Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in The Diaz ArchiveTagged Cartoon Clouds, Fante Bukowski Two, graham willcox, Johnny Appleseed, Jon Vermilyea, Jordan Crane, Joseph Remnant, noah van sciver, Sam Spina, Secret Headquarters, Skylight Books, Skylight Books Annex, Steven Weissman, Trevor Alixopulos, vanessa davis

Chris Anthony Diaz

Posted on October 26, 2017October 27, 2017

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06/21/2016

Aaron CockleJune 20, 2016NewsAaron Cockle with GG Comics; Aidan Koch Exhibiting; ELCAF Capsule Reviews; Susan Te Kahurangi King; Jason Shiga; Ink Brick 5; Hopper Process ————————————————————————————————— Unattainable by GG CW’s featured comic for this week, from 2015. All of GG’s comics can be read for free on her website (completed stories) and on her tumblr (in progress stories). ————————————————————————————————— The person you are trying to reach is not available Work by Aidan Koch & Ieva Kraule, at Hester Gallery in NYC, continues through July 3, 2016. ————————————————————————————————— Some quick reviews of comics purchased at the recent East London Comic Arts Festival Healy’s storytelling is superb. The book begins with a double page from each story, context free, before we travel back to the beginning of each. Gradually, connections emerge and the beautiful colouring does nothing to stem the slowly dawning horror as the conditions worsen. As the members of the 1921 expedition find themselves stuck on a deserted island, with crossing hundreds of miles of sea ice the only hope of escape, the discovery of bear skulls and the threat of scurvy reveal just how indifferent the friendly arctic is to humans. There are numerous brilliantly understated details throughout, and the fact that we know Blackjack has a sick child at home makes her plight all the more awful. This is a book with a strongly compelling narrative – the expertly timed switches between the three stories encourage you to keep going – and I found myself reading the book in a single evening. The artwork is terrific, with really effective use of colour, and although the influence of Chris Ware can be seen in the characters it’s certainly not to the extent where it becomes derivative. Healy is a very talented storyteller and artist, and this is a strong release. — via Pete Redrup ————————————————————————————————— THERE IS NO CENTER: Dan Nadel on Susan Te Kahurangi King at Edlin Gallery At first glance King’s drawings are unlikely candidates for the amount of press they’ve received, let alone a full-blown museum exhibition—we’re talking about small, cartoon-based pictures, all made using the same pencil-and-crayon techniques and often in scrappy condition. But compositionally, King’s pictures permit various points of entry, providing the viewer a license to interpret freely. We may recognize cartoon characters and humanoids, but the odd secret of icons like Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny, and Daffy Duck is that, embedded as they are in our cultural memory, they read however we want them to—invested with historical meaning or as hollow masks, purely formal agglomerations of shapes. — via Dan Nadel ————————————————————————————————— Jason Shiga Interviewed at TCJ Why did you choose Risograph printing for this series? What is your process like? I bought a Risograph printer because I wanted to do a two-color comic and it’s the cheapest option. I do also like the way it looks. It has that really warm, organic feel to it. And when the registration is just a little off, it looks really sweet. I do my penciling with ballpoint pens. If I make a small mistake I’ll just write an “x” through the line and draw another one. There’s no need to erase it since it doesn’t show up in the finished art anyways. I draw my pencils on letter size paper, I blow them up to ledger size on a photocopier, and then I lightbox those and ink them with a brush and a pen. That’s pretty much it. For lettering I print out the letters in Photoshop so I can adjust all the kerning and get that right, and then I just trace over that with a Micron. Then, I do my coloring in Photoshop and call it a day. Something that’s always attracted me about comics is that you can buy all the raw materials you need to get started for five bucks. There’s no reason you cannot be a cartoonist! — Interview with Jason Shiga conducted by Jeanette Roan ————————————————————————————————— Ink Brick Issue 5 INK BRICK is a journal dedicated to comics poetry. This issue features work by 29 creators using the visual language of comics to make poetry. There’s also a special section featuring an excerpt from a forthcoming collection of Jenny Zervakis’s mini comics work, to be published by Spit and a Half and the Sequential Artists Workshop. Featuring original work by: Louise Aleksiejew, Kurt Ankeny, Nicky Arscott, Colleen Louise Barry, Aaron Cockle, Letisia Cruz, Allie Doersch, Shawn Eisenach, Winnie T. Frick, Mike Getsiv, Dina Hardy, CB Hart, Jason Hart, Aurélien Leif, Courtney Loberg, Maxine Marie, Antoine Medes, Laurence Musgrove, Myra Musgrove, A. Noreña, Thilini Perera, Ellis Rosen, Sam Ross, Alexander Rothman, Samplerman, Alexey Sokolin, Deshan Tennekoon, Paul K. Tunis, Jenny Zervakis. Front and back cover illustrations by Samplerman. Submissions for INK BRICK no. 6 are due Sunday, September 4, 2016. ————————————————————————————————— How Edward Hopper Storyboarded ‘Nighthawks’ These drawings are among 19 studies for Nighthawks, brought together for the first time, in a revelatory show now at the Whitney. “Hopper Drawing” deploys 200 Hopper drawings—part of a trove of 2,500 bequeathed by the artist’s widow, Josephine—to showcase the role of drawing throughout his career, from his life drawing classes at the New York School of Art in the early 1900s, to his travels in Europe and Paris from 1906 to 1910, to the studies he made at the Whitney Studio Club and beyond. (After closing at the Whitney on October 6, the show will travel to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center.) — via Robin Cembalest at Art News ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

BOY by Hellen Jo

Chris Anthony DiazJune 21, 2016The Diaz ArchiveHellen Jo’s watercolored portrayal of Tetsuo Abe as Toshio Omura and Tsuyoshi Kinoshita as Peewee in Nagisa Oshima’s BOY (1969, Japan) for my ILLUSTRATED MOMENTS IN CINEMA/TELEVISION collection. The illustration was completed around Spring 2009 in ink and watercolor, and Hellen’s photo was taken at Comic Arts Los Angeles, Sunday, December 6, 2015. And Graham Willcox did the color on Hellen’s portrait Share this page: [...]

11/12/2018

Caleb OrecchioNovember 12, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with a selection of comic books I hauled in from a 50¢ sale ————————————————————————————————— New Dimension Comics in Ellwood City, PA is a temple to comic book lovers in Pittsburgh and elsewhere. I’ve been on many trips there with Frank Santoro and Jim Rugg and others to mine the affordable backstock of countless lost treasures. This past weekend New Dimension had a sale to thin out a newly acquired cargo of books. Nate McDonough and I went up Saturday to spend the entire day riffling through dusty back issue after dusty back issue. Needless to say, we struck gold. Below is a small selection from my haul: Marvel Tales Featuring Spider-Man no. 253 (reprint of The Amazing Spider-Man no. 102); written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Gil Kane. Cover by Moebius. 1991. Marvel Comics Gil Kane never looked better than he did within the pages of Spider-Man. In a lot of ways he is the ultimate Spider-Man artist for me, though that designation comes with a handful of asterisks. This is the Web-Head at his wackiest. The issue begins with Morbius (the living vampire) and The Lizard duking it out in an argument over who gets to kill the eight-limbed hero. The issue gets even better from there. Also, gotta love that Moebius cover. —————————————————— Space Ghost no. 1; written by Mark Evanier and Steve Rude, drawn by Steve Rude, inked by Willie Blyberg, and painted by Ken Steacy. 1987. Comico I am always excited to see Steve Rude do Alex Toth. He does not disappoint here. The art is fantastic. Luscious inks by Willie Bryberg and beautiful colors by Ken Steacy really pop and crackle and bring the TV screen to the page. —————————————————— Lois Lane 1 & 2; written by Mindy Newell and drawn by Gray Morrow. Colors by Joe Orlando. 1986. DC Comics I got this for the Gray Morrow art and Joe Orlando colors. This type of comic has always fascinated me. It’s the kind of book that was becoming more common starting in 1986 where publishers were trying to get the coveted female adult audience. It’s an interesting take on Superman’s lover who is often little more than damsel in distress (albeit, a formidable one). —————————————————— The Adventures of B.O.C. no. 1 & 2; written by Thomas Perry, James Pustorino and Paul Martin. Art by James Pustorino. 1986. Invasion Comics Possibly my favorite comic of the infamous Black and White Boom era. James Pustorino’s art is rough and naive, yet confident and dynamic. It actually reads like an amateurish art comic in places. Despite the corny and constant explaining of the plot through dialogue I actually really enjoy reading this comic. Usually I just flip through and look at the pictures with this kind of book, but there is something genuine and spirited about this strip that I find undeniable. —————————————————— Marvel Fanfare no. 40; featuring the story “Chiaroscuro” by Ann Nocenti, David Mazzuchelli, David Hornung and John Workman. Plus “Deal With The Devil” by Chris Claremont, Craig Hamilton, Rick Bryant, Petra Scotese and Jim Novak. Mazzuchelli drawing Angel. Need I say more? —————————————————— Deadface no. 1; by Eddie Campbell. 1987. Harrier Comics The beginning of Eddie Campbell’s Bacchus saga. Bacchus is one of those comic books I wish I came up with because it’s such a good idea. This first issue of Deadface introduces us to the humor and violence that ignited a comics legacy. Eddie Campbell’s art does not have the confidence he will soon acquire, but the issue is great all the same. It’s a nice artifact. Gotta love those lads across the pond. —————————————————— True Love no. 2; reprinting various romance comics by Alex Toth, Ralph Mayo, Nick Cardy and Vince Colletta. 1986. Eclipse Comics Always a pleasure to find anything with Toth. I’ve poured over my copy of True Love no.1 so often that the staples are falling out. Happy to have found a subsequent issue to destroy. Also, the Vince Colletta strips herein will make you rethink all the bad things you said about his inking over Kirby. —————————————————— Amazing Heroes no. 123; edited by Kim Thompson. 1987. Fantagraphics I got this for the Frank Thorne interview. Reading the interview conducted by Kim Thompson actually makes Thorne seem less creepy. I think. Not that his creepiness has ever stopped me from reading his comics. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

10/16/2017

Caleb OrecchioOctober 15, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on practicing color, and other news. ———————————————————————————————— I’ve been thinking and working with color a lot. In this day and age, where color is an option for cartoonists looking to print their work (color was not always an option for ye olde comics makers, true believer), the quantity of choice of what the colors should be and how to apply them can be intimidating. Fear not. In my opinion, the best way to start in color is the classic CMYK–which is essentially, as you probably know, blue, red, yellow, and black. One reason this is a good choice is that most riso printers carry these four colors (riso being probably the best option in self-publishing in color if you can swing it) AND they are easily acquired in forms of marker or colored pencils, AND because these are the colors comics used in the past and traditions are important to me. The Classics Illustrated series is a great gateway into classic coloring. They all have a minimal, crude feel to the coloring. It does not seem that their printer offered a large pallet, or maybe they couldn’t afford it. Anyway, I read about the 152nd installment of the Classics Illustrated line, “Wild Animals I have Known”(adapted from the book by Ernest Thompson Seton; drawn by LB Cole) from Kevin Huizenga’s blog years ago and subsequently bought it. I’m going to run through an example of how I play and practice with this book. Here’s a good panel that demonstrates a nice, simple combination of CMYK. First, I isolate the colors by tracing over them with markers on tracing paper. I don’t worry about being exact because that isn’t the point. I’m not trying to recreate the image, I just want to see how colors interact. Then I put them together–then yellow, then red and so on. Please forgive how the lightbox makes the photos look. But the idea is to keep going. Okay so how would it look like if we took one color out? Or just used one color? I could go on and on. You just have to keep trying things. Try it if you want–and feel free to mix it up. Make a new blackline drawing and put it up against the color. Flip the color layers or stagger them. This is just something to think about while you work on your comic. Follow your bliss. ———————————————————————————————— if you don’t know now you know I meant to post about this a month ago when it came out. I sincerely love this youtube documentary about comic shop owner Glenn O’Leary and his store, Comic Book Palace. My taste literally never overlaps with his and I think he is wrong about almost every aspect of comics–accept the way he retails–but I can’t help but love it. Sticking with the retail theme; TCJ.com blog made me aware of this–Dan Gearino on Jim Hanley. LOL they are making the New Mutants movie a horror movie (or seemingly so)–nothing wrong with that I guess do what you gotta do whatever. Aaaaand a shoplifter jumped out of a Midtown Comics second story window–doesn’t he know comics are worthless? ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 10-16-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ———————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 10-16-2017 – by Juan Fernandez ———————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 10-16-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

06/08/2017

Sally IngrahamJune 8, 2017NewsSam Ombiri on Josh Bayer’s RAW POWER, a Tarantula, and chain-breaking Wonder Woman for your Thursday. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: Raw Power by Josh Bayer is a barrage of one moment after the other, that never ends. Every time I tried reading the book before, it wasn’t so accommodating. I’d try to follow the story, and then as I was going from panel to panel I’d find that my eyes were thrown away from the book. Whenever I read Raw Power, I feel a sense of guilt, because I can’t read with the same energy that it seems to have been produced with. Meanwhile I’ve been reading Kirby and Simon’s romance comics – I don’t feel the same threat when reading Kirby’s comics or for that matter really any other comic artists who are known to have intense drafting. I think it maybe comes from reading the title RAW POWER and seeing the cover. The title almost just flat out says no matter how you read this you won’t possibly match the energy that this was made with. This is regardless of whether the book was drawn with that supposed energy. I remember Austin English talking about Raw Power in a review on The Comics Journal, and saying that it probably wasn’t drawn how it feels, but it exudes this specific energy, which up until the the first issue of Raw Power came out, Austin hadn’t seen in Bayer’s other comics. Despite the dizzy frantic drawing, there’s a really dogmatic nature present in the book. Maybe this surfaces from him being a teacher and the way he talks in interviews, so as I approach reading it, I read it with a dogmatic voice in my head. I’m going to contradict what I previously said, by saying that it IS a very accommodating book. The feeling of the book changed as I was reading it. Reading Raw Power felt more like I had to hang on tight, and not fall off. A real Paper Rodeo. It sometimes felt like Bayer was trying to kick me off the pages, and then invite me back in. I’m experiencing an overload of moments, and a lot is being explored, and the art doesn’t do me any favors in terms of recovering from my dizziness. It’s about obsession with figures who make work that spur to extreme degrees, and then there’s this comic Josh is covering, and he’s bringing for me as a reader interest in what he’s modified, and he managed to wrap a really engrossing story around it. Most of all, it’s great how, despite the extremely fun tirades Josh goes on, it always comes back to the original path it was on and elements resurface with major twists. I think that the most satisfying thing is the story. I truly truly think that. In the end I got my fill. – Sam Ombiri 6-8-2017 – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sally here – I’m eager to get my hands on the new comic by Alexis Ziritt, Fabian Rangel Jr., and Evelyn Rangel – Tarantula (AdHouse Books, June 2017)! It was recently on Paste Magazine‘s list of required reading for the month: “Looking like a vintage pulp novel straight off the dollar racks at your local used book store, Tarantula promises “Satanic noir” from the same creative team that brought the world the psychedelic Space Riders. Artist Alexis Ziritt is a grindhouse force to be reckoned with, channeling Kirby and Dan Brereton in equal parts for this tale of supernatural agents of order standing strong against the forces of chaos. Writer Fabian Rangel, Jr., by now a staple of most non-Big Two publishers, knows how to set Ziritt up for a home run and get out of his way. Adhouse Books is a new home for these two, but the handsome throwback hardcover they’ve produced should sit nicely next to Black Mask’s Space Riders and Rangel and Logan Faerber’s Albatross Funnybooks Vietnam-era lycanthrope tale,‘Namwolf. ” -Steve Foxe Get a copy of the comic HERE. ————————————————————————————————— With all the excitement of the new Wonder Woman film going around, I remembered that Gilbert Hernandez drew a Wonder Woman story in 2014, which appeared in Sensation Comics #3 and #4. Although it may not be the most “wondrous” Wonder Woman tale (Supergirl gets a lot of the glory), it is certainly one of the most powerful depictions of Diana – see more of the comic HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-8-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-8-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Noah Van Sciver and Joseph Remnant’s Secret Headquarters Signing

Posted on October 26, 2017October 27, 2017 by Chris Anthony Diaz

Noah Van Sciver and Joseph Remnant signed at Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles, friday, October 13, 2017. All photo color by Graham Willcox

Joseph Remnant signed his new book *Cartoon Clouds* and Noah Van Sciver signed his new book *Johnny Appleseed*, written by Paul Buhle, and *Fante Bukowski Two*

Jon Vermilyea (right) was pouring the good stuff seen on the background shelf!

Noah Van Sciver and Joseph Remnant at Skylight Books Annex

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Chris Anthony Diaz

Posted on October 26, 2017October 27, 2017

Explore

03/15/2018

Comics WorkbookMarch 14, 2018NewsSam Ombiri on Benjamin Marra’s Night Business. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: When I first read Night Business by Benjamin Marra I was really mesmerized. I was coming into the book with Terror Assaulter in the back of my mind – and it had blown my mind. Reading Night Business feels like trying to look up at the sky but then having your head forced to the ground, the ground that you were avoiding looking at because of the mess afoot. At the beginning of the comic, however, Marra gives good reason for the reader to engage with it. I mean it’s not like this isn’t a fun book to read, but the calamity that the characters face feels all too real, and the hope that they reach for seems even more real. At least until nearly the end of the book it does. How can I not keep reading; I can’t! For example, at the beginning we are introduced to a character who is just awful, but the death that she almost immediately suffers kind of counterbalances how awful she is, and I suddenly found myself really sympathetic to this character whom I had disliked. To me it’s just like “How?” I mean murder is such a horrific thing to witness, and Marra goes out of his way to present the murder (and really all the other murders in the book) in the most perverse extreme possible, but the narration of what happened and the way it happened was lyrical and unexpectedly heartfelt. The book was mourning for the tragedy it was indulging itself in a couple seconds ago and the “mourning”, so to speak, doesn’t feel any less heartfelt. There’s another character who sums up that while Krystal wasn’t the nicest person she didn’t deserve to die like she did. Then next time this killer strikes it’s with a much more likable character, and it’s more devastating. I’ll admit I was pretty suspicious of how well Ben Marra knew what my reaction was going to be towards the first character’s death. I’ve been going back and forth on whether the reader should be told what to feel so well; as in the proper reaction being dictated for the reader to have. It seems important for a maker to dictate or at least consider what the reader’s reaction should be, but there’s something that’s a bit disheartening, as reader, to know that the author has gone ahead of me to dictate what I should feel. At the same time, however, that’s what I kind of expect a maker to present to me; isn’t it? There’s this brilliant thing that Austin English said: “Cartooning is made up of artistic choices (like all art) but also information. Bad when info is used unsubtly (most biography comics), interesting when silently embedded into every choice.” That’s what constantly impresses me with Marra’s work – that the information, as Austin puts it, is “silently embedded into every choice.” The comic is also a constant rush, but with a lot of finesse. It’s like watching a Ballerina dance gracefully to heavy metal. The clock is ticking and with every panel I feel it ticking. The bodies are, sadly, piling. At points, one of the main characters (Johnny) keeps taking these pills that give him extra strength, so there’s a moment where he’s captured and we spend that part of the comic just waiting for the torture he’s going through to activate the effects of the pills he took. It’s really cool how this is an element – it’s like a countdown inserted in another count down which causes me to get more invested in the story. It reminds me a lot of Man O’ Metal, where the bulk of the comic is where this superhero is powerless unless electrocuted or set in flames. So there are moments in both these comics where everything becomes about waiting for the character’s powers to activate, to get him out of whatever hurdle he’s in. I resonate with this idea of being empowered by what would ordinarily kill you, which also feels like a major theme in Night Business. Especially with this other character, Cathy, who goes through the most radical shift after she’s been attacked and becomes this unstoppable vigilante. Her transformation is also really lyrical – both the words and the sequence of events and how they’re presented have this amazing feeling. I heard Marra describe Night Business as climbing a mountain after a lot of false starts in trying to make comics. I’m assuming he’s talking about the first part – he clearly feels no qualms in confronting any challenge, be it the way the story unfolds, or the subject matter, despite how impossible it might feel to execute. At no point does it feel like Marra was second guessing himself, but I did get the sense that what he was trying to pull off was difficult, and I could see all the work that went into certain moments when reading it. – Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-15-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

07/07/2016

HarrisonJuly 7, 2016NewsHarrison is here today previewing the 4th Annual Comics Workbook Competition, revisiting an old/new interview with a veteran artist, giving an update from Richmond, VA’s best artists, and finishing with something sharp. ————————————————————————————————— COMICS WORKBOOK COMPOSITION COMPETITION 2016 THE SANTORO CORRESPONDENCE COURSE and The Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency presents the COMICS WORKBOOK COMPOSITION COMPETITION 2016 ———————————————— 1st place – $500 cash prize to the winner 2nd place – $250 credit at Copacetic Comics 3rd place – $100 credit at Copacetic Comics plus four $50 honorable mention prizes from Big Planet Comics ———————————————— Create a 16 page signature comic book narrative to the specifications below ———————————————— DEADLINE: August 30 2016 at midnight (that’s 11:59 EST) ———————————————— Find all the details HERE! ————————————————————————————————— From the Vault: Arvell Malcolm Jones Interview CBR News: What about the challenges or difficulties you may have faced while getting into the comics biz? AJ: Well, Marvel and DC were interesting places in the early ’70s. Racism was there, but not the kind you would think. People were trying to be very open minded, but they only could draw on what they knew. I spent a lot of time getting to know people. It was hard at first because, in some cases, we had nothing in common but our love of the industry. Plus, the industry is very much like a little Hollywood: it’s about who you know, as well as how good you are. Many of the people I worked with I’d know for sometime through the convention route, or from zines, like Roy Thomas (when we had our zine, Roy was our source for news at Marvel) and Paul Levitz. Marvel and DC tried to be open to us but, in a way, they didn’t know quite how to relate to us. It helped that most of my friends from Detroit helped to open doors. We would take a 13 hour drive and spend the night with Al Milgrom and his roommate, hang at Rich’s, then go see John Romita at Marvel, get our butts spanked, and go back to Detroit to work on our samples again. – via Comic Book Resources Read the rest of the interview with veteran artist Arvell Malcolm Jones here. ————————————————————————————————— Richmond’s Finest Check out some of the new work from our friends from Richmond, VA, Cameron Weston Nicholson, Richie Pope, and Chris Visions. Support and share please. Cameron Weston Nicholson Cameron’s got a sale on his latest comic, Burgundy. IF you’ve been waiting to pick up some work from Cameron, now’s your chance before these comics are gone! Send him a message via instagram and he’ll hook you up. https://www.instagram.com/p/BHhqpeqg-jZ/ Richie Pope Along with having the illustration below in the New York Times, Richie has made available the second (and final) edition of Newdini in print. Get it now! http://richiepope.bigcartel.com/product/newdini Chris Visions You can now buy your copy of Chris Visions’ #LunchtimeLoosies VOL. 1 at http://chrisvisions.bigcartel.com – A color collection of beautiful observational drawings made with mixed media. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

07/29/2016

Sally IngrahamJuly 29, 2016NewsSally here, ready to dig into a roller-coaster of a week. We went from the excitement of the Eisner Awards to the wild Democratic National Convention, and then were hit with the sad passing of two comic masters – and the week isn’t over yet! Perhaps we will be able to catch our breath and our balance today? ————————————————————————————————— First up, a summer report from Frank Santoro, live from the Rowhouse Residency in Pittsburgh, PA – ————————————————————————————————— The EISNER AWARDS! They were incredible this year. Image Comics may have claimed the most awards, but it was Drawn & Quarterly that owned the stage that night (pictured above, publisher Peggy Burns accepting the Best Anthology award for Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-five years of contemporary comics, cartoons, and graphic novels). From the D+Q blog: “D+Q authors were nominated in five categories and swept all five of them, with wins for Kate Beaton (Best Humor Publication for Step Aside, Pops), Shigeru Mizuki (Best American Edition of International Material – Asia for Showa 1953-1989), Jillian Tamaki (Best Publication for Teens for SuperMutant Magic Academy) and Adrian Tomine (Best Short Story for “Killing and Dying”)! Beaton was the first solo female cartoonist to win in the humor category, a deserved and significant win. In addition to all that wonderfulness, two of our legendary and defining authors, Lynda Barry and Tove Jansson were inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.” Read more about D+Q’s Eisner sweep HERE, as well as a transcript of Peggy Burns’ wonderful speech inducting Tove Jansson into the hall of fame. Paste Magazine has a more general overview of the Eisner Awards, and the complete list of winners HERE. And for even more SDCC and Eisner Awards coverage: Jamie Coville recorded the ceremony plus 21 panels during the week, and took a million photos for The Comics Beat. You can check it all out HERE. Of particular interest to me were the panels “We Need Diverse Comics” with Raina Telgemeier, Nilah Magruder, Ron Wimberly, Ben Hatke, Nidhi Chanani and moderator Glen Weldon; the “Daniel Clowes Spotlight” with Clowes and Eric Reynolds; the “Trina Robbins Spotlight“; and “The Complete Wimmen’s Comix: Her-Story” with founders and contributors Trina Robbins, Terre Richards, Sharon Ruduhl, Lee Marrs, Rebecka Wright, Mary Fleener, Joan Hilty and Barbara “Willy” Mendes. ————————————————————————————————— Here on the site, Jillian Fleck has a fascinating report on a thriving corner of the comics world that many of us may not be aware of. Graphic Medicine is a thing, and a great thing at that – Jillian digs into why, via her experiences at the Graphic Medicine 2016 Conference in Dundee, Scotland earlier this month. Read the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Okay, let’s turn to politics briefly – The Nib has held my attention all week with comics that explore the scene around the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Once again Sophie Louise Dam killed it, this time teaming up with Eleri Harris. Their comic gets you on the Democratic Platform and makes you want to linger there – check it out HERE. CNN caught up with Matt Bors, editor of The Nib, and followed him around on day 4 of the DNC, checking in with the artists and getting the “funny” side of things. Video below. ————————————————————————————————— The Washington Post reported on Wednesday – “RICHARD THOMPSON, the “Cul de Sac” cartoonist who is widely considered one of the greatest comic-strip creators and illustrators of his generation, died Wednesday in Northern Virginia, family friends confirm. He was 58.” – via Michael Cavna John Martz drew some memories of Richard Thompson for Slate – See the rest HERE. Jack Davis also died on Wednesday, at the age of 91. The Comics Journal has begun collecting tributes to this beloved cartoonist, written by the likes of Gary Panter, Peter Bagge, and Jim Woodring among others – with more to come. Check them out HERE. And it was Gary Groth himself who sat down to write an obituary for Jack Davis for The Comics Journal, which you can read HERE. ————————————————————————————————— NPR turned it’s gaze to minicomics this week, with Etelka Lehoczky’s brief look at a few titles she got her hands on recently – among them Bonnie N. Collide, Nine to Five by Monica Gallagher. About minicomics Lehoczky wrote – “Shouldn’t minicomics be obsolete by now? Printed by their creators in tiny batches and sold for a few bucks at “alternative” comic shops and conventions, they’re as cumbersome to produce as they are to obtain. It would be much more sensible for the artists to just put up their work online — right? Fortunately, these artists aren’t interested in being sensible. They’re in love with the unique tangibility of print on paper, the sight and feel of pages under their fingers. It’s a powerful yen, as evidenced by the recent resurgence of printed books in the larger publishing world. There are enough artists who share it to make minicomics a thriving and diverse genre. Some of these creations really are “mini” — they may be 4″x6″ or smaller, or contain only eight pages. Even if they’re magazine-sized, they take some work to discover.” via NPR Check out the rest of the article and the minicomic reviews HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Lastly, also here on Comics Workbook today, we have a new Art Trip piece from Anna Mancini! Not to give anything away, but she was in a museum in Rio de Janeiro and had a definite encounter with comics. Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Hang in there folks! The summer still has surprises for us I think. – Sally Share this page: [...]

2° Encontro Lady’s Comics

Anna ManciniAugust 3, 2016Festivals and ShowsHi there – this is Anna Mancini, or Manzanna, from Brazil. I just returned from the 2° Encontro Lady’s Comics, a pioneer event in Brazil dedicated to comics made by women. From July 29 to 31, 2ELC took place in Belo Horizonte, home of FIQ – Brazil’s International Comics Festival. This second edition was organized by FIQ in partnership with the event’s creators, the Lady’s Comics collective. The chosen theme for this year was “The First Trip”, which gave room to explore both the history of Brazilian female cartoonists and the challenges faced by artists starting and developing their careers. With panels, workshops, a fair and an exhibition by Chicks on Comics, 2ELC gathered many of Brazil’s female cartoonists in one place, plus international guests Sole Otero, Clara Lagos, Mariela Acevedo (Argentina) and Katherine Supnem (Chile). Aware of the challenges women face in the comics community, the gathering provided a much needed space for the participants to express and identify with each other. Topics included the need to study and rewrite our history, shedding new light on pioneer women cartoonists; the first steps of publishing, selling and entering the market; the struggles of the creative process; plus talks on motherhood, science fiction and education, among other themes. I’m still processing, digesting, reflecting on the experience. As my fellow cartoonists have confirmed, 2ELC left everyone with a shared feeling of empowerment, reciprocity and ambition. I’m glad to realize we’re in this together, and can’t wait to see how it will fuel our work. Pictures, videos and more from 2° Encontro Lady’s Comics can be seen at their facebook page. Share this page: [...]

09/25/2018

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

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