Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in School UpdatesTagged artist residency, cartoonists, Comics, comics residency, Comics Workbook, Pittsburgh, rowhouse residency

Comics Workbook

Posted on June 13, 2016January 6, 2019

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BOY by Hellen Jo

Chris Anthony DiazJune 21, 2016The Diaz ArchiveHellen Jo’s watercolored portrayal of Tetsuo Abe as Toshio Omura and Tsuyoshi Kinoshita as Peewee in Nagisa Oshima’s BOY (1969, Japan) for my ILLUSTRATED MOMENTS IN CINEMA/TELEVISION collection. The illustration was completed around Spring 2009 in ink and watercolor, and Hellen’s photo was taken at Comic Arts Los Angeles, Sunday, December 6, 2015. And Graham Willcox did the color on Hellen’s portrait Share this page: [...]

08/15/2016

Juan FernándezAugust 15, 2016NewsJuan here with the news: Rowhouse Residency Benfit Auction of Eightball era time capsule box; Audra Stang’s Rowhouse Residency Report; Chris Kindred on how to hire an illustrator; “Tell Me All Your Bad Thoughtz on God” by Jillian Fleck; Kilgore Books & Comics Fall 2016 Lineup; Ben Juers’ comics review of Sasaki Maki’s DING DONG CIRCUS; Grants and Residency opportunities for cartoonists; J. A. Micheline discussing True Criticism; new STREET ANGEL; MOME Vol. 1 – Summer 2005 reviewed by Bill Boichel. ————————————————————————————————— First off, we have the TOTALLY AMAZING AUCTION of an Eightball era time capsule box, donated by Mr. Daniel Clowes himself to help support the Rowhouse Residency. Check out the video above for a taste of the contents and the firecracker commentary of Jim Rugg and Frank Santoro. Lots o’ hyucks. Personal items, artwork…we weren’t sure we even wanted to part with things like Clowes’ Windsor-Newton Series 7 brush #3… but they are now up for grabs!! All the items in the box could be yours, so jump into the mayhem – auction runs until Wednesday, August 17th at noon EST. Don’t sleep on it. Check it the auction HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Audra Stang’s Residency Report: Pokémon GO Edition Audra Stang visited the Rowhouse this July and accomplished an incredible amount in the three days she was in Pittsburgh, setting new Rowhouse records for “crushing it”. She shared some journal notes with us recently that describe many of her impressions and experiences of her residency. We’ve shared excerpts from them, mixed with some of the process drawings and doodles that she made while she was here. My visit to the Rowhouse was my first ever residency… I came with the goal of totally drawing out a story that I only had a hazy idea of called Pale, Sick, and Magic; this seemed fitting, considering I only had a vague idea of what a residency would entail. Between Frank, Sally, and I, we had great conversation – not just about, but often returning to, comics. It fed into the “cycle” – draw by day and tour Pittsburgh by night. Or draw by night and explore Pittsburgh by day. It was a charged atmosphere but in a positive way – I was full of energy. Franks uses language that masterfully evokes the feeling of being “in the game” and gets you hyped for the next comics bout. Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— “Tell Me All Your Bad Thoughtz on God” by Jillian Fleck I’m happy to announce that we are featuring Jillian Fleck’s “Tell Me All Your Bad Thoughtz on God” on the site this week. “Tell Me All Your Bad Thoughtz on God” is part of Fleck’s on going Bad Thoughtz series and was made in 2015 for Comics Workbook. ————————————————————————————————— Kilgore Books & Comics Fall 2016 Lineup Denver based comics publisher, Kilgore Books and Comics has announced its fall publishing lineup: Blammo #9 by Noah Van Sciver The Plunge by Emi Gennis What Happened by Simon Moreton: The Complete Scorched Earth & Other Stories by Tom Van Deusen You can help support Kilgore’s fall release of four great comics by supporting their Kickstarter. Our mission is bridge the gap between self-publishing and the bigger publishing houses. We want to find talented cartoonists with unique voices and help them when they need it most by ensuring they have professional looking books and plenty of stock. We’re also able to pay royalties up front, and help take some of the logistics off artists which lets them focus on their work. ————————————————————————————————— Sasaki Maki & Abstract Comics Ben Juers has just released a comics review of Sasaki Maki’s Ding Dong Circus. It’s magnificent. All sources cited 😉 It was originally done for Australian literature and culture magazine, the Lifted Brow. It’s a real insightful joy to see comics reflections and criticism in comics. ————————————————————————————————— J. A. Micheline On True Criticism J.A. Micheline has written a new entry to her Critical Jam series of essays on cultural criticism. It’s a great, on the ground, response to Daniel Mendelsohn’s A Critic’s Manifesto published a couple years ago over in the New York Times. For those of you interested in where and how comics criticism can grow and expand as a from in 2016, it’s definitely worth a read. What we fear with the rise of grassroots criticism–and, for that matter, grassroots creation–is the absence of gods and masters. It’s a legitimation crisis. If there is no hierarchical structure, no above and below, and no true and false–then how is one to know one’s place in the world? Without modernist establishments, how am I to know whether I belong in the critical class, whether my arguments are good, whether they carry more weight than the average person’s? ————————————————————————————————— How to Hire an Illustrator Chris Kindred waxes on how to hire an illustrator over in this well thought and thorough piece over at NPR’s Editorial Training blog. The internet is a very visual place. It goes without saying that if you want your story to stand out, it needs a strong photo or illustration of some kind. But commissioning an illustrator can be confusing if you haven’t done it before. This guide will walk you through the entire process, from finding an artist to sending the final payment. ————————————————————————————————— The Sustainable Arts Foundation: $6000 Grants for Artists with Children This goes out to all you cartoonists with children. The Sustainable Arts Foundation is offering awards of up to $6000 to writers and artists with children. The money can be used for costs such as child care, workspaces, new equipment, research and travel. All the stuff that you’re hard pressed to getting when you need to get your comics done. Applications for the Fall 2016 round close on Friday 2 September. Don’t sleep on this opportunity, parents! For more information visit the Sustainable Arts Foundation website. ————————————————————————————————— Grants, Fellowships, and Residencies for Cartoonists! Cartoonist Melanie Gillman, author of As the Crow Flies, has compiled a list of grants and residencies that have demonstrated an interest in comics and cartooning. You can check them all out on their blog. If you know of any others, chime in, all ye faithful! Of course, for a rigorous, comics focused residency experience like no other, you need to look no further than our Rowhouse Residency! Level up and become your best. ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— MOME Vol. 1 – Summer 2005 reviewed by Bill Boichel Here’s a little throw back for you. Bill Boichel’s got a hearty review of the first volume of Fantagraphics’ mid-aughts anthology, MOME. Few people can write as insightful reviews as Bill, so it’s an honor to be able to share his writing with you here. This is an oldie but a goodie. Step into our little comics time machine and enjoy <3 This is an excellent semi-regular anthology that is stepping up to meet the demand for new work by the talented generation of cartoonists that have been filling the pages of annual anthologies like Non, Kramers Ergot, Top Shelf, Rosetta, SPX and others. A novel feature of this anthology title is its declared intent to feature the same collective of artists every issue, allowing the artists and audience to grow together and build an ongoing identity that is highly unusual for the world of contemporary comics. Only time will tell how this intention plays out when confronted by the realities of a publication schedule, but we can attest with confidence that it’s off to a solid start. ————————————————————————————————— keep yerr nose to the grindstone and until next time! Share this page: [...]

01/22/2016

Juan FernándezJanuary 21, 2016Newshello world, Lots of little things for you to nibble on today. Emily Carol just published her newest work Some Other Animal’s Meat on her website emcarroll.com. A quotidian tale of body horror and physical anxiety, it’s a smartly paced vertical scroll comic that breaks the story up into nine short black and white chapters. There’s an eerie calm through it all. Great stuff. Horror fans take note. Benjamin Urkowitz‘ newest comic, The Beauty Theorem is out at Hazlitt Magazine. Cheeky, spirited reflection on the rigorous, scientific study of metaphysics and its intersection with universal poetics. Heady concepts paired with goofy, cartooning and beautiful coloring. Steep yourself in it. Julian Lytle visits and chats with SPX’s Warren Bernard about forgotten Black Cartoonists, cooning, collecting comics and art, and of course SPX. So I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Warren Bernard, executive director of @spx and author of the book Cartoons for Victory. I met him at this past year’s SPX and was kind enough to invite me over to his house to see his extensive collections of comics, cartoons, and books library then to talk to me for this here show. This might be the closest to an interview I’ve done so I hope you enjoy it. Check out the blog post to see some a pic of stuff from the visit and please check out @spx if you haven’t and a link to the book. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/242740702″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] “An Art of Intervals” is raising is an upcoming art show that features the work of four young female comic artists, Abigael Puritz, Wendy Xu, Grace Passerotti, and Autumn Crossman. Showing at the Brooklyn, New York arts space, Tarot Society, from February 26th through February 28th, they hope to raise the funds to cover the cost of shipping the work to the gallery as well taking care of the expenses of opening night. Additionally, they are in the process of making new work specifically for this show to be released on the opening night. The majority of the funding will go toward collecting and publishing all of this new work in a zine that will be available both through this fundraiser and at Tarot Society for the duration of the show. Cameron Weston Nicholson has just reached the halfway mark in his fundraiser goal of $1,500 to acquire a risograph machine for selfpublishing in the RVA community. You can learn more on how to support his effort by hopping on over to his gofundme campaign. Having this printer will not only let me make a name for myself in the comics world but also be able to become a publisher in the future! I’ve got awesome ideas and big goals for my future and i want to share those possibilities with you. One major thing i can help is representation of people of color in the comic’s world. It is a goal to help push that forward. (One of the many goals) Giving the opportunity to share their stories to the world. Giving ones the chance to read this stories from beautiful people, beautiful story tellers. Once i obtain the printer I’ll have to do a few test runs to get used to the machine and get all of the kinks out. So a few months after acquiring the printer I’ll be able to open up shop for local (Virginia) jobs only. Later this year i should be able to open up shop for the US, and in the future internationally. It’s honestly going to take a lot to get that far but with your help I’ll be able to start this long journey. Share this page: [...]

09/28/2018

Sally IngrahamSeptember 28, 2018NewsSally here. I read most of the comics in Mickey Z‘s Space Academy 123 (Koyama Press, 2018) when they were appearing daily on her Instagram last year. However, downing the strip all together in one big gulp last night was very stimulating. I feel ZAPPED! (Very similar to how Ashley Forgiveness feels all the time – without the aid of caffeine – in the story.) This comic appeals to me on many levels. There’s the whacky space academy setting, the characters making a whole lot out of not very much, the reflection on what school really is FOR anyway, the outrageously free drawing style…plus it’s really funny. Knowing, as I was reading the book, that Mickey Z wrote and drew it daily, made the overarching plot lines more fun. Coming up with a new strip every day that is punchy and interesting is a lot of work. There really aren’t any duds in this collection. Each character follows their own bizarre journey, crashing into the others along the way. The simple life of the space station school slowly swings out of whack as Grandfather Computer takes over. Principle Summers is forced to make a big decision (despite the fact that all she ever wanted was to be a simple space chiropractor!) Ashley bounces off walls, Andrew navigates his anxiety, Naomi explores the loneliness that turns her into a bully. Shandy (the youngest character in the story, aged somewhere between 9-12) will do anything to get out of Sunshine Storytime. There’s something so powerful about comics making like this – pure on-the-fly storytelling, using whatever materials are on hand. Some might look at Space Academy 123 and call it sketchy, rough, unrefined. I beg to differ. Mickey Z is a really good cartoonist. To my eyes there is an elegance in these dashed off pages which only comes from practice and skill. Her timing is great. Her drawings contain and transmit the wild rush of strange emotions, the sick sense of failure, the fraying of sanity, and the bold realization of the total absurdity of life. The contrast between which characters experience what is where a lot of the humor lies. The final strip in the collection concludes the overall story magnificently, while summing up nothing at all. It was a real delight to revisit Space Academy 123 and I recommend it, along with the rest of Mickey Z’s work, which you can navigate your way to HERE. ————————————————————————————————— 09-28-2018 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

05/31/2016

Aaron CockleMay 30, 2016NewsKurt Ankeny Comics; Blank City; Saltz-on-Guston; Louise Bourgeois; Rokudenashiko; Kartalopoulos-on-Manouch; Robyn Chapman/Paper Rocket; Pigeon Anarchy; Spectacle of the Situation ————————————————————————————————— CW continues its look this week at Kurt Ankeny’s In Pieces: Someplace Which I Call Home. ————————————————————————————————— Wei Shao’s Blank City via Socks Studio Being built is no limit to the multi-dimensional world, everything is a standardized city. Space is normalized into a single cube, the cube is given the function, the function must comply with the specification. Life has been standardized in size cubes, they are given the same rhythm of life, follow the simple life, with all copied. Supreme goal, everyone in the “right space” to do “the right thing.” –(Hazardous translation by g.translate from Japanese original) ————————————————————————————————— Philip Guston Hauser & Worth Review Guston must have known the return to figuration couldn’t be denied any more. And still he refused. He was in a battle of wills with his art. It must have been nightmarish. So much so that he stopped painting altogether for three years after the last canvas in this show. He didn’t show his work again until 1970. Critics had slammed that work as “displeasingly raw”; the canvases were said to have “unpleasant texture.” His colleagues were shocked, suspicious, and thought he was trying to hop on the Pop bandwagon; one painter friend asked why he had “to go and ruin everything.” Lee Krasner was said to find the work “embarrassing.” New York Times critic Hilton Kramer lambasted Guston as “a mandarin pretending to be a stumblebum,” dismissing the work as “cartoon anecdotage … funky, clumsy and demotic,” and concluding “We are asked to take seriously his new persona as an urban primitive … and this is asking too much.” But the die was cast. While Pollock was the first to truly break through to pure non-objective painting, it was Guston who was the first to break out. And yet nobody seemed to understand. He’d risked everything and lost. – Via Dan Nadel at TCJ ————————————————————————————————— Louise Bourgeois at Hiram Butler Gallery ————————————————————————————————— Rokudenashiko And, lucky for her, the police and media continue to give Rokudenashiko a platform on which to promote her art. “I mean it when I say I am grateful to the police,” she said. Without them, she knows not nearly as many people would have seen her work. “Kind of ironically, they had to take all of these pictures of my art for their case. The prosecution had like a $90,000 camera to take these really specific pictures of my work from every imaginable angle, 16 slides per piece. I wouldn’t have ever been able to pay for any of that on my own, so now I have these amazing gelatin prints of my work. They’ve performed an act of art themselves.” – Dayna Evans at NY Mag ————————————————————————————————— Ilan Manouch: Defamiliarizing Comics with Bill Kartalopoulos But “l’affaire Katz” was not quite over. In 2011 Spiegelman had published MetaMaus, a book about the making of Maus. Manouach and his publisher burned the shredded remnants of Katz and had the ashes mixed into printer’s ink that was then used to publish MetaKatz, a 2013 book about the brief life and destruction of Katz and the issues raised by the experience, including contributions from a variety of artists and critics. MetaKatz “had a lot to say about different things such as resampling in comics, or the history of rip-offs in comics, or the problem of using animal metaphors,” said Manouach. “I think this for me is the prototype of a book form. It’s a book that creates discussion, that creates polemics, and another book that responds to these polemics. I think it’s a perfect example of how I imagine dialectics to be.” -via Bill Kartalopoulos at World Literature Today ————————————————————————————————— Robyn Chapman & Paper Rocket Comics ————————————————————————————————— Katie Fricas Comics ————————————————————————————————— Tino Sehgal at Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin His eponymous show at Martin-Gropius-Bau is beyond a doubt entertaining and spectacular, but it is neither radical nor subversive. These situations that entertain the crowds and are sold for substantial profit would make Guy Debord turn in his grave. On the surface, the lack of objects in combination with politically infused content make his work look novel and insurgent. But Sehgal is only formally employing devices of the radical practice of the avant-garde, and he is using them with very different intentions. His brand of “immaterial art” is not about the dematerialization sought by those who coined the idea and wanted to oppose the creation of commodities in a capitalist system. With his version of immaterialism, he has managed to create a new type of commodity that is highly sought after in the art market and, by doing so, has apparently filled a void. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

The Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency

Posted on June 13, 2016January 6, 2019 by Comics Workbook

The Rowhouse doors are open! We are accepting applications for 2018 and 2019 Residencies!

The Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency was founded by Frank Santoro in the spring of 2016, thanks to the incredible support of the comics community and a successful Indiegogo campaign in 2015.

Check out the Indiegogo campaign video HERE!

Now in it’s 3rd year, the Rowhouse is a busy place, as we run residencies for aspiring and experienced comics makers alike, and host certain master cartoonists who are making a point of coming through Pittsburgh to spar in the Comics Workbook dojo. Facilitated by Sally Ingraham, with the assistance of Frank Santoro, Juan Fernandez, and other members of the Comics Workbook crew, the Rowhouse Residency is a transformative place of discipline, study, and creative energy.

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Email santoroschool@gmail.com for more info about how to apply for a residency and find more details about the program below!

Check out our School Updates and News – Read the Residency Reports

Follow our Instagram (@rowhouseresidency) – Visit the School Store

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Rowhouse June-July — **L-R top** – Audra Stang hard at work during her residency in July 2016 – Frank Santoro with Lale Westvind, June 2016 (above) – Frank with Mahmoud Hashemi and Matthew Conway, June 2016 (below) – Lale Westvind making a comic at the Rowhouse, June 2016 **L-R bottom** – Sammy Harkham and Kevin Huizenga stop by, May 2016 – Matthew Conway during his residency, June 2016 – Sally Ingraham (above) and Juan Fernandez (below) working on projects at the Rowhouse, July 2016

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Application details are below –

visit Pittsburgh and make comics in 2018 or 2019!

Please email santoroschool@gmail.com to apply.

The application process is more like a conversation – please kick it off by telling us a little bit about yourself, sharing some of your comics or art work, and detailing what your goals might be for your time at the Rowhouse.

Folks have enjoyed residencies that were a weekend to a month long, and we provide different fee structures for the various lengths of stay. You are guaranteed a private room in our comfortably furnished Rowhouse, space and time to work, instruction and mentoring from Frank Santoro and other members of the Comics Workbook team, plus access to Frank’s extensive comics library and the resources of the greater Pittsburgh comics community.

We are currently accepting Residents for a minimum of a week and longer.

Email santoroschool@gmail.com for more details!

**L-down** – Caleb Orecchio hard at work, July 2016 – Ben Sears taking a look at his comic, August 2016 – Frank working with Gabriella Tito, August 2016 **Middle-down** – Audra Stang at the ToonSeum (with Pittsburgh comics makers Sam Ombiri, Lane Milburn, and Em DeMarco) during her 2nd residency, January 2017 – Kate Harmon copying Elektra, August 2016 – Adam Griffiths ticking off comics tasks, January 2017 **R-down** – artwork by Emil Friis Ernst, an exchange student from The Animation Workshop in Denmark, December 2016 – Ronald Wimberly visiting Copacetic Comics, February 2017 – Sam Ombiri stopping by the Rowhouse to print a comic, February 2017

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So what exactly is the Rowhouse Residency? And who the hell are we, anyways?

The Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency is facilitated by Sally Ingraham, with the assistance of Juan Fernandez and local members of the Comics Workbook team. However, it all begins with Frank Santoro. In his words:

“I’ve been making and writing about comics since 1988. My work has been exhibited at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York and the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. Allegedly, I’m a good egg and one of the most passionate proselytizers for comic books and visual literacy that you will ever meet.

I’m from Pittsburgh, PA and I want to make this city the best place in the world to learn comic book making. Beyond that and closer to home I want to improve the neighborhood I am from. I grew up in this neighborhood in Pittsburgh called Swissvale – and my family has been on this tiny little street since 1933. This was a booming steel town hamlet and then it went into decline. Now, the city and the neighborhood are on the upswing. I want to be a part of that change and now my schoolhouse residency is anchor on this street and in this neighborhood.

I’ve traveled all over the world and there is something special about Pittsburgh besides my own nostalgia or hometown pride. The Rowhouse Residency is now a part of the incredible ecosystem of learning institutions here in Pittsburgh. We are such an interesting city, I think, because we have this combination of a hard working blue collar mentality and a broad appreciation of the arts. I know it’s because of the ecosystem of museums, libraries, universities and independent learning institutions we have in Pittsburgh. Everyone from here has been to the Carnegie Museum and a Steeler game. City of Champions in more ways than one.

Even if you know very little about comic books please consider that comics are where many kids learn to read. Comics are words and pictures. And words and pictures are the internet. So the artform of comics promotes “visual literacy”. Learning comics is like learning music or learning how to communicate with more than just words. And that’s the world we live in today.

We are creating a dojo for students much like a martial arts academy. The beginner student will learn from more experienced students. We run the school like a sports clinic. What’s wrong with your swing? We can fix it. The dojo sparring sessions (so to speak) are recorded and broadcast. We have a “broadcast booth” and a radio show. We interview veterans and rookies and make room for friendly competition in order to push the boundaries of what is possible in the art form. This is not your regular comic book academy. This is a ninja academy, a samurai school, a Jedi academy. I do a really good Yoda impression.

The student can live for a day, a weekend, a week or a month at a time in the same space. That way, the student-resident can have a total immersion in the process. Most cartoonists work out of their home, so why have an expensive school building and make the student live in a crappy dorm or apartment off campus? Why not just give them a desk and their own bedroom? The residents take classes with me in the living room of the house. And my mom lives up the street and makes great spaghetti sauce and lasagna. So it’s a family affair. We broadcast lessons and publish the work of residents through the local powerhouse, Copacetic Comics. Bill Boichel, the proprietor of Copacetic Comics in the Polish Hill section of Pittsburgh, is my Yoda. I want to pass on the lessons he taught me to a new generation of Jedis.

The circle is now complete.”

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Email santoroschool@gmail.com for more info about how to apply for a residency

Check out our School Updates and News – Read the Residency Reports

Follow our Instagram (@rowhouseresidency) – Visit the School Store

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**Top row, L-R** – Matt Rhodes working, March 2017 – Gloria Rivera and Sally Ingraham, March 2017 – work made at the Rowhouse by Jackie Kirby, June 2017 **L-down** – Connor Willumsen reading Zap comics, April 2017 – Patrick Bonato going over his nearly completed comic with Frank, May 2017 **Middle-down** – (L-R) