Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Festivals and Shows, The Diaz ArchiveTagged dame darcy, Ebony Flowers, Emily Silva, Jr., Kevin Huizenga, mary fleener, Max Clotfelter, Ron Rege, Sammy Harkham, San Diego Comic-Con International, Seth, simon hanselmann, Tracy Hurren, ulli lust

Chris Anthony Diaz

Posted on July 23, 2019July 23, 2019

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04/26/2016

Aaron CockleApril 26, 2016NewsAtena Farghadani; Right-of-copy; Mok/Doucet; Lilli Carré; Roy Crane ————————————————————————————————— From Maren Williams over at the CBLDF: BREAKING NEWS: Atena Farghadani Set to be Released Next Month ‘After nearly 18 months in prison for a cartoon depicting politicians as animals, Iranian artist and activist Atena Farghadani will reportedly be released sometime next month. She had been sentenced to 12 years and 9 months, but according to her lawyer the sentence has just been reduced on appeal.’ ————————————————————————————————— What we talk about when we talk about copyright On Medium.com: ‘Myth #3. Copyright is an Attack on Artistic Freedom I have been a working, professional wrter for close to thirty years. I’ve felt my artistic freedom threatened by a great many things — state censorship, all manner of fundamentalisms, Internet bullying and shaming… to name but a few. Copyright law is not on that list, and it will NEVER be on that list. The very foundation of copyright is the insistence that if I create an artistic expression, I own that artistic expression. And if I own something, you best believe I will protect it from those who want to impose their restrictions on it.’ On Priceonomics.com: ‘Copyright law in America long predated Mickey Mouse. The first of these laws, the Copyright Act of 1790, stipulated that creative works were entitled to up to 28 years of protection (14 years, plus an additional “renewal” period of 14 years, supposing the original hadn’t died). This was followed by an 1831 act, which extended the copyright period to a max of 42 years, and a 1909 act, which elongated that period again, to 56 years. As the Art Law Journal clarifies, “very few works actually maintained copyright durations”: only a fraction of those who secured copyrights protected them, or opted to renew them. Mickey Mouse was brought into the world in 1928, under the 1909 Copyright Act, entitling him to 56 years of protection under the law — no more. In accordance with the law, his copyright was set to expire in 1984.’ ————————————————————————————————— Annie Mok Interviews Julie Doucet ‘DOUCET: Yeah, but the dictionary—the new language that I created—has nothing to do with the words that are in Carpet Sweeper Tales. MOK: I meant just a new language in general, I guess. So major themes of the book are masculinity, toxic masculinity, and cars? And it’s so interesting—you’re taking these images from these ‘60s Italian fumetti, which are this incredibly butch series of scenes, some of them very threatening men—like, threatening to women, and women in compromised positions, and then there’s this constant iteration of cars and men speaking of women as if they are cars in some cases, or alluding to them that way. And talking about, like, where someone can take you, and what is freedom. How did this playful thing around cars develop, and what does that mean to you? DOUCET: In those fumettis, for some reason, there’s lots and lots and lots of action going on in cars—a lot of conversations. And I talked to my aunts, my older aunts, and they told me that was just the way it was at the time, because people didn’t really have any places to go to flirt or anything like that, so pretty much everything happened in cars. So in that sense, it makes sense in that context. But I just loved the car thing, so I just cut out everything I could find going on in the cars.’ ————————————————————————————————— Lilli Carré MFA Thesis Show May 5-June 19, 2016 Opening & Reception: Thursday, May 5, 6-9PM Alsdorf Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL This exhibition presents work by: Lilli Carré, Max Guy, Erin Hayden, Dan Miller, and David Sprecher. Culminating their Master of Fine Arts (MFA) studies in the Department of Art Theory & Practice at Northwestern University. ————————————————————————————————— Roy Crane’s Scrapbook Share this page: [...]

