Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged aline lemos, Benjamin Marra, Bernie Wrightson, caleb orecchio, charlottetown comics club, daniel clowes, gabriella tito, gene luen yang, Michael DeForge, Mutha Magazine, pagu, rowan tedge

Sally Ingraham

Posted on January 31, 2017

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Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman in Conversation

Juan FernándezMarch 28, 2016ResourcesFormer Arcade magazine editors and Underground Cartooning legends Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman discuss their early days as artists at a talk given March 16, 2016 at Columbia University commemorating Griffith’s announcement that he will be bequeathing a large portion of his personal art archives to the University. The talk was moderated by Karen Green, Columbia’s Librarian for Ancient & Medieval History and Graphic Novels. The clip begins with a brief memory from Griffith about his first meeting with cartoonist Robert Crumb. Former Arcade magazine editors and Underground comix legends Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman talk about romance comics at Columbia University on March 16th, 2016. Moderated by Columbia’s Karen Green. Video by John Kelly Share this page: [...]

11/07/2017

Aaron CockleNovember 7, 2017NewsAaron Cockle today with WHOSE HOPES? WHOSE FEARS? WHOSE VALUES? WHOSE JUSTICE?; Civil Disobedience (at MIT); Brooklyn š! & CAB 2017; Adversarial Objects ————————————————————————————————— Barbara Kruger, Performa 17, Nov 1-19, 2017 Barbara Kruger has issued terse, fine-edged directives in her instantly recognizable—and frequently appropriated—visual style of block text in white Futura Bold font over a blood-red background for more than four decades now. Though she has remained loyal both to her straightforward messages concerning consumerism and feminism, and her canvases of billboards, public buses, newspapers, magazine covers, and buildings, it is ironic that the most visible example of its imitation is by street wear labels, which vacillates between mainstream luxury sportswear and cultivators of a speculative rare-edition consumer class. For Performa 17, Kruger reclaims her signature style in a high-profile public square in central New York City—a prime branding and real-estate profiting opportunity—by branding a skate park, free and open to the public, as well as its periphery walls, and stairs, with her designs addressing and interrogating ideals around feminism, consumerism, and modern mass media. ————————————————————————————————— List Projects: Civil Disobedience, MIT List Visual Arts Center Social and political movements are born out of the urgent desire to make abstract principles concrete. Public demonstration is one way to voice opposition to a government’s actions believed to be unjust, illegitimate, or unconstitutional. In the streets and on college campuses, in town halls, churches and prisons, in public parks and reservations, civil disobedience has long been a tool of activism. Whether taking the form of mass occupation or individual statement, political protest is ingrained in American culture. List Projects: Civil Disobedience is a program of documentaries, news footage, citizen journalism, artist’s films and videos focusing on moments of political resistance and public demonstration from the early 20th century through today. Presenting records from the historical Civil Rights and women’s movements, gay liberation and AIDS activism, the Black Lives Matter movement, and recent Women’s Marches recognize the history of resistance, and considers the role that artists and documentarians play in chronicling and confronting abuses of power and social injustice. Though this exhibit recently closed, there is a substantial amount of photo and video work from the show posted at Contemporary Art Daily. ————————————————————————————————— Baltic Comics Magazine looks at Brooklyn Guest-edited by Desert Island’s own Gabe Fowler, the 30th issue of š! features work by Brooklyn area (and Brooklyn-esque?) cartoonists (A. T. Pratt, Alabaster Pizzo, Austin English, Ben Mendelewicz, Caroline Paquita, Courtney Menard, Daniel Zender, Gabrielle Bell, Heather Benjamin, Jane Mai, Jen Tong, Kevin Hooyman, König Lü. Q., Lily Padula, Natalie Andrewson, Rob Corradetti, Sabin Cauldron, Siobhán Gallagher, Thu Tran, Thomas Toye, Tyler Boss, Whit Taylor). A book release will be held at Desert Island on Wednesday, November 8, at 7pm. ————————————————————————————————— ALSO, the venerable, venerated Comic Arts Brooklyn festival will be taking place this Saturday, November 11, 2017. More info, including exhibitor and programming details, can be found here. ————————————————————————————————— Fooling Neural Networks in the Physical World with 3D Adversarial Objects We’ve developed an approach to generate 3D adversarial objects that reliably fool neural networks in the real world, no matter how the objects are looked at. Neural network based classifiers reach near-human performance in many tasks, and they’re used in high risk, real world systems. Yet, these same neural networks are particularly vulnerable to adversarial examples, carefully perturbed inputs that cause targeted misclassification. Our process works for arbitrary 3D models – not just turtles! We also made a baseball that classifies as an espresso at every angle! The examples still fool the neural network when we put them in front of semantically relevant backgrounds; for example, you’d never see a rifle underwater, or an espresso in a baseball mitt. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 11-7-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown- 11-7-2017 – by Juan Fernandez ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie 11-7-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

05/12/2017

Sally IngrahamMay 11, 2017NewsSally here with thoughts from Annie Koyama, Shee Phon, and Ann Telnaes, a new direction for The ToonSeum, and other news and comics! ————————————————————————————————— Koyama Press is officially celebrating 10 years as a publishing company at TCAF this weekend. Fearless leader Annie Koyama has been tapped a few times already this year for her thoughts on her publishing venture – most recently Quill & Quire interviewed her. Check out her continuing reflections and some well-deserved praise of her efforts HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Over on The Comics Beat Philippe Leblanc has conducted a series of interviews with comics makers who are attending TCAF. It’s a great list of folks – including Shee Phon, Iona Fox, Alabaster Pizzo, Tyler Landry, and others. Philippe identifies a few distinguishing characteristics of each maker’s work, the scene they’re a part of, or their target audience, and breaks it down with them. It’s great to see The Beat focusing this attention on makers outside of mainstream comics. This series documents an interesting moment in the community, and I appreciate the effort Philippe Leblanc has put into educating himself about the scene. I noticed in the interview with Shee Phon that Philippe found her work through last summer’s Comics Workbook Composition Competition, where Shee Phon won 2nd place for her comic I know it’s not about me, but I don’t want to die. It’s worth noting how many makers find a broader audience for their work through this competition, or in fact are “forced” to complete their first comic. And so the community keeps on growing, thanks to the stewardship of folks like Frank Santoro – and Philippe Leblanc, and of course Heidi MacDonald (editor extraordinaire of The Comics Beat!) ————————————————————————————————— Ann Telnaes delivered a speech to the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom recently, and the Washington Post shared a version of it. Ann is a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist, and the current worldwide threats to her colleagues weighs on her mind. In theory, she and her American fellows are protected by the First Amendment, but some days she doesn’t feel very safe. “I’ve always felt in the United States that an editorial cartoonist is the bastard child of journalism. This is because most editors see us only as comic relief, less than the serious, legitimate opinion writer. In reality, the only difference is that we use images and satire to express a point of view. And specifically because of the visual language we use, cartoonists will always be first in the line of fire when controversial subjects are being debated and free speech is threatened. Editorial cartoonists are a barometer for all our free speech rights; a silenced cartoonist is an indicator of an unhealthy environment for freedom of expression in any given society. If we want to protect free speech and the free press, we must vigorously protect the editorial cartoonist.” – Ann Telnaes Read the rest of the speech HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Emily Flake has a comic on The Nib called Beyond “Bridezilla” which is amusing – see the rest of it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Here in Pittsburgh, PA, The ToonSeum is directing new focus towards comics education – check out the I Can Draw! Generosity fundraiser. The funds raised during this campaign will go directly to developing and running educational programming for kids and teens interested in making comics. Executive Directer John F. Kelly has rounded up some truly amazing donation rewards which must be seen to be believed. Pittsburgh is becoming a hub for comics education, and those of us at ground zero know how important this is to strengthening the community and ensuring it’s growth and staying power. I’ll be personally involved in this new direction for The ToonSeum, helping to teach and channel fresh energy and talent straight into the heart of things. If you can donate to the fundraiser, thank you! If you can share the campaign, thank you! You can do both HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Found In the Button Box Chris Gavaler reviews Eleanor Davis’ You & a Bike & a Road (Koyama Press, 2017) for PopMatters – HERE. Hope Nicholson, who wrote the recently published The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen (a sort of history/small encyclopedia of notable women in the comics community) has a guest post on Nerdophiles that features 5 Female Publishers Who Changed Comics. Hyperallergic reviews Miror Miror II, the second anthology collection from 2dcloud, edited by Sean T. Collins and Julia Gfrörer, calling it “a porn stash you’d find in the cupboard of a medieval demon” which is about what I would have expected – read more HERE. Cara Gormally has a comic on Mutha Magazine about making a baby with IVF – check it out. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 5-12-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-12-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 5-12-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

07/02/2018

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

08/16/2018

Caleb OrecchioAugust 16, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with a Kirby Fantastic Four sequence I’ve been thinking about. ————————————————————————————————— I swear I think about this Kirby sequence from Fantastic Four no. 18 once a week. When I was a growing up, superheroes were becoming more and more “realistic.” That’s what the fans wanted. “Believable” superheroes. They demanded superheroes follow the logic of The Bourne Identity or something. Captain America was invading the Middle East (The Ultimates), The X-Men wore leather jackets (The New X-Men), I could go on and on. I loved that crap and still do in a nostalgic way, but as I would start investigating comics’ history in reverse I began to appreciate the unrestricted imagination of the early masters. The Golden Age superheroes had such whacky, bizarre adventures that had their own hermetically sealed logic. If you’ve ever read really early Jack Cole, for instance, you know what I’m talking about. That’s a big factor in my appreciation of Kirby. Throughout his career, without exception, The King maintained a sense of unchained imaginative ferocity from The Golden Age that the Silver Agers didn’t quite harness (and into the modern age). This is a small example, but when I think of this sequence of The Super Skrull transforming his head into a battering ram to headbutt The Thing I am reminded of how such whacky imagery burns itself into the folds of the brain. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

02/01/2017

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Sally Ingraham

Juan Fernandez is currently traveling in Spain and France, and will return next Wednesday with his in-depth coverage of the Spanish-speaking comics community. For today, Sally Ingraham has the comics news from near and far – including Australia, Brazil, France, Canada, and the States!

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From Rowan Tedge (Santoro Correspondence Course alum and cartoonist extraordinaire) comes this exciting news:

“I’ll be making the trip from Adelaide to Melbourne to debut: Hallucinating Highlighter – Paradise Through Paper Clips at the Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair on Sunday 12 February 2017 at the Melbourne Town Hall – 12-5pm.

Hallucinating Highlighter collects all 28 comics originally posted to the Comics Workbook tumblr plus 4 new comics. I’ll also have copies of Spectrum Jogger from the 2014 comics workbook comp and some rare zines from 2012.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/382507002083477/
Tumblr: http://www.stickyinstitute.com/fotp2017“

Be sure to check out more of Rowan’s work HERE and if you can’t get a copy of Hallucinating Highlighter in person, he will be making them available online shortly after the Festival of the Photocopier.

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Aline Lemos is a cartoonist from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She has been working since 2013 – check out her comics HERE. A recent project has been her series of short biographies and comic strips about Brazilian female artists – see what she’s done so far HERE. About the piece above she writes:

“Artistas Brasileiras em Quadrinhos #28 – Pagu – Leia toda a série aqui

Pagu was a Brazilian writer, artist and activist. She is the first known female artist to make comic strips in Brazil. She was also the first Brazilian woman to be arrested for political reasons.“

Pagu was the nickname that Patrícia Rehder Galvão went by. Her story inspired the creation of Pagu Comics, which is devoted to publishing work by women – more about that HERE (put Google Translate to work if you can’t read Portuguese!)

Aline Lemos also teaches comics at FIQ Jovem and collaborates at Lady’s Comics and Marsam Graphics. She’s a member of two other collectives, ZiNas (Belo Horizonte) and 100 Têtes (Angoulême).

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Tyler Landry brings us an update from the Comics Workbook “satellite school” in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. He shares one of the projects the Charlottetown Comics Club (CCC) has completed and introduces cartoonist Christian Southgate. Check it out HERE.

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Daniel Clowes has a gallery show at Galerie Martel in Paris. He rarely, if ever, has originals for sale so this is a unique opportunity to pick up something special. More details HERE (in French).

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Benjamin Marra has a new weekly comic on Adult Swim called Bricks on Dirt – the first episode is shown above. Keep up with Ben’s other shenanigans via his Instagram – @benjamin_marra.

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“Once a month, Gene Luen Yang, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, stops by Book Riot Comics for Creativity in Progress, a mini-column on art, process, and how he creates comics.“

Gene Luen Yang is the award-winning author of American Born Chinese and Boxers & Saints, and in addition to making comics he teaches creative writing through Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. This week he wrote about how he gets an idea for a comic over on Book Riot Comics.

“When people ask me where I get my ideas, what they’re really asking is how I distinguish the good ideas from the bad ones. I don’t have a logical, clear answer for this. I wish I had a reliable litmus test, but I don’t. My own way of figuring out what’s good is very gut-based. It’s very personal. I’ll tell you my process, but your mileage may vary.“

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Sally Ingraham

Posted on January 31, 2017

Explore

12/14/2016

Juan FernándezDecember 14, 2016los Cómics / NewsJuan con un poquito sobre Comic Arts Los Angeles – Las fotos de C.A.D.,Gerardo Vilches escribe sobre la vangardia contemporanea Frank Santoro sobre El Arte Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey;Iván Mazón con libros editados en castellano sobre el punk; Suzy y Cecil; y por supuesto el semestre de invierno del Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers . ————————————————————————————————— Comic Arts Los Angeles – Las fotos de C.A.D. Chris Anthony Diaz tomo unas fotos en Comic Arts Los Angeles 2016 (CALA) el domingo pasado en Think Tank Gallery, December 4, 2016, Los Angeles. Puedes ver todas las fotos del dia AQUI. Echale un vistazo al DIAZ ARCHIVE aquí en Comics Workbook para ver más retratos, entrevistitas, fotos de arte original, recuerdos, video, audio y prosa! Todo documentado por Chris Diaz. ————————————————————————————————— AvanGard – Y Que? Gerardo Vilches escribe sobre la vangardia contemporanea y internacional de los cómics. Su evolucion, su role y su crítica. Hoy existe una generación de autores que no responden al clásico perfil de fan que sueña con trabajar con sus personajes favoritos y replicar aquello que cautivó su imaginación de niño. Por el contrario, muchos de los artistas de vanguardia provienen de otros campos de expresión, han estudiado Bellas Artes, puede que no hayan leído cómic hasta que una novela gráfica cayó en sus manos de jóvenes adultos y no se sienten en absoluto obligados a respetar ningún canon. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Miami, FL – 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. 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, quien estudió con George Pratt y quien a dibujado con Grant Morrison. Estamos ofreciendo compras adelantadas a un precio reducido. Sigan a Vanesa por Instagram – @vrdelrey – y http://vrdelrey.com/ Le pedimos a nuestro director, Frank Santoro que nos contara un poquito sobre la fuerza feroz y imparable que es Vanesa R. Del Rey. FS: “Vanesa, I’m quite taken aback by your sheer technical ability which seems to be married to a poetic sensibility. There’s a lightness there. Sometimes illustrators with that ability get heavy-handed. Yet you manage the push-pull between these two sides of yourself–because you’re like a samurai. The humble samurai.” VRDR: “It’s about trying to remember that. I can get all this praise, I can get all these amazing responses from strangers, but at the end of the day—I’m still a student. I’m still learning. The crown doesn’t fit. The crown should never fit.” Este intercambio viene de una entrevista que Frank hizo con Vanesa R. Del Rey, que occurio en la Residencia de Comics Workbook en Pittsburgh, PA USA. 2016. FS: 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¡ ————————————————————————————————— Leer hasta echar la pota: 16 libros sobre punk editados en castellano – Iván Mazón ha escrito un tronco de resumen de libros para que todos estudiemos los punks. Apuntate. Aunque resulte irónico si consideramos la esencia irreflexiva del género, se ha escrito mucho sobre punk. Y muy bueno. Más allá de las vidas de santos y el anecdotario mítico habituales en el rock, que también, el punk asocia un halo de trascendencia revolucionaria y hartazgo social (incluso de jugada posmoderna) que ha llevado a la reflexión desde múltiples perspectivas y complejidades. Desde entrevistas livianas a sesudos ensayos sociopolíticos, recomendamos una selección de textos sobre el gran arte de gritar lo jodidos que estamos. Pasado el suficiente tiempo en el ciclo generacional como para volverse respetable y con un mercado sobreexplotado a base de domesticación y banalidad, quizá no sea mala idea acercarse a los motivos sociales y anímicos de una generación que dijo basta. Y para eso está la literatura. Seleccionamos 16 obras editadas en España para que puedas leerlo tú mismo (y no incluimos el esperadísimo Punk, pero ¿qué punk? editado por La Fonoteca y escrito por Tomás González Lezana porque ya habrá tiempo de escribir y hablar sobre él en breve). ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️Comics Workbook ha anunciado el semestre de invierno del Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – el curso empieza 29.21.2016! Curso de 8 semanas – 500 dolares – 10 estudiantes – presentate para el curso! Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. Direcciones para la Solicitud de Ingreso al Santoro School : -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 small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls -specific url links to any comics work you have done. Manda tu solicitud a: santoroschoolATgmail ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Pittsburgh, PA – El comienzo de Suzy y Cecil Suzy y Cecil es una tira diaria, creada por varias estudiantes de Comics Workbook. Pueden seguir sus aventuras y su amistad en instagram: @Suzy_and_Cecil. ————————————————————————————————— hasta la proxima! juan Share this page: [...]

06/16/2017

Sally IngrahamJune 16, 2017NewsSally here with Tatiana Gill; graphic medicine; the new superwomen and their fresh talk; Karen Green’s life in comics. ————————————————————————————————— Adam Griffiths attended “FRESH TALK: Who are the new superwomen of the universe?” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in D.C., on June 14th, 2017. He sent these notes for me to share with you: FRESH TALK: Who are the new superwomen of the universe? tag: #freshtalk4change Panelists: Carolyn Cocca : Author of “Superwomen: Gender, Power and Representation.” Ariell Johnson : Owner of Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse, Inc. Gabby Rivera : Writer for Marvel’s AMERICA series. Ashley A. Woods : Artist for the Stranger Comics series, “NIOBE: She is Life.” Moderated by Emily Whitten. Tonight’s panel at NMWA was crowded with curious onlookers, geeks, comics fanatics and well-wishers for the comics medium, which has barely had a presence in the thirty-year old museum’s programs or collection. I have to admit I was a little nervous for the panelists; the selection of speakers intimated that the program would serve as a sort of general survey of this contemporaneous moment, where the concept of women and comics are discussed in a women-positive environment, on women’s terms. The fact of the matter is that this discussion has been going on for the past two decades. Like pulp fiction, comics has emerged from the margins of popular literature as a force that even Hollywood has had trouble quantifying. We’re learning that comic-book movies are made with all hands on deck. One misstep in storytelling or context can unleash a digital herd of comics aficionados. They are protective of their stories, passionate about cinematic interpretations of their heroes, and uncannily heeded by the industries that create this type of entertainment, probably because these fans are primarily men. When comics shop owner Ariell Johnson is discussing her first forays into comics, she mentions a male friend with a great collection of comics. She was always borrowing his, but when an image of Storm from the X-men pops up during her slide presentation, she lights up: “This woman was the one who started it all for me,” she says. There seems to be a little guilt there – the collection that she had access to ended at some point and perhaps could have ended her relationship with comics. Instead, she started her own shop. When Gabby Rivera begins discussing her writing, she’s still overwhelmed by the influx of community support she got for her early work, and how that motivated her to continue. Artist Ashley Woods remembers getting to comic conventions with no money, sometimes even arriving without her own book in hand to sell. There’s a thread here that’s tough to follow if you choose to really feel it; Gabby Rivera wants you to know that her mom is awesome. When Rivera’s mother calls she asks: “Gabby have you eaten something?” “eatsome’neat.” It’s something about how women hold fast to their communities, sometimes needfully breaking themselves in order to advance. Speaker Carolyn Cocca suggested that the cult of domesticity in the United States is responsible for sluggish progress for women in the comics industry. Within that history, we do know that there were women creators in comics. We also know that there were tons of women colorists, women letterers, women running printing presses. The standout artists and writers however are the ones that there are few of, seemingly. The mise-en-scène here is that women comics creators are piggybacking on each other towards an enhanced presence in the comics field. Last night, the room was very warm with this prevailing outlook. ————————————————————————————————— Tonight the reception for the 2017 Comics & Medicine Conference: Access Points will be held at the Fantagraphics Bookstore – featuring a book signing by Tatiana Gill. She will be presenting her new collection, Wombgenda; “fierce feminist comix” to all reports. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street and the event will be from 6-9 PM. The Seattle Review of Books writes about Tatiana Gill’s new comic: “The three long pieces in Wombgenda address Gill’s journey to developing a positive body image, her abortion story, and an account of getting a new IUD at Country Doctor. Her style in these strips is very reminiscent of Seattle cartoonist Roberta Gregory’s autobiographical comics from the 1990s — simple figures, little to no backgrounds, and a lot of words packed into every panel. They feel something like handwritten letters from a friend — confessional, intimate, exuberant, and heartfelt.“ Read the rest of the review HERE. This is the eight annual Comics & Medicine Conference, the bulk of which will be held at the Seattle Public Library Central Branch (June 15th-17th). This year the event features keynote speakers Hillary Chute, Georgia Webber, and Rupert Kinnard. Learn more about the event HERE. Seattle Weekly profiled the event, and spoke to co-founder MK Czerwiec about the importance of comics in health care. ” “Comics have the power to convey important information in ways that people who are dealing with issues in health care and caregiving find appealing to absorb,” Czerwiec explains. Comics have been used in public health situations for decades to make information accessible in ways that can “transcend language barriers,” but they also provide patients with a “form of reflection and … storytelling” that can help in the healing process. They also help others empathize with patients. For those reasons, she says, nursing and medical schools are beginning to use comics to teach students. Czerwiec says that Seattle has existed on this intersection between comics and medicine for a very long time. Cartoonist Mita Mahato, who has helped to organize this year’s Comics & Medicine conference, has long been a booster. Ellen Forney’s memoir about life as an artist with bipolar disorder, Marbles, has fast become a classic in mental health circles. And “of course, Meredith Li-Vollmer at the King County Public Health Department has come to our conferences in the past and presented projects that she’s done with David Lasky in the public health arena.” Li-Vollmer and Lasky worked on the comic No Ordinary Flu, which saw a print run of over half a million copies translated into a dozen languages and distributed around the country.“ Read the rest of the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Karen Green‘s life as a comic, by Nick Sousanis – or, “How a Butler librarian became Columbia’s first curator for comics and cartoons“. Check out the whole thing HERE. Nick Sousanis wrote about the experience of making the comic: “While only six pages long, this proved to be a huge undertaking – i was working on it December through March, and it was just published this week. When first approached to do this project, I was hesitant. Although I’m good friends with Karen and she was a great colleague while I was doing my doctoral work, biographies are not really the sort of comic I make. But then I got the idea to tell her story through homages to all the comics she read growing up and through adulthood – and that got me excited for the challenge (I did do one autobiographical piece a long time back that touched upon somewhat similar terrain). And it was a challenge – the amount of reference material for this short piece are kind of ridiculous but once you’ve committed to this path – can’t really stop walking. The comic draws on her lifelong fascination with Alice in Wonderland in a few places, the New Yorker, the Bayeux Tapestry, Archie, Little Nemo, Charles Burns, and the crowning achievement of the piece – a riff on Al Jaffee’s legendary Mad Fold-Ins! (See a recent interview with Jaffee here.) Although this final page was the quickest to draw in the end, it was by far the hardest to figure out.“ Read more of his thoughts HERE – and see the “fold-in” page in action! ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 6-16-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-16-2017 – by Sally Ingraham (based on a sketch by Gloria Rivera) Share this page: [...]

03/01/2017

Juan FernándezMarch 1, 2017los Cómics / NewsJuan José con un poquito sobre #GRAFBCN2017; Bas Backer on Chicks on Cómics; Inés Estrada’s Booklyn 2012; Mireia Pérez; Núria Pompeia; Berliac; Salva Rubio on Jiro Taniguchi; 100 Años de TBO; CW Daily Comics. Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ESTE FIN DE SEMANA: #GRAFBCN2017. Esta a la vuelta de la esquina. GRAF is coming to Barcelona. Here’s all the info you need for #GRAFBCN2017‘s programming. March 3-5 at the wacky warehouse space, Fabra i Coats. It’s the ninth edition of the Festival so it should get pretty wild. – If you’re following from home, check out twitter and tumblr for the #GRAFBCN2017 to get some insights on. Want to know who’s going to be there? Here ya go. Need more info? Here’s Mireia Pérez with the scoop you need on #GRAFBCN2017 over on RTVE’s La Hora del Bocadillo, Spain’s weekly national comics radio hour. (Fast forward to minute 48). Descubre a Núria Pompeia en la exposición ‘Núria Pompeia, sola ante el peligro’. Fundación Gin‘s digital editorial cartooning museum, Humoristan, has got a great online exhibition of Pompeia’s work with highlights from Maternasis and Las Metamorfosis. Berliac‘s got some new comics on Vice – Asian Food Store Junkies – S01-E03 This week will horrify your taste buds. Inés Estrada’s dropped a zine she made, quick and dirty after her time at Comic Arts Brooklyn in 2012. “I was going to make a zine of my comics diary of Brooklyn 2012 (cus I never did) but fck it… who cares about 2012″ Now you can read it online. Inspiring, fast, six panel autobio. Salva Rubio offers a great reflection on the work of the late Jiro Taniguchi. Especially of interest given it’s a Spanish perspective on the manga titan. The theme here is the eternal return. This March, it will be the 100th anniversary of the first issue of “TBO”, the popular illustrated magazine that gave name to Spanish comics, tebeos. To commemorate this the newly published, Antoni Guiral‘s 100 Años de TBO, tells the history of a publication which passed the great names of twentieth century Catalan comic. Take a tour of a century “TBO”. (In Catalan!) Bas Backer ha hecho un relato hermoso de su paso por Buenos Aires, el encuentro con amigos y actividades de Chicks On Comics. A nice report, filled with photos and drawings of time passing through the amazing Chicks on Comics show and Buenos Aires. A nice long distance relationship travelogue, haha! ————————————————————————————————— Berliac offers some fresh cuts over at Fumettologica, the central axis of the conversation being his work editing and contributing to Kuš! #25’s Gaijiin Manga. Short and sweet but goes in deep with his thoughts on gekiga, the western gaze and his own evolution as an author. How do you explain the current popularity of Gekiga in the western comics scene? Now they’re getting published and before they were not, simple as that. If you want to dig deeper, I guess the publishers finally realized that since the late seventies, Western adults grew up with manga and anime, and we just needed a cultural approval from well-respected publishers, to re-unite with our childhood love without feeling embarassed about it. Put that together with the concept that publishers from liberal countries have of what a Graphic-Novel is supposed to be (basically realistic stories about the suffering of people from far away countries, to be enjoyed from the comfort of our sofas), and there you go: Gekiga provides us with both. Here lies another reason why I like to call my own work Gaijin-Gekiga: if Gekiga was the Japanese expression, in a dramatic comics form, of their own collective anxieties in times of hypercapitalism, then I can undoubtedly say that the main focus of my work is the very same one, only about my own place and time, of course. I have the impression that not many well-known cartoonists are really talking about what’s going on right here and now, on this side of the world, on a collective scale. In Graphic-Novels, all I see is either boring lectures about foreign or past war conflicts from an “objective”, Western point of view, or feel-good stories about individual self-improvement, and in the most successful cases, a combination of the two. These stories are just two different ways of patting our backs and telling ourselves how great we Westerners are. Gekiga was a beautiful, dignifying way to accept the crushing reality of post-war defeat. Western narratives of today, on the contrary, insist on that we’re on the winning side, even when our reality clearly points to the opposite (see Donald Trump). I’m not saying there’s dignity in being a loser, but in seeing reality for what it is. Drama without exaggeration. That is the essence of Gekiga. Now that a few months has passed from the release of the Kus, can you say that the anthology also served as a bond between the artists of this possible new western manga scene? Bonds among artists always exist, but maybe not explicitely. to the point not even we are aware of it. Many of the artists involved discovered each other’s work in that issue of š! As I said in another interview, it is not the artists’ task or responsablity to make that bond intelligible for the public, but the publishers’, gallerists’, and journalists’. As an author, I’m not too concerned about it. As a co-editor of š! #25, I certainly hope we provided a grain of sand to this cause. ————————————————————————————————— The Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers is starting soon! The semester has a rolling start date, but it will officially kick off on March 7th. We will continue taking applications past that date – Frank is always willing to make it work for your schedule. Just apply! The course is 8 weeks long – 500 bux – payment plans are available. More details can be found HERE. Email santoroschoolATgmail to apply ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-1-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-1-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-1-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 3-1-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

04/06/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 5, 2017NewsSally here with updates from John Jennings; the (H)afrocentric project; Ron Wimberly/C. Spike Trotman/Ariell Johnson on NPR; throwing “diversity” under the bus. ————————————————————————————————— Gene Demby and Glen Weldon of NPR spoke to Ronald Wimberly, C. Spike Trotman (online comics publisher of Iron Circus Comics in Chicago, and creator of the long-running webcomic Templar, Arizona), and Ariell Johnson (owner of Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse in Philadelphia) about “changing color in comics“. Listen to the podcast HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out (H)afrocentric, a comics project created by Juliana “Jewels” Smith. An educator, writer, and organizer based in Oakland, CA, she “created (H)afrocentric as a way to challenge students and readers alike about the presumptions around race, class, gender and sexuality through character dialogue. Her practice focuses on the links between racial justice, gender equity, and political literacy; using creativity to facilitate dialogue.” There are 4 volumes of the comic so far – you can preview Vol. 1, 2, and 3 HERE and Vol. 4 HERE. Juliana writes it and Ronald R. Nelson provides the artwork (with Mike Hampton as colorist/letterer). The team also makes a comic strip which is available as a “Sunday Funny” via email subscription – or you can catch up with the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Over the past weekend, a few folks at Marvel Comics put their feet in their mouths. This is not unusual, these days. David Gabriel, Marvel’s senior vice-president of sales, print, and marketing, tried to blame Marvel’s recent decline in sales on their attempts at adding “diversity” to their comics. Que an uproar. The Guardian‘s JA Micheline had some things to say about it: “Let’s look at how the discussion was framed: “Any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up,” says Gabriel – without a qualifier or interrogation of which readers and why. I can promise you that it’s not women going into comic-book shops, sick of female characters. I can similarly promise you that people of colour are not entering comic-book shops and turning their noses up at faces that look like theirs. By even making remarks like these, Marvel is seemingly conceding that its target audience, its “core” audience – and their “core” characters – are white and male.“ Read the rest of her comments HERE. G. Willow Wilson, the writer behind Ms Marvel, had a thoughtful response as well. Among her comments was a reminder to the folks at Marvel and elsewhere: “Diversity as a form of performative guilt doesn’t work. Let’s scrap the word diversity entirely and replace it with authenticity and realism. This is not a new world. This is *the world.*“ Read the rest of her thoughts HERE. Vox offers up a detailed and fairly balanced look at the whole snafu and pinpoints some of the reasons for both the outrage and the cause of it. ————————————————————————————————— John Jennings spoke to The Boston Globe recently about his new comic adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Kindred (above) and his interest in horror stories. His comic recommendations and recent reads are all excellent, and I like where he says (despite the evidence of his new book) that he doesn’t like the idea of graphic novels being a “gateway” to reading books. Read the interview HERE. There is also a great interview on NPR from February 2017 about the joys (and fears) of making Kindred into a comic – check it out. I’ve linked to this piece before, but if you’re unfamiliar with John Jennings and the work he does in the comics community, get to know him better HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The illustration above by Comics Workbook student Shannon Wright accompanies an article about a case of “shared” identity. Not comics at all – but an interesting read. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook will be at the Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo on Sunday, April 9th. We will be hosting a workshop series with instructors from the school, as well as special guests Carol Tyler, Lale Westvind, and Connor Willumsen! More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-6-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-6-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-6-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

03/24/2017

Sally IngrahamMarch 23, 2017NewsWe finish the week with Mary Fleener, Isabel Bas Amat, Gloria Rivera, Miranda Harmon, and more! ————————————————————————————————— I just had a chance to check out Mineshaft #34 (Fall 2016) at Copacetic Comics and happened across Mary Fleener‘s piece for the zine (above). Only hours later I discovered that Women Write About Comics had posted an interview with Mary Fleener, which digs into what she’s currently working on, her recent experience with comics about local politics, and her long relationship with the medium. She is part of a relatively small group of female cartoonists who have been working steadily since the 70’s, and I am pleased to see that she is still totally invested in the community and is still making serious work – perhaps the best work of her life (keep an eye out for her new book Billie the Bee, a project she considers to be the hardest thing she’s ever done.) Mary Fleener’s advice to an aspiring comics maker: “Read a lot of books, look at a lot of art, and go to a lot of museums. I compare a lot of things to learning how to play a musical instrument. It’s almost like a Law of Nature. If you practice, you will get better. If you draw a lot, you will get better. Some people take longer, and some can do it right away, but if you do not practice you’ll get nowhere. Another thing, if you have a burning desire to try something, then you MUST. If you do not, you will always wonder what you missed out on. Envy is another thing that can either give you the drive to try harder or it can eat you up inside. If someone gets an award, congratulate them, don’t be bitter. One more thing: always say “Please” and “Thank you”.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Thanks to the wonders of Google Translate I’ve been doing my best to learn about Isabel Bas Amat (b. 1931), a cartoonist from Barcelona, Spain, who was one of only three women to draw comics for the long-running comics magazine TBO (1917-1983). She began making work for the magazine in 1967, and her strip Ana-Emilia and Her Family (above) became popular. She was completely self taught and had very little communication with other cartoonists, so all of her work was based on the comics that she had grown up reading. She drew from an early age, and first sent her comics to a local magazine when she was 15. She had the satisfaction of seeing her work published, and was able to carry on making comics and doing illustration work. Her comic for TBO, a magazine she always hoped to be published in, featured a character that was based on the daughter of the publisher, Albert Viña. Like her character Ana-Emilia, Isabel was a climber and swimmer and tabletop tennis player – but comics were her first love. There is an interview with Isabel Bas Amat on Tebeosfera – with the aid of Google Translate you can learn more about this rad cartoonist and see more of her strips and comics – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Gloria Rivera is in Pittsburgh this week for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. She is an alum of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers and is a member of the CW Roller Derby League so we know that she isn’t afraid of working hard. Now she is making the most of a week dedicated entirely to drawing and research – or “sparing in the dojo” as we call it around CW. We’ll hear more about her adventures next week – meanwhile follow the Rowhouse Residency Instagram account – @rowhouseresidency – and if you’re interested in joining us in Pittsburgh yourself, email santoroschool@gmail.com for more info! ————————————————————————————————— Miranda Harmon was thinking about the X-Men recently (above). See the rest of her musings HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Fish Fry Friday M. S. Harkness is a cartoonists from Minneapolis, Minnesota who is headed to Pittsburgh this summer for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency – come hell or high water! Donate to her travel expenses if you can – this gal will probably crawl here if she has to, but it would be nice if she could at least take the train – check out her Generosity campaign HERE – and send M.S. Harkness to Pittsburgh! The PEN America feature Illustrated PEN has an excerpt from Thi Bui’s new book, The Best We Could Do – HERE. Pinup Girl Clothing has released a line of Los Hernandez Brothers clothes, which uses fabric with designs pulled from their large body of work. Cartoonist Sarah Dyer (who is best known for the 90’s Action Girl anthology) is the Art Director for the line, so anyone ELSE who thinks this is a marvelous fashion development can join me in thanking Sarah for it! More about the line HERE on The Comics Beat – and you can order the clothing HERE. Sophie Goldstein treated herself to a Patreon for her birthday – support her HERE. Women Write About Comics reviews Peter Bagge’s new book Fire!!: The Zora Neale Hurston Story. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-24-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-24-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-24-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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