Comics Workbook

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Posted in Festivals and ShowsTagged cartoon crossroads columbus, Sacha Mardou

Mardou

Posted on October 21, 2016October 26, 2016

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07/31/2017

Caleb OrecchioJuly 31, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here and I can’t stop thinking about Jack Kirby ———————————————————————————————— Kirby Complex Not a day goes by that I don’t flip through a Kirby comic. Lately I’ve taken keen interest in the “Tales of Asgard” stories that were the back up feature for Thor. Love those 4-panel grids. And I don’t care what anyone says, Colletta was NOT Kirby’s worst inker—in fact I’d argue (at least in the case of the Tales of Asgard) that Colletta was one of Kirby’s BEST inkers. Chic Stone is the most underwhelming Kirby inker in my humble opinion—but that is neither here nor there. I’m just thinking out loud. Hmmm…I’m stalling because I’m having a hard time collecting my thoughts at the moment. More and more each day I am convinced that Jack Kirby was a prophet. And I know I’m not the only who thinks this. Just one google search led me to this. I’ve heard others talk about Kirby amazing ability to either affect future culture or basically predict future events. Ever heard the story of how Kirby drew a mushroom cloud before the public was even aware what that was? He got a visit from the FBI. I’m having a hard time remembering where I read/heard this so you get a “No-Prize” if you leave a link in the comments to it. Whenever I talk about Kirby to a layperson, I like to point out Mother Box. Basically, Kirby’s prediction of the smartphone and tablet. See below how Orion of the New Gods uses Mother Box to hide his real face like a Instagram or Snapchat filter—he’s practically taking a selfie. Or this one where Orion (as O’Ryan) mentions Mother Box’s GPS capabilities. And when I see this page, I can’t help but think of how we now have the technology to control drones with our devices. These were just the examples that came to me off the top of my head. If the spirit moves you, dear reader, feel free to leave any other examples that struck you while reading Kirby’s work that gives evidence of Kirby’s prophetic gift. I’m sure there are those of you who have given this much thought. Anyway, have a good Monday ———————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know I found this talk on Kirby by Arlene Schumer to be really really fantastic. I particularly like how he gave context to Kirby’s roll in culture through the years. I have very much been enjoying Gabrielle Bell’s Annual July Dairies this year. I’m a sucker for comics with dogs. If you wanted to apply for CAB this year and haven’t yet–you’re too late, but here is Chris Ware art you can snag if you do go. I spent my lunches this past week watching this esoteric comic store documentary series on youtube. For those of you with taste, much of the content will probably infuriate you as it did me. Almost all of the people involved in this comic store HATE everything I love. That being said, I absolutely love this series for its non-judgemental take on an aspect of comics culture. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-31-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ———————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-31-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

06/05/2017

Caleb OrecchioJune 4, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on recently read comics by Mickey Z, Matthew Thurber, and Jillian Tamaki, and enough links to make a cat bark. ————————————————————————————————— Below are some thoughts on some recent comics I’ve read. Three very different comics by three very different cartoonists. Mostly, I’ve been thinking about how people draw so that is reflected herein. RAV 2nd Collection by Mickey Zacchilli (Youth in Decline)–buy it here As is always the case with a Mickey Z comic, 2nd Collection is hilarious. She shares comedic DNA with Rumiko Takahashi. Often it is the aside remarks and the contrast of character personalities that take you off guard and make you laugh out loud. Michael DeForge writes in the introduction, “Mickey’s comics always feel as though they’re about to come apart at the seams, but they never do.” This is true on many levels. First, my copy of RAV 1st Collection is literally falling apart at the seams of the binding (when I talked to Youth in Decline proprietor, Ryan Sands, at CXC 2016 he assured me this would be less likely to happen for the 2nd Collection. So far so good!) Second, Mickey’s drawings are thin, scratchy and chaotic, she uses the digital gray zippatone effect to strengthen and hold up her loose drawings. The gray layer allows for the drawings to keep their first-take raw energy and act as the concrete for the scaffolding—the lines. The product of such an alchemy that is unabashedly manic and energized. I imagine sparks flying off her pen when she draws, and her hair standing on end due to the effect—like Goku going super-saiyan or something. Art Comic #1-5 by Matthew Thurber (Swimmers Group)–buy issues here Art Comic is a satirical fairytale of contemporary art. Thurber is achingly smart. Every comic he’s done—including this one—are just filled to the brim with intelligence and rarely unparalleled whit that harmoniously blends with his traditionally-minded cartooning to make an intellectual’s dream comic. Thurber’s drawings feel like actual drawings rather than “inked drawings.” There is almost no embellishment to his lines which creates an intimacy many comics lack (Noah Van Sciver is another cartoonist who I think fits this bill). To me, having embellished inking, digital color, etc., can be like adding a drum kit to a band—everything else has to be turned up and some of the camaraderie between performer and audience is lost. I’m not trying to put down any other way of cartooning or music—Highway 61 Revisited is one of my favorite albums; but Thurber, as a cartoonist, is the lone musician on the stage singing to his attentive and perceptive audience. Simple chord changes and finger picking, with astute, biting lyrics allows us to listen and think. Boundless by Jillian Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly)–buy it here You may know her from many things. Most notably, you may know her from Caldecott Honor winning graphic novel she drew in collaboration with her cousin Mariko Tamaki, This One Summer. A skill, I think that is underrated these days is the ability to be just the drawer AND the author—and the part that goes under appreciated is the ability to do both very well. I’m trying to keep this post brief so I’ll get to the point, Tamaki’s drawing is among the best in the business among or better than such cartoonists as David Mazzuchelli, Connor Willumson, Jaime Hernandez–you name ’em! I am especially taken with what I call her “children’s book” style of drawing. Strings of squiggles and shifty lines come together in perfect harmony to create simple, plump people, animals and plants that seemed to be ripped right out of my childhood subconscious. At first the drawing reminded me of Sendak—Little Bear specifically—but less stiff. Then I think more and I think of all the little drawings and illustrations I saw in old kid’s nature magazines, craft magazines, story book anthologies, songbooks, etc. I guess what I’m trying to say is that this children’s book drawing style feels new, old, elusive, and familiar at the same time, and I’m left baffled by Tamaki’s prowess of craft. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Whoa! NY Times does a “New York Issue” as an all-comics issue where cartoonists collaborate with NY Times reporters that you can read online here. I’m personally most excited about the Mazzuchelli strip! Noah Van Sciver has an interview over at Fumettologica on the occasion of his book, Disquiet, being published in Italy by Coconino Press. Please read this particularly good strip by Noah, featuring Simon Hanselmann! John Porcellino has an interview on Study Group’s Process Party. Chris Ware writes about Saul Steinberg’s drawing over at The New York Review of Books. Paste Magazine has a preview of the upcoming Street Angel book. Two days after Drawn & Quarterly announced that they were publishing Berliac’s graphic novel Sadbøi, the publisher took it off their publishing schedule and issued “An Apology” amid an escalating hullabaloo. The Comics Beat has more of the story. Berliac’s own statements were posted on his Facebook. Comic Book Resources reveals Matthew Thurber’s cover for the next Best American Comics. Happy to see Ben Katchor is the editor! Should be interesting. Jason Wood interviews Andrew MacLean over on 11 O’Clock Comics. MacLean and his Head Lopper series is a favorite among my pals here in Dayton. Finally, Heroes Con looks to be a good show this year with some great guests. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-5-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-5-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

05/22/2018

Aaron CockleMay 22, 2018NewsThought Bubble; Recently Closed Exhibitions: LeWitt, Nevelson, Pendleton + Hockney; English on Wood; If Crisis or War Comes (To Sweden) ————————————————————————————————— THOUGHT BUBBLE Through June 23 at Aicon Gallery, 35 Great Jones Street, NYC. From NY Art Beat: a group exhibition featuring the work of Dhruvi Acharya, Chitra Ganesh, Amitabh Kumar, Sa’dia Rehman, Nisha Sethi, Anuj Shrestha, Himanshu Suri and Salman Toor. The exhibition explores the use of comics, graphic novels, and art which unites text and image into a single work, to examine how artists from South Asia and its diaspora are deploying new ways of seeing, representing and communicating their experience in the visual realm. ————————————————————————————————— LeWitt, Nevelson, Pendleton Mar 21, 2018 – May 04, 2018 David Hockney: Something New in Painting (and Photography) Apr 05, 2018 – May 12, 2018 ————————————————————————————————— Notes Toward a Future Understanding of Wally Wood Austin English looks at the life and work of Wally Wood: Here’s one more sad story from The Life and Legend of Wallace Wood related by Wood’s peer and art-partner Harry Harrison, describing what it was like to work for Fox Comics in 1949: The art director would say, ‘Well, yeah, this is great stuff but we don’t pay very much. Know what I mean? I think the rate at Fox was $23 per page for ten-page stories. And while he was talking, he’d slip you a note saying something to the effect that they also expected kickbacks of $5 a page. This made a big difference to us in the rates, of course. But all these guys took kickbacks, and if you didn’t go along with it, you wouldn’t get any work…We would slide in this ten-page pile of crap with a real good splash page for the first page on top. He would look at only the first page and count the other nine, flipping through them fast. Nobody really cared about the quality. Nobody looked at these books, no one read the things very carefully. So he’d count the pages. We’d give him the $50 or whatever it came to—-$5 a page in kickbacks—and then we’d get our check in the mail from Fox, not necessarily in a week or two but in a month or so, sometimes slower than that. The money owed would add up… ————————————————————————————————— IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR THE POPULATION OF SWEDEN ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 5-22-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 5-22-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

07/03/2018

Aaron CockleJuly 3, 2018NewsChitra Ganesh & Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze; English on ‘Simplification’; Some Outsider Art; Military Internet(s) ————————————————————————————————— Open Sessions at The Drawing Center Chitra Ganesh in conversation with Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze: CG: “I am so glad that the Drawing Center has offered alternative axes, alignments, and contexts to situate your own work, thinking and growth––I would say that its mere presence, focus and decades long commitment to that focus, has sustained me in similar ways.” . ROA: “Drawing transcends all dividing factors, it is the most human form of expression. The DC has given me the freedom of simply being a human artist. It has been priceless to be in dialogue with other artists, who have their own relationship with the medium.” ————————————————————————————————— Simplify, Stupid Austin English continues with his wide-ranging look at comics from the past 70 years or so. There may be something to that. Simply, (1) drawing competently is an out of the ordinary achievement people instantly recognize. The ability to (2) tell a story with drawing? Even rarer. The most elusive seems to be (3) having something unique to say with a picture story. Most of comics seems to be content with varying combinations of (1) and (2). Artists like Feuchtenberger give us (3) every time they draw something. Why work like hers is considered an aquired taste still seems odd to me, and involves a condescending attitude to readers in general. Who doesn’t (if we limit ourselves to those who care about narrative in even the most limited way) want to be engaged by a picture story that is genuinely felt and mindfully arranged? When we consider a masterpiece like Dominique Goblet’s Pretending is Lying, which is firmly in the (1) + (2) + (3) camp, we know this is a work that readers will refer to in their lives over and over again. Goblet might simplify faces in service of telling her story within the medium of comics, but to simplify her ideas would be anathema to the artist. The richness of what she has to say is, itself, the point. Her statement, a composition of relationships that fade in an out if view, isn’t grafted on to her storytelling ability, it isn’t in service of a need to finish pages to fufill a pre-existing belief that her style requires an important statement to validate it. When Goblet’s father character sways and monlogues to promote himself, his personality impresses itself upon the reader with a shrieking force, because Goblet has something specific to say (3) about a man like this. Also, take a scroll through the comments: ————————————————————————————————— In Their Own Worlds Sanford Schwarz looks at some recent exhibitions of ‘outsider art’. Cartoons and comic strips—or a sense of these forms—underlie, finally, the work of the most impressive figures in the exhibition, Darger and Adolf Wölfli. For viewers concerned with outsider art they are among the territory’s old masters. Both have been the subjects of books and have been seen, like Martín Ramírez, who is their equal, in defining and revelatory retrospectives over the last fifteen years at the Folk Art Museum. This doesn’t mean that Wölfli, who died in 1930 at sixty-six, is exactly an embraceable figure. There is a degree of flowing inventiveness and industry in his pictures, which can resemble fantasy versions of carpets, game boards, or aerial views of places, suggesting that the man was on a different wavelength from the rest of us. ————————————————————————————————— ARPANETS Zachary Loeb reviews Yasha Levine’s Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet Levine highlights NBC reporting from 1975 on the CIA and NSA spying on Americans by utilizing ARPANET, and on the efforts of Senators to rein in these projects. Though Levine is not presenting, nor is he claiming to present, a comprehensive history of pushback and resistance, his account makes it clear that liberatory claims regarding technology were often met with skepticism. And much of that skepticism proved to be highly prescient. ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 7-3-2018 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-3-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

10/17/2016

Juan FernándezOctober 17, 2016NewsJuan here with updates from this weekend. Just got back to Pittsburgh and wanted to write up some thoughts off the cuff before I headed off to work. I’m exhausted but energized <3 We had a doozy of a Comics Workbook operation running full force at LICAF in Kendal and at the 2nd Annual CXC in Columbus! I joined Sacha Mardou, Alyssa Berg, Whit Taylor, Kurt Ankeny, Sally Ingraham, Caleb Orecchio and Emil Friis Ernst in Columbus. I have lots of thoughts on the bang up show that the fine folks at CXC put on. For now, I’ll share what I can! Whit Taylor will be putting together a comprehensive Festival recap for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus later this week, so stay tuned for that! AND Frank Santoro will be reflecting on his time at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in just a bit . Things got deep for him and the rest of the crew over in the UK and you won’t want to miss those updates, loyal reader. ————————————————————————————————— First off, a HUGE thank you to everyone on the Cartoon Crossroads Staff including Jeff Smith, Vijaya Iyer, Kathleen Glosan, Lucy Caswell, Tom Spurgeon and Caitlin McGurk for all of the tireless work that they did to make this festival a unique experience for a multitude of comics reading perspectives: academics professionals, aficionados, and new readers – the team’s work has created a unique experience that offers both depth and breadth. Incredible. Mad props to Sergio Aragonés, Carol Tyler who received the 2016 CXC Master Cartoonist awards for their lifetime work in comics – and Kevin Czapieski for their CXC Emerging Talent award. What a time to be alive in comics. Highlights for me: ⚡Locations – The Billy Ireland is heaven on earth. The Metropolitan Library is glorious. Spacious, open spaces that look out to the treetops. I was able to breath and stay calm even at the most stressful moments of my experience. ⚡Scheduling – Smooth as silk. Attendees had oodles to choose from. Little to no double booking that prevented people from seeing all that they wanted to see. ⚡Exhibitor selection – The selection ran wide and deep, in one room. Great curatorial choices on CXC’s part. ⚡Volunteer Assistance – Always on hand to assist with tech for presentations, to get materials, to cover for people’s tables, to direct around facilities… invaluable. I’d like to share some moments from our time in Columbus: View this post on Instagram Sacha Mardou presenting on composing long-form fiction at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for CXC @cartoonlibrary @msmardou #cxc2016 A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 14, 2016 at 8:21am PDT View this post on Instagram Alyssa Berg led a great workshop for Comics Workbook at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus today! @aaalllyyysssssa #comicsworkbook #cxc2016 A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 15, 2016 at 4:07pm PDT View this post on Instagram Digging right in on day 4 of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus with Kurt Ankeny's Comics Workbook session @kurtankeny #cxc2016 #comicsworkbook A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 16, 2016 at 9:41am PDT View this post on Instagram LIVE at CXC!!! #comicsworkbook A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 15, 2016 at 10:14am PDT View this post on Instagram Charles Burns stopped by the table at CXC to dig through the long boxes #cxc2016 #charlesburns #comicsworkbook A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 15, 2016 at 11:25am PDT View this post on Instagram Thee great Chris Diaz doing what he does best. Follow @cad_pictures for inspiring photographs of America's finest cartoonists and comics makers. #comicsworkbook A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 16, 2016 at 11:26am PDT View this post on Instagram Spotlight on Sacha Mardou at CXC @msmardou #cxc2016 A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 15, 2016 at 10:53am PDT View this post on Instagram A few more moments from Cartoon Crossroads Columbus – all-star photographer Chris Anthony Diaz, kids drawing at the CW table, Juan Fernandez digging in with a workshop attendee, and Caitlin McGurk getting Sacha Mardou's comic for the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum @cad_pictures @juan.jose.fernandez @msmardou @cartoonlibrary #cxc2016 #comicsworkbook A post shared by Comics Workbook ⚡️ (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 16, 2016 at 10:14pm PDT ————————————————————————————————— On the home front here in Pittsburgh, we had the 6th Annual Pittsburgh Zine Fair which saw record attendance. I’m one of the organizers of the fair, so I was overjoyed to see photos of everyone’s days over on FB and Instagram. And when I heard that we had record breaking attendance of over 700 attendees? Well, my heart just skipped a beat. Print is alive and well here in Pittsburgh. I can’t wait to join up with the rest of the organizing committee: Christina Lee, Maggie Negrete and Raiona Gaydos to debrief and start plotting and scheming for the zine fair’s next adventure. I leave you with the view that I got, homeward bound from Columbus. Suffice to say I left with energized, ready to lean in and make some new work and teach my heart out. until next time, JF Share this page: [...]

Cartoon Crossroads Columbus: is this real life?

Posted on October 21, 2016October 26, 2016 by Mardou

CXC happened last weekend in Columbus, OH, and I got to represent Team Comics Workbook and also myself as a special guest (this has never happened to me before – count me overexcited and also terrified!)

I get in on Thursday night and head to the President’s Reception feeling very wallflowerish as I know literally no one except through Facebook and Instagram. First off I meet Tom Spurgeon (finally!), Jeff Bone and his lovely wife Vijaya, Caitlyn McGurk, and Robin the Inkstud. I nervously nurse my wine and then I am rescued by Sergio Aragonés, who sits next to me with a plate of meatballs and a beer. I’m a vegan but I don’t even care about the meatballs! It’s Sergio Aragonés and I proceed to fannishly monopolize him for the next hour. Sergio! I’ve loved his comics in Mad Magazine since I was eight years old.

14695593_10101254506560955_5940331307789626104_n — Sergio and I – photo by Caitlin McGurk

Ahhh. Those moments of life where nothing degrades or disappoints. CXC is already off to a GREAT start.

Friday morning I’m giving a Peer-to-Peer talk at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. I’m very nervous, but also ‘over prepared’ – I’m not going to TRUMP this, thank you very much. It’s also at 10 am, so I figure no one’s hardly going to be there. WRONG! It was a full house; I talked about scripting and planning processes for long form fiction in comics. I tried to jazz it up with stories of ayahuasca (not my own of course, I’m totally square, dear reader) and out of body experiences and Amazonian explorers. And I did a reading from the thumbnails of a new graphic novel I’ve been working on this year.

Presenting on Friday – photo by Juan Fernandez

Once that was out of the way, I was free to enjoy the Billy Ireland Museum. I loved it so much. I copied some stuff in my sketchbook whilst I explored in a blissed out state. Oh and I ran into old pal T. Edward Bak and we had lunch. Day Two: AWESOME.

I skipped the festivities on Friday night so that I could be the sole un-hungover person at CXC on Saturday for a full day of tabling and socializing. I made the right decision. You have to treat comic’s shows like an eleven-hour congressional hearing, i.e.: you need STAMINA.

(Apologies if the election has snuck in to my CXC coverage. Ohio is very much a swing state and my weekend, traffic, eating in bars etc, were interrupted by bizarre looking fashionista Trumpettes and a presidential motorcade – yes, both Trump and Obama had been/were in Columbus that very weekend.)

So, Day Three: Saturday tabling. It went great. I hunkered down with Team Comics Workbook, and got to finally meet some of my Comics Workbook Roller Derby of the Mind compadres, particularly Alyssa Berg, Whit Taylor and Sally Ingraham. At one o’clock I had an author spotlight thing, which was easy and fun, thanks to Jared Gardner. I read from Sky In Stereo, and afterwards would sell all my copies. Sweet!

So far I’m enjoying this show so much. The downtown Columbus Metropolitan Library is bright and airy, there’s some good energy about, the locals are so friendly and the organizers are present and visible. And I’ve sold all my comics! This never happens.

But afterwards when I’m alone again, in this new Midwestern city, I’m strolling around downtown Columbus at twilight. It’s Saturday but everything’s closing or closed. I feel a little spooked out and get to thinking about Dorothy Thompson talking about Terre Haute in the 40s or something. She wrote to her man, Sinclair Lewis:

“This is a lonely country, it is so goddamned empty. I am turning mystic. Surely there is something in the very air of a city where civilized people have lived, worked, dreamed loved and enjoyed civilized pleasures for hundreds of years…some radioactivity which lingers in the atmosphere. I begin to believe in ghosts, gentle ghosts which keep one company in ancient towns. Here there are none.”

Traveling alone spooks me out. I’m not a good traveler at the best of times. I walk; admire statues and fountains and government buildings. I pass a tiny Episcopalian church. It has an 8am service on Sunday morning. Tomorrow! Maybe I’ll go, I tell myself, just to feel somehow cosmically rooted again. ‘You know what?’ I think, ‘I will definitely go. I’ll set my alarm tonight.’

I go back to my hotel room and spruce up for that evening’s drinks reception in honor of Stan Sakai. And I have fun! I forget my lonely existential Midwestern emptiness and that night I roll into bed at 3am having been to a Haunted House in ruralish Ohio with my publisher and a couple of Rhode Island hepcats. The Haunted House has a definite ‘juggalo’ vibe, something I’d heard about but never seen. It was gross and yucky, people in costumes tried to touch me! But the sight of rural folk wielding fake chainsaws made out of leaf blowers and duct tape PLUS the company of good friends has somehow righted me again. I don’t set my alarm after all. I don’t need church. I just need sleep dammit, and I just need ‘my people’ and this weekend Columbus, OH, has been full of them.

14713703_10157648279685253_5150633005052880153_n — Jeff Smith visiting my table – photo by Jared Gardner

On Sunday I sell all my publisher’s copies of Sky in Stereo, experience a sleep-deprived meltdown and Alyssa Berg revives me with dried mango slices and crystal healing. I get through! I meet Keiler Roberts and Noah Van Sciver, they’re both great! I talk to lots and lots of people. Until its time to go get my plane! Sergio Aragonés stops by my table to say goodbye. Is this real life? Before I go I coerce Tom Spurgeon into a hug. It feels right. My delightful assistant (I have an assistant!) Sara drives me to Chipotle and then to the airport.

I fly home that night in the darkness over Midwestern cities that look like small bejeweled funfairs in pools of rural soupy darkness. America is a strange place. I’m full of that crackling comics energy. Ready to retreat again and draw my next comic.

Thanks Columbus, OH. Thanks to all the volunteers who were so nice and the librarians who were unfazed by all these cartoonists, and to the comics community, including my own Comics Workbook community, for being so rad. Is it not amazing that comics people can just assemble and friendships made at CAKE or SPX years ago, can just pick up again, over printed pages and falafels? Well, it’s sort of magical to me. I get to be part of this. It was a strange and spooky, magical weekend. I wanna come back for more! I do, I do.

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Sacha Mardou is a Brit making comics in St Louis, Missouri. Sky in Stereo is her most recent comic.

For the rest of our complete CXC coverage check out the special “round up” report HERE.

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2 thoughts on “Cartoon Crossroads Columbus: is this real life?”

David Robertson says:

October 21, 2016 at 6:17 pm

This is great! Well done, Sacha!

Reply
Ant says:

October 22, 2016 at 10:28 am

“Ready to retreat again and draw my next comic.”
YES

Sorry to spam you Sacha but awesome report. Again,–UK non-Brexiteer filled with pride at dope a.f British cartoonist!

Reply

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Festivals and ShowsTagged cartoon crossroads columbus, Sacha Mardou

Mardou

Posted on October 21, 2016October 26, 2016

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01/06/2017

Sally IngrahamJanuary 5, 2017NewsSally here, with work by Karine Bernadou to share, info on Gert Van Houten, praise for Annie Koyama, plus the spotlight on two local Pittsburgh creators, lots and lots of lists…and your daily dose of Comics Workbook Daily Strips! ————————————————————————————————— Here’s a wonderful tribute to Koyama Press and Annie Koyama via the Torontoist – as part of a reflection on the best and worst of 2016, they are voting for the Heroes and Villains of Toronto and Koyama Press has been nominated for “re-defining kickass in the local arts scene“. The write up about Annie and Koyama Press is lovely – check it out HERE. The ballots will be counted this morning and we’ll know by noon today who Toronto’s Superhero and Supervillain of the year will be – of course, the obvious choice for superhero to me is Kickass Annie! (Also, check out more work by Emile Compion – who made the image above of our favorite gal – HERE or via Instagram – @montevarious) ————————————————————————————————— The comic above was made by Gertrude Van Houten, who is considered to be the first known female cartoonist in the nation who made cartoons about a specific locale. She worked for the Grande Rapids Press in the 1920s and ’30s and her comics appeared on the front page of the paper every few days. Readers referred to her as “Gert” and as you can see in the piece above, the character “Little Gert” always made an appearance in a corner of her strips. Learn a bit more about her HERE, or get a copy of Drew Damron’s booklet Her Pitchers: The Life and Work of Gert Van Houten from Issue Press. ————————————————————————————————— A happy discovery for me this week was French cartoonist Karine Bernadou. I read a copy of Canopy (Retrofit Comics, 2016) while working at Copacetic Comics and laughed and grimaced my way through it. A young woman is abandoned in the woods by her mother and left to discover on her own the means to deal with a strange faceless man, a loving ogre, beautiful sirens, and the frightening/magical forest itself. I enjoyed Karine’s pantomime style and the somewhat violent, but hilarious tumble I took through her world. Get a copy of Canopy from Copacetic Comics or Retrofit, where it is also available digitally. ————————————————————————————————— Shout-out to local Pittsburgh cartoonists and creators Hannah Leach and Em DeMarco who attended the Pittsburgh Comics Salon this past week. There is an incredible richness of badass women working in the city these days and I’m always excited to meet, and get to know them better. Check out Em DeMarco’s work HERE – she is a comics journalist whose work appears regularly in the Pittsburgh City Paper, as well as a talented photographer who you are almost sure to bump into at more than one punk show on any given weekend. She works relentlessly, and is even turning her hand towards teaching comics this year. She’s definitely an inspiration to me! Hannah Leach draws and SEWS too! She recently opened an Etsy store which you should certainly check out – WolfWitchStitch. Also follow her Instagram for more drawings and stitchery in progress – @wolfwitchstitch. ————————————————————————————————— Heidi MacDonald over on The Comics Beat has The Beat Annual Creator Survey 2017. It contains thoughts on what was cool in 2016, what to expect in 2017, and – thankfully, in the face of plenty of negative energy going around – what inspires the creators that Heidi interviewed. Autostraddle has their list of the 10 Best Comics of 2016 – part of their Drawn to Comics series, which focuses on comics by, featuring, and for queer ladies. The Comp Magazine has a nice list of 10 Comics Read Twice in 2016 – including Anya Davidson’s Band for Life, Pushwagner’s Soft City, and the new Black Panther series which are all books I can totally get on the hype wagon for myself. The rest of the list is solid too, so if your “to be read” list needs rounding out, you’ll find some books to add there. Since I’m listing lists here, I may as well add The Comic Journal‘s The Best Comics of 2016 (According to Some) – and speaking of Anya Davidson, she was one among the “according to some” and had some thoughts on lists like these: “Can I say that I think these kinds of lists are arbitrary, because there is a dizzying number of brilliant books out there that I haven’t read, so this is more of a “list of things I read that I greatly enjoyed” than a best of?” Yes, you can say that, and thanks. Last list for today – The Guardian has one that is looking forward to The 20 Comics to Watch Out for in 2017. Lots of good stuff including new books by Eleanor Davis and Jillian Tamaki, and more of the Worlds Of Wakanda and Shade: The Changing Girl series’. ————————————————————————————————— I was just flipping through Zona #1 (above) today, looking for Gabriella Tito‘s story specifically – which you can read online HERE – but of course I ended up perusing the whole thing since Harry Moyer, Jack Brougham, and Frank Santoro’s stories are equally rad. This is one of my favorite Comics Workbook publications and if you don’t have a copy I highly recommend it – 60 pages of work in black and white, with screen printed covers made by Frank, out of an edition of only 100. Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-6-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-6-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

06/21/2018

Juan FernándezJune 21, 2018NewsHartley Lin Interviewed at Comix Experience; Zak Sally’s latest zine; the Summer Santoro School Correspondence Course – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Hartley Lin (Pope Hats, Young Frances) is interviewed by Brian Hibbs, live at Comix Experience in San Francisco. This is a great interview that in addition to giving great insight on where Lin is coming from as a comics maker, also notably discusses the world before and after the Xeric Grant. A little on Hartley Lin before you dig in: Lin is a cartoonist and illustrator from Toronto. His comic book series Pope Hats has received a 2013 Ignatz Award, 2012 Doug Wright Award and 2010 Joe Shuster Award. He has illustrated for Slate, HarperCollins, Chronicle Books, COMPLEX, Wired, The Walrus and The Believer. He now lives in Montreal. Hartley debuted Young Frances, his first major graphic novel with AdHouse Books at TCAF this year. Watch it over on Youtube. – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – FOLRATH PART 2 – Zak Sally $9.00 at La Mano At long last, here it is. Starting mere moments after where Part 1 left off, it’s 159 pages of stories about landing in punk rock Oakland, CA circa 1993. It was a hot fucking mess. Still printed on shitty newsprint (blue ink !!!) then folded/ assembled by me. Unbelievably, this ain’t the end: part 3 wraps it all up (it’s way shorter than the other 2), but it’s not quite done yet. I’ll let you know but in the meantime, come wrestle with me down the verdant horse-trough of memory lane why don’t you. – Zak Sally – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers Summer Session starts NOW! Floating start date! Apply anytime between now and July 12th 2018 to join the summer course. Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. Ask about the Fall Course if now is too busy for you! The course is 8 weeks – 500 bux for 8 weeks plus access to Frank’s coaching for as long as you need. Payment plans are available. Put your summer to good use! – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Cozytown – 06-21-2018 – by Juan Fernandez – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Joanie and Jordie – 6-21-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

01/31/2018

Juan FernándezJanuary 31, 2018los Cómics / NewsJuan empieza el día con un PSA y con Bombas Para Desayunar! ————————————————————————————————— Friendly PSA to Santoro School Students past,present, and future: Ever get that feeling when you’re trying to write plot and explore narrative, but your brain only provides you with out-of-sequence snippets built on vague ideas and an endless number of potential outcomes that develop and branch out unnaturally over an unspecified timespan? This is how our brains work. Recent findings in neuroscience confirm this notion. (Baldassano, Chen, Zadbood, Pillow, Hasson & Norman – Zacks, Speer, Swallow, and Maley) When we work on narrative art we’re reverse engineering much of our brain’s natural event and detail segmentation. Straight up, it’s hard work to create work that reads like it’s own reality. This is why we at the Santoro School use index cards. We crystallize thought through action onto index cards, and then can, theoretically, stand outside of time in the editing process to make narratives come together. So remember, do your warm ups, then jump into your index cards and let the thoughts flow. Don’t be precious, just keep the thoughts, feelings, images and words flowing. Jot that “noise” down. When you pull away from that flow, rest assured you’ll be able to rearrange them into coherent sequences for readers or viewers to parse. -JF ————————————————————————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ In English and en Español ~ Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con Panchulei (Francisca Cárcamo) dibujante, escritora, editora de Pánico Ediciones y dueña de la librería del mismo nombre. Hablaron acerca de la injusta diferencia en la cantidad de hombres versus la cantidad de mujeres invitadas a festivales, conversaron acerca del mundo de la historieta, los festivales, las mejoras que pueden construir y los espacios que aún faltan por explorar. Aquí hay fanzines de Bombas para Desayunar para leer de gratis – Bombas para Desayunar es una microeditorial de fanzines que nació en 2009 en Oviedo de mano de Andrea Galaxina. Después ha estado unos años afincada en Muriedas (Cantabria) y en Bergen (Noruega) y en la actualidad tiene sede en Madrid. Te invito a leer: ‘Dolores Sánchez’, el segundo capítulo del comic biográfico sobre Emilia Pardo Umaña (1907-1961), primera periodista colombiana. una historia de @canelaflorez y @altais Crítica de Sadboi de Berliac a cargo de Álvaro Arbonés en CuCo 9. ————————————————————————————————— Convocatorias + Deadlines: ¡¡Convocatoria abierta del I Concurso Nacional de Cómic Biblioteca Insular de Gran Canaria!! 3 premios y 9 accésits con una dotación de entre 3.000 y 400 euros y la publicación de las obras ganadoras en un volumen conjunto editado por Astiberri. Bases. Deadline Reminder: submissions for Ink Brick no. 9 are due Monday, Feb 19, 2018! Do yourself a favor and submit your comics-poetry, won’t you? Call for Chapter Contributions: Comics Beyond the Page in Latin America. ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-31-2018 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-31-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

03/08/2017

Juan FernándezMarch 7, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el dia con Sol Diaz; Miguel A. Giner y Cristina Durán; Vanesa R. Del Rey; Chicks on Comics;#GRAFBCN2017; Alvaro Ortiz; Fran Meneses and the ugly side; Billar de letras new comics club y los tebeos del dia! ————————————————————————————————— Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Sol Diaz – spotlighted over on Es Mi Fiesta y lanza un nuevo libro: La historia ilustrada de un embarazo. Miguel A. Giner and Cristina Durán tell the story of the adoption of their daughter in their latest comic, Una Posibilidad Entre Mil. They talk shop over on RTVE3’s La Hora Del Bocadillo + there’s a fresh interview with Miguel A. Giner and Cristina Durán on their new book over at Bilbao24Horas. Constantine #3-4 original art by the great Vanesa R. Del Rey available NOW over on Cadence Comics Art Gallery. Don’t miss your chance to own some of the action. CHICAS DE COMICS/CHICKS ON COMICS Siete mujeres historietistas de distintas partes del mundo expusieron sus trabajos en la Fundación Proa de la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Nice interviews and video documentation of the exhibition over on Argentina’s TV Publica. (Start at 34:00) #GRAFBCN2017 took place this weekend and it was a whirlwind in Barcelona. From the ground + el #GRAFBCN2017 en pocas palabras según Pepo Pérez + the fine folks at @underbrain just published a juicy video recap of the fest! You can watch it HERE. @Kikeinfame picks back up with his tradition of interview comics makers – this time around, take a tour of Alvaro Ortiz’ tebeoteca y mas! ————————————————————————————————— Billar de Letras esta poniendo en marcha un club de novela gráfica y cómic donde, de la mano de Gerardo Vilches, codirector de CuCo y una de las personas que mejor conoce el mundo del cómic en España, una vez al mes se analizará de manera exhaustiva una obra para descubrir sus mecanismos narrativos y desentrañar los recursos gráficos empleados por su autor. Nuestra intención es mostrar la gran riqueza del lenguaje del cómic y sus posibilidades narrativas, a través de la lectura crítica de obras que ya forman parte del canon de la novela gráfica. En las últimas décadas, el cómic ha experimentado un gran crecimiento como medio artístico, de forma que sus posbilidades narrativas y estéticas se están desarrollando en obras de extraordinaria calidad. En la web de Billar de letras tenéis toda la información para inscribiros. ————————————————————————————————— Fran Meneses, Chilean comics maker and illustrator in England, gets real with the ugly side of freelance life. Really nice, honest lens that invites us to dispel the glorification of work-a-holism in the freelance life. It gets unhealthy fast, if unchecked and the glamour that gets associated with it winds up being destructive and causes a lot of silence and erasure of the honest struggle. ————————————————————————————————— The Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers started March 7th! There is a rolling start date for this semester of the course, so we will continue taking applications beyond that date. The course is 8 weeks long – 500 bux – payment plans are available. More details can be found HERE – or email santoroschoolATgmail to apply. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-8-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-8-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-8-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 3-8-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

11/28/2017

Aaron CockleNovember 28, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Alyssa Berg; Art from Guantánamo Bay; Louise Bourgeois; David Hockney; SF&FB&ZF; Conor Stechschulte ————————————————————————————————— Handmade Riso Postcard Workshop with Alyssa Berg Join SVA RisoLab Fall 2017 Artist-in-Residence Alyssa Berg for a workshop exploring handmade layers for Risograph printing. After a brief introduction to the basics of Risograph printing and a group demo, workshop attendees will use a variety of materials including tracing paper, pens, pencils, and collage materials to create artwork for a set of two-color Riso printed postcards. No experience is necessary and materials will be provided. We will be making our layers by hand (no computers!). Participants are encouraged to bring four small grayscale/black and white drawings (4.25 x 5.5 inch) or any text/collage materials they might wish to work with to create a set of four postcards. Alyssa Berg is a painter, comic-artist, and craftsman originally from the Great Northwest and currently living in Brooklyn. After studying painting at Parsons Paris and Hunter College, she began to focus on making painted comics in 2012. In these comics, she investigates and experiments with an array of materials, including collage elements. Her work has appeared in Smoke Signal, INK BRICK, and on the Comics Workbook website where she won the 2015 Composition Competition. alyssaberg.com Sunday, December 3, 12-3pm: RSVP ————————————————————————————————— Ode to the Sea: Art from Guantánamo Bay Open through JANUARY 26, 2018; PRESIDENT’S GALLERY, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, NYC Detainees at the United States military prison camp known as Guantánamo Bay have made art from the time they arrived. The exhibit will display some of these evocative works, made by men held without trial, some for nearly 15 years, who paint the sea again and again although they cannot reach it. One of the co-curators, Erin Thompson, has an NY Times op-ed piece about the artists and their work: But last week, the Miami Herald reported a change in military policy: The art of Mr. al-Alwi and the other remaining Guantánamo prisoners is now U.S. government property. The art will no longer leave prison confines and can now legally be destroyed. Attorneys for several prisoners were told the military intends to burn the art. Art censorship and destruction are tactics fit for terrorist regimes, not for the U.S. military. The art poses no security threat: It is screened by experts who study the material for secret messages before it leaves the camp, and no art by current prisoners can be sold. Guantánamo detainees deserve basic human rights as they await trial. Taking away ownership of their art is both incredibly petty and utterly cruel. ————————————————————————————————— David Salle on the Louise Bourgeois currently at MoMA You feel that Bourgeois wants to dig down to the basic fiber of form itself en route to creating an image; it’s what drawing can do, after all. A subset of the marks that she uses, especially those made with a brush and ink, have the length and start-and-stop quality of a stitch of thread or embroidery: graphic stitches, which are bundled together and become in turn the building blocks for many of her images. These include the skein or hank of hair or yarn, as well as nerve and muscle fibers, including flayed skin and tissue, which cluster, bale up, and twist, and can become in some works undulating curtains of hairlike walls, or take the form of river currents and ocean waves. The equivalency that Bourgeois draws between hair or yarn and muscle fibers or tissue is one of her principal inventions. Hair, women’s hair, is all over Bourgeois’s art. It is the perfect graphic element; like water, it can go anywhere and take virtually any shape. It can flow like a river, pass through keyholes, or twist around another form, strangling it. It can take the form of a flying carpet, or be made to cover, or smother, another surface. Or it can be parted to reveal what’s underneath. Hair is something to hide behind, or a memento left behind. The eroticism of hair was also a Surrealist staple, and Bourgeois makes good use of it. ————————————————————————————————— David Hockney Retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Working in a wide range of media with equal measures of wit and intelligence, Hockney has examined, probed, and questioned how to capture the perceived world of movement, space, and time in two dimensions. The exhibition offers a grand overview of the artist’s achievements across all media, including painting, drawing, photography, and video. From his early experiments with modernist abstraction and mid-career experiments with illusion and realism, to his most recent, jewel-toned landscapes, Hockney has consistently explored the nature of perception and representation with both intellectual rigor and sheer delight in the act of looking. ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— ‘On a basic, lifestyle level, moving here and attending school has allowed me to stop working a non-art-related day job (at least for now).’ Conor Stechschulte is interviewed at Just Indie Comics. Water, of course… It is a recurring element in your comics, and sometimes plays a major role. It may be the ritual river in The Amateurs, the rain from which the facts of Generous Bosom develop, the lake of impalpable but sharp tensions in Glancing, the sea where the games of Water Phase unfold, and Christmas in Prison’s narrative stream. If we consider water as a symbol, it is necessarily multifaceted, fluid, and seems to be related to desire, change, epiphany. It is the place where things happen, stories are told, secrets come to light. Why is water so important to you? Thank you for tracking this image so comprehensively throughout my work! You’ve done such a good job of outlining how I’ve used water that I’m not sure if I can add anything… Of the symbolic meanings you’ve listed I identify most with the idea of change. Water is a place where boundaries break down, things dissolve, definitions shift. With how clear and declarative one must be in telling a story, especially with comics (here’s a guy, now here he is again, see? He’s wearing the same shoes and hat, except now he’s dropped his umbrella, and here he is again but now he’s bending to pick it up), water provides a needed space for vagueness. It’s a place where the closure occurring between each panel might be suspended (or maybe it’s a way of depicting that no-space in between). You can draw a clean, clear black-outlined character for most of your book but if you reflect the same character in a bowl of water, their lines go all wavy. They can be different. ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 11-28-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 11-28-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 11-28-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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