Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged caleb orecchio, charles schulz, laab, ron wimberly, sally ingraham

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on November 27, 2017

Explore

04/21/2016

HarrisonApril 21, 2016News Daily News returns for April 21, 2016. In the classifieds we’ll hear conversations about careers in comics, near the editorials we examine new formats in web comics, and near the back page ads we traverse the Aquazone. True + Real Talk Julian Lytle and Martheus Wade delve into the topics of fandom, career decisions, industry mire, Decepticons, and haters in this episode of Ignorant Bliss. The discussion about fandom and popularity is one that I hope gets explored by other artists in the future. Memories Check out this web comic from Australian artist Sutu about his grandfather. Wear some good headphones if you can, and make sure to keep scrolling downwards. Experiments with interactivity are areas that I hope other comic artists explore more in the future. Samir and Dunia al-Ahdath “Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum has recently added first year print-runs of two important Arab comics magazines: The Egyptian magazine Samir (founded in 1956) and the Lebanese magazine Dunia al-Ahdath(founded in 1954). Both collections reflect early articulations of mass print culture for children in Egypt and Lebanon and reveal intriguing intersections between popular culture, nationalism, mass education, and gender in a period of early postcolonial nation building.” – Caitlin McGurk. Here. Archives “ZINES OF THE ZONE is a traveling library dedicated to self-published photo books, photo zines, fanzines using photography (even as a document) – any DIY printed matter related to photography. Since January 2014, we traveling across Europe by van – in order to show our collection to people, organize pop-up events, collect new books and meet local publishers. More than a library, it is a traveling zine-exhibition.” Not comics (I know), but going along with the digital archives of zines from earlier in the week, these guys in Europe have an interesting collection practice going on. Look through the rest of their collection, and if your curious check out the submission guidelines. Detroit vs. Everybody Read up here, and enjoy your Thursday. Share this page: [...]

04/30/2018

Caleb OrecchioApril 29, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on, you guessed it, cartooning–and other news! ————————————————————————————————— “Be aware of your surroundings,” my dad always said to me as a kid. Just after I’d run into some inanimate object or unlucky pedestrian, incidentally located in my path while some shiny object distracted me. Be aware of your surroundings. Of all the great film directors, Brian De Palma knew this best. I bring up De Palma because I’ve become obsessed with his obsession (no pun intended–get it? it’s a filmography joke) with a character’s environment. It’s interesting to me because he thinks like a cartoonist in a way. Ever seen Carrie? There’s this long take, a series of long takes really, during the prom where De Palma is setting up the “prank” John Travolta and Nancy Allen will, literally, pull on Sissy Spacek, aka Carrie. He takes his time to really show the audience all the factors involved as he leads up to the climax. He takes us all around the gym where the dance is held. He shows all the players involved and their positions. Nancy Allen holds a rope and De Palma guides us up the length of the rope and into the rafters where a bucket of pig’s blood awaits its destiny. Then, once we the audience understand the potential energy involved, De Palma knocks over the dominos and the payoff is classic. Now, what I’ve just explained may sound fairly simple. It’s basic storytelling. It’s rising and falling action. However, De Palma’s use of visual information is the key to the tension. We know where all the exits of the gym are. We know where the characters are in relation to these exits. So when Carrie closes off these exits and we realize many characters we were sympathetic too don’t escape due to their respective positions, we panic alongside the characters. It escalates the horror and, dare I say, joy of the rush of the thriller. Even when the split-screen is implemented, we are not disoriented. In fact, speaking for myself, it further intensifies the adrenaline for me while I watch this familiar environment become a deathtrap. How does this relate to comics. Well, that’s what I’ve been thinking about. I think “the environment” can be an afterthought for most cartoonists. Or at least the power of knowing your surroundings can be an afterthought. The best recent example of a cartoonist being aware of their surroundings is Connor Willumsen and his latest book, Anti-Gone. I’ve wrote about Connor’s work and how this very subject relates to it. You can read it here to save me some space. But the basic idea is to present an environment, then allowing the story to breath by highlighting certain aspects of objects within that environment. In Connor’s case, it often entails omitting unnecessary information as a “scene” progresses. The result is a very effective and a deceptively simple tool that allows for sophisticated comics. The reader follows the action very smoothly because Connor can expertly iconize the objects within an environment and isolate them in a way that is completely logical and uncluttered. It’s very similar to Bushmiller’s work in Nancy. In fact, I’d argue De Palma’s methods are most comparable to Bushmiller’s as far as a comics comparison goes. There’s a purity of form that both Bushmiller and De Palma apply which cuts to the essence of their respective crafts. If you haven’t read How to Read Nancy, you should. A lot of effort is concentrated into the set up of a payoff. The domino effect. Simply put, think of Chris Ware. Every character, object, and environment is paired down to bare essentials visually. Everything is a symbol. There is very little confusion in a Chris Ware comic despite its intricacies due to the use of the symbolic rendering of the environment therein. When a character walks in and out various rooms, we can easily follow them. In fact, I feel I have actual awareness that is lacking in other comics because Ware often will show the reader the sum of the parts before exploring the individual pieces. Look at the above cutaway image of the building. Imagine if Ware wanted a bucket of pig’s blood to fall on our heroine on the top floor because the old lady on the bottom floor wanted to “prank” her. What De Palma did with the set up for his prom set piece in Carrie, which probably ate up at least ten minutes of movie time, Ware (or any cartoonist) could have done in one page. Do you see my point? What is my point? I’m just thinking out loud and have a platform to write it all out in all it’s raw rambling. Is anyone still here? Thanks for reading. See you next week. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Frank Santoro is in Italy in support of the Italian release of his book Pompeii. Go check out an interview conducted at the show here. The great Marc Sobel reviews the great Ed Piskor’s X-Men: Grand Design at TCJ.com. I really like when The Comics Reporter’s “Five For Friday” gives some insights into comics’ past. Somehow missed Comic Books Are Burning in Hell’s latest episode. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-30-18 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-30-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

01/29/2018

Caleb OrecchioJanuary 29, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on amazing, dumb back-issues that won’t leave my brain, and other news. ————————————————————————————————— One of my favorite parts of comics culture is the scrounging for back-issues, which often feels like trying to find a lost wedding band in yesterday’s garbage—in a good way. I get a sincere rush from finding wacky crap from comic’s past. As I was scavenging the longboxes and finding some excellent garbage this past week, I was reminded of some things Chris Ware said in his recent RiYL interview: “Most great works of art don’t work in the present, they work in the memory.” ” will draw things in a certain way, especially in his more recent work, that is very uncomfortable or strange. I know he’s looked at comics by cartoonists who might be considered awkward or almost naive just as a way of making an image that has–as I think of it, personally–hooks that hang in your brain and stay with you.” In a recent back-issue find, Kull the Destroyer #19 (1976), there’s this sequence of “SHEMENON–THE GOD OF FIRE AND ICE–!” a wraith, a skeleton encapsulated in diamond whose “SOLE PURPOSE WAS TO FILL HIS CRYSTALLOID FLESH WITH LIFE!!” Very campy, classic mid-seventies Marvel stuff that the staff at The Comics Journal would have used as toilet paper. To read this comic in any way as to understand the narrative is a fool’s errand, and not worth the time of intelligent, discerning people. Yet! the images will not leave my mind! I find myself returning and going back over the fight between our hero and this jewel-encrusted executioner from hell! Old dumb boy adventure comics featuring superheroes, barbarians and flights of action-packed fever-dreams tend to fall into the “Minor Prophets” category of the comics “Bible.” When all the history of comics is laid before us, it’s comics like Kull the Destroyer #19 that tend to get ignored for various reasons; but it’s these very kinds of comics that tend to infest our subconscious and become active images in our memory when least expected—like an annoying radio jingle or something. Have you ever met a real Kirby-hater? Maybe you are one. You hate his comics for reasons others love him. People hate/love his weird knees, or they hate/love his square hands, or they hate/love the way he draws action or machines or whatever. Both parties remember the same things. Whether you like the art or not, the image is permanently branded onto the folds of your brain. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Ty Burr writes about How to Read Nancy, at the The Boston Globe, plus, the authors of said book, Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden, sit down for a radio interview. On the latest episode of Comic Books Are Burning in Hell, the boys talk about their favorite comics of 2017. Paul Tumey on Mark Campos, the Seattle mini comics maker at TCJ.com. The latest Process Party episode features Jason T. Miles, and on the same site, Study Group Comics, Will Tempest begins a web comic. Ryan C. has a guest spot on Your Chicken Enemy, he writes about Forsman’s Slasher. ————————————————————————————————— 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 – 1-29-2018 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

05/27/2016

Sally IngrahamMay 27, 2016NewsSally here with new stuff from Sacha Mardou, wise and funny words from Dan Nadel and Alexi Worth, clowns with Nils Balls, and a Philadelphia walkabout from Meghan Turbitt. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou has a double hit today on our news, with a comic she made for The Common Reader (a publication of Washington University in St. Louis) and a review she wrote for Comics Workbook. First up, Sacha’s review of The Complete Wimmen’s Comix is a rumination on an important and challenging anthology, recently collected into a two volume set by Fantagraphics. “Reading the two-volume release of The Complete Wimmen’s Comix made me think about those sort of cultural assumptions and blank spots. The first volume in particular feels like a powerful raw gust of real comics history. … Another aspect that occurs to me is that volume one is essentially my mother’s generation making those comics (I was born in ’75) which makes the lack of respect for cultural niceties and cartooning norms seem even more punk rock and revelatory, as well as being somewhat nostalgic. It reminds me of looking though my aunt’s closet in the early 1980’s and finding all her old platform shoes and boots. My childish trespassing got me yelled at after the event, but I’m glad to own that childhood memory of trying on and walking around in those beautiful and weird, too-big-for-me ‘space’ shoes.” Read the rest of Sacha’s review HERE. For a different look at The Complete Wimmen’s Comix, check out this in-depth review by Alex Duebin on The Comic’s Journal from March 2016. Well, I say “review”, but it includes conversations conducted via phone, skype, google chat, and e-mail over a period of a year or so with many of the women who made comics for the anthology – a true “oral history”, well worth a gander. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou’s comic for The Common Reader (above) was published in “The Aging Issue”. It feels very, very real somehow…! ————————————————————————————————— Art in America published a followup to Dan Nadel‘s killer essay on Paper Radio recently. It’s a conversation between Dan, Alexi Worth (who wrote an article in January for A.i.A about Jack Kirby’s superhero art) and A.i.A‘s editor Julia Wolkoff. They dig into the complexities of comics, and more specifically, the intentional and accidental wonders that appeared under a culture of crushing deadlines. As Alexi Worth describes: “The earlier comics artists were, for the most part, pencil serfs. Kirby began as an inbetweener for film, and much of the work he produced early on wasn’t credited at all. But there was something productive and interesting about the lack of art expectations. Kirby was reflexively creative. And his creativity was, somehow, enabled by the ruinous deadlines and enormous production demands of the industry. At one point he was pretty much drawing all of Marvel himself—one guy. Instead of making him more of a hack, it made him more of an artist.“ Dan Nadel breaks out some more stories about the Paper Radio guys – Benjamin Jones and Christopher Forgues, or CF – whom he continues to call “the two most important cartoonists of their generation.” “One famous story: they sent Gary Panter, who was their artist spirit-god, one of their early zines that was baked in chocolate. Gary thought it was LSD and immediately threw it away. It’s one of the only copies of that work they made.“ It’s good stuff – check out the whole discussion HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Nils Balls is staying on top of the Pittsburgh City Council with his comic reports for The Glassblock – see above and more HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Meghan Turbitt released her Philadelphia Sketchbook this week! Developed for Comics Workbook between 2015-2016, it features full-color sketches of her varied adventures and the details that caught her eye around the city during that period. Get a glimpse at more pages here, and a copy for yourself HERE! ————————————————————————————————— See you knocking round the universe next week folks! Cheers – Sally Share this page: [...]

09/05/2016

Juan FernándezSeptember 5, 2016NewsJuan here. It’s Labor Day in the United States, which means no insane barrage of news for today. Just the juicy bits. Celebrate Labor History & Mourn the end of summer. If you’re still hankering for a massive dose of comics jump into this years submissions to the Comics Workbook Composition Contest. There were a record number entries this year and some real gems. Read them all HERE. ————————————————————————————————— If you haven’t caught wind already, Comics Workbook will be firing on all cylinders at SPX this year. We are excited to announce that Comics Workbook will be hosting a series of special workshops at SPX this year! A Danger Room of our own. Learn more about this year’s special Comics Workbook workshops HERE. We will be at table N8 this year – stop by and say “Hello” – check out new work by Frank and our students – buy some old comics from Frank’s mind blowingly extensive collection. More to come! We’ll be back full force tomoroow, coming at you like an SPX maelstrom. Hold on to your butts -JF Share this page: [...]

11/27/2017

Posted on November 27, 2017 by Caleb Orecchio

Caleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Peanuts, Ron Wimberly’s LAAB, and other news.

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Charles “Sparky” Schulz’s birthday was yesterday, he would have been 95. As we all know, Schulz created possibly the most iconic American comic strip, Peanuts. Ever think about how every single newspaper still carries Peanuts? Remember when Snoopy sold us life insurance and would appear at the corner of your screen while watching college football? Has the Charlie Brown balloon at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ever popped? How many psychiatrists have used Lucy’s football place-holding shenanigans as a metaphor? In fact, how many of those people have a framed image of Lucy’s psychiatrist stand in their office? Who hasn’t seen Linus recite The Nativity Story? My grandmother has a Peanuts recipe book. I saw a woman the other day with a Woodstock tattoo on her calf. How many of you knew who the Red Baron was before Snoopy?—be honest. My friend took his daughter to a theme park where kids could ride in Snoopy’s doghouse. Happiness is a warm cookie®.

I could go on and on. Go ahead, think of all the places you’ve seen Good ‘Ole Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang. You can come up with a lot if you really think about it. They are everywhere. Comics are symbols, and Schulz mastered and exploited that fact to the max. Now his creations are everywhere, on everything, and still stand virtually untainted despite their overuse. They interact and inform our culture—what more could a cartoonist ask for?

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if you don’t know, now you know

LAAB (pronounced “Lab”), “The debut issue of Ron Wimberly’s collective newspaper [that] dismantles lethal stereotypes of black representation in sci-fi & pop culture,” is nearing the end of its Kickstarter campaign with 4 days to go and nearly $10,000 left to raise. Wimberly is very smart and an important voice in 21st Century comics, and it would be a shame to not see this project hit its goal. Do what you can to support whether that means spreading the word, or through cold hard cash.
Austin English debuts a new column at TCJ.com.
Take a look at Winsor McCay editorial cartoons by way of Warren Bernard’s personal collection.
Heidi MacDonald’s update on Pixar’s founder over at The Beat—the title says it all.
Jason Thompson & Jumana Al Hashal are the latest guests on Process Party.

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Suzy and Cecil – 11-27-2017 – by Sally Ingraham
—————————————————————————————————Joanie and Jordie – 11-27-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged caleb orecchio, charles schulz, laab, ron wimberly, sally ingraham

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on November 27, 2017

Explore

11/15/2016

Aaron CockleNovember 15, 2016NewsAaron here today with Mardou on Clowes; Bianca Xunise Comics; Research & Destroy NYC; European Abstract Formalist Comics; A bystander’s guide to help the person who’s being targeted ————————————————————————————————— Featured this week: On Being a Woman in the Manly World of Daniel Clowes Sacha Mardou takes an in-depth look at the role of women in Clowes’s work. Another strong piece from the CW Roller Derby League. Julie Patheticstein and Violet Vanderplatz are two wronged women who team up in an unlikely friendship. Patience endures a humiliating stage in her development under the kind mentoring of the older waitress, Nancy. And Vida just adores her old grandmother, the fading poetess Ida Wentz. There’s a subtle alter-world of quiet kindness and acceptance in his books and when you look for the women, you’ll find it there. It would be a miserable life for the men if not for this quiet, subplotted influence. Even grumpy-pants Wilson benefits from the tender mercies of his daughter, and then from his life companion, Shelly. ————————————————————————————————— The 94% Bianca Xunise looks at demographics from this past week’s United States presidential election. ————————————————————————————————— RESEARCH & DESTROY The zine collective Research and Destroy New York City has made a good deal of their protest relevant material available online, including RIOT CONTROL; SUPERSTORM SANDY AND NEW YORK CITY’S DARK RECOVERY,OR, THINGS TO BE SEIZED DURING THE COMING INSURRECTION; and RULES FOR PICKETING. Their most recent work, The 2015 Baltimore Uprising: A Teen Epistolary, a tweet zine, was recently reviewed: The chunky, semi-glossy self-published work provides a singular view of the uprising quite separate from the breaking news of the national media or the think pieces churned out after the unrest. A few examples: “now Freddie broke his own neck…so why it take yall so long to tell the public @BaltimorePolice”; “they keep hollerin bout gangs, WE DON’T EVEN HAVE GANGS LIKE THAT NOMORE.”; “yall need to purge a fucking book w/ yall low ass gpa’s.” Collectively, these tweets can teach us things. They send us back to those days when we didn’t know what was happening or what was going to happen next during the violence on Saturday, April 25 downtown, and the rioting on Monday, April 27, and amid the making-it-up-as-they-go-along week of protests prior to that. The tweets capture the larger thing that we keep calling “the uprising” and the “is a revolution happening before our very eyes” excitement and worry. One tweet just declares, “Looking at a lot of shit different now.” ————————————————————————————————— Over at Kim Jooha’s blog, an attempt at a definition of European Abstract Formalist Comics Why “European” Abstract Formalist Comics? The above-listed works are mostly by French artists and all are by Europeans. There are only few Abstract Formalist Comics in other regions. ITDN (2016) by Andy Burkholder and artist books by Sol LeWitt (USA), Re/Forma (2014) by Luis Aranguri (Brazil), 9gbb (2016) by Ryukyung Hotel (South Korea) and works by Yuichi Yokoyama and Tiger Tateishi (Japan) are exceptions, rather than the norm, in their countries and continents. ————————————————————————————————— WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE WITNESSING ISLAMOPHOBIC HARASSMENT: A bystander’s guide to help the person who’s being targeted This came out at the end of August, and has been making the various social media rounds again in light of recent events. By Marie-Shirine Yener at The Middle Eastern Feminist. Share this page: [...]

05/12/2017

Sally IngrahamMay 11, 2017NewsSally here with thoughts from Annie Koyama, Shee Phon, and Ann Telnaes, a new direction for The ToonSeum, and other news and comics! ————————————————————————————————— Koyama Press is officially celebrating 10 years as a publishing company at TCAF this weekend. Fearless leader Annie Koyama has been tapped a few times already this year for her thoughts on her publishing venture – most recently Quill & Quire interviewed her. Check out her continuing reflections and some well-deserved praise of her efforts HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Over on The Comics Beat Philippe Leblanc has conducted a series of interviews with comics makers who are attending TCAF. It’s a great list of folks – including Shee Phon, Iona Fox, Alabaster Pizzo, Tyler Landry, and others. Philippe identifies a few distinguishing characteristics of each maker’s work, the scene they’re a part of, or their target audience, and breaks it down with them. It’s great to see The Beat focusing this attention on makers outside of mainstream comics. This series documents an interesting moment in the community, and I appreciate the effort Philippe Leblanc has put into educating himself about the scene. I noticed in the interview with Shee Phon that Philippe found her work through last summer’s Comics Workbook Composition Competition, where Shee Phon won 2nd place for her comic I know it’s not about me, but I don’t want to die. It’s worth noting how many makers find a broader audience for their work through this competition, or in fact are “forced” to complete their first comic. And so the community keeps on growing, thanks to the stewardship of folks like Frank Santoro – and Philippe Leblanc, and of course Heidi MacDonald (editor extraordinaire of The Comics Beat!) ————————————————————————————————— Ann Telnaes delivered a speech to the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom recently, and the Washington Post shared a version of it. Ann is a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist, and the current worldwide threats to her colleagues weighs on her mind. In theory, she and her American fellows are protected by the First Amendment, but some days she doesn’t feel very safe. “I’ve always felt in the United States that an editorial cartoonist is the bastard child of journalism. This is because most editors see us only as comic relief, less than the serious, legitimate opinion writer. In reality, the only difference is that we use images and satire to express a point of view. And specifically because of the visual language we use, cartoonists will always be first in the line of fire when controversial subjects are being debated and free speech is threatened. Editorial cartoonists are a barometer for all our free speech rights; a silenced cartoonist is an indicator of an unhealthy environment for freedom of expression in any given society. If we want to protect free speech and the free press, we must vigorously protect the editorial cartoonist.” – Ann Telnaes Read the rest of the speech HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Emily Flake has a comic on The Nib called Beyond “Bridezilla” which is amusing – see the rest of it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Here in Pittsburgh, PA, The ToonSeum is directing new focus towards comics education – check out the I Can Draw! Generosity fundraiser. The funds raised during this campaign will go directly to developing and running educational programming for kids and teens interested in making comics. Executive Directer John F. Kelly has rounded up some truly amazing donation rewards which must be seen to be believed. Pittsburgh is becoming a hub for comics education, and those of us at ground zero know how important this is to strengthening the community and ensuring it’s growth and staying power. I’ll be personally involved in this new direction for The ToonSeum, helping to teach and channel fresh energy and talent straight into the heart of things. If you can donate to the fundraiser, thank you! If you can share the campaign, thank you! You can do both HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Found In the Button Box Chris Gavaler reviews Eleanor Davis’ You & a Bike & a Road (Koyama Press, 2017) for PopMatters – HERE. Hope Nicholson, who wrote the recently published The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen (a sort of history/small encyclopedia of notable women in the comics community) has a guest post on Nerdophiles that features 5 Female Publishers Who Changed Comics. Hyperallergic reviews Miror Miror II, the second anthology collection from 2dcloud, edited by Sean T. Collins and Julia Gfrörer, calling it “a porn stash you’d find in the cupboard of a medieval demon” which is about what I would have expected – read more HERE. Cara Gormally has a comic on Mutha Magazine about making a baby with IVF – check it out. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 5-12-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-12-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 5-12-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

The Hannah K. Lee Interview

Chris Anthony DiazSeptember 20, 2018Interviews / The Diaz ArchiveRecently nominated in the 2018 Ignatz Awards Outstanding Collection category for her book Language Barrier, congrats to Hannah K. Lee! Here is an interview conducted before Language Barrier was announced as a Koyama Press publication, which is content gathered from Lee’s zines Issues and Close Encounters along with new work, exclusive to the book. A couple of years ago, I first discovered this work through these zines as well as in commercial periodicals like The Pitchfork Review. I view lee’s illustrations not only like cartooning/comics but also influenced by graphic design/iconography and typography. Her work begins from these disciplines but becomes more and ultimately something unique after. Special thanks to Hannah K. Lee for her time doing this interview and providing earlier drafts of her Issues sketches for #2 and #3, offering further insight visually into her process. Graham Willcox color finished the three photos of Lee below, taken at CAB 2015 and TCAF 2014. Annie Ishii (right) This interview was conducted in 2015 via email. Chris Anthony Diaz: In Shoes Over Bills no. 2, there’s a dichotomy in the page layout of materialism and desires (shoes) on the left side of the two-page spread and monthly obligations and needs (bills) on the right side of the spread, rendered in your colorful, stylized, retro graphics and typography. It’s a potent expression of what choices a young woman faces, enticed by beauty to spend her earnings on. Like two sides of a debate, one side wooing her to buy gratification in possessions or the other side pitching her to commit to practicality, like eating. How did this zine come about for you and what was the original impetus of this theme? (The dichotomy appears again in Everyone Else Is Younger And More Talented, so it appears to be a theme or expression that you are concerned with.) Hannah K. Lee: Issues #2: Shoes over Bills was first a smaller chapter of a bigger project I wanted to do called No Money Mo Problems, A “lifestyle guide for impoverished freelancers”. A lot of those ideas were stupid, so I extracted Shoes over Bills and made it its own project. I started it right before I started my corporate day job, when I was learning about boring adult things like money management and regular visits to the dentist. (This is a sketch for Shoes over Bills, before it was a zine) CAD: What attracts you to product graphic iconography, which is the theme in Mascots no. 3? and please speak a little how it manifests its expression in your graphic illustration, which appears to have a graphic influence of russian constructivism. HKL: Issues #3: Mascots first came about when I drew portraits of the Zig Zag man and the Chiquita Banana girl. I made the rest of Mascots with the risograph and overprint techniques in mind, which went well with the limited color palettes often seen in product iconography. Any kind of restriction will force you to find ways to say more with less. When it comes to working with a riso, the color choices are limited and the threshold for showing details is low. As a result, it seems that my work has been becoming more graphic as I exercise more restraint. CAD: How do you come up with merging the ordinary and familiar with the fantastic and surreal in your illustration? HKL: I studied Illustration in school, and we were trained to look for analogs and ideas in weird places to convey a concept, while trying to stay away from cliches. Every project I start begins with words, and then I write down everything that comes to mind that relates to those words. My sketchbook is actually 90% written gibberish that only makes sense to me, instead of thumbnails and doodles. CAD: Color (especially red appears consistently and predominately in your risograph publications) and typography are strong facets of your graphic imagery. Where do you find your inspiration and what do you look at regularly? HKL: Besides the work of other working illustrators, designers, and letterers, I like looking at packaging (fruit boxes and crates, foreign candy), flags, old and ornate rugs/textiles, pop music ephemera, Tumblr teens, fashion, clever logos, bad logos, old calligraphy, illuminated manuscripts, those kids’ Golden Books, I like to absorb and/or pick apart everything. When it comes to certain jobs that require a lot of research, I look at the design and illustration of that particular era and let that inform how it’ll turn out. For example, I just did a piece about the origins of ska, so I looked at a lot of 60’s album art coming out of Kingston. CAD: How has risograph printing affected your published output in these three publications: Mascots and Shoes Over Bills and Everyone Else Is Younger And More Talented? HKL: Someone told me once that if I make something to sell or to promote myself with, it’d better be something the recipient would want to keep. So with that in mind, it should be useful, meaningful, beautiful, or at least 2 of those. I like working with the risograph because it’s an efficient and cost-effective way to make your zine beautiful. There’s a resurgence going on in zine culture that’s very much about thematic or narrative self-expression and considered presentation. Despite my recent output though, I actually don’t think it’s always necessary to make your zine pretty! With a good idea or story, sometimes a xerox is all you need. Share this page: [...]

11/23/2016

Juan FernándezNovember 23, 2016los Cómics / NewsJuan con un poquito sobre María Luque; Alexis Ziritt y sus comisiones en COLOR; Dea y Diego, Los Bravú; Arte Original de Vanesa R. Del Rey; Latinx Artists To Take Over Southern California Art Scene In 2017. ————————————————————————————————— Antes que todo: Amantes de los cómics, les tengo DOS preguntas: Cuales artistas latinoamericanos debemos estar leyendo en los estados unidos hoy en dia? Enseñanos las joyas de tus scenes! Latinoamérica, quien esta a la vanguardia de vuestros cómics? Dejenme sus opiniones en los commentarios! ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Hace unos días aparecío una nueva web de crítica, http://www.revistakamandi.com/. ¡Tiene muy, pero muy buena pinta! Articulos, critica y entrevistas. Hasta tiene un manifesto – para que sepas que estan serios 😉 ⚡ Buenos Aires, Argentina – Entrevista con Maria Luque Turnes: Viniendo de una formación artística, dudo que la historieta estuviera en el programa. ¿Cómo te enfrentaste al desafío de narrar dibujando? Luque: Y…al principio me asustaba un montón, me daba mucho miedo. Me acuerdo que me junté con José Sainz y le comenté que quería empezar a hacer historietas, pero que no tenía ni idea de cómo encararlo, más allá de algunas pruebas y ensayos que estaba haciendo. Yo estaba mirando Persépolis y Virus Tropical , pero nada más. José se rió un montón y me contestó: “María, de izquierda a derecha y de arriba a abajo”. También creo que todo ese desconocimiento me sirvió, porque no tenía prejuicios. Traté de no pensarlo tanto, porque si me ponía a analizar paso por paso, me congelaba. ⚡ Anda ya, dale un vistazo al mundo de Maria Luque con Amadeo Gandolfo! Jump into the nitty gritty about Luque’s first long form work, La Mano del Pintor (The Painter’s Hand): La Mano del Pintor es la primera novela gráfica de María Luque. En realidad, si nos ponemos un poco estrictos, es casi el primer comic largo publicado en gran tirada por la autora, quién viene hace años realizando fanzines de diversas longitudes, participando en recopilaciones y realizando ilustraciones para revistas y libros para niños. En primer lugar, es particular entonces su elección: primera obra en solitario editada de forma “convencional”, novela gráfica, libro, esfuerzo y lectura de largo aliento, intento en definitiva de construir a partir de ladrillos, con notoria ambición. Otro detalle: no fue serializado, sino publicado de una sola vez y concebido así, sin cortes, con los capítulos pensados como capítulos y no como episodios concatenados que luego serán combinados. Última cosa importante: fue financiado a través de un idea.me (el Kickstarter local), en una campaña que se demostró muy exitosa y seductora como ejemplo para emprendimientos similares a futuro, aunque tampoco podamos aseverar que las condiciones que lo hicieron posible sean reproducibles. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Miami, Florida Alexis Ziritt is offering color commissions again! Just 5 spots left. 1 character. 11×17 Bristol paper. Spray paint and markers. $120. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Santiago de Compostela, España: Entrevista con Los Bravú Bañate en las ideas y las imagenes del duo creativo,Los Bravú (Dea y Diego). Aïda Camprubí ha organizado esta entrevista “across the grid” – ideas flotando, esperando tu vista, very cool: Home! Entrad, entrad, que os invitan este par de guapazos, Dea y Diego, Los Bravú desde 2012. Tienen el arte en el cuerpo, frente a la cámara y tras los pinceles. Husmear en su obra gráfica, plástica y fotográfica es como encresparse el dedo índice dándole al scroll. Da igual por donde empieces, la linealidad es aleatoria y está sobrevalorada. Wi-fi gratis sin limite de megas, conéctate donde y cuando quieras, la historia habrá empezado antes de que llegues, pero tendrás delante su mejor frame. Ellos son los selectors, tú déjate mecer por el scroll. No hay que buscarle el sentido a todo, no si no quieres. ————————————————————————————————— the Still after the Storm ⚡ Los Angeles, California: The one and only, Vanesa R. Del Rey has conjured up some fantastic #Constantine original art! Available for purchase over at Cadence Comic Art. Hop on over and take a look at Vanesa’s gloriously expressive figures and study her brush work. See something you like, buy it. There’ nothing like the gift of art and there’s no one quite like Vanesa. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Latin American And Latinx Artists To Take Over Southern California Art Scene In 2017 A massive initiative will celebrate the influence of long-overlooked artists in California. This is wild and huge news over on the Huffington Post for us here in the United States: In 2017, a massive art initiative called “Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA” will explore the influence of Latin American and Latinx artists on Southern California with a sprawling series of exhibitions taking over more than 60 venues across Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego and other California destinations. The initiative will shine a spotlight on the many individuals and movements whose artistic visions traversed language barriers and geographic boundaries to share stories, challenge beliefs and create a visual vocabulary for future generations. Just as there is no typical Latin American or Latinx person, the interconnected exhibitions will show that there is no single definition of Latin American or Latinx art. In this article, arts writer, Priscilla Frank, has compiled a very small selection of the artists coming to “LA/LA” in 2017. Learn their names. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️Comics Workbook ha anunciado el semestre de invierno del Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – el curso empieza Dec. 29th 2016! Curso de 8 semanas – 500 dolares – 10 estudiantes – presentate para el curso antes del Dec. 13th 2016 y recibiras un descuento de $100! Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. Direcciones para la Solicitud de Ingreso al Santoro School : -3 figure drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards -3 landscape drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards -3 still life drawings done on blank 3 x 5 cards -draw in a contour line style – Think Matisse – no under-drawing – draw directly in ink -just send small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls -specific url links to any comics work you have done. Manda tus solicitudes a: santoroschoolATgmail Share this page: [...]

04/21/2016

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