Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged Ana Galvañ, forges, Joe Hamilton, Klari Moreno, PULLPROOF Studio, Ramon Esoño, Ramón Esono Ebalé, revista cactus

Juan Fernández

Posted on March 14, 2018March 14, 2018

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01/28/2016

Juan FernándezJanuary 28, 2016NewsHello world, Gotta start off with the big Rowhouse Residency news coming from Frank: That’s right. It’s official. We’ve got keys in hand, and Truth Zone’s in the mail. If you’ve been sleeping on getting your copy of the official limited edition bootleg. Now’s the time. They’re headed out of Comics Workbook HQ, why not have one head your way? Don’t sleep on it, seriously. !!buy thee Complete Truth Zone by Simon Hanselmann!! The second half of Jillian Tamaki‘s latest entry in the Early Stories series has just been publishied on Hazlitt Magazine. Woof! Sit on down and give it a read. Part 1/2 Part 2/2. John Seven reviews Jane Mai‘s latest outing, See You Next Tuesday on the Beat. See what all the hubbub is about for yourself! It’s the intimacy of what Mai covers that makes her work so accessible. A lot of the details are Mai-specific, but she is so giving with those details that a reader is able to think of their own versions, if there’s nothing exactly identical going on. So you may not cry on the toilet like Mai, but you may have some other secret ritual that belongs to you, exhibiting for your own disapproval a fleeting glimpse of your inescapable sadness. Sean Howe just uploaded some raw footage of a thirty-minute video interview with Stan Lee from the mid-1970s over on Youtube. It’s curious to see the Stan act turn on and turn off here and there during this interview. For the history buffs. Julie Delporte, Julie Doucet and Lynn Johnston weigh in on the debacle that is the Grand Prix D’Angoulême at the CBC, Canada’s national public radio broadcaster. Check out the whole article here. Julie Delporte: “Everything in history has been shaped by men,” she says. “If everything is chosen by men, and read by men, of course men’s works will be more appreciated.” Delporte sees inequality in Canada’s comic scene, too. She points to a recent study that shows female visual artists in Canada earn 35 per cent less income than their male counterparts (the overall income gap between men and women, according to the study, is 31 per cent). She also senses resistance within the upper echelons of the comic world. —————————————— We’d be remiss if we didn’t pass on John P.’s news: It’s official Membership cards for the King-Cat Fan Club are at the printers! You can sign up to support John Porcellino by contributing to his new Patreon site if you’re interested. Proceeds go towards helping John make more comics, run the Spit and a Half distro, and save for retirement! Why not support one of the patron saints of the american small press. www.patreon.com/johnporcellino Lastly, non-fiction cartoonists Josh Kramer and Em Demarco as starting a monthly round up of non-fiction comics. The CoJo List. If this sounds like something you want to submit work to, submit links to or stay up to date with, you ought to sign up for the newsletter. Em: The CoJo List is a roundup of recent nonfiction comics, including Comics Journalism (CoJo). They’re all journalism, documentary, or otherwise true. Not so much memoir — but exceptions are encouraged. From seasoned professionals to enthusiastic amateurs, here’s the best our fledgling genre has to offer. Josh: We’re on the lookout for the best true comics stories to tell people about, and we need your help! Email us at thecojolist@gmail.com with your suggestions. We especially encourage submissions by and about women, people of color, and LGBTQ folks. -jf Share this page: [...]

10/27/2017

Sally IngrahamOctober 27, 2017NewsSally here with new work from Chris Anthony Diaz, insights from Lauren Weinstein, and inspiration from Tove Jansson – plus much more! ————————————————————————————————— Today on the site Chris Anthony Diaz shares his latest photo archive, featuring Noah Van Sciver and Joseph Remnant’s recent signing at Secret Headquarters. There are lots of terrific photographs of the guys from comics’ best documentarian, but I especially like this photo of Vanessa Davis (above). Check out the rest of the pictures HERE. We are looking forward to catching up with Chris at CAB in a few weeks, where he is looking forward to photographing cartoonists in the new location at Pratt. See you there! ————————————————————————————————— Lauren Weinstein on the Village Voice with the latest Normal Person… ————————————————————————————————— There is an article on the Evening Standard about Tove Jansson‘s Moomin comic strip, and how it came about. As her novels gained international popularity, Charles Sutton (syndication director of Associated Newspapers) flew to Finland and talked her into doing a strip for the London Evening News. This was in 1952, but two years of discussion and planning followed before the first Moomin comic came out in September of 1954. (Food for thought, for those of us who may present a strip for syndication and find the first idea turned down – and we are no Tove Janssons…!) According to comics historian Paul Gravett, she was actually taught how to layout and design her strips, using “contemporary” word balloons as part of the art, instead of relying on accompanying text blocks. She agreed to do the strip because it offered her a steady paycheck which would in turn give her more time to devote to painting, in theory. Of course the strip was immensely time consuming in the end, and we can only imagine what paintings she might have made had she NOT been drawing it… Lots more interesting details in the article, supplied by Paul Gravett, so read it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Assorted Awesome Athena Naylor has taken over the Our Comics, Ourselves blog for a bit and is writing artist spotlights on a number of rad female cartoonists – check out her thoughts on Carolyn Nowak, Meredith Gran, Kate Beaton, and Sarah Glidden. Kelly Sue DeConnick claps back at folks who find her comics either triggering, or too political. Syfy Wire has the goods. Now please excuse me while I go read Bitch Planet: Triple Feature #5. The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco is kicking off their reopening with a retrospective of Raina Telgemeier‘s work. The Nib is running it’s first comics serial – Reported Missing by Eleri Harris. It’s a “true crime” story, and I will admit to being sucked in so far. I believe it’s up to 4 parts so far – catch up! The Comics Beat has a lengthy preview of Hazel Newlevant‘s new comic, No Ivy League, coming out in 2018 from Lion Forge (where Hazel was recently hired as an editor, by the way). Leslie Stein lets her mother interview her over on The Comics Journal! Jessica Campbell shares part of Georgia O’Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz’s story on Hyperallergic – HERE. Sophie Foster-Dimino made a zine about making Sex Fantasy – which you can check out on her Tumblr. Rookie Mag has an excerpt from Lynda Barry‘s The Good Times are Killing Me – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 10-27-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 10-27-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio —————————————————————————————————Cozytown -10-27-2017- by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

Chicago Alternative Comics Expo 2016

MardouJune 16, 2016Festivals and ShowsCAKE just happened in downtown Chicago. It’s such a fun show, currently in a great venue – the Center on Halstead. There’s a Whole Foods on the ground floor and come CAKE time it’s full of hungry cartoonists picking up lunch. It means you can momentarily pretend you live in this alternative reality comics town where you can casually run into Laura Park buying a hummus wrap, and then see Kevin Huizenga picking up a Dr Pepper on the way to the check out. It feels sort of right somehow. This year there seemed to be less of an East and West Coast showing, at least to my memory. It felt more like a regional show this time around – you know, quite Midwestern in its focus. It felt too, like a show that had really found it’s footing, being well organized with super friendly and helpful staff. Debuting work was highlighted this year as well as kid-friendly books. And it’s free to get in, like the best shows always are. CAKE for me is one of the best shows. There was a great list of exhibitors including, this year, Chester Brown, Trina Robbins (signing Fantagraphics’ The Complete Wimmens Comix), Sammy Harkham, Patrick Kyle, and Leslie Stein amongst tons more. I tabled with Revival House Press, alongside my husband, Ted May. It always feels like we’re running a mom and pop store together (I love it!) and it was a pretty good show for us. Sales were alright for us (most people found sales to be sort of so-so this year) and we followed ‘Frank Santoro’s Rules for Tabling‘ so we had a ‘Treasure Box’ or two of old minis for sale as well as our own books. That Treasure Box, filled with books from conventions passed, did very well for us and paid for parking a few times over (Chicago, your parking system is so territorial and extortionate. Living in St Louis is like being in an improbable movie scene, where you just drive up to a restaurant and park right outside it. For free at weekends and evening. Truth.) Well yeah. More about that Treasure Box. Some were duplicates. Some were loved books we’d enjoyed and were ready to set free in the world. And some were junk – AKA – other people’s treasure. You know, when I went to my first ever Comix shows, dressed up, nervous, in my twenties, I’d look at every table. I was genuinely curious to feel out the scene. Boy, could vendors see me coming. I got hit by every sales pitch and in my shyness would invariable buy the cheapest thing they were selling. I’d end up with lots of stuff, stuff not always not to my taste you know. Mostly I got fleeced! These days I’m more seasoned, experienced, inured against hard-sell sales pitches, or so I like to think. I know what my tastes are and I creep closer to a table only when my curiosity’s piqued. I know I’m missing out on some great stuff, surely, but I’m still sort of shy and still have a horror of hard sell sales-pitches. Look, comics shows are hard work! And expensive… WELP, I spent quite a bit at CAKE this year. But happy with my purchases am I. And it’s my birthday soon so what better gift to myself than a stack of summer reading, right? Just look at this booty. ————————————————————————————————— So, in the spirit of readership I worked up the confidence to flit around on Sunday afternoon and asked a few top notch cartoonists and exhibitors, just what books THEY were psyched to have picked up at the show. ————————————————————————————————— Starting with my table neighbor, the awesome Hazel Newlevant – Portland born, NYC based Hazel is the editor of Chain Mail Bikini and author of No Ivy League (which is so great!). Hazel, what was your most exciting pick this weekend? Hazel Newlevant – “Kevin Budnick’s Handbook and Kevin Huizenga’s Comic School USA zines.” ————————————————————————————————— Marta Chudolinska is an artist whose work was new to me. She specializes in beautiful hand-cut linocut comics. I’m so glad I discovered her work at this show. What are your top picks from the show Marta? Marta Chudolinska – “The Ley Lines Czap books.“ ————————————————————————————————— I asked Midwestern stalwart, Zak Sally, What’s your book of the show? Zak Sally – “Well I want to buy John Pham’s book. And King Cat 76 of course.” John Porcellino’s Spit and a Half Distro was tabled right next to Zak. John P, how is your show going? John P – “Thumbs up. Not as many sales as last year but last year was unusually good for some reason.” What’s your pick of the show? John P – “Zack Sally’s Folrath Part 1.” (Aw, fellas!) ————————————————————————————————— I asked Chris Cilla and Onsmith what their CAKE book picks were. Chris Cilla – “The new Zak Sally book and Tiger Baby by Nate Beaty.” Onsmith – “The new Chester Brown book. When I bought it from him, Chester asked me about my religious background so the book came with a short discussion about Lutheranism! ————————————————————————————————— Jen Tong was selling beautiful handmade prints and mini comics. I wanted them all! What are your best sellers this weekend, Jen? Jen Tong – “My new mushroom print. And the PlantLife mini. I wish I’d brought more of them to sell.” Can I ask who your visual influences are? I’m so in love with your prints. Tong – “Maybe…Miyazaki. And Henry Darger!” What’s your top pick from the weekend? Tong – “John Pham’s new book.” ————————————————————————————————— Anya Davidson was selling her new book Gloom Planet. I asked her about what she looks for aesthetically when shopping for books at shows. Anya Davidson – “Definitely a handmade versus a digital feel. If it’s raw and handmade looking, I’m going to stop and look at it. Narrative’s important too, as much as I love art comics.” What are you going to work on when you get home from the show? Davidson – “A new book for Retrofit called Lovers in the Garden.” And what’s been your hot purchase this weekend? Davidson – “Enter to Exit by George Porteus.” (Anya’s much anticipated book, Band For Life will be debuting at SPX this Fall!) ————————————————————————————————— Dan Stafford of Kilgore Books was present and experiencing a great weekend. Really? Most people have found sales to be middling this weekend. Dan Stafford – “No, sales have been great. But only maybe because I do so badly at other shows, ha ha.” What have been your bestsellers, Dan? Stafford – “Sam Spina’s Vulture City stories, Noah Van Sciver’s My Hot Date. And of course the Joe Matt Paid for It book.” What are your top personal purchases from the show? Stafford – Tess Eneli Reid’s A Estonian Story: Silver for Bread. A fold out origami book, totally unique.” ————————————————————————————————— Midwestern comics superstar Kevin Huizenga was selling his new Ganges 5 at CAKE. Hey Kevin H, what are your top CAKE picks? Kevin H – “Chester Brown’s new book. Ley Lines by Warren Craghead (Golden Smoke) and Aisha Franz’s Eyez.” ————————————————————————————————— Thanks to old friends and new acquaintances for taking to time to talk to me! And thanks to the CAKE organizers for putting such a great show together. Ted and I drove home under a beautiful Midwestern sunset, totally enthused to get back to our St Louis hub and make more comics. I love that inspiring energy and momentum a good comics show can boost you with. And CAKE 2016 was a really great show. I’ve got some comics to make and reading to do. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou is a Brit making comics in St Louis, Missouri. Sky in Stereo is her most recent comic. Share this page: [...]

02/07/2018

Juan FernándezFebruary 7, 2018los Cómics / NewsJuan empieza el día con La Matadragones de Jaime Hernandez, La llegada de la Brigada, y una gira desde Lone Mountain! ————————————————————————————————— The Dragon Slayer: Folktales from Latin America – Jaime Hernandez with an introduction by F. Isabel Campoy In case, you’ve missed it, Jaime Hernandez is bringing a fresh take on timeless stories in his new collection of folktales,The Dragon Slayer: Folktales from Latin America . In classic TOON Books fashion, there’s a quality bibliography and appendix for those eager readers looking to dig deeper into these stories. As a great treat, it’s being released in Spanish and English editions, both paperback and hardcover. Guided by the classic works of F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada, Hernandez’s first book for young readers brings the sights and stories of Latin America to a new generation of graphic novel fans around the world. Want to see how it all comes together? TOON Books has uploaded a nice selection of preview pages for you to dig into on their site. ————————————————————————————————— Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! “¡¡Último capítulo de la segunda temporada!! Y nos despedimos con una gran sorpresa; en abril publicaremos el primer número de nuestra revista de cómic hecho por mujeres, (¡al fin!) se llamará “Brígida” por Isabel Molina, Pati Aguilera, Marcela Trujillo(Maliki) y Sol Díaz.Les contamos de los detalles, las primeras colegas invitadas que nos acompañarán, las ideas para el futuro y mucho, mucho más. Además nos acompañan unos audios de un Patreon amigo, y un reporte de Panchulei desde Angoulême.” ————————————————————————————————— On a note of personal, North American interest: John Porcellino will be doing a small tour in support of his new D+Q book, From Lone Mountain (available March 20!). Please see below for dates. (Yes, Pittsburgh, lucky you, of course Porcellino will be stopping by Copacetic Comics.) Though I have some of the zines that this book brings together, I’m eagerly awaiting this collection of comics and stories by Porcellino. If anything, having this body of work together makes a nice package for non-comics readers to unravel into their lives. From Lone Mountain collects stories from Porcellino’s zine King-Cat—John enters a new phase of his life, as he remarries and decides to leave his beloved second home Colorado for San Francisco. Grand themes of King-Cat are visited and stated more eloquently than ever before: serendipity, memory, and the quest for meaning in the everyday. ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 02-07-18 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 02-07-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

09/05/2017

Aaron CockleSeptember 4, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Comics Carousel; Anders Nilsen’s new book; Josh Bayer returns to the New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium; Workshops at SPX ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— ‘But those books were both black and white. Color kind of forces your hand regarding borders.’ Paste Magazine has a nice piece about Anders Nilsen’s new book, Tongues, and the process that went into its making. “Panel design and structure matter a lot to me. I did a bit of teaching from 2012 to 2015 or so and one of the things I found myself focusing on with certain students was how panels work and what happens to storytelling when they change in various ways. Some cartoonists do great things with a simple grid. My two biggest comics influences, Hergé and Chester Brown, use very simple panel structures in their comics, and they were brilliant with it. But I can’t keep from playing around with panels. Partly it’s because I find measuring out rectangles very boring, but it’s also, I think, partly because I studied painting, and so I can’t help but think about the visual composition of a page as more than just a collection of rectangles. It was something I wanted to explore in this book from the outset and so this small sketch is my original idea for how to structure the panels in this opening dream sequence.” ————————————————————————————————— Josh Bayer, Adam McGovern and guests, Sept. 5, 2017 at 7pm The 190th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017 at 7pm at Parsons School of Design, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. Josh Bayer, Adam McGovern and guests on All Time Comics All Time Comics is a comic-book series that resists categorization. Part modern reworking of Bronze age comics superhero aesthetics, part a Mad Magazine-like Gonzo attempt to sidestep and weave that aesthetic back on itself. Published by Fantagraphcs, All Time Comics has created a space for a dialogue between older veteran creators like Herb Trimpe and Al Milgrom and younger Alternative Comics mainstays like Ben Marra and Noah Van Sciver. Join Josh Bayer in a lively discussion with comics writer/historian Adam McGovern. (Panel may include special guest artist/writers, schedules permitting). Josh Bayer is the author of Raw Power and Theth from Retrofit Comics, the editor of the Suspect Device Comics anthology series, as well as 2016’s The Black Hood. His work’s been selected for The Best American Comics series in 2016 and 2017. He is the founder of his own “Comics Are The Enemy Press” and he is currently releasing his All Time Comics imprint from Fantagraphics. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook Cartoon Workshops If you’re planning to be at the upcoming Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD, please consider attending one or all of the workshops the CW will be conducting: ————————————————————————————————— Frank Santoro made a comic book about his parents and now he needs help making a handbound copy of the book for each of them. It’s a good story. Check out the Indiegogo campaign HERE – or if you want to contribute via PayPal, look at the campaign HERE. ———————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 9-5-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-5-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ———————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 9-5-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

03/14/2018

Posted on March 14, 2018March 14, 2018 by Juan Fernández

Juan, on selling comics in Pittsburgh and “hypergeography” via the grid on tumblr y más!

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Inaugural Mini-market @ Pullproof

The weekend before last I sold and shared comics in Pittsburgh, PA during the Penn Avenue Unblurred gallery crawl. I set up shop at PULLPROOF Studio’s inaugural Mini-Market. All in all, it featured zines, prints, and jewelry by a crew of great local artists. It was really nice company. Among us were Jenna Houston, Lizzee Solomon, City Slicker Press, Max Emiliano Gonzales (GEMS), Jerome “Chu” Charles, Asia Lae, Lilian Kababa!

PULLPROOF Studio is an in-progress printmaking studio in Pittsburgh, PA. They intend to offer a fully equipped silkscreen printing facility with a shared workspace and small storefront gallery at 5112 Penn Avenue in the Garfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their mission is to provide affordable access to silkscreen printing equipment, space, and time to artists in the Western Pennsylvania area. It’s going to be nice to have them in addition to the Artists Image Resource on the North Side. It’s a cool project.

I did my best Frank Santoro/Bill Boichel impersonation and brought comics to the people. Frank loaned me a stash of Colombian comics from when he’d been invited to Entreviñetas in 2014. They sold well. It was nice to sell those and see them make their way into the hands of Pittsburghers.

I’ve been collecting and curating a wide array of zines and comics that express the vision of visual literacy that I’d like to see more of in the world. Among those collected comics, I also sell comics that I’ve helped produce, my own and those of the Pittsburgh Comics Salon. It’s a healthy mix.

I like to make it concretely clear to people, through in-person experience, that, yes, whatever you’re into, there’s a comic or zine you’re going to love. It’s nice to proselytize as a vendor, not just an educator or artist. Frank Santoro has been on this grind for ever, both because it is a better way to make money at show, opposed to selling solely what you make, and also because it’s more honest with one’s real experience with comics. You’re just as much a consumer as you are a producer. There’s a really organic back and forth, that this kind of tabling set up allows for.

A huge thank you to PULLPROOF, Christina Lee in specific, for inviting me and hosting this event. This is the kind of selling and sharing of comics and culture I want to see more of in Pittsburgh.

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Hyper Geography

Hyper Geography es un Tumblr creado por Joe Hamilton. Hay 100 posts tipo “loop” que se unen horizonatalmente y verticalmente. Hamilton esta usando Tumblr y las possibilidades del template como medio para crear su arte. Este proyecto es un buen ejemplo de cómo el navegador se convierte en el lienzo y la plataforma social la herramienta. Todo gracias a la cuadrícula.

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

El Duende y la Ilustración en Tres minutos…
En Revista Cactus, Klari Moreno entrevista a Ana Galvañ y luego lo plasma así de bonito:
Cartoonist Ramón Esono Ebalé finally released from jail in Equatorial Guinea.
Un estupendo artículo escrito por el dibujante Mauro Entrialgo sobre Forges. Un gran homenaje.
Texas Latino Comic Con returns!

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Suzy and Cecil – 03-14-2018 – by Gabriella Tito

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged Ana Galvañ, forges, Joe Hamilton, Klari Moreno, PULLPROOF Studio, Ramon Esoño, Ramón Esono Ebalé, revista cactus

Juan Fernández

Posted on March 14, 2018March 14, 2018

Explore

TCAF 2017 Recap – by Tyler Landry

Comics WorkbookMay 25, 2017Festivals and ShowsTyler Landry here: The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) is the only comics show I’ve ever attended, except for our local small-town con (held in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada) which I did for the very first time this year. There are a couple of reasons for this, and they all fall into the realm of “excuses”, but, that’s how my cookie crumbles. I have, however, been to TCAF every year since 2013, and have been told by con-hoppers of all stripes that it’s one of the best, if not THE best show of its type. To me, it’s always felt huge, diverse, and rewarding in a thousand ways – so I take those observations with considerable weight. I’ve met (and bought comics from) a huge majority of my favorite cartoonists, made loads of new comics friends, and tabled – both independently and with publishers. I always like to arrive in Toronto early on Friday, settle in, walk around the city, have an eat and/or a drink with friends – and get comfortable before the chaos on Saturday morning. Spent a veritable stack of cash on comics right away. Exciting new work from Anya Davidson, Ben Passmore, Connor Willumsen, and Sophie Yanow – to name only a few. This year I spent time tabling with two publishers – signing some of last year’s comics with Study Group (The Coward’s Hole, and Lonesome), and with Retrofit, signing copies of the collected Shit and Piss, which debuted this year at TCAF. It was cool to meet some people who follow my work, and to see others discover it for the first time. This is why I attend TCAF. To participate in a significant way in the comics community, as a cartoonist, an enthusiast, and more recently as a (new) community leader and educator. With that in mind, in addition to signing, I did something sorta new – I ran a Comics Workbook workshop on composing a comic spread. The workshop made use of a standardized 6-panel grid, a quick idea gathering on story cards, and heavy panel-by-panel editing with a printed spread in mind. It was geared towards beginners, but the process we explored is the basis for how I make comics, and can be useful to anyone telling stories in a visual medium. Some of the essential materials I’d requested were missing from the room when we started (index cards, guys!), but we did have a fat stack of copy paper, and before long I had everyone in the (very full) room folding and tearing it into manageable chunks. I brought along some comics I’ve done, a few in-progress spreads, and the associated story cards as examples of the process from beginning to end. After a bit of discussion everyone began to get a sense of modular structure, the importance of editing oneself early, and some basic notions of pacing, dynamics thru motion, tone, and directionality across panels/the spread. Because of our slightly later start, we didn’t delve as deep into the spread as I’d have liked – but everyone got a taste of quick drawing and editing, and at least the beginnings of controlling the flow of information across the spread. By the time we were being kicked out of the room, we were having huge open discussions about the different participants’ comics, talking in terms of pacing, making switcheroos for clarity, capitalizing on directional flow, etc. We could’ve easily spent another 2 hours together as a group and accomplished even more. Being so busy during both days, I didn’t get to take in any additional programming, but Idid have a chance to share a few pints and meals with friends old and new. TCAF definitely does a great job of bringing us all together once a year to gush like fools about the things we love in comics. ————————————————————————————————— Check out more of Tyler’s work HERE and pick up a copy of his new book HERE. Share this page: [...]

07/12/2016

Aaron CockleJuly 11, 2016NewsAaron Cockle today with Alyssa Berg comics; Kurosawa storyboards; illuminated manuscripts; Fitch/Trecartin in Montreal; Sara (. , : ; — () – [] “” ? ! ‘’ … {}) Lautman; The Graphics of War; Burkholder/Walden/Ellsworth; Rowhouse Auction Continues ————————————————————————————————— ALPENGLOW CW’s Featured Comics continues this week with Alyssa Berg’s ALPENGLOW, from 2015. This won the Comics Workbook Composition Competition last year; info about the 2016 competition can be found here. ————————————————————————————————— Akira Kurosawa: Filmmaker, Painter, Story-board Artist Kurosawa, from his book Something Like an Autobiography, translated from the Japanese by Margaret Benton: I intended to be a painter before I became involved in film. A curious turn of events, however, brought me to cinema, where I began my present career. When I changed careers, I burnt all the pictures that I had painted up until then. I intended to forget painting once and for all. As a well-known Japanese proverb says, “If you chase two rabbits, you may not catch even one.” I did no art work at all once I began to work in cinema. But since becoming a film director, I have found that drawing rough sketches was often a useful means of explaining ideas to my staff. ————————————————————————————————— Text, Image, Image-as-Text, Text-as-Image Via Medievalpoc’s essential People of Color in European Art History project, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Aratea (Harley MS 647, ff 2v-17v), 22 constellation figures containing extracts from Hyginus, Astronomica. England (c. 820-11th century). ————————————————————————————————— Lizzie Fitch/Ryan Trecartin: Priority Innfield For anyone living in/traveling to Montreal before September 5, an installation of Fitch/Trecartin work at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. Priority Innfield is a “sculptural theater” containing four movies and an ambient sound track presented in five pavilions. The movies, Junior War, Comma Boat, CENTER JENNY and Item Falls (all from 2013), unfold at a furious pace without interruption. Shot in a direct, quasi-amateur style, they explore the potential impacts of information technologies on communication, language and identity, and offer a barrage of frenetic images, absurd retorts and exaggerated poses and movements, drawn from a culture based on constant performativity. ————————————————————————————————— Sara Lautman on the New Punctuation On the Hairpin site it says this is a 2 minute read, but you should give yourself at least 4 minutes, maybe more. Maybe give yourself 5 minutes, if you can. Good work from Lautman, as usual. ————————————————————————————————— The Graphics of War: Comics, Animation, and Simulation If you’re like me, any down-time at your dayjob is spent scouring the internet for random university-level course syllabi from 2011. Culture, Art, and Technology (CAT) I The Graphics of War: Comics, Animation, and Simulation Professor Emily Roxworthy As alternatives to photography and live action film, this course examines three graphic media that are not usually considered serious candidates for representing global crises such as war: comics, animated film, and videogames. We will ask whether these alternative graphic arts depart from photorealism and the passivity of media spectacles to convey unspoken truths and instill deeply felt understandings about world changing events. ————————————————————————————————— ITDN, A City Inside, Other Selves Some capsule reviews from Daniel Elkin at Comics Bulletin of some recent work by Andrew Burkholder, Tillie Walden, and Theo Ellsworth. RE Burkholder: There’s little to no narrative in any of the 10 comics that comprise ITDN. Burkholder uses the medium of his comics to explore ideas, raising question after question in the expedition while providing no answers. Understanding is not the point; pursuit is the only goal. Each comic is presented using its own style, form following function as a psychotropic experiment. From the tight conventions of tradition in “The Fury” to the insouciant scribbling of “FUCK THIS” to the thin-line panel transition study of “Street”, Burkholder shows a depth of understanding for the tone of ideas. Each enterprise is an agreement between thought and expression. Each takes its time to shake the reader from the stupor of preconception. RE Walden: Other than the incredible craftsmanship in both her art and its execution, the dream-like quality of Walden’s work is what separates it from so many others working today. This is a story about transitioning and passages, what we gather and what we leave behind, as well as an exploration of expectation and uncertainty and the need to define the self. RE Ellsworth: Ellsworth calls this book a “psychic chiropractic adjustment” (to be filed under: “Hand Drawn Inner-Space Documentary Comics”). Here he is an artist viewing himself as the one who is in control of creating the Other Selves of his imagination. As he probes deeper and deeper into his self-creations, though, things get weirder and weirder, layering levels of the fantastic and the imaginative, each self in control of itself. Finally his inner workings are so far out that a part of him unleashes the “Reality Control Officers” into his “Personal Imaging Zone” admonishing him to “Go back to reality! Now!” What remains is a battle between inspiration and sense, art versus logic. ————————————————————————————————— Rowhouse Auction Continues New for this week of July 11 at auction.comicsworkbook.com. Email Frank Santoro at santoroschoolATgmail for a password, if you don’t already have one. All funds go to helping keep the lights on and further developing the school. 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Residency Report: Caleb Orecchio July 2016

Comics WorkbookJuly 31, 2016Residency Reports / School UpdatesCaleb Orecchio and Frank Santoro in conversation in the backyard of the Rowhouse Residency, Pittsburgh, PA – July 2016 Video: Michael Pisano – Editing: Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

02/20/2017

Sally IngrahamFebruary 20, 2017NewsJuan and Sally tag teaming it this morning with the goods: Ron Wimberly at Copacetic Comics; 2nd biennial Queers & Comics conference, the QC Travel fund; Simon Reinhardt on Anya Davidson; PEN World Voices Festival; Matthew Thurber; Cynthia Rose on Andre Franquin; Sam Alden; Sophie Goldstein; Wayne Wise on Herriman. ————————————————————————————————— Ronald Wimberly is coming to Pittsburgh this week to check out the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency, the Andy Warhol Museum, The ToonSeum, and Copacetic Comics! He will be doing a signing on Wednesday at Copacetic: “Please join us from 6:00pm to 8:00pm on Wednesday, February 22 to welcome Ronald Wimberly and celebrate his latest release, Black History in Its Own Words. Wimberly will be coming through town straight from wrapping up his Graphic Novel Residency Exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art. The Copacetic Comics Company is located on the third floor at 3138 Dobson Street, Pittsburgh PA 15219.” Be sure to check this event out, meet Ron, and get some copies of his books if you are in the area. ————————————————————————————————— Juan here, San Francisco’s California College of the Arts is hosting the 2nd biennial Queers & Comics conference on April 14-15 2017 with Keynotes Mariko Tamaki and Gengoroh Tagame. Queers & Comics features two days of discussion panels, workshops, readings, and comics galore, along with a multitude of off-site events. This year the conference will spotlight international and emerging LGBTQ cartoonists, the role of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the future of queer comics. It should be great. As people gear up for the conference, there are still some creators and presenters who need your help. Traveling to these important spaces for conversations is hard and costs a good deal of $$. Not everyone who needs to be part of these conversations has that $$. That’s where you come in, dear reader. A small band of creators have joined together with Prism Comics to create the QC Travel Fund. With your help they will raise the necessary funds to help creators in need reach their destination at the Queers & Comics conference in San Francisco at CCA on April 14-15, 2017. The fundraiser can be found here: https://www.generosity.com/community-fundraising/queers-comics-conference-travel-fund/x/16025161 Pitch in what you can! ————————————————————————————————— This morning I’m passing the mic to Correspondence Course graduate, Simon Reinhardt. He’s got some great thoughts on Anya Davidson’s latest books. Quick comics thoughts just how I like them. Essential, enticing and illuminating. 2016 Comics: Anya Davidson-Lovers in the Garden/Hypatia’s Last Hours I’ve been a fan of Anya Davidson for a while, but these two pieces–which function very well as companions–felt like a breakthrough to me. There’s always been an emotional intensity to Davidson’s work, and here it is turned all the way up. Both of these stories deal with the moments before a disaster, ending abruptly when that disaster arrives. We see the protagonists’ hopes get dashed but, crucially, the stories clearly highlight how important and worthwhile those hopes were despite ultimately not being fulfulled. In both works, the cartoony, lively figure drawing fleshes out the world of the characters and communicates a depth beyond what can be explicitly foregrounded in relatively short form work. Devastating stuff. -Simon Reinhardt Lovers in the Garden is available from Retrofit Books. “Hypatia’s Last Hours” was included in Kramers Ergot #9, available from Fantagraphics. ————————————————————————————————— Dots and Dashes The PEN World Voices Festival (May 1-7th 2017) will spotlight gender and power this year, and unlike in years past, it will feature a lot of cartoonists. The Comics Beat has the details – but just to throw some names around, the lineup will include Simon Hanselmann, Roz Chast, Gabrielle Bell, Rokudenashiko, and Meg Lemke among other panelists! There is an interview with Matthew Thurber and an excerpt from Art Comic, his ongoing serial, over on Bad At Sports – check it out HERE. Cynthia Rose writes about Andre Franquin over on The Comics Journal – was he in fact comics’ greatest draftsman? The Strand is hosting a cartooning focused panel: I’m Drawn This Way: Cartoonists on Cartooning (March 13) featuring Pénélope Bagieu, Natalie Andrewson, Katie Skelly, Julia Gfrörer, and Whit Taylor moderated by the great Meg Lemke of the Brooklyn Book Festival, PEN America, and MUTHA Magazine. Part 2 of Sam Alden‘s Sledgehammer is up on Hazlitt – “Okay, never mind. Go back to destroying the house.” Sophie Goldstein announced that her comic House of Women will be collected by Fantagraphics this fall. Congrats! Pittsburgh’s Wayne Wise reviews George Herriman: A Life in Black and White. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! Frank Santoro here. I’ve decided to give this semester a rolling start date. I realize that everyone has spring break at different times, and that’s always a good time to start a comic – so I will officially kick off the course March 7th but will continue taking applications past that date. I will make it work for your schedule. Just apply! Applications received by February 26th will get 100 bux off! The course is 8 weeks long – payment plans are available. Many more details can be found HERE plus the answers to all your questions (hopefully). Email santoroschoolATgmail to apply Santoro School Application guidelines: – 3 figure drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards – 3 landscape drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards – 3 still life drawings done on blank 3 x 5 cards – draw in a contour line style –think Matisse – no under-drawing – draw directly in ink – just send me small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls – send specific url links to any comics work you have done. If you haven’t done comics before that is not a problem. Send applications to: santoroschoolATgmail Thanks xo Frank ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 2-20-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-20-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-20-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-20-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

05/16/2017

Aaron CockleMay 16, 2017NewsLATE EDITION: TCAF NOTES As promised, here are some notes and pictures RE: TCAF 2017. I’ll return to my usual posting structure next week, highlighting the ins-and-outs and comings-and-goings within and without the comics community, as well as some more expansive thoughts about TCAF. ————————————————————————————————— Some Books of Note I purchased/traded for a bunch of work, some notables are shown above. Tommi Parrish did the ONESTEPINSIDEDOESNTMEANYOUUNDERSTAND book. Not pictured is the 5th issue of the always-excellent Pope Hats, by Ethan Rilly, which was the first and only book I needed to read as soon as I got the chance. Still working through the stack, there was so much great and beautiful work on display at the show. ————————————————————————————————— Tom Spurgeon’s Recapitulation Over at the Comics Reporter, Spurgeon looks at the show, including some notes on the Sammy Harkham/Kevin Huizenga talk about the past and current state of comics distro-ing: Kevin Huizenga and Sammy Harkham presented on the distributions system as it has an effect on their recent attempts to self-publish. Kevin Huizenga provided a history of distributors — including his own USS Catastrophe effort — that may not have been aces in terms of getting books out there but were deeply personally meaningful for him at the time. Harkham went on an interesting mini-rant about how crowd-funders interfere with his conception of how the artist/audience relationship best works. I like both of those guys a lot and appreciate their seriousness about the comics they made, and thus enjoyed every second of that panel. In an after-panel conversation, Huizenga noted to me how one problem with doing things to help the small-press end things is that there are SO MANY cartoonists that they often bury any such attempts without meaning to. That helped me clarify some thinking I had on industry reform. Huizenga is a smart man and scrambles to points of perspective as well as anyone I’ve ever known, so it’s always great to talk to him. ————————————————————————————————— Random Cellphone Pics ————————————————————————————————— Economies of Scale Something Something There is a part of this work (cartooning, comics, these shows that we attend) that is in a way absurdly, almost aggressively anti-capitalist, while at the same time fitting safely and snuggly within a traditional capitalist framework. I was thinking about this a lot over the weekend, based on what came up in that Harkham/Huizenga talk, as well as some conversations I had with other people/cartoonists, and time spent sitting at my table ruminating. I need to better formulate all of this, obviously, and do some math before going into it more extensively, but these are the thoughts that plague me during these 2-day shows. ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— AM EDITION: Aaron here today with sincere apologies. Please bear with me, I was at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this past weekend, and my flight was delayed Monday evening coming back to NYC, where upon arrival I found that there were extensive (and fairly impressive, actually) traffic delays going out of the airport due to construction. I’ll have some quick notes about TCAF later today, so please check back, and I’ll take a closer look at the show in my post next week. Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read this newsblog and supporting the work we’re doing here at Comics Workbook. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Summer Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! 8 weeks! 500 bux! Payment plans are available! Summer Course starts June 1st 2017! Applications are due by May 25th. Visit THIS page for more details and email santoroschool@gmail.com with applications and questions! ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 5-16-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-16-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

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