Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged alyssa berg, caleb orecchio, comics arts brooklyn, gabriella tito, juan fernandez, risograph

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on November 6, 2017

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Niall Breen on LICAF 2016

Comics WorkbookOctober 23, 2016Festivals and ShowsTo the lake district! AWAY!!!! A video posted by Niall Breen (@niall.breen.comics) on Oct 14, 2016 at 9:17am PDT Last week I traveled from Ireland to join the Comics Workbook crew in Kendal, England for The Lakes International Comic Art Festival. The Lakes Fest (LICAF) is an unusual beast in today’s world of heavily branded industry conventions. Marketing itself as a “comic art festival” immediately stands it apart from the large majority of sales-orientated cons which exist in most larger towns and cities throughout England and Ireland. While there is a venue at LICAF for artists and publishers to sell their work, this is not what pulls in the tens of thousands of visitors each year. LICAF instead focuses on education and appreciation of craft, with a packed roster of artist talks and workshops spread over the weekend. This love of craft and appreciation for artists seems to be a reflection of an attitude that naturally exists in Kendal; a town which, despite its modest size boasts a number of cinema spaces, theatres, art groups, and live music venues. Kendal is a town which thrives on art and when it came time to host this years LICAF, the whole town seemed fully on board. The weekend’s events were held in numerous locations throughout the town, from local pubs and cafes to the town hall and library. Even businesses not directly connected with the event went to great effort to create window displays fitting the Festival. The talks and workshops held throughout the weekend were well attended. There was an air of excitement buzzing all over as people were given the opportunity to sit and talk with their heroes. Even on the streets of Kendal the public brushed shoulders with comics superstars in a way which seemed exciting and yet, completely natural. I attended the Comics Workbook Composition Competition workshop which was run by Mr. Comics Workbook himself, the great Frank Santoro. Connor Willumsen and Aiden Koch were also in attendance, providing moments of insight and balance throughout the talk. The workshop was well attended and drew a wonderfully diverse audience. Children and adults, amateurs and professionals – it was a wonder to see how Frank’s process worked so well for everyone in the group. Each person was guided through so confidently and with such positivity that nobody felt unable or less capable than anyone else. In fact, many of the experienced British comic artists in attendance marveled at Frank’s aura of positivity, a trait which seems to be rare in the industry. The standard of work which came from the group was very high as everyone seemed to get on board with Frank’s ideas very quickly. We all left having completed a 4 page, pamphlet style comic. Not bad for a two hour session! I also managed to sit in on Connor Willumsen‘s workshop later that day. This class drew a small group of dedicated artists. We took great inspiration and warning from Connor’s industry stories. Seeing him describe his composition method was great as I could see how it was tied to Frank’s fundamental ideas, even if they go about the process differently. Another huge moment of inspiration for me was when Connor talked about how his ability to program code meant that he had greater control over how his work can be displayed. This seems more relevant now than ever as we are in a time of uncertainty over how to show our work on the internet. Each of the current options for artists (Tumblr, Instagram) seem to come with some level of restriction. It was great to see that Connor had taken the matter into his own hands and made a site which worked for him. It shows a level of ingenuity and determination which I think we will all need to strive for to stay afloat in the digital age. Overall, my experience of LICAF was one of community, of inspiration. For one weekend, makers and fans came to Kendal to share ideas, work together and grow. There was no line separating the novice and the master. There was only respect and the flow of ideas. LICAF is a rare and beautiful thing. ———————————————————————————— Niall Breen makes comics in Sligo Town, on the west coast of Ireland. You can find more of his work HERE. Share this page: [...]

