Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Juan Fernández

Posted on July 12, 2017July 12, 2017

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10/23/2018

Aaron CockleOctober 22, 2018NewsAnne Carson; Boiled Angels; Gabe Fowler; Mary Ann Caws ————————————————————————————————— “Flaubert Again” Anne Carson has a piece of fiction in the most recent New Yorker issue: Once, she and Martha had gone to Greece together, to an international writers’ conference. While they were there, she’d renounced writing. Instead, she made sketches in a sketchbook and titled it “The Glass of Water,” as if that were what everyone was looking for, a glass of water in Greece, not a different kind of novel or some not-stupid sentences. The sketches were a bit cartoonish but loving. We see the glass of water disappearing up the stairs with a Russian poet. Or gripped fast by a Turkish Cypriot novelist (who has poured it into two glasses). Or lost by a Spanish writer behind a mountain of toast at the breakfast table. She found toast difficult to draw convincingly, from a side view. Drawing the Peruvian poet, on the other hand, who claimed to have videotaped his llama drinking from the glass of water, was a joy, as she already knew how to draw llamas. ————————————————————————————————— Color Giants – Cinema Comix Expo 2018 The third year of the free Color Giants Expo moves (temporarily) away from animation to feature two events featuring iconic underground cartoonists. Nov. 10th at 7pm is the second-ever NYC screening of the 2018 feature documentary Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana directed by Frank Henenlotter (Basket Case). The titular Mike Diana (“Boiled Angel”)—the only artist in US history convicted of obscenity, whose legal battle is the subject matter of this important film—will be present for a Q&A with director Henenlotter. Nov. 11th at 8pm are new programs of occult-related films, with a live Q&A and tarot readings with cartoonist and witchcraft-enthusiast Dame Darcy (“Meat Cake”). Films will include works by Dame Darcy and Lisa Hammer, Zev Deans, H.R. Giger and more. Programmed by Kenneth Filmer as part of the Brooklyn Fire Proof Screening Series in association with Comic Arts Brooklyn and Robyn Chapman. Both programs are free. Address: Seltzer Room Studio 3 at 102 Ingraham St., Brooklyn, NY 11237. (Two blocks from L Train at Morgan Ave.) This program is for adults only, and no children will be admitted. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Do you keep up with the comics news–and what does the term “comics news” mean to you?’ Gabe Fowler is interviewed over at TCJ: What gets you most annoyed about comics right now? I try not to sustain annoyance. There’s a lot of regrettable beating-of-dead-horses in comics, and the horse-beaters need to grow a brain or get out of the way. Let me say this: if you look at comics history or comics present and are troubled by problematic material or problematic creators, THAT’S GOOD. When you spot a problem, that’s the world telling you it’s your turn to correct it. This is literally why I run a store. All the other stores were full of stale garbage, run by assholes, had no sense of style, and were always playing shitty music. I realized it was my duty to address these problems and try to find a better way. ————————————————————————————————— The Art of Interference: Stressed Readings in Verbal & Visual Texts I recently started reading this book, by Mary Ann Caws, published in 1989. Here’s a bit from the introduction: Marc Shell, in his Money, Language, and Thought, points out the limits of our institutions of philosophy and criticism, given our more than complex relation to economy, exchange, and coinage, particularly in America. Our money complex and our frequent refusal or incapacity to separate the interrelations of coin and paper, cash and symbol, investment and expenditure, are themselves bound up with our production of writing and our theatricalized productions of textual interpretation, with our reading and our perception of all the former. To expand on this thought, then, could we not imagine that what we institute in our thought and speech, and are likely to have instituted, is bound and limited, even as what we think we are defending nationally is the freedom of thinking and discoursing against what would bind and censor? ————————————————————————————————— 10-23-2018 by Niall Breen ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 10-23-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/14/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 13, 2017NewsSally here to wrap up the week with new work by Ulli Lust; an Easter Comix reading at KGB Bar; a conversation with Carel Moiseiwitsch; a look at Saving Grace; plus much more! ————————————————————————————————— Ulli Lust has printed up a small comic that collects the strips she has been making for the magazine EXBERLINER. She will have copies available at TCAF in May! Meanwhile you can read the strip HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out the Annual Easter Comix & Graphic Novel Night on April 16th, 7-9PM at the KGB Bar in New York City. Five local cartoonists will offer slideshow readings that are “sure to entertain, bewilder, and amuse.” Co-hosted by Robyn Chapman and Robin Enrico, the reading will also feature Lauren Barnett (some of her work is pictured below), Jim Campbell, Ada Price (above), and Kelsey Wroten. ————————————————————————————————— RJ Casey interviewed 76-year old Carel Moiseiwitsch for The Comics Journal this week. Carel was born during the Blitz, and her first memories are of playing in the rubble of London following the war. This is probably why she drew, as RJ Casey puts it, “dangerous comics“. Among many interesting stories about hanging out with the Rolling Stones and getting drunk with Francis Bacon, plus the complexities of making art and raising kids, Carel answers a question posed by RJ Casey that I’ve been thinking about almost constantly for the last year: “I was thinking about your era of comics and how many fantastic artists just drew for a couple years, then got out completely. Or ones that went into fine art and never made comics again. Why do you think that time period of the late ’80s to early ’90s had so many artists like that? It’s not fruitful and it requires such hard work. Also everything became kind of corporate. It’s very hard to survive in that kind of atmosphere. Where I came from — London and Paris in the ’60s — you could go there and draw, record music, and create art, then shuffle around to the cafes and have a drink, meet up with friends, write poetry, or whatever it is you wanted to do. People took you seriously without you having to be famous or successful. You just had to be true to yourself. But now it’s like if you’re not famous or successful, you’re nothing.“ Carel has continued to make comics and other artwork, has worked as a teacher, and has spent a lot of time turning her attention to mental health activism. The whole interview is fantastic and it’s a real treat to get a look around Carel’s head space – she’s a powerhouse. Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— A good friend of Comics Workbook and her fellow artists are in need of your signature – Naomi Nowak (painter/jeweler/fashion designer extraordinaire) is in danger of losing her studio space. “sad news! your signature is needed. me and my artist friends/colleagues are being evicted from our beloved studio space in stockholm, pannrummet (the boiler room). it’s practically already a done deal and we haven’t been given a fair chance to have our say or be part of the proceedings around this. so this petition is our very last, desperate plea to our landlords that they reconsider their decision and let us continue to work and create in the space we have loved and cared for. last year we renovated the place and built a bar + showroom where we have barely had time to show art and host exchanges, something were very much looking forward to. please sign to save studio pannrummet! we’ve never disturbed our neighbour and all 9 of us are now without a studio #savepannis“ Sign the petition HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Saving Grace by Grace Wilson just turned up at Copacetic Comics – it was published late last year in England. The Guardian has a review of it that should spark your interest: “Saving Grace is, first of all, a brilliant commentary on the housing crisis. Its author, Grace Wilson, knows all about the queasy feeling that comes with not knowing where you will soon be sleeping, and the way it affects everything – everything – else in your life, from work to relationships to, ultimately, your self-confidence. But it’s so much more than that. It’s hilarious, not only about rapacious landlords and their creepy ways, but about friendship, work, holidays and sex, too. It’s hard to imagine a funnier scene than the one when Maxine, drunk and having rowed with her boyfriend yet again, makes the mistake of going home with an Iggy Pop-alike who wants to spank her with a bit of precious rock memorabilia (“Did I ever tell you about when I used to roadie for the Who, Max?”). On the tube, where I read it, people looked at me warily, this sniggering woman with a large rainbow-coloured comic book in her hands.” – Rachel Cooke Read the rest HERE. Get a copy of the book at Copacetic Comics! ————————————————————————————————— I thought Lauren Weinstein‘s strip in The Village Voice this week was particularly funny – but maybe that’s because I am increasingly of the opinion that cats are the cartoonist’s true enemy…! ————————————————————————————————— Scallions or Chives The winners of 2017’s Cartoonist Studio Prize are Eleanor Davis for Libby’s Dad (Best Print Comic) and Christina Tran for On Beauty (Best Web Comic). A recent New Yorker cover illustration is being reproduced be female surgeons around the world – check it out HERE. Katherine Collins will be inducted into the Giants of the North hall of fame this year – and the nominee list for the Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning includes Julie Doucet among others. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-14-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-14-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-14-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

05/21/2018

Caleb OrecchioMay 21, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with some tired thoughts and other news. ———————————————————————————— The above is my the only drawing I could muster last night. I was hoping to bust out two pages of a comic I’m working on (I’m trying to catch up to my self-imposed schedule), but despite my ambitions, I couldn’t even finish copying two warm-up drawings. I kind of burnt myself out after two weeks of non-stop nightly comic book making and was practically bed-ridden all of yesterday. It was difficult to even talk to myself my brain was so fried. “I’m looking for a place that will collect my commission, sell my dog, burn my bird, and sell me to the cigarette” was all I could say all day. Even as I write this, I realize I’ve been sitting at my computer for hours just looking at the screen contemplating coherent sentences. Did you all see the PTA movie, Phantom Thread. I won’t spoil it for you, but any cranky, overworked workaholic would find some catharsis in watching it. I nearly wept at the end. Anyway, look at these Ditko panels above. Every time I look at Ditko’s Spider-Man, I am reminded of just how inventive he is. I remember some Frank Miller interview where he says that Ditko is a great anatomy study. He’s right. Even at my tired and burnt out state of mind, I can appreciate the majesty of Steve Ditko’s web-slinger. No wonder Spidey was such a hit. No one had ever seen anything like Spider-Man in comics before. Have you thought about that? Just how unique Ditko and Kirby’s visions were, and still are, compared to the competition! It’s fascinating. ———————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Hey hey hey, Robin McConnell talks to Eddie Cambell over on Inkstuds. Rob Clough reviews Jessica Campbell’s book, XTC69. Last but not least, Alex Dueben talks to Tim Truman over at TCJ.com. ———————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-21-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

01/26/2016

Juan FernándezJanuary 26, 2016NewsNews 2/26/2015 Julia Wertz gives a little tour around through her Studio apartment where she lives and works in Greenpoint, NY. Full of the oddest of ends, it’s a bonafide curiocabinet. It’s always nice to have a little more insight in the life of Wertz. Conor Stechschulte gives a solid walk through of the process of producing his most recent comic, Generous Bosom 2 on Breakdown Press’ blog. From planning to color separating, Conor goes through it all. An important read for those who wan’t to understand composing comics for print. Most of what you’ll see here I developed in the making of the first volume of GB. The idea from the beginning has been to make the book in a manner that builds in layers of editing and to allow for further editing by using (mostly) the same grid. This way, I can move panels around or chop two pages in half and graft them together, things like that. Nick Drnaso‘s Beverly is officially now out and available for you to bring to the warmth of your home. Nice preview of the work over at the AV Club. VICE has got the comics you’re clamoring for. Julian Glander, Steven Weissman and Leslie Stein. Jump on in! Share this page: [...]

01/30/2017

Sally IngrahamJanuary 29, 2017NewsSally Ingraham here to start the week off with news out of Angouleme, highly anticipated comics of 2017, new work from Noah Van Sciver, comics by Leah Hayes, Gabriella Tito, and Caleb Orecchio. ————————————————————————————————— “The Paste Comics Crew” has a new list for us – this time it’s the 35 Most Anticipated Comics of 2017. As they enthusiastically put it: “…a metric ton of sequential art gold is scheduled to hit shelves. Curiously, our list is light on mainstream capes and cowls despite the genre’s outstanding frequency. Instead, a slew of other genre and indie work has us feverishly thrilled. A new adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods will transition to panels, helmed by the author’s Sandman collaborators Craig P. Russell and Scott Hampton. The sci-fi corner will embrace a deeper shade of nihilism via James Stokoe’s Aliens: Dead Orbit and Jonathan Hickman’s delayed Frontier—a return for the creator to design-driven illustration alongside his winding plot development. Michael DeForge, Jillian Tamaki and Eleanor Davis will debut new projects and collections that will probably make our best of ’17 list (let’s be honest) and C. Spike Trotman and Jess Fink will continue to show why comics are the new home for female-friendly sexuality. Speaking of: don’t even get us started on the untitled Fall surprise from Tula Lotay and Becky Cloonan. We’ve also included a few early-to-mid January releases that are definitely worth your time.“ Check out the whole list HERE. ————————————————————————————————— There will be a lot more buzz this week about the 44th Angouleme International Comics Festival, but beating everyone else out of the gate is this fantastic story about the first South Korean cartoonist to be honored with a prize from the festival. Ancco, (the pen name of Choi Kyung-jin) was awarded the Prix Revelation for her comic Bad Friend. The festival has served in recent years as a gateway for Korean comics to find their way to European readers. The festival organizers, who had nominated Bad Friend for the Best Comic Book award as well, wrote that Ancco: “…paints an uncompromising picture of Korean society torn between tradition and modernity, haunted by the ghosts of history and shaken by Western materialistic civilization.” They also said of her work: “She appears as the spokesperson of Korean youth’s malaise through a cartoon centered on the daily lives of teenagers. Freeing the long-repressed language of Korean youth, it has become a reference for a whole generation.” – via The Korea Times Winning the Prix Revelation – which is given to up-and-coming cartoonists who have published no more than three comic books in French – will garner Ancco attention from all over Europe. She spoke to the Korea Manhwa Contents Agency (KOMACON) about the experience of being at the festival this year and winning the award: “I used to consider myself to be someone who led a weird, lonely life in Korea. But now I am here. This is, I think, the power of comics… My particular thanks to Kim Dae-jung, CEO of Sai Comics, who introduced me to the festival and told me, ‘You are not the only strange one. There are so many people like you out there.’ ” – via Yonhap News Bad Friends, or Mauvaises Filles as the French edition is titled, will hopefully make it into English someday soon. Meanwhile, you can see more of the book HERE. And a bit more about the author can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— In somewhat related news: Posy Simmonds (who was president of the jury at the 44th Angouleme International Comics Festival) is working on a new book about a “fat, rich, greedy, stupid and criminal” member of the British upper middle class, according to the Malay Mail Online. Posy Simmonds is the author of Tamara Drew and Gemma Bovary (both of which have been adapted into films). She was recently nominated for induction into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. Now aged 71 and able to draw for only 10 minute spurts, she nevertheless says the book is “well advanced” and I am hopeful that we will get a peak at it soon. Good luck Posy! France 24‘s Olivia Salazar-Winspear spoke to Posy Simmonds recently about her well-known work, about presiding over the jury at Angouleme and the increase in comics festivals, about women making comics, and about the good handbags that French ladies have…! It’s delightful. Check out the video HERE. Here’s a bit more about her adventures as the president of the jury at Angouleme – if you can read French (or are willing to pound that Google translate button and wade through it!) ————————————————————————————————— There is an article about the comics newspaper RESIST! over on Hyperallergic with a lot of scans of the pages – good news for those of you who didn’t managed to get your hands on a copy of this already rare item. ————————————————————————————————— The New York Times has hurt a lot of feelings recently with the announcement that they are discontinuing their graphic novel bestsellers lists. “The Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul confirmed that the paper will discontinue a number of its lists, including Hardcover Graphic Novel, Paperback Graphic Novel and Manga, effective Feb. 5. The sense of loss among authors and publishers, readers and retailers is profound.” – Michael Cavna for the Washington Post Despite some tweets that seem to indicate that Pamela Paul has a poor opinion of comics in general (I’m referring to comments that she made about John Lewis’, Andrew Aydin’s, and Nate Powell’s March which began with “hey, kids” and finished by calling March a “children’s book“), she has gone on to say that cutting these lists will allow the Times to actually expand its “graphics-book coverage.” We’ll see about that. Over on The Comics Beat Alexander Lu puts the ramifications of this bluntly: “The fact that comics had a bestseller list devoted to them was a symbolic sign of the medium’s importance to one of the nation’s most respectable media outlets and their importance to the nation at large. Moreover, there are few stronger marketing loglines than “New York Times bestseller.” While the Times is foremost a media outlet and not a marketing firm, the way their endorsements affect sales and popular discourse cannot be ignored. The decision to eliminate these lists will have implications for our conversations and our bottom lines.“ It’s hard not to be annoyed by this whole thing, especially when Pamela Paul piles the graphic bestseller lists on top of other “genre” lists that the Times has been planning to cut since last year. COMICS ARE A MEDIUM NOT A GENRE! For the millionth time…come on, people. More about the cuts HERE on the Washington Post. ————————————————————————————————— Meg Lemke presents Leah Hayes’ Not Funny Ha-Ha for the Illustrated PEN. Read Meg’s thoughts about the comic and an excerpt from it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Noah Van Sciver has a new weekly strip in Columbus Alive called The Introvert Club (above) – check it out! Noah has been serializing his own graphic memoir nearly everyday via his Patreon – it is called One Dirty Tree and is “about growing up in a poor, unsteady Mormon family and its affects 20 years later in my life trying to hold together a relationship of my own and while making a name for myself in alternative comics.” You can see a 3-page excerpt over on his website – HERE – but to read the rest, consider supporting Noah’s Patreon. He is one of the hardest working cartoonists you’ll ever meet whose work is consistently funny and heartrending. I hope he continues making them forever – and it would be nice if he could have a real live cat someday…! ————————————————————————————————— Bits and Bobs Jack Mendelsohn, creator of the brief but brilliant comic strip Jacky’s Diary (1959-1961), among many other comics projects, past away on Jan. 25th 2017. Dan Nadel writes about Jack’s life and work over on The Comics Journal. Rob Clough wrote about Marnie Galloway’s mini-comics on High-Low last week. Heidi MacDonald says (via The Beat) that the TV show Riverdale, which is based on Archie comics…is pretty good. Should we try it out? Tom Spurgeon is updating his massive list of “all things comics-related by metropolitan area“. Last updated in 2014, it needs a careful overhaul – help Tom out HERE. There is an Instagram account devoted to “showcasing the most beautiful scenes, colours, sets and abstract compositions of The Simpsons.” Juan Fernandez showed the account to me and then riffed: “No cropping involved – just screen capping (moments chosen as opposed to aspects of moments chosen). It’s more about what is latent in The Simpsons than how the person curating this blog has chosen to present and eliminate – i.e. these compositions have all passed in front of viewers eyes, and to me that’s interesting.” Check out @scenic_simpsons. ————————————————————————————————— Needed: more comics in the world. If you want to make comics but you don’t know how to start, consider a crash course in the methods of the Santoro School – check out the handbook HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-30-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-30-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

07/12/2017

Posted on July 12, 2017July 12, 2017 by Juan Fernández

Empezamos el día con Jaime y Gilbert Hernandez; Amanda Mijangos y Armando Fonseca en La Polola;Klari Moreno; Cornet; Begoña García-Alén; E. Muñoz y CuCo 8; y los tebeos de Cómics Workbook!

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Punk, Latinidad, & Reviving Their Seminal ‘Love and Rockets’
Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez talk shop over on Remezcla:

It’s like people were waiting for it. Latinos have been thirsty for that kind of representation. What I don’t understand is why, after 35 years, representation is still a problem. Do you have any ideas about why that is?
Jaime: I think there’s a hell of a lot more Latino creators than I knew about back then. They’re doing it their way, some differently than I would. Which is cool. Everyone’s got their own view. I think the problem is still when money is involved. Whenever money is involved there’s going to be stereotypes. Everything is going to be done to please whitey. Money is going to steer you toward the money – and who is the 1%? You find out that the people in control of the TV studio or the movie studio or whoever is paying the check for this art – they don’t care. They don’t care about other cultures. When they find out that, “Oh well golly! Lots of Latin people spend money on our product” they don’t know what to do! The bottom line is when money is involved someone is going to get shorted.

You’ve said, “The more ethnic I am, the more attention I get.” Why do you think that is and why does it work?
Gilbert: I think I become more truthful when I get closer to who I am and where I’m from. I can tell a more truthful story and even a funnier and darker story because I’m just reflecting who I am. There’s a small element though, I hate to say, [which is that] is it’s safe for non-Latino readers. It’s on paper. The characters are drawings. They’re not a threat. When it becomes a pop singer or actress or actor, they’re in your face. That’s a real person there. I think [real life Latino characters] are a little tougher to take for some people.

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Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana:

Jueves 3 de Agosto – Evento para recaudar fondos para el 2do Encuentro de Fanzineras. Santiago de Chile/Metro Irarrázabal. Organizado por @Comiqueraschile .
Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con Amanda Mijangos y Armando Fonseca, dos talentosos ilustradores Mexicanos. Hablan acerca de su trabajo, la importancia de buscar una mirada propia en la ilustración, la experimentación, la relación con los editores, sus proyectos personales y el proyecto que los trae a Chile, la obra de teatro “Risas de Papel” que estará en cartelera en Teatro Ictus, donde ellos hacen ilustración en vivo que dialoga con el actor.
Un toquecito de historia: Cornet, Dibujante Catalan del siglo XX, fue uno de los artistas más populares que se formó en ‘¡Cu-Cut!’ – Humoristan.org les ofrece un vistazo a su vida en imagenes!
Véte de cañas con Klari Moreno en Madrid con su entrevista en Segundo Premio. Moreno: «Defiendo la autoedición como acto político»
Hay nuevo número de el espectador de Begoña García-Alén. El mejor de la serie, sin duda!
E. Muñoz les ofrece un tronco de ensayo en CuCo 8:“El cómic como lenguaje visual híbrido y su vigencia en la era digital contemporánea”.

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Suzy and Cecil – 7-11-2017 – by Sally Ingraham

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Joanie and Jordie – 7-11-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, News

Juan Fernández

Posted on July 12, 2017July 12, 2017

Explore

The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen

Comics WorkbookMay 22, 2017EssaysRM Rhodes presents commentary on The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen by Jorge Zentner and Ruben Pellejero ————————————————————————————————— Jargon is awesome. Comics has a lot of it. One of the more interesting terms is the artistic technique of spotting black areas. This is often shortened to “spotted blacks”. That is, determining what areas of a given page and/or panel should be inked in before color is applied. It’s one of many artistic techniques one can pick up while making comics. To date, I haven’t picked it up. But I know what to look for, which means I can appreciate it when I see it. There’s an entire group of arguments whose style relies heavily on spotted blacks, if you want to look for examples. The most obvious is Hugo Pratt, whose Corto Maltese series is a masterwork of the style. Milo Manara, who worked with Pratt, has a much more elegant line, but the blacks give his linework its characteristic solidity. Frank Miller was inspired by Pratt and even named an island in Dark Knight Returns after Corto Maltese. Tim Sale provided the forward for the recent collection of The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen by Jorge Zentner (writer) and Ruben Pellejero (artist). To bring the whole thing around full circle, Pellejero was recently chosen to be the artist on a reboot of Corto Maltese. The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen is the best series of stories I’ve read in Heavy Metal, by far. I was very excited when IDW announced that they were printing a collection, including material never printed in English before. For the record, that’s three short stories – Time Bomb, His Master’s Voice, and A Question of Skin – and the long story The Reaper’s Price. All of the other stories were printed in Heavy Metal between 1987 and 1990. One story – Games of Chance – was only printed in black and white in Heavy Metal and is printed in color in the collection. Reading that story in black and white helped me see how good Pellejero’s spotted blacks are. He relies very heavily on shadow and profile to add drama. After the initial batch of short stories, there are three longer ones. The short stories are clearly written to be serialized in anthologies – the staple serialization format in European comics markets. The longer stories could be printed in standalone albums, which drives the tone and complexity of the series. The shorts are wrapped around a single location or idea and the longer ones have much more complex themes because they have room to breathe and stretch out. Pellejero uses color and a confident line to build on top of a very solid foundation. The real appeal of the series are the settings. The premise is that shortly after the war, a German named Dieter Lumpen gets a job as a chauffeur and the first page of the first story finds him being chased through an Istanbul market by a man with a gun. From there, he travels to the Agean, Haifa, India, Sri Lanka, Paris, Manaus, Tunisia and the Caribbean. The appeal of these destinations is Pellejero’s ability to render them almost like a documentary film maker, matter of fact about amazing sights, which adds verisimilitude. The amount of detail on each page means that every time you return to a page, you notice something new. And the stories are very rereadable. To be sure, these are the adventures of a white European wandering through the wreckage of a post-war world. The nationality of the main character isn’t really brought up, and the backstory is never explored. He was clearly old enough to serve in the war and somehow managed to walk away without any physical injuries. He’s now wandering the back corners of the non-white portion of the world, somehow miraculously encountering the only white people in the area. It’s a world that’s right on the cusp of post-colonialism and the tensions are on the page. Not everyone is ready to stop fighting – Lumpen finds himself caught up in revolutionary actions in Palestine, India and Tunisia. In almost every story, he (or a companion) are looking for something. And, almost inevitably, there is some kind of violence along the way. In every case, Lumpen is a reluctant hero, mostly running away from confrontation whenever possible. Even the most peaceful story, Caribbean, has some violence. We find Lumpen living in relative obscurity in the Caribbean (duh), only to have his peace shattered by the arrival of a film crew. He agrees to act as the lead actor in the pirate movie they are there to shoot. The entire process of making a film is wonderfully compressed into two pages. In Heavy Metal, these were printed as a two page spread. In the collection, they are back-to-back, which somewhat ruins the effect. It’s easily the best story in the collection. It’s the second of the longer stories and it is very much about a man giving away a chance at fame. As a mediation on celebrity and stardom, it’s very effective. There is a mix of action and pensiveness through the whole series and this story rests on the search for a quiet place to grow old in peace. The Reaper’s Price, the final story in the collection, is a real beast. It’s longer than any of the other stories and is a distinct departure from the rest of the series. Most obviously, every other story is about a specific place. This one features Lumpen travelling to multiple locations. It’s also presented in such a way that leaves the reader unclear if the story is real or some kind of dream. There are elements that could be described as supernatural or mystical throughout the series, and at least one of the shorts is a ghost story. But all of those genre elements were grounded in a distinctly real narrative. This story contains a number of deeply allegorical elements. And the art style changes to suit the situation, making it the most complex story in the collection artistically and conceptually. If you want a solid comic from a pair of European masters, The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen is highly recommended. ————————————————————————————————— RM Rhodes is the curator of the Heavy Metal Magazine tumblr. He lives and works in Washington, D.C. His current project is a weekly online anthology called The Rumor published on the Comics Workbook tumblr – see issues of it HERE. Check out more of his comics at Louis Deux. Share this page: [...]

03/18/2016

Sally IngrahamMarch 18, 2016NewsIt was a week for brilliant interviews, with Annie Mok talking to Michael DeForge, and the Inkstuds radio show with Gilbert Hernandez. Exciting new books came out this week, and we came across an important list of female Brazilian cartoonists that you’re going to want to investigate. Here we go! ————————————————————————————————— Let’s dive right into the interview with Michael, which came to us via The Comics Journal. Annie Mok and Michael DeForge begin by talking a bit about his new book, Big Kids, which came out February 23rd 2016 from Drawn + Quarterly. “DEFORGE: I’d sort of been circling adolescence for awhile in my stories, and I guess this is the one where I’m writing about it most directly, and the allegory is like very clear… It’s a time when people are most aware of the edges of the world. Not maybe able to see them yet, but aware they’re there. For me, things stop seeming limitless—which is maybe not how—I know you’re supposed to feel invincible and boundless as a teenager, but for me, that’s when I was aware of limits everywhere. But not really sure what all of them looked like, or the shape of all of it, or how to best escape them. That to me was what Big Kids was about, seeing a little bit more of the edges of things. And sometimes what seems like a radical shift in perception ends up not being very in the end.” From there, Annie leads the conversation to touch on memory, the artistic community a cartoonist builds for themselves or stumble into, and the cliché (but necessity) of comics as therapy. They also mention the musical puppet show that Michael is working on slowly but surely, and Annie’s reaction perfectly sums up my feelings about that – “Oh my god! Aaah, so happy!” Read the whole spectacular interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Oliver East just published a new book – Take Me Back to Manchester. It’s the story of an epic walk that took place in 1872, when an elephant and his trainer trekked the 220 miles between Edinburgh and Manchester. Why? You’ll have to check out the comic. As much as it sounds delightful, the story of how it came about is equally lovely. Oliver East is the “walking cartoonist”. Before creating Take Me Back to Manchester, he followed the route of his heroes on foot across Scotland and England, walking over 20 miles a day for 10 days. In this short documentary (below) made by Simon Sylvester and Dom Bush, Oliver walks through some wonderful parts of the world, and talks about his struggles with dyslexia, how he didn’t even start drawing until he was 26, and what it was like to compose a comic in motion with the ghost of an elephant at his side. Check it out. ————————————————————————————————— The new mini kuš! #38-41 are out, which means spring is pretty much here. “The creators of the newest minis are Ingrīda Pičukāne, Tara Booth, Hanneriina Moisseinen and Aisha Franz. The comics vary from an incredibly sad war story to a super fun and wild adventure of a young woman, a broad range of stories both fictional and non-fiction and drawn in different styles both digital and hand-drawn! A great bunch of comics for new discoveries!” More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The latest Inkstuds interview is particularly riveting. How could it be otherwise, with the likes of Gilbert Hernandez behind the microphone?! You’re not going to want to miss this. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/249959700″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] Robin McConnell always does his research, which makes for detailed conversations that really illuminate the life and work of the people he interviews. Gilbert Hernandez can tell a story out loud just as well as he can on paper, and between the stories are loads of interesting tidbits and comments on the comics scene he helped craft from the bottom up. Great stuff. (I especially liked when he compared superheroes to screwdrivers…!) Set aside some time to listen to the whole thing, because this guy is one of the reasons we’re all making comics today. ————————————————————————————————— I have a special guest today, here with a brief bit of Brazilian comics news for you. Anna Mancini (pictured above in her studio) recently shared with me a list of some of her favorite Brazilian cartoonists – folks like Julia Balthazar and Amanda Paschoal (see pic below) – and soon she will be providing a detailed scene report for Comics Workbook. For the moment though, she’s got something else to share. Anna here, reporting: “Aline Lemos has put together a collaborative list of *all* Brazilian women comics artists – from young students to established pros. Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out – https://goo.gl/AYyde5 Aline Lemos created it aiming to bring more visibility to female cartoonists in our country, since there’s a widespread dismissal of our presence and relevance to the scene. As I have noticed from following American blogs and artists, this situation is not exclusive to our experience in Brazil – I have that recent piece by Kim O’Connor in mind, having the situations she described ring a little too familiar with the attitude of many Brazilian male cartoonists.” Thanks Anna! Check out the list she mentions, and discover the legion of women in comics in Brazil! ————————————————————————————————— That’s my Friday news for you. Have a terrific weekend and meet us back here on Monday for the latest and greatest in comics news! – Sally Share this page: [...]

12/21/2016

Juan FernándezDecember 21, 2016los Cómics / NewsJuan con un poquito sobre Sandwich Mixto, Save the Fanzine, el primer encuentro de auto-editoras del cómic realizado por mujeres feministas “COMIQUERAS”, GRAF busca voluntarios, Alexis Ziritt y Fabian Rangel Jr., Tenderete 13, Inés Estrada y más! Hace un año oir hablar de Sandwich Mixto. Estaba en ruta desde Madrid a Zaragoza y alguien en el tren me conto sobro una fanzine-o-teca en el mercado San Antón Martín. No entendi bien como funcionaba, pero me recorde el nombre, Sandwich Mixto. Hasta enero del 2015, Sandwich Mixto fue un estudio de diseño, fanzinería y bar que se encuentraba en uno de los puestos del Mercado de Antón Martín, uno de los más antiguos y tradicionales de Madrid. Hoy en dia es mejor pensar en Sandwich Mixto como una isla móvil. Es a la vez una editorial, taller y estudio de arte y estudio de diseño. Virginia de Diego – Nacimos como una iniciativa –valga la redundancia– mixta, cuyo objetivo es la creación, distribución y difusión de la cultura local, independiente y de calidad (de a lo largo y ancho de nuestra geografía), estando enfocada especialmente en las prácticas editoriales independientes, su gráfica y metodología, o aquellas en las que el formato libro es algo más que un libro. El año pasado se mudaron desde aquí… Hasta aquí Quieres aprender más? Leé te esta entrevista en Fanzinant o sientate un ratito con Virginia de Diego y disfruta lo que fue Sandwich Mixto. Imaginate con una birra en la mano y un fanzine fresco en la otra! Un proyecto, muy especial, que el equipo de Sandwich Mixto mantiene en línea, es SAVE THE FANZINE. Pienso que la siguiente cita es muy interesante con respeto a la idea del fanzine, la autoedicion y como creamos sentido de nuestras vidas. “Who knows their own story? Certainly it makes no sense when we are living in the midst of it. It’s all just clamour and confusion. It only becames a story when we tell it and retell it. Our small precious recollections. That we speak again and again to ourselves or to others. First, creating the narrative of our lives, and keeping the story from dissolving into the darkness…” Nick Cave, 20.000 Days on Earth SAVE THE FANZINE is a digital and online archive for self-published books. Not intended to replace the physical object, its purpose is to pay homage to the self-publising culture and to record these unique publications. It’s a killer record of contemporary zine making in Spain! Make an account and take dip. Water’s fine. Ponte a explorar, estos fanzines son increíbles. Este proyecto es una joya que no deja de darme inspiración. Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atencion: TRUEKBLOG comenta sobre el primer encuentro de auto-editoras del cómic realizado por mujeres feministas “COMIQUERAS” en Santiago, Chile GRAF busca voluntarios para su próxima edición en Barcelona #GRAFBCN2017 Alexis Ziritt y Fabian Rangel Jr. se reunen para traernos SPACE RIDERS GALAXY OF BRUTALITY #1 -scheduled to debut this March now has an online preview! Dale un vistazo. Tenderete 13 se acerca en Valencia, España! Han anunciado los participantes. Puedes encontrarlos en su tumblr. Tendra lugar el 4 y 5 de Enero. Inés Estrada ha compartido un trozito de su cómic, Alienación #1. Leélo y compra #1-#3 si te gusta! From Comics Workbook: Suzy and Cecil 12-21-16 by Sally Ingraham ⚡️Comics Workbook anuncia el comienzo del semestre de invierno del Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – el curso empieza 29.21.2016! Curso de 8 semanas – 500 dolares – 10 estudiantes – presentate para el curso! Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. Direcciones para la Solicitud de Ingreso al Santoro School : -3 figure drawings done on blank 3″ x 5″ index cards -3 landscape drawings done on blank 3″ x 5″ index cards -3 still life drawings done on blank 3″ x 5″ cards -draw in a contour line style – Think Matisse – no under-drawing – draw directly in ink -just send small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls -specific url links to any comics work you have done. Manda tu solicitud a: santoroschoolATgmail hasta la proxima, juan Share this page: [...]

05/09/2016

Juan FernándezMay 9, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez with: Aidan Koch’s The Elements of Painting; Rebecca Sugar and Ryan Sands; Supporting Rob Clough; Malachi Ward interviewed; Wowee Zonk at TCAF; Jason Shulman’s Photographs of Films; Virtual Graffiti. ————————————————————————————————— New Comics – The Elements of Painting I’m happy to announce that this week we are featuring Aidan Koch’s The Elements of Painting on Comics Workbook. These strips were originally created for and featured on Comics Workbook in 2013. The full collection is now a 14 page, b/w offset book on newsprint printed in an edition of 500, available on Koch’s site. The series is a collection of beautiful, observational work that extracts both the dominant and elusive narratives from the paintings Koch observes. Inspiring work that’s sure to get your mind racing. Read it all here. ————————————————————————————————— Rebecca Sugar & Ryan Sands The Society of Illustrators has posted a video of the Rebecca Sugar Q&A from April 3rd at MoCCA 2016. In this spotlight session, Sugar answered questions posed by Youth in Decline publisher Ryan Sands, focusing in particular on her own comics work. Sugar and Sands touched upon depictions of love, working on Margo in Bed, compositional differences between comics and animation, the pastiche of Steven Universe, and how to continue growing when making comics. Soak it up. ————————————————————————————————— Support Rob Clough Comics critic Rob Clough’s family is facing crushing hospital bills. He and his family could use all the help they can get. Please consider donating over on his site. My family has been crushed by medical expenses in the past month, including a couple of hospitalizations. I would greatly appreciate any donations readers might care to give in order to help defray costs. There’s a paypal button over at the right for those who would care to do so. Reader support has helped keep me and this site going, and I want everyone who’s ever donated to know just how much my family and I appreciate that support. Clough’s energy and enthusiasm for reviewing comics work is an invaluable resource for independent comics making. No one plows into forward thinking comics and reviews them with gusto and consistency quite like Rob Clough. On a positive note, he is going to be back in the saddle, releasing 3 new reviews a week for the foreseeable future, so there is much to be thankful for. Donate here. ————————————————————————————————— INKSTUDS: Sean Ford interviews Malachi Ward Malachi Ward makes beautiful, intricate science fiction and fantasy comics. The stories are set in richly illustrated, fantastic landscapes, addressing existential questions and carrying a certain dark edge that I appreciate and associate with some of the very best science fiction writing in prose or comics. I was eager to talk about his recent work: a new short story collection from Alternative Comics called FROM NOW ON, and the serialized story he’s working on with Matt Sheehan in the ISLAND anthology called ANCESTOR. We also talked about time travel, why people explore strange new worlds, religious cults, and why we love Vancouver so much. I think Malachi is doing some really interesting comics right now and I hope you’ll check them out. – Sean Ford If you like this podcast, and want to hear more, consider supporting Inkstuds on Patreon. ————————————————————————————————— the Wowee Zonk Zone The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is this coming weekend (May 13-15) and with its arrival comes an exciting flood of self-published zines and comics. The Toronto based comics collective, Wowee Zonk has partnered with TCAF to host a special showcase. Curated by Patrick Kyle, Ginette Lapalme, and Chris Kuzma, the Wowee Zonk Small Press Showcase will highlight some of the most exciting work being made in comics, zines, and independent publishing. That room is sure to be real colorful, real hot and real sweaty. Not to be missed. Lots of things are sure to go down at TCAF in the coming week. You can get the lowdown of the latest TCAF news here. They’ve got a fancy app, Guidebook, that allows you to stay abreast with all the happenings with your phone. ————————————————————————————————— Photographs of Films Jason Shulman has an upcoming exhibition entitled Photographs of Films at the Cob Gallery, London that reveals what happens when you crush time into a 2 dimensional space. It’s funny stuff. You get some really interesting translations in his process. Some really subtle directorial and cinematographic decisions are brought to light in this averaging of images. AnOther Mag has a nice selection of Shulman’s photographs and some reflections on his process. Check it out here. “The images vary so wildly, that’s the remarkable thing about it,” Shulman continues, “and they’re also quite didactic. You can learn something about the director’s style from this kind of kooky translation: you can learn that Hitchcock deals with people, for example, Kubrick deals with composition, Bergman deals with… I mean lots of Bergman films are kind of moody and psychological, much more so than other films. So it’s odd that in one exposure all of these things, although very subjective, kind of come through.” Jason Shulman: Photographs of Films runs from May 12 until June 4, 2016 at the Cob Gallery, London. ————————————————————————————————— Virtual Graffiti VR is undergoing a veritable Renaissance. Painting, sculpting, and now this insane Graffiti Simulator. Here’s a look at Kingspray Graffiti Simulator a new Virtual Reality game soon to launch on SteamVR. I want to see what David Hockney will do with this. ————————————————————————————————— I’ll leave you to start your day with the Don. Stay strong – Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

12/12/2017

Aaron CockleDecember 12, 2017NewsAaron here today with Shaw/Willumsen; Fox & Gal; Hernandez/Salinger; Josef Albers in Mexico (at the Guggenheim); Polish Animation; Domino Print Mag ————————————————————————————————— ‘I think of the workspace as like mood and posture, surfaces and height, very physical, and then communication or information possibilities are something else.’ Caleb linked to this in yesterday’s newspost, Dash Shaw’s interview with Connor Willumsen, but it’s worth a read if you haven’t yet had the chance. It’s always nice to see cartoonists talking with each other about the work. : But it’s an accumulation of all of these decisions that you’re making. You’re deciding to not draw these things and to draw things in a different way… I get what you’re saying, that it’s intuitive, but you’re still creating the conditions. It’s not like those things happen to you. : Right, but I guess I am sort of nurturing a perspective as if they are just happening to me. I’ve been giving some workshops lately and I’ve been telling people that it helps to get through a page, continue the narrative, by just blowing the space on the page they’re currently working on, you know, like waste a lot of space and draw something small in an expansive void. The way I look at the way the book did turn out has a lot to do with how I was feeling while I was making it, because I was trying to make it quick, like as close as I could to the speed of reading a comic, which is impossible, and so I was subject to my immediate state during any particular page. So if I was feeling bogged down with a page, if it I was feeling it was becoming too laborious for me in its detail or pace, if it was boring me, I would blow a lot of space on the page to get through that moment and start fresh at the next, and my thinking is if I had a intuition that that needed to happen, just for my own wellbeing in that moment, the reader would have similar intuitions during the reading experience. Like if I’m getting bogged down by a page so is the reader, and to give myself drawing space is to give the reader space at the same appropriate moment, as if at the same moments we would feel the same moods or rhythms, even though we can’t possibly read and draw at the same speed. ————————————————————————————————— Almanac 2017, Orbiting, Meow De Vivre Over at the High-Low blog, Rob Clough looks at recent work by Iona Fox and Penina Gal. Fox’s comics have two built-in advantages. First, in her occupation as a farmer and mountain cabin caretaker, she simply does things that no other cartoonist talks about. Second, her sense of humor is extremely sharp, and she’s able to bring humor to any situation. Fox also brings the perspective of someone with a number of intellectual interests, as her degree is in geology, she knows quite a bit about meteorology and it goes from there. Her self-caricature is one of my favorites, with a “fox curl” on top of her head and a collection of freckles, knobby knees and jumbled limbs. Her strips can range from a relationship strip about geese to a beautiful series of shots of sunsets. The strips pre and post Trump’s election certainly have a different tone, as she touches both on politics and protecting those around her. There are strips about undocumented dairy workers and their struggle for improved conditions. … Meow De Vivre is a much sillier project, but it’s also visually distinctive. Originally designed for gallery space at a hair salon, Gal actually does something original with cat cartooning. The “Singles In Your Area” page is hilarious, with profiles from “OK Catnip”. There are “pawdicures”, trash talk about dogs, cat selfies, cat haute couture, and a clever collage. Gal has an eye for gag humor that’s never been obvious in some of her other work (with the exception of Glamera, which she did with Betsey Swardlick), but it stands out here in page after page celebrating cats as familiar creatures or as performing drag. Once again, Gal’s watercolors are the main attraction, grabbing the eye without looking too garish. Being in a gallery, that use of color was obviously crucial for an audience, but it worked just as well on the page. ————————————————————————————————— Reading ‘Catcher in the Rye’ Today Via Gilbert Hernandez, over at the NY Times. ————————————————————————————————— Guggenheim Museum Presents Josef Albers in Mexico Albers’s collaged images also suggest a nuanced relationship between the geometry and design elements of pre-Columbian monuments and the artist’s iconic abstract canvases and works on paper. Several of the latter are titled after key sites in Mexico, and formal resonances between the two bodies of work become apparent, especially when viewed together as in the Guggenheim presentation. Albers’s embrace of pre-Columbian imagery may be considered within the complex and often-fraught history of modernist artists looking toward non-Western cultures for source material. His work contrasts with that of the revolutionary Mexican artists with whom he met on his trips, including Diego Rivera. At the same time, Albers’s long-term commitment to studying Mexican art and architecture also positions him as a prescient figure in the history of post–World War II American art, when artists such as Donald Judd, Ad Reinhardt, and Robert Smithson looked toward ancient traditions with a new sensitivity and self-awareness. ————————————————————————————————— At Anthology Film Archives: The 70th Anniversary of Polish Animation Polish jazz and abstract art, posters in motion and inspired collages created by outstanding visual artists like Jan Lenica and Walerian Borowczyk – it can all be found in Polish animation. These films are almost invariably auteur works: the directors themselves discover the stories, write the scripts, draw, paint, shape the plasticine, sculpt the plaster, and sometimes even record the musical scores for their films. Polish animation has long been celebrated for its dark, black humor and courage in exploring the human psyche. Under communism, it mastered the art of the metaphor, in order to elude censorship. Social satire has always been a Polish specialty. ————————————————————————————————— Domino Books‏ @DominoComics New PRINT mag about comics from DOMINO, coming in mid 2018. Coedited by me & @LFlipowitz w/ beautiful first ish cover from Jesse McManus! ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 18th 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! ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 12-12-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 12-12-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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