Comics Workbook

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Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged jack brougham, sally ingraham

Juan Fernández

Posted on May 17, 2017May 17, 2017

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8/3/2016

Juan FernándezAugust 3, 2016NewsJuan here with your Spanish comics news: Manzanna covers 2° Encontro Lady’s Comics; a permanent home for The MexicanMuseum; Liniers y Power Paola hablan con Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo; El nou còmic underground español; Sin novedad en el frente; Reseña: Piano Oriental de Zeina Abirached . ————————————————————————————————— el 2° Encontro Lady’s Comics En el site, Manzanna nos cuenta sobre el 2° Encontro Lady’s Comics: With panels, workshops, a fair and an exhibition by Chicks on Comics, 2ELC gathered many of Brazil’s female cartoonists in one place, plus international guests Sole Otero, Clara Lagos, Mariela Acevedo (Argentina) and Katherine Supnem (Chile). Aware of the challenges women face in the comics community, the gathering provided a much needed space for the participants to express and identify with each other. Topics included the need to study and rewrite our history, shedding new light on pioneer women cartoonists; the first steps of publishing, selling and entering the market; the struggles of the creative process; plus talks on motherhood, science fiction and education, among other themes. ————————————————————————————————— New permanent home for The Mexican Museum in San Francisco The Largest Latino Art Collection in the US will debut in 2019 with a Frida Kahlo Exhibit, aimed at children. Exciting news from Yara Simón over at Remezcla: In 1975, Mexican-American artist Peter Rodriguez founded The Mexican Museum, San Francisco’s first museum dedicated to Latino art. Since then, it’s acquired more than 16,000 Mexican and Latino works of art – ranging from pre-Columbian to contemporary – which makes it the United States’ largest collection of Mexican and Latino art. Today, the museum celebrated its next phase: a permanent home. In the spring of 2019, will have a 60,000-square-foot space in downtown SF. The Mexican Museum’s life began in a Mission District storefront, and then moved to a small site in the Fort Mason area. Most of the work is currently in storage because there’s no room to display it. But when its new Yerba Buena Gardens home is completed, the pieces will have room to breathe throughout the site’s four floors. ————————————————————————————————— [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/275700036″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] Escucha @lapololapodcast, un podcast del cómic femenino con Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo! Este episodio esta lleno de risas, recuerdos del encuentro del comic de La Reina, una entrevista con Liniers y otro con Power Paola. Este episodio si que mola. ————————————————————————————————— ¡¡Los cuadernos de Power Paola!! ————————————————————————————————— la Colaboracion Creativa: Entrevista con Liniers Aprende sobre las colaboraciones entre con la musica de Kevin Johansen y el stand up de Alberto Montt. En una entrevista para la revista Ohlalá, dijo: “cuando me subí al escenario con Kevin llegué a pensar: acá le voy a cagar la carrera a otro tipo. ¿Cuánto tiempo tuvo esa sensación y qué siente hoy cuando sube al escenario? Medio hasta hoy. Siempre fue en el escenario ver qué pasa. Te genera mucha adrenalina y a mí me hace funcionar. Si no sé qué va a pasar, por ahí a la gente le resulto más interesante. Nunca me imaginé que iba a tocar en el Luna Park. En un momento Kevin me dio la guitarra y toqué en el Luna Park igual que Frank Sinatra. ————————————————————————————————— EL PAÍS lanza un nuevo espacio pensado para los amantes de las viñetas Da igual que sean en papel o en el intangible digital. Nos gustan cuadradas, rectangulares, redondas. En splash-page o en 3×3. Panorámicas y diminutas. Kaboom es el nuevo blog de EL PAÍS dedicado al tebeo en todas sus facetas y aristas. Lo que queremos contarte en Kaboom es qué es el cómic, de dónde viene y adónde va. ————————————————————————————————— El nou còmic underground español Barcelon’s got a a creative ecosystem that has been developing around the Fatbottom bookstore. More than a bookstore, it functions as a vital organ of a local scene. Conxita Herrero, Felipe Almendros,Irkus (M) Zeberio, Mirena Ossorno all chime in on what they see going on in and around Spain’s new underground comics publishing, particularly around Barcelona’s comics scene. Smash that translate button 😉 Més que una llibreria, Fatbottom és un ecosistema creatiu que alimenta l’efervescent escena del còmic d’avantguarda, en plena eclosió de noms i renovació de formes. A recer d’editorials com Apa Apa, Dehavilland o Fulgencio Pimentel i de festivals d’autoedició com el Gutter Fest i el Graf, el còmic underground està agafant embranzida. Conxita Herrero, Felipe Almendros, Irkus (M) Zeberio i Mirena Ossorno, tots amb obra nova publicada el 2016, són només quatre dels autors d’un panorama cada vegada més efervescent. ————————————————————————————————— shout out: Sin novedad en el frente ‘Sin novedad en el frente’ is collaborative project initiated by the Colectivo de Autoras de Cómic; it is an invitation to comics makers to create illustrated, exacting and feminist and satire, through which one can combat sexist stereotypes, to make fun of and overcome the heteropatriachal reality of the comics industry. At the helm of this endeavor is Ada Diez. Contribute something to be part of the conversation! ————————————————————————————————— Reseña el Piano Oriental: EN BUSCA DEL PIANO BILINGÜE Elizabeth Casillas nos cuenta del regreso de Zeina Abirached con El piano oriental. Su cómic se adentra en su historia familiar en Líbano. El foco de esta novela grafica son las relaciones culturales entre Oriente y Occidente utilizando la música como hilo conductor. Avalada por el éxito cosechado con El juego de las golondrinas, obra en la que contaba su infancia en el Líbano marcada por la guerra civil, y sus recuerdos casi poéticos de Me acuerdo. Beirut, la dibujante Zeina Abirached (Beirut, 1981) vuelve a recuperar el género autobiográfico en su última obra, El piano oriental (Salamandra Graphic, 2016), para poner al descubierto aquello que une a dos culturas: la de Oriente y la de Occidente, convertidas tradicionalmente en una mezcla de agua y aceite, en una dicotomía aparentemente difícil de entrelazar. Abirached se empeña en manifestar lo errático de dicha hipótesis que, sobre el terreno, considera muy diferente. ————————————————————————————————— hasta la proxima, Juan 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: [...]

