Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Françoise Mouly, gabriella tito, Marvel Comics

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on November 19, 2017November 20, 2017

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Gabriella TitoApril 22, 2016Art Trip / EssaysGabriella Tito reports in from Orlando, FL, with this process meditation. ————————————————————————————————— Hi all! I’m here to talk a bit about how we reflect ourselves in comics. Now, I won’t break down the psychology or anything, or go into how “mainstream comics” are a reflection of our society, but I think it’s safe to say that whether we realize it or not, a part of us is “merged” into our comics. The most obvious would be an auto-bio comic. Even if it’s not about a character that looks like you or is intended to be you, they still could represent a certain ideology or interest you may have. So what about comics without characters? Abstract comics? Excellent point! From my own experience in making abstract comics and comics without relatable humans, I realize I have drawn content from a particular emotion or thought I was feeling at the time. Maybe a song inspired me to put something on paper. You probably have done this too, given the nature of abstract works. Usually, the less I thought about the content, the more fluid the comic was. Abstract comics, and it goes without saying, abstract art in general, is filled with more character than meets the eye. Abstract works can be charged with so many emotions, and the thoughts the creator has, and they can grab the audience so much that they might even relate themselves to that specific work. It’s not a mistake that this leads to why good representation is always important, simply because of the fact that the audience is always trying to find themselves in characters or concepts. Where do they fit into this? If the characters are reflections of the creator or intention, what can it say about them? Now, this doesn’t apply 100% of the time, but it is a real possibility that does happen. These are thoughts a creator should always be aware of, but also be mindful of how far they push it. In any case, this brings us back to how we reflect ourselves in creative mediums. I’m aware that what I’m saying may not line up with your opinions and that’s OK. These are just some reoccurring ideas I’ve thought about when in the process of making a comic. I’m curious if other cartoonists think of the same things. ————————————————————————————————— Gabriella Tito is a cartoonist living in Orlando, FL. She is currently contributing to Comics Workbook through her own comics and article tidbits and is a graduate of Frank Santoro’s Correspondence Course. You can find more of her work HERE. Share this page: [...]

03/01/2018

Comics WorkbookFebruary 28, 2018NewsSam Ombiri here with Florent Ruppert and Jérôme Mulot’s Barrel of Monkeys! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I’ve been reading Barrel of Monkeys by Florent Ruppert and Jérôme Mulot. The rhythm is strong in this book. During those moments when we’re waiting for things to happen, and for the story to progress, the characters – even if they are standing still – are full of motion. There’s a real indication of life, and there’s an abundant amount of life in their words, too. In a lot of ways this book demonstrates that a little goes a long way. In the story with the man with a scarred face, we’re in claustrophobic small panels, and then suddenly a large panel (to emphasize distance). It adds to the ambiguity of what happens next. Before all that, there’s an amazing sequences where two Portraitists imagine how the man got all those scars, and the ending to that story is such an amazing question mark. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever read. This is one of those books where each strip is executed so well that I’m almost afraid to keep going through it, because there’s loads of material following that’s just as effective, if not more so. I’m afraid to take any strip for granted – I can’t stress that enough with this one. I was reading and reading, and then I felt I had to stop. I was bombarded with so many good sequences that it was almost nerve racking – plus the drawings are really excellent. The seemingly horrific moments didn’t nudge me to react in an obnoxiously specific sort of way, where it’s a detriment to the comic. The comic causes more laughter than anything else, with masterful execution. It doesn’t overreach, it doesn’t claim the darkness that it coats itself in as automatic lucidity. It doesn’t drown on it’s own self importance. Instead, it has a ball with it, and what’s found – be it profound or whatever – is left up to the reader. There are comics that I encounter sometimes, where instead of the comic saying “this character is cynical”, the whole comic is a character who is cynical. We end up being forced to hear from the author how amazing they are for being just so cynical and so insightful. I feel like certain cartoonists in the past have really pulled it off well, but it’s a relief to read Barrel of Monkeys, because the characters aren’t untouchable and witty – but at a distance but would obviously be more cowardly when confronted. The characters are often confronted, which is great. The characters are very comical, but also subdued. Their mechanical movements, and mechanical dialogue, reminded me of a funnier and more tragic Yokoyama. The disdain exhibited for each person is so compelling, and so intensely injected in every drawing and panel of this comic, that there’s a real beauty to it all. Lately I’ve been finding that the best practitioners of the medium are those who are deeply affected by the medium, and they can see what it is that affected them. With Barrel of Monkeys, it’s two collaborators, and reading the work they made, I can only imagine that it must have deeply affected them while making it, because it really affected me. In some comics, when I read them I sense this rush to get to a feeling, and instead of relying on the medium to get to this feeling, the reliance is being put more on the rush to the feeling itself. The comic seems to be constantly talking about what it could be, rarely taking a break to appreciate what it is right now, what it’s doing now. It seems like people are trying to establish (or reestablish) a canon of what one is obligated to respond to, in the midst of this movement of relying on the rush to get to a certain feeling, as opposed to the medium. I have mixed feelings about this. I’m not so much here to say what someone’s obligated to like, but at the same time I want to say that the success of Barrel of Monkeys is inescapable. As time goes on, accomplishment is being more and more being associated with recognition. Creativity has many enemies, and hunger for recognition might be the biggest one. So when I give a comic accolades for this reason it feels like I’m making a mockery of the work; because I’m not giving accolades for the sake of giving recognition. Real enthusiasm is independent of recognition. The success of Barrel of Monkeys is so inescapable that I’m not worried about making a mockery of it by giving it accolades. – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Vison Box – 3-1-2018 – by Cameron Arthur Share this page: [...]

11/13/2017

Caleb OrecchioNovember 12, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here with holiday dread, and other news.————————————————————————————————— As the holidays approach, I’m thinking about how I’m going to lie to my family. I don’t talk about my comics in a serious way around them anymore. I just do them for fun, I tell them. That’s great! they say back. Once I told an extended family member that I visited a comics syndicate in New York and showed them my comic strip. WOW—New York, that must’ve been exciting! Very much so. Did they except your strip? No—they said it was “too good”—like, it wasn’t simple enough—it’d be hard to sell to newspaper editors. The family member didn’t know what to say after that. That’s okay though, I tell them. I still make a comic strip every week day for a comics website. Oh cool—do they pay you? No. Again, they are speechless. Then I get defensive like I have to protect my dignity or something because I assume they think I’m an idiot who doodles all day for no money. I just do comics for fun really, I tell them—I’m actually a freelance graphic designer. That’s great—how’s business, they ask? Great. I switch the subject to how good the food is. The guy who does my taxes has a similar reaction to my comics making. He keeps telling me I should focus on my graphic design and try to expand. “Is there any money in comics?” he asks. “There is at the newspaper syndicates—I’m going to keep trying until I get in.” “Who reads newspapers?” ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Another CAB has come and gone. Had to ignore social media on Saturday so I wouldn’t get envious. Looks like Chris Anthony Diaz was busy taking photos which is good news for our eyes. I think this article is “interesting” just because making comics as a means of market research is basically what Marvel and DC do as publishing entities. Netflix joining the fray really doesn’t surprise me. Speaking of DC Comics. Really enjoyed this interview with How To Read Nancy authors, Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden conducted by Dan Nadel over at TCJ.com. Speaking of The Comics Journal, they proudly present an excerpt of Chuck Forsman’s new book, I Am Not Okay With This. Originally serialized for Forsman’s Patreon supporters. Seattle Review of Books has a report of Short Run–a show that I have only heard good things about. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 11-13-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 11-13-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 11-13-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

Art Trip: Comics With O’Keeffe

Sally IngrahamMay 19, 2016Art Trip / EssaysI’m standing in the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, NM, staring at an index card in startled delight. It holds O’Keeffe’s notes for a large painting she made in 1963, and it hangs beside that painting, nicely framed. A famous index card. I glance around at the other folks in the gallery, looking for some shared excitement. People circle, pressing earbuds into their heads so that the audio tour they downloaded to their smart phones can inform them about the stuff on the walls. They don’t seem impressed by the index card. I can’t stop staring at it. “Look!” I want to say, “It’s a panel! From a comic! Look everyone!” I was drawn to Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings of flowers and desert landscapes as a kid. Her love for New Mexico resonated with my own longing for that land, so when I traveled through Santa Fe in 2006, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum was at the top of my list of stops. I liked the flowers and the landscapes and the bleached white bones back then. Ten years later I am in this museum again, and now it is O’Keeffe’s tiny pencil drawings that pull me in. The sketches that prefaced paintings. First-take watercolor nudes that are mostly splashes of color. Small paintings that seem to be missing their black lines. That index card. Most of what I’m drawn to is work O’Keeffe did when she lived in Canyon, Texas, between 1916-1918. This period is considered the prelude to her career, the formative years when she really began to develop her abstractions. She was not quite 30. A little series she did of Palo Duro Canyon almost makes me cry. The simple, quick strokes seem similar to drawings I have made of the New Mexican landscapes around Santa Fe. I’m the same age that O’Keeffe was when she made them, and – this is “The Land of Enchantment” after all – I suddenly feel strongly connected to her spirit. I whip some index cards out of my bag and copy the series. For a minute, it’s like I’m there on the edge of the canyon with her, drawing in the sunshine… And I’m looking at her stuff and seeing comics, yes. That’s where my brain lives constantly, these days. The index card is a panel for a comic. The Palo Duro Canyon drawings aren’t a series – they’re a sequence. Her paintings without lines prove how lively comics can look without being pinned down by traditional inks. Her small “notes” for larger paintings tell me the story I’m truly interested in. “Colors and shapes make a more definite statement than words,” O’Keeffe wrote in 1976. Especially when they take on the shapes and colors of comics. The statement that O’Keeffe’s work is making to me is reflective of what’s in my own head and heart, but that’s the uniquely fluid exchange between a creator and and the person experiencing the creation. I went to the museum because I’m about to leave New Mexico and it seemed necessary to “check in with Georgia”. I expected to see her flowers and cattle skulls and cottonwood trees in front of blue mesas, and feel somewhat wistful about the land I’m leaving behind. Instead I discovered the comics in her work, and made the peculiar realization that my move back to the East Coast right now puts me on a similar path to the one O’Keeffe took when she left Canyon, TX, to move to New York City. The world recognized her as an artist to be reckon with there. Who knows what will happen to me? I left the museum feeling the opposite of wistful. After all, I had spent the afternoon drawing comics with O’Keeffe – just two gals, jotting down the world in quick, sure strokes, on simple – yet powerful – index cards. I’ll never leave home without them! ————————————————————————————————— (Palo Duro Canyon, TX, a few days later, standing in roughly the same spot that Georgia O’Keeffe stood to make her pencil drawings 100 years ago, perhaps to the day. Funny ol’world.) ————————————————————————————————— Art Trip is a series that features reflections on art and comics, and the adventures that transform those who seek it out. Experience more on Comics Workbook soon. ————————————————————————————————— Sally Ingraham makes comics wherever she ends up, and is currently making them (on index cards) as she moves from Santa Fe, NM, to Pittsburgh, PA. You can see her work HERE. Share this page: [...]

09/26/2017

Aaron CockleSeptember 25, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Katie Fricas; Kevin Czap; Louise Bourgeouis; CXC Events ————————————————————————————————— The 193rd meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017 at 7pm at Parsons School of Design, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. Cartoon Fricassee Live! An illustrated talk on a year’s worth of non-fiction comics by Katie Fricas, including a trip to a pigeon art show at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the scene in Cleveland outside of the Republic National Convention, forgotten milestones from past summer Olympics, and more. Katie Fricas is a cartoonist and illustrator in New York City. Her comics have appeared in The Guardian online and on Hyperallergic, Extra Crispy, and The Awl. Her first book of essays will be released in the fall of 2017. ————————————————————————————————— Fütchi Perf On Tour Kevin Czap is promoting the recent publication of their Fütchi Perf book by Uncivilized Books, please consider stopping by if you’re in geographical proximity to one of the events. ————————————————————————————————— Louise Bourgeois: An Unfolding Portrait through January 18, 2018, Museum of Modern Art The artist’s creative process is the organizing principle behind the exhibition. Over the course of her career, Bourgeois constantly revisited the themes of her art, all of which emerged from emotions she struggled with for a lifetime. Also, she said there was no “rivalry” between the mediums in which she worked, noting that “they say the same thing in different ways.” Here, her prints and illustrated books will be seen in the context of related sculptures, drawings, and paintings, and within thematic groupings that explore motifs of architecture, the body, and nature, as well as investigations of abstraction and works made from old garments and household fabrics. In addition, the evolving states and variants of her prints will be emphasized in order to reveal Bourgeois’s creative thinking as it unfolded. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook Workshops at CXC Comics Workbook will be conducting a number of workshops over the course of this upcoming weekend at the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus show. These will be led by Connor Willumsen with assistance from Frank Santoro, and will run on a more-or-less hourly basis on the Saturday and Sunday of the festival, so please check the schedule and try to attend one (or several) if you can. Comics Workbook Workshop Featuring Connor Willumsen Columbus Metropolitan Library, Downtown Branch, Homework Help Room The educational workshops hosted by Pittsburgh’s Comics Workbook focus on visual theory applied in practical fashion to any kind of comics making a cartoonist can imagine and can benefit any way a student of the form might wish to improve. This year’s special host is the remarkable visual talent Connor Willumsen, with guest-star teachers dropping in and out throughout the weekend. Walk-ins welcome. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-26-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

11/20/2017

Posted on November 19, 2017November 20, 2017 by Caleb Orecchio

Caleb Orecchio here with some Marvel comics colored by thee great Françoise Mouly, and other news.

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“Years and years and years ago I colored comics for Marvel, and I didn’t feel comfortable in that world at all as a woman. But things have changed; I’m now running into women in their twenties and early thirties who discovered comics as adults.”

–Françoise Mouly, from this New Yorker interview

Some comics I own that were colored by Françoise Mouly in ’78 and ’79

Hey there True Believer! Have I got a treat for you. Maybe you knew this already, I think I did but obviously forgot, but thee great Françoise Mouly–perhaps you’ve heard of her–had a stint at Marvel Comics where she colored various titles from 1978 to 1979 (as far as I can tell). I was just minding my own business and perusing through the few issues of Tomb of Dracula I own (gotta love that Gene Colan/TomPalmer combo) when lo and behold, I see the credits for the colorist:

*Tomb of Dracula* #67 that my dad evidently claimed when he was eleven

Of course we all know Mouly’s work, famously the co-founder of RAW, art editor at The New Yorker, and recently the Resist! anthology with her daughter Nadja Speigelman—plus much more. A true champion of the medium of comics. What a pleasant surprise to find her in the pages of some of my favorite, dumb back-issues. This is half the reason I love old newsprint comics, you never know what combination of creators you will find, and what the results will be. Françoise Mouly colors?! What a treat.

I like how she considered tone and value. Something that wasn’t necessarily regarded often within the machine of newsprint boy’s-adventure comics. I assume this was merely a “job” to her on a freelance basis; and the years that she worked being ’78 and ’79, I can’t help but muse that the capital for publishing RAW (first published in 1980) was acquired through Marvel paychecks. Though this may not (probably not) be strictly true, I emit an evil laugh when I consider this. Water into wine. Mwahahaha!

After seeing her credited as a colorist in Tomb of Dracula #67, I figured that couldn’t be her only job she did for Marvel. I did some searching and found that I owned several other issues she colored. Most of these were my dad’s and among my favorite comics when he gave me his collection when I was seven. So, for all you Mouly and back-issue fans alike here is a list of her work at Marvel. Comics has such a wacky history–I love it.

Mouly colors from *Marvel Team-Up* #71; with Bill Kunkel (script), Dave Wenzel (pencils), Dan Green (inks), and Rick Parker (letters)

Mouly colors from *Fantastic Four* #200; with Marv Wolfman (script), Keith Pollard (pencils), Joe Sinnot (inks), and John Costanza (letters)

Mouly colors from *The Uncanny X-Men* #115; with Chris Claremont (script), John Byrne (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), and Rick Parker (letters)

Mouly colors from *Star Wars* #10; with Don Glut (script), Howard Chaykin (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), and John Costanza (letters)

Mouly colors from *The Invaders* #29; with Don Glut (script), Alan Kupperberg (pencils), Frank Springer (inks), and John Costanza (letters)

Mouly colors from *Conan The Barbarian* #95; with Roy Thomas (script), John Buscema (pencils), Ernie Chan (inks), and Joe Rosen (letters)

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if you don’t know, now you know

In case you missed it this week, Chris Ware was guest on both Inkstuds AND Charlie Rose in support of his Monograph.
Frank Santoro returns to his Riff Raff column over at TCJ to talk CAB 2017.
Big news concerning the legendary French show—to me and other cartoonists—Tac Au Tac (basically translates to “Tit for Tat”) will be returning in 2018! Pipeline Comics has some details. See Juan Fernandez’s index of the old show he made for this very site.
New Comic Books Are Burning in Hell is up.
Sarah Horrocks is the latest guest on Process Party.

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Suzy and Cecil – 11-20-2017 – by Gabriella Tito

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Françoise Mouly, gabriella tito, Marvel Comics

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on November 19, 2017November 20, 2017

Explore

Chicago, IL Scene Report

Frank SantoroJanuary 8, 2012Riff Raff / Scene ReportsThis week’s Scene Report is brought to you by Edie Fake. Thanks Flakes! —– It’s important to say one thing straight off the bat: Chicago loves comics like no other place I’ve ever been. It’s town is full of oddballs and oddities, a fermented blend of cheap rent, cheap beer, bad weather and good house shows…and somehow the result is a veritable hotbed of activity in all directions. Let’s start this report on my block. Down four flights of stairs from my apartment you’ll find Anya Davidson working furiously on her next graphic onslaught in a studio surrounded by many animals and no windows. She’s made these super lush silkscreened comics for years, usually in itty-bitty editions of five or so, but now she’s also got some killer pages in the Kramer’s E. that just came out, so get on it. When we make it out the door of the building and just head down the block, we’ll be at Robin Hustle’s house. Hustle not only draws perverse zine-comic hybrids about hair, milk and sex economies, she’s also spearheaded the reawakening of a Chicago punk free paper, to be known henceforth as The Land Line. This is the reincarnated version of the monthly paper called The Skeleton News that ran itself fabulously ragged for about two years while I was outta town. The Land Line is going to be quarterly and also free, content-rich and dirty, just like good soil. The first issue debuts right around the new year. There’s a million folks meeting, working and partying to make it happen…on the visual end, Grant Reynolds notably took on the helm of “Comics Editor” and recent transplants Mika Lee and Otto Splotch are throwing down some real brain bender drawings for it. A couple blocks further down the street towards my P.O. Box we run into this household that is a crazy pit of comics talent. Leslie Weibler, Andy Burkholder and Max Morris are all holed up together living with a collective library of approximately a million great comic books, spurring each other onward towards greatness. Dane Martin used to live here and Blaise Larmee too. Max can talk comics in a real way for days without stopping and he just launched a great Chicago comics anthology called “Vacuum Horror” at this year’s BCGF. There goes the neighborhood! Let’s expand a little…One of my favorite places in town is Spudnik Press. Started four years ago by Angee Lennard (who also draws the geriatric comic Mossdale Estates), the press has grown exponentially even during the year I’ve been a member. Part of the thrill of this shop is you might run into the likes of Lilli Carré printing some gorgeous, witty edition, or Sanya Glisic blowing your mind with her cosmic-ly perverse Struwwelpeter prints. Artist book maker Aaron Smith just got the AB Dick offset press up and running and it’s a force to be reckoned with, along with the functional facilities for letterpress, silkscreen, etching, woodblock and litho printing. Add to this the number of active copy scams in town and the fact that Aaron Renier just scored a free Risograph machine and we’ve got a print renaissance on our hands. …Which reminds me of Keith Herzik’s big show that just happened at the historic Hyde Park Art Center which included 4 zillion comics and posters he’s made plus a frozen pizza he accidentally cooked for 6 hours. Keith’s got colors on lockdown that no one has names for yet. That’s the sort of thing we encourage round these parts. …Which reminds me of the “Cartoon Ink” show Christa Donner, Jeremy Tinder and Surabhi Ghosh curated a few months back at the School of the Art Institute which showcased some of SAIC’s young guns like Sua Yoo, Wax Wing, Emily Fundis, Sarah Drake and William Cleveland next to the likes of Chris Ware, Anders Nilsen and Jeffrey Brown. Hey -right- Chicago’s a great place to learn comics in a school, if that’s your bag! When local rabble-rouser Anne Elizabeth Moore isn’t busy teaching zinemaking in Cambodia, starting her own tripped-out grad school or calling the comics industry on its own shit, she also teaches comics at the ‘tute. The comics-inclined SAIC student body has staged an impressive Small Press and Comics Symposium two years running and puts out an anthology Xerox Candy Bar. Comics historian Hillary Chute is down at University of Chicago, as is Paul Hornschemeier, as will be Alison Bechdel in the spring. Curmudgeon-with-a-heart-of-gold, Ivan Brunetti teaches at Columbia College where his passionate students like Onsmith and David Alvarado crank out the gorgeous anthology Linework. Ivan just re-released his iron-clad comics syllabus as a concise and potent little instruction volume that I am working through with Marian Runk at our biweekly gay comics coffee klatch. Jeremy Tinder is a good guy to know – not only is he awesome in a general way, he’s also one of the solid forces behind the weekly rendez-vous of Chicago’s notorious Trubble Club. TC roll call will break your drawing-chops-o-meter: frequent offenders include Aaron Renier, Nate Beaty, Carrie Vinarsky, Corinne Mucha, Grant Reynolds, Lilli Carré, Joe Tallarico, Sam Sharpe, Rachel Niffenegger, Ben Marcus, Bernie McGovern, Jo Dery, Becca Taylor, Travis Lampe and the unstoppable Laura Park– plus a rotating cast of out-of-town visitors. When I started going to this thing I thought that no way was I going to enjoy drawing against someone else’s panel, but it turns out that it’s actually utterly inspiring. Trubble Club is a beast unto itself! Not only is it a running contest to see who can be the most vile and crude, it keeps you loose and lucid and it’s like DIY drawing school, to boot. Trubble will be putting out it’s first full color edition momentarily courtesy of some Post Family support and we get to do an installation and curate a comics reading room at the DePaul Museum next year for a Chicago Imagists show they’re staging. On the note of shows staged, I wanna be sure to mention that people are doing some pretty amazing things with performative comics here. Does this even happen in other towns? Ezra Clayton Daniels used to throw infamous and rowdy Comics Art Battles back in the day, and since he just moved back to town I guess that means we should all look out. Brett Koontz makes brilliant comic books about post-apocalyptic sci-fi lifestyles and then turns them into these (also brilliant) backyard theater productions so you can figure out who he based each character on. Lyra Hill just started the world’s most exciting comic book reading series, Brain Frame, that alternates between feeding you jell-o shots and splashing you with fake blood. Lyra herself always goes above and beyond at these happenings and then hands the stage over to hams like Ian McDuffie and Krystal DiFronzo. It’s made me cry tears of joy and laugh food into my nose and I look forward to it every month like as if it were Halloween or something. It’s definitely a town where comics and art have met, fallen mad in love and now they’re having a baby. Just take a look at Paul Nudd’s crud, or check out Kerry James Marshall’s RYTHM MASTR paintings. And check out Deb Sokolow’s drawings. Did I mention the Imagists? That Yoshida shit runs deep! Even the Museum of Contemporary Art here is down, staging the giant Jim Nutt show last year as well as a special exhibit called “New Chicago Comics”. A few months ago Ruby Thorkelson got the local feminist gallery, WomanMade, to put on a great show of comics work from women and trans identified artists called “Underground” which included an amazing, amazing reading room. Also of underground note, The Chicago Underground Library got a new home and a new name after sustaining major damages last winter. Now it’s called Read/Write and it’s still rad all over. Additionally, Joe Tallarico has not-so-secretly been improving the underground comics stronghold in the Art Institute Library, as well as rooting some old-school Hot Nuts like George Hansen out of the woodwork. Joe’s been busy on the print end too, doing comics making and editing for the long running freak sheet, Lumpen which just up and turned 20. Also aging gracefully is Roctober, the best music/comics magazine in the universe; they’re about to turn twenty just as the clock strikes issue #50 Who else turned twenty this year? Oh, why, Quimby’s Books, the infamous weirdo comics and zines shop, my current place of employment and a truly astounding place to hang. I’ve been coming to Quimby’s since shortly before it moved to its current location in ’94, back when I was a zitty, obnoxious teenager and Dan Clowes was probably down the street drawing Eightball. Twenty years in now, this beast has made itself an international hub of self-publishing and small press comics, not only by keeping our eyes peeled for interesting experimental stuff on paper but also by accepting anything and everything folks send our way. For a good part of it’s run, the shop has been owned by Eric Kirsammer, who guides with a gentle hand and keeps us stocked in twisted art. Traditionally, the floor has been handled by rabid self-publishers like my powerhouse co-workers Liz Mason and Neil Brideau. There’s no telling how many minds have been blown in these walls, I certainly count mine among them. Deep scene resource 4eva. Can’t forget the other stores around here- Quimby’s is not the only game in town, especially if you’re a traditionalist. Our sister store, also under the mindful proprietorship of Kirsammer, is the stocked-to-the-gills Chicago Comics which I will proceed to call whenever I am confused about Marvel. There’s also Brainstorm for a passionate mix of superheroes, videos, and funny jokes. Challengers carries its own eccentric combo of local and mainstream work. I’ve only been into Vigilante once, but I liked it, and then if you go up so north it’s suburbia, Comix Revolution holds court and holds down the fort. What’s a better place to wrap things up than the future? For Chicago, that means getting a solid annual independent comics festival started here. Originally dreamed up by my Quimbyian coworker Neil (who also helped jump start the Chicago Zine Fest a few years ago), the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (or CAKE, for short) finally has its ducks in a row – a plum location at Columbia College’s Ludington Building, a solid date (June 16th and 17th, 2012) and a gorgeous promotional poster by Laura Park. Applications are open until the first of January, the tables are truly affordable and things are really starting to get up and rolling to make it happen. CAKE’s core team of organizers (Neil, my neighbors Max and Andy along with Grace Tran, Jeff Zwirek, Nick Drnaso and myself) are starting the exciting work of mapping how we want the space set up and imagineering what the programming will look like. …So things are brewing in Chicago, in the past, in the now, and in the near next- If I were you I’d come check it out. Share this page: [...]

Comics Workbook @ CXC 2016

Sally IngrahamOctober 21, 2016Festivals and Showsnote: This is a special “round up” report from the Comics Workbook crew of the many facets of the show that inspired and intrigued. We are collecting our thoughts, images, and videos and have already started sharing them on the site and across our social media. This space will serve as the “complete” adventures of the crew at CXC and will be updated frequently. Be sure to check back in! (All photos are by Juan Fernandez and Sally Ingraham unless otherwise noted) Thanks to the incredible generosity and support of Frank Santoro, a team of eight cartoonists (who have all been involved with Comics Workbook for a few years) went to the show to really dig into what it had to offer. Sacha Mardou, Kurt Ankeny, Alyssa Berg, Whit Taylor, Juan Fernandez, Sally Ingraham, Caleb Orecchio, and Emil Friis Ernst were proud and excited to represent Comics Workbook. Our pals John Kelly (Executive Director of Pittsburgh’s ToonSeum), Chris Anthony Diaz (comic-scene photographer extraordinaire), and Phil Dokes (a long-time supporter of CW and the Pittsburgh Comic Salons) also joined our crew throughout the weekend. Comics Workbook wasn’t at CXC simply to table at the Marketplace – we also hosted the Comics Workbook Sessions, a series of four workshops over the course of Saturday and Sunday that offered festival attendees the opportunity to investigate new techniques for comics making and learn about the working habits of Alyssa Berg and Kurt Ankeny, our special CW workshop leaders. Sacha Mardou lent her thoughts and talents to the “Talk and Teach” panels that CXC offered during the Thursday/Friday programming, and she also had a Spotlight panel on Saturday. Whit Taylor was there as our special guest reporter. For Sacha Mardou’s personal CXC adventures go HERE! Whit Taylor presents her official “report card” for CXC HERE! Chris Diaz shares part 1 of his CXC Portraits series HERE! Check out Juan Fernandez’s CXC-inspired thoughts on expanding the comics festival toolkit. Leave some comments and join the discussion – HERE! Kurt Ankeny has his post-CXC thoughts HERE! Alyssa Berg shares thoughts on her first con HERE! Caleb Orecchio has a detailed and hilarious tale of his CXC experience HERE! We asked ourselves 3 questions to help process this rich experience – some of our answers HERE! Here’s a quick video that Sally cut together while traveling home from the show: ————————————————————————————————— By the time the CW team arrived on Thursday for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, there was already an incredible energy pouring out of the comics cathedral that is the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. For most of the team it was their first time at the Billy Ireland, and we entered the space with a special mixture of reverence and awe. On a normal day, the Library is an amazing space – original pages from Winsor McCay and Bill Watterson hang in the exhibit hall, and a tour of the archives reveals only a tantalizing taste of the world’s largest collection of materials related to cartooning and comics. During CXC, the place spirals to a whole new dimension, and you are likely to bump into Sergio Aragonés, Seth, Carol Tyler, Garry Trudeau, Ann Telnaes, Charles Burns, Ronald Wimberly, or thee great Lucy Caswell herself (founder of the Library) sharing a look at an original Peanuts strip or getting a coffee. Two full days of programming took place in this truly extraordinary space, and the Comics Workbook team spread out and absorbed as much as possible. We’re at CXC in Columbus, OH – and already caught Ann Telnaes talking about editorial cartooning at the Billy Ireland Library & Museum – much more to come! @cartoonlibrary @anntelnaes #cxc2016 #comicsworkbook A photo posted by Comics Workbook (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 13, 2016 at 1:12pm PDT Ann Telnaes spoke with festival director Tom Spurgeon about editorial cartooning on Thursday afternoon. This was one of many “Talk and Teach” presentations which filled the first two days of CXC. They provided cartoonists and industry leaders with an opportunity to share something that they felt they “did well” – skills and life practices that other makers might find interesting and helpful. Dustin Harbin, T. Edward Bak, Sacha Mardou, and Kriota Willberg also led a “Talk and Teach” panel. In addition there was a Scholarly Symposium during the first two days of CXC – a whole second track of programming that brought together academics and unique thinkers to dig into the concept of a “comics canon”. On Thursday evening John Canemaker presented some of Winsor McCay’s work at the Wexner Center for the Arts, riveting and amusing the audience with details of McCay’s working practice and adventures in animation. Totally blown away by the Winsor McCay presentation hosted by John Canemaker at CXC – this is part of McCay’s first animated film, drawing on characters from Little Nemo #cxc2016 #winsormccay #animation A video posted by Sally Ingraham (@sally_ingraham) on Oct 13, 2016 at 6:40pm PDT John Canemaker stepping into Winsor McCay’s roll in the type of vaudeville act McCay used to do with his animated character Gerdie – at CXC tonight #cxc2016 #winsormccay #johncanemaker #gertie A video posted by Comics Workbook (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 13, 2016 at 8:10pm PDT Sacha Mardou was a Comics Workbook Special Guest at CXC this year, so she got to present her own “Talk and Teach” on Friday morning. She shared thoughts on long-form fiction planning and many tantalizing details from a work in progress – to a packed room at 10am! Some of the team went over to Hale Hall to check out SÕL-CON, the Brown and Black Comics Expo which ran alongside CXC this year. The CW crew all made it onto an archive tour at the Billy Ireland at some point on Friday, although only some of us got to share that wild ride with Seth! There are many, many drawers and shelves of treasures – we got to see a few amazing things, but I think everyone on the team immediately started making plans for a return trip. Here’s a look at an original Milton Caniff page…! In the archives at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum @cartoonlibrary #cxc2016 A video posted by Comics Workbook (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 14, 2016 at 9:53am PDT Friday afternoon there was a State of the Industry panel that featured “all star representatives” for a discussion and Q&A, hosted by Tom Spurgeon. The panelists were Rich Tommaso (cartoonist), Keith Knight (cartoonist) Chip Mosher (ComiXology), Shena Wolf (GoComics.com), and Brendan Burford (King Features Syndicates). Our crew was there to dig in to this “off the record” look at the industry. Friday night there was a reception at the Billy Ireland, and the promised “surprise” turned out to be an award ceremony. The 2016 CXC Master Cartoonist award for a lifetime of work in comics was an unbreakable tie between Sergio Aragonés and Carol Tyler! The entire crowd was laughing and in tears by the time the ceremony was over – a hearty congratulations to them both. Garry Trudeau‘s fantastic discussion of his work with Glen Gary Gold on Friday night was capped with another award – he was presented with CXC’s 2016 Masterwork Award for Doonesbury. Late night on Friday found the CW team socializing at one of the official after-parties – this one hosted by Katie Skelly. These parties – one a night, Friday-Sunday – were an amazing opportunity to make new friends and catch up with old ones. Even for relative new kids on the scene, like many of the CW crew, the Late Night parties were an incredibly welcoming space where we could chat freely with industry leaders (Caleb and Sally and Juan spent an hour with Brendan Burford of King Features on Friday) or play a game of pinball next to the likes of Charles Burns. John Kelly had joined our ranks by then, and he grabbed this great picture: Saturday (CXC Day 3!) the show switched gears and held it’s Marketplace and 3rd day of programming at the beautiful downtown branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. The Comics Workbook team was there when the doors opened, so we missed the kerfuffle that surrounded the expo being map- and table-assignment-free (a minor bump in what seemed like a miraculously smoothly run show.) The entire team was soon set up and ready to run full tilt into a fantastic day. It was terrific that the Comics Workbook team was so large since we had to be in a number of places at once. Folks took turns tabling, running the Comics Workbook Sessions, buzzing about documenting the event, and leading panels. Sacha Mardou had a spotlight panel right off the bat, hosted by Jared Gardner. She talked about her process and did a reading from Sky in Stereo. John Kelly had a fun panel with Carol Tyler Saturday afternoon. This is a video of Carol talking about her early work over dinner with John on Saturday night: There was so much programming on Saturday that there was no way to get to everything a person might want to! Raina Telgemeier‘s event brought in a crowd of kids, many of whom were eager to explore the Marketplace floor later. We heard from dozens of people that the panel on political cartooning with Lalo Alcaraz, Nate Beeler, Keith Knight, and Ann Telnaes was really good. Keith Knight also presented his “They Shoot Black People, Don’t They?” presentation, which has recently garnered him nationwide attention. There were spotlight panels on Ed Koren, Stan Sakai, and Julia Gfrörer among others, drawing demos by Katie Skelly, Brandon Graham, and Ronald Wimberly, a discussion with Nate Powell about finishing the popular March series, and a Fanta at 40 panel. Back to tabling – Saturday had a good amount of foot traffic all day and since Sacha had a bit of extra space on her table after she sold out all her books in an incredible rush, we set up a drawing station and had kids stopping by all day to work on giant comics – many of them had probably been inspired by their encounter with Raina in real life. A bit of video from the day: LIVE at CXC!!! #comicsworkbook A video posted by Comics Workbook (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 15, 2016 at 10:14am PDT Charles Burns stopped by the table to find the comics that Frank had reserved for him! Chris Anthony Diaz took a break from snapping pictures to catch up with Sacha and get a unique drawing. He was also seen fraternizing with other cartoonists throughout the weekend, so we can probably soon expect some new editions to The Diaz Archive here on the site! Comics Workbook hosted 4 workshops during CXC, and Alyssa Berg was up first on Saturday. She talked about her use of the 4- and 9-panel grids and her adventures with painted comics, and then led an exercise that got the whole room drawing and collaging comics. The attendees of the workshop included students from Columbus College of Art and Design, where a new program in comics making is about to start! They were particularly intrigued by the techniques Alyssa shared, and several of them came back for the remaining 3 sessions. Here’s work by Phil Dokes, made during Alyssa’s workshop: Juan Fernandez and Sally Ingraham led a workshop immediately following, and shared a popular Pittsburgh Comic Salon exercise that riffs on the cinematic quality of comics making. While this workshop was taking place, late in the day on Saturday, a mysterious burst of clapping rose from the expo floor – turns out another surprise award had been presented – the CXC Emerging Talent Award went to a flabbergasted but very deserving Kevin Czap. “Comics Mom Surprised with Novelty Check” Thank you so much to Vijaya, Jeff, Caitlin, Tom and everyone else who made this happen. Unreal! A photo posted by Czap Books (@czapbooks) on Oct 19, 2016 at 5:35am PDT Here’s a video off of the CXC Facebook page of Tom Spurgeon’s speech and the presentation: We mentioned that the CW team was early to set up on Saturday – but we weren’t by any means first. As if you need more proof of why Kevin Czap a.k.a. “Comics Mom” received this honor: The Marketplace day ended at 6, and Saturday night our crew again split into a few groups – some caught up with Charles Burns at CCAD for his magnificent talk on his early work and influences. The rest of us (who unsurprisingly hadn’t really eaten anything all day) went on the hunt for dinner. Most of the team was too beat to hit the Saturday Late Night party hosted by Stan Sakai – although Sacha Mardou made it there, and then to a Haunted House in rural Ohio for a very atypical wild night! Sunday dawned – CXC Day 4. The team trickled back to the Library despite a few Columbus Marathon-related hangups. The Marketplace floor was a little quieter, but that provided many of us with the opportunity to go visit other cartoonist pals, and get into conversations with those that came to visit us – like Ben Katchor, at one point, and Caitlin McGurk, on the hunt for comics to add to the Billy Ireland collection…! Kurt Ankeny led the CW team Sunday with a workshop right off the bat. We had a number of returning attendees who had really committed to the full Comics Workbook crash course. Kurt talked about modifying your grid, materials, and tools to fit the story, then led an exercise that was straight out of Ohio’s history of correspondence course schools – spin the wheel, pick a character, spin again, pick a setting, spin again, pick an action – there’s your comic! John Kelly hosted a spotlight panel with Sergio Aragones Sunday afternoon – here is one of several videos from the talk that he has shared: Find the other videos HERE and HERE. Folks came by the table raving about the conversation between Ben Katchor and Seth, or if they had picked the other Sunday programming track, the conversation between Jeff Smith and Raina Telgemeier. Brandon Graham had a spotlight panel, and Jeff Smith talked about Bone at 25. There certainly never felt like a “winding down” of the show for the CW team – we were busy the whole time and Sunday passed in a blur. Juan and Sally ran another workshop during the last hour of the expo, and incredibly people showed up to make comics, at the expense of grabbing their last minute purchases from the Marketplace floor! We made 4-panel strips based on haiku poems. The workshop folks were so engrossed in making comics that once again, the mysterious clapping rose up to startle us – and this time it was announcing the end of the festival… There was celebration and a few tears, hurried group photos before friends parted ways, then the mad rush to pack up (one working elevator to the parking garage, a couple hundred cartoonists and their livelihoods in boxes and on carts…) The CW crew made short work of it, and then long drawn out work of the goodbyes and good wishes. A few folks finally hopped into cars to make the trip home, but others delayed their parting for hours by going to hunt for dinner and walking the entire length of High Street on a warm night under the full moon. Yes, it was exactly that picturesque. The crew that remained in Columbus by 9:30pm Sunday night certainly qualified as “Dead Dogs”, so we made our way to the official very last event of CXC 2016 – the Late Night Dead Dogs Party hosted by Julia Gfrörer and Sean T. Collins. There we ran into Kevin Czap and got into conversation with Caitlin McGurk, took a moment to personally thank Tom Spurgeon, and chatted with Jeff Smith until the hour was really excessively late and it seemed prudent to walk back to hotel rooms and call it A SHOW WELL LIVED! Heartfelt, ecstatic thanks to Jeff Smith, Vijaya Iyer, Tom Spurgeon, Lucy Caswell, and Kathleen Glosan for putting on an amazing show that we were excited and humbled to be part of. Also, many thanks to Caitlin McGurk (Billy Ireland), Lauren McCubbin (CCAD), Jared Gardner, Neil Cameron, Frederick L. Aldama (Sol-Con), and the amazing crew of volunteers. We still have (even more!) official reports and personal thoughts to share, but the CW crew as a whole has never felt more lucky to be part of this community. We look forward to giving back a little of what we were given, and will ride the wave of inspiration and validation that this show gave us until next year. See you once again in Columbus! ========================================== Share this page: [...]

09/28/2017

Sally IngrahamSeptember 27, 2017NewsSam Ombiri takes a look at the anthology Warmer, and Sally brings a CXC events update and other comics and news. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: When I was at SPX I bought a copy of Warmer from Madeleine Witt and Andrew White. A Lot of the time whenever I pick up an anthology, the anthology seems to be having an identity crisis. It is really trying to convince me that it’s something it’s not, as if the anthology is insecure about the area it occupies. If not insecure, then it’s probably going to be insular. This insecurity I project onto the anthologies I pick up comes from the extreme fear of mediocrity that most anthologies suffer from. Whenever someone is really desperate to surpass this mediocrity, they don’t have to go too far to do so. This desperation and insecurity really turns me off as the reader, and I’d rather just read the comics without considering them in an anthology altogether. My first and lasting impression of Warmer was that it didn’t suffer from any of that! “Complacency” is the last word I’d use to describe the anthology – especially with the subject matter being tackled (climate change). It doesn’t feel like it’s “tackling an issue” as much as remaining in this space where we’re humans who are experiencing this deterioration in ourselves. Meanwhile, so is the planet, and this can be seen in things we do that are altogether unrelated to what we might do to perpetuate the pollution of the environment. There’s no complacency in the book, just people trying to fight against that urge to be complacent both in their art and in their lives. Whenever something is contrived, which is rare in the book, it doesn’t work against the anthology because the following strip will have a good response to it. This shows the strength in numbers that can come out of an anthology, beyond having an easy way to access a variety of work – the strip before and after can strengthen the work. Some of these comics I wouldn’t read or engage with properly, if I wasn’t reading them in Warmer. For example, the first two strips are immensely enticing. They’re followed by this strip that seems out of place. The author of this strip (William Cardini) isn’t in any rush to make a connection between the style being utilized and the words being utilized. I just found myself, as a reader, really wanting that connection. The strip also confused me tonally because of this whole vibe I had been set up for from the first and second strip (which are by Caitlin Skaalrud and Tor Brant respectively). The second strip had a more familiar looking 4 panel structure that suggested a punchline would be waiting for me at the fourth panel, but instead it beautifully invoke a longing for things to set right. Much like the first strip. Then on the third strip I get this goofy looking face, seemingly drawn by someone who I mistakenly imagine to be a gag cartoonist. I mistakenly read the tongue sticking out of the character drawn as a character mocking me for having this other expectation. Then I read more and discovered that while doing poetry comics, one can feel the inclination to jump into expression sooner than warranted, but it’s not the case at all with this book. The third strip was actually fantastic and it speaks to both the contributors of this anthology and the curation of Madeleine and Andrew. In this whole book, the images and words further each other really well, and it’s wonderfully curated to accommodate the reader in the best way from beginning to the end. – Sam Ombiri Keep an eye out for this anthology in the next few weeks – Andrew and Madeleine are fulfilling the Kickstarter and sold out of the copies they brought to SPX a few weeks ago! However, Andrew says Warmer will be for sale online asap – so stay tuned. ————————————————————————————————— Sally here! Comics Workbook and Connor Willumsen are coming to Cartoon Crossroads Columbus this weekend (Sept. 28-Oct. 1st)! Workshops with Connor will be almost every hour on Saturday and Sunday. “The educational workshops hosted by Pittsburgh’s Comics Workbook focus on visual theory applied in practical fashion to any kind of comics making a cartoonist can imagine and can benefit any way a student of the form might wish to improve. This year’s special host is the remarkable visual talent Connor Willumsen, with guest-star teachers dropping in and out throughout the weekend. Walk-ins welcome.” Full schedule can be found HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Just had to share the above drawing, made by Connor Willumsen during his weeklong stay in Pittsburgh between SPX and touring for Koyama Press, and his upcoming stint at CXC. For the baseball fans out there. Check out Connor’s new book from Koyama Press – the incredible Anti-Gone, which you can get a copy of HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Jacob Khepler, “the publisher of Mothers News“, has started a new blog. So far he’s written about the zine shown above by Edie Fake, Family Circus, and books by Pushkin and Rimboud – something for everyone! Check out 100% Publishing HERE and be sure to bookmark it so you can keep up with one of the finest writers around. ————————————————————————————————— The fall semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts October 1st 2017. 8 weeks of comics instruction that will bang your practice into shape – 500 bux. Full details about the course and how to apply can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Frank Santoro made a comic book about his parents and now he needs help making a handbound copy of the book for each of them. It’s a good story. Check out the Indiegogo campaign HERE – or if you want to contribute via PayPal, look at the campaign HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-28-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

Connor Willumsen’s LICAF 2016 Workshops

Comics WorkbookOctober 30, 2016ClassesConnor Willumsen teaching a Comics Workbook-hosted workshop at The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, 2016 Share this page: [...]

09/03/18

Caleb OrecchioSeptember 3, 2018NewsGone fishing ———————————————————————————— We will be back tomorrow at our normal programming schedule. Have a good one! ———————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

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