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Posted in NewsTagged aline kominsky, cartoon crossroads columbus, Connor Willumsen, dori seda, Leslie Stein, lynda barry, mary fleener, sally ingraham, signe wilkinson

Sally Ingraham

Posted on October 5, 2017

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Juan Fernandez @ CAB 2016

Juan FernándezNovember 14, 2016Festivals and ShowsComic. Arts. Brooklyn. 2016: Comics, zines, prints. A shmorgasbord of color. A dazzling display of print. The 2016 Comic Arts Brooklyn (CAB) presented by Brooklyn’s Desert Island Comics was held on Saturday, November 5th. Organized by Desert Island proprietor Gabe Fowler, this marks the fourth year that the show has been called CAB and the eighth year of the show, which was originally called The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. Gabe has turned the fest into a well-oiled machine and this year featured satellite events the day before and the day after the Saturday exhibitors showcase at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church. Friday saw Altcomics 8, a night of music, live comics readings, and art hosted by 2dcloud, along with the opening of Buzz Saw, an exhibition of art from the Sequential Artists Workshop. Sunday saw Color Giants, the Brooklyn Animation Expo, which was held in conjunction with Art Brooklyn Fireproof. Screenings were programmed by Kenneth Filmer. There were no panels or artist spotlights this year. A bummer in some ways, but given the last minute green lighting of this year’s CAB, it makes sense to not have wanted to rush programming only to wind up with subpar panels. I exhibited as Comics Workbook and tabled next to the great Julia Gfrörer and Sean T. Collins, alongside Patrick Kyle(and Lala Albert who set up shop at Patrick’s table towards the end of the day). The Comics Workbook table consisted of myself, Jenn Lisa, Ronald Wimberly and Simon Reinhardt. I thought it was a wonderful show. Rumors had been going around earlier this year that it wasn’t going to happen. Well, IT HAPPENED! A huge thank you to Mr. Fowler for the last minute opportunity to exhibit at this year’s CAB. Comics Workbook got word late in the week that there was a need for another exhibitor. Of course, we agreed to go. You don’t miss CAB. We hunkered down prepared a wide array of comics to bring to the good folks of New York. Unfortunately Frank’s car had been giving him trouble all week and was in the shop. We planned everything carefully. I would leave with Jenn Lisa and haul what I could. He would get it out of the garage Saturday morning and he would book it to make it in the afternooon Saturday to catch the second half of the buzzing show. Unlike Frank though, I can’t haul short box after short box of comics in my VW Bug… We had to decide what would go first and then did some intense tetris outside the Rowhouse Residency to fit in as much as we could. We slammed the trunk and hauled ass to NYC! Frank would bring the rest in the morning. Jenn Lisa and I hit the road, spirits high. We arrived early Saturday morning, got some shut eye and then booked it for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in the morning. I was worried about parking, so Jenn and I took off to set up as early as we could. Frank’s taught me how critical these kind of considerations are for making these exhausting days fall into place. We lucked out out and found a spot right in front of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Unloading and setting up was a breeze. We were tabling next to Patrick Kyle, Lala Albert, Julia Gfrörer and Sean T. Collins. Good folks. I told Jenn to get ready, because CAB’s prime time is 11-1:30. A choc-a-bloc that builds to a fever pitch. Everyone’s oogling and oggling round that time. Most attendees hope to make a full tour of the show before breaking out their wallets, but within that first hour I heard that attendees just couldn’t wait on buying so-an-so’s latest book or zine. They knew that things were going to fast. We sold a Truth Zone within the first 20 minutes of the show. That set the tone for the show. It was wonderful to meet so many people. Lots of people were familiar with what we’d been doing over the past year in Pittsburgh with the house and with the residencies. It emboldens the spirit to know that what we’re doing is rippling out. A HUGE shout out to all former students that came by and traded your books with us! You know who you are <3 Jenn and I brought a lot of our own books and were excited to share them with New Yorkers. I sold out of my zine I Can See the Birds, which was awesome. What else sold well? Connor. Willumsen. This is his show! Everyone was asking for his stuff. We sold out of all the copies of Swinespritzen that we brought which was a real thrill. That Connor… The great Ronald Wimberly stepped up to the plate at 2PM to do a signing and the fans start piling up. He brought the goods. While his fans waited, to chat with the shinobi himself, they dug through our shortboxes. We riffed on the primo comics Frank had curated. It was a good time. They found some 80s gold. No one curates a small selection of comics like Frank… Ron had brought the Artist edition of Prince of Cats, the Attack on Titan anthology he was in and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Ron is one of the most exciting comics makers I can think of right now. His blade cuts across a thousand forms. He gives his fans, new and old, the attention they deserve while he signs. It was a real honor to work by his side on Saturday! Image did right by this edition of Prince of Cats. It’s glorious. Lots of people asked for Frank. In the end his mechanics in Pittsburgh let him down. This CAB was lacking in it’s requisite levels of Santoro. Alas! For all of those who left messages, rest assured, we passed along all the memos to Frank. There were so many amazing books of all shapes and sizes. Here are some of my favorites: Lale Westvind’s Breakdown Press book, Hax Anya Davidson’s Gloom Planet Alabaster Pizzo’s Mimi and the Wolves Act 3: The Howl Conor Stechschulte’s new self published print masterpiece, Christmas In Prison. Richard Short’s Klaus Magazine 2 On a personal level, I was especially startled by how many people were familiar with my own zines and comics. Comics Workbook has been sharing some of them through our social media network over the past year, but I never expected people to be hep to my work just yet! The reach that the blog and the social media network has is really inspiring. There’s still some viral mystery to it all… CAB is such a whirlwind of a show. It’s definitely the New York City atmosphere. It all just goes by so fast. It was busy. Sales were solid. There are so many comics festivals these days (curated and non-curated) that I know for a fact that I can’t handle more than regional shows around Pittsburgh and the heavy hitters around the East Coast. It’s a delight to end the season with CAB, you leave inspired with work that invites you to pore over it all winter long. I firmly believe that the most interesting, and arguably pioneering comics makers are all in a room at CAB(some come every other year). Wish that I could have gone around and interviewed people about their work! That’ll be for next year. I wound up holding down the fort at the Comics Workbook table. The comics weren’t going to sell themselves 😉 Towards the end of the show Simon M. Reinhardt arrived to hold it down and I was able to make the rounds. Thanks Simon! Here are some photos of only a few of the many amazing people I bumped into. Gabe’s got the market place down to a science. So, naturally, I’m interested to see the ways in which CAB continues to evolve. Will it stabilize into being an amped up zine fest and wild style art book fair that focuses exclusively on the marketplace? Will someone step in to lend a hand to the team to develop some track of programming during the weekend or the week before? To return to it’s BCGF format. Does that matter? Who’s ready to step up to the plate? On the floor I heard some people discuss this being the last CAB. And damn, that’s a little pessimistic. For what it’s worth, CAB can’t be beat for a lot of reasons. Easy access via transportation. Trains, plains, buses, cars all make their way easily to NYC. For the most part either you know someone in the City or there’s an affordable place to stay for a night or two. The crowds are great. People are squeezing CAB into their busy Saturday. It’s just one of many things they’re doing so they bring an incredible energy into the space. Most people likely just heard that there was something cool with comics going on in that one church in Brooklyn. That’s a good place to be. Gabe’s curation can’t be beat. You wan’t to find the coolest books published in a year? You can’t do any better in the US than coming to CAB. Oh and people come ready to spend money. Real money. I think it’s been year of a lot of change for comics shows. A new regime of shows is definitely falling into place. CAB showed that it is definitely a part of that new regime. As a show, it does what so few comics can do. It’s got the verve of Montreal’s legendary Expozine. When it comes to art comics and accessible art from the outer limits – It can’t be beat. Mr. Fowler’s extensive knowledge of “what’s happening” in comics comes directly out of his experience as a retailer and it’s clear he curates the show like he curates his store. Desert Island is a great store which serves its community. In my eyes, it’s a must stop for an any all comics pilgrims that travel along the East Coast. I urge everyone to go to CAB next year. It’s a different show than TCAF and a very different show then SPX and CXC. Whether you are a maker or a reader, it’s good to go to them all if you can. It bears repeating – to soak up all these shows and to be at the epicenter of new work and current conversations – YOU DON’T NEED TO BE EXHIBITING. Just pack your bags, grab a bunch of your zines and hop on a bus. While you’re there, give away some books, maybe trade some, take some photos and notes! You’ll come home with lots of ideas and inspiration. There’ll be a lot of new encounters with other makers known and unknown. These shows are where it all happens. You get to meet the authors who are making some of the most amazing work in the world at the moment. Worth it’s weight in gold. -can’t wait for next year, Juan Share this page: [...]

04/09/2018

Caleb OrecchioApril 9, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Plop! and other news. ————————————————————————————————— A couple of months ago, I wrote about a 1979 article in an issue of The Comics Journal where the cover story by Steve Skeates calls for the death of the superhero and the further advocation of comics like Howard the Duck and Plop! Read all about it here if you want. I was recently flipping through my copies of Plop! with new eyes due to Skeates’ insistence that this was the title that could have saved comics. Friends, I must say, the comics industry had to have been in such a sordid state if Plop! and Howard the Duck were the ponies to bet on. I mean, I kinda like Plop! It’s silly, but rarely funny. The best part about the books are usually the covers (a la Basil Wolverton and Wally Wood). I enjoy Sergio Aragonés’ strips that ring-in each issue and then cap it off. There is also enough Bernie Wrightson comics within the series to encourage my forgiving attitude. But ultimately, Plop! is a bust. It’s not funnier than MAD or any other fellow rip-off like Cracked. It might be funnier than Crazy (Marvel’s hat in the ring of MAD rip-offs). I love Aragonés’ strips he writes and draws himself, but typically he is charming up some boring script intended to be clever. Plop! is almost 100% void of cleverness. Wrightson’s comics often are interesting to look at, but in the end are illustrating a really stupid script that doesn’t stick the landing. Each story fails, unlike its EC Comics predecessor, to end each story with a cherry on top or in a neat little bow. Oh and when the art is not drawn by Aragonés, Wrightson, Wally Wood, etc., it’s drawn by the worst cartoonists in the business. I can only assume they were in between jobs at DC and trying to make it in the newspaper one-panel strip business. Yikes, it’s just plain bad comics half the time at Plop! Not the kind of comic I’d encourage more of if I’m trying to save the industry and kill the superhero. But why do I really buy the back-issues if they suck so bad?? The covers! ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know The National Cartoonists Society has announced their Cartoonist of the Year 2017 nominees. Sloane Leong is the most recent guest on Process Party. At TCJ.com, Tegan O’Neil on Crisis on Infinite Earths and Brian Nicholson on Dalston Monsterzz by Dilraj Mann. Todd Allen at The Beat informs us of a presentation and signing for Mark Burstein’s book, Dave Sheridan: Life with Dealer McDope, The Leather Nun, and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Fransisco, on April 24th. Dayton’s son, Mike Peeters is celebrating 50 years of strip making in Dayton, Ohio. Amelia Robinson has the scoop at Dayton Daily News. I would be remiss not to mention Isao Takahata has passed at age 82. Probably made one the most difficult and emotional movies ever in my opinion. ————————————————————————————————— 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 NOW! Deadline to apply is April 12th. Read all about the course HERE and email santoroschool@gmail.com for more details or to apply. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

10/22/2018

Caleb OrecchioOctober 22, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with The Black Diamond Effect no. 3. ————————————————————————————————— The Black Diamond Effect no. 3 by George P. Gatsis, 1991 Look at this comic. This comic is a mess, yet it is visually electrifying. I love looking at this. It is like a digital/analog collage. It almost looks like something Michael Comeau would make in an alternate universe void of punk rock or zines or shame. In fact, if I had not looked at the indicia and saw that this was made in 1991, I would assume this comic was riffing on The Dark Knight Strikes Again aesthetically. There is so much spirit to it. There is an attitude to this comic that has no idea what it’s doing, and yet is brimming with confidence – so maybe it is punk rock. I have only looked at the pictures of this book. I could not forgive myself if I read a word of this comic. That would defeat the purpose. This is not a comic that you get because you’re interested in the story. This is yet another comic that you get because it is a strange artifact of comics that, previously, I had no reason to believe existed. The fact that this comic exists is without a doubt the greatest part of this comic. The discovery of it is a ten-fold joy. Culturally, it’s interesting to line up the computer generated art with the year (1991) and to notice where the future of CG was going (i.e. Pixar). In fact, I did a little digging and found this website. There is a conscience effort to be part of the cutting edge. It’s a similar sentiment that the creator of Donna Matrix had. The future of everything is digital – computer generated! Both comics are forgotten, lost to the burst of the nineties. I love this comic. It is a true treasure of the medium. Although it is “bad,” it is amazing in so many other ways. For example, the covers are fantastic. They hold up to me as a warped pop art of some kind. Above I brought up the comparison of an alternate Michael Comeau. The Black Diamond Effect is a Canadian “collage” comic that blends different visual mediums that fuse into its own visual rhetoric. It is strange beyond belief. I’ve never seen anything like it. I take up a lot of space on this platform writing about the esoteric in comics. I can’t always justify my focus on this aspect. I simply enjoy sharing them. I think this realm of disregarded comics is fascinating. There is true art locked inside these works that give no heed to the history of the medium. Therefore what is produced is often something made entirely without comntext. There are a few cartoonists today who, I think, attempt to recreate the naiveté of the eighties black and white boom as well as the wackiness of these strange nineties comics (the latter being the kind in question today). Most of these artists are running a fool’s errand. They are often too aware of our history to make anything sincerely naive. Many of the works they try to imitate were obviously made in a void with maybe TMNT and Daredevil as their only reference. Good luck to all of you such cartoonists. Though foolish, I believe your journey to be an honorable one. And to all you forgotten cartoonists who didn’t “make it” and disappeared, I appreciate you. ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 10-22-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

12/19/2017

Aaron CockleDecember 19, 2017NewsAaron Cockle today with Black Dada; Why, Comics?; Laura Park; Ai Wei Wei (in NYC); What is Bias in Machine Learning? ————————————————————————————————— Adam Pendleton and Black Dada Here are a couple pieces about Adam Pendleton’s excellent Black Dada Reader: Interviewed in his studio, Pendleton is quick to point out that the book, like much of his work, has always been an experiment. The Reader began its life as a spiral-bound book that lived in the artist’s studio, an attempt to create “a collage in book format” of texts that inspired him. “Originally it was an in-studio publication, in the sense that it wasn’t really meant necessarily for a wide distribution,” he explained. “It was really meant for me to refer to in the space of the studio while I was working on different projects. But I did hand out maybe a dozen copies, maybe more, to the people who would come to the studio, or people who were interested in the work and or the concept of Black Dada.” ————————————————————————————————— Panter/Groening DIY Here is an excerpt from Hillary Chute’s book, Why Comics?: From Underground to Everywhere, at the Lit Hub blog: The punk scene that launched cartoonists Panter and Groening was part of a larger punk movement that hit America, and the UK, in the mid-to-late 1970s. Both political and aesthetic, the punk movement, which often registered as a visceral or even violent response to mainstream pop culture, encouraged people to create their own culture across many different forms of production. This includes, most famously, the music that came to be known as punk rock. Punk culture often consolidated around bands, particularly their live performances, and the independent labels that developed to put out their music, along with the art and graphic design that went into their promotion—as well as the fanzines that articulated their ideas and goals. The “do-it-yourself” ethic is the defining feature of punk culture and production. As Jaime Hernandez, the creator, along with his brother Gilbert, of the famed long-running series Love and Rockets explained, he never realized he could be a cartoonist until he got involved with punk. “Then I thought, ‘Oh, this is kind of the same thing,’” Hernandez told the novelist and comics writer Neil Gaiman. “They were all the same to me, so if you could do that with punk, you could do that with comics.” ————————————————————————————————— A Cartoonist’s Darkly Magical and Autobiographical Work At Hyperallergic, Sarah Rose Sharp looks at the Laura Park exhibition and residency at the Columbus Museum of Art: “When you’re doing autobiography, you realize our lives are very repetitive, so a sense of magical realism starts to seep in there,” said Park, who cited British-American cartoonist Gabrielle Bell as an admired peer working in a similar vein. For example, in the story “Office32F,” Park’s comic stand-in discovers a miniature and mysterious office in the walls and baseboards of her apartment, apparently devoted to the task of close-monitoring her daily existence. The tale is equal parts cute and unsettling, with the protagonist taking cues from miniature written reports, which criticize her unkempt birdcage, but also lead her to finding a tiny pair of red mittens caught in a spider web and bizarrely soaking them in bleach and flushing them down the toilet. The specificity of Park’s visual and literary descriptions adds a sense of the uncanny to even the most quotidian urban activities, like Strangers on a Train, which captures moments while riding public transportation. ————————————————————————————————— Good Fences Make Good Neighbors Public Art Fund has a great interactive site detailing the current Ai Wei Wei installation in NYC. Ai Weiwei conceived this multi-site, multi-media exhibition for public spaces, monuments, buildings, transportation sites, and advertising platforms throughout New York City. Collectively, these elements comprise a passionate response to the global migration crisis and a reflection on the profound social and political impulse to divide people from each other. For Ai, these themes have deep roots. He experienced exile with his family as a child, life as an immigrant and art student in New York, and more recently, brutal repression as an artist and activist in China. The exhibition draws on many aspects of Ai’s career as a visual artist and architect, and is informed by both his own life experience and the plight of displaced people. In 2016, Ai and his team traveled to 23 countries and more than 40 refugee camps while filming his documentary, Human Flow. ————————————————————————————————— The Trouble With Bias (in Machine Learning) Via Boing Boing: “The Trouble with Bias,” Kate Crawford’s keynote at the 2017 Neural Information Processing Systems is a brilliant tour through different ways of thinking about what bias is, and when we should worry about it, specifically in the context of machine learning systems and algorithmic decision making — the best part is at the end, where she describes what we should do about this stuff, and where to get started. ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 12-19-2017 – by Cameron Arthur —————————————————————————————————Joanie and Jordie – 12-19-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/29/2016

Sally IngrahamApril 29, 2016NewsSally here, scattering news items all down the hall of the CW headquarters in my excitement to get the stack to you! We’ve got a new Brazilian Comics Scene Report, quick conversations with Erin Curry and Ben Sears, some wisdom from Alyssa Berg, insights from Hazel Newlevant, an exciting development from both Nils Balls and Jeff Smith, and, randomly, a bunch of origami. Dive in! ————————————————————————————————— The fantastic Anna Mancini is back reporting for Comics Workbook, bringing us an absolutely jaw-dropping roundup of Brazilian cartoonists and comics news – the biggest, baddest scene report you’re likely to see anytime soon. Past scene reports we’ve brought to you have been about a single US city – Anna’s report covers the entire country of Brazil, breaking it down by state and region. It is a wild, exciting ride that is sure to kindle your interest and make you seriously consider hopping on a plane and just going there. Check out the magnificent beast HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Erin Curry spent part of January and February of this year trying to get more in touch with snow and whiteness, via the tumble of Vermont’s (not very frozen, actually, this winter) hills and vales. The Vermont Studio Center just posted a report on the studio visit they paid her, and it is lovely to get a peak into her thoughts and process. This bit especially resonated – VSC: What does community mean to you? EC: The community I appreciate the most is the one of makers (broadly defined). We’re agents of reflection and agency in a culture that often turns to consumption of mass produced things and entertainment for fulfillment. It’s pretty revolutionary, yeah? And then! We get to have dialogue with the rest of our communities working towards better lives. Read the whole report HERE. Below is a comic Erin made for the 4PANELProject during her time in VT, which features, according to her, maybe the first figure to appear in her comics. ————————————————————————————————— Inverse did a quick interview with Ben Sears this week, in anticipation of the release of Night Air, coming in May from Koyama Press. They delve into the origins of the story, discuss the “all-ages” aspect of Ben’s work, and listen to the track (also called Night Air) by Tortoise that evokes the mood of the book. And of course – Do you have any favorite illustrations in the book? Whenever the characters are walking into a new place, or just silently exploring, that’s my favorite stuff to draw. I’m really proud of the panels of them running around town, walking into Apple Town at night, and coming up on the castle. If I had the time and financial backing, I would do a whole comic like that. I certainly hope he can do that someday – but until then we can savor those panels in Night Air while listening to this: ————————————————————————————————— Alyssa Berg released the first installment in a series of process meditations today, written exclusively for Comics Workbook. Her thoughts were inspired by a visit to a local museum. The visit to the Rubin brought my attention to ritual, meditation and devotion in artistic practice – in other people’s practice and my own. The daily act of going to my desk and preparing the space is an important ritual. It is the practice before the practice, the thing I do before I do the thing I do. Is calling my studio area a sacred space too heavy-handed? Well, my hands are heavy holding all this Palo Santo and sage that I am burning to clear any bad vibrations from the aforementioned sacred space. Considering that such preparations help Alyssa produce the type of exquisite work that she is known for (see below)…everyone should attend to her words – and look forward to the rest of this series. Check out all of Part One HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Hazel Newlevant revealed another page from her comic Finding Place, which will be published in the ALPHABET anthology of queer cartoonists. The story as a whole is about falling in love with comics and with girls, but this page is pointed more at some of the weird realities of being a cartoonist. You can read the first 3 pages of the story HERE. Hazel is the editor of the anthology Chainmail Bikini, which was successfully Kickstarted and printed last year. She won a Queer Press Grant in 2013, which allowed her to make If This Be Sin, and set her on the path to support other up-and-coming queer cartoonists – and I have to say, “Thanks for what you do, Hazel!” ————————————————————————————————— Nils “Balls” Hanczar has been sitting in on Pittsburgh City Council meetings for a long time, and it’s not surprising that he makes cartoons about them. Nils is the creator of the You Can Did It comics and the epic Ship of Soiled Doves, and now The Glassblock is taking him on as their official “City Council Cartoonist”. This should get interesting! ————————————————————————————————— I am beside myself with excitement over this recent announcement – Jeff Smith is bringing us a little bit more BONE! Bone:Coda will be released in July, and it sounds wicked. 25 years after the first black & white issue of the self-published comic book BONE appeared on comic shop shelves, and over a decade since the concluding chapter comes a new (and completely superfluous!) adventure featuring the Bone cousins! Ride along with the boys and their friend Bartleby the Baby Rat Creature as they brave the dangerous journey across the desert back to Boneville in their rickety cow cart. The book will include the complete, and now fully illustrated, The BONE Companion by Stephen Weiner, as well as a plethora of behind the scenes photos and memories from Jeff. I pretty much can not wait! ————————————————————————————————— All right, all right, I’ll shut my trap after this and let you alone for the weekend…but lastly, I want to share a different approach to paper. Origami artist Sipho Mabona has been folding paper since he was a child, and as you can see above, he’s pretty good at making paper figures. However, it’s what he’s doing after he folds something up that interests me. He unfolds it…and makes a whole other sort of art. These are the creases left by folding his Cicada design, and this is the piece that gets framed. Below is his Hermit Crab, flattened. In the tags for the piece below, Sipho uses #sequence and #evolution, in addition to #creasepattern, and somehow it all comes back to comics… Check out more of Sipho’s work HERE. ————————————————————————————————— That’s a wrap on April for us here in the Comics Workbook newsroom! Spring is undeniable now, despite occasional cold spells and snow storms, and we’ll be back in May to put the garden in and water the seedling comics. Until then, cheers! – Sally Share this page: [...]

10/06/2017

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Sally Ingraham

Sally here with original artwork by some rad ladies, a bit more about CXC 2017, and other comics news.

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To pick up where I left off last week…at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, in Columbus, OH, or thereabouts…

In the midst of the CXC excitement last Friday afternoon, I found time to poke around in the Reading Room at the BICLM, and although my eyes strayed to huge Prince Valiant originals and Noel Sickles paintings, and I was distracted by the comments of Mimi Pond and Chris Ware and Derf Backderf as they circled the room simultaneously…I was able to zero in on some fantastic pages by several of the female cartoonists I write about here all the time (see the Mary Fleener page above).

I believe many of the pages that I got to enjoy were from a recent donation, part of a 113-piece collection given to the BICLM this past summer by Scott Jonas. Above is one of Aline Kominsky-Crumb‘s earliest comics. Below are pages by Dori Seda, and Lynda Barry.

Here’s the lovely Mimi Pond looking at pages in the Reading Room:

This is easily my favorite thing about Cartoon Crossroads Columbus – you have the chance to hang out with your peers and your heroes as you all share together the experience of looking at artwork by the cartoonists who came before us. Everyone exclaims. Everyone cries. It’s wonderful.

Then too you can learn from each other and share the things of your heart/hands. I attended Leslie Stein‘s watercolor demo and appreciated getting to see her process and listen to her stories. So did Signe Wilkinson, the Pulitzer-prize winning editorial cartoonist, and afterward in her turn Signe shared her experiences in the trenches and a whole other world of cartooning.

And then when my own number was called, on Saturday afternoon when our Comics Workbook-featured workshop leader Connor Willumsen was needed for a panel, I stood up and led a workshop on comics-making.

Making comics in isolation still has its place, but increasingly it seems that if we want to keep this community thriving, it’s got to really embrace its punk side. Share and share alike. Growth, education, everyone lending a hand in order to keep these plates spinning.

Cartoon Crossroads Columbus feels like a show that is constantly striving to embrace that spirit.

For more on the show please see Caleb’s beautifully exuberant Monday morning post, HERE, and Adam Griffiths’ detailed and thoughtful notes on his own experience, HERE.

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I have to touch on Connor Willumsen’s Comics Workbook-hosted workshops at CXC, as that is where I spent much of my time on Sat./Sun. of the show. Connor had workshops almost every hour during the show those two days, and he was able to translate his thoughts on shoebox vs. “forensic” comics-making to audiences made up of all adults, as well as a lively group of kids during one workshop. Here’s a “forensic”-style comic by Zoey (which really is how most kids make comics):

I will be cutting together a highlights reel of Connor’s workshop, so keep an eye out. Many thanks to Tom Spurgeon and the other CXC organizers for providing us with the space to bring this transformative take on comics-making to Columbus, OH. Back again next year for more!

For the record, you can get a really unique package of Connor Willumsen books and zines right now from Comics Workbook – full details on the official “Anti-Gone Bundle” can be found HERE.

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News of Note from Elsewhere

This is cool (but also annoying in its way) – Marvel canceled The Black Panther series recently, but now Paste Magazine announces that Marvel has hired the incredible Nnedi Okorafor to write a new Black Panther series (for digital publication on Marvel and ComiXoligy) – full details HERE.
The Comics Journal has an interview with the unstoppable Tillie Walden – try to catch up with her, HERE.
Also, this came out while I was at CXC, so if you too missed it be sure to check out the interview with Sophie Foster-Dimino conducted by Annie Mok on tcj.com.
Check out Leela Corman‘s latest comic on The Nib – It Only Masquerades as Entertainment.
Laurel Lynn Leake writes about Ariel Ries‘ webcomic Witchy, using the comic to comment on ideas of power and uselessness. Pretty interesting – read it HERE.
Hit your translation button to read this German review of Ulli Lust‘s new book (compared favorably to work by Chester Brown and Jason Lutes, although Ulli isn’t sure she agrees with the Lutes comparison!) – HERE.

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Suzy and Cecil – 10-6-2017 – by Sally Ingraham

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Posted in NewsTagged aline kominsky, cartoon crossroads columbus, Connor Willumsen, dori seda, Leslie Stein, lynda barry, mary fleener, sally ingraham, signe wilkinson

Sally Ingraham

Posted on October 5, 2017

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Alyssa Berg on CXC 2016

Alyssa BergOctober 22, 2016Festivals and ShowsEditor’s Note: Alyssa Berg joined the Comics Workbook crew at CXC 2016 as one of our workshop leaders. Comics Workbook hosted four sessions over the course of the festival, and Alyssa presented on her process, her painted comics, and her use of the 4- and 9-panel grids. She led an exercise using the 4- and 9-panel grids that challenged and excited the attending comics makers, including students from the Columbus College of Art and Design. A video from the exercise she led: And now, the rest of Alyssa’s CXC experience in her own words. My First Con At the airport on my way home from Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, I bought a legal pad because I had accidentally checked my sketchbook in my suitcase. I wanted to record all of the details from my four days in Columbus ASAP – I didn’t want to forget any of the moments that made CXC such a wonderful experience. Over the past week I have been able to zoom-out and see what shaped many of my positive experiences: access to comics history and connecting with the comics community. Upon arrival in Columbus, my first stop was the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. I appreciated having a couple days pre-expo to enjoy the reading room, archive and museum. The Winsor McCay exhibit was stunning. On the archive tour, it was amazing to be standing inside the chilly room filled with flat files, books and boxes that house the world’s largest cartoon & comics collection. I was able to see some rare gems at the Billy Ireland. CXC was my first time taking part in a convention and I was struck by the spirit of the greater comics community. The people – comics-makers, event organizers, curators, publishers, students, teachers, librarians, and volunteers – all came together to celebrate comics and create an open and interesting atmosphere filled with great energy. There was a variety of events (including, of course, the book expo held over the weekend in the beautiful Columbus Metropolitan Library) where I had the pleasure of connecting and having conversations with many lovely comics-humans, including the Comics Workbook crew. Some strong bonds were formed, and I’m especially grateful for that. Thank you to the organizers of CXC for hosting such a great event, thank you to the staff and volunteers at both the Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum & Library and the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Also a big thank you to Frank Santoro at Comics Workbook for sending me to CXC with the CW crew. ————————————————————————————————— Alyssa Berg makes comics in Brooklyn, NY. You can find her work HERE. For the rest of our complete CXC coverage check out the special “round up” report HERE. Share this page: [...]

02/20/2017

Sally IngrahamFebruary 20, 2017NewsJuan and Sally tag teaming it this morning with the goods: Ron Wimberly at Copacetic Comics; 2nd biennial Queers & Comics conference, the QC Travel fund; Simon Reinhardt on Anya Davidson; PEN World Voices Festival; Matthew Thurber; Cynthia Rose on Andre Franquin; Sam Alden; Sophie Goldstein; Wayne Wise on Herriman. ————————————————————————————————— Ronald Wimberly is coming to Pittsburgh this week to check out the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency, the Andy Warhol Museum, The ToonSeum, and Copacetic Comics! He will be doing a signing on Wednesday at Copacetic: “Please join us from 6:00pm to 8:00pm on Wednesday, February 22 to welcome Ronald Wimberly and celebrate his latest release, Black History in Its Own Words. Wimberly will be coming through town straight from wrapping up his Graphic Novel Residency Exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art. The Copacetic Comics Company is located on the third floor at 3138 Dobson Street, Pittsburgh PA 15219.” Be sure to check this event out, meet Ron, and get some copies of his books if you are in the area. ————————————————————————————————— Juan here, San Francisco’s California College of the Arts is hosting the 2nd biennial Queers & Comics conference on April 14-15 2017 with Keynotes Mariko Tamaki and Gengoroh Tagame. Queers & Comics features two days of discussion panels, workshops, readings, and comics galore, along with a multitude of off-site events. This year the conference will spotlight international and emerging LGBTQ cartoonists, the role of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the future of queer comics. It should be great. As people gear up for the conference, there are still some creators and presenters who need your help. Traveling to these important spaces for conversations is hard and costs a good deal of $$. Not everyone who needs to be part of these conversations has that $$. That’s where you come in, dear reader. A small band of creators have joined together with Prism Comics to create the QC Travel Fund. With your help they will raise the necessary funds to help creators in need reach their destination at the Queers & Comics conference in San Francisco at CCA on April 14-15, 2017. The fundraiser can be found here: https://www.generosity.com/community-fundraising/queers-comics-conference-travel-fund/x/16025161 Pitch in what you can! ————————————————————————————————— This morning I’m passing the mic to Correspondence Course graduate, Simon Reinhardt. He’s got some great thoughts on Anya Davidson’s latest books. Quick comics thoughts just how I like them. Essential, enticing and illuminating. 2016 Comics: Anya Davidson-Lovers in the Garden/Hypatia’s Last Hours I’ve been a fan of Anya Davidson for a while, but these two pieces–which function very well as companions–felt like a breakthrough to me. There’s always been an emotional intensity to Davidson’s work, and here it is turned all the way up. Both of these stories deal with the moments before a disaster, ending abruptly when that disaster arrives. We see the protagonists’ hopes get dashed but, crucially, the stories clearly highlight how important and worthwhile those hopes were despite ultimately not being fulfulled. In both works, the cartoony, lively figure drawing fleshes out the world of the characters and communicates a depth beyond what can be explicitly foregrounded in relatively short form work. Devastating stuff. -Simon Reinhardt Lovers in the Garden is available from Retrofit Books. “Hypatia’s Last Hours” was included in Kramers Ergot #9, available from Fantagraphics. ————————————————————————————————— Dots and Dashes The PEN World Voices Festival (May 1-7th 2017) will spotlight gender and power this year, and unlike in years past, it will feature a lot of cartoonists. The Comics Beat has the details – but just to throw some names around, the lineup will include Simon Hanselmann, Roz Chast, Gabrielle Bell, Rokudenashiko, and Meg Lemke among other panelists! There is an interview with Matthew Thurber and an excerpt from Art Comic, his ongoing serial, over on Bad At Sports – check it out HERE. Cynthia Rose writes about Andre Franquin over on The Comics Journal – was he in fact comics’ greatest draftsman? The Strand is hosting a cartooning focused panel: I’m Drawn This Way: Cartoonists on Cartooning (March 13) featuring Pénélope Bagieu, Natalie Andrewson, Katie Skelly, Julia Gfrörer, and Whit Taylor moderated by the great Meg Lemke of the Brooklyn Book Festival, PEN America, and MUTHA Magazine. Part 2 of Sam Alden‘s Sledgehammer is up on Hazlitt – “Okay, never mind. Go back to destroying the house.” Sophie Goldstein announced that her comic House of Women will be collected by Fantagraphics this fall. Congrats! Pittsburgh’s Wayne Wise reviews George Herriman: A Life in Black and White. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! Frank Santoro here. I’ve decided to give this semester a rolling start date. I realize that everyone has spring break at different times, and that’s always a good time to start a comic – so I will officially kick off the course March 7th but will continue taking applications past that date. I will make it work for your schedule. Just apply! Applications received by February 26th will get 100 bux off! The course is 8 weeks long – payment plans are available. Many more details can be found HERE plus the answers to all your questions (hopefully). Email santoroschoolATgmail to apply Santoro School Application guidelines: – 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 me small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls – send specific url links to any comics work you have done. If you haven’t done comics before that is not a problem. Send applications to: santoroschoolATgmail Thanks xo Frank ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 2-20-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-20-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-20-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-20-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

07/25/2017

Aaron CockleJuly 25, 2017NewsAaron Cockle today with Liana Finck; Warren Craghead; Glynnis Fawkes; The New York Review of Comic Books, and the Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2017. ————————————————————————————————— Sara Berman’s Closet Liana Finck has a piece at The New York Review of Books blog about an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and her personal relationship to it. Finck also has an exhibition currently at Equity Gallery in NYC through August 5: Finck presents 80 drawings from a series of work posted on Instagram over the last year. The complexities of life are distilled into seemingly simple ink cartoons. With precision, honesty and biting wit, she explores the highs and lows of living in New York City and how relationships — and we ourselves — evolve. Her work has been described as “gently savage,” “bleakly hilarious” and “transportative” and Finck’s smart authentic voice reminds us of the beauty of experiencing the broad range of emotions that make us human. ————————————————————————————————— Warren Craghead, Political Cartoonist Warren Craghead recently posted about the one-year anniversary of his TRUMPTRUMP comics. Congrats, Warren! I started this TRUMPTRUMP project a year ago, on the night Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president. Every day since then I have drawn and shared a grotesque portrait of him and his minions, trying to document who he is and what he is doing to us. Here’s the first post. Here’s a bird’s-eye view of the drawings. This project started like my other drawing projects LADYH8RS and USAH8RS: I drew quick portraits of Trump paired with the seemingly inexhaustible supply of horrible quotes form him. I thought I’d be done on November 8, but when he won I vowed to keep drawing until, as I wrote when starting this project, “—this nightmare ends.” The drawings have turned more detailed and angry and full. At times I can’t keep up! I’ve drawn from and stolen from Goya, Picasso, Steinberg, Grosz, Kollwitz and, most of all, Philip Guston and his 1970s drawings of the Nixon Administration. In a few weeks Retrofit Comics/Big Planet Comics will be publishing a collection of the first six months of the drawings, from the nomination until the inauguration. I’m so grateful to them and to everyone who has seen and encouraged this stupid endeavor. I’m still drawing, every EVERY day, and posting them. People have ask me if I’m ok, if this is taking a toll and I always answer No. I love it – I get to DO something about all this insanity. ————————————————————————————————— An In-Depth Analysis by Glynnis Fawkes Fawkes on mother/daughter relationships, at the New Yorker. ————————————————————————————————— ‘But since he acts in all purity, without any guile, society is prompt to reject him through its representative, Lucy, treacherous, self-confident, an entrepreneur with assured profits, ready to peddle a security that is completely bogus but of unquestioned effect.’ – Umberto Eco on Peanuts In a recent e-newsletter, The New York Review of Books recently included a bunch of links to reviews of different comics works it’s done over the years, including: A Triumph of the Comic-Book Novel (Chris Ware), Gabriel Winslow-Yost, December 20, 2012 Issue Lost New York (Ben Katchor), Anthony Grafton, November 15, 2001 Issue Lyrics in the Swamp (Pogo/Walt Kelly), Brad Leithauser, April 25, 2002 Issue On ‘Krazy Kat’ and ‘Peanuts’, Umberto Eco, June 13, 1985 Issue Girls and Indians (White Boy/Garrett Price), Thomas Powers, January 2016 ————————————————————————————————— Here it is, thee Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2017 – 6-panel grid, traditional North American comic book proportions – but with a twist! Deadline Sept. 5th 2017. FULL DETAILS HERE. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 7-25-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-25-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

Frank Santoro @ SPX 2016

Comics WorkbookOctober 8, 2016Santoro School / School Updateshttps://vimeo.com/185881298 SPX – September 17th 2016 Exerpts from the workshop with Cameron Weston Nicholson and Frank Santoro Filmed and edited by Tyler Q Tucker and Sally Ingraham (Watch the rest of the workshop footage HERE.) Share this page: [...]

06/14/2018

Sally IngrahamJune 14, 2018NewsSally here with a roundup of reviews and commentary on Frank Santoro’s “Pompei”, which was published in Italy in May 2018 by 001 Edizioni! ——————————————————————————— Frank Santoro‘s Pompeii (PictureBox, 2013) was published in Italy in 2018 by 001 Edizioni. Pompei was released during the Naples Comicon (April 28-May 1 2018) where Frank was a special guest. In addition, an exhibition of original artwork from Pompei was held at the Archeological Museum of Naples from April 18-May 31 2018. More about that exhibition can be found HERE. Several Italian critics, comics makers, and fans have written about Pompei since the release of the comic in Italy. Valerio Stivè, who translated Pompei for 001 Edizioni, was kind enough to translate those reviews into English for us. We present them here for you, with links to the original Italian publications where appropriate. The Afterward for the 001 Edizioni edition of Pompei was written by Manuele Fior (translated from Italian here by Valerio Stivè). If my personal library was threatened by a the eruption of a volcano, Pompeii by Frank Santoro is among the few books I would save. The subject of this graphic novel is drawing; drawing the living, that are drawn while they draw, and drawing the dead, who, hugging each other, become drawings. Here, the lines mix up, multiplying the levels of reading, and we don’t know if what we see is a face on paper, on canvas, or on a mural painting. The book is about drawing, and its ability to seduce, to distract from death, to imagine a future, and to establish an eternal testimony. There are no second thoughts in Frank’s line, no rubber strokes, only shameless immediacy that offers itself to the reader in its most direct essence, full of errors and clumsiness. This is the best and only way to express the unique strength of some of his compositions, of the raw sensuality of flesh, and especially, of the most necessary of all, the love between two people. This is a graphic novel that, for its intensity, I can never read in one breath. I have to stop, with shivers on my back, and reach for my heart. This is a book that looks like it was drawn on a stone dug up from the ashes, to which time has erased colors and details, while preserving the deeply human living trace of the intentions of this great cartoonist. – Manuele Fior Daniele Barbieri‘s review of Pompei was originally published on Fumettologica on May 5th 2018. Valerio Stivè translates it from Italian below (with sections in bold retained from Barbieri’s original piece): The idea of narrating a historic event through the personal events of a single fictional character in order to let the reader/spectator empathize with the story and understand the events – then comprehending History in a much deeper way than reading a History book – is not new. In literary fiction, as well as in cinema and comics, that is a common and effective narrative device, as long as the reader is able to understand it. Our present times can become the present of those events (despite the historical and cultural differences); and an every day life that we recognize as familiar suddenly fades into something totally different: the historic event itself. If limited to this, Pompeii by Frank Santoro could be seen as a story like many others, maybe more delicate and emotive. Yet there already are so many tales of the last days of Pompeii, even similar to this… The thing is that there is so much more in here. From the very first pages, even before one could figure out where the story would go, the drawing looks rapid, approximative; almost like a sketch or a storyboard – where the imperfect lines are not erased, but adjusted, leaving the imperfection in plain site. No colours, obviously, just some quick textures for the shadows, with an overall sense of temporariness and instability. Then, the story starts to take shape: Marcus, the main character, is an assistant to a painter who is probably going to become famous and move to Rome. Marcus prepares his colours and helps him with the paintings, while forced to be complicit in the painter’s affair with a princess, that needs to be kept hidden from Alba, his suspicious partner. Marcus has a woman too, Lucia, with whom he left Paestum, where he has no intention to come back: he wants to become a portrait painter in Pompeii – just like his master – to make money and start a family with Lucia. This is the picture of everyday affections and little tensions on which the eruption of the Vesuvius occurs. Obviously, the event leaves everyone astonished. However, Marcus encourages the painter to draw that shocking event right away (while it still has to fully take place). “You can add it to the landscape commission! You’ll be the first to paint the gods in action!” he says. The idea of drawing, which was there since the beginning of the story – but, before this, only in the work of the painter – now becomes more and more relevant. Please read the complete review in English HERE. Francesco Boille wrote about Pompei for Internazionale – you can see the magazine article in Italian above. Valerio Stivè translates it into English below. Pompeii fluidly tells a story of happy every day life of two couples from different social backgrounds, before the apocalypse that happened in August of the year 79 B.C. Santoro uses almost unfinished images that remind us of so many things from the History of Art, from cave painting onwards. He focuses on the act of drawing rather than on the act of painting – as Manuele Fior points out in his afterword – which “offers itself to the reader in its most direct essence”. This serves as a metaphor of the fact that images are only shadows, ghosts of the past, just like every one of us will be someday. Sketches of life and sketches of drawings are mixed up, and Santoro reverses the intense petrified physicality of the molds produced from human bodies in Pompeii into a totally lighter dimension. Looks like Frank Santoro, in contrast to the caducity of all things, is showing that the idea of how the strength of poetry expresses itself at best in its most ethereal form, as a unique way to go beyond time and space. To the cold and conceptual approach of most of American graphic novels, Santoro prefers a European approach, based on a free, soft and aerial line. Redesigned in a such a personal way. He comes up with a masterpiece of poetry in its most pure form, a masterpiece about the idea of poetry itself; and he does that while putting together frail and incomplete fragments of an artistic greatness that once was. – Francesco Boille, for Internazionale May 2018 Simona Di Rosa wrote a review of Pompei for FuoriPosto on May 23rd 2018. Valerio Stivè translates it from Italian into English below. Premiered at Napoli COMICON, Pompeii – a graphic novel published by 001 Edizioni from Torino – is written and drawn by Frank Santoro, and set in Pompeii a few days before the eruption that destroyed the city. The book – a large softcover edition – was published in collaboration with COMICON and the Archeological Museum of Naples, which until May 31st will be hosted an exhibition of original artwork from the book. Frank Santoro resides in Pittsburgh, where he manages artists’ residencies hosting and helping fellow cartoonists. He is not well known in Italy, and yet he is among the most original voices in contemporary avant garde American comics scene, thanks to Pompeii, published in the USA five years ago. Santoro has an artisanal approach to comics making, using poor tools – mostly pencils and markers – perfect to tell a story set in the ancient Pompeii, showing its historic value while supporting a touching plot, deeply touching despite the unavoidable outcome. Please read the complete review in English HERE. Get a copy of Pompeii by Frank Santoro in English from Copacetic Comics – HERE! Also, be sure to check out Frank’s new book, the stunning Pittsburgh (Éditions çà et là, May 2018 – currently available in French only!) You can read more about the book HERE. ——————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-14-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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