Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Photos

Juan Fernández

Posted on June 19, 2016May 15, 2019

Explore

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: [...]

05/05/2017

Sally IngrahamMay 5, 2017NewsSally here with Free Comic Book Day 2017 offerings, Eisner Award nominees, and a Conosaurus (a what now?) – plus work by Madeleine Witt, Julia Alekseyeva, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow – May 6th – and this year’s offerings look fantastic. As Caleb mentioned in the news on Monday, it will be definitely be worth standing in line for a copy of Fantagraphic’s book (above)! Drawn & Quarterly has a collection for kids, and a second offering that includes excerpts from two French comics that are debuting in English this year. Nobrow Press and First Second also have free comics for the day, and of course there is a whole slew of items from the mainstream publishers – you can see the whole list HERE. Find a participating comics shop near you using the Store Locator. ————————————————————————————————— Madeleine Witt has a new comic on Guernica called Under the Water. It’s about baptism, rising seas, and the end of the world. Read it HERE. She and Andrew White are editing an anthology about “the end of the world” together – debuting at SPX this year. You can see a sampling of the contributors to the anthology HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Eisner Awards Nominations for 2017 were announced this week. Congratulations to everyone who was nominated! Over on The Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon posted the list, complete with links to every book and story and webcomic, so be sure to investigate what caught the eye of the judges this year. ————————————————————————————————— Meg Lemke shares a excerpt from Soviet Daughter by Julia Alekseyeva on Illustrated PEN. Meg writes: “In this current moment of xenophobia in our country, reading this story is a powerful reminder of how little support remains for families seeking refuge—if they are not in fact barred at the border. Alekseyeva’s book is published by the indie Microcosm, and its lovingly hand-drawn style reminds me of xeroxed zines passed hand-to-hand, the kind of micropublication the press was founded to distribute. But the intimacy of the art accomplishes the ambitions of a multilayered, generation-spanning graphic novel. This is a book to read now and a creator to watch into the future.“ See the full excerpt and read more HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out the Conosaurus, created by Stephanie Zuppo (cartoonist and publisher of The Ladybroad Ledger) and John Wojtkielewicz (developer). The Conosaurus is a database intended to help creators manage their comics convention schedules. “Currently, Conosaurus is focused on indie and mainstream comic conventions, zine fairs, and independent publishing festivals. We will expand to other convention types to meet the demand of the community. This is just the beginning!“ ————————————————————————————————— On The Comics Journal R. C. Harvey shines the light on an interview he conducted in 1996 with Playboy comics editor Michelle Urry. The piece is a fascinating look at the history of gag comics, their adventures in Playboy magazine (comics were officially discontinued in 2016), and the fascinating career of Michelle Urry herself. Check it out – you’ll need a nice chunk of time to really dig into it, but the article/interview is worth the effort. ————————————————————————————————— I love Street Angel so I was delighted to note that the newest story by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca is already available for pre-order! STREET ANGEL GANG! “What if Kal El had been found by the Warriors instead of the Kents? The deadliest girl alive accidentally joins a super violent street gang. Are the Bleeders the family Jesse never had, or is Jesse the child they never wanted? What? Free snacks at the gang tryout party! Also, SCANDAL – one of the Bleeders is a spy!“ Get your comic book shops to pre-order Street Angel Gang asap – it’ll be out August 1st! Meanwhile, be sure to check out Street Angel: After School Kung Fu Special (Image Comics, April 2017). ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Summer Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! 8 weeks! 500 bux! Payment plans are available! Summer Course starts June 1st 2017! Applications are due by May 25th. Visit THIS page for more details and email santoroschool@gmail.com with applications and questions! ————————————————————————————————— The Cherry on Top M. K. Brown has a really nice new website – check it out HERE. Among her recent projects are comics for the new publication The American Bystander. Kate Lacour‘s comic currently being released on Study Group – The Disciple – is reviewed on The A.V. Club. Keep an eye on this new project by Mitra Farmand and her sister Maryam – Childhood Memories of the Iran/Iraq War. They are telling their own story, and are also looking for submissions from other folks about their experiences during the Iran/Iraq war. Rob Clough reviews November Garcia‘s Foggy Notions on The Comics Journal. November is an established cartoonist, but she is also a recent graduate of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers. See her course comic – Cycle – HERE. Katherine Collins was profiled in Quill and Quire – she will be inducted into the Doug Wright Awards’ Giants of the North hall of fame this month, and we will also see the release of The Collected Neil the Horse in May. Katie Skelly spoke on The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Podcast about the erotic comics of two classic European creators – Guido Crepax and Milo Manara. Listen HERE. G. Willow Wilson still has faith in comics – according to an article on The New Yorker. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-5-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 5-5-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/07/2016

HarrisonApril 7, 2016NewsFor April 7 News and insights; Cameron has visions of cats on top of beats, comics about haircuts and squirrels, and artists you should know. ————————————————————————————————— RVA (RICHMOND,VIRGINIA) SHOUT OUT! ? ? ? ? ? Cameron here, this time I’d like to shout out a RVA artist who’s been killin’ the game for some time now, Chris Visions. I’m not citing a back story other than that he was born to be a great artist. From doing covers for Marvel and DC to having a full series of his own, written by Chris Sabela; Dead Letters, I advise you to check it out like right now! There are infinitely great things I can say about Chris so I’ll keep this short. This dude’s Illustration work is marvelous; the shapes create striking figures with unforgettable poses. He knows how to really put a story to each of the characters he draws/paints. Man, all I can say about his comic pages is CHECK THEM OUT! Seriously, go see them. You’ll see how great they are. Last but surely not least this man’s portfolio is filled with more colorful, striking, masterful pieces then anyone could did, Ya Dig?! Here’s a link to his website, AND if any of ya’ll are at Emerald City Comic Con this weekend, go see him at TABLE X-01! He makes rad videos too: EVERY WEEK I’m going to try and feature an RVA artist. I won’t be able to feature EVERYONE, but here and there I’ll mention some great people! ATTENTION ATTENTION! ? ? ? ? ? ? If you haven’t heard, Ronald Wimberly’s PRINCE OF CATS WILL BE GETTING A REPRINT BY IMAGE COMICS. If you don’t know who Ron Wimberly is then let me fill you in. He is a kick ass, bad ass, comic artist who constantly puts out beautiful pieces one after the other. He also has an updated comic on STELA called GratNin! Check it out on your cellular devices. Here’s a link to his Tumblr so you can follow and support a great comic artist! MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC! FAT BEATS since 1994. I wont say much, go listen for yourself. Marvelous beats for the everyday grind. Comics are for EVERYONE! ————————————————————————————————— Home Kurt Ankeny’s latest update to his series In Pieces: Someplace Which I Call Home is on ComicsWorkbook. The sharp marks for pupils, eye glasses, and flesh against the softer graphite borders create an inviting contrast. More so, Kurt’s script works as the consistent foreground for his narration throughout the series. Pre Order Some Copies Read from the beginning ————————————————————————————————— Buddies Filmmakers Charles Huettner and Sean Buckelew of L8Night WorkClub have a movie discussion/animation art talk podcast called Movie Buddies. This episode they rightfully gushed over Ryan Coogler’s second movie Creed with fellow filmmaker Brian Smee. In the second half of the show I asked them who some of their favorite black artists were and they gave some good answers that others should check out. Listen Here ————————————————————————————————— it’s the vestiges of my “career” that I should abandon anyway Kimball Anderson ? (Not a squirrel but close) ————————————————————————————————— Sticks and Stones Share this page: [...]

08/17/2017

Sally IngrahamAugust 17, 2017NewsSally here with work by Indian cartoonists Sarnath Banerjee, and Appupen – plus a few other comics news notes! ———————————————————————————————— A recent Comics Workbook Rowhouse resident – Javed Haque – brought along a copy of Corridor by Sarnath Banerjee to show us. This comic has been loudly touted as India’s first graphic novel – a masterful publicity move, which, although it is untrue, helped get international eyes on the book and brought good attention and energy to the alt-comics scene in India. The River of Stories by Orijit Sen was published in 1994, and is actually the first Indian graphic novel. Corridor, created by Sarnath Banerjee in 2004, it is set in contemporary Delhi and follows the adventures of 4 characters. At the center of the group is Jehangir Rangoonwala, something of a Socrates wannabe who owns the second hand bookshop where the other characters meet and mingle. Brighu is searching for rare books and maybe an even rarer love. Digital Dutta meanders among his own dreams and ambitions, but makes little progress. Shintu is recently married, and quite caught up in keeping his domestic life spicy. Written and drawn by Sarnath Banerjee (who grew up in Calcutta and Delhi in the 70’s) the artwork is a mixture of black and white drawings, color work, and collage. Banerjee captures Delhi street life and “the psyche of middle-class India” deftly, and with compassionate humor. He has gone on to publish 3 more comics – The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers (2007), The Harappa Files (2011), and All Quiet in Vikaspuri (2016). In a great interview from last year on Guernica Magazine, Sarnath Banerjee talks about how he came to make Corridor. He was more of a documentary film maker, but through a string of small miracles he received a version of the McArthur Genius Award, and suddenly had to produce the graphic novel he had accidentally pitched. He actually went to Orijit Sen (who if you recall made India’s true first graphic novel) in the hope that Sen would draw the stories Banerjee had written. He got encouragement and support, but not an artist. So he drew Corridor himself. “I started at the deep end. I learned while writing the book. I started drawing all the time after that. Like a maniac. My ex-wife recently told me that when she was cleaning up our house she found trunks—I had forgotten about this—trunks and trunks full of notebooks on which every surface had been drawn. I drew everything. I drew toasters, air conditioners, chairs, people and flowers. I was a maniac. I drew, drew, drew, drew, drew. And that’s how I learned. Purely by doing. In Japan there’s a phrase for it, it’s called aware karada, which basically means learning through your body. You practice something to the point where you don’t think anymore about it. It just comes out. The brain and hand barrier is absolutely taken out. So I think now I don’t think about my drawing at all. It just comes the way it comes. Another thing that was good about working in this entirely new medium—new to India at least—and not getting published was that it makes you learn everything from scratch. Which is why I feel that every graphic novelist from India—Amruta Patil, Vishwajyoti Ghosh, Orijit Sen, Appupen—is phenomenally original.“ I highly recommend reading the rest of this interview. Banerjee is a very thoughtful and interesting person and there is a crash course on Indian comics, film, and other pop culture to be had just by perusing this conversation. Read it HERE. I’ll be tracking down Banerjee’s other comics asap – and also looking for Orijit Sen’s comic. Sen has been making a ruckus lately with politically charged artwork – a recent article about his work and life can be found HERE. While I’m at it, I may as well link you up to the other comics makers Banerjee mentioned above – here’s Amruta Patil; Vishwajyoti Ghosh – an interview on TCJ; and Appupen. ———————————————————————————————— My research sucked me in and I discovered this comic by Appupen – Dedshort #7: The Ring of the Lord, originally published on Brainded. Appupen wrote: “This classic story has stood the test of time in Halahala. You can clearly see their influence on some popular stories of our world.” More on Appupen, from his website: “Appupen is a comics creator, visual artist and musician who tells stories from a mythical world called Halahala. Armed with a skewed view of the world and a sarcastic bite, he is a unique voice in Indian comics and comics in general. God recently appeared to him and said he needs to push out his comics more and hence this effort. Please help him.” As per this stated mission, there are tons more comics on his site – check them out HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Other News of Note Unaiza Ali Barlas, a 20-year-old Lahore-based cartoonist, has been officially named in the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the world’s longest strip. Her strip is 267.38 metres (877 feet) long! More details HERE. Tara Betts is interviewed on LA Review of Books – she is the editor of the anthology The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives About Being Mixed Race in the Twenty-First Century (which includes work by Pittsburgh cartoonist Rachel Masilamani) – interview HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 8-17-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ———————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 8-17-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/05/2018

Sally IngrahamApril 5, 2018NewsSally here with “Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story”, plus comics by Morrie Turner, Brumsic Brandon Jr., and Ted Shearer! ————————————————————————————————— Yesterday we marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and PREVIEWSworld took the opportunity to share a particularly important comic – Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story(above). “In the late 1950s, as the Civil Rights Movement was gaining strength throughout the country, the peace organization The Fellowship of Reconciliation saw the need to promote their philosophy of nonviolent resistance to as many people as possible. To accomplish this, they used one of the most accessible formats of the day – the comic book – to tell the story of the successful bus boycotts by African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, and the man who helped inspire them.“ Originally handed out in churches and nonviolence workshops, this comic was a powerful inspiration to many. You can read the whole thing HERE. The creation of the comic is a pretty interesting story in itself. Originally conceived by a man who didn’t allow his own kids to read comics – Alfred Hassler – it was meant to help convey the ideas of the Civil Rights Movement to the semiliterate. The comic soon became something much greater than anyone would have guessed. You can read a very thorough examination of it’s history and influence HERE. It is interesting to note that the identity of the artist who drew the comic has been entirely lost. Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story helped inspire John Lewis to write the award winning March trilogy, with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell. Check out that comic HERE. ————————————————————————————————— There were a couple of cartoonists who found their work in much greater demand immediately following the death of Martin Luther King Jr. – a bittersweet turn of events, for sure. Morrie Turner had a strip called Wee Pals (above), which was syndicated an 4-5 papers in the mid-60’s. It was considered “subversive” because it featured a diverse cast of childhood playmates. He had in fact been encouraged by his friend Charles Schulz to create the strip, after Turner had complained about the lack of black characters in newspaper comics. When Martin Luther King Jr. died, in short order nearly 100 papers picked up his strip. Morrie Turner continued to draw the strip well into his 80’s. You can read more about him HERE. Brumsic Brandon Jr.‘s strip Luther was also picked up by numerous papers in the late 60’s, remaining in syndication for two decades. It’s cast of characters were from a poor neighborhood and were a bit more “streetwise” than Morrie Turner’s. Read more about Brumsic Brandon Jr. HERE. I’ve encountered Wee Pals and Luther before, but another comic by a black creator that was in newspapers at the time was new to me. Ted Shearer‘s Quincy appeared in 1970. He had made a variety of strips over the years, aimed at an adult audience, and they had appeared in numerous publications. Before Quincy took off, Shearer was working in an ad agency, but with the success of the strip – which, like Turner’s and Brandon’s comics, featured black kids commenting on life as they experienced it – he was able to focus on Quincy exclusively. He enjoyed syndication for 16 years. I’d really like to find the collection that was published in 1972, but for now you can see a selection of strips that kind souls have scanned and shared on the web HERE. Read more about Ted Shearer HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers 8 weeks! $500 bux! 10 spots available! Rolling start date because of spring break – start NOW! Deadline to apply is April 12th. Read all about the course HERE and email santoroschool@gmail.com for more details or to apply. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-5-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Love and Rockets Dolls

Posted on June 19, 2016May 15, 2019 by Frank Santoro

“Gilbert & Jaime playing with their Luba, Maggie and Hopey dolls sent to them by a fan who made them out of barbies” – Carol Kovinick Hernandez

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Photos

Juan Fernández

Posted on June 19, 2016May 15, 2019

Explore

09/20/2016

Aaron CockleSeptember 20, 2016NewsAaron here today with the post-SPX malaise/norovirus update; Some upcoming shows of note; ‘We are Pepe/Pepe is us’; T. Edward Bak; Storyboarding for the movies; Seymour Chwast; ‘This amusing textile’ The Small Press Exposition was held this past weekend in scenic and sprawling Bethesda, MD. This is a big show, and each year it provides an overview of some of the best comics being made in North America, in Europe, and other parts of the world. There really is something for everyone at this show, some works seen this weekend of specific interest to readers of this news-blog include: Powdered Milk vol. 15, Keiler Roberts Roberts was handing out freebies in promotion of her Ignatz nomination for Outstanding Series, which she ended up winning on Saturday night. Congrats, Keiler! The Black Hood: An Anthology of Depression and Anxiety, edited/published by Josh Bayer, co-edited/designed by Mike Freiheit Including work by CW favorites E.A. Bethea, John Porcellino, Katie Fricas, Mike Taylor, Bayer, and a very remarkable list of fellow contributors. BLAMMO #9, Noah Van Sciver The time jumps in the White River Junction story were used really well, and reminded me of how Chester Brown’s Louis Riel jumped around in random places. Van Sciver is consistently doing high level comics, and this issue is a really nice chronicle of work. The Shirley Jackson Project, edited by Robert Kirby Another terrific lineup of contributors here: Colleen Frakes, Robert Triptow, Jennifer Camper, Eric Orner, Josh Simmons,Annie Murphy, Pinc Roq, Dan Mazur, Gabrielle Gamboa, Ivan Velez Jr.,Hannah Blumenreich, Maggie Umber, Asher & Lillie Craw, Jon Macy, W. Woods, Rob Kirby. Rob Clough was in attendance this weekend. He gave CW a quick peek of his heavily annotated map of who he wanted to see at which table, but we were unable to get a picture of it for the record. One of these years. Rhode Island Independent Publishing Expo Saturday-Sunday, September 24-25, Providence, RI Paper Jam Small Press Festival 6 Saturday, October 1, Bushwick, NY Indigenous Comic Con Friday-Sunday, November 18-20, Albuquerque, NM Furie on Pepe Abraham Riesman talks with Matt Furie about the Pepe meme phenomenon: Furie says people email him Pepes “retty much everyday.” “Someone just sent one that was based on a quote I said at a comic convention panel,” he adds. “Something about a new frog in town and it had ‘Dat Boi’” (referring, of course, to the year’s best meme so far). That said, he doesn’t seek Pepes out. “I don’t sit there and trip out on Pepe all day like you seem to think,” he says. “I’m just a normal guy trying to connect with people and have a good time.” He doesn’t seem that interested in discussing the other characters and comics, either. “They are what they are: just weird comics about a bunch of weird fraggles hanging out in mysterious nothingness,” he says. I ask him if he sees any sadness in the quartet’s gross lives and his reply is blunt: “No, they are just dumb cartoons.” T. Edward Bak has an essay comic about family history at High Country News In a dream that follows my grandfather’s death, everyone is familiar but I recognize no one. Passengers drift on and off the train as it wends through the prairie. The dream unfolds as a temporally distorted vignette, like a comic strip. My grandfather’s death seems a strange plotline, half-remembered. Storyboarding Blood Simple …photographer Grant Delin created a video that compares scenes from the film to their original storyboards. Featuring commentary by the Coens, Sonnenfeld, and actor Frances McDormand, this fascinating glimpse at their creative process highlights the careful planning that went into the film’s construction. The 160th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016 at 7pm at Parsons The New School for Design, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. Seymour Chwast on GOD WAR SEX P.W. Herman at Brooklyn Museum This amusing textile was clearly manufactured as a commercial tie-in for Paul Reubens’ enormously successful TV show Pee-Wee’s Playhouse that aired from 1986-1990. The show was designed by Wayne White, Gary Panter, Craig Bartlett, and others, and this brightly printed textile faithfully depicts the characters and props of this wildly inventive program. Manufactured commercial product tie-ins to motion pictures and television programs are almost as old as the media. The acquisition of this textile helps to explain the myriad impetuses for the production of textiles and to elucidate the taste and preoccupations of a specific historical moment. The actual printer of this textile is not known, but the company was formulated specifically to manufacture promotional souvenirs. Posted by Barry R. Harwood, Lark Morgenstern, and Caitlin Crews. Share this page: [...]

09/22/2017

Sally IngrahamSeptember 22, 2017NewsSally here with Jenny Zervakis (in real life!), a big announcement from Caitlin McGurk, and other comics and news of note. ———————————————————————————————— One of the highlights of going to the Small Press Expo last weekend in Bethesda, MD, was getting to meet Jenny Zervakis (above). Her comics are my favorite discovery of the past year, and I have been harassing everyone I know into getting The Complete Strange Growths, the collection of her work published by John Porcellino and Spit & a Half Distro. I wrote about this collection back in June (read the review HERE) and more recently about Strange Growths #14 (HERE). Buzzing around SPX in the last hour of the last day, after having spent most of my time running workshops for Comics Workbook, it was a delight to catch sight of 3 more issues of Strange Growths on the corner of a table, and a thrilling surprise to see that Jenny herself was standing behind them. I burbled something about how much I liked her comics, and how much I appreciated that they were about her own impressions of the world and what she saw as important or strange or beautiful, told with poetry and humor. She said her comics had been turned down a lot, and not published in comics anthologies in the 90’s because they lacked a focus on “women’s issues”. That’s exactly what I like about them – they speak of her as a person and an artist, and not “just” as a woman. The new (to me) issues pictured above round out my collection of the “complete” Strange Growths, compiling stories and dreams and poems from 2002-2013. They are excellent! You can get copies of Jenny’s work from Spit & a Half Distro, HERE, or if you’re at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus next weekend stop by the Spit & a Half Distro table. ———————————————————————————————— Above is a clip from one of the panels at SPX, featuring November Garcia (speaking), and Marc Sobel (moderating), Keith Knight, Jennifer Hayden, and Glynnis Fawkes. The panel was on autobio comics, and was just one part of a great lineup of programming that was heavily dominated by female makers. Many kudos to the organizers who made this happen (especially Rob Clough!) ———————————————————————————————— The greatest bit of news I came across last week is this: Caitlin McGurk (associate curator of The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum) has been tapped to write the text for IDW’s upcoming Library Of American Comics Essentials collection of Edwina Dumm‘s Cap Stubbs and Tippie comic strip (coming out in 2018)! I knew that Caitlin had been pouring over the Edwina Dumm items in the BICLM collection throughout the summer, and I guess this is why. She is “thrilled” about the project. On IDW’s The Library of American Comics blog Bruce Canwell wrote in the official announcement: “You see, over the span of time we’ve intermittently been working on bringing Cap Stubbs to you, we’ve met one particular Edwina fan, a highly-respected comics historian, who knows more about Edwina than I do and is even more enthusiastic about writing this Introduction than I am (and that’s saying something!). Which is why I’m pleased as the well-known punch to tell you that Caitlin McGurk, associate curator of The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, will be your guide on this particular tour of Edwina’s fine comics creations. Since one of our overarching goals is to provide you with the best information available for this, and for every book we release, I’m more than willing to yield this particular floor to Caitlin.“ Bruce Canwell and Dean Mullaney have had this project in mind for over a decade, and it’ll be the first of at least two projects involving the work of Edwina Dumm. You can read more about the book HERE. Congratulations to Caitlin for getting to be involved in bringing more of Edwina Dumm’s work to the general public. I personally can not wait for this book! ———————————————————————————————— Chicken Noodle Soup Heidi MacDonald shares her SPX 2017 report on The Comics Beat – The Year of Getting Woke. There’s a new comic by Ulli Lust up on her site, part of her series in the magazine Exberliner – read it HERE. Cathy G. Johnson recently published her graduate thesis – Developing the Cartooning Mind: The History, Theory, Benefit and Practice of Comic Books in Visual Arts Education – and she has shared some of it on her website, with the option to read it all via email request. Check it out HERE. Robert Kirby reviews Hannah K. Lee‘s Language Barrier on The Comics Journal – read it HERE. The A. V. Club has an exclusive preview of Language Barrier by Hannah K. Lee available HERE. Smash Pages interviews Glynnis Fawkes, and talks about her Greek Diary – HERE. Kim O’Connor reviews Simon Hanselmann’s Portrait. There’s a new comic up on Mutha Magazine – The Enormity of the Everydayness by Sophia Wiedeman Glock. Sophie Yanow is serializing her new comic on Patreon – a 192-page book that is already thumb-nailed. She just needs a few cheerleaders and a bit of rent money to get it done. Check it out HERE. Whit Taylor was a recent guest editor for the Illustrated PEN, and chose to excerpt Ben Passmore’s Your Black Friend, and Robyn Smith’s The Saddest Angriest Black Girl in Town – read them both HERE, as well as Whit’s commentary. Whit also reviewed Katie Skelly’s My Pretty Vampire, and Keiler Roberts’ Sunburning over on Roar. The Guardian features Tillie Walden and talks about her new comic Spinning – HERE. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-22-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

06/11/2018

Caleb OrecchioJune 11, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Michael Comeau’s, Winter Cosmos, and more! ———————————————————————————— Despite not having a frame of reference for the punk rock zine culture aesthetic Comeau emulates with Winter Cosmos (published by thee great Koyama Press), I really enjoyed it. Every spread is interesting. There is not a visual dull moment therein. Even after I read the book, I went back to flip through the images to “read” it again. The experience of the book is like reading an issue of What If… starring the Fantastic Four exclusively in Kirby’s collage-y Negative Zone. I can’t help but assume Comeau was inspired by this or some similar Negative Zone-related musing when he decided to make a comic about scientists in space. I had a good time reading this book. There is plenty of wit and humor within the writing, but also within the visual aspects. There is something both inherently funny and inherently fascinating about collage depicting science fiction. The pacing of the read itself is excellent. Even if the book were wordless, Comeau’s visual narrative is strong enough to pace the reader in a way that most wordless comics can’t due to their narrative approach (i.e. leaning on a cinematic or literary idea of narrative rather than an inherently comic book idea of narrative). Winter Cosmos is dynamic enough to hold a reader on a purely visual level and that, to me, is a high compliment to a cartoonist. ———————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Frank Santoro’s new book, Pittsburgh, is out in France and we have round up of French reviews here on the site, as well as where you can purchase the book if you’re in the states from Pittsburgh’s own Copacetic Comics. Speaking of which, see what the the great Copacetic Comics Company has new for June HERE on the site! Oh look! You can even buy Winter’s Cosmos by Michael Comeau! Did I mention this comes highly recommend? Did you catch the TCJ interview with The Beguiling owner, Peter Birkemoe? Process Party has a Columbus, OH scene report. ———————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-11-18 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

Jack Brougham on LICAF 2016

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

11/03/2017

Sally IngrahamNovember 2, 2017NewsSally here with Mickey Z in FORGE.; political cartoonists in Africa, the UK, and the US; a reminder to watch She Draws Comics – and more! ————————————————————————————————— The new issue of FORGE. is out, and it is quite amazing – it is huge, for starters. More artists, more cities, more pages than ever before. Matthew James-Wilson, who single-handedly makes the magazine, recently quit a full-time job at VICE, so the theme of Issue 17 – Risk – seemed especially apt for him. He seems to have gone off the deep end with this issue – but in a good way! Here’s a brief idea of what it includes: “Issue 17: Risk includes submissions by Sarah Mason, Leesh Adamerovich, Corrinne James, Jessica Pettway, Brian Ejar, Louise Reimer, Alexa Viscius, Will Dereume, Graham Lister, Ross Jackson, Chris Nordahl, Sophia Schultz, Melisa Cola, Sander Ettema, Alexander Laird, and Disa Wallander. This issue also includes interviews with cartoonist, Mickey Zacchilli, Dustin Payseur of Beach Fossils, photographer, Laurence Philomene, show promoter and booker, Yiwei Meng, and Rene Contreras of Viva! Presents. Issue 17 features comics by Patrick Kyle, Becca Tobin, and Patrick Edell in its OP-ED section. Lastly, Issue 17 also includes the FORGE. Summer Review, documenting several concerts and events that took place in New York, Los Angeles, and Providence during Summer 2017.“ You can read the whole thing online HERE. Among the things I’m excited about with this issue is the TWENTY PAGE LONG interview with Mickey Z (one spread shown above, complete with an appearance by Bread). I just read it at high speed (there are lots of pictures!) and will have to go back to actually digest it, but I must say that Mickey Z proves to be a constant source of inspiration to me. She’s like a complete package of creative forces, doing a lot of different things at once – but only the things that make her happy and hold her interest. Comics, printing, jujitsu, massage therapy, video games – whatever she wants to do. In this interview she mentions that she’s actually “anti-productivity” at the moment, which I find compelling. You’ll have to explore her reasoning. There’s a bunch of other good stuff in this issue, so take some time with it – and kudos to Matthew James-Wilson for getting it out there! (Be sure to check out Mickey Z’s current comics project – Space Academy – available to read online HERE.) ————————————————————————————————— Abraham Riesman released his list on Vulture of the 8 Best Comics to Read (and One Comics Movie to Watch) in November. On the list is Leslie Stein‘s new comic Present, Julie Maroh‘s Body Music (which I wasn’t aware of, oops!) and the new version of Runaways, written by beloved YA novelist Rainbow Rowell. Abraham also reports that Netflix has added the 2014 film She Makes Comics this month, so schedule a movie night and invite your friends over to listen to some of comics’ female heavyweights talk about the industry and their place in it. Check out the list and it’s other offerings HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I was perusing a list from 2016 of Africa’s top 10 cartoonists and came across the names of Doaa Eladl (Egypt’s most famous female cartoonist), Siham Zebiri (an Algerian cartoonist), and Nadia Khiari (Tunisian creator of the character Willis). All 3 women are political cartoonists, and as such they often face difficulties in their countries that are only exacerbated by their sex. However they all continue to work, draw, and speak out about topics that are important to them, from female genital mutilation (Doaa Eladl), to immigration (Siham Zebiri), to male guardianship (Nadia Khiari). Here is a sampling of work by each of these radical women: I have been repeatedly reminded recently that political cartooning is an ancient art form, and remains an important (and somewhat terrifying) space for artistic expression. I listened to Signe Wilkinson (the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist) speak at CXC in September, and she talked about “the trenches” in a way that gave me goosebumps. For herself and other political/editorial cartoonists, reality includes the possibility of bombed offices, arrest and lengthy imprisonment, and a regular, brutal dose of spite, malice, and outrage. You have to be pretty tough to deal with that, and pretty resilient, to find the power within to turn that harsh edge, somewhat, so that you can engage with people on a humorous level. I really admire and respect Signe, and Ann Telnaes, (who spoke about her similar work and experiences at CXC last year), and of course the African female cartoonists I’ve mentioned here, who are wielding their pencils and brushes in defense and celebration of themselves and the things they love. Here’s a recent comic by Signe Wilkinson – check out more of her work on GoComics. ————————————————————————————————— In related news, the BBC recently published an article by Becky Morton about the “boys club” of political cartooning in the UK. Not surprisingly, there are only 6 full-time editorial cartoonists employed by national newspapers in the UK, and none of them are women. Becky Morton details why, and digs up a wealth of female cartoonists who have resorted (willingly or grudgingly) to publishing their comics online or outside of national media. Read the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Not Last and Not Least Kevin Bramer reviews Jenny Zervakis‘ The Complete Strange Growths on Optical Sloth – calling it a “remarkable achievement”. Marnie Galloway has a new comic up on Mutha Magazine – read part 1 of Burrow HERE. Tom Spurgeon reviews The Wendy Project by Veronica Fish and Melissa Jane Osborne on The Comics Reporter. Marc Sobel interviews Ulli Lust for The Comics Journal and discusses her new book, Voices in the Dark, and how comics are a “musical medium” to her – read it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 11-3-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 11-3-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown- 11-3-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

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