Comics Workbook

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Juan Fernández

Posted on July 20, 2016July 20, 2016

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Alyssa Berg on CXC 2016

Alyssa BergOctober 22, 2016Festivals and ShowsEditor’s Note: Alyssa Berg joined the Comics Workbook crew at CXC 2016 as one of our workshop leaders. Comics Workbook hosted four sessions over the course of the festival, and Alyssa presented on her process, her painted comics, and her use of the 4- and 9-panel grids. She led an exercise using the 4- and 9-panel grids that challenged and excited the attending comics makers, including students from the Columbus College of Art and Design. A video from the exercise she led: And now, the rest of Alyssa’s CXC experience in her own words. My First Con At the airport on my way home from Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, I bought a legal pad because I had accidentally checked my sketchbook in my suitcase. I wanted to record all of the details from my four days in Columbus ASAP – I didn’t want to forget any of the moments that made CXC such a wonderful experience. Over the past week I have been able to zoom-out and see what shaped many of my positive experiences: access to comics history and connecting with the comics community. Upon arrival in Columbus, my first stop was the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. I appreciated having a couple days pre-expo to enjoy the reading room, archive and museum. The Winsor McCay exhibit was stunning. On the archive tour, it was amazing to be standing inside the chilly room filled with flat files, books and boxes that house the world’s largest cartoon & comics collection. I was able to see some rare gems at the Billy Ireland. CXC was my first time taking part in a convention and I was struck by the spirit of the greater comics community. The people – comics-makers, event organizers, curators, publishers, students, teachers, librarians, and volunteers – all came together to celebrate comics and create an open and interesting atmosphere filled with great energy. There was a variety of events (including, of course, the book expo held over the weekend in the beautiful Columbus Metropolitan Library) where I had the pleasure of connecting and having conversations with many lovely comics-humans, including the Comics Workbook crew. Some strong bonds were formed, and I’m especially grateful for that. Thank you to the organizers of CXC for hosting such a great event, thank you to the staff and volunteers at both the Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum & Library and the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Also a big thank you to Frank Santoro at Comics Workbook for sending me to CXC with the CW crew. ————————————————————————————————— Alyssa Berg makes comics in Brooklyn, NY. You can find her work HERE. For the rest of our complete CXC coverage check out the special “round up” report HERE. Share this page: [...]

05/27/2016

Sally IngrahamMay 27, 2016NewsSally here with new stuff from Sacha Mardou, wise and funny words from Dan Nadel and Alexi Worth, clowns with Nils Balls, and a Philadelphia walkabout from Meghan Turbitt. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou has a double hit today on our news, with a comic she made for The Common Reader (a publication of Washington University in St. Louis) and a review she wrote for Comics Workbook. First up, Sacha’s review of The Complete Wimmen’s Comix is a rumination on an important and challenging anthology, recently collected into a two volume set by Fantagraphics. “Reading the two-volume release of The Complete Wimmen’s Comix made me think about those sort of cultural assumptions and blank spots. The first volume in particular feels like a powerful raw gust of real comics history. … Another aspect that occurs to me is that volume one is essentially my mother’s generation making those comics (I was born in ’75) which makes the lack of respect for cultural niceties and cartooning norms seem even more punk rock and revelatory, as well as being somewhat nostalgic. It reminds me of looking though my aunt’s closet in the early 1980’s and finding all her old platform shoes and boots. My childish trespassing got me yelled at after the event, but I’m glad to own that childhood memory of trying on and walking around in those beautiful and weird, too-big-for-me ‘space’ shoes.” Read the rest of Sacha’s review HERE. For a different look at The Complete Wimmen’s Comix, check out this in-depth review by Alex Duebin on The Comic’s Journal from March 2016. Well, I say “review”, but it includes conversations conducted via phone, skype, google chat, and e-mail over a period of a year or so with many of the women who made comics for the anthology – a true “oral history”, well worth a gander. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou’s comic for The Common Reader (above) was published in “The Aging Issue”. It feels very, very real somehow…! ————————————————————————————————— Art in America published a followup to Dan Nadel‘s killer essay on Paper Radio recently. It’s a conversation between Dan, Alexi Worth (who wrote an article in January for A.i.A about Jack Kirby’s superhero art) and A.i.A‘s editor Julia Wolkoff. They dig into the complexities of comics, and more specifically, the intentional and accidental wonders that appeared under a culture of crushing deadlines. As Alexi Worth describes: “The earlier comics artists were, for the most part, pencil serfs. Kirby began as an inbetweener for film, and much of the work he produced early on wasn’t credited at all. But there was something productive and interesting about the lack of art expectations. Kirby was reflexively creative. And his creativity was, somehow, enabled by the ruinous deadlines and enormous production demands of the industry. At one point he was pretty much drawing all of Marvel himself—one guy. Instead of making him more of a hack, it made him more of an artist.“ Dan Nadel breaks out some more stories about the Paper Radio guys – Benjamin Jones and Christopher Forgues, or CF – whom he continues to call “the two most important cartoonists of their generation.” “One famous story: they sent Gary Panter, who was their artist spirit-god, one of their early zines that was baked in chocolate. Gary thought it was LSD and immediately threw it away. It’s one of the only copies of that work they made.“ It’s good stuff – check out the whole discussion HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Nils Balls is staying on top of the Pittsburgh City Council with his comic reports for The Glassblock – see above and more HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Meghan Turbitt released her Philadelphia Sketchbook this week! Developed for Comics Workbook between 2015-2016, it features full-color sketches of her varied adventures and the details that caught her eye around the city during that period. Get a glimpse at more pages here, and a copy for yourself HERE! ————————————————————————————————— See you knocking round the universe next week folks! Cheers – Sally Share this page: [...]

08/15/2016

Juan FernándezAugust 15, 2016NewsJuan here with the news: Rowhouse Residency Benfit Auction of Eightball era time capsule box; Audra Stang’s Rowhouse Residency Report; Chris Kindred on how to hire an illustrator; “Tell Me All Your Bad Thoughtz on God” by Jillian Fleck; Kilgore Books & Comics Fall 2016 Lineup; Ben Juers’ comics review of Sasaki Maki’s DING DONG CIRCUS; Grants and Residency opportunities for cartoonists; J. A. Micheline discussing True Criticism; new STREET ANGEL; MOME Vol. 1 – Summer 2005 reviewed by Bill Boichel. ————————————————————————————————— First off, we have the TOTALLY AMAZING AUCTION of an Eightball era time capsule box, donated by Mr. Daniel Clowes himself to help support the Rowhouse Residency. Check out the video above for a taste of the contents and the firecracker commentary of Jim Rugg and Frank Santoro. Lots o’ hyucks. Personal items, artwork…we weren’t sure we even wanted to part with things like Clowes’ Windsor-Newton Series 7 brush #3… but they are now up for grabs!! All the items in the box could be yours, so jump into the mayhem – auction runs until Wednesday, August 17th at noon EST. Don’t sleep on it. Check it the auction HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Audra Stang’s Residency Report: Pokémon GO Edition Audra Stang visited the Rowhouse this July and accomplished an incredible amount in the three days she was in Pittsburgh, setting new Rowhouse records for “crushing it”. She shared some journal notes with us recently that describe many of her impressions and experiences of her residency. We’ve shared excerpts from them, mixed with some of the process drawings and doodles that she made while she was here. My visit to the Rowhouse was my first ever residency… I came with the goal of totally drawing out a story that I only had a hazy idea of called Pale, Sick, and Magic; this seemed fitting, considering I only had a vague idea of what a residency would entail. Between Frank, Sally, and I, we had great conversation – not just about, but often returning to, comics. It fed into the “cycle” – draw by day and tour Pittsburgh by night. Or draw by night and explore Pittsburgh by day. It was a charged atmosphere but in a positive way – I was full of energy. Franks uses language that masterfully evokes the feeling of being “in the game” and gets you hyped for the next comics bout. Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— “Tell Me All Your Bad Thoughtz on God” by Jillian Fleck I’m happy to announce that we are featuring Jillian Fleck’s “Tell Me All Your Bad Thoughtz on God” on the site this week. “Tell Me All Your Bad Thoughtz on God” is part of Fleck’s on going Bad Thoughtz series and was made in 2015 for Comics Workbook. ————————————————————————————————— Kilgore Books & Comics Fall 2016 Lineup Denver based comics publisher, Kilgore Books and Comics has announced its fall publishing lineup: Blammo #9 by Noah Van Sciver The Plunge by Emi Gennis What Happened by Simon Moreton: The Complete Scorched Earth & Other Stories by Tom Van Deusen You can help support Kilgore’s fall release of four great comics by supporting their Kickstarter. Our mission is bridge the gap between self-publishing and the bigger publishing houses. We want to find talented cartoonists with unique voices and help them when they need it most by ensuring they have professional looking books and plenty of stock. We’re also able to pay royalties up front, and help take some of the logistics off artists which lets them focus on their work. ————————————————————————————————— Sasaki Maki & Abstract Comics Ben Juers has just released a comics review of Sasaki Maki’s Ding Dong Circus. It’s magnificent. All sources cited 😉 It was originally done for Australian literature and culture magazine, the Lifted Brow. It’s a real insightful joy to see comics reflections and criticism in comics. ————————————————————————————————— J. A. Micheline On True Criticism J.A. Micheline has written a new entry to her Critical Jam series of essays on cultural criticism. It’s a great, on the ground, response to Daniel Mendelsohn’s A Critic’s Manifesto published a couple years ago over in the New York Times. For those of you interested in where and how comics criticism can grow and expand as a from in 2016, it’s definitely worth a read. What we fear with the rise of grassroots criticism–and, for that matter, grassroots creation–is the absence of gods and masters. It’s a legitimation crisis. If there is no hierarchical structure, no above and below, and no true and false–then how is one to know one’s place in the world? Without modernist establishments, how am I to know whether I belong in the critical class, whether my arguments are good, whether they carry more weight than the average person’s? ————————————————————————————————— How to Hire an Illustrator Chris Kindred waxes on how to hire an illustrator over in this well thought and thorough piece over at NPR’s Editorial Training blog. The internet is a very visual place. It goes without saying that if you want your story to stand out, it needs a strong photo or illustration of some kind. But commissioning an illustrator can be confusing if you haven’t done it before. This guide will walk you through the entire process, from finding an artist to sending the final payment. ————————————————————————————————— The Sustainable Arts Foundation: $6000 Grants for Artists with Children This goes out to all you cartoonists with children. The Sustainable Arts Foundation is offering awards of up to $6000 to writers and artists with children. The money can be used for costs such as child care, workspaces, new equipment, research and travel. All the stuff that you’re hard pressed to getting when you need to get your comics done. Applications for the Fall 2016 round close on Friday 2 September. Don’t sleep on this opportunity, parents! For more information visit the Sustainable Arts Foundation website. ————————————————————————————————— Grants, Fellowships, and Residencies for Cartoonists! Cartoonist Melanie Gillman, author of As the Crow Flies, has compiled a list of grants and residencies that have demonstrated an interest in comics and cartooning. You can check them all out on their blog. If you know of any others, chime in, all ye faithful! Of course, for a rigorous, comics focused residency experience like no other, you need to look no further than our Rowhouse Residency! Level up and become your best. ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— MOME Vol. 1 – Summer 2005 reviewed by Bill Boichel Here’s a little throw back for you. Bill Boichel’s got a hearty review of the first volume of Fantagraphics’ mid-aughts anthology, MOME. Few people can write as insightful reviews as Bill, so it’s an honor to be able to share his writing with you here. This is an oldie but a goodie. Step into our little comics time machine and enjoy <3 This is an excellent semi-regular anthology that is stepping up to meet the demand for new work by the talented generation of cartoonists that have been filling the pages of annual anthologies like Non, Kramers Ergot, Top Shelf, Rosetta, SPX and others. A novel feature of this anthology title is its declared intent to feature the same collective of artists every issue, allowing the artists and audience to grow together and build an ongoing identity that is highly unusual for the world of contemporary comics. Only time will tell how this intention plays out when confronted by the realities of a publication schedule, but we can attest with confidence that it’s off to a solid start. ————————————————————————————————— keep yerr nose to the grindstone and until next time! Share this page: [...]

11/19/2018

Caleb OrecchioNovember 19, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with a wonky layout from a Gray Morrow page. ————————————————————————————————— Mindy Newell serves an incredibly personal PSA to readers in 1986. Within the pages of this two-issue mini-series, aggressive ace reporter Lois Lane investigates the epidemic of missing children sweeping Metropolis and the nation. Nothing will stop her in her pursuit, but is Lois taking on too much by herself? Will she except the help from her friends and estranged sister? The story, though heavy-handed at times, is sincere and written by an author with a purpose. I picked these issues up for the Gray Morrow art and Joe Orlando colors. I’m impressed by Morrow’s resistance, or the appearance of resistance, of relying on photo reference. As a result, there is little in the way of awkward, collage-y images that feel stiff and contrived; a common, yet not always unwelcome (by me), plague of Morrow’s comics. The pages herein are smoothly and professionally cartooned. More or less. Actually Morrow struggles as usual to make a format that even resembles a coherent structure. Below is an interesting example. A variation on the “shattered-glass” approach to comic page formatting. This way of making comics almost always looks clunky. The word balloons are unorganized, the space allowed for figures and backgrounds seems cramped, and the eye has a hell of a time knowing where to look. If you are following the dialogue, the page is divided into two tiers. The middle horizontal gutter dividing the top half from the bottom. I have shown the sequence of panels in accordance to the word balloons below: However, I think Morrow meant the page to read clockwise. Like this: Follow the sequence of the images as I see it. In the third panel, Lois slaps a newspaper with her backhand. In panel 5 the paper is still on the editor’s desk. She appears to pick the paper up in panel 6. They way the dialogue determines the sequence, Lois would have smacked the paper, picked it up, and put the paper back down again. Visually, it doesn’t make much sense. Still, the way I think Morrow intended the sequence to work makes for tricky reading due to the horizontal middle gutter because the reader would have to abandon the traditional rules of comic book reading. I think the editor, Robert Greenberger, made an executive decision and made the page read traditionally not only due to the middle gutter, but due to the fact that the clockwise reading presumably intended by Morrow ruins the flow of the spread by making the reader start in the top left of the spread, down to the bottom left corner and back up to the top left corner of the facing page. As oppose to the traditional pattern of top left to bottom right of the page, and top left to bottom right of the facing page. These are things that jump out at me and urk me. This is a flawed page and makes for confusing comics. I feel that cartoonists make these kind of pages in service to some strange sense of making personal art. Cartoonists must learn from these formatting mistakes and not fall victim to such practices. Keep it simple, stupid. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

8/31/2016

Juan FernándezAugust 31, 2016los Cómics / NewsJuan here with your weekly Spanish language comics news round up! El fin del CW Composition Contest;Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo charlan con Katherine Supnem; la evolucion de Spanish Fever; Mireia Perez sobre Ben Marra; Edd Muñoz sobre El Publicadero en Manizales; el nuevo libro de Connor Willumsen, Portraits. ————————————————————————————————— Le concours – C’est fini The Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2016 is over! You can read all the entries HERE. Entries were still pouring in until the stroke of midnight, but it is over! – we are trying to get everyone’s comic reblogged here and added to the master list – if you don’t see your comic on the list yet, today DO NOT WORRY – if it was in our email before 11:59pm EST tonight then you are officially entered in the competition! We will post the final list later today! This has been the biggest explosion of comics we’ve ever gotten for this competition! We will be spending the next few days working with our judges to pick the winners – be patient – check out all the entries – reblog your favorites – AND THANKS FOR JOINING US THIS YEAR! ————————————————————————————————— [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/279783030″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] Escucha @lapololapodcast, un podcast del cómic femenino con Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo! It’s always a fun, relaxing and enlightening listen. If you haven’t tuned in to La Polola just yet, Póngale Play 😉 En este capítulo se habla de los discursos y el dibujo, de como cuestionar las cosas y a uno mismo en lo que hacemos, de la marginalidad, el underground, la filosofía y más. Las chicas conversan con Katherine Supnem, dibujante chilena, sobre estos temas y su experiencia como dibujante de cómics feminista, profesora de filosofía, dibujante de escenografías, under y marginal. ————————————————————————————————— Charlando con Emma Rios Kaboom, la nueva seccion de El País dedicada a la exploracion del mundo del comic contemporaneo, compartió una mañana con la artista y arquitecta gallega, Emma Rios. Léanlo HOY! Angel Luis Sucasas: ¿Cómo cambia tu método cuando escribes y cuando dibujas? Emma Rios: Escribiendo, trabajo mucho desde los personajes pero al mismo tiempo soy muy conceptual. Nunca doy demasiadas explicaciones. Como escritora no me mola nada hacerlo. Lo que quiero es que el lector se sienta parte del mundo, que escuches cosas. Hablábamos antes de Dark souls y de cómo te enteras de las cosas por lo que dicen los personajes, por el contexto. En ID lo transmitía mucho a través de la gestualidad corporal. Normalmente se trata de decidir de qué coño me apetece hablar. En ID estaba claro que quería hablar de la aceptación… Es un cómic muy político. Tiene mucho que ver con una situación en la que yo me encontraba en el curro. Yo trabajo para gente extranjera. Eso significa una barrera idiomática y cultural. Y soy relativamente introvertida y me cuesta enfrentarme a esto. Me cuesta ser el centro de atención y me cuesta tener esa actitud, que allí es tan natural, de “¡Compra mi tebeo, compra mi tebeo”. Así que acabé distribuyendo eso en varios personajes para enfrentarme a ello. Yo estoy hasta las narices de que se me trate como alguien especial. Mira, lo que hago no es especial. Tu idea de lo que hacen las mujeres no es la realidad. Las mujeres hacen muchas cosas. ————————————————————————————————— Sobre Panorama//Spanish Fever – La Historia de su publicación, su importancia y mas… La antología de cómics española, Panorama cruza el charco! Sergio Jiménez Foronda le da un gran vistazo a la nueva edición de Panorama (Astiberri 2013), ahora Spanish Fever (Fantagraphics 2016). Los creadores han gozado de total libertad para producir sus trabajos, permitiéndoseles ser ellos mismos en cada palabra y en cada trazo. El resultado es una heterogénea panorámica de estilos y temáticas que hace más de un año llamó la atención de Fantagraphics, que se puso en contacto con Astiberri para exportar la obra. “Ha sido fundamental la participación de la Fundación Spain Arts & Culture de la Emabajada de España en Wahsington, que apoyó esta edición sufragando la traducción del libro y permitiendo que una selección de los autores que participan en el libro puedan viajar a EEUU y participar en diferentes eventos que servirán para promocionarlo”, explica García. Entre ellos se encuentra el festival de cómics norteamericano Small Press Expo, que se celebra en North Bethesda (Maryland), una cita a la que García ya había acudido numerosas veces y a la que le hace ilusión volver “para participar desde el otro lado de la mesa, para estar en el papel de profesional publicado en EEUU“. ————————————————————————————————— Mireia Pérez sobre Ben Marra Mireia Pérez escribe una carta de amor, bien merecida, a los comics del dibujante americano Ben Marra. Llevo puestas las gafas violetas desde la facultad y ya nunca me las podré quitar. Este punto de vista me acompaña a donde voy, sea de paseo, al cine o a leer. Tienes que saber esto, querida lectora, porque los tebeos de Marra transcurren en un universo donde los hombres llevan armas y son siempre los protagonistas y las mujeres son casi siempre putas o stripers, van en ropa interior y suelen ser vejadas a la primera de cambio. Y es que todo lo que fabrica Marra con sus manos (dibuja prácticamente sin boceto y a mano alzada cargada de tinta) emerge de la sátira y está cincelado con una pátina de ironía, algo que no tenían los tebeos en los ochenta y que viene exactamente de la misma cocina donde se fraguó la novela gráfica: el cómic undergraund americano. ————————————————————————————————— Edd Muñoz y El Publicadero En La Patria, Edd Muñoz nos cuenta sobre lo que nos podemos esperar en este segundo año de El Publicadero, encuentro de autoedición. Hoy es común encontrar muchos cómics de autores colombianos en las librerías, lo que no ocurría antes. ¿Es un buen síntoma? Claro. El Publicadero existe para debatir sobre el trabajo de esas personas y responde a unos eventos sobre cómic que se están realizando en Colombia, unos con más apoyo que otros. Hay una movida alrededor de la historieta y buscamos despertar el interés por los contenidos dibujados con una programación que incluye conversatorios y talleres. ————————————————————————————————— Portraits by Connor Willumsen. Este libro de 16 páginas bellamente impreso (por WestCan – que también imprimio el Manual de la Escuela Santoro) de retratos del gran Connor Willumsen está disponible para pre-pedido. De momento, sólo ofrecemos pre-pedidos para los Estados Unidos. Ofreceremos pre -pedidos para pedidos fuera de EEUU después de que mandemos el libro a los impresores. Dalé click AQUI para pedir tu pre-order! http://auction.comicsworkbook.com/2016/08/18/portraits-by-connor-willumsen-pre-order/ ————————————————————————————————— hasta la proxima! JF Share this page: [...]

7/20/2016

Posted on July 20, 2016July 20, 2016 by Juan Fernández

Juan here with La edición de libros ilustrados en Chile;Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo’s La Polola podcast; Power Paola in Santiago; and Yɨsɨrihaɨ Healing.

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La edición de libros ilustrados en Chile

Carlos Reyes y Catalina Infante de Catalonia Libros conversan del proceso de edición de libros ilustrados para el mercado chileno.

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Escucha @lapololapodcast, un podcast del cómic femenino con Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo!

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/273564883″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

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Yɨsɨrihaɨ: Healing that rescues the shadow from genocide

Bárbara Santos illuminates the depths of an incredible interdisciplinary and intercultural project, the book Los Jaguares del Yuruparí (2015) over at Terremoto.mx .

Los Jaguares del Yuruparí presents the outcome of more than 10 years of research conducted by indigenous young people from the communities of Pira-Parana in the Colombian Amazon -under the guidance of the traditional knowledge of their elders- on cultural and sacred knowledge related to the territory and its management.(…)

The knowledge or origin of life story of the Hee Yaia Keti Oka ancestors has been recognized by UNESCO as Immaterial Cultural Patrimony(3), in recognition of the spoken knowledge of Keti Oka as a thousand-year-old technology transmitted from person to person through a network of outposts and sacred places in the Great Territory of the Hee Yaia – Yurapari Jaguars.

“Keti translates to “news” or “story”; Oka means “tongue” or “jaw.” Keti Oka is “origin story” – ritual singing and knowledge that comes from the body, sacred dance and words at the same time.”(4) In this way, the research, editing and creation of the book was a generous precipitate ofKeti Oka, not only because of the texts narrated, but also because of overlapping temporalities, matrixes and dimensions used for the translation – represented through images, comics, photographs and maps of landmarks or thousand-year-old sacred elements.

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hasta la proxima,

Juan

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in News

Juan Fernández

Posted on July 20, 2016July 20, 2016

Explore

03/01/2016

Aaron CockleMarch 1, 2016NewsThe 5 Obstructions This is a collaboration from 2008 wherein Matt Madden presented Tom Hart with a number of constraints, in the spirit of the Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth documentary from 2003. Charlotte Salomon: Leben? oder Theater? All of Salomon’s Leben? oder Theater? can be found at the above link. It is an astonishing achievement. Paul Gravett has a piece about Salomon and her work on his blog. BDSM: Eleanor Davis via Youth in Decline New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium The 146th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 7pm at Parsons School of Design, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. Theodore Barrow will present and discuss his paper, “From the Easter Wedding to the Frantick Lover” — an exploration of the relationship between text and image in the long eighteenth century. Theodore Barrow is a PhD candidate at the Graduate Center, CUNY. His area of focus is intertextuality in the art of John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer. PUSH/PULL Share this page: [...]

04/17/2018

Aaron CockleApril 17, 2018NewsAaron here today with Latin American Art; Remembering Geneviève Castrée; Banksy/Zehra Doğan; Retrofit Comics 2018 Subscription ————————————————————————————————— Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 At the Brooklyn Museum through July 22: The artworks on view range from painting and sculpture to photography, video, performance, and other new mediums. Included are emblematic figures such as Lygia Pape, Ana Mendieta, and Marta Minujín, alongside lesser‐known names such as Cuban‐born abstract painter Zilia Sánchez; Colombian sculptor Feliza Bursztyn; Peruvian composer, choreographer, and activist Victoria Santa Cruz; and Argentine mixed‐media artist Margarita Paksa. The Brooklyn presentation also includes Nuyorican portraits by photographer Sophie Rivera, as well as work from Chicana graphic arts pioneer Ester Hernández, Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez, and Afro-Latina activist and artist Marta Moreno Vega. ————————————————————————————————— “Poetry seemed useless in the context of actual annihilation.” On Studio 360, Kurt Anderson talks with Phil Elverum, husband of Geneviève Castrée, who passed away in 2016, about Elverum’s recent Mount Eerie albums, which are about Castrée’s death. Her last book, A Bubble, will be published in June by D&Q. ————————————————————————————————— Zehra Doğan/Banksy Patricia Mastricolo at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund wrote about the Banksy mural protesting the imprisonment of Turkish artist and journalist Zehra Doğana few weeks back: This first night the mural was revealed, a projection of the dark painting Doğan is imprisoned for showed over the mural. Based off a photo Doğan saw, she painted the rubble of a Kurdish town, destroyed by tanks, with the Turkish flag flying over the town. She painted the tanks as surreal monsters. The Turkish government said that the painting compromised military security, even though it was based on a government photograph. ————————————————————————————————— Retrofit Comics 2018 All the Sad Songs – Summer Pierre Fashion Forecasts – Yumi Sakugawa I Love You – Sara Lautman John, Dear – Laura Lannes Our Wretched Town Hall – Eric Kostiuk Williams The Prince – Liam Cobb Survive 300 Million 1 – Pat Aulisio Survive 300 Million 2: Serpentine Captives – Pat Aulisio The Troublemakers – Baron Yoshimoto TRUMPTRUMP vol. 2: Modern Day Presidential – Warren Craghead III Understanding – Becca Tobin The Winner – Karl Stevens ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 4-17-2018 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-17-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

09/28/2017

Sally IngrahamSeptember 27, 2017NewsSam Ombiri takes a look at the anthology Warmer, and Sally brings a CXC events update and other comics and news. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: When I was at SPX I bought a copy of Warmer from Madeleine Witt and Andrew White. A Lot of the time whenever I pick up an anthology, the anthology seems to be having an identity crisis. It is really trying to convince me that it’s something it’s not, as if the anthology is insecure about the area it occupies. If not insecure, then it’s probably going to be insular. This insecurity I project onto the anthologies I pick up comes from the extreme fear of mediocrity that most anthologies suffer from. Whenever someone is really desperate to surpass this mediocrity, they don’t have to go too far to do so. This desperation and insecurity really turns me off as the reader, and I’d rather just read the comics without considering them in an anthology altogether. My first and lasting impression of Warmer was that it didn’t suffer from any of that! “Complacency” is the last word I’d use to describe the anthology – especially with the subject matter being tackled (climate change). It doesn’t feel like it’s “tackling an issue” as much as remaining in this space where we’re humans who are experiencing this deterioration in ourselves. Meanwhile, so is the planet, and this can be seen in things we do that are altogether unrelated to what we might do to perpetuate the pollution of the environment. There’s no complacency in the book, just people trying to fight against that urge to be complacent both in their art and in their lives. Whenever something is contrived, which is rare in the book, it doesn’t work against the anthology because the following strip will have a good response to it. This shows the strength in numbers that can come out of an anthology, beyond having an easy way to access a variety of work – the strip before and after can strengthen the work. Some of these comics I wouldn’t read or engage with properly, if I wasn’t reading them in Warmer. For example, the first two strips are immensely enticing. They’re followed by this strip that seems out of place. The author of this strip (William Cardini) isn’t in any rush to make a connection between the style being utilized and the words being utilized. I just found myself, as a reader, really wanting that connection. The strip also confused me tonally because of this whole vibe I had been set up for from the first and second strip (which are by Caitlin Skaalrud and Tor Brant respectively). The second strip had a more familiar looking 4 panel structure that suggested a punchline would be waiting for me at the fourth panel, but instead it beautifully invoke a longing for things to set right. Much like the first strip. Then on the third strip I get this goofy looking face, seemingly drawn by someone who I mistakenly imagine to be a gag cartoonist. I mistakenly read the tongue sticking out of the character drawn as a character mocking me for having this other expectation. Then I read more and discovered that while doing poetry comics, one can feel the inclination to jump into expression sooner than warranted, but it’s not the case at all with this book. The third strip was actually fantastic and it speaks to both the contributors of this anthology and the curation of Madeleine and Andrew. In this whole book, the images and words further each other really well, and it’s wonderfully curated to accommodate the reader in the best way from beginning to the end. – Sam Ombiri Keep an eye out for this anthology in the next few weeks – Andrew and Madeleine are fulfilling the Kickstarter and sold out of the copies they brought to SPX a few weeks ago! However, Andrew says Warmer will be for sale online asap – so stay tuned. ————————————————————————————————— Sally here! Comics Workbook and Connor Willumsen are coming to Cartoon Crossroads Columbus this weekend (Sept. 28-Oct. 1st)! Workshops with Connor will be almost every hour on Saturday and Sunday. “The educational workshops hosted by Pittsburgh’s Comics Workbook focus on visual theory applied in practical fashion to any kind of comics making a cartoonist can imagine and can benefit any way a student of the form might wish to improve. This year’s special host is the remarkable visual talent Connor Willumsen, with guest-star teachers dropping in and out throughout the weekend. Walk-ins welcome.” Full schedule can be found HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Just had to share the above drawing, made by Connor Willumsen during his weeklong stay in Pittsburgh between SPX and touring for Koyama Press, and his upcoming stint at CXC. For the baseball fans out there. Check out Connor’s new book from Koyama Press – the incredible Anti-Gone, which you can get a copy of HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Jacob Khepler, “the publisher of Mothers News“, has started a new blog. So far he’s written about the zine shown above by Edie Fake, Family Circus, and books by Pushkin and Rimboud – something for everyone! Check out 100% Publishing HERE and be sure to bookmark it so you can keep up with one of the finest writers around. ————————————————————————————————— The fall semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts October 1st 2017. 8 weeks of comics instruction that will bang your practice into shape – 500 bux. Full details about the course and how to apply can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Frank Santoro made a comic book about his parents and now he needs help making a handbound copy of the book for each of them. It’s a good story. Check out the Indiegogo campaign HERE – or if you want to contribute via PayPal, look at the campaign HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-28-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

04/21/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 20, 2017NewsSally here with the PEN World Voices Festival lineup, a look at female cartoonists in mainstream publications, new work from Cecil Castellucci and Leela Corman, and more. ————————————————————————————————— The PEN World Voices Festival is coming up! Meg Lemke (editor in chief of Mutha Magazine, chair of the Comics and Graphic Novel Committee for the Brooklyn Book Festival, and guest editor of PEN America’s Illustrated PEN series) is making sure that comics are well represented throughout the festival (see poster above!), and female creators especially are being given plenty of space to make some noise. From Rokudenashiko, to Roz Chaste, to Julia Gfrorer, to Gabrielle Bell, female cartoonists from all corners of the comics community are getting together to talk shop and share their work and their opinions. Please make an effort to get to these events and support all of the cartoonists and artists who will be lifting their voices during the festival. ————————————————————————————————— Hazel Cills wrote a detailed report for MTV News on the current place of female cartoonists in mainstream publications. It’s a good moment to take notes, as it was announced recently that Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor for The New Yorker, would be stepping down after 20 years in the role. Emma Allen will be picking up the reins in a few weeks (while maintaining her role as an editor for the magazine’s Daily Shouts section) and it goes without saying that she’s interested in hiring more female cartoonists. The New Yorker, along with other mainstream publications (especially in their print form), is a “notoriously hard place to submit cartoons” at the best of times, and despite the efforts of editors and staff here and there, comparatively few women succeed in getting their work published with any regularity. “Female illustrators make less money than their male counterparts on average and still have a long way to go when it comes to winning awards. The first Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning that was given to a woman went to Jen Sorensen in 2014, but just last year the prestigious comic artist award Angoulême Grand Prix nominated 30 men and zero women (which caused many male cartoonists, including Daniel Clowes and Chris Ware, to ask to be removed from the list). So while publications are seeking to diversify the bylines of writers and artists, when it comes to the artwork and cartoons published alongside them, the conversation is just getting started.“ The article serves as both a look at the current state of things, and a brief crash-course in the history of female cartoonists (and the wall of white males that they’ve been beating against for a century and more). It brings up an interesting note too about the “self-censoring” that women and POC creators apply to their work, knowing that white male characters are more likely to grab the attention of white male editors. ” “As women we tend to self-censor a lot more,” illustrator and Maryland Institute College of Art professor Shreyas R Krishnan says. “Whether it’s OK to put something in the work or not purely because it doesn’t conform to the default that’s been established.” Krishnan describes working, as an Indian woman, on a commissioned illustration of a female musician of color for white, male art directors. “I tend to abstract skin color, using blue or purple, so that’s what I did,” she says. “But then the art director was like, ‘No, we need her to look like what she looks like,’ and I was like , ‘Sure, I can do that, I just wasn’t sure if you guys would want it that way.’ I was assuming they might not because they were white men.” “ There are many more interesting viewpoints and thoughts in the article – read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Although she is still working on Shade, the Changing Girl, Cecil Castellucci has another comics writing project coming from Dark Horse very soon. Soupy Leaves Home is “a Depression-era hobo odyssey about a young girl fleeing her stifling home to live life free on the rails under the mentorship of an elder vagabond who sees the world a little bit differently than most.” It’s a story that Cecil has been thinking about and working on since 2008. Paste Magazine sat down with her recently to talk about the comic. “Paste: Pearl’s dad isn’t her only obstacle—even other women in her life try to force her into the role of a dutiful daughter. Was it important to you to address gender inequality of the era in addition to Pearl’s specific familial situation? And did your research lead you to any real-world tales of women hoboes living undercover as men? Castellucci: Absolutely it was important. Her family was, as were many others, still reeling from the Great Depression. That definitely plays a part in the dynamic that is going on there, which you can see on page one. Pinched times affect people and how and what they try to hold on to. I think for Soupy’s family, gender dynamics and the idea of being proper and what is proper is what they cling to. You have to remember in 1932 a bobbed haircut was considered scandalous. Pants on women were still kind of weird. women had only gotten the vote a decade earlier. Bennington College, while not the first women’s college, opened its doors that year. Soupy saw herself as a different kind of woman than what her family saw. She thinks of herself as becoming a modern woman, and while the idea about what that meant was emerging, it was still a very difficult road for a girl. Frankly, it still is. And while there was no particular girl or woman hobo that I can point to in my research, every book and documentary and fictional film about hoboes includes girls and women who rode the rails. They oftentimes traveled as boys, not only for safety reasons but for the freedom and ease it granted them.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE – look for the comic on shelves soon. ————————————————————————————————— There is an excerpt from Leela Corman‘s graphic novel-in-progress – Victory Parade – on Tablet Magazine. The story is about a Jewish American soldier named Sam Arensberg who helps “liberate a concentration camp – but the horrors he witnesses haunt his dreams“. See the excerpt HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Shoots and Leaves Sarah Glidden’s Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria and Iraq has won the 2017 Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year. Read more about it on The Comics Beat. Annie Mok speaks to Gabrielle Bell about Everything is Flammable – on The Comics Journal. AIGA Eye on Design has a review of Eleanor Davis‘ upcoming comic You & A Bike & A Road – read it HERE. Illustrated PEN has an excerpt from Mira Jacob‘s Questions From My Mixed-Race Son – guest editor Meg Lemke introduces it HERE. The Chicago Tribune has a review of Kristen Radtke‘s debut graphic memoir Imagine Wanting Only This. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-21-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-21-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-21-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

06/08/2016

Juan FernándezJune 8, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez with: a Studio Visit with Steven Weissman; COTTONOPOLIS on CW; School Store Restock Selling Fast; Hostia un Libro; Pablo Besse’s ANTITIERRA; El Capitan Trueno; un look a Locas; Club Fosfatina 2000 Vol. 2. On the site: New in the DIAZ ARCHIVE: http://comicsworkbook.com/a-studio-visit-with-steven-weissman/ ————————————————————————————————— Cottonopolis Week continues on CW Made from November 2014 through January 2015 by Oliver East for Comics Workbook, Cottonopolis is a series of 6 panel comics that unpack moments in a life that swirls in the history of Manchester, UK. Spend some time with them today. ————————————————————————————————— School Store: Recent Restock SELLING OUT FAST We have some new items up on the school store that have been selling fast. Don’t miss your chance to grab: ZONA #03, Cold Heat Specials and Blades & Lazers set, Gary Panter postcard set, and Mikey Z’s Venom. Off the site: ¡HOSTIA UN LIBRO! Just around the corner in Madrid, Spain is ¡HOSTIA UN LIBRO! a small press festival in its 3rd year. Comics, poetry, literature, all in the small press mix in this outdoor book fair. Organized by Elisabeth Falomir Archambault, Alberto Haj-Saleh, Francisco Serrano, Pedro Toro, hosts of Hostia un Podcast. ————————————————————————————————— Antitierra – Pablo Besse Real purdy, sexually charged digital edition of a book by argentine cartoonist, Pablo Besse. If you like what you see there, be sure to take a dip into Pablo Besse’s drawings over on his site. ————————————————————————————————— Reflecting on 60 Years Capitan Trueno Jesús Jiménez has wonderful look at the history of Spain’s best selling comic book over at RTVE.es. Inspired by Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, El Capitan Trueno was a rock ’em sock ’em action comic full of o’ hyucks that took Spain by storm under Franco. Smash that Google Translate button to read it all! ————————————————————————————————— Dandole un look a Locas Ruth García Martín os da un look al primer volumen en la serie Love and Rockets de Jaime Hernandez, Locas 1. RGM: A lo largo de las 272 páginas y 24 vemos una notable evolución narrativa como discursiva en la que se va despojando de lo accesorio para utilizar, o innovar, los recursos necesarios en cada escena. En cierta medida, salvaguardando todas las distancias, su evolución es equivalente a la de Mike Mignola. Ambos tienen una narrativa muy particular con la que han recreado un personal universo y un arte que ha ido limpiándose de artificios innecesarios con el paso del tiempo sin mermar, más bien al contrario, un ápice la calidad. En este primer tomo Jaime Hernández sienta las bases de lo que será su universo Si no han leeido Love and Rockets, os toca empezar vuestra aventura con Los Hermanos Hernandez hoy! ————————————————————————————————— CLUB FOSFATINA 2000 VOL 2. Galician publisher Club Fosfatina has just released a peek at Julia Huete’s killer looking Gran Danes (Above), the first book in Club Fosfatina’s second bimonthly A4 Risograph comics subscription. Subscriptions can be made up until June 30th. Don’t sleep on ’em! FOSFATINA 2000 es una colección bimensual de cómics a dos colores tamaño A4 impresa en RISOGRAFÍA, con una tirada limitada de 150 ejemplares. El segundo volumen de la colección está conformada por las obras de los siguientes autores: Julia Huete, María Ramos, Cynthia Alfonso, Berliac, Nacho García, Los Bravú,Óscar Raña y Berto Fojo. Ocho ediciones repartidas durante todo el año, cada dos meses con dos lanzamientos dobles (Cynthia Alonso / Berliac, Óscar Raña / Berto Fojo). Share this page: [...]

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