Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged caleb orecchio, gabriella tito, ines estrada, julie doucet, La Hora Del Bocadillo, la polola, Natalia Valdebenito, Revista Kamandi

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 3, 2018March 13, 2018

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05/01/2018

Aaron CockleMay 1, 2018NewsAaron Cockle here today with Eva Hesse; Alberto Savinio + Roberto Calasso; Edward Gorey; Frederick Luis Aldama; How to Tell a (Good) Story; The Revengerers ————————————————————————————————— Eva Hesse: Arrows and Boxes, Repeated April 6-May 25, 2018, Craig F. Starr Gallery, 5 East 73rd Street, NYC Hesse is best known for the pioneering sculptural works in nontraditional materials like latex and fiberglass that she made between 1966 and her untimely death in 1970. Prior to identifying herself as a sculptor, Hesse worked in more traditional media like painting, and she made hundreds of drawings over the course of her short but prolific career. Her paintings, drawings, and sculptures are often considered separately, but this exhibition offers a rare opportunity to view early and late works side by side, illuminating the underlying structural similarities as well as their transformations. ————————————————————————————————— ALBERTO SAVINIO Annual installation, 06 October 2017 – 23 June 2018, The Center for Italian Modern Art, 421 Broome Street, 4th Floor, NYC Alberto Savinio will feature 25 rarely seen works by the artist, focusing on paintings produced after his move to Paris in 1926, when he put his other creative pursuits on hold in order to devote himself fully to visual arts. The exhibited works are characterized by Savinio’s vivid color palette, his fantastical interpretation of mythology and voyage, and his eccentric vision of landscape. Continuing CIMA’s practice of introducing work by contemporary artists into its exhibitions, the installation will also feature select sculptures and prints by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010). This juxtaposition will bring to the fore the two artists’ commonalities, including their flirtation with Surrealism, a shared interest in the subconscious, and, most significantly, the profound influence that familial relations had on their respective artistic imagery. ALSO: WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 6-8PM Join CIMA for a rare opportunity to hear Roberto Calasso discuss the work of Alberto Savinio in conversation with JonathanGalassi, president of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Calasso is the publisher of Adelphi Edizioni, the Milan editorial house that has over the last forty years embarked on a rigorous project to re-issue Alberto Savinio’s literary oeuvre. Adelphi has to date published some 23 books by the author including, in 1977, the Nuova Enciclopedia—a remarkable and highly original personal encyclopedia with entries ranging from the god Apollo to Josephine Baker, which Savinio worked on throughout the 1940s until his premature death in 1952. Note: This program is the first of two evenings featuring Roberto Calasso at CIMA, co-presented with Farrar Straus and Giroux and with the support of the Maurice English Poetry Award. On May 10, Calasso will discuss FSG’s newly issued edition of The Ruin of Kasch, translated by Richard Dixon, with author Lila Azam Zanganeh. The book will be available for purchase and signing both evenings. ————————————————————————————————— Gorey’s Worlds February 10–May 6, 2018, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main Street Hartford CT This pioneering exhibition explores Gorey, his work, and the artists Gorey admired and collected. Works range in style, era, and media—from 19th-century prints and drawings to contemporary art from the 1970s and 1980s. Through 73 works on paper by Édouard Manet, Charles Meryon, Eugène Atget and Albert York and others, as well as anonymous folk art, visitors will step into Gorey’s imagination by viewing the art he collected alongside his own sketches, drawings, prints, and art books. Rarely seen portraits and personal effects, such as his distinctive fur coats and metal jewelry, further bring Gorey himself to life. ————————————————————————————————— The 217th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at 7pm at Parsons School of Design, Kellen Auditorium (Room N101, off the lobby), Sheila C. Johnson Design Center. 66 Fifth Avenue. Free and open to the public. Frederick Luis Aldama on Latinx Comics: Geometric Storytelling, Production, and Consumption . Aldama will unzip his brain, offering a multimedia extravaganza of US Latinx comics as explored in and through pop culture. He explores how Latinx created comics vitally complicate and enrich our understanding of Latinx identity and experience and powerfully add to and actively shape the history of comics. Along the way Aldama presents a dynamic model for understanding Latinx subjects as active transformers of the world we live in today. Frederick Luis Aldama is Arts & Humanities Distinguished Professor of English and University Distinguished Scholar at The Ohio State University. He teaches courses on Latino comics, film, and other cultural phenomena. He is the author, co-author, and editor of over thirty books. He is founder and director of the White House Hispanic Bright Spot awarded LASER (Latinx Space for Enrichment Research) as well as recipient of the Ohio Education Summit Award and American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education’s Outstanding Latino/a Faculty in Higher Education Award. In 2017, Aldama was awarded the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching and inducted into the Academy of Teaching. He was recently inducted into the Society of Cartoon Arts. ————————————————————————————————— How to Tell a Story Eleanor Davis provides the illustrations for this NY Times piece by Daniel McDermon. Common Pitfalls As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect.” But here are some things to look out for while you practice: Don’t sound like you’re reading from a book. Keep your language informal, like the way you would talk to a friend. “Your story isn’t meant to be read,” Mr. Beverly said. Wear your influences lightly and speak in your own voice. Don’t mimic someone else’s style or verbal patterns. Keep your goal in mind: this experience is for the audience, not for you. If you get lost or mess up, don’t call attention to a mistake. “Pause, gather yourself, and continue,” Mr. Beverly recommended. “Even if you have to repeat yourself.” Don’t overshare. There’s a difference between a relatable personal story, which helps connect you to the audience, and TMI. ————————————————————————————————— Intentional knockoffs Obvious Plant’s Jeff Wysaski made some knockoff Avengers action figures and they’re perfectly hilarious in their bootleggedness. See them all here. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 5-1-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2018

Juan FernándezSeptember 6, 2018NewsCongratulations to ALL who created and submitted work for this year’s contest! This year saw a move away from the previous years’ use of tumblr as the dominant platform of digital media publishing. A different platform invites different constraints: instagram functions as a hyper-customizable newspaper that gets updated vigorously and endlessly. This year’s use of Instagram begged for a return to the building blocks of comics, thus the creation of comics strips. Details on this year’s criteria are available HERE. _____________________ First Place – A Weeklong Residency at the Rowhouse Residency in Swissvale, PA. Cory Feder Our decision to award Cory Feder First Place recognizes Feder’s creation of an ambitious yet simple, multi-layered poetic sequence that cuts through notions of language. This is the kind of strip that can be read and re-read ad infinitum to continue gleaning new meaning. Feder’s comic is the kind offhand remark, the cadence of which, you keep thinking about for years. This complex concoction of intuitive drawing and deft use of juxtaposition made for a winning combination. _____________________ Second Place – A collection of gag comics by the Comics Workbook gang Julian Fiebach In Second Place, Julian Fiebach’s “The Worker”clearly embodies excellence in both conception and execution of the classic 4 panel gag. Here is a testament to the raw power of smart minimalism in cartooning. These strips accomplish universally relatable expressions of the many ways that we engage in (and avoid) work in our lives through a pattern language pared down to its essentials. _____________________ Third Place – An original portrait by Audra Stang Will M. The Comics Workbook Competition’s Third Place, “BALLS”, offers an off the wall bit of nonsense. It’s a bizarre laugh that holds together quite well as an absurd re-interpretation of elements Charles’ Schulz world of Peanuts. It carries echoes of grief that crash into pure, unexpected, absurdity. This is a collection of visual chuckles, that accumulate to an absurd 4 panel sequence. A glorious bit of nonsense that begs the question, “WHY?”. _____________________ Honorable Mention Antoine Rigalleau David Craig Chris Jones _______________________ 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 – 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. _______________________ What I liked about the three winners is a strong sense of intuition and control. I see this aspect in the work of the honorable mentions. This year the judges looked at the entries and tried to frame the winners in a way that reflects the multifaceted jewel that is the world of comics creation in 2018. Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s contest. And to everyone who may have begun their comic but did not finish it or enter it, please finish it and post it, and we will do our best to get it seen. Tag your post with #compositioncompetition2018 on Instagram. Juan Fernandez, Pittsburgh PA ___________________________ The restrictions placed upon the contest entries were derived from The Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers. It is our firmly held belief here at Comics Workbook that restrictions such as the grid are ultimately freeing. We also believe that timing is the essential ingredient to making great comics. How do you study and practice timing in comics? You use the grid. _____________________________ Please check out the complete list of entries for 2018 at the following link! All Entries. _________________________ Check out past competition winners and entries: 2013 – 2014 – 2015 – 2016 – 2017 Share this page: [...]

