Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged brie moreno, caleb orecchio, pittsburgh comics salong, sally ingraham

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 2, 2017January 9, 2017

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03/16/2017

Sally IngrahamMarch 15, 2017NewsSally here with comics and news from Kyle Baker, Aphton Corbin, Shannon Wright, Keith Knight, Sam Ombiri, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright has a new comic about Bessie Coleman, made for KAZOO Magazine – the first part is above and you can see the rest HERE! ————————————————————————————————— I dashed headlong through Kyle Baker‘s I Die At Midnight (2000) the other day when it turned up in the library at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. One of Baker’s favorite short stories, it was the 2nd comic he made that used 3D graphics and his 1st comic that was drawn entirely on the computer. Perusing it 17 years after the comic was first published, I am astounded by how good it looks. Even though the technology has improved since then, most comics I’ve seen recently that employ digital artwork don’t look this good. What Baker was doing in 2000 with these “new” tools and tricks still looks fresh, and there’s an inventiveness and joy here that hasn’t faded or grown dated. It’s crazy to think that this was his starting point for digital artwork and he only got better from here – gasoline on a flame type stuff. This comic, and his work that followed, doesn’t look like it was “built” in Photoshop – there is a naturalness to it which comes from Baker’s outrageous drawing chops, expressive characterizations, and eye for color. The story in I Die At Midnight also happens to be a wildly entertaining piece of chaos – as Baker describes it: “The Good News is Muriel has decided to take Larry back. The Bad News is Larry’s just swallowed a bottle of pills and he can’t tell her about it, or she’ll leave him again. With a stomachful of poison, Larry must race across Manhattan to meet up with the only person who can save his life and keep his secret. But first he’s got to get through a crowd of millions in Times Square – and Muriel’s Murderous Ex-Boyfriend.“ 64 pages of non-stop action, with sequences that somehow combine 3 plotlines at once (employing a blur/fade technique that really puts digital art to WORK), this comic is worth tracking down if you’ve never read it and reading again if you have. You can get a copy from Kyle Baker himself HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I came across this comic made by Aphton Corbin recently – she is a storyboard artist at Pixar but has also been publishing a comic about her life and experiences as a black female on her tumblr. The start of the most recent episode is above, but there are plenty more HERE. Check them out! ————————————————————————————————— Coming to the Brooklyn Museum this spring is the exhibition We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 (APRIL 21–SEPTEMBER 17, 2017). “Focusing on the work of black women artists, We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 examines the political, social, cultural, and aesthetic priorities of women of color during the emergence of second-wave feminism. It is the first exhibition to highlight the voices and experiences of women of color—distinct from the primarily white, middle-class mainstream feminist movement—in order to reorient conversations around race, feminism, political action, art production, and art history in this significant historical period.“ Not comics, but definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area! More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The latest strip from Keith Knight. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri – 3-16-2017 ————————————————————————————————— The Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers has begun! There is a rolling start date for this semester of the course and we are continuing to take applications. Just apply! The course is 8 weeks long – 500 bux – payment plans are available. More details can be found HERE – or email santoroschoolATgmail. Recent comics by course grads November Garcia and Drew Lerman can be seen HERE and HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-16-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-16-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-16-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

02/26/2018

Caleb OrecchioFebruary 26, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with more on Barry Windsor-Smith, and other news. ————————————————————————————————— It’s just another Saturday morning in the big city. June 9th, 1973. Eastbound 26th Street is blocked by two refrigerator trucks who stalled at the Lexington intersection. Horns resound in fury. Barry Smith looks up from the desk he’s working at to see the commotion. His mind starts to swirl. The window from the apartment looking over New York City becomes a vision of sublime psychedelia. Cosmic phenomena burst forth displaying a beautiful array of heavenly bodies, he can see lightyears away. Smith feels a nudge to his perceived center. This was the second time in 24-hours Smith had experienced this happening. He will have a much more intense revelation tomorrow. It’s springtime in London, 1966. Barry Smith and a friend are strolling across a field, a couple and their dog walk just ahead. The dog turns and barks. Everyone looks over their shoulder. Above the field hovers a UFO. Smith can just make out the details of the underside’s tubes and ducts, shadowed by the blinding light emitting from the cluster of lights that blazed from the center. The ship rises and eventually disappears to the west. Everyone left the scene without a word. Five years later in 1971, Smith’s aforementioned friend tells our hero about a dream he had recently. He describes the spaceship he and Smith saw in 1966. Our hero is unable to tell him that it wasn’t a dream. Back to 1973. It’s Sunday, or it was Sunday June 10th, 1973. Smith has had his third vision in as many days. In fact, the encounter lasted into the next morning. It’s now Monday, almost 4:00 am. His body is rendered completely and utterly exhausted. He can hardly stand. He stumbles from the studio, down the stairs and into the streets of New York in 1973 on the corner of 26th Street and Lexington Avenue. Two men are fighting just outside the door. A cop car wails past them, making them scarce. Smith heads for home just a couple blocks down. Every ounce of strength the experience left him with sustains his balance as he heaves one foot in front of the other. Just short of a football field from his destination, two men emerge from the shadows. One brandishes a knife. In an act of sheer survival, our hero emits a barbaric and violent scream—charging headlong towards his foe. The would-be assailants step aside, letting our hero pass in peace. In the summer of 1973, Smith was no longer the regular artist on the Marvel comic book series he had started with Roy Thomas, Conan the Barbarian; but he was working on an adaption of “Red Nails,” the last Conan story by Robert E. Howard, for the new Marvel magazine Savage Tales. On top of this, he was adapting, for the same mag, Howard’s poem, “Cimmeria.” Not to mention helping his friend and studio-mate with concepts for advertisements for big-name clients. Stories of June 1973 taken from Opus Volume 1 by Barry Windsor-Smith. UFO story from Streetwise, an anthology of autobio comics; Smith’s story is called “UFO POV.” ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Frank Santoro is blind-auctioning a copy of Fantastic Four #52, first appearance of Black Panther, on this very site. It’s for a good cause, follow the link for details. Bill Boichel, proprietor of Copacetic Comics here in Pittsburgh, is interviewed on local podcast, The Gross Street Podcast. Alex Dueben interviews David Collier at TCJ.com. I’ve been going back to this CBR.com preview of the first volume of Inside Moebius until I come up with the funds to hold it in my hands. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-26-2018 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

10/28/2016

Sally IngrahamOctober 28, 2016NewsSally Ingraham here with a whole lot of comics journalism – Sarah Glidden, Katie Fricas, Rachel Dukes, Steph Neary, and the many makers at Drawing the Times share the world according to their pens or brushes – while Aidan Koch and Vanesa R. Del Ray are caught on film, and Pittsburgh is visited by comics master (and another journalist) Rick Geary. ————————————————————————————————— Meg Lemke presents Sarah Glidden‘s new work Rolling Blackouts on PEN America this week – check out Meg’s thoughts HERE, as well as a generous selection from the book. PRI also has a feature on Sarah and Rolling Blackouts – HERE. The book is about a month-long journey she took in 2010 through Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. She was traveling with old friends who were also journalists. ‘ “The goal of the trip was really to show journalism: how it’s made, how difficult it is to do this work, how it’s more than just going in, reporting on a story and getting out of there.” Glidden quickly saw the conflicting pressures the reporters were under. “You know, journalists really care about the stories they’re working on, but they also have to think about marketing, their audience, and how they’re going to get someone to take time out of their day and read their article or watch their documentary. And this is a struggle I think that all journalists have to go through. I just really wanted to show that process.” ‘ – Sarah Glidden via PRI Read the rest of the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Katie Fricas has a spooky comic up on Hyperallergic called Doomocracy. It charts her navigation of Mexican artist Pedro Reyes’s politically themed haunted house – a huge installation piece at the Brooklyn Army Terminal that was funded through Kickstarter and features encounters with gun nuts, climate change, weird crops, and the specters haunting the presidential race. Katie finds it quite frightening indeed. Read the rest of the comic HERE. Learn more about Doomocracy HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Rachel Dukes has a comic on The Nib this week about The IUD Obstacle Course – and if after digging into this plus Katie Fricas’s and Sarah Glidden’s weighty works you want still more comics that deals with real world problems – pen nibs blazing – tromp on over to Drawing the Times, a website devoted to graphic journalism. ————————————————————————————————— ??30min digital warm up?? inspired by @shlohmo – Ten Days of Falling ? A video posted by Vanesa R. Del Rey (@vrdelrey) on Oct 27, 2016 at 10:36am PDT Vanesa R. Del Rey often posts videos like these on her Instagram account, offering an amazing glimpse into her working life – follow her at @vrdelrey. ————————————————————————————————— Aidan Koch‘s work is part of a show at the Whitney Museum of American Art – Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016. It will be on view through Feb. 5th, 2017. Aidan Koch’s work seen at the Whitney Museum of American Art – part of the exhibition Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016 – on view through Feb. 5th 2017 @aidanalexiskoch – thanks to Katherine Ball for the glimpse @katbusbrawl #aidankoch #whitneymuseum A video posted by Comics Workbook (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 26, 2016 at 2:05pm PDT Katherine Ball got a look at Aidan’s work and shared the video above. ————————————————————————————————— I need to catch up on Lumberjanes this fall, and had a nice reminder recently in the form of the little Booooooooom! Box Halloween Haunt 2016 freebie, which included sections of Lumberjanes, Giant Days, The Backstagers, and Goldie Vance. I was particularly delighted to note that Carey Pietsch drew issues #29-32 of Lumberjanes (see her work above) – Carey is a former student of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers. Check out Carey Pietsch’s work HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Steph Neary filled in for Nils Balls this week, taking on the Glassblock Pittsburgh City Council comic. This bit of comics journalism has been developed by Nils Balls over the course of the last year, and has gained a large following. It is yet another part of the rich culture of comics and cartooning found in this city! ————————————————————————————————— Speaking of that rich culture, the ToonSeum hosted Rick Geary last night for a wonderful presentation on his career and large, fantastic body of work. He talked about finding focus and direction during his 4 year stint as the art director for The Prairie Journal of Wichita, Kansas, his work for National Lampoon and the New York Review of Books, and his recent experience with self-publishing and utilizing Kickstarter. Here’s a bit of video from the event: It was a true pleasure to meet this master cartoonist – thanks Rick! (Further reading: check out this 2014 interview with Rick Geary over on The Comics Journal.) ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Reporter has a comprehensive list of all Cartoon Crossroads Columbus-related reports – check it out. Here on the site we have our own massive roundup post of CXC-related stories and reports. We also have Frank’s LICAF report along with the thoughts of Aidan Koch and other CW students – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Even if you didn’t making it to one of the Comics Workbook-hosted workshops at SPX, CXC, or LICAF this year, you can still bring your comics game to a new level via thee Santoro School Handbook for Making Better Comics by Frank Santoro and Kurt Ankeny. Printed offset on cardstock by the professionals at The Prolific Group, Winnipeg, Canada, this is not some cheap color xerox or risograph. Looks great, feels great, and even smells great. Always available at our store HERE – free shipping worldwide! ————————————————————————————————— Have a happy Halloweenie weekend folks! – Sally Share this page: [...]

01/30/2017

Sally IngrahamJanuary 29, 2017NewsSally Ingraham here to start the week off with news out of Angouleme, highly anticipated comics of 2017, new work from Noah Van Sciver, comics by Leah Hayes, Gabriella Tito, and Caleb Orecchio. ————————————————————————————————— “The Paste Comics Crew” has a new list for us – this time it’s the 35 Most Anticipated Comics of 2017. As they enthusiastically put it: “…a metric ton of sequential art gold is scheduled to hit shelves. Curiously, our list is light on mainstream capes and cowls despite the genre’s outstanding frequency. Instead, a slew of other genre and indie work has us feverishly thrilled. A new adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods will transition to panels, helmed by the author’s Sandman collaborators Craig P. Russell and Scott Hampton. The sci-fi corner will embrace a deeper shade of nihilism via James Stokoe’s Aliens: Dead Orbit and Jonathan Hickman’s delayed Frontier—a return for the creator to design-driven illustration alongside his winding plot development. Michael DeForge, Jillian Tamaki and Eleanor Davis will debut new projects and collections that will probably make our best of ’17 list (let’s be honest) and C. Spike Trotman and Jess Fink will continue to show why comics are the new home for female-friendly sexuality. Speaking of: don’t even get us started on the untitled Fall surprise from Tula Lotay and Becky Cloonan. We’ve also included a few early-to-mid January releases that are definitely worth your time.“ Check out the whole list HERE. ————————————————————————————————— There will be a lot more buzz this week about the 44th Angouleme International Comics Festival, but beating everyone else out of the gate is this fantastic story about the first South Korean cartoonist to be honored with a prize from the festival. Ancco, (the pen name of Choi Kyung-jin) was awarded the Prix Revelation for her comic Bad Friend. The festival has served in recent years as a gateway for Korean comics to find their way to European readers. The festival organizers, who had nominated Bad Friend for the Best Comic Book award as well, wrote that Ancco: “…paints an uncompromising picture of Korean society torn between tradition and modernity, haunted by the ghosts of history and shaken by Western materialistic civilization.” They also said of her work: “She appears as the spokesperson of Korean youth’s malaise through a cartoon centered on the daily lives of teenagers. Freeing the long-repressed language of Korean youth, it has become a reference for a whole generation.” – via The Korea Times Winning the Prix Revelation – which is given to up-and-coming cartoonists who have published no more than three comic books in French – will garner Ancco attention from all over Europe. She spoke to the Korea Manhwa Contents Agency (KOMACON) about the experience of being at the festival this year and winning the award: “I used to consider myself to be someone who led a weird, lonely life in Korea. But now I am here. This is, I think, the power of comics… My particular thanks to Kim Dae-jung, CEO of Sai Comics, who introduced me to the festival and told me, ‘You are not the only strange one. There are so many people like you out there.’ ” – via Yonhap News Bad Friends, or Mauvaises Filles as the French edition is titled, will hopefully make it into English someday soon. Meanwhile, you can see more of the book HERE. And a bit more about the author can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— In somewhat related news: Posy Simmonds (who was president of the jury at the 44th Angouleme International Comics Festival) is working on a new book about a “fat, rich, greedy, stupid and criminal” member of the British upper middle class, according to the Malay Mail Online. Posy Simmonds is the author of Tamara Drew and Gemma Bovary (both of which have been adapted into films). She was recently nominated for induction into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. Now aged 71 and able to draw for only 10 minute spurts, she nevertheless says the book is “well advanced” and I am hopeful that we will get a peak at it soon. Good luck Posy! France 24‘s Olivia Salazar-Winspear spoke to Posy Simmonds recently about her well-known work, about presiding over the jury at Angouleme and the increase in comics festivals, about women making comics, and about the good handbags that French ladies have…! It’s delightful. Check out the video HERE. Here’s a bit more about her adventures as the president of the jury at Angouleme – if you can read French (or are willing to pound that Google translate button and wade through it!) ————————————————————————————————— There is an article about the comics newspaper RESIST! over on Hyperallergic with a lot of scans of the pages – good news for those of you who didn’t managed to get your hands on a copy of this already rare item. ————————————————————————————————— The New York Times has hurt a lot of feelings recently with the announcement that they are discontinuing their graphic novel bestsellers lists. “The Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul confirmed that the paper will discontinue a number of its lists, including Hardcover Graphic Novel, Paperback Graphic Novel and Manga, effective Feb. 5. The sense of loss among authors and publishers, readers and retailers is profound.” – Michael Cavna for the Washington Post Despite some tweets that seem to indicate that Pamela Paul has a poor opinion of comics in general (I’m referring to comments that she made about John Lewis’, Andrew Aydin’s, and Nate Powell’s March which began with “hey, kids” and finished by calling March a “children’s book“), she has gone on to say that cutting these lists will allow the Times to actually expand its “graphics-book coverage.” We’ll see about that. Over on The Comics Beat Alexander Lu puts the ramifications of this bluntly: “The fact that comics had a bestseller list devoted to them was a symbolic sign of the medium’s importance to one of the nation’s most respectable media outlets and their importance to the nation at large. Moreover, there are few stronger marketing loglines than “New York Times bestseller.” While the Times is foremost a media outlet and not a marketing firm, the way their endorsements affect sales and popular discourse cannot be ignored. The decision to eliminate these lists will have implications for our conversations and our bottom lines.“ It’s hard not to be annoyed by this whole thing, especially when Pamela Paul piles the graphic bestseller lists on top of other “genre” lists that the Times has been planning to cut since last year. COMICS ARE A MEDIUM NOT A GENRE! For the millionth time…come on, people. More about the cuts HERE on the Washington Post. ————————————————————————————————— Meg Lemke presents Leah Hayes’ Not Funny Ha-Ha for the Illustrated PEN. Read Meg’s thoughts about the comic and an excerpt from it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Noah Van Sciver has a new weekly strip in Columbus Alive called The Introvert Club (above) – check it out! Noah has been serializing his own graphic memoir nearly everyday via his Patreon – it is called One Dirty Tree and is “about growing up in a poor, unsteady Mormon family and its affects 20 years later in my life trying to hold together a relationship of my own and while making a name for myself in alternative comics.” You can see a 3-page excerpt over on his website – HERE – but to read the rest, consider supporting Noah’s Patreon. He is one of the hardest working cartoonists you’ll ever meet whose work is consistently funny and heartrending. I hope he continues making them forever – and it would be nice if he could have a real live cat someday…! ————————————————————————————————— Bits and Bobs Jack Mendelsohn, creator of the brief but brilliant comic strip Jacky’s Diary (1959-1961), among many other comics projects, past away on Jan. 25th 2017. Dan Nadel writes about Jack’s life and work over on The Comics Journal. Rob Clough wrote about Marnie Galloway’s mini-comics on High-Low last week. Heidi MacDonald says (via The Beat) that the TV show Riverdale, which is based on Archie comics…is pretty good. Should we try it out? Tom Spurgeon is updating his massive list of “all things comics-related by metropolitan area“. Last updated in 2014, it needs a careful overhaul – help Tom out HERE. There is an Instagram account devoted to “showcasing the most beautiful scenes, colours, sets and abstract compositions of The Simpsons.” Juan Fernandez showed the account to me and then riffed: “No cropping involved – just screen capping (moments chosen as opposed to aspects of moments chosen). It’s more about what is latent in The Simpsons than how the person curating this blog has chosen to present and eliminate – i.e. these compositions have all passed in front of viewers eyes, and to me that’s interesting.” Check out @scenic_simpsons. ————————————————————————————————— Needed: more comics in the world. If you want to make comics but you don’t know how to start, consider a crash course in the methods of the Santoro School – check out the handbook HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-30-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-30-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

07/06/2017

Sally IngrahamJuly 6, 2017NewsSally here with new work from Kyle Baker, old work from Jay Jackson, and more! ———————————————————————————————— The work of Jay Jackson – a pioneering African-American cartoonist who died in 1954 – has risen to the surface of the internet sea, and Steven Thompson shares pages from the strip Home Folks, and a little info on the creator, over on his blog Booksteve’s Library. “His weekly panel HOME FOLKS, always crowded with many characters and variations on a theme a la a number of classic cartoon panels dating back to the 1920s, is brilliant. Running exclusively in small African-American newspapers, week after week he managed to hit the nail on the head regarding not just exclusively the black experience but human life in general–even animal life at times. It was all recognizable and relatable…“ See more of Jackson’s work HERE. (via tcj.com) ———————————————————————————————— Kyle Baker has turned his comics know-how to Gumby recently. “The A.V. Club has an exclusive look at Baker’s entire story in next week’s Gumby #1, and he’s using a style that he previously tried out on Plastic Man, removing black outlines so that the images on the page look like they’re made out of layers of construction paper. It adds a tactile quality to the art, which makes a lot of sense for a property that started with three-dimensional clay figurines. The characters still have the exaggerated expressions that Baker is known for, and this rendering choice makes the entire story feel lighter and more childish. This first issue also features stories by writers Ray Fawkes and Jeff Whitman (Managing Editor or Papercutz), artist Jolyon Yates, and colorists Laurie E. Smith and Matt Herms, and reader can discover each creative team’s take on the property when Gumby #1 goes on sale July 5.“ Read more and see The A. V. Club‘s exclusive look HERE. ———————————————————————————————— The Comics Journal features an interview between Gary Panter and Dash Shaw – they break down Panter’s new book Songy of Paradise (Fantagraphics, May 2017) in a number of different ways, but it was these comments from Panter about working within your limitations that stuck with me: “Shaw: One time, I can’t remember how you said it, but it’s always stuck with me. I was at your place and you were telling me about your beaded necklaces or something that you were working on, and you had all these different, experimental, non-commercial projects– projects that might not have any audience– and you said that being raised Christian helped you follow all these unusual ideas, because you always had the impression that you were being watched. Panter: Yeah, I’m not sure about the first half, if it propels me, but I do have the feeling of being watched. I was thinking about that today, it’s odd. We were taught that there’d be the Day of Judgment, it’d all play back. And it would be really fucking embarrassing, you know? [Shaw laughs] [Jokingly] Why did he spend all this time drawing comics?! Well, I dunno, you just decide what you’re good at, what fascinates you, and you kind of go for it. I don’t really have giant resources, I’m limited in a lot of ways, so I can do these… Like if I take up lanyards, which I have as part of my little projects—lanyard making, like you made at summer camp, those woven plastic gimp things. When I learned how to do that—I’m completely untalented at it, but I can invent my version of it, I can get as far as I can get. It’s the same with my candles, my comics, my paintings, my music—everything. I’m working within my limitations. So if you’re working within your limitations, you can actually get stuff done. “ Read the rest of the interview HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Julian Lyte talks to Ulises Farinas about Farinas’ publishing imprint Buno, and his ideas about comics distribution and pre-ordering, on the Ignorant Bliss podcast. Check it out HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Connor Willumsen is having a screen print sale! The screening series is called Cinema1999 – prints are 20 bucks and shipped rolled, editions of around 25 – limited supplies. Check it out HERE! ———————————————————————————————— We are already in the midst of our second summer running the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency! Above is a collection of photos from our first summer, into the winter of 2017, and beyond. More photos and info on the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency can be found HERE! ———————————————————————————————— 7-6-2017 – by Sam Ombiri ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-6-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-6-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

01/02/2017

Posted on January 2, 2017January 9, 2017 by Juan Fernández

Juan here. New year. New comics. Hope you’re harnessing some positive energy around you to accomplish what’s important to you. I’m doing my best here in Pittsburgh, PA!

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Pittsburgh Comics Salon meets this week on Wednesday at Lili Cafe under Copacetic Comics. Can’t wait. If you’re in Pittsburgh, I hope to see you there, ready to for some comics making drills and exercises.

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Here are some comics and news that I think you should pay attention to:

The last issue of Kevin Huizenga’s Ganges – arguably the most mechanically inventive and robust 2 color offset comic of the early 21st century – is coming out this March via Fantagraphics.
Australians have put together a Minicomic Club you can subscribe to this year. $52 AUD for international shipping. $1/week for Australian comics. Think Oily Comics but 1 chunky comic instead 5 slim ones.
The Unofficial Cuckoo’s Nest Study Companion by Luke Healy is now online. Brilliant mix of narrative modes. If you liked Synechdoche, NY or anything in the Charlie Kaufmann vein. You’ll love this.
Simon Reinhardt: What if Saul Steinberg and Jules Feiffer occupied the place of R. Crumb and Will Eisner in american comics history? Juicy TwitterCrit thoughts on mainstream, yet non-dominant alternative strains of american cartooning.

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Forge Art Magazine‘s put out a nice little interview with Brie Moreno. Sit down, grab a marker or pen and doodle while you get to know Brie if you have a free moment. If you’re already hep to Brie’s work, pass the signal along so more people can appreciate what she’s up to.

I met Brie (AKA Booger Brie) and Matthew James-Wilson, editor of Forge Art Magazine at CAB this year. They were really kind and had the goods. Good people. This is important. I had questions about what they’ve been doing, and they were actually interested in my interest. No upturned noses. Thank you.

Brie’s got an exciting world of comics and zines that you can dive into. Honest and wonky ideas that flow and cross back and forth across her zines. Chunky lines that ooze and distort familiar forms. Chunky hyucks.

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Something a little different for you, from the Comics Workbook school store: Gary Panter generously donated these two seminal books – Cola Madnes, the long lost graphic novel that was to be published in Japan in the early 80’s, and 100 Drawings, where Gary documents many of his best commissions. This set is available HERE.

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Joanie and Jordie – 1-2-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Suzy and Cecil – 1-2-2017 – by Sally Ingraham

We collected the Suzy and Cecil strips that Sally Ingraham and Gabriella Tito drew in 2016 (not all of which were published in the Daily News) and shared them HERE.

The series updates daily on Instagram – follow along HERE.

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged brie moreno, caleb orecchio, pittsburgh comics salong, sally ingraham

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 2, 2017January 9, 2017

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08/02/2017

Juan FernándezAugust 2, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con Power Paola y autobiografía ficticia; Sarah Glidden y el Arte de la Guerra; La Polola; Juan Mediavilla; Caminos da HQ; Enrique’s Shadow; y los tebeos de Cómics Workbook! ————————————————————————————————— POWERPAOLA- Dibujos nómadas y autobiografía ficticia Abril Castillo Cabrera les ofrece sus reflecciones sobre la relación entre la ficción y la no-ficción que bailan juntas en el mundo de autobiografía: Powerpaola escribe autobiografías (“no-ficción”) y confiesa su dificultad para escribir historias que no sean las suyas (“ficción”). Con todo, ha tomado la decisión de hablar de su vida y ponerla en orden para narrarla en forma de novela gráfica. Ese ejercicio provee de un distanciamiento que parecería volverla ajena a ella misma. Pasa lo mismo cuando uno se acuesta en un diván por primera vez y ante el silencio del psicoanalista comienza a tejer un relato; se trata de poner en orden situaciones, personajes y sentimientos que vuelan como luciérnagas desamparadas que metemos en un frasco. Algunas brillan y otras no. Algunas mueren y otras sobreviven. Así son los recuerdos que tenemos, esa materia de la que nos hacemos y recreamos. Algunas partes de nuestra infancia llegan a nuestra vida adulta y otras son liberadas para siempre. Unas de pronto regresan y bien nos reconfortan o nos destruyen. Pero todas nos conforman: las personas con las que estuvimos y con las que estamos, las pérdidas y los nuevos encuentros, los lugares tangibles y los imaginarios, lo que leemos y lo que escribimos. Su trabajo inicialmente plantado desde la no-ficción pronto se vio zurcido con las imágenes de su madre antes de que ella naciera o al dibujar un escenario que Paola nunca habitó; todo eso es imaginación que construye una descripción objetiva de un recuerdo que no tiene. En su primer libro, Virus tropical, recreó la génesis de su propia vida y seleccionó a los personajes y los lugares. Quizá en el camino contestó varios porqués sobre sí misma, pero esta podría ser sólo una de las mil razones por las que en general un artista se vuelca a hacer algo. El resultado no es ninguna verdad, sino una atmósfera a la que podemos acceder, un relato con un principio y un cierre, una reelaboración de su vida y un puente que tiende con la vida de los demás que la leemos. Léanlo AQUI – Read it all HERE. ————————————————————————————————— El Arte de la Guerra Sarah Glidden tiene un nuevo comic este fin de semana en El País Semanal sobre arte y violencia. Nos ofrece reflexiónes sobre Goya, Picasso y el papel del arte en nuestra cultura. (ed. Brush up on your spanish if you need to because this is a GREAT read.) ————————————————————————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan acerca de la sanacion, de ayudarse a si mismas, de poner atención a sus problemas y a solucionar sus dolencias de maneras diversas. También les presentan a su practicante Sol Bravo (@sunmorales)! Una joyita de El Víbora de Juan Mediavilla, que sólo se publicó en un número de El Víbora, sacado de en línea. Instituto Itaú Cultural de São Paulo published two videos recorded at its Caminos da HQ in 2016. One on female protagonism in comics, with statements by cartoonists Ana Recalde, Cris Eiko, Carol Rossetti and Germana Viana. Another on independent comics production in the Brazilian comic book market. Enrique’s Shadow is now online – comic about one of the 90,000+ people who have disappeared during the conflict in Colombia this is Enrique’s story told by his sister Jacinta. Commissioned by the International Committee of the Red Cross to Positive Negatives and drawn by Lindsay Pollock. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 8-2-17 – by Gabriella Tito ———————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

06/11/2018

Caleb OrecchioJune 11, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Michael Comeau’s, Winter Cosmos, and more! ———————————————————————————— Despite not having a frame of reference for the punk rock zine culture aesthetic Comeau emulates with Winter Cosmos (published by thee great Koyama Press), I really enjoyed it. Every spread is interesting. There is not a visual dull moment therein. Even after I read the book, I went back to flip through the images to “read” it again. The experience of the book is like reading an issue of What If… starring the Fantastic Four exclusively in Kirby’s collage-y Negative Zone. I can’t help but assume Comeau was inspired by this or some similar Negative Zone-related musing when he decided to make a comic about scientists in space. I had a good time reading this book. There is plenty of wit and humor within the writing, but also within the visual aspects. There is something both inherently funny and inherently fascinating about collage depicting science fiction. The pacing of the read itself is excellent. Even if the book were wordless, Comeau’s visual narrative is strong enough to pace the reader in a way that most wordless comics can’t due to their narrative approach (i.e. leaning on a cinematic or literary idea of narrative rather than an inherently comic book idea of narrative). Winter Cosmos is dynamic enough to hold a reader on a purely visual level and that, to me, is a high compliment to a cartoonist. ———————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Frank Santoro’s new book, Pittsburgh, is out in France and we have round up of French reviews here on the site, as well as where you can purchase the book if you’re in the states from Pittsburgh’s own Copacetic Comics. Speaking of which, see what the the great Copacetic Comics Company has new for June HERE on the site! Oh look! You can even buy Winter’s Cosmos by Michael Comeau! Did I mention this comes highly recommend? Did you catch the TCJ interview with The Beguiling owner, Peter Birkemoe? Process Party has a Columbus, OH scene report. ———————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-11-18 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

05/03/2018

Comics WorkbookMay 3, 2018NewsSam Ombiri on Daniel Clowes’ Eightball No. 20: The Further Adventures of David Boring! —————————————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: More often than not, I sense some dishonesty when people talk about their work – as opposed to when their work does the talking. When I say “people’s work doing the talking” I’m not commenting on the overall quality, necessarily, but on how much the creator believes in the power of the form with which they are engaging. If they have to talk so much about what they’ve done with their work, do we really need the work at that point? Is it anything less than a prop for a prepared monologue? I couldn’t get a specific statement out of issue #20 of Eightball: The Further Adventures of David Boring – and this was for the better. It was all about characters being pushed in certain directions, and through engaging fully with the characters the story really goes places. The comic doesn’t need to convince me of the reality the story is taking place in – the story is so engrossing and captivating. There are turns that seemingly come out of nowhere, but fit in. Are these characters really just “characters”? They seem like humans to me. I’m going to risk navel gazing for a moment and I hope I won’t come off as Νάρκισσος falling in love with his own reflection, talking about what I’m about to talk about…but when confronted by a name like Dan Clowes, these days I’m skeptical of my reaction to it, because my reaction might be based on a large number of other people’s reaction to it. I feel like I run the risk of attempting to replicate variations of that collective reaction towards his wonderful work. I guess in some ways that can show that I’m not really one to think for myself, but I read comics to feel first and think later, and I personally think it’s good to gauge my reaction. I question whether my reaction is sincere, however, under these circumstances. I could just be having a sincere attempt without lucidity, which is the last thing I want to have! Luckily, this didn’t happen when I read David Boring. All that happened was I was hit by the story with an unforgiving gravity. David Boring didn’t seem to be pandering to a sensibility – it felt like it was doing its own thing, which happened to catch on. There’s a whole thing of, “No, duh,” with me saying this, but I was really struck with it. This issue of Eightball, like all issues of Eightball, feels like it exists in spite of a trend – and not at the service of a trend. The first time I read something by Clowes, I think I was 13-ish or 14. I could feel a bowling ball form in my gut and sink – there was so much gravity in the work, and I wondered, “Who is this, who has so much contempt for his characters?” Whenever I read Clowes work now, I really feel there’s something special about how we’re following the characters that we follow. When I opened the comic it’s so sudden, and for some reason or another I was really taken with that. At a certain point in the story I’m told, “You’ve placed yourself above another individual based on your own morality or whatever, so that it is only you who decide who should be dehumanized while pretending it’s at the service of humanity.” Manfred, possibly the most despicable character, is accused, but the accusation that’s made of him isn’t dehumanizing – still his actions seem foreign and distant, but not unhuman. The story between David and Pamela; the story between Manfred and Iris; the story of David and his father, told through David reading a comic that his father drew, David trying to savor every panel, not reading more than a panel a night, not knowing what he’s looking for – we’re suddenly presented with all these things that are equally compelling. I was suddenly presented with the issue, and then just as suddenly I am so involved in these people’s lives. This was the realization for me – that when Clowes is remembered and canonized the way he is, it isn’t done as a favor to him. It’s done as a favor to his readers. Clowes’ work cares about your understanding of what it is and what’s going on, even if what’s going on is supposed be a form of estrangement. From panel to panel, there’s plenty to read into. Clowes is putting things on display that are very straightforward. It doesn’t feel like dishonest work – even when it’s optimistic or pessimistic about humanity and the way that it can be. – Sam Ombiri Share this page: [...]

06/01/2017

Sally IngrahamMay 31, 2017NewsSam Ombiri on Joe Daly’s Highbone Theater, an international zine roundup, Wonder Woman dreams, and news from Berliac. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I read Highbone Theater by Joe Daly recently. I began it awhile back when Joe Daly was posting it online, but the way Daly set up his website for Highbone Theater made it hard to find where you left off at. The funny thing with that was that I’d just end up re-reading the same pages. The same really good pages. I guess it was maybe a selling point, because it feels very real. I’m not sure if it’s part autobiographical, because it’s not so apparent and that makes me more keen to apply what’s happened to me, myself, and relate it with Palmer (the main character). The dialogue is so natural, and the way Daly guides you through what’s being said seems like it’s collaborating with life. It’s so mundane that it becomes all too real. It seems like it’s way more dense than it is really, because of the size of the book, but it’s so rhythmic, and it sucks the reader in so that you barely even notice that you’re flipping the pages. You start it, and you keep going, and you don’t feel the big obligation to take note of anything. Or that may be inaccurate, since you are supposed to, as a reader, take note of what’s happening in the narrative. I didn’t catch so much that the colored pages were adding an extra meaning to the atmosphere changing, other than, something’s up, tonally and design wise. Color is the equivalent of sound design. I once heard Joe Daly cite Naked Lunch as a movie he’s really impressed with, so this was at the back of my mind while reading Highbone Theater. It’s a very cinematic comic, which may be attributed to Daly studying animation. Whatever it was that caused it, I’m glad. Palmer is into the things he’s into, him and his friends are into the things they’re into, and every now and then the friends comment on Palmer’s eccentric interests. While they see less reason in Palmer, Palmer sees less reason in the world he’s living in, and while many others can reason with him, he finds he can’t reason with anyone besides his friend Billy. The way Daly portrays Palmer is as someone who isn’t an unreasonable guy – but when Palmer talks, the way he portrays himself when talking about himself (which is part of why the book feels like it’s autobio) comes off as unreasonable – but that doesn’t hinder him from performing what he perceives as his duty. That was the defining characteristic I found with Palmer. What set this apart is that the book seems so casual, as if it’s ideas are taking place with no regard to your opinion of them. Yet they are coming from a very disciplined story teller. Everything that sets this book apart doesn’t come off as overly intentional, or meant to be set apart. What’s taking place seems independent of the reader’s thoughts on them. This only strengthens the potency of the events as perceived by the reader. What seems more intentional is to engage with the reader in a way that’s very familiar to them. Or maybe it’s just that this form happens to be familiar. It reminded me of reading Chester Brown’s autobio stuff, or Crumb, or it’s as if I was told that one of the characters is the Reid Fleming of this universe. The cover is really cool – it reflects what you’re in for. Of course most covers do that, but as you open this book it’s with these specific images that come later on in the book. The front cover – while it’s an image that shows up through the course of the book – seems to be there more so to sell you on the book. The image that follows, however, before the story has started, has been ingrained in the reader. Right now I’m talking about the coffin Billy crafted for his mother. When it comes into the story later on and makes another appearance, there was something big that went off in my mind. While the turns the book takes are huge, there’s a subdued element to it, right? While it may seem disorienting, it’s a really well oriented form of disorienting. Palmer has this look on his face that says this must be done, and that’s reflected with every action he performs. He has a no nonsense approach to everything. He sees the task before him, he tries to find what needs to be done above all his other concerns, and what he needs to do is a growing question mark. – Sam Ombiri Get a copy if this book at Copacetic Comics! ————————————————————————————————— 6-1-2017 – by Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sally here – check out this roundup of 8 zines made by people of color from around the world, showcased on Artsy – a true example of why the medium remains relevant and important. “The black literary zine, Fire!! created during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s by writers such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston is an early example. Self-publishing continued through the decades, with the Black Panther Party Newspaper and the Chilean women’s magazine Aquelarre. Still, the history of zine culture remains largely dominated by narratives of white men and women. Utilizing both the tangibility of print and the connectedness afforded by the internet, today’s artists and writers of color are continuing to create spaces for dialogue, pioneering conversations through zines—a medium that allows them to exchange ideas, opinions, and art on their own terms. These eight zines are just a few of the notable print publications claiming space and reinvigorating a decades-long tradition of collective healing through communal expression.“ Read more HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Maya Rupert writes movingly for The Atlantic about her lifelong connection to Wonder Woman and her feeling that maybe the character makes more sense as a black woman. “Wonder Woman and I were both outsiders on two levels. Her powers set her apart from other humans, but among the other members of the Justice League, she was relegated to secretary. My race set me apart from my white classmates, but I learned at a young age that within the black community my gender marked me as inferior. I remember as a child being told by my hairdresser that feminism wasn’t for black women. “For us,” she explained, “the man is here, and we’re here,” she said gesturing with her hands to illustrate that to be a black woman meant that a man I had never met would always be stationed above me. As I got older, I became better able to name my double displacement; I was frustrated with the racism I saw in feminist circles and with the misogyny I saw among racial-justice advocates. And Wonder Woman’s state of constant otherness only became more meaningful. But as a girl, I most commiserated with Wonder Woman when she sought to reconcile her inner strength and ferocity with the need of others to see her as peaceful and feminine. I had learned early on that it wouldn’t take a lot for me to be viewed as angry and deemed unlikeable. Images of neck-rolling, finger-snapping, gum-popping black women caricatured in movies and TV shows showed me exactly what people expected from me.“ Read more HERE – and go see the new Wonder Woman movie (opens June 2nd!), which does star a white woman, but there is perhaps some hope for the flick and the story – “Yes, a white actress, Gal Gadot, had been cast as the lead. But, I wondered, would the creators see in her what I had all these years? Would Wonder Woman still chafe at the forced dichotomy between her strength and her womanhood, her peaceful demeanor and her righteous anger? Would they infuse her story with enough of mine that a little black girl who sees the movie might get to wonder, maybe?“ ————————————————————————————————— Drawn & Quarterly will publish Berliac’s Sadbøi in January 2018. “Drawn in a unique style that’s an homage to gekiga and film noir, Berliac’s first English graphic novel is an exploration of how we treat immigrants, and the impossible situation of being expected to conform to society’s ideals when the world has already decided you’re guilty.” More of the announcement and an excerpt from the book can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 6-1-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-1-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-1-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

05/18/2017

Sally IngrahamMay 18, 2017NewsSam Ombiri on Spider Monkey by Austin English and Jesse McManus – plus other comics news! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: Out of nowhere, very recently, I found the first issue of Spider Monkey by Austin English and Jesse McManus. It was a fantastic read, and it continues to be an even more fantastic comic to keep re-reading. Austin English is someone who makes these images that look like they were done by someone else. There’s clear intention (and this intention shows) that his images and words are working together, despite being somewhat independent of each other. Austin’s characters typically waddle clumsily, bounce, and skip through the narrative as it progresses. Gary Panter describes Austin’s work as “Tragic Polish puppet plays.” It reminds me of how Yokoyama views his characters as models and not really as real people – maybe their interactions are real, but they are limited in the things they can express, and everything they express is only expressed in these specific ways. Gary Panter also describes Austin’s drawings as sculptures, so it makes sense that there’s a kind of split from the words. The words, to some degree, pander to the clumsiness of Austin’s character’s movements, but they feel like they are doing they’re own thing. Before they submit to the predetermined purpose in the work, it feels like two different people, with different things to bring to the project, collaborated. Now with Spider Monkey, perhaps as a result of Jesse McManus working from Austin’s script (or rather Jesse feels the obligation to work with the script) we end up with a work where the words and images are completely working together. Austin said that it was purely Jesse’s book, and he wrote it as something Jesse would draw. To my surprise, as I was reading it, I found that it didn’t feel that way. Maybe Jesse drew it like it was one of Austin’s comics. Also, Austin does not stay doing the same things very much, so this shift doesn’t feel like a sharp turn for him – with an artist like Jesse there couldn’t have been a more perfect path to be taken. Austin says to be only writing is “significantly easier”, but it’s clear he didn’t do this collaboration because it was easier – he just found that it was. It ends up being organic. He doesn’t do too much to compensate for only writing. He doesn’t set out to “Wow” people, like with Disgusting Room (although make no mistake, I was wowed by Spider Monkey). Austin just does what he does best, approaching this book not as if it isn’t a special occasion – he just dresses up casually. Additionally, we get special guest Jesse McManus to do fantastic, fantastic artwork. Jesse is every reason this book is as exciting as it is to read. It’s like we have been given a clearer, but appropriately disjointed fun-house lens to look at what Austin typically portrays in his work. The gags turn into a repulsive, uncomfortable demise, which the characters encounter with laughter and with the laid back attitude of business as usual, but for us the audience it reads not so much that way. With Austin’s artwork it would feel increasingly horrific and grotesque, but Jesse adds a way more whimsical charm to what’s happening, as opposed to a total nightmare. I’m all for nightmares, but it feels easier to consume Austin’s more difficult work in what feels like an event. Austin describes difficult work as vegetables – you need to eat them to be healthy. So Jesse, like a parent telling a toddler “Here comes the airplane!” gets us excited to eat our vegetables. – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri – 5-18-2017 ————————————————————————————————— Buño, an imprint of Magnetic Press that was founded by cartoonist and Judge Dredd writer Ulises Fariñas last year, is publishing their first creator-owned series – Cloudia and Rex. The series is written by Ulises Fariñas and Erick Freitas, with artwork by Puerto Rican artist Daniel Irizarri. In shops July 2017 – you can pre-order it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— On the Same Wavelength Ben Passmore talks to Geek Soul Brother about his current projects, and his comic Your Black Friend – HERE. Marvel is canceling Ta-Nehisi Coates and Yona Harvey’s Black Panther & The Crew after only two issues, bringing an abrupt end to “the only mainstream comic book featuring a majority-black team of heroes” – pretty uncool. More details via i09 HERE. Be sure to follow Adam Griffiths’ ongoing webcomic American Cryo – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 5-18-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-18-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

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