Comics Workbook

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Juan Fernández

Posted on September 18, 2017September 19, 2017

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06/19/2018

Aaron CockleJune 19, 2018NewsParadise Systems; NYer at SOI; Desert Island; Dank Meme Machine ————————————————————————————————— Paradise Systems on publishing and distributing underground Chinese comics Fei Liu spoke with R. Orion Martin about comics in China: says the biggest challenge with indie comics in China is the lack of a network of independent bookstores. To overcome that, many artists distribute their stories in the form of tiaoman 条漫(web based strip comics — which can sometimes be like fan works, not unlike doujinshi of Japanese manga that have amassed huge cult followings) — of which many comics Paradise Systems prints are reformatted in. Tiaoman comics are popular on social media sites like Douban, a media site for youth culture that’s “a little like Tumblr but with Rotten Tomato’s review function” which allows for cult-like analysis and adoration. The comic artists Paradise Systems publishes are already Douban celebrities and now also have WeChat pages, which is China’s more mainstream social media network — though, finding indie comics on WeChat is often harder because you have to find and friend people already invested in the culture to see the content. ————————————————————————————————— Funny Ladies at The New Yorker: Cartoonists Then and Now July 24-October 13, 2018, The Society of Illustrators in NYC, curated by Liza Donnelly. In art, when the standards for what is considered “good“ are broadened to include more approaches, it leads to more diversity of thought and more creativity. That’s what happened under Lee Lorenz and Harold Ross’ editorship. In addition, the increase of women cartoonists under their editorships happened during times of positive cultural change in attitudes towards women. This is happening now. As the result of an effort led by senior editor David Remnick and newly hired cartoon editor, Emma Allen, The New Yorker now has a greater percentage of women cartoonists than ever. This exhibition is a commemoration of some of the women who drew cartoons for The New Yorker past and present. It’s a celebration of their creativity and fortitude as they pushed past cultural stereotypes to create humor and offer the world laughter from all points of view. ————————————————————————————————— Neighborhood Joint: The ‘Punk Rock’ Comic Book Shop Beyond the meritocratic inventory system, Desert Island proselytizes offbeat creativity through its annual fall festival, Comic Arts Brooklyn, together with the Pratt Institute. It also publishes an all-illustration newspaper, which comes out a few times a year called “Smoke Signal,” now in its 29th issue. Copies of the publication, whose pages have carried works by Mad magazine legends alongside up-and-comers like Abby Jame, are free to customers. ————————————————————————————————— Dank Learning: Generating Memes Using Deep Neural Networks Via Abel L Peirson V and E Meltem Tolunay We introduce a novel meme generation system, which given any image can produce a humorous and relevant caption. Furthermore, the system can be conditioned on not only an image but also a user-defined label relating to the meme template, giving a handle to the user on meme content. The system uses a pretrained Inception-v3 network to return an image embedding which is passed to an attention-based deep-layer LSTM model producing the caption – inspired by the widely recognised Show and Tell Model. We implement a modified beam search to encourage diversity in the captions. We evaluate the quality of our model using perplexity and human assessment on both the quality of memes generated and whether they can be differentiated from real ones. Our model produces original memes that cannot on the whole be differentiated from real ones. ————————————————————————————————— Thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers Summer Session starts NOW! Floating start date! Apply anytime between now and July 12th 2018 to join the summer course. Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. Ask about the Fall Course if now is too busy for you! The course is 8 weeks – 500 bux for 8 weeks plus access to Frank’s coaching for as long as you need. Payment plans are available. Put your summer to good use! ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 6-19-2018 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-19-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/12/2018

Comics WorkbookApril 11, 2018NewsSam Ombiri on Deryl Seitchik’s “Missy No. 1”. ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: Missy #1 by Daryl Seitchik has left me floored. There are other comics that may be similarly made, and somewhat similarly successful. However, for me Missy is entirely unique, though it’s uniqueness is somewhat hard for me to articulate. This comic communicated through obscuring information. When the title character Missy either scribbles over words, or misspells something, there’s a lot of truth revealed. I honestly wonder how much it was on Daryl’s mind for this story to be effective as it was. Efforts here don’t appear to be calculated, but suspiciously efficient and mysteriously rough. Calculations in some ways are a form of improvisation. The story is so well laid out from moment to moment. It progresses with an abundance of specificity, which is surprising for such a small minicomic. Between these specifications there are small moments for me to really feel. The feelings are surprisingly rich, given how there’s not that many pages in this comic (only 12). The comic feels like watching something with the sound turned all the way down. It’s very muted and very distant, because of how timid Missy is. She is so timid that she remains secretive. Even in her own journal! Despite being presented like the drawings of a child, the drawings don’t resemble drawings a child would make. This is because we’re introduced to the pictures as a representation of what the child is writing. As a result, the drawings feel really humble. The naiveté of the book isn’t for the sake of spectacle, or to be fashionable, but it’s the most honest thing to do, and it isn’t much more than writing in a diary. This merges us with Missy’s vision; with how she sees things, every anxiety, every worry, every tiny betrayal, we’re immersed as a result. It seems like for this minicomic, it’s important for it to be physically as small as it is, or rather the way it was printed especially adds to this comic. Since Missy is small, so is the minicomic. The comic being a diary doesn’t define it completely – the book, rather, just weaves in and out of the idea of the book being a diary. Reading this I could sense that Missy was feeling like the world was about to crash down on her. At the beginning of the story with her parents divorce coming into the picture, it would seem that this was the case. It feels like she’s looking for places to run to, and this journal we’re reading seems to be one of those places. – Sam Ombiri Check out more issues of Missy by Deryl Seitchik as well as her graphic novel Exits (Koyama Press) HERE. ————————————————————————————————— 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 NOW! Deadline to apply is April 12th- today, by midnight EST. Read all about the course HERE and email santoroschool@gmail.com for more details or to apply. ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-12-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/08/2016

Sally IngrahamApril 8, 2016NewsSally here with the good news from Retrofit, the Bad Boyfriends collection, and comics from Amanda Hamilton, Disa Wallander, and Jonathan Yee to send you into the weekend with light feet – plus Gabriella Tito on Audra Stang’s new piece! ————————————————————————————————— Kicking things off with a couple of forays into comics that’ll give your Friday a colorful start! From Amanda Hamilton comes this piece in marker – a new medium for her, and one that seems to suit! The comic came about “…during one very anxious night where it was too noisy to sleep. I was inspired…to do something with markers instead of colored pencils and I had a set of Rose Art neon markers I thought would be good to convey that jarring, discordant feeling and combine the colors in interesting ways.” ————————————————————————————————— Next up, something from Jonathan Yee – Jonathan made this comic last weekend at PIX, during a Comics Workbook workshop with Juan Fernandez and Frank Santoro. ————————————————————————————————— Gabriella Tito taking a turn here! Attention: Audra Stang is branching out into new territory (following her recent wrap up of “Love Me Like An Autograph“) with her new comic “April 2008“ (see panel above). Most noticeably, in her recent series taking place in the fictional town “Star Valley”, is her change in technique! Instead of using bold line art for her characters and traditional color, she’s now transitioning into using sleek pencil shading without too many lines – and I think it’s absolutely fabulous. Audra keeps the style current with light digital color overtones, not breaking the mood and flow even the slightest. Once again, check out my good friend Audra’s new comic HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Back to Sally, with the stellar news that Retrofit did it! All those lovely books will be coming out soon – including the title above by Sophie Franz – with the first ones hitting the world in May. Congratulations! ————————————————————————————————— Bad Boyfriends is out now. It has comics by Cathy G. Johnson, Celine Loup, Hannah Kaplan, Laura Lannes, Julia Gfrörer, Laerte Coutinho, Mariana Paraizo, Paula Puiupo and Hazel Newlevent (above). This collection is important and gut wrenching – available as a free download HERE, and for sale as a physical copy HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Disa Wallander posted a cute spring comic, which offers a glimpse of sunlight unlike anything I personally have seen recently…! Spring is around here, somewhere. ————————————————————————————————— Something to take with you into the weekend – Practice your craft, whatever it may be, stay nimble and sharp and badass! Catch you later – Sally and Gabriella Share this page: [...]

12/22/2017

Sally IngrahamDecember 21, 2017NewsSally here with Chris Ware and Caitlin McGurk’s incredible CXC 2017 interview, Ed Piskor’s X-Men Grand Design, Aidan Koch x 2 for the week, and much more! ————————————————————————————————— I have been dying for the CXC 2017 interview between Chris Ware and Caitlin McGurk (who was interviewing who, in the end?) to be put online, and it’s finally up on The Wexner Center for the Arts website. You can listen to the full interview HERE. Adam Griffiths masterfully broke down his impressions of this talk, and it’s worth revisiting – find it in his CXC 2017 report HERE. Here’s the best bit: “We as an audience are becoming redundant in order to allow Ware to mirror the brain’s experience of memory for us. Where did Ware get the concept of “comics as an art of memory?” Why in fact, Ware states, rather meekly, he got it from a paper that his stagemate, Caitlin McGurk wrote! The room warms to Ware as the surprised McGurk, suddenly joyful, becomes flustered and confused, flushed and slightly embarrassed. Ware has delivered his sweet, sweet punchline… The agreement that Ware has set us up for here is that we’ve been having a discussion about McGurk, not Ware, since we began, and that we will now remember, “Comics are an art of memory,” in all its redundant, charitable, pitiable human glory. Too clean!” Caitlin herself wrote recently on social media: “Back in September I had the privilege of interviewing Chris Ware (by his request!) in front of a sold-out theater at Wexner Center for the Arts as part of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. This was one of the most exciting and terrifying experiences of my professional life, but about halfway through there was a moment in the interview that made it genuinely life-changing for me. I am overwhelming grateful not just for Chris’s work, but for his generosity, kindness, and support.” This interview is one of my favorite memories from the past year, simply as an audience member, so take the time to give it a listen and prepare to have your mind messed with and your heart warmed. ————————————————————————————————— I’m so excited about Ed Piskor’s X-Men Grand Design! #1 came out on Wednesday of this week, and I tried to be early to Ed’s signing at Phantom of the Attic, but there was already a lengthy line. The comic sold out within an hour. In fact, if you didn’t pick up a copy on Wednesday you might have to wait for the reprint, as I think the issue is sold out everywhere! And it’s really, really good. I couldn’t help myself, and I wrote the gushing review, as an Ed Piskor AND an X-Men fan, which you can read here on Comics Workbook. About the comic itself I wrote: “The comic is a remarkable formalist masterclass. The 4-tier variations are unusual, especially the tall thin panels, and very exciting, keeping pace with the quick action of the story while harking back to comics from past ages, including the 1940’s. The use of color coding riffs on things Piskor did in Hip Hop Family Tree, but is utilized even more perfectly here (Magneto’s purple powers, Professor Xavier’s psychic communication, and especially the use of bright white in otherwise full color/sepia-toned pages, as a sort of guideline through the story). Piskor’s take on the characters are fun and feel right, and many of the pages are really beautiful, due to content and execution.” And then perhaps even more remarkable is the legacy of Ed Piskor and his work: “It’s worth mentioning that Piskor is from Pittsburgh, the city of bridges. With this project he has become a new bridge in his own right, spanning the divide between alternative and mainstream comics, between Fantagraphics and Marvel. No one has ever really done both – or at least not successfully. From his humble beginnings – self-publishing Wizzywig, and creating markets where there were none, putting work out online like Hip Hop Family Tree before getting noticed by Fantagraphics – until now, Piskor has operated with a true DIY spirit and worked really, really hard everyday at his craft. With this dedication and drive he developed unique projects, and built a fan base in the alternative comics scene that is rivaled by few. Now with Piskor’s work on X-Men Grand Design, those fans will follow him over to mainstream comics, and similarly the potential for fans of X-Men to start picking up Hip Hop Family Tree and other alternative comics is huge. This is Piskor as the bridge, creating new comics readers and fanning the flames of a struggling market. This is good news for every comics maker in the industry today.” Read the whole review HERE. For another look at the comic and the thoughts of Ed Piskor himself, check out this interview on The Comics Beat, conducted by Al Frost. ————————————————————————————————— Austin Lanari writes about the work of Aidan Koch over on Foggy at Best. The article is called Between Geometry and Gesture: (Some of) The Work of Aidan Koch, and it more specifically digs into After Nothing Comes, which collects a series of zines from across several years (Koyama Press, 2016). Lanari begins by saying: “The work of Aidan Koch stands out to me among a lot of other work because I believe you can read a single Aidan Koch comic and understand, in a deep way, what she’s all about. Other work that makes a strong first impression for me does so through its novelty or virtuosity. But reading Koch, I notice two things: that I feel like I’m part of the creative process in an intimate way and that I feel like she’s really onto something.” Read the whole article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Other Comics News of Note Laura Park is profiled on Hyperallergic and talks about her autobiographical work and her “exhibition connected to her three-week residency at the Columbus Museum of Art“. The show is up at the Museum through Feb. 11th 2018. Read about it HERE. Henry Chamberlain interviews Hillary Chute about her new book Why Comics? From Underground to Everywhere over on Comics Grinder. Read it HERE. Pittsburgh’s The ToonSeum gets a write-up on SyFy Wire with a focus on the current show Wonder Woman: Visions, which features the work of Trina Robbins and many local female artists. Check it out HERE. Emil Ferris‘ My Favorite Thing is Monsters tops the 2017 PW Graphic Novel Critics Poll. Read about it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 16th 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. His experience and ideas have influenced the likes of Connor Willumsen, Michael DeForge, and Simon Hanselmann (quote “I consider Frank Santoro to be my L. Ron Hubbard”) among many others. Dig into something new in the new year! Full details and how to apply can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook’s Daily News is taking a holiday break the week of Dec. 25-29! Our news team will return, refreshed, on January 1st 2018. Happy Holidays from all of us here at Comics Workbook! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 12-22-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

Northampton, MA Scene Report

Frank SantoroJanuary 22, 2012Riff Raff / Scene ReportsThis week’s scene report is brought to you by Colin Panetta. Please enjoy. ———- Hey, I’m going to be telling everyone about the small town of Northampton, MA. We’re about an hour east of the New York state line and an hour and a half west of Boston. We’re pretty close to the center of the state, but we’re branded as Western Massachusetts. We’re riddled with fancy colleges, including Smith, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke, which gives the area a strong NPR vibe. HISTORY Most comics people probably know Northampton for its historical significance. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird moved here and started Mirage Studios shortly after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 was released. In the ensuing years, the tidal wave of activity that followed their unprecedented levels of success in the comics world and beyond caused a number of historic events to occur here. You can read a lot about it in this recently posted Comics Journal interview with Kevin Eastman from 1998. Suffice it to say that in addition to Mirage Studios itself, the Creator’s Bill of Rights summit was held here and Eastman opened the Words and Pictures comic book art museum downtown, and planted the home offices of his infamous comic book publishing company Tundra right across the street. Main Street, that is. Here’s the building where the Words and Pictures Museum was located: It’s seen better days. Ex-Mirage artist Jim Laswon recently told me that there used to be a giant gargoyle at the top of it that not all the locals were thrilled with (although in general there was a lot of local support for the museum). That gargoyle is gone, but some smaller, distinctly Ninja Turtle-esque ones remain: The block directly across the street used to house the Tundra offices, and the original Mirage Studios before that. (Just the business offices though, Lawson told me the the artists worked in a warehouse space outside of town.) Mirage is now located just off of Main Street, and some of the old staff artists still have studio space there. I’ve been, it’s amazing. Jammed full of three of every Ninja Turtle product ever made, occasionally topped with a random piece of fifteen year old original comic book art. There aren’t many public facing remnants of that time left in town, but these two pieces of local street art show that the shadow of the Turtles still looms large in the area’s consciousness (in fact every long-time local resident has a Ninja Turtles story if you raise the subject): Kitchen Sink Press moved here after they absorbed Tundra, and Denis Kitchen still lives nearby. He also co-founded the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which was based in Northampton until just a few years ago. To top it all off Disney Adventures, which featured many indie cartoonists in its pages, was also based in Northampton until it folded in 2007. HOT SPOTS The big store in town is Modern Myths. They make a great effort toward catering to every type of person who might go into a comic book store, having distinct sections for superhero floppies, graphic novels, manga and role playing games. In the time that I’ve been here they’ve hosted events with Evan Dorkin, Howard Cruse and the late Harvey Pekar. And they put up with me constantly emailing them at 3am with requests for oddities from the back of Previews, so they’re a very good shop: There’s also Bob’s II Comics N’More, a 90’s throwback store with endless back issue bins. Non-comics stores FOE Gallery and Feeding Tube Records also dedicate some shelf space to comics. As far as events go, last year saw the first comics and illustration themed Paint and Pixel Festival, and we have a monthly Dr Sketchy’s. FOLKS Northampton is a very small town, but we’ve got a few artists kicking around. I mostly draw with a guy named Mark Velard. We table at shows together and post our work online under the name Mysterious Transmissions. Here are a couple panels from Mark’s latest page: I recognised the nice guy with the goofy glasses strap who works at the local art store in one of Tom Spurgeon’s recent “Who Are These People?” posts. Turns out he’s Sam Gaskin, a CCS graduate. He’s got a few different books out, including a mini he did with Matt Furie called Hot Topic. When I told him what my favorite gag in Hot Topic was, he told me it was his favorite too and it’s what he wants to be remembered for when he dies. I assured him I’d let the people know, but you’re going to have to wait to find out which one it is. Here are his book covers: You’ll see the old Mirage artists Michael Dooney, Dan Berger and Jim Lawson around. I love Jim’s work. He made incredible strides in developing a very distinct style, somewhere between Jack Kirby and Paul Pope, during his twenty plus years as a staff artist. I’m helping him put his dinosaur comic Paleo online as a webcomic this year. He’s a comics drawing machine: Bryant Paul Johnson is a nice local face who helped me fact check this article and has been working on a graphic novel in his web-savvy style. Here’s the cover: Colin Tetford occasionally brings his community focused approach to comics making to town, and often sends me a bulleted list of his itinerary when he does. It’s adorable. Local graphic designer Tom Pappalardo has a strip in the local weekly. Hans Rickheit also lives somewhere nearby, but every time I ask him where he just tells me it’s not on any maps. Mark and I had a successful art show in nearby Greenfield with him last year. (Successful in that lots of mentally unstable people wandered in from the street.) Hans is great, Fantagraphics puts his stuff out. Here’s a crazy panel he drew last year: NEIGHBORS The Center For Cartoon Studies is an hour and half north, but you guys already heard all about that. Easthampton, the unassuming next town over, is somehow the webcomics capital of the country. R Stevens of Deisel Sweeties, Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content and Jeffrey Rowland of Overcompensating (plus more, I’m sure) all live in and around there. Rowland runs TopatoCo, an online store that represents all the biggest names in webcomics from Kate Beaton to Ryan North, out of the old Eastworks building. I tried to walk in there and buy something in person once and they looked at me dirty, but they’re super nice folks. Kevin Eastman has an office full of God knows what in the same building (I’ve seen walls of original art from the museum and a full Predator suit when I peeked in), and between those two institutions is legendary back issue warehouse Gary Dolgoff Comics. Share this page: [...]

