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 WORKBOOK COMPOSITION COMPETITION 2016

Juan FernándezJuly 10, 2016Santoro Schoolthee SANTORO CORRESPONDENCE COURSE and thee Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency presents the COMICS WORKBOOK COMPOSITION COMPETITION 2016 ————————————————- 1st place – $500 cash prize to the winner 2nd place – $250 credit at Copacetic Comics 3rd place – $100 credit at Copacetic Comics plus four $50 honorable mention prizes from Big Planet Comics ————————————————- Create a 16 page signature comic book narrative to the specifications below —————————- DEADLINE: August 30 2016 midnight new york city time ————————————————- PAY ATTENTION!! THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT! Hereand Here and Here are last three years if you haven’t heard of the contest. This isn’t a scam, silly. Here are the specs: Original art page size: 5.5 x 8.5 inch originals with a 5 x 7.5 inch live area. Three equal “landscape” oriented panels. No exceptions. Each panel will be 5 inches wide and 2.5 inches tall. The “Tezuka Grid”. MEANING: YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE PANEL SIZES. 14 pages with 3 panels per page means you only have 42 panels to tell your story. And two covers. Work may be in color OR black and white – OR – a combination of both. You may also cut paper to the standard panel size of 5 x 2.5 inches and arrange them on your 5.5 x 8.5 paper quarter inch margins east, north and west with a three quarter inch margin south. These “specs” were derived from Osamu Tezuka’s proportions for his first manga, The Mysterious Underground Men. It is a classic 2:3 proportion which is the same as traditional North American comic books. See above photos–I determined the live area and then scale’d up to a standard North American size which is affordable to print. See my ideas about the two most used comic book proportions HERE. International students must use the same specs. No complaining. It is recommended that you use one 8.5 x 11 piece of paper to compose the “spread”. The point is to draw small. And to draw by hand. And to learn how to draw in a “1 to 1″ fashion, as this proportion is perfect for North American “mini-comics” and for makers worldwide to produce comics from office supplies. And can be reduced to make a traditional 100x150mm live area for manga. See thoughts on this subject HERE. Thats 14 pages of story plus two covers. Meaning seven spreads and a front and back cover. A 16 page signature. Follow this example here. THE STORY MUST BE COMPLETE. SERIAL INSTALLMENTS of a longer narrative ARE NOT ELIGIBLE. THE STORY MUST BE NEW. IF YOU REPURPOSE AN OLD STORY THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN PUBLISHED YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. Consider this an exercise in short story writing. I think the 16 page signature is ideal to contain a short story. Adaptations of existing works are not eligible. Like, you can’t copy a sequence from a movie. Photograph or scan your pages and post them on your tumblr AS SPREADS. If you don’t have a tumblr – make one just for this contest. No exceptions! No complaining! Also post the front cover as the lead image and the back cover as the final image. Email me – santoroschoolATgmailDOTcom – that you have posted your entry to your tumblr – complete with your name and title of the work in the text field and that it is for the composition competition 2016 – and I will reblog it on to the comicsworkbook site. I will be posting them – reblogging them – on comicsworkbook as they come in. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I will, however, only be posting stories that stick to the RULES. If you don’t follow the rules, I will not reblog the story and you won’t be eligible for the cash prize. Any questions about the competition – please email me. The competition is open to all. You do not have to be a former student of mine. Former students of mine ARE eligible to compete. Again, If you have any questions about the rules please ask. Better to ask and be safe than to be mad when I disqualify you over some missed detail. Seriously. Remember the page size: 5.5 x 8.5 inch originals with a 5 x 7.5 inch live area. Three equal “landscape” oriented panels. No exceptions. Each panel will be 5 inches wide and 2.5 inches tall. Work may be in color OR black and white – OR – a combination of both. Remember! Email me – santoroschoolATgmailDOTcom – that you have posted your entry to your tumblr – I will reblog it. You may enter as a writer/artist duo. DEADLINE is August 30 2016 at 11:59 pm EST Winners will be announced the following week. please reblog this announcement GOOD LUCK! signed Frank Santoro COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS: 1. Can I have gutters in between the panels and can I work digitally. ANSWER: You can have gutters – and you can work digitally. However I still want you to draw it at 5.5 x 8.5 inch original page size with a 5 x 7.5 inch live area – don’t draw large and shrink it down – ideally you are drawing panels that are 5 x 2.5 inches. 2. I understand that we are to post the comics as a two-page spread. But does the comic necessarily need to actually/physically be a spread? What I mean is, do I need to actually divide an 8.5 x 11″ page down the center to make two 5.5 x 8.5″ pages, or can I have two *separate* 5.5 x 8.5″ pages, completely independent of each other, which I then place side by side in order to post a picture on Tumblr? I would hate to draw a sloppy page and have to trash two pages because of it. YES you may use two pieces of paper 3. I assume there is to be no sub-dividing of the three horizontal panels into separate, smaller panels, correct? For example, sub-dividing the top panel into three small vertical panels so that the comic page reads 3 -> 1 -> 1 is reason for disqualification, yes? Correct. 3 panels per page – all 2.5 inches tall x 5 inches wide. No subdividing. 4. Is it alright to work on a page larger than 5.5 x 8.5″ provided that we DO NOT reduce the art in any way, and we DO adhere to the correct panel sizes and space orientation? This would merely be a technical convenience to me as I find it easier to draw on larger pages due to hand positioning/orientation etc. YES Share this page: [...]

09/07/2018

Sally IngrahamSeptember 7, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with work by Bronson Smillie and Cory Feder, plus other news and comics! ——————————————————————————————— Here on the site we have a new Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency Report, written by Bronson Smillie, who joined us in Pittsburgh in July of 2018. He’s currently based in Montreal, QC, where he is finishing a painting and drawing undergrad at Concordia University. Originally from Calgary, he organized and facilitated Calgary’s first ever Queer Zine Fair in 2017 – an event called We Are Not an Island that was presented in conjunction with Calgary’s Sled Island Festival. It was Calgary’s biggest zine fair ever and featured over 30 artists/collectives. Even with this rich experience in comics and community building under his belt, Bronson was able to find a lot to dig into with us in Pittsburgh. “The ! air conditioned ! bedroom/work-space was the perfect place to dive head first into my work. As someone that is easily distracted in new environments, it was nice to be able to shut myself into a quiet space. Each morning I would devour a handful of comics/zines selected from the extensive and ever-growing library at the Residency. I would recommend spending as much time reading comics as you do drawing them while you are a resident. They offer such an amazing resource and I got to read things that I had never had access to before. I worked on a 10 page mini-comic that I’ve since completed and took time to digitize my entire stamp collection (boring but satisfying). I wanted to explore a new way of image-making while I was at the residency and broke away from the more rigid, panel-based comic making I was used to in order to explore more experimental ideas I had been tossing around for a while.“ Read the rest of his report HERE! ——————————————————————————————— The results of the 2018 Comics Workbook Composition Competition are in! Read all about it HERE! Pictured above is the comic strip by Cory Feder which placed 1st in the competition. About her strip, the judges wrote: “Our decision to award Cory Feder First Place recognizes Feder’s creation of an ambitious yet simple, multi-layered poetic sequence that cuts through notions of language. This is the kind of strip that can be read and re-read ad infinitum to continue gleaning new meaning. Feder’s comic is the kind offhand remark, the cadence of which, you keep thinking about for years. This complex concoction of intuitive drawing and deft use of juxtaposition made for a winning combination.“ See more of Cory Feder’s work HERE. We look forward to hosting her at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency sometime soon! ——————————————————————————————— Sign up for the Comics Workbook Workshop sessions at Small Press Expo 2018 – full details HERE! ——————————————————————————————— Weekend Reading The Comics Journal recently republished an interview with Marie Severin from 1986 – read it HERE. Marie Severin passed away last week at the age of 89. HERE is the Journal‘s tribute to her. There are new reviews of Fiona Smyth‘s Somnambulance and Jessica Campbell‘s XTC69 over on Page 45. Paste Magazine has an exclusive preview of Leah Moore, John Reppion, and Sally Jane Thompson‘s upcoming A Conspiracy of Ravens (out in early October) HERE. Share this page: [...]

04/11/2016

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: [...]

04/06/2017

Sally IngrahamApril 5, 2017NewsSally here with updates from John Jennings; the (H)afrocentric project; Ron Wimberly/C. Spike Trotman/Ariell Johnson on NPR; throwing “diversity” under the bus. ————————————————————————————————— Gene Demby and Glen Weldon of NPR spoke to Ronald Wimberly, C. Spike Trotman (online comics publisher of Iron Circus Comics in Chicago, and creator of the long-running webcomic Templar, Arizona), and Ariell Johnson (owner of Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse in Philadelphia) about “changing color in comics“. Listen to the podcast HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out (H)afrocentric, a comics project created by Juliana “Jewels” Smith. An educator, writer, and organizer based in Oakland, CA, she “created (H)afrocentric as a way to challenge students and readers alike about the presumptions around race, class, gender and sexuality through character dialogue. Her practice focuses on the links between racial justice, gender equity, and political literacy; using creativity to facilitate dialogue.” There are 4 volumes of the comic so far – you can preview Vol. 1, 2, and 3 HERE and Vol. 4 HERE. Juliana writes it and Ronald R. Nelson provides the artwork (with Mike Hampton as colorist/letterer). The team also makes a comic strip which is available as a “Sunday Funny” via email subscription – or you can catch up with the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Over the past weekend, a few folks at Marvel Comics put their feet in their mouths. This is not unusual, these days. David Gabriel, Marvel’s senior vice-president of sales, print, and marketing, tried to blame Marvel’s recent decline in sales on their attempts at adding “diversity” to their comics. Que an uproar. The Guardian‘s JA Micheline had some things to say about it: “Let’s look at how the discussion was framed: “Any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up,” says Gabriel – without a qualifier or interrogation of which readers and why. I can promise you that it’s not women going into comic-book shops, sick of female characters. I can similarly promise you that people of colour are not entering comic-book shops and turning their noses up at faces that look like theirs. By even making remarks like these, Marvel is seemingly conceding that its target audience, its “core” audience – and their “core” characters – are white and male.“ Read the rest of her comments HERE. G. Willow Wilson, the writer behind Ms Marvel, had a thoughtful response as well. Among her comments was a reminder to the folks at Marvel and elsewhere: “Diversity as a form of performative guilt doesn’t work. Let’s scrap the word diversity entirely and replace it with authenticity and realism. This is not a new world. This is *the world.*“ Read the rest of her thoughts HERE. Vox offers up a detailed and fairly balanced look at the whole snafu and pinpoints some of the reasons for both the outrage and the cause of it. ————————————————————————————————— John Jennings spoke to The Boston Globe recently about his new comic adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Kindred (above) and his interest in horror stories. His comic recommendations and recent reads are all excellent, and I like where he says (despite the evidence of his new book) that he doesn’t like the idea of graphic novels being a “gateway” to reading books. Read the interview HERE. There is also a great interview on NPR from February 2017 about the joys (and fears) of making Kindred into a comic – check it out. I’ve linked to this piece before, but if you’re unfamiliar with John Jennings and the work he does in the comics community, get to know him better HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The illustration above by Comics Workbook student Shannon Wright accompanies an article about a case of “shared” identity. Not comics at all – but an interesting read. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook will be at the Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo on Sunday, April 9th. We will be hosting a workshop series with instructors from the school, as well as special guests Carol Tyler, Lale Westvind, and Connor Willumsen! More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-6-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-6-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-6-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

08/16/2018

Caleb OrecchioAugust 16, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with a Kirby Fantastic Four sequence I’ve been thinking about. ————————————————————————————————— I swear I think about this Kirby sequence from Fantastic Four no. 18 once a week. When I was a growing up, superheroes were becoming more and more “realistic.” That’s what the fans wanted. “Believable” superheroes. They demanded superheroes follow the logic of The Bourne Identity or something. Captain America was invading the Middle East (The Ultimates), The X-Men wore leather jackets (The New X-Men), I could go on and on. I loved that crap and still do in a nostalgic way, but as I would start investigating comics’ history in reverse I began to appreciate the unrestricted imagination of the early masters. The Golden Age superheroes had such whacky, bizarre adventures that had their own hermetically sealed logic. If you’ve ever read really early Jack Cole, for instance, you know what I’m talking about. That’s a big factor in my appreciation of Kirby. Throughout his career, without exception, The King maintained a sense of unchained imaginative ferocity from The Golden Age that the Silver Agers didn’t quite harness (and into the modern age). This is a small example, but when I think of this sequence of The Super Skrull transforming his head into a battering ram to headbutt The Thing I am reminded of how such whacky imagery burns itself into the folds of the brain. ————————————————————————————————— 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

04/13/2016

Juan FernándezApril 13, 2016NewsJuan Fernández here with an especially internationally focused news round up: Chris Ware Benefit Auction; European comics festivals this weekend; Comics talk at the Prado; Max vs. Hieronymous Bosch; Cohete Comics Colombian Blastoff; Real Talk – Girl Talk; Chippendale chats Puke Force. —————————————————————————— Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency Fundraiser Auction – CHECK IT OUT HERE! **PLEASE NOTE: The Copacetic Comics Company is managing this auction on behalf of Comics Workbook.** This is a BENEFIT AUCTION for the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. It is part of the ongoing fundraising campaign to get the Rowhouse Residency up and running and serving students. All proceeds of this auction are going to Comics Workbook to defray the expenses involved in realizing this goal. This auction is a continuation of the now completed Rowhouse Residency IndieGoGo campaign and other fundraising efforts. The eight items were donated to The Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency Fundraising Drive by one Mr. Chris Ware. Each item in this auction has been hand packaged and signed by Mr. Ware and was shipped by him directly to Comics Workbook for the purposes of being auctioned here to raise funds for the Rowhouse Residency. Comics Workbook would like to express our profound gratitude to Chris Ware for his support of the Rowhouse Residency. CHECK OUT THE AUCTION HERE! Featuring Jim Rugg | jimrugg.com/ Video by Michael Pisano | michaelpisano.com Soundtrack | Johann Sebastian Bach // Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, BWV 43 – 7. Aria: Er ists, der ganz allein // performed by Michel Rondeau ————————————————————————————————— ###Eurozone Fezztival Spezial### Ratatà! Macerata, Italy’s festival of illustration, comics and self-publishing, Ratatà is happening this weekend! From April 14th to April 17th Macerata will be packed with exhibitions, workshops, meetings and events. Illustration and Independent comics will be the focus. More info here. Special note: kuš! will present a special exhibition by it’s artists Anna Vaivare, Ingrīda Pičukāne, Līva Kandevica and Zane Zlemeša. Present at the festival will be kuš! editor Sanita Muižniece and the artists Anna Vaivare, Ingrīda Pičukāne and Zane Zlemeša. Comics Days Vilnius Also this weekend, starting Thursday is Comics days Vilnius. Comics Days Vilnius is the first comic festival in Lithuania, just south of the home of Latvian minicomics publishing powerhouse, kuš!. It’s exciting to see the start of a national comics festival. The goal is to promote the development and the recognition of comics in Lithuania. It will be held this weekend, 14-16 of April 2016 in Vilnius. Check out the Comics Days Vilnius program and learn more. Fumetto Last but not least, Fumetto in Lucerne Switzerland begins this weekend April 16-24. Fumetto has a long tradition in being THE exciting gathering for artistically ambitious comics making in Europe. This year marks their 25th anniversary. Lots of gallery shows and workshops. Lectures by Ben Katchor, Matt Madden, Jacques de Loustal, Joost Swarte, Goele Dewanckel , Gabrielle Bell, Tom Gauld, Edmond Baudoin & Cédric Villani. Not to be missed! For more information, visit them online. ————————————————————————————————— Aquí – Here Ediciones Salamandra has released a nicely produced bit that captures the Richard McGuire’s joy and curiosity as he speaks about the latest iteration of his lifetime’s work Here. Hands down one of the most passionate, human works in the comics medium. ————————————————————————————————— Radio 3 in Spain put together a comics round table featuring David Rubín, Ana Galvañ, Santiago García y Francesc Capdevila and “Max” recorded live at the Prado Museum in Madrid. Really interesting discussion moderated by Laura Brrachina on the interdisciplinary fluidity of contemporary comics making in the visually fragmented 21st century. Tons of excitement about comics. Escuchen aquí/Listen here! ————————————————————————————————— Max vs. Bosch To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of Hieronymous Bosch, the Prado has commissioned Francesc Capdevila “Max” to translate the work and energies of the Dutch master into a comic. Max has created (and has sent off to the printer!) El Tríptico de los encantados (una pantomima bosquiana) a 72 page Boschian revelery. The book is structured around 3 major paintings, The Garden of Earthly Delights, Cutting the Stone, and The Temptations of St. Anthony. Max did away with the biographic and focused on coming up with a narrative that would take you from one painting to another in an elliptical narrative. Aprendan más sobre esto proyecto/ Learn more about this project. ————————————————————————————————— …4,3,2,1 -Blast Off Cool comics publishing news in Colombia: Laguna Libros has launched a comics imprint – Cohete Comics. Following in the spirint of Laguna Libros, Cohete Cómics is to be an editorial labororatory that explores the possibilities autobio, documentary and fiction comics. Their first books will feature work by Pablo Guerra, Henry Díaz, Sindy Infante, Bernardo Fernández, Camilo Aguirre and Diana Ojeda. Check them out and Have a look at what Cohete Cómics is up to! ————————————————————————————————— Girl Talk Rod and Cone Press, run by my inspiring friends Iona Fox and Anna McGlynn, have launched their newest book, Girl Talk. It’s a collaborative comics anthology featuring comics inspired by diary entries. They just finished putting together all their copies and it looks stellar. Girl Talk features comics by Cooper Whittlesey, Anna McGlynn,Iona Fox, Hannah Kaplan, Alyse Burnside. This comes on the heels of their previous release, My Pace, a collection of idiosyncratic, satisfying and raw comics. Sure to be of equal caliber, gut punches galore. Hop on over to their site to learn more about the launch and how you can pre-order a copy. I can’t wait to get mine. ————————————————————————————————— Brian Chippendale talks with Alex Dueben over at Comic Book Resources about the nitty gritty of Puke Force. Soak it up! Chippendale: I’m not converting many haters. Haters of comics, or ideas like mine probably can’t even figure my damn personal mark-making language out, let alone find the plot. I’m laughing at you, not with you. ————————————————————————————————— That’s it for today! Stay tuned for a very special announcement around noon… Share this page: [...]

05/19/2017

Sally IngrahamMay 18, 2017NewsSally here with new comics coming from Glynnis Fawkes, and Vanesa R. Del Rey and Jordie Bellaire – plus work from Gabrielle Bell, Keiler Roberts, Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Image Comics officially announced a new ongoing series called Redlands – it is made by “Eisner award-winning Jordie Bellaire (PRETTY DEADLY, Vision, Batman) and critically-acclaimed Vanesa R. del Rey (ZERO, Scarlet Witch, Constantine)“, and will come out in August. It’s going to be “witchy”, dark, and a “sick, weird love letter to Stephen King, Florida and Riot Grrrls everywhere but ultimately, hate mail for everything else,” according to Jordie Bellaire. More from the announcement HERE. Earlier this month Vanesa and Jordie spoke to Entertainment about the series, a story that Jordie has been developing for years and one that Vanesa was immediately attracted to. Witches in Florida – what could be weirder and more wonderful? Jordie first had the idea in college, but shelved it for a number of years: “I’m glad I waited because as each year passed, I grew as a person and the story changed as I became angrier and more passionate about things that were important to me. One day it clicked as I wondered what could change the things that upset me: What about the archetype female figure, the witch, could she change things? Witches taking over a town and assuming roles of actual influence really frightened me. And as the world has changed so much since November 2016, I find myself getting even darker with the material, and in a horrible way it makes even more sense now. The idea of corruption and monsters in places of power seems more believable than ever… Regarding art, I just knew Vanesa would be a great fit for this book. She has a relentless and visceral style that really gets under your skin and stays there.“ The setting is perfect, as Jordie grew up there and Vanesa currently lives in Florida. As Vanesa says: “Florida is the exemplification of juxtaposition. It is a place where death and decay live together with growth and bloom. Where the young and old come to have fun in the sun. I wanted to work on something that was closer to home, someplace I could relate to better. I’ve been living in South Florida for over a decade now and I still don’t know it well. I want this project to be a chance for me to understand a little more, and a chance to bring readers into this strange world.“ Impatient, tired, ancient witches who are sick of the patriarchy decide to take over the local government and make some real changes – I can’t wait for this comic! Read more about it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Glynnis Fawkes has announced a new comic – Reign of Crumbs, coming from Kilgore Books this spring. Some of the strips appeared on Mutha Magazine over the past year or so, and they all deal with “kids’ antics and bedtime conversations“. ————————————————————————————————— Gabrielle Bell has a comic in The New Yorker called 1-800-CATS – read the rest of it HERE. Keep an eye out for her new comic Everything is Flammable, coming June 6th 2017 from Uncivilized Books. ————————————————————————————————— Rosemary Valero-O’Connell spoke to Vice Money about being one of the few incredibly lucky cartoonists who can currently support herself by drawing comics. She lives cheaply in Minneapolis with a mess of roommates, mixes an almost un-manageable amount of freelance work with a full-time comics project she is working on with Mariko Tamaki (Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me), and realizes that she is living the dream – and that it may not last forever. The terrors and joys of the artist’s life. Watch the short video HERE. Check out more of Rosemary’s work on her website and via her Patreon. ————————————————————————————————— Stuff and Nonsense There’s a great article in The Globe and Mail about Annie Koyama‘s journey to becoming one the world’s most celebrated comics publishers – check it out. Heidi MacDonald is taking The Comics Beat to Havana for C3 (Comic Creators Conference) Cuba edition – can I please come too?? More about Cuba’s first Comic Con HERE. There is an excerpt from Keiler Roberts‘ Sunburning (Koyama Press 2017) on Illustrated PEN, thanks to guest editor Rob Kirby – read it HERE. The Comics Beat has a roundup of Rebecca Roher‘s comics as part of their “A Year of Free Comics” series – HERE. Rebecca recently won the Doug Wright Award for her graphic novel Bird in a Cage. Irene Velentzas reviews Jillian Tamaki‘s Boundless for The Comics Journal, while Rachel Davies reviews Sarah Ferrick‘s Yours. ————————————————————————————————— Take thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers this summer! More details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 5-19-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-19-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

03/26/2018

Caleb OrecchioMarch 25, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on A. Degen’s Soft X-Ray/Mindhunters, and other news. ————————————————————————————————— A. Degen’s work is always enjoyable and fun to look at. The drawing is loose, but not sloppy. The images are dense, but not overwhelming. The wordless narratives are simple, yet not unsophisticated. Soft X-Ray/Mindhunters, from thee Koyama Press (May 2018), continues the trend. Degen’s work often brings to mind Moebius’ Airtight Garage, specifically the element of spontaneity and worlds-within-worlds locations, with a dash of early Tezuka minimalism. In the case of this book, particularly in scenes concerning virtual reality, I sniff a whiff of Frank Miller’s Ronin. Like Ronin, or it’s most famous exploitation, The Matrix, Mindhunters is all about dreams versus reality and the dreams within dreams. I think. It’s a big fat book, weighing in at nearly 400 pages. Would I have preferred if it was serialized over 4 or 5 floppies? Yes. I think the amalgamation of separate-yet-intertwining stories would have benefitted from some time between them, some tension. However, I am painfully aware that a comics publisher is more likely to publish a giant tome, rather than a handful of pamphlets these days. Despite my preferences, the big book delivers the goods. To me, the love for one’s work really comes off these pages and emits a warmth and comfort akin to Brandon Graham’s best comics. Degen’s strengths as a cartoonist is that the work is always consistent and fully developed. I don’t sense that anything has been accidentally left out. Humor and imagination come together to make cotton candy for the eyes. I am seldom let down by an A. Degen book. The work is always worth its salt. Look for Soft X-Ray/Mindhunters in May 2018. ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Tom Spurgeon talks to WonderCon spokesperson, David Glanzer. Rob Clough reviews Present by Leslie Stein at Your Chicken Enemy. Box Brown is the latest guest on Process Party. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Spring Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers 8 weeks! $500 bux! 10 spots available! Rolling start date because of spring break – start as early as March 30th 2018. Deadline to apply is April 12th. Read all about the course HERE and email santoroschool@gmail.com for more details or to apply. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-26-2018 – by Frank Santoro Share this page: [...]

06/17/2016

Sally IngrahamJune 17, 2016NewsSally here this Friday with festival news from CAKE, quick profiles on Marta Chudolinska and Françoise Mouly, more Retrofit Comics reviews than you can shake a stick at, and further details about the first rad Rowhouse Residency! ————————————————————————————————— Mahmoud Hashemi and Matt Conway spent Memorial Day Weekend at the CW Rowhouse, and then Mahmoud wrote us a detailed report of the experience. Check it out HERE on Comics Workbook. ————————————————————————————————— Also on the site today, we have Sacha Mardou‘s take on CAKE. She exhibited at the show last weekend and took a minute to chat with fellow cartoonists like John Porcellino and Anya Davidson among many others. Read the complete write-up HERE! ————————————————————————————————— One of the folks whom Sacha met for the first time was Marta Chudolinska (pictured above), a Polish-Canadian cartoonist based in Toronto, who makes paper-cut and linocut comics. Sacha particularly liked her work, and I’m pleased to share a bit more of it here. Babcia is a papercut comic about Marta’s Grandmother and her family’s history in Poland, serialized in Broken Pencil Magazine. (Take a minute to check out Broken Pencil Magazine for more zine culture and other independent artist-related stories!) ————————————————————————————————— Over on The Comics Journal Rob Clough dug into the Retrofit Comics catalog, reviewing work from 2013-2016. He gives Box Brown kudos for all the work he’s done through Retrofit. “Retrofit Comics began as a Kickstarter experiment in 2011. By then, comics tended to be printed as minis or graphic novels, leaving Box Brown missing the heyday of the alt-comics comic book. In 2013, he joined forces with the DC-area comics store, Big Planet Comics, which took on a lot of the costs and production work, allowing Brown (and BPC’s Jared Smith) to concentrate on other duties as publisher and tastemaker. This was one of the early examples of a store deciding to publish its own comics. Overall, the results have been of a fairly high quality, and quite varied in genre and approach.” – Rob Clough Read all of the reviews HERE. If you don’t get enough there on TCJ, you can catch the “Retrofit Extra” on Rob Clough’s blog, High-Low. ————————————————————————————————— While you’re surfing around High-Low, check out Rob Clough’s review of Meghan Turbitt’s work! Rob writes – “There’s no cartoonist quite like Meghan Turbitt, as she balances self-effacing humor, frank talk about sexuality, trenchant social commentary and a furiously visceral drawing style that pummels the reader on every page. Let’s take a look at her output over the last couple of years.” – Rob Clough ————————————————————————————————— I’ve been on a Françoise Mouly tear recently, researching this rad lady and drawing inspiration from her amazing career as an editor, publisher, and all-round cornerstone of the comics community. She is (incidentally) the wife of Art Spiegelman, with whom she created the groundbreaking Raw. In addition to her work for The New Yorker, she created TOON Books, which publishes comics for kids. Jeet Heer wrote an excellent profile of her (which I’m reading now) – In Love With Art: Françoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman. Last year Françoise Mouly won a Smithsonian Ingenuity Award, and Smithsonian correspondent Jeff MacGregor and cartoonist Eleanor Davis teamed up to give her some kudos. Keep this lady on your radar, folks, and for the moment check out the Smithsonian article HERE, along with more of Eleanor Davis’ comic! ————————————————————————————————— Have a great weekend folks! Read comics! Make comics! – Sally Share this page: [...]

Ch 3: Inking the Head and Figure (FACC)

Juan FernándezJanuary 1, 2016ResourcesShare this page: [...]

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