Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Critique, Daily News, Illustration, Movies, Otis Redding, Profweston

Harrison

Posted on May 5, 2016May 5, 2016

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04/14/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 13, 2017NewsSally here to wrap up the week with new work by Ulli Lust; an Easter Comix reading at KGB Bar; a conversation with Carel Moiseiwitsch; a look at Saving Grace; plus much more! ————————————————————————————————— Ulli Lust has printed up a small comic that collects the strips she has been making for the magazine EXBERLINER. She will have copies available at TCAF in May! Meanwhile you can read the strip HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out the Annual Easter Comix & Graphic Novel Night on April 16th, 7-9PM at the KGB Bar in New York City. Five local cartoonists will offer slideshow readings that are “sure to entertain, bewilder, and amuse.” Co-hosted by Robyn Chapman and Robin Enrico, the reading will also feature Lauren Barnett (some of her work is pictured below), Jim Campbell, Ada Price (above), and Kelsey Wroten. ————————————————————————————————— RJ Casey interviewed 76-year old Carel Moiseiwitsch for The Comics Journal this week. Carel was born during the Blitz, and her first memories are of playing in the rubble of London following the war. This is probably why she drew, as RJ Casey puts it, “dangerous comics“. Among many interesting stories about hanging out with the Rolling Stones and getting drunk with Francis Bacon, plus the complexities of making art and raising kids, Carel answers a question posed by RJ Casey that I’ve been thinking about almost constantly for the last year: “I was thinking about your era of comics and how many fantastic artists just drew for a couple years, then got out completely. Or ones that went into fine art and never made comics again. Why do you think that time period of the late ’80s to early ’90s had so many artists like that? It’s not fruitful and it requires such hard work. Also everything became kind of corporate. It’s very hard to survive in that kind of atmosphere. Where I came from — London and Paris in the ’60s — you could go there and draw, record music, and create art, then shuffle around to the cafes and have a drink, meet up with friends, write poetry, or whatever it is you wanted to do. People took you seriously without you having to be famous or successful. You just had to be true to yourself. But now it’s like if you’re not famous or successful, you’re nothing.“ Carel has continued to make comics and other artwork, has worked as a teacher, and has spent a lot of time turning her attention to mental health activism. The whole interview is fantastic and it’s a real treat to get a look around Carel’s head space – she’s a powerhouse. Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— A good friend of Comics Workbook and her fellow artists are in need of your signature – Naomi Nowak (painter/jeweler/fashion designer extraordinaire) is in danger of losing her studio space. “sad news! your signature is needed. me and my artist friends/colleagues are being evicted from our beloved studio space in stockholm, pannrummet (the boiler room). it’s practically already a done deal and we haven’t been given a fair chance to have our say or be part of the proceedings around this. so this petition is our very last, desperate plea to our landlords that they reconsider their decision and let us continue to work and create in the space we have loved and cared for. last year we renovated the place and built a bar + showroom where we have barely had time to show art and host exchanges, something were very much looking forward to. please sign to save studio pannrummet! we’ve never disturbed our neighbour and all 9 of us are now without a studio #savepannis“ Sign the petition HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Saving Grace by Grace Wilson just turned up at Copacetic Comics – it was published late last year in England. The Guardian has a review of it that should spark your interest: “Saving Grace is, first of all, a brilliant commentary on the housing crisis. Its author, Grace Wilson, knows all about the queasy feeling that comes with not knowing where you will soon be sleeping, and the way it affects everything – everything – else in your life, from work to relationships to, ultimately, your self-confidence. But it’s so much more than that. It’s hilarious, not only about rapacious landlords and their creepy ways, but about friendship, work, holidays and sex, too. It’s hard to imagine a funnier scene than the one when Maxine, drunk and having rowed with her boyfriend yet again, makes the mistake of going home with an Iggy Pop-alike who wants to spank her with a bit of precious rock memorabilia (“Did I ever tell you about when I used to roadie for the Who, Max?”). On the tube, where I read it, people looked at me warily, this sniggering woman with a large rainbow-coloured comic book in her hands.” – Rachel Cooke Read the rest HERE. Get a copy of the book at Copacetic Comics! ————————————————————————————————— I thought Lauren Weinstein‘s strip in The Village Voice this week was particularly funny – but maybe that’s because I am increasingly of the opinion that cats are the cartoonist’s true enemy…! ————————————————————————————————— Scallions or Chives The winners of 2017’s Cartoonist Studio Prize are Eleanor Davis for Libby’s Dad (Best Print Comic) and Christina Tran for On Beauty (Best Web Comic). A recent New Yorker cover illustration is being reproduced be female surgeons around the world – check it out HERE. Katherine Collins will be inducted into the Giants of the North hall of fame this year – and the nominee list for the Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning includes Julie Doucet among others. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-14-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-14-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-14-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

10/20/2017

Sally IngrahamOctober 19, 2017NewsSally here with Ann Nocenti, Julia Wertz, Sarah Glidden, and many more women and comics and news! ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Beat has a great interview with the incredible Ann Nocenti (above). Edie Nugent sat down with her at NYCC to discuss her upcoming project – the “sci-fi political thriller The Seeds with artist David Aja for the Dark Horses’ newly minted Berger Books imprint“, and her legendary career as a comics writer and editor. She speaks of her experience working in comics in the 80s, compared to later on: “Nocenti: What’s strange is that there were so few girls in the industry, that it was the opposite of sexism, I think. You know, I had Archie Goodwin and Denny O’Neill coming into my office talking to me about story–asking me if I wanted to write a story. I had, you know, Larry Hama, Al Milgrom, he had all these wonderful men in comics.They were all really encouraging. Ralph Macchio gave me the Daredevil to write. Denny gave me my first story, and they were extremely encouraging of the idea that a woman wanted to make comics…even the idea that a female wanted to write Daredevil. Nugent: So you felt industry support. Going all the way back. Nocenti: I wouldn’t call it industry support so much as it was bullpen support. This is pre-Internet So everyone was right there in the office. I was mentored by Louise Simonson, who basically taught me everything. Across the hall, you had Joe Duffy writing Star Wars, and then in the bullpen, we had Marie Severin…a powerhouse. So between me and Marie’s generation, we did have sexism. I mean she did so much in the industry and in the business, and she’s kind of unrecognized. She was right there on staff doing sketches when they needed them and covers when they needed them. So her generation–I think there was maybe more sexism than in the ’80s, ’cause you’re talking a post-’60s, ’70s culture, post-women’s liberation, you know, and so we were encouraged. I probably I felt more sexism when I came back to comics at DC and I was working with Gotham, in the Bat family. All those guys individually are really nice, but it definitely felt like a boy’s club.“ She goes on to talk about The Seeds (which I can’t wait to see – David Aja’s art in Hawkeye was so good! so that paired with Ann’s writing?!) and close to the end of the interview she speaks eloquently about why comics always pull her back. It’s a great interview with a powerhouse of the comics industry in her own right. Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I can’t wait to get my hands on Julia Wertz‘s new comic, Tenements, Towers & Trash, which reviewers are calling “dazzling” among other sparkly things. She herself hasn’t been able to say much about the book or go on her planned tour for it, as the fires in CA have called her home to be with her family. But The New York Times and Hyperallergic both have reviews of the comic this week and plenty to say. From Parul Sehgal’s passionate review on The New York Times: “The city rises majestically in these pages. The crowded panels evoke the jostle of urban life. Your eye doesn’t know where to settle; there’s so much to absorb. Wertz loves New York down to its guts: the pneumatic tubes that stretch the length of the island and were once used to send gusts of letters from one post office to another. She loves the arteries of the subways, the lungs of the parks. She goes uptown to sketch movie theaters in the Bronx and peers down to the bottom of the Hudson River, the “ watery grave” where illegal pinball machines were dumped by the city in the 1970s. She unearths so many strange, wondrous facts that my exclamation marks in the margin resemble elaborate Morse code.“ Read the rest HERE. Hyperallergic offers more pages from the book to tantalize you in their review, and is equally glowing. Read that one HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Nib is running Sarah Glidden‘s comic The Art of War, which was originally published in Spanish in El País Magazine. She draws herself (above) looking at Goya’s painting titled “3rd of May at Prado”. The comic is about the interaction between a viewer and a famous piece of art, and like all of Sarah’s work, is thoughtful and thought-provoking. Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— In other words/images Annie Mok is on Episode 24 of Comic Book Decalogue on The Comics Journal – listen HERE. Rob Clough is working through his recent comic show mini comics acquisitions, so there are reviews of comics by Jen Lisa, Katie Fricas/Sara Lautman/Cara Bean, Lauren Weinstein/Gale Galligan and others on High-Low recently. PEN America‘s Illustrated PEN series presents Ajuan Mance‘s Requiem for a Hot Comb – see it HERE. Our Comics, Ourselves has a review of Kabi Nagata‘s My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness – read it HERE. Lauren Weinstein‘s latest Normal Person strip for Village Voice is a #MeToo story. Comics Alternative Interviews sat down with Sophie Goldstein to discuss her new book House of Women (Fantagraphics, 2017). The A. V. Club takes a look at Maggie Umber‘s Sound of Snow Falling, and the value of comics as a record of natural life. Zainab Akhtar found herself once again forced to leave a social media platform due to the horrific harassment of internet trolls, following a Twitter fallout with the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival. Send her some love and support via her Patreon – HERE. In a somewhat out-of-character move, The Comics Journal offers a review of the new film Professor Marston and the Wonder Women – which is apparently an interesting flick, but one that still fails to present the compelling/mysterious truth behind the creation of Wonder Woman. ————————————————————————————————— Connor Willumsen says ‘Cartooning is a lot like magic’ in this video, directed by Fatine-Violette Sabiri. It offers a glimpse into his head space and a look at his new comic, Anti-Gone (Koyama Press, 2017). Read Brian Nicholson’s review of Anti-Gone, HERE. Get a copy of Anti-Gone, along with two zines by Connor – a 20 page bootleg, and a special collage zine – as well as a unique Anti-Gone drawing, as part of the exclusive Connor Willumsen bundle from Comics Workbook – available HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 10-20-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 10-20-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

09/25/2018

Aaron CockleSeptember 25, 2018NewsJulie Doucet; L. Nichols; Best American Comics; Richard McGuire; Everything is Connected at the Met Breuer; Art in Brussels ————————————————————————————————— Dirty Plotte—The Complete Julie Doucet by Austin English By the end of Dirty Plotte, the panels become increasingly dense and claustrophobic—beautifully so, but a trap all the same. The imposition of the rules of comics come to a head: clear, pure storytelling, the same character over and over, refine-refine-refine your style—a far remove from the infinitely open plane Doucet grafted onto the medium when Plotte began. An author of endless skill, she observed these principles and easily mastered them. Could the wide canvas of the early issues have been similarly exhausted? ————————————————————————————————— L Nichols: Day One ————————————————————————————————— The Best American Comics 2018 Panel discussion at Strand Book Store, NYC, Wednesday, October 3, 7pm “I love comics. Comics is (Comics ARE?) a perfect language, robustly evolving and expanding like any other living language,” writes Phoebe Gloeckner in her Introduction to The Best American Comics 2018. This year’s collection includes work selected from the pages of graphic novels, comic books, periodicals, zines, online, and more, highlighting the kaleidoscopic diversity of the comics language today. Join us as panelist Bill Kartalopoulos, Julia Gfrörer, Julian Glander, Kevin Hooyman, and Julia Jacquette talk about this year in comics. ————————————————————————————————— Richard McGuire: Art for the Street – 1978-1982 September 27 – November 4, 2018; Opening: Thursday, Sept. 27, 6-8 pm Alden Projects, 34 Orchard Street, NYC “A shadow is a strong and simple graphic,” McGuire explains. “The titles evolved from a Burroughs-esque cut-up method — just grabbing selected phrases that caught my ear. I would make lists. Later, I made a stencil. I would see what worked best with that image as a ‘sound picture’.” Incorporating cryptic phrases such as “Moved Then Set on Fire” (1979); “Holes and Corners” (1980); “Doubles are Inevitable” (1980); and “Different Nervous Rhythms (1981); McGuire’s Ixnae Nix drawings transmogrify the layout and content of quotidian newspapers into personalized tabloids in which the central silhouette appears with “a crypto-mystical graphic style, a great touch,” to borrow Glenn O’Brien’s 1981 praise in Interview magazine. The stream-of-consciousness poetics of McGuire’s Ixnae Nix drawings share explicit aesthetic dialogue with Basquiat and his early poetics, but later, these conversations arguably go both ways. McGuire’s Incident Instantly Becomes Memory , to name one, shared a pivotal stage with Basquiat, Haring, and others at the New York / New Wave show, curated by Diego Cortez at P.S. 1, Queens in 1981, and clearly anticipates some of Basquiat’s later pictorial developments. The Ixnae Nix drawings also confabulate with Keith Haring’s early street-based work, particularly with the latter’s Xeroxed collages of cut-up newspaper headlines, which he began in 1980. McGuire stopped his wheatpasting activities in early 1981—around the same time that Haring first began making chalk drawings in the subway. ————————————————————————————————— Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy The first half of the exhibition comprises works by artists who hew strictly to the public record, uncovering hidden webs of deceit—from the shell corporations used by New York’s largest private landlord, interconnected networks encompassing politicians, businessmen, and arms dealers. In the second part, other artists dive headlong into the fever dreams of the disaffected, creating fantastical works that nevertheless uncover uncomfortable truths in an age of information overload and weakened trust in institutions. ————————————————————————————————— 09-25-2018 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

Fumetto 2016!

Sally IngrahamApril 27, 2016Festivals and ShowsComics Workbook special correspondent Raúl Burgos Paredes brings us this exciting report from his trip to Fumetto on Saturday, April 23rd ————————————————————————————————— I had the pleasure of attending the Fumetto festival in Luzerne last Saturday. Although I would have liked to attend more days and for longer periods of time, personal constraints did not make it possible – nevertheless the experience I had was very rewarding. Knowing beforehand that my time in Luzerne would be limited, I planned ahead what I wanted to explore and left open the possibility for randomness. My main motivations were the “Small Press Heaven” and the exhibitions of Frémok and Lorenzo Mattotti. When I arrived at the festival’s main meeting point I headed directly to explore the Small Press Heaven. My first interaction was with the Latvian publiser kuš!. They publish a great deal of their books in small format, A6, which I find especially appealing. I treated myself to several of their mini kuš!, which are individual artists’ comics, and also to some of their regular numbers where they publish a large amount of artists in the same issue. Then I talked with the people of Stripburger (Slovenia), Kutikuti (Finland) and Centrala (Poland). They were all really friendly, and enthusiastic to discuss their publications and aims. All I can say is that the books I bought are all great discoveries because even if I had seen some of what they publish on the net, it can never be the same as having them in your hands in a neatly printed form. They’re all sometimes fun, at times odd, and overall very unique and highly recommendable. Afterwards I found out that there would be a panel discussion with Frémok’s artists Yvan Alagbé and Olivier Deprez. I impatiently headed there and listened to their talk, where they discussed the history of Frémok as a collective. They also gave details about their editorial concept, which is non hierarchical. They seek to incorporate the use of mixed techniques to have, as a result, works that depart from the classical comics style. Frémok’s works are highly poetic and experimental as well. For example, they talked about Match-Catch, which is a book that was made by some of Frémok’s people in collaboration with handicapped artists. Something I found quite interesting was their visible commitment to producing books that have a different kind of vision, a vision that clearly reflects artistic freedom. The moderator of the panel discussion inquired about how comfortable they were in financial terms, taking into account that the works of Frémok are not maybe bestsellers because of their style. Both Olivier and Yvan were emphatic in being both keen and confident to maintain their artistic freedom, not thinking too much about financial matters. For Yvan, it’s a chosen lifestyle, he prefers to be joyfully producing the work he does than maybe being more financially comfortable, but producing works that he would not feel like doing. This response was very much inspiring! Then I headed to the Fremok’s exhibition and reception. By the way, I did not know there would be one so I was quite happy to know that I would be able to interact more with the artists while having a glass of wine. This was a really fantastic exhibition where the works were smartly ordered to create a world of its own. I was delighted to see in original some of the works I appreciate the most. During the reception I could talk more in detail with Mr Alagbé about Match-Catch. He explained to me that they regarded handicapped people as independent artists of their own and that they were not imposing limits on them. He said that Frémok’s artists had to adapt to them and not the other way around. The result is a formidable book in which narrative is not linear and therefore, very dynamic. Personally, I’m not very much into narrative styles in general, I’ve always preferred to read a poetry book than a novel, and Frémok’s books are poetical imagery linked with sometimes poetic writing. I highly recommend école de la misère by Yvan Alagbé, coloforme by Etienne Beck, and plus si entente by Dominique Goblet and Kai Pffeifer. During the exhibition I also talked a little bit with Kai Pffeifer and I told him I was surprised to realize that the original works did not differ that much from their form in a the published book. He explained to me that first of all the editorial committee was formed by the artists themselves and that they placed high importance first, to the scanner, and second, to the printing process. He explained with great detail the complex printing process, but I can not tell you more about it because I forgot and it encompassed things I did not know. Then I headed to see Lorenzo Mattotti’s exhibition named Oltremai. Oltremai is another world of its own, all in black and white, populated by dark and ever moving characters. As you enter the exhibition room you sense you’re entering something special by starting to notice the soft and eerie music that accompanies the works. The imagery contained in it is fantastic, sometimes mythological, and an aspect that astonished me is the flow that can be felt in each individual work. The whole works do not follow a narrative and the pieces are nameless. The book of Oltremai, big and heavy, does good justice to the original works of the exhibition. Finally I headed to the train station to catch my train back home (Neuchâtel). To make my travel more enjoyable I started drawing some of my impressions of the festival. One of those drawings is my interpretation of Yvan Alagbé. To conclude, I would like to say that it was overall a very gratifying experience and I was very much pleased to interact with publishers and artists alike. Surely something to repeat in 2017! ————————————————————————————————— Raúl Burgos Paredes is a Mexican tripolar social scientist who has been living in Switzerland for the last 7 years. He finds time, in the midst of writing his dissertation, to explore his drawing abilities and enjoy all the comics he can find. You can see more of his work HERE. Share this page: [...]

02/05/2018

Caleb OrecchioFebruary 4, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thought’s on the eloquent minimalism of Gilbert Hernandez and Charles Schulz, and other news. ————————————————————————————————— Beto’s art has really loosened up and minimized visual information in the last 10 years or so, to the point that only essential information remains. His lines these days are thinner and crisper, more straight-forward and lack the luscious thick-thin contours of his earlier work (in a good way). This, to me, has given his work an enhanced readability and lends his pictures to nearly instant comprehension. To illustrate my point, I will paraphrase (from memory) Gilbert from his Q&A at SPX 2017 where he paraphrases Wally Wood about Nancy by Ernie Bushmiller: As soon as you see a Nancy strip, you’ve already read it before you decide if you like it or not. Schulz, of course, may be the greatest example of minimalism in comics with instantly recognizable characters made up of a handful of squiggly lines. Beautifully articulate face expressions made with a few swipes of his nib. The information in Peanuts is often communicated through dialogue between characters strolling through space, and it’s his simple visuals that invite us in to casually follow along with little to no effort. Beto, in my opinion, has seemed to cracked this same minimalist code of gorgeously-simple visual stimulation that eases the senses giving way to willful submission to the story one holds in one’s hand. A lot of what I admire about this kind of minimalism both Beto and Schulz embody is in their backgrounds. Consider this spread by Gilbert in Love and Rockets #4 (vol. 4): More specifically, consider what information the backgrounds illustrate. The page above (pg. 12) starts with two panels with two respective characters giving their sides of the story. Panel 3 is a sunrise over a town or city, panel 4 is a woman walking into an office, and panel 5 has two people chatting in public within earshot of others. Then, see page 13, we see these same characters talking in what seems to be a secluded area surrounded by more a more rural backdrop, nobody is in sight and the conversation is more serious with less smiling and pleasantries. The above are aspects I rarely notice outright, but seem to unconsciously understand as I read the issue. It’s a seamless process for me as a reader, very enjoyable with very few unnecessary distractions. The tone is clear as a bell despite the subtleties that I’m only aware of in careful study. Schulz’s work functions similarly: consider the strip above. A simple sequence of a brother and sister’s walk to school down their porch stairs, along the road and into a desk. The subject of the dialogue is “school,” while the simple route they take gives the “impression” of a morning walk to school, and the desk solidifies it. Yet, we never consciously think, “they are walking to school,” we just follow them to Sally’s desk just as naturally and unconsciously as one would travel from the kitchen sink to the refrigerator. Am I clear as mud? I suppose I find it interesting that Beto tends to be moving more towards the likes of Schulz and less like earlier influences of Kirby or Ditko or even Crumb in terms of picture-making. Simple, minimal, clearly articulated sequential-images that sweep your eyes along with little to no hinderance. These are beautiful comics that I think help define the essence of cartooning at its purest. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know At PEN American, Whit Taylor guest edits and hosts an excerpt of Kurt Ankeny’s comic, In Pieces: Some Place Which I Call Home. Chris Ware talks to Dmitry Samarov at the Chicago Reader. Sally linked to this article last week, but I felt it was worth linking to a second time, Serious Sex Battle: The Myth of the Wonder Woman by Sarah Nicole Prickett at Artforum. TCJ.com is rerunning an interview with Mort Walker, who recently passed away, from 2009 conducted by R.C. Harvey. Will John Porcellino be coming to your town this year? Find out! I always enjoy Arlen Schumer’s presentations on Kirby, and and especially how vehemently he waves the Kirby flag in this particular instance. Last but not least, please enjoy this two part video of some program of the second annual Mighty Marvel Comic Art Convention in 1976. Includes classic Stan Lee feeling like a celebrity, but the best parts are: 1.) the Q&A with then-new editor-in-chief Archie Goodwin and 2.) John Buscema drawing Conan live which ends with a standing ovation. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-5-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

05/05/2016

Posted on May 5, 2016May 5, 2016 by Harrison

Daily views of daily news. For Thursday were looking for the free stuff, talking about (visual) language, paying attention to style, and cooking up soul.

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Freebies

Tell your friends and family, Free Comic Book Day is Saturday. Find a store here and try not to get stingy.

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“Look at him. In a couple of years he could become another Picasso.”

“I watched Style Wars today – it’s been on my list ever since reading that bit of Hip Hop Family Tree by @edpiskor.

I made a bunch of “scene” cards and arranged them this way – next time I’ll arrange them a different way.

Turns out I like drawing break dancers almost as much as I like drawing graffiti.”

Sally Ingraham

Putting this idea from my CW colleague in my briefcase for the near future.

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Eye Emoji. Paintbrush Emoji.

“A critique is an oral or written discussion strategy used to analyze, describe, and interpret works of art. Critiques help students hone their persuasive oral and writing, information-gathering, and justification skills.”

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13151626_10156759286875251_2203460035734325223_n — DJ Harrison by Cameron Nicholson

Ideas and Language

By Cameron Nicholson

Your ideas are pure, but in order to make your ideas connect, you must learn the language they understand and speak. Once you’ve learned the stepping tones of their language you can get your ideas through. Then they HAVE to listen. Now that you have them listening, captivate them. Captivate them for the sake of YOU creating; you’re not catering to their needs. Your ideas are way more powerful than you think, the language barrier is what halts understanding from artist to viewer. These Language Barriers in art are why artists and non-artist get scared or become stagnant, but then we realize these languages are the “foundations.” Knowing these foundations are the basic words of art. “Whether or not you agree now, you will begin to at least listen once I start speaking your language.” If I started a track with a sample of Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” that led into my song or beat, a listener can become indirectly invested to continue listening. For people who love Otis or that sound you already feel comfortable and invested in him & those sounds. It’s how mixing and sampling became so big in Hip Hop. Fan Art uses the languages you already comfortable with and gets you to keep listening. Everyone has different taste, but the idea is to learn the foundation/language of that “art form” to speak your thoughts.

Thus the idea of languages in/of art. Morning thoughts and ideas forming in this odd head of mine. I’ll keep cracking at these ideas until they make sense to everyone.

Smooth music to relax, drink some tea or even work too.
Richmond, Va’s DJ Harrison makes some insanely amazing beats. Each track can give you energy to do many different things. I personally like “Vault Series #6 Trio 1967” just some great things there. When doing comics, think of beats per panel. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. Comics as music, music as comics.

https://djharrison.bandcamp.com/

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Live!

Sop up this soul with your breakfast bread. Happy Thursday.

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in NewsTagged Critique, Daily News, Illustration, Movies, Otis Redding, Profweston

Harrison

Posted on May 5, 2016May 5, 2016

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06/12/2017

Caleb OrecchioJune 12, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here with some thoughts on Brighter Than You Think: Ten Short Works by Alan Moore—plus some links ————————————————————————————————— Though Alan Moore has not really drawn a comic since the late 70’s, he is so obviously the auteur of the comics he writes that I am tempted to consider him a “cartoonist.” I mean, not really, but I think a more articulate, alternate-dimension version of myself could make a strong case for that designation. Regardless of the artist, Moore’s comics have an undeniable feel and pace, even when drawn by a sub-par cartoonist—AND is never out-shined by a particularly excellent cartoonist. The latest installment of Uncivilized Books’ “Critical Cartoons” series, Brighter Than You Think: Ten Short Works by Alan Moore with essays by Marc Sobel, has been my in-between-other-readings book for about a month now. I like not reading it all the way through at once because 1.) it is a collection of short stories over almost 20 years so it makes sense to pace myself, and 2.) Moore’s work is just too damn dense to swallow in one sitting. If you add Marc Sobel’s essays that follow each comic, you’re looking at a very annotated and involved effort that requires time for thinking and reflection with each story. Something I find very interesting about Moore is his awareness of the artist. He seems to know how to “use” an artist better than any writer I know of, which, to me, aids him in diversifying the types of stories he can tell. He uses them like a solo cartoonist might pick a color to evoke mood, or use a certain brush to evoke a certain era of comics’ past. Using an artist like Mark Beyer can help to abstract a story and give it a heightened sense of reality and playfulness, whereas using an artist like Stephen Bissette can help ground a story to real-life and make a comic more like a documentary. If you’re writing a story for Peter Bagge, the writing is funny and whimsical (Moore’s ability to write comedy is WAY under appreciated in my opinion); and you write strange stories of flight and fantasy for Rick Veitch. I always found his collaboration with Melinda Gebbie, “This Is Information” (a “reaction” comic to 9/11), to be very interesting. Moore wisely keeps character at arm’s length and is communicating in symbols and metaphors; and Gebbie’s art is key because she can draw cartoony caricatures, she can draw realistic rendering of hands clasping in desperation, or she can precisely and patiently draw a falling house of cards (harder than you think). The breadth and nuance of her skills matches the breadth and nuance of emotions Alan Moore implements in this story about a devastating and monumental event. There’s so much I could say about Moore, and there’s so much people have already said. If I were a better writer I could better explain the value of such a great contributor to comics clearer. The best I can really do is point you to the work, and right now I’m pointing you to Brighter Than You Think. Go grab a copy at Uncivilized Books’ website. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know There were several links I was hoping to share today, but came to find out Sally covered most of them here on Friday (I was involved with my sisters wedding all weekend so I’m a few days behind). Go back and check out Sally’s post if you haven’t already, featuring good stuff from Trina Robbins, Jillian Tamaki, Eleanor Davis, and more. Adam West, Batman star and icon to, I’m sure, more than a few comics fans, has died at age 88. Anita Gates has an obituary over at The New York Times. I thought Chris Mautner expressed the brilliance of Alan Moore’s Providence quite well in this article on The Smart Set. The way he briefly-yet-impressively articulates Jacen Burrows’ contribution to the work was overdue I think. The Panic Fables by Alejandro Jodorowski have finally been collected and translated to English. Get a copy from Copacetic Comics. The legendary Steve Ditko is still at it, and you can contribute to his latest Kickstarter (though the goal was met very rapidly with plenty of days still to go) to get a copy of the new Mr. A which marks the 50th anniversary of the character. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 6-12-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-12-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-12-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Printing Comics – by R. M. Rhodes

Comics WorkbookJuly 27, 2017EssaysA common topic of conversation among Those Who Remember is the age of the comics medium. Was Richard Occault’s Yellow Kid really the first comic? Or does that honor belong to Rodolphe Töpffer’s goofy satires? Or does it go back even further than that? And how does the Bayeux Tapestry fit into all of this? The answer to all of these questions is “marketing.” It was in the best interests of the New York newspapers to trumpet that the Yellow Kid was the first of its kind because they were fighting over who got to print it – it was that popular. It’s in the best interests of Francophone historians to promote a local Swiss artist who published in French back in the mid-1800s. And the Bayeux Tapestry is an outlier, lovingly handcrafted propaganda. Honestly, any question of what “was the first comic?” must, almost by default, ask the question “what is comics?” What are the elements that must be present for something to be considered “comics”? From there, the theory goes, it’s just a matter of going through the material until you find the earliest example of something that meets those criteria. The reality is much messier than the theory. I am currently working my way through a copy of The Early Cartoon Strip by David Kunzle, subtitled Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet from c.1450 through 1825. (Why I just discovered the existence of a book that was published the year I was born is a mystery for the ages.) Kunzle did a comprehensive deep dive of archives of European art and offered up a consistent definition of the comic strip: There must be a sequence of separate images There must be a preponderance of image over text The medium in which the strip appears and for which it is originally intended must be reproducible, that is, in printed form, a mass medium The sequence must tell a story which is both moral and topical Kunzle starts the introduction to his book with what has become a cliché, but wasn’t in 1973 – the discussion of how comic strips aren’t always funny, so it’s a misnomer. They shouldn’t be called comics, but they are. I believe that’s the underlying reasoning for the fourth criteria for what makes up comics (now and then). Because it really doesn’t make sense that the subject matter or kind of story being told has anything to do with whether something should or should not be considered a comic. You would not argue that a novel is not a novel because the story is a comedy, or vice versa – so why should a comic that had no moral or topic relevance be excluded? Kunzle gives a decent justification that provides a filter that could narrow his search – and thus, his results. But his premise was laughable in 1973 and is laughable today. “Whether it is considered morally harmful or morally useful, progressive or reactionary, the modern comic strip has undeniably strong moral content.” Strong disagreement. But limiting what gets labelled comics due to tone and/or intent ignores the versatility of the medium. Comics can – and should – be anything. One of the intriguing things about Kunzle’s criteria is what’s missing – the lack of proscriptive about what kind of art is used to make the image. This ties in with criteria three – reproducible in a mass medium. Essentially, Kunzle’s research indicates that comics have been around since the introduction of the printing press in Western Europe. And, in the beginning, printing technology was so crude that there really wasn’t room to be picky about what kind of art it was to begin with – it all had to be converted to woodblocks for print anyway. But even a cursory glance at the exhaustively cataloged marginalia by monastic manuscript copyists indicates that cartooning was a well-established skill in the centuries long before the introduction of the printing press. Some of these even look like the Bayeux Tapestry, if you squint. The point being that cartooning and making comics are two distinct, separate skillsets. It is entirely possible to be a cartoonist without ever making comics and it is equally possible to make comics without using cartoons. Which makes this pedant grit his teeth every time someone says that they’re looking forward to seeing “all the cartoonists at SPX,” for example. This begs the question of whether the person making the statement cares about all of the rest of the comics creators in attendance or only cares about cartoonists? I think the requirement of mass reproducibility is the most interesting and least intuitive. It suggests that a solitary page of sequential art that has no intention of ever being sent to print is not really comics. It also suggests the paradoxical concept of copies with no originals – something that seems less and less absurd to artists who have grown up making and sharing their art entirely on the internet with files that can be perfectly replicated with little or no effort. Back in the day, when Kunzle was doing his research, the idea of an entirely digital medium was barely conceived of at Xerox PARC, but was a long way from being evenly distributed. As far as I’m concerned, the mass reproducibility requirement answers the initial question regarding the Bayeux Tapestry – it was never intended to be mass reproduced and, indeed, there was no way for it to be mass reproduced at the time of its creation. In fact, reproducing the entire Tapestry in its current medium would be a major undertaking now. I know from experience that it’s relatively straightforward – if time-consuming – to transform the contents of the Bayeux Tapestry into an eight panel grid. (The whole thing takes up about nine pages.) But that’s not the Bayeux Tapestry, exactly, is it? It’s designed to be read as a continuous strip 70 meters in length. So any faithful reproduction of it ought to be, by rights, in the original format – even a 70-meter-long printout would be a mediated version of the original and lack authenticity. Set aside the question of who would buy it (answer: collectors like me, who enjoy tracking down obscure works) – the real question is “who would have the wall space to display it?” Even the museum at Bayeux has to display the tapestry on three adjacent walls. Kunzle traces the improvements in printing technology as they progress through the centuries in Europe. What’s interesting is how these advances provided greater range and detail for the artists, but that the early works are just as effective as their later counterparts. It’s also interesting to note how similar in process and effect the earliest proto-comics are to the works of Lynd Ward, for example, who produced wordless illustrated novels with one woodblock print per page. In that way, Ward has a more direct connection to the earliest works than contemporary comics creators do today. Kunzle documents how the public’s affection for caricature in the late 18th century drove the adoption of etching over line engraving as a primary means of reproducing art. Engraving was William Hogarth’s medium and his works did a lot to define what engraving and sequential art were capable of. In some ways, caricature, a very informal art style, is a reaction to the excessive formality of Hogarth. One was stodgy and moralistic, the other was quick and simple. Kunzle notes that the emergence of etching…invited the addition of light washes in watercolor. “Sixpence plain, one shilling colored” is a phrase not found upon prints before the advent of caricature. Which begs the question of how Dirk Jansz van Santen became such a prominent and sought-after colorist of engraved prints a century before Hogarth. A major difference is that van Santen did intricate piecework. He hand-illustrated entire atlases, but these were very limited editions. His work could not be mass produced the same way that the original engravings could be. His work became a value add, simply by the nature of the fact that he did them. One of the first superstar colorists, really. By the late 18th century things had changed. JMW Turner did work coloring etchings for the local print-seller when he was a boy. Caricature required less precision to make, print, and color. Every step of the art process was much more accessible to talented (noble) amateurs instead being solely the purview of the trained working class professional infrastructure that had to grow up around the precision required from etchings. In 1787, a younger son of a baronet named Henry Banbury created a seven foot long strip called The Long Minuet as Danced at Bath. Later that year, he produced The Propagation of a Lie, which was only six feet long. These two pieces set of a craze for strips – mostly of much shorter, easier to copy, length. The parallels with the Bayeux Tapestry are obvious, but the medium, subject matter, and technical circumstances were radically different. Töpffer arrived towards the end of this wave of innovation and worked in a caricature style. This was mostly due to his poor eyesight, which kept him from doing the kind of detail work that he might have wanted to do. Töpffer’s innovation was not the caption with the art, nor with the strip arrangement, nor even panel borders, nor even the far more satiric subject matter. Really, Töpffer’s innovation was that he made books – several pages of sequential narrative that were themselves in sequence and had to be read together to make sense of the whole thing. To that point, sequences were constrained to a single page, with multiple strips stacked on top of each other. Or, in the case of Hogarth, they were a series of single page prints, suitable for framing. Sometimes, as in his Before and After series, Hogarth would mount two images on the same page side by side. But if you only wanted one page from his Rake’s Progress, for example, he would sell it to you and be satisfied that you will get the moral message. The rest of the pages made a good complement, but they were not necessary as a set to get the whole story, as it were. Töpffer’s innovation literally changed the context in which sequential art could be presented. Before it was pretty much restricted to single pages, sometimes as a collected set. It was probably inevitable that one branch of printing would collide with another, but Töpffer seems to be the first one to make that connection in a commercially viable context. Ironically, without the encouragement of Goethe, Töpffer probably would not have self-published his works – and even when he did, they were in limited print runs of no more than 500. He was widely pirated in his lifetime and the knock-offs sold far more than the originals ever did. By 1895, when Richard Outcault’s Yellow Kid first appeared in the strip Hogan’s Alley in Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, and later William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal. Stylistically, The Yellow Kid was nothing new, but the technology had advanced to the point where the comic could be printed in color, which is what made The Yellow Kid distinctive, and thus, desirable. Indeed, the popularity of the character meant that he appeared in one, then the other, then both newspapers at once until 1898. Certain American comics historians date the advent of the modern comic strip to Outcault, and they’re not wrong, just chauvinistic. Again, the emergence of better printing technology is really what is being acknowledged, not necessarily the content or the artistic style. Like I said at the beginning, it’s all marketing. The fact that one can trace the advances in printing technology through the history of printed visual narrative is pretty impressive. Frank Santoro is clearly on to something with his ongoing interrogation of Risograph printers. Contemporary comics creators have a large variety of choices they can make with regard to their approach to mass reproduction. Unfortunately, many choose the default option, without realizing that default means there are other options. These days, I make 16 page, 8-panel grid comics, which is not unusual. But mine are digitally printed, which is a quantum leap from old-school industrialized print-making – but digital printing suits the complex nature of my digitally-rendered artwork the best. And I make limited-edition, numbered print runs of 25, which pushes the edges of the intention of mass reproduction. There is no burning commercial demand for what I do, which makes 25 copies optimistic at best. But the limited print run calls back to the days of limited edition print sellers. My point being that if one is going to make choices, it’s important to know what those choices signify and what benefits come with each one. Knowing the history helps with that process. Share this page: [...]

04/21/2016

HarrisonApril 21, 2016News Daily News returns for April 21, 2016. In the classifieds we’ll hear conversations about careers in comics, near the editorials we examine new formats in web comics, and near the back page ads we traverse the Aquazone. True + Real Talk Julian Lytle and Martheus Wade delve into the topics of fandom, career decisions, industry mire, Decepticons, and haters in this episode of Ignorant Bliss. The discussion about fandom and popularity is one that I hope gets explored by other artists in the future. Memories Check out this web comic from Australian artist Sutu about his grandfather. Wear some good headphones if you can, and make sure to keep scrolling downwards. Experiments with interactivity are areas that I hope other comic artists explore more in the future. Samir and Dunia al-Ahdath “Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum has recently added first year print-runs of two important Arab comics magazines: The Egyptian magazine Samir (founded in 1956) and the Lebanese magazine Dunia al-Ahdath(founded in 1954). Both collections reflect early articulations of mass print culture for children in Egypt and Lebanon and reveal intriguing intersections between popular culture, nationalism, mass education, and gender in a period of early postcolonial nation building.” – Caitlin McGurk. Here. Archives “ZINES OF THE ZONE is a traveling library dedicated to self-published photo books, photo zines, fanzines using photography (even as a document) – any DIY printed matter related to photography. Since January 2014, we traveling across Europe by van – in order to show our collection to people, organize pop-up events, collect new books and meet local publishers. More than a library, it is a traveling zine-exhibition.” Not comics (I know), but going along with the digital archives of zines from earlier in the week, these guys in Europe have an interesting collection practice going on. Look through the rest of their collection, and if your curious check out the submission guidelines. Detroit vs. Everybody Read up here, and enjoy your Thursday. Share this page: [...]

07/12/2017

Juan FernándezJuly 12, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con Jaime y Gilbert Hernandez; Amanda Mijangos y Armando Fonseca en La Polola;Klari Moreno; Cornet; Begoña García-Alén; E. Muñoz y CuCo 8; y los tebeos de Cómics Workbook! ————————————————————————————————— Punk, Latinidad, & Reviving Their Seminal ‘Love and Rockets’ Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez talk shop over on Remezcla: It’s like people were waiting for it. Latinos have been thirsty for that kind of representation. What I don’t understand is why, after 35 years, representation is still a problem. Do you have any ideas about why that is? Jaime: I think there’s a hell of a lot more Latino creators than I knew about back then. They’re doing it their way, some differently than I would. Which is cool. Everyone’s got their own view. I think the problem is still when money is involved. Whenever money is involved there’s going to be stereotypes. Everything is going to be done to please whitey. Money is going to steer you toward the money – and who is the 1%? You find out that the people in control of the TV studio or the movie studio or whoever is paying the check for this art – they don’t care. They don’t care about other cultures. When they find out that, “Oh well golly! Lots of Latin people spend money on our product” they don’t know what to do! The bottom line is when money is involved someone is going to get shorted. You’ve said, “The more ethnic I am, the more attention I get.” Why do you think that is and why does it work? Gilbert: I think I become more truthful when I get closer to who I am and where I’m from. I can tell a more truthful story and even a funnier and darker story because I’m just reflecting who I am. There’s a small element though, I hate to say, is it’s safe for non-Latino readers. It’s on paper. The characters are drawings. They’re not a threat. When it becomes a pop singer or actress or actor, they’re in your face. That’s a real person there. I think are a little tougher to take for some people. ————————————————————————————————— Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Jueves 3 de Agosto – Evento para recaudar fondos para el 2do Encuentro de Fanzineras. Santiago de Chile/Metro Irarrázabal. Organizado por @Comiqueraschile . Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con Amanda Mijangos y Armando Fonseca, dos talentosos ilustradores Mexicanos. Hablan acerca de su trabajo, la importancia de buscar una mirada propia en la ilustración, la experimentación, la relación con los editores, sus proyectos personales y el proyecto que los trae a Chile, la obra de teatro “Risas de Papel” que estará en cartelera en Teatro Ictus, donde ellos hacen ilustración en vivo que dialoga con el actor. Un toquecito de historia: Cornet, Dibujante Catalan del siglo XX, fue uno de los artistas más populares que se formó en ‘¡Cu-Cut!’ – Humoristan.org les ofrece un vistazo a su vida en imagenes! Véte de cañas con Klari Moreno en Madrid con su entrevista en Segundo Premio. Moreno: «Defiendo la autoedición como acto político» Hay nuevo número de el espectador de Begoña García-Alén. El mejor de la serie, sin duda! E. Muñoz les ofrece un tronco de ensayo en CuCo 8:“El cómic como lenguaje visual híbrido y su vigencia en la era digital contemporánea”. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-11-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-11-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Charles Forsman at Comix Experience

Chris Anthony DiazJanuary 31, 2018The Diaz ArchiveCharles Forsman toured for I Am Not Okay with This as well as for the hardcover release of The End of the Fucking World (which also premiered recently on Netflix as an 8-episode live action series), both published by Fantagraphics Books. Bay area stop was at Comix Experience in San Francisco, Wednesday, December 6, 2017. (Click images for different external links related to Charles Forsman.) Share this page: [...]

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