Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged ariel schragg, austin english, kelly sue deconnick, michelle tea, morgan jeske, obama, paul klee, sloane leong, tender, visiblewomen

Juan Fernández

Posted on March 7, 2016March 7, 2016

Explore

05/17/2016

Aaron CockleMay 16, 2016NewsAntonioni Comics Continued; Sophia Foster-Dimino; Genesis Breyer P-Orridge; SPREAD Zinefest; Adam Baumgold Gallery; NYRB Comics Release Party; Boom Box Profile; James Ensor Temptations ————————————————————————————————— CW continues it’s feature of Laila Milevski’s Drawing Antonioni. Please take some time to read/re-read/re-re-read this comic, it’s one of the most creative uses of the Frank Santoro Grid Technique System I’ve seen to date. ————————————————————————————————— New Sophia Foster-Dimino Comic ————————————————————————————————— Genesis Breyer P-Orridge: Try to Altar Everything Exhibition March 11-August at the Rubin Museum, NYC For nearly half a century Genesis Breyer P-Orridge has been questioning the meaning and substance of identity through artistic endeavors, willful reincarnation, and physical shapeshifting. Try to Altar Everything, a selection of paintings, sculptures, and installations, will explore the ways that Hindu mythology and Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley have influenced the artist and h/er work. ————————————————————————————————— SPREAD ZINEFEST I hear Groningen is lovely in June. ————————————————————————————————— Comic Inspirations at Adam Baumgold Gallery ————————————————————————————————— New York Review Comics Release Party Friday, May 27 at 7pm at BookCourt in Brooklyn ————————————————————————————————— On Boom Box The success of “The Lumberjanes” started with grass-roots efforts. Ms. Watters and her fellow creators — Brooke Allen, Grace Ellis and Noelle Stevenson — made copies of the first eight pages, included an order form, and gave them out free. “It was supposed to be eight issues, and then it became something much more, kind of growing ever since beyond our wildest dreams,” Ms. Watters said. ————————————————————————————————— Temptation: The Demons of James Ensor at Art Institute Chicago The exhibition was 2014/2015 but there is still an elaborately designed interactive aspect available to those with an internet connection. ‘Before the compositions I feel anxious and exalted,’ wrote Ensor in 1887, commenting on his work as he began to develop The Temptation. More than a century later, as we explore his monumental achievement, we share something of those emotions. To study the work is at times disturbing but—as we hope you will agree—it is, above all, exhilarating. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

