Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Juan Fernández

Posted on March 7, 2018March 13, 2018

Explore

08/07/2018

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

03/29/2018

Comics WorkbookMarch 28, 2018NewsHere’s Sam Ombiri on Sophie Goldstein’s House of Women! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: At times when I read comics I’m really invested in the scenario being presented, and I don’t really identify the characters well enough. I’m reading the story and I have to interrupt myself to study who is who. With House of Women by Sophie Goldstein, however, I was really struck by the characters’ various expressions, and the gestures the characters would make. I was impressed by how much information was conveyed through this, and in ways that aren’t that obvious. I was just reading and reading, invested in the scenario, but I found that I was experiencing who each character was in a different way. It wasn’t just their distinctive design – it had more to do with their facial expressions, and the moments that took place really stuck in my mind after reading because I could feel who the characters were. Before the characters could speak, I felt a deep understanding of who they were. Whenever characters would act a certain way, it would come as no surprise because just their facial expressions would communicate so much. This was more so for Sarai, Kizzy, Rhivka, and Aphra than for Mr. Dean or the aliens (above). And that makes sense. It’s the equivalent of shining a spotlight. For example, it’s not unlike Aphra to look so cross – she’s clearly a very level-headed person, so when she looks cross or worried, it’s for good reason. When Kizzy appreciates the smell of the blossoms or is really taken by children, it’s very expected. Rhivka, for good reason, is hard to pin down and her absence is really felt. She looks like someone who would be mysteriously absent while the other women are gathered. All the expressions a character has ever made has molded that character’s face, and their gestures dictate the shape of their body. I was really struck by this – maybe because the style the book is drawn in is seemingly trying to get in the way of the story. It seems like there are things that should be obscuring my understanding and such, but the story is so clearly laid out – even the word balloons tell me where to go as a reader. What’s alluded to is what’s being said, making a rhyme with the image and words. Maybe I’m also thinking about how straightforward the visual narration in The Oven was, whereas in House of Women Sophie Goldstein is more specific with how moments should unfold. The book is very aware of a reader reading the pages – each moment is paced very distinctly. If a scene is of the women walking up a hill (above), the page is drawn in such a way that you feel it, you feel the moment passing slowly. It’s a case of using the comics medium to its full extent. This is perhaps like it’s filmic counterpart, Black Narcissus. I was anticipating a retelling of Black Narcissus because of how much Sophie emphasized it as a major influence – though truth be told, to me it was very far from that. I see maybe, for lack of a better term, iconography from Black Narcissus (like the title itself for example), and certain moments from Black Narcissus playing out in the book, but it simultaneously feels independent of the movie and any comparison to it would be inappropriate. What happened to Rhivka is perhaps comparable to Sister Ruth in Black Narcissus, but Rhivka is more aware of what’s happening to her. There is also this Cronenberg-esque mutation that one of the alien natives has gone through. This was actually a fantastic point in the book. The alien’s mutation was amazing. I really liked the design of the aliens in the book. All the drawings in this book are enjoyable both to look at, and to read – from the way the story is told through the panels, to the way the sounds the characters are hearing is communicated, and the words the characters say to each other. All great. – Sam Ombiri Get a copy of House of Women by Sophie Goldstein HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers 8 weeks! $500 bux! 10 spots available! Rolling start date because of spring break – start as early as March 30th 2018. Deadline to apply is April 12th. Read all about the course HERE and email santoroschool@gmail.com for more details or to apply. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-29-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Art Trip: At the Magic House

MardouAugust 25, 2016Art Trip / EssaysThe notion of a Children’s Museum just didn’t exist in the 1980s when I was a child and let’s face it, it’s a complete misnomer. There’s nothing “museum-like” about St Louis’s Magic House, enjoyable as it is (for children). When I was a kid, the Museum meant the Manchester Museum, with impressive items pillaged from the British Empire and it’s protectorates during the Victorian Era. The Manchester Museum still has that same collection of Ancient Egyptian artifacts and I remember them perfectly, on school trips pressed up against the glass, staring at partially unwrapped mummies with horrified fascination. One of the mummies was a male with a 2000 year bandaged up penis. You just don’t forget seeing that as a child. Very unlike the Children’s “museums” of today, which are more or less interactive play palaces. That’s not a criticism, it’s fine, my kid had a great time. But unlike the Milwaukee Public Museum, where we took a family trip earlier this summer, I’m assuming she won’t remember much about the Magic House, except that she had fun. Nothing was learned, it’s an “in the moment” experience only. But this cool tamarind monkey with its little hairdo at the Milwaukee Public Museum might be remembered for a lot longer. It already has legendary status in our family unit. (Note: Milwaukee Public Museum is perhaps the best museum I have ever been to. It’s like stepping into a lurid 1970s text book. Everyone should go there.) In Milwaukee I didn’t get to draw anything, as my participation in looking at stuff was required. At the Magic House you just sit around and wait for your kid to be done playing. Which works out great if you take a sketchbook. Maybe these pages will serve as a memory book for my child, now that summer is all but over. ————————————————————————————————— Art Trip is a series that features reflections on art and comics, and the adventures that transform those who seek it out. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou is a Brit making comics in St Louis, Missouri. Sky in Stereo is her most recent comic. Share this page: [...]

10/11/2018

Caleb OrecchioOctober 11, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with some comics I bought from The Billy Ireland’s overflow collection. ————————————————————————————————— This year at CXC, The Billy Ireland Museum was selling comics, magazines, fanzines and books from their collection. These were items that they had multiples of and needed to purge to make space. It was a treasure trove. I passed up a lot of good stuff, but am incredibly happy with the few things I did pick up. I basically picked up trash. I love comics trash. Comics trash is beautiful. Shopping for comics with Frank Santoro and Jim Rugg really made me appreciate this facet of comics. “You’ll never see this again,” they always say when they come across some forgotten comic that was self-published in West Virginia in 1986. One of my favorite aspects of comics is finding this wonderful garbage and then showing it to everyone who is willing to look. I passed around these books like a crazy person with a shopping cart passing out occult books and warning people to not join the boy scouts because they will use you (some people react to these comics in the same way one would react to a crazy person). Others are fellow admirers. When I showed showed some of these comics to Nate McDonough, he picked up this gospel and spread it around to more people. I flipped one of the comics, a William Black comic, I got and sold it to Chris Pitzer, a fellow admirer. “Are you sure you want to sell it?” he asked. Yes! Finding and subsequently showing this stuff around is the best part of the process! Below are the comics I bought, minus Tara of the Lost Continent which I flipped to Chris. Obviously not everything is “trash.” I found a Chinese comic and a Jewish comic about the power of prayer. I use the term “trash” to refer to comics that people don’t want or care about for whatever reason. There is also an issue of The Comics Journal herein which is obviously far from trash. Maybe a better word to use is weird? You decide! ————————————————————————————————— The Lair of Madness No. 1 by various artists (Ellen Balliet, S. Geary, L. Ogan, Dale and Jim Pinkoski, 1972 (D.B. Features) ————————————————————————————————— *someone will have to help me out with the info on this one. I can’t read Chinese ————————————————————————————————— Mendy and the Golem vol. 2 no. 1 written by Leibel Estrin and drawn by Dovid Sears. Colored by Barry Grossman. 1982 (Mendy Enterprises) ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Journal no. 120 edited by Gary Groth, 1988 (Fantagraphics) ————————————————————————————————— Photo by Chris Pitzer featuring Kurt Ankeny and a dumpster diver. See you on Monday folks! I promise I will have the review of Andrew White’s Yearly 2018 I have been hinting at then. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

04/18/2018

Juan FernándezApril 18, 2018los Cómics / NewsBRÍGIDA, Quique Alcatena, Elisa McCausland + TEBEOSFERA, y Alexis Ziritt! —————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ en Español y “sometimes in English” ~ Este viernes, 20 de abril, a las 19 hrs. en PLOP Galeria se lanza BRÍGIDA, revista de historietas hechas por mujeres de Sol Díaz, Marcela Trujillo, Isabel Molina , Catalina Mendoza, Karina Cocq, Paloma Valdivia, Katherine Supnem, Pati Aguilera y Sol Undurraga entre otras! Quieren saber más? Sol Díaz charlo con Belén Roca Urrutia de el Desconcierto sobre el nacimiento y el crecimiento de BRÍGIDA. ¿Cómo se crea el proyecto “BRÍGIDA”? Es una inquietud que compartimos, desde hace un tiempo, con el equipo editorial de la revista. Nos hemos dado cuenta, en el día a día como ilustradoras, que el dibujo es un medio muy mirado en menos por el resto de las expresiones artísticas. Hay dos prejuicios muy arraigados en la gente, que impiden que se acerquen, siquiera, a conocer más sobre lo que está pasando: el primero, que “los monos” son cosa de niños. La ilustración, por el contrario, no puede ser más transversal. En estos días no es tanto, pero siempre al dibujo se le da esta connotación infantil; el segundo tiene que ver con las historietas y los superhéroes. Siempre con historias fantásticas, siempre con la mina tetona… estilos de dibujo y narraciones que, personalmente, no me llaman la atención. Muy masculinizado todo. Con “Brígida” queremos desmontar estos prejuicios y mostrar que hay harto trabajo, hecho por mujeres, cada una con su propio rollo. El primer número incluye el trabajo de Margarita Valdés, Magdalena Armstrong, Camila Barrales, Catalina Bustos, Karina Cocq, Otto, Sofía Flores, Amanda Mijangos, Florencia Olivos, Paloma Valdivia, Sol Undurraga, Katherine Supnem y Arolas Uribe,además de las colaboraciones de las cuatro editoras: Isabel Molina, Pati Aguilera, Marcela Trujillo y yo. Léanlo todo AQUI! —————————————— LA IMAGINACIÓN AL PODER. ENTREVISTA CON QUIQUE ALCATENA Hoy les invito léer la segunda parte de la entrevista al Quique Alcatena en Revista Kamandi. Hablaron en profundidad de su paso por la industria estadounidense, su desencanto con la maquinaria norteamericana, sus colaboraciones con los guionistas y sus proyectos actuales… Léanlo todo AQUI. —————————————— Les presento n° 6 de la revista TEBEOSFERA , con un dossier monográfico coordinado por Elisa McCausland sobre del tema “CÓMIC Y FEMINISMO”. Es un a coleccíon maravillosa de ensayos! Léanlo todo AQUI. Last but not least, exciting things are happening in the world of Alexis Ziritt… Check out this update from his Artist Shop! (It’s”all over” the place 😉 ) —————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-18-2018 – by Sally Ingraham – – – – – – – Joanie and Jordie – 4-18-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

03/07/2018

Posted on March 7, 2018March 13, 2018 by Juan Fernández

Juan with some thoughts on examining what it means to write when making comics!

—————————————————————————————————

The other night, over dinner here in Pittsburgh, Jenn Lisa and I were talking about making autobio comics and she asked “Are comics mostly writing? Only?”. It made me stop in my tracks.

That’s a good question.

To me, comics are more writing than they are drawing. That writing process though, is one that far different from this common notion:

And the drawing? In comics, the drawing is really just about the recording of images. To clarify, the writing – tt’s how those recorded images are arranged and presented.

I just heard someone say that the dirty secret of comics is that it is mostly writing and if you haven’t done good writing all you made was a pretty picture.

And everything in me wants to dispute that.

It isn’t that cut and dry to me. – Jenn Lisa

I agree and disagree. Yes, the dirty secret is that comics is mostly writing. That is true. I firmly believe that.

But the only people that I ever hear touting that idea usually have a very narrow definition of writing.

So how does that affect you as a comics maker? Well, indulge me in a tangent. This one is for all you folks that hate the planning and foresight that you see kill joy and beauty in many comics makers practices. It’s an idea you might already be familiar with, but I just want to sing the song more fully into the ether.

We don’t hone in on meaning by having a creative process that follows a straight line, the reality is that most of us spiral in on that meaning, by diligent work. But what if you don’t know what you’re trying to say? That’s ok. You can still make comics without knowing what you’re trying to say, so long as you know that you’re trying to say something. Your comics will still have an impact, even if you’re not communicating exactly what you intend.

How do you get to that meaning? There’s this thing that happens, in comics making, and art in general that I’d like to talk about. What is the nature of the back and forth between the work a reader does and the work a writer does? Writer here being the operative name for the person making the comic.

Sam Ombiri and I have talked about it at length during the Pittsburgh Comics Salons monthly meet ups.

If I take 14 random drawings from my pile of post it notes and arrange them across 4 pages, and I give it to you in a little booklet, your brain, the readers brain, stitches together a patter of cohesion. That pattern will vary connect disparate elements. Make order out of chaos.

They try to figure out a pattern. Why are these images together? The reader does all this work without trying. They can’t help it.

As a comics maker, that is a tool that we are using. A reader is naturally going to be interpreting what we assemble together. As a result, we can be playful, intuitive in what we draw and how we arrange what we draw. It will be stitched together by the reader. You don’t need to shove the connective tissue of narrative and symbolism down a reader’s throat. You don’t need to know everything you are trying to do.

That’s all pretty explored territory conceptually among many comics makers. The part where my conversations with Sam get interesting is when we talk about signal processing a little more in depth.

The signal interpreted by the listeners brain CAN be the same one that you are making. BUT, it can also not be that, while still being an interesting signal. The meaning you intend can be communicated, and you can work at figuring out how to effectively communicate that meaning so that they get what you intended them to get out of the written sequence. There’s a beautiful dance between signal and noise that we are working through when we create art for others to interpret.

1. Signal initiates in speaker’s brain. 5. Signal interpreted by listener’s brain. 2. Signal articulated by the speech organs. motor. neurons. ear. sensory. neurons. 3. Sound waves travel through the air. sensory. neurons. 4. Listener detects the sound waves. feedback loop. ear. Linguistics 450/550: Introduction to Phonetics Slides by Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of Washington.

But no matter what, their brain is going to interpret a signal. The realization was a breakthrough.

You can choose how intentional you are about the signal you are transmitting.

With that knowledge, you can allow the process of drawing and writing and editing to flow more intuitively. Allowing yourself. You can choose to simply be a radio antenna with your drawings on the page, and how you arrange those drawings on the page in ways that feel intuitively, “right” or “good” to you – your comic will beam a signal to the brain of the other through the reading experience, whether you are aware of that signal or not.

This is a model of aural communication, just swap out aural for visual 😉

Don’t be afraid to allow the process to be a Rorshach test of your subconscious. You can see what comes out in your drawing, your arranging. Allow for the accidents! Keep moving. Keep making marks, keep tracing, keep moving your index cards. You don’t have to know what you’re looking for, you just need to know that you’re looking. The paper trail you leave in your search for truth in your comics, that’s your writing.

All that said, in a more grounded sense, the process of editing, that traditional refining that we do as cartoonists, that’s where writing is also happening. Every step of the way, where you change, add or subtract meaning, that’s writing. Color blocking is writing. How you scoot images, how you erase, what you add after initial drawings and after you let work sit for a little while, that’s all writing.

The intentional arrangement of anything, to be parsed and understood a certain way, that’s writing.

So yes, comics are mostly/only writing. But not in the way you think they are.

* It’s funny to me that the “writing” in panels and across pages in comics found as lettering is fundamentally drawing. That’s a point Kevin Huizenga drives home to his students. More on that, another day.

—————————————————————————————————

Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana:
~ en Español y in English ~

En el último #FanzineMagazine Paloma García Zúñiga habla de “Necrópolis del Este” y el gran MAX les cuenta su música para dibujar con Victor Coyote y Mireia Pérez. Escúchalo aquí.
Having trouble with anxiety attacks? Well fret no more! Kat Fajardo offers up an illustrated guide on remedies and why it works. Check out this Pay-What-You-Wish publication and consider sending it to a loved one!
Esteban Hernández charla en Cafe con Vistas sobre tebeos y su Moneda músical.
Podrá ser miercoles, sí, pero también hay nuevo número de Revista Cactus. Lo puedes leer ya enterito y gratis, aquí: http://bit.ly/2Fbz6CW
Inés Estrada gives you the low down on How to Avoid Boredom over on vice.com

—————————————————————————————————

Suzy and Cecil – 3-7-2018 – by Sally Ingraham

Share this page:

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, News

Juan Fernández

Posted on March 7, 2018March 13, 2018

Explore

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: [...]

CWCC 2017 Final Results

Sally IngrahamSeptember 11, 2017Santoro SchoolComics Workbook Composition Competition 2017 Winners Congratulations to all who created and submitted work for this contest. We really enjoyed reading each and every work. ———————————————————– FIRST PLACE – Weeklong Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency ($500 value) Sienna Cittadino – Girl’s Bathroom ——————————————————— SECOND PLACE – $250 gift certificate at Copacetic Comics Chris Kohler – Living Room ——————————————————– THIRD PLACE – $100 gift certificate at Copacetic Comics Sara Sarmiento – Deep Clean ——————————————————- HONORABLE MENTIONS – $50 gift (each) at Big Planet Comics Jillian Fleck – Push Thru Louis Deux – Touristing Simon Reinhardt – Slow Theft Foxitalic – Hangover Haiku ———————————— It is our hope that all of the makers who participated in this contest have been TRANSFORMED in some way – artistically, personally, spiritually, and/or physically (improved eye-hand coordination? yes!) – by the time and energy dedicated to the creation of their submissions. Everyone who took part in this exercise has completed a hero’s journey. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJwPIiUPfK4 —————————————————————————— The restrictions placed upon the contest entries were derived from The Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers. It is my firmly held belief that restrictions such as the grid are ultimately freeing. I also believe that timing is the essential ingredient to making great comics. How do you study and practice timing in comics? You use the grid. Yadda yadda yadda. **Last year a deceptively small and simple grid inspired over a hundred artists to make comics for the contest. This year we returned to the traditional 6-panel grid, and far fewer creators rose to the challenge (I think because of the larger size, ultimately). The test here really became about the timing. The zigzag of the six panel grid is very different than the scrolling of the three panel grid. A good sense of timing is the essential ingredient which leads to stronger storytelling and the six panel grid is very particular. Also, the size that we recommended this year is what the pros used at Marvel and DC for over 25 years. “Print size layouts” and “twice up” originals. (It’s not quite “twice up” but that’s what it used too be called.) The 10 x 15 inch live area is much more work than last year’s smaller manga sized originals. So, something to think about: SCALE. And how scale changes how you make comics. The judging panel consisted of two men and three women from diverse backgrounds. Some were comics makers, some were comics readers and one was a “non-comics reader” – meaning this particular judge was not a comics initiate. Please see this post for information regarding this fall’s correspondence course. Thanks. – Frank Santoro Thank you to Copacetic Comics, Big Planet Comics and the judges for contributing their efforts and financial support to make this contest possible. And of course THANK YOU to everyone who participated. Please check out all of the entries below. A Period Of Transition by Phillip Dokes Allen by Doctopmaru (disqualified) Are You Ready by G.R. Lear Awash by John Hexer Bloodsuckers Love Me by Jackie Kirby Canto V by Amanda Hamilton Columbus is Going to be Awesome by John Cihon Deep Clean by Sara Sarmiento Eksistensens Jeger by Addley Walker Force Fields by Paul Frog Legs by MK Girl’s Bathroom by Sienna Cittadino Good Boy City by Jonathan Tune Hangover Haiku by Foxitalic Here Comes Racecar by Alexander Moser Here’s the Light by Tor Brandt Left Over Soup by The Formal Kid Living Room by Chris Kohler Look See by Kevin Zych Meaning by Mariana Yatsuda Ikuta Morbid Orbit by Alice Blank Mother by Evan M. Cohen (disqualified) Muse by Brandon Alexander Berry Noffi by Niall Breen Origen by Josh Bowron Overtimers by TimersTimers and K-Un Ping Pang by James Abbit Push Thru by Jillian Fleck Reaching Toward Open Sky by LM Bolger Sandbag Spectator by Jacob Breck (disqualified) Sea Saga by James Coats Shop Class by Donald Price Slow Theft by Simon Reinhardt Soft Swords by Sam Meister Sweet Marla by Alex Williams Ta Ka Ra Zu Ka by Antoine Medes Teaching English in Taiwan by Iris Yan Tech Sector Baseball by Moose The Room by Louise Aleksiejew To the Mountain, On Your Own, At Night by Tanya Guryel Tone Deaf by R.D. Addams Touristing by Louis Deux Two Girls and A Caricature by Ari S. Mulch When I Grow Up by James Wilson List of entries from 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 Share this page: [...]

Anthologies

Comics WorkbookMay 1, 2017EssaysRM Rhodes – curator of the Heavy Metal Magazine tumblr – brings some thoughts on the history of anthologies. ————————————————————————————————— Anthologies and episodic publishing arrived in Western Europe at more or less the same time, which makes sense. When you have four partial stories, it’s easier to bundle them together in a common publication and tell customers that the next installments will be available in a week or a month. And it’s less risky to convince a reader that has already bought the first part of a story to buy the next part than it is to convince a reader to buy a story they’ve never seen. My point is that the anthology has been around for ages. It’s a very old, very versatile, very robust format. And that’s what makes the format interesting. First, let’s talk terms. An anthology is a collection of short works. In this context, the works are comics, sequential art, visual narrative, comics-adjacent storytelling, informatics and some other lumpy labels for stuff that tells a story with pictures. The meaning of “short” varies greatly. Half and full page stories are common. As are stories that last dozens of pages. Notice that there’s no requirement about whether the stories have to be complete. Nor is there one about whether the anthology is standalone. It is very common for anthologies to be released periodically over a pre-advertised schedule (usually weekly or monthly or some multiple thereof). And is also common for stories to be told episodically over the course of multiple sequential installments. An anthology that met that criteria would then be an episodic periodical. But that term also fits the description of most magazines and publications – many of which are, in their own way, anthologies. If nothing else, precision of terminology will keep you from getting ripped off. This highlights one of the most intriguing aspects of the anthology format – the flexibility. Everyone and his brother has put together an anthology, but there is always the comfort in knowing that anyone can put one together. It’s an easy choice for what to do with random bits and bobs that don’t fit anywhere else. It’s also a great way to spread the risk inherent in publication around a bit. The more people in an anthology, the more people have a vested interest in its success. There are a huge number of decisions available to make: page size, page count, color vs b&w, binding, theme, creators, compensation, funding, printing, advertising, distribution. There is never a good reason to make an anthology, but every comics creator should try to organize one at least once in their life – it’s a very practical lesson in logistics, organization, motivation, and frustration. The student of the anthology has a lot of examples to look to for inspiration. Through the 1920s, there was a series of art journals and publications put out by various art groups in Europe: de Stilj, Dada, Cannibale, Le Couer, Cabaret Voltaire. Due to modern advances in printing technology, it is easier to self-publish zines with better production values. But it’s also interesting to note that the impulse to run an amateur publication of random stuff is perfectly normal. There’s a certain amount of debate regarding how and when the cartooning tradition in Western Europe became the comics tradition of Western Europe. Some point to the broadsheets of the 17 century that introduced the twin concepts of anthologies and episodic storytelling as a precursor to modern sequential art. But it’s more likely that comics as we know them grew up during the 19th Century. And anthologies were an important part of that maturation. The default format for professional episodic periodicals in American comics has been monthly comics of a set page length that may or may not have additional stories. Professional Franco-Belgian comics have been dominated by the weekly anthology format, featuring strips of half or full page in length. These were later collected into albums of 48 pages in length – which is how most English speakers have encountered this material. (If you’re wondering what was probably collected like this, flip through any album and look for a horizontal white gutter cutting straight across the book at the half-page mark.) Probably the most famous anthology from this tradition in the English speaking market is Heavy Metal. It started as a monthly anthology that contained a mix of episodic and stand-alone stories. It sort of still does most of that. In the mid-80s, Heavy Metal shifted format and centered their publication around a single complete story with a variety of shorter stories as supplements. This influenced later anthologies and we can see that Island, for example, followed the same general model. It is convenient to be able to read the more well-known stories in a mass market edition. However, it is also valuable to observe the original print runs of anthologies where- and when-ever possible. Reading material in the context that it was originally presented to the market in is very valuable. First and foremost, examining primary sources acknowledges the effort that was put into the anthology in the first place. Additionally, it highlights the kinds of commercial advertisements from the period printed next to the original material. Sometimes the juxtaposition is startling. It also provides a sense of the flow of the reader through the book. Arguably, the order that the stories are presented in is important because it shapes the mood of the reader from cover to cover. Knowing that a story beat in a completely different story occurred directly before this story may have changed how this one was perceived. Reading an issue of an anthology is like eating a club sandwich. There are a lot of different distinguishable flavors, but the combination is distinct. And that’s the whole point of producing an anthology. ————————————————————————————————— RM Rhodes lives and works in Washington, D.C. His current project is a weekly online anthology called The Rumor published on the Comics Workbook tumblr – see issues of it HERE. Check out more of his comics at Louis Deux. Share this page: [...]

07/19/2016

Aaron CockleJuly 18, 2016NewsAaron Cockle here today with May Flowers in July; The Return of the Nib; Veterans Comics; Theaster Gates; Copier Art; Marie Jacotey; On Essaying; Rowhouse Auction ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright Comics CW’s Featured Comic this week, May Flowers, comes from Shannon Wright. ————————————————————————————————— The Nib is Back The political cartoon, comics journalism, humor and non-fiction website is back with expanded media coverage. The Nib will be covering the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this week, with correspondence work from Rob Rogers and Sophie Yanow, among others. ————————————————————————————————— When I Returned The White River Junction VA Medical Center and The Center for Cartoon Studies collaborated on a project that helped military veterans process their experiences through comics. This work came about through the involvement of James Sturm, cartoonist and co-founder of CCS, and chaplain and cartoonist Kurt F. Shaffert, both who have worked with veterans in the past. During his time at the VA, Sturm discovered that comics are a powerful medium for working with post-traumatic stress disorder, in particular. “PTSD is the inability to integrate past and present, which has a devastating effect on the future,” Sturm said. But comics help people literally visualize time, so they can help veterans break down complex histories into manageable chunks. “Each panel is a discrete unit of time,” he elaborates. “And when you put 8, 9, 10 panels on a page, you’re integrating the past, present, and future into a … whole.” Comics, Shaffert believes, are the language we need when we talk about war experiences because they’re physical and visual and funny and tragic and profound all at the same time. “Extraordinary experiences require extraordinary language,” he said. “Anybody who’s experienced PTSD has experienced things that are outside of everyday experience. … In order to be able to process events that are traumatic, you need to find … a form of communication that deals with the immature, the impolite, the gross, the grotesque, the obnoxious, the obscene.” Page above by Jeff Lok. A PDF of the book can be downloaded here. ————————————————————————————————— How to Build a House Museum Art Gallery of Toronto opens a show this week of installation work by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates. The show is described as: an immersive exhibition exploring the potential of the house museum—historically important landmarks that have been transformed into legacy sites. Gates proposes new ways of honouring and remembering Black experience and explores the potential of these spaces through music, dance, video, sculpture and painting. Organized as a world of symbolic structures and their associated objects, the exhibition is dedicated to Black luminaries including George Black, Frankie Knuckles and Muddy Waters. How to Build a House Museum invites visitors to tour the house museum in its many possible forms: as an architectural monument, historical representation, or site of freedom. ————————————————————————————————— Pati Hill: Photocopier An exhibition of Pati Hill’s copier work was on view at Arcadia University Art Gallery this past April. Meredith Sellers at Hyperallergic reviewed it: Stepping into the gallery, I gazed at the show, curated by Richard Torchia, as it presented grids, lines, and vitrines bursting full of Pati Hill’s delicate, remarkable images, all made on the rather unremarkable IBM Copier II. My cynicism was obliterated. I felt a stunning empathy for these images of daily life, laid bare on the cold, smooth glass of a hulking electronic machine, contextualized by snippets of writing that dipped in and out of memory, metaphor, wit, and the kinds of fleeting thoughts one thinks but never utters aloud. ————————————————————————————————— Obviously I really like fashion and depicting clothing High fashion and cartooning are rarely spoken of in the same breath, but Marie Jacotey recently collaborated with McQ Alexander McQueen for a new line of handbags by drawing some promotional comics. ————————————————————————————————— I like to think of the essay as an art form that tracks the evolution of consciousness as it rolls over the folds of a new idea, memory, or emotion. Essayist John D’Agata has edited a new anthology of work, The Making of the American Essay, the third and final of his “A New History of the Essay” series published by Graywolf Press. Susan Steinberg interviewed D’Agata about the work, the differences between essay and non-fiction writing, and the concepts of ‘genre’, ‘fact’, and ‘truth’ at Electric Literature: Steinberg: If memory is unreliable, perspective is subjective, and emotion is unfixed, then what is the function and/or responsibility of “fact” in essays? I ask because I’m curious about your relationship to fact, but I’m also curious about your thoughts on readers’ fixations on the notion of truth. If a misconception about essay writers is that they’re truth-tellers, then do they often run the risk of disappointing the reader? How can essay writers confront or undo what seems to be an impossible-to-fulfill expectation? D’Agata: Facts are akin to images, for me. That probably strikes some as a perverse statement, but I say it as someone who turns to essays for literary experiences only, and for that reason, when I’m reading I don’t need facts to do much more than resonate with the rest of the story that’s being told. But that’s not the case with every reader, of course. We’re all looking for different things and have different expectations when we read. Yet for that very reason we do a disservice to both the essay and its readership by suggesting that everything that falls beneath the umbrella of “nonfiction” ought to be written by the same rules and for the same audience. There are some nonfiction books that traffic primarily in facts, by which I mean that we value them for the facts and information that they introduce to us and the ways in which they organize them. And those books are great. I’m a rabid reader of history and science, for instance, and I turn to those genres because I want the information that their dustjackets proffer: A Story about X and How It Changed the World. And while I appreciate those books being well written and am always down for great storytelling, I’m not necessarily expecting that from those books or looking for that when I read them. When I read a memoir, on the other hand, I’m hoping to bear witness to an exhilaratingly expressive voice and am therefore expecting a completely different literary experience. I don’t care about the facts in that case; I care about the story. ————————————————————————————————— Rowhouse Auction for July 17-24 New private auction items up at auction.comicsworkbook.com. Email Frank Santoro at santoroschoolATgmail for a password, if you don’t already have one. If you already have a password, it is the same from last week. All funds go to helping keep the lights on and further developing the school. Share this page: [...]

Comics As Music – Frank Santoro

Sally IngrahamNovember 12, 2016ClassesPIX April 2nd 2016 Filmed by Michael Pisano – Edited by Michael Pisano and Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply