Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Emil Friist Ernst, GratNin, Greenpoint, Jim Pluk, Julia Wertz, maggie umber, Paste, Ronald Wimberly, Sarah Farrick, Simon Moreton, Stela, Tender Journal

Sally Ingraham

Posted on February 26, 2016February 26, 2016

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02/22/2017

Juan FernándezFebruary 22, 2017los Cómics / NewsJuan José con un poquito sobre #GRAFBCN2017; Chicks on Cómics video tour; lo nuevo de Inés Estrada; #GRAFBCN2017; Talleres de Narrativas Dibujadas del Club de Lectores de Cómic de Manizales Gerardo Vilches on the contemporary Argentinian Comics Landscape; Desiree Rodriguez and #BeingLatinxInComics; TARANTULA; CW Daily Comics. Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Ya viene, ya llega. #GRAFBCN2017 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. You can sign up for workshops here: http://grafcomic.com/talleres Chicks on Comics has released a video of the exhibition they put together at Fundacion PROA, in Buenos Aires. This sprawling exhibition is open until this Sunday, the 26th. Can’t make it physically? Enjoy this little video tour! Wild child, Inés Estrada is dropping a bunch of comics on her site today Alienation #3, reprints of her out of print Alienation #1 and her comics diary of our Southwest Roadtrip. It happens today at http://gatosaurio.com El futuro del cómic pasa en parte obligatoriamente por Argentina, donde están ocurriendo un montón de cosas. Gerardo Vilches offers up an expansive vision of contemporary Argentinian comics. It’s a hell of a national scene report over on Revista Cactus. Desiree Rodriguez is compiling the work of the contemporary Latinx comics making community in North America, all together under #BeingLatinxInComics. Check it out and get hep to these artists, writers and critics. Know someone she should add? Want to add yourself? Here’s the submission form. Looking to lose yourself in pile of comics? Catch up/Dig into the TikTok Comics archive. Might I suggest you check out María Medem‘s Kinki Onírica series? ————————————————————————————————— Sharpen yerr pencils – Afilen sus lápices: El Club de Lectores de Cómic de Manizales, Colombia. invites you to a new space that they’re opening in the city, dedicated to the creation and study of comics. All are welcome to their Talleres de Narrativas Dibujadas. Their free weekly workshops happen every Tuesday from 2:30 to 4 PM at Banrepcultural. ————————————————————————————————— Hold on to your hats: TARANTULA is coming! Alexis Ziritt & Fabian Rangel Jr. & Evelyn Rangel are bringing you the psychoactive horror crime thriller you’ve always wanted by way of Adhouse Books. Pre-order a copy today! ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! Frank here: This semester has a rolling start date – it will officially start March 7th but I will continue taking applications past that date. I will make it work for your schedule. Just apply! Applications received by February 26th will get 100 bux off! The course is 8 weeks long – payment plans are available. Many more details can be found HERE. Email santoroschoolATgmail to apply ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 2-22-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-22-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-22-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-22-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

05/18/2018

Sally IngrahamMay 17, 2018NewsSally here with comics by Sacha Mardou, Jessica Campbell, Hope Larson, and more! ———————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou has a comic up on MUTHA Magazine called Someday, My Witch Will Come. She writes: “According to journalistic science, women are likelier to go though a midlife crisis earlier than men, between the ages of 35-44. Well my midlife crisis certainly showed up on schedule, as this comic details. I discovered that you don’t learn to be a whole human being all by yourself, you need to ask for help. I’m still learning, it being a process, not a destination, as they say. I hope that by sharing this story it might help other women feel okay about the kooky stuff we do on this path to Self-Realization (whatever that means).“ See the whole comic HERE! There is also a comic published this month by Grace Farris on MUTHA Magazine which you should check out – Of Firsts and Donuts. ———————————————————————————— Alenka Figa reviews Jessica Campbell‘s new comic XTC69 (out from Koyama Press this month) for Women Write About Comics. She comments: “While mostly focused on biting commentary and indulgent plot, XTC69 also contains some moments of sharp realness that contrast its usual tone. In an early scene, Human Jessica can’t climb up a cliff face and has to piggyback ride on Alien Jessica’s back. Human Jessica’s skirt rides up revealing her underwear, and when they get to the top she clumsily readjusts it. These details are small, but they’re unsexy and real. Jessica is already emotionally vulnerable from learning her entire world is essentially gone, and then has to face her physical vulnerability. Campbell’s character designs are simple and lack the familiar level of detail used to exploit women’s bodies; despite the thick line work and cartoony style, the women in the comic are awkwardly real. In a comic full of commentary on misogyny, it’s small details like this through which Campbell shows how easy it is to draw outside of the male gaze.“ Read the whole review HERE. John Seven also reviews XTC69 for The Comics Beat – read his review HERE. Jessica Campbell‘s most recent comic for Hyperallergic can also be read HERE. ———————————————————————————— Hillary Brown sat down with Hope Larson to discuss Larson’s newest comic – All Summer Long – for Paste Magazine. They talk about Larson’s shift from being primarily an artist to a writer, and about the role of music in her life, among many other things. “Paste: One of the things I see as recurring in your work is this determination not to take a narrative where most people would (i.e., the idea that Bina and Austin would end up together is made to seem ridiculous). Is that intentional? Larson: No, it’s not. I’m one of those people who feels that there’s nothing new under the sun, and all the stories have been told, and all you can do is write honestly, in the hopes that it will feel new and resonate with readers. I’m definitely not trying to gotcha anyone. I just do my best to understand the characters and write them making the choices that feel true to them.“ Read the interview HERE. ———————————————————————————— Weekend Snacks Koyama Press has announced their Fall 2018 lineup and I’m pleased to note that Mickey Z‘s Space Academy 123 is being collected! Keiler Roberts also has a new comic coming out, and so does Britt Wilson. There is an excerpt from Lucy Bellwood‘s upcoming comic 100 Demon Dialaouges up on Boing Boing – check it out HERE. Colleen Frakes is the daily comics diarist for The Comics Journal this week – see her Cartoonist’s Diary HERE. Kriota Willberg offers 5 Things You Can Do to Reduce Drawing Pain – part of the Get a Grip! series on The Comics Beat. ———————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-18-2018 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