07/27/2018

Sally IngrahamJuly 27, 2018NewsSally Ingraham here with comics and news from Nick Fowler, Annie Koyama, Believer Magazine, and much more! ————————————————————————————————— Here on the site Nick Fowler writes about his recent Rowhouse Residency: “One of the most important things that was cemented for me during my time at the Rowhouse was the immense importance of environment. In both a social sense…and a more literal, spatial sense. The room at the Rowhouse had a bed, a table and a box of Love and Rockets (#17-28 if I remember correctly). And nothing else. Every day I would wake up and take two steps to the drawing table to either draw, or to read Love and Rockets and then draw. For the week I was there, there was nothing else I had to do. It felt like a splash of cold water on my face.“ Read the rest of Nick’s Residency Report HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Annie Koyama has announced that she is changing the way in which she supports artists. She will conclude her time as a publisher in 2021, closing the doors of Koyama Press. Her focus will shift to channelling her financial support and incredible positive energy directly into the hands of specific artists whom she chooses to be a patron of. She spoke to The Comics Journal about “switching gears”: ” “I will not tell the artists how to do anything,” Koyama said. “There are no strings attached. Once I decide to work with an artist, as I have always done with the press, I put enough trust in them and their project not to interfere. They don’t need my creative help, they need money.” How this next venture will work is still being formulated. Though the projects she supports will not be owned by Koyama, recipients of these “micro-grants” will be expected to fulfill their end of the bargain, whether if be self-publishing the project, offering a performance, or whatever Koyama and the participating party agree to. Additionally, the publisher expects to continue to pursue broader methods of support by hosting financial and business literary workshops and supplementing residencies. Her support will not be limited to cartoonists, either. Koyama recently supported a feature film and is already contributing support to projects with several fine artists. “I am choosing the artists because I like their work,” Koyama said. “I feel that they deserve a higher profile. I know that they can’t do it on their own. What I am most interested in is taking people who are known for one discipline and for example, helping them to try another discipline. For example, people who are good at drawing already but really want to work on a little stop motion animation. Or they want to go off and learn to play the trumpet, try sculpture, learn printmaking or start community art related initiatives.” Read the rest of the article and full announcement HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Believer Magazine has updated their website and built an archive for the comics that have appeared in the printed mag. Above is a page from Leela Corman‘s story Kraut – read the rest HERE. You will also find comics by Andrea Tsurumi, Ann Xu, Jennifer Camper, Anna Haifisch, and others. Check out the archive! ————————————————————————————————— Hyperallergic features an article about Carol Tyler and her new comic Fab4 Mania – HERE. Lauren Weinstein‘s Normal Person now appears at popula.com – here’s the latest strip! Mimi Pond also has a new comic up at Popula – Blind Dates of the Near Future. Jessica Campbell‘s latest comic on Hyperallergic – Musings About Life Today – can be read HERE. Anders Nilson writes about the process and responsibility of finishing a friend’s last book – A Bubble, by Geneviève Castrée (who passed away in 2016) – on The Comics Journal. Here’s an excerpt from Nancy Peña’s Madame Cat – on Paste Magazine. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-27-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

Hartley Lin Talk with Brian Hibbs at Comix Experience

Chris Anthony DiazJuly 6, 2018The Diaz ArchiveAfter his Young Frances (published by Adhouse Books) book signing, Brian Hibbs interviewed Hartley Lin for the Comix Experience Graphic Novel Club, San Francisco, Wednesday evening, June 13, 2018 Share this page: [...]

12/01/2017

Sally IngrahamDecember 1, 2017NewsSally here with comics by November Garcia, Lina Ghaibeh, Emil Friis Ernst, and much more! ————————————————————————————————— Emil Friis Ernst spent last autumn here in Pittsburgh with us at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency and abroad on his own in the city. He was on loan from The Animation Workshop in Denmark, and he got to spend nearly 3 months making comics and exploring our strange American culture. He recently published the comic he made during that time – Disconnector – which you can view in full on his website, HERE. The comic is about a lonely inventor and his robot (drawn and painted on this lovely grey paper that I remember well from when Emil was here!) Take some time to check it out, as well as some of his other comics which you can also find on his website. ————————————————————————————————— Ryan C. reviews November Garcia‘s Malarkey, the series of auto-bio comics made by this terrific Filipino cartoonist, over on Four Color Apocalypse. I’m with Ryan when he says that November is bound to break through in the near future, and having met her in person at SPX this year I couldn’t be more delighted to have this talented and funny comics maker in the scene. About Malarkey, Ryan writes: “Simply put, Garcia’s varied-length strips are every bit as familiar to somebody who “speaks comics” fluently as they are to someone who’s “comics illiterate.” Her figure drawing is efficient, practical, and betrays more than a hint of warmth and, dare I say it, innocence, while her stories tend to revolve around daily-life complexities that, in the hands of a less-attuned artist, would be depicted in a matter ten times more grim : neuroses (insecurity being first and foremost on the list), family dysfunction, doomed relationships, and alcoholism. There’s no way this stuff should be fun, but in Malarkey, God help me, it is.“ Read the rest of the review HERE and get copies of issues 1 and 2 over at Spit and a Half Distro. ————————————————————————————————— Lina Ghaibeh shares a comic about growing up in Syria during the Assad regime on The Nib, titled An Education in Fear. Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Also, also There’s a new comic by Glynnis Fawkes up on Mutha Magazine titled Can You Play Now – see it HERE. Hilary Brown interviews Leslie Stein and talks about her new book Present and what it means to her to live in the present – HERE. Sarah Glidden is the guest on Episode 59 of Process Party – they talk travel, journalism, and how cartooning fits into both. Check it out. On The Comics Beat Alex Lu interviews Alisa Kwitney about the female friendships at the heart of her series Mystic U (from DC Comics). Read the interview HERE. Sophie Goldstein talks to Alex Dueben of Smash Pages about House of Women and more – HERE. RiLY features Nicole Georges – and her dog – on Episode 243 – listen HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 18th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. Makes a great holiday gift for yourself – or for a loved one who is interested in comics. Apply by midnight (EST) on Dec. 25th and get $100 off the course price. Full details and how to apply can be found HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-1-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 12-1-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

08/01/2017

Aaron CockleJuly 31, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Jackie Kirby; Printed Matter; Romance Comics; What the World Wants (And How to Pay For It) ————————————————————————————————— Meter, Geometry and Comic Form Featured on CW this week is Jackie Kirby’s work looking at verse and the grid: In an initial attempt at translating verse form to comic form let us equate syllables with panels, and spreads with lines. Each row of panels will represent a metrical foot. Stress is produced relationally, and in comics one can use size, color, density, and a myriad of other visual techniques to “stress” a panel. The actual size of each panel per “foot” or row is up to your own discretion but I prefer to use a more qualitative than quantitative approach to my “comics scansion.” ————————————————————————————————— Something Unusual is Happening Was Happening The experimental comics exhibit at Printed Matter recently ended. The show was co-curated by Leslie Lasiter and Cory Siegler. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Almost always there were tears—buckets and buckets of beautifully rendered tears.’ Kelly Faircloth at Jezebel on The Tear-Stained, Forgotten World of Comic Books for Teenage Girls. Today, the genre is probably most familiar through the work of famed pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. (Though one artist who drew them, Everett Raymond Kinstler, was dismissive to Hadju: “No comics publisher would have hired Lichtenstein—he wasn’t good enough. Romance comics dealt with a range of emotions, some of them quite subtle and sophisticated, and they called for real storytelling ability.”) When they’re remembered outside of the world of dedicated comics fandom, it’s largely as a curious, campy footnote to the story of the caped crusaders who are such a prominent feature of our blockbuster summers and Decembers. ————————————————————————————————— What the World Wants This infographic has been kicking around since at least the late 1990’s, but it looks like it’s been updated. Via Buckminster Fuller‘s World Game Institute and the Global Energy Network Institute. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 8-1-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 8-1-2017 – Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

San Diego Comic-Con International 2019

Posted on July 23, 2019July 23, 2019 by Chris Anthony Diaz

San Diego Comic-Con International 2019, San Diego Convention Center, Exhibit Hall, Thursday, July 18, 2019

Nathalie Marsh, Peggy Burns, Tracy Hurren and Julia Pohl-Miranda

Bigger Little Enid doll by Presspop at the Disburst booth

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Chris Anthony Diaz

Posted on July 23, 2019July 23, 2019

Explore

10/15/2018

Caleb OrecchioOctober 15, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with a story. ————————————————————————————————— I show my comic strip to another syndicate editor. Their smiling face quickly turns to curiosity. Then to confusion. Then to bafflement. They say the usual, “It’s great! But it will never sell. We need something a little more universal. Have you read the new Nancy strip? It’s funny, modern and very universal. Think a little more along those lines and come back with something else.” I stormed out of the building. What do these people know about comic strips! I have a great strip! People will love it! Nancy and Sluggo died with Bushmiller I always say! Later, I am visiting a lifelong friend. We, that is my friend his wife and me, are visiting his in-laws (her parents) for dinner. Somehow, I agree to come along. It’s actually a pleasant evening until: “Caleb makes comic strips,” my friend says at the dinner table. The father-in-law lights up, “Really?! I LOVE comic strips!” My friend takes out a self-published copy of my book collecting my strips from his book bag. “You carry this around with you?” I ask. No not usually. He had brought it to show his father-in-law and thought I would be flattered to witness the father-in-law read my comic. I was not and would continue not to be. The father-in-law opens the book with a smiling face that quickly turns to curiosity. Then confusion. Then to bafflement. “It looks great! I don’t understand what is going on, but I like the way it looks! I like the character’s expressions. Have you ever read Nancy? You know, with Sluggo – that new artist is HI-larious! You should make something like that. You just need a good idea.” I stormed out of the house. ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 10-15-18 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 10-15-18 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

03/04/2016

Juan FernándezMarch 4, 2016NewsComin’ up next week stateside is the next installment of Carousel. Comics presented in all kinds of ways. hosted by R. Sikoryak. You don’t want to miss this. There’s nothing quite like Carousel. (ok,ok OTHER than Chicago’s Brain Frame). This coming Wednesday, March 9th at 7:30 PM! If you need the deal to be sweetened for you, just know Meghan Turbitt is coming to the big city SPECIFICALLY to read to you. Don’t want to let a girl down, do you? Monica Johnson has written an interesting piece on the limited criteria it takes for work to be labeled as feminist work in 2016, primarily in the world of floppy comics. Interesting ideas, though there’s a great swathe of work that has been overlooked in making the article’s claim. Read it for yourself here, the comments aren’t too terrible either. Now, just seconds from turning forty, I’m both politicized and angry, and I long for the intensity of those ’90s comics. And I look around at comics written by and about women and they seem so understated. There is still so much to be upset about—Bill Cosby for starters, or why the Angoulême festival refuses to acknowledge that women, too, make comics—yet today’s feminist comics seem much less radical, less angry, less mobilizing compared with those of decades prior. I for one would like to hear from the aggressive and hilarious Diane DiMassas and Joyce Farmers of the 2010s! Where are those attitudes? Buried deep within the metaphors of fantasy comics like Bitch Planet and Monstress? Or in mild-mannered graphic novels and memoirs like Not Funny Ha Ha or Honor Girl? There’s a great conversation going on over on twitter, started by Celine Loup, focusing specifically on whose work Johnson’s short article is overlooking. If any of the names of the cartoonists mentioned are new to you, do yourself a favor and sit down with their work. https://t.co/OQQn1u3Gct I wanna talk about this with other women who would call their comics feminist. Thoughts? — NAZGUL QUEEN (@celineorelse) March 4, 2016 On the 4, 5 and 6 of March (this weekend, sleepy heads), the 7th edition of GRAF, Barcelona’s festival celebratings comics author and independent publishing, will be going down. A meeting of authors, publishers and independent groups that represent creative scene today more vibrant and fresh . Interestingly, for the first time GRAF will feature independent publishers from abroad. In total, there will be over 80 exhibitors with all kinds of fanzines, comics and prints for sale. On top of all that GRAF has got an extensive program of activities: round tables, meetings with authors, presentations of new books or comics and fanzines workshops for children and adults. Good stuff if you’re in Spain. You can stay posted with the happenings by keeping up with their twitter: @Grafcomic [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/249586417″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /] The inimitable Leslie Stein was just on Inkstuds. They talked about her current return to working on Eye of the Majestic Creature, her painting and watercolor, took questions from twitter, discussed working as a bartender, her friendship with Noah Van Sciver and favorite winter birds. Fill your ears with Leslie’s optimism. You probably know this already, but it bears repeating: no one’s going to make the world you want to see for you. You have to do it yourself. It gets tiring, though and sometimes you need a little bit of reassurance that you’re not alone in this endeavor. Alice Bag and Allison Wolfe have your back. Listen to them chat about their the importance of having control of the means of productions in a societal context and more broadly what it means to have lived a life with zines at their centers. Very cool talk. No one could have known that when struggling illustrator R. Crumb self-published Zap Comix #1 in 1968 and began hawking copies in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, history would be made. By the arrival of issue #4 (1969) and Crumb’s Zap collective (S. Clay Wilson, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffiin, Gilbert Shelton, Robert Williams, and Spain Rodriguez) fully formed, the artists had broken every Comics Code taboo imaginable — and then some. Zap spawned an entire underground comix industry, establishing an adult market for the comics medium that, in turn, set new standards for creators’ rights and ownership that one day would liberate mainstream comic books from the tyrannical grip of corporate publishers, paving the way for literary work by the likes of Art Spiegelman, Lynda Barry, Chris Ware, and Daniel Clowes, among others. The underground is now canon, who woulda thunk it 40 years ago? Tonight is the opening reception of the big new ZAP comics exhibit at the Society of Illustrators. Underground junkies and all of you interested in the medium’s history in the USA, you won’t want to miss this. The exhibit runs through May 7th. Learn more here! Daniel Clowes and Nicole Rudick sat down on Wednesday to talk at The Strand in NYC. Clowes is on tour to promote his latest work, Patience. This is a great, widely spanning conversation between 2 deep thinkers. Great to draw or do the dishes to. Comics makers, take note around 20 minutes in for some interesting thoughts on constraints and their relationship to comics composition. Short Run, in Seattle, the annual curated festival which focuses on indie comix and self-published, small press, and handmade books of all kinds from the Pacific Northwest and around the world has some exciting news for ya: Applications for Short Run’s Dash Grant are now being accepted. With the Dash Grant you can: receive a $250 grant to produce your work to premiere at Short Run 2016 have free access to Fogland Studios silkscreen lab in Seattle to print your covers and optional instruction the week of the festival receive mentorship from comic artist Trevor Alixopulos via email have your artwork featured in our annual group art show at Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery receive a free half table at the festival More information is available over at Short Run Seattle’s site. Hop to it. Thought Bubble, the Leeds comics festival is taking applications for people to exhibit. Think you want to exhibit? Know of someone that this would be good for? Check out their site. Last but not least, there was a great sub of the 4th episode of Urasawa Naoki no Manben with author Takoa Saito that I came across thanks to @royalboiler but alas, it’s been taken down to copyright issues! The fourth episode peeks behind the curtain of Saitō’s workplace, where he has labored away at Golgo 13 for 47 years. Fingers crossed another sub floats to the surface… For now you can dig into the first episode. The first episode looks at Akiko Higashimura (Princess Jellyfish) as she draws her warring states era manga Yukibana no Tora (“Snow Tiger”), emphasizing her speed and the teamwork with her large team of assistants. Well worth your time if you’d like to learn more about the living history and craft of the wide world of the manga-ka. Urasawa Naoki no Manben (which, roughly translated, means “Naoki Urasawa‘s Manga Exertions”) is hosted by veteran manga artist Naoki Urasawa (Monster, Pluto,20th Century Boys) and follows different artists each episode, watching them draw their manga from scratch and exploring what differentiates their styles. Amazing show, with a great format for comics makers by comics makers. Hope that gives you enough to feast your eyes an ears on for the weekend. until next time, jf Share this page: [...]

07/05/2016

Aaron CockleJuly 5, 2016NewsAaron Cockle with more of Gabrielle Bell’s July Diary; Barry Blitt Comics; Pablo Auladell; Mould Map 5; Julie Doucet; Nasreen Mohamedi; BUGS! ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Fireworks ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Barry Blitt at the New Yorker ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Behind-the-scenes with Pablo Auladell — via altcomix via zencomix via capegrahicnovels ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Mould Map 5: Black Box Concealment. Stealth. Unknown unknowns, black swans and sleeper cells. Conspiracy, tactical confusion and counter-intel (UFO narrative smokescreens). Greenwashing, industrial espionage and deceit (VW emissions hacking). Self-surveillance (voluntary driver monitoring for lower insurance premiums / health tracking for life insurance). Mission creep and stealth tax. Behind the scenes, hidden agendas. False flags, dark ops and black magik. Invisibility tech and the occult (hidden from sight), obscured, ambiguous. Invisible infrastructure and the technological sublime. Secret TTIP talks and shadow courts. Far-right extremist scapegoating narratives, deny complexity. Black as the baseline screen state, visions emerging from the darkness in low resolution. Mysterious crashes & disappearances. ‘The Truth’. Server centre as black box, to be embedded in the geological crust of the early Anthropocene, BIG data left to a distant future. Antwan Horfee, Ben Mendelewicz, Blue Firth, Brenna Murphy, Caley Feeney, Daniel Swan, Jonny Negron, Julien Ceccaldi, Lala Albert, Lando, Noel Freibert, Parker Ito, Travess Smalley, Viktor Hachmang, Yannick Val Gesto, Edward Shenk (Poster), GW Duncanson (Comic), Hugh Frost (Patch & Packaging), Leon Sadler (Patch & Black Box Zine) ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Reading Aloud with Julie Doucet The story lines do not unravel effortlessly, nor do they always cohere. Instead, Doucet seems invested in pairing these word-image collages in order to get us thinking, and feeling, about what’s in front of us. The first three chapters, for instance, follow “Mrs. Jones,” a wide-eyed, full-lipped blonde. “Mrs. Jones is in love!” the title page declares in loose cursive, and what follows is a series of images featuring this whitewashed, perfectly coiffed figure, vacantly staring off into the distance. Whether pictured alone or alongside others, Mrs. Jones does not seem capable of making eye contact, of connecting with her surroundings. Despite the fervid declarations of love so often aimed at her — “Kiddie I AM Dust-resistance for you. ME Clean ‘Magic’ carpet love” — and despite the sentiments that Mrs. Jones at times allows herself to express — “he’s so like a, a roo BOO DOO So Good Me!” — the cumulative effect is of language, and posture, as dead weight. This is not to say the pages don’t draw the readers in. Carpet Sweeper Tales offers entertainment as well as commentary, and flipping through the book is an engrossing, if anti-nostalgic, walk down a memory-less lane. Reading through, and reading out loud, gives one the sense that Doucet is after a kind of lighthearted, feminist anti-fumetti: a montage that makes illegible, or even irrelevant, the submissive pout at the heart of these now fragmented stories and advertisements. — via Tahneer Oksman at Los Angeles Review of Books ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Nasreen Mohamedi at the Met Breuer Mohamedi mainly worked with gestures of pencil and ink on paper, experimenting with organic forms, delicate grids, and dynamic, hard-edged lines. Her cosmopolitan outlook enabled her to draw upon a range of aesthetic sensibilities, from the poetry of Rilke and Camus, as well as Indian classical music, to the modernist architecture of Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh. ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— BUGS The wonderful science-fiction social satire feature film, BUGS, made by Toronto conceptual art luminaries, Life of a Craphead, is having several screenings next week in New York! Please attend if you can! — via Matthew Thurber ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

01/17/2017

Aaron CockleJanuary 16, 2017NewsAaron here today with Drawing Center events; RESIST!; Cosplayers; ‘Unquotables’; Notes on Zip-a-Tone. ————————————————————————————————— This week at The Drawing Center, work by Mateo López, Jackson Mac Low, and Amy Sillman. Opening January 20, 2017. Sillman will be presenting her animated drawing, After Metamorphoses. She talks about it here: But we don’t care about “the grid”—we are committed to something different: something scrappy but complex, earnest but smart, ironic but not cynical—a strange FORM! We’re not in it for the money and WE’RE NOT MONEY. We’re not coins of the realm, easily identified by our denominations; we’re definitely not thin paper currency meant to slip inside a wallet. We don’t make sense. We have rough edges and contradictions. What the fuck is “thing theory” anyway—we’re like things that talk back. Where is emancipation located? Should we split our time between art and politics? Is art enough? Is it possible that our work, our love, our beliefs, our symbolic gestures, our senses of humor, can amount to any meaningful resistance? Does resistance come in different lengths; a long game and a short game? Does everyone have to do it the same way? We haven’t figured it out but we love art that offers change above all: insistent, unremitting change that won’t resolve into finality or finesse. We don’t know quite what to do but the qualities that mean something have shifted: knowingness is out, a goddamn “good” painting seems irrelevant, smug… we don’t need someone to tells us which painting is “better.” Fuck that. Image above from Mateo López: Undo List. ————————————————————————————————— ‘So, it is using old fashioned like printing presses and trucks and you know, just sheer physical get together that will make little cells out in the open and we publish a link so that people can sign up for those local distributions.’ Betsy Gomez at the CBLDF talks to Francoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman about the forthcoming release of the Resist! anthology comic on Saturday, January 21: Resist! revives the tradition of using comics for protest. What precedents inspired you in developing this project? FM: Well, the first thing was being asked by Gabe Fowler to guest edit a special issue of Smoke Signal, which is a tabloid printed on newsprint that he wanted to release at the time of the inauguration and the women’s march. When he got in touch with me specifically, like “I want a woman guest editor,” and because he asked right after the election and that was my feeling as well — since we’d just been robbed of our first woman president, there was a sense shared by so many — Gabe’s request seemed natural at the time… My friends were saying, “I’m going to Washington.” We didn’t know where or what. I mean, we knew it was the day after the inauguration, but there was some sense of wanting women’s voices heard. NS: About historical precedent, and I think Francoise can talk very eloquently about historical precedents in France like L’Assiette au Beurre and Charlie Hebdo. One of the things is: there is a long historical precedent for political protest. But one thing that there isn’t, is enough contemporary parallels and enough space in American culture right now for political images as an act of resistance… We’re hoping to create more of that space. ————————————————————————————————— Over at Calm Undertones Now Transmitting, an in-depth look at Dash Shaw’s A Cosplayers Christmas: Shaw’s conception of cosplay shows how the exploitation of individuals that has been opened up by the postmodern ethos can be circumvented by those with the confidence to make their own meaning (even naïveté within certain bounds is enough) against the will of the myriad influences directed at them (e.g. marketing, social norms, political processes etc.). In A Cosplayers Christmas, the obliviousness of Annie and Verti to considerations of the monetary value of the gifts they exchange is endearing and humorous but it also points to the way that cosplay, by allowing its participants to claim partial ownership of the fictions they enmesh themselves in, serves to subvert the traditional paradigm of the separation between cultural producer and cultural consumer that has allowed space for capitalist interests to take hold. Annie and Verti have no interest in purchasing merchandise based on the properties that hold their interest, instead they would prefer to create their own related objects that they can attach personal meaning to. ————————————————————————————————— R. Sikoryak will be signing his newest work, The Unquotable Trump, this Friday, January 20, 6-8pm at Jim Hanley’s Universe, 32 East 32nd Street, NYC. Parodies of comic book covers with actual Trump quotes from the 2016 presidential campaign. The mini comic edition also features a Public Service Announcement comic strip and extensive footnotes. ————————————————————————————————— Could this piece have been done on the computer?…Could this piece exist without the fields of tone? Back in 2009, Alex Holden was thinking about Zip-a-Tone in comics: Zip A Tone has been on my mind because I recently received “Two Eyes Of The Beautiful” from Ryan Cecil Smith, who is currently living in Japan. Some equivalent of Zip A Tone (in virtually unlimited variety) is still widely available in Japan, despite the advent of the computer. “Two Eyes of the Beautiful” is all about Zip A Tone, from simple dot patterns, to trees and foliage……even buildings. Indeed, it is pretty easy to recreate the same effects of the adhesive sheets in Photoshop. Kevin Huizenga frequently employs this technique. Whenever Zip A Tone is mentioned, I can’t help but think of Matt Wagner’s “Heist”, printed in BATMAN BLACK & WHITE #3. Could this piece have been done on the computer? I suppose so. Could this piece exist without the fields of tone? Absolutely not. ————————————————————————————————— Pompeii by yours truly Frank Santoro – get a copy HERE. “The book itself is about drawing, really. It’s also about two artists who draw in order to see the world around them. So, the book itself IS drawing—and at the end it breaks down the barrier between what’s “real” and what is “drawn”. That’s what is great about the medium—that I can use drawing to illustrate that breakdown. There are a lot of visual rhymes in the book—where the “reality” is mirrored by a painting or a drawing. I’m trying to get to the core of visual storytelling by amplifying the process of drawing and making that the subject of the story as much as the interaction of the characters.” – Frank Santoro in an interview with Publishers Weekly ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-17-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-17-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-17-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

Little Seen Los Bros Hernandez Covers From The Late 1980s

Chris Anthony DiazJune 3, 2016The Diaz ArchivePeople wonder why i can’t pare down my comics collection in one fell swoop… it’s because i have to cherry pick it for gems like this to keep first before selling the ones that i have outgrown! Share this page: [...]

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