02/02/2017

Sally IngrahamFebruary 1, 2017NewsSally has the comics and news today – Ronald Wimberly and Jim Pluk on tour, Ladycastle on shelves, Aya on the big screen, Adam Griffiths in Pittsburgh – and Sam Ombiri brings thoughts on changing minds. ————————————————————————————————— From Ronald Wimberly: “Happy Black History Month The last two years, to celebrate the impact black people have had on our history, I’ve drawn 12 Black luminaries, past and present, alongside their own words. This year I’ve drawn 14 new ones and collected them and those from the last two years together in a book coming out on the 8th (2/8/2017) from Image Comics. Ask for it at your local book stores, galleries, museum shops, etc. You can even cop it on your kindle or comixology. I’m even working on an audiobook version where I describe the picture to you while simultaneously reading the quote. Nah. This month I’ll be making several stops alongside the east coast, signing and talking. If you’re around, please come say hi! 2/15/17 1900-2100: WASHINGTON D.C.; FANTOM COMICS Catch me at Fantom Comics from 7 till 9pm signing books and chatting with the homie Julian Lytle. 2/19/17 1300-1700: COLUMBUS, OHIO; CMA I’ll be doing a signing followed by a closing reception for my show at the Columbus Museum of Art. Come by, drink some wine, eat some cheese and chat me up. 2/22//17 1800-2000: PITTSBURGH, PA; COPACETIC COMICS Still working out the details on this, but pretty excited to check out your town Pittsburgh! 2/24/17 RHODE ISLAND TBA “ We are super excited that Ron is coming to Pittsburgh this month, and if he is coming anywhere near you be sure to look him up! ————————————————————————————————— I paused my perusal of the excellent tumblr Superheroes In Full Color to go look up what Marguerite Abouet has been doing lately. She is an Ivorian writer who currently resides in Paris, and is the author of the award-winning series Aya (the artwork is by her husband Clément Oubrerie). The series was adapted into a movie, which has recently been screened at a number of French and African film festivals. In November of 2016 Aya of Yop City was screened at the 4th Ake Arts and Book Festival, in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Nmadiuto Uche sat down with Marguerite to talk about the film and the comic series and their conversation was recently posted online. “You have mentioned on two different occasions here at Ake that you were not sure how Nigerians will receive Aya. Why were you so anxious? Even though Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire are not far from each other geographically, the culture may not be familiar. Thus, there is a lot of prejudice. Nigerians think that Ivoirians are people who party all the time and drink a lot. I mean, someone even asked after the movie screened if I was sponsored by a beer company. Often, we have a simplistic vision of other African countries and this is not good. I am African first before being Ivoirian. I do not allow countries in the West to speak badly about Africa and we should not do the same among ourselves. When I mentioned I was coming to Nigeria, people said I was crazy and the country is dangerous. As I said, I do not like prejudice. In every country, there are dangerous and good places. So, all of this was going through my mind before Aya was screened. I was happy that people laughed and had a good time with the film. It is important to respect others. We share almost the same customs. For example, when Adunni and the Nefertiti band performed, I loved it. It reminded me of something similar from an ethnicity in Cote D’Ivoire, which is why we have this profession, to create dialogue and discuss. Even though, I do not like to fly, I make the time to travel and have conversations with people at festivals like this.“ Read the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: This one guy was telling me that he doesn’t like comics, but he was lumping all comics to fit the singular context of “the comics that he read that he wasn’t too fond of”. “Comics” were one thing in his mind, and this wouldn’t shift. No matter how much I tried to change his trajectory of thought regarding “what comics are”, his stance wouldn’t budge. He kind of presented a similar attitude when talking about what magical realism is. He said “No, I don’t like comics I like books.” While I had the floor in the conversation, he kept repeating “Comic books? Graphic novels? Comic book? Graphic novel? Comic book? Graphic novel?” One thing I can’t quite explain was the subtle tone he was using when he was saying “Graphic novels? Comic books?” He wasn’t abnormally impolite, he was just super opinionated about comics and what they are. It felt like terminology he was really hanging onto…and I find here, just as I found in that conversation, that I’m very bad at explaining things. There was this other guy I was talking to about different rappers whom we were familiar with – and then out of the blue he asks “Are you talking about rap or hip hop?” To which I respond ??? – as this was a distinction that he had clearly created in his mind, which only he had access to. It kind of reminds me of when people say “Oh, X genre is not music.” To which I say “Who cares?” I certainly don’t. The associations barely play a role in how I interact with the work (or at least I try to keep it that way, and I fail more often than not. Haha.) This person going around insisting on what’s music and what’s not is, again, creating a distinction in their mind that only they have access to. Which is fine, I’m fairly certain everyone does this – but this expectation that everyone will automatically be on board with it seems a bit…(I can’t come up with the word). I could kind of peer into the mind of the first person whom I was talking to (or trying to talk) about comics with. He kind of had a dismissive tone when talking about these “Comic books? Graphic novels?” I couldn’t bring myself to bring, say, “art comics” or, uhhh, “literatury comics” into the conversation. I feel that if our conversation had gone on, and I might have gotten him to say something other than “Comic books? Graphic novels?” He’d probably have eventually thought, “I could probably find comics that I’d like, but who has the time?” It was a tad frustrating, and I wish I could hide my frustration better and act calm and collected, but it was like, “Not all books are Twilight or whatever – why apply this principle to comics like this guy is?” I guess what this has got me wondering is (and this is putting my question in a very clumsy way – this question is still abstract in my mind, and I’m not too good at forming it) “What role do these associations play?” Or no, maybe it’s “Are these associations there to make a space for people to speak with authority, even when they’re still ignorant of what they’re talking about, and are unable to bring up specifics, or interact with what they’re talking about?” Or no, maybe that’s still not my question well represented… – Sam Ombiri This Is Totally a 4-Panel Comic – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Ladycastle #1 was just released! I’ve been eagerly awaiting this new feminist take on the princess left in a tower trope… Ladycastle is a 4-part mini-series written and created by Delilah S. Dawson, with art by Ashley A. Woods (who is also part of the creative team for the series Niobe: She Is Life). Geeks of Doom describe Ladycastle as a “candid look into what would happen if all the knights and soldiers went off to war and (mostly) got themselves killed. Bordering on satirical, this story focuses on a group of ladies that refuse to accept the roles that their society tries to place on them. From a picky princess who isn’t going to marry a prince just because the king insists, to a blacksmith’s wife who is apparently just as good of a ‘smith as her husband.“ Back in November the ComicsAlliance spoke to Delilah Dawson and Ashley Wood about the project (which comes from Boom! Studios): “CA: Feminist takes on fantasy and princess stories seem to be having a real moment right now, especially in comics. Do you see this book as part of a conversation or movement? DD: I come to comics from the world of novels and mainstream publishing, where Young Adult books led the charge for putting women in power. Both publishing — especially Science Fiction and Fantasy — and comics can often feel like arenas with a tradition of older straight white dudes being in power, and I love that new voices are bringing in better representation of the real world and new ideas of who gets to wield power there. It feels less like a moment and more like a much-needed charge for balance. AW: Most definitely. Delilah tackles certain tropes head on and flips them around to show that all female characters aren’t the same, just like women and people in real life. What I like most about the princess of Ladycastle – Aeve – is that she refuses to let another person define her life or put her in a box. She rejects that with every fiber of her being, from the way she expresses herself (not what one would typically call “ladylike”), to the way that she dresses. I think redefining who a princess is and how she acts is a powerful way to show young female readers that they don’t have to wait to be rescued to be their own person.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE – and look for Ladycastle in your local comics shop. Also be sure to check out Niobe: She Is Life (#4 just came out) which is written by teen actress Amandla Stenberg and drawn by Ashley A. Wood. It is, to quote Amandla, “officially the first comic book to be written by a black girl, starring a black girl , and illustrated by a black girl .” More about the comic and Amandla’s mission HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Jim Pluk and the Starchild Tour 2017 is coming to your town – if you live in Berlin or Rome, that is! Catch Jim Pluk – a fantastic cartoonist from Columbia – in Berlin on February 3rd and in Rome on February 11th. At both events Jim will be releasing new fanzines and his comic Canosa’s Welcome (Perfectly Acceptable Press, 2016) along with 150/200 drawings and paintings. In Rome there will also be a little conversation about Canosa’s Welcome with Gabrielle di Fazio of the blog Just Indie Comics. If you’re in the area be sure to go see Jim in person. Check out more of his work HERE – get a copy of Canosa’s Welcome HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Adam Griffiths has joined us in Pittsburgh for a week-long Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. He is a cartoonist from Takoma Park, MD, whose mission in life is to “Draw forever!“ About his work, Adam has written: “In its purest form, cartooning is a medium for simple, intellectual storytelling. I approach my cartooning as a visionary agent, skating the edges of contemporary art, illustration, outsider art, and underground comics art. Through my drawing process, I can play out the various symbolisms and mutabilities of historical imperialism and the class system. The images I complete are a mix of preconceived ideas and stream-of-conscious drawing; I want the drawings to pose conceptual riddles about the structure of society.“ It is a great pleasure to host Adam this week and we look forward to seeing more of what he makes here, and in the future. Keep up with Adam via Instagram – @grifftones. For more information about the Rowhouse Residency visit this page – and keep up with the project via @rowhouseresidency ————————————————————————————————— Bread Crumbs I missed this when it came out and now it’s extra depressing but…Keith Knight has a comic essay on Fusion that is a tribute to Obama. Here’s the New York Times Book Review’s take on the new George Herriman bio – Invisibly Black: A Life of George Herriman, Creator of Krazy Kat Chris Ware also writes about Krazy Kat for The New York Review of Books – To Walk in Beauty ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-2-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-2-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

07/27/2018

Sally IngrahamJuly 27, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with comics and news from Nick Fowler, Annie Koyama, Believer Magazine, and much more! ————————————————————————————————— Here on the site Nick Fowler writes about his recent Rowhouse Residency: “One of the most important things that was cemented for me during my time at the Rowhouse was the immense importance of environment. In both a social sense…and a more literal, spatial sense. The room at the Rowhouse had a bed, a table and a box of Love and Rockets (#17-28 if I remember correctly). And nothing else. Every day I would wake up and take two steps to the drawing table to either draw, or to read Love and Rockets and then draw. For the week I was there, there was nothing else I had to do. It felt like a splash of cold water on my face.“ Read the rest of Nick’s Residency Report HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Annie Koyama has announced that she is changing the way in which she supports artists. She will conclude her time as a publisher in 2021, closing the doors of Koyama Press. Her focus will shift to channelling her financial support and incredible positive energy directly into the hands of specific artists whom she chooses to be a patron of. She spoke to The Comics Journal about “switching gears”: ” “I will not tell the artists how to do anything,” Koyama said. “There are no strings attached. Once I decide to work with an artist, as I have always done with the press, I put enough trust in them and their project not to interfere. They don’t need my creative help, they need money.” How this next venture will work is still being formulated. Though the projects she supports will not be owned by Koyama, recipients of these “micro-grants” will be expected to fulfill their end of the bargain, whether if be self-publishing the project, offering a performance, or whatever Koyama and the participating party agree to. Additionally, the publisher expects to continue to pursue broader methods of support by hosting financial and business literary workshops and supplementing residencies. Her support will not be limited to cartoonists, either. Koyama recently supported a feature film and is already contributing support to projects with several fine artists. “I am choosing the artists because I like their work,” Koyama said. “I feel that they deserve a higher profile. I know that they can’t do it on their own. What I am most interested in is taking people who are known for one discipline and for example, helping them to try another discipline. For example, people who are good at drawing already but really want to work on a little stop motion animation. Or they want to go off and learn to play the trumpet, try sculpture, learn printmaking or start community art related initiatives.” Read the rest of the article and full announcement HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Believer Magazine has updated their website and built an archive for the comics that have appeared in the printed mag. Above is a page from Leela Corman‘s story Kraut – read the rest HERE. You will also find comics by Andrea Tsurumi, Ann Xu, Jennifer Camper, Anna Haifisch, and others. Check out the archive! ————————————————————————————————— Hyperallergic features an article about Carol Tyler and her new comic Fab4 Mania – HERE. Lauren Weinstein‘s Normal Person now appears at popula.com – here’s the latest strip! Mimi Pond also has a new comic up at Popula – Blind Dates of the Near Future. Jessica Campbell‘s latest comic on Hyperallergic – Musings About Life Today – can be read HERE. Anders Nilson writes about the process and responsibility of finishing a friend’s last book – A Bubble, by Geneviève Castrée (who passed away in 2016) – on The Comics Journal. Here’s an excerpt from Nancy Peña’s Madame Cat – on Paste Magazine. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-27-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

Wizard World Sacramento 2016

Chris Anthony DiazJuly 8, 2016The Diaz ArchiveHoward Chaykin along with original art featuring Nick Fury and a paint pen signed AMERICAN FLAGG!: SOUTHERN COMFORT, Paolo and Joe Rivera and Gerhard with his cover for THE COMICS JOURNAL 130 Dave Sim interview. Appeared at Wizard World Sacramento 2016, Saturday, June 18th. Portraits colored by Graham Willcox Share this page: [...]

05/17/2017

Posted on May 17, 2017May 17, 2017 by Juan Fernández

Empezamos el día con Álvaro Pons; DisTinta; 11 autoras latinx; #HUL2017; Mujer y Comic; Bas; #gutterfest; Peter Jojaio; y los tebeos de Comics Workbook.

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Álvaro Pons, mientras preparaba al exposición VLC Valencia Línia Clara (Foto: Kike Taberner

La Cárcel de Papel nació como “el diario de un lector de tebeos” y en poco tiempo se convirtió en la referencia en la red para los amantes del cómic. Ahora, Álvaro Pons recupera en un volumen las mejores entradas que han ido apareciendo desde 2002. Se dice pronto en alicanteplaza.es:

– El ritmo de La cárcel era frenético, una entrada al día durante mucho tiempo. Y era una dosis intensa, no cuatro líneas.

– Confluyeron varias cosas. Al abrir La cárcel, pensaba más en un recopilatorio de artículos que iba escribiendo por ahí, siguiendo el ejemplo de los primeros blogs americanos. Pero luego mi verborrea natural me lleva a generar nuevos contenidos. Cuando me doy cuenta estoy escribiendo todos los días y, cuando se introducen los comentarios, eso tenía repercusión, la gente participaba y eso me animaba a hacer más contenidos. Al final se convirtió en una auténtica cárcel.

– ¿Acabarías un poco hasta los güevos ¿no?

– Sí, como te digo, acababa casi convertido en una auténtica cárcel, aunque igual no me daba cuenta porque lo hacía a muy a gusto, todo sea dicho.

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Andrea Guzmán le da un vistazo a la nueva antología argentina, DisTinta compilada por Martín Pérez y el dibujante Liniers:

La historieta argentina debería estar muerta. Así de rotunda es la primera frase que abre el prólogo de DisTinta, la nueva antología compilada por Martín Pérez y el dibujante Liniers. Aunque esta contundente afirmación, aseguran los autores, no se trata de un deseo personal ni de una premonición pesimista, sino apenas de una constatación realista acerca de nuestra actualidad y nuestra forma de consumo cultural. Cada vez más digital, más efímera, menos narrativa, más pirotécnica.

Lo bueno, es que aunque quizás debería estar muerta –o como afirman ellos, con suerte relegada a la nostalgia– la historieta argentina no solo continúa con vida, sino que respira con una energía renovada y sorprendente. Tanto así, que incluso esta selección –con sus imponentes 400 páginas a todo color, sus treinta y tres dibujantes y sus seis guionistas– llegaría a parecer pequeña para abarcar todas las aristas de su actualidad. Por este motivo, Pérez y Liniers se propusieron pensar en un libro bien específico.

El recorte que eligieron no busca reunir a la nueva historieta con sus representantes más actuales o más vanguardistas, sino ser retrato de la generación de los años 2000, que ellos consideran la generación huérfana y una bisagra entre la gloria editorial que gozó la Argentina de antaño, y el universo de la historieta actual, que ya encontró su vía para renovarse y seguir existiendo de forma independiente.

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

Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! En este capítulo las chicas conversan con Ana Tijoux acerca de sus inicios en el rap, su forma de hacer canciones, su vida como inmigrante, la diversidad y mucho más.
Alex Serrano, les ofrece una lista de 11 autoras latinx que representan el presente y el futuro del cómic en español.
¡ Tienes una editorial o un fanzine? Ya está abierta la convocatoria para el #HUL2017 en Madrid!
Mujer y Comic – Sobre la visibilidad de las autoras de cómic.
Bas: la representante de las autoras en el TBO, entrevistada por Elisa McCausland.
El fin de semana que viene llega el @gutterfest en Barcelona con un montón de sellos internacionales y actividades. Quieres saber quien viene?
Kike Infame entrevisto a Peter Jojaio, autor de Febrero para galgos en @bilbao24horas.

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Blinkers – 5-17-2017 – by Jack Brougham

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Suzy and Cecil – 5-17-2017 – by Sally Ingraham

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Comics Workbook

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Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged jack brougham, sally ingraham

Juan Fernández

Posted on May 17, 2017May 17, 2017

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09/28/2018

Sally IngrahamSeptember 28, 2018NewsSally here. I read most of the comics in Mickey Z‘s Space Academy 123 (Koyama Press, 2018) when they were appearing daily on her Instagram last year. However, downing the strip all together in one big gulp last night was very stimulating. I feel ZAPPED! (Very similar to how Ashley Forgiveness feels all the time – without the aid of caffeine – in the story.) This comic appeals to me on many levels. There’s the whacky space academy setting, the characters making a whole lot out of not very much, the reflection on what school really is FOR anyway, the outrageously free drawing style…plus it’s really funny. Knowing, as I was reading the book, that Mickey Z wrote and drew it daily, made the overarching plot lines more fun. Coming up with a new strip every day that is punchy and interesting is a lot of work. There really aren’t any duds in this collection. Each character follows their own bizarre journey, crashing into the others along the way. The simple life of the space station school slowly swings out of whack as Grandfather Computer takes over. Principle Summers is forced to make a big decision (despite the fact that all she ever wanted was to be a simple space chiropractor!) Ashley bounces off walls, Andrew navigates his anxiety, Naomi explores the loneliness that turns her into a bully. Shandy (the youngest character in the story, aged somewhere between 9-12) will do anything to get out of Sunshine Storytime. There’s something so powerful about comics making like this – pure on-the-fly storytelling, using whatever materials are on hand. Some might look at Space Academy 123 and call it sketchy, rough, unrefined. I beg to differ. Mickey Z is a really good cartoonist. To my eyes there is an elegance in these dashed off pages which only comes from practice and skill. Her timing is great. Her drawings contain and transmit the wild rush of strange emotions, the sick sense of failure, the fraying of sanity, and the bold realization of the total absurdity of life. The contrast between which characters experience what is where a lot of the humor lies. The final strip in the collection concludes the overall story magnificently, while summing up nothing at all. It was a real delight to revisit Space Academy 123 and I recommend it, along with the rest of Mickey Z’s work, which you can navigate your way to HERE. ————————————————————————————————— 09-28-2018 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

