Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Connor Willumsen, correspondence course, keith knight, roxane gay, sam ombiri, shannon wright, yona hrvey

Sam Ombiri

Posted on November 17, 2016November 17, 2016

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05/15/2017

Caleb OrecchioMay 14, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here. Some good comics are on Instagram. Did you know that? Plus I’m very very excited for Koyama Press’ Fall 2017 lineup. Are you? Also people can’t stop talking about Sammy Harkham’s Crickets. ————————————————————————————————— I made the lists below for a friend I was talking to about my comic strip (Joanie and Jordie—just scroll down), and how they enjoy seeing it everyday on Instagram (always nice to hear). It’s a very convenient way to view comic strips, they said. Do other people do comic strips on Instagram, they asked—of course they meant other than the legion of memes and bad nerd/fan clickbait crap civilians refer to as “comics” sometimes. I said yeah: It’s interesting to me—to my knowledge, Comics Workbook’s own “Suzy and Cecil” was the first real traditionally minded comic strip to come out of the comics community on Instagram. And one specifically made to fit the format to boot. I think maybe Michael Deforge’s “Leaving Richard’s Valley” came about around the same time (exclusively on Twitter originally) – followed closely by Jim Rugg’s “Running Comic,” where he documents his training for the Pittsburgh Marathon, and Mickey Z’s “Space Academy 123.” I like that cartoonists are constantly adapting to the next best available format to get our stuff out there. Since the slow and quiet fall of tumblr cartoonists are making their Instagrams a prominent place to put out work, and the work is morphing to its new platform. Instead of short serialized comic book pages every few weeks or months on tumblr, Instagram allows good use for square (literally) four-panel daily strips. I think it also helps that real civilians are on Instagram, whereas tumblr or deviant art was preaching to the choir. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Koyama Press has announced their Fall 2017 lineup and it’s gonna be a good Fall. My favorite comics podcast, Comic Books Are Burning in Hell has a new episode where they talk about the new Crickets. I love to listen to these dudes talk comics. Speaking of Crickets, you all read TCJ’s great interview with the author, Sammy Harkham right? Part one here and part two here. TCAF was this past weekend. I’m sure we’ll have some sort of coverage this week. Stay tuned. Tyler Landry did a workshop, did you go to it? The NY Times has a weekly comic called Welcome to the New World, about “the true story of a Syrians family’s journey to America.” Which is great. Non-ficiton contemporary stories like these are what we need to help create empathy and awareness for a.) people who don’t know what this kind of thing is like and b.) the people living it. Cool cool. However, the actual cartooning is achingly dull and elementary. There is no emphasis or even an attempt at visual rhetoric here. It drives me crazy that “high-profile” mainstream comics fucking suck and are not done by cartoonists within the comics tradition; but instead are drawn by the most boring hack illustrators. Oh well, it’s comics journalism after all—I can’t help but notice that The Sculptor obviously had an influence on the look of this work. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Summer Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! 8 weeks! 500 bux! Payment plans are available! Summer Course starts June 1st 2017! Applications are due by May 25th. Visit THIS page for more details and email santoroschool@gmail.com with applications and questions! ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 5-15-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-15-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 5-15-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