Residency Report: Pokémon GO Edition

Comics WorkbookAugust 15, 2016Residency Reports / School UpdatesAudra Stang visited the Rowhouse in July of 2016. She accomplished an incredible amount in the three days she was in Pittsburgh, setting new Rowhouse records for “crushing it”. She shared some journal notes with us recently that describe many of her impressions and experiences of her residency. I’ve shared excerpts from them below, mixed with some of the process drawings and doodles that she made while she was here. – Sally ————————————————————————————————— Audra Stang wrote: “My visit to the Rowhouse was my first ever residency… I came with the goal of totally drawing out a story that I only had a hazy idea of called Pale, Sick, and Magic; this seemed fitting, considering I only had a vague idea of what a residency would entail.“ “While I had corresponded with Frank during and following his Spring 2014 Correspondence Course, I wasn’t sure how the transition from online correspondence to ‘irl’ would work. During the online course I could process information in my own time, in my own working space, and could leisurely spend thirty minutes mulling over the phrasing of a two-sentence email I was writing – what if I didn’t function well in this different setting?“ “The work space at the residency afforded me time that was not broken up by work, class, etc, which I expected; I didn’t expect that not having my computer on the desk would affect me in such a positive way. This is not leading into a “we are slaves 2 modern tech” maxim; it was just easier to draw from memory than to Google a reference image on my phone, and it prevented me from taking unnecessary detours. Not so when a desktop is sitting in front of me; I should know better anyway, as drawing from photo reference was discouraged in the course.“ “I loved Frank’s house; there was great stuff everywhere – in the living room, guest room, kitchen, work area, basement, etc. Comics that I had previously only read cruddy scans of online were now physically in front of me in pristine condition. I read a lot – I didn’t go to bed until 4:30am one night because I was too busy looking through a huge Gary Panter collection and proofs for Cold Heat that I stumbled upon in the guest bedroom. I would pause while drawing to flip through a book and “accidentally” read the whole thing. I read more comics in three days than I had read in three months.“ “I loved visiting Copacetic Comics. I just sat and read comics standing in the store, sitting on the floor, on the porch, etc. I found more books that I had previously only read via .jpeg-y scans. I have followed Copacetic on tumblr for years, but the store was still beyond my wildest comics dreams.” “Between Frank, Sally, and I we had great conversation – not just about, but often returning to, comics. It fed into the “cycle” – draw by day and tour Pittsburgh by night. Or draw by night and explore Pittsburgh by day. It was a charged atmosphere but in a positive way – I was full of energy. Franks uses language that masterfully evokes the feeling of being “in the game” and gets you hyped for the next comics bout.“ “Frank is really respectful, i.e. he didn’t talk down to me, but he could have, considering his extensive knowledge of comics and strong body of work. Respect is transformative. Regarding gender/women in comics and being a woman who draws comics: my relationship with comics was never treated as cute or diminutive in Pittsburgh. I never expected it to be – but it happens, even with great, wonderful, well-intentioned friends. Frank “gets” it, and it’s evident both in his speech and actions.“ “Sally is amazing as well; I talked to her about what I’d come up with so far for Pale, Sick, and Magic over coffee before I went to start drawing it on first day. She also helped me process a lot of what Frank was saying – Frank said a lot of good stuff and so very frequently that it was difficult to capture it all. Sally helped me retain more than I would have on my own. Also, Frank and Sally both waited for my train with me the morning I left, and I really appreciated that, especially because it was an hour late. They went to great lengths to give me an extensive tour of Pittsburgh and to make me feel welcome. I felt humbled by the amount of respect and care that was taken in shaping my experience. I’m already ready to go back.“ Sally here, to conclude. Each person who visits the Rowhouse has as much of an impact on the Comics Workbook team as we do on them, and Audra was no exception. She taught us all about Pokémon Go, for example, and as she reports in the comic above, we spent a considerable amount of time driving around the city harassing people on the streets – to their actual delight…! Far above and beyond that, the conversation that filled the Rowhouse during her stay was fuel on the fire for all of us. The transformative power of respect that Audra mentioned is something that she and I discussed at length. Frank has this way of handing the keys over to each of his students, and then he trusts them drive the car like Speed Racer. This sort of empowerment from a mentor and teacher is an incredible boost to anyone who might aspire to be a comics master, but to a woman in this field it holds extra impact. We live in hope that before too long, that sort of distinction won’t be part of the conversation. That will take a bit more work, however, so knowing that Audra left Pittsburgh and her Rowhouse Residency with a new sense of her own outstanding worth as a cartoonist means that Frank and the Comics Workbook team is on the right track. Let’s keep this conversation going! ————————————————————————————————— Audra went home and finished Pale, Sick, and Magic, which is currently being serialized on the Comics Workbook tumblr – catch up with it HERE. We will also be archiving it here on the site and printing it this autumn, so stay tuned. You can see more of Audra’s work HERE. ————————————————————————————————— If you have questions about the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency or are interested in applying for one yourself, please check out our Info Page and/or email santoroschoolsATgmail, and keep up with all the latest happenings HERE. Share this page: [...]

03/09/16

Aaron CockleMarch 9, 2016Interviews / NewsGary Panter Printed Matter. The Rozz Tox Effect: Publications by Gary Panter, 1972-2016 is on view now through March 19 at the new Printed Matter space in NYC. Curated by Dan Nadel. Smoke Signals. The two most recent issues of Gabe Fowler’s Smoke Signal features work by Al Columbia, among many other talented artists. An interview from 2010 with Columbia and Nicole Ruddick can be found at the fondly-remembered Comics Comics blog. High-Focus Drawing. James McMullan has a 12-part series of drawing exercises posted on the NY Times Opinionator blog. Graph Paper Templates. Generated Paper + Printable Paper Aspen #8. The Fluxus Issue ‘pass To move past; go by. To pass someone on the road. To let go without notice, action, re mark, etc. ; leave unconsidered; disregard; overlook. Pass the preface and go on to the text. To go across or over extreme threshold etc.; cross. To undergo; they passed the worst night of their lives. To go beyond a point, degree, stage, etc.; transcend; exceed; surpass. To cause to go or move onward. To pass a rope through a hole. To live during a portion of time spent. He decided to pass a year abroad improving his German. To live through without tedium, how to pass the time. To cause to circulate or spread. To pass rumors all over the Naval base. To convey, transfer or transmit; deliver. To convey from one person, hand, etc. to another. Please pass the mustard. He passed a remark about every passer-by. To discard, void from the body as excrement. To transfer to a teammate. To go or move onward; proceed. To come to or toward, then go beyond. To pass by. To pass through. To go away; depart. The lightheaded feeling will pass in a minute. To come to an end. To die. To take place; happen; occur. To go by or move past. To go about or circulate; be current. To serve as a marginally acceptable sub stitute; the facsimile is not very good but it will pass. To live or be known as a member of a racial or religious or ethnic group other than one’s own, especially to live and be known as a white person, although having some negro ancestry. To undergo transition or conversion. To pass from a solid to a liquid state; bring to pass; come to pass; pass away; pass for; to be ac cepted as; be considered; material that passed for silk; pass-off; to pass-off a spurious Rembrandt on someone. He passed himself off as a doctor; pass-on; pass-out; pass-over; pass wind.’ Share this page: [...]

01/22/2016

Juan FernándezJanuary 21, 2016Newshello world, Lots of little things for you to nibble on today. Emily Carol just published her newest work Some Other Animal’s Meat on her website emcarroll.com. A quotidian tale of body horror and physical anxiety, it’s a smartly paced vertical scroll comic that breaks the story up into nine short black and white chapters. There’s an eerie calm through it all. Great stuff. Horror fans take note. Benjamin Urkowitz‘ newest comic, The Beauty Theorem is out at Hazlitt Magazine. Cheeky, spirited reflection on the rigorous, scientific study of metaphysics and its intersection with universal poetics. Heady concepts paired with goofy, cartooning and beautiful coloring. Steep yourself in it. Julian Lytle visits and chats with SPX’s Warren Bernard about forgotten Black Cartoonists, cooning, collecting comics and art, and of course SPX. So I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Warren Bernard, executive director of @spx and author of the book Cartoons for Victory. I met him at this past year’s SPX and was kind enough to invite me over to his house to see his extensive collections of comics, cartoons, and books library then to talk to me for this here show. This might be the closest to an interview I’ve done so I hope you enjoy it. Check out the blog post to see some a pic of stuff from the visit and please check out @spx if you haven’t and a link to the book. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/242740702″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] “An Art of Intervals” is raising is an upcoming art show that features the work of four young female comic artists, Abigael Puritz, Wendy Xu, Grace Passerotti, and Autumn Crossman. Showing at the Brooklyn, New York arts space, Tarot Society, from February 26th through February 28th, they hope to raise the funds to cover the cost of shipping the work to the gallery as well taking care of the expenses of opening night. Additionally, they are in the process of making new work specifically for this show to be released on the opening night. The majority of the funding will go toward collecting and publishing all of this new work in a zine that will be available both through this fundraiser and at Tarot Society for the duration of the show. Cameron Weston Nicholson has just reached the halfway mark in his fundraiser goal of $1,500 to acquire a risograph machine for selfpublishing in the RVA community. You can learn more on how to support his effort by hopping on over to his gofundme campaign. Having this printer will not only let me make a name for myself in the comics world but also be able to become a publisher in the future! I’ve got awesome ideas and big goals for my future and i want to share those possibilities with you. One major thing i can help is representation of people of color in the comic’s world. It is a goal to help push that forward. (One of the many goals) Giving the opportunity to share their stories to the world. Giving ones the chance to read this stories from beautiful people, beautiful story tellers. Once i obtain the printer I’ll have to do a few test runs to get used to the machine and get all of the kinks out. So a few months after acquiring the printer I’ll be able to open up shop for local (Virginia) jobs only. Later this year i should be able to open up shop for the US, and in the future internationally. It’s honestly going to take a lot to get that far but with your help I’ll be able to start this long journey. Share this page: [...]