04/27/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 26, 2017NewsSally here with the Kugali database, work from Adam Griffiths and Lawrence “Raw Dog” Hubbard, and your daily dose of comic strips by Comics Workbook creators! ————————————————————————————————— I recently discovered Kugali, a curated database of African comics, games, and animation. The three Nigerian founders – Ziki Nelson, Tolu Olowofoyeku, and Maculay Alvarez – spoke to Konbini recently about why they started the site and their continuing plans for it. Ziki speaking here: “My relationship with comics was love at first sight. I started with Spiderman and for over two decades it’s been non-stop. However, at some point I realized that the vast majority of comics consistently overlooked or simply ignored the African experience. At first this was disappointing. I felt like this thing that I loved so much didn’t care about me or my culture. I reached out to my co-founders, both of whom had gone through similar experiences, and our goal was simple: find out if there are any African comics and see if they were any good. Not not only did we discover dozens of amazing comics, we also found awesome video games, cartoons and many other cool projects. The only problem I had with this revelation was the whole discovery process. So, we decided to aggregate all of this awesome content so people could discover the best African content.“ The Kugali blog is an excellent place to start exploring – check it out HERE. The official database can be found HERE. The guys also have a YouTube channel and a Podcast, so take some time to really dig into the comics of Africa and the African diaspora with them! ————————————————————————————————— Adam Griffiths has launched a new webcomic called American Cryo – you can read the rest of the first strip (pictured in part above) HERE. He also released the mini-comic he finished drawing in January during his Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency – The Permanent Night – which you can purchase HERE. ————————————————————————————————— In his weekly roundup of comics-related stuff on VICE, Nick Gazin spoke to Lawrence “Raw Dog” Hubbard, co-creator of the Real Deal comics (with H. P. McElwee, who passed away in 1998). Lawrence has been working on the comic since 1990, and Fantagraphics recently collected the 7 issues. “VICE: What’s it like to have this hardcover collection of your comics after all these decades? Lawrence “Raw Dog” Hubbard: “What’s it like?” It’s a feeling of euphoria, of validation. Thinking of all of the hard work, hours of drawing and creating Real Dealand wondering, Does anybody give a shit about this? All of the times me and H.P. McElwee took Real Deal directly to the people, the fans, they loved it! But at the same time when we went before the gatekeepers of the industry—publishers, distributors, shop owners—they said, “No! Why don’t you come up with a new superhero?” The best way to look at this is to never give up! If you love something and have a passion for it, stick with it! And whatever happens will happen! And thanks to Fantagraphics, the word about Real Deal will get out to gobs of comic fans who never heard of it before.“ Read more HERE. Get a copy of Real Deal from Copacetic Comics! ————————————————————————————————— Extra Innings Keith Knight was featured on Episode 29 of Study Group‘s Process Party. The Comics Journal shares one last review of Krazy: George Herriman, A Life in Black and White by Michael Tisserand – reviewed by Mathias Wivel HERE. David Betancourt, who has joined the Washington Post‘s Comic Riffs blog team, wrote about Tee Franklin‘s Bingo Love earlier this month. James Kaplan reviews Space Riders: Galaxy of Brutality #1 by Alexis Ziritt and Fabian Rangel Jr. on Panel Patter – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-27-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-27-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-27-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

05/06/2016

Sally IngrahamMay 6, 2016NewsWolverine still walks the wilds of Canada via Michael Comeau’s pen – Alyssa Berg frees her mind through the mysteries of the grid – Erik Nebel reverses expectations in every direction – the laughs come from Fabio Tonetto – the tears (perhaps) come from Lisa Wilde – Free Comic Book Day is upon us – and Bruce Lee never dies. ————————————————————————————————— Philippe Leblanc converses with Michael Comeau at Barbed Comics, digging deep into the why and how of Comeau’s Hellberta (available through Colour Code Printing). Michael Comeau is a Canadian cartoonist living in Toronto. Extensive travel throughout the provinces informed the creation of Hellberta over an 8-year period, and the book is a filter through which Comeau examines Canada’s complex relationship with the oil industry, and the mysterious “Canadian Identity”. Or, as the recently released collected edition is described – “The gloom, the entitlement, the desecration of the tar sands hangs over a province, a nation. Dirty oil addiction. A popular myth set in the rocky mountains. A mutant named Logan. A poetic salve for sore eyes weeping for a metaphorical context. WWWD? What would Wolverine do?…” The interview between Comeau and Philippe Leblanc ranges far and wide, hitting upon the nature of narrative, learning how to make comics, road tripping adventures, the shifting political climate in Canada, and exactly how tangled up Wolverine is in it all. Interesting on a number of levels – read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Alyssa Berg delivers Part Two of her museum-visit-inspired process meditation series today, this time exploring the grid with us. “Sometimes my mind is unwell, or full of complicated messy things or unable to think of new ideas (‘creative block’, I guess?). When I am in this state, I let my wild, creative mind rest. One way to do this is by going into a gentle analytical and physical practice. I sit down at my desk and pre-draw pages of panels and grids. Similar to preparing my work space as mentioned in Part One, pre-drawing panels and grids is a simple concentration-meditation that doesn’t require much thought (common theme: freedom from the mind!).” Read all of Part Two HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Drew Miller interviewed Erik Nebel recently, and their conversation is full of important stuff – ‘Drew Miller – You use vibrating colors as indicators of form, specifically for referencing the human body. The colors are strong on the screen! The drawing relies much less on direct line-work, which is uncharacteristic for the medium of comics. It’s an interesting way to develop distinct forms and negative space. Can you talk about color at all? Erik Nebel – I think of color in a way that may be different from how other cartoonists think of color. Traditionally, in our popular narratives, dark colors are associated with sadness and badness and things that are primitive, and light colors are associated with goodness and happiness and things that are civilized. That’s completely racist. It’s part of binary thinking. It’s poison in our society. I’m trying to reverse those expectations with my comics.’ Read the rest HERE, and follow Erik Nebel’s daily comic posts on his tumblr. ————————————————————————————————— Giving a shout out to cartoonist Fabio Tonetto, whose work has been cracking me up lately. Check out the rest of the comic above on Vice. ————————————————————————————————— Lisa Wilde’s Lacunae: Elegy For My Mother just finished being serialized on Mutha Magazine. A recent press release about the series described it as – “…a webzine that pushes the boundaries between comics and art. Tracing an arc from childhood to adulthood, the piece gives form to the unconscious side of a life narrative through single-image pages and minimal text. Wilde’s visceral and powerful drawings reference children’s art, comics, Jungian archetypes, and artists as wide-ranging as Chagall, Munch, and Eva Hesse.” Start from the beginning HERE, and follow this link to a list of all 5 parts. ————————————————————————————————— Another reminder that tomorrow (Sat. May 7th!) is Free Comic Book Day. Find a participating store near you via the Store Locator, call them up to get the details, and plan to get there early! I’ll be running out myself to find a copy of this sweet looking Bruce Lee comic! ————————————————————————————————— While we’re on the topic, here are a couple of apparently “lost sketches” by Bruce Lee, and the brief story behind them. ————————————————————————————————— Thanks for hanging out in the Comics Workbook newsroom this week! Meet back here bright and early Monday. Cheers! – Sally Share this page: [...]

03/27/2018

Aaron CockleMarch 27, 2018NewsAaron here today with KGB Easter Reading + Paper Rocket Minicomics; Anna McGlynn & Hannah Kaplan; Yvan Alagbé; Comics Appropriation; Protest Comics; Sally Ingraham Birding Comics ————————————————————————————————— Annual Comix and Graphic Novel Night Spring is in the air! Join us for the annual Easter Sunday KGB Comix Night, a free night of live comics readings. Five local cartoonists will offer slideshow readings that are sure to entertain, bewilder, and amuse. Co-hosted by Robyn Chapman and Robin Enrico. Sunday, April 1, at KGB Bar in NYC. Readings by: Emily Flake, Katie Fricas, Alabaster Pizzo, Bishakh Som, Vreni Stollberger ————————————————————————————————— Paper Rocket Minicomics 2018 Spring Line Robyn Chapman is putting out 2 books, issue #3 of Colin Lidston’s The Age of Elves, and issue #5 of the Chapman-edited The Tiny Report. This is our most ambitious issue of the Tiny Report yet, with 60 full-color pages of minicomic reviews, interviews, and bibliographies! We have profiles of two groundbreaking, but very different, comic artists. We start with an interview with Eleanor Davis and an overview of her early minicomic work. And we follow that with Haleigh Buck’s in-depth interview with Mike Diana, the first American artist to be convicted of obscenity. We also have a bunch of minicomic reviews by Robyn Chapman and Robin Enrico. And as always, we chronicle the output of micro-publishers in the Micro-Press Yearbook fold-out. ————————————————————————————————— Anna McGlynn and Hannah Kaplan in Philadelphia. ————————————————————————————————— A Comic Book Artist Who Makes the Invisible Visible Tobias Grey on the newly translated Yvan Alagbé book, Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures. France has continued to shape its former African colonies in its own image by erasing the past as it sees fit. In “Yellow Negroes” he reported on a collective of undocumented workers striking in Montreuil who put up a photograph of Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s revolutionary president from 1983 to 1987, in the window of their headquarters. Inserting himself into the narrative, Mr. Alagbé remarked that when he once looked up Sankara’s name in France’s famous Larousse dictionary there was no entry for him. However there was an entry for Blaise Compaoré who led the 1987 coup d’état during which Sankara was assassinated. “I thought that was incredibly violent,” Mr. Alagbé said. “Not only was Sankara assassinated but he was also erased from French history.” ————————————————————————————————— At the Mountains of Madness Austin English continues a strong run of art/comics essays: Let’s make no mistake though: cartooning, artistically speaking, is doing fine without the validation of museums or influential art writers. It’s part of the hard to explain magnetism this medium has for the artists who devote themselves to it. ‘Ok, the offer, as I understand it, is I devote myself to this medium, trying to decipher its complexities, accepting how complicated and demanding it is… and in return, you’re giving… nothing? No money, no acceptance or consideration from the world at large. Sounds good to me!’ As silly as this sounds, this describes countless artists involved in this field, all making work using the full power of their hearts and minds. Is this part of what makes cartooning so beautiful, its lack of prestige or ‘career’ path, thus enforcing an art for art’s sake default mode? Perhaps. But art can provide important things to the public. Cartooning may be doing fine on its own, but I do think those who appreciate art (and whose only understanding of how to experience the story of art is to go to institutions to self-educate) might benefit a good deal from a confrontation with cartooning on the walls of their favorite museum. ————————————————————————————————— Be Heard! A Comic For Student Rights From CBLDF & NCAC “Whether students choose to participate in this national movement or not, whether they walk out into the hallway or march to their Senator’s office, whether they wear orange or write an op-ed for the school paper, this moment is the ultimate First Amendment lesson,” said Abena Hutchful, coordinator of NCAC’s Youth Free Expression Program and Kids’ Right to Read Project. “We hope that teachers will engage with their students in productive ways and we want to make sure that students know what is–and is not–protected protest speech in schools.” ————————————————————————————————— How to Take Pictures of Birding CW News contributor Sally Ingraham has a short comic posted at the American Birding Association blog, a preview of a longer piece in the upcoming issue of Birding. Congrats, Sally! ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 3-27-2018 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-27-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

02/26/2016

Posted on February 26, 2016February 26, 2016 by Sally Ingraham

Emil Friis Ernst offered up a new comic this morning, based on a text by Cathrin Peterslund…

…and Simon Moreton recently posted his Hilltop Walking Comics (see the whole thing HERE).

Drop yourself into two different wordless worlds, and find yourself floating in a cosmic pond or blustered along a hilltop ridge. Stay awhile, if you like.

Then go lose yourself entirely in Si Fuera un Alma en Pena/If I was a suffering soul, a comic by Colombian cartoonist Jim Pluk – online HERE.

After that, check out this awesome interview with Ronald Wimberly, up on Paste! The topic is Ron’s new comic GratNin, which is being published exclusively on the comic book app Stēla. He and Paste talk process (designing for a mobile-only platform), origins and inspiration, and what the heck a “Proust Knuckle” is anyway.

Inspired by 80’s martial arts movies and manga, GratNin may strike one initially as more lighthearted than Ron’s previous work. However, while Ron admits to an indulgent element to the comic, he definitely isn’t just playing around.

“As for GratNin specifically, I have looked at Sanpei Shirato in how he used genre as a tool to address social issues. I am also interested in continuing or countering dialogues on race, sex, gender and ethics that I have found in shonen manga. My goal is to continue the discussion with the manga vernacular, though I often just slip into my own thing.”

Read the whole interview HERE.

Over on Greenpointers there’s an interview with Julia Wertz which is also well worth a read. Check it out.

She’s working on a new book about Greenpoint which will indulge her love for drawing cityscapes.

“…I always enjoyed drawing random things and sets for apartments way more than I liked drawing people. People don’t interest me… things and spaces do, at least from an artistic standpoint.”

She sends out a bit of advice to her younger self or anyone else who is considering getting into comics:

“… just get to work. Don’t sit around waiting for the right publisher or the right pen or notebook, just do it. Start right now. The only people who survive in comics are those who truly love making comics, and if you truly love it, you’ll already be doing it, you won’t be wasting time trying to figure out how.”

The new issue of Tender Journal was just released! This UK online publication is a platform for female-identified writers and artists, and the current issue features work by cartoonists Sarah Ferrick and Maggie Umber among other worthies. Read it HERE.

And that’s our Friday morning comics news walkabout. Enjoy the weekend! – Sally

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Emil Friist Ernst, GratNin, Greenpoint, Jim Pluk, Julia Wertz, maggie umber, Paste, Ronald Wimberly, Sarah Farrick, Simon Moreton, Stela, Tender Journal

Sally Ingraham

Posted on February 26, 2016February 26, 2016

Explore

03/21/2017

Aaron CockleMarch 21, 2017NewsAaron here today with Sikoryak; Feiffer/Eisner; Drawing Lessons with Victoria Lomasko; Intensive Publication Intensive; Till Doomsday; Fit to Print. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Other than that, there’s very little in the book that has any connection, visually, to the text.’ Rachel Davies interviewed R. Sikoryak on the occasion of the release of Sikoryak’s Terms and Conditions collection: RD: Both of your most recent projects—Terms and Conditions, and the Unquotable Trump—were first realized online. How does your attitude toward a work change when transitioning it from the internet to something tangible? RS: It’s funny, they were first seen online, but the iTunes project started as a mini comic. I published the first two parts of the iTunes book in April 2015, and I published the second two parts, the finale of the iTunes book, in September 2015. I had been selling them at conventions, and I’d been distributing them a little bit online through a mini comics distributor called Birdcage Bottom, I had gotten them out a little bit and I showed the mini comics to Françoise Mouly, and she said, Oh, you should put these on Tumblr! I did that, and then I sent out an email to everyone I knew in the world, and said, I’m doing this thing! The minute I sent out that email, this was like 20 or 30 days after putting it on Tumblr, the day I sent that email, Boing Boing had done a story, NPR called me to do an interview, The Guardian, all these other places came in, and started writing about it. I tip my hat to Françoise for knowing enough about the internet to tell me to use it. I kind of like to know what my work is before I release it to the world, like the iTunes book, I put out the first mini comic after I’d finished the first half of it—I wanted to stake my claim to it, but I’d already done like 35 pages. By the time I put it on Tumblr I was done, and I was really astounded by the response. I don’t know if it would have been more paralyzing to have seen all those people be very excited about it. It was a little startling to see how fast it clicked in with people. With the Trump book, again I made a mini comic, but this time I already knew I was going to start putting it on Tumblr. But I did make all of it, 16 pages, and I published the comic—published, I photocopied it, and then I put it on Tumblr. The response to that was so great that I was encouraged to make more. In this case, for Trump now [The Unquotable Trump], I’m making images, and posting them on Tumblr, and in some ways I’m certainly open to suggestions, people have , Oh, you should do this or that! But most people don’t have it all thoroughly worked out, so you end up just having to do what you’re doing. I’m certainly keeping my ear open if anyone has any ideas. In the Trump case, I kind of have my approach, and I’ve mapped out where I’m going, but who knows what he’ll say tomorrow! He’s a different case because the iTunes thing is a living document, they do update it, but he’s a living human, and a volatile one, so I don’t know what he’s going to do next. I’m happy if he stops giving me material! I don’t need anymore, but we’ll see what happens. I have to admit, I’m really glad that Françoise suggested Tumblr to me, it’s definitely increased my visibility. I don’t know what I’ll do next online, but I might post my next project there. It is part of what comics are now, and I hadn’t embraced it before. I feel like the iTunes thing in a lot of ways has just made me think about how comics work, and how I can make comics in a new way. I also think that’s what I’m all about is thinking about comics, so it’s definitely achieved way more than I expected it would! – via The Comics Journal ————————————————————————————————— Jules Feiffer Honors Will Eisner at 100: A Will Eisner Week Event The 182nd meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, March 28, 2017 at 8 pm at Parsons School of Design, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. Please note 8 pm starting time! Will Eisner (1917-2005) innovated and pioneered comics in two different eras. Eisner helped invent the comics industry in the 1930s and created The Spirit in the 1940s as a heroic crime-fighting figure who appeared in a Sunday newspaper comics insert. The Spirit walked through a world of noir-inflected, urban drama, one suffused with humor and insight into the human condition, a world not afraid to essay the occasional Yiddish in-joke or Bronx social drama vignette. Then after producing comics for training and education, Eisner, in 1978, re-invented himself―and the medium of comics―with his first graphic novel, A Contract With God, followed, until his 2005 passing, with many additional graphic novels and textbooks. From 1946 until The Spirit’s end in 1952, Eisner counted as part of his close-knit, talented staff, a precocious teenager named Jules Feiffer, who worked on The Spirit and Clifford for Eisner, and also took on the self-appointed role of Eisner’s social conscience and resident smart-ass. In the years since, Feiffer’s own multifaceted career as satirical cartoonist, screenwriter (Carnal Knowledge), playwright (Little Murders) and children’s book author (The Man in the Ceiling)―and most recently, creator of his own trilogy of graphic novels (so far Kill My Mother and Cousin Joseph have been released, with the third volume in the works)―has blossomed in a unique and spectacular manner. But he did get his start with Will Eisner, with whom he was friend and colleague―and admirer―through the rest of Eisner’s life. Tonight, Jules will speak about his experience working for Eisner, what he learned from him and how Eisner influenced his own work, and why Eisner, a century after his birth, is still an important figure in the past, present and future of comics and graphic novels and in our culture as a whole. Jules will speak and present via Skype, and will be joined by in-person panelists, including Paul Levitz (author of Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel) and Danny Fingeroth (co-editor of The Stan Lee Universe and Chair of Will Eisner Week). ————————————————————————————————— ‘On the outside, I drew cartoon characters.’ Other Russians, by Victoria Lomasko, excerpted at n+1: In August 2010, I visited the Mozhaysk Juvenile Prison for the first time, as a volunteer for the Center for Prison Reform, and gave a drawing lesson to some of the inmates. I taught drawing classes at the girls’ penitentiaries in Novy Oskol and Ryazan and the boys’ penitentiary in Aleksin, but Mozhaysk is the only place I visited more or less regularly. I was originally trained as an educator, and before I came to Mozhaysk I prepared an experimental syllabus with ten lesson plans. There was almost no funding for the trips. We traveled by commuter train, carrying everything we needed for classes in our backpacks, so, with rare exceptions, we used the simplest materials during the lessons: paper and black pens. The Center organized the trips once a month. If you missed a trip, you had to wait for the next time around. There is a constant turnover of inmates at the juvenile prison. Some are released on parole, others are transferred to adult prisons, and new inmates show up all the time. Over a six-month period, the roster of my drawing groups changed completely. Some of the teens were well educated, while others were hearing everything for the first time. Many of them had psychological problems. In short, teaching classes at a penitentiary was tricky: you had to experiment and develop your own lesson plans. ————————————————————————————————— Publication Intensive at Triple Canopy: July 19-30, 2017 Triple Canopy is pleased to announce its fourth Publication Intensive, a two-week program in the history and contemporary practice of publication. During the Publication Intensive, Triple Canopy editors and invited artists, writers, and technologists will lead discussions and workshops with twelve participating students, who will research, analyze, and enact an approach to publication that hinges on today’s networked forms of production and circulation but also mines the history of print culture and artistic practice. The program will take place at Triple Canopy’s venue in Manhattan, and will include visits to studios of artists and designers, archives, and cultural institutions. Apply online through 11:59pm on Monday, April 17 2017. Participants will be notified no later than Friday, April 21. If you have further questions, please write edu@canopycanopycanopy.com. Read a conversation between participants in 2014’s program here. ————————————————————————————————— TILL DOOMSDAY Coming up on March 30th: John Malta & Siobhan Gallagher launch new doomsday anthology zine and Desert Island window installation, and Ezequiel García visits from Buenos Aries to sign his Fantagraphics book “Growing Up In a Public”. One big event Thurs the 30th at 7 pm! Come hang and meet the artists. ————————————————————————————————— FIT TO PRINT Fit to Print brings together a selection of art and editorial illustration created by 17 graduates of the Haute école des arts du Rhin (H.E.A.R.) in Strasbourg, one of the preeminent art schools in France. First presented at the Tomi Ungerer Museum in Strasbourg from January–April 2016, the exhibition debuts in New York in two parts — one at the Society of Illustrators, and another at The New York Times. Since 2012, The New York Times’s Opinion section has commissioned more than 100 illustrations from H.E.A.R.-educated artists to accompany a wide range of articles, or “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” in the words of the famous Times slogan. These artists caught the art directors’ attention with their excellent drawing and printmaking skills, strong sense of visual storytelling, and an often surreal, poetic approach to composition and concept. On view here is a selection of the artists’ personal and collaborative projects, primarily created for galleries or self-initiated publications. The exhibition continues at The New York Times with a collection of the artists’ commissioned illustrations. My hope is that these two shows demonstrate the power of editorial illustration, not only in its functional role as visual communication, but also as a unique form of fine art. – Alexandra Zsigmond, curator and art director at The New York Times ————————————————————————————————— Among many interesting offerings on the CW School Store is this set of comics (above) by Jake Terrell and GG – check it out here and explore the rest of the site while you’re there! ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 3-21-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-21-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-21-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Frank Santoro @ SPX 2016

Comics WorkbookOctober 8, 2016Santoro School / School Updateshttps://vimeo.com/185881298 SPX – September 17th 2016 Exerpts from the workshop with Cameron Weston Nicholson and Frank Santoro Filmed and edited by Tyler Q Tucker and Sally Ingraham (Watch the rest of the workshop footage HERE.) Share this page: [...]

01/21/2016

Juan FernándezJanuary 21, 2016NewsHello world, Frank’s got your coverage of what has been going on with the Rowhouse so far over at the Comics Journal. Big things happening come February 1st… Bill expounds on the glory that is Kevin Huizenga’s Gloriana on camera in Bill’s Remedial Comics #1. Watch and and see what all the fuss is about. oh and did you hear the news? You can catch Deforge, Drnaso, Chippendale on the East Coast for their Winter tour! Holy shit is right. Chippendale will be on tour promoting Puke Force, DeForge will be on tour promoting Big Kids, and Drnaso will be on tour for his debut of Beverly. Check out all the details here. Paper Jam – the Bushwick zine/comics hang out is just around the corner and they’ve started announcing exhibitors. Loads of new work to check out there if you want go hang out and talk comics/ pick up some new comics and zines. Stay abreast of their tumblr to get the low-down on who’ll be setting up shop. Kevin Czap is first up to bat. Oh and last but not least, we heard it through the grapevine that Lenny the pug has been getting pretty down what with the dark days spent indoors in Pittsburgh. Maybe you could help cheer Lenny up with some love over at the Lenny Fan Club Mailbox? Share this page: [...]

09/04/2018

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

11/04/2016

Sally IngrahamNovember 4, 2016NewsSally here, ready to shout about some cool comics and the women who make them. I’ve got notes on Lynda Barry, Julia Gfrörer, the She Changed Comics project, Lyn Chevli, Shade the Changing Girl #1, the CW Roller Derby “of the mind” League – plus an interview with Kevin Czap and Comics Workbook at CAB. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook will be at Comic Arts Brooklyn this Saturday, Nov. 5th – find us upstairs at table 27! Frank Santoro, Juan Fernandez, Jenn Lisa, and John Kelly will be there, with other Comics Workbook students and friends stopping by throughout the day. Thee incredible Ronald Wimberly will be signing at our table at 2 pm! Just when I thought it was safe to pack up the purel! I’m guesting at @comicsworkbook table at @comicartsbklyn this Saturday at 2pm. I’ll have Prince of Cats, Attack on Titan, and Something Wicked this Way Comes (The original to this is still available $300. Hit me in my DMs) #comicartsbrooklyn #comicbookworkbook #RonaldWimberly #FrankSantoro #GratNin #PrinceofCats #Hanzōbō A photo posted by Ronald Wimberly (@ronaldwimberly) on Nov 3, 2016 at 3:32pm PDT Also catch Whit Taylor and Alyssa Berg and Aaron Cockle tabling downstairs! ————————————————————————————————— I finally had a minute to pick up Shade the Changing Girl #1 while working at Copacetic Comics this week. Steve Ditko’s original Shade the Changing Man series (1970s), and Peter Milligan’s wild reworking of the Shade stories (1990s) seemed to be lurking around, wondering what these GIRLS were going to do with the material. I was curious too (I spent a fair amount of time this past summer just staring in awe at some of those Brendan McCarthy covers of Milligan’s Shade). Shade the Changing Girl comes from creative team Cecil Castellucci (writer), Marley Zarcone (pencils), and Kelly Fitzpatrick (color), and at a glance, it certainly has the right look. The story ties easily into earlier Shade while quickly forging it’s own plot line: university dropout Loma (a big fan of lunatic poet Roc Shade) steals the “madness coat” from a museum on the planet Meta, and zips to Earth where she takes up residence in the body of a dying teenage girl. It doesn’t take Loma long to realize that dealing with high school, the uncontrollable madness, and the folks on Meta who want the coat back will make life a lot more difficult than she anticipated. Cecil Castellucci (whom I know from her work on The Plain Janes – which Jim Rugg did the artwork for) so far seems to be rocking this, and I’m pretty excited to see where the story goes. Here’s an interview with Castellucci from July that details her own excitement about the project. Issue #2 came out this week – I’ll be aiming to get my hands on it asap. ————————————————————————————————— The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund started the She Changed Comics project last year – it was a series they ran on their Tumblr during Women’s History Month. They successfully Kickstarted a book in the spring of 2016, and it has just been released. The book was another one that I managed to check out this week during my time at Copacetic Comics. Meant to be much more than just an overview of (the dreaded phrase) “women in comics”, the book claims to be “the definitive history of the women who changed free expression in comics, with profiles of more than 60 groundbreaking female professionals and interviews with the women who are changing today’s medium“. While a book that clocks in at 170 pages can hardly be called comprehensive, it did feel like a great who’s who of important names, drawing from the breadth of comics history and the mainstream, syndicated, and alt-comics scenes. Cartoonists, publishers, and editors all got a shout out – Edwina Dumm to Jackie Ormes to Marie Severine to Diane Noomin to Kate Beaton to Roz Chast to Fiona Staples to Francoise Mouly to Karen Berger. With two pages devoted to each person, the book is definitely a good resource and a nice thing to have on hand when some idiot wants to claim that women don’t make or read comics. Almost entirely written by women as well. My only complaint is that there weren’t enough pictures! Get a copy of the book HERE. ————————————————————————————————— One of the women who gets a mention in the book above is Lyn Chevli, the co-founder of Tits & Clits – the first comic book written, drawn, and published solely by women (beating the first Wimmen’s Comix to the newsstands by just a few weeks in July of 1972). Lyn recently died, at the age of 84, and Joyce Farmer (her Tits & Clits publishing partner) provided a remembrance of her on The Comics Journal – read it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Lynda Barry of course also makes the CBLDF’s list of women who changed comics, thoroughly, constantly, and wonderfully. She is featured in The Guardian this week, riffing on “comics, creativity, and Matt Groening”. Her career has zigzagged through the comics industry, beginning in the syndicated world with the strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek (which ran for 30 years), bumping into a novel or two along the way, and now exploding in both the classroom at the University of Wisconsin (where she was recently named as the UW-Madison’s first recipient of the Chazen Family Distinguished Chair in Art) and a lively lecture circuit, where she preaches the gospel of creativity. Read the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— You can see some pages from Julia Gfrörer‘s new book Laid Waste (Fantagraphics, November 2016) over on Flood Magazine, part of an interview with Julia that digs into her interest in the Middle Ages and the origins of this particular dark story. Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Kevin Czap was awarded the CXC 2016 Emerging Talent Award a few weeks ago during Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. In the words of Tom Spurgeon, who presented the award to an astonished Kevin, “…this goes to a cartoonist whom we feel has plenty of promise as a cartoonist and has shown themselves to be a solid and giving community member as well… We love everything we’ve ever learned about you, in terms of your comics community heart.” Alyssa Berg caught up with Kevin a week later and continued the conversation about CXC, comics, and community – and the type of energy a person consciously puts into their work. Their conversation is featured here on the site today. Catch Kevin and Czap Books at Comic Arts Brooklyn this weekend! ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Workbook Roller Derby League has shared the results of a recent “roller derby bout”. The group is constantly expanding, while dialing in a deeper team practice and refining the goals and projects that we’re about. Much more to come – meanwhile, check out some comics we’ve made recently. See the rest of this “derby bout” HERE. ————————————————————————————————— #sallyingraham #comics A video posted by Sally Ingraham (@sally_ingraham) on Nov 2, 2016 at 9:57pm PDT Have a fantastic weekend folks, and get up to some mischief. Don’t let November get to you yet – and don’t forget to turn your clocks back an hour on Sunday! – Sally (Rogue) Share this page: [...]

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