Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged astiberri, Ecatepec, Ediciones Hungría, fulgencio pimentel, INK BRICK, José Fabián Estrada, la casa encendida

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 23, 2018March 13, 2018

Explore

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: [...]

Kurt Ankeny on CXC 2016

Kurt AnkenyOctober 22, 2016Festivals and ShowsEditor’s Note: Kurt Ankeny came to CXC as one of Comics Workbook’s workshop leaders. Comics Workbook hosted four sessions over the course of the festival, and Kurt presented on his work and on modifying your tools and materials to suit the story. He had an engaged audience who dug into the exercise he led after the presentation, which was right out of Ohio’s history of comics correspondence schools – a riff on the comic gag spinner. And now, the rest of Kurt’s CXC experience in his own words. Well, I’m back from Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, and caught up enough to sit down and write a few words about the experience. MUCH thanks to Frank Santoro for funding the vast majority of our trip out there as part of the Comics Workbook crew! THIS IS THE START OF SOMETHING BIG. The show being created by Jeff Smith, Tom Spurgeon, Caitlin McGurk and the staff of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum is still in its nascent stages. But if the project that they are all working towards comes to fruition, this is going to be a major event on the comics schedule, and may even put indie comics on the national media radar in much the same way that San Diego used to for mainstream comics. It’s exciting to think of how this show might grow. BY, FOR, and OF THE ARTISTS. Shows are not always necessarily about the sales. There are money-maker shows that cartoonists need, certainly. But there are also shows that cartoonists love, because those shows feel, as Kevin Czap put it in his acceptance speech for the Most Promising Talent Award, “like a big family reunion.” SPX is one of those shows. In only its second year, CXC is becoming another. The really special thing about CXC is the programming that happens before the market opens on Saturday. The academic discussions of comics by smart people who love what we do, the peer workshops that convey useful info to working cartoonists, the in-depth evening interview events, all create an atmosphere that is so rare at a con: one of relaxation and appreciation. It is hard to put into words the acceptance I felt being surrounded by so many people who love the form, not just as makers, but also as readers and academics and archivists. THOSE are the people we do this for, and as cartoonists we so rarely get to see those who really care about the work we do. THESE ARE THE PEOPLE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. Wow, it was really great to put names with faces and add IRL time to my relationships with Alyssa Berg, Juan José Fernandez, Sally Ingraham, Caleb Orecchio, Sacha Mardou, and Emil Friis Ernst! Tabling with the lovely Whit Taylor was a treat. It’s always good to have some time to talk to Ben Passmore and Kevin Czap, meet Caitlin McGurk, have a conversation with a nearly catatonic Tom Spurgeon at about midnight on Sunday, and have Ben Katchor stop at my table for a good 15-20 minutes to chat about the State of Comics. In other words, I had a pretty good time. ————————————————————————————————— Kurt Ankeny makes comics in Salem, MA – his most recent book is In Pieces: Someplace Which I Call Home. For the rest of our complete CXC coverage check out the special “round up” report HERE. Share this page: [...]

10/20/2017

Sally IngrahamOctober 19, 2017NewsSally here with Ann Nocenti, Julia Wertz, Sarah Glidden, and many more women and comics and news! ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Beat has a great interview with the incredible Ann Nocenti (above). Edie Nugent sat down with her at NYCC to discuss her upcoming project – the “sci-fi political thriller The Seeds with artist David Aja for the Dark Horses’ newly minted Berger Books imprint“, and her legendary career as a comics writer and editor. She speaks of her experience working in comics in the 80s, compared to later on: “Nocenti: What’s strange is that there were so few girls in the industry, that it was the opposite of sexism, I think. You know, I had Archie Goodwin and Denny O’Neill coming into my office talking to me about story–asking me if I wanted to write a story. I had, you know, Larry Hama, Al Milgrom, he had all these wonderful men in comics.They were all really encouraging. Ralph Macchio gave me the Daredevil to write. Denny gave me my first story, and they were extremely encouraging of the idea that a woman wanted to make comics…even the idea that a female wanted to write Daredevil. Nugent: So you felt industry support. Going all the way back. Nocenti: I wouldn’t call it industry support so much as it was bullpen support. This is pre-Internet So everyone was right there in the office. I was mentored by Louise Simonson, who basically taught me everything. Across the hall, you had Joe Duffy writing Star Wars, and then in the bullpen, we had Marie Severin…a powerhouse. So between me and Marie’s generation, we did have sexism. I mean she did so much in the industry and in the business, and she’s kind of unrecognized. She was right there on staff doing sketches when they needed them and covers when they needed them. So her generation–I think there was maybe more sexism than in the ’80s, ’cause you’re talking a post-’60s, ’70s culture, post-women’s liberation, you know, and so we were encouraged. I probably I felt more sexism when I came back to comics at DC and I was working with Gotham, in the Bat family. All those guys individually are really nice, but it definitely felt like a boy’s club.“ She goes on to talk about The Seeds (which I can’t wait to see – David Aja’s art in Hawkeye was so good! so that paired with Ann’s writing?!) and close to the end of the interview she speaks eloquently about why comics always pull her back. It’s a great interview with a powerhouse of the comics industry in her own right. Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I can’t wait to get my hands on Julia Wertz‘s new comic, Tenements, Towers & Trash, which reviewers are calling “dazzling” among other sparkly things. She herself hasn’t been able to say much about the book or go on her planned tour for it, as the fires in CA have called her home to be with her family. But The New York Times and Hyperallergic both have reviews of the comic this week and plenty to say. From Parul Sehgal’s passionate review on The New York Times: “The city rises majestically in these pages. The crowded panels evoke the jostle of urban life. Your eye doesn’t know where to settle; there’s so much to absorb. Wertz loves New York down to its guts: the pneumatic tubes that stretch the length of the island and were once used to send gusts of letters from one post office to another. She loves the arteries of the subways, the lungs of the parks. She goes uptown to sketch movie theaters in the Bronx and peers down to the bottom of the Hudson River, the “ watery grave” where illegal pinball machines were dumped by the city in the 1970s. She unearths so many strange, wondrous facts that my exclamation marks in the margin resemble elaborate Morse code.“ Read the rest HERE. Hyperallergic offers more pages from the book to tantalize you in their review, and is equally glowing. Read that one HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Nib is running Sarah Glidden‘s comic The Art of War, which was originally published in Spanish in El País Magazine. She draws herself (above) looking at Goya’s painting titled “3rd of May at Prado”. The comic is about the interaction between a viewer and a famous piece of art, and like all of Sarah’s work, is thoughtful and thought-provoking. Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— In other words/images Annie Mok is on Episode 24 of Comic Book Decalogue on The Comics Journal – listen HERE. Rob Clough is working through his recent comic show mini comics acquisitions, so there are reviews of comics by Jen Lisa, Katie Fricas/Sara Lautman/Cara Bean, Lauren Weinstein/Gale Galligan and others on High-Low recently. PEN America‘s Illustrated PEN series presents Ajuan Mance‘s Requiem for a Hot Comb – see it HERE. Our Comics, Ourselves has a review of Kabi Nagata‘s My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness – read it HERE. Lauren Weinstein‘s latest Normal Person strip for Village Voice is a #MeToo story. Comics Alternative Interviews sat down with Sophie Goldstein to discuss her new book House of Women (Fantagraphics, 2017). The A. V. Club takes a look at Maggie Umber‘s Sound of Snow Falling, and the value of comics as a record of natural life. Zainab Akhtar found herself once again forced to leave a social media platform due to the horrific harassment of internet trolls, following a Twitter fallout with the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival. Send her some love and support via her Patreon – HERE. In a somewhat out-of-character move, The Comics Journal offers a review of the new film Professor Marston and the Wonder Women – which is apparently an interesting flick, but one that still fails to present the compelling/mysterious truth behind the creation of Wonder Woman. ————————————————————————————————— Connor Willumsen says ‘Cartooning is a lot like magic’ in this video, directed by Fatine-Violette Sabiri. It offers a glimpse into his head space and a look at his new comic, Anti-Gone (Koyama Press, 2017). Read Brian Nicholson’s review of Anti-Gone, HERE. Get a copy of Anti-Gone, along with two zines by Connor – a 20 page bootleg, and a special collage zine – as well as a unique Anti-Gone drawing, as part of the exclusive Connor Willumsen bundle from Comics Workbook – available HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 10-20-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 10-20-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

07/02/2018

Caleb OrecchioJuly 1, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on “Dream World!” by Steve Ditko, and other news! ———————————————————————————————— Okay so Frank was selling this comic, Chamber of Chills no. 19 on Instagram (a 1975 Marvel reprint comic mostly re-presenting comics from Tales to Astonish), and I had to steal it for the time being until it was sold. It contains the Ditko strip, “Dream World” which is really striking. In glorious 9-panel grid, Ditko (and Lee) very tactfully build upon layers of dreams that wake the protagonist only to find he is still dreaming. Think Inception. Ditko uses the 9-panel grid expertly and waltzes us through this man’s dream layers. 1-2-3, 1-2-3-, 1-2-3. Something I find interesting is that the action takes place in the middle tiers whereas the top and bottom tiers are close-ups which show the protagonist’s expressions and emotions (or realizations and reactions). He expertly zooms in and out for emphasis in a way that isn’t tedious, but useful (and natural somehow). Look! you can “read” the strip across the spread without having to follow the rigid comics zigzag reading format and it still makes sense visually. You could also scan the spreads randomly and easily decipher the idea of the pictures. It’s so simple. Really this is a comic where “nothing happens,” which is its strength. It actually reminds me of David Hockney’s Gregory Swimming, Los Angeles, March 31st 1982 (below). Hockney is thinking about and showing how we see and look. An argument could be made that Ditko is showing how we think, and in such a simple way that it resembles how we look or see. ———————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Michael Dooley talks to Robert Williams and over at TCJ.com. While you’re there, read the latest installment of Austin English’s column, “10 Cent Museum“. Here on the site we have Ian Densford’s Rowhouse Residency report! Happy to see a new episode of Make It Then Tell Everybody. ———————————————————————————————— Thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers Summer Session starts NOW! Floating start date! Apply anytime between now and July 12th 2018 to join the summer course. Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. Ask about the Fall Course if now is too busy for you! The course is 8 weeks – 500 bux for 8 weeks plus access to Frank’s coaching for as long as you need. Payment plans are available. Put your summer to good use! ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-2-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

09/13/2018

Caleb OrecchioSeptember 13, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Trench Dogs by Ian Densford ——————————————————————————————— What a monstrous dream Ian Densford has conceived. His new graphic novel, Trench Dogs (which originally ran on on the Comics Workbook Tumblr in a different incarnation), left me sitting and blinking and thinking about what I’d read in quiet contemplation. The book is a series of alternating accounts of World War I told as a continuum in a 3-panel-per-page meter. With an omniscient eye and no regard for the faint of heart, we are swept through the perils of The Great War and witness the utter destruction of sixteen million people. Densford does however depict these people as “funny” animals which keeps the visual horror at arms length and digestible; but despite the “Maus-ian” approach, and like Maus, the pain of the events depicted retain their power. Trench Dogs is obviously influenced by Art Spiegelman’s Maus. This is an easy observation due to the “Roll Call” page preceding the story in which each nationality therein is labeled and depicted as their respective animal avatar, but I see a handful of other and possibly more vital influences or comparable works. The first and most important to me is Suiho Tagawa. Most savvy American readers will remember his war comic Norakuro from Kramers 6. When I first saw that Trench Dogs was 3-panels per page I could not stop thinking of Norakuro. Plus, unlike Maus, both Trench Dogs and Norakuro allow for whimsy. Trench Dogs is mostly not very funny, but there are moments of “cartoony” bliss that fall through the bleak cracks and relieve the senses of the total desolation burdening the bulk of the book. Similarly, Hayao Miyazaki’s manga Tiger Im Schlamm blends war (specifically tank battles in WWII) with the cartoony anthropomorphized soldier. And like Tiger Im Schlamm, Trench Dogs is rendered in watercolor. Though not quite done justice by the book’s glossy paper, (I am generally underwhelmed by the production choices of Dead Reckoning – the publisher) the paints give vibrance to the story and, again, cast a little light on the dark subject of WWI. And I would be remiss to not mention Joe Sacco’s panorama huge foldout illustration, The Great War, as an influence. I would lay money down right now that The Great War was a major influence for Densford. The real key to Trench Dogs is the steady and uninterrupted 3-panel grid (Yes yes – this is Comics Workbook and we love grids). Densford keeps perfect timing with the grid. Every panel carries the same weight so the pace is consistent throughout the entire comic. He makes good use of the middle of the page and, as I read, I noticed I would let myself wander around the spread. Sometimes I read the first tier on the left page to the tier on the right without reading the other two panels on the left, and to my pleasant surprise it did not affect the reading. Sometimes I would look at the middle panel first, and then “spiral” out. It all still made sense. This is high praise. Being a student of Frank Santoro’s, I can’t help but assume that Densford’s way of using layouts was conscious and not a fluke. The fact that Trench Dogs is essentially wordless aids in this amorphous way of reading. The reader is not locked onto a stream of dialogue that guides the action around the spread. We are free to see what we see without the confines of conversation or narration. The story itself is incredibly poignant and quite vicious. It is a war story or a story of a war. It does not pretend to do anything other than depict war and war’s violent consequences. Page after page, the reader is bombarded with terrifying realities of actual events. The rhythm of the constant chaos and depravity, 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3, starts to mess with you. After a while, you forget you are looking at drawings of animals and eventually you accept these images as the actual events they depict. There is little catharsis in reading Trench Dogs. I was quite shocked at the end when (no spoilers) after the war is over and medals are awarded, the violence continues back on our own soil completely separate and tangential from the war “over there.” Still, there is wisdom in this book in its depiction of human suffering, selfishness, selflessness and survival. Ian Densford steps back and triangulates the brutality of a war that laid waste to an entire continent and more as we stare in horror and amazement hoping we never share their fate, and yet it is difficult not to sympathize and even admire the victims whoever they might be. Death is the great equalizer and, when people encounter it, we can learn a lot from that. Ian Densford has masterfully managed to encapsulate that fact into a comic book. ——————————————————————————————— You can buy Trench Dogs directly from the publisher here. OR if you want to buy Trench Dogs directly from Ian, you can attend these shows on the following dates: – New York Comic Con, October 4-7 – UMBC Comic Con, October 27 – CAB, November 11 ——————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 9-13-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

01/24/2018

Posted on January 23, 2018March 13, 2018 by Juan Fernández

Juan empieza el día con José Fabián Estrada en Ecatepec!
——————————————

A partir de haber sido asaltado, el artista José Fabián Estrada ‘Perro’ plasmó la cotidianidad del crimen en el País en el fanzine ‘Ecatepec’, realizado por la editorial mexicana, Ediciones Hungría. Revista Yaconic os ofrece una entrevista con Estrada.

El artista José Fabián Estrada, conocido en los bajos mundos virtuales y ecatepunkeños como Perro, armó un libro para colorear, publicado por Ediciones Hungría, que retrata escenas de la vida diaria de aquella tierra mexiquense que fue su hogar por más de 29 años. “Ecatepec es una forma de vivir que te obliga a acostumbrarte a estar al tiro siempre”, dice sobre sus lares de origen, cuestión que, quienes hemos frecuentado aquel reino perdido, sabemos es ley.

¿Sobre qué es el libro?

Es un libro de personas y de situaciones de la vida diaria. Muchos que vean el libro van a decir “ah que cagado, eso ha de ser puro coto”, pero en realidad son cosas que pasan todos los días; a muchos le puede dar gracia el dibujo de un wey que trae una mochila del Verde que dice “Sí cumple”, pero a mí no me da nada de risa un tipo que tarda más de dos horas en transporte lleve una mochila de algo que le prometió una vida mejor pero que no hizo ni madres, que su salario siga de la verga y que además se lo puedan chingar unos culeros nomás para bajarle lo que trae; ni saber que ha personas de edad mayor que llevan haciendo la misma rutina por más de 30 años y ganar míseros 80 pesos al día.

Podéis leerla completa aquí.

—————————————————————————————————

Convocatorias + Deadlines:

¡¡Convocatoria abierta del I Concurso Nacional de Cómic Biblioteca Insular de Gran Canaria!! 3 premios y 9 accésits con una dotación de entre 3.000 y 400 euros y la publicación de las obras ganadoras en un volumen conjunto editado por Astiberri. Bases.
Deadline Reminder: submissions for Ink Brick no. 9 are due Monday, Feb 19, 2018! Do yourself a favor and submit your comics-poetry, won’t you?
La Casa Encendida y Fulgencio Pimentel siguen buscando un libro. La convocatoria de #PuchiAward 2018 está abierta a todo tipo de géneros y formas: ficción, no ficción, novela, poesía, cómic, álbum ilustrado, ensayo, libro de cocina, geografía… Hasta el 25 de enero.
Call for Chapter Contributions: Comics Beyond the Page in Latin America.

—————————————————————————————————

Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual.

Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE!

—————————————————————————————————

Cozytown – 01-23-2018 – by Juan Fernandez

—————————————————————————————————

Suzy and Cecil – 1-24-2018 – by Sally Ingraham

—————————————————————————————————

Joanie and Jordie- 1-24-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio

Share this page:

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged astiberri, Ecatepec, Ediciones Hungría, fulgencio pimentel, INK BRICK, José Fabián Estrada, la casa encendida

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 23, 2018March 13, 2018

Explore

08/21/2017

Caleb OrecchioAugust 20, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here with your Monday edition of the Daily News with some thoughts on drawing sparked by Eleanor Davis and the reputable discipline of Leslie Stein and Gary Panter–and remember not to go blind looking at the eclipse ———————————————————————————————— Recently, a friend of mine lent me Eleanor Davis’ recent Koyama Press release, You & A Bike & A Road. I read it on Tumblr when she was serializing it live (I think) as she embarked on her cross-country bike adventure which the book illustrates; but I never really took the time to notice how immediate the drawing is. From what I understand, these pages were drawn first take as she was making her way through her journey, like a diary, which is really impressive. The drawings are sparse and noodley, yet feel perfectly complete–and they teem with a pertinent energy. Last time I was in Pittsburgh, Frank Santoro talked a lot about Gary Panter and how he draws constantly. Even while you’re having a conversation, he’s just drawing away, “He’s just someone who draws all the time no matter what.” On the most recent episode of Greg Hunter’s “Comics Decalogue,” Katie Skelly talks about going to a bar with Leslie Stein and Gary Panter and, basically confirming Frank’s story, that both Stein and Panter drew while conversing the entire time they were hanging out. I think this idea of being a “drawer” is often lost on most cartoonists. I mean, we all draw, right? But how many of us REALLY draw all the time–and how many of us can draw in any other way than our “style?” Now, I’m not throwing shade to style, but I think it’s worth thinking about. When I was going to school for graphic design, the designer Timothy Goodman came to talk to us and one of his big statements I took away from his lecture was, “Don’t have a style.” His reasoning mostly pertained to the idea that having a style will basically hinder your creativity. Now, most cartoonists are not being asked to create an ad in 3 hours for Time Magazine like a highly in-demand designer like Goodman, BUT can anyone really argue that style often does limit the kind of stories a cartoonist can make? In fact, most styles can even limit a cartoonist to a demographic–speaking strictly, and generally, in marketing terms. What am I getting at? I’m not trying to preach or sound like I have THE answers, but what I like about Davis’ recent book is the fact that it is drawn. It’s not inked with a brush with every stroke carefully crafted and feathered. It’s just drawn. Ever seen a Brian Chippendale comic? He just draws them (mostly). Crumb? Moebius? (Conflict of interest warning:) Frank Santoro? Just drawn. I like “professionally” inked comics and comics where traditional craft is essential, but there is an immediacy that is stripped at every step of the process. It’s like going acoustic, once you add a drum kit, you have to turn up the volume on everything else and the intimacy gradually is drowned out. I’m working out these thoughts as I go–thanks for reading. Next week–Kirby’s 100th birthday:) ———————————————————————————————— yikes! I’ve been so pumped about drawing and Kirby’s 100th that I almost forgot other comics existed in the world. Here are some links I found after I came back to our reality. Don’t miss that eclipse. Here, everyone is going to be talking about this so get your info about the eclipse. If you want more info, try a google search. Yo, today is Marie Severin’s birthday. You know who Marie Severin is right? Get acquainted. Heroes punching Nazis has becoming a particularly pertinent topic lately. Speaking of Kirby, I’m suspicious of the new highly hyped-up Mister Miracle comic, but maybe it’s good–who knows. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 8-21-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ———————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 8-21-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/26/2018

Caleb OrecchioApril 26, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here filling in for Sam, and I’ve just read Prime Cuts #1! ————————————————————————————————— I am always interested in expanding the breadth of my comics knowledge, and was happy when Frank loaned me the first two issues of the Fantagraphics anthology, Prime Cuts. Published at the height of comics’ new respectable reputation in 1987. A nice black and white magazine featuring various comics work of the time from cutting edge cartoonists like Eddie Campbell, underground veterans like R. and Aline Crumb, and reprints of Cliff Sterrett sunday pages; and many many more. The mag even featured prose fiction, plus a great (as always) spirited editorial by Gary Groth in the first issue. The first two issues are solid, but definitely reflect the times and the growing pains of independent comics. A lot of stories are clunkers and seem so stiff and outdated to my millennial eyes, though they don’t take away from the great work. My favorite comic in the first issue has to be Eddie Campbell’s strip “Blues Blues Blues.” Campbell’s work really sings and emits much more electricity than the its neighbors. The strip is dated “’83” and it’s hard to tell if this was when the comic was made or when it takes place or both. Either way, the strip feels pertinent. Though I hate to use this cliché when describing art, “Blues Blues Blues” is kind of sexy. Sexy in the way one would describe Mean Streets or Reservoir Dogs at the time those movies were released if you liked them (and people tended to either love or hate them). There’s a freshness to the comic that you can’t help but be attracted to. The story emphasizes the recklessness of youth. The constant drinking and smoking and mingling and sulking and loving and losing that young people simultaneously rue and romanticize as they experience them. This idea is illustrated through a collage-y, unruled series of images supplemented by Campbell’s lyrical writing along the left side (Campbell is secretly one of comics’ best writers of words). Compound that with the signature loose-yet-perfect drawing, and you got yourself a classic. It feels like a diary or private confessional or memories jotted down in a notebook. I felt like I was hanging out with Campbell and George and all the other lads and lasses, smoking cigarettes and drinking liquor and splashing in the water. His hangover is my hangover. It’s excellent. Unfettered thoughts and embarrassing stories. Real intimate like a folk set in 1955 at Café Wha? or something “They don’t make ’em like they used to,” as the saying goes. I am simply smitten. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Michael Tisserand on the cartoonist, Eugene Majied, who had a big impact on a certain famous boxer over at TCJ.com. While you’re there, check out the interview with Jared Smith of Big Planet Comics. Josh Simmons is the latest guest on Process Party. Rob Clough reviews books by Sara Lautman and Tom Van Deusen. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-26-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

05/06/2016

Sally IngrahamMay 6, 2016NewsWolverine still walks the wilds of Canada via Michael Comeau’s pen – Alyssa Berg frees her mind through the mysteries of the grid – Erik Nebel reverses expectations in every direction – the laughs come from Fabio Tonetto – the tears (perhaps) come from Lisa Wilde – Free Comic Book Day is upon us – and Bruce Lee never dies. ————————————————————————————————— Philippe Leblanc converses with Michael Comeau at Barbed Comics, digging deep into the why and how of Comeau’s Hellberta (available through Colour Code Printing). Michael Comeau is a Canadian cartoonist living in Toronto. Extensive travel throughout the provinces informed the creation of Hellberta over an 8-year period, and the book is a filter through which Comeau examines Canada’s complex relationship with the oil industry, and the mysterious “Canadian Identity”. Or, as the recently released collected edition is described – “The gloom, the entitlement, the desecration of the tar sands hangs over a province, a nation. Dirty oil addiction. A popular myth set in the rocky mountains. A mutant named Logan. A poetic salve for sore eyes weeping for a metaphorical context. WWWD? What would Wolverine do?…” The interview between Comeau and Philippe Leblanc ranges far and wide, hitting upon the nature of narrative, learning how to make comics, road tripping adventures, the shifting political climate in Canada, and exactly how tangled up Wolverine is in it all. Interesting on a number of levels – read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Alyssa Berg delivers Part Two of her museum-visit-inspired process meditation series today, this time exploring the grid with us. “Sometimes my mind is unwell, or full of complicated messy things or unable to think of new ideas (‘creative block’, I guess?). When I am in this state, I let my wild, creative mind rest. One way to do this is by going into a gentle analytical and physical practice. I sit down at my desk and pre-draw pages of panels and grids. Similar to preparing my work space as mentioned in Part One, pre-drawing panels and grids is a simple concentration-meditation that doesn’t require much thought (common theme: freedom from the mind!).” Read all of Part Two HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Drew Miller interviewed Erik Nebel recently, and their conversation is full of important stuff – ‘Drew Miller – You use vibrating colors as indicators of form, specifically for referencing the human body. The colors are strong on the screen! The drawing relies much less on direct line-work, which is uncharacteristic for the medium of comics. It’s an interesting way to develop distinct forms and negative space. Can you talk about color at all? Erik Nebel – I think of color in a way that may be different from how other cartoonists think of color. Traditionally, in our popular narratives, dark colors are associated with sadness and badness and things that are primitive, and light colors are associated with goodness and happiness and things that are civilized. That’s completely racist. It’s part of binary thinking. It’s poison in our society. I’m trying to reverse those expectations with my comics.’ Read the rest HERE, and follow Erik Nebel’s daily comic posts on his tumblr. ————————————————————————————————— Giving a shout out to cartoonist Fabio Tonetto, whose work has been cracking me up lately. Check out the rest of the comic above on Vice. ————————————————————————————————— Lisa Wilde’s Lacunae: Elegy For My Mother just finished being serialized on Mutha Magazine. A recent press release about the series described it as – “…a webzine that pushes the boundaries between comics and art. Tracing an arc from childhood to adulthood, the piece gives form to the unconscious side of a life narrative through single-image pages and minimal text. Wilde’s visceral and powerful drawings reference children’s art, comics, Jungian archetypes, and artists as wide-ranging as Chagall, Munch, and Eva Hesse.” Start from the beginning HERE, and follow this link to a list of all 5 parts. ————————————————————————————————— Another reminder that tomorrow (Sat. May 7th!) is Free Comic Book Day. Find a participating store near you via the Store Locator, call them up to get the details, and plan to get there early! I’ll be running out myself to find a copy of this sweet looking Bruce Lee comic! ————————————————————————————————— While we’re on the topic, here are a couple of apparently “lost sketches” by Bruce Lee, and the brief story behind them. ————————————————————————————————— Thanks for hanging out in the Comics Workbook newsroom this week! Meet back here bright and early Monday. Cheers! – Sally 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: [...]

06/28/2016

Aaron CockleJune 27, 2016NewsAaron Cockle with Warren Craghead Comics; Pioneers of the Comic-Strip; Comix 4 Orlando; Hilda on Netflix; Flag Press!; Schulz/Ford; Rowhouse Auction Continues ————————————————————————————————— Colonialism by Warren Craghead CW’s Featured Comics continues this week with work by Warren Craghead III from 2013. ————————————————————————————————— Pioneers of the Comic Strip: A different Avant-Garde June 23–September 18, 2016 Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt Spectacular, large and colorful – this is how comic strips captured their audience. Around 1897, the middle classes, working classes and the army of immigrants were equally fascinated by the unfamiliar visual experience they encountered in US newspapers. The comic strip was the first illustrated mass medium in history, reproduced millionfold. In a society without television and the Internet that was quite a radical development. With an extensive exhibition, SCHIRN presents the pioneers of the comic strip, who set the artistic and substantive standards of early comic strips in an experimental and progressive way. This also highlights the relationship of comic strips and colorful newspaper supplements with the developments in visual arts at the time. The SCHIRN presents the cultural history of the comic strip in an outstanding series of selected works, primarily by American illustrators: Winsor McCay, Lyonel Feininger, Charles Forbell, George Herriman, Cliff Sterrett and Frank King. Unforgettable is Herriman’s absurd humor in Krazy Kat (from 1913), the expressionist, cubist and surrealist imagery by McCay and Sterrett, Feininger’s comic series for the Chicago Tribune (from 1906/07), or Gasoline Alley by King (from 1921), told in real time over a period of three decades. With Forbell’s Gesamtkunstwerk Naughty Pete (1913), a today rather unknown draftsman can be rediscovered in this exhibition. He was among those many artists who, albeit only for a short yet extremely progressive time, devoted themselves to comic strips, but quickly vanished due to lack of success. — Via e-flux ————————————————————————————————— COMIX 4 ORLANDO Benefit Come enjoy a night of fantastic comix presented by queer artists! These include: Yao Xiao, Max Wittert, Hazel Reed Newlevant, Bishakh Som, Chris Russo, Kat Fajardo, +more TBA. They will be raising funds to support those affected by the Pulse attack in Orlando. Your donations can get you raffle tickets to win a fabulous prize bundle of work made by our featured artists. $10 SUGGESTED donation. No one will be turned away. (Every $5 will get you one raffle ticket!) PLEASE COME AND SUPPORT! Tuesday, June 28, 8-10PM at Over the Eight, 594 Union Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211 ————————————————————————————————— Hilda is coming to Netflix As revealed in a recent New Yorker profile, Luke Pearson‘s Hilda will be coming to Netflix in 2018. ————————————————————————————————— E’ nata Flag Press! Translated from the Italian via Google Translate: Perhaps not everyone knows that along with Ratigher I founded a small publishing house, the Flag Press, who intends to publish comics in a single format, horizontal poster 70 × 100 with two facing pages… I already thought of cubes, boxes or phones but actually no, it was poster, as he revealed to me a few months later inviting me to become his shoulder in the enterprise (by the way do not try to trick me the idea of Phone Books, Comics in the form of phone). Since then we have seen fit to what we wanted to do with Flag Press, and, beyond the choice of authors, our vision has focused on the concept of “history.” To both like trials, comic absurd and sometimes even seemingly meaningless, but what we want to accomplish here is to tell on a poster, make an object that narrative has always been mainly figurative, also making it possible for authors indulge graphically on the largest publishing format possible. And I believe that theory, practical and even Ratigher theory is really the “manifesto” of this our idea, with a story full of characters, the dialogues pressing, small cartoons and the aircraft giant is cut in two by the white space between the boards. Ah, on the back of the poster are in black and white the English translation of the story. In the future, if the cartoonist would write in English, on the back you will find the translation in Italian. Look for work from Ruppert & Mulot, Manuele Fior and Dash Shaw. Image above by Ratigher, Flag Press #1: “Teoria, pratica e ancora teoria”. ————————————————————————————————— Gabby Schulz Interviewed by Sean Ford SICK is the story of the author being laid down by an illness in his cramped Brooklyn apartment. The story begins as a Kafka-esque exploration of the trials and tribulations of trying to attain treatment without having the insurance or money to do so, but soon morphs into a brutally frank self-assessment of not only the narrator’s personal failures, but also the failures of predominantly white Western culture and the systems and structures we’re all beholden to and a part of. ————————————————————————————————— Private Rowhouse Auction Continues We have a new private auction up at auction.comicsworkbook.com. email Frank Santoro at santoroschoolATgmail for a password, if you don’t already have one. If you already have a password, it is the same from last week. All funds go to helping keep the lights on and further developing the school. Note: Connor Willumsen is offering commission sketches. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply