Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Santoro School, School Updates

Comics Workbook

Posted on October 8, 2016May 20, 2018

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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: [...]

02/29/2016

Juan FernándezFebruary 29, 2016NewsAvast, a new Kramer’s Ergot is right around the corner! Editor, Sammy Harkham has shown off a peak at the glorious comics interiors of this anthology. It’s going to be bursting at the seams with color, clocking in at 298 pages, 12 spot colors with CMYK. Fantagraphics is doing the heavy financial lifting on this one. They’ll be selling and distributing it a little later in May. More details on that to come. Have a look for yourself at the preview Sammy has put together. Don’t want to spoil it for you over here. This thing’s going to be a beast. Laura Knetzger has been making comics every month about games she plays. A week ago ZEAL published her 4th game reflection, Laura K plays 4: Threads of Fate/Anger and today she’s written a little more about Threads of Fate over on her blog. I encourage you to check out the comic and then read more of Laura’s thoughts. Laura reflects on video games in a really satisfying way… Replaying the story really knocked me on my ass too. I remembered the basics of what happened, but I was really moved by how quietly emotional it is. A lot of characters are living dolls created by sorcerers, and since the sorcerers have long since died, they’re struggling to find meaning in their lives. The emotional aspect of the story comes out when you play as the boy, and the humor comes out when you play as the girl. I guess I like that instead of being a demure healing-magic type of RPG girl, she’s a super snotty spoiled princess who solves a lot of her problems by kicking people in the face. This past weekend the Society of Illustrators hosted the second of the Stories Matters talks. This time around, Richie Pope hosted a roundtable with illustrators and comics makers Odera Igbokwe, Cathy G Johnson, John Lee, Ronald Wimberly, Shannon Wright, Yao Xiao, Alexandra Zsigmond. They discussed mentoring through interactions, the creation of safe spaces in schools, Angouleme, and the many played out diversity narratives, among other things. The audio is not online yet, but it will be posted soon. For the moment, you can look at the Mixlr chat history to look at the questions, comments and shout outs that were being sent in live during the panel. If you haven’t yet listened to the panel SoI hosted in the fall on the cultural significance of the popular image, you can do so over at SoI’s soundcloud. Let Bill Kartolopolous show you around the ground-breaking catalogues of 5 contemporary comics publishers from around the world: nos:books, la Editorial Común, Éditions Matière, kuš! komiksi, Boomkniga Press. If you’re looking to get your nose into some new books with totally new perspectives on the world on the comics form. Look no further. Kartolopolous gives you the perfect jumping off point over on World Literature Today to do further research. Money, money, money: Everybody needs it!! I want to point you in the way of some fine folks who have work for you, should you choose to be a patron of the arts. Today is the LAST DAY to get Cathy Johnson‘s February print from her 2016 print subscription. This year Johnson has been pushing her screen printing work by making 12 prints in 12 months. Patreon subscribers will get a brand new screen print every month in the mail. This subscription is on a rolling basis! Subscribe early to get the complete 2016 collection!! You’ll also get first look at my behind-the-scenes diary while I draw my upcoming graphic novel, No Dogs Allowed. I’ve cut a monthly deal with the amazing Dirt Palace, a 15+ year old feminist art space here in Providence: http://www.dirtpalace.org. I’ll be screen printing at this amazing place all year! A big goal for this Patreon is to help afford renting print space at the Dirt Palace. Let’s talk Vanesa Del Rey. She is taking commissions for the days leading up to C2E2 on March 18-20. Del Rey’s got what you need if you’re looking for lush, sensual original art that drips with drama. Don’t sleep on her commissions. OG Ron Rege Jr. is taking custom commisions and offering you the possibility being a recurring patron through paypal. Should you choose this noble path, you can be on the inside curve of the machinations of this modern master. What else could you want? Check it out. I’m going to be making a bunch of small minicomics in the coming months. For a $10 monthly donation, I’ll make sure that you get all of them, and some other fan-club style goodies as well. I’ll also make you an original drawing in time for the holidays this year. My true dream & idea for all of this is to get 100 people to sign up for $10 a month. That way, I could do an unadvertised subscription. Members would get sent secret comics that I never mention online. That would be cool, right? hm…. Help me continue to make as much new work as I can. I’ve been at it for 25 years, and am really starting to feel my stride. The drawings seem to just make themselves. I have endless ideas. That part is all really easy. It feels almost dumb for me to be doing anything else at this point. I try to draw all day every day & not worry about it, but I need to eat like anyone. I quit my day job in ’03. There’s always ups & downs, but I live pretty strictly hand to mouth. No assets / No savings / No credit. $$$, spread it if you got it. ’til next time jf Share this page: [...]

09/27/2018

Caleb OrecchioSeptember 27, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here, and I’m headed to CXC ————————————————————————————————— Hi folks I’m about to head out the door to head to the Billy Ireland to check out the programming for CXC (though I feel like I’m still recovering from SPX). If you are attending CXC on Saturday come visit me at the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Room 2-A where I’ll be holding an hour-long workshop at 3:30 pm. We will be breaking down some of the basics and fundamentals of comics together. Come ready to draw! No pressure. Some of the best comics made in my workshops have been made by people who never draw and have never made comics. Meanwhile, I’ve been flipping through Andrew White’s comic Yearly 2018, and I have to say I’m very impressed. I’ll be reviewing it later next week so be on the lookout for that. Talk soon. Take it away Niall. ————————————————————————————————— 09-27-2018 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

03/04/2016

Juan FernándezMarch 4, 2016NewsComin’ up next week stateside is the next installment of Carousel. Comics presented in all kinds of ways. hosted by R. Sikoryak. You don’t want to miss this. There’s nothing quite like Carousel. (ok,ok OTHER than Chicago’s Brain Frame). This coming Wednesday, March 9th at 7:30 PM! If you need the deal to be sweetened for you, just know Meghan Turbitt is coming to the big city SPECIFICALLY to read to you. Don’t want to let a girl down, do you? Monica Johnson has written an interesting piece on the limited criteria it takes for work to be labeled as feminist work in 2016, primarily in the world of floppy comics. Interesting ideas, though there’s a great swathe of work that has been overlooked in making the article’s claim. Read it for yourself here, the comments aren’t too terrible either. Now, just seconds from turning forty, I’m both politicized and angry, and I long for the intensity of those ’90s comics. And I look around at comics written by and about women and they seem so understated. There is still so much to be upset about—Bill Cosby for starters, or why the Angoulême festival refuses to acknowledge that women, too, make comics—yet today’s feminist comics seem much less radical, less angry, less mobilizing compared with those of decades prior. I for one would like to hear from the aggressive and hilarious Diane DiMassas and Joyce Farmers of the 2010s! Where are those attitudes? Buried deep within the metaphors of fantasy comics like Bitch Planet and Monstress? Or in mild-mannered graphic novels and memoirs like Not Funny Ha Ha or Honor Girl? There’s a great conversation going on over on twitter, started by Celine Loup, focusing specifically on whose work Johnson’s short article is overlooking. If any of the names of the cartoonists mentioned are new to you, do yourself a favor and sit down with their work. https://t.co/OQQn1u3Gct I wanna talk about this with other women who would call their comics feminist. Thoughts? — NAZGUL QUEEN (@celineorelse) March 4, 2016 On the 4, 5 and 6 of March (this weekend, sleepy heads), the 7th edition of GRAF, Barcelona’s festival celebratings comics author and independent publishing, will be going down. A meeting of authors, publishers and independent groups that represent creative scene today more vibrant and fresh . Interestingly, for the first time GRAF will feature independent publishers from abroad. In total, there will be over 80 exhibitors with all kinds of fanzines, comics and prints for sale. On top of all that GRAF has got an extensive program of activities: round tables, meetings with authors, presentations of new books or comics and fanzines workshops for children and adults. Good stuff if you’re in Spain. You can stay posted with the happenings by keeping up with their twitter: @Grafcomic [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/249586417″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] The inimitable Leslie Stein was just on Inkstuds. They talked about her current return to working on Eye of the Majestic Creature, her painting and watercolor, took questions from twitter, discussed working as a bartender, her friendship with Noah Van Sciver and favorite winter birds. Fill your ears with Leslie’s optimism. You probably know this already, but it bears repeating: no one’s going to make the world you want to see for you. You have to do it yourself. It gets tiring, though and sometimes you need a little bit of reassurance that you’re not alone in this endeavor. Alice Bag and Allison Wolfe have your back. Listen to them chat about their the importance of having control of the means of productions in a societal context and more broadly what it means to have lived a life with zines at their centers. Very cool talk. No one could have known that when struggling illustrator R. Crumb self-published Zap Comix #1 in 1968 and began hawking copies in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, history would be made. By the arrival of issue #4 (1969) and Crumb’s Zap collective (S. Clay Wilson, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffiin, Gilbert Shelton, Robert Williams, and Spain Rodriguez) fully formed, the artists had broken every Comics Code taboo imaginable — and then some. Zap spawned an entire underground comix industry, establishing an adult market for the comics medium that, in turn, set new standards for creators’ rights and ownership that one day would liberate mainstream comic books from the tyrannical grip of corporate publishers, paving the way for literary work by the likes of Art Spiegelman, Lynda Barry, Chris Ware, and Daniel Clowes, among others. The underground is now canon, who woulda thunk it 40 years ago? Tonight is the opening reception of the big new ZAP comics exhibit at the Society of Illustrators. Underground junkies and all of you interested in the medium’s history in the USA, you won’t want to miss this. The exhibit runs through May 7th. Learn more here! Daniel Clowes and Nicole Rudick sat down on Wednesday to talk at The Strand in NYC. Clowes is on tour to promote his latest work, Patience. This is a great, widely spanning conversation between 2 deep thinkers. Great to draw or do the dishes to. Comics makers, take note around 20 minutes in for some interesting thoughts on constraints and their relationship to comics composition. Short Run, in Seattle, the annual curated festival which focuses on indie comix and self-published, small press, and handmade books of all kinds from the Pacific Northwest and around the world has some exciting news for ya: Applications for Short Run’s Dash Grant are now being accepted. With the Dash Grant you can: receive a $250 grant to produce your work to premiere at Short Run 2016 have free access to Fogland Studios silkscreen lab in Seattle to print your covers and optional instruction the week of the festival receive mentorship from comic artist Trevor Alixopulos via email have your artwork featured in our annual group art show at Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery receive a free half table at the festival More information is available over at Short Run Seattle’s site. Hop to it. Thought Bubble, the Leeds comics festival is taking applications for people to exhibit. Think you want to exhibit? Know of someone that this would be good for? Check out their site. Last but not least, there was a great sub of the 4th episode of Urasawa Naoki no Manben with author Takoa Saito that I came across thanks to @royalboiler but alas, it’s been taken down to copyright issues! The fourth episode peeks behind the curtain of Saitō’s workplace, where he has labored away at Golgo 13 for 47 years. Fingers crossed another sub floats to the surface… For now you can dig into the first episode. The first episode looks at Akiko Higashimura (Princess Jellyfish) as she draws her warring states era manga Yukibana no Tora (“Snow Tiger”), emphasizing her speed and the teamwork with her large team of assistants. Well worth your time if you’d like to learn more about the living history and craft of the wide world of the manga-ka. Urasawa Naoki no Manben (which, roughly translated, means “Naoki Urasawa‘s Manga Exertions”) is hosted by veteran manga artist Naoki Urasawa (Monster, Pluto,20th Century Boys) and follows different artists each episode, watching them draw their manga from scratch and exploring what differentiates their styles. Amazing show, with a great format for comics makers by comics makers. Hope that gives you enough to feast your eyes an ears on for the weekend. until next time, jf Share this page: [...]

08/15/2017

Aaron CockleAugust 14, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Maqsood-I-Kainaat; Tom of Finland; Wolk on Borges; FRAME Festival Open Call; Fake Photos! ————————————————————————————————— Maqsood-I-Kainaat, by Shreyas R Krishnan The 12th issue of the Ley Lines series is coming soon! Ley Lines is a quarterly publication dedicated to exploring the intersection of comics and the various fields of art & culture that inspire us. Co-published by Grindstone Comics and Czap Books. ————————————————————————————————— Tom of Finland, the Movie Touko Laaksonen gets the biopic treatment, and a fancy review at the Guardian. Considering the film’s subject matter, it actually contains very little sex – the main bedroom scene cuts from a kiss to the morning after. “The core fans were always saying: ‘I’ve seen the drawings, those are my sex, now I want to see the story of the man I idolise,’” says Karukoski. “So the amount of gay sex will come very much from the dramatic need. Where is the line where it becomes provocation? it overrides the emotional balance of the story.” Instead, much of the film focuses on the struggles Laaksonen endured as a gay man in conservative Finland, from facing jail as a young man after a pick-up went awry, to facing constant pressure from his younger sister never to express his true identity, since she believed it would bring shame on the family. “Even when I told her about him being accepted into the permanent collection at MoMA, her response was: ‘Well, what were they thinking?’” says Dehner, still hurt by the memory. The film, he says, is “touching – how terrible society has been to us and how conditional the love is from family members”. ————————————————————————————————— Webmaster Borges This is from way back in 1999, and probably the first piece I read by Douglas Wolk. Jorge Luis Borges and the Internet: Canny Borges never names the Web, of course: As “The Garden of Forking Paths” points out, in a riddle whose answer is chess, the only word that cannot be used is “chess.” But the meaning of his parables is specific and undeniable. The Aleph in the fiction of the same title, the portal through which one can see every point in the universe, is Netscape Navigator in all but name. The Zahir, an object that changes its form over time but monopolizes its owner’s attention forever, is none other than Microsoft Internet Explorer, as anyone who’s tried to unstick it from a computer’s operating system only to click fatally on an innocuous icon will tell you. (Consider, in fact, the alphabetical remove of Borges’ names for the browsers, his subtle jest on the Alpha and Omega of his new world.) ————————————————————————————————— Prague Comic Arts Festival Open Call Sign up for the FRAME festival and become a part of an emerging festival, full of comics, zines and illustrations! We welcome all small publishers, authors and illustrators. OPEN CALL is until 31.8. 2017. Each exhibitor can choose from two options for his presentation – a small table 110 x 55 cm or a large table 220 x 55 cm. The jury of Centrala and No Ordinary Heroes will then select approximately 50 exhibitors who will be contacted with detailed information on arrival and installation no later than September 10, 2017. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Research suggests that regardless of what you might think about your own abilities to spot a hoax, most of us are pretty bad at it.’ The BBC has a handy guide to spotting fake photos: Another giveaway is the colour of people’s ears. “If the Sun is behind me, my ears will look red from the front because you’ll see the blood,” he says. “If the light is coming from the front, you won’t see the red in the ear.” ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 8-15-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 8-15-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 8-15-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Frank Santoro @ SPX 2016

Posted on October 8, 2016May 20, 2018 by Comics Workbook

https://vimeo.com/185881298

SPX – September 17th 2016
Exerpts from the workshop with Cameron Weston Nicholson and Frank Santoro

Filmed and edited by Tyler Q Tucker and Sally Ingraham

(Watch the rest of the workshop footage HERE.)

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Santoro School, School Updates

Comics Workbook

Posted on October 8, 2016May 20, 2018

Explore

09/12/2018

Juan FernándezSeptember 12, 2018NewsJuan Fernandez on Comics Workbook’s 2018 SPX Workshops This weekend the Comics Workbook gang makes the annual pilgrimage from Pittsburgh to Bethesda, Maryland to join in on the explosion that is the Small Press Expo. If you’d like to take part in any of our workshops, or just want to find us to chat, you can find us posted at the Glen Echo Room at SPX. See you soon! Below’s the schedule of our workshops: SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15 12:00 – 1:00 pm Glen Echo Room Comics with Juan Fernandez Join the Comics Workbook team for an hour of comics-crafting. Learn about color and line, explore the rhythm of the grid, and take your comics-making game to a new level. Simple exercises will push you in mind-bending directions. Juan Fernandez is a cartoonist and educator in Pittsburgh, PA. He organizes the Pittsburgh Comics Salon, facilitates Comics Workbook, and works for the Pittsburgh Arts Council. All ages. 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Glen Echo Room Clay Sculpture Characters With Liz Reed Learn how to make clay ice cream cone characters with Sweet Success author/sculptor Liz Reed. Attendees will create their very own unique clay character as Liz guides the class through different sculpting techniques using everyday household items. All ages. 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Glen Echo Room Comics With Dash Shaw Spend an hour with groundbreaking cartoonist Dash Shaw, creator of BodyWorld, Bottomless Belly Button, New School, Doctors, and Cosplayers, as well as the animated film My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea. Dig into his experience and influences, and pick up tips on storytelling and techniques from a master of the form. All ages. 4:15 pm – 5:15 pm Glen Echo Room Comics with Molly Ostertag Join Molly Ostertag, award-winning creator of the middle-grade graphic novel Witch Boy, and ongoing webcomic Strong Female Protagonist, among other projects, as she discusses creative process, discipline, and Dungeons & Dragons. All ages. 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm Glen Echo Room Comics With The Latin American Youth Council & Mentors Join Jason Rodriguez, Santi Cesares, and young creators from LYLC for a bilingual workshop about using comics to tell stories that can cross language barriers and break down cultural differences, giving a voice to children and teens who desperately need to be heard. Comics as a transformative tool for change! Please note that there will be a No Pictures policy during this workshop. All ages. SIGN UP HERE FOR ANY OF THE SPX 2018 COMICS WORKBOOK WORKSHOPS. SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 16 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Glen Echo Room Comics With Mosi Mosi is a Portuguese cartoonist and art teacher based in Lisbon. Join her for a discussion about comics as a medium of communication and self-expression. Drawing is a wide and complex language that can be explored to express our deepest feelings, emotions, thoughts and – above all – express who we really are! In this workshop Mosi will use comics as a tool to get to know more about each other; break the ice, start a conversation and learn about the others around us through what they draw and how they do it. Bring your positivity, curiosity and get in the mood for a good time! All ages. 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm Glen Echo Room Kickstarter Presents: Five Elements of a Healthy Comics Campaign Whether you’re gearing up for volume 3 of your ongoing series or on the fence about launching your first ever anthology, you can make a killer Kickstarter campaign when you come prepared. Join Comics Outreach Lead Camilla Zhang in this educational seminar about the key elements of a successful Kickstarter campaign. And feel free to tweet specific questions @illathekilla using the #KickstarterSPX hashtag prior to the event! 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Glen Echo Room Comics Workbook Hangout Take a crash course in comics making – for kids big and small. We will bring the grids, the markers, the know-how – you bring your personal spark. Discover the comics-maker within you and let them out! Join Caleb Orecchio and other members of the Comics Workbook team for an easy foray into comics making – the perfect thing to conclude a weekend at SPX! All ages. 09-12-2018 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

The Spring Season

Kurt AnkenyJune 29, 2017Festivals and ShowsSo, for those of us in the indie comics circuit, the summer lull is upon us. Summer usually has very few indie-centered shows going on, even though the mainstream comicons are going full blast. The consensus is that generally, indie comics are more dependent on the college and art school crowd, and when they all go home for the summer, it’s hard to gather enough interested folks to hold a show. It seems awfully stupid to join an industry whose main customer base is one of the poorest and busiest groups of people in society, but here we are, at it again, hoping to make a buck. I enjoyed my spring season, though. First was PIX (Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo) in Pittsburgh at the beginning of April, then I had CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo) in Chicago at the beginning of June, followed the very next weekend by the one-day MECAF (Maine Comics Arts Festival), in Portland, Maine. PIX was a lovely little show. Well, perhaps I shouldn’t call it little. It has a grand venue, and you can feel the aspirations Bill Boichel has for this show. Housed in the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, the space was beautiful and more than big enough. The crowd was steady and enthusiastic despite the quadruple-threat of: 1) a competing comics show in one of the Steel City’s immediate suburbs, 2) the Pirates’ home opener, 3) a HUGE anime/cosplay show just around the corner from PIX, and 4) the first absolutely glorious spring day, with temps in the 80s and barely a cloud in the sky. Proving that Bill and Copacetic Comics have tremendous pull, the guest list was full of heavy hitters: Anya Davidson, Jim Rugg, Ed Piskor, Lane Milburn, Connor Willumsen, Frank Santoro, Lale Westvind. Quite a line-up for a show this size. I got the chance to finally meet Connor in person, and we got to chat for a while as we drove through the rusted rat-maze that is Pittsburgh’s road system. I also got to meet the very talented Audra Stang. I crashed with the Comics Workbook crew, and it was especially nice that even though this was a one-day show, there was a bit of after partying and camaraderie. Next time I go to Pittsburgh, I need to finally arrange a couple hours of just me and Bill up in Copacetic. Bill is a comics oracle, and I need to drink from that fountain of knowledge. CAKE in Chicago is always a great time. The crowd is usually lively and in a spending mood, and the neighborhood of Boystown in north Chicago is a really lovely place. I got to meet and chat with Simon Hanselmann (though he did the vast majority of the chatting.) I was lucky enough to table with Tommi Parrish, who has had books published by Czap Books and 2D Cloud, and has a forthcoming book from Fantagraphics. They are an incredible artist, and I thoroughly enjoyed their Ley Lines volume on William Blake and Lydia Lunch. I’m very much looking forward to picking up their longer works. Also, a very lovely tablemate. Excellent at sharing snacks. Speaking of snacks, I also got to catch up with Alyssa Berg, who was tabling with the elusive Ron Rege, Jr. I met Alyssa at last year’s CXC (Cartoon Crossroads Columbus). Alyssa’s creating some really interesting works as she dives into the risograph process in an attempt to translate her mixed media comics into print forms that perhaps capture her vision a little better than scans of painted pages do. Really looking forward to what she comes up with during her SVA residency. I also got to table across the aisle from Kevin Czap and Cathy Johnson, who are two of my favorite people and a presence at nearly every show I’ve been to. Kevin, indie-comics’s self-styled Comics Mom, publishes a strong line of books that are heartfelt, thoughtful, and full of need-to-be-heard voices. Cathy is a fellow former Minnesotan living on the East Coast, making beautiful comics stories that are straight from the core of America. I caught up for a few minutes with Ben Passmore. At last year’s CAKE, Ben dropped off a black and white mini called Your Black Friend at my table. In the year since, Ben has become a household name in indie comics. He’s busy with books coming out in the fall, and suddenly has a bunch of illustration work. It makes me so happy to see that coming his way. I was very sad to see later that he, Kevin, Cathy, and others went to do their usual con karaoke on Saturday night and I missed it. I was exhausted from getting only a total of eight hours of sleep over the previous two nights, so after inviting myself along to a dinner with Kevin Huizenga, Tom Spurgeon, Rob Clough, Jenny Zervakis, Nick Drnaso, Noah Van Sciver, John Porcellino, and Dan Stafford, I headed to my friend Gene Ha’s house. Gene’s been working over the past year + on his own creator-owned book, Mae. It’s a great book, full of crazy detailed sci-fi-fantasy adventure that only Gene could pull off. It’s like he’s channeling the same spirit that moved him to produce the insane beauty of Top Ten with Alan Moore, but on his own story and possibly with more love and care. Dark Horse has been publishing it, but killed the book a couple of months ago along with a batch of other titles. While Gene has rights to everything, Dark Horse has printing rights to the first six issues, and those will be held by them until January 2019. Despite acclaim, a growing fan base, and being featured as the YA book of the summer at last week’s ALA Conference, Mae is now stuck in limbo unless someone else picks it up and continues it without rights to publish the first six issues for 18 months. Here’s hoping someone will take that chance! Sunday at CAKE was much better than Saturday, sales-wise for me. At the end of the day, I invited Alyssa to join Gene and me for dinner. Alyssa was keen to try the famous/infamous Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, so we headed over to the best spot in town. Over dinner, Gene and Alyssa and I had a great discussion about Alyssa’s work, her philosophy in creating, and how she likes to connect with readers through her books. Gene wowed Alyssa with some iPhone images of his work, and I was so pleased that these two friends of mine hit it off so well. Bravo, Chicago, and thanks for the heat wave! MECAF was the capper to my spring con season, on June 17. I saw Shelli Paroline and Dan Mazur, the brains behind Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (MICE), and Shelli’s partner in comics and life, Braden Lamb. Shelli and Braden have just released a book with First Second called Making Scents, and they had a couple of copies at the show. The book is gorgeous from beginning to end because Shelli and Braden are top notch cartoonists. It annoys me no end that they are listed as if they were secondary partners on the cover. In fact, First Second has been annoying me in general lately. Their program of publishing everything in digest-or-smaller mini-volumes has been to the great detriment of works by great cartoonists like Paul Pope’s Battling Boy, and Christophe Blain’s Gus. Also, how are people supposed to look up the works of Christophe Blain and find Gus if he’s listed as “Chris Blain” in all the book data? I’ve had more than one CB store tell me they couldn’t find it because I’d forgotten that :01 had anglicized his name. Such weird choices by this imprint. Everyone I talk to about it is baffled by their approach. The show at MECAF was decent. A pretty good day. In fact, better than any single day of sales so far this year. Not bad for a library show which was blocked off by the Pride parade for half of the day. Coming this fall, I’ll be at CXC again, giving a talk in NYC at the New York Comics and Picture-Story Symposium at the Parsons School of Design at the invite of Ben Katchor, and also MICE, which is frequently the best show of the year for me. No dice in the SPX (Small Press Expo) lottery again this year, but I’m hoping to make an appearance at either CALA (Comic Arts Los Angeles) or CAB (Comic Arts Brooklyn) toward the end of the year. I’m continuing work on the science fiction graphic novel you may have seen thumbs for on my Instagram, and I’ll be shopping around a collection of short comics stories I’ve done over the past three years. Wish me luck on getting someone to pick that up. See you in the fall! Kurt ————————————————————————————————— Kurt Ankeny makes comics in Salem, MA – his most recent book is In Pieces: Someplace Which I Call Home. Share this page: [...]

12/04/2017

Caleb OrecchioDecember 4, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here with the Monday edition of the Daily News with musings about the uncanny resemblance of James Joyce and Chris Ware..————————————————————————————————— Proof of reincarnation? More than a few people have been comparing Chris Ware to James Joyce since Jimmy Corrigan, which I think is apt. Of course their works share similar qualities, being very detailed oriented among other things. Though they work in different mediums, I can’t help but see a tethered line from Joyce to Ware. They both work to exhaust their mediums—I mean this in a good way. Joyce with the English language in relation to speaking, thinking, seeing, etc.—and Ware with depicting, visually, memory and human actions and interaction, or lack thereof. They both relish relentless detail and intense focus on the subject. A very interesting quality they share is that they are both hailed as possibly the best artists in their medium of the last 100 years, or at least the most groundbreaking— but despite being praised to the high heavens, their is a pride for many about NOT reading their work. “It’s too detailed.” It’s too depressing.” “This is unreadable.” “HAHA no I didn’t read that.” Their is real solidarity in not reading Ware’s masterpiece, Building Stories, that reminds me of the willful ignorance of Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. People just can’t even think about wrapping their heads around something so involved and difficult. I think it’s safe to say that accessibility is king for the average reader of both books and comics. Still, the most amazing thing to me is their uncanny physical resemblance. Is it just me, or could these two be brothers? (see above) It’s a bit spooky when you think about it. Proof of reincarnation? You decide! ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 18th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. Makes a great holiday gift for yourself – or for a loved one who is interested in comics. Apply by midnight (EST) on Dec. 25th and get $100 off the course price. Full details and how to apply can be found HERE! ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Comics Workbook fearless leader, Frank Santoro, writes about Dave Gibbons’ new comics “How To” book over at TCJ.com. Someone I know who works with students with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, sent me this Pacific Standard article about how comic books can letter their pages better for dyslexic readers. If you don’t know, now you know that The Beat has the info for the 2018 Angoulême festival prize nominees. Roberta Smith reviews David Hockney’s retrospective exhibition at The Met. Nick Gazin reviews some comics over at Vice.com. Did you know that Robin McConnell has a Canadian mini-comic archive website? I did, but often forget it exists. Thought it may be worth linking to today. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-4-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 12-4-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

02/16/2017

Sally IngrahamFebruary 15, 2017NewsSam Ombiri riffs on Henry Darger and Hideo Furukawa, and Sally shares updates from the Fifth Annual Black Comic Book Festival and other comics news! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I’ve really been into this Henry Darger documentary – The Realms of the Unreal. It’s really good. There’s this amazing part where they are recounting a time when Henry lost one picture – one that I think was one of his main references for drawing the girls. (Editor’s Note: “The girls” are the Vivian Girls, characters in Darger’s 15,000 page fantasy novel The Realms of the Unreal.) He held in such high regard that the story changes as a result, and he punishes his characters until he can find the picture. That part was amazing. I kind of skipped all over the place as a result of my low attention span, so I don’t remember where it was. I think my attention span wass also lowered because this documentary reminded me of the ones I’d see in elementary school that I wouldn’t pay attention to. At times I feel Henry Darger would purposely lie to himself in order to go through with a certain aspect of the story, and then get away from that lie. At least I’d like to think that, but maybe I’m the one doing that. There’s a part in this video where Jesse Moynihan talks about how there’s still power in rearranging history and things aren’t tied down to one telling. Or in what feels like a similar spirit, Hideo Furukawa, who is known for sometimes writing remixes of already written books, says “Music can be divided into melody and the rest, and you can take out either of them separately. If you take out the former, you “cover” that music; if you take out the whole of the latter, you “remix” it. Likewise, fiction is divided into the narrative and the rest.” At the beginning of his novel Belka Why Don’t You Bark he puts at the beginning, “Yes I admit this is fiction but then what isn’t?” He also put after that, “This book is dedicated to Boris Yeltsin; Hey Boris I know your secret!” Hideo continued, “The narrative needs some vehicle, which is provided by different storytellers each age. In other words, the same narrative can change their vehicle, and in that sense the simple re-telling (covering, you might say) is always possible. Remixing is, for me anyway, an attempt to go beyond that, to take the whole of the preceding work.” Hideo Furukawa is someone who’s often referred to as a chameleon for doing all kinds of experiments with the way he writes his books. (Side Note: I like CF’s idea that experimenting just means not taking yourself seriously and that you go into a state where the ordinary laws of creativity don’t apply. I think it’s what he said.) Here’s one experiment Hideo Furukawa did, for example: There’s this book called Tribes of Arabian Nights that takes place in Cairo. Because there were more and more books coming into Japan that needed to be translated, he claimed that he didn’t write the novel, he was just translating it. (At least that’s what I think could be his reason. This is just speculation on my part – this was the automatic reason that formed in my mind. The more I think about it though that’s like every country.) I’m not too sure what Hideo’s remixes are like. Thankfully there’s gonna be one that’s being released in English in June which I’m excited to read. Although, I’d rather just read one of his actual novels. I read part of something he did for Tale of Genji, but it wasn’t strictly speaking a remix – it wasn’t a retelling. To my knowledge it doesn’t have the same rules as his remixes. For one thing, he re-titled it 300 Treacherous Women, instead of Tale of Genji Remix (which would make for a pretty hilarious title. My one friend was telling me about how this musician who I think is part of the Brainfeeder collective recorded Pomegranates by Parajanov. My immediate reaction was ha ha oh no!) Hideo’s version of the story was more based on a ghost coming and proclaiming how, until the story was modified back to how it actually happened, this one woman would keep giving unrest to this other woman. I assume his remixes are different. Hideo said, “For the remix of Kenji Miyazawa’s The Bears of Mount Nametoko the bears appear in the ‘Mount Nametoko’ story. In Japan bears are something of a deity, reigning over the mountains (the natural world). They don’t appear in towns (the human world). Hunters, however, play the role of mediators, and turn part of the mountains into commodities, which are circulated in the towns. What we witness here is the violent contact between nature and man. We are made to face the fact that bears are something which are not cattle but are eaten, and humans allow themselves to take something out of nature to keep themselves alive in this world. Kenji Miyazawa, as author Kenji, kept writing about this staggering fact. When Japan was violently attacked by nature in 2011 (the year of the Great East Japan Earthquake), I thought I, as author Hideo Furukawa, had to retell those stories written by Kenji. I could re-tell the stories, precisely because Kenji had already told them.” – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sally here – Over on Vice there’s a video of Ronald Wimberly speaking at the Schomburg Center during the Fifth Annual Black Comic Book Festival. Wimberly tells us about growing up in D.C., his new book, and what it means to have black representation in comics. Check it out HERE (watch the full episode of ‘Daily VICE’ on go90.) There was a nice write-up of the Fifth Annual Black Comic Book Festival (which took place Jan. 13th and 14th 2017) on Okay Africa – it includes lots of pictures! Even better than pictures, The Blerdgurl offers up Part One of her interview series with creators at the Black Comic Book Festival this year – check it out below! ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Reporter draws our attention to a treasure-trove of Ta-Nehisi Coates‘ thoughts about writing The Black Panther, posted on The Atlantic – HERE. From his interest in the Dora Milajae – the all-female troop of bodyguards to the King – and how he uses them to talk about feminism in the story, to the poetry that opens and closes issue #3, to his thoughts on Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, there’s a lot of interesting stuff to unpack. ————————————————————————————————— From the Comics Workbook TV archives – Bill Boichel riffs on Jackie Ormes. She was the first African-American woman to be a syndicated cartoonist. She is one of the nominees for this year’s Will Eisner Hall of Fame inductees. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! The course starts March 7th 2017. Apply by February 26th to get 100 bux off! The course is 8 weeks long – payment plans are available. Application guidelines: – 3 figure drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards – 3 landscape drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards – 3 still life drawings done on blank 3 x 5 cards – draw in a contour line style –think Matisse – no under-drawing – draw directly in ink – just send me small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls – send specific url links to any comics work you have done. If you haven’t done comics before that is not a problem. Email santoroschoolATgmail to apply! More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 2-16-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-16-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-16-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-16-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

04/13/2016

Juan FernándezApril 13, 2016NewsJuan Fernández here with an especially internationally focused news round up: Chris Ware Benefit Auction; European comics festivals this weekend; Comics talk at the Prado; Max vs. Hieronymous Bosch; Cohete Comics Colombian Blastoff; Real Talk – Girl Talk; Chippendale chats Puke Force. —————————————————————————— Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency Fundraiser Auction – CHECK IT OUT HERE! **PLEASE NOTE: The Copacetic Comics Company is managing this auction on behalf of Comics Workbook.** This is a BENEFIT AUCTION for the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. It is part of the ongoing fundraising campaign to get the Rowhouse Residency up and running and serving students. All proceeds of this auction are going to Comics Workbook to defray the expenses involved in realizing this goal. This auction is a continuation of the now completed Rowhouse Residency IndieGoGo campaign and other fundraising efforts. The eight items were donated to The Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency Fundraising Drive by one Mr. Chris Ware. Each item in this auction has been hand packaged and signed by Mr. Ware and was shipped by him directly to Comics Workbook for the purposes of being auctioned here to raise funds for the Rowhouse Residency. Comics Workbook would like to express our profound gratitude to Chris Ware for his support of the Rowhouse Residency. CHECK OUT THE AUCTION HERE! Featuring Jim Rugg | jimrugg.com/ Video by Michael Pisano | michaelpisano.com Soundtrack | Johann Sebastian Bach // Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, BWV 43 – 7. Aria: Er ists, der ganz allein // performed by Michel Rondeau ————————————————————————————————— ###Eurozone Fezztival Spezial### Ratatà! Macerata, Italy’s festival of illustration, comics and self-publishing, Ratatà is happening this weekend! From April 14th to April 17th Macerata will be packed with exhibitions, workshops, meetings and events. Illustration and Independent comics will be the focus. More info here. Special note: kuš! will present a special exhibition by it’s artists Anna Vaivare, Ingrīda Pičukāne, Līva Kandevica and Zane Zlemeša. Present at the festival will be kuš! editor Sanita Muižniece and the artists Anna Vaivare, Ingrīda Pičukāne and Zane Zlemeša. Comics Days Vilnius Also this weekend, starting Thursday is Comics days Vilnius. Comics Days Vilnius is the first comic festival in Lithuania, just south of the home of Latvian minicomics publishing powerhouse, kuš!. It’s exciting to see the start of a national comics festival. The goal is to promote the development and the recognition of comics in Lithuania. It will be held this weekend, 14-16 of April 2016 in Vilnius. Check out the Comics Days Vilnius program and learn more. Fumetto Last but not least, Fumetto in Lucerne Switzerland begins this weekend April 16-24. Fumetto has a long tradition in being THE exciting gathering for artistically ambitious comics making in Europe. This year marks their 25th anniversary. Lots of gallery shows and workshops. Lectures by Ben Katchor, Matt Madden, Jacques de Loustal, Joost Swarte, Goele Dewanckel , Gabrielle Bell, Tom Gauld, Edmond Baudoin & Cédric Villani. Not to be missed! For more information, visit them online. ————————————————————————————————— Aquí – Here Ediciones Salamandra has released a nicely produced bit that captures the Richard McGuire’s joy and curiosity as he speaks about the latest iteration of his lifetime’s work Here. Hands down one of the most passionate, human works in the comics medium. ————————————————————————————————— Radio 3 in Spain put together a comics round table featuring David Rubín, Ana Galvañ, Santiago García y Francesc Capdevila and “Max” recorded live at the Prado Museum in Madrid. Really interesting discussion moderated by Laura Brrachina on the interdisciplinary fluidity of contemporary comics making in the visually fragmented 21st century. Tons of excitement about comics. Escuchen aquí/Listen here! ————————————————————————————————— Max vs. Bosch To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of Hieronymous Bosch, the Prado has commissioned Francesc Capdevila “Max” to translate the work and energies of the Dutch master into a comic. Max has created (and has sent off to the printer!) El Tríptico de los encantados (una pantomima bosquiana) a 72 page Boschian revelery. The book is structured around 3 major paintings, The Garden of Earthly Delights, Cutting the Stone, and The Temptations of St. Anthony. Max did away with the biographic and focused on coming up with a narrative that would take you from one painting to another in an elliptical narrative. Aprendan más sobre esto proyecto/ Learn more about this project. ————————————————————————————————— …4,3,2,1 -Blast Off Cool comics publishing news in Colombia: Laguna Libros has launched a comics imprint – Cohete Comics. Following in the spirint of Laguna Libros, Cohete Cómics is to be an editorial labororatory that explores the possibilities autobio, documentary and fiction comics. Their first books will feature work by Pablo Guerra, Henry Díaz, Sindy Infante, Bernardo Fernández, Camilo Aguirre and Diana Ojeda. Check them out and Have a look at what Cohete Cómics is up to! ————————————————————————————————— Girl Talk Rod and Cone Press, run by my inspiring friends Iona Fox and Anna McGlynn, have launched their newest book, Girl Talk. It’s a collaborative comics anthology featuring comics inspired by diary entries. They just finished putting together all their copies and it looks stellar. Girl Talk features comics by Cooper Whittlesey, Anna McGlynn,Iona Fox, Hannah Kaplan, Alyse Burnside. This comes on the heels of their previous release, My Pace, a collection of idiosyncratic, satisfying and raw comics. Sure to be of equal caliber, gut punches galore. Hop on over to their site to learn more about the launch and how you can pre-order a copy. I can’t wait to get mine. ————————————————————————————————— Brian Chippendale talks with Alex Dueben over at Comic Book Resources about the nitty gritty of Puke Force. Soak it up! Chippendale: I’m not converting many haters. Haters of comics, or ideas like mine probably can’t even figure my damn personal mark-making language out, let alone find the plot. I’m laughing at you, not with you. ————————————————————————————————— That’s it for today! Stay tuned for a very special announcement around noon… Share this page: [...]

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