Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged alexis ziritt, Gilbert Hernandez, Josh Bayer, sam ombiri

Sally Ingraham

Posted on June 8, 2017June 8, 2017

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03/13/2018

Aaron CockleMarch 12, 2018NewsAaron here today with Comic Arts Tyumen; Lianhuanhua; Dorothy Iannone; Liana Finck; Pénélope Bagieu; The World of Airships ————————————————————————————————— Georgy Eleav is a current student of Frank Santoro’s Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers, and one of the primary organizers of the first ever Russian alternative comics festivals. This new festival – Comic Arts Tyumen – will take place in Tyumen City, in western Siberia, at the end of March. Georgy told us: “…we are focusing on small press, zines, indie comics scene and underground authors who are working far away from capitals. We are glad to announce that, with support from Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation, our special guests will be Anna Vaivare and David Schilter from kuš! – Anna is going to put a workshop for young local cartoonists, and David will tell about Latvian comics scene. Also we are very grateful to Breakdown Press team – they were unable to make such a long trip this time, but supplied us with a huge variety of their books to present. Our festival is also supported by Russian alternative comics publishers Boomkniga and Comfederation – they will bring indie authors to make signings, more workshops and public discussions about the current state of comics in Russia, women and comics, and the future of the scene. Local Siberian cartoonists will present an exhibition of alternative comics art and also will present themselves at huge comics & zine fair. And to sum it up, the entrance is free for everyone! Also, the event is hosted by Space Cow comicbook store and small press company (which I own) and funded and hugely supported by the local cartoonists and zinemakers community – and inspired, of course, by Gabe Fowler’s Comic Arts Brooklyn festival, Comics Workbook reports and researchings, Josh M. Bayer’s interview for Russian readers, and Copacetic Comics Company’s wide variety of all kinds of graphic literature!“ ————————————————————————————————— Migraine by Woshibai and Two Stories by Gantea Greg Hunter on 2 recent books from Paradise Systems: The effect of these sequences is alienating yet compelling. Woshibai’s narrator provides a litany of personal details, and even so, some readers might find the gulf between themselves and the cartoonist growing as the comic advances. Woshibai maintains this separation in part by depicting his adult and younger selves with blank, featureless faces. It’s the central gesture of a cold but memorable piece. Migraine leaves readers with some grim conclusions about the reliability of a person’s self-concept, never mind the challenge of sharing it with other people. Memory and memoir both can only help us so much. Two Stories, meanwhile, is less likely to stir up existential dread. Gantea has a cute aesthetic, giving her figures round heads, feet like dinner rolls, and hands like oven mitts. A reader might imagine either of the book’s pieces going viral. In addition to the cute factor, they’re quick, easy reads in basic visual-literacy terms, and they have animals too. But the net effect of these stories is something more proximal to cute; the comics aren’t Trojan horses exactly, but they’re agreeably strange at times. ————————————————————————————————— Dorothy Iannone: I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door In NYC, through March 2019 For the High Line, Iannone creates a new, large-scale mural installation at 22nd St. Iannone’s mural features three colorful Statues of Liberty. Between them runs the words, “I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door,” which is the final line from Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus,” the ode to the freedom promised by immigration to America engraved on a bronze plaque mounted inside the statue at Liberty Island. Iannone’s piece was conceived before the recent months of upheaval in the United States around immigration, an already contested topic; these recent debates have raised the Statue of Liberty anew as a symbol of the openness of New York City and the United States to those seeking asylum, freedom, or simply a better life. Iannone’s vibrant Liberties bring a bit of joy to an often exhausting and demoralizing political debate. ————————————————————————————————— Review of ‘The Real Life of Sebastian Knight’ Liana Finck on the Vladimir Nabokov book at the NY Times: ————————————————————————————————— Pénélope Bagieu Comics At The Paris Review: ————————————————————————————————— Via MTSHELVES: “Military School“, an animatic video made in response to the phallic death culture surrounding school shootings, the “soft civil war” hastened by the current administration, promoted by the encouragement of schools as battlefields, N.R.A. and other Death-merchant-encouraged arming of teachers and other civilians, capitalist promotion of final-gunshot-to-the-forehead imagery as plot resolution in films…with a detour into a Christian charity shop… ————————————————————————————————— VISION BOX — CAMERON ARTHUR — 03/13/2018 ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-13-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

09/25/2018

Aaron CockleSeptember 25, 2018NewsJulie Doucet; L. Nichols; Best American Comics; Richard McGuire; Everything is Connected at the Met Breuer; Art in Brussels ————————————————————————————————— Dirty Plotte—The Complete Julie Doucet by Austin English By the end of Dirty Plotte, the panels become increasingly dense and claustrophobic—beautifully so, but a trap all the same. The imposition of the rules of comics come to a head: clear, pure storytelling, the same character over and over, refine-refine-refine your style—a far remove from the infinitely open plane Doucet grafted onto the medium when Plotte began. An author of endless skill, she observed these principles and easily mastered them. Could the wide canvas of the early issues have been similarly exhausted? ————————————————————————————————— L Nichols: Day One ————————————————————————————————— The Best American Comics 2018 Panel discussion at Strand Book Store, NYC, Wednesday, October 3, 7pm “I love comics. Comics is (Comics ARE?) a perfect language, robustly evolving and expanding like any other living language,” writes Phoebe Gloeckner in her Introduction to The Best American Comics 2018. This year’s collection includes work selected from the pages of graphic novels, comic books, periodicals, zines, online, and more, highlighting the kaleidoscopic diversity of the comics language today. Join us as panelist Bill Kartalopoulos, Julia Gfrörer, Julian Glander, Kevin Hooyman, and Julia Jacquette talk about this year in comics. ————————————————————————————————— Richard McGuire: Art for the Street – 1978-1982 September 27 – November 4, 2018; Opening: Thursday, Sept. 27, 6-8 pm Alden Projects, 34 Orchard Street, NYC “A shadow is a strong and simple graphic,” McGuire explains. “The titles evolved from a Burroughs-esque cut-up method — just grabbing selected phrases that caught my ear. I would make lists. Later, I made a stencil. I would see what worked best with that image as a ‘sound picture’.” Incorporating cryptic phrases such as “Moved Then Set on Fire” (1979); “Holes and Corners” (1980); “Doubles are Inevitable” (1980); and “Different Nervous Rhythms (1981); McGuire’s Ixnae Nix drawings transmogrify the layout and content of quotidian newspapers into personalized tabloids in which the central silhouette appears with “a crypto-mystical graphic style, a great touch,” to borrow Glenn O’Brien’s 1981 praise in Interview magazine. The stream-of-consciousness poetics of McGuire’s Ixnae Nix drawings share explicit aesthetic dialogue with Basquiat and his early poetics, but later, these conversations arguably go both ways. McGuire’s Incident Instantly Becomes Memory , to name one, shared a pivotal stage with Basquiat, Haring, and others at the New York / New Wave show, curated by Diego Cortez at P.S. 1, Queens in 1981, and clearly anticipates some of Basquiat’s later pictorial developments. The Ixnae Nix drawings also confabulate with Keith Haring’s early street-based work, particularly with the latter’s Xeroxed collages of cut-up newspaper headlines, which he began in 1980. McGuire stopped his wheatpasting activities in early 1981—around the same time that Haring first began making chalk drawings in the subway. ————————————————————————————————— Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy The first half of the exhibition comprises works by artists who hew strictly to the public record, uncovering hidden webs of deceit—from the shell corporations used by New York’s largest private landlord, interconnected networks encompassing politicians, businessmen, and arms dealers. In the second part, other artists dive headlong into the fever dreams of the disaffected, creating fantastical works that nevertheless uncover uncomfortable truths in an age of information overload and weakened trust in institutions. ————————————————————————————————— 09-25-2018 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

11/29/2016

Aaron CockleNovember 28, 2016NewsAaron here today with the Micro-Press run-down; RESIST! Reminder; a look at Formalism and Historicity; Marlene Frontera; Gerhard Richter; CALA; O Correspondence Course, My Correspondence Course! ————————————————————————————————— Micro-Press Yearbook Robyn Chapman has released her third annual review of micro-presses. This one recaps 2015, which seems like such a quaint time as we stare down the last days of 2016. These books have been invaluable in assessing and giving some perspective to the current small-publishing comics landscape. ————————————————————————————————— RESIST! RESIST! will be published as a special issue of Gabe Fowler’s tabloid newspaper, Smoke Signal. We are aiming to make the print version an all-women issue though we’ll remain open-minded and we will consider all submissions. 30,000 copies will be distributed for free on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, in Washington D.C. Further distribution will occur at the Women’s March on January 21st and throughout the United States. It is guest-edited by Françoise Mouly, art editor of The New Yorker, and writer Nadja Spiegelman. The site is updated on a daily basis, so be sure to check back, and please consider submitting work. ————————————————————————————————— “authoritarianism,” “proto-Fascis,” and a “seizure of state power” Paul Mullan reviews Benjamin H.D. Buchloh’s Formalism and Historicity: Models and Methods in Twentieth-Century Art at the Red Wedge Magazine blog: The initial analysis of neo-expressionism was weighted towards its national(ist) origins, whether German or Italian, given, again, fears of a new, continental “authoritarianism” and “proto-Fascis.” However, the analysis by 1984 is more weighted towards the painting’s engagement with abex, US abstract expressionism. The relation between the US and Europe is here explicitly characterized as “colonialized.” Abex had arisen by the end of the Second World War, and the dominant military and economic position of the US – given the destruction of much of Europe and Japan – allowed for a strong cultural position as well throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. (See the histories of CIA support for art exhibitions that traveled globally, as instruments in Cold War propaganda.) The real, objective conditions that can provide an explanatory framework for this change should be evident. There was a new primary political contradiction developing on the ground: the mass movement – spanning multiple, national borders – against the “euromissiles” and new, US imperialist offensive. ————————————————————————————————— I Go Go Back and Forth Marlene Frontera will be launching her new risograph book of illustrations this Wednesday, November 30, 6-8pm at Picture Room, 236 Mulberry Street, NYC. Drawing inspiration from a childhood picture book in which a girl is seen next to a rippling pond that grows as the pages progress, Frontera documents the evolution of a single drawing at different stages. Working alongside Jeremy Jams and Dominic Fortunato of Soft City Printing, Frontera captures the subtle construction of an illustration, filling space with environment around her centric female character. This beautiful risograph book is an edition of 200, and was printed in Brooklyn by Soft City Printing. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Looked at in this way, all that I am trying to do in each picture is to bring together the most disparate and mutually contradictory elements, alive and viable, in the greatest possible freedom. No paradises.’ An interview with Benjamin H. D. Buchloh and Gerhard Richter from 2009, via the MIT Press: BB: So, in 1966, when you started to paint nonfigurative pictures, Color Charts, did that also have something to do with a head-on confrontation with minimal art? Was that another conflict situation, a rejection of American dominance, or was it through an evolutionary process of your own, rooted in the immediate, local context here in Düsseldorf? Was it through meeting Palermo, perhaps? GR: Yes, it certainly did have something to do with Palermo and his interests, and later with minimal art as well; but when I painted my first Color Charts in 1966, that had more to do with pop art. They were copies of paint sample cards, and what was effective about them was that they were directed against the efforts of the neoconstructivists, Albers and the rest. ————————————————————————————————— Comic Arts Los Angeles 2016 ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers Starts December 29, 2016. 8 week course, $500, 10 spots available, apply by December 13, 2016 and get $100 off course fee. Share this page: [...]

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: [...]

08/23/2016

Aaron CockleAugust 22, 2016NewsAaron here today with Gabriella Tito comics; Julie Doucet interviewed; Marra/Bayer; Laura Knetzger; Bauhaus on the internet; Clough reviews Delporte and Oliveros; some propaganda comics; CW Benefit Auction continues ————————————————————————————————— Homesick by Gabriella Tito This week’s Featured Comic is Gabriella Tito’s re-working of her Homesick comic from earlier this year. Initially made in black and white for Zona #1, Tito incorporated color into the updated piece during her recent Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. ————————————————————————————————— Julie Doucet Interviewed at/by 2d cloud i did start my own “label” because the book projects i’m working on are getting less and less lucrative, in the sense that you won’t sell as many poetry books as a comic book. you work 6 months on a book that will have a 250 copies printrun you get 10% of the sales…that means you’re paid at best $300. for 6 months work. it is just not worth it. also i had a few such small projects that publishers agreed to publish…someday…i got tired to wait. and since i can print and all, it really doesn’t cost me much to produce the book. ————————————————————————————————— Benjamin Marra in conversation with Josh Bayer, Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 7pm The 157th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, August 30, 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. A conversation with Benjamin Marra and Josh Bayer. Join Ben and Josh for a lively discussion about process, influences and what it means to be cartoonists who are much indebted to comics history as they are committed to making their permanent mark on comics’ future. Via Ben Katchor, who has been organizing these events since 2012. The Fall 2016 Schedule has been posted as well, so please do try and attend if you’re in the NYC area. ————————————————————————————————— Laura Knetzger was recently podcasted over at We Should Be Friends ————————————————————————————————— Staatliches Bauhaus Via Open Culture, the Harvard Art Museums have made an astonishing amount of Bauhaus-era work available online. Harvard’s web site represents its physical collection, but it does not duplicate it. Many of the small images in its online archive do not expand to larger versions and cannot be downloaded. However, if you follow the guided tour by clicking “Continue Reading” under the site’s introduction, you’ll be able to click on the several dozen examples in each section and see them up close. You’ll also get a thorough survey of the Bauhaus school’s brief history and mission. The best way to access the collection is to click here, then scroll down to the box where it says “Search the Bauhaus special collection by keyword, title, artist, or object number, and by using the filters below.” ————————————————————————————————— Delporte and Oliveros Reviewed Over at the High Low Comics blog, critic Rob Clough takes a look at Julie Delporte’s Everywhere Antennas and The Envelope Manufacturer by Chris Oliveros. On Delporte: While the end has no real solutions in sight for her affliction, she at least is in control of her own fate and own decisions. Delporte’s use of colors is disorienting in a way that’s meant to reflect her own increasing sense of alienation in her own environment. That alienation is something she has to cope with, understanding that the very forces she tried to cling to early in the book were literally killing her and driving her insane. On Oliveros: The book works as a metaphor for any kind of personal endeavor that’s endangered by the whims of the market, and it’s not too much of a leap to transfer the sheer absurdity of a three-person envelope manufacturing concern to an equally small art-comics publishing company. Yet one can see Oliveros in D&Q’s darkest days, betting on the next book to keep the company going. That said, what marks the characters in this book are their unrelentingly obsessive personalities, an obsession that borders on narcissism and self-delusion. ————————————————————————————————— Religion & Comics, Comics & Religion From the Pink News site: The American Family Association, which is strongly opposed to LGBT rights, has partnered with Revival Fires International to give away 65,000 copies of the ‘Truth for Youth’ Bible across the US, encouraging evangelical teens to “commit to give the Bibles to their unsaved friends in school”. The excerpted comics posted in the article are pretty offensive, from a subject-matter standpoint as well as an aesthetic one. The published work is supposedly based on the teachings of the Bible, which, depending on your belief system, may either be a science fiction anthology of dubious authorship or the divine text of the Christian religion. The article is here. Anyway, 65,000 is a lot of funny books. ————————————————————————————————— Los Bros Hernandez Benefit Auction Items From Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez (but nothing from Mario???). Proceeds go towards funding the Rowhouse Residency. Share this page: [...]

06/08/2017

Posted on June 8, 2017June 8, 2017 by Sally Ingraham

Sam Ombiri on Josh Bayer’s RAW POWER, a Tarantula, and chain-breaking Wonder Woman for your Thursday.

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Sam Ombiri here: Raw Power by Josh Bayer is a barrage of one moment after the other, that never ends. Every time I tried reading the book before, it wasn’t so accommodating. I’d try to follow the story, and then as I was going from panel to panel I’d find that my eyes were thrown away from the book. Whenever I read Raw Power, I feel a sense of guilt, because I can’t read with the same energy that it seems to have been produced with. Meanwhile I’ve been reading Kirby and Simon’s romance comics – I don’t feel the same threat when reading Kirby’s comics or for that matter really any other comic artists who are known to have intense drafting. I think it maybe comes from reading the title RAW POWER and seeing the cover. The title almost just flat out says no matter how you read this you won’t possibly match the energy that this was made with. This is regardless of whether the book was drawn with that supposed energy.

I remember Austin English talking about Raw Power in a review on The Comics Journal, and saying that it probably wasn’t drawn how it feels, but it exudes this specific energy, which up until the the first issue of Raw Power came out, Austin hadn’t seen in Bayer’s other comics. Despite the dizzy frantic drawing, there’s a really dogmatic nature present in the book. Maybe this surfaces from him being a teacher and the way he talks in interviews, so as I approach reading it, I read it with a dogmatic voice in my head.

I’m going to contradict what I previously said, by saying that it IS a very accommodating book. The feeling of the book changed as I was reading it. Reading Raw Power felt more like I had to hang on tight, and not fall off. A real Paper Rodeo. It sometimes felt like Bayer was trying to kick me off the pages, and then invite me back in. I’m experiencing an overload of moments, and a lot is being explored, and the art doesn’t do me any favors in terms of recovering from my dizziness. It’s about obsession with figures who make work that spur to extreme degrees, and then there’s this comic Josh is covering, and he’s bringing for me as a reader interest in what he’s modified, and he managed to wrap a really engrossing story around it. Most of all, it’s great how, despite the extremely fun tirades Josh goes on, it always comes back to the original path it was on and elements resurface with major twists. I think that the most satisfying thing is the story. I truly truly think that. In the end I got my fill. – Sam Ombiri

6-8-2017 – Sam Ombiri

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Sally here – I’m eager to get my hands on the new comic by Alexis Ziritt, Fabian Rangel Jr., and Evelyn Rangel – Tarantula (AdHouse Books, June 2017)! It was recently on Paste Magazine‘s list of required reading for the month:

“Looking like a vintage pulp novel straight off the dollar racks at your local used book store, Tarantula promises “Satanic noir” from the same creative team that brought the world the psychedelic Space Riders. Artist Alexis Ziritt is a grindhouse force to be reckoned with, channeling Kirby and Dan Brereton in equal parts for this tale of supernatural agents of order standing strong against the forces of chaos. Writer Fabian Rangel, Jr., by now a staple of most non-Big Two publishers, knows how to set Ziritt up for a home run and get out of his way. Adhouse Books is a new home for these two, but the handsome throwback hardcover they’ve produced should sit nicely next to Black Mask’s Space Riders and Rangel and Logan Faerber’s Albatross Funnybooks Vietnam-era lycanthrope tale,‘Namwolf. ” -Steve Foxe

Get a copy of the comic HERE.

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With all the excitement of the new Wonder Woman film going around, I remembered that Gilbert Hernandez drew a Wonder Woman story in 2014, which appeared in Sensation Comics #3 and #4. Although it may not be the most “wondrous” Wonder Woman tale (Supergirl gets a lot of the glory), it is certainly one of the most powerful depictions of Diana – see more of the comic HERE.

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Suzy and Cecil – 6-8-2017 – by Sally Ingraham

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Joanie and Jordie – 6-8-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged alexis ziritt, Gilbert Hernandez, Josh Bayer, sam ombiri

Sally Ingraham

Posted on June 8, 2017June 8, 2017

Explore

3/03/2016

HarrisonMarch 3, 2016News “This wasn’t universally true of the comic book industry, but it was true enough for long enough in this country to inhibit the medium’s growth to full potential. Oddly, in the 1980s, a compensatory effort to make comic books more appealing to older readers erred in another direction by supposing that “mature themes” would enable comics to grow up. Although that’s probably valid to some extent, the notion too frequently took flight by mistakenly equating “social issues” or “personality portrayal” with “mature themes.” – R.C. Harvey on the Economics of Comics Connor Willumsen is looking to supplement the cost of a move by taking commissions and selling original drawings. If you’re interested email him at mail@connorwillumsen.com. Also Sarah Ferrick and Connor talk about their work on We Should Be Friends Podcast below. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/247971503″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] Will Tempest just uploaded part 4 of his series Massive Crustacean. Artist GG continues with parts 20-22 of her series These Days. If you like her work support it on Paypal or Patreon. Illustrator and Animator Jonathan Djob Nkondo (a.k.a. Absenteism) uploaded this excerpt a few months back from his series Square 1. Not sure if there is going to be second printing for Square 1 but these web pieces are good too. Unrelated, but here’s a song for a rainy day. Share this page: [...]

04/10/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 10, 2017NewsA report from PIX! plus a few other comics happenings to start your week. ————————————————————————————————— Sally here, still riding the wave of the Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo – I’m writing this after midnight at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse, where Connor Willumsen is holding court with some of the CW crew, and Anya Davidson and Lale Westvind are on their way over to close out the night. The comics community in Pittsburgh just keeps on getting stronger. This year PIX took place right in the triangle of downtown. The expo at the August Wilson Center was well attended, the ToonSeum was packed out the night before for the opening of Ed Piskor’s “Hermetically Sealed” art show and then throughout the day on Sunday as programs and panels took place there. Comics Workbook students and instructors led workshops around the corner at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council building for local kids and adults alike, and hosted a talk by Carol Tyler, and a conversation with Connor Willumsen and Lale Westvind. It was warm and sunny where the three rivers of Pittsburgh meet, and the comics energy managed to lure away, or at least detour, some of the anime characters attending a nearby convention, as well as a few baseball fans from the Pirates game! Shown above from left to right, top to bottom…Connor Willumsen sewing a new comic together at his table; the “Do-be-do” workshop for kids led by Juan Fernandez; a Pittsburgh Comics Salon workshop; in front of the August Wilson Center; Lale Westvind in conversation; Bill Boichel purchasing an original art page from Anya Davidson’s Lovers In the Garden, with Lane Milburn and Lale Westvind looking on; Carol Tyler talking comics-making; Connor Willumsen doing the same; Carol Tyler’s workshop. Just a small sampling of what was going on and a tiny glimpse of who was there – more to come! ————————————————————————————————— Elsewhere New in the Diaz Archive – photos from Michael DeForge‘s Sticks Angelica tour, thanks to Chris Anthony Diaz! 11 O’Clock Comics has a great interview with Jim Rugg – check it out HERE. Street Angel: After School Kung Fu Special will be released April 26th 2017! Sequential State reviews Lale Westvind‘s Yazar & Arkadaş – HERE. Seth has a new show at the Richmond Art Gallery – April 9, 2017 – June 25, 2017 – which combines his comics with the music of Mark Haney. Details HERE. Pictures of Seth and the show can be found HERE. The Comics Beat has notes on a conversation between Frank Miller and Klaus Janson (remembering Will Eisner) which took place last week at the SVA Theater. There is a lengthy interview with Vanessa Davis over on The Comics Journal – check it out. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-10-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-9-2017 & 4-10-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-10-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

06/15/2017

Sally IngrahamJune 15, 2017NewsSally here with Shannon Wright, Jillian Tamaki, Adam Griffiths, and James Baldwin to get your Thursday morning started! ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright made this comic to share with her followers on Instagram this week (@shannondrewthis) and it speaks volumes to her recent experiences as a young, talented artist who has recently gained a lot of attention. Her illustrations have appeared in numerous national publications and her comics have been featured on The Nib among other places. Her Black hair illustration series, mentioned in the comic above, is an ongoing project that touches on many recent discussions about cultural appropriation and the image of Black women in history and pop culture. I appreciate Shannon’s honesty and blunt politeness in embracing her new fans and dealing with her (probable) frustration with other folks’ demands and expectations for her time and art – this comic is cute and classy. Good luck Shannon! ————————————————————————————————— Adam Griffiths continues his web comic American Cryo – the 7th strip is seen above – check out the rest HERE. Get a copy of Adam’s comic The Permanent Night – which he worked on during a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency earlier this year – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— There is a James Baldwin celebration going on in Harlem – 77 boxes of Baldwin’s manuscripts, photos, letters, notes and more, have come back to where it all started – the contents are on display at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on Malcolm X Boulevard, just a few doors down from the elementary school that Baldwin attended. Other bookstores in the area are featuring Baldwin’s work and churches and schools will be hosting lectures and other events in the next few weeks. More detail HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Jillian Tamaki speaks to The Guardian about her new comics collection Boundless. “The stories in Boundless often started as thought experiments, for which Tamaki would conjure up the domino sequence that follows. Half Life exemplifies her simultaneously deadpan and sensitive voice: protagonist Helen slowly shrinks in size, as if possessed by an intractable force. “If gets pushed and pushed and pushed, it is relentless. There’s no changing her path,” explains Tamaki. But it is Helen’s reactions that are the focus of the story. “I think the story is quite fantastical, obviously, but it’s also fantastical in that she is completely calm about it. She’s not afraid, she’s not freaking out – people around her are freaking out – but she is completely adapting to the new circumstances.” “ More HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 6-15-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-15-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-15-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

10/14/2016

Sally IngrahamOctober 14, 2016NewsSally here, reporting live from Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, OH! I drove over from Pittsburgh, PA, yesterday with my car loaded down with materials for this weekend’s Comics Workbook-hosted workshops at CXC (details on those HERE), making it to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum on the OSU campus just in time to catch Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes in conversation with CXC festival director Tom Spurgeon. Their conversation was interesting and entertaining, detailing the complexities of making editorial cartoons, especially as a woman in the industry. Ann spoke of the necessary sense of urgency that a good editorial cartoonist must posses, and about how the cartoons are the QUESTION, not the answer. Regarding her famous caricatures, she said it is about drawing “how a person IS, not just what they look like – them INSIDE“. Then she drew Hilary Clinton for the audience, real quick: Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes draws Hilary Clinton for us at her CXC presentation at the Billy Ireland Library & Museum @cartoonlibrary @anntelnaes #cxc16 #femalecartoonists A video posted by Comics Workbook Roller Derby (@cwrollerderby) on Oct 13, 2016 at 8:16pm PDT Check out Ann Telnaes’ most recent animated gif HERE – this is the format she has been using lately to get her point of view across (and that is the most important thing for an editorial cartoonist to have – a point of view!) ————————————————————————————————— After meeting up with fellow Comics Workbook representatives and cartoonists Kurt Ankeny, Alyssa Berg, and Whit Taylor for dinner, I joined forces with Kurt and Caleb Orecchio to check out the Winsor McCay presentation at the Wexner Center for the Arts, put together by John Canemaker. It was a fantastic exploration of the animated films made by the famed creator of the Little Nemo in Slumberland strips. Totally blown away by the Winsor McCay presentation hosted by John Canemaker at CXC – this is part of McCay’s first animated film, drawing on characters from Little Nemo #cxc2016 #winsormccay #animation A video posted by Sally Ingraham (@sally_ingraham) on Oct 13, 2016 at 6:40pm PDT The CXC festival program claimed that John Canemaker‘s lectures were not-to-be-missed, and I found this to be true (in case you didn’t know, he is an Academy Award-winning animator himself!) It was thrilling to watch McCay’s first animated film on “the big screen”, and then Canemaker really won the audience over by taking on McCay’s roll in the vaudeville performances he used to do using his animated character Gertie the Dinosaur. John Canemaker stepping into Winsor McCay’s roll in the type of vaudeville act McCay used to do with his animated character Gerdie – at CXC tonight #cxc2016 #winsormccay #johncanemaker #gertie A video posted by Comics Workbook (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 13, 2016 at 8:10pm PDT Terrific stuff. I sat in awe behind Lucy Caswell (founding curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum) throughout this presentation and enjoyed the deference that John Canemaker showed her on any McCay details he felt iffy on (and he actually wrote THE book on Winsor McCay). It was a good first day of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, with plenty more to come for me and the rest of the Comics Workbook team! Here’s that complete schedule of where we will be throughout the weekend. As you can perhaps gather, we are live-reporting all weekend via social media and especially through Instagram, so follow @comicsworkbook, @cwrollerderby, and @sally_ingraham for updates! (Also give a look to Juan Fernandez, Alyssa Berg, Whit Taylor, Caleb Orecchio, Kurt Ankeny, and Emil Friis Ernst for other CXC stories!) Next week keep an eye out for a full CXC Festival report brought to you by Whit Taylor – stay tuned! ————————————————————————————————— LICAF opening night A video posted by @santoro.frank on Oct 13, 2016 at 2:17pm PDT Frank Santoro, Aidan Koch, and Connor Willumsen made it to the U.K., and for live reporting from The Lakes International Comic Art Festival this weekend, check out @santoro.frank on Instagram. Get tickets to Frank, Aidan, and Connor’s workshops on Saturday HERE. Hang out with the crew in the Comics Clocktower Saturday and Sunday! ————————————————————————————————— Check out the Pompeii Medallion HERE – for an interesting artistic collaboration. Connor Willumsen has new work – this way please! ————————————————————————————————— Regular reporting will return next week – but for today, this is Sally signing off. I have to run and catch up with Sacha Mardou, get a tour of the special collections at the Billy Ireland, and check in on the state of the comics industry, before meeting Garry Trudeau, and then partying the night away with Katie Skelly – and that’s just the stuff on the CXC program schedule for today that I’ve highlighted… Cheers! Share this page: [...]

02/12/2018

Caleb OrecchioFebruary 12, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here, come back with me to 1979, and then back to the present with other news. ————————————————————————————————— I find right now to be a purgatorial time in comics. Comic book sales have reportedly went down significantly in 2017 making retailers nervous, while superhero movies seem unable to not make money. So when I read my copy of The Comics Journal #47 from 1979, I couldn’t help seeing spooky parallels to the present. Most significantly, comic book writer Steve Skeates’ cover article, “THE DEATH OF THE SUPERHEROES.” Skeates’ vehement essay “persuades” us on why Marvel and DC should let their superheroes go away and never return, and rather focus on other genres of comics—i.e. Howard the Duck and Plop!. He gives many reasons superheroes should die, mainly that superheroes are stupid, fascist, endlessly-recycled and not making any money on the newsstand (you’ll notice, True Believer, that this is around the time the direct market started to become more and more dominant). What Steve did not take into account is the fact that the big wigs at these companies do not actually care about the success—financial or intellectual or otherwise—of the comics themselves. The Big Two are more interested in the products that make actual money, like movies and TV. Towards the end of the issue, Reich Benasutti and Lawrence Speerloop report on a conversation between Stan Lee and Jenette Kahn (then President of DC Comics) at Temple University (pg. 59). The article reads, From his opening gambit, “Hello Culture Lovers,” Lee dominated the session with his customary one-liners, covering his sometime astounding ignorance of the current Marvel line with a mixture of glib repartee and a disarming bafflement. It goes on to say, Lee spoke with considerable candor on the subject of television shows based on Marvel characters. And, for me, the kicker: Lee was quite gallant toward Jenette Kahn, compelling the audience to give her a hand: ‘She could be in an ivory tower somewhere because of the Superman movie,’ said Lee, ‘but she still comes here. I think that deserves a round of applause.’ The audience agreed. All the above made me think of last year’s announcement that Netflix had bought Mark Millar and his company, Millarworld, out to create comic books that could, or could not, be adapted into Netflix series, depending on the market. Of course, his comics have a great track record for becoming successful movies, and one could argue that his comic The Ultimates basically gave Marvel their movie mealticket. It’s marketing. Comics are disposable marketing collateral. These companies are basically glorified ad agencies keeping the pot warm and stirred for all the fans so they spend money on the products that actually make these companies real money. So, to Steve Skeates, yes, maybe superheroes should go away and The Big Two should stop recycling the same old garbage decade after decade because they could make such better comics! But The Big Two don’t care at all if they make good comics in the end—as long as the comics bring the nerds and geeks and fans to conventions, movie theaters and the television screens, they don’t care. Period. So don’t be surprised if the executives at these companies don’t shed a tear for the comic book stores who have to close their doors permanently due to low sales of crappy comics. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Joe McCulloch talked Steve Ditko at NY Comics and Pictures Symposium at Parsons last week and he has a recording—what more could you want as far as news goes honestly. Alexxa Gotthardt on feminist underground comics like Wimmen’s Comix and It Ain’t Me Babe on Artsy. If you want, you can vote for your favorite comics people for the Eisner Awards. Eric Reynolds talks to Inkstuds guest host, Kit Brash about Now. Study Group Podcast talks to Whit Taylor and bring it back to 2014 with an Ink Panther rerun. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-12-2018 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-12-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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