Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged bryce davidson, Chris Diaz, Honore Daumier, Jaime Hernandez, tom gauld

Comics Workbook

Posted on January 31, 2018January 31, 2018

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12/15/2017

Sally IngrahamDecember 14, 2017NewsSally here to finish the week with work by Kyung Me, Gabrielle Bell, Nnedi Okorafor, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Kyung Me is having a solo exhibition at Selena Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. It opens tomorrow, December 16th, 7-10pm (34 Troutman St #3.) “Kyung Me’s intricate, hypnotic drawings map out puzzled narratives revealing a mysterious cat and dream like scenery that dismantle linear time. For this exhibition, the artist will present her new original drawings focused around her reinvention of the Cheshire cat. Kyung Me’s invented characters operate as stand-ins for herself, as a means of understanding relationships with herself and others. In her latest autobiographical series, Copy Kitty, the artist explores the perverse qualities of obsessive romantic relationships. Through sensitively rendered graphite drawings, Kyung Me creates an immersive world full of dread and humor that both satirizes and eulogizes the naïveté of an immature, paranoid, yet earnest love.“ Some of Copy Kitty – {Prelude} – appeared here on Comics Workbook in May – see the comic HERE. Also be sure to check out Kyung Me’s Bad Korean, and other comics and art on her website. ————————————————————————————————— Brian Nicholson wrote about Gabrielle Bell‘s Everything is Flammable, and E.A. Bethea’s Book Of Daze recently on his blog Longbox Coffin. He wasn’t blown away by either, but I think the reviews are pretty fair to both works. I liked one note he made regarding creators of autobio comics: “You have to be a certain kind of person to make an autobio comic: Introverted and removed enough to be observing the people around you for being strange, outgoing enough to know those people are interesting, capable of deadpan wit, possessing enough free time to tell the stories of things that have transpired while they’re still fresh in your mind. … If you were reading straight prose, or poetry, the author’s voice would distinguish itself from others more, but comics can use their visuals to achieve a sort of leveling effect. The narrator is a witness, to give events a throughline, but less of a defining presence in their own right. If they were more overbearing, and dominated their surroundings, they would want to dominate the reader as well, and so would write fiction.“ Read the full review, and Brian’s thoughts on Book of Daze as well, HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I read a lot of comics, mostly alternative and small press stuff of course, but I dip into mainstream comics occasionally too. I keep tumbling into the world of Black Panther – especially after local Pittsburgh poet Yona Harvey joined the creative team for a minute last year. The series has been struggling against any number of foes in the industry and market, but Marvel is trying again this week with a digital version of the comic, available exclusively through comiXology. The reason I’m genuinely excited for this release is because Black Panther: Long Live the King is written by one of my favorite sci-fi novelists – the Hugo/Nebula/World Fantasy award-winning Nnedi Okorafor. The Comics Beat has a write-up on the series, and they share some thoughts from Nnedi Okorafor: ” “I had a lot of questions about Wakanda, so I brought the lens deep into it… You’ll see the Black Panther interacting with tech-hacking village kids, vibranium-affected wildlife, and off-grid communities in Wakanda known as “mute zones”. Not only is this a deeply personal story about T’Challa, you’ll also see a side of the African country of Wakanda that no one’s seen before. Oh and there’s a mysterious monster in the countryside causing problems for everyone.” “ Nnedi Okorafor’s novels combine African locales and characters with supernatural events and weird science in a way that is truly mind-bending, spooky, and often beautiful, so I have high hopes for her ability to channel some bonkers/brilliant new energy into Black Panther. Fingers crossed. Read more about the series HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Rum Punch Meg Lemke takes over as the Graphic Novels Review Editor at Publishers Weekly. Heidi MacDonald held the position for 14 years, and now cheerfully hands over the baton to Meg, as her focus shifts full time to The Comics Beat (after its recent acquisition by Syndication Comics). Read more about it HERE – and congratulations to Meg! Frank Santoro writes about Lala Albert‘s new comic Wet Earth – here on The Comics Journal. Jessica Campbell has a new comic up on Hyperallergic – A Gallery Worker’s Glimpses of Art Basel Miami Beach. Emil Ferris is the guest on episode 25 of Comic Book Decalogue – listen HERE. Whit Taylor picks a comic by Carta Monir to feature on Illustrated PEN – see it 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. Makes a great holiday gift for yourself – or for a loved one who is interested in comics. Apply by midnight (EST) on Dec. 25th and get $100 off the course price. Full details and how to apply can be found HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-15-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