09/21/2018

Sally IngrahamSeptember 21, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with my Small Press Expo 2018 memories and pictures! (See Juan Fernandez’s SPX report HERE, and read Caleb Orecchio’s thoughts HERE.) ————————————————————————————————— I headed to Bethesda a day early and on Friday I was fortunate enough to tag along on SPX Director Warren Bernard’s annual field trip to the Library of Congress with some of the Expo’s special guests. At the Library of Congress we got to see some of the comics holdings that are kept in the Prints and Photographs collection. Here’s a few that I took note of: After looking at the comics holding for a bit, Emma Ríos, Rina Ayuyang, Liv Strömquist and her son and their travel companion, Kate Harmon, and myself, made the long dangerous trek underground through the maze of the Library of Congress (there were tunnels involved!) to find the Jefferson Building and the Drawn To Purpose show. There was a nice timeline of work made by female cartoonists and illustrators, including the Little Lulu strip I shared at the top of this post, and this Brenda Starr, Reporter piece by Dale Messick: We found our way back to the Madison Building in time to catch Carol Tyler‘s big presentation on her life and comics. Having formed a bond over the morning, Emma Ríos, Rina Ayuyang, Kate Harmon and I continued to hang out for the rest of the day. And as we were leaving the Library of Congress in search of lunch, who should we bump into but Congressman John Lewis…?! (Check out the March trilogy that Congressman John Lewis wrote with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell HERE.) It was a real treat to explore Washington D.C. with my dear friend Kate Harmon, guided by our pal Adam Griffiths, and get to know Emma Ríos and Rina Ayuyang along the way. I knew Spanish cartoonist Emma Ríos‘ work from the Image titles Pretty Deadly, with Kelly Sue DeConnick, and Mirror, with Hwei Lim. In 2016 she put out a comic that she drew as well as wrote (the first comic she has written in English), called I.D., which I’ve been meaning to read (and I was so delighted later in the weekend when she gave me her last copy!) Here’s an interview with Emma from last year that details more of her comics adventures. Rina Ayuyang is originally from Pittsburgh, PA, so we hit it off right away! I’m super excited to read her new book, just out from Drawn & Quarterly – Blame This on the Boogie (get a copy of it HERE). Getting to meet cartoonists like Emma and Rina is why I come to SPX every year. I’m interested in the quick friendships that form because of the common interest that pulls us together. You’ve never met before, and may come from different career/publishing backgrounds, but especially in groups of women I have found that there is a powerful connection and a desire to support and celebrate all the varied comics-making paths that we’ve traversed. I felt that strongly with Emma and Rina, and although our encounter was more incidental, with Liv Strömquist as well. (Check out Liv’s powerful new book The Fruit of Knowledge HERE.) By the end of day on Friday Kate Harmon and I were having dinner with Fiona Smyth, due to a quick invitation in the hotel elevator (another key part of the success of SPX – everyone is in the same hotel!) I am such a big fan of Fiona’s work, and was lucky enough to meet her during her visit to Pittsburgh, PA, a few years ago. It was terrific to catch up and congratulate her in person on her new book, just out from Koyama Press – Somnambulance. Saturday and Sunday at SPX I was completely engrossed in running the Comics Workbook-hosted workshops. These workshops provided a veritable crash-course in comics making, beginning with Juan Fernandez‘s highly energetic intro to image-making as language. This was followed by Dash Shaw‘s in-depth exploration of comics writing, and Molly Ostertag‘s (standing room only!) session on digging a fresh story out of yourself. There were numerous other offerings (we ran 8 workshops this year!) including a clay sculpture workshop with Liz Reed and a Kickstarter intro course with Camilla Zhang. (Big shoutout to Caleb Orecchio for being doorman on Saturday and wrangling the enthusiastic and lengthy lines of folks who attended – and for his own great workshop on Sunday! And to Kate Harmon for helping with supply runs and the door on Sunday!) Saturday night is always bonkers – for me it’s a balance of hanging out with the Comics Workbook and Pittsburgh Comics Salon crew, and finding my more far-flung comics friends to catch up with (Andrew White, M. S. Harkness, Iona Fox!) But despite great conversations and late hours kept, I somehow got up on Sunday morning and drove 30 minutes to Great Falls Park, VA, to pursue the topic of all my own comics lately – BIRDS! Sunday at SPX went by in a flash, and before I knew it we were packing up the workshop room, and I was making a last round of the Expo floor to find cartoonists I’d missed before they in turn packed up and took off. Dinner with Kate Harmon and Emma Ríos and Fiona Smyth, followed by late-night chats with Iona Fox, and then the show was officially over for me. I crawled into bed to sleep for a bit before racing back to Pittsburgh, PA, on Monday morning in time to work at 10 AM… Phew! Thanks to Warren Bernard, Lynda Bernard, Rob Clough, Danethin Mejia, and Eden Miller for the organization behind the show, and especially their help in making the workshops happen. Thanks to Juan Fernandez, Liz Reed, Dash Shaw, Molly Ostertag, Jason Rodriguez and the Latin American Youth Council, Mosi, Camilla Zhang, and Caleb Orecchio for delivering such stellar workshops! And many, many thanks to all the folks who turned up to learn about comics with us over the weekend. See you next year for SPX 2019! ————————————————————————————————— 09-21-2018 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

06/14/2018

Sally IngrahamJune 14, 2018NewsSally here with a roundup of reviews and commentary on Frank Santoro’s “Pompei”, which was published in Italy in May 2018 by 001 Edizioni! ——————————————————————————— Frank Santoro‘s Pompeii (PictureBox, 2013) was published in Italy in 2018 by 001 Edizioni. Pompei was released during the Naples Comicon (April 28-May 1 2018) where Frank was a special guest. In addition, an exhibition of original artwork from Pompei was held at the Archeological Museum of Naples from April 18-May 31 2018. More about that exhibition can be found HERE. Several Italian critics, comics makers, and fans have written about Pompei since the release of the comic in Italy. Valerio Stivè, who translated Pompei for 001 Edizioni, was kind enough to translate those reviews into English for us. We present them here for you, with links to the original Italian publications where appropriate. The Afterward for the 001 Edizioni edition of Pompei was written by Manuele Fior (translated from Italian here by Valerio Stivè). If my personal library was threatened by a the eruption of a volcano, Pompeii by Frank Santoro is among the few books I would save. The subject of this graphic novel is drawing; drawing the living, that are drawn while they draw, and drawing the dead, who, hugging each other, become drawings. Here, the lines mix up, multiplying the levels of reading, and we don’t know if what we see is a face on paper, on canvas, or on a mural painting. The book is about drawing, and its ability to seduce, to distract from death, to imagine a future, and to establish an eternal testimony. There are no second thoughts in Frank’s line, no rubber strokes, only shameless immediacy that offers itself to the reader in its most direct essence, full of errors and clumsiness. This is the best and only way to express the unique strength of some of his compositions, of the raw sensuality of flesh, and especially, of the most necessary of all, the love between two people. This is a graphic novel that, for its intensity, I can never read in one breath. I have to stop, with shivers on my back, and reach for my heart. This is a book that looks like it was drawn on a stone dug up from the ashes, to which time has erased colors and details, while preserving the deeply human living trace of the intentions of this great cartoonist. – Manuele Fior Daniele Barbieri‘s review of Pompei was originally published on Fumettologica on May 5th 2018. Valerio Stivè translates it from Italian below (with sections in bold retained from Barbieri’s original piece): The idea of narrating a historic event through the personal events of a single fictional character in order to let the reader/spectator empathize with the story and understand the events – then comprehending History in a much deeper way than reading a History book – is not new. In literary fiction, as well as in cinema and comics, that is a common and effective narrative device, as long as the reader is able to understand it. Our present times can become the present of those events (despite the historical and cultural differences); and an every day life that we recognize as familiar suddenly fades into something totally different: the historic event itself. If limited to this, Pompeii by Frank Santoro could be seen as a story like many others, maybe more delicate and emotive. Yet there already are so many tales of the last days of Pompeii, even similar to this… The thing is that there is so much more in here. From the very first pages, even before one could figure out where the story would go, the drawing looks rapid, approximative; almost like a sketch or a storyboard – where the imperfect lines are not erased, but adjusted, leaving the imperfection in plain site. No colours, obviously, just some quick textures for the shadows, with an overall sense of temporariness and instability. Then, the story starts to take shape: Marcus, the main character, is an assistant to a painter who is probably going to become famous and move to Rome. Marcus prepares his colours and helps him with the paintings, while forced to be complicit in the painter’s affair with a princess, that needs to be kept hidden from Alba, his suspicious partner. Marcus has a woman too, Lucia, with whom he left Paestum, where he has no intention to come back: he wants to become a portrait painter in Pompeii – just like his master – to make money and start a family with Lucia. This is the picture of everyday affections and little tensions on which the eruption of the Vesuvius occurs. Obviously, the event leaves everyone astonished. However, Marcus encourages the painter to draw that shocking event right away (while it still has to fully take place). “You can add it to the landscape commission! You’ll be the first to paint the gods in action!” he says. The idea of drawing, which was there since the beginning of the story – but, before this, only in the work of the painter – now becomes more and more relevant. Please read the complete review in English HERE. Francesco Boille wrote about Pompei for Internazionale – you can see the magazine article in Italian above. Valerio Stivè translates it into English below. Pompeii fluidly tells a story of happy every day life of two couples from different social backgrounds, before the apocalypse that happened in August of the year 79 B.C. Santoro uses almost unfinished images that remind us of so many things from the History of Art, from cave painting onwards. He focuses on the act of drawing rather than on the act of painting – as Manuele Fior points out in his afterword – which “offers itself to the reader in its most direct essence”. This serves as a metaphor of the fact that images are only shadows, ghosts of the past, just like every one of us will be someday. Sketches of life and sketches of drawings are mixed up, and Santoro reverses the intense petrified physicality of the molds produced from human bodies in Pompeii into a totally lighter dimension. Looks like Frank Santoro, in contrast to the caducity of all things, is showing that the idea of how the strength of poetry expresses itself at best in its most ethereal form, as a unique way to go beyond time and space. To the cold and conceptual approach of most of American graphic novels, Santoro prefers a European approach, based on a free, soft and aerial line. Redesigned in a such a personal way. He comes up with a masterpiece of poetry in its most pure form, a masterpiece about the idea of poetry itself; and he does that while putting together frail and incomplete fragments of an artistic greatness that once was. – Francesco Boille, for Internazionale May 2018 Simona Di Rosa wrote a review of Pompei for FuoriPosto on May 23rd 2018. Valerio Stivè translates it from Italian into English below. Premiered at Napoli COMICON, Pompeii – a graphic novel published by 001 Edizioni from Torino – is written and drawn by Frank Santoro, and set in Pompeii a few days before the eruption that destroyed the city. The book – a large softcover edition – was published in collaboration with COMICON and the Archeological Museum of Naples, which until May 31st will be hosted an exhibition of original artwork from the book. Frank Santoro resides in Pittsburgh, where he manages artists’ residencies hosting and helping fellow cartoonists. He is not well known in Italy, and yet he is among the most original voices in contemporary avant garde American comics scene, thanks to Pompeii, published in the USA five years ago. Santoro has an artisanal approach to comics making, using poor tools – mostly pencils and markers – perfect to tell a story set in the ancient Pompeii, showing its historic value while supporting a touching plot, deeply touching despite the unavoidable outcome. Please read the complete review in English HERE. Get a copy of Pompeii by Frank Santoro in English from Copacetic Comics – HERE! Also, be sure to check out Frank’s new book, the stunning Pittsburgh (Éditions çà et là, May 2018 – currently available in French only!) You can read more about the book HERE. ——————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-14-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/05/2016

Aaron CockleApril 5, 2016NewsMoCCA Recapitulation; Sarah Horrocks; Edie Fake; Aidan Koch; Chester Brown; Julie Delporte; O RisoLAB, My RisoLAB!; Retrofit Comics ————————————————————————————————— MoCCA 2016 This past weekend, the Society of Illustrators hosted it’s annual Museum of Comic and Cartooning Art (‘MoCCA’) Arts Festival in some desolate, blasted-out, post-industrialized urban hinterland Manhattan’s far west side. Attendance seemed pretty good at the 2-day show. If anyone who tabled at/attended the show has anything to say about it (Was it a ‘good’ show? What does ‘good’ even mean? Like, did you make a lot of $$$ at the show, or enough to cover your table, or is that something people talk about these days? Did anyone get donuts at the car wash donut shop? How were the panels? What were the highlights of the show, comics-wise? IS this a snapshot of the current ‘industry’? Do we all wish it was 2005 again and that we were back in the Puck building? Does anybody miss that Armory space?, Where do we go from here, etc etc???)…please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this newsblog. ————————————————————————————————— Horrocks on Horrocks; Edie Fake at Marlborough Chelsea; Aidan Koch’s After Nothing Comes; Chester Brown’s Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus; Delporte in Moominland ————————————————————————————————— Summer Risography 6-8 week artist residency in NYC. Application deadline is April 22. ————————————————————————————————— 3 Days Left Please consider supporting the Retrofit Comics Kickstarter. Image above by Alabaster Pizzo. Share this page: [...]

09/07/2018

Sally IngrahamSeptember 7, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with work by Bronson Smillie and Cory Feder, plus other news and comics! ——————————————————————————————— Here on the site we have a new Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency Report, written by Bronson Smillie, who joined us in Pittsburgh in July of 2018. He’s currently based in Montreal, QC, where he is finishing a painting and drawing undergrad at Concordia University. Originally from Calgary, he organized and facilitated Calgary’s first ever Queer Zine Fair in 2017 – an event called We Are Not an Island that was presented in conjunction with Calgary’s Sled Island Festival. It was Calgary’s biggest zine fair ever and featured over 30 artists/collectives. Even with this rich experience in comics and community building under his belt, Bronson was able to find a lot to dig into with us in Pittsburgh. “The ! air conditioned ! bedroom/work-space was the perfect place to dive head first into my work. As someone that is easily distracted in new environments, it was nice to be able to shut myself into a quiet space. Each morning I would devour a handful of comics/zines selected from the extensive and ever-growing library at the Residency. I would recommend spending as much time reading comics as you do drawing them while you are a resident. They offer such an amazing resource and I got to read things that I had never had access to before. I worked on a 10 page mini-comic that I’ve since completed and took time to digitize my entire stamp collection (boring but satisfying). I wanted to explore a new way of image-making while I was at the residency and broke away from the more rigid, panel-based comic making I was used to in order to explore more experimental ideas I had been tossing around for a while.“ Read the rest of his report HERE! ——————————————————————————————— The results of the 2018 Comics Workbook Composition Competition are in! Read all about it HERE! Pictured above is the comic strip by Cory Feder which placed 1st in the competition. About her strip, the judges wrote: “Our decision to award Cory Feder First Place recognizes Feder’s creation of an ambitious yet simple, multi-layered poetic sequence that cuts through notions of language. This is the kind of strip that can be read and re-read ad infinitum to continue gleaning new meaning. Feder’s comic is the kind offhand remark, the cadence of which, you keep thinking about for years. This complex concoction of intuitive drawing and deft use of juxtaposition made for a winning combination.“ See more of Cory Feder’s work HERE. We look forward to hosting her at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency sometime soon! ——————————————————————————————— Sign up for the Comics Workbook Workshop sessions at Small Press Expo 2018 – full details HERE! ——————————————————————————————— Weekend Reading The Comics Journal recently republished an interview with Marie Severin from 1986 – read it HERE. Marie Severin passed away last week at the age of 89. HERE is the Journal‘s tribute to her. There are new reviews of Fiona Smyth‘s Somnambulance and Jessica Campbell‘s XTC69 over on Page 45. Paste Magazine has an exclusive preview of Leah Moore, John Reppion, and Sally Jane Thompson‘s upcoming A Conspiracy of Ravens (out in early October) HERE. Share this page: [...]

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