Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Juan Fernández

Posted on October 19, 2016October 19, 2016

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05/02/2016

Juan FernándezMay 2, 2016NewsMaggie Sutrov’s plein air comics, Dan Nadel chronicles Paper Radio; Clean Sweep; Creators For Creators; Koyama Press in the news; Rokudenashiko; Jason Moran; Remembering Harold Cohen. ————————————————————————————————— New Comics – Maggie Sutrov Comics Workbook is featuring a collection of comics drawn and painted by teacher and artist, Maggie Sutrov this week. Made on site and in the moment, these comics represent an under-examined mode of comics making. Join Maggie for a walk on the page. Here’s hoping her work gets you inspired to make observational comics of your own. Check it out here! ————————————————————————————————— Inside front cover of Christopher Forgues’s Low Tide #5, November 2001. Punk and Hippie Dan Nadel has put together a killer reflection on the collaborative work Ben Jones and Christopher Forgues(CF) did as Paper Radio over on Art in America. It’s something else. A Comics Comics boomerang that smacks you hard across the face. Nadel explores the roots of their comics, growing up in Massachusetts, subversive fan fiction, and the monumental impact of their short lived collaboration in the early 2000s. So many great details in this piece: Jones and Forgues found their own ways into making comics, but neither made a hierarchical distinction between mediums.Everything was fair game, except perhaps the remote-seeming New York art world. As Forgues recalls, “The idea of being an artist seemed absurd.” The venues, audiences, and markets for gallery art appeared totally foreign. “I’m going to do an installation? Where? I’m gonna paint on canvas? How? Where am I gonna show? At a coffee shop? Art seemed like the past, and a zine was the present and tangible . . . a way to proceed.” And this one: Both Jones and Forgues drew, as they still do, in pencil, which was unheard of at the time in professional circles but appropriate for Paper Radio’s primary printing technique: photocopying. Without the need for the photostat process by which older comics were created, there’s no need for ink. They produced flat and open figures through their airy, calligraphic approach. Paper Radio never attempted illusionistic realism; instead, the drawings invite projection from readers, which the artists saw as a way of initiating an intimate exchange with their audience. As Forgues puts it, “I was thinking about how to make this work with the least amount of stuff possible. That sounds easy or lazy, but it’s actually incredibly hard. The whole mission of cartooning is, with a few lines, to bring something across that’s real in the mind. The whole magic of what it is to represent something on a surface. The space is there, and you fill it with your brain.” By foregrounding, and deepening, the interaction that happens in all kinds of reading, Forgues and Jones understood Paper Radio as connected to performance, which was integral to so much of the culture pouring out of Fort Thunder. Read it all here on Art in America. ————————————————————————————————— Clean Sweep CF has released 3 new works that you don’t want to sleep on: THERMAL PRINTED RECEIPT MAGAZINES PRINTED ON 25ft LONG BPA FREE PAPER Dumb, beautiful and soon to be out of stock. CF takes on the scroll. Minds are sure to melt. See what it’s all about over on the Free-CF site. ————————————————————————————————— A Neo-Xeric Grant Image Comics and Iron Circus Comics have teamed up to create the Creators For Creators grant. Seems like good stuff for makers who feel they have the chops to get a big break from two independent publishing powerhouses. The goal of the Creators for Creators grant is to help pave the way for the next generation of comics creators by supporting their work financially and through mentorship, as well as providing opportunities for their creations to reach a wide audience. We plan to give $30,000 to a single cartoonist or writer/artist duo in order to support the creation of a new and original work of a length between sixty-four and one hundred pages over the course of a single year. The recipient will be selected by committee according to rigorous criteria. Submissions opened yesterday. Learn more here. ————————————————————————————————— Koyama Corner Koyama Press has been featured in the culture section of FADER, the music magazine. It’s great to see Koyama Press, and Annie in particular, getting profiled for audiences outside of comics circles. Zainab Akhtar puts together a nice profile of the publisher for folks outside of the very comics publishing bubble that Koyama press has spent it’s existence trying to bust. From the article, here’s Michael Deforge on Annie Koyama: “She was a comics reader, but Koyama Press didn’t start out primarily as a comics publisher, so she didn’t have that weird, insular point of view that some people who’ve spent too long in comics can develop,” says DeForge. “She didn’t have preconceived notions about what a ‘proper’ comic looked like, what a sellable one looked like, or the formats they should be printed in.” Check it all out here. MANKO MANKO MANKO Robert Kirby takes a good look at Koyama Press’ What is Obscenity by Rokudenashiko over on The Comics Journal. It’s great to see this book make it through people’s hands and gain momentum as a vessel for Rokudenshiko’s thoughts and experiences as a Japanese woman. Ultimately, Rokudenashiko’s greatest weapon is her refusal to capitulate to the attempts at belittling and dismissing her: when she claims “Rokudenashiko”/”Good for Nothing”, as as her own, she ties herself to a long and noble activist tradition of reappropriation (for example, feminists reclaiming “bitch,” to express strength and independence, and the LGBT community’s use of “Queer” to connote solidarity among its different factions and to state opposition to sexual binaries). Also, she tells us, “I’ve always liked to fight.” The fact that the authorities prove utterly clueless about crowdfunding, among many other things, only strengthens her resolve and defiance. Read it all on The Comics Journal. ————————————————————————————————— STAGED in NYC The work of musician/composer/artist Jason Moran is being exhibited in Bushwick gallery, Luhring Augustine through July 30th. Moran’s work links music and visual art in a way that deeply explores racial entanglements in American cultural production. This exhibition is an especially notable one for how it explores the flow of music through space and time via architecture and the performance of remembered music. It’s jaw dropping stuff. STAGED will include a range of objects and works on paper, including two large-scale sculptures featuring audio from Moran’s STAGED series that were recently exhibited in the 56th Biennale di Venezia. Based on two historic New York City jazz venues that no longer exist (the Savoy Ballroom and the Three Deuces), the sculptures are hybrids of reconstructions and imaginings. Works on paper and smaller objects will be in dialogue with the stage sculptures on many levels: citing performance and process, employing sound, and exploiting the visual history of jazz in America. It’s interesting to see how the history of Jazz is treated in the world of fine Art, when it’s not just seen as an ancillary development to the narrative of arts movements. It’s really striking when Jason speaks in the above video about the role and Jason Moran’s body of work speaks to how the music transforms from healing to hurt. Makes you think. ————————————————————————————————— Harold Cohen Has Passed Away Last week, on the 27th of April, code artist, Harold Cohen, passed away at age 88. Cohen, a computer scientist and artist, developed AARON, code which could generate unique visual compositions autonomously in 1973, starting with abstract and later with more representational subjects. Interestingly in the 1990s, Cohen’s compositions were translated to the physical realm, drawn and painted by plotters onto canvas. The blog, Prosthetic Knowledge, has a good look at his AI and its evolution for those interested in his legacy. ————————————————————————————————— That’s all for today. Until next time. Stay dry. Share this page: [...]

11/06/2018

Aaron CockleNovember 6, 2018NewsVote Aquí; Art of Native America; Comic Arts Brooklyn Panels ————————————————————————————————— A Brief History of Bilingual Voting José -Luis Olivares at Popula. ————————————————————————————————— Art of Native America At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 4, 2018-October 6, 2019. This landmark exhibition in the Museum’s American Wing showcases 116 masterworks representing the achievements of artists from more than fifty cultures across North America. Ranging in date from the second to the early twentieth century, the diverse works are promised gifts, donations, and loans to The Met from the pioneering collectors Charles and Valerie Diker. Long considered to be the most significant holdings of historical Native American art in private hands, the Diker Collection has particular strengths in sculpture from British Columbia and Alaska, California baskets, pottery from southwestern pueblos, Plains drawings and regalia, and rare accessories from the eastern Woodlands. ————————————————————————————————— Comic Arts Brooklyn 2018 The CAB show is this Sundayn November 11, here is some info about the panels and additional events: ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

02/24/2016

Juan FernándezFebruary 24, 2016NewsLet’s start off with some good news in light of all the essential discussions about the history of women involved in the comics art form! Comix Creatrix: 100 Women Making Comics, a new exhibition at the House of Illustration has opened its doors and will be open to the public until the 15th of May. The exhibition features the work of Tove Jansson, Jackie Ormes, Marjane Satrapi, June Tarpé Mills and so many more. An unmissable exhibition, really. Wish I was in the UK for this! Intelligent Life Magazine and The Guardian both have articles you should check out about the show that might help you dip a little deeper into how very real women’s role in the history of comics medium has been. – Portland’s Floating World Comics has published their 2015 sales report, juicy details and all. Get the inside scoop here. There’s been a lot of talk about Marvel and DC dropping the ball or missing the mark creatively. Licensed books and superheroes make up the majority of the 10,000 different titles we carry, but only one cracked the top 25. Are they making the best books they can? Are their hands tied? Do they care? Marvel and DC are corporate employers that offer creators steady pay and benefits. Image doesn’t offer a page rate, a book has to sell over 3000-5000 copies to make it sustainable. (Usagi Yojimbo sells just under 5000 copies). But many of the best writers have reached a level of success where they can afford to take the freelance, creator owned route. It’s complicated because all these things are connected in the direct market. There’s a much larger, diverse selection of good books to sell compared to when I started the store 10 years ago. But Marvel and DC are still the backbone of most shops even if they’re producing the least interesting material. – Big news for daily comics publishing: The Nib relaunches. It’ll be over at First Look Media. After it’s departure from Medium it is changing form to satisfy the kaleidoscope of digital platform usage habits of modern comics readers. Read more about the future of the Nib here. “Joining First Look Media is a fantastic evolution for The Nib, ” said Bors. “We’re going to expand our lineup and offerings. The Nib won’t be confined to just one online destination, but will deliver comics where readers want to see them – whether through our re-launched website, on social media or in their inboxes every morning.” – Kim Jooha‘s writtten a short, insightful piece on Deep Valley, Jean-Philippe Bretin‘s latest effort. Read it over at Good (art) comics. While there are about a dozen panels over a spread of two pages, like familiar comics, plentiful panels are enlarged so that we see a panel over a page or even a spread. As this large drawing appears, we confront the enormous space with the depth, compared to the flat page with panels. Even a blank panel with nothing inside possesses some physical weight. Sometimes the panel itself (not just the boundary) is twisted so that the space in that panel is contorted. After facing the vast space, we encounter a page with several panels and dynamic and crowded lines of different panels stand out. – Alex Hoffman reviews Mickey Z’s dealing with Winter zine, a fun, fast and loose themed comics anthology. Check out and see what Hoffman thinks over at Sequential State. My stray thought on DEALING WITH WINTER zine is how it feels like a self-portrait of Zacchilli, in the sense that the things that comprise the anthology are also the things that Zacchilli focuses on in personal work. There’s a strong component of mark-making and frenetic energy throughout the book. The off-the wall and/or wry humor in the book also feels a lot like the humor Zacchilli includes in RAV. And I think I like it more for that reason. The anthology feels directed, maybe not completely successfully, but it doesn’t feel slap-dash. – Last but not least I want to point out a wonderful piece of critical theory by Kevin Yuen Kit Lo. Kevin focuses on the recent Pantone Colour of the year choice and explores the of the color pair’s rise as aesthetic form and how it exemplifies just another instance of capital’s sublimation of rebel forms for profit. It’s an old story, yeah, but it’s one that bears repeating. Sit down and have a read. Beyond filling corporate coffers on the backs of subcultural labour, the truly grievous effect is the erasure of a critical aesthetic tool from the subculture and its associated social movements. It blunts the critical teeth of the colours’ usage within these contexts and undermines the visual self-representation, self-determination, and autonomy of these subcultural groups. Joyous, rebellious anger is being cynically muted into a gentle, weightless calm by designers everywhere, blindly following the authority of Pantone’s proclamations. Share this page: [...]

12/01/2016

Sam OmbiriDecember 1, 2016NewsToday we have Sam Ombiri with a new comic and his thoughts on rereading, Tyler Landry on the movement in Ronald Wimberly’s comic page layouts, new work by Chris Visions and Tanna Tucker, the POW! Womxn in Comics and Illustration exhibition, details on pre-ordering “The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey” and your Santoro Correspondence Course reminder, plus the latest “Suzy and Cecil” strip. ————————————————————————————————— ReRun – Sam Ombiri Someone told me that, to them, rereading is like dreaming a dream you’ve had before. This person said it to me like it was something she often did. I’ve never experienced anything like that, where I have a “rerun” of a dream. I could relate to the idea of rereading being like revising a place you’ve been before. I don’t think I can come up with one specific motivation behind rereading. It’s something people do with different motivations. Sometimes rereading is like visiting a place, a kind of copy of the original moment, with intentions maybe of recreating the original feeling. Sometimes (while engaging with work in this manner) I find that I skip ahead to the best parts, then I feel like I’m betraying the re-creation, or maybe the form? I don’t know, but I feel like I’m doing something wrong. Sometimes it’s very fulfilling to read in this manner (of recreating the first reading), and sometimes reading work this way just ruins things. It can get really boring to just validate established feelings. Like really really really really boring. Or maybe not boring, just very bland. I think that’s why my short attention span kicks in, and I flip through mindlessly. Sometimes after going through this I reproach rereading and suddenly what I’m reading is not “ruined”. It’s like if you can be anywhere you want but it’s too dissatisfying and too easy to be everywhere, so any moment you encounter ends up feeling like…unearned? Kind of like how easy it is to get information now. So then it helps to navigate more delicately (that’s probably the wrong word). – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Tyler Landry here. Gonna talk about movement in comics page layouts, via the highly energetic work of Ronald Wimberly. Sequences are nabbed from Prince of Cats. Check it out: This sequence shows the beginning of a violent altercation, with heavily weighted forward (left to right) movement, bringing your eye ever-closer to the focus, the point, the unmistakable K-T-T-T- sound of a box-cutter blade being pushed up… At a glance, there’s a powerful “X” slash through this sequence. Corner to corner, face to action/face to action, crossing through the attacker’s antic. We can also interpret, by the facing direction, and the trajectory of character movement, an intention on Ronald’s part to guide our eye along certain lines. Through the 3 horizontal strips, we feel a rhythm to this motion as well – perfectly paced out in corresponding measures. Pink > blue, pink > blue, pink > bl-blue. This next sequence acts like a ball, thrown across the page at first, then bouncing from one figure to another – still with diligent respect for a vertical stack of horizontal movement. I’ve focused mostly on characters, because they are the primarily active elements here, but this sequence leverages the content of its backgrounds beautifully for the assist. Check out the train across the top panels, then the view of the platform in bright yellow in the middle section, hauling your eye heavily towards the bottom right chunk, where tension has been building. The details get smaller, tighter, more condensed, helping you FEEL that something’s about to go down. Different groupings of characters take on different palettes, and different tones to reinforce their presence, and to balance them against each other and their background content. – Tyler Landry ————————————————————————————————— Sally Ingraham here with the news bites! While we’re on the topic, get a copy of Ronald Wimberly’s Prince of Cats from Copacetic Comics (it’s not listed on the website yet, but you can order one over the phone – I can personally vouch for copies of the book being in the shop!) From a recent NPR write-up on the book: “…Wimberly is out to do something more than just combine elements from two compatible genres. He’s clearly aiming to translate the mechanics of hip hop composition into a visual form. In Prince of Cats‘ introduction, University of California media professor John Jennings calls Wimberly a “See-Jay:” Wielding his pen the way a DJ mixes, he mashes up wildly diverse elements into a fresh creation.” – Etelka Lehoczky for NPR.org Read the rest of the review HERE. ————————————————————————————————— If you’re in the Oakland, CA, area be sure to check out the POW! Womxn in Comics & Illustration exhibition at Studio Grand. The opening reception is Dec. 2nd 2016. From the exhibition description: “Comics and illustrations have long been a popular art form, intended to reach the masses. They easily engage audiences by the use of humor, cliffhanging narratives, relatable stories, all through captivating visual narratives. Comics and illustrations have often portrayed womxn in a hyper-sexualized manner and have not shown more developed female characters. Much of this is due to the comic book industry which has historically profiled work written and created by men. POW! seeks to center womxn comics and illustrators who hold the pen and the narrative. This Exhibition centers stories that concern womxn comics and illustrators offering transformative narratives, one where women characters—speaking of mental health struggles, struggles of poverty and survival, isolation, resiliency, sisterhood—are at the forefront. The POW! Exhibition and accompanying events offer a nurturing space of solidarity and healing, letting womxn know that they are not alone in their struggles and resiliency.“ Check out the list of exhibitors HERE. I heard about the event from Tanna Tucker, an illustrator who is turning her focus increasingly towards comics. (She may join us in Pittsburgh next spring for a Rowhouse Residency!) Her recent ongoing projects include a 7-part fantasy comic with Mark Turner and Orpheus Forge Studios called Sea Wulfe – you can check it out HERE. Here’s an “excerpt” from Tanna’s piece at the POW! exhibition: Come see this piece in its entirety next week at the “POW! Womxn in Comics + Illustration” show next Friday @studiograndoakland Listened to Solange the whole way……. • • • • #womxnincomicsandillustration #afrofuturism #comics #illustration #artistsoninstagram #studiogrand #solange #wip A video posted by @t.ann.a on Nov 23, 2016 at 7:44pm PST ————————————————————————————————— Here’s Chris Visions dropping that hot fire! Gotta get back, back to the past– // ChrisVisions.BIGcartel.com, coming tomorrow! // #samuraijack #aku #red #art #comics #process #wip #ink A video posted by Chris Visions (@chrisvisions) on Nov 30, 2016 at 6:19pm PST Follow this link to get yourself one of these “visions in red” but don’t sleep on this – these pages are selling out fast. ————————————————————————————————— Thee great Vanesa R. Del Rey has generously agreed to let Comics Workbook publish selections from her sketchbooks. We designed it to look like a 1980’s comic book artist’s art book. The text is a transcription of an interview she did at The Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency in 2016. Vanesa is a once in a lifetime talent who studied with George Pratt and who has worked with Grant Morrison. We are offering pre-orders now at a lower price than we will be offering the book for in the new year. Great stocking stuffer. Pre-order your copy of The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey HERE! ————————————————————————————————— December 1st! That means you have 13 days left to get an application in for the Winter term of the Correspondence Course if you want that sweet “$100 off” discount! More details below. The Winter Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts Dec. 29th 2016! 8 week course – 500 bux – 10 spots available – apply by Dec. 13th 2016 and get $100 off course fee! More details can be found HERE – or email santoroschoolATgmail. 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 small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls -specific url links to any comics work you have done. Send applications to: santoroschoolATgmail ————————————————————————————————— The latest Suzy and Cecil strip by Gabriella Tito! Suzy and Cecil is a collaborative daily comic strip project based on characters invented by Bill Boichel and Frank Santoro. It is primarily drawn by Gabriella Tito and Sally Ingraham, who are teammates in the Comics Workbook Roller Derby League. The strip is part of their continuing development as cartoonists – follow @suzy_and_cecil on Instagram to see the project unfold and keep an eye out for guest strips drawn by other Comics Workbook students and friends! 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10/10/2018

Juan FernándezOctober 10, 2018NewsJuan here. It’s been a while since we talked. Here’s hoping you’re having a good day so far. I’m here in Pittsburgh getting ready for what is looking to be like a fun, doozy of a weekend. Before I dive back into that work I’d like to step back and reflect on this year’s Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC). For anyone wondering about CXC, it was a blast. I’m not one to write much, but as I’ve mentioned before, CXC is on track to becoming America’s Angoulême. A festival that uses the entire city as campus. Accessible, free and intergenerational. Sales and the marketplace, while important, take a back seat to human connection. Something that I love about this show is that amidst all the programming, there’s time for you to get what you need from Columbus. I knew of people hitting the bars, going to nature preserves, visiting nearby family. I got to do my thing and celebrate the new release of a new Magic the Gathering set, Guilds of Ravnica by playing in two, that’s right TWO, tournaments, On the educational front, Comics Workbook led three workshops. Each workshop was packed, a full house. We handed out our new workbook zine and led attendees through the activities therein. We couldn’t have asked for a better host than CXC. They promoted our work really well, provided us with a great workshop space and they brought out Columbus’ aspiring comics makers in droves. At our table I played around with folks making some jumbo sized jam comics on easels. Through playful activities, each person who stopped by to draw was getting a free comics fundamentals lesson. I love being able to use play to invite reluctant or shy makers to open up and see what they can do. I couldn’t have asked for a better table mate than Caleb. He led his own workshop, got me some food when I was famished, sold our comics and zines left and right and collaborated with attendees at our activity table. Here’s the nitty gritty: I drove in Friday evening and drove back to Pittsburgh Sunday night with Caleb Orecchio. SATURDAY: Friday night I slid into Columbus at 11:55pm, after driving straight from work in Pittsburgh. I arrived just in time to register for the midnight prerelease at lovely gaming store, the Guardtower. I played magic until 6:45am, 5 rounds of matches, 4 wins, 1 loss. It was a blast. As the sun was rising I zipped over to the hostel where I was staying, freshened up, got some breakfast and then met my trusty sidekick for the weekend, Caleb Orecchio at the Columbus Metropolitan Library. We set up our spots, one table for sales and another for collaborative drawing activities with attendees. I downed some coffee, caught up with Caleb and in no time the library filled up with attendees. We were off to the races. The day zipped by, a sea of new faces and a welcoming stream of old friends from across the country. It was nice to catch up with folks left and right. I had the pleasure of meeting Maggie Umber, Feña, Breena Nuñez Peralta and Annie Koyama and catching up with Iona Fox, Whit Taylor, Kat Fajardo, and Kurt Ankeny on the expo floor. The day raced by and we wrapped up by 5pm, I wolfed down a salad from the library cafe and debated going to sleep or playing in another magic tournament. Of course, I went to play in another tournament. That one, didn’t go so well, as the lack of sleep was really getting to me. Thankfully it was a team format where two players collaboratively built decks and faced off against another teams. Thanks to Carl from Columbus for holding my hand through the crazy combat math at the end of the night. Tournament over, I drove home to the hostel, slightly delirious, and konked out. SUNDAY: I was up and at ‘em at 8:30 and I got ready for Richie Pope’s talk with William Evans at the Columbus Museum of Art. Great venue, great talk and a great crowd. I have to admit that I’ve been sleeping on Richie. What a fool I’ve been. Through the internet I’ve seen comics by him here and there and his work has come through Copacetic enough for me to read and appreciate. I had recently read “The Box We Sit On” and had slightly lost my mind for how great of a comic it was. It was a joy to see this conversation where strands of his work were woven together to create this portrait of a complex, inviting body of work. To see Richie’s calm, fluid and excited way of talking about all of it, what a gift. What a titan. What an excellent maker. The way that he weaves personal symbology, playful lines, smart color palettes, humor and poetry… A Richie Pope appreciation post is to come in the near future. What an inspiring guy… After that, it was back to the library for day 2 of sales and workshops. After that, it was time to wrap up and head back home to Pittsburgh. But not without getting a drink with Ron Wimberly. to catch up and weave together a bunch of ideas. There’s few people I have more fun talking to in comics than Ron. People flowed in and out of our conversation and it was nice to feel the flow of it all. We talked about the greatness of Richie Pope, food as the highest art form, language/ guilt symbol transmission stuff, personal comics making processes, art and labor, 9/11, memes, the French origins of critical theory, tumblr and more. it was really nice to talk with everyone, together. Caleb and I hit the road and we were back in Pittsburgh around 1am. Thank you as always to Tom Spurgeon for directing yet another great show. Thank you to the Board and everyone involved at all the different venues. And of course thank you to Lucy Caswell, without whom none of this would exit. You make cartoonists feel appreciated which is hard to do. Thanks. So, what’s coming up in Pittsburgh? Well, in between the the constraints of time imposed by my day-job I’ve been trying to get all the ducks in a row for the Pittsburgh Zine Fair and the IDEA FACTORY, a fun concept that will be part of Rube Fest, the festival to celebrate the opening of the Children’s Museum’s new exhibit, Rube Goldberg™: The World of Hilarious Invention! Artists are taking over parts of the Museum where guest inventors, artists and activities will inspire visitor’s vision and put their problem-solving skills to the test. I was asked to come up with a performance style workshop that playfully celebrated the limitless capacities for invention that paper and pencil allowed. To this effect we will be having a wacky patent office where children will be invited to work with local cartoonists to turn inventions that they’ve drawn into jumbo sized blue-prints that they’ll be able to take home. It’s been fun wrangling a crew of regular Pittsburgh Comics Salon attendees to run this activity. Come Sunday, zines will be pouring out of the Union Project! That’s right, it’s time for the Eighth Annual Pittsburgh Zine Fair. I’ll have a recap of that next week. As one of the primary organizers of the fair I have to make sure things go smoothly so I need to hop to it. Photos of Rube Fest and the Zine Fair to come. In the meantime check out that poster by the great Christina Lee! Perfection. For now, I’m off to get all those ducks in a row! over and out, juan 10/10/2018 – by Niall Breen 10/10/2018 – by Fifi Martinez Share this page: [...]

10/19/2016

Posted on October 19, 2016October 19, 2016 by Juan Fernández

Juan con un poquito sobre: las aventuras de Daniel Jiménez, La llegada de La Liga Zine Fest y Gerardo Vilches sobre «Animal Collective»!

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⚡Daniel Jiménez escribe sobre sus experiencias como gestor y editor.

En mi cabeza, después de diez años de vaivenes al frente de la revista Larva y siete dirigiendo el Festival Entreviñetas, una palabra se levanta como trampolín para abreviar la distancia entre tantos aprendizajes y errores: terquedad. Y es esa misma palabra la que me sirve para abrazar todas las expectativas e ideas (muchas de ellas inconclusas) acerca de eso que llamamos industrias culturales o, para irse más lejos y abrazar ancho, economía creativa.

En Colombia, el ejercicio constante, decidido y sensible de la gestión cultural es un terreno escabroso, mutante e incómodo, que requiere una combinación kamikaze de valentía y velocidad, de osadía y tentación por el fracaso. La administración de la industria cultural, con todo y su aura de inspiración y seducción, cuenta con una financiación escasa, poca capacitación, reducidos interlocutores, una malinterpretación de la acción cultural en muchos niveles, un parco prestigio y ligerísimos apoyos privados que, en gran medida, solo funcionan dentro de la acostumbrada lógica de la “palanca”.

⚡La Liga – Zine Fest en NYC
✿FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTING LATINX ZINE MAKERS✿
in conjuction with New Latin Wave 2016
www.newlatinwave.com

Quien estará?
La Liga Zine, Purple Pony, Stephanie Rodriguez Comics, La Chamba Press, No Shame Distro, Sula Collective, Kat Fajardo, Jenoris Caba , Tijuana Zine Fest, nico acosta, Cósmica

La Liga es una plataforma en línea que muestra las muchas maneras por las cuales lxs latinxs/chicanxs/latinoamericanxs están diseccionando sus identidades culturales a través de diferentes medios de autoexpresión. Tratamos de resaltar como des-occidentalizan las diferentes areas de la vida. Además, reconocemos que la latinidad es una construcción social y que la comunidad latinx no es un monolito y por lo tanto tratamos de subrayar su diversidad.

⚡Gerardo Vilches visita «Animal Collective», en Madrid.

El pasado 29 de septiembre se inauguró en el Centro Centro de Cibeles de Madrid una exposición titulada«Animal Collective», comisariada por César Sánchez y Alberto García Marcos de la editorial Fulgencio Pimentel. Se trata de una panorámica del cómic de vanguardia y la autoedición del continente europeo, que pude visitar el pasado martes por la mañana, aprovechando que en ese momento no suele haber muchos visitantes. En los siguientes párrafos os cuento mis impresiones. Las fotografías que aparecen son mías —y se nota; pido perdón por la pésima calidad, pero espero que al menos sirvan para que os hagáis una idea de la exposición.

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Echa un vistazo a este medallón estilo Pompeii!

“Le encargué a la gran Airi Maeno que hiciera unos medallones de plata con sede fuera de mis dibujos. Este dibujo viende de mi libro Pompeii. Es algo que puedo imaginar que alguien se pondría hace dos mil años. Un simple medallón de un ser querido. Un retrato. Algo permanente para desafiar a la desaparición”. – Frank Santoro

Puedes comprar uno aquí!

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, News

Juan Fernández

Posted on October 19, 2016October 19, 2016

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Juan FernándezOctober 19, 2019Festivals and Shows / Newshello! This is just a little smoke signal to let you know we are tending well, but quietly, to the fire over here in the Comics Workbook hearth. It’s been a BUSY fall IRL with workshops at SPX and CXC. You can catch us at Comic Arts Brooklyn, November 2nd. We’ll be slingling rare back issues, wild art books and wonky zines + new comics by the Comics Workbook crew. Stop on by for some surprise NYC guests at our table. Big picture-wise: We’ll be back soon with some robust regular comics and writing. For now though, I’m finishing some unfinished non-comics business, disentangling some wicked knots in my life. All is well. I’m just laying low before powering the signals up to 11. Ever wanted some CW merch? Something neat is on it’s way ;^) If you’d like to write reflections on comics, comics making process or comics pedagogy, please email me at juan@comicsworkbook.com – we pay. I’d be happy to talk more at length. Simply send me a line. take good care of yours selves until we next meet on the internet or IRL. yours in visual language, juan Share this page: [...]

Summer 2016 Rowhouse Update

Juan FernándezJuly 29, 2016School UpdatesShare this page: [...]

01/04/2018

Sally IngrahamJanuary 3, 2018NewsSally here with work by Laércio George Mabota, Djialeu Martial Ngande, and many other African cartoonists! ————————————————————————————————— I recently found a new database that I’ve been digging into – the Africa Cartoons: Encyclopedia of African Political Cartooning. It is being built by Tejumola Olaniyan, who is the Louise Durham Mead professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is originally from Nigeria, and his interests in African diaspora have led him write numerous books on music, literature, drama, and cultural identity. Somehow these interests also condensed into the desire to build this database, which lists 180 cartoonists from many African countries, and aims to represent the entire continent eventually. The artist whose work is represented above is Laércio George Mabota, a cartoonist from Mozambique. According to an article in The African, written when some of his work was featured at the Studio Museum in Harlem, his comics often feature “a braided, warrior-heroine in action packed panels that are as reminiscent of D.C. and Marvel comics as is the cross-hatching shadow technique in which the artist rendered her. As the heroine fights against marauders one can see that even this piece can be easily placed in the wider thematic interplay of justice/injustice prevalent in the exhibition.” Here’s another piece by Mabota that was featured on the Africa Cartoons database: Explore Africa Cartoons and discover more great comics artists – HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Africa Cartoons led me to Africa Comics, and the Africa e Mediterraneo Award for best unpublished comic strip by an African author (an award that Laércio George Mabota has won). This project operates within Italy and the African continent, offering workshops and lectures in schools in addition to the award. The award has been given out between 2002-2015, and I hope it will continue, as it gives the award winners an introduction to the European comics market. You can see the list of winners HERE – and some of the comics that won are featured and written about. Mabota’s strip Metamorphos da arte is featured HERE. A winner of the 2011-2013 award, first prize in the “Food Sovereignty” category, was this comic by Cameroonian cartoonist Djialeu Martial Ngande: The title translates from the French to For a history of plantain – the story is described thus: A man in a village is sent by his angry wife to look for food. He goes to the banana orchard, where he sees a man who has just taken a bunch of bananas: he threatens him and makes him carry the bananas back to his place.“ Read the rest of the story HERE. Be sure to check out this whole website – lots of really interesting stuff here, and especially interesting to me because these comics definitely have more of an “underground” feel to them. They’re each 4 pages long as well, which provides a more complete look at the work of these artists than I’ve chanced upon in my internet searches. ————————————————————————————————— I can across an article by MariNaomi in Issue 4 of Midnight Breakfast, which is about Writing People of Color (if you happen to be a person of another color). It is a good read, with interjections and digressions in comics form, and finishing with comics and bits of advice from a number of other artists, including Yumi Sakugawa, Keith Knight, Whit Taylor, and Maré Odomo. Read the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 16th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. His experience and ideas have influenced the likes of Connor Willumsen, Michael DeForge, and Simon Hanselmann (quote “I consider Frank Santoro to be my L. Ron Hubbard”) among many others. Dig into something new in the new year! Full details and how to apply can be found HERE. Share this page: [...]

08/17/2016

Juan FernándezAugust 16, 2016NewsJuan here with your Wednesday morning updates! the LAST DAY of the Daniel Clowes Benefit Auction, Jack Davis, John Baldessari, mixing colors, and more! ——————————————————————————————————————— Daniel Clowes Auction Items Up Through TODAY, August 17, 1pm EST All proceeds benefit the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. Check it aht! ——————————————————————————————————————— Drew Friedman on Jack Davis’ career as a TV Guide cover illustrator “TV Guide’s art director’s had a long track record of using some of the top caricaturists of the day for their covers and for interior work, including many assignments by Al Hirschfeld and more recently Ronald Searle: Jack Davis would eventually create nearly two dozen covers for TV Guide over the next dozen years, plus many interior drawings.” – Drew Friedman Read more about it HERE. (via The Comics Reporter) ——————————————————————————————————————— Wonderfully Offbeat Assignments That Artist John Baldessari Gave to His Art Students (1970) “In 1970, when conceptual artist John Baldessari was teaching studio art at the experimental CalArts campus near Valencia, CA, the assignments he handed out to his class were art in themselves. Humorous, confounding, sometimes very specific but often like zen koans, the assignments must have come as a shock, especially to those students with a more traditional sense of what constitutes art. They probably didn’t know that Baldessari was questioning art itself and in the middle of a crisis. That year he had taken all his previous painted work from 1953 – 1966 and cremated it at a San Diego mortuary. He turned from painting to photography. And he expected his students to rethink everything they thought they knew.” via Open Culture Read the rest of the article HERE. ——————————————————————————————————————— 271 Years Before Pantone, an Artist Mixed and Described Every Color Imaginable in an 800-Page Book “In 1692 an artist known only as “A. Boogert” sat down to write a book in Dutch about mixing watercolors. Not only would he begin the book with a bit about the use of color in painting, but would go on to explain how to create certain hues and change the tone by adding one, two, or three parts of water. The premise sounds simple enough, but the final product is almost unfathomable in its detail and scope. Spanning nearly 800 completely handwritten (and painted) pages, Traité des couleurs servant à la peinture à l’eau, was probably the most comprehensive guide to paint and color of its time. According to Medieval book historian Erik Kwakkel who translated part of the introduction, the color book was intended as an educational guide. The irony being there was only a single copy that was probably seen by very few eyes.” – via This Is Colossal More HERE. ——————————————————————————————————————— Listen to over an hour of background music from the 1967 Spider-Man Animated Series “The music from the 1967 Spider-Man animated series is jazzy and catchy. Unfortunately the music has never been released in a format that would allow us to enjoy it completely. I often wondered what it would be like to capture the music from a series that never did a soundtrack, but I don’t have to wonder any longer. YouTube user, 11db11, went through the entire run of the series and attempted to capture the audio in its complete form, removing voice and sound effect when possible. This labor of love, which I imagine took a good amount of time, is over and hour-long and an addicting listen.” – via The Retroist Further thoughts HERE. Dig even deeper with this old article from the radio station WMFU! ——————————————————————————————————————— Data Mining Reveals the Six Basic Emotional Arcs of Storytelling “These guys have used sentiment analysis to map the emotional arcs of over 1,700 stories and then used data-mining techniques to reveal the most common arcs. “We find a set of six core trajectories which form the building blocks of complex narratives,” they say. Their method is straightforward. The idea behind sentiment analysis is that words have a positive or negative emotional impact. So words can be a measure of the emotional valence of the text and how it changes from moment to moment. So measuring the shape of the story arc is simply a question of assessing the emotional polarity of a story at each instant and how it changes.” – via MIT Technology Review Find out more HERE. ——————————————————————————————————————— until next time! JF Share this page: [...]

06/26/2017

Caleb OrecchioJune 26, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on the art of Kull the Conqueror #3 by John Buscema and Klaus Janson. Plus, you guessed it, links! ————————————————————————————————— Here are some thoughts on one of my favorite look-but-don’t-read comics. Below are some highlights from the book I always refer to: Often when I am tired or depressed about comics, I will dig out Kull the Conqueror #3 (vol. 3). Penciled by John Buscema with inks and colors by Klaus Janson in 1983. I don’t “read” it because the writing sucks, but I love looking at the artwork. This is during a time when Buscema was no longer the next best thing to Kirby. He’s basically been dethroned by the likes of John Byrne and Frank Miller. He’s more or less the barbarian guy at this point. On the other hand, Janson is really hitting his stride. Post Miller-Daredevil and Pre-Dark Knight Returns, Janson is becoming one of the most sought-after inkers of the 80s. So it’s a bit of a transitional yin-yang comic and it harmonizes perfectly; the solid, “generic” drawing of Buscema laying the foundation down for Janson’s scratchy, energetic lines and rich colors—it just sings for me. The seasoned veteran fuses with the ambitious dynamo. The above spread is one of my favorite “passages” in the book. Notice the first panel on the left page. The clouds are green and yellow without any dividing lines in the inking to indicate any division of color. Usually an inker would have a line to “hold” the colors, basically guiding the colorist where the colors change. But since Janson is doing both, he can think in color. Color and lines combine to a point that feels much more cohesive than most mainstream comics of the time. And look at that torch. Instead of inking the outline of the fire, Janson cuts out the zipatone (dots) to make the fire seem more alive and bright. I also really like how he used brown to yellow to white to show the range of the torch. Again, no holding lines—and notice the sparse inking where he knew he wanted to use brown. I could go on and on about the little ways Janson makes this book interesting, but again, keep in mind that Buscema was a really solid penciler. He literally wrote the book on drawing Marvel comics. The concrete drawing of Buscema I think really let Janson stretch his legs; and I assume Buscema had a generally quick turnaround so I imagine working with Buscema lent itself to an inker or colorist taking their time to push themselves if they so desired. I will cap this off with an excerpt from Amazing Heroes No. 155 where Andy Mengels’ interview with Janson is the cover story for the issue. This is 1988—post-Dark Knight Returns, and Janson is gaining more penciling and writing credits. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Matthew Thurber writes an excellent article for Artsy–“10 Cartoonists Every Art Lover Needs to Know” Françoise Mouly and Genevieve Bormes talk to Gary Panter at The New Yorker about his new book, Songy of Paradise. Sally covered this last week but I just really like this Mardou comic about her pregnancy and firing her doctor 38 weeks in. If you missed Friday’s post, give this comic a look. It’s so achingly personal, I cannot recommend it enough. I heard about this via Desert Island‘s Instagram—art from Dan Clowes’ tenure at Cracked over on Last of the Spinner Rack Junkies. Last but not least, there’s a new comics publisher in my hometown. This is indicative of Dayton, OH’s cultural taste: horror/fantasy—general genre. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-26-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-26-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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