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Posted in NewsTagged caleb orecchio, gabriella tito, juan fernandez

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 25, 2017January 25, 2017

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Gloria RiveraApril 25, 2017EssaysI’ve been meaning to write something about these comics since I found out about them a year ago. Before this I never knew my parents read comics in their youth. They both grew up in Mexico (b. 1964 and 1966) in small pueblos, and left their houses at 14 and 19 to work. I was so curious as to what interested them enough as kids to capture their attention week after week. What captivated them had to actually interest the town as a whole in order to be read. They explained that children in the pueblos were poor and could only afford an issue here and there, and swapping comics with other kids was the only way they could finish the adventures. Even more removed – they paid to read to whichever child in the pueblo had the issue they needed to read next. For reference of the sort of social ecosystem my parents grew up in, my father herded sheep on a mountain and my mother was from a poor family of 5, leaving her house at 14 to work at an orphanage. Their childhood has eluded me most of my life, and I was curious as to the kind of stories that would be popular to humble roots like theirs. The majority of the comics I will be introducing were created in the 1960’s and 1970’s. From the 1930’s to the 1970’s the comics industry was strong in Mexico, with their own original titles in addition to translated American versions. La pequeña Lulú (Little Lulu) and La Mujer Maravilla (Wonder Woman) – both pictured above – were enjoyed, alongside comics of Mexican origin such as Chanoc (1959), Kaliman el Hombre Increible (1965), Rarotonga (1951), and Hermelinda Linda (1965) among many others. ————————————————————————————————— Going by year of debut, Rarotonga is a series within the larger comics title of Lagrimas, Risas y Amor (Tears, Laughter, and Love) published by Editorial Argumentos (also known as EDAR). Rarotonga is drawn by Antonio Gutierrez and has a total volumes of 216 issues. Other titles by Gutierrez include Yesenia, Rubí, and El pecado de Oyuki. Rarotonga (excerpted from above) tells the story of a jungle queen/goddess of the eponymous island, who seduces a professor/doctor visiting the isle – she is the goddess of love and death after all (as are all women). She has special powers she attempts to use upon the foreigner (who needs lust when you can magically seduce any man with your powers, right?) However he seems to resist her – for the sake of his pre-established marriage. Rarotonga is essentially a jungle-novella, suitable for the publication Lagrimas, Risas y Amor which ran romance comics, which were often adapted into films and telenovelas. The story itself is more than a trashy love story, as it also touches on themes of western civility and reason against uncolonized magic and lust. Visually, Mexican comics around this time have this value-heavy shaded look to them, and as the distribution later increased for comics in Mexico the comics were reprinted in color (speculatively lowering the quality of the comic artwork). The sepia tone comics (Rarotonga and Kaliman) initially enjoyed at fully newsprint size, later were reduced to the size of a pulp novel (4.5 x 7 roughly). Eventually comics in Lagrimas, Risas y Amor reached audiences in Spain, Venezuela and even Japan. The bodacious Rarotonga was liked by women as much as men. In a society where machismo reigns, Rarotonga piqued the interest of young women. (However, as it was told to me, boys would tease girls in the pueblos with big asses – calling them “Rarotonga”!) ————————————————————————————————— Chanoc, written by Martin de Lucenay and Angel Mora, are “adventures of sea and jungle”, that take place in the Gulf of Mexico. Chanoc is our rebellious hero who little by little sees a change in character as he adventures and protects his older godfather, Tsekub. Chanoc is developed within the port of Ixtas – the names and setting are all of Mayan origin, Chanoc being a deity in myth, but a pearl diver in this adventure. This is interesting because in Mexican comics history, pre-Columbian codices are arguably Latin America’s earliest form of comics. Mora draws Chanoc influenced by 1950’s and 60’s American comics, without letting go of themes and story traditions found in Mexican comics. Chanoc begins as a simple story of a young man against the sea, but eventually our protagonist is responsible for convincing the Mexican government to spend their economic resources on feeding the hungry instead of contracting more arms. This is all done with a flair of humor of course, which reflects on Mexican cinema of the time (Cantinflas and Tin-Tan) – political but humorous. ————————————————————————————————— Kaliman (above) is one of the most popular Mexican comics, which ran for 26 years starting in 1965. The first printing of 100,000 copies sold so quickly it had to be reprinted the same week of its launch. The series covers 39 different stories from 1965 to 1991. The story of Kaliman began as a radio show, in 1963, and with popularity became a comic book in the next few years. The comic is drawn by Rene del Valle. Kaliman is born in a fictitious setting in India. In the kingdom of Kalimantan he is found in a floating basket by a prince, Abul Pasha, who adopts him as his own son. Kaliman is later kidnapped with the intention of murder, and escapes. As Kaliman’s quest continues, he travels to other regions such as Tibet, and develops himself through teachings of judo, karate, and jiu jitsu, defeating enemies and defending justice. Like Rarotonga, Kaliman was originally printed in sepia tones, with an unpopular color reprint afterward. ————————————————————————————————— Hermelinda Linda is a satirical comic published between the decade of the seventies and the end of the eighties in Mexico by Editormex Mexicana, and later released as two films. The author of the original Hermelinda Linda series is controversial – traditionally attributed to Óscar González Guerrero, but in a different publication to José Cabezas García. The actual comic itself began under the title “Brujerias” (Witchcraft) and was re-named to sell better to its superstitious audience. The character of Hermelinda Linda is a vulgar looking witch who uses her sorcery to achieve the desires of her clients and herself. She has the ability to change into beautiful women, animals, anything with her potions, and uses her gifts to do odd jobs for others that come to her. The comic relies heavily on dark comedy, macabre, and mischief – jokes between the heinous Hermalinda Linda and beautiful women, and double entendre jokes. Below are some frames from the movie. Share this page: [...]

01/16/2017

Juan FernándezJanuary 16, 2017NewsJuan and Sally here to start your week off with George Herriman strips, Richard Diebenkorn sketchbooks, Illustrated PEN’s State of Emergency, the GOUFFRE anthology, and other comics and news bites. ————————————————————————————————— Here on the site, Comics Workbook student and cartoonist Jesse Rimler shares a report on the Richard Diebenkorn Sketchbook show that hung at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University last summer. “This exhibit made me think about the general use of a sketchbook. Diebenkorn called his sketchbook his “portable studio,” and it’s clear he took drawing in these beatup spiralbounds as seriously as he did etching on a copper plate or painting on a canvas. I think some comics makers, myself included, tend to treat their sketchbooks as something completely different from their final art. The idea of closing the gap between the two is appealing to me, and Diebenkorn’s example is inspiring.“ Read the rest of this “Art Trip” HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Illustrated PEN published an online graphic narrative series called State of Emergency, which is intended to help “amplify the voices and stories of the communities most at risk in this new and hostile reality“. Edited by Meg Lemke, Rob Kirby, and MariNaomi, it features pieces by Iasmin Omar Ata, Dylan Edwards, Thi Bui, Rachel Masilamani, Robert Kirby, Whit Taylor, Tyler Cohen, and Cristy C. Road. Check out the whole series HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Juan Fernandez here. Ain’t got too much to say today, just wanted to share some strips I made with you a while back. I’ve been going through the new IDW 1934 Krazy Kat Dailies book every day this year. It’s been a wonderful experience. I’ve been clamoring for an economically formatted collection of Herriman’s dailies for some years now since Fantagraphics started doing their reprints of the Sunday pages. Those are exquisite. This IDW collection features the complete run of Krazy Kat dailies from 1934, reproduced full size on high quality newsprint, in a chunky, horizontally formatted hardcover volume from IDW’s Library of American Comics Essentials series. Woo boy. That thing is amazing. In light of this, I’ve been thinking about a couple of strips I made at the Center for Cartoon Studies in 2012. The following strips were made for the second assignment in Jason Lutes’ Cartooning Studio. Aping as the building of discipline. Style as functional raincoat. The objective was to recreate faithfully the visual and narrative style of an American strip artist and to tell 3 autobiographical stories using the strip as the vehicle. The assigned artists ranged far and wide, from Walt Kelly to Scott Adams. You know, a very CCS “traditional” cartooning exercise. I was lucky enough to get George Herriman’s Krazy Kat. Thanks Jason. It was a really satisfying exercise. I won’t lie, the strips turned out nice but they don’t really work. I had never done comic strips that weren’t just Dada-ist doodle non-sequitors, so this exercise proved to be a challenge. Not because I didn’t want them to make sense, but rather because I wanted so badly for them to make sense. I wanted to express so much in a single strip and it came out garbled. Clean, but garbled. I understand structure, but traditional narrative? Man, that’s hard to do and not ham up! To make these studies I read a great deal of Herriman’s dailies, across collections, but I found that the most useful was a big green copy of Fantagraphics Books’ The Kat Who Walked in Beauty. The “Panoramic” Dailies from 1920. If you’re only familiar with Herriman’s broadsheets, you really ought to take a look at his dailies. While the broadsheets are beautiful and hyperbolic, the daily strips are immaculately fine tuned little nuggets. It’s staggering to know that he churned out these little finely crafted gems on a daily basis for 31 years. In my opinion, it’s there that you’ll find his genius. Day in and day out. At least, that’s the work that I most want to read. Speaking to what I said about structure, I want to share some of the process of thinking about Herriman’s pacing. Diagrams of panel organization schemes that appeared throughout the strips from 1920. You have the pacing of his language in balloons but, more importantly you have the pacing across his panels. Horizons dip up and down. Panels tuck themselves behind others. Panel sequences exist as objects, embedded in the desert landscape. CW Students: I recommend blocking out the essential shapes and forms of any comics that you enjoy. It’s a good warm up for thinking about structure. Roughly block out panels and black regions. Squint your eyes. Take off your glasses if you wear them. Block out a lot of pages and spreads. This can really help internalize the structures of the works that you love. And that can help you synthesize those things into work of your own that you will love. ————————————————————————————————— The new anthology GOUFFRE from Lagon Revue is now available online from revuelagon.com. Edited and conceived by editors Alexis Beauclair, Bettina Henni, Séverine Bascouert, Sammy Stein & Jean-Philippe Bretin, GOUFFRE combines multiple printing techniques: Silk-screen, Riso printing, and offset printing. A spectacle of daring comics and all out production. Grab yourself a copy and be on the cutting edge of comics. It’s 45€. GOUFFRE stands for polymorphic, plastic comics. The magazine celebrates new perspectives and unique approaches of the medium: Minimal, maximal, without characters, made of sensations, or of emptiness, mute, aesthetic, close to abstraction. You will discover toxic undergrowth, extinguished suburbs, melancholic sci-fi stories, fake magazine covers, modern love relationships and visions of the near future. ————————————————————————————————— Tea and Crumpets Maurice, Son of Noah Pt. 4 by Roman Muradov is up on Hazlett – HERE. You can catch the rest of the story as well – and check out the previous comic series’ published by Hazlett, including the story by Annie Mok and Natalie Andrewson – Straight Expectations. The Will Eisner Hall of Fame 2017 Nominees have been announced. It’s the 100th year since Eisner’s death so the list is a little longer than usual, with four judge-appointed Hall of Fame inductees instead of the usual two, and seventeen names up for the public vote – including the Hernandez Brothers. Check out Tom Spurgeon’s comments on the list HERE. Michael DeForge now has a designated Instagram for his comic series Leaving Richard’s Valley – follow along @richardsvalley. There is an interview with Erik Nebel in Fluide Glacial, the famous French comics magazine. Erik translated an excerpt and shared it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out Zona #2, a unique look into Frank Santoro’s process. Full color, 24 pages. Magazine sized. Cardstock covers. Edition of 100. Signed and numbered. Get a copy HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-16-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-16-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-16-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

South Beloit, IL Scene Report

Frank SantoroNovember 13, 2011Riff Raff / Scene ReportsHey everybody – this week’s scene report is brought to you by the formidable John Porcellino. Johnny P could write scene reports for half the country cuz he’s probably been to your scene. And he probably made you feel like you aren’t doing enough – just by his example alone. And you know what? You probably aren’t. A real traveler if there ever was one – these days he calls South Beloit, Illinois home. Where? Yeah, I know. I had never heard of it either. INTERMISSION FUNNIES with MICHAEL DEFORGE South Beloit Scene Report By John Porcellino In November of 2010, after a series of unfortunate life choices, I found myself living in a small, semi-rural town on the Illinois-Wisconsin border– South Beloit (Pop. 8401). Longtime readers of my comics may recall that I’ve occasionally fantasized about living in some small, cheap, out-of-the-way town, where I could afford to focus on my art with few distractions and financial worries. Well, one thing I’ve learned by living in South Beloit: Be careful what you wish for! South Beloit is on the Illinois side, about 20 miles north of Rockford (once the state’s second largest city, now home to 12.1% unemployment), and about an hour south of Madison, Wisconsin. There are few cultural resources in South Beloit, aside from Miss Vikki’s Famous Ribs, and the Public Library, which features on its meager shelves six volumes of comic-related material (Complete Bone, and various how to draw Manga/Superheroes books). Luckily, the Rockford Library and the nearby Roscoe-Loves Park Library District both honor my hard-won South Beloit Library Card. The Rockford Library features a pretty nice array of comics in book form, including most of the output of Fantagraphics and IDW, Abrams, and the other usual suspects. They even have a copy of Perfect Example, though it’s locked away in the “Teen Use” chamber, which is only open during “hours in which teens may be expected to make use” of it (meaning 3PM to closing, weekdays), and which forbids adults from using it unless the materials within cannot be found elsewhere in the library stacks. Suffice it to say, I made much use of the Rockford Public Library during the endless winter of 2010-2011. The Roscoe Library has a couple shelves of comics-related material, mostly along the lines of “How to Draw Animals Manga Style,” with only a few titles actually devoted to comics to read, including a handful of Calvin and Hobbes collections, and the Don Martin Anthology. Loves Park (a Rockford suburb) fares better, with a decent selection of comics, as well as books on comics. Across the border in Beloit, Wisconsin, their new library building houses an excellent selection of comics, though, as an Illinois resident, I’m unable to check out materials there. There are no bookstores to speak of in the region, with the exception of the Beloit College Bookstore, which has a very small rack of the usual generic-looking manga. (The Borders in Rockford closed recently. There is a Barnes & Noble somewhere in a mall in Rockford, but I’ve yet to visit it.) There are, however, a number of comics specialty shops in the area. The ones I visit most frequently are Top Cut Comics in Loves Park, and AK Comics in Beloit. Top Cut Comics is a large storefront on North Second Street, the main north-south drag through Loves Park, heading into Rockford. It’s situated next to the local Salvation Army, and across from a liquor store with a delightful vintage neon sign (“House of Bottles”). When you walk in the door you face a small rack of new comics, as well as a selection of kid-friendly comics. The main space is divided into sections for comics, role-playing and board games, and action figures. Two side rooms, one with tables for gaming, and one that houses their extensive back issue collection, are located on the edges of the store. Along the wall, behind the counter, are collectible comics and colorful superhero branded T-shirts. There’s one store-long rack of recent pamphlet comics, one store-long shelf of miscellaneous trade paperbacks and collections, and a couple shelves devoted mainly to the DC/Marvel Archive/Masterworks hardcovers series, but with a smattering of other independent titles among them. The staff is always super nice. They even agreed to place a display of my comics on their counter, and have managed to sell a few here and there. I asked Mike, who I believe is the manager, if he had any news to relay to readers of the Journal website, and he mentioned just that the DC relaunch had done very well for them, that he had ordered extras of all titles, and had sold out of nearly everything. AK Comics, in Beloit, is located in a strip mall near the interstate, alongside a GNC, a shoe store, and a Staples. It’s a small shop, but clean, and well organized. The owner, David, has always been helpful and friendly, even pulling and holding some Marvel monster reprints from his stash at home for me because he knew I liked them. He also agreed to display a small selection of King-Cat titles on his counter, but unfortunately none have sold to date. The store features a rack or two of new pamphlet comics, a couple tables of back issues, and several shelves of paperback and hardcover superhero collections. A table in the center of the shop is reserved for gaming. There’s a wall of collectible comics behind the counter, and action figures and other paraphernalia line the remaining walls. When I asked David for news, he also replied that the DC relaunch had been a huge success, not only in terms of sales, but also in customer satisfaction, including a couple readers who were Marvel-Only before the relaunch. In my year in South Beloit I’ve managed to meet a few cartoonists with ties to the area. Kevin Singles was raised in Beloit, Wisconsin, attended the comics program at Savannah College of Art and Design, and currently resides in Austin, Texas. But he was in town for the summer, working on his debut book (for First Second), illustrating a hard-boiled comic called Head Games, written by the novelist Craig McDonald. He’s also been working on his own title, Tension. Then, a few weeks ago, I was wandering around downtown Beloit at night, looking in the windows of the College Bookstore, when I saw a flyer for, of all things, a signing by a graphic novelist! This I had to check out. I went down the following Saturday for the signing, by a South Beloit native (and, inexplicably, a Packers fan), Brent Schoonover. A graduate of Minneapolis College of Art and Design’s comics program (and currently a St. Paul resident) he was signing copies of his latest book, Mr. Murder Is Dead (Archaia Entertainment, written by Victor Quinaz). I shook his hand and said I couldn’t believe there was a cartoonist from South Beloit, and he said, “Yeah…” I have kind of half-jokingly suggested to a few friends here and there that I might try to organize the First Annual South Beloit Zine Fest– and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. If I do, come on out and visit. We’ll have lunch at Miss Vikki’s and talk about comic books. Share this page: [...]

09/06/2018

Juan FernándezSeptember 6, 2018NewsJuan here announcing the winners of the 2018 Composition Competition! – – – – – – – – – – Congratulations to ALL who created and submitted work for this year’s composition competition! This year saw a move away from the previous years’ use of Tumblr as the dominant platform of digital media publishing and towards Instagram. A different platform invites different constraints. Instagram functions as a hyper-customizable newspaper that gets updated vigorously and endlessly. This year’s use of Instagram begged for a return to the building blocks of comics, thus the creation of comics strips. Details on this year’s criteria are available HERE. _____________________ First Place – A Weeklong Residency at the Rowhouse Residency in Swissvale, PA. Cory Feder Our decision to award Cory Feder First Place recognizes Feder’s creation of an ambitious yet simple, multi-layered poetic sequence that cuts through notions of language. This is the kind of strip that can be read and re-read ad infinitum to continue gleaning new meaning. Feder’s comic is the kind offhand remark, the cadence of which, you keep thinking about for years. This complex concoction of intuitive drawing and deft use of juxtaposition made for a winning combination. _____________________ Second Place – A collection of gag comics by the Comics Workbook gang Julian Fiebach In Second Place, Julian Fiebach’s “The Worker”clearly embodies excellence in both conception and execution of the classic 4 panel gag. Here is a testament to the raw power of smart minimalism in cartooning. These strips accomplish universally relatable expressions of the many ways that we engage in (and avoid) work in our lives through a pattern language pared down to its essentials. _____________________ Third Place – An original portrait by Audra Stang Will M. The Comics Workbook Competition’s Third Place, “BALLS”, offers an off the wall bit of nonsense. It’s a bizarre laugh that holds together quite well as an absurd re-interpretation of elements Charles’ Schulz world of Peanuts. It carries echoes of grief that crash into pure, unexpected, absurdity. This is a collection of visual chuckles, that accumulate to an absurd 4 panel sequence. A glorious bit of nonsense that begs the question, “WHY?”. _____________________ Honorable Mention Antoine Rigalleau David Craig Chris Jones _______________________ It is our belief that artistic creation is a two way street. An artist, or any other creator, grows in the process of creating; the greater the efforts, the greater the growth. By this measure, comics creators in general – and those who submitted work to this competition in particular – are growing by leaps and bounds, and so, by definition, is the comics form; as in the final analysis, the value of a form is coincident with the work that it contains. It is our hope that all of the makers who participated in this contest have been TRANSFORMED in some way – artistically, personally, spiritually, and/or physically – by the time and energy dedicated to the creation of their submissions. Everyone who took part in this exercise has completed a hero’s journey. _______________________ What I liked about the three winners is a strong sense of intuition and control. I see this aspect in the work of the honorable mentions. This year the judges looked at the entries and tried to frame the winners in a way that reflects the multifaceted jewel that is the world of comics creation in 2018. Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s contest. And to everyone who may have begun their comic but did not finish it or enter it, please finish it and post it, and we will do our best to get it seen. Tag your post with #compositioncompetition2018 on Instagram. Juan Fernandez, Pittsburgh PA ___________________________ The restrictions placed upon the contest entries were derived from The Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers. It is our firmly held belief here at Comics Workbook that restrictions such as the grid are ultimately freeing. We also believe that timing is the essential ingredient to making great comics. How do you study and practice timing in comics? You use the grid. _____________________________ Please check out the complete list of entries for 2018 at the following link! All Entries. _________________________ Check out past competition winners and entries: 2013 – 2014 – 2015 – 2016 – 2017 ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 9-6-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

YI YI by Steven Weissman

Chris Anthony DiazJuly 20, 2016The Diaz ArchiveSteven Weissman’s portrayal of Jonathan Chang as Yang Yang in Edward Yang’s YI YI (Taiwan, 2000) for my ILLUSTRATED MOMENTS IN CINEMA/TELEVISION. The illustration was completed January 2011 in India and Pearlescent inks complimented with Screentone patterns, and Steven’s candid with his son was taken at the Oakland Museum of California’s cafeteria in August 2012. And Graham Willcox did the color on Steven’s candid Share this page: [...]

01/25/2017

Posted on January 25, 2017January 25, 2017 by Juan Fernández

Juan José con un poquito sobre: las Tetastristes en Ruda con Malicia;Miguel Ángel Martín; Conversando con Katherine Supnem; La nueva sangre de la poesía colombiana; Alexis Ziritt; Emma Rios; Power Paola y más.

Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atencion esta semana:
- Miguel Ángel Martín lleva 30 años provocando con sus historias de sexo, violencia y tecnología. Koldo Gutiérrez explora su mundo de sadomasoquisma emocional en profundidad en la Revista Cactus.
- Conversando con Katherine Supnem.
- Ruda con Malicia se trasladaron la semana pasada a la casa de las Tetas Tristes y las acompañaron en su feria “Las Tetas se Toman el Puerto”para grabar la edición mas reciente del programa. Escuchen esta edicion sobre los momentos de placer, los festivales y cumbres de rock, sexistas y patriarcales.
- Comics: La nueva sangre de la poesía colombiana – Una corriente de poetas jóvenes, editoriales independientes y espacios de difusión no convencionales, quiere impedir que esta tradición literaria se estanque. Hay una apuesta por la ilustración y lo visual, llegando a bares y ferias para acercarse a un público juvenil.
- Alexis Ziritt hizo unos dibujos para LucasFilms al fin del año pasado… Ahora estos dibujos pueden ser tuyos! Visita a http://aziritt.bigcartel.com/ para comprar tu dibujo.
Alexis Ziritt

Emma Ríos, ilustradora y guionista de cómic. // EVA PERNAS VÁZQUEZ

Charlando con Emma Rios

Kaboom, la nueva seccion de El País dedicada a la exploracion del mundo del comic contemporaneo, compartió una mañana con la artista y arquitecta gallega, Emma Rios. Léanlo HOY!

Angel Luis Sucasas: ¿Cómo cambia tu método cuando escribes y cuando dibujas?

Emma Rios: Escribiendo, trabajo mucho desde los personajes pero al mismo tiempo soy muy conceptual. Nunca doy demasiadas explicaciones. Como escritora no me mola nada hacerlo. Lo que quiero es que el lector se sienta parte del mundo, que escuches cosas. Hablábamos antes de Dark souls y de cómo te enteras de las cosas por lo que dicen los personajes, por el contexto. En ID [novela gráfica de 80 páginas que Ríos dibuja y escribe en solitario] lo transmitía mucho a través de la gestualidad corporal.

Normalmente se trata de decidir de qué coño me apetece hablar. En ID estaba claro que quería hablar de la aceptación… Es un cómic muy político. Tiene mucho que ver con una situación en la que yo me encontraba en el curro. Yo trabajo para gente extranjera. Eso significa una barrera idiomática y cultural. Y soy relativamente introvertida y me cuesta enfrentarme a esto. Me cuesta ser el centro de atención y me cuesta tener esa actitud, que allí es tan natural, de “¡Compra mi tebeo, compra mi tebeo”. Así que acabé distribuyendo eso en varios personajes para enfrentarme a ello.

Yo estoy hasta las narices de que se me trate como alguien especial. Mira, lo que hago no es especial. Tu idea de lo que hacen las mujeres no es la realidad. Las mujeres hacen muchas cosas.

Conversando con Power Paola

Power Paola habla con Ben Alfaro en Hijos del Atomo los hijos de la tomo sobre su proceso, sus gustos y sus inspiraciones:

¿Qué dibujante o dibujantes han llamado más tu atención y por qué? ¿ Y qué escritores o escritor y por qué?

Me gustan los dibujantes que encontraron su propio lenguaje y que dibujan más por una necesidad física que por buscar reconocimiento. Me encanta el Art Brut, dibujantes comoHenry Darger, Daisuke Ichiba, Stephane Blanquet, Caroline Sury. Y artistas comoRaymond Pettibon, Marcel Dzama, David Shrigley, Louise Bourgeois, El Bosco, Rousseau, Francis Alys, Ernesto Neto, etc.

De escritores me gustan mucho Rita Indiana, Yuri Herrera, Junot Díaz,Juan Cárdenas y toda esa camada del caribe que tienen un lenguaje mezclado y muy contemporáneo. También disfruto mucho a Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, Valerie Mrejen, Gabriela Wiener, Patti Smith, Susan Sontag, etc. Me gusta mucho lo autobiográfico y autorreferencial en el cómic y en las novelas, la mezcla de culturas, de lenguajes y de intereses.
Me influencio mucho por lo que leo, veo y escucho. Así que siempre tengo referencias en cada proyecto que hago, es mi forma de agradecerles a los que me mostraron una manera de expresar.

En Venta: The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey.

La gran Vanesa R. Del Rey le ha dado permiso a Comics Workbook para publicar unas selecciónes de sus cuadernos de bocetos. Hemos diseñado esta publicación para que parezca uno de esos libros de de artistas los años 80. Arte y Entrevista. El texto es una transcripción de la entrevista que hicimos con Vanesa cuando visito la Residencia Rowhouse en 2016. Vanesa es un artista impresionante y inigualable.

Puedes comprar tu copia AQUI.Order a copy of The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey HERE.

Frank Santoro, el director de Comics Workbook, nos cuenta un poquito sobre sus experiencias con Vanesa:

Me encontré por primera vez con VRDR en un festival de cómics en Toronto (TCAF) en 2014. Había empezado a hacer comics profesionalmente después de un período como un animadora. Fui Sorprendido por su la capacidad de ser como un camaleón de cambiar de estilos, y por su puesto le pedí ver más de sus obras.

Desenterró pilas de cuadernos de dibujos de sus días en Cuba, cuando estudiaba el realismo soviético y de trabajaba con George Pratt, maestro de cómics pintados. La educación de Vanesa como artista hace el balance suavemente entre los niveles alto y bajo del arte, así como los valores estéticos del este y el oeste. Es una base asombrosa. Ella es, a la vez, consciente de la historia del arte, la historia de los cómics y la historia de la animación de una manera NUEVA que casi parecía imposible hace quince o veinte años.

Debo admitir como un estudiante y fan de cómics que se enfocan en la mezcla de “alto y bajo” y en ” los cómics pintados” — Nunca he visto tal mezcla de habilidades al nivel de VRDR. Feroz. Imparable. Un competidor feroz. Michael Jordan-esque? ¿Es eso posible en la fabricación de cómic? Siempre he dicho que habría un “invasor vertical” en los cómics que podría emplear el “naturalismo” de la escuela de Noel Sickles / Alex Toth pero que podría pintar como una Alice Neel o una Jenny Saville. Creo que “el invasor” ha llegado en forma de Vanesa R. Del Rey.

Puedes comprar tu copia AQUI.
Sigan a Vanesa por Instagram – @vrdelrey – y http://vrdelrey.com/

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Suzy and Cecil – 1-25-2017 – by Gabriella Tito

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Joanie and Jordie – 1-25-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio

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1-25-2017 – by Juan Fernández

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged caleb orecchio, gabriella tito, juan fernandez

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 25, 2017January 25, 2017

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02/10/2017

Sally IngrahamFebruary 9, 2017NewsSally here to finish the week with you – I’ve got work by Emil Ferris, Theora Kvitka, Valentine Gallardo, Iris Yan, and Lou Rogers to share, plus comics scholarship with Rebecca Wanzo and the debut of The Ladybroad Ledger – and much more! ————————————————————————————————— Emil Ferris‘s long-anticipated debut graphic novel is finally here. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters was a decade in the making, and then it quite literally got lost at sea last fall when “the entire 10,000-copy print run of the book was stuck on a cargo ship seized at the Panama Canal after the freight company, Hanjin, filed bankruptcy.” The A.V. Club reports: “The scope of Ferris’ story is huge as it juggles a murder mystery, family drama, psychological thriller, and love letter to classic pulp monsters while taking readers from Chicago to Nazi Germany, and the narrative is constantly surprising and hugely fulfilling.“ They have a 11-page preview of the book – check it out HERE. It will be officially released on February 15th (although Copacetic Comics already has copies!) I look forward to seeing this in person – the “intensely hatched linework” is not always my cup of tea, but the story sounds compelling and Emil Ferris is a very interesting person. In an exclusive for Chicago Magazine, Emil has shared more of her story. “Growing up in Uptown in the 1960s, Ferris was part of a diverse community of people who she says “operated outside the system.” Her neighbors included black migrants who traveled north during the Great Migration, white Appalachian miners living in abject poverty, and thousands of Native Americans who left their reservations in the wake of relocation programs. “There was an incredible beauty,” says Ferris. “These were people who suffered, but were strong. They were survivors.” “ Emil was a survivor as well – born with scoliosis she was immobile for much of her childhood. This led to a vision of herself as a wolf-girl and a fascination with monsters – both of which influenced the creation of her new book. The piece on Chicago Magazine includes a comic by Emil that details the “stranger-than-fiction saga” which led to My Favorite Thing Is Monsters. The first part is below – read the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Meet Rebecca Wanzo, a comics scholar, associate professor of women, gender and sexuality studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and associate director of the Center for the Humanities. She is also a founding board member of the Comics Studies Society (CSS), “the first professional organization for comics researchers in the United States.” Wow. Total badass. The Source, a publication of the Washington University in St. Louis recently sat down with Rebecca to talk about comics and education and scholarship. Her current book project – The Content of Our Caricature – brings up an interesting discussion about how African-Americans fit into a medium that has a deep history of caricature and excess. “Think about Charlie Brown, the way he’s drawn. The body is a sign. Comics depend on this language of exaggeration and excess. But it’s really easy for representations of black people to slip into racist caricature. How do you get away from caricature in a medium built upon it? But what’s more interesting to me is when black comic artists intentionally use caricature, and to what ends. Sam Milai, the great Pittsburgh Courier editorial cartoonist, whose archives are in the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum (where Wanzo is a board member) had a gorgeous, realist phenotype for black people he thought were doing good things, but sometimes used racist caricature for people he was criticizing. You see this consistently in black cartooning.“ They also get into the impetus behind forming the Comics Studies Society and what works Rebecca especially likes to teach. “I enjoy teaching excerpts from “Winmen’s Comix,” especially the early issues, which are really transgressive. Students assume representation gets more progressive over time, but that’s not necessarily true. For feminists, the 1970s were pretty radical!“ The rest of the interview is also interesting – check it out HERE. I’m very excited to see the debut issue of Inks, the CSS Journal coming out later this year, and will definitely be tracking down more of Rebecca Wanzo’s writing. ————————————————————————————————— In the tradition of Wimmen’s Comix and Strumpet and other collections of comics featuring women only comes The Ladybroad Ledger. It is a newsprint compilation that features 10 female-identifying artists and plenty of diverse subject matter. It is making it’s way into stores and libraries all across the state of Vermont. It was created by Stephanie Zuppo, a cartoonist based in Winooski, VT. There is a nice write-up about the first issue of The Ladybroad Ledger over on Seven Days. “These days, gender disparity in comics is declining, according to Zuppo… “It’s becoming more balanced, especially in alternative and indie comics,” she says. “Now, a lot of the major publishers are taking notice and hiring more women.” That doesn’t mean female cartoonists should kick back and declare victory any time soon, adds Zuppo. “I still think featuring women in comics is an important thing, and it should be done more often,” she asserts.“ Read the rest of the article HERE. Stephanie plans to release her publication twice a year. Check out more of her personal work HERE – and keep up with The Ladybroad Ledger HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Theora Kvitka is a Pittsburgh-based cartoonist who publishes the webcomic Urbanity Planet (above). It updates every Monday. Her work was featured in a roundup on The Guardian of comics throughout history that have looked at gentrification, from 1921 to 2016 – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Beat featured the work of Valentine Gallardo as part of their A Year of Free Comics feature. You can read about Valentine’s Spellwich HERE – and you can read the whole comic on Vice – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out the work of Iris Yan (above). She is a Brazilian-born Chinese cartoonist who has been publishing the webcomic Pigs in Maputo since 2010 – read more of it HERE. These comics appear almost daily – she also has longer form work which you can see HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I – Sally Ingraham – started a Patreon to help support my comics-related endeavors! I am focusing on developing a comics curriculum for girls, building a library of women’s comics, and researching and documenting women in the comics industry. The teaching part is especially rewarding and where I really am looking for help when it comes to the Patreon. I am working on putting more classes together and establishing a “comics tutoring” clientele, but as that grows I need some help making ends meet. Consider sending me $1 or $5 or $10 a month while I build this network and create a curriculum that has the potential to really change these young girls’ lives. I’m just trying to get more ladies to make and read comics – and once they’re on board for that, to makes spaces for their work to be seen and for them to be heard! It’s fun. It’s radical. It’s necessary. Join me on this journey – check out my Patreon HERE. Many thanks in advance! ————————————————————————————————— Pictured above are cartoons by suffragist cartoonist Lou Rogers in Judge Magazine in 1912 (left) and the original Wonder Woman artist H.G. Peters in 1943 (right). I’m in the middle of reading Jill Lepore’s terrific book The Secret History of Wonder Women, which I may write about later – but for now I just wanted to give a shoutout to Lou Rogers, who was a prolific editorial cartoonist in the early 20th century. She was very involved in the suffragist movement – and in a funny “role reversal” she eventually married her colorist, Howard Smith. The artist who designed Wonder Woman – H. G. Peters – worked at the same paper as Lou did for awhile. (Although I recommend reading The Secret History of Wonder Woman, if you can’t spare the time for 400+ pages you can get the “Cliff Notes” version via this Buzzfeed article: 8 Things You Won’t Believe About Wonder Woman’s Origins.) ————————————————————————————————— Biscuits and Gravy Sara Lautman has a comic on The Awl called The Smell – HERE. Liana Finck had a comic on The Awl a few weeks ago – For Love of the Unknown. Sacha Mardou looks at money in a new way with Murry Mint, for The Common Reader. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-10-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-10-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-10-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

09/22/2017

Sally IngrahamSeptember 22, 2017NewsSally here with Jenny Zervakis (in real life!), a big announcement from Caitlin McGurk, and other comics and news of note. ———————————————————————————————— One of the highlights of going to the Small Press Expo last weekend in Bethesda, MD, was getting to meet Jenny Zervakis (above). Her comics are my favorite discovery of the past year, and I have been harassing everyone I know into getting The Complete Strange Growths, the collection of her work published by John Porcellino and Spit & a Half Distro. I wrote about this collection back in June (read the review HERE) and more recently about Strange Growths #14 (HERE). Buzzing around SPX in the last hour of the last day, after having spent most of my time running workshops for Comics Workbook, it was a delight to catch sight of 3 more issues of Strange Growths on the corner of a table, and a thrilling surprise to see that Jenny herself was standing behind them. I burbled something about how much I liked her comics, and how much I appreciated that they were about her own impressions of the world and what she saw as important or strange or beautiful, told with poetry and humor. She said her comics had been turned down a lot, and not published in comics anthologies in the 90’s because they lacked a focus on “women’s issues”. That’s exactly what I like about them – they speak of her as a person and an artist, and not “just” as a woman. The new (to me) issues pictured above round out my collection of the “complete” Strange Growths, compiling stories and dreams and poems from 2002-2013. They are excellent! You can get copies of Jenny’s work from Spit & a Half Distro, HERE, or if you’re at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus next weekend stop by the Spit & a Half Distro table. ———————————————————————————————— Above is a clip from one of the panels at SPX, featuring November Garcia (speaking), and Marc Sobel (moderating), Keith Knight, Jennifer Hayden, and Glynnis Fawkes. The panel was on autobio comics, and was just one part of a great lineup of programming that was heavily dominated by female makers. Many kudos to the organizers who made this happen (especially Rob Clough!) ———————————————————————————————— The greatest bit of news I came across last week is this: Caitlin McGurk (associate curator of The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum) has been tapped to write the text for IDW’s upcoming Library Of American Comics Essentials collection of Edwina Dumm‘s Cap Stubbs and Tippie comic strip (coming out in 2018)! I knew that Caitlin had been pouring over the Edwina Dumm items in the BICLM collection throughout the summer, and I guess this is why. She is “thrilled” about the project. On IDW’s The Library of American Comics blog Bruce Canwell wrote in the official announcement: “You see, over the span of time we’ve intermittently been working on bringing Cap Stubbs to you, we’ve met one particular Edwina fan, a highly-respected comics historian, who knows more about Edwina than I do and is even more enthusiastic about writing this Introduction than I am (and that’s saying something!). Which is why I’m pleased as the well-known punch to tell you that Caitlin McGurk, associate curator of The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, will be your guide on this particular tour of Edwina’s fine comics creations. Since one of our overarching goals is to provide you with the best information available for this, and for every book we release, I’m more than willing to yield this particular floor to Caitlin.“ Bruce Canwell and Dean Mullaney have had this project in mind for over a decade, and it’ll be the first of at least two projects involving the work of Edwina Dumm. You can read more about the book HERE. Congratulations to Caitlin for getting to be involved in bringing more of Edwina Dumm’s work to the general public. I personally can not wait for this book! ———————————————————————————————— Chicken Noodle Soup Heidi MacDonald shares her SPX 2017 report on The Comics Beat – The Year of Getting Woke. There’s a new comic by Ulli Lust up on her site, part of her series in the magazine Exberliner – read it HERE. Cathy G. Johnson recently published her graduate thesis – Developing the Cartooning Mind: The History, Theory, Benefit and Practice of Comic Books in Visual Arts Education – and she has shared some of it on her website, with the option to read it all via email request. Check it out HERE. Robert Kirby reviews Hannah K. Lee‘s Language Barrier on The Comics Journal – read it HERE. The A. V. Club has an exclusive preview of Language Barrier by Hannah K. Lee available HERE. Smash Pages interviews Glynnis Fawkes, and talks about her Greek Diary – HERE. Kim O’Connor reviews Simon Hanselmann’s Portrait. There’s a new comic up on Mutha Magazine – The Enormity of the Everydayness by Sophia Wiedeman Glock. Sophie Yanow is serializing her new comic on Patreon – a 192-page book that is already thumb-nailed. She just needs a few cheerleaders and a bit of rent money to get it done. Check it out HERE. Whit Taylor was a recent guest editor for the Illustrated PEN, and chose to excerpt Ben Passmore’s Your Black Friend, and Robyn Smith’s The Saddest Angriest Black Girl in Town – read them both HERE, as well as Whit’s commentary. Whit also reviewed Katie Skelly’s My Pretty Vampire, and Keiler Roberts’ Sunburning over on Roar. The Guardian features Tillie Walden and talks about her new comic Spinning – HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-22-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

05/28/2018

Caleb OrecchioMay 28, 2018NewsGone fishing ———————————————————————————— We will be back tomorrow at our normal programming schedule. Have a good one! ———————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-28-18 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

03/08/2016

Juan FernándezMarch 8, 2016NewsThey did it. 2dcloud reached their Kickstarter goal. It was a stretch but they had that long game. Art wins again. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the work that they are publishing i their upcoming season, I encourage you to check out their crowdfund campaign. There might be something right up your alley. Now in their twenty-eighth year, the Lambda Literary Awards have announced their nominations. The Lambda Literary Awards celebrate achievement in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) writing for books published in 2015. The awards ceremony on June 6, 2016, will be held at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (566 LaGuardia Pl, New York, NY 10012). It’s exciting to see the work that was chosen from the world of comics. Check out all the nominations here. LGBT Graphic Novels Curveball, Jeremy Sorese, Nobrow Honor Girl, Maggie Thrash, Candlewick Press The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ & Amal, EK Weaver, Iron Circus Comics O Human Star: Volume One, Blue Delliquanti, Self-published Wuvable Oaf, Ed Luce, Fantagraphics Books NEW at SPIT AND A HALF!!! Lisa Carver, Ian Sundahl, and some great French imports from Editions Tanibis (in English and/or wordless!): Sylvie Fontaine and Paul Kirchner! All the good stuff over at www.spitandhalf.com. John P. is doing God’s work. Andrew White made a free PDF collection of his favorite among the one page comics he posted on Comics Workbook from 2012 to 2014. You can still read all 350 or so strips online, but Andrew thought it might be nice to have a pared down and easier to read version of the material available. Even if many of the strips are rough or haphazard, this was an important body of work through which I began to address some of the topics that are important in my comics today. I hope you like it. Nick Gazin chit chats with Peter Bagge over at VICE. While you’re at it, read up on the 5 Musical Urban Legends comics Bagge has done already for VICE. The series continues with the form that Bagge developed for Magnet Magzine. The Who, Mick Jagger, Chuck Berry, Michael Jackson and Prince. Who’s next?! Read the whole thing over on VICE. You never really learned how to draw, but your comics look great. Most people who try to make comics without learning to draw make garbage. How did you figure out the drawing style you have? Well, I can draw people and things that look like what I’m drawing while looking at it/them. But that bores me, and I assume it would bore the viewer of the results as well. So I prefer to draw from my mind’s eye, and I take my chances from there. I’m almost never happy with the results, though, so I have a hard time arguing with anyone who thinks my art looks awful. Initially, I was trying to duplicate the way old cartoons look, specifically ones directed by Bob Clampett. Later on, I was also mimicking early comics drawn by Harvey Kurtzman, in his old Hey Look! one-pagers and such. It’s a very polarizing drawing style, though. Goodreads has all these rave reviews ofWoman Rebel by all these woman’s studies majors who love the content of the book but give it three or four instead of five stars, simply because they can’t stand my art! Cartoonist and movie critic, Julian Lytle, sat down with Rocky Hadadi to talk 2015 Film on the most recent installment of Ignorant Bliss. This was recorded before the Oscars so there is a lot of talk about the nominees and a little TV talk. Good talk, good music, good banter. Listen in for a while. Chris Mautner took some time to write about Michael Deforge‘s latest work, Big Kids and the themes and story mechanisms in Deforge’s work more generally. Read on. Despite its small size, Big Kids manages to hold just about all of the ideas and themes DeForge has been exploring up to this point. The secret societies, the adolescent angst, the strange body transformations, the antisocial hero desperate to find acceptance — they all coalesce in this slim book. If you were looking for a starting point in DeForge’s bibliography, this might be the place. Would you like to be Nat. Brut’s first Artist-in-Nonresidence? It’s like an artist residency – but not. You will get a month’s worth of gift cards to cafés around New York City and activate the whole city as your workplace! The residency will last April 1-30, 2016, at the end of which all or part of your work will be published in Nat. Brut. Who can apply? Artists or writers of any medium, with a work sample. We are limiting our first round to applicants who identify as people of color. HOW TO APPLY Apply now until 11:59 on March 31 using our online application here:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XSbc4qqQQOOPGYm0TjplyLGWOpqJlMlXY7o8EFcdFp4/viewform?c=0&w=1 that’s it for today. juan fernandez, over and out. Share this page: [...]

01/04/2018

Sally IngrahamJanuary 3, 2018NewsSally here with work by Laércio George Mabota, Djialeu Martial Ngande, and many other African cartoonists! ————————————————————————————————— I recently found a new database that I’ve been digging into – the Africa Cartoons: Encyclopedia of African Political Cartooning. It is being built by Tejumola Olaniyan, who is the Louise Durham Mead professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is originally from Nigeria, and his interests in African diaspora have led him write numerous books on music, literature, drama, and cultural identity. Somehow these interests also condensed into the desire to build this database, which lists 180 cartoonists from many African countries, and aims to represent the entire continent eventually. The artist whose work is represented above is Laércio George Mabota, a cartoonist from Mozambique. According to an article in The African, written when some of his work was featured at the Studio Museum in Harlem, his comics often feature “a braided, warrior-heroine in action packed panels that are as reminiscent of D.C. and Marvel comics as is the cross-hatching shadow technique in which the artist rendered her. As the heroine fights against marauders one can see that even this piece can be easily placed in the wider thematic interplay of justice/injustice prevalent in the exhibition.” Here’s another piece by Mabota that was featured on the Africa Cartoons database: Explore Africa Cartoons and discover more great comics artists – HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Africa Cartoons led me to Africa Comics, and the Africa e Mediterraneo Award for best unpublished comic strip by an African author (an award that Laércio George Mabota has won). This project operates within Italy and the African continent, offering workshops and lectures in schools in addition to the award. The award has been given out between 2002-2015, and I hope it will continue, as it gives the award winners an introduction to the European comics market. You can see the list of winners HERE – and some of the comics that won are featured and written about. Mabota’s strip Metamorphos da arte is featured HERE. A winner of the 2011-2013 award, first prize in the “Food Sovereignty” category, was this comic by Cameroonian cartoonist Djialeu Martial Ngande: The title translates from the French to For a history of plantain – the story is described thus: A man in a village is sent by his angry wife to look for food. He goes to the banana orchard, where he sees a man who has just taken a bunch of bananas: he threatens him and makes him carry the bananas back to his place.“ Read the rest of the story HERE. Be sure to check out this whole website – lots of really interesting stuff here, and especially interesting to me because these comics definitely have more of an “underground” feel to them. They’re each 4 pages long as well, which provides a more complete look at the work of these artists than I’ve chanced upon in my internet searches. ————————————————————————————————— I can across an article by MariNaomi in Issue 4 of Midnight Breakfast, which is about Writing People of Color (if you happen to be a person of another color). It is a good read, with interjections and digressions in comics form, and finishing with comics and bits of advice from a number of other artists, including Yumi Sakugawa, Keith Knight, Whit Taylor, and Maré Odomo. Read the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 16th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. His experience and ideas have influenced the likes of Connor Willumsen, Michael DeForge, and Simon Hanselmann (quote “I consider Frank Santoro to be my L. Ron Hubbard”) among many others. Dig into something new in the new year! Full details and how to apply can be found HERE. Share this page: [...]

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