01/03/2018

Posted on January 3, 2018March 13, 2018 by Juan Fernández

Juan empieza el día con Natalia Valdebenito en La Polola Julie Doucet en España!

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Los cómics y las 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 Natalia Valdebenito, quien les contó acerca de su vida, familia e infancia, su camino hasta llegar al humor y a finalmente escribir y dirigir sus propios unipersonales. Hablaron de feminismo, de las libertades, de sus referentes, experiencias laborales y mucho más.
Revista Kamandi les ofrece la primera parte de un debate en torno a la idea de “vanguardia” en el cómic. Participan Horacio Muños y Gerardo Vilches.
Inés Estrada les ofrece el nuevo http://gatosaurio.com en 24 horas – ¡Apúntate!
La Hora del Bocadillo cierra 2017 en Radio 3: Entrevista con Julie Doucet, con Frank Miller y hablan de cómic desde el Museo Reina Sofía.
En el Pais Julie Doucet: “Algunas veces me expuse demasiado” La gran transgresora del cómic ‘underground’, que publica en español el segundo volumen de sus obras completas, se distancia de sus pasadas provocaciones gráficas.
La gran Editorial, Fulgencio Pimentel les ofrece La obra completa de Julie Doucet de una tacada. Ahí está:

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Frank Santoro and Simon Hanselmann, CAB 2013 – photo by Chris Anthony Diaz, colored by Graham Willcox

International Students: The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 16th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. His experience and ideas have influenced the likes of Connor Willumsen, Michael DeForge, and Simon Hanselmann (quote “I consider Frank Santoro to be my L. Ron Hubbard”) among many others. Dig into something new in the new year!

Full details and how to apply can be found HERE.

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Suzy and Cecil – 01-03-2018 – by Gabriella Tito

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Joanie and Jordie – 01-03-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged caleb orecchio, gabriella tito, ines estrada, julie doucet, La Hora Del Bocadillo, la polola, Natalia Valdebenito, Revista Kamandi

