Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in News

Juan Fernández

Posted on July 6, 2016July 6, 2016

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01/09/2018

Aaron CockleJanuary 8, 2018NewsAaron here today with an Art from Guantánamo Bay Update; Comic Book Heroes of Taiwan; Austin English on the End of Krazy Kat (and Superman Comics); More Machine Learning ————————————————————————————————— Ode to the Sea An update regarding the Art from Guantánamo Bay post from a few weeks back, via Patricia Mastricolo at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: Fortnunately, the Pentagon is backing off its previous threat of incinerating art by the Guantánamo Bay detainees. Unfortunately, they still maintain all of it is the property of the U.S. military and will not be permitted to leave the prison. … The exhibit is free and open to the public and runs through January 26, 2018, at Haren Hall (899 10th Avenue at 59th Street, on the 6th floor in the President’s Gallery, New York City). The exhibit is open Monday to Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (except January 15). ————————————————————————————————— Taiwan’s comic book heroes Via the BBC: Hsu Mao-sung, one of Taiwan’s earliest comic book artists, says it may be too late to save the industry. His generation endured censorship during the martial law period from the 1960s to 80s, but he says it didn’t kill off his passion for drawing. ————————————————————————————————— Anything But Reality At TCJ, Austin English takes a long look at some comics from the 1940s-1960s: The strip that follows is June 11th, with the stick now re-purposed to prop up the scarecrow. So, the final interactions of Krazy Kat and Ignatz map out like this: Ignatz tricks Krazy into getting hit by a brick toppling from a growing tree, Ignatz passingly confuses Krazy about oak trees vs. olive trees, Ignatz works to transform a weasel’s color in an issue whose subtleties are (seemingly) obscure to Krazy and finally Ignatz’ brick is discovered with a stick from Offisa Pup while Ignatz writhes in agony, his body beneath ground. After these events, the scarecrow emerges and Ignatz discards his brick. For a brief moment the strip is silent and empty. … The tone of the line defined itself in 1958, partly by a constraint that the comics world imposed on itself. Physical violence, while not banned by the comics code, was to be avoided. So Weisinger took a line of superhero comics and instead of emphasizing brawn, made them into intricate puzzles. Now, these are not puzzles that use the unreliable world as one of its factors in the way a Raymond Chandler novel might. Instead, every story has no relation to anything real (except basic outlines of things like ‘I have a job at a newspaper’ or ‘humans need to eat food to survive’ or ‘ice is cold’)—the comic book world of Superman itself is the only thing the stories use to set up their questions and render solutions. These are mysteries whose only logic is cartooning, and I’d argue that they are more beautiful as science fiction than anything EC ever published. ————————————————————————————————— Adversarial Patch An update from the machine learning front, via Boing Boing: Another key difference here: the researchers achieve their best results using a “white box” technique where they get to design their patches through detailed knowledge of the AI they’re targeting, unlike other adversarial preturbations, which achieved good results with “black box” constraints (designing attacks without any technical knowledge of the AI). The patches they created didn’t work very well on other AI image classifiers. We show that we can generate a universal, robust, targeted patch that fools classifiers regardless of the scale or location of the patch, and does not require knowledge of the other items in the scene that it is attacking. Our attack works in the real world, and can be disguised as an innocuous sticker. These results demonstrate an attack that could be created offline, and then broadly shared. There has been substantial work on defending against small perturbations to natural images, at least partially motivated by security concerns Part of the motivation of this work is that potential malicious attackers may not be concerned with generating small or imperceptible perturbations to a natural image, but may instead opt for larger more effective but noticeable perturbations to the input – especially if a model has been designed to resist small perturbations. Many ML models operate without human validation of every input and thus malicious attackers may not be concerned with the imperceptibility of their attacks. Even if humans are able to notice these patches, they may not understand the intent of the patch and instead view it as a form of art. This work shows that focusing only on defending against small perturbations is insufficient, as large, local perturbations can also break classifiers. ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 16th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. His experience and ideas have influenced the likes of Connor Willumsen, Michael DeForge, and Simon Hanselmann (quote “I consider Frank Santoro to be my L. Ron Hubbard”) among many others. Dig into something new in the new year! Full details and how to apply can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 1-9-2018 – by Cameron Arthur Share this page: [...]

12/31/2018

Caleb OrecchioDecember 31, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here on the last day of 2018 with Parallel Lives by Olivier Schrauwen ————————————————————————————————— Parallel Lives by Olivier Schrauwen Olivier Schrauwen lives way up there with kings and queens of our medium. I have a lot to say about the author and his new book, but brevity may stop me from going too far over my head so in brevity I will write. Schrauwen has set a hammock between the rigid and the naturalistic. Schrauwen’s drawing veers towards the rigid often. His use of ruled lines and strict character models nearly teeter into stone. Yet, it is his natural, loose free-hand that brings balance to the force. His wonderful, thin pencil lines themselves serve to soften that rigidity as well. O how I love that pencil that leaves smudges though they are hardly noticeable in direct sunlight, but nonetheless make looking all the more pleasurable. The feature story of Parallel Lives, “Space Bodies,” is undeniably inspired by Moebius’ Gardens of Aedena (concept-wise), and is probably his most visually striking comic to date. His colors are masterful and beautiful. You’ve scarcely seen blue until you have seen it in this comic. The future he illustrates is completely enviable if only for want to walk around in it. Schrauwen fleshes out worlds that seem impossible, and yet inviting to live in. The whole book is practically beckoning one to jump in. Olivier Schrauwen can not be more on the up and up right now. He is steam-rolling over the lame and sickly cartoonists and driving himself to the center of the universe. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

07/05/2016

Aaron CockleJuly 5, 2016NewsAaron Cockle with more of Gabrielle Bell’s July Diary; Barry Blitt Comics; Pablo Auladell; Mould Map 5; Julie Doucet; Nasreen Mohamedi; BUGS! ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Fireworks ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Barry Blitt at the New Yorker ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Behind-the-scenes with Pablo Auladell — via altcomix via zencomix via capegrahicnovels ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Mould Map 5: Black Box Concealment. Stealth. Unknown unknowns, black swans and sleeper cells. Conspiracy, tactical confusion and counter-intel (UFO narrative smokescreens). Greenwashing, industrial espionage and deceit (VW emissions hacking). Self-surveillance (voluntary driver monitoring for lower insurance premiums / health tracking for life insurance). Mission creep and stealth tax. Behind the scenes, hidden agendas. False flags, dark ops and black magik. Invisibility tech and the occult (hidden from sight), obscured, ambiguous. Invisible infrastructure and the technological sublime. Secret TTIP talks and shadow courts. Far-right extremist scapegoating narratives, deny complexity. Black as the baseline screen state, visions emerging from the darkness in low resolution. Mysterious crashes & disappearances. ‘The Truth’. Server centre as black box, to be embedded in the geological crust of the early Anthropocene, BIG data left to a distant future. Antwan Horfee, Ben Mendelewicz, Blue Firth, Brenna Murphy, Caley Feeney, Daniel Swan, Jonny Negron, Julien Ceccaldi, Lala Albert, Lando, Noel Freibert, Parker Ito, Travess Smalley, Viktor Hachmang, Yannick Val Gesto, Edward Shenk (Poster), GW Duncanson (Comic), Hugh Frost (Patch & Packaging), Leon Sadler (Patch & Black Box Zine) ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Reading Aloud with Julie Doucet The story lines do not unravel effortlessly, nor do they always cohere. Instead, Doucet seems invested in pairing these word-image collages in order to get us thinking, and feeling, about what’s in front of us. The first three chapters, for instance, follow “Mrs. Jones,” a wide-eyed, full-lipped blonde. “Mrs. Jones is in love!” the title page declares in loose cursive, and what follows is a series of images featuring this whitewashed, perfectly coiffed figure, vacantly staring off into the distance. Whether pictured alone or alongside others, Mrs. Jones does not seem capable of making eye contact, of connecting with her surroundings. Despite the fervid declarations of love so often aimed at her — “Kiddie I AM Dust-resistance for you. ME Clean ‘Magic’ carpet love” — and despite the sentiments that Mrs. Jones at times allows herself to express — “he’s so like a, a roo BOO DOO So Good Me!” — the cumulative effect is of language, and posture, as dead weight. This is not to say the pages don’t draw the readers in. Carpet Sweeper Tales offers entertainment as well as commentary, and flipping through the book is an engrossing, if anti-nostalgic, walk down a memory-less lane. Reading through, and reading out loud, gives one the sense that Doucet is after a kind of lighthearted, feminist anti-fumetti: a montage that makes illegible, or even irrelevant, the submissive pout at the heart of these now fragmented stories and advertisements. — via Tahneer Oksman at Los Angeles Review of Books ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Nasreen Mohamedi at the Met Breuer Mohamedi mainly worked with gestures of pencil and ink on paper, experimenting with organic forms, delicate grids, and dynamic, hard-edged lines. Her cosmopolitan outlook enabled her to draw upon a range of aesthetic sensibilities, from the poetry of Rilke and Camus, as well as Indian classical music, to the modernist architecture of Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh. ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— BUGS The wonderful science-fiction social satire feature film, BUGS, made by Toronto conceptual art luminaries, Life of a Craphead, is having several screenings next week in New York! Please attend if you can! — via Matthew Thurber ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

Clowes and Nadel in Conversation (2010)

Juan FernándezMarch 21, 2016Interviews / The Diaz ArchiveChris Anthony Diaz has passed along this video he shot, for us to share with you: the Daniel Clowes spotlight panel from 2010’s Alternative Press Expo(APE), with Dan Nadel. Of interest since it dovetails Clowes’ 2016 tour for the release of Patience. This video gives a lot of insight indirectly to Patience. Comic book match ups, Burne Hogarth yelling, EC Horror comics, the disappointment in comics history, public vs. private characters, and life in the letters columns, it’s all here. Many thanks to Chris Anthony Diaz for documenting this conversation. Stay up to date with Diaz’s work here: folkloreshed.tumblr.com/ Share this page: [...]

Providence, RI Scene Report

Frank SantoroNovember 26, 2011Riff Raff / Scene ReportsThis article originally appeared on The Comics Journal 11/26/2011 This week’s scene report is brought to you by Jacob Berendes. A couple of years ago at SPX someone left a copy of Mothers News at my table – at the time it was a one sheet newspaper with comics and weird local flavor bits of gossip, funny drawings and funny puzzles. I thought it was great – figured out it was from Providence – but didn’t know who made it. I subscribed to it – yes an honest to goddess monthly publication – and it quickly became one of my favorite rags ever. Somewhere along the way I found out it was Jacob who was stoking the fire – so I asked him to write about the comic book goings on of Providence, Rhode Island. Please enjoy! —————– PROVIDENCE COMICS SCENE REPORT by Jacob Berendes (by Frank’s request) Providence RI was big for comics in the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s, especially for works in the “art comics” genre, which doesn’t exist. People ask all the time what the fabled comics scene is like now, and I should say, with some caveats, that it’s pretty sweet. There’s a few crazy fuckers going hard as hell, and that’s almost all you need. Some institutions first: Ada Books is a good independent bookstore that sells zines and comics and hosts comic-related events (Anders Nilsson came last month, Porcellino Dec 5th). The RISD library has a great comics section that is a wonderful place to spend a rainy day (although they are maybe cracking down on non-alumni, boo dat). AS220 is a nebulous non-profit show venue / bar / developer / print shop that has a nice offset press that you can take classes on, then use whenever to print 1000 of your shitty thing. Time Capsule Comics in nearby Cranston has a nice selection of back issues, this past summer they had a wild $1 everything sale, it was like get get get, everyone was stacking up. Armageddon Shop is a metal / hardcore / punk record store co-run by Ben from DROPDEAD, but they also stock local zines, comics, and noise tapes, and recently started stocking a ton of old LAST GASP comics, which is weird. Amigos is a small publisher that this year opened a retail location in Providence’s historic erotic dance district. There used to be other comics stores around but they dried up / got priced out. Since the Borders closed down there isn’t even a place to shoplift manga from! C’est la vie… C’est la guerre… People: well, most of the Paper Rodeo / Fort Thunder alumni are gone to other (not necessarily greener) pastures. List of ex-pats: Jim Drain “went real” in art terms, which in this context means “moved to Miami”. Mat Brinkman is in Colorado, and just released a board game called Cave Evil that is appropriately mega-sick. Leif Goldberg and Erin Rosenthal moved to Vermont and have a totally cute child. Leif also has a new collaborative poster project called Exploded View. Melissa Mendes has a new book out of her Freddy stories, but I haven’t seen it yet, since her and Chuck Forsman moved out of Providence for some reason (I think it had to do with how Providence can be a complete nightmare hellzone). Chuck has a new comic out called “The End Of The Fucking World”. Still here / new: Paul Lyons still lives in town and last year published the excellent anthology MONSTERSand drew AND screenprinted great goopy covers for it. Brian Chippendale still haunts the streets, goes to shows, puts out CDRs,sleeps in papier mache huts, and twitters turd jokes into the void. He has a newish record out on Load, under the name “Black Pus”, which is technically a one-person band but at the same time is like a multi-character band, if that makes any sense. CF has really been burning the night lately, he’s got a few new tapes coming out (as Mark Lord), the first one is out already on Mickey Z’s bizarre PRICE TAPES label. What’s really wild about the new tapes is that they are all recorded in the off moments when he’s not grinding away on the next POWR MASTRS book, which is going to be a face melter. I think he’s at like three 9 kill right now (that’s 99.9% kill), he’s on fire, let the motherfucker BURN. James McShane is allegedly working on a new book for BCGF, though it might just be a nice folio edition of his “City Sketchbook” column from Mothers News, which is still going to be super nice, as he is a master of nuance. He’ll be kicking at BCGF with me and Mickey Zacchilli, who is definitely NOT a master of nuance, but will have a new issue (#5) of her insane and mighty comic book RAV, and maybe some posters (ps- buy these shirts before they’re gone forever). Katrina (last name not necessary, like Jason, or Freddy) is not new on the scene but is maybe someone you haven’t heard of- they have an excellent zine called ROT that really is a zine, not an idiotic whiny SPXy autobio comic or a loosely bound pile of psychedelic farts. Also Katrina has a comic coming out in the next issue of MRR, a cool band called GROKE (Moomin ref), AND they’re allegedly related to Walt Kelly! I tell you an apple doesn’t fall far from a tree unless thrown, and even then, it remains an apple… I would say that the number one most hotly anticipated book of the year (and last year) is the Providence Comics Consortium collection. PCC is a comics class for kids, that takes place in a variety of public libraries. One thing they do is put together a sort of Guide To The Marvel Universe book of characters the kids create, then the characters are given out to local cartoonists to script up and draw. Chippendale, CF, Mickey Zacchilli, Jackie H Curtiss, and plenty of other heavy hitters all drew up stories that they are just WAITING to see in printed form. I keep calling them like “where is the book? why aren’t you printing it right now?”. They stopped picking up the phone… Are you reading this, PCC instructors? Is there anything I can do to hasten the printing of this book? It’s driving me crazy!!!!!!!! As for me, I publish a newspaper called Mothers News that is free and good. It is 12 pages long and has 2 pages of new comics from CF, Brian Chippendale, Mickey Zacchilli, Katrina, Mike Taylor, Chuck Forsman, Melissa Mendes, Charlotte DeSedouy, Kate Schapira, Jackie H Curtiss, Mike Deforge, James McShane, and kids from the Providence Comics Consortium. It is not a goofy newspaper in the Paper Rodeo model, it is a real newspaper with columns, writing, and information. Please see mothersnews.net for more about it, to order a subscription, to place an ad, or for any reason you might visit a website. Alsooooo in the “full disclosure” department, I run a distro for Providence and New England underground art, it’s called Chipsylvania. Uh, and for the record it’s not named after Chippendale, he doesn’t run the town. It’s named after Chip King, guitarist for the excellent doom band The Body. He runs the town. In conclusion, I would like to say that Providence is a lot like the wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providence_(comics): Providence, located in the South Pacific Ocean, southwest of Hawaii at 20°N 165°W, is an artificial island made of parts from Cable’s old space station Graymalkin. It first appeared in Cable & Deadpool #6. Providence was intended to be a place where the best minds on Earth could gather, live, and find new ways of doing everything in hopes of giving the world a peaceful future. Providence is open to all who wish to immigrate there, though all residents must undergo various psychological and skills tests. —————— Except for location and first appearance, I’d say that’s about right! We are supportive of each other, we party and jam together, but the psychological tests part is very accurate- those tests are called “winter”, “bringing something to the table”, “unemployment”, and “probably no one paying attention to you for at least one year”. Subscribe to the paper. SEE U IN THE PIT! Live Aid 1985 Queen-Radio Ga Ga Share this page: [...]

07/06/2016

Posted on July 6, 2016July 6, 2016 by Juan Fernández

Juan Fernandez here with your Spanish language comics news: Cuadernos de cómic número 6;los consejos de Inés Estrada; Novedades de Fulgencio Pimentel; la historia del cómic Chileno; una reseña del PLAYGROUND de Berliac.

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CuCo, Cuadernos de cómic número 6. Junio de 2016
La nueva edicion de la revista de estudio y crítica de la historieta, CuCo, hay sido publicada este fin de semana! Puedes descargar Revista 6 aqui – GRATIS. Entre sus ensayos, debates, y estudios esta edicion incluye entrevistas con Martin Lopez Lam, Mirion Malle, y Sergio Garcia. En CuCo, se toma lo del cómic en serio!

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Consejos de Inés Estrada
Hot tips and encouragement from Inés Estrada on how to make comics and illustration work for you. Lots more over on her site.

*Expensive tools aren’t mandatory
I draw all my comics with just a mechanical pencil and I have a 10 year old wacom tablet. I only splurge on nice Fabriano paper. This is what I’ve found that works for me. Find whatever works best for YOU, it doesn’t have to be the same as what other people use!

*Share your work anywhere you can
If you can go to fests or shows, that’s great, but if you can’t, use the internet! I grew up in Mexico City where there is no “comics scene” but I was still able to make it because I’ve been consistently posting my work on the internet for years. Commit yourself to posting your work on Tumblr, Twitter or Instagram as often as you can. Try to have a separate account for your professional work that doesn’t feature a million photos of your beautiful cat and the delicious breakfast you made today.

NEVER STOP DRAWING, NEVER STOP MAKING, DON’T LET ANYTHING DISCOURAGE YOU! STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF!

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La historia del cómic Chileno

La Biblioteca Nacional de Chile le ofrece una vista cronológica del desarrollamiento del cómic chileno desde 1906 hasta el presente. Aunque no sea exhaustivo, es un buen punto de partida para quienes quieran aprender mas sobre el mundo del cómic Chileno. Edúcate!

La historia del cómic en nuestro país se encuentra estrechamente relacionada con el desarrollo de la historieta y el humor gráfico, que iniciaron su recorrido entre el siglo XIX y la primera mitad del siglo XX. Este desarrollo, en sus inicios, estuvo centrado principalmente en la sátira política, y más tarde en publicaciones orientadas al entretenimiento infantil. El primer personaje de historietas nacional, Von Pilsener, fue creado en 1906 por Lustig (Pedro Subercaseaux), y sus aventuras fueron reeditadas en la década de 1990 por el poeta e investigador Jorge Montealegre.

De estos años datan gran cantidad de publicaciones con historietas extranjeras y nacionales, entre las que destacaban algunas como El Pibe (1923), Don Fausto (1924), Pulgarcito (1938) y Pobre Diablo (1946), así como otras más conocidas por los lectores de hoy, como Topaze, dedicada al humor político, y El Peneca, dirigido desde la década de 1920 por Elvira Santa Cruz. Nació también antes de 1950 el más famoso de los personajes ilustrados de nuestro país: Condorito.

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Reseña de Playground por Berliac

“ ‘Playground’ is a fundamental work to understand comics of today. It’s a complex, postmodern piece, about the medium and its limitations (…) Berliac breaks through these limits and starts from scratch (…) using, in short, all the posibilities of comics”.
– Jesús Jádiva, Zona Negativa

Y no se pierdan la reseña de Playground que Frank Santoro hizo pare TCJ en 2014. Te dara otra perspectiva en el valor de esta obra de Berliac.

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Novedades de Fulgencio Pimentel

Editorial Fulgencio Pimentel a lanzado su nueva suscripción, y como mola:

1. Beverly de Nick Drnaso
2. Meeting Jari de José Ja Ja Ja
3. Melancolía de Simon Hanselmann
4. Talco de Amanda Baeza
5. La yaya Meti de Aapo Rapi
6. Mi pequeño (edición integral) de Olivier Schrauwen

Suscríbete por 89.00€ hoy!

Presentación DMLQL en Barcelona
Y si estas en Barcelona, no te pierdas la presentacion de Gabriel Corbera este Sabado en Fatbottom!
9 de julio a las 12:00 horas. Fatbottom C/ Lluna, 10. Barcelona

DÍAS MÁS LARGOS QUE LONGANIZAS de Gabriel Corbera es sencillamente uno de nuestros tebeos favoritos ever. Deudor del manga más cinemático tanto como de las novelas de Marcial Lafuente Estefanía, salpicado de referencias a videojuegos, envuelto en una atmósfera ominosa y risible a un tiempo, DMLQL es mayormente una lección acerca de cómo se ordenan los silencios y los blancos de un poema; o para el caso, de un tebeo. Para nosotros, desde la primera lectura, este tebeo es El Rock y El Verano, los dos en uno, y eso a pesar de que DMLQL es un cómic de tormenta.

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hasta la proxima!
JF

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in News

Juan Fernández

Posted on July 6, 2016July 6, 2016

Explore

01/27/2017

Sally IngrahamJanuary 26, 2017NewsSally here with work and wisdom to share from Hellen Jo, Zoë Taylor, Kate Lacour, Audra Stang, Trina Robbins, Glynnis Fawkes, Lale Westvind, and so many more! ————————————————————————————————— Sequential State wrote about Zoë Taylor‘s Joyride (Breakdown Press, 2016): “Taylor’s line is quick and vibrant. It seems like each image in Joyride was constructed as quickly as possible, like a one- or five-minute sketch at a live drawing class. These images look like something quickly scrawled onto a whiteboard with an erasable marker, and it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that Taylor’s tool of choice for this book was a Sharpie marker. There is also sometimes a distortion of the line, as though there was a bleed or a bad scan from the original art. Because images look so thrown together, the reader’s focus drifts towards the places where Taylor has spent the most time. This is often the main character’s eyes, with thick eyelashes rendered while the character’s hands are a quick set of lines. That said, these are the one- or five-minute sketches of an artist who was studied their craft. Each mark, despite its looseness, feels essential. There’s no wasted space, no unneeded effort. The effect of these formal choices changes the way you perceive each page, and encourages you as the reader to move as quickly as you can. Zoom through each page, soak up the emotion, and let the work take you where it wants you to go.” Read the rest HERE. Zoë Taylor is an alum of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers. See more of her work HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Rookie sat down with Hellen Jo recently. She is a cartoonist based in Los Angeles who is known for her storyboarding work on Steven Universe and Regular Show. Dream jobs, to many. However: “I don’t believe in the myth of the dream job; any job worth having is hard, requires so much work, and will make you question your love of whatever it is you’re doing. Anyone who believes that working in animation is whimsical, magical, full of light and wonder and joy…wake the fuck up! Animation, especially storyboarding, drains all of your mental and emotional energy, requires incredibly long hours, deprives you of sleep, downtime, health, and your life. Once you finish and turn in an episode, you get to do it all over again! For another 20 or 200 episodes! Much respect and love to the ubermensch talents who do well in this field!“ Her pursuits are more personal these days, a balance of editorial illustrations and commissions – and a new comic is in the works! She cites Tara Booth, Heather Benjamin, and Maren Karlson as huge inspirations to her lately, “as well as Latina activist art and old school flash tattoo imagery.“ Read more HERE. Previously on Rookie: an interview with Aidan Koch, and one with Alison Bechdel – plus lots of other cool stuff. In fact, Rookie is an online magazine founded in 2011 that publishes writing, photography, and artwork by and for teens – including many comics. Be sure to take some time to poke around the website! ————————————————————————————————— Australia’s Minicomic.club is back for a 2017 season of mini comics love! Sign up to get 12 comics in 12 months from the most interesting cartoonists on that continent – including work by Elari Harris, Georgia Kriss, Meg O’Shea (all pictured above), Leonie Brialey, and Lizzie Nagy. Sign up before the end of January and be sure to explore the website, which is a nice who’s who of Australian cartoonists working today – HERE. Minicomic.club has conducted interviews with many of the creators whose comics they’ve sent out over the years – here are recent ones with Elari Harris, and Leonie Brialey, and Meg O’Shea. Lots more HERE. (Shoutout to Gabriele Di Fazio of Just Indie Comics for writing about Australia’s mini comic subscription service and for all the amazing work he does for the Italian comics community – including running his own subscription service for Italian comics makers! Check out Just Indie Comics for reviews and comics news – mostly in Italian, but Gabriele offers some posts in English as well. Killer!) ————————————————————————————————— Kate Lacour has a new comic on Study Group called The Disciple – you can read it HERE. Updates on Mondays. Her comic Vivisectionary is also running on Study Group, updating monthly. Kate is a New Orleans cartoonist who happens to be another alum of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers. The comic she completed for the course – Zero Is – can be seen HERE and is excerpted from below: Kate joined Robin McConnell on Inkstuds earlier this month for a fascinating discussion of her “unflinching” work, which often deals with the human body in startling yet beautiful ways – listen to the podcast HERE. (Kate seems to share an interest in the body with Phoebe Gloeckner, who supported herself for a number of years by doing medical and anatomy illustration.) ————————————————————————————————— Audra Stang spent a total of 2 weeks here with us in Pittsburgh, PA, working on a new comic during her Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. Although she left the Rowhouse for a few brief excursions during that time, her focus was entirely on her work and by the night before she left there was a draft of a 30 page comic taped to the wall in the kitchen! We can’t wait to see where this goes – both the comic and the Audra Stang story. Follow Audra on Instagram for all her latest adventures and drawings – @audra.stang Keep up with the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency HERE. For more details and information on how to apply for a Residency, visit this page. ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— From Hither and Yon Liana Finck composed a cartoon diary for Slate of the Jan. 21st 2017 Women’s March on Washington – check it out HERE. Lauren Weinstein also drew the Women’s March – for The Village Voice. The “Eternally Optimistic Paste Comics Crew” has a wishlist for the comics industry in 2017. Although it swings more toward mainstream comics, most of the items on the list should be industry wide norms. Things like “better professional conduct on social media”, and stopping “pigeonholing diverse creators”, (“socially relevant Mutants”!), plus one I’ll get up and shout about too: “Fewer Female-led Books With All-Male Creative Teams”. Sorry guys. Here’s the whole list. Check out M. S. Harkness‘ comic about a troll of a cat – HERE. Over on Study Group there is a new Process Party podcast with Leela Corman. Sarah Glidden‘s sketchbook is full of comics reporting these days – most recently she weighed in on an executive order that halts the refugee resettlement program… From Grace Helmer, a comic about smear tests and bikini waxes and other so-called “girl stuff” – HERE. Glynnis Fawkes spoke to a local Vermont newspaper about her comic for RESIST! “No artist who’s engaged with the outside world can keep working as if nothing has happened,” Fawkes said. Read the rest. The best gig posters ever designed by cartoonists, according to the Comics Alliance – including work by Lale Westvind and a whole pile of posters by Tara McPherson. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-27-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-27-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-27-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

Connor Willumsen Draws PRIS from BLADE RUNNER

Chris Anthony DiazMay 24, 2016The Diaz Archiveconnor willumsen’s portrait of daryl hannah as PRIS in ridley scott’s BLADE RUNNER (1982, USA) for my ILLUSTRATED MOMENTS IN CINEMA/TELEVISION collection. the commission done in pencil was completed in 2015. willumsen’s candid portrait taken at CAB 2014 in williamsburg, new york and color by graham willcox Share this page: [...]

Summer 2016 Rowhouse Update

Juan FernándezJuly 29, 2016School UpdatesShare this page: [...]

12/20/2017

Juan FernándezDecember 20, 2017los Cómics / NewsJuan empieza el día con Entreviñetas 2018 y otros trocitos jugosos! —————————— ENTREVIÑETAS 2018 Desde ya te invitamos a marcar las fechas en el calendario del próximo año. #FestivalEntreviñetas2018. Medéllin | 3-6 Mayo – 2018 Bogotá | 26-30 Septiembre – 2018 Aquí puedes lanzar ideas para presentar tu trabajo como autor, editor o gestor en el #FestivalEntreviñetas2018 —> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdrGer3ywbKGALEScNma0g_4o9L31oXimbrxD2jvQr2bkMkqQ/viewform ————————————————————————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con varios de los participantes de la Furia del Libro 2017: Pato Mena, Karlo Humor, Daniela Thiers, Vero Rodríguez, Carlos Andueza, Marli, Caro Celis, Garvo, Florencia Olivos, Isa Molina, Simón López, Paula Ilabaca, Pamela Aravena y Lucho y sus serigrafías. Revista Kamandi nos ofrece la primera parte de un debate en torno a la idea de “vanguardia” en el cómic. Participan Horacio Muños y Gerardo Vilches. Miguel R. Fervenza‏ le dedico unas líneas al cómic «Vampir» de Joann Sfar y a la estupenda edición de Fulgencio Pimentel. Klari Moreno charla con la dibujante Juan Zhou y lo plasma en forma de original entrevista dibujada. Este 2017 la editorial mexicana, Ediciones Hungría editó un mazo de tarot hecho por Rodrigo Téllez Repetto con personajes, paisajes, objetos y escenas de películas del cineasta sueco Ingmar Bergman y con el cual resignificaron este juego adivinatorio. El cómic colombiano premiado en Japón: ¡Dos Aldos de Pablo Guerra y Henry Diaz ganó medalla de oro en el 11th Japan International MANGA Award! ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 16th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. Makes a great holiday gift for yourself – or for a loved one who is interested in comics. Apply by midnight (EST) on Dec. 25th and get $100 off the course price. Full details and how to apply can be found HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 12-20-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-20-2017 – by Frank Santoro Share this page: [...]

10/23/2017

Caleb OrecchioOctober 23, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here, sharing my current production process and other news. ————————————————————————————————— Hey Folks, Caleb here. Last week I talked a bit about coloring and practicing color. Today I want to give you a bit of insight into my own color and production process. No, this isn’t a “my way or the highway” type of thing, true believer–rather, think of it as a mini workshop. I want to exhibit what I do so you, possibly a fellow cartoonist, can (not necessarily use this process, but) take into account the many ways to make comics in this day and age and hopefully maximize your time and energy. Before I get into it, a quick word about the comic being made in this post. It is the 170th installment of Joanie and Jordie, a strip that runs daily (in theory) at the bottom of each Daily News post. This comic will appear at the bottom of this very Daily News post, True Believer! This was a tough one. I am currently trying to execute a a certain style and I feel that I’m struggling with. Not in a bad way, but it’s a challenge. I’m trying to keep all characters involved in the scene visible in each panel. Also I’m trying to keep the current storyline at a brisk pace and feeling free to follow my bliss. After I drew this very strip dear readers and my only friends, I realized I need to color less “literally.” I’ve been very hung up about drawing literally, but this exercise showed me that I need to stretch out my wings and loosen up. Anyway, below is my template for my strip. I cut out and draw on 4.5″ x 6″ sized panels (more or less classic daily strip panel size and proportional to the current smaller standard of 13″ x 4″ sized strip) individually and make my manuscripts by pasting these panels onto a separate sheet of paper over my template. View with lightbox on. Lately, I’ve been inking more traditionally. Some of you may think that is weird to mention. Anyway, I just feel that inking the way I am now is the way to go. Still feeling it out. Really I treat my strip in a way I feel the Noel Sickles treated his run on Scorchy Smith. He, as you may or may not know, constantly experimented and played with the look of the strip until he handed it over to the next guy. What I’m trying to say is that the look of Joanie and Jordie never stays consistent for too long. I “ink” with one Pentel Rolling Writer pen and one ebony pencil. Note possible dialog in margins. Next up is color. In the past, color has come before inking, but right now this order of operations is what I feel comfortable with. I use three Prismacolor markers on three seperate layers of tracing paper to color: canary yellow, scarlet lake, and copenhagen blue. I apply them on tracing paper because this helps me see the colors and their mixtures as I go. Okay, not too bad I suppose. I’m getting a bit stiff which means I need to change something up here soon. Anyway, next is lettering. Notice in the corner of each of these layers that I label each part of the process. This is merely for my biographer and/or The Billy Ireland Museum for when I’m dead and the eventual disintegration of my organization skills takes its toll. Is my ego out of control or what? haha But who else is going to do it if I don’t do it myself. My two “black” layers. My three color layers. Now to scan. I scan these at 600dpi because that’s as high as my scanner will go. Also, I’m afraid to go any higher in resolution because I don’t want to overload my aging laptop. Okay, so here is where the REAL inside baseball stuff comes in. This is Photoshop. I’m just going to run through this quickly because life is too short to give a detailed tutorial in Photoshop. First I bring in the ink, or “K” layer. I then select a patch of white and go to SELECT, then click “Similar” in the dropdown menu. This then selects everything that is white within the layer. We are going to delete all the white and leave just the black so we don’t get any pesky paper tones. I do this on every layer. Also don’t forget to get your color mode correct. Line up each color layer and layer them appropriately. I like to put them in the order they would be applied in process printing: Yellow first, then red, blue and black. Watch my layers in the bottom, right-hand corner and see what I mean. You have to “Multiply” each layer so the colors can blend appropriately. Okay so the last layer, the text is tricky because you have to delete parts of the inks and colors–see below. But fear not true believers. Just make copies of each layer so you have them on hand in case you mess up. Take note of color layer order, “Layer 1” being the ink or “K” layer. And there she is, a brand new comic strip! Thanks for watching! Come back next week where I will be shot out of a canon from the bottom of the ocean. Bye now! -CO ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know It’s official, Dan Nadel is no longer co-editor of TCJ.com. Of course we wish him the best and eagerly await the excellent articles he will conjure as a writer in the future for the site. Speaking of future of the site, the great Tucker Stone will take Nadel’s place as co-editor with Tim Hodler. A fitting replacement if there has to be one I think. Okay, so Connor Willumsen’s latest book, Anti-Gone is getting some love. Here is some love by Brian Nicholson and here is some love by RJ Casey. Get your CAB details! And visit the CAB site for any other inquiries. It’s on November 11th and looks to be a good one. I enjoyed this Ken Parille article on Snickers ads in DC Comics’ comics. That’s right True Believers! Caitlin McGurk and Jim Rugg talk Clowes’ The Death-Ray over on Process Party! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 10-23-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 10-23-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 10-23-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

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