Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Juan Fernández

Posted on May 2, 2018May 2, 2018

Explore

05/24/2017

Juan FernándezMay 24, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con Miguel B. Nuñez; el cómic más allá de la narración; La Polola; Felipe Muhr; Carla Berrocal; Jason; Elizabeth Casillas; 9 Chismes; Bas; Gilbert Shelton y los tebeos de Comics Workbook. ————————————————————————————————— Sílvia Aymí entrevista a Miguel B. Núñez sobre la 2ª entrega de Heavy: -¡Hey, ho! Perdón por la broma, es que no sé cómo se saludan los heavys. Porque ¿tú eres heavy? Todos éramos pibes y pibas entonces. O troncos y troncas y colegas. Así que con un “¿qué pasa, pibe?” nos metemos de lleno en faena. Yo soy rockero. Es lo que siempre he sido desde la primera vez que escuché rock en una radio siendo aún un niño. Y el heavy es una parte muy importante del rock y de mi vida. Me enganchó esa manera directa de conectar con los que crecíamos en la periferia de una gran ciudad, de mediados de los setenta a finales de los ochenta que es lo que me tocó vivir y de lo que puedo hablar. Me metí de lleno en el rock duro cuando descubrí a Barón Rojo. Luego alguien me grabó en cinta el directo de Leño del 81, con coros de Luz Casal, su primer disco salió un año después y me hice muy fan suyo también. Antes de irse alejando del rock. La cosa es que escuchaba ese disco una y mil veces. Me sigue pareciendo una maravilla. Rosendo cantaba “puede salir el sol” y de alguna manera, te aliviaba de un presente oscuro y un futuro incierto. También sentías eso cuando escuchabas “Al rojo vivo” de Barón Rojo, otro directo imprescindible en mi educación músical y emocional. Como ser heavy, para mí, es parte de ser rockero, soy heavy también. Léanlo aqui! ————————————————————————————————— Notas sobre el cómic más allá de la narración – Horacio Muñoz Fernández El cómic ha abandonado, gracias al trabajo de algunos dibujantes como Yuichi Yokoyama, Patrick Kyle, Gabriel Corbera, Richard McGuire, Irkus (M) Ziberio o Begoña Gacía-Alén, el régimen representativo que privilegiaba la narración y la fábula para adentrarse en un régimen estético caracterizado por un principio de estructuración que tiende a ser más semántica y narrativamente autónomo. Estos dibujantes han descubierto que el valor estético del cómic no tiene que depender de su contenido narrativo, y que «lo visual no es siempre un querer decir que se hace efectivo mediante un dar-que-ver». Liberando al dibujo y a la viñeta de su sometimiento a la narrativa y a los textos redundantes que reafirmaban el significado de las imágenes, estos nuevos dibujantes nos descubren que además de una poética aristotélica existe una de la imagen y de los signos que se caracteriza por su densidad, su ambigüedad, su incertidumbre, y que más allá del lenguaje y de la narración existen espacios de sentido y de visualidad que no necesitan ser mejorados por la palabra. Léanlo 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! Las chicas conversan con el gran dibujante Felipe Muhr acerca de su trabajo, estudios, inspiración y visión del cómic en chile, a partir de su reciente participación en el pasado MOCCA Fest de Nueva York, como uno de los encargados de llevar una mesa de historieta chilena al festival. –“Epigrafías”, creado por la ilustradora Carla Berrocal y la poeta Natalie Clifford ha sido reseñado en Hay una lesbiana en mi sopa. El gran noruego, Jason, hizo el Camino de Santiago y ahora cuenta sus peripecias con su habitual estilo y humor. Elizabeth Casillas les cuenta… Autsaidercomics acaba de publicar 9 Chismes de Santiago Lorenzo iluminado por Mireia Pérez. Dale un vistazo! Bas: la representante de las autoras en el TBO, ha sido entrevistada por Elisa McCausland. Gilbert Shelton ha hablado con Eduardo Bravo para Yorokobu Magazine! Para que sepan, al padre de los ‘Freak Brothers’ no le mola dibujar… ————————————————————————————————— Take thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers this summer! 8 weeks – $500 bux – the best comics coaching around. More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 5-24-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-24-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

08/26/2016

Sally IngrahamAugust 26, 2016NewsThe last Friday in August! We made it! It’s been a weird month – but this week was full of interesting things, like “one-page graphic novels” with Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman, Shannon Wright comics on The Nib, Nicole Claveloux being published in English, an ocean-spanning exchange between Ulli Lust and Priya Kuriyan, sketchbook pages from Sacha Mardou, a look at Afua Richardson, and Jillian Tamaki in The New York Times. ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright has a comic on The Nib – Trump, Black Americans Don’t Need Your Help (above) – read the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Françoise Mouly presented a piece in The New Yorker about the “one-page graphic novels” that have stuck in her husband’s head over the years. Art Spiegelman has often been called the “father of graphic novels” but has only recently started softening to the idea. “Spiegelman decided it was time to embrace the term that has come to characterize “an ambitious comic book,” whether the narrative is drawn on one page or three hundred. “Since comics is the art of compression, I started looking back on the one-pagers which either in terms of their subject matter or in terms of their resonance had stayed in my brain,” he said.“ Check out the list HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The New York Review of Books announced that it will be publishing The Green Hand and Other Stories by Nicole Claveloux in 2017. This collection is the first of Claveloux’s work that will appear in English, and it includes an introduction by Daniel Clowes. Clowes writes: “The artwork…is some of the most beautiful ever created for our lowly form—vivid, dreamlike, with intensely vivid hand-separated colors unlike anything I’ve ever seen.“ These short stories were originally published in the 1970’s. Read more about the book HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Here on Comics Workbook we are happy to present new sketchbook pages from Sacha Mardou. Her recent visit to St. Louis’ Magic House (a children’s museum) left her somewhat underwhelmed, but at least she had time to draw…! More pages and the whole story HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Ulli Lust (author of Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life) met Priya Kuriyan in Delhi, India, this spring, and they began an interesting project together. As Ulli Lust writes on Electrocomics: “Priya Kuriyan draws portraits of people in Delhi since years and so does Ulli Lust in Berlin. They met this spring in India and decided to begin a visual dialog: One sees an interesting person and sends the drawing to the other one to find an opponent on the other side of the planet.“ Here are the first results of this unique pen-pal exchange – Their second exchange can be viewed here – and it includes more of the stories behind each drawing. We’ll have to keep an eye on the site for more as the year progresses. Keep up with what Ulli Lust is into these days HERE. And you can find more comics and artwork by Priya Kuriyan HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Check out work by Afua Richardson, one of the artists working on Marvel’s Black Panther spin-off World of Wakanda. Vamp Jazz hands. . 08132k16 A photo posted by Afua Richardson (@doctafoo) on Aug 13, 2016 at 11:26pm PDT Afua Richardson has been working in the comics industry since 2004, when Brandon Graham got her a gig at NBM publishing. There is a lot of buzz about the series she is currently working on, stemming from the early July upheaval about Marvel’s attempts at diversity. Back in May, Richardson already had a lot to say about that to Ian Freeman at The Urban Daily: “Diversity is not just planting a black person or a gay person or a woman in a character normally held by caucasian men. It’s getting into the minutia of the human experience. Stories ages ago had common tropes and icons that were not even realistic to what would be considered the “White experience” – one-dimensional, straight-path good guys and unreasonably evil bad guys who explain their plans just for them to be foiled. That’s not reality. Even terms like white and black when describing people almost do a disservice because there is so much baggage with these terms. White = automatically racist, easier life and decedents of slave owners. And that’s just not factually correct in every case. Black in no way defines the cultural variety, philosophy or culture of the individual in question. But comics were a very niche industry that were created by a small group of people who had to answer to an even smaller group of editors and executives who wanted to make sure they spoke to their client base. Now that that base has expanded, people can speak with their dollars and back the books they want to see made. Falcon as Captain America says to comic readers that an African-American man can hold the mantle of Captain and American. Its not politically correct to show the variables in philosophy illustrated in fiction. It’s realistic.” – Afua Richardson Read the rest of this interview HERE. Read more about World of Wakanda HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Over on The New York Times there is a good interview with Jacqueline Woodson – which you should definitely check out – but I mention it because Jillian Tamaki did the accompanying illustration. Rad. ————————————————————————————————— See you next week! – Sally Share this page: [...]

06/04/2018

Caleb OrecchioJune 3, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Ben Sear’s latest Double+ Adventure, Ideal Copy. ————————————————————— Often people will compare Ben Sears’ Double+ stories to comics like Tintin or Dragon Ball, and I could even make a convincing comparison to Miyazaki’s first feature Castle of Cagliostro with this new installment; but I see a true spaghetti western influence in Ben’s work. The heroes are treasure hunters not “bounty killers,” but they bring in bad guys for cash. The “sidekick” Hank may be a robot, but is as vital to Plus Man as a horse is to any drifter roaming the American West by way of Italian sets and Spanish locations. There’s a character that is introduced in the new book, Ideal Copy (published be the great Koyama Press), that really gives off a Lee Van Cleef in Death Rides a Horse vibe (the old, reticent veteran with a score to settle). I enjoy all of Ben’s work, but Ideal Copy was a particularly fun issue for me. The story moves along at a pleasurably steady pace. Read. Laugh. Turn the page. Repeat. I think the way the author builds objects within his world interestingly plays a part in this seamless rhythm. It is as if everything is made of thick, malleable Legos that can be rearranged to make anything. Everything has this chunky, charming structure and the designs throughout the book don’t deviate from this visual idea. For example, there are no sleek, chrome muscle cars next to bulky cube-based cars. Every object within the world stands sturdily together. The result is nearly one-hundred percent great despite the occasional action sequence that doesn’t quite read perfectly due to color choices when conveying depth, but overall the blockiness of the environment that fills the Double+ Adventures feels limitless. Sears is the ultimate gamer in his very own Minecraft-of-the-mind, and I really have a ball touring it. I really want to come back to my point about the spaghetti western comparison, and go off the deep end and compare Ideal Copy with Sergio Corbucci’s film The Great Silence and how they mirror one another’s, not only environmental hazards but, subtextual theme of struggling against fascistic entities…but I think I’ll save that one for another time. I’m just happy that Ben has consistently put out a good book every year for the last three years (not to mention the minis before and in between). Here’s to many more! Cheers! You can order a copy of Ideal Copy by Ben Sears from Copacetic Comics! ————————————————————— Frank Santoro‘s new book – Pittsburgh – is now available from Editions çà et là! You find out how to obtain a copy here in the States – HERE – on our site. While you’re there, takes some time to read some thoughtful French reviews featured therein. We’ve gone through the trouble to (Google) translate them for our fellow English-speaking readers. Check it out! ————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-4-18 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

09/08/2017

Sally IngrahamSeptember 7, 2017NewsSally here with new work from Hannah K. Lee, and Sheree Domingo, plus other comics and news! ———————————————————————————————— I was excited to perused the advanced review PDF of Hannah K. Lee‘s book debut, coming out from Koyama Press next week. Language Barrier collects several of Hannah’s zines and comics, as well as a new piece. The design of the book looks beautiful, from the end papers, to the full color comics and the scans of zines (I really like the aesthetic of scans of existing books, for some reason!) The new comic is great (no spoilers allowed yet) and it’s nice to revisit some of the riso printed zines that Hannah made in 2012/2014 which are long out of print. I love her Shoes Over Bills zine, which is contained in this collection, and is a striking visual game of balance between wants and needs… Hannah’s work as a commercial illustrator and letterer comes into play nicely in this collection. I like when the text in a comic or zine is as much an artistic and visually stimulating part of the work as the drawings are, and Hannah definitely plays with her words in these pieces. Check out more of Hannah K. Lee’s work HERE, and keep an eye out for her book in shops around Sept. 12th 2017, or at the Koyama Press table at SPX next week! ———————————————————————————————— Electrocomics (Ulli Lust’s online comics publishing platform) just released a comic by Sheree Domingo called Omegawolf (above). You can download the comic HERE. I like Sheree’s use of watercolors, with a 3 color palette and no blackline. The story is about a brief connection between a boy and a wild “omegawolf”. You can find more of Sheree’s work HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Women Who Draw organized an international art project last month, which Topic recently compiled and published. “On August 13, 2017, at precisely 12:00 pm Eastern Standard Time, 88 artists all over the world stopped what they were doing, looked up, and drew the sky. What each artist saw was unique to the time, the weather, and the place. The locations ranged from Tel Aviv to Brooklyn, Buenos Aires to rural Georgia. Some saw different hues of blue. Some saw black, pink, or gray. Some saw stars or clouds or fog or rain. Here it was summer. There it was night. In one place a fire left a heavy brown haze. Whatever sky the artist saw, they captured it on paper in their own unique style. They were, at that exact moment, separate skies. But when we view these drawings together, they become one far-stretching, simultaneous world view. They become a portrait of one shared sky.” —Wendy MacNaughton and Julia Rothman, co-founders of Women Who Draw See the entire One Sky project HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Boundless by Jillian Tamaki is reviewed on the LA Review of Books – HERE. Paste Magazine‘s “Required Reading: Comics” roundup for the week reminded me that I want to read Bombshells United #1, which is written by Marguerite Bennett and drawn by Marguerite Sauvage, and just came out. The A.V. Club took a look at a preview copy recently, which you can check out HERE. Arianna Margulis‘ Instagram comic But Like Maybe is something of a phenomenon, earning her a nod from The New Yorker this week. There’s a review of Anna Haifisch‘s new book Drifter in the German Art Magazine – read it here. Ulli Lust is having a book release party in Berlin this month – here are details for the party on Sept. 10th 2017 – and here’s a look at Ulli’s new book courtesy of Lauren Weinstein! Liana Finck explores “who does a story belong to?” when it comes to loved ones, and making comics about them – on Topic, HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-8-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ———————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

06/12/2018

Aaron CockleJune 12, 2018NewsMoore/Mendes; Drnaso & Kupperman; Regé, Jr. ————————————————————————————————— Understanding Detroit: The Nonfiction Work of Anne Elizabeth Moore & Melissa Mendes Sally linked to this last Friday, Alex Dueben’s interview with Anne Elizabeth Moore and Melissa Mendes, about their collaborative non-fiction comics: What do you two think comics can do that an essay or report couldn’t? Moore: This is a question I get a lot, since I’ve done both text-only reporting and comics journalism. There’s a particular story in Threadbare I did with Julia Gfrörer called “Let’s Go Shopping,” about fast fashion retail work. I went into a local H&M—it was years ago, now, so that worker’s not there anymore—and started chatting with one of the retail workers. Now, like factory workers, and many many other workers along the entire garment production and display assembly line, retail workers for most fast fashion outlets sign non-disclosure agreements stating that they agree that they have the right to be fired if they share information about their benefits or wages. This is a nutso clause in any contract designed to keep people from sharing information and organizing to improve their lives, and it’s basically a knife wound to the project of basic democracy, since it means that even though a LOT of people work in the garment industry, few people talk about what it’s like and so, for example, reporters usually struggle to write about it because no one will go on record. But no one knows, or cares, what comics journalism is, so I walked into this H&M and was like, “Yeah we draw this thing and it works like this and I do need a photo for reference but we can hide your identity to protect you and if you want we can draw you in your favorite outfit even if you aren’t wearing it right now, I just need to ask you a few questions that are in complete violation of your NDA are you OK with that?” And she answered everything I asked. Because with comics we were able to protect her, but also depict her in an interesting way, and she was invested in contributing to something she would be excited about. (That Julia drew it was super helpful. She is very very popular with models and fast fashion workers.) That’s an actual example of information that wouldn’t have been accessible without the form of comics. In “Scenes from the Foreclosure Crisis,” Melissa and I were able to do a very similar thing, depict a nonbinary figure, who still has a very clear personality, history, and set of concerns, in a way that wouldn’t bring them undue attention or frustration. Or violence, to be frank. (Detroit is very conservative, actually, so that’s a concern.) In text-based journalism, you’d have to give some kind of identifying distinction, and almost anything I could think of in this case would put my source in danger. Also audience, of course: comics journalism is read by a far less newsy crowd. More young people. I hear from a lot of students that this was sort of their gateway drug to text-based journalism. But it takes a long time, so you have to plan it all carefully. Mendes: Whenever I get this question I always think of Joe Sacco. There’s no way his work (Palestine, The Fixer, etc.) could ever be anything other than a comic. He’s going into these terrifying places, these war zones, and instead of just taking photos, which can be sort of voyeuristic, he’s drawing. There’s no question that it’s through his lens, that it’s his own point of view– he’s making those marks on the paper. There’s no way it could be taken as objective, while it’s possible to write or photograph or record in such a way that you forget there’s a person behind the camera or the keyboard. (I’m sure there are smarter words for what I’m trying to say but I haven’t written a college paper in like fourteen years so…) Does that make sense? Sacco is reporting, but it’s personal, and you feel that as a reader. You can’t escape it, it’s more raw somehow. The handmade aspect of cartooning makes it more human, and we are still able to protect identities, like Anne was saying. ————————————————————————————————— Can You Illustrate Emotional Absence? Ed Park looks at recent work by Nick Drnaso and Michael Kupperman: RE Drnaso: With his fluid framing — fitting anywhere from two to 24 panels to a page — he dictates information delivery, allowing the mind to breathe. His drawing style is at once poetically attuned to details of neighborhoods and interiors (the lit canopy of a gas station at night, the banquette at an antiseptic diner) and deceptively plain when it comes to the people who inhabit them. RE Kupperman: For an artist known for his off-kilter tableaus, this book has a static look, especially in its rendering of boldfaced names from the past. More problematic are the gaps: mysteries unsolved, re-creations that collapse under the weight of a disclaimer. Of a 1943 meeting between Joel and Henry Ford (once a vocal anti-Semite), Kupperman wonders, “What did they think of each other? There’s no way of knowing.” ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-12-18 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

05/02/2018

Posted on May 2, 2018May 2, 2018 by Juan Fernández

Marcela Trujillo, Power Paola, Elisa McCausland, Autoras de Cómic + Digital Comics Museum’s Access Month

——————————————

Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana:
~ en Español y “sometimes in English” ~

——————————————

Digital Comics Museum – Access Month
For this month of May 2018 every user who donates to the Digital Comics Museum, the best site for downloading FREE public domain Golden Age comic books, will be given FTP access as an alternate method to download files from the 21000+ Digital Comic Museum collection.

For each dollar donated donors will receive 5 gigs of file downloads over the next 31 days from the day the donation was made.
Click on the Donate link here (or at the top of the page) to contribute to the cause and receive your FTP login info in an email.

For the last two years our FTP Access Month has been remarkably popular. Donations to the site are vital for keeping our server bill covered. These FTP Access Months help DCM build a reserve fund for those months we come up short in our monthly goal of $288 or if there is an emergency such as a hard drive that needs replacing in our servers.

——————————————

De Frente Me Escondo – Cali, Colombia

Este sábado 5 de mayo, desde las 3:00 p.m. en el Museo la Tertulia inaugurará la exposición y conversatorio “De frente, me escondo”, que intentará poner en escena el mundo de la artista colombo-ecuatoriana Power Paola con sus dibujos.

——————————————

Marcela Trujillo y los Abusadores de Poder – Chile

Hoy en el DesconCierto, dibujante Marcela Trujillo revela vergonzoso episodio de abuso de poder y acoso laboral de Rodrigo Salinas, Carlos Reyes y otros editores de Feroces Editores.

Me acusaron que me había robado la plata. Llamé y les devolvieron la plata al día siguiente. Y a la semana hicieron programa en Internet donde invitaron a dibujantes y dijeron: ‘Invitamos a una dibujante chilena muy conocida, Marcela Trujillo, que venga Maliki’… y llegó una vedette argentina, casi en pelotas, con plumas, bailando. Estaban todos súper curados en el video. Le tocaban el poto, le ponían la cabeza entre las tetas y en la tele ponían ‘Marcela Trujillo, Maliki‘, ¡todos mis nombres! La hicieron dibujar y ella dibujó un corazón y empiezan ‘ah que dibuja bonito la Maliki’.

Yo no lo podía creer, eran mis editores, mis amigos, eso no se puede hacer. Cómo tan machista, tan indigno. Después me llamó la hermana de Rodrigo para retarme porque hablaba mal de su hermano en Internet. Eso fue lo único que recibí de ellos, porque nunca nadie me pidió disculpas.

Léanlo todo AQUI.

——————————————

Fanzine Magazine – 26/04/2018

Ya disponible el #FanzineMagazine donde Mireia Pérez y Víctor Coyote hablan largo y tendido con Elisa McCausland sobre la trayectoria del colectivo de Autoras de Cómic y de otras cosas ocultas… Además Cynthia Alfonso les recomienda a viva voz sus canciones para dibujar.

——————————————

Suzy and Cecil – 5-2-2018 – by Sally Ingraham

Share this page:

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in los Cómics, News

Juan Fernández

Posted on May 2, 2018May 2, 2018

Explore

01/03/2017

Aaron CockleJanuary 3, 2017NewsAaron here today with some NYC shows of note; Leanne Shapton looks back at 2016; New Sikoryak; Connor Willumsen; Joanie and Jordie & Suzie and Cecil ————————————————————————————————— Agnes Martin at the Guggenheim Museum through January 11 Hilton Als wrote about Martin in the New York Review last July: Martin contradicted all that nihilism. She used the grid as a forum for belief—a space where the viewer as well as the artist could contemplate the hand making the thing being observed. In her well-considered 1971 appreciation of the artist, Kasha Linville wrote: Once you are caught in one of her paintings, it is an almost painful effort to pull back from the private experience she triggers to examine the way the picture is made. The desire to simply let yourself flow through it, or let it flow through you, is much stronger…. Her paintings exert themselves differently, depending on their line, their pattern, and the quality of the ground color on the canvas. Some are less lyrical, evincing aggression or tension…. Others suggest spaciousness or vast space, again without using illusionistic devices or the egotistical implication of infinitely extendible surface. One pauses at the extraordinary line “the egotistical implication of infinitely extendible surface.” Unlike her male predecessors, not to mention contemporaries, Martin didn’t use the grid as a means of describing the infinite—the infinite “I” of being an artist. Instead, her work ends at the canvases’ edge.One begins and then one finishes; the grace is in the doing. Her touch was her personality; looking at canvases such as Friendship, of 1963 (made of incised gold leaf), or the ghostly Grass of 1967, one sees various lines that begin with verve, grow faint and then run out, slowly and calmly, like a swimmer beginning strong and then using wide, unhurried strokes once they see the shore. “Line is where she speaks most personally,” Linville said. “It is her vocabulary as the grids are her syntax.” Kerry James Marshall: Mastry at the Met Breuer through January 29 Francis Picabia: Our Heads Are Round so Our Thoughts Can Change Direction at the Museum of Modern Art through March 19 ————————————————————————————————— The Top Pinks and Purples of 2016 Via Leanne Shapton at the New Yorker. 9. Willy Wonka’s frock coat, as worn by Gene Wilder in the 1971 movie; 10. Sky at dusk over Greenport, Long Island; 11. Cotton candy at the Four Seasons Restaurant; 12. Supermoon; 13. Hillary Clinton’s lapels; 14. Walls of Cecily Brown’s show at the Drawing Center ————————————————————————————————— The Unquotable Trump R.Sikoryak with a new mash-up for 2017. ————————————————————————————————— Connor Willumsen’s Portraits continues to enthrall. This magazine sized 16-page beautifully printed booklet (by WestCan – who also printed thee Santoro School Handbook) is available HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-3-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-3-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

09/04/2018

Aaron CockleSeptember 3, 2018NewsLisa Hanawalt Interview; Austin English at the National Gallery; Tadao Tsuge; John P. at Autoptic ————————————————————————————————— Illustrator Lisa Hanawalt on Her New Comic Coyote Doggirl and the Appeal of ‘Horse Girls’ Following up from Sally’s review of Lisa Hanawalt’s newest book, here is an interview with Claire Shaffer at Jezebel: I noticed that the map that you have at the beginning, at the very opening page of the book, looks vaguely like a map of L.A., but I’m not sure if that was the intent. [Laughs]. Does it? I guess, now that I’m looking at it, it kind of does. The way that the river forks, I’m like, “Oh yeah, that’s the L.A. River.” And that’s the Valley above the Red Mountains. Maybe I’m just projecting. No, I did not think about that. I made this map last-thing in the book, because I was just suddenly like, “Oh god, this book should have a map in the beginning, that would be so cool.” I’ve always wanted to make a book with a map. Every good book has a map at the beginning. So I went through the whole story and tried to map out where she went, but it was really difficult. I was like, “How does this fit, and then also seem like a long journey from place to place?” So it was pretty random how it ended up. But you could totally look at it and be like, “That’s Silverlake!” The Old Lady’s Cabin is in Silverlake. It totally is. I live in it. I’m the old lady. ————————————————————————————————— Sense of Humor at the National Gallery Austin English looks at the current show at the National Gallery, Sense of Humor, and talk with its curator, Judith Brodie: You mention that much of this work is on view for the first time. After going through the process of making this show into a reality, do you have any insight into why museums and institutions so rarely show comic art on their walls, but have made space for film and architecture? Are there specific challenges the work poses? Much of the work is being shown for the first time not because it has been hidden away but because it is new to the National Gallery’s collection, acquired within the last decade or so. The exhibition is drawn entirely from the Gallery’s collection. As to why comic art is less visible on the walls of museums, are you referring to art that is humorous or specifically the art of cartoonists? If the former, I would say that it is simply less abundant, especially in terms of painting and sculpture. If you mean work by cartoonists, art museums have long kept cartoonists at arm’s length. Nevertheless, attitudes evolve, as evidenced by the National Gallery exhibition. I meant more what are some of the unique qualities of the work that presented challenges that, say, painting or sculpture might not? Definitely the lack of such work in permanent collections is a factor. Institutions such as the National Gallery never collected this sort of art. In truth, it wasn’t even considered art. I could be wrong in assuming this, but historically were cartoonists even aiming to be in art museum collections? It strikes me that their aim was to get their work published and most paid little regard for the original drawings. I have heard purists say that the work that we should be exhibited is the published cartoon and that curators such as myself are fetishizing the original, unique work. Also bear in mind that probably more than 90 percent of the works in the National Gallery’s collection came as donations. Our holdings reflect what our donors were collecting. This is the case at almost all art museums. ————————————————————————————————— SLUM WOLF Granta has an excerpt of the new Tadao Tsuge book, translated from the Japanese by Ryan Holmberg. ————————————————————————————————— AUTOPTIC REPORPTIC John Porcellino blogs about the recent Autoptic Festival: Anyhow, we went in and did the show. Autoptic is in an amazing space, some kind of massive vaulted former warehouse. In that way alone it feels very different than most comics shows. It doesn’t feel claustrophobic or oppressive. It also attracts a slightly different crowd than your average comics con. There were a lot of older people attending, as well as families and groups of friends. A number of people came to my table and told me they had just happened to be in town for the weekend and saw the show listed in the paper, and decided to check it out. So there was a kind of openness and curiosity to the attendees that I usually only feel at a zine show. (It should be noted, Autoptic has a somewhat larger scope that just a “comics show,” featuring zines, printmaking, and other small press publications as well.) ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 9-4-18 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 9-4-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

09/12/2018

Juan FernándezSeptember 12, 2018NewsJuan Fernandez on Comics Workbook’s 2018 SPX Workshops This weekend the Comics Workbook gang makes the annual pilgrimage from Pittsburgh to Bethesda, Maryland to join in on the explosion that is the Small Press Expo. If you’d like to take part in any of our workshops, or just want to find us to chat, you can find us posted at the Glen Echo Room at SPX. See you soon! Below’s the schedule of our workshops: SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15 12:00 – 1:00 pm Glen Echo Room Comics with Juan Fernandez Join the Comics Workbook team for an hour of comics-crafting. Learn about color and line, explore the rhythm of the grid, and take your comics-making game to a new level. Simple exercises will push you in mind-bending directions. Juan Fernandez is a cartoonist and educator in Pittsburgh, PA. He organizes the Pittsburgh Comics Salon, facilitates Comics Workbook, and works for the Pittsburgh Arts Council. All ages. 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Glen Echo Room Clay Sculpture Characters With Liz Reed Learn how to make clay ice cream cone characters with Sweet Success author/sculptor Liz Reed. Attendees will create their very own unique clay character as Liz guides the class through different sculpting techniques using everyday household items. All ages. 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Glen Echo Room Comics With Dash Shaw Spend an hour with groundbreaking cartoonist Dash Shaw, creator of BodyWorld, Bottomless Belly Button, New School, Doctors, and Cosplayers, as well as the animated film My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea. Dig into his experience and influences, and pick up tips on storytelling and techniques from a master of the form. All ages. 4:15 pm – 5:15 pm Glen Echo Room Comics with Molly Ostertag Join Molly Ostertag, award-winning creator of the middle-grade graphic novel Witch Boy, and ongoing webcomic Strong Female Protagonist, among other projects, as she discusses creative process, discipline, and Dungeons & Dragons. All ages. 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm Glen Echo Room Comics With The Latin American Youth Council & Mentors Join Jason Rodriguez, Santi Cesares, and young creators from LYLC for a bilingual workshop about using comics to tell stories that can cross language barriers and break down cultural differences, giving a voice to children and teens who desperately need to be heard. Comics as a transformative tool for change! Please note that there will be a No Pictures policy during this workshop. All ages. SIGN UP HERE FOR ANY OF THE SPX 2018 COMICS WORKBOOK WORKSHOPS. SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 16 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Glen Echo Room Comics With Mosi Mosi is a Portuguese cartoonist and art teacher based in Lisbon. Join her for a discussion about comics as a medium of communication and self-expression. Drawing is a wide and complex language that can be explored to express our deepest feelings, emotions, thoughts and – above all – express who we really are! In this workshop Mosi will use comics as a tool to get to know more about each other; break the ice, start a conversation and learn about the others around us through what they draw and how they do it. Bring your positivity, curiosity and get in the mood for a good time! All ages. 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm Glen Echo Room Kickstarter Presents: Five Elements of a Healthy Comics Campaign Whether you’re gearing up for volume 3 of your ongoing series or on the fence about launching your first ever anthology, you can make a killer Kickstarter campaign when you come prepared. Join Comics Outreach Lead Camilla Zhang in this educational seminar about the key elements of a successful Kickstarter campaign. And feel free to tweet specific questions @illathekilla using the #KickstarterSPX hashtag prior to the event! 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Glen Echo Room Comics Workbook Hangout Take a crash course in comics making – for kids big and small. We will bring the grids, the markers, the know-how – you bring your personal spark. Discover the comics-maker within you and let them out! Join Caleb Orecchio and other members of the Comics Workbook team for an easy foray into comics making – the perfect thing to conclude a weekend at SPX! All ages. 09-12-2018 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

Bill Griffith Searching for Beatnik Comics

Juan FernándezApril 7, 2016EssaysBill Griffith Searching for Beatnik Comics at COPACETIC COMICS PITTSBURGH PA USA – Shot and Edited by John Kelly Share this page: [...]

01/17/2017

Aaron CockleJanuary 16, 2017NewsAaron here today with Drawing Center events; RESIST!; Cosplayers; ‘Unquotables’; Notes on Zip-a-Tone. ————————————————————————————————— This week at The Drawing Center, work by Mateo López, Jackson Mac Low, and Amy Sillman. Opening January 20, 2017. Sillman will be presenting her animated drawing, After Metamorphoses. She talks about it here: But we don’t care about “the grid”—we are committed to something different: something scrappy but complex, earnest but smart, ironic but not cynical—a strange FORM! We’re not in it for the money and WE’RE NOT MONEY. We’re not coins of the realm, easily identified by our denominations; we’re definitely not thin paper currency meant to slip inside a wallet. We don’t make sense. We have rough edges and contradictions. What the fuck is “thing theory” anyway—we’re like things that talk back. Where is emancipation located? Should we split our time between art and politics? Is art enough? Is it possible that our work, our love, our beliefs, our symbolic gestures, our senses of humor, can amount to any meaningful resistance? Does resistance come in different lengths; a long game and a short game? Does everyone have to do it the same way? We haven’t figured it out but we love art that offers change above all: insistent, unremitting change that won’t resolve into finality or finesse. We don’t know quite what to do but the qualities that mean something have shifted: knowingness is out, a goddamn “good” painting seems irrelevant, smug… we don’t need someone to tells us which painting is “better.” Fuck that. Image above from Mateo López: Undo List. ————————————————————————————————— ‘So, it is using old fashioned like printing presses and trucks and you know, just sheer physical get together that will make little cells out in the open and we publish a link so that people can sign up for those local distributions.’ Betsy Gomez at the CBLDF talks to Francoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman about the forthcoming release of the Resist! anthology comic on Saturday, January 21: Resist! revives the tradition of using comics for protest. What precedents inspired you in developing this project? FM: Well, the first thing was being asked by Gabe Fowler to guest edit a special issue of Smoke Signal, which is a tabloid printed on newsprint that he wanted to release at the time of the inauguration and the women’s march. When he got in touch with me specifically, like “I want a woman guest editor,” and because he asked right after the election and that was my feeling as well — since we’d just been robbed of our first woman president, there was a sense shared by so many — Gabe’s request seemed natural at the time… My friends were saying, “I’m going to Washington.” We didn’t know where or what. I mean, we knew it was the day after the inauguration, but there was some sense of wanting women’s voices heard. NS: About historical precedent, and I think Francoise can talk very eloquently about historical precedents in France like L’Assiette au Beurre and Charlie Hebdo. One of the things is: there is a long historical precedent for political protest. But one thing that there isn’t, is enough contemporary parallels and enough space in American culture right now for political images as an act of resistance… We’re hoping to create more of that space. ————————————————————————————————— Over at Calm Undertones Now Transmitting, an in-depth look at Dash Shaw’s A Cosplayers Christmas: Shaw’s conception of cosplay shows how the exploitation of individuals that has been opened up by the postmodern ethos can be circumvented by those with the confidence to make their own meaning (even naïveté within certain bounds is enough) against the will of the myriad influences directed at them (e.g. marketing, social norms, political processes etc.). In A Cosplayers Christmas, the obliviousness of Annie and Verti to considerations of the monetary value of the gifts they exchange is endearing and humorous but it also points to the way that cosplay, by allowing its participants to claim partial ownership of the fictions they enmesh themselves in, serves to subvert the traditional paradigm of the separation between cultural producer and cultural consumer that has allowed space for capitalist interests to take hold. Annie and Verti have no interest in purchasing merchandise based on the properties that hold their interest, instead they would prefer to create their own related objects that they can attach personal meaning to. ————————————————————————————————— R. Sikoryak will be signing his newest work, The Unquotable Trump, this Friday, January 20, 6-8pm at Jim Hanley’s Universe, 32 East 32nd Street, NYC. Parodies of comic book covers with actual Trump quotes from the 2016 presidential campaign. The mini comic edition also features a Public Service Announcement comic strip and extensive footnotes. ————————————————————————————————— Could this piece have been done on the computer?…Could this piece exist without the fields of tone? Back in 2009, Alex Holden was thinking about Zip-a-Tone in comics: Zip A Tone has been on my mind because I recently received “Two Eyes Of The Beautiful” from Ryan Cecil Smith, who is currently living in Japan. Some equivalent of Zip A Tone (in virtually unlimited variety) is still widely available in Japan, despite the advent of the computer. “Two Eyes of the Beautiful” is all about Zip A Tone, from simple dot patterns, to trees and foliage……even buildings. Indeed, it is pretty easy to recreate the same effects of the adhesive sheets in Photoshop. Kevin Huizenga frequently employs this technique. Whenever Zip A Tone is mentioned, I can’t help but think of Matt Wagner’s “Heist”, printed in BATMAN BLACK & WHITE #3. Could this piece have been done on the computer? I suppose so. Could this piece exist without the fields of tone? Absolutely not. ————————————————————————————————— Pompeii by yours truly Frank Santoro – get a copy HERE. “The book itself is about drawing, really. It’s also about two artists who draw in order to see the world around them. So, the book itself IS drawing—and at the end it breaks down the barrier between what’s “real” and what is “drawn”. That’s what is great about the medium—that I can use drawing to illustrate that breakdown. There are a lot of visual rhymes in the book—where the “reality” is mirrored by a painting or a drawing. I’m trying to get to the core of visual storytelling by amplifying the process of drawing and making that the subject of the story as much as the interaction of the characters.” – Frank Santoro in an interview with Publishers Weekly ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-17-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-17-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-17-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply