Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

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Juan Fernández

Posted on October 17, 2016October 17, 2016

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TCAF 2016 | Chippendale, Mickey, Como, Marra, Minette, Jesjit

Juan FernándezJune 3, 2016Festivals and ShowsShare this page: [...]

The Hensley Interview

Chris Anthony DiazJune 1, 2016Interviews / The Diaz ArchiveTim Hensley’s SIR ALFRED NO. 3 is a tour de force in cartooning and storytelling, paying tribute to past cartoonists and comics, while also taking what came before him and yet creating a comic that is post-modern and unique. It is finally available through FANTAGRAPHICS and John Porcellino’s SPIT AND A HALF. Tim and Alvin Buenaventura did a work for the ages and added to the lore of Alfred Hitchcock and his films as well as the lore of Hensley, Buenaventura and PIGEON PRESS! as Tim stated on his TUMBLR, “They told me I could be anything I wanted… so I became a god.” This is very true that Tim became a “god”… a god of cartooning and comics storytelling that is! This short interview was conducted between March 2014 to May 2014. so, Tim beat me to the punch, completing SIR ALFRED NO. 3 and getting it out to the public, despite Alvin Buenaventura’s passing and the distribution very much in doubt, way before I finally posted this interview! This is no. 5 in a series of short interviews with writer-cartoonists that I have conducted, which began on my TUMBLR page THE SHED but now continues on COMICS WORKBOOK at THE DIAZ ARCHIVE. Tim has a TUMBLR page, which is an archive of his music and songs and writes comics articles on BLOG FLUME. Question 1: In your work, is the absurdness premeditated through the associations of your non sequitors, or do you just follow where a feeling takes you and then end up with the absurd tone in your stories? That’s sort of a chicken-egg dilemma, do I start at absurdity or arrive at absurdity, but maybe more the latter? Your use of the word “absurdness” reminds me of buying a copy of “The Theatre of the Absurd” by Martin Esslin in 1984 in a gift shop in Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. I was tagging along with one of my father’s music tours, and we ended up there on a side trip. That book was probably my first encounter with academic absurdity. From reading that, I tracked down stuff like Artaud’s “Jet of Blood” and the Andre Massin typographic version of Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano,” which might be my favorite graphic novel of all time although it is essentially fumetti. I guess that sounds pretentious, but I’m just trying to say I had been exposed to the idea of absurdity as a literary device fairly early on. But I am more interested in the feelings, whether pedestrian or not, than just a kind of Tourette’s assault. Question No. 2: Where do you get the basis creating situations for your strips on well-known figures, like Alfred Hitchcock? There’s enough truth in your situations that the fiction is very believable! From the public library. I’ve been drawing anecdotes about Alfred Hitchcock rather than a more esoteric director because there are so many easy to find books available about him. More than there are on Andre de Toth, who you were talking about at the L.A. Zine Fest, though it might be fun to do a series on famous directors with eye patches. (de Toth, John Ford, Nicholas Ray, Fritz Lang…) It is true that the more situations I draw the more they seem to conflict and become fictional. Question No. 3: What’s on tap next? Can you share any details on your latest comics project? I try to create some kind of onerous “five year plan” to follow with my comics rather than improvise, because I work full-time and am getting older and less indestructible. But I’m loathe to get into the details because someone who works at a normal pace could easily scoop me a few times over, not that I’m really doing anything that unusual. This week a bird built a nest in a crossbeam of our landing and was incessantly tapping on the window above the front door from dawn till dusk. My wife said the bird sees its reflection in the glass and taps at it because it thinks it’s an enemy. I was thinking, “Oh, that must be where ‘bird brain’ comes from,” but then realized it isn’t so different with my comics. I’m probably compulsively attacking myself to protect some transitory whorl of twigs. Or maybe I’m just trying to break the glass to see what’s inside. Question no. 4: How has music influenced your comics and vice versa? Well, comics don’t influence my music since I stopped making records 20 years ago… Both my parents are musicians so the topic’s bound to come up in my comics. Also the topic of silence or both at once. In general, I like to listen to music on headphones and in my car. Two products I’ve enjoyed recently are the Sly and the Family Stone box set Higher! and a compilation put out by Soul Jazz records called Country Soul Sisters. Question No. 5: Which past cartoonists inspire your retro-looking style? (Although I somewhat get a Chris Ware-vibe from the SIR ALFRED strips, especially the tiny four panel ones.) Currently I’m trying to combine Irving Tripp’s Tubby with Owen Fitzgerald’s Bob Hope. Share this page: [...]

Kurt Ankeny on MICE Boston 2016

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

09/07/2017

Sally IngrahamSeptember 7, 2017NewsSally here with a look at the work of Mogorosi Motshumi, and a comic by Kyle Baker, plus the final list of entries for the 2017 Comics Workbook Composition Competition. ————————————————————————————————— The page above is from part 1 of the 360 Degrees Trilogy by Mogorosi Motshumi. He is the first black South African to make a long form comic. The first part of the trilogy is The Initiation, which came out last year. Mogorosi Motshumi has led an eventful and difficult life, and comics have always been a part of how he survived. Now in his 60s and fighting failing eyesight and other illnesses, he is trying to finish as much work as he can. There’s a recent article in The New Yorker about him, providing an overview of his life and work to date. “It was around this time (the age of 9) that he started reading comic books that his older brother brought home from high school. Though some were local comics written in the colonial language of Afrikaans, he preferred American superhero comics, like “Spider-Man.” “These comics, they always had solutions,” he told me. In a comic book, evil exists, but justice prevails. Villains rise up, but heroes rise to meet them. “That is the light that you’re looking for,” he said. When policemen persecuted the Hulk, he felt vindicated in his hatred of authority. “He’d run and run and run until he could run no more, and he’d start to fight back,” Motshumi told me. “That was my kind of world.” He taught himself to draw in his grandmother’s backyard, tracing characters in the sand with his fingers.“ Read the rest of the article HERE. I’m looking for some of Motshumi’s Sloppy strips, a monthly four page comic about township life that he is best known for in South Africa, but meanwhile here’s an interesting article from 2012 about someone’s week-long trip through South Africa’s underground comics scene. The author meets Motshumi, but mostly pals around with N.D. Mazin (who also goes by Andy Mason) who is one of the cornerstones of the underground comics scene in that country. Mazin actually co-created Sloppy with Mitshumi, and it appeared in the Learn and Teach magazine…and THERE, I’ve found a strip: See the rest of the comic HERE. This comic appeared in the Learn and Teach magazine in 1986, and for context here on this blog are a number of other entries that come from the magazine at that time. ————————————————————————————————— I pulled this comic by Kyle Baker out of a dollar longbox the other day and was delighted to peruse it. Bummer that the cassette tape it once came with wasn’t around to listen to! The comic came out in 1994 and was a collaboration between Kyle Baker, hip-hop legend KRS-One, and Marshall Chess. The cassette was a live performance of the story, and included some original tracks as well. The comic itself is about a rapper named Big Joe Krash, and his younger friends Malcolm and Minasha, who are struggling with school on a number of levels. The message of the comic is about “breaking the chains” – using education and knowledge of culture and history to free the mind. I love Kyle Baker’s artwork – his lines and coloring always grabs me – so the real pleasure in this comic comes from that of course! You’re supposed to turn the page whenever you see/hear the word “WORD!” down in the corner. Fun. I found this Modern Masters Volume 20 preview on Issuu which is all about Kyle Baker and includes a lengthy interview with him. They call it a “preview” but you can pretty much read the whole thing online if your vision is good enough! Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2017 has ended. HERE is a complete list of the comics entered into the competition – 43 entries in total this year! Thanks to all the folks who entered – the winners will be announced soon. Stay tuned! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-7-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 9-7-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Simon Hanselmann Bad Gateway Tour with Joe Matt Cameo Appearance

Chris Anthony DiazAugust 14, 2019The Diaz ArchiveSimon Hanselmann Bad Gateway west coast signing tour, Green Apple on the Park, San Francisco, Friday evening, August 2, 2019 and Skylight Books, Los Angeles, Saturday evening, August 3, 2019 Share this page: [...]

10/17/2016

Posted on October 17, 2016October 17, 2016 by Juan Fernández

Juan here with updates from this weekend. Just got back to Pittsburgh and wanted to write up some thoughts off the cuff before I headed off to work. I’m exhausted but energized <3

We had a doozy of a Comics Workbook operation running full force at LICAF in Kendal and at the 2nd Annual CXC in Columbus! I joined Sacha Mardou, Alyssa Berg, Whit Taylor, Kurt Ankeny, Sally Ingraham, Caleb Orecchio and Emil Friis Ernst in Columbus. I have lots of thoughts on the bang up show that the fine folks at CXC put on. For now, I’ll share what I can!

Whit Taylor will be putting together a comprehensive Festival recap for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus later this week, so stay tuned for that! AND Frank Santoro will be reflecting on his time at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in just a bit [He’s still got to return stateside with Aidan and Connor ;)]. Things got deep for him and the rest of the crew over in the UK and you won’t want to miss those updates, loyal reader.

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First off, a HUGE thank you to everyone on the Cartoon Crossroads Staff including Jeff Smith, Vijaya Iyer, Kathleen Glosan, Lucy Caswell, Tom Spurgeon and Caitlin McGurk for all of the tireless work that they did to make this festival a unique experience for a multitude of comics reading perspectives: academics professionals, aficionados, and new readers – the team’s work has created a unique experience that offers both depth and breadth. Incredible.

Mad props to Sergio Aragonés, Carol Tyler who received the 2016 CXC Master Cartoonist awards for their lifetime work in comics – and Kevin Czapieski for their CXC Emerging Talent award. What a time to be alive in comics.

Highlights for me:

⚡Locations – The Billy Ireland is heaven on earth. The Metropolitan Library is glorious. Spacious, open spaces that look out to the treetops. I was able to breath and stay calm even at the most stressful moments of my experience.

⚡Scheduling – Smooth as silk. Attendees had oodles to choose from. Little to no double booking that prevented people from seeing all that they wanted to see.

⚡Exhibitor selection – The selection ran wide and deep, in one room. Great curatorial choices on CXC’s part.

⚡Volunteer Assistance – Always on hand to assist with tech for presentations, to get materials, to cover for people’s tables, to direct around facilities… invaluable.

I’d like to share some moments from our time in Columbus:

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Sacha Mardou presenting on composing long-form fiction at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for CXC @cartoonlibrary @msmardou #cxc2016

A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 14, 2016 at 8:21am PDT

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Alyssa Berg led a great workshop for Comics Workbook at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus today! @aaalllyyysssssa #comicsworkbook #cxc2016

A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 15, 2016 at 4:07pm PDT

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Digging right in on day 4 of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus with Kurt Ankeny's Comics Workbook session @kurtankeny #cxc2016 #comicsworkbook

A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 16, 2016 at 9:41am PDT

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LIVE at CXC!!! #comicsworkbook

A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 15, 2016 at 10:14am PDT

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Charles Burns stopped by the table at CXC to dig through the long boxes #cxc2016 #charlesburns #comicsworkbook

A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 15, 2016 at 11:25am PDT

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Thee great Chris Diaz doing what he does best. Follow @cad_pictures for inspiring photographs of America's finest cartoonists and comics makers. #comicsworkbook

A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 16, 2016 at 11:26am PDT

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Spotlight on Sacha Mardou at CXC @msmardou #cxc2016

A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 15, 2016 at 10:53am PDT

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A few more moments from Cartoon Crossroads Columbus – all-star photographer Chris Anthony Diaz, kids drawing at the CW table, Juan Fernandez digging in with a workshop attendee, and Caitlin McGurk getting Sacha Mardou's comic for the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum @cad_pictures @juan.jose.fernandez @msmardou @cartoonlibrary #cxc2016 #comicsworkbook

A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 16, 2016 at 10:14pm PDT

screen-shot-2016-10-17-at-7-56-13-am — The CW crew, packing it up at CXC (Alyssa Berg not pictured – She’s behind the camera ;))

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On the home front here in Pittsburgh, we had the 6th Annual Pittsburgh Zine Fair which saw record attendance. I’m one of the organizers of the fair, so I was overjoyed to see photos of everyone’s days over on FB and Instagram. And when I heard that we had record breaking attendance of over 700 attendees? Well, my heart just skipped a beat. Print is alive and well here in Pittsburgh. I can’t wait to join up with the rest of the organizing committee: Christina Lee, Maggie Negrete and Raiona Gaydos to debrief and start plotting and scheming for the zine fair’s next adventure.

I leave you with the view that I got, homeward bound from Columbus. Suffice to say I left with energized, ready to lean in and make some new work and teach my heart out.

until next time,
JF

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in News

Juan Fernández

Posted on October 17, 2016October 17, 2016

Explore

11/11/2016

Sally IngrahamNovember 11, 2016NewsSally here with some odds and ends as you head into the weekend! ————————————————————————————————— Spend some time today with Carol Tyler’s Soldier’s Heart (Fantagraphics, 2016) – read Annie Mok’s review of the collection via The Comics Journal. Get a copy HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Jessica Campbell was interviewed by Culture Trip this week about her new book Hot or Not: 20th-Century Male Artists (Koyama Press, 2016). “You take a lighthearted, humorous approach to your definitive sexual judgments, but your book is obviously a simultaneous commentary on a very real historical – and contemporary – issue surrounding the objectified female figure. What do you want your readers to take away from Hot or Not? My hope is that the absurdity of this idea – of gauging men’s work by their appearances – will make evident the absurdity of doing the same to women. And while I don’t really think it’s the case that women artists are discussed in terms of how “hot” they are, an artist’s appearance is not irrelevant to their careers. What gender someone presents as, race, class, sexuality, nationality all become relevant the further an artist strays from straight, white, male, etc. There are so many exhibitions where the only curatorial construct is that all of the artists are black, or women, or queer, and that doesn’t really address the problem. That further surreptitiously implies the white, male and straight as “neutral” positions and everything else as charged.“ Read the full interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— There was an interview with Liz Suburbia in Razorcake awhile back that I just stumbled across. Her book Sacred Heart was recently published by Fantagraphics. “Natalye: What specifically about zines and punk influenced your direction? Liz: I think most of all it’s been the big DIY principle of making and sharing your own shit with your friends, instead of just consuming what the culture at large is manufacturing with a bottom line in mind. It’s the idea that wanting to do something is enough—you don’t have to be at a certain skill level, you don’t have to have a certain number of people paying attention, and it doesn’t matter if it’s forgotten a year from now or if it ever gets any kind of notice or makes any money. When you’re just making a zine or writing a song or whatever for your own edification, or to share with your friends because you love them and you want to do something fun for them, it keeps you in the moment. It’s what helps us feel alive. And the freedom that comes from that can open up a space for amazing things, like art and ideas that really push boundaries and platforms for people whose voices don’t get heard otherwise. My surface aesthetic tastes are fickle, but that core world view is going to enliven and sustain me until the day I die.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Dash Shaw: “I fulfilled my fantasy of being a Classics Illustrated cartoonist by doing a short comic of Willa Cather’s “O Pioneers!” for the latest issue of The Happy Reader.” Nice one Dash! Check out a recent interview with Dash on making the film My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Jim Rugg: “I follow a lot of skateboarders and skate companies for Street Angel research. One of my favorite resources is Girl Is Not a 4 Letter Word. It’s founder, Cindy Whitehead’s goal is to give women in action sports the same opportunities and recognition as their male counterparts. She pursues that goal daily by interviewing and promoting female action sports athletes on her company’s website.“ That’s something we can definitely get behind – check out the website HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Color first. lines second #comicsworkbook A photo posted by Gabriella Tito (@gabriella.tito) on Nov 1, 2016 at 9:27am PDT Recent work by Gabriella Tito. ————————————————————————————————— Sally started an eBay store to help out the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency and also her own comics-making projects. Check it out HERE! Share this page: [...]

01/22/2016

Juan FernándezJanuary 21, 2016Newshello world, Lots of little things for you to nibble on today. Emily Carol just published her newest work Some Other Animal’s Meat on her website emcarroll.com. A quotidian tale of body horror and physical anxiety, it’s a smartly paced vertical scroll comic that breaks the story up into nine short black and white chapters. There’s an eerie calm through it all. Great stuff. Horror fans take note. Benjamin Urkowitz‘ newest comic, The Beauty Theorem is out at Hazlitt Magazine. Cheeky, spirited reflection on the rigorous, scientific study of metaphysics and its intersection with universal poetics. Heady concepts paired with goofy, cartooning and beautiful coloring. Steep yourself in it. Julian Lytle visits and chats with SPX’s Warren Bernard about forgotten Black Cartoonists, cooning, collecting comics and art, and of course SPX. So I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Warren Bernard, executive director of @spx and author of the book Cartoons for Victory. I met him at this past year’s SPX and was kind enough to invite me over to his house to see his extensive collections of comics, cartoons, and books library then to talk to me for this here show. This might be the closest to an interview I’ve done so I hope you enjoy it. Check out the blog post to see some a pic of stuff from the visit and please check out @spx if you haven’t and a link to the book. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/242740702″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] “An Art of Intervals” is raising is an upcoming art show that features the work of four young female comic artists, Abigael Puritz, Wendy Xu, Grace Passerotti, and Autumn Crossman. Showing at the Brooklyn, New York arts space, Tarot Society, from February 26th through February 28th, they hope to raise the funds to cover the cost of shipping the work to the gallery as well taking care of the expenses of opening night. Additionally, they are in the process of making new work specifically for this show to be released on the opening night. The majority of the funding will go toward collecting and publishing all of this new work in a zine that will be available both through this fundraiser and at Tarot Society for the duration of the show. Cameron Weston Nicholson has just reached the halfway mark in his fundraiser goal of $1,500 to acquire a risograph machine for selfpublishing in the RVA community. You can learn more on how to support his effort by hopping on over to his gofundme campaign. Having this printer will not only let me make a name for myself in the comics world but also be able to become a publisher in the future! I’ve got awesome ideas and big goals for my future and i want to share those possibilities with you. One major thing i can help is representation of people of color in the comic’s world. It is a goal to help push that forward. (One of the many goals) Giving the opportunity to share their stories to the world. Giving ones the chance to read this stories from beautiful people, beautiful story tellers. Once i obtain the printer I’ll have to do a few test runs to get used to the machine and get all of the kinks out. So a few months after acquiring the printer I’ll be able to open up shop for local (Virginia) jobs only. Later this year i should be able to open up shop for the US, and in the future internationally. It’s honestly going to take a lot to get that far but with your help I’ll be able to start this long journey. Share this page: [...]

11/23/2016

Juan FernándezNovember 23, 2016los Cómics / NewsJuan con un poquito sobre María Luque; Alexis Ziritt y sus comisiones en COLOR; Dea y Diego, Los Bravú; Arte Original de Vanesa R. Del Rey; Latinx Artists To Take Over Southern California Art Scene In 2017. ————————————————————————————————— Antes que todo: Amantes de los cómics, les tengo DOS preguntas: Cuales artistas latinoamericanos debemos estar leyendo en los estados unidos hoy en dia? Enseñanos las joyas de tus scenes! Latinoamérica, quien esta a la vanguardia de vuestros cómics? Dejenme sus opiniones en los commentarios! ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Hace unos días aparecío una nueva web de crítica, http://www.revistakamandi.com/. ¡Tiene muy, pero muy buena pinta! Articulos, critica y entrevistas. Hasta tiene un manifesto – para que sepas que estan serios 😉 ⚡ Buenos Aires, Argentina – Entrevista con Maria Luque Turnes: Viniendo de una formación artística, dudo que la historieta estuviera en el programa. ¿Cómo te enfrentaste al desafío de narrar dibujando? Luque: Y…al principio me asustaba un montón, me daba mucho miedo. Me acuerdo que me junté con José Sainz y le comenté que quería empezar a hacer historietas, pero que no tenía ni idea de cómo encararlo, más allá de algunas pruebas y ensayos que estaba haciendo. Yo estaba mirando Persépolis y Virus Tropical , pero nada más. José se rió un montón y me contestó: “María, de izquierda a derecha y de arriba a abajo”. También creo que todo ese desconocimiento me sirvió, porque no tenía prejuicios. Traté de no pensarlo tanto, porque si me ponía a analizar paso por paso, me congelaba. ⚡ Anda ya, dale un vistazo al mundo de Maria Luque con Amadeo Gandolfo! Jump into the nitty gritty about Luque’s first long form work, La Mano del Pintor (The Painter’s Hand): La Mano del Pintor es la primera novela gráfica de María Luque. En realidad, si nos ponemos un poco estrictos, es casi el primer comic largo publicado en gran tirada por la autora, quién viene hace años realizando fanzines de diversas longitudes, participando en recopilaciones y realizando ilustraciones para revistas y libros para niños. En primer lugar, es particular entonces su elección: primera obra en solitario editada de forma “convencional”, novela gráfica, libro, esfuerzo y lectura de largo aliento, intento en definitiva de construir a partir de ladrillos, con notoria ambición. Otro detalle: no fue serializado, sino publicado de una sola vez y concebido así, sin cortes, con los capítulos pensados como capítulos y no como episodios concatenados que luego serán combinados. Última cosa importante: fue financiado a través de un idea.me (el Kickstarter local), en una campaña que se demostró muy exitosa y seductora como ejemplo para emprendimientos similares a futuro, aunque tampoco podamos aseverar que las condiciones que lo hicieron posible sean reproducibles. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Miami, Florida Alexis Ziritt is offering color commissions again! Just 5 spots left. 1 character. 11×17 Bristol paper. Spray paint and markers. $120. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Santiago de Compostela, España: Entrevista con Los Bravú Bañate en las ideas y las imagenes del duo creativo,Los Bravú (Dea y Diego). Aïda Camprubí ha organizado esta entrevista “across the grid” – ideas flotando, esperando tu vista, very cool: Home! Entrad, entrad, que os invitan este par de guapazos, Dea y Diego, Los Bravú desde 2012. Tienen el arte en el cuerpo, frente a la cámara y tras los pinceles. Husmear en su obra gráfica, plástica y fotográfica es como encresparse el dedo índice dándole al scroll. Da igual por donde empieces, la linealidad es aleatoria y está sobrevalorada. Wi-fi gratis sin limite de megas, conéctate donde y cuando quieras, la historia habrá empezado antes de que llegues, pero tendrás delante su mejor frame. Ellos son los selectors, tú déjate mecer por el scroll. No hay que buscarle el sentido a todo, no si no quieres. ————————————————————————————————— the Still after the Storm ⚡ Los Angeles, California: The one and only, Vanesa R. Del Rey has conjured up some fantastic #Constantine original art! Available for purchase over at Cadence Comic Art. Hop on over and take a look at Vanesa’s gloriously expressive figures and study her brush work. See something you like, buy it. There’ nothing like the gift of art and there’s no one quite like Vanesa. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Latin American And Latinx Artists To Take Over Southern California Art Scene In 2017 A massive initiative will celebrate the influence of long-overlooked artists in California. This is wild and huge news over on the Huffington Post for us here in the United States: In 2017, a massive art initiative called “Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA” will explore the influence of Latin American and Latinx artists on Southern California with a sprawling series of exhibitions taking over more than 60 venues across Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego and other California destinations. The initiative will shine a spotlight on the many individuals and movements whose artistic visions traversed language barriers and geographic boundaries to share stories, challenge beliefs and create a visual vocabulary for future generations. Just as there is no typical Latin American or Latinx person, the interconnected exhibitions will show that there is no single definition of Latin American or Latinx art. In this article, arts writer, Priscilla Frank, has compiled a very small selection of the artists coming to “LA/LA” in 2017. Learn their names. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️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 tus solicitudes a: santoroschoolATgmail Share this page: [...]

08/23/2018

Caleb OrecchioAugust 23, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with more thoughts on Michael DeForge’s new book from Koyama Press, Brat. ————————————————————————————————— Earlier this week, I wrote about Michael DeForge’s “pace” as an author as well as within his comics, specifically his new book Brat, by use of the grid. Today I want to point out his use of symbolic imagery and repetition. Every character is a symbol. Brat’s “protagonist,” Ms. D is the character in the two non-sequential images above. The tippy top image is her most basic character model while the image beneath is a distorted version of this, an exaggeration. The exaggeration calls attention to itself by being “off-model” and communicates a more extreme than usual emotion. Ms. D is very angry and DeForge communicates this in a simplistic way as you can see. Below is another example of distortion where D’s face gradually distorts from panel to panel to communicate restrained frustration while talking to her mother. The distortion is not over-exaggerated right away in the immediate page below, but our memory of D’s uncomplicated model is ingrained in our head so we can’t help but notice a change. It’s kind of a subtle-not-subtle approach to emotion that the reader picks up on immediately as a visual cue due to the simplicity of the character model (and the dialogue). As DeForge moves us through space, we see cars, building, trees, etc. All these elements are rendered in their simplest symbolic form. They draw little attention to themselves while still communicating a sense of place and a sense of visual pleasure. They serve their purpose without taking over. Repetition is also key to DeForge’s storytelling. Repetition of the grid, repetition of character models, repetition repetition. This patterin-ing of information creates a nice beat as all grids do, but the pattern of symbol-based images adds to the smooth rhythm of the book. Maybe “adds” is not the right term. The rhythm sustained by repetition minimizes the effort the reader has to extend. It’s “easy” to read. And when you add the fact that every object is recognized immediately, the reading is immensely pleasurable. After a while you are not aware you are reading. You just are. That’s what I’m getting at, Brat (and all of DeForge’s work) is pleasurable to look at and read. The combination of sparse symbolic information, the grid and the repetition of these elements is a combination that gets to the heart of comics. It’s a pattern that creates a rhythm that the reader can get lost in. From what I can tell, DeForge just keeps jogging along in no rush to reach some transcendental finish-line of the mind that others may expect or have expected in the past. He steadily continues to run at his own pace thank God. ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 8-23-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/10/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 10, 2017NewsA report from PIX! plus a few other comics happenings to start your week. ————————————————————————————————— Sally here, still riding the wave of the Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo – I’m writing this after midnight at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse, where Connor Willumsen is holding court with some of the CW crew, and Anya Davidson and Lale Westvind are on their way over to close out the night. The comics community in Pittsburgh just keeps on getting stronger. This year PIX took place right in the triangle of downtown. The expo at the August Wilson Center was well attended, the ToonSeum was packed out the night before for the opening of Ed Piskor’s “Hermetically Sealed” art show and then throughout the day on Sunday as programs and panels took place there. Comics Workbook students and instructors led workshops around the corner at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council building for local kids and adults alike, and hosted a talk by Carol Tyler, and a conversation with Connor Willumsen and Lale Westvind. It was warm and sunny where the three rivers of Pittsburgh meet, and the comics energy managed to lure away, or at least detour, some of the anime characters attending a nearby convention, as well as a few baseball fans from the Pirates game! Shown above from left to right, top to bottom…Connor Willumsen sewing a new comic together at his table; the “Do-be-do” workshop for kids led by Juan Fernandez; a Pittsburgh Comics Salon workshop; in front of the August Wilson Center; Lale Westvind in conversation; Bill Boichel purchasing an original art page from Anya Davidson’s Lovers In the Garden, with Lane Milburn and Lale Westvind looking on; Carol Tyler talking comics-making; Connor Willumsen doing the same; Carol Tyler’s workshop. Just a small sampling of what was going on and a tiny glimpse of who was there – more to come! ————————————————————————————————— Elsewhere New in the Diaz Archive – photos from Michael DeForge‘s Sticks Angelica tour, thanks to Chris Anthony Diaz! 11 O’Clock Comics has a great interview with Jim Rugg – check it out HERE. Street Angel: After School Kung Fu Special will be released April 26th 2017! Sequential State reviews Lale Westvind‘s Yazar & Arkadaş – HERE. Seth has a new show at the Richmond Art Gallery – April 9, 2017 – June 25, 2017 – which combines his comics with the music of Mark Haney. Details HERE. Pictures of Seth and the show can be found HERE. The Comics Beat has notes on a conversation between Frank Miller and Klaus Janson (remembering Will Eisner) which took place last week at the SVA Theater. There is a lengthy interview with Vanessa Davis over on The Comics Journal – check it out. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-10-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-9-2017 & 4-10-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-10-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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