Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in News

Juan Fernández

Posted on February 15, 2016February 15, 2016

Explore

04/11/2017

Aaron CockleApril 11, 2017NewsAaron here today with the INK BRICK Submission Deadline Reminder; Public Health Comics; EMISSARIES; How the petroleum and natural gas industries are reshaping the Colorado landscape; TEACHING STAFF FOR A SCHOOL OF MURDERERS ————————————————————————————————— Submissions Deadline for Ink Brick no. 7 Hey friends! Submissions for INK BRICK no. 7 are due Sunday, April 16, 2017. More details at inkbrick.com/submission An interview with editors Alexander Rothman and Alexey Sokolin was conducted back in February by Alex Dueben over at the Beat blog: Dueben: Alex, you wrote a manifesto of sorts in 2015 and there was a line in it that really jumped out at me: “art is an empathy engine.” I wonder if you could talk a little about that. Sokolin: I’ll jump in on the concept. Famously, the filmmaker Chris Milk has called virtual reality “an empathy engine” as well. I think it boils down to the fact that humans are a tribal, social animal. One of the things that separates from the apes is technology, and in particular the technology of language. Scientists think that the invention of language helped humans build mental models that they could then share with others, and then record those models on different media for connection more broadly. Today, we have many languages — from analytical ones (Excel), to engineering ones (Python), to informal spoken ones (English), to emotional languages (Art). Art, whether in music, virtual reality, or poetry, helps us transfer emotional content to others, to infect them with feeling. Comics poetry is special in this regard because it can focus on this space in between, the space of not looking at something directly, but feeling its hum and mystery. How else can you describe nostalgia, or memory, or regret. Comics poetry allows us to see from the corner of our eye something that may be too embarrassing or crude to put into any other language. Elsewhere, it would shatter and break. But here, it can be universally translated. Rothman: I mentioned above that I use broad definitions of “comics” and “poetry”—there are of course plenty of others. And one of my favorite ones is that a poem serves as a map to the poet’s thinking. It doesn’t just impart information to the reader; the act of reading actually recreates or walks one through another person’s thought process. There’s obviously a lot of distance between individuals. We naturally have little sense of what other people are thinking, how they experience the world. And expressing ourselves is one of the few opportunities we have to try bridging that. For me, art’s most important function is helping us to inhabit other subjectivities—or really to translate them into our own. Not to agree with or like others, necessarily, but to try to understand them. A lot of people hear a word like “empathy” and they think it means capitulation or weakness. That’s not the case at all. I think the election throws this into stark relief: our political system requires contestation of ideas, and it requires certain approaches to win out over others. But for argument to even be possible, we need some shared context, some agreement to basic terms. And we can see how things like cultural divides and confirmation bias are severely eroding that. Now, false equivalency is a real problem, too, and I’m not saying “both sides are wrong!” here. Just that when people inhabit fundamentally different realities, they have no productive options to resolve their differences. ————————————————————————————————— Outbreak Responders Meredith Li-Vollmer has a strip about epidemiology and immunization over at the Public Health Insider blog. ————————————————————————————————— Ian Cheng at PS1 EMISSARIES is presented as a large-scale installation that transforms the gallery into a portal-like environment for Cheng’s simulations to build, generate, regress, and progress. The 10-foot-tall projections allow each simulation to unfold at life-size, positioning viewers as observers who can follow the lives of specific characters as they interact within the simulated worlds and each other in an ever-changing environment. The exhibition is extended into the digital space through a collaboration with Twitch, a social video platform and community for gamers. Over the course of the exhibition, all three works in the Emissary trilogy will be available for viewing on Twitch in unique versions that exist online only. The Twitch live stream of these works will also be on view in the gallery space, highlighting the iterative nature of these works across platforms both physical and virtual. Available for viewing continuously at www.twitch.tv/moma, Emissary In the Squat of Gods will stream from April 9 to May 22, Emissary Forks At Perfection from June 6 to July 24, and Emissary Sunsets the Self from August 8 to September 25. Alex Greenberger reviewed Cheng’s work last year at ARTNEWS: Describing Cheng’s simulations can be a challenge. The characters in them look like computerized versions of real-life animals and humans, but, because Cheng is working with a video-game engine that keeps creating new combinations, the figures can smash into each other and break into overlapping geometric planes. Though what the work will do is left up to chance, Cheng has a narrative in mind before he starts working, and his works loosely follow it. When I met him, Cheng had just returned from Zurich, where he had opened a solo show at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, and he was still jetlagged. Cheng had also recently overseen the installation of his simulation at the Hirshhorn, and another work of his had just gone on display in MOCA Cleveland’s “Stranger,” which surveys artists who depict humans in odd, new ways. All three shows opened in the past three months, and all speak to the way Cheng creates scenarios in which humans have to rethink their relationship to technology. What if software updates and new models aren’t the only way technology is evolving? What if technology is evolving us, rather than the other way around? ————————————————————————————————— There’s Never Enough Oil Over at the Nib, T. Edward Bak takes a long look at oil production in Colorado over time. ————————————————————————————————— Max Ernst at Paul Kasmin Gallery The dadaist conceived the pieces (price on request) in 1967, a time in his life when he became fully committed to sculpture, having dabbled in it throughout his career. Typically Ernst ian – he was always a master of provocation – there’s a biting sense of humour here, from the wordplay to the overturning of artistic convention. There is also an unsettling, anxious comment ary on postwar European society, embodying fears about authority and corrupt political surveillance that are perhaps as relevant now as they were then. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 4-11-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-11-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-11-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Austin, TX Scene Report

Frank SantoroDecember 25, 2011Riff Raff / Scene ReportsThis post originally appeared on The Comics Journal – 12/25/2011 Frank here. This week’s scene report is brought to you by William Cardini. Mr. Cardini just finished my comic book correspondence course. Hopefully, you will someday see the comic that he produced during the course – it’s pretty sharp. In the meantime, please enjoy his report on the Austin comics scene. ————- Austin Scene Report by William Cardini. Despite having been (and in some cases continuing to be) home to various comics legends, such as Chris Ware, Mack White, Cayetano Garza Jr, Shannon Wheeler, and the Armadillo World Headquarters crew, Austin doesn’t seem to have the same reputation among cartoonists as similar cities such as Portland or Minneapolis, but I think it could. Austin has two comprehensive comic book stores, Austin Books & Comics and Dragon’s Lair, that stock everything from local minicomics to Fantagraphics to manga. And if you’re more interested in zines, there’s Monkeywrench, an all-volunteer collective-run radical bookstore. Austin Books shows local artists on their back wall. This is a long distance photo I took from my show there with my wife Glade. You can see their deep back issue racks. The center of my Austin comics scene is Domy Books. An independent bookstore and gallery, Domy started in 2006 in Houston’s hip Montrose neighborhood. In 2008, Domy co-founder Russell Etchen opened an Austin branch of the store, and it’s been a boon. A towering, super friendly red-haired dude, Russell is always eager to make a recommendation or talk about obscure comics, artists, zinesters, and graffiti artists. He makes sure that Domy features a prominent zine section, screenprints, and a slew of art comics. He also curates the gallery section, featuring cartoonists such as Ron Regé Jr and Esther Pearl Watson. Russell also puts together the annual Monster Show, where he asks cartoonists from all over to do a 9×12″ drawing. Photo of this year’s Monster Show opening by Carling Hale. If you squint you can see Jonny Negron. Speaking of Mr. Negron, Austin has a pretty full local creator roster. Here’s a small sample: Jonny Negron – His drawings are charged with raw sexual energy. Ben Snakepit – Ben’s been drawing three-panel punk rock diary comics every day since 2001 Aaron Whitaker and Melinda Tracy Boyce – This comics power couple just moved here from Portland. They do diary and literary comics collaboratively and singly. Zach Taylor – Zach does totally out-there adventures comics and runs the Austin Sketch Group, who meet up every Sunday to draw comics (and they’re not the only draw club in town). You can see most of these folks once a year at STAPLE!, a local indy media/comics festival that’s been getting bigger and better every one of the seven years its run. In general, Austin has a community that’s really supportive of DIY efforts and art. The music, literary, and art scenes ooze over and intermingle with the comics scene. There are a lot of creative people doing a lot of things here. If only it weren’t so damn hot. Share this page: [...]

Lisa Hanawalt

Chris Anthony DiazJuly 13, 2016The Diaz ArchiveLisa Hanawalt signing her latest Drawn & Quarterly book HOT DOG TASTE TEST, and DRAWN AND QUARTERLY: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF CONTEMPORARY CARTOONING, COMICS, AND GRAPHIC NOVELS (my portrait of Lisa is in this book, page 263!), Green Apple Books on the Park, San Francisco, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Photo color for Lisa’s portrait by Graham Willcox Share this page: [...]

05/17/2016

Aaron CockleMay 16, 2016NewsAntonioni Comics Continued; Sophia Foster-Dimino; Genesis Breyer P-Orridge; SPREAD Zinefest; Adam Baumgold Gallery; NYRB Comics Release Party; Boom Box Profile; James Ensor Temptations ————————————————————————————————— CW continues it’s feature of Laila Milevski’s Drawing Antonioni. Please take some time to read/re-read/re-re-read this comic, it’s one of the most creative uses of the Frank Santoro Grid Technique System I’ve seen to date. ————————————————————————————————— New Sophia Foster-Dimino Comic ————————————————————————————————— Genesis Breyer P-Orridge: Try to Altar Everything Exhibition March 11-August at the Rubin Museum, NYC For nearly half a century Genesis Breyer P-Orridge has been questioning the meaning and substance of identity through artistic endeavors, willful reincarnation, and physical shapeshifting. Try to Altar Everything, a selection of paintings, sculptures, and installations, will explore the ways that Hindu mythology and Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley have influenced the artist and h/er work. ————————————————————————————————— SPREAD ZINEFEST I hear Groningen is lovely in June. ————————————————————————————————— Comic Inspirations at Adam Baumgold Gallery ————————————————————————————————— New York Review Comics Release Party Friday, May 27 at 7pm at BookCourt in Brooklyn ————————————————————————————————— On Boom Box The success of “The Lumberjanes” started with grass-roots efforts. Ms. Watters and her fellow creators — Brooke Allen, Grace Ellis and Noelle Stevenson — made copies of the first eight pages, included an order form, and gave them out free. “It was supposed to be eight issues, and then it became something much more, kind of growing ever since beyond our wildest dreams,” Ms. Watters said. ————————————————————————————————— Temptation: The Demons of James Ensor at Art Institute Chicago The exhibition was 2014/2015 but there is still an elaborately designed interactive aspect available to those with an internet connection. ‘Before the compositions I feel anxious and exalted,’ wrote Ensor in 1887, commenting on his work as he began to develop The Temptation. More than a century later, as we explore his monumental achievement, we share something of those emotions. To study the work is at times disturbing but—as we hope you will agree—it is, above all, exhilarating. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

12/05/2017

Aaron CockleDecember 5, 2017NewsAaron here today with Lyn Hejinian and Open Comics; Singularity Festival 2017; Lee Krasner ————————————————————————————————— ‘The open text is dynamic, and interactive, as reading is most pleasurable when it is active, and incites the imagination.’ Former CW resident Jackie Kirby takes a deep look at Lyn Hejinian’s work and deconstructs comics by Lynda Barry, Robert Grenier, M. Norbese Phillips and Ikeda Ryoko, Alyssa Berg, Michael Deforge, and Andy Burkholder: Understanding the aesthetic merits of an open text is perhaps made easier by looking at Hejinian’s work in tandem with sociologist Wolfgang Iser’s phenomenological approach to reading (1972). Iser views the meaning and totality of a literary object to be a virtual, dynamic and contradictory thing. Its gestalt, or the perceived unity and oneness from a configuration of parts, does not exist in the text itself, nor in the mind of the reader, but in the co-operation of the two: the act of reading itself. The text is a set of raw materials provided by the author. In a text, information is presented in the form of discretely separated units (in comics, panels; in prose, sentences; in verse, lines) juxtaposed in a pattern according to the author’s artistic desires. Iser writes, “The sentences are ‘component parts’ insofar as they make statement, claims, or observations, or convey information, and so establish various perspectives of the text. But they remain only ‘component parts’—they are not the sum total of the text itself.” These sentences are building blocks of a not-yet-existing meaning, which will be produced through the act of reading the text. Through the reading process, the reader assembles the “component parts” into a coherent whole. In comics, we can think of this as the way a reader navigates through panels to produce meaning. The reader’s imagination and memory give shape to the interaction of distinct parts “foreshadowed” by the sequence and structure of panels. The information present in the material comic is processed through the reader’s imagination and experience, the result being the production of the comic-as-meaningful. ————————————————————————————————— Singularity Festival 2017 南拳北腿 ETH, TONY CHEUNG, 90Kwok联展 December 8-20, 2017 17:00-23:00 Opening December 8, 2017 19:00pm PIL公共形象公司北京东城区鼓楼东大街206号 No.206, Guloudong St,Dongcheng District, Beijing ————————————————————————————————— LEE KRASNER: THE UMBER PAINTINGS: 1959-1962 Through January 13, 2018, at Paul Kasmin Gallery Paul Kasmin Gallery, in collaboration with the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, is pleased to announce an inaugural solo exhibition of paintings by Lee Krasner, which will focus on her iconic Umber Paintings. The series consists of only twenty-four paintings, eight of which are held in major institutional collections. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated and comprehensive catalogue raisonné on the series with an essay by art historian Dr. David Anfam, Senior Consulting Curator of the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver and curator of the recent exhibition Abstract Expressionism at the Royal Academy, London. Painted between 1959 and 1962, Krasner’s Umber Paintings were realized during one of her most ambitious periods of creative production following the sudden and tragic loss of her husband, Jackson Pollock. During this time of newfound solitude, Krasner moved into Pollock’s studio at their home in the Springs, East Hampton, which enabled her to experiment on large canvases for the first time. In addition to the increase in scale, this period was also characterized by a further commitment to ‘allover’ compositions, an emphasis on gesturality and an engagement with the individual psyche. ————————————————————————————————— 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! ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 12-5-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 12-5-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

2/15/2016

Posted on February 15, 2016February 15, 2016 by Juan Fernández

The comics world suddenly lost Alvin Buenaventura last Thursday. This time is a time of reflection. He left an incredible, indelible mark as a publisher and advocate of the comics medium in the early 21st century. His absence will be sorely felt.

You can help keep his legacy alive today by reading any one of the great works he helped usher into the world from the Buenaventura Press + Pigeon Press catalogue.

Buenaventura Press

Boy’s Club 2 and 3 by Matt Furie
Comic Book Holocaust and Klassic Komix Klub by Johnny Ryan
Elvis Road by Elvis Studio by Helge Reumann & Xavier Robel
Hunter and Painter by Tom Gauld
Destined for Dizziness and The Neighborhood by Souther Salazar
Yeast Hoist #12: Stop Thinking Start Sleeping Stop Sleeping Start Living by Ron Rege Jr.
Spaniel Rage by Vanessa Davis
Injury #1, #2 and #3 by Ted May, Jason Robards, and Jeff Wilson
Boy’s Club #1 was published by Tim Goodyear’s Teenage Dinosaur.
Comic Art Magazine issues 8 and 9 edited by Todd Hignite (2006, 2007)
Kramers Ergot 6 edited by Sammy Harkham (2006)
Kramers Ergot 7 edited by Sammy Harkham (2008)
New York Sketches; a portfolio of drawings by Adrian Tomine (2004)
Private Stash: A Pinup-Girl Portfolio by 20 Cartoonists by Robert Crumb, Adrian Tomine, Jaime Hernandez et al. (2006)
Dawn by Phil Elverum (2008)
The Complete Jack Survives by Jerry Moriarty (2009)

Pigeon Press

Incubation by Charles Burns (2015)
In the Garden of Evil by Charles Burns and Killofer (2015)
Worst Behavior by Simon Hanselmann (2015)
The Libertarian by Nick Mandaag (2014)
Facility Integrity by Nick Mandaag (2014)
ECHO ECHO by Charles Burns (2014)

Rest in peace, Alvin.

Leslie Stein has a new comic up on VICE that recounts the second half of her recent, positive trip to Montreal. Good vibes in her diary. Open, airy reflection with juicy colors. Refreshing stuff that’ll warm right up.

David Brothers has interviewed Zainab Akhtar over at Inkstuds.

They talk about Mads Mikkelsen, Akhtar’s childhood experience with comics, what led to her critiquing comics, being focused on narrative, the community she has found herself in, serializing comics for others, friendship, a brief aside into Masamune Shirow, and much more. A particular highlight here is the questions they pose about the current landscape (or lack thereof) of active comics criticism across social media.
No one is chiming in on the conversations that people are working hard to encourage and it drives them mad…

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/246110878″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

If you want some good studio talk and a solid dose of traditional comics craft, go spend some time with the video of Pittsburgh’s own Ed Piskor that Heather and Rob Beschizza put together over at Boingboing. While drawing a Happy Mutant, he takes you through the tools of comics past, his “war chest”: zip-a-tone sheets, letraset, a Leroy lettering gadget, and the immortal spirit of great cartooning. He also muses on what it’s like to teach students who have spent all their comics making lives drawing solely digitally on tablets and the issues that can pose for their process later on. Speed is king ’round these parts.

Bill Boichel riffs on camera on his Remedial Comics segment about the latest issue of the one and only Kevin Huizenga’s GANGES:

Ganges #5 is a unique reading experience (well, unique outside of the Huizengian oeuvre, at least). Huizenga boldly commits exponential shifts in the temporal scale, weaving a narrative that stretches from a traditional panel-by-panel rendering of second-by-second shifts in mood during a domestic argument to experimental fractal depictions of the natural soil erosion cycles repeating over eons that build up and breakdown the earth in the course of millions upon millions of years; from the immediate to the eternal. The result is a work that succeeds (where others have failed*) in presenting both in a manner that effectively situates each within the other in an equivalence that brings to mind the title of Samuel Delaney’s classic science fiction novel, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand (if not so much the novel itself). – Bill Boichel

This latest effort is available for you to purchase over at Copacetic Comics.

Share this page:

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in News

Juan Fernández

Posted on February 15, 2016February 15, 2016

Explore

10/27/2017

Sally IngrahamOctober 27, 2017NewsSally here with new work from Chris Anthony Diaz, insights from Lauren Weinstein, and inspiration from Tove Jansson – plus much more! ————————————————————————————————— Today on the site Chris Anthony Diaz shares his latest photo archive, featuring Noah Van Sciver and Joseph Remnant’s recent signing at Secret Headquarters. There are lots of terrific photographs of the guys from comics’ best documentarian, but I especially like this photo of Vanessa Davis (above). Check out the rest of the pictures HERE. We are looking forward to catching up with Chris at CAB in a few weeks, where he is looking forward to photographing cartoonists in the new location at Pratt. See you there! ————————————————————————————————— Lauren Weinstein on the Village Voice with the latest Normal Person… ————————————————————————————————— There is an article on the Evening Standard about Tove Jansson‘s Moomin comic strip, and how it came about. As her novels gained international popularity, Charles Sutton (syndication director of Associated Newspapers) flew to Finland and talked her into doing a strip for the London Evening News. This was in 1952, but two years of discussion and planning followed before the first Moomin comic came out in September of 1954. (Food for thought, for those of us who may present a strip for syndication and find the first idea turned down – and we are no Tove Janssons…!) According to comics historian Paul Gravett, she was actually taught how to layout and design her strips, using “contemporary” word balloons as part of the art, instead of relying on accompanying text blocks. She agreed to do the strip because it offered her a steady paycheck which would in turn give her more time to devote to painting, in theory. Of course the strip was immensely time consuming in the end, and we can only imagine what paintings she might have made had she NOT been drawing it… Lots more interesting details in the article, supplied by Paul Gravett, so read it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Assorted Awesome Athena Naylor has taken over the Our Comics, Ourselves blog for a bit and is writing artist spotlights on a number of rad female cartoonists – check out her thoughts on Carolyn Nowak, Meredith Gran, Kate Beaton, and Sarah Glidden. Kelly Sue DeConnick claps back at folks who find her comics either triggering, or too political. Syfy Wire has the goods. Now please excuse me while I go read Bitch Planet: Triple Feature #5. The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco is kicking off their reopening with a retrospective of Raina Telgemeier‘s work. The Nib is running it’s first comics serial – Reported Missing by Eleri Harris. It’s a “true crime” story, and I will admit to being sucked in so far. I believe it’s up to 4 parts so far – catch up! The Comics Beat has a lengthy preview of Hazel Newlevant‘s new comic, No Ivy League, coming out in 2018 from Lion Forge (where Hazel was recently hired as an editor, by the way). Leslie Stein lets her mother interview her over on The Comics Journal! Jessica Campbell shares part of Georgia O’Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz’s story on Hyperallergic – HERE. Sophie Foster-Dimino made a zine about making Sex Fantasy – which you can check out on her Tumblr. Rookie Mag has an excerpt from Lynda Barry‘s The Good Times are Killing Me – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 10-27-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 10-27-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio —————————————————————————————————Cozytown -10-27-2017- by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

05/11/2018

Comics WorkbookMay 10, 2018NewsBryce Davidson here with thoughts on Chris Claremont, The New Mutants, and the almighty thought bubble! ———————————————————————————— Bryce Davidson here today, with thoughts on Chris Claremont, the New Mutants and the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Over the weekend I went to see Avengers: Infinity War, as I’m sure many other people did. I liked it. I even saw it a second time. I really thought it was a good movie. On the ride home a friend and I tried unraveling it to try and figure out why it worked so well, as we both agreed that it shouldn’t have. It was too big, there was too much stuff going on, too many characters, too many motivations, it was an absolute cluster f***. Even the nearly 3 hour duration shouldn’t have been enough to house it all. Now granted there have been other movie franchises that have operated on this level – The Lord of the Rings is the first one that comes to mind – but Infinity War feels different. Denser maybe? More tangled, web-like? Sure, a large part of that is the fact that its been built on by over a dozen films, but surely if that’s the case then Infinity War should have been some incomprehensible, jargon filled slog. But it wasn’t! It was great! And not just for big nerds. It was a genuinely good movie. So my friend and I talked about it a bit and I began thinking about the New Mutants comics I have been binging on lately and more importantly, Chris Claremont. I assume most people who read this blog are familiar with him. For the few who don’t he’s surely worth a google. At one point Claremont was writing upwards of 6 X-Men titles and spin-offs at once – each one containing god-knows how many characters. His writing has been highly praised for it’s complex narrative structures and endless sub-plot stacks. X-Men editor Louise Simonson, recalled about Claremonts’ writing, “that whenever he was at a loss for story ideas, “All I’d have to do was go through all of the plot threads that he had left for the last year or two (Grant, 1993).” Everyone’s favorite cartoonist, Ed Piskor also talks about this a lot in his work on Hip-Hop Family Tree and X-men Grand Design. A lot of it can be found HERE in his interview with Claremont for Paste Magazine. There is just so much there in those stories. The depth of the characters, the breadth of the world (or worlds) they existed in, and the delicate intricacies of how each part interacted with each other. It looked like a mess, at times it could even feel like a mess (intentionally though I think, as to increase drama and friction.) If I was going to try and describe it, it feels like zooming out from a microscopic view. It all looks odd and crazy until you see the larger picture. This is how they did it. This is why the MCU feels ok to me. It’s certainly not an easy task, but it’s all there in the Claremont’s work. They’re using the “Claremont Method”. Small fringes of plots that end up being (literally) universe shattering events would start out as small whispers in the background years before (Magik anybody?). Obviously the people behind the MCU aren’t stupid and have done their research. Sure, they’re pulling from lots of source material, none of which is really the X-Men, but the structure’s feels so similar to me that I hardly believe its a coincidence. On the other hand something interesting to note that I picked up on is how Claremont leans into the comic book form, which contrasts with how the plots are presented in the MCU. It’s called the almighty Thought Bubble. It’s a staple of comics, and a very effective tool. Like life, people think in an instant. You can have an entire conversation with yourself or recall entire events in a fraction of a second, a small slice of time. It’s why thought bubbles work. We can see how it’s used by Claremont in this page from New Mutants #1 where Daniel Moonstar finally summons up her courage enough to enter the Danger Room and fight some robots. There is a lot of character being fleshed out here that is exclusively told through the thought bubbles. Could this scene work without the bubbles? Sure. Would we know that she’s grown up in the mountains hunting and tracking animals? No. You can’t do that in a film, as it operates within time. Comics allow the viewer to slice up time into moments, where thought bursts like these can exist. Does that mean it’s trickier to write that it in film? Eh, I don’t know. More showing, less telling I guess. You do lose a lot of detail. Although with that said, I am genuinely impressed by how much they were able to pack into Infinity War. I would say there is almost as mush as Claremont can pack, though not quite. Either way I think it’s a good study on narrative structure and storytelling approaches through different mediums. I’m curious to see if the Claremont Method continues to shine though. – Bryce Davidson Grant, Paul J. (August 1993). “Poor Dead Doug, and Other Mutant Memories”. Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. pp. 66–69. ———————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

06/01/2016

Juan FernándezJune 1, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez here with Tim Hensley in THE DIAZ ARCHIVE;Gran bola de helado by Conxita Herrero; 2nd Lady’s Comics Encontro in Brazil; Pablo Guerra por Ángel Castaño Gusmán; New Work from Power Paola; Spain’s first graphic novel, Tito y Tif. On the site: New in the DIAZ ARCHIVE: http://comicsworkbook.com/the-hensley-interview/ http://comicsworkbook.com/tim-hensley-draws-l-b-jeff-jeffries-from-rear-window/ ————————————————————————————————— Off the site: Gran bola de helado (Conxita Herrero) Gerardo V. reviews Conxita Herrero‘s exciting new work published by Apa-Apa in Barcelona, Gran Bola De Helado over at Entrecomics.com. Gerardo Vilches: …Conxita builds a minimalist style of naked lines, perfect for representing a world that feels vibrantly present , reflecting the concerns and way of life of Millenials today. An almost perfect synthesis between the hermetically tight and intimate, which crystallizes in small stories that depart from the literary density of the graphic novel tradition to conquer a far more unexplored terrain : the purely graphic . (..) In stripping down her their stories, Herrero sharpens them, and they reach us in more effective ways: some of the hit you in ways that only a drawing can. At times, it is reminiscent of the works of Yuichi Yokoyama and shares Yokoyama’s ability to show the world around us from a perspective that deforms and makes it fascinating. (Translated by Juan Fernandez) ————————————————————————————————— Mark your Calendar: 2nd Lady’s Comics Encontro, 29-31 July in Belo Horizonte Following the great success of first Encontro in October 2014 (an event that happened through crowdfunding, the first in Latin America on women and comics), the Lady’s Comics collective in Brazil is organizing a three day free festival with more than 30 guests, 5 workshops and display of the work by the Chicks on Comics collective. The theme of this second gathering will be The First Voyage. The programming of this entire encontro is aimed at women’s empowerment and serves as a reflection of women’s massive participation in all the creative processes in the ninth art. Conhece aquele branco que dá na hora de criar e não sabe o que fazer? Aquela dúvida sobre como participar de uma feira ou publicar em uma editora? E tirar o tal ISBN? Como montar e apresentar um portifólio? E para os educadores, como podemos usar os quadrinhos na escola? Cada caminho, com diferentes visões, desde o independente até mainstream, serão apresentados pelas artistas, produtoras de eventos, editoras e profissionais da área. Tudo isso visando o empoderamento feminino e a reflexão sobre a participação das mulheres em todos os processos criativos das HQs. Here’s the video they put together when organizing the first Encontro so you can see what they’re about. Check out their YouTube and their website channel to feast your eyes on their tireless work. ————————————————————————————————— Entrevista de Pablo Guerra por Ángel Castaño Gusmán Nice interview over at Revista Arcadia with Pablo Guerra, one of the co-organizers of the Colombian comics festival, Entreviñetas, about his comics writing process and the state of Colombian comics making. Ángel Castaño Guzmaán: In your role of editor and critic of comics, what are the obsessions that run across the work of comics makers nationally? What is the state of the Colombian graphic novel? Pablo Guerra: The national production of comics continues to respond, generally, to small niches of readers. In that sense, its not easy to find recurring themes further than preoccupations with how to survive and grow in a cultural milieu that, although more open than in previous decades, continues to treat comics as foreign matter. The Colombian graphic novel is a young phenomenon a still all the participants in the chain (creators, readers, editors, book sellers, journalists) are in the process of learning and experimentation. I hope that the path we still have to take continues to provide us with interesting works and authors that feel more and more comfortable with the form and that they begin to communicate among themselves. On top of that, it is important that, until now, the domestic production of comics continue to be the progonist in our discussions of the cultural panorama of our country. One of the greatest set backs in previous decades has been that international comics were very popular while those made in Colombia were practically all glossed over. (translated by Juan Fernandez) ————————————————————————————————— New Work from Power Paola Todo va a estar bien (Editorial Catalonia) This collects the autobiographic work that Power Paola began releasing online in 2013. Read a chapter for a real taste of Paola’s work: El Viaje. It is available for purchase via Editorial Catalonia in Santiago, Chile. Virus Tropical (2dcloud) This was just debuted at TCAF and will soon be available for purchase via 2dcloud’s website. Here’s a micro review by Kim of goodcomicsbykim.tumblr.com to whet your appetite. my short review on Virus Tropical by @powerpaola @2dcloud. i want more of her works!! #comics pic.twitter.com/qqlO1U37Qt — kim (@therealkim__) May 19, 2016 ————————————————————————————————— Spain’s first graphic novel, Tito y Tif to be Republished Published in 1915, Tito and Tif by Joaquín Xaudaró, the first Spanish comic book is now being republished by Ediciones Taulas. The story of a pharmacist and his dog, in the thralls of a surreal adventure, Tito and Tif originally appeared serialized in 4 page installments in Spanish newspapers. While it’s true that there were many “comic books” in Spain before because the publishing of Tito and Tif, all were nothing more than collections of short stories. There were no comics that picked up a single long story and followed it through from beginning, to middle and end. That’s where this book comes in. In the end, this book is 108 pages of cartooning, that all serve to tell one story. This volume is thus the first graphic novel published in Spain . And that was more than 100 years ago. RTVE.es has a wonderfully in depth look at this collection worth your time that explores the historical context of Xaudaró’s work and the elements that set Tito y Tif apart from comics of its time. ————————————————————————————————— hasta la proxima 😉 -Juan Share this page: [...]

06/15/2017

Sally IngrahamJune 15, 2017NewsSally here with Shannon Wright, Jillian Tamaki, Adam Griffiths, and James Baldwin to get your Thursday morning started! ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright made this comic to share with her followers on Instagram this week (@shannondrewthis) and it speaks volumes to her recent experiences as a young, talented artist who has recently gained a lot of attention. Her illustrations have appeared in numerous national publications and her comics have been featured on The Nib among other places. Her Black hair illustration series, mentioned in the comic above, is an ongoing project that touches on many recent discussions about cultural appropriation and the image of Black women in history and pop culture. I appreciate Shannon’s honesty and blunt politeness in embracing her new fans and dealing with her (probable) frustration with other folks’ demands and expectations for her time and art – this comic is cute and classy. Good luck Shannon! ————————————————————————————————— Adam Griffiths continues his web comic American Cryo – the 7th strip is seen above – check out the rest HERE. Get a copy of Adam’s comic The Permanent Night – which he worked on during a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency earlier this year – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— There is a James Baldwin celebration going on in Harlem – 77 boxes of Baldwin’s manuscripts, photos, letters, notes and more, have come back to where it all started – the contents are on display at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on Malcolm X Boulevard, just a few doors down from the elementary school that Baldwin attended. Other bookstores in the area are featuring Baldwin’s work and churches and schools will be hosting lectures and other events in the next few weeks. More detail HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Jillian Tamaki speaks to The Guardian about her new comics collection Boundless. “The stories in Boundless often started as thought experiments, for which Tamaki would conjure up the domino sequence that follows. Half Life exemplifies her simultaneously deadpan and sensitive voice: protagonist Helen slowly shrinks in size, as if possessed by an intractable force. “If gets pushed and pushed and pushed, it is relentless. There’s no changing her path,” explains Tamaki. But it is Helen’s reactions that are the focus of the story. “I think the story is quite fantastical, obviously, but it’s also fantastical in that she is completely calm about it. She’s not afraid, she’s not freaking out – people around her are freaking out – but she is completely adapting to the new circumstances.” “ More HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 6-15-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-15-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-15-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

“How we were thinking” – The Zeitgeist and The Complete Wimmen’s Comix

MardouMay 26, 2016EssaysMystic novelist Doris Lessing interspersed her autobiographies with news clippings and thought-snippets that she’d saved from the years she was writing about. It’s not something you see very often in personal biography; history books are preferred when pulling in contextual ‘fact’. Instead Lessing supplies us with flavors of 60’s London (such as “in cinemas and theatres we stood up for the national anthem”). There’s something so evocative about how she pulls on that shared current of her time. Some of ‘the times’ get culturally hardened and recorded in history books, but lots of it doesn’t. In a similar vein, singer Ian Svenonius notes the transient attitudes of the Then-and-Now, using The Velvet Underground as an example , “…groups that failed in their own era despite catchy tunes, cool shades, turtlenecks and solid connections might have ‘felt’ bad to their audience…conversely, groups which might have felt ‘right’ at the time (the Grateful Dead, Grand Funk, Free etc) may seem confusing to listeners of a later era who are not privy to the pheromones said groups were releasing at their concerts.” Reading the two-volume release of The Complete Wimmen’s Comix made me think about those sort of cultural assumptions and blank spots. The first volume in particular feels like a powerful raw gust of real comics history. The pretty pink and black covers (with inset blue, bruise-like half moons) kicks off with Trina Robbin’s anthology It Aint Me, Babe (1970) and then the complete run of Wimmen’s Comix. I’ve read individual issues before and was somewhat ambivalent. Getting to read the whole gamut is a much different experience, especially the aforementioned first volume (1970-1985). The second volume contains a lot of great stuff too (and more of the artists I’d cite as direct influences on my own work such as Julie Doucet, Phoebe Gloeckner and Alison Bechdel) but the first volume stands out. It seems more experimental, wilder and much less conventional. I wouldn’t have name checked any of these artists in the 70’s/early 80’s as personal influences but this book has made me look with fresh eyes. There’s bold storytelling, some crazy comics layouts and lewd, unapologetically sexy content. It’s in stark relief to the relative lack of risk-taking I permit myself. (And yeah, I’m going to keep thinking about that one). Another aspect that occurs to me is that volume one is essentially my mother’s generation making those comics (I was born in ’75) which makes the lack of respect for cultural niceties and cartooning norms seem even more punk rock and revelatory, as well as being somewhat nostalgic. It reminds me of looking though my aunt’s closet in the early 1980’s and finding all her old platform shoes and boots. My childish trespassing got me yelled at after the event, but I’m glad to own that childhood memory of trying on and walking around in those beautiful and weird, too-big-for-me ‘space’ shoes. It’s not just surface and style though, the content is a match to the macho mores of its time. I’m old enough to remember the casual chauvinism of early 80’s primetime TV shows, as much as I remember seeing housewives with black eyes in the supermarket on Saturday mornings. Though, I was in 1980’s Northern England and not 1970’s San Francisco – yet it’s close enough to spark that consciousness. It’s kind of the thrust these feminist cartoonists were aiming at I think. This volume has also made me re-evaluate Aline Kominsky-Crumb’s work. I found her book Need More Love a little tiresome in tone but reading her juxtaposed with other women artists in this context is such an enjoyable experience. Set amongst her generational peers it’s easier to see the frank humor and flippant skill in her work. She’s so great! A lot of the comics here do miss their mark artistically but it’s not important overall. There was enough I found exciting (and fun!) in these volumes to remind me of the direct power of comics in print – a single cartoonist to a single reader through ink and paper, sharing the highs and degradations of the female experience. This is a big, beautiful, door-opening book and I’m really glad it’s out there. ————————————————————————————————— Sacha Mardou is a Brit making comics in St Louis, Missouri. Sky in Stereo is her most recent comic. Share this page: [...]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply