Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged anya davidson, Archana Sreenivasan, caleb orecchio, GG, Julia Wertz, nicole claveloux, sally ingraham, sloane leong, Trina Robbins, ulli lust

Sally Ingraham

Posted on January 4, 2018January 5, 2018

Explore

6/20/2016

Juan FernándezJune 20, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez here with: GG’s UNATTAINABLE; the PIX 2016 Bill Griffith interview; Format Fever from the vault; Aatmaja Pandya’s PHANTOM; Sarah Bowie’s FOURTEEN EURO’s IN PRIMARK; Lisa Hanawalt at Bitch; Gulag Casual Reviewed; Reflections on Rebecca Roher’s BIRD IN A CAGE. ————————————————————————————————— On the site: Unattainable by GG We’re excited to feature Unattainable by GG on the site this week. Made in 2015 by GG for Comics Workbook, Unattainable is a short story that explores the control and the nature of boundaries in digitally mediated life. This comic presents a stark glimpse at a personal disaster in a muted, corporatized society. Read it all here. ————————————————————————————————— Bill Griffith interviewed in Pittsburgh – 2016 CWTV interviews Bill Griffith, one of underground comics’ founding fathers, about his almost 50 years of making work. Bill is the creator of Zippy the Pinhead (among 3,407 other things) // Get Bill’s latest, the beautiful graphic memoir INVISIBLE INK. ————————————————————————————————— From the Vault: Format Fever – More Notes Frank Santoro: Format Fever. I’ve been thinking about scroll comics. Not so much done on a scroll, but presented as a scroll because they’re online. What’s interesting about it to me is that reading the scroll format changes the way page reveals work. Often a left/right spread will be broken up so that the right hand side page is under the left hand side page. ————————————————————————————————— Off the site: Phantom by Aatmaja Pandya Aatmaja Pandya‘s latest comic is a forty page autobiographic piece that explores gentrification, identity and belongingness. It’s about growing up in Queens, NY as a child of immigrants, and returning there as a young adult. Phantom is also available as a PDF and in print. ————————————————————————————————— Fourteen Euro’s in Primark by Sarah Bowie Sarah Bowie has just published a 40 page “exploration of an intense, often painful relationship through a series of bite-sized reflections”. Physical copies of Fourteen Euro’s in Primark are available for purchase through her Gumroad shop. ————————————————————————————————— Lisa Hanawalt interview over at Bitch Sarah Mirk and Lisa Hanawalt talk about her latest book, Bo Jack Horseman, and her personal life. Sarah Mirk: How did you end up writing and drawing so much about food? Do you just love food because you’re human, or do you have some more personal connection to the restaurant industry? Lisa Hanawalt: Yeah, I mean, it’s one of those big aspects of life that everyone has to deal with. We all have to sleep, we all have to work, we all have to have sex. Well, we don’t have to, but a lot of us do. And we all have to eat. It’s such a wide category, I figured there’d be plenty to explore there. When Lucky Peach asked me to start being a regular contributor, I was like, “Yeah, sure.” Each issue of their magazine has a certain theme. So every time I contribute, I can kind of think about what could possibly be related to that theme. ————————————————————————————————— Review: Gulag Casual by Austin English Bob Levin writes expansively on Austin English’s latest collection of comics, Gulag Casual, over on TCJ: This open-minded “everyday”-ness has led English to an aesthetic vision which enlivens the rough structure of the comic book/graaphc novel format with the adventurism of fine art exploration. While nodding toward narrative and sequential linkage, he has more fun erasing connectives and scrambling expectations than enhancing them. “The urge to break the rules,” he told Frank, “(became)… completely irresistible.” The result is a daring and entertaining grapple with the question of how a shape – a blob, a splash, a serpentine, viscous line – with or without eyes or nose or buttons or wall hangings – can advance action, foster feeling, convey meaning. Words provide some befogged clarity – give the mind a kick of “Oh yeah! A bed! A blanket! Legs!” But the visual is what makes Gulag go. ————————————————————————————————— Bird in A Cage by Rebecca Roher Canadian cartoonist, Rebecca Roher‘s Bird in A Cage is a reflection on an often overlooked subject in contemporary comics making, senescence and coping with it. This is based on the short story of the same name that Roher did for The Nib. Canadian publisher, Conundrum Press asked Roher to expand the story into a graphic novel. She’s done so to great effect. “Once a sharp, strong-willed and independent woman, Roher’s grandmother’s life took an unexpected turn when an accident left her with a brain injury, leading to early onset dementia. An unlikely protagonist, grandma was an elderly woman trapped by her deteriorating mind, aging body and the walls around her. This story illuminates the often overlooked narrative of a senior, her complicated history and inner life. Loveable and tragic, she is determined to get back to a familiar place, to be home again. Monica Johnson’s got a thoughtful review over on the Rumpus.” – Conundrum Press Review of Bird in A Cage Over on the Rumpus, Monica Johnson has put together a very thoughtful write up of the book. Monica Johnson: Comics is a visual vocabulary, and Roher’s language is lovingly considered. Panels are demarcated without the use of traditional borders, or are “uncaged.” Clearly on par with her feelings about Grandma Wylie, her pencil lines reveal the pressure of the hand used to make them—intimate, compassionate, and wistful. Roher’s wispy and gestural pencil marks seem appropriate for illustrating a work of memory, which is how she classifies this story in its preface. Mutable. Erasable. Intentionally un-inked. Reflections on writing Bird in A Cage Roher describes the emotionally intense process of creating this tribute to her late grandmother. Roher’s reflections are documented on CBC Books’ How I Wrote It. Roher: A lot of the time while writing this book, I would just be crying and feeling sad about not being home for when she broke her hip and I hadn’t visited her at the hospital. I was thinking about how lonely she must have felt and maybe that’s why she gave up hope and decided to die, or whatever happens when you die. I thought, “Why did I start doing this? This is so painful.” But somebody told me that as an artist, you have to feel things and then make other people feel them. Go through things and create something. Go feel things for others. I kind of felt I had a greater purpose and that helped me get through it. ————————————————————————————————— until next time, Juan Share this page: [...]

