Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Sally Ingraham

Posted on September 14, 2017September 14, 2017

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11/27/2018

Aaron CockleNovember 27, 2018NewsVERY LATE EDITION: Roz Chast; Christoph Niemann; Katie Fricas; IN THE LABYRINTH ————————————————————————————————— SVA Honors Roz Chast With 30th Annual Masters Series Award and Exhibition November 17-December 15 SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, NYC Artist’s Talk: Wednesday, November 28, 7-9pm Chast’s interest in drawing started when she was a young child growing up in Brooklyn, where she learned to use art as a way to make sense of an anxiety-inducing world. She once told an interviewer, “On every level I feel like anything horrible can happen at any moment.” Early on in her career, her nervousness even found expression in her chosen scale. “I used to work really tiny,” she says. “I thought if I worked small, nobody would mind me that much. If I take up as little space as possible, then everything will be okay, nobody will get mad at me.” ————————————————————————————————— CHRISTOPH NIEMANN: HOPES AND DREAMS November 13-December 21 ZieherSmith, 505-507 West 27th Street, Suite 5, NYC In November 2017, artist Christoph Niemann flew from Berlin to Los Angeles at the invitation of his Zurich publisher, Philipp Keel, under the auspices of meeting David Hockney. Anybody who knows the first thing about Christoph Niemann (from his many New Yorker covers, museum exhibitions, children’s books, “Abstract Sunday” his New York Times blog and Instagram account, TED Talk, apps or any of the many other ways he manifests as a contemporary visual voice) knows that under his scrutiny, even the most mundane task can turn into something altogether peculiar, altogether special, as if to say everything can be enlightening. ————————————————————————————————— A Graphic Tribute to Anne Sexton Katie Fricas at the NY Times. ————————————————————————————————— CELEBRATING ‘THE LABYRINTH’ BY SAUL STEINBERG On Tuesday, November 27, at 7pm, join us at Powerhouse Arena (28 Adams St, Brooklyn, NY) for a celebration of the reissue of Saul Steinberg’s remarkable graphic work The Labyrinth, available from NYR Comics. Liana Finck, Françoise Mouly, and Joel Smith will be in a conversation moderated by Bill Kartalopolous. ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 11-27-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

12/15/2016

Sally IngrahamDecember 15, 2016NewsToday we have Sam Ombiri on film director Robert Bresson, and Tyler Landry on Kyle Baker’s sequencing – plus more Kyle Baker news, Chris Diaz’s photos, Vanesa R. Del Rey’s new book, a comics education sampler, and new Suzy and Cecil. ————————————————————————————————— This is Sam Ombiri. I’m going to be talking more about the reappropriation of methods and style than the movies I talk about here, so I’m more than likely not going to do the films justice as I try to write about them. I watched Funny Games again not too long ago, and parts of it reminded me of Au Hasard Balthazar, which is the number one movie for me – but more importantly, Michael Haneke‘s direction compared to Robert Bresson‘s. I think the main antagonists are just people (or maybe a more appropriate term for them is forces) who purely inflict themselves on their victims. In Funny Games it was just maybe infliction rooted in the overbearing nature of politeness? Maybe? I think Balthazar was rooted in…haha…I don’t know, there’s too many places it goes for me to think about right now. I think the way Haneke used methods akin to Bresson’s weren’t on a (I can’t find a better word than this, I’m probably wrong as I say this) superficial level. Andrei Tarkovsky said “When people tell me during the shooting of my film that a certain scene is in a way reminiscent of Bresson–and this has happened–I will immediately change the approach to avoid any resemblance. If there’s such an influence, it doesn’t show on the surface of my work. This is an influence of a deeper nature. It’s a moral influence between artists, without which art cannot exist.” I was watching part two of Solaris – there were a couple of scenes where faces weren’t in the frame, but as people passed a doorway they’d caress it as they were passing by – to the same effect as when Bresson does it. I can safely say it was not an attempt to copy Bresson, it was just a moment passing by. Bresson said something like the way he films is based on how you pass someone on the street. I think the small scene in Solaris happened as result of just a coincidence of aims, and not so much attention, and reliability was placed not on the methods used in that scene, but instead on what was accomplished. Austin English was saying how for awhile he was a big fan of Hal Hartley, but because his new movies are still made in the same way, he feels that they’re lacking. I couldn’t agree more – whenever I see Hal Hartley’s movies (the few I’ve seen), it leaves a bit of bad taste in my mouth, the way he just uses Bresson’s methods. That’s just me though, and that is not to say it’s bad to reappropriate Bresson’s methods – many of my favorite directors have. I’m even typing about one of them right now. Sammy Harkham said something like how influence is like a shortcut to achieving something you previously wanted to do, but lacked the possible way to. I can’t conjure up a reason for why, but Austin’s frustration with the lack of change and advancement will do. At the root of Bresson there’s a lack of reliance on…what one would typically rely on. He says he doesn’t want to know where he’ll shoot, he doesn’t have professional actors. Maybe since Hal’s dad was a construction worker he’s doomed to make ‘em like he does. Frank Santoro was telling me how Jordan Crane and Kevin Huizenga were coincidentally both doing comics that were taking place over one night, but that one night was taking years to unfold. But pretty I’m sure that the comics aren’t great just because they take place over one night. I’m pretty sure if someone wanted to be on par with their work, they’d have to do more than make the story take place over one night. That’s what Hal Hartley is to me. Although I have to admit Amateur is a real fun movie. It reminds me of how in Please Say Something there’s a reference to the famous Funny Games remote scene. They don’t achieve the same thing, and it’s more than likely a different influence that prompted David OReilly to use that reference in that way – the Haneke influence in Please Say Something wouldn’t be that direct. (I can only guess) So then, what I saw between Au Hasard Balthazar and Funny Games was… I don’t know if I can write about it too well – but their similarities aren’t so direct except for the forces that afflict the people. – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Tyler Landry here – let’s take a peek at some of Kyle Baker’s work. Deadpool doesn’t mean anything to me – but this sequence of Baker’s does. What’s striking me here is overall repetition + changed elements over time (panels). Same scene, same pile of bodies, same ornate backdrop – but slightly closer and with less active bodies across the sequence. As Deadpool reduces these guys to chum, the scene becomes more focused on a particular individual – and Deadpool’s attention on him too. He also gets smaller in the scene, and the chaos quiets down, enforcing his/the trajectory. I went on about color last week, buzzing over Space Riders, and although not my primary concern here, I have to give it a mention. Follow those REDs, watch’em boil down to see where the action goes. One more page I wanted to look at, just for its sheer compositional beauty, was this one from a Hawkman story. It’s stark, powerful, and crystal clear. Again, it’s about creating focus – guided by form, by color, by directionality, by connecting elements across the page. Among other things, Baker’s dealing with concentrations of “noise” VS simpler, more solitary forms. The top two panels are almost mirrored – the bird, the plane – balancing noise and larger forms. On the right, a heavier bird shape sorta scoops your view, and dumps you into the middle down below. The central panel is key in using the birds and Hawkman himself as silhouetted parallels, but focusing on him specifically – larger, darker – as the driving force in moving this one forward. He’s advancing to the right, but his body, and the angle of his sword, are turned to the lower left – which lends itself to comfortably directing your eye in the lower left panel. Then, look at the total slickness in which the line of the edge of that windshield slides right across the panel, hops over the co-pilot’s hat, and continues right along the hijacker’s bent arm, DIRECTLY into the pilot’s terrified face. Nice, dude. – Tyler Landry ————————————————————————————————— Sally Ingraham here – funny that Tyler should be thinking about Kyle Baker today, as I was just listening to a podcast with him over on RiYL. Taped at the New York Comic Con amid a great deal of bustle, the interview digs into the intricate hustle that has been life as a cartoonist for Baker. He offers up some good stories about being a business-minded artist, and shares the experiences and decisions that have allowed him to remain independent AND working for two and a half decades. Check it out HERE. (via TCJ.com) Here’s a 15 page preview of Kyle Baker’s Nat Turner (from a piece on Vulture published in 2008). Get a copy of the book and other comics by Kyle HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Chris Anthony Diaz – easily the best photographer working in the comics scene – has kept busy this autumn documenting festivals and special events all across the country, from Columbus, OH, to Seattle, WA, to Los Angeles, CA. He has updated The Diaz Archive, found here on Comics Workbook, with his recent adventures – check them out: Comic Arts Los Angeles 2016 The Fantagraphics 40th Anniversary Party Cartoon Crossroads Columbus 2016 Part II (part 1 can be found HERE). ————————————————————————————————— Check out The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey – now available from Comics Workbook! Vanesa generously agreed to let us published selections from her sketchbooks, as well as excerpts from an interview she did at the Rowhouse last spring. She is an incredible talent, the “vertical invaider” that we’ve been looking for, and this book offers up a new look at her work, process, and passions. Get a copy HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Give the gift of comics education! The Santoro School Handbook is a great place to start – get a copy HERE. We are still accepting applications for the Winter Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – details are HERE. Maybe you know someone who could benefit from one-on-one coaching? You won’t find a more passionate, or engaging teacher than Frank. Email us at santoroschoolATgmail to find out how you can help a friend or family member get in on the Correspondence Course. You can also check out the Rowhouse Residency program – perhaps the ideal gift for YOURSELF – a crash course in comics making for the newcomers, or a week of uninterupted time dedicated to making that comic you’ve always dreamed about. There are more details HERE – or email us to schedule your visit to Pittsburgh, PA, in 2017! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12/15/2016 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

Ch 5: The Figure in Detail (FACC)

Juan FernándezJanuary 1, 2016ResourcesShare this page: [...]

01/23/2017

Juan FernándezJanuary 23, 2017NewsJuan and Sally have thoughts on visual literacy, comics from the Women’s March, an Island comics club, news of The Beguiling, and much more to start your week. ————————————————————————————————— Today on the site, Tyler Landry shares thoughts on running a weekly comics club in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada – a Comics Workbook “satellite school”! Tyler Landry: I’ve been running the Charlottetown Comics Club (CCC) weekly, since the spring of 2016. At first in my home with a few trusted friends, then we moved to a public place – the back room of a local comic shop, Lightning Bolt Comics, where anyone and everyone is welcome to join. I sought to model this club on a few basic ideals. First, the continued development and expansion (for myself, and members) of the foundation of comics-making skills I learned through Frank Santoro’s Correspondence Course, and, by extension, the inundation of ideas, influences, and examples flowing through Comics Workbook. Second, to gather locally operating cartoonists (of all levels and persuasions), who often toil in silence/obscurity at home, in a place where we can feel comfortable working and growing alongside each other, for mutual benefit and general good feels. ————————————————————————————————— Juan here. Lately, I’ve been really interested in how we create and share information (and truth) across the web. And of course, how visual literacy (and the tools necessary for its preservation) tie(s) into it. Let’s talk out about visual information and the net. Did you know that more than 180,000 of the items in the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections are in the public domain? It’s true! Aaron Cockle showed me that a year ago, the NYPL had announced this new part of their digitally accessible collection. Thanks Aaron. Now everyone has the freedom to enjoy, modify, reuse and share the materials in almost limitless ways! NYPL now makes it possible to download these items in the highest resolution available, directly from the Digital Collections website. They’re BIG files. It’s true, “the interactive visual library” has been upon us for a while thanks to search engines that could deliver images. Nevertheless, searching in that library is for the most part garbage. You have to sift through mountains of visual information just to potentially find what you need. Bummer. Web art that is allowed to grow wildly from that collective visual library, in an art-for-its-own-sake kind of way, has for the most part been visually chaotic and the noise of visual resolution has usually been used as an aesthetic tool. Think Paper Rad. (Of course, there are lots of interesting exceptions like Dina Kleberman’s I’m Google project – not chaotic at all!) What kind of art is possible with tools like Public Domain visual collections? You tell me. Relatedly and more broadly, this kind of thing reveals one of the many reasons why public libraries are so important. They point to a simple truth that everyone is denying. Searching via tools made by creators that work hand-in-hand with corporate interests sucks. It’s never deep enough. It’s never a rich enough experience. The paths to finding high quality, curated collection of visuals, for free, are long, windy, and sometimes non-existent. A private browser like Google, isn’t the most stable place to reliably find images across time. Sorry, private browsers. What we have is the exciting arrival of another institutionally supported manifestation of archive-able visual memory. I’m very thankful. We have Wikipedia, Archive.org, and others, but we still need more. Yes, this news is from last January, but I want to shout about these kinds of projects from the hilltops. Especially in these times of “#alternativefacts”. Why? Because. With the explosion of instantaneous visual communication across the internet, visual forms, digitally transferred, can essentially be considered as shared experiences. The shared experience of “having seen”. This aspect of highly networked communication allows for users to collectively “see” the world through a shared viewpoint. Permission to transform artifacts of visual ephemera, of past visual memories, invites us to step across time and create and modify languages using pre-existing systems of visual communication. It is the power to create knowledge. Captured thought held into stable states that can be comprehended by another person across the network. Truth as recordable and transferrable. Huge props to the late John Berger for helping me understand this and expand his thoughts from the seventies into the present day. So why and how does this matter today? Expanding this all out to copyright, websites ARE the expressions of that thought. And, as such function as the basis for the merging of idea and expression of idea. Everything expressed in “recordable” communication IS an idea within the legal framework. Organizations with corporate money have the power to take away certain “sides” of information. Information nowadays essentially being the mass of recorded experience. That kind of power can shape the mass of collective knowledge, that is the basis from which we collectively determine “truth”. Turning the creation of ideas into a commodity form. As a society, it is only through collectively supported libraries that we can expand what it means be creating, sharing and finding Truth. Commodity form as community form. Please visit your local library today. It may have been a while since you last visited… It may have been just yesterday! Either way, do yourself a favor and open yourself up to serendipity. Get out there, find something interesting and check it out. ————————————————————————————————— Sally here: The Guardian asked cartoonist Katie Fricas to document the Women’s March in Washington D.C. on January 21st 2017 – here are the stories of some of the women who chose to march. Cartoonists were on the streets worldwide that day, and many of them were documenting the march. Here is a sampling of work I gathered from just a quick scan through my Instagram feed: ————————————————————————————————— The Washington Post shared advice from eight creative thinkers to “the sisters who follow in their footsteps“. Among those who spoke out were Lynda Barry, Hilary Price, and Cece Bell. Advice from Hilary Price: “You will face two monsters, an external one and an internal one. The external one is the person who tells you you don’t have what it takes. You need to cultivate a knee-jerk response to this, to the tune of: ‘Go to hell. Yes I can.’ The internal monster needs a much softer touch. She’s trying to protect you from rejection, but her strategies are misguided. She says things like, ‘You don’t have time’ or, ‘This isn’t real work’ or, ‘It’s probably not good enough.’ “Your job is to see through these tactics, then tuck her in, tell her everything is going to be okay, and go back to your desk.” – Hilary Price And Lynda Barry says “always carry a pen and notebook” – read the rest HERE. (via Comic Riffs by Michael Cavna) ————————————————————————————————— There is a lovely piece in The Globe and Mail about The Beguiling, the famous Toronto comic book shop that recently had to move to new digs – a location that one can only hope will someday be filled with as much history as the last place. It won’t be quite the same Beguiling that Michael DeForge discovered as a high schooler, or the one that pulled Jillian Tamaki from New York City to Toronto… The cartoonist Seth finishes out the article: “I will certainly miss the Markham Street location. That place has a special spot in my memory. We all have a lost city inside ourselves – the memory of places that used to be. I’m sorry to add the Mirvish Village shop to that inner lost city, but I am happy to see the Beguiling carry on and prosper. Long live the Beguiling.“ Read the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Don’t Miss: David Mazzucchelli’s interview with Ted Stearn over on The Comic’s Journal: “DM: But long before you were making comics you were thinking about characters and settings and worlds and creating these environments and I think it really shows right from the first comics you made that there was this sense of world-building, or atmosphere— TS: (Nods vigorously) That’s really good, I hadn’t really thought about that a lot, but I think that’s true, and I think the artists and the authors who I admire the most are able to do that. They did reflect on the real world, but they created their own—like, Basquiat did that, and, I don’t know, Goya did that, Charles Burchfield, and a lot of other artists that I admire. They weren’t married to “reality”—you know, so many artists recreating the world in their own vision. That’s what I appreciate about a lot of artists and I guess that’s what I was trying to do, though I don’t think I thought about it consciously, whether it was the sculpture or the paintings or the automatic drawings or the comics…” Comics on The Nib – recently Mary Shyne (Comics Workbook student) on Obama’s Last Mic Drop. ————————————————————————————————— It seems like cartoonists are more needed than ever these days, whether it’s to document and comment on history, tell the stories of forgotten people, or offer insights into how to survive in this increasingly strange world. From comics journalism to political and editorial cartoons to sci-fi fantasy epics to memoirs to off-the-cuff mini comics and zines…we need it all to help us navigate and survive with a semblance of grace. I’ve been incredibly inspired recently by the cartoonists in my life – from Audra Stang, here for her 2nd Rowhouse Residency, to Pittsburgh’s wealth of active and activist-minded artists, to my little 1st grade students who attend an after school comics class that I teach – and I hope that there continues to be many willing minds and hands out there ready to do this work. (If you have always wanted to make comics but aren’t sure where to start, check out the Santoro School Handbook – or our online Correspondence Course – or the Rowhouse Residency!) ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-21-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Suzy and Cecil – 1-22-2017 – by Gabriella Tito (Suzy and Cecil strips that appeared this weekend – don’t want you to miss any of the fun! Strips go up seven days a week @suzy_and_cecil) ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-23-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-23-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

Kurt Ankeny on MICE Boston 2016

Kurt AnkenyOctober 31, 2016Festivals and ShowsWell, last night we wrapped up yet another lovely MICE Boston! MICE is my local indie comics expo, and it is the equal of any American event, as far as I am concerned. The staff, led by Shelli Paroline, Dan Mazur, Rebecca Viola (I couldn’t find a website!), Zach Clemente, and volunteers by the dozens, is the nicest and most attentive of any in the country, hands down. As cartoonists, we aren’t used to being spoiled by people coming around, asking us if we need snacks, food, or someone to watch our table while we take a short break. While other indie expos are starting to follow suit (CXC had a set of volunteers that were just as lovely as the MICE staff providing most of the same perqs, and Autoptic and CAKE provide lots of free snacks) I believe MICE was the first to provide this level of courtesy to the exhibitors, and it is the favorite show for lots of cartoonists for that reason. MICE consistently packs in a widely varied crowd, full of people from every age group and background. Part of this is the fact that it is held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has one of the most highly educated and diverse citizenries in the nation (it’s home to both Harvard and MIT.) But MICE just has some magic about it. The show has been steadily growing over the past few years. Last year, they broke the 3,000 attendee mark for the first time, and preliminary figures for this past Saturday’s attendance were over 1600, so they seem on par to keep that streak going. People are there to immerse themselves in the comics culture, and to buy, which is always helpful. There was a great representation of different cartoonists at the show. Featured guests included Faith Erin Hicks, the ubiquitous-in-2016 golden-boy-of-the-year Nate Powell, the French husband-wife team known as Kerascoët, local art-and-comics phenom Raúl the Third, Wren McDonald, Sara Varon, Jeremy Sorese, and Drew Weing. Kevin Czap was in attendance, fresh off their amazing weekend at CXC where they took home the Most Promising Talent grant award. Tony Davis of Million Year Picnic was there with his wife and son, selling comics and generally being the hub of the local scene. Nobrow had a table, Neil of Radiator Comics was there, the Boston Comics Roundtable was out in force, alums and current students from the Center for Cartoon Studies were down from Vermont, and several Comics Workbook folks were either tabling or wandering around the show. Comics on parade at the end of a long con season! Saturday was a blast. My new book In Pieces, debuting at the show, was a big hit, and I sold copies to lots of people coming up and telling me how much they had enjoyed the book on Comics Workbook’s Tumblr, and how they had been waiting to buy it! That was a great feeling. I had a great time tabling next to David Marshall, a local comics guy and someone I know from the monthly comics hangouts in Salem. David makes retro-homage superhero comics that are full of nerdy puns, references to UNIX coding, and Doctor Who in-jokes. He knows tons of people from the immediate neighborhood, and spent his time talking them up and accosting the attendees he didn’t know in the most jovial and pleasant way possible. David’s one of those guys who’s the life of the con. Someone truly at home among the comickers. To my other side was the lovely and talented Molly Dean, who makes webcomics and had several printed issues to sell. I waited too late to ask her if she’d like to trade, and she’d already sold out of all of her books! I will see her around though, and I’m looking forward to reading her webcomics at meedean.com. Saturday night, MICE puts on a free dinner for all attendees at Lesley University’s neighboring art gallery, the Lunder Arts Center. (They also provide bagels, cream cheese, donut holes and coffee each morning… I’ll stop talking about the free food.) While I would have LOVED to hang out with everyone, I’d been fighting a sore throat for the last week, and after talking all day, I knew my voice couldn’t handle small talk in a loud and echoing cement room, so I met my wife for dinner in Harvard Square and we had a quiet night. Meanwhile, the party there continued until 9pm, and then the various groups decamped for other venues and watering holes. Much to my chagrin, I missed what Mimi Chrzanowski described as a “magical” night of karaoke at Limelight, near Boston’s Chinatown. I know for sure that Kevin Czap and Cathy G. Johnson were there singing their hearts out. I assume that Dustin Harbin also made it. Sunday at MICE is Kid’s Day, and so the little ones made up a slightly larger percentage of the attendees than on Saturday. Kerascoët frequently had a line as they tag-teamed signing books with full-color sketches as the European cartoonists are accustomed to. I finally got to meet K.L. Ricks, whose illustration work and comics I deeply admire. I got to chat over breakfast with Maria Hoey, who is half of the brother-sister team behind Coin-Op books, and who I’d met for the first time at Autoptic in 2015. Maria’s looking forward to Comic Arts Brooklyn next weekend, and made me regret not taking up Whit Taylor‘s offer of sharing her table there this year. At noon, I was a guest at MICE’s new feature, the Cartoonarium, which is a little table set up to project your drawing to a screen, where people can watch cartoonists work and ask questions about their process. Zach Clemente came around to record a brief Twitter interview. First Cartoonarium of the day! We chat with @kurtankeny about his writing process! pic.twitter.com/bOaDRFRYg5 — MICExpo (@MassMICE) October 30, 2016 Sundays crowds had more ebb and flow to them that Saturday, but the sales were steady and people were engaged and fun to talk to, which is always the best part of a con. Since MICE was on the weekend before Halloween, costumes were in effect more than usual. I counted four girls and women dressed as Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service, there was a very well done Daphne and Velma from Scooby Doo, Saga seemed to be popular as I saw at least three separate groups dressed as various characters from that comic, and there were several low-key Steven Universes and even a person dressed as Neil Gaiman’s version of Death, complete with parade of people with rainclouds and a concertina. Thanks again to all involved in making MICE such a smooth and friendly and successful show for everyone! Until next year! Kurt Share this page: [...]

09/15/2017

Posted on September 14, 2017September 14, 2017 by Sally Ingraham

Sally here at Small Press Expo with much more to come – but also some comics news from beyond these hotel walls…!

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Small Press Expo begins tomorrow! The Comics Workbook crew has arrived a bit early, and we’re taking today to finish plotting our workshops (full details on the workshops can be found HERE), and lay claim to a corner of the hotel restaurant. Tomorrow, find us at table N9 in the exhibitor’s hall, alongside the likes of Jim Rugg, and Andrew White, or downstairs in the official workshop space – the Glen Echo Room.

I’m excited to encounter the great lineup of Special Guests – including Eleanor Davis, Jillian Tamaki, Ann Telnaes, Tillie Walden, Emil Ferris, Hannah K. Lee, Sloane Leong, Gabrielle Bell, Janet Lee, and Anais Depommier – plus many more!

Between a terrific programming schedule, an Exhibitor’s hall packed with talent, the always exciting Ignatz Awards (presented by Caitlin McGurk!), and the gathered comics rabble, it’s sure to be a fun weekend. We will be reporting on the show via the Comics Workbook Instagram feed – @comicsworkbook. Live vicariously, or perhaps we’ll see you there.

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Elsewhere in the comics world…(mostly)

Lynda Barry suspects that smartphones are hampering creativity by inhibiting boredom, loneliness, and and uncertainty – get into her head and maybe take what she says to heart – HERE on Open Culture.
Sara Lautman writes about being an Ignatz Awards juror this year – includes mini reviews of 10 of her picks – read about it HERE.
I (Sally Ingraham) was interviewed on The Comics Beat earlier this week – part of The SPX Interview series put together by Philippe Leblanc – read about my teaching, and thoughts on drawing Suzy & Cecil HERE.
Sophia Foster-Dimino is on the most recent Inkstuds – listen to it HERE.
Katie Skelly on Artist Spotlight: Beyond the Longbox Episode 8 – here’s the “A-side“, and here’s the “B-side“.
Vanesa Del Rey‘s sketchbook collection, published by Comics Workbook last December, is reviewed as a Staff Pick at Orbital – read about The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey here.
Creative Women’s Circle talks with Mirranda Burton, an Australian print maker and cartoonist – HERE.
The Comic Art Workshop 2017, a residency for comics makers in Jogja, Indonesia, takes place this October. This residency is specifically for emerging artists from Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, and this autumn it will feature the assistance of Sarah Glidden and Sonny Liew. Keep it in mind if you are a cartoonist from the Asian-Pacific part of the world – the next residency will take place in 2019.
If your SPX shopping list still needs some added suggestions, here’s a list from Just Indie Comics of 10 debut works – including new comics by Comics Workbook alumni Andrew White, Warren Craighead, and Connor Willumsen.
GG‘s new comic from Koyama Press – I’m Not Here – is previewed and reviewed on the A.V. Club.
Here’s a comic by Katie Fricas on The New Yorker – The Smells of Capitalism.
Rob Clough made a list of 10 artists to check out out at SPX, and most of them are women – check it out HERE.

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Suzy and Cecil – 9-15-2017 – by Gabriella Tito

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Comics Workbook

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Posted in NewsTagged small press expo

Sally Ingraham

Posted on September 14, 2017September 14, 2017

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01/26/2017

Sally IngrahamJanuary 25, 2017NewsSam and Sally bring us a whole crew of Pittsburgh cartoonists, thoughts on Problem Solverz, and our Thursday crop of comic strips! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I’ve been reaaaallly sloooooooowly reading Tao Lin’s Taipei and so far so good – it’s been great. Maybe it’s because Juan Fernandez referred me to this (“the peace tape” – a Paper Rad film) but I’ve been thinking about Problem Solverz a lot, and how great it was to see it when I did. It seems to have the exact same effect now as when I first saw it, so it summons an emotion that’s already in people, I think, or I could just be making it up. I was thinking of how I sometimes sense a sentiment in it that is similar to what excited me about watching some webtoons, and of course reading certain comics I have read, which I see as processing somethin’. I see it as proof that Problem Solverz summoned, or showcased, or manifested in the best way something that is a little inexpressible. In dreams when you try to render this thing fully it disappears, but Problem Solverz is very well expressed, and remains exceedingly potent even as time passes. There is a lot of space and then the conflict of what to utilize it for – so then are you surrendering to one purpose with which to define yourself? Maybe? Maybe not. Ben Jones did refer to Problem Solverz as a coming of age story. Anyway, I was in middle school when it was airing – me and my one buddy were excited about it. My friend told me how he got excited at the episode with the Awesome Banditz from Pittsburgh. It was my favorite show as it was airing, so as a fanboy I also remember being frustrated with these people on YouTube who were in their late twenties or early twenties (at least that’s how I perceived them at the time). I was really annoyed. I was like, “Why are these people trying to get rid of this show that was certainly made more so for people my age?” (was it? I don’t have a clue) and then I would get lambasted by 90’s kids who couldn’t stop talking about how much better their childhood was. I’m sure it was great and the shows they loved were great, but c’mon. (I wonder if that’s what Brian Chippendale meant in that Puke Force strip when he was thanking the YouTube commenters on Problem Solverz for being “great dialogue fuel”. No, probably not. How could it be? It just meant what it meant.) – Sam Ombiri Check out Dan Nadel’s thoughts on Problem Solverz – publishing on The Comics Journal the day the first episode aired – HERE. 1-26-2017 – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sally Ingraham here: The Glassblock sat down with Marcel Walker recently for a lengthy conversation about his work and Pittsburgh-based comics projects. While sifting through sketches and concept drawings they talked about his process and discussed “the long gestation of Hero Corp., how our favorite superheroes work for corporate America, and the importance of education and history in the Chutz-Pow! series“. Marcel is a well-known figure in the Pittsburgh comics scene. He’s an educator and activist whose work often directly gives back to the community – like the Chutz-Pow! series, which was made in partnership between the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and The ToonSeum. As Marcel says: “… comics can also teach you broader things. They can teach you about other segments of our society and culture. There’s a story that ran in EC Comics back in the ’50s. The story was called “Judgment Day.” It’s a science fiction story with a wonderful twist at the end. It’s a story with a social moral, , that’s obvious—so obvious that the Comics Code Authority almost didn’t allow that story to be published. Fortunately, the publishers resisted that, they make a stink, and eventually the story was published. That’s an example of just doing your thing; tell that story because you know the moral is right.“ Read the whole interview HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Nathaniel Broadus is another member of the Pittsburgh comics community – and he too is an activist and youth advocate. He has been writing a story called Police State (or, the comic he never wanted to write): “To be honest, when I initially sat down to write, my story wasn’t at all about social justice in any real sense. I wanted to write about hip hop, and I wanted to write about super heroes. I crafted a story in my head about a young rapper with gobs of desire, but not much ability, who is unwillingly corralled into an intergalactic battle of the bands. As I sat down to craft the universe of my fun loving, aloof hero, Ferguson burned.“ After returning home from enlistment Nathaniel was having trouble transitioning back into civilian life. He found inspiration and new purpose within his community in Pittsburgh, and wound up on a new front-line – that of “the war to improve this world for every single person“. Writing Police State is part of that mission. Check out the first 5 pages of Police State HERE – with artwork by JC Grande and John Becaro. You can get copies of Police State #0-#2 HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Yona Harvey (another Pittsburgher) is going to keep writing comics! Last year she wrote a story for the series World Of Wakanda,and now she will be applying her poet’s pen to a new series. She and Ta-Nehisi Coates announced a new Black Panther spin-off titled Black Panther & The Crew – coming soon. The series will revive the world of Christopher Priest’s mini-series The Crew and introduce the Black Panther to Harlem. From the interview/announcement on Time, Ta-Nehisi Coates speaking: “There’s this concept in comic books of street characters—characters who mostly deal with street-level stories—those are your Daredevils, your Luke Cages, things that are considered lower-tier. And then you have your more cosmic level heroes, like The X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Avengers, that sort of thing. What we have in this book is a group of characters that operate on both levels. What does it mean to protect the street and protect the world? How are those things connected? What happens when T’Challa is walking down the street without his uniform and people don’t recognize him, he’s just a black person? Same with Storm.“ Yona Harvey was asked how her poetry has played into writing for comics. Her reply: “For the first project (World of Wakanda) I kept resisting. I thought being a poet was a negative somehow. But then I had to embrace what poets do, examine tiny details and draw out a larger story. And it helps with the language and the voice of the characters. I have this little trick where I imagine the poetic voice of the character, whether it’s very terse or romantic or sensitive.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright and Sarah Mirk had a comic on The Nib recently – Eight Ways to Resisit Donald Trump – check out the whole thing HERE. (Shannon Wright is an alum of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – the comic she made for the course can be seen HERE!) ————————————————————————————————— Since Pittsburgh is so heavily on my mind today, check out Frank’s Blast Furnace Funnies over on the school store. Originally made for the Biennial at the Carnegie Museum in 2011, this is the 16-page tabloid newspaper comic that was stacked in the corner of the gallery space. The original pages hung on the wall. As Bill Boichel puts it in his review for Copacetic Comics: “In a signature Santoro move, Blast Furnace Funnies is a work of “High” (i.e., museum quality) art executed in the lowest of the “Low” art forms (a disposable newspaper); employing ephemerality to evoke eternity, he has here worked (in a form that often ends up) in the gutter to reach for the stars.“ Get a copy HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-26-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-26-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-26-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

10/03/2016

Juan FernándezOctober 3, 2016NewsJuan here with a Comics Workbook October overview; Drawing as Language at Lucerne; Ben Katchor reading NYC; Michael DeForge drawings up for auction; and a unique collaboration between Frank Santoro and Airi Maeno. ————————————————————————————————— the October Happenings: CXC + LICAF October is here and that means that Comics Workbook is forming up like Voltron and coming at you full force, in person. All of you in the UK, may we have your attention!! Comics Workbook is coming to The Lakes International Comic Art Festival! October 14-16th 2016! 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. Tickets for the main events at this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival are on sale now. Check out the show or Visit our event page for more information! If you’re stateside, you should know that Comics Workbook is coming to Cartoon Crossroads Columbus! October 13-16th 2016. 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. More information on our CXC exploits to come soon – the full festival schedule is here! ————————————————————————————————— Drawing as Language In conjunction with the Fumetto comics festival, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and arts has a glorious video series in which recent guest to the Fumetto festival were all interviewed. Drawing as language. Higher education comics pedagogy. It’s all there. Personal highlights for me we’re hearing Ulli Lust, Gabrielle Bell and Ben Katchor. It’s a nice format for interviewing such a wide cross section of comics makers from all over. Watch them all here! ————————————————————————————————— Ben Katchor in conversation with Luc Sante Mr. Katchor will be at 192 Books on Thursday, October 6th, 7:00PM. Katchor is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay so there’s sure to be plenty of talk about regarding his life in cartooning and comics making. Do stop by! ————————————————————————————————— We have a new action to share with you! The great Michael DeForge generously donated three drawings to benefit the school – each drawing is on A4 size construction paper in crayon. They are from 2014. Each drawing will be available separately. More details about the auction are HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out the Pompeii Medallion! “I commissioned thee great Airi Maeno to make silver medallions based off of my drawings. This drawing was from the book Pompeii. It’s something I could imagine someone would wear two thousand years ago. A simple medallion of a loved one. A portrait. Something permanent to challenge disappearance.” You can purchase one HERE. ————————————————————————————————— More info on how to get a copy of Connor’s books Portraits and Swinespritzen HERE – all proceeds go toward Connor’s trip to the UK to attend The Lakes International Comic Art Festival in a few weeks! Share this page: [...]

11/03/2016

Sally IngrahamNovember 3, 2016NewsSam and Sally with the Thursday comic news – featuring Anya Davidson, Yona Harvey, Ariell Johnson, Ron Husband, Cameron Weston Nicholson, and new work from Sam Ombiri himself. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here with a “Comment Section Review”: Anya Davidson’s work got bombarded with negative comments in the A.V. Club comment section recently. I’m pretty crazy about her work, and I don’t want to act like there is no room for the folks who have dislike of Anya’s work, but I feel the commentators completely fail to acknowledging a comics scene outside of theirs, so they just see Band For Life as “a bunch of random scribbles that Fantagraphics put out.” I wonder what they read to make themselves so repulsed with Anya’s work. To some degree that’s really cool that it repulsed them to the degree that it did, because I wonder in what universe are the drawings in Band For Life considered horrible, in what universe?! I just say that because I lack that perspective. Sammy Harkham said he feels, or I guess more so felt at the point at which he said it: that “context is everything, it’s weird, but context is everything.” I don’t know if I agree with that completely but I do agree. Michael DeForge said that the people commenting live in a bubble and haven’t come into contact with anything like Band For Life. Jesse Moynihan said somewhere how when he debuted with his first Adventure Time episode, he went on 4chan (I think) to see the response for it and people were saying “why are these drawings so bad?” I guess the context there is that it doesn’t resemble anime enough for them. It’s really cool that they could sense there was a different energy in those drawings though. What are these people in the A.V. comment sections reading, though, that’s got them so full of themselves and their tastes? They probably just don’t want their scene “contaminated.” – Sam Ombiri Sally here, and I’m with Sam when it comes to being crazy about Anya Davidson’s work – so for the record and for the ignoramuses out there, here’s a list of recent reviews and interviews with this badass cartoonist, brought to you by folks who don’t live in bubbles: The Comics Journal, with Dan Nadel himself blowing the trumpets – “…her comics are a joy to look at. Her thick-thin strokes dance on the page and her characters are always-recognizable graphic icons. Hers is a Kurtzman-esque cartooning technique that she can apply to any scenario of her choosing…” Paste, on Anya’s “noisy, weird art” – “Her work, which evokes the bombastic action of Jack Kirby as immediately as it does a riot grrrl zine, is bold and brash. Her bulky, blocky figures clash and collide with one another in a cacophony of pen and ink. It’s the kind of genre-busting, high- and low-culture-blending comic perfectly at home in a post-Fort Thunder alternative comics scene, and for those in the know, Davidson has been a cartoonist to follow.” The Comics Beat – “Anya Davidson’s Band for Life is one of the boldest graphic novels of the year, an eye splitting trip into the lives of an indie punk rock band and their misadventures. Call it Josie and the Pussycats for the post-iTunes generation.” You can get a copy of Anya Davidson’s Band for Life HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Here’s a recent comic by Sam Ombiri: ————————————————————————————————— Pittsburgh’s poet/professor Yona Harvey is getting ready for the Nov. 9th debut of a new Marvel series – The World of Wakanda – which she is authoring along with Roxane Gay (they are the first black female authors to work for Marvel) and Ta-Nehisi Coates (author of the current Black Panther series, which The World of Wakanda spins off of). In conversation with Wayne Wise for the PGH City Paper this week, Yona said “I think my poetry skills helped with the voice and characterization,” – when asked about the differences between writing poetry and writing a comics script. “The Zenzi story is only 10 pages, so concision is necessary. She feels that the page-to-page and line-to-line transitions are very similar to what she does with the forms of poetry she writes. Finding the ‟voice and the music and the sound,” were important to her. Comics are a different language, but the beats and rhythms felt familiar.” – via PGH City Paper Comics Workbook will be at Phantom of the Attic next week when the comic debuts and Yona Harvey is there to celebrate the release. Read the rest of the PGH City Paper article HERE. Check out more work by The World of Wakanda artist Afua Richardson HERE. ————————————————————————————————— While poking around Paste I came across another recent “first black woman” story, this one about Ariell Johnson, “the founder and president of Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse, Inc. in Philadelphia, and the first black woman on the East Coast to own her own comic book store“. She has garnered an appearance on a variant cover of Invincible Iron Man #1, illustrated by Elizabeth Torque. Ariell says it was the X-Men‘s Storm who got her into comics, and although she had to scrape bottom to find diversity in superhero comics as a kid, that is finally changing. Her comic book shop is part of that. Read the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Cameron Weston Nicholson dug up this story about Ron Husband for us: although Floyd Norman is often credited as being the first black Disney animator, that title actually belongs to Ron Husband. Cameron is an animator himself, so he understands the amount of work that goes into just seconds of action – and knows that the title of “animator” is one that has to be earned. “From the early days at Disney until the 1980’s, an artist had to produce 100 feet of animation to get a screen credit.” Ron actually pulled this feat off, and you can read about his career HERE. He got into the educational side of animation as well, visiting schools and becoming a sort of ambassador, and currently runs a blog featuring process posts and other tidbits from his wealth of animating knowledge – check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out some of Cameron Weston Nicholson‘s latest sketches and drawings, via his Instagram (@prof_weston): Before bed. ? A video posted by Cameron•Weston Nicholson (@prof_weston) on Nov 1, 2016 at 6:30pm PDT Also, take a minute or 60 to view the footage of Cameron’s SPX 2016 Comics Workbook-hosted workshop if you haven’t yet – “Comics are a symphonic mixture of picture & word.” ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook got a nice shout out from Down the Tubes, a British comics website that has been reporting on comics since 1999. Mel Brooks was writing about the academic workshops at The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, which Frank Santoro, Aidan Koch, and Connor Willumsen were a large part of – check out the report HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out Swinespritzen – and Portraits, the other new book from Connor Willumsen – HERE. Share this page: [...]

A Studio Visit with Jim Rugg | Part I: NINJATECH

Juan FernándezApril 18, 2016ClassesJim Rugg, creator of “Street Angel” and “Aphrodisiac” [ jimrugg.com ], shows Comics Workbook TV how he takes a story from script to final. Part I focuses on “NINJATECH”, a story from Street Angel. Video by Michael Pisano | michaelpisano.com More images of NINJATECH here: jimrugg.com/post/130097479739/copcomco-street-angel-ninjatech-to-those-who Soundtrack | Johann Sebastian Bach // Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, BWV 43 – 7. Aria: Er ists, der ganz allein // performed by Michel Rondeau Share this page: [...]

09/07/2018

Sally IngrahamSeptember 7, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with work by Bronson Smillie and Cory Feder, plus other news and comics! ——————————————————————————————— Here on the site we have a new Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency Report, written by Bronson Smillie, who joined us in Pittsburgh in July of 2018. He’s currently based in Montreal, QC, where he is finishing a painting and drawing undergrad at Concordia University. Originally from Calgary, he organized and facilitated Calgary’s first ever Queer Zine Fair in 2017 – an event called We Are Not an Island that was presented in conjunction with Calgary’s Sled Island Festival. It was Calgary’s biggest zine fair ever and featured over 30 artists/collectives. Even with this rich experience in comics and community building under his belt, Bronson was able to find a lot to dig into with us in Pittsburgh. “The ! air conditioned ! bedroom/work-space was the perfect place to dive head first into my work. As someone that is easily distracted in new environments, it was nice to be able to shut myself into a quiet space. Each morning I would devour a handful of comics/zines selected from the extensive and ever-growing library at the Residency. I would recommend spending as much time reading comics as you do drawing them while you are a resident. They offer such an amazing resource and I got to read things that I had never had access to before. I worked on a 10 page mini-comic that I’ve since completed and took time to digitize my entire stamp collection (boring but satisfying). I wanted to explore a new way of image-making while I was at the residency and broke away from the more rigid, panel-based comic making I was used to in order to explore more experimental ideas I had been tossing around for a while.“ Read the rest of his report HERE! ——————————————————————————————— The results of the 2018 Comics Workbook Composition Competition are in! Read all about it HERE! Pictured above is the comic strip by Cory Feder which placed 1st in the competition. About her strip, the judges wrote: “Our decision to award Cory Feder First Place recognizes Feder’s creation of an ambitious yet simple, multi-layered poetic sequence that cuts through notions of language. This is the kind of strip that can be read and re-read ad infinitum to continue gleaning new meaning. Feder’s comic is the kind offhand remark, the cadence of which, you keep thinking about for years. This complex concoction of intuitive drawing and deft use of juxtaposition made for a winning combination.“ See more of Cory Feder’s work HERE. We look forward to hosting her at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency sometime soon! ——————————————————————————————— Sign up for the Comics Workbook Workshop sessions at Small Press Expo 2018 – full details HERE! ——————————————————————————————— Weekend Reading The Comics Journal recently republished an interview with Marie Severin from 1986 – read it HERE. Marie Severin passed away last week at the age of 89. HERE is the Journal‘s tribute to her. There are new reviews of Fiona Smyth‘s Somnambulance and Jessica Campbell‘s XTC69 over on Page 45. Paste Magazine has an exclusive preview of Leah Moore, John Reppion, and Sally Jane Thompson‘s upcoming A Conspiracy of Ravens (out in early October) HERE. Share this page: [...]

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