Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on May 28, 2018May 28, 2018

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04/04/2016

Juan FernándezApril 4, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez here to start your week off with a round up. To start off, Lauren Weinstein seems to have had a an ecstatic morning before the dawn chorus. http://laurenrweinstein.tumblr.com/post/142237378161/4-am-i-started-drawing-trying-to-clear-my-head Today I’ve got a slew of things for ya; Keith Knight, Retrofit’s big push, new comics from Alyssa Berg, Eleanor Davis, Simon Moreton, Simon Reinhardt, and Oliver East + an interview with Phoebe Gloeckner, Red, White, Black and Blue – An Evening with Keith Knight TONIGHT in Pittsburgh. Keith Knight will be giving a presentation on his life and work at Point Park University. If you’re in the area, you want want to miss these discussions of race, media, politics and satire. Keith Knight, creator of the Knight Life, K Chronicles and (th)ink), will share cartoons culled from over 20 years of his award-winning nationally-syndicated work. Presenting his unique take on the militarization of the nation’s police force, and the unchecked killing of unarmed citizens, Knight’s cartoons are infused with urgency, humor, satire, politics, and race. His work is designed to provoke constructive, civil dialogue among people young and old, left and right, of all colors and orientations. The presentation has been a hit at university campuses everywhere. Following the presentation, Keith will be joined on stage by editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers and columnist Tony Norman, both from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, to discuss the topic further. An audience Q&A will follow. More information here. ————————————————————————————————— Retrofit Kickstarter – Last Rounds Retrofit Comics is in its last days of their Kickstarter campaign! They’re in the last rounds of this fight. You can help them get that KO. Support them to make it happen. The crop of books they’re currently publishing is really special. It includes titles by the likes of James Kochalka (Elf Cat in Love), the first Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont, Eleanor Davis with her an offering (Libby’s Dad), and Kaeleigh Forsyth and Alabaster Pizzo with a team up on Hellbound (here’s a process post from them about the “raw material” the book was sourced from). Also among the comics that may get loosed on the world, should the Kickstarter make it to the stretch goals, are works by Anya Davidson and Tyler Landry. Please support Retrofit Comics by pitching some funds their way, or helping to spread the word. Check out the Kickstarter and make it happen HERE! ————————————————————————————————— FLUFFIG Alyssa Berg’s got the engine revving and she’s started sharing her progress on her latest comics series, FLUFFIG. Painted colors dance against the tension of the four panel grid, teasing out hard earned truths onto the page. Read what she’s been making for Comics Workbook here. ————————————————————————————————— Take Me Back to Manchester Ollie East’s Latest is here! In 1872, Maharajah, an elephant bought by Belle Vue Zoo at auction in Edinburgh, refused to board his train to Manchester. Lorenzo Lawrence, his trainer, offered to walk him home. All two hundred and twenty miles. This is their story. 152 pages by the the homesick truant. Full colour. Soft cover. Numbered and limited to 1000 Check it out and pick up a copy here. ————————————————————————————————— Life and Comics – Phoebe Gloeckner Interview on Chimera Obscura We talk about Diary’s hybrid structure and why it would have been unpitchable to a publisher (luckily, she had a two-book contract), the tightrope of portraying a 15-year-old girl’s affair with her mother’s 30-something boyfriend without making her strictly a victim or “asking for it”, and some audiences’ obsession with “the facts” of the book. We also get into her ongoing, decade-long multi-media project to recreate a life in Juarez, Mexico, her place in the comics scene (too young for the undergrounds, too old for the alternatives), her unrepeatable approach to making art, and more! – Listen to the interview here. ————————————————————————————————— Minor Leagues Simon Moreton’s newest zine, Minor Leagues is available now This new work contains 100 pages of comics, drawings, stories and writing about how days go by, a video rental shop, walking, travelling in Mississippi, a snowball fight from 1995 and more. Thinking a lot about how things and people come and go. It picks up where his last series SMOO left off, detailing things that happened to him, but expands it to bring in bigger questions and other thoughts, as well as lots more words. The hope is for this series to continue and grow. Four issue subscriptions are available here. £4 + P&P – order a copy here ————————————————————————————————— He’s Walking Through The Water Eleanor Davis has a heart wrenching, surreal new comic on her blog. The way I see this, this mode of comics journaling holds the seeds for extremely exciting futures of comics journalism. It’s raw, it breathes as the words and images dance on the page. Read it here. ————————————————————————————————— The Monthly Municipal Newsletter. Simon Reinhardt has been putting together some very interesting reports of Mystery Town’s current events. You can read and print out his handiwork here. ————————————————————————————————— Good luck making it through your day, Mad Lib and MF DOOM are here to help if you need to knock out the cobwebs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6XG_20xqo0 Share this page: [...]

10/18/2017

Juan FernándezOctober 18, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con Sofía Álvarez Watson; Ramón Esono; Begoña García-Alén; Mohammad Barrangi; Inés Estrada; Berliac; La Polola; La Primavera del Libro y los tebeos de Cómics Workbook! ————————————————————————————————— Dibujar el amor es el trabajo de Sofía Álvarez Watson Juan David Umaña Gallego nos cuenta en El Colombiano: “Llegué a Medellín con 105 anécdotas recogidas entre Buenos Aires y Bogotá. De aquí me llevaré unas 10 y luego estaré en Quito para después regresar a Buenos Aires y decidir qué hacer con ellas”, dice la ilustradora. Una de esas historias, la primera en realidad, relata como dos enamorados decidieron encontrarse en una estación de tren, pero con tal mala fortuna que cada uno se ubicó en una entrada diferente esperándose por más de una hora. Después de esperar ese tiempo los dos decidieron ir a la puerta contraria y se encontraron. Un inicio romántico para una historia que no termina bien. ————————————————————————————————— Ramón Esono, a la cárcel por dibujar contra Obiang Ramón Esono sigue en la cárcel y nosotros seguimos pendientes de su estado. Dibujar no es delito. Ramón Esono lleva en la prisión de Black Beach, Malabo (Guinea Ecuatorial), desde el 16 de septiembre, sin que los cargos contra él ni los motivos que han provocado esa detención estén muy justificados. Las autoridades del régimen de Teodoro Obiang apuntan a un supuesto delito por blanqueo de capitales, pero se intuye que las razones reales obedecen a un castigo por las críticas que Esono realiza desde su actividad artística, principalmente como ilustrador. ————————————————————————————————— 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! En este capítulo las chicas se fueron a recorrer La Primavera del Libro, en el parque bustamante (Santiago, Chile). Participaron del duelo de dibujantes entre Katerine Supnem, Malaimagen y Sol Díaz, entrevistaron a distintos personajes, dibujantes, editores, revisaron libros, cantaron, y reíron. Entre los entrevistados están los dibujantes Malaimagen, Christiano y Camila Barrales, hablaron con las editoras de los hermosos libros de La Mujer Rota, Neon, Vasalisa, Francisca Cárcamo de Pánico ediciones, y la grosa y divertida Lola Larra de Ekaré. Inés Estrada: “Millions of years of evolution for us to all be bored on our phones right now…” The last issue of her Alienation comic will be available from her webshop, Gatosaurio this weekend. If you haven’t picked up all previous 5 issues, you’d be remiss not to get all 6 for $25. Miguel A. Pérez-Gómez reseña Nuevas estructuras de Begoña García-Alén – el lector como constructor. Este sábado a las 20 no se pierdan a Berliac en una gran charla moderada por Lucas De Paoli en Libreria del Fondo en Buenos Aires, Argentina. Conozcan a Mohammad Barrangi, el elegido por Tragaluz Libros como premio de ilustración. Aquí el intercambio de magnolias entre Barrangi y Juliana Muños Toro. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 10-18-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 10-18-2017 – by Juan Fernandez ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 10-18-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

01/26/2017

Sally IngrahamJanuary 25, 2017NewsSam and Sally bring us a whole crew of Pittsburgh cartoonists, thoughts on Problem Solverz, and our Thursday crop of comic strips! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I’ve been reaaaallly sloooooooowly reading Tao Lin’s Taipei and so far so good – it’s been great. Maybe it’s because Juan Fernandez referred me to this (“the peace tape” – a Paper Rad film) but I’ve been thinking about Problem Solverz a lot, and how great it was to see it when I did. It seems to have the exact same effect now as when I first saw it, so it summons an emotion that’s already in people, I think, or I could just be making it up. I was thinking of how I sometimes sense a sentiment in it that is similar to what excited me about watching some webtoons, and of course reading certain comics I have read, which I see as processing somethin’. I see it as proof that Problem Solverz summoned, or showcased, or manifested in the best way something that is a little inexpressible. In dreams when you try to render this thing fully it disappears, but Problem Solverz is very well expressed, and remains exceedingly potent even as time passes. There is a lot of space and then the conflict of what to utilize it for – so then are you surrendering to one purpose with which to define yourself? Maybe? Maybe not. Ben Jones did refer to Problem Solverz as a coming of age story. Anyway, I was in middle school when it was airing – me and my one buddy were excited about it. My friend told me how he got excited at the episode with the Awesome Banditz from Pittsburgh. It was my favorite show as it was airing, so as a fanboy I also remember being frustrated with these people on YouTube who were in their late twenties or early twenties (at least that’s how I perceived them at the time). I was really annoyed. I was like, “Why are these people trying to get rid of this show that was certainly made more so for people my age?” (was it? I don’t have a clue) and then I would get lambasted by 90’s kids who couldn’t stop talking about how much better their childhood was. I’m sure it was great and the shows they loved were great, but c’mon. (I wonder if that’s what Brian Chippendale meant in that Puke Force strip when he was thanking the YouTube commenters on Problem Solverz for being “great dialogue fuel”. No, probably not. How could it be? It just meant what it meant.) – Sam Ombiri Check out Dan Nadel’s thoughts on Problem Solverz – publishing on The Comics Journal the day the first episode aired – HERE. 1-26-2017 – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sally Ingraham here: The Glassblock sat down with Marcel Walker recently for a lengthy conversation about his work and Pittsburgh-based comics projects. While sifting through sketches and concept drawings they talked about his process and discussed “the long gestation of Hero Corp., how our favorite superheroes work for corporate America, and the importance of education and history in the Chutz-Pow! series“. Marcel is a well-known figure in the Pittsburgh comics scene. He’s an educator and activist whose work often directly gives back to the community – like the Chutz-Pow! series, which was made in partnership between the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and The ToonSeum. As Marcel says: “… comics can also teach you broader things. They can teach you about other segments of our society and culture. There’s a story that ran in EC Comics back in the ’50s. The story was called “Judgment Day.” It’s a science fiction story with a wonderful twist at the end. It’s a story with a social moral, , that’s obvious—so obvious that the Comics Code Authority almost didn’t allow that story to be published. Fortunately, the publishers resisted that, they make a stink, and eventually the story was published. That’s an example of just doing your thing; tell that story because you know the moral is right.“ Read the whole interview HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Nathaniel Broadus is another member of the Pittsburgh comics community – and he too is an activist and youth advocate. He has been writing a story called Police State (or, the comic he never wanted to write): “To be honest, when I initially sat down to write, my story wasn’t at all about social justice in any real sense. I wanted to write about hip hop, and I wanted to write about super heroes. I crafted a story in my head about a young rapper with gobs of desire, but not much ability, who is unwillingly corralled into an intergalactic battle of the bands. As I sat down to craft the universe of my fun loving, aloof hero, Ferguson burned.“ After returning home from enlistment Nathaniel was having trouble transitioning back into civilian life. He found inspiration and new purpose within his community in Pittsburgh, and wound up on a new front-line – that of “the war to improve this world for every single person“. Writing Police State is part of that mission. Check out the first 5 pages of Police State HERE – with artwork by JC Grande and John Becaro. You can get copies of Police State #0-#2 HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Yona Harvey (another Pittsburgher) is going to keep writing comics! Last year she wrote a story for the series World Of Wakanda,and now she will be applying her poet’s pen to a new series. She and Ta-Nehisi Coates announced a new Black Panther spin-off titled Black Panther & The Crew – coming soon. The series will revive the world of Christopher Priest’s mini-series The Crew and introduce the Black Panther to Harlem. From the interview/announcement on Time, Ta-Nehisi Coates speaking: “There’s this concept in comic books of street characters—characters who mostly deal with street-level stories—those are your Daredevils, your Luke Cages, things that are considered lower-tier. And then you have your more cosmic level heroes, like The X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Avengers, that sort of thing. What we have in this book is a group of characters that operate on both levels. What does it mean to protect the street and protect the world? How are those things connected? What happens when T’Challa is walking down the street without his uniform and people don’t recognize him, he’s just a black person? Same with Storm.“ Yona Harvey was asked how her poetry has played into writing for comics. Her reply: “For the first project (World of Wakanda) I kept resisting. I thought being a poet was a negative somehow. But then I had to embrace what poets do, examine tiny details and draw out a larger story. And it helps with the language and the voice of the characters. I have this little trick where I imagine the poetic voice of the character, whether it’s very terse or romantic or sensitive.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright and Sarah Mirk had a comic on The Nib recently – Eight Ways to Resisit Donald Trump – check out the whole thing HERE. (Shannon Wright is an alum of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – the comic she made for the course can be seen HERE!) ————————————————————————————————— Since Pittsburgh is so heavily on my mind today, check out Frank’s Blast Furnace Funnies over on the school store. Originally made for the Biennial at the Carnegie Museum in 2011, this is the 16-page tabloid newspaper comic that was stacked in the corner of the gallery space. The original pages hung on the wall. As Bill Boichel puts it in his review for Copacetic Comics: “In a signature Santoro move, Blast Furnace Funnies is a work of “High” (i.e., museum quality) art executed in the lowest of the “Low” art forms (a disposable newspaper); employing ephemerality to evoke eternity, he has here worked (in a form that often ends up) in the gutter to reach for the stars.“ Get a copy HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-26-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-26-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-26-2017 – by Juan Fernández 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: [...]

09/16/2016

Sally IngrahamSeptember 16, 2016NewsSally here with more on SPX, the Spanish Fever crew, Dash Shaw, Glynnis Fawkes, and Lynda Barry. ————————————————————————————————— Around this time last year I had just moved to New Mexico, and I was missing Pittsburgh desperately. I spent the weekend of Small Press Expo somewhat frantically composing my comic Walkabout (which is all about Pittsburgh) and watching the various small dramas of SPX unfold via meager internet updates. A year later I will be attending SPX myself, bringing copies of Walkabout with me, and also a car-load of special zines made by Comics Workbook for SPX and Fantagraphics‘ 40th Anniversary celebration. Quite the switch-up! You can get a copy of the “Fanta-zine” when you register at the show – and a copy of my comic as well as loads of other cool stuff from Frank Santoro, Andrew White, Juan Fernandez, Audra Stang, Emil Friis Ernst, and others at the Comics Workbook table – N8. Observe the nifty map below so that this info imprints in your memory bank: ————————————————————————————————— The workshops that Comics Workbook is hosting at SPX have created quite a buzz, and may set the stage for more programming along these lines at future shows. We are particularly pleased to be presenting members of the “new wave of Spanish cartoonists”. A portion of the talent behind the new Fantagraphics compilation Spanish Fever arrived in the D.C. area on Thursday, kicking off their US tour with a public talk at the Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain, moderated by José Villarrubia. “Asked if there was some stylistic through-line that characterized this new movement, Villarubia said, “I see the influence of American independent comics, the underground, the influence of French comics, Japanese comics. In terms of the art, the aesthetics are influenced by what everyone else all over the world is being influenced by. I think more and more people are reading comics online and have access to materials from many different traditions. This work is informed by that. The five creators who are coming are a really great sampling of that, with different styles and age and gender.” ” – via dcist.com Spanish Fever editor Santiago Garcia is joined by David Rubin, Javier Olivares, José Domingo, and Ana Galvañ as the tour moves on to SPX this weekend. You can catch them at a panel moderated by Matt Madden and then learn to make comics THEIR WAY at the Spanish Fever workshop session on Saturday, Sept. 17th at 3-5pm (Brookside A&B room). See you there! I could keep talking about SPX, but there will be plenty of time for that next week… ————————————————————————————————— Meanwhile, Dash Shaw’s film My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea is garnering praise from everyone who has seen it – No Film School sat down with Dash soon after the premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and dug into the production adventure: “NFS: The process of casting animators is in and of itself its own form of directing. Were you and Jane generally on the same page? How did you navigate when you weren’t? Shaw: Jane and I are married and we live together. When we were drawing this, it was a small apartment, so discussions from the movie would comically fall over into other aspects of life. It would be very long talks when there were disagreements about what a face would be like for a certain line. Somehow it would work itself out. Our marriage survived this movie. A great example: there’s a part where all of the characters are running and the background moves while they’re in silhouette. Jane does all the silhouettes. I did the collage paper that’s flying past them, and I think that’s a good moment to point to where it was Jane in full force juxtaposed with something that I did and it equals something that’s more than the sum of its parts.“ Read the rest of the interview here. ————————————————————————————————— Over on Mutha Magazine Glynnis Fawkes has a late summer harvest of comics about kids and adults and general weirdness. One such: Many more HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Lynda Barry has her 3rd New York solo exhibition opening this weekend at the Adam Baumgold Gallery. “The Marlys Show, from September 17th through November 5th…will be devoted to Lynda Barry’s beloved character Marlys, and will feature 80 original drawings. There will be work dating from the early appearances of Marlys in 1986 to watercolor drawings of Marlys from 2016, with stories from Barry’s books The Fun House; Come Over, Come Over; It’s So Magic, The Freddie Stories, and of course The Greatest of Marlys, which is being reissued this year in hardcover by Drawn and Quarterly. Also included will be many of Lynda Barry’s comic drawings that were published in Raw, The Village Voice, Esquire, Newsweek and The New York Times, among others.” -Adam Baumgold The opening reception is September 17th from 5-7 and promises to be a great party, although Lynda Barry claims she will be “smoking and drinking beer over in the corner and trying not to make eye-contact“…! More details about the show HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Today is the last day to apply for a spot in the fall semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – DO IT! ————————————————————————————————— I’ll bid you farewell till next week and a very happy weekend and leave you in the joyous grip of the Dom Flemons Trio (who swung through Pittsburgh on Thursday to make a special stop mid-tour at Copacetic Comics so they could get the new volume of Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor!) Cheers! Share this page: [...]

05/28/2018

Posted on May 28, 2018May 28, 2018 by Caleb Orecchio

Gone fishing

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We will be back tomorrow at our normal programming schedule. Have a good one!

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Suzy and Cecil – 5-28-18 – by Gabriella Tito

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged gone fishing

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on May 28, 2018May 28, 2018

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Comics As Music – Frank Santoro

Sally IngrahamNovember 12, 2016ClassesPIX April 2nd 2016 Filmed by Michael Pisano – Edited by Michael Pisano and Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

Meter, Geometry and Comic Form

Comics WorkbookJuly 31, 2017Essaysby Jackie Kirby Above, I have taken the opening couplet of Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” (1681) scanned and annotated by Phillip Hobsbaum in Metre, Rhythm, and Verse Form (1996) and translated it into an 8-panel grid spread using values of red as a accentual tool. Approaching comics with the assumption that they are or can be included within the scope of poetic practice, one is brought to draw a connection between the formal structures through which time and meaning are manifested on the page: in the comic, geometry and the grid; and in the poem, meter and verse form. Here, I will present what could generously be called “notes” towards a theory of meter and geometry. I apologize now for the inevitable imperfection of the metaphor, but I find this to be an important and positive aspect of the connection between the two, rather than a caveat negating any use the metaphor may provide. Meter is the method of measuring verse by counting elements of it. It is a primarily mathematical system; it was called “numbers” by the Classical poets. Most often, the poet is counting syllables, as many languages exist primarily as a succession of syllables. Through different uses of meter, different methods of counting and measuring, different patterns of arrangement, writers create prosody, or a system of language. Within each language there exist many theories of organization, each of which is catered to both the language the writer uses and the purpose for which she wishes to use it. English poetry uses an accentual-syllabic metrical system, where the units being counted are syllables, and their pattern is defined by the arrangement of more or less strongly emphasized, or accented, syllables. Other languages use different systems. Languages which do not accentuate as strongly, such as French, will use something more akin to a purely syllabic meter, where forms are defined by the counting of syllables and ordering of numbers. This was also used by Ancient Irish and Welsh poets. Classical Greek and Latin poets based their prosody on the number of syllables and the length of time it takes to speak each syllable, creating patterns by arranging longer and shorter syllables. This is all to say, meter is a tool that must be developed accounting for the idiosyncrasies of the language in which one wishes to write. By looking at the metrical forms used by poets across different languages, and restructuring them for use in the language of comics, one can produce comic forms with increased complexity without decreasing (and perhaps even increasing) their legibility. 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.” The first verse form I’d like to look at is dactylic hexameter, or Homer’s verse. It is the verse used in the Iliad and Odyssey, and later in Latin by Ovid and Virgil. Its historical use has equated it with the most grandiose poetic narratives, and cues a reader that she is reading a grand epic. Dactylic refers to the primary foot pattern of the poem, a dactyl being a long or stressed syllable followed by 2 short or unstressed syllables, while hexameter refers to the number of feet per line, which is 6 in this case (as opposed to pentameter , tetrameter , etc.). Using the system of translation previously established, a “dactylic hexameter” comic, would consist of spreads with 6 rows of 3 panels each, with the primary pattern being to stress the first panel of each row. Visually, this can easily lead us to a spread of 2 pages using a 9-panel grid. Another notable element of Homer’s verse is that the third and sixth feet may be spondees rather than dactyls. A spondee is a foot composed of 2 equally weighted syllables. This could provide a spread looking something like this. Alternatively, one could equate the panel to a metrical foot, and the page to a line. This would produce 6-panel grids, with each spread serving as a couplet. These are only a few different, relatively conservative, attempts at translating a single poetic verse form into comics. These are not prescriptions as to what certain meters must look like in comics, but demonstrations of the ways meter and verse form can be used to develop a prosody of comics. There is such a plethora of verse forms, all with their own particular uses that can be translated into comics. As shown in the Marvell scansion above, the 8-panel grid is quite suited for translating iambic tetrameter, which is used most commonly in the ballad form. This connection could lead to all sorts of comics practices or translated ballads. The harmony of a metered line is based on the same mathematical principals that produce visual harmony in geometric patterns. For instance, the sonnet, one of the most commonly used poetic forms, consisted originally of an octave (8-line stanza) followed by a sestet (6-line stanza). Poetry scholars have connected this with the golden ratio (8/5) with an extra line added to complete an even-numbered rhyme scheme. I have annoyed (to say the least) a number of English department chairs by insisting that poetry is simply linguistic mathematics. Certainly it’s (a bit) more than that, but much of poetics is applied mathematics, just as comics are. ————————————————————————————————————— Jackie Kirby is a poet and comics maker living in New York City. A recent graduate from The New School with a BA in Cultural Studies, she has been making comics and writing poetry seriously for three years. Check out work by Jackie on her website, and follow her on Instagram. Read Jackie’s Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency Report for more thoughts on comics and poetry. Share this page: [...]

09/18/2017

Caleb OrecchioSeptember 18, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here with your post SPX 2017 review, and some links. ———————————————————————————————— Want to start by saying thanks to Frank Santoro for taking care and sticking his neck out for his “kids.” My SPX experience would not be nearly as fruitful or as interesting without Frank. Also want to thank Sally Ingraham who also runs herself ragged making sure us Comics Workbook “kids” are having the most beneficial experience. ———————————————————————————————— I am writing this on Monday morning, the day after SPX 2017 ended. My tank was practically empty by the end of the day as I went through all the events of the week/end in my mind. It was a really fun show where I participated in running workshops and being a gopher for Comics Workbook. On Thursday, I tagged along with Frank Santoro, Sally Ingraham, and Audra Stang from Pittsburgh to Bethesda, Maryland where SPX is held. Friday I got to meet thee great Gilbert Hernandez during a secret workshop Frank set up for his “kids.” We drew our “Blubber-esque” comics while Gilbert and Frank riffed. Everyone in attendance had their work reviewed by Mr. Hernandez–needless to say we all had a fantastic time–just happy to spend time with and talk to one of the great cartoonists walking the earth right now. Saturday and Sunday were busy busy busy busy. Comics Workbook held workshops in Glen Echo Room, four on Saturday and four on Sunday. The excellent Juan Fernandez kicked off the weekend of workshops with roaring energy and a full house–Juan is an excellent comics educator who never ceases to impress me. Liz Reed gave tutorials on making characters out of clay–I was called elsewhere, but form all accounts the experience was really great. I, along with Audra Stang, had to be bouncers for Gilbert Hernandez’s workshop that Frank moderated. We filled the room to the brim–the hotel staff was concerned because we had to form two lines that snaked through two hallways. A lot of people had to be turned away simply because we had no room. As I stayed outside the room making sure no stragglers trespassed, I talked to Whit Taylor before she went to moderate her panel held in the White Oak Room. Gilbert’s workshop saw people like Tom Spurgeon and Noel Freibert making it in before we had to basicially guard the door. Connor Willumsen had to follow Gilbert and he killed. Connor filled the room too and led an excellent workshop. The incredible Alexis Ziritt led the first workshop on Sunday. What a nice, talented guy. Kids both young and old drew and laughed for an hour through Alexis’ great workshop. Next up was Sally and Audra co-piloted a workshop. Both are experienced comics educators and had really excellent results. The joy in the room was bursting and the comics made were many. Great tag-team. After that, Sally helped me lead a “free-draw” workshop. I had particular topics I wanted to talk about but talked about none of them. Instead I discussed my process of making my (“daily”) comic-strip, Joanie and Jordie. I drew an improvised J&J live which people seemed to think was funny. Sally helped me to focus the workshop making great points and giving me good prompts. Had good questions to answer from the crowd too. Finally, Mardou ended the CW workshops with a reading of an upcoming book and presentation of her process. Mardou is great, there is a showmanship to her presentations and made me laugh out loud. Great presentation for those who want to up their storytelling game. Had a couple shifts at the CW table in the main exhibitor hall. Frank’s longboxes, of course, are famous and 10 minutes don’t pass without someone commenting on how happy they are to see Frank’s longboxes there. CW was also selling my comic, a collection of J&J strips called Poor Little Joanie. I was happy to see it sold fairly well. Some people were familiar with the strip who I didn’t know which was nice. Same with Sally and Gabriella Tito’s collection of Suzy and Cecil strips. I had a couple customers who bought both. I kept my eye on the Simon Hanselmann Truth Zone collections–those things are coveted by many. Got to talk to Jim Rugg while I tabled–Jim is always very nice and attentive. A good tablemate. Saw thee great Bill Boichel and he told me he wanted to buy a handful of copies to sell at his store. It was busy busy busy out on the floor. Got to see Alyssa Berg who I hadn’t seen since CXC last year. Her new riso comics are fantastic–she’s taking her paintings and converting them to riso for print. The results are fantastic. Got to meet Cameron Nicholson for the first time. And Tyler Landry. It was an amalgamation of familiar and new people to see irl: Kate Harmon, Kurt Ankeny, Adam Griffiths, Jenn Lisa (makes excellent cookies), RM Rhodes, Simon Reinhardt, Megan Turbitt, etc. etc. I’m exhausted–in a good way. I’m depleted, left it all out on the court. Thanks again to Frank and Sally who lead the way for us CW “kids.” ———————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Koyama Press announces Spring 2018 Line-up TCJ has dug up their Len Wein interview from the archives. Brian Nicholson reviews Farel Dalrymple’s Pop Gun War: Chain Letter. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-15-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

12/20/2016

Aaron CockleDecember 19, 2016NewsAaron here today with an Upside-Down World; Internet Comics & Free Speech; Broken Frontier Awards; Héctor Germán Oesterheld; Paul Karasik on Gary Groth (and Frank Frazetta); Security of Culture and Culture of Security; Some Olivier Schrauwen for the Holidays; a Riso Lab Missive ————————————————————————————————— Gustave Verbeek, October 4, 1903 ————————————————————————————————— How Web Comics Revolutionized Free Speech Caitlin McCabe at the CBLDF talks about the internet and the ways in which comics can exist there: The internet hasn’t just become a vehicle for free speech in the English-speaking world. Cartoonists around the world — especially in countries where expressing oneself freely can have legal or physical repercussions — are finding their voice on the internet. Sudanese cartoonist Khalid Albaih has built a following online publishing comics that address serious global issues. Chinese cartoonist Badiucao may have left his home country, but uses Twitter and the independent web newssource China Digital Times to reach his audience and sidestep censors. Kanika Mishra, a female cartoonist out of India who has been threatened for her work, describes how social media has enabled her to not only find new audiences, but empower her to continue to spread her cartoons which discuss social injustices in her home country. ————————————————————————————————— Broken Frontier Awards 2016 The comics blog has announced nominees for its annual awards. It includes work from CW favorites Tillie Walden, Simon Moreton, Eleanor Davis, Kelly Kwang and Richie Pope, Anna Haifisch, and Daniel Clowes; as well as publishers: Koyama, Press, Avery Hill Publishing, Breakdown Press, Fantagraphics, and Retrofit/Big Planet. Please consider voting, if you are so inclined. ————————————————————————————————— El Eternauta Dominic Umile profiles the comics writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld, his work with Francisco Solano López, and the fate of Oesterheld and his family members at the hands of the Argentine dictatorship in 1977. “Oesterheld played an important role in the development of the Argentine comic between the 1950s and the 1970s,” University of Iowa professor Ana Merino wrote in the International Journal of Comic Art in 2001. “He unknowingly opened up a bridge between fantastic and comic literature, showing that comics could be as intense as literature, and in turn, can offer alternative aesthetic possibilities.” ————————————————————————————————— ‘Meet Gary’ Via Paul Karasik, excerpted from the recent Fantagraphics history/hagiography, We Told You So: Comics as Art, edited by Tom Spurgeon and Michael Dean. ————————————————————————————————— Security Culture is Good Kade Crockford at The New Inquiry has some information about navigating and negotiating in these current and soon-to-be current times: Take these precautions to protect yourself and your loved ones from the state. When the FBI interviews someone, they send two agents: one person asks questions, and the other takes notes. The stenographer then goes back to the office and types up the notes into an official document known as Form 302. This is the government’s official record of the interview, and it can and likely will be used against the interview subject. If an FBI official writes on the 302 that you said you were at a basketball game Sunday morning at 11, and then you later tell a grand jury that you were at the basketball game at 10, you can be charged with lying to a federal agent. A conviction for lying to a federal agent will land you in federal prison for years. This is how the FBI puts people in a vice, and gets them to inform. The truth doesn’t matter; the only thing that matters is what’s written on that Form 302. ————————————————————————————————— Je peux rentrer chez moi maintenant? A grab-bag (or hodge-podge) of writing about Olivier Schrauwen‘s comics work to date, in French, just waiting to be translated into your language of choice. For example: Entre-temps, les extraterrestres lui font assister en miniature et en immersion au spectacle de l’histoire humaine, de plus en plus douloureuse au fur et à mesure que les événements se rapprochent de sa propre vie, déclenchant un stupéfiant moment d’hystérie infantile dans les rues de New-York, le jour du 11 septembre 2001. Toutes ces pages sont les plus belles et les plus fortes de l’album, Schrauwen s’y représentant comme un géant surplombant la destinée des hommes, mais se comportant en réalité comme un gamin détaché du passé et insoucieux du futur (sommet d’ironie : le narrateur, qui vient d’assister à la fin du monde, dit simplement « Je peux rentrer chez moi maintenant ? »). In the meantime, the extraterrestrials make him assist in miniature and immersion in the spectacle of human history, more and more painful as events come closer to his own life, triggering a stunning moment of infantile hysteria On the streets of New York on September 11, 2001. All these pages are the most beautiful and the strongest of the album, Schrauwen representing himself as a giant overlooking the destiny of men, but behaving in reality Like a kid detached from the past and careless of the future (summit of irony: the narrator, who has just witnessed the end of the world, simply says “I can go home now?”). ————————————————————————————————— Dispatch from the Riso Lab Getting ready for tonight’s (or yesterday’s, considering I am posting this news update on Monday afternoon, to be read on a Tuesday, by you, or whenever, it’s not like time has any sort of relevancy any more, here on the internet, or out in the real world, for that matter, if it ever did) Print Slam 4 event, I had booked some time in the Riso Lab at SVA, and was able to print and assemble a mini, Math Comics 2. Print Slam 4 promo poster by Panayiotis Terzis. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-20-2016 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

04/15/2016

Sally IngrahamApril 15, 2016NewsSally here with sweet morsels to start the weekend off right – Simon Hanselmann and Eleanor Davis dazzle in interviews this week, while Alabaster Pizzo and Jim Rugg offer up comics overflowing with life-hacks, and Chris Ware via Comics Workbook provides us with the perfect way to spend that plump tax return we’re already dreaming of… —————————————————————————— What a day, what a day. Friday, April 15th, and in a stroke of great good fortune, it is NOT tax day…! Thanks to some obscure holiday celebrated only in Washington, D.C., the penny savers of the world can hold on to their riches for a few more days. If you still feel an urge to count coins, however, check out this comic by Chris Ware, which ran in the New York Times a few tax seasons ago. I say some obscure holiday… *sigh* —————————————————————————— Anyway, once you get those taxes filed, hopefully there will be a sweet refund landing in your coffers – and in anticipation of that, you could certainly at least take a gander at the INCREDIBLE AUCTION of original Chris Ware artwork that is being held to benefit the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. Check it out: The auction is live HERE, and will continue through next week. —————————————————————————— We can’t get enough of Jim Rugg this week – after blowing his mind with the Chris Ware package, Comics Workbook followed up by paying his studio a visit and getting into the details of Jim’s process. Check out part 1 of 3 below: Part 2 HERE. Part 3 HERE. Jim is cranking out some new high octane Street Angel comics too – Fist Fight Funnies features our kick ass hero enduring the horrors of middle school…the story so far. Can she survive MATH CLASS…?? —————————————————————————— Keeping things somewhat connected here, in a new interview with The Guardian, Simon Hanselmann mentions his confusion over how to read comics by Chris Ware. “I believe in the grid,” he says. This of course is the least interesting aspect of the article, which begins with Simon and HTMLflowers watching the sun rise at the top of a 12-storey crane in the middle of a construction site. ‘When not putting himself in mortal danger, Simon Hanselmann is responsible for the cult comic series Megg, Mogg and Owl. “If I don’t do stupid things every now and then, I will run out of stupid things for Megg and Mogg to do,” he says. “If I stop being a fuck-up, then Megg and Mogg will soon just be about managing European translations and Skyping with network executives.”’ Oh Simon, never change. Read the full article HERE. —————————————————————————— Annie Mok dives in deep with Eleanor Davis over on The Comics Journal. The conversation is lively, and the interview features a full banquet platter of Davis‘ styles – she’s a creative beast! There’s going to be something in there for everyone, and for me it was her thoughts about drawing as a form of play – holding on to the “kids drawing”, versus a more polished style. DAVIS: I feel like there’s a lot of different stages, and when you get to a certain level of maturity you realize that people are looking at your drawings, and that your drawing can be judged as good or bad. And then you clench up like crazy, and that’s when your drawing starts getting bad. Usually. Like, objectively. And then you have to learn and do “How to Draw the Marvel Way” or whatever, and learn to be good. But before that, you’re drawing as a way of play. It makes the drawings a lot more linear. Not aesthetically linear, but the way that the drawing is built is more linear, ‘cause each line is—it’s not preplanned, so each line is responding to the previous line rather than trying to build an overarching image. I think that that lends kids’ drawings a sense of integrity that maybe gets lost when you’re trying to do something that’s pre-planned… Read, and be staggered by, the whole interview HERE. —————————————————————————— Alabaster Pizzo has a new comic up on Vice, and it’s all about urban farming – a trickier and more treacherous endeavor than you might think. —————————————————————————— Czap Books just released a new collection – Inaction Comics 1: Productivity This book is a challenge to action. An attempt to break free of it, and to come to terms with it. So much of life is inaction, is just breathing or waiting. Is joys and shames, all so quiet you deny them or forget them a moment later. This book is made up of a group of very different artists with very different perspectives, but pulled together into an exploration of a single idea. A single story, in a way. Contributors include: Kimball Anderson – MJ Robinson – Paul K. Tunis – L. Nichols – LB Lee – Laurel Lynn Leake – Kelsea Rain – Alyssa Berg – Andrew White – Susie Oh – Klára Grancicova – Cathy G. Johnson Get it HERE. —————————————————————————— Alrighty folks, make the most of your weekend – go on wild adventures (channel Simon Hanselmann perhaps) and if you don’t make it back by Monday, who can blame you? If you do make it back though, we’ll be here with more comics news! – Sally Share this page: [...]

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