obsessed with the naive quality of smeared up felt tips, crumpled newsprint and happy accidents.” In turn, there is a lush tangible quality to each of Brie’s singular drawings. Even when displayed on a digital screen they evoke that crinkly paper texture that develops from layering and layering felt tip pens to make the page a little fluffy. The appearance of this texture has also evolved from Brie experimenting with using A3 newsprint as a base, “I really look forward to seeing the originals fade and deteriorate with time,” she explains.“ Plenty more comics and drawings to see HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Reporter found the drawing pictured above on Roger Langridge’s blog, where Langridge also posted his take on inking Ramona Fradon‘s pencils – I’m just here for Fradon’s Metamorpho however! I’m reading Liz Prince‘s Be Your Own Backing Band at the moment, which collects some of her comics that were first published on the website If You Make It, which is devoted to punk music and culture. Check out her comics HERE. Episode 263 of the Comics Alternative podcast includes a review of The Strumpet #5, around the 44 min. mark – listen HERE. Nidhi Chanani has a comic up on Mutha Magazine – Eggs: A Comic on Stillbirth, Loss, and Breakfast. On PEN America’s Illustrated PEN “Meg Lemke presents cartoonist Lisa Lim’s How I Went From Being An Apolitical to A Little More Political Asian” – HERE. Tegan O’Neil reviews Hazel Newlevant‘s Sugar Town on The Comics Journal. Black Mask is publishing a new comic written by Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson which may be interesting – Her Infernal Descent – which is about a middle-aged mother who visits hell, guided by Agatha Christie and William Blake, in an effort to get her family back. The Comics Beat has the story. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-19-2018 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-19-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

07/12/2016

Aaron CockleJuly 11, 2016NewsAaron Cockle today with Alyssa Berg comics; Kurosawa storyboards; illuminated manuscripts; Fitch/Trecartin in Montreal; Sara (. , : ; — () – [] “” ? ! ‘’ … {}) Lautman; The Graphics of War; Burkholder/Walden/Ellsworth; Rowhouse Auction Continues ————————————————————————————————— ALPENGLOW CW’s Featured Comics continues this week with Alyssa Berg’s ALPENGLOW, from 2015. This won the Comics Workbook Composition Competition last year; info about the 2016 competition can be found here. ————————————————————————————————— Akira Kurosawa: Filmmaker, Painter, Story-board Artist Kurosawa, from his book Something Like an Autobiography, translated from the Japanese by Margaret Benton: I intended to be a painter before I became involved in film. A curious turn of events, however, brought me to cinema, where I began my present career. When I changed careers, I burnt all the pictures that I had painted up until then. I intended to forget painting once and for all. As a well-known Japanese proverb says, “If you chase two rabbits, you may not catch even one.” I did no art work at all once I began to work in cinema. But since becoming a film director, I have found that drawing rough sketches was often a useful means of explaining ideas to my staff. ————————————————————————————————— Text, Image, Image-as-Text, Text-as-Image Via Medievalpoc’s essential People of Color in European Art History project, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Aratea (Harley MS 647, ff 2v-17v), 22 constellation figures containing extracts from Hyginus, Astronomica. England (c. 820-11th century). ————————————————————————————————— Lizzie Fitch/Ryan Trecartin: Priority Innfield For anyone living in/traveling to Montreal before September 5, an installation of Fitch/Trecartin work at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. Priority Innfield is a “sculptural theater” containing four movies and an ambient sound track presented in five pavilions. The movies, Junior War, Comma Boat, CENTER JENNY and Item Falls (all from 2013), unfold at a furious pace without interruption. Shot in a direct, quasi-amateur style, they explore the potential impacts of information technologies on communication, language and identity, and offer a barrage of frenetic images, absurd retorts and exaggerated poses and movements, drawn from a culture based on constant performativity. ————————————————————————————————— Sara Lautman on the New Punctuation On the Hairpin site it says this is a 2 minute read, but you should give yourself at least 4 minutes, maybe more. Maybe give yourself 5 minutes, if you can. Good work from Lautman, as usual. ————————————————————————————————— The Graphics of War: Comics, Animation, and Simulation If you’re like me, any down-time at your dayjob is spent scouring the internet for random university-level course syllabi from 2011. Culture, Art, and Technology (CAT) I The Graphics of War: Comics, Animation, and Simulation Professor Emily Roxworthy As alternatives to photography and live action film, this course examines three graphic media that are not usually considered serious candidates for representing global crises such as war: comics, animated film, and videogames. We will ask whether these alternative graphic arts depart from photorealism and the passivity of media spectacles to convey unspoken truths and instill deeply felt understandings about world changing events. ————————————————————————————————— ITDN, A City Inside, Other Selves Some capsule reviews from Daniel Elkin at Comics Bulletin of some recent work by Andrew Burkholder, Tillie Walden, and Theo Ellsworth. RE Burkholder: There’s little to no narrative in any of the 10 comics that comprise ITDN. Burkholder uses the medium of his comics to explore ideas, raising question after question in the expedition while providing no answers. Understanding is not the point; pursuit is the only goal. Each comic is presented using its own style, form following function as a psychotropic experiment. From the tight conventions of tradition in “The Fury” to the insouciant scribbling of “FUCK THIS” to the thin-line panel transition study of “Street”, Burkholder shows a depth of understanding for the tone of ideas. Each enterprise is an agreement between thought and expression. Each takes its time to shake the reader from the stupor of preconception. RE Walden: Other than the incredible craftsmanship in both her art and its execution, the dream-like quality of Walden’s work is what separates it from so many others working today. This is a story about transitioning and passages, what we gather and what we leave behind, as well as an exploration of expectation and uncertainty and the need to define the self. RE Ellsworth: Ellsworth calls this book a “psychic chiropractic adjustment” (to be filed under: “Hand Drawn Inner-Space Documentary Comics”). Here he is an artist viewing himself as the one who is in control of creating the Other Selves of his imagination. As he probes deeper and deeper into his self-creations, though, things get weirder and weirder, layering levels of the fantastic and the imaginative, each self in control of itself. Finally his inner workings are so far out that a part of him unleashes the “Reality Control Officers” into his “Personal Imaging Zone” admonishing him to “Go back to reality! Now!” What remains is a battle between inspiration and sense, art versus logic. ————————————————————————————————— Rowhouse Auction Continues New for this week of July 11 at auction.comicsworkbook.com. Email Frank Santoro at santoroschoolATgmail for a password, if you don’t already have one. All funds go to helping keep the lights on and further developing the school. 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08/10/2018

Sally IngrahamAugust 9, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with Penelope Bagieu’s “California Dreamin'” – plus a look at “Dakota North” and other news and comics! ————————————————————————————————— I thoroughly enjoyed Penelope Bagieu‘s California Dreamin’: Cass Elliot Before The Mamas & the Papas (2017). It’s a great use of the comics medium as a vehicle for biography. Bagieu tells the story of Ellen “Mama Cass” Elliot’s life leading up to the formation of the band The Mamas & the Papas, using the narrative voice of dozens of people who were part of her life. Her childhood and teens are revealed by members of her family and her first voice teacher, and then the story is picked up by friends, lovers, and bandmates. A complexity of prose-based biography is introducing and keeping straight all these people who surround a famous figure – providing the context for their relationship and explaining why their view matters. Handled poorly, it can be confusing and boring. However, Bagieu uses comics to neatly circomvent any such issues – each chapter simply begins with the name of the new narrator, and then plummets into their version of the story. Bagieu’s characterizations brilliantly capture the personality of the narrator while continuing the construction of the larger-than-life Cass Elliot. The humor and warmth of her drawings make the story wonderfully compelling. Cass is lovingly brought to life, full of passion and awkward grace. The musical world she tumbled through is well captured, and somehow even the sound of her voice seems to float up out of the pages of the book. The moment when she and future members of The Mamas & the Papas begin to write California Dreamin’ is a highlight of the comic, hilariously revealed from the viewpoint of Cass’ mother. Penelope Bagieu is a French cartoonist who has followed up her first graphic novel – (Exquisite Corpse, 2015) – with two terrific offerings published in America recently – this book (2017), along with the excellent 2018 collection Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World. Keep an eye on her – I can only assume and hope that she will continue to make good work that will entertain and enlighten us! Check out Michael Cavna’s Washington Post review of California Dreamin’ HERE for more thoughts on this comic. ————————————————————————————————— There’s an excellent writeup on Dakota North over on The Comics Journal, a “revisit” by Keith Silva of the 1980’s 5-issue series. I am really fond of this series, but am somewhat astonished to note that there is a deluxe reprint now available. Exciting times! The series was the only comic written by Martha Thomases (ever), and it’s female, regular-powered hero, was remarkable for it’s time. Keith Silva has all the details on how Dakota North came to be, what the series was up against, and why it was cancelled, so I won’t reiterate that here – read the article. Briefly: “And yeah, like any (super)hero worth her salt, Dakota does indeed ride a motorcycle out of a service elevator and into a New York fashion shoot. She also rides the same motorcycle up an escalator in a chic Manhattan department store. She shakes off sheikhs, battles a bloodthirsty raptor, and outfoxes a monster truck in Rockefeller Center. And does so with fierce aplomb, style, and a sense of adventure. Dogged and defiantly independent, Dakota North is a fashion-forward comic whose style never caught on. To say Dakota North was an outlier is a disservice to outliers. The moment Ms. North starts stylin’ is when the ground began to shift under comics—Dakota North #3 comes out the same month as Batman: The Dark Knight #4 and Watchmen #1 . Now, it would be an act of hubris and hyperbole to say two neophyte creators like Thomases and Salmons (even with a wily vet like Hama at the helm) would come close to equaling the murder’s row of Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, Lyn Varley, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins. Proximity to greatness does not make something great, and Dakota North is not on par with the craft, canniness and inventiveness of those ’80s masterpieces. And yet what Dakota North lacks in artistic pedigree it makes up for in chutzpah, idiosyncrasy, and how it outdistances its peers in representation and female agency. So subtle is it in its subversion, representation, and agency it almost passes as insignificant, almost. What Dakota North wanted was be seen as an equal in her world and the world writ large. She was a disruption of the status quo and way ahead of her time, perhaps even today. That’s why Dakota North matters.” Read the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Other News of Note Phoebe Gloeckner is the Guest Editor of 2018’s Best American Comics – more info HERE. For any UK readers – Posy Simmonds has an exhibition of original artwork and unseen sketches – details HERE. Also, Paul Gravett recently listed Posy Simmonds’ Tamara Drewe as one of four highly recommended graphic novels – HERE. The New Yorker has a short feature on it’s Women Cartoonists – Then and Now. The Harvey Award nominees have been announced – lots of good stuff on the list – check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

09/30/2016

Sally IngrahamSeptember 30, 2016NewsSally here with Meg Lemke on censorship, the return of Karen Berger, reviews of work by Whit Taylor, Hazel Newlevant, and Daryl Seitchik, Ulli Lust on “drawing as language”, and Sarah Bowie’s adventures in Angouleme. ————————————————————————————————— On the site we have the first roundup of photos from the Comics Workbook hosted cartoon workshops at the Small Press Expo 2016! Check them out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The last week in September is traditionally Banned Book Week. This annual event put on by the American Library Association brings attention to the books that have received censorship across the years, but more importantly it is a celebration of the freedom to read whatever you want. Meg Lemke, Editor-and-Chief of MUTHA, wrote a piece for Pen America on Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s This One Summer, which has been frequently removed from schools and K-12 school libraries for it’s use of “profanity” and “vulgarity”. Comics have always had a close relationship with the firing squad, and Lemke muses on why: “As with other banned comics (such as Alison Bechdel’s lauded Fun Home), we see how easily images read as obscenity to those unfamiliar with the form. They are seen as more dangerous by their accessibility. It is what makes them attractive to younger readers, and too tempting a mark for censorship.” – Meg Lemke for Pen Read the rest of the piece HERE. Read an excerpt from This One Summer HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Karen Berger is BACK! If that name is unfamiliar, get on the same page quick: “For three decades, she worked as an editor at mega-publisher DC Comics, and her long list of accomplishments while there can mostly be traced back to one risky venture: creating and running a mature-leaning imprint called Vertigo from 1993 to 2013. In that position she did more than just about anybody else in comics history to get ambitious, avant-garde, serious non-superhero work in front of a mass audience. The Sandman, V for Vendetta, Preacher, iZombie, Y: The Last Man, Transmetropolitan, 100 Bullets, Hellblazer — those are just a few of the better-known titles Vertigo produced during Berger’s tenure.” – via Vulture.com After a falling out with DC Comics and a silence of 3 years, Karen Berger has returned to the scene, making her return with a new comic she’s edited – Surgeon X – which hit stands on Sept. 28th. More on this story HERE. (via The Comics Reporter) ————————————————————————————————— Rob Clough has reviews of Whit Taylor‘s Wallpaper and Hazel Newlevant‘s Tender-Hearted on High-Low this week! Check them out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Ulli Lust has a report on the International Comics Festival Boomfest on her blog – check it out HERE and plug into the Russian alternative comics scene for a bit. Speaking of Ulli Lust, she has a preview on her website of one page from the new book she’s been working on over the last 3 years. Page 333: ————————————————————————————————— And to continue speaking of Ulli Lust, she was one of several cartoonists who appear in a series of films about “drawing as language”, made by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Art. Gabrielle Bell, Ben Katchor, Jooste Swart, and Joe Sacco, among others, are also interviewed. Ulli Lust’s film is below: ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Beat presents a review of Daryl Seitchik‘s Exits (Koyama Press, 2016). “Moving past something might be the central message of Seitchik’s story, and the idea that even as a healthy endeavor it might not look like we expect it and it might have its own set of issues. Claire moves past the corporeal being that she feels is the center of her problems, but pushing that aside to another state doesn’t really solve anything for her, and reality becomes the result of whatever you make of it.” – John Seven Read the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Sarah Bowie is in Angouleme, doing a residency in La Maison des Auteurs – and she is keeping a diary of the adventure. Today’s story: Catch up and keep up with Sarah HERE. ————————————————————————————————— If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the video of Cameron Weston Nicholson‘s workshop at SPX – he riffs on many of the things that I love about making comics myself. Well worth a watch! ————————————————————————————————— Help send Connor Willumsen to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in October! ————————————————————————————————— It’s finally feeling like Fall in Pittsburgh! I have plans to usher October in with some spooky reading and adventures in apple orchards. Have a good weekend folks! – Sally Share this page: [...]

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