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 3, 2018March 13, 2018

Explore

06/27/2017

Aaron CockleJune 27, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with New Chinese Comics; Zadie Smith on Lynette Yiadom-Boakye; Clowes @ Cracked; Philip Guston; Something Unusual is Happening at Printed Matter; Matthew Thurber’s Cartoonist Run-down ————————————————————————————————— If you can’t make it but would still like to buy a book, they will be available at Desert Island after the 29th and through our website: paradise-systems.com ————————————————————————————————— Under-Song For A Cipher Zadie Smith looks at the Lynette Yiadom-Boakye exhibition currently on view at the New Museum. In many of Yiadom-Boakye’s interviews, she is asked about the source of her images, and she tends to answer as a novelist would, citing a potent mix of found images, memory, sheer imagination, and spontaneous painterly improvisation (most of her canvases are, famously, completed in a single day). From a novelist’s point of view, both the speed and the clarity are humbling. Subtleties of human personality it might take thousands of words to establish are here articulated by way of a few confident brushstrokes. But the deeper beguilement is how she manages to create the effect of wholly realized figures while simultaneously confounding so many of our assumptions about the figurative. The type of questions prompted by, say, Holbein (What kind of a man was Sir Thomas More?) or Gainsborough (What was the social status of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews?), or when considering a Lucian Freud (What is the relation between painter and model?), are all short-circuited here, replaced by an existential query not much heard in contemporary art: Who is this? The answer is both literal and liberating: No one. Nor will the titles of these paintings identify them. ————————————————————————————————— ‘MAD Magazine in the 80’s seemed staid and a former ghost of itself, but Cracked seemed exciting and filled with new blood (and old) that spoke to my budding anarchic mind.’ At the Last of the Spinner Rack Junkies blog, Isaac Chance has uploaded a bunch of comics Daniel Clowes did at Cracked Magazine in the 1980’s. Clowes would produce work for Cracked from 1985 through 1989. During this period he was also writing and drawing his own comic book Lloyd Llewellyn for Fantagraphics. After six issues, Llewellyn ended with a Special in 1988 and Clowes began Eightball in 1989. ————————————————————————————————— Philip Guston and the Poets At Hyperallergic, Cara Ober looks at Guston’s work and the role that poetry played in its making, on exhibit at the Gallerie dell’Accademia (Campo della Carita, 1050, Venice) through September 3. The exhibit is loosely curated around the five poets who are said to have had the most significant impact on his work — Wallace Stevens, Eugenio Montale, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, and D.H. Lawrence — and this structure provides unusual opportunities for thematic, rather than historical or formal, groupings. But at the core of the exhibit is an idea that’s both cohesive and revolutionary. The show argues that Guston’s staying power — grounded in fresh oddness, compelling authenticity, and dodgy compositions — was a direct consequence of his relationship with poetic language and form, as well as the ideas of the poets who wrote them. Rather than a romantic inevitability, Poets offers a pragmatic and collaborative handle to Guston’s career as a prolific artist and maker; it attests to the power of verbal and metaphorical language in nourishing his visual oeuvre. The exhibit also argues that silence is necessary for a visual artist’s development; it suggests that Guston’s leaving New York, the epicenter of the art world, was not only helpful, but essential to his work. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Why were there no comics in the Whitney Biennial, again?’ Matthew Thurber discusses work by 10 Cartoonists Every Art Lover Needs to Know Including Austin English:. Comics-as-poetry is an established thing: See the work of Juliacks, Sarah Ferrick, and publishers like Sonatina and 2dcloud. English’s work was influential on this branch of comics-making. Unlike commercial comics—which traditionally convey emotion with simplified facial expression—the muddy, creased faces of English’s characters are opaque. I see a lot of George Grosz, Francis Bacon, and Willem de Kooning when I look at his drawings, which tend to be small and heavily worked with watercolor and colored pencil. Lale Westvind: The cartoonist’s background in traditional oil painting, video art, and animation led to her creating self-published comics at a heroic pace. In HAX, Amazonian warriors battle airplanes under Lichtensteinian Ben-Day dot skies. Her early animation Organism Test (2009) is a key to later work. Thousands of hand-drawn frames depict blob-creatures writhing in the desert, while hybrid motorcycle creatures race towards each other to collide at incredible speed: a copulatory act that generates new life. If Jack Kirby adapted J.G. Ballard’s Crash into a Captain Pronin cartoon, it might begin to resemble Westvind’s filmic oeuvre. Recent animations for the band Lightning Bolt and Morpha! Utila!, for the online TV channel Super Deluxe, are psychedelic masterpieces. And Keren Katz: Katz’s work, like that of Matthew Barney or Mika Rottenberg, has its own logic. Her storytelling voice seems to link the divine nonsense of authors like Daniel Pinkwater, William Steig, or Edward Gorey with surrealist writers like Leonora Carrington. Her comics are Truly Weird, the highest compliment I can give. With drawings executed in confident colored pencil, her figures stretch, bend, and topple in a manner reminiscent of contemporary choreography. (Indeed, Katz studied dance and has mentioned Pina Bausch as an influence.) ————————————————————————————————— The publications included in Something Unusual is Happening share a common interest in non-conventional storytelling, with each artist crafting a distinctive form of visual language that departs from the familiar narratives and formats of traditional comic art. The works explore a range of interests and fixations; allegories of personal transformation and enlightenment, cautionary tales of advanced technology, voyeurism and computer surveillance, as well as meditations on the act of comic-drawing itself. At Printed Matter, June 30-July 31, 2017. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 6-27-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-27-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-27-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

09/17/2018

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

03/29/2016

Aaron CockleMarch 29, 2016NewsMarcel Broodthaers in NYC; Bernadette Mayer & Experimental Writing; PMF VII; FUCK OTHER FORMS OF ART; O Risograph, my Risograph! ————————————————————————————————— Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers (1924-1976) is experiencing something of a renaissance here in NYC, what with the room devoted to his book work at the most recent New York Art Book Fair, a show currently at Paul Kasmin Gallery, and the expansive career retrospective now on view at the Museum of Modern Art. ————————————————————————————————— Bernadette Mayer’s List of Journal Ideas + Writing Experiments ————————————————————————————————— Aidan Koch @ Open Space + the Seventh Annual Publications & Multiples Fair (PMF VII), April 9-10, 12-6pm each day at the Baltimore Design School, 1500 Barclay Street. The fair is free and open to the public. ————————————————————————————————— Jef Czejak’s essay from 2001 about funding for comics projects within the art-funding community still has relevance. That whole issue of The Comics Journal, #238, guest-edited by Tom Devlin, is full of useful information. ————————————————————————————————— Risograph Tutorials on YouTube. There are some semi-slick, corporate videos that are kind of fun to watch, if you’re in to that sort of thing. ————————————————————————————————— SPECIAL NEWS ITEM Please consider supporting the Retrofit Kickstarter. They have an ambitious publishing schedule in place with an amazing group of artists producing high quality comics work. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

05/25/2017

Sally IngrahamMay 24, 2017NewsSam Ombiri on Fante Bukowski Two, plus other comics news! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: Fante Bukowski Two by Noah Van Sciver (Fantagraphics, 2017) is a fantastic book with fantastic characters. Audrey (Fante’s old girlfriend, who is also a writer) was my favorite character in the first Fante Bukowski book, so I was really thrilled that she came back, and a good chunk of the book was following her, away from Fante. Audrey was the only character that really felt real, and the only one who wasn’t there to torment Fante’s existence. In the new book she does a different kind of tormenting of Fante in this specific way that the other characters don’t. All these people are making fun of Fante. On some level Fante is surprisingly aware of why he’s getting made fun of. In this new book, Fante’s conflict wasn’t a complete joke. I was kind of bummed on the first Fante Bukowski book. While Van Sciver sympathized with Fante, he’d torment Fante. The joke was Fante’s hysterical sadness, which was just played off as something to laugh at. Fante is someone who has to live with himself, with being who he is and doing what he’d doing – he’s a great writer. If he’s NOT a great writer than it means a huge amount of shame which he can’t bare to confront will come his way. Of course, if Van Sciver actually had no interest in sympathizing with the characters it would still be a really good book. It’s just that as a reader, the sympathy is what I’ve been sold on with Van Sciver; the way he’s able to portray humanity with sympathy so, so well. There’s a mysterious element to the way Van Sciver portrays humans, from that I’ve seen – and that’s really astounded me. Like in this new book, while everyone is laughing at Fante, you the reader know that Audrey is sincerely seeking Fante out. The other characters are all trying to get on Audrey’s good side, and part of this is reflected in how hard they’re laughing at Fante – but they don’t see how she secretly holds him in higher regard than them, for some special reason that Audrey has. Despite all of Audrey’s new literary success, she’s finding that she’s dissatisfied, but not in a very extreme way. Her dissatisfaction isn’t shoved down your throat. The dissatisfaction comes subtly and slowly in moments where she isn’t thankful for her success. She finds all this discomfort in doubting herself, as she’s really intimidated by the next steps she’s supposed to take to either keep, or perpetuate, her success. Then she gets nostalgic, as a result of the new stress she has, which she hadn’t previously dealt with. She remembers how she felt refreshed by how naive Fante was. Fante himself, in a way, says she won’t find what she’s looking for in him (although Fante is unaware of that being exactly what he’s said to her). Then Audrey’s reaction towards this is astounding. All in all, Fante Bukowski Two is really, really fun, the art is terrific, and it was hard to stop reading it when I started. You can get a copy of this book from Copacetic Comics. – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sally here – since we’re on the topic of Noah Van Sciver today, I will link to the recent TCJ interview with him, conducted by Caitlin McGurk. They talk Fante Bukowski Two, Noah’s time at CCS, and both Fante and Noah’s recent move to Columbus, OH – a few real locations of which show up in the book (such as Forno, seen above in a scene that Sam was describing where everyone is hating on Fante in order to get on Audrey’s good side…!) Something that I really appreciate about Noah is that his output and work ethic are tied into his own growth as an artist and storyteller – each of his books feels fresh and moves confidently in a new direction. Caitlin touches on this constant growth in the interview: “This book is so genuinely funny – there are sequences on almost every page that had me actually laughing out loud. You’ve gotten very good at comedic timing. While I’ve found humor in all of your work in one way or another, most of your other long-form books have been much more directly reflective or downright sad. Do you feel like one tone is calling you more than the other these days, and why? I’m conscious of learning to be a proficient comedy and drama storyteller. I don’t want to be a single note cartoonist. If I learn to blend it all together then I’ll draw comics that readers can’t just passively read. I want people to feel satisfied after reading my stories if it’s possible. You’re doing a great job at it. When you say learning, I assume you mean by way of studying other works. Who are you reading and what are you watching that you learn the most from? For a long time I was buying and reading alternative comics from the 90s and early 2000s. Drawn & Quarterly magazines and issues of Zero Zero, stuff like that. There are a bunch of artists from that era that I get inspired by that you don’t hear about much these days. Someone like Pentti Otsamo, for example, did a little book called The Fall Of Homunculus that I really love. Just straight storytelling. I don’t dig very deep with film, but I pay attention to story structure and look up to the Coen Brothers who are perfect at weaving humor into an otherwise dramatic story.” Take a lesson from Noah’s career, work hard if you really mean to be a cartoonist, keep learning and moving forward. Read the rest of the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Brazilian artist Hugo Canuto has been reworking famous comic covers (like Avengers No. 4 – 1963, above) to depict Jack Kirby-like renditions of African gods and goddesses. Dangerous Minds reports: “Many deities of modern-day Afro-Brazilian religions find their roots in the mythologies of Nigeria and Benin, and these covers reflect that, using specifically local, that is to say Portuguese, spellings of the names. … Last year Canuto reworked an iconic early cover of The Avengers to showcase the major Orishas, called Orixas in Portuguese, which are key elemental spirits of the Yoruba religion. So “The Orixas” is the umbrella category, like “The Avengers,” that houses all of the mythological figures that followed.“ See more of Hugo Canuto’s covers HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright’s artwork is featured on NPR once again, this time accompanying the Comics And Graphic Novels Reader Poll. “Here at NPR headquarters in DC, MARVELous IMAGEs and FANTAstic GRAPHICS are dancing in our heads as we contemplate this year’s edition of our famous Summer Reader Poll — who will make the cut? Will it be packed with old favorites or BOOM! Will a DARK HORSE muscle in? Oh god, we can’t keep this up anymore. Let’s just come right out and say it: This summer, we’re celebrating comics and graphic novels, and we need your help! Whether it’s a dogeared childhood treasure, the latest Eisner award winner or the webcomic you binge-read last week, tell us about it using the form on this page.“ Help NPR curate a final list of 100 favorite comics – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The summer semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers begins June 1st! 8 weeks – $500 bux. Coaching for as long as you need it – payment plans available. More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— 5-25-2017 – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 5-25-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-25-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

03/22/2018

Sally IngrahamMarch 22, 2018NewsSally here with work by Shequeta Smith, E. Simms Campbell, and CM Campbell, plus much more! ————————————————————————————————— A recent article on the Los Angeles Sentinel celebrated Women’s History Month with a terrific roundup of Black Women in Comics. One creator whom I was excited to discover is Shequeta Smith (pictured above). She is a powerhouse, making the Rayven Choi series, running Shero Comics, and digging into the screenwriting industry as well. You can see a preview of Rayven Choi Chapter #3: The Bounty Hunter HERE. The L. A. Sentinel article also lists Micheline Hess (creator of Malice in Ovenland), Myisha Haynes (The Substitutes), Taneka Stotts (Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi and Fantasy Comic Anthology series), and familiar names like Marguerite Abouet (the Aya comics), and Jackie Ormes (Torchy Brown, etc.) Check out the whole list HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Here’s an article on Slate from 2016 about E. Simms Campbell – one of the first successful black cartoonists. His work appeared in numerous magazines of the day, many of them in Esquire, which launched in 1933. I thought the map pictured above was terrific, and if you are a jazz fan it is worth noting that Cab Calloway’s band appears at the bottom left-hand corner. ————————————————————————————————— CM Campbell shares a lengthy and interesting comic on Hyperallergic for “anyone who has ever asked, “How do I draw a black guy?” ” Read the full thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Extra, Extra! Check out Ronald Wimberly on the Comicidal Podcast – he talks about new and ongoing projects like Sunset Park, and LAAB Magazine. Listen HERE. Ta-Nehisi Coates (the writer behind two successful years of Black Panther) is going to start writing Captain America. He scribbled a brief essay for The Atlantic that announced the new project, and details why it “scares the hell out of me“. The Nib has a feature called Comics By Response, where they pose a question or concept and cartoonists respond – here are Four Cartoonists on Their Favorite Unsung Black History Heroes – with work by Keith Knight, Robyn Smith, Ben Passmore, and Mariah Rose-Marie. Illustrated PEN on PEN America’s guest editor Robert Kirby showcases the work of fellow guest editor Whit Taylor, throwing light on the final story in her collection Ghost Stories – the story is called Maker and you can see it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers 8 weeks! $500 bux! 10 spots available! Rolling start date because of spring break – start as early as March 30th 2018. Deadline to apply is April 12th. Read all about the course HERE and email santoroschool@gmail.com for more details or to apply. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-21-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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