03/09/2018

Sally IngrahamMarch 8, 2018NewsSally here with Katie Fricas, Eleanor Davis, Fiona Smyth, Karabo Poppy Moletsane, and a lot more! ————————————————————————————————— Katie Fricas has a new comic that is being serialized on Spiral Bound via Medium. The comic is called Checked Out and is about “library life”, a.k.a. her observations and experiences at work, and so far I love everything about it! The subject matter is very relatable for me, and I always enjoy her lines and use of color. I appreciate that she’s using the grid with this comic as well – it makes for a very nice rhythm to each story, and provides some structure for her to hang the wild drawings on. (This comic finally made me sign up for a Medium account, and I may just cough up $5 a month so I can keep up with this story and the numerous other comics that appear in the Spiral Bound section of the site – learn more about this publication HERE.) ————————————————————————————————— Eleanor Davis‘ new book Why Art? is reviewed on The Red & Black, by a reader who also attended a slideshow presentation by Eleanor Davis on the book, in Athens, GA. Eleanor has been on tour doing a lot of these presentations with this book, and getting really good turnouts. The author of this particular piece, Lara Strydom, writes: “Probably one of the most thought-provoking moments was during the introduction, when the various purposes of art are described and the novel reveals that sometimes art will remind us of things that we’d rather forget. We often reject what we don’t want to hear or see because of the way it might make us feel. This idea is then represented by a completely blacked out page in the book, almost as if it is representing how we shield our eyes from unwanted emotions or ideas.” Strydom spoke to other folks who attended the presentation, and got their thoughts on the work. ” “ that whole cyclical idea of ‘We create our own lives and destroy our own lives, we create our own worlds and destroy our own worlds,’ and there’s this constant cycle of birth and destruction,” said Melissa Link, an audience member and Athens resident.” Read the rest of the article HERE. In his piece for the Copacetic Comics website on Why Art?, Bill Boichel mentions “a surprising – and intriguing – twist that longtime comics readers will recognize as a thematic recapitulation of the late-’50s/early-’60s work of Steve Ditko(!).” Get a copy of the comic HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Here’s your reminder to keep up with Fiona Smyth‘s weekly strip CHEEZ. The most recent piece is above – the rest are HERE. ————————————————————————————————— In celebration of International Woman’s Day yesterday (March 8th, 2018) the Google Doodle featured 12 comics by women from around the world, including familiar names like Tillie Walden and Anna Haifisch. You can see the archive of the project HERE, and check out the work of the other women featured. Of the artists who were new to me, I particularly liked the work of Karabo Poppy Moletsane. She is from Johannesburg, South Africa, where she does mostly illustration and graphic design work. However, as you can see above, she has made a few zines and comics as well, and I hope she does more in the future! You can check out the rest of the “Sho’t Left” zine HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Paste Magazine talks to Cecil Castellucci about why Shade, the Changing Girl grew up recently (as seen above). Read the interview HERE. Pam Wye’s third installment in her Water I’ve Loved graphic memoir is up at MUTHA Magazine – read it HERE. New comics by Jessica Campbell and Katie Fricas are up on Hyperallergic – read American Artists Have No Shame (Campbell) and take a look at the Jayne County retrospective (Fricas). The Comics Beat has a review of Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson with artwork by Emily Carroll. Read it HERE. Jessica Abel is offering a free online workshop on March 9th – How to carve out space in your life to achieve your big, deadline-free creative goals. Check it out and sign up HERE. Anya Davidson is staying on top of her weekly podcast with impressive regularity – last week she spoke to Margot Ferrick and this week Tomi Parrish was at the mic. Keep up with Mindkiller HERE. Whit Taylor was the guest on Episode 27 of Comic Book Decalogue on The Comics Journal. Listen HERE. Also on The Comics Journal, an interview with Taneka Stotts. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-9-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

CXC 2016: 3 Questions for the Crew

Sally IngrahamOctober 23, 2016Festivals and ShowsCartoon Crossroads Columbus was an incredibly rich experience, and it left the attending Comics Workbook crew dizzy from new ideas, wonderful experiences, and filled with a renewed sense of belonging to a radically supportive and constantly evolving community. In an effort to process all of this, we asked ourselves a few questions – below are the first set of answers, supplied by Sacha Mardou, Caleb Orecchio, Juan Fernandez, and Phil Dokes. SACHA MARDOU 1) What is your biggest takeaway as a maker from the CXC experience? This was a a bench mark show for me in a lot of ways. CAKE 2016 was the first time I’ve been to a show and had a sense of people knowing my work in advance. This is still a new experience for me – I come from the St. Louis comics scene where until lately Dan Z, Kevin H and Ted May were the heavy hitters and I was there too, kinda. This show was a personal branch out for me and just as Sky in Stereo represents me finding my authors voice, CXC represents, on a personal level, me getting recognition and acceptance from my peers. It also had another level of me being there with Comics Workbook and cementing friendships and projects that have been fermenting for awhile. Without sounding sappy, it really was profound in terms of being there, part of a group of people that I admire and respect, who’ve been giving me feedback and a platform to find a wide audience. It was overwhelmingly positive, great and I’m so grateful for the opportunity. 2) What was something that you found and got excited about? (a book, artist, idea?) I saw an original Ronald Searle drawing at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and it seemed to sum up why we’re all here and why we’re all doing this. It was an existential moment. I wanted so much to roll it up and stick it up my sleeve, but honesty and dignity won out. 3) Favorite moment? I had a lot of moments with very special people, too many to write about. Honestly, Alyssa Berg and I had a meeting of minds on Sunday and – I hope it god it was mutual- but yeah. I gotta new penpal out of CXC. That makes me so happy! Girl Power, etc. CALEB ORECCHIO 1) What is your biggest takeaway as a maker from the CXC experience? The biggest takeaway for me was the community. Being around cartoonists was very special to me. My typically introverted guise is abandoned around “my people.” Be it cartoonists in the same “generation” or pros and veterans, it’s nice to be around these people. And with having so much programming and two whole days available to network and mingle outside of exhibiting, it made CXC extremely hard to leave. I’m nostalgic already. 2) What was something that you found and got excited about? (a book, artist, idea?) Seeing Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo presentation by John Canemaker was a big deal for me. The genius of McCay is vast, and Canemaker displayed that well. It really energized me and colored my attitude through for the rest of the festival. ALSO, the State of the Industry panel moderated by Tom Spurgeon. It was a breath of fresh air to hear cartoonists and gatekeepers (a controversial term) talk about the nuts and bolts of making a living in the comics industry. I was particularly excited about King Features Syndicate general manager Brendan Burford’s point of view. He seems to see the big picture and is furiously optimistic about comics and cartoonists. AND AND I took a tour through The Billy Ireland’s archives, guided by Caitlin McGurk. That was a blast. 3) Favorite moment? Okay, since you asked, I have to admit this. I almost had a moment in front of Seth, Ben Katchor, and the rest of the tour party when Caitlin McGurk took us into part of the archives and, just sitting to my right was an original Krazy Kat sunday page. It was the most beautiful piece of art I’ve ever seen. Seeing it so big, and just sitting out in the open. I think it was floating? You could feel the cosmic energy surrounding it. It was like Herriman’s ghost put it there just for me to see (other people saw it too, I’m just being dramatic obviously). The beautiful lines, the design, the scratched out ink at the top of the tree to give it depth and texture, and Krazy just sitting peacefully under it. I’m not one to get emotional in public, but I thought I was going to cry like baby in front of these people. I can feel tears welling up as I type this. I will never speak of this again. JUAN FERNANDEZ 1) What is your biggest takeaway as a maker from the CXC experience? I was reminded of the joy of print. Sometimes these events are so draining that I forget how much I love these little books. The halls of the Billy and the floor of the Metropolitan filled my spirits and allowed me to run workshops, sell books AND soak up all the comics on the floor. I’ve been in a lull of production – financial reasons + I’ve been stretched too thin between my own comics making, community organizing and paying the bills that I haven’t brought any books into the world. The vast array of work on display at the Billy and at the Metropolitan Library has me raring to produce some quality comics for print. 2) What was something that you found and got excited about? (a book, artist, idea?) The careful and holistic planning to programming, scheduling and laying out of the festival had me thinking deeply about the future of comics festivals. It was like someone opened a window and let in the most delicious breeze. I was so inspired that I wrote a little about those thoughts! 3) Favorite moment? Honestly, visiting the Billy Ireland blew my mind. Among the stacks in the archives and the art on exhibit, seeing Richard Thompson’s strip in the “Good Grief!” exhibition blew my mind and had my in tears. Seeing Mr. Thompson’s work in the flesh reignited a flame that I’ve been tending in my personal comics making ever since here in Pittsburgh. PHIL DOKES 1) What is your biggest takeaway as a maker from the CXC experience? That the only limits in making comics are the ones you put upon yourself. Sally and Juan really do make it very easy to just let the no’s that normally pop up in my process, pretty quickly vanish and not trip up my progress. And before I know it, they’ve made me make a page. 2) What was something that you found and got excited about? (a book, artist, idea?) Scott Roberts’ Happy Trails. Beautiful risograph narrative flipbook. Whit Taylor’s Wallpaper. Worried about how strong it would hold together with no figures depicted – no worries needed. Sacha Mardou’s Long Form Fiction Planning talk – Came in figuring it would be good because of the natural flow of her work, but was blown way-away by the depth of her research & thoughtfulness in regards of her characters/story. Wowzers! 3) Favorite moment? Gonna give you two: One – Walking into the reading room with all the original art laid out for about the 3rd time that day. See some big older guy handling some art without the white gloves. I look around at the staff in disbelief. “This guy’s got a lot of &%&&^ nerve… let me go around this table and get a good look at thi-OHMYGADITSSERGIOFREAKINGARAGONES! Two – Right after Sacha’s Friday talk, me, Sally, Juan, Kurt were having some chit chat between events and, quite naturally, out came everyone’s index cards/sketchbooks and the pens were scratching away. Just felt so right. For the rest of our complete CXC coverage check out the special “round up” report HERE. Share this page: [...]

07/04/2018

Juan FernándezJuly 4, 2018los Cómics / NewsEntrevista con Emil Ferris; Broken Pencil Zine Award Deadline Extended; the Airtight Garage in Galicia – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – El Cómic como Reflejo y Abismo – Emil Ferris entrevistada Elisa McCausland, El Salto El formato del diario está muy ligado al género de la autoficción. ¿Hasta qué punto es Lo que más me gusta son los monstruos autoficción, un relato inspirado por tus vivencias personales? Es evidente que en mi novela gráfica hay mucho de autobiográfico, empezando por su ambientación en el Chicago donde nací y donde transcurrió mi infancia, como la de Karen, a finales de los años 70. Mucho de lo que cuento son cosas que me pasaron a mí por entonces o que le pasó a gente que conocí. También comparto muchos de los intereses de Karen, como su pasión por el terror, tanto cinematográfico y literario, como cuando adquirió un carácter muy pulp a través de las historietas y revistas de aquella época y décadas anteriores. Sin embargo, hay un dicho que me gusta recordar cuando se habla de estos temas, que viene a decir básicamente que no es importante que los hechos narrados en una ficción hayan sucedido o no, pero sí que la historia que reflejan sea verdadera, responda a una pulsión profunda, auténtica. En este sentido, la ficción funciona como un espejo que nos permite reconocernos a nosotros mismos, y también como un abismo que nos descubre aspectos de nuestra personalidad y la de otros que desconocíamos. También en lo que respecta al amor, ese monstruo tan extraño, que está en todo lo que somos y hacemos y que sin embargo es tan invisible y se le echa siempre tanto de menos. Por eso me gusta considerar la ficción como un remedio paliativo contra esa enfermedad tan difícil de abordar que llamamos la realidad. Puede sonar pretencioso, pero creo que, en definitiva, la ficción nos ofrece las armas para afrontar con ánimo la realidad. Las historias son nuestra fortaleza. Léanlo todo AQUI. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – The Broken Pencil Zine awards are open for submissions. This year the winner will recieve a free subscription to Zine-o-Matic. Lots of categories. $200 + other goodies for winners in each category. $25 to enter. DEADLINE TO ENTER THE ZINE AWARDS IS NOW JULY 15, 2018 Learn more. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Comics Education: Galicia’s “Airtight Garage” Paula Castiñeira – ABC Galicia Galicia’s O Garaxe Hermético, established in 2012 is the first professional center of comic and illustration in Galicia. It offers up a relatively avant garde approach to comics education for Spain. Born in 2012 by the hand of cartoonist Kiko da Silva, who is also its director, this private school is a revolution in terms of the teaching model. When he started with the center, Da Silva brought together a team of friends and professionals of Galician illustration to organize a syllabus from scratch, with a very clear purpose: “To teach our profession in the most realistic way possible,” says the director.With an unconventional training and without evaluating the students with a numerical score – the works are classified as “not publishable”, “publishable” and “publishable collectible” -, what is intended is to show the students “what they are going to find later ». For this reason, apprentices receive classes not only on illustration and comics, but also on what they must do to dedicate themselves to it, from how to register for freelancers to how to make contracts with publishers so that they are not abusive. Learn more about O Garaxe Hermético, HERE. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Cozytown – by Juan Fernandez – 07/04/2018 Share this page: [...]

03/01/2017

Juan FernándezMarch 1, 2017los Cómics / NewsJuan José con un poquito sobre #GRAFBCN2017; Bas Backer on Chicks on Cómics; Inés Estrada’s Booklyn 2012; Mireia Pérez; Núria Pompeia; Berliac; Salva Rubio on Jiro Taniguchi; 100 Años de TBO; CW Daily Comics. Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ESTE FIN DE SEMANA: #GRAFBCN2017. Esta a la vuelta de la esquina. GRAF is coming to Barcelona. Here’s all the info you need for #GRAFBCN2017‘s programming. March 3-5 at the wacky warehouse space, Fabra i Coats. It’s the ninth edition of the Festival so it should get pretty wild. – If you’re following from home, check out twitter and tumblr for the #GRAFBCN2017 to get some insights on. Want to know who’s going to be there? Here ya go. Need more info? Here’s Mireia Pérez with the scoop you need on #GRAFBCN2017 over on RTVE’s La Hora del Bocadillo, Spain’s weekly national comics radio hour. (Fast forward to minute 48). Descubre a Núria Pompeia en la exposición ‘Núria Pompeia, sola ante el peligro’. Fundación Gin‘s digital editorial cartooning museum, Humoristan, has got a great online exhibition of Pompeia’s work with highlights from Maternasis and Las Metamorfosis. Berliac‘s got some new comics on Vice – Asian Food Store Junkies – S01-E03 This week will horrify your taste buds. Inés Estrada’s dropped a zine she made, quick and dirty after her time at Comic Arts Brooklyn in 2012. “I was going to make a zine of my comics diary of Brooklyn 2012 (cus I never did) but fck it… who cares about 2012″ Now you can read it online. Inspiring, fast, six panel autobio. Salva Rubio offers a great reflection on the work of the late Jiro Taniguchi. Especially of interest given it’s a Spanish perspective on the manga titan. The theme here is the eternal return. This March, it will be the 100th anniversary of the first issue of “TBO”, the popular illustrated magazine that gave name to Spanish comics, tebeos. To commemorate this the newly published, Antoni Guiral‘s 100 Años de TBO, tells the history of a publication which passed the great names of twentieth century Catalan comic. Take a tour of a century “TBO”. (In Catalan!) Bas Backer ha hecho un relato hermoso de su paso por Buenos Aires, el encuentro con amigos y actividades de Chicks On Comics. A nice report, filled with photos and drawings of time passing through the amazing Chicks on Comics show and Buenos Aires. A nice long distance relationship travelogue, haha! ————————————————————————————————— Berliac offers some fresh cuts over at Fumettologica, the central axis of the conversation being his work editing and contributing to Kuš! #25’s Gaijiin Manga. Short and sweet but goes in deep with his thoughts on gekiga, the western gaze and his own evolution as an author. How do you explain the current popularity of Gekiga in the western comics scene? Now they’re getting published and before they were not, simple as that. If you want to dig deeper, I guess the publishers finally realized that since the late seventies, Western adults grew up with manga and anime, and we just needed a cultural approval from well-respected publishers, to re-unite with our childhood love without feeling embarassed about it. Put that together with the concept that publishers from liberal countries have of what a Graphic-Novel is supposed to be (basically realistic stories about the suffering of people from far away countries, to be enjoyed from the comfort of our sofas), and there you go: Gekiga provides us with both. Here lies another reason why I like to call my own work Gaijin-Gekiga: if Gekiga was the Japanese expression, in a dramatic comics form, of their own collective anxieties in times of hypercapitalism, then I can undoubtedly say that the main focus of my work is the very same one, only about my own place and time, of course. I have the impression that not many well-known cartoonists are really talking about what’s going on right here and now, on this side of the world, on a collective scale. In Graphic-Novels, all I see is either boring lectures about foreign or past war conflicts from an “objective”, Western point of view, or feel-good stories about individual self-improvement, and in the most successful cases, a combination of the two. These stories are just two different ways of patting our backs and telling ourselves how great we Westerners are. Gekiga was a beautiful, dignifying way to accept the crushing reality of post-war defeat. Western narratives of today, on the contrary, insist on that we’re on the winning side, even when our reality clearly points to the opposite (see Donald Trump). I’m not saying there’s dignity in being a loser, but in seeing reality for what it is. Drama without exaggeration. That is the essence of Gekiga. Now that a few months has passed from the release of the Kus, can you say that the anthology also served as a bond between the artists of this possible new western manga scene? Bonds among artists always exist, but maybe not explicitely. to the point not even we are aware of it. Many of the artists involved discovered each other’s work in that issue of š! As I said in another interview, it is not the artists’ task or responsablity to make that bond intelligible for the public, but the publishers’, gallerists’, and journalists’. As an author, I’m not too concerned about it. As a co-editor of š! #25, I certainly hope we provided a grain of sand to this cause. ————————————————————————————————— The Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers is starting soon! The semester has a rolling start date, but it will officially kick off on March 7th. We will continue taking applications past that date – Frank is always willing to make it work for your schedule. Just apply! The course is 8 weeks long – 500 bux – payment plans are available. More details can be found HERE. Email santoroschoolATgmail to apply ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-1-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-1-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-1-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 3-1-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

01/05/2018

Posted on January 4, 2018January 5, 2018 by Sally Ingraham

Sally here with notes on Nicole Claveloux’s new NYRC book, work from Ulli Lust, Archana Streenivasan, and Trina Robbins, and much more!

—————————————————————————————————

from The Green Hand and Other Stories by Nicole Claveloux

Michael Dooley wrote about The Green Hand and Other Stories by Nicole Claveloux for Print Magazine, calling it “2017’s best book in celebration of a European comics artist“. Why?

“Because thanks to this handsome hardcover compilation, we can finally come to appreciate and admire this master of French comics; her extraordinary career from the late 1960s to early ’80s has been unjustly overlooked for way, way too long. Because her radiantly colorful renderings of illuminated late afternoon landscapes and elongated shadows conclusively prove that she’s the Salvador Dali of Pop Art cartooning. Because her interiors are beautifully, bleakly haunting. Because her figures might take on a Victor Moscoso-like amorphous organicism … just because they can.“

Read the rest of Dooley’s thoughts and take a look at an excerpt from the book HERE.

—————————————————————————————————

Ulli Lust completes her engagement with the ExBerliner magazine with the comic pictured above. She has published 15 comics with the magazine, all of them riffing on “a simple stroll” in some part of the world.

You can read them all HERE.

—————————————————————————————————

Part of Otherly Urges by Archana Sreenivasan

Archana Sreenivasan, an Indian cartoonist and illustrator, has a new comic up on Ulli Lust’s Electrocomics, called Otherly Urges, about being an Indian woman who is NOT interested in having kids.

You can download the comic HERE.

—————————————————————————————————

Back in 1985 Trina Robbins made an adaptation of Tanith Lee’s novel The Silver Metal Lover. Now IDW and Drew Ford have Kickstarted a reissue of the comic, with a new forward by Gail Simone and an afterward by Colleen Doran. Drew Ford wrote about the comic:

“This cult classic science fiction romance is an important early example of ‘the graphic novel’ as a storytelling vehicle, telling an intimate story of a young girl’s first love…who just happens to be a robot! We are very honored to shine a light on the brilliant work of the late Tanith Lee.”

The Kickstarter has already reached it’s initial goal, but you can get in on some fun reward brackets if you want, through Jan. 5th 2018. Check it out HERE. (Thanks to The Comics Beat for the lowdown on this news item.)

—————————————————————————————————

Melina Chavarria and Jean Marie Pilario, co-creators of *The Magic Glasses*

Just a reminder to read the website Women Write About Comics regularly. Recent articles that were great include Rosie Knight on the work of Melina Chavarria and Jean Marie Pilario (pictured above) and creating positive Latinx representation in comics, and Tia Kalla on Sleepless #1 by Sarah Vaughn and Leila del Duca. The Interview section is the best, so dive in there and then explore.

—————————————————————————————————

In Addition

Robert Kirby presents an excerpt from GG‘s I’m Not Here on PEN America’s Illustrated PEN – check out his comments and the comic HERE.
Anya Davidson has started a weekly podcast called Mindkiller, which is dedicated to creative struggle – the first episode, featuring musician Jill Flanagan, can be heard HERE.
Julia Wertz‘s Conversations with Ma are amusing and can be seen HERE on The New Yorker.
Image Comics is releasing Sloane Leong‘s Prism Stalker – coming March 2018.

—————————————————————————————————

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

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.

—————————————————————————————————

Suzy and Cecil – 1-5-2018 – by Sally Ingraham

—————————————————————————————————

Joanie and Jordie – 1-5-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio

Share this page:

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged anya davidson, Archana Sreenivasan, caleb orecchio, GG, Julia Wertz, nicole claveloux, sally ingraham, sloane leong, Trina Robbins, ulli lust

Sally Ingraham

Posted on January 4, 2018January 5, 2018

Explore

11/03/2016

Sally IngrahamNovember 3, 2016NewsSam and Sally with the Thursday comic news – featuring Anya Davidson, Yona Harvey, Ariell Johnson, Ron Husband, Cameron Weston Nicholson, and new work from Sam Ombiri himself. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here with a “Comment Section Review”: Anya Davidson’s work got bombarded with negative comments in the A.V. Club comment section recently. I’m pretty crazy about her work, and I don’t want to act like there is no room for the folks who have dislike of Anya’s work, but I feel the commentators completely fail to acknowledging a comics scene outside of theirs, so they just see Band For Life as “a bunch of random scribbles that Fantagraphics put out.” I wonder what they read to make themselves so repulsed with Anya’s work. To some degree that’s really cool that it repulsed them to the degree that it did, because I wonder in what universe are the drawings in Band For Life considered horrible, in what universe?! I just say that because I lack that perspective. Sammy Harkham said he feels, or I guess more so felt at the point at which he said it: that “context is everything, it’s weird, but context is everything.” I don’t know if I agree with that completely but I do agree. Michael DeForge said that the people commenting live in a bubble and haven’t come into contact with anything like Band For Life. Jesse Moynihan said somewhere how when he debuted with his first Adventure Time episode, he went on 4chan (I think) to see the response for it and people were saying “why are these drawings so bad?” I guess the context there is that it doesn’t resemble anime enough for them. It’s really cool that they could sense there was a different energy in those drawings though. What are these people in the A.V. comment sections reading, though, that’s got them so full of themselves and their tastes? They probably just don’t want their scene “contaminated.” – Sam Ombiri Sally here, and I’m with Sam when it comes to being crazy about Anya Davidson’s work – so for the record and for the ignoramuses out there, here’s a list of recent reviews and interviews with this badass cartoonist, brought to you by folks who don’t live in bubbles: The Comics Journal, with Dan Nadel himself blowing the trumpets – “…her comics are a joy to look at. Her thick-thin strokes dance on the page and her characters are always-recognizable graphic icons. Hers is a Kurtzman-esque cartooning technique that she can apply to any scenario of her choosing…” Paste, on Anya’s “noisy, weird art” – “Her work, which evokes the bombastic action of Jack Kirby as immediately as it does a riot grrrl zine, is bold and brash. Her bulky, blocky figures clash and collide with one another in a cacophony of pen and ink. It’s the kind of genre-busting, high- and low-culture-blending comic perfectly at home in a post-Fort Thunder alternative comics scene, and for those in the know, Davidson has been a cartoonist to follow.” The Comics Beat – “Anya Davidson’s Band for Life is one of the boldest graphic novels of the year, an eye splitting trip into the lives of an indie punk rock band and their misadventures. Call it Josie and the Pussycats for the post-iTunes generation.” You can get a copy of Anya Davidson’s Band for Life HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Here’s a recent comic by Sam Ombiri: ————————————————————————————————— Pittsburgh’s poet/professor Yona Harvey is getting ready for the Nov. 9th debut of a new Marvel series – The World of Wakanda – which she is authoring along with Roxane Gay (they are the first black female authors to work for Marvel) and Ta-Nehisi Coates (author of the current Black Panther series, which The World of Wakanda spins off of). In conversation with Wayne Wise for the PGH City Paper this week, Yona said “I think my poetry skills helped with the voice and characterization,” – when asked about the differences between writing poetry and writing a comics script. “The Zenzi story is only 10 pages, so concision is necessary. She feels that the page-to-page and line-to-line transitions are very similar to what she does with the forms of poetry she writes. Finding the ‟voice and the music and the sound,” were important to her. Comics are a different language, but the beats and rhythms felt familiar.” – via PGH City Paper Comics Workbook will be at Phantom of the Attic next week when the comic debuts and Yona Harvey is there to celebrate the release. Read the rest of the PGH City Paper article HERE. Check out more work by The World of Wakanda artist Afua Richardson HERE. ————————————————————————————————— While poking around Paste I came across another recent “first black woman” story, this one about Ariell Johnson, “the founder and president of Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse, Inc. in Philadelphia, and the first black woman on the East Coast to own her own comic book store“. She has garnered an appearance on a variant cover of Invincible Iron Man #1, illustrated by Elizabeth Torque. Ariell says it was the X-Men‘s Storm who got her into comics, and although she had to scrape bottom to find diversity in superhero comics as a kid, that is finally changing. Her comic book shop is part of that. Read the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Cameron Weston Nicholson dug up this story about Ron Husband for us: although Floyd Norman is often credited as being the first black Disney animator, that title actually belongs to Ron Husband. Cameron is an animator himself, so he understands the amount of work that goes into just seconds of action – and knows that the title of “animator” is one that has to be earned. “From the early days at Disney until the 1980’s, an artist had to produce 100 feet of animation to get a screen credit.” Ron actually pulled this feat off, and you can read about his career HERE. He got into the educational side of animation as well, visiting schools and becoming a sort of ambassador, and currently runs a blog featuring process posts and other tidbits from his wealth of animating knowledge – check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out some of Cameron Weston Nicholson‘s latest sketches and drawings, via his Instagram (@prof_weston): Before bed. ? A video posted by Cameron•Weston Nicholson (@prof_weston) on Nov 1, 2016 at 6:30pm PDT Also, take a minute or 60 to view the footage of Cameron’s SPX 2016 Comics Workbook-hosted workshop if you haven’t yet – “Comics are a symphonic mixture of picture & word.” ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook got a nice shout out from Down the Tubes, a British comics website that has been reporting on comics since 1999. Mel Brooks was writing about the academic workshops at The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, which Frank Santoro, Aidan Koch, and Connor Willumsen were a large part of – check out the report HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out Swinespritzen – and Portraits, the other new book from Connor Willumsen – HERE. Share this page: [...]

01/26/2017

Sally IngrahamJanuary 25, 2017NewsSam and Sally bring us a whole crew of Pittsburgh cartoonists, thoughts on Problem Solverz, and our Thursday crop of comic strips! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I’ve been reaaaallly sloooooooowly reading Tao Lin’s Taipei and so far so good – it’s been great. Maybe it’s because Juan Fernandez referred me to this (“the peace tape” – a Paper Rad film) but I’ve been thinking about Problem Solverz a lot, and how great it was to see it when I did. It seems to have the exact same effect now as when I first saw it, so it summons an emotion that’s already in people, I think, or I could just be making it up. I was thinking of how I sometimes sense a sentiment in it that is similar to what excited me about watching some webtoons, and of course reading certain comics I have read, which I see as processing somethin’. I see it as proof that Problem Solverz summoned, or showcased, or manifested in the best way something that is a little inexpressible. In dreams when you try to render this thing fully it disappears, but Problem Solverz is very well expressed, and remains exceedingly potent even as time passes. There is a lot of space and then the conflict of what to utilize it for – so then are you surrendering to one purpose with which to define yourself? Maybe? Maybe not. Ben Jones did refer to Problem Solverz as a coming of age story. Anyway, I was in middle school when it was airing – me and my one buddy were excited about it. My friend told me how he got excited at the episode with the Awesome Banditz from Pittsburgh. It was my favorite show as it was airing, so as a fanboy I also remember being frustrated with these people on YouTube who were in their late twenties or early twenties (at least that’s how I perceived them at the time). I was really annoyed. I was like, “Why are these people trying to get rid of this show that was certainly made more so for people my age?” (was it? I don’t have a clue) and then I would get lambasted by 90’s kids who couldn’t stop talking about how much better their childhood was. I’m sure it was great and the shows they loved were great, but c’mon. (I wonder if that’s what Brian Chippendale meant in that Puke Force strip when he was thanking the YouTube commenters on Problem Solverz for being “great dialogue fuel”. No, probably not. How could it be? It just meant what it meant.) – Sam Ombiri Check out Dan Nadel’s thoughts on Problem Solverz – publishing on The Comics Journal the day the first episode aired – HERE. 1-26-2017 – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sally Ingraham here: The Glassblock sat down with Marcel Walker recently for a lengthy conversation about his work and Pittsburgh-based comics projects. While sifting through sketches and concept drawings they talked about his process and discussed “the long gestation of Hero Corp., how our favorite superheroes work for corporate America, and the importance of education and history in the Chutz-Pow! series“. Marcel is a well-known figure in the Pittsburgh comics scene. He’s an educator and activist whose work often directly gives back to the community – like the Chutz-Pow! series, which was made in partnership between the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and The ToonSeum. As Marcel says: “… comics can also teach you broader things. They can teach you about other segments of our society and culture. There’s a story that ran in EC Comics back in the ’50s. The story was called “Judgment Day.” It’s a science fiction story with a wonderful twist at the end. It’s a story with a social moral, , that’s obvious—so obvious that the Comics Code Authority almost didn’t allow that story to be published. Fortunately, the publishers resisted that, they make a stink, and eventually the story was published. That’s an example of just doing your thing; tell that story because you know the moral is right.“ Read the whole interview HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Nathaniel Broadus is another member of the Pittsburgh comics community – and he too is an activist and youth advocate. He has been writing a story called Police State (or, the comic he never wanted to write): “To be honest, when I initially sat down to write, my story wasn’t at all about social justice in any real sense. I wanted to write about hip hop, and I wanted to write about super heroes. I crafted a story in my head about a young rapper with gobs of desire, but not much ability, who is unwillingly corralled into an intergalactic battle of the bands. As I sat down to craft the universe of my fun loving, aloof hero, Ferguson burned.“ After returning home from enlistment Nathaniel was having trouble transitioning back into civilian life. He found inspiration and new purpose within his community in Pittsburgh, and wound up on a new front-line – that of “the war to improve this world for every single person“. Writing Police State is part of that mission. Check out the first 5 pages of Police State HERE – with artwork by JC Grande and John Becaro. You can get copies of Police State #0-#2 HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Yona Harvey (another Pittsburgher) is going to keep writing comics! Last year she wrote a story for the series World Of Wakanda,and now she will be applying her poet’s pen to a new series. She and Ta-Nehisi Coates announced a new Black Panther spin-off titled Black Panther & The Crew – coming soon. The series will revive the world of Christopher Priest’s mini-series The Crew and introduce the Black Panther to Harlem. From the interview/announcement on Time, Ta-Nehisi Coates speaking: “There’s this concept in comic books of street characters—characters who mostly deal with street-level stories—those are your Daredevils, your Luke Cages, things that are considered lower-tier. And then you have your more cosmic level heroes, like The X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Avengers, that sort of thing. What we have in this book is a group of characters that operate on both levels. What does it mean to protect the street and protect the world? How are those things connected? What happens when T’Challa is walking down the street without his uniform and people don’t recognize him, he’s just a black person? Same with Storm.“ Yona Harvey was asked how her poetry has played into writing for comics. Her reply: “For the first project (World of Wakanda) I kept resisting. I thought being a poet was a negative somehow. But then I had to embrace what poets do, examine tiny details and draw out a larger story. And it helps with the language and the voice of the characters. I have this little trick where I imagine the poetic voice of the character, whether it’s very terse or romantic or sensitive.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright and Sarah Mirk had a comic on The Nib recently – Eight Ways to Resisit Donald Trump – check out the whole thing HERE. (Shannon Wright is an alum of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – the comic she made for the course can be seen HERE!) ————————————————————————————————— Since Pittsburgh is so heavily on my mind today, check out Frank’s Blast Furnace Funnies over on the school store. Originally made for the Biennial at the Carnegie Museum in 2011, this is the 16-page tabloid newspaper comic that was stacked in the corner of the gallery space. The original pages hung on the wall. As Bill Boichel puts it in his review for Copacetic Comics: “In a signature Santoro move, Blast Furnace Funnies is a work of “High” (i.e., museum quality) art executed in the lowest of the “Low” art forms (a disposable newspaper); employing ephemerality to evoke eternity, he has here worked (in a form that often ends up) in the gutter to reach for the stars.“ Get a copy HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-26-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-26-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-26-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

