Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in The Diaz ArchiveTagged Fantagraphics, Fante Bukowski, noah van sciver

Chris Anthony Diaz

Posted on July 8, 2016July 13, 2016

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Comics WorkbookJuly 9, 2017EssaysAddley Walker is a comics and pattern maker from Los Angeles, CA. He joined us in Pittsburgh for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency in June 2017 (read about his experience HERE). While he was visiting, we realized that Addley was plugged into a different corner of the comics making community, and seeing work that we weren’t familiar with. His enthusiasm was catching, so we asked him to share with us some of the comics makers and artists that he follows and enjoys. Below is the “list” he sent. – Sally ————————————————————————————————————— Crow Cillers – Cate Wurtz (http://lamezone.net/) By far the best project of the already impressive body of work of queer webcomics wizard Cate Wurtz, Crow Cillers is an intense story about cute animal critters stuck in an oppressive world of cults and body horror. Presented in a faux-television manner where characters’ dialogue appears as closed captioning, stories change channels into others, and “episodes” in an arc are collected into season “box sets” (it, and individual episodes available monthly via her Patreon, are html documents that bring up navigable menus), Wurtz presents us casual talking sitcom characters forced to deal with increasingly violent situations while weaving in a metanarrative dealing with issues such as the absurd and often dark environment of the internet itself. Wurtz’s aesthetic and thematic odes to DeviantArt and Hot Topic not only serves as a coherent vehicle for her message, but asks the reader to re-evaluate their relationship with not only the corporate rebellion of Korn (most evident in her chopped ‘n screwed electronic music that is the suggested series soundtrack) and Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic with GUNS), but the earnest reaction to these institutions by the fringes of internet art and fetish communities. Download the pilot and first season free on her website. Hail Gay Satan. Music: https://partydog.bandcamp.com/ Past Comic: https://lamezone.net/comics/asscastle https://lamezone.net/comics/punc (not so explicit) ————————————————————————————————————— Angel of a Rope – Adam Buttrick (http://www.adambuttrick.com) There were some very good stories in Kramer’s 9, but Adam Buttrick’s entry really made the book for me. Adam’s making very peculiar and powerful work, with a literary influence that, while escaping my personal understanding, draws me deeper into the situations and characters that feel so familiar after a lifetime of cartoons and video games. His incredibly busy pages have a surprisingly minimal economy of shapes, making everything clear in the mess of action that make up his world. Angel of a Rope is another excellent entry into the ouvre of someone who I find to be one of the most exciting cartoonists working today. Work in question: http://dominobooks.org/angelrope.html ————————————————————————————————————— Now Nowhere – Elevator Teeth (http://elevatorteeth.com/) I’m generally very wary of artists who foster a branded presentation of their work, and Elevator Teeth definitely has that aspect. Scrolling on their website I watch art posts transform into shirts, a part of an image becomes a button or patch, an illustration becomes a record cover which becomes an object that gets waggled on a talk show. It helps that the work is rendered in such a clean and minimal style, which makes it very susceptible to duplication and modification. As such, words and images will come up again, re-arranged and colored differently. This shifting quality of Elevator Teeth’s work is part of it’s magic, though, and looking at one image after the other becomes very dreamlike and hypnotic. The objects in these images hold an internal charge and react in strange and interesting ways to new compositions. The zine Now Nowhere, which came out early last year, is a great example. With work originally presented as one pagers that work very well as statements by themselves, Elevator Teeth puts them together to reveal that side-by-side they form a coherent story that lasts 28 pages. Slick and fashionable as it looks, Elevator Teeth’s work is fundamentally about consciousness, and shows the way in which digital techniques can lend themselves to powerful forms of truth seeking. Work in question: http://elevatorteeth.storenvy.com/products/15662373-now-nowhere-riso-zine ————————————————————————————————————— Warrior Pose – Leon Sadler (http://leonsadler.com/) + Yannick Val Gesto (http://www.yannickvalgesto.com/) Omnipresent anthology contributor Leon Sadler and fellow fine art nerd Yannick Val Gesto are a dynamic duo whose collaborations I wish I knew more about. I do not know how I found this fabulous book in the first place, probably because I am great. Presenting itself as a gentle self help manual, Warrior Pose (which was consigned along with a video of the same name) might not be comics, but those literate to the form should have an entry into some joyful collages of anime, fanart, chan imagery, and other serene weirdness, along with drawings by both. Val Gesto’s quest in particular, revealing the beauty of internet ugliness, I find incredibly compelling, much like Cate Wurtz. Leon Sadler is pretty cool, too. Work in question: https://battcoop.org/en/produit/warrior-pose-2/ Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2zAoe8ShMw ————————————————————————————————————— The Boys Are Back In Town – Mushbuh (http://mushbuh.com/) This entry is a funeral for the self experience that I discovered will be forever unrealized by me not owning this zine of colorful haniwa frolics. Mushbuh is someone who initially caught me with their lively Illustrator art and comics, as well as a demo for their N64 love letter Burrito Galaxy. While Mushbuh seems to be on a more automatic, almost anti-aesthetic track today, evidence is still there of the tightly geometric, bouncy cartoon art I see still around in works of artists such as George Wysesol. Please contact me if you have evidence of rare sightings of these boys… Work in question: http://www.mushbuh.bigcartel.com/product/the-boys-are-back-in-town-ed-of-50 Examples: Musbuh comics George Wysesol https://www.instagram.com/sassybluepanda/ George Wysesol web series(?) https://www.instagram.com/ithinkimintrouble/ ————————————————————————————————————— Check out work by Addley Walker on his website, and follow him on Instagram. Share this page: [...]

08/02/2016

Aaron CockleAugust 1, 2016NewsAaron Cockle here today with Mickey Z circa 2012-2013; Bill Sienkiewicz revisits old work; syndicated comic strip pulled for some reason or another; The Routledge Companion to Comics costs $240???; Dabaie/Hart Comics; Rowhouse Auction continues ————————————————————————————————— Mickey Z‘s 2012-2013 output for CW is this week’s Featured Comic. ————————————————————————————————— X-Men: Post-Apocalypse At the big comic convention recently held in San Diego that promotes all of the big super-hero movies, artist Bill Sienkiewicz spotted some work he’d made for a super-hero comic 30 years ago being used to promote the release of a super-hero movie. As an artist with a grievance, Sienkiewicz went to the only place these days where one’s frustrations can be vented, and stated: This practice is hardly unusual standard operating procedure for corporations. Even so, it still rankles. I’m one guy. I’ve been doing this comic-book thing for years. I’m aware most everything is Work-Made-for-Hire. Still, I received no prior notification (a common courtesy), no thank you ( ditto), no written credit in any form whatsoever either on the piece or in connection with the premium, absolutely no compensation and no comp copies of the album. Aside from the discussion of why these corporate, hegemonic, known-to-be-exploitative structures are still propped up by consumers (and creators), there’s a conversation to be had about making a living through your art-making. Is the short answer ‘We deserve better’? Or do we get the comics, art, culture, politicians, etc we deserve? ————————————————————————————————— Grammar Confusion or Terrorist Plot? Pearls Before Swine creator Stephan Pastis had a comic strip pulled from syndication on July 27, possibly due to an implied reference to the Islamic State, the Salafi jihadist militant group that follows a fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. Facebook has blacked out the strip on Pastis’s page, but it’s been posted numerous times in the comments section. Apologies for linking to Facebook so much today. Betsy Gomez at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund had this to say about the matter: As private entities, newspaper editorial staff are certainly within their rights to make decisions about the content they run in their papers. However, the removal of the strip raises concerns over self-censorship. Further, removal of a cartoon as relatively inoffensive at Pastis’s buys into the fear that terrorists like those who attacked Charlie Hebdo and other cartoonists around the world are trying to instill in the populace. The answer to such fear isn’t to remove a cartoon, but to support the free expression of those who would question the terrorists’ actions and the authorities that overreact to terrorist attacks by stepping on fundamental freedoms. ————————————————————————————————— I Can’t Believe This Book Costs $240 The Routledge Companion to Comics, edited by Frank Bramlett, Roy T. Cook, Aaron Meskin, 456 pages, $240. I understand that this is a textbook of some kind, or as the book’s description says: This cutting-edge handbook brings together an international roster of scholars to examine many facets of comics and graphic novels. Contributor essays provide authoritative, up-to-date overviews of the major topics and questions within comic studies, offering readers a truly global approach to understanding the field. Maybe the whole thing was Risographed, and that’s why it costs so much? There don’t appear to be any samples or excerpts available, but if anyone at Routledge/Taylor & Francis would like to send CW a review copy, we’d be happy to take a look at it and let you know what we think. ————————————————————————————————— Ali’s House The strip, made by Marguerite Dabaie and Tom Hart for King Features Syndicate back in 2008, has found a home at Go Comics. ————————————————————————————————— Rowhouse Auction Items: July 31-August 6 New items available for this week. Email Frank Santoro at santoroschoolATgmail for a password if you don’t already have one. If you already have a password, it is the same from last week. All funds go to helping keep the lights on and further developing the school. Share this page: [...]

Lisa Hanawalt

Chris Anthony DiazJuly 13, 2016The Diaz ArchiveLisa Hanawalt signing her latest Drawn & Quarterly book HOT DOG TASTE TEST, and DRAWN AND QUARTERLY: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF CONTEMPORARY CARTOONING, COMICS, AND GRAPHIC NOVELS (my portrait of Lisa is in this book, page 263!), Green Apple Books on the Park, San Francisco, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Photo color for Lisa’s portrait by Graham Willcox Share this page: [...]

03/14/2017

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

02/15/2017

Juan FernándezFebruary 15, 2017los Cómics / NewsJuan José con un poquito sobre Carla Berrocal; el fanzine de Chicks on Cómics de Argentina; lo nuevo de Berliac; #GRAFBCN2017; Gerardo Vilches; Desiree Rodriguez and #BeingLatinxInComics; La Polola on hiatus. Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Ya viene, ya llega. #GRAFBCN2017 a la vuelta de la esquina. GRAF is coming to Barcelona. Take note: they’ve has announced several workshops for their March 3-5 comics festival in Barcelona. Among them is a master class con Natacha Bustos y Javi Rodríguez. Sign up for their talleres HERE. Carla Berrocal, ha retratado la crónica negra de Madrid en La ciudad en viñetas, que se puede ver en CentroCentro Cibeles de Madrid hasta el 12 de abril. 150 chicas participaron con cómics sobre Arte, en el fanzine de Chicks on Cómics de Argentina. Ya se puede leer el Fanzine a la Carta! Berliac’s got some new comics on Vice – Asian Food Store Junkies – S01-E02 A match made in heaven, or the opposite? You decide… Gerardo Vilches, (uno de mis mis criticos preferidos!) ha compartido su repaso d lo mejor de 2016 (sí: el 15 de febrero de 2017) “Better late than never!” #slowcooking #greatcooking Desiree Rodriguez is compiling the work of the contemporary Latinx comics making community in North America, all together under #BeingLatinxInComics. Check it out and get hep to these artists, writers and critics. Know someone she should add? Want to add yourself? Here’s the submission form. Para que sepan: La Polola Podcast is on hiatus! Vacation is vacation. As Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo gear up for their new season they have a contest going while on vacation! Draw your favorite song and catch up with the podcast! It’s always a fun, relaxing and enlightening listen. If you haven’t tuned in to La Polola just yet, Póngale Play. ————————————————————————————————— En Venta: The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey. La gran Vanesa R. Del Rey le ha dado permiso a Comics Workbook para publicar unas selecciónes de sus cuadernos de bocetos. Hemos diseñado esta publicación para que parezca uno de esos libros de de artistas los años 80. Arte y Entrevista. El texto es una transcripción de la entrevista que hicimos con Vanesa cuando visito la Residencia Rowhouse en 2016. Vanesa es un artista impresionante y inigualable. Puedes comprar tu copia AQUI.Order a copy of The Art of Vanesa R. Del Rey HERE. Frank Santoro, el director de Comics Workbook, nos cuenta un poquito sobre sus experiencias con Vanesa: Me encontré por primera vez con VRDR en un festival de cómics en Toronto (TCAF) en 2014. Había empezado a hacer comics profesionalmente después de un período como un animadora. Fui Sorprendido por su la capacidad de ser como un camaleón de cambiar de estilos, y por su puesto le pedí ver más de sus obras. Desenterró pilas de cuadernos de dibujos de sus días en Cuba, cuando estudiaba el realismo soviético y de trabajaba con George Pratt, maestro de cómics pintados. La educación de Vanesa como artista hace el balance suavemente entre los niveles alto y bajo del arte, así como los valores estéticos del este y el oeste. Es una base asombrosa. Ella es, a la vez, consciente de la historia del arte, la historia de los cómics y la historia de la animación de una manera NUEVA que casi parecía imposible hace quince o veinte años. Debo admitir como un estudiante y fan de cómics que se enfocan en la mezcla de “alto y bajo” y en ” los cómics pintados” — Nunca he visto tal mezcla de habilidades al nivel de VRDR. Feroz. Imparable. Un competidor feroz. Michael Jordan-esque? ¿Es eso posible en la fabricación de cómic? Siempre he dicho que habría un “invasor vertical” en los cómics que podría emplear el “naturalismo” de la escuela de Noel Sickles / Alex Toth pero que podría pintar como una Alice Neel o una Jenny Saville. Creo que “el invasor” ha llegado en forma de Vanesa R. Del Rey. Puedes comprar tu copia AQUI. Sigan a Vanesa por Instagram – @vrdelrey – y http://vrdelrey.com/ Suzy and Cecil – 2-15-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-15-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-15-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

Noah Van Sciver’s FANTE BUKOWSKI

Posted on July 8, 2016July 13, 2016 by Chris Anthony Diaz

Noah Van Sciver FANTE BUKOWSKI original art that was unpublished (first, second and fourth photos) and published (inside end covers, third photo) in the book. Plus, a chance to see how Noah colors partially on the original art before completing digitally on the computer. More of Noah’s work can be purchased at Fantagraphics

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in The Diaz ArchiveTagged Fantagraphics, Fante Bukowski, noah van sciver

Chris Anthony Diaz

Posted on July 8, 2016July 13, 2016

Explore

Frank’s 1st Workshop Tour

Chris Anthony DiazJanuary 29, 2016The Diaz ArchiveAll Photos by Chris Anthony Diaz and colored by Graham Willcox. Frank Santoro’s first ever workshop tour – San Francisco’s Mission Comics and Art – 2012 Share this page: [...]

YI YI by Steven Weissman

Chris Anthony DiazJuly 20, 2016The Diaz ArchiveSteven Weissman’s portrayal of Jonathan Chang as Yang Yang in Edward Yang’s YI YI (Taiwan, 2000) for my ILLUSTRATED MOMENTS IN CINEMA/TELEVISION. The illustration was completed January 2011 in India and Pearlescent inks complimented with Screentone patterns, and Steven’s candid with his son was taken at the Oakland Museum of California’s cafeteria in August 2012. And Graham Willcox did the color on Steven’s candid Share this page: [...]

Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN Scene Report

Frank SantoroNovember 20, 2011Riff Raff / Scene ReportsThis article originally appeared on The Comics Journal 11/20/2011 Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN Scene Report scene report by Tom K The Twin Cities (Minneapolis & St. Paul) have a long and storied relationship to comics. We’re best known for the St. Paul born Charles Schulz who created Peanuts as an instructor of the Minneapolis based Art Instruction School. But there is a lot more to our scene. I left the Twin Cities at the turn of the century, when I came back a almost a decade later I found the city transformed. Since I left whole neighborhoods gentrified, a nice new light rail system sprouted, and a bike shop graced every corner. The comics scene had grown significantly during my absence. There seem to be a lot more cartoonists around and generally the scene feels vibrant and growing… this was not how things seemed in the 90’s. Comic-book stores are a key component of the scene. Dreamhaven Books & Comics, the 800 lbs gorilla of the scene in the 90’s, recently announced that it will close it’s doors next year. It’s a huge loss, though not unexpected. The franchise was going through a slow-motion contraction for years. The two stores that carry on the torch are Big Brain Comics (in Minneapolis) and The Source (in St. Paul). Big Brain Comics has to be counted as one of the great comics stores in the country. Proprietor Michael Drivas keeps the store stocked with pretty much everything, with a special emphasis on independent comics. The Source is similarly well stocked though its focus is decidedly more mainstream with a prominent section for games. Both shops are destinations and draw a loyal clientele of cartoonists and fans from all over the Twin Cities. Also worth noting is Nostalgia Zone. The Nostalgia Zone is exclusively focused on back-issues and has an amazing collection comics going back to the beginnings of the medium. It’s also a great place to scour vast bins of 25 & 50 cent comics for early 80’s gems. There are several other smaller shops scattered throughout serving smaller local clientelle. They tend to be focused on the weekly whims of the big-two superhero publishers. Comics events have taken a recent turn for the better in no small part due to comics scenester/cartoonist Sarah Morean. She revitalized the Twin Cities Zinefest and started MIX, The Minneapolis Indie eXpo, last year. The 2010 MIX was well attended (1,000 attendees during a one day show) for a first year show and had a great guest list. This year (MIX 2012 happened two weeks ago) was even better. The festival expanded into a two-day event. Half the table space was reserved to a group of curators to do with as they saw fit, the rest of the space sold out almost instantly upon being available. This resulted in a stellar exhibitor list and interesting programming schedule, while still allowing less well known talent to get a foothold on the floor. There was great buzz leading up to the show and it had great local media coverage. According to Sarah, MIX drew 2,200 attendees, an increase of over 100%. Pretty much everyone I talked to had a positive experience at the event. The main negative was the announcement that MIX would not return next year. Here’s hoping someone can step-into her shoes to keep a great show running. In just two years MIX has become a powerful shot in the arm to the local scene. Every cartoonist around was busy in the run-up trying to get new work done for the show. I haven’t seen this much urgency and ambition around here in a long time! Spring Con & Fall Con are two long-running mainstream (read long-box) events that have recently embraced the local indie scene to some extent. At every show the organizers allow a certain number of creators to have free tables (and free food!). It’s a great & cheap way for young & upcoming creators to see what it’s like to be on the other side of that convention table. The show also brings in interesting creators every year. Recent artists included: Howard Chaykin, Pete Bagge, Jose Louis Garcia Lopez and many others. The annual Twin Cities Book Festival has been the goto event for local literati (it’s been said that Minneapolis is the most literate city in America) for almost a decade. In recent years the presence of cartoonists & comics publishers has increased dramatically. Many of the attendees still don’t know what to make of the ‘picture stories’ they encounter, but comics are quickly becoming a regular part of the vibe of the show. The festival also brings in great comics guests every year. This year it was Ben Katchor, past years included Jamie Hernandez, Gabrielle Bell and others. The festival takes its name from the Rain Taxi Review of Books. It’s a long running & well respected literary publication available free in the Twin Cities and in many of the better book stores across the nation. Head honcho Eric Lorberer is a great fan of the comics medium and has championed serious reviews of comics since before it became trendy. Another anchor in the local scene is MCAD, The College of Art & Design. The school is one of the few places in the country you can get a Comic Art degree (undergrad & grad) and it’s a magnet for young comics talent from across the country. The comics program was founded in the 90’s by Peter Gross and is run by Barb Schulz. The faculty includes Zak Sally, and visiting artist Jim Keefe (conflict of interest dept.: I’ve been known to teach a class or two). The school often flexes it’s institutional muscle and brings interesting talent into town. A recent event with Craig Thompson drew an overflow crowd that had to be split into two rooms. Many students leave when they complete school, but many choose to stay and enrich the local scene. Some of the most prominent young talent of recent years (Tim Sievert, Will Dinski, Brittney Sabo and others) are MCAD grads who stuck around. The school is also a magnet for established cartoonists interested in teaching. Beyond MCAD, the Twin Cities are chock-full of colleges and universities which bring tens of thousands of young people here every year. The University of Minnesota is one of the biggest state colleges in the nation. When I was a student there in the 90’s there was very little comics in the curriculum and comics were often actively discouraged in the art program. These days things are changing for the better. Teachers like print-maker & occasional cartoonist Jenny Schmid mix-in comics casually into art classes. The school also does one off intensive courses with well known cartoonists. This summer Jessica Abel led one such seminar. Other schools like Hamline University, MCTC, College of Visual Art, Macalester College and others have comics focused courses as well and contribute to a pool of serious comics readers & scholars. I can’t end this section without mentioning the Art Instruction School. Best known for having Charles Schulz as a student and instructor, the correspondence school is still a going concern locally. One thing the local scene is blessed with is boutique publishers. A number of small press publishers set up their HQs in the Twin Cities: Zak Sally’s La Mano 21 is the most prominent of the bunch. It’s probably best known for Zak Sally’s work: Recidivist, and the just-completed Sammy The Mouse collection. It’s also published books by John Porcellino and an amazing Kim Deitch portfolio among several other amazing projects. Zak operates his own press and every book he releases is lovingly printed by his own hand. 2D Cloud, run by Raighne Hogan & Justin Skarhus has been growing in prominence and ambition. They started out a few years back with locally focused anthology called The Good Minnesotan. Since then they’ve published some great work by Nic Breutzman and Noah Van Sciver. They released a few books during MIX including Things You Carry by Vincent “King Mini” Stall and Motherlover an anthology modeled after D&Q Showcase featuring Nic Breutzman, The Holden brothers and Raighne himself. Jordan Shiveley runs Grimalkin Press and is planning some interesting project in the near future. In addition to the next issue of the Hive anthology there are plans for a 200+ page book of comics by Phil McAndrew & a large format art book by Chris Mostyn. My own mini-comics label Uncivilized Books (file under shameless plug dept.:) has been busier then ever. We’ve published 10 minis (by Gabrielle Bell, Jon Lewis, Dan Wieken & me) over the last 2 years and there are some bigger project brewing under the radar. The International Cartoonist Conspiracy is an organization of cartoonists structured like a terrorist cell. There are no leaders and yet is seems well organized and manages to put on several comics oriented events every year. The most prominent of these is Lutefisk Sushi. It’s an almost annual series of mini-comic filled ‘bento-boxes.’ Each box is screen printed and designed by a different cartoonist. The box is released in conjunction with an exhibition of the work collected in the box. The ICC also organizes a well attended 24-hour comic day, a monthly comics jam and a number of other projects and events. They are always welcoming to new cartoonists. Their fez covered heads are a prominent staple at all local comics events. But there’s no comics scene without cartoonists. So here’s a roll call (necessarily partial, but what can you do). In no particular order: Zander & Kevin Cannon (no they are not brothers, they’re not even related) work together as Big Time Attic. Zander has been in Minneapolis since the 90’s when he was publishing the well regarded Replacement God. He has since done some high profile work for DC (Smax & Top 10) in the recent past. Kevin is best known for his Top Shelf published Far Arden. Together hey specialize in educational comics. They’ve been busy and have published books on evolution (Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth), DNA (The Stuff of Life) & the space race (T-Minus) over the last few years. Vincent Stall has been part of the local scene since the early 90’s. As King Mini he’s published countless beautifully designed mini-comics. He has been very productive lately. Over the last couple of years he’s created several well received art exhibitions and 2D Cloud just released his new book Things You Carry during MIX. Since Zak Sally swapped music for comics he’s has been an active publisher and cartoonist. His best known work is the Recidivist an ambitious one-man anthology that started as mini-comics in the 90s and was recently collected by Fantagraphics as Like a Dog. He’s published Diary of a Mosquito Abetment Man by John Porcellino and the amazing Kim Deitch Files and just released a beautiful collected edition of his Ignatz series Sammy the Mouse. Sam Hiti exploded on the scene with his Tiempos Finales horror/western a decade ago. He’s remained busy with a variety of projects. He recently released the first volume of his new series Death Day. MCAD alum Will Dinski has been creating well designed mini-comics for a long time. Last year Top Shelf published Fingerprints his first graphic novella. Nic Breutzman moved to the Twin Cities only recently, but he’s already had the well received Yearbooks published by 2D Cloud a couple of years back. Nic is hard at work on a couple of new projects and his newest work has just appeared in the 2D Cloud anthology Motherlover. Tim Sievert is a prolific mini-comicker and recently released several issues of Intrepideers (a project with Brett Von Schlosser… see below). A couple of years back Top Shelf released That Salty Air his debut graphic novella. The cryptozoologically obsessed Sievert is hard at work on a follow-up book and his Clandestinauts web comic. Lars Martinson spends as much time as he can in Japan teaching English to youngsters and studying Asian calligraphy. But in between his stints abroad he sets up shop in his hometown of St. Paul. He’s published two volumes of Tonoharu and hard at work on the next volume. Raigne Hogan runs 2D Cloud with co-conspirator Justin Skarhus. Raighne is a cartoonist of his own right with work published in the Good Minnesotan. He has also gained a reputation as a colorist. His painted colors grace Nic Breutzman’s Yearbooks, the cover of Noah Van Sciver’s The Death of Elijah Lovejoy, and the Motherlover anthology. Brittney Sabo is another MCAD alum. She was one of the 2010 Xeric Grant winners and published Francis Sharp in the Grip of the Uncanny, which she co-authored with Anna Bratton. Jordan Shiveley is recent transplant to the area and runs Grimalkin Press. He’s also a cartoonist and released an untitled mini at MIX. Grimalkin has some interesting projects in it’s future (see above). Jordan was drawn to the Twin Cities for it’s “underlying & thriving printmaking and bookbinding arts scene” which leaves the local cartoonists “no excuse for slovenly books.” JP Coovert is a CCS grad and another fairly recent transplant. A t-shirt designer by day he’s released a slew of mini-comics with One Percent Press which he also co-founded. Brett Von Schlosser gets my vote as the best dressed cartoonist in Minneapolis. In addition to working at Big Brain Comics and teaching comics to the kids at the library he just released a new Intrepideers mini. I could go on and on… There’s Curtis Square-Briggs, Roger Lootine, talented recent MCAD grads Peter Wartman, Bart King, Caitlin Skaalrud, Ashby Utting, & Robert Algeo. Cartoon Conspirators Steven Stwalley, Athena Currier, Britt Hammerberg, DWITT, Danno Klonowski, Dan Olson. There is Ryan Kelly, Dan Jurgens, Peter Gross, Peter Krause, Chaz Truog, and many, many more I know I’m forgetting. Over all the Twin Cities comics scene is pretty big and vibrant. It has significant local institutional support and a large pool of young talent that keeps replenishing the scene and growing it into the future. ——————————– INTERMISSION FUNNIES with MICHAEL DEFORGE —————————- Frank Santoro here. I’m accepting scene reports. 400 words MAX. I told Tom K – “500 words and a couple pics” and he turned in 2000 words. What’s the word for that? Loquacious? Geez-o-man, Tom. I’m not complaining. Just saying. I wanna run more than one scene report a week so try and rein it in, fellers. Gals. (I asked Sally Bloodbath for a scene report and she forgot. Ted May? Pffft, yeah, right. Supposedly, St. Louis has a scene.) Sorry. Just riffing. If you wanna send in a report – please do. 400 words MAX. If you go over fine just try and write like a bad pulpy writer and use clipped sentences. Works. Try it. Send that and a couple pics. Send the HTML in a plaintext document (.txt) so that I can just copy from there and paste it right into the WordPress. Share this page: [...]

09/29/2016

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: [...]

09/28/2017

Sally IngrahamSeptember 27, 2017NewsSam Ombiri takes a look at the anthology Warmer, and Sally brings a CXC events update and other comics and news. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: When I was at SPX I bought a copy of Warmer from Madeleine Witt and Andrew White. A Lot of the time whenever I pick up an anthology, the anthology seems to be having an identity crisis. It is really trying to convince me that it’s something it’s not, as if the anthology is insecure about the area it occupies. If not insecure, then it’s probably going to be insular. This insecurity I project onto the anthologies I pick up comes from the extreme fear of mediocrity that most anthologies suffer from. Whenever someone is really desperate to surpass this mediocrity, they don’t have to go too far to do so. This desperation and insecurity really turns me off as the reader, and I’d rather just read the comics without considering them in an anthology altogether. My first and lasting impression of Warmer was that it didn’t suffer from any of that! “Complacency” is the last word I’d use to describe the anthology – especially with the subject matter being tackled (climate change). It doesn’t feel like it’s “tackling an issue” as much as remaining in this space where we’re humans who are experiencing this deterioration in ourselves. Meanwhile, so is the planet, and this can be seen in things we do that are altogether unrelated to what we might do to perpetuate the pollution of the environment. There’s no complacency in the book, just people trying to fight against that urge to be complacent both in their art and in their lives. Whenever something is contrived, which is rare in the book, it doesn’t work against the anthology because the following strip will have a good response to it. This shows the strength in numbers that can come out of an anthology, beyond having an easy way to access a variety of work – the strip before and after can strengthen the work. Some of these comics I wouldn’t read or engage with properly, if I wasn’t reading them in Warmer. For example, the first two strips are immensely enticing. They’re followed by this strip that seems out of place. The author of this strip (William Cardini) isn’t in any rush to make a connection between the style being utilized and the words being utilized. I just found myself, as a reader, really wanting that connection. The strip also confused me tonally because of this whole vibe I had been set up for from the first and second strip (which are by Caitlin Skaalrud and Tor Brant respectively). The second strip had a more familiar looking 4 panel structure that suggested a punchline would be waiting for me at the fourth panel, but instead it beautifully invoke a longing for things to set right. Much like the first strip. Then on the third strip I get this goofy looking face, seemingly drawn by someone who I mistakenly imagine to be a gag cartoonist. I mistakenly read the tongue sticking out of the character drawn as a character mocking me for having this other expectation. Then I read more and discovered that while doing poetry comics, one can feel the inclination to jump into expression sooner than warranted, but it’s not the case at all with this book. The third strip was actually fantastic and it speaks to both the contributors of this anthology and the curation of Madeleine and Andrew. In this whole book, the images and words further each other really well, and it’s wonderfully curated to accommodate the reader in the best way from beginning to the end. – Sam Ombiri Keep an eye out for this anthology in the next few weeks – Andrew and Madeleine are fulfilling the Kickstarter and sold out of the copies they brought to SPX a few weeks ago! However, Andrew says Warmer will be for sale online asap – so stay tuned. ————————————————————————————————— Sally here! Comics Workbook and Connor Willumsen are coming to Cartoon Crossroads Columbus this weekend (Sept. 28-Oct. 1st)! Workshops with Connor will be almost every hour on Saturday and Sunday. “The educational workshops hosted by Pittsburgh’s Comics Workbook focus on visual theory applied in practical fashion to any kind of comics making a cartoonist can imagine and can benefit any way a student of the form might wish to improve. This year’s special host is the remarkable visual talent Connor Willumsen, with guest-star teachers dropping in and out throughout the weekend. Walk-ins welcome.” Full schedule can be found HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Just had to share the above drawing, made by Connor Willumsen during his weeklong stay in Pittsburgh between SPX and touring for Koyama Press, and his upcoming stint at CXC. For the baseball fans out there. Check out Connor’s new book from Koyama Press – the incredible Anti-Gone, which you can get a copy of HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Jacob Khepler, “the publisher of Mothers News“, has started a new blog. So far he’s written about the zine shown above by Edie Fake, Family Circus, and books by Pushkin and Rimboud – something for everyone! Check out 100% Publishing HERE and be sure to bookmark it so you can keep up with one of the finest writers around. ————————————————————————————————— The fall semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts October 1st 2017. 8 weeks of comics instruction that will bang your practice into shape – 500 bux. Full details about the course and how to apply can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Frank Santoro made a comic book about his parents and now he needs help making a handbound copy of the book for each of them. It’s a good story. Check out the Indiegogo campaign HERE – or if you want to contribute via PayPal, look at the campaign HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-28-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

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