12/15/2016

Sally IngrahamDecember 15, 2016NewsToday we have Sam Ombiri on film director Robert Bresson, and Tyler Landry on Kyle Baker’s sequencing – plus more Kyle Baker news, Chris Diaz’s photos, Vanesa R. Del Rey’s new book, a comics education sampler, and new Suzy and Cecil. ————————————————————————————————— This is Sam Ombiri. I’m going to be talking more about the reappropriation of methods and style than the movies I talk about here, so I’m more than likely not going to do the films justice as I try to write about them. I watched Funny Games again not too long ago, and parts of it reminded me of Au Hasard Balthazar, which is the number one movie for me – but more importantly, Michael Haneke‘s direction compared to Robert Bresson‘s. I think the main antagonists are just people (or maybe a more appropriate term for them is forces) who purely inflict themselves on their victims. In Funny Games it was just maybe infliction rooted in the overbearing nature of politeness? Maybe? I think Balthazar was rooted in…haha…I don’t know, there’s too many places it goes for me to think about right now. I think the way Haneke used methods akin to Bresson’s weren’t on a (I can’t find a better word than this, I’m probably wrong as I say this) superficial level. Andrei Tarkovsky said “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.” I was watching part two of Solaris – there were a couple of scenes where faces weren’t in the frame, but as people passed a doorway they’d caress it as they were passing by – to the same effect as when Bresson does it. I can safely say it was not an attempt to copy Bresson, it was just a moment passing by. Bresson said something like the way he films is based on how you pass someone on the street. I think the small scene in Solaris happened as result of just a coincidence of aims, and not so much attention, and reliability was placed not on the methods used in that scene, but instead on what was accomplished. Austin English was saying how for awhile he was a big fan of Hal Hartley, but because his new movies are still made in the same way, he feels that they’re lacking. I couldn’t agree more – whenever I see Hal Hartley’s movies (the few I’ve seen), it leaves a bit of bad taste in my mouth, the way he just uses Bresson’s methods. That’s just me though, and that is not to say it’s bad to reappropriate Bresson’s methods – many of my favorite directors have. I’m even typing about one of them right now. Sammy Harkham said something like how influence is like a shortcut to achieving something you previously wanted to do, but lacked the possible way to. I can’t conjure up a reason for why, but Austin’s frustration with the lack of change and advancement will do. At the root of Bresson there’s a lack of reliance on…what one would typically rely on. He says he doesn’t want to know where he’ll shoot, he doesn’t have professional actors. Maybe since Hal’s dad was a construction worker he’s doomed to make ‘em like he does. Frank Santoro was telling me how Jordan Crane and Kevin Huizenga were coincidentally both doing comics that were taking place over one night, but that one night was taking years to unfold. But pretty I’m sure that the comics aren’t great just because they take place over one night. I’m pretty sure if someone wanted to be on par with their work, they’d have to do more than make the story take place over one night. That’s what Hal Hartley is to me. Although I have to admit Amateur is a real fun movie. It reminds me of how in Please Say Something there’s a reference to the famous Funny Games remote scene. They don’t achieve the same thing, and it’s more than likely a different influence that prompted David OReilly to use that reference in that way – the Haneke influence in Please Say Something wouldn’t be that direct. (I can only guess) So then, what I saw between Au Hasard Balthazar and Funny Games was… I don’t know if I can write about it too well – but their similarities aren’t so direct except for the forces that afflict the people. – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Tyler Landry here – let’s take a peek at some of Kyle Baker’s work. Deadpool doesn’t mean anything to me – but this sequence of Baker’s does. What’s striking me here is overall repetition + changed elements over time (panels). Same scene, same pile of bodies, same ornate backdrop – but slightly closer and with less active bodies across the sequence. As Deadpool reduces these guys to chum, the scene becomes more focused on a particular individual – and Deadpool’s attention on him too. He also gets smaller in the scene, and the chaos quiets down, enforcing his/the trajectory. I went on about color last week, buzzing over Space Riders, and although not my primary concern here, I have to give it a mention. Follow those REDs, watch’em boil down to see where the action goes. One more page I wanted to look at, just for its sheer compositional beauty, was this one from a Hawkman story. It’s stark, powerful, and crystal clear. Again, it’s about creating focus – guided by form, by color, by directionality, by connecting elements across the page. Among other things, Baker’s dealing with concentrations of “noise” VS simpler, more solitary forms. The top two panels are almost mirrored – the bird, the plane – balancing noise and larger forms. On the right, a heavier bird shape sorta scoops your view, and dumps you into the middle down below. The central panel is key in using the birds and Hawkman himself as silhouetted parallels, but focusing on him specifically – larger, darker – as the driving force in moving this one forward. He’s advancing to the right, but his body, and the angle of his sword, are turned to the lower left – which lends itself to comfortably directing your eye in the lower left panel. Then, look at the total slickness in which the line of the edge of that windshield slides right across the panel, hops over the co-pilot’s hat, and continues right along the hijacker’s bent arm, DIRECTLY into the pilot’s terrified face. Nice, dude. – Tyler Landry ————————————————————————————————— Sally Ingraham here – funny that Tyler should be thinking about Kyle Baker today, as I was just listening to a podcast with him over on RiYL. Taped at the New York Comic Con amid a great deal of bustle, the interview digs into the intricate hustle that has been life as a cartoonist for Baker. He offers up some good stories about being a business-minded artist, and shares the experiences and decisions that have allowed him to remain independent AND working for two and a half decades. Check it out HERE. (via TCJ.com) Here’s a 15 page preview of Kyle Baker’s Nat Turner (from a piece on Vulture published in 2008). Get a copy of the book and other comics by Kyle HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Chris Anthony Diaz – easily the best photographer working in the comics scene – has kept busy this autumn documenting festivals and special events all across the country, from Columbus, OH, to Seattle, WA, to Los Angeles, CA. He has updated The Diaz Archive, found here on Comics Workbook, with his recent adventures – check them out: Comic Arts Los Angeles 2016 The Fantagraphics 40th Anniversary Party Cartoon Crossroads Columbus 2016 Part II (part 1 can be found HERE). ————————————————————————————————— Check out The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey – now available from Comics Workbook! Vanesa generously agreed to let us published selections from her sketchbooks, as well as excerpts from an interview she did at the Rowhouse last spring. She is an incredible talent, the “vertical invaider” that we’ve been looking for, and this book offers up a new look at her work, process, and passions. Get a copy HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Give the gift of comics education! The Santoro School Handbook is a great place to start – get a copy HERE. We are still accepting applications for the Winter Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – details are HERE. Maybe you know someone who could benefit from one-on-one coaching? You won’t find a more passionate, or engaging teacher than Frank. Email us at santoroschoolATgmail to find out how you can help a friend or family member get in on the Correspondence Course. You can also check out the Rowhouse Residency program – perhaps the ideal gift for YOURSELF – a crash course in comics making for the newcomers, or a week of uninterupted time dedicated to making that comic you’ve always dreamed about. There are more details HERE – or email us to schedule your visit to Pittsburgh, PA, in 2017! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12/15/2016 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

