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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in ResourcesTagged cartooning, inking, patterns, The Famous Artists Cartooning Course

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 1, 2016May 21, 2019

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Aaron CockleJuly 25, 2016NewsAaron Cockle today with Tom Kemp Comics; RNC & DNC; The Heidi/Carrie Continuum; Dennis Cooper v. Google; SPACE ROPE; Art that is good, certainly not boring; New Rowhouse Auction Items ————————————————————————————————— Midden Feeder CW’s Featured Comic this week is by Tom Kemp from 2015, made for that year’s Safari Festival in London. ————————————————————————————————— Comics and U.S. Politics in the 21st Century In addition to The Nib’s excellent coverage of this past week’s Republican National Convention, Katie Fricas was on assignment for The Guardian. The Nib will be in Philadelphia this week covering the Democratic National Convention. Please check in with them should you require updates from the enduring, shambolic shit-show that is national party politics in these United States. ————————————————————————————————— Heidi/Carrie/Lynda Cartoonist, teacher, national treasure, and recent Eisner Hall of Fame winner Lynda Barry has a piece in the New York Times Book Review about young adult reading. ————————————————————————————————— Dennis Cooper Non-update Update The New Yorker writes about the recent removal of Dennis Cooper’s work from the Google platform. Juan posted about this last week, and nothing has changed in the month since Cooper’s work was removed without notice. Via Jennifer Krasinski at the NYer: Either way, Cooper’s ordeal is a chilling reminder that those of us who use the Internet to house our creative work do so at the mercy of the platforms who host us. In its general terms of service Google states, “We believe that you own your data and preserving your access to such data is important,” and “If we discontinue a Service, where reasonably possible, we will give you reasonable advance notice and a chance to get information out of that Service.” But it also includes a sweeping disclaimer: “We don’t make any commitments about the content within the services, the specific functions of the services, or their reliability, availability, or ability to meet your needs.” ————————————————————————————————— Casey Bohn’s Space Rope Charles Forsman‘s Oily Comics has released Space Rope: Mars & Venus, by Casey Bohn. ‘Three stories of the mysterious Space Rope from outer space.’ It reprints the original mini-comic from 2011, and includes 2 new stories. ————————————————————————————————— Some (optional) assignments from John Baldessari’s California Institute of the Arts class from 1970 They probably didn’t know that Baldessari was questioning art itself and in the middle of a crisis. That year he had taken all his previous painted work from 1953 – 1966 and cremated it at a San Diego mortuary. He turned from painting to photography. And he expected his students to rethink everything they thought they knew. ————————————————————————————————— Rowhouse Auction Update: July 24-30 New private auction up at auction.comicsworkbook.com. Lots of old and new comics for you to take home. Email Frank Santoro at santoroschoolATgmail for a password, if you don’t already have one. If you already have a password, it is the same from last week. All funds go to helping keep the lights on and further developing the school. Share this page: [...]

Caleb Orecchio @ CXC 2016

Caleb Orecchio @ CXC 2016

Caleb OrecchioOctober 23, 2016Festivals and ShowsTHURSDAY After pulling an all nighter Wednesday, printing my comic Thursday, and weaving through and from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio, I arrived just in time to meet Sally Ingraham and Kurt Ankeny at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus for the seven o’clock John Canemaker program on Windsor McCay’s Little Nemo. You had to see it to believe it folks. We watched McCay’s first two films and participated in the third, Gerdie the Dinosaur. Canemaker played the role of McCay as McCay would have exhibited Gerdie during his vaudeville act. I won’t even try to describe it. You had to be there. During this dramatic occasion, Lucy Caswell sat directly in front of me. The goddess and founder of what has become the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. A year or two ago, Jeff Smith was giving a talk, a celebration of Will Eisner, at the Billy Ireland. Lucy sat in front of me then too. Then, as now during Canemaker’s Little Nemo presentation, Caswell acted as she would have in a Southern Baptist church. When the speaker made a particularly poignant remark, she said to herself and God, “That’s right.” When she saw her favorite images, she put her hand to her heart and whispered, “Amazing.” After all these years, comics and cartooning continues to astonish her. In a way, we really owe CXC to Lucy Caswell. Thank you. I’m an Ohio native. My grandparents grew up in Columbus. All of my grandpa’s stories of getting into fights and general mayhem take place on High Street and Goodale Avenue. I grew up in Marysville which is thirty minutes NW of Columbus. I live in Dayton now, but it didn’t make this festival feel any less like a homecoming. Oh aych! Aye oh! MARDOU First thing on Friday, Juan Fernandez, Sally Ingraham, Emil Friis Ernst, and myself headed to Mardou’s comics narrative presentation. Sacha is fantastic. She read from some of her recent work which had the whole room hanging on her every word and image. The fact that she read every line of dialogue added to the charm of the hour we spent in her world. During the exhibition portion of the festival, Sacha Mardou tabled with Comics Workbook. Her table, and the table I was manning were only a pillar apart. When I had a moment to breath, I’d look over to see if she was free to sell me her book, Sky in Stereo. Both days, she sold out. Don’t sleep on this cartoonist, she is a force to be reckon with! CAITLIN MCGURK AND THE BILLY IRELAND I could have wept seeing all the art at the Billy Ireland, just like every time I go there. Caitlin McGurk took us on a fantastic tour through the collection, moving through doors that would call the cops if you shut them too slow. Seth and Ben Katchor were among my fellow tourists. Seth, cane and hat and all, walked out of Dominion and to my left, gracefully listening to McGurk reveal the secrets and show off the bowels of the world’s biggest cartoon collection archive. Katchor and I drooled all over an original Krazy Kat Sunday. The center of the piece was a tree Krazy was sitting under. Herriman had scratched away the ink on top of the plant for texture. I almost broke down sobbing. Caitlyn McGurk was an excellent guide. Her knowledge was second to none, her enthusiasm was infectious. She loves her job and you can tell. She knows everything. She pulled out some original Canffs and let us all die there on the spot and come back to life enlightened by the whole process. Did you know Caniff would draw his Sundays, then rearrange the panels for different periodical orientations? Modularity. Caniff grew up in Dayton. It seems he and I are doing our careers in reverse. THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY “OFF THE RECORD” A panel moderated by thee incomparable Tom Spurgeon and featuring Keith Knight, Brendan Burford, Shena Wolf, Chip Mosher, and Rich Tommaso, was excellent. Three “gatekeepers” (evidently a controversial designation) and two cartoonists. The talk provided perspective into how to make comics a career, something that should be discussed more often. Spurgeon was an excellent moderator and asked the tough questions. Brendan Burford, General Manager of King Features Syndicate, stood out to me. Forward thinking, intelligent, and passionate about comics. He talked about trying to develop comic strips that are worthy of our medium’s history and, looking forward, how cartoonists can be secret weapons in other industries, like Virtual Reality. He sees the cartoonists as a bridge, an essential and unique group of people with skills that can elevate other media. I talked to him a bit after the panel was over. He’s charming, social, and quick-witted. He has an extensive knowledge of the history of comics. I showed him my latest comic. As we were talking, his longtime buddy Nate Powell came over to say Hi. Fresh off March 3, Powell was energetic and kind. I went to leave, to let them catch up, but Brendan told me to stay. It was great listening to these old friends talk and laugh and catch up. The day was joyously interrupted; thee unstoppable Carol Tyler and thee prolific Sergio Aragones shared the honor of Masters of the Medium awards, presented by Tom Spurgeon and Jeff Smith. Spurgeon and Tyler got a bit weepy, and in response, so did others. Sergio and Smith cracked jokes which was, for me, like seeing Chaplin and Keaton high-five. Mr. Burford flagged down Sally, Juan, Emil, and I at the after party Katie Skelly hosted. It was soon after midnight, and my brain was slowing to a halt. Brendan, however, had more energy than ever. His vision of the future of comics and cartoonists is an optimistic one. “Cartoonists are secret weapons!” he kept saying like a prophet. I was trying to keep up with him among the loud music as he floated off the floor; luckily Juan and Sally picked up my slack and hung with Brendan’s wild ideas. This guy is the guy to talk to people! SATURDAY COmics! Gitcha COmics heah! Gitcha COmics! The first day of exhibiting at the Columbus Metro Library Downtown branch – I manned the Comics Workbook table along with Sally, Juan, and Emil. We were surrounded by our CW comrades – Kurt Ankeny, Whit Taylor, Alyssa Berg, and the aforementioned Mardou. This was my first time tabling, but Sally and Juan trusted me while they were off helping, recording, and running CW workshops. I should mention we sold out of Simon Hanselmann’s Truth Zone almost immediately. Some people would pass by and say I’ll be back later to get this. I just smiled and waved as Hanselmann’s fans came out of the shadows with their pizza stained t-shirts and Redbull in hand, handed over all their rent money to get this rare gem. A presence many attendees and would-be-buyers noticed was missing was our fearless leader, Frank Santoro. People recognized his longboxes (the only ones at the show to my knowledge) and his amazing books. If I had played a drinking game where, whenever I heard “Is Frank here?” I had to take a shot…I’d be dead. Which is fine. It just showed me what an influence he has on people. People who only met him last year and bought a handful of bad 80’s black and white comics, missed him. I hope we did him justice as comic sellers. EMIL FRIIS ERNST is the current resident of the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency, all the way from Denmark. A living breathing Macbeth, we had skipped the Trudeau talk the night before and walked down High Street to find cigarettes for me. Emil is not only an excellent young cartoonist, but an all-around nice guy. We bonded over being early-twenty-something introverts, weary form brushing shoulders with giants all day. He was very nice to answer all my dumb-American questions about his mystical, foreign land of Vikings and wonder. We laughed, to my amazement, to shared senses of humor. He even bought me a beer! xoxo Emil! ERIC REYNOLDS Once I heard the new Love and Rockets was being sold at the Fantagraphics table, I ran over and picked up my copy before it sold out. Eric Reynolds was running the joint and I introduced myself. I thanked him for the editorial input he had on the SPX Celebrates Fantagraphics 40th Anniversary book I designed. He was very friendly and approachable. RYAN SANDS and I chatted briefly about our mutual internet acquaintance, Cameron Arthur, a teenage up-and-comer cartoonist from Texas. We talked Mickey Z too. He sees her as a great American cartoonist that should be celebrated as such. I agree. He told me a secret about Mickey Z’s next book Rav Collection 2, but it’s a secret so I can’t say. Don’t sleep on Mickey Zacchilli or Youth in Decline! ROBIN MCCONNELL of Inkstuds fame visited the CW table and bought GG’s A Mysterious Process. Juan had him check out Emil’s book All In A Day’s Work as well. Robin noted, “I can tell that he’s part of the cult.” CHARLES BURNS Maybe you’ve heard of him? Mr. Burns stopped by to pick up some DC romance comics. Juan and I chatted with him briefly and I asked him which was weirder, DC romance comics or Charlton romance comics? Charlton of course. BEN KATCHOR AND KEVIN CZAP Mr. Katchor looked through every single CW-made comic at the table thoroughly, which was exciting to see. As we started to make small talk, Tom Spurgeon announced that Kevin Czap was receiving the Emerging Talent award with $7,500 from Jeff Smith and Vijaya Iyer. By the end of Czap’s humble and gracious speech, Mr. Katchor had been intercepted. Next I saw him he was at Nate McDonough’s table. NATE MCDONOUGH What a guy. I was delighted to be right next to Nate’s table. A Pittsburgher who has ties to my Dayton, OH. So nice and so prolific. I swear he knew 50% of the attendees that passed by his table. Lot’s of hugging and catching up at Nate’s place. I bought his latest graphic novel, Naptime – a comic that has a cover I watched Nate draw on a floppy red folder, on his lap, when there was at least forty-feet of open table in front him. This was only a couple months prior to CXC. BEN SEARS had a residency at the CW Rowhouse a couple weeks after me this past summer, and was drawing in the next room when Frank and I had an iChat meeting about some graphic design I was doing for him. I introduced myself and we traded notes on the Residency. I bought his book Night Air and he drew in it. Nice guy, that guy. JOE MCCULLOCH picked up a copy of Matt Seneca’s 200 Deaf Boys that CW was selling and smiled. Before he spoke, I had no idea this was Jog the Blog himself. “Have you read that comic?” I asked him (and everyone else who glanced at it because it’s my favorite comic right now.) He replied, “Yeah, I’m a friend of Matt’s.” His voice and cadence were unmistakable. I told him how much I LOVE the McCloud/Sculptor take-down episode of Comic Books Are Burning in Hell. He laughed and said something like, “Some days I think that was one of my shining achievements, and other days I think I will carry it with me forever like the chains of Jacob Marley.” (note: the latest episode of Comic Books Are Burning in Hell is all about Joe and Chris’ CXC adventures – listen HERE!) CHRIS ANTHONY DIAZ The man behind the excellent photos. Juan introduced us. Chris is great. He’s a collector with great taste and a self-disciplined photographer. He showed me some photos of Noah Van Sciver, mustache and all, for possible future author photos. He regaled me with some fantastic Alvin Bueneventura stories. He talked about how he and Alvin were once making bookplates for a Charles Burns book in a hotel room. Chris is kind and engaging. I drove he and I out to Mr. Burns’ presentation at CCAD and I had the good fortune to sit next to Chris and watch him in action; removing his glasses after each photo to check the lighting that didn’t seem to cooperate in the dark auditorium. Unfortunately I had to abandon Chris at CCAD for I had taken ill. My all-nighter was catching up with me and I wasn’t feeling so hot. Chris was understanding and said he could find a ride back. The next day I apologized to him and explained my workaholic situation. He was nice about it. I gave him my comics and he took my photo. Chris is such a great guy and I hope to meet up with him again in the future. AT THE MOTEL…after abandoning Chris at CCAD and getting the key from my roommates, I turned on the Buckeye game and laid down. We were getting man-handled by Wisconsin and I fell asleep in the third quarter I think. Falling into a deep, restorative slumber was unfortunate because I had the only key! Luckily, I awoke to find all my roomies sleeping angelically. They made it in somehow, and the Buckeyes ended up winning in overtime. Go Bucks! SUNDAY AS THE DEER PANTETH FOOOOR… Last day of the festival and the last day to sell things. Sally had already sold out of one of her books. Juan, Emil, and I were fighting for second. Some stoners had a eulogy for the soldout Truth Zones. Lot’s of chatting and laughing and a grand time was had by all. I almost forgot to mention the CXC volunteers! They were amazing! I wish I would have got their names. These nameless angels tirelessly made the expo a more comfortable place. If I needed water, they sensed it and came flying over bringing me more water bottles than I asked for. When you’re talking all day, taking periodic smoke breaks, and feeling a bit under the weather, these people are knights in shining armour. They also helped us find carts to carry the egregious amount of supplies we brought for workshops to our cars in one trip. Thank you CXC volunteers! SALLY INGRAHAM AND JUAN FERNANDEZ Thee Comics Workbook co-pilots never sat down until they laid down to sleep. These two are the beating heart of CW and without them, Frank would be convulsing on the Rowhouse floor, muttering about 9-panel grids and the Golden Section. They work day and night to bring the comics gospel to the world in not one, but TWO languages. I am honored to have shared the weekend with them. KURT ANKENY It was great to finally meet Kurt. I bought his new comic, Dark Desert Dawn. All the drawing in this one is “first-take”, though you wouldn’t know it because it’s drawn so well. I hate him for that. 🙂 Look for his fresh-off-the-press graphic novel, In Pieces: Someplace Which I Call Home. It’s an achievement to be proud of, Kurt. WHIT TAYLOR During the craziness of the festival, nobody bothered to introduce us (SORRY CALEB AND WHIT!! xo – Sally), so I introduced myself to Whit on the last day. I knew her comics and writing on comics already so it was nice to finally meet her. A veteran at this point, she brought up a lot of good points about comic festivals and what we can do better as a community. ALYSSA BERG painted her way into my heart when she came out with Alpenglow, the 2015 Comics Workbook Composition Competition best in show. I was jealous when I first read it, but her fantastic use of color and the way she moves the reader through space were undeniable. Alyssa was the heart of the personality for the CW crew I think. Whip smart and funny as hell. THE END By the end of the show, the entire mystique of being around my heroes like Jeff Smith and Sergio Aragones had evaporated. I felt like I wasn’t some young buck – I felt like I belonged there. Finally, from out of the clouds and floor above, Jeff Smith announced, “CXC is over!” We all scrambled to leave so as to avoid being pepper sprayed by the library security guards. As we were leaving Carol Tyler waved and spoke to the entire room of exhibitors shouting, “Thank YOU CXC! I LOVE YOU!” The CW crew left the CXC expo floor, gratefully thanking a weary Tom Spurgeon for such an amazing four-day weekend. Thanks again Tom! Time to eat and recharge. Juan and Emil (our two bilingual crew members) left for Pittsburgh and Sacha caught a plane to St. Louis. The remaining CW crew was: Alyssa, Whit, Kurt, Sally and myself. The former three had free drink stubs for the bar at their hotel so we went back there to cash in. Kurt shared with Sally and I because he doesn’t drink. We talked, gossiped, whooped and hollered. Then the old people kicked us out and we made our way to High Street for food. We walked for what seemed like days, trying to make a nutritious decision. This was fine. We chatted, cackled, tooted and scooted our way through the streets, stopped an unwieldy child from being crushed in traffic, shared back stories, made fun of goofy store windows, and finally found a restaurant to eat at. After we ate, we parted ways. They to the last after party of CXC, and me to Dayton in hopes that I could manage a decent amount of sleep so I could make it to work on time. Which I didn’t. But that’s okay. CXC was a blast. I look forward to seeing all my new pals again. I see why cartoonists are such a tight-knit group. You see each other maybe once or twice a year and only for a few fleeting, busy days. I’m nostalgic already. See you all again soon. ———————————————————————- Thanks to Lucy Caswell, Jeff Smith, Tom Spurgeon, Caitlin McGurk, the Billy Ireland Museum, CCAD, The Columbus Museum of Art, Sol-Con, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus Metropolitan Library, the CXC volunteers and everyone who made CXC possible. And a special thanks to Frank Santoro, founder, fearless leader, and Jedi master of Comics Workbook. Without whom, the life I live now in cartooning and in general, would not exist. Thank you thank you thank you. –CO Caleb Orecchio makes comics in Dayton, OH. You can find more of his work HERE. For the rest of our complete CXC coverage check out the special “round up” report HERE. Share this page: [...]

Sally IngrahamJanuary 26, 2017NewsSally here with work and wisdom to share from Hellen Jo, Zoë Taylor, Kate Lacour, Audra Stang, Trina Robbins, Glynnis Fawkes, Lale Westvind, and so many more! ————————————————————————————————— Sequential State wrote about Zoë Taylor‘s Joyride (Breakdown Press, 2016): “Taylor’s line is quick and vibrant. It seems like each image in Joyride was constructed as quickly as possible, like a one- or five-minute sketch at a live drawing class. These images look like something quickly scrawled onto a whiteboard with an erasable marker, and it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that Taylor’s tool of choice for this book was a Sharpie marker. There is also sometimes a distortion of the line, as though there was a bleed or a bad scan from the original art. Because images look so thrown together, the reader’s focus drifts towards the places where Taylor has spent the most time. This is often the main character’s eyes, with thick eyelashes rendered while the character’s hands are a quick set of lines. That said, these are the one- or five-minute sketches of an artist who was studied their craft. Each mark, despite its looseness, feels essential. There’s no wasted space, no unneeded effort. The effect of these formal choices changes the way you perceive each page, and encourages you as the reader to move as quickly as you can. Zoom through each page, soak up the emotion, and let the work take you where it wants you to go.” Read the rest HERE. Zoë Taylor is an alum of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers. See more of her work HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Rookie sat down with Hellen Jo recently. She is a cartoonist based in Los Angeles who is known for her storyboarding work on Steven Universe and Regular Show. Dream jobs, to many. However: “I don’t believe in the myth of the dream job; any job worth having is hard, requires so much work, and will make you question your love of whatever it is you’re doing. Anyone who believes that working in animation is whimsical, magical, full of light and wonder and joy…wake the fuck up! Animation, especially storyboarding, drains all of your mental and emotional energy, requires incredibly long hours, deprives you of sleep, downtime, health, and your life. Once you finish and turn in an episode, you get to do it all over again! For another 20 or 200 episodes! Much respect and love to the ubermensch talents who do well in this field!“ Her pursuits are more personal these days, a balance of editorial illustrations and commissions – and a new comic is in the works! She cites Tara Booth, Heather Benjamin, and Maren Karlson as huge inspirations to her lately, “as well as Latina activist art and old school flash tattoo imagery.“ Read more HERE. Previously on Rookie: an interview with Aidan Koch, and one with Alison Bechdel – plus lots of other cool stuff. In fact, Rookie is an online magazine founded in 2011 that publishes writing, photography, and artwork by and for teens – including many comics. Be sure to take some time to poke around the website! ————————————————————————————————— Australia’s Minicomic.club is back for a 2017 season of mini comics love! Sign up to get 12 comics in 12 months from the most interesting cartoonists on that continent – including work by Elari Harris, Georgia Kriss, Meg O’Shea (all pictured above), Leonie Brialey, and Lizzie Nagy. Sign up before the end of January and be sure to explore the website, which is a nice who’s who of Australian cartoonists working today – HERE. Minicomic.club has conducted interviews with many of the creators whose comics they’ve sent out over the years – here are recent ones with Elari Harris, and Leonie Brialey, and Meg O’Shea. Lots more HERE. (Shoutout to Gabriele Di Fazio of Just Indie Comics for writing about Australia’s mini comic subscription service and for all the amazing work he does for the Italian comics community – including running his own subscription service for Italian comics makers! Check out Just Indie Comics for reviews and comics news – mostly in Italian, but Gabriele offers some posts in English as well. Killer!) ————————————————————————————————— Kate Lacour has a new comic on Study Group called The Disciple – you can read it HERE. Updates on Mondays. Her comic Vivisectionary is also running on Study Group, updating monthly. Kate is a New Orleans cartoonist who happens to be another alum of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers. The comic she completed for the course – Zero Is – can be seen HERE and is excerpted from below: Kate joined Robin McConnell on Inkstuds earlier this month for a fascinating discussion of her “unflinching” work, which often deals with the human body in startling yet beautiful ways – listen to the podcast HERE. (Kate seems to share an interest in the body with Phoebe Gloeckner, who supported herself for a number of years by doing medical and anatomy illustration.) ————————————————————————————————— Audra Stang spent a total of 2 weeks here with us in Pittsburgh, PA, working on a new comic during her Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. Although she left the Rowhouse for a few brief excursions during that time, her focus was entirely on her work and by the night before she left there was a draft of a 30 page comic taped to the wall in the kitchen! We can’t wait to see where this goes – both the comic and the Audra Stang story. Follow Audra on Instagram for all her latest adventures and drawings – @audra.stang Keep up with the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency HERE. For more details and information on how to apply for a Residency, visit this page. ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— From Hither and Yon Liana Finck composed a cartoon diary for Slate of the Jan. 21st 2017 Women’s March on Washington – check it out HERE. Lauren Weinstein also drew the Women’s March – for The Village Voice. The “Eternally Optimistic Paste Comics Crew” has a wishlist for the comics industry in 2017. Although it swings more toward mainstream comics, most of the items on the list should be industry wide norms. Things like “better professional conduct on social media”, and stopping “pigeonholing diverse creators”, (“socially relevant Mutants”!), plus one I’ll get up and shout about too: “Fewer Female-led Books With All-Male Creative Teams”. Sorry guys. Here’s the whole list. Check out M. S. Harkness‘ comic about a troll of a cat – HERE. Over on Study Group there is a new Process Party podcast with Leela Corman. Sarah Glidden‘s sketchbook is full of comics reporting these days – most recently she weighed in on an executive order that halts the refugee resettlement program… From Grace Helmer, a comic about smear tests and bikini waxes and other so-called “girl stuff” – HERE. Glynnis Fawkes spoke to a local Vermont newspaper about her comic for RESIST! “No artist who’s engaged with the outside world can keep working as if nothing has happened,” Fawkes said. Read the rest. The best gig posters ever designed by cartoonists, according to the Comics Alliance – including work by Lale Westvind and a whole pile of posters by Tara McPherson. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-27-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-27-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-27-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

Sunday is a Good Day to Visit a Museum: Part Two

Sunday is a Good Day to Visit a Museum: Part Two

Alyssa BergMay 5, 2016Art Trip / EssaysThis series began last week with Part One: Ritual in Preparing the Space/It’s the Simple Things – now we are drawn deeper into the museum and into a new process meditation. ————————————————————————————————— My last stop at The Rubin Museum of Art was the exhibit Gateway to Himalayan Art. What immediately drew my attention were 4 pieces showing the stages of a thangka (scroll) painting. Thangka paintings most often depict deities or mandalas and are used in meditation practice. The paintings are not an expression of an individual artist; they are made by following a strict set of rules. Underneath the forms and colors is a complex grid based on precise measurements according to which deity is being depicted. In the process pieces at the Rubin, areas of the underlying grid of sacred geometry are left visible. I love seeing works in progress or unfinished artwork–a chance to spy the secrets that lie underneath the surface. But also, look at that grid! Yes, it’s true I am a student of Frank Santoro and, no, I am not going to go deep into practical and/or theoretical grid-talk. If you want that, get it from the man himself (the comments section is full of gems, too). If you prefer having your information in hard copy, it’s available that way, also. As a person who has spent many+ hours drawing and re-drawing and drawing again the grid, it was an easy jump in my mind from this: to this: ————————————————————————————————— Part 2: Meditation on the Grid/Free Your Mind Recently I was in the audience at a panel discussion where someone asked the artists about ‘creative block’ and how to over-come it. The answers ranged from ‘just getting off of the couch’ to knowing that there are ups and downs in creative work. If I might add my own answer to the question no one asked me: Sometimes my mind is unwell, or full of complicated messy things or unable to think of new ideas (‘creative block’, I guess?). When I am in this state, I let my wild, creative mind rest. One way to do this is by going into a gentle analytical and physical practice. I sit down at my desk and pre-draw pages of panels and grids. Similar to preparing my workspace as mentioned in Part One, pre-drawing panels and grids is a simple concentration-meditation that doesn’t require much thought (common theme: freedom from the mind!). I get out my ruler, triangle and compass and start to push my pencil across the page making the prescribed lines. I am not inventing them. There is a formula and I’m following that formula. In my comics, I almost exclusively use a four-panel grid. Through years of repetition comes ease and comfort in getting to a single-pointed mind-concentration. In this concentration I’m not working out story ideas or fixing problems. I’m just there, holding the pencil in my hand, running it along the ruler. On certain days I’ve ended up with a stack of 20 pages of panels with varying elements of the grid or sometimes a single page with different color lines on top of lines on top of lines… It is an easy practice that is calming and allows some space to open up. And at the end of the practice, as an added bonus to a relaxed mind, I have pages at the ready for the days when the last thing I want do is draw a straight line. ————————————————————————————————— Look for Part 3 of this ongoing series next week! Read Part One HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Alyssa Berg makes comics in Brooklyn, NY. You can find her work HERE. Share this page: [...]

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

Ch 3: Inking the Head and Figure (FACC)

Posted on January 1, 2016May 21, 2019 by Juan Jose Fernandez

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in ResourcesTagged cartooning, inking, patterns, The Famous Artists Cartooning Course

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 1, 2016May 21, 2019

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Jackie Kirby – Rowhouse Residency Report

Jackie Kirby – Rowhouse Residency Report

Comics WorkbookJuly 3, 2017Residency Reports / School UpdatesMy name is Jackie Kirby. I am a poet and comics author. I am twenty-two years old, and live in New York City. Recently, I graduated from The New School with a BA in Cultural Studies. I have been making comics and writing poetry seriously for three years now. As my poetic and comics practices evolved, they became more and more intertwined. Now, the differences between what I publish as “poetry” versus “comics” has more to do with marketing and publishing than it does with genre or form—but then genre is the formal violence of marketing and publishing. But, “whatever.” I spent a week in Pittsburgh at the Rowhouse Residency this June 2017. As recent graduate without the privilege of a future in plastics, I was anxious on how to proceed. If I was to call myself a “poet” and a “comics author,” what should I do to validate or realize those claims? Additionally, I had a bit of a foothold in the world of poetry, through school and time spent in and around the New York poetry cliques. I didn’t, however, have anything of the sort in the world of comics. Poets can often be easily impressed by the integration of visual arts into poetry, and don’t know anything of comics. I was excited, albeit nervous, to see how I could enter into the world of comics, and if my work was intelligible or interesting to comics readers in contrast to poetry readers. With the time and space provided by the residency, I was able to develop a routine and work ethic that works for my particular habits and skills. Through my conversations with Frank Santoro, I was able to visualize a path going forward with my work, begin to feel grounded in the world of comics, affirm my beliefs in the value of my own aesthetic project, and gain valuable tools and modes of thought towards the furthering of my craft. Frank’s approach to composition in comic books clicked with me as a way of connecting poetry and comics. Without sounding too prescriptive, I think poetics should seek to emancipate possibility and meaning from language, or at least restructure it. Frank and I spoke a lot about meter and geometry, but I think the integration of comics into poetry and vice versa has a greater political value. In comics, “language” as we know it is subverted through its integration with non-alphabetic symbols. The job of a poet is to keep language alive, and if poetry is to be relevant it must be written in the contemporary idiom. The integration of words and images in everyday life is increasing, and pictoral languages are becoming more common. The integration of comics and poetics is only logical considering. Before coming to the residency I had spent the last year working on a set of works called Finding Eurydice. The first is a poetry chapbook subtitled “Transmissions from Orpheus,” and the second is a comic “translation” of the chapbook subtitled “A Border Comic.” In these works, I used the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as a way of expressing the experience of transfeminity, and experimented formally as a way of enacting that experience. At risk of being too pretentious, I’ll quote the introduction from my reflection on A Border Comic: Finding Eurydice is a comic. Finding Eurydice is a poem, or book of poems. It’s both, but it’s not quite one or the other. Words are often only images. Images are abstracted into words. Its “graphic narrative” is mostly formal, and moves associatively. Much of its “text” is illegible. It doesn’t fit right. Finding Eurydice is a hybrid work. It is a comic-poem which transgresses forms and signs. This formal transgression produces a new vocabulary for the enactment of transgender subjectivities and experiences historically made impossible to verbalize. Entering the project, I asked: If an artistic production is a body, or an extension of the body, and the body is always already gendered, how can the formal restructuring of and deployment of “trans-” trajectories of movement into a literary or artistic mode of production aide in the revelation of new possibilities of gender embodiments and transgender subjectivities? In Finding Eurydice, the comic, the poem, and Orpheus are all made trans, opening up new space for transness to exist in language. Both works can be read online: Finding Eurydice: Transmissions from Orpheus Finding Eurydice: A Border Comic My conversations with Frank were thoughtful, engaging, and exciting. Among the most interesting aspects of our discussions was comparing analogies of music and poetry to comics. I know very little when it comes to music. Half-kidding – it’s one of the few popular art forms I’m not a snob about, and I’ve tried to keep it like that. Frank, on the other hand, is a total music nerd. I came into his house for espresso one afternoon and he presented me with a piece of scrap paper on which he had written “2/3 3/4 rectangle riff seen from a poet’s pov in relation to ‘meter’ / and relation to ‘the Breath’ or Dylan’s ‘long line of spit.’ ” Frank and I chatted for hours regarding this. He would riff for fifteen minutes or so about music and I would respond with a riff on poetics. Forty five minutes could go by without comics being explicitly mentioned once, but the composition and formal techniques of comics practice underlaid every moment. When I brought this up, Frank brushed it off, saying “Of course we could talk about how Robert Crumb is this or that but we both know that.” What’s interesting is what we can learn from each other. In conclusion, I will list a few highlights of my time at the residency: – Frank took a class with Kathy Acker and said “She was so mean! In the best way.” This is exactly what I want to hear about Kathy Acker. – Kathy Acker chose her pen name from her husband’s last name (Acker) and a nickname extracted from her birth-name (Karen) and not because the titular character from the comic-strip Cathy says “Ack!” as her catchphrase, and is therefore a Cathy “Ack!”-er. This is exactly what I don’t want to hear about Kathy Acker. – I fell down all the stairs at the residency. In all fairness, however, wearing slippery socks, a maxi-skirt that’s hanging too low, and carrying forty things in your arms while descending a steep wooden staircase is the set-up to a punchline involving falling down all the stairs, and Frank provided excellent first-aid. – When Sally picked me up from the train station, we went to a bar for dinner where Anthony Bourdain had recently shot an episode of some show he does where he pretends he’s in a scene in Coffee & Cigarettes and I find Anthony Bourdain conceptually hilarious (I believe Hayes Davenport called him “the misanthrope of food television”) but realized I don’t have any solid jokes to make and ended up asking a lot of questions about the ins and outs of Anthony Bourdain’s TV production. ————————————————————————————————————— Check out more work by Jackie on her website, and follow her on Instagram. For more information about the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency visit this page or email santoroschoolATgmail Share this page: [...]

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: [...]

HarrisonAugust 4, 2016NewsHello, this is Harrison. Here is the comics and arts news of August 4, 2016. ————————————————————————————————— http://profweston.tumblr.com/post/148417347211/trying-some-comics-outttt Cameron Nicholson Recent comic experiments by this Richmond, VA, cartoonist. More here. ————————————————————————————————— Lettering your own work is fun as hell. Starting to get a hang of it. #comic #comics #wip #studio #photoshop #lettering #comiclettering #hardwork #blackartist #onemanband A photo posted by Skuds McKinley (@skudsink) on Aug 3, 2016 at 2:41pm PDT Skuds McKinley “Draw everyday. 4 to 6 hours every day. No excuses! If you want to be a comic book artist you have to do this, you have to be fast and be cognizant of deadlines. Draw things that you really enjoy. If you love manga or Spider-Man, draw that stuff!! Don’t just draw things that are popular, it’ll come off as fake. Push yourself to the limit to be a good artist. Learn perspective drawing, learn anatomy, learn how to draw vehicles. Draw everything! This will put you ahead of the guys that draw the same crap over and over again. Try not to spend so much time worrying about a style or comparing yourself to others, you’ll just be shooting yourself in the foot. Just focus on being a good artist who can draw anything thrown at them. Over time your style will start to show itself.” – Derek Skuds Mckinley Jones Follow @skudsink for daily drawing updates. A couple of Skuds’ books are for sale on the school auction – see below. ————————————————————————————————— ? ? ? “When Manchester-based photographer Mishka Henner first stumbled upon these seemingly abstract images on Google Earth, he had no idea what he was seeing; with research, the artist realized that these tentacle-like scars on the earth were created by the meat industry. The harrowing satellite-sourced images that constitute The Feedlots convey the sheer scale of intensive farming in America, where the need to maximize profit all too often takes precedence over concerns for sustainability and animal welfare.” – Elizabeth Sulis Gear for Feature Shoot Here. ————————————————————————————————— “Can I touch yours?” “As a mixed-race child growing up in a predominately white suburb, my features were an anomaly to the unexposed eye.” Whit Taylor in the Nib. ————————————————————————————————— McGurk At Work “After gaining experience at Marvel Comics and the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, McGurk moved to Columbus to work as a visiting curator at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, which houses the world’s largest cartoon and comics collection. In just over four years, she has moved up to associate curator for outreach, organizing exhibits and public programs. She is also an assistant professor.” – Erica Thompson for Columbus Alive More Here. ————————————————————————————————— Sad Sack Share this page: [...]

Sally IngrahamMarch 15, 2017NewsSally here with comics and news from Kyle Baker, Aphton Corbin, Shannon Wright, Keith Knight, Sam Ombiri, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright has a new comic about Bessie Coleman, made for KAZOO Magazine – the first part is above and you can see the rest HERE! ————————————————————————————————— I dashed headlong through Kyle Baker‘s I Die At Midnight (2000) the other day when it turned up in the library at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. One of Baker’s favorite short stories, it was the 2nd comic he made that used 3D graphics and his 1st comic that was drawn entirely on the computer. Perusing it 17 years after the comic was first published, I am astounded by how good it looks. Even though the technology has improved since then, most comics I’ve seen recently that employ digital artwork don’t look this good. What Baker was doing in 2000 with these “new” tools and tricks still looks fresh, and there’s an inventiveness and joy here that hasn’t faded or grown dated. It’s crazy to think that this was his starting point for digital artwork and he only got better from here – gasoline on a flame type stuff. This comic, and his work that followed, doesn’t look like it was “built” in Photoshop – there is a naturalness to it which comes from Baker’s outrageous drawing chops, expressive characterizations, and eye for color. The story in I Die At Midnight also happens to be a wildly entertaining piece of chaos – as Baker describes it: “The Good News is Muriel has decided to take Larry back. The Bad News is Larry’s just swallowed a bottle of pills and he can’t tell her about it, or she’ll leave him again. With a stomachful of poison, Larry must race across Manhattan to meet up with the only person who can save his life and keep his secret. But first he’s got to get through a crowd of millions in Times Square – and Muriel’s Murderous Ex-Boyfriend.“ 64 pages of non-stop action, with sequences that somehow combine 3 plotlines at once (employing a blur/fade technique that really puts digital art to WORK), this comic is worth tracking down if you’ve never read it and reading again if you have. You can get a copy from Kyle Baker himself HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I came across this comic made by Aphton Corbin recently – she is a storyboard artist at Pixar but has also been publishing a comic about her life and experiences as a black female on her tumblr. The start of the most recent episode is above, but there are plenty more HERE. Check them out! ————————————————————————————————— Coming to the Brooklyn Museum this spring is the exhibition We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 (APRIL 21–SEPTEMBER 17, 2017). “Focusing on the work of black women artists, We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 examines the political, social, cultural, and aesthetic priorities of women of color during the emergence of second-wave feminism. It is the first exhibition to highlight the voices and experiences of women of color—distinct from the primarily white, middle-class mainstream feminist movement—in order to reorient conversations around race, feminism, political action, art production, and art history in this significant historical period.“ Not comics, but definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area! More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The latest strip from Keith Knight. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri – 3-16-2017 ————————————————————————————————— The Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers has begun! There is a rolling start date for this semester of the course and we are continuing to take applications. Just apply! The course is 8 weeks long – 500 bux – payment plans are available. More details can be found HERE – or email santoroschoolATgmail. Recent comics by course grads November Garcia and Drew Lerman can be seen HERE and HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-16-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-16-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-16-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Comics WorkbookJanuary 25, 2018NewsSam Ombiri on Coco Moodysson’s Never Goodnight – plus other news and comics! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I’ve been reading a splendid comic called Never Goodnight by Coco Moodysson. I found out about this fantastic book through Coco’s husband, Lukas Moodysson. Lukas Moodysson is my favorite living movie director as it stands right now. His movies have received praise from Ingmar Bergman as well as Harmony Korine, and those two directors really speak to the sensibility of Lukas. Those are two filmmakers he admires, and from my understanding this admiration was independent of the praise he receives from those two directors. He made a great adaptation of Coco’s Never Goodnight entitled We Are The Best. I just don’t know where to start with this book. This comic is one of the most fun autobio comics I’ve ever read. The drawings are spectacular, it’s great that she was able to summon enough of this creative energy for every panel, and deliver consistently. Her drawings are like candy that don’t lose their sweetness when eaten too much. The drawings are simultaneously so expressive, but all done with that line that Sammy Harkham always talks about, where every drawing has the same weight to it and it doesn’t deviate. It’s easy to see why this book has the cult following it has. The storytelling is so clear, and I can see that the whole was considered, as opposed to some parts. The jokes in this book are really funny. The jokes don’t even seem like jokes, or funny observations made by a distant person reminiscing. Which is not to say that there’d be anything wrong if that, were it the case – in fact it’s commonly the case with autobio, or even non-autobio work (although people say all work is ultimately autobio). I guess this just speaks to the nature of life, but it’s really interesting how Coco’s comics don’t have that reminiscing attitude, despite that being what she’s doing throughout the whole work(reminiscing I mean). It’s a really curious thing that when I read the comic it just feels like I’m watching life unfolding, and all the fun moments and funny moments unfolding with it. There is of course clear, concise timing in the way Coco leads us through the story, but I don’t feel the least bit, shall we say, “manipulated”. There are those moments in the book where it’s so cute I want to hurl, but I’m still completely sold. For example, where Coco talks about how she bought dog food and hid it under her pillow in case she ever got a dog, (this was after they went around begging for money to buy a guitar and instead just splurged on a bunch of snacks). I don’t know what to blame though: is it because Coco was such a likeable character to follow? Did I relate to it somehow? Are the drawings so charming that it’s disarming my suspicion? It definitely seems earned because this specific brand of sentimentality doesn’t pop up until the 78th page, and the comic hasn’t demanded as much of an emotional response to be reciprocated to the work up until that point. It’s become the trend in some comics that the author just demand that the reader reciprocate an emotional response, just because they’re being courageous in expressing themselves in comics. I can’t speak for every case, but people making comics should realize that you can’t and shouldn’t blame the reader. If what you’re doing is independent of the reader, that’s a different story. You can’t just mumble some words and expect someone to read your mind and guess the rest of the sentence. You are responsible for making the sentence. Part of what’s enjoyable (and at times it can be detrimental to me) is the ambiguity in experiencing and then re-experiencing work. This is with all art forms, though, and I really hesitate to say it’s especially so with comics because of how it’s words and images that you’re looking at. You’re also looking at the line work, you’re looking at the design. Makers should consider all this and perhaps accept this when making work and not let their vain guise of “how courageous they are for expressing themselves” be where the value of the work is derived. Coco’s book made me think of this because of how good it is. I didn’t feel cheated for reciprocating the emotional response Coco called for. I feel that I should mention that it was surprisingly easy to separate the movie from the book whenever they would intersect. This goes deeper than them being different mediums, or what couldn’t be in the movie due to Lukas and Coco’s difference in sensibility. Even when I’m reading the exact same scene play out in the book that was in the movie, they seem so separate and this book is so distinguished that I don’t even think about the movie. There’s an aspect to this book that I have no idea how to approach. I don’t know how comics are perceived in Sweden. It seems that there they have a tighter relationship with the literary world, maybe? I really don’t know. Anyway, there’s a panel in the book where Coco just coldly mentions how a friend’s friend killed himself with a guitar chord. I’m rather puzzled at the intention of this. From what I understand, she was doing some work behind the scenes with Lukas’ films, and they made some kind of comic together (which someone should translate!) so I can’t help but to think there’s this lyrical element to her including this in the comic, something that’s similar to the lyricism in Lukas’ movies. In contrast to this, though, there’s a sequence where the girls run out and there’s a homeless person with a syringe stuck in his arm, and he’s just there as a gag to convey how loud the girls are being about a bunch of nonsense, and yelling “We Are the Best!” It’s like he’s just there to be annoyed, but there’s a whole cute aspect to this. It’s funny because of how certain elements that were in the book were taken out of the movie, probably because of how it would evoke a completely different feeling, and completely change the atmosphere. The sensibility of Never Goodnight feels a lot like a YA book, but introduces bleaker elements than those found in the adaptation made by Lukas (whom people sometimes liken to a more trustworthy incarnation of Lars Von Trier and who is associated with “the New Extremity” movement). It’s just really funny how I don’t know what to make of this. Not that the comic is any less fun to read as a result, it only makes it more interesting to read. In a lot of ways, and obviously this comes as no surprise, there’s a lot of match up in terms of sensibility between Lukas and Coco. Maybe it’s because of how Lukas described his creative process as different from Coco’s that I anticipated a bigger difference. For example, Coco will say things like there’s not enough brown, or whichever color. This is strange because her comic are done in black and white! I feel that however many accolades I can try to give this book would be a futile attempt at describing how great this book is. It’s just such a wonderful book! – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Other News Ben Passmore animated – check it out HERE. Ron Wimberly on Radix Media, talking the sensual experience of paper, among other things – HERE. Philippe Leblanc reviews Carta Minor’s Passing for The Comics Beat. Zora Gilbert writes about Bingo Love by Tee Franklin, for Women Write About Comics – read the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— 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! ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-25-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]