Juan Fernandez brings you: a collection of work Laila Milevski;Doug Wright Awards; Darwyn Cooke; Allison Bechdel; Melissa Mendes; Intruder; the Ines Estrada archive; Josh Bayer Week; Poor Artists; Aphantasia.
—————————————————————————————————
L’avventura and La notte
We’re pleased to present a collection of comics by Laila Milevski on the site this week. Made in 2014 for Comics Workbook, this series is “an exploration of visual mechanisms and themes in the Antonioni movies L’avventura and La notte…narrated by the mild-mannered, neurotic man who is drawing the comics.”
Thoughful reflections, Exquisitely drawing, cleverly composed. Read it here.
—————————————————————————————————
Doug Wright Awards
From this weekend’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival: Michael Deforge, Dakota McFadzean and Patrick Kyle took home the awards among one of recent years’ most exciting nomination lineups of Canadian talent. Read all about what happened at the ceremony on the DWA’s official site and read the jury statement’s for the winning work.
—————————————————————————————————
Cooke challenged the “illustrational vibe” that became prominent in comics in the 90s, Fowler said.
“Everyone was doing a lot of lines, a lot of detail with every panel photo-realistically rendered — and that’s not what comics is about. Darwyn slammed that book down in the middle of the table and said, ‘No, this is comics.’ And he was right. He allowed us to be cartoony again.”
—————————————————————————————————
Allison Bechdel Awarded
Allison Bechdel recieved an honorary degree from Smith College on Sunday. Bechdel’s work is archived at Smith’s Sophia Smith Collection. You can watch Bechdel in conversation in with Smith College’s Susan Van Dyrne here.
—————————————————————————————————
Melissa Mendes’ Lou
It’s real! Mendes’ Lou is out now! Andy Oliver gives a look at over on Broken Frontier to highlight its release:
Originally published as a series of minicomics from the hugely respected micropublishing outfit Oily Comics, Melissa Mendes’s Lou has received a much deserved collected edition.
The book follows the adventures of the titular character – a young tomboy – and her two brothers John and Eddie in 1990s small-town America. Mendes juxtaposes quieter moments of family life with longer-running, overarching storylines focusing on the intrigue of dodgy dealings at the local pizza shop and the mystery of a fantastic secret hideout adopted by the local kids.
If you’re itching to learn more, check out Broken Frontier’s review of the original 15 issue run and see for yourself, what the big hubub is about.
Lou is now available via Alternative Comics.
—————————————————————————————————
The Stranger on Intruder
Intruder, a free publication produced quarterly since 2012 by Seattle comics-makers is ending. Alas. Rich Smith over at The Stranger reflects on the role of this free comics publication in the Seattle comics scene.
Though Intruder is bowing out after the next issue, the paper has already made an impact on the local comics community. Palm said a comics-only paper up in Bellingham called Emergence and another one in Portland called Vision Quest cite Intruder as their inspiration.
Kelly Froh, author and codirector of Short Run festival, said that Intruder got a lot of comic artists and comic enthusiasts to see the fun again, “When you can pick up free comics at your record store, or at a block party on Summit Avenue, that’s making comics as accessible as they should be,” she said.
—————————————————————————————————
How familiar are you with Inés Estrada? Estrada is an illustrator and cartoonist from Mexico City, whose comics have been published in the US and Europe. She has also been self-publishing her work since 2006 under her label Gatosaurio, putting out comics, prints, shirts and merch of all kinds.
If you’re not intimately familiar with her work, I want to encourage you to read up on her! Estrada has 7 comics up over at Zco.mx for your reading pleasure. Of note is Sindicalismo 89, a funny stoner romp filled with gossip, parties, destruction, dreams and masturbation.
Oh and don’t miss Estrada’s PFC Journal. It features Estrada’s raw, first take cartooning as she documented her visit to Minneapolis for the Pierre Feuille Ciseaux group residency organized by ChiFouMi, MCAD and Autoptic in 2015.
—————————————————————————————————
ICYMI – Josh Bayer Week on High-Low
Rob Clough touched on all the bases of Bayer’s minicomics, the big books, the ethos, the craft over on the High-Low blog last week. Take some time and catch up with this artist profile if you missed it.
—————————————————————————————————
Why Are (Most) Artists (So Fucking) Poor?
Oldie, but a goodie by William Powhida. Over at Hyperallergic. Great hand drawn graphs 😉
—————————————————————————————————
Aphantasia: the Blindness of the Mind
Here’s some food for thought coming to you from the cofounder of Firefox, Blake Ross.
If I tell you to imagine a beach, you can picture the golden sand and turquoise waves. If I ask for a red triangle, your mind gets to drawing. And mom’s face? Of course.
You experience this differently, sure. Some of you see a photorealistic beach, others a shadowy cartoon. Some of you can make it up, others only “see” a beach they’ve visited. Some of you have to work harder to paint the canvas. Some of you can’t hang onto the canvas for long. But nearly all of you have a canvas.
I don’t. I have never visualized anything in my entire life. I can’t “see” my father’s face or a bouncing blue ball, my childhood bedroom or the run I went on ten minutes ago. I thought “counting sheep” was a metaphor. I’m 30 years old and I never knew a human could do any of this. And it is blowing my goddamned mind.
For those interested, Carl Zimmer at the New York Times has also written a piece on aphantasia.
It’s interesting to unpack the assumptions that are neurotypically assumed with the mind’s eye. In that vein, what does visual literacy mean and how does it work for those who experience Aphantasia? What are comics like by those who cannot see in the mind?
—————————————————————————————————
-stay fresh,
Juan Fernandez