Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 4, 2017January 9, 2017

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02/23/2017

Sally IngrahamFebruary 23, 2017NewsToday we have Adam Griffiths interviewing Guy A. Sims, Ronald Wimberly at Copacetic Comics, Sam Ombiri on categorization, a few other news bites, and our raft of daily comics! ————————————————————————————————— Here in Pittsburgh last night we had a fantastic evening with Ronald Wimberly at Copacetic Comics. He spoke about his recent work, Black History In Their Own Words, and the origins of his Prince of Cats comic. He’s been in Pittsburgh a few days, checking out the Andy Warhol Museum and the Rowhouse Residency, and has plans to return soon. After nearly a month of traveling, though, it is high time for Ron to return to his New York City studio and dig into his next project. Good luck Ron! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: There’s this thing where I say, or I think to myself, “I didn’t read comics as kid.”But wait, that’s not true. I think maybe I think this because I interacted with comics back then in a different capacity. The first statement suggests to me that I wasn’t into comics, but the fact is I’d jump at the chance to get my hands on a comic. There just wasn’t so much opportunity, and every opportunity was treasured (not exploited). Once my dad bought a Wahl razor and it came with a DVD that included a motion comic for the Uncanny X-Men #1. I watched that DVD with my brother many, many times. I wish someone told me back then that it was Jack Kirby, but wait, I wouldn’t have cared, as I didn’t interact with work that way back then. I just thought “This is great.” I didn’t care whether something superb would come out of one individual’s efforts and contribution. In a way, I feel more naive now than I was back then, because I really have to hope that I come across great work in that aforementioned manner, whereas back then I didn’t mind sifting through trash. I was even attentive to it. With what I’ve heard of the auteur theory, it comes to my understanding as really naive in its nature. Of course work gets more valuable with a recognizable name – it brings context and possibly brings more reason and validation. Haruki Murakami was saying America is so preoccupied with attaching isms to work, (like postmodernism, magical realism or K-Mart realism) instead of focusing on the story and he hopes that this trend doesn’t catch on in Japan. What I dislike about Murakami’s statement is that he acts like the way people in Japan interact with work is above that. I’m misinterpreting what he’s saying probably, but Murakami honestly doesn’t seem above making a quick statement like this. It’s not completely absurd to want to quickly quantify victory in an artistic medium, and unify those said experiences, however overly optimistic it might be, or to act as if an objective consensus might be reached. There was a video that I can’t find where I heard Brian Chippendale say he doesn’t know what category Lightning Bolt is and he’ll just have everyone else decide what it is. A better attitude! I’m fairly ignorant of the auteur theory, but it feels like the triumphs of say one auteur doesn’t come from the new found optimism (that because they have made good work in the past they can only make good work). They’re kind of happening independent of being associated with this call to arms to innovate – not that this association doesn’t help acquire certain needed resources. A work doesn’t thrive as a result of categorization, at least to my knowledge. – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Adam Griffiths interviews Guy A. Sims, co-creator of the Brotherman series, and talks about reading Brotherman as a kid in his most recent Zine Tree interview series. Adam writes: “I had one, and only one issue of Brotherman as a kid, which I got from Haneef’s Bookshop — an afro-centric bookstore in downtown Wilmington, DE. The shop was across the street from where we went regularly to pick up takeout fried chicken. When we’d go to pick up food, I’d have to beg to be allowed to cross the street on my own to go over to Haneef’s and look at the comic books. It felt like such an extra effort; when we went to the mall, there was a comics shop, chock-full of mainstream superhero comics. In America, young girls are given dolls that are designed to reflect their identities, to help them establish selfhood. Comics provides a similar mirroring experience for young boys – heroes matter. However, by the time I saw a Brotherman comic, I had already read Captain America comics of my brother’s. The suits had such a similarity (despite the lack of color in Brother comics), I’d sometimes stare at the drawings of Brotherman in this very very innocent way — not incredulously wondering if I’d somehow been duped into reading a clone comic, but perhaps so already utterly consigned to the hero myth of Captain America, that the internal differentiation between the two heroes was not a deliberation that I was capable of making. “ Guy A. Sims speaks about the political and other influences that surrounded he and his co-creator, artist Dawud Anyabwile, when they were making the Brotherman comic and the more recent Brotherman graphic novel: “The influence of Brotherman is drawn from the experiences of me and my brothers going all the way back to our days growing up in Philadelphia and visiting our cousins in Jersey City, NJ. … The greatest influence was our home life, our parents, our siblings, and interactions in school and with friends. The politics of the times have always been consistent but our evolution as young men changed with times, eventually constructing the mindset that eventually created Brotherman. Of course, when you look at the art styling and reference, it is predominantly from the 90s but those who read into it will be able to see generational thinking and sensibilities in the writing and presentation. In 2016, we released the Brotherman graphic novel, Revelation. Longtime fans will be able to tell the difference in style, in the writing, and most importantly, the presentation of the book. … While the story message is consistent, the time between issue #11 (1996) and the graphic novel (2016) is twenty years of personal growth, experience, skill development, and time to think critically about the direction of Brotherman. When we returned to Brotherman, we knew it had to be presented differently, to show how we have evolved as artists and how we looked at the world. …“ Read the rest of the interview HERE. Check out another Guy A. Sims project, the webcomic K.E.I.S.H.A., which is written by Guy and drawn by Angael Davis. ————————————————————————————————— Ben Passmore has a comic on The Nib about a movement in New Orleans to remove statues that celebrate, ahem, famous racists… Be your own symbol of freedom – and check out the comic HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Bill Boichel writes about the new George Herriman biography by Michael Tisserand: “Here, in Krazy: George Herriman, a Life in Black and White, author Michael Tisserand broadens the context of Herriman’s life further, to encompass large swaths of American history, society and culture, and in the process places Herriman’s life not only at the center of the history of comics, but at the crossroads of America itself at the dawn of the 20th century. While it has long been known that Herriman was born in New Orleans of mixed “Creole” heritage, with African as well as European forebears, the specifics had always been murky, at best – but no more! Tisserand, much of whose earlier writing focused on New Orleans, and who evidently knows his way around a variety of New Orleans archives, leveraged his preexistent knowledge, rolled up his sleeves and dug deep, tracing Herriman’s roots back to the 18th century as well as outlining much of his extended family history. The story includes telling details of much of what transpired in post Civil War New Orleans in order to set the stage for Herriman’s perents’ decision to uproot the family, move to Los Angeles and “pass” (as white), at which point the book’s subtitle, “a life in black and white” becomes eminently clear. ” – Bill Boichel Read the rest of the review HERE and get a copy of the book from Copacetic Comics. This event is still a ways off but here’s your first reminder, if you’re in the Pittsburgh area, to check out a presentation by Michael Tisserand at Point Park University on March 31st. He will be talking about the Harriman biography and there will also be screening of several rare Krazy Kat cartoons, which date back to 1916 and are among the very earliest examples cartooning cinema. The event is co-sponsored by The ToonSeum and Point Park’s Department of Cinema Arts. It is free and open to the public – put it on your calendar! More event details can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! Frank here: This semester has a rolling start date – it will officially start March 7th but I will continue taking applications past that date. I will make it work for your schedule. Just apply! Applications received by February 26th will get 100 bux off! The course is 8 weeks long – payment plans are available. More details can be found HERE. Email santoroschoolATgmail to apply ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 2-23-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-23-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-23-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-23-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

12/20/2016

Aaron CockleDecember 19, 2016NewsAaron here today with an Upside-Down World; Internet Comics & Free Speech; Broken Frontier Awards; Héctor Germán Oesterheld; Paul Karasik on Gary Groth (and Frank Frazetta); Security of Culture and Culture of Security; Some Olivier Schrauwen for the Holidays; a Riso Lab Missive ————————————————————————————————— Gustave Verbeek, October 4, 1903 ————————————————————————————————— How Web Comics Revolutionized Free Speech Caitlin McCabe at the CBLDF talks about the internet and the ways in which comics can exist there: The internet hasn’t just become a vehicle for free speech in the English-speaking world. Cartoonists around the world — especially in countries where expressing oneself freely can have legal or physical repercussions — are finding their voice on the internet. Sudanese cartoonist Khalid Albaih has built a following online publishing comics that address serious global issues. Chinese cartoonist Badiucao may have left his home country, but uses Twitter and the independent web newssource China Digital Times to reach his audience and sidestep censors. Kanika Mishra, a female cartoonist out of India who has been threatened for her work, describes how social media has enabled her to not only find new audiences, but empower her to continue to spread her cartoons which discuss social injustices in her home country. ————————————————————————————————— Broken Frontier Awards 2016 The comics blog has announced nominees for its annual awards. It includes work from CW favorites Tillie Walden, Simon Moreton, Eleanor Davis, Kelly Kwang and Richie Pope, Anna Haifisch, and Daniel Clowes; as well as publishers: Koyama, Press, Avery Hill Publishing, Breakdown Press, Fantagraphics, and Retrofit/Big Planet. Please consider voting, if you are so inclined. ————————————————————————————————— El Eternauta Dominic Umile profiles the comics writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld, his work with Francisco Solano López, and the fate of Oesterheld and his family members at the hands of the Argentine dictatorship in 1977. “Oesterheld played an important role in the development of the Argentine comic between the 1950s and the 1970s,” University of Iowa professor Ana Merino wrote in the International Journal of Comic Art in 2001. “He unknowingly opened up a bridge between fantastic and comic literature, showing that comics could be as intense as literature, and in turn, can offer alternative aesthetic possibilities.” ————————————————————————————————— ‘Meet Gary’ Via Paul Karasik, excerpted from the recent Fantagraphics history/hagiography, We Told You So: Comics as Art, edited by Tom Spurgeon and Michael Dean. ————————————————————————————————— Security Culture is Good Kade Crockford at The New Inquiry has some information about navigating and negotiating in these current and soon-to-be current times: Take these precautions to protect yourself and your loved ones from the state. When the FBI interviews someone, they send two agents: one person asks questions, and the other takes notes. The stenographer then goes back to the office and types up the notes into an official document known as Form 302. This is the government’s official record of the interview, and it can and likely will be used against the interview subject. If an FBI official writes on the 302 that you said you were at a basketball game Sunday morning at 11, and then you later tell a grand jury that you were at the basketball game at 10, you can be charged with lying to a federal agent. A conviction for lying to a federal agent will land you in federal prison for years. This is how the FBI puts people in a vice, and gets them to inform. The truth doesn’t matter; the only thing that matters is what’s written on that Form 302. ————————————————————————————————— Je peux rentrer chez moi maintenant? A grab-bag (or hodge-podge) of writing about Olivier Schrauwen‘s comics work to date, in French, just waiting to be translated into your language of choice. For example: Entre-temps, les extraterrestres lui font assister en miniature et en immersion au spectacle de l’histoire humaine, de plus en plus douloureuse au fur et à mesure que les événements se rapprochent de sa propre vie, déclenchant un stupéfiant moment d’hystérie infantile dans les rues de New-York, le jour du 11 septembre 2001. Toutes ces pages sont les plus belles et les plus fortes de l’album, Schrauwen s’y représentant comme un géant surplombant la destinée des hommes, mais se comportant en réalité comme un gamin détaché du passé et insoucieux du futur (sommet d’ironie : le narrateur, qui vient d’assister à la fin du monde, dit simplement « Je peux rentrer chez moi maintenant ? »). In the meantime, the extraterrestrials make him assist in miniature and immersion in the spectacle of human history, more and more painful as events come closer to his own life, triggering a stunning moment of infantile hysteria On the streets of New York on September 11, 2001. All these pages are the most beautiful and the strongest of the album, Schrauwen representing himself as a giant overlooking the destiny of men, but behaving in reality Like a kid detached from the past and careless of the future (summit of irony: the narrator, who has just witnessed the end of the world, simply says “I can go home now?”). ————————————————————————————————— Dispatch from the Riso Lab Getting ready for tonight’s (or yesterday’s, considering I am posting this news update on Monday afternoon, to be read on a Tuesday, by you, or whenever, it’s not like time has any sort of relevancy any more, here on the internet, or out in the real world, for that matter, if it ever did) Print Slam 4 event, I had booked some time in the Riso Lab at SVA, and was able to print and assemble a mini, Math Comics 2. Print Slam 4 promo poster by Panayiotis Terzis. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-20-2016 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

On Philippe Druillet – by RM Rhodes

Comics WorkbookJuly 30, 2017EssaysRM Rhodes presents commentary on the work of Philippe Druillet ————————————————————————————————— I feel like when someone like me asks a young artist “Have you ever heard of…?” the young artist is expecting to know why the person in question is important. Or, even more simply, why they should care. Having said that, Philippe Druillet is important because he’s one of the founding members of Les Humanoïdes Associés, the group that created Metal Hurlant (which later became Heavy Metal in America). If you’re guessing all of that French indicates Druillet’s national origin, you’d be correct. Of even more relevance, Druillet is an amazing visual artist whose work deserves to be looked at by anyone who has any affinity for color and the use of color in art. His work is clearly influenced by Jack Kirby, but it also harkens back to European engravings that have been colored from the mid-17th Century. His early work is black and white, but when he got his first airbrush, his entire style changed. As far as I’m concerned, Druillet levelled up when he started working color into his compositions. He clearly spent a long time working on the underlying pen illustrations, but it’s his use of color as a major element of the composition that’s worthy of note. Speaking of composition, Druillet’s works like Lone Sloane, Salammbô, and Gail gave him ample opportunities to create some really challenging page layouts. These layouts are so distinctive that Benoit Peeters’ Four Conceptions of a Page uses Druillet as the exemplar of Decorative pages. In the interests of show vs tell, I’m going to stop talking about how awesome Druillet is and just show you a whole bunch of his artwork. It will either resonate with you or it won’t, but I have a feeling that if it does resonate, it will resonate strongly. ————————————————————————————————— RM Rhodes is the curator of the Heavy Metal Magazine tumblr. He lives and works in Washington, D.C. His current project is a weekly online anthology called The Rumor published on the Comics Workbook tumblr – see issues of it HERE. Check out more of his comics at Louis Deux. Share this page: [...]

03/23/2018

Sally IngrahamMarch 22, 2018NewsSally here covering over 100 years of women making comics, from Rose O’Neill to Dale Messick to Fiona Smyth to Jessica Campbell, and much more! ————————————————————————————————— Koyama Press always has a terrific lineup of new comics, and the Spring 2018 collection is no exception. I’m particularly excited for Jessica Campbell‘s comic (pictured above), the first lengthy story she’s told for a long while. Although I enjoy her comics which appear regularly on Hyperallergic (there’s a particularly funny one HERE, about “Residencies” vs. “Retreats“) and got a kick out of 2016’s Hot Or Not: 20th-Century Male Artists (also from Koyama Press), I am always left wanting MORE from Jessica Campbell. Therefore, I am thrilled to report that the new work, XTC69, is chapters long (120 pages!). And a quick look at review copy PDF proves that it is funny and weird and drawn in a 6-panel grid…and I made myself stop reading since I want to save my joy for the real thing. Coming out in May! Here’s the blurb on it: “Explorers from an all-women planet have found men to breed with, but have they found studs or duds? Commander Jessica Campbell of the planet L8DZ N1T3 and her crew are searching for men to breed with when they discover the last human on Earth, the cryogenically frozen Jessica Campbell. With a new, but familiar crewmember, the search for men continues, but will it be worth it?“ This is a great time to mention that Jessica Campbell was the most recent guest on Anya Davidson‘s podcast – listen to Mindkiller Episode 12 HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I am perhaps equally excited for Fiona Smyth‘s collection Somnambulance, also out from Koyama Press in May. Another cartoonist whom I want more of in my life, this is 300+ pages of Fiona’s work, spanning her career by showcasing comic strips and mini comics and other work from the mid-80’s through 2017. “Over thirty years of comics that feature Fiona’s world of sexy ladies, precocious girls, and vindictive goddesses is revealed in all its feminist glory. This is recommended reading for sleepwalkers on a female planet.“ Black and white, and color, this is going to be a real pleasure to dig into. Fiona Smyth has been working steadily for 30 years, and is a real inspiration to me. With this collection, I look forward to having something new to put into the hands of other women who are interested in reading and making comics! ————————————————————————————————— If you are in any of the cities listed above, be on the lookout for Aline Kominsky-Crumb, the force of nature herself, on the move along with her new book Love That Bunch (Drawn & Quarterly, May 2018) which collects her autobiographic comics and tells the tale of a woman “coming of age” in the 1960’s as only Aline could. HERE is the list of events and details about who Aline will be caught in conversation with. Love That Bunch will be another career-spanning collection, with comics from the 1970’s along with a new story. You can read more about it HERE, and see an excerpt from it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Fabulous Fifties is one of those “fabulous” archival blogs, where a collector posts scans of old comic strips, etc. This one is run by Ger Apeldoorn, and he has a vast collection of stuff. The blog is a treasure chest. A recent post offers up several dozen comic strips, all of which were published on Apeldoorn’s birthday, Sunday March 15th, 1959. I skimmed through the list with great pleasure, and found a couple of strips to share here today. Above is a strip by Gladys Parker, one of the very few female cartoonists who was working between the 1930’s and 50’s. She took over Ethel Hays‘ popular strip Flapper Fanny Says before developing her own strip, Mopsy, in 1939. Mopsy was very successful, and Gladys drew it until 1965. Below is one of the Brenda Starr, Reporter strips by Dale Messick. The series began in the mid-40’s and was at the height of it’s popularity in the 50’s. Dale Messick drew it until 1980, after which it was carried on by a couple of individuals or writer/artist teams – all of them female. Ramona Fradon took it over from Dale Messick, and when the strip concluded in 2011 (!) it was being written by Mary Schmich and drawn by June Brigman. ————————————————————————————————— Last but not least Smithsonian.com has an article about Rose O’Neill (b. 1874) and her iconic creation – Kewpies (one pictured above). These benevolent elves/cupid-like creatures were an national sensation, starring in comics and becoming a doll, etc. Rose O’Neill started out as the only woman on staff at Puck magazine, but the success of Kewpies brought her fame and wealth, and a better platform to fight for women’s right to vote and other issues of gender and racial equality. Read all about her HERE. Lynda Barry (herself!) covers Pénélope Bagieu‘s Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World for The New York Times Book Review – read her thoughts HERE. (There’s an interesting discussion of the dramatic difference that a small decision made: removing Bagieu’s handwritten text – in French, for the strips as they originally appeared in Le Monde – for generic “handwritten” block text in the English version…) Meredith Gran is running Octopus Pie again from the beginning – so new readers, now is your chance to hop on board. I would say that this is a pretty rare occurrence for a webcomic, and there is even an article on Slate about that, and why you should read it. Octopus Pie kicked off (again) on March 19th 2018 – read it HERE! Philippe Leblanc reviews Kiku Hughes‘ The Ghosts We Are and the Ghosts We Will Be – on The Comics Beat. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers 8 weeks! $500 bux! 10 spots available! Rolling start date because of spring break – start as early as March 30th 2018. Deadline to apply is April 12th. Read all about the course HERE and email santoroschool@gmail.com for more details or to apply. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-23-2018 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

03/19/2018

Caleb OrecchioMarch 19, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on a temporary comic book artist, Jeff Purves, and other news. ————————————————————————————————— I really liked Sally’s report last week on Paty Greer/Cockrum. I had a similar experience with a comic book artist’s name I did not recognize. For me it was the name “Jeff Purves” in a copy of The Incredible Hulk #349–I found that Purves, after some digging, had a 19-issue run on The Hulk in late 80’s with Peter David. He’s taking over after the McFarlane run, which is self-evident in the contrived effort of maintaining a McFarlane-y looking Hulk. That’s not a knock on Purves, just something I noticed. This is work-for-hire comics after all. When I initially read the issue, the layouts and action were interesting to me because the clarity and simplicity of the images wreaked of professionalism (as opposed to fanboy-gone-pro, though I’m not ruling that possibility out), which to me meant he had to be some sort of successful illustrator trying his hand at comics. I was more or less right. According to Lambiek and IMDb, he’s an animator. I mean, look at that Spider-Man above, the guy is clearly an educated drawer. I found Purves’ style to be bit stiff at first, but I think it had more to do with the inking of Terry Austin of issue 349; I eventually warmed up to the drawing and am now rather impressed by Purves’ professional, hired-gun vibe. I have a feeling Purves was pretty dependable schedule-wise due the successive amount of issues he contributed to. The work has both a sense of urgency and careful calculation like he knows how to bust out the good stuff that kids love, but ultimately understands that the issue must get out on time. Just thought this was interesting. I’m interested in these weird here-today-gone-tomorrow comic book artists (though nearly 2 years is not an amount of time to sneeze at), because it adds to the wacky history of comics. This guy probably wanted to draw comics as a kid but needed something more financially stable as an adult, so he quits comics and goes to work in animation on such titles as The Simpsons and Mulan. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Dash Shaw on How to Read Nancy at The New York Review of Books. David Barnett offers up the possibility of Kirby finally getting the praise he deserves from the public at large due to the upcoming New Gods movie. Due to the popularity of his characters in the current line-up of Marvel movies, Jim Starlin allegedly has his own museum exhibit, according to Todd Allen at The Beat. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-19-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

01/04/2017

Posted on January 4, 2017January 9, 2017 by Juan Fernández

Juan con un poquito sobre Tenderete Fest XIII; Furillo, la vida de Núria Pompeia; Chicks on Comics en A long distance relationship; Power Paola;Un look a las Editoriales Colombianas enfocadas en los cómics; Para leer Al Pato Donald – Mass Communication & Colonialism; Joanie y Jordie de Caleb Orecchio; Suzy y Cecil por Sally Ingraham.

Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atencion:

Hoy empieza @TendereteFest XIII a las 16:00 en @lasnaves en Valencia — Más Detalles.
Conozcan a Furillo. Un tipo que está dibujando la historia al absurdo. Imaginate, Franco en la luna… Pues ese es el caso en Nosotros Llegamos Primero. Estilo Joe Sacco “bigfoot” con un gusto español…
Elisa G. McCausland le da un vistazo al trazo lúcido de Núria Pompeia. Pomeia fallecio el pasado 25 diciembre.
Chicks on comics,El colectivo internacional de historietistas en primer plano en El País! Después de ocho años de trabajo conjunto, toman ahora las paredes de la Fundación Proa de Buenos Aires para exponer A long distance relationship, diálogos entre el cómic y las artes.

El viaje gráfico de Power Paola por Suramérica

Isabela Ramirez nos cuenta del colorido diario de campo de Power Paoloa, Nos Vamos. Paola recorrio Suramérica durante dos años dibujando y escribiendo todas sus experiencias en sus libretas de apuntes.

“Yo me fui editando poco a poco —explica Paola—. A lo largo de todo el recorrido hasta Lima (aunque ahí no terminó el viaje) estuve dibujando y escribiendo solamente lo que me parecía que debía dibujar. Mi edición no fue racional sino intuitiva. Todo es tal cual como es el cuaderno, no fue pensado”.

Un look a las Editoriales Colombianas enfocadas en los cómics
Go have a look at some of the movers and the shakers in Colombias flourishing world of comics publishing. There’s something for everyone in this collection of publishers.

Como hay gente a la que le gustan las pantallas de computador, hay otra que sigue amando al papel en todo el sentido de la palabra. Aquí le dejamos algunas editoriales colombianas que hacen novelas gráficas, fanzines y libros.

Para leer Al Pato Donald – Mass Communication & Colonialism

This one is a throw back, but is well worth looking into if you haven’t before.

How To Read Donald Duck (1972) by Ariel Dorfman (Argentina-Chile) and Armand Mattelart ( Belgium ), is a key piece of political literature of the seventies. An essay, or a “decolonization manual” in their own words that analyzed comic books published by Walt Disney for the Latin American market from the point of view of mass Marxist literature.

Its main thesis is that Disney cartoons would not only be a reflection of the dominant ideology -the ruling class , according to the tenets of Marxism , but also be active and conscious accomplices of the task of maintaining and disseminating that ideology. It highlighted qualities of Disney characters and their world, notably that parents, or ancestors, generally were not present.

Hay un desfasaje entre la base económico-social en que vive cada individuo y el estado de las representaciones colectivas, y es precisamente lo que asegura la eficacia de Disney y su poder de penetración en la mentalidad comunitaria en los países latinoamericanos dependientes »

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Joanie and Jordie – 1-4-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Suzy and Cecil – 1-4-2017 – by Sally Ingraham

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, News

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 4, 2017January 9, 2017

Explore

10/26/2018

Sally IngrahamOctober 26, 2018NewsSally here with some comics curiosities to fill your Friday lunch break! ————————————————————————————————— Abraham Riesman has a conversation with Julie Doucet on Vulture – he concludes by reminding us not to ever believe that we “know” her. Interesting and thoughtful read – HERE. Abraham Riesman also interviews Fiona Staples for Vulture, talking Saga (of course) – check it out HERE. The Comics Journal features a new interview with Ariell Johnson, owner of Philly’s Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse, which is now over 2 years old and still going strong – chart the progress HERE. Catch up on the Dear Pepper advice column by Liana Finck that comes out every other Thursday on The New Yorker – HERE. Here’s a recent interview with Liana Finck on The Comics Beat, where she talks about her new book, Passing For Human. I found an article about female cartoonists in Turkey, including Ramize Erer, whose work is pictured above. Read about her HERE. Check out the Publishers Weekly review of Mickey Z‘s Space Academy 123. Gil Roth talked to Nora Krug on his Virtual Memories Show recently – she is the creator of the newly released memoir Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home, which is on the top of my TBR pile at the moment. Listen HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 10-26-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

12/5/2016

Juan FernándezDecember 5, 2016NewsJuan with the Pittsburgh Zine Fair’s Winter Market; Frank Santoro on The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey; Erotica in the NYPL; Richard McGuire and tiny drawings; Gabriella Tito does Suzy and Cecil. ————————————————————————————————— Pittsburgh, PA – The Zine Fair’s Winter Market The Pittsburgh Zine Fair (PZF) partnered up with WorkshopPGH (5122 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15206) to host a small and cozy winter zine and print market last Friday, December 2, from 7 – 10 pm. This event was free and open to the public! I organized it with Maggie Negrete, Christina Lee and Raiona Gaydos. It was a blast. Exhibitors included: Jenn Lisa, Ceci Ebitz, Small Press Pittsburgh, Jayla Patton, Higu Rose, Copacetic Comics, Madeleine Campbell, Maggie Lynn, Danny Devine, Jerome Charles, the Pittsburgh Comics Salon, Comics Workbook, Lizzee Solomon, Christina Lee, City Slicker Press & more! Since its debut at AIR: Artists Image Resource in 2011, the PZF has attracted a diverse group of artists, writers and activists from across the region whose content may vary but the format remains the same- the zine. An icon of DIY ethos and radical info sharing, the zine decentralizes media and vaults individual expression while remaining inexpensive. Almost 700 people attended our main event last October – if you’re around Pittsburgh, keep an eye out for more events and announcements for next year! Here are some photos I took! Wish you coulda been there: ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Pittsburgh, PA – The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey Thee great Vanesa R. Del Rey has generously agreed to let Comics Workbook publish selections from her sketchbooks. We designed it to look like a 1980’s comic book artist’s art book. The text is a transcription of an interview she did at The Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency in 2016. Vanesa is a once in a lifetime talent who studied with George Pratt and who has worked with Grant Morrison. We are offering pre-orders now at a lower price than we will be offering the book for in the new year. Great stocking stuffer. Follow her on Instagram – @vrdelrey – and http://vrdelrey.com/ $15.99 plus shipping – We had Frank chime in on what makes Vanesa such an unstoppable, ferocious force in comics: FS: “Vanesa, I’m quite taken aback by your sheer technical ability which seems to be married to a poetic sensibility. There’s a lightness there. Sometimes illustrators with that ability get heavy-handed. Yet you manage the push-pull between these two sides of yourself–because you’re like a samurai. The humble samurai.” VRDR: “It’s about trying to remember that. I can get all this praise, I can get all these amazing responses from strangers, but at the end of the day—I’m still a student. I’m still learning. The crown doesn’t fit. The crown should never fit.” This exchange was taken from an interview Frank did with Vanesa R. Del Rey which took place here at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency in Pittsburgh, PA USA. In May. 2016. FS: I first encountered VRDR at a comics festival in Toronto (TCAF) in 2014. She had just started making comics professionally after a stint as an animator. Startled by her chameleon-like ability to switch styles, I asked to see more. She unearthed piles of sketchbooks from her days in Cuba studying Soviet Realism and from working with George Pratt, a master of painted comics. Vanesa’s very education as an artist smoothly balances high and low as well as east and west. It’s an astounding foundation. She is, at once, aware of art history, comics history and animation history in a NEW way that almost seemed impossible fifteen to twenty years ago. I must admit as a student and fan of comics makers who truck in blending “high and low” and in “painted comics”—I have never seen such a skill set. Ferocious. Unstoppable. A fierce competitor. Michael Jordan-esque? Is that possible in comic book making? I’ve always said that there would be a “vertical invader” in comics who could employ the “naturalism” of the Noel Sickles / Alex Toth school but who could paint like an Alice Neel or a Jenny Saville. I think that “the invader” has arrived in the form of Vanesa R. Del Rey. ————————————————————————————————— New York, NY – Erotica in The New York Public Library Here’s something for you: Erotica through the ages. Ancient Erotic Dreams and Explicit Scenes in the New York Public Library Collection. Porn in print. Claire Voon has collected a wonderful assortment of images from deep in the NYPL archives over on Hyperallergic. It’s from earlier this year, but well worth revisiting. NSFW, though you might be able to claim that it’s for a historical research project. Maybe save it for later so it can help you get to sleep 😉 The NYPL has never censored anything or kept especially arousing printed matter under lock and key, its librarians stress heavily (although the Gray Lady may have you think otherwise). It does have a “triple-star” system, and although that name may sound like it polices X-rated artifacts, that classification is really intended to protect certain items from vandalism, theft, or damage. Comic books, for instance, often receive the distinction; there was a copy of Bambi (yes, the children’s story) deemed triple-star because of its sheer fragility. “It’s not kept separately, and everybody has access to it,” curator Madeleine C. Viljoen said of the library’s steamier materials. “They receive no special treatment, and we don’t perceive them as being any different from any other artwork in the collection. That’s not our goal here. We are not censors.” ————————————————————————————————— New York, NY – Richard McGuire: Virtuoso of the Tiny If you haven’t already come across Richard McGuire’s latest book, Sequential Drawings: The New Yorker Series, the collection of his drawings for the New Yorker, Luc Sante waxes some poetic on the book over on the New York Review of books. Check it out! Super versatile cartoonist, his latest book of cartooning – Sequential Drawings: The New Yorker Series – definitely invites discussion on why it isn’t or is comics. This look at McGuire is great. Really nice at contextualizing McGuire’s latest endeavor. (Of course, there is still the discussion of Sequential drawings… constitute as comics. Is it comics? We here at CW tend to be purists so you’ll likely imagine where we stand on this (ever present) taxonomic pedantry 😉 ) Luc Sante: Consider the spot illustration, the unsung toiler of the magazine page. It is small; it does not call attention to itself; it is missed by many insistent readers as they chase the progress of a story across columns and ads. It is kin to the textual space filler at the bottom of a page, but its language is visual, so it is there to make a spark as well as to balance out column inches. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the protean Richard McGuire has been quietly reveling in the form. From Copacetic Comics’ Bill Boichel on this book: This chunky little book contains 250+ individual (very) clean line drawings – each appearing alone on its own, faced by a blank, numbered page, for maximum concentrated focus on each single drawing – by the masterful designer/illustrator/comics-maker who brought us the startlingly original Here, Richard McGuire. The volume leads off with an erudite introduction by fellow New Yorker contributor, Luc Sante, that serves, among other things, to help put McGuire’s drawings in a specific cultural / art historical context, after which we are treated to the simple joys of following a sequence of drawings to see where it goes; 28 discrete – and ingenious – sequences in all, each with a unique twist. More fun than you might think! You can purchase Sequential Drawings: The New Yorker Series from Copacetic Comics and it enjoy its simple pleasures at home! Buy it here. ————————————————————————————————— Orlando, FL – The latest Suzy and Cecil strips by Gabriella Tito! Suzy and Cecil is a collaborative daily comic strip project based on characters invented by Bill Boichel and Frank Santoro. It is primarily drawn by Gabriella Tito and Sally Ingraham, who are teammates in the Comics Workbook Roller Derby League. The strip is part of their continuing development as cartoonists – follow @suzy_and_cecil on Instagram to see the project unfold and keep an eye out for guest strips drawn by other Comics Workbook students and friends! New comics Daily! ————————————————————————————————— Until next time! Juan Share this page: [...]

08/08/2018

Juan FernándezAugust 8, 2018NewsBoris is still sick, so no news from the “world of comics” for today. Just hunkering down and being with the beloved. For the Boris lovers: he’s been eating and drinking more thanks to some cortisone injections and an appetite stimulant called Entyce. Baby boy has required a lot of attention and I’ve had to keep my head down for the most part away from contemporary comics news. For the comics lovers: here are some Boris comics by the great Jenn Lisa: Share this page: [...]

09/04/2018

Aaron CockleSeptember 3, 2018NewsLisa Hanawalt Interview; Austin English at the National Gallery; Tadao Tsuge; John P. at Autoptic ————————————————————————————————— Illustrator Lisa Hanawalt on Her New Comic Coyote Doggirl and the Appeal of ‘Horse Girls’ Following up from Sally’s review of Lisa Hanawalt’s newest book, here is an interview with Claire Shaffer at Jezebel: I noticed that the map that you have at the beginning, at the very opening page of the book, looks vaguely like a map of L.A., but I’m not sure if that was the intent. [Laughs]. Does it? I guess, now that I’m looking at it, it kind of does. The way that the river forks, I’m like, “Oh yeah, that’s the L.A. River.” And that’s the Valley above the Red Mountains. Maybe I’m just projecting. No, I did not think about that. I made this map last-thing in the book, because I was just suddenly like, “Oh god, this book should have a map in the beginning, that would be so cool.” I’ve always wanted to make a book with a map. Every good book has a map at the beginning. So I went through the whole story and tried to map out where she went, but it was really difficult. I was like, “How does this fit, and then also seem like a long journey from place to place?” So it was pretty random how it ended up. But you could totally look at it and be like, “That’s Silverlake!” The Old Lady’s Cabin is in Silverlake. It totally is. I live in it. I’m the old lady. ————————————————————————————————— Sense of Humor at the National Gallery Austin English looks at the current show at the National Gallery, Sense of Humor, and talk with its curator, Judith Brodie: You mention that much of this work is on view for the first time. After going through the process of making this show into a reality, do you have any insight into why museums and institutions so rarely show comic art on their walls, but have made space for film and architecture? Are there specific challenges the work poses? Much of the work is being shown for the first time not because it has been hidden away but because it is new to the National Gallery’s collection, acquired within the last decade or so. The exhibition is drawn entirely from the Gallery’s collection. As to why comic art is less visible on the walls of museums, are you referring to art that is humorous or specifically the art of cartoonists? If the former, I would say that it is simply less abundant, especially in terms of painting and sculpture. If you mean work by cartoonists, art museums have long kept cartoonists at arm’s length. Nevertheless, attitudes evolve, as evidenced by the National Gallery exhibition. I meant more what are some of the unique qualities of the work that presented challenges that, say, painting or sculpture might not? Definitely the lack of such work in permanent collections is a factor. Institutions such as the National Gallery never collected this sort of art. In truth, it wasn’t even considered art. I could be wrong in assuming this, but historically were cartoonists even aiming to be in art museum collections? It strikes me that their aim was to get their work published and most paid little regard for the original drawings. I have heard purists say that the work that we should be exhibited is the published cartoon and that curators such as myself are fetishizing the original, unique work. Also bear in mind that probably more than 90 percent of the works in the National Gallery’s collection came as donations. Our holdings reflect what our donors were collecting. This is the case at almost all art museums. ————————————————————————————————— SLUM WOLF Granta has an excerpt of the new Tadao Tsuge book, translated from the Japanese by Ryan Holmberg. ————————————————————————————————— AUTOPTIC REPORPTIC John Porcellino blogs about the recent Autoptic Festival: Anyhow, we went in and did the show. Autoptic is in an amazing space, some kind of massive vaulted former warehouse. In that way alone it feels very different than most comics shows. It doesn’t feel claustrophobic or oppressive. It also attracts a slightly different crowd than your average comics con. There were a lot of older people attending, as well as families and groups of friends. A number of people came to my table and told me they had just happened to be in town for the weekend and saw the show listed in the paper, and decided to check it out. So there was a kind of openness and curiosity to the attendees that I usually only feel at a zine show. (It should be noted, Autoptic has a somewhat larger scope that just a “comics show,” featuring zines, printmaking, and other small press publications as well.) ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 9-4-18 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 9-4-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Daniel Clowes Talk At The Bay Area Book Festival 2016

Chris Anthony DiazJuly 1, 2016The Diaz ArchiveDaniel Clowes talked with Ivory Madison at the Bay Area Book Festival, downtown Berkeley, Sunday, June 5, 2016. Dan also signed his latest Fantagraphics graphic novel PATIENCE, THE COMPLETE EIGHTBALL 1-18 SPECIAL EDITION and also advanced copies of the WILSON paperback. Photo color by Graham Willcox Share this page: [...]

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