09/27/2016

Aaron CockleSeptember 27, 2016NewsAaron here today with Discipline; Dykes in Print/Boiled Angel/CBLDF; Maintenance Art; Nadel/Dunham; Remembering Kim Thompson; Ford/Walden; French Comics in the USA; Portraits & Swinespritzen ————————————————————————————————— Dash Shaw is posting Diary Comics this week at TCJ, where he discusses the process of his work-in-progress, Discipline: This book is a long comic book, but it does not have any speech balloons or panel borders. The illustrations and the hand-written cursive text float on the page. This activates the negative space of the page, which lends the book a spacious stillness, or a quiet, “Quakerly” tone. This spacing relates to Civil War-era illustration, where elements hover inside of articles. Also, this allows me to write and draw all of the elements separately, so the book is easier for me to edit. With the conventional comic approach, usually the insertion of a panel throws off all of the other panels in the book. Because of the collage-like structure of my book, I can easily insert illustrative moments and pieces of text and research/write while still making new drawings. ————————————————————————————————— Censorship: Don’t Do it! In celebration (?) of Banned Books week, Pen.org has a piece by Jennifer Camper, Dykes in Print: And the Guardian revisits the Mike Diana Boiled Angel trial and the origins of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: Set up in 1986, the CBLDF exists to fight censorship of comic books, protect the First Amendment right to free speech and, more pragmatically, to provide legal representation for comics creators facing prosecution. Founder Denis Kitchen was running Kitchen Sink Press, a publisher of underground comics, when he heard about a police raid on Friendly Frank’s comic shop in Chicago. Six officers had seized seven titles, including erotic comic Omaha the Cat Dancer, Robert Crumb’s anthology Weirdo and SF-smut comic Heavy Metal, and arrested manager Michael Correa. Friendly Frank’s was shut down for five days, but not before one of the arresting officers told newspapers there was a “satanic influence” in the comics seized. Kitchen was appalled. “I realised immediately that if police officers with built-in Satan detectors could get away with making arrests and seizing objectionable comic books, much more than the comics industry was at stake,” he says. He swiftly raised $20,000 for a fighting fund, helped by comics heavyweights like Crumb and Frank Miller. “It was gratifying to see that sudden unity among the comics community,” Kitchen says. “I was more used to people squabbling.” ————————————————————————————————— Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Maintenance Art at Queens Museum This first survey of Ukeles’ work is organized by the Queens Museum’s Larissa Harris and guest co-curator Patricia C. Phillips, who initiated the project in 2012. The show will span five decades, from her work as a pioneer of feminist performance to a practitioner of public art, in which Ukeles invites us to reconsider indispensable urban systems and the workers who maintain them. Ukeles is undoubtedly best-known for her 36+ year role as the official, unsalaried Artist-in-Residence at New York’s Department of Sanitation. Unprecedented when it began in 1978, this residency has now become a model for municipalities engaging with artists as creative agents. ————————————————————————————————— Dan Nadel on Carroll Dunham’s drawing at Hyperallergic: Dunham and his peers had emerged from a conceptual and process-oriented New York milieu in which a number of artists were exhibiting and redefining drawing as a primary medium, including Barry Le Va, Dorothea Rockburne (who Dunham and Kendrick assisted), Mel Bochner, and Sol Lewitt. Connecting these and other artists was the removal of both the image and the artist’s sensuous touch, replaced with rigorous conceptual procedures. In contrast, Terry Winters notes that he and Dunham “saw drawing and making things by hand as a way out of or into art. We were reconnecting with gesture and touch, and their capacities to register other kinds of information not available through logic.” They were also finding kinship with artists that were not highly considered at the time, such as the mid-20th century German painter and photographer Wols and the American post-war painter William Baziotes, both of whose work defied categorization and remained outside of the contemporary dialogue. ————————————————————————————————— At the ever-enduring Comics Reporter blog, Tom Spurgeon remembers Fantagraphics publisher Kim Thompson, and looks at the aging of the ‘alt-comics’ crowd: The thing that stuck in my head, though, throughout today, was how many people texted and e-mailed that they thought Kim was older than 60 when he passed away. I think that’s because Kim and Gary Groth and their roughly same-age peers were either the first generation of alt-comics publishers or the first generation since the first generation to enter mainstream comics in a significant way. So you have a lot of people 55-65 with trackable careers two, three, four decades long in an established arts industry, which is rare outside of a few precocious creative talents. ————————————————————————————————— Sean Ford recently conducted an interview with Tillie Walden, posted on Inkstuds. ————————————————————————————————— French Comics Framed Festival NYC, 27 September-5 November Sept 27 – Nov. 5: French Comics Framed – Exhibition The Cooper Union, Foundation Building, 7 East 7th Street, NY 10003 Oct. 4: Panel by Asaf & Tomer Hanuka The Society of illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, NY, NY 10065 Oct 6-9: Meet our artists on booth #1558 at New York Comic Con and on the Artist Alley Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 W. 34th St., NY, NY 10001 Oct. 6, 7pm: French Comics On Screen: Film Adaptations of Franco-Belgian Graphic Narratives The School of Visual Arts, 209 E 23rd St, 3rd floor Oct. 7, 6:30pm : How to Draw a Life: The Rise of Graphic Biography in France Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue, NY 10029 Oct. 8, 1:30-2:30pm: Drawing From the World: Franco-Belgian Comics in Global Context New York Comic Con (room 1B03), Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 W. 34th St., NY, NY 10001 Oct. 8, 7pm: Reconstructing Comix: The “Architecture” of Franco-Belgian Graphic Narratives, from Tintin to Today The Great Hall of Cooper Union, Foundation Building, 7 East 7th Street, NY, NY 10003 Nov. 1, 7pm: Panel discussion: Drawing the unspeakable Columbia University 116th St & Broadway, NY, NY 10027 ————————————————————————————————— Help send Connor Willumsen to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in October! He will be teaching workshops with Frank Santoro and Aidan Koch while there – if you’re in the area check it out. To help him get to the show, Comics Workbook is offering two new Connor publications. Portraits and Swinespritzen – both limited editions, both incredible. Share this page: [...]

11/06/2018

Aaron CockleNovember 6, 2018NewsVote Aquí; Art of Native America; Comic Arts Brooklyn Panels ————————————————————————————————— A Brief History of Bilingual Voting José -Luis Olivares at Popula. ————————————————————————————————— Art of Native America At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 4, 2018-October 6, 2019. This landmark exhibition in the Museum’s American Wing showcases 116 masterworks representing the achievements of artists from more than fifty cultures across North America. Ranging in date from the second to the early twentieth century, the diverse works are promised gifts, donations, and loans to The Met from the pioneering collectors Charles and Valerie Diker. Long considered to be the most significant holdings of historical Native American art in private hands, the Diker Collection has particular strengths in sculpture from British Columbia and Alaska, California baskets, pottery from southwestern pueblos, Plains drawings and regalia, and rare accessories from the eastern Woodlands. ————————————————————————————————— Comic Arts Brooklyn 2018 The CAB show is this Sundayn November 11, here is some info about the panels and additional events: ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

TCAF 2016 | Joe Kessler

Juan FernándezJune 3, 2016Festivals and ShowsCheck out Joe’s work here copaceticcomics.com/creators/joe-kessler Share this page: [...]

07/11/2018

Juan FernándezJuly 11, 2018los Cómics / NewsHartley Lin at Comix Experience; Drawing A Dialogue Episode 13; CARTOON DIALECTICS #3 by Tom Kaczynski and Clara Jetsmark; Shortbox U.S.Distribution – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Hartley Lin Talk with Brian Hibbs at Comix Experience Here on the site, Chris Anthony Diaz offers us some great documentation of Hartley Lin‘s talk at Comix Experience from this past June. After his Young Frances (published by Adhouse Books) book signing, Brian Hibbs interviewed Hartley Lin for the Comix Experience Graphic Novel Club, San Francisco, Wednesday evening, June 13, 2018 You can watch the interview HERE. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Review – CARTOON DIALECTICS #3 by Tom Kaczynski and Clara Jetsmark Nick Hanover, Your Chicken Enemy Inside the pages of Cartoon Dialectics #3, Tom Kaczynski and Clara Jetsmarkforce you to consider the cheerful yet ominous reach of the nostalgic blob, that cultural motivator that compels us to look backward even as we’re moving forward. Connecting nostalgia to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement as well as the styles and tastes of progressives and, in its potent final section, Kaczynski’s own relationship with his past, the central question of Cartoon Dialectics’ third installment isn’t “How did we get here?” but “Why do we keep returning here?” When I spoke to Kaczynski in 2013, that question weighed heavily on both our minds, running through our discussions of gentrification, global warming, the mystification of technology and beyond. Kaczynski told me that the frequently bleak stories collected in his impressive work Beta Testing the Apocalypse were inspired not by dystopian works but his interest in utopian fiction and his time growing up under communism, a system that was itself utopian in design but nonetheless broke down in execution. Responding to a point I made about the negative outcomes of his stories, Kaczynski said: “If my stories seem really negative, it’s only because I’m examining the negative to see if a positive can be teased out eventually.” – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – U.K. Based ShortBox Rolling out US distribution Zainab Akhtar: I’m happy to share some good news today: ShortBox is partnering with White Squirrel to offer domestic fulfilment to our US-based customers. What this means is if you’re based in the US and want to buy ShortBox, you will no longer be charged international shipping rates, but a domestic rate, with packages shipping through the US postal system. (Read More) – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Vivir para Contarla – Jesus Cossio Entrevistado Pablo Turnes, Revista Kamandi Jesús Cossio (Lima, 1974) es uno de los autores contemporáneos de historieta más notables de Perú. Su trayectoria como historietista comenzó en el circuito limeño de los fanzines pero fue sin dudas con Rupay – coproducido junto a Alfredo Villar y Luis Rossell – que su obra comenzó a generar interés y a ser conocida por fuera de las fronteras nacionales. Su trabajo sobre la memoria del pasado inmediato siguió con Barbarie (Lima: Contracultura, 2010). Además de dar talleres, ha organizado exposiciones y presentado su obra en otros países como Argentina – al que estuvo invitado para el festival Viñetas Sueltas en 2009 y 2010 – Brasil, Colombia, Venezuela y más recientemente los Estados Unidos. Tuve la oportunidad de ver su presentación en el ICAF en 2017, y fue francamente estremecedor su relato tranquilo pero sin concesiones, como quien habla con la certeza del que ha comprobado e indagado en lo más terrible de su sociedad. Cossio no es verborrágico: va al grano y es exacto como un bisturí. A partir de ciertas inquietudes sobre la dimensión ética de su trabajo, sus propias posiciones y compromiso, se generó este diálogo a la distancia. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Drawing A Dialogue – Episode 13 New episode of Cathy G. Johnson and e jackson’s, Drawing A Dialogue is up! They are building off of the stereotypes in cartooning we discussed in Ep 12, specifically how fat bodies are depicted in the media. It’s a great listen. Listen here. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Suzy and Cecil – 07-11-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

03/07/2016

Posted on March 7, 2016March 7, 2016 by Juan Fernández

Another week and another flood of comics happenings. Let’s start to make our way through it.

Nicole Georges is hosting and producing a new podcast Saggitarian Matters. It’s fun listening for those of you that listen to podcasts while inking or coloring. Her new podcast features interviews, reviews and astrological musings and advice from rad women all with a warm casualness. Lot’s of stories from touring musicians and studio cartoonists. Think of Saggitarian Matters as a living breathing advice column with attitude and jokes galore. Recent guests include Liz Prince, Ariel Schrag, Lacy Davis and Beth Ditto, among others.

This week, series regular Michelle Tea (author of How to Grow Up) doles out advice on anxiety and work. Writer & cartoonist ARIEL SCHRAG (Likewise, Potential, Adam, The L Word) talks truth in comics, Chick Tracks, and romantic advice with NJG.

Warning: some advantage-taking is mentioned!

Kelly Sue DeConnick put out a roll call on twitter for women comic book makers yesterday to disabuse people of the notion that women comic artists are rare, to get eyes on said artists & to get them work opportunities. Very dope. Follow the hashtag #VisibleWomen to get to know and appreciate the work of hundreds of women making comics today.

— Kelly Sue DeConnick (@kellysue) March 6, 2016

Austin English speaks with Andy Oliver over at Broken Frontier. Great conversation with an artist whose work lives and breathes on the cutting edge of comics. Have a read.

I’ve always loved comics, so much so that I’d never think of rejecting their history. I honestly sit down at the start of every story with an ambition to make it ‘traditional’ like an old Will Elder comic or something, and then my natural lack of craft takes over by panel two and the project turns into something else. The punk rock nature of zines and mini comics I read in the mid to late 90s (like King Cat) sort of egged me on to embrace whatever my work became by the second drawing.

I also missed any distinction between comics and art books as I was growing up—my mom gave me Tintin, but she also had Matisse monographs laying around which she really loved. Books in general with images in them were very comforting to me as a kid, and somewhere along the line the two worlds blurred for me. I accept that for people in art and people in comics there are very clear borders, but I just never saw it that way.

Did ya hear, Barack Obama’s going to be paying tribute to Charles Schulz’ American masterpiece, Peanuts. It’s about time. Obama’s writing the foreword to the penultimate volume of the collected daily strips put out by Fantagraphics books. Congratulations to Fantagraphics on snagging this intro. NYT has got the full coverage you’re hankering.

Kim Jooha has put together some wonderful reflections on the work of Maggie Umber, Aidan Koch, Andy Burkholder over the weekend. Jooha’s writing never ceases to engage comics in an exciting and satisfying way. If you haven’t yet checked the work of Umber, Koch or Burkholder, check out Jooha’s writing to see if it just might be up your alley.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/249956531″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Another week means another edition of Inkstuds! It’s a good time to be alive as a comics aficionado. This week Sloane Leong is joined by Vancouver comic artist Morgan Jeske to talk about his life, process, movies and comic work. Tune your ears to that frequency…

Morgan is known for his work on Change, published by Image Comics, and his self published work Disappearing Town and ●●●● Vol. I. He also co-hosts a film podcast called Travis Bickle on the Riviera. His newest work ●●●● Vol. 2 feels like a fantastic meandering exploration of the self and other and wild liminal decaying spaces. Morgan creates unique comics with a strong sense of atmosphere and weight, so I’m excited to see what he does next.

Throwin’ it back to the future, the Zentrum Paul Klee made available online almost all 3,900 pages of Klee’s personal notebooks, which he used as the source for his Bauhaus teaching between 1921 and 1931. Amazing. Dive in and swim the depths of these notebooks. You’re going to want to get that google translate handy to help understand the transcriptions that Zentrum Paul Klee has put together on this incredible resource.

Essential to the understanding of modern, these works . Arguably one of the most complete presentations of principles of design by a modern artist, this constitutes the Principia Aesthetica of a new era of art, in which Klee occupies a position comparable to Newton’s in the realm of physics. Amazing online resource that deserves to be mined and explored by comics makers for years to come.

I’d like to wrap things up by letting you know that the journal, tender, is taking submissions for their upcoming issue. Established in 2013, Tender Journal is published three-four times a year as a carefully curated PDF, with an anthology that follows in print.

tender is edited by Rachael Allen and Sophie Collins. « tender is grappling, I think, with Denise Riley’s claim in Am I That Name that ‘both concentration on and refusal of the identity of “women” are
essential to feminism’. »—Katherine Angel

Sound like the kind of publication that you want your work to be considered in? SUBMIT!

until next time,
juan fernandez.

Share this page:

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged ariel schragg, austin english, kelly sue deconnick, michelle tea, morgan jeske, obama, paul klee, sloane leong, tender, visiblewomen

Juan Fernández

Posted on March 7, 2016March 7, 2016

Explore

Residency Report: Pokémon GO Edition

Comics WorkbookAugust 15, 2016Residency Reports / School UpdatesAudra Stang visited the Rowhouse in July of 2016. She accomplished an incredible amount in the three days she was in Pittsburgh, setting new Rowhouse records for “crushing it”. She shared some journal notes with us recently that describe many of her impressions and experiences of her residency. I’ve shared excerpts from them below, mixed with some of the process drawings and doodles that she made while she was here. – Sally ————————————————————————————————— Audra Stang wrote: “My visit to the Rowhouse was my first ever residency… I came with the goal of totally drawing out a story that I only had a hazy idea of called Pale, Sick, and Magic; this seemed fitting, considering I only had a vague idea of what a residency would entail.“ “While I had corresponded with Frank during and following his Spring 2014 Correspondence Course, I wasn’t sure how the transition from online correspondence to ‘irl’ would work. During the online course I could process information in my own time, in my own working space, and could leisurely spend thirty minutes mulling over the phrasing of a two-sentence email I was writing – what if I didn’t function well in this different setting?“ “The work space at the residency afforded me time that was not broken up by work, class, etc, which I expected; I didn’t expect that not having my computer on the desk would affect me in such a positive way. This is not leading into a “we are slaves 2 modern tech” maxim; it was just easier to draw from memory than to Google a reference image on my phone, and it prevented me from taking unnecessary detours. Not so when a desktop is sitting in front of me; I should know better anyway, as drawing from photo reference was discouraged in the course.“ “I loved Frank’s house; there was great stuff everywhere – in the living room, guest room, kitchen, work area, basement, etc. Comics that I had previously only read cruddy scans of online were now physically in front of me in pristine condition. I read a lot – I didn’t go to bed until 4:30am one night because I was too busy looking through a huge Gary Panter collection and proofs for Cold Heat that I stumbled upon in the guest bedroom. I would pause while drawing to flip through a book and “accidentally” read the whole thing. I read more comics in three days than I had read in three months.“ “I loved visiting Copacetic Comics. I just sat and read comics standing in the store, sitting on the floor, on the porch, etc. I found more books that I had previously only read via .jpeg-y scans. I have followed Copacetic on tumblr for years, but the store was still beyond my wildest comics dreams.” “Between Frank, Sally, and I we had great conversation – not just about, but often returning to, comics. It fed into the “cycle” – draw by day and tour Pittsburgh by night. Or draw by night and explore Pittsburgh by day. It was a charged atmosphere but in a positive way – I was full of energy. Franks uses language that masterfully evokes the feeling of being “in the game” and gets you hyped for the next comics bout.“ “Frank is really respectful, i.e. he didn’t talk down to me, but he could have, considering his extensive knowledge of comics and strong body of work. Respect is transformative. Regarding gender/women in comics and being a woman who draws comics: my relationship with comics was never treated as cute or diminutive in Pittsburgh. I never expected it to be – but it happens, even with great, wonderful, well-intentioned friends. Frank “gets” it, and it’s evident both in his speech and actions.“ “Sally is amazing as well; I talked to her about what I’d come up with so far for Pale, Sick, and Magic over coffee before I went to start drawing it on first day. She also helped me process a lot of what Frank was saying – Frank said a lot of good stuff and so very frequently that it was difficult to capture it all. Sally helped me retain more than I would have on my own. Also, Frank and Sally both waited for my train with me the morning I left, and I really appreciated that, especially because it was an hour late. They went to great lengths to give me an extensive tour of Pittsburgh and to make me feel welcome. I felt humbled by the amount of respect and care that was taken in shaping my experience. I’m already ready to go back.“ Sally here, to conclude. Each person who visits the Rowhouse has as much of an impact on the Comics Workbook team as we do on them, and Audra was no exception. She taught us all about Pokémon Go, for example, and as she reports in the comic above, we spent a considerable amount of time driving around the city harassing people on the streets – to their actual delight…! Far above and beyond that, the conversation that filled the Rowhouse during her stay was fuel on the fire for all of us. The transformative power of respect that Audra mentioned is something that she and I discussed at length. Frank has this way of handing the keys over to each of his students, and then he trusts them drive the car like Speed Racer. This sort of empowerment from a mentor and teacher is an incredible boost to anyone who might aspire to be a comics master, but to a woman in this field it holds extra impact. We live in hope that before too long, that sort of distinction won’t be part of the conversation. That will take a bit more work, however, so knowing that Audra left Pittsburgh and her Rowhouse Residency with a new sense of her own outstanding worth as a cartoonist means that Frank and the Comics Workbook team is on the right track. Let’s keep this conversation going! ————————————————————————————————— Audra went home and finished Pale, Sick, and Magic, which is currently being serialized on the Comics Workbook tumblr – catch up with it HERE. We will also be archiving it here on the site and printing it this autumn, so stay tuned. You can see more of Audra’s work HERE. ————————————————————————————————— If you have questions about the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency or are interested in applying for one yourself, please check out our Info Page and/or email santoroschoolsATgmail, and keep up with all the latest happenings HERE. Share this page: [...]

04/27/2016

Juan FernándezApril 27, 2016NewsFumetto 2016; Begoña García-Alén’s El Espectador; Dr Fausto Fanzine 10; Daryl Seitchik’s Missy for sale; a first look at Tim Hensley’s Sir Alfred No. 3 ; Al Jarnow & Edwin Rostron. ————————————————————————————————— FUMETTO 2016 Fumetto, one of Europe’s leading international comics festivals wrapped up this past weekend in Luzern, Switzerland. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the festivities lasted from April 16-24. Among the many guests this year were Lorenzo Mattoti, Joost Swarte, Gabrielle Bell, Caroline Sury, Fremok, Max and Ben Katchor. Fumetto has captured glimpses of all the lectures, workshops, pop-up studios, gallery exhibitions, market places, and parties in a recently posted archive of photos. (If you want to get lost into the nitty gritty of the social media coverage of Fumetto, explore Fumetto’s social media wall here.) Among all of the goings on this year was Fumetto’s annual competition exhibition. The theme this year was “Temptation”. View the winning entries from the 2016 competition here. For those of you really hungry for more of Fumetto’s competitions, you can read all of the winning entries from 2014 and 2015. ————————————————————————————————— (the spectator) The fourth installment of Begoña Garcia-Alen‘s El Espectador (the spectator) is now up over on TikTok cómics. Her spectator series is a nice collection of work that explores the idea of observation and reflection. It’s done in a playful, formalist Koch/CF hybrid. Check it out here. ————————————————————————————————— Llegó nuestra Décima Edición. 10 Autores de Colombia, Argentina y Chile. Toda la info en: https://t.co/0OsmwQUpyN pic.twitter.com/Qhq901Nfmf — Dr Fausto Fanzine (@DrFaustoFanzine) April 25, 2016 Dr Fausto The 10th edition of the Colombian publication, the Dr Fausto Fanzine is here! This edition comes out thanks to the support of Editorial Universidad de Caldas. Ya llegó! It’s now available in cities throughout Colombia, starting in Bogotá. This is issue features 10 cartoonists from Colombia, Argentina and Chile: Edward Muñoz (Editor) http://eddmunoz.tumblr.com/ Un reptil http://relampagarto.tumblr.com/ Truchafrita http://www.truchafrita.net/ Wil Zapata http://wilcomix.blogspot.com.co/ Lutocorps http://lutocorps.blogspot.com.co/ Pablo Bofelli (https://www.facebook.com/PUNCH-590883774340172/?fref=ts)http://felipunch.com.ar/ Toto Duarte https://www.flickr.com/photos/sergalletas/ Javier Fabregas http://www.javierfabregas.co/ Pablo Pérez http://periodistailustrado.tumblr.com/ Jko Sánchez http://jkosanchez.net/ ————————————————————————————————— Digital Missy Daryl Seitchik has collected and made all of her issues of her comic Missy available digitally over on gumroad. Check it out. The first one’s free 😉 ————————————————————————————————— https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJZjfcMR2fc Comics Movie Tie-in Fantagraphics has just shared a detailed look at Tim Hensley’s latest book, Sir Alfred No. 3. It’s beautiful stuff, full o hyucks. Sir Alfred No. 3 is an oblique biography of the world’s most famous film director, Alfred Hitchcock. In fact, despite being numbered “No. 3,” no other issues exist. The comic book is composed of multiple gag strips based on anecdotes found in tomes of film lore in the public library and used book shops. As Hensley’s previous work Wally Gropius referenced the ’60s teenager genre, Sir Alfred pays homage to ’50s personality comics and movie tie-ins. It ends up being something of a cross between Marge Buell’s Tubby, who bears an unforeseen resemblance to the famous director, and Miss Beverly Hills of Hollywood. Have a closer look at the book over on Fantagraphics’ site. ————————————————————————————————— Asymmetric Navigations Take a walk and join Al Jarnow in conversation with Edwin Rostron over on Edge of Frame as they reflect on his life of creation that has move seamlessly across artistic mediums. Paintings, animations sculptures, software, exhibits – his ideas have taken every form you can imagine. Tune into his frequency for a little energy and inspiration. EoF: In the documentary Asymmetric Cycles you describe your process onCelestial Navigation as “setting up an experimental environment in which I could more or less improv and riff off of different ideas to do with time, the passage of time and the passage of light.” Was this typical of how you worked with your animations? Did this kind of experimental process relate to how you worked as a painter? Was there a lot of material generated through this kind of process that didn’t make the cut? AJ: Yes, always! In painting as in film, the process has always been a dialogue. What happens with the first stroke is a determining factor in what happens with the next. An experiment is an act in which you don’t know the outcome. It’s a learning process. You might have expectations and anticipate your results, but those can color your results. In film, a lot of snippets ended up on my cutting room floor (or at least in cans still stored in my attic). In painting, pieces ended up in re-cycling, painted over, cut in half, and again stored in my attic studio. ————————————————————————————————— Have a good one and see you soon. Here’s one some reverie for the road. Share this page: [...]

03/10/2017

Sally IngrahamMarch 9, 2017NewsSally here with comics by Leslie Stein, Tyler Cohen, Anna Krzton, Posy Simmonds, and Martha Thomases, plus other interesting news and events to wrap up your week! ————————————————————————————————— I read Gemma Bovery this week, the comic Posy Simmonds based on Madam Bovery which originally ran as a weekly strip in The Guardian (concluding in 1999, leaving it’s readers inconsolable, apparently.) Simmonds’ way of combining text with comics is quite marvelous, and astonishingly well done. As a reviewer wrote back in 2000: “Simmonds has, in this sense, two kinds of blank paper staring at her every morning, and she should be honoured for filling them so perfectly, with such a combination of daring and what looks like effortlessness.” – Nicholas Lezard for The Guardian The book is wildly entertaining, with wonderful pacing and characterizations – which comes from both Posy’s drawing chops and her storytelling. Read the rest of Nicholas Lezard’s excellent review HERE. I highly recommend this and Posy Simmonds’ other graphic novel, Tamara Drewe (which was also serialized in The Guardian.) I went down a Posy Simmonds rabbit hole after finished Gemma Bovery, and resurfaced with this terrific piece of research and writing about the strip that started it all for her – The Silent Three – which was published weekly in The Guardian from 1977-87. The strip was collected but the collections haven’t been reprinted, despite Posy’s continuing popularity (both her graphic novels were turned into very well received films). It’s nice then that on the blog Sunday Comics Debt there are scans of a dozen of Posy’s strips, and the writer’s thoughts on the development and content of the work. Good stuff – check it out HERE. His only real complaint is that at times the strips are SO British they can be mysterious to an American reader! Here’s a recent interview with Posy Simmonds, now in her 70’s and not slowing down a bit – she was a judge at this year’s Angoulême festival, and is currently working on a new book. Here also is a peak into some of her sketchbooks. And there ends THAT rabbit hole for the moment! ————————————————————————————————— I’ve also been reading Dakota North Investigations this week. It was a short series from 1986 written by Martha Thomases and drawn by Tony Salmons. I’ve gotten a kick out of it – I always enjoy a smart, badass investigator who has rad style, and Martha Thomases script is pretty engaging. She mentions the series much later in her regular column on ComicMix: “Over the years, Dakota North has appeared in a few other comics, most recently in Daredevil. These takes are interesting, but they are not my story. No one has ever really understood what I was trying to do with the character. They see her as another tough broad action figure, and that’s a part of her. I modeled her physically on a friend of mine, who had the height and the hair and the beauty to capture the attention of those in any room she entered. But Dakota’s also a woman trying to win her father’s approval while she pushes him away, that tug-of-war adult children have with their parents.“ Although 20 years passed between her script for Dakota North and the next time Martha wrote for comics, she kept busy with other writing and research. She still writes regularly about comics for ComicMix, and will go so far as to say “Everything I need to know, I learned from superhero comics.“ ————————————————————————————————— Just Indie Comics shares three short comics by Polish cartoonist Anna Krztoń. “These three stories depict only some of the many nuances of her cartooning, starting with the realism we find both in Constant Sorrow and Early Mornings, similar for mood and topic to First Weeks, a self-published mini-comic I briefly reviewed in this Misunderstanding Comics episode (only in Italian, sorry). Room of My Own is instead a different work, less narrative and more impressionistic, an example of a dreamy mood, abstract and naive, that is an essential feature of Krztoń’s comics.” – Gabriele Di Fazio Check out the comics HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Leslie Stein returns to VICE with 1994 – wherein she “falls in and out of love with Green Day, and goes to a barbershop quartet convention.” The first part is above, the rest is HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Tyler Cohen‘s comic Evident Truths is on MUTHA Magazine – it was originally published as part of PEN Illustrated’s State of Emergency feature: #ArtistsResist. Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— High Tide Line Check out this cool event on Monday if you’re anywhere near The Strand Bookstore in NYC – I’m Drawn This Way: Cartoonists on Cartooning – details HERE. It’s the launch of Pénélope Bagieu’s new book, and a discussion with panelists Natalie Andrewson, Katie Skelly, Julia Gfrörer, and Whit Taylor, moderated by Meg Lemke of the Brooklyn Book Festival, PEN America, and MUTHA Magazine. The Comics Journal just published an interview with Sophie Yanow, who is a very busy lady these days – maintaining her status as one of the best non-fiction comics makers while also teaching and doing translation work – more HERE. Disa Wallander has a comics shop, full of her Sparkle zines and plenty of sarcasm – HERE. The Chicago Reader has a nice feature about Trina Robbins and her past and future work – read it HERE. She says the East Village Other strip Gentle’s Tripout created by “Panzika” was her inspiration for making her own comics – after she made the startling discovery that this favorite strip was actually drawn by a woman (underground cartoonist Nancy Burton)! Since we’re on the topic now, here’s an interview from last year with Nancy Burton on The Comics Journal. Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers alum Mary Shyne has a comic on The Nib – Trumpian Timekeeping. “ISIS, weirdly, has not been defeated yet.“ Rob Clough wrote about Cathy Johnson‘s Gorgeous recently – review HERE. ————————————————————————————————— We are diving into a busy 2nd year of the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. Gabriella Tito is here this week, already our 4th resident of 2017, and we are starting a wait list for the summer months. It’s amazing and exciting to have these aspiring and professional cartoonists alike come to work on comics in Pittsburgh, plugging into our vibrant local scene, and infusing it with fresh energy. Interested in joining us for a week or more? Email santoroschool@gmail.com to learn how to apply. There are still openings in April and May, with that wait list available for the summer months. After a break for show season we will be picking up scheduling once again in late October. 500 bux for a week and a life-changing experience. Read some of our Residency Reports HERE. Email santoroschool@gmail.com for more info. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-10-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-10-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-10-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 3-10-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

On Reselling Comics

Juan FernándezJune 26, 2018NewsAt Comics Workbook we are testing what it means to be a new kind of learning institution for comic book making. Among the many activities engaged in by Comics Workbook is the selling of comics we publish ourselves and the reselling of comics we have purchased from others. The collecting and reselling of older and out of print comics has been – and continues to be – fundamental to the creation and maintenance of the comics ecosystem through which the medium has advanced and developed over the last half century. This activity laid the groundwork for the creation of the “direct market” for comics, which in turn enabled the establishment of the market for independent, creator-owned and self-published comics that all of us now take for granted and without which Comics Workbook could not exist. We employ a curatorial approach to buying and selling comics. Generally, we comb old mainstream and independent comics offerings wherever we find them – looking for those that contain exemplary work that inform and/or showcase the comics values promulgated here at Comics Workbook. We then display and sell them in a curated fashion, focusing on the work of individual artists – whether they be pencillers, inkers, colorists or, yes, even letterers – and, of course, those artists whose work combine some or all of the aforementioned skills – in order to document the amazing richness and diversity of work in the various comics traditions that it is difficult to successfully parse for the purposes of study without guidance. Among our wares, you’ll find old mainstream and independent comics, rare mini-comics and zines, along with work by contemporary cartoonists and comics makers. When it comes to contemporary work, Comics Workbook often buys comics from individual artists, with the dual intent of both adding the works to the Rowhouse Residency collection and supporting the artists – and small press publishers – from whom we purchase the work. In addition, it is worth noting here that we do not knowingly sell work by contemporary, independent, small press and/or self-published creators that is still readily available from the creator and/or original small press publisher – unless it is by arrangement with said creator or publisher. Otherwise, on those occasions when we resell these works, our intent is to make unavailable works available. Our goal in selling the work of contemporary creators is the same as that of selling older work: to connect comics readers and, particularly, comics makers with works the quality of which we value here at Comics Workbook. On those occasions we choose to resell a comic, we normally sell it at a higher price than paid in order offset the costs involved with maintaining, storing and organizing the collection, as well as the costs associated with connecting readers with these comics, particularly at shows, where set-up costs are often significant, but also online, where listings of individual comics is time consuming and labor intensive. Any profits made over and above these expenses go towards funding our workshops, residency expenses and publishing costs. If you have questions or concerns about our resale policy please address them to Sally Ingraham and Juan Fernandez by emailing sally.ingraham42@gmail.com or fernandez.juan.j@gmail.com Share this page: [...]

03/21/2016

Juan FernándezMarch 21, 2016NewsClowes vs. Nadel, Kurt Ankeny with tool talk, Eleanor Davis on the road, Rob Kirby with comics reviews and a look at Stephanie Kubo’s -Turbulence-. ————————————————————————————————— Daniel Clowes and Dan Nadel in Conversation Today we bring you a great conversation between Daniel Clowes and Dan Nadel from the Clowes spotlight from 2010’s Alternative Press Expo(APE). Of interest since it dovetails Clowes’ 2016 tour for the release of Patience. This video gives a lot of insight indirectly to Patience. Filmed by Chris Anthony Diaz, you can watch the conversation here. Comic book match ups, Burne Hogarth yelling, EC Horror comics, the disappointment in comics history, public vs. private characters, and life in the letters columns, it’s all there. For more on Clowes, do check out Todd Hignite’s recent interview over at the Comics Journal. And if you like what read there, dig deeper, or simply revisit the 1992 Clowes interview conducted by Gary Groth and Peter Bagge. ————————————————————————————————— Black Callous Interviews Deep process and technique interviews with comics makers by Kurt Ankeny will soon be gracing this here website. This is the kind of tool talk the craft junky is sure to get kick out of. For a nice preview of the kind of conversations you can expect, have a look at Kurt’s recent post about watercolor comics. Read it here. My technique for comics is quite simple. I lay-in flat shapes of color to define the objects in each panel. Then I draw lines over those shapes where I need to clarify (using the liquid watercolors in a dip pen). If I do it the other way (which, I admit, is less nerve-wracking) the washes of watercolor will tend to bleed any lines which either are a little too thick and therefore have a bit too much pigment on the surface, or that aren’t completely dry. Waiting a day or two before doing the washes ALMOST eliminates this problem, but not fully. I like crisp lines, so I do it the other way… Stay tuned for more Black Callous updates. ————————————————————————————————— On the Road Eleanor Davis has been documenting her recent bike tour via tweets and diary comics (shared on twitter). Interesting sutff. If you’re keen on learning more about the kind of loose, comics “journaling” you can do while travelling, be sure to give Davis’ work a look. It’s a gracefully flowing diary. A great way of honing in on notable thoughts from the day. Wednesday pic.twitter.com/6TMeOxz4QE — Eleanor Davis (@squinkyelo) March 18, 2016 Thursday pic.twitter.com/IvNzCQQg4D — Eleanor Davis (@squinkyelo) March 20, 2016 ————————————————————————————————— Review Round Up Rob Kirby has put together a solid bunch of capsule reviews of some recent North American small press releases. Frontier #11: “BDSM” by Eleanor Davis Olive & Old Fat Men Turn Me On by Mama Lips Men’s Feelings vol. 2 by Ted May Excerpts by Carrie McNinch The Social Discipline Reader by Ian Sundahl Read Kirby’s full round up here. ————————————————————————————————— Turbulence – Stephanie Kubo Stephanie Kubo has set up a site for some forthcoming outer space comics. The first comic in the series is a little ditty titled Turbulence. Check it out for some vertical scroll goodness. Forms blend and swirl, as gravity tugs the narrative along full circle. You can read Turbulence here. over and out, Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply