Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged adam griffiths, african comics, caleb orecchio, jack brougham, kugali, lawrence "raw dog" hubbard, sally ingraham

Sally Ingraham

Posted on April 26, 2017

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02/24/2017

Sally IngrahamFebruary 24, 2017NewsSally here to finish the week with a very exciting announcement from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, and loads of work from lady comics makers world-wide! ————————————————————————————————— The best news this week is that Annie Koyama, owner and publisher of Koyama Press and a comics community cornerstone, has donated an outstanding collection of original artwork by contemporary American cartoonists to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, in Columbus, OH. The collection contains over 250 pieces by artists such as Lisa Hanawalt, Theo Ellsworth, Katie Skelly, Noah Van Sciver, Eleanor Davis, Dustin Harbin, Frank Santoro, Gabrielle Bell, Hellen Jo, Kevin Huizenga, and many more. Annie has been building the collection since 2013, and donating it to the BICLM was her intent from the beginning. This collection speaks volumes about Annie’s enthusiasm for the medium, her ongoing support for the artists in this community, and the importance she places in preserving this vital part of history. As Caitlin McGurk, Associate Curator of the BICLM, says: “What Annie Koyama has done for us is unprecedented, forward-thinking, and remarkable. Most cartoonists in this community make a livelihood by selling their original art to private collectors, which makes it more difficult for public research facilities like BICLM to obtain these essential works. Annie has not only supported these cartoonists, but has solidified their legacy by placing the collection at OSU where it can be preserved, accessed, and enjoyed for generations to come.“ The collection will be on view at the BICLM from May 6, 2018 – Sunday, October 21, 2018, coinciding with Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC). I can’t wait to see it! ————————————————————————————————— Gabrielle Bell has a new comic on VICE called The Nicest Dog – check out the first page above and the rest HERE. Her new book – Everything is Flammable – is coming out from Uncivilized Press on April 18th. ————————————————————————————————— Melissa Mendes and Anne Elizabeth Moore team up on Truthout to continue a comics journalism project (formerly called Ladydrawers – check out the complete archives HERE). The series, as you can see above, will deal with the water and housing crisis in Detroit. Updates monthly. The first section is HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Em DeMarco‘s recent comic in the Pittsburgh City Paper is about immigration rights – which are in constant flux these days, it seems. In English and Spanish – check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Secret Acres has announced that they will be releasing Keren Katz‘s debut comic at TCAF this year. From the press release: “The Academic Hour charts the romance between Pothel, a disgraced architecture professor, and his student, Liana. Told in a series of surreal, vibrant vignettes, and set in a fantastic, logic-defying college of shifting rooms and secret performance spaces,The Academic Hour affirms how an intense, fledgling relationship can ignite the impulse for storytelling with unbridled, ferocious creative energy.“ Keren’s illustrative work has garnered praise and numerous awards – I look forward to seeing what she does with the comics medium. In stores May 16th 2017. ————————————————————————————————— Peas and Carrots More, more, and more hype for Emil Ferris‘ My Favorite Thing Is Monsters – Hillary Brown interviews Emil for Paste Magazine; NPR featured the work on Fresh Air, calling the book “dazzling”; and The Comics Journal published Part 2 of their epic interview with the creator. Lauren Weinstein is sooooo cloooose to giving birth, but part of her wants to keep the kid inside a bit longer – according to her most recent comic in The Village Voice…! Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden is reviewed by Women Who Write About Comics. If you haven’t checked out the Women Who Draw database since the website crashed last year on day 3 of its existence, you should head over there now. It’s HUGE and it’s beautiful. G. Willow Wilson, who writes the Ms. Marvel comics, turns her pen to reviewing Angel Catbird, a comics project that Margaret Atwood is writing. Dig into it on Publisher’s Weekly. ————————————————————————————————— The Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers is starting soon! The semester has a rolling start date, but it will officially kick off on March 7th. We will continue taking applications past that date – Frank is always willing to make it work for your schedule. Just apply! Applications received by February 26th will get 100 bux off! The course is 8 weeks long – payment plans are available. More details can be found HERE. Email santoroschoolATgmail to apply ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 2-24-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-24-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-24-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-24-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

05/17/2017

Juan FernándezMay 17, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con Álvaro Pons; DisTinta; 11 autoras latinx; #HUL2017; Mujer y Comic; Bas; #gutterfest; Peter Jojaio; y los tebeos de Comics Workbook. ————————————————————————————————— La Cárcel de Papel nació como “el diario de un lector de tebeos” y en poco tiempo se convirtió en la referencia en la red para los amantes del cómic. Ahora, Álvaro Pons recupera en un volumen las mejores entradas que han ido apareciendo desde 2002. Se dice pronto en alicanteplaza.es: – El ritmo de La cárcel era frenético, una entrada al día durante mucho tiempo. Y era una dosis intensa, no cuatro líneas. – Confluyeron varias cosas. Al abrir La cárcel, pensaba más en un recopilatorio de artículos que iba escribiendo por ahí, siguiendo el ejemplo de los primeros blogs americanos. Pero luego mi verborrea natural me lleva a generar nuevos contenidos. Cuando me doy cuenta estoy escribiendo todos los días y, cuando se introducen los comentarios, eso tenía repercusión, la gente participaba y eso me animaba a hacer más contenidos. Al final se convirtió en una auténtica cárcel. – ¿Acabarías un poco hasta los güevos ¿no? – Sí, como te digo, acababa casi convertido en una auténtica cárcel, aunque igual no me daba cuenta porque lo hacía a muy a gusto, todo sea dicho. ————————————————————————————————— Andrea Guzmán le da un vistazo a la nueva antología argentina, DisTinta compilada por Martín Pérez y el dibujante Liniers: La historieta argentina debería estar muerta. Así de rotunda es la primera frase que abre el prólogo de DisTinta, la nueva antología compilada por Martín Pérez y el dibujante Liniers. Aunque esta contundente afirmación, aseguran los autores, no se trata de un deseo personal ni de una premonición pesimista, sino apenas de una constatación realista acerca de nuestra actualidad y nuestra forma de consumo cultural. Cada vez más digital, más efímera, menos narrativa, más pirotécnica. Lo bueno, es que aunque quizás debería estar muerta –o como afirman ellos, con suerte relegada a la nostalgia– la historieta argentina no solo continúa con vida, sino que respira con una energía renovada y sorprendente. Tanto así, que incluso esta selección –con sus imponentes 400 páginas a todo color, sus treinta y tres dibujantes y sus seis guionistas– llegaría a parecer pequeña para abarcar todas las aristas de su actualidad. Por este motivo, Pérez y Liniers se propusieron pensar en un libro bien específico. El recorte que eligieron no busca reunir a la nueva historieta con sus representantes más actuales o más vanguardistas, sino ser retrato de la generación de los años 2000, que ellos consideran la generación huérfana y una bisagra entre la gloria editorial que gozó la Argentina de antaño, y el universo de la historieta actual, que ya encontró su vía para renovarse y seguir existiendo de forma independiente. ————————————————————————————————— Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! En este capítulo las chicas conversan con Ana Tijoux acerca de sus inicios en el rap, su forma de hacer canciones, su vida como inmigrante, la diversidad y mucho más. Alex Serrano, les ofrece una lista de 11 autoras latinx que representan el presente y el futuro del cómic en español. ¡ Tienes una editorial o un fanzine? Ya está abierta la convocatoria para el #HUL2017 en Madrid! Mujer y Comic – Sobre la visibilidad de las autoras de cómic. Bas: la representante de las autoras en el TBO, entrevistada por Elisa McCausland. El fin de semana que viene llega el @gutterfest en Barcelona con un montón de sellos internacionales y actividades. Quieres saber quien viene? Kike Infame entrevisto a Peter Jojaio, autor de Febrero para galgos en @bilbao24horas. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 5-17-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-17-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

08/17/2018

Sally IngrahamAugust 17, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with comics from Gabby Gamboa, Summer Pierre, Kate Gavino, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Gabby Gamboa has a new comic up on Popula, called For My Father. Read it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— John Seven reviews Summer Pierre‘s upcoming comic All the Sad Songs, for The Comics Beat. The comic traces part of Pierre’s emotional and creative journey through the almost diary-like mix tapes she made 20 years ago. “Thankfully, Pierre doesn’t focus on the nuts and bolts of her younger struggles and turn it into another slacker autobio comic, but instead presents the emotional journey within the context of her creative one, and that makes it both singular and universal. Not all of us have moved through a folk music scene, and I found aspects of that fascinating, since I just like to hear about other ways of living. But her inner quest for herself is more universal and the years between Pierre the cartoonist and Pierre the young singer-songwriter is time enough to provide the kind of accompanying concepts that place her struggles into more meaningful terms. She’s not in the middle of it anymore, and that perspective gives it all the more meaning in its telling.“ Read the whole review HERE. All the Sad Songs is Summer Pierre’s first full-length graphic novel, and is coming out from Retrofit in September – you can pre-order it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— “Sanpaku” is a Japanese word, and it’s meaning is described in the picture above – a page from Kate Gavino‘s new comic which is titled Sanpaku. On her website, she writes that the comic, while not technically memoir, “was inspired by my childhood in the suburbs of Houston, Texas, where I was surrounded by my classmates at a small Catholic school and my religious immigrant family. Marcine is at the point in her adolescence where she is constantly questioning what she is taught, and in effort to find something of her own to believe in, she ends up clinging to the idea of sanpaku and finding its cure.” Paste Magazine has an interview with Kate Gavino, where they discuss the comic and how it relates to her own experiences, how leaving Houston, TX, made her love the city and state in a much deeper way, and why she chose to draw the detailed patterns that lay behind each image in the comic. “The patterns in the book are inspired by origami paper patterns. Since the book was drawn by hand as opposed to digitally, there was something meditative about drawing out each pattern. I tend to work quite fast, and the process of creating this book was a lesson in slowing down for me. Drawing so many of these patterns enabled me to do that.“ I find this aspect of the comic very compelling, and I’m eager to check it out for myself. Read the whole interview on Paste HERE. The comic comes out Aug. 21st 2018 – you can preorder it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Comicosity interviews Puerto Rican cartoonist Eliana Falcón as part of their Cómix Latinx Interview series – they discuss her webcomic Cosmic Fish, and how she managed to keep it going during and after Hurricane Maria – read the interview HERE. Check out the comic HERE. Irene Valentzas reviews Marguerite Dubaie‘s The Hookah Girl and Other True Stories, on The Comics Journal. and Rob Clough reviews Julia Alekseyeva‘s Soviet Daughter. There’s a preview of Lisa Hanawalt‘s new comic Coyote Doggirl on The New Yorker. Thi Bui was NPR’s All Things Considered earlier this month – read the interview HERE. Sloane Leong was a guest on Inkstuds recently, talking about her current project Prism Stalker – listen HERE. Yet more discussion of the revamped Nancy strip, this time on Smithsonian Magazine – with commentary from the strip’s current artist and writer, Olivia Jaimes, as well as Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik – read the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 8-17-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

08/23/2016

Aaron CockleAugust 22, 2016NewsAaron here today with Gabriella Tito comics; Julie Doucet interviewed; Marra/Bayer; Laura Knetzger; Bauhaus on the internet; Clough reviews Delporte and Oliveros; some propaganda comics; CW Benefit Auction continues ————————————————————————————————— Homesick by Gabriella Tito This week’s Featured Comic is Gabriella Tito’s re-working of her Homesick comic from earlier this year. Initially made in black and white for Zona #1, Tito incorporated color into the updated piece during her recent Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. ————————————————————————————————— Julie Doucet Interviewed at/by 2d cloud i did start my own “label” because the book projects i’m working on are getting less and less lucrative, in the sense that you won’t sell as many poetry books as a comic book. you work 6 months on a book that will have a 250 copies printrun you get 10% of the sales…that means you’re paid at best $300. for 6 months work. it is just not worth it. also i had a few such small projects that publishers agreed to publish…someday…i got tired to wait. and since i can print and all, it really doesn’t cost me much to produce the book. ————————————————————————————————— Benjamin Marra in conversation with Josh Bayer, Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 7pm The 157th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 7pm at Parsons School of Design, The New School, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. A conversation with Benjamin Marra and Josh Bayer. Join Ben and Josh for a lively discussion about process, influences and what it means to be cartoonists who are much indebted to comics history as they are committed to making their permanent mark on comics’ future. Via Ben Katchor, who has been organizing these events since 2012. The Fall 2016 Schedule has been posted as well, so please do try and attend if you’re in the NYC area. ————————————————————————————————— Laura Knetzger was recently podcasted over at We Should Be Friends ————————————————————————————————— Staatliches Bauhaus Via Open Culture, the Harvard Art Museums have made an astonishing amount of Bauhaus-era work available online. Harvard’s web site represents its physical collection, but it does not duplicate it. Many of the small images in its online archive do not expand to larger versions and cannot be downloaded. However, if you follow the guided tour by clicking “Continue Reading” under the site’s introduction, you’ll be able to click on the several dozen examples in each section and see them up close. You’ll also get a thorough survey of the Bauhaus school’s brief history and mission. The best way to access the collection is to click here, then scroll down to the box where it says “Search the Bauhaus special collection by keyword, title, artist, or object number, and by using the filters below.” ————————————————————————————————— Delporte and Oliveros Reviewed Over at the High Low Comics blog, critic Rob Clough takes a look at Julie Delporte’s Everywhere Antennas and The Envelope Manufacturer by Chris Oliveros. On Delporte: While the end has no real solutions in sight for her affliction, she at least is in control of her own fate and own decisions. Delporte’s use of colors is disorienting in a way that’s meant to reflect her own increasing sense of alienation in her own environment. That alienation is something she has to cope with, understanding that the very forces she tried to cling to early in the book were literally killing her and driving her insane. On Oliveros: The book works as a metaphor for any kind of personal endeavor that’s endangered by the whims of the market, and it’s not too much of a leap to transfer the sheer absurdity of a three-person envelope manufacturing concern to an equally small art-comics publishing company. Yet one can see Oliveros in D&Q’s darkest days, betting on the next book to keep the company going. That said, what marks the characters in this book are their unrelentingly obsessive personalities, an obsession that borders on narcissism and self-delusion. ————————————————————————————————— Religion & Comics, Comics & Religion From the Pink News site: The American Family Association, which is strongly opposed to LGBT rights, has partnered with Revival Fires International to give away 65,000 copies of the ‘Truth for Youth’ Bible across the US, encouraging evangelical teens to “commit to give the Bibles to their unsaved friends in school”. The excerpted comics posted in the article are pretty offensive, from a subject-matter standpoint as well as an aesthetic one. The published work is supposedly based on the teachings of the Bible, which, depending on your belief system, may either be a science fiction anthology of dubious authorship or the divine text of the Christian religion. The article is here. Anyway, 65,000 is a lot of funny books. ————————————————————————————————— Los Bros Hernandez Benefit Auction Items From Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez (but nothing from Mario???). Proceeds go towards funding the Rowhouse Residency. Share this page: [...]

12/01/2017

Sally IngrahamDecember 1, 2017NewsSally here with comics by November Garcia, Lina Ghaibeh, Emil Friis Ernst, and much more! ————————————————————————————————— Emil Friis Ernst spent last autumn here in Pittsburgh with us at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency and abroad on his own in the city. He was on loan from The Animation Workshop in Denmark, and he got to spend nearly 3 months making comics and exploring our strange American culture. He recently published the comic he made during that time – Disconnector – which you can view in full on his website, HERE. The comic is about a lonely inventor and his robot (drawn and painted on this lovely grey paper that I remember well from when Emil was here!) Take some time to check it out, as well as some of his other comics which you can also find on his website. ————————————————————————————————— Ryan C. reviews November Garcia‘s Malarkey, the series of auto-bio comics made by this terrific Filipino cartoonist, over on Four Color Apocalypse. I’m with Ryan when he says that November is bound to break through in the near future, and having met her in person at SPX this year I couldn’t be more delighted to have this talented and funny comics maker in the scene. About Malarkey, Ryan writes: “Simply put, Garcia’s varied-length strips are every bit as familiar to somebody who “speaks comics” fluently as they are to someone who’s “comics illiterate.” Her figure drawing is efficient, practical, and betrays more than a hint of warmth and, dare I say it, innocence, while her stories tend to revolve around daily-life complexities that, in the hands of a less-attuned artist, would be depicted in a matter ten times more grim : neuroses (insecurity being first and foremost on the list), family dysfunction, doomed relationships, and alcoholism. There’s no way this stuff should be fun, but in Malarkey, God help me, it is.“ Read the rest of the review HERE and get copies of issues 1 and 2 over at Spit and a Half Distro. ————————————————————————————————— Lina Ghaibeh shares a comic about growing up in Syria during the Assad regime on The Nib, titled An Education in Fear. Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Also, also There’s a new comic by Glynnis Fawkes up on Mutha Magazine titled Can You Play Now – see it HERE. Hilary Brown interviews Leslie Stein and talks about her new book Present and what it means to her to live in the present – HERE. Sarah Glidden is the guest on Episode 59 of Process Party – they talk travel, journalism, and how cartooning fits into both. Check it out. On The Comics Beat Alex Lu interviews Alisa Kwitney about the female friendships at the heart of her series Mystic U (from DC Comics). Read the interview HERE. Sophie Goldstein talks to Alex Dueben of Smash Pages about House of Women and more – HERE. RiLY features Nicole Georges – and her dog – on Episode 243 – listen HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 18th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. Makes a great holiday gift for yourself – or for a loved one who is interested in comics. Apply by midnight (EST) on Dec. 25th and get $100 off the course price. Full details and how to apply can be found HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-1-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 12-1-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/27/2017

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Sally Ingraham

Sally here with the Kugali database, work from Adam Griffiths and Lawrence “Raw Dog” Hubbard, and your daily dose of comic strips by Comics Workbook creators!

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I recently discovered Kugali, a curated database of African comics, games, and animation. The three Nigerian founders – Ziki Nelson, Tolu Olowofoyeku, and Maculay Alvarez – spoke to Konbini recently about why they started the site and their continuing plans for it. Ziki speaking here:

“My relationship with comics was love at first sight. I started with Spiderman and for over two decades it’s been non-stop. However, at some point I realized that the vast majority of comics consistently overlooked or simply ignored the African experience. At first this was disappointing. I felt like this thing that I loved so much didn’t care about me or my culture.

I reached out to my co-founders, both of whom had gone through similar experiences, and our goal was simple: find out if there are any African comics and see if they were any good. Not not only did we discover dozens of amazing comics, we also found awesome video games, cartoons and many other cool projects. The only problem I had with this revelation was the whole discovery process. So, we decided to aggregate all of this awesome content so people could discover the best African content.“

The Kugali blog is an excellent place to start exploring – check it out HERE. The official database can be found HERE. The guys also have a YouTube channel and a Podcast, so take some time to really dig into the comics of Africa and the African diaspora with them!

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Adam Griffiths has launched a new webcomic called American Cryo – you can read the rest of the first strip (pictured in part above) HERE.

He also released the mini-comic he finished drawing in January during his Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency – The Permanent Night – which you can purchase HERE.

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In his weekly roundup of comics-related stuff on VICE, Nick Gazin spoke to Lawrence “Raw Dog” Hubbard, co-creator of the Real Deal comics (with H. P. McElwee, who passed away in 1998). Lawrence has been working on the comic since 1990, and Fantagraphics recently collected the 7 issues.

“VICE: What’s it like to have this hardcover collection of your comics after all these decades?

Lawrence “Raw Dog” Hubbard: “What’s it like?” It’s a feeling of euphoria, of validation. Thinking of all of the hard work, hours of drawing and creating Real Dealand wondering, Does anybody give a shit about this?

All of the times me and H.P. McElwee took Real Deal directly to the people, the fans, they loved it! But at the same time when we went before the gatekeepers of the industry—publishers, distributors, shop owners—they said, “No! Why don’t you come up with a new superhero?” The best way to look at this is to never give up! If you love something and have a passion for it, stick with it! And whatever happens will happen! And thanks to Fantagraphics, the word about Real Deal will get out to gobs of comic fans who never heard of it before.“

Read more HERE. Get a copy of Real Deal from Copacetic Comics!

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Extra Innings

Keith Knight was featured on Episode 29 of Study Group‘s Process Party.
The Comics Journal shares one last review of Krazy: George Herriman, A Life in Black and White by Michael Tisserand – reviewed by Mathias Wivel HERE.
David Betancourt, who has joined the Washington Post‘s Comic Riffs blog team, wrote about Tee Franklin‘s Bingo Love earlier this month.
James Kaplan reviews Space Riders: Galaxy of Brutality #1 by Alexis Ziritt and Fabian Rangel Jr. on Panel Patter – HERE.

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Blinkers – 4-27-2017 – by Jack Brougham

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Suzy and Cecil – 4-27-2017 – by Sally Ingraham

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Joanie and Jordie – 4-27-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged adam griffiths, african comics, caleb orecchio, jack brougham, kugali, lawrence "raw dog" hubbard, sally ingraham

Sally Ingraham

Posted on April 26, 2017

Explore

08/01/2017

Aaron CockleJuly 31, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Jackie Kirby; Printed Matter; Romance Comics; What the World Wants (And How to Pay For It) ————————————————————————————————— Meter, Geometry and Comic Form Featured on CW this week is Jackie Kirby’s work looking at verse and the grid: In an initial attempt at translating verse form to comic form let us equate syllables with panels, and spreads with lines. Each row of panels will represent a metrical foot. Stress is produced relationally, and in comics one can use size, color, density, and a myriad of other visual techniques to “stress” a panel. The actual size of each panel per “foot” or row is up to your own discretion but I prefer to use a more qualitative than quantitative approach to my “comics scansion.” ————————————————————————————————— Something Unusual is Happening Was Happening The experimental comics exhibit at Printed Matter recently ended. The show was co-curated by Leslie Lasiter and Cory Siegler. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Almost always there were tears—buckets and buckets of beautifully rendered tears.’ Kelly Faircloth at Jezebel on The Tear-Stained, Forgotten World of Comic Books for Teenage Girls. Today, the genre is probably most familiar through the work of famed pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. (Though one artist who drew them, Everett Raymond Kinstler, was dismissive to Hadju: “No comics publisher would have hired Lichtenstein—he wasn’t good enough. Romance comics dealt with a range of emotions, some of them quite subtle and sophisticated, and they called for real storytelling ability.”) When they’re remembered outside of the world of dedicated comics fandom, it’s largely as a curious, campy footnote to the story of the caped crusaders who are such a prominent feature of our blockbuster summers and Decembers. ————————————————————————————————— What the World Wants This infographic has been kicking around since at least the late 1990’s, but it looks like it’s been updated. Via Buckminster Fuller‘s World Game Institute and the Global Energy Network Institute. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 8-1-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 8-1-2017 – Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

White River Junction Scene Report

Frank SantoroOctober 16, 2011Riff Raff / Scene ReportsUp with local comics scene. Down with Marvel. Down with DC. Boycott Disney. Boycott Time Warner. Kill Super Heroes. Do I sound like a broken record? I don’t fuckin’ care! I’m so tired of sifting through “coverage” of the Big Two on comics blogs. You guys are just workin’ for The Man. Knock it off! I should have a “greater concern”? Bullshit. Stop promoting corporate culture in comics. This week’s local comics scene report brought to you by the great Jen Vaughn. Jen lives in White River Junction, Vermont – home of The Center for Cartoon Studies. She is awesome, does awesome stuff and also writes awesomely for the Schulz Library Blog. Don’t forget! My CARTOONING CORRESPONDENCE COURSE starts at the end the end of October! Hurry up and apply – you can do it! I will make you a comics expert in eight weeks! —— Also! Michael DeForge ups the ante again with his story in Thickness number two. I call it a knife fight. He will cut you! The rest of the issue is equally astonishing – lots of different looks – a well edited anthology if there ever was one. It’s also beautifully printed – Ryan Sands crushed this one out of the park, folks. Don’t delay – buy your copy today. INTERMISSION FUNNIES with MICHAEL DEFORGE ———- White River Junction scene report by Jen Vaughn Here in the thicket of White River Junction, a town of small proportions (~2500 people), a lot of cartoonist students dream big. Montreal, Boston and New York are at most five hours away but in this sleepy place often referred to as WRJ or my favorite, the Junc, everything closes around 5pm and good luck on Sundays. My house is behind that green tree on the right The local coffee shop, the Tuckerbox, hangs cartoonist work on the walls year round and is the morning or late afternoon studio space for some. LtoR: Cartoonists Pat Barrett, Josh Kramer, Max de Radigues, Kevin Uehlein and Ben Horak However, there is no shortage of fun and events. Like anywhere, a toonie amidst all all these other toonies and townies must concentrate to keep their butt firmly in their drawing table seat. Thanks to the Center for Cartoon Studies, we have visiting artists every week that come to speak to the school and a lot that just visit! HOLY SHIT, IT’S LYNDA BARRY Cartoonists: Katherine Roy, me and Jon Fine) Dartmouth College is near by with great plays, events and often employs cartoonists. Laura Terry, Katherine Roy and I have made one large mural and have a current exhibit of collegiate fun paintings on display in their student union cafe. —– This is the first place I’ve lived where I draw anywhere I go and people ask ‘Are you a cartoonist?’ instead of ‘artist.’ The villagers know what’s shakin’. Although, if you asked me to describe our activities in three words I’d say “costumes, games and animals.” I’ve pet more goats, pigs and more pigs in my time here than my combined 13 years in Texas. Moving a pig coral at a co-op —– A lot of us like, scratch that, LOVE board games. Night of playing resource management games like Agricola, Carcassone, or Dominion are planned out usually with wine and dinner to boot. Although, it is constantly an odd bag being one of the few female cartoonists in the area with a boyfriend at events with couples. Luckily, we’re all friends so I don’t care about whether I should talk craft with ‘the guys’ or any other subject with ‘the ladies.’ Sometimes its nice to step away from the work. CCS professor Jason Lutes is kind enough let us beta-test his own creation, “Thrilling Tales of Adventure” and hosts a weekly board game night (meanwhile Steve Bissette hosts an often horrifying weekly movie night) LtoR: Cartoonists David Yoder, Joe Lambert, Bill Bedard and Rio Aubrey Taylor play Merchants and Marauders —— In my free time not spent at my day jobs at the Schulz Graphic Novel Library and at the Main Street Museum OR drawing, I spent wrapped up in a butterfly/caterpillar costume as part of the local puppeteer’s gang at Fantasy Technicians. Becoming something else for a bit, whether a butterfly or a pair of shoes, is amazing and I’m totally working on my own articulating costume. And preparing for my week long job in New Orleans next Mardi Gras. Jennerfly. —– Parties usually have a theme, a costumed theme. Like the going away party, Lady Gaga Gone. Featuring toonies Penina Gal, Carol Thompson, Betsey Swardlick, Beth Hetland and me. —– And in any other city you might buy comics at a comic book store but our Border’s closed down AND the local comic shop is more of a game shop (although not a problem for those of us hoping to score the Cthulhu Gloom expansion). The Schulz Graphic Novel Library gets a lot of comic books sent to it by publishers, writers, artists and people who just want to send their favorite to such a grand library. The school also buys a lot of new graphic novels and is open to the public on First Fridays Unfortunately, due to the flood waters of Hurricane Irene, we had to move our library to a temporary storage space but hope to move soon. We save a lot of our buying bucks for conventions, where comics are like currency! —– Here’s my boyfriend, Ryan Anderson and cartoonist, Molly Howard, enjoying comics in our old space —– And here’s a photo of my comics class! —– In the town of White River Junction, friends are around every corner and they like to have a good time. Which is great because I love to pose under silly signs. My town may be small but its heart is huge. at Tunbridge World’s Fair with Linda Walker and cartoonist Rachel Foss Share this page: [...]

07/28/2016

HarrisonJuly 28, 2016NewsH*rris*n returns with news about various forms of pictures arranged in a sequence of boxes and the people who make them and read them. ————————————————————————————————— Help Out – Czap Books Hello hello! My name is Kevin Czap and I’m the Comics Mom, aka the publisher, of Czap Books(pronounced “chapbooks”). We’re a micro-press based in Providence, RI dedicated to publishing genre-defying comics that celebrate the poetic, the personal, and the weird. We’re turning to you to help us fund the production of our next three titles: Witchlight by Jessi Zabarsky; don’t tell me not to worry (i’ll worry all i want) by Kelly Kwang; and Egg Creme #1 by Liz Suburbia! Read on ————————————————————————————————— Out of Step Arts – Chris Visions Original Art for sale BUY ART Follow Chris Visions to stay up to date with what he’s up to: https://instagram.com/chrisvisions/ ————————————————————————————————— https://www.instagram.com/p/BIYlJQoANQj/ LOOK AT ART Salute to the RVA king prof_weston. ————————————————————————————————— Zeanie Weenies “We want to print your zine and put it inside VICE Magazine, so we’re giving you the next few weeks to download the Zean.it app, upload your finest 16 images into one print-ready publication, and hashtag #TCPOffensive. Then, a special panel of guest judges, including VICE photo editor Elizabeth Renstrom, The Creators Project’s Editor-in-Chief, Marina Garcia-Vasquez, and a super special guest judge TBA, will select the top zine, to be printed and distributed as an insert within the September Issue of VICE.” Sure. ————————————————————————————————— Ghosts and Flesh – Patrick McHale. Here’s the first half of an 8 page comic called “The Blood Ghoul” I did for a german comic anthology called “Mondo #4: Fear”. I did it right before i started work on the C.W. Stoneking music video for “The Zombie”, and used it as an opportunity to figure out the right style for that video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvNCGtZlQso) The color image at the top was a test; I had been hoping to color it, but I ran out of time. Same thing happened with the music video; I’d been hoping to color it, but just ran out of time. Oh well. I’m not sure of the best place to get the anthology, but seems like you can get it here: https://www.kwimbi.de/Kwimbi-Shop/Comics/Mondo-4-Fear.html Maybe someday i’ll post the rest of it. Oh, and maybe I’ll post a different comic that I ended up not using which was not scary at all. –Patrick McHale. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️ ? “Let all the cosmos see reality, illusions will decompress ya dome.” Share this page: [...]

01/03/2018

Juan FernándezJanuary 3, 2018los Cómics / NewsJuan empieza el día con Natalia Valdebenito en La Polola Julie Doucet en España! ——————————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con Natalia Valdebenito, quien les contó acerca de su vida, familia e infancia, su camino hasta llegar al humor y a finalmente escribir y dirigir sus propios unipersonales. Hablaron de feminismo, de las libertades, de sus referentes, experiencias laborales y mucho más. Revista Kamandi les ofrece la primera parte de un debate en torno a la idea de “vanguardia” en el cómic. Participan Horacio Muños y Gerardo Vilches. Inés Estrada les ofrece el nuevo http://gatosaurio.com en 24 horas – ¡Apúntate! La Hora del Bocadillo cierra 2017 en Radio 3: Entrevista con Julie Doucet, con Frank Miller y hablan de cómic desde el Museo Reina Sofía. En el Pais Julie Doucet: “Algunas veces me expuse demasiado” La gran transgresora del cómic ‘underground’, que publica en español el segundo volumen de sus obras completas, se distancia de sus pasadas provocaciones gráficas. La gran Editorial, Fulgencio Pimentel les ofrece La obra completa de Julie Doucet de una tacada. Ahí está: ————————————————————————————————— International Students: The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 16th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. His experience and ideas have influenced the likes of Connor Willumsen, Michael DeForge, and Simon Hanselmann (quote “I consider Frank Santoro to be my L. Ron Hubbard”) among many others. Dig into something new in the new year! Full details and how to apply can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 01-03-2018 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 01-03-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

08/25/2016

Sally IngrahamAugust 25, 2016NewsSally here, bringing you a look at some of Pittsburgh’s born or borrowed cartoonists (Ed Piskor, Yona Harvey, Ben Sears) as well as another read through that Trevor Von Eeden interview. ————————————————————————————————— Yona Harvey is a Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh – and Marvel’s first black female writer. She is working on a 10-page story for the upcoming Black Panther spin-off series, World of Wakanda. “Harvey says, as a poet, she’s always considered herself a visual thinker, and explained how poets, like comic writers, have to condense life into as few words as possible. “I think it’s more in the thinking, like when you’re a poet you do sort of shrink moments,” she said. “A lot can happen across the day, from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. There’s something about when you’re a poet, you’re able to sort of zero in on very specific moments, maybe the most tense or terse moments of the day, and I like putting that way of thinking to use for a comic. Because you do have to be super precise.” Though the writing shares some craft elements, the audience crossover between poetry and comics isn’t one-to-one, according to Harvey. “I’ve had friends who have said, ‘Man, it’s been years since I’ve read a comic book,’ or ‘I’ve never read a comic book and this’ll be the first time that I’m reading a comic,’ and that’s really exciting to think about poets who are reading comics for the first time,” she said.“ Read the rest of the article HERE and keep an eye out for this series soon (the bulk of which has been written Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, with artwork by Alitha Martinez and Afua Richardson.) ————————————————————————————————— Ed Piskor‘s Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 4 was featured on NPR recently – Etelka Lehoczky wrote about the “bubbles” in the work, “phenomena that inexorably head skyward, pop suddenly and create a roiling surface“, or the numerous artists who kept the stew at the boil throughout ’84 and ’85. She revels in Piskor’s use of color, always part of the wonder of these books. Check out the whole thing HERE. Another Piskor-related thing that’s been on my mind is this picture that showed up on his Instagram a few weeks ago. What gives?! Giant HHFT cover burner on the wall at the Smithsonian in DC. A photo posted by Ed Piskor (@ed_piskor) on Aug 1, 2016 at 12:08pm PDT I know where I’ll be headed in the summer of 2018…! Ed Piskor has always been an unstoppable force, quietly conquering the world, and now with the announcement last week that Hip Hop Family Tree will soon be an animated TV series (yes you heard me right! – check it out HERE) – it seems like the world has noticed and won’t soon be forgetting. ————————————————————————————————— Ben Sears is in Pittsburgh this week for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency – which of course includes field trips to Copacetic Comics to look for treasures with Frank. Check out Ben’s book Night Air (Koyama Press, May 2016) and stay tuned for more of his Rowhouse adventures! ————————————————————————————————— Last week we mentioned the incredible interview with Trevor Von Eeden, and if you haven’t gotten a chance to read it yet, here’s your reminder. There was one detail from the interview that’s worth another look. There’s a yet unpublished – “…Black Lightning/Superman comic book called Sources commissioned by DC Comics, written by new Batman writer Tom King especially for Von Eeden to draw when he was both undergoing and recovering from cancer surgery.” – Rich Johnson via Bleeding Cool Find more of Von Eeden’s artwork (below) for this future project HERE. Also be sure to give Trevor Von Eeden’s Kickstarer campaign for the series The Hard Code (with Ramon Gil) a look! ————————————————————————————————— This is Sally signing off – Harrison will be back with your Thursday music choices next week! Share this page: [...]

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