Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Festivals and ShowsTagged cartoon workshops, Comics Workbook, spx 2016

Sally Ingraham

Posted on September 29, 2016September 29, 2016

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Jack Brougham on LICAF 2016

Comics WorkbookOctober 25, 2016Festivals and ShowsQuite often comics conventions feel like they exist in little bubbles. Once you’re inside the hall/centre/shack/bunker the event is taking place in, you get the sense you could be anywhere. The organizers of The Lakes International Comic Art Festival (LICAF) seem to be having none of this. Visiting Kendal for the weekend of the festival is like entering a parallel universe where comics and cartooning are part of the fabric of public life. Walk out of the Clock Tower for a breath of fresh air and a can of fizzy pop, and you might see Dr Who and Batman walking side by side down the High Street, or Chewbacca and a Storm Trooper having a chat and posing for selfies with weekend shoppers. (note: Frank Santoro was caught grabbing a selfie with Chewbacca – check out his LICAF adventures HERE!) Queuing for sandwiches you can admire the mad drawings of superheroes plastering the windows, made by local school kids. There’s a real sense that the festival has pushed its tendrils into the local community, and vice versa. Stumbling home late at night to your lodgings, you might chance across original art from Oliver East’s The Homesick Truant’s Cumbrian Yarn, lit by slanting yellow street light. It helps that the festival takes place in Kendal. It’s a pretty special place, with fantastic and fantastical grey stone architecture everywhere. I was generously put up in an attic flat in an enormous, labyrinthine house just outside the town centre, which set a tone of enchantment for the rest of the weekend (thanks to my generous hosts, Mandy and Geoff!) Walking from my accommodation to the town centre on Sunday I was taken with the strange rock formations on the crest of the hill above the town. The day previously I had been chatting to fellow CW alumnus Niall Breen and he mentioned he was going to go walking in the hills. How many other comics festivals or conventions are there you can take a break by walking out of town and up a mini mountain? Can’t be many. (note: check out Niall’s LICAF story HERE.) I was there to help man the Comics Workbook table in the main hall of the Clock Tower, the market section of the festival. While this meant being out of action for many talks and workshops, there was a real buzz in the halls with loads of great folk stopping by to say hello. It was me and the aforementioned Oliver East behind the table for the weekend. The atmosphere was lively, with plenty of people coming by to browse and chat. I got to meet several cartoonists whose work I have admired for years, and was introduced to several whose work I hadn’t been familiar with. The organizers seem to have deliberately gone out of their way to involve as many makers as possible from every corner, edge, nook, cranny and crack of the field of small press comics. Art comics similar to those on the CW table were well represented, as were superheroes, genre fiction, cute stuff and animal comics. The range of styles, content, genres and sensibilities represented by the sellers in the market was really impressive. Being behind the table was a great opportunity to see different networks of comics makers and enthusiasts forming. This was really exciting. I was particularly taken with a concept Simon Russell is developing which involves establishing a new (to me, at least) model for independent makers of all sorts to sell side by side at small scale curated events. Less financial risk for the creator, and less creative ghettoisation, which in a field like comics is especially welcome. For a maker involved in self-publishing, this is what festivals like LICAF are all about – forging connections with other makers and enabling creative communities to be built. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about closing the circle between creating and publishing and publishing small and often in cheap little editions, road-testing stories in public, and building larger narratives or works from small individually published units. So far so confused? – excellent. Anyway, arriving at the table with this in the back of my mind it was great to see the organizers had hired Comics Workbook a photocopier so we could run off copies of the zines and comics produced in the CW workshops that took place on Saturday morning. Workshops are great and everything, but when you can demonstrate to people how easy it is to start running off copies of your own stuff to share, that’s something else. Sunday I drove off in beautiful afternoon sunshine to a friend’s house nearby. As I drove down narrow winding roads scattered with the first leaves of autumn I saw enormous bales of hay or straw wrapped in bright fuchsia plastic, like relics of a future cartoon universe cast back in time. Then, rounding a tight corner, a field of sheep all dyed bright orange, suddenly came into view. It was as if the spirit of LICAF had seeped out into the surrounding countryside, creating these surrealistic eruptions from the lush green hillsides. I’m looking forward to coming back next year for more of the same. ————————————————————————– Jack Brougham makes comics outside London, England. You can find his work HERE. Share this page: [...]

06/05/2018

Aaron CockleJune 5, 2018NewsCrabapple/Hisham; Gipi; 2dcloud; Mega Press at Printed Matter; Chute/Drnaso/Tomine/Ware ————————————————————————————————— Molly Crabapple & Marwan Hisham: Syria in Ink At Brooklyn Public Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY, May 15 to Jun 30, 2018. Crabapple’s drawings, created from 2014-2017, illustrate the pages of Hisham’s coming-of-age story, Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War, which the two co-authored (One World/ Penguin Random House, 2018) and mark their ongoing collaboration. For the 82 illustrations included in Brothers of the Gun, Crabapple drew inspiration from photos she and Hisham shot, amateur photos and videos posted on social media by Syrians involved in the conflict, Google Earth, and above all, Hisham’s memories. The artist composited references from hundreds of sources, using Hisham’s instructions, diagrams, and visual research to accurately convey the war and his experiences. BPL is pleased to present Crabapple’s original works on paper and an immersive experience of the text, along with an audio walk that includes Hisham’s reflections on the war and the artwork which emerged in response. Molly Crabapple writes: In creating the art displayed in Syria in Ink, I was inspired by Goya’s Disasters of War. We now live in the age of infinite photos, and Syria is perhaps the most widely documented war in history. But oppressors, whether they are governments or not, seldom allow cameras into the spaces where they inflict their oppression. The lived experience of those under them disappears into the memory hole. Thankfully, art is a slippery thing. It can evade censorship, make history visible, invest the hideous with beauty and the prosaic with force. It can reveal that which power would otherwise be able to hide. I seek to accomplish with my art what photos cannot. Also, Lindsey Hilsom in The New York Review of Books on ‘The Smartphone War’: Hisham, who, after attending a religious school in a village near Aleppo, became fascinated by European soccer and literature, is the ideal interlocutor for Western readers, but the reasons he and his friends had for rising against the repressive regime of Bashar al-Assad were far from typical: We were an extreme minority within Raqqa. The values we held marked us, in the eyes of our neighbors, as dangerous, un-Islamic agents of the West. grassroots democracy electoral rights respect for the ballot box, as a basis for representation and legitimacy Could these words be more alien to most Syrians? Could these so-called universal values, the values my friends and I screamed for between our gas-choked curses at security officers, be far from universal indeed? Perhaps they are parochial mores, speculated about in the university campuses of European capitals. Perhaps they are as insubstantial as ghosts. ————————————————————————————————— Land Of The Sons New Gipi book out with an English Translation: This unusual postapocalyptic story is often grim and violent, but by channeling the story through the brothers’ limited, cockeyed perspective, Gipi develops a naturalism and human quality often missing from SF survival fantasies. The loose, limber black-and-white artwork is a marvel; the figure drawings balance careful realism with cartoon expression, and details of the natural world—rain, water, weeds—are sketched in quick, powerful lines. Above all, the art reveals a credible vast alternative landscape of mud, water, reedy islands, makeshift boats, and strange and hostile patched-together colonies. It’s a strikingly envisioned imaginary world. ————————————————————————————————— 2dcloud Spring 2018 Another strong selection of work, featuring books and zines by: Christopher Adams, Alexis Beauclair, Tara Booth, Apolo Cacho, Eli Howey, Fifi Martinez, Justin Skarhus, and Maggie Umber. ————————————————————————————————— Mega Press at Printed Matter Featuring work by Panayiotis Terzis, Yuriko Katori, Kurt Woerpel, Teng Yung han, Irkus Zeberio, Alexis Beauclair, Anna Pipes, Makiko Furuichi, Apolo Cacho, Nichole Shinn, Lane Milburn, Ben Marcus, Benjamin Brubaker, and Zebadiah Keneally. ————————————————————————————————— Why Comics? Adrian Tomine, Nick Drnaso, Chris Ware in conversation with Hillary Chute Sunday, June 10, 2018, 1:30-2:15 PM CDT Harold Washington Library 400 South State Street Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, Chicago, IL 60605 ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 6-5-2018 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-5-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen

Comics WorkbookMay 22, 2017EssaysRM Rhodes presents commentary on The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen by Jorge Zentner and Ruben Pellejero ————————————————————————————————— Jargon is awesome. Comics has a lot of it. One of the more interesting terms is the artistic technique of spotting black areas. This is often shortened to “spotted blacks”. That is, determining what areas of a given page and/or panel should be inked in before color is applied. It’s one of many artistic techniques one can pick up while making comics. To date, I haven’t picked it up. But I know what to look for, which means I can appreciate it when I see it. There’s an entire group of arguments whose style relies heavily on spotted blacks, if you want to look for examples. The most obvious is Hugo Pratt, whose Corto Maltese series is a masterwork of the style. Milo Manara, who worked with Pratt, has a much more elegant line, but the blacks give his linework its characteristic solidity. Frank Miller was inspired by Pratt and even named an island in Dark Knight Returns after Corto Maltese. Tim Sale provided the forward for the recent collection of The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen by Jorge Zentner (writer) and Ruben Pellejero (artist). To bring the whole thing around full circle, Pellejero was recently chosen to be the artist on a reboot of Corto Maltese. The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen is the best series of stories I’ve read in Heavy Metal, by far. I was very excited when IDW announced that they were printing a collection, including material never printed in English before. For the record, that’s three short stories – Time Bomb, His Master’s Voice, and A Question of Skin – and the long story The Reaper’s Price. All of the other stories were printed in Heavy Metal between 1987 and 1990. One story – Games of Chance – was only printed in black and white in Heavy Metal and is printed in color in the collection. Reading that story in black and white helped me see how good Pellejero’s spotted blacks are. He relies very heavily on shadow and profile to add drama. After the initial batch of short stories, there are three longer ones. The short stories are clearly written to be serialized in anthologies – the staple serialization format in European comics markets. The longer stories could be printed in standalone albums, which drives the tone and complexity of the series. The shorts are wrapped around a single location or idea and the longer ones have much more complex themes because they have room to breathe and stretch out. Pellejero uses color and a confident line to build on top of a very solid foundation. The real appeal of the series are the settings. The premise is that shortly after the war, a German named Dieter Lumpen gets a job as a chauffeur and the first page of the first story finds him being chased through an Istanbul market by a man with a gun. From there, he travels to the Agean, Haifa, India, Sri Lanka, Paris, Manaus, Tunisia and the Caribbean. The appeal of these destinations is Pellejero’s ability to render them almost like a documentary film maker, matter of fact about amazing sights, which adds verisimilitude. The amount of detail on each page means that every time you return to a page, you notice something new. And the stories are very rereadable. To be sure, these are the adventures of a white European wandering through the wreckage of a post-war world. The nationality of the main character isn’t really brought up, and the backstory is never explored. He was clearly old enough to serve in the war and somehow managed to walk away without any physical injuries. He’s now wandering the back corners of the non-white portion of the world, somehow miraculously encountering the only white people in the area. It’s a world that’s right on the cusp of post-colonialism and the tensions are on the page. Not everyone is ready to stop fighting – Lumpen finds himself caught up in revolutionary actions in Palestine, India and Tunisia. In almost every story, he (or a companion) are looking for something. And, almost inevitably, there is some kind of violence along the way. In every case, Lumpen is a reluctant hero, mostly running away from confrontation whenever possible. Even the most peaceful story, Caribbean, has some violence. We find Lumpen living in relative obscurity in the Caribbean (duh), only to have his peace shattered by the arrival of a film crew. He agrees to act as the lead actor in the pirate movie they are there to shoot. The entire process of making a film is wonderfully compressed into two pages. In Heavy Metal, these were printed as a two page spread. In the collection, they are back-to-back, which somewhat ruins the effect. It’s easily the best story in the collection. It’s the second of the longer stories and it is very much about a man giving away a chance at fame. As a mediation on celebrity and stardom, it’s very effective. There is a mix of action and pensiveness through the whole series and this story rests on the search for a quiet place to grow old in peace. The Reaper’s Price, the final story in the collection, is a real beast. It’s longer than any of the other stories and is a distinct departure from the rest of the series. Most obviously, every other story is about a specific place. This one features Lumpen travelling to multiple locations. It’s also presented in such a way that leaves the reader unclear if the story is real or some kind of dream. There are elements that could be described as supernatural or mystical throughout the series, and at least one of the shorts is a ghost story. But all of those genre elements were grounded in a distinctly real narrative. This story contains a number of deeply allegorical elements. And the art style changes to suit the situation, making it the most complex story in the collection artistically and conceptually. If you want a solid comic from a pair of European masters, The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen is highly recommended. ————————————————————————————————— RM Rhodes is the curator of the Heavy Metal Magazine tumblr. He lives and works in Washington, D.C. His current project is a weekly online anthology called The Rumor published on the Comics Workbook tumblr – see issues of it HERE. Check out more of his comics at Louis Deux. Share this page: [...]

08/15/2018

Juan FernándezAugust 15, 2018NewsThinking out loud here today on publishing and patronage. The market will never, effectively, support what the world needs creatively. Patronage is essential for that. Naturally, publishers can function as patrons, but I see it happen less than I’d like to. I’ve been thinking a lot about this, since I heard that Annie Koyama was going to close the doors on her book publishing and transition to more focused arts patronage. I’m excited for that. The reason being that comics’ commodity form feels broken. When publishers big or small say, “buy our books or we won’t be able to exist”, there’s a problem. It’s not on them, but it leads me to believe that our paradigm for publishing is broken. A short reflection on Eric Reynolds’ conversation with Timothy Hodler on Amazon’s disruptive print-on-demand practices makes this clear. The form is flourishing en masse, the distribution method is failing us collectively. This intersects with failures of capitalism and culture, of course – in other spheres you can separate them a good bit, but comics, being born as a commodity form wind up inextricably connected to the market. To be clear, I see a huge issue, when the responsibility of the “success” of works implicitly falls on the shoulders of the consumer. Crowdfunding is a hybrid of these ideas, so there’s an evolution there towards the future. Some extremely smart and creative people like Spike Trotman and others have figured out how to use this system to make their comics flourish in the market. Though they succeed in existing in a market, what often times happens is, the campaigns fail to integrate the work into existing ecosystems of libraries, stores and schools in a way that traditional publishers are able to engage with. In this way reader and consumer end up being one and the same. For it’s own needs, the comics market, inside and outside of crowdfunding conflates consumer and reader. If you’re not around to buy it, you’ll likely never experience the work. To be clear, this isn’t a dig on crowdfunding, though I wish more crowdfunded publications were able to bridge that gap in how the campaigns were designed. It’s not easy! I know! I’m just thinking out loud here about the larger issue of how comics wind up “locked up” in their own cultural space. When comics can be reproduced and shared, like music, by being saved to hard drives, by being clipped onto the fridge, by being shared with friends by loaning our copy of a book or pointing a friend to the library, we harness comics’ ability to “float” as cultural experiences. To connect us to each other, and to new knowledge. When this happens, comics occupy a role that becomes personal, independent of our relations to what’s going on in the comics market, a space that will likely never be hospitable to new ideas. Though I own plenty of comics, I read most comics through the library. My students read comics online, webcomics via sites and through social media. These experiences allow stories, jokes, images and abstractions to flow through our minds without forcing our hand in financial transactions. In these experiences, comics, especially strips become viral, they become important, they become part of our stories. It’s in this spirit that we here at Comics Workbook shout the mantra: commodity form as community form. If you or someone you know is interested in private patronage for forward thinking and passionate comics making, please send me a message. I’d love to talk to you. I’m working on a project through Comics Workbook that aims to create an equitable work environment for comics-makers, particularly oriented around comic strips. This is important work as comics are a vital, contemporary art form that has an extremely flimsy infrastructure. This all comes from things that I’ve learned thanks to the Kelly Strayhorn Theater‘s Future Makers program, my work at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, conversations with Johanna Lasner and The Copacetic Comics Company‘s Bill Boichel and my time here with Comics Workbook. Share this page: [...]

09/09/2016

Sally IngrahamSeptember 9, 2016NewsNine days into September, and Sally’s here to sort through the ruckus of late summer with you. I’ve got Dash Shaw and his new film in Toronto, old pages from Sasha Mardou and new thoughts from her on Julie Doucet, Comics Workbook at SPX, Keiler Roberts on Mutha Magazine, a new Correspondence Course ready to unleash, Jessica Campbell getting some A.V. Club love, Annie Mok on Tillie Walden, the Composition Competition results, a look at Microcosm Publishers, Kyung Me’s first solo show, and a very special last chance… Attention! Proceed. ————————————————————————————————— If you’re in Toronto this weekend, or within a less than an 8 hours drive from the city, I don’t want to hear any excuses – you had better be at the WORLD PREMIERE of Dash Shaw’s new film – My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea – at the Toronto International Film Festival. The screening is on Sunday at 2:45pm. BE THERE. “Inventive, beautiful, and more than a little bizarre, the animated feature debut from acclaimed graphic novelist Dash Shaw is surely the most delightful disaster movie in cinema history. To say that My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea is like John Hughes fused with The Poseidon Adventure makes for a snappy pitch — and it’s true — but it doesn’t prepare you for the sheer originality of Dash’s vision. Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Maya Rudolph, Susan Sarandon, and Reggie Watts supply voices for this story about what it takes to survive adolescence. Literally.” – via tiff Full details and how to get tickets HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Here on the site we have a new essay by Sacha Mardou on taboos and the comics of Julie Doucet. It is – “…a personal response to the comics of Julie Doucet, which, since I first encountered them in my early twenties, served to rock my world. They forced me to question the kind of comics I wanted to make, my attitudes towards the female experience on and off the page, towards biology, sex and shame. All that stuff factored in my response to Julie Doucet’s comics. Plus they look and read great. They still hold this timeless, glorious power for me. I’m so freaking glad she made the comics she did! Let us take a look!“ Read the rest of the essay HERE – it’ll make you laugh and probably squirm too (and you should stop and think about WHY!) ————————————————————————————————— While we’re talking about Sacha Mardou, here’s a page from her Manhole #3 comic – a work that is increasingly difficult to find. Phil Dokes has a copy, and with Sacha’s permission he scanned and shared it – so you can read the whole thing HERE. As Phil puts it: “This is great, and rare (trust me on that) comic Manhole #3. Awesome to have art and words lean on each like she does, you pull one away from the other and it’s Jenga time!” – Phil Dokes Here’s the link again for the rest! ————————————————————————————————— Stop whatever you’re doing and make sure that you are signed up for the terrific workshops that Comics Workbook is hosting at SPX next weekend. Make comics with Carol Tyler, Jeffrey Brown, Charles Burns, Frank Santoro, Cameron Nicholson, Juan Fernandez, and some of the crew from Fantagraphics Spanish Fever! Full workshop descriptions HERE. SIGN UP FOR THE WORKSHOPS HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Ugh…so school, am I right? It’s back in session. Over on Mutha Magazine Keiler Roberts has one part of the endless saga of parents and kids, teachers and kids, kids and kids… Read more about it and poke around on Mutha Magazine for more cool comics – HERE. Read more comics by Keiler Roberts on her website – including Powdered Milk Vol. 1-11. ————————————————————————————————— Speaking of school – the VERY BEST SORT is also back in session. The fall semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers is a GO! Applications are due Sept. 16th – course starts Sept. 23rd. You’ve always wanted to make comics, right? And all those terrific comics popping up all over Tumblr lately (due to the Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2016, no doubt) has really inspired you – RIGHT? So sign up for the Correspondence Course and take your cartooning to a whole other sphere of being. Do it! ALL THE DETAILS ARE HERE. ————————————————————————————————— There is a preview of Jessica Campbell‘s Hot or Not over on the A.V. Club! They write: “The 20th century brought about huge shifts in the world of fine art, thanks to the technological and cultural changes over those 100 years, but Jessica Campbell isn’t interested in evaluating the merits of the actual artwork in her new graphic novel Hot Or Not: 20th-Century Male Artists. The majority of the major artists during this time are men, and Campbell subjects those men to the objectification women have had to deal with for pretty much all of history by judging them on their physical appearances rather than the quality of their creations. The result is a hilarious, slyly subversive exploration of subjectivity, and the criticisms ultimately reveal more about the critic than they do the artists.” – via the A.V. Club Check out the preview HERE. Find Jessica Campbell at SPX next weekend, hanging out at the Koyama Press table (W10-11A). ————————————————————————————————— Annie Mok interviewed Tillie Walden over on The Comics Journal this week – “Tillie Walden is a young Texas-based cartoonist who has three graphic novellas from UK’s Avery Hill Publishing to her name (The End of Summer in 2015 and I Love This Part and A City Inside in 2016), as well as her upcoming graphic memoir about synchronized skating for First Second, Spinning (fall 2017). Tillie wields a high degree of technical polish with her clean inks and dreamy watercolor tones, always in service of challenging emotional storytelling, often centering around teenage queer relationships. I spoke to Tillie by Skype from her apartment in Austin.” – Annie Mok via tcj.com Read the interview HERE! ————————————————————————————————— There is still dancing in the streets over the Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2016 results – if you haven’t checked out the hefty list of comics yet, give it a look HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Microcosm is a cool publisher that you should definitely check out – a good place to start is via their complete publishing history (pictured above – click on the image to see a larger version!) They are celebrating their 20th anniversary by highlighting a different beloved independent bookstore every month. In August it was “iconic Chicago feminist bookstore Women & Children First” – read more about them HERE. Check out Microcosm’s catalog of Zines (or “bookettes”) HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Check out Kyung Me‘s solo show next week – Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 14th 6-8PM. Show runs September 14th – October 16th. You can read more about her work, and her book Bad Korean via this conversation with The Editorial Magazine. “Kyung Me is a 23-year old artist living in Queens, NY. Intricate, nightmarish and feminine, Kyung Me’s scenes appear to be from a long gone century of strife and tragic romance. We featured her drawing “Rabbit Canal” in issue 13, and here we talk to Kyung Me about her process and her tendency toward melodrama.” – via The Editorial Magazine Get a copy of Bad Korean HERE. ————————————————————————————————— To conclude – one last thing that you CANNOT sleep on…!! – this is probably the last weekend that you can take advantage of the pre-sale on Connor Willumsen’s new book Portraits. Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Back next week with more news, although like many of you, I’ll be in some sort of tizzy getting ready for SPX! Good luck and have a good weekend! – Sally Share this page: [...]

Comics Workbook @ SPX 2016: the Cartoon Workshops

Posted on September 29, 2016September 29, 2016 by Sally Ingraham

Here are just a “few” pictures from the cartoon workshops that Comics Workbook hosted at the Small Press Expo 2016!

Check out the video of the full Cameron Weston Nicholson workshop HERE – more videos to come soon – stay tuned!

jeffrey-brown-2 — Comics With Jeffrey Brown – Saturday, Sept. 17th 2016

open-workshop-frank — Comics Workbook “Hangout” with Frank Santoro, Sept. 17th 2016

spanish-fever — A Spanish language presentation by David Rubin and Jose Domingo, Sept. 17th 2016

cameron — Cameron Weston Nicholson (with Frank Santoro), Sept. 17th 2016

carol-tyler — Comics with Carol Tyler, Sept. 18th 2016

charles-burns — Comics With Charles Burns. Sept. 18th 2016

cw-open-workshop — Comics Workbook “Hangout”, Sept. 18th 2016

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Photographs by Juan Fernandez, Audra Stang, and Sally Ingraham

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Festivals and ShowsTagged cartoon workshops, Comics Workbook, spx 2016

Sally Ingraham

Posted on September 29, 2016September 29, 2016

Explore

08/16/2016

Aaron CockleAugust 15, 2016NewsAaron here today with some Jillian Fleck comics; an interview with Phoebe Gloeckner; a schedule of Zinefests; a review of King-Cat #76; Data is Nature; the situation in Turkey; Et tu, the Golden Ratio?; the Society and the Spectacle; Clowes auction continues ————————————————————————————————— Tell Me All Your Bad Thoughtz on God Featured Comic this week is by Jillian Fleck, made for Comics Workbook in 2015 as part of Fleck’s Bad Thoughtz series. ————————————————————————————————— Does knowing how to render in detail a liver or digestive system, did that effect how you draw people from the outside? Did that inform things somehow in ways you didn’t expect? We never see our own liver, if we’re lucky, right? I remember when I was a kid I was fascinated by this huge painting, I think it was Rubens, Prometheus Bound. He’s tied to a rock and the eagle was tearing at his liver. So there you get to see his liver, and he does too, but other than that there aren’t too many opportunities. But still I wanted to know that somehow. It’s hard to know what’s inside bodies without seeing them. And that education, I was at autopsies and surgeries. So the experience was very direct and it was good for me. Phoebe Gloeckner interviewed by Nancy Updike over at Jezebel ————————————————————————————————— Schedule of Zinefests on This Planet Earth Circa 2016 Via FANZINES (the Twitter or the Facebook or the Instagram or the Tumblr) ————————————————————————————————— John Porcellino’s King-Cat 76 reviewed over at Panel Patter It’s this universal experience portrayed through specific events that make Porcellino’s comics unique. The ways that he observes the moment when how a dream leads to a memory that’s a decade old or the emotions that seeing an old lady and a man stir up in him strike a chord that’s resonant as part of the human experience. But it’s also in the way that he observes nature that shows how Porcellino makes something specific into something broad and understandable. ————————————————————————————————— From the Archive: Data is Nature, or, Everything You Wanted to Know About Nomographs But Were Afraid to Ask In the visual arts Agnes Denes used nomographs for the basis of some of her philosophical drawings which she argued represented the metaphysical aspect of mathematics conveyed through aesthetics. She wrote, “I love mathematics because I could humanize it, and in turn it gave me perfection and beauty”. In her work The System , she embellished the well known Smith Chart – a nomograph designed for solving radio frequency problems with transmission lines and matching circuits in radio frequency engineering. ————————————————————————————————— Jonathan Guyer spoke with Public Radio International about the current state of political cartooning after the recent coup attempt in Turkey Guyer spoke to a number of cartoonists during his month in Istanbul. “Every cartoonist I interviewed in Turkey told me that 2016, irrespective of the recent coup and crackdown, has been the most difficult year for cartoonists on record.” Guyer says about 1,500 people, including cartoonists, celebrities and journalists, are under investigation for insulting the president. ————————————————————————————————— The Golden Ratio: Design’s Biggest Myth??? This has been making the rounds on various internet platforms. ————————————————————————————————— The Society, the Spectacle Over at Hyperallergic, An Illustrated Guide to Guy Debord’s ‘The Society of the Spectacle’, by Tiernan Morgan & Lauren Purj To be clear, Debord did not believe that new technology was, in itself, a bad thing. He specifically objected to the use of perceptual technologies for economic gain. The spectacle, which is driven by economic interest and profit, replaces lived reality with the “contemplation of the spectacle.” Being is replaced by having, and having is replaced by appearing. We no longer live. We aspire. We work to get richer. Paradoxically, we find ourselves working in order to have a “vacation.” We can’t seem to actually live without working. Capitalism has thus completely occupied social life. ————————————————————————————————— Daniel Clowes Auction Items Up Through Wednesday, August 17, 1pm EST All proceeds benefit the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. Share this page: [...]

01/22/2016

Juan FernándezJanuary 21, 2016Newshello world, Lots of little things for you to nibble on today. Emily Carol just published her newest work Some Other Animal’s Meat on her website emcarroll.com. A quotidian tale of body horror and physical anxiety, it’s a smartly paced vertical scroll comic that breaks the story up into nine short black and white chapters. There’s an eerie calm through it all. Great stuff. Horror fans take note. Benjamin Urkowitz‘ newest comic, The Beauty Theorem is out at Hazlitt Magazine. Cheeky, spirited reflection on the rigorous, scientific study of metaphysics and its intersection with universal poetics. Heady concepts paired with goofy, cartooning and beautiful coloring. Steep yourself in it. Julian Lytle visits and chats with SPX’s Warren Bernard about forgotten Black Cartoonists, cooning, collecting comics and art, and of course SPX. So I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Warren Bernard, executive director of @spx and author of the book Cartoons for Victory. I met him at this past year’s SPX and was kind enough to invite me over to his house to see his extensive collections of comics, cartoons, and books library then to talk to me for this here show. This might be the closest to an interview I’ve done so I hope you enjoy it. Check out the blog post to see some a pic of stuff from the visit and please check out @spx if you haven’t and a link to the book. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/242740702″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] “An Art of Intervals” is raising is an upcoming art show that features the work of four young female comic artists, Abigael Puritz, Wendy Xu, Grace Passerotti, and Autumn Crossman. Showing at the Brooklyn, New York arts space, Tarot Society, from February 26th through February 28th, they hope to raise the funds to cover the cost of shipping the work to the gallery as well taking care of the expenses of opening night. Additionally, they are in the process of making new work specifically for this show to be released on the opening night. The majority of the funding will go toward collecting and publishing all of this new work in a zine that will be available both through this fundraiser and at Tarot Society for the duration of the show. Cameron Weston Nicholson has just reached the halfway mark in his fundraiser goal of $1,500 to acquire a risograph machine for selfpublishing in the RVA community. You can learn more on how to support his effort by hopping on over to his gofundme campaign. Having this printer will not only let me make a name for myself in the comics world but also be able to become a publisher in the future! I’ve got awesome ideas and big goals for my future and i want to share those possibilities with you. One major thing i can help is representation of people of color in the comic’s world. It is a goal to help push that forward. (One of the many goals) Giving the opportunity to share their stories to the world. Giving ones the chance to read this stories from beautiful people, beautiful story tellers. Once i obtain the printer I’ll have to do a few test runs to get used to the machine and get all of the kinks out. So a few months after acquiring the printer I’ll be able to open up shop for local (Virginia) jobs only. Later this year i should be able to open up shop for the US, and in the future internationally. It’s honestly going to take a lot to get that far but with your help I’ll be able to start this long journey. Share this page: [...]

Comics Workbook @ CXC 2016

Sally IngrahamOctober 21, 2016Festivals and Showsnote: This is a special “round up” report from the Comics Workbook crew of the many facets of the show that inspired and intrigued. We are collecting our thoughts, images, and videos and have already started sharing them on the site and across our social media. This space will serve as the “complete” adventures of the crew at CXC and will be updated frequently. Be sure to check back in! (All photos are by Juan Fernandez and Sally Ingraham unless otherwise noted) Thanks to the incredible generosity and support of Frank Santoro, a team of eight cartoonists (who have all been involved with Comics Workbook for a few years) went to the show to really dig into what it had to offer. Sacha Mardou, Kurt Ankeny, Alyssa Berg, Whit Taylor, Juan Fernandez, Sally Ingraham, Caleb Orecchio, and Emil Friis Ernst were proud and excited to represent Comics Workbook. Our pals John Kelly (Executive Director of Pittsburgh’s ToonSeum), Chris Anthony Diaz (comic-scene photographer extraordinaire), and Phil Dokes (a long-time supporter of CW and the Pittsburgh Comic Salons) also joined our crew throughout the weekend. Comics Workbook wasn’t at CXC simply to table at the Marketplace – we also hosted the Comics Workbook Sessions, a series of four workshops over the course of Saturday and Sunday that offered festival attendees the opportunity to investigate new techniques for comics making and learn about the working habits of Alyssa Berg and Kurt Ankeny, our special CW workshop leaders. Sacha Mardou lent her thoughts and talents to the “Talk and Teach” panels that CXC offered during the Thursday/Friday programming, and she also had a Spotlight panel on Saturday. Whit Taylor was there as our special guest reporter. For Sacha Mardou’s personal CXC adventures go HERE! Whit Taylor presents her official “report card” for CXC HERE! Chris Diaz shares part 1 of his CXC Portraits series HERE! Check out Juan Fernandez’s CXC-inspired thoughts on expanding the comics festival toolkit. Leave some comments and join the discussion – HERE! Kurt Ankeny has his post-CXC thoughts HERE! Alyssa Berg shares thoughts on her first con HERE! Caleb Orecchio has a detailed and hilarious tale of his CXC experience HERE! We asked ourselves 3 questions to help process this rich experience – some of our answers HERE! Here’s a quick video that Sally cut together while traveling home from the show: ————————————————————————————————— By the time the CW team arrived on Thursday for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, there was already an incredible energy pouring out of the comics cathedral that is the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. For most of the team it was their first time at the Billy Ireland, and we entered the space with a special mixture of reverence and awe. On a normal day, the Library is an amazing space – original pages from Winsor McCay and Bill Watterson hang in the exhibit hall, and a tour of the archives reveals only a tantalizing taste of the world’s largest collection of materials related to cartooning and comics. During CXC, the place spirals to a whole new dimension, and you are likely to bump into Sergio Aragonés, Seth, Carol Tyler, Garry Trudeau, Ann Telnaes, Charles Burns, Ronald Wimberly, or thee great Lucy Caswell herself (founder of the Library) sharing a look at an original Peanuts strip or getting a coffee. Two full days of programming took place in this truly extraordinary space, and the Comics Workbook team spread out and absorbed as much as possible. We’re at CXC in Columbus, OH – and already caught Ann Telnaes talking about editorial cartooning at the Billy Ireland Library & Museum – much more to come! @cartoonlibrary @anntelnaes #cxc2016 #comicsworkbook A photo posted by Comics Workbook (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 13, 2016 at 1:12pm PDT Ann Telnaes spoke with festival director Tom Spurgeon about editorial cartooning on Thursday afternoon. This was one of many “Talk and Teach” presentations which filled the first two days of CXC. They provided cartoonists and industry leaders with an opportunity to share something that they felt they “did well” – skills and life practices that other makers might find interesting and helpful. Dustin Harbin, T. Edward Bak, Sacha Mardou, and Kriota Willberg also led a “Talk and Teach” panel. In addition there was a Scholarly Symposium during the first two days of CXC – a whole second track of programming that brought together academics and unique thinkers to dig into the concept of a “comics canon”. On Thursday evening John Canemaker presented some of Winsor McCay’s work at the Wexner Center for the Arts, riveting and amusing the audience with details of McCay’s working practice and adventures in animation. Totally blown away by the Winsor McCay presentation hosted by John Canemaker at CXC – this is part of McCay’s first animated film, drawing on characters from Little Nemo #cxc2016 #winsormccay #animation A video posted by Sally Ingraham (@sally_ingraham) on Oct 13, 2016 at 6:40pm PDT John Canemaker stepping into Winsor McCay’s roll in the type of vaudeville act McCay used to do with his animated character Gerdie – at CXC tonight #cxc2016 #winsormccay #johncanemaker #gertie A video posted by Comics Workbook (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 13, 2016 at 8:10pm PDT Sacha Mardou was a Comics Workbook Special Guest at CXC this year, so she got to present her own “Talk and Teach” on Friday morning. She shared thoughts on long-form fiction planning and many tantalizing details from a work in progress – to a packed room at 10am! Some of the team went over to Hale Hall to check out SÕL-CON, the Brown and Black Comics Expo which ran alongside CXC this year. The CW crew all made it onto an archive tour at the Billy Ireland at some point on Friday, although only some of us got to share that wild ride with Seth! There are many, many drawers and shelves of treasures – we got to see a few amazing things, but I think everyone on the team immediately started making plans for a return trip. Here’s a look at an original Milton Caniff page…! In the archives at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum @cartoonlibrary #cxc2016 A video posted by Comics Workbook (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 14, 2016 at 9:53am PDT Friday afternoon there was a State of the Industry panel that featured “all star representatives” for a discussion and Q&A, hosted by Tom Spurgeon. The panelists were Rich Tommaso (cartoonist), Keith Knight (cartoonist) Chip Mosher (ComiXology), Shena Wolf (GoComics.com), and Brendan Burford (King Features Syndicates). Our crew was there to dig in to this “off the record” look at the industry. Friday night there was a reception at the Billy Ireland, and the promised “surprise” turned out to be an award ceremony. The 2016 CXC Master Cartoonist award for a lifetime of work in comics was an unbreakable tie between Sergio Aragonés and Carol Tyler! The entire crowd was laughing and in tears by the time the ceremony was over – a hearty congratulations to them both. Garry Trudeau‘s fantastic discussion of his work with Glen Gary Gold on Friday night was capped with another award – he was presented with CXC’s 2016 Masterwork Award for Doonesbury. Late night on Friday found the CW team socializing at one of the official after-parties – this one hosted by Katie Skelly. These parties – one a night, Friday-Sunday – were an amazing opportunity to make new friends and catch up with old ones. Even for relative new kids on the scene, like many of the CW crew, the Late Night parties were an incredibly welcoming space where we could chat freely with industry leaders (Caleb and Sally and Juan spent an hour with Brendan Burford of King Features on Friday) or play a game of pinball next to the likes of Charles Burns. John Kelly had joined our ranks by then, and he grabbed this great picture: Saturday (CXC Day 3!) the show switched gears and held it’s Marketplace and 3rd day of programming at the beautiful downtown branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. The Comics Workbook team was there when the doors opened, so we missed the kerfuffle that surrounded the expo being map- and table-assignment-free (a minor bump in what seemed like a miraculously smoothly run show.) The entire team was soon set up and ready to run full tilt into a fantastic day. It was terrific that the Comics Workbook team was so large since we had to be in a number of places at once. Folks took turns tabling, running the Comics Workbook Sessions, buzzing about documenting the event, and leading panels. Sacha Mardou had a spotlight panel right off the bat, hosted by Jared Gardner. She talked about her process and did a reading from Sky in Stereo. John Kelly had a fun panel with Carol Tyler Saturday afternoon. This is a video of Carol talking about her early work over dinner with John on Saturday night: There was so much programming on Saturday that there was no way to get to everything a person might want to! Raina Telgemeier‘s event brought in a crowd of kids, many of whom were eager to explore the Marketplace floor later. We heard from dozens of people that the panel on political cartooning with Lalo Alcaraz, Nate Beeler, Keith Knight, and Ann Telnaes was really good. Keith Knight also presented his “They Shoot Black People, Don’t They?” presentation, which has recently garnered him nationwide attention. There were spotlight panels on Ed Koren, Stan Sakai, and Julia Gfrörer among others, drawing demos by Katie Skelly, Brandon Graham, and Ronald Wimberly, a discussion with Nate Powell about finishing the popular March series, and a Fanta at 40 panel. Back to tabling – Saturday had a good amount of foot traffic all day and since Sacha had a bit of extra space on her table after she sold out all her books in an incredible rush, we set up a drawing station and had kids stopping by all day to work on giant comics – many of them had probably been inspired by their encounter with Raina in real life. A bit of video from the day: LIVE at CXC!!! #comicsworkbook A video posted by Comics Workbook (@comicsworkbook) on Oct 15, 2016 at 10:14am PDT Charles Burns stopped by the table to find the comics that Frank had reserved for him! Chris Anthony Diaz took a break from snapping pictures to catch up with Sacha and get a unique drawing. He was also seen fraternizing with other cartoonists throughout the weekend, so we can probably soon expect some new editions to The Diaz Archive here on the site! Comics Workbook hosted 4 workshops during CXC, and Alyssa Berg was up first on Saturday. She talked about her use of the 4- and 9-panel grids and her adventures with painted comics, and then led an exercise that got the whole room drawing and collaging comics. The attendees of the workshop included students from Columbus College of Art and Design, where a new program in comics making is about to start! They were particularly intrigued by the techniques Alyssa shared, and several of them came back for the remaining 3 sessions. Here’s work by Phil Dokes, made during Alyssa’s workshop: Juan Fernandez and Sally Ingraham led a workshop immediately following, and shared a popular Pittsburgh Comic Salon exercise that riffs on the cinematic quality of comics making. While this workshop was taking place, late in the day on Saturday, a mysterious burst of clapping rose from the expo floor – turns out another surprise award had been presented – the CXC Emerging Talent Award went to a flabbergasted but very deserving Kevin Czap. “Comics Mom Surprised with Novelty Check” Thank you so much to Vijaya, Jeff, Caitlin, Tom and everyone else who made this happen. Unreal! A photo posted by Czap Books (@czapbooks) on Oct 19, 2016 at 5:35am PDT Here’s a video off of the CXC Facebook page of Tom Spurgeon’s speech and the presentation: We mentioned that the CW team was early to set up on Saturday – but we weren’t by any means first. As if you need more proof of why Kevin Czap a.k.a. “Comics Mom” received this honor: The Marketplace day ended at 6, and Saturday night our crew again split into a few groups – some caught up with Charles Burns at CCAD for his magnificent talk on his early work and influences. The rest of us (who unsurprisingly hadn’t really eaten anything all day) went on the hunt for dinner. Most of the team was too beat to hit the Saturday Late Night party hosted by Stan Sakai – although Sacha Mardou made it there, and then to a Haunted House in rural Ohio for a very atypical wild night! Sunday dawned – CXC Day 4. The team trickled back to the Library despite a few Columbus Marathon-related hangups. The Marketplace floor was a little quieter, but that provided many of us with the opportunity to go visit other cartoonist pals, and get into conversations with those that came to visit us – like Ben Katchor, at one point, and Caitlin McGurk, on the hunt for comics to add to the Billy Ireland collection…! Kurt Ankeny led the CW team Sunday with a workshop right off the bat. We had a number of returning attendees who had really committed to the full Comics Workbook crash course. Kurt talked about modifying your grid, materials, and tools to fit the story, then led an exercise that was straight out of Ohio’s history of correspondence course schools – spin the wheel, pick a character, spin again, pick a setting, spin again, pick an action – there’s your comic! John Kelly hosted a spotlight panel with Sergio Aragones Sunday afternoon – here is one of several videos from the talk that he has shared: Find the other videos HERE and HERE. Folks came by the table raving about the conversation between Ben Katchor and Seth, or if they had picked the other Sunday programming track, the conversation between Jeff Smith and Raina Telgemeier. Brandon Graham had a spotlight panel, and Jeff Smith talked about Bone at 25. There certainly never felt like a “winding down” of the show for the CW team – we were busy the whole time and Sunday passed in a blur. Juan and Sally ran another workshop during the last hour of the expo, and incredibly people showed up to make comics, at the expense of grabbing their last minute purchases from the Marketplace floor! We made 4-panel strips based on haiku poems. The workshop folks were so engrossed in making comics that once again, the mysterious clapping rose up to startle us – and this time it was announcing the end of the festival… There was celebration and a few tears, hurried group photos before friends parted ways, then the mad rush to pack up (one working elevator to the parking garage, a couple hundred cartoonists and their livelihoods in boxes and on carts…) The CW crew made short work of it, and then long drawn out work of the goodbyes and good wishes. A few folks finally hopped into cars to make the trip home, but others delayed their parting for hours by going to hunt for dinner and walking the entire length of High Street on a warm night under the full moon. Yes, it was exactly that picturesque. The crew that remained in Columbus by 9:30pm Sunday night certainly qualified as “Dead Dogs”, so we made our way to the official very last event of CXC 2016 – the Late Night Dead Dogs Party hosted by Julia Gfrörer and Sean T. Collins. There we ran into Kevin Czap and got into conversation with Caitlin McGurk, took a moment to personally thank Tom Spurgeon, and chatted with Jeff Smith until the hour was really excessively late and it seemed prudent to walk back to hotel rooms and call it A SHOW WELL LIVED! Heartfelt, ecstatic thanks to Jeff Smith, Vijaya Iyer, Tom Spurgeon, Lucy Caswell, and Kathleen Glosan for putting on an amazing show that we were excited and humbled to be part of. Also, many thanks to Caitlin McGurk (Billy Ireland), Lauren McCubbin (CCAD), Jared Gardner, Neil Cameron, Frederick L. Aldama (Sol-Con), and the amazing crew of volunteers. We still have (even more!) official reports and personal thoughts to share, but the CW crew as a whole has never felt more lucky to be part of this community. We look forward to giving back a little of what we were given, and will ride the wave of inspiration and validation that this show gave us until next year. See you once again in Columbus! ========================================== Share this page: [...]

01/23/2018

Aaron CockleJanuary 22, 2018NewsAaron today with Breaking the Sequence; Orbiting; Structures; Birdcage Bottom Books; Outsider Art Fair ————————————————————————————————— “experimental” “comics” Shea Fitzpatrick’s Case Study: Breaking the Sequence, from October 2017. Juan may have posted about this already? In a lecture, the writer and webcomics artist Daniel Merlin Goodbrey provides a helpful outline of characteristics that are distinct to comics as a visual medium. Defining the norm gave me a framework for understanding the works that deviate from it. Goodbrey’s characteristics were a useful jumping off point for articulating what the works I was collecting were doing, and why they struck me so powerfully. They are: Juxtaposition of images Spatial networks Space as Time Temporal Maps Closure between Images Word & Image Blending Reader Control of Pacing Experimental comics, then, are works that acknowledge the traditional framework of comics but, rather than adhere to it, tend to tilt, twist, and warp it into other things. This case study offers a survey of comics that abandon one or more of these characteristics, honoring innovations by artists, video game designers, poets, and educators alike. It should go without saying that these categories are by no means mutually exclusive. There are comics that exist outside of and in between these make-shift categories. As you may expect, there are very few rules. ————————————————————————————————— Orbiting At Broken Frontier, Robin Enrico looks at some recent work from Penina Gal. The means of storytelling in Orbiting then goes in a direction rarely tread by comics with the use of a single word, the word “you.” The second person, already a rarity in prose fiction is a technique almost entirely untouched upon in comics. The form lends it self so well to the third person in fiction and the first person in autobiography that even when characters do break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience it takes on the form of a soliloquy rather than an outward address. Gal’s consistent use of the second person moves the reader to an undefined space. Who is the “you” the narrator is speaking to here? Even assuming the narrator is Gal, who is the recipient of this message: a friend, the reader, Gal themselves? ————————————————————————————————— STRUCTURES 1-45 At Your Chicken Enemy, Philippe LeBlanc looks at work from Uncivilized Books. Structures is a series that has been exploring interesting topics throughout its short publication history. From the creation of modern society, to how we destroy nature for our own purpose, to how we construct myths and how our mind behaves, Structures show that comics can achieve thoughtful explorations of philosophical topics and existential questions even in small formats. The medium is made better by work like these, each piece builds onto the previous one to create something bigger than the sum of its part. Uncivilized Books can be very proud to publish such a strong and experimental comic series. ————————————————————————————————— Birdcage Bottom Books 2018 Comics Publications There’s a nice range of work in this, including comics from Eva Müller, Jordan Jeffries, D. Bradford Gambles, Larkin Ford, Stephanie Mannheim, J.T. Yost, and CW fave Sara Lautman. Kickstarting until Feb 20. ————————————————————————————————— A couple photos from this past weekend’s Outsider Art Fair. ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

Adam Griffiths – Rowhouse Residency Report

Comics WorkbookFebruary 23, 2017Residency Reports / School UpdatesAdam Griffiths is a comics artist from Takoma Park, MD. He joined us in Pittsburgh for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency January 29th-February 4th 2017. Here are his thoughts about visiting the city and his Rowhouse Residency experience. ————————————————————————————————————— The focus for my residency was completion – this is to say, I had a project I was interested in finishing during my week in Pittsburgh, and Frank seemed to help me make this theme more concrete. My projects for the week were: Allow the Rowhouse Residency hosts to see and provide feedback on the graphic novel that I have been writing for three years. Finish drawing a mini-comic that I’d begun last summer. Work on character, setting, and script concepts for a new secret project. Follow my usual comics schedule, which includes time set aside for exercise, freestyle drawing, and a weekly illustration in an unfamiliar environment. Did I accomplish all of these tasks? Let’s start. SATURDAY I arrived in Pittsburgh around 1 AM on Saturday night. I came early because I wanted to poke around Pittsburgh. My Rowhouse Residency wasn’t supposed to begin until Monday, so I had found an AirBnB that was a 10-minute walk from downtown Pittsburgh, and stayed there for two nights. Since I’d never been to Pittsburgh before, I wanted to see as much as I could but also stay focused on art. The ToonSeum was at the top of my list, followed by the Andy Warhol Museum, and then my usual wandering, which is when I take photographs and sketch. It’s a bit like a fugue state when I do this; I don’t always schedule that, but I consider it to be work, and when it begins I sort of just know, and become less reserved about taking snapshots of whatever interests me, or stopping to sit somewhere and draw. For breakfast I walked east on Forbes Ave, up Wylie Ave to Grandma B’s, a sort of diner greasy spoon. A lot of interesting buildings along this route; I stopped to watch a group of very young-looking investors talking to a man in front of the deserted New Granada Theater, which was under some type of development. I also stopped in front of the shuttered Crawford Grill, once a center of black social life in the Hill District. I didn’t really know what to order at Grandma B’s, but the staff was really nice and wanted to know where I was from. I got some great snaps on the way up the hill. After breakfast I walked back down the hill to The ToonSeum, only a 45 minute walk. The main exhibit area was partially set up for a Will Eisner show – still I saw some really lovely works, including another Eisner comic titled Harry Karry, which was about spies. I introduced myself to John F. Kelly, Director of The ToonSeum, who was in a meeting with his landlord. While I waited for his meeting to end, I happened upon a bunch of old cartooning instruction books, and I went through all of them. There was actually quite a bit of good (albeit dated) advice on how to structure your career as a cartoonist; I worked in the fine art gallery world for about ten years as an administrator. Every five or so years a helpful book is published about creating your own career as a fine artist. With the cartoonist version of such a book, there seemed to be much more structure and visualization of the career path, which, being that cartoonists’ careers were largely appended to the newspaper and media world at first, made plenty of sense. I was able to speak with John F. Kelly briefly. I asked if there was an archive in the basement and if I could come back and have a look at it. He said there was sort of an archive, but sure. I scheduled a Tuesday visit, but ended up not returning later because I was so busy drawing. After that, I walked over to the Andy Warhol Museum. I wasn’t ready for SO MANY floors of Andy Warhol. I enjoyed the screen prints, but I wasn’t so impressed with his early drawings. I have a very “Italo Calvino writerly approach” to visual artists’ early work – which is to say, Invisible Cities (written by Calvino) was an incredible feat of early work – short stories that are concise, that point towards future works of the creative person in question (I also pretty much lump artists, writers, musicians and performers all together). One of the wall plaques stated that Warhol had a peculiar skill for “increasing his income,” which I found strange. I went into the video lounge and watched ALL of the television commercials that Warhol ever produced. I wanted to do this because I have seen quite a few of Warhol’s films, own a few of them, and I admire the aggressive boringness of Warhol’s Dracula. The commercials, however, were artless. Should I have been surprised? Evening was coming, and I’d read that the Strip District was an interesting place to go on a Saturday night. I started walking in that direction and came upon EIDE’S, a 3-floor comics emporium. The long-box comics selection there was one of the best I’d ever seen; by the time I went to another floor, I was already plotting out how to convince the owners to let me set up a home somewhere in the store. Not gonna try that, but when I checked out in the basement, the clerk gave me a ‘bonified nerd’ discount! Then, the clerk on the main floor was also kind enough to direct me to a decent place to have dinner. I walked back to my AirBnB that night, chock-full of comics-luv. SUNDAY Sunday morning I decided to meet up with Sally Ingraham from Comics Workbook. I walked up Forbes Avenue to Wylie Avenue again in order to get to the Polish Hill neighborhood. This ended up being a much longer walk than I’d anticipated; I had a suitcase full of clothes, art supplies, and books. I had breakfast and made a few sketches at Lili’s Cafe, a coffee shop located below Copacetic Comics in Polish Hill. I haven’t been around punky vegan kids for a while, but one young lady was drawing and I gave her my card. Once I finished eating, I went upstairs. Copacetic Comics was a gem of an establishment. I looked around the store, got more comics and discussed the new George Herriman biography by Michael Tisserand with the owner, Bill Boichel. After this, Sally Ingraham took me on a driving tour of Pittsburgh. We saw the sprawling Allegheny Cemetery and took in some views. It was a relief to finally get to the Rowhouse and put down my suitcase. I was ready to begin working. I started by setting out all of the books I’d brought with me, plus the new ones recently acquired. Then I wrote out my schedule for the week by hand and posted it next to my drawing seat in the kitchen. I spent the rest of the night finishing thumbnails for the mini-comic. MONDAY & TUESDAY The first two days I worked in an isolated fever, completing my weekly illustration, a jumbo post-it note sketch, lots of small drawings, and several pages of the mini-comic. While I hadn’t explicitly stated that I wished to be left alone, I knew I wouldn’t hone in on the work with tons of distractions. I TURNED OFF MY PHONE during the daytime. I had gone to the grocery store on Sunday evening, which was conveniently right across the street so no excuses to go anywhere. WEDNESDAY Toiled in isolation this day as well. At this point, I felt very concentrated on completing the work, and was very satisfied with the quality of the drawings. Part of focusing on completion has nothing to do with how fast you’re working – it’s more like being a kind of live television actor with floor marks that you need to hit during scenes. If you miss the mark, or a line, you play through anyway, and plot to sneak in the part you meant to express later. I would work on a page for as long as I could – if I hit a dead end, I’d go to the mini-library I’d set up on the floor in the front room and look through comics until I was ready to start working again. The privacy of the Rowhouse made that feasible – I just kind of tore all over the place unrelentingly, joyfully. Over dinner at Frank’s house, which was next door, I spoke with Frank about his current work, which was set up across from the dinner table. Frank read what I had completed of my mini-comic. I only had about three more pages to go at that point. Also, I left my graphic novel with Frank overnight. While looking it over, he insisted that I should go ahead and print what I had done already. This was a step I needed to make – get comfortable with – so we discussed how I’d go about getting my mini-comic printed first. I have completely drawn my graphic novel at least 5 times, and have worked the script over entirely, maybe about 9 times. Working in my edits and really being rather fussy. I am very pleased with the version I’m working on – momentum-wise I’m very good at getting myself to work, but I’m very critical of what I do! It was useful to change my frame of mind from the creative work to the production work – just the type of shock I needed. In fact, in one of my old art world jobs, I’d been responsible for printing a gargantuan full color 400-page artist catalog of fine art works for two years in a row. So, while I was familiar with most of the printing terminology, I’d never ever had to apply any of that thinking to my own work. Having to consider printing the comic renewed my enthusiasm for sharing the work. I’ve got 150 pages drawn and need to get it out there! THURSDAY Finished drawing the mini-comic on this day. 40 pages. I drew 35 of them during the residency. For the rest of the day, I worked on various sketches, including some development work for a new comics project. I invited Sally and Frank over to the Rowhouse for dinner Friday night. For dinner, I cooked herbed chicken, mashed potatoes and salad. We talked about the residency and my further involvement in Pittsburgh. FRIDAY My last day. Continued developing my new comics project. Took a late afternoon drive with Frank through Braddock, and the rest of the Steel Valley. Frank is a Pittsburgh native who has lived in other parts of the country, but is now settled here running Comics Workbook. He told me about his family’s history in Pittsburgh, and then we stopped at Jerry’s Records, where I got LPs by Gene Loves Jezebel and China Crisis. I’m hoping to return for PIX, Pittsburgh’s Indy comic con, in April. After returning home on Saturday, I’ve since put myself in conversation with four printers about the mini-comic. In keeping with the speed at which I’m now working, I’ve averaged coloring pages at about 2-5 a day. So I’m more than sure I’ll have my first mini-comic printed by then! ————————————————————————————————————— Check out more work by Adam Griffiths on his website, follow him on Instagram, and look for his new mini-comic this spring! For more information about the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency visit this page or email santoroschoolATgmail Share this page: [...]

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