Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Ben Katchor, Benjamin Marra, Chris Oliveros, gabriella tito, Josh Bayer, julie delporte, julie doucet, Laura Knetzger, religious propaganda, Rob Clough, Staatliches Bauhaus

Aaron Cockle

Posted on August 22, 2016August 23, 2016

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05/03/2016

Aaron CockleMay 2, 2016NewsSara Lautman; RIPE 2016; MVR4; Matthew Thurber; Hellbound Lifestyle Book Release; Katie Skelly; Last days of Sparkplug Books ————————————————————————————————— Sara Lautman is doing A Cartoonist’s Diary over at TCJ this week. ————————————————————————————————— Rhode Island Independent Publishing Expo: Application Deadline Extended! ————————————————————————————————— MVR4 School of for Poetic Computation Wednesday, May 4 at 7:00 PM 11–15° Cloudy https://www.facebook.com/events/774574382675480/ 155 Bank St, New York, New York 10014 ‘MVR is an event series focused on new forms of exchange between body and technology. With the decreasing size and cost of computer vision, digital components and advances in virtual reality, we are faced with a new awareness of the impact of current digital practices on the physical body. MVR provides a platform for learning and discussion concerning the new interaction between body and information, device, and action. Confirmed presenters: Kate Sicchio on live coding, performance and wearables; Pablo Garcia on drawing machines; Pamela Liou on technology, textiles, bodies and craft; Claire Kearney-Volpe on screen-readers and coding.’ ————————————————————————————————— Curtainphonehorn, a show of Matthew Thurber drawings, will open May 12 at Weird Things in Toronto. ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— Katie Skelly Comics ————————————————————————————————— Sparkplug Books May 17th – Last day to place any online orders, including wholesale orders. May 22nd – Sparkplug will be tabling at Linework NW with Suzette Smith (Ce/Ze). June 11th & 12th – Sparkplug will be tabling at CAKE in Chicago, with Suzette Smith. This will be Sparkplug’s last show. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

01/30/2018

Aaron CockleJanuary 30, 2018NewsAaron here today with Louise Nevelson; Jennifer Ley; Comic Contracts ————————————————————————————————— Louise Nevelson: Black & White Feb 01, 2018 – Mar 03, 2018 Pace Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Louise Nevelson, marking the gallery’s twenty-seventh solo show for the artist since 1963. The exhibition brings together approximately 20 of Nevelson’s iconic black and white painted wood sculptures, wall reliefs, and installations from the late 1950s through the late 1980s. Louise Nevelson: Black & White will be on view from February 1 through March 3, 2018 at 537 West 24th Street, with an opening reception on Thursday, February 1 from 6 – 8 pm. A full-color catalogue accompanies the exhibition. ————————————————————————————————— Inside Club 57: A Conversation with Artist Jennifer Ley Tuesday, February 13, 1:30pm, The Museum of Modern Art Join us for a conversation with artist Jennifer Ley, who moved to New York City and joined the circle around Club 57 in the late 1970s. An ad gal by day, she created fashion satire and early music videos by night. We will talk about her photo xerox series As Never Seen in Seventeen, handmade pins, and films. The discussion is moderated by educator Petra Pankow. ————————————————————————————————— Comic contracts and other ways to make the law understandable The above comic is a full non-disclosure agreement. Three pictures with text. And the result? Users actually read it and get the basic idea of non-disclosure. No more disputes arose. Are you wondering if this is all legally binding? The answer is yes. Contracts are about intention – and if it is actually made clearer and understandable by pictures then all the better. ————————————————————————————————— 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! ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 1-30-2018 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-30-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

06/30/2016

HarrisonJune 30, 2016NewsJune 30th 2016, Harrison is filling your doggie bag with scenes from Chicago, a classic format returning, darkness on television, sex and mystery, and the ten greatest songs of June 30th 2016. Starships and Rockets LOVE AND ROCKETS: THE MAGAZINE returns! Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez to revive their beloved series. The new Love and Rockets marks Gilbert and Jaime’s return to the “floppy” format for the first time in a decade and will measure 8 ½” x 10 ¾”, with at least 32 pages per issue, retailing at $4.99. Get all the details on the Flog. Shadows “But one problem with the wave of technological change that has made dark lighting easy and cheap for filmmakers is that it doesn’t translate to all television sets. Old televisions did a better job of rendering dark colors than modern ones. Detail that’s visible on an expensive television disappears on a cheap one, and suddenly Game of Thrones is indecipherable. The same is true when a television is viewed in a brightly-lit room or from an angle: Dark scenes lose more detail than bright ones. There’s a reason Best Buy doesn’t have The Godfather playing on their wall of TVs show. (There’s also a reason they were running The Dark Knight in their more dimly-lit Magnolia showrooms for years, directed at people willing to buy their most expensive models.)” Read about Darkness. There is no try – Watching the George Lucas Fiasco “When plans to develop the Presidio site were shelved, Lucas went looking for a new city. Enter Rahm Emanuel. Lucas found an eager suitor in the mayor, who offered up a lakefront site in Grant Park and a sweetheart lease. And clearly the mayor provided Lucas something else, too, something the filmmaker was very accustomed to receiving in Hollywood, but certainly didn’t get in San Francisco: brash creative freedom.” Read about a mess. Dr. Paracletus! “You spoke of love. But I loved you! It was like sinking into a quicksand for me….” The Trash Twins Sarah Horrocks and Katie Skelly published THE COMPLETE AGENT 73 yesterday. Click below for cigs, sex, mystery, eyepatches, thigh highs, revolvers, and colors. Read it all here THE TEN GREATEST SONGS OF JUNE 30,2016 De La Soul “Ego Trippin’ Part Three (Egoristic Mix)” (1994) Young Thug “OD” (2015) Aphex Twin “Bodmin 3” (2009) Max Roach “Effi” (1968) Milton Nascimento “Volver a Los 17 (Violeta Parra) feat. Mercedes Sosa“ Jazmine Sullivan “Let It Burn” (2014) VAGUE001 “got em’ buzzing“ halpe “emerald“ Moses Sumney “Pleas“ Beyankha “Stones“ Share this page: [...]

10/11/2016

Aaron CockleOctober 10, 2016NewsAaron here today with CW festival events for this upcoming weekend; Chinese Comics; Agnes Martin; Dog City 3; Screening Dash Shaw; Reviewing Safe Distance; Some Notable Comics of Note ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook will be participating in 2 festivals this weekend in the U.S. and U.K. Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, October 13-16. We will be hosting workshops and tabling. Join Comics Workbook, along with cartoonists Alyssa Berg and Kurt Ankeny, for an immersive weekend of comics creation. We will examine art and the grid, bringing the strong artistic practices of Berg and Ankeny together with the discipline and rhythm of the grid, as laid out by Comics Workbook founder Frank Santoro. Four hours across two days will be filled with the exploration of a variety of techniques and methods which will inspire the beginner, and challenge the established cartoonist. Comics as jazz; comics as architecture; how a simple index card can transform your sequencing and storytelling process – come join us for an hour or four and take your comics making to a new level. The full festival schedule is here. The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, October 14-16. Join Frank Santoro, Aidan Koch, and Connor Willumsen for some cool workshops and visit table 67 in the Comics Clocktower to meet Oliver East and Jack Brougham, among others. We will be hosting 3 special workshops, “Visual Poetry” with Aidan Koch, “The Hammer Party” with Connor Willumsen and “Composition Competition” with Frank Santoro. Visit our event page for more information. ————————————————————————————————— Chinese Indie Comix Writer, critic, and translator R. Orion Martin has an overview of the Special Comix anthologies published in China during the past 10 years or so: Like other iterations of Special Comix, the artists are working in a range of qualities and directing their work towards diverse, sometimes mutually exclusive audiences. Some artists use the poster format to great effect, creating dense visual landscapes that challenge the reader to interpret them. Yayi’s intricately constructed illustration guides the viewer from one symbol-laden visual to another, refusing to settle into any obvious reading. Similarly, New York-based illustrators Lisk Feng and Jun Cen contribute surreal works that seem to a capture a single moment from a much longer tale. Lisk Feng’s work depicts a troop of Boy Scouts and the creatures that haunt them, while Jun Cen presents a naked woman who has just encountered a giant praying mantis encased in a Mignola-esque crystal prison. Though both these artists come from a background in illustration, they use the poster format to build the foundation for a narrative that could develop in multiple directions. Image above by Chihoi, I’m waiting for you to come back (from Special Comix 6: Transform). Additionally, Martin has been conducting interviews with Chinese cartoonists and artists (Yan Cong, Li Kong, Fanqiao Wang), as well as translating work into English (Bu Er Miao). ————————————————————————————————— Agnes Martin on view at the Guggenheim through January 11 One of the few female artists who gained recognition in the male-dominated art world of the 1950s and ’60s, Martin is a pivotal figure between two of that era’s dominant movements: Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism. Her content—an expression of essential emotions—relates her to the earlier group, the Abstract Expressionists, but her methods—repetition, geometric compositions, and basic means—were adopted by the Minimalists, who came to prominence during the ’60s. Martin’s work, however, is more than a bridge between the two. It stands apart by never losing sight of the subjective while aspiring toward perfection. “I would like to represent beauty, innocence and happiness,” she said. “I would like them all to represent that. Exaltation.” ————————————————————————————————— Dog City #3 CW’s intrepid Juan Fernandez recently unearthed some copies of Dog City 3, from 2014. From his Instagram: I found some of the LAST copies of Dog City 3 and took some to @copaceticcomics – the rest of ’em are safe and sound at my place 😉 Want to bring one of these puppies home?$27 bux postpaid. US shipping only. “The comics expo in a box.” Mad props to Closed Caption Comics for setting the bar way back when. For those of you not yet in the know: Dog City is a small press comics magazine dedicated to publishing quality minicomics. Each issue of Dog City consists of a curated selection of minicomics packaged in an artfully designed cardboard box. Dog City 3 features comics by: Jennifer Lisa, Sophie Goldstein, Caitlin Rose Boyle, Luke Healy, Simon Reinhardt, Amelia Onorato, dw n me, Allison Banister and Tom O’Brien with a collaborative mini, Iris Yan, D. Rinylo – prints and posters by Laurel Lynne Leake and Steven Krall + reprints a selection of strips from the now-forgotten newspaper series Who’s Zoo, which has been restored and compiled by Reilly Hadden! ————————————————————————————————— Making My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea Wednesday, October 12, 7pm, as part of the New York Film Festival, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, 144 West 65the Street, NYC With My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea, playing in this year’s Main Slate, celebrated graphic novelist Dash Shaw and his team have created a beautifully layered, colorful, and entertaining new animated film. Shaw’s first feature is a comic adventure about friends overcoming their differences and having each other’s backs in times of crisis, and its marvelously complex characters are voiced by Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph, and Susan Sarandon. This discussion—featuring writer-director Dash Shaw, lead animator Jane Samborski, and producer Kyle Martin—will go behind the scenes to explore the making of this distinctive new movie. ————————————————————————————————— James K. Hindle’s mini-comic, Safe Distance, is reviewed over at Sequential State Hindle sets the stage of the comic with a bizarre chemical spill that only affects his apartment. The strange spill causes an overgrowth of plants and trees inside his apartment, eventually causing the destruction of his home and his disconnection from the rest of the world. The metaphor of destructive change, acceptance, and growth links closely with the way death affects families and people. No matter where you are when you start, you aren’t the same at the end. The grieving, the anger, those final questions – they all change you irrevocably. ————————————————————————————————— B.A.C. 2016 The Notable Comics list from The Best American Comics 2016 has been posted, see if you (or someone you may care dearly for and/or feel massively ambivalent about) are on the list! Thanks to series editor Bill Kartalopoulos for compiling and painstakingly linking to each of the cartoonists and their individual works on the list. And here’s a quick note from Bill K about the B.A.C. series: As Series Editor of The Best American Comics, it is my job to attempt to see as many of each year’s most interesting comics as I can. The majority of these arrive as submissions through our public postal address (below). Others I find by attending comics festivals, consulting with colleagues, reaching out individually to artists and publishers, visiting comic books stores, endlessly scanning the internet, and generally keeping my antenna up at all times. After nearly a year of looking and reading, I forward to each year’s Guest Editor a selection of more than one hundred outstanding works. From this pool of material, the Guest Editor selects the pieces that will appear in each year’s Best American Comics (while retaining, as well, the latitude to bring in some work they may have discovered independently). On the subject of our process, I cannot urge any artist or publisher strongly enough to submit work to Best American Comics. We have a completely open submission process, and all work that is submitted will be considered. Please send work, labeled with contact information and date of publication, to: Bill Kartalopoulos Series Editor The Best American Comics Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company 3 Park Avenue, 19th floor New York, NY 10016 ————————————————————————————————— Have you seen the recent collaboration between Frank Santoro and master jeweler Airi Maeno? Want to help us get Connor Willumsen to The Lakes International Comic Art Festival? Share this page: [...]

10/06/2016

Sally IngrahamOctober 6, 2016NewsSam Ombiri kicks off the day with thoughts on Paul Chan, Beckett, and the power of a “side project”. Sally Ingraham adds some insights from Kerry James Marshall and a Comics Workbook events and happenings roundup. ————————————————————————————————— Sam here: Paul Chan quit making art in 2008 because, as he put it, “I’ve had it”. I’m really not prepared or qualified to talk about Paul Chan’s work so I guess I’ll just somewhat graze over how, or why, he quit. (I’ll re-appropriate what Paul was referring to in an interview – in an attempt to arrive to a point for my own purposes. Some of it he said, but some of it is my fictional version of Paul Chan.) Paul Chan said that the artists that he’s admired follow the route of what we imagine we want. Since what we want is always changing, one expression of this can be found in quitting, like Duchamp did, or taking a break, like Beckett supposedly did with Waiting for Godot. I heard from Paul that Waiting for Godot was a vacation for Beckett, before finishing up the trilogy of novels he was working on. Godot is his most famous work, and furthermore he’s more famous as a playwright than as a novelist. I think I prefer Beckett’s novels (which I’ve barely read, I’m like ⅓ through Molloy) to his plays (which I’ve also barely read). That is not to necessarily say that his novels are automatically better since the medium dictates automatic superiority. What I think, rather, is that development takes place from that change of one pace to another. This can take place when dealing with the same medium – even the same genre, even the same story – but in changing the approach, or having less concern/anxiety dictating one’s work. What I imagine is that after Beckett returned to finishing the trilogy, he had grown in another aspect he didn’t fully realize. This change is present whether he’s doing plays or novels. I guess what I get out of all this is: the power of a side project, or side preoccupation, has power that shouldn’t be underestimated. This totally reminds me of of how Dash Shaw told Sam Alden to just stop working on 8th Grade, and then Sam really benefited from that. He says it at one point in this video: Jesse Moynihan also says something cool at one point in this video about changing your work, and pursuing growth. –Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— When Sam Ombiri isn’t reading Beckett or researching Paul Chan, he can often be found hanging out with other cartoonists in Pittsburgh (above) – and we look forward to sharing some of the comics projects (side projects or otherwise!) that he’s been working on via Comics Workbook soon. ————————————————————————————————— The Chicago Tribune recently had a great conversation with Kerry James Marshall about the history and future of black superheroes. Marshall, whose career retrospective is bound for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Met Breuer in New York City, has been collecting comics since he was a child – and he has dozens of carefully cataloged binders full of comics that document the experiences of black characters or casts. He has spent a long time watching and thinking about the evolution of black superheroes, and the storytelling pendulum that swings between exploitation and inclusion. “The majority of black characters are stand-ins for white characters that exist. Or sidekicks. The scope of their narratives is small. They were asked “to fix the black psyche” before engaging the world. “Unlike a Spider-Man, you didn’t have black teens burdened by power they might acquire.” “ Marshall has at least one solution to this: “...black artists should create original characters, fresh superheroes, removed from the Marvel and DC universes. Talking to African-American comic book artists, you often hear a common theme: Ashley A. Woods, the Chatham native and on-the-rise artist-writer behind indie favorite “Niobe: She is Life,” told me she decided early on to take full ownership of her characters, otherwise “you’re stuck being asked to do black versions of what exists.” Jiba Molei Anderson, a longtime Chicago comic artist whose work is often based in African mythologies, said: “I’m creating my own legacy — I don’t need to create a black Batman, I need to create my brand.” ” – via The Chicago Tribune Read the rest of this article HERE. (via The Comics Reporter) Check out some of Jiba Molei Anderson’s work HERE. Read more about Ashley A. Woods and Niobe: She is Life HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Chris Visions is in NYC this week for the New York Comic Con – check him out at table T3B! NYC, we outchea!!! See ya’ll tomorrow for Comic Con 2016, table T3B— and look out for more awesome photos and video from @tylerqtucker #art #comics #nycc A photo posted by Chris Visions (@chrisvisions) on Oct 5, 2016 at 4:42pm PDT ————————————————————————————————— If you haven’t gotten a chance to dig into the footage of Cameron Weston Nicholson‘s SPX workshop yet, here’s your reminder! Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook is heading to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Art Festival and to Columbus, OH, for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus next week. Hang out with Frank Santoro, Aidan Koch, Connor Willumsen in the UK – more details HERE. The team in Ohio will be doing workshops next weekend, and you can sign up in advance to get a seat – details HERE. Advanced signups will end Friday, October 7th, 2016. ————————————————————————————————— There is still time to get a bid in on the Michael DeForge drawings that we have up for auction – details HERE. Have you seen the recent collaboration between Frank Santoro and master jeweler Airi Maeno? Check out the Pompeii Medallion HERE. Help us get Connor Willumsen to The Lakes International Comic Art Festival – this way please! Share this page: [...]

08/23/2016

Posted on August 22, 2016August 23, 2016 by Aaron Cockle

Aaron here today with Gabriella Tito comics; Julie Doucet interviewed; Marra/Bayer; Laura Knetzger; Bauhaus on the internet; Clough reviews Delporte and Oliveros; some propaganda comics; CW Benefit Auction continues

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Homesick by Gabriella Tito
This week’s Featured Comic is Gabriella Tito’s re-working of her Homesick comic from earlier this year. Initially made in black and white for Zona #1, Tito incorporated color into the updated piece during her recent Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency.

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Julie Doucet Interviewed at/by 2d cloud

i did start my own “label” because the book projects i’m working on are getting less and less lucrative, in the sense that you won’t sell as many poetry books as a comic book. you work 6 months on a book that will have a 250 copies printrun you get 10% of the sales…that means you’re paid at best $300. for 6 months work. it is just not worth it. also i had a few such small projects that publishers agreed to publish…someday…i got tired to wait. and since i can print and all, it really doesn’t cost me much to produce the book.

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Benjamin Marra in conversation with Josh Bayer, Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 7pm

The 157th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 7pm at Parsons School of Design, The New School, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public.

A conversation with Benjamin Marra and Josh Bayer. Join Ben and Josh for a lively discussion about process, influences and what it means to be cartoonists who are much indebted to comics history as they are committed to making their permanent mark on comics’ future.

Via Ben Katchor, who has been organizing these events since 2012. The Fall 2016 Schedule has been posted as well, so please do try and attend if you’re in the NYC area.

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Laura Knetzger was recently podcasted over at We Should Be Friends

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Staatliches Bauhaus
Via Open Culture, the Harvard Art Museums have made an astonishing amount of Bauhaus-era work available online.

Harvard’s web site represents its physical collection, but it does not duplicate it. Many of the small images in its online archive do not expand to larger versions and cannot be downloaded. However, if you follow the guided tour by clicking “Continue Reading” under the site’s introduction, you’ll be able to click on the several dozen examples in each section and see them up close. You’ll also get a thorough survey of the Bauhaus school’s brief history and mission. The best way to access the collection is to click here, then scroll down to the box where it says “Search the Bauhaus special collection by keyword, title, artist, or object number, and by using the filters below.”

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Delporte and Oliveros Reviewed
Over at the High Low Comics blog, critic Rob Clough takes a look at Julie Delporte’s Everywhere Antennas and The Envelope Manufacturer by Chris Oliveros.

On Delporte:

While the end has no real solutions in sight for her affliction, she at least is in control of her own fate and own decisions. Delporte’s use of colors is disorienting in a way that’s meant to reflect her own increasing sense of alienation in her own environment. That alienation is something she has to cope with, understanding that the very forces she tried to cling to early in the book were literally killing her and driving her insane.

On Oliveros:

The book works as a metaphor for any kind of personal endeavor that’s endangered by the whims of the market, and it’s not too much of a leap to transfer the sheer absurdity of a three-person envelope manufacturing concern to an equally small art-comics publishing company. Yet one can see Oliveros in D&Q’s darkest days, betting on the next book to keep the company going. That said, what marks the characters in this book are their unrelentingly obsessive personalities, an obsession that borders on narcissism and self-delusion.

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Religion & Comics, Comics & Religion
From the Pink News site:

The American Family Association, which is strongly opposed to LGBT rights, has partnered with Revival Fires International to give away 65,000 copies of the ‘Truth for Youth’ Bible across the US, encouraging evangelical teens to “commit to give the Bibles to their unsaved friends in school”.

The excerpted comics posted in the article are pretty offensive, from a subject-matter standpoint as well as an aesthetic one. The published work is supposedly based on the teachings of the Bible, which, depending on your belief system, may either be a science fiction anthology of dubious authorship or the divine text of the Christian religion. The article is here. Anyway, 65,000 is a lot of funny books.

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Los Bros Hernandez Benefit Auction Items
From Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez (but nothing from Mario???). Proceeds go towards funding the Rowhouse Residency.

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Ben Katchor, Benjamin Marra, Chris Oliveros, gabriella tito, Josh Bayer, julie delporte, julie doucet, Laura Knetzger, religious propaganda, Rob Clough, Staatliches Bauhaus

Aaron Cockle

Posted on August 22, 2016August 23, 2016

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Rowhouse Residency Report – Ian Densford

Comics WorkbookJuly 1, 2018Residency Reports / School UpdatesIan Densford is a cartoonist based in New York state. He joined us in Pittsburgh for a weeklong Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency in July of 2017. Here are his thoughts about visiting the city and his Rowhouse Residency experience. ———————————————————————————————— Ian Densford here: The Rowhouse Residency is great opportunity to get away from the all your distractions and focus on your work. You will be exposed to excellent comics, find interesting reading material on subjects like sacred geometry and interviews with cartoonists, and you will hold interesting conversations with both Frank & Sally, as they are both passionate, intelligent, and creative. You will learn new skills, discover new influences, and talk about comics history in contrast to today’s sphere. In the summer of 2017, from August 23-26, I briefly held a room at the Rowhouse Residency in Pittsburgh, PA. I drove seven hours from the NYC area, and it was a hot week! I shared the house with fellow Comics Workbook Correspondence alum Andrew White, and we spent our time drawing, talking with Frank & Sally, and diving into books from Frank’s unique collection. I came to the residency with a halfway-finished project called Trench Dogs, a collection of first hand accounts from soldiers in World War One. It was something that had originally been created for the Comics Workbook tumblr around 2015, a simple 16 page mini that was now becoming a 180 page book, so it felt like completing the circle to me. During my time there, I inked about 16 pages of naval warfare, big steel hulks exploding and sinking, full of sailors. It was some pretty dark stuff. I can still vividly recall being hunched over a lamplit desk, on one of those hot nights with the fan on, inking the creepy submarine interiors from a reference image. I loved it. Pittsburgh is a strange land, the steep tree covered hills and countless stairs amongst the winding rivers and old buildings. The Residency is a two story rowhouse on a small street by the train tracks. Since I had a large project to focus on, I mostly chose to lock myself in, though the Residency is essentially tailored to your wishes, including exercises and lessons if you want. But the city has alot of great exploring to offer. Sally and Frank also provided occasional outings in the city, such as a visit to Copacetic Comics, or the pool if its hot; and while I was there the library held a special talk with Jim Rugg and Ed Piskor that we attended. During these excursions, the conversations we had were in depth and revealing, everyone had so much experience and knowledge, and those were some of my favorite moments. Frank is indeed a wealth of knowledge, and understands a great deal about the craft and its history up until now. Ask him about numerology, its great. I really connected with Sally too, we had a lot of similar interests and inspiration, and I really appreciated having her voice and insight alongside Frank during my final critique. During that final critique, as we discussed all kinds of things, Frank suggested I share certain details about my creative process. Here is my attempt to do so: I was going for a handmade look, so I inked with a single 1 size brush, and the pages are close to 1:1 ratio with the final print size. I prefer to work on pages together as a two page spread on a single sheet. Trench Dogs was drawn on 11 x 17 watercolor paper, using Frank’s layout template to make sure every page had good balance and movement throughout the spread. I copy each panel from my sketches, but I do not trace. I find tracing makes things very stiff and lifeless, I prefer artists that have some movement and excitement in their line work, so I aspire towards that. I like to keep the pencil drawing very loose, with few details, blocking in the space and characters with simple boxes and circles mostly, very basic “puppet-like” figures, making sure everything has enough room to breathe. Frank thought this aspect was important to mention: I save the actual “drawing” for the inking part of the process, I enjoy the spontaneity and mark making. Its ok to be messy, its fun, plus I like being able to see the artists hand in the work. I used watercolors to paint everything, I love how quick and messy they are, the soft colors and texture. With everything colored in the appropriate solid, I would go back and do two layers of shadows. One layer was dark blue and applied everywhere, the second was dark purple and only applied to the foreground. This helped pull my foreground elements towards the front, because they were darker with a second shadow color, plus the warmer tones of the purple come forward while the cooler ones get pushed back. I was also conscious of my overall color key, and tried to make each section have different tones, so there is a progression of color through the story. After scanning a page, I would add a layer of white highlights in photoshop here and there, which helped the foreground stand out even more, and would focus the eye on certain important details. I also did my sound effects on the same overlaying white layer, which was a nice pop, as it was the only true white on the page. Drawing from reference was great, and almost every panel had at least one ref picture to go along with it. Deciding how to turn everything “toonsy” was a fun challenge, to simplify and reduce to lumpy shapes. I like how drawings by John Pham or Ben Sears look like simple little clay sculptures, with nice curves, and characters like Andrea Falkas, and the carefree linework of Gipi. I chose animal people as a nod to Art Spiegelman, but reaching back to Richard Scarry’s Busy Town and PD Eastman’s Go Dog Go, with strong influences from Herge’s TinTin and Miyazaki’s Dream Diary Hobby Magazine war comics. Animal type was a fun way to distinguish the different armies, but you also feel a different kind of pity for these animal people, I think. That is all I have for this report. I had a blast, got a lot of drawing accomplished, expanded my knowledge and influences, and learned more than I expected. This has been Ian Densford, signing off. ———————————————————————————————— Trench Dogs by Ian Densford will debut at NY Comic Con 2018 – find it at the Dead Reckoning table and in stores after Sept. 15th 2018. 184 pages, color, $18.95 – you can preorder it from Dead Reckoning HERE (use Discount Code FALL18 to get 25% off!) ———————————————————————————————— Ian Densford is a cartoonist living in New York state with his wife, Tae, and their son, Anderson. When not animating on the computer, or drawing in his sketchbook, you can find him frolicking in the nearby forest and rocky hillsides. ———————————————————————————————— For more information about the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency visit this page or email santoroschoolATgmail Share this page: [...]

11/15/2016

Aaron CockleNovember 15, 2016NewsAaron here today with Mardou on Clowes; Bianca Xunise Comics; Research & Destroy NYC; European Abstract Formalist Comics; A bystander’s guide to help the person who’s being targeted ————————————————————————————————— Featured this week: On Being a Woman in the Manly World of Daniel Clowes Sacha Mardou takes an in-depth look at the role of women in Clowes’s work. Another strong piece from the CW Roller Derby League. Julie Patheticstein and Violet Vanderplatz are two wronged women who team up in an unlikely friendship. Patience endures a humiliating stage in her development under the kind mentoring of the older waitress, Nancy. And Vida just adores her old grandmother, the fading poetess Ida Wentz. There’s a subtle alter-world of quiet kindness and acceptance in his books and when you look for the women, you’ll find it there. It would be a miserable life for the men if not for this quiet, subplotted influence. Even grumpy-pants Wilson benefits from the tender mercies of his daughter, and then from his life companion, Shelly. ————————————————————————————————— The 94% Bianca Xunise looks at demographics from this past week’s United States presidential election. ————————————————————————————————— RESEARCH & DESTROY The zine collective Research and Destroy New York City has made a good deal of their protest relevant material available online, including RIOT CONTROL; SUPERSTORM SANDY AND NEW YORK CITY’S DARK RECOVERY,OR, THINGS TO BE SEIZED DURING THE COMING INSURRECTION; and RULES FOR PICKETING. Their most recent work, The 2015 Baltimore Uprising: A Teen Epistolary, a tweet zine, was recently reviewed: The chunky, semi-glossy self-published work provides a singular view of the uprising quite separate from the breaking news of the national media or the think pieces churned out after the unrest. A few examples: “now Freddie broke his own neck…so why it take yall so long to tell the public @BaltimorePolice”; “they keep hollerin bout gangs, WE DON’T EVEN HAVE GANGS LIKE THAT NOMORE.”; “yall need to purge a fucking book w/ yall low ass gpa’s.” Collectively, these tweets can teach us things. They send us back to those days when we didn’t know what was happening or what was going to happen next during the violence on Saturday, April 25 downtown, and the rioting on Monday, April 27, and amid the making-it-up-as-they-go-along week of protests prior to that. The tweets capture the larger thing that we keep calling “the uprising” and the “is a revolution happening before our very eyes” excitement and worry. One tweet just declares, “Looking at a lot of shit different now.” ————————————————————————————————— Over at Kim Jooha’s blog, an attempt at a definition of European Abstract Formalist Comics Why “European” Abstract Formalist Comics? The above-listed works are mostly by French artists and all are by Europeans. There are only few Abstract Formalist Comics in other regions. ITDN (2016) by Andy Burkholder and artist books by Sol LeWitt (USA), Re/Forma (2014) by Luis Aranguri (Brazil), 9gbb (2016) by Ryukyung Hotel (South Korea) and works by Yuichi Yokoyama and Tiger Tateishi (Japan) are exceptions, rather than the norm, in their countries and continents. ————————————————————————————————— WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE WITNESSING ISLAMOPHOBIC HARASSMENT: A bystander’s guide to help the person who’s being targeted This came out at the end of August, and has been making the various social media rounds again in light of recent events. By Marie-Shirine Yener at The Middle Eastern Feminist. Share this page: [...]

Clowes and Nadel in Conversation (2010)

Juan FernándezMarch 21, 2016Interviews / The Diaz ArchiveChris Anthony Diaz has passed along this video he shot, for us to share with you: the Daniel Clowes spotlight panel from 2010’s Alternative Press Expo(APE), with Dan Nadel. Of interest since it dovetails Clowes’ 2016 tour for the release of Patience. This video gives a lot of insight indirectly to Patience. Comic book match ups, Burne Hogarth yelling, EC Horror comics, the disappointment in comics history, public vs. private characters, and life in the letters columns, it’s all here. Many thanks to Chris Anthony Diaz for documenting this conversation. Stay up to date with Diaz’s work here: folkloreshed.tumblr.com/ Share this page: [...]

Gloria Rivera – Rowhouse Residency Report

Comics WorkbookApril 2, 2017Residency Reports / School UpdatesGloria Rivera is a comics artist from Canyon Country, CA. An alum of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers, and a member of the CW Roller Derby League, she joined us in Pittsburgh for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency March 23rd-29th 2017. Here are Gloria’s thoughts about her experience, in her own words. ————————————————————————————————————— The Quick List of What Happened: 22 pages completed, drawing to color w/lettering – comic 1 6 complete pages (B & W) – comic 2 Yona Harvey and Ed Piskor lecture at the Harris Theater Visit to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Copacetic Comics visits various nature walks, incidental birding with Sally Ingraham I had no expectations for my residency when I had arrived – only to work. I had followed Frank Santoro’s online presence for a few years prior and had taken his online correspondence course, but really couldn’t say that I had any idea of what kind of a teacher Frank was in person, or how much of a gift being in this space could be, not only referring to the Rowhouse, but to Pittsburgh – a town constantly working its bellows to support its comics scene. The first day I had arrived, I met Sally Ingraham. I was really blown away by Sally, who works as a coordinator for the Rowhouse Residency and holds various responsibilities for Comics Workbook. She is exhaustively knowledgeable, hardworking, and compassionate. She asked me what I had come to Pittsburgh to work on, and we sort of agreed that this first day I would work in solitude on my comic that I had started half a year earlier, until I felt I had gained some momentum, and then we would go from there, gauging if/when I wanted outside conversation. For the majority of my stay, the rhythm I kept to was non-stop working until a personal moment was offered (whether it be a walk, dinner with Frank and Sally, or short trips through the city), taking those moments, being present, and then continuing my work. Any time spent with other cartoonists (Frank, Sally, one of Sally’s 9-yr old students, cartoonists in a lecture, a.k.a Ed Piskor) was used to further my stride into my work. On the second day of my residency I met Frank. We had dinner at his house, where he was working on his new book. He is spirited, purposeful, mindful, and has endless passion for his work. He told a brief history of Pittsburgh, intertwined with his own of growing up, leaving and returning. It’s a story of dedication and belonging which I think not many people of MY generation are comfortable with, as many seem to be constantly striving for “better”, but without knowing, really, what “better” is. Aside from the stories Frank told about the city, he also gave me insight into the reality of living as a comics maker, which I would not have been privy to, and which until then I really was only guessing at. Some may be disheartened by these sort of conversations, but I am excited by how real it made things for me, despite it being a gauntlet. Topics for the week were: comics making process, the value of comics as a physical object/printing, the strengths of the avant-garde (non-narrative) against those of the narratively structured comic (two very different modes of storytelling), visual literacy, and comics community (inclusive of audience, publishers, comics friends, and family). The talks were long, but the time passed quickly. I tried my best to respect both Sally and Frank’s personal time to work, as they had mine. When Frank approached my work for advisement he was very objective, and I wanted his worst, so that I could do my best. Still, I think he saw my being in the work, and was courteous with his critique. Before coming to Pittsburgh I had half of my comic completed – 25 pages – and I completed the remaining 22 there. I completed as much as I did from August to November of 2016 in a week at the Rowhouse! I won’t say it was easy, but provided with the time to concentrate and motivation from the community, I was happy to put in any amount of time that my work demanded. Any formal education I had before comics was always for painting, and the more serious I allow myself to become about comics making, the more I see they are not so dissimilar. Frank is really great about sharing his knowledge and relating it to that which you came with. He was generous in his talks, while asking me to be accountable for the information I did know. One night Frank had casually presented me with some reading material; recommendations – mostly comics (Yuichi Yokoyama, Rich Buckler) – and among them two catalogues of Philip Guston paintings (it turns out that Frank is not only a comics expert, he is well versed in art history as a whole). Although in the past I have kept Guston as a sort of painting mentor (through books and image), I was surprised when I was presented with these catalogues – to be looking at his work during this comics residency. Phil Guston was a painter who understood the politics associated with images, but always kept a personal relationship with his visual library. Imagine your images are made of characters, places, things, each one a word, a letter, all making up your language. You hold this close to you. This is comics. What follows is an excerpt from a book of collected writings on Phil Guston: “Now, I think the original revolutionary impulse behind the New York School , as I felt it anyway, and I think my colleagues felt it, in the way we talked all the time, was that you felt as if you were driven into a corner against the wall, with no place to stand, just the place you occupied. And it’s as if the act of painting itself was not making a picture, because there are plenty of pictures in the world. Why make more pictures, clutter up the world with more pictures? But it’s as if you had to prove to yourself that truly the act of creation was still possible. Whether it was possible.” (Guston 58) I never expected to have felt this myself, to be able to talk to a group of people about images in such an earnest way – always internal conversation, now externalized. Frank and Sally offered their criticism, and experience, and questioning. I am working everyday to be worthy of comics as my form, and regardless, I put the pen to the paper – but over time I’ve forgotten to ask the big questions. Now I am more than willing to report that while the uninterrupted work time, the comics lectures, and accessible reading material was what whipped me into completing my goal, what I am bringing home with me – more than another book done – is a sense of what true community is, and the importance of holding your peers to standards that will benefit them in the longer run. It’s with great enthusiasm that I support the agenda of Comics Workbook, and the Residency program, and look forward to furthering my involvement with them to make better work (my own and that of others). ————————————————————————————————————— Check out more work by Gloria on her website, follow her on Instagram, and look for her new comic soon! For more information about the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency visit this page or email santoroschoolATgmail Share this page: [...]

04/26/2018

Caleb OrecchioApril 26, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here filling in for Sam, and I’ve just read Prime Cuts #1! ————————————————————————————————— I am always interested in expanding the breadth of my comics knowledge, and was happy when Frank loaned me the first two issues of the Fantagraphics anthology, Prime Cuts. Published at the height of comics’ new respectable reputation in 1987. A nice black and white magazine featuring various comics work of the time from cutting edge cartoonists like Eddie Campbell, underground veterans like R. and Aline Crumb, and reprints of Cliff Sterrett sunday pages; and many many more. The mag even featured prose fiction, plus a great (as always) spirited editorial by Gary Groth in the first issue. The first two issues are solid, but definitely reflect the times and the growing pains of independent comics. A lot of stories are clunkers and seem so stiff and outdated to my millennial eyes, though they don’t take away from the great work. My favorite comic in the first issue has to be Eddie Campbell’s strip “Blues Blues Blues.” Campbell’s work really sings and emits much more electricity than the its neighbors. The strip is dated “’83” and it’s hard to tell if this was when the comic was made or when it takes place or both. Either way, the strip feels pertinent. Though I hate to use this cliché when describing art, “Blues Blues Blues” is kind of sexy. Sexy in the way one would describe Mean Streets or Reservoir Dogs at the time those movies were released if you liked them (and people tended to either love or hate them). There’s a freshness to the comic that you can’t help but be attracted to. The story emphasizes the recklessness of youth. The constant drinking and smoking and mingling and sulking and loving and losing that young people simultaneously rue and romanticize as they experience them. This idea is illustrated through a collage-y, unruled series of images supplemented by Campbell’s lyrical writing along the left side (Campbell is secretly one of comics’ best writers of words). Compound that with the signature loose-yet-perfect drawing, and you got yourself a classic. It feels like a diary or private confessional or memories jotted down in a notebook. I felt like I was hanging out with Campbell and George and all the other lads and lasses, smoking cigarettes and drinking liquor and splashing in the water. His hangover is my hangover. It’s excellent. Unfettered thoughts and embarrassing stories. Real intimate like a folk set in 1955 at Café Wha? or something “They don’t make ’em like they used to,” as the saying goes. I am simply smitten. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Michael Tisserand on the cartoonist, Eugene Majied, who had a big impact on a certain famous boxer over at TCJ.com. While you’re there, check out the interview with Jared Smith of Big Planet Comics. Josh Simmons is the latest guest on Process Party. Rob Clough reviews books by Sara Lautman and Tom Van Deusen. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-26-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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