Juan and Sally tag teaming it this morning with the goods: Ron Wimberly at Copacetic Comics; 2nd biennial Queers & Comics conference, the QC Travel fund; Simon Reinhardt on Anya Davidson; PEN World Voices Festival; Matthew Thurber; Cynthia Rose on Andre Franquin; Sam Alden; Sophie Goldstein; Wayne Wise on Herriman.
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Ronald Wimberly is coming to Pittsburgh this week to check out the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency, the Andy Warhol Museum, The ToonSeum, and Copacetic Comics! He will be doing a signing on Wednesday at Copacetic:
“Please join us from 6:00pm to 8:00pm on Wednesday, February 22 to welcome Ronald Wimberly and celebrate his latest release, Black History in Its Own Words. Wimberly will be coming through town straight from wrapping up his Graphic Novel Residency Exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art.
Be sure to check this event out, meet Ron, and get some copies of his books if you are in the area.
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Juan here, San Francisco’s California College of the Arts is hosting the 2nd biennial Queers & Comics conference on April 14-15 2017 with Keynotes Mariko Tamaki and Gengoroh Tagame. Queers & Comics features two days of discussion panels, workshops, readings, and comics galore, along with a multitude of off-site events. This year the conference will spotlight international and emerging LGBTQ cartoonists, the role of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the future of queer comics. It should be great.
As people gear up for the conference, there are still some creators and presenters who need your help. Traveling to these important spaces for conversations is hard and costs a good deal of $$. Not everyone who needs to be part of these conversations has that $$. That’s where you come in, dear reader.
A small band of creators have joined together with Prism Comics to create the QC Travel Fund. With your help they will raise the necessary funds to help creators in need reach their destination at the Queers & Comics conference in San Francisco at CCA on April 14-15, 2017. The fundraiser can be found here: https://www.generosity.com/community-fundraising/queers-comics-conference-travel-fund/x/16025161 Pitch in what you can!
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This morning I’m passing the mic to Correspondence Course graduate, Simon Reinhardt. He’s got some great thoughts on Anya Davidson’s latest books. Quick comics thoughts just how I like them. Essential, enticing and illuminating.
2016 Comics: Anya Davidson-Lovers in the Garden/Hypatia’s Last Hours
I’ve been a fan of Anya Davidson for a while, but these two pieces–which function very well as companions–felt like a breakthrough to me. There’s always been an emotional intensity to Davidson’s work, and here it is turned all the way up. Both of these stories deal with the moments before a disaster, ending abruptly when that disaster arrives. We see the protagonists’ hopes get dashed but, crucially, the stories clearly highlight how important and worthwhile those hopes were despite ultimately not being fulfulled. In both works, the cartoony, lively figure drawing fleshes out the world of the characters and communicates a depth beyond what can be explicitly foregrounded in relatively short form work. Devastating stuff.
-Simon Reinhardt
Lovers in the Garden is available from Retrofit Books. “Hypatia’s Last Hours” was included in Kramers Ergot #9, available from Fantagraphics.
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Dots and Dashes
- The PEN World Voices Festival (May 1-7th 2017) will spotlight gender and power this year, and unlike in years past, it will feature a lot of cartoonists. The Comics Beat has the details – but just to throw some names around, the lineup will include Simon Hanselmann, Roz Chast, Gabrielle Bell, Rokudenashiko, and Meg Lemke among other panelists!
- There is an interview with Matthew Thurber and an excerpt from Art Comic, his ongoing serial, over on Bad At Sports – check it out HERE.
- Cynthia Rose writes about Andre Franquin over on The Comics Journal – was he in fact comics’ greatest draftsman?
- The Strand is hosting a cartooning focused panel: I’m Drawn This Way: Cartoonists on Cartooning (March 13) featuring Pénélope Bagieu, Natalie Andrewson, Katie Skelly, Julia Gfrörer, and Whit Taylor moderated by the great Meg Lemke of the Brooklyn Book Festival, PEN America, and MUTHA Magazine.
- Part 2 of Sam Alden‘s Sledgehammer is up on Hazlitt – “Okay, never mind. Go back to destroying the house.”
- Sophie Goldstein announced that her comic House of Women will be collected by Fantagraphics this fall. Congrats!
- Pittsburgh’s Wayne Wise reviews George Herriman: A Life in Black and White.
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Announcing the Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers!
Frank Santoro here. I’ve decided to give this semester a rolling start date. I realize that everyone has spring break at different times, and that’s always a good time to start a comic – so I will officially kick off the course March 7th but will continue taking applications past that date. I will make it work for your schedule. Just apply!
Applications received by February 26th will get 100 bux off!
The course is 8 weeks long – payment plans are available.
Many more details can be found HERE plus the answers to all your questions (hopefully).
Email santoroschoolATgmail to apply
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
– send 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
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Blinkers – 2-20-2017 – by Jack Brougham
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Suzy and Cecil – 2-20-2017 – by Gabriella Tito
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Joanie and Jordie – 2-20-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio
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Cozytown – 2-20-2017 – by Juan Fernandez