Tac au Tac

Posted on September 18, 2017September 19, 2017 by Juan Fernández

From the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, Jean Frappat presented a show that was a joy to watch, Tac au Tac. Based on the concept of exquisite corpses so dear to the surrealists, the show generally set up two, three or even four cartoonists to compete in a friendly drawing match.

The concept was simple, efficient, and allowed for many variations: A huge, blank white page and cartoonists equipped with just a simple marker. A theme was proposed (ex. invasion or pursuit), sometimes a visual starting point (simple line, spiral, circle), and the authors improvised, either collaboratively with their peers, or in a duel facing off against their opponents. The result was often far more than a juxtaposition of drawings, it was often a real visual dialogue between cartoonists.

The tone of the rare commentaries by Jean Frappat gives an old-fashioned charm to these shows. It is a nice way to casually watch some of the greatest French cartoonists: Franquin, Uderzo, Moebius, Druillet, Roba , Bretecher, and Gotlib.

Interestingly, there was a season recorded in New York in the fall of 1972, with guest artists Jim Steranko, Bernie Wrighston, Burne Hogarth, Neal Adams, Joe Kubert and John Buscema who wound up facing off against Gir, Druillet, Forest and Gigi from France.

The INA (Institut national de l’audiovisuel) has posted on its site about one hundred Tac Au Tac programs. Below you will find a convenient index of those programs so you can dig in and watch.

-Juan

August 14, 1969 : Pouzet/Morez against Faizant/Gus

August 22, 1969 : Piem against Maurice Henry

September 1, 1969 : Philippe/Gébé against Fred/Gotlib

September 26, 1969 : (Michel Douay, Mose, Tetsu and Piem) then (Urs, Philippe, Cardon and Jean By)

December 15, 1969 : Laville/Soulas against Pichon/Barbe

December 22, 1969 : Philippe, Urs, Cardon and Jean By

July 5, 1971 : Franquin, Morris, Roba and Peyo

July 19, 1971 : Piem, Mose, Trez and Rauch se piègent

July 26, 1971 : (Urs, Philippe, Blachon and Jean By) then (Soulas, Laville, Pichon and Barbe)

August 2, 1971 : Gotlib, Uderzo, Fred and Gébé

August 9, 1971 : (Philippe, Urs, Blachon and Jean By) then (Piem, Trez, Rauch and Mose)

August 16, 1971 : (Pichon, Laville, Soulas, Barbe) then (Piem, Trez, Rauch and Mose)

August 30, 1971 : Barbe, Pichon, Laville and Soulas

September 6, 1971 : Franquin, Morris, Roba and Peyo se piègent

September 13, 1971 : (Alexis and Alessandrini) then (Gébé, Cardon, Siné and Philippe)

September 20, 1971 : Siné, Philippe, Cardon and Gébé

September 27, 1971 : Alexis, Fred, Gotlib and Alessandrini

October 11, 1971 : (Piem, Urs, Pichat and Mose) then (Franquin, Morris, Roba and Peyo)

October 18, 1971 : Gébé, Philippe and Cardon trap Siné

October 25, 1971 : Exquisite Corpse with Gébé, Topor, Bretécher and Cardon

November 15, 1971 : Caricatures by Ricord and Mulatier

November 22, 1971 : Siné, Desclozeaux, Picha and Puig Rosado play and draw with food.

November 29, 1971 : Franquin, Forest, Gigi and Druillet

December 6, 1971 : (Gébé, Cardon, Philippe and Siné) then (Siné, Puig Rosado, Picha and Desclozeaux)

December 13, 1971 : Franquin, Morris, Roba and Peyo

December 20, 1971 : Franquin, Forest, Gigi and Druillet

December 27, 1971 : The animals refused from Noah’s arc according to Giraud, Gotlib, Mandryka and Alexis

January 8, 1972 :Exquisite Corpse with Cardon, Faizant, Tim and Ghertman

January 22, 1972 : Giraud, Gotlib, Alexis and Mandryka

February 5, 1972 : Jacques Faizant, Tim, Cardon and Alain Ghertman

February 19, 1972 : Bretécher, Barbe, Laville and Loup

February 26. 1972 : Druillet, Enric Sio, Buzzelli and Forest

March 4, 1972 : Franquin, Bretécher, Uderzo and Fournier

March 18, 1972 : Fred, Gébé, Soulas and Philippe

March 25, 1972 : Druillet, Enric Sio, Buzzelli and Forest

April 1, 1972 : (Piem, Cardon, Siné and Topor) then (Ricord, Mulatier, Solo and Gibo)

April 29, 1972 : Jean Giraud faces of Jijé in 4 situations, with Hugo Pratt and Jean-Claude Forest as onlookers

May 11, 1972 : Forest faces Hugo Pratt under the scrutiny of Jijé and Giraud

May 13, 1972 : Horror with Guido Crepax, Esteban Maroto and Thé Tjong-Khing

May 20, 1972 : Jean Giraud challenges Hugo Pratt under the scrutiny of Jijé and Jean-Claude Forest

May 27, 1972 : Exquisite Corpse with Cardon, Gébé and Gourmelin

June 3, 1972 : Piem, Siné, Cardon and Topor

June 18, 1972 : Franquin/Roba against Brétecher/Gotlib

June 24, 1972 : The theme of gas inspires Cardon, Gébé and Gourmelin

September 16, 1972 : Jean-Claude Forest, Jim Steranko and Robert Gigi on a boat in New York (1)

September 30, 1972 : Neal Adams, Joe Kubert and Jean Giraud

October 7, 1972 : Exquisite Corpse between Bretécher, Johnny Hart and Parker Brant (no sound)

October 14, 1972 : Burne Hogarth, Philippe Druillet and John Buscema in New York

October 21, 1972 : Neal Adams, Joe Kubert and Jean Giraud

October 28, 1972 : Mike Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson, Forest and Druillet in New York

November 4, 1972 : Jean-Claude Forest, Jim Steranko and Robert Gigi on a boat in New York (2

November 25, 1972 : Fred, Gébé, Soulas and Philippe

December 2, 1972 : Tillieux, Jidéhem, Morris and Brétécher

December 9, 1972 : Piem and Siné

December 16, 1972 : Piem against Siné

December 23, 1972 : Desclozeaux and Puig Rosado drawing dreams

December 30,1972 : Dali Special (without drawing)

July 29, 1973 : Bretécher, Fred, Soulas, Gourmelin, Desclozeaux and Serre

August 5, 1973 : Exquisite Corpse with Laville and Barbe

August 26, 1973 : Serre, Cardon and Gourmelin (without sound)

September 2, 1973 : caricatures by Ricord and Mulatier

September 9, 1973 : childhood by Cardon, Serre and Gourmelin

September 15, 1973 : Exquisite Corpse with Jean-Claude Forest and Gourmelin

September 22, 1973 :Exquisite Corpse with Tim, Cardon, Desclozeaux and Faizant

September 29, 1973 : Tim, Cardon, Jacques Faizant and Desclozeaux

July 26, 1975 :Exquisite Corpse between Greg/Dany and Goscinny/Uderzo

August 2, 1975 : Piem against Siné

August 9, 1975 : Gourmelin, Cardon and Forest

August 23, 1975 : Serre against Christian Broutin

August 30, 1975 : Piem, Wiaz, Tim and Maja

September 6, 1975 : caricatures with Ricord and Mulatier

September 13, 1975 : The Storm Forest, Cardon and Gourmelin

September 20, 1975 : Bretécher/Gotlib against Giraud/Druillet

September 27, 1975 : Christian Broutin and Claude Serre improvising

October 4, 1975 : Buzzelli, Peter Foldes and Thé Tjong-Khing

October 11, 1975 : Maja, Piem, Tim and Wiaz

October 18, 1975 : Christian Broutin against Claude Serre

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4 thoughts on “Tac au Tac”

Jose de Leon says:

September 21, 2017 at 2:07 am

A contemporary take on Tac au Tac, featuring David B, Sam Hiti (pre-Kickliy), Kagan McLeod, Frederik Peeters and Paul Pope:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWsxXwVY0e0

Reply
1. Juan Fernández says:
  
  October 4, 2017 at 7:16 am
  
  Golden, Jose.
  
  THANK YOU!
  the flame is still burning…
  
  Reply
Rudy says:

October 29, 2017 at 6:35 pm

JUAN! Uffffffffff! Thanks x a million for posting this index! I’ve been watching some of the episodes on YouTube, but had no idea there was an entire repository on that website! You da man! Bravo!?????????

Reply
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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in Resources

Juan Fernández

Posted on September 18, 2017September 19, 2017

Explore

Ch 3: Inking the Head and Figure (FACC)

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

03/14/2018

Juan FernándezMarch 14, 2018los Cómics / NewsJuan, on selling comics in Pittsburgh and “hypergeography” via the grid on tumblr y más! —————————————— Inaugural Mini-market @ Pullproof The weekend before last I sold and shared comics in Pittsburgh, PA during the Penn Avenue Unblurred gallery crawl. I set up shop at PULLPROOF Studio’s inaugural Mini-Market. All in all, it featured zines, prints, and jewelry by a crew of great local artists. It was really nice company. Among us were Jenna Houston, Lizzee Solomon, City Slicker Press, Max Emiliano Gonzales (GEMS), Jerome “Chu” Charles, Asia Lae, Lilian Kababa! PULLPROOF Studio is an in-progress printmaking studio in Pittsburgh, PA. They intend to offer a fully equipped silkscreen printing facility with a shared workspace and small storefront gallery at 5112 Penn Avenue in the Garfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their mission is to provide affordable access to silkscreen printing equipment, space, and time to artists in the Western Pennsylvania area. It’s going to be nice to have them in addition to the Artists Image Resource on the North Side. It’s a cool project. I did my best Frank Santoro/Bill Boichel impersonation and brought comics to the people. Frank loaned me a stash of Colombian comics from when he’d been invited to Entreviñetas in 2014. They sold well. It was nice to sell those and see them make their way into the hands of Pittsburghers. I’ve been collecting and curating a wide array of zines and comics that express the vision of visual literacy that I’d like to see more of in the world. Among those collected comics, I also sell comics that I’ve helped produce, my own and those of the Pittsburgh Comics Salon. It’s a healthy mix. I like to make it concretely clear to people, through in-person experience, that, yes, whatever you’re into, there’s a comic or zine you’re going to love. It’s nice to proselytize as a vendor, not just an educator or artist. Frank Santoro has been on this grind for ever, both because it is a better way to make money at show, opposed to selling solely what you make, and also because it’s more honest with one’s real experience with comics. You’re just as much a consumer as you are a producer. There’s a really organic back and forth, that this kind of tabling set up allows for. A huge thank you to PULLPROOF, Christina Lee in specific, for inviting me and hosting this event. This is the kind of selling and sharing of comics and culture I want to see more of in Pittsburgh. ————————————————————————————————— Hyper Geography Hyper Geography es un Tumblr creado por Joe Hamilton. Hay 100 posts tipo “loop” que se unen horizonatalmente y verticalmente. Hamilton esta usando Tumblr y las possibilidades del template como medio para crear su arte. Este proyecto es un buen ejemplo de cómo el navegador se convierte en el lienzo y la plataforma social la herramienta. Todo gracias a la cuadrícula. ————————————————————————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ en Español ~ El Duende y la Ilustración en Tres minutos… En Revista Cactus, Klari Moreno entrevista a Ana Galvañ y luego lo plasma así de bonito: Cartoonist Ramón Esono Ebalé finally released from jail in Equatorial Guinea. Un estupendo artículo escrito por el dibujante Mauro Entrialgo sobre Forges. Un gran homenaje. Texas Latino Comic Con returns! ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 03-14-2018 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

08/16/2016

Aaron CockleAugust 15, 2016NewsAaron here today with some Jillian Fleck comics; an interview with Phoebe Gloeckner; a schedule of Zinefests; a review of King-Cat #76; Data is Nature; the situation in Turkey; Et tu, the Golden Ratio?; the Society and the Spectacle; Clowes auction continues ————————————————————————————————— Tell Me All Your Bad Thoughtz on God Featured Comic this week is by Jillian Fleck, made for Comics Workbook in 2015 as part of Fleck’s Bad Thoughtz series. ————————————————————————————————— Does knowing how to render in detail a liver or digestive system, did that effect how you draw people from the outside? Did that inform things somehow in ways you didn’t expect? We never see our own liver, if we’re lucky, right? I remember when I was a kid I was fascinated by this huge painting, I think it was Rubens, Prometheus Bound. He’s tied to a rock and the eagle was tearing at his liver. So there you get to see his liver, and he does too, but other than that there aren’t too many opportunities. But still I wanted to know that somehow. It’s hard to know what’s inside bodies without seeing them. And that education, I was at autopsies and surgeries. So the experience was very direct and it was good for me. Phoebe Gloeckner interviewed by Nancy Updike over at Jezebel ————————————————————————————————— Schedule of Zinefests on This Planet Earth Circa 2016 Via FANZINES (the Twitter or the Facebook or the Instagram or the Tumblr) ————————————————————————————————— John Porcellino’s King-Cat 76 reviewed over at Panel Patter It’s this universal experience portrayed through specific events that make Porcellino’s comics unique. The ways that he observes the moment when how a dream leads to a memory that’s a decade old or the emotions that seeing an old lady and a man stir up in him strike a chord that’s resonant as part of the human experience. But it’s also in the way that he observes nature that shows how Porcellino makes something specific into something broad and understandable. ————————————————————————————————— From the Archive: Data is Nature, or, Everything You Wanted to Know About Nomographs But Were Afraid to Ask In the visual arts Agnes Denes used nomographs for the basis of some of her philosophical drawings which she argued represented the metaphysical aspect of mathematics conveyed through aesthetics. She wrote, “I love mathematics because I could humanize it, and in turn it gave me perfection and beauty”. In her work The System , she embellished the well known Smith Chart – a nomograph designed for solving radio frequency problems with transmission lines and matching circuits in radio frequency engineering. ————————————————————————————————— Jonathan Guyer spoke with Public Radio International about the current state of political cartooning after the recent coup attempt in Turkey Guyer spoke to a number of cartoonists during his month in Istanbul. “Every cartoonist I interviewed in Turkey told me that 2016, irrespective of the recent coup and crackdown, has been the most difficult year for cartoonists on record.” Guyer says about 1,500 people, including cartoonists, celebrities and journalists, are under investigation for insulting the president. ————————————————————————————————— The Golden Ratio: Design’s Biggest Myth??? This has been making the rounds on various internet platforms. ————————————————————————————————— The Society, the Spectacle Over at Hyperallergic, An Illustrated Guide to Guy Debord’s ‘The Society of the Spectacle’, by Tiernan Morgan & Lauren Purj To be clear, Debord did not believe that new technology was, in itself, a bad thing. He specifically objected to the use of perceptual technologies for economic gain. The spectacle, which is driven by economic interest and profit, replaces lived reality with the “contemplation of the spectacle.” Being is replaced by having, and having is replaced by appearing. We no longer live. We aspire. We work to get richer. Paradoxically, we find ourselves working in order to have a “vacation.” We can’t seem to actually live without working. Capitalism has thus completely occupied social life. ————————————————————————————————— Daniel Clowes Auction Items Up Through Wednesday, August 17, 1pm EST All proceeds benefit the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency. Share this page: [...]

06/22/2017

Sally IngrahamJune 22, 2017NewsSam Ombiri brings thoughts on C.F.’s Powr Mastrs 3 – plus other links and comics for your Thursday! ————————————————————————————————— Sam Ombiri here: I read Powr Mastrs 3 by CF very often. Very, very often. Even more often than Powr Mastrs 2, but that could just be a result of me lending it to someone else. Powr Mastrs is the type of book you lend to other people. I’m more invested in Powr Mastrs 3 than 2, maybe as a result of the pace at which the characters are moving. The story doesn’t have a fast moving energy, but a slower more contemplative progression – not to say that this wasn’t the case for Powr Mastrs 2, it’s just there was only one real moment of action in 3 that I can think of. Only one complete, concrete, certain action that transformed the landscape of other events to come. So then, with 3 more so than 2, a certain weight is added to the momentum that was fueled by what had happened before 3. Of course I haven’t read 1 because I was kind of late to the party with CF. He begins the book by telling those who mimic him to “follow your own star.” Can you, the reader, draw like CF does? The way he draws seems impossible. It’s a very stubborn way to draw. He drew amazing characters – an amazing cast that you can imagine doing various things even before the story begins. So then it’s a real thrill to be seeing them moving in the story, mixing with your presumptions and what you imagined them to be like, and acting in accordance to their committed role. The beginning with the Circuit Runner feels like, as the reader, you’re being told to travel with the Circuit Runner. The beginning hints to us about what will come to fruition. The characters are quiet before they address us. They occupy their own moments before they address the reader, if at all. The first person who addresses us is Jim Bored, who is stretching his imagination to his limits. He asks “what was entertainment?” while stuck in his prison in Mosfet’s lab. Really similar to like what we do with art and stuff I guess – I wonder what question CF is asking here? Maybe it’s something about what symbolically happens when our deteriorating memory and alienated imagination reaches its limit. I felt that Jim Bored is still making stories that attempt to keep the mind going when trapped in an inescapable pit. Meanwhile, CF is drawing a reconstruction of perception after perception is lost or is slipping away. New China is an easy place to navigate, thanks to the way CF guides the reader from panel to panel. One moment floating gently into the next moment without any scheme to rush, beyond what feels like the needed pacing. The reveals that happen are slow as we pan to some hidden factor in New China of some unrevealed element that hasn’t come fully into fruition but is sure to be big when it does. The people we meet in New China are reduced to a fetishization of action figures. It’s a bit dizzying, the intense encounters with what feel like mirrors reflecting an energy present in our lives, but CF catches that energy in a jar and releases it in every page. The ways the characters look, and the way color comes in, is that similar feeling to when you’re a kid and the colors of packs of candy stick out to you, and part of the candy and enjoying the candy is the bright colors of the wrappers and the bags you rip – or all those cool action figures that you could never have and imagine playing with. – Sam Ombiri Get a copy of Powr Mastrs 3 HERE. ————————————————————————————————— 6-22-2017 – by Sam Ombiri ————————————————————————————————— Sally here – Ariell R. Johnson has been in business for over a year now, and her plans for Amalgam Comics & Coffee Shop are only getting grander. The Knight Foundation recently picked Johnson out of over 4,500 applicants to receive a grant of $50,000 – she will be expanding her space, and implementing more educational opportunities for the local community. Read more about her shop and her plans HERE. ————————————————————————————————— There’s a review of Space Riders: Galaxy of Brutality #2 on Nothing But Comics – they write: “I can’t say enough about Ziritt’s art, as it really is unlike any other style you see in comics now. It’s like the album art you saw on 70’s covers, bright and glaring, its subject matter seizing your eyes. On reflection, Ziritt’s style is like a spiritual continuation of Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko’s work in the 60’s. The bold body shapes, the sublime color combinations, and the geometric technology, it all was prominent in the heyday of comics and its mostly vanished in modern times.“ Read the rest HERE. Get a copy of Alexis Ziritt’s and Fabian Rangel Jr.’s other new comic, Tarantula, HERE from AdHouse Books. ————————————————————————————————— Work by Jim Pluk – he recently had a solo show in Mexico at the gallery TOBA. Check out more of Jim’s work HERE – and get a copy of his most recent comic Canosa’s Welcome HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Frank was the guest on Episode 219 of of Brian Heater’s RiYL podcast: “…unlike the Bay, his hometown is actually livable for an artist. In fact, he own two houses on the same street. The second, a mirror image of his own residence, is the headquarters of the Rowhouse Residency, an off-shoot of his long standing comics correspondence course that he likens to “a dojo for students much like a martial arts academy.” It’s an immersive school from which Santoro broadcasts lessons and publishes the work of the artist in residence, fueled by home cooked meals prepared by his mother who lives up the street. Santoro and I met up at his row house to discuss Pittsburgh comics, self-publishing and the shadow of Andy Warhol.“ Give it a listen HERE! Learn more about the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-22-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 6-22-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

CXC 2016: Report Card

Whit TaylorOctober 24, 2016Festivals and ShowsComics Crossroads Columbus (CXC), is a 4 day long comics festival in Columbus, Ohio, that is now in its second year. Organized by comics industry professionals with a track record of both artistic contributions and service to the independent comics community, the show has largely been touted as a soon-to-be American version of France’s Angouleme; that is, a multi-day festival that explores the various facets of comics, and serves as more than just a marketplace for cartoonists, but a support of their careers and celebration of the medium. CXC is situated in Columbus, a cozy Midwestern college town (home to Ohio State University) that is quickly building up its reputation as a “cartoonists” town due to its arts friendly institutions, reasonable cost of living, and the number of artists who have either grown up or elected to move there. Tom Spurgeon, CXC’s Festival Director, credits Columbus-native Jeff Smith, Vijaya Iyer and Lucy Caswell with the initial idea for the show, as well as Jenny Robb, Caitlin McGurk and Jared Gardner. Caitlin McGurk, CXC committee member and Associate Curator at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, explained to me that planning for the first festival began in 2012. “The idea for CXC was born out of the realization that there were a significant number of institutions in Columbus paying attention to/promoting/working with comics,” she explains. “From the obvious like The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (BICLM) and the Thurber House (James Thurber’s childhood home turned museum), to Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) kicking off a new comics major, to the Columbus Museum of Art hosting regular comic art exhibits (including the first US show of R. Crumb‘s Book of Genesis), and a dozen other examples, it occurred to us that few other cities have that kind of institutional power behind comics.” The events of the first two days, held on Ohio State University’s campus, included professional development for cartoonists, tours of the BICLM, programming for young students of color through Sol-Con (a convention celebrating black and brown creators), and a scholarly symposium organized by OSU professor and CXC organizer, Jared Gardner. The weekend “marketplace” at the newly renovated Columbus Metropolitan Library, served as a small convention with exhibitors and programming, including the Comics Workbook workshop sessions. I missed checking out Ron Wimberly’s CMA Thurber House Graphic Residency as well as seeing Raina Telgemeier speak (more on this later), but I do believe that I was able to get a nice snapshot of the show. It was one that reflected the goals of the organizers, according to McGurk – “We want it to include everyone from comic strip artists to punk mini-comics makers to political cartoonists, web cartoonists, mainstream cartoonists and the “indie” folks. Animators, too! A place where someone who has just made their first mini-comic can stand beside a MAD Magazine legend in the BICLM galleries and chat about Winsor McCay. A place to learn about developing professional skills for artists, be it from inking to legacy planning, from foreign rights to how to fill out your taxes, etc. We want to create a support system for comics, in a place that already serves as a home and shrine to comics.” I decided to approach my write up as a “report card” absent of a final grade, but with some notes on the strengths of the show, some areas for improvement, as well as some notes concerning the future of the show. I would like to thank the show’s Executive Committee: Tom Spurgeon, Jeff Smith, Vijaya Iyer, Kathleen Glosan, Lucy Caswell as well as Caitlin McGurk (Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum), Laurenn McCubbin (CCAD), Jared Gardner, Neil Cameron, Frederick L. Aldama (Sol-Con), Comics Workbook, and countless volunteers. Strengths & Highlights Versatility: Overall all, CXC’s greatest asset was its understanding that comics culture is multidimensional. The show welcomed cartoonists, comics scholars, publishers, fans, and those with specific interests within the community. It strove to be inclusive, even if it was not fully realized. Talk and Teach: There were two days of professional development workshops and talks before the weekend convention commenced. For those who were able to make it out, it was a wonderful way for cartoonists, who are usually stuck behind their tables at shows, to take time for themselves to learn and grow. Two highlights for me included Sacha Mardou’s long form fiction planning talk and Kriota Willberg’s Drawing with No Pain! Injury Prevention for Cartoonists workshop. Dustin Harbin, T. Edward Bak, and Ann Telnaes also led Talk and Teach workshops. Scholarly Symposium: In its first year, the theme chosen for this 2-day symposium was “Canon Fodder”, as the goal of the gathering was to “seek to test and remix the still-damp concrete of comics histories and canons before they set.” Chaired by OSU Professor of English (and comics scholar), Jared Gardner, the symposium was intended to bring together academics to present, learn, and open a dialogue about everything from representation in comics to who is responsible for dominant narratives. I spoke with some attendees later at the marketplace. Comics scholarship seems to be a relatively small field at this point and one that is not always directly tied into the comics industry itself. That’s why I think it was smart to include the symposium in this show. Plus, it provided academics a chance to observe small-press culture and acquire comics and graphic novels from indie artists whose work they may not have encountered otherwise. Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Tours: On Friday, tours were given on the hour of the archives. This provided us with a fascinating look at their vast collection, which included everything from original art, graphic novels, and manga, to fan letters written to cartoonists. Additionally, librarians selected a diverse display of original art to look at in the reading room. Upstairs was the Little Nemo:Dream Another Dream exhibit featuring contemporary artists who contributed to the Eisner-winning book from Locust Moon Press, as well as Good Grief! Children and Comics, an exhibition featuring original art from everyone from Charles Schultz and Bill Watterson, to that of the late Richard Thompson. Garry Trudeau Talk: Trudeau spoke with writer Glen David Gold at the Wexner Center for the Arts on Friday night. The event provided a snapshot of his cartooning career and a reflection on his work. I was most interested in their discussion about covering war in comics strips and Trudeau’s admitted struggle to fully capture the experience of those serving in the military. I was also surprised by Trudeau’s relative outsider status as a cartoonist, as he shared that he was not very involved in the comics world as an industry person or as a reader. Other notable talks at CXC included “Animator and Author John Canemaker on Windsor McCay’s Little Nemo”, “25 Years: Seth in Conversation with Ben Katchor“, Charles Burns at CCAD, and Raina Telgemeier in Conversation with Jeff Smith. Social Opportunities: The organizers also understood the necessity of socializing. Again, perhaps this is because many are cartoonists themselves and have an understanding of the rather solitary nature of the craft. The show provided ample opportunities to socialize beyond the marketplace, including after parties each night hosted by different cartoonists (Katie Skelly, Stan Sakai, Julia Gfrorer, and Sean T. Collins) at local bars. Awards: On Friday, the CXC 2016 Master Cartoonist Awards went to Carol Tyler and Sergio Aragones, honoring their bodies of work, while Garry Trudeau received the CXC 2016 Masterwork Award for Doonesbury. At the weekend’s marketplace, cartoonist and publisher, Kevin Czap was honored with the Emerging Talent Award. Discussing his award with CW presenter Alyssa Berg, Czap said “I didn’t expect it at all. It felt nice in that regard—plugging away at this thing and trying to be a part of the larger conversation of comics, which I feel a part of is being represented at CXC. So the award felt like acknowledgement, that you are being noticed and heard, which feels nice. I’m doing all of this stuff without expectation of reward, it’s just what I want to do, but it’s nice to see some traction.” In the same way that it is important to celebrate seasoned artists with “lifetime achievement awards”, supporting artists in their formative years (and even more so with funds) shows respect and appreciation for cartoonists in a unique part of their career. Location: Columbus was a nice choice for a comics festival given its small size, affordability, and comics foundation (including the local talent and facilities). The facilities, including those at OSU as well as the newly renovated Columbus Metropolitan Public Library, were a major asset to this show given their accessibility and presenter-friendliness. Hospitality and Support: Many exhibitors told me that CXC organizers and volunteers made them feel very welcome. Whether it was arrangements being made to pick up individuals from the airport or snacks made available to exhibitors, the little touches conveyed a sense of pride about the show as well as for the show’s city. Raina Telgemeier: As evidenced by the massive line of young girls and their families waiting in line to see her for her spotlight panel and signing of her new bestseller, Ghosts, one can assume it was a success! Seeing young, particularly female readers, develop a passion for comics is inspiring and hopeful for the medium. Weaknesses and Room for Improvement Tom Spurgeon was in agreement with my perception that there were some logistical flaws to this year’s show. “The big change will probably be adding a showrunner for just that day,” he elaborated. “I’d also like to add an element of shining a spotlight on 2018 in comics. I think we need to do a better job hitting our diversity goals across the board.” Sol-Con Omission: Let me say first that I stopped by Sol-Con’s expo and programming on Friday and was heartened by all of the black and brown school children who had been invited to learn about comics and meet cartoonists. It was clear that participants had a passion for engaging youth as well as discussing topics relevant to the black and Latino creators, publishers, and other comics professionals. The problem was that CXC’s program did not have enough specifics on Sol-Con, including locations for the weekend programming (they were available on OSU’s site for the convention). I spoke with Sol-Con’s Project Director Frederick Luis Aldama, and he told me that detailed info on the workshops had been submitted in time but were not included. He expressed that he did not believe this to be malicious, but an oversight that nonetheless upset many Sol-Con exhibitors and participants. Unevenness of Panels: I attended as many panels as I could, despite exhibiting. There were many highlights for me, including the Political Cartoons panel which featured Lalo Alcatraz, Nate Beeler, Keith Knight, and Ann Telneas discussing their coverage of the 2016 presidential election. There were also some less consistent panels, including the State of the Industry panel. Image’s Eric Stephenson dropped out, leaving Rich Tommaso (cartoonist), Keith Knight (cartoonist) Chip Mosher (ComiXology), Shena Wolf (GoComics.com), and Brendan Burford (King Features Syndicates) to do a syndicate-heavy panel without a print publisher present. Tom Spurgeon moderated, asking insightful and well-rounded questions, but I sensed a hesitancy to answer questions around creator incomes or anything wage-related. The panel avoided being overly negative, but tense exchanges on diversity and what being a “good artist” means in some ways reflected greater industry hot topics. The details: While some of CXC’s greatest successes were in its attention to detail, it’s also clear that some remain to be worked out. Issues such as not having assigned tables on an exhibitor map or the scheduling of multiple sought-after events at the same time, are worth re-visiting. I chalk this up to it being a new show more than anything else. I’m curious to see what the future holds for this festival. I look forward to seeing what happens as comics scholarship grows and CCAD’s Comic & Narrative Major moves beyond its launch year. Given the great experiences I’ve been hearing, it seems likely that applications will go up in coming years. CXC will have to figure out what type of show its going to be, similar in some ways to what SPX is now facing. Given that its festival setup is unlike any other in this country at this point, it may not be able to rely on shows that have aged gracefully, as role models. If demand for the marketplace grows, logistics concerning lodging, transportation, and show curation will be unavoidable, as will its connections with the scholarly symposium and Sol-Con. When I asked Spurgeon what he wanted for this festival in coming years he said he hoped that CXC would “not just having a strong show but driving attention to the entire world of comics in a kind of Cannes Film Festival way.” He talked of developing a housing program as well. “I’d love for the show to become successful enough we can aim it at some of comics intractable problems!” I truly hope the best for this show, as it left me with a homey feeling that was a testament to it’s passionate featured talent and its hardworking organizers. ————————————————————————————————— Whit Taylor is a New Jersey-born cartoonist, editor, and comics writer. Her most recent books are Ghost and Wallpaper. She has previously reported on CAB 2014, SPX 2014, and the 2014 Comics & Medicine Conference. She lives in New York City. ————————————————————————————————— (For more Comics Workbook CXC 2016 coverage check out our special “round up” report HERE.) Share this page: [...]

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