Comics Workbook
About
Read
Comics
- Browse
- Search
Learn
Contributors

Skip to content

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Festivals and ShowsTagged alyssa berg, caleb orecchio, cartoon crossroads columbus, cxc 2016, Emil Friis Ernst, juan fernandez, Kurt Ankeny, whit taylor

Sally Ingraham

Posted on October 21, 2016May 15, 2019

Search for:

Explore

Sally IngrahamApril 8, 2016NewsSally here with the good news from Retrofit, the Bad Boyfriends collection, and comics from Amanda Hamilton, Disa Wallander, and Jonathan Yee to send you into the weekend with light feet – plus Gabriella Tito on Audra Stang’s new piece! ————————————————————————————————— Kicking things off with a couple of forays into comics that’ll give your Friday a colorful start! From Amanda Hamilton comes this piece in marker – a new medium for her, and one that seems to suit! The comic came about “…during one very anxious night where it was too noisy to sleep. I was inspired…to do something with markers instead of colored pencils and I had a set of Rose Art neon markers I thought would be good to convey that jarring, discordant feeling and combine the colors in interesting ways.” ————————————————————————————————— Next up, something from Jonathan Yee – Jonathan made this comic last weekend at PIX, during a Comics Workbook workshop with Juan Fernandez and Frank Santoro. ————————————————————————————————— Gabriella Tito taking a turn here! Attention: Audra Stang is branching out into new territory (following her recent wrap up of “Love Me Like An Autograph“) with her new comic “April 2008“ (see panel above). Most noticeably, in her recent series taking place in the fictional town “Star Valley”, is her change in technique! Instead of using bold line art for her characters and traditional color, she’s now transitioning into using sleek pencil shading without too many lines – and I think it’s absolutely fabulous. Audra keeps the style current with light digital color overtones, not breaking the mood and flow even the slightest. Once again, check out my good friend Audra’s new comic HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Back to Sally, with the stellar news that Retrofit did it! All those lovely books will be coming out soon – including the title above by Sophie Franz – with the first ones hitting the world in May. Congratulations! ————————————————————————————————— Bad Boyfriends is out now. It has comics by Cathy G. Johnson, Celine Loup, Hannah Kaplan, Laura Lannes, Julia Gfrörer, Laerte Coutinho, Mariana Paraizo, Paula Puiupo and Hazel Newlevent (above). This collection is important and gut wrenching – available as a free download HERE, and for sale as a physical copy HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Disa Wallander posted a cute spring comic, which offers a glimpse of sunlight unlike anything I personally have seen recently…! Spring is around here, somewhere. ————————————————————————————————— Something to take with you into the weekend – Practice your craft, whatever it may be, stay nimble and sharp and badass! Catch you later – Sally and Gabriella Share this page: [...]

Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2013

Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2013

Frank SantoroSeptember 12, 2013News / Riff RaffI just wanted to write something the composition competition I ran over at Comics Workbook on Tumblr. Tumblr is an interesting phenomenon. It’s sort of like Facebook, sort of like Twitter, and sort of like Instagram. But it’s different. It feels perfect for sharing short comics. You can “reblog” a post similarly to how on Twitter you can “retweet”. So the post that you reblog shows up on your own Tumblr homepage. Forgive me if you know all this. I’ve been surprised how Tumblr has taken off within indie comics. And I’m surprised how many comics makers I have gotten to know all over the world simply from following different people’s Tumblrs. It’s really widened my eyes to how many different kinds of comics are out there. For example, I became aware of Simon Hanselmann, the Australian cartoonist, because I was seeing some of his comics being reblogged. I think Tumblr has really changed the indie comics landscape for the better. The thing about Tumblr though is that if someone posts something on the other side of the world while I am sleeping I may just miss it entirely. Posts just seem to disappear. There are specific url links of course that you can locate – however when you go back to look through someone’s Tumblr usually they have added so many new posts since the last time you visited their homepage that it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. So, I wanted to share the amazing comics that poured into the Comics Workbook Composition Competition with the TCJ audience who may not be on Tumblr. Now that the Xeric Foundation no longer exists there are very few institutions that offer cash rewards for making comics. The Xeric grants also provided something for makers to aim for on the calendar. Having a deadline is often the thing that really kicks one in the ass to MAKE something; to finish something. I was truly humbled by the response. There were, in the end, over 70 entries. I thought there would be about a dozen. I was surprised when it went over 20. In fact, with only two weeks to go before the deadline there were under 30 entries. Then the floodgates opened. Deadlines work wonders apparently. (Add smiley face icon here) Myself and the other judges (three women and three men) crafted this response when we announced the winners: “The evidence is piling up: comics is THE ascendant art form. The sheer amount of energy and talent that poured into this competition during its relatively brief window provides ample testimony to this. It is our belief that artistic creation is a two way street. An artist, or any other creator, grows in the process of creating; the greater the efforts, the greater the growth. By this measure, comics creators in general – and those who submitted work to this competition in particular – are growing by leaps and bounds, and so, by definition, is the comics form; as in the final analysis, the value of a form is coincident with the work that it contains. It is our hope that all of the makers who participated in this contest have been TRANSFORMED in some way – artistically, personally, spiritually, and/or physically (improved eye-hand coordination? yes!) – by the time and energy dedicated to the creation of their submissions. Everyone who took part in this exercise has completed a hero’s journey.” When I took part in the Eisner Award judging this year, I learned that everyone has different tastes (duh). For some judges on the Eisner Awards, the art in the comic book is the most important factor. For other judges it seemed that the story was the most important thing. Obviously, the combination of great art and great writing makes for great comics. However, I was very surprised for example when a fellow judge didn’t care for a comic that I thought was brilliant. I asked why and the response was,”I just don’t like the art style.” The same thing happened when judging the Comics Workbook contest. Certain comics that I thought were stunning registered a “meh” by some of the other judges. And vice versa. It was a very difficult process. Everyone has different tastes. So, with that in mind I hope that the TCJ audience will sift through these wonderful comics and discuss them in the comments section. Feel free to “vote” for your favorites. However, please refrain from taking the time to bitch about the ones that you don’t like. Cool? Cool! The requirements for the competition were that each entry had to use the same page size and panel arrangement. Each comic had to be 14 pages in length plus a front and back cover. This, of course, creates a 16 page “signature” which can easily be made into a comic book. The requirements, I believe, leveled the playing field and allowed the maker to easily print the comic up when complete. ——————————————————- ——————————————————– COMPLETE LIST OF ENTRIES to the COMPETITION (Triangle Circle Square) by Alexander Tanazefti A Cramped, Well Pressurized Place by Scott Kroll A Kat, A Brick, A Mouse, A Dog or Comics: A Vast Waste Land by Paul A Poorly Edited Ending by Alison Crofts A Tender-Hearted Beheading by Nick Francis Potter Arachnodacks by Rowan Tedge Attempt 101 by MK Stangeland Jr Baba’s Accordion by Jared Cullum Bibo by Lauren Molina Big Wheel (AKA The Curse of Santoro) by Tyler Luetkehans Black Goo by Moonpulse Blue Dusk by Mica Agregado Boxes by Whit Taylor Clangor by Derek Timm-Brock Close One by Nick Alexander Death of Spot by Bill Wehmann Dog Dead Afternoon by Eva Houzard & Tarquin Pons Escape to the Top by Andy Frederick Exile from Cyclops Island by Pat Guppy Freefall by Alexey Sokolin Glory Trolls by Nicky Minus Goldie Over There by Jeremy Sorese Good Night Billy Moon by Ian Chachere and Jesse Dewyer Hacienda by Dave Ortega Hiccup by Mike Centeno House of Bees by Jillian Fleck JAS by Phillip Dokes Joey by Melissa Mendes July 99 by Suny Gao Late Night by Jack Reese Lesbian Sunrise by Rick Manlapig Little Dreamers by Dan Tabata Loner Anger by Mike Olson Meet by Harrison G Prince Molarhead by Mou Moon Festival by Todd Webb Moonling by Lydia Grace Henderson Mouth by Tristan Wright Object Memory Featuring Mother Koala and Mi the Yellow Dolphin by Saicoink Off the Grid by AT Pratt Old Port by Evangelos Androutsopoulos On The Way by Michael Fikaris One Woods by Brad A Post Fallout by Blake R. Sims Problem Child by PR Gamlen ProcrastiNation by Camilo Vieco Prof Lewis by KL Ricks Real Real Deep by Nick Jankowski Red and the Wolf by Michelle LaPlante Redneck Beach by Gabrielle Mulholland Repetition is a Form of Change by RM Rhodes Ringed Planets by Bob Schofield Sea by Rosie Haghighi Searching by Andrew Pannell Shield by Zoe Coughlin Stay Frosty by Ben Duncan Strange Outpost by Pablo Selin Swampy 93 by Bjorn Symbolon by Lucas Teixeira Temple by Jared Morgan The Abridged History of a Moon by Patt Kelley The Bad Unicorn by Yuliya Sobotyuk The Green Fly Theater by James Dale The Grid is the Thing by Derik A Badman The Perfect Human by L. Nichols The Quest by Kalen Knowles The Secret Life of Steven Seagal by Mat Barton and Adam Cooper The Steganographer’s Dream by Miranda The Story So Far by Royce Icon Then They Stand Stationary Again by Derik A Badman They Live by Night by Cole Johnson Thin Virtual Cloud Structure by Shawn Eisenach Tides by Andrew White Transaction by Joseph Lambert Valley Post by Mark Wang Vespers by Alexander Rothman —————————————————— —————————————————— The winners, as chosen by the judges: FIRST PLACE – $500 cash prize Hacienda by Dave Ortega Our decision to award “Hacienda” First Place recognizes Dave Ortega’s creation of an ambitious, multi-layered narrative that cuts through history, class, status and power in a deftly constructed story which takes the reader back and forth in time to reveal the conceit and illusion undergirding dominant paradigms in a way that only comics can. This complex concoction of culture and character made for a winning combination. ————————————————————————————- SECOND PLACE – $250 gift certificate at Copacetic Comics Shield by Zoe Coughlin In Second Place, Zoe Choughlin’s “Shield” puts an inventive twist on the mutant superhero theme, and in so doing gives new meaning to the phrase, “prickly personality.” Here is an adolescent power fantasy right where it’s needed most: the hallways of high school. Bullying takes many forms, some invisible to all but the victim. By recognizing this in a convincing and dramatic fashion, Ms. Coughlin has effectively demonstrated the power of comics to contribute to the eventual remedying of this unfortunate human trait. ———————————————————————————— THIRD PLACE – $100 gift certificate at Copacetic Comics Old Port by Evangelos Androutsopoulos The Comics Workbook Competition’s Third Place, “Old Port”, clearly embodies excellence in both conception and execution. In telling the story of youth’s first forays into independence and how the discovery of a nurturing space and mentorship can lead to creativity’s first flowering, the story provides an apt recapitulation of the very ideals powering this competition; its excellence in execution is plain for all to see. ———————————————————————————— ———————————————————————————- HONORABLE MENTIONS – $50 gift (each) at Big Planet Comics A Cramped, Well Pressurized Place by Scott Kroll Prof. Lewis by K. L. Ricks Goldie Over There by Jeremy Sorese Arachnodacks by Rowan Tedge ———————————————————— ———————————————————- SPECIAL MENTION – $25 gift certificate at PictureBox The Perfect Human by L. Nichols ————————————————- ———————————————— ———————————————– THANK YOU to everyone who participated. The plan is to make it a yearly event. I think it worked out to have the contest deadline so close to SPX. It seems like everyone in the small press community furiously makes comics over the summer to debut at SPX. So for those who can’t make it to SPX this contest and the deadline allowed them to join in that special mania. Many of the comics that were created for the contest will be on display at SPX, so check ’em out! Thanks again. This was a truly humbling experience for myself and the folks involved in making the contest possible. Cheers. Share this page: [...]

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

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

Alyssa BergMay 12, 2016Art Trip / EssaysThis is the final part of a series of process meditations inspired by a trip to The Rubin Museum of Art in NYC. Catch up with Part One: Ritual in Preparing the Space/It’s the Simple Things, and Part Two: Meditation on the Grid/Free Your Mind ————————————————————————————————— Part 3: Pass the Mic/Other People’s Processes For the final installment of the series reflecting on my visit to The Rubin Museum of Art, I posed a question to MariNaomi, Simon Hanselmann, Sophie Yanow and Vanesa R. Del Rey: Will you share any ritual, meditation, or devotion in your artistic process? ————————————————————————————————— MariNaomi‘s most recent memoir comic is Turning Japanese (2dcloud, 2016). She is the creator and curator of the Cartoonists of Color Database and the Queer Cartoonists Database. I’m not sure that I have any kind of ritual/meditation per se, but I am very habitual in my work days. Basically I start the day with an early-morning jog (at 6:30), then breakfast. Then I take care of things that might otherwise distract me: dishes, bills, emails. I don’t really get creative until after lunchtime. I’m generally in the zone from the afternoon until evening when my husband gets home at 7 or 8. If I’m on deadline (or super inspired), I’ll eat dinner with him, then get back to work until bedtime at 10:30 pm. I used to beat myself up about not working in the mornings, but I’ve finally accepted that it’s my routine. Oh, and my talisman is drinking lots and lots of tea. ————————————————————————————————— Simon Hanselmann‘s most recent collection is Megg & Mogg in Amsterdam (And Other Stories) (Fantagraphics, 2016). Megg, Mogg & Owl is updated Wednesdays at VICE. my main ritual is trying to clear my mind so i can focus and be fully absorbed by the project at hand. i usually try to clear my inbox in the morning before i start working otherwise i’ll feel guilty and flustered all day. cigarettes are a huge part of the ritual. also red bull, sadly. i really need to change up my rituals to something a bit more healthy… fuck it though, as long as the work is getting done and i’m hitting my deadlines. i will most likely be dead in a few years… UPDATE: I’m on day 10 of no red bull. I am a recovering energy drink addict. <|:-) ————————————————————————————————— Sophie Yanow was the 2014-15 fellow at The Center for Cartoon Studies. Her most recent book is War of Streets and Houses (Uncivilized Books, 2014). The one thing that I do that has kind of become a “ritual,” is when I do journal comics, I do them on graph paper, and I draw 6 square panels out on the graph paper before I start drawing or writing. I generally draw/write directly in the squares. The journal comics are always in a 6 panel grid, so I’ve considered printing out paper that has the 6 panel grid already on it, but I think that drawing the grid out gets me into the proper state of “I’m going to draw/write a journal comic now.” It’s like a trigger. So drawing the panels first is the ritual/meditation that starts the journal comic. ————————————————————————————————— Vanesa R. Del Rey is an artist and illustrator for Hit comics (Boom! Studios). Her artwork has also been in Marvel, DC and Dark Horse comics. My artistic process – Discipline. I work 6 days a week for about 10 hours a day, this is a constant but my schedule is kind of organic, it changes every once in a while. I usually do chores and have breakfast/check emails before I sit down to draw. Sometimes I work out before sitting down too. My ritual to get the juices flowing involves smoking ganja and doing a warm up sketch. This warm up sketch can be anything. It’s just a thing to unclog my mind and loosen up my joints. I just spill something out… I give myself about an hour or so. This happens usually when I’ve just started working on a book. After a couple of weeks I skip on the warm ups and dive straight into my pages when I sit down. I get faster as I progress, the shapes become familiar therefore I don’t have to spend as much time searching for them. Once in a while I also do cool down sketches after a day’s work. They are usually just ideas I have floating around that I use to not get bored. For example if I’m working on the computer for a long period of time I like to switch it up and start a painting or do a sketch in my sketchbook. I guess the constant factor to begin for me is the ganja, I’m a big smoker. I would call it a ritual/meditation. My creative energy is unpredictable, it drives me and not the other way around, but my ritual is the method I have found to channel that energy, to make good use of it. It’s an incredible help for the stress of deadlines too! I’m always on a tight deadline. Devotion is a given to me…doing my work is my life. I wouldn’t do anything else. ————————————————————————————————— Alyssa Berg makes comics in Brooklyn, NY. You can find her work HERE. Share this page: [...]

Juan FernándezSeptember 27, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con Andrea Galazina; El Publicadero en Manizales; Maria Luque y los tebeos de Cómics Workbook! ————————————————————————————————— Juan here: I’ve been blasting through this fall and am running on empty – OOF- the usual SPX circus, organizing the Pittsburgh Zine Fair, scheming for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) + organizing press conferences, handling catering and other administrative craziness at the day job at the Arts Council have me running ragged. I know, I know, no complaining, no complaining. It’s all good stuff and the haul will be over come October 12th. Just wanted to let you know how I’m doing . Anyway here’s the usual comics gold I bring you every week from Latin America and Spain. A little lighter a haul than usual, but just as shiny. *Turn on your translation devices* ————————————————————————————————— Andrea Galacina acaba de publicar “¡PUEDO DECIR LO QUE QUIERA! ¡PUEDO HACER LO QUE QUIERA! UNA GENEALOGÍA INCOMPLETA DEL FANZINE HECHO POR CHICAS“, una autoedición sobre el contexto del fanzine feminista en España. La fundadora de BOMBAS PARA DESAYUNAR también da algunos detalles del próximoPICHI FEST y habla sobre el DEPARTAMENTO DE FANZINES de la biblioteca de Mujeres. Ana Flecha les ofrece todos los detalles en esta entrevista en Madriz.com Léanlo todo AQUI. ————————————————————————————————— ¿Ya están listos para el Publicadero en Manizales, Colombia? Acá la programación. Todas las actividades son gratuitas: https://goo.gl/kUdxsQ ————————————————————————————————— Las estampas de color de María Luque – Entrevista “Usa el color como Matisse y los espacios de sus dibujos parecen salidos de algún sueño naíf. Le gusta viajar, los gatos y perseguir a extraños en los museos para luego consignarlos en su libreta de dibujo.” – Andrea Uribe Yepes En la casa de familia Luque en Rosario, Argentina, hay un daguerrotipo de su abuelo Teodosio Luque. Es un cuadro de un señor solemne de barba larga y cara de serio que asustaba a todos. María recuerda que de pequeña el cuadro rodaba por la casa: lo escondían en el baño, debajo de las camas. Cree que ese daguerrotipo lo hizo Cándido López, uno de sus artistas favoritos y de los únicos que manejaban la técnica por la zona. Esto es importante porque cuando empezó la Guerra de la Triple Alianza, su abuelo Teodosio fue enviado como médico y Cándido como soldado. Esa proximidad fue la que generó curiosidad en María y la historia de la cual partió su primera novela gráfica: La mano del pintor (2016). Léanlo todo AQUI. ————————————————————————————————— Frank Santoro made a comic book about his parents and now he needs help making a handbound copy of the book for each of them. It’s a good story. Check out the Indiegogo campaign HERE – or if you want to contribute via PayPal, look at the campaign HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The fall semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts October 1st 2017. 8 weeks of comics instruction that will bang your practice into shape – 500 bux. Full details about the course and how to apply can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-27-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

Sally IngrahamJuly 5, 2018NewsSally here with new Italian interviews and commentary on Frank Santoro’s Pompeii! ————————————————————————————————— Noman Alani has an interview with Frank up on C4 Comic, part of the C4 Chatter column. The interview was conducted during the Naples Comicon 2018. Here is part of the interview: C4C: How was the choice of Pompeii created to set your comic book? FS: I was living in New York during the attack on the Twin Towers of September 11th. When the planes hit the buildings we were all motionless to stare at the scene. I remember that by the time the towers collapsed and an immense cloud of smoke rose, I thought that we could relive an experience similar to that in Pompeii. Obviously it didn’t happen, but it left me thinking for a long time. Some time after I visited the ruins of Pompeii and so I decided to tell something about where I come from and that is such a powerful concentrate of stories and sensations different for every visitor. In my intentions, at a time when everyone was facing the world of graphic novels, it was also to create a product accessible to all and not hermetic and in this the fact of talking about one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world was definitely helpful. I could concentrate so much more on what I wanted to tell seriously, behind the costumes and facts that are known there were people with their stories and there was the pathos. Read the whole interview HERE! Also on C4 Comic there is a review of Pompei by Luca Parri. Titled Pompei, between classic and theoretical experimentalism, it begins: Almost as if it were a virtual return to the homeland of Ameriana Memory, Pompeii of Frank Santoro lands on Italian soil five years after its original American publication. And we can only rejoice in knowing that a comic that treats an episode so tragic but at the same time founding of our cultural heritage, realized with wise love by a foreigner, has finally arrived in our bookstores. But it is not only for the engaging and convincing celebration of Classical culture Mediterranean (and Italian in particular) that this volume should be recognized as one of the most important comics of the Decade; The Book of Santoro is also fundamental for a theoretical-scientific progress within the Ninth art. The review continues: The research and the educational process to a markedly theoretical conception of the comic is a question which concerns and concerns Santoro both as a cartoonist but also and above all as theorist, scholar and teacher. Pompeiè therefore almost to be understood as a wise omni-comprehensive of all that the author has been able to collect and elaborate in several years of research and practice alternating three figures (the reader, the teacher and the author) until they are converged towards a single entity ; The individual parts communicate and coexist by influencing each other. All that the American has been able to learn about the harmonies, the rhythms and the emphasis that can be evoked in an unintentional way, but then meticulously and mathematically desired, recur in the Centoquarantaquattro pages of his comic strip. Read the whole review HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers Summer Session starts NOW! Floating start date! Apply anytime between now and July 12th 2018 to join the summer course. Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. Ask about the Fall Course if now is too busy for you! The course is 8 weeks – 500 bux for 8 weeks plus access to Frank’s coaching for as long as you need. Payment plans are available. Put your summer to good use! Learn more about the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers HERE. ——————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-4-2018 – by Sally Ingraham ——————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-5-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Comics Workbook at CXC 2016 – in brief!

Posted on October 21, 2016May 15, 2019 by Sally Ingraham

The Comics Workbook team at CXC 2016 – in brief!

Share this page:

Posted in Festivals and ShowsTagged alyssa berg, caleb orecchio, cartoon crossroads columbus, cxc 2016, Emil Friis Ernst, juan fernandez, Kurt Ankeny, whit taylor

Post navigation

Developing a New Festival Toolkit

Comics Workbook @ CXC 2016

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment *

Name *

Email *

Website

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Δ

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Festivals and ShowsTagged alyssa berg, caleb orecchio, cartoon crossroads columbus, cxc 2016, Emil Friis Ernst, juan fernandez, Kurt Ankeny, whit taylor

Sally Ingraham

Posted on October 21, 2016May 15, 2019

Search for:

Explore

Juan FernándezMay 30, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez with Kurt Ankeny’s IN PIECES; Residents at the Rowhouse; Laura Knetzger on SEA URCHIN; Ta-Nehisi Coates on Swampthing; Breakdown Press at Copacetic Comics; Tyler Landry’s COWARD’S HOLE; Italy on Toronto. ————————————————————————————————— In Pieces: Someplace Which I Call Home – Kurt Ankeny We’re excited to feature the first installment of a new graphic novel by Kurt Ankeny, creator of Saltwater Snow and A Bomb, and co-author of the Santoro School Handbook for Making Better Comics on Comics Workbook this week. In Pieces: Someplace Which I Call Home is a collage-portrait of a small New England town. Reflections in pencil that sweep across the grid. Check it out and Pre-Order a copy today! ————————————————————————————————— Warming up at the Rowhouse Another wave of new residents is here for their stay at the Rowhouse Residency! A programming and architecture game development duo that were itching to get the full comics experience. To learn more about what has been happening and to stay abreast of all developments with the Rowhouse, please follow the Rowhouse Residency on instagram. ————————————————————————————————— Sea Urchin Post-Mortem Laura knetzger reflects on the process of creating her book Sea Urchin over on her blog. Lots of really nice, raw details. Knetzger: I can’t even get to talking about the comic before I have to do talk about the politics of autobio art. I keep using phrases like “embarrassing” to describe it but it’s not quite like that. I don’t think autobio is bad or that the people making it are selfish narcissists. But I feel this hesitation to talk about my own stuff? I think there’s still a double standard in art where women’s autobio work is considered cute, intimate, like a diary covered in Sanrio stickers, and about the singular woman, and men’s autobio work is considered hard-hitting journalism about the human condition. I think autobio gets gendered as female because it deals with so many domestic scenes, and therefore looked down on, albeit unconsciously. Maybe this is my own issues, but when I see people dump on autobio as a whole I’m like…you’re on my list now. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Reflections at The Atlantic Ta-Nehisi Coates is blogging regularly about his reading and writing in comics. Recently Coates took some time to reflect on the Swamp Things’ reintroduction to DC’s readership in 1984. It’s neat to see a panel by panel breakdown of the craft in the work of Alan Moore, Tatjana Wood, Dan Day, John Totleben and John Costanza over at The Atlantic. Coates: For me, the best thing about writing comics is how it takes me back to everything I loved about writing poetry. The game of spacing and efficiency is so challenging and so important. Moore proves himself a master of both here—in three frames he gives you something of Swamp Thing’s compulsions and loneliness. ————————————————————————————————— Just in at Copacetic: BREAKDOWN PRESS Another massive shipment has arrived at Copacetic Comics from Breakdown Press, including a new Hayashi Seiichi collection, Red Red Rock! You won’t want to miss your chance to buy these books. ————————————————————————————————— Coward’s Hole Tyler Landry‘s latest comic, Coward’s Hole is now out from Study Group Comics. In the heat of a stellar battle, a space pilot narrowly escapes destruction, only to crash land on a deserted planet in enemy territory. There he must confront the spectres of his past. Published by Study Group Comics 48 page comic black/green newsprint + card cover 7.25 x 10.6 inches ————————————————————————————————— TCAF was a couple of weeks ago, but so much went down in Toronto that substantial reports of what happened are only now trickling out. Here are some noteworthy reports with lots of photos. Gabriele Di Fazio over at Just Indie Comics Insomma, impossibile riuscire a vedere e a seguire tutto, soprattutto per chi, come me, doveva anche stare dietro a un tavolo e tenendo conto degli orari di apertura piuttosto ridotti (dalle 9 alle 17 il sabato, dalle 10 alle 17 la domenica). Non ho capito molto di quello che è successo ma la cosa sicura è che c’erano un sacco di gente e un sacco di fumetti. E che l’organizzazione è veramente impeccabile, fatta di persone squisite e disponibilissime. Tra gli eventi serali segnalo il bel concerto di sabato con i Creep Highway del duo Michael DeForge/Patrick Kyle, Mickey Zacchilli alias Dungeon Broads e Brian Chippendale in versione Black Pus per il gran finale tutto drones e percussioni. Nei giorni successivi al festival sono invece riuscito a tornare da Weird Things per vedere la mostra di Matthew Thurber, autore di 1-800-Mice e Infomaniacs, che esponeva con il suo suggestivo progetto parallelo MT Shelves, fatto di strani animali in bianco e nero, lucine, macchie colorate. E con questo è tutto. Leon and Barry over at Secret Acres Speaking of Dustin, we call bullshit on Dustin hosting the Dougies, or as they are known in Canada, the Doug Wright Awards, which engages in discriminatory practices by only honoring Canadian cartoonists – but it’s okay for Dustin to host? Really? In protest, we skipped the Dougies for our annual poutine sports bar with Annie Koyama and a little bit of Chris Pitzer. But just as it hung over the Dougies, the shadow of Darwyn Cooke‘s sudden death fell over our Blue Hawaiian cocktails. We knew Darwyn a bit from our days at the Distinguished Competition. We’re sitting on some stories about that man which would knock your teeth out, but what a terrible loss for comics. No, we’re not going to gossip. Unless we’re drunk and talking to Heidi in the lobby of the Marriott while trying not to stare at Tom Devlin’s track jacket and ponytail combo and wondering how he convinced Peggy that outfit was okay. ————————————————————————————————— Until next time! Juan Share this page: [...]

Caleb OrecchioSeptember 3, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here on this Labor Day edition of the Daily News with thoughts on Connor Willumsen’s new book from Koyama Press, Anti-Gone–and other news. ———————————————————————————————— Connor Willumsen is one of thee premier drawers in comics. His prowess envelops the many styles of drawing found in comics, from expertly rendered figures, cars, and buildings–to minimal, child-like characters that would be at home in kid’s manga magazines. His new book, Anti-Gone—from thee great Koyama Press—to me really pushes Connor’s ideas as a cartoonist beyond just the pretty drawings. I feel he’s really digging deep into his bag of “tricks,” and expanding the language of the comics medium to a degree. First I want to say, that when I started to read Anti-Gone, I pinned it as a sci-fi comic–almost Brandon Graham-esque with a hint of Moebius (or vice versa); but as I read on, it was clear (to me at least) that this takes place in a “cartoon world.” Allow me to try to explain: In this world, you wouldn’t call a talking gorilla a “talking gorilla”–you would simply say, “that person is a gorilla.” if you would even care to make the distinction between a gorilla or human or whatever at all. Does that make sense? It’s like the fox and cat who sell Pinocchio to that puppeteer I think. Nobody says, “whoa a talking fox and cat!” they are just characters. Anyway, this detail of a cartoon world is not particularly pertinent to the story, but I felt it was worth pointing out. It’s our world, through Connor’s eyes. Something that made this crystal clear to me was when the seemingly alien girl undos her hair (directly below). What were once strange sacks on her head were now obviously a Connor-fide version of the double braid–see Kylie Jenner reference directly below the below excerpt. Two prominent formalistic tools Connor really utilizes well and to a very singular degree, particularly, is 1.) the economic use of visual reference, and 2.) the depiction of movement through sequential images–most notably the former, often they are used together with great success. The below page is from the perspective of our heroes as they float along a river watching a dog in a window as they pass by. We see the buildings in the background (where we get our main, big picture reference–the buildings–a sense of place) and Connor zeroes in on the doggy in the window giving us a simultaneous impression of where we are and where we are moving to without showing the characters (whose POV we are experiencing) within the page. Another good example is the below two-panel sequence of one of the protagonists making their way up a flight of stairs. First, Connor shows us the entire scene of the stairs with all it’s intricacies and hustle and bustle. Then he quiets it down by stripping away all the noise to show the girl going up the stairs (obviously the same stairs moments after the panel before it). This use of visual reference from detailed rendering to stripped down essential detail is both formalistically economical and tonally/emotionally important to the narrative–two birds with one stone. A+ I could go on and on about this book. Connor Willumsen is a blackbelt of formalism in comics. There is an unending sense of “thinking” in this book. Every angle and every option is considered. Highly recommend this book both for the tasteful, passive reader AND to the comics scholar looking for forward-thinking new work. -CO ———————————————————————————————— Frank Santoro made a comic book about his parents and now he needs help making a handbound copy of the book for each of them. It’s a good story. Check out the Indiegogo campaign HERE – or if you want to contribute via PayPal, look at the campaign HERE. ———————————————————————————————— if you don’t know now you know Hey not to brag but Comics Workbook will be at SPX conducting workshops so don’t miss out! After looking at the workshops you want to go to, sign up here. Gilbert Hernandez, Mardou, Alexis Ziritt, Connor Willumsen, Liz Reed, Juan Fernandez, Sally Ingraham, Audra Stang–what more could you possibly want?! Did you catch Joe McCulluoch’s final “This Week in Comics” entry? Jerry Moriarty is the latest guest on Inkstuds. Did you know you can download this San-Diego Comic Con Kirby 100th Celebration book for free? Have you missed Brandon Graham’s idiosyncratic blogging?? Well look no further because he’s back with a new one. Looks like he’ll have other contributors involved–firstly with A Sarah Horrocks entry about 2-page spreads. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-4-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ———————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 9-4-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Caleb OrecchioSeptember 13, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Trench Dogs by Ian Densford ——————————————————————————————— What a monstrous dream Ian Densford has conceived. His new graphic novel, Trench Dogs (which originally ran on on the Comics Workbook Tumblr in a different incarnation), left me sitting and blinking and thinking about what I’d read in quiet contemplation. The book is a series of alternating accounts of World War I told as a continuum in a 3-panel-per-page meter. With an omniscient eye and no regard for the faint of heart, we are swept through the perils of The Great War and witness the utter destruction of sixteen million people. Densford does however depict these people as “funny” animals which keeps the visual horror at arms length and digestible; but despite the “Maus-ian” approach, and like Maus, the pain of the events depicted retain their power. Trench Dogs is obviously influenced by Art Spiegelman’s Maus. This is an easy observation due to the “Roll Call” page preceding the story in which each nationality therein is labeled and depicted as their respective animal avatar, but I see a handful of other and possibly more vital influences or comparable works. The first and most important to me is Suiho Tagawa. Most savvy American readers will remember his war comic Norakuro from Kramers 6. When I first saw that Trench Dogs was 3-panels per page I could not stop thinking of Norakuro. Plus, unlike Maus, both Trench Dogs and Norakuro allow for whimsy. Trench Dogs is mostly not very funny, but there are moments of “cartoony” bliss that fall through the bleak cracks and relieve the senses of the total desolation burdening the bulk of the book. Similarly, Hayao Miyazaki’s manga Tiger Im Schlamm blends war (specifically tank battles in WWII) with the cartoony anthropomorphized soldier. And like Tiger Im Schlamm, Trench Dogs is rendered in watercolor. Though not quite done justice by the book’s glossy paper, (I am generally underwhelmed by the production choices of Dead Reckoning – the publisher) the paints give vibrance to the story and, again, cast a little light on the dark subject of WWI. And I would be remiss to not mention Joe Sacco’s panorama huge foldout illustration, The Great War, as an influence. I would lay money down right now that The Great War was a major influence for Densford. The real key to Trench Dogs is the steady and uninterrupted 3-panel grid (Yes yes – this is Comics Workbook and we love grids). Densford keeps perfect timing with the grid. Every panel carries the same weight so the pace is consistent throughout the entire comic. He makes good use of the middle of the page and, as I read, I noticed I would let myself wander around the spread. Sometimes I read the first tier on the left page to the tier on the right without reading the other two panels on the left, and to my pleasant surprise it did not affect the reading. Sometimes I would look at the middle panel first, and then “spiral” out. It all still made sense. This is high praise. Being a student of Frank Santoro’s, I can’t help but assume that Densford’s way of using layouts was conscious and not a fluke. The fact that Trench Dogs is essentially wordless aids in this amorphous way of reading. The reader is not locked onto a stream of dialogue that guides the action around the spread. We are free to see what we see without the confines of conversation or narration. The story itself is incredibly poignant and quite vicious. It is a war story or a story of a war. It does not pretend to do anything other than depict war and war’s violent consequences. Page after page, the reader is bombarded with terrifying realities of actual events. The rhythm of the constant chaos and depravity, 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3, starts to mess with you. After a while, you forget you are looking at drawings of animals and eventually you accept these images as the actual events they depict. There is little catharsis in reading Trench Dogs. I was quite shocked at the end when (no spoilers) after the war is over and medals are awarded, the violence continues back on our own soil completely separate and tangential from the war “over there.” Still, there is wisdom in this book in its depiction of human suffering, selfishness, selflessness and survival. Ian Densford steps back and triangulates the brutality of a war that laid waste to an entire continent and more as we stare in horror and amazement hoping we never share their fate, and yet it is difficult not to sympathize and even admire the victims whoever they might be. Death is the great equalizer and, when people encounter it, we can learn a lot from that. Ian Densford has masterfully managed to encapsulate that fact into a comic book. ——————————————————————————————— You can buy Trench Dogs directly from the publisher here. OR if you want to buy Trench Dogs directly from Ian, you can attend these shows on the following dates: – New York Comic Con, October 4-7 – UMBC Comic Con, October 27 – CAB, November 11 ——————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 9-13-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Aaron CockleMarch 6, 2017NewsAaron here today with CHOICES; Squid Maps; Stuck in the Middle; Terms & Conditions; Shaw Screening at SVA. ————————————————————————————————— Over at try harder, Carrie Jones takes another look at the 1990 anthology, CHOICES: A Pro-Choice Benefit Comic: White supremacism, economic injustice, incest, suicide, and religious persecution all make appearances in CHOICES. Re-reading this book has been an unpleasantly surreal experience. 27 years have gone by since its publication and women are still fighting to be seen as human beings. It’s frightening to see how fragile the gains made are. As a personal touchstone, the book reminds me of the special power of comics to convey complicated stories in an accessible way. As an artifact, CHOICES is a stark reminder to take nothing for granted. ————————————————————————————————— Serio-Comic War Map For The Year 1877 Donna Seger at streetsofsalem posted a few years back about octopus propaganda maps from the 19th-20th centuries: 1870 marks a turning point in European and world history with the unification of Germany (as well as Italy): Europe was now “filled out” and further territorial ambitions could only be satisfied by global imperialism and/or war. The maps from this time forward reflect this jingoism and fear, but anthropomorphic satire dulls the edge. One of the first major octopus maps, Fred Rose’s “Serio-Comic War Map For The Year 1877” shows Russia as the octopus-aggressor rather than Germany, even though the Crimean War had revealed the severe weaknesses of the Russian Empire (this is reflected on the map below by a wound on one of the octopus’ tentacles–that which is located in the proximity of the Crimea). From the British perspective that this map represents, it’s a bit early to portray Germany as the aggressor, and so Russia becomes either the ferocious bear or the reaching octopus. ————————————————————————————————— CBLDF Interviews Ariel Schrag Betsy Gomez at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund spoke with Ariel Schrag about the anthology she edited, Stuck in the Middle, being challenged for removal from a school library in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.A. : What would you say to parents who consider some of the subject matter of Stuck in the Middle inappropriate for their middle school-aged kids to read? Ariel Schrag: Every parent has the right to monitor his or her child’s reading (or TV watching, or movie watching, etc.), and if you don’t want your child reading Stuck in the Middle, I completely respect that choice. However, there’s a big difference between making that choice for your child and making it for every child, which is what banning the book does. My intent in editing this book was to help children who might be experiencing some of the things the characters in the book experience — bullying, rejection, acne, depression, etc. — feel less alone. These ‘messages’ are expressed through art and humor to make them more accessible and fun. In terms of foul language, sexual content, and teen smoking in the book, all the authors strove to present the teens and pre-teens in a realistic light. We may not like all of the decisions teenagers make, but if we sanitize their speech and behavior in our stories, our characters won’t be authentic. Real teens and pre-teens sometimes use these words and say and do these things. A book like this can present a good opportunity for dialogue between children and parents. Banning the book isn’t going to change children’s behavior or somehow save them from the hard truths of teenage life — I find it very hard to believe that a child would hear a swear word for the very first time in the book or that he or she would be made aware that teenagers sometimes have sexual relationships or smoke cigarettes. The only thing that can make an impact in the way children act is communication, and this book provides a platform for that. What would you say to students in Mid-Del School District who want to read your book? Thankfully, it is available in public libraries and for purchase at stores or online. ————————————————————————————————— Terms and Conditions: the bloviating cruft of the iTunes EULA combined with extraordinary comic book mashups Cory Doctorow reviews R.Sikoryak’s iTunes Terms & Conditions collection: In his end-notes, Sikoryak notes that he didn’t try to match the language to the action in the panels, drawing his pages first then shuffling them and flowing the text into them. What’s interesting (and revealing) is how often there is some weird confluence between the text and the pictures, and this says something important about the Terms and Conditions Sikoryak is lampooning. ————————————————————————————————— “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea” Screening with Director Dash Shaw Thursday, March 16, 7-10pm SVA Amphitheater, 209 East 23rd Street, 3rd floor, NYC Free and open to the public. Dash Shaw will introduce the film and Cartooning Coordinator Jason Little will interview him following the screening. ————————————————————————————————— The Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts today! There is a rolling start date for this semester of the course, so we will continue taking applications beyond this date. There are a few spots left – just apply! The course is 8 weeks long – 500 bux – payment plans are available. More details can be found HERE – or email santoroschoolATgmail to apply. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 3-7-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-7-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-7-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 3-7-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

Caleb OrecchioAugust 2, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with a Kirby and Toth collab! ————————————————————————————————— Look! At New Dimension Comics in Elwood City the other day, I found this comic I didn’t know existed! Did you? I mean, it’s really not that great of a comic. Neither genius shines particularly bright here, and the inker is nothing short of BORING! That’s okay. I just like looking at this spread and seeing both cartoonists side by side. Just the idea of it. Plus Kirby drawing his old team! The Challengers of the Unknown were kind of the beta stage for the Fantastic Four if you think about it. I can’t help but assume Toth was re-drawing some of his pages that were probably originally Jack’s for the finicky DC editorial staff. You know? Surprisingly they kept Kirby’s Superman face. Was Swan too busy to “fix” it? That’s the beauty of the back issue bins folks. After three hours you tend to run out of gas and start to feel hungry and depressed but, once you have recovered, you realize how happy you are that you spent the day this way. Right? Right! Especially when you find gold such as this! ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 8-2-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]