Yoohoo, Juan’s here with the latest comics news: Gary Panter; SPX 2016 Programming; Cameron Nicholson on the RVA crew; Nicole Georges with AK Summers and Esther Godoy; The history of Craftint; payday for Noah Van Sciver; Connor Willumsen’s latest book; Rowhouse Residency’s Sammy Harkham ends TOMORROW!
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Portraits by Connor Willumsen
Comics Workbook is very pleased to present a new book from Connor Willumsen – Portraits. Available now for pre-order – get your copy HERE!
This 16-page beautifully printed booklet (by WestCan – who also printed thee Santoro School Handbook) of portraits by the great Connor Willumsen is now available for pre-order. We are only offering pre-orders for the States presently and will offer pre-orders for non-USA orders after we go to press in late August.
Connor is one of our original CW samurais. He will be joining Frank Santoro at The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival this fall, teaching workshops and sharing his process. Look for him there!
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[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/280934796″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]John Mejias and Zak Smith talk to Gary Panter over on their new Podcast We Eat Art about painting, comics, meeting Jack Kirby, his psychedelic light shows, and a lot more. No better way to start your day than sitting down with uncle Gary. It’s a great start to what I hope to be a great series of podcasts.
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SPX 2016 Programming Schedule: LIVE
Small Press Expo is pleased to announce the Programming Schedule for SPX 2016. SPX is continuing the festival’s established tradition of rich, thought provoking programming featuring leading comics artists and critics in conversation. As in previous years, the Programming Schedule features twenty-two sessions with two simultaneous tracks on both Saturday and Sunday, September 17 and 18.
Check out these highlights!
– Joe Sacco makes a rare festival appearance to talk about Comics Journalism with Sarah Glidden, moderated by The Nib’s Matt Bors.
– Lisa Hanawalt graces SPX for a spotlight interview with NPR’s Glen Weldon.
– Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell discuss their work with Congressman John Lewis on the acclaimed and award winning March trilogy.
There will also be seven panels dedicated to celebrating the 40th Birthday of Fantagraphics, including:
– Publisher Gary Groth joins Joe Sacco, Drew Friedman, Trina Robbins and Gilbert Hernandez to talk about Fantagraphics 40 years of publishing.
– The two great indie comics legends, Charles Burns and Daniel Clowes, talk shop with Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds
– The panel Music & Comics has Jaime Hernandez and Ed Piskor discussing how Punk Rock and Hip Hop music influenced their respective creative styles, moderated by the Toonseum’s John Kelly.
The complete schedule is available HERE.
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Cameron Nicholson has cooked a post of Richmond, VA’s finest cartoonists and illustrators that’ll be making it out to Bethesda. Check it out and get acquainted with their work before the festival. There’s so much talent in that town. Big ups to Cameron for this annual spotlight! Get yourself a hot beverage and look at them pictures!
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Sagittatirian Matters: AK Summers & Esther Godoy
Nicole Georges holds it down on her HARD HITTING podcast, Sagittarian Matters. It’s always a good listen.
Nicole Georges: Today we are visited by “Pregnant Butch” author AK Summers & “Butch is Not a Dirty Word” creator Esther Godoy to discuss queer masculinity, pregnancy, ugliness, visibility and MORE. They are a Leo and an Aquarius, respectively.
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Art in the age of mechanical reproduction: Craftint
Over on the incredible Legion of Andy site the in part anonymous site runner, Legion of Andy, has been publishing a series of articles on what might seem a pretty dry subject – the Ben-Day dots printing process, used to colour comics for many years in the US in the past. My god if these aren’t the most thrilling and satisfying reads on color reproduction for comics. The latest piece is on the history of Craftint. Check out the comments to see what Steve Bissette has to chime in 😉
If you want to jump into the thick of it, check out all the articles the Legion of Andy has put together.
- Part 1—Roy Lichtenstein—the man who didn’t paint Ben Day dots
- Part 2—Halftone dots, Polke dots, more Roy
- Part 3—CMYK / Four-colour comic book dots vs. RGB dots on screens
- Part 4—Pre-history, origins—Ben Day in the 19th century
- Part 5—Ben Day in lithography
- Part 5.5—French comic strips of the 1880s. Coloured by relief aquatint.
- Part 5.75—A lithographic protocomic (?) from 1885
- Part 6—Ben Day meets the Sunday Comics in the 1890s
- Part 6.1—Tarzan and the Ben Day Dots—secrets of 1930s comic strip colour
- Part 6.2—Fun With (Mis-)Registration—when colour printing plates don’t line up
- Part 7 — The Birth of the Comic Book
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The Industry – Oh you know, the usual tire fire.
Jude Terror waxes on the farce of the direct market, maddening pressure on the consumer, and dizzying hypocrisy. Stand by and watch from a distance, or hop in on the comments and get yourself dirty.
“The same thing applies sometimes to fans, who are constantly pressured by the industry to feel responsible for sales numbers and pass along that attitude to their peers. Don’t want to see your favorite character’s book canceled? Well, you better preorder and tell all your friends to preorder too. Want to see more diversity in comics? You’d better buy whatever half-hearted attempt at cashing in on diversity Marvel is promoting this month whether you enjoy reading it or not, or else they might get the idea that comic book readers don’t like diversity, and that would be your fault, you see. Don’t want to see your favorite artist die alone in poverty after creating some of the most successful intellectual properties in the history of American pop culture? Well, you’d better keep shelling out $4.99 for those comics Marvel is giving them a 1% cut of, or that’s your fault too.”
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Noah Van Sciver has been doing a regular strip for Columbus’ weekly arts and culture newspaper Columbus Alive! Check out their archives to read everything that Noah has been cooking up.
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Private Rowhouse Auction – 8.27-9.3
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until next time, friends.
JF