Sally here to finish the week with Carol Tyler at SPX, the women who took the Ignatz Awards, Anya Davidson, Dame Darcy, V. Vale and RE/Search, Phoebe Gloeckner, and other Friday tidbits.
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One of my favorite parts of helping with the Comics Workbook hosted workshops at SPX last weekend was getting to meet Carol Tyler and dig into the process and story behind the making of Soldier’s Heart: The Campaign to Understand my WWII Veteran Father. It was a long and difficult journey, and one that favorite pens and a good scanner helped get her through – the type of details that other cartoonists in the audience ate up! We will have our own video footage from that excellent talk soon, but for the moment Derek Royal has a podcast interview with her over on Comics Alternative –
“They spend a good deal of time talking about the current state of veteran’s affairs, the debilitating effects of PTSD, and how Soldier’s Heart both has and hasn’t resonated within the veteran’s community. Carol also discusses the current projects she has underway, including a follow up (sort of) to her father’s story and a project documenting the days leading up to her attending The Beatles concert at Comiskey Park in August 1965. As she tells Derek, in that work she’ll be channeling her inner 13-year-old-girl self. This is a moving and, at times, a deeply personal interview, one that reflects the sheer impact of Carol Tyler’s writing.” – Comics Alternative
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Although the list of Ignatz nominations was tipped toward male creators, in the end it was women who soundly won the day, with Tillie Walden earning two nods.
“Walden was voted outstanding artist for her debut graphic novel, “The End of Summer,” and named most promising new talent for “I Love This Part.”
Elsewhere, former Brooklyn studiomates Kate Beaton, Lisa Hanawalt and Meredith Gran all picked up Ignatz “brick” trophies. The event was held at the Bethesda North Marriott convention center.” – Michael Cavna at The Washington Post
Michael Cavna has the full list of Ignatz Award Winners HERE.
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I didn’t get a chance to say hello to Anya Davidson while running around SPX, but I am eager to find a moment to sit down and read Band For Life, with debuted at the show last weekend. Keep an eye out for it in your local comic book shops in the coming weeks!
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Over on The Portland Mercury Dame Darcy gets a shoutout for her Meat Cake Bible – which is part of the proof in the pudding that history is full of female cartoonists –
“When the great authorities of comics leave women out of their history, we listicle and fume. It feels like a victory, but I also worry such rants are only seen by people who already care about gender equality. That’s why it’s important to see Darcy’s groundbreaking comics wrapped up in a book so worthy of them. This tome cements it. Dame Darcy is an irrevocable part of comics history. I dare those French comics dads to ignore her now. Like any true independent spirit, Darcy is arriving, even if it is later than her due. The world is catching up.” – The Portland Mercury
Read the rest of the article HERE.
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Over on Vice Nick Gazin digs into a different comics-related event that took place last weekend – The New York Art Book Fair. He wasn’t overwhelmingly delighted with it, but his report is worth scanning through if just for the few moments he spends with V. Vale, creator of RE/Search.
“While other people at neighboring booths were making bootleg merchandise that ripped off cultures they weren’t a part of, Vale created and steered culture with these books. The Industrial Handbook, the book he’s holding, informed and helped give birth to whatever industrial turned into. Modern Primitives helped spawn the modern body piercing and giant full body tattoo culture. The RE/Search book of Pranks (titled Pranks!) is just one of the best books ever made and will give any oddball or misanthropic recluse hope.” – Nick Gazin
Check out the full report HERE.
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When I think about RE/Search I think about Phoebe Gloeckner and The Atrocity Exhibition. I’ve always been interested in her background as a medical illustrator – in an interview with Varoom! she talked about working on The Atrocity Exhibition –
“The illustrations inside are cold but soft. I wanted them to be harmless and approachable, like doing a fuzzy animal, so they have some humanity. It isn’t because of what they are but because of that softness, not rejecting of humanity. I tried to make them beautiful. I didn’t want it to be horror. It has impermanence but this is beauty as we live it.” – Phoebe Gloeckner
Read the whole interview HERE.
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A few other things that have caught my eye recently –
The animation in this video is by Jon Vermilyea (who was a production manager for PictureBox back in the day).
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Sophia Fs was working on a comic for the Comics Workbook Composition Competition earlier this month when she was hospitalized – she recently posted the finished work on her tumblr – check it out HERE.
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Help send Connor Willumsen to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in October! He will be teaching workshops with Frank Santoro and Aidan Koch while there – if you’re in the area check it out. To help him get to the show, Comics Workbook is offering two new Connor publications. Portraits and Swinespritzen – both limited editions, both incredible.
Details about both and where to order them can be found HERE.
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Have a good weekend folks – Happy Autumn, and Happy Birthday to John Coltrane too. Drink some pumpkin beers and listen to some jazz, won’t you. See you next week. – Sally