Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged cartoon crossroads columbus, Connor Willumsen, PaperJazz Festival, pittsburgh zine fair, sally ingraham, Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers

Sally Ingraham

Posted on September 20, 2017September 20, 2017

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Art Trip: Comics With O’Keeffe

Sally IngrahamMay 19, 2016Art Trip / EssaysI’m standing in the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, NM, staring at an index card in startled delight. It holds O’Keeffe’s notes for a large painting she made in 1963, and it hangs beside that painting, nicely framed. A famous index card. I glance around at the other folks in the gallery, looking for some shared excitement. People circle, pressing earbuds into their heads so that the audio tour they downloaded to their smart phones can inform them about the stuff on the walls. They don’t seem impressed by the index card. I can’t stop staring at it. “Look!” I want to say, “It’s a panel! From a comic! Look everyone!” I was drawn to Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings of flowers and desert landscapes as a kid. Her love for New Mexico resonated with my own longing for that land, so when I traveled through Santa Fe in 2006, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum was at the top of my list of stops. I liked the flowers and the landscapes and the bleached white bones back then. Ten years later I am in this museum again, and now it is O’Keeffe’s tiny pencil drawings that pull me in. The sketches that prefaced paintings. First-take watercolor nudes that are mostly splashes of color. Small paintings that seem to be missing their black lines. That index card. Most of what I’m drawn to is work O’Keeffe did when she lived in Canyon, Texas, between 1916-1918. This period is considered the prelude to her career, the formative years when she really began to develop her abstractions. She was not quite 30. A little series she did of Palo Duro Canyon almost makes me cry. The simple, quick strokes seem similar to drawings I have made of the New Mexican landscapes around Santa Fe. I’m the same age that O’Keeffe was when she made them, and – this is “The Land of Enchantment” after all – I suddenly feel strongly connected to her spirit. I whip some index cards out of my bag and copy the series. For a minute, it’s like I’m there on the edge of the canyon with her, drawing in the sunshine… And I’m looking at her stuff and seeing comics, yes. That’s where my brain lives constantly, these days. The index card is a panel for a comic. The Palo Duro Canyon drawings aren’t a series – they’re a sequence. Her paintings without lines prove how lively comics can look without being pinned down by traditional inks. Her small “notes” for larger paintings tell me the story I’m truly interested in. “Colors and shapes make a more definite statement than words,” O’Keeffe wrote in 1976. Especially when they take on the shapes and colors of comics. The statement that O’Keeffe’s work is making to me is reflective of what’s in my own head and heart, but that’s the uniquely fluid exchange between a creator and and the person experiencing the creation. I went to the museum because I’m about to leave New Mexico and it seemed necessary to “check in with Georgia”. I expected to see her flowers and cattle skulls and cottonwood trees in front of blue mesas, and feel somewhat wistful about the land I’m leaving behind. Instead I discovered the comics in her work, and made the peculiar realization that my move back to the East Coast right now puts me on a similar path to the one O’Keeffe took when she left Canyon, TX, to move to New York City. The world recognized her as an artist to be reckon with there. Who knows what will happen to me? I left the museum feeling the opposite of wistful. After all, I had spent the afternoon drawing comics with O’Keeffe – just two gals, jotting down the world in quick, sure strokes, on simple – yet powerful – index cards. I’ll never leave home without them! ————————————————————————————————— (Palo Duro Canyon, TX, a few days later, standing in roughly the same spot that Georgia O’Keeffe stood to make her pencil drawings 100 years ago, perhaps to the day. Funny ol’world.) ————————————————————————————————— Art Trip is a series that features reflections on art and comics, and the adventures that transform those who seek it out. Experience more on Comics Workbook soon. ————————————————————————————————— Sally Ingraham makes comics wherever she ends up, and is currently making them (on index cards) as she moves from Santa Fe, NM, to Pittsburgh, PA. You can see her work HERE. Share this page: [...]

08/01/2018

Juan FernándezAugust 1, 2018los Cómics / NewsNo news for today. I’m home with a sick cat on my lap. On the local front, The Pittsburgh Comics Salon meets tonight at Kaibur Coffee in Polish Hill. Audra Stang and I will be leading Pittsburghers in some comics calisthenics exercises. It’s always a good time – coffee, shop talk, solidarity. Commodity form as community form. If you’re around, come on out. More info here. On the personal front, my sweet baby boy cat Boris, who is only 6, has been sick for the past month and a half. We’ve gotten some medical attention for the little guy, but after all the time in ER, no diagnosis. He is eating a little more, is a little more active, but is still not back to his normal self. You can imagine how frustrating that can be. I’d never had a cat until Boris and this kind of thing is devastating. I’ve been thinking about KING-CAT #75, the issue that John Porcellino dedicated to the life story of his beloved cat Maisie Kukoc, who lived with him for 15 years. In a lot of ways it prepared me for this kind of love and pain. For today, just a photo of the guy. -Juan Share this page: [...]

09/08/2017

Sally IngrahamSeptember 7, 2017NewsSally here with new work from Hannah K. Lee, and Sheree Domingo, plus other comics and news! ———————————————————————————————— I was excited to perused the advanced review PDF of Hannah K. Lee‘s book debut, coming out from Koyama Press next week. Language Barrier collects several of Hannah’s zines and comics, as well as a new piece. The design of the book looks beautiful, from the end papers, to the full color comics and the scans of zines (I really like the aesthetic of scans of existing books, for some reason!) The new comic is great (no spoilers allowed yet) and it’s nice to revisit some of the riso printed zines that Hannah made in 2012/2014 which are long out of print. I love her Shoes Over Bills zine, which is contained in this collection, and is a striking visual game of balance between wants and needs… Hannah’s work as a commercial illustrator and letterer comes into play nicely in this collection. I like when the text in a comic or zine is as much an artistic and visually stimulating part of the work as the drawings are, and Hannah definitely plays with her words in these pieces. Check out more of Hannah K. Lee’s work HERE, and keep an eye out for her book in shops around Sept. 12th 2017, or at the Koyama Press table at SPX next week! ———————————————————————————————— Electrocomics (Ulli Lust’s online comics publishing platform) just released a comic by Sheree Domingo called Omegawolf (above). You can download the comic HERE. I like Sheree’s use of watercolors, with a 3 color palette and no blackline. The story is about a brief connection between a boy and a wild “omegawolf”. You can find more of Sheree’s work HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Women Who Draw organized an international art project last month, which Topic recently compiled and published. “On August 13, 2017, at precisely 12:00 pm Eastern Standard Time, 88 artists all over the world stopped what they were doing, looked up, and drew the sky. What each artist saw was unique to the time, the weather, and the place. The locations ranged from Tel Aviv to Brooklyn, Buenos Aires to rural Georgia. Some saw different hues of blue. Some saw black, pink, or gray. Some saw stars or clouds or fog or rain. Here it was summer. There it was night. In one place a fire left a heavy brown haze. Whatever sky the artist saw, they captured it on paper in their own unique style. They were, at that exact moment, separate skies. But when we view these drawings together, they become one far-stretching, simultaneous world view. They become a portrait of one shared sky.” —Wendy MacNaughton and Julia Rothman, co-founders of Women Who Draw See the entire One Sky project HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Boundless by Jillian Tamaki is reviewed on the LA Review of Books – HERE. Paste Magazine‘s “Required Reading: Comics” roundup for the week reminded me that I want to read Bombshells United #1, which is written by Marguerite Bennett and drawn by Marguerite Sauvage, and just came out. The A.V. Club took a look at a preview copy recently, which you can check out HERE. Arianna Margulis‘ Instagram comic But Like Maybe is something of a phenomenon, earning her a nod from The New Yorker this week. There’s a review of Anna Haifisch‘s new book Drifter in the German Art Magazine – read it here. Ulli Lust is having a book release party in Berlin this month – here are details for the party on Sept. 10th 2017 – and here’s a look at Ulli’s new book courtesy of Lauren Weinstein! Liana Finck explores “who does a story belong to?” when it comes to loved ones, and making comics about them – on Topic, HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-8-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ———————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

07/16/2018

Caleb OrecchioJuly 16, 2018News Caleb Orecchio here with thoughts on “copying,” and other news. ————————————————————————————————— WHAT IF comics adopted this attitude that resembled folk music where, particularly during the revival in the fifties and sixties, someone who wrote their own material was an anomaly as oppose to a standard expectation? The majority of folk musicians learned to play songs like “John Henry” and “Old Blue” before they wrote “Blowin’ in the Wind” or “Black is the Color” and so on. In fact, I’d argue that the reason folk music from that era remains so listenable to this day(to palated ears) because it was so rooted in tradition. These musicians understood this tradition and fused it with their modern sensibilities which created this new understanding of the past and present. Now, I’m not saying comics could or should mirror musical trends of the fleeting Greenwich Village folk revival, and yet, I am amused at the ideas of comic “covers.” Not that this is a new idea. Below is probably my favorite Paul Pope comic, and it is a “cover” (or I guess we can use the word “adaption” since cartoonists make books and not records) of OMAC #1 by Kirby. A reinterpretation, with a 21st Century shake-up. It’s a good comic, and I think worth looking at. The idea is more or less excepted (or expected) among the big two. One of my favorite recent comics is Ed Piskor’s X-Men comic, and part of my infatuation lies in the idea of Piskor making this elaborate yet condensed adaption of the X-Men saga. On top of that, I can’t count the times I’ve come across the rehashing of a Spider-Man or Batman origin story. These are practically folk tales in and of themselves. Or, for you readers who read exclusively indie comics, Kramers 8 features a story by Kevin Huizenga that he adapts from a comic in the Public Domain. I find that interesting. There are actually many other examples in indie comics, but they always tend to be put in the “apocryphal” category of the comics bible. Which I understand, but I wonder if we could change our attitude about these things? I don’t really have an “argument” to convince you, dear reader, that covering or adapting comics into a new comic is a good idea. I just think it’s something to consider. I think the idea would bear fruit. Of course, I hope cartoonists don’t stop making their own stories, but be honest, how many comics really contain good stories these days? Seriously. I think one should at least consider “covering” comics as an exercise when they start out down this winding road of cartooning. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know R.C. Harvey on Eddie Campbell’s The Goat Getters over on TCJ.com. See an issue of The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves by Ditko over at Four-Color Shadows blog. Rob Clough on Ben Sear’s Ideal Copy. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-16-18 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

08/08/2018

Juan FernándezAugust 8, 2018NewsBoris is still sick, so no news from the “world of comics” for today. Just hunkering down and being with the beloved. For the Boris lovers: he’s been eating and drinking more thanks to some cortisone injections and an appetite stimulant called Entyce. Baby boy has required a lot of attention and I’ve had to keep my head down for the most part away from contemporary comics news. For the comics lovers: here are some Boris comics by the great Jenn Lisa: Share this page: [...]

09/21/2017

Posted on September 20, 2017September 20, 2017 by Sally Ingraham

Sally here with upcoming local and regional comics events that you don’t want to miss!

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This evening in Pittsburgh, Connor Willumsen, Noel Freibert, and Patrick Kyle will be reading and signing their new books at Copacetic Comics – 6-8PM. Details HERE.

Catch the guys tomorrow in Columbus, OH, at Kafe Kerouac!

Next weekend you can find Connor Willumsen at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus as a special guest and the featured Comics Workbook workshop leader. Here’s the complete programming schedule for the show. Even though I am fresh off of a fantastic trip to the Small Press Expo, I am already raring to go for CXC, which blew me away last year with its programming designed especially for cartoonists.

Connor leading a recent workshop at SPX 2017

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Also in Pittsburgh, the 7th annual Pittsburgh Zine Fair is this Sunday, Sept. 24th 2017. 2-8PM. Full details HERE.

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Also, also – coming right up, PaperJazz Small Press Festival. Comics Workbook will be in Ohio for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, but one of these years I’m going to make the tough choice and head to Bushwick instead…! Check out the show HERE and go to it if you’re in the area.

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The fall semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts October 1st 2017. 8 weeks of comics instruction that will bang your practice into shape – 500 bux. Full details about the course and how to apply can be found HERE.

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Suzy and Cecil – 9-21-2017 – by Sally Ingraham

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged cartoon crossroads columbus, Connor Willumsen, PaperJazz Festival, pittsburgh zine fair, sally ingraham, Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers

Sally Ingraham

Posted on September 20, 2017September 20, 2017

Explore

01/24/2018

Juan FernándezJanuary 23, 2018los Cómics / NewsJuan empieza el día con José Fabián Estrada en Ecatepec! —————————————— A partir de haber sido asaltado, el artista José Fabián Estrada ‘Perro’ plasmó la cotidianidad del crimen en el País en el fanzine ‘Ecatepec’, realizado por la editorial mexicana, Ediciones Hungría. Revista Yaconic os ofrece una entrevista con Estrada. El artista José Fabián Estrada, conocido en los bajos mundos virtuales y ecatepunkeños como Perro, armó un libro para colorear, publicado por Ediciones Hungría, que retrata escenas de la vida diaria de aquella tierra mexiquense que fue su hogar por más de 29 años. “Ecatepec es una forma de vivir que te obliga a acostumbrarte a estar al tiro siempre”, dice sobre sus lares de origen, cuestión que, quienes hemos frecuentado aquel reino perdido, sabemos es ley. ¿Sobre qué es el libro? Es un libro de personas y de situaciones de la vida diaria. Muchos que vean el libro van a decir “ah que cagado, eso ha de ser puro coto”, pero en realidad son cosas que pasan todos los días; a muchos le puede dar gracia el dibujo de un wey que trae una mochila del Verde que dice “Sí cumple”, pero a mí no me da nada de risa un tipo que tarda más de dos horas en transporte lleve una mochila de algo que le prometió una vida mejor pero que no hizo ni madres, que su salario siga de la verga y que además se lo puedan chingar unos culeros nomás para bajarle lo que trae; ni saber que ha personas de edad mayor que llevan haciendo la misma rutina por más de 30 años y ganar míseros 80 pesos al día. Podéis leerla completa aquí. ————————————————————————————————— Convocatorias + Deadlines: ¡¡Convocatoria abierta del I Concurso Nacional de Cómic Biblioteca Insular de Gran Canaria!! 3 premios y 9 accésits con una dotación de entre 3.000 y 400 euros y la publicación de las obras ganadoras en un volumen conjunto editado por Astiberri. Bases. Deadline Reminder: submissions for Ink Brick no. 9 are due Monday, Feb 19, 2018! Do yourself a favor and submit your comics-poetry, won’t you? La Casa Encendida y Fulgencio Pimentel siguen buscando un libro. La convocatoria de #PuchiAward 2018 está abierta a todo tipo de géneros y formas: ficción, no ficción, novela, poesía, cómic, álbum ilustrado, ensayo, libro de cocina, geografía… Hasta el 25 de enero. Call for Chapter Contributions: Comics Beyond the Page in Latin America. ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 01-23-2018 – by Juan Fernandez ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-24-2018 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie- 1-24-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

03/26/2018

Caleb OrecchioMarch 25, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on A. Degen’s Soft X-Ray/Mindhunters, and other news. ————————————————————————————————— A. Degen’s work is always enjoyable and fun to look at. The drawing is loose, but not sloppy. The images are dense, but not overwhelming. The wordless narratives are simple, yet not unsophisticated. Soft X-Ray/Mindhunters, from thee Koyama Press (May 2018), continues the trend. Degen’s work often brings to mind Moebius’ Airtight Garage, specifically the element of spontaneity and worlds-within-worlds locations, with a dash of early Tezuka minimalism. In the case of this book, particularly in scenes concerning virtual reality, I sniff a whiff of Frank Miller’s Ronin. Like Ronin, or it’s most famous exploitation, The Matrix, Mindhunters is all about dreams versus reality and the dreams within dreams. I think. It’s a big fat book, weighing in at nearly 400 pages. Would I have preferred if it was serialized over 4 or 5 floppies? Yes. I think the amalgamation of separate-yet-intertwining stories would have benefitted from some time between them, some tension. However, I am painfully aware that a comics publisher is more likely to publish a giant tome, rather than a handful of pamphlets these days. Despite my preferences, the big book delivers the goods. To me, the love for one’s work really comes off these pages and emits a warmth and comfort akin to Brandon Graham’s best comics. Degen’s strengths as a cartoonist is that the work is always consistent and fully developed. I don’t sense that anything has been accidentally left out. Humor and imagination come together to make cotton candy for the eyes. I am seldom let down by an A. Degen book. The work is always worth its salt. Look for Soft X-Ray/Mindhunters in May 2018. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Tom Spurgeon talks to WonderCon spokesperson, David Glanzer. Rob Clough reviews Present by Leslie Stein at Your Chicken Enemy. Box Brown is the latest guest on Process Party. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers 8 weeks! $500 bux! 10 spots available! Rolling start date because of spring break – start as early as March 30th 2018. Deadline to apply is April 12th. Read all about the course HERE and email santoroschool@gmail.com for more details or to apply. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-26-2018 – by Frank Santoro Share this page: [...]

04/12/2016

Aaron CockleApril 11, 2016NewsINK BRICK; Tsurumi/Chapman/Lidston; ‘O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?’; Virtual Reality & its Discontents; Grids & Gestures & Nick Sousanis; Drawing Center Run-down; Nancy in the 1980s ————————————————————————————————— Poetry Comics INK BRICK, the premier micro-press for poetry comics, has extended the submissions deadline for its 5th issue to Sunday, April 17. Please consider submitting and/or supporting this organization. ————————————————————————————————— Upcoming Book Release Events at Desert Island Thursday, April 14, 7-9pm: Andrea ‘Why Would You Do That?’ Tsurumi Thursday, April 22, 7-9pm: Robyn ‘Twin Bed’ Chapman and Colin ‘Age of Elves’ Lidston ————————————————————————————————— Romeo ————————————————————————————————— New Media Same Old Problems The Storyteller’s Guide to the Virtual Reality Audience ————————————————————————————————— Grids & Gestures Cartoonist and educator Nick Sousanis has Kickstarted jump-started an online collective comics-making activity based on his teaching that will most likely be of interest to anyone who frequents this newsblog. From his website: ‘Over the last few years, I’ve found it to be a great way to get people with no prior drawing experience to very quickly start thinking about the spatial considerations comics makers attend to and at the same time, gets them to realize how much they know about drawing that they didn’t know they knew. ‘ ————————————————————————————————— Comics & Zines in NYC The Drawing Center recently posted a shortlist of the best places to find comics, zines, and artist books in NYC. ————————————————————————————————— Revisiting ‘How to Read Nancy’ by Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik From 1988, always worth another look. ————————————————————————————————— 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: [...]

09/22/2017

Sally IngrahamSeptember 22, 2017NewsSally here with Jenny Zervakis (in real life!), a big announcement from Caitlin McGurk, and other comics and news of note. ———————————————————————————————— One of the highlights of going to the Small Press Expo last weekend in Bethesda, MD, was getting to meet Jenny Zervakis (above). Her comics are my favorite discovery of the past year, and I have been harassing everyone I know into getting The Complete Strange Growths, the collection of her work published by John Porcellino and Spit & a Half Distro. I wrote about this collection back in June (read the review HERE) and more recently about Strange Growths #14 (HERE). Buzzing around SPX in the last hour of the last day, after having spent most of my time running workshops for Comics Workbook, it was a delight to catch sight of 3 more issues of Strange Growths on the corner of a table, and a thrilling surprise to see that Jenny herself was standing behind them. I burbled something about how much I liked her comics, and how much I appreciated that they were about her own impressions of the world and what she saw as important or strange or beautiful, told with poetry and humor. She said her comics had been turned down a lot, and not published in comics anthologies in the 90’s because they lacked a focus on “women’s issues”. That’s exactly what I like about them – they speak of her as a person and an artist, and not “just” as a woman. The new (to me) issues pictured above round out my collection of the “complete” Strange Growths, compiling stories and dreams and poems from 2002-2013. They are excellent! You can get copies of Jenny’s work from Spit & a Half Distro, HERE, or if you’re at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus next weekend stop by the Spit & a Half Distro table. ———————————————————————————————— Above is a clip from one of the panels at SPX, featuring November Garcia (speaking), and Marc Sobel (moderating), Keith Knight, Jennifer Hayden, and Glynnis Fawkes. The panel was on autobio comics, and was just one part of a great lineup of programming that was heavily dominated by female makers. Many kudos to the organizers who made this happen (especially Rob Clough!) ———————————————————————————————— The greatest bit of news I came across last week is this: Caitlin McGurk (associate curator of The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum) has been tapped to write the text for IDW’s upcoming Library Of American Comics Essentials collection of Edwina Dumm‘s Cap Stubbs and Tippie comic strip (coming out in 2018)! I knew that Caitlin had been pouring over the Edwina Dumm items in the BICLM collection throughout the summer, and I guess this is why. She is “thrilled” about the project. On IDW’s The Library of American Comics blog Bruce Canwell wrote in the official announcement: “You see, over the span of time we’ve intermittently been working on bringing Cap Stubbs to you, we’ve met one particular Edwina fan, a highly-respected comics historian, who knows more about Edwina than I do and is even more enthusiastic about writing this Introduction than I am (and that’s saying something!). Which is why I’m pleased as the well-known punch to tell you that Caitlin McGurk, associate curator of The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, will be your guide on this particular tour of Edwina’s fine comics creations. Since one of our overarching goals is to provide you with the best information available for this, and for every book we release, I’m more than willing to yield this particular floor to Caitlin.“ Bruce Canwell and Dean Mullaney have had this project in mind for over a decade, and it’ll be the first of at least two projects involving the work of Edwina Dumm. You can read more about the book HERE. Congratulations to Caitlin for getting to be involved in bringing more of Edwina Dumm’s work to the general public. I personally can not wait for this book! ———————————————————————————————— Chicken Noodle Soup Heidi MacDonald shares her SPX 2017 report on The Comics Beat – The Year of Getting Woke. There’s a new comic by Ulli Lust up on her site, part of her series in the magazine Exberliner – read it HERE. Cathy G. Johnson recently published her graduate thesis – Developing the Cartooning Mind: The History, Theory, Benefit and Practice of Comic Books in Visual Arts Education – and she has shared some of it on her website, with the option to read it all via email request. Check it out HERE. Robert Kirby reviews Hannah K. Lee‘s Language Barrier on The Comics Journal – read it HERE. The A. V. Club has an exclusive preview of Language Barrier by Hannah K. Lee available HERE. Smash Pages interviews Glynnis Fawkes, and talks about her Greek Diary – HERE. Kim O’Connor reviews Simon Hanselmann’s Portrait. There’s a new comic up on Mutha Magazine – The Enormity of the Everydayness by Sophia Wiedeman Glock. Sophie Yanow is serializing her new comic on Patreon – a 192-page book that is already thumb-nailed. She just needs a few cheerleaders and a bit of rent money to get it done. Check it out HERE. Whit Taylor was a recent guest editor for the Illustrated PEN, and chose to excerpt Ben Passmore’s Your Black Friend, and Robyn Smith’s The Saddest Angriest Black Girl in Town – read them both HERE, as well as Whit’s commentary. Whit also reviewed Katie Skelly’s My Pretty Vampire, and Keiler Roberts’ Sunburning over on Roar. The Guardian features Tillie Walden and talks about her new comic Spinning – HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-22-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

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