Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Bill Kartalopolous, Christoph Niemann, Françoise Mouly, Joel Smith, katie fricas, liana finck, roz chast, Saul Steinberg

Aaron Cockle

Posted on November 27, 2018November 27, 2018

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01/01/2018

Caleb OrecchioJanuary 1, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Ed Piskor’s X-Men:Grand Design, and other news. ————————————————————————————————— What if Ed Piskor could do his dream X-Men comic? “I have such reverence for Kirby. I think of him every day. But there are Marvel and DC fans who only know the superhero idiom of comic storytelling, which is to say, the Jack Kirby idiom. I’m a fan of all comics,” Piskor says. “I like manga, I like French European albums, I like a lot of newspaper comic strips. The storytelling method I use is a storytelling pastiche of all that stuff. I am trying to do the least Kirby X-Men comic ever made.” -Ed Piskor from an Entertainment Weekly interview concerning his comic, X-Men:Grand Design Thee great Ed Piskor has successfully brought the “indie” aesthetic to the mainstream in a big way. To me, Piskor’ drawing is this amalgamation of what is often considered “old-school’—wearing influences like Crumb, Clowes, Wood and Kurtzman on his sleeve, plus a year at the Kubert School and we have a drawing style that probably feels alien to most of today’s Marvel readers. The furthest thing from what I’d bet on to be a commercial success has turned out, from all accounts, to be a smash. In a time where Piskor’s hatching style is practically “outdated” as far as any mainstream comic is concerned, X-Men: Grand Design looks as fresh as any great comic to come out in 2017. This is an Ed Piskor Comic published by Marvel, as opposed to a Marvel comic, made by Ed Piskor. He even mentions in the EW interview that he will be taking small liberties with the timeline to correct old, awkward editorial mishaps. He is actually shaping the canon of the property as opposed to most indie/mainstream collaborations that end up being low-stakes, non-canon work and fall to low sales. Piskor has instead made a “real” and profitable superhero comic that will serve as a genealogy for X-Men readers, just like Hip Hop Family Tree serves as a comprehensive history of the form for hip hop heads. How is all this relevant? Well true believers, this to me is the promise of “fusion,” a term coined by Comics Workbook fearless leader Frank Santoro. From a 2011 Rob Clough TCJ article on Michael DeForge and fusion, Frank sez, “’Fusion to me is about being polished and being able to rise above ‘amateur’ assemblages like the Fort Thunder second wave… I think it’s a broad term, but for me, applies to those seeking to be ‘mainstream’ – something above most art comics and something way more sophisticated than most mainstream schools.’” Earlier when the term was coined, the cartoonists who were prominently associated with fusion were Michael DeForge, Brandon Graham, Dash Shaw, James Stokoe, Michel Fiffe, etc, but I think the idea of Piskor’s work has brought this prophesy to fruition. This to me is very exciting for cartoonists who want to do their own thing on their own terms. More thoughts along these lines to come. Also, see Sally Ingraham’s write-up for the X-Men: Grand Design #1. -CO ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know TCJ.com has their annual “Year in Review Roundup.” Take a moment to reread that great takedown of Yoe Books by RJ Casey. Similarly, Tom Spurgeon’s Comics Reporter posts some reruns, notably an interview with Carol Tyler about what would become Soldier’s Heart, and an interview with Sammy Harkham about Kramers 9–my favorite installment of the series after the lamented and underrated Kramers 8. The Beat has a couple articles on that one overstated, infamous Kirby quote (made popular by Dylan Horrocks) the warning to a young James Romberger, who writes the second article, from what I can tell, in response to the first article by Heidi MacDonald. Rob Clough reviews comics by our own Aaron Cockle, along with fellow CCS alums, Matthew New and Steve Thueson. Really enjoyed this Craig Fischer’s TCJ article on Alan Moore’s Providence. Also really excited for Tom Kaczynzki’s new TCJ column, “Event Horizon”. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-1-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-1-2018 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

11/17/2016

Sam OmbiriNovember 17, 2016NewsSam Ombiri brings more thoughts on originality and Sally Ingraham follows up with comics by Shannon Wright and Keith Knight, a quick visit with Yona Harvey and Roxane Gay, the Winter Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course, and Connor Willumsen’s Punisher pages for sale – plus March: Book 3’s big award. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri: A Shout-out to David O’Reilly I had more thoughts I wanted to share about originality that I didn’t mention last week, or I guess I feel I didn’t clarify. This is all concerning me, and how I approach originality – I am not an authority to impose. I’m not anti-originality, I guess I’m more thinking I’m anti-concern and preoccupation with originality. I’m not fully sure in which particular context that this struggle for originality would fit. I’m not sure even how to fully name a context of originality. The only thing that comes to my head is how when Lil Dicky became popular, he kept saying in interviews how he’s “different and original” and he repeats that so many times in different interviews to the point where it feels like a joke. Even if you forsake all these other underground hip hop artists, like say Heems, Busdriver, Open Mike Eagle, Danny Brown, Kitty, of course I have to mention Ride, or even if, as some of Lil Dicky’s fans were claiming, Lil Dicky meant in a more mainstream context that he’s so different – there’s the other context. (But even in that context he’s not in any way different.) Even then, as much as anyone can insist they’ve achieved originality and therefore they should be praised, someone can always come along and deny that. In the essay by David O’Reilly that I’ve been thinking about there’s an awesome quote by Tarkovsky – I won’t quote it for a couple reasons, a minor one being that it’s irrelevant. So I’ll just quote a different one, and for the sake of me making a point we’ll pretend he used this quote instead. Tarkovsky said that when he saw The Trial of Joan of Arc, he was touched by “the absolute independence of the spectator in regard to this film. A total independence in the sense that the film never appears to be a spectacle, but rather nature, life itself. If one wants to watch, one watches, if one doesn’t, one doesn’t. If one wants to see it as art one may, otherwise not. Such a strong independence from public and critical opinion remains for me the exemplary attitude of a director towards his audience.” He says later in the interview “when people tell me during the shooting of my film that a certain scene is in a way reminiscent of Bresson – and this has happened – I will immediately change the approach to avoid any resemblance. If there’s such an influence, it doesn’t show on the surface of my work. This is an influence of a deeper nature. It’s a moral influence between artists, without which art cannot exist.” Sammy Harkham said how he was really influenced by Brian Chippendale’s Ninja mini comics while Sammy was doing Somersaulting where the “melodrama is demilitarized” and the events made minor. It’s probably that type of indirect influence. I don’t know if Tarkovsky’s intentions were concerned with originality. It seems to be an altogether different impulse, similarly to the other quote in David O’Reilly’s essay (disregard the first sentence in the quote in relation to the last quote): “A preoccupation with originality of form is more or less a fruitless thing. A truly original person with a truly original mind will not be able to function in the old form and will simply do something different. Others had much better think of the form as being some sort of classical tradition and try to work within it.” I think everything but the last sentence is on a different wavelength than Josh Bayer’s idea of originality being a red herring. I think I would replace the last part of the quote with Josh Bayer’s thoughts on originality being a red herring. ————————————————————————————————— Sally here with some other comics and news from this week. From the Washington Post: “ “March: Book 3,” a graphic novel about the later years of the civil rights movement, won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature on Wednesday night in New York.“ Congratulations to Rep. John Lewis and the creative team behind the book (including illustrator Nate Powell)! Co-writer Andrew Aydin had two take-aways from the big win, one being that the story of the civil rights movement could continue to be passed on to young people. The other was “Let the prejudice against comic books be buried once and for all!” We applaud that sentiment. Read the rest of the Washington Post article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright is still making almost daily comics and sharing them on her Instagram. A recent strip: Because I’m not asking whether or not you wanna sleep with the dude or marry him. Get over yourself fellas. #comics #masculinitysofragile #blackartist #womenartists A photo posted by Shannon Wright (@shannondrewthis) on Nov 13, 2016 at 7:09pm PST Follow Shannon at @shannondrewthis for more. ————————————————————————————————— Essence has a feature on Yona Harvey and Roxane Gay’s work on the Black Panther spin-off series World of Wakanda – they talk about some of the challenges of taking on a Marvel Universe storyline. “Storytelling is storytelling, so it’s not that different, save for working within the comic format of panels,” said Gay. “The biggest difference for me was thinking more explicitly in terms of scene.” Harvey’s challenge was the formal outline. “I felt so resistant to the outline. In poetry, I experiment and draft and then shape the story through the placement of the poems. Total opposite of writing comics.” via Essence Read the rest of the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Keith Knight on The Nib recently: He has more Th(ink) strips on his website – check them out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook has announced the Winter Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – course starts Dec. 29th 2016! 10 spots available – apply by Dec. 13th 2016 and get $100 of course fee! Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. Santoro School 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 me small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls -specific url links to any comics work you have done. Send applications to: santoroschoolATgmail ————————————————————————————————— Connor Willumsen is selling his Punisher pages http://connorwillumsen.com/punisher/ #connorwillumsen #comicsworkbook #punisher #frankcastle A photo posted by @santoro.frank on Nov 16, 2016 at 5:39pm PST Connor Willumsen is selling the original pages from his Punisher story – check them out here. Share this page: [...]

04/06/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 5, 2017NewsSally here with updates from John Jennings; the (H)afrocentric project; Ron Wimberly/C. Spike Trotman/Ariell Johnson on NPR; throwing “diversity” under the bus. ————————————————————————————————— Gene Demby and Glen Weldon of NPR spoke to Ronald Wimberly, C. Spike Trotman (online comics publisher of Iron Circus Comics in Chicago, and creator of the long-running webcomic Templar, Arizona), and Ariell Johnson (owner of Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse in Philadelphia) about “changing color in comics“. Listen to the podcast HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out (H)afrocentric, a comics project created by Juliana “Jewels” Smith. An educator, writer, and organizer based in Oakland, CA, she “created (H)afrocentric as a way to challenge students and readers alike about the presumptions around race, class, gender and sexuality through character dialogue. Her practice focuses on the links between racial justice, gender equity, and political literacy; using creativity to facilitate dialogue.” There are 4 volumes of the comic so far – you can preview Vol. 1, 2, and 3 HERE and Vol. 4 HERE. Juliana writes it and Ronald R. Nelson provides the artwork (with Mike Hampton as colorist/letterer). The team also makes a comic strip which is available as a “Sunday Funny” via email subscription – or you can catch up with the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Over the past weekend, a few folks at Marvel Comics put their feet in their mouths. This is not unusual, these days. David Gabriel, Marvel’s senior vice-president of sales, print, and marketing, tried to blame Marvel’s recent decline in sales on their attempts at adding “diversity” to their comics. Que an uproar. The Guardian‘s JA Micheline had some things to say about it: “Let’s look at how the discussion was framed: “Any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up,” says Gabriel – without a qualifier or interrogation of which readers and why. I can promise you that it’s not women going into comic-book shops, sick of female characters. I can similarly promise you that people of colour are not entering comic-book shops and turning their noses up at faces that look like theirs. By even making remarks like these, Marvel is seemingly conceding that its target audience, its “core” audience – and their “core” characters – are white and male.“ Read the rest of her comments HERE. G. Willow Wilson, the writer behind Ms Marvel, had a thoughtful response as well. Among her comments was a reminder to the folks at Marvel and elsewhere: “Diversity as a form of performative guilt doesn’t work. Let’s scrap the word diversity entirely and replace it with authenticity and realism. This is not a new world. This is *the world.*“ Read the rest of her thoughts HERE. Vox offers up a detailed and fairly balanced look at the whole snafu and pinpoints some of the reasons for both the outrage and the cause of it. ————————————————————————————————— John Jennings spoke to The Boston Globe recently about his new comic adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Kindred (above) and his interest in horror stories. His comic recommendations and recent reads are all excellent, and I like where he says (despite the evidence of his new book) that he doesn’t like the idea of graphic novels being a “gateway” to reading books. Read the interview HERE. There is also a great interview on NPR from February 2017 about the joys (and fears) of making Kindred into a comic – check it out. I’ve linked to this piece before, but if you’re unfamiliar with John Jennings and the work he does in the comics community, get to know him better HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The illustration above by Comics Workbook student Shannon Wright accompanies an article about a case of “shared” identity. Not comics at all – but an interesting read. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook will be at the Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo on Sunday, April 9th. We will be hosting a workshop series with instructors from the school, as well as special guests Carol Tyler, Lale Westvind, and Connor Willumsen! More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-6-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-6-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-6-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

11/26/2018

Caleb OrecchioNovember 26, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with the newest Love and Rockets release. ————————————————————————————————— Los Bros’ latest issue of Love and Rockets is here. Volume 4, No. 6 (or, as the front-page editorial notes, no. 84 overall). Each new release of L&R is an event in my house. Every issue to my estimation is worth its own weight in gold. Usually a satisfying 35 to 45 minute read. Pure joy. I don’t have much to say about the issue that wouldn’t reiterate what I’ve wrote about Gilbert and Jaime before. I simply see each issue as required reading. Although, I have to say, I am hit with the reality that, with the more cartoonists I meet, not everyone is reading the series religiously (!). Actually, I certainly understand why many don’t read it. For one, the long history and continuity of the title can be extremely daunting. For two, well, I will not show my hand but rather assume that everyone has their reasons. Regardless, this comic is the cornerstone of the alt-comics movement. Without L&R, there is no Fantaraphics as we know it today. Period. Something else I have noticed is that, due to the lack of cartoonists reading L&R, particularly the books from this millennium, cartoonists kind of “pretend” to read it. “Yes yes of course Love and Rockets is important. Yes I love Hopey. And uh Glory. Right? Jaime was really nice to me when I met him.” This is just a theory, but I think cartoonists love to say they read L&R like they love to say they never read Building Stories. There is pride in both. As if reading long, difficult works is something they are above. These are just some thoughts I had while reading the new issue of Love and Rockets. Cheers! ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 11-26-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

02/21/2017

Aaron CockleFebruary 20, 2017NewsAaron here today with Ana Galvañ, Ethnographic Cartooning (in VT), New Dirty Diamonds, Trailer Park Comics, Martz/Orwell, PaperJazz Poster Showcase Extravaganza, Raymond Pettibon, Dan Archer on 3 Years After ‘The Maidan War’ ————————————————————————————————— “I’m interested in the uncertain human behaviours, in fear, in loneliness, and in strange beauty” The AIGA Eye on Design blog profiles Spanish cartoonist Ana Galvañ, and the webcomics platform she created, TIK TOK: Tik Tok publishes each comic series by episodes to keep readers coming back, to cultivate a relationship between its writers and readers, and to encourage illustrators to continue penning personal work. “Our philosophy is about taking risks,” the founder emphasises. “We publish stories that look past the limits of the representational.” It’s on this site where I first discovered Galvañ’s mesmerising and quietly disconcerting comics—in her panels, a riot girl sensibility seems to meet the perspective-bending world of Borges. ————————————————————————————————— El viaje más caro/The Most Costly Journey The Most Costly Journey (in Spanish, El viaje más caro) is an ethnographic cartooning project that employs collaborative storytelling as a tool to mitigate loneliness, isolation, and despair among Latin American migrant farm workers on Vermont dairy farms. The Most Costly Journey is a collaboration between the Open Door Clinic, Vermont Folklife Center, UVM Extension Bridges to Health, UVM Anthropology, and Marek Bennett’s Comics Workshop. The project is supported by the Vermont Community Foundation Innovations and Collaborations grant and other generous supporters. Featuring work (translated into English and Spanish) by Marek Bennett, John Carvajal, Iona Fox, Kevin Kite, Michelle Sayles, Michael Tonn, Rick Veitch, Tillie Walden. ————————————————————————————————— Dirty Diamonds: An All-Girl Comics Anthology Open Call for Submissions ————————————————————————————————— Short Run Trailer Blaze Residency Application Information ————————————————————————————————— John Martz’s George Orwell’s Twenty Seventeen ————————————————————————————————— PAPERJAZZ: A POSTER SHOWCASE At Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn Featuring work by: 1) Chris Simon 2) Mike Taylor 3) Matt Thurber 4) Jack Reese/Andrew Alexander 5) Katbus Brawl 6) Slow Youth 7) Jenny Zych 8) Nuts! Fanzine 9) KJ Martinet 10) Ben Urkowitz 11) Sarah Crowe 12) JinHee Kwak 13) Aniahs Gnay 14) Sessa Englund 15) Lala Albert 16) Metropolarity 17) Ø.K.Fox 18) Blind Arch 19) Lale Westvind 20) Caroline Paquita 21) Ilana Blady 22) Sakura Maku 23) Randon Rosenbohm 24) Matthew Van Asselt 25) & 26) Hazel Newlevant 27) Annie Mok 28) Holly Simple 29) Gonzalo Guerrero 30) Meghan Turbitt 31) Nick Amara 32) Robert Richburg 33) Kayley Berezney & Cait Davis 34) Marcela Szwarc ————————————————————————————————— Rayond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work at New Museum, February 8-April 9, 2017 From the beginning of his career, Pettibon has employed drawing and writing in tandem to connect radically distinctive cultural forms—from movies and literature to comics and TV—and pieces of narratives from throughout history and culture. His visual universe is populated by the ghosts of the last century of American history, including such disparate characters as Charles Manson, Gumby, Superman, and Ronald Reagan. Pettibon hints at familiar and forgotten narratives in his work, while using an expressive approach to color, line, and gesture in order to provoke complex emotional states. Whether his work is addressing surfing, baseball, war, or family, or channeling the voices of John Ruskin, Henry James, or Allen Ginsberg, it manages to suggest both personal and universal perspectives on our shared cultural experience. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Or overshadowed completely by the war that soon followed.’ At the Nib, Dan Archer takes an expansive look at Ukraine 3 years after its revolution, and where things stand now, geopolitically. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! Frank here: This semester has a rolling start date – it will officially start March 7th but I will continue taking applications past that date. I will make it work for your schedule. Just apply! Applications received by February 26th will get 100 bux off! The course is 8 weeks long – payment plans are available. Many more details can be found HERE. Email santoroschoolATgmail to apply ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 2-21-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2/18, 2/19, and 2/21/2017 – by Sally Ingraham and Gabriella Tito Suzy and Cecil is published every day, including weekends. We decided to share the two weekend strips along with today’s as they have an overarching storyline. Keep up with the strip on the weekends via Instagram – @suzy_and_cecil! (Click on the image above to see the strips larger.) ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-21-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-21-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

11/27/2018

Posted on November 27, 2018November 27, 2018 by Aaron Cockle

VERY LATE EDITION: Roz Chast; Christoph Niemann; Katie Fricas; IN THE LABYRINTH

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SVA Honors Roz Chast With 30th Annual Masters Series Award and Exhibition
November 17-December 15
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, NYC

Artist’s Talk: Wednesday, November 28, 7-9pm

Chast’s interest in drawing started when she was a young child growing up in Brooklyn, where she learned to use art as a way to make sense of an anxiety-inducing world. She once told an interviewer, “On every level I feel like anything horrible can happen at any moment.” Early on in her career, her nervousness even found expression in her chosen scale. “I used to work really tiny,” she says. “I thought if I worked small, nobody would mind me that much. If I take up as little space as possible, then everything will be okay, nobody will get mad at me.”

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CHRISTOPH NIEMANN: HOPES AND DREAMS
November 13-December 21
ZieherSmith, 505-507 West 27th Street, Suite 5, NYC

In November 2017, artist Christoph Niemann flew from Berlin to Los Angeles at the invitation of his Zurich publisher, Philipp Keel, under the auspices of meeting David Hockney. Anybody who knows the first thing about Christoph Niemann (from his many New Yorker covers, museum exhibitions, children’s books, “Abstract Sunday” his New York Times blog and Instagram account, TED Talk, apps or any of the many other ways he manifests as a contemporary visual voice) knows that under his scrutiny, even the most mundane task can turn into something altogether peculiar, altogether special, as if to say everything can be enlightening.

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A Graphic Tribute to Anne Sexton
Katie Fricas at the NY Times.

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CELEBRATING ‘THE LABYRINTH’ BY SAUL STEINBERG

On Tuesday, November 27, at 7pm, join us at Powerhouse Arena (28 Adams St, Brooklyn, NY) for a celebration of the reissue of Saul Steinberg’s remarkable graphic work The Labyrinth, available from NYR Comics. Liana Finck, Françoise Mouly, and Joel Smith will be in a conversation moderated by Bill Kartalopolous.

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Cement Mixer – 11-27-18 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Bill Kartalopolous, Christoph Niemann, Françoise Mouly, Joel Smith, katie fricas, liana finck, roz chast, Saul Steinberg

Aaron Cockle

Posted on November 27, 2018November 27, 2018

Explore

02/06/2018

Aaron CockleFebruary 6, 2018NewsAaron here today with FUNHOUSE; 3 Comics from E.A. Bethea; Jog on Ditko; Necromancers of the Public Domain; Austin English; Fukushima Devil Fish ————————————————————————————————— FUNHOUSE An Interactive Book Fair by Desert Island at The Drawing Center On the weekend of March 24 – 25, Desert Island and The Drawing Center will present FUNHOUSE, a new, interactive book fair at which guests can make their own books in collaboration with resident cartoonists and illustration artists. FUNHOUSE Book Fair March 24–25, 2018 11am–5pm Tickets $10 via Eventbrite here. FUNHOUSE guests will interact with resident artists to create unique pages for one-of-a-kind books to be assembled at the fair. The resident artists will also have their own publications available for purchase at General Store within the FUNHOUSE fair, with games of chance, author signings, special activities, and giveaways of artists’ books. A SIDESHOW of talks, lectures, and presentations will be organized by FORGE. art magazine’s Matthew James-Wilson. Additional spectacles, like life-size interactive cut-outs and funhouse mirrors will provide wacky fun and photo-ops galore! FUNHOUSE artists include: Gabrielle Bell, Lilli Carré, Rob Corradetti, Joanna Fields, Laura Perez-Harris, Abby Jame, Jeff Ladouceur, Sarah Lammer, Gary Lieb, Richard McGuire, Ben Passmore, Oskars Pavlovskis, Monica Ramos, Jim Schuessler, R. Sikoryak, Whit Taylor, Matthew Thurber, Thu Tran, Mark Wang, Kriota Wilberg, Kelsey Wroten, Gina Wynbrandt, and JooHee Yoon. FUNHOUSE is organized by Gabe Fowler of Desert Island and Molly Gross of The Drawing Center. SIDESHOW Talk Series Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25 at 11:30am, 1:30pm, and 3:30pm Programing TBD. Sideshow will be programmed by Matthew James-Wilson of FORGE. art magazine kuš! Magazine Comic Zine Workshops Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25, 12:30–4:30pm Tickets $40 via Eventbrite here. kuš! comic zine workshop, lead by artist Oskars Pavlovskis from Riga, Latvia, will be a collaborative comic drawing experience suited for participants of any age and skill level. The workshop will focus on the creation of short experimental comic stories based around the FUNHOUSE theme. Together the participants will take part in creating a unique self-published comic zine, which will be printed and assembled during the workshop and each participant will receive a copy. ————————————————————————————————— The Olcott Hotel/Jamaica Bay/Tonight We Try Every Position At Bomb Magazine, Three Comics from E.A. Bethea ————————————————————————————————— The 206th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018 at 7pm at Parsons School of Design, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. Joe McCulloch on Total Language: Steve Ditko at 90 Ask a person today who created Spider-Man, and they’ll probably tell you Marvel Comics, that inescapable entertainment brand. Some of them might say Stan Lee, the man whose profile is highest in mass media. Others, perhaps fewer, will know about Steve Ditko (b. 1927), a cartoonist of an unusual trajectory: his vision and craft gave concrete form to commercial characters still adored across the globe, half a century later, but his passion would soon pour into deeply personal, experimental, and furiously divisive works, comics emboldened by the freedoms of artist ownership, yet antagonistic toward the compromised values of society. Few agreed with the ideology espoused by these comics, but Ditko kept working, undeterred – through the rise and fall of the underground era, through the transition from newsstand racks to comic book stores, through the graphic novel boom and the advent of crowdfunding. He is still working now, here in New York City. Since 2007, Steve Ditko has published more than 800 pages of new comic book art, and they are among his most fascinating: comics where text and image work in a simultaneity of intent, a total language that invests the tautness of line and the hatching of shadow with thematic roles in the story, where the function of the black and white page is a statement of the artist’s worldview, by which there is only good and evil, and where the individual must ascertain the objective nature of the world, lest they reject their own lives. Come and see for yourself. Joe McCulloch has been writing and speaking about comics for 14 years, sometimes to audiences other than his bathroom mirror. ————————————————————————————————— Necromancers of the Public Domain “There are certain beings who bear the stamp of the divine seal and are preordained to receive the higest favours within the gift of glory; they are fated to pass through life like those brilliant meteors which are seen to flash across the heavens and disappear in the same instant. Bastien-Lepage was one of those meteors.” Each month, we pluck a long forgotten volume from the shelves of the New York Society Library and resurrect it as a low budget variety show. This month Masterpieces in Colour: Bastien Lepage by Fr. Crastre February 8, 2017, 8pm, at The Tank, NYC Featuring: Nick Balaban (Pianist extraordinaire) Raquel Cion ( Me & Mr. Jones: My Intimate Relationship with David Bowie) Katie Fricas (The Guardian / Fashionique) Greg Kotis (“Urinetown: The Musical”) Susan Hwang (The Bushwick Book Club / Lusterlit) Charlie Nieland (Lusterlit) Reverend Jen Miller (Reverend Jen’s Anti-Slam) Jason Wachtelhausen (Monologist extraordinaire) Hosted by Ayun Halliday (No Touch Monkey! / Queen of the Apes) Bring a blank shirt, pillowcase, or bag for LIVE STENCIL FUN. Make your own free Necromancers souvenir! Read Masterpieces in Colour: Bastien-Lepage for free online Thursday, February 8, 8pm / 312 West 36th Street / First Floor / New York, NY 10018 ————————————————————————————————— Where I’m Coming From (Part 1) At The Comics Journal, Austin English continues a strong run of posts. Mini-comics, even the “classic” ones, often disappear. Some of the most beautiful ones are never reprinted. Many artists choose not to have their earliest work collected, seeing the flaws ever so clearly, while the reader from the past holds the work close to the heart, aware of all the undeniable beautiful moments it also so obviously contains. Those private moments have shaped so many readers who went on to make mini-comics (or regular comics) of their own. The works disappear, remaining only in the hearts and minds of a happy few, but their essence (whether aesthetic, political, formal, etc.) live on as new shapes in new works of art. ————————————————————————————————— Fukushima Devil Fish Launch Event: The Art of Gekiga with Ryan Holmberg ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 2-6-2018 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-6-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

11/08/2018

Comics WorkbookNovember 7, 2018NewsSam Ombiri on Men’s Group The Video by Ben Jones ————————————————————————————————— I find I am often longing for a great comic. This longing has the feeling of a hole with a specific shape that only allows a corresponding shape to fit in. I suppose there’s no sense in wondering why I want to read a good comic; I mean I don’t want to read a bad comic as far as I know, although I don’t mind reading a bad one. There’s a lingering dissatisfaction that often comes from reading good work, taking it for granted how good the work is, and then moving on to the next good work to take for granted. There’s something rather depressing about it. It seems to me that Ben Jones’ work is often consumed along in this manner. It’s apparent when I run into a knock off of Ben Jones’ or Paper Rad’s work that it’s being done by someone who totally missed the mysterious and vague point of Ben Jones’ work. Which to be fair seems mysterious even to him. In an interview in his book, Men’s Group The Video, Ben Jones says “I don’t get Gumby. You can’t say he’s well animated. I didn’t even watch Gumby all that much as a kid. I’m not trying to call back to some 1970s nostalgia. I’m not using characters for their pop iconographic value. I’m using them as language.” He later says “I’m trying to use Gumby for what Gumby was intended for…” to which he adds “I’m deadly serious about my characters. I don’t mean this as a joke: I feel like Shakespeare, and I’m using star-crossed lovers. I’m very much interested in my characters as much as Shakespeare was interesting in using cheesy things like lovers and kings to tell interesting stories.” Men’s Group The Video benefits by not being jam packed with a lot of comics. This allows the comics to be more closely examined by the preceding text casually asking questions about the comics. In the case of Gumby, Ben finds himself optimizing what Gumby’s presence in Ben Jones’ work represents or invokes or communicates. There’s an interview where Kevin Huizenga says “Ben Jones has always been really inspiring to me, I think it’s because- this sounds stupid- he is very creative. He just comes up with amazing things. His work is unified in a strange way, too. It’s hard to explain. The way he’ll just draw a comic about muppet babies as if it’s no big deal and they’ll be rapping or something. It’ll be really funny but beautiful and scary too.” Men’s Group The Video is packed with what appear to be, metaphorically speaking, a magnifying glass to what Ben Jones is doing with the comics language (as well as other mediums). He has created this mythology of this collective called Men’s Group The Video that in a certain sense exists. The idea or the impression of the existence of the collective is used as a language of sorts to communicate a certain feeling Ben Jones is trying to get at. It also allows him raise new questions in this mode of communicating. Some “members” of this collective write essays, some, like the painter Joe Bradley, write poetry. Some “members” like Dan Nadel interview Ben Jones. Reading these texts are important in relation to the comics, because while the comics are immensely strong on their own, the comics are even more so felt with a certain depth. They also give loads of clarity, and somehow create more mystery simultaneously to the comics and art Ben did in Men’s Group The Video and the work he did with Jessica and Jacob Ciocci in the past. Ben’s work often seems to be about solving the mystery of him drawing what he did at the time that he did it. Ordinarily with most other comics, it would seem goofy to question the drawings in this way. It seems fitting to ask the question despite the goofy nature of the question, but the ingrained nature of what he’s drawing is goofiness. Ben doesn’t have a big answer to this question he just keeps circling it with more art and comics that don’t cease to be compelling. ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 11-8-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

09/01/2017

Sally IngrahamAugust 31, 2017NewsSally here with reviews of work by Sophia Foster-Dimino, Tara Booth, and Katie Skelly, plus other news worth knowing. ———————————————————————————————— I’ve been reading a PDF version of Sophia Foster-Dimino‘s new comic (sent out as an advance review copy), which is being released by Koyama Press in the next few weeks. It’s called Sex Fantasy and it is going to be lovely. It collects the mini comics she’s been making in limited editions for over 4 years, translating them into a little square book of 440 pages. Each page will contain a single panel, and perhaps folks will be inclined to zip through the book at speed but I recommend taking time to savor this one. Each “sex fantasy” is a poem which manages to capture something about human interactions, attractions, anxieties, and those brief moments of connection or total disconnect. The pieces are funny, whimsical, and sad, some all at the same time. I like Sophia’s playful, but elegant line. I made myself stop reading the PDF version since I want to thoroughly enjoy the book when it is released. If you’re curious to check it out in the meanwhile, you can see some of the pieces HERE on Sophia’s website. Be sure to look for the entire Fall lineup of comics from Koyama Press – new work by Connor Willumsen, GG, Noel Freibert, Patrick Kyle, and Hannah K. Lee! ———————————————————————————————— Tara Booth‘s How to Be Alive was part of the spring 2017 collection from Retrofit Comics, but it was only released in the past few weeks. I don’t always go for comics that go careening around a page without panels or a grid to contain them, but I do enjoy Tara’s work. The simple sequencing is effective, the gags are funny, and of course her color and patterning is exactly as loud and as bright as I like it. She captures what it’s like to be caught inside her body and emotions quite well. There is a sort of joy in her drawings and paintings, whether she is lying on the floor wracked with anxiety, popping a zit or cutting her bangs, or delighting in comfy PJs. Get a copy of How to Be Alive from Copacetic Comics. Check out more of Tara Booth’s work HERE and follow her on Instagram. ———————————————————————————————— Katie Skelly‘s new comic from Fantagraphics is a big hardcover that collects the series she started drawing in 2015. My Pretty Vampire tells the tale of Clover, a young vampire who escapes the imprisonment of her brother to seek freedom and blood. How she became a vampire and how her brother was involved is deliberately unclear, but to me that was the only truly intriguing part of the story. Katie is playing with the horror genre, making her pretty blonde play the roll of both virginal survivor and slasher, but the comic fizzles before the end. Clover evades the pursuit of her brother and his hired detective, manages to stay out of the sun, mostly, and kills a bunch of folks. There seems to be a thread of abuse and certainly the potential for revenge, but that remains just a promise. You can expect erotic episodes in Katie’s work, and this comic has its share, plus it features Katie’s first use of full color. She was inspired by the spot coloring in Barbarella by Jean-Claude Forest, and tried to go for the grotesque effect of almost overwhelming color (according to this interview on CBR). Maybe it’s because of the large format with lots of space, but the block coloring of the piece doesn’t appeal to me. (I just keep thinking about Photoshop’s paint bucket.) There are some interesting spreads, but overall I didn’t find this comic to be as strong as I’d expected. Of course you must judge it for yourself – get a copy of My Pretty Vampire HERE. NPR did one of their “cover crushes” on My Pretty Vampire – see what inspired Katie’s cover design HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Less Subjective News Emma Allen is the new humor and cartoon editor at The New Yorker. Artsy features a profile on her. Rob Kirby reviews Summer Pierre‘s Paper Pencil Life #5 on The Comics Journal. Julia Wertz offers an excerpt from her upcoming book – Tenements, Towers & Trash: An Unconventional Illustrated History of New York City, out in October – which provides a brief history of the Village Voice. Speaking of the Village Voice, they recently announced that they’re discontinuing the print edition of the paper after 62 years. Lauren Weinstein‘s strip Normal Person appeared in the print edition for over a year, but I think it will continue being published online – regardless, her most recent strip details what will be lost when the Village Voice is purely virtual. Jessica Campbell is publishing comics on Hyperallergic (I had neglected to notice before!) – her most recent one is about Gauguin… Hilary Brown reviews Mimi Pond‘s The Customer is Always Wrong on Paste. ———————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook is hosting workshops at SPX 2017 and I’m pleased to say that this year instead of running tech and passing out index cards, I’ll be doing that stuff PLUS leading a workshop myself, along with Audra Stang (the pair of us are pictured above). For a complete list of the workshops VISIT THIS SITE – and please signup in advance for the workshops you want to attend, as they will fill up quickly. ———————————————————————————————— Frank Santoro made a comic book about his parents and now he needs help making a handbound copy of the book for each of them. It’s a good story. Check out the Indiegogo campaign HERE – or if you want to contribute via PayPal, look at the campaign HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-1-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ———————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

04/07/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 7, 2017NewsSally here to close the week with work by Anya Davidson, Lale Westvind, Cara Bean, Lauren Purje, Rebecca Roher, and more. ————————————————————————————————— Ryan Carry writes a glowing review of Anya Davidson‘s Lovers in the Garden for Daily Grindhouse: “Don’t look now, but it appears as though toiling away with too little recognition for far too long is finally paying off for superb cartoonist Anya Davidson, who is having something of a “moment”…“ “Set smack dab in the middle of New York’s 1970s heroin epidemic, this comic definitely wears its Serpico-style “police thriller” and blaxploitation influences proudly on its sleeve, but rather than wallowing in storytelling standards of days gone by instead filters them through a decidedly singular artistic lens to come up with a truly unique and instantly memorable reading experience.“ “Intricate without feeling forced, complex without belaboring its own cleverness, Lovers In The Garden is essential reading that will richly reward careful second, third, fourth (and more) perusals.“ Read the rest of the review HERE. Anya Davidson will be in Pittsburgh. PA, this weekend as a special guest at the Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo. If you’re in the region come meet her and get a copy of Lovers in the Garden. ————————————————————————————————— Lale Westvind is also a special guest at PIX this Sunday, April 9th, and she will have a new comic to debut there – Joan Doe the Drone Pilot and Mary the Drone! Check it out at PIX, and catch Lale at a Comics Workbook workshop along with Connor Willumsen and Frank Santoro (4-5 PM – details HERE.) If you can’t make it to PIX you can pre-order the comic – ships out after the 9th. ————————————————————————————————— Cara Bean adds an important comic to the archives of Illustrated PEN – Rob Kirby is is the guest editor who presents it: “Her beautiful story, “The Art Class is a Sanctuary City,” is quietly defiant and political, but rendered with love and deep empathy. Reading it, my first thought was how lucky Bean’s students are to have her as a teacher. My second thought was how the work of teachers can go a long way in building inspiration, and battling against hate and fear.“ See the whole comic HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Heidi MacDonald reports on MoCCA 2017 for Publisher’s Weekly, writing that the show drew it’s largest crowd ever. Lots of pictures from the event and a who’s who of exhibitors and their new work – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Rebecca Roher has teamed up with gynecologist Dr. Aparna Sridhar to help share info about various types of contraceptive options. Birth Control Tales is an online comic available for free – you can find out about IUDs via this comic, and hormonal implants HERE. There are at least two more comics in the works. Rebecca is based in Toronto, and well-known for her comic Mom Body (2015), which you can read HERE, and read all about on The Huffington Post. Dr. Aparna Sridhar grew up reading Tintin and after seeing Mom Body she realized that comics could be a non-threatening way to share important info about contraception. She approached Rebecca to suggest a collaboration. The Globe and Mail has the rest of the story HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Lauren Purje has a regular comic on Hyperallergic (March 27th, 2017 strip pictured above). She is from Dublin, OH, and is also a painter. She is now based out of Brooklyn, NY. Her comic strip series delves into her creative practice and her collection of odd art-related jobs around the city. Check out the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Dame Darcy is on tour! Catch her somewhere in AZ, WA, CA, OR, or NY in April – full schedule HERE. With Dame Darcy you get a lot of bang for your bux. Check it out: “Performance art / opera singing over home made trax plus reading and signing of Meat Cake Bible compilation graphic novel 500 pages of DD work for 25 years published by Fantagraphics. Plus other books, hand made prints, and tarot cards, plus tarot reading!“ ————————————————————————————————— Gloria Rivera shares thoughts on the work of Erik Nebel here on the site: “Erik Nebel, from a formal standpoint, uses the elements of color, scale, pattern (repetition) to create a connection with their audience without means of establishing “character” descriptions. We look to Erik’s images of fluid, moving, form-ambiguous figures across the page, with the only rigidity in their work in the sequencing across the template of three rectangular panels. It is a primitive instinct to read groups of figures as multiple persons when placed in the same space, so the setup of the comics are a defining line, implying a narrative. It’s a simple mechanism (the three panel grid) but without it, it would be a different kind of comic. If anything, the stationary structure of the grid enhances Erik’s graceful forms, and stark choices in color/contrast. Comics made for print usually see a loss in translation to the digital screen, but this is where Erik does their best to exploit the gap between the two. Nearly every strip they create vibrates between lines, flat against flat.“ Read more HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Lentil Soup A new baby isn’t keeping Lauren Weinstein from making comics – she is already back at The Village Voice with a new episode of Normal Person. Julie Doucet got her first retrospective at Fumetto – details HERE. We found a video on Facebook that gives a glimpse inside the show – check it out. Paste Magazine features Kim Reaper, a new comic by Sarah Graley – details and images from issue #1 HERE. Amadeo Gandolfo writes about a number of female cartoonists and other women working in the industry – lots of pictures and some good names to look up – get Google to translate it out of Spanish for you – HERE. Check out these sketchbook comics by Sarah Glidden from her winter travels in Europe. ————————————————————————————————— As mentioned, Comics Workbook will be at the Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo on Sunday, April 9th. We will be hosting a workshop series with instructors from the school – Frank Santoro, Juan Fernandez, Caleb Orecchio, me (Sally Ingraham) – as well as special guests Carol Tyler, Lale Westvind, and Connor Willumsen! More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-7-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-7-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-7-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

PIX 2016 | Sketchbook tour with Noah Van Sciver

Frank SantoroMay 23, 2016Festivals and Shows / SketchbooksFrank gets a sweet peek into Noah Van Sciver’s sketchbook. Full interview available here:vimeo.com/165602153 Check out and follow Noah’s rad work // nvansciver.wordpress.com/ // noahvansciver.tumblr.com/ Video by Michael Pisano // michaelpisano.com Share this page: [...]

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