Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in School UpdatesTagged charlottetown comics club, comics workbook satellite school, tyler landry

Comics Workbook

Posted on January 22, 2017July 29, 2017

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05/25/2016

Juan FernándezMay 25, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez with: the Chris Diaz Archive: Creep Highway & the Candy Boys + Connor Willumsen; Gabri Molist; Voltio #1; Ana Oncina; Grids on the Web; Canadian Centre for Architecture. ————————————————————————————————— On the site – New in The Diaz Archive: http://comicsworkbook.com/creep-highway-the-candy-boyz/ http://comicsworkbook.com/connor-willumsen-draws-pris-from-blade-runner/ ————————————————————————————————— ELSEWHERE: Four Mathematicians – Gabri Molist Don’t miss the Fibonacci progression in Gabri Molist‘s latest entry in the Four Mathematicians series. Over on TIKTOK cómics. ————————————————————————————————— A look at Voltio #1 Voltio is a recently launched an anthology published by La Cúpula chock full of emerging Spanish artists. Ana Oncina y Álex Giménez are at the helm of this production, which aims to present comics in a recently absent format – the comics magazine. (Spain has a tradition of this sort of publication: El Vibora, Trinca, Cairo, Creepy, Vampus, Métal Hurlant, 1984, Cimoc, Totem ) Lots of visual experiments and humor in this one. A spanish peer toImage’s Island if you will. The first issues features work by: Alex Giménez, Àlex Red, Alexis Nolla,Ana Galvañ, Ana Oncina, Andrew Rae, Antonio Hitos, Aroha Travé, Fran Collado, José Domingo, Kensausage (Cristian Robles), Núria Tamarit yPowerPaola. Jaime Valero reviews Voltio over at Fancueva.com RTVE’s Jesús Jiménez reviews and places Voltio in its Spanish cultural context ————————————————————————————————— Ana Oncina en el Spotlight Barcelona based cartoonist, Ana Oncina was born in 1989 in Alicante and studied Fine Arts at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, specializing in illustration and animation. Her first comic , Croqueta y Empandailla became instant success thanks to its charismatic characters and Oncina’s sense of humor. A work that resonated A LOT with Spaniards reading comics. Her stories are in a similar vein of Philippa Rice’s Soppy, Croqueta y Empandailla are quotidian relationship comics with a twist of humor. Traducir&Co Interview (2016) Júralo por mi Interview (2015) ————————————————————————————————— Grid Webdesign Tutorial Complement your time with yesterday’s Kirby grids with some thoughts on the grid and contemporary webdesign over on www.tutsplus.com . ————————————————————————————————— Mental Architectures Still in the webdesign vein, Don’t miss the Candian Centre for Architecture’s new site. It’s a great example of empathetic presentation of content on the web that allows for the stories and articles to maintain a feeling of awe. Beautiful stuff, really. ————————————————————————————————— hasta la proxima 😉 Juan Share this page: [...]

12/19/2016

Juan FernándezDecember 19, 2016NewsJuan here with PIX 2017, Art Happens on PCTV21, comics and image related news that’s caught my eye and of course the inimitable Suzy and Cecil. ————————————————————————————————— Feast your eyes on the first official PIX 2017 Poster, by PIX 2017 special guest, Lale Westvind. Damn. PIX is pleased to announce it’s first confirmed guest at PIX 2017 – Lale Westvind! Lale is a beacon of self-publishing and a veteran of small press comics. She has self published many small batch comics, among them Titus and the Cyber Sun, Hot Dog Beach, Now and Here, Double Head Tour, and the just released Yazar and Arkadas. Her stunning multicolor risograph, Hax, published by Breakdown Press in the UK, was one of the standout releases of 2016. Her work has also appeared in numerous anthologies, most notably the latest Kramers Ergot (#9). And, she has graced PIX 2017 with its first graphic, which will soon be posted here. Watch for it! ————————————————————————————————— Staying with the local Pittsburgh news, I hopped on the airwaves on PCTV21 to talk comics with Christiane Leach and Jennifer Saffron on Art Happens. We talked about what I’m talking about all the time with Frank and Sally here at the Rowhouse. It was good to get all this talk outta the house. If you want to know what it’s like to talk with me in person, here’s a taste. I can’t tell you how nice it is to have conversations with comics with people who are willing to play ball and to see comics as a vital intersection of the arts. Christiane and Jennifer are amazing hosts, always ready to get their hands dirty with whatever is on hand. It’s great to bring to the world these ideas that have been instilled in me by Frank Santoro, Bill Boichel via BEM, Copacetic Comics and Comics Workbook. I’d be nowhere without these guys. Grab something warm and sit down with us. Treat it like a podcast while you work. ————————————————————————————————— My buddy Em DeMarco, here in Pittsburgh, has put out a call for a comic that she’s making about hate-related incidents post-election. I want to pass the mic on over to her: *IF* you’ve experienced verbal or other forms of harassment since Nov. 8th: I’m gathering stories for a nonfiction comic about hate-related incidents that have happened since the election in Western Pennsylvania. I’d like to hear stories of people who feel like they’ve been targeted in any way because of their (real or perceived) race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. *** IF you feel comfortable sharing your story *** private message me, or email me at emcorp.works@gmail.com. Feel free to share this with friends or family who you think might be interested in speaking with me. Thank you, Em DeMarco ————————————————————————————————— when you can’t work harder, work smarter – for real though <3 ————————————————————————————————— Comics and news that’ve caught my eye: A look at the wonders of SAMPLERMAN. Yvan Guillo is Samplerman. Dig into his collage comics here on HyperAllergic. Underground Art Comics in China. VOLCAN – I can’t afford to get my hands on this, BUT I can learn a lot by looking at what Alexis Beaculair has posted online! Check out these high quality photos of Lagon Revue’s juicy publication, VOLCAN. A memory of when the internet was young. Check out this photo from back in 1973 to see, in a way that is now impossible, what the internet used to look like… ————————————————————————————————— From Comics Workbook: Suzy and Cecil – 12-19-2016 – by Gabriella Tito We are accepting applications for the Winter Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers right up until Dec. 28th 2016. Course starts Dec. 29th! 8 weeks – 500 bux – the best comics education for your money. Full details and how to apply HERE. ————————————————————————————————— until next time! juan Share this page: [...]

Ch2: The Comic Figure (FACC)

Juan FernándezJanuary 1, 2016ResourcesShare this page: [...]

09/08/2017

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

03/23/2017

Sally IngrahamMarch 22, 2017NewsSam Ombiri on the art you consume vs. the art you make – and Sally with news updates from Ronald Wimberly, Tee Franklin, America Chavez, Zora Neale Hurston, Richie Pope, and Rick Mays. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I like this idea that the work one is interacting with is different from the work that is being made. I remember first hearing of this from Markus Popp/Oval talking about how he mostly listens to death metal for this somewhat vague reason. Maybe it’s just my memory being foggy. Then the next time I heard it was from Frank Santoro specifying that what he was interested in making wasn’t necessarily what he read. Then I heard it from CF expressed in a nearly similar manner – I can’t remember whether he was talking about his music or his comics, so I’ll just make the assumption that he was talking about his comics as well as music. Another time I heard this idea was when Brian Chippendale, who kind of hilariously said that if someone were to give him a comic that was done snake style, he would be frustrated and confused and say something like “Why don’t you just make the panels go in order!? Just why?” I heard Sammy Harkham say something like the media you consume can be really important to the work you’re making. Anya Davidson cited some work that I can’t remember and said it gave her a huge boost of confidence and the ability to resume in the place she was in. CF once or twice expressed his complete distaste for forcing work to head a certain direction, or a specific route. He likened it to trying to be such a good host you end up being a bad host. I think that might go along with his comment of making what he’s interested in making. I think I heard him once say that when he draws he aims for his experiments to end in failure. I heard Dash Shaw say something similar – that he’s more into making immature works that constantly, clumsily reinvent themselves, and often fail. I feel what Sammy said expresses the effect media has. I once heard him say that he thinks when someone sees violence on the screen it affects them. This seemed like more than the obvious statement. It was like as much as people felt the violence on screen affected them, supposedly Sammy felt the effect was bigger than they imagined. (As a side-note Jesse Moynihan wrote this super cool thing on violence, though it’s going a different place than what I think Sammy might have been saying.) Sammy also talks about how sadness is a better experience when it’s not blatant tears being shown, but rather something that feels like it is following the character, regardless of expression. – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sally here: There is a fantastic interview on The Comics Reporter with Ronald Wimberly – originally conducted as part of Tom Spurgeon’s annual Holiday Interview series, but posted just recently. Having met Ron myself last month, and having spoken to him casually about his comics making (and the state of the world, etc.) I find myself nodding along to Tom’s opening statements about Ron: “Ronald Wimberly is an artist and comics-maker with as high a ceiling as they come. His prodigious skill set as displayed on the page is matched by a formidable ability to explain, dissect and present to others his strategies and reasons-why when making art. Just his influences, what Wimberly is looking at and processing at any single time, could fuel a week of lectures. I greatly enjoy looking at his comics pages, and knowing the amount of effort channeled into them is a thrill.“ The interview mostly digs into Prince of Cats, which Image Comics re-released last fall in a new format. The book is an intriguing riff on Romeo & Juliet, and so Ron and Tom talk Shakespeare, tragedy, acting, and Tybalt, who is the focus of the story. “SPURGEON: You end with Tybalt… that’s a brutal ending if you end with Tybalt. Romeo and Juliet can be interpreted as rich kids falling prey to what’s soaked into the bones of Verona. It just happens that these two kids… and suddenly now it’s news. The earlier deaths are just as tragic as one where we see the romance. It’s a fatalistic idea; it’s even reinforced by the meta in that we are super-sure Tybalt dies in any incarnation of this story. It’s grim. It’s a serious way of looking at that world. The basic course of the narrative is reinforced. But man. WIMBERLY: If someone feels sad about Tybalt, I think that’s good, because he didn’t get that opportunity originally. He was a plot point. If anything, maybe I can contribute to one of the intents of the original. Depending how it’s performed or staged it can have that element. But usually not. In the prologues, it’s set out. It says the same thing. It tells you what’s going to happen. For this beef of the ages to rest, there has to have been a sacrifice. What my point is that the sacrifice continues to happen, and the beef doesn’t stop. I’m sure in the case of Romeo and Juliet, those two houses… a generation passes… we all know Italy is a bunch of warring — it’s still a bunch of warring states! Right? At the end of the day, it’s senseless. But the life that’s led isn’t necessarily senseless. The light on it can be humane. It can add value to it. That’s the difference between an existentialist and a nihilist right? In showing it, looking at it, living it, there’s some value to it.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE. Get a copy of Prince of Cats from Copacetic Comics – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— From writer Tee Franklin, who created #BlackComicsMonth in 2015, comes the project Bingo Love – “the black queer love story that the world needs”. From an article about the comic on The Huffington Post: ” “It’s rare in the comic industry to have two black women leads, especially written by a disabled, queer black woman,” she said. “Now to have these protagonists queer and older? This will never happen in the comics industry unless someone does it on their own.” “ Tee Franklin is therefor doing it on her own – with the help of a creative team that consists of artist Jenn St-Onge, colorist Joy San, letterer Cardinal Rae, and editor Erica Schultz, and a Kickstarter that has already raised $25, 998. She hopes to put the comic out later this year. Check out the Bingo Love Kickstarter HERE. Read more about the comic an Tee Franklin HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Guardian writes about America Chavez – AKA unmasked avenger Miss America – for their ‘the month in comics” feature. “Marvel has finally realized her potential as a standalone hero: this month’s America #1 launches Chavez as the headliner of her own ongoing comic series. Taking time out from team-ups, she has enrolled at Sotomayor University, an advanced campus that includes a Department of Radical Women & Intergalactic Indigenous Peoples and a Fifth Element-obsessed sorority called the Leelumultipass Phi Theta Betas. Before long, she is teleporting through time and space to ace a tricky homework paper, in the process offering a fairly definitive position on the morality of punching Nazis.“ The article writer Graeme Virtue credits all this “exuberance” to the “atypical” creative team behind the comic: artist Joe Quinones (of Marvel’s Howard the Duck) and making her comics debut, writer Gabby Rivera – “the young, queer Latina author of YA novel Juliet Takes a Breath“. ” “I’ve always dreamt up wild, powerful and carefree superheroes that look like me and my family,” Rivera recently told the Washington Post: “Thick, brown, goofy, beautiful.” “ Read more about the comic HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Hillary Brown of Paste Magazine interviews Peter Bagge about his new book Fire!!: The Zora Neale Hurston Story. The comic (which was colored by Bagge’s wife, Joanne) is his second biography of a “cranky” woman. (Previously he told the story of Margaret Sanger, who founded Planned Parenthood). “Paste: How does it feel to make a shift toward biographic nonfiction at this point in your career? You’re a veteran cartoonist and you’ve suddenly produced two books of relatively scholarly biographical nonfiction in a row. Peter Bagge: I’ve grown tired of both writing and reading fiction, for one thing. It’s a common old-age affliction! I have less patience reading made-up stuff these days. Reality is far more fascinating. And I’ve been writing nonfiction (including biographical) comics for the past 20 years or so. They’ve just taken a more ambitious turn lately.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE. HERE is a review of the book on the Toronto Star. ————————————————————————————————— Richie Pope just announced that he has a new comic in the upcoming anthology Shortbox #4. It’s called Super Itis and he describes it like this on Instagram: “A tired construction worker gets stuck in a dream made entirely of the soul food he ate for lunch.“ Pre-order Shortbox #4 HERE – ships in May. ————————————————————————————————— Frank Santoro is auctioning artwork by his childhood friend and mentor, comics artist Rick Mays. These are original comics pages from projects like Spider-Man Ultimate Vol. 3 #2, and Spidey Loves MJ #13 – all proceeds will go to Mr. Mays. Check out the auction HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-23-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-23-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-23-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Charlottetown Comics Club

Posted on January 22, 2017July 29, 2017 by Comics Workbook

Tyler Landry shares thoughts on running a weekly comics club in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada – a Comics Workbook “satellite school”!

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Tyler Landry (left and center) and members of the Charlottetown Comics Club

I’ve been running the Charlottetown Comics Club (CCC) weekly, since the spring of 2016. At first in my home with a few trusted friends, then we moved to a public place – the back room of a local comic shop, Lightning Bolt Comics, where anyone and everyone is welcome to join.

I sought to model this club on a few basic ideals. First, the continued development and expansion (for myself, and members) of the foundation of comics-making skills I learned through Frank Santoro’s Correspondence Course, and, by extension, the inundation of ideas, influences, and examples flowing through Comics Workbook. Second, to gather locally operating cartoonists (of all levels and persuasions), who often toil in silence/obscurity at home, in a place where we can feel comfortable working and growing alongside each other, for mutual benefit and general good feels.

Meetings in the back of Lightning Bolt Comics

Some members come and go, some are very consistent. This can make group activities challenging, especially where things carry over from one week to the next, but I’ve managed to run a handful of pretty successful exercises so far. We do some smaller warmups and drills, as well as some larger/longer projects with full-on story card development. There are also members who bring their own bread-and-butter comics work, or projects they’re already knee-deep in, and just draw away among their peers.

I encourage everyone to bring in their own work, new and old, and also to share comics they like (or don’t like) with the group. Discussing these things can only make us smarter and ultimately more demanding of the quality and caliber of the content we seek to read and create in comics. This is so important.

At its core, this club upholds the methods and values that I’ve been taught, and seeks to grow and share them with the wider community here. I strongly believe that this kind of “part-of-the-total-package”, modular thinking is key to creating, editing, and clearly executing good comics. I pull from any and all sources I can find value in, and there are endless examples, but Comics Workbook is solid. There’s tangible proof in the CW pudding. This way of thinking, and the use of these methods has enabled me to focus my ideas and raw skills into actual complete comics – something that used to be very hit/miss for me. I wouldn’t be doing the work I’m doing now if this door hadn’t been opened.

I’m passionate to a fault about comics being THE medium for storytelling, beautiful artwork, and expression of ideas. I don’t know nearly as much as I should about the history of comics, or its major/middle/minor players, but I’m seeking that knowledge, always.

I want to participate in the realization of the expanding potential of this medium, and this club is another way in which I, and its other members, can do just that.

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Tyler will continue to share work by members of the club, bios of these Prince Edward Island cartoonists, and details about the projects the CCC complete. If you are interested in joining the club please email santoroschoolATgmail and we will put you in touch with Tyler.

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Tyler Landry is a graduate of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers. His recent comics includes Vile 1: Cowards Hole, Vile 2: Lonesome, and Hermit Crab Real Estate. Get copies of his work HERE. Check out work in progress and other cool stuff by Tyler HERE. Keep up with the Charlottetown Comics Club via Tyler’s Instagram – @clavcity.

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in School UpdatesTagged charlottetown comics club, comics workbook satellite school, tyler landry

Comics Workbook

Posted on January 22, 2017July 29, 2017

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12/09/2016

Sally IngrahamDecember 9, 2016NewsSally here with Vanesa R. Del Rey’s new book, work by Sylvie Fontaine, Fiona Smyth, and Gabriella Tito, and notes on the All Time Comics project. ————————————————————————————————— “Frank Santoro: Vanesa, I’m quite taken aback by your sheer technical ability which seems to be married to a poetic sensibility. There’s a lightness there. Sometimes illustrators with that ability get heavy-handed. Yet you manage the push-pull between the two sides of yourself – because you’re like a samurai. The humble samurai. Vanesa R. Del Rey: It’s about trying to remember that. I can get all this praise, I can get all these amazing responses from strangers, but at the end of the day – I’m still a student. I’m still learning. The crown doesn’t fit. The crown should never fit.” In May 2016 Vanesa R. Del Rey came to Pittsburgh, PA, to visit the Rowhouse and share her sketchbooks and her passion for comics with Frank and the rest of us. Their conversations about her work and experiences have been transformed into the book The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey, which is full of gorgeous images as well. You can get a peak into the book at the pre-order site HERE – the book will be released later this month! Vanesa is known for her work on Marvel’s Black Widow, and the Boom Studios stories Hit and The Empty Man. She is the “vertical invader” in comics that Frank has always talked about – the artist who “could employ the naturalism of the Noel Sickles/Alex Toth school but who could paint like an Alice Neel or a Jenny Saville.“ Vanesa is an inspiration to me on a lot of levels, and getting to hear more of her stories and thoughts via this new book – getting to hang out with this samurai! – is a great privilege. To hear another woman voice out loud something like “I want to be a strong female – I want to be powerful” and then to watch her truly kick ass IS incredibly powerful. Check out more of Vanesa’s work HERE. Pre-order a copy of The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Big news broke yesterday – EW revealed that Fantagraphics is going to release a line of superhero comes starting in March 2017. Wait…whut?! “Headed by writer Josh Bayer, the All Time Comics line launches in March 2017 with All Time Comics: Crime Destroyer #1. The supersized issue will introduce the four main characters of this shared superhero universe: Atlas, Bullwhip, Crime Destroyer, and Blind Justice, each of whom will be getting their own individual series. As proof of the line’s blending of eras, this first issue will feature the final published comics work of the late Herb Trimpe, a Marvel veteran of the Lee/Kirby era who helped co-create Wolverine. All Time Comics will also feature work from the likes of Al Milgrom (who co-created DC’s Firestorm), as well as younger artists like Noah Van Sciver and Ben Marra. Each issue, Bayer promises, will feature a new unique mash-up of different cartoonists.” – via EW It’s true – here’s the pre-order page on Fantagraphics’ website. And I do think this is exciting news. I totally want to read a superhero comic that Noah Van Sciver has worked on. But Heidi MacDonald over on The Comics Beat has already voiced the thought that immediately occurred to me – the project is kind of “a throwback boys club that proves just how far comics have come….not. Tsk tsk, boys. Haven’t you heard the news? Girl cooties are allowed around comics now and even superheroes!” Heidi shouts for Katie Skelly to get in on the project, or else. I am going to start the clamor for Lale Westvind and Anya Davidson and Vanesa R. Del Rey for heavens sake, and I’m going to keep adding to the list! Overall I do think it’s a cool project (I look forward to collecting the issues!) and I like what Bayer has to say about it: “All Time Comics is celebration of independent comics and the best of pulpy superhero comics of the past,” Bayer tells EW. “We are making a circle complete. This is also a period when comics seem to be in danger of being eclipsed by movies and video games, and All Time Comics is here to remind people that comics, not movies, not action figures or toys, that started our cultural obsession with superheroes. All Time Comics is us, and we stand for comics. Comics are not fading. They will stand… for all time.” – via EW The EW press release is HERE. Heidi on The Comics Beat has the whole list of who exactly is working on what issues at the end of her post, HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I spend two days a week at one of the best alternative comics shops in the world – Copacetic Comics, in the Polish Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. A twice-weekly perusal of the shelves or a thorough dig through the many long boxes of small press and self-published work usually turns up a few treasures. Yesterday I poured over a little book by Sylvie Fontaine, called Miss Va-Nu-Pieds (2008). Sylvie Fontaine is a French comics maker who has been publishing work since the 90’s. Despite the fact that her book Le Poulet du Dimanche (2007) earned an introduction by Moebius himself, the internet did not reveal much more about her. I was quite content with Miss Va-Nu-Pieds though. The black and white panels reminded me of Frans Masereel woodcuts, with a little Mary Fleener mixed in. The wordless story follows a young woman through a swiftly changing wonderland. She moves forward constantly, encountering new landscapes and beings, falling into traps and narrowly avoiding accidents, planting , dancing, until she rides a giant hand to a point of rest and possibly fulfillment. I would say you can get a copy of this book at Copacetic, but I think I’m keeping it. So if you’re interested, you can order it through the publisher, Tanibis. ————————————————————————————————— Another work that I was reminded of while looking at Miss Va-Nu-Pieds was The Rendered (2016) by Fiona Smyth. Perhaps something about the harsh black and white made me long for hot pink – although there is a slight stylistic similarity. Speaking of Fiona Smyth, when I saw her this past summer she was bemoaning the fact that the building in Toronto where her studio has been located for years was being torn down, or was kicking all the artists out – something really depressing – and now I see on her site that she’s having a final studio sale. Boooooo. She’ll be selling drawings, paintings, zines, and prints on Dec. 10th and then Dec. 17/18th – here are the details. In other news – much more delightful news! – I just discovered Fiona’s CHEEZ archive. CHEEZ is a weekly strip that Fiona has been publishing on the web since…2009?! It was “originally a monthly comic/drawing published in Canada’s Exclaim Magazine over a ten year period from 1992 to 2002.“ Here is the first strip that appeared on the site in 2009: And the most recent one: Yes, you read that correctly – Fiona Smyth has drawn 489 CHEEZ strips. Check them all out HERE! ————————————————————————————————— There are 4 days left to get an early application in for the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers, and get that sweet $100 off discount on the Winter Semester. Apply by Dec. 13th! The course starts December 29th 2016, and you have until the 28th to submit an application – the course is 8 weeks long – Frank takes 10 students and you won’t find a better teacher out there. One-on-one feedback, techniques and ideas about comics that will transform your practice and push you to a whole new level. Winter is the time to hunker down and make some serious work – and have a bit of fun too. Check out the course – take the course: More details can be found HERE – or email santoroschoolATgmail. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-9-2016 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

Simon Hanselmann Bad Gateway Tour with Joe Matt Cameo Appearance

Chris Anthony DiazAugust 14, 2019The Diaz ArchiveSimon Hanselmann Bad Gateway west coast signing tour, Green Apple on the Park, San Francisco, Friday evening, August 2, 2019 and Skylight Books, Los Angeles, Saturday evening, August 3, 2019 Share this page: [...]

10/04/2016

Aaron CockleOctober 3, 2016NewsAaron here today with CW in the UK (and USA); Best North American Comics; Alex Citrin Remembers Geneviève Castrée; Review of Dane Martin Comics; Tentacular Thinking; New CW Auction Items ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook will be participating in two festivals next week: One in the UK The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, October 14-16. Join Frank Santoro, Aidan Koch, and Connor Willumsen for some cool workshops and visit table 67 in the Comics Clocktower to meet Oliver East and Jack Brougham, among others. We will be hosting 3 special workshops, “Visual Poetry” with Aidan Koch, “The Hammer Party” with Connor Willumsen and “Composition Competition” with Frank Santoro. Tickets for the main events at this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival are on sale now. Visit our event page for more information. And one in the US Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, October 13-16. We will be hosting workshops and tabling. Join Comics Workbook, along with cartoonists Alyssa Berg and Kurt Ankeny, for an immersive weekend of comics creation. We will examine art and the grid, bringing the strong artistic practices of Berg and Ankeny together with the discipline and rhythm of the grid, as laid out by Comics Workbook founder Frank Santoro. Four hours across two days will be filled with the exploration of a variety of techniques and methods which will inspire the beginner, and challenge the established cartoonist. Comics as jazz; comics as architecture; how a simple index card can transform your sequencing and storytelling process – come join us for an hour or four and take your comics making to a new level. More information on our CXC exploits to come soon – the full festival schedule is here! ————————————————————————————————— Wednesday at the Strand Roz Chast and Bill Kartalopoulos will be in conversation at Strand Books in NYC on Wednesday, October 5 at 7pm with Anne Emond, Lianna Finck, and Char Esme in promotion of the 2016 edition of the Best American Comics. Chast guest edits this year, Bill K remains the series editor. Cover by Marc Bell. ————————————————————————————————— For Geneviève and Elsewhere: A comic by Alex Citrin ————————————————————————————————— Upon Review of Dane Martin’s Unfortunate Horse Magazine Dane’s comics are grouped generically under the title The Horror of the Gag, which, while apparently at odds with itself, perfectly describes his product. These strips and stories follow the funny animal tradition of anthropomorphic critter hijinx and have an olde timey aura befitting the venerable genre. However, unlike the blithe cavorting of a Mickey or a Mini, Dane takes the ire and consternation of Donald and stokes its flames until it they reach a fever pitch of pride, loathing and anxiety–and injects this toxic serum into the veins of his bug-eyed characters. So burdened, Dane’s ducks and their compatriots scramble across a crepuscular dust bowl, seemingly located in the early 20th century, manipulating and terrorizing each other as they compete for capitalist supremacy, or bicker about false memories, or worry the internal scars of childhood. And yet, somehow, in the midst of this unenviable existence, their antics are frequently, legitimately funny. – via Donner, Party of One ————————————————————————————————— Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene Donna Haraway has a lovely (and lovingly-footnoted) piece at e-flux about homo sapiens from, like, a geological perspective: As a provocation, let me summarize my objections to the Anthropocene as a tool, story, or epoch to think with: (1) The myth system associated with the Anthropos is a setup, and the stories end badly. More to the point, they end in double death; they are not about ongoingness. It is hard to tell a good story with such a bad actor. Bad actors need a story, but not the whole story. (2) Species Man does not make history. (3) Man plus Tool does not make history. That is the story of History human exceptionalists tell. (4) That History must give way to geostories, to Gaia stories, to symchthonic stories; terrans do webbed, braided, and tentacular living and dying in sympoietic multispecies string figures; they do not do History. (5) The human social apparatus of the Anthropocene tends to be top-heavy and bureaucracy prone. Revolt needs other forms of action and other stories for solace, inspiration, and effectiveness. (6) Despite its reliance on agile computer modeling and autopoietic systems theories, the Anthropocene relies too much on what should be an “unthinkable” theory of relations, namely the old one of bounded utilitarian individualism — preexisting units in competition relations that take up all the air in the atmosphere (except, apparently, carbon dioxide). (7) The sciences of the Anthropocene are too much contained within restrictive systems theories and within evolutionary theories called the Modern Synthesis, which for all their extraordinary importance have proven unable to think well about sympoiesis, symbiosis, symbiogenesis, development, webbed ecologies, and microbes. That’s a lot of trouble for adequate evolutionary theory. (8) Anthropocene is a term most easily meaningful and usable by intellectuals in wealthy classes and regions; it is not an idiomatic term for climate, weather, land, care of country, or much else in great swathes of the world, especially but not only among indigenous peoples. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

09/19/2017

Aaron CockleSeptember 18, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Anti-Gone Tour Dates; the International Human Rights Cartoon Award; Teju Cole on Marie Cosindas; David Salle on Rei Kawakubo; John Hankiewicz’s Education; Tac au Tac ————————————————————————————————— Anti-Gone on Tour Connor Willumsen is touring in support of his new book, available now from Koyama Press. Noel Freibert and Patrick Kyle will also be joining Willumsen on the tour. ————————————————————————————————— International Human Rights Cartoon Award Via Maren Williams at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: Exiled Iranian cartoonist Kianoush Ramezani, who was forced to flee his native country when the regime took notice of his work in 2009, has established a new international prize to recognize cartoonists who are speaking out on issues of human rights anywhere in the world. Submissions for the International Human Rights Cartoon Award are open now until Nov. 30 through Ramezani’s organization United Sketches. ————————————————————————————————— ‘…an ensorcelled world that included flowers, vases, dolls, lace, fur, rugs, porcelain, books, chairs, oranges, asparagus, posters, ornaments, statues, dancers, dandies, sailors, tarot cards, masks and puppets, but also those portals into other worlds — paintings, mirrors and windows — that collectively constituted a highly personal vision of reality enamored of theatrical effects and attuned to the inner life of inanimate things…’ Teju Cole looks at the photography work of Marie Cosindas (among other topics), in the longest single sentence ever published by the NY Times. …much as Cosindas carefully selected subject matter and, through technical know-how and visual intelligence — a skillful deployment of lighting, filters, exposure times, developing times and ambient temperature for florals but also other genres, including portraits and assemblages of objects of all kinds for which she disliked the term “still life,” rightly rejecting any connotation of stasis, and for which she preferred “arrangement” — turned it into indelible statements about what photography could achieve more than half a century after pictorialism’s heyday, with a use of color that was more soulful, by being somehow both freer and more disciplined, than what was generally seen in commercial color of the 1960s, and that came into the world earlier than the work of some other great color photography pioneers like William Eggleston, whose style was more deadpan, less arranged, less obviously artful and more in keeping with the preference of critics and curators, once they acquired a taste for it, for what art photography in color should look like, though the louche and antiquarian work that Cosindas made did result in considerable fame for her in the ’60s and ’70s, with solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art (before Eggleston), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Art Institute of Chicago, but did not win her glory in most standard histories of photography, in which other artists, mostly younger than she and almost all male, are credited as the true pioneers of color, so that she came to be seen as an anomaly, neither modern nor contemporary, in part because her particular contribution to photography was mystical, sensuous, unashamed of beauty and grounded in the combination of everyday objects with exotic ones, an earnestness that fit awkwardly with the ironic and occasionally cynical tastes that dominated the last half-century but put her firmly in the line of many artists in history who were revolutionary not by founding a new school of thought but by discovering unexpected life in old approaches, not in keeping with the times but rather timeless,… ————————————————————————————————— ‘For this interplay of references to have real weight, there must be at least hints of a discernible visual syntax.’ David Salle looks at length at the Rei Kawakubo exhibit, which just ended its run at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. The exhibition design, a collaboration between Kawakubo and the Met curators, follows no perceptible chronology. Enclosures of various shapes—inverted cones, flattened spheres and semicircles, keyholes, ovals, triangles—contain the clothes, which are grouped by collection or theme. These frames are rendered in white plasterboard and lit from above by dense rows of fluorescent tubes, making a shadowless space, objective in tone. They are like viewing platforms, some of which function as small proscenium stages, while others are more like theater in the round. Still others are like caves whose restrictive openings give only a partial view of the clothes within. There is no attempt to make the clothes themselves look inhabited. Dresses and other garments are displayed on mannequin forms supported by thin metal rods, like sculpture. They are what Giacometti’s figures would be wearing had they taken the time to get dressed. ————————————————————————————————— EDUCATION, by John Hankiewicz Henry Chamberlain at the Comics Grinder blog looks at John Hankiewicz’s most recent book. Yes, this is a very arty book but it avoids becoming an academic hot mess. Much to enjoy in simply accepting a greyhound head as a beam of light. Much to enjoy in a disjointed narrative if done right. There is certainly a long tradition of artists using text that doesn’t really seem to match the adjacent imagery. Think of Magritte and his play with text and image. Ever mindful of that, no doubt, Hankiewicz seems to relish his playing with text and image, and delightfully recontextualizing images, just like playing improvisational jazz. ————————————————————————————————— Tac au Tac Juan Fernández has a write-up (with extensive links) to the French TV program from 1969-1975 that brought cartoonists together to engage in improvisational drawing. The concept was simple, efficient, and allowed for many variations: A huge, blank white page and cartoonists equipped with just a simple marker. A theme was proposed (ex. invasion or pursuit), sometimes a visual starting point (simple line, spiral, circle), and the authors improvised, either collaboratively with their peers, or in a duel facing off against their opponents. The result was often far more than a juxtaposition of drawings, it was often a real visual dialogue between cartoonists. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-19-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

05/09/2017

Aaron CockleMay 8, 2017NewsAaron here today with Kyung Me Comics; RIP Pepe; Review of Crickets 6; Interview with Keiler Roberts; Dash Shaw at SVA; Font Maps ————————————————————————————————— Copy Kitty The featured comic on the CW site this week is Copy Kitty, by Kyung Me. ————————————————————————————————— Pepe the Frog, RIP? Marykate Jasper talks about Matt Furie’s ‘Death of Pepe the Frog’ comic, whose wake was recently depicted in Fantagraphics’ World’s Greatest Cartoonists comic for Free Comic Book Day: Feelings-wise, I’m a little torn. I love Furie’s bold, take-that rejection of a hate group’s co-opting of his art. But I’m also sad that true control of this fun, easily meme-able character was taken from him in such a way. It must be disturbing to see your “blissfully stoned” frog character used by actual Nazis to facilitate jokes about genocide and hate. ————————————————————————————————— ‘This could be the final chapter of Blood Of The Virgin, or it could not.’ arecomicsevengood posted about Sammy Harkham’s most recent issue of Crickets, #6: The scenes of driving around L.A. seem like they were researched specifically to achieve the pleasure someone takes in seeing the area where they live in a movie, taken from a time before they lived there. This new issue is good scene after good scene, capturing a flow of feelings. There is none of the internal monologue that makes up the sort of novels I mentioned. It’s unspoken, one can read that sort of thing elsewhere if they want to fill in the blanks. One feels as if it’s totally possible the characters might have read these sorts of novels, just as they go to see the sort of movies they’re making. The work alluded to fills in the milieu of the character’s emotional landscape. ————————————————————————————————— ‘It happens to be mine, but I no longer need people to connect to me because of it.’ Krystal DiFronzo talks with Keiler Roberts, whose new book, Sunburning, debuts this weekend at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival: KD: I’ve always found your pacing dynamic and this book is a great example of it. Some of the bits are one page snapshots while others develop into fully realized memories or mini-memoirs. There’s no dividing line between them, no titling to alert the reader immediately that one chapter has ended while another has begun. It connects all the stories in a way that feels most alike actual memory and thought. One moment you focus on a trauma and another moment your daughter, Xia, is saying some genius line like, “My tummy is horrified.” This feels very deliberate, how do you go about planning your books? KR: Thank you! When I’m writing individual stories, I don’t know where they’ll be located in a book. I lay them all out on the floor and find an order that creates an emotional line that I like. I’m drawn to contrast and inconsistency. Maybe it’s the effect of bipolar rapid cycling on my personality, or maybe it’s just that jokes are funnier when they’re paired with something dark. The themes that emerge aren’t planned before I begin. I didn’t set out to write so many stories with a medical component. I’d like to write more about my close friends and my teaching job because they are huge parts of my life that make only brief appearances in the book. This is where the line exists that separates my stories from my life, though. Powdered Milk has never been a totally accurate picture of my life. It’s all honest and true, but so much is excluded. It might just be about timing, though. I finally wrote Xia’s birth story, which wasn’t traumatic at all. I can’t predict which events will turn into comics, or when. ————————————————————————————————— Dash Shaw Discusses the Unique Beauty of Comics and More Next up in the SVA Features series is Dash Shaw (BFA 2005 Illustration), a comic book writer/artist, animator and author of the critically acclaimed graphic novels Cosplayers, Doctors, New School and Bottomless Belly Button, published by Fantagraphics. He has also written Love Eats Brains (Odd God Press), GardenHead (Meathaus), The Mother’s Mouth (Alternative Comics) and BodyWorld (Pantheon Books). Shaw’s feature-film debut, My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea, starring the voices of Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph and Susan Sarandon, is currently in theaters. ————————————————————————————————— Finally, the bringing together of typography and artificial intelligence you (may) have been waiting for: in an exercise to investigate the ways in which machine learning can be applied to various creative challenges, designers at IDEO are bringing artificial intelligence to the world of typography. recognizing font choice as one of the most frequent visual decisions a designer makes, the IDEO team wanted to create an insightful and valuable tool that lets designers look at letterforms in an entirely new way. using AI and convolutional neural networks to draw higher-vision pattern recognition, IDEO created ‘font map’ — an interactive interface comprising more than 750 fonts that users can digitally engage with and explore. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Summer Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! 8 weeks! 500 bux! Payment plans are available! Summer Course starts June 1st 2017! Applications are due by May 25th. Visit THIS page for more details and email santoroschool@gmail.com with applications and questions! ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 5-9-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-9-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 5-9-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

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