Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in ClassesTagged comicsworkbook tv, Jim Rugg, Master class, Ninjatech, Street Angel

Juan Fernández

Posted on April 18, 2016May 21, 2019

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03/02/2017

Sally IngrahamMarch 2, 2017NewsSam Ombiri is here today with thoughts on influences and his recent adventures in comics post-production – plus all the Comics Workbook Daily Strips! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here – David O’Reilly said something like “it’s real cool for people to hide their influences and to not admit them“, and that “people who refrain from admitting their influences tend to have the most obvious ones“. I think he’s saying that it’s not so important how well one can hide their influence or not be obvious – it’s just a reflection of a certain attitude prominent in certain people. There is something to be said to not wanting to list influences. I recall both Claire Denis and Stefan Burnett saying “listing them seems boring/contrived” after mentioning 2 or 3 things when asked something akin to what other work has shaped their work? I remember reading about the guy who created Mr. Robot – he was listing all his influences in this way that kind of drove me nuts for some reason. He said something like “Taxi Driver for the narration, Breaking Bad for it’s character arc, Blade Runner for its introspection” and such and such. It makes me understand why Matthew Thurber said “All of these shows make me want to vomit in the face of the indoctrinated fool who invariably speaks of them in rapturous tones. I’d rather spend my time cleaning out a ten-year-old Rapidograph, or picking a scab!” (Maybe I don’t understand why but for a moment I can share his sentiment!) Sammy Harkham was saying something akin to “An influence is a thing that if a solution to a problem wasn’t found, it would be a longer winding road in order to find it.” The problem being, trying to figure out how to execute something that’s not entirely clear. It sounded like a really optimistic thing – that art is made with what is already in someone, and is not exactly dependent on what art a person encounters. It seemed a bit of a mystical idea. Sort of “the man at the end of the search” type of deal. It reminded me of the time in The Dance of Reality where Jodorowsky says “Everything you are is already inside you.” Something like that. I remember it more from the trailer than the movie. I don’t remember the movie too well as I haven’t seen it in a couple years, or at least it feels that way. I remember Jodorowsky’s Dad fighting a bunch of Nazis – and this one anarchist not wanting to live in world where dogs wore clothes. I remember other things. I must disagree with what Nicolas Winding Refn said about Jodorowsky’s movies being about what we don’t see. (What Refn actually said was that Jodorowsky’s movies remind him that all movies aren’t about what you see but what you don’t see. Trailers are to a huge extent how he executes this idea, I think. The movies our minds see when we see his trailers and the movies that we see on screen, and all the ideas floating around in the movie that aren’t fully uttered… I think Sammy Harkham said something like “Plot is like a coat room for one to hang ideas in.“ I think really often Sammy’s ideas of cartooning are almost similar to Robert Bresson. Not that his work is like Bresson’s, or completely like Bresson’s – they at times share similar traits. Or at least traits in what Bresson says. I think what Sammy was saying was about what fascinates him in horror films, which sounded very much like stuff that Bresson would talk about. Or this whole thing he says of demilitarized drama, and everything having the same weight, similar to how in Brian Chippendale’s Ninja things aren’t brought so much attention to. How Sammy was talking about cartooning was similar to how Bresson was talking about a virtuoso playing music and how their faces and composure are completely controlled. Or how Sammy was saying he’d rather people’s sadness not be on display for everyone to see – it echoes how Bresson said, “The sadness on people’s faces when you pass them on the street isn’t readily apparent.” They also share similarly mysterious triumphs strictly in themselves. That’s not to say that their work is, I don’t know, too too similar. Maybe Sammy is hiding Bresson’s influence to be cool, ha ha. I know that’s not the case. I think in a way that’s why I link Michael Haneke with Sammy a lot. I’m very certain Bresson had a ton of influence on Haneke. I always in my mind link Harkham with Haneke, for what are highly shallow reasons – not thinking that there are major connections, but a certain extremely specific similarity I see. – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency is a space where cartoonists from out of town can come for a week or more of comics-making intensive – but it is also a space for Pittsburgh’s local cartoonists to “spar” and train. Sam Ombiri stopped by recently for an afternoon tutorial on final production – layout and printing. Over cups of tea and The Lounge Lizards spinning on the record player, he completed his comic Haunted VHS – debuting at the Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo this April 9th! There’s always something interesting happening around the Rowhouse – comics to read and make and share. Learn more about the Residency program HERE or email santoroschool@gmail.com. ————————————————————————————————— The Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers is about to start! Although we have a rolling start date this semester, the course will officially kick off on March 7th. We will continue taking applications past that date – Frank is always willing to make it work for your schedule. Just apply! The course is 8 weeks long – 500 bux – payment plans are available. Check out the comic Connor Willumsen made when he took the course – Calgary: Death Milks a Cow! More details can be found HERE or email santoroschool@gmail.com to apply. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-2-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-2-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-2-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 3-2-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

6/20/2016

Juan FernándezJune 20, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez here with: GG’s UNATTAINABLE; the PIX 2016 Bill Griffith interview; Format Fever from the vault; Aatmaja Pandya’s PHANTOM; Sarah Bowie’s FOURTEEN EURO’s IN PRIMARK; Lisa Hanawalt at Bitch; Gulag Casual Reviewed; Reflections on Rebecca Roher’s BIRD IN A CAGE. ————————————————————————————————— On the site: Unattainable by GG We’re excited to feature Unattainable by GG on the site this week. Made in 2015 by GG for Comics Workbook, Unattainable is a short story that explores the control and the nature of boundaries in digitally mediated life. This comic presents a stark glimpse at a personal disaster in a muted, corporatized society. Read it all here. ————————————————————————————————— Bill Griffith interviewed in Pittsburgh – 2016 CWTV interviews Bill Griffith, one of underground comics’ founding fathers, about his almost 50 years of making work. Bill is the creator of Zippy the Pinhead (among 3,407 other things) // Get Bill’s latest, the beautiful graphic memoir INVISIBLE INK. ————————————————————————————————— From the Vault: Format Fever – More Notes Frank Santoro: Format Fever. I’ve been thinking about scroll comics. Not so much done on a scroll, but presented as a scroll because they’re online. What’s interesting about it to me is that reading the scroll format changes the way page reveals work. Often a left/right spread will be broken up so that the right hand side page is under the left hand side page. ————————————————————————————————— Off the site: Phantom by Aatmaja Pandya Aatmaja Pandya‘s latest comic is a forty page autobiographic piece that explores gentrification, identity and belongingness. It’s about growing up in Queens, NY as a child of immigrants, and returning there as a young adult. Phantom is also available as a PDF and in print. ————————————————————————————————— Fourteen Euro’s in Primark by Sarah Bowie Sarah Bowie has just published a 40 page “exploration of an intense, often painful relationship through a series of bite-sized reflections”. Physical copies of Fourteen Euro’s in Primark are available for purchase through her Gumroad shop. ————————————————————————————————— Lisa Hanawalt interview over at Bitch Sarah Mirk and Lisa Hanawalt talk about her latest book, Bo Jack Horseman, and her personal life. Sarah Mirk: How did you end up writing and drawing so much about food? Do you just love food because you’re human, or do you have some more personal connection to the restaurant industry? Lisa Hanawalt: Yeah, I mean, it’s one of those big aspects of life that everyone has to deal with. We all have to sleep, we all have to work, we all have to have sex. Well, we don’t have to, but a lot of us do. And we all have to eat. It’s such a wide category, I figured there’d be plenty to explore there. When Lucky Peach asked me to start being a regular contributor, I was like, “Yeah, sure.” Each issue of their magazine has a certain theme. So every time I contribute, I can kind of think about what could possibly be related to that theme. ————————————————————————————————— Review: Gulag Casual by Austin English Bob Levin writes expansively on Austin English’s latest collection of comics, Gulag Casual, over on TCJ: This open-minded “everyday”-ness has led English to an aesthetic vision which enlivens the rough structure of the comic book/graaphc novel format with the adventurism of fine art exploration. While nodding toward narrative and sequential linkage, he has more fun erasing connectives and scrambling expectations than enhancing them. “The urge to break the rules,” he told Frank, “(became)… completely irresistible.” The result is a daring and entertaining grapple with the question of how a shape – a blob, a splash, a serpentine, viscous line – with or without eyes or nose or buttons or wall hangings – can advance action, foster feeling, convey meaning. Words provide some befogged clarity – give the mind a kick of “Oh yeah! A bed! A blanket! Legs!” But the visual is what makes Gulag go. ————————————————————————————————— Bird in A Cage by Rebecca Roher Canadian cartoonist, Rebecca Roher‘s Bird in A Cage is a reflection on an often overlooked subject in contemporary comics making, senescence and coping with it. This is based on the short story of the same name that Roher did for The Nib. Canadian publisher, Conundrum Press asked Roher to expand the story into a graphic novel. She’s done so to great effect. “Once a sharp, strong-willed and independent woman, Roher’s grandmother’s life took an unexpected turn when an accident left her with a brain injury, leading to early onset dementia. An unlikely protagonist, grandma was an elderly woman trapped by her deteriorating mind, aging body and the walls around her. This story illuminates the often overlooked narrative of a senior, her complicated history and inner life. Loveable and tragic, she is determined to get back to a familiar place, to be home again. Monica Johnson’s got a thoughtful review over on the Rumpus.” – Conundrum Press Review of Bird in A Cage Over on the Rumpus, Monica Johnson has put together a very thoughtful write up of the book. Monica Johnson: Comics is a visual vocabulary, and Roher’s language is lovingly considered. Panels are demarcated without the use of traditional borders, or are “uncaged.” Clearly on par with her feelings about Grandma Wylie, her pencil lines reveal the pressure of the hand used to make them—intimate, compassionate, and wistful. Roher’s wispy and gestural pencil marks seem appropriate for illustrating a work of memory, which is how she classifies this story in its preface. Mutable. Erasable. Intentionally un-inked. Reflections on writing Bird in A Cage Roher describes the emotionally intense process of creating this tribute to her late grandmother. Roher’s reflections are documented on CBC Books’ How I Wrote It. Roher: A lot of the time while writing this book, I would just be crying and feeling sad about not being home for when she broke her hip and I hadn’t visited her at the hospital. I was thinking about how lonely she must have felt and maybe that’s why she gave up hope and decided to die, or whatever happens when you die. I thought, “Why did I start doing this? This is so painful.” But somebody told me that as an artist, you have to feel things and then make other people feel them. Go through things and create something. Go feel things for others. I kind of felt I had a greater purpose and that helped me get through it. ————————————————————————————————— until next time, Juan Share this page: [...]

02/20/2018

Aaron CockleFebruary 20, 2018NewsAaron here today with Barbara T. Smith + Experiments in Electrostatics; A.T. Pratt; Uno Moralez; Old-Timey Cellphones ————————————————————————————————— Barbara T. Smith: Outside Chance Through Feb 28 at Andrew Kreps Gallery, 537/535 West 22nd St, NYC, USA Smith’s pioneering Xerox work is the earliest series in the exhibition dating from 1965 to 1967, and reflects a pivotal moment in the trajectory of her life and practice. Initially intending to make lithographic prints, Smith discovered the then-new technology of the Xerox copy machine, a mass-printing device that she perceived to be the future of printmaking. Smith leased a 914 Xerox Machine, at the time only in use by large corporations, and feverishly experimented with, among other things, images of her children taken by the artist-photographer Jerry McMillan. Simultaneously, Smith discovered her body as a performative tool by placing it upon the machine. Obsessively repeated and layered, the resulting works form a preemptive, and melancholic reflection on the loss of her family in her subsequent 1968 divorce. Following this, Smith fully devoted her life to art-making, with works that reflected a similar engagement with a burgeoning community of artists in Los Angeles, as well as an exploration of the new relationship between performance artworks and their audience. Experiments in Electrostatics At the Whitney Museum of American Art, through March 25, 2018 Experiments in Electrostatics: Photocopy Art from the Whitney’s Collection, 1966–1986 explores the use of the photocopier as a creative tool, from its public emergence in the 1960s to the dawn of the digital era in the 1980s. Despite the machine’s intended function to reproduce office documents, artists inventively utilized it as a camera and printing press to create original fine art prints. They placed objects on the flatbed, distorted imagery in the process of scanning, and manipulated the exposure, density, and saturation settings to achieve imaginative, often unexpected results. Far from “copies,” these still lifes, portraits, abstractions, and collages reflected the ingenuity of their makers. Focusing on three artists and one collective—Edward Meneeley, Lesley Schiff, Barbara T. Smith, and the International Society of Copier Artists—this exhibition investigates how artists found self-expression through a machine designed for replication. Experiments in Electrostatics is organized by Michelle Donnelly, curatorial fellow. ————————————————————————————————— “the great American Graphic Novel Masterpiece of our time” At Broken Frontier, Robin Enrico looks at A.T. Pratt’s Ink Toby In another way the true target of Pratt’s scorn may be Pratt himself. Ink Toby was drawn under the very constraints that Pratt is mocking. The constant grinding away at making comics in an attempt to move the needle on an artist’s social profile. Reducing art to grist for the content mill. Even if as Pratt admits, the work was not finished during Inktober, it still adheres to that push to rapidly produce pages. This doesn’t always play to Pratt’s advantage, as his pages can be overly dense with at times cramped panel layouts. There are also a few instances where dialogue does, as Toby’s father cautions against, dominate the page. In Ink Tommy’s own words, “You think everyone wants to read all that shit?” Making a joke of the works shortcomings does not completely alleviate them. ————————————————————————————————— ‘This is an internet comic, not a printed volume, after all…’ Matt Seneca on Blue Teeth by Uno Moralez But what Blue Teeth attests to even more than Moralez’s image making expertise is his power as a comics maker. In a way, this is work as formally simple as it gets: a screen that shows one single image at a time, each isolated and complete in itself, yet linked by subject to the others. What’s so impressive is how immersive Moralez makes his work without any page-layout tricks or advanced sequencing or even words, for crying out loud! He gives his trust to the effectiveness of comics at its most basic level, comics as a simple accretion of image after image. It’s like hearing music played along with the strict, ticking beat of a metronome, where none of the power is in the timing and all of it is in the harmonies, the way every new note bounces off the vibration of all the ones that came before to expand the size of the world being created. Anybody can format a comic the way Moralez does here; that’s not the point. It takes someone who really understands the form, who gets that it’s about the thoughts that flicker in the reader’s head between the images as much what’s as inside of them, to make it work this well. The routes Moralez takes through his story’s information are unusual and exciting – in my favorite transition, a sexy stolen glance between Marina and her man’s road dog is followed immediately by a shot of two butterflies hovering above a flaming rose. Moralez’s sensibility is more poetic than literal, always willing to forgo the direct approach to accommodate a moment of beauty or bizarrerie. ————————————————————————————————— Via Myko Clelland / BoingBoing ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-20-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— VISION BOX — 02/20/2018 — by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

10/23/2017

Caleb OrecchioOctober 23, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here, sharing my current production process and other news. ————————————————————————————————— Hey Folks, Caleb here. Last week I talked a bit about coloring and practicing color. Today I want to give you a bit of insight into my own color and production process. No, this isn’t a “my way or the highway” type of thing, true believer–rather, think of it as a mini workshop. I want to exhibit what I do so you, possibly a fellow cartoonist, can (not necessarily use this process, but) take into account the many ways to make comics in this day and age and hopefully maximize your time and energy. Before I get into it, a quick word about the comic being made in this post. It is the 170th installment of Joanie and Jordie, a strip that runs daily (in theory) at the bottom of each Daily News post. This comic will appear at the bottom of this very Daily News post, True Believer! This was a tough one. I am currently trying to execute a a certain style and I feel that I’m struggling with. Not in a bad way, but it’s a challenge. I’m trying to keep all characters involved in the scene visible in each panel. Also I’m trying to keep the current storyline at a brisk pace and feeling free to follow my bliss. After I drew this very strip dear readers and my only friends, I realized I need to color less “literally.” I’ve been very hung up about drawing literally, but this exercise showed me that I need to stretch out my wings and loosen up. Anyway, below is my template for my strip. I cut out and draw on 4.5″ x 6″ sized panels (more or less classic daily strip panel size and proportional to the current smaller standard of 13″ x 4″ sized strip) individually and make my manuscripts by pasting these panels onto a separate sheet of paper over my template. View with lightbox on. Lately, I’ve been inking more traditionally. Some of you may think that is weird to mention. Anyway, I just feel that inking the way I am now is the way to go. Still feeling it out. Really I treat my strip in a way I feel the Noel Sickles treated his run on Scorchy Smith. He, as you may or may not know, constantly experimented and played with the look of the strip until he handed it over to the next guy. What I’m trying to say is that the look of Joanie and Jordie never stays consistent for too long. I “ink” with one Pentel Rolling Writer pen and one ebony pencil. Note possible dialog in margins. Next up is color. In the past, color has come before inking, but right now this order of operations is what I feel comfortable with. I use three Prismacolor markers on three seperate layers of tracing paper to color: canary yellow, scarlet lake, and copenhagen blue. I apply them on tracing paper because this helps me see the colors and their mixtures as I go. Okay, not too bad I suppose. I’m getting a bit stiff which means I need to change something up here soon. Anyway, next is lettering. Notice in the corner of each of these layers that I label each part of the process. This is merely for my biographer and/or The Billy Ireland Museum for when I’m dead and the eventual disintegration of my organization skills takes its toll. Is my ego out of control or what? haha But who else is going to do it if I don’t do it myself. My two “black” layers. My three color layers. Now to scan. I scan these at 600dpi because that’s as high as my scanner will go. Also, I’m afraid to go any higher in resolution because I don’t want to overload my aging laptop. Okay, so here is where the REAL inside baseball stuff comes in. This is Photoshop. I’m just going to run through this quickly because life is too short to give a detailed tutorial in Photoshop. First I bring in the ink, or “K” layer. I then select a patch of white and go to SELECT, then click “Similar” in the dropdown menu. This then selects everything that is white within the layer. We are going to delete all the white and leave just the black so we don’t get any pesky paper tones. I do this on every layer. Also don’t forget to get your color mode correct. Line up each color layer and layer them appropriately. I like to put them in the order they would be applied in process printing: Yellow first, then red, blue and black. Watch my layers in the bottom, right-hand corner and see what I mean. You have to “Multiply” each layer so the colors can blend appropriately. Okay so the last layer, the text is tricky because you have to delete parts of the inks and colors–see below. But fear not true believers. Just make copies of each layer so you have them on hand in case you mess up. Take note of color layer order, “Layer 1” being the ink or “K” layer. And there she is, a brand new comic strip! Thanks for watching! Come back next week where I will be shot out of a canon from the bottom of the ocean. Bye now! -CO ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know It’s official, Dan Nadel is no longer co-editor of TCJ.com. Of course we wish him the best and eagerly await the excellent articles he will conjure as a writer in the future for the site. Speaking of future of the site, the great Tucker Stone will take Nadel’s place as co-editor with Tim Hodler. A fitting replacement if there has to be one I think. Okay, so Connor Willumsen’s latest book, Anti-Gone is getting some love. Here is some love by Brian Nicholson and here is some love by RJ Casey. Get your CAB details! And visit the CAB site for any other inquiries. It’s on November 11th and looks to be a good one. I enjoyed this Ken Parille article on Snickers ads in DC Comics’ comics. That’s right True Believers! Caitlin McGurk and Jim Rugg talk Clowes’ The Death-Ray over on Process Party! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 10-23-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 10-23-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 10-23-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

04/06/2018

Sally IngrahamApril 5, 2018NewsSally here with words and images from Lynda Barry, Hilda Terry, Jillian Tamaki and Eleanor Davis, and Huda Fahmy – plus much more! ————————————————————————————————— The National Cartoonists Society announced the finalists for its annual Reuben Award for outstanding cartoonist of the year. Lynda Barry is once again on the list of 5 finalists, as well as Hilary B. Price (and Glen Kean, Stephan Pastis, and Mark Tatulli.) The Washington Post has more details HERE. Lynda Barry’s comments regarding the nomination are great: ” “My personal reaction as a cartoonist is a feeling-combo of honored, giddy and delighted,” Barry says of the Reuben nomination. “My deeper reaction as a professor … is much more than that. Showing people how to make comics and tell their stories by drawing and writing things by hand on paper in a way that is nondigital, non-searchable, non-‘scrapeable’ or monetizable now feels like something of a revolutionary act. Being a cartoonist and being recognized as a cartoonist means more to me now than it ever has.“ ————————————————————————————————— Speaking of the National Cartoonists Society, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund wrote about some of the first women to be recognized by the Society. Hilda Terry was the first women to be nominated to join (by her husband, Gregory D’Alessio) in 1950, but she had to fight a fair amount of push back from the organization, which was historically all men. Discovering nothing in the rules that prevented women from joining, Terry wrote a biting letter which demanded that the Society either change its name to “National MEN Cartoonists Society”, or admit women. With the support of folks like Milton Caniff and Al Capp, Terry was eventually recognized by the Society, along with Edwina Dumm, and Barbara Shermund. Terry quickly set about nominating other women and years later won an award for animation from the Society. Read Terry’s excellent letter in defense of her admittance, and see examples of all three cartoonists work HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Jillian Tamaki sat down via DM with Eleanor Davis (for The Comics Journal) and discussed Davis’ most recent book, Why Art?, her activism, her current project (a new 100+ page graphic novel!!), and a lot more. I found one part of the interview particularly interesting, and it contributed to the ongoing conversation in my head about the different way that women navigate life and the creative process: “Tamaki: I realized that we were doing that very stereotypical “woman” thing of praising each others work while criticizing our own haha. If we really want to be taken seriously we should be icy ice queens who just pontificate and never explain shit or express any doubt! Davis: Oh my gosh, my mom said a very interesting thing. When talking about meeting you, she said “It’s so nice that you and Jillian can be friends while at the same time you’re competitors.” But it’s never occurred to me that we could be competitors! I aspire to keep up with you artistically, but as far as “success” goes, mostly I think of it being you and me and Sophia & Gabrielle and all the other women against the world, against history, against this raging current that’s pummeling all of us. Oh goodness, and when you cite people like that it’s like, their individual things are so rich that it’s like comparing… planets. I am capable of really horrible jealousy but that’s not how it manifests, anyway. Haha me too – I think I’m just in a mood right now, like, “competitive? me? never!” when really I’m violently competitive in a lot of ways. But luckily with the women artists who I think of as my crew (peers? contemporaries?), I’ve narcissistically chosen to consider y’alls achievements and success as also being my own somehow.“ Read the rest of the conversation HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Web comics are a fascinating platform for sharing stories, making connections, and finding ways to relate to one another. For Huda Fahmy, her Instagram comic – Yes, I’m Hot in This – is a way to deal with the misconceptions she faces on a daily basis as a woman who wears a hijab. The Huffington Post reports: “American Muslim women who wear the hijab often experience bigotry and hate. It’s important to tell their stories… “Muslim women don’t often get a platform to tell our stories or share the silly ― sometimes stressful ― idiosyncrasies of our day-to-day lives,” said. “ Figuring it out as she goes, Fahmy has been drawing and posting her comic for a year now and has gained thousands of followers, who revel in her humorous look at her “mundane yet meaningful” life. Read more about Huda Fahmy HERE – and follow her on Instagram. ————————————————————————————————— MoCCA is going on this weekend in Manhattan – among many workshops and other offerings is the event above, featuring Kriota Willberg, Lauren Weinstein, and Kate Lacour talking “pathology, anatomy and BODIES“. Forbes has an article about Ellen Forney and her book Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice from My Bipolar Life – read it HERE. Chicago Magazine chats with Nicole Hollander about her new memoir, We Ate Wonder Bread. GG has been interviewed and her latest comic I’m Not Here has been reviewed a number of places recently – new interview on The Comics Journal HERE; review on High-Low HERE and on The Hidden Hipsters HERE. Rob Clough takes a look at Anna Haifisch‘s Von Spatz on High-Low – read the review HERE. The Comics Beat has a preview of Ann Nocenti and David Aja’s new project – The Seeds – coming soon from Dark Horse’s imprint Berger Books – check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers 8 weeks! $500 bux! 10 spots available! Rolling start date because of spring break – start NOW! Deadline to apply is April 12th. Read all about the course HERE and email santoroschool@gmail.com for more details or to apply. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-6-2018 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-6-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

A Studio Visit with Jim Rugg | Part I: NINJATECH

Posted on April 18, 2016May 21, 2019 by Juan Jose Fernandez

Jim Rugg, creator of “Street Angel” and “Aphrodisiac” [ jimrugg.com ], shows Comics Workbook TV how he takes a story from script to final. Part I focuses on “NINJATECH”, a story from Street Angel.

Video by Michael Pisano | michaelpisano.com

More images of NINJATECH here: jimrugg.com/post/130097479739/copcomco-street-angel-ninjatech-to-those-who

Soundtrack | Johann Sebastian Bach // Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, BWV 43 – 7. Aria: Er ists, der ganz allein // performed by
Michel Rondeau

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in ClassesTagged comicsworkbook tv, Jim Rugg, Master class, Ninjatech, Street Angel

Juan Fernández

Posted on April 18, 2016May 21, 2019

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05/25/2018

Sally IngrahamMay 25, 2018NewsSally here today with a report from Sara Sarmiento on Kriota Willberg’s “Draw Stronger”, plus comics and other news! ———————————————————————————— Today on the site Sara Sarmiento shares her experience with drawing-related injury, and her appreciation for Kriota Willberg‘s new comic about how to avoid such things! Sara writes: “I’ve been in a slow recovery for years from a shoulder injury sustained during a couple hard falls on ice and hit the point not long ago where I had to admit to myself that I didn’t have the tools to heal any more on my own. In conjunction with that, following the completion of my submission for the 2017 Comics Workbook Composition Competition, my wrist and hand pain associated with drawing I’d experienced for years had shifted from a mild annoyance to pain shooting up my forearm. It was curtailing both my ability to draw, and the swing dance habit I’d developed in the last year. A few months into the forearm pain, my thumb started twitching. While it’s a good party trick to get people to hold my hand, the twitch needed to go. Starting physical therapy in January was an immensely good decision for me, physically and mentally. I’d been left disheartened after completing my CWCC comic. How am I supposed to start shifting creative pursuits into my primary gig when I can’t finish a personal project without spending months in recovery? One of my big goals coming into therapy was to set me on the path towards being able to draw for extended periods of time. Physical therapy got me going on that path, but from past experiences in PT, I know that you’re not fixed and done the moment you are discharged. I was nervous about nearing the end of my PT sessions, so the release of Kriota Willberg’s new book Draw Stronger couldn’t have been better timed.” Read the rest of Sara’s thoughts on Kriota Willberg’s book HERE! Here’s the opening spread from Sara Sarmiento’s CWCC 2017 comic, titled Deep Clean. Read the whole comic HERE! ———————————————————————————— Comics Alternatives interviewed Kriota Willberg recently, which provides a nice follow-up to Sara Sarmiento’s piece. Listen HERE. ———————————————————————————— The New York Times has a feature on Aline Kominsky-Crumb, calling her the Yoko Ono of comics – read the article HERE ———————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 05-25-2018 – Sally Ingraham ———————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 05-25-2018 – by Audra Stang Share this page: [...]

07/11/2017

Aaron CockleJuly 10, 2017NewsAaron Cockle today with Leslie Stein; Joan Cornellà; Exploratory Works; Jason Lutes; TSA Book Update; Guy Delisle ————————————————————————————————— ‘Death, depression, alcohol abuse, god, and suicide, as well as tales of exes, a trip to a barbershop quartet convention, a job as a telemarketer, and childhood holidays’ Ken Parille with ‘A Brief Appreciation’ of Leslie Stein: Stein also takes a minimalist approach to backgrounds, perhaps as a way to reinforce the subjective, personal focus of the memories she recounts. Some artists concentrate too much on figures and foreground, making environments seem less important and weakening the story dynamic of character-place interaction. But it’s always clear where her characters are — bedroom, streets, bar, satanic ritual, etc. And though “Holy Jolly Sabbath”’s minimalism contributes to its sense of openness, its layout also gestures to the “grid conventions” of symmetry, balance, and order. Page one starts with an upper-left corner image bleed and ends with a lower-right corner bleed. Page two uses a familiar arrangement in which the page’s final “row” is anchored by one large panel that sits beneath several smaller-sized panels (which again, in Stein, are not really panels) ————————————————————————————————— Joan Cornellà: A New York Solo Exhibition co-hosted by Factotum Productions & Huli Erizo July 14 – July 30, 2017 11am – 7pm Josée Bienvenu Gallery, 2nd floor 529 W 20th Street (between 10th & 11th Ave), NYC ————————————————————————————————— Closing this Sunday at The Drawing Center: Exploratory Works: Drawings from the Department of Tropical Research Field Expeditions This exhibition brings to light for the first time an archive of images that illustrate the formation of our modern definition of nature. William Beebe (1877–1962) was one of America’s greatest popularizers of ecological thinking and biological science. Beebe literally took the lab into the jungle, rather than the jungle to the lab. The Department of Tropical Research was pioneering in that, under Beebe’s direction, women were hired as lead scientists and field artists. Artist Isabel Cooper, joining in 1919, publicly relished her opportunity to travel through the jungles of Guyana juggling a “vivid serpent or tapestried lizard in one hand, and the best grade of Japanese paintbrush in the other.” The structure of The Drawing Center’s exhibition mirrors the two salient stages of the Department of Tropical Research’s investigations: jungle field station work and floating laboratories for marine biology —revealing that artists and scientists worked closely and productively in the near past and that scientists once understood art as a valuable tool for promoting ecological thinking to a broad public. For the exhibition at The Drawing Center, Mark Dion constructed two installations which take as their inspiration images of the interiors of the DTR field stations. While one of the installations will develop the space of the jungle laboratories, the other will look to the oceanographic workshops. Numerous images in the WCS archive depict the work situations and interior conditions in both the tropical forest field stations and the floating labs of the research vessels. Curated by Mark Dion, Katherine McLeod, and Madeleine Thompson. ————————————————————————————————— “I had never imagined that the city that I’d studied for so long would actually strike me as beautiful.” Daniel A. Gross spoke with Jason Lutes about Lutes’s long book, Berlin, and the contemporary and historical context it now/still holds: At the same time, Lutes felt that after spending 23 years on the project, he couldn’t give in to the temptation to turn his comic into an allegory for the Trump era. “I still plan to stay true to the characters and their context, without letting current events color things in any overt way,” he says of the final chapters. For all the similarities between Berlin and the United States today, the present can seem in some ways unprecedented. “We’re in a place where reality feels like speculative fiction, which makes historical fiction like my book seem quaint.” ————————————————————————————————— UPDATE: TSA Ends Test of Separate Scanning for Books I had posted about this last week, Maren Williams at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund discussing the Transportation Security Administration’s enhanced screening of books at some airports in the U.S.: In a press statement, the TSA said that it “understands privacy concerns and only inspects items to clear them of dangerous/prohibited items.” Separately in a public-facing blog post, the agency said that pilot tests had been conducted and subsequently ended at only two airports. It then made some curious attempts at humor in dismissing privacy concerns: ur adversaries seem to know every trick in the book when it comes to concealing dangerous items, and books have been used in the past to conceal prohibited items. We weren’t judging your books by their covers, just making sure nothing dangerous was inside. ————————————————————————————————— ‘I want the reader to have the physical sensation of time passing. That’s why the book is four hundred pages.’ Simon Ostrovsky talks with Guy Delisle in support of Delisle’s new book, Hostage: I wouldn’t put fiction in—that would compromise the rest of the book. It’s all taken from my notes, which I still have, and I go through them to find things that are funny, strange, weird. A comic book is a mix of drawing and text, and it’s very powerful, it’s a concentrate. It’s like you have five seconds for one page, and you can switch from drawing to text, text to drawing, and you can find a solution where you can make it come together. I like that, because I’m always afraid of boring people. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 7-11-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-11-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-11-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/04/2016

Juan FernándezApril 4, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez here to start your week off with a round up. To start off, Lauren Weinstein seems to have had a an ecstatic morning before the dawn chorus. http://laurenrweinstein.tumblr.com/post/142237378161/4-am-i-started-drawing-trying-to-clear-my-head Today I’ve got a slew of things for ya; Keith Knight, Retrofit’s big push, new comics from Alyssa Berg, Eleanor Davis, Simon Moreton, Simon Reinhardt, and Oliver East + an interview with Phoebe Gloeckner, Red, White, Black and Blue – An Evening with Keith Knight TONIGHT in Pittsburgh. Keith Knight will be giving a presentation on his life and work at Point Park University. If you’re in the area, you want want to miss these discussions of race, media, politics and satire. Keith Knight, creator of the Knight Life, K Chronicles and (th)ink), will share cartoons culled from over 20 years of his award-winning nationally-syndicated work. Presenting his unique take on the militarization of the nation’s police force, and the unchecked killing of unarmed citizens, Knight’s cartoons are infused with urgency, humor, satire, politics, and race. His work is designed to provoke constructive, civil dialogue among people young and old, left and right, of all colors and orientations. The presentation has been a hit at university campuses everywhere. Following the presentation, Keith will be joined on stage by editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers and columnist Tony Norman, both from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, to discuss the topic further. An audience Q&A will follow. More information here. ————————————————————————————————— Retrofit Kickstarter – Last Rounds Retrofit Comics is in its last days of their Kickstarter campaign! They’re in the last rounds of this fight. You can help them get that KO. Support them to make it happen. The crop of books they’re currently publishing is really special. It includes titles by the likes of James Kochalka (Elf Cat in Love), the first Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont, Eleanor Davis with her an offering (Libby’s Dad), and Kaeleigh Forsyth and Alabaster Pizzo with a team up on Hellbound (here’s a process post from them about the “raw material” the book was sourced from). Also among the comics that may get loosed on the world, should the Kickstarter make it to the stretch goals, are works by Anya Davidson and Tyler Landry. Please support Retrofit Comics by pitching some funds their way, or helping to spread the word. Check out the Kickstarter and make it happen HERE! ————————————————————————————————— FLUFFIG Alyssa Berg’s got the engine revving and she’s started sharing her progress on her latest comics series, FLUFFIG. Painted colors dance against the tension of the four panel grid, teasing out hard earned truths onto the page. Read what she’s been making for Comics Workbook here. ————————————————————————————————— Take Me Back to Manchester Ollie East’s Latest is here! In 1872, Maharajah, an elephant bought by Belle Vue Zoo at auction in Edinburgh, refused to board his train to Manchester. Lorenzo Lawrence, his trainer, offered to walk him home. All two hundred and twenty miles. This is their story. 152 pages by the the homesick truant. Full colour. Soft cover. Numbered and limited to 1000 Check it out and pick up a copy here. ————————————————————————————————— Life and Comics – Phoebe Gloeckner Interview on Chimera Obscura We talk about Diary’s hybrid structure and why it would have been unpitchable to a publisher (luckily, she had a two-book contract), the tightrope of portraying a 15-year-old girl’s affair with her mother’s 30-something boyfriend without making her strictly a victim or “asking for it”, and some audiences’ obsession with “the facts” of the book. We also get into her ongoing, decade-long multi-media project to recreate a life in Juarez, Mexico, her place in the comics scene (too young for the undergrounds, too old for the alternatives), her unrepeatable approach to making art, and more! – Listen to the interview here. ————————————————————————————————— Minor Leagues Simon Moreton’s newest zine, Minor Leagues is available now This new work contains 100 pages of comics, drawings, stories and writing about how days go by, a video rental shop, walking, travelling in Mississippi, a snowball fight from 1995 and more. Thinking a lot about how things and people come and go. It picks up where his last series SMOO left off, detailing things that happened to him, but expands it to bring in bigger questions and other thoughts, as well as lots more words. The hope is for this series to continue and grow. Four issue subscriptions are available here. £4 + P&P – order a copy here ————————————————————————————————— He’s Walking Through The Water Eleanor Davis has a heart wrenching, surreal new comic on her blog. The way I see this, this mode of comics journaling holds the seeds for extremely exciting futures of comics journalism. It’s raw, it breathes as the words and images dance on the page. Read it here. ————————————————————————————————— The Monthly Municipal Newsletter. Simon Reinhardt has been putting together some very interesting reports of Mystery Town’s current events. You can read and print out his handiwork here. ————————————————————————————————— Good luck making it through your day, Mad Lib and MF DOOM are here to help if you need to knock out the cobwebs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6XG_20xqo0 Share this page: [...]

04/12/2017

Juan FernándezApril 12, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con el Fanzine Chileno; Martin Lopez Lam; El Museo Nacional de Japón; El Víbora; Sole Otero; Edd Muñoz; Conxita Herrero; Arturo Porras sobre Jack Kirby; Alexis Ziritt; y los tebeos de Comics Workbook. ————————————————————————————————— Uhu, papel y tijera – Constanza Gutiérrez y el Fanzine Chileno Hace dos semanas, el New York Times publicó un artículo titulado “¿Por qué internet no mató a los fanzines?”, y a los pocos días el diario El País también hizo lo suyo. Actualmente existen plataformas gratuitas para crear blogs y álbumes de fotos, y si la idea es conectar con otros o propagar una idea, se supone que la web es el medio adecuado, pero para un montón de gente no basta. Los fanzines viven hoy una época dorada y en Chile, como en varios otros países, están circulando muchos. Esta es una pequeña muestra. ————————————————————————————————— Alejandro Serrano entrevista a Martin Lopez Lam artista gráfico,editor, agitador cultural. De hablan? De todo. ALEJANDRO SERRANO: ¿Cómo surgió la idea de organizar un festival como Tenderete? MARTÍN LÓPEZ LAM: Surgió de casualidad. En septiembre del año 2010 vinieron a Valencia los portugueses de Chili Com Carne, que estaban haciendo una muestra-gira por Europa y llegaron a Lavakerí, que por entonces la llevaba Susana, con ayuda del Parras y mía. Ahí montamos una muestra, conocimos a los portugueses y éstos nos dijeron que hacían un festival en Lisboa, la Feria Laica. En diciembre del mismo año fui al festival y vi cómo la organizaban, a la vuelta pensé que no parecía tan complicado montar algo así, siempre y cuando hubiera gente interesada. Una de esas personas fue Clara Iris. Al final, fue todo muy improvisado. ————————————————————————————————— Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: El Museo Nacional de Japón publica en su web casi 70 animes de la primera mitad del siglo XX. Tebeosfera os ofrece una galería con varias portadas la mítica revista El Víbora. Poncho Fue – Crónica de una relación tóxica, magníficamente contado por la argentina Sole Otero. Otero describe magníficamente en su novela gráfica los extremos de una relación sentimental dañina. Edd Muñoz abrió un blog, El Ojo Erratico, donde estara hablando de cómics. La primera entrada está dedicada a The End de Anders Nilsen. It’s Nice That le pone el spotlight a Conxita Herrero. Lanzate dentro su mundo lleno de color y emoción! Arturo Porras celebra el Centenario de Jack Kirby. Analiza y explora la vida y obra del Rey de los cómics en la ZONA NEGATIVA. Get an original page from #SpaceRiders volumen uno!!! Last opportunity to pick up art by Alexis Ziritt!!! Out of Step Arts had taken these SPACE RIDERS pages down, but so many folks asked about them so they’re now back for one last run. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-12-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-12-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-12-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

08/30/2016

Aaron CockleAugust 29, 2016NewsAaron Cockle here today with the final hours of the Composition Competition; Glen Baxter; Shaw/Nadel; Lynda Barry; William Blake; Zines at the Swiss Institute; Poetry Comics Comics Poetry; EA Bethea; Kevin Czap; Sammy Harkham Auction Items ————————————————————————————————— The last day to submit work for the 2016 Comics Workbook Composition Competition is TODAY, August 30, 2016, at 11:59pm EST. The listing of entries is painstakingly managed and updated, so please take some time to look at this wonderful assortment of work. Thanks to all who have participated in the Composition Competition this year. ————————————————————————————————— Glen Baxter’s Almost Completely Baxter excerpted at the New York Review Years later at art school I came upon a similar spirit of anarchy in the work of the Dada and Surrealist poets and painters. I was home, and dry. And yet, I was distinctly out of step with the prevailing ideology. I was surrounded by abstract painters churning out fake de Koonings and Rothkos. The collage novels of Max Ernst, with their haunting dreamlike imagery and absurdity, became my beacon as I tried to escape the prevailing orthodoxy. ————————————————————————————————— Dash Shaw in Conversation with Dan Nadel Wednesday, August 31, 7pm, at the Strand, 828 Broadway & 12th Street, NYC. Signing and book release for Shaw’s Cosplayers collection. Additionally, Dash will be screening a preview of an upcoming animated movie he’s been working on. ————————————————————————————————— Etelka Lehoczky reviews Lynda Barry’s Marlys Collection at NPR.org She’s got a surgical instinct for revelatory narrative moments, but her vision of youth can also be too sweet, too nostalgic. If it weren’t for her clashing linework — from thick, sweeping, assertive strokes to disorderly scribbles — to say nothing of compositions that drag the eye around each frame as if to physically shake off old habits of seeing, her reader might be able to nestle comfortably into her stories of childhood. ————————————————————————————————— In William Blake news: World’s Largest William Blake Gallery to Open in San Francisco After 50 years in the booktrade and 43 years operating John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller, John Windle will launch his retrospective of the artist in October, 2016, within San Francisco’s historic 49 Geary building. The first physical space exclusively dedicated to Blake’s work in over two hundred years, The William Blake Gallery will display over 1,000 original Blake pieces alongside thousands of reproductions of the artist’s own writings and artwork. ————————————————————————————————— Swiss in Situ in NYC For Swiss In situ’s very first installation, independent Swiss publishing houses Nieves and Innen will bring their focus on artist-made zines to NY with a presentation of the hundreds of pocket-sized, image-based publications they have commissioned over the past 15 years. In light of the social and community-oriented nature of zine productions, Nieves and Innen have also invited a group of international collaborators and like-minded producers to exhibit their work as part of the library and to speak in workshops and artist talks about their publishing practices. Featuring work by Aidan Koch, among others. ————————————————————————————————— Alexander Rothman attempts to provide a working definition of comics poetry (with images) I’m not trying to answer these questions here, but to help generate the work that will. In outlining such broad definitions of “comics” and “poetry,” I hope to maintain as much expressive openness for the form as possible. This work does not call for a particular kind of content. Comics poetry is not synonymous with “beautiful, meaningful comics” or “self-important comics” or “very thinky comics.” It is work that draws upon the expressive potential of visual language. ————————————————————————————————— E.A. Bethea has a couple of short pieces at Animal Kingdom Publishing. Shot While Stealing Beer and Uncorking. ————————————————————————————————— Cartoonist and publisher Kevin Czapiewski recently participated in a podcast over at Inkstuds. ————————————————————————————————— INFO HERE Share this page: [...]

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