Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Black Callous, Dan Nadel, daniel clowes, Eleanor Davis, Kurt Ankeny, Rob Kirby, Stephanie Kubo, Turbulence, Watercolor, watercolor comics

Juan Fernández

Posted on March 21, 2016

Explore

10/25/2016

Aaron CockleOctober 25, 2016NewsAaron here today with Jack Brougham on LICAF; Sonia Landy Sheridan; Comic Arts Brooklyn; Magical Realist Videogames; DADA; Chick Dissections ————————————————————————————————— The Hills and Streets – Jack Brougham on LICAF Here on the site we have a reflection from Jack Brougham on his weekend at LICAF in Kendal and the kinds of thoughts it stirred. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about closing the circle between creating and publishing and publishing small and often in cheap little editions, road-testing stories in public, and building larger narratives or works from small individually published units. So far so confused? – excellent. Anyway, arriving at the table with this in the back of my mind it was great to see the organizers had hired Comics Workbook a photocopier so we could run off copies of the zines and comics produced in the CW workshops that took place on Saturday morning. Workshops are great and everything, but when you can demonstrate to people how easy it is to start running off copies of your own stuff to share, that’s something else. ————————————————————————————————— Generative Systems The Networked Performance blog has an overview of Sonia Landy Sheridan’s Generative Systems program, developed at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1970s. This will be of specific interest to people who use copy machines in their work, or technology in their art-making in general, or who work at institutions that would allow one to do so. With the cooperation of scientists, industry, artists and a unique body of graduate students, Sheridan was able to explore the implications of the communications revolution for the arts. As artist-in-residence at 3M’s Color Research and Central Research Labs, she was able to take back to her students up-to-date industrial experiences. Sheridan shaped her art and teaching on the premise that art, science and technology function as intertwining systems of thought. Additional documentation of Sheridan’s work can be found at the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology. ————————————————————————————————— CAB 2016 Comic Arts Brooklyn, arguably the best show of its kind in these United States (and probably in the top 2-3 comics festivals in all of North America), will be held Saturday, November 5, 11am-7pm at Mt. Carmel Gymnasium, 12 Havemeyer St in scenic Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, USA. As with previous years, this is a showcase of some of the best alternative/indie/art comics, small press, and self-published work that’s available. Admission is free. Satellite events include: Organized by Gabe Fowler and Desert Island. ————————————————————————————————— Triennale Game Collection Some immersive experiences for people who have access to smartphones. Via Allison Meier at the Hyperallergic blog: For me, the most enjoyable game by far, and the one that kept my attention the longest, is “Neighbor” by Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, and Ben Babbitt of the American Cardboard Computer. You’re a sombrero-sporting wanderer seemingly on a retreat at a desert compound with the sun-washed colors and modernist shapes of a Ricardo Legorreta building. Like Cardboard Computer’s Kentucky Route Zero, which had its fourth act released last month, there are tones of magical realism in your exploration. Interacting with the sandy environment reveals pleasing tasks like harvesting aloe leaves, making salves at a cauldron, reflecting at a pool, and stowing cherished objects for “the far side.” Offerings left at a monolith might be taken with a can of spinach left in return. And then there’s your cowboy neighbor, whose friendship is gradually developed without words in this serene place. ————————————————————————————————— DADA Backissues Princeton University’s Blue Mountain Project has made all 8 issues of the DADA arts journal from 1917-1921 available. Via Josh Jones at the Open Culture blog: Edited by Tzara and including his manifesto in issue 3, the magazine “served to distinguish and define Dada in the many cities it infiltrated,” writes the Art Institute of Chicago, “and allowed its major figures to assert their power and position.” Dada succeeded a previous attempt by Ball at a journal called Cabaret Voltaire—named for his Zurich theater—which survived for one issue in 1917 before folding, along with the first version of the cabaret. That year, Tzara, “an ambitious and skilled promoter… began a relentless campaign to spread the ideas of Dada…. As Dada gained momentum, Tzara took on the role of a prophet by bombarding French and Italian artists and writers with letters about Dada’s activities.” Whatever Dada was, it wasn’t shy about promoting itself. ————————————————————————————————— Jack T. Chick Under the Microscope Jack T. Chick died yesterday at 92. His bizarre and evangelical “chick tracts” – found at the most desperate places in America; bus stops, subways and street corners everywhere – could probably be considered the most widely distributed mini-comics. Hundreds of Millions have been printed and distributed… His death is a significant comics death, in a hard to define way. His hate-filled messages will not be missed. The Enter the Jabberwock blog has taken the time to dissect and/or eviscerate a good deal of Jack T. Chick’s tract work. From the Dark Dungeons Revisited (Epic Tag-Team Gary Gygax Died For Your Sins Edition) post: The idea that “rock music” is somehow “occult paraphernalia” is pretty hilarious. It’s just these arbitrary designations for things that old, conservative-minded people find generally unpleasant. KNEE SOCKS ARE OCCULT PARAPHERNALIA. I DON’T LIKE PEANUT BUTTER. YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO PUT MORE CLOTHES ON. TELEVISION HAS TOO MANY COMMERCIALS. IT’S WAY TOO COLD IN HERE. LET’S BURN IT ALL. Share this page: [...]

Rowhouse Residency Report – Jason Robinson

Comics WorkbookMay 24, 2018Residency Reports / School UpdatesJason Robinson is a comics maker, illustrator, and graphic designer living in Asbury Park, NJ. He joined us in Pittsburgh for a weeklong Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency in June of 2017. Here are his thoughts about visiting the city and his Rowhouse Residency experience. ———————————————————————————————— My plan, initially, was to chain myself to the desk and produce so much work. All the work! I was going to get soooo much done. And I did, but not in the way I had anticipated. I spent the first two days, working alongside fellow resident Patrick Bonato, essentially chained to the drawing table. I penciled the second chapter (16 pages) of a story that grew out of the Comics Workbook Correspondence Course I completed in 2015. I enjoyed overlapping with Patrick, especially since I appreciate his comics and (possibly more importantly when sharing a space) we have similar tastes in music. It was nice to work in a shared space and be able to talk constructively about each other’s work and comics in general. Patrick departed the morning of my third day. I felt fortunate that I was able to share part of my residency with a fellow comics maker, but I was also looking forward to some time alone as well. But first, off to Copacetic Comics with Frank & Sally—a sunny, relaxed morning and afternoon of drinking coffee and reading comics…and drinking more coffee and reading more comics. Absurdly caffeinated, I sketched the views from the Copacetic terrace while Frank kept adding to the pile of comics at my side. That morning alone was worth the whole trip. When I got back to the Rowhouse that evening, I worked for a couple of hours. I started tallying up the days I had left and calculating what I could actually accomplish based on my output so far. I decided I would set my current story aside as it was already flowing well, and concentrate on starting something new. Okay, so what do I work on? Drawing blanks and feeling stir crazy, I found myself antsy to get out and see Pittsburgh. Half an hour later, riding up the old Duquenese furnicular, looking out over the city, I realized I might need to shift perspectives and expectations about this trip. It couldn’t be about pure output. I needed inspiration. So after enjoying the sunset over the city, I went to the Andy Warhol Museum. It delivers. I was particularly taken with a small, easily overlookable exhibit detailing his technique for achieving his ink-blotted pen line. When I returned to the house I worked for another few hours, not on my comic, but just exploring different tools, brushes, nibs, and pens—experimenting—playing with different approaches. Day four: I spent the morning drawing on index cards one after the next in a stream of consciousness. Later, I reconnected with some old friends over beer and noodles—and as I unwound, I realized how stressed I’d actually been in my daily life leading up the residency—and that this was the first time in a long time that I wasn’t beholden to someone else’s deadline. Day five: Brunch at Spirit with Frank and Sally (and Tina), bought some choice comics from Frank while his friends dj’d and sold vintage clothing. Came home to work, which at this point in my residency meant devouring the library of comics laying around the row house—basically all of Dash Shaw’s work, Olivier Schrauwen, Sam Alden, Noel Sickles, Roy Crane, Milton Caniff, and falling head over heels in love with everything John Stanley. Day six was filled with daydreams and the jotting down of enough story ideas to last the next five years. In many ways, I feel like I was just getting revved up and here I am at the end, hoping I have the discipline to continue this trajectory or at least ride this wave for a long while. Because only now have the chaotic thoughts begun to settle on the floor of my brain. And I’m able to calmly wander through, picking up bits and pieces, and notice how some seem to connect—to join together like pieces of a puzzle. I joined Frank and Sally for dinner on that last night. And a bit drunk on wine, I tried to convey this feeling by paraphrasing a similar concept I’d read somewhere about a scientist explaining that “it may not look like I’m working when I’m staring off into space, but what I’m really doing is constructing a 3-dimensional puzzle in my head—piecing together bits and bytes of information, and that takes time and focus to carefully construct this puzzle in my mind’s sky so that it may stand on it’s own. So, please don’t interrupt me, or you risk the pieces of the puzzle caving in on each other, imploding into a cloud of ash.” …Fortunately, Frank has a better and much more succinct iteration in his back pocket – “When I’m working, you may not see it, but I’m welding here. I have a helmet on, and my mitt, it grips a fucking torch-of-fire. So stand back, or you’re in danger!” I’ll close with some unsolicited advise to future residents: You don’t have to chain yourself to the drawing table. Of course you may, and obviously there can be great benefits to doing so, I only argue that there are other equally constructive ways to make use of this time you’ve carved out for yourself. Paradoxically, doing “nothing” may be exactly what’s needed to do the next something. P.S. For anyone reading this on the fence about the correspondence course or a possible residency, here’s one more gem from Frank that may help. “Remember, Yoda was just a guy rooting around in Luke’s lunch box.” ———————————————————————————————— Many thanks to Jason for the housewarming gifts he brought along in 2017 (pictured above) and for his support of the creation of the Rowhouse Residency during the crowdfund of 2016! – Frank and Sally and the Comics Workbook team ————————————————————————————————————— Check out work by Jason on his website, and follow him on Tumblr and Instagram. For more information about the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency visit this page or email santoroschoolATgmail Share this page: [...]

06/21/2018

Juan FernándezJune 21, 2018NewsHartley Lin Interviewed at Comix Experience; Zak Sally’s latest zine; the Summer Santoro School Correspondence Course – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Hartley Lin (Pope Hats, Young Frances) is interviewed by Brian Hibbs, live at Comix Experience in San Francisco. This is a great interview that in addition to giving great insight on where Lin is coming from as a comics maker, also notably discusses the world before and after the Xeric Grant. A little on Hartley Lin before you dig in: Lin is a cartoonist and illustrator from Toronto. His comic book series Pope Hats has received a 2013 Ignatz Award, 2012 Doug Wright Award and 2010 Joe Shuster Award. He has illustrated for Slate, HarperCollins, Chronicle Books, COMPLEX, Wired, The Walrus and The Believer. He now lives in Montreal. Hartley debuted Young Frances, his first major graphic novel with AdHouse Books at TCAF this year. Watch it over on Youtube. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – FOLRATH PART 2 – Zak Sally $9.00 at La Mano At long last, here it is. Starting mere moments after where Part 1 left off, it’s 159 pages of stories about landing in punk rock Oakland, CA circa 1993. It was a hot fucking mess. Still printed on shitty newsprint (blue ink !!!) then folded/ assembled by me. Unbelievably, this ain’t the end: part 3 wraps it all up (it’s way shorter than the other 2), but it’s not quite done yet. I’ll let you know but in the meantime, come wrestle with me down the verdant horse-trough of memory lane why don’t you. – Zak Sally – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers Summer Session starts NOW! Floating start date! Apply anytime between now and July 12th 2018 to join the summer course. Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. Ask about the Fall Course if now is too busy for you! The course is 8 weeks – 500 bux for 8 weeks plus access to Frank’s coaching for as long as you need. Payment plans are available. Put your summer to good use! – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Cozytown – 06-21-2018 – by Juan Fernandez – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Joanie and Jordie – 6-21-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

09/04/2018

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

Caleb Orecchio @ CXC 2016

Caleb OrecchioOctober 23, 2016Festivals and ShowsTHURSDAY After pulling an all nighter Wednesday, printing my comic Thursday, and weaving through and from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio, I arrived just in time to meet Sally Ingraham and Kurt Ankeny at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus for the seven o’clock John Canemaker program on Windsor McCay’s Little Nemo. You had to see it to believe it folks. We watched McCay’s first two films and participated in the third, Gerdie the Dinosaur. Canemaker played the role of McCay as McCay would have exhibited Gerdie during his vaudeville act. I won’t even try to describe it. You had to be there. During this dramatic occasion, Lucy Caswell sat directly in front of me. The goddess and founder of what has become the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. A year or two ago, Jeff Smith was giving a talk, a celebration of Will Eisner, at the Billy Ireland. Lucy sat in front of me then too. Then, as now during Canemaker’s Little Nemo presentation, Caswell acted as she would have in a Southern Baptist church. When the speaker made a particularly poignant remark, she said to herself and God, “That’s right.” When she saw her favorite images, she put her hand to her heart and whispered, “Amazing.” After all these years, comics and cartooning continues to astonish her. In a way, we really owe CXC to Lucy Caswell. Thank you. I’m an Ohio native. My grandparents grew up in Columbus. All of my grandpa’s stories of getting into fights and general mayhem take place on High Street and Goodale Avenue. I grew up in Marysville which is thirty minutes NW of Columbus. I live in Dayton now, but it didn’t make this festival feel any less like a homecoming. Oh aych! Aye oh! MARDOU First thing on Friday, Juan Fernandez, Sally Ingraham, Emil Friis Ernst, and myself headed to Mardou’s comics narrative presentation. Sacha is fantastic. She read from some of her recent work which had the whole room hanging on her every word and image. The fact that she read every line of dialogue added to the charm of the hour we spent in her world. During the exhibition portion of the festival, Sacha Mardou tabled with Comics Workbook. Her table, and the table I was manning were only a pillar apart. When I had a moment to breath, I’d look over to see if she was free to sell me her book, Sky in Stereo. Both days, she sold out. Don’t sleep on this cartoonist, she is a force to be reckon with! CAITLIN MCGURK AND THE BILLY IRELAND I could have wept seeing all the art at the Billy Ireland, just like every time I go there. Caitlin McGurk took us on a fantastic tour through the collection, moving through doors that would call the cops if you shut them too slow. Seth and Ben Katchor were among my fellow tourists. Seth, cane and hat and all, walked out of Dominion and to my left, gracefully listening to McGurk reveal the secrets and show off the bowels of the world’s biggest cartoon collection archive. Katchor and I drooled all over an original Krazy Kat Sunday. The center of the piece was a tree Krazy was sitting under. Herriman had scratched away the ink on top of the plant for texture. I almost broke down sobbing. Caitlyn McGurk was an excellent guide. Her knowledge was second to none, her enthusiasm was infectious. She loves her job and you can tell. She knows everything. She pulled out some original Canffs and let us all die there on the spot and come back to life enlightened by the whole process. Did you know Caniff would draw his Sundays, then rearrange the panels for different periodical orientations? Modularity. Caniff grew up in Dayton. It seems he and I are doing our careers in reverse. THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY “OFF THE RECORD” A panel moderated by thee incomparable Tom Spurgeon and featuring Keith Knight, Brendan Burford, Shena Wolf, Chip Mosher, and Rich Tommaso, was excellent. Three “gatekeepers” (evidently a controversial designation) and two cartoonists. The talk provided perspective into how to make comics a career, something that should be discussed more often. Spurgeon was an excellent moderator and asked the tough questions. Brendan Burford, General Manager of King Features Syndicate, stood out to me. Forward thinking, intelligent, and passionate about comics. He talked about trying to develop comic strips that are worthy of our medium’s history and, looking forward, how cartoonists can be secret weapons in other industries, like Virtual Reality. He sees the cartoonists as a bridge, an essential and unique group of people with skills that can elevate other media. I talked to him a bit after the panel was over. He’s charming, social, and quick-witted. He has an extensive knowledge of the history of comics. I showed him my latest comic. As we were talking, his longtime buddy Nate Powell came over to say Hi. Fresh off March 3, Powell was energetic and kind. I went to leave, to let them catch up, but Brendan told me to stay. It was great listening to these old friends talk and laugh and catch up. The day was joyously interrupted; thee unstoppable Carol Tyler and thee prolific Sergio Aragones shared the honor of Masters of the Medium awards, presented by Tom Spurgeon and Jeff Smith. Spurgeon and Tyler got a bit weepy, and in response, so did others. Sergio and Smith cracked jokes which was, for me, like seeing Chaplin and Keaton high-five. Mr. Burford flagged down Sally, Juan, Emil, and I at the after party Katie Skelly hosted. It was soon after midnight, and my brain was slowing to a halt. Brendan, however, had more energy than ever. His vision of the future of comics and cartoonists is an optimistic one. “Cartoonists are secret weapons!” he kept saying like a prophet. I was trying to keep up with him among the loud music as he floated off the floor; luckily Juan and Sally picked up my slack and hung with Brendan’s wild ideas. This guy is the guy to talk to people! SATURDAY COmics! Gitcha COmics heah! Gitcha COmics! The first day of exhibiting at the Columbus Metro Library Downtown branch – I manned the Comics Workbook table along with Sally, Juan, and Emil. We were surrounded by our CW comrades – Kurt Ankeny, Whit Taylor, Alyssa Berg, and the aforementioned Mardou. This was my first time tabling, but Sally and Juan trusted me while they were off helping, recording, and running CW workshops. I should mention we sold out of Simon Hanselmann’s Truth Zone almost immediately. Some people would pass by and say I’ll be back later to get this. I just smiled and waved as Hanselmann’s fans came out of the shadows with their pizza stained t-shirts and Redbull in hand, handed over all their rent money to get this rare gem. A presence many attendees and would-be-buyers noticed was missing was our fearless leader, Frank Santoro. People recognized his longboxes (the only ones at the show to my knowledge) and his amazing books. If I had played a drinking game where, whenever I heard “Is Frank here?” I had to take a shot…I’d be dead. Which is fine. It just showed me what an influence he has on people. People who only met him last year and bought a handful of bad 80’s black and white comics, missed him. I hope we did him justice as comic sellers. EMIL FRIIS ERNST is the current resident of the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency, all the way from Denmark. A living breathing Macbeth, we had skipped the Trudeau talk the night before and walked down High Street to find cigarettes for me. Emil is not only an excellent young cartoonist, but an all-around nice guy. We bonded over being early-twenty-something introverts, weary form brushing shoulders with giants all day. He was very nice to answer all my dumb-American questions about his mystical, foreign land of Vikings and wonder. We laughed, to my amazement, to shared senses of humor. He even bought me a beer! xoxo Emil! ERIC REYNOLDS Once I heard the new Love and Rockets was being sold at the Fantagraphics table, I ran over and picked up my copy before it sold out. Eric Reynolds was running the joint and I introduced myself. I thanked him for the editorial input he had on the SPX Celebrates Fantagraphics 40th Anniversary book I designed. He was very friendly and approachable. RYAN SANDS and I chatted briefly about our mutual internet acquaintance, Cameron Arthur, a teenage up-and-comer cartoonist from Texas. We talked Mickey Z too. He sees her as a great American cartoonist that should be celebrated as such. I agree. He told me a secret about Mickey Z’s next book Rav Collection 2, but it’s a secret so I can’t say. Don’t sleep on Mickey Zacchilli or Youth in Decline! ROBIN MCCONNELL of Inkstuds fame visited the CW table and bought GG’s A Mysterious Process. Juan had him check out Emil’s book All In A Day’s Work as well. Robin noted, “I can tell that he’s part of the cult.” CHARLES BURNS Maybe you’ve heard of him? Mr. Burns stopped by to pick up some DC romance comics. Juan and I chatted with him briefly and I asked him which was weirder, DC romance comics or Charlton romance comics? Charlton of course. BEN KATCHOR AND KEVIN CZAP Mr. Katchor looked through every single CW-made comic at the table thoroughly, which was exciting to see. As we started to make small talk, Tom Spurgeon announced that Kevin Czap was receiving the Emerging Talent award with $7,500 from Jeff Smith and Vijaya Iyer. By the end of Czap’s humble and gracious speech, Mr. Katchor had been intercepted. Next I saw him he was at Nate McDonough’s table. NATE MCDONOUGH What a guy. I was delighted to be right next to Nate’s table. A Pittsburgher who has ties to my Dayton, OH. So nice and so prolific. I swear he knew 50% of the attendees that passed by his table. Lot’s of hugging and catching up at Nate’s place. I bought his latest graphic novel, Naptime – a comic that has a cover I watched Nate draw on a floppy red folder, on his lap, when there was at least forty-feet of open table in front him. This was only a couple months prior to CXC. BEN SEARS had a residency at the CW Rowhouse a couple weeks after me this past summer, and was drawing in the next room when Frank and I had an iChat meeting about some graphic design I was doing for him. I introduced myself and we traded notes on the Residency. I bought his book Night Air and he drew in it. Nice guy, that guy. JOE MCCULLOCH picked up a copy of Matt Seneca’s 200 Deaf Boys that CW was selling and smiled. Before he spoke, I had no idea this was Jog the Blog himself. “Have you read that comic?” I asked him (and everyone else who glanced at it because it’s my favorite comic right now.) He replied, “Yeah, I’m a friend of Matt’s.” His voice and cadence were unmistakable. I told him how much I LOVE the McCloud/Sculptor take-down episode of Comic Books Are Burning in Hell. He laughed and said something like, “Some days I think that was one of my shining achievements, and other days I think I will carry it with me forever like the chains of Jacob Marley.” (note: the latest episode of Comic Books Are Burning in Hell is all about Joe and Chris’ CXC adventures – listen HERE!) CHRIS ANTHONY DIAZ The man behind the excellent photos. Juan introduced us. Chris is great. He’s a collector with great taste and a self-disciplined photographer. He showed me some photos of Noah Van Sciver, mustache and all, for possible future author photos. He regaled me with some fantastic Alvin Bueneventura stories. He talked about how he and Alvin were once making bookplates for a Charles Burns book in a hotel room. Chris is kind and engaging. I drove he and I out to Mr. Burns’ presentation at CCAD and I had the good fortune to sit next to Chris and watch him in action; removing his glasses after each photo to check the lighting that didn’t seem to cooperate in the dark auditorium. Unfortunately I had to abandon Chris at CCAD for I had taken ill. My all-nighter was catching up with me and I wasn’t feeling so hot. Chris was understanding and said he could find a ride back. The next day I apologized to him and explained my workaholic situation. He was nice about it. I gave him my comics and he took my photo. Chris is such a great guy and I hope to meet up with him again in the future. AT THE MOTEL…after abandoning Chris at CCAD and getting the key from my roommates, I turned on the Buckeye game and laid down. We were getting man-handled by Wisconsin and I fell asleep in the third quarter I think. Falling into a deep, restorative slumber was unfortunate because I had the only key! Luckily, I awoke to find all my roomies sleeping angelically. They made it in somehow, and the Buckeyes ended up winning in overtime. Go Bucks! SUNDAY AS THE DEER PANTETH FOOOOR… Last day of the festival and the last day to sell things. Sally had already sold out of one of her books. Juan, Emil, and I were fighting for second. Some stoners had a eulogy for the soldout Truth Zones. Lot’s of chatting and laughing and a grand time was had by all. I almost forgot to mention the CXC volunteers! They were amazing! I wish I would have got their names. These nameless angels tirelessly made the expo a more comfortable place. If I needed water, they sensed it and came flying over bringing me more water bottles than I asked for. When you’re talking all day, taking periodic smoke breaks, and feeling a bit under the weather, these people are knights in shining armour. They also helped us find carts to carry the egregious amount of supplies we brought for workshops to our cars in one trip. Thank you CXC volunteers! SALLY INGRAHAM AND JUAN FERNANDEZ Thee Comics Workbook co-pilots never sat down until they laid down to sleep. These two are the beating heart of CW and without them, Frank would be convulsing on the Rowhouse floor, muttering about 9-panel grids and the Golden Section. They work day and night to bring the comics gospel to the world in not one, but TWO languages. I am honored to have shared the weekend with them. KURT ANKENY It was great to finally meet Kurt. I bought his new comic, Dark Desert Dawn. All the drawing in this one is “first-take”, though you wouldn’t know it because it’s drawn so well. I hate him for that. 🙂 Look for his fresh-off-the-press graphic novel, In Pieces: Someplace Which I Call Home. It’s an achievement to be proud of, Kurt. WHIT TAYLOR During the craziness of the festival, nobody bothered to introduce us (SORRY CALEB AND WHIT!! xo – Sally), so I introduced myself to Whit on the last day. I knew her comics and writing on comics already so it was nice to finally meet her. A veteran at this point, she brought up a lot of good points about comic festivals and what we can do better as a community. ALYSSA BERG painted her way into my heart when she came out with Alpenglow, the 2015 Comics Workbook Composition Competition best in show. I was jealous when I first read it, but her fantastic use of color and the way she moves the reader through space were undeniable. Alyssa was the heart of the personality for the CW crew I think. Whip smart and funny as hell. THE END By the end of the show, the entire mystique of being around my heroes like Jeff Smith and Sergio Aragones had evaporated. I felt like I wasn’t some young buck – I felt like I belonged there. Finally, from out of the clouds and floor above, Jeff Smith announced, “CXC is over!” We all scrambled to leave so as to avoid being pepper sprayed by the library security guards. As we were leaving Carol Tyler waved and spoke to the entire room of exhibitors shouting, “Thank YOU CXC! I LOVE YOU!” The CW crew left the CXC expo floor, gratefully thanking a weary Tom Spurgeon for such an amazing four-day weekend. Thanks again Tom! Time to eat and recharge. Juan and Emil (our two bilingual crew members) left for Pittsburgh and Sacha caught a plane to St. Louis. The remaining CW crew was: Alyssa, Whit, Kurt, Sally and myself. The former three had free drink stubs for the bar at their hotel so we went back there to cash in. Kurt shared with Sally and I because he doesn’t drink. We talked, gossiped, whooped and hollered. Then the old people kicked us out and we made our way to High Street for food. We walked for what seemed like days, trying to make a nutritious decision. This was fine. We chatted, cackled, tooted and scooted our way through the streets, stopped an unwieldy child from being crushed in traffic, shared back stories, made fun of goofy store windows, and finally found a restaurant to eat at. After we ate, we parted ways. They to the last after party of CXC, and me to Dayton in hopes that I could manage a decent amount of sleep so I could make it to work on time. Which I didn’t. But that’s okay. CXC was a blast. I look forward to seeing all my new pals again. I see why cartoonists are such a tight-knit group. You see each other maybe once or twice a year and only for a few fleeting, busy days. I’m nostalgic already. See you all again soon. ———————————————————————- Thanks to Lucy Caswell, Jeff Smith, Tom Spurgeon, Caitlin McGurk, the Billy Ireland Museum, CCAD, The Columbus Museum of Art, Sol-Con, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus Metropolitan Library, the CXC volunteers and everyone who made CXC possible. And a special thanks to Frank Santoro, founder, fearless leader, and Jedi master of Comics Workbook. Without whom, the life I live now in cartooning and in general, would not exist. Thank you thank you thank you. –CO Caleb Orecchio makes comics in Dayton, OH. You can find more of his work HERE. For the rest of our complete CXC coverage check out the special “round up” report HERE. Share this page: [...]

03/21/2016

Posted on March 21, 2016 by Juan Fernández

Clowes 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:

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Black Callous, Dan Nadel, daniel clowes, Eleanor Davis, Kurt Ankeny, Rob Kirby, Stephanie Kubo, Turbulence, Watercolor, watercolor comics

Juan Fernández

Posted on March 21, 2016

Explore

03/04/2016

Juan FernándezMarch 4, 2016NewsComin’ up next week stateside is the next installment of Carousel. Comics presented in all kinds of ways. hosted by R. Sikoryak. You don’t want to miss this. There’s nothing quite like Carousel. (ok,ok OTHER than Chicago’s Brain Frame). This coming Wednesday, March 9th at 7:30 PM! If you need the deal to be sweetened for you, just know Meghan Turbitt is coming to the big city SPECIFICALLY to read to you. Don’t want to let a girl down, do you? Monica Johnson has written an interesting piece on the limited criteria it takes for work to be labeled as feminist work in 2016, primarily in the world of floppy comics. Interesting ideas, though there’s a great swathe of work that has been overlooked in making the article’s claim. Read it for yourself here, the comments aren’t too terrible either. Now, just seconds from turning forty, I’m both politicized and angry, and I long for the intensity of those ’90s comics. And I look around at comics written by and about women and they seem so understated. There is still so much to be upset about—Bill Cosby for starters, or why the Angoulême festival refuses to acknowledge that women, too, make comics—yet today’s feminist comics seem much less radical, less angry, less mobilizing compared with those of decades prior. I for one would like to hear from the aggressive and hilarious Diane DiMassas and Joyce Farmers of the 2010s! Where are those attitudes? Buried deep within the metaphors of fantasy comics like Bitch Planet and Monstress? Or in mild-mannered graphic novels and memoirs like Not Funny Ha Ha or Honor Girl? There’s a great conversation going on over on twitter, started by Celine Loup, focusing specifically on whose work Johnson’s short article is overlooking. If any of the names of the cartoonists mentioned are new to you, do yourself a favor and sit down with their work. https://t.co/OQQn1u3Gct I wanna talk about this with other women who would call their comics feminist. Thoughts? — NAZGUL QUEEN (@celineorelse) March 4, 2016 On the 4, 5 and 6 of March (this weekend, sleepy heads), the 7th edition of GRAF, Barcelona’s festival celebratings comics author and independent publishing, will be going down. A meeting of authors, publishers and independent groups that represent creative scene today more vibrant and fresh . Interestingly, for the first time GRAF will feature independent publishers from abroad. In total, there will be over 80 exhibitors with all kinds of fanzines, comics and prints for sale. On top of all that GRAF has got an extensive program of activities: round tables, meetings with authors, presentations of new books or comics and fanzines workshops for children and adults. Good stuff if you’re in Spain. You can stay posted with the happenings by keeping up with their twitter: @Grafcomic [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/249586417″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] The inimitable Leslie Stein was just on Inkstuds. They talked about her current return to working on Eye of the Majestic Creature, her painting and watercolor, took questions from twitter, discussed working as a bartender, her friendship with Noah Van Sciver and favorite winter birds. Fill your ears with Leslie’s optimism. You probably know this already, but it bears repeating: no one’s going to make the world you want to see for you. You have to do it yourself. It gets tiring, though and sometimes you need a little bit of reassurance that you’re not alone in this endeavor. Alice Bag and Allison Wolfe have your back. Listen to them chat about their the importance of having control of the means of productions in a societal context and more broadly what it means to have lived a life with zines at their centers. Very cool talk. No one could have known that when struggling illustrator R. Crumb self-published Zap Comix #1 in 1968 and began hawking copies in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, history would be made. By the arrival of issue #4 (1969) and Crumb’s Zap collective (S. Clay Wilson, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffiin, Gilbert Shelton, Robert Williams, and Spain Rodriguez) fully formed, the artists had broken every Comics Code taboo imaginable — and then some. Zap spawned an entire underground comix industry, establishing an adult market for the comics medium that, in turn, set new standards for creators’ rights and ownership that one day would liberate mainstream comic books from the tyrannical grip of corporate publishers, paving the way for literary work by the likes of Art Spiegelman, Lynda Barry, Chris Ware, and Daniel Clowes, among others. The underground is now canon, who woulda thunk it 40 years ago? Tonight is the opening reception of the big new ZAP comics exhibit at the Society of Illustrators. Underground junkies and all of you interested in the medium’s history in the USA, you won’t want to miss this. The exhibit runs through May 7th. Learn more here! Daniel Clowes and Nicole Rudick sat down on Wednesday to talk at The Strand in NYC. Clowes is on tour to promote his latest work, Patience. This is a great, widely spanning conversation between 2 deep thinkers. Great to draw or do the dishes to. Comics makers, take note around 20 minutes in for some interesting thoughts on constraints and their relationship to comics composition. Short Run, in Seattle, the annual curated festival which focuses on indie comix and self-published, small press, and handmade books of all kinds from the Pacific Northwest and around the world has some exciting news for ya: Applications for Short Run’s Dash Grant are now being accepted. With the Dash Grant you can: receive a $250 grant to produce your work to premiere at Short Run 2016 have free access to Fogland Studios silkscreen lab in Seattle to print your covers and optional instruction the week of the festival receive mentorship from comic artist Trevor Alixopulos via email have your artwork featured in our annual group art show at Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery receive a free half table at the festival More information is available over at Short Run Seattle’s site. Hop to it. Thought Bubble, the Leeds comics festival is taking applications for people to exhibit. Think you want to exhibit? Know of someone that this would be good for? Check out their site. Last but not least, there was a great sub of the 4th episode of Urasawa Naoki no Manben with author Takoa Saito that I came across thanks to @royalboiler but alas, it’s been taken down to copyright issues! The fourth episode peeks behind the curtain of Saitō’s workplace, where he has labored away at Golgo 13 for 47 years. Fingers crossed another sub floats to the surface… For now you can dig into the first episode. The first episode looks at Akiko Higashimura (Princess Jellyfish) as she draws her warring states era manga Yukibana no Tora (“Snow Tiger”), emphasizing her speed and the teamwork with her large team of assistants. Well worth your time if you’d like to learn more about the living history and craft of the wide world of the manga-ka. Urasawa Naoki no Manben (which, roughly translated, means “Naoki Urasawa‘s Manga Exertions”) is hosted by veteran manga artist Naoki Urasawa (Monster, Pluto,20th Century Boys) and follows different artists each episode, watching them draw their manga from scratch and exploring what differentiates their styles. Amazing show, with a great format for comics makers by comics makers. Hope that gives you enough to feast your eyes an ears on for the weekend. until next time, jf Share this page: [...]

10/5/2016

Juan FernándezOctober 5, 2016los Cómics / NewsJuan con: el tour de talleres de Comics Workbook; Rodrigo Elgueta y los Años de Allende; Natalia Silva en conversacíon con Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo; la llegada de Entreviñetas – Medellín; una venta paginas de Michael Deforge; Frank Santoro y el medallon de Pompeii. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook participará en dos festivales la semana que viene: En el Reino Unido The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Octubre 14-16. Frank Santoro, Aidan Koch, and Connor Willumsen en Kendal, UK. Buscános para y visita la mesa 67 en el Comics Clocktower para conocer a Oliver East y Jack Brougham, entre otros. Tendremos 3 talleres especiales, “Visual Poetry” con Aidan Koch, “The Hammer Party” con Connor Willumsen y “Composition Competition” con Frank Santoro. Las entradas para los eventos principales en el Festival Internacional de Lagos Arte cómico de este año están a la venta.ickets for the main events at this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival are on sale now. Visita nuestra página de eventos para más información.. En los Estados Unidos Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, October 13-16. Ofreciendo talleres y tendremos libros de venta. Júntate con la boca y dibujantes Alexa bar y Kurt Ankeny para disfrutar un fin de semana Juan llenísimo y de creación de cómics. Examinarémos el arte y la cuadricula, uniendo las pracitcas artísticas de Berg y Ankeny junto con la disciplina y el ritmo de la cuadricula, según lo principios establecidos por Frank Santoro. Cuatro horas a través de dos días, llenas de la exploración de una variedad de técnicas y métodos – que inspirarán el principiante, y desafiarán al dibujante avancado. Cómics como el jazz; cómics como la arquitectura; cómo una simple tarjeta de índice puede transformar su proceso de secuenciación y la narración. El horario completo del Festival CXC esta disponible AQUI. ————————————————————————————————— Una Entrevista Con Rodrigo Elgueta ¿Cómo ingresaste al mundo del cómic en Chile? Creo que se podría decir que el cómic es una actividad que me encanta, desde muy niño supe que iba a ser dibujante de cómic. Entre las cosas que me gustan de este mundo es que todos los dibujantes de historieta tenemos en común experiencias de niño, hay algo que nos conecta con ese mundo infantil que ha sobrevivido con el tiempo y que se manifiesta cuando uno hace historietas. Por ejemplo, a los siete años tengo el recuerdo concreto de una tarde especial, donde estaba dibujando personajes de Barrabases, en el cual dije “voy a ser dibujante”, y aquello me acompañó durante toda la vida. Más detalles sobre su libro Los Años de Allende – AQUI! Cuando el 4 de septiembre de 1970 Salvador Allende obtuvo el 36,2 por ciento de los votos que lo llevaron a ser presidente de la República, empezaron los mil días más intensos de la historia de Chile. El país fue un ejemplo inédito de socialismo popular democrático, con planes revolucionarios de igualdad, y al mismo tiempo un temido enclave marxista que amenazaba los privilegios, los negocios privados y los grandes capitales. Esta novela gráfica enseña con rigor los hechos políticos, los factores y actores que determinaron el fin de la vía chilena, a través de la mirada de un periodista norteamericano que llega a reportear un proceso y se encuentra con conspiraciones, efervescencia cultural y agitadas noches con una mujer fascinante. Muestra, así, las esperanzas y temores de los protagonistas de entonces, quienes vieron con pasión y dolor cómo se articulaba y destruía un experimento social único en el siglo XX. ————————————————————————————————— [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/285194140″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] Escucha la nueva edición de @lapololapodcast, un podcast del cómic femenino con Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo: En este capítulo las chicas conversan con la autora del libro “No abuses de este libro” Natalia Silva, alias Natichuleta. Conversamos acerca del abuso, de la violencia, los secretos, de cuales son los límites, cómo son los abusadores, cómo nos refugiamos en nosotros mismos y en el dibujo para darnos seguridad y sacar afuera estas experiencias. ————————————————————————————————— Entreviñetas – MEDELLÍN La segunda parte del gran festival Entreviñetas tendra lugar este fin de semana, del 6 al 9 de octubre. Si no lo saben ya, el Festival Entreviñetas es el evento del cómic y el dibujo más influyente en la escena latinoamericana contemporanea. No se pierdan toda la programación! Pueden ver los horarios AQUÍ. Talleres, ferias, charlas y entrevistas – habra de todo, sobre TODO! ————————————————————————————————— Tenemos una nueva subasta para compartir con ustedes! El gran Michael DeForge nos ha donado tres dibujos a beneficio de la escuela – cada dibujo es sobre una cartulina tamaño A4 en crayón. Son de 2014. Cada dibujo estará disponible por separado. Más detalles acerca de la subasta está aquí. ————————————————————————————————— Echa un vistazo a este medallón estilo Pompeii! “Le encargué a la gran Airi Maeno que hiciera unos medallones de plata con sede fuera de mis dibujos. Este dibujo viende de mi libro Pompeii. Es algo que puedo imaginar que alguien se pondría hace dos mil años. Un simple medallón de un ser querido. Un retrato. Algo permanente para desafiar a la desaparición”. – Frank Santoro Puedes comprar uno aquí! ————————————————————————————————— hasta la proxima! Juan Share this page: [...]

01/13/2017

Sally IngrahamJanuary 12, 2017NewsSally here, reveling in this week’s collection of cool women who have made or are currently making comics: Elizabeth Stohn, Julie Doucet, Rachel Masilamani, Jessica Abel, Sarah Glidden, Audra Stang, and more! ————————————————————————————————— I’m delighted that we are featuring Rachel Masilamani here on the site this week. Juan Fernandez wrote a thoughtful piece about her comics, highlighting work made between 2000 and 2013. Rachel began making comics in Baltimore in 1997, and has stuck with the form through thick and thin. She won a Xeric Foundation grant, moved to Pittsburgh, became a librarian, started a family, and never stopped self-publishing her comics, which often deal with intense subject matters. I am a big fan of her work and have so much respect for her as a creator – it’s an honor to share the city of Pittsburgh with badass cartoonists like Rachel. Read Juan’s thoughts on her work HERE. Juan doesn’t dig into Rachel’s more recent work, the NON PARTUM series that she published on Mutha Magazine – you can check those comics out HERE. Megan Purdy of Women Write About Comics composed a collection of essays about the comics as they were coming out in early 2015. Here are her thoughts on Plan B-200, followed by The Subject, Spontaneous, Habitual, Inevitable, and finally We Conceive. ————————————————————————————————— Dan Nadel shared this incredible blog post about the work of Elizabeth Stohn on The Comics Journal this week. The author of the post – Jim Linderman – found these comic strips (above) in a sketchbook and gathered as much info as he could about the young woman who made them 100 years ago. Really cool stuff – be sure to check it out. (Make time also to peruse Jim’s blog further – he’s been called “one of the world’s greatest pickers” by the New York Times, and his blog and the books he’s authored about the bits of American art and history he collects are wonderful!) ————————————————————————————————— Sarah Glidden has a new comic up on Tablet called A Temple in Time. “When the news became too much to bear, I tried observing an ‘internet Shabbat,’ where I could unplug one day a week. It didn’t quite work as planned.” The first page is shown above – you can read the rest is HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I got to read Jessica Abel‘s Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars while working at Copacetic Comics this week – I’d been looking forward to it for awhile. I love the world of rollerderby, and Jessica has basically taken that sport and propelled it into the future. Life on Mars is tough, and 15-year old Trish wants to become a pro “hoverderby” player and escape her family’s moisture farm. Things start to work out for her and her dream is within reach, but then a native Martian shows up and may just “dust” her plans. As it says on the Trish Trash website: “Check Trish out if you (or someone you love) is totally into sci-fi, rollerderby, reading about kickass girls, reading about kickass girls who are not white, and/or semi-dystopian post-environmental-collapse speculative fiction (oh wait, that’s everyone, isn’t it?).“ It certainly describes me, and despite not being entirely engrossed by the story I still have high hopes for it’s continued development. The “behind the scenes” Tumblr for the book is pretty fun, so while we’re waiting for the next installment you can explore the concept of rollerderby + Mars to your heart’s content. ————————————————————————————————— Poking around the 2dcloud website recently revealed an interview with Julie Doucet. It’s unclear who conducted the interview with her – the whole thing is oddly formatted and frankly frustrating to read – but it was interesting to dig into some of Julie’s thoughts about her present work, and her continuing relationship with comics – which is at the moment one of disconnect and disinterest, and extreme frustration over people trying to MAKE her current work “still be comics” in some fashion. “Julie: i simply had more than enough of it when i quit. had enough of the all boy crowd (something i was comfortable with for a long time) i simply lost interest in it. of course i kept reading my friends comics, but no more than that. when i say i feel i can’t connect, i mean i don’t know what’s going on in comics these days, i’m totally out of touch, i don’t know what the hell comics people are talking about, don’t know the new names, the new titles, the new publishers etc… 2dcloud: Reading Julie Delporte’s beautiful Journal recently, she mentions something about your new work still being comics in its own way. Do you think of your work in this way? Julie: i am not sure i agree with what Julie Delporte says. i work pretty much with words only! what i do is more like Dada poetry, if you like…i swear comics people INSIST to death, i HAVE to be doing comics whatever i do!! i’ve heard that kind of affirmation one million times!!! i don’t get it! why isn’t it normal to to other things?? like in visual arts, you can do whatever you like and be coherent in your work. why why why why am i not allowed to do just that?“ Check out the rest of the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Various and Sundry’s Sara Lautman completes her week as The Comic Journal‘s diarist – her comics are HERE. She Does the City conducted a lovely interview with Annie Koyama this week – HERE. Mariana Harkness is organizing Headlocks for Hope – a fundraiser that brings pro-wrestling fans together in support of Planned Parenthood and The Southern Poverty Law Center. Check out the campaign HERE and pick up some artwork by Mariana, Box Brown, Pete Faecke, and others. Lauren Weinstein‘s strip on The Village Voice is quite exciting this week… The Rockettes Start the Revolution! Miranda Harmon drew up her memories from attending MICE last year – and shared a resolution: “In the coming years I will continue to make things, and resist, and survive.“ Eleanor Davis‘ upcoming You & A Bike & A Road (Koyama Press, May 26th 2017) made the National Post‘s list of 5 graphic books that are “a winning draw for 2017“. ————————————————————————————————— Superstar Comics Workbook student Audra Stang is back in Pittsburgh for her second Rowhouse Residency! She joined us in July of 2016 for a long weekend and drew the entire first draft of her comic Pale, Sick, and Magic (read it HERE – also check out Rob Clough’s review of that comic, as well as Love My Like an Autograph HERE.) Audra is joining us for a week this time. She is christening the new residency space for us, filling it with index card drawings and good energy – and digging into her new long-form comic project with the determination of a recent college grad who has every intention of making comics a lifetime adventure, and not just the thing she fought with her art professors about for 4 years…! It’s thrilling to have her back and I can’t wait to see what Audra gets done in the next week. You can read about her first residency experience HERE. If you are interested in applying for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency or just looking for more info, visit this page or email santoroschoolATgmail – we will happily answer any questions you might have! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-13-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-13-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-13-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

06/29/2017

Sally IngrahamJune 29, 2017NewsSam Ombiri on Simon Moreton’s “Plans We Made”; PBS looks at Comics In Transit; catching up with Ronald Wimberly; Indie publishers/inclusive comics; and more. ———————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: Plans We Made by Simon Moreton is a great book. It’s been a comic that excites everyone I show the book to. For some reason I found myself comparing it to New School by Dash Shaw, although in my mind these two books don’t complement each other at all. They’re very different books. New School feels like an Adventure Comic and Plans We Made feels like Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes. The connection is that as the reader you are demanded by the book in both cases to project your attitude into the comic. Of course every comic does this, but New School and Plans We Made are books that are really asking you, very loudly, “Know what I mean?” It’s like this weird extreme where it’s not the most familiar territory, but in sacrificing familiarity, it ends up being the most familiar. I was thinking about how Dash Shaw said the intent of the dumb line is to add ambiguity to the story. Maybe I’m remembering it all wrong, but maybe the reader would project more into the story. I guess the first part of the idea is that it’s like the person making the drawing makes the drawing what it is. Like a cool guy is making marks like a cool guy would, and the dumb line tells you it could be anyone who drew this, and it’s maybe more a reflection of you, the reader, that determines the attitude it’s drawn with. I didn’t interact with New School this way too too much, I was just into the way the drawings looked, but the way New School was drawn was more for Dash himself than the reader. He’s introducing the dumb line so he doesn’t have to re-summon the same exact attitude every time he’s drawing, so he draws with what he quotes Mazzucchelli saying, “a line that doesn’t know what it’s saying.” The personal connections I made in New School were maybe more, because of specific circumstance and situations that ended up overlapping with Danny, or what Dash described as the feeling of what he felt when he went to Japan. Whereas for Plans We Made, I hadn’t had 97% of the specific experiences, but I could relate to it more. At times, I could say I had a similar feeling, but in both cases it seems that both cartoonists are removing this idea of what happened being a specific thing that only happened to them, and seem interested in the idea of it having happened to other people as well. Simon seems way, way more interested in pursuing this than Dash is. There’s this great sequence in Plans We Made, where Simon’s misery is being reenacted by his drunk friend, like it manifests in his drunk friend, and there’s isn’t a huge distinction made between the two characters, so the feeling transfers seamlessly in between the two of them. Dash feels like he doesn’t rush straight to his goal, he takes a long winding path and barely cares if he gets there, but spares no effort. He only cares for the spirit or the attitude that comes with trying to get “there”(that’s kind of my theory on Kramers 8‘s theme btw, like when Sammy Harkham’s describing the mysterious characteristics of the cartoonists that were picked for it). The way I was introduced to Plans We Made was that I should read it like those faceless characters are people you’ve known. It’s never a big deal that these characters are faceless – it feels needed for the drawings. It doesn’t have this unnatural feeling, like say how in Yokoyama’s books there are those characters who can’t, characters who don’t, exhibit any emotion on their faces besides their suspicious scowl. Simon, at least from what I gather, isn’t so concerned with making a huge statement on the comics form, something that’s against previously conceived thoughts of what comics are. New School is pushing a new way of looking at color or approaching color and line work, but there are also undertones in the story in New School. For example with Clockwork, or this fictional idea of an avant garde theme park movement of consciously challenging the form for the sake of challenging it, reveling in the supposed immaturity of it, and being unapologetically romantic regarding the direction it will take the form, whatever it may be. I’d even argue with the title of New School, keyword being “New” – it’s all about making a grand statement in the form. Not so much with Simon – he just contextualizes himself as lazy. One of my favorite pages is him saying in a similar tone to the rest of the book, “Wrote awful songs,” and a great drawing of him sitting with guitar (pictured above). – Sam Ombiri Get a copy of Plans We Made from Uncivilized books – HERE. 6-29-2017 – by Sam Ombiri ———————————————————————————————— Sally here – Johnathon Dalton spoke to the PBS News Hour earlier this week about his part in the Comics In Transit project. Comics In Transit was started by the Cloudscape Comics collective, based out of Vancouver, Canada, and since 2015 it has been placing comics featuring refugees’ stories in bus transit stations. “In 2015, Canada began that country’s largest refugee resettlement program since the Vietnam War. Over the last year-and-a-half, 45,000 Syrian refugees have made Canada their home, more than double those admitted in the U.S.“ Johnathon’s comic is about Mohammed Alsaleh, who was imprisoned after documenting a protest and uploading pictures to the web. He was eventually released, but decided to leave Syria rather than risk being arrested again. The comic will appear in a bus shelter in Vancouver later this year. You can read more about the story HERE. ———————————————————————————————— The above video was made by Ronald Wimberly and Chase Conley for Nike. You can see a bunch of process pics and other related imagery on Ron’s Instagram – HERE. Also from the world of Ronald Wimberly comes the news that his comic Gratnin is back on the comics app Stela. “GRATNIN is short for Gratuitous Ninja. KGMR stands for Kyoku-gen Muron-Ryu, a style of ninjutsu practiced by the now pacifist Namba family who run a karate/yoga-studio/farm/food co-op out of Gowanus Brooklyn. The Namba take in three local delinquents and teach them ninjutsu. When the new chunin break clan rules to fight a couple of local trap boys they wind up making more problems then they solve. How to get the comic? Download the Stela Unlimited app here: -iOS: http://bit.ly/2eQc4om -Android: http://bit.ly/2f14Idm“ It can be hard to keep up with Ron – he rides the high and fast currents of the world, always moving and grooving – so for those of us on the slower planes, he provides the Wimberly Newsletter – sign up for it HERE! ———————————————————————————————— Huffpost reports that Indie comics publishers are doing a better job at being inclusive than mainstream ones. Not shocking. The piece features video comments from Roxane Gay, author of the Black Panther spin-off series World of Wakanda and Marvel’s first black female writer. Incidentally, both series’ have recently been canceled. While Marvel and DC are fighting it out with their sales numbers, indie comics publishers are having more success at supporting interesting work and creators. “ “Inclusivity is absolutely important and is achieved by actively seeking out and embracing voices that might otherwise not be heard if we didn’t provide them a platform,” Eric Reynolds, associate publisher of Fantagraphics, told HuffPost. Dafna Pleban, an editor at another alternative comic publisher, BOOM! Studios, echoed this sentiment. “I don’t think inclusivity can be achieved in one fell swoop.” she said. “I think it’s a process, and it’s something that we’re constantly working on to improve and grow. I think we can be better. Luckily, BOOM! Studios has been a place where they’ve encouraged us to reach out to creators that excite us and develop stories that inspire us, not just what we might think can sell now.” ” Read the rest of the Huffpost article HERE. A piece at Vox earlier this month cited the comic industry’s sales structure as the root of the problem – and the only solution at the moment to keeping diverse, inclusive comics on the shelves is to work with the system and pre-order them. “The comic book industry isn’t going to magically change its distribution system overnight, and in order to flourish within the system, comic books must be preordered. Since comic books are sold to retailers as final sale and are ordered three months in advance, walking into your local comic book shop and buying a book off the shelf does nothing to directly support the book in the eyes of the publisher or Diamond’s sales. The only real way around this is to preorder a book from your local shop in advance of its release, which alerts the shop owner that there’s interest in a title, and that they should stock it in on their shelves.“ Read the rest of the Vox article HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Todd Hignite Comic Art is the new official representative of art sales for Jaime Hernandez and a select few other contemporary comics artists, including Daniel Clowes and Julie Doucet. Todd Hignite plans to use the site not only to facilitate the art sales but to maintain a conversation about the artists and their ongoing work. Read more HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-29-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-29-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

10/24/2018

Juan FernándezOctober 24, 2018NewsJuan and Andrew with an invitation to participate in 2018’s #30dayscomics Juan here! November is right around the corner which means that not only will I finally let myself turn on the heat at my apartment in Pittsburgh, but #30dayscomics will soon be upon us! As the weather chills and most of us become indoor creatures in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s good to come together by working on and sharing comics making challenges, connected by the internet. For those who don’t know, 30 Days of Comics is a month-long challenge. The parameters are pretty simple: Make 1 comic a day for the month of November. They can be anything you like, any format, any style, though most people do 1 page or 1 strip. Just do it everyday. This November, I’m excited to be able to allocate some time (likely at work) to working on my esperanza00 series and to see where these neurotrash digital collages of drawings, jpegs, clippings from articles, poems and facebook posts take me. The idea will be to create a 4 panel comic composed of 3-6 colors in this fashion daily: Needless to say, I’m excited. Here at Comics Workbook we’d like to invite you to participate in this year’s comics making journey. With me today is Andrew White to tell you more about a little this year’s #30dayscomics. Take it away Andrew. Starting on November 1st, I’m going to draw and post one comic per day for a month. I’ve done this almost every year since 2012, with varying success in terms of getting to the end of the month and in terms of the work itself. The cartoonist Derik Badman first took on this challenge, which he called 30 Days of Comics, in 2009 and invited others to join him in 2011. Derik describes the month as, “a time for experimentation, exploring short forms, and a great way to produce work.” That sounds about right to me. Often participants work with some kind of constraint, using the month to experiment with different approaches or new materials. See for example Kevin Czap’s A Lesson in Survival (2012), which appropriates text from Joni Mitchell and is visually very different from Kevin’s other work; or Simon Moreton’s set of printed zines produced near-daily; or Alyssa Berg’s Open Letter to Sleep (2016), an extended meditation on a single topic. Making one comic per day is of course a constraint itself. Personally, I’ve found the month most fruitful when I’ve gotten at a topic that I’ve been turning over in my mind for a while, which hopefully means that it will benefit from a rapid outpouring of work. The 30 Days of Comics Tumblr archive is another place to see how others have approached the month in the past. On that note, the community aspect of 30 Days has been essential for me. We encourage each other to keep going, and I’m still happy with the year when I riffed on the work of other participants. I’ve first met some dear friends thanks to 30 Days. Finally, implicit in the call to make comics daily for a month is the idea that making comics daily might not be possible through the rest of the year. We all benefit from a different balance between thinking about comics and making comics – and sometimes that balance is imposed externally by a day job or other life circumstance. We’re all affected, often negatively, by the idea that productivity is essential to our success as an artist, but we might wish we were more productive as well. For me, 30 Days helps with the difficult project of maintaining that balance. One comic per day isn’t too much work, but 30 comics in total is also significant. It’s okay if you miss a day. It’s okay if you aren’t happy with some of your work. This year I’ll be making four panel comics, inspired by people like Juan Fernandez and Madeleine Witt. My strips will be loosely based on this paper in the academic journal Science. I hope you’ll join us, and that you’ll use the hashtag #30dayscomics so that we can all find each other’s work! 10-24-2018 – Fifi Martinez 10-24-2018 – Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply