Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Aidan Koch, Inkstuds, Jason Shulman, KIngspray, Malachi Ward, Rebecca Sugar, Rob Clough, Sean Ford, VR, Wowee Zonk

Juan Fernández

Posted on May 9, 2016May 9, 2016

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10/04/2016

Aaron CockleOctober 3, 2016NewsAaron here today with CW in the UK (and USA); Best North American Comics; Alex Citrin Remembers Geneviève Castrée; Review of Dane Martin Comics; Tentacular Thinking; New CW Auction Items ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook will be participating in two festivals next week: One in the UK The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, October 14-16. Join Frank Santoro, Aidan Koch, and Connor Willumsen for some cool workshops and visit table 67 in the Comics Clocktower to meet Oliver East and Jack Brougham, among others. We will be hosting 3 special workshops, “Visual Poetry” with Aidan Koch, “The Hammer Party” with Connor Willumsen and “Composition Competition” with Frank Santoro. Tickets for the main events at this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival are on sale now. Visit our event page for more information. And one in the US Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, October 13-16. We will be hosting workshops and tabling. Join Comics Workbook, along with cartoonists Alyssa Berg and Kurt Ankeny, for an immersive weekend of comics creation. We will examine art and the grid, bringing the strong artistic practices of Berg and Ankeny together with the discipline and rhythm of the grid, as laid out by Comics Workbook founder Frank Santoro. Four hours across two days will be filled with the exploration of a variety of techniques and methods which will inspire the beginner, and challenge the established cartoonist. Comics as jazz; comics as architecture; how a simple index card can transform your sequencing and storytelling process – come join us for an hour or four and take your comics making to a new level. More information on our CXC exploits to come soon – the full festival schedule is here! ————————————————————————————————— Wednesday at the Strand Roz Chast and Bill Kartalopoulos will be in conversation at Strand Books in NYC on Wednesday, October 5 at 7pm with Anne Emond, Lianna Finck, and Char Esme in promotion of the 2016 edition of the Best American Comics. Chast guest edits this year, Bill K remains the series editor. Cover by Marc Bell. ————————————————————————————————— For Geneviève and Elsewhere: A comic by Alex Citrin ————————————————————————————————— Upon Review of Dane Martin’s Unfortunate Horse Magazine Dane’s comics are grouped generically under the title The Horror of the Gag, which, while apparently at odds with itself, perfectly describes his product. These strips and stories follow the funny animal tradition of anthropomorphic critter hijinx and have an olde timey aura befitting the venerable genre. However, unlike the blithe cavorting of a Mickey or a Mini, Dane takes the ire and consternation of Donald and stokes its flames until it they reach a fever pitch of pride, loathing and anxiety–and injects this toxic serum into the veins of his bug-eyed characters. So burdened, Dane’s ducks and their compatriots scramble across a crepuscular dust bowl, seemingly located in the early 20th century, manipulating and terrorizing each other as they compete for capitalist supremacy, or bicker about false memories, or worry the internal scars of childhood. And yet, somehow, in the midst of this unenviable existence, their antics are frequently, legitimately funny. – via Donner, Party of One ————————————————————————————————— Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene Donna Haraway has a lovely (and lovingly-footnoted) piece at e-flux about homo sapiens from, like, a geological perspective: As a provocation, let me summarize my objections to the Anthropocene as a tool, story, or epoch to think with: (1) The myth system associated with the Anthropos is a setup, and the stories end badly. More to the point, they end in double death; they are not about ongoingness. It is hard to tell a good story with such a bad actor. Bad actors need a story, but not the whole story. (2) Species Man does not make history. (3) Man plus Tool does not make history. That is the story of History human exceptionalists tell. (4) That History must give way to geostories, to Gaia stories, to symchthonic stories; terrans do webbed, braided, and tentacular living and dying in sympoietic multispecies string figures; they do not do History. (5) The human social apparatus of the Anthropocene tends to be top-heavy and bureaucracy prone. Revolt needs other forms of action and other stories for solace, inspiration, and effectiveness. (6) Despite its reliance on agile computer modeling and autopoietic systems theories, the Anthropocene relies too much on what should be an “unthinkable” theory of relations, namely the old one of bounded utilitarian individualism — preexisting units in competition relations that take up all the air in the atmosphere (except, apparently, carbon dioxide). (7) The sciences of the Anthropocene are too much contained within restrictive systems theories and within evolutionary theories called the Modern Synthesis, which for all their extraordinary importance have proven unable to think well about sympoiesis, symbiosis, symbiogenesis, development, webbed ecologies, and microbes. That’s a lot of trouble for adequate evolutionary theory. (8) Anthropocene is a term most easily meaningful and usable by intellectuals in wealthy classes and regions; it is not an idiomatic term for climate, weather, land, care of country, or much else in great swathes of the world, especially but not only among indigenous peoples. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

04/13/2018

Sally IngrahamApril 12, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with Nancy and her new artist, Olivia Jaimes, plus many more “Inking Women”! ————————————————————————————————— The Washington Post reported earlier this week that for the first time in 85 years, the comic strip Nancy will be drawn by a woman! Olivia Jaimes takes on the legacy, and the future of the strip. ” “Nancy has been my favorite sassy grouch for a long time,” Jaimes says in a syndicate statement. “I’m excited to be sassy and grouchy through her voice instead of just mine, and I can complain to the whole world about things that bother me instead of just my friends and family.” “ Read the rest of the Washington Post story HERE. In a new story from yesterday, the Washington Post digs in deeper, covering the origins and history of Nancy, why Roz Chast loves it, and what Olivia Jaimes brings to this new iteration of it – along with a look at her first strip, which was published Monday. The internet continues to be “mums the word” on who Olivia Jaimes really is (the name is a psyeudonym) and what the webcomics that so impressed her new syndicate were… Heidi MacDonald and Mike Peterson have both theorized that her webcomic may have been a bit too “naughty” to sit in company with Nancy. We shall see where all this leads. ————————————————————————————————— Here’s a very worthy addition to the comic historian’s bookshelf. As much as I’ve been attempting to thoroughly familiarize myself with female cartoonists working in America, the tradition of women working in comics in the UK is just as lengthy and rich – and here’s the proof. In fact, editors Nicola Streeten and Cath Tate state that women have been making comics in England since 1760…! Britain’s first true comic character, Ally Slopper, was created by a woman named Marie Duval. I have bumped into info about Marie Duval before, and wrote about her HERE, but this was a new one to me: “In 1920, Mary Tourtel created Rupert Bear for the Daily Express, and nearly a hundred years later her character is still going strong.“ Mary Tourtel wrote and drew Rupert stories for 15 years, before her eyesight began to fail and Punch cartoonist Alfred Bestall took it over. There’s a bit more about Mary Tourtel HERE. There is more info on The Inking Women HERE on the publisher’s website, as well as in this article. This is definitely a book I need to track down in person, however – I’ll get on that ASAP! Incidentally, The Inking Women editor Nicola Streeten is one of the founders of Laydeez Do Comics, a woman led comics forum in the UK (with branches increasingly worldwide) . Read about the project HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Chris Anthony Diaz shares a terrific photo journal of MoCCA 2018 for Comics Workbook – check it out HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Weekend Snacks Leela Corman has a new comic up on Tablet Magazine about a visit to Buchenwald which left her feeling defiantly alive – read it HERE. Hillary Brown looks at Penelope Bagieu’s Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World – for Paste Magazine. Jessica Campbell takes on the tricky topic of “when your friend becomes a famous artist” – for Hyperallergic. Do you hate Cathy (the comic strip by Cathy Guisewite)? If so, you are far from alone, but Juliet Kahn wants you to question why you hate it/her and asks you to consider why Cathy is perhaps one of the more important comic strips of last few decades. HERE on The Comics Journal. While you’re on the Journal, check out Alejandra Gutiérrez‘s A Cartoonist’s Diary which has been going live this week and will be wrapping up today. Hazlitt has an interview with Anna Haifisch about her new comic Von Spatz and other weirdness – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-13-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

09/19/2018

Juan FernándezSeptember 19, 2018NewsJuan here checking in with a mini SPX Report. First off, a huge thank you goes out to team at SPX, especially Warren Bernard, Lynda Bernard, Rob Clough, Danethin Mejia and Eden Miller for helping us with making these workshops happen! WE had a great time! Also thank you to all of our workshop instructors – you made it happen <3 SPX was solid this year for me. I had some great experiences teaching, caught up with fellow CCS graduates, connected with Santoro School alums, and reconnected with tumblr and instagram comics makers new and old. Nothing ground breaking, just a good continuation of the story from previous years. As is our Comics Workbook tradition, we held down the fort in the Glen Echo Room offering back-to-back workshops with world class cartoonists and comics makers. Attendee’s ages ranged wildly, which was exciting. For the most part, all attendees were aspiring makers or folks who wanted to dip their toes into comics making. It’s nice to be able to offer a space for these people. Sally Ingraham masterfully coordinated all of our workshops and the Workbook crew assisted in shifts. It all went gloriously smoothly. This year, I wrangled up the core group of the Pittsburgh Comics Salon to form the heart of this year’s crew. Above all, my priority this year was being of service to the Pittsburgh Comics Salon’s crew that was in attendance. Lane Graff, Graciela Sarabia, Audra Stang, Syd Blackwell, Sam Ombiri, Ann Lewis, Caleb Orecchio and Sally Ingraham. SPX, if you’re coming from outside of the D.C./Maryland area can be overwhelming, and at times especially strange. There’s no explicit program for after hours mingling other than the Ignatz Awards and the newly developed “Prom”, for better or for worse. If you stay in the hotel, you can sometimes feel trapped. While, yes it’s, folks can just figure out how to take care of themselves – look up food on their phones, find hotels, etc. it is difficult to properly optimize your experience of this weekend without having been there. I wanted to bridge that gap for my fellow comics makers in Pittsburgh. Going to SPX is like entering a bubble. It’s an interesting, satisfying comics bubble, but it is one that takes getting used to. If you don’t go into that bubble prepared to take breaks, with a plan for food, with snacks and water on hand, or with a comics budget, SPX can really wreck you! It’s a monster of a show that way. In light of this I wanted to make sure that everyone had access to what they needed. I attended SPX for the first time in 2010 on Bill Boichel’s urging. I’m thankful he was there that year so that I could check in with him every now and again as he sailed across the room meeting makers and buying work to sell at Copacetic Comics. Without that anchor during my first year, would have been quite different and far more overwhelming. To be able to attend with this group in tow was a really satisfying experience. I’m thankful I could coordinate this trip from Pittsburgh and be their support in Bethesda. As I’ve said before my priority has been to cultivate this local community of makers. I love comics making, but people come before them, always. Workshop Report Sally Ingraham, will have a full report on Friday. Our workshops were more full than ever. Lots of networking between students and instructors happened after each workshop. Comics Reviews You can expect some reflections on books that we received or purchased at SPX to trickle out as the month progresses. It takes time to read comics, to experience them and enjoy them so you won’t see any rushed reviews or reflections from us here at Comics Workbook. Stay tuned for more insights. Thank you! juan 09-29-2018 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

07/27/2017

Sally IngrahamJuly 27, 2017NewsSam Ombiri on Gabrielle Bell’s Everything is Flammable – plus other comics and news! —————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: The reason for my enthusiasm for Everything Is Flammable by Gabrielle Bell is hard to pin down – but I’ll try! I liked how everything flows without interruptions. There’s a seamless transition between what’s going on in her head and what’s happening around her, in what’s treated by her as her reality. She doesn’t treat any incoming moment with more reverence than the last. I got a surprising amount from the book – I just expected to have some fun reading another Gabrielle Bell book, but I kept feeling a lot from panel to panel. I’d read it and keep reading it, and I’d savor it. Gabrielle throws you these incredibly insightful things about life, but they are given no more weight than what was happening earlier. What’s great is that they are open ended insights – ones that you as the reader continue to work out as her stories continue. There’s a part in book where Gabrielle is saying how she is wanting to go see if her Mom is alright after a house fire, but it’s so that she can be a hero – it’s really funny and speaks to the spirit of the book, that spirit of celebrating these minor victories. I’m addicted to reading them. The quests aren’t minor, but the triumphs aren’t a bigger event than those small, small moments of failure we might experience. Everything moment is given the same weight as far as the way they are portrayed. The stories in the comic aren’t desperate to build for “a moment”. For example, Gabrielle may have a part where she’s about to check on her mother after an accident happened, and she says “And I have to admit my own selfishness in wanting to go. First, to draw comics about it…” This attitude doesn’t show, exclusively, an attempt to exploit every possible event. Gabrielle tells very little and conveys a lot. Take the little things you love about people – you don’t have to escape into fantasizing and romanticizing these things about people. You don’t have to look too far to find them, every detail in life doesn’t always lead to a climatic ending. It’s consistent in Gabrielle Bell’s fiction and her auto bio that she seems uninterested in big endings or big conclusions, based on the work I’ve read. I think, as a result, there’s more of what I can believe in the reality that Gabrielle Bell portrays. Related to this: I’m thinking of Gabrielle’s segment in Tokyo! – the Interior Design part directed by Michel Gondry. In contrast to the rest of Gondry’s filmography, it felt like the most nuanced and layered portrayal of this certain (for lack of a better term) mysterious nature of life. Even Gondry commented, and this might be him speaking as a comics maker himself, on how much Gabrielle can convey in just one panel. – Sam Ombiri Get a copy of Everything is Flammable by Gabrielle Bell HERE. —————————————————————————————————— 7-27-2017 – by Sam Ombiri on the eve of Microsoft Paint’s passing – more info HERE —————————————————————————————————— Sally here – Ronald Wimberly did some character designs (above) recently for LeSean Thomas’ new animated short Children of Ether. The Blerdgurl writes: “What I think makes Thomas’ Children of Ether so significant is that not only is he an African-American artist and director who worked exclusively with a Japanese team to create Children of Ether, the main character, Rhonda, is also woman of color, a rare image in the world of anime.“ Read more HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Above is an excerpt from a comic about Abdi, part of a 14 comic series about various Somalian people published by PositiveNegative. “In collaboration with the Open Society Foundations (OSF) we produced a series of fourteen comics, based on personal testimonies, that highlight integration issues of the Somali communities across seven cities of Europe – London, Leicester, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Malmo, Oslo and Helsinki. The focus of the project was to accompany the OSF policy research on the same subjects and locations and to engage a wide, general audience and challenge negative media stereotyping of the Somali community.“ Read all of the comics HERE. Read about the Somali diaspora HERE. —————————————————————————————————— It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Thee Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2017 has been announced! This year it’s a riff on the 6-panel grid, in the traditional North American comic book size – but with a twist! Full details HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-27-2017 – by Gabriella Tito —————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-27-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

07/13/2017

Sally IngrahamJuly 13, 2017NewsToday we have Sam Ombiri on Matthew Thurber’s Art Comic 3, NPR’s comics reader poll, The Permanent Night from Adam Griffiths, and more. —————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I was recently reading Art Comic 3 by Matthew Thurber (a story of art world hijinx where the recurring character of Cupcake has gotten a new job at Dachshund Pond’s gallery). I really like the relationship between the characters Dachshund and Zenobia – the way Zenobia refers to Dachshund and the way Dachshund has an idea of what Zenobia thinks about him, (yet she mis-remembers him enough to recommend Cupcake to get a job with him.) There are these subtle moments that hint at Dachshund’s attitude and him dealing with his surfacing demise, or at least that “Demise” that he greatly fears. This fear isn’t shown blatantly or in a straightforward way. It begins being shown as Cupcake walks in to the Party Portal after Cupcake’s nose has “worked its magic”, and Dachshund’s archivist has left (in the panel where she says, “I’m not coming back. I got hired at Starbucks…a job with a future!”) Dachshund’s face has a look of horror, but then by the next panel Daschund undramatically drops his coffee cup, pretending, “Yeah, yeah, whatever, I know I’m a failure“. This isn’t what he says in the panel, but as the reader you hear it, because you combine the way Dachshund has dropped his coffee cup with him saying “Well OK! Guess I’m looking for a new archivist now, too.” He’s smiling, when not that much time has passed – we can still see one of the old archivist’s legs as she is leaving the Party Portal. The one looking at her is Cupcake. Thurber made the extra effort to register to the reader that Cupcake has turned Dachshund’s head, but Dachshund’s bigger and more significant turn isn’t registered, which is great because his turn is more muted – along with him tossing his cup being muted, you as the reader feel it more. The way Cupcake is looking at the old Archivist leaving also tells you this is something to look at, and who is Dachshund kidding by not looking at her, and smiling so nonchalantly? In that panel, Thurber doesn’t bother to spell it out for the reader or emphasize it. The drawing of the cup is tilted to look like it’s falling, and as the reader of course you register it like he tossed it, but then the cup also feels like it’s floating – again Thurber doesn’t bother to spell it out for the reader. Dachshund’s success is in a place where he could take it or leave it, or his desire for success is just success in general, I don’t know. My guess is that he’s not satisfied with his current role, since he said, “I was gonna be the next Jean-Luc Godard, but I didn’t have the talent, just the sunglasses. Five years ago, I finally realized what my role is… And took off my sunglasses. For Good.” The silence that comes after he says “I finally realized what my role is…” seems sad, and then after that it feels even more melancholy with Dushchand saying “And I took of my sunglasses. For good.” The sentences feel like forced uncompromising resolutions that surfaced after having no resources for what his goal is – to not look back at the sunglasses that he took off. Those sentences have more gravity than the more weightless words he was somewhat mumbling before, as if he wouldn’t be at all unsatisfied with them being unheard even by himself. – Sam Ombiri Get a copy of Art Comic 3 by Matthew Thurber HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Here’s a video of Keith Knight talking about his police brutality cartoons, made by the media students at Sierra Nevada College. —————————————————————————————————— NPR released the results of their summer comics poll, whittling down 7,000 entries to 100 comics with the help of an all-star team of creators and critics (including C. Spike Trotman, G. Willow Wilson, and Maggie Thompson). The list is a good place for non-comics readers to start, and will tick off the major works in a couple of genres that “everyone should read”. NPR doesn’t make any lofty pretenses however: “This isn’t meant as a comprehensive list of the “best” or “most important” or “most influential” comics, of course. It’s a lot more personal and idiosyncratic than that, because we asked folks to name the comics they loved. That means you’ll find enormously popular mainstays like Maus and Fun Home jostling for space alongside newer work that’s awaiting a wider audience (Check Please, anyone?).“ See the whole list HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Adam Griffiths sent us a few copies of his new mini comic The Permanent Night (partially drawn during his January 2017 Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency). An urban fantasy set in Washington, D.C., it’s small “floppy” size is quite appealing. Digital color balances well with Adam’s intricate pencil drawings, and the wildly inventive lettering doesn’t hinder the reading at all – the added visual element instead pulls the reader deeper into the story. I’m eagerly anticipating more work from Adam in the future (his social media hints at something BIG on the horizon!) Meanwhile, get yourself a copy of this debut mini comic HERE and be sure to check out Adam’s ongoing webcomic American Cryo – HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-13-2017 – by Gabriella Tito —————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-13-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

05/09/2016

Posted on May 9, 2016May 9, 2016 by Juan Fernández

Juan Fernandez with: Aidan Koch’s The Elements of Painting; Rebecca Sugar and Ryan Sands; Supporting Rob Clough; Malachi Ward interviewed; Wowee Zonk at TCAF; Jason Shulman’s Photographs of Films; Virtual Graffiti.

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New Comics – The Elements of Painting
I’m happy to announce that this week we are featuring Aidan Koch’s The Elements of Painting on Comics Workbook. These strips were originally created for and featured on Comics Workbook in 2013. The full collection is now a 14 page, b/w offset book on newsprint printed in an edition of 500, available on Koch’s site.

The series is a collection of beautiful, observational work that extracts both the dominant and elusive narratives from the paintings Koch observes. Inspiring work that’s sure to get your mind racing.
Read it all here.

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Rebecca Sugar & Ryan Sands

The Society of Illustrators has posted a video of the Rebecca Sugar Q&A from April 3rd at MoCCA 2016. In this spotlight session, Sugar answered questions posed by Youth in Decline publisher Ryan Sands, focusing in particular on her own comics work. Sugar and Sands touched upon depictions of love, working on Margo in Bed, compositional differences between comics and animation, the pastiche of Steven Universe, and how to continue growing when making comics. Soak it up.

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tumblr_nlst0fBr2K1qmui1to1_500 — Rob Clough drawn by by Josh Bayer (2015)

Support Rob Clough
Comics critic Rob Clough’s family is facing crushing hospital bills. He and his family could use all the help they can get. Please consider donating over on his site.

My family has been crushed by medical expenses in the past month, including a couple of hospitalizations. I would greatly appreciate any donations readers might care to give in order to help defray costs. There’s a paypal button over at the right for those who would care to do so. Reader support has helped keep me and this site going, and I want everyone who’s ever donated to know just how much my family and I appreciate that support.

Clough’s energy and enthusiasm for reviewing comics work is an invaluable resource for independent comics making. No one plows into forward thinking comics and reviews them with gusto and consistency quite like Rob Clough. On a positive note, he is going to be back in the saddle, releasing 3 new reviews a week for the foreseeable future, so there is much to be thankful for.
Donate here.
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INKSTUDS: Sean Ford interviews Malachi Ward

Malachi Ward makes beautiful, intricate science fiction and fantasy comics. The stories are set in richly illustrated, fantastic landscapes, addressing existential questions and carrying a certain dark edge that I appreciate and associate with some of the very best science fiction writing in prose or comics. I was eager to talk about his recent work: a new short story collection from Alternative Comics called FROM NOW ON, and the serialized story he’s working on with Matt Sheehan in the ISLAND anthology called ANCESTOR. We also talked about time travel, why people explore strange new worlds, religious cults, and why we love Vancouver so much. I think Malachi is doing some really interesting comics right now and I hope you’ll check them out. – Sean Ford

If you like this podcast, and want to hear more, consider supporting Inkstuds on Patreon.

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the Wowee Zonk Zone
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is this coming weekend (May 13-15) and with its arrival comes an exciting flood of self-published zines and comics. The Toronto based comics collective, Wowee Zonk has partnered with TCAF to host a special showcase. Curated by Patrick Kyle, Ginette Lapalme, and Chris Kuzma, the Wowee Zonk Small Press Showcase will highlight some of the most exciting work being made in comics, zines, and independent publishing.
That room is sure to be real colorful, real hot and real sweaty. Not to be missed.

Lots of things are sure to go down at TCAF in the coming week. You can get the lowdown of the latest TCAF news here. They’ve got a fancy app, Guidebook, that allows you to stay abreast with all the happenings with your phone.

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Fantasia_(1940)_copy_Its_Nice_That — Jason Shulman: Fantasia (1940)

Photographs of Films
Jason Shulman has an upcoming exhibition entitled Photographs of Films at the Cob Gallery, London that reveals what happens when you crush time into a 2 dimensional space. It’s funny stuff. You get some really interesting translations in his process. Some really subtle directorial and cinematographic decisions are brought to light in this averaging of images. AnOther Mag has a nice selection of Shulman’s photographs and some reflections on his process. Check it out here.

“The images vary so wildly, that’s the remarkable thing about it,” Shulman continues, “and they’re also quite didactic. You can learn something about the director’s style from this kind of kooky translation: you can learn that Hitchcock deals with people, for example, Kubrick deals with composition, Bergman deals with… I mean lots of Bergman films are kind of moody and psychological, much more so than other films. So it’s odd that in one exposure all of these things, although very subjective, kind of come through.”

Jason Shulman: Photographs of Films runs from May 12 until June 4, 2016 at the Cob Gallery, London.

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Virtual Graffiti
VR is undergoing a veritable Renaissance. Painting, sculpting, and now this insane Graffiti Simulator. Here’s a look at Kingspray Graffiti Simulator a new Virtual Reality game soon to launch on SteamVR. I want to see what David Hockney will do with this.

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I’ll leave you to start your day with the Don. Stay strong – Juan Fernandez

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Aidan Koch, Inkstuds, Jason Shulman, KIngspray, Malachi Ward, Rebecca Sugar, Rob Clough, Sean Ford, VR, Wowee Zonk

Juan Fernández

Posted on May 9, 2016May 9, 2016

Explore

On Philippe Druillet – by RM Rhodes

Comics WorkbookJuly 30, 2017EssaysRM Rhodes presents commentary on the work of Philippe Druillet ————————————————————————————————— I feel like when someone like me asks a young artist “Have you ever heard of…?” the young artist is expecting to know why the person in question is important. Or, even more simply, why they should care. Having said that, Philippe Druillet is important because he’s one of the founding members of Les Humanoïdes Associés, the group that created Metal Hurlant (which later became Heavy Metal in America). If you’re guessing all of that French indicates Druillet’s national origin, you’d be correct. Of even more relevance, Druillet is an amazing visual artist whose work deserves to be looked at by anyone who has any affinity for color and the use of color in art. His work is clearly influenced by Jack Kirby, but it also harkens back to European engravings that have been colored from the mid-17th Century. His early work is black and white, but when he got his first airbrush, his entire style changed. As far as I’m concerned, Druillet levelled up when he started working color into his compositions. He clearly spent a long time working on the underlying pen illustrations, but it’s his use of color as a major element of the composition that’s worthy of note. Speaking of composition, Druillet’s works like Lone Sloane, Salammbô, and Gail gave him ample opportunities to create some really challenging page layouts. These layouts are so distinctive that Benoit Peeters’ Four Conceptions of a Page uses Druillet as the exemplar of Decorative pages. In the interests of show vs tell, I’m going to stop talking about how awesome Druillet is and just show you a whole bunch of his artwork. It will either resonate with you or it won’t, but I have a feeling that if it does resonate, it will resonate strongly. ————————————————————————————————— RM Rhodes is the curator of the Heavy Metal Magazine tumblr. He lives and works in Washington, D.C. His current project is a weekly online anthology called The Rumor published on the Comics Workbook tumblr – see issues of it HERE. Check out more of his comics at Louis Deux. Share this page: [...]

09/11/2017

Caleb OrecchioSeptember 10, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thought’s on GG’s new book, I’m Not Here, from Koyama Press and other news. ———————————————————————————————— GG’s work has a lot of pain. I’ve always been very frustrated in the past by GG’s work because I felt like, though her comics are excellent, I was not being “let in” so to speak. It always seemed that the emotional resonance of her work was being muffled to the point of complete ambiguity–which isn’t bad–I just felt like something was being consciously held back. I don’t want to pretend that I know GG’s intentions, (and obviously, this is my own opinion) but I definitely feel that lately her work has taken on a more emotionally straight-forward approach, for the better–particularly with I’m Not Here, published by Koyama Press. The joy of reading a GG comic is the sensational drawing. I really like the below page of suburban houses and lawns. There is an undeniable beauty there that I hesitate to elaborate on just because I don’t feel like I have to explain why something like this is beautiful. GG’s drawing is a really excellent vessel for emotion. Her “cartoony realism” style (that arguably skirts the border of realism if not for lack of detail–or rather, the use of minimal detail) feels completely comfortable to my eyes and I believe in everything I see. So, when a child cries because a precious toy must be thrown away or a mother is bent over in physical and emotional anguish, it hits like an F# note on a piano–it’s jarring and instantaneous. GG’s drawing eschews the use of impressionistic facial expressions that a less technical cartoonist must utilize to impress emotion upon a reader, and is able to directly depict emotion through face and body language. This to me is a mark of an excellent cartoonist–which, I don’t have to tell you, GG is. This has always been true of GG’s work. I hope I’m not being presumptuous, but what separates this work from her past work, for me, is that this book feels particularly personal. Not that GG’s work has never been personal–in fact I’d argue all of GG’s work is intensely personal. However–I have never felt that F# note with her other work. The immediacy of I’m Not Here is undeniably pertinent–almost like we are going to the source of it all or something. The pain depicted in this book feels real as oppose to metaphorical or situational to me. Make sense? Personally, this is (if I haven’t made myself clear) GG’s best work. I had a sigh of relief after reading I’m Not Here. There is a real catharsis to this book. If you believe in everything you see therein, like I did, and allow yourself to partake in the emotional arc of the story, you will find yourself–like you just ate a very nice, delicious meal without feeling overly full or drunk–satisfied. -CO ———————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Plan your SPX weekend!–it’s this week! Comics Workbook will be there in full force haven’t you heard! CXC is just around the corner too Dan Nadel on and talking to Richard Kyle on TCJ. Looks like Study Group Comics is serializing another Farel Dalrymple comic which is good news for all. Latest Comic Books Are Burning in Hell is excellent, duh. Speaking of Study Group, last weeks Process Party guest was Jeff Smith–pretty good interview. They usually post a new episode after this news post goes live so see what the latest one will be this week while you’re at it. I like when Tom Surgeon posts links to sites like this that posts Golden Age and other not particularly easy to find comics. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil– 9-11-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 9-11-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/16/2018

Caleb OrecchioApril 16, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with John Porcellino’s recent stop in Pittsburgh, and other news. ————————————————————————————————— He has seen but half the universe who has never been shown the house of Pain. –Ralph Waldo Emerson This past Friday, John Porcellino stopped by Copacetic Comics here in Pittsburgh while on tour for his book, From Lone Mountain, a collection of his King-Cat “comics and stories” from 2003 to 2007, published by Drawn and Quarterly. This was the first signing at Copacetic I’ve attended since I moved to Pittsburgh this year. It was great. Porcellino did his song and dance at Kaibur Coffee (same building as Copacetic but two floors below) by taking us, via slideshow, through excerpts of his book and giving background details and tangents revolving around the events therein. John laid bare his soul during his presentation as he does with every annual release of King-Cat. Pain and Joy are one, and the audience often found ourselves laughing in hindsight at the misfortunes along with our hero. After the presentation and rather intimate audience Q&A, we hiked up to Copacetic where books were signed and comics were talked about. It was great. Not only could you chat with John Porcellino, but you could also hangout with the Pittsburgh crowd: Sam Ombiri, Sally Ingraham, Juan Fernandez, Jenn Lisa, Audra Stang, Nate McDonough, and many others. I showed Sam my favorite King City gag, while Juan waxed different ways to read and comprehend information with Audra and Sally. I clumsily talked about Pittsburgh roads vs every other American road system with John P as he signed my copy of his book. I asked Bill Boichel (Copacetic proprietor) if he agreed that Red Nails was Barry Windsor-Smith’s best work, and I think he did. Then we started talking about Kaluta. Lots of things seemed to be going on. The hours went by quickly. It was a beautiful day. Only several days before, the city was snow-capped, but today it felt like how I imagine California feels on its best days. On the Copacetic Balcony, you could see the beautiful old buildings over the hills that run through the city and the purple dusk. Thanks to John P. for coming to Pittsburgh and thanks to Bill Boichel and Copacetic Comics for hosting. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know TCJ.com launched a bi-weekly column called “Retail Therapy.” Every other week will evidently feature an interview with a comics retailer. First up, Portland’s Floating World Comics. Who, will be publishing Zack Soto’s debut The Secret Voice graphic novel. Your Chicken Enemy has the scoop on upcoming Uncivilized Books titles. TCAF 2018 is right around the corner! It will be here before you know it! Eddie Campbells limited weekly strip ended. Did you see it? ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-16-2018 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-16-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

09/11/2018

Aaron CockleSeptember 11, 2018NewsJason Lutes; Sharad Sharma; Dash Shaw; Comics Carousel; Brooklyn Book Festival ————————————————————————————————— ‘Otherwise it’s all just a bloodbath, right?’ Josh Kramer talks with Jason Lutes about the new Berlin collection: What were your main narrative inspirations for Berlin? From a straightforward, mechanical, storytelling perspective, the comics of Herge, right? All of my basic “Comics 101” self-education that I got was from studying Tintin both growing up and then as an adult. And then once I sort of figured out the conventions that Herge was applying, then tinkering them and changing them and making them my own in a lot of cases. In terms of like tone, for Berlin specifically, tone and technique, I think I was I was thinking a lot about Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders, which I had seen in my early 20s, which was very affecting. And the novel Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin which takes a very kind of impressionistic view of the city at the time. And both of those works do a lot of drifting in and out of the consciousness of various people on the street. So those had a big effect on how I ended up telling the story. And then beyond that I would have to say it’s probably a combination of any number of indie films that I absorbed when I was in art school or after. I remember I watched a lot of Jim Jarmusch. Then I remember there was this one year at the Seattle Film Festival where I had press passes. I would just go walk into a movie theater and sit down and watch movies for four hours, not knowing what they were going to be. I think there was a period there where I kind of just immersed myself in cinematic visual storytelling. I think Herge, Alfred Döblin and Wim Wenders would be the three big ones that were the obvious influences. ————————————————————————————————— The 222nd meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018 at 7pm at Parsons School of Design, University Center, 63 Fifth Avenue, room UL 105 (lower level). Free and open to the public. Skype presentation. Sharad Sharma on Grassroots Comics: By the people, for the people. Via Skype, Sharad Sharma, will share hundred of stories of common people using Grassroots Comics that tell a local story. They are a communication tool for all citizens that can transcend the barriers of language, literacy, media access, social classes and even resources. For these reasons, grassroots comics have been extremely successful in both rural and urban, remote and low literacy areas widely in Indian subcontinent. The simple format and participatory methodology made the grassroots comics popular worldwide. In last 20 years his organization World Comics has conducted more than 1200 comics workshop in most remote and disturbed areas of the globe and trained over 1,00,000 common people. He will also share the impact of his work. www.worldcomicsindia.com ————————————————————————————————— “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea” Screening and Q&A As part of After School Special: The 2018 School of Visual Arts Alumni Film & Animation Festival, we are pleased to present graphic novelist, animator, writer, director, and SVA alumnus Dash Shaw’s first feature-length animated film, My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea (2016). Shaw will be on hand following the film for a Q&A. The feature will be preceded by the short film series Makin’ Things and the world premiere of the short film Noise by another multi-hypenate artist/director and SVA alumnus, Jim McKenzie. The Q&A will be moderated by current student Stephanie Kim (BFA 2019 Illustration). Tuesday, September 11, 2018, 7:30-10PM SVA Theatre 333 West 23rd Street New York, NY 10011 ————————————————————————————————— Comics Carousel at Society of Illustrators A special Carousel at the Society of Illustrators for the Brooklyn Book Festival. Presentations of graphic novels and comics as read by the artists: Jordan Crane (We Are All Me) Maria Hoey (COIN-OP Comics Anthology) Paul Levitz & Tim Hamilton (Brooklyn Blood) Connie Sun (@cartoonconnie) Ngozi Ukazu (Check, Please!) Kriota Willberg (Draw Stronger) and more! The event will be followed by a book signing. Hosted by: R. Sikoryak (Terms and Conditions, The Unquotable Trump) THIS IS AN OFFICIAL 2018 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL EVENT Society of Illustrators 128 East 63rd Street NY, NY 10065 Monday, September 17, 2018, 7-9pm Tickets: $10 General Admission ————————————————————————————————— Brooklyn Book Festival Comics-related Panels: September 16, 2018, 12pm Find Your Family Brooklyn Historical Society Library, 128 Pierrepont St Refugees, outcasts, inheritors of hard history — whoever we are, we all struggle to find the human connections that make us safe. Caldecott Award-winning illustrator/author David Small (Home After Dark), New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck (Passing for Human), and anthropologist Bessora (Alpha) explore the universal yearning for defining and keeping what we think of as family. Moderated by agent and editor Anjali Singh, Ayesha Pande Literary. September 16, 2018, 1pm TV vs. Reality Brooklyn Historical Society Library 128 Pierrepont St When on-air celebrity and imagery shape your earliest memories, how do you reconcile it all with the hard realities of adulthood? Catch the wide-ranging experiences, from quiz kids to musicals to stand-up comedy, of comics creators Michael Kupperman (All The Answers), Box Brown (Is This Guy for Real?), and Rina Ayuyang (Blame This on the Boogie). Moderated by Joan Hilty, Comics Editor at Nickelodeon. September 16, 2018, 2pm Two-Ways — Weird Romance Brooklyn Historical Auditorium, 128 Pierrepont St Two astoundingly accomplished team-ups of authors explore their many attractions to weird romance and speculative fiction, and all the things that happen when you create genre-bending graphic novels in collaboration! Audrey Niffenegger and Eddie Campbell (Bizarre Romance) and Alex de Campi and Katie Skelly (Twisted Romance) . Moderated by Tor Books editor Diana Pho. September 16, 2018, 4pm The Graphic City Brooklyn Historical Auditorium, 128 Pierrepont St In alternately gripping, funny, and tragic graphic novels about urban history, Julia Wertz (Tenements, Towers & Trash), Peter J. Tomasi (The Bridge), and Jason Lutes (Berlin) take us high up to skyscraper views of two great cities flanking the Atlantic — and beyond. Moderated by Publishers Weekly senior news editor Calvin Reid. ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 9-11-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

03/21/2017

Aaron CockleMarch 21, 2017NewsAaron here today with Sikoryak; Feiffer/Eisner; Drawing Lessons with Victoria Lomasko; Intensive Publication Intensive; Till Doomsday; Fit to Print. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Other than that, there’s very little in the book that has any connection, visually, to the text.’ Rachel Davies interviewed R. Sikoryak on the occasion of the release of Sikoryak’s Terms and Conditions collection: RD: Both of your most recent projects—Terms and Conditions, and the Unquotable Trump—were first realized online. How does your attitude toward a work change when transitioning it from the internet to something tangible? RS: It’s funny, they were first seen online, but the iTunes project started as a mini comic. I published the first two parts of the iTunes book in April 2015, and I published the second two parts, the finale of the iTunes book, in September 2015. I had been selling them at conventions, and I’d been distributing them a little bit online through a mini comics distributor called Birdcage Bottom, I had gotten them out a little bit and I showed the mini comics to Françoise Mouly, and she said, Oh, you should put these on Tumblr! I did that, and then I sent out an email to everyone I knew in the world, and said, I’m doing this thing! The minute I sent out that email, this was like 20 or 30 days after putting it on Tumblr, the day I sent that email, Boing Boing had done a story, NPR called me to do an interview, The Guardian, all these other places came in, and started writing about it. I tip my hat to Françoise for knowing enough about the internet to tell me to use it. I kind of like to know what my work is before I release it to the world, like the iTunes book, I put out the first mini comic after I’d finished the first half of it—I wanted to stake my claim to it, but I’d already done like 35 pages. By the time I put it on Tumblr I was done, and I was really astounded by the response. I don’t know if it would have been more paralyzing to have seen all those people be very excited about it. It was a little startling to see how fast it clicked in with people. With the Trump book, again I made a mini comic, but this time I already knew I was going to start putting it on Tumblr. But I did make all of it, 16 pages, and I published the comic—published, I photocopied it, and then I put it on Tumblr. The response to that was so great that I was encouraged to make more. In this case, for Trump now [The Unquotable Trump], I’m making images, and posting them on Tumblr, and in some ways I’m certainly open to suggestions, people have , Oh, you should do this or that! But most people don’t have it all thoroughly worked out, so you end up just having to do what you’re doing. I’m certainly keeping my ear open if anyone has any ideas. In the Trump case, I kind of have my approach, and I’ve mapped out where I’m going, but who knows what he’ll say tomorrow! He’s a different case because the iTunes thing is a living document, they do update it, but he’s a living human, and a volatile one, so I don’t know what he’s going to do next. I’m happy if he stops giving me material! I don’t need anymore, but we’ll see what happens. I have to admit, I’m really glad that Françoise suggested Tumblr to me, it’s definitely increased my visibility. I don’t know what I’ll do next online, but I might post my next project there. It is part of what comics are now, and I hadn’t embraced it before. I feel like the iTunes thing in a lot of ways has just made me think about how comics work, and how I can make comics in a new way. I also think that’s what I’m all about is thinking about comics, so it’s definitely achieved way more than I expected it would! – via The Comics Journal ————————————————————————————————— Jules Feiffer Honors Will Eisner at 100: A Will Eisner Week Event The 182nd meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, March 28, 2017 at 8 pm at Parsons School of Design, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. Please note 8 pm starting time! Will Eisner (1917-2005) innovated and pioneered comics in two different eras. Eisner helped invent the comics industry in the 1930s and created The Spirit in the 1940s as a heroic crime-fighting figure who appeared in a Sunday newspaper comics insert. The Spirit walked through a world of noir-inflected, urban drama, one suffused with humor and insight into the human condition, a world not afraid to essay the occasional Yiddish in-joke or Bronx social drama vignette. Then after producing comics for training and education, Eisner, in 1978, re-invented himself―and the medium of comics―with his first graphic novel, A Contract With God, followed, until his 2005 passing, with many additional graphic novels and textbooks. From 1946 until The Spirit’s end in 1952, Eisner counted as part of his close-knit, talented staff, a precocious teenager named Jules Feiffer, who worked on The Spirit and Clifford for Eisner, and also took on the self-appointed role of Eisner’s social conscience and resident smart-ass. In the years since, Feiffer’s own multifaceted career as satirical cartoonist, screenwriter (Carnal Knowledge), playwright (Little Murders) and children’s book author (The Man in the Ceiling)―and most recently, creator of his own trilogy of graphic novels (so far Kill My Mother and Cousin Joseph have been released, with the third volume in the works)―has blossomed in a unique and spectacular manner. But he did get his start with Will Eisner, with whom he was friend and colleague―and admirer―through the rest of Eisner’s life. Tonight, Jules will speak about his experience working for Eisner, what he learned from him and how Eisner influenced his own work, and why Eisner, a century after his birth, is still an important figure in the past, present and future of comics and graphic novels and in our culture as a whole. Jules will speak and present via Skype, and will be joined by in-person panelists, including Paul Levitz (author of Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel) and Danny Fingeroth (co-editor of The Stan Lee Universe and Chair of Will Eisner Week). ————————————————————————————————— ‘On the outside, I drew cartoon characters.’ Other Russians, by Victoria Lomasko, excerpted at n+1: In August 2010, I visited the Mozhaysk Juvenile Prison for the first time, as a volunteer for the Center for Prison Reform, and gave a drawing lesson to some of the inmates. I taught drawing classes at the girls’ penitentiaries in Novy Oskol and Ryazan and the boys’ penitentiary in Aleksin, but Mozhaysk is the only place I visited more or less regularly. I was originally trained as an educator, and before I came to Mozhaysk I prepared an experimental syllabus with ten lesson plans. There was almost no funding for the trips. We traveled by commuter train, carrying everything we needed for classes in our backpacks, so, with rare exceptions, we used the simplest materials during the lessons: paper and black pens. The Center organized the trips once a month. If you missed a trip, you had to wait for the next time around. There is a constant turnover of inmates at the juvenile prison. Some are released on parole, others are transferred to adult prisons, and new inmates show up all the time. Over a six-month period, the roster of my drawing groups changed completely. Some of the teens were well educated, while others were hearing everything for the first time. Many of them had psychological problems. In short, teaching classes at a penitentiary was tricky: you had to experiment and develop your own lesson plans. ————————————————————————————————— Publication Intensive at Triple Canopy: July 19-30, 2017 Triple Canopy is pleased to announce its fourth Publication Intensive, a two-week program in the history and contemporary practice of publication. During the Publication Intensive, Triple Canopy editors and invited artists, writers, and technologists will lead discussions and workshops with twelve participating students, who will research, analyze, and enact an approach to publication that hinges on today’s networked forms of production and circulation but also mines the history of print culture and artistic practice. The program will take place at Triple Canopy’s venue in Manhattan, and will include visits to studios of artists and designers, archives, and cultural institutions. Apply online through 11:59pm on Monday, April 17 2017. Participants will be notified no later than Friday, April 21. If you have further questions, please write edu@canopycanopycanopy.com. Read a conversation between participants in 2014’s program here. ————————————————————————————————— TILL DOOMSDAY Coming up on March 30th: John Malta & Siobhan Gallagher launch new doomsday anthology zine and Desert Island window installation, and Ezequiel García visits from Buenos Aries to sign his Fantagraphics book “Growing Up In a Public”. One big event Thurs the 30th at 7 pm! Come hang and meet the artists. ————————————————————————————————— FIT TO PRINT Fit to Print brings together a selection of art and editorial illustration created by 17 graduates of the Haute école des arts du Rhin (H.E.A.R.) in Strasbourg, one of the preeminent art schools in France. First presented at the Tomi Ungerer Museum in Strasbourg from January–April 2016, the exhibition debuts in New York in two parts — one at the Society of Illustrators, and another at The New York Times. Since 2012, The New York Times’s Opinion section has commissioned more than 100 illustrations from H.E.A.R.-educated artists to accompany a wide range of articles, or “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” in the words of the famous Times slogan. These artists caught the art directors’ attention with their excellent drawing and printmaking skills, strong sense of visual storytelling, and an often surreal, poetic approach to composition and concept. On view here is a selection of the artists’ personal and collaborative projects, primarily created for galleries or self-initiated publications. The exhibition continues at The New York Times with a collection of the artists’ commissioned illustrations. My hope is that these two shows demonstrate the power of editorial illustration, not only in its functional role as visual communication, but also as a unique form of fine art. – Alexandra Zsigmond, curator and art director at The New York Times ————————————————————————————————— Among many interesting offerings on the CW School Store is this set of comics (above) by Jake Terrell and GG – check it out here and explore the rest of the site while you’re there! ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 3-21-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-21-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-21-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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