05/21/2018

Caleb OrecchioMay 21, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with some tired thoughts and other news. ———————————————————————————— The above is my the only drawing I could muster last night. I was hoping to bust out two pages of a comic I’m working on (I’m trying to catch up to my self-imposed schedule), but despite my ambitions, I couldn’t even finish copying two warm-up drawings. I kind of burnt myself out after two weeks of non-stop nightly comic book making and was practically bed-ridden all of yesterday. It was difficult to even talk to myself my brain was so fried. “I’m looking for a place that will collect my commission, sell my dog, burn my bird, and sell me to the cigarette” was all I could say all day. Even as I write this, I realize I’ve been sitting at my computer for hours just looking at the screen contemplating coherent sentences. Did you all see the PTA movie, Phantom Thread. I won’t spoil it for you, but any cranky, overworked workaholic would find some catharsis in watching it. I nearly wept at the end. Anyway, look at these Ditko panels above. Every time I look at Ditko’s Spider-Man, I am reminded of just how inventive he is. I remember some Frank Miller interview where he says that Ditko is a great anatomy study. He’s right. Even at my tired and burnt out state of mind, I can appreciate the majesty of Steve Ditko’s web-slinger. No wonder Spidey was such a hit. No one had ever seen anything like Spider-Man in comics before. Have you thought about that? Just how unique Ditko and Kirby’s visions were, and still are, compared to the competition! It’s fascinating. ———————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Hey hey hey, Robin McConnell talks to Eddie Cambell over on Inkstuds. Rob Clough reviews Jessica Campbell’s book, XTC69. Last but not least, Alex Dueben talks to Tim Truman over at TCJ.com. ———————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-21-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

Art Trip: In A Series

Alyssa BergJuly 7, 2016Art Trip / EssaysThe Adam Baumgold Gallery, tucked away in a residential building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is a small gallery that regularly shows the work of comic book artists. Past solo exhibits include Lynda Barry, Charles Burns and Chris Ware. The current exhibit, IN A SERIES (through August 12), includes artwork from these artists and 39 (!) other 20th century and contemporary artists. IN A SERIES showcases original comics pages, drawings, collages, paintings, sculptures and photographs. I was drawn to the two large Chris Ware pages (27.5” x 20” each) from Building Stories (Pantheon Graphic Novels, 2012). They looked great in the space – substantial and easy to read from a distance, as if they were made to be hanging on a gallery wall. It was a pleasure to see Ware’s originals with the blue pencil lines that remain under the perfectly inked pages (pictured below). It was a treat to see original artwork by Julie Doucet, Lynda Barry and Ernie Bushmiller but my surprise-favorite from the exhibit was the series by Renée French, works from her graphic novel H Day (Picture Box, 2010). The graphite drawings by French are tiny (2.75” x 2.25” each) and perfect (pictured below). The challenge of IN A SERIES is the amount of art versus the size of the space. There is a lot of work packed into the two-room gallery, with some pieces placed in window sills and other pieces hung in the narrow hallway connecting the rooms. Despite the challenge, this eclectic group show is worth a visit. It (likely) has something for everybody. Here’s the line-up: Lynda Barry, Jennifer Bartlett, Bette Blank, Joe Brainard, Charles Burns, Ernie Bushmiller, Genevieve Castree, Joe Coleman, Robert Crumb, Julie Doucet, Roy Deforest, Marcel Dzama, Rafael Ferrier, Tony Fitzpatrick, Renee French, Sue Gerard, Chester Gould, Rodney Alan Greenblat, Red Grooms, George Grosz, Alex Katz, Edward Koren, Annette Lemieux, Tala Madani, Maryan, Mary Lynn Massoud, Richard McGuire, Jim Nutt, Jennie Ottinger, Christina Ramber, Auri Ramirez, Emile Selder, Seth, Laurie Simmons, William Steig, Saul Steinberg, Chris Ware, John Wesley, David Wajnarowicz, Time Wehrle, B. Wurtz & Joseph Yoakum. You can see more images from the show on the gallery website, HERE, and visit it in person through August 12th. ————————————————————————————————— Alyssa Berg makes comics in Brooklyn, NY. You can find her work HERE. Share this page: [...]

05/24/2018

Sally IngrahamMay 24, 2018NewsSally here with a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency Report from Jason Robinson! ———————————————————————————————— Jason Robinson is a comics maker, illustrator, and graphic designer living in Asbury Park, NJ. He joined us in Pittsburgh early last summer for a weeklong Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. When Jason arrived, he mentioned that he had brought along a few “housewarming gifts” – these turned out to be several boxes worth of kitchen gadgets, pots and pans, a tea kettle, and other goodies for the Rowhouse that future residents and the more long-term resident cartoonists have made delighted use of. This generous gift was just one among many ways that Jason showed his support for the Rowhouse Residency, and if Frank and the rest of the team was able to give him anything in return we are grateful! It’s a treat to revisit Jason’s time in Pittsburgh through his thoughtful and entertaining residency report – here’s an excerpt: “Day six was filled with daydreams and the jotting down of enough story ideas to last the next five years. In many ways, I feel like I was just getting revved up and here I am at the end, hoping I have the discipline to continue this trajectory or at least ride this wave for a long while. Because only now have the chaotic thoughts begun to settle on the floor of my brain. And I’m able to calmly wander through, picking up bits and pieces, and notice how some seem to connect—to join together like pieces of a puzzle. I joined Frank and Sally for dinner on that last night. And a bit drunk on wine, I tried to convey this feeling by paraphrasing a similar concept I’d read somewhere about a scientist explaining that “it may not look like I’m working when I’m staring off into space, but what I’m really doing is constructing a 3-dimensional puzzle in my head—piecing together bits and bytes of information, and that takes time and focus to carefully construct this puzzle in my mind’s sky so that it may stand on it’s own. So, please don’t interrupt me, or you risk the pieces of the puzzle caving in on each other, imploding into a cloud of ash.” …Fortunately, Frank has a better and much more succinct iteration in his back pocket – “When I’m working, you may not see it, but I’m welding here. I have a helmet on, and my mitt, it grips a fucking torch-of-fire. So stand back, or you’re in danger!” I’ll close with some unsolicited advise to future residents: You don’t have to chain yourself to the drawing table. Of course you may, and obviously there can be great benefits to doing so, I only argue that there are other equally constructive ways to make use of this time you’ve carved out for yourself. Paradoxically, doing “nothing” may be exactly what’s needed to do the next something.“ Read the rest of Jason Robinson’s Rowhouse Residency Report HERE! For more info on the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency please visit this page or email santoroschool@gmail.com ———————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 5-24-18 – by Audra Stang Share this page: [...]

11/17/2016

Posted on November 17, 2016November 17, 2016 by Sam Ombiri

Sam 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Keith Knight on The Nib recently:

He has more Th(ink) strips on his website – check them out HERE.

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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

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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.

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Connor Willumsen, correspondence course, keith knight, roxane gay, sam ombiri, shannon wright, yona hrvey

Sam Ombiri

Posted on November 17, 2016November 17, 2016

Explore

01/26/2017

Sally IngrahamJanuary 25, 2017NewsSam and Sally bring us a whole crew of Pittsburgh cartoonists, thoughts on Problem Solverz, and our Thursday crop of comic strips! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I’ve been reaaaallly sloooooooowly reading Tao Lin’s Taipei and so far so good – it’s been great. Maybe it’s because Juan Fernandez referred me to this (“the peace tape” – a Paper Rad film) but I’ve been thinking about Problem Solverz a lot, and how great it was to see it when I did. It seems to have the exact same effect now as when I first saw it, so it summons an emotion that’s already in people, I think, or I could just be making it up. I was thinking of how I sometimes sense a sentiment in it that is similar to what excited me about watching some webtoons, and of course reading certain comics I have read, which I see as processing somethin’. I see it as proof that Problem Solverz summoned, or showcased, or manifested in the best way something that is a little inexpressible. In dreams when you try to render this thing fully it disappears, but Problem Solverz is very well expressed, and remains exceedingly potent even as time passes. There is a lot of space and then the conflict of what to utilize it for – so then are you surrendering to one purpose with which to define yourself? Maybe? Maybe not. Ben Jones did refer to Problem Solverz as a coming of age story. Anyway, I was in middle school when it was airing – me and my one buddy were excited about it. My friend told me how he got excited at the episode with the Awesome Banditz from Pittsburgh. It was my favorite show as it was airing, so as a fanboy I also remember being frustrated with these people on YouTube who were in their late twenties or early twenties (at least that’s how I perceived them at the time). I was really annoyed. I was like, “Why are these people trying to get rid of this show that was certainly made more so for people my age?” (was it? I don’t have a clue) and then I would get lambasted by 90’s kids who couldn’t stop talking about how much better their childhood was. I’m sure it was great and the shows they loved were great, but c’mon. (I wonder if that’s what Brian Chippendale meant in that Puke Force strip when he was thanking the YouTube commenters on Problem Solverz for being “great dialogue fuel”. No, probably not. How could it be? It just meant what it meant.) – Sam Ombiri Check out Dan Nadel’s thoughts on Problem Solverz – publishing on The Comics Journal the day the first episode aired – HERE. 1-26-2017 – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sally Ingraham here: The Glassblock sat down with Marcel Walker recently for a lengthy conversation about his work and Pittsburgh-based comics projects. While sifting through sketches and concept drawings they talked about his process and discussed “the long gestation of Hero Corp., how our favorite superheroes work for corporate America, and the importance of education and history in the Chutz-Pow! series“. Marcel is a well-known figure in the Pittsburgh comics scene. He’s an educator and activist whose work often directly gives back to the community – like the Chutz-Pow! series, which was made in partnership between the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and The ToonSeum. As Marcel says: “… comics can also teach you broader things. They can teach you about other segments of our society and culture. There’s a story that ran in EC Comics back in the ’50s. The story was called “Judgment Day.” It’s a science fiction story with a wonderful twist at the end. It’s a story with a social moral, , that’s obvious—so obvious that the Comics Code Authority almost didn’t allow that story to be published. Fortunately, the publishers resisted that, they make a stink, and eventually the story was published. That’s an example of just doing your thing; tell that story because you know the moral is right.“ Read the whole interview HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Nathaniel Broadus is another member of the Pittsburgh comics community – and he too is an activist and youth advocate. He has been writing a story called Police State (or, the comic he never wanted to write): “To be honest, when I initially sat down to write, my story wasn’t at all about social justice in any real sense. I wanted to write about hip hop, and I wanted to write about super heroes. I crafted a story in my head about a young rapper with gobs of desire, but not much ability, who is unwillingly corralled into an intergalactic battle of the bands. As I sat down to craft the universe of my fun loving, aloof hero, Ferguson burned.“ After returning home from enlistment Nathaniel was having trouble transitioning back into civilian life. He found inspiration and new purpose within his community in Pittsburgh, and wound up on a new front-line – that of “the war to improve this world for every single person“. Writing Police State is part of that mission. Check out the first 5 pages of Police State HERE – with artwork by JC Grande and John Becaro. You can get copies of Police State #0-#2 HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Yona Harvey (another Pittsburgher) is going to keep writing comics! Last year she wrote a story for the series World Of Wakanda,and now she will be applying her poet’s pen to a new series. She and Ta-Nehisi Coates announced a new Black Panther spin-off titled Black Panther & The Crew – coming soon. The series will revive the world of Christopher Priest’s mini-series The Crew and introduce the Black Panther to Harlem. From the interview/announcement on Time, Ta-Nehisi Coates speaking: “There’s this concept in comic books of street characters—characters who mostly deal with street-level stories—those are your Daredevils, your Luke Cages, things that are considered lower-tier. And then you have your more cosmic level heroes, like The X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Avengers, that sort of thing. What we have in this book is a group of characters that operate on both levels. What does it mean to protect the street and protect the world? How are those things connected? What happens when T’Challa is walking down the street without his uniform and people don’t recognize him, he’s just a black person? Same with Storm.“ Yona Harvey was asked how her poetry has played into writing for comics. Her reply: “For the first project (World of Wakanda) I kept resisting. I thought being a poet was a negative somehow. But then I had to embrace what poets do, examine tiny details and draw out a larger story. And it helps with the language and the voice of the characters. I have this little trick where I imagine the poetic voice of the character, whether it’s very terse or romantic or sensitive.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright and Sarah Mirk had a comic on The Nib recently – Eight Ways to Resisit Donald Trump – check out the whole thing HERE. (Shannon Wright is an alum of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – the comic she made for the course can be seen HERE!) ————————————————————————————————— Since Pittsburgh is so heavily on my mind today, check out Frank’s Blast Furnace Funnies over on the school store. Originally made for the Biennial at the Carnegie Museum in 2011, this is the 16-page tabloid newspaper comic that was stacked in the corner of the gallery space. The original pages hung on the wall. As Bill Boichel puts it in his review for Copacetic Comics: “In a signature Santoro move, Blast Furnace Funnies is a work of “High” (i.e., museum quality) art executed in the lowest of the “Low” art forms (a disposable newspaper); employing ephemerality to evoke eternity, he has here worked (in a form that often ends up) in the gutter to reach for the stars.“ Get a copy HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-26-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-26-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-26-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

12/04/2017

Caleb OrecchioDecember 4, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here with the Monday edition of the Daily News with musings about the uncanny resemblance of James Joyce and Chris Ware..————————————————————————————————— Proof of reincarnation? More than a few people have been comparing Chris Ware to James Joyce since Jimmy Corrigan, which I think is apt. Of course their works share similar qualities, being very detailed oriented among other things. Though they work in different mediums, I can’t help but see a tethered line from Joyce to Ware. They both work to exhaust their mediums—I mean this in a good way. Joyce with the English language in relation to speaking, thinking, seeing, etc.—and Ware with depicting, visually, memory and human actions and interaction, or lack thereof. They both relish relentless detail and intense focus on the subject. A very interesting quality they share is that they are both hailed as possibly the best artists in their medium of the last 100 years, or at least the most groundbreaking— but despite being praised to the high heavens, their is a pride for many about NOT reading their work. “It’s too detailed.” It’s too depressing.” “This is unreadable.” “HAHA no I didn’t read that.” Their is real solidarity in not reading Ware’s masterpiece, Building Stories, that reminds me of the willful ignorance of Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. People just can’t even think about wrapping their heads around something so involved and difficult. I think it’s safe to say that accessibility is king for the average reader of both books and comics. Still, the most amazing thing to me is their uncanny physical resemblance. Is it just me, or could these two be brothers? (see above) It’s a bit spooky when you think about it. Proof of reincarnation? You decide! ————————————————————————————————— 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! ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Comics Workbook fearless leader, Frank Santoro, writes about Dave Gibbons’ new comics “How To” book over at TCJ.com. Someone I know who works with students with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, sent me this Pacific Standard article about how comic books can letter their pages better for dyslexic readers. If you don’t know, now you know that The Beat has the info for the 2018 Angoulême festival prize nominees. Roberta Smith reviews David Hockney’s retrospective exhibition at The Met. Nick Gazin reviews some comics over at Vice.com. Did you know that Robin McConnell has a Canadian mini-comic archive website? I did, but often forget it exists. Thought it may be worth linking to today. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-4-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 12-4-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

06/09/2017

Sally IngrahamJune 8, 2017NewsFriday with the cool kids – Rhoda Kellogg, Eleanor Davis, Trina Robbins, Katie Skelly, Lisa Lim, Gabrielle Bell, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Brian Belott has designed an exhibition inspired by the work of Rhoda Kellogg, “one of the foremost, undersung researchers of the doodles, wiggles, and dreams that kids draw.” Among his varied art projects, over the last 15 years Belott has been studying children’s art and he repeatedly bumped into Rhoda Kellogg’s name. Her work as a child psychologist and scholar led her to collect over a million pieces of children’s art between 1948 and 1981, but it all wound up in a storage unit in Connecticut until Brian Belott took an interest in the collection. The show he put together includes 300 pieces from Kellogg’s collection, his own work and attempts at making child-like art (or “forgeries” as he calls them, of his favorite kid-produced originals), and the classroom component (pictured above), which is staffed by his friends and peers during weekend workshops. As a teacher of kids myself, and someone who is experiencing a growing fascination with how kids process the world through art, I recognize the “natural force” that Belott describes and am eager to see this show if it does travel (as he hopes) and will certainly be picking up some of the books that Rhoda Kellogg wrote on the subject of children’s art. Learn more about her HERE. Find out more about the “Dr. Kid President Jr.” show via this article on Artsy. ————————————————————————————————— Hillary Brown chats with Eleanor Davis about her new comic You & a Bike & a Road (Koyama Press, May 2017) for Paste Magazine, starting off by wondering if she is perhaps “the most renowned comics artist of her generation“. Eleanor talks about the process of making the book: “I started out drawing every day of my trip because I always wish I was the sort of person who draws every day on a trip. (I’m not). And I was nervous about essentially taking a two-month vacation—what if everyone forgot who I was, what if I lost all my clients, etc. So I wanted something to post online. I kept drawing, however, because my knees were slowing me down, and that meant I was spending less time biking and more time resting and bored. Otherwise I might have let the journal peter out, like most of my journals tend to. When I got home, I wanted to collect the comics because I’m not productive enough to draw 100 pages of comics and then just let them blow away in the wind. At first I only wanted to put out a mini comic, but it was too many pages. I felt very upset about the idea of making it into a book because I didn’t think it had the merit to be a book. The comics are sloppy and self-indulgent, and collected together they have real life’s irritating lack of narrative structure. But once I filled it out a little it came together a little bit. And folks seemed to respond to the comics emotionally, so I thought it might work out.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE. Get a copy of the book HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I have yet to see the new Wonder Woman film, and in an effort to not spoil it by reading too much about it, I have found myself reading about other takes on the character – from Trina Robbins’ solidly Amazonian Diana (no fancy flying or special powers, just TRAINING) to George Perez’s vision, which brought the “wonder” back to Wonder Woman. This article at The Fresh Toast details Trina Robbins’ adventures with Diana. Trina was the first woman to draw a Wonder Woman series, digging into The Legend of Wonder Woman in 1986 (with writer Kurt Busiek). Trina’s artwork in this 4-issue series brought back the Golden Age, and the little girl whom Wonder Woman saves looks more than a bit like Trina as a child. George Perez’s relaunch of Wonder Woman in 1987 was admittedly a bit more exciting. There is an excellent article on Vulture about Perez and what he brought to the continuing saga of the character. Now that a badass female director has made a Wonder Woman film that folks are pretty delighted by (despite it being a DC flick!), I can only hope that good things are in store for Diana and her creators down the road. ————————————————————————————————— And Also Katie Skelly joins Mike Dawson and Zach Soto for Episode 35 of Process Party. Dominique Goblet‘s Pretending Is Lying is reviewed on the Los Angeles Review of Books by Tahneer Oksman. Meredith Gran concludes her long-running web comic Octopus Pie. Lisa Lim writes and draws about how she went from being an “apolitical to a little more political Asian” on Mutha Magazine. Jillian Tamaki goes through her process for one of the stories in her new collection Boundless – at The Cut. Check out Madeleine Witt and Andrew White’s Kickstarter for their upcoming collection Warmer: A collection of comics about climate change for the fearful & hopeful. The Ladybroad Ledger, edited by Stephanie Zuppo, is campaigning for funds to print issue #2. Gabrielle Bell was on The Rumpus Book Club chat near the end of May – her new book Everything Is Flammable came out June 6th. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-9-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-9-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

08/12/2016

Sally IngrahamAugust 12, 2016NewsSally here on this August Friday, where the temps are hot, hot, and the comics are too…! Today we’ve got Sarah Glidden with new reportage comics, Brigid Alverson and Rob Kirby bringing the review roundups, an Art Trip with Gabriella Tito, self-help from Yumi Sakugawa, Shapereader from Ilan Manouach, and something new from Inés Estrada. ————————————————————————————————— First off, we have the TOTALLY AMAZING AUCTION of an Eightball era time capsule box, donated by Daniel Clowes to help support the school. Check out the video above for a taste of the contents and the firecracker commentary of Jim Rugg and Frank Santoro. Personal items, artwork…we weren’t sure we even wanted to part with things like Clowes’ Windsor-Newton Series 7 brush #3…!! However, all the items in the box could be yours, so jump into the mayhem – auction runs until Wednesday, August 17th at noon EST. Check it the auction HERE! ————————————————————————————————— The School Library Journal recently published a great roundup of comics that display a bicultural America. Compiled and thoughtfully investigated by the amazing Brigid Alverson (editor of the Good Comics for Kids blog and 2012 Eisner Awards judge) the list includes many self-published and small press works, and features insights from the makers and perspective on what makes the comics medium especially well suited for telling culturally specific stories. ‘Many creators are drawn to how the visual aspect of the graphic novel medium enriches their narratives. “My story has a lot of awkwardness, and not all awkwardness is verbal,” says Brosgol (author of ‘Anya’s Ghost’). “I want the reader to feel for my protagonist, and being able to see her eyes when she’s going through something is so effective. I have big stretches with no text at all; those are the biggest treat to draw because it’s pure acting. I also love comics’ breezy ability to show physical humor—it’s much funnier to see someone falling in a ditch than to read a laborious description.”‘ Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Staying very much on topic, Yumi Sakugawa guest posted over on the Angry Asian Men blog this week (see image above for a description of what you can get into) – check out the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Gabriella Tito visited the Orlando Museum of Art recently and scribbled down some thoughts on the work she saw there and how it related to her own comics process. “…there was a video of Dawn Roe’s Mountain Field Studies being projected onto the wall. I almost felt like I was looking at a comic of fleeting observations of a mountain. In this series, she carefully put together details of a mountain into a series of blocked out images, and even some grids thrown in there! I couldn’t help but think about the observations I make when I’m creating a comic based on the environment around me. When I’m making an observational comic, I’ll usually make broader “statements” at first, meaning I don’t go too much into detail with the environment. These drawings will usually be wide shots of the scene, or even quick silhouettes of the subject matter. Then, I’ll start zooming in more and capturing those details in different ways. I like holding the tempo sometimes and lingering on a subject for a panel or two and then moving on. I apply this concept to other works I make as well and it hasn’t failed me yet!“ Read the rest of Gabriella’s Art Trip HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Hyperallergic caught up with Ilan Manouach, the artist who is making up an “entire new language composed of sculptural, touchable symbols and patterns, which are pieced together to tell a story.” Comics for the blind. With the Shapereader system, Manouach has made a 57-page comic called Arctic Circle. ‘The tundra of Lapland served as inspiration for Arctic Circle. “My whole visual landscape consisted of layers of dense snow imprinted by different animal traces, leftovers of a frenetic night activity,” Manouach says. Readers feel their way through the textural narrative, piecing together the story of two climatologists exploring the North Pole, research an ice column containing records of climate change in past ages. On their journey, they encounter traders, human rights activists, and Inuit dwellers. “They hope to decipher cryptic patterns, pretty much the same way the readers of Arctic Circle engage with the work,” Manouach says.‘ Check out more pictures of the book pages HERE and find out more about the Shapereader project. ————————————————————————————————— Sarah Glidden made a comic about Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein for The Nib this week. See the whole thing HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Rob Kirby’s Review Roundup, August 2016 Edition, wound up on Panel Patter this month, and as usual it’s full of excellent comics odds n’ ends. Of particular interest to me were his notes on work by Sophie FS – “…a mere 15 years old, she has a strikingly fluid, organic style of drawing—the antithesis of the manicured digital art that’s everywhere these days.” He reviewed three of her comics, settling on Iced Tea as his favorite. “…I was most struck by the emotionally direct Iced Tea, a short memoir about an incident of childhood emotional abuse. Sophia relates the time she and her brother were deliberately dropped off on the side of a country road by their mother for unspecified reasons: “She was angry at us and needed some time to cool off, I guess.” The bewildered pair, wondering if she will return, wander off into some sort of woodsy artist commune, where a simple act of kindness—something the children are clearly unused to—triggers a deep emotional reaction. Readers may find this story triggering memories of their own childhood sorrows—I’ve rarely seen such an honest depiction of vulnerability. The piece is made all the more moving by its straightforward presentation. I look forward to seeing what Sophia FS will be doing in the future—she is a talent to watch.” – Rob Kirby See what Sophie is getting up to HERE – and check out the rest of Rob’s August 2016 reviews HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Inés Estrada has a new book out called Sixth Mass Extinction, available via Perfectly Acceptable Press. It’s a “…psychedelic vision of creatures and ecosystems in decline. 20 (!!) new 4-color Risograph drawings. We fucked up and nature knows.” More picture samples HERE. ————————————————————————————————— This is Sally, signing off. Cheers! Share this page: [...]

04/27/2018

Sally IngrahamApril 26, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with comics by Sophia Foster-Dimino, Glynnis Fawkes, and Rachel Masilamani; a Swedish canon of female cartoonists; plus much more! ————————————————————————————————— The Eisner Award nominations have been announced, and Sophia Foster-Dimino‘s comic Small Mistakes Make Big Problems, from the Comics for Choice anthology edited by Hazel Newlevant, Whit Taylor, and O.K. Fox, has gotten a nod in the Best Short Story category. You can read the whole comic HERE. Another noteworthy nomination is Nick Sousanis’ essay on Karen Green, Columbia’s first curator for comics and cartoons, which appeared in Columbia Magazine last year. You can read A Life in Comics: The Graphic Adventures of Karen Green HERE. Check out the numerous other Eisner Award nominations HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Juan Fernandez pointed me toward a powerful dissertation by Swedish visual communication design student Stina Sandström, which digs into feminism in Sweden and how comics play a role in the continuing discourse on gender performance there. Looking specifically at three female cartoonists – Liv Strömquist, Sara Granér (her work pictured above) and Nina Hemmingsso – Stina Sandström focuses on how they work independently and yet imitate and expand on each others work, together creating a unified voice that is having an increasingly profound effect on popular culture and cultural norms in Sweden. “The success of these comic artists is reliant on their notion of Sisterhood. They have responded to the fragmentation of feminism by recognizing the power of coalition: that the search for essential female unity is not of gender identity, but of sexual afﬁnity. They’re connected in the realization that current representations of women’s roles, status, as well as the female body are all affected by gender norms which are growing stronger by repetition. By experimenting with 48 sexual transgressions and trying on a variety of gender costumes they try to break and disrupts repetitive gender performances. They have realized that by imitating and expanding on each others work, they share the burden of communicating the entire feminist story. These women make up a choir that, unlike the second wave of feminism, do not make up one united voice but rather sing in canon. A canon is a musical technique where an initial melody is imitated and expanded on by others at different intervals creating a wall of sound without interruption. As one singer takes a break to inhale there are others to ﬁll the gap and so the canon can continue in an endless loop. Like a canon these comic artists’ voices ﬂood the media landscape with provocative female identities and carnivalesque behavior without interruption. They keep repeating them until they lose their provocative nature and start to feel acceptable.“ Read the rest of The Carnival Grotesque: Representations of femininity in Swedish feminist comics HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Glynnis Fawkes takes Charlotte Brontë to yoga. What a concept! It makes for a good comic – read the whole thing on Spiral Bound. ————————————————————————————————— The Lines Drawn collective has a new installment of their project up on MUTHA Magazine. Part of a comic by Rachel Masilamani is pictured above. The collective states: “We are parents and teachers using comics to illustrate how we feel as adults responsible for the care and safety of children and youth in an age of continued school shootings. We hope our comics add momentum to the groundswell of students demanding solutions to end gun violence, not only in schools, but as related to police shootings of people of color, and the criminalization of African Americans. The collective includes Emilie Bess, Adam Bessie, Amy Camber, Sarah Romano Diehl, Ellen Forney, Robyn Jordan, David Lasky, Meredith Li-Vollmer, Mita Mahato, Rachel Masilamani, Annie Murphy, Amy Ongiri, Marc Parenteau, and Rachel Scheer.“ This installment, posted on the anniversary of the Columbine High School Shooting, includes comics by Ellen Forney, Rachel Scheer, Sarah Romano Diehl, Adam Besie and Marc Parenteau, and Rachel Masilamani. See them all HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Extra! Extra! The New York Times weighs into the conversation on the “new” Nancy, as envisioned by Olivia Jaimes – HERE. At The Comics Beat there is a “hits” version of the Nancy buzz – and the anticipation for the reveal of Aunt Fritzi is getting out of control…! Six cartoonists look at immigration – on The Nib. Graphic Novel TK talks to Annie Koyama about her life as a comics publisher – listen HERE. Sloane Leong talks to Nivedita Sekar about her upcoming comic Your Mother’s Fox – on The Comics Journal. I haven’t been reading Natasha Alterici‘s Heathen, but after skimming this article on the upcoming film production, I feel like I need to start. A “lesbian Viking comic” about a gal named Aydis “who is intent on ending the patriarchal and oppressive reign of the god-king Odin“…? YES PLEASE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-27-2018 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

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