Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged Cristina Daura, Gabriela Tito, ines estrada, juan fernandez, la polola, Maliki, Sol Diaz

Juan Fernández

Posted on October 25, 2017October 25, 2017

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03/02/2016

Sally IngrahamMarch 2, 2016NewsMarch is Women’s History Month, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is celebrating female cartoonists. First up was Barbara Hall, the main artist for Girl Commandos, which appeared in issues of Speed Comics in the 1940s. Read a bit more about her HERE, and check the CBLDF throughout the month for more biographical snippets of women in comics. How about a female cartoonist who is working today? Anna Mancini, or Manzanna, is a Brazilian artist. Click on the image above for more info about that particular comic. You can find much of Anna’s work on her tumblr, but it is nice to experience her comic Sadnesses HERE. A simple slideshow format brings a different rhythm to the panels, forcing, or allowing, you to slow down and really see it. This different type of viewing experience leads to a discussion of Stela, a subscription-based iOS app for reading comics that just hit the stores. The app was reviewed over on Polygon. Stela is experimenting with a variation on a format known as…the Infinite Canvas, a term coined by that mad scientist of sequential art, Scott McCloud. For obvious reasons, comics on screens don’t have to obey the physical limitations of print, and in his 2000 book Reinventing Comics, McCloud proposed that the screen could be treated as a window. Will it work or won’t it? That’s probably up to personal preference and the quality of the content. Fortunately comics like Ronald Wimberly’s GratNin are trying the app on for size, and if Ron can make the endless scroll bend to his will then there’s probably hope for it. On a somewhat related note, Simon Reinhardt has just released Mystery Town #4 and announced that it is going to be “officially a monthly thing for 2016″…! Who else is excited? Follow the link above to check out the whole thing, and read issues 1-3 as well. Tyler Landry has finished publishing The Jaundiced Eye on Comics Workbook. Stumble into a shadowy state that mesmerizes and terrifies almost equally. If you’re hungry for more CLAV after this, Tyler just loaded all of Shit and Piss #3 on Ello – check it out HERE. I hope these bits and bobs help you get through hump day! Cheerio – Sally 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: [...]

07/06/2017

Sally IngrahamJuly 6, 2017NewsSally here with new work from Kyle Baker, old work from Jay Jackson, and more! ———————————————————————————————— The work of Jay Jackson – a pioneering African-American cartoonist who died in 1954 – has risen to the surface of the internet sea, and Steven Thompson shares pages from the strip Home Folks, and a little info on the creator, over on his blog Booksteve’s Library. “His weekly panel HOME FOLKS, always crowded with many characters and variations on a theme a la a number of classic cartoon panels dating back to the 1920s, is brilliant. Running exclusively in small African-American newspapers, week after week he managed to hit the nail on the head regarding not just exclusively the black experience but human life in general–even animal life at times. It was all recognizable and relatable…“ See more of Jackson’s work HERE. (via tcj.com) ———————————————————————————————— Kyle Baker has turned his comics know-how to Gumby recently. “The A.V. Club has an exclusive look at Baker’s entire story in next week’s Gumby #1, and he’s using a style that he previously tried out on Plastic Man, removing black outlines so that the images on the page look like they’re made out of layers of construction paper. It adds a tactile quality to the art, which makes a lot of sense for a property that started with three-dimensional clay figurines. The characters still have the exaggerated expressions that Baker is known for, and this rendering choice makes the entire story feel lighter and more childish. This first issue also features stories by writers Ray Fawkes and Jeff Whitman (Managing Editor or Papercutz), artist Jolyon Yates, and colorists Laurie E. Smith and Matt Herms, and reader can discover each creative team’s take on the property when Gumby #1 goes on sale July 5.“ Read more and see The A. V. Club‘s exclusive look HERE. ———————————————————————————————— The Comics Journal features an interview between Gary Panter and Dash Shaw – they break down Panter’s new book Songy of Paradise (Fantagraphics, May 2017) in a number of different ways, but it was these comments from Panter about working within your limitations that stuck with me: “Shaw: One time, I can’t remember how you said it, but it’s always stuck with me. I was at your place and you were telling me about your beaded necklaces or something that you were working on, and you had all these different, experimental, non-commercial projects– projects that might not have any audience– and you said that being raised Christian helped you follow all these unusual ideas, because you always had the impression that you were being watched. Panter: Yeah, I’m not sure about the first half, if it propels me, but I do have the feeling of being watched. I was thinking about that today, it’s odd. We were taught that there’d be the Day of Judgment, it’d all play back. And it would be really fucking embarrassing, you know? [Shaw laughs] [Jokingly] Why did he spend all this time drawing comics?! Well, I dunno, you just decide what you’re good at, what fascinates you, and you kind of go for it. I don’t really have giant resources, I’m limited in a lot of ways, so I can do these… Like if I take up lanyards, which I have as part of my little projects—lanyard making, like you made at summer camp, those woven plastic gimp things. When I learned how to do that—I’m completely untalented at it, but I can invent my version of it, I can get as far as I can get. It’s the same with my candles, my comics, my paintings, my music—everything. I’m working within my limitations. So if you’re working within your limitations, you can actually get stuff done. “ Read the rest of the interview HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Julian Lyte talks to Ulises Farinas about Farinas’ publishing imprint Buno, and his ideas about comics distribution and pre-ordering, on the Ignorant Bliss podcast. Check it out HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Connor Willumsen is having a screen print sale! The screening series is called Cinema1999 – prints are 20 bucks and shipped rolled, editions of around 25 – limited supplies. Check it out HERE! ———————————————————————————————— We are already in the midst of our second summer running the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency! Above is a collection of photos from our first summer, into the winter of 2017, and beyond. More photos and info on the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency can be found HERE! ———————————————————————————————— 7-6-2017 – by Sam Ombiri ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-6-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-6-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

10/27/2017

Sally IngrahamOctober 27, 2017NewsSally here with new work from Chris Anthony Diaz, insights from Lauren Weinstein, and inspiration from Tove Jansson – plus much more! ————————————————————————————————— Today on the site Chris Anthony Diaz shares his latest photo archive, featuring Noah Van Sciver and Joseph Remnant’s recent signing at Secret Headquarters. There are lots of terrific photographs of the guys from comics’ best documentarian, but I especially like this photo of Vanessa Davis (above). Check out the rest of the pictures HERE. We are looking forward to catching up with Chris at CAB in a few weeks, where he is looking forward to photographing cartoonists in the new location at Pratt. See you there! ————————————————————————————————— Lauren Weinstein on the Village Voice with the latest Normal Person… ————————————————————————————————— There is an article on the Evening Standard about Tove Jansson‘s Moomin comic strip, and how it came about. As her novels gained international popularity, Charles Sutton (syndication director of Associated Newspapers) flew to Finland and talked her into doing a strip for the London Evening News. This was in 1952, but two years of discussion and planning followed before the first Moomin comic came out in September of 1954. (Food for thought, for those of us who may present a strip for syndication and find the first idea turned down – and we are no Tove Janssons…!) According to comics historian Paul Gravett, she was actually taught how to layout and design her strips, using “contemporary” word balloons as part of the art, instead of relying on accompanying text blocks. She agreed to do the strip because it offered her a steady paycheck which would in turn give her more time to devote to painting, in theory. Of course the strip was immensely time consuming in the end, and we can only imagine what paintings she might have made had she NOT been drawing it… Lots more interesting details in the article, supplied by Paul Gravett, so read it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Assorted Awesome Athena Naylor has taken over the Our Comics, Ourselves blog for a bit and is writing artist spotlights on a number of rad female cartoonists – check out her thoughts on Carolyn Nowak, Meredith Gran, Kate Beaton, and Sarah Glidden. Kelly Sue DeConnick claps back at folks who find her comics either triggering, or too political. Syfy Wire has the goods. Now please excuse me while I go read Bitch Planet: Triple Feature #5. The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco is kicking off their reopening with a retrospective of Raina Telgemeier‘s work. The Nib is running it’s first comics serial – Reported Missing by Eleri Harris. It’s a “true crime” story, and I will admit to being sucked in so far. I believe it’s up to 4 parts so far – catch up! The Comics Beat has a lengthy preview of Hazel Newlevant‘s new comic, No Ivy League, coming out in 2018 from Lion Forge (where Hazel was recently hired as an editor, by the way). Leslie Stein lets her mother interview her over on The Comics Journal! Jessica Campbell shares part of Georgia O’Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz’s story on Hyperallergic – HERE. Sophie Foster-Dimino made a zine about making Sex Fantasy – which you can check out on her Tumblr. Rookie Mag has an excerpt from Lynda Barry‘s The Good Times are Killing Me – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 10-27-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 10-27-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio —————————————————————————————————Cozytown -10-27-2017- by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

05/24/2016

Aaron CockleMay 23, 2016NewsBerliac Week Continues at CW; Venn Diagram Panel; Kirby Gridz; Safari Festival 2016; Dueling Book Release Parties; Henry Darger at the American Folk Art Museum; Juan Fernández Comics ————————————————————————————————— Featured this week: Gwai-Lo of the Heart by Berliac. Made for Comics Workbook in 2015. ————————————————————————————————— Venn Diagram Panel from MoCCA Festival 2016 Painter and cartoonist Keith Mayerson once called his 1996 graphic novel Horror Hospital Unplugged “too arty for comics” and “too comics for art.” The boundary between those two fields, however structural and arbitrary, may be weakening, but is it happening quickly enough to accommodate the rapidly growing number of artists who are now so productively working in this seam? Moderator Bill Kartalopoulos will investigate these questions and more with three leading lights of contemporary artcomics: Austin English (Gulag Casual), Aidan Koch (After Nothing Comes), and Blaise Larmee (3 Books). ————————————————————————————————— Via Micheal Oeming’s Facebook page. ————————————————————————————————— Safari Festival: New waves in contemporary comics and art. 11am to 6pm, 27 August 2016 Protein, 31 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EY safarifestival.tumblr.com | @safarifestival | info@safari-festival.com Safari Festival is a celebration of the new wave of alternative and art comics from the UK and beyond. Taking place over one Saturday at the end of August, the festival is an opportunity for a curated group of cartoonists and publishers to exhibit and sell their artwork, prints and, primarily, comics, and for attendees to experience the best of UK comics’ avant-garde. The artists exhibiting have been selected for their innovative, fearless, diverse approaches to making comics; approaches to cartooning that Safari intends to champion. The festival will be free to attend, and will take place at Studio 2, the Shoreditch gallery space of London-based creative agency, Protein. ————————————————————————————————— Thursday, May 26, 7-pm in Providence and/or NYC ————————————————————————————————— Henry Darger at the Folk Art Museum ————————————————————————————————— I Can See the Birds by Juan Fernández 5.5″x8.5″, Color & Risograph, $6 postpaid (International Shipping). This one is my Yo La Tengo comic on the shoulders of the poetry giant, Mary Oliver. The words are excerpted from her poem, Wild Geese. All drawings are first takes on location here in Pittsburgh. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

10/25/2017

Posted on October 25, 2017October 25, 2017 by Juan Fernández

Empezamos el día con Cristina Daura; La Polola; Begoña García-Alén; Inés Estrada; y los tebeos de Cómics Workbook!

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Cristina Daura y la Presencia del Cómic

Participaste en el comic ‘’Todas Putas: los cuentos gráficos’’, además de un premio a Mejor autora revelación en el Salón Expocomic de 2015, ¿qué supuso éste encargo para ti?

Disfrutar mucho del proyecto, fue algo que me apetecía hacer. Me dieron una historia muy oscura de dos páginas que transformé en 12 páginas de cómic. Agradezco mucho que Carla Berrocal pensara en mí para el libro.

¿Hay algún proyecto más de éste formato o parecido en el que estés trabajando? He leído que te traes entre manos una novela gráfica…

Ese es el proyecto que está en standby continuo (risas). Se trataba de mi proyecto final de Ilustración que años más tarde enseñé a dos amigos, ellos me querían empujar a publicarlo. Pero claro, lo quería rehacer, y de tanto rehacer no salió. Cuando me propusieron publicarlo, yo estaba todavía trabajando a media jornada en otro empleo y a la vez intentando vivir de la ilustración. Y en ese momento la novela gráfica era el tipo de proyecto al que podía refugiarme y crear algo personal. Actualmente trabajo a tiempo completo de la ilustración y tampoco me deja tiempo para seguir con el proyecto. No descarto vender mi alma al diablo, aka una marca que pague un buen puñado de euros, y encontrar tiempo para terminarlo.

Barcelona es una ciudad cara, tengo un alquiler que pagar, una cuota de autónomos que pagar, y otros gastos que poder cubrir. ¡Ah sí!, y recodar que tengo una vida, amigos, familia, etcétera. Si a todo esto le sumas que el cómic en España está vergonzosamente mal pagado y que no tengo tiempo para todo, te das cuenta que tienes que tomar decisiones.

El cómic es de las cosas más infravaloradas en este país, que tan poco invierte en la cultura. Por suerte, todavía hay dibujantes y dibujantas que emergen o continúan dando lo mejor en el cómic nacional, entre ellos, Marc Torices, Conxita Herrero, Roberta Vázquez, Natacha Bustos, Clara Soriano, Carla Berrocal, Antonio Hitos, Lorenzo Montatore, José Jajaja, Roberto Massó, y un largo largo etcétera.

Léanlo todo AQUI.

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“La Polola is creating a podcast”

If you didn’t know already, La Polola is – THE Latin American comics podcast. They have been road testing their show for over a year now, having recorded over 50 episodes. Audio AND video. They are now passing the hat to make this a sustainable operation – tune in – support and get hep.

FYI -La Polola is a comics podcast, created and conducted by Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo; two Chilean women who love to draw and have published many autobiographical and fiction comic books. Bored that the Chilean comic scene was led by men, they decided to open a space where the heads were us. They lead the forefront of documenting contemporary comics happenings across nations in Latin America.

La Polola es un podcast de cómic femenino, creado y conducido por Sol Díaz y Maliki 4 ojos; dos chilenas que amamos dibujar y hemos publicado muchos libros de cómic autobiográficos y de ficción. Aburridas de que la escena del cómic chileno estuviese liderada por hombres, decidimos abrir un espacio donde las jefas fuéramos nosotras.

Con la idea de incentivar al público a dibujar e ilustrar, nos juntamos una vez a la semana (en un café o en nuestras casas o talleres) y conversamos -con desayuno en la mesa- sobre el dibujo, el arte, la creatividad, los libros que nos gustan, los autor@s que admiramos y muchísimas cosas mas (la rabia, el miedo, la madre, los estereotipos, el embarazo, los viajes, etc) y en nuestro blog subimos las fotos de los libros que recomendamos.

En la mayoría de los capítulos invitamos a conversar con nosotras a ilustrador@s, dibujantes y personas creativas de muchos ámbitos (cantantes, comediantes, filósofos, periodistas, astronautas, bomberos, etc). También ponemos canciones de músicos emergentes y recomendamos fanzines, novelas gráficas, series de TV, exposiciones y eventos de cómic.

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Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana:

Inés Estrada: “Millions of years of evolution for us to all be bored on our phones right now…” The last issue of her Alienation comic is now available from her webshop, Gatosaurio. If you haven’t picked up all previous 5 issues, you’d be remiss not to get all 6 for $25.
Miguel A. Pérez-Gómez reseña Nuevas estructuras de Begoña García-Alén – el lector como constructor.
Seis libreros colombianos hablan sobre las ventas del cómic, el nacimiento de autores locales y el Festival Entreviñetas en El Espectador.

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Suzy and Cecil – 10-25-2017 – by Gabriella Tito

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Cozytown – 10-25-2017- by Juan Fernandez

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Joanie and Jordie – 10-25-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, NewsTagged Cristina Daura, Gabriela Tito, ines estrada, juan fernandez, la polola, Maliki, Sol Diaz

Juan Fernández

Posted on October 25, 2017October 25, 2017

Explore

06/25/2018

Caleb OrecchioJune 25, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #3, featuring the art of Gray Morrow, and other news! ——————————————————————————— I was delighted to pull this issue out of the Comics Workbook vault. It’s an all Gray Morrow issue of Chilling Adventures in Sorcery published by Archie Comics’ imprint, Red Circle. I enjoy Morrow’s comics immensely. I just look at the pictures. Morrow’s gift (other than his virtuosic drawing ability) is his knack for making interesting pages. Comics like Orion (for Heavy Metal) and Edge of Chaos (a limited series for Pacific Comics) feel much more from Morrow’s head if you will. Imagined. They’re great. In contrast, comics like the one featured here today, feel more stitched together to me. More collage-y. In a good way. Usually I detest any whiff of photo-reference in comics, but Morrow makes it work. Occasionally the sequencing is a little wonky and the referenced images juxtaposed with the imagined images can be jarring, but overall the pages are pleasing to the eye. There is a dynamism to his work that makes up for a lot. Simply, Morrow’s comics are always interesting. He seemed to have a real desire to “wow” the reader. Every page is crammed with interesting imagery. And those colors! Morrow was one of those cartoonists who seemed to think in color as he made the comic, as opposed to most who only use color as an afterthought. Have you ever seen Orion in those old Heavy Metals? Those are hand painted. Is it just me, or is there a swagger to his work? Like, I can imagine him at the drawing board and drinking a glass of Dewar’s and laughing to himself, knowing how impressed I’d be in however many years I’d be born to see the work. ——————————————————————————— Thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers Summer Session starts NOW! Floating start date! Apply anytime between now and July 12th 2018 to join the summer course. Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. Ask about the Fall Course if now is too busy for you! The course is 8 weeks – 500 bux for 8 weeks plus access to Frank’s coaching for as long as you need. Payment plans are available. Put your summer to good use! ——————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know There’s a new book of CF drawings and you can get one What Things Do Laura Lannes is the latest guest on TCJ’s Comic Book Decalogue Rob Clough reviews Young Frances by Hartley Lin (Ethan Rilly) Also on TCJ.com, a review by Matt Seneca and a look at Fantom Comics in Washington D.C. ——————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-25-2018 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

11/08/2017

Juan FernándezNovember 8, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con el Latino Comics Expo; #GRAFMAD2017; Marcela Trujillo; Dr. Fausto Fanzine; Ramon Esono; La Polola; Power Paola y Santiago Caicedo; y los tebeos de Cómics Workbook! ————————————————————————————————— The Latino Comics Expo – Long Beach, CA – THIS WEEKEND – The Latino Comics Expo (LCX) goes down this weekend, November 11-12. It is the nation’s first convention dedicated to highlighting the work of comic book creators, illustrators and others in the literary and visual arts whose work reflects the influence and celebration of Latino culture. – 2017 Program Info – Founded in 2011 by Bay Area arts patron Ricardo Padilla and Los Angeles cartoonist Javier Hernandez, the Latino Comics Expo has been held at the Cartoon Museum of Art (San Francisco), the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library at San Jose State University and the Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach). Since it’s debut show on May 7 & 8 in 2011 in San Francisco, the Expo has hosted a wide variety of creative talent from the world of comics, web comics, illustration and design, political comics, graphic novels, children’s books, filmmakers and animators. Veteran creators, newcomers, independent artists, scholars, female, male, LGBT. All have contributed to making the LCX the premiere showcase for Topics have included self-publishing, crowdfunding, Latina Power, individual author spotlights, historical presentations, scholarly studies, workshops for kids and more. The Expo is a place to celebrate creativity, to educate, inform and learn, and to be able to share the richness of our various Latino cultures. Learn more. —————————————————————————————————#GRAFMAD2017 En 2013 se celebró la primera edición de GRAF. Esta semana se celebra la décima. El fuego sigue ardiendo. ————————————————————————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: “Beyoncé has embraced the grid.” Marcela Trujillo ha sido invitada al Congreso Internacional de Literatura Y Cultura Femenina Hispánica en Santo Domingo. Esta es la primera vez que invitan a una dibujante. En algunas semanas regresa Dr. Fausto Fanzine para su edición 11 y cada semestre habrá nuevo número. Viva el Cómic Colombiano. ¡Queremos tebeos! No os perdáis la exposición HISTORIETAS DEL TEBEO, 1917—1977 en el Museo ABC. Ramon Esono sigue preso, este cómic su único “delito”. // Still in jail, this comic his only “crime”. Learn more about Esono’s incarcelation in Equatorial Guinea. Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con la académica Catalina Infante, quien les contó acerca de su vida, sus viajes, su búsqueda del origen, su mirada editorial, su interés espiritual, el valor que le da al mundo interno y la soledad, entre muchas otras cosas. Acá pueden ver el trailer de Virus Tropical, a black-and-white animated film from director Santiago Caicedo that adapts the graphic novel memoir of Colombian-Ecuadorian cartoonist Power Paola. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 11-08-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 11-08-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 11-08-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

11/01/2017

Juan FernándezNovember 1, 2017NewsEmpezamos el día con Marcela Trujillo; Isabel Mendez; Berliac, Museo ABC, Daniel Jiménez Quiroz; y los tebeos de Cómics Workbook! ————————————————————————————————— Marcela Trujillo: Siempre Hay una palabra para destruir a la mujer libre que escoge cómo vivir. Denisse Leighton entrevista Marcela Trujillo en Belelu: Marcela “Maliki” Trujillo (48) es una de las más famosas ilustradoras chilenas, una de las pocas mujeres en el Olimpo del dibujo a lápiz y/o tinta china en este país. Sin embargo, para llegar a este lugar de reconocimiento ha debido pasar por muchas situaciones que han forjado su carácter y carrera artística. Porque ser mujer en todas las áreas significa un cuestionamiento, más si tus primeros proyectos hablan de cuánto te gusta el sexo. “Enamorada de mi Clítoris”, publicado en The Clinic, fue el comic que la llevó a convertirse en una de las ilustradoras más irreverentes de Chile a inicios del 2000 cuando aún vivía en New York. Inspirada en las obras de Phoebe Gloeckner, Julie Doucet y Aline Kominsky-Crumb y también los capítulos de Sex And The City serie que veía en VHS mientras vivía en la Gran Manzana. El inicio de su carrera se enfocó en la pintura tras sus estudios de arte en la Universidad de Chile, sin embargo, las experiencias en New York la acercaron al cómic donde hoy es todo un referente en un momento álgido para esta técnica. Asegura que una obra de Phoebe Gloeckner hablando de abuso la impactó al punto de comenzar a indagar en el cómic hecho por mujeres creando así su personaje “Maliki 4 ojos” que relataba al inicio bromas sobre sí misma pero que mutó hacia la sexualidad, a hablar de la masturbación y el deseo femenino en general. Léanlo todo AQUI. ————————————————————————————————— Las ideas ¿Nacen o se hacen? Isabel Méndez nos ofrece un vistazo a nuestras erramientas creativas en Firmado Por: Hoy vengo con un post sobre CREATIVIDAD. No, no te has equivocado de página. Esto es FirmadoPor y ya te adelanto que estamos preparando nueva web. ¡Oh Yeah! Esta semana el post es distinto, aunque no nos alejamos mucho de la propiedad intelectual ya que la creatividad tiene mucho que ver con los derechos de autor ¿No es requisito indispensable para que una obra esté protegida por derechos de autor que la misma sea ORIGINAL? ¿No tiene que ver la originalidad con la CREACIÓN? ¿No es acaso la creatividad la HERRAMIENTA más valiosa de los autores? Voy a dejarme llevar en estos post, investigar y curiosear sobre el proceso creativo. Ver cómo creaban o qué opinaban del arte y la creatividad otros artistas y, por qué no, ponerlo en relación con nuestra Ley de Propiedad Intelectual. Léanlo todo AQUI. ————————————————————————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Seis libreros colombianos hablan sobre las ventas del cómic, el nacimiento de autores locales y el Festival Entreviñetas en El Espectador. ¡Queremos tebeos! No os perdáis la exposición HISTORIETAS DEL TEBEO, 1917—1977 en el Museo ABC. Berliac talks Identity Politics in Exberliner magazine Issue 165 on Full article on page 20. En StartUp, Daniel Jiménez Quiroz habló de la importancia de establecer redes de comunicación entre abogados y creadores de cómic. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 11-1-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 11-1-2017 – by Juan Fernandez ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 11-1-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

11/21/2017

Aaron CockleNovember 20, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Amy Lockhart at Anthology Film Archives; Jerry Saltz on Bill Taylor; Austin English on ‘Feininger’s Grandkids’; Spearfishing Explained (in comics format) ————————————————————————————————— SHOW & TELL: AMY LOCKHART At Anthology Film Archives, Thursday, December 7, 7:30pm An animator with a style and sensibility entirely her own, Amy Lockhart has been drawing pictures of creepy ladies since she was seven years old. Utilizing everything from paper cutouts and puppets to digital tools, Lockhart’s films exude a handcrafted, rough-edged surrealism. Populated primarily by female figures whose body types are as distinctive and transgressive as those of R. Crumb, as well as by a cavalcade of anthropomorphized animals, objects, and shapes, her universe evokes kids-show animation seen through a distinctly demented lens, while also displaying a genuinely childlike, pre-socialized preoccupation with bodily functions. Profoundly intuitive and endlessly surprising, Lockhart’s mysterious and delirious world behaves according to a logic that’s as astonishing as it is inscrutable. “Amy Lockhart works across a range of mediums including zines, sculptures, paintings, drawings, and animations. Her work exudes an imperfection and oddness that feels very human, at once unpredictable, heartfelt, funny, and disturbing. Many of her works feature an array of stumbling, distorted cartoon characters whose misshapen bodies limp, bend, and bulge, often while smoking, licking, drooling, or crying. Also recurring in her work are disembodied facial features, hands, and limbs, as well as various joyfully rendered muscly women, frequently missing their arms. Such characters drive her work, but there is as much pleasure and interest to be taken in the way they are drawn, animated or constructed as in what they do or who they are. The form of her work has its own rich, non-verbal meaning and content.” – Edwin Rostron, EDGE OF FRAME SYLVA LINING (1998, 1 min, 16mm) THE DEVIL LIVES IN HOLLYWOOD (1999, 6 min, 16mm) MISS EDMONTON TEENBURGER 1983 IN, IT’S PARTY TIME! (2001, 17 min, digital) MISS EDMONTON TEENBURGER 1983 IN, YOU’RE ETERNAL… (2002, 6 min, digital) WALK FOR WALK (2005, 10 min, 16mm) THE COLLAGIST (2009, 2 min, digital) LANDSCAPE (2012, 8 min, digital) JESSICA (2014, 5 min, digital) Total running time: ca. 60 min. ————————————————————————————————— Jerry Saltz on Instagram ————————————————————————————————— Austin English at TCJ I have a personal theory as to why Doucet abandoned comics, one that relates to the context of this column but might not bear out factually. Anyone who wants to correct me should do so. But bear with me: Doucet, being a extremely sophisticated artist, continued to sharpen and evolve. Her mature comics work, My New York Diary, is as sharp a piece of traditional cartooning as one can find in the alternative era. But after that story, Doucet leaves comics. My theory is that Doucet looks at what people define “real” comics as, pushes her work in that direction, and thinks, “Well… why bother with all this if this is what people want?” Her early and later work are, to me, without flaw. But I’d argue that the comics community’s view of what a serious artist must apply themselves to is a pressure that doesn’t need to be grafted on to every artist. And yet the view is so dominant that it’s hard to avoid. Someone like Doucet can master the ins and outs of traditional cartoon integrity but probably notices quicker than most what a closed system it is, how much feeling it excludes and how much one gives up to offer one’s entire art up to it. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Instead of opening a sketchy attachment on your computer, upload it to Google Drive and look at it in your web browser.’ ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 11-21-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 11-21-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Caleb Orecchio – 11-21-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Jackie Kirby – Rowhouse Residency Report

Comics WorkbookJuly 3, 2017Residency Reports / School UpdatesMy name is Jackie Kirby. I am a poet and comics author. I am twenty-two years old, and live in New York City. Recently, I graduated from The New School with a BA in Cultural Studies. I have been making comics and writing poetry seriously for three years now. As my poetic and comics practices evolved, they became more and more intertwined. Now, the differences between what I publish as “poetry” versus “comics” has more to do with marketing and publishing than it does with genre or form—but then genre is the formal violence of marketing and publishing. But, “whatever.” I spent a week in Pittsburgh at the Rowhouse Residency this June 2017. As recent graduate without the privilege of a future in plastics, I was anxious on how to proceed. If I was to call myself a “poet” and a “comics author,” what should I do to validate or realize those claims? Additionally, I had a bit of a foothold in the world of poetry, through school and time spent in and around the New York poetry cliques. I didn’t, however, have anything of the sort in the world of comics. Poets can often be easily impressed by the integration of visual arts into poetry, and don’t know anything of comics. I was excited, albeit nervous, to see how I could enter into the world of comics, and if my work was intelligible or interesting to comics readers in contrast to poetry readers. With the time and space provided by the residency, I was able to develop a routine and work ethic that works for my particular habits and skills. Through my conversations with Frank Santoro, I was able to visualize a path going forward with my work, begin to feel grounded in the world of comics, affirm my beliefs in the value of my own aesthetic project, and gain valuable tools and modes of thought towards the furthering of my craft. Frank’s approach to composition in comic books clicked with me as a way of connecting poetry and comics. Without sounding too prescriptive, I think poetics should seek to emancipate possibility and meaning from language, or at least restructure it. Frank and I spoke a lot about meter and geometry, but I think the integration of comics into poetry and vice versa has a greater political value. In comics, “language” as we know it is subverted through its integration with non-alphabetic symbols. The job of a poet is to keep language alive, and if poetry is to be relevant it must be written in the contemporary idiom. The integration of words and images in everyday life is increasing, and pictoral languages are becoming more common. The integration of comics and poetics is only logical considering. Before coming to the residency I had spent the last year working on a set of works called Finding Eurydice. The first is a poetry chapbook subtitled “Transmissions from Orpheus,” and the second is a comic “translation” of the chapbook subtitled “A Border Comic.” In these works, I used the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as a way of expressing the experience of transfeminity, and experimented formally as a way of enacting that experience. At risk of being too pretentious, I’ll quote the introduction from my reflection on A Border Comic: Finding Eurydice is a comic. Finding Eurydice is a poem, or book of poems. It’s both, but it’s not quite one or the other. Words are often only images. Images are abstracted into words. Its “graphic narrative” is mostly formal, and moves associatively. Much of its “text” is illegible. It doesn’t fit right. Finding Eurydice is a hybrid work. It is a comic-poem which transgresses forms and signs. This formal transgression produces a new vocabulary for the enactment of transgender subjectivities and experiences historically made impossible to verbalize. Entering the project, I asked: If an artistic production is a body, or an extension of the body, and the body is always already gendered, how can the formal restructuring of and deployment of “trans-” trajectories of movement into a literary or artistic mode of production aide in the revelation of new possibilities of gender embodiments and transgender subjectivities? In Finding Eurydice, the comic, the poem, and Orpheus are all made trans, opening up new space for transness to exist in language. Both works can be read online: Finding Eurydice: Transmissions from Orpheus Finding Eurydice: A Border Comic My conversations with Frank were thoughtful, engaging, and exciting. Among the most interesting aspects of our discussions was comparing analogies of music and poetry to comics. I know very little when it comes to music. Half-kidding – it’s one of the few popular art forms I’m not a snob about, and I’ve tried to keep it like that. Frank, on the other hand, is a total music nerd. I came into his house for espresso one afternoon and he presented me with a piece of scrap paper on which he had written “2/3 3/4 rectangle riff seen from a poet’s pov in relation to ‘meter’ / and relation to ‘the Breath’ or Dylan’s ‘long line of spit.’ ” Frank and I chatted for hours regarding this. He would riff for fifteen minutes or so about music and I would respond with a riff on poetics. Forty five minutes could go by without comics being explicitly mentioned once, but the composition and formal techniques of comics practice underlaid every moment. When I brought this up, Frank brushed it off, saying “Of course we could talk about how Robert Crumb is this or that but we both know that.” What’s interesting is what we can learn from each other. In conclusion, I will list a few highlights of my time at the residency: – Frank took a class with Kathy Acker and said “She was so mean! In the best way.” This is exactly what I want to hear about Kathy Acker. – Kathy Acker chose her pen name from her husband’s last name (Acker) and a nickname extracted from her birth-name (Karen) and not because the titular character from the comic-strip Cathy says “Ack!” as her catchphrase, and is therefore a Cathy “Ack!”-er. This is exactly what I don’t want to hear about Kathy Acker. – I fell down all the stairs at the residency. In all fairness, however, wearing slippery socks, a maxi-skirt that’s hanging too low, and carrying forty things in your arms while descending a steep wooden staircase is the set-up to a punchline involving falling down all the stairs, and Frank provided excellent first-aid. – When Sally picked me up from the train station, we went to a bar for dinner where Anthony Bourdain had recently shot an episode of some show he does where he pretends he’s in a scene in Coffee & Cigarettes and I find Anthony Bourdain conceptually hilarious (I believe Hayes Davenport called him “the misanthrope of food television”) but realized I don’t have any solid jokes to make and ended up asking a lot of questions about the ins and outs of Anthony Bourdain’s TV production. ————————————————————————————————————— Check out more work by Jackie on her website, and follow her on Instagram. For more information about the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency visit this page or email santoroschoolATgmail Share this page: [...]

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