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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in ResourcesTagged Al Capp, Barney Tobey, Dick Cavalli, feet, figure, Gurney Williams, Harry Haenigsen, Milton Caniff, Rube Goldberg, Virgil Partch, Whitney Darrow Jr., Willard Mullin

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 1, 2016May 21, 2019

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Aaron CockleJanuary 30, 2017NewsAaron here today with Quimby’s NYC Grand Opening Extravaganza; Philip Guston and the Nixon Years; a review of some Obama Family Comics; Russian Futurist Sound Poems; Kartalopoulos at Angoulême; Festival of the Photocopier; Laura Park; Box Brown Wrestling Comics. ————————————————————————————————— GRAND OPENING QUIMBY’S BOOKSTORE NYC SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2017, 7–10pm At 7:00 PM, Steven Svymbersky will give a short slide show talk on the history of zines followed by champagne and hors d’oeuvres. This event is also the opening for the first major survey of works by sculptor and collage artist, Eric Kirsammer. Quimby’s Bookstore NYC 536 Metropolitan Ave Brooklyn, NY 11211 ————————————————————————————————— Guston on Nixon Hauser & Wirth recently concluded it’s exhibit of Philip Guston‘s work from the 1970’s focusing on Richard Milhous Nixon, former president of the United States. The New York Times wrote a piece about the show, and Guston’s relationship with Philip Roth: Mr. Roth owns several of the Nixon drawings. “I always wanted Philip to publish them in a book,” he said. “But he was loath to do that then. He wasn’t sure about whether to go public with them. I think he didn’t want to be sullied as a cartoonist. But actually the people who didn’t like those wonderful last paintings sullied him as a cartoonist anyway.” Through the ’50s and most of the ’60s, Guston was a leading Abstract Expressionist, greatly admired for the shimmering elegance of his painting. But in the mid-60s, in one of the most famous about-faces in art history, he began to repudiate his own work. “American Abstract art is a lie, a sham, a cover-up for a poverty of spirit,” he wrote. Abandoning abstraction, he started to make paintings that weren’t just figurative but amounted to a catalog of comic-strip crumminess: light bulbs; rusted nails; old shoe soles; hairy legs; hooded, slit-eyed Klansmen smoking fat cigars. The world of Guston eventually came to look, as a number of critics pointed out, a lot like the world of R. Crumb. ————————————————————————————————— ‘He doesn’t have a name but his first name is Allergy Doctor’ J. Caleb Mozzocco takes a look at Steven Weissman’s second book chronicling the Obama administration (and family), Looking For America’s Dog, still the most accurate depiction of those times that we are ever likely to see. The Obama that emerged was maybe the ultimate comics character; after all, there are few figures that are at once as iconic and as protean as our presidents, upon whom we project, well, everything. The President of the United States, any president of the United States, is the Comics Character of a Thousand Faces. (And do note that most newspaper comics characters are confined to a single strip by a single artist or studio, whereas whoever the president is appears in scores of different editorial cartoons by scores of different artists every single day.) Looking For America’s Dog is similar in format to Barack Hussein Obama, filled with discrete, four-panel gag strips that wind in and out of an overarching quest narrative. And it’s similar in construction; a black-and-white sketchbook comic constructed with judiciously chosen uses of bright color and dialogue balloons with their long, thin tails apparently glued atop the pages. The aesthetic is a peculiar mix of dashed-off and labored-over. It is also, owing to the fact that it is of course a more recent work, a much more confident and accomplished book, with a much stronger through line: Bumbling Biden left the White House gate open, and America’s dog Bo ran away. (“God Damn You, Joe Biden,” a frustrated president says as he trudges through the snow, calling “Bo-oh!!”) ————————————————————————————————— Zaum, which translates into “beyond the mind” At Hyperallergic, Claire Voon looks at Russian sound poetry, made available online by the Getty Research Institute, that serves as an interactive companion to Explodity: Sound, Image, and Word in Russian Futurist Book Art, curated by Nancy Perloff. “Recurring verbal, visual, and vocal references to the folklike and the primitive, reversibility and mirror forms, the fourth dimension, and apocalypse dominate the artistic expression of these books,” as Perloff writes in her introduction. “Moreover, futurist poets and painters intended their books to be heard as well as read.” ————————————————————————————————— Dispatch from France Bill Kartalopoulos was on the ground at this year’s Angoulême Festival, and posted some great images. ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— Info about the upcoming Laura Park workshop at the Sequential Artist’s Workshop, February 27 – March 3, 2017. ————————————————————————————————— The Great Sasuke: Japan’s Masked Wrestler Turned Masked Politician If there was ever a time for some Box Brown Japanese wrestling/politics comics, that time is now. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-31-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-31-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Aidan Koch at LICAF

Aidan Koch at LICAF

Comics WorkbookOctober 27, 2016Festivals and ShowsAidan Koch discusses a collaborative project during a workshop she led at The Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2016. Share this page: [...]

Sally IngrahamAugust 2, 2017NewsSally here with comics from The Pittsburgh Courier and Oliver Harrington, plus other comics and persons of interest. ———————————————————————————————— I came across a great article on Blavity from earlier this year about our mostly forgotten black political cartoonists – including Oliver Harrington (his work seen above) who some consider to be the greatest political cartoonist of all time. In the 1940’s and ’50s many black political cartoonists voiced powerful and unpopular opinions in publications like The Amsterdam News and The Chicago Defender. Strong anti-racist views made artists like Harrington targets during the McCarthy era however, and like many artists before him, he went into self-exile in Paris. Other cartoonists from that period to remember are Bill Chase and Jan Jackson. “Jan Jackson’s cartoon of two American soldiers running across the Atlantic Ocean to save a European white woman in chains as they turn their back to an American black woman in chains speaks to the selective grieving and racism which were both rampant during the WWII era.” – Orit Mohamed via Blavity Demanding the necessary viewpoint of the black political cartoonist – needed now more than ever before – and bemoaning the lack of a single full-time black cartoonist in any American daily newspapers (as pointed out earlier by Michael Cavna in The Washington Post), the author of the article presents a list of artists working today, including Keith Knight, Cory Thomas, Darrin Bell, Chris Kindred, and Shannon Wright. Read the whole article HERE. ———————————————————————————————— I knew that The Pittsburgh Courier was another famous Black newspaper from the 20th century, so I went to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh to look at copies of the paper on microfilm. “I’m here for the comics!” I told the librarian who helped me out. I picked a roll of film somewhat at random, and was soon browsing through 1945 newspapers. I found comics by Oliver Harrington, as well as other cartoonists of the time. Here’s the “funny pages” from March 31st, 1945: And here is the same paper’s edition of Harrington’s Dark Laughter comic, staring Bootsie: Later on in Harrington’s Jive Gray strip, the pilot (Jive Gray) has been shot down, but he runs into the person he was sent on mission to find – a female Colonel! I’ll have to go back to the library soon and get printouts of some of these comics – apologies for bad photos of microfilm! But it is a real treat to see these comics “in person” at my local library and get a sense of the time and cartoonists who were being published in national newspapers. More to come next week, including some of Jackie Ormes‘ comics! ———————————————————————————————— Yona Harvey was kind enough to stop by the monthly meeting of the Pittsburgh Comics Salon last night, and I had the pleasure of running her and the other attendees through a classic Comics Workbook drill. The comics community in Pittsburgh is constantly evolving, and is full of an energy that is pretty unique. It’s a place where a talented poet like Yona (who has written stories set in the world of Marvel’s The Black Panther) can spar with Jonas Goonface (currently finishing up a comic series with Boom! Studios) and I (who is publishing the 248th Suzy and Cecil strip below!) and each one of us can challenge and inspire the other. The entire city of Pittsburgh is a comics academy. Join us! ———————————————————————————————— Another way to jump into our floating comics academy is to participate in thee Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2017. Now in it’s 5th year, this iteration is a riff on the 6-panel grid, in the traditional North American comic book size – but with a twist! Full details HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 8-3-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ———————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 8-3-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Aaron CockleJune 27, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with New Chinese Comics; Zadie Smith on Lynette Yiadom-Boakye; Clowes @ Cracked; Philip Guston; Something Unusual is Happening at Printed Matter; Matthew Thurber’s Cartoonist Run-down ————————————————————————————————— If you can’t make it but would still like to buy a book, they will be available at Desert Island after the 29th and through our website: paradise-systems.com ————————————————————————————————— Under-Song For A Cipher Zadie Smith looks at the Lynette Yiadom-Boakye exhibition currently on view at the New Museum. In many of Yiadom-Boakye’s interviews, she is asked about the source of her images, and she tends to answer as a novelist would, citing a potent mix of found images, memory, sheer imagination, and spontaneous painterly improvisation (most of her canvases are, famously, completed in a single day). From a novelist’s point of view, both the speed and the clarity are humbling. Subtleties of human personality it might take thousands of words to establish are here articulated by way of a few confident brushstrokes. But the deeper beguilement is how she manages to create the effect of wholly realized figures while simultaneously confounding so many of our assumptions about the figurative. The type of questions prompted by, say, Holbein (What kind of a man was Sir Thomas More?) or Gainsborough (What was the social status of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews?), or when considering a Lucian Freud (What is the relation between painter and model?), are all short-circuited here, replaced by an existential query not much heard in contemporary art: Who is this? The answer is both literal and liberating: No one. Nor will the titles of these paintings identify them. ————————————————————————————————— ‘MAD Magazine in the 80’s seemed staid and a former ghost of itself, but Cracked seemed exciting and filled with new blood (and old) that spoke to my budding anarchic mind.’ At the Last of the Spinner Rack Junkies blog, Isaac Chance has uploaded a bunch of comics Daniel Clowes did at Cracked Magazine in the 1980’s. Clowes would produce work for Cracked from 1985 through 1989. During this period he was also writing and drawing his own comic book Lloyd Llewellyn for Fantagraphics. After six issues, Llewellyn ended with a Special in 1988 and Clowes began Eightball in 1989. ————————————————————————————————— Philip Guston and the Poets At Hyperallergic, Cara Ober looks at Guston’s work and the role that poetry played in its making, on exhibit at the Gallerie dell’Accademia (Campo della Carita, 1050, Venice) through September 3. The exhibit is loosely curated around the five poets who are said to have had the most significant impact on his work — Wallace Stevens, Eugenio Montale, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, and D.H. Lawrence — and this structure provides unusual opportunities for thematic, rather than historical or formal, groupings. But at the core of the exhibit is an idea that’s both cohesive and revolutionary. The show argues that Guston’s staying power — grounded in fresh oddness, compelling authenticity, and dodgy compositions — was a direct consequence of his relationship with poetic language and form, as well as the ideas of the poets who wrote them. Rather than a romantic inevitability, Poets offers a pragmatic and collaborative handle to Guston’s career as a prolific artist and maker; it attests to the power of verbal and metaphorical language in nourishing his visual oeuvre. The exhibit also argues that silence is necessary for a visual artist’s development; it suggests that Guston’s leaving New York, the epicenter of the art world, was not only helpful, but essential to his work. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Why were there no comics in the Whitney Biennial, again?’ Matthew Thurber discusses work by 10 Cartoonists Every Art Lover Needs to Know Including Austin English:. Comics-as-poetry is an established thing: See the work of Juliacks, Sarah Ferrick, and publishers like Sonatina and 2dcloud. English’s work was influential on this branch of comics-making. Unlike commercial comics—which traditionally convey emotion with simplified facial expression—the muddy, creased faces of English’s characters are opaque. I see a lot of George Grosz, Francis Bacon, and Willem de Kooning when I look at his drawings, which tend to be small and heavily worked with watercolor and colored pencil. Lale Westvind: The cartoonist’s background in traditional oil painting, video art, and animation led to her creating self-published comics at a heroic pace. In HAX, Amazonian warriors battle airplanes under Lichtensteinian Ben-Day dot skies. Her early animation Organism Test (2009) is a key to later work. Thousands of hand-drawn frames depict blob-creatures writhing in the desert, while hybrid motorcycle creatures race towards each other to collide at incredible speed: a copulatory act that generates new life. If Jack Kirby adapted J.G. Ballard’s Crash into a Captain Pronin cartoon, it might begin to resemble Westvind’s filmic oeuvre. Recent animations for the band Lightning Bolt and Morpha! Utila!, for the online TV channel Super Deluxe, are psychedelic masterpieces. And Keren Katz: Katz’s work, like that of Matthew Barney or Mika Rottenberg, has its own logic. Her storytelling voice seems to link the divine nonsense of authors like Daniel Pinkwater, William Steig, or Edward Gorey with surrealist writers like Leonora Carrington. Her comics are Truly Weird, the highest compliment I can give. With drawings executed in confident colored pencil, her figures stretch, bend, and topple in a manner reminiscent of contemporary choreography. (Indeed, Katz studied dance and has mentioned Pina Bausch as an influence.) ————————————————————————————————— The publications included in Something Unusual is Happening share a common interest in non-conventional storytelling, with each artist crafting a distinctive form of visual language that departs from the familiar narratives and formats of traditional comic art. The works explore a range of interests and fixations; allegories of personal transformation and enlightenment, cautionary tales of advanced technology, voyeurism and computer surveillance, as well as meditations on the act of comic-drawing itself. At Printed Matter, June 30-July 31, 2017. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 6-27-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-27-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-27-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Sally IngrahamJuly 21, 2017NewsSally here with Rachel Masilamani live from Pittsburgh, PA; Sophie Yanow saying “No!”; Florida witches at large thanks to Vanesa R. Del Rey and Jordie Bellaire; and much more. —————————————————————————————————— The Pittsburgh Comic Salon had the great pleasure of hosting Rachel Masilamani last night at the ToonSeum. She has been making comics since 1997 and has a veritable constellation of work in print and online publications, as well as a number of self published works. Her first comics collection – RPM Comics #1 – received a grant from the Xeric Foundation. Her ongoing graphic novel project – Non Partum – appears on MUTHA Magazine in installments. Her most recent pieces are the powerful Battleground, which was part of Illustrated PEN’s series “State of Emergency”, and Who Does He Favor? from this month on the LA Review of Books. Rachel spoke eloquently about how she uses comics to control and contextualize her experiences and memories, how “lies” illuminate the truth, and her belief in the power of making good art. She relates to Lynda Barry’s term “autobiofictionography” and names her as a main source of inspiration. Rachel pushed through her first successes and then bitter disappointments with the realty of making comics (and not making a living) and now 20 years into the game she is confident in her work and herself, and is excited about the medium. It was wonderful to hear her speak, and to see her address a crowd of mostly women last night. Sharing our work and experiences this way is more important than ever. Check out more of Rachel’s work HERE. Read Juan Fernandez’s discussion of Rachel’s foundational work HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Sophie Yanow has captured the constant struggle of many artists to maintain their space to make their work – and turned that “NO” (so often combined with wracking guilt and anxiety) into something glorious. Thank you Sophie! This comic should go above everyone’s desk – and she has made it available as a “pay what you want” downloadable PDF so get your copy HERE asap! —————————————————————————————————— Vanesa R. Del Rey and Jordie Bellaire talk Redlands over on Multiversity Comics in anticipation of the upcoming release of #1 (August 9th). I can’t wait for this comic, which will mix small town Florida with fed up witches, hopefully with wicked and wonderful results. Alice Castle interviewed the two makers about the work: “The idea of using witches as the protagonists in “Redlands” is fascinating to me. Witches have usually been cast as figures of impurity; the kind of women who refuse to adhere to patriarchal society. What was it that drew you to this idea? What made witches the right pick for this story? Jordie Bellaire: Women and the archetypes of crones, witches, succubi, etc go hand-in-hand. If women were sexually liberated, educated or sought knowledge or were generally unfettered by whatever social construct was pushed upon them at the time, they were written about as evil, dark and inhuman. This was in an effort to push women down and make them seem as if they were against not only men, but against god as well. It dates back to the story of Adam and Eve. This is a compelling trope that I wanted to dive into it as I think it has really set the tone for how women are seen in our culture and in our media. Women have been taking back the idea of being a witch or she-devil and owning it. The women in my story are unapologetic, flawed but liberated and real. Vanesa, you’ve dabbled in the world of horror comics before with “The Empty Man,” which was where I first discovered your artwork. “Redlands,” from what I’ve seen, seems even more somber and atmospheric. How would you describe your approach to this series? Vanesa R. Del Rey: The visual tone for the series is inspired by turn of the 19th-century illustration and printmaking, mainly. But I was also visiting Goya’s etching works which are pretty dark in terms of the commentary he made with the work as well as the imagery he used. I thought a hatching technique would be appropriate to illustrate the uneasiness, distress and anxiety in this land we have created. It’s also very classical, with attention to details and line weight…. I’m playing with the energy of the line to express a feeling in all ways. Things in “Redlands” are very strange and confusing, much like the place from which we are taking inspiration, Florida; it’s beautiful and colorful, but dark and unsettling too.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE and get ye to a comics shoppe on August 9th to grab your copy of Redlands #1! —————————————————————————————————— Working the Circuit Karen Berger announces the lineup of her new publishing imprint, Berger Books – Vulture has the details HERE. Katie Skelly was on Inkstuds recently, interviewed by guest host Joe McCulloch – listen HERE. Over on Comics Alternative Interviews Andy and Derek spoke with Gabrielle Bell about Everything is Flammable – HERE. Nicola Scott wades into the whys of how she’s drawing Wonder Woman for W Magazine – read the interview HERE. If you’re in the San Francisco area join Nicole J. Georges for an evening and celebrate the release of her new book Fetch on July 21st – part of the Comics in the City speaker series at California College of the Arts – details HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-21-2017 – by Gabriella Tito —————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-21-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Ch 5: The Figure in Detail (FACC)

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

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Posted in ResourcesTagged Al Capp, Barney Tobey, Dick Cavalli, feet, figure, Gurney Williams, Harry Haenigsen, Milton Caniff, Rube Goldberg, Virgil Partch, Whitney Darrow Jr., Willard Mullin

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Ch 4: The Head in Detail (FACC)

Ch1: The Comic Head (FACC)

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in ResourcesTagged Al Capp, Barney Tobey, Dick Cavalli, feet, figure, Gurney Williams, Harry Haenigsen, Milton Caniff, Rube Goldberg, Virgil Partch, Whitney Darrow Jr., Willard Mullin

Juan Fernández

Posted on January 1, 2016May 21, 2019

Search for:

Explore

Juan FernándezMay 18, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez bringing you: Gutter Fest #4; Inés Estrada’s Alienation #1; SAVE THE FANZINE; Feira Dente; El Día de Julio; y Para leer al Pato Donald. ————————————————————————————————— GUTTER FEST #4 – Fira d´Autoedició i de Microedició – It’s right around the corner in Barcelona, the 20-21 of May. Gutter Fest just released this promo videa… watch it. Full screen. Good luck making a promo for your zine fest fresher than this! Stay up to date with Gutter Fest over on their tumblr. ————————————————————————————————— Alienation #1 by Inés Estrada Estrada’s new science fiction series about the future, sex, love, virtual reality, paranoia and rock and roll! It’s available via her shop, GATOSAURIO. Dig into her work. ————————————————————————————————— SAVE THE FANZINE “Who knows their own story? Certainly it makes no sense when we are living in the midst of it. It’s all just clamour and confusion. It only becames a story when we tell it and retell it. Our small precious recollections. That we speak again and again to ourselves or to others. First, creating the narrative of our lives, and keeping the story from dissolving into the darkness…” Nick Cave, 20.000 Days on Earth SAVE THE FANZINE is a digital and online archive for self-published books. Not intended to replace the physical object, its purpose is to pay homage to the self-publising culture and to record these unique publications. It’s a killer record of contemporary zine making in Spain! Make an account and take dip. Water’s fine 😉 Check out SAVE THE FANZINE’s physical home, Sandwich Mixto, if you’re feeling adventurous today. Based in Madrid, they run a shop and workshop space that’s become a hub of Madrid’s self-publishing community. More on that in a future week. ————————————————————————————————— Passion and Militancy: the fanzine’s resistance as an art object. Madrid’s Libros Mutantes Zine Fest has prompted a little reflection on zines and their cultural significance in Spain over at El Confidencial. Smash that translate button 😉 ————————————————————————————————— Feira Dente Coming up in June in Brasilia, Brazil. Mark, your calendars for what’s to come! This is Dente’s second iteration. The programming schedule of workshops and More information to roll out, so keep it locked to their facebook and instagram accounts. ————————————————————————————————— Reseña de El Día de Julio Jesús Játiva reviews Julio’s Day over on Zona Negativa. Es esa capacidad magistral de plasmar en cien páginas cien años de historia familiar lo que hace esta obra tan buena: la muerte de muchos y el nacimiento de otros, la vida retratada en toda su miseria y también en su esplendor. Da la sensación de que Beto Hernández es pesimista, y parece caer en cierto fatalismo mostrando a todos y cada uno de los familiares bajo las más horribles desdichas y envejeciendo y engordando y volviéndose cada vez más feos. El contacto con la muerte y su presencia durante todas las páginas es constante, pero no parece Beto tan interesado en ese momento en el que dejamos de existir como en el momento que nos ha hecho lo que somos y nos ha marcado para toda la vida ————————————————————————————————— Para leer Al Pato Donald – Mass Communication & Colonialism This one is a throw back, but is well worth looking into if you haven’t before. How To Read Donald Duck (1972) by Ariel Dorfman (Argentina-Chile) and Armand Mattelart ( Belgium ), is a key piece of political literature of the seventies. An essay, or a “decolonization manual” in their own words that analyzed comic books published by Walt Disney for the Latin American market from the point of view of mass Marxist literature. Its main thesis is that Disney cartoons would not only be a reflection of the dominant ideology -the ruling class , according to the tenets of Marxism , but also be active and conscious accomplices of the task of maintaining and disseminating that ideology. It highlighted qualities of Disney characters and their world, notably that parents, or ancestors, generally were not present. Hay un desfasaje entre la base económico-social en que vive cada individuo y el estado de las representaciones colectivas, y es precisamente lo que asegura la eficacia de Disney y su poder de penetración en la mentalidad comunitaria en los países latinoamericanos dependientes » ————————————————————————————————— hasta la próxima, chiquillos, Juan Share this page: [...]

Kurt Ankeny on CXC 2016

Kurt Ankeny on CXC 2016

Kurt AnkenyOctober 22, 2016Festivals and ShowsEditor’s Note: Kurt Ankeny came to CXC as one of Comics Workbook’s workshop leaders. Comics Workbook hosted four sessions over the course of the festival, and Kurt presented on his work and on modifying your tools and materials to suit the story. He had an engaged audience who dug into the exercise he led after the presentation, which was right out of Ohio’s history of comics correspondence schools – a riff on the comic gag spinner. And now, the rest of Kurt’s CXC experience in his own words. Well, I’m back from Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, and caught up enough to sit down and write a few words about the experience. MUCH thanks to Frank Santoro for funding the vast majority of our trip out there as part of the Comics Workbook crew! THIS IS THE START OF SOMETHING BIG. The show being created by Jeff Smith, Tom Spurgeon, Caitlin McGurk and the staff of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum is still in its nascent stages. But if the project that they are all working towards comes to fruition, this is going to be a major event on the comics schedule, and may even put indie comics on the national media radar in much the same way that San Diego used to for mainstream comics. It’s exciting to think of how this show might grow. BY, FOR, and OF THE ARTISTS. Shows are not always necessarily about the sales. There are money-maker shows that cartoonists need, certainly. But there are also shows that cartoonists love, because those shows feel, as Kevin Czap put it in his acceptance speech for the Most Promising Talent Award, “like a big family reunion.” SPX is one of those shows. In only its second year, CXC is becoming another. The really special thing about CXC is the programming that happens before the market opens on Saturday. The academic discussions of comics by smart people who love what we do, the peer workshops that convey useful info to working cartoonists, the in-depth evening interview events, all create an atmosphere that is so rare at a con: one of relaxation and appreciation. It is hard to put into words the acceptance I felt being surrounded by so many people who love the form, not just as makers, but also as readers and academics and archivists. THOSE are the people we do this for, and as cartoonists we so rarely get to see those who really care about the work we do. THESE ARE THE PEOPLE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. Wow, it was really great to put names with faces and add IRL time to my relationships with Alyssa Berg, Juan José Fernandez, Sally Ingraham, Caleb Orecchio, Sacha Mardou, and Emil Friis Ernst! Tabling with the lovely Whit Taylor was a treat. It’s always good to have some time to talk to Ben Passmore and Kevin Czap, meet Caitlin McGurk, have a conversation with a nearly catatonic Tom Spurgeon at about midnight on Sunday, and have Ben Katchor stop at my table for a good 15-20 minutes to chat about the State of Comics. In other words, I had a pretty good time. ————————————————————————————————— Kurt Ankeny makes comics in Salem, MA – his most recent book is In Pieces: Someplace Which I Call Home. For the rest of our complete CXC coverage check out the special “round up” report HERE. Share this page: [...]

Sally IngrahamSeptember 8, 2016NewsSally here today to unpack a fantastic week in the Comics Workbook community – we are celebrating the results of the Composition Competition, looking forward to even more new work with the announcement of the fall Correspondence Course, dancing with excitement over the amazing lineup of CW-hosted workshops at SPX, and eagerly anticipating unpacking the box of hot-off-the-press new books by Connor Willumsen…! ————————————————————————————————— I believe that people are still working on reading all the comics that were made for the Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2016 (the winning comics, by Cameron Nicholson, Shee Phon, and Cameron Arthur are pictured above)! With well over 100 entries, the competition inspired a phenomenal outpouring of talent and energy this year, from a diverse and international comics making community. This contest is utterly unique, with it’s focus on composition and the freedom that can be found in restriction, and folks world-wide respond to that in remarkable ways. Camerson Nicholson, who created the comic that won first place in the 2016 Comics Workbook Composition Competition, has been channeling that energy into loads of new projects, like the one above. That is exactly the momentum that the competition hopes to inspire in contestants – many of whom have never completed a comic before. Making a complete comic, releasing it into the world and hearing the world clap back, often inspires one to say “Again!” And so the circle turns. ————————————————————————————————— With that in mind, Frank Santoro has announced a new semester of his Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! “Applications are due by Sept 16 2016 – The course begins Sept 23rd 2016 The application is: 3 landscape drawings, 3 still life drawings, and 3 figure drawings. All done on blank 3 x 5 inch index cards. Draw in direct pen with no pencil underdrawing. Also send me any specific urls of comics work you have done. If you haven’t done comics before that is not a problem. You will never meet someone as enthusiastic about comics as me. I’m a good coach.” Full details are HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Small Press Expo 2016 is fast approaching, and the Comics Workbook team is getting into high gear with a huge two-day schedule of workshops during the show. We will be hanging out with Jeffery Brown, Carol Tyler, Charles Burns, Cameron Nicholson, and some of the best comics makers from Spain all weekend. Find all the details HERE – and sign up for the workshops HERE! ————————————————————————————————— There are only a few days left until Connor’s new book makes it’s appearance – we are literally waiting for the mailman on the porch everyday, crossing fingers that he’ll have the box with him…! This means you have only a few days left to take advantage of the incredible pre-order deal – check it out HERE. This book is going to look (and smell) amazing, (thanks to the skills of WestCan) and fans of Connor’s work will no doubt find Portraits an essential part of their collection. ————————————————————————————————— I’ll be back tomorrow with more news and good energy to close out this first week of September. Cheers – Sally Share this page: [...]

Juan FernándezJanuary 21, 2016NewsHello world, Frank’s got your coverage of what has been going on with the Rowhouse so far over at the Comics Journal. Big things happening come February 1st… Bill expounds on the glory that is Kevin Huizenga’s Gloriana on camera in Bill’s Remedial Comics #1. Watch and and see what all the fuss is about. oh and did you hear the news? You can catch Deforge, Drnaso, Chippendale on the East Coast for their Winter tour! Holy shit is right. Chippendale will be on tour promoting Puke Force, DeForge will be on tour promoting Big Kids, and Drnaso will be on tour for his debut of Beverly. Check out all the details here. Paper Jam – the Bushwick zine/comics hang out is just around the corner and they’ve started announcing exhibitors. Loads of new work to check out there if you want go hang out and talk comics/ pick up some new comics and zines. Stay abreast of their tumblr to get the low-down on who’ll be setting up shop. Kevin Czap is first up to bat. Oh and last but not least, we heard it through the grapevine that Lenny the pug has been getting pretty down what with the dark days spent indoors in Pittsburgh. Maybe you could help cheer Lenny up with some love over at the Lenny Fan Club Mailbox? Share this page: [...]

Aaron CockleNovember 15, 2016NewsAaron here today with Mardou on Clowes; Bianca Xunise Comics; Research & Destroy NYC; European Abstract Formalist Comics; A bystander’s guide to help the person who’s being targeted ————————————————————————————————— Featured this week: On Being a Woman in the Manly World of Daniel Clowes Sacha Mardou takes an in-depth look at the role of women in Clowes’s work. Another strong piece from the CW Roller Derby League. Julie Patheticstein and Violet Vanderplatz are two wronged women who team up in an unlikely friendship. Patience endures a humiliating stage in her development under the kind mentoring of the older waitress, Nancy. And Vida just adores her old grandmother, the fading poetess Ida Wentz. There’s a subtle alter-world of quiet kindness and acceptance in his books and when you look for the women, you’ll find it there. It would be a miserable life for the men if not for this quiet, subplotted influence. Even grumpy-pants Wilson benefits from the tender mercies of his daughter, and then from his life companion, Shelly. ————————————————————————————————— The 94% Bianca Xunise looks at demographics from this past week’s United States presidential election. ————————————————————————————————— RESEARCH & DESTROY The zine collective Research and Destroy New York City has made a good deal of their protest relevant material available online, including RIOT CONTROL; SUPERSTORM SANDY AND NEW YORK CITY’S DARK RECOVERY,OR, THINGS TO BE SEIZED DURING THE COMING INSURRECTION; and RULES FOR PICKETING. Their most recent work, The 2015 Baltimore Uprising: A Teen Epistolary, a tweet zine, was recently reviewed: The chunky, semi-glossy self-published work provides a singular view of the uprising quite separate from the breaking news of the national media or the think pieces churned out after the unrest. A few examples: “now Freddie broke his own neck…so why it take yall so long to tell the public @BaltimorePolice”; “they keep hollerin bout gangs, WE DON’T EVEN HAVE GANGS LIKE THAT NOMORE.”; “yall need to purge a fucking book w/ yall low ass gpa’s.” Collectively, these tweets can teach us things. They send us back to those days when we didn’t know what was happening or what was going to happen next during the violence on Saturday, April 25 downtown, and the rioting on Monday, April 27, and amid the making-it-up-as-they-go-along week of protests prior to that. The tweets capture the larger thing that we keep calling “the uprising” and the “is a revolution happening before our very eyes” excitement and worry. One tweet just declares, “Looking at a lot of shit different now.” ————————————————————————————————— Over at Kim Jooha’s blog, an attempt at a definition of European Abstract Formalist Comics Why “European” Abstract Formalist Comics? The above-listed works are mostly by French artists and all are by Europeans. There are only few Abstract Formalist Comics in other regions. ITDN (2016) by Andy Burkholder and artist books by Sol LeWitt (USA), Re/Forma (2014) by Luis Aranguri (Brazil), 9gbb (2016) by Ryukyung Hotel (South Korea) and works by Yuichi Yokoyama and Tiger Tateishi (Japan) are exceptions, rather than the norm, in their countries and continents. ————————————————————————————————— WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE WITNESSING ISLAMOPHOBIC HARASSMENT: A bystander’s guide to help the person who’s being targeted This came out at the end of August, and has been making the various social media rounds again in light of recent events. By Marie-Shirine Yener at The Middle Eastern Feminist. Share this page: [...]