Art Trip: In A Series

Alyssa BergJuly 7, 2016Art Trip / EssaysThe Adam Baumgold Gallery, tucked away in a residential building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is a small gallery that regularly shows the work of comic book artists. Past solo exhibits include Lynda Barry, Charles Burns and Chris Ware. The current exhibit, IN A SERIES (through August 12), includes artwork from these artists and 39 (!) other 20th century and contemporary artists. IN A SERIES showcases original comics pages, drawings, collages, paintings, sculptures and photographs. I was drawn to the two large Chris Ware pages (27.5” x 20” each) from Building Stories (Pantheon Graphic Novels, 2012). They looked great in the space – substantial and easy to read from a distance, as if they were made to be hanging on a gallery wall. It was a pleasure to see Ware’s originals with the blue pencil lines that remain under the perfectly inked pages (pictured below). It was a treat to see original artwork by Julie Doucet, Lynda Barry and Ernie Bushmiller but my surprise-favorite from the exhibit was the series by Renée French, works from her graphic novel H Day (Picture Box, 2010). The graphite drawings by French are tiny (2.75” x 2.25” each) and perfect (pictured below). The challenge of IN A SERIES is the amount of art versus the size of the space. There is a lot of work packed into the two-room gallery, with some pieces placed in window sills and other pieces hung in the narrow hallway connecting the rooms. Despite the challenge, this eclectic group show is worth a visit. It (likely) has something for everybody. Here’s the line-up: Lynda Barry, Jennifer Bartlett, Bette Blank, Joe Brainard, Charles Burns, Ernie Bushmiller, Genevieve Castree, Joe Coleman, Robert Crumb, Julie Doucet, Roy Deforest, Marcel Dzama, Rafael Ferrier, Tony Fitzpatrick, Renee French, Sue Gerard, Chester Gould, Rodney Alan Greenblat, Red Grooms, George Grosz, Alex Katz, Edward Koren, Annette Lemieux, Tala Madani, Maryan, Mary Lynn Massoud, Richard McGuire, Jim Nutt, Jennie Ottinger, Christina Ramber, Auri Ramirez, Emile Selder, Seth, Laurie Simmons, William Steig, Saul Steinberg, Chris Ware, John Wesley, David Wajnarowicz, Time Wehrle, B. Wurtz & Joseph Yoakum. You can see more images from the show on the gallery website, HERE, and visit it in person through August 12th. ————————————————————————————————— Alyssa Berg makes comics in Brooklyn, NY. You can find her work HERE. Share this page: [...]

04/25/2018

Juan FernándezApril 25, 2018los Cómics / NewsMuestra Mostra, Ivan Kreilkamp, Stina Sandström, Frank Santoro —————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ en Español y “sometimes in English” ~ —————————————— Larga vida a los fanzines: impresiones alternativas Muestra Mostra, llevada a cabo en Córdoba (Argentina) réune las obras de muchas en el mundo del fanzinismo feminista. Javier Mattio: Expresión material, múltiple y subterránea del hazlo-tú-mismo, el fanzine (literalmente, “revista de aficionado”) vive hoy un auge que es también una expansión de su usual destino de fotocopia alternativa: el fanzine llega a librerías y museos, se celebran festivales, ferias, talleres y charlas en su nombre, se los archiva en “fanzinotecas”, se convierten en preciados y requeridos objetos artísticos. El fenómeno se concreta en Córdoba en exponentes como la actual “Muestra Mostra” del Museo Genaro Pérez, el Festival Ctrl P y la feria La Batalla en Casa Trece (donde también opera la fanzinoteca más grande del país) o las historietas-zines que publica el sello Buen Gusto Ediciones. —————————————— In Praise of Pulp Ivan Kreilkamp: No fan of the genre can complain about such a turn of events—and yet, surely something is also always lost in this kind of upward-mobility success story. Alison Bechdel observed a few years ago that “one of the reasons I became a cartoonist was so that I could write and draw free from the kind of critical scrutiny that I was sure would wither me if I dared to enter the lists of the fine art or literary writing worlds. Comics was a dark, disreputable place … You could do what you wanted here.” —————————————— The Carnival Grotesque: Representations of femininity in Swedish feminist comics Stina Sandström: This dissertation explores the mainstream success of a new wave of Swedish female cartoonists borne out of the feminist zine community between 2004 and 2016. These cartoonists have contributed to a change in perception in Sweden about comics as a medium and their potential to introduce current feminist discourse into mainstream media and reach a wider public. The study identifies a commonality in these comics of the parodic and liberating humour of the carnivalesque; a literary tendency proposed by Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakthin which expresses frustration and discontent with the structure of society through a certain ritualistic humour which in the context of these comics expose dominant gender structures and offer new ways of performing femininity. Despite working independently for the most part, the power of their work lies in the way they expand on (even imitate) each other, often picking up on a specific subject or area of critique where another left off, with the effect of combining their individual voices into one great voice. The phenomena is investigated through a series of questions: What Swedish political and cultural preconditions allowed for these usually marginalised feminist zine makers to become part of popular culture? How do they communicate feminism in ways that appeal to a mainstream audience? How, if at all, does their work influence or improve women’s lives in Sweden? —————————————— Nello Studio di Frank Santoro Which instruments and tools do you use to draw? I do not use a computer. I do not know how to use Photoshop. Why teach the machine how to do my job? Everything is analog. I draw on conventional office paper and use conventional office supplies essentially. Pentel rolling writers which were the first rollerball pen. Alex Toth told me to use that pen. And I use color pencils and markers. Mostly Berol Prismacolor brand. As Art Spigelman says “it is more like writing” in that sense if one uses “dry” media. One of my jobs as a young man was to be an assistant to oil painters and I enjoy not having to have a separate studio in which to make art. Cartoonists are lucky that we can be relatively clean in that way. I do use the airbrush. That’s fun. But it is water based. I use the airbrush mostly for background paintings that I am hired to do by Dash Shaw. But I also did a Silver Surfer story for Marvel with the airbrush. The airbrush is fun because it is like drawing with colored air. And it is water based paint. —————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-25-2018 – Gabriella Tito Joanie and Jordie – 4-25-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

The Rowhouse Report: May-June 2016

Sally IngrahamJune 18, 2016School UpdatesThe Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency is a GO! The Rowhouse is a busy place these days! The end of May brought the first official residents to the doors of the school, with Matthew Conway and Mahmoud Hashemi‘s visit. They came on a mission to work on the back-story of a game they are designing. They enjoyed the adventure of being the school’s first residents, and brought a unique energy that set a tone for the summer and the school. Mahmoud wrote an extensive report on Matt and his experience of the school, which I am quoting from below: “Compared to my expectations of independent comics artists, Frank is well-adjusted and well-equipped, with good taste in more than just comics. This expectation is likely skewed by my reading of so many “journal comics” artists. I feel like I learned about creating and collecting in general, not just about comics. Frank never stops relating things to comics, education, and community-building. Passion is fleeting compared to this. His motivation is closer to second nature. This nature was my original hopeful realization with Frank, before I met him. I feel a deep kinship with him, as I think about creating code the same way he thinks about creating comics. Independent, expressive, and individually valuable. Corporate partnerships are inevitable and, while they can be good, ultimately these looming entities don’t care about the potential of comics/code, they just use creators opportunistically. I see Frank doing for independent print comics what E-40 does in hip hop. He seems to know everyone past and present. E-40 and Frank both act upon this knowledge, combining it with the deeply ingrained understanding that respect is the real currency of the business. Money is an inescapable reality, but it’s possible and laudable to address the group as a community first and an industry second. Economies have a tendency to be treated as zero-sum. But respect is not zero-sum. Through his music, E-40 pulls everyone together, adding to their respect, and his own. And above all he respects himself, setting a good example. So it is with Frank. Suffice it to say, we need more creator-mentor-educators like Frank (as well as Sally, who I think recognizes all this and more, and actively assists Frank in the mission). In my ideal world I would be able to spend one week per year with a creator of his caliber, but I feel lucky to even have this one trip.” – Mahmoud Hashemi You can read the whole report HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Lale Westvind came through Pittsburgh on her motorcycle in June and spent some time at the Rowhouse. Maybe there’s something in the air here, or maybe it’s just Lale’s own incredible drive – either way she managed to knock out half a comic over the course of the evenings she spent at the Rowhouse. She simultaneously explored Frank’s comics collection, and matched him story for story. Her visits coincided with an interview that Comics Workbook conducted with her, which you can read HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Sammy Harkham and Kevin Huizenga buzzed through Pittsburgh in June and Copacetic Comics hosted an evening of conversation with these comics geniuses. Afterwards they came back to the Rowhouse for the night and of course they couldn’t just sit around chatting. Drawings were made, comics were discussed, and the Rowhouse got to soak up their combined creative energy. The place is already approaching Kryptonite levels…! ————————————————————————————————— In addition to hosting residents and other roaming cartoonists, the Rowhouse serves as the headquarters for the Comics Workbook team. Local team members like Juan Fernandez and Sally Ingraham pop round most days to work on planning things like The Pittsburgh Comics Salon and to help with packing up orders that come through Frank’s ongoing auction. This “work” often morphs into drawing sessions or a visit to the basement to check out the incredible comics vault that Frank has been building for years. ————————————————————————————————— Yes indeed, the Rowhouse is humming and July promises to be just as exciting, with residents Audra Stang and Caleb Orecchio coming to visit. Stay tuned for more residency reports and other news soon! Share this page: [...]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply