Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in EssaysTagged frank's comics corner, house of mystery

Comics Workbook

Posted on February 24, 2017May 14, 2019

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07/13/2018

Sally IngrahamJuly 13, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with news and comics from Rachel Masilamani! ————————————————————————————————— Rachel Masilamani lectured at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh last night, and in a lead-up to the event 90.5 WESA’s Bill O’Driscoll ran a feature about Masilamani and her comics. She talked about how Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics made her turn to the medium: ” “I had never thought to look critically at what I was doing when I read a comic, and then that made me really excited to try to do it on my own,” she said. “I thought, ‘Here I am, I’m a person who loves to tell stories and a person who loves to draw. Why didn’t I try this before?’” “It became really exciting to me to realize that there was a way that you can build stories and really welcome people in a new way, different than standing and talking, different than just writing, and different than illustrating someone else’s words,” she said. “ Masilamani’s main comics project of the last few years has been Nonpartum, which has been serialized on Mutha Magazine (read it here). This comic is her examination of pregnancy and motherhood and how the eyes of society view both from all angles. ” “I really want everybody to think about motherhood, and to think about how children are born, how we think about women, how we approach motherhood as a whole,” she said. “And I think that the form that I’m using opens a whole topic up to a new set of people who might not have realized that they wanted to read about it and they wanted to think about it.” “ Read the rest of the article and listen to the radio spot HERE. Juan here! Last night was really important for me as Rachel is a friend and an inspiration. She, in combination with Bill Boichel, are the very reason that I started making comics in Pittsburgh in 2010. I snapped some photos for posterity. Here’s hoping we can record a talk like this with Rachel to share with you online! Rachel offered up some great riffs and thoughts to serve as connective tissue across all her work. She’s making some truly titanic, contemporary comics that I can’t wait for you to see in the coming years. I wanted to appreciate Rachel a little with you all, she is quite simply, the primary reason why I started making comics. I made my first self-published comic,in response to a zine of Rachel’s that I’d found at Copacetic Comics’ old location in Squirrel Hill. It was this small, black and white zine for a $1 ‘Singing Contest’ was this amazing, relatively wordless story about a young girl living at the American-Mexican border. All the humans essentially don’t speak in words. All the word balloons are just filled with images. And there are these magical helpers, and they’re just animals from the desert and end up helping this girl in the story. In a traditional sense, she draws expertly in a naturalist mode. She works with color in a gorgeous way where she can lay another layer of meaning in her work just with the color, but it is not about the “good” drawing taking the work to this next level. Rather it’s about the way that the drawings and the words interconnect. Her ability to stitch and weave meaning and braid thoughts together. She’s able to achieve this lyrical prose that is just like utterly poetic in the combination of the images and the words. Her approach, he said, is experimental but accessible. What a godsend. She’s doing really deep, complicated communication and she’s able to do that and not lose you. Rachel does a really amazing job at inviting people to share that space with her on the page. She’s the reason why I started and is one of the reasons why I soldier on, trying to make beautiful things with images and words in this land that we call, comics. With that, I’d like to invite you to read all her work over on Mutha Magazine! Above is a page from the 4th chapter of Nonpartum – read all of it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Weekend Reading! Lisa Lim shares the story of her “Bad-Ass Grandmother” on Mutha Magazine – read it HERE. Check out Angie Wang‘s comic about searching for a cherished dish – Water-Boiled Fish – on Eater. G. Willow Wilson (co-creator of Ms. Marvel) is going to take over the writing of Wonder Woman in November...Paste Magazine has the details. Hyperallergic takes a look at Eleanor Davis‘ Why Art? – HERE. The London Free Press has a quick feature on Lisa Hanawalt‘s upcoming Coyote Doggirl. Here’s your quarterly reminder to check out the Women Write About Comics website! ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

04/03/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 2, 2017NewsWe start the week with Wilson and Dan Clowes, on old/new comic by Dash Shaw, insights from HTML Flowers and Michael Comeau, and Gloria Rivera’s CW Rowhouse Residency Report – plus much more! ————————————————————————————————— Dash Shaw wrote a “Filmmaker’s Letter” for Landmark Theater, which will be showing his film My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea! in locations around the country starting next week (find the complete list of showings HERE). Along with the letter, which details some of his thoughts behind the creation of the film, Dash shares the original mini-comic that inspired the film. The first spread is above – you can see the rest HERE. Read Dash’s Filmmakers Letter and be sure to see the film when it comes through your town! ————————————————————————————————— Daniel Clowes spoke to The Guardian recently about the similarities between the cynical world of his 90’s comics and this new “Trumpland” we live in – plus the experience of making Wilson, the new movie staring Woody Harrelson that is based on his 2010 comic of the same name. I read the comic and then saw the movie last week – Wilson the comic was quite amazing, and the movie didn’t disappoint either. Dan Clowes talks here about a powerful scene in the comic and the movie – and in real life, as it turns out: “You drew the graphic novel around the time your father was dying, and Wilson’s father dies in the book. How much of it is autobiographical? I began writing it when he was in the hospital, on his literal deathbed. He never got to see any of it. When I first began it was just something to keep my mind occupied while I was sitting in the hospital room with him. He was very much like Wilson’s dad, where he was just tuned out. He was clearly in his own head trying to process what was going on. I sort of expected that he would try to impart some, you know, final wisdom to his son, but he had no interest in that whatsoever. He was really just thinking about bigger things that I couldn’t comprehend. That’s a moment in the book, isn’t it? Yeah, it was a surprising moment in life and it was one of those things where we’d always had that kind of strained relationship where we never talked about anything deep or emotional. And I was waiting for that kind of my whole life. “When he’s dying, he’ll finally summon the courage to talk to me in that way!” and that just didn’t ever happen. That was very surprising, in a way. Even though it makes perfect sense: there was always this feeling that we had this unspoken thing between us, and now I realize maybe that thing can’t be put into words. Maybe that’s how it takes form – as an unspoken thing.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Shawn Starr interviews HTML Flowers and talks with him about the evolution of the No Visitors series. “There’s a greater focus on storytelling in No Visitors #2 compared to your earlier work, has your thoughts on writing comics changed? i started trying to really talk about my life in a simple, non fantasy manner. i wanted to build something, see myself changed or change things about my life that i can’t go back and change. show people how painful, rare & sometimes beautiful life with a chronic illness is. No Visitors #1 is basically just scraps and shorts that were all a part of the lead up to developing Little & his lifestyle, in fact i don’t really consider the series properly starting until No Visitors 2. i’ve been working up to this for years, now i’ve arrived and i feel so much myself. i feel like i’m really making the work i’m supposed to have always made in a weird way. lol destiny.“ Read more HERE. Get a copy of No Visitors #2 HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Nicole Burton of Ad Astra Comix interviews Michael Comeau. They discuss his comic Hellberta, which “has been described elsewhere on the internet as “one of the most meaningful and interesting” variations of a Wolverine comic, and I must agree. It explores the Canadian home of one of comic fandom’s most celebrated characters, against a background that is at once both more realistic and more surreal than your garden-variety Marvel title.” Ad Astra Comix is an activism-based comics publisher, so Nicole finds this comic easy to love: “NB: I often find myself fantasizing about the ability of the supernatural (and by extension, superheroes) solving the world’s social and political problems, beyond what I would see in your standard comic book. So I’ve found that Hellberta has been really satisfying for me and other activist folks I’ve shown it to. Would you describe Hellberta as a kind of political revenge porn, like Inglorious Bestards is to nazism or Django Unchained to slavery and racism? MC: I am a straight/cis/white man from Ontario who learned about Albertan activist culture among the oil sands boom while living and traveling with queer and trans people from Calgary. I was unsure how to depict the queer flight from Calgary or the environmental impact of the tar sands so I took a popular myth from the area and supplanted it onto the situation. What would Wolverine do? Superheroes are extensions and exaggerations of our hopes and fears I don’t really see them as rising above anything. I’d rather see them struggle with our same mundane problems in spite them being so exceptional.“ Later in the interview they also dig into the printing process of this exceptional duel-tone comic – good stuff for the printing nerds! Read the rest of the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Vulture has a spring comics preview which details mainstream and alternative comics releases. Among their picks is Simon Hanselmann‘s new book, One More Year (Fantagraphics, April 26th 2017). “…don’t let the straightforward nature of One More Year deceive you — it’s an astoundingly well-crafted and punishingly heartfelt depiction of mental illness and codependence, one that also manages to make you laugh uncomfortably at the horrible decisions made by the characters you’re watching. The use of longstanding visual and narrative tropes only serves to draw you in more and make each disaster all the more relatable.“ More HERE (including a brief write-up on Jillian Tamaki’s Boundless.) ————————————————————————————————— Gloria Rivera wrote a report about her stay at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency in March 2017. She came with the single expectation to work hard on making comics – but her experience turned out to be much greater than that. “I am more than willing to report that while the uninterrupted work time, the comics lectures, and accessible reading material was what whipped me into completing my goal, what I am bringing home with me – more than another book done – is a sense of what true community is, and the importance of holding your peers to standards that will benefit them in the longer run.“ Calling Pittsburgh “…a town constantly working its bellows to support its comics scene” Gloria returned home to California with renewed intention and a great sense of purpose. Read more about her experience HERE. Email santoroschool@gmail.com for more info on how to apply for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency! ————————————————————————————————— Also also Simon Hanselmann wrote a new episode of Truth Zone – check it out HERE. In related news, Dan Nadel reviews All Time Comics’ Crime Destroyer #1. The New York Times remembers Bernie Wrightson. Gary Panter has a new book coming out from Fantagraphics in May 2017! Keep an eye out for the two-color stamped cloth-bound hardcover book – Songy of Paradise – “an inspired interpretation of John Milton’s retelling of the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan after being baptized by John the Baptist and fasting for forty days and nights in the Judaean Desert“. In this version “Jesus” is a hillbilly named Songy. Stay tuned. Emil Ferris talks about My Favorite Thing Is Monsters on NPR’s Fresh Air. Bill Kartalopoulos looks “near and far for comics” on Commarts. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-3-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-3-2017 – by Tyler Landry ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-3-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

01/29/2018

Caleb OrecchioJanuary 29, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on amazing, dumb back-issues that won’t leave my brain, and other news. ————————————————————————————————— One of my favorite parts of comics culture is the scrounging for back-issues, which often feels like trying to find a lost wedding band in yesterday’s garbage—in a good way. I get a sincere rush from finding wacky crap from comic’s past. As I was scavenging the longboxes and finding some excellent garbage this past week, I was reminded of some things Chris Ware said in his recent RiYL interview: “Most great works of art don’t work in the present, they work in the memory.” ” will draw things in a certain way, especially in his more recent work, that is very uncomfortable or strange. I know he’s looked at comics by cartoonists who might be considered awkward or almost naive just as a way of making an image that has–as I think of it, personally–hooks that hang in your brain and stay with you.” In a recent back-issue find, Kull the Destroyer #19 (1976), there’s this sequence of “SHEMENON–THE GOD OF FIRE AND ICE–!” a wraith, a skeleton encapsulated in diamond whose “SOLE PURPOSE WAS TO FILL HIS CRYSTALLOID FLESH WITH LIFE!!” Very campy, classic mid-seventies Marvel stuff that the staff at The Comics Journal would have used as toilet paper. To read this comic in any way as to understand the narrative is a fool’s errand, and not worth the time of intelligent, discerning people. Yet! the images will not leave my mind! I find myself returning and going back over the fight between our hero and this jewel-encrusted executioner from hell! Old dumb boy adventure comics featuring superheroes, barbarians and flights of action-packed fever-dreams tend to fall into the “Minor Prophets” category of the comics “Bible.” When all the history of comics is laid before us, it’s comics like Kull the Destroyer #19 that tend to get ignored for various reasons; but it’s these very kinds of comics that tend to infest our subconscious and become active images in our memory when least expected—like an annoying radio jingle or something. Have you ever met a real Kirby-hater? Maybe you are one. You hate his comics for reasons others love him. People hate/love his weird knees, or they hate/love his square hands, or they hate/love the way he draws action or machines or whatever. Both parties remember the same things. Whether you like the art or not, the image is permanently branded onto the folds of your brain. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Ty Burr writes about How to Read Nancy, at the The Boston Globe, plus, the authors of said book, Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden, sit down for a radio interview. On the latest episode of Comic Books Are Burning in Hell, the boys talk about their favorite comics of 2017. Paul Tumey on Mark Campos, the Seattle mini comics maker at TCJ.com. The latest Process Party episode features Jason T. Miles, and on the same site, Study Group Comics, Will Tempest begins a web comic. Ryan C. has a guest spot on Your Chicken Enemy, he writes about Forsman’s Slasher. ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-29-2018 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

08/18/2016

HarrisonAugust 17, 2016NewsAugust 18th, 2016 comics news from wolves. ——————————————————————————————————————— Care Package Skuds McKinley sent the Rowhouse a package today, full of recent stuff for us to check out – things like his Plunder series with Swifty Lang (Boom Studios, pictured above) and the first Red-Eye Comics story, Dead Days in Kowloon (below). Keep up with Skuds on Instagram (@skudsink). Here’s a video of Frank Santoro interviewing Skuds in Philly back in 2012 – he’s been making great comics for bit. ——————————————————————————————————————— Pay Up http://auction.comicsworkbook.com/2016/08/18/portraits-by-connor-willumsen-pre-order/ ——————————————————————————————————————— Get Smart Columbus College of Art & Design is launching a new major dedicated to the study and practice of comics. In CCAD’s Comics & Narrative Practice program — accepting students starting in fall 2017 — students will work with comics professionals to learn how to write, illustrate and publish their own sequential art. The program is a perfect fit for Columbus, which is quickly gaining a national reputation as a comics hub. “Columbus is in a unique position to become a major center of comics study in the country, thanks to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus festival and our strong tradition of illustration at CCAD,” said Stewart McKissick, Chair of CCAD’s Comics & Narrative Practice and Illustration programs.” Read Up. Lessons “I got the chance to actually live the dream of being a comics artist myself when one of my best friends, Al Simonson, sent some of my ballpoint drawings to DC for a critique—and a form letter returned, with a handwritten note to “drop by if you’re ever in the neighborhood” at the bottom. Two seconds later (just kidding…it was actually five… ? I appeared at the Midtown Manhattan reception desk of the DC Comics offices, which were conveniently 45 minutes away by subway, from my home in the Bronx (back in those pre-9/11 days, anyone would just walk into DC Comics, right off the streets.) They noticed the color of my skin, along with the quality of my 16 year old scribblings, and decided to have me pencil the adventures of their first ever original black super-hero, Black Lightning—” Trevor Von Eeden speaks out. ——————————————————————————————————————— Knowledge ——————————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

04/28/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 28, 2017NewsSally here to close the week, joined by some of the cornerstones, gatekeepers, and “keepers of the flame” of the comics community – Lucy Caswell, Caitlin McGurk, Karen Berger, Dash Shaw, Frank Santoro, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Some weeks you get to meet and hang out with your heroes. Here in Pittsburgh we were lucky enough to not only get a screening of Dash Shaw’s new film My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea, but Dash himself came to town for a few days. He and Frank Santoro, who created the main exterior background paintings for the film, were interviewed onstage before a special screening at the Row House Cinema, and then there was a meet and greet after the film (photos from the event are above). I had been eagerly anticipating seeing the film, and it exceeded all my expectations. It’s beautiful and funny, with characters that I immediately identified with. I plan to see it in the theater several more times before it leaves town, and will be harassing all my friends into going as well. It plays in Pittsburgh at the Row House Cinema April 28th-May 4th. For a complete list of showings around the country, visit the official website HERE. It was cool to hear Dash talk about this type of animation and storytelling, dig into his inspirations and plans for future projects, and hear Frank’s take on being part – for a unique moment – of an animation “studio”. Most of the comics community in Pittsburgh came out for the special screening. This support of Dash and Frank was well deserved, of course – but I was even more excited that one of my comics students – a 9 year old boy – was in the audience as well. I heard afterward how much he liked the film and how thrilled he was to see the creators in real life. I can only hope that he will be inspired to keep making his own work and really invest his energy in the things he’s passionate about. Maybe he’ll be the next torchbearer. Who knows? It’s an interesting moment in the timeline of comics history, and Dash’s film, and Frank’s school, and the Pittsburgh scene, and my 9-year old student are all part of that moment. I can’t wait to see what happens next. In the meantime, go see My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea – go meet your heroes – go make your comics. ————————————————————————————————— In other news (and following a theme here, in a way), Columbus Alive celebrates the 40th anniversary of of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum with a nice feature piece. They spoke to Lucy Caswell, founding curator of the museum, about the collection’s origins. “…Caniff himself dubbed “the keeper of the flame.” “It’s hard to go back, in a way, because people think about cartoons and comics in a very different way than they did 40 years ago,” Caswell said when asked to recall those early years, when clarity and stability were in short supply. “We were outliers. When I started, I did what all good researchers would do and tried to find out what similar people had done in similar circumstances, but I found that there were no similar circumstances. We were trying to make something new, different. But I believed it was important, and there were administrators on campus who also felt it was important. Funding was always competitive, and they — the administrators in the School of Journalism and in University Libraries — had to convince higher-ups this was something to pay for.” “We were very fortunate that Milton Caniff … lived until 1988 and was a wonderful advocate for us. I can’t emphasize how important that was,” she added.“ Read the rest of the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Congratulations to Caitlin McGurk, Assistant Professor and Curator for Outreach for the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum – she is the recipient of the Annual Award in Teaching Excellence for 2016 from Ohio State University! “Caitlin’s agility in teaching across a wide range of courses demonstrates her adaptability and resourcefulness in bringing the unique resources of the BICLM collections to life for many faculty and students, and for others in the local community. Her outreach role has brought increasing national attention to the resources of the BICLM and to their potential for enriching curricula and deepening community engagement, and for enhancing the creativity of students and community members themselves. “ I am as much a fan of the work Caitlin does for the comics community as I am of any of my favorite cartoonists – so thanks Caitlin, and good luck as you continue! ————————————————————————————————— John Porcellino is working hard to bring the work of Jenny Zervakis back to the attention of the comics world – he has been raising funds to print The Complete Strange Growths, 1991-1997, which he hopes to debut at CAKE this year. Jenny is one of his favorite cartoonists, and this is a publishing project that he has hoped to do for over 20 years. He writes: “Jenny Zervakis is one of the great unsung creators of 1990’s DIY comics. Her zine Strange Growths was gentle and sincere at a time when most alt-comics were loud and sarcastic. They were poetic and allusive, delving into the heart of the human experience, and they were one of my biggest influences as a cartoonist.“ John P. is currently selling old and rare copies of his own work in order to fund the printing of this book – check it out HERE. You can see work from some of the Strange Growth issues and hear another glowing opinion from Kevin Bramer over on Optical Sloth. ————————————————————————————————— Karen Berger, editor extraordinaire, is starting her own imprint – Berger Books – under the banner of Dark Horse Comics. “As founder and head of DC Entertainment’s Vertigo imprint, Karen Berger brought ambitious, outré series like “Sandman” and “Preacher” to mass audiences, helped prove that comics weren’t limited to superhero adventures and kickstarted the careers of writers like Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore.“ Karen was at DC for 30 years – she left in 2013, but is now returning – to the sound of trumpets and general fanfare. Considering that she likes “weird shit“, and that part of her incentive for returning to comics stems from the need she sees for an artistic response to the Trump election, I can only imagine her line of graphic novels are going to be exciting! “In the next few months, Berger Books will announce its first titles. “I think I’ve been known for not publishing expected stuff,” Ms. Berger said, “and I think people will see that the first few books I’m publishing are not expected.” Among the first batch of titles, she hints, are “a near-future eco-fiction love story, a psychological crime horror thriller, a personal tale of race and identity, (and) an unseen side of a notorious legendary figure.” “ The Wall Street Journal has the rest of the details – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Extra, extra! Teen Vogue featured an excerpt from Melissa Mendes‘ and Anne Elizabeth Moore‘s ongoing comic series about the water crisis in Detroit. The full series so far can be found on Truthout. The Comics Beat speaks to Mariko Tamaki about her new series Supergirl: Being Super (which features art by Joelle Jones, of Lady Killers) – apparently the new comic captures “lightening in the bottle“. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-28-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-28-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-28-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Frank’s Comics Corner #3 – House of Mystery #177

Posted on February 24, 2017May 14, 2019 by Frank Santoro

Frank’s Comics Corner #3 – House of Mystery #177 – 2-16-17

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in EssaysTagged frank's comics corner, house of mystery

Comics Workbook

Posted on February 24, 2017May 14, 2019

Explore

03/14/2017

Aaron CockleMarch 13, 2017NewsAaron here today with Gloeckner/Gfrörer; Mirror Mirror 2; Thi Bui; Felat Delibalto; Anti-fiction, Anti-story; RIP Gustav Metzger ————————————————————————————————— Why are we talking about me, anyway? Let’s talk about you! Phoebe Gloeckner interviewed Julia Gfrörer at the TCJ blog, lots of good stuff to read and think about: GLOECKNER: The general neutrality of their appearance makes it seem all the more normal. You could project anything onto those people. GFRÖRER: This gets back to what to what we were talking about earlier, about how you don’t have a perception of yourself as a unique individual. To you, you’re the default, and everyone else is some weird variation on that. Right, and interesting, therefore. The idea that the neutral body is a thin, white body. That’s very political. It is. There is no neutral default body. There is none. That’s culturally constructed as the default. But it feels like, in your work, like you’re neutralizing those bodies, somehow. Yeah. Because that’s my relationship to it. That’s the body that I have. It feels neutral to me. It’s not something that I have moved outside of, because I feel so consumed by the puzzle of my own body. If it feels neutral to you because you’re housed in the same sort of casing as your characters, then does that subtract the political meaning from it? That’s what artists do. They project themselves — I think the political action in my work is that I want to show women as actors, rather than a receptive or decorative object. ————————————————————————————————— horror / pornography / the Gothic / the abject Additionally, Gfrörer has co-edited (with Sean T. Collins) the 2nd issue of 2dcloud’s Mirror Mirror anthology: featuring new comics and drawings by Lala Albert / Clive Barker / Heather Benjamin / Sean Christensen / Nicole Claveloux / Sean T. Collins / Al Columbia / Dame Darcy / Noel Freibert / Renee French / Meaghan Garvey / Julia Gfrörer / Simon Hanselmann / Hellen Jo / Hadrianus Junius / Aidan Koch / Laura Lannes / Céline Loup / Uno Moralez / Mou / Chloe Piene / Josh Simmons / Carol Swain Available via 2dcloud’s Kickstarter for its Spring Collection. ————————————————————————————————— ‘I learned about America mostly through books and TV.’ Robert Kirby reviews Thi Bui’s illustrated memoir, The Best We Could Do: With the issue of immigration currently hitting full boil stateside, the 2017 publication of The Best We Could Do couldn’t be more timely, or more welcome. Bui’s story movingly puts a human face to new arrivals to our country, illuminating the background of their lives and struggles. Contrary to the rhetoric of the most reactionary U.S. right-wing factions, immigrants are people, not statistics–more than the sum of their homelands, more than the color of their skin. Bui depicts, with unsparing candor, the multiple traumas associated with being forced out of one’s country into the unknown. ————————————————————————————————— Turkey Has Imprisoned a Political Cartoonist for Over 120 Days Felat Delibalta via the Nib. ————————————————————————————————— ‘…to create a concentrated emotional impact’ Ethan Joella has some thoughts (37 of them!) on short fiction: 9 One way to flout the rules of the traditional short story has to do with length. As Philip Stevick puts it, “how short can a story be?”10 Pieces that are less than the usual length, usually referred to as “flash fiction” or “short shorts,” were originally viewed as inferior, inadequate. Critics seemed to feel as if length were a prerequisite for quality. In Stevick’s words, those stories were “likely to strike discriminating readers as gimmicky, tricksy pieces of commercial fluff whose shortness is possible only because of the slickness of their construction. How short can a serious fiction be? As short as one likes? That’s too easy an answer. A fiction must be long enough to display the art and craft of its writer, his own vision, his voice, his power. The minimal story, in fact, is an experiment no less audacious than the others.”11 10 The short but powerful story “Taboo” by Enrique Anderson Imbert is a mere snippet of a story. Only five sentences and four paragraphs long, it must have appeared to critics as a fraction of something real, an evasion of seriousness. The central character, Fabian, is warned by his guardian angel not to say the word doyen. Fabian repeats the word as a question, and the last sentence of the story reads: “And he dies,”12 a poignant climax. The value of this story actually lies in its simplicity, its directness and sharp detail. 11 Jamaica Kincaid is a groundbreaking writer. Her story “Girl,” for example, transfigures traditional fiction by toying with form. This particular story, less than three pages long, is written in only one long sentence. The piece is a series of phrases and exclamations separated by semicolons and linked by dashes: “… this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit….”13 12 Resembling a process-analysis instructional essay, “Girl” pithily conveys the lukewarm, peremptory sentiments of a cynical mother barking orders to her daughter so she will, in some way, succeed in life. Each word seems to be chosen vigilantly for maximum effect; each exclamation is pieced together like an intricate quilt. ————————————————————————————————— ‘a desperate last-minute subversive political weapon … an attack on the capitalist system … an attack also on art dealers and collectors who manipulate modern art for profit’ Artist Gustav Metzger has passed away at age 90. Mr. Metzger discovered his ideal medium for auto-destructive art with a form of action painting. Wearing a gas mask and protective goggles, he gave a dramatic demonstration of his work in the 1960s, spraying hydrochloric acid on nylon, which melted, curled and shredded into tatters. He executed the work at an outdoor site in London, revealing St. Paul’s Cathedral in the distance through acid-burned holes. “Auto-destructive art was never merely destructive,” he said in 2012. “Destroy a canvas, and you create shapes.” ————————————————————————————————— We are diving into a busy 2nd year of the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency! Interested in joining us for a week or more? Email santoroschool@gmail.com to learn how to apply. There are still openings in May, with a wait list available for the summer months. After a break for show season we will be picking up scheduling once again in late October. 500 bux for a week and a life-changing experience. Read some of our Residency Reports HERE. Email santoroschool@gmail.com for more info. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 3-14-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-14-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-14-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Cozytown – 3-14-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

03/28/2017

Aaron CockleMarch 28, 2017NewsAaron here today with Samplerman; Alice Neel; Raymond Pettibon (in Conversation); MOCCAFEST 2017 Looms ————————————————————————————————— I have always chosen the DIY way to make my fanzines and minicomics: it is affordable and it mostly requires commitment and time. Frank Young interviews Yves ‘Samplerman’ Guillo over on The Comics Journal: I would imagine you use Adobe Photoshop, or a similar computer program, to assemble your images. Does your creative process occur within those programs? Or do you make sketches or do other pre-planning before each image is assembled? Some “Samplerman” images seem extremely composed, while others have a feeling of spontaneity. The blending of these two opposites is a compelling factor in your work. The creative moment occurs mostly when I face the computer screen. I only make sketches when the computer is not on—when I take a walk with a paper and pen in my pocket, or when I have an idea related to structure or geometry for potential compositions. I am always thinking about some elementary geometrical manipulations, combined and applied to the samples. Squares, triangles and circles are everywhere. And I fear this is where my work could start being boring and repetitive—I could apply this to anything. I try to keep a sense of movement in my work. Sometimes I feel the urge to break my composition, to destabilize the eye-scan and push it toward the next panel. I tend to use symmetry a lot when I start putting together a background and the elements. It’s somewhat satisfying but at the same time it paralyzes any feeling of movement. I usually end up distorting the symmetry I rely on. I try to give it a shake and extend the life of these unearthed objects in any way, like a mad scientist. ————————————————————————————————— Alice Neel, Uptown Hilton Als has curated an exhibit of work by Alice Neel, at David Zwirner through 22 April: …the first comprehensive look at Neel’s portraits of people of color, is an attempt to honor not only what Neel saw, but the generosity behind her seeing. ————————————————————————————————— Raymond Pettibon in Conversation with Massimiliano Gioni Thursday, March 30, 7pm at the New Museum Join us for a special conversation between artist Raymond Pettibon and Massimiliano Gioni, Edlis Neeson Artistic Director of the New Museum, on the occasion of the survey “Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work.” Gioni and Pettibon will discuss the artist’s storied trajectory over the last four decades, during which Pettibon has gained a reputation as one of the most influential and visionary living American artists. The conversation will take its cues from “Raymond Pettibon: A Pen of All Work,” which occupies the three main floors of the Museum and includes more than eight hundred drawings from the 1960s to the present, as well as a number of his early self-produced zines and artist’s books and several videos made in collaboration with fellow artists and his musician friends. Although Pettibon has been an unquestionably pivotal figure of American art since the 1990s, he has never before had a major museum survey exhibition in New York. ————————————————————————————————— MoCCA 2017 The Society of Illustrators-sponsored, Museum of Cartooning and Comic Arts (MoCCA) Festival will be taking place this weekend, April 1-2, at Metropolitan West, 639 West 46th Street, NYC. As with previous years, there will be some great panel discussions, organized by CW favorite Bill Kartalopoulos as well as satellite programming of events and activities. Here are a few highlights from the Sunday programming schedule: 12:30PM / Helvetica Room Teaching Comics Internationally For much of their history, comics have been a self-taught discipline. Now students are learning how to make comics in a variety of academic environments, from dedicated schools to majors to minors to electives. This panel will bring together a group of international comics educators to discuss the programs they teach in and the different ways in which they approach teaching comics. Bill Kartalopoulos will lead a conversation with Jessica Abel (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, US), Guillaume Dégé (Haute école des arts du Rhin, France), Ben Katchor (Parsons The New School for Design, US), and Merav Solomon (Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Israel). 2:00PM / Garamond Room Rutu Modan and David Polonsky in Conversation Israeli artists Rutu Modan and David Polonsky are both known for the excellence of their artwork and for their provocative approach to blending historical and current events into their imaginative works. Modan is best known in North America for her graphic novels Exit Wounds and The Property and for her short story collection Jamilti. Polonsky is best known in North America as the art director for the animated film Waltz With Bashir, directed by Ari Folman. He is also the illustrator of the graphic novel based upon the film. Modan and Polonsky will discuss their work with comics scholar and writer Tahneer Oksman (How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses?). 2:00PM / Helvetica Room RESIST! In the weeks between the 2016 Presidential election and the 2017 inauguration, Françoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman edited RESIST!, a newsprint anthology of comics and cartoons, mostly by women. 58,000 copies of the newspaper were distributed for free by a grassroots network of volunteers during the Women’s Marches in Washington and across the country. RESIST! used online networks to solicit contributions and in the process became a new kind of hybrid platform: both an ongoing online forum for urgent expression by diverse voices and a print publication that has its roots in the Sixties underground press. In this special session, Mouly and Spiegelman will discuss the development — and the future — of RESIST! 3:30PM / Garamond Room Anthologies as Art: Kramers Ergot and Lagon The great anthologies of comics history — Zap, Weirdo, RAW, and others — have both made an assertion of comics’ aesthetic ambition at a certain time and place while functioning as a personal expression by each series’ editors. Sammy Harkham is the editor of Kramers Ergot, the anthology which, since 2003, has generated excitement with each volume as a strong statement about contemporary art comics in North America. Alexis Beauclair is the co-editor of Lagon, which debuted in 2014 as a risographed encapsulation of French avant-garde comics, and has metamorphosed with each volume leading to the latest, Gouffre. They will discuss their work as artists and editors with Bill Kartalopoulos. There will (presumably) be comics for sale at this show, along with the requisite prints, stickers and tote bags. Maybe there will be some more t-shirts for sale this year as well? Come on out to the far west side this weekend and take a look! ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 3-28-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-28-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-28-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Bill Griffith Searching for Beatnik Comics

Juan FernándezApril 7, 2016EssaysBill Griffith Searching for Beatnik Comics at COPACETIC COMICS PITTSBURGH PA USA – Shot and Edited by John Kelly Share this page: [...]

07/11/2017

Aaron CockleJuly 10, 2017NewsAaron Cockle today with Leslie Stein; Joan Cornellà; Exploratory Works; Jason Lutes; TSA Book Update; Guy Delisle ————————————————————————————————— ‘Death, depression, alcohol abuse, god, and suicide, as well as tales of exes, a trip to a barbershop quartet convention, a job as a telemarketer, and childhood holidays’ Ken Parille with ‘A Brief Appreciation’ of Leslie Stein: Stein also takes a minimalist approach to backgrounds, perhaps as a way to reinforce the subjective, personal focus of the memories she recounts. Some artists concentrate too much on figures and foreground, making environments seem less important and weakening the story dynamic of character-place interaction. But it’s always clear where her characters are — bedroom, streets, bar, satanic ritual, etc. And though “Holy Jolly Sabbath”’s minimalism contributes to its sense of openness, its layout also gestures to the “grid conventions” of symmetry, balance, and order. Page one starts with an upper-left corner image bleed and ends with a lower-right corner bleed. Page two uses a familiar arrangement in which the page’s final “row” is anchored by one large panel that sits beneath several smaller-sized panels (which again, in Stein, are not really panels) ————————————————————————————————— Joan Cornellà: A New York Solo Exhibition co-hosted by Factotum Productions & Huli Erizo July 14 – July 30, 2017 11am – 7pm Josée Bienvenu Gallery, 2nd floor 529 W 20th Street (between 10th & 11th Ave), NYC ————————————————————————————————— Closing this Sunday at The Drawing Center: Exploratory Works: Drawings from the Department of Tropical Research Field Expeditions This exhibition brings to light for the first time an archive of images that illustrate the formation of our modern definition of nature. William Beebe (1877–1962) was one of America’s greatest popularizers of ecological thinking and biological science. Beebe literally took the lab into the jungle, rather than the jungle to the lab. The Department of Tropical Research was pioneering in that, under Beebe’s direction, women were hired as lead scientists and field artists. Artist Isabel Cooper, joining in 1919, publicly relished her opportunity to travel through the jungles of Guyana juggling a “vivid serpent or tapestried lizard in one hand, and the best grade of Japanese paintbrush in the other.” The structure of The Drawing Center’s exhibition mirrors the two salient stages of the Department of Tropical Research’s investigations: jungle field station work and floating laboratories for marine biology —revealing that artists and scientists worked closely and productively in the near past and that scientists once understood art as a valuable tool for promoting ecological thinking to a broad public. For the exhibition at The Drawing Center, Mark Dion constructed two installations which take as their inspiration images of the interiors of the DTR field stations. While one of the installations will develop the space of the jungle laboratories, the other will look to the oceanographic workshops. Numerous images in the WCS archive depict the work situations and interior conditions in both the tropical forest field stations and the floating labs of the research vessels. Curated by Mark Dion, Katherine McLeod, and Madeleine Thompson. ————————————————————————————————— “I had never imagined that the city that I’d studied for so long would actually strike me as beautiful.” Daniel A. Gross spoke with Jason Lutes about Lutes’s long book, Berlin, and the contemporary and historical context it now/still holds: At the same time, Lutes felt that after spending 23 years on the project, he couldn’t give in to the temptation to turn his comic into an allegory for the Trump era. “I still plan to stay true to the characters and their context, without letting current events color things in any overt way,” he says of the final chapters. For all the similarities between Berlin and the United States today, the present can seem in some ways unprecedented. “We’re in a place where reality feels like speculative fiction, which makes historical fiction like my book seem quaint.” ————————————————————————————————— UPDATE: TSA Ends Test of Separate Scanning for Books I had posted about this last week, Maren Williams at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund discussing the Transportation Security Administration’s enhanced screening of books at some airports in the U.S.: In a press statement, the TSA said that it “understands privacy concerns and only inspects items to clear them of dangerous/prohibited items.” Separately in a public-facing blog post, the agency said that pilot tests had been conducted and subsequently ended at only two airports. It then made some curious attempts at humor in dismissing privacy concerns: ur adversaries seem to know every trick in the book when it comes to concealing dangerous items, and books have been used in the past to conceal prohibited items. We weren’t judging your books by their covers, just making sure nothing dangerous was inside. ————————————————————————————————— ‘I want the reader to have the physical sensation of time passing. That’s why the book is four hundred pages.’ Simon Ostrovsky talks with Guy Delisle in support of Delisle’s new book, Hostage: I wouldn’t put fiction in—that would compromise the rest of the book. It’s all taken from my notes, which I still have, and I go through them to find things that are funny, strange, weird. A comic book is a mix of drawing and text, and it’s very powerful, it’s a concentrate. It’s like you have five seconds for one page, and you can switch from drawing to text, text to drawing, and you can find a solution where you can make it come together. I like that, because I’m always afraid of boring people. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 7-11-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-11-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-11-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

02/09/2017

Sally IngrahamFebruary 8, 2017NewsSam Ombiri and Sally Ingraham bring the Thursday news – Sam riffs on books within books and title cards, and Sally shares news from John Jennings, Chris Ware (on George Herriman), Fantom Comics in D.C., Darrin Bell, and Ronald Wimberly and his new book. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I was reading Infomaniacs and at the same time I was reading The League of Divine Wind by a certain Tsunanori Yamao – they both addressed this one issue I feel all the time; it’s a really simple concept that’s often tackled. (To Be Or)Not to be still yapping about my petty frustration with what I was yapping about last week…but…it amazes me how a book by an imaginary author commands more respect than a real human being’s work. [Editor’s Note: In Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima, a character is given a copy of the pamphlet The League of Divine Wind and part of the rest of the story involves him reading it…] I think since The League of Divine Wind is a book within a book, the actual author can give his own book rave reviews in the narrative. (The author being who he is, I’m very, very sure he didn’t care about his reception whatsoever, or at least that’s what I’m guessing.) That might be a good solution to someone who keeps having bad reception. I think Matt Thurber said something like, “World building is a good solution for your frustration of getting lost all the time.“ I was watching Simpsons Season 3 I think. There’s one episode where Homer saves the town from a meltdown – that was just amazing. It was broken down into what felt like seasons, or chapters of emotions running through Homer, but without giving this so much attention that it was nauseating. Like an example of that more recently would be in Moonlight – the way it’s chapters were broken down. It kind of felt like something that I couldn’t quite get with. I felt as I was watching it – and this was confirmed by an article I was reading (I think it was an interview) – that it was an attempt to be Claire Dennis. It was while watching those title cards which broke down the chapters that I felt a little agitated – as his [Moonlight‘s director, Barry Jenkins] solution to what Claire Dennis accomplished was with the cheapest, most easy means possible. It felt a bit dishonest, and of course it more than likely wasn’t – and to some effect it worked – but there’s something nagging at me, telling me that there is too little being accomplished in the way Barry Jenkins is biting Claire Dennis. Claire Dennis bites too of course, but it always feels earned. At least with what I’ve seen. The way Barry bit felt exploitative and a tad immature. It just felt that way. I’m not speaking of the whole movie, just the parts of the movie where the title cards of the chapter were forced in. I remember in an essay about Sundays y Cybele it said something like, “Some feel the music in the movie is pretentious.” The writer of the essay came off as if he was in on it, and smart, and so down to earth that he could admit something – something that didn’t affect his enjoyment of the movie. Which is fine. The thought didn’t even cross my mind when watching Sundays y Cybele. While the aforementioned part of the essay bothered me, I feel it’s a bit of a similar thing going on here with those title cards, except it wasn’t a scenario where it didn’t effect my enjoyment. The music wasn’t what I despised, it was something else. It was the title cards and the music with the title cards. There were parts that were real impressive, but…I don’t know. As an aside. I’m not a good writer by any means. By any means! Criterion has to do something about their essays, though, seriously. I’m not speaking about the one that came with Sundays y Cybele, and I’ve only read a few, (and it’s a pretty weird generalization to make, as the essays come from all over) but I’m real surprised at how bad they can be. There are some really good ones. (Like this one on Tarkovsky and Solaris by Akira Kurosawa.) Anyway, it was really impressive the way the Simpsons did this thing they did. It starts off with Homer saying if they look up idiot in the dictionary my picture will be there, and then this picture comes to his head of him in the dictionary with the word idiot written there, and then it’s used the rest of the episode in this impressive way. – Sam Ombiri Sam Ombiri – 2-9-2017 ————————————————————————————————— Sally here: Eight years after the publication of Black Comix – an anthology edited by Professor John Jennings and Dr. Damian Duffy that collected art and essays celebrating the African American independent comics community – we are excited to announce that Black Comix Returns will be hitting bookshelves soon! The original publication featured “over 50 contributors, including Dawud Anyabwile, Eric Battle, Kenji Marshall, Afua Richardson, Larry Stroman, Rob Stull, Lance Tooks, and many, many more.” It sold out with remarkable speed. The comics industry changed a bit over the last eight years, and many new creators have arrived on the scene, so instead of simply reprinting the book John and Damian are creating a whole new anthology. Check out the Kickstarter campaign HERE. They made their first goal in a few days, and with almost a month left they have some big dreams and stretch goals to reach. They have over 100 artists and writers involved – including Kyle Baker, Keith Knight, Ronald Wimberly, Whit Taylor, Ben Passmore, Chris Visions, Tanna Tucker, and Ashley A. Woods – the book is guaranteed to be incredible! Back the project and look forward to the book. Take a moment to get to know Professor John Jennings while you’re at it – he has been called “the soul of black comix” and is the co-founder/organizer of The Schomburg Center’s Black Comic Book Festival in Harlem, the co-founder and organizer of the MLK NorCal’s Black Comix Arts Festival in San Francisco and also SOL-CON: The Brown and Black Comix Expo at the Ohio State University. He earned an Eisner award for the collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art, which he co-edited. He is an artist and writer as well as an editor/scholar/educator – look for his most recent book, Blue Hand Mojo: Hard Times Road coming out in March 2017. ————————————————————————————————— We linked last week to the incredible piece on Krazy Kat that Chris Ware wrote for The New York Review of Books – but it deserves a second look. Adapted from an essay which will appear in the catalog of an exhibition on George Herriman at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, in Madrid, Spain (opening in October 2017), the piece is Chris Ware’s love letter to Krazy Kat and the strip’s mysterious author, George Herriman. Chris Ware theorizes that although Herriman successfully passed as white all his life, he voiced his true identity through his strip in not-so-subtle ways. The details that Ware delves into – Krazy’s banjo, for example (seen above) – are fascinating, and he writes beautifully about what might have gone through Herriman’s head as he drew the strip. “Lately, I’ve been wondering if Herriman knew that one day his secret-in-plain-sight would be uncovered, that America would change, adapt and grow up enough as a people to understand Krazy Kat in all of its psychological and poetic depth. I’m not sure if we’ve yet reached that point, but what myself and other cartoonists already knew—that the strip was already the greatest ever drawn—is now magnified, multiplied and maximized. Krazy Kat is not just one of the greatest comic strips, it’s one of the strangest, most inventive, emotional, and personal works of art of the twentieth century. In their admiration for Herriman, Philip Guston, Willem de Kooning, and Jack Kerouac sensed something in his line and voice that was endemically American, deeply felt. Herriman should now take his rightful place as one of the most original African-American voices of the early twentieth century, contemporary with, if not predating, Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston as one of the first writers to understand the racial animus of America and to try to fix the essence of black consciousness on paper. That Herriman made it come alive, sing, dance and suffer in an art form barely fifty years old is all the more astonishing. For decades, we’ve all been reading and laughing and, most of all, feeling for Krazy Kat, who passed right under our eyes as a living drawing on a page. But what we were really feeling came straight from the heart. It was the very soul of George Herriman himself.“ Read the rest of the piece – To Walk in Beauty – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Fantom Comics in Washington, D.C., is hosting a rad event on February 15th 2017. Ronald Wimberly will be there signing Prince of Cats and Black History In Their Own Words, and there will also be a roundtable discussion with Ron, Chris Visions, Shannon Wright, and Chris Kindred. If you’re in the District be sure to check this out! Event details are HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Darrin Bell is an award-winning cartoonist whose work “navigates issues such as civil rights, pop culture, family, science fiction, scriptural wisdom and nihilist philosophy while often casting subjects in roles that are traditionally denied them. According to Darrin, “There’s nothing more fundamentally all-American than a square peg that insists on filling a round hole.” “ He has a daily comic strip called Canderville – check it out HERE – and is also the creator of Rudy Park – follow it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Wired lists Ronald Wimberly’s Black History In It’s Own Words among their 5 Comics You Absolutely Must Pick Up This Month. The Comics Alliance is helping folks sort through The Best Comics Ever (This Week) – a.k.a. their recommendations on which comics to read as they come out – and their list also include’s Ronald Wimberly’s Black History In It’s Own Words this week, among others. ————————————————————————————————— 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. ————————————————————————————————— 2-9-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-9-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-9-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-9-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

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