Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged caleb orecchio, gabriella tito, jack brougham

Juan Fernández

Posted on April 5, 2017April 5, 2017

Explore

05/10/2018

Comics WorkbookMay 9, 2018NewsSam Ombiri on ‘Back in Bleck’ by Johnny Ryan! ———————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: A few thoughts on Back In Bleck by Johnny Ryan. Bleck really fits the mold of Nancy picking on Sluggo, or Lucy’s cruelty to Charlie Brown. Which is not to say that it is a bland, mechanically copied retread. From what I gather, Johnny’s interactions with Nancy and Peanuts are sincerely reverent. At the same time. though, he’s not above having some irreverence about work he has connected with in the past. This is even shown in the book when Johnny draws a variation of Tony Millionaire’s amazing comic, Sock Monkey. Other than Sock Monkey I can’t say that Peanuts or Nancy were being referenced directly, or in anyway referenced – but the energy in the work of Charles Shultz, Ernie Bushmiller, and I’d even say Boody Rogers is what I’m thinking of when talking about Back In Bleck. Johnny closely follows a certain energy in between this habit of drawing. There’s a potency to the work, and there’s more to it than the punchlines which make it worth reading. There’s a real construct here. The punchlines in the book aren’t at the expense of the comics form. The strips don’t rush, or oversell their shock value. The comics honestly – as a result – come off as more cheeky than offensive. In the best way, I mean – they are more charming. The punchlines don’t completely come out of leftfield. Even when unexpected, they feel earned; that this specified path was followed to get to the punchline, and every moment leading up to the punchline is surprisingly endearing. There’s something sweet about Bleck’s relationship with Aunt Jiggles and Bleck’s relationship with Wedgie. There’s a blurb in the back of the book that says “Most of the humor here involves gross bodily functions. Sure, I like a good fart joke as much as the next reader, but when it’s the entire raison d’etre of a strip, it gets old fast.” For me, it’s Johnny’s prowess as a cartoonist and his prowess in sequencing that keeps me coming back for more. – Sam Ombiri ———————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 5-10-18 – by Caleb Orecchio 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: [...]

01/05/2018

Sally IngrahamJanuary 4, 2018NewsSally here with notes on Nicole Claveloux’s new NYRC book, work from Ulli Lust, Archana Streenivasan, and Trina Robbins, and much more! ————————————————————————————————— Michael Dooley wrote about The Green Hand and Other Stories by Nicole Claveloux for Print Magazine, calling it “2017’s best book in celebration of a European comics artist“. Why? “Because thanks to this handsome hardcover compilation, we can finally come to appreciate and admire this master of French comics; her extraordinary career from the late 1960s to early ’80s has been unjustly overlooked for way, way too long. Because her radiantly colorful renderings of illuminated late afternoon landscapes and elongated shadows conclusively prove that she’s the Salvador Dali of Pop Art cartooning. Because her interiors are beautifully, bleakly haunting. Because her figures might take on a Victor Moscoso-like amorphous organicism … just because they can.“ Read the rest of Dooley’s thoughts and take a look at an excerpt from the book HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Ulli Lust completes her engagement with the ExBerliner magazine with the comic pictured above. She has published 15 comics with the magazine, all of them riffing on “a simple stroll” in some part of the world. You can read them all HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Archana Sreenivasan, an Indian cartoonist and illustrator, has a new comic up on Ulli Lust’s Electrocomics, called Otherly Urges, about being an Indian woman who is NOT interested in having kids. You can download the comic HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Back in 1985 Trina Robbins made an adaptation of Tanith Lee’s novel The Silver Metal Lover. Now IDW and Drew Ford have Kickstarted a reissue of the comic, with a new forward by Gail Simone and an afterward by Colleen Doran. Drew Ford wrote about the comic: “This cult classic science fiction romance is an important early example of ‘the graphic novel’ as a storytelling vehicle, telling an intimate story of a young girl’s first love…who just happens to be a robot! We are very honored to shine a light on the brilliant work of the late Tanith Lee.” The Kickstarter has already reached it’s initial goal, but you can get in on some fun reward brackets if you want, through Jan. 5th 2018. Check it out HERE. (Thanks to The Comics Beat for the lowdown on this news item.) ————————————————————————————————— Just a reminder to read the website Women Write About Comics regularly. Recent articles that were great include Rosie Knight on the work of Melina Chavarria and Jean Marie Pilario (pictured above) and creating positive Latinx representation in comics, and Tia Kalla on Sleepless #1 by Sarah Vaughn and Leila del Duca. The Interview section is the best, so dive in there and then explore. ————————————————————————————————— In Addition Robert Kirby presents an excerpt from GG‘s I’m Not Here on PEN America’s Illustrated PEN – check out his comments and the comic HERE. Anya Davidson has started a weekly podcast called Mindkiller, which is dedicated to creative struggle – the first episode, featuring musician Jill Flanagan, can be heard HERE. Julia Wertz‘s Conversations with Ma are amusing and can be seen HERE on The New Yorker. Image Comics is releasing Sloane Leong‘s Prism Stalker – coming March 2018. ————————————————————————————————— 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 – 1-5-2018 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-5-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

San Diego Comic-Con International 2019

Chris Anthony DiazJuly 23, 2019Festivals and Shows / The Diaz ArchiveSan Diego Comic-Con International 2019, San Diego Convention Center, Exhibit Hall, Thursday, July 18, 2019 Share this page: [...]

06/28/2016

Aaron CockleJune 27, 2016NewsAaron Cockle with Warren Craghead Comics; Pioneers of the Comic-Strip; Comix 4 Orlando; Hilda on Netflix; Flag Press!; Schulz/Ford; Rowhouse Auction Continues ————————————————————————————————— Colonialism by Warren Craghead CW’s Featured Comics continues this week with work by Warren Craghead III from 2013. ————————————————————————————————— Pioneers of the Comic Strip: A different Avant-Garde June 23–September 18, 2016 Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt Spectacular, large and colorful – this is how comic strips captured their audience. Around 1897, the middle classes, working classes and the army of immigrants were equally fascinated by the unfamiliar visual experience they encountered in US newspapers. The comic strip was the first illustrated mass medium in history, reproduced millionfold. In a society without television and the Internet that was quite a radical development. With an extensive exhibition, SCHIRN presents the pioneers of the comic strip, who set the artistic and substantive standards of early comic strips in an experimental and progressive way. This also highlights the relationship of comic strips and colorful newspaper supplements with the developments in visual arts at the time. The SCHIRN presents the cultural history of the comic strip in an outstanding series of selected works, primarily by American illustrators: Winsor McCay, Lyonel Feininger, Charles Forbell, George Herriman, Cliff Sterrett and Frank King. Unforgettable is Herriman’s absurd humor in Krazy Kat (from 1913), the expressionist, cubist and surrealist imagery by McCay and Sterrett, Feininger’s comic series for the Chicago Tribune (from 1906/07), or Gasoline Alley by King (from 1921), told in real time over a period of three decades. With Forbell’s Gesamtkunstwerk Naughty Pete (1913), a today rather unknown draftsman can be rediscovered in this exhibition. He was among those many artists who, albeit only for a short yet extremely progressive time, devoted themselves to comic strips, but quickly vanished due to lack of success. — Via e-flux ————————————————————————————————— COMIX 4 ORLANDO Benefit Come enjoy a night of fantastic comix presented by queer artists! These include: Yao Xiao, Max Wittert, Hazel Reed Newlevant, Bishakh Som, Chris Russo, Kat Fajardo, +more TBA. They will be raising funds to support those affected by the Pulse attack in Orlando. Your donations can get you raffle tickets to win a fabulous prize bundle of work made by our featured artists. $10 SUGGESTED donation. No one will be turned away. (Every $5 will get you one raffle ticket!) PLEASE COME AND SUPPORT! Tuesday, June 28, 8-10PM at Over the Eight, 594 Union Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211 ————————————————————————————————— Hilda is coming to Netflix As revealed in a recent New Yorker profile, Luke Pearson‘s Hilda will be coming to Netflix in 2018. ————————————————————————————————— E’ nata Flag Press! Translated from the Italian via Google Translate: Perhaps not everyone knows that along with Ratigher I founded a small publishing house, the Flag Press, who intends to publish comics in a single format, horizontal poster 70 × 100 with two facing pages… I already thought of cubes, boxes or phones but actually no, it was poster, as he revealed to me a few months later inviting me to become his shoulder in the enterprise (by the way do not try to trick me the idea of Phone Books, Comics in the form of phone). Since then we have seen fit to what we wanted to do with Flag Press, and, beyond the choice of authors, our vision has focused on the concept of “history.” To both like trials, comic absurd and sometimes even seemingly meaningless, but what we want to accomplish here is to tell on a poster, make an object that narrative has always been mainly figurative, also making it possible for authors indulge graphically on the largest publishing format possible. And I believe that theory, practical and even Ratigher theory is really the “manifesto” of this our idea, with a story full of characters, the dialogues pressing, small cartoons and the aircraft giant is cut in two by the white space between the boards. Ah, on the back of the poster are in black and white the English translation of the story. In the future, if the cartoonist would write in English, on the back you will find the translation in Italian. Look for work from Ruppert & Mulot, Manuele Fior and Dash Shaw. Image above by Ratigher, Flag Press #1: “Teoria, pratica e ancora teoria”. ————————————————————————————————— Gabby Schulz Interviewed by Sean Ford SICK is the story of the author being laid down by an illness in his cramped Brooklyn apartment. The story begins as a Kafka-esque exploration of the trials and tribulations of trying to attain treatment without having the insurance or money to do so, but soon morphs into a brutally frank self-assessment of not only the narrator’s personal failures, but also the failures of predominantly white Western culture and the systems and structures we’re all beholden to and a part of. ————————————————————————————————— Private Rowhouse Auction Continues We have a new private auction up at auction.comicsworkbook.com. email Frank Santoro at santoroschoolATgmail for a password, if you don’t already have one. If you already have a password, it is the same from last week. All funds go to helping keep the lights on and further developing the school. Note: Connor Willumsen is offering commission sketches. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

04/5/2017

Posted on April 5, 2017April 5, 2017 by Juan Fernández

Empezamos el día con: Gerardo Vilches sobre Olivier Schrauwen; Andalusia Knoll Soloff; Amadeo Gandolfo; Chicks On Comics; El Víbora; Laura Pérez Vernetti y Luis Alberto de Cuenca. Raquel Córcoles, Laura Pacheco, Roberta Vázquez, y Carla Berrocal y los tebeos del día!

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Gerardo, “the Watcher”, Vilches nos ofrece su reseña Arsène Schrauwen III de Olivier Schrauwen. Profunda y completa. Como debe ser.

Fulgencio Pimentel ha culminado recientemente la publicación de Arsène Schrauwen con un tercer —y notablemente más voluminoso— tomo, que cierra la trilogía de Olivier Schrauwen. Con ella, el belga no sólo ha entregado su mejor obra, sino que también se ha convertido definitivamente en uno de los autores de referencia de la nueva ola del cómic internacional; quizá el más influyente al margen de Chris Ware. Schrauwen es leído y asimilado por muchos de sus colegas de profesión, pero, como Ware, está muy lejos de ser solamente un dibujante que gusta a los dibujantes; muy al contrario, la odisea que narra en Arsène Schrauwen es universal y accesible para cualquiera.

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Andalusia Knoll Soloff paso por Copacetic Comics, en Pittsburgh, PA, la semana pasado con copias de su primer capitulo de su novela grafica, Alive You Took Them – Searching for the Ayotzinapa 43. Soloff esta trabajando con un gran equipo: Xavier Corro, Avril Lopez, Anabel Aguirre, y Adriana Ronquillo – y con su editor Anahi Hernandez. El cómic se trata de los Ayotzinapa 43 – el grupo de estudiantes que fue secuestrado el 26 de Septiembre, 2014 por el gobierno Mejicano de su escuela de profesores en Iguala, Guerrero, Mejico. El relato se trata de las experiencias de sus padres en busqueda de sus hijos.

Andalusia, quien vivia en Pittsburgh hasta hace 15 years ago, estaba de regreso en la ciudad para dar una charla sobre el cómic a presentation on the comic la semana pasado. Ella ha estado autoeditando esta libro, pero esta buscando una editorial que pueda transítir estas historias mas lejos.She has been printing and distributing it herself but is now looking for a publisher who can help her broadcast the story further. Puedes aprender más sobre este proyecto AQUI.

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Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana:

Revista Kamandi les trae«una breve e incompleta historia» de mujeres dibujantes. Amadeo Gandolfo comparte un texto que fue escrito originalmente como una forma de enmarcar el conversatorio “Líneas de la historia y de la historieta” que fue celebrado en el marco de la muestra Chicks On Comics con la presencia de Caro Chinaski, Clara Lagos y Sole Otero. En esta ocasión se presenta una versión ligeramente editada y corregida.
Tebeosfera os ofrece una galería con varias portadas la mítica revista El Víbora.
Reino de Cordelia viene de publicar la obra más reciente de Laura Pérez Vernetti: «Viñetas de plata», la poésia grafica de Luis Alberto de Cuenca. Ha sido una gran colaboracion entre los medios.
Viñetas en tiempos de instagram…Conversaciones con Raquel Córcoles, Laura Pacheco, Roberta Vázquez, y Carla Berrocal. Una humeante hornada de ilustradoras ha popularizado un nuevo género, el costumbrismo 2.0, reflejo de su tiempo. Subliman lo cotidiano, plasman cómo se relacionan a través de internet e ironizan sobre el postureo. Es el cómic del yo.

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Blinkers – 4-5-2017 – by Jack Brougham

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Suzy and Cecil – 4-5-2017 – by Gabriella Tito

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Joanie and Jordie – 4-5-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged caleb orecchio, gabriella tito, jack brougham

Juan Fernández

Posted on April 5, 2017April 5, 2017

Explore

06/01/2017

Sally IngrahamMay 31, 2017NewsSam Ombiri on Joe Daly’s Highbone Theater, an international zine roundup, Wonder Woman dreams, and news from Berliac. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I read Highbone Theater by Joe Daly recently. I began it awhile back when Joe Daly was posting it online, but the way Daly set up his website for Highbone Theater made it hard to find where you left off at. The funny thing with that was that I’d just end up re-reading the same pages. The same really good pages. I guess it was maybe a selling point, because it feels very real. I’m not sure if it’s part autobiographical, because it’s not so apparent and that makes me more keen to apply what’s happened to me, myself, and relate it with Palmer (the main character). The dialogue is so natural, and the way Daly guides you through what’s being said seems like it’s collaborating with life. It’s so mundane that it becomes all too real. It seems like it’s way more dense than it is really, because of the size of the book, but it’s so rhythmic, and it sucks the reader in so that you barely even notice that you’re flipping the pages. You start it, and you keep going, and you don’t feel the big obligation to take note of anything. Or that may be inaccurate, since you are supposed to, as a reader, take note of what’s happening in the narrative. I didn’t catch so much that the colored pages were adding an extra meaning to the atmosphere changing, other than, something’s up, tonally and design wise. Color is the equivalent of sound design. I once heard Joe Daly cite Naked Lunch as a movie he’s really impressed with, so this was at the back of my mind while reading Highbone Theater. It’s a very cinematic comic, which may be attributed to Daly studying animation. Whatever it was that caused it, I’m glad. Palmer is into the things he’s into, him and his friends are into the things they’re into, and every now and then the friends comment on Palmer’s eccentric interests. While they see less reason in Palmer, Palmer sees less reason in the world he’s living in, and while many others can reason with him, he finds he can’t reason with anyone besides his friend Billy. The way Daly portrays Palmer is as someone who isn’t an unreasonable guy – but when Palmer talks, the way he portrays himself when talking about himself (which is part of why the book feels like it’s autobio) comes off as unreasonable – but that doesn’t hinder him from performing what he perceives as his duty. That was the defining characteristic I found with Palmer. What set this apart is that the book seems so casual, as if it’s ideas are taking place with no regard to your opinion of them. Yet they are coming from a very disciplined story teller. Everything that sets this book apart doesn’t come off as overly intentional, or meant to be set apart. What’s taking place seems independent of the reader’s thoughts on them. This only strengthens the potency of the events as perceived by the reader. What seems more intentional is to engage with the reader in a way that’s very familiar to them. Or maybe it’s just that this form happens to be familiar. It reminded me of reading Chester Brown’s autobio stuff, or Crumb, or it’s as if I was told that one of the characters is the Reid Fleming of this universe. The cover is really cool – it reflects what you’re in for. Of course most covers do that, but as you open this book it’s with these specific images that come later on in the book. The front cover – while it’s an image that shows up through the course of the book – seems to be there more so to sell you on the book. The image that follows, however, before the story has started, has been ingrained in the reader. Right now I’m talking about the coffin Billy crafted for his mother. When it comes into the story later on and makes another appearance, there was something big that went off in my mind. While the turns the book takes are huge, there’s a subdued element to it, right? While it may seem disorienting, it’s a really well oriented form of disorienting. Palmer has this look on his face that says this must be done, and that’s reflected with every action he performs. He has a no nonsense approach to everything. He sees the task before him, he tries to find what needs to be done above all his other concerns, and what he needs to do is a growing question mark. – Sam Ombiri Get a copy if this book at Copacetic Comics! ————————————————————————————————— 6-1-2017 – by Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sally here – check out this roundup of 8 zines made by people of color from around the world, showcased on Artsy – a true example of why the medium remains relevant and important. “The black literary zine, Fire!! created during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s by writers such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston is an early example. Self-publishing continued through the decades, with the Black Panther Party Newspaper and the Chilean women’s magazine Aquelarre. Still, the history of zine culture remains largely dominated by narratives of white men and women. Utilizing both the tangibility of print and the connectedness afforded by the internet, today’s artists and writers of color are continuing to create spaces for dialogue, pioneering conversations through zines—a medium that allows them to exchange ideas, opinions, and art on their own terms. These eight zines are just a few of the notable print publications claiming space and reinvigorating a decades-long tradition of collective healing through communal expression.“ Read more HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Maya Rupert writes movingly for The Atlantic about her lifelong connection to Wonder Woman and her feeling that maybe the character makes more sense as a black woman. “Wonder Woman and I were both outsiders on two levels. Her powers set her apart from other humans, but among the other members of the Justice League, she was relegated to secretary. My race set me apart from my white classmates, but I learned at a young age that within the black community my gender marked me as inferior. I remember as a child being told by my hairdresser that feminism wasn’t for black women. “For us,” she explained, “the man is here, and we’re here,” she said gesturing with her hands to illustrate that to be a black woman meant that a man I had never met would always be stationed above me. As I got older, I became better able to name my double displacement; I was frustrated with the racism I saw in feminist circles and with the misogyny I saw among racial-justice advocates. And Wonder Woman’s state of constant otherness only became more meaningful. But as a girl, I most commiserated with Wonder Woman when she sought to reconcile her inner strength and ferocity with the need of others to see her as peaceful and feminine. I had learned early on that it wouldn’t take a lot for me to be viewed as angry and deemed unlikeable. Images of neck-rolling, finger-snapping, gum-popping black women caricatured in movies and TV shows showed me exactly what people expected from me.“ Read more HERE – and go see the new Wonder Woman movie (opens June 2nd!), which does star a white woman, but there is perhaps some hope for the flick and the story – “Yes, a white actress, Gal Gadot, had been cast as the lead. But, I wondered, would the creators see in her what I had all these years? Would Wonder Woman still chafe at the forced dichotomy between her strength and her womanhood, her peaceful demeanor and her righteous anger? Would they infuse her story with enough of mine that a little black girl who sees the movie might get to wonder, maybe?“ ————————————————————————————————— Drawn & Quarterly will publish Berliac’s Sadbøi in January 2018. “Drawn in a unique style that’s an homage to gekiga and film noir, Berliac’s first English graphic novel is an exploration of how we treat immigrants, and the impossible situation of being expected to conform to society’s ideals when the world has already decided you’re guilty.” More of the announcement and an excerpt from the book can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 6-1-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-1-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-1-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

01/02/2018

Aaron CockleJanuary 1, 2018NewsAaron here today with the New York Comics & Picture-Story Symposium Schedule; Käthe Kollwitz and Sue Coe; Whit Taylor; Imagined Communities, Nationalism & Violence ————————————————————————————————— The 2018 schedule of the Ben Katchor-organized New York Comics & Picture-Story Symposium has been posted. This line-up looks great, including presentations by Joe McCullough (on Steve Ditko), Julia Gfrörer, Eleanor Davis, Keren Katz, and Matthew Thurber. ————————————————————————————————— ALL GOOD ART IS POLITICAL: Käthe Kollwitz and Sue Coe At Galerie St. Etienne until February until February 10, 2018. ALL GOOD ART IS POLITICAL: Käthe Kollwitz and Sue Coe will present more than 30 drawings and prints by Kollwitz (1867-1945) and more than 30 paintings, drawings, and prints by Coe (b. 1951). The exhibition borrows its title from writer Toni Morrison, who once noted, “All good art is political! The ones that try hard not to be political are political by saying, ‘We love the status quo.’” The exhibition coincides with the publication of a book of woodcuts by Sue Coe entitled The Animals’ Vegan Manifesto (OR Books, New York and London). Despite their differences in background – Kollwitz was born in East Prussia in the 19th century and lived in Berlin, Germany; Coe is an American born in the U.K. and living in upstate New York – both artists share a career-defining attraction to social issues, undergirded by the belief that art can inspire constructive change. Each is considered among the most important political artists of her time, unmatched in her fearless approach to profoundly difficult subject matter, unerring humanity and eloquence, and an uncanny ability to disturb the viewer’s complacency. ————————————————————————————————— Alternative to Avocado Toast for 2017 Whit Taylor at the NY-er. ————————————————————————————————— Imagined Communities, Nationalism & Violence At Rubber Factory until January 31, 2018. Benedict Anderson’s seminal text “Imagined Communities” investigates the origins of Nationalism as a modern condition and serves as the starting point for our group exhibition. From the influence of rationalist secularism to the conception of homogenous, empty time, Anderson outlines the convergence of factors which led to nationhood as a vehicle for the creation of meaning and ultimately self-sacrifice. As Nationalism is revitalized through increasingly extreme rhetoric whether it is nativism or protectionism, the exhibition explores this new wave of anxiety around nation-hood and ways nation-ness is constructed. Whether it is through the oblique nature of our informational channels which function as echo chambers reminiscent of the earliest ways Nationalism spread through print media or the conflation of meaning with sacrifice, it is clear that there are precedents for how Nationalism as a construct has led to and sustained cycles of violence. ————————————————————————————————— 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. ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 1-2-2017 – by Cameron Arthur Share this page: [...]

03/15/2017

Juan FernándezMarch 15, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el dia con Sol Diaz; Miguel A. Giner y Cristina Durán; Vanesa R. Del Rey; Chicks on Comics; Alvaro Ortiz; Fran Meneses and the ugly side; Billar de letras new comics club y los tebeos del dia! ————————————————————————————————— Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Sol Diaz – spotlighted over on Es Mi Fiesta y lanza un nuevo libro: La historia ilustrada de un embarazo. Miguel A. Giner and Cristina Durán tell the story of the adoption of their daughter in their latest comic, Una Posibilidad Entre Mil. They talk shop over on RTVE3’s La Hora Del Bocadillo + there’s a fresh interview with Miguel A. Giner and Cristina Durán on their new book over at Bilbao24Horas. Constantine #3-4 original art by the great Vanesa R. Del Rey available NOW over on Cadence Comics Art Gallery. Don’t miss your chance to own some of the action. CHICAS DE COMICS/CHICKS ON COMICS Siete mujeres historietistas de distintas partes del mundo expusieron sus trabajos en la Fundación Proa de la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Nice interviews and video documentation of the exhibition over on Argentina’s TV Publica. (Start at 34:00) @Kikeinfame picks back up with his tradition of interview comics makers – this time around, take a tour of Alvaro Ortiz’ tebeoteca y mas! ————————————————————————————————— Billar de Letras esta poniendo en marcha un club de novela gráfica y cómic donde, de la mano de Gerardo Vilches, codirector de CuCo y una de las personas que mejor conoce el mundo del cómic en España, una vez al mes se analizará de manera exhaustiva una obra para descubrir sus mecanismos narrativos y desentrañar los recursos gráficos empleados por su autor. Nuestra intención es mostrar la gran riqueza del lenguaje del cómic y sus posibilidades narrativas, a través de la lectura crítica de obras que ya forman parte del canon de la novela gráfica. En las últimas décadas, el cómic ha experimentado un gran crecimiento como medio artístico, de forma que sus posbilidades narrativas y estéticas se están desarrollando en obras de extraordinaria calidad. En la web de Billar de letras tenéis toda la información para inscribiros. ————————————————————————————————— Fran Meneses, Chilean comics maker and illustrator in England, gets real with the ugly side of freelance life. Really nice, honest lens that invites us to dispel the glorification of work-a-holism in the freelance life. It gets unhealthy fast, if unchecked and the glamour that gets associated with it winds up being destructive and causes a lot of silence and erasure of the honest struggle. ————————————————————————————————— We are in the midst of our 2nd year of the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency! Gabriella Tito was here recently, our 4th resident of 2017, and we already starting a wait list for the summer months. Interested in joining us for a week or more? Email santoroschool@gmail.com to learn how to apply. There are still openings in April and May, with that wait list available for the summer months. After a break for show season we will be picking up scheduling once again in late October. 500 bux for a week and a life-changing experience. Read some of our Residency Reports HERE. Email santoroschool@gmail.com for more info. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-15-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-15-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-15-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

05/27/2016

Sally IngrahamMay 27, 2016NewsSally here with new stuff from Sacha Mardou, wise and funny words from Dan Nadel and Alexi Worth, clowns with Nils Balls, and a Philadelphia walkabout from Meghan Turbitt. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou has a double hit today on our news, with a comic she made for The Common Reader (a publication of Washington University in St. Louis) and a review she wrote for Comics Workbook. First up, Sacha’s review of The Complete Wimmen’s Comix is a rumination on an important and challenging anthology, recently collected into a two volume set by Fantagraphics. “Reading the two-volume release of The Complete Wimmen’s Comix made me think about those sort of cultural assumptions and blank spots. The first volume in particular feels like a powerful raw gust of real comics history. … Another aspect that occurs to me is that volume one is essentially my mother’s generation making those comics (I was born in ’75) which makes the lack of respect for cultural niceties and cartooning norms seem even more punk rock and revelatory, as well as being somewhat nostalgic. It reminds me of looking though my aunt’s closet in the early 1980’s and finding all her old platform shoes and boots. My childish trespassing got me yelled at after the event, but I’m glad to own that childhood memory of trying on and walking around in those beautiful and weird, too-big-for-me ‘space’ shoes.” Read the rest of Sacha’s review HERE. For a different look at The Complete Wimmen’s Comix, check out this in-depth review by Alex Duebin on The Comic’s Journal from March 2016. Well, I say “review”, but it includes conversations conducted via phone, skype, google chat, and e-mail over a period of a year or so with many of the women who made comics for the anthology – a true “oral history”, well worth a gander. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou’s comic for The Common Reader (above) was published in “The Aging Issue”. It feels very, very real somehow…! ————————————————————————————————— Art in America published a followup to Dan Nadel‘s killer essay on Paper Radio recently. It’s a conversation between Dan, Alexi Worth (who wrote an article in January for A.i.A about Jack Kirby’s superhero art) and A.i.A‘s editor Julia Wolkoff. They dig into the complexities of comics, and more specifically, the intentional and accidental wonders that appeared under a culture of crushing deadlines. As Alexi Worth describes: “The earlier comics artists were, for the most part, pencil serfs. Kirby began as an inbetweener for film, and much of the work he produced early on wasn’t credited at all. But there was something productive and interesting about the lack of art expectations. Kirby was reflexively creative. And his creativity was, somehow, enabled by the ruinous deadlines and enormous production demands of the industry. At one point he was pretty much drawing all of Marvel himself—one guy. Instead of making him more of a hack, it made him more of an artist.“ Dan Nadel breaks out some more stories about the Paper Radio guys – Benjamin Jones and Christopher Forgues, or CF – whom he continues to call “the two most important cartoonists of their generation.” “One famous story: they sent Gary Panter, who was their artist spirit-god, one of their early zines that was baked in chocolate. Gary thought it was LSD and immediately threw it away. It’s one of the only copies of that work they made.“ It’s good stuff – check out the whole discussion HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Nils Balls is staying on top of the Pittsburgh City Council with his comic reports for The Glassblock – see above and more HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Meghan Turbitt released her Philadelphia Sketchbook this week! Developed for Comics Workbook between 2015-2016, it features full-color sketches of her varied adventures and the details that caught her eye around the city during that period. Get a glimpse at more pages here, and a copy for yourself HERE! ————————————————————————————————— See you knocking round the universe next week folks! Cheers – Sally Share this page: [...]

09/13/2018

Caleb OrecchioSeptember 13, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Trench Dogs by Ian Densford ——————————————————————————————— What a monstrous dream Ian Densford has conceived. His new graphic novel, Trench Dogs (which originally ran on on the Comics Workbook Tumblr in a different incarnation), left me sitting and blinking and thinking about what I’d read in quiet contemplation. The book is a series of alternating accounts of World War I told as a continuum in a 3-panel-per-page meter. With an omniscient eye and no regard for the faint of heart, we are swept through the perils of The Great War and witness the utter destruction of sixteen million people. Densford does however depict these people as “funny” animals which keeps the visual horror at arms length and digestible; but despite the “Maus-ian” approach, and like Maus, the pain of the events depicted retain their power. Trench Dogs is obviously influenced by Art Spiegelman’s Maus. This is an easy observation due to the “Roll Call” page preceding the story in which each nationality therein is labeled and depicted as their respective animal avatar, but I see a handful of other and possibly more vital influences or comparable works. The first and most important to me is Suiho Tagawa. Most savvy American readers will remember his war comic Norakuro from Kramers 6. When I first saw that Trench Dogs was 3-panels per page I could not stop thinking of Norakuro. Plus, unlike Maus, both Trench Dogs and Norakuro allow for whimsy. Trench Dogs is mostly not very funny, but there are moments of “cartoony” bliss that fall through the bleak cracks and relieve the senses of the total desolation burdening the bulk of the book. Similarly, Hayao Miyazaki’s manga Tiger Im Schlamm blends war (specifically tank battles in WWII) with the cartoony anthropomorphized soldier. And like Tiger Im Schlamm, Trench Dogs is rendered in watercolor. Though not quite done justice by the book’s glossy paper, (I am generally underwhelmed by the production choices of Dead Reckoning – the publisher) the paints give vibrance to the story and, again, cast a little light on the dark subject of WWI. And I would be remiss to not mention Joe Sacco’s panorama huge foldout illustration, The Great War, as an influence. I would lay money down right now that The Great War was a major influence for Densford. The real key to Trench Dogs is the steady and uninterrupted 3-panel grid (Yes yes – this is Comics Workbook and we love grids). Densford keeps perfect timing with the grid. Every panel carries the same weight so the pace is consistent throughout the entire comic. He makes good use of the middle of the page and, as I read, I noticed I would let myself wander around the spread. Sometimes I read the first tier on the left page to the tier on the right without reading the other two panels on the left, and to my pleasant surprise it did not affect the reading. Sometimes I would look at the middle panel first, and then “spiral” out. It all still made sense. This is high praise. Being a student of Frank Santoro’s, I can’t help but assume that Densford’s way of using layouts was conscious and not a fluke. The fact that Trench Dogs is essentially wordless aids in this amorphous way of reading. The reader is not locked onto a stream of dialogue that guides the action around the spread. We are free to see what we see without the confines of conversation or narration. The story itself is incredibly poignant and quite vicious. It is a war story or a story of a war. It does not pretend to do anything other than depict war and war’s violent consequences. Page after page, the reader is bombarded with terrifying realities of actual events. The rhythm of the constant chaos and depravity, 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3, starts to mess with you. After a while, you forget you are looking at drawings of animals and eventually you accept these images as the actual events they depict. There is little catharsis in reading Trench Dogs. I was quite shocked at the end when (no spoilers) after the war is over and medals are awarded, the violence continues back on our own soil completely separate and tangential from the war “over there.” Still, there is wisdom in this book in its depiction of human suffering, selfishness, selflessness and survival. Ian Densford steps back and triangulates the brutality of a war that laid waste to an entire continent and more as we stare in horror and amazement hoping we never share their fate, and yet it is difficult not to sympathize and even admire the victims whoever they might be. Death is the great equalizer and, when people encounter it, we can learn a lot from that. Ian Densford has masterfully managed to encapsulate that fact into a comic book. ——————————————————————————————— You can buy Trench Dogs directly from the publisher here. OR if you want to buy Trench Dogs directly from Ian, you can attend these shows on the following dates: – New York Comic Con, October 4-7 – UMBC Comic Con, October 27 – CAB, November 11 ——————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 9-13-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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