Comics Workbook
About
Read
Comics
- Browse
- Search
Learn
Contributors

Skip to content

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

Search for:

Explore

Aaron CockleMay 22, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Roz Chast (and Françoise Mouly); Pan Terzis; Graphic Medicine; Florine Stettheimer; Maggie Umber; Dieter Lumpen ————————————————————————————————— ‘I like taking on complicated, detailed projects, especially if I’m not a hundred-per-cent sure how they’re going to turn out.’ Françoise Mouly looks at the wonderful embroidered piece Roz Chast made for the May 15, 2017 issue of the New Yorker, including an animation of the process that went into making the cover. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Each issue has a secret formula that I have to discover. ‘ Frank Santoro continues his survey of recent developments in Art Comics Risography – this week he talks with Pan Terzis: People want to show up. They want to look at your thing in person, hold it in their hands. They want to talk to others in person about it and look at it at their own pace, without the publisher or distributor knowing how long they spent lingering on a page or whether they got to the end of the book in the same time as 76.3% of other consumers. All of this activity is still happening in the context of capitalist systems of production, supply and demand and distribution, but I think that people who work with this kind of cultural ephemera must know on some level that the real art is what happens in between the object and the viewer, and the consumer of that piece of art and the person they describe it to. It’s inherently a social act, and this can manifest through all stages of the process. People-power is what drives this activity, and just like a blade of grass can slowly destroy a piece of concrete given enough time to push to the surface, I think DIY culture might be the key to breaking out of the mechanistic, algorithm driven nightmare that our tech overlords are driving us towards. ————————————————————————————————— SAVE THE DATE: 2017 Comics & Medicine Conference: Access Points June 15-17, 2017, Seattle Public Library Central Branch ————————————————————————————————— Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry The artist Florine Stettheimer (1871–1944) is an icon of Jazz Age New York. Born to a wealthy Jewish family in Rochester, she studied at the Art Students League in New York City and then in Europe, where she encountered two profound influences: the Symbolist painters and poets and, on the eve of the Great War, the Ballets Russes. Returning to Manhattan, she hosted an elite salon together with her sisters Carrie and Ettie and their mother, Rosetta, attracting many of the leading lights of the artistic vanguard. Her circle included Alfred Stieglitz, Carl Van Vechten, Georgia O’Keeffe, Elie Nadelman, Gaston Lachaise, and many others. Among her intimate friends was Marcel Duchamp. Through over 50 paintings and drawings, a selection of costume and theater designs, photographs and ephemera, as well as critically acclaimed poems, the Jewish Museum will offer a timely reconsideration of this important American artist, revealing Stettheimer’s singular and often satiric vision and significant role in American modern art. The exhibition highlights the artist’s distinctly personal style of painting, Stettheimer’s position amidst New York’s artistic elite and avant-gardes, and her continued influence on artistic practice today. May 5-September 24 at the Jewish Museum, 1109 5th Ave at 92nd St, NYC. ————————————————————————————————— 2dcloud in Toronto Maggie Umber has a nice photo-recap of the TCAF show: Some of my favorite 2dcloud convention moments – talking with Carta’s wife Emily about our shared adoration of Junji Ito and Emily Carroll. @cartamonir letting me read Ghost Call on her phone since my Tumblr app never let me read the end last Halloween. Meeting @tommipg and watching them embroider a beautiful panel, meeting @goodcomicsbykim and being astonished by her energy and exhaustion, her humor and her seriousness. Blaise rearranging the 2dcloud table into a better format that sold more books. Juliacks casual yet persistent (and very successful) sales style and her gorgeous book trailer. I was also very excited to meet @artbl0g Xia Gordon when we did a panel together. 2dcloud is publishing a mini-comic with her soon!!!!!! ————————————————————————————————— ‘To be sure, these are the adventures of a white European wandering through the wreckage of a post-war world.’ Lastly, RM Rhodes looks at The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen, by Jorge Zentner and Ruben Pellejero: Pellejero uses color and a confident line to build on top of a very solid foundation. The real appeal of the series are the settings. The premise is that shortly after the war, a German named Dieter Lumpen gets a job as a chauffeur and the first page of the first story finds him being chased through an Istanbul market by a man with a gun. From there, he travels to the Agean, Haifa, India, Sri Lanka, Paris, Manaus, Tunisia and the Caribbean. The appeal of these destinations is Pellejero’s ability to render them almost like a documentary film maker, matter of fact about amazing sights, which adds verisimilitude. The amount of detail on each page means that every time you return to a page, you notice something new. And the stories are very rereadable. ————————————————————————————————— 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! ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 5-23-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-23-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

Juan FernándezMarch 7, 2016NewsAnother week and another flood of comics happenings. Let’s start to make our way through it. Nicole Georges is hosting and producing a new podcast Saggitarian Matters. It’s fun listening for those of you that listen to podcasts while inking or coloring. Her new podcast features interviews, reviews and astrological musings and advice from rad women all with a warm casualness. Lot’s of stories from touring musicians and studio cartoonists. Think of Saggitarian Matters as a living breathing advice column with attitude and jokes galore. Recent guests include Liz Prince, Ariel Schrag, Lacy Davis and Beth Ditto, among others. This week, series regular Michelle Tea (author of How to Grow Up) doles out advice on anxiety and work. Writer & cartoonist ARIEL SCHRAG (Likewise, Potential, Adam, The L Word) talks truth in comics, Chick Tracks, and romantic advice with NJG. Warning: some advantage-taking is mentioned! Kelly Sue DeConnick put out a roll call on twitter for women comic book makers yesterday to disabuse people of the notion that women comic artists are rare, to get eyes on said artists & to get them work opportunities. Very dope. Follow the hashtag #VisibleWomen to get to know and appreciate the work of hundreds of women making comics today. — Kelly Sue DeConnick (@kellysue) March 6, 2016 Austin English speaks with Andy Oliver over at Broken Frontier. Great conversation with an artist whose work lives and breathes on the cutting edge of comics. Have a read. I’ve always loved comics, so much so that I’d never think of rejecting their history. I honestly sit down at the start of every story with an ambition to make it ‘traditional’ like an old Will Elder comic or something, and then my natural lack of craft takes over by panel two and the project turns into something else. The punk rock nature of zines and mini comics I read in the mid to late 90s (like King Cat) sort of egged me on to embrace whatever my work became by the second drawing. I also missed any distinction between comics and art books as I was growing up—my mom gave me Tintin, but she also had Matisse monographs laying around which she really loved. Books in general with images in them were very comforting to me as a kid, and somewhere along the line the two worlds blurred for me. I accept that for people in art and people in comics there are very clear borders, but I just never saw it that way. Did ya hear, Barack Obama’s going to be paying tribute to Charles Schulz’ American masterpiece, Peanuts. It’s about time. Obama’s writing the foreword to the penultimate volume of the collected daily strips put out by Fantagraphics books. Congratulations to Fantagraphics on snagging this intro. NYT has got the full coverage you’re hankering. Kim Jooha has put together some wonderful reflections on the work of Maggie Umber, Aidan Koch, Andy Burkholder over the weekend. Jooha’s writing never ceases to engage comics in an exciting and satisfying way. If you haven’t yet checked the work of Umber, Koch or Burkholder, check out Jooha’s writing to see if it just might be up your alley. Maggie’s Time Capsule reviewed. Aidan’s image language is explored. Digital Image making explored through the lens of Burkholder’s Thinking of You. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/249956531″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] Another week means another edition of Inkstuds! It’s a good time to be alive as a comics aficionado. This week Sloane Leong is joined by Vancouver comic artist Morgan Jeske to talk about his life, process, movies and comic work. Tune your ears to that frequency… Morgan is known for his work on Change, published by Image Comics, and his self published work Disappearing Town and ●●●● Vol. I. He also co-hosts a film podcast called Travis Bickle on the Riviera. His newest work ●●●● Vol. 2 feels like a fantastic meandering exploration of the self and other and wild liminal decaying spaces. Morgan creates unique comics with a strong sense of atmosphere and weight, so I’m excited to see what he does next. Throwin’ it back to the future, the Zentrum Paul Klee made available online almost all 3,900 pages of Klee’s personal notebooks, which he used as the source for his Bauhaus teaching between 1921 and 1931. Amazing. Dive in and swim the depths of these notebooks. You’re going to want to get that google translate handy to help understand the transcriptions that Zentrum Paul Klee has put together on this incredible resource. Essential to the understanding of modern, these works . Arguably one of the most complete presentations of principles of design by a modern artist, this constitutes the Principia Aesthetica of a new era of art, in which Klee occupies a position comparable to Newton’s in the realm of physics. Amazing online resource that deserves to be mined and explored by comics makers for years to come. I’d like to wrap things up by letting you know that the journal, tender, is taking submissions for their upcoming issue. Established in 2013, Tender Journal is published three-four times a year as a carefully curated PDF, with an anthology that follows in print. tender is edited by Rachael Allen and Sophie Collins. « tender is grappling, I think, with Denise Riley’s claim in Am I That Name that ‘both concentration on and refusal of the identity of “women” are essential to feminism’. »—Katherine Angel Sound like the kind of publication that you want your work to be considered in? SUBMIT! until next time, juan fernandez. Share this page: [...]

Sally IngrahamSeptember 29, 2016NewsSam Ombiri and Sally Ingraham here to present Cameron Weston Nicholson’s amazing Small Press Expo workshop to you today! (Plus some tangents well worth following.) ————————————————————————————————— https://vimeo.com/184552852 We just received the complete video footage of Cameron Weston Nicholson‘s SPX cartoon workshop from ace filmmaker Tyler Q. Tucker. View it above! Sally can vouch for the fact that Cameron caught on film is just as powerful as he was in person. You can find a few more details about the event HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri was one of the first people to lay eyes on the film of Cameron’s workshop. He is a regular attendee of the Pittsburgh Comics Salon, where we discuss music and comics a lot, so this was familiar ground. Sam wrote some notes while he viewed the film – check it out: “This video was rad for many reasons. The video will articulate the things I can’t better, so I guess I won’t say too much. I kind of laughed at the idea that Cameron proposed: musical literature. It’s funny to imagine people reading sheet music, and those people imagining the sound from the notes – and then they cry (that’s not to say this doesn’t happen, but it’s a super bizarre way to listen to music – though, ultimately notes are a language, so there’s no reason a book with sheet music shouldn’t be read like a novel) but in the context of comics it’s exactly what transpires! (And images are for the most part a universal language, unlike musical notes where you need someone who can read them, and who then must learn an instrument to play the song. Then you have to do this over and over til you find a piece that you like. Even then, it might just be the musician that lacks the soul to play the tune you want to hear.) Cameron says “In music you have your notes, in comics you have your panels.” I dig how he talks about sculpting/directing the focus of the reader through emphasis (or lack thereof) for dramatic effect (or really any effect – I just think he was using dramatic effect as an example) to bury an idea in the reader’s mind. So their interest is peaked or their shoulder is tapped, and then the reader suspects there’s something else going on. So then the reader will follow Cameron, out of curiosity…then Cameron’s got the reader sucked into his image, and then there’s no escape! Another thing I like is how he has a simulator of how fast most readers read this (mostly) universal language. It’s super cool the amount of awareness he has for the reader. There is of course more to look at in the video, but especially at the 24 minute mark there’s a zillion things that are being articulated better than I could – I can articulate that it’s a must watch!” ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook was absolutely delighted that Tyler Q. Tucker could attend Cameron’s workshop and film the event. We discovered Tyler’s work after he made a film of the live drawing event that Chris Visions, Alexis Ziritt, and Vanesa R. Del Ray took part in at HeroesCon 2016. He has continued to make fantastic films for Chris Visions, which you can check out HERE – the newest films, which show off Rocky Roswell and the Adventures of the Neon Space Cowboy (which debuted at SPX) can be viewed HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Alexis Ziritt attended one of the Comics Workbook-hosted workshops at SPX, taking a break from his table (and from working on finishing Tarantula!) Sombra. A photo posted by Alexis Ziritt (@aziritt) on Sep 28, 2016 at 10:22am PDT Alexis Ziritt is part of the super art collective Out of Step Arts – check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Shannon Wright has been dashing off comics for Instagram lately – here’s one such: The power randomly went out, it’s not even close to the time I go to bed, I figured this would “mak3 @ coOl coMix” but it’s actually really stupid, I thought a spark of creativity would hit me if I just started drawing but I actually wasted battery and precious data to upload this . My mom thinks someone hit the electric lines (box??) somewhere. A photo posted by Shannon Wright (@shanneyy23) on Sep 25, 2016 at 8:59pm PDT Check out more HERE. ————————————————————————————————— On the site we have the first collection of images from the Comics Workbook-hosted cartoon workshops at SPX – check them out HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Help send Connor Willumsen to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in October! He will be teaching workshops with Frank Santoro and Aidan Koch while there – if you’re in the area check it out. To help him get to the show, Comics Workbook is offering two new Connor publications. Portraits and Swinespritzen – both limited editions, both incredible. Details about both and where to order them can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Happy Thursday folks! – Sally and Sam Share this page: [...]

Sally IngrahamSeptember 13, 2017NewsSam Ombiri on Patrick Kyle’s Everywhere Disappeared, plus other comics and news! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I had a chance to read an advanced PDF copy of Patrick Kyle’s new comic Everywhere Disappeared. (The book has now come out from Koyama Press.) At first I had trouble with this book, but I took the time to read through it twice and I made many discoveries. There is part of the book that feels rather navel-gazy and a bit vain as a result, (for him to be showing work like this). This was an initial misinterpretation on my part, because it looks at first like this new book is just a reflection of how Patrick is a private person. From what I’ve heard him say about this, he is pretty private, and he’ll keep many elements of his work that could be interpreted as personal, hidden. The work then feels somewhat rigid when he’s documenting what we might see as his artistic struggles, and personal struggles. Being who he is, he is doing this in a really roundabout way, and while I enjoyed the book, it’s a little bothersome to sit through. (Although the bothersome aspect became the interesting aspect later.) When I first read the second strip I thought to myself “Does Patrick think his work is in so much demand that we’re willing to sit through this nonsense?!” It’s not as focused as his last book (Don’t Come In Here, 2016), which might answer why any emotional triumph in the beginning of the book feels unearned, and this made me a little nervous, because that was a problem I had with certain parts of Don’t Come In Here. Now I had to read a whole book that was filled to the brim with that problem? I discovered that I should not have worried. I felt at first that there wasn’t any long term investment to be had with Everywhere Disappeared, but as I read more and more of the book, I was proven wrong. Patrick has a big artistic triumph. Everywhere Disappeared is a collection of stories in the form of comic strips. Taken together the book seemed to me to be about taking risks, and people reacting to your insincerity, be it through art or just normal interaction. The first strip functions really well in telling the reader what mindset Patrick is in. The strip that follows just baffled me in how much he’s testing the reader’s patience, as I mentioned above. Then I had to eat my words with the following strips, which were just amazing – hilariously portraying his solutions to his dilemmas in his current role (with the sentiments expressed in the first and second strip, and the answer being the third strip.) Point being, though I felt at first that the second strip was a lousy strip, it really served the book well. It was a step up from just being a self-conscious comic, a major step up – instead of stagnating with his self-consciousness, he advanced. Not only that, but it tells you as the reader that Patrick isn’t suddenly making these big conceptual leaps as a maker. He’s still this guy who you come to to read some fun stuff, and he’s still very much thriving in this territory. At a certain point as a reader of Everywhere Disappeared, even looking back at the Dracula story (the second strip), I realize it’s been really fun and it’s going to continue to be fun. The illustrations are getting tastier and the punchlines are getting funnier. The ridiculous concepts are more acceptable to the reader. There a style that was introduced in the Dracula strip, then a couple strips later we get the pay off with it. Amazing pay off too, when a character does a print with Bart Simpson with Nike for eyes (and that gag only manages to get better). It reminds me of a gag I’d see from Ben Jones, but it’s all Patrick Kyle. By the time I read the strip titled “Glory of the Pile” I knew that I was completely wrong in thinking that Patrick was running out of his bag of tricks. That strip hit me hard. There’s a real impressive element to how Patrick is recycling shapes he normally draws and just uses them here and there, to elicit some kind of emotion or feeling or sentiment he’s trying to get across to the reader. The book speaks its own language now and is super comfortable in it, and this seemingly comes out of nowhere (or everywhere?). – Sam Ombiri Get a copy of Everywhere Disappeared HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Sally here – The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey was reviewed as an Orbital Comics staff pick recently (Orbital Comics is currently hosting a show of Vanesa’s work!). “Thomas says: I wasn’t aware of Del Rey’s art until her work came in for the show that is currently running in our gallery (until the end of the month) and was absolutely blown away by what I saw. Her work is gorgeous, her line work free and energetic with an exuberant life of it’s own. Even static figures seem to be in motion, breathing with a life of their own. This sketchbook serves two functions; it is a beautiful selection of Del Rey’s work but is as much a glimpse into her life, past, present and future as it is anything else. Interviewed by Frank Santoro, Del Rey is open and forth coming about her work explaining as best as she can her thoughts regarding the human figure, to the influence art has had on her life and is also quite open about her life and her childhood. With a new book out this past month written by the wonderful Jordie Bellaire, Del Rey’s star is in the ascendant and you would be foolish to ignore this talented young artist. Excitingly, Vanesa will be signing here on Saturday 16th September 2017, from 17:00 till 19:00 so come along and pick up a copy of her sketch book or Redlands and say ‘Hi’. Click here for more details.“ Get a copy of The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey HERE. ————————————————————————————————— There’s a piece in the Washington Post‘s Comic Riffs about Shawn Martinbrough, and how he came to draw Hellboy in a recent one-shot issue of Hellboy and the B. P. R. D. Heavily influenced by the artwork of Mike Mignola as a kid, this was a dream project for Martinbrough, who has been storming the mainstream comics scene for a few decades (more on his story HERE). “Martinbrough…is known for going out of his way to add diversity to the comics he works on. If a story’s script doesn’t specify the race of a supporting or background character, he’ll frequently draw that character as a person of color. That wouldn’t be necessary with this Hellboy story (written by Mignola and Chris Roberson), in which Woodrow, Hellboy’s partner, is a brilliant African American from Chicago. In the story, Woodrow is offended but not shocked when he brushes up against some racism even noticing that the white man he and Hellboy have questions for is more comfortable around a giant demon from hell than a black man. “Hellboy is an average Joe in the form of a large, fantastical red demon with a large stone hand and tail,” Martinbrough said. “The idea of a white guy accepting Hellboy without skipping a beat, but questioning the legitimacy of a black scientist is tragic but, unfortunately, very realistic. The social commentary was a very pleasant and welcome surprise.”“ Read more about it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-14-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

Sally IngrahamFebruary 24, 2017NewsSally here to finish the week with a very exciting announcement from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, and loads of work from lady comics makers world-wide! ————————————————————————————————— The best news this week is that Annie Koyama, owner and publisher of Koyama Press and a comics community cornerstone, has donated an outstanding collection of original artwork by contemporary American cartoonists to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, in Columbus, OH. The collection contains over 250 pieces by artists such as Lisa Hanawalt, Theo Ellsworth, Katie Skelly, Noah Van Sciver, Eleanor Davis, Dustin Harbin, Frank Santoro, Gabrielle Bell, Hellen Jo, Kevin Huizenga, and many more. Annie has been building the collection since 2013, and donating it to the BICLM was her intent from the beginning. This collection speaks volumes about Annie’s enthusiasm for the medium, her ongoing support for the artists in this community, and the importance she places in preserving this vital part of history. As Caitlin McGurk, Associate Curator of the BICLM, says: “What Annie Koyama has done for us is unprecedented, forward-thinking, and remarkable. Most cartoonists in this community make a livelihood by selling their original art to private collectors, which makes it more difficult for public research facilities like BICLM to obtain these essential works. Annie has not only supported these cartoonists, but has solidified their legacy by placing the collection at OSU where it can be preserved, accessed, and enjoyed for generations to come.“ The collection will be on view at the BICLM from May 6, 2018 – Sunday, October 21, 2018, coinciding with Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC). I can’t wait to see it! ————————————————————————————————— Gabrielle Bell has a new comic on VICE called The Nicest Dog – check out the first page above and the rest HERE. Her new book – Everything is Flammable – is coming out from Uncivilized Press on April 18th. ————————————————————————————————— Melissa Mendes and Anne Elizabeth Moore team up on Truthout to continue a comics journalism project (formerly called Ladydrawers – check out the complete archives HERE). The series, as you can see above, will deal with the water and housing crisis in Detroit. Updates monthly. The first section is HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Em DeMarco‘s recent comic in the Pittsburgh City Paper is about immigration rights – which are in constant flux these days, it seems. In English and Spanish – check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Secret Acres has announced that they will be releasing Keren Katz‘s debut comic at TCAF this year. From the press release: “The Academic Hour charts the romance between Pothel, a disgraced architecture professor, and his student, Liana. Told in a series of surreal, vibrant vignettes, and set in a fantastic, logic-defying college of shifting rooms and secret performance spaces,The Academic Hour affirms how an intense, fledgling relationship can ignite the impulse for storytelling with unbridled, ferocious creative energy.“ Keren’s illustrative work has garnered praise and numerous awards – I look forward to seeing what she does with the comics medium. In stores May 16th 2017. ————————————————————————————————— Peas and Carrots More, more, and more hype for Emil Ferris‘ My Favorite Thing Is Monsters – Hillary Brown interviews Emil for Paste Magazine; NPR featured the work on Fresh Air, calling the book “dazzling”; and The Comics Journal published Part 2 of their epic interview with the creator. Lauren Weinstein is sooooo cloooose to giving birth, but part of her wants to keep the kid inside a bit longer – according to her most recent comic in The Village Voice…! Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden is reviewed by Women Who Write About Comics. If you haven’t checked out the Women Who Draw database since the website crashed last year on day 3 of its existence, you should head over there now. It’s HUGE and it’s beautiful. G. Willow Wilson, who writes the Ms. Marvel comics, turns her pen to reviewing Angel Catbird, a comics project that Margaret Atwood is writing. Dig into it on Publisher’s Weekly. ————————————————————————————————— The Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers is starting soon! The semester has a rolling start date, but it will officially kick off on March 7th. We will continue taking applications past that date – Frank is always willing to make it work for your schedule. Just apply! Applications received by February 26th will get 100 bux off! The course is 8 weeks long – payment plans are available. More details can be found HERE. Email santoroschoolATgmail to apply ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 2-24-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-24-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-24-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-24-2017 – by Juan Fernandez 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

Noah Van Sciver

Joseph Remnant

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

Steven Weissman

vanessa davis

Jordan Crane

Trevor Alixupolos

Sam Spina and Noah Van Sciver

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

Noah Van Sciver and Joseph Remnant at Skylight Books Annex

Share this page:

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

Post navigation

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment *

Name *

Email *

Website

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Δ

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

Search for:

Explore

Juan FernándezApril 11, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez here with some comics news, hot and fresh out the oven for you: Laura Knetzger at ECCC, Assistant AI character design, Black Panther sells out, Mary Mack Tremonte on Paper Cuts, Connor Stechshulte reviewed, and Jim Rugg with a kick in the face. ————————————————————————————————— Laura Knetzger at ECCC Ooh boy, this is cool. Laura Knetzger’s gotta drawn diary of her time at Emerald City Comic Con, the show that seemed to go on forever… Laura goes with dad, eats some gyros, buys some manga! Check her comic out here. You might not be interested in Comic Con culture, but Laura’s loose unencumbered drawings are not to be missed. If you’ve been struggling with your own diary comics or simply documentary drawing and sequencing and feel that you’re overworking the form, check this comic out. No grand gestures, it just breathes life. Cool stuff. If you dig this, check out the first volume of her comic, Bug Boys. ————————————————————————————————— Character Design While some of you are busy working out the background story for your suite of characters for your latest story, somebody in Silicon Valley’s creating a fictional narrative for the AI that’s going to go on your phone’s time management app. What a time to be alive… The surge of investor interest in virtual assistants that can converse has been fueled in part by the popularity of messaging apps, such as WeChat, WhatsApp, and Facebook’s Messenger, which are among the most widely downloaded smartphone applications. Investors see that users are increasingly drawn to conversational platforms, and hope to build additional features into them. Who knows, if you’ve got some tight chops for dialogue, there might just be some good money in Silicon Valley for you. Read more about it all over on the Washington Post. This all horrifies me, but hey, to each their own. ————————————————————————————————— Black Panther Sales are Nuts Ta-Nehisi and Brian Stelfreeze’s Black Panther is selling like gangbusters. They sold out of their first 300,000 copy print run and have gone on to a second of this first issue. This is a big deal. Good on them. Over on the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates has written a nice in depth look at his collaboration with Brian Stellfreeze on making Black Panther a reality: Ideally, the writer offers notes in his script on how the comic book should look. This requires thinking with intention about what a character is actually doing, not merely what he is saying. This is harder than it sounds, and often I found myself vaguely gesturing at what should happen in a panel—“T’Challa looks concerned.” Or “Ramonda stands to object.” I was lucky in that I was paired with a wonderful and experienced artist, Brian Stelfreeze. Storytelling in a comic book is a partnership between the writer and the artist, as surely as a film is a partnership between the screenwriter and the director. Read it all on The Atlantic. ————————————————————————————————— Zines on the Radio There’s some fresh new installments of Paper Cuts! Paper Cuts is an exploration of the contemporary world of zines and DIY publishing hosted by Christopher Kardambikis. It airs on Clock Tower Radio. Each program features writers, performers, and artists who have shared their work in print, on paper and in small editions. The series acts as a cross section of this varied landscape and rich history. Here’s a chance for you to listen to the voices that would normally live in your hands and demand your eyeballs! Mary Mack Tremonte and Darin Klein #BLKGRLSWURLD Primal Screams Zine Fest 2016 ————————————————————————————————— Phoenix Comics Salon Announced First ever Phoenix Comics Club meetup, their Salon, is happening May 5th at the Central Library in Phoenix. If you’re in the area, be sure to go out and meet other comics makers and cartoonists. You get to decide how this thing grows. For makers, by makers. Seems like for this first meeting the focus will be on figuring out what exactly Phoenix wants/needs out of a meetup like this. Learn more about it here. ————————————————————————————————— Generous Bosom 1-2 Reviewed Gabriele Di Fazio takes a good look at Connor Stechschulte’s recent work for Breakdown Press in Generous Bosom #1 & #2 over on the Italian comics review blog Just Indie Comics. Hit that google translate button for the inside scoop. Read it the review. ————————————————————————————————— Get Drunk Off of Visual Literacy Kevin Huizenga turned us on to this one. A LYRICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF VISUAL PROPOSITIONS- RUGGED DESIGN IN OPPOSITION TO ELEGANCE – IT’S BIGGER THAN YOU COULD EVER THINK- JUST EXPLORE – NO CLUES FROM ME. Dive into Dr. Chris Mullen’s labrynth and see what you find! The website of The Visual Telling of Stories aspires to being a Visual Lexicon, dedicated to the primacy of the Visual Proposition. Above all it tries to create an overall consistency of structure and environment, as if it was all taking place in one characteristic landscape through which you are allowed to wander. The main delight and challenge is the invention of non-linear means of navigation through spaces of knowledge with a created balance of reference and discovery. Dr Chris Mullen ————————————————————————————————— A Kick in the Face Here’s some cool news from Bill at Copacetic Comics. The Street Angel Gang by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca has arrived! Welcome the week with a bracing onslaught of all-out Street Angel™ action! This is the latest in the small batch preview editions signed and numbered by Jim Rugg. A tough gang holds an open call for new members; has the Orphan Avenger finally found a family? A mere 300 copies of this sucker exist. File under: You snooze, you lose.HERE. The Street Angel Gang “Rough Edition” This features the complete issue in pencil rough form. See Rugg’s work up close and personal. HERE. The Street Angel Gang Script Facsimile A facsimile edition of the complete original full script, complete with ammendations, notes, changes, spot illos and initial thumbnail breakdowns. See how a Street Angel comic book is born. HERE. or, get all three together for a special price: The Street Angel Gang PROCESS PACK Here it is: an all-in-one look at the Street Angel Production Process™ (pat. pend.). This pack contains: the facsimile of the original script with thumbnail breakdowns; the “Rough Edition” of the full pencil roughs; and a copy of the signed and numbered small batch edition. Supplies are limited! HERE. Soon to be a collectors item,you better pick up a copy at Copacetic Comics. ————————————————————————————————— That’s it for now. Got some Latin American comics news on Wednesday. Here’s a slew of Chicha from Peru for you to move through your day and to keep you company until then. This album rules. Support Barbés Records if you can dig it. Share this page: [...]

Juan FernándezNovember 9, 2016los Cómics / NewsJuan con un poquito sobre: GRAF Madrid; Chicks on Comics;Animal Collective. Nuevas iniciativas en el cómic europeo; el Festival Furioso de Dibujo; the 2016 FUERZA Awardees. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Antes que todo, quiero compartir unas buenas noticias: I’m extremely honored to have been chosen as one of the 2016 FUERZA Awardees here in Pittsburgh! I’ve been here doing my best to make Pittsburgh a city where self-publishing and comics making foster an equitable and inspiring community. It’s really nice to feel that others are feeling the impact of what we’re building here. Para ustedes que no vivan en Pittsburgh, The FUERZA Awards bring visibility to the Pittsburgh Latinx leadership. “The 2016 FUERZA Awardees reflect a true dedication to culture, to pride, to hard work and to the possibility of creating a community that reflects our values, our identities and our histories. Latinx have never been one to shy away from challenges. And we are here, contributing to make the Pittsburgh region a more vibrant, a more equitable and more just place for all who call it home.” If you’re in town next week, Come celebrate with me and the rest of the awardees next Friday NOV. 18TH, 5-8PM at ALLOY 26 – there’ll be food, n dancing, n zines! en español y ingles! https://www.facebook.com/events/989303767862057/ ————————————————————————————————— ⚡GRAF – Madrid Es este fin de semana! Sera el punto de encuentro con el cómic de autor y la edición independiente. Ya puede consultarse la programación y el listado de expositores de #GRAFMadrid2016 que tendrá lugar del 11 al 13 de noviembre de 2016 en Madrid. talleres, musica, encuentros, feria de libros… es obvio que el equipo Mireia Pérez, Iñaki Sanz, Borja Crespo, Gerardo Vilches y Pedro Toro estan montando un monstruo de comics y fanzine fest… GRAF Madrid 2016: 11,12 y 13 de noviembre en @MuseoABC ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Por primera vez se presenta en Proa el colectivo “Chicks on Comics”, integrado por Bas, Clara Lagos, Delius, Julia Homersham, Maartje Schalkx, Powerpaola y Sole Otero, siete mujeres historietistas de la Argentina, Colombia, Holanda y Nueva Zelanda, quienes desde 2008 exploran los recursos narrativos del cómic como medio de comunicación e intercambio, utilizando plataformas virtuales el grupo produce diálogos, publicaciones y exhibiciones para dar visibilidad a mujeres historietistas y promover el intercambio y el diálogo entre las disciplinas afines a la historieta y sus diversos públicos. Te digo que va a ser increíble! Diciembre 2016 – Marzo 2017 Fundación PROA Av. Pedro de Mendoza 1929 La Boca, Caminito Buenos Aires Argentina ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Mireia Pérez ha compartido su impresiones de la nueva exibicion, Animal Collective. Nuevas iniciativas en el cómic europeo en Centro Centro, Madrid. Léelo y visitálo! Se me ocurre que el cómic puede tener más que ver con la danza que con la literatura. Especialmente el que se aleja de las estructuras narrativas más convencionales y se acerca a lo abstracto. Lo secuencial aporta una nueva dimensión al dibujo y la composición gráfica juega un papel importante en cuanto al ritmo. El texto (o el gesto), cuando sucede, termina de dotar a las obras con un significado dramático humano directo. En el prólogo de Best American Comics 2015, el crítico y editor Bill Kartalopoulos agradece especialmente la participación de Raymond Pettibon en dicha antología con piezas que, por su forma, se han calificado como cómics. Encajan así en una categoría inventada por el propio Kartalopoulos de forma privada y bautizada como “paracomics” donde también entraría la obra de artistas como Sol Lewitt, Ida Applebroog, Jennifer Barlett, Keith Haring, Duane Michals o Joe Brainard. Explica también que durante décadas los cómics y sus creadores han trabajado en paralelo al mundo del arte contemporáneo mientras que hoy muchos jóvenes autores, con las lecciones del arte de los siglos XX y XXI digeridas, están produciendo cómics que tienen más parentesco con los “paracomics” que con muchas de las obras que históricamente han caracterizado al medio. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ Entre ayer y el viernes se realizará en Plataforma Lavardén una nueva edición del Festival Furioso de Dibujo,. Una muestra colectiva sobre ciudades imaginadas, mesa editorial de sellos y autores rosarinos, charlas y talleres a cargo de reconocidos ilustradores esperan ser descubiertos. Ayer salio una nota sobre el festival en el diario Diario La Capital – Rosario esta toda la información de las actividades: El festival surgió en 2014, cuando un grupo de dibujantes o más bien de gente a la que le interesaba el dibujo comenzó a reunirse más o menos regularmente. “La idea del festival, justamente, es reunirse, aunque sea una vez al año, intercambiar experiencias, tomar talleres, ver el trabajo de otros y mostrar el propio y discutirlo, pensamos el dibujo como un punto de encuentro y en eso tratamos de que el espacio que brindamos sea lo más amplio posible”, explica Vane Saucedo, una de las organizadoras del festival junto a María Luque, María Victoria Rodríguez García, Romina Biassoni, Giselle Feuillade, Pipah, Jazmín Varela, Alina Calzadilla, Flopa, Lucía Seisas, M. Luz Preumayr y José Sainz. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡Echale un vistazo a este medallón estilo Pompeii! “Le encargué a la gran Airi Maeno que hiciera unos medallones de plata con sede fuera de mis dibujos. Este dibujo viende de mi libro Pompeii. Es algo que puedo imaginar que alguien se pondría hace dos mil años. Un simple medallón de un ser querido. Un retrato. Algo permanente para desafiar a la desaparición”. – Frank Santoro Puedes comprar uno aquí! hasta la proxima! Juan Share this page: [...]

Rowhouse Residency Report – Patrick Bonato

Rowhouse Residency Report – Patrick Bonato

Comics WorkbookAugust 14, 2017Residency Reports / School UpdatesPatrick Bonato is an Austrian illustrator, graphic designer, and comics maker. He joined us in Pittsburgh for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency for the month of May 2017. Here are his thoughts about visiting the city and his Rowhouse Residency experience. ———————————————————————————————— I owe one of my artistically most intense and helpful experiences to a moment of clarity, luck and just trying. I had been travelling and working abroad for half a year already, mainly to take a time-out from my client’s jobs as an illustrator and graphic designer and to focus on my personal work, which are comics. I hesitated on what to do next, but I knew what I wanted: an artist residency for comic artists especially. I tried my luck by just typing exactly that in Google. One of the two (!) results to consider was the Rowhouse Residency, which appeared more and more fitting and interesting, the more I found out about it. I mailed them – the always helpful good soul Sally Ingraham to be more precise – and from then on everything went fast. Only two weeks later I found myself in Pittsburgh for a one month comics residency! I arrived there in the middle of my Toubab story (above), and felt I needed some guidance and professional feedback on it, as in my education as a graphic designer and illustrator in Austria and Switzerland I never have experienced any training in comics. So the first two weeks I proceeded to create new pages of this story and showed them to Frank and Sally. Frank helped me a great deal to understand and analyze what I had been doing to that point mostly intuitively. He also revealed to me some influences of mine that I had not fully been aware of and partly even where the inspiration to my inspirations came from! So I basically got a crash course in comic’s history and traditions and left every conversation with Frank full of motivation and inspiration and a huge pile of comic books to read from his seemingly infinite library. I could have spent the whole month just reading comics and was thankful for the rainy days, making it easier just to dig in and lock the outside world away for a while. In these first feedback sessions with Frank and in my conversations with Sally, we often talked about Frank’s “magical method” using index cards and about the online course he’s giving. At first, I adapted a modified version of the index cards to the ongoing Toubab comic and was already enthusiastic about the freedom and ease it unleashed in the drawing process. Therefore, as I felt ready to start a new story, one that had been on my mind for a long time already, I asked Frank and Sally to do the Comics Course in the second half of my stay. And that’s when I felt my residency was really taking off and getting intense. My goal was to accomplish an 8-week-course in two weeks! I decided to simply follow instructions and completely trust my masters Frank and Sally. Which proved to be very helpful, because all I had to really think about were my drawings and the story, whereas any formal decision (format, grid, number of pages and so on) was already given. The first two assignments propelled me to a formerly unknown speed of creation, that I had not even thought to be possible. Although tough tasks, they allowed me to access a spontaneous, natural flow of my thoughts and ideas about the story. And I’ve finally realized how much more inspiring and fun that was, compared to planning everything in advance and then just executing the plan. I am not exaggerating when I say it was a revelation that really changed my ways of working. I managed to complete the 16-page comic just before the end of my residency (a teaser can be seen above!) and had accomplished something way more quickly and way better and more fluidly than anything I had worked on before. I really owe that to Frank’s method, and his and Sally’s guidance through the course. I appreciated a lot having the possibility to have real conversations during the process, being able to ask questions, discuss things further and pick the comic books that related to them. Another very influential and unique experience to me was to see Frank work. While I was there, he was very occupied with his new book (which I hope will be available by spring 2018 as Frank assumed – learn French to read it, Americans!). So while it was not always easy to get to see him and catch some feedback on my work in this situation, at the same time it taught me how important it is, in the process of creation, to sometimes just retreat from the outside world and ignore it’s needs and wishes. I personally consider this a lesson for a lifetime, and one I constantly should remind myself of (i.e. thinking of how persistent and reckless some clients sometimes can be!). I had to travel for months and to three continents to finally get some peace and tranquility from clients, friends and family (no offense to you all, I like most of you clients and love you friends and family) – but I’ll need to find a way to just focus on my work when back to a more “normal” life. A few more things I want to mention: the Rowhouse and Pittsburgh in general felt like a new home by the end of my stay. It’s a good place to work but also to take a break from it. I appreciated a lot that Sally introduced me to Bill Boichel and the Copacetic Comics store, to the monthly Pittsburgh Comics Salon and the lovely people who form that group. And that we had this fun ride around town and – of course one of the highlights – a canoe trip with her and Frank. I am deeply thankful for this great experience and the many things I’ve learned about the art of comics and life, and I thank Sally and Frank in the first place for that, and everyone I had the luck to get to know during my month in Pittsburgh. I hope to be back soon! ————————————————————————————————————— Check out work by Patrick on his website, and follow him on Tumblr and Instagram. For more information about the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency visit this page or email santoroschoolATgmail Share this page: [...]

Austin, TX Scene Report

Austin, TX Scene Report

Frank SantoroDecember 25, 2011Riff Raff / Scene ReportsThis post originally appeared on The Comics Journal – 12/25/2011 Frank here. This week’s scene report is brought to you by William Cardini. Mr. Cardini just finished my comic book correspondence course. Hopefully, you will someday see the comic that he produced during the course – it’s pretty sharp. In the meantime, please enjoy his report on the Austin comics scene. ————- Austin Scene Report by William Cardini. Despite having been (and in some cases continuing to be) home to various comics legends, such as Chris Ware, Mack White, Cayetano Garza Jr, Shannon Wheeler, and the Armadillo World Headquarters crew, Austin doesn’t seem to have the same reputation among cartoonists as similar cities such as Portland or Minneapolis, but I think it could. Austin has two comprehensive comic book stores, Austin Books & Comics and Dragon’s Lair, that stock everything from local minicomics to Fantagraphics to manga. And if you’re more interested in zines, there’s Monkeywrench, an all-volunteer collective-run radical bookstore. Austin Books shows local artists on their back wall. This is a long distance photo I took from my show there with my wife Glade. You can see their deep back issue racks. The center of my Austin comics scene is Domy Books. An independent bookstore and gallery, Domy started in 2006 in Houston’s hip Montrose neighborhood. In 2008, Domy co-founder Russell Etchen opened an Austin branch of the store, and it’s been a boon. A towering, super friendly red-haired dude, Russell is always eager to make a recommendation or talk about obscure comics, artists, zinesters, and graffiti artists. He makes sure that Domy features a prominent zine section, screenprints, and a slew of art comics. He also curates the gallery section, featuring cartoonists such as Ron Regé Jr and Esther Pearl Watson. Russell also puts together the annual Monster Show, where he asks cartoonists from all over to do a 9×12″ drawing. Photo of this year’s Monster Show opening by Carling Hale. If you squint you can see Jonny Negron. Speaking of Mr. Negron, Austin has a pretty full local creator roster. Here’s a small sample: Jonny Negron – His drawings are charged with raw sexual energy. Ben Snakepit – Ben’s been drawing three-panel punk rock diary comics every day since 2001 Aaron Whitaker and Melinda Tracy Boyce – This comics power couple just moved here from Portland. They do diary and literary comics collaboratively and singly. Zach Taylor – Zach does totally out-there adventures comics and runs the Austin Sketch Group, who meet up every Sunday to draw comics (and they’re not the only draw club in town). You can see most of these folks once a year at STAPLE!, a local indy media/comics festival that’s been getting bigger and better every one of the seven years its run. In general, Austin has a community that’s really supportive of DIY efforts and art. The music, literary, and art scenes ooze over and intermingle with the comics scene. There are a lot of creative people doing a lot of things here. If only it weren’t so damn hot. Share this page: [...]

Aaron CockleOctober 22, 2018NewsAnne Carson; Boiled Angels; Gabe Fowler; Mary Ann Caws ————————————————————————————————— “Flaubert Again” Anne Carson has a piece of fiction in the most recent New Yorker issue: Once, she and Martha had gone to Greece together, to an international writers’ conference. While they were there, she’d renounced writing. Instead, she made sketches in a sketchbook and titled it “The Glass of Water,” as if that were what everyone was looking for, a glass of water in Greece, not a different kind of novel or some not-stupid sentences. The sketches were a bit cartoonish but loving. We see the glass of water disappearing up the stairs with a Russian poet. Or gripped fast by a Turkish Cypriot novelist (who has poured it into two glasses). Or lost by a Spanish writer behind a mountain of toast at the breakfast table. She found toast difficult to draw convincingly, from a side view. Drawing the Peruvian poet, on the other hand, who claimed to have videotaped his llama drinking from the glass of water, was a joy, as she already knew how to draw llamas. ————————————————————————————————— Color Giants – Cinema Comix Expo 2018 The third year of the free Color Giants Expo moves (temporarily) away from animation to feature two events featuring iconic underground cartoonists. Nov. 10th at 7pm is the second-ever NYC screening of the 2018 feature documentary Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana directed by Frank Henenlotter (Basket Case). The titular Mike Diana (“Boiled Angel”)—the only artist in US history convicted of obscenity, whose legal battle is the subject matter of this important film—will be present for a Q&A with director Henenlotter. Nov. 11th at 8pm are new programs of occult-related films, with a live Q&A and tarot readings with cartoonist and witchcraft-enthusiast Dame Darcy (“Meat Cake”). Films will include works by Dame Darcy and Lisa Hammer, Zev Deans, H.R. Giger and more. Programmed by Kenneth Filmer as part of the Brooklyn Fire Proof Screening Series in association with Comic Arts Brooklyn and Robyn Chapman. Both programs are free. Address: Seltzer Room Studio 3 at 102 Ingraham St., Brooklyn, NY 11237. (Two blocks from L Train at Morgan Ave.) This program is for adults only, and no children will be admitted. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Do you keep up with the comics news–and what does the term “comics news” mean to you?’ Gabe Fowler is interviewed over at TCJ: What gets you most annoyed about comics right now? I try not to sustain annoyance. There’s a lot of regrettable beating-of-dead-horses in comics, and the horse-beaters need to grow a brain or get out of the way. Let me say this: if you look at comics history or comics present and are troubled by problematic material or problematic creators, THAT’S GOOD. When you spot a problem, that’s the world telling you it’s your turn to correct it. This is literally why I run a store. All the other stores were full of stale garbage, run by assholes, had no sense of style, and were always playing shitty music. I realized it was my duty to address these problems and try to find a better way. ————————————————————————————————— The Art of Interference: Stressed Readings in Verbal & Visual Texts I recently started reading this book, by Mary Ann Caws, published in 1989. Here’s a bit from the introduction: Marc Shell, in his Money, Language, and Thought, points out the limits of our institutions of philosophy and criticism, given our more than complex relation to economy, exchange, and coinage, particularly in America. Our money complex and our frequent refusal or incapacity to separate the interrelations of coin and paper, cash and symbol, investment and expenditure, are themselves bound up with our production of writing and our theatricalized productions of textual interpretation, with our reading and our perception of all the former. To expand on this thought, then, could we not imagine that what we institute in our thought and speech, and are likely to have instituted, is bound and limited, even as what we think we are defending nationally is the freedom of thinking and discoursing against what would bind and censor? ————————————————————————————————— 10-23-2018 by Niall Breen ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 10-23-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]