Caleb Orecchio here. Some good comics are on Instagram. Did you know that? Plus I’m very very excited for Koyama Press’ Fall 2017 lineup. Are you? Also people can’t stop talking about Sammy Harkham’s Crickets.
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I made the lists below for a friend I was talking to about my comic strip (Joanie and Jordie—just scroll down), and how they enjoy seeing it everyday on Instagram (always nice to hear). It’s a very convenient way to view comic strips, they said. Do other people do comic strips on Instagram, they asked—of course they meant other than the legion of memes and bad nerd/fan clickbait crap civilians refer to as “comics” sometimes. I said yeah:
It’s interesting to me—to my knowledge, Comics Workbook’s own “Suzy and Cecil” was the first real traditionally minded comic strip to come out of the comics community on Instagram. And one specifically made to fit the format to boot. I think maybe Michael Deforge’s “Leaving Richard’s Valley” came about around the same time (exclusively on Twitter originally) – followed closely by Jim Rugg’s “Running Comic,” where he documents his training for the Pittsburgh Marathon, and Mickey Z’s “Space Academy 123.”
I like that cartoonists are constantly adapting to the next best available format to get our stuff out there. Since the slow and quiet fall of tumblr cartoonists are making their Instagrams a prominent place to put out work, and the work is morphing to its new platform. Instead of short serialized comic book pages every few weeks or months on tumblr, Instagram allows good use for square (literally) four-panel daily strips. I think it also helps that real civilians are on Instagram, whereas tumblr or deviant art was preaching to the choir.
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if you don’t know, now you know
- Koyama Press has announced their Fall 2017 lineup and it’s gonna be a good Fall.
- My favorite comics podcast, Comic Books Are Burning in Hell has a new episode where they talk about the new Crickets. I love to listen to these dudes talk comics.
- Speaking of Crickets, you all read TCJ’s great interview with the author, Sammy Harkham right? Part one here and part two here.
- TCAF was this past weekend. I’m sure we’ll have some sort of coverage this week. Stay tuned. Tyler Landry did a workshop, did you go to it?
- The NY Times has a weekly comic called Welcome to the New World, about “the true story of a Syrians family’s journey to America.” Which is great. Non-ficiton contemporary stories like these are what we need to help create empathy and awareness for a.) people who don’t know what this kind of thing is like and b.) the people living it. Cool cool. However, the actual cartooning is achingly dull and elementary. There is no emphasis or even an attempt at visual rhetoric here. It drives me crazy that “high-profile” mainstream comics fucking suck and are not done by cartoonists within the comics tradition; but instead are drawn by the most boring hack illustrators. Oh well, it’s comics journalism after all—I can’t help but notice that The Sculptor obviously had an influence on the look of this work.
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Announcing the Summer Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers!
8 weeks! 500 bux! Payment plans are available! Summer Course starts June 1st 2017! Applications are due by May 25th.
Visit THIS page for more details and email santoroschool@gmail.com with applications and questions!
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Blinkers – 5-15-2017 – by Jack Brougham
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Suzy and Cecil – 5-15-2017 – by Gabriella Tito
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Joanie and Jordie – 5-15-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio