Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged caleb orecchio, gabriella tito

Juan Fernández

Posted on June 7, 2017June 7, 2017

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01/17/2017

Aaron CockleJanuary 16, 2017NewsAaron here today with Drawing Center events; RESIST!; Cosplayers; ‘Unquotables’; Notes on Zip-a-Tone. ————————————————————————————————— This week at The Drawing Center, work by Mateo López, Jackson Mac Low, and Amy Sillman. Opening January 20, 2017. Sillman will be presenting her animated drawing, After Metamorphoses. She talks about it here: But we don’t care about “the grid”—we are committed to something different: something scrappy but complex, earnest but smart, ironic but not cynical—a strange FORM! We’re not in it for the money and WE’RE NOT MONEY. We’re not coins of the realm, easily identified by our denominations; we’re definitely not thin paper currency meant to slip inside a wallet. We don’t make sense. We have rough edges and contradictions. What the fuck is “thing theory” anyway—we’re like things that talk back. Where is emancipation located? Should we split our time between art and politics? Is art enough? Is it possible that our work, our love, our beliefs, our symbolic gestures, our senses of humor, can amount to any meaningful resistance? Does resistance come in different lengths; a long game and a short game? Does everyone have to do it the same way? We haven’t figured it out but we love art that offers change above all: insistent, unremitting change that won’t resolve into finality or finesse. We don’t know quite what to do but the qualities that mean something have shifted: knowingness is out, a goddamn “good” painting seems irrelevant, smug… we don’t need someone to tells us which painting is “better.” Fuck that. Image above from Mateo López: Undo List. ————————————————————————————————— ‘So, it is using old fashioned like printing presses and trucks and you know, just sheer physical get together that will make little cells out in the open and we publish a link so that people can sign up for those local distributions.’ Betsy Gomez at the CBLDF talks to Francoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman about the forthcoming release of the Resist! anthology comic on Saturday, January 21: Resist! revives the tradition of using comics for protest. What precedents inspired you in developing this project? FM: Well, the first thing was being asked by Gabe Fowler to guest edit a special issue of Smoke Signal, which is a tabloid printed on newsprint that he wanted to release at the time of the inauguration and the women’s march. When he got in touch with me specifically, like “I want a woman guest editor,” and because he asked right after the election and that was my feeling as well — since we’d just been robbed of our first woman president, there was a sense shared by so many — Gabe’s request seemed natural at the time… My friends were saying, “I’m going to Washington.” We didn’t know where or what. I mean, we knew it was the day after the inauguration, but there was some sense of wanting women’s voices heard. NS: About historical precedent, and I think Francoise can talk very eloquently about historical precedents in France like L’Assiette au Beurre and Charlie Hebdo. One of the things is: there is a long historical precedent for political protest. But one thing that there isn’t, is enough contemporary parallels and enough space in American culture right now for political images as an act of resistance… We’re hoping to create more of that space. ————————————————————————————————— Over at Calm Undertones Now Transmitting, an in-depth look at Dash Shaw’s A Cosplayers Christmas: Shaw’s conception of cosplay shows how the exploitation of individuals that has been opened up by the postmodern ethos can be circumvented by those with the confidence to make their own meaning (even naïveté within certain bounds is enough) against the will of the myriad influences directed at them (e.g. marketing, social norms, political processes etc.). In A Cosplayers Christmas, the obliviousness of Annie and Verti to considerations of the monetary value of the gifts they exchange is endearing and humorous but it also points to the way that cosplay, by allowing its participants to claim partial ownership of the fictions they enmesh themselves in, serves to subvert the traditional paradigm of the separation between cultural producer and cultural consumer that has allowed space for capitalist interests to take hold. Annie and Verti have no interest in purchasing merchandise based on the properties that hold their interest, instead they would prefer to create their own related objects that they can attach personal meaning to. ————————————————————————————————— R. Sikoryak will be signing his newest work, The Unquotable Trump, this Friday, January 20, 6-8pm at Jim Hanley’s Universe, 32 East 32nd Street, NYC. Parodies of comic book covers with actual Trump quotes from the 2016 presidential campaign. The mini comic edition also features a Public Service Announcement comic strip and extensive footnotes. ————————————————————————————————— Could this piece have been done on the computer?…Could this piece exist without the fields of tone? Back in 2009, Alex Holden was thinking about Zip-a-Tone in comics: Zip A Tone has been on my mind because I recently received “Two Eyes Of The Beautiful” from Ryan Cecil Smith, who is currently living in Japan. Some equivalent of Zip A Tone (in virtually unlimited variety) is still widely available in Japan, despite the advent of the computer. “Two Eyes of the Beautiful” is all about Zip A Tone, from simple dot patterns, to trees and foliage……even buildings. Indeed, it is pretty easy to recreate the same effects of the adhesive sheets in Photoshop. Kevin Huizenga frequently employs this technique. Whenever Zip A Tone is mentioned, I can’t help but think of Matt Wagner’s “Heist”, printed in BATMAN BLACK & WHITE #3. Could this piece have been done on the computer? I suppose so. Could this piece exist without the fields of tone? Absolutely not. ————————————————————————————————— Pompeii by yours truly Frank Santoro – get a copy HERE. “The book itself is about drawing, really. It’s also about two artists who draw in order to see the world around them. So, the book itself IS drawing—and at the end it breaks down the barrier between what’s “real” and what is “drawn”. That’s what is great about the medium—that I can use drawing to illustrate that breakdown. There are a lot of visual rhymes in the book—where the “reality” is mirrored by a painting or a drawing. I’m trying to get to the core of visual storytelling by amplifying the process of drawing and making that the subject of the story as much as the interaction of the characters.” – Frank Santoro in an interview with Publishers Weekly ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-17-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-17-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-17-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

05/17/2018

Comics WorkbookMay 16, 2018NewsSam Ombiri on Gabrielle Bell’s “Cody”! ———————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: Sometimes I think about “Cody”– a story by Gabrielle Bell that appears in Kramers Ergot 8 – and about how much it does with so little. I guess I could question what does it matter that it does? After all, “doing so much with so little” can seem to be the mission of comics, if comics were to have a mission. Maybe I’m complimenting Gabrielle Bell’s success on that mission. The fact that Bell did so much with so little is not more important than what was actually done. I’m just really struck with this amazing story, and I’m trying to find ways to express how much I sensed the success of “Cody” in utilizing the comics form (not to rob the genuine intentions of comic and what it’s aiming to do). Well, that’s a lie. Truth be told, the very first time I read the comic, because it didn’t tell me how to feel and the drama wasn’t calling so much attention to itself, I kind of just skipped over all that was happening. I read through elements in the story, not really engaging with said elements. Like, for example, a friendship dissolving between Audrey’s dad and Cody, because nobody is paying any mind to it. Not even Cody, who is being so mistreated. While Audrey’s dad can be blamed for leaving Cody behind to be arrested, it isn’t for reasons that aren’t hard to guess, displayed by how Cody treats Audrey. At the same time, the way everything ended unfairly on his end, it’s easy to see why he doesn’t feel like he owes anyone anything. The way Gabrielle drew Cody being arrested conveys to me his realization that nobody truly cares about him. I wonder if Gabrielle gave him a dog to be less lonely? Anyway, Audrey’s dad is confronted with having to take responsibility for the man he used to be, not to mention the torment he has clearly been subjecting his wife to, and possibly at one point considers escaping it all, maybe with Cody?Would all this drama then be more effective if I was told what to feel? The way the comic is drawn feels so surreal, because it’s presented like nothing’s changed from the work that I’ve typically read from Gabrielle Bell. It’s hard to describe the feeling; it’s like if someone had told me that Ali: Fear Eats the Soul was directed by Douglas Sirk. It’s even crazier, because it’s Gabrielle Bell doing a comic that is so unlike her typical work – which is mostly autobiographical – but there’s no loud announcement that there’s a major shift. It’s so quietly done that it’s almost suspicious. I mean, for sure Gabrielle Bell’s regular work is not so unlike “Cody”, but the other purely fictional work I’ve read from her has been Cecil and Jordan in New York. This feels wholly unexpected for me. I mean in her autobio work she’s so good at portraying events or lack thereof in her life – it makes sense that her fiction would be this ridiculously good. The beginning is just as terrifying as the ending of the strip that comes before it in Kramers 8. I’m not talking about Leon Sadler’s thankfully comforting page, in between this unsettling horror, but the one before it in the story Kevin Huizenga had covered. There is something horrifying about Gabrielle Bell starting her story with a car crash, one whose only purpose is to remind our narrator of Cody, someone she once knew. It’s like, people have died and for no reason other than the minuscule purpose of making the main character briefly think about a guy named Cody. This isn’t a thing that I have to think long and hard about – I immediately feel it when I read the image and the words, but when I think about it some more it’s even more frightening. This is because the first panel is on the field in the past (most likely – nothing in the rest of the strip suggests otherwise) where the story takes place, so the setting is introduced already. Then a car crash “introduces” Cody, and one that’s not by any means loud – the way it’s drawn is especially ambivalent. The main character, Audrey, is looking at it, but her face is away from us. This oddly reminds me of Carlos Gonzalez’s comics. The way he draws his stories – while his stories and the way they’re drawn are incredibly grounded, whatever it may be that you’re being presented with, you’re not being told, at least by the drawings, what to be horrified with or what to find strange and what not. It’s like something Anders Nielsen said in an Inkstuds interview, that “sometimes in comics it’s best not to show things. So even a character’s expression – if a character is having an emotional response or little revelation or something, it’s almost always better to have their heads turned away from the camera. And I think of violence happening off-screen is sort of like the same thing. It’s more visceral, and it happens in the readers head instead.” It’s not a totally similar feeling that I get when I read “Cody”, but I just don’t know, I’m really troubled when I read the beginning. Just something about how the words that lead us to this incident are so casual – “Mostly I don’t think about it, but sometimes something will remind me of Cody.” It’s so casually and ambivalently spoken. I mean, on the list of horrifying images in comics this isn’t at the top of the list, and yet this is incredibly tragic and horrifying. I think it’s that such little care is given…it vaguely reminds me of the rhythm that Terrence Malick’s Badlands had – it speaks to the abrupt nature of life. Another comparison that came to mind was Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. I refer to how the drama is muted and every detail is there for a reason. The drama is there if you engage with it, and there are these points in the story where it viceraly hits. “Cody”, like all the comics in Kramers 8, really knew how to hit in this specific way that’s so flabbergasting and disorienting, and at times, as shown by Bell’s “Cody”, incredibly compelling. – Sam Ombiri Get a copy of Kramers Ergot 8 HERE and check out Gabrielle Bell’s “Cody”. ———————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 5-17-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share 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: [...]

