Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Cameron Arthur, cameron nicholson, Composition Competition 2016, Dan Nadel, Dash Shaw, Jack Kirby, Janne Marie Dauer, jillian fleck, Lina Madory, Lisa Wilkinson, Luke Howard, Niall Breen, Phillip Dokes, Pioneers of the comic strip, Shee Phon, sophie yanow

Aaron Cockle

Posted on September 6, 2016September 6, 2016

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09/22/2016

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

01/17/2017

Aaron CockleJanuary 16, 2017NewsAaron here today with Drawing Center events; RESIST!; Cosplayers; ‘Unquotables’; Notes on Zip-a-Tone. ————————————————————————————————— This week at The Drawing Center, work by Mateo López, Jackson Mac Low, and Amy Sillman. Opening January 20, 2017. Sillman will be presenting her animated drawing, After Metamorphoses. She talks about it here: But we don’t care about “the grid”—we are committed to something different: something scrappy but complex, earnest but smart, ironic but not cynical—a strange FORM! We’re not in it for the money and WE’RE NOT MONEY. We’re not coins of the realm, easily identified by our denominations; we’re definitely not thin paper currency meant to slip inside a wallet. We don’t make sense. We have rough edges and contradictions. What the fuck is “thing theory” anyway—we’re like things that talk back. Where is emancipation located? Should we split our time between art and politics? Is art enough? Is it possible that our work, our love, our beliefs, our symbolic gestures, our senses of humor, can amount to any meaningful resistance? Does resistance come in different lengths; a long game and a short game? Does everyone have to do it the same way? We haven’t figured it out but we love art that offers change above all: insistent, unremitting change that won’t resolve into finality or finesse. We don’t know quite what to do but the qualities that mean something have shifted: knowingness is out, a goddamn “good” painting seems irrelevant, smug… we don’t need someone to tells us which painting is “better.” Fuck that. Image above from Mateo López: Undo List. ————————————————————————————————— ‘So, it is using old fashioned like printing presses and trucks and you know, just sheer physical get together that will make little cells out in the open and we publish a link so that people can sign up for those local distributions.’ Betsy Gomez at the CBLDF talks to Francoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman about the forthcoming release of the Resist! anthology comic on Saturday, January 21: Resist! revives the tradition of using comics for protest. What precedents inspired you in developing this project? FM: Well, the first thing was being asked by Gabe Fowler to guest edit a special issue of Smoke Signal, which is a tabloid printed on newsprint that he wanted to release at the time of the inauguration and the women’s march. When he got in touch with me specifically, like “I want a woman guest editor,” and because he asked right after the election and that was my feeling as well — since we’d just been robbed of our first woman president, there was a sense shared by so many — Gabe’s request seemed natural at the time… My friends were saying, “I’m going to Washington.” We didn’t know where or what. I mean, we knew it was the day after the inauguration, but there was some sense of wanting women’s voices heard. NS: About historical precedent, and I think Francoise can talk very eloquently about historical precedents in France like L’Assiette au Beurre and Charlie Hebdo. One of the things is: there is a long historical precedent for political protest. But one thing that there isn’t, is enough contemporary parallels and enough space in American culture right now for political images as an act of resistance… We’re hoping to create more of that space. ————————————————————————————————— Over at Calm Undertones Now Transmitting, an in-depth look at Dash Shaw’s A Cosplayers Christmas: Shaw’s conception of cosplay shows how the exploitation of individuals that has been opened up by the postmodern ethos can be circumvented by those with the confidence to make their own meaning (even naïveté within certain bounds is enough) against the will of the myriad influences directed at them (e.g. marketing, social norms, political processes etc.). In A Cosplayers Christmas, the obliviousness of Annie and Verti to considerations of the monetary value of the gifts they exchange is endearing and humorous but it also points to the way that cosplay, by allowing its participants to claim partial ownership of the fictions they enmesh themselves in, serves to subvert the traditional paradigm of the separation between cultural producer and cultural consumer that has allowed space for capitalist interests to take hold. Annie and Verti have no interest in purchasing merchandise based on the properties that hold their interest, instead they would prefer to create their own related objects that they can attach personal meaning to. ————————————————————————————————— R. Sikoryak will be signing his newest work, The Unquotable Trump, this Friday, January 20, 6-8pm at Jim Hanley’s Universe, 32 East 32nd Street, NYC. Parodies of comic book covers with actual Trump quotes from the 2016 presidential campaign. The mini comic edition also features a Public Service Announcement comic strip and extensive footnotes. ————————————————————————————————— Could this piece have been done on the computer?…Could this piece exist without the fields of tone? Back in 2009, Alex Holden was thinking about Zip-a-Tone in comics: Zip A Tone has been on my mind because I recently received “Two Eyes Of The Beautiful” from Ryan Cecil Smith, who is currently living in Japan. Some equivalent of Zip A Tone (in virtually unlimited variety) is still widely available in Japan, despite the advent of the computer. “Two Eyes of the Beautiful” is all about Zip A Tone, from simple dot patterns, to trees and foliage……even buildings. Indeed, it is pretty easy to recreate the same effects of the adhesive sheets in Photoshop. Kevin Huizenga frequently employs this technique. Whenever Zip A Tone is mentioned, I can’t help but think of Matt Wagner’s “Heist”, printed in BATMAN BLACK & WHITE #3. Could this piece have been done on the computer? I suppose so. Could this piece exist without the fields of tone? Absolutely not. ————————————————————————————————— Pompeii by yours truly Frank Santoro – get a copy HERE. “The book itself is about drawing, really. It’s also about two artists who draw in order to see the world around them. So, the book itself IS drawing—and at the end it breaks down the barrier between what’s “real” and what is “drawn”. That’s what is great about the medium—that I can use drawing to illustrate that breakdown. There are a lot of visual rhymes in the book—where the “reality” is mirrored by a painting or a drawing. I’m trying to get to the core of visual storytelling by amplifying the process of drawing and making that the subject of the story as much as the interaction of the characters.” – Frank Santoro in an interview with Publishers Weekly ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-17-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-17-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-17-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

10/13/2017

Sally IngrahamOctober 12, 2017NewsSally here with Thi Bui, Lale Westvind, Sophie Goldstein, Jackie Kirby, and much more! ———————————————————————————————— First of all, can we please collectively freak out over this Lale Westvind cover on the upcoming Kramers Ergot 10…?! I can’t stop looking at it, and April 2018 seems like a very long time from now… Lale has a comic inside the collection as well, and it will also include work by Anna Haifich, Noel Frieberg, Adam Buttrick, Archer Prewitt, Andy Burkholder, Will Sweeney, Dash Shaw, James Turek, Rick Altergott, CF, Aisha Franz, Kim Deitch, Ron Regé Jr., John Pham, Robert Crumb, Sammy Harkham, and I think Simon Hanselmann just Tweeted something about having a page in it…! So it’s going to be a good one, obviously. ———————————————————————————————— Michael Tisserand (author of Krazy: George Herriman, a Life in Black and White) interviews Thi Bui on The Comics Journal. Her comic, The Best We Could Do, has been garnering praise and acclaim while starting important conversations since its release earlier this year. It is the story of her family’s escape from 1970s Vietnam and the reverberating impact of that on her life. It’s a difficult, but beautiful memoir – and the interview is excellent too. Thi had a lot to deal with when it came to making this comic (which she worked on for 12 years.) She has thoughtful responses to questions about working around the American narrative of the Vietnam War, and releasing her work into the present moment where the issue of immigration is so volatile. “Images we pick up from movies stick around for a long time. If your idea of what Vietnamese people look and sound like comes from movies like Full Metal Jacket and Platoon, then I have a lot of work to do to replace those caricatures with carefully observed characterizations of real Vietnamese people. Some people are able to do this entirely in prose; for me, drawing was in my arsenal, so I used it. My hope is that my images will stick around and influence people’s ideas of Vietnamese people for the better — not because I portrayed them all as model minorities, but because I showed them as fully formed human beings who can be wonderful, average, or total assholes, just like everybody else.” “In a time of so much anxiety and quickly moving bad news, I hope to bring a slower kind of thinking to the table. If you can give yourself a little time and headspace to filter away the 24-hour news and its effects on your psyche, the divisiveness of politics, and the way hurt triggers more hurt in a vicious cycle, you can more clearly see what matters, at the end of it all. And then you know what you have to fight for.“ Read the whole interview HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Jackie Kirby is cranking out work this fall – from her own creations to these terrific “Kirby Cut-Ups” (above, riffing on Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s Fantastic Four) she posts something on her blog almost everyday. Follow her on Tumblr or Instagram (@musclegirl2666) for a good example of how to keep your hand moving, your mind sharp, and your comics-making practice on point. Check out more of her comics HERE. Also be sure to read her article for Comics Workbook from this past summer, on Meter, Geometry and Comic Form! ———————————————————————————————— Here in Pittsburgh there will be a release party for House of Women by Sophie Goldstein on Saturday, Oct. 14th, at Copacetic Comics (7 PM- 9 PM). Event details are HERE. You can see a preview from the book on Sophie’s website, and get a copy HERE. ———————————————————————————————— The Candy Store Sequential State has a review of GG‘s I’m Not Here – a comic that perhaps relies “on the reader’s intuition“. Kawai Shen of Cute Juice Comics also “analyzes” I’m Not Here, saying that it is “made of clues and feelings rather than answers“. It’s Nice That has a good interview with Tara Booth. Etelka Lehoczky of NPR didn’t really like Ulli Lust‘s Voices In The Dark – the reasons are somewhat interesting however. Katie Skelly “shines a light” over on The Comics Journal… Jacob Shapiro, who runs Fantom Comics in D.C., is guest curating some reviews on Our Comics, Ourselves – he checks out Hannah K. Lee‘s collection Language Barrier HERE. The New York Times visits Roz Chast and talks her new book and where she looks for salvation these days. Lynda Barry‘s The Good Times Are Killing Me just came out from Drawn and Quarterly – you can check out an excerpt of the book HERE. Audra Stang has been publishing a new comics story called Little Minnow – read the whole thing so far. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 10-13-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ———————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 10-13-2017 – by Juan Fernandez ———————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 10-13-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

07/13/2017

Sally IngrahamJuly 13, 2017NewsToday we have Sam Ombiri on Matthew Thurber’s Art Comic 3, NPR’s comics reader poll, The Permanent Night from Adam Griffiths, and more. —————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I was recently reading Art Comic 3 by Matthew Thurber (a story of art world hijinx where the recurring character of Cupcake has gotten a new job at Dachshund Pond’s gallery). I really like the relationship between the characters Dachshund and Zenobia – the way Zenobia refers to Dachshund and the way Dachshund has an idea of what Zenobia thinks about him, (yet she mis-remembers him enough to recommend Cupcake to get a job with him.) There are these subtle moments that hint at Dachshund’s attitude and him dealing with his surfacing demise, or at least that “Demise” that he greatly fears. This fear isn’t shown blatantly or in a straightforward way. It begins being shown as Cupcake walks in to the Party Portal after Cupcake’s nose has “worked its magic”, and Dachshund’s archivist has left (in the panel where she says, “I’m not coming back. I got hired at Starbucks…a job with a future!”) Dachshund’s face has a look of horror, but then by the next panel Daschund undramatically drops his coffee cup, pretending, “Yeah, yeah, whatever, I know I’m a failure“. This isn’t what he says in the panel, but as the reader you hear it, because you combine the way Dachshund has dropped his coffee cup with him saying “Well OK! Guess I’m looking for a new archivist now, too.” He’s smiling, when not that much time has passed – we can still see one of the old archivist’s legs as she is leaving the Party Portal. The one looking at her is Cupcake. Thurber made the extra effort to register to the reader that Cupcake has turned Dachshund’s head, but Dachshund’s bigger and more significant turn isn’t registered, which is great because his turn is more muted – along with him tossing his cup being muted, you as the reader feel it more. The way Cupcake is looking at the old Archivist leaving also tells you this is something to look at, and who is Dachshund kidding by not looking at her, and smiling so nonchalantly? In that panel, Thurber doesn’t bother to spell it out for the reader or emphasize it. The drawing of the cup is tilted to look like it’s falling, and as the reader of course you register it like he tossed it, but then the cup also feels like it’s floating – again Thurber doesn’t bother to spell it out for the reader. Dachshund’s success is in a place where he could take it or leave it, or his desire for success is just success in general, I don’t know. My guess is that he’s not satisfied with his current role, since he said, “I was gonna be the next Jean-Luc Godard, but I didn’t have the talent, just the sunglasses. Five years ago, I finally realized what my role is… And took off my sunglasses. For Good.” The silence that comes after he says “I finally realized what my role is…” seems sad, and then after that it feels even more melancholy with Dushchand saying “And I took of my sunglasses. For good.” The sentences feel like forced uncompromising resolutions that surfaced after having no resources for what his goal is – to not look back at the sunglasses that he took off. Those sentences have more gravity than the more weightless words he was somewhat mumbling before, as if he wouldn’t be at all unsatisfied with them being unheard even by himself. – Sam Ombiri Get a copy of Art Comic 3 by Matthew Thurber HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Here’s a video of Keith Knight talking about his police brutality cartoons, made by the media students at Sierra Nevada College. —————————————————————————————————— NPR released the results of their summer comics poll, whittling down 7,000 entries to 100 comics with the help of an all-star team of creators and critics (including C. Spike Trotman, G. Willow Wilson, and Maggie Thompson). The list is a good place for non-comics readers to start, and will tick off the major works in a couple of genres that “everyone should read”. NPR doesn’t make any lofty pretenses however: “This isn’t meant as a comprehensive list of the “best” or “most important” or “most influential” comics, of course. It’s a lot more personal and idiosyncratic than that, because we asked folks to name the comics they loved. That means you’ll find enormously popular mainstays like Maus and Fun Home jostling for space alongside newer work that’s awaiting a wider audience (Check Please, anyone?).“ See the whole list HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Adam Griffiths sent us a few copies of his new mini comic The Permanent Night (partially drawn during his January 2017 Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency). An urban fantasy set in Washington, D.C., it’s small “floppy” size is quite appealing. Digital color balances well with Adam’s intricate pencil drawings, and the wildly inventive lettering doesn’t hinder the reading at all – the added visual element instead pulls the reader deeper into the story. I’m eagerly anticipating more work from Adam in the future (his social media hints at something BIG on the horizon!) Meanwhile, get yourself a copy of this debut mini comic HERE and be sure to check out Adam’s ongoing webcomic American Cryo – HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-13-2017 – by Gabriella Tito —————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-13-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

9/2/2016

Juan FernándezSeptember 2, 2016NewsYoohoo, Juan’s here with the latest comics news: Gary Panter; SPX 2016 Programming; Cameron Nicholson on the RVA crew; Nicole Georges with AK Summers and Esther Godoy; The history of Craftint; payday for Noah Van Sciver; Connor Willumsen’s latest book; Rowhouse Residency’s Sammy Harkham ends TOMORROW! ————————————————————————————————— Portraits by Connor Willumsen Comics Workbook is very pleased to present a new book from Connor Willumsen – Portraits. Available now for pre-order – get your copy HERE! This 16-page beautifully printed booklet (by WestCan – who also printed thee Santoro School Handbook) of portraits by the great Connor Willumsen is now available for pre-order. We are only offering pre-orders for the States presently and will offer pre-orders for non-USA orders after we go to press in late August. Connor is one of our original CW samurais. He will be joining Frank Santoro at The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival this fall, teaching workshops and sharing his process. Look for him there! ————————————————————————————————— [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/280934796″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] Gary Panter Eats Art John Mejias and Zak Smith talk to Gary Panter over on their new Podcast We Eat Art about painting, comics, meeting Jack Kirby, his psychedelic light shows, and a lot more. No better way to start your day than sitting down with uncle Gary. It’s a great start to what I hope to be a great series of podcasts. ————————————————————————————————— SPX 2016 Programming Schedule: LIVE Small Press Expo is pleased to announce the Programming Schedule for SPX 2016. SPX is continuing the festival’s established tradition of rich, thought provoking programming featuring leading comics artists and critics in conversation. As in previous years, the Programming Schedule features twenty-two sessions with two simultaneous tracks on both Saturday and Sunday, September 17 and 18. Check out these highlights! – Joe Sacco makes a rare festival appearance to talk about Comics Journalism with Sarah Glidden, moderated by The Nib’s Matt Bors. – Lisa Hanawalt graces SPX for a spotlight interview with NPR’s Glen Weldon. – Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell discuss their work with Congressman John Lewis on the acclaimed and award winning March trilogy. There will also be seven panels dedicated to celebrating the 40th Birthday of Fantagraphics, including: – Publisher Gary Groth joins Joe Sacco, Drew Friedman, Trina Robbins and Gilbert Hernandez to talk about Fantagraphics 40 years of publishing. – The two great indie comics legends, Charles Burns and Daniel Clowes, talk shop with Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds – The panel Music & Comics has Jaime Hernandez and Ed Piskor discussing how Punk Rock and Hip Hop music influenced their respective creative styles, moderated by the Toonseum’s John Kelly. The complete schedule is available HERE. ————————————————————————————————— RVA at SPX Cameron Nicholson has cooked a post of Richmond, VA’s finest cartoonists and illustrators that’ll be making it out to Bethesda. Check it out and get acquainted with their work before the festival. There’s so much talent in that town. Big ups to Cameron for this annual spotlight! Get yourself a hot beverage and look at them pictures! ————————————————————————————————— Sagittatirian Matters: AK Summers & Esther Godoy Nicole Georges holds it down on her HARD HITTING podcast, Sagittarian Matters. It’s always a good listen. Nicole Georges: Today we are visited by “Pregnant Butch” author AK Summers & “Butch is Not a Dirty Word” creator Esther Godoy to discuss queer masculinity, pregnancy, ugliness, visibility and MORE. They are a Leo and an Aquarius, respectively. ————————————————————————————————— Art in the age of mechanical reproduction: Craftint Over on the incredible Legion of Andy site the in part anonymous site runner, Legion of Andy, has been publishing a series of articles on what might seem a pretty dry subject – the Ben-Day dots printing process, used to colour comics for many years in the US in the past. My god if these aren’t the most thrilling and satisfying reads on color reproduction for comics. The latest piece is on the history of Craftint. Check out the comments to see what Steve Bissette has to chime in 😉 If you want to jump into the thick of it, check out all the articles the Legion of Andy has put together. Part 1—Roy Lichtenstein—the man who didn’t paint Ben Day dots Part 2—Halftone dots, Polke dots, more Roy Part 3—CMYK / Four-colour comic book dots vs. RGB dots on screens Part 4—Pre-history, origins—Ben Day in the 19th century Part 5—Ben Day in lithography Part 5.5—French comic strips of the 1880s. Coloured by relief aquatint. Part 5.75—A lithographic protocomic (?) from 1885 Part 6—Ben Day meets the Sunday Comics in the 1890s Part 6.1—Tarzan and the Ben Day Dots—secrets of 1930s comic strip colour Part 6.2—Fun With (Mis-)Registration—when colour printing plates don’t line up Part 7 — The Birth of the Comic Book ————————————————————————————————— The Industry – Oh you know, the usual tire fire. Jude Terror waxes on the farce of the direct market, maddening pressure on the consumer, and dizzying hypocrisy. Stand by and watch from a distance, or hop in on the comments and get yourself dirty. “The same thing applies sometimes to fans, who are constantly pressured by the industry to feel responsible for sales numbers and pass along that attitude to their peers. Don’t want to see your favorite character’s book canceled? Well, you better preorder and tell all your friends to preorder too. Want to see more diversity in comics? You’d better buy whatever half-hearted attempt at cashing in on diversity Marvel is promoting this month whether you enjoy reading it or not, or else they might get the idea that comic book readers don’t like diversity, and that would be your fault, you see. Don’t want to see your favorite artist die alone in poverty after creating some of the most successful intellectual properties in the history of American pop culture? Well, you’d better keep shelling out $4.99 for those comics Marvel is giving them a 1% cut of, or that’s your fault too.” ————————————————————————————————— Pay day for Noah Van Sciver Noah Van Sciver has been doing a regular strip for Columbus’ weekly arts and culture newspaper Columbus Alive! Check out their archives to read everything that Noah has been cooking up. ————————————————————————————————— Private Rowhouse Auction – 8.27-9.3 ————————————————————————————————— until next time, friends. JF Share this page: [...]

09/06/2016

Posted on September 6, 2016September 6, 2016 by Aaron Cockle

Aaron here today with the Composition Competition Awards; Sophie Yanow in the Dakotas; Shaw/Nadel on U-tube; some pioneers of the comic strip; Kirby injustices revisited

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Congratulations to ALL who created and submitted work for this year’s Composition Competition contest!

First Place – $500 cash prize: Cameron Nicholson – For a Lack of Better Words

Second Place – $250 credit at Copacetic Comics: Shee Phon – I Know It’s Not About Me, But I Don’t Want To Die

Third Place – $100 credit at Copacetic Comics: Cameron Arthur – Oasis

Honorable Mention – $50 credit at Big Planet Comics: Lisa Wilkinson – The Last Time I Saw Tate; Janne Marie Dauer – Blame It On the Night Moves; Luke Howard – Extragalactic; Niall Breen – Śūnyatā

Special Prize – $25 credit at Copacetic Comics: Lina Madöry – Reflection

No Prize Shout Out!: Jillian Fleck – I Got A Job; Phillip Dokes – Falling

Congratulations to the winners and all of those who participated.

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Sophie Yanow is covering the Dakota Access Pipeline protest at the Nib:

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The Strand bookstore filmed last week’s conversation with Dash Shaw and Dan Nadel

In support of Shaw’s recently released Cosplayers book, for your viewing/listening enjoyment.

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Some updated exhibition info for the Pioneers of the Comic Strip show on view at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, through September 18:

With an extensive exhibition, SCHIRN presents the pioneers of the comic strip, who set the artistic and substantive standards of early comic strips in an experimental and progressive way. This also highlights the relationship of comic strips and colorful newspaper supplements with the developments in visual arts at the time. The SCHIRN presents the cultural history of the comic strip in an outstanding series of selected works, primarily by American illustrators: Winsor McCay, Lyonel Feininger, Charles Forbell, George Herriman, Cliff Sterrett and Frank King.

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Asher Elbein writes about Jack Kirby’s history with Marvel Comics at the Atlantic:

In the mid-1970s, Congress revised the laws around copyright, offering longer periods of ownership for copyright holders—if the proper paperwork could be provided. Marvel realized that many of its previous contracts were legally questionable, remnants of the comics industry’s fly-by-night origins with regards to creative work. In 1978, the company began handing out freelancer contracts that guaranteed the company “forever all rights of any kind and nature in and to the work.” As Michael Dean wrote in a 2002 issue of The Comics Journal, these “work for hire” contracts were partly a result of the superhero boom Kirby himself had a hand in creating. “It wasn’t just monthly comic books that were at stake any more,” Dean wrote. “It was the vast ancillary potential of licensing and merchandising the content of those comics.” The contracts legally formalized what had previously been loosely assumed to be corporate policy, but having it in writing gave many comics freelancers pause for thought. When Kirby got the contract, he refused to sign it and left Marvel for good.

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One thought on “09/06/2016”

Phil says:

September 6, 2016 at 8:02 pm

Um, is there a salon tomorrow @ Lili’s?

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Aaron Cockle

Posted on September 6, 2016September 6, 2016

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03/27/2017

Sally IngrahamMarch 26, 2017NewsBeginning the week with Ryan Sands and Frank Santoro talking risograph printing, new work from Ron Rege Jr. and Brian Chippendale, thoughts on creating comic strips from Ben Katchor, and more. ————————————————————————————————— The Risograph Workbook series on The Comics Journal continues with Ryan Sands, publisher at Youth in Decline, sharing his riso story. “People ask me about risograph a lot, and I get hesitant to characterize it as a look or aesthetic unto itself. The machine is just a means to production, and how artists mess with it and use it is a reflection of their priorities and style – Mickey uses the riso to maintain spontaneity and a handmade griminess to the comics, while someone like John Pham applies his printmaking emphasis and precision to create these really sharp and dense books full of color and gradients. Then there are folks like Ryan Cecil Smith, and Colour Code Printing‘s Jesjit Gill, who want to push the color blending and technique as far as possible, recreating (and sometimes surpassing) the sharpness of CMYK offset printing. A risograph machine is just tool that allows creators & publishers to speed up & expand on an existing approach.” – Ryan Sands Read the rest of the conversation between Ryan and Frank Santoro HERE. ————————————————————————————————— On The Comics Beat Phillipe Leblanc reviews Frank Santoro’s Escape To The Unfinished #2 (Breakdown Press, 2015). “The key to understanding Frank Santoro’s work in Escape to the Unfinished #2 lies in the feelings memories evoke. A river running under a multi-span bridge, a silhouette standing at the end of a hiking trail in the woods, an industrial building surrounded by overgrown vegetation. All of these anchored by the recurring image of a woman. She’s on the cover of the book, and throughout multiple panels in the comic, always looking directly at the reader. The whole comic is framed on fragments of memories. It’s mostly silent, with a single exchange between two characters in the whole comic. … By simply presenting scenery and tying it to the memory of a loved one, Santoro manages to create feelings of sorrow and heartache.“ Read the whole review HERE. ————————————————————————————————— What Parsifal Saw is the latest comic from Ron Regé Jr. (Fantagraphics, 2017). It collects Regé’s work since The Cartoon Utopia (which was just released in a new softcover edition.) Bill Boichel writes about What Parsifal Saw: “The two key pieces here are “Cosmogenesis,” illustrating the “secret doctrine” of Madame Helena Blavatsky, the key figure in the history of Theosophy (which had a significant influence on the first generation of modernist artists, notably Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky), and “Diana,” Regé’s unique spin on W*nder W*man…Ron Regé, Jr. has been striving conscientiously to forge a visual language to channel spiritual forces through comics, continuously evolving his approach, and in the process creating a singular and highly rewarding body of work.“ Get a copy of the book HERE. In January Ron Rege Jr. spoke to The Creators Project on VICE about his work, and explained how he uses the simplicity of drawing to explore and impart hidden, sacred knowledge. The Cartoon Utopia (originally published in 2012) documents a large part of that journey, and What Parsifal Saw continues it. ” “In a spiritual sense, my ideas always seem to focus on some sort of attempt to explain the unexplainable,” Regé says. “I’ve always been trying to look through the mirror, so to speak. Experiences like deja-vu, lucid dreaming, and a sense of reincarnation are things I’ve always felt in my heart. I’ve never been able to really understand how or why we live in these cultures and societies that are so disconnected from the earth and our true selves. I’ve never sensed that things like rules or money are anything other than made-up illusions. I’m always looking for that eternal DMT moment in the back of my dreams where I came from. These things shaped my life and my work, and I seem to always be becoming more aware of what it all is.” “ Read the rest of the feature on VICE‘s The Creators Project. Get a copy of The Cartoon Utopia HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I enjoyed this short documentary from 2000 about Ben Katchor and his comic strip Julius Knipl, Real-Estate Photographer. Katchor guides the viewer through a grey landscape of jumbled skyscrapers and lonely warehouses, commenting on the funny names of stores and the pleasant nostalgia of functioning ruins. His love for walking the city inspired him to make a cartoon character who did the same thing, and week after week he found something to put in his strip that came directly from standing on the street himself. “You see the city in terms of your bodies ability to move around it. Every inch of pavement is a whole world of activity. When they remake a sidewalk you really feel like something has been ripped up, some artifact, some record of all the people who have passed over it.“ Calling himself a “middle-man in the memory business“, and comic strips a “low-level commodity“, Katchor still recognizes that everything has a story if you know how to look for it, and with a shrug and a smile, says “Once in awhile in a strip you’ll see this crack in the facade of everything – of the commercial world. There’s some great dramatic moment of revelation.” ————————————————————————————————— As the comics award season begins, Michael Cavna, of “Comic Riffs” on The Washington Post, offers his list of comics that ought to win an “Oscar”. He fears worthy comics such as Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden (above), Patience by Dan Clowes, and Mooncop by Tom Gould may be overlooked – plus 7 others – so as you make convention and award ceremony rounds this year, perhaps you will be inspired to put your vote in for some of his picks – the rest are HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The paintings above recently moved from Brian Chippendale’s studio to Safe Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, where they join an instillation by Greek artist Ioanna Pantazopoulou. The gallery writes about Brian’s show: “Brian Chippendale’s airy new paintings unveil a secret inner world assembled from raw drawing, scrawled notes, and compulsive doodles. By shedding the density of his past work, Chippendale trades out his heavily-populated collages for visually lighter canvases. The artist’s characteristic rainbow-hued palette remains at play as he edits out the layered space with white to carve out a new arena for expression. In some moments Chippendale actually makes punctured shapes through his surfaces as an alternate layer of mark-making. The laminated surfaces serve as the backbone of the paintings while bursts of marks hover in space. The drippy color-drenched squiggles, sprayed like fragments of graffiti, serve as futuristic hieroglyphics with buoyant and vibrant results.“ More about the show HERE. More work by Brian Chippendale can be seen HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Get a limited edition 4-color silk screen printed version of the 2017 PIX poster (above) made by Carol Tyler in honor of Jay Lynch. “The 11″ x 17″ print featured a 4 color silk screened image of Jay’s most famous characters, Nard n’ Pat as drawn by cartoonist Carol Tyler in a limited edition of 50, signed by Carol Tyler. Proceeds from the sale of this fine art print will benefit the National Cartoonists Society Foundation, which provides financial assistance to cartoonists and their families in times of hardship.“ Pre-order one HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-27-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-27-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-27-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

08/25/2016

Sally IngrahamAugust 25, 2016NewsSally here, bringing you a look at some of Pittsburgh’s born or borrowed cartoonists (Ed Piskor, Yona Harvey, Ben Sears) as well as another read through that Trevor Von Eeden interview. ————————————————————————————————— Yona Harvey is a Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh – and Marvel’s first black female writer. She is working on a 10-page story for the upcoming Black Panther spin-off series, World of Wakanda. “Harvey says, as a poet, she’s always considered herself a visual thinker, and explained how poets, like comic writers, have to condense life into as few words as possible. “I think it’s more in the thinking, like when you’re a poet you do sort of shrink moments,” she said. “A lot can happen across the day, from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. There’s something about when you’re a poet, you’re able to sort of zero in on very specific moments, maybe the most tense or terse moments of the day, and I like putting that way of thinking to use for a comic. Because you do have to be super precise.” Though the writing shares some craft elements, the audience crossover between poetry and comics isn’t one-to-one, according to Harvey. “I’ve had friends who have said, ‘Man, it’s been years since I’ve read a comic book,’ or ‘I’ve never read a comic book and this’ll be the first time that I’m reading a comic,’ and that’s really exciting to think about poets who are reading comics for the first time,” she said.“ Read the rest of the article HERE and keep an eye out for this series soon (the bulk of which has been written Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, with artwork by Alitha Martinez and Afua Richardson.) ————————————————————————————————— Ed Piskor‘s Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 4 was featured on NPR recently – Etelka Lehoczky wrote about the “bubbles” in the work, “phenomena that inexorably head skyward, pop suddenly and create a roiling surface“, or the numerous artists who kept the stew at the boil throughout ’84 and ’85. She revels in Piskor’s use of color, always part of the wonder of these books. Check out the whole thing HERE. Another Piskor-related thing that’s been on my mind is this picture that showed up on his Instagram a few weeks ago. What gives?! Giant HHFT cover burner on the wall at the Smithsonian in DC. A photo posted by Ed Piskor (@ed_piskor) on Aug 1, 2016 at 12:08pm PDT I know where I’ll be headed in the summer of 2018…! Ed Piskor has always been an unstoppable force, quietly conquering the world, and now with the announcement last week that Hip Hop Family Tree will soon be an animated TV series (yes you heard me right! – check it out HERE) – it seems like the world has noticed and won’t soon be forgetting. ————————————————————————————————— Ben Sears is in Pittsburgh this week for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency – which of course includes field trips to Copacetic Comics to look for treasures with Frank. Check out Ben’s book Night Air (Koyama Press, May 2016) and stay tuned for more of his Rowhouse adventures! ————————————————————————————————— Last week we mentioned the incredible interview with Trevor Von Eeden, and if you haven’t gotten a chance to read it yet, here’s your reminder. There was one detail from the interview that’s worth another look. There’s a yet unpublished – “…Black Lightning/Superman comic book called Sources commissioned by DC Comics, written by new Batman writer Tom King especially for Von Eeden to draw when he was both undergoing and recovering from cancer surgery.” – Rich Johnson via Bleeding Cool Find more of Von Eeden’s artwork (below) for this future project HERE. Also be sure to give Trevor Von Eeden’s Kickstarer campaign for the series The Hard Code (with Ramon Gil) a look! ————————————————————————————————— This is Sally signing off – Harrison will be back with your Thursday music choices next week! Share this page: [...]

12/09/2016

Sally IngrahamDecember 9, 2016NewsSally here with Vanesa R. Del Rey’s new book, work by Sylvie Fontaine, Fiona Smyth, and Gabriella Tito, and notes on the All Time Comics project. ————————————————————————————————— “Frank Santoro: Vanesa, I’m quite taken aback by your sheer technical ability which seems to be married to a poetic sensibility. There’s a lightness there. Sometimes illustrators with that ability get heavy-handed. Yet you manage the push-pull between the two sides of yourself – because you’re like a samurai. The humble samurai. Vanesa R. Del Rey: It’s about trying to remember that. I can get all this praise, I can get all these amazing responses from strangers, but at the end of the day – I’m still a student. I’m still learning. The crown doesn’t fit. The crown should never fit.” In May 2016 Vanesa R. Del Rey came to Pittsburgh, PA, to visit the Rowhouse and share her sketchbooks and her passion for comics with Frank and the rest of us. Their conversations about her work and experiences have been transformed into the book The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey, which is full of gorgeous images as well. You can get a peak into the book at the pre-order site HERE – the book will be released later this month! Vanesa is known for her work on Marvel’s Black Widow, and the Boom Studios stories Hit and The Empty Man. She is the “vertical invader” in comics that Frank has always talked about – the artist who “could employ the naturalism of the Noel Sickles/Alex Toth school but who could paint like an Alice Neel or a Jenny Saville.“ Vanesa is an inspiration to me on a lot of levels, and getting to hear more of her stories and thoughts via this new book – getting to hang out with this samurai! – is a great privilege. To hear another woman voice out loud something like “I want to be a strong female – I want to be powerful” and then to watch her truly kick ass IS incredibly powerful. Check out more of Vanesa’s work HERE. Pre-order a copy of The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Big news broke yesterday – EW revealed that Fantagraphics is going to release a line of superhero comes starting in March 2017. Wait…whut?! “Headed by writer Josh Bayer, the All Time Comics line launches in March 2017 with All Time Comics: Crime Destroyer #1. The supersized issue will introduce the four main characters of this shared superhero universe: Atlas, Bullwhip, Crime Destroyer, and Blind Justice, each of whom will be getting their own individual series. As proof of the line’s blending of eras, this first issue will feature the final published comics work of the late Herb Trimpe, a Marvel veteran of the Lee/Kirby era who helped co-create Wolverine. All Time Comics will also feature work from the likes of Al Milgrom (who co-created DC’s Firestorm), as well as younger artists like Noah Van Sciver and Ben Marra. Each issue, Bayer promises, will feature a new unique mash-up of different cartoonists.” – via EW It’s true – here’s the pre-order page on Fantagraphics’ website. And I do think this is exciting news. I totally want to read a superhero comic that Noah Van Sciver has worked on. But Heidi MacDonald over on The Comics Beat has already voiced the thought that immediately occurred to me – the project is kind of “a throwback boys club that proves just how far comics have come….not. Tsk tsk, boys. Haven’t you heard the news? Girl cooties are allowed around comics now and even superheroes!” Heidi shouts for Katie Skelly to get in on the project, or else. I am going to start the clamor for Lale Westvind and Anya Davidson and Vanesa R. Del Rey for heavens sake, and I’m going to keep adding to the list! Overall I do think it’s a cool project (I look forward to collecting the issues!) and I like what Bayer has to say about it: “All Time Comics is celebration of independent comics and the best of pulpy superhero comics of the past,” Bayer tells EW. “We are making a circle complete. This is also a period when comics seem to be in danger of being eclipsed by movies and video games, and All Time Comics is here to remind people that comics, not movies, not action figures or toys, that started our cultural obsession with superheroes. All Time Comics is us, and we stand for comics. Comics are not fading. They will stand… for all time.” – via EW The EW press release is HERE. Heidi on The Comics Beat has the whole list of who exactly is working on what issues at the end of her post, HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I spend two days a week at one of the best alternative comics shops in the world – Copacetic Comics, in the Polish Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. A twice-weekly perusal of the shelves or a thorough dig through the many long boxes of small press and self-published work usually turns up a few treasures. Yesterday I poured over a little book by Sylvie Fontaine, called Miss Va-Nu-Pieds (2008). Sylvie Fontaine is a French comics maker who has been publishing work since the 90’s. Despite the fact that her book Le Poulet du Dimanche (2007) earned an introduction by Moebius himself, the internet did not reveal much more about her. I was quite content with Miss Va-Nu-Pieds though. The black and white panels reminded me of Frans Masereel woodcuts, with a little Mary Fleener mixed in. The wordless story follows a young woman through a swiftly changing wonderland. She moves forward constantly, encountering new landscapes and beings, falling into traps and narrowly avoiding accidents, planting , dancing, until she rides a giant hand to a point of rest and possibly fulfillment. I would say you can get a copy of this book at Copacetic, but I think I’m keeping it. So if you’re interested, you can order it through the publisher, Tanibis. ————————————————————————————————— Another work that I was reminded of while looking at Miss Va-Nu-Pieds was The Rendered (2016) by Fiona Smyth. Perhaps something about the harsh black and white made me long for hot pink – although there is a slight stylistic similarity. Speaking of Fiona Smyth, when I saw her this past summer she was bemoaning the fact that the building in Toronto where her studio has been located for years was being torn down, or was kicking all the artists out – something really depressing – and now I see on her site that she’s having a final studio sale. Boooooo. She’ll be selling drawings, paintings, zines, and prints on Dec. 10th and then Dec. 17/18th – here are the details. In other news – much more delightful news! – I just discovered Fiona’s CHEEZ archive. CHEEZ is a weekly strip that Fiona has been publishing on the web since…2009?! It was “originally a monthly comic/drawing published in Canada’s Exclaim Magazine over a ten year period from 1992 to 2002.“ Here is the first strip that appeared on the site in 2009: And the most recent one: Yes, you read that correctly – Fiona Smyth has drawn 489 CHEEZ strips. Check them all out HERE! ————————————————————————————————— There are 4 days left to get an early application in for the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers, and get that sweet $100 off discount on the Winter Semester. Apply by Dec. 13th! The course starts December 29th 2016, and you have until the 28th to submit an application – the course is 8 weeks long – Frank takes 10 students and you won’t find a better teacher out there. One-on-one feedback, techniques and ideas about comics that will transform your practice and push you to a whole new level. Winter is the time to hunker down and make some serious work – and have a bit of fun too. Check out the course – take the course: More details can be found HERE – or email santoroschoolATgmail. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-9-2016 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

12/07/2016

Juan FernándezDecember 7, 2016los Cómics / NewsJuan con un poquito sobre Frank Santoro sobre El Arte Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey;Feria del Trueque y El Garaje Festival de fanzines y editoriales independientes; Gerardo Vilches reseño “Nubes de talco”, de Amanda Baeza; Suzy y Cecil; el semestre de invierno del Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers . ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Miami, FL – The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey La gran Vanesa R. Del Rey le ha dado permiso a Comics Workbook para publicar unas selecciónes de sus cuadernos de bocetos. Hemos diseñado esta publicación para que parezca uno de esos libros de de artistas los años 80. El texto es una transcripción de la entrevista que hicimos con Vanesa cuando visito la Residencia Rowhouse en 2016. Vanesa es un artista impresionante y inigualable, quien estudió con George Pratt y quien a dibujado con Grant Morrison. Estamos ofreciendo compras adelantadas a un precio reducido. Sigan a Vanesa por Instagram – @vrdelrey – y http://vrdelrey.com/ Le pedimos a nuestro director, Frank Santoro que nos contara un poquito sobre la fuerza feroz y imparable que es Vanesa R. Del Rey. FS: “Vanesa, I’m quite taken aback by your sheer technical ability which seems to be married to a poetic sensibility. There’s a lightness there. Sometimes illustrators with that ability get heavy-handed. Yet you manage the push-pull between these two sides of yourself–because you’re like a samurai. The humble samurai.” VRDR: “It’s about trying to remember that. I can get all this praise, I can get all these amazing responses from strangers, but at the end of the day—I’m still a student. I’m still learning. The crown doesn’t fit. The crown should never fit.” Este intercambio viene de una entrevista que Frank hizo con Vanesa R. Del Rey, que occurio en la Residencia de Comics Workbook en Pittsburgh, PA USA. 2016. FS: Me encontré por primera vez con VRDR en un festival de cómics en Toronto (TCAF) en 2014. Había empezado a hacer comics profesionalmente después de un período como un animadora. Fui Sorprendido por su la capacidad de ser como un camaleón de cambiar de estilos, y por su puesto le pedí ver más de sus obras. Desenterró pilas de cuadernos de dibujos de sus días en Cuba, cuando estudiaba el realismo soviético y de trabajaba con George Pratt, maestro de cómics pintados. La educación de Vanesa como artista hace el balance suavemente entre los niveles alto y bajo del arte, así como los valores estéticos del este y el oeste. Es una base asombrosa. Ella es, a la vez, consciente de la historia del arte, la historia de los cómics y la historia de la animación de una manera NUEVA que casi parecía imposible hace quince o veinte años. Debo admitir como un estudiante y fan de cómics que se enfocan en la mezcla de “alto y bajo” y en ” los cómics pintados” — Nunca he visto tal mezcla de habilidades al nivel de VRDR. Feroz. Imparable. Un competidor feroz. Michael Jordan-esque? ¿Es eso posible en la fabricación de cómic? Siempre he dicho que habría un “invasor vertical” en los cómics que podría emplear el “naturalismo” de la escuela de Noel Sickles / Alex Toth pero que podría pintar como una Alice Neel o una Jenny Saville. Creo que “el invasor” ha llegado en forma de Vanesa R. Del Rey. Puedes comprar tu copia AQUI¡ ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Medellín, Colombia – Feria del Trueque y El Garaje Festival El sábado que viene, el 17 de diciembre desde el mediodía hasta 7:00 p.m. el Exploratorio abre sus puertas para la 2a edición de la Feria del Trueque en donde la confianza es la única moneda (social) necesaria, en unión con el Festival de Editoriales Independientes que traerá más de 25 proyectos editoriales locales e internacionales. Cuando el dinero escasea, las personas usan su creatividad para satisfacer sus necesidades y deseos, y esto se traduce en intercambios directos o trueques, mercados de redistribución y estilos de vida colaborativos. Con esta premisa Compartir Medellín, El Garaje y el Exploratorio del Parque Explora invitan a todas las personas a participar de la 2a edición de la Feria del Trueque y el Festival de Editoriales Independientes que se realizará el sábado 17 de diciembre de 12:00 a 7:00 p.m. el Exploratorio. En la Feria del Trueque podrás intercambiar objetos, alimentos, servicios y saberes sin intermediarios, hasta tu tiempo, y sin involucrar dinero. En muchas comunidades esta es una manera de cubrir las necesidades básicas, que permite fortalecer los lazos de solidaridad y amistad entre las personas. Esta Feria tendrá un lugar muy especial para que las niñas y los niños participen. En el chiquitrueque podrán intercambiar juguetes, películas, ropa, libros y todo tipo de objetos que ya no utilicen y que quieran intercambiar. Este espacio les permitirá de manera vivencial hablar de economías solidarias y del re-uso como forma de cuidar el planeta. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Madrid, España – Nubes de talco, de Amanda Baeza Ayer, Gerardo Vilches reseño “Nubes de talco”, de Amanda Baeza. Publicado por Fulgencio Pimentel. Over on his WatcherBlog! Baeza, que gracias a Fulgencio Pimentel ha publicado su primer libro en castellano al tiempo que visitaba el GRAF e impartía un taller de dibujo, ofrece en Nubes de talco muchas cosas interesantes. La primera es, sin duda, un estilo definido, una voz pura y original pero ya plenamente hecha y al mismo tiempo en evolución. Pero —lo estamos aprendiendo aún— tener un «estilo definido» en el cómic contemporáneo no significa dibujar siempre igual. Muy al contrario, Baeza muta constantemente en función de la pieza y sus necesidades específicas, y el «estilo» hay que encontrarlo en cuestiones enos obvias: la cualidad moldeable de las formas, muchas veces masas de color puro sin delimitar por líneas, los rostros esquemáticos, la ruptura de la representación naturalista del espacio… Pero ese lenguaje se plasma con gramáticas diferentes, con técnicas diferentes. Siempre se mantiene una constante en su narración, que es igualmente antinaturalista. Es decir, lo que se cuenta no es una reconstrucción de su recuerdo como si la estuviera reproduciendo de un modo objetivo, desde fuera, siguiendo un modelo de narración neutro y cinematográfico. Las escenas no responden a una lógica, porque Baeza parte de una certeza que muchos otros autores autobiográficos soslayan: los hechos tal y como sucedieron se han perdido para siempre y son irrecuperables. ¿Qué queda, entonces? Las emociones, las imágenes deformadas tras años de anidar en nuestro cerebro, a veces algo inconexas. Baeza no reconstruye lo que pasó, sino la impronta que dejó en ella. Es una autobiografía emocional, por inventar algún palabro que alcance a explicar un poco su trabajo. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Pittsburgh, PA – El comienzo de Suzy y Cecil Suzy y Cecil es una tira diaria, creada por varias estudiantes de Comics Workbook. Pueden seguir sus aventuras y su amistad en instagram: @Suzy_and_Cecil. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️Comics Workbook ha anunciado el semestre de invierno del Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – el curso empieza Dec. 29th 2016! Curso de 8 semanas – 500 dolares – 10 estudiantes – presentate para el curso antes del Dec. 13th 2016 y recibiras un descuento de $100! Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. Direcciones para la Solicitud de Ingreso al Santoro School : -3 figure drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards -3 landscape drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards -3 still life drawings done on blank 3 x 5 cards -draw in a contour line style – Think Matisse – no under-drawing – draw directly in ink -just send small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls -specific url links to any comics work you have done. Manda tu solicitud a: santoroschoolATgmail ————————————————————————————————— hasta la proxima! Juan Share this page: [...]

12/30/2016

Sally IngrahamDecember 29, 2016NewsSally here, scribbling this as I’m making my way back to Pittsburgh, PA, from the wilds of Maine – through a nor’easter of course (2016 continues to deliver). I spent a week with family in Maine, chugging YA fantasy novels and drawing “Suzy and Cecil” strips and looking for Arctic Loons and of course reading (and gifting!) comics. Here are some things I found in the week the CW News team was taking a break. ————————————————————————————————— First of all, Disa Wallander updated her Slowly Dying comic (above!) Yay. ————————————————————————————————— Gloria Rivera posted her lovely comic Domestic Scene (named for the David Hockney painting of the same name) which she made last January but is sharing for the first time outside of the anthology it was published in. Start it below – finish it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Tom Spurgeon has been publishing his annual “Holiday Interviews” on The Comics Reporter this week, and I was thrilled to see that Sarah Glidden and Tom had a lengthy exchange. Sarah got really introspective, probing her own motivations for telling the stories that she has this year. It’s good stuff. As Tom would say, “Go, read!“ ————————————————————————————————— From Summer Pierre via Mutha Magazine, an exciting birth story (above)…! ————————————————————————————————— From quite awhile ago, but finally read by myself – another type of birth story: Julia Wertz‘s A Friend’s Pregnancy on The New Yorker. The rest of the comic is HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The staff of The Village Voice put together a brief list of “The Ladies of Comics Who Made 2016 a Little More Bearable” – HERE. On the list is Giant Days (above), which certainly made my 2016 more bearable, and was one of the comics that I gave as a gift to a sister this year. ————————————————————————————————— Another comic I gave to a (different) sister this year was Anya Davidson‘s Lovers in the Garden. There is a nice review of the book by Sarah Miller over on Sequentialist – check it out HERE. While you’re at it, read some of the other comics reviews that Sarah Miller has written – it seems like Sequentialist is a site worth bookmarking. ————————————————————————————————— Nuria Pompeia died recently – she was a Spanish cartoonist, journalist, and feminist whose work often commented on social class, sexism, and censorship. As she was not well known here in the states, most articles I can find about her will need to be translated by Google…but here is a good one from earlier this year. (via The Comics Reporter) ————————————————————————————————— Here’s a great article that I found while poking around on Paste the other day, and since I got a good deal of joy out of the new Star Wars movie (Rogue One) I feel compelled to share it here. There is an obvious parallelism between Star Wars and some of Jack Kirby’s stories – but was Lucas inspired by Kirby or were they just riding the same creative waves? Get into it HERE (Pittsburgh’s Tom Scioli weighs in at one point!) ————————————————————————————————— I always like a good excuse to give a shout-out to Vanesa R. Del Rey – and the new Comics Workbook publication The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey has given me plenty of opportunity. Check out the book HERE and get yourself a post-holiday treat! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-30-2016 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Amazingly, this is my last news post for 2016 – what a whirlwind it has been! See you next week and next year – Sally Share this page: [...]

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