Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Aaron Cockle

Posted on July 5, 2016July 5, 2016

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03/01/2018

Comics WorkbookFebruary 28, 2018NewsSam Ombiri here with Florent Ruppert and Jérôme Mulot’s Barrel of Monkeys! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I’ve been reading Barrel of Monkeys by Florent Ruppert and Jérôme Mulot. The rhythm is strong in this book. During those moments when we’re waiting for things to happen, and for the story to progress, the characters – even if they are standing still – are full of motion. There’s a real indication of life, and there’s an abundant amount of life in their words, too. In a lot of ways this book demonstrates that a little goes a long way. In the story with the man with a scarred face, we’re in claustrophobic small panels, and then suddenly a large panel (to emphasize distance). It adds to the ambiguity of what happens next. Before all that, there’s an amazing sequences where two Portraitists imagine how the man got all those scars, and the ending to that story is such an amazing question mark. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever read. This is one of those books where each strip is executed so well that I’m almost afraid to keep going through it, because there’s loads of material following that’s just as effective, if not more so. I’m afraid to take any strip for granted – I can’t stress that enough with this one. I was reading and reading, and then I felt I had to stop. I was bombarded with so many good sequences that it was almost nerve racking – plus the drawings are really excellent. The seemingly horrific moments didn’t nudge me to react in an obnoxiously specific sort of way, where it’s a detriment to the comic. The comic causes more laughter than anything else, with masterful execution. It doesn’t overreach, it doesn’t claim the darkness that it coats itself in as automatic lucidity. It doesn’t drown on it’s own self importance. Instead, it has a ball with it, and what’s found – be it profound or whatever – is left up to the reader. There are comics that I encounter sometimes, where instead of the comic saying “this character is cynical”, the whole comic is a character who is cynical. We end up being forced to hear from the author how amazing they are for being just so cynical and so insightful. I feel like certain cartoonists in the past have really pulled it off well, but it’s a relief to read Barrel of Monkeys, because the characters aren’t untouchable and witty – but at a distance but would obviously be more cowardly when confronted. The characters are often confronted, which is great. The characters are very comical, but also subdued. Their mechanical movements, and mechanical dialogue, reminded me of a funnier and more tragic Yokoyama. The disdain exhibited for each person is so compelling, and so intensely injected in every drawing and panel of this comic, that there’s a real beauty to it all. Lately I’ve been finding that the best practitioners of the medium are those who are deeply affected by the medium, and they can see what it is that affected them. With Barrel of Monkeys, it’s two collaborators, and reading the work they made, I can only imagine that it must have deeply affected them while making it, because it really affected me. In some comics, when I read them I sense this rush to get to a feeling, and instead of relying on the medium to get to this feeling, the reliance is being put more on the rush to the feeling itself. The comic seems to be constantly talking about what it could be, rarely taking a break to appreciate what it is right now, what it’s doing now. It seems like people are trying to establish (or reestablish) a canon of what one is obligated to respond to, in the midst of this movement of relying on the rush to get to a certain feeling, as opposed to the medium. I have mixed feelings about this. I’m not so much here to say what someone’s obligated to like, but at the same time I want to say that the success of Barrel of Monkeys is inescapable. As time goes on, accomplishment is being more and more being associated with recognition. Creativity has many enemies, and hunger for recognition might be the biggest one. So when I give a comic accolades for this reason it feels like I’m making a mockery of the work; because I’m not giving accolades for the sake of giving recognition. Real enthusiasm is independent of recognition. The success of Barrel of Monkeys is so inescapable that I’m not worried about making a mockery of it by giving it accolades. – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Vison Box – 3-1-2018 – by Cameron Arthur Share this page: [...]

06/21/2016

Aaron CockleJune 20, 2016NewsAaron Cockle with GG Comics; Aidan Koch Exhibiting; ELCAF Capsule Reviews; Susan Te Kahurangi King; Jason Shiga; Ink Brick 5; Hopper Process ————————————————————————————————— Unattainable by GG CW’s featured comic for this week, from 2015. All of GG’s comics can be read for free on her website (completed stories) and on her tumblr (in progress stories). ————————————————————————————————— The person you are trying to reach is not available Work by Aidan Koch & Ieva Kraule, at Hester Gallery in NYC, continues through July 3, 2016. ————————————————————————————————— Some quick reviews of comics purchased at the recent East London Comic Arts Festival Healy’s storytelling is superb. The book begins with a double page from each story, context free, before we travel back to the beginning of each. Gradually, connections emerge and the beautiful colouring does nothing to stem the slowly dawning horror as the conditions worsen. As the members of the 1921 expedition find themselves stuck on a deserted island, with crossing hundreds of miles of sea ice the only hope of escape, the discovery of bear skulls and the threat of scurvy reveal just how indifferent the friendly arctic is to humans. There are numerous brilliantly understated details throughout, and the fact that we know Blackjack has a sick child at home makes her plight all the more awful. This is a book with a strongly compelling narrative – the expertly timed switches between the three stories encourage you to keep going – and I found myself reading the book in a single evening. The artwork is terrific, with really effective use of colour, and although the influence of Chris Ware can be seen in the characters it’s certainly not to the extent where it becomes derivative. Healy is a very talented storyteller and artist, and this is a strong release. — via Pete Redrup ————————————————————————————————— THERE IS NO CENTER: Dan Nadel on Susan Te Kahurangi King at Edlin Gallery At first glance King’s drawings are unlikely candidates for the amount of press they’ve received, let alone a full-blown museum exhibition—we’re talking about small, cartoon-based pictures, all made using the same pencil-and-crayon techniques and often in scrappy condition. But compositionally, King’s pictures permit various points of entry, providing the viewer a license to interpret freely. We may recognize cartoon characters and humanoids, but the odd secret of icons like Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny, and Daffy Duck is that, embedded as they are in our cultural memory, they read however we want them to—invested with historical meaning or as hollow masks, purely formal agglomerations of shapes. — via Dan Nadel ————————————————————————————————— Jason Shiga Interviewed at TCJ Why did you choose Risograph printing for this series? What is your process like? I bought a Risograph printer because I wanted to do a two-color comic and it’s the cheapest option. I do also like the way it looks. It has that really warm, organic feel to it. And when the registration is just a little off, it looks really sweet. I do my penciling with ballpoint pens. If I make a small mistake I’ll just write an “x” through the line and draw another one. There’s no need to erase it since it doesn’t show up in the finished art anyways. I draw my pencils on letter size paper, I blow them up to ledger size on a photocopier, and then I lightbox those and ink them with a brush and a pen. That’s pretty much it. For lettering I print out the letters in Photoshop so I can adjust all the kerning and get that right, and then I just trace over that with a Micron. Then, I do my coloring in Photoshop and call it a day. Something that’s always attracted me about comics is that you can buy all the raw materials you need to get started for five bucks. There’s no reason you cannot be a cartoonist! — Interview with Jason Shiga conducted by Jeanette Roan ————————————————————————————————— Ink Brick Issue 5 INK BRICK is a journal dedicated to comics poetry. This issue features work by 29 creators using the visual language of comics to make poetry. There’s also a special section featuring an excerpt from a forthcoming collection of Jenny Zervakis’s mini comics work, to be published by Spit and a Half and the Sequential Artists Workshop. Featuring original work by: Louise Aleksiejew, Kurt Ankeny, Nicky Arscott, Colleen Louise Barry, Aaron Cockle, Letisia Cruz, Allie Doersch, Shawn Eisenach, Winnie T. Frick, Mike Getsiv, Dina Hardy, CB Hart, Jason Hart, Aurélien Leif, Courtney Loberg, Maxine Marie, Antoine Medes, Laurence Musgrove, Myra Musgrove, A. Noreña, Thilini Perera, Ellis Rosen, Sam Ross, Alexander Rothman, Samplerman, Alexey Sokolin, Deshan Tennekoon, Paul K. Tunis, Jenny Zervakis. Front and back cover illustrations by Samplerman. Submissions for INK BRICK no. 6 are due Sunday, September 4, 2016. ————————————————————————————————— How Edward Hopper Storyboarded ‘Nighthawks’ These drawings are among 19 studies for Nighthawks, brought together for the first time, in a revelatory show now at the Whitney. “Hopper Drawing” deploys 200 Hopper drawings—part of a trove of 2,500 bequeathed by the artist’s widow, Josephine—to showcase the role of drawing throughout his career, from his life drawing classes at the New York School of Art in the early 1900s, to his travels in Europe and Paris from 1906 to 1910, to the studies he made at the Whitney Studio Club and beyond. (After closing at the Whitney on October 6, the show will travel to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center.) — via Robin Cembalest at Art News ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

Spotlight on Laura Pérez Vernetti

Juan FernándezAugust 24, 2016los CómicsQuien es Laura? Unknown to most anglophones (and even many Spaniards), Laura Pérez Vernetti is a spanish illustrator from Barcelona that contributed regularly to the underground Spanish comics magazine, el Víbora, from 1981 until 1991. Her work is distanced from standard aesthetics and conventional narratives, focusing primarily on comics that deal head on with themes of erotica, experimental forms, and socio-politcal commentary (the Spanish Civil War in particular). Additionally, she has adapted the works of Maupassant, De Quicey, Jung and Kafka to comics. A heavy hitter. A more comprehensive bio can be found on the Lambiek Comiclopedia. Most recently she put out an homage to the Portuguese poet, Pessoa. A biography and adaptation of his poems and prose, she published ‘Pessoa & Cia‘ in December 2011 through Luces de Gálibo. Those spanish speakers among you, interested in learning more about this book, which she both wrote and illustrated can check out the short that RTVE aired in January of 2012, along with the article written by Jésus Jiménez. Here’s a taste of her work: Share this page: [...]

09/16/2016

Sally IngrahamSeptember 16, 2016NewsSally here with more on SPX, the Spanish Fever crew, Dash Shaw, Glynnis Fawkes, and Lynda Barry. ————————————————————————————————— Around this time last year I had just moved to New Mexico, and I was missing Pittsburgh desperately. I spent the weekend of Small Press Expo somewhat frantically composing my comic Walkabout (which is all about Pittsburgh) and watching the various small dramas of SPX unfold via meager internet updates. A year later I will be attending SPX myself, bringing copies of Walkabout with me, and also a car-load of special zines made by Comics Workbook for SPX and Fantagraphics‘ 40th Anniversary celebration. Quite the switch-up! You can get a copy of the “Fanta-zine” when you register at the show – and a copy of my comic as well as loads of other cool stuff from Frank Santoro, Andrew White, Juan Fernandez, Audra Stang, Emil Friis Ernst, and others at the Comics Workbook table – N8. Observe the nifty map below so that this info imprints in your memory bank: ————————————————————————————————— The workshops that Comics Workbook is hosting at SPX have created quite a buzz, and may set the stage for more programming along these lines at future shows. We are particularly pleased to be presenting members of the “new wave of Spanish cartoonists”. A portion of the talent behind the new Fantagraphics compilation Spanish Fever arrived in the D.C. area on Thursday, kicking off their US tour with a public talk at the Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain, moderated by José Villarrubia. “Asked if there was some stylistic through-line that characterized this new movement, Villarubia said, “I see the influence of American independent comics, the underground, the influence of French comics, Japanese comics. In terms of the art, the aesthetics are influenced by what everyone else all over the world is being influenced by. I think more and more people are reading comics online and have access to materials from many different traditions. This work is informed by that. The five creators who are coming are a really great sampling of that, with different styles and age and gender.” ” – via dcist.com Spanish Fever editor Santiago Garcia is joined by David Rubin, Javier Olivares, José Domingo, and Ana Galvañ as the tour moves on to SPX this weekend. You can catch them at a panel moderated by Matt Madden and then learn to make comics THEIR WAY at the Spanish Fever workshop session on Saturday, Sept. 17th at 3-5pm (Brookside A&B room). See you there! I could keep talking about SPX, but there will be plenty of time for that next week… ————————————————————————————————— Meanwhile, Dash Shaw’s film My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea is garnering praise from everyone who has seen it – No Film School sat down with Dash soon after the premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and dug into the production adventure: “NFS: The process of casting animators is in and of itself its own form of directing. Were you and Jane generally on the same page? How did you navigate when you weren’t? Shaw: Jane and I are married and we live together. When we were drawing this, it was a small apartment, so discussions from the movie would comically fall over into other aspects of life. It would be very long talks when there were disagreements about what a face would be like for a certain line. Somehow it would work itself out. Our marriage survived this movie. A great example: there’s a part where all of the characters are running and the background moves while they’re in silhouette. Jane does all the silhouettes. I did the collage paper that’s flying past them, and I think that’s a good moment to point to where it was Jane in full force juxtaposed with something that I did and it equals something that’s more than the sum of its parts.“ Read the rest of the interview here. ————————————————————————————————— Over on Mutha Magazine Glynnis Fawkes has a late summer harvest of comics about kids and adults and general weirdness. One such: Many more HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Lynda Barry has her 3rd New York solo exhibition opening this weekend at the Adam Baumgold Gallery. “The Marlys Show, from September 17th through November 5th…will be devoted to Lynda Barry’s beloved character Marlys, and will feature 80 original drawings. There will be work dating from the early appearances of Marlys in 1986 to watercolor drawings of Marlys from 2016, with stories from Barry’s books The Fun House; Come Over, Come Over; It’s So Magic, The Freddie Stories, and of course The Greatest of Marlys, which is being reissued this year in hardcover by Drawn and Quarterly. Also included will be many of Lynda Barry’s comic drawings that were published in Raw, The Village Voice, Esquire, Newsweek and The New York Times, among others.” -Adam Baumgold The opening reception is September 17th from 5-7 and promises to be a great party, although Lynda Barry claims she will be “smoking and drinking beer over in the corner and trying not to make eye-contact“…! More details about the show HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Today is the last day to apply for a spot in the fall semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – DO IT! ————————————————————————————————— I’ll bid you farewell till next week and a very happy weekend and leave you in the joyous grip of the Dom Flemons Trio (who swung through Pittsburgh on Thursday to make a special stop mid-tour at Copacetic Comics so they could get the new volume of Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor!) Cheers! Share this page: [...]

02/15/2017

Juan FernándezFebruary 15, 2017los Cómics / NewsJuan José con un poquito sobre Carla Berrocal; el fanzine de Chicks on Cómics de Argentina; lo nuevo de Berliac; #GRAFBCN2017; Gerardo Vilches; Desiree Rodriguez and #BeingLatinxInComics; La Polola on hiatus. Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Ya viene, ya llega. #GRAFBCN2017 a la vuelta de la esquina. GRAF is coming to Barcelona. Take note: they’ve has announced several workshops for their March 3-5 comics festival in Barcelona. Among them is a master class con Natacha Bustos y Javi Rodríguez. Sign up for their talleres HERE. Carla Berrocal, ha retratado la crónica negra de Madrid en La ciudad en viñetas, que se puede ver en CentroCentro Cibeles de Madrid hasta el 12 de abril. 150 chicas participaron con cómics sobre Arte, en el fanzine de Chicks on Cómics de Argentina. Ya se puede leer el Fanzine a la Carta! Berliac’s got some new comics on Vice – Asian Food Store Junkies – S01-E02 A match made in heaven, or the opposite? You decide… Gerardo Vilches, (uno de mis mis criticos preferidos!) ha compartido su repaso d lo mejor de 2016 (sí: el 15 de febrero de 2017) “Better late than never!” #slowcooking #greatcooking Desiree Rodriguez is compiling the work of the contemporary Latinx comics making community in North America, all together under #BeingLatinxInComics. Check it out and get hep to these artists, writers and critics. Know someone she should add? Want to add yourself? Here’s the submission form. Para que sepan: La Polola Podcast is on hiatus! Vacation is vacation. As Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo gear up for their new season they have a contest going while on vacation! Draw your favorite song and catch up with the podcast! It’s always a fun, relaxing and enlightening listen. If you haven’t tuned in to La Polola just yet, Póngale Play. ————————————————————————————————— En Venta: The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey. La gran Vanesa R. Del Rey le ha dado permiso a Comics Workbook para publicar unas selecciónes de sus cuadernos de bocetos. Hemos diseñado esta publicación para que parezca uno de esos libros de de artistas los años 80. Arte y Entrevista. El texto es una transcripción de la entrevista que hicimos con Vanesa cuando visito la Residencia Rowhouse en 2016. Vanesa es un artista impresionante y inigualable. Puedes comprar tu copia AQUI.Order a copy of The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey HERE. Frank Santoro, el director de Comics Workbook, nos cuenta un poquito sobre sus experiencias con Vanesa: Me encontré por primera vez con VRDR en un festival de cómics en Toronto (TCAF) en 2014. Había empezado a hacer comics profesionalmente después de un período como un animadora. Fui Sorprendido por su la capacidad de ser como un camaleón de cambiar de estilos, y por su puesto le pedí ver más de sus obras. Desenterró pilas de cuadernos de dibujos de sus días en Cuba, cuando estudiaba el realismo soviético y de trabajaba con George Pratt, maestro de cómics pintados. La educación de Vanesa como artista hace el balance suavemente entre los niveles alto y bajo del arte, así como los valores estéticos del este y el oeste. Es una base asombrosa. Ella es, a la vez, consciente de la historia del arte, la historia de los cómics y la historia de la animación de una manera NUEVA que casi parecía imposible hace quince o veinte años. Debo admitir como un estudiante y fan de cómics que se enfocan en la mezcla de “alto y bajo” y en ” los cómics pintados” — Nunca he visto tal mezcla de habilidades al nivel de VRDR. Feroz. Imparable. Un competidor feroz. Michael Jordan-esque? ¿Es eso posible en la fabricación de cómic? Siempre he dicho que habría un “invasor vertical” en los cómics que podría emplear el “naturalismo” de la escuela de Noel Sickles / Alex Toth pero que podría pintar como una Alice Neel o una Jenny Saville. Creo que “el invasor” ha llegado en forma de Vanesa R. Del Rey. Puedes comprar tu copia AQUI. Sigan a Vanesa por Instagram – @vrdelrey – y http://vrdelrey.com/ Suzy and Cecil – 2-15-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-15-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-15-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

07/05/2016

Posted on July 5, 2016July 5, 2016 by Aaron Cockle

Aaron Cockle with more of Gabrielle Bell’s July Diary; Barry Blitt Comics; Pablo Auladell; Mould Map 5; Julie Doucet; Nasreen Mohamedi; BUGS!

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Fireworks

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Barry Blitt at the New Yorker

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Behind-the-scenes with Pablo Auladell
— via altcomix via zencomix via capegrahicnovels

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Mould Map 5: Black Box
Concealment. Stealth. Unknown unknowns, black swans and sleeper cells. Conspiracy, tactical confusion and counter-intel (UFO narrative smokescreens). Greenwashing, industrial espionage and deceit (VW emissions hacking). Self-surveillance (voluntary driver monitoring for lower insurance premiums / health tracking for life insurance). Mission creep and stealth tax. Behind the scenes, hidden agendas. False flags, dark ops and black magik. Invisibility tech and the occult (hidden from sight), obscured, ambiguous. Invisible infrastructure and the technological sublime. Secret TTIP talks and shadow courts. Far-right extremist scapegoating narratives, deny complexity. Black as the baseline screen state, visions emerging from the darkness in low resolution. Mysterious crashes & disappearances. ‘The Truth’. Server centre as black box, to be embedded in the geological crust of the early Anthropocene, BIG data left to a distant future. Antwan Horfee, Ben Mendelewicz, Blue Firth, Brenna Murphy, Caley Feeney, Daniel Swan, Jonny Negron, Julien Ceccaldi, Lala Albert, Lando, Noel Freibert, Parker Ito, Travess Smalley, Viktor Hachmang, Yannick Val Gesto, Edward Shenk (Poster), GW Duncanson (Comic), Hugh Frost (Patch & Packaging), Leon Sadler (Patch & Black Box Zine)

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Reading Aloud with Julie Doucet
The story lines do not unravel effortlessly, nor do they always cohere. Instead, Doucet seems invested in pairing these word-image collages in order to get us thinking, and feeling, about what’s in front of us. The first three chapters, for instance, follow “Mrs. Jones,” a wide-eyed, full-lipped blonde. “Mrs. Jones is in love!” the title page declares in loose cursive, and what follows is a series of images featuring this whitewashed, perfectly coiffed figure, vacantly staring off into the distance. Whether pictured alone or alongside others, Mrs. Jones does not seem capable of making eye contact, of connecting with her surroundings. Despite the fervid declarations of love so often aimed at her — “Kiddie I AM Dust-resistance for you. ME Clean ‘Magic’ carpet love” — and despite the sentiments that Mrs. Jones at times allows herself to express — “he’s so like a, a roo BOO DOO So Good Me!” — the cumulative effect is of language, and posture, as dead weight. This is not to say the pages don’t draw the readers in. Carpet Sweeper Tales offers entertainment as well as commentary, and flipping through the book is an engrossing, if anti-nostalgic, walk down a memory-less lane. Reading through, and reading out loud, gives one the sense that Doucet is after a kind of lighthearted, feminist anti-fumetti: a montage that makes illegible, or even irrelevant, the submissive pout at the heart of these now fragmented stories and advertisements.
— via Tahneer Oksman at Los Angeles Review of Books

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Nasreen Mohamedi at the Met Breuer
Mohamedi mainly worked with gestures of pencil and ink on paper, experimenting with organic forms, delicate grids, and dynamic, hard-edged lines. Her cosmopolitan outlook enabled her to draw upon a range of aesthetic sensibilities, from the poetry of Rilke and Camus, as well as Indian classical music, to the modernist architecture of Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh.

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BUGS
The wonderful science-fiction social satire feature film, BUGS, made by Toronto conceptual art luminaries, Life of a Craphead, is having several screenings next week in New York! Please attend if you can!
— via Matthew Thurber

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Aaron Cockle

Posted on July 5, 2016July 5, 2016

Explore

08/09/2018

Caleb OrecchioAugust 9, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here briefly comparing my old comics with Trevor Von Eeden’s. ————————————————————————————————— I was flipping through my dad’s childhood copy of Black Lightning no. 10. Look at how professional Von Eeden’s work was at eighteen. It’s good, good enough to be published by DC. The work looks Golden Age-y at times due to the artist’s unwieldy ambition combined with solid, albeit still developing, drawing chops. I enjoyed this elephant charging scene. Hahahaha! I horse laugh when I consider the comics I was making at eighteen! Oh look, here’s one from my vault. This is from my high school newspaper. Probably late 2010 to early-2011. Don’t laugh. ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 8-9-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

02/14/2018

Juan FernándezFebruary 14, 2018NewsJuan starts the day off with Annie Mok’s “Pictures of Candy” and the arrival of Anomaly 26! ————————————————————————————————— Candy Says – Annie Mok on the journey making of “Pictures of Candy” Over on Rookie Magazine Annie Mok offers the long and winding story of the origins of a great interbiographic comic, Pictures of Candy, she made about herself and Candy Darling. It’s a good story on the struggles in creating the art we need to make, and the oftentimes surreal way that the pieces fall into place years after the struggle. It’s a good story on the power that of stories. In Annie’s words, “Stories change you, and you change the stories.” In 2011, feeling rusty on comics and wanting new direction, I took the cartoonist Frank Santoro’s comics correspondence course online. Because I knew Frank was from Pittsburgh, I thought he’d love the idea of me going to the Andy Warhol Museum in his hometown to see the letters, diaries, and photos that Jay Newton donated after Candy died of cancer. This was all Jay could carry out of Candy’s childhood home after interviewing her mother, following Candy’s death. In a heartbreaking scene in Beautiful Darling, Jay recounts that Candy’s mother burned the rest of her late daughter’s belongings in the hopes that the mother’s new husband, a very conservative man, would never find out that she had a trans daughter. Read the story here. ————————————————————————————————— Anomaly 26 A new issue of the literary journal, Anomaly, formerly Drunken Boat, is now out. The journal has had a history of editing a robust collection of comics. Challenging work, lush work, inspired work. Needless to say it’s an interesting collection of comics edited by Nick Francis Potter that highlights a wide range of artists cartooning poetics. In this issue you’ll find short works by Anapurna, Anja Wicki, Aya Kakeda, Hue Nguyen, Ishita Basu Mallik, Jennifer Lisa, Mark Ehling, Wenting Li and Émille Gleason. Make yourself some coffee or tea and hop on over to Anomaly’s site to check it out. ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! —————————————————————————————————Suzy and Cecil – 02-14-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

07/28/2017

Sally IngrahamJuly 28, 2017NewsSally here with Lale Westvind’s work at Printed Matter, Ellen Forney’s Virtual Memories, Fabulous “Flo” Steinburg, and more. ———————————————————————————————— You have just a few days left to catch the “Something Unusual Is Happening” show at Printer Matter – it is up until July 31st 2017. Featuring work by 15 international comics artists, it delves into experimental comics and the art of visual narrative. More details about the show HERE. Over on the LA Review of Books Megan N. Liberty writes about the show and features the work of some of the specific makers. “Lale Westvind’sJoan the Drone Pilot & Mary the Drone (2017), printed with blue ink on pink pages (except the cover which is red ink on cream), is the story of a world that exists in several dimensions, with those in charge controlling those trapped in the lesser plane for profit, until Mary arrives and attempts to escape. A heavy-handed metaphor for our use of technology, or technology’s use of us when in the hands of advertisers, it has a more traditional structure, with spreads divided into panels and text in word bubbles and boxes. But its dense imagery, heavy lines, and block shading, reminiscent of ‘70s and ‘80s pulp comics, make it at times visually dizzying and challenging.” Read the rest of the report HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Gil Roth of Virtual Memories sat down with another female cartoonist of note recently, inviting Ellen Forney onto the show for Episode 228. “The great Seattle cartoonist Ellen Forney joins the show to talk about comics, civic art, being bipolar, and the challenges of maintaining! We get into her 2012 graphic memoir,Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me, finding a graphic representation of her depressive states, the evolution in her drawing style, the letter she stole from Michael Dougan, the process of going from comics panels to enormous murals for a light-rail station in Seattle, the influence of the Moosewood Cookbook, the importance of a psychology stats class she took in college, how she learned to teach comics, the moment when she felt she was using all her artistic tools, and why she needed Kaz to design her back-tattoo!“ Listen HERE. I went back through some of the past episodes and bookmarked shows with Posy Simmonds, Leslie Stein, Jennifer Hayden and Summer Pierre, Phoebe Gloeckner, Glynnis Fawkes, and Karen Green. I’m sure there are more good ones to dig up as well! Check out The Virtual Memories Show every Tuesday for a new interview about books and life. ———————————————————————————————— Flo Steinburg, longtime secretary to Marvel’s Stan Lee, died this week. She was 78, and still fabulous. At the San Diego Comic Con 2017 there was a panel on “Women of Marvel” which understandably kicked off with a remembrance of Flo. Rachel Maurer reported for The Comics Beat: “Many of the panelists have worked directly with Flo at some point in their Marvel careers, noting that she was more than Stan Lee’s assistant – she was the original Woman of Marvel, someone who forged a path for female comics creators and whose legacy will continue to do so. One major indicator of this is the panel itself, a useful benchmark for progress in gender equality. Nine years ago Marvel had zero female-led titles, while this year’s panel had nearly 20 on the roster.“ Read more about how these women are walking in Flo’s footprints – HERE. ———————————————————————————————— New page from Iona Fox‘s Almanac – check out more of her work HERE and keep an eye out for her strips in Burlington, VT’s alt paper Seven Days. ———————————————————————————————— Supplemental “A Brief Appreciation” of Leslie Stein – by Ken Perille on The Comics Journal. Also on tcj.com – An Interview with Katie Skelly. Carta Monir on Process Party Episode 42 – HERE. Gabrielle Bell‘s July Diary is close to concluding – here’s Thursday’s offering. —————————————————————————————————— Here it is – get ready to comic your socks off – thee Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2017 has been announced! This year it’s a riff on the 6-panel grid, in the traditional North American comic book size – but with a twist! Full details HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-28-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-28-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/14/2016

HarrisonApril 14, 2016NewsDaily News for Thursday April 13 with poetry, storytelling, and casual. RVA Comics Spotlight: Eric Scott Pfeiffer! Humbly astonishing. Two words that come to mind when thinking of this fine sir. Before we get all gushy on how he great he is just check this out below…. Need I say more? So Eric has been here in Richmond, Va for quite some time. (there’s a whole crew that’s been here just spewing out good shit, but I’ll get to that in later news). He has a remarkable comic under his belt, “Arcadia”. Check that out! Here’s a link to his website, but as your checking that out. Put on some smooth tunes and just be amazed by his marvelous ideas: http://ericscottpfeiffer.com/category/illustration/ Last but certainly not least, follow him on social media because he’s got a couple secret projects worth looking out for! Speaking of tunes, this week will also be very Richmond inspired. I’ve got a joint here for you that no one should pass up. Jefferson Harris (not DJ Harrison, but just as good) and Robilu Gibson. These two do a fusion dance AND form *drum roll* SOLUHHH! (SoLuh). A powerful yet smooth beat-maker and a mesmerizing yet stern poet. Rob has been on television a couple times, so you might know his face. Jefferson has been playing all around Richmond, just killin’ the scene with lovely tunes. Together they create a smooth, striking junction of poem, similes, and beats. But that’s enough yappin’ from me. Check them out below. “Incredible Heat Machines” https://soluh.bandcamp.com/album/incredible-heat-machines As always remember to drink water! Take a break, relax. https://youtu.be/9PcJR5MWrzc Storytelling 202 “But John don’t you think that people make a distinction between a story that is true and a story that is imagined or invented? I’m always struck by the fact that there is a kind of ambiguity in the very notion of storytelling. On the one hand we think of storytelling as a truth telling activity, “Tell me the real story”. We think of stories as bringing information, we think of stories as revealing secrets. But we also think of stories as, “That’s only a story!” or “Don’t tell me stories!”, meaning don’t tell me lies, and don’t you think at the very center of the whole enterprise of storytelling there is the fact that storytelling is an activity that faces in two directions. On the one hand is connected to the idea of truth, on the other hand it’s connected to the idea of invention, imagination, lies. One is thrilled by the story precisely because it describes something that can’t happen, it’s connected with fantasy.” -Susan Sontag. Listening to this discussion twice and still running out of paper for notes, maybe the thoughts can come in handy for other artists as well. Special Announcement: Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency Fundraiser Auction ebay.com/sch/copaceticcomicscompany/m.html?_trksid=p3692 **PLEASE NOTE: The Copacetic Comics Company is managing this auction on behalf of Comics Workbook.** This is a BENEFIT AUCTION for the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. It is part of the ongoing fundraising campaign to get the Rowhouse Residency up and running and serving students. All proceeds of this auction are going to Comics Workbook to defray the expenses involved in realizing this goal. This auction is a continuation of the now completed Rowhouse Residency IndieGoGo campaign and other fundraising efforts. The eight items donated to The Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency Fundraising Drive by one Mr. Chris Ware. Each item in this auction has been hand packaged and signed by Mr. Ware and was shipped by him directly to Comics Workbook for the purposes of being auctioned here to raise funds for the Rowhouse Residency. Comics Workbook would like to express our profound gratitude to Chris Ware for his support of the Rowhouse Residency. ebay.com/sch/copaceticcomicscompany/m.html?_trksid=p3692 Featuring Jim Rugg | jimrugg.com/ Video by Michael Pisano | michaelpisano.com Soundtrack | Johann Sebastian Bach // Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, BWV 43 – 7. Aria: Er ists, der ganz allein // performed by Michel Rondeau John | McCoy | Jimmy | Elvin Share this page: [...]

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Comics WorkbookNovember 13, 2016Santoro SchoolHere at Comics Workbook we’re testing a new type of learning institution for comics-making. We are committed to: the exploration of comics as a community form, rather than as a commodity form. creating a hub for comics-making and writing about comics-making that emphasizes the healthy growth and development of its contributors and readers. maintaining a space for makers by makers. Got something you want to contribute? Email me at juan@comicsworkbook.com. I’d love to hear about what’s on your mind. – Juan Fernandez, Managing Editor Share this page: [...]

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