Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged asterios polyp, caleb orecchio, David Mazzucchelli

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on August 30, 2018August 30, 2018

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7/20/2016

Juan FernándezJuly 20, 2016NewsJuan 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. ————————————————————————————————— 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. ————————————————————————————————— 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” /] ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— 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. ————————————————————————————————— hasta la proxima, Juan 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: [...]

08/02/2016

Aaron CockleAugust 1, 2016NewsAaron Cockle here today with Mickey Z circa 2012-2013; Bill Sienkiewicz revisits old work; syndicated comic strip pulled for some reason or another; The Routledge Companion to Comics costs $240???; Dabaie/Hart Comics; Rowhouse Auction continues ————————————————————————————————— Mickey Z‘s 2012-2013 output for CW is this week’s Featured Comic. ————————————————————————————————— X-Men: Post-Apocalypse At the big comic convention recently held in San Diego that promotes all of the big super-hero movies, artist Bill Sienkiewicz spotted some work he’d made for a super-hero comic 30 years ago being used to promote the release of a super-hero movie. As an artist with a grievance, Sienkiewicz went to the only place these days where one’s frustrations can be vented, and stated: This practice is hardly unusual standard operating procedure for corporations. Even so, it still rankles. I’m one guy. I’ve been doing this comic-book thing for years. I’m aware most everything is Work-Made-for-Hire. Still, I received no prior notification (a common courtesy), no thank you ( ditto), no written credit in any form whatsoever either on the piece or in connection with the premium, absolutely no compensation and no comp copies of the album. Aside from the discussion of why these corporate, hegemonic, known-to-be-exploitative structures are still propped up by consumers (and creators), there’s a conversation to be had about making a living through your art-making. Is the short answer ‘We deserve better’? Or do we get the comics, art, culture, politicians, etc we deserve? ————————————————————————————————— Grammar Confusion or Terrorist Plot? Pearls Before Swine creator Stephan Pastis had a comic strip pulled from syndication on July 27, possibly due to an implied reference to the Islamic State, the Salafi jihadist militant group that follows a fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. Facebook has blacked out the strip on Pastis’s page, but it’s been posted numerous times in the comments section. Apologies for linking to Facebook so much today. Betsy Gomez at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund had this to say about the matter: As private entities, newspaper editorial staff are certainly within their rights to make decisions about the content they run in their papers. However, the removal of the strip raises concerns over self-censorship. Further, removal of a cartoon as relatively inoffensive at Pastis’s buys into the fear that terrorists like those who attacked Charlie Hebdo and other cartoonists around the world are trying to instill in the populace. The answer to such fear isn’t to remove a cartoon, but to support the free expression of those who would question the terrorists’ actions and the authorities that overreact to terrorist attacks by stepping on fundamental freedoms. ————————————————————————————————— I Can’t Believe This Book Costs $240 The Routledge Companion to Comics, edited by Frank Bramlett, Roy T. Cook, Aaron Meskin, 456 pages, $240. I understand that this is a textbook of some kind, or as the book’s description says: This cutting-edge handbook brings together an international roster of scholars to examine many facets of comics and graphic novels. Contributor essays provide authoritative, up-to-date overviews of the major topics and questions within comic studies, offering readers a truly global approach to understanding the field. Maybe the whole thing was Risographed, and that’s why it costs so much? There don’t appear to be any samples or excerpts available, but if anyone at Routledge/Taylor & Francis would like to send CW a review copy, we’d be happy to take a look at it and let you know what we think. ————————————————————————————————— Ali’s House The strip, made by Marguerite Dabaie and Tom Hart for King Features Syndicate back in 2008, has found a home at Go Comics. ————————————————————————————————— Rowhouse Auction Items: July 31-August 6 New items available for this week. Email Frank Santoro at santoroschoolATgmail for a password if you don’t already have one. If you already have a password, it is the same from last week. All funds go to helping keep the lights on and further developing the school. Share this page: [...]

09/06/2017

Juan FernándezSeptember 6, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con Autoras de Tebeo de ayer y hoy; Bef, Decur y Paloma Valdivia en La Polola; Convocatoria El Publicadero 2017; Mónica Ceberia y Mireia Pérez; Muriel Bellini y los tebeos de Cómics Workbook! ————————————————————————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con 3 invitados: Bef, dibujante y escritor mexicano, Decur, dibujante argentino y Paloma Valdivia ilustradora chilena, los tres invitados del V Encuentro de Ilustración y Cómic de La Reina este 2017. Hablaron acerca de sus vidas y el dibujo, sus referentes, y contaron acerca de sus publicaciones y al final respondieron algunas preguntas de los asistentes. ‘Presentes: Autoras de tebeo de ayer y hoy’ documental del colectivo @AutorasComic esta en linea en Vimeo. Genial. Edúcate. Fanzineros y proyectos editoriales de Colombia, El Publicadero quiere que los acompañen a celebrar la diversidad editorial en Manizales el 29/30 Septiembre! Convocatoria El Publicadero 2017. Álvaro Ortiz viene de subir en pdf el cuaderno de bocetos que se editó hace unos años para celebrar que hace 5 años salió Cenizas! Reportaje en cómics de Mónica Ceberio y Mireia Pérez sobre la vida en la cárcel de Soto del Real. TIK TOK Comics os presenta una nueva entrega de DOMINGO, la serie conversacional de Muriel Bellini ¡Disfrutadla! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 8-30-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 9-6-2017 – Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Anthologies

Comics WorkbookMay 1, 2017EssaysRM Rhodes – curator of the Heavy Metal Magazine tumblr – brings some thoughts on the history of anthologies. ————————————————————————————————— Anthologies and episodic publishing arrived in Western Europe at more or less the same time, which makes sense. When you have four partial stories, it’s easier to bundle them together in a common publication and tell customers that the next installments will be available in a week or a month. And it’s less risky to convince a reader that has already bought the first part of a story to buy the next part than it is to convince a reader to buy a story they’ve never seen. My point is that the anthology has been around for ages. It’s a very old, very versatile, very robust format. And that’s what makes the format interesting. First, let’s talk terms. An anthology is a collection of short works. In this context, the works are comics, sequential art, visual narrative, comics-adjacent storytelling, informatics and some other lumpy labels for stuff that tells a story with pictures. The meaning of “short” varies greatly. Half and full page stories are common. As are stories that last dozens of pages. Notice that there’s no requirement about whether the stories have to be complete. Nor is there one about whether the anthology is standalone. It is very common for anthologies to be released periodically over a pre-advertised schedule (usually weekly or monthly or some multiple thereof). And is also common for stories to be told episodically over the course of multiple sequential installments. An anthology that met that criteria would then be an episodic periodical. But that term also fits the description of most magazines and publications – many of which are, in their own way, anthologies. If nothing else, precision of terminology will keep you from getting ripped off. This highlights one of the most intriguing aspects of the anthology format – the flexibility. Everyone and his brother has put together an anthology, but there is always the comfort in knowing that anyone can put one together. It’s an easy choice for what to do with random bits and bobs that don’t fit anywhere else. It’s also a great way to spread the risk inherent in publication around a bit. The more people in an anthology, the more people have a vested interest in its success. There are a huge number of decisions available to make: page size, page count, color vs b&w, binding, theme, creators, compensation, funding, printing, advertising, distribution. There is never a good reason to make an anthology, but every comics creator should try to organize one at least once in their life – it’s a very practical lesson in logistics, organization, motivation, and frustration. The student of the anthology has a lot of examples to look to for inspiration. Through the 1920s, there was a series of art journals and publications put out by various art groups in Europe: de Stilj, Dada, Cannibale, Le Couer, Cabaret Voltaire. Due to modern advances in printing technology, it is easier to self-publish zines with better production values. But it’s also interesting to note that the impulse to run an amateur publication of random stuff is perfectly normal. There’s a certain amount of debate regarding how and when the cartooning tradition in Western Europe became the comics tradition of Western Europe. Some point to the broadsheets of the 17 century that introduced the twin concepts of anthologies and episodic storytelling as a precursor to modern sequential art. But it’s more likely that comics as we know them grew up during the 19th Century. And anthologies were an important part of that maturation. The default format for professional episodic periodicals in American comics has been monthly comics of a set page length that may or may not have additional stories. Professional Franco-Belgian comics have been dominated by the weekly anthology format, featuring strips of half or full page in length. These were later collected into albums of 48 pages in length – which is how most English speakers have encountered this material. (If you’re wondering what was probably collected like this, flip through any album and look for a horizontal white gutter cutting straight across the book at the half-page mark.) Probably the most famous anthology from this tradition in the English speaking market is Heavy Metal. It started as a monthly anthology that contained a mix of episodic and stand-alone stories. It sort of still does most of that. In the mid-80s, Heavy Metal shifted format and centered their publication around a single complete story with a variety of shorter stories as supplements. This influenced later anthologies and we can see that Island, for example, followed the same general model. It is convenient to be able to read the more well-known stories in a mass market edition. However, it is also valuable to observe the original print runs of anthologies where- and when-ever possible. Reading material in the context that it was originally presented to the market in is very valuable. First and foremost, examining primary sources acknowledges the effort that was put into the anthology in the first place. Additionally, it highlights the kinds of commercial advertisements from the period printed next to the original material. Sometimes the juxtaposition is startling. It also provides a sense of the flow of the reader through the book. Arguably, the order that the stories are presented in is important because it shapes the mood of the reader from cover to cover. Knowing that a story beat in a completely different story occurred directly before this story may have changed how this one was perceived. Reading an issue of an anthology is like eating a club sandwich. There are a lot of different distinguishable flavors, but the combination is distinct. And that’s the whole point of producing an anthology. ————————————————————————————————— RM Rhodes lives and works in Washington, D.C. His current project is a weekly online anthology called The Rumor published on the Comics Workbook tumblr – see issues of it HERE. Check out more of his comics at Louis Deux. Share this page: [...]

08/30/2018

Posted on August 30, 2018August 30, 2018 by Caleb Orecchio

Caleb Orecchio here. I think about Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli all the time and I know you do too.

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from Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli, 2009

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Once I read a comic book
At midnight, 2009, Asterios
Polyp, the name of it,
The Petty Bickering Deities
Strike again (on the Page)
Yes ma’am
life
never
gets
tired
of
resurrecting

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Cement Mixer – 8-30-18 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged asterios polyp, caleb orecchio, David Mazzucchelli

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on August 30, 2018August 30, 2018

Explore

Northampton, MA Scene Report

Frank SantoroJanuary 22, 2012Riff Raff / Scene ReportsThis week’s scene report is brought to you by Colin Panetta. Please enjoy. ———- Hey, I’m going to be telling everyone about the small town of Northampton, MA. We’re about an hour east of the New York state line and an hour and a half west of Boston. We’re pretty close to the center of the state, but we’re branded as Western Massachusetts. We’re riddled with fancy colleges, including Smith, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke, which gives the area a strong NPR vibe. HISTORY Most comics people probably know Northampton for its historical significance. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird moved here and started Mirage Studios shortly after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 was released. In the ensuing years, the tidal wave of activity that followed their unprecedented levels of success in the comics world and beyond caused a number of historic events to occur here. You can read a lot about it in this recently posted Comics Journal interview with Kevin Eastman from 1998. Suffice it to say that in addition to Mirage Studios itself, the Creator’s Bill of Rights summit was held here and Eastman opened the Words and Pictures comic book art museum downtown, and planted the home offices of his infamous comic book publishing company Tundra right across the street. Main Street, that is. Here’s the building where the Words and Pictures Museum was located: It’s seen better days. Ex-Mirage artist Jim Laswon recently told me that there used to be a giant gargoyle at the top of it that not all the locals were thrilled with (although in general there was a lot of local support for the museum). That gargoyle is gone, but some smaller, distinctly Ninja Turtle-esque ones remain: The block directly across the street used to house the Tundra offices, and the original Mirage Studios before that. (Just the business offices though, Lawson told me the the artists worked in a warehouse space outside of town.) Mirage is now located just off of Main Street, and some of the old staff artists still have studio space there. I’ve been, it’s amazing. Jammed full of three of every Ninja Turtle product ever made, occasionally topped with a random piece of fifteen year old original comic book art. There aren’t many public facing remnants of that time left in town, but these two pieces of local street art show that the shadow of the Turtles still looms large in the area’s consciousness (in fact every long-time local resident has a Ninja Turtles story if you raise the subject): Kitchen Sink Press moved here after they absorbed Tundra, and Denis Kitchen still lives nearby. He also co-founded the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which was based in Northampton until just a few years ago. To top it all off Disney Adventures, which featured many indie cartoonists in its pages, was also based in Northampton until it folded in 2007. HOT SPOTS The big store in town is Modern Myths. They make a great effort toward catering to every type of person who might go into a comic book store, having distinct sections for superhero floppies, graphic novels, manga and role playing games. In the time that I’ve been here they’ve hosted events with Evan Dorkin, Howard Cruse and the late Harvey Pekar. And they put up with me constantly emailing them at 3am with requests for oddities from the back of Previews, so they’re a very good shop: There’s also Bob’s II Comics N’More, a 90’s throwback store with endless back issue bins. Non-comics stores FOE Gallery and Feeding Tube Records also dedicate some shelf space to comics. As far as events go, last year saw the first comics and illustration themed Paint and Pixel Festival, and we have a monthly Dr Sketchy’s. FOLKS Northampton is a very small town, but we’ve got a few artists kicking around. I mostly draw with a guy named Mark Velard. We table at shows together and post our work online under the name Mysterious Transmissions. Here are a couple panels from Mark’s latest page: I recognised the nice guy with the goofy glasses strap who works at the local art store in one of Tom Spurgeon’s recent “Who Are These People?” posts. Turns out he’s Sam Gaskin, a CCS graduate. He’s got a few different books out, including a mini he did with Matt Furie called Hot Topic. When I told him what my favorite gag in Hot Topic was, he told me it was his favorite too and it’s what he wants to be remembered for when he dies. I assured him I’d let the people know, but you’re going to have to wait to find out which one it is. Here are his book covers: You’ll see the old Mirage artists Michael Dooney, Dan Berger and Jim Lawson around. I love Jim’s work. He made incredible strides in developing a very distinct style, somewhere between Jack Kirby and Paul Pope, during his twenty plus years as a staff artist. I’m helping him put his dinosaur comic Paleo online as a webcomic this year. He’s a comics drawing machine: Bryant Paul Johnson is a nice local face who helped me fact check this article and has been working on a graphic novel in his web-savvy style. Here’s the cover: Colin Tetford occasionally brings his community focused approach to comics making to town, and often sends me a bulleted list of his itinerary when he does. It’s adorable. Local graphic designer Tom Pappalardo has a strip in the local weekly. Hans Rickheit also lives somewhere nearby, but every time I ask him where he just tells me it’s not on any maps. Mark and I had a successful art show in nearby Greenfield with him last year. (Successful in that lots of mentally unstable people wandered in from the street.) Hans is great, Fantagraphics puts his stuff out. Here’s a crazy panel he drew last year: NEIGHBORS The Center For Cartoon Studies is an hour and half north, but you guys already heard all about that. Easthampton, the unassuming next town over, is somehow the webcomics capital of the country. R Stevens of Deisel Sweeties, Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content and Jeffrey Rowland of Overcompensating (plus more, I’m sure) all live in and around there. Rowland runs TopatoCo, an online store that represents all the biggest names in webcomics from Kate Beaton to Ryan North, out of the old Eastworks building. I tried to walk in there and buy something in person once and they looked at me dirty, but they’re super nice folks. Kevin Eastman has an office full of God knows what in the same building (I’ve seen walls of original art from the museum and a full Predator suit when I peeked in), and between those two institutions is legendary back issue warehouse Gary Dolgoff Comics. Share this page: [...]

05/12/2017

Sally IngrahamMay 11, 2017NewsSally here with thoughts from Annie Koyama, Shee Phon, and Ann Telnaes, a new direction for The ToonSeum, and other news and comics! ————————————————————————————————— Koyama Press is officially celebrating 10 years as a publishing company at TCAF this weekend. Fearless leader Annie Koyama has been tapped a few times already this year for her thoughts on her publishing venture – most recently Quill & Quire interviewed her. Check out her continuing reflections and some well-deserved praise of her efforts HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Over on The Comics Beat Philippe Leblanc has conducted a series of interviews with comics makers who are attending TCAF. It’s a great list of folks – including Shee Phon, Iona Fox, Alabaster Pizzo, Tyler Landry, and others. Philippe identifies a few distinguishing characteristics of each maker’s work, the scene they’re a part of, or their target audience, and breaks it down with them. It’s great to see The Beat focusing this attention on makers outside of mainstream comics. This series documents an interesting moment in the community, and I appreciate the effort Philippe Leblanc has put into educating himself about the scene. I noticed in the interview with Shee Phon that Philippe found her work through last summer’s Comics Workbook Composition Competition, where Shee Phon won 2nd place for her comic I know it’s not about me, but I don’t want to die. It’s worth noting how many makers find a broader audience for their work through this competition, or in fact are “forced” to complete their first comic. And so the community keeps on growing, thanks to the stewardship of folks like Frank Santoro – and Philippe Leblanc, and of course Heidi MacDonald (editor extraordinaire of The Comics Beat!) ————————————————————————————————— Ann Telnaes delivered a speech to the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom recently, and the Washington Post shared a version of it. Ann is a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist, and the current worldwide threats to her colleagues weighs on her mind. In theory, she and her American fellows are protected by the First Amendment, but some days she doesn’t feel very safe. “I’ve always felt in the United States that an editorial cartoonist is the bastard child of journalism. This is because most editors see us only as comic relief, less than the serious, legitimate opinion writer. In reality, the only difference is that we use images and satire to express a point of view. And specifically because of the visual language we use, cartoonists will always be first in the line of fire when controversial subjects are being debated and free speech is threatened. Editorial cartoonists are a barometer for all our free speech rights; a silenced cartoonist is an indicator of an unhealthy environment for freedom of expression in any given society. If we want to protect free speech and the free press, we must vigorously protect the editorial cartoonist.” – Ann Telnaes Read the rest of the speech HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Emily Flake has a comic on The Nib called Beyond “Bridezilla” which is amusing – see the rest of it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Here in Pittsburgh, PA, The ToonSeum is directing new focus towards comics education – check out the I Can Draw! Generosity fundraiser. The funds raised during this campaign will go directly to developing and running educational programming for kids and teens interested in making comics. Executive Directer John F. Kelly has rounded up some truly amazing donation rewards which must be seen to be believed. Pittsburgh is becoming a hub for comics education, and those of us at ground zero know how important this is to strengthening the community and ensuring it’s growth and staying power. I’ll be personally involved in this new direction for The ToonSeum, helping to teach and channel fresh energy and talent straight into the heart of things. If you can donate to the fundraiser, thank you! If you can share the campaign, thank you! You can do both HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Found In the Button Box Chris Gavaler reviews Eleanor Davis’ You & a Bike & a Road (Koyama Press, 2017) for PopMatters – HERE. Hope Nicholson, who wrote the recently published The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen (a sort of history/small encyclopedia of notable women in the comics community) has a guest post on Nerdophiles that features 5 Female Publishers Who Changed Comics. Hyperallergic reviews Miror Miror II, the second anthology collection from 2dcloud, edited by Sean T. Collins and Julia Gfrörer, calling it “a porn stash you’d find in the cupboard of a medieval demon” which is about what I would have expected – read more HERE. Cara Gormally has a comic on Mutha Magazine about making a baby with IVF – check it out. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 5-12-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-12-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 5-12-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

02/27/2018

Aaron CockleFebruary 26, 2018NewsAaron here today with Color Giants; Leonora Carrington; Torkwase Dyson and the Wynter-Wells Drawing School for Environmental Justice; The Millionaires Club; Autoptic 2018 ————————————————————————————————— Color Giants – New York Animation Exposition Special encore of the entire 2017 Color Giants program at Superchief Gallery NY, with a couple of special new suprises! New York’s Underground and Experimental Animation Festival In association with Comic Arts Brooklyn Wednesday, February 28, 2018, 7pm-10pm At Superchief Gallery NY, 1628 Jefferson Ave, Ridgewood, NY 11385 $10 at the door Featuring works by MIKE DIANA, DAME DARCY, JOHN GORAS, NOURI ZANDER, JEN DEUTROM, CATHY AISON, LILLI CARRÉ, LISA CRAFTS, ANNA FIRTH, BILLY GRANT, JAMES MERCER, RUBBER O CEMENT, SETH SCRIVER, SICK ANIMATION, FELIX COLGRAVE, DAVID LEWANDOWSKI, JAIME R, HAHN BROTHERS, MATT REYNOLDS, BEN MEINHARDT, GEORGIA KRISS, HENRY THURLOW, SCHLONGLORD, and others to be announced. ————————————————————————————————— “She hated art historians” At The New York Review of Books, Regina Marler looks at Leonora Carrington, artist, writer, Surrealist. Chadwick’s chapter on Carrington and the Argentine-born painter and designer Leonor Fini springs from her access to a fantastic trove of newly discovered letters between the friends. Found in Fini’s Paris studio by the executor of her estate, they offer an account of the dark prelude to Carrington’s mental breakdown—as described in her memoir, Down Below (first published in 1944)—beginning in 1939 when her lover, Max Ernst, was jailed by the French as an enemy alien. Later, after the Germans invaded, he was jailed again as a degenerate artist. Carrington was left alone among suspicious villagers in Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche, writing everyone she knew, frantically trying to free him. “I thought I knew the story behind these letters,” Chadwick writes, but the letters themselves had a rare and raw immediacy. Written almost day by day with the urgency of one fighting to remain sane, they had the feel of a diary or a personal journal. Addressed to a dear friend by a narrator who is isolated, terrified and enraged, they are both descriptive and intimate…. The world they describe is neither that of the surrealists in Paris, nor one in which women propel the male imagination. Instead they delineate a harrowing mental universe that parallels and intersects with a real world. ————————————————————————————————— Winter Term at The Drawing Center For the first session, which will take place from February 24 through March 11, 2018, The Drawing Center has invited artist Torkwase Dyson to create an installation and organize a two-week series of classes, discussions, and formal experiments developed from her incipient project the Wynter-Wells Drawing School for Environmental Justice—named for Jamaican writer Sylvia Wynter and American Civil Rights leader Ida B. Wells. The School will present an experimental curriculum employing techniques culled from the visual arts as well as design theories of geography, infrastructure, engineering, and architecture to initiate dialogue about geography and spatiality in an era of global crisis due to human-induced climate change. Participation in each class will be by application only (the afternoon sessions will be open to observation by the public). Drawings and sculptures by Dyson will be on view throughout the program’s run and Dyson will present during select “office hours” to discuss her work and the school with the public. ————————————————————————————————— Leipzig’s annual Comics & Graphics Festival will take place again March 16th and 17th, 2018. At CONNE ISLAND, Koburger Str. 3. 04277 Leipzig Program 2018 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – F R I D A Y 16 / 0 3 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Messe / Market 14:00-22:00 / 2-10 pm Lesung / Reading 15:00-16:00 / 3-4 pm Antonia Kühn “Lichtung”, Reprodukt und Magdalena Kaszuba “Das leere Gefäß”, Avant-Verlag Buchvorstellung / Talk 17:00-18:00 / 5-6 pm “Lampedusa. Bildgeschichten vom Rande Europas” Spector Books, 2018 mit Paula Bulling und Jonas Engelmann Ausstellungseröffnung / opening reception 19:00-00:00 / 7-12 pm Margot Ferrick (Chicago, US) Jul Gordon (Hamburg, GER) Stefanie Leinhos (Leipzig, GER) A wild collection of QSL cards by various artists from the US! Paul Paetzel & Marc Hennes (Berlin, GER) BALD MEHR / MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – S A T U R D A Y 17 / 0 3 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Messe / Market 11:00-18:00 / 11 am – 6 pm Lesung / Reading 12:00-13:00 / 12 am – 1 pm “Megagute Comics von Jaja“ Valérie Minelli, Hanna Gressnich, Mic, Jan Vismann Künstlergespräch / Artist talk 14:00-15:00 / 2-3 pm mit / with Margot Ferrick, Jul Gordon und Stefanie Leinhos in der Ausstellung / in their show Lesung / Reading 16:00-17:00 / 4-5 pm The Millionaires Club all stars mit / with: Max Baitinger, Jul Gordon, Anna Haifisch, Margot Ferrick, Julia Kluge, James Turek und anderen / and more BALD MEHR / MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED ————————————————————————————————— Autoptic 2018 The Autoptic Foundation is pleased to announce that Autoptic 2018 will be happening Sunday, August 19th, 2018 in Minneapolis, MN at the amazing Aria Event Center from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. A one-day festival celebrating comics and independent print culture, Autopic 2018 will feature table exhibitions by over 120 artists from the worlds of comics, posters and beyond. With a strong focus on publications and artwork that features original, creator-driven content and compelling DIY-aesthetics, Autoptic 2018 will give exhibitors an opportunity to connect with other like-minded artists and audiences while also offering attendees a chance to support and discover all manner of exciting, new and independent artists and creators. The Autoptic Foundation is also thrilled to announce a few changes and updates to Autoptic’s curatorial and application process. In the past, all of our exhibitor applications were reviewed and voted on exclusively by the founders and board members of The Autoptic Foundation. While we were pleased by the quality of the exhibitors we arrived at through this process, we also felt that there were many improvements that could be made in an effort to create an application and jurying process that was more open, transparent and inclusive, with the goal of developing an exhibition with as wide and diverse a gamut of creative voices as possible. With those goals in mind, all exhibition applications for Autoptic 2018 will be reviewed, curated and voted on by an amazing group of Guest Jurors, all of whom share Autoptic’s commitment to promoting and evangelizing independent creative culture. We will be announcing our jurors soon! For those interested in applying to be an exhibitor at Autoptic 2018, please visit our Exhibitor FAQ, or start your application now by completeing our Exhibitor Application. For those interested in more information about Autoptic 2018, please visit our Autopic FAQ, or send your questions to info@autoptic.org. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 02-27-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

04/08/2016

Sally IngrahamApril 8, 2016NewsSally here with the good news from Retrofit, the Bad Boyfriends collection, and comics from Amanda Hamilton, Disa Wallander, and Jonathan Yee to send you into the weekend with light feet – plus Gabriella Tito on Audra Stang’s new piece! ————————————————————————————————— Kicking things off with a couple of forays into comics that’ll give your Friday a colorful start! From Amanda Hamilton comes this piece in marker – a new medium for her, and one that seems to suit! The comic came about “…during one very anxious night where it was too noisy to sleep. I was inspired…to do something with markers instead of colored pencils and I had a set of Rose Art neon markers I thought would be good to convey that jarring, discordant feeling and combine the colors in interesting ways.” ————————————————————————————————— Next up, something from Jonathan Yee – Jonathan made this comic last weekend at PIX, during a Comics Workbook workshop with Juan Fernandez and Frank Santoro. ————————————————————————————————— Gabriella Tito taking a turn here! Attention: Audra Stang is branching out into new territory (following her recent wrap up of “Love Me Like An Autograph“) with her new comic “April 2008“ (see panel above). Most noticeably, in her recent series taking place in the fictional town “Star Valley”, is her change in technique! Instead of using bold line art for her characters and traditional color, she’s now transitioning into using sleek pencil shading without too many lines – and I think it’s absolutely fabulous. Audra keeps the style current with light digital color overtones, not breaking the mood and flow even the slightest. Once again, check out my good friend Audra’s new comic HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Back to Sally, with the stellar news that Retrofit did it! All those lovely books will be coming out soon – including the title above by Sophie Franz – with the first ones hitting the world in May. Congratulations! ————————————————————————————————— Bad Boyfriends is out now. It has comics by Cathy G. Johnson, Celine Loup, Hannah Kaplan, Laura Lannes, Julia Gfrörer, Laerte Coutinho, Mariana Paraizo, Paula Puiupo and Hazel Newlevent (above). This collection is important and gut wrenching – available as a free download HERE, and for sale as a physical copy HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Disa Wallander posted a cute spring comic, which offers a glimpse of sunlight unlike anything I personally have seen recently…! Spring is around here, somewhere. ————————————————————————————————— Something to take with you into the weekend – Practice your craft, whatever it may be, stay nimble and sharp and badass! Catch you later – Sally and Gabriella Share this page: [...]

06/20/2017

Aaron CockleJune 20, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Lauren Weinstein; Jillian Tamaki; Ad Reinhardt; Georgia O’Keeffe; Kriota Willberg; Snail Farm & Friends Book Fair ————————————————————————————————— Normel Person Lauren Weinstein continues her strong run of weekly strips at the Village Voice. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Each story shifts emotional and visual register.’ Jillian Tamaki’s new book, Boundless, receives another solid review, this time over at The Atlantic: An ambitious and eclectic set of tales, it focuses on the interior lives of unexpected subjects: the writer of a pornographic sitcom, a shrinking woman, a plant-nursery employee with an internet doppelganger, even a fly. Boundless uses a constantly varying visual treatment that keeps readers on their toes and mixes and matches artistic styles with a proliferating set of genres, from speculative fiction to domestic drama to magical realism. If a reader comes to Boundless with assumptions about visual storytelling, Tamaki will confound them. ————————————————————————————————— 5. No design. “Design is everywhere.” Via ARTNEWS, Ad Reinhardt’s 12 Rules for a New Academy: Much of today’s discussion of contemporary abstraction is centered on “Zombie Formalism”—Walter Robinson’s coinage for new work that revisits (or apes, one might say) historical forms of abstraction for purely stylistic reasons. Given the intensity of that debate, we thought it would be interesting, for this week’s Retrospective column, to jump back almost 60 years, to 1957, when Ad Reinhardt took up the subject of contemporary abstraction in ARTnews. Reinhardt, who had written for the magazine previously, said that the article—titled “Twelve Rules for a New Academy”—”constitute his last words on art in terms of words.” He sharply criticized his formalist contemporaries, offering instead twelve ways to achieve purity in art. There would be no forms, no texture, no color, nothing—just pure blackness, as in Reinhardt’s most famous paintings. Reproduced in full below is Reinhardt’s article, which takes subtle swipes at Marcel Duchamp, Piet Mondrian, the Abstract Expressionists, and more. —Alex Greenberger The Six General Canons or the Six Noes to be memorized are: (1) No Realism or Existentialism. “When the vulgar and commonplace dominate, the spirit subsides.” (2) No Impressionism. “The artist should once and forever emancipate himself from the bondage of appearance.” “The eye is a menace to clear sight.” (3) No Expressionism or Surrealism. “The laying bare of oneself,” autobiographically or socially, “is obscene.” (4) No Fauvism, primitivism or brute art. “Art begins with the getting-rid of nature.” (5) No Constructivism, sculpture, plasticism, or graphic arts. No collage, paste, paper, sand or string. (6) No “trompe-l’oeil,” interior decoration or architecture. The ordinary qualities and common sensitivities of these activities lie outside free and intellectual art. ————————————————————————————————— Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern At the Brooklyn Museum through July 23, 2017: The exhibition is organized in sections that run from her early years, when O’Keeffe crafted a signature style of dress that dispensed with ornamentation; to her years in New York, in the 1920s and 1930s, when a black-and-white palette dominated much of her art and dress; and to her later years in New Mexico, where her art and clothing changed in response to the surrounding colors of the Southwestern landscape. The final section explores the enormous role photography played in the artist’s reinvention of herself in the Southwest, when a younger generation of photographers visited her, solidifying her status as a pioneer of modernism and as a contemporary style icon. ————————————————————————————————— ‘The Internal Body Interacting with the External World’ New York Academy of Medicine’s Artist-in-Residence, Kriota Willberg, recently concluded a 4-week workshop, Visualizing and Drawing Anatomy, and has a brief recap about it. And in a post from 2016, Willberg looks at some historical anatomical drawings: The images of Jacopo Berengario da Carpi’s Anatomia Carpi Isagoge breves, perlucide ac uberime, in anatomiam humani corporis… (1535) powerfully emphasize the fiber direction of the muscles of the waist. This picture in particular radiates the significance of our “core muscles.” Here, the external oblique muscles have been peeled away to show the lines of the internal obliques running from low lateral to high medial attachments. The continuance of this line is indicated in the central area of the abdomen. It perfectly illustrates the muscle’s direction of pull on its flattened tendon inserting at the midline of the trunk. ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 6-20-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-20-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-20-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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