Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Aaron Cockle

Posted on June 30, 2016June 30, 2016

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Rowhouse Residency Report – Ian Densford

Comics WorkbookJuly 1, 2018Residency Reports / School UpdatesIan Densford is a cartoonist based in New York state. He joined us in Pittsburgh for a weeklong Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency in July of 2017. Here are his thoughts about visiting the city and his Rowhouse Residency experience. ———————————————————————————————— Ian Densford here: The Rowhouse Residency is great opportunity to get away from the all your distractions and focus on your work. You will be exposed to excellent comics, find interesting reading material on subjects like sacred geometry and interviews with cartoonists, and you will hold interesting conversations with both Frank & Sally, as they are both passionate, intelligent, and creative. You will learn new skills, discover new influences, and talk about comics history in contrast to today’s sphere. In the summer of 2017, from August 23-26, I briefly held a room at the Rowhouse Residency in Pittsburgh, PA. I drove seven hours from the NYC area, and it was a hot week! I shared the house with fellow Comics Workbook Correspondence alum Andrew White, and we spent our time drawing, talking with Frank & Sally, and diving into books from Frank’s unique collection. I came to the residency with a halfway-finished project called Trench Dogs, a collection of first hand accounts from soldiers in World War One. It was something that had originally been created for the Comics Workbook tumblr around 2015, a simple 16 page mini that was now becoming a 180 page book, so it felt like completing the circle to me. During my time there, I inked about 16 pages of naval warfare, big steel hulks exploding and sinking, full of sailors. It was some pretty dark stuff. I can still vividly recall being hunched over a lamplit desk, on one of those hot nights with the fan on, inking the creepy submarine interiors from a reference image. I loved it. Pittsburgh is a strange land, the steep tree covered hills and countless stairs amongst the winding rivers and old buildings. The Residency is a two story rowhouse on a small street by the train tracks. Since I had a large project to focus on, I mostly chose to lock myself in, though the Residency is essentially tailored to your wishes, including exercises and lessons if you want. But the city has alot of great exploring to offer. Sally and Frank also provided occasional outings in the city, such as a visit to Copacetic Comics, or the pool if its hot; and while I was there the library held a special talk with Jim Rugg and Ed Piskor that we attended. During these excursions, the conversations we had were in depth and revealing, everyone had so much experience and knowledge, and those were some of my favorite moments. Frank is indeed a wealth of knowledge, and understands a great deal about the craft and its history up until now. Ask him about numerology, its great. I really connected with Sally too, we had a lot of similar interests and inspiration, and I really appreciated having her voice and insight alongside Frank during my final critique. During that final critique, as we discussed all kinds of things, Frank suggested I share certain details about my creative process. Here is my attempt to do so: I was going for a handmade look, so I inked with a single 1 size brush, and the pages are close to 1:1 ratio with the final print size. I prefer to work on pages together as a two page spread on a single sheet. Trench Dogs was drawn on 11 x 17 watercolor paper, using Frank’s layout template to make sure every page had good balance and movement throughout the spread. I copy each panel from my sketches, but I do not trace. I find tracing makes things very stiff and lifeless, I prefer artists that have some movement and excitement in their line work, so I aspire towards that. I like to keep the pencil drawing very loose, with few details, blocking in the space and characters with simple boxes and circles mostly, very basic “puppet-like” figures, making sure everything has enough room to breathe. Frank thought this aspect was important to mention: I save the actual “drawing” for the inking part of the process, I enjoy the spontaneity and mark making. Its ok to be messy, its fun, plus I like being able to see the artists hand in the work. I used watercolors to paint everything, I love how quick and messy they are, the soft colors and texture. With everything colored in the appropriate solid, I would go back and do two layers of shadows. One layer was dark blue and applied everywhere, the second was dark purple and only applied to the foreground. This helped pull my foreground elements towards the front, because they were darker with a second shadow color, plus the warmer tones of the purple come forward while the cooler ones get pushed back. I was also conscious of my overall color key, and tried to make each section have different tones, so there is a progression of color through the story. After scanning a page, I would add a layer of white highlights in photoshop here and there, which helped the foreground stand out even more, and would focus the eye on certain important details. I also did my sound effects on the same overlaying white layer, which was a nice pop, as it was the only true white on the page. Drawing from reference was great, and almost every panel had at least one ref picture to go along with it. Deciding how to turn everything “toonsy” was a fun challenge, to simplify and reduce to lumpy shapes. I like how drawings by John Pham or Ben Sears look like simple little clay sculptures, with nice curves, and characters like Andrea Falkas, and the carefree linework of Gipi. I chose animal people as a nod to Art Spiegelman, but reaching back to Richard Scarry’s Busy Town and PD Eastman’s Go Dog Go, with strong influences from Herge’s TinTin and Miyazaki’s Dream Diary Hobby Magazine war comics. Animal type was a fun way to distinguish the different armies, but you also feel a different kind of pity for these animal people, I think. That is all I have for this report. I had a blast, got a lot of drawing accomplished, expanded my knowledge and influences, and learned more than I expected. This has been Ian Densford, signing off. ———————————————————————————————— Trench Dogs by Ian Densford will debut at NY Comic Con 2018 – find it at the Dead Reckoning table and in stores after Sept. 15th 2018. 184 pages, color, $18.95 – you can preorder it from Dead Reckoning HERE (use Discount Code FALL18 to get 25% off!) ———————————————————————————————— Ian Densford is a cartoonist living in New York state with his wife, Tae, and their son, Anderson. When not animating on the computer, or drawing in his sketchbook, you can find him frolicking in the nearby forest and rocky hillsides. ———————————————————————————————— For more information about the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency visit this page or email santoroschoolATgmail Share this page: [...]

12/15/2017

Sally IngrahamDecember 14, 2017NewsSally here to finish the week with work by Kyung Me, Gabrielle Bell, Nnedi Okorafor, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Kyung Me is having a solo exhibition at Selena Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. It opens tomorrow, December 16th, 7-10pm (34 Troutman St #3.) “Kyung Me’s intricate, hypnotic drawings map out puzzled narratives revealing a mysterious cat and dream like scenery that dismantle linear time. For this exhibition, the artist will present her new original drawings focused around her reinvention of the Cheshire cat. Kyung Me’s invented characters operate as stand-ins for herself, as a means of understanding relationships with herself and others. In her latest autobiographical series, Copy Kitty, the artist explores the perverse qualities of obsessive romantic relationships. Through sensitively rendered graphite drawings, Kyung Me creates an immersive world full of dread and humor that both satirizes and eulogizes the naïveté of an immature, paranoid, yet earnest love.“ Some of Copy Kitty – {Prelude} – appeared here on Comics Workbook in May – see the comic HERE. Also be sure to check out Kyung Me’s Bad Korean, and other comics and art on her website. ————————————————————————————————— Brian Nicholson wrote about Gabrielle Bell‘s Everything is Flammable, and E.A. Bethea’s Book Of Daze recently on his blog Longbox Coffin. He wasn’t blown away by either, but I think the reviews are pretty fair to both works. I liked one note he made regarding creators of autobio comics: “You have to be a certain kind of person to make an autobio comic: Introverted and removed enough to be observing the people around you for being strange, outgoing enough to know those people are interesting, capable of deadpan wit, possessing enough free time to tell the stories of things that have transpired while they’re still fresh in your mind. … If you were reading straight prose, or poetry, the author’s voice would distinguish itself from others more, but comics can use their visuals to achieve a sort of leveling effect. The narrator is a witness, to give events a throughline, but less of a defining presence in their own right. If they were more overbearing, and dominated their surroundings, they would want to dominate the reader as well, and so would write fiction.“ Read the full review, and Brian’s thoughts on Book of Daze as well, HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I read a lot of comics, mostly alternative and small press stuff of course, but I dip into mainstream comics occasionally too. I keep tumbling into the world of Black Panther – especially after local Pittsburgh poet Yona Harvey joined the creative team for a minute last year. The series has been struggling against any number of foes in the industry and market, but Marvel is trying again this week with a digital version of the comic, available exclusively through comiXology. The reason I’m genuinely excited for this release is because Black Panther: Long Live the King is written by one of my favorite sci-fi novelists – the Hugo/Nebula/World Fantasy award-winning Nnedi Okorafor. The Comics Beat has a write-up on the series, and they share some thoughts from Nnedi Okorafor: ” “I had a lot of questions about Wakanda, so I brought the lens deep into it… You’ll see the Black Panther interacting with tech-hacking village kids, vibranium-affected wildlife, and off-grid communities in Wakanda known as “mute zones”. Not only is this a deeply personal story about T’Challa, you’ll also see a side of the African country of Wakanda that no one’s seen before. Oh and there’s a mysterious monster in the countryside causing problems for everyone.” “ Nnedi Okorafor’s novels combine African locales and characters with supernatural events and weird science in a way that is truly mind-bending, spooky, and often beautiful, so I have high hopes for her ability to channel some bonkers/brilliant new energy into Black Panther. Fingers crossed. Read more about the series HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Rum Punch Meg Lemke takes over as the Graphic Novels Review Editor at Publishers Weekly. Heidi MacDonald held the position for 14 years, and now cheerfully hands over the baton to Meg, as her focus shifts full time to The Comics Beat (after its recent acquisition by Syndication Comics). Read more about it HERE – and congratulations to Meg! Frank Santoro writes about Lala Albert‘s new comic Wet Earth – here on The Comics Journal. Jessica Campbell has a new comic up on Hyperallergic – A Gallery Worker’s Glimpses of Art Basel Miami Beach. Emil Ferris is the guest on episode 25 of Comic Book Decalogue – listen HERE. Whit Taylor picks a comic by Carta Monir to feature on Illustrated PEN – see it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— 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! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-15-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

Maggie Cheung from ITMFL by Kevin Wada

Chris Anthony DiazJuly 19, 2016The Diaz ArchiveMainstream comics high fashion cover artist Kevin Wada’s watercolored portrayal of Maggie Cheung as Mrs. Chan (Su Li-zhen) from graphic designer/photographer Wing Shya’s on-set photograph in Wong Kar Wai’s IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (2000, Hong Kong/China) for my ILLUSTRATED MOMENTS IN CINEMA/TELEVISION. The illustration was completed around Winter 2013 in ink and watercolor, and Kevin’s photo was taken at Comix Experience, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. And Graham Willcox did the color on Kevin’s portrait Share this page: [...]

New Waves in Latin American Comics: Colombia

Juan FernándezAugust 24, 2016los Cómics / Scene ReportsThis guest post comes to us from Laura Andrea Garzón Garavito in Colombia Every time I walk into a bookstore I try to check for the comics and graphic novel section. It might not be surprising given that in countries with a comic strip tradition, like the United States or France, there are bookstores entirely devoted to selling such products. In Latin America, places like Mexico and Argentina have given comics an important space among other literature, having both been large scale national creators and international translators of comics. Nevertheless, in many other Latin American countries comics and graphic novels are only just starting to be of common interest for publishers. Take Colombia, for example. Until not long ago, you could only find translations from mainstream comics, such as superhero ones by Marvel or DC, magazines brought from the above mentioned Mexico or Argentina, and sections in the newspaper devoted to translations of comics such as Calvin and Hobbes or Mafalda (an argentinian political cartoon icon). But there was not much regarding local production in Colombia. Until now. These days, in 2016, as I find so many new books, I feel glad this medium has started to find increased interest among readers. And since we have been building our very own national comics tradition, we have been looking to be eclectic in our selections. I find it interesting that the bookstores that have invested in bringing comics closer to the audience in Colombia, which is my case, have chosen authors with alternative works, who do not necessarily respond to the mainstream view of what comics “are”. That might be because this audience is still forming a definition of what comics can be and their readers enter this universe new eyes. In each comic book club I have been in, I have heard the speakers trying to broaden the perspectives of what such a medium can offer, and the relation that it has with other arts, like film, literature, poetry, painting, etc… An important part of expanding the national understanding of the many forms that comics take to have Maus in a shop window, side by side with El Eternauta, but is not enough. You might laugh at that, since Maus has been circulating for so long it seems impossible not have bumped into it. But I often think we are, in our very own parallel reality, in a point, similar to the one Spiegelman found himself when winning the pulitzer prize in 1992: where should we place this type of creations? where do we sell these works? Gary Groth, editor of Fantagraphics, publisher and critic, said in a conference held in Bogotá last year, he felt Colombia’s panorama looked pretty similar to the one he had seen in the United States in the 80’s, which was a time for alternate exploration of both markets and formats. That means thinking comics through various lenses, thinking audiences can be broader than imagined, not only kids or old-time series followers, but a whole spectrum of different ages, backgrounds, genders, and so on. In this scenario, underground comix hadn’t even seen Maus yet! Just like it happened here! For a long time creators, fans and editors had to research their sources for comics elsewhere, either traveling or ordering books, or maybe being able to find some online version of them. That network has enabled relationships between latin american authors in different regions. Communication through the internet has been a way of supplying for the gatherings: it has built a new kindof dialogue around the comics world. It has also made it possible to think of self-publishing in a different way. Circulation for your work has not been limited solely to printed fanzines but also from web-comics. What we have been seeing in Colombia has been a period of transition in which the alternatives avenues for creativity intertwine, giving artists chances of mixing them and creating hybrid works. However, the fact that the definition of what comics are and what they can do is a definition in construction means that the medium is till fight for legitimization. A fight to make comics be seem as a viable medium, not classified as secondary, as less than other types of narrative forms, or framed as for only some type of audiences (by editorials or entities in charge of financing new authors and their projects). It also means that there is a fight to find assure that there are market willings to support the production of comic books in Latin America. The very idea of trusting that this kind of publishing can be supported on a national level may be difficult from country to country. What might be easy for Brazil can be difficult in Peru or Colombia. Now, relations between Latin American countries can help to understand there is indeed viable market for comic books, but, according to Colombian comics critic, script writer and comics editor, Pablo Guerra, Latin America has always been an island in editorial terms. That’s to say Latin American countries have found it difficult to establish connections (even when it comes to traditional forms of literature) between themselves to develop strategies for mutual support, so they do not continue to be regarded as an appendix of Spain, as is done in other international contexts. On the bright side of such situation Daniel Jiménez (editor, cultural manager and director of the colombian comics festival Entreviñetas) notes that there is a healthy situation in the panaroma of Colombian comics: a new generation of cartoonists under 35 years of age. They are a group of hungry creators with a network of interesting cultural and artistic production in the comics medium. They understand that they need to be in dialogue with other cultural traditions, perspectives and tendencies happening in other places around both Latin America and the world. They are critical, they question their reality, they aim to create a dialogue through their work. Latin American artists work in and from the interstitial space between center and periphery, and that is reflected in their production. The fact that there is a young generation also makes it possible for relations around this new forms of making comics to be fresh and non-hierarchical. The idea is that among this demagraphic, it doesn’t matter where you come from but rather what you do and how you do it in comics, along with how you participate of the new channels of distribution. Here is a list of recommendations and highlights of the contemporary Latin American comics situation (Special thanks to Kelly Moctezuma, a young artist, editor and comics curator, for helping me out with this last section so you, dear reader, can enjoy the best of what we’ve got to offer): Hands up for the editorials publishing comic books and graphic novels. Graphic novels might be a difficult format for new readers, as a broad part of Latin American audience can be, as well as an expensive one, but editorials have found their way around this problem: Rey Naranjo and the recently launched Cohete Comics, part of Laguna Libros, and La Silueta in Colombia, Contracultura and Pictorama in Perú, Catalonia in Chile, La Ñatita in Bolivia, MINO in Brazil. Some kick-ass girls worth watching for that still struggle to make a living out of this like PowerPaola, Delius, Sole Otero, Isol, Inechi, Maco, Marcela Trujillo, No Sofía, María Luque, CatalinaBu, Juana Medina. Now some boys worth checking out (I mean, their work) like Luis Echavarría, Fabio Zimbres, Rodrigo de la Hoz, Camilo Aguirre, Henry Díaz, Alejandro Henao, Antolín Olguiatti, Jim Pluk, Joni b, Truchafrita, Pedro Mancini, Jesús Cossio, Marco Tóxico, Eduardo Yaguas. Publications that have (or had) underlined comics in Latin America are alive and growing: Revista Larva, Carboncito, Entreviñetas (which is a section in the national colombian newspaper El Espectador), Dr. Fausto, Graffiti 76% quadrinhos, Gringo Muerto. – Laura Andrea Garzón Garavito Share this page: [...]

01/16/2018

Aaron CockleJanuary 15, 2018NewsAaron today with Richard Hell; 2 from Liana Finck; The representation of the Spanish Civil War in North-American comic strips ————————————————————————————————— Richard Hell’s Small Press Publishing At White Columns: White Columns will host a small exhibition of Richard Hell’s 50-year history – 1968-2018 – as a small press writer, publisher, editor and designer. Hell, under his original name of Richard Meyers, began his first small literary magazine and press at the age of 17, shortly after arriving in New York City. The magazine was called Genesis : Grasp, as was the press. Genesis : Grasp ran for six issues (numbers 1-5/6, 1968 – 1971), and also released three authors’ first books and two folders of broadsheets. Richard’s small press endeavors have proceeded, under a variety of names (Ernie Stomach, Theresa Stern, Richard Meyers; Genesis : Grasp Press, Dot Books, CUZ Editions …), up through the present, in publications often typeset and printed, as well as designed, by Hell. ————————————————————————————————— A Loner’s Guide to Planning and Cancellation + The Distance Test Some recent work from Liana Finck. At Topic At Catapult ————————————————————————————————— Francisco Manuel Sáez de Adana Herrero on The representation of the Spanish Civil War in North-American comic strips. The 204th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018 at 7pm at The New School, University Center, 63 Fifth Ave, UL 105 (lower level). PLEASE NOTE NEW LOCATION. Free and open to the public. The North-American comic strip of the early twentieth century has manifested itself, on many occasions, as a powerful means of transmission of history. In that role, the form of reproduction is a determinant factor since the comic strips were published together with the news of the time and, for that reason, they had an audience of several million readers. Many times the comic strips played the role of showing the public what was happening outside the United States, especially in the years before Pearl Harbor, when American society was more concerned with what was happening within its own borders than with international events. This study shows how an event such as the Spanish Civil War is represented in the comic strips of the late 30’s and how this shows the American society’s position towards this conflict. Francisco Sáez de Adana is Professor at the the Franklin Institute of American Studies of the University of Alcalá in Spain. He works as a comic scholar, mainly focused on American comics, interested in that medium as a way to depict historical events. He has published five chapters in books, seven papers in Spanish and international journals, and several communications In international conferences. He imparted a seminar on Miton Caniff and American culture at the University of Salerno in Italy. He organizes a summer course on comics imparted in the University of Alcalá which is celebrated annually from 2014. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

07/01/2016

Posted on June 30, 2016June 30, 2016 by Aaron Cockle

Sally here – I’m in Honduras looking for Blue-crowned Motmots, Montezuma Oropendolas, and Lovely Cotingas (birds!)…as well as Honduran comics, so I’m handing the mic over to Aaron this week. Back with you next Friday! Take it away, Aaron.

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Thanks, Sally, looks like you’re having a nice trip! Today in the news we have Robert Kirby in conversation with MariNaomi; Smile Revisited; WE ALL WISH FOR DEADLY FORCE; Howard Cruse; mini-architecture; Austin English on the Risograph; PERSPECTIVE!; Secretimes; Drawing as Language Interviews; Mining the Moon

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“I Want Everything to Mean Something”: A Conversation with MariNaomi
I’m always categorizing cartoonists: there’s this pure storytelling school that I would put you in, alongside John Porcellino, Kelly Froh, people like that. It’s this type of storytelling where the fat is boiled down to a lean, spare-looking narrative. What’s called “deceptively simple.”
I feel like that describes my process, both with writing and drawing: I’m basically editing the whole time. But I don’t want to be spare just to be spare (or busy just to be busy). I want everything to mean something.

To meet the emotion of the scene or the moment?
Exactly. Once I was mentoring a student, who had this wonderful, personal story she wanted to tell about her family. It was a quiet piece, and that’s how she was approaching it. But some of her peers, her fellow students, were trying to convince her to draw all these very dramatic panels for it, which was causing her a lot of anxiety, because she didn’t think she could pull that off. And the thing is, what they were suggesting was completely wrong for this particular story! I think when you’re just starting out you might feel like “I need X, Y, & Z to tell a story,” but that’s not how it works! There’s no template. Every story has its specific needs. That’s what I learned from doing all those comics for The Rumpus, which became my book Dragon’s Breath. I learned as I went how to make each individual piece be what it wanted to be.

—via Robert Kirby at TCJ

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Raina Telgemeier’s Smile signaled a sea change in comics still felt today
At a glance, this feels like a pretty big deal for Telgemeier but not necessarily all that important to anyone else—just a personal success worth celebrating. But Smile has inarguably changed the way many people look at comics, and the way the industry itself approaches audiences. It’s not that there was no one else writing graphic novels for young women when Smile came onto the scene in 2010, but Telgemeier’s incredible success legitimizes comics as suitable for YA literature and YA literature as suitable for comics, at least to people who were paying attention to the number of copies sold.

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See trauma become art with hints of dark humor in ‘We All Wish for Deadly Force’
To say that Leela Corman puts much of herself into her art is an understatement. Most of her collected work here covers her own history, traumas, perspectives, feelings, and even humor. As she herself admits, her sense of humor is quite dark and she proudly wears her Jewish and Brooklyn heritage on her sleeve as inspiration for her work. Through her short stories, readers not only learn a lot about their creator, but also learn a lot about how trauma is experienced as well as genuine issues involving women in Egypt as well as those suffering from loss. Her style is simple yet effective, with plenty of detail in clothing, furniture, and backgrounds with plenty of realistic illustrations of people (especially herself). Her sense of color to establish mood is exceptional and evident in much of her work here. The entire graphic novel gives the reader many things to reflect upon afterward and sticks with one long after it has been put down.

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International Comic Arts Forum 2016 Artists Talk: Howard Cruse
Artist Howard Cruse‘s presentation at the International Comic Arts Forum at University of South Carolina on April 15, 2016. Cruse is the Eisner and Harvey award-winning creator of Stuck Rubber Baby, a founding editor of Gay Comix, and creator of Barefootz and the Wendel comics series.

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Japan opens its first museum for miniature architecture models

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New risograph zine by Austin English

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10 typical perspective errors
—via electricalice

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Keith Jones’ Secretimes is a Pleasant, Joycean Class War
Somehow, it’s not depressing, even with the rich murdering the poor for sport, probably because of the fun Jones seems to have drawing the thing. Nothing seems to mean much, but that keeps the stakes low, and the artist’s habit of filling every bit of space with some doodad or other is pleasant without becoming overcrowded. The result is like James Joyce’s riffs slowed down to a more manageable pace—a gifted brain unwinding for pleasure by extemporizing.

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Drawing as Language Video-Interviews with Cartoonists
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the international Comix-Festival, Fumetto, we will be showing interviews with cartoonists who coined our contemporary drawing culture. They speak of their drawing experiences and on topics such as «drawing as a language» and «visual narration».

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Matthew Thurber’s Mining the Moon
Essential 4th of July reading/viewing/listening.

The Comic

The Musical

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Aaron Cockle

Posted on June 30, 2016June 30, 2016

Explore

Hartley Lin Talk with Brian Hibbs at Comix Experience

Chris Anthony DiazJuly 6, 2018The Diaz ArchiveAfter his Young Frances (published by Adhouse Books) book signing, Brian Hibbs interviewed Hartley Lin for the Comix Experience Graphic Novel Club, San Francisco, Wednesday evening, June 13, 2018 Share this page: [...]

Kurt Ankeny on MICE Boston 2016

Kurt AnkenyOctober 31, 2016Festivals and ShowsWell, last night we wrapped up yet another lovely MICE Boston! MICE is my local indie comics expo, and it is the equal of any American event, as far as I am concerned. The staff, led by Shelli Paroline, Dan Mazur, Rebecca Viola (I couldn’t find a website!), Zach Clemente, and volunteers by the dozens, is the nicest and most attentive of any in the country, hands down. As cartoonists, we aren’t used to being spoiled by people coming around, asking us if we need snacks, food, or someone to watch our table while we take a short break. While other indie expos are starting to follow suit (CXC had a set of volunteers that were just as lovely as the MICE staff providing most of the same perqs, and Autoptic and CAKE provide lots of free snacks) I believe MICE was the first to provide this level of courtesy to the exhibitors, and it is the favorite show for lots of cartoonists for that reason. MICE consistently packs in a widely varied crowd, full of people from every age group and background. Part of this is the fact that it is held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has one of the most highly educated and diverse citizenries in the nation (it’s home to both Harvard and MIT.) But MICE just has some magic about it. The show has been steadily growing over the past few years. Last year, they broke the 3,000 attendee mark for the first time, and preliminary figures for this past Saturday’s attendance were over 1600, so they seem on par to keep that streak going. People are there to immerse themselves in the comics culture, and to buy, which is always helpful. There was a great representation of different cartoonists at the show. Featured guests included Faith Erin Hicks, the ubiquitous-in-2016 golden-boy-of-the-year Nate Powell, the French husband-wife team known as Kerascoët, local art-and-comics phenom Raúl the Third, Wren McDonald, Sara Varon, Jeremy Sorese, and Drew Weing. Kevin Czap was in attendance, fresh off their amazing weekend at CXC where they took home the Most Promising Talent grant award. Tony Davis of Million Year Picnic was there with his wife and son, selling comics and generally being the hub of the local scene. Nobrow had a table, Neil of Radiator Comics was there, the Boston Comics Roundtable was out in force, alums and current students from the Center for Cartoon Studies were down from Vermont, and several Comics Workbook folks were either tabling or wandering around the show. Comics on parade at the end of a long con season! Saturday was a blast. My new book In Pieces, debuting at the show, was a big hit, and I sold copies to lots of people coming up and telling me how much they had enjoyed the book on Comics Workbook’s Tumblr, and how they had been waiting to buy it! That was a great feeling. I had a great time tabling next to David Marshall, a local comics guy and someone I know from the monthly comics hangouts in Salem. David makes retro-homage superhero comics that are full of nerdy puns, references to UNIX coding, and Doctor Who in-jokes. He knows tons of people from the immediate neighborhood, and spent his time talking them up and accosting the attendees he didn’t know in the most jovial and pleasant way possible. David’s one of those guys who’s the life of the con. Someone truly at home among the comickers. To my other side was the lovely and talented Molly Dean, who makes webcomics and had several printed issues to sell. I waited too late to ask her if she’d like to trade, and she’d already sold out of all of her books! I will see her around though, and I’m looking forward to reading her webcomics at meedean.com. Saturday night, MICE puts on a free dinner for all attendees at Lesley University’s neighboring art gallery, the Lunder Arts Center. (They also provide bagels, cream cheese, donut holes and coffee each morning… I’ll stop talking about the free food.) While I would have LOVED to hang out with everyone, I’d been fighting a sore throat for the last week, and after talking all day, I knew my voice couldn’t handle small talk in a loud and echoing cement room, so I met my wife for dinner in Harvard Square and we had a quiet night. Meanwhile, the party there continued until 9pm, and then the various groups decamped for other venues and watering holes. Much to my chagrin, I missed what Mimi Chrzanowski described as a “magical” night of karaoke at Limelight, near Boston’s Chinatown. I know for sure that Kevin Czap and Cathy G. Johnson were there singing their hearts out. I assume that Dustin Harbin also made it. Sunday at MICE is Kid’s Day, and so the little ones made up a slightly larger percentage of the attendees than on Saturday. Kerascoët frequently had a line as they tag-teamed signing books with full-color sketches as the European cartoonists are accustomed to. I finally got to meet K.L. Ricks, whose illustration work and comics I deeply admire. I got to chat over breakfast with Maria Hoey, who is half of the brother-sister team behind Coin-Op books, and who I’d met for the first time at Autoptic in 2015. Maria’s looking forward to Comic Arts Brooklyn next weekend, and made me regret not taking up Whit Taylor‘s offer of sharing her table there this year. At noon, I was a guest at MICE’s new feature, the Cartoonarium, which is a little table set up to project your drawing to a screen, where people can watch cartoonists work and ask questions about their process. Zach Clemente came around to record a brief Twitter interview. First Cartoonarium of the day! We chat with @kurtankeny about his writing process! pic.twitter.com/bOaDRFRYg5 — MICExpo (@MassMICE) October 30, 2016 Sundays crowds had more ebb and flow to them that Saturday, but the sales were steady and people were engaged and fun to talk to, which is always the best part of a con. Since MICE was on the weekend before Halloween, costumes were in effect more than usual. I counted four girls and women dressed as Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service, there was a very well done Daphne and Velma from Scooby Doo, Saga seemed to be popular as I saw at least three separate groups dressed as various characters from that comic, and there were several low-key Steven Universes and even a person dressed as Neil Gaiman’s version of Death, complete with parade of people with rainclouds and a concertina. Thanks again to all involved in making MICE such a smooth and friendly and successful show for everyone! Until next year! Kurt Share this page: [...]

Art Trip: Little Black Dress

MardouJune 2, 2016Art Trip / EssaysI just wandered into ‘The Little Black Dress: from Mourning to Night‘ at the Missouri History Museum, not particularly interested in the subject at the get-go. Once I whipped out my pencil, I found myself getting kind of into it. It was popular, lots of people, mainly ladies, many of them dressed up on a Sunday afternoon. There was a nostalgic enjoyment in the air, like people window shopping, remembering old dresses of their own. People felt comfortable here. And it was fun listening into the conversations around me. I got asked some unusual questions whilst I was drawing (including “are you a pattern maker?”) (I also kept thinking of that line from Dan Clowes, whenever he’s stuck watching a boring film, he watches the clothes move and studies the folds. Good advice. Watch the folds.) My favorite part was the glass case containing the sewing machine and dressmaking tools. Suddenly I was thinking about my step-grandma, Ethel, who died a few years ago and of all the years she spent behind her own sewing machine. That special sort of concentration of cutting a pattern out of fabric, transforming the flat material to the body’s shape. When I was in college she reversed-engineered my favorite dress so I suddenly had three of them in different colors. People would ask me about those dresses whenever I’d wear one of them. ————————————————————————————————— Art Trip is a series that features reflections on art and comics, and the adventures that transform those who seek it out. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou is a Brit making comics in St Louis, Missouri. Sky in Stereo is her most recent comic. Share this page: [...]

11/15/2017

Juan FernándezNovember 15, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con Kat Fajardo; Juana Neumann, Delius y Clara Lagos en La Polola; Jordie Bellaire & Vanesa R. Del Rey; Ramón Esono Ebalé; Berliac; Victor Coyote y Mireia Pérez; Julie Doucet en Madrid; y los tebeos de Cómics Workbook! ————————————————————————————————— Spotlight on Kat Fajardo Over on No Echo Carlos Ramirez interviews Kat Fajardo, the winner of the 2017 Emerging Talent Award at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CxC), creator of comics such as Gringa! and the Bandida series. CR: What are the toughest aspects of what you do from a business standpoint? Are you constantly networking and reaching out to editors for gigs? KF: I think finding the energy to make art after working my day job is the toughest part of being a freelancer. Today, social media is insanely important for artists, but you would need time and consistently create work in order to make your online presence known. Thankfully, I work at a cafe in the mornings, so after work I chug down a red eye and work the rest of the night at my studio. The weeks before convention season are the hardest. Printing and assembling zines while working long hours is incredibly energy-draining! But it’s worth it once you get yourself to the convention. I love selling comics behind a table, you get to meet your readers, other cool artists and editors in person. I can’t stress enough the importance of attending comic and zine festivals as an artist, I’ve made great business connections that way. However, most of my recent networking with publishers have been made all thanks to my literary agent, Linda Camacho. Because of her hard work, I was able to work on cool projects like creating the cover for The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez, as well as a few more exciting projects coming up! Read it all here. ————————————————————————————————— 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 Juana Neumann, Delius y Clara Lagos acerca de sus inicios, sus vidas, sus primeros pasos en el cómic, nos contaron acerca de sus proyectos, sus referentes, su visión de la historieta, el dibujo y mucho más! If you’ve been digging Jordie Bellaire & Vanesa R. Del Rey‘s @VDelRey’s Redlands, check out PanelxPanel magazine #2 for 80+ pages of exclusive essays, interviews and craft pieces about the first issue. Equatorial Guinea Cartoonist Ramón Esono Ebalé now imprisoned without charge for 55 days. International cartoonists join call to #FreeNseRamon. ‘Berliac, el dibujante de cómic que reivindica el robo cultural como esencia creativa’ – Víctor Parkas habló con Berliac sobre Sadbøi PlayGrounder. Dibujar es pensar. Jorge Carríon escribe en @nytimesES sobre George Herriman y William Kentridge, las exposiciones del Museo Nacional Reina Sofia. En el último #FanzineMagazine Victor Coyote y Mireia Pérez entrevistan a Alfredo, premio nacional de ilustración. Colaboró también @miriampersand en Canciones para Dibujar y ¡hablamos de lettering! Puedes escuchar el podcast aquí. “Ferocidad e inocencia, actitud punk y costumbrismo, decenas de sueños transgresores y retazos de vida adolescente en toda su crudeza”. Palabras de @f__pimentel sobre Julie Doucet, que visitará La Casa Encendida en Madrid este sábado 18 a las 12h. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 11-15-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 11-15-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

10/24/16

Juan FernándezOctober 24, 2016NewsJuan here with Comics Workbook’s ongoing CXC and LICAF coverage; my own thoughts on strip cartooning; HTML Flowers’ No Visitors – Issue One; Anya Davidson interviewed by Paste Magazine; a shout out to Good Comics by Kim; The Economist takes a look at the power of comics journalism; a Pepe oriented call to action from Matt Furie; Robyn Chapman soliciting stories about challenges or financial woes tabling at North American comics shows; Comics Assistant Professor Job opening at CCAD. One week out and we’re still thinking about CXC on our end! It was a hell of a weekend. Reports and thoughts seeded by CXC have been coming in left and right. I’ve wrangled them all for your convenience. Check them out and if you like what you read, consider making CXC part of your comics adventures in 2017. Here’s what we’ve got for you: The collective blow by blow take on the CXC experience, think of it as a Master post, if you will! Sacha Mardou’s personal CXC adventures Juan Fernandez’s (me ;)) CXC-inspired thoughts on expanding the “comics festival toolkit”. Kurt Ankeny’s post-CXC thoughts Alyssa Berg shares her first convention experience Caleb Orecchio’s detailed and hilarious tale of his CXC experience CXC 2016: 3 Questions for the Crew ⚡Frank and Niall Breen have taken some time to reflect on their experiences in Kendal during the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. You can check those out here to find out why if you’re anywhere near the UK, you’re going to want to add LICAF to your comics appreciation schedule next year. The Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2016 report by Frank Santoro Niall Breen on LICAF 2016 ⚡ On my end, I’ve been thinking about 4 panel comics. A lot. Reading them, drawing them, teaching them… Through all those thoughts,one that I keep coming back to is that of openness of narrative. In today’s cultural landscape of fractured narrative and more broadly the idea of narrative collapse, I’m finding I’m interested in constellations of narrative. Non-linear experiences through a narrative world. Just as how comics creates fertile liminal spaces between panels, it’s my belief that comic strips have the potential to foster inviting spaces between individual strips. No large structures, just small moments. Some link together. Many don’t. Think Cul de Sac, Moomin, Macanudos. All that said, I’m excited to announce that come Mid-November I’ll have a weekday comic strip going live online. I tried the experiment of Daily Comics from 2013-2014. But I fell off that horse. That was at the Center for Cartoon Studies. After I graduated from the Center for Cartoon Studies I had to transition back into a more regular pattern of life. Life’s commitments made it very hard to find that time. I’ve used these past two years to work on different forms and to experiment with technique. I realized that when it comes to comics, I’m here for the bliss of creation. The strip is where I feel that bliss most strongly. I’m ready and I hope you are too! ⚡ It’s exciting to see that The Economist is running a piece on the power and vitality of comics journalism in the current news media environment. It’s great to see the ascendancy of work like Sacco’s and Glidden’s happen real time. Comics journalism is nothing new. It has been around for decades, kept alive by such talented artists as Joe Sacco, who has used the medium to depict everything from a war-torn town in the Gaza Strip to the Eastern Bosnian war. But it has only been in the last few years that it has really started to find its place in the mainstream media. The Nib, founded in September 2013, consists entirely of comics, many of which contain journalism and non-fiction. It has published more than 2,000 works on its website and released a popular 300-page book of its best offerings. The Cartoon Picayune has been around even longer—since April 2011—and showcases a variety of comics journalism online as well as in its yearly publication, which it offers to readers for $4. Even some of the more established publications, such as the New York Times, are making use of the format. In May, it published Patrick Chappatte’s moving five-part piece that takes an in-depth look at the lives of four death row inmates. It is surprising, in the age of tight newspaper budgets and the 24-hour news cycle, that comics journalism is thriving. Ms Glidden says it’s because “it can make people stop and take notice.” Everyone is constantly bombarded by so many images and text that they can simply grow numb to all of the information being thrown their way. It helps that comics journalism is still novel to many people; its format encourages people to take an extra minute to fully consider the information being presented. ⚡ I wanted to share a short and sweet letter from Matt Furie: Dear friends, I need your help making positive pepe the frog memes to battle against evil trolls: Please make a kid-friendly pepe in your style and send it to me at: hashtagsavepepe@gmail.com I’m creating a positive pepe artist database, so include your name. also, please share nice pepe’s with the hashtag: #savepepe thanks! -matt ⚡ Don’t miss this juicy interview with Anya Davidson over on Paste that goes into her work on Band for Life! Paste: I think that love for your characters really shows in the work. A lot of these characters—and it was what really struck me about School Spirit, which was the first work of yours that I encountered—already feel distinct and fully formed when you first meet them. I’d be curious to know more about your process, especially for something serialized like this. How much do you plan, how much just comes from working with them for a few strips, etc.? Davidson: I had a story arc for Band for Life, but I wrote the strips week to week. It kept the project fresh and spontaneous. Sometimes I’d write a few weeks ahead when I knew there was a thread I wanted to draw out. I had a lot of fun working that way. Lovers in the Garden, the book I just finished for Retrofit Comics, was scripted start to finish before I put pen to paper. And my next book is going to be fully scripted, too. For a graphic novel, in my case, just so I can keep everything straight, and so I can hone dialogue, I really prefer scripting. But the strip form uniquely gave me the freedom to improvise. Every cartoonist has their preferred methods—there’s no right way. As far as character development, all my characters are me. I went to see George Saunders speak and a woman asked him how he was able to write the adolescent girl so well in his short story “Victory Lap,” and he said, “Because she’s me.” I also think about people I know: their mannerisms and speech patterns and personal histories. So all of my characters have elements of friends, acquaintances and myself put in a blender. And I like to drop people into stories as they’re happening. I want people to feel like they’ve been dropped in a world that is fully formed—like the story started before they got there. I think that’s most engaging, most surprising. ⚡ If you’re a comics educator that is looking for a new opportunity, check out this job opening at CCAD – Assistant Professor – Comics & Narrative Practice, Illustration ⚡ I want to give the great Robyn Chapman of Paper Rocket Comics a signal boost for her “poll”. She is looking for your thoughts about challenges or financial woes tabling at North American comics shows. She does a great job at compiling small press and minicomics trends in her zine, The Tiny Report. Hey, micro-publishers. I’m looking for a quote or two about the challenges of tabling at conventions. I’d be happy to hear numbers or about financial woes. You can remain anonymous. Please PM me in the next few days if you’re interested. robertaraechapman@gmail.com ⚡ I want to give a shout out to Good Comics by Kim Joo Ha. <3 Kim’s always turning me onto the good stuff via their posts. Kim makes it easier to find art comics and wild zines in this crazy fractured hyperactive internet mediated comics landscape. What a godsend… If you don’t follow their twitter or the Good Comics by Kim blog, I’d check that out. I don’t know how they stay on top of everything, but that doesn’t keep me from appreciating their eye on comics or their writing… Don’t sleep on Kim! Until next time! Juan Share this page: [...]

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