Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Angoulême, caleb orecchio, Chris Ware, David Hockney, dyslexia, gabriella tito, james joyce, nick gazin, Robin McConnell, Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on December 4, 2017December 4, 2017

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03/08/2016

Juan FernándezMarch 8, 2016NewsThey did it. 2dcloud reached their Kickstarter goal. It was a stretch but they had that long game. Art wins again. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the work that they are publishing i their upcoming season, I encourage you to check out their crowdfund campaign. There might be something right up your alley. Now in their twenty-eighth year, the Lambda Literary Awards have announced their nominations. The Lambda Literary Awards celebrate achievement in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) writing for books published in 2015. The awards ceremony on June 6, 2016, will be held at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (566 LaGuardia Pl, New York, NY 10012). It’s exciting to see the work that was chosen from the world of comics. Check out all the nominations here. LGBT Graphic Novels Curveball, Jeremy Sorese, Nobrow Honor Girl, Maggie Thrash, Candlewick Press The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ & Amal, EK Weaver, Iron Circus Comics O Human Star: Volume One, Blue Delliquanti, Self-published Wuvable Oaf, Ed Luce, Fantagraphics Books NEW at SPIT AND A HALF!!! Lisa Carver, Ian Sundahl, and some great French imports from Editions Tanibis (in English and/or wordless!): Sylvie Fontaine and Paul Kirchner! All the good stuff over at www.spitandhalf.com. John P. is doing God’s work. Andrew White made a free PDF collection of his favorite among the one page comics he posted on Comics Workbook from 2012 to 2014. You can still read all 350 or so strips online, but Andrew thought it might be nice to have a pared down and easier to read version of the material available. Even if many of the strips are rough or haphazard, this was an important body of work through which I began to address some of the topics that are important in my comics today. I hope you like it. Nick Gazin chit chats with Peter Bagge over at VICE. While you’re at it, read up on the 5 Musical Urban Legends comics Bagge has done already for VICE. The series continues with the form that Bagge developed for Magnet Magzine. The Who, Mick Jagger, Chuck Berry, Michael Jackson and Prince. Who’s next?! Read the whole thing over on VICE. You never really learned how to draw, but your comics look great. Most people who try to make comics without learning to draw make garbage. How did you figure out the drawing style you have? Well, I can draw people and things that look like what I’m drawing while looking at it/them. But that bores me, and I assume it would bore the viewer of the results as well. So I prefer to draw from my mind’s eye, and I take my chances from there. I’m almost never happy with the results, though, so I have a hard time arguing with anyone who thinks my art looks awful. Initially, I was trying to duplicate the way old cartoons look, specifically ones directed by Bob Clampett. Later on, I was also mimicking early comics drawn by Harvey Kurtzman, in his old Hey Look! one-pagers and such. It’s a very polarizing drawing style, though. Goodreads has all these rave reviews ofWoman Rebel by all these woman’s studies majors who love the content of the book but give it three or four instead of five stars, simply because they can’t stand my art! Cartoonist and movie critic, Julian Lytle, sat down with Rocky Hadadi to talk 2015 Film on the most recent installment of Ignorant Bliss. This was recorded before the Oscars so there is a lot of talk about the nominees and a little TV talk. Good talk, good music, good banter. Listen in for a while. Chris Mautner took some time to write about Michael Deforge‘s latest work, Big Kids and the themes and story mechanisms in Deforge’s work more generally. Read on. Despite its small size, Big Kids manages to hold just about all of the ideas and themes DeForge has been exploring up to this point. The secret societies, the adolescent angst, the strange body transformations, the antisocial hero desperate to find acceptance — they all coalesce in this slim book. If you were looking for a starting point in DeForge’s bibliography, this might be the place. Would you like to be Nat. Brut’s first Artist-in-Nonresidence? It’s like an artist residency – but not. You will get a month’s worth of gift cards to cafés around New York City and activate the whole city as your workplace! The residency will last April 1-30, 2016, at the end of which all or part of your work will be published in Nat. Brut. Who can apply? Artists or writers of any medium, with a work sample. We are limiting our first round to applicants who identify as people of color. HOW TO APPLY Apply now until 11:59 on March 31 using our online application here:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XSbc4qqQQOOPGYm0TjplyLGWOpqJlMlXY7o8EFcdFp4/viewform?c=0&w=1 that’s it for today. juan fernandez, over and out. Share this page: [...]

09/05/2017

Aaron CockleSeptember 4, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Comics Carousel; Anders Nilsen’s new book; Josh Bayer returns to the New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium; Workshops at SPX ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— ‘But those books were both black and white. Color kind of forces your hand regarding borders.’ Paste Magazine has a nice piece about Anders Nilsen’s new book, Tongues, and the process that went into its making. “Panel design and structure matter a lot to me. I did a bit of teaching from 2012 to 2015 or so and one of the things I found myself focusing on with certain students was how panels work and what happens to storytelling when they change in various ways. Some cartoonists do great things with a simple grid. My two biggest comics influences, Hergé and Chester Brown, use very simple panel structures in their comics, and they were brilliant with it. But I can’t keep from playing around with panels. Partly it’s because I find measuring out rectangles very boring, but it’s also, I think, partly because I studied painting, and so I can’t help but think about the visual composition of a page as more than just a collection of rectangles. It was something I wanted to explore in this book from the outset and so this small sketch is my original idea for how to structure the panels in this opening dream sequence.” ————————————————————————————————— Josh Bayer, Adam McGovern and guests, Sept. 5, 2017 at 7pm The 190th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 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. Josh Bayer, Adam McGovern and guests on All Time Comics All Time Comics is a comic-book series that resists categorization. Part modern reworking of Bronze age comics superhero aesthetics, part a Mad Magazine-like Gonzo attempt to sidestep and weave that aesthetic back on itself. Published by Fantagraphcs, All Time Comics has created a space for a dialogue between older veteran creators like Herb Trimpe and Al Milgrom and younger Alternative Comics mainstays like Ben Marra and Noah Van Sciver. Join Josh Bayer in a lively discussion with comics writer/historian Adam McGovern. (Panel may include special guest artist/writers, schedules permitting). Josh Bayer is the author of Raw Power and Theth from Retrofit Comics, the editor of the Suspect Device Comics anthology series, as well as 2016’s The Black Hood. His work’s been selected for The Best American Comics series in 2016 and 2017. He is the founder of his own “Comics Are The Enemy Press” and he is currently releasing his All Time Comics imprint from Fantagraphics. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook Cartoon Workshops If you’re planning to be at the upcoming Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD, please consider attending one or all of the workshops the CW will be conducting: ————————————————————————————————— 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. ———————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 9-5-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-5-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ———————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 9-5-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

09/11/2017

Caleb OrecchioSeptember 10, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thought’s on GG’s new book, I’m Not Here, from Koyama Press and other news. ———————————————————————————————— GG’s work has a lot of pain. I’ve always been very frustrated in the past by GG’s work because I felt like, though her comics are excellent, I was not being “let in” so to speak. It always seemed that the emotional resonance of her work was being muffled to the point of complete ambiguity–which isn’t bad–I just felt like something was being consciously held back. I don’t want to pretend that I know GG’s intentions, (and obviously, this is my own opinion) but I definitely feel that lately her work has taken on a more emotionally straight-forward approach, for the better–particularly with I’m Not Here, published by Koyama Press. The joy of reading a GG comic is the sensational drawing. I really like the below page of suburban houses and lawns. There is an undeniable beauty there that I hesitate to elaborate on just because I don’t feel like I have to explain why something like this is beautiful. GG’s drawing is a really excellent vessel for emotion. Her “cartoony realism” style (that arguably skirts the border of realism if not for lack of detail–or rather, the use of minimal detail) feels completely comfortable to my eyes and I believe in everything I see. So, when a child cries because a precious toy must be thrown away or a mother is bent over in physical and emotional anguish, it hits like an F# note on a piano–it’s jarring and instantaneous. GG’s drawing eschews the use of impressionistic facial expressions that a less technical cartoonist must utilize to impress emotion upon a reader, and is able to directly depict emotion through face and body language. This to me is a mark of an excellent cartoonist–which, I don’t have to tell you, GG is. This has always been true of GG’s work. I hope I’m not being presumptuous, but what separates this work from her past work, for me, is that this book feels particularly personal. Not that GG’s work has never been personal–in fact I’d argue all of GG’s work is intensely personal. However–I have never felt that F# note with her other work. The immediacy of I’m Not Here is undeniably pertinent–almost like we are going to the source of it all or something. The pain depicted in this book feels real as oppose to metaphorical or situational to me. Make sense? Personally, this is (if I haven’t made myself clear) GG’s best work. I had a sigh of relief after reading I’m Not Here. There is a real catharsis to this book. If you believe in everything you see therein, like I did, and allow yourself to partake in the emotional arc of the story, you will find yourself–like you just ate a very nice, delicious meal without feeling overly full or drunk–satisfied. -CO ———————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Plan your SPX weekend!–it’s this week! Comics Workbook will be there in full force haven’t you heard! CXC is just around the corner too Dan Nadel on and talking to Richard Kyle on TCJ. Looks like Study Group Comics is serializing another Farel Dalrymple comic which is good news for all. Latest Comic Books Are Burning in Hell is excellent, duh. Speaking of Study Group, last weeks Process Party guest was Jeff Smith–pretty good interview. They usually post a new episode after this news post goes live so see what the latest one will be this week while you’re at it. I like when Tom Surgeon posts links to sites like this that posts Golden Age and other not particularly easy to find comics. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil– 9-11-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 9-11-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

02/03/2017

Sally IngrahamFebruary 2, 2017NewsSally here with plenty of good company to help kick off your weekend – Annie Koyama, Vanessa Davis, Kate Beaton, Marie Duval, Sofie Louise Dam, Shreyas Krishnan, Gabriella Tito, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Happy 10th Year Anniversary to Annie Koyama and Koyama Press! Despite Kickass Annie’s grumpy appearance (above), she promises many sweet things to come in the next months. We can hardly repay you for being there for the comics community, for your faith in us all, and for the energy and passion you’ve given so freely for a decade. We can only say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! ————————————————————————————————— The Ley Lines 2017 Subscription has been announced. Ley Lines comes from Kevin Czap and L. Nichols – it is a quarterly publication that explores the intersection of comics and other art forms and cultures. Four artists pick subjects that interest them and then compose work that compliments and describes their subject. This year Ley Lines will feature Tommi Parrish on William Blake/Lydia Lunch (February 2017), Eric Kostiuk Williams on Kylie Minogue (May 2017), Shreyas R. Krishnan on Abida Parveen (August 2017), and Evan Dahm on the Surrealists (November 2017). Get your Ley Lines 2017 Subscription HERE. I am particularly interested in seeing Shreyas Krishnan‘s book. She is an illustrator, educator, and visual journalist who started making comics more recently – her comic Becoming Rosie won the MoCCA Arts Fest Award of Excellence last year. See more of her work HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Sofie Louise Dam has a new comic on The Nib – it’s about Denmark’s move to take “being trans-gendered” off of all lists of mental disorders. Although Denmark is the first nation in the world to do this, Sofie details why that in itself isn’t nearly enough. More HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Vanessa Davis spoke to Paste about her comic Spaniel Rage, which was published in 2005 but is due to be re-released by Drawn & Quarterly this month. Vanessa talks about what it’s like to look back on work drawn over a decade ago, and the progression of her process since then. The diary comics that make up Spaniel Rage were in fact the very first comics she ever made. “Paste: You mention in your new two-page intro comic that you didn’t know how to make comics when you started this project. How did you learn how to do that? Did you grow up reading comics? Davis: I read Archie comics and Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield, but went to art school from 7th grade onwards, and was really encouraged to abandon anything comics- or illustration-influenced. I always had a cartoony “style” and that was always considered a handicap in my drawing abilities. In college I finally had a couple of teachers who finally just allowed that I knew how to draw as well as I was ever going to, and that the next thing to wrangle was my voice and perspective.“ A comic a day for a month (at a time in her life when the idea of drawing within panels seemed about as impossible as becoming a brain surgeon…!) put Vanessa on a path that she’s remained on to this day. And even if there are things about the Spaniel Rage comics that she might wish she could change, or would do differently now, she’s still glad to have them. “Some people have tattoos they regret—I have comics. But we’re still all going to dance our mistakes around from time to time.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE. See some of Vanessa’s recent short work HERE. ————————————————————————————————— There is still time to submit work for The Strumpet #5 – the theme for this issue is “Origin Stories”, and the deadline is March 1st 2017! “The Strumpet is a transatlantic annual focusing on women telling stories in comics, edited by cartoonists Ellen Lindner and Glynnis Fawkes (as well as, in prior issues, editrix emeritae Jeremy Day and Kripa Joshi). Despite ENORMOUS progress made by women in comics in the last two decades, we still feel that there’s a bit of a lag between the number of women we know who are doing comics (a lot) and those who are getting published regularly (not always a lot). At the end of the day, we can all use another deadline, and a prompt to do new and interesting work. And that’s where The Strumpet comes in.“ Submission details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Anthologies like The Strumpet are in the tradition of the very first all-girls comics publication, It Ain’t Me, Babe, (1970). The Strumpet is in fact the continuation of Whores of Mensa, which was the brain-child of Mardou. She wanted a publication for women’s comics that was BOTH sexy and clever. As Jeremy Day wrote in a brief history of both The Strumpet and Whores of Mensa: “We wanted to tease apart the idea (and it is a dominant one, especially in comics) that people need to chose between being sexy and being clever. We wanted a comic that wore glasses and got passes; that was cunning, but also stunning.“ You can read about The Strumpet #1 HERE at The Comics Journal. I have been spending a lot of time lately digging up anthologies like these. They are incredible time capsules of various moments in comics history, preserving work by women who made mini comics in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s – pre-internet-publication days – as well as the early 2000’s. The catalog of work that each collection represents is fantastic. Other anthologies that I’ve rediscovered include Action Girl Comics, which was published between 1994 and 2000 and was edited by Sarah Dyer, and Girltalk (1995-96) edited by Isabella Bannerman, Ann Decker, and Sabrina Jones. And of course there are the groundbreaking publications like Wimmen’s Comix (1970-1991), Tits & Clits Comix (1972-1987), and Twisted Sisters (1976, 1994). There are many more – I just haven’t gotten my hands on them yet! ————————————————————————————————— There is a terrific article about Marie Duval over on Atlas Obscura. Lauren Young writes at length about this forgotten 19th century female cartoonist, who helped bring to life one of the first reoccurring characters in comics history – Ally Sloper. Marie Duval’s husband, Charles H. Ross, was the editor of Judy, a magazine that was a “cheap rival to the likes of popular magazines Fun and Punch, catering towards a primarily lower and middle class and female audience.” While Ross did create and draw the character Ally Sloper first, it was Marie Duval who developed and popularized the strip, doing the bulk of the drawing. ” “Marie Duval is important not only as perhaps Europe’s only popular female caricaturist, and not only as the chief author of the first Sloper,” wrote Kunzle. “She also deserves recognition for her graphic experimentation in an early period of the birth of modern art.” “ Read more about this rad lady HERE. And check out the Marie Duval archive HERE. (Thanks to The Comics Reporter for finding this piece!) ————————————————————————————————— The Last Cheerios Kate Beaton compiled her annual Holiday Comics – read them all HERE. Lauren Weinstein‘s comics on The Village Voice are pretty melancholy these days. Read Normal Person: The Future... Iona Fox tells the story of a guy who successfully organized other undocumented dairy workers and won the right to a drivers licence while changing the structure of policing in Vermont – Part 1 is HERE. Hyperallergic wrote about Gina Wynbrandt and her “pleasantly uncomfortable and brash” comics. Shoutout to Lady’s Comics, a collective from Brazil! Ink Brick is doing a Kickstarter campaign for Issue 8, which will debut in stores around the country this fall. Support the project. ————————————————————————————————— Check out The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey! We designed it to look like a 1980’s comic book artist’s art book. The text is a transcription of an interview she did at The Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency in 2016. Vanesa is a once in a lifetime talent who studied with George Pratt and who has worked with Grant Morrison. Get a copy of this book HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-3-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-3-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

06/06/2018

Juan FernándezJune 6, 2018los Cómics / NewsAntonia Herrera y María Soto Aguilar, Rosa Colón, Kelly Fernandez, Sol Díaz Castillo, and Love and Rockets #5 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ en Español y “sometimes in English” ~ – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – La Polola #77 – Antonia Herrera y María Soto Aguilar; las Punkrobotinas Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con con Antonia Herrera y María Soto Aguilar, primas, amigas y las dos socias de Punkrobot Estudio, autores de “Historia de un Oso”, ganadora del primer premio Oscar en Chile! – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – “We have only begun to mourn our dead.” Rosa Colón‘s latest comic for The Nib reckons with Hurricane Maria’s real toll. Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed, but it’s more than the government says. Read it HERE. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Starting from Mini-Comics with Kelly Fernandez Loso Perez has put together a profile on the multi-talented Kelly Fernandez over on Prime Vice Studios. Kelly Fernandez is a cartoonist from Queens, New York. She was the recipient of the CAKE’s annual Cupcake Award in 2017 and a winner of Scholastic’s “Get Published by Graphix” competition. Her work has appeared in various comic anthologies such as Mine! and Dates: Volume 2 , as well as the teen literature and comics magazine CICADA. Her work often stars Latino women, and usually has something to do with folklore, monsters, or video games. When she’s not at her desk, you might find her looking for new places to eat or singing karaoke with friends. Take the opportunity to get yourself more acquainted with her work, HERE! – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – La dibujante Sol Díaz Castillo fue entrevistada por Vicio y Virtud! ¿Cuáles son las ventajas y desventajas de tener estudios formales? ¿Le recomendarías la carrera que estudiaste a alguien que aspira a ser historietista? ¿Por qué?: Mmm, creo que estudiar cualquier cosa, por muy lejos que pareciera estar de tu interés más específico, sirve y aporta en un bagaje cultural, social e incluso emocional dentro de una persona. Me parecen importantes las herramientas no sólo técnicas, sino conceptuales, sobretodo en un contexto educacional básico que busca sólo resultados y obediencia. De todas maneras las Universidades también tienen cosas muy cuestionables, muchas veces son más aire que contenido… Yo creo que para ser historietista no hay una sola carrera, se necesitan varias cosas, podrías venir de Arte, de Diseño, de Literatura incluso… Aún así, desde mi experiencia, Diseño me aportó mucho en cuanto a comunicación visual, a contar con imágenes, creo que eso es lo que hago como dibujante, cuento historias y los dibujos son mi herramienta principal. Léanlo todo AQUI! – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Love And Rockets concludes its Locas reunion with bittersweet nostalgia Over on the AV Club, Oliver Sava takes a look at Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez‘s latest issue of Love and Rockets (#5). Memory and the effect of time, explored by Gilbert and Jaime’s different narrative techniques and aesthetic focuses – good stuff! It’s a nice comparison of emotional techniques that they employ in this issue. The differences in the brothers’ tones can be seen in how they start their stories in this issue. Like Gilbert, Jaime begins in the middle of a conversation, but the dialogue invites readers into the action rather than keeping them at a distance. Hopey is looking back at messy moments in her angsty, aggressive past, her first line recounting the time she and her friends beat up Hilary Pute and stole her lunch box. Readers might have already forgotten that this story was presented in the previous issue, putting them in Maggie’s position. Hopey continues by lamenting how she treated her old boyfriend, Tex, during their time together on the East Coast. Once again there are multiple options for engagement that depend on the readers’ retainment of past Love And Rocketsstories. Read it all HERE! – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Suzy and Cecil – 06-06-2018 – by Gabriella Tito – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Cozytown -06-06-2018- by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

12/04/2017

Posted on December 4, 2017December 4, 2017 by Caleb Orecchio

Caleb Orecchio here with the Monday edition of the Daily News with musings about the uncanny resemblance of James Joyce and Chris Ware..—————————————————————————————————

the uncanny resemblance of James Joyce (left) and Chris Ware (right)

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!

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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!

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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.

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Suzy and Cecil – 12-4-2017 – by Gabriella Tito

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Joanie and Jordie – 12-4-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Angoulême, caleb orecchio, Chris Ware, David Hockney, dyslexia, gabriella tito, james joyce, nick gazin, Robin McConnell, Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers

Caleb Orecchio

Posted on December 4, 2017December 4, 2017

Explore

05/10/2017

Juan FernándezMay 10, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con los vanguardistas; Vanesa R. Del Rey; La Polola; Ana Tijoux; Alexis Ziritt; Elizabeth Casillas; Carla Berrocal; Fabian Rangel Jr.; y los tebeos de Comics Workbook. ————————————————————————————————— AvanGard – Y Que? Gerardo Vilches escribe sobre la vangardia contemporanea y internacional de los cómics. Su evolucion, su role y su crítica. Hoy existe una generación de autores que no responden al clásico perfil de fan que sueña con trabajar con sus personajes favoritos y replicar aquello que cautivó su imaginación de niño. Por el contrario, muchos de los artistas de vanguardia provienen de otros campos de expresión, han estudiado Bellas Artes, puede que no hayan leído cómic hasta que una novela gráfica cayó en sus manos de jóvenes adultos y no se sienten en absoluto obligados a respetar ningún canon. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey La gran Vanesa R. Del Rey le ha dado permiso a Comics Workbook para publicar unas selecciónes de sus cuadernos de bocetos. Hemos diseñado esta publicación para que parezca uno de esos libros de de artistas los años 80. El texto es una transcripción de la entrevista que hicimos con Vanesa cuando visito la Residencia Rowhouse en 2016. Vanesa es un artista impresionante y inigualable, quien estudió con George Pratt y quien a dibujado con Grant Morrison. Estamos ofreciendo compras adelantadas a un precio reducido. Sigan a Vanesa por Instagram – @vrdelrey – y http://vrdelrey.com/ Le pedimos a nuestro director, Frank Santoro que nos contara un poquito sobre la fuerza feroz y imparable que es Vanesa R. Del Rey. FS: “Vanesa, I’m quite taken aback by your sheer technical ability which seems to be married to a poetic sensibility. There’s a lightness there. Sometimes illustrators with that ability get heavy-handed. Yet you manage the push-pull between these two sides of yourself–because you’re like a samurai. The humble samurai.” VRDR: “It’s about trying to remember that. I can get all this praise, I can get all these amazing responses from strangers, but at the end of the day—I’m still a student. I’m still learning. The crown doesn’t fit. The crown should never fit.” Este intercambio viene de una entrevista que Frank hizo con Vanesa R. Del Rey, que occurio en la Residencia de Comics Workbook en Pittsburgh, PA USA. 2016. FS: Me encontré por primera vez con VRDR en un festival de cómics en Toronto (TCAF) en 2014. Había empezado a hacer comics profesionalmente después de un período como un animadora. Fui Sorprendido por su la capacidad de ser como un camaleón de cambiar de estilos, y por su puesto le pedí ver más de sus obras. Desenterró pilas de cuadernos de dibujos de sus días en Cuba, cuando estudiaba el realismo soviético y de trabajaba con George Pratt, maestro de cómics pintados. La educación de Vanesa como artista hace el balance suavemente entre los niveles alto y bajo del arte, así como los valores estéticos del este y el oeste. Es una base asombrosa. Ella es, a la vez, consciente de la historia del arte, la historia de los cómics y la historia de la animación de una manera NUEVA que casi parecía imposible hace quince o veinte años. Debo admitir como un estudiante y fan de cómics que se enfocan en la mezcla de “alto y bajo” y en ” los cómics pintados” — Nunca he visto tal mezcla de habilidades al nivel de VRDR. Feroz. Imparable. Un competidor feroz. Michael Jordan-esque? ¿Es eso posible en la fabricación de cómic? Siempre he dicho que habría un “invasor vertical” en los cómics que podría emplear el “naturalismo” de la escuela de Noel Sickles / Alex Toth pero que podría pintar como una Alice Neel o una Jenny Saville. Creo que “el invasor” ha llegado en forma de Vanesa R. Del Rey. Puedes comprar tu copia AQUI¡ ————————————————————————————————— Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! En este capítulo las chicas conversan con Ana Tijoux acerca de sus inicios en el rap, su forma de hacer canciones, su vida como inmigrante, la diversidad y mucho más. . Alexis Ziritt os ofrece una serigrafia bien chula del forro de Space Riders #3. Blanco y Negro. Liempo. Poderoso. En la nueva ediction de Revista Cactus, Elizabeth Casillas os trae lo más transgresor e innovador del cómic actual. Pura vanguardia. Ya hace tiempo, las editoriales en Colombia le apuestan a las novelas gráficas, fanzines y libros ilustrados. Conozca cuáles son. The Fine Art Collective ES entrevisto a Carla Berrocal. Fabian Rangel Jr.‘s new comics series “Helena Crash” gets a micro-review. It’s pulse pounding, caffeine fueled, sword swinging, machine-gun firing, car crashing sci-fi adventure comic. You know the type. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 5-10-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-10-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 5-10-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

06/24/2016

Sally IngrahamJune 24, 2016NewsSally here with a stack of news that’s taller than me… We’ve got a report on HeroesCon, an announcement from Jillian Fleck, NPR’s take on Lisa Hanawalt, Heidi MacDonald’s Fall 2016 release picks, insights on Patrick Kyle and Andrea Tsurumi, an exciting development from D+Q/ALA, and a celebration of Mutha Magazine. Let’s dig in before we lose the light! ————————————————————————————————— HeroesCon was last weekend, and we heard it was a great time from all who attended. Comics Workbook special correspondent Audra Stang went on Sunday and reported back some of her adventures and encounters. Check out her report below! http://comicsworkbook.com/heroescon-2016/ ————————————————————————————————— Jillian Fleck – Comics Workbook alumni and maker of the ongoing Bad Thoughtz comic – is releasing Lake Jehovah via Conundrum Press this autumn! Jillian writes – “Lake Jehovah has been my insane passion project for the past few years and it’s incredible to think it’s going to be a real thing.“ About the story – “Lake Jehovah is a small town in northern Alberta known for its allegedly bottomless lake. It is there that Jay, a genderqueer individual, experiences a crisis of meaning regarding love in the face of a series of apocalypses.” – via Conundrum Press For some teaser pages and more details, check out the complete announcement HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Lisa Hanawalt‘s Hot Dog Taste Test got a shoutout at NPR this week. “If you’re a fan of the Hot Dog Princess, you’re going to love Hot Dog Taste Test. Lisa Hanawalt’s lushly illustrated, stream-of-consciousness diary reveals a soul cut from the same vibrant cloth as that of the 6-year-old who wore a hot dog costume to a princess-themed dance recital. Both the 6-year-old and the grownup diarist understand that there’s only one option for a free spirit confronted by the forces of conformity: You’ve got to go completely orthogonal. For a non-princess in a tulle-clad world, that means making an instinctively Dadaist gesture (and making national news with it). For a cartoonist who covers gourmet food — and even won the James Beard award — but is determined not to succumb to gourmet pretensions, it means filling a food book with Dalí-esque surrealism.” – via ETELKA LEHOCZKY Read the whole review HERE – get a copy of the book HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Heidi MacDonald (who runs The Comics Beat) recently put together the Publishers Weekly list of comics and graphic novels coming out in Fall 2016. (Pictured above is Jessica Campbell‘s Hot or Not, coming from Koyama Press.) “Fall’s graphic novels are teeming with emerging cartoonists exploring life and meaning, while established creators return to favorite themes. Riad Sattouf’s memoir continues, Jason Shiga presents a mind-bending puzzle, Sarah Glidden examines refugee life in Iraq, and Margaret Atwood turns to a fantasy about a cat-bird-man.” – via HEIDI MACDONALD Check out the list HERE. Starting with Heidi’s Top 10, and following with the complete autumn offerings, it is sure to make you start squirreling away some spending money in anticipation…! ————————————————————————————————— Speaking of The Comics Beat, John Seven reviewed Patrick Kyle’s new book over there this week. “Sometimes it’s better to just give yourself to something rather than to seek out its meaning. Not everything has to have one clear meaning, and in some cases, to bring concrete meaning to a work might mean imposing clarity on something that was not meant to have any. That imposition might actually come off as an insult, and the better approach might be to accept it on its own presentation, to let it be what it is. I understand the above might be confusing, but it won’t be if you’ve read Patrick Kyle’s Don’t Come In Here. The first indication that attaching meaning to Kyle’s work is not the point of Kyle’s work is the title itself, a direct instruction to not go any further, to not enter within its insular space. No investigation, no interpretation required.” – via JOHN SEVEN Read the rest of the review HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Harvard Magazine featured Andrea Tsurumi in their July-August issue, calling her work “comics to chew on”. “In Tsurumi’s work, details explode from the page. Her cheeky maximalism packs a visual punch, whether she’s using hard lines or a hazier, impressionist approach. Encountering it can be as overwhelming, trippy, and thrilling as visiting a new place—allowing the reader to see things in a more fun and zany light. Her sensibility, delighting in what might seem mundane, can resonate with people of all ages. It’s almost as if Tsurumi is sharing secrets of the world’s possibilities, and it’s exciting to behold—even if how she discovers these secrets and develops them on paper can be difficult to pin down.” – via SAMANTHA MALDONADO Read the whole article HERE. Keep up with Andrea HERE (although according to Tsurumi’s literary agent, Stephen Barr, “There’s no way to get ahead of Andrea’s brain“…!) ————————————————————————————————— Drawn & Quarterly is tabling at the American Library Association Annual Conference and Exhibition for the first time this weekend in Orlando, FL. This is a pretty big deal! Comics Workbook correspondent extraordinaire Juan Fernández laid it out for me the other night: “D+Q at ALA hits home the idea of libraries being directly in the loop of comics publishing. They are by no means the cutting edge, but the fact that the middle of the cultural road is being paved directly into conversations at ALA’s annual conference is a big deal. Comics to schools – comics to libraries – comics in museums – those are the new pathways that comics as a publishing form can garner new audiences and grow (publishers have been at this for decades now, but this is just nice to see).” – via JUAN FERNANDEZ Find Drawn & Quarterly at table #2263, where they will be hosting giveaways all weekend, and check out the programming that they will be involved in: “D+Q’s two panels are both at the Graphic Novel and Gaming Stage, which can be found mid-aisle 400, near booths 424 and 426: “The Best Graphic Novels You Haven’t Heard of (Yet)” – Sunday June 26th from 2:30 to 3:20 pm Drawn & Quarterly, Groundwood Books, and Nobrow Press are three international publishing houses producing landmark graphic novels with impressive production values. D+Q publisher Peggy Burns, Groundwood publisher Sheila Barry, and Nobrow US Sales & Marketing Director Tucker Stone will discuss their approach to graphic novels, preview their forthcoming titles, and share what’s in the pipeline for 2017. “The State of Graphic Novels Today” – Monday June 27th from 9:30 am to 10:20 am Drawn & Quarterly has been publishing luminaries of the graphic novel medium for over 25 years. Comics and graphic novels make great entry points for low literacy users as well as readers of all stripes, and the fastpaced world of graphic novels is booming. Join D+Q publisher Peggy Burns and executive editor Tom Devlin for a rousing discussion on the state of graphic novels today.” – via D+Q ————————————————————————————————— I want to give a shoutout today to Mutha Magazine and all the fantastic work that Meg Lemke does as Editor there (while also programming the comics and graphic novels side of the Brooklyn Book Festival…!) The magazine explores “real-life motherhood, from every angle, at every stage” and one of the ways they do that is through comics. I’m still working my way through all the comics on the site – there’s a hefty list! A recent offering was A. K. Summers‘ Those OTHER Nurses: A Nursing While Butch Comic which you can check out HERE. Other work that caught my eye includes Sacha Mardou’s The State I’m In, Rachel Masilamani’s We Conceive, and Lauren Weinstein’s Reflections on the First Week of Kindergarten. There are also several comics each from Tyler Cohen, Glynnis Fawkes, and Keiler Roberts, among others. Check out the complete Mutha Magazine Comics Archive HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Well, we got through the stack and there’s still some daylight left – so enjoy your weekend, play outside, go to the pool, or curl up on the couch with a comic – then meet us back here on Monday for our next foray into the comics community! Cheers – Sally Share this page: [...]

Digital Ways of Seeing and a call for Serendipity

Juan FernándezMay 14, 2019EssaysJuan here. Let’s talk out about visual information. Lately, I’ve been really interested in how we create and share information (and truth) across the web. Did you know that more than 180,000 of the items in the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections are in the public domain? It’s true! Aaron Cockle showed me that a year ago, the NYPL had announced this new part of their digitally accessible collection. Thanks Aaron. Now everyone has the freedom to enjoy, modify, reuse and share the materials in almost limitless ways! NYPL now makes it possible to download these items in the highest resolution available, directly from the Digital Collections website. They’re BIG files. It’s true that “the interactive visual library” has been upon us for a while thanks to search engines that could deliver images. Nevertheless, searching in that kind of library is for the most part garbage. You have to sift through mountains visual of information just to potentially find what you need. Bummer. Web art that is allowed to grow wildly from that collective visual library, in an art-for-its -own-sake kind of way, has for the most part been visually chaotic and noise of visual resolution has usually been used as an aesthetic tool. Think Paper Rad. (Of course, there are lots of interesting exceptions like Dina Kleberman’s I’m Google project, not chaotic at all!) What kind of art is possible with tools like Public Domain visual collections? You tell me. More broadly, this is kind of thing reveals one of the many reasons why public libraries are so important. They point to a simple truth that everyone is denying. Searching via tools made by creators that work hand-in-hand with corporate interests sucks. It’s never deep enough. It’s never a rich enough experience.the paths to finding high quality, curated collection of visuals, for free are long, windy, and sometimes non-existent. A private browser like google, isn’t the most stable place to reliably find images across time. Sorry, private browsers. What we have is the exciting arrival of another institutionally supported manifestation of archive-able visual memory. I’m very thankful. We have Wikipedia, Archive.org, and others, but we still need more. Yes, this news from last January, but I want to shout about these kinds of projects from the hilltops. Especially in these times of “#alternativefacts”. Why? Because. With the explosion of instantaneous visual communication across the internet, visual forms, digitally transferred, can essentially be considered as shared experiences. The shared experience of “having seen”. This aspect of highly networked communication allows for users to collectively “see” the world through a shared viewpoint. Permission to transform artifacts of visual ephemera, of past visual memories, invites us to step across time and create and modify languages using pre-existing systems of visual communication. It is the power to create knowledge. Captured thought held into stable states that can be comprehended by another person across the network. Truth as recordable and transferrable. Props to the late John Berger for helping me understand this. My hope is to expand these thoughts from the seventies into the present day. Expanding this all out to copyright, websites ARE the expressions of that thought. And, as such function as the basis for the merging of idea and expression of idea. Everything expressed in “recordable” communication IS an idea within the legal framework. Organizations with corporate money have the power to take away certain “sides” of information. Duh. Information nowadays essentially being the mass of recorded experience. That kind of power can shape the mass of collective knowledge, that is the basis from which we collectively determine “truth”. Turning the creation of ideas into a commodity form. As a society, it is only through collectively supported libraries that we can expand what it means be creating, sharing and finding Truth. Commodity form as community form. Please visit your local library today. It may have been a while since you last visitited… It may have been just yesterday! Either way, do yourself a favor and open yourself up to serendipity. Get out there, find something interesting and check it out. Share this page: [...]

05/23/2018

Juan FernándezMay 23, 2018los Cómics / NewsIsabel Méndez y el bloque deescritor, Sebastián Gonzalez, y los Ganadores del Puchi Award 2018 —————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ en Español y “sometimes in English” ~ La Polola #76 – Sebastián González Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con Sebastián González, quién les compartió parte de su infancia, su relación en el dibujo, los murales, la relación con su padre, su camino como editor, su nuevo libro y hasta la construcción de su propia casa! —————————————— Ganadores del Puchi Award 2018 Puchi Award es un proyecto internacional con el que La Casa Encendida y Fulgencio Pimentel quieren premiar uno o varios proyectos de libro en ciernes, las ideas más libres, brillantes y renovadoras, sin renunciar a ningún género, centrándose únicamente en su osadía y su vinculación con los distintos lenguajes del presente. El libro ganador de la segunda convocatoria de Puchi Award es Historia de España contada a las niñas, de María Bastarós (Zaragoza, 1987). Novela coral, a medio camino entre el esperpento y el western, Historia de España se presenta como un fresco despiadado de los clichés que nos invaden desde todos los frentes culturales, un retrato incisivo y fractal de nuestra realidad más cercana que termina de dar la puntilla a cualquier idea arraigada sobre temas como veganismo, arte contemporáneo o feminismo new age sin dejar piedra sobre piedra. De forma extraordinaria, se concede a su vez un Premio Especial del Jurado a Ética para Julia, de Ricardo Díaz Peris (Valencia, 1993), un manual contemporáneo sobre el amor y las relaciones sexuales que combina narrativa confesional y humor gráfico con cierto trasfondo filosófico para dirigirse a la hermana pequeña del autor y, con ella, a cualquier lector entre 14 y 29 años, normalizando la comunicación entre adultos y menores sobre opciones y prácticas sexuales en la era de Tinder y chemsex. Por último, el jurado ha decidido hacer una Mención Especial a la obra Ser amado de Javier Lozano (Albacete, 1981), un cómic tejido como un tapiz de múltiples hilos argumentales, frecuentemente desesperanzado y compuesto por historias dentro de historias donde sueño y vigilia se entremezclan y dibujan un recorrido en torno al concepto del amor romántico y sus consecuencias. —————————————— ¿Sufres bloqueo de escritor? ¿Te ha pasado alguna vez el quedarte paralizado ante un proyecto? El miedo es uno de los mayores enemigos de la creatividad. Hoy Isabel Méndez les cuenta cómo superarlo y ganar confianza creativa en Firmado Por! Léanlo todo AQUI. —————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-23-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

10/26/2016

Juan FernándezOctober 26, 2016los Cómics / NewsJuan con un poquito sobre: Daniel Jiménez y Jesús Cossio entrevistan ha Joe Sacco; GRAF Madrid; Alienation 2 por Inés Estrada; “el fracaso de la narrativa gráfica” en Mexico; Publisher’s Weekly on Spanish language comics; Fanzinología Mexicana 1985-2015. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡Joe Sacco habla sobre el periodismo,el hecho de narrar conflictos, y la violencia que el capitalismo permite. Es genial ver esta entrevista. Esta entrevista fue realizada por Jesús Cossio y por Daniel Jiménez en el Hay Festival 2014 de Cartagena. Mi trabajo es sobre la realidad de los conflictos, pero éstos se basan en la naturaleza humana. Yo no podría haber dicho esto hace diez años pero es de lo que tratan mis cómics, en realidad. Algunos de mis libros son acerca de un grupo específico de seres humanos. Por ejemplo, en mi libro sobre la Primera Guerra Mundial veo a los seres humanos convertidos en una masa y cómo la naturaleza humana responde a ese tipo de situaciones. Si existe un interés en el autoritarismo y la xenofobia yace, por decirlo de alguna manera, bajo la sombrilla de mi interés en la naturaleza humana. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡GRAF – Madrid se acerca! Ya puede consultarse la programación y el listado de expositores de #GRAFMadrid2016 que tendrá lugar del 11 al 13 de noviembre de 2016 en Madrid. talleres, musica, encuentros, feria de libros… es obvio que el equipo Mireia Pérez, Iñaki Sanz, Borja Crespo, Gerardo Vilches y Pedro Toro estan montando un monstruo de comics y fanzine fest… ————————————————————————————————— ⚡Alienation 2 por Inés Estrada esta disponible para la venta! Es el segundo volu su segundo volumen de su serie sobre la realidad virtual en el ártico. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡Publisher’s Weekly has a piece on the comics that are making a large impact on the American comics market from Spain and Latin America. (Thanks Heidi!) Paco Roca, Liniers, Power Paola… Heidi McDonald touches on the heavy hitters in comics. The ones have changed how many approach the art form. It’s a nice, concise recapitulation of all the on the ground work that cartoonists and comics publishers have been doing in the past decase. Of course, McDonald’s emphasis here is on what is making it to the states, and at the moment that is primarily Spanish work. If you’ve been following this blog, I think you can imagine that this is soon to change… ————————————————————————————————— ⚡Francisco Haghenbeck nos da un contraste a esta atitud tan optimista. Haghenbeck se enfoca en “el fracaso de la narrativa gráfica” en Mexico. Por supuesto quizás Haghenbeck no no ha buscado bien bajo la superficie? Como, no es una criticá de “la novela grafíca “, osea que conviene proceder con cuidado 😉 A los últimos años, se ha tratado de recuperar la cultura de la narrativa gráfica en México, siguiendo la moda de otros países con una robusta lista de obras de calidad como Francia, Argentina, Japón o Estados Unidos. Cuando yo hice la recopilación e investigación para la exhibición “La vida en cuadritos: 120 años de historieta” (Museo Pape en Monclova; Gran museo de la Cultura Maya, Mérida; y Museo Guanal, Cd. Del Carmen) me di a la tarea de buscar las obras que representaran a nuestro país. Con tristeza, me enfrenté a que en los últimos 25 años hay una gran ausencia de historias de calidad literaria. Desde la muerte del colectivo Taller del Perro de la ciudad de México, y en especial, la novela gráfica Operación Bolívar de Edgar Clement, es notable el vacío. El único maravilloso asomo, apenas el año pasado, es la versión personal de William Burroghs de Bef, Uncle Bill (Sexto Piso, 2015) que, como señal de crisis, fue realizada con el apoyo del Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Literatura y no de narrativa gráfica. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡Y para darle contraste a ese articulo, les quiero decir que la antología de fanzines que Inés Estrada recopilo hace un año, Fanzinología Mexicana 1985-2015 (editada por Enrique Arriaga y Inés Estrada), ahora se puede descargar gratis en Gatosaurio. The underground is alive and kicking. Compilation featuring a selection from the graphic and visual narrative of three decades of mexican fanzines. The work collected was originally self-published in limited runs by and for underground niches formed by punks, queer activists, artists and amateurs among others. This book intends to collect and highlight these obscure publications and also to be a reference for contextualizing mexican zines. This is the first effort of its kind in Mexico. Edited by Enrique Arriaga and Inés Estrada, with material they both collected for la Fanzinoteca del Museo Universitario del Chopo in Mexico City. Arriaga started la Fanzinoteca in 2014 as a zine archive and a cycle of exhibitions at the museum. Book design by Inés Estrada, with a cover illustration by Edwin Sandoval. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡Echale un vistazo a este medallón estilo Pompeii! “Le encargué a la gran Airi Maeno que hiciera unos medallones de plata con sede fuera de mis dibujos. Este dibujo viende de mi libro Pompeii. Es algo que puedo imaginar que alguien se pondría hace dos mil años. Un simple medallón de un ser querido. Un retrato. Algo permanente para desafiar a la desaparición”. – Frank Santoro Puedes comprar uno aquí! ————————————————————————————————— hasta la próxima! juan Share this page: [...]

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