03/09/2017

Sally IngrahamMarch 9, 2017NewsThursday comics news! Sam Ombiri on Yokoyama and Lane Graff, plus the latest from Ben Passmore and Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I was reading Yokoyama recently – I remember first seeing his comics aaaand there was an attraction that’s a tad unutterable. Many others seem to have nailed down what it is – I myself can’t specify. It’s kind of like how sometimes Yokoyama’s explanation of his work is simple. Like, for example, he draws someone paying a clerk at a kiosk because it’s just beautiful. I think that’s what his explanation was for this one sequence he did. Now I wonder if his idea, or attempt, at “drawing as if a bird is watching” applies to this? Well, he might’ve not been talking about the work I’m talking about when speaking of this idea of drawing a bird’s objective view. He’s perceiving the beauty which is apart from the drawing I’ve seen, and still see in memory, or at least feel like I’ve seen – a different version of this, literally speaking. There’s also another meaning to me of this phrase; a different version of something I’ve seen. This version is perceived maybe as a scent that comes with nostalgia, or like when you dream and then think you’ve seen something before, even though you haven’t necessarily seen it before. You end up asking yourself for days where you saw this thing, and you continue to do that – for maybe weeks, maybe months – and then one day you admit that it was in the dream and never existed, hesitantly. This is maybe not a good comparison – but a thing I like a lot about FLCL is the ambiance, and the very familiar mundane evening – or opening up a can to drink from…it’s very familiar, and it’s like this mecha anime I perceived in my mind watching at one time, when in fact I never did. Like when this one character in World Map Room – I think his name is EXPRESS – pulls out a laser gun to show a blast he previously shot. I talked about this with Lane Graff – about how his work has this quality or properties that I’ve read before. I don’t mean that it’s cliche – or maybe it’s a cliche that’s not tired. It’s a very welcomed cliche. Or “cliche” is maybe the wrong word. It’s a similar in the sense that it’s a cliche of a thing I think I experienced, but didn’t. If I was better at writing I could straighten all these thoughts out! It’s the way the cutesy misadventures in Lane’s work, and the sudden horror, all feels “right” and distinctly familiar from a specific place. I’m mostly bringing Lane up because I tried to explain this to him, and without much success, haha. I’m not saying the works mentioned are similar – it’s just a quality that they posses, that I’ve sensed, that I can’t properly render. – Sam Ombiri 3-9-2017 – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— New Orleans-based cartoonist Ben Passmore spoke to Newsarama about his comic Your Black Friend (which AdHouse Books will be distributing starting in May 2017). The mini-comic (originally published by Silver Sprocket last September) is a “necessary contribution to the dialogue around race in the United States…an open letter from your black friend to you about race, racism, friendship and alienation.” Ben talks about the origin of the comic, the effect it has had on others and himself in recent months, and current/future projects. “Passmore: …if my survival is on the line it’s not really a conversation. In my own life, I only really talk about “race issues” with friends, I’m not invested in coming to an understanding with anyone that isn’t already invested in my well-being. I have to prioritize myself and I’m not trying to teach anyone anything. Comics are a nice way to communicate without some of the tensions that make discussing race annoying. Nrama: Has doing this comic as a means to communicate this without teaching someone changed how you view comic books? Has the process of doing it affected what you think about for future works? Passmore: Before Your Black Friend I think I tried my own comics as an exercise for my own brain and I didn’t really think about how other people were going to receive them. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from individuals and the comics industry, which is tight, but the thing I’ve enjoyed the most is how the book has engaged other black cartoonists. I feel like there’s a burgeoning radical black comics milieu, which is right on time given the political environment. Now that I feel like I’m part of a national conversation I’m more excited to write with other people in mind. It’s been nice doing pieces for The Nib because I get to do stories along that continuum of black struggle.“ Read the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Wendy Browne of Women Write About Comics sat down with Ariell Johnson, who found herself in the spotlight last year when she became “the first black woman to open and manage a comic shop on the East Coast. In an industry that too often has pushed back against diversity, Philadelphia’s Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse, Inc. has made diversity the foundation that it is built on.“ After a whirlwind first year, Ariell Johnson isn’t slowing down – she sees 2017 as a time to really get herself and the shop organized, after reaching more milestones in her first bout than she could have ever imagined. Having established a reputation as a community space and a safe haven that celebrates geek culture (where you can also enjoy a good cup of coffee) Ariell knows her focus for the present has to be simply maintaining and finding balance. Anyone who has been involved in operating a small business can relate – and we’re all cheering her on. Read more about the shop HERE and send Ariell some good luck vibes! ————————————————————————————————— Check out the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency! Now in our 2nd year, the 2017 schedule is already filling up. Aspiring and professional cartoonists alike are coming to work on comics in Pittsburgh, plugging into the vibrant local scene, infusing it with fresh energy, and taking their comics making skills to a new level. Interested in joining us for a week or more? Email santoroschool@gmail.com to learn how to apply. There are still openings in April and May, with a wait list available for the summer months. After a break for show season we will be picking up scheduling once again in late October. 500 bux for a week and a life-changing experience. Read some of our Residency Reports HERE. Email santoroschool@gmail.com for more info. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-9-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-9-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-9-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 3-9-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

09/24/2018

Caleb OrecchioSeptember 24, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Jason Robinson’s Death Tramp no. 1 ————————————————————————————————— The premiere issue of Jason Robinson’s comic Death Tramp is a poetic fever dream of proliferating madness. The protagonist, whose sole companion is a raven not unlike Poe’s, plunges into a dark den of loneliness and destruction. Love has been lost, but the memory never leaves. The raven skrawws and our hero goes a step deeper into exile. According to the issue’s liner notes, “Death Tramp is a comics anthology of the strips, stories, and works of Jason Robinson. Issue One features the comic Skraww in two parts.” The first part was drawn as his final project for thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers. Rendered, as are all the course’s student comics, in blue, red and yellow colored pencil with an emphasis on the fundamentals of comics. Mirroring pages on a spread, symbolic coloring as oppose to literal, “L” panel formations, maintaining character model, rhyming images, holding the “camera,” etc. A really great, stripped down student work that shows an understanding of how to compose comics. The second part was made after the course was completed. Colored digitally with a similar palette but with more variety, and drawn with more confidence. Robinson takes what he’d learned from the course and cranked the dial up several notches. The backgrounds become more realistic and the narrative more nuanced and intricate. There is a more specific mood in the second part that gives prominence to the dark, foreboding downward spiral of the protagonist and the burden of the raven. “Skraww” is a poetry leaning comic. The author embraces the timing and composition techniques taught in the correspondence course that is undeniable and emphasizes the more “melodic” aspects of comics making. Robinson’s focus is on the images. We don’t need the words, but the words extend an olive branch and offer a deeper insight into the protagonist’s thoughts. Still, the images and the composition of the 8-panel grid give the comic it’s meter and narrative drive (1234, 1234). I think a lot of cartoonists who consider their work “poetry comics” draw images to lay under their written poetry, but to me the driving force of a poetry comic must be the composition and patterning of images. Robinson achieves this coveted poetic way of cartooning, and I don’t even know if it was an entirely conscious consideration. Though the resemblance to Edgar Allen Poe’s famous narrative poem gives me reason to assume Robinson was at least aware what was happening in front of him. Jason Robinson’s Death Tramp issue 1 is a success. Particularly in a formalistic aspect. This work shows an understanding of comics-making that most cartoonists take for granted, and takes advantage of the music of comics. ————————————————————————————————— 09-24-2018 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

06/07/2017

Posted on June 7, 2017June 7, 2017 by Juan Fernández

Empezamos el día con Isabel Méndez y los derechos de ls traductores; Fernanda Frick en La Polola; Ines Estrada; Sol Díaz; Tercer Encuentro Internacional de Narrativas Dibujadas; y por supuesto los tebeos de Comics Workbook!
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Y los traductores… ¿tienen derechos de autor?

Isabel Méndez nos presenta un guía genial sobre los derechos del autor. En este mundo de intercambio cultural internacional, los traductores son inestimables! Si tienes algún interés en el mundo de traduccíon, tienen que léer este articulo.

¿En qué consisten los derechos de autor de los traductores?

Si eres traductor, debes tener en cuenta que nuestra legislación te atribuye los mismos derechos que a cualquier otro autor. Esto es, tendrás derechos patrimoniales y derechos morales. Conocer bien tus derechos te ayudará a proteger y reivindicar mejor tu trabajo.

Los derechos patrimoniales te servirán para explotar la traducción y los derechos morales te servirán, entre otras cosas, para que se reconozca la autoría de tu trabajo y aparezcas, por ejemplo, en los créditos de la obra.

También, como cualquier otro autor, tendrás derecho a registrar tu obra.

Al igual que con el resto de autores, muchas veces los traductores son trabajadores asalariados, por lo que la cesión de los derechos de las traducciones que realicen bajo un contrato laboral, deberán quedar bien determinadas y reflejadas en el mismo. Es conveniente leer en este caso el artículo 51 de nuestra Ley de Propiedad Intelectual, dedicado a la transmisión de los derechos de un autor asalariado.

Léanlo todo AQUI!

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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! Las chicas conversan con el gran dibujante Fernanda Frick, directora, animadora y dibujante. Hablamos acerca de su nuevo corto “Here`s the plan”, cómo empezó su carrera, su experiencia en la animación, sus estudios, temores, ideas, planes y mucho más!!
Ya puedes léer Alienation #3 de Inés Estrada en línea. Léanlo si les gusta el sci fi, hentai & conversaciones intensas. Esta historieta fue adaptada a HTML maravillosamente.
La Universidad de Santiago y @PLOPGaleria convocan al Tercer Encuentro Internacional de Narrativas Dibujadas! Para este año, el eje del Encuentro será Narrativas gráficas: sociedad, política y género, y el plazo para enviar las propuestas de ponencias es hasta el lunes 12 de junio de 2017.
Pueden ver la entretenida entrevista que Carlos Reyes le hizo a Sol Díaz en un nuevo VIÑETAS DEL FIN DEL MUNDO.
La semana pasada Drawn & Quarterly annuncio la publicacion de Sadboi por Berliac. Hubo una reacción inmediata en línea, ya que dibujantes y lectores señalaron las declaraciones públicas sobre personas transgénero realizadas por el dibujante, algunas dirigidas agresivamente a la artista Sarah Horrocks, quienes descomprimieron sus interacciones y pensamientos en Twitter. Después de dos días de investigación y pensamiento, D & Q, que al igual que muchas editoriales pequeñas, se basa en relaciones bastante íntimas con sus autores, ya no sentía que podía apoyar Berliac dado su comportamiento. La declaración de la compañía está aquí. La declaración de Berliac en respuesta a la situacíon está en su Facebook.

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Suzy and Cecil – 6-7-2017 – by Gabriella Tito

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Joanie and Jordie – 6-7-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged caleb orecchio, gabriella tito

Juan Fernández

Posted on June 7, 2017June 7, 2017

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05/06/2016

Sally IngrahamMay 6, 2016NewsWolverine still walks the wilds of Canada via Michael Comeau’s pen – Alyssa Berg frees her mind through the mysteries of the grid – Erik Nebel reverses expectations in every direction – the laughs come from Fabio Tonetto – the tears (perhaps) come from Lisa Wilde – Free Comic Book Day is upon us – and Bruce Lee never dies. ————————————————————————————————— Philippe Leblanc converses with Michael Comeau at Barbed Comics, digging deep into the why and how of Comeau’s Hellberta (available through Colour Code Printing). Michael Comeau is a Canadian cartoonist living in Toronto. Extensive travel throughout the provinces informed the creation of Hellberta over an 8-year period, and the book is a filter through which Comeau examines Canada’s complex relationship with the oil industry, and the mysterious “Canadian Identity”. Or, as the recently released collected edition is described – “The gloom, the entitlement, the desecration of the tar sands hangs over a province, a nation. Dirty oil addiction. A popular myth set in the rocky mountains. A mutant named Logan. A poetic salve for sore eyes weeping for a metaphorical context. WWWD? What would Wolverine do?…” The interview between Comeau and Philippe Leblanc ranges far and wide, hitting upon the nature of narrative, learning how to make comics, road tripping adventures, the shifting political climate in Canada, and exactly how tangled up Wolverine is in it all. Interesting on a number of levels – read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Alyssa Berg delivers Part Two of her museum-visit-inspired process meditation series today, this time exploring the grid with us. “Sometimes my mind is unwell, or full of complicated messy things or unable to think of new ideas (‘creative block’, I guess?). When I am in this state, I let my wild, creative mind rest. One way to do this is by going into a gentle analytical and physical practice. I sit down at my desk and pre-draw pages of panels and grids. Similar to preparing my work space as mentioned in Part One, pre-drawing panels and grids is a simple concentration-meditation that doesn’t require much thought (common theme: freedom from the mind!).” Read all of Part Two HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Drew Miller interviewed Erik Nebel recently, and their conversation is full of important stuff – ‘Drew Miller – You use vibrating colors as indicators of form, specifically for referencing the human body. The colors are strong on the screen! The drawing relies much less on direct line-work, which is uncharacteristic for the medium of comics. It’s an interesting way to develop distinct forms and negative space. Can you talk about color at all? Erik Nebel – I think of color in a way that may be different from how other cartoonists think of color. Traditionally, in our popular narratives, dark colors are associated with sadness and badness and things that are primitive, and light colors are associated with goodness and happiness and things that are civilized. That’s completely racist. It’s part of binary thinking. It’s poison in our society. I’m trying to reverse those expectations with my comics.’ Read the rest HERE, and follow Erik Nebel’s daily comic posts on his tumblr. ————————————————————————————————— Giving a shout out to cartoonist Fabio Tonetto, whose work has been cracking me up lately. Check out the rest of the comic above on Vice. ————————————————————————————————— Lisa Wilde’s Lacunae: Elegy For My Mother just finished being serialized on Mutha Magazine. A recent press release about the series described it as – “…a webzine that pushes the boundaries between comics and art. Tracing an arc from childhood to adulthood, the piece gives form to the unconscious side of a life narrative through single-image pages and minimal text. Wilde’s visceral and powerful drawings reference children’s art, comics, Jungian archetypes, and artists as wide-ranging as Chagall, Munch, and Eva Hesse.” Start from the beginning HERE, and follow this link to a list of all 5 parts. ————————————————————————————————— Another reminder that tomorrow (Sat. May 7th!) is Free Comic Book Day. Find a participating store near you via the Store Locator, call them up to get the details, and plan to get there early! I’ll be running out myself to find a copy of this sweet looking Bruce Lee comic! ————————————————————————————————— While we’re on the topic, here are a couple of apparently “lost sketches” by Bruce Lee, and the brief story behind them. ————————————————————————————————— Thanks for hanging out in the Comics Workbook newsroom this week! Meet back here bright and early Monday. Cheers! – Sally Share this page: [...]

The Hensley Interview

Chris Anthony DiazJune 1, 2016Interviews / The Diaz ArchiveTim Hensley’s SIR ALFRED NO. 3 is a tour de force in cartooning and storytelling, paying tribute to past cartoonists and comics, while also taking what came before him and yet creating a comic that is post-modern and unique. It is finally available through FANTAGRAPHICS and John Porcellino’s SPIT AND A HALF. Tim and Alvin Buenaventura did a work for the ages and added to the lore of Alfred Hitchcock and his films as well as the lore of Hensley, Buenaventura and PIGEON PRESS! as Tim stated on his TUMBLR, “They told me I could be anything I wanted… so I became a god.” This is very true that Tim became a “god”… a god of cartooning and comics storytelling that is! This short interview was conducted between March 2014 to May 2014. so, Tim beat me to the punch, completing SIR ALFRED NO. 3 and getting it out to the public, despite Alvin Buenaventura’s passing and the distribution very much in doubt, way before I finally posted this interview! This is no. 5 in a series of short interviews with writer-cartoonists that I have conducted, which began on my TUMBLR page THE SHED but now continues on COMICS WORKBOOK at THE DIAZ ARCHIVE. Tim has a TUMBLR page, which is an archive of his music and songs and writes comics articles on BLOG FLUME. Question 1: In your work, is the absurdness premeditated through the associations of your non sequitors, or do you just follow where a feeling takes you and then end up with the absurd tone in your stories? That’s sort of a chicken-egg dilemma, do I start at absurdity or arrive at absurdity, but maybe more the latter? Your use of the word “absurdness” reminds me of buying a copy of “The Theatre of the Absurd” by Martin Esslin in 1984 in a gift shop in Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. I was tagging along with one of my father’s music tours, and we ended up there on a side trip. That book was probably my first encounter with academic absurdity. From reading that, I tracked down stuff like Artaud’s “Jet of Blood” and the Andre Massin typographic version of Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano,” which might be my favorite graphic novel of all time although it is essentially fumetti. I guess that sounds pretentious, but I’m just trying to say I had been exposed to the idea of absurdity as a literary device fairly early on. But I am more interested in the feelings, whether pedestrian or not, than just a kind of Tourette’s assault. Question No. 2: Where do you get the basis creating situations for your strips on well-known figures, like Alfred Hitchcock? There’s enough truth in your situations that the fiction is very believable! From the public library. I’ve been drawing anecdotes about Alfred Hitchcock rather than a more esoteric director because there are so many easy to find books available about him. More than there are on Andre de Toth, who you were talking about at the L.A. Zine Fest, though it might be fun to do a series on famous directors with eye patches. (de Toth, John Ford, Nicholas Ray, Fritz Lang…) It is true that the more situations I draw the more they seem to conflict and become fictional. Question No. 3: What’s on tap next? Can you share any details on your latest comics project? I try to create some kind of onerous “five year plan” to follow with my comics rather than improvise, because I work full-time and am getting older and less indestructible. But I’m loathe to get into the details because someone who works at a normal pace could easily scoop me a few times over, not that I’m really doing anything that unusual. This week a bird built a nest in a crossbeam of our landing and was incessantly tapping on the window above the front door from dawn till dusk. My wife said the bird sees its reflection in the glass and taps at it because it thinks it’s an enemy. I was thinking, “Oh, that must be where ‘bird brain’ comes from,” but then realized it isn’t so different with my comics. I’m probably compulsively attacking myself to protect some transitory whorl of twigs. Or maybe I’m just trying to break the glass to see what’s inside. Question no. 4: How has music influenced your comics and vice versa? Well, comics don’t influence my music since I stopped making records 20 years ago… Both my parents are musicians so the topic’s bound to come up in my comics. Also the topic of silence or both at once. In general, I like to listen to music on headphones and in my car. Two products I’ve enjoyed recently are the Sly and the Family Stone box set Higher! and a compilation put out by Soul Jazz records called Country Soul Sisters. Question No. 5: Which past cartoonists inspire your retro-looking style? (Although I somewhat get a Chris Ware-vibe from the SIR ALFRED strips, especially the tiny four panel ones.) Currently I’m trying to combine Irving Tripp’s Tubby with Owen Fitzgerald’s Bob Hope. Share this page: [...]

01/22/2018

Caleb OrecchioJanuary 22, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Brandon Graham’s daily diary comics and other news. ————————————————————————————————— Lately, I’ve been intrigued by Brandon Graham’s daily comics he posts to social media. He posted them on his blog too. The simplicity is really nice structurally and tonally. Often the strips include whatever he’s thinking about that day, or what music he’s listening to. Sometimes these reflect very personal and revealing aspects of his life, while other times he just seems to let his mind wander and his lines and words fill the page. These are nice to read, and the benefit of improvisation lends itself to a simple, downward reading style—your eye starts on the top left-hand of the page and follows the strip down to the lower right-hand side. All the incredibly detailed gimmicks and intricacies of his professional work (i.e. King City and Multiple Warheads) are basically non-existent here, in a good way. Now don’t get me wrong, I generally love Graham’s work. His ability to make interesting images is not to be taken lightly and every new Brandon Graham release is an event unto itself in my house. However, in imperfect light, I simply can’t read Multiple Warheads. Often all the very pretty colors jump out at me at once and my eyes have to really focus to absorb the work as intended by the author. Plus, take into account the consistently inconsistent structural integrity of a Graham comic and I’ve got me a headache. His black and white work is often easier on the eyes, but still lacks a cohesive composition to allow for effortless reading that flows steadily. Maybe some would consider me a lazy reader, color blind and biased towards more Comics Workbook-y grid type comics, and I am biased for sure. That being said, I’m trying to make a point. Compared to King City and Warheads, Graham’s recent daily comics are very rough but to me they are actually much more inviting and enjoyable to read aesthetically at the moment. Whether it’s the content or the actual drawing (drawing: which I should point out, is different from inking), these daily comics feel particularly essential. Maybe it’s just my mood, but meandering thoughts by way of improved lines on paper feel pertinent right now. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Michael Cavna on the work and career of legendary Pittsburgh cartoonist, Jackie Ormes, over at the Washington Post in lieu of Ormes’ induction into The Will Esiner Hall of Fame. Cailla Baasch Anderson gives some details into how lawyers are using comics to make legal contracts easier to understand. Phillippe LeBlanc writes about the Uncivilized Books series, Structures over at Your Chicken Enemy. Rob Kirby is the latest guest on Comic Book Decalogue. ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-22-2018 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-22-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

10/18/2016

Aaron CockleOctober 17, 2016NewsAaron here today with Mould Map 6; Leela Corman; Comics from Spain; Colette Gaiter on the work of Emory Douglas; More Pepe (Sorry, Pepe); Cecily Brown; (Notes For/Towards) Some Capsule Reviews ————————————————————————————————— Mould Map 6: TERRAFORMERS Group Exhibition & Events Series Bonington Gallery, Nottingham 17th September to 21st October 2016 In a break with the publication format of earlier editions, Mould Map 6 will take place as an exhibition / walk-in magazine running over 5 weeks and including talks, screenings, performances and open workshops. Set against the background hum of sci-fi imaginaries common to all Mould Map projects, TERRAFORMERS brings together over 50 practitioners whose work encompasses various approaches to world making, alongside historical visualisations of possible futures and their role in shaping the present. ————————————————————————————————— Life is an ambush. My two birth stories. A Leela Corman comic. ————————————————————————————————— Spanish Fever Panel Discussion from SPX now on Youtube Cómics, tebeos, and novelas gráficas have been making waves on the European comics scene for decades. SPX, in partnership with the Spanish Cultural Center, proudly presents some of the most exciting Spanish talent in the comics scene! Bienvenido a David Rubín, Javier Olivares, Ana Galvañ, José Domingo, and Santiago García. Moderated by cartoonist and teacher Matt Madden. ————————————————————————————————— The 164th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2016 at 7pm at Parsons School of Design, The New School, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. Colette Gaiter on “Emory Douglas: 50 years of Revolutionary Art” Colette Gaiter will talk about former Black Panther Party Minister of Culture, artist, designer and illustrator Emory Douglas’s work on The Black Panther newspaper in the 1960s and 70s. His subversive and proactive political cartoons, collages and drawings visualized the Black Power movement and galvanized activism that persists into the twenty-first century. He currently travels globally to give talks about his previous work and collaborates with indigenous activists in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico—any place where people use art for liberation from injustice and oppression. ————————————————————————————————— Pepe Pepe Pepe Heer/Pepe The great Jeet Heer has a piece about Pepe the Frog at the New Republic: When the alt-right kidnapped Pepe the Frog, they weren’t just seizing control of Matt Furie’s character, but also defiling an entire artistic tradition of using animal allegories to comment on racism. They were returning cartoon animals to the crudity of blackface creations like Flip the Frog and denying the artistic depth found in works ranging from Krazy Kat to the Muppets to Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus (where the cats are Nazis and the mice Jews). Pepe the Frog, as perverted by its captors, is a kind of inverted Kermit: a frog drained of any humanity. Furie/Pepe Matt Furie: political cartoonist? ————————————————————————————————— Cecily Brown at the Drawing Center through December 18 Via the NY Times: For years, Ms. Brown has taken the images that stay with her and drawn them, not just once but again and again. Sometimes these images are the overwhelming examples of her predecessors, like the masterly 18th-century debauchery of William Hogarth’s painting “Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn” or the postmedieval, religiously-tinged excess of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “Fight Between Carnival and Lent.” But she also plucks shimmering fragments out of the contaminated tide of sexual imagery that is a fact of modern life — and whether it’s the ecstatically endless variation of the unchanging act itself or the compulsive repetition of pornography, sex seems especially apropos. ————————————————————————————————— Brief, Ephemeral Capsule Reviews Open Country #1, Michael DeForge, 2011, self-published According to Wikipedia: DeForge self-published Open Country #1 in May 2011 and issue #2 in fall 2011. Originally planned as a five-part series, DeForge abandoned it “midway through, destroyed all the artwork for and then threw away all the unsold copies”. We take great comforts in these assured and abandoned works. Late Era Clash #24 & #27, Mike Taylor, 2011 & 2015, Pegacorn Press Fin de siècle Bushwick etc apt-dwelling and loneliness, questionable behavior, the lure of the internet & a workbook about death, respectively. Les nouvelles béguines, Julie Delporte, 2015, self-published Paint and colored pencil and some tape collage. Placement of tape is extremely important. Use of tape in one’s art practice in general. Use of white space on paper – Negative Space etc etc. Hands: An Anti-story, Kimball Anderson, 2015, InkBrick Anderson as a body artist, transcription of hand gestures, process of talking to oneself, balance of pages panels and worded space rubbed out and smudged, first issue in a series. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden Part 1: My Own Private Portland & Part 2: Ken Death is Death, Annie Murphy, 2015 & 2016, self-published Murphy writing about ghosts. River Phoenix, balance of / cohesion of ruled notebook paper and space for image, lab books and writing out text, pacing it out. Portland as a haunted space. Gus van Sant/My Own Private Idaho/River Phoenix. Where it exists in Murphy’s memories. Part 2 and white supremacy in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. + Portland history 20 years on. A note on the printing aesthetic: photocopied inkwash. A note on printing aesthetic in general — OC: printed-out greyscale or Riso, maybe? LEC: Riso, screenprinted cover; LNB: Laser-printed?; H: good photocopier probably; INPYARG: see above. Also: wondering about the size of these print runs? Share this page: [...]

05/28/2018

Caleb OrecchioMay 28, 2018NewsGone fishing ———————————————————————————— We will be back tomorrow at our normal programming schedule. Have a good one! ———————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-28-18 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

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