Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged art of native america, comic arts booklyn, Henderson Ledger/Artist B, José-Luis Olivares, Standing Bear/ Mató Nájin

Aaron Cockle

Posted on November 6, 2018

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05/06/2016

Sally IngrahamMay 6, 2016NewsWolverine still walks the wilds of Canada via Michael Comeau’s pen – Alyssa Berg frees her mind through the mysteries of the grid – Erik Nebel reverses expectations in every direction – the laughs come from Fabio Tonetto – the tears (perhaps) come from Lisa Wilde – Free Comic Book Day is upon us – and Bruce Lee never dies. ————————————————————————————————— Philippe Leblanc converses with Michael Comeau at Barbed Comics, digging deep into the why and how of Comeau’s Hellberta (available through Colour Code Printing). Michael Comeau is a Canadian cartoonist living in Toronto. Extensive travel throughout the provinces informed the creation of Hellberta over an 8-year period, and the book is a filter through which Comeau examines Canada’s complex relationship with the oil industry, and the mysterious “Canadian Identity”. Or, as the recently released collected edition is described – “The gloom, the entitlement, the desecration of the tar sands hangs over a province, a nation. Dirty oil addiction. A popular myth set in the rocky mountains. A mutant named Logan. A poetic salve for sore eyes weeping for a metaphorical context. WWWD? What would Wolverine do?…” The interview between Comeau and Philippe Leblanc ranges far and wide, hitting upon the nature of narrative, learning how to make comics, road tripping adventures, the shifting political climate in Canada, and exactly how tangled up Wolverine is in it all. Interesting on a number of levels – read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Alyssa Berg delivers Part Two of her museum-visit-inspired process meditation series today, this time exploring the grid with us. “Sometimes my mind is unwell, or full of complicated messy things or unable to think of new ideas (‘creative block’, I guess?). When I am in this state, I let my wild, creative mind rest. One way to do this is by going into a gentle analytical and physical practice. I sit down at my desk and pre-draw pages of panels and grids. Similar to preparing my work space as mentioned in Part One, pre-drawing panels and grids is a simple concentration-meditation that doesn’t require much thought (common theme: freedom from the mind!).” Read all of Part Two HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Drew Miller interviewed Erik Nebel recently, and their conversation is full of important stuff – ‘Drew Miller – You use vibrating colors as indicators of form, specifically for referencing the human body. The colors are strong on the screen! The drawing relies much less on direct line-work, which is uncharacteristic for the medium of comics. It’s an interesting way to develop distinct forms and negative space. Can you talk about color at all? Erik Nebel – I think of color in a way that may be different from how other cartoonists think of color. Traditionally, in our popular narratives, dark colors are associated with sadness and badness and things that are primitive, and light colors are associated with goodness and happiness and things that are civilized. That’s completely racist. It’s part of binary thinking. It’s poison in our society. I’m trying to reverse those expectations with my comics.’ Read the rest HERE, and follow Erik Nebel’s daily comic posts on his tumblr. ————————————————————————————————— Giving a shout out to cartoonist Fabio Tonetto, whose work has been cracking me up lately. Check out the rest of the comic above on Vice. ————————————————————————————————— Lisa Wilde’s Lacunae: Elegy For My Mother just finished being serialized on Mutha Magazine. A recent press release about the series described it as – “…a webzine that pushes the boundaries between comics and art. Tracing an arc from childhood to adulthood, the piece gives form to the unconscious side of a life narrative through single-image pages and minimal text. Wilde’s visceral and powerful drawings reference children’s art, comics, Jungian archetypes, and artists as wide-ranging as Chagall, Munch, and Eva Hesse.” Start from the beginning HERE, and follow this link to a list of all 5 parts. ————————————————————————————————— Another reminder that tomorrow (Sat. May 7th!) is Free Comic Book Day. Find a participating store near you via the Store Locator, call them up to get the details, and plan to get there early! I’ll be running out myself to find a copy of this sweet looking Bruce Lee comic! ————————————————————————————————— While we’re on the topic, here are a couple of apparently “lost sketches” by Bruce Lee, and the brief story behind them. ————————————————————————————————— Thanks for hanging out in the Comics Workbook newsroom this week! Meet back here bright and early Monday. Cheers! – Sally Share this page: [...]

8/31/2016

Juan FernándezAugust 31, 2016los Cómics / NewsJuan here with your weekly Spanish language comics news round up! El fin del CW Composition Contest;Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo charlan con Katherine Supnem; la evolucion de Spanish Fever; Mireia Perez sobre Ben Marra; Edd Muñoz sobre El Publicadero en Manizales; el nuevo libro de Connor Willumsen, Portraits. ————————————————————————————————— Le concours – C’est fini The Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2016 is over! You can read all the entries HERE. Entries were still pouring in until the stroke of midnight, but it is over! – we are trying to get everyone’s comic reblogged here and added to the master list – if you don’t see your comic on the list yet, today DO NOT WORRY – if it was in our email before 11:59pm EST tonight then you are officially entered in the competition! We will post the final list later today! This has been the biggest explosion of comics we’ve ever gotten for this competition! We will be spending the next few days working with our judges to pick the winners – be patient – check out all the entries – reblog your favorites – AND THANKS FOR JOINING US THIS YEAR! ————————————————————————————————— [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/279783030″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] Escucha @lapololapodcast, un podcast del cómic femenino con Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo! It’s always a fun, relaxing and enlightening listen. If you haven’t tuned in to La Polola just yet, Póngale Play 😉 En este capítulo se habla de los discursos y el dibujo, de como cuestionar las cosas y a uno mismo en lo que hacemos, de la marginalidad, el underground, la filosofía y más. Las chicas conversan con Katherine Supnem, dibujante chilena, sobre estos temas y su experiencia como dibujante de cómics feminista, profesora de filosofía, dibujante de escenografías, under y marginal. ————————————————————————————————— Charlando con Emma Rios Kaboom, la nueva seccion de El País dedicada a la exploracion del mundo del comic contemporaneo, compartió una mañana con la artista y arquitecta gallega, Emma Rios. Léanlo HOY! Angel Luis Sucasas: ¿Cómo cambia tu método cuando escribes y cuando dibujas? Emma Rios: Escribiendo, trabajo mucho desde los personajes pero al mismo tiempo soy muy conceptual. Nunca doy demasiadas explicaciones. Como escritora no me mola nada hacerlo. Lo que quiero es que el lector se sienta parte del mundo, que escuches cosas. Hablábamos antes de Dark souls y de cómo te enteras de las cosas por lo que dicen los personajes, por el contexto. En ID lo transmitía mucho a través de la gestualidad corporal. Normalmente se trata de decidir de qué coño me apetece hablar. En ID estaba claro que quería hablar de la aceptación… Es un cómic muy político. Tiene mucho que ver con una situación en la que yo me encontraba en el curro. Yo trabajo para gente extranjera. Eso significa una barrera idiomática y cultural. Y soy relativamente introvertida y me cuesta enfrentarme a esto. Me cuesta ser el centro de atención y me cuesta tener esa actitud, que allí es tan natural, de “¡Compra mi tebeo, compra mi tebeo”. Así que acabé distribuyendo eso en varios personajes para enfrentarme a ello. Yo estoy hasta las narices de que se me trate como alguien especial. Mira, lo que hago no es especial. Tu idea de lo que hacen las mujeres no es la realidad. Las mujeres hacen muchas cosas. ————————————————————————————————— Sobre Panorama//Spanish Fever – La Historia de su publicación, su importancia y mas… La antología de cómics española, Panorama cruza el charco! Sergio Jiménez Foronda le da un gran vistazo a la nueva edición de Panorama (Astiberri 2013), ahora Spanish Fever (Fantagraphics 2016). Los creadores han gozado de total libertad para producir sus trabajos, permitiéndoseles ser ellos mismos en cada palabra y en cada trazo. El resultado es una heterogénea panorámica de estilos y temáticas que hace más de un año llamó la atención de Fantagraphics, que se puso en contacto con Astiberri para exportar la obra. “Ha sido fundamental la participación de la Fundación Spain Arts & Culture de la Emabajada de España en Wahsington, que apoyó esta edición sufragando la traducción del libro y permitiendo que una selección de los autores que participan en el libro puedan viajar a EEUU y participar en diferentes eventos que servirán para promocionarlo”, explica García. Entre ellos se encuentra el festival de cómics norteamericano Small Press Expo, que se celebra en North Bethesda (Maryland), una cita a la que García ya había acudido numerosas veces y a la que le hace ilusión volver “para participar desde el otro lado de la mesa, para estar en el papel de profesional publicado en EEUU“. ————————————————————————————————— Mireia Pérez sobre Ben Marra Mireia Pérez escribe una carta de amor, bien merecida, a los comics del dibujante americano Ben Marra. Llevo puestas las gafas violetas desde la facultad y ya nunca me las podré quitar. Este punto de vista me acompaña a donde voy, sea de paseo, al cine o a leer. Tienes que saber esto, querida lectora, porque los tebeos de Marra transcurren en un universo donde los hombres llevan armas y son siempre los protagonistas y las mujeres son casi siempre putas o stripers, van en ropa interior y suelen ser vejadas a la primera de cambio. Y es que todo lo que fabrica Marra con sus manos (dibuja prácticamente sin boceto y a mano alzada cargada de tinta) emerge de la sátira y está cincelado con una pátina de ironía, algo que no tenían los tebeos en los ochenta y que viene exactamente de la misma cocina donde se fraguó la novela gráfica: el cómic undergraund americano. ————————————————————————————————— Edd Muñoz y El Publicadero En La Patria, Edd Muñoz nos cuenta sobre lo que nos podemos esperar en este segundo año de El Publicadero, encuentro de autoedición. Hoy es común encontrar muchos cómics de autores colombianos en las librerías, lo que no ocurría antes. ¿Es un buen síntoma? Claro. El Publicadero existe para debatir sobre el trabajo de esas personas y responde a unos eventos sobre cómic que se están realizando en Colombia, unos con más apoyo que otros. Hay una movida alrededor de la historieta y buscamos despertar el interés por los contenidos dibujados con una programación que incluye conversatorios y talleres. ————————————————————————————————— Portraits by Connor Willumsen. Este libro de 16 páginas bellamente impreso (por WestCan – que también imprimio el Manual de la Escuela Santoro) de retratos del gran Connor Willumsen está disponible para pre-pedido. De momento, sólo ofrecemos pre-pedidos para los Estados Unidos. Ofreceremos pre -pedidos para pedidos fuera de EEUU después de que mandemos el libro a los impresores. Dalé click AQUI para pedir tu pre-order! http://auction.comicsworkbook.com/2016/08/18/portraits-by-connor-willumsen-pre-order/ ————————————————————————————————— hasta la proxima! JF Share this page: [...]

09/30/2016

Sally IngrahamSeptember 30, 2016NewsSally here with Meg Lemke on censorship, the return of Karen Berger, reviews of work by Whit Taylor, Hazel Newlevant, and Daryl Seitchik, Ulli Lust on “drawing as language”, and Sarah Bowie’s adventures in Angouleme. ————————————————————————————————— On the site we have the first roundup of photos from the Comics Workbook hosted cartoon workshops at the Small Press Expo 2016! Check them out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The last week in September is traditionally Banned Book Week. This annual event put on by the American Library Association brings attention to the books that have received censorship across the years, but more importantly it is a celebration of the freedom to read whatever you want. Meg Lemke, Editor-and-Chief of MUTHA, wrote a piece for Pen America on Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s This One Summer, which has been frequently removed from schools and K-12 school libraries for it’s use of “profanity” and “vulgarity”. Comics have always had a close relationship with the firing squad, and Lemke muses on why: “As with other banned comics (such as Alison Bechdel’s lauded Fun Home), we see how easily images read as obscenity to those unfamiliar with the form. They are seen as more dangerous by their accessibility. It is what makes them attractive to younger readers, and too tempting a mark for censorship.” – Meg Lemke for Pen Read the rest of the piece HERE. Read an excerpt from This One Summer HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Karen Berger is BACK! If that name is unfamiliar, get on the same page quick: “For three decades, she worked as an editor at mega-publisher DC Comics, and her long list of accomplishments while there can mostly be traced back to one risky venture: creating and running a mature-leaning imprint called Vertigo from 1993 to 2013. In that position she did more than just about anybody else in comics history to get ambitious, avant-garde, serious non-superhero work in front of a mass audience. The Sandman, V for Vendetta, Preacher, iZombie, Y: The Last Man, Transmetropolitan, 100 Bullets, Hellblazer — those are just a few of the better-known titles Vertigo produced during Berger’s tenure.” – via Vulture.com After a falling out with DC Comics and a silence of 3 years, Karen Berger has returned to the scene, making her return with a new comic she’s edited – Surgeon X – which hit stands on Sept. 28th. More on this story HERE. (via The Comics Reporter) ————————————————————————————————— Rob Clough has reviews of Whit Taylor‘s Wallpaper and Hazel Newlevant‘s Tender-Hearted on High-Low this week! Check them out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Ulli Lust has a report on the International Comics Festival Boomfest on her blog – check it out HERE and plug into the Russian alternative comics scene for a bit. Speaking of Ulli Lust, she has a preview on her website of one page from the new book she’s been working on over the last 3 years. Page 333: ————————————————————————————————— And to continue speaking of Ulli Lust, she was one of several cartoonists who appear in a series of films about “drawing as language”, made by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Art. Gabrielle Bell, Ben Katchor, Jooste Swart, and Joe Sacco, among others, are also interviewed. Ulli Lust’s film is below: ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Beat presents a review of Daryl Seitchik‘s Exits (Koyama Press, 2016). “Moving past something might be the central message of Seitchik’s story, and the idea that even as a healthy endeavor it might not look like we expect it and it might have its own set of issues. Claire moves past the corporeal being that she feels is the center of her problems, but pushing that aside to another state doesn’t really solve anything for her, and reality becomes the result of whatever you make of it.” – John Seven Read the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Sarah Bowie is in Angouleme, doing a residency in La Maison des Auteurs – and she is keeping a diary of the adventure. Today’s story: Catch up and keep up with Sarah HERE. ————————————————————————————————— If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the video of Cameron Weston Nicholson‘s workshop at SPX – he riffs on many of the things that I love about making comics myself. Well worth a watch! ————————————————————————————————— Help send Connor Willumsen to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in October! ————————————————————————————————— It’s finally feeling like Fall in Pittsburgh! I have plans to usher October in with some spooky reading and adventures in apple orchards. Have a good weekend folks! – Sally Share this page: [...]

03/24/2016

HarrisonMarch 24, 2016News Comics news and Zyrtec packs for pollen season. Jillian Tamaki, Jeremy Sorese, K.L. Ricks, and Jen Lee creating work for Hazlitt magazine and The Comics Journal. Short abstract animation films from Japan by way of the U.S., and remembering the 5 footer. ————————————————————————————————— Hazlitt Magazine has become a prominent home for comic creators to publish various works online. Cartoonists/Illustrators Jeremy Sorese, Jillian Tamaki, and K.L. Ricks have been the past three updates in the comic sections. Check out the rest of the artists here, and if your an artist pitch to Hazlitt editors here. ————————————————————————————————— Thunder Paw creator Jen Lee has been a part of the Cartoonist’s Diary section on TCJ.com for the past few weeks. The inner question sections of these comics feel familiar, but the most striking part is how the negative space between the panels creates such a smooth reading experience. An extra block of space makes scrolling down feel natural instead of tedious. It’s also fun to see her characters drawn on top of photos and clever animaiton in some panels . One or two simple choices making comics on the web more fun to read. ————————————————————————————————— “I attended GEORAMA in tokyo this year, 2016, as a guest. I created a quick installation over the course of the festival. By using twelve separate canvases as individual frames of a sequence, i was able to create a loop of painted animation.” Caleb Wood is an independent animation filmmaker from Minnesota. Check out his other animation experiments with his film PLUMB below too. ————————————————————————————————— “Aiyyo Bo knows this (what?) and Bo knows that (what?) But Bo don’t know jack, cause Bo can’t rap Well whaddya know, the Di-Dawg, is first up to bat No batteries included, and no strings attached No holds barred, no time for move fakin Gots to get the loot so I can bring home the bacon” “Coming with more hits than the Braves and the Yankees Living mad phat like an over sized Bam-bi The wackest crews try to dis, it makes me laugh When my track record’s longer than a DC-20 aircraft So, next time that you think you want something here Make something deffer, take that garbage to St. Elsewhere” R.I.P. to a great artist. Read this and this. Share this page: [...]

09/13/2016

Aaron CockleSeptember 12, 2016NewsAaron here today with some SPX programming highlights; Shaw; Ruliffson; Mendes; Smoke Signal Open Call; Dueling book festivals in NYC this weekend ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook has an incredibly robust selection of workshops scheduled for this weekend at the Small Press Exposition (‘SPX’) in Bethesda, MD. Each one of these workshops has the potential to completely change your life (the Carol Tyler one alone will probably do that), so please do try and attend one/all of them. ————————————————————————————————— Oh, yeah, in case you weren’t aware, SPX is this weekend, don’t forget The SPX Programming Schedule is posted here, and the exhibitor list is here. Take a look and see if your favorite cartoonist is on the list! As always, this show is an intriguing assemblage of independent and mainstream small press comics from N.America and beyond, meeting in quiet desperation in the freakishly carpeted Marriott North Bethesda Hotel & Conference Center. ————————————————————————————————— Dash Shaw, Twittering Machine In support of his newly released animated film, My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea, Dash Shaw has posted a lot of reviews and screening info on Twitter. ————————————————————————————————— Jess Ruliffson interviews former US Army Captain Drew Pham at the Nib ————————————————————————————————— Melissa Mendes interviewed by Alex Dueben Why did you decide to make “The Weight” a webcomic and serialize it that way? I decided, after “Lou,” that I wanted this project to be something I did just for me. I wanted to draw and write exactly how I envisioned, but I knew that I also needed deadlines to keep me focused. Making myself post two pages a week keeps me working, even when I feel like crap, and knowing that people are following it and reading it fuels the fire under my ass. So that’s why I put it online — to give myself some structure. Has your process changed because you’re posting this online, one page at a time? It has a little. It’s kind of letting me be looser with the story. I’ve been allowing the characters to sort of take the story where they want to, and not planning out anything too rigidly. I do feel the pressure of posting two pages a week, especially right now, when there’s been some upheaval on the home front and I’ve been busy. I feel very guilty when I fall behind. Do you have a sense of how big and how long this story is? I really love family sagas, like “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck and “The Thorn Birds” by Colleen McCullough, for example, where the story spans generations. That’s sort of my plan with “The Weight.” I want it to at least encompass Edie’s (the main character’s) entire life, and maybe it’ll even go beyond that. I have a rough idea of the main turning points in the story, but nothing is set in stone at this point. But yeah, it’s a huge project. ————————————————————————————————— Gabe Fowler has posted an open call for the upcoming (26th!) issue of Smoke Signal: b+w spreads ONLY, size 21.5″ x 15.5″, 300 dpi, due Oct 1 to smokesignalcomics@gmail.com ————————————————————————————————— In Brooklyn and Queens this weekend, two of this nation’s finest book festivals: NY Art Book Fair Free and open to the public, the NY Art Book Fair is the world’s premier event for artists’ books, catalogs, monographs, periodicals, and zines. Last year, the fair featured over 370 booksellers, antiquarians, artists, institutions and independent publishers from twenty-eight countries. The 2015 NY Art Book Fair was attended by more than 35,000 people. This year’s NY Art Book Fair will once again include an ever-growing variety of exhibitors – from the zinesters in (XE)ROX & PAPER + SCISSORS and the Small Press Dome representing publishing at its most innovative and affordable, to rare and antiquarian dealers offering out-of-print books and ephemera from art and artist book history, plus the NYABF-classic Friendly Fire, focused on the intersections of art and activism. Brooklyn Book Festival The Brooklyn Book Festival is the largest free literary event in New York City, presenting an array of national and international literary stars and emerging authors. One of America’s premier book festivals, this hip, smart diverse gathering attracts thousands of book lovers of all ages to enjoy authors and the festival’s lively literary marketplace. AUTHORS INCLUDE Margaret Atwood, Margo Jefferson, Faith Erin Hicks, Russell Banks, Phoebe Gloeckner, Chester Brown, Salman Rushdie, Libba Bray, Stephanie Danler, Gayle Forman, Pete Hamill, Jacqueline Woodson, Angela Flournoy, Helen Garner, Karin Slaughter, Bruce Schneier, Rebecca Traister, Marjorie Liu, Sayed Kashua, Esmeralda Santiago, Thomas Frank, Ralph Nader, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Yusef Komunyakaa, Joyce Carol Oates, A.O. Scott, Hua Hsu, Rob Sheffield, Yoss, Jessica Valenti, Cecily von Ziegesar, Ocean Vuong, Ed Yong and hundreds more. Share this page: [...]

11/06/2018

Posted on November 6, 2018 by Aaron Cockle

Vote Aquí; Art of Native America; Comic Arts Brooklyn Panels

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A Brief History of Bilingual Voting
José -Luis Olivares at Popula.

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Attributed to Henderson Ledger Artist B (Southern Arapho)

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.

Standing Bear/ Mató Nájin (Minneconjou Lakota/Teton Sioux, 1859–1933)

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Comic Arts Brooklyn 2018
The CAB show is this Sundayn November 11, here is some info about the panels and additional events:

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged art of native america, comic arts booklyn, Henderson Ledger/Artist B, José-Luis Olivares, Standing Bear/ Mató Nájin

Aaron Cockle

Posted on November 6, 2018

Explore

ZONA 01

Juan FernándezJanuary 27, 2016NewsIT’S HERE Zona 01 – January 2016 Frank Santoro Harry Moyer Gabriella Tito Jack Brougham 44 pages of comics – 60 pages total – black and white with color silkscreen covers by Frank Santoro – Edition of 100 – signed and numbered on the covers by FS ===================================== AP Versions available in the School Store ===================================== Zona 01 – twenty bux postaid in the States Zona 01 – forty three bux postpaid outside of the States (sorry – its over 20 bux no matter where it goes outside of US so 43 seems fair) inside cover is silkscreened also – Harry Moyer’s work above Gabriella Tito above Jack Brougham above Frank Santoro above Zona 01 – twenty bux postaid in the States Zona 01 – forty three bux postpaid outside of the States (sorry – its over 20 bux no matter where it goes outside of US so 43 seems fair) ////////////////////////// AP Versions available in the School Store Share this page: [...]

05/23/2017

Aaron CockleMay 22, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Roz Chast (and Françoise Mouly); Pan Terzis; Graphic Medicine; Florine Stettheimer; Maggie Umber; Dieter Lumpen ————————————————————————————————— ‘I like taking on complicated, detailed projects, especially if I’m not a hundred-per-cent sure how they’re going to turn out.’ Françoise Mouly looks at the wonderful embroidered piece Roz Chast made for the May 15, 2017 issue of the New Yorker, including an animation of the process that went into making the cover. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Each issue has a secret formula that I have to discover. ‘ Frank Santoro continues his survey of recent developments in Art Comics Risography – this week he talks with Pan Terzis: People want to show up. They want to look at your thing in person, hold it in their hands. They want to talk to others in person about it and look at it at their own pace, without the publisher or distributor knowing how long they spent lingering on a page or whether they got to the end of the book in the same time as 76.3% of other consumers. All of this activity is still happening in the context of capitalist systems of production, supply and demand and distribution, but I think that people who work with this kind of cultural ephemera must know on some level that the real art is what happens in between the object and the viewer, and the consumer of that piece of art and the person they describe it to. It’s inherently a social act, and this can manifest through all stages of the process. People-power is what drives this activity, and just like a blade of grass can slowly destroy a piece of concrete given enough time to push to the surface, I think DIY culture might be the key to breaking out of the mechanistic, algorithm driven nightmare that our tech overlords are driving us towards. ————————————————————————————————— SAVE THE DATE: 2017 Comics & Medicine Conference: Access Points June 15-17, 2017, Seattle Public Library Central Branch ————————————————————————————————— Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry The artist Florine Stettheimer (1871–1944) is an icon of Jazz Age New York. Born to a wealthy Jewish family in Rochester, she studied at the Art Students League in New York City and then in Europe, where she encountered two profound influences: the Symbolist painters and poets and, on the eve of the Great War, the Ballets Russes. Returning to Manhattan, she hosted an elite salon together with her sisters Carrie and Ettie and their mother, Rosetta, attracting many of the leading lights of the artistic vanguard. Her circle included Alfred Stieglitz, Carl Van Vechten, Georgia O’Keeffe, Elie Nadelman, Gaston Lachaise, and many others. Among her intimate friends was Marcel Duchamp. Through over 50 paintings and drawings, a selection of costume and theater designs, photographs and ephemera, as well as critically acclaimed poems, the Jewish Museum will offer a timely reconsideration of this important American artist, revealing Stettheimer’s singular and often satiric vision and significant role in American modern art. The exhibition highlights the artist’s distinctly personal style of painting, Stettheimer’s position amidst New York’s artistic elite and avant-gardes, and her continued influence on artistic practice today. May 5-September 24 at the Jewish Museum, 1109 5th Ave at 92nd St, NYC. ————————————————————————————————— 2dcloud in Toronto Maggie Umber has a nice photo-recap of the TCAF show: Some of my favorite 2dcloud convention moments – talking with Carta’s wife Emily about our shared adoration of Junji Ito and Emily Carroll. @cartamonir letting me read Ghost Call on her phone since my Tumblr app never let me read the end last Halloween. Meeting @tommipg and watching them embroider a beautiful panel, meeting @goodcomicsbykim and being astonished by her energy and exhaustion, her humor and her seriousness. Blaise rearranging the 2dcloud table into a better format that sold more books. Juliacks casual yet persistent (and very successful) sales style and her gorgeous book trailer. I was also very excited to meet @artbl0g Xia Gordon when we did a panel together. 2dcloud is publishing a mini-comic with her soon!!!!!! ————————————————————————————————— ‘To be sure, these are the adventures of a white European wandering through the wreckage of a post-war world.’ Lastly, RM Rhodes looks at The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen, by Jorge Zentner and Ruben Pellejero: Pellejero uses color and a confident line to build on top of a very solid foundation. The real appeal of the series are the settings. The premise is that shortly after the war, a German named Dieter Lumpen gets a job as a chauffeur and the first page of the first story finds him being chased through an Istanbul market by a man with a gun. From there, he travels to the Agean, Haifa, India, Sri Lanka, Paris, Manaus, Tunisia and the Caribbean. The appeal of these destinations is Pellejero’s ability to render them almost like a documentary film maker, matter of fact about amazing sights, which adds verisimilitude. The amount of detail on each page means that every time you return to a page, you notice something new. And the stories are very rereadable. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Summer Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! 8 weeks! 500 bux! Payment plans are available! Summer Course starts June 1st 2017! Applications are due by May 25th. Visit THIS page for more details and email santoroschool@gmail.com with applications and questions! ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 5-23-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-23-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

08/29/2016

Sally IngrahamAugust 29, 2016NewsSally here to start the week with you: I’ve got Dame Darcy on VICE, the new Rowhouse Residency auction, the last days of the Composition Competition, a major event at the ToonSeum, a brand new column on Comics Workbook, and everything you ever wanted to know about Ben Day Dots… ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2016 is drawing to a close! The last day to submit work is August 30th, right up until 11:59pm EST, and not a moment later. That means 8:59pm for the West Coast – no complaining! The entries are coming in at a terrific rate now, and it’s all we can do to keep up with the rush of talent and excitement. THE LIST of entries is updated as often as we can manage, but for those who don’t see their name on the list (yet!) – if you have emailed us your entry and it has been reblogged on the Comics Workbook tumblr then you are IN, no worries. Before you send those entries in PLEASE double-check that you have met all the contest specifications – and thank you for joining the Composition Competition this year. Full contest details HERE. Again, submission deadline is August 30th, 2016, at 11:59 Eastern Standard Time! Good luck!! ————————————————————————————————— The latest auction to benefit thee Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency is a set of 3 pages donated by Sammy Harkham. THEY ARE AMAZING as you can see from the video above. Check out the rest of the action details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— On the site today we are pleased to feature a brand new column! “QUESTIONS is an anonymously curated column that will appear occasionally on Comics Workbook. It presents articles, interviews, drawings, and more under the rubric of a general theme. TRANSITION might refer to: changes in the artistic, personal, or professional life of an individual creator; changes in the wider zeitgeist of a medium or industry, which can in turn affect individual works; and of course the implied passage of time from page to page, panel to panel, that is arguably the central characteristic of comics. TRANSITION features interviews with Cameron Nicholson and Simon Moreton, an article by Kim Jooha, and reviews of work by Warren Craghead, Sarah Ferrick, and Aseyn. Thanks for reading. Thanks to all contributors for their time.“ The anonymous columnist has questions for themselves as well as the folks listed above, and the piece is a wondrous and extensive collection of thoughts on transition. Please dig into it HERE – and look for more Questions columns on Comics Workbook in the future. ————————————————————————————————— Dame Darcy on VICE last week (above). And the 1994 interview from The Comics Journal – HERE. She answered a question about what she liked about the 1800’s to 1920’s: “I like the fact that everybody was uptight and really conservative and bound, and they had these twisted views, this weird morbid society, that they romanticized death because it was around them, it was such a big part of their lives all the time. They accepted death rather than trying to hide it beneath all this crazy youth culture plastic ideology like they do today.” – Dame Darcy via tcj.com I guess she’s still very much into “this Victorian thing” as Darcy Sullivan put it in 1994. It’s probably about time I put my mitts on her Meat Cake Bible (Fantagraphics, 2016)… More about that book HERE on Observer (an interview from earlier in August, right before Dame Darcy went “to sea school to get my captain’s licence“…!) ————————————————————————————————— A recent discovery by the CW Daily News team is the blog Legion of Andy – where you can dig into topics like “The Most Important Colour Printing Technique You’ve Never Heard Of: Resin Grain Chromotypography“, and “Tarzan and the Ben Day Dots – Secrets of 1930s Comic Strip Colour“. In his most recent post, the writer is bidding farewell to his second 8-part series on Ben Day Dots, and welcoming in Craftint. He has fun quotes, like: “Those first engravings were beautiful things. They had the Ben Day process then and those Ben Day men were artists—they could get the colors. Then they got cheaper and cheaper and now finally there’s no Ben Day work at all. They use a different process that’s cheaper and not nearly so good. —Hal Foster, 1971—talking about the early days of his renowned Sunday newspaper strip, Prince Valiant, which started in 1937. Quoted by Phil Normand, here.” This blog is one rabbit warren that you might never find your way out of…! Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Here in Pittsburgh we are lucky to have one of the world’s only museums dedicated entirely to the art and history of comics – the wonderful ToonSeum! The recent opening party for a new exhibit was attended by many of the region’s cartoonists – including Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, Frank Santoro, Mark Zingarelli – and local legend Rick Sebak. Sebak described the show later on his Facebook page: “A new show called DRAW ME! opened last night at The ToonSeum. It’s a great collection of artifacts that show some of the ways that people have tried to make money by teaching people to be cartoonists! I love the old cartooning styles, and the amazing collection of stuff gathered by John F. Kelly and Mark Zingarelli. Worth a visit or two for sure!“ The exhibit features part of the collections of John Kelly, Frank Santoro, Warren Bernard, Bill Boichel, and Mark Zingarelli, among others. If you live nearby definitely check it out, and if you live far away, you should still come check it out – heck, Fiona Smyth flew in from Toronto for it! Show runs through October. ————————————————————————————————— I’ll catch up with you again in September- have fun out there! – Sally Share this page: [...]

Ch 3: Inking the Head and Figure (FACC)

Juan FernándezJanuary 1, 2016ResourcesShare this page: [...]

Cleveland, OH Scene Report

Frank SantoroNovember 6, 2011Riff Raff / Scene ReportsCleveland, OH scene report by Kevin Czap Despite a less-than-inspiring reputation, or maybe because of it, the past several years have seen a growing number of dedicated Clevelanders building a rich arts culture across all disciplines – design, music, the gallery scene, culinary arts. The comics scene in particular is at the very early stages of this same kind of growth. While there’s always been local comics activity, it’s tended to be fairly isolated. Now, however, we’re seeing concerted efforts to bring these cartoonists together, pooling our efforts to foster a thriving community. This was all put in motion by the establishment of the Genghis Con, a one-day expo focusing on underground and independent publishers, cartoonists and zinesters. The con was founded by Scott Rudge, owner of Astound! comics shop, and John G, the godfather of the Cleveland comics scene. Free to exhibitors and with a low door price for attendees, Genghis Con represents the current state of Cleveland comics. (November 26, 2011 will be the third annual! Come on out!) Cleveland’s a town with a rich comics history, with a host of significant figures calling it home through the years ó Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster (not to mention Joanne Siegel), Robert Crumb (briefly), Peter Kuper, Brian Michael Bendis. Personal heroes Bill Watterson and Harvey Pekar (we’re working on getting a statue built) are/were lifers. But what is the Cleveland comics scene of the moment? Well, I mentioned John G, who for years was putting out comics like the anthology Shiner, co-edited with Kevin Fagan. John’s work is an indelible part of Cleveland’s visual identity, focusing on poster illustrations for countless rock shows and the popular grilled cheese restaurant Melt, as well as extensive illustration work for the alt weekly Scene magazine. Similarly, we’ve got Jake Kelly, whose Crosston was the first local comic I got here. Jake’s also gone the gig poster route, as well as painting huge murals throughout the city. Other vets in the area include Gary Dumm and Greg Budgett, longtime contributors to American Splendor, and Derf, author of the alt-weekly fixture “The City” and childhood friend of Jeffrey Dahmer. I also mentioned Scott Rudge and Astound!, the best comic shop in town from an indie perspective. There aren’t really any other stores where you can get hand-made comics in Cleveland, and believe me, I’ve looked. Carol & John’s is another great shop, as well as the graphic-novel-friendly indie book stores Mac’s Backs and Visible Voice. And then there’s the new kids. Centered largely around Cleveland Institute of Art students and alumni, there’s been a fresh wave of talent flooding Cleveland’s streets. For instance, Niki Smith, artist on the Zuda-winning digital comic In Maps & Legends, was recently awarded a huge grant from the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture that funded a trip to China to research her graphic-novel-in-progress. Hardcore comics “nerd” Liz Valasco is still fresh from interning at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at OSU and is making work I’m especially excited about. One of the reasons I started the PUPPYTEETH anthology was to provide a showcase for Cleveland folks like these (as well as a number of other CIA expats). I’ve also been happy to have the opportunity to teach a community course on the art of comics at CIA. There’s plenty happening apart from CIA, as well. Keith Pakiz is continuing the Watterson visual tradition with his mad-cap Condiment Squad. (side-note: Keith is part of a group of promising cartoonists coming out of BGSU in Toledo. Although the majority live too far away to be considered Clevelanders, they’re honorary members of the scene and I’d be remiss to not drop some names: Jessi Zabarsky, Eric Kubli, Geneva Hodgson being the most active). We’ve also got the Elyria Comic Book Initiative, which is on a mission to indoctrinate the children of Cleveland. It’s encouraging to think that the next generation is already being formed. And finally, Cleveland benefits greatly from its neighbors. Pittsburgh and Columbus are roughly equidistant to us (about a 2 hour drive), so it’s really easy to share and learn from our sister cities. That’s where we are now, lots of activity just beginning to be brought together. One of the nice things about a “city of choice” like Cleveland is that the people living here do so because they want to. We’re all committed to making a better community for ourselves, for neighboring scenes, and for the comics community at large. To paraphrase Ian MacKaye, we’re putting Cleveland on the map. ————————— INTERMISSION FUNNIES by MICHAEL DEFORGE ————————— FRANK’S GOT A NEW AUDIO RECORDER – LOOKOUT FOR FUTURE PODCASTS! **I am accepting “blind” scene reports. 300 words MAX. A few photos. Please send me the HTML ready text with photos already embedded. I am going to begin running more than one scene report a week like Maximum Rock-n-Roll scene reports. Please send them to capneasyATgmailDOTcom. Share this page: [...]

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