Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in News

Harrison

Posted on June 16, 2016July 21, 2016

Explore

11/14/2016

Juan FernándezNovember 14, 2016NewsJuan here with the good stuff: Juan Fernandez on CAB 2016; Heidi Macdonald’s CAB recap; Ben Jones interviewed; Angela Stempel at the NY Comics and Picture-Story Symposium; Four takes on Noah Van Sciver’s Blammo #9; Eleri Mai Harris on the American election; CBLDF on Rayma Suprani. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️I went to CAB with Jenn Lisa last Saturday. I had a ball and I wrote about my time here on the site. Seeing everyone come together in a gymnasium like that lit a flame that very few things are going to be able to stamp out in the coming months. I’m ready to face the coming winter. Gabe Fowler’s got the market place down to a science. So, naturally, I’m interested to see the ways in which CAB continues to evolve. Will it stabilize into being an amped up zine fest and wild style art book fair that focuses exclusively on the marketplace? Will someone step in to lend a hand to the team to develop some track of programming during the weekend or the week before? To return to it’s BCGF format. Does that matter? Who’s ready to step up to the plate? On the floor I heard some people discuss this being the last CAB. And damn, that’s a little pessimistic. For what it’s worth, CAB can’t be beat for a lot of reasons. Easy access via transportation. Trains, plains, buses, cars all make their way easily to NYC. For the most part either you know someone in the City or there’s an affordable place to stay for a night or two. The crowds are great. People are squeezing CAB into their busy Saturday. It’s just one of many things they’re doing so they bring an incredible energy into the space. Most people likely just heard that there was something cool with comics going on in that one church in Brooklyn. That’s a good place to be. Gabe’s curation can’t be beat. You wan’t to find the coolest books published in a year? You can’t do any better in the US than coming to CAB. Oh and people come ready to spend money. Real money. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️Heid MacDonald shared her CAB Coverage over on Publisher’s Weekly. Her big take away was similar to mine: Though scaled down in Size, robust sales. Because the show was planned a bit later than usual, there were fewer debut books. Indie mainstays Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly were represented by artists like Drew Friedman and Adrian Tomine, but did not have booths. Nevertheless the books that did make it sold out quickly, including several very limited editions from even smaller publishers, such as the third volume of Connor Willumsen’s Treasure Island, an experimental comic from Breakdown Press; and Charles Burns’ Free Shit from French art publisher Le Dernier Cri. Although the event served to spotlight the number of talented cartoonists who still call New York home, many of the same artists cited the difficulty of maintaining a small press comics scene amid the rising costs and rents of New York City. “It’s harder to have a scene when everyone is broke and stressed out about money,” Skelly observed. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️ Ben Jones did a killer interview over on HyperAllergic with Nicole Rudick focusing on his recent exhibition at The Hole NYC. Very inspiring, very enlightening. It cuts across all artistic disciplines and argues for drawing as a fundamental practice in the 21st century. My words, not his 😉 Nicole Rudick: Are these paintings of new comics? Ben Jones: I want to give you the two narratives. There’s the concept of the show, which is hopefully how the audience perceives it and how I approached it creatively — to make a zine first and then to have a meta-art show where I’ve hung the “originals” from the zine. Typically, you’d show the originals in this way at a comic-con or a coffee shop or something like that. I intentionally wanted to present the show in that conceptual context, as a novelty. I took that to the furthest extent by adding the fake red dot you’d see at a coffee-shop art show, to indicate that the work had been bought. As a painter, I’m constantly chasing that magical, ethereal line or stroke or gesture that is half muscle memory or trance action. You get a lot of that with handwriting and with quick sketching. I’ve fabricated ladders and furniture and video installations that take months of concepting the installation and executing the animation. This is something entirely different — it’s a one-to-one connection with an idea or a drawing or a mark. There’s a narrative to a lot of these pieces and a linear way to think about them, but then we also get to think about comics and about the formal aspects of comics, because comics aren’t just linear storytelling and gags. There is a nuanced, visual-language fuckery that I think is important. Think of Saul Steinberg changing the way people draw in the 1950s or Robert Crumb in the sixties — there are one or two people who have really changed the way we think and draw and understand line drawing. So this is also me firing a shot across the bow. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️ Have you seen Bill Kartalopoulos’s Instagram? He’s posting a lot of protest art from the last 50 yrs or so. Find something that moves you and research it. There’s extremely fertile ground in these images. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️Eleri Mai Harris is coming back to America. Thank god. In this political climate, comics stateside need her more than ever. She’s got a new comic on identity, politics and patriotism over on the NIB. Don’t sleep on this Australian-American journalist and cartoonist. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️ CBLDF on Rayma Suprani, Venezuelan Cartoonist’s Political Exile Rayma Suprani has long been one of the best-known and most fearless political cartoonists in Venezuela, but for almost a year she and her work have only been “in” the country virtually, through social media. After El Universal, the newspaper where she had worked for more than 20 years, was bought by anonymous supporters of President Nicolas Maduro in 2014, Suprani was fired in short order and eventually forced to flee to Miami where “I can be more useful because my creativity can flow without worrying.” Suprani had often skewered Maduro’s now-deceased predecessor Hugo Chavez and stood up to the oppression of his populist movement known as Chavismo, but journalist Cesar Miguel Rondon tells PRI’s The World that Maduro’s government is even worse: They behaved like punks on a street corner. You don’t have the rule of law here. Every single day it’s more openly the exercise of a dictatorship instead of a democracy. So, ‘we don’t like Rayma. Rayma, you should go.’ It’s as simple as that. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️Angela Stempel on Picturing Worlds: abstraction, rhythm and “reality” in animated spaces. This Tuesday at the NY Comics and Picture-Story Symposium! In this presentation, Angela Stempel will present her works of experimental animation that explore abstract shapes, the dissolution of the physical form and of photographic certainty in narrative and non-narrative pieces. She will discuss her influences, contemporary work and how she deals with the representation of time and energy. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️ Four Shots get fired at BLAMMO #9: Alex Mansfield, Daniel Elkin, Justin Giampaoli, Keith Silva blast through Noah Van Sciver’s latest release. Enter the dude zone, haha. It’s good to see a single issue of comics get unpacked to this degree. More of this, please! For the past decade, cartoonist Noah Van Sciver has been publishing his one-man anthology series, BLAMMO. Kilgore Books has recently released the latest in the series and we here at Comics Bulletin were so impressed with it that we knew we had to devote some time and energy into unpacking our reactions. Each of the following writers were tasked with choosing a single page or panel from Blammo #9 and use it as a platform for talking about the book as a whole. None of the writers read what the other was working on during this process (Ed. Note: Except for Elkin — he sees everything). As testament to the thematic unity of Blammo #9, the writers all ended up talking about the same ideas of spirituality, artistic integrity, and the human desire to connect. ————————————————————————————————— In case you missed it, our indefatigable Sally Ingraham started an eBay store to help out the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency and also her own comics-making projects. Check it out HERE! ————————————————————————————————— until next time! Juan Share this page: [...]

07/14/2017

Sally IngrahamJuly 14, 2017NewsSally here today with Rachel Masilamani, Joyce Farmer, Eleanor Davis, Zoe Taylor, Katie Fricas, and much more news and comics! ————————————————————————————————————— Rachel Masilamani offers a new comic on the LA Review of Books, one of a series of 20 ” “literary addresses” commissioned by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and the Association for Asian American Studies, as part of the Center’s 20th anniversary celebration and its July 2017 Smithsonian Asian American Literature Festival.” It’s pretty gut-wrenching, swiftly bringing into focus the realities of an interracial family in a post-Trump world. Read the rest of the story HERE. ————————————————————————————————————— The incredible Joyce Farmer joined the Virtual Memories show recently and talked about her experiences as an underground comics legend – “The ’60s were a time of explosive interaction and learning of radical ideas. The thing was, I thought they were sensible, not radical.” She’s been involved in comics since 1972, and was instrumental in game-changing works like Abortion Eve, and Tits and Clits Comix. Always controversial but uncompromising, Joyce talks about her adventuresome life and her latest comic, Special Exits – listen HERE. ————————————————————————————————————— Eleanor Davis has been working with the Bronx Freedom Fund (which pays bail for folks who can’t afford it) and StoryCorps, adapting interviews with some of the BFF’s clients into comics. You can see the rest of the story above and two other stories she did HERE. ————————————————————————————————————— Philippe Leblanc reviews Zoe Taylor‘s Joyride on The Comics Beat – “I loved how this comic made me work to untangle its mystery, how I had to read it multiple times to make sense of its ambiguity, its ending and its meaning. It’s like watching a David Lynch film and piecing it’s meanings only to have it crystallized on a second viewing. It’s about escaping, multiple types of escapes, whether from the personal, the social or the emotional. Our protagonist flees from herself, flees the constricting social norms of a party, flees friendship. It’s about finding something through that escape, revenge, love, or a purpose. There’s also an exploration of how time flows in a moving vehicle and how this can be displayed in comic format. There’s a lot to unpack in this comic. This comic looks gorgeous. Taylor’s art is minimalist, using only a handful of lines are enough to depict a woman, or a car and yet, it’s all you need. It’s enough details to give you all the details you need, a woman’s slight look of disdain, the party guests look of confusion, the tears of a woman after an accident. The paper stock also contributes to this minimalist style. It’s a very lightweight paper, not quite newsprint, but not much heavier either. It gives the whole book a feeling of lightness.“ Read the rest of the review HERE. ————————————————————————————————————— Katie Fricas reports via comics on Rei Kawakubo’s new show for Comme des Garçons – “possibly the punkest show ever put on by the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute.” Check it out on Hyperallergic – HERE. ————————————————————————————————————— Also On the Spider Web Alex Hoffman of Sequential State has been speaking to Laila Milevski this week about Enter, Holy Pilgrim, her comic with Ley Lines, and other work – more HERE. Francoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman are on Episode 222 of the RiLY podcast, talking about Resist!, the importance of print, and forging your own kind of patriotism – listen HERE. Vanessa Davis has a new comic on Topic, titled Customer Service – read it HERE. Keiler Roberts talks Sunburning with Smash Pages – HERE. Tom Spurgeon via The Comics Reporter keeps turning me on to new comics makers – just yesterday, Margreet de Heer, and Nicky Minus. ————————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-14-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-14-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Juan Fernandez @ CAB 2016

Juan FernándezNovember 14, 2016Festivals and ShowsComic. Arts. Brooklyn. 2016: Comics, zines, prints. A shmorgasbord of color. A dazzling display of print. The 2016 Comic Arts Brooklyn (CAB) presented by Brooklyn’s Desert Island Comics was held on Saturday, November 5th. Organized by Desert Island proprietor Gabe Fowler, this marks the fourth year that the show has been called CAB and the eighth year of the show, which was originally called The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. Gabe has turned the fest into a well-oiled machine and this year featured satellite events the day before and the day after the Saturday exhibitors showcase at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church. Friday saw Altcomics 8, a night of music, live comics readings, and art hosted by 2dcloud, along with the opening of Buzz Saw, an exhibition of art from the Sequential Artists Workshop. Sunday saw Color Giants, the Brooklyn Animation Expo, which was held in conjunction with Art Brooklyn Fireproof. Screenings were programmed by Kenneth Filmer. There were no panels or artist spotlights this year. A bummer in some ways, but given the last minute green lighting of this year’s CAB, it makes sense to not have wanted to rush programming only to wind up with subpar panels. I exhibited as Comics Workbook and tabled next to the great Julia Gfrörer and Sean T. Collins, alongside Patrick Kyle(and Lala Albert who set up shop at Patrick’s table towards the end of the day). The Comics Workbook table consisted of myself, Jenn Lisa, Ronald Wimberly and Simon Reinhardt. I thought it was a wonderful show. Rumors had been going around earlier this year that it wasn’t going to happen. Well, IT HAPPENED! A huge thank you to Mr. Fowler for the last minute opportunity to exhibit at this year’s CAB. Comics Workbook got word late in the week that there was a need for another exhibitor. Of course, we agreed to go. You don’t miss CAB. We hunkered down prepared a wide array of comics to bring to the good folks of New York. Unfortunately Frank’s car had been giving him trouble all week and was in the shop. We planned everything carefully. I would leave with Jenn Lisa and haul what I could. He would get it out of the garage Saturday morning and he would book it to make it in the afternooon Saturday to catch the second half of the buzzing show. Unlike Frank though, I can’t haul short box after short box of comics in my VW Bug… We had to decide what would go first and then did some intense tetris outside the Rowhouse Residency to fit in as much as we could. We slammed the trunk and hauled ass to NYC! Frank would bring the rest in the morning. Jenn Lisa and I hit the road, spirits high. We arrived early Saturday morning, got some shut eye and then booked it for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in the morning. I was worried about parking, so Jenn and I took off to set up as early as we could. Frank’s taught me how critical these kind of considerations are for making these exhausting days fall into place. We lucked out out and found a spot right in front of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Unloading and setting up was a breeze. We were tabling next to Patrick Kyle, Lala Albert, Julia Gfrörer and Sean T. Collins. Good folks. I told Jenn to get ready, because CAB’s prime time is 11-1:30. A choc-a-bloc that builds to a fever pitch. Everyone’s oogling and oggling round that time. Most attendees hope to make a full tour of the show before breaking out their wallets, but within that first hour I heard that attendees just couldn’t wait on buying so-an-so’s latest book or zine. They knew that things were going to fast. We sold a Truth Zone within the first 20 minutes of the show. That set the tone for the show. It was wonderful to meet so many people. Lots of people were familiar with what we’d been doing over the past year in Pittsburgh with the house and with the residencies. It emboldens the spirit to know that what we’re doing is rippling out. A HUGE shout out to all former students that came by and traded your books with us! You know who you are <3 Jenn and I brought a lot of our own books and were excited to share them with New Yorkers. I sold out of my zine I Can See the Birds, which was awesome. What else sold well? Connor. Willumsen. This is his show! Everyone was asking for his stuff. We sold out of all the copies of Swinespritzen that we brought which was a real thrill. That Connor… The great Ronald Wimberly stepped up to the plate at 2PM to do a signing and the fans start piling up. He brought the goods. While his fans waited, to chat with the shinobi himself, they dug through our shortboxes. We riffed on the primo comics Frank had curated. It was a good time. They found some 80s gold. No one curates a small selection of comics like Frank… Ron had brought the Artist edition of Prince of Cats, the Attack on Titan anthology he was in and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Ron is one of the most exciting comics makers I can think of right now. His blade cuts across a thousand forms. He gives his fans, new and old, the attention they deserve while he signs. It was a real honor to work by his side on Saturday! Image did right by this edition of Prince of Cats. It’s glorious. Lots of people asked for Frank. In the end his mechanics in Pittsburgh let him down. This CAB was lacking in it’s requisite levels of Santoro. Alas! For all of those who left messages, rest assured, we passed along all the memos to Frank. There were so many amazing books of all shapes and sizes. Here are some of my favorites: Lale Westvind’s Breakdown Press book, Hax Anya Davidson’s Gloom Planet Alabaster Pizzo’s Mimi and the Wolves Act 3: The Howl Conor Stechschulte’s new self published print masterpiece, Christmas In Prison. Richard Short’s Klaus Magazine 2 On a personal level, I was especially startled by how many people were familiar with my own zines and comics. Comics Workbook has been sharing some of them through our social media network over the past year, but I never expected people to be hep to my work just yet! The reach that the blog and the social media network has is really inspiring. There’s still some viral mystery to it all… CAB is such a whirlwind of a show. It’s definitely the New York City atmosphere. It all just goes by so fast. It was busy. Sales were solid. There are so many comics festivals these days (curated and non-curated) that I know for a fact that I can’t handle more than regional shows around Pittsburgh and the heavy hitters around the East Coast. It’s a delight to end the season with CAB, you leave inspired with work that invites you to pore over it all winter long. I firmly believe that the most interesting, and arguably pioneering comics makers are all in a room at CAB(some come every other year). Wish that I could have gone around and interviewed people about their work! That’ll be for next year. I wound up holding down the fort at the Comics Workbook table. The comics weren’t going to sell themselves 😉 Towards the end of the show Simon M. Reinhardt arrived to hold it down and I was able to make the rounds. Thanks Simon! Here are some photos of only a few of the many amazing people I bumped into. Gabe’s got the market place down to a science. So, naturally, I’m interested to see the ways in which CAB continues to evolve. Will it stabilize into being an amped up zine fest and wild style art book fair that focuses exclusively on the marketplace? Will someone step in to lend a hand to the team to develop some track of programming during the weekend or the week before? To return to it’s BCGF format. Does that matter? Who’s ready to step up to the plate? On the floor I heard some people discuss this being the last CAB. And damn, that’s a little pessimistic. For what it’s worth, CAB can’t be beat for a lot of reasons. Easy access via transportation. Trains, plains, buses, cars all make their way easily to NYC. For the most part either you know someone in the City or there’s an affordable place to stay for a night or two. The crowds are great. People are squeezing CAB into their busy Saturday. It’s just one of many things they’re doing so they bring an incredible energy into the space. Most people likely just heard that there was something cool with comics going on in that one church in Brooklyn. That’s a good place to be. Gabe’s curation can’t be beat. You wan’t to find the coolest books published in a year? You can’t do any better in the US than coming to CAB. Oh and people come ready to spend money. Real money. I think it’s been year of a lot of change for comics shows. A new regime of shows is definitely falling into place. CAB showed that it is definitely a part of that new regime. As a show, it does what so few comics can do. It’s got the verve of Montreal’s legendary Expozine. When it comes to art comics and accessible art from the outer limits – It can’t be beat. Mr. Fowler’s extensive knowledge of “what’s happening” in comics comes directly out of his experience as a retailer and it’s clear he curates the show like he curates his store. Desert Island is a great store which serves its community. In my eyes, it’s a must stop for an any all comics pilgrims that travel along the East Coast. I urge everyone to go to CAB next year. It’s a different show than TCAF and a very different show then SPX and CXC. Whether you are a maker or a reader, it’s good to go to them all if you can. It bears repeating – to soak up all these shows and to be at the epicenter of new work and current conversations – YOU DON’T NEED TO BE EXHIBITING. Just pack your bags, grab a bunch of your zines and hop on a bus. While you’re there, give away some books, maybe trade some, take some photos and notes! You’ll come home with lots of ideas and inspiration. There’ll be a lot of new encounters with other makers known and unknown. These shows are where it all happens. You get to meet the authors who are making some of the most amazing work in the world at the moment. Worth it’s weight in gold. -can’t wait for next year, Juan Share this page: [...]

08/04/2016

HarrisonAugust 4, 2016NewsHello, this is Harrison. Here is the comics and arts news of August 4, 2016. ————————————————————————————————— http://profweston.tumblr.com/post/148417347211/trying-some-comics-outttt Cameron Nicholson Recent comic experiments by this Richmond, VA, cartoonist. More here. ————————————————————————————————— Lettering your own work is fun as hell. Starting to get a hang of it. #comic #comics #wip #studio #photoshop #lettering #comiclettering #hardwork #blackartist #onemanband A photo posted by Skuds McKinley (@skudsink) on Aug 3, 2016 at 2:41pm PDT Skuds McKinley “Draw everyday. 4 to 6 hours every day. No excuses! If you want to be a comic book artist you have to do this, you have to be fast and be cognizant of deadlines. Draw things that you really enjoy. If you love manga or Spider-Man, draw that stuff!! Don’t just draw things that are popular, it’ll come off as fake. Push yourself to the limit to be a good artist. Learn perspective drawing, learn anatomy, learn how to draw vehicles. Draw everything! This will put you ahead of the guys that draw the same crap over and over again. Try not to spend so much time worrying about a style or comparing yourself to others, you’ll just be shooting yourself in the foot. Just focus on being a good artist who can draw anything thrown at them. Over time your style will start to show itself.” – Derek Skuds Mckinley Jones Follow @skudsink for daily drawing updates. A couple of Skuds’ books are for sale on the school auction – see below. ————————————————————————————————— ? ? ? “When Manchester-based photographer Mishka Henner first stumbled upon these seemingly abstract images on Google Earth, he had no idea what he was seeing; with research, the artist realized that these tentacle-like scars on the earth were created by the meat industry. The harrowing satellite-sourced images that constitute The Feedlots convey the sheer scale of intensive farming in America, where the need to maximize profit all too often takes precedence over concerns for sustainability and animal welfare.” – Elizabeth Sulis Gear for Feature Shoot Here. ————————————————————————————————— “Can I touch yours?” “As a mixed-race child growing up in a predominately white suburb, my features were an anomaly to the unexposed eye.” Whit Taylor in the Nib. ————————————————————————————————— McGurk At Work “After gaining experience at Marvel Comics and the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, McGurk moved to Columbus to work as a visiting curator at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, which houses the world’s largest cartoon and comics collection. In just over four years, she has moved up to associate curator for outreach, organizing exhibits and public programs. She is also an assistant professor.” – Erica Thompson for Columbus Alive More Here. ————————————————————————————————— Sad Sack Share this page: [...]

Comics Workbook at SPX 2016

Sally IngrahamSeptember 25, 2016Festivals and ShowsRough and ready documentation while we work on making some polished videos! Share this page: [...]

06/16/2016

Posted on June 16, 2016July 21, 2016 by Harrison

Harrison is here and the news follows. Today we venture beyond comics, get faster at drawing, and finish with fire.

“Please, no more boring comics podcasts”

Man can’t live off comics alone.

https://longform.org/

nikolehannahjones.com

“Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City”

Secrets

http://www.infiniteguest.org/secret-skin/

@Mike_Eagle

Quickness

“Recently I did an interview over at comicsverse.com that was conducted by Jake Grubman. In it, I talk a lot about how I’m trying to be “ruthlessly efficient” in my cartooning, ever since I finished Basewood. “Draw Comics Faster” has been sort of like my second motto (next to “Draw Comics EVERY Day”) based on the great drawing shown above that Nate Beaty sent me when I was still slogging through Basewood. As my time constraints constrict around me (new dad!) it is important that I make the most out of every available minute of drawing time.”

Here.

Pop

“What does Gutter Pop refer to? That was a weird little journey. I was planning on doing a music zine called Gutter Pop, just sort of referring to my friends in the DIY scene that make kind of poppy music but it’s all underground, so I thought Gutter Pop was a fun play. And then I needed a name for the store and I thought it would be fun, because [in a comic book] in between the panels is called a gutter, and then the pop is like the pop of pop art.”

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in News

Harrison

Posted on June 16, 2016July 21, 2016

Explore

10/21/2016

Sally IngrahamOctober 21, 2016NewsSally here this fine Friday with exciting news from Meg Lemke, comics from Shannon Wright, Lauren R. Weinstein, and Leela Corman, a unique Con this weekend in Detroit, Sacha Mardou’s report on CXC, and a few other tidbits. ————————————————————————————————— Here on the site Sacha Mardou shares her recent adventures at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. “CXC happened last weekend in Columbus, OH, and I got to represent Team Comics Workbook and also myself as a special guest (this has never happened to me before – count me overexcited and also terrified!) I get in on Thursday night and head to the President’s Reception feeling very wallflowerish as I know literally no one except through Facebook and Instagram. First off I meet Tom Spurgeon (finally!), Jeff Bone and his lovely wife Vijaya, Caitlyn McGurk, and Robin the Inkstud. I nervously nurse my wine and then I am rescued by Sergio Aragonés, who sits next to me with a plate of meatballs and a beer. I’m a vegan but I don’t even care about the meatballs! It’s Sergio Aragonés and I proceed to fannishly monopolize him for the next hour. Sergio! I’ve loved his comics in Mad Magazine since I was eight years old.“ More on what she did and saw at this terrific event HERE. ————————————————————————————————— PEN America announced this week that Meg Lemke is the newest guest editor of the Illustrated PEN series. This series “aspires to be at the intersection of literature, journalism, and visual storytelling, where images and words come together in an ever-emerging and essential creative form.” Meg Lemke has 15 years of experience with comics in a number of roles, and is currently the editor-in-chief of MUTHA Magazine – so she has a lot to bring to the series, not least – “…exemplars of the form that showcase the power of comics to tell stories in surprising ways. We talk often about literature letting us ‘see’ a new perspective. Comics can do that quite literally, and when it’s done well, there is a magical interaction between the visuals and text that stimulates a different part of our thinking. In our lives lived online, as readers we are inundated with imagery on the Internet, much of it advertising in margins (or popping up mid-screen). But comics can skillfully interrupt this oversaturation, as it necessitates we slow down and take in visual narrative, for example to parse a plot carried in background scenic details. Reading comics has been compared to reading poetry—they both invite play between the reader and the text on the page (be it broken into stanzas or word balloons).” – Meg Lemke Read the rest of the piece HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Meg Lemke’s first official post for the Illustrated PEN series is about Leela Corman‘s piece PTSD: The Wound That Never Heals, which is an excerpt from We All Wish For Deadly Force (Retrofit, 2016). Read Meg’s thoughts and the piece by Leela HERE. ————————————————————————————————— And if you haven’t checked out the comics on MUTHA Magazine in awhile, here’s your reminder – there are a bunch of new ones by Lisa Brown, Tyler Cohen, and Amy Kurzweil among others! ————————————————————————————————— Today’s comic is pretty personal; not only have I chosen to reveal how much I weigh, but I’m showing a tad of family judgment (which I know EVERYONE has). I started my diet today, it’s a complete 180 of how I’ve been eating all my life and I’m kinda excited about it. So when my grandma asked how I had been, I debated on sharing my health journey because of this very reason. Family can be the worst when it comes to body image. Also, I’m not necessarily doing this diet to lose weight, but to feel better. My sleep pattern has been off, my skin has been getting worse, and I just feel sluggish. I wish people would realize everyone is built differently and weight gets distributed differently. #inktober A photo posted by Shannon Wright (@shannondrewthis) on Oct 18, 2016 at 9:55am PDT Shannon Wright has been posting a comic almost every day this month – follow her Instagram account to keep up. ————————————————————————————————— Lauren R. Weinstein has a new piece in The Village Voice – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— ComiqueCon is this Saturday, October 22nd 2016, in Dearborn at the Arab American National Museum. “ComiqueCon is a one-day celebration of the contributions of women to the sequential arts. Launched in 2015 in Metro Detroit, the event brings together comics all-stars and their fans for a wicked awesome day of comics and cosplay! … In an industry that consistently under-solicits women, we’re spotlighting the work of women in comics and encouraging representation and inclusiveness.” This year’s special guests include Mariko Tamaki, Ashley Woods, and Carolyn Nowak among others. The con founder, Chelsea Liddy, and Kathleen Hiraga, founder and CEO of Pop-Post, were interviewed by Michigan Radio for the Stateside show. ‘ “It’s a really special atmosphere that just happens naturally when you have a bunch of supportive women working for the same industry in a room,” said Liddy, on the differences between ComiqueCon and some of the larger comic cons. She also noted that it’s a safe place for female comic creators to talk about their craft, which hasn’t always been the case. … “It’s about that community becoming a voice and together expanding into a force,” said Hiraga. ‘ Listen to the rest of the interview HERE. Next year I think the Comics Workbook Roller Derby League needs to check this con out! ————————————————————————————————— Frank’s report on The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is up on the site – HERE. Check out this video from his Instagram feed last weekend of Aidan Koch leading a workshop: Aidan Koch discussing her collaborative workshop project from LICAF UK 2016 #comicsworkbook @aidanalexiskoch #licaf A video posted by @santoro.frank on Oct 15, 2016 at 2:11pm PDT ————————————————————————————————— Today is the last day to get in on the special Michael DeForge auction hosted by Copacetic Comics – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— It’s Connor Willumsen’s birthday today! Check out his work and help him celebrate. 🙂 ————————————————————————————————— I share Sacha’s excitement about Cartoon Crossroads Columbus – and the Comics Workbook team will be presenting more thoughts, videos, and the official report from Whit Taylor soon. Stay tuned! Cheers – Sally Share this page: [...]

03/18/2016

Sally IngrahamMarch 18, 2016NewsIt was a week for brilliant interviews, with Annie Mok talking to Michael DeForge, and the Inkstuds radio show with Gilbert Hernandez. Exciting new books came out this week, and we came across an important list of female Brazilian cartoonists that you’re going to want to investigate. Here we go! ————————————————————————————————— Let’s dive right into the interview with Michael, which came to us via The Comics Journal. Annie Mok and Michael DeForge begin by talking a bit about his new book, Big Kids, which came out February 23rd 2016 from Drawn + Quarterly. “DEFORGE: I’d sort of been circling adolescence for awhile in my stories, and I guess this is the one where I’m writing about it most directly, and the allegory is like very clear… It’s a time when people are most aware of the edges of the world. Not maybe able to see them yet, but aware they’re there. For me, things stop seeming limitless—which is maybe not how—I know you’re supposed to feel invincible and boundless as a teenager, but for me, that’s when I was aware of limits everywhere. But not really sure what all of them looked like, or the shape of all of it, or how to best escape them. That to me was what Big Kids was about, seeing a little bit more of the edges of things. And sometimes what seems like a radical shift in perception ends up not being very in the end.” From there, Annie leads the conversation to touch on memory, the artistic community a cartoonist builds for themselves or stumble into, and the cliché (but necessity) of comics as therapy. They also mention the musical puppet show that Michael is working on slowly but surely, and Annie’s reaction perfectly sums up my feelings about that – “Oh my god! Aaah, so happy!” Read the whole spectacular interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Oliver East just published a new book – Take Me Back to Manchester. It’s the story of an epic walk that took place in 1872, when an elephant and his trainer trekked the 220 miles between Edinburgh and Manchester. Why? You’ll have to check out the comic. As much as it sounds delightful, the story of how it came about is equally lovely. Oliver East is the “walking cartoonist”. Before creating Take Me Back to Manchester, he followed the route of his heroes on foot across Scotland and England, walking over 20 miles a day for 10 days. In this short documentary (below) made by Simon Sylvester and Dom Bush, Oliver walks through some wonderful parts of the world, and talks about his struggles with dyslexia, how he didn’t even start drawing until he was 26, and what it was like to compose a comic in motion with the ghost of an elephant at his side. Check it out. ————————————————————————————————— The new mini kuš! #38-41 are out, which means spring is pretty much here. “The creators of the newest minis are Ingrīda Pičukāne, Tara Booth, Hanneriina Moisseinen and Aisha Franz. The comics vary from an incredibly sad war story to a super fun and wild adventure of a young woman, a broad range of stories both fictional and non-fiction and drawn in different styles both digital and hand-drawn! A great bunch of comics for new discoveries!” More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The latest Inkstuds interview is particularly riveting. How could it be otherwise, with the likes of Gilbert Hernandez behind the microphone?! You’re not going to want to miss this. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/249959700″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] Robin McConnell always does his research, which makes for detailed conversations that really illuminate the life and work of the people he interviews. Gilbert Hernandez can tell a story out loud just as well as he can on paper, and between the stories are loads of interesting tidbits and comments on the comics scene he helped craft from the bottom up. Great stuff. (I especially liked when he compared superheroes to screwdrivers…!) Set aside some time to listen to the whole thing, because this guy is one of the reasons we’re all making comics today. ————————————————————————————————— I have a special guest today, here with a brief bit of Brazilian comics news for you. Anna Mancini (pictured above in her studio) recently shared with me a list of some of her favorite Brazilian cartoonists – folks like Julia Balthazar and Amanda Paschoal (see pic below) – and soon she will be providing a detailed scene report for Comics Workbook. For the moment though, she’s got something else to share. Anna here, reporting: “Aline Lemos has put together a collaborative list of *all* Brazilian women comics artists – from young students to established pros. Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out – https://goo.gl/AYyde5 Aline Lemos created it aiming to bring more visibility to female cartoonists in our country, since there’s a widespread dismissal of our presence and relevance to the scene. As I have noticed from following American blogs and artists, this situation is not exclusive to our experience in Brazil – I have that recent piece by Kim O’Connor in mind, having the situations she described ring a little too familiar with the attitude of many Brazilian male cartoonists.” Thanks Anna! Check out the list she mentions, and discover the legion of women in comics in Brazil! ————————————————————————————————— That’s my Friday news for you. Have a terrific weekend and meet us back here on Monday for the latest and greatest in comics news! – Sally Share this page: [...]

Frank’s Soapbox plus Philly Scene Report

Frank SantoroOctober 9, 2011Riff Raff / Scene ReportsOhhh, I gotta preach up in here! I can’t take it anymore, Lord, help me find the strength to control myself! They make me so angry – I wanna get all Old Testament on them. Fire. Brimstone. Who? You! Every week you come here and read this column – but what do you do? You just take, take, take. What’s happening in your comics scene? Do you have a comics scene? Well, why not? Is the Wednesday comics scene all you’ve got? Then you gotta do more. I live out in the middle of nowhere and I bend over backwards to bring you CONTENT week after week. And you just link to me on your blog or tumblr. Tweet about this post. Oh, wow, thanks, champ. You do so much. Where would we be without you? Go write a review of some corporate comic book brand like it matters. I love all comics. But I want a divorce. No more superhero comics. Ever. As historical documents – fine. Kirby? Yes, all day. But don’t talk to me about what DC or Marvel is doing today. I don’t give a shit. Playtime is over. Crisis on Infinite Fanzines Blogs. So, within the hallowed walls of this venerable institution – The Comics Journal – I am devoting more space towards local scene reports. Up with local comics scenes. Down with Marvel. Down with DC. Boycott Disney. Boycott Time Warner. Up with writing about small press comic books. No more writing about Marvel and DC comic books. At all. Ever. A pox on the houses of the Big Two. TOO BAD, SO SAD, BYE BYE. ————————- INTERMISSION FUNNIES with MICHAEL DEFORGE ———————— Philly Scene Report By Ian Harker At the center of the Philly underground comics scene is the Philly Comix Jam. The jam started as an informal drinking and drawing session in the fall of 2007. While jam comics are still drawn at the meetups, the monthly gathering now serves primarily as a networking and brainstorming session for local cartoonists. Before the jam, there was very little infrastructure in Philly for anything that could be described as an alternative comics scene. From Comix Jam has sprung various projects such as the free tabloid Secret Prison, the Philly Alternative Comic Con, and upstart publisher Retrofit Comics, which have all helped Philly’s developing cartoonists find a broader context for their work. Jam regulars include veteran cartoonists such as Art Baxter and Terry LaBan, young cartoonists in full stride such as Box Brown and Pat Aulisio, and newcomers like the girls of the Dirty Diamonds mag. Institutions vital to the Philly scene include the comic shops Brave New Worlds and Locust Moon Comics. Brave New Worlds is a mainstream-centric comic shop in the gallery section of Old City. BNW has a great gallery space featuring local comic art in the front of the shop that regularly draws hundreds of visitors during First Friday festivities. Locust Moon Comics, by contrast, is a smaller DIY operation in University City that is always happy to stage events for local artists looking for an excuse to drink cheap beer. Other important spaces include the world renowned SPACE 1026, which often features great art comics work from around the world; Pterodactyl Philly, a great gallery space that moonlights as the small run digital press Fireball Printing; and Cha Cha-razzi, a studio space that has recently hosted various comics-meet-music events. Important figures in the scene include the aforementioned Art Baxter, who organized the Comix Jam for close to 3 years and is a source of unlimited wisdom in the craft of comic making; double Ignatz winner Box Brown, by far the most productive cartoonist of the bunch, whose Retrofit Comics venture looks to revive the alternative floppy; and Pat Aulisio, up-and-coming artist and organizer of Philly Alternative Comic Con, who lends the scene its “Yeah Dude” street cred. Orbiting on the perimeter of all of this, of course, is comics legend Charles Burns, whose appearance at any local event serves as the ultimate blessing from the Alt-Comic olympians. Oh yeah, and Robert Crumb was from Philly, so take that New York! ——————- Frank here again…Don’t forget! I’m starting a cartooning correspondence course. An 8-week workshop. Application deadline is October 28th, 2011. Check out the details here. ——————- Share this page: [...]

Comic Arts Los Angeles 2016

Chris Anthony DiazDecember 14, 2016The Diaz ArchiveComic Arts Los Angeles 2016 (CALA) at Think Tank Gallery, Sunday, December 4, 2016, Los Angeles. All photos colored by Graham Willcox Downtown Los Angeles fashion districtLisa HanawaltInés Estrada and Hellen JoHope Larson Arlin Ortiz and Kris MukaiChris PitzerRyan Cecil SmithRyan Cecil Smith risograph printRyan Cecil Smith risograph mini-comicsBenjamin UrkowitzSam AldenPatrick CrottyPatrick Crotty and Valentin SeicheKevin CzapSophie YanowBen Sears and Dustin Harbin (bottom right) Dustin HarbinDustin Harbin Ric Carrasquillo Share this page: [...]

TCAF 2016 | Joe Kessler

Juan FernándezJune 3, 2016Festivals and ShowsCheck out Joe’s work here copaceticcomics.com/creators/joe-kessler Share this page: [...]

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