Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged El fruto prohibido, Elizabeth Casillas, Ghor Bosch, Jim Pluk, Julio César González, Liv Strömquist, Matador, Pablo Delcielo, Raquel Echinique

Juan Fernández

Posted on April 4, 2018April 4, 2018

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07/20/2018

Sally IngrahamJuly 19, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with a look at Lale Westvind’s Grip Vol. 1! ————————————————————————————————— I am usually swept along by Lale Westvind‘s work, but her latest comic – Grip Vol. 1 – swept me away. It “grips” you immediately, as your eye catches sight of the bright screen-printed cover and the lovely risograph interiors. The rise of riso printing has brought a wealth of pretty books, but a pretty book does not always equal a great comic. Lale’s voracious drawing style and the way she bends the comics medium to her will is in this case thrillingly complimented by the work of Chicago-based Perfectly Acceptable Press. Lale’s storytelling is particularly good in this comic. It begins with a transformative encounter with a force that sets the hands of the protagonist in motion. Her hands remain the focus of the story throughout, visually and thematically. She moves from one adventure to another, from one job to the next, meeting people and traveling, and her hands manipulate and influence what happens around her both at her will and perhaps against it. Without words and using only a few written sound effects, Lale Westvind crafts a moving tribute to working women, a wild celebration of female power and skill. Whether sorting mail, serving tables, piloting aircraft, traversing mountain heights, or sharing long significant eye-contact, the women in Lale’s comic are moving, building, holding the world together while tearing it apart. Although there is no regular rhythm in the structure of the panels, there are a lot of interesting design choices from spread to spread. There are visual rhymes and mirroring that I find satisfying, and a color scheme that balances and harmonizes with the lines. Grip Vol. 1 mixes reality with fantasy in a way that feels familiar to me. It’s like Lale got inside my head – and likely the heads of many women – and illustrated how the work of the moment, the task at hand, is transformed by the inner fantasies and landscapes of the heart, the joyous and violent riot of thought that leads to action or survival. Whether physically or metaphorically, often getting a grip and keeping it becomes the only motion that really matters. Recommended. Get a copy of the comic HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-20-2018 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

01/22/2018

Caleb OrecchioJanuary 22, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Brandon Graham’s daily diary comics and other news. ————————————————————————————————— Lately, I’ve been intrigued by Brandon Graham’s daily comics he posts to social media. He posted them on his blog too. The simplicity is really nice structurally and tonally. Often the strips include whatever he’s thinking about that day, or what music he’s listening to. Sometimes these reflect very personal and revealing aspects of his life, while other times he just seems to let his mind wander and his lines and words fill the page. These are nice to read, and the benefit of improvisation lends itself to a simple, downward reading style—your eye starts on the top left-hand of the page and follows the strip down to the lower right-hand side. All the incredibly detailed gimmicks and intricacies of his professional work (i.e. King City and Multiple Warheads) are basically non-existent here, in a good way. Now don’t get me wrong, I generally love Graham’s work. His ability to make interesting images is not to be taken lightly and every new Brandon Graham release is an event unto itself in my house. However, in imperfect light, I simply can’t read Multiple Warheads. Often all the very pretty colors jump out at me at once and my eyes have to really focus to absorb the work as intended by the author. Plus, take into account the consistently inconsistent structural integrity of a Graham comic and I’ve got me a headache. His black and white work is often easier on the eyes, but still lacks a cohesive composition to allow for effortless reading that flows steadily. Maybe some would consider me a lazy reader, color blind and biased towards more Comics Workbook-y grid type comics, and I am biased for sure. That being said, I’m trying to make a point. Compared to King City and Warheads, Graham’s recent daily comics are very rough but to me they are actually much more inviting and enjoyable to read aesthetically at the moment. Whether it’s the content or the actual drawing (drawing: which I should point out, is different from inking), these daily comics feel particularly essential. Maybe it’s just my mood, but meandering thoughts by way of improved lines on paper feel pertinent right now. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Michael Cavna on the work and career of legendary Pittsburgh cartoonist, Jackie Ormes, over at the Washington Post in lieu of Ormes’ induction into The Will Esiner Hall of Fame. Cailla Baasch Anderson gives some details into how lawyers are using comics to make legal contracts easier to understand. Phillippe LeBlanc writes about the Uncivilized Books series, Structures over at Your Chicken Enemy. Rob Kirby is the latest guest on Comic Book Decalogue. ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-22-2018 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-22-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

01/30/2018

Aaron CockleJanuary 30, 2018NewsAaron here today with Louise Nevelson; Jennifer Ley; Comic Contracts ————————————————————————————————— Louise Nevelson: Black & White Feb 01, 2018 – Mar 03, 2018 Pace Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Louise Nevelson, marking the gallery’s twenty-seventh solo show for the artist since 1963. The exhibition brings together approximately 20 of Nevelson’s iconic black and white painted wood sculptures, wall reliefs, and installations from the late 1950s through the late 1980s. Louise Nevelson: Black & White will be on view from February 1 through March 3, 2018 at 537 West 24th Street, with an opening reception on Thursday, February 1 from 6 – 8 pm. A full-color catalogue accompanies the exhibition. ————————————————————————————————— Inside Club 57: A Conversation with Artist Jennifer Ley Tuesday, February 13, 1:30pm, The Museum of Modern Art Join us for a conversation with artist Jennifer Ley, who moved to New York City and joined the circle around Club 57 in the late 1970s. An ad gal by day, she created fashion satire and early music videos by night. We will talk about her photo xerox series As Never Seen in Seventeen, handmade pins, and films. The discussion is moderated by educator Petra Pankow. ————————————————————————————————— Comic contracts and other ways to make the law understandable The above comic is a full non-disclosure agreement. Three pictures with text. And the result? Users actually read it and get the basic idea of non-disclosure. No more disputes arose. Are you wondering if this is all legally binding? The answer is yes. Contracts are about intention – and if it is actually made clearer and understandable by pictures then all the better. ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 1-30-2018 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-30-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/20/2016

Juan FernándezApril 20, 2016News Comics Workbook: El Rincón: Tiktok; The Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press collectio; Libros Mutantes ’16; Feria Internacional del Libro Bogotá; Úlcera; El Tiempo de Mi Casa; Chancha via Circuito. Buenos dias a todos y bienvenidos a esta nueva émision del Rincón! Juan here with your Wednesday Spanish and South American comics round up. Let’s start off with the juicy stuff, the stuff you I’m betting you’ll get lost in. Empezemos con lo mas jugoso! —————————————————————————— Tapeando con los comics Tiktok TikTok Comics is an online comics hub for a kaleidoscope visually experimental comics centered around Spain. They offer their comics in Spanish AND English. Quienes son Tiktok? Somos una pequeña organización polimorfa sin ánimo de lucro ubicada en el Estrecho de Herschel. Este es un espacio-tiempo dedicado al cómic porque sí. ¡Disfrutadlo! Es una orden. Tik-tok-tik-tok… We are a small polymorphous organization located in the Strait of Herschel. This is a space-time devoted to comics for no reason. Enjoy it! That’s an order. Tik-tok-tik-tok … The site is curated and edited by Alexis Nolla, Marc Gustá, Andrés Magán, Ana Galvañ, Pau Anglada y Miriam Persand. They have so many wide ranging comics contributions, it’s hard to know where to start! If you need help, check out the authors section. No te pierdas en los archivos! Don’t get lost in the archives! – You’re going to want to bookmark this one. Or at least make sure you follow them on twitter or tumblr as they update a couple of times every week. —————————————————————————— Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press Collection Thanks to the University of Arizona there is now a database you can peruse, full of 150 years of regionally published newspapers chronicling Mexican and Mexican-Amercan history online. Among the 20 publications that have been curated, researched and digitized for the Historic Mexican and Mexican-American Press Archive you’ll find political cartoons in their natural context about the border from 100 years ago. Entre todas las 20 publicaciones del archivo encontraras bastantes caricaturas políticas sobre la frontera Mexicana desde hace un siglo. Dig around and see what you can find. No te imaginas lo que podrás encontrar… I suggest exploring the El Paso Morning Times. It is an especially good comics resource, chock a block with cartooning from 1914-1918. Tiras y caricaturas por todos lados! The Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press collection documents and showcases historic Mexican and Mexican American publications published in Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s. The collection covers important periods in Mexican-American history, from the Mexican Revolution to the Bracero Program to the Chicano Movement. There are about 1,900,000 Latino and Hispanic population in Arizona and more than 50 million in the United States. Having this collection available to the public through digitization of these materials, will raise awareness to issues that advance the image and identity of Latinos in American politics and media and their contributions to the United States. —————————————————————————— Libros Mutantes Esta feria en Madrid empieza este fin de semana y seguro que sera bien chula. This fair is sure to be a doozy. Lots of exciting programming. Libros Mutantes is focused on the relation between publishing and visual arts. Throughout the year they organize different events in order to bring this creative universe closer to the public. The main event in their calendar is Libros Mutantes Madrid Art Book Fair, held at La Casa Encendida. Since 2010, this Art Book Fair gathers a wide selection of national and international art books, independent publications and zines, and attracts a wide audience, making Libros Mutantes the largest and most comprehensive Spain-based project aimed at researching and spreading the creations of independent publishers. Autoeditoriales que son igualmentes “High y low”… There’s going to be so many books all over the spectrum, so self-publishing nerds you won’t want to miss this. —————————————————————————— Feria Internacional del Libro Bogotá From now until May 2nd, Bogotá is going hard with their international book fair. La Feria Internacional del Libro de Bogotá (Filbo) es el evento de promoción de la lectura y la industria editorial más importante de Colombia. You can think of FILBO as Colombia’s equivalent to ALA Conference. It’s big, and it’s a big deal to comics publishing houses! This year, Colombia has partnered up with the Netherlands to create a cross-cultural dialogue via literature. Empieza el conteo regresivo de la #FILBo2016 y queremos que tú seas el protagonista, ¿cuáles son tus recomendados? ?https://t.co/8wS0pbyA6b — Alcaldía de Bogotá (@AlcaldiaBogota) April 13, 2016 In light of this dialogue with the Netherlands, our friends over at Entreviñetas, one of Latin America’s leading comics festivals, are presenting a series of programs and exhibitions that celebrate 20th & 21st century dutch cartooning and comics making. Their collaboration Hola Holanda: es Cómic runs from April 25th – May 12th. Las tradiciones gráficas y narrativas de los Países Bajos han encontrado en el cómic un fértil camino para la creación de historias. Renovador a la vez que evocativo, tan fascinante por su delicadeza visual y su ingenio para el relato, el cómic revela una conversación inspiradora con la imagen y la palabra del pueblo neerlandés. La organización cultural Entreviñetas, a propósito de la participación de dicho país como invitado de honor a la Feria Internacional del Libro de Bogotá 2016, presenta un recorrido breve y múltiple por la obra de los autores más distintivos de las últimas décadas del siglo XX y las primeras del XXI. Son ellos quienes componen el novedoso panorama del cómic neerlandés. Invitamos así a una exposición que, de manera abierta y flexible en su cronología, exhibe por primera vez en Colombia el trabajo de 16 artistas en 80 piezas. *** On display for the first time in Colombia will be the work of 16 artists //Artistas en exhibición: Joost Swarte (1947, Heemstede) Peter Pontiac (1951, Beverwijk – 2015, Ámsterdam) TYPEX (1962, Ámsterdam) Erik Kriek (1966, Ámsterdam) Marcel Ruijters (1966, Róterdam) Barbara Stok (1970, Groningen) Tobias Schalken (1972,’s-Hertogenbosch) Milan Hulsing (1973, Ámsterdam) Boris Peeters (1974, Kampen), Lamelos collective Aleks Deurloo (1975, Kampen), Lamelos collective Sam Peeters (1976, Kampen), Lamelos collective Jeroen Funke (1976, Kampen), Lamelos collective Tim Ethoven (1985, Den Haag) Lennard Kok (1988, Utrecht) Aimée De Jongh (1988, Róterdam) Ludwig Volbeda (1990, Oosterhout) —————————————————————————— Puiupo + Pantazopoulos Over here in the states, Czap books has announced that they are publishing Brazil-based artists Puiupo and Adonis Pantazopoulos’ visceral sci-fi headtrip, Úlcera. From Kevin Czap it’s going to be “In the vein of Jodorowsky mixed with Masaaki Yuasa (Kaiba).” About the Artists Puiupo is a Portuguese cartoonist and animator whose work has appeared in a number of Portuguese anthologies like LODAÇAL COMIX, Journal Altamira, and Nemesis. Adonis Pantazopoulos, a self-described “corretor de imóveis,” makes comics and paintings, the former having appeared on Nébula. Learn more about Úlcera and order a copy here. —————————————————————————— Less than 24 hours left on our Benefit Auction – Consider supporting or sharing our efforts! https://t.co/PSV43StWpO pic.twitter.com/JTdyssGJZt — Rowhouse Residency (@comicsworkbook) April 19, 2016 BENEFIT AUCTION ENDS TODAY Now’s your chance to sweep in and make all the incredible art that Chris Ware donated to Comics Workbook yours. Your support is invaluable to us. Go on, bid before you miss your chance! http://www.ebay.com/sch/copaceticcomicscompany/m.html?_trksid=p3692 —————————————————————————— Here’s Chancha Via Circuito’s 2010 release, río arriba. Put it on and do your thing. Lo que te dé la gana. It’s slow and it spirals deep into you. Take it easy and take care. Cuidense, chicos. Share this page: [...]

09/23/2016

Sally IngrahamSeptember 23, 2016NewsSally here to finish the week with Carol Tyler at SPX, the women who took the Ignatz Awards, Anya Davidson, Dame Darcy, V. Vale and RE/Search, Phoebe Gloeckner, and other Friday tidbits. ————————————————————————————————— One of my favorite parts of helping with the Comics Workbook hosted workshops at SPX last weekend was getting to meet Carol Tyler and dig into the process and story behind the making of Soldier’s Heart: The Campaign to Understand my WWII Veteran Father. It was a long and difficult journey, and one that favorite pens and a good scanner helped get her through – the type of details that other cartoonists in the audience ate up! We will have our own video footage from that excellent talk soon, but for the moment Derek Royal has a podcast interview with her over on Comics Alternative – “They spend a good deal of time talking about the current state of veteran’s affairs, the debilitating effects of PTSD, and how Soldier’s Heart both has and hasn’t resonated within the veteran’s community. Carol also discusses the current projects she has underway, including a follow up (sort of) to her father’s story and a project documenting the days leading up to her attending The Beatles concert at Comiskey Park in August 1965. As she tells Derek, in that work she’ll be channeling her inner 13-year-old-girl self. This is a moving and, at times, a deeply personal interview, one that reflects the sheer impact of Carol Tyler’s writing.” – Comics Alternative Check out the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Although the list of Ignatz nominations was tipped toward male creators, in the end it was women who soundly won the day, with Tillie Walden earning two nods. “Walden was voted outstanding artist for her debut graphic novel, “The End of Summer,” and named most promising new talent for “I Love This Part.” Elsewhere, former Brooklyn studiomates Kate Beaton, Lisa Hanawalt and Meredith Gran all picked up Ignatz “brick” trophies. The event was held at the Bethesda North Marriott convention center.” – Michael Cavna at The Washington Post Michael Cavna has the full list of Ignatz Award Winners HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I didn’t get a chance to say hello to Anya Davidson while running around SPX, but I am eager to find a moment to sit down and read Band For Life, with debuted at the show last weekend. Keep an eye out for it in your local comic book shops in the coming weeks! ————————————————————————————————— Over on The Portland Mercury Dame Darcy gets a shoutout for her Meat Cake Bible – which is part of the proof in the pudding that history is full of female cartoonists – “When the great authorities of comics leave women out of their history, we listicle and fume. It feels like a victory, but I also worry such rants are only seen by people who already care about gender equality. That’s why it’s important to see Darcy’s groundbreaking comics wrapped up in a book so worthy of them. This tome cements it. Dame Darcy is an irrevocable part of comics history. I dare those French comics dads to ignore her now. Like any true independent spirit, Darcy is arriving, even if it is later than her due. The world is catching up.” – The Portland Mercury Read the rest of the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Over on Vice Nick Gazin digs into a different comics-related event that took place last weekend – The New York Art Book Fair. He wasn’t overwhelmingly delighted with it, but his report is worth scanning through if just for the few moments he spends with V. Vale, creator of RE/Search. “While other people at neighboring booths were making bootleg merchandise that ripped off cultures they weren’t a part of, Vale created and steered culture with these books. The Industrial Handbook, the book he’s holding, informed and helped give birth to whatever industrial turned into. Modern Primitives helped spawn the modern body piercing and giant full body tattoo culture. The RE/Search book of Pranks (titled Pranks!) is just one of the best books ever made and will give any oddball or misanthropic recluse hope.” – Nick Gazin Check out the full report HERE. ————————————————————————————————— When I think about RE/Search I think about Phoebe Gloeckner and The Atrocity Exhibition. I’ve always been interested in her background as a medical illustrator – in an interview with Varoom! she talked about working on The Atrocity Exhibition – “The illustrations inside are cold but soft. I wanted them to be harmless and approachable, like doing a fuzzy animal, so they have some humanity. It isn’t because of what they are but because of that softness, not rejecting of humanity. I tried to make them beautiful. I didn’t want it to be horror. It has impermanence but this is beauty as we live it.” – Phoebe Gloeckner Read the whole interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— A few other things that have caught my eye recently – The animation in this video is by Jon Vermilyea (who was a production manager for PictureBox back in the day). ————————————————————————————————— Sophia Fs was working on a comic for the Comics Workbook Composition Competition earlier this month when she was hospitalized – she recently posted the finished work on her tumblr – check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— 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. Details about both and where to order them can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Have a good weekend folks – Happy Autumn, and Happy Birthday to John Coltrane too. Drink some pumpkin beers and listen to some jazz, won’t you. See you next week. – Sally Share this page: [...]

04/04/2018

Posted on April 4, 2018April 4, 2018 by Juan Fernández

Raquel Echenique, Jim Puk, y un poquito sobre El Fruto Prohibido!

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

Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con Raquel Echenique acerca de sus influencias, el lugar en donde pasó su infancia, su trabajo, muestran sus referentes, hablan de su amor por el cómic y se Echenique confiesa como rabiosa, entre muchas otras cosas.

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Entrevista a Ghor Bosch (2015) – dibujado por Pablo Delcielo – publicado en Buenos Aires por Yegua ediciones.

Este comic es parte de una serie de entrevistas imaginiarias, que son bastante graciosas y serias con Ghor Bosch aunque.

Léanlo AQUI.

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Caricaturista colombiano ‘Matador’ deja de usar redes sociales por amenazas de muerte

Julio César González, más conocido como ‘Matador’ por sus caricaturas en el diario El Tiempo, anunció en la madrugada de este martes su retiro de las redes sociales, después de haber estado en el ojo del huracán durante varias semanas luego de haber personificado al candidato uribista, Iván Duque, como un cerdo en varias de sus publicaciones.

Aunque hace menos de dos semanas la Jueza Hilda María Saffon negó una tutela interpuesta contra el caricaturista por el dibujo titulado ‘Duque reflexiona’, argumentando que “la creatividad e ingenio del caricaturista no debe limitarse por quienes no comparten su opinión”, los simpatizantes del Centro Democrático y el expresidente Uribe no han cesado de expresarle su descontento con insultos y agresiones en medio de la contienda electoral.

Léanlo todo en El Espectador

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Jim Pluk – @jimpluk

Estaré publicando en las historias de mi Instagram ( @jimpluk ) algunos cómics de autores contemporáneos que recomiendo personalmente, por si quieren indagar más sobre estos, tanto Colombianos como extranjeros. Estos posts estarán bajo el hashtag #leacomix y #hagacomix

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Por qué lo llaman vagina cuando quieren decir vulva – Elizabeth Casillas

Puede que sea uno de los tebeos más controvertidos que vayas a leer este año, y no precisamente por decir sandeces. La historietista sueca Liv Strömquist firma El fruto prohibido (Reservoir Books, 2018), un cómic que repasa la historia cultural de la vulva con argumentación teórica pero, sobre todo, mucho humor.

Anuncios de compresas o tampones que recurren, en exceso, a las palabras “limpia” y “segura”. Señores que se preocupan, en exceso, de lo que suele denominarse «el órgano sexual femenino». Autoridades, organizaciones, periódicos, médicos y demás organismos empeñados, en exceso, de producir (des)información sobre el sexo. Y así sucesivamente, Liv Strömquist termina enumerando una serie de cosas que están mal (muy mal) en nuestra sociedad en lo que a la mujer y su sexo se refiere.

Léanlo todo en REVISTA CACTUS

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Suzy and Cecil – 4-4-2018 – by Sally Ingraham

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Joanie and Jordie – 4-4-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged El fruto prohibido, Elizabeth Casillas, Ghor Bosch, Jim Pluk, Julio César González, Liv Strömquist, Matador, Pablo Delcielo, Raquel Echinique

Juan Fernández

Posted on April 4, 2018April 4, 2018

Explore

03/14/2017

Aaron CockleMarch 13, 2017NewsAaron here today with Gloeckner/Gfrörer; Mirror Mirror 2; Thi Bui; Felat Delibalto; Anti-fiction, Anti-story; RIP Gustav Metzger ————————————————————————————————— Why are we talking about me, anyway? Let’s talk about you! Phoebe Gloeckner interviewed Julia Gfrörer at the TCJ blog, lots of good stuff to read and think about: GLOECKNER: The general neutrality of their appearance makes it seem all the more normal. You could project anything onto those people. GFRÖRER: This gets back to what to what we were talking about earlier, about how you don’t have a perception of yourself as a unique individual. To you, you’re the default, and everyone else is some weird variation on that. Right, and interesting, therefore. The idea that the neutral body is a thin, white body. That’s very political. It is. There is no neutral default body. There is none. That’s culturally constructed as the default. But it feels like, in your work, like you’re neutralizing those bodies, somehow. Yeah. Because that’s my relationship to it. That’s the body that I have. It feels neutral to me. It’s not something that I have moved outside of, because I feel so consumed by the puzzle of my own body. If it feels neutral to you because you’re housed in the same sort of casing as your characters, then does that subtract the political meaning from it? That’s what artists do. They project themselves — I think the political action in my work is that I want to show women as actors, rather than a receptive or decorative object. ————————————————————————————————— horror / pornography / the Gothic / the abject Additionally, Gfrörer has co-edited (with Sean T. Collins) the 2nd issue of 2dcloud’s Mirror Mirror anthology: featuring new comics and drawings by Lala Albert / Clive Barker / Heather Benjamin / Sean Christensen / Nicole Claveloux / Sean T. Collins / Al Columbia / Dame Darcy / Noel Freibert / Renee French / Meaghan Garvey / Julia Gfrörer / Simon Hanselmann / Hellen Jo / Hadrianus Junius / Aidan Koch / Laura Lannes / Céline Loup / Uno Moralez / Mou / Chloe Piene / Josh Simmons / Carol Swain Available via 2dcloud’s Kickstarter for its Spring Collection. ————————————————————————————————— ‘I learned about America mostly through books and TV.’ Robert Kirby reviews Thi Bui’s illustrated memoir, The Best We Could Do: With the issue of immigration currently hitting full boil stateside, the 2017 publication of The Best We Could Do couldn’t be more timely, or more welcome. Bui’s story movingly puts a human face to new arrivals to our country, illuminating the background of their lives and struggles. Contrary to the rhetoric of the most reactionary U.S. right-wing factions, immigrants are people, not statistics–more than the sum of their homelands, more than the color of their skin. Bui depicts, with unsparing candor, the multiple traumas associated with being forced out of one’s country into the unknown. ————————————————————————————————— Turkey Has Imprisoned a Political Cartoonist for Over 120 Days Felat Delibalta via the Nib. ————————————————————————————————— ‘…to create a concentrated emotional impact’ Ethan Joella has some thoughts (37 of them!) on short fiction: 9 One way to flout the rules of the traditional short story has to do with length. As Philip Stevick puts it, “how short can a story be?”10 Pieces that are less than the usual length, usually referred to as “flash fiction” or “short shorts,” were originally viewed as inferior, inadequate. Critics seemed to feel as if length were a prerequisite for quality. In Stevick’s words, those stories were “likely to strike discriminating readers as gimmicky, tricksy pieces of commercial fluff whose shortness is possible only because of the slickness of their construction. How short can a serious fiction be? As short as one likes? That’s too easy an answer. A fiction must be long enough to display the art and craft of its writer, his own vision, his voice, his power. The minimal story, in fact, is an experiment no less audacious than the others.”11 10 The short but powerful story “Taboo” by Enrique Anderson Imbert is a mere snippet of a story. Only five sentences and four paragraphs long, it must have appeared to critics as a fraction of something real, an evasion of seriousness. The central character, Fabian, is warned by his guardian angel not to say the word doyen. Fabian repeats the word as a question, and the last sentence of the story reads: “And he dies,”12 a poignant climax. The value of this story actually lies in its simplicity, its directness and sharp detail. 11 Jamaica Kincaid is a groundbreaking writer. Her story “Girl,” for example, transfigures traditional fiction by toying with form. This particular story, less than three pages long, is written in only one long sentence. The piece is a series of phrases and exclamations separated by semicolons and linked by dashes: “… this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit….”13 12 Resembling a process-analysis instructional essay, “Girl” pithily conveys the lukewarm, peremptory sentiments of a cynical mother barking orders to her daughter so she will, in some way, succeed in life. Each word seems to be chosen vigilantly for maximum effect; each exclamation is pieced together like an intricate quilt. ————————————————————————————————— ‘a desperate last-minute subversive political weapon … an attack on the capitalist system … an attack also on art dealers and collectors who manipulate modern art for profit’ Artist Gustav Metzger has passed away at age 90. Mr. Metzger discovered his ideal medium for auto-destructive art with a form of action painting. Wearing a gas mask and protective goggles, he gave a dramatic demonstration of his work in the 1960s, spraying hydrochloric acid on nylon, which melted, curled and shredded into tatters. He executed the work at an outdoor site in London, revealing St. Paul’s Cathedral in the distance through acid-burned holes. “Auto-destructive art was never merely destructive,” he said in 2012. “Destroy a canvas, and you create shapes.” ————————————————————————————————— We are diving into a busy 2nd year of the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency! Interested in joining us for a week or more? Email santoroschool@gmail.com to learn how to apply. There are still openings in May, with a 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. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 3-14-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-14-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-14-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Cozytown – 3-14-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

05/02/2018

Juan FernándezMay 2, 2018los Cómics / News Marcela Trujillo, Power Paola, Elisa McCausland, Autoras de Cómic + Digital Comics Museum’s Access Month —————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ en Español y “sometimes in English” ~ —————————————— Digital Comics Museum – Access Month For this month of May 2018 every user who donates to the Digital Comics Museum, the best site for downloading FREE public domain Golden Age comic books, will be given FTP access as an alternate method to download files from the 21000+ Digital Comic Museum collection. For each dollar donated donors will receive 5 gigs of file downloads over the next 31 days from the day the donation was made. Click on the Donate link here (or at the top of the page) to contribute to the cause and receive your FTP login info in an email. For the last two years our FTP Access Month has been remarkably popular. Donations to the site are vital for keeping our server bill covered. These FTP Access Months help DCM build a reserve fund for those months we come up short in our monthly goal of $288 or if there is an emergency such as a hard drive that needs replacing in our servers. —————————————— De Frente Me Escondo – Cali, Colombia Este sábado 5 de mayo, desde las 3:00 p.m. en el Museo la Tertulia inaugurará la exposición y conversatorio “De frente, me escondo”, que intentará poner en escena el mundo de la artista colombo-ecuatoriana Power Paola con sus dibujos. —————————————— Marcela Trujillo y los Abusadores de Poder – Chile Hoy en el DesconCierto, dibujante Marcela Trujillo revela vergonzoso episodio de abuso de poder y acoso laboral de Rodrigo Salinas, Carlos Reyes y otros editores de Feroces Editores. Me acusaron que me había robado la plata. Llamé y les devolvieron la plata al día siguiente. Y a la semana hicieron programa en Internet donde invitaron a dibujantes y dijeron: ‘Invitamos a una dibujante chilena muy conocida, Marcela Trujillo, que venga Maliki’… y llegó una vedette argentina, casi en pelotas, con plumas, bailando. Estaban todos súper curados en el video. Le tocaban el poto, le ponían la cabeza entre las tetas y en la tele ponían ‘Marcela Trujillo, Maliki‘, ¡todos mis nombres! La hicieron dibujar y ella dibujó un corazón y empiezan ‘ah que dibuja bonito la Maliki’. Yo no lo podía creer, eran mis editores, mis amigos, eso no se puede hacer. Cómo tan machista, tan indigno. Después me llamó la hermana de Rodrigo para retarme porque hablaba mal de su hermano en Internet. Eso fue lo único que recibí de ellos, porque nunca nadie me pidió disculpas. Léanlo todo AQUI. —————————————— Fanzine Magazine – 26/04/2018 Ya disponible el #FanzineMagazine donde Mireia Pérez y Víctor Coyote hablan largo y tendido con Elisa McCausland sobre la trayectoria del colectivo de Autoras de Cómic y de otras cosas ocultas… Además Cynthia Alfonso les recomienda a viva voz sus canciones para dibujar. —————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-2-2018 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

06/23/2016

HarrisonJune 23, 2016NewsHarrison’s Daily News for June 23, 2016 starts off in the Salon, drops off midway with Inkbrick 5, and lands with some Busdriver. ————————————————————————————————— Salon Etiquette Your favorite correspondent’s favorite correspondent Juan Fernandez reflects on the latest meeting of the Pittsburgh Comics Salon. Ingest your daily vitamins of theory, modular grids, holding the center, and more below. http://comicsworkbook.com/notes-from-the-salon-june-18th-2016/ ————————————————————————————————— Visions Chris Visions was at Heroes Con last weekend, where Izzy Renzi took this photo. As soon as he got back… “’…all of a sudden, for no pahticulah reason… I decided to go for a little run…’ And draw.” Always moving. Check out The Chris Visions Summer Collection, 2016 ————————————————————————————————— Ink Squad Alexander Rothman: We’re proud to announce that INK BRICK no. 5 is now available for preorder from our online store! Yet again our submission pool brought us more excellent work than we could hope to print, and as a result this will be our largest to date. Part of the book is a special section excerpting Jenny Zervakis’s upcoming book Strange Growths, which will be published jointly by John Porcellino of Spit And A Half and Tom Hart of the Sequential Artists Workshop. ————————————————————————————————— GATOSAURIO Gatosaurio Grab Bags! Each includes one surprise tee, sticker pack, tote bag and enamel pin plus more surprises like zines, 90s tattoo chokers, a pocket notebook or a coin purse! inechi.com ————————————————————————————————— Color is Light I heart kokooma_, you should too. instagram.com/kokooma_ Quang Comics ————————————————————————————————— Thumbs “Po-pos don’t wan’t to follow me, when they see me in sneakers and cotton tees.” Busdriver Thumbs out now. Share this page: [...]

07/23/2018

Caleb OrecchioJuly 23, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here as always for the Monday edition of The Daily News! ————————————————————————————————— Okay so I was at Frank’s house and he had to answer some important emails or something so I sat in a comfy chair and started flipping through a bunch of Yokoyama books he had laying around. I started reading World Map Room when Frank turned on some music by Daily Life; you know, the band CF is in. The smooth symphonic melodies created this really nice atmosphere in the house that synchronized with my reading. The characters in the book started marching to the pace of the music. It was as if I was standing on some inter-dimensional harmonic crosshair. I was hypnotized by the coupling. I forgot Frank was a few feet away from me and I became one of Yokoyama’s characters moving through space, taking note of my bizarre surroundings. I felt myself sink further into the chair as if I was becoming more susceptible to gravity. The feeling was akin to dipping into a hot tub in winter. I finished World Map Room and began Garden. The record had repeated once or twice by this point and the familiarity with it’s pattern and with Yokoyama’s pacing intensified the hypnotic effect. Eventually, the mood changed. The music was turned down and the books set aside for conversation. I was back on Earth. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

04/19/2017

Juan FernándezApril 19, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con fanzine alacarta!; Chicks On Comicks; Berliac; Albert Monteys; Liniers; Pablo Selin; Mariana, a miserável; y los tebeos de Comics Workbook. ————————————————————————————————— Dibujos en femenino plural – El PAÍS os ofrece una toma sobre el mundo del cómic dibujado por mujeres. Más que nada, el enfásis es en la pluralidad de perspectivas. Las protagonistas de autoras como Gina Wybrandt, Flavita Banana, Raquel Riba, Monstruo Espagueti, Meritxell Bosch, Hardcore maternity… no son las mujeres hipersexualizadas de algunos cómics. Tienen vello, sus curvas son imperfectas, andan semidesnudas por su casa, tienen la regla y la sangre mancha (que parece que es un tabú), practican sexo o no lo practican y se quejan por ello… “Reflejo la normalidad”, dice Flavita Banana, que, como las demás, se inspira mirando alrededor. Todas tienen un toque desenfadado, irónico. Cada una en su línea pero con el humor muy presente y, a veces, con un punto de mala leche, de hacer que lo que cuentan sea una sacudida, que levante algunas ampollas. A pesar de que hay algunos temas como el de la bulimia que se trata en Yo, gorda, o el cáncer de mama, del que habla Jennifer Hayden en La historia de mis tetas (Reservoir Books), que son más femeninos porque por suerte para los hombres ellos sufren en un porcentaje mínimo estas enfermedades, cualquiera se puede sentir identificado con, por ejemplo, Lola Vendetta y la idea de hacer rodar cabezas (metafóricamente) cuando algo resulta desesperante. Y de esta empatía, al éxito. ————————————————————————————————— Inmersate en el mundo Ernesto Franco, el dibujante colombiana que creó ‘Copetín’, la tira cómica que esta semana cumple 55 años, con este tronco de perfil en EL TIEMPO. Una mañana de abril de 1962, un artista sin dinero y sin trabajo decidió probar suerte llevando unos dibujos al tradicional edificio de EL TIEMPO, en la avenida Jiménez con carrera 7.ª. Había cumplido 33 años y cargaba a cuestas varias quiebras económicas. Pero tenía una idea. Y esa idea cambió la vida del artista: Ernesto Franco. ————————————————————————————————— Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: fanzine alacarta! La segunda seccion de la nueva edicion de Panorama Federal sección esta dedicada a las historietas en una publicación muy especial realizada por 151 artistas, bajo la coordinación del colectivo Chicks On Comicks. “Arte” es el título de el fanzine gratuito que se distribuyó en la muestra que se realizó en la Fundación Proa. Dale un vistazo! Berliac‘s got some new comics on Vice – Asian Food Store Junkies – S01 E06 The fracas gets international… The Funny Pages, un extra de Orgullo y Satisfacción La historia de los cómics está trufada de maravillas olvidadas que pasaron desapercibidas en todo tipo de revistas y catálogos. Durante décadas, Albert Monteys ha estado recopilando y clasificando meticulosamente estos residuos de narrativa gráfica olvidados por el tiempo que ahora se presentan Audioentrevista con ilustrador Liniers – es Pura Mestiza nº3. Pablo Selin nos trae una hola de cómics nuevos en su sitio! Dale a los que se mueven! Perfil de fanzinera, Mariana, a miserável en la Revista Cactus – Con un estilo fresco y desenfadado, la artista portuguesa Mariana, a miserável muestra las escenas cotidianas de la vida a través de unas ilustraciones con regusto agridulce. Un golpe de realidad al dia. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-19-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-19-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-19-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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