Comics Workbook

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Posted in NewsTagged bird comics, Rosemary Mosco, sally ingraham

Sally Ingraham

Posted on November 9, 2018

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07/04/2016

Juan FernándezJuly 4, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez here with: Daniel Clowes at the Bay Area Book Festival; Ronald Wimberly on spec work for corporations; Gabrielle Bell’s July Diary; Lauren Weinstein at the shore; Lunch at Alcatraz Jr.; Aline Kominsky-Crumb und Robert Crumb. ————————————————————————————————— On the site: New in the DIAZ ARCHIVE: http://comicsworkbook.com/daniel-clowes-talk-at-the-bay-area-book-festival-2016/ ————————————————————————————————— No More Free Work for Corporations Stop Doing Spec Pages Pt. 1 Ronald Wimberly: A quick preface: Yesterday a friend of mine told me the story of how she was scouted by DC Comics to participate in their “talent” workshop. My colleague, who worked as a professional for 7 years and had books from Marvel under her belt, made time to meet up with a rookie editor only to subject herself to the editor’s rejection and novice opinion as to how my colleague may one day meet the standards of the DC talent workshop- some other time I’ll talk about how lame this DC Comics talent workshop is in how it is manufacturing the spectacle of demand for their brand by creators and using that to forego the cost and editorial aptitude it takes to curate and build a stable of … but they had the gaul to ask my colleague to do test pages, so here’s my opinion on that. Pt. 2. Ronald Wimberly: If you can’t generate surplus value, then your business model is broken, fam. That means you need to go out of business or fix it. You don’t fix it by getting free labor. Or you can, but that is unjust. ————————————————————————————————— Gabrielle Bell’s July Diary July is here and that means that it’s time to relish in Gabrielle Bell’s July Diary. Since 2012, every July, except for 2015, Gabrielle Bell has been posting a “July Diary,” on her site, which have been collected in her book Truth is Fragmentary from Uncivilized Books. Subscribe to Bell’s blog and receive Bell’s comics in your inbox on the regular. Oh, what a day! This year, Bell is shaking things up a bit in her process. It’s going to be really excited to see where her new process takes her stories… This year I’ve set the parameter for myself of no penciling, no erasing, no revising, no redrawing, no editing. It still isn’t exactly a diary though. If it were really a diary, I’d be exposing all my ugly secrets, my inappropriate crushes, the people I hate and all kinds of incriminating and compromising information about everyone I know. I’d love to do that but it took me so long to get the friends I’ve got and I’d like to keep them. You could call this a journal but I don’t like that word either…it sounds too much like “journaling.” At this point it’s an experiment and I’ll figure out what it is in the future hindsight. ————————————————————————————————— Drawn Together: Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Robert Crumb at Cartoonmuseum Basel 7.2-11.13.2016 A comprehensive exhibition that charts the history of Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Robert Crumb’s collaborative work in their comics series Drawn Together has just opened at Cartoonmuseum Basel. If you’re in Switzerland, you won’t want to miss out on seeing this bit of taboo busting underground comics history in the flesh. ————————————————————————————————— “… I can feel time passing and it aches.” Summer vacation comics from Lauren Weinstein over on the Guardian. Frageile memory, raw parenthood and wild horses swirl together in this one. ————————————————————————————————— New Street Angel update: Jesse’s first breakfast in the big house! So gross yummy! SUBSCRIBE here to keep up with Street Angel news + art via Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca. ————————————————————————————————— New Private Rowhouse Auction – 7.3-7.9 Last but not least, we have a new private auction up at auction.comicsworkbook.com! Lots of old and new comics for you to take home. email Frank Santoro at santoroschoolATgmail for a password, if you don’t already have one. If you already have a password, it is the same from last week. All funds go to helping keep the lights on and further developing the school. Connor Willumsen is offering commission sketches that you don’t want to miss out on, all at different tiers. Don’t sleep on your chance to get work by this contemporary heavy hitter. ————————————————————————————————— soak up the sun, bomb some hills, and feel the wind in your hair, until next time! JF Share this page: [...]

11/30/2017

Sally IngrahamNovember 30, 2017NewsSam Ombiri on Carlos Gonzalez’s Test Tube, Meg Lemke and Gene Luen Yang in conversation, and a bit more diversity in comics news. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I have been reading Test Tube by Carlos Gonzalez, and this comic feels like it’s mutating me and my reality. I wasn’t aware that a comic can wrap around my brain. It did this by using very familiar images, with unfamiliar modes of presentation that somehow mysteriously register. Carlos is bringing to attention how unfamiliar these familiar drawings are. He’s somehow simultaneously doing so much and so little to convey what objects, characters, and settings are, yet it all somehow renders so clearly. Which I guess is cartooning, but there seems to something in this system Carlos has introduced. He’s really mastered manipulating our mind at the bare minimum, but with the effort in design turned up to the maximum, to indicate at every turn of the story that something’s afoot. It also could just be satisfying at an aesthetic level. On my end it’s great to look at, but it simultaneously conveys the nature of the story. From what I’ve seen, it seems when Carlos is making comics he’s not always fully aware of where the story’s going to go. Of course there’s always an element of improvisation with most every art form. Whether it’s at the beginning or later down the road in the whole process, there’s always an element of improvisation. For Carlos it seems to be late in the whole process. Where it’s too late to make changes as a result of committing to a certain feeling. He seems to sacrifice control in order to stay true to the feeling he set out to express. For some makers this can cheapen their work, but it’s not the case for Carlos. I think it’s how welcoming and sensitive he is to surprises – these surprises that come along the way, that I’m guessing he ran with because of his commitment to satisfy that longing for a complete story. That’s what I get personally as a reader. It’s not just the way the story plays out – the jokes have this immediate, intuitive, and spontaneous punchiness to them that isn’t in anyway contrived. After wandering back and forth, back and forth through these characters lives, the story all leads to an event, unexpectedly. The way Carlos introduces us to all these elements that will eventually take shape is brilliant – he starts with when the event has already taken place, and then the one character whom we are familiar with is recounting. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be shocked, after seeing all the strange things that had happened to the characters before what happened towards the end. By the time I got towards the end of the book, I was convinced there wasn’t anything stranger that could happen. I was wrong. I had to know that something had to be building up. I did, but I didn’t expect it to be a smallish incident. Towards the end of the book the characters don’t feel like pawns in a big sci-fi epic as they did at the beginning. I imagined the book going that direction, that it’s in this claustrophobic, personal macro state, and it’ll expand and expand. However, the story to my surprise and to my delight stayed in the same scale, no matter what was going on. So even this scientist’s big experiment felt like a homemade experiment. “Low key” is the word for the event towards the end of the story, that’ll supposedly continue in our world. I was thinking about the ending to Videodrome – of course if you watch that movie in Pittsburgh, that movie’s going to have an even stranger effect on you. Basically Carlos made it seem like this character is somewhere out there, and she’s gotta do this thing to survive emotionally, so I sympathize with her, even though she’s going doom us all. Maybe I ought to be more optimistic about this higher form she’s going to turn us all into. Read this book if you can, you’ll be glad you did. There’s also a really cool intro by Noel Freibert at the beginning that’ll make you even more confused about this book than you thought you could be. Noel told me he included some stuff from knowing Carlos into the intro, so it might function more to introduce the reader to Carlos more than the book itself, which made it make more sense. – Sam Ombiri Get a copy of Test Tube by Carlos Gonzalas HERE. For another review of this comic, read Anya Davidson’s thoughts on The Comics Journal – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Sally here – Mege Lemke interviews Gene Luen Yang, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, over on Mutha Magazine. They talk about his project Reading Without Walls, and it’s mission to get kids and parents “exploring books about characters who look or live differently than you, topics you haven’t discovered, or formats that you haven’t tried.” They talk about how to get reluctant readers to read, how kids are now usually allowed to read comics in school, and the big issue of diversity in comics/publishing as a whole. “MUTHA: What’s your take on this: As I’m sure you’re aware, there’s a real focus in young adult publishing community right now on responding to the criticism from the Own Voices Movement, essentially the idea that there needs to be more space for people of color and people of different sexualities to write their own stories. Resulting in pushback against, say, white writers writing as another character of color, but also characters of color writing other characters of color. This has caused writers to become cautious about writing across cultures. GENE LUEN YANG: Here’s how I approach it. In my own writing life and in my work teaching writing, I believe that writing is an act of bravery. You have to get over so much fear just to put your story on the page. Facing that blank page is terrifying. When I sit down to write, I’ll want to do anything else. I’ll want to go wash dishes, I’ll want to go reorganize my label collection, anything, right? I am very reluctant, especially when I think about my students, of introducing more fear in their heads. So, I would never tell a writer that they cannot write outside of their experience. I almost think that it’s the defining job of a writer to be able to go outside of their own experience. But I would say: don’t let that fear that you feel allow you to stop writing the story you want to write. You should let that fear drive you to do homework. You should let that fear drive you to humility. Approaching experiences that aren’t your own with a certain humility. Including people who are insiders into your support group, either as editors or as beta readers. There is a greater responsibility. However, you’ll see like 80 percent of the stories told about minority demographics are told by outsiders. That is a problem. That is a problem.“ Yang goes on to say that ultimately it is on the publishers, the gatekeepers, to make sure they are publishing work by POC creators and not just asking their “stable” of white writers to toss some diversity into their work. Plenty of other interesting notes in the interview – read it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Speaking of a white writer tossing some diversity into their work, The Comics Reporter has a breakdown of the recent shocker from Marvel’s new Editor-in-Chief, CB Cebulski – he once wrote comics under the pseudonym Akira Yoshida, and had a whole secret identity for this person. Understandable uproar has ensued. Tom Spurgeon writes: “Comics culture is not just a roll-your-eyes cattle prod these days, it’s as under fire as any individual publishing move. Rightfully so: comics culture dictates a lot in terms of how our industries operate. This latest looks like a series of actions possible only in the context of a broken professional culture. This is not just the case of a freelancer adopting a pseudonym to get more work. This was someone giving themselves work that could have gone to someone else, and creating a context for that work more attractive than the work would be by itself. By assuming a Japanese identity and writing stories soaked in orientalist stereotypes, Cebulski and Marvel slipped any blame that might be theirs for the content of such work, and avoided criticism for the general breakdown of creators being hired by the company. “ Read the rest of the story HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 11-30-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Frank’s Comics Corner #1 – Fantastic Four #233

Comics WorkbookFebruary 11, 2017EssaysFrank’s Comics Corner 2-4-2017 Share this page: [...]

02/17/2017

Sally IngrahamFebruary 16, 2017NewsHappy Friday! Sally here with another amazing group of cartoonists and comics scholars – joining me today are Lucy Caswell, Mickey Z, Dominique Goblet, Jillian Fleck, Vanesa R. Del Rey, Gabriella Tito, Caitlin Rose Boyle, and many more. I invite YOU to join me as well in celebrating a special anniversary! ————————————————————————————————— The Lucy Caswell Research Award is roaring to life! The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is partnering with the Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation to create an endowment that will provide funding for comics scholars to travel to Columbus, OH, and conduct research at the BICLM. The Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation issued a challenge – if the BICLM and Ohio State University Libraries can raise $35, 000, they will match that amount, generating $70, 000 for comics scholars. During the “Buckey Love” campaign over the last week, the Libraries raised $11, 061 which is a tremendous start to the project! You can make a gift to the Lucy Caswell Research Award HERE. The Award is named after the great Lucy Shelton Caswell, Professor Emerita at Ohio State University and founding curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. “Prior to her retirement, her scholarly work and teaching focused on the history of newspaper comic strips and the history of American editorial cartoons. She has curated more than seventy-five cartoon-related exhibits and is the author of several articles and books, the most recent being the revised edition of Billy Ireland. Caswell is co-editor of The Ohio State University Press Studies in Cartoons and Comics series. She also serves as the vice president of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, the annual citywide celebration of cartoon art.“ It’s hard to actually put into words the importance of Lucy in the comics community, and this award is just one of many ways that her influence will continue to impact the coming generations. More details about the award can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— In Mickey Z‘s recent interview with Frank Santoro about risography (HERE on The Comics Journal) she mentioned that she was experimenting with online comics. I immediately went on a hunt for them, and found the (mostly) daily comic that she has been publishing on Instagram for awhile – Space Academy 123 (the latest episode is pictured above)! It is a hilarious story about “space school” that I insist you go and read NOW. Once you’re in the Mickey Z mood check out her RAV collection from Youth and Decline – HERE. She is a cartoonist to keep on your radar – she’s always making terrific work and doing interesting collaborations while holding up her corner of the comics community tent in Providence, RI! ————————————————————————————————— Paste Magazine has a review of Dominique Goblet‘s Pretending is Lying (translated by Sophie Yanow). “In many ways, the book is a mess. The narrative is scattered and patchy, and the characters are often frustrating. On the other hand, it holds an immediate power. Goblet conveys her messy childhood, her difficult relationships with her parents and her lasting problems from her upbringing. The mess is the point, even if it can feel smothering. If pretending is lying (something one character says to another in the heat of anger), these pages avoid deception by being as raw and direct as Goblet can render them. Characters also lie to one another (or to themselves) throughout. It’s complicated. Life is complicated. There’s no clear, overarching storyline because forcing experience into a narrative is a kind of lying.” – Hillary Brown This is the latest release from New York Review Comics, an fairly new imprint that has already published a bunch of really neat comics, including some of my favorite books from last year – the reissue of Mark Beyer’s Agony, the collection of Glen Baxter’s wild single-panel gag strips, and Pushwagner’s Soft City. I’m excited to see what else they put out, and will definitely be taking some time with Dominique Goblet’s Pretending is Lying soon. Read the whole Paste review HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Rob Clough recently reviewed Jillian Fleck‘s Lake Jehovah. “Jillian Fleck’s debut book Lake Jehovah is the sort that an artist with a lot to say tends to throw at the world; there are multiple levels of meaning, metaphor and symbol in the comic that take a long time to unpack, along with a complex visual playbook that riffs on all sorts of formal tricks like the use of the grid and repeating visual motifs. Fortunately for the reader, Fleck was up to the task that she set for herself in telling a story of multiple apocalypses, mysterious illnesses, horny demons and talking animals, and a remarkable balance of the absurd and the deadly serious. Along the way, there’s a serious examination of the value of poetry, the utility of language in general and a restless exploration of gender and sexuality, It’s done with a humane and sympathetic take on all of the characters, no matter their experiences.“ Read the rest HERE! Get a copy of the book from Conundrum Press. Jillian is an alum of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers and a member of the Comics Workbook Roller Derby League. ————————————————————————————————— Vanesa R. Del Rey‘s artwork launched Marvel’s Scarlet Witch back in 2015, and then the series continued with collaborations between writer James Robinson and a number of other artists. Keeping things mixed up like this was always the intent of the series. Now, Vanesa returns with issue #15 – out on February 22nd 2017! There’s an interview with her over on Marvel News and some preview pages of her inks for the story – check it out HERE. Be sure to follow Vanesa in Instagram, where she shares tons of process drawings and other artwork – @vrdelrey – and check out the Comics Workbook publication The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Women Who Write About Comics is expanding their reach through a publishing project – their new imprint, Bleating Heart Press, will be releasing Secrets of the Goat People #1: Voice (above) in late March 2017. “In this inaugural double issue, you’ll find 40+ pages of original comics, illustrations, and prose from 17 international creators. Learn about the power of silence, how a superhero finds her inner strength, the strength of goat women, and what it means for these creators’ voices to be heard.“ This website is a great resource for comics news and reviews – take a minute to explore it. Recent posts include this roundup of mini reviews of work by Anya Davidson, Eleanor Davis, and more – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The A.V. Club offers up a review of Marvel’s new series The Unstoppable Wasp: “Written by Jeremy Whitley with art by Elsa Charretier and colorist Megan Wilson, The Unstoppable Wasp is a book full of good intentions: It focuses on bringing girls into the male-dominated STEM field (including backmatter interviews with real-life female STEM professionals), features a cast of characters from different ethnic backgrounds, and prioritizes fun and compassion in its storytelling. The artwork from Charretier and Wilson is dynamic, expressive, and bright, with imaginative layouts and detailed linework, particularly when it comes to the messy science lab environments. Charretier has quickly risen through the ranks of comic artist with her animated, effervescent style, and she’s the perfect artist to handle a story about a joyful new superhero.” – Oliver Sava Sounds pretty good, right? The reviewer makes a point of noting, however, that this is yet another series where a female hero is being written by a man. “That’s not to say that every book about a female superhero should have a woman writing it, but the overall message of The Unstoppable Wasp makes it difficult to ignore the lack of female creators in superhero comics while most of Marvel’s superheroine titles are written by men.” – Oliver Sava This is followed by a hefty list of Marvel stories with female leads that are being written by men. At least the rest of the creative team for The Unstoppable Wasp are women – check out more work by Elsa Charretier and Megan Wilson! The A.V. Club piece can be read in full HERE – and among the four comics reviews is a nice write up about Lady Castle, so bonus! ————————————————————————————————— From the Comics Workbook TV archives – Frank met up with Caitlin Rose Boyle around the time the first issue of Jonsey was released. Check out more of Caitlin’s work HERE. We’re up to issue #10 of Jonsey now – read about Jonsey’s recent adventures as an activist HERE. ————————————————————————————————— It’s my Comics Workbook Daily News 1 Year Anniversary! I’ve been with you on 50 of the past 52 Fridays and shone my face plenty of other days too. It has been tremendously satisfying to keep an eye on the comics scene and share what I think is interesting and important with this community. Thanks for hanging out with me and the rest of the CW News team for a year and more – we look forward to continuing to provide quality content and commentary for many years to come. For the record, here’s my first Friday Daily News post! ————————————————————————————————— Popsicle Sticks Julia Wertz‘s The Infinite Wait and Other Stories is reviewed on Fantasy Literature. Reminder to check out Fiona Smyth‘s weekly strip – CHEEZ. Last I checked there were 499 drawings posted there! Emma Lawson reviews Jessica Campbell‘s Hot or Not: 20th Century Male Artists over on Comics Alliance. One of my favorite comics from last year. The Argentinian women’s comics collective Chicks on Comics has released a fanzine – you can view it on Issuu – HERE. It includes work by 150 women from around the world. A reviewer on Forbes believes that Emil Ferris‘ My Favorite Things Are Monsters is about to transform graphic literature – find out how HERE. The Comics Journal has the first long form interview with Emil Ferris EVER – check out Part 1. Jessica Abel blogs about working smarter, not harder, even in your creative life. She is also offering a “live-journal” experience to subscribers who wish to follow her current project – writing and publishing a book about creative focus in 3 months. Check it out. Can we talk about the fact that Jillian Tamaki, creator of SuperMutant Magic Academy, and co-author of This One Summer, also makes the most incredible quilts (pictured below)?! In my mind there is a strong connection between quilting and comics. See more of her work HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! The course starts March 7th 2017. Apply by February 26th to get 100 bux off! The course is 8 weeks long – payment plans are available. 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 – send specific url links to any comics work you have done. If you haven’t done comics before that is not a problem. Email santoroschoolATgmail to apply! More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 2-17-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-17-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-17-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-17-2017 – Juan Fernandez 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: [...]

11/09/2018

Posted on November 9, 2018 by Sally Ingraham

Sally Ingraham here – I am traveling at the moment, going to birding festivals (which are a lot like comics expos!) in TX and NM. I am seeing rare and interesting birds, meeting amateur and professional naturalists and ornithologists and quite a few “bird artists”. When I walk the floor of the vender show at these birding festivals, I see similarities to the small press comics community – but I am one of the few people who plays in both sandboxes. Increasingly, I am a “bird comics” maker.

Sally Ingraham – Austin Dam, PA – Sept. 2018

Right before this trip I gathered all of my birding comics into one place – check them out on Instagram by following me at @duck_hollow_comics. My work is documentary and verging on journal comics, especially when I make them on the fly, in the middle of a birding trip, as seen below:

Sally Ingraham – Frontera Audubon, Weslaco, TX – Nov. 2018

Typical “rare bird” behavior! Incidentally, the Golden-Crowned Warbler, which we DID NOT see, is a Central American warbler that has ventured a bit further north than it usually does. The Buff-bellied Hummingbird which you see in the comic above – one of the birds that we DID see – is not a rarity for South Texas, but it is not a species I ever see in my usual haunts of Western PA! (Apologies for my bird nerd moment!)

I met another “bird comics” maker at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival yesterday – Rosemary Mosco, who became well known for her web comics Bird and Moon. Science and nature cartoons!

I have been a fan of her work for awhile, and it was terrific to meet her and immediately find a kindred spirit. Just briefly we touched on the interesting and historic significance of science comics, and the relationship between female artists and nature, and the overlooked impact of amateur female naturalists on science, etc. Great stuff.

Check out Rosemary Mosco’s work and if you haven’t already, be sure to follow me on Instagram too.

See you out there, on the road or somewhere in nature!

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Posted in NewsTagged bird comics, Rosemary Mosco, sally ingraham

Sally Ingraham

Posted on November 9, 2018

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Developing a New Festival Toolkit

Juan FernándezOctober 21, 2016Festivals and ShowsI’ve just come back from CXC and I have only glowing reviews of it. It was such a breath of fresh air. To that effect, I’ve been thinking about the future of comics events in America. How we move into that future. I’m typing out loud, hoping for some conversation. Festivals like Entreviñetas are the future. Period. If you’re not up to date on the incredible work that is being done in Colombia, check out Frank’s tour diary from 2 years ago. And then hop on over to their site. It’s time that the rest of us caught up. Why? Because as it stands, in it’s current, commodity focused culture, comics are facing a cultural choking point with respect to the role that comics making can play in broader cultural discussions. We need to give comics making and comics reading practices more breathing room. To grow. To continue expanding. We need to nurture interdisciplinary approaches to experiencing comics. We need our festivals to make this a guiding principle. Comics making no longer needs to limited to being a collectible, genre oriented narrative art form. It can take its ascendant role as the 21st Century visual art form. It’s time that it be seen as a modality of communication with breadth and depth, that can survive in any kind of market driven cultural ecosystem. It’s time for our festivals to foster that. Hear me out. Here’s the nuts and bolts of something that’s been taking form across the discussions that I’ve been having in Pittsburgh and last weekend in Columbus… Festival Shop: I’ve been kicking around this idea with Frank Santoro of creating a show that completely does away with the flea market model. No more standing behind tables hawking wares. Instead, you establish a festival shop. So how do you run a festival shop? You get an experienced comics retailer to run the shop. You have them hire a trusted staff. You pay that staff. The shop gets a cut. 50/50. In a model like this it costs you no money to have your work available. Our current system is embarrassingly inefficient. It is an ineffective use of getting dozens of skilled comics makers and storytellers in one city for a week or weekend. With everyone behind tables, there’s cross pollination that just doesn’t happen. Under this new kind of model, if you are a guest you sign up to be involved in city wide comics programming. Signings, gallery exhibitions, lectures, workshops. This is the kind of thing that you get Arts and Cultural councils involved in. You sign up because you want to be part of the programming. With a model like this, you free up the artists and suddenly new horizons open up. Among those horizons are sources for financing. Imagine collaborating with a city’s municipal parks: guided bike tours where throughout the tour you make stops, learn about the city, while doing landscape drawings and comics strips of the experience… A series of readings at a book store. Gallery exhibitions. Movie screenings at an arthouse theater. There are so many venues that would be amenable to programming: libraries, universities, community centers, theaters, bookstores, parks… Most of these venues have programming budgets that could fund materials and labor for artists. It’s a path way towards equity. Book Debut Hub: The fear of course is of course that comics makers won’t attend a festival that they are not tabling at. It’s too foreign a concept to many comics makers. They might balk at the idea of having to be involved with programming as opposed to hand selling their books. So, one idea proposed is to make the exhibition aspect of the fest to be geared towards book debuts. The festival becomes an event for press. In such an ecosystem, everyone in local and national press knows that if they want to interview artists, this is where they do it. Like a “Comics-Cannes”. CXC is doing this well, already in its second. While it’s true that SPX is where a lot of people shoot to debut books, that’s not the focus in the market place. For the most part it’s a free for all. If a festival handled this in a way that was across the board… that’d be interesting. Start small and semi-annually What if you’re afraid that one big annual event is unsustainable? What if comics don’t have enough cultural momentum in your city? Well you don’t have a huge comics explosion once a year from the get go. You create a series of small events that invite a couple cartoonists to come together for some talks, workshops, interviews, and collaborative projects. You don’t want to make an event like this break the bank or be a social stressor on a local comics scene. You want the growth of an event like this to be sustainable. Fundamentally, you want to foster a culture of comics readership, with a focus on the reading habits of an entire city. How do you do this? You seasonal programming in clusters. do workshops in the public schools. Do workshops and lectures at the libraries and universities. Fold comics makers into the reading and lecture series in theaters. Keep them free. Limited guests Imagine this. You bring 4 special guests. A comics journalist, an art comics maker, a storyboard artist, a memoirist. They all have unique expertise. Not only in their craft but in the subject matter that they work with. Pair the journalist up with a panel of other journalists and have a discussion on geopolitcial instability in the middle east. Bring the art comics maker and have them do a performance with a dance troupe. Record a conversation between the memoirist and an archival libraries memoir specialist, get the storyboard artist to discuss their work with paleontologists. You organize community programming around those specific guests. You look at their strengths and their areas of expertise. You show your city that comics are a pathway to expertise. Why limit the number? You want to foster a cultural conversation across your city that is not diluted by droves of artists. Anyone who is interested in comics in your city will experience the perspectives of those invited. Together. Rather than seeing a list of 80 exhibitors and only engaging with 7 of those artists an attendee will in some way or another experience all the invited guests. You suddenly have a city on the same page. They’ve heard the same talks. They’ve seen the same demonstrations. Those artists impacts ripple out through that local area with much greater intensity. This is effective. Also, it is more cost effective. You can focus on certain artists and pair them up with institutions that wish to fund your activities. You get way more bang for your buck from your programming. Your programming funds your festival and it pays the artists an equitable wage. Is it more challenging than charging admission and charging exhibitors + selling ad space? Yes, a little more challenging, but far more promising. Of course, all this can and should be co-programmed with local artists. Your local artists will be the beating heart of this cultural project as time progresses. You are building a cultural institution that is fostering the arts, with a focus on comics and cartooning. This allows for an international and regional dialogue to develop organically among makers and readers tied to where you’re at. For the record, I want to see what we can do here in Pittsburgh to this effect. We have the ToonSeum, Copacetic Comics, Phantom of the Attic Comics, the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency, the Pittsburgh Zine Fair, the Pittsburgh Comics Salon, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, a half-dozen comics hungry universities, and a slew of independent book stores. We have an existing regional show, PIX. We can make something happen. That’s on my end in Pittsburgh. What do you have where you live? What could you imagine coming together? What kind of programs would you develop if you could wrangle the necessary arts funding in your city? Don’t be shy to comment, this is a long overdue conversation. It can get messy. We’re just figuring stuff out. I especially want to hear young makers and organizers in conversation with the grizzled veterans. Some of you are in the trenches already, I want to hear what you’re doing. For the rest of our complete CXC coverage check out the special “round up” report HERE. Share this page: [...]

07/21/2017

Sally IngrahamJuly 21, 2017NewsSally here with Rachel Masilamani live from Pittsburgh, PA; Sophie Yanow saying “No!”; Florida witches at large thanks to Vanesa R. Del Rey and Jordie Bellaire; and much more. —————————————————————————————————— The Pittsburgh Comic Salon had the great pleasure of hosting Rachel Masilamani last night at the ToonSeum. She has been making comics since 1997 and has a veritable constellation of work in print and online publications, as well as a number of self published works. Her first comics collection – RPM Comics #1 – received a grant from the Xeric Foundation. Her ongoing graphic novel project – Non Partum – appears on MUTHA Magazine in installments. Her most recent pieces are the powerful Battleground, which was part of Illustrated PEN’s series “State of Emergency”, and Who Does He Favor? from this month on the LA Review of Books. Rachel spoke eloquently about how she uses comics to control and contextualize her experiences and memories, how “lies” illuminate the truth, and her belief in the power of making good art. She relates to Lynda Barry’s term “autobiofictionography” and names her as a main source of inspiration. Rachel pushed through her first successes and then bitter disappointments with the realty of making comics (and not making a living) and now 20 years into the game she is confident in her work and herself, and is excited about the medium. It was wonderful to hear her speak, and to see her address a crowd of mostly women last night. Sharing our work and experiences this way is more important than ever. Check out more of Rachel’s work HERE. Read Juan Fernandez’s discussion of Rachel’s foundational work HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Sophie Yanow has captured the constant struggle of many artists to maintain their space to make their work – and turned that “NO” (so often combined with wracking guilt and anxiety) into something glorious. Thank you Sophie! This comic should go above everyone’s desk – and she has made it available as a “pay what you want” downloadable PDF so get your copy HERE asap! —————————————————————————————————— Vanesa R. Del Rey and Jordie Bellaire talk Redlands over on Multiversity Comics in anticipation of the upcoming release of #1 (August 9th). I can’t wait for this comic, which will mix small town Florida with fed up witches, hopefully with wicked and wonderful results. Alice Castle interviewed the two makers about the work: “The idea of using witches as the protagonists in “Redlands” is fascinating to me. Witches have usually been cast as figures of impurity; the kind of women who refuse to adhere to patriarchal society. What was it that drew you to this idea? What made witches the right pick for this story? Jordie Bellaire: Women and the archetypes of crones, witches, succubi, etc go hand-in-hand. If women were sexually liberated, educated or sought knowledge or were generally unfettered by whatever social construct was pushed upon them at the time, they were written about as evil, dark and inhuman. This was in an effort to push women down and make them seem as if they were against not only men, but against god as well. It dates back to the story of Adam and Eve. This is a compelling trope that I wanted to dive into it as I think it has really set the tone for how women are seen in our culture and in our media. Women have been taking back the idea of being a witch or she-devil and owning it. The women in my story are unapologetic, flawed but liberated and real. Vanesa, you’ve dabbled in the world of horror comics before with “The Empty Man,” which was where I first discovered your artwork. “Redlands,” from what I’ve seen, seems even more somber and atmospheric. How would you describe your approach to this series? Vanesa R. Del Rey: The visual tone for the series is inspired by turn of the 19th-century illustration and printmaking, mainly. But I was also visiting Goya’s etching works which are pretty dark in terms of the commentary he made with the work as well as the imagery he used. I thought a hatching technique would be appropriate to illustrate the uneasiness, distress and anxiety in this land we have created. It’s also very classical, with attention to details and line weight…. I’m playing with the energy of the line to express a feeling in all ways. Things in “Redlands” are very strange and confusing, much like the place from which we are taking inspiration, Florida; it’s beautiful and colorful, but dark and unsettling too.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE and get ye to a comics shoppe on August 9th to grab your copy of Redlands #1! —————————————————————————————————— Working the Circuit Karen Berger announces the lineup of her new publishing imprint, Berger Books – Vulture has the details HERE. Katie Skelly was on Inkstuds recently, interviewed by guest host Joe McCulloch – listen HERE. Over on Comics Alternative Interviews Andy and Derek spoke with Gabrielle Bell about Everything is Flammable – HERE. Nicola Scott wades into the whys of how she’s drawing Wonder Woman for W Magazine – read the interview HERE. If you’re in the San Francisco area join Nicole J. Georges for an evening and celebrate the release of her new book Fetch on July 21st – part of the Comics in the City speaker series at California College of the Arts – details HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-21-2017 – by Gabriella Tito —————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-21-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

05/30/16

Juan FernándezMay 30, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez with Kurt Ankeny’s IN PIECES; Residents at the Rowhouse; Laura Knetzger on SEA URCHIN; Ta-Nehisi Coates on Swampthing; Breakdown Press at Copacetic Comics; Tyler Landry’s COWARD’S HOLE; Italy on Toronto. ————————————————————————————————— In Pieces: Someplace Which I Call Home – Kurt Ankeny We’re excited to feature the first installment of a new graphic novel by Kurt Ankeny, creator of Saltwater Snow and A Bomb, and co-author of the Santoro School Handbook for Making Better Comics on Comics Workbook this week. In Pieces: Someplace Which I Call Home is a collage-portrait of a small New England town. Reflections in pencil that sweep across the grid. Check it out and Pre-Order a copy today! ————————————————————————————————— Warming up at the Rowhouse Another wave of new residents is here for their stay at the Rowhouse Residency! A programming and architecture game development duo that were itching to get the full comics experience. To learn more about what has been happening and to stay abreast of all developments with the Rowhouse, please follow the Rowhouse Residency on instagram. ————————————————————————————————— Sea Urchin Post-Mortem Laura knetzger reflects on the process of creating her book Sea Urchin over on her blog. Lots of really nice, raw details. Knetzger: I can’t even get to talking about the comic before I have to do talk about the politics of autobio art. I keep using phrases like “embarrassing” to describe it but it’s not quite like that. I don’t think autobio is bad or that the people making it are selfish narcissists. But I feel this hesitation to talk about my own stuff? I think there’s still a double standard in art where women’s autobio work is considered cute, intimate, like a diary covered in Sanrio stickers, and about the singular woman, and men’s autobio work is considered hard-hitting journalism about the human condition. I think autobio gets gendered as female because it deals with so many domestic scenes, and therefore looked down on, albeit unconsciously. Maybe this is my own issues, but when I see people dump on autobio as a whole I’m like…you’re on my list now. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Reflections at The Atlantic Ta-Nehisi Coates is blogging regularly about his reading and writing in comics. Recently Coates took some time to reflect on the Swamp Things’ reintroduction to DC’s readership in 1984. It’s neat to see a panel by panel breakdown of the craft in the work of Alan Moore, Tatjana Wood, Dan Day, John Totleben and John Costanza over at The Atlantic. Coates: For me, the best thing about writing comics is how it takes me back to everything I loved about writing poetry. The game of spacing and efficiency is so challenging and so important. Moore proves himself a master of both here—in three frames he gives you something of Swamp Thing’s compulsions and loneliness. ————————————————————————————————— Just in at Copacetic: BREAKDOWN PRESS Another massive shipment has arrived at Copacetic Comics from Breakdown Press, including a new Hayashi Seiichi collection, Red Red Rock! You won’t want to miss your chance to buy these books. ————————————————————————————————— Coward’s Hole Tyler Landry‘s latest comic, Coward’s Hole is now out from Study Group Comics. In the heat of a stellar battle, a space pilot narrowly escapes destruction, only to crash land on a deserted planet in enemy territory. There he must confront the spectres of his past. Published by Study Group Comics 48 page comic black/green newsprint + card cover 7.25 x 10.6 inches ————————————————————————————————— TCAF was a couple of weeks ago, but so much went down in Toronto that substantial reports of what happened are only now trickling out. Here are some noteworthy reports with lots of photos. Gabriele Di Fazio over at Just Indie Comics Insomma, impossibile riuscire a vedere e a seguire tutto, soprattutto per chi, come me, doveva anche stare dietro a un tavolo e tenendo conto degli orari di apertura piuttosto ridotti (dalle 9 alle 17 il sabato, dalle 10 alle 17 la domenica). Non ho capito molto di quello che è successo ma la cosa sicura è che c’erano un sacco di gente e un sacco di fumetti. E che l’organizzazione è veramente impeccabile, fatta di persone squisite e disponibilissime. Tra gli eventi serali segnalo il bel concerto di sabato con i Creep Highway del duo Michael DeForge/Patrick Kyle, Mickey Zacchilli alias Dungeon Broads e Brian Chippendale in versione Black Pus per il gran finale tutto drones e percussioni. Nei giorni successivi al festival sono invece riuscito a tornare da Weird Things per vedere la mostra di Matthew Thurber, autore di 1-800-Mice e Infomaniacs, che esponeva con il suo suggestivo progetto parallelo MT Shelves, fatto di strani animali in bianco e nero, lucine, macchie colorate. E con questo è tutto. Leon and Barry over at Secret Acres Speaking of Dustin, we call bullshit on Dustin hosting the Dougies, or as they are known in Canada, the Doug Wright Awards, which engages in discriminatory practices by only honoring Canadian cartoonists – but it’s okay for Dustin to host? Really? In protest, we skipped the Dougies for our annual poutine sports bar with Annie Koyama and a little bit of Chris Pitzer. But just as it hung over the Dougies, the shadow of Darwyn Cooke‘s sudden death fell over our Blue Hawaiian cocktails. We knew Darwyn a bit from our days at the Distinguished Competition. We’re sitting on some stories about that man which would knock your teeth out, but what a terrible loss for comics. No, we’re not going to gossip. Unless we’re drunk and talking to Heidi in the lobby of the Marriott while trying not to stare at Tom Devlin’s track jacket and ponytail combo and wondering how he convinced Peggy that outfit was okay. ————————————————————————————————— Until next time! Juan Share this page: [...]

Graphic Medicine: Expanding Borders

Jillian FleckJuly 29, 2016Essays“You got your medicine in my comics! You got your comics in my medicine!” I was recently at the Graphic Medicine 2016 Conference: Stages & Pages held in Dundee, Scotland. I was there volunteering with the conference, speaking about my comics, and selling my work. It was quite a busy weekend and I’d like to share some of the things that happened there, and my thoughts about them. It has taken me a few weeks to decompress and reﬂect upon these experiences as the conference became a very energetic situation to meet new people and share ideas. The Graphic Medicine 2016 Conference: Stages & Pages is a space to bring together comic artists, medical professionals, and patients. Graphic Medicine aims to explore the way comics can aid in the study and delivery of healthcare. Different from a regular comic convention, this conference included a broader range of individuals. There weren’t just comic artists who made comics about medical topics. There were art therapists, medical illustrators, doctors who reﬂected upon their practice through comics, comic academics focusing on medicine in comics, and activists inside the medical community. During my visit I saw presentations about academic research, performances, readings, workshops, artist talks, and medically themed comic work on display. Before I arrived, I assumed that as a comic artist I would function more as a tag-along sideshow to the more legitimate medical conference, however I found myself to be mistaken. Unlike more purely academic comic conferences I have been to, there was an interesting mix between all these groups, and a respectful engagement between them. A researcher whose work I found particularly interesting was Yoko Yamanda, whose research looked into applying the Image Drawing Method, a therapeutic tool designed to help patients express the often difﬁcult or impossible to convey emotional realities of living with illness. Yamandaʼs research applied the Image Drawing Method to examine the way patients with diabetes portray their relationship to their long term illness. One comic I found particularly affecting in this presentation was authored by an elderly man who could not draw, and represented himself in relationship to his past, present, and future as a single green line. The patientʼs explanation regarding why he chose this same mark shifted his dialogue regarding his illness from one of pessimism to hope. The shift in tone as his short comic progressed was a potent indicator of the power of storytelling in our everyday well-being. The conference included keynote speeches by veteran comic creators Lynda Barry and Al Davison, both of which were exciting and inspiring. I found that these speakers complimented one another greatly, as the key point they both seemed to be making related to the powerful magic at the heart of storytelling. Lynda Barry was also running workshops with Dan Chaon which, as expected, were a whirlwind manic magic episode that I wonʼt try to reproduce in words. Needless to say I would highly recommend something similar if you ever get a chance. Also I canʼt stop painting, someone help, I really need to get some work done. Maria Stoian was another artist who was at the conference to talk about her recent graphic novel Take It As A Compliment, an award winning collection of stories by survivors of sexual abuse, illustrated by Stoian. Her presentation dealt with the difﬁculties in representing perpetrators and survivors of sexual abuse. Inside the medium of comics, layered with itʼs fraught relationship to caricature, she searched for an honest representation of both of these groups without drawing generalizations. Stoianʼs presentation was very engaging, asking things like “how do you draw a rapist?”, a question that sounds easy enough to answer but quickly reveals underlying political and racial tensions. Performing a reading of her soon to be released graphic novel Keeper of the Clouds, Evi Tampold really surprised me. Tampold is a young artist and storyteller who already has two graphic novels under her belt. Her ﬁrst graphic novel The Hallway Closet deals with her own struggle with ADHD. Keeper of the Clouds was written by Liza Futerman and illustrated by Tampold, following Futermanʼs experiences with her mother and Alzheimerʼs. Meeting Stoian and Tampold was really great, theyʼre two really lovely Canadian comic artists who are great to chat with. Plus they helped me fold zines, so I owe both of them a coffee. I gave a quick artist talk about representing anxiety and depression in my ghost drawings, Bad Thoughtz, and Lake Jehovah. I was a bit nervous about doing this as even though both mental states are clearly depicted in my work, I had never said it aloud before, at least not in front of a room of people. Despite this, the response I received from this short presentation was extremely welcoming and kind. After the last keynote there was a brief comics market which was hilariously successful (for myself at least) despite all odds. I was selling small comic zines, which I had had printed for free (grad student perks), and tricked Stoian and Tampold into helping me construct. Despite having less than prime wares, only an hour and a half in which to sell them, and being constantly plied with glasses of cheap white wine by my friends, this was probably the most successful comics market I’ve ever sold at. This really weirded me out – I did not go into this market expecting to make a lot of money, let alone nearly sell out of cheap looking tiny zines. Hereʼs what I think happened: Diverse Audience – Unlike a straight up comic con this conference’s attendees didn’t just come for the comics. Quite a few individuals came to discuss their work which just happened to run parallel to the concept of comics, but never really dive in. These members of the audience were a lot more curious about comics culture because they weren’t already directly saturated in it. The conference had the unexpected effect of bringing a new and diverse audience to a comics marketplace that I had never seen before. Prior Introductions – The audience has just spent the last two days learning about medical comics and meeting artists. They were pumped to look at the books theyʼd spent so long discussing and read them for themselves. A lot of the people who came up to my table were enthusiastic about my presentation, and because we had that prior introduction it was much easier to talk to them. Cost of Production – As I mentioned before I used my dark grad student magic to procure free printing for the zines I was selling. This allowed me room to lower my prices from what I would normally charge, and to do zine trades and other fun things like that. Since I was less concerned about making my money back it was a pleasant surprise I made any money at all. I have no idea how to reproduce this good fortune outside of the university campus but it is something I will be working towards. Maybe Iʼm Just Really Friendly? – Or maybe it was just all that cheap, cheap wine. Regardless, even before this point I was humming along on that magic art juice after seeing Lynda Barryʼs keynote presentation (did you know she can sing with her mouth closed?). There was a really great vibe in the air that evening and even though I was really tired after a day of running around, presenting, and volunteering, I was more than happy to stand and chat with all the new people I had met that weekend. In this way the Graphic Medicine 2016 Conference: Stages & Pages was a really interesting conference to attend, both as a comic artist and an academic enthusiast. There were a lot of interesting people to meet, both inside and outside the comics community. By bringing people together around the ideas expressed through a medium, rather than just the medium itself, this turned out to be a really fascinating experience. The conference blended different levels of academic, medical, and artistic engagement that allowed for a greater degree of communication and connection. There is a bit of protest among comic artists regarding comic academics tendency to deﬁne the rest of us while standing comfortably from the outside. I think this model would be a great way to erase that tendency, by making spaces for artist to speak for themselves. I would love to see more conferences like this one, based around other ideas such as social justice, or environmentalism so that artists working in different themes and genres might be able to have a similar experience. In the meantime however, this was very interesting experience for myself and it has changed the way I think about the boarders of our own little comics world. ————————————————————————————————— Jillian Fleck is a comic artist from Calgary, Alberta, currently studying comics at the University of Dundee, Scotland. Check out her work HERE. Share this page: [...]

A Studio Visit with Jim Rugg | Part II: TRICKRTREAT

Juan FernándezApril 18, 2016ClassesJim Rugg, creator of “Street Angel” and “Aphrodisiac”, shows Comics Workbook TV how he takes a story from script to final. Part II focuses on “GHOST MONSTER”, a story from Street Angel 4. Video by Michael Pisano | michaelpisano.com “GHOST MONSTER” is available as a mini here: copaceticcomics.com/comics/street-angel-twofer-trick-or-treat-x-mas-special Soundtrack | Johann Sebastian Bach // Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, BWV 43 – 7. Aria: Er ists, der ganz allein // performed by Michel Rondeau Share this page: [...]

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