11/08/2018

Comics WorkbookNovember 7, 2018NewsSam Ombiri on Men’s Group The Video by Ben Jones ————————————————————————————————— I find I am often longing for a great comic. This longing has the feeling of a hole with a specific shape that only allows a corresponding shape to fit in. I suppose there’s no sense in wondering why I want to read a good comic; I mean I don’t want to read a bad comic as far as I know, although I don’t mind reading a bad one. There’s a lingering dissatisfaction that often comes from reading good work, taking it for granted how good the work is, and then moving on to the next good work to take for granted. There’s something rather depressing about it. It seems to me that Ben Jones’ work is often consumed along in this manner. It’s apparent when I run into a knock off of Ben Jones’ or Paper Rad’s work that it’s being done by someone who totally missed the mysterious and vague point of Ben Jones’ work. Which to be fair seems mysterious even to him. In an interview in his book, Men’s Group The Video, Ben Jones says “I don’t get Gumby. You can’t say he’s well animated. I didn’t even watch Gumby all that much as a kid. I’m not trying to call back to some 1970s nostalgia. I’m not using characters for their pop iconographic value. I’m using them as language.” He later says “I’m trying to use Gumby for what Gumby was intended for…” to which he adds “I’m deadly serious about my characters. I don’t mean this as a joke: I feel like Shakespeare, and I’m using star-crossed lovers. I’m very much interested in my characters as much as Shakespeare was interesting in using cheesy things like lovers and kings to tell interesting stories.” Men’s Group The Video benefits by not being jam packed with a lot of comics. This allows the comics to be more closely examined by the preceding text casually asking questions about the comics. In the case of Gumby, Ben finds himself optimizing what Gumby’s presence in Ben Jones’ work represents or invokes or communicates. There’s an interview where Kevin Huizenga says “Ben Jones has always been really inspiring to me, I think it’s because- this sounds stupid- he is very creative. He just comes up with amazing things. His work is unified in a strange way, too. It’s hard to explain. The way he’ll just draw a comic about muppet babies as if it’s no big deal and they’ll be rapping or something. It’ll be really funny but beautiful and scary too.” Men’s Group The Video is packed with what appear to be, metaphorically speaking, a magnifying glass to what Ben Jones is doing with the comics language (as well as other mediums). He has created this mythology of this collective called Men’s Group The Video that in a certain sense exists. The idea or the impression of the existence of the collective is used as a language of sorts to communicate a certain feeling Ben Jones is trying to get at. It also allows him raise new questions in this mode of communicating. Some “members” of this collective write essays, some, like the painter Joe Bradley, write poetry. Some “members” like Dan Nadel interview Ben Jones. Reading these texts are important in relation to the comics, because while the comics are immensely strong on their own, the comics are even more so felt with a certain depth. They also give loads of clarity, and somehow create more mystery simultaneously to the comics and art Ben did in Men’s Group The Video and the work he did with Jessica and Jacob Ciocci in the past. Ben’s work often seems to be about solving the mystery of him drawing what he did at the time that he did it. Ordinarily with most other comics, it would seem goofy to question the drawings in this way. It seems fitting to ask the question despite the goofy nature of the question, but the ingrained nature of what he’s drawing is goofiness. Ben doesn’t have a big answer to this question he just keeps circling it with more art and comics that don’t cease to be compelling. ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 11-8-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

08/26/2016

Sally IngrahamAugust 26, 2016NewsThe last Friday in August! We made it! It’s been a weird month – but this week was full of interesting things, like “one-page graphic novels” with Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman, Shannon Wright comics on The Nib, Nicole Claveloux being published in English, an ocean-spanning exchange between Ulli Lust and Priya Kuriyan, sketchbook pages from Sacha Mardou, a look at Afua Richardson, and Jillian Tamaki in The New York Times. ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright has a comic on The Nib – Trump, Black Americans Don’t Need Your Help (above) – read the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Françoise Mouly presented a piece in The New Yorker about the “one-page graphic novels” that have stuck in her husband’s head over the years. Art Spiegelman has often been called the “father of graphic novels” but has only recently started softening to the idea. “Spiegelman decided it was time to embrace the term that has come to characterize “an ambitious comic book,” whether the narrative is drawn on one page or three hundred. “Since comics is the art of compression, I started looking back on the one-pagers which either in terms of their subject matter or in terms of their resonance had stayed in my brain,” he said.“ Check out the list HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The New York Review of Books announced that it will be publishing The Green Hand and Other Stories by Nicole Claveloux in 2017. This collection is the first of Claveloux’s work that will appear in English, and it includes an introduction by Daniel Clowes. Clowes writes: “The artwork…is some of the most beautiful ever created for our lowly form—vivid, dreamlike, with intensely vivid hand-separated colors unlike anything I’ve ever seen.“ These short stories were originally published in the 1970’s. Read more about the book HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Here on Comics Workbook we are happy to present new sketchbook pages from Sacha Mardou. Her recent visit to St. Louis’ Magic House (a children’s museum) left her somewhat underwhelmed, but at least she had time to draw…! More pages and the whole story HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Ulli Lust (author of Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life) met Priya Kuriyan in Delhi, India, this spring, and they began an interesting project together. As Ulli Lust writes on Electrocomics: “Priya Kuriyan draws portraits of people in Delhi since years and so does Ulli Lust in Berlin. They met this spring in India and decided to begin a visual dialog: One sees an interesting person and sends the drawing to the other one to find an opponent on the other side of the planet.“ Here are the first results of this unique pen-pal exchange – Their second exchange can be viewed here – and it includes more of the stories behind each drawing. We’ll have to keep an eye on the site for more as the year progresses. Keep up with what Ulli Lust is into these days HERE. And you can find more comics and artwork by Priya Kuriyan HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Check out work by Afua Richardson, one of the artists working on Marvel’s Black Panther spin-off World of Wakanda. Vamp Jazz hands. . 08132k16 A photo posted by Afua Richardson (@doctafoo) on Aug 13, 2016 at 11:26pm PDT Afua Richardson has been working in the comics industry since 2004, when Brandon Graham got her a gig at NBM publishing. There is a lot of buzz about the series she is currently working on, stemming from the early July upheaval about Marvel’s attempts at diversity. Back in May, Richardson already had a lot to say about that to Ian Freeman at The Urban Daily: “Diversity is not just planting a black person or a gay person or a woman in a character normally held by caucasian men. It’s getting into the minutia of the human experience. Stories ages ago had common tropes and icons that were not even realistic to what would be considered the “White experience” – one-dimensional, straight-path good guys and unreasonably evil bad guys who explain their plans just for them to be foiled. That’s not reality. Even terms like white and black when describing people almost do a disservice because there is so much baggage with these terms. White = automatically racist, easier life and decedents of slave owners. And that’s just not factually correct in every case. Black in no way defines the cultural variety, philosophy or culture of the individual in question. But comics were a very niche industry that were created by a small group of people who had to answer to an even smaller group of editors and executives who wanted to make sure they spoke to their client base. Now that that base has expanded, people can speak with their dollars and back the books they want to see made. Falcon as Captain America says to comic readers that an African-American man can hold the mantle of Captain and American. Its not politically correct to show the variables in philosophy illustrated in fiction. It’s realistic.” – Afua Richardson Read the rest of this interview HERE. Read more about World of Wakanda HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Over on The New York Times there is a good interview with Jacqueline Woodson – which you should definitely check out – but I mention it because Jillian Tamaki did the accompanying illustration. Rad. ————————————————————————————————— See you next week! – Sally Share this page: [...]

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: [...]

09/27/2016

Aaron CockleSeptember 27, 2016NewsAaron here today with Discipline; Dykes in Print/Boiled Angel/CBLDF; Maintenance Art; Nadel/Dunham; Remembering Kim Thompson; Ford/Walden; French Comics in the USA; Portraits & Swinespritzen ————————————————————————————————— Dash Shaw is posting Diary Comics this week at TCJ, where he discusses the process of his work-in-progress, Discipline: This book is a long comic book, but it does not have any speech balloons or panel borders. The illustrations and the hand-written cursive text float on the page. This activates the negative space of the page, which lends the book a spacious stillness, or a quiet, “Quakerly” tone. This spacing relates to Civil War-era illustration, where elements hover inside of articles. Also, this allows me to write and draw all of the elements separately, so the book is easier for me to edit. With the conventional comic approach, usually the insertion of a panel throws off all of the other panels in the book. Because of the collage-like structure of my book, I can easily insert illustrative moments and pieces of text and research/write while still making new drawings. ————————————————————————————————— Censorship: Don’t Do it! In celebration (?) of Banned Books week, Pen.org has a piece by Jennifer Camper, Dykes in Print: And the Guardian revisits the Mike Diana Boiled Angel trial and the origins of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: Set up in 1986, the CBLDF exists to fight censorship of comic books, protect the First Amendment right to free speech and, more pragmatically, to provide legal representation for comics creators facing prosecution. Founder Denis Kitchen was running Kitchen Sink Press, a publisher of underground comics, when he heard about a police raid on Friendly Frank’s comic shop in Chicago. Six officers had seized seven titles, including erotic comic Omaha the Cat Dancer, Robert Crumb’s anthology Weirdo and SF-smut comic Heavy Metal, and arrested manager Michael Correa. Friendly Frank’s was shut down for five days, but not before one of the arresting officers told newspapers there was a “satanic influence” in the comics seized. Kitchen was appalled. “I realised immediately that if police officers with built-in Satan detectors could get away with making arrests and seizing objectionable comic books, much more than the comics industry was at stake,” he says. He swiftly raised $20,000 for a fighting fund, helped by comics heavyweights like Crumb and Frank Miller. “It was gratifying to see that sudden unity among the comics community,” Kitchen says. “I was more used to people squabbling.” ————————————————————————————————— Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Maintenance Art at Queens Museum This first survey of Ukeles’ work is organized by the Queens Museum’s Larissa Harris and guest co-curator Patricia C. Phillips, who initiated the project in 2012. The show will span five decades, from her work as a pioneer of feminist performance to a practitioner of public art, in which Ukeles invites us to reconsider indispensable urban systems and the workers who maintain them. Ukeles is undoubtedly best-known for her 36+ year role as the official, unsalaried Artist-in-Residence at New York’s Department of Sanitation. Unprecedented when it began in 1978, this residency has now become a model for municipalities engaging with artists as creative agents. ————————————————————————————————— Dan Nadel on Carroll Dunham’s drawing at Hyperallergic: Dunham and his peers had emerged from a conceptual and process-oriented New York milieu in which a number of artists were exhibiting and redefining drawing as a primary medium, including Barry Le Va, Dorothea Rockburne (who Dunham and Kendrick assisted), Mel Bochner, and Sol Lewitt. Connecting these and other artists was the removal of both the image and the artist’s sensuous touch, replaced with rigorous conceptual procedures. In contrast, Terry Winters notes that he and Dunham “saw drawing and making things by hand as a way out of or into art. We were reconnecting with gesture and touch, and their capacities to register other kinds of information not available through logic.” They were also finding kinship with artists that were not highly considered at the time, such as the mid-20th century German painter and photographer Wols and the American post-war painter William Baziotes, both of whose work defied categorization and remained outside of the contemporary dialogue. ————————————————————————————————— At the ever-enduring Comics Reporter blog, Tom Spurgeon remembers Fantagraphics publisher Kim Thompson, and looks at the aging of the ‘alt-comics’ crowd: The thing that stuck in my head, though, throughout today, was how many people texted and e-mailed that they thought Kim was older than 60 when he passed away. I think that’s because Kim and Gary Groth and their roughly same-age peers were either the first generation of alt-comics publishers or the first generation since the first generation to enter mainstream comics in a significant way. So you have a lot of people 55-65 with trackable careers two, three, four decades long in an established arts industry, which is rare outside of a few precocious creative talents. ————————————————————————————————— Sean Ford recently conducted an interview with Tillie Walden, posted on Inkstuds. ————————————————————————————————— French Comics Framed Festival NYC, 27 September-5 November Sept 27 – Nov. 5: French Comics Framed – Exhibition The Cooper Union, Foundation Building, 7 East 7th Street, NY 10003 Oct. 4: Panel by Asaf & Tomer Hanuka The Society of illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, NY, NY 10065 Oct 6-9: Meet our artists on booth #1558 at New York Comic Con and on the Artist Alley Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 W. 34th St., NY, NY 10001 Oct. 6, 7pm: French Comics On Screen: Film Adaptations of Franco-Belgian Graphic Narratives The School of Visual Arts, 209 E 23rd St, 3rd floor Oct. 7, 6:30pm : How to Draw a Life: The Rise of Graphic Biography in France Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue, NY 10029 Oct. 8, 1:30-2:30pm: Drawing From the World: Franco-Belgian Comics in Global Context New York Comic Con (room 1B03), Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 W. 34th St., NY, NY 10001 Oct. 8, 7pm: Reconstructing Comix: The “Architecture” of Franco-Belgian Graphic Narratives, from Tintin to Today The Great Hall of Cooper Union, Foundation Building, 7 East 7th Street, NY, NY 10003 Nov. 1, 7pm: Panel discussion: Drawing the unspeakable Columbia University 116th St & Broadway, NY, NY 10027 ————————————————————————————————— Help send Connor Willumsen to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in October! He will be teaching workshops with Frank Santoro and Aidan Koch while there – if you’re in the area check it out. To help him get to the show, Comics Workbook is offering two new Connor publications. Portraits and Swinespritzen – both limited editions, both incredible. Share this page: [...]

02/01/2018

Posted on January 31, 2018January 31, 2018 by Comics Workbook

Bryce Davidson shares the work of Honore Daumier, and Chris Diaz has 3 new photo reports for us!

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Bryce Davidson here: What’s up with cartoons? Caricatures perhaps might be more accurate. Simplified, amplified, and elegant, is it just good drawing? Nice shapes and lines? No, there’s something more. Most of us who read comics and appreciate the form will understand what I am referring to. Why do we spend so much time looking at these distorted images when we could look at a real person with actual facial expressions? Why does that twisted grin of a Chuck Jones character seem to portray more emotion and depth than any actor in Hollywood? It’s a tough question. For one thing it seems that the exaggeration of a cartoon help consolidate and refine the emotions and actions of character. It’s like boiling down syrup – only the essential, the truth, remains.

This brings me to the artist whom I want to focus on, one who everyone should know, especially within the current political climate – Honore Daumier, the quintessential political cartoonist. Coupling the revolutionary political climate of 17th century France and the burning hate of the bourgeoisie, “He revealed, as a true visionary, the faults endemic to the system that transcended the cast of political players” (Erlanger).

The venom this guy spits in his drawings is insane. The introduction to Daumier: Politicians goes on to explain:

“The overfed, somnolent, or sneering deputies in Daumier’s picture are physically and morally hideous. Here is an art that denounces not only individuals, but underlying attitudes. Daumier brings to the pitiless light of day monsters serving as puppets for monied interests, electoral fraud, and the inextricable links between money and power.“

I shouldn’t even have to mention how relevant it all is. If you’re looking for an artist who defined the sneer and critique of political caricature, look no further. I could rattle on about artists who are still producing work that rips this guy. His stuff is that universal. The characters are timeless, truly human, no smoke and mirrors. It’s really something that only a cartoon can do. Following are some more scans from the previously mentioned book, Daumier: Politicians by Philippe Erlanger. It can be purchased HERE if you’re interested in learning more. – Bryce Davidson

Works Cited:

Erlanger (Author), Philippe. “Introduction.” Daumier: Politicians, Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1992.

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Jaime Hernandez at The Last Bookstore in old downtown Los Angeles – photo by Chris Diaz

Chris Diaz was busy attending comics events in the last few months! He shares photos from Jaime Hernandez’s Dec. 11th 2017 chat with Jordan Crane HERE, Charles Forsman at Comix Experience on Dec. 6th 2017 HERE, and Tom Gauld at a few places in Nov. 2017 while he was on tour for his new comic Baking With Kafka HERE. As always, comics fandom thanks you Chris!

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

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

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Joanie and Jordie – 2-1-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged bryce davidson, Chris Diaz, Honore Daumier, Jaime Hernandez, tom gauld

Comics Workbook

Posted on January 31, 2018January 31, 2018

Explore

07/29/2016

Sally IngrahamJuly 29, 2016NewsSally here, ready to dig into a roller-coaster of a week. We went from the excitement of the Eisner Awards to the wild Democratic National Convention, and then were hit with the sad passing of two comic masters – and the week isn’t over yet! Perhaps we will be able to catch our breath and our balance today? ————————————————————————————————— First up, a summer report from Frank Santoro, live from the Rowhouse Residency in Pittsburgh, PA – ————————————————————————————————— The EISNER AWARDS! They were incredible this year. Image Comics may have claimed the most awards, but it was Drawn & Quarterly that owned the stage that night (pictured above, publisher Peggy Burns accepting the Best Anthology award for Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-five years of contemporary comics, cartoons, and graphic novels). From the D+Q blog: “D+Q authors were nominated in five categories and swept all five of them, with wins for Kate Beaton (Best Humor Publication for Step Aside, Pops), Shigeru Mizuki (Best American Edition of International Material – Asia for Showa 1953-1989), Jillian Tamaki (Best Publication for Teens for SuperMutant Magic Academy) and Adrian Tomine (Best Short Story for “Killing and Dying”)! Beaton was the first solo female cartoonist to win in the humor category, a deserved and significant win. In addition to all that wonderfulness, two of our legendary and defining authors, Lynda Barry and Tove Jansson were inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.” Read more about D+Q’s Eisner sweep HERE, as well as a transcript of Peggy Burns’ wonderful speech inducting Tove Jansson into the hall of fame. Paste Magazine has a more general overview of the Eisner Awards, and the complete list of winners HERE. And for even more SDCC and Eisner Awards coverage: Jamie Coville recorded the ceremony plus 21 panels during the week, and took a million photos for The Comics Beat. You can check it all out HERE. Of particular interest to me were the panels “We Need Diverse Comics” with Raina Telgemeier, Nilah Magruder, Ron Wimberly, Ben Hatke, Nidhi Chanani and moderator Glen Weldon; the “Daniel Clowes Spotlight” with Clowes and Eric Reynolds; the “Trina Robbins Spotlight“; and “The Complete Wimmen’s Comix: Her-Story” with founders and contributors Trina Robbins, Terre Richards, Sharon Ruduhl, Lee Marrs, Rebecka Wright, Mary Fleener, Joan Hilty and Barbara “Willy” Mendes. ————————————————————————————————— Here on the site, Jillian Fleck has a fascinating report on a thriving corner of the comics world that many of us may not be aware of. Graphic Medicine is a thing, and a great thing at that – Jillian digs into why, via her experiences at the Graphic Medicine 2016 Conference in Dundee, Scotland earlier this month. Read the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Okay, let’s turn to politics briefly – The Nib has held my attention all week with comics that explore the scene around the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Once again Sophie Louise Dam killed it, this time teaming up with Eleri Harris. Their comic gets you on the Democratic Platform and makes you want to linger there – check it out HERE. CNN caught up with Matt Bors, editor of The Nib, and followed him around on day 4 of the DNC, checking in with the artists and getting the “funny” side of things. Video below. ————————————————————————————————— The Washington Post reported on Wednesday – “RICHARD THOMPSON, the “Cul de Sac” cartoonist who is widely considered one of the greatest comic-strip creators and illustrators of his generation, died Wednesday in Northern Virginia, family friends confirm. He was 58.” – via Michael Cavna John Martz drew some memories of Richard Thompson for Slate – See the rest HERE. Jack Davis also died on Wednesday, at the age of 91. The Comics Journal has begun collecting tributes to this beloved cartoonist, written by the likes of Gary Panter, Peter Bagge, and Jim Woodring among others – with more to come. Check them out HERE. And it was Gary Groth himself who sat down to write an obituary for Jack Davis for The Comics Journal, which you can read HERE. ————————————————————————————————— NPR turned it’s gaze to minicomics this week, with Etelka Lehoczky’s brief look at a few titles she got her hands on recently – among them Bonnie N. Collide, Nine to Five by Monica Gallagher. About minicomics Lehoczky wrote – “Shouldn’t minicomics be obsolete by now? Printed by their creators in tiny batches and sold for a few bucks at “alternative” comic shops and conventions, they’re as cumbersome to produce as they are to obtain. It would be much more sensible for the artists to just put up their work online — right? Fortunately, these artists aren’t interested in being sensible. They’re in love with the unique tangibility of print on paper, the sight and feel of pages under their fingers. It’s a powerful yen, as evidenced by the recent resurgence of printed books in the larger publishing world. There are enough artists who share it to make minicomics a thriving and diverse genre. Some of these creations really are “mini” — they may be 4″x6″ or smaller, or contain only eight pages. Even if they’re magazine-sized, they take some work to discover.” via NPR Check out the rest of the article and the minicomic reviews HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Lastly, also here on Comics Workbook today, we have a new Art Trip piece from Anna Mancini! Not to give anything away, but she was in a museum in Rio de Janeiro and had a definite encounter with comics. Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Hang in there folks! The summer still has surprises for us I think. – Sally Share this page: [...]

Thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers

Frank SantoroMarch 21, 2018ClassesHi, Frank Santoro here! I’ve been teaching my comics correspondence course since 2011. You will never meet someone as enthusiastic about comics as me. I’m a good coach. The course is 8 weeks – I run several semesters a year but I will work with you if you want to start the course between semesters. 500 bux for 8 weeks plus access to my coaching for as long as you need. Payment plans are available. Floating start date! Apply anytime – I can run the course for you whenever it fits your schedule! Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. The most common questions I get about the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers is: “How does the correspondence course work?” The way the course works is that there is a private blog where you get all of your assignments. This blog is updated every day with demos related to each assignment. We do a lot of fast drawing to get you thinking about sequencing much like a storyboard artist. Over the 8 week course you will create a 16 page “signature” – that means that you will basically draw two pages a week. Email me – santoroschoolATgmail – and I will send you an invite to the course that just wrapped so you can see how it works for yourself. “What if I have a full-time job? Do you think I can manage to find the time to do the course within the 8 week time frame?” I’ve had many students in the past who have had full time jobs. I designed the course so that you can do it when you have the time – at night, weekends, etc. If you “fall behind” it doesn’t matter because I will work with you to complete your 16 page comic even after the course ends. The idea of the eight week course is to impress upon you the structure of a deadline which, I believe, is central to comics making. I know lots of talented comics makers who never seem to be able to finish anything. Comics is all about the deadline. So 16 pages in eight weeks is what we aim for – however if your job or other commitments prevent you from completing the comic, I will work with you until the comic is finished. “What if I can’t afford to pay for the course all at once?” Not a problem. I’m very flexible with payment plans. Talk to me about it and I promise you that I will make you an offer that you cannot refuse. If you think there is no way that you could afford this course then think again. Often I have found that people chicken out about actually doing the work by using the “I can’t afford it” excuse. I will work with you in ways that no “real” school would ever work with you. Also my course is way more affordable than just about any other comics program out there. 500 bux for an 8 week course plus access to my coaching for as long as you need. Thanks! Please email me santoroschoolATgmail with any questions regarding the course. I accept applications at all times. Santoro School Application guidelines: -3 figure drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards -3 landscape drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards -3 still life drawings done on blank 3 x 5 cards -draw in a contour line style – Think Matisse – no under-drawing – draw directly in ink -just send me small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls -specific url links to any comics work you have done. If you haven’t done comics before that is not a problem. Send applications to: santoroschoolATgmail Thanks xo Frank @santoro.frank on Instagram http://www.tcj.com/category/columns/riff-raff/ http://coldheatcomics.blogspot.com/ http://www.coldheatcomics.com/ Share this page: [...]

11/01/2018

Caleb OrecchioNovember 1, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with a strip by Jimmy Swinnerton ————————————————————————————————— What a lovely strip from one of our earliest pioneers, Jimmy Swinnerton. What I enjoy about many of these early strips is the simplicity. The background is held for the entirety of the strip while the action unfolds without a hitch like a stage. I find this simple way of cartooning makes for seamless reading. The first panel sets the scene along with the players, and once you have understood that this is the environment (stage) and these are the characters you are free to sit back and “watch.” There is no effort on the readers part to evaluate changing settings or new characters. This, also, I think is the key to much of comedy in comics. I think that this is why, for example, DeForge’s comics are so effective as humor. The characters look the same in every panel and their habitat is simply rendered. The words become the main focus because the reader has already downloaded the rest of the information right off the bat. And if the words and action are funny, the comic will be funny. Make sense? I look at this Swinnerton comic all the time. It is a reminder that simplicity in comics speaks volumes once ink is laid to paper. ————————————————————————————————— Niall Breen – 11-1-18 Share this page: [...]

08/07/2018

Aaron CockleAugust 6, 2018NewsSAZ; TAZ; Dan Archer in Colombia ————————————————————————————————— Semi-Autonomous Zine Via the Asia Art Archive: Observing that the term zine has been in recent years co-opted to apply to nearly anything—cute, small, nicely printed, not entirely mainstream—our research led to the proposal of a new definition, one borne of conditions specific to this part of the world’s sociopolitical ecology. By exposing fluid streams of influence and proposing other possible routes for the formation of zine culture in Asia, we may begin to depart from a Western-dominated narrative and to rethink and refine what zines and independent publishing culture can be. ————————————————————————————————— TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS ZONE Always worth a revisit, Hakim Bey’s work from the 1980’s, 1990’s: And–the map is closed, but the autonomous zone is open. Metaphorically it unfolds within the fractal dimensions invisible to the cartography of Control. And here we should introduce the concept of psychotopology (and -topography) as an alternative “science” to that of the State’s surveying and mapmaking and “psychic imperialism.” Only psychotopography can draw 1:1 maps of reality because only the human mind provides sufficient complexity to model the real. But a 1:1 map cannot “control” its territory because it is virtually identical with its territory. It can only be used to suggest, in a sense gesture towards, certain features. We are looking for “spaces” (geographic, social, cultural, imaginal) with potential to flower as autonomous zones–and we are looking for times in which these spaces are relatively open, either through neglect on the part of the State or because they have somehow escaped notice by the mapmakers, or for whatever reason. Psychotopology is the art of dowsing for potential TAZs. ————————————————————————————————— Colombia’s Uncertain Road to Peace At The Nib, Dan Archer takes a look at Colombia’s past, present, and future. ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 8-7-18 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 8-7-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/14/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 13, 2017NewsSally here to wrap up the week with new work by Ulli Lust; an Easter Comix reading at KGB Bar; a conversation with Carel Moiseiwitsch; a look at Saving Grace; plus much more! ————————————————————————————————— Ulli Lust has printed up a small comic that collects the strips she has been making for the magazine EXBERLINER. She will have copies available at TCAF in May! Meanwhile you can read the strip HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out the Annual Easter Comix & Graphic Novel Night on April 16th, 7-9PM at the KGB Bar in New York City. Five local cartoonists will offer slideshow readings that are “sure to entertain, bewilder, and amuse.” Co-hosted by Robyn Chapman and Robin Enrico, the reading will also feature Lauren Barnett (some of her work is pictured below), Jim Campbell, Ada Price (above), and Kelsey Wroten. ————————————————————————————————— RJ Casey interviewed 76-year old Carel Moiseiwitsch for The Comics Journal this week. Carel was born during the Blitz, and her first memories are of playing in the rubble of London following the war. This is probably why she drew, as RJ Casey puts it, “dangerous comics“. Among many interesting stories about hanging out with the Rolling Stones and getting drunk with Francis Bacon, plus the complexities of making art and raising kids, Carel answers a question posed by RJ Casey that I’ve been thinking about almost constantly for the last year: “I was thinking about your era of comics and how many fantastic artists just drew for a couple years, then got out completely. Or ones that went into fine art and never made comics again. Why do you think that time period of the late ’80s to early ’90s had so many artists like that? It’s not fruitful and it requires such hard work. Also everything became kind of corporate. It’s very hard to survive in that kind of atmosphere. Where I came from — London and Paris in the ’60s — you could go there and draw, record music, and create art, then shuffle around to the cafes and have a drink, meet up with friends, write poetry, or whatever it is you wanted to do. People took you seriously without you having to be famous or successful. You just had to be true to yourself. But now it’s like if you’re not famous or successful, you’re nothing.“ Carel has continued to make comics and other artwork, has worked as a teacher, and has spent a lot of time turning her attention to mental health activism. The whole interview is fantastic and it’s a real treat to get a look around Carel’s head space – she’s a powerhouse. Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— A good friend of Comics Workbook and her fellow artists are in need of your signature – Naomi Nowak (painter/jeweler/fashion designer extraordinaire) is in danger of losing her studio space. “sad news! your signature is needed. me and my artist friends/colleagues are being evicted from our beloved studio space in stockholm, pannrummet (the boiler room). it’s practically already a done deal and we haven’t been given a fair chance to have our say or be part of the proceedings around this. so this petition is our very last, desperate plea to our landlords that they reconsider their decision and let us continue to work and create in the space we have loved and cared for. last year we renovated the place and built a bar + showroom where we have barely had time to show art and host exchanges, something were very much looking forward to. please sign to save studio pannrummet! we’ve never disturbed our neighbour and all 9 of us are now without a studio #savepannis“ Sign the petition HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Saving Grace by Grace Wilson just turned up at Copacetic Comics – it was published late last year in England. The Guardian has a review of it that should spark your interest: “Saving Grace is, first of all, a brilliant commentary on the housing crisis. Its author, Grace Wilson, knows all about the queasy feeling that comes with not knowing where you will soon be sleeping, and the way it affects everything – everything – else in your life, from work to relationships to, ultimately, your self-confidence. But it’s so much more than that. It’s hilarious, not only about rapacious landlords and their creepy ways, but about friendship, work, holidays and sex, too. It’s hard to imagine a funnier scene than the one when Maxine, drunk and having rowed with her boyfriend yet again, makes the mistake of going home with an Iggy Pop-alike who wants to spank her with a bit of precious rock memorabilia (“Did I ever tell you about when I used to roadie for the Who, Max?”). On the tube, where I read it, people looked at me warily, this sniggering woman with a large rainbow-coloured comic book in her hands.” – Rachel Cooke Read the rest HERE. Get a copy of the book at Copacetic Comics! ————————————————————————————————— I thought Lauren Weinstein‘s strip in The Village Voice this week was particularly funny – but maybe that’s because I am increasingly of the opinion that cats are the cartoonist’s true enemy…! ————————————————————————————————— Scallions or Chives The winners of 2017’s Cartoonist Studio Prize are Eleanor Davis for Libby’s Dad (Best Print Comic) and Christina Tran for On Beauty (Best Web Comic). A recent New Yorker cover illustration is being reproduced be female surgeons around the world – check it out HERE. Katherine Collins will be inducted into the Giants of the North hall of fame this year – and the nominee list for the Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning includes Julie Doucet among others. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-14-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-14-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-14-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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