12/01/2017

Sally IngrahamDecember 1, 2017NewsSally here with comics by November Garcia, Lina Ghaibeh, Emil Friis Ernst, and much more! ————————————————————————————————— Emil Friis Ernst spent last autumn here in Pittsburgh with us at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency and abroad on his own in the city. He was on loan from The Animation Workshop in Denmark, and he got to spend nearly 3 months making comics and exploring our strange American culture. He recently published the comic he made during that time – Disconnector – which you can view in full on his website, HERE. The comic is about a lonely inventor and his robot (drawn and painted on this lovely grey paper that I remember well from when Emil was here!) Take some time to check it out, as well as some of his other comics which you can also find on his website. ————————————————————————————————— Ryan C. reviews November Garcia‘s Malarkey, the series of auto-bio comics made by this terrific Filipino cartoonist, over on Four Color Apocalypse. I’m with Ryan when he says that November is bound to break through in the near future, and having met her in person at SPX this year I couldn’t be more delighted to have this talented and funny comics maker in the scene. About Malarkey, Ryan writes: “Simply put, Garcia’s varied-length strips are every bit as familiar to somebody who “speaks comics” fluently as they are to someone who’s “comics illiterate.” Her figure drawing is efficient, practical, and betrays more than a hint of warmth and, dare I say it, innocence, while her stories tend to revolve around daily-life complexities that, in the hands of a less-attuned artist, would be depicted in a matter ten times more grim : neuroses (insecurity being first and foremost on the list), family dysfunction, doomed relationships, and alcoholism. There’s no way this stuff should be fun, but in Malarkey, God help me, it is.“ Read the rest of the review HERE and get copies of issues 1 and 2 over at Spit and a Half Distro. ————————————————————————————————— Lina Ghaibeh shares a comic about growing up in Syria during the Assad regime on The Nib, titled An Education in Fear. Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Also, also There’s a new comic by Glynnis Fawkes up on Mutha Magazine titled Can You Play Now – see it HERE. Hilary Brown interviews Leslie Stein and talks about her new book Present and what it means to her to live in the present – HERE. Sarah Glidden is the guest on Episode 59 of Process Party – they talk travel, journalism, and how cartooning fits into both. Check it out. On The Comics Beat Alex Lu interviews Alisa Kwitney about the female friendships at the heart of her series Mystic U (from DC Comics). Read the interview HERE. Sophie Goldstein talks to Alex Dueben of Smash Pages about House of Women and more – HERE. RiLY features Nicole Georges – and her dog – on Episode 243 – listen HERE. ————————————————————————————————— 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 – 12-1-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 12-1-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/01/2016

Juan FernándezApril 1, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez here with your weekend comics news fix. It’s been a busy week, I’ve been doing a lot of kids comics classes and have a lot on my plate personally this weekend with the all weekend long action of PIX here in Pittsburgh. Readings, workshops, exhibitors, panels. OOf, gotta remember to stay hydrated and caffeinated. (Field notes from youth workshops to come in future posts). There’ll be loads of comics folks doing it to it in NYC for the Society of Illustrator’s MOCCA Fest, but I’ll amped to be focusing on things on the home front in Pittsburgh. Can’t say I’m not a little bummed that I can’t attend the programming that the Society is putting together this year! If you’re in the area, you’re going to want to pop by. But if you’re near Pittsburgh, you’ll want to know that Comics Workbook is doing a full day of programming during the Expo this weekend. Hands on instruction and training in the first installment of our Danger Room Workshop Series. ————————————————————————————————— Pittsburgh Independent Comics Expo Details Tonight there will be two Pre-PIX events (no fooling’!) Bill Griffith fans will want to know that, in addition to his being a special guest of PIX 2016, he will also be doing a presentation at The ToonSeum the night before, starting at 7pm at Bricolage, a few doors down from The ToonSeum: 45 Years of Zippy the Pinhead: An Evening with Bill Griffith. Nice interview with Griffith up at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Read it here. AND, running from 7pm to 11pm at Lili Cafe (downstairs from The Copacetic Comics Co.) it’s The Pre-PIX Comix Reading Extravaganza! Here’s a chance to get a jump start on the PIX 2016 festivities! ————————————————————————————————— Official DANGER ROOM 001 Schedule: April 2nd, 2016 Drawing without Drawing: Explore the power of color of and form in comics// 11:30 PM // 2nd Floor Classroom DO BE DO: A 1 Hour Comics Publication to be drawn, scanned, printed, bound. // 12:30 PM // 2nd Floor Classroom The Architecture of Time and Space – Composing Comics with Frank Santoro// 1:30 PM // 2nd Floor Classroom Paper Jazz – Comics, storyboards, concept art, same difference: it’s all writing. // 2:30 PM // 2nd Floor Classroom Bill Griffith’s Drawing Workshop – That’s right, learn how to draw from the Legendary Underground comics artist creator of Zippy the Pinhead. // 3:30 PM // Lower Level Classroom I’ll be co-facilitating all the workshops throughout the day. RSVP Here. ————————————————————————————————— Berliac’s latest “TANGRAM” is Berliac’s contribution for the anthology “Abstraction and Comics”, edited by Aarnoud Rommens, Pablo Turnes and Bjorn-Olav Dozo, and published by PULg, (Université de Liège, Belgium), for their ACME series. It’s online now and a real formalist treat. If you’re looking for inspiration by seeing how someone masterfully composes comics within constraints (in this case the forms of the Chinese tangram puzzle), look no further. Read it here. ————————————————————————————————— Alt Comix II – LIVE Tonight the Alt Comics crew is gathering to put on a night of readings and performances at NYC’s American Medium (424 Gates Ave. Brooklyn.) More info here. Hosted by 2dcloud x Aidan Koch there’ll be presentations and performances by: Kayla Guthrie. Claire Christerson. Austin English. Sarah Ferrick. Julia Gfrörer. Barkev Gulesserian aka Bernard Herman. Aidan Koch. Blaise Larmee. Nikholis Planck. Gina Wynbrandt. ————————————————————————————————— Womens’ Comix History Over at the Comics Journal, there’s a nice, chunky piece put together by Alex Dueben that records an oral history of the publication, Wimmen’s Comix. As anecdotes contain the juiciest nuggets, the most vivid images, the most important memories, this is required reading. Lotsa hard work went into this one, “assembled from a series of interviews with M.K. Brown, Nancy Burton (aka, “Hurricane Nancy”), Jennifer Camper, Leslie Ewing, Joyce Farmer, Mary Fleener, Shary Flenniken, Lora Fountain, Phoebe Gloeckner, Roberta Gregory, Joan Hilty, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Meredith Kurtzman, Caryn Leschen, Lisa Lyons, Lee Marrs, Barbara Mendes, Patricia Moodian, Diane Noomin, Trina Robbins, Sharon Rudahl, Carol Tyler, and Rebecca Wilson conducted by phone, skype, google chat, and e-mail in 2015 and 2016.” Read it all here. ————————————————————————————————— Retrofit Kickstarter: Big Push Retrofit Comics is entering the last week on their Kickstarter campaign! Take a gander at their list of artists, and you’ll immediately recognize the publisher to be a general force for greatness in the comics community. The crop of books they’re currently publishing is particularly spectacular. It includes titles by the likes of James Kochalka (Elf Cat in Love), the first Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont. Eleanor Davis has an offering (Libby’s Dad), and Kaeleigh Forsyth and Alabaster Pizzo teamed up on Hellbound (here’s a process post from them about the “raw material” the book was sourced from). Also among the comics that may get loosed on the world, should the Kickstarter make it to the stretch goals, are works by Anya Davidson and Tyler Landry. Pretty rad. Please support Retrofit Comics by pitching some funds their way, or helping to spread the word. Check out the Kickstarter HERE! Push it to the limit. ————————————————————————————————— Remembering Jess Johnson As yesterday was Transgender Day of Visibility, it’s a good day to think of Jess Johnson who sadly left the world last Sunday. If you have a chance, I urge you to take some time to dig into Johnson’s life and work, whether it’s by taking a moment to listen to this Ink Studs interview from 2013 or by digging into the collections of Matterhorn, the online venture that she put online. Despite never having been collected in a durable format, there’s hope that Johnson’s memory will live on by sharing this unique, idiosyncratic, and darkly funny body of work. Share this page: [...]

09/27/2016

Aaron CockleSeptember 27, 2016NewsAaron here today with Discipline; Dykes in Print/Boiled Angel/CBLDF; Maintenance Art; Nadel/Dunham; Remembering Kim Thompson; Ford/Walden; French Comics in the USA; Portraits & Swinespritzen ————————————————————————————————— Dash Shaw is posting Diary Comics this week at TCJ, where he discusses the process of his work-in-progress, Discipline: This book is a long comic book, but it does not have any speech balloons or panel borders. The illustrations and the hand-written cursive text float on the page. This activates the negative space of the page, which lends the book a spacious stillness, or a quiet, “Quakerly” tone. This spacing relates to Civil War-era illustration, where elements hover inside of articles. Also, this allows me to write and draw all of the elements separately, so the book is easier for me to edit. With the conventional comic approach, usually the insertion of a panel throws off all of the other panels in the book. Because of the collage-like structure of my book, I can easily insert illustrative moments and pieces of text and research/write while still making new drawings. ————————————————————————————————— Censorship: Don’t Do it! In celebration (?) of Banned Books week, Pen.org has a piece by Jennifer Camper, Dykes in Print: And the Guardian revisits the Mike Diana Boiled Angel trial and the origins of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: Set up in 1986, the CBLDF exists to fight censorship of comic books, protect the First Amendment right to free speech and, more pragmatically, to provide legal representation for comics creators facing prosecution. Founder Denis Kitchen was running Kitchen Sink Press, a publisher of underground comics, when he heard about a police raid on Friendly Frank’s comic shop in Chicago. Six officers had seized seven titles, including erotic comic Omaha the Cat Dancer, Robert Crumb’s anthology Weirdo and SF-smut comic Heavy Metal, and arrested manager Michael Correa. Friendly Frank’s was shut down for five days, but not before one of the arresting officers told newspapers there was a “satanic influence” in the comics seized. Kitchen was appalled. “I realised immediately that if police officers with built-in Satan detectors could get away with making arrests and seizing objectionable comic books, much more than the comics industry was at stake,” he says. He swiftly raised $20,000 for a fighting fund, helped by comics heavyweights like Crumb and Frank Miller. “It was gratifying to see that sudden unity among the comics community,” Kitchen says. “I was more used to people squabbling.” ————————————————————————————————— Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Maintenance Art at Queens Museum This first survey of Ukeles’ work is organized by the Queens Museum’s Larissa Harris and guest co-curator Patricia C. Phillips, who initiated the project in 2012. The show will span five decades, from her work as a pioneer of feminist performance to a practitioner of public art, in which Ukeles invites us to reconsider indispensable urban systems and the workers who maintain them. Ukeles is undoubtedly best-known for her 36+ year role as the official, unsalaried Artist-in-Residence at New York’s Department of Sanitation. Unprecedented when it began in 1978, this residency has now become a model for municipalities engaging with artists as creative agents. ————————————————————————————————— Dan Nadel on Carroll Dunham’s drawing at Hyperallergic: Dunham and his peers had emerged from a conceptual and process-oriented New York milieu in which a number of artists were exhibiting and redefining drawing as a primary medium, including Barry Le Va, Dorothea Rockburne (who Dunham and Kendrick assisted), Mel Bochner, and Sol Lewitt. Connecting these and other artists was the removal of both the image and the artist’s sensuous touch, replaced with rigorous conceptual procedures. In contrast, Terry Winters notes that he and Dunham “saw drawing and making things by hand as a way out of or into art. We were reconnecting with gesture and touch, and their capacities to register other kinds of information not available through logic.” They were also finding kinship with artists that were not highly considered at the time, such as the mid-20th century German painter and photographer Wols and the American post-war painter William Baziotes, both of whose work defied categorization and remained outside of the contemporary dialogue. ————————————————————————————————— At the ever-enduring Comics Reporter blog, Tom Spurgeon remembers Fantagraphics publisher Kim Thompson, and looks at the aging of the ‘alt-comics’ crowd: The thing that stuck in my head, though, throughout today, was how many people texted and e-mailed that they thought Kim was older than 60 when he passed away. I think that’s because Kim and Gary Groth and their roughly same-age peers were either the first generation of alt-comics publishers or the first generation since the first generation to enter mainstream comics in a significant way. So you have a lot of people 55-65 with trackable careers two, three, four decades long in an established arts industry, which is rare outside of a few precocious creative talents. ————————————————————————————————— Sean Ford recently conducted an interview with Tillie Walden, posted on Inkstuds. ————————————————————————————————— French Comics Framed Festival NYC, 27 September-5 November Sept 27 – Nov. 5: French Comics Framed – Exhibition The Cooper Union, Foundation Building, 7 East 7th Street, NY 10003 Oct. 4: Panel by Asaf & Tomer Hanuka The Society of illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, NY, NY 10065 Oct 6-9: Meet our artists on booth #1558 at New York Comic Con and on the Artist Alley Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 W. 34th St., NY, NY 10001 Oct. 6, 7pm: French Comics On Screen: Film Adaptations of Franco-Belgian Graphic Narratives The School of Visual Arts, 209 E 23rd St, 3rd floor Oct. 7, 6:30pm : How to Draw a Life: The Rise of Graphic Biography in France Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue, NY 10029 Oct. 8, 1:30-2:30pm: Drawing From the World: Franco-Belgian Comics in Global Context New York Comic Con (room 1B03), Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 W. 34th St., NY, NY 10001 Oct. 8, 7pm: Reconstructing Comix: The “Architecture” of Franco-Belgian Graphic Narratives, from Tintin to Today The Great Hall of Cooper Union, Foundation Building, 7 East 7th Street, NY, NY 10003 Nov. 1, 7pm: Panel discussion: Drawing the unspeakable Columbia University 116th St & Broadway, NY, NY 10027 ————————————————————————————————— Help send Connor Willumsen to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in October! He will be teaching workshops with Frank Santoro and Aidan Koch while there – if you’re in the area check it out. To help him get to the show, Comics Workbook is offering two new Connor publications. Portraits and Swinespritzen – both limited editions, both incredible. Share this page: [...]

Art Trip: At the Magic House

MardouAugust 25, 2016Art Trip / EssaysThe notion of a Children’s Museum just didn’t exist in the 1980s when I was a child and let’s face it, it’s a complete misnomer. There’s nothing “museum-like” about St Louis’s Magic House, enjoyable as it is (for children). When I was a kid, the Museum meant the Manchester Museum, with impressive items pillaged from the British Empire and it’s protectorates during the Victorian Era. The Manchester Museum still has that same collection of Ancient Egyptian artifacts and I remember them perfectly, on school trips pressed up against the glass, staring at partially unwrapped mummies with horrified fascination. One of the mummies was a male with a 2000 year bandaged up penis. You just don’t forget seeing that as a child. Very unlike the Children’s “museums” of today, which are more or less interactive play palaces. That’s not a criticism, it’s fine, my kid had a great time. But unlike the Milwaukee Public Museum, where we took a family trip earlier this summer, I’m assuming she won’t remember much about the Magic House, except that she had fun. Nothing was learned, it’s an “in the moment” experience only. But this cool tamarind monkey with its little hairdo at the Milwaukee Public Museum might be remembered for a lot longer. It already has legendary status in our family unit. (Note: Milwaukee Public Museum is perhaps the best museum I have ever been to. It’s like stepping into a lurid 1970s text book. Everyone should go there.) In Milwaukee I didn’t get to draw anything, as my participation in looking at stuff was required. At the Magic House you just sit around and wait for your kid to be done playing. Which works out great if you take a sketchbook. Maybe these pages will serve as a memory book for my child, now that summer is all but over. ————————————————————————————————— Art Trip is a series that features reflections on art and comics, and the adventures that transform those who seek it out. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou is a Brit making comics in St Louis, Missouri. Sky in Stereo is her most recent comic. Share this page: [...]

11/06/17

Posted on November 6, 2017 by Caleb Orecchio

Caleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Alyssa Berg’s risograph comics. PLUS! some insight into Alyssa’s process from the author herself!—and other news.

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riso version of Alpenglow by Alyssa Berg

I think Alyssa Berg’s current work is a step in the right direction for a modern day cartoonist—being an exploration in printing, risograph specifically, and how that process can present her comics in the best way a riso machine can.

Alyssa makes painted comics that live online as photographs of the actual paintings, then “adapts” the paintings into risograph printed comics—the latter being slightly different than the former naturally due to how a painting transfers to this particular printing process. As a cartoonist, I can literally see her “thinking” when comparing the “actual” versions with the riso versions. Looking at her two versions of Alpenglow (winner of the 2015 Comics Workbook Composition Competition) I’m fascinated at the choices Alyssa made when “adapting” the paintings to print.

At CXC 2016 I bought her first printing of Alpenglow, which was digitally printed. At SPX 2017, I bought the second printing, which is adapted to riso. Look at the differences below.

The differences are interesting because both versions are good, obviously, but I find the riso version to be particularly intimate. Her paintings are beautiful, and I miss seeing the brush strokes and nuance of color the digital version provides, but the way the riso strips everything down really sings for me. For one, riso just flat out looks better than digital. Anything looks better than digital really. Second, the choices Alyssa makes are in service to the clarity of the image while also retaining the spirit of the painting (which we’ll get to in a second in Alyssa’s own words). This pruning of the work through the filter of riso really circumnavigates any distractions (though they are enjoyable) the paintings provide, and allow the reader a wholly immersive comics reading experience.

I should be clear, I don’t necessarily think the painted version is better than the riso version, or vice versa; but it’s the fact that these very excellent comics exist in different ways is what is exciting to me.

I asked Alyssa to give some brief insight into her process of adapting paintings to riso prints, and this is how she responded:

“I started printing my painted comics last winter at the SVA RisoLab. I had this short-lived fantasy that I would be able to use a simple CMYK color separation in Photoshop to make faux-CMYK prints on the Riso. I realized quickly that while certain prints looked okay using this method, most of them came out with too much visual information/noise because of the texture & subtlety of the color mixing in the paint combined with the imperfect registration of the Riso. Also, registering the text with this method is not ideal.

“Over the summer and currently during my residency at the RisoLab, I’ve been experimenting with ways to keep the integrity of the painting in the reproduction. I use a mix of “CMYK” in certain areas, spot colors with texture layers on top in other areas, and other spot colors without any mixing. This method reduces the noise and keeps the print painterly. The text is almost always one color so it’s crisp and clear. All of my color separation is done [manually] in Photoshop. I’m not much of a technology-person so there has been a big learning curve. By now doing color separation has become pretty intuitive, but still, I’m not always sure what the outcome will be. I like that little surprise. I rarely look at Riso color mixing charts/percentages. I rely on my knowledge of color mixing and grayscale from my painting background. I tried once to design a specific zine for the risograph & it came out kind of boring. It required too much thought while I was painting the pages and I prefer to not think in this phase! For now, I’m happier painting freely then putting in the hours on Photoshop.”

Thanks Alyssa! If you want to pick up her comics, Alyssa will be at Comics Arts Brooklyn this weekend at Table K6.

As a cartoonist, there’s a lot to learn from watching Alyssa transform her work for print. I highly, highly recommend seeking her books out, and compare the books to the paintings; she has most of them up on her site.

I leave you with some pages from my favorite Alyssa Berg comic, Open Letter to Sleep.

-CO

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if you don’t know, now you know

Ron Wimberly and Beehive Books launched a Kickstarter for a newspaper magazine, LAAB Magazine.
Two IDW imprints, The Library of American Comics and Euro Comics, have a podcast together.
Tessa Strain reviews Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov’s follow up to their very popular and well-recieved Nick Fury comic. This time, it’s the Punisher.
Not a link, but word around the campfire is Robin McConnell will be interviewing Chris Ware on occasion of his epic Monograph book for an upcoming episode of Inkstuds. So stay tuned.
In other news, the latest Inkstuds episode features an interview with Cecil Castellucci and Marley Zarcone, the driving force behind a mainstream comic I like, Shade the Changing Girl.

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Suzy and Cecil – 11-6-2017 – by Gabrielle Tito

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Cozytown – 11-6-2017 – by Juan Fernandez

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Joanie and Jordie – 11-6-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged alyssa berg, caleb orecchio, comics arts brooklyn, gabriella tito, juan fernandez, risograph

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on November 6, 2017

Explore

07/06/2018

Sally IngrahamJuly 5, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with news and comics from Ulli Lust, Hannah Berry, Joana Mosi, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Ulli Lust has an exhibition at Cartoonmuseum Basel, June 30-Oct. 28th 2018. She composed a photo report about the show HERE, for those of us likely to miss it. There is also an article about the retrospective on Aargauer Zeitung, which is a passionate testimony to the effect Ulli Lust and her work has on people. It begins (excuse the rocky translation out of German by Google translate…!): “None draws as furiously as the Viennese Ulli Lust – and no one shows them as affectionately as the Cartoonmuseum Basel. The greeting in the Cartoonmuseum is clear: The painted face of Ulli Lust on the glass pane at the entrance to the exhibition, hair wild, look adventurous. Behind this glass front, so much is now clear, hides an artist who prefers to fall mercilessly, than cautiously gropes. Rather than miss a pretty label. Behind this glass front is Ulli Lust and she does not mean for no reason.“ Decipher the rest HERE – or if you speak German, I hope you enjoy this article. ———————————————————————————————— There is an interesting and quite funny interview with Hannah Berry on Comics Grid about how her comics relate to her interest in law, and vice versa. She is a British cartoonist and the creator of Detectives Britten and Brülightly, among other works. Berry’s work is dark, and serious, and very British (they talk about this in the interview) but as you might expect, she mixes in the right balance of humor. “Thomas Giddens: Just thinking a bit more about the kind of ways you engage with particular issues. Is humour important? It seems like there’s some moments of your work that are quite amusing. In Britten and Brülightly for instance, it’s very dour, it’s very sombre, it’s very serious, and then there’s a talking teabag. Hannah Berry: Yes, yes, I do try to sneak the odd little joke in here and there, because I think you can reach people; there’s something about humour that really connects people. I think it’s a way of really getting onto a person’s wavelength. I mean, maybe some of my humour falls flat—as much as I’d love to be, I’m not looking over everyone’s shoulder as they read my books. Someday, hopefully, with the internet, but who knows. But I do think there’s something with humour that really helps you connect with the reader. It’s a similar thing to horror, I suppose. There’s sort of a build-up and you’re trying to get a very distinct reaction from a person, and I think I can do that. I do a weekly cartoon strip for the New Statesman which is again not really political. I tweet them every week or thereabouts, and the ones I think are the absolute successes, the ones that will probably win me some kind of future prize, they’re the ones that do alright, you know? They’re okay. But the ones that I sort of do in a hurry and I think are less good, they’re the ones that do really well. So maybe my sense of humour is not what everybody else’s is, or maybe I just can’t understand Twitter, I don’t know; maybe I’m doing something a little bit awry, perhaps. But I do think it’s an important factor, yes, and also because, you know, it’s nice to read a funny book every now and then.“ Read the whole interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out work by Joana Mosi, a Portugese cartoonist and teacher based in Lisbon. Above is part of a short comic that I enjoyed – see the rest HERE. Her most recent book is Spineless Cactus (Nem Todos os Cactos têm Picos) which you can see more of HERE – and read a review about HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Weekend Snacks Nicole Hollander is the guest on Episode 279 of RiYL – check it out HERE. Publishers Weekly talks to Lisa Hanawalt about her upcoming comic Coyote Doggirl (Drawn & Quarterly, Aug. 2018) and all her “weird little horses” – HERE. The Comics Alternative podcast digs into the entire spring catalog from Koyama Press – including new comics by Jessica Campbell and Fiona Smyth. Listen to Episode 285 HERE. The Portland Mercury has a review of Geneviève Castrée‘s last book – A Bubble – published two years after her death, and made for Castrée’s daughter. Frank Young reviews Cathy Malkasian‘s Eartha for The Comics Journal – HERE. Paste Magazine sits down with Alisa Kwitney, the writer behind Mystik U. Read the interview HERE. Mariko Tamaki is the latest guest on Inkstuds – listen HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-6-2018 – by Gabriella Tito 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: [...]

Comics Workbook Workshops at SPX 2019

Juan FernándezAugust 19, 2019Festivals and Shows / NewsJoin Juan Fernandez and the Comics Workbook gang for a series of workshops featuring hands-on instruction from some of the most talented makers of independent comics. All workshops will held in the Glen Echo and Oakley rooms downstairs at the Marriott Hotel. Please consult the workshop schedule and sign up in advance to insure a spot. Walk-ins will be welcome, however, space permitting. (Curious about this years panels? Check out the rest of the fantastic programming available at SPX this year.) SIGN UP HERE FOR ANY OF THE SPX 2019 COMICS WORKBOOK WORKSHOPS. SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 14 11:00 – 12:00 pm Glen Echo Room Take a crash course in comics making – for kids big and small. We will bring the grids, the markers, the know-how – you bring your personal spark. Discover the comics-maker within you and let them out! Join Richie Pope for an easy foray into comics making – the perfect thing to start a weekend at SPX! All ages. 12:00 – 1:00 pm Glen Echo Room Join Jessica Abel and design your days with clarity and purpose, so the things that get done are what you care about most. Figure out where your time really goes, and use that information to create an action plan for your week built around your current reality, not some fantasy version of your life. Make smart, conscious decisions about your time, and take control of your creative life. 1:00 – 2:00 pm Glen Echo Room Learn how to make miniature clay cakes with Sweet Success & Sweet Competition author/sculptor Liz Reed. Attendees will create their very own unique clay character as Liz guides the class through different sculpting techniques using everyday household items. 2:00 – 3:00 pm Glen Echo Room Loglines aren’t just for screenwriters. If you’ve ever put together a pitch for a publisher or just needed 1-2 sentences for a Kickstarter project description, knowing how to communicate your story in a concise and effective way is essential for any comics creator. Led by Kickstarter’s Comics Outreach Lead Camilla Zhang, this workshop will help you craft a compelling logline or refine one you already have in the works. If you have a pitch you’d like to workshop, please bring up to 20 copies. 3:00 – 4:00 pm Glen Echo Room Tom Hart, the founder of The Sequential Artist’s Workshop (SAW), will help you with your storytelling flow! Feeling stuck? Tense? Like you can’t figure out which way to turn? Not sure which idea to build on or how to tell a good idea from a bad? Do you feel overwhelmed or underwhelmed by your own ideas? Loosen up and follow your story ideas from beginning to end in this workshop. Daydreaming, not drawing skill, is necessary. 4:00 – 5:00 pm Glen Echo Room Rachel Masilamani will lead a workshop for people who draw and people who don’t think that they can draw of all ages. We’ll work on shaping stories together. What comes first? What comes second, and how can we tie it all together? 5:00 – 6:00 pm Glen Echo Room Join cartoonist Fifi Martinez to learn how to explore how we can capture and share the emotional essence of what our subjective lives feel like in real time through comics. Using drawing, writing, diagramming and the collage-like capacity of comics, attendees will experience what it is like to keep a comics diary and how their comics can be used for reflection, meditation, and healing. 6:00 – 7:00 pm Glen Echo Room Emil Friis Ernst takes you through the basics of spatial design to boost your visual vocabulary with a third dimension. In this workshop, you will learn how to put characters in perspective easily, use the space around a character to tell a story, and use the third dimension to make poetry. SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 15 12:00 – 1:00 pm Oakley Room The ability to draw is a basic human ability, and sequential images are prevalent across human history. This fundamental aspect of human expression yields several important questions, such as how are such individual and sequential images structured, and how do people process and comprehend them? Join Juan Fernandez to learn how Visual Language Theory offers a framework to answer these questions and how principles and methods of the linguistic and cognitive sciences can enrich and expand our ability to make, read, and teach comics. 1:00 – 2:00 pm Oakley Room Estate Planning, Preventative Care, and Health and Wellness: these often neglected issues can up have huge impacts on the lives of cartoonists and those around them if not considered early on in life. Join Carol Tyler for an intergenerational community discussion on how we can create a better world for cartoonists to work and live. 2:00 – 3:00 pm Oakley Room In this workshop, you will work with NPR’s Malaka Gharib, the author of I WAS THEIR AMERICAN DREAM: A Graphic Memoir, on using the mini-zine format to explore your personal histories. In a brief presentation, she will discuss the power of mini zines in inspiring artists to make short and completable creative projects that are perfectly sharable in the Instagram age. Using deliberate questions aimed to have participants reflect on their own personal immigration stories, participants will create their own zine. This workshop is intended for anyone with an immigrant story to share, and all are welcome! At the workshop, we hope you will be able to complete one mini zine using a template or your own design. 3:00 – 4:00 pm Oakley Room Cartoonists can work in many different ways, shared studios, solo studios, and from home, each of which are conducive to very different kinds of work. Join Aimée De Jongh & Kenny Rubinis to discuss the art and craft of the cartoonist’s workspace. Among the topics covered will be the advantages and disadvantages of each kind of workspace. 4:00 – 5:00 pm Oakley Room Kickstarter may be the place to expose your comics project to a wider audience, but the secret to crowdfunding will always lie in the crowd! Build your community building muscle and learn some outreach tips and tricks at this fun workshop, where you can make new connections and reaffirm old ones. This session will be led by Kickstarter’s Comics Outreach Lead, Camilla Zhang. 5:00 – 6:00 pm Oakley Room Comics language and cinematic language are two distinct, yet related visual dialects. Each offers unique advantages in creating engaging experiences for audiences. We’ll dive in and dissect the work of a few specific animation designers as we broadly discuss composition and sequential storytelling tools as they might pertain to all visual storytelling media, focusing on emotion, engagement, charm, and clarity. Bring a sketchbook to record your visual thoughts as we take a deep dive into some tools that might help broaden your approach to storytelling. Check out the rest of the fantastic programming available at SPX this year – HERE! SIGN UP HERE FOR ANY OF THE SPX 2019 COMICS WORKBOOK WORKSHOPS. Share this page: [...]

01/15/2018

Caleb OrecchioJanuary 15, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Dash Shaw’s Spider-Man story from Strange Tales II, and more news.————————————————————————————————— Last week I talked a bit about Dash Shaw’s Doctor Strange comic from the first volume of the indie-cartoonist-superhero-anthology, Strange Tales. This week I was thinking about his Spider-Man comic for Strange Tales II. A meta, meditation on the Sam Rami movies, with a quote from Toby Maguire about his famous upside-down kissing scene with Kirsten Dunst at the end. This idea runs parallel with a Spider-Man v Mysterio fight with the latter using his “vapors of deception! Deceit!” I enjoy this comic as much as I enjoy all Dash Shaw comics. Shaw is usually not without something to say in his work: Spider-Man is on “some kind of elaborate film stage,” trapped by Mysterios deceitful fog until he finds his way out and falls into “Garbage! That’s where the spiders thrive!” Out of the theater and into the trash where he belongs. Where Spider-Man is best. I like this comic because Shaw is “selling out” (one could argue by working with Marvel) whilst simultaneously calling a childhood obsession (from Marvel) “garbage,” yet, lovingly. There is an irony that resides in this story and its circumstances that I relish. It’s an earnest love letter to trash. I always enjoy rereading this one. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know now you know Alex Wong talks to Jason Shiga at TCJ.com. I somehow missed that Chris Ware was a guest on RiYL. Conan the Barbarian is returning to Marvel in 2019. The latest guest on Inkstuds is Zach Hazard Vaupen. Have you checked out our own Sally Ingraham’s birding blog? Check out William Cardini’s Skew on Study Group if you’ve been snoozing. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-15-2018 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

THE ENVELOPE MANUFACTURER by Chris Oliveros

Chris Anthony DiazJuly 9, 2016The Diaz ArchiveTHE ENVELOPE MANUFACTURER (all versions, softcover collection and mini-comic book issues) by Chris Oliveros. Photo of Chris Oliveros taken at TCAF 2015, Toronto, Sunday, May 9th and photo colored by Graham Willcox Share this page: [...]

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