Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Juan Fernández

Posted on August 1, 2018

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02/15/2017

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

09/22/2016

Sally IngrahamSeptember 22, 2016NewsSally Ingraham here with Sam Ombiri, bringing you more highlights from SPX weekend and an examination of The Act of Seeing! ————————————————————————————————— SPX is always a whirlwind, but when that spinning vortex touches down now and then, you inevitably bump into someone cool. Frank careened into the great Chris Visions, who just released his Lunchtime Loosies Vol. 1 Deluxe Edition (get it here!) and Ronald Wimberly, who said that other conventions are good – but SPX is the one to beat! ————————————————————————————————— Down in the Comics Workbook workshop room the likes of Charles Burns, Carol Tyler, and Jeffrey Brown regaled folks with their pen and paper choices and other process and storytelling tips over SPX weekend. Cameron Weston Nicholson (pictured above) dug into the relationship between comics and music. “Comics are a symphonic mixture of picture & word. Geometry to form a melodic comic (as pictured above) the red is the “eye” or the “main tempo” the blue is the rhythm and the green activates the bass which brings you back to the beginning.” – Cameron Nicholson ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Workbook workshop space at SPX was also a great place to meet new people – Samuel Sharpe, a DC area cartoonist, attended a “hangout” session and got his first taste of the CW index cards method. He shared some of his own comics with us – More of Samuel Sharpe’s work can be found HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Back upstairs in the expo showroom, Shannon Wright was selling copies of her comic 4-99 (which you can get as a digital download HERE if you missed it at the show!) She was tabling with Chris Kindred, who was debuting Night Hunter at the show (also available as a digital download HERE). Another one of our Richmond, VA, friends – Richie Pope – was also there, showing off his recent killer illustration work. ————————————————————————————————— Whit Taylor was tabling as well, debuting her comic Wallpaper, and keeping her sharp eye on the show as a whole – we will be presenting a full report from her soon! She was interviewed by Jake Grubman at Comicsverse shortly before the show. “By nature, being an autobio cartoonist, it’s easier for me to reveal things about myself even though I’m shy by nature. It was kind of therapeutic for me to work through those things, and…the least I could do was produce something that could be helpful to other people.” – Whit Taylor Read the full article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Switching gears from SPX coverage now – we have this week’s thoughts from Samuel Ombiri – The Act of Seeing I like the title of the coffee table book Nicolas Winding Refn put out last year – The Act of Seeing. I never think of reading or viewing something like it’s an action I’m performing. So this title brings with it a bunch of excitement for me, and it feels like a bit of a challenge. The book itself has a bunch of cinema posters from…the 60’s and 70’s maybe? He said he approached it no more different than the way he edits his movies. So then, what I wonder is, was he still following the same impulse of what his movies are about? That it’s more about what you don’t see than what you see, which creates, in his words “penetration of the mind”? It reminds me of something CF said, about how when he was younger, he was looking at catalogs of comics he couldn’t get. He would think about what the comic would be like based off the cover. I don’t remember whether he did it naturally out of impulse or if it was a conscious thing he did – I think he did it out of impulse. I kind of wonder if CF drew any comics based off what he thought was in those comics he couldn’t read; his comics have the energy, when I read it, where I feel it’s alluding to that comic book cover from that catalog he was reading (but I’m also imagining what that cover looked like, so I guess I’m just imaging reading it in whole different context…) Maybe this will make more sense; let’s say Refn puts together a catalog of movie posters he hasn’t seen (in the video above he said he only knows 10% of the movies in the poster book, but let’s pretend he knows 0%.) Now this next part is actually true – sometimes when he would have no direction for the movie he was making, so he would look to at the posters he was accumulating for the book for inspiration. He would use the posters of the movies he didn’t know and think about what movie they’d be. (I don’t know if he was using the supposed 90% mysterious posters for this process but let’s just suppose he was – this is part of his “penetration of the mind” spiel, that it creates a new idea). When I saw his new movie, I could imagine the poster he was looking at…the era it was alluding to…the theme…and like… the novelty of the time, from the image and the sound. I don’t want to fully grasp where it’s from, in fact I have no interest in watching these movies myself, not just because it ruins the mysterious quality, but watching those movies would just be reaaaal drag. They sound like the worst movies to watch, but that’s probably just my weakness as a viewer, but it is suddenly easier to watch them filtered through Refn. It’s also convenient, how he has pretty much taken every element that interested me in the posters. So it’s also a bit of shortcut, instead of sitting through those other movies. There are ones he alluded to that I like that are not in the same category of the movies in the book too. These allusions can give me a lot of energy and I really welcome that mystery as much as possible, but that mystery means that I’m also avoiding looking at good work. Anyways this supposed experience – I’ve had it too. I bet I’m not the only one who it has happened to, where I draw a comic, based off of what I think a show that hasn’t aired yet will look like. One time I realized I had done 300 pages without realizing it. – Samuel Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Final note before we let you go – we now have both of Connor Willumsen’s new publications in hand! The brand new one – Portraits – and the super rare one – Swinespritzen – both limited editions, both incredible. Details about both and where to order them can be found HERE. Proceeds from these books will help send Connor to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in October! Share this page: [...]

05/24/2016

Aaron CockleMay 23, 2016NewsBerliac Week Continues at CW; Venn Diagram Panel; Kirby Gridz; Safari Festival 2016; Dueling Book Release Parties; Henry Darger at the American Folk Art Museum; Juan Fernández Comics ————————————————————————————————— Featured this week: Gwai-Lo of the Heart by Berliac. Made for Comics Workbook in 2015. ————————————————————————————————— Venn Diagram Panel from MoCCA Festival 2016 Painter and cartoonist Keith Mayerson once called his 1996 graphic novel Horror Hospital Unplugged “too arty for comics” and “too comics for art.” The boundary between those two fields, however structural and arbitrary, may be weakening, but is it happening quickly enough to accommodate the rapidly growing number of artists who are now so productively working in this seam? Moderator Bill Kartalopoulos will investigate these questions and more with three leading lights of contemporary artcomics: Austin English (Gulag Casual), Aidan Koch (After Nothing Comes), and Blaise Larmee (3 Books). ————————————————————————————————— Via Micheal Oeming’s Facebook page. ————————————————————————————————— Safari Festival: New waves in contemporary comics and art. 11am to 6pm, 27 August 2016 Protein, 31 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EY safarifestival.tumblr.com | @safarifestival | info@safari-festival.com Safari Festival is a celebration of the new wave of alternative and art comics from the UK and beyond. Taking place over one Saturday at the end of August, the festival is an opportunity for a curated group of cartoonists and publishers to exhibit and sell their artwork, prints and, primarily, comics, and for attendees to experience the best of UK comics’ avant-garde. The artists exhibiting have been selected for their innovative, fearless, diverse approaches to making comics; approaches to cartooning that Safari intends to champion. The festival will be free to attend, and will take place at Studio 2, the Shoreditch gallery space of London-based creative agency, Protein. ————————————————————————————————— Thursday, May 26, 7-pm in Providence and/or NYC ————————————————————————————————— Henry Darger at the Folk Art Museum ————————————————————————————————— I Can See the Birds by Juan Fernández 5.5″x8.5″, Color & Risograph, $6 postpaid (International Shipping). This one is my Yo La Tengo comic on the shoulders of the poetry giant, Mary Oliver. The words are excerpted from her poem, Wild Geese. All drawings are first takes on location here in Pittsburgh. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

10/13/2016

Sally IngrahamOctober 13, 2016NewsSam Ombiri here – I was looking through old issues of The Believer hoping to find Dash Shaw and Jesse Moynihan’s comic about Lost. I didn’t know what issue of The Believer it was in, but as I was setting aside some suspects, I saw a portrait Charles Burns did of this one person whose work is typically really awkward and really lame. I bought it since it was just 50 cents per issue. I lucked out and found the Lost comic as well (pictured below). (You can read the Lost comic – titled Spiritual Dad – HERE, at the bottom of a 2011 Jesse Moynihan interview conducted by Frank Santoro for The Comics Journal. – Sally) I’ve been thinking about this quote, or mix of quotes, but I can’t say from whom they are from (and I really, really changed it from the original). Still, it’s great to hear him/her saying this stuff – “Things will not always have a conclusion, be it jokes without punchlines, or reading books that have pages missing or put in wrong places. All information is accessible now, it’s tough to choose which information is worth anything, but I prefer for things to be awkward…my spelling is terrible…and my grammar is worse (laughs). I don’t know how it all affects my work… I don’t want to make things people would intellectualize, but instead it’s all about a feeling.” I feel it’s more less the last part that I find myself somewhat agreeing with, though the beginning at certain points leaves me a bit dubious. (I reworded the last part of the quote, the quote itself wasn’t sequentially reworded from the original.) Actually the last part where the person talking hesitated to intellectualize a feeling, I took from this one cool guy, Jeffrey Leiser, who in his list of favorite Criterions, said, for the Three Colors Trilogy, something like “I don’t want to intellectualize this, it should be celebrated as a triumph for cinema.” I think he’s working on an opera right now. His brother Eric is super rad too. To conclude, here is a piece of a drawing I was working on: -Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sally Ingraham here. If you’re in Pittsburgh this coming weekend, be sure to check out the 6th annual Pittsburgh Zine Fair and catch up with Sam Ombiri at the Pittsburgh Comics Salon table! He’ll be holding it down, joined by a few other frequent attendees of the monthly comics salons. PZF is at the Union Project on Sunday, October 16, from 2-8pm. Check out the work of Jayla Patton, another Pittsburgh cartoonist and the creator of the PZF poster (above) HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Starting today, the Comics Workbook team is officially spread across the globe – with Frank Santoro in the U.K. for The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, joined by Aidan Koch, Connor Willumsen, Oliver East, and Jack Brougham among others. There is still time to buy tickets to the workshops that Frank, Aidan, and Connor are giving – HERE! Meanwhile, Comics Workbook will be represented in force at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, in OH, with Sacha Mardou, Whit Taylor, Kurt Ankeny, Alyssa Berg, Juan Fernandez, Caleb Orecchio, Emil Friis Ernst, John Kelly, and me (Sally Ingraham), running around leading workshops, moderating panels, interviewing folks, documenting the event, and tabling at the expo. I was getting confused myself about which direction we’re all going in this weekend, so I made a comprehensive list of who is where, when – check it out HERE. See you there! ————————————————————————————————— SPX has started posting videos from this year’s panels – here’s thee great Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez being interviewed by Bill Boichel, owner of Copacetic Comics here in Pittsburgh, PA: ————————————————————————————————— Over on The Comics Journal yesterday Dan Nadel included some thoughts on Dash Shaw’s new film, and Ben Jones’ exhibition at The Hole, among his other news links. “Ben’s new show was fascinating because it was a rare instance of a cartoonist making comics that function as narrative drawing in a contemporary gallery space. These are not enlarged images (e.g. Shrigley), murals, or groups of drawings (Pettibon), but rather straightforward canvases that take a new approach to the comic medium. The show consists of oil stick-on canvas 3 by 3 foot cartoon panels assembled into narrative blocks (or 6 by 9 foot “pages”). They manage to feel as intimate as his notebook-sized comic strips and yet take on a new, somewhat ominous meaning — their dumb subject and large size a visual equivalent to, say, the comedy of Eric Andre or Will Ferrell. On a technical level, the work functions because his line is distinctly warm, his cartoon forms basic, and his sense of space and scale adaptable to large spaces. ” – Dan Nadel More HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Ronald Wimberly has a show at the Columbus Museum of Art, and will be speaking on Sunday there in conjunction with Cartoon Crossroads Columbus – he’ll be talking to Ohio State University’s Jared Gardner – 2:30-4pm at the museum. ————————————————————————————————— Have you seen the recent collaboration between Frank Santoro and master jeweler Airi Maeno? Check out the Pompeii Medallion HERE. Yes, we are still trying to get Connor Willumsen to The Lakes International Comic Art Festival – this way please! ————————————————————————————————— I’m eager to get on the road and on my way to Columbus, so I’ll leave you for the moment. I’ll be back tomorrow with the first round of pics from CXC, and Sam Ombiri will be back next Thursday with his Pittsburgh Zine Fair report and other good stuff. Cheers! – Sally Share this page: [...]

Art Trip: Pots, Lamps and Comics in Rio

Anna ManciniJuly 29, 2016Art Trip / EssaysA couple of weeks ago, I visited the “Carlos Scliar – from reflection to creation” exhibition at Caixa Cultural, in Rio de Janeiro. With a friend by my side, who is also a designer and cartoonist, I had the chance to look closely at his paintings, drawings and screen prints. I wasn’t really familiar with Scliar’s work, although his name does figure among the greatest Brazilian artists. This ended up being a fortunate ignorance, because reproductions will never do his work justice. Getting to know it in person was a touching experience, especially regarding his colors and subtle use of texture (I’ll leave the pun). In many of his paintings, you can see layers of paper and fabric that serve only as a tactile hint beneath the paint. It left me wondering if it served in any way as a direction for the compositions, or if he had it all planned from the start. In other works, this layering is more evident as he uses collages of music sheets and book pages. It was a pleasure to take a closer look at the patterns of mite-eaten paper carefully incorporated to the paintings. I’ve been experimenting with layering and collaging in my sketchbooks and these observations have inspired me to explore it further. Another happy moment of this first close encounter was a realization similar to, I imagine, what occurred to Sally Ingraham at the Georgia O’Keefe exhibit (as she writes here). Not too far into the gallery, as I walk, noticing the artist’s synthesized depiction of flowers, candles, pots and lamps, I see comics. Two of his compositions follow the well-known 9-panel grid. Into the exhibition’s second room, this similarity becomes more evident and justified. Here are his drawings and screen prints, with more explorations of what can be seen as a comics grid, and a graphic style similar to what flat design trends and contemporary illustration seem to be channeling lately. The justification comes from a video interview with Scliar, played on loop at the center of the room. In this interview, the artist recounts his trajectory as an illustrator; the influence of pop-art and german expressionism in his work; his early experiences with typography for a newspaper; and later on, as an art director for an avant-garde magazine. After watching it in full, my friend and I left thinking how it all made sense now, to somehow “find” comics in a work coming from a background like that. ————————————————————————————————— Art Trip is a series that features reflections on art and comics, and the adventures that transform those who seek it out. ————————————————————————————————— Manzanna, or Anna Mancini, is a Brazilian freelance designer, illustrator and comics artist. Check out her work HERE. Share this page: [...]

08/01/2018

Posted on August 1, 2018 by Juan Fernández

No news for today. I’m home with a sick cat on my lap.

On the local front, The Pittsburgh Comics Salon meets tonight at Kaibur Coffee in Polish Hill. Audra Stang and I will be leading Pittsburghers in some comics calisthenics exercises. It’s always a good time – coffee, shop talk, solidarity. Commodity form as community form. If you’re around, come on out. More info here.

On the personal front, my sweet baby boy cat Boris, who is only 6, has been sick for the past month and a half. We’ve gotten some medical attention for the little guy, but after all the time in ER, no diagnosis. He is eating a little more, is a little more active, but is still not back to his normal self. You can imagine how frustrating that can be.

I’d never had a cat until Boris and this kind of thing is devastating. I’ve been thinking about KING-CAT #75, the issue that John Porcellino dedicated to the life story of his beloved cat Maisie Kukoc, who lived with him for 15 years. In a lot of ways it prepared me for this kind of love and pain.

For today, just a photo of the guy.

-Juan

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged Boris

Juan Fernández

Posted on August 1, 2018

Explore

06/02/2017

Sally IngrahamJune 2, 2017NewsSally here with some Wonder Women for your weekend – Lynda Barry, Annie Koyama, Teresa Roberts Logan, G. Willow Wilson, Trina Robbins, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Aww…look at the tiny fabulous Lynda Barry, making a guest appearance in Bil Keane’s Family Circus…! Over on The Comics Beat Heidi MacDonald writes joyously about how this came about: “The other night at the Reuben Awards, cartoonist Lynda Barry was presented with the Milton Caniff award for her lifetime achievement because, after all, she is funk queen of the universe. But at the NCS annual meeting where she got the award, she also met a hero of her own, Jeff Keane, the artist on Family Circus and son of the original creator, Bil Keane. Barry explains what happened on her tumblr in her own inimitable way, but the short version is that Family Circus was very important to her growing up as a child from a troubled family. Upon meeting Keane she burst into tears. And then she found out she had a guest spot in the comic.“ Read the story in Lynda’s own words HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Comics publisher extraordinaire Annie Koyama is the featured “Type Reader for June” on Type. She answered a special comics-themed questionnaire, where she admitted to reading comics “unabashedly” on public transportation, and owning but never finishing Chris Ware’s Building Stories. Also: “If you weren’t running a Canadian comics empire, what would you be doing right now? I’d be planting a vegetable garden and frolicking with woodland creatures. Ideally somewhere with really spotty Internet.“ Read the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Teresa Roberts Logan – or, The Laughing Redhead and a recent arrival to Pittsburgh – has officially made a career change from stand-up comedian to cartoonist. She spoke to The Daily Press recently about the different challenges the two mediums presented her with. “When you tell a joke as a stand-up, you get to deliver that — play with the voice, emphasize certain words, play with the timing. When it’s for print, you have to write a little more cleanly because you don’t have the benefit of being able to perform it. Putting it on paper is the performance. With stand-up comedy, people are judging more about you than just the joke — what you look like, how you’re dressed, your personality. On paper, they’re just judging what’s on paper — the joke itself.“ Her comic The Grim Reaper will be syndicated on gocomics.com starting June 26th. Read more of her story HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Feminist Frequency has an interview with G. Willow Wilson, author of the Ms Marvel series. After controversial comments were made by a Marvel rep about diversity killing the bottom line of a number of stories, she weighed in with her own thoughts on diversity in comics – and the topic has continued to up. “I think diversity has become this catch-all word that is used by a lot of different groups in different ways, not all of them positive and not all of them furthering the cause of good comics. For some people in the more conservative segment of the comic book population, diversity has become sort of a dog whistle. But I’ve also heard very valid critiques of it on the left, that diversity by itself does not change the underlying structures that lead to inequality, so just having photo op diversity doesn’t actually change things. But stories that focus on authenticity and specific experiences can be very successful because it’s not about box checking. It’s about reflecting—as closely as you can in pulp fiction—a real lived experience. Because the things that makes us different are not just cosmetic. They change how we experience the world in some pretty critical ways. The stories that have done that well have really found solid fanbases. And some that do it less well. But when those stories fail, it inevitably becomes about the diversity issue when the real cause may be diversity done poorly. Or it may just be that like 90% of books, it simply fails and we don’t tend to think as hard about the mainstream same-old stories when they fail. There’s sort of a selective reading of the reasons why books, diverse or not, fail.“ To read the rest of the interview you will have to subscribe to the monthly Feminist Frequency newsletter, FREQ – do so HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Just a few “Wonder Women” at the movie premier after party – Valerie Perez (Wonder Woman cosplayer and actress), Trina Robbins (artist for numerous issues of Wonder Woman), Lynda Carter (the original on-screen Wonder Woman), Christie Marston (grand daughter of Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston), and Susan Eisenberg (the voice of Wonder Woman in the Justice League animated series). The Comics Beat reports that DC’s new Wonder Woman movie is actually pretty good. Elsewhere, Joe Wos reports on Wonder Woman for the Trib Live, and chats briefly with Trina Robbins: ” “In my opinion, she is the perfect mythic hero,” says legendary comics “Herstorian” Trina Robbins of San Francisco. “According to Joseph Campbell’s writings in ‘The Hero With a Thousand Faces,’ the hero is always the child of a virgin and a deity. She’s the child of the virgin Queen Hippolyta and a deity who, in this case, is the goddess Aphrodite, who breathes life into the baby that Hippolyta sculpts from clay. Can there be a more feminist origin story? Little Diana has two mommies!” “ Read the rest of the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Extra Toppings Paste Magazine interviews Gabrielle Bell – apparently the extensive “free-associations” regarding cats were mostly cut out. Read it HERE. Another powerful comic about abortion is up on The Nib, excerpted from the upcoming collection Comics for Choice – see Candice Russell‘s and Laura Lannes‘ story HERE. Also on Paste Magazine, Hilary Brown reports on a new offering from Drawn & Quarterly, Elise Gravel‘s If Found Please Return to Elise Gravel. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 6-2-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-2-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-2-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

01/10/2018

Juan FernándezJanuary 10, 2018los Cómics / NewsJuan empieza el día con el Puchi Award 2018 y Paul Karasik & Mark Newgarden charlando sobre Nancy! ———————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ In English and en Español ~ Deadline reminder: Jan. 10th 201 – TODAY -. La Horchata Zine is accepting submissions from creators of Central American ancestry. New Deadline: submissions for Ink Brick no. 9 are due Monday, Feb 19, 2018! Do yourself a favor and submit your comics-poetry, won’t you? Belgian cartoonist and autobio-comics champion, David Libens, is starting to publish his current notebook online. His recent comics and zines have been coming from this notebook. There’s some really amazing autobiography in here. First take cartooning, grappling with depression, love and the nuisance that is the call of the void. Earnest, painful and funny. The First 12 pages are available here. Happy reading. La Casa Encendida y Fulgencio Pimentel siguen buscando un libro. La convocatoria de #PuchiAward 2018 está abierta a todo tipo de géneros y formas: ficción, no ficción, novela, poesía, cómic, álbum ilustrado, ensayo, libro de cocina, geografía… Hasta el 25 de enero. The Latino Comix Expo is coming to Brownsville, Texas! Exhibitors can apply for a table, fans can get their your tickets! Cynthia Alfonso and Óscar Raña have created a new video for Spanish Psych-pop band Dois – this comes via with their new experimental animation studio called RAPAPAWN. Check out the European Fuzzy Vector Goop Abstraction in action. Paul Karasik & Mark Newgarden talk on the Virtual Memories Show with Gil Roth about their glortious achievement – How to Read Nancy, a decade-long experiment in close comics reading and visual literacy. Listen here. ————————————————————————————————— Frank Santoro and Simon Hanselmann, CAB 2013 – photo by Chris Anthony Diaz, colored by Graham Willcox International Students: The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 16th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. His experience and ideas have influenced the likes of Connor Willumsen, Michael DeForge, and Simon Hanselmann (quote “I consider Frank Santoro to be my L. Ron Hubbard”) among many others. Dig into something new in the new year! Full details and how to apply can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-10-2018 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-10-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

02/02/2018

Sally IngrahamFebruary 1, 2018NewsSally here with the myth of the Wonder Woman, plus Vanessa Davis, Little Dot, Ulli Lust, and more! ————————————————————————————————— There is a lengthy, intense essay on Artforum by Sarah Nicole Prickett titled Serious Sex Battle – it is about the myth of the “wonder woman”. She digs into comics, literature, and film and discusses the ways that pop culture has tried and repeatedly failed to make women “super” – often by stripping them of all the real things that in fact make them super. For example: “The scholar Michele Wallace argues in Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman (1978) that the black woman doesn’t need a costume. She is already held to be a “woman of inordinate strength.” She “does not have the same fears, weaknesses, and insecurities as other women, but believes herself to be and is, in fact, stronger emotionally than most men. Less of a woman in that she is less ‘feminine’ and helpless, she is really more of a woman in that she is the embodiment of Mother Earth.” Ergo, says Wallace, she is a superwoman, burdened by the source of her powers.“ Prickett talks about Wonder Woman quite a bit, of course, both the strengths and weaknesses of the character and what she represents. She also brings up Miss Fury, Scarlett O’Hara, Tim Burton’s take on Cat Woman, and a whole lot more. Devote an hour at least to sifting through this piece (one that Prickett spent a few years writing!) Read the whole essay HERE. ————————————————————————————————— There is a nice interview with Vanessa Davis on Pocko, which digs into her career as a whole so far, her influences, and the choices she’s made along the way. “Pocko: Your father was a commercial artist and photo-journalist. Can you see any of his work in your own? How did your childhood affect your career? Davis: It feels natural (if not always easy) for me to live and work within an uncertain freelance lifestyle. The humility of struggle and uncertainty mixed with the rush of work and money… that’s always been sort of central to my experience, but both my mom and dad worked doing what they loved, so that’s just paramount, by any means necessary, to me. It is a high-maintenance lifestyle, but it feels almost just cultural or religious or something–I can’t get away from it. My dad definitely had an eye for the absurd and could criticize his subjects by merely portraying them. But he also maintained a sort of joy for the chaos of this world. That’s definitely something I aspire to in my work and in my own viewpoint.“ Read the whole interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Michael Dooley has another great article on Print, this time tying a famous comic book character of the 1950s/60s – Little Dot – to today’s art scene and specifically the work of Yayoi Kusama (who is, if it’s possible, even more dot-happy than Dot). The article includes multiple scans of old Little Dot comics, and this excellent reminder of what made them interesting: “If you’ve never heard of this one-time comic book celebrity, it’s because Little Dot hasn’t been getting around much anymore. She started out in 1949 as a back-up feature in kids’ comics like Richie Rich but soon earned her own title. As originally conceived by cartoonist Vic Herman, she was designed with a distinctive flair and personality. But in 1953 her appearance melded into Harvey’s house style. She was softened and rounded out, which rendered her barely distinguishable from Little Audrey and Wendy the Good Little Witch. But from a marketing angle, it was a huge success. Like the gluttonous Little Lotta, Dot fits neatly into Harvey’s formula of one-dimensional, obsessive-compulsive personalities. The less said about the actual stories, the better, because what’s truly fascinating is that this kid is completely dot-crazy, hooked on circles. She’s constantly compelled to reconstitute her surroundings to conform to her own private fetish. And why not? She may simply be an instinctual Design Modernist, sensing the dot as infinite, supremely iconic, the purest, most perfect single form in the universe. Not to mention that her very existence is totally dependent on the CMYK/benday process. Insert a shout-out to Pop Art’s Roy Lichtenstein here.” Check out the rest of this enjoyable read HERE. ————————————————————————————————— France Culture asked ten authors to make a comic about their relationship to Chris Ware, in the event that he won a big prize at Angouleme. Ulli Lust made the little scene pictured above. As it turns out, neither Chris Ware or Ulli Lust won prizes this year at Angouleme, so when she shared the strip Ulli said it could have an alternate title: In the same boat again with Chris Ware. ————————————————————————————————— An announcement went out this week from the organizers of the Pittsburgh Indy Comix Exposition: Dear Friends of PIX — We know some of you have been wondering about the status of PIX 2018. To make a long story short: there will NOT be a PIX 2018. We apologize for the late announcement of this fact. We are, however, already working on PIX 2019 and plan to return to the August Wilson Center in April 2019. We will make a formal announcement in the summer of this year. Thank you for your past support. Stay tuned… —Team PIX ————————————————————————————————— Sticky Notes Apply for the Lucy Shelton Caswell Research Award, offered by the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum – applications due by March 1st – more details HERE! The Daily Beast has a lengthy profile on Trina Robbins – read it HERE. Sara Lautman writes a comic for the New Yorker about Cow Tools and a new tattoo – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-2-2018 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-2-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

9/21/2016

Juan FernándezSeptember 21, 2016los Cómics / NewsBuenos días! Me da mucho gusto traerle las noticias del mundo del cómic! Una crítica de “Lapsos”; El Mundo de Felipe Almendros; Conversando con Power Paola; Mireia Perez reseña Maria lloró sobre los pies de Jesus; Clowes y la ausencia de una cultura dominante; reseñas de Hanselmann – “Hechizo Total” y “Melancoliá” – Documentando El Publicadero en Manizales; Entreviñetas arranca este fin de semana. ————————————————————————————————— https://vimeo.com/182711907 El Publicadero, en Colombia ha compartido esta documentacion de la segunda edicion del encuentro. lookin good Colombia 😉 Les presento algunas imágenes del encuentro de Autoedición y Fanzines “El Publicadero” celebrado en el marco de la sexta Feria del Libro de Manizales! Tuvo lugar desde el 30 de Agosto al 3 de Septiembre de 2016. ————————————————————————————————— Entreviñetas, el SPX/TCAF de latinoamerica, arranca este fin de semana en Bogotá! La programación del festival está en línea en su website. Dale un vistazo y prepárate! Este año va ser un TRONCO de festival. No te lo pierdas! Clic aquí si quieres aprender más sobre el festival. ————————————————————————————————— Crítica de María lloró sobre los pies de Jesús Mireia Pérez ha publicado su crítica de la obra mas reciente de Chester Brown, María lloró sobre los pies de Jesús en Medium. Originalmente, este texto apareció en la revista El Buen Salvaje: Brown ha realizado una exhaustiva documentación sobre la Biblia a partir de numerosos trabajos teóricos de diferentes investigadores siguiendo dos líneas de análisis que se entremezclan. Por un lado la que hace referencia a la obediencia religiosa y se basa en las historias de Caín y Abel, los Talentos, Job o el Hijo Pródigo y, por otro, las historias protagonizadas por prostitutas (o por mujeres que se comportan como prostitutas). La sucesión de historietas de la primera parte del libro incluye una escena singular que nos da una de las claves de este análisis. En ella Brown trata da a entender cuál era la intención de San Mateo al incluir en sus textos a Tamar, Rahab, Rut, Betsabé y María. Explicación que no desvelaré aquí porque es mucho más interesante si lo descubrís vosotras. ————————————————————————————————— Conversando con Power Paola Power Paola habla con Ben Alfaro en Hijos del Atomo los hijos de la tomo sobre su proceso, sus gustos y sus inspiraciones: ¿Qué dibujante o dibujantes han llamado más tu atención y por qué? ¿ Y qué escritores o escritor y por qué? Me gustan los dibujantes que encontraron su propio lenguaje y que dibujan más por una necesidad física que por buscar reconocimiento. Me encanta el Art Brut, dibujantes comoHenry Darger, Daisuke Ichiba, Stephane Blanquet, Caroline Sury. Y artistas comoRaymond Pettibon, Marcel Dzama, David Shrigley, Louise Bourgeois, El Bosco, Rousseau, Francis Alys, Ernesto Neto, etc. De escritores me gustan mucho Rita Indiana, Yuri Herrera, Junot Díaz,Juan Cárdenas y toda esa camada del caribe que tienen un lenguaje mezclado y muy contemporáneo. También disfruto mucho a Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, Valerie Mrejen, Gabriela Wiener, Patti Smith, Susan Sontag, etc. Me gusta mucho lo autobiográfico y autorreferencial en el cómic y en las novelas, la mezcla de culturas, de lenguajes y de intereses. Me influencio mucho por lo que leo, veo y escucho. Así que siempre tengo referencias en cada proyecto que hago, es mi forma de agradecerles a los que me mostraron una manera de expresar. ————————————————————————————————— El Mundo de Felipe Almendros Bilbao 24 Horas nos ofrece un recorrido, bien profundo de la trayectoria de Felipe Almendros. Llama la atención como en “Save Our Souls” te despojas de todo lo aprendido para buscar el dibujo más sintético posible. R.:No quería hacer algo bonito y virtuoso, porque me parecía que la historia que quería contar en el Save Our Souls, necesitaba de un trazo y un estilo que despertasen ternura y rechazo a partes iguales. Quería que el lector lo viera casi como un diario manuscrito por mi personaje y, que esa experiencia, le ayudara a empatizar conmigo y con la historia. En cada trabajo das un nuevo giro cambiando no solo tu estilo de dibujo sino también el modo de abordar la página. ¿Cada obra te exige un acercamiento distinto? R.:Cada obra la imagino de modo diferente, porque cada historia requiere de personajes y situaciones diferentes. También hay algo de rebeldía, porque no quiero que mis dibujos se conviertan en un estilo, un logo, o una marca demasiado personal con la que me identifiquen. No me puedo ni imaginar, lo aburrido que sería tener que dibujar siempre lo mismo, o que mis dibujos fueran un producto en manos de terceros. ————————————————————————————————— Crítica de Lapsos, de Inés Estrada (Gerardo Vilches) Esta crítica es interesante, dándose cuenta que todavia no hay muchas obras de Estrada publicadas en España. Los mercados españoles y latinoamericanos tienen muchas diferencias, y aunque Estrada es prolifica, la gran parte de sus obras todavia no son conocidas en España. Gerardo Vilches nos ofrece su perspectiva española sobre esta obra: Frente a la tendencia a escribir relatos de género que parecen traducciones del inglés, a deslocalizar lo que sucede para no parecer demasiado provinciano, Inés Estrada abraza lo local y la riqueza de la lengua oral. Tanto, que a veces he tenido que recurrir a la traducción al inglés que se incluye en la obra para entender qué estaban diciendo los personajes. Sus historias son puro México, aunque nos lleven a universos desconocidos. Y esa mezcla maravillosa de lo vivamente real y lo imaginado, que está en la base del realismo mágico que alumbró Latinoamérica, es un componente esencial del trabajo no sólo de Estrada, sino de muchos otros jóvenes creadores que están renovando el panorama historietísticos de sus respectivos países. ————————————————————————————————— Reseñas de las obras más recientes de Simon Hanselmann: Melancolía, de Simon Hanselmann (Gerardo Vilches) Por eso, por grotescas y divertidas que sean algunas situaciones, siempre tienen un fondo oscuro, que sale a la luz, sobre todo, en la figura de Megg, que no por casualidad protagoniza la excelente portada. Sin ese poso, que, en el fondo, es lo que dota de alma a la serie y permite que los veamos como seres reales, Megg, Mogg & Owlpodriía fácilmente caer en la mera parodia de fumaos, a lo Freak Brothers, para entendernos. También es gracias a eso, y quizá a la proyección exagerada de vivencias reales, que Hanselmann está siendo capaz de crear un edificio enorme, una obra que acabará siendo gigantesca, pero cuya cronología siempre será difícil de delimitar: conscientemente o no, está desarrollando una continuidad totalmente laxa, alejada del modelo coherente y obsesivo que domina muchas sagas y series de cómic. Hechizo Total, de Simon Hanselmann (Mireia Pérez) La obra de Simon Hanselmann cuenta con rasgos análogos a los que definen el movimiento literario Alt Lit, una corriente encabezada por escritores jóvenes, como Tao Lin o Ben Brooks, que se caracteriza por tener la cultura de la red muy presente en su prosa o publicar sus creaciones directamente en Internet. El dibujante australiano optó por Tumblr como plataforma de difusión de sus historietas. Sus temáticas tienden a centrarse en la soledad, la precariedad social y los miedos que aterran a la juventud, pero también hacen aparición el sexo, las drogas y el alcohol utilizando el humor como hilo conductor. No obstante, Tao Lin y Simon Hanselmann han compartido páginas en una publicación tan representativa de nuestra época como Vice. Hanselmann también está a medio camino de esa otra tendencia llamada Nueva Sinceridad, que sirve de contraposición al postmodernismo y en la que lo mismo se engloba un youtuber que a la creadora de Girls, Lena Dunham. ¿Su nexo? La falta de ironía y la abundancia de melodrama, pero esto nada tiene que ver con la falta de humor. Porque, si algo es Megg, Mogg & Owl, es divertida. ————————————————————————————————— hasta la próxima! Juan Share this page: [...]

Residency Report: Homemake at the Rowhouse

Comics WorkbookJune 15, 2016Residency Reports / School UpdatesWe kicked off the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency over Memorial Day Weekend with a visit from Matthew Conway and Mahmoud Hashemi. Matt is an architect and very recent Harvard grad (congrats Matt!), and Mahmoud is the lead developer of the Python Infrastructure team at eBay/PayPal. Neither of them had ever made a comic before. However, Matt and Mahmoud were men on a mission. They arrived at the Rowhouse with the clear intention of using its many resources and the full breadth and depth of Frank’s knowledge and techniques to make something great. They were challenged and inspired during their time here, and in return they challenged and inspired the whole Comics Workbook team. And yes, they did end up making their first comic! During his flight home Mahmoud wrote a detailed report of his experience at the Rowhouse, and it offers a lot of insight into what made the experience extraordinary for everyone involved. Below you will find excerpts from Mahmoud’s report along with some commentary from me. There’s a lot to unpack! – Sally ————————————————————————————————— Mahmoud Hashemi wrote: “From May 28th to June 2nd, 2016, I visited Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I went to work with Frank Santoro on Matt Conway’s game Homemake. Overall it was a great vacation because it wasn’t your typical beachside retreat. Rather, it was mounting an effort to renew creativity and productivity on Matt Conway’s longstanding project, Homemake. The timing was great, as it was right before Ramadan for me, and right after Matt Conway’s graduation from Harvard GSD. Started in 2013 and Kickstarted to the tune of 18,000 in 2014, Homemake is an experimental art game that is unique for its focus on architecture and music, and its lack of traditional game elements like enemies and time limits.” Mahmoud, who serves as an editor, instigator, and cheerleader for Matt and the game, recognized that his friend needed a burst of new energy and that the game itself needed more concentrated story development. Mahmoud continues: “Homemake was designed as a system, meaning that it was designed nonlinearly. It was a procedural way to achieve certain preconceived moments. But there were no sentences between the punctuation. Almost all games, including HM, result in linear gameplay. The player sequential acts or chapters. My goal became to quickly build the best linear structure with what was already there. In a way, there was a middle act, but no opening or closing. So, the goal was to use a comic book as a storyboard to create the opening act.” Sally here – like I said, these fellows arrived at the Rowhouse with a fire under their tails! Mahmoud had known for a while that he needed to sit down with Matt and really hash out a narrative for the game. When he discovered Frank’s Kickstarter for the Rowhouse last fall, Mahmoud knew that he wanted to support this new comic book institution, and guessed that a residency might provide the right sort of space for he and Matt to work. He wasn’t 100% sure that Frank’s methods would be the magic pill they needed, but he was willing to come to Pittsburgh to find out. Back to Mahmoud’s report: “Frank’s own creative methods have a focus on systems, especially jazz-inspired rhythmic systems, making them an exceptional fit with Homemake‘s motivations and goals. I was skeptical at first, but it worked wonders. This effectiveness may have been magnified because half of Homemake‘s vision was disparate moments, a grab bag of mental notes about certain aesthetics. This method allowed Matt to express all his thoughts and editors, like me and Frank, to come through, see the patterns a reader would want to see, and develop the most coherent narrative. Everyone wins.” ‘With Frank’s method, images come first, then words. There should be no script. The images tell almost the whole story, and those images must be allowed to find their own rhythm. A script disrupts that. Similarly, a grid is like an empty script. Frank’s method of modular, card-based creation was as effective as it was simple. Hard-earned simplicity. … Matt ended up drawing 52 cards. I found a cohesive story with 40, and we expanded that to use 48 cards to create 6 pages, 3 spreads. … With this new direction, and Conway’s drive, I expect that development will continue on the comic book and game. For the comic book, we’ll start having real deliverables within a couple months. The game has 80% of what it needs now, and may be approaching a playable version within the year.” Matt and Mahmoud did more work in about three days than most people get through in three weeks. They also found time to explore Pittsburgh a bit, catch a hockey game, and even read a few comics in the midst of drawing their own. However, the majority of Matt and Mahmoud’s time here was spent in a lively discussion which looped back to comics regularly, but ranged all over the place. It was almost a bonus that some work got done, but really it was this discourse, this rapid-fire exchange of ideas and experiences that made the time uniquely valuable. It certainly made the line between “teacher” and “student” very fluid. Mahmoud had incredibly generous things to say about the experience as a whole, and I’ll let him finish this report in his own words. Mahmoud concluded: “Frank is inspirational, completely earnest, and almost totally pure. He is not jaded, not burned out. He is hopeful and hard working. He has lived a lot of places, from Pittsburgh to New York to San Francisco to New Mexico and back to Pittsburgh, just down the street from his mom (who is very nice). Compared to my expectations of independent comics artists, Frank is well-adjusted and well-equipped, with good taste in more than just comics. This expectation is likely skewed by my reading of so many “journal comics” artists. I feel like I learned about creating and collecting in general, not just about comics. Frank never stops relating things to comics, education, and community-building. Passion is fleeting compared to this. His motivation is closer to second nature. This nature was my original hopeful realization with Frank, before I met him. I feel a deep kinship with him, as I think about creating code the same way he thinks about creating comics. Independent, expressive, and individually valuable. Corporate partnerships are inevitable and, while they can be good, ultimately these looming entities don’t care about the potential of comics/code, they just use creators opportunistically. I see Frank doing for independent print comics what E-40 does in hip hop. He seems to know everyone past and present. E-40 and Frank both act upon this knowledge, combining it with the deeply ingrained understanding that respect is the real currency of the business. Money is an inescapable reality, but it’s possible and laudable to address the group as a community first and an industry second. Economies have a tendency to be treated as zero-sum. But respect is not zero-sum. Through his music, E-40 pulls everyone together, adding to their respect, and his own. And above all he respects himself, setting a good example. So it is with Frank. Suffice it to say, we need more creator-mentor-educators like Frank (as well as Sally, who I think recognizes all this and more, and actively assists Frank in the mission). In my ideal world I would be able to spend one week per year with a creator of his caliber, but I feel lucky to even have this one trip. … Long story short, I wish Frank and team the best of luck in “reddin up” the residency in time for another visit in the next year or two.” – Mahmoud Hashemi Many thanks to Mahmoud and Matt for coming to the Rowhouse and contributing their considerable energy and talents to Comics Workbook. We’re humbled and thrilled to have hosted them, and look forward to channeling what we learned from them into future residencies. ————————————————————————————————— Please take a moment to check out Homemake, as well as some of Mahmoud and Matt’s other interesting projects. Homemake (coming soon! – keep up with the progress) Chill Anime Beats (a musical curation collaboration) Matt Conway’s website Sedimental (Accretionary thoughts by Mahmoud Hashemi) Listen to Wikipedia (seriously, check this out it is SO COOL!) Here’s a taste of what Homemake will offer – P.S. Mahmoud and Matt had a funny encounter with Frank’s Mom and a real pap-pap (Mr. Greene) at the airport. Check it out below. Share this page: [...]

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