Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on November 12, 2018November 12, 2018

Explore

05/02/2016

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

Little Seen Los Bros Hernandez Covers From The Late 1980s

Chris Anthony DiazJune 3, 2016The Diaz ArchivePeople wonder why i can’t pare down my comics collection in one fell swoop… it’s because i have to cherry pick it for gems like this to keep first before selling the ones that i have outgrown! Share this page: [...]

06/27/2018

Juan FernándezJune 27, 2018los Cómics / NewsToto Duarte y Camila Barrales, Rutu Modan entrevistada y Frank’s Cosmic Corner – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – La Polola #78 -Toto Duarte y Camila Barrales Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan los dibujantes Toto Duarte y Camila Barrales. Conversaron sobre formas de narrar, de mirar, de criticar y de cuestionar lo establecido a través de la gráfica, el fanzine y las auto publicaciones. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Entrevista con Rutu Modan: Jelena Arsić, Jotdown.es En tu cómic-blog del New York Times, Mixed Emotions, hablas simplemente de tu familia. ¿Son historias reales? Lo más que hago es cambiar los nombres, por lo general son historias reales. Toda ficción no deja de ser una mezcla de experiencias reales. Yo solo escondo un poco la realidad en una ficción. El origen es que me hicieron el encargo en el New York Times a modo de columna mensual. Trabajo muy despacio, vi que no me iba a dar tiempo y decidí tomar los guiones prestados de la realidad. Así iba a ser más fácil que se me ocurrieran ideas. Le fui dedicando una historia a cada miembro de mi familia. Como era en inglés, pensaba que nunca lo verían y me solté. Pero lo vieron. Por supuesto, lo encontró uno de mis primos y directamente se lo envió a toda la familia. Tengo un tío que todavía está enfadado conmigo porque le puse de «oveja negra». Cada vez que me ve me pregunta por qué. El resto, en cambio, están muy orgullosos de que cuente historias sobre ellos. Soy muy cercana a mi familia, a mis tíos y tías, y también a mi abuela, que ya está muerta, la protagonista de La propiedad. Cuando estaba escribiendo esa novela gráfica les preguntaba mucho por cosas, les pedía información, porque mi abuela ya había fallecido. Les hice como entrevistas a cada uno, porque sabían todas las anécdotas e historias que les había contado mi abuela. Cuando luego se vio que era un libro sobre Polonia y sobre la abuela, se quedaron muy decepcionados, porque pensaban que iba a ser sobre ellos. Se enfadaron, además, porque le cambié el nombre a la abuela. Un primo mío, que sale en la historia, ya se refiere siempre a la abuela por su nombre en La propiedad. Mi tío y su hija me decían que no les gustaba cómo la había representado, que ella no era así, que ni siquiera era su nombre. Pero es que no era la historia de mi abuela, era una historia construida a partir de la personalidad de mi abuela. Y ellos: «Ya, pero es que no es ella». – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Frank’s Cosmic Corner At Comics Workbook we are testing what it means to be a new kind of learning institution for comic book making. One of the many things we do at Comics Workbook is resell comics. Hop on over to @frankscosmiccorner on instagram and check out all the comics Frank Santoro has up for sale. You name it, we’ve got it! Lots of great mainstream and inside comics – lots of good-bad comics. All proceeds go to helping keep the lights on here at Comics Workbook, so your support is much appreciated! – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Suzy and Cecil – 06-27-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

06/02/2016

HarrisonJune 2, 2016News @h_gprince is collecting comics and arts news for Thursday, June 2, 2016. Today we’ll board the drunken boat, take a glance at process, and finish off by hunting heads. On a Boat PLEASE SHARE: Drunken Boat, the venerable online literary journal for experimental writing (15+ years running), is introducing a dedicated comics section beginning with our fall 2016 issue. We are seeking both form-melting and traditionally formal comics from a diverse range of artists, so whatever comics or comics-like things you’re making, send us your best. Submitted work should be previously unpublished (though feel free to contact us if this distinction is hazy), between one and twenty-five pages, and comprising either one or multiple pieces. Works will be displayed online, which offers some leeway with regards to size specifications. We simply ask that you familiarize yourself with the journal and use common sense when submitting. We’re open to figuring out a way to present your comics in the best possible fashion. The submissions deadline for our fall issue is 6/30/2016, so get to work! You’ll find our submissions page here. If you have any questions, feel free to email at nick@drunkenboat.com. -Nick Francis Potter, Drunken Boat comics editor Processing “Reading about other cartoonists’ process always interests me, but I’ve never really written about my own way of creating comics art because it’s usually as simple as can be – pencils, letters, inks, and colors all on the same sheet of paper in that order, no computer intercession to speak of. But for my latest comic, the bootleg Punisher/Dazzler blowout TRAP: FRANKIE TEARDROP, I employed a pretty different way of working that I thought one or two of you might be interested in looking behind the scenes of.” – Matt Seneca. This is how I do most my drawings. First attempt at using a time lapse thing, what do you think? #illustration #sketchbook #timelapse #animegirl #process A video posted by Matt Layzell (@m_layzell) on Jun 1, 2016 at 8:36am PDT Processing(g) “This is how I do most my drawings. First attempt at using a time lapse thing, what do you think?” – @m_layzell http://layzellbros.com/ Hunters Share this page: [...]

12/06/2017

Juan FernándezDecember 6, 2017los Cómics / NewsJuan empieza el día con Gerardo Vilches y un elogia de mal dibujo; La Polola; un documental sobre Jim Pluk; #JusticiaParaHonduras, Call for Papers CuCo, Cuadernos de Cómic n.º 10 y más! ————————————————————————————————— «Eso lo dibuja un niño de cinco años»: Elogio del mal dibujo Over on Revista Cactus, the great Gerardo Vilches offers a fun exploration on the power of bad drawing. It moves through many different aesthetic streams, in the vein of Austin English’s recent piece for the Comics Journal, Feininger’s Grandkids. Gerardo Vilches: No es casual que estas corrientes de mal dibujo se estén desarrollando de forma paralela a la aparición de cómics que se publican al margen de la tradicional industria de la historieta infantil y juvenil, centrada en la aventura y la acción. Mientras que el dibujo realista es más literal y, por tanto, idóneo para reproducir la realidad tal cual la vemos, el dibujo que prescinde de todas las reglas académicas se ha mostrado especialmente adecuado para desarrollar temáticas nuevas y transmitir una información más abstracta, que va más allá de la descripción de situaciones y la narración de una acción. En eso coinciden todos los autores mencionados anteriormente, y otros nombres que sin llegar a sus extremos también se saltan ciertas normas en algunos trabajos —como puede ser el caso de Aisha Franz en Planeta Tierra, dibujado a lápiz de un modo muy fresco—: practican un tipo de cómic en el que la acción es secundaria, y lo que interesa es lo personal, lo psicológico, las ideas. Todo aquello que no puede dibujarse con herramientas convencionales. Léanlo todo AQUI. – All hail Heta-uma.- ————————————————————————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con Majo Puga, una de las gestoras de la feria, Viña del Mar, y de la carrera de ilustración. Les habló de su carrera como ilustradora, su gusto por hacer clases, por enseñar y motivar el amor por el dibujo y por la necesidad de gestionar y tomarse espacios de creación de forma colectiva. Ya pueden ver “Hasta que el cuerpo resista”, el documental para conocer de la creatividad y los retos del historietista colombiano Jim Pluk. With #JusticiaParaHonduras, cartoonists are turning their sketchpads into a form of protest against the recent electoral debacle in Honduras. Check out the aggregation over on REMEZCLA. Cuadernos de Cómic han lanzado el call for papers de CuCo 10. Podéis enviar propuestas desde ya. //Call for Papers CuCo, Cuadernos de Cómic n.º 10 Exposición: MUJERES DIBUJADAS. Seis autoras de hoy revisitan a Núria Pompeia en Barcelona. ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 18th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. Makes a great holiday gift for yourself – or for a loved one who is interested in comics. Apply by midnight (EST) on Dec. 25th and get $100 off the course price. Full details and how to apply can be found HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-6-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 12-6-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

11/12/2018

Posted on November 12, 2018November 12, 2018 by Caleb Orecchio

Caleb Orecchio here with a selection of comic books I hauled in from a 50¢ sale

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New Dimension Comics in Ellwood City, PA is a temple to comic book lovers in Pittsburgh and elsewhere. I’ve been on many trips there with Frank Santoro and Jim Rugg and others to mine the affordable backstock of countless lost treasures. This past weekend New Dimension had a sale to thin out a newly acquired cargo of books. Nate McDonough and I went up Saturday to spend the entire day riffling through dusty back issue after dusty back issue. Needless to say, we struck gold.

Below is a small selection from my haul:

Marvel Tales Featuring Spider-Man no. 253 (reprint of The Amazing Spider-Man no. 102); written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Gil Kane. Cover by Moebius. 1991. Marvel Comics

Gil Kane never looked better than he did within the pages of Spider-Man. In a lot of ways he is the ultimate Spider-Man artist for me, though that designation comes with a handful of asterisks. This is the Web-Head at his wackiest. The issue begins with Morbius (the living vampire) and The Lizard duking it out in an argument over who gets to kill the eight-limbed hero. The issue gets even better from there.

Also, gotta love that Moebius cover.

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Space Ghost no. 1; written by Mark Evanier and Steve Rude, drawn by Steve Rude, inked by Willie Blyberg, and painted by Ken Steacy. 1987. Comico

I am always excited to see Steve Rude do Alex Toth. He does not disappoint here. The art is fantastic. Luscious inks by Willie Bryberg and beautiful colors by Ken Steacy really pop and crackle and bring the TV screen to the page.

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Lois Lane 1 & 2; written by Mindy Newell and drawn by Gray Morrow. Colors by Joe Orlando. 1986. DC Comics

I got this for the Gray Morrow art and Joe Orlando colors. This type of comic has always fascinated me. It’s the kind of book that was becoming more common starting in 1986 where publishers were trying to get the coveted female adult audience. It’s an interesting take on Superman’s lover who is often little more than damsel in distress (albeit, a formidable one).

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The Adventures of B.O.C. no. 1 & 2; written by Thomas Perry, James Pustorino and Paul Martin. Art by James Pustorino. 1986. Invasion Comics

Possibly my favorite comic of the infamous Black and White Boom era. James Pustorino’s art is rough and naive, yet confident and dynamic. It actually reads like an amateurish art comic in places. Despite the corny and constant explaining of the plot through dialogue I actually really enjoy reading this comic. Usually I just flip through and look at the pictures with this kind of book, but there is something genuine and spirited about this strip that I find undeniable.

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Marvel Fanfare no. 40; featuring the story “Chiaroscuro” by Ann Nocenti, David Mazzuchelli, David Hornung and John Workman. Plus “Deal With The Devil” by Chris Claremont, Craig Hamilton, Rick Bryant, Petra Scotese and Jim Novak.

Mazzuchelli drawing Angel. Need I say more?

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Deadface no. 1; by Eddie Campbell. 1987. Harrier Comics

The beginning of Eddie Campbell’s Bacchus saga. Bacchus is one of those comic books I wish I came up with because it’s such a good idea. This first issue of Deadface introduces us to the humor and violence that ignited a comics legacy. Eddie Campbell’s art does not have the confidence he will soon acquire, but the issue is great all the same. It’s a nice artifact. Gotta love those lads across the pond.

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True Love no. 2; reprinting various romance comics by Alex Toth, Ralph Mayo, Nick Cardy and Vince Colletta. 1986. Eclipse Comics

Always a pleasure to find anything with Toth. I’ve poured over my copy of True Love no.1 so often that the staples are falling out. Happy to have found a subsequent issue to destroy. Also, the Vince Colletta strips herein will make you rethink all the bad things you said about his inking over Kirby.

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Amazing Heroes no. 123; edited by Kim Thompson. 1987. Fantagraphics

I got this for the Frank Thorne interview. Reading the interview conducted by Kim Thompson actually makes Thorne seem less creepy. I think. Not that his creepiness has ever stopped me from reading his comics.

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on November 12, 2018November 12, 2018

Explore

05/23/2018

Juan FernándezMay 23, 2018los Cómics / NewsIsabel Méndez y el bloque deescritor, Sebastián Gonzalez, y los Ganadores del Puchi Award 2018 —————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ en Español y “sometimes in English” ~ La Polola #76 – Sebastián González Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con Sebastián González, quién les compartió parte de su infancia, su relación en el dibujo, los murales, la relación con su padre, su camino como editor, su nuevo libro y hasta la construcción de su propia casa! —————————————— Ganadores del Puchi Award 2018 Puchi Award es un proyecto internacional con el que La Casa Encendida y Fulgencio Pimentel quieren premiar uno o varios proyectos de libro en ciernes, las ideas más libres, brillantes y renovadoras, sin renunciar a ningún género, centrándose únicamente en su osadía y su vinculación con los distintos lenguajes del presente. El libro ganador de la segunda convocatoria de Puchi Award es Historia de España contada a las niñas, de María Bastarós (Zaragoza, 1987). Novela coral, a medio camino entre el esperpento y el western, Historia de España se presenta como un fresco despiadado de los clichés que nos invaden desde todos los frentes culturales, un retrato incisivo y fractal de nuestra realidad más cercana que termina de dar la puntilla a cualquier idea arraigada sobre temas como veganismo, arte contemporáneo o feminismo new age sin dejar piedra sobre piedra. De forma extraordinaria, se concede a su vez un Premio Especial del Jurado a Ética para Julia, de Ricardo Díaz Peris (Valencia, 1993), un manual contemporáneo sobre el amor y las relaciones sexuales que combina narrativa confesional y humor gráfico con cierto trasfondo filosófico para dirigirse a la hermana pequeña del autor y, con ella, a cualquier lector entre 14 y 29 años, normalizando la comunicación entre adultos y menores sobre opciones y prácticas sexuales en la era de Tinder y chemsex. Por último, el jurado ha decidido hacer una Mención Especial a la obra Ser amado de Javier Lozano (Albacete, 1981), un cómic tejido como un tapiz de múltiples hilos argumentales, frecuentemente desesperanzado y compuesto por historias dentro de historias donde sueño y vigilia se entremezclan y dibujan un recorrido en torno al concepto del amor romántico y sus consecuencias. —————————————— ¿Sufres bloqueo de escritor? ¿Te ha pasado alguna vez el quedarte paralizado ante un proyecto? El miedo es uno de los mayores enemigos de la creatividad. Hoy Isabel Méndez les cuenta cómo superarlo y ganar confianza creativa en Firmado Por! Léanlo todo AQUI. —————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-23-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

08/24/2017

Sally IngrahamAugust 23, 2017NewsSam Ombiri talks ‘Prison Pit’ by Johnny Ryan, while Sally tracks down ‘Thriller’ comics and other news of note. ———————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I guess Johnny Ryan is into a lot of different things. He’s really aware of what’s going on, and it all comes together in his work, making this really palatable mish-mash of all these things. His prime directive as an artist is to get you through the narrative in a clear and concise way, without any cause for interruption for the reader (either in the form of the reader not understanding, or an unfitting action or response). In a funny way, as a result, Prison Pit then feels more tasteful. Johnny’s trying to do more than just shock you. He’s trying to show off how cool and exciting comics can be. I figure he’s responding to people trying to make comics a really respectable medium that you don’t have to justify. Because of this, there’s this side of comics that’s forgotten. Johnny is reminding us with Prison Pit about this other exciting part of comics, not letting it be forgotten while this other side of it is being realized. I’ve really enjoyed reading and re-reading Prison Pit. It gets really, really awesome at times. It’ll have these excessive, uncontrollably violent blows from panel to panel, then there’ll suddenly be a gag pulled of with a lot of finesse. It all tonally registers and makes plenty of sense, making this established character of what the book is gonna be. Johnny keeps expanding this world of the “negative zone” in exciting ways. When I’m reading it, I keep asking Johnny as I’m flipping the pages, “Can this get any better?” and Johnny keeps telling me “YEAH.” My favorite part is where this one guy had collected a bunch of resources, and he uses the main character – Cannibal Fuckface – by using some kind of robot to control C.F.’s movements in his plot to escape the negative zone. The book gets really fun at that point. When we transition to a new being or story element it’s done with so much subtlety. It’s strange to read all this vile, intense stuff with such sophisticated, thoughtful transitions between them. Not that it’s strange to the point that it hinders the reading – far from it. It’s a really impressive book. Every page is a real treat. The drawings start off great and keeps getting better the more you read. It’s all around just a really good time. – Sam Ombiri ———————————————————————————————— 8-24-2017 – Sam Ombiri ———————————————————————————————— Sally here – I was digging through long boxes at one of Pittsburgh’s New Dimension Comics locations recently, and came across part of the run of Thriller – the series created in 1983 for DC by writer Robert Loren Fleming and artist Trevor Von Eeden (often called DC’s first black artist, and certainly the artist who drew DC’s first African American superhero to have his own title). Heidi MacDonald called Thriller “challenging, ahead of it’s time“, while Michel Fiffe said it was “quite possibly one of the most underrated and forgotten gems from modern comics“. Michel Fiffe wrote at length about Thriller in 2010, not long after conducting one of the best interviews in comics history with Trevor Von Eeden for The Comics Journal (#298). (You can see the outtakes and extras from that interview on Fiffe’s site – which is well worth doing! – but without a subscription to TCJ archives or a copy of the print version in hand, the interview itself is hard to track down.) Here are a couple of pages and spreads from Thriller #3, which maintains Von Eeden’s “top notch art” according to Fiffe, and “attempts to sustain the manic atmosphere the first two issues created while moving the story along“. You can see plenty more images from Thriller in Michel Fiffe’s article, and get the complete lowdown on the origin and fate of the series – HERE. ———————————————————————————————— News of Note Recently on The Nib Bianca Xunise points out that Black Women Aren’t Here to Save You. Gilbert Hernandez found a stash of original 1981 self-published B&W Love and Rockets #1 – and you can buy one! Details HERE. There’s an article on StreetWise from earlier this year about Tim Jackson‘s book Pioneering Cartoonists of Color which is worth checking out. I took note of the creator Leslie Rogers and the strip Bungleton Green in the article mentioned above, and tracked down another article about them both – plus the artists who drew the strip after Rogers gave it up. Read about Bungleton Green HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 8-24-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ———————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 8-24-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

12/13/2016

Aaron CockleDecember 13, 2016NewsAaron here today with Rosalie Lightning; Ubu Roi; Trish Trash; Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky; Dronewatch 2017; George Herriman’s Biographer, Michael Tisserand; What Dan Nadel is Reading ————————————————————————————————— Background/Middleground/Foreground Tom Hart’s Rosalie Lightning, a strong contender for book of the year, is excerpted at the PEN America blog. ————————————————————————————————— ‘I think you have to let teens come to their own satire’ The Lunar Observer’s Jacob Khepler observes the anniversary of Alfred Jarry’s play, Ubu Roi: Ubu Roi will never get the high school treatment — it was a big, big noise in its time, forging a path for Dadaism, Surrealism, and the Theater of the Absurd, but the very first word is SHIT, if not in all caps then in an all-caps feeling, and there’s no avoiding or defending that. ————————————————————————————————— Rollergirls (on Mars) Michael C. Lorah interviews Jessica Abel at the Comic Book Resources blog: Many authors have books later published in another language. Was it strange in any way to see this one first appear in another tongue? It was interesting because it definitely gave me a lot of insight into how the French comics industry works. That was very interesting information, because producing a book doesn’t happen the same way it does in the American system. And there are good sides and bad sides to the French system as well. It’s a complex question. It’s nice to bring back into English. Of course, it was written in English, so it’s sort of being “untranslated” more than anything else. But I was able to work closely with the translator for the French version. I speak French, so I was able to refine it and make it reflect the spirit of the book. I’m proud of how it came out there. ————————————————————————————————— Here, Kevin Huizenga finds the baron composing aphorisms at a house known as Mad Bean Cottage. Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky Comics ————————————————————————————————— 21st Century Birdwatching ————————————————————————————————— The 173rd meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016 at 7pm at Parsons The New School for Design, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. Michael Tisserand on Birth of the Krazy: The Early Days of George Herriman and Krazy Kat. George Herriman’s biographer Michael Tisserand revisits the years when boxing, funny animals, and the one cartoonist’s genius produced comics’ most enigmatic character. Michael Tisserand‘s biography of George Herriman, Krazy: George Herriman, a Life in Black and White will be published by HarperCollins in December, 2016. His previous books include The Kingdom of Zydeco and the Hurricane Katrina memoir Sugarcane Academy. He lives in New Orleans. ————————————————————————————————— Nadel’s Reading List Including Lauren Weinstein’s Normel Person Comics: Normal here opens up to move away from the old “white straight guy” meaning and into a whole mindset of viewing the world and asking simple, structural questions and funny, moving observations. Halloween costumes, babies, food. The basics of our particular little kind of life. All done in Lauren’s detailed line work and lush watercolors. A master at work. And Jessica Campbell’s Hot or Not: 20th Century Male Artists: l love this little book that does exactly as the title suggests: breaks down male artists into the ol’ “hot or not” categories usually reserved for women, even, or even especially in the art world. Campbell nails the silly “objective” tone of it all, digs deep in her choices, and is very, very funny. Also, her unfussy, to-the-point cartooning removes any sense of artifice. The book moves along easily and you barely stop to realize how funny, weird, and uncomfortably natural it all feels. Share this page: [...]

02/16/2018

Sally IngrahamFebruary 15, 2018NewsSally here with comics and comments from Lauren Weinstein, Emily Carroll, Ulli Lust, and Yona Harvey – and much more! ————————————————————————————————— Lauren Weinstein is the most recent guest on Gil Roth’s Virtual Memories Show. “Village Voice cartoonist Lauren Weinstein joins the show to talk about the balancing act of making comics. We get into how she integrates the political and the personal, finds humor alongside near-tragedy, and deals with the temptation to do self-help/identity comics.“ They also talk motherhood and comics-making, teaching comics, and other challenges of navigating the working cartoonist’s life. Listen to the episode HERE. You can get a copy of Lauren’s first collection of the Normal Person comics that run in Village Voice HERE. Her most recent strip dealt with Valentines Day… Find more of the Normal Person comics HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Emily Carroll has adapted the incredible YA novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (which came out in 1999). I read this book when I was a teenager and it has stuck with me. I’ll be curious to see how it translates into the comic form, but a story that is about a girl not speaking should work pretty well – and Emily Carroll’s imagery seems to be up for the visual task. Paste Magazine has an exclusive preview of the book HERE. ————————————————————————————————— There is an excerpt on Lit Hub from Voices in the Dark, the graphic novel by Ulli Lust that came out last year (based on Marcel Beyer’s The Karnau Tapes). Check out a few pages of the comic HERE (one that Publishers Weekly said “transcended” the source material) and get a copy of the book HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Yona Harvey, poet and English professor at the University of Pittsburgh, continues to talk about her experience as the writer on two comic book stories that were part of the Black Panther series. ” “My work — poetry, essays, teaching and comics — primarily aims to make Black women’s lives visible, vibrant and recognizable for other Black women, but I also want my writing to speak to women of all backgrounds,” said Harvey, who calls comic-book writing the unparalleled challenge of her career. “Writing for a comic book takes an unbelievable level of cohesion between the writers and the illustrators. As a poet, accustomed to writing in isolation, that took some getting used to. At the same time, I’ve always loved visual art. So, the biggest joy of the experience was seeing those amazing illustrated pages come together every few weeks.”“ As Black Panther, the latest Marvel movie offering, comes out this weekend, Yona Harvey sees this as a promising moment. ” “Literature should reflect the face of the world in which we live. Comics have always had a diverse readership and the books should reflect that,” said Harvey, who is currently working on a nonfiction collection of essays on depression and mental illness as well as other Marvel projects. “This era in the comic book industry is opening doors for a diverse set of artists and writers, and that is beautiful to see and be a part of. It is as though comics and mainstream media in general is waking up to the imagination, creativity and economic influence of people of color. The Black Panther franchise was at the very beginning of that.”“ Read more HERE on The Pitt Wire. ————————————————————————————————— Weekend Reading! Hilary Brown interviews Jen Wang, on the release of Wang’s new comic The Prince and the Dressmaker (First Second) – read it HERE at Paste Magazine. Paste Magazine also checks out Twisted Romance, a 4-issue anthology series from Image Comics featuring a lengthy who’s who list of talents. Lauren Purjie has some Valentines Day cards “made” by famous artists – on Hyperallergic. The Comics Beat covers the announcement of Kate Gavino‘s new comic, coming out in August. It’s called Sanpaku, and “is a coming of age story, told through Gavino’s own Catholic/Filipino background“. Read more about it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-16-2018 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-16-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

08/27/2018

Caleb OrecchioAugust 27, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with brief thoughts on Lale Westvind’s, Grip. ————————————————————————————————— I’ll keep this brief; Lale Westvind’s Grip, part 1, is on the cutting edge of comics. Sally wrote about this book a month ago and I don’t have much to add to her praise, but it’s worth re-emphasizing the brilliance of this comic. Lale has been at the forefront of the wave of young cartoonists for years now and this volume has cemented this fact. Grip harnesses the bold visual whacky-ness of the Golden Age while maintaing the solid structure of the Silver Age, and blasts forward and upward as a work of immediacy that speaks to today’s consciousness. To compare the work to any “Age” really other than maybe “the PictureBox Age” can do this comic a disservice because, despite the influence, Westvind has left the past in the dust and has crafted a brand new comic that has no better home in time other than the present. The riso colors, printed by Perfectly Acceptable Press, sing. Westvind makes great use of the printing technology. So much so that, I’m not even going to add my favorite images to this blog post because I want you to look at them for yourself in real life. It is worth noting the omission of words. This, I think, elevates the work immensely and benefits from individual interpretation. There is an obvious thread of an appreciation of women who work with their hands that is at the visual forefront of the narrative, but the very nature of the sequencing leaves a lot to the reader to decide what the underlying symbolism means for themselves. I said keep I’d this brief so I will end by simply stating the obvious that this is a very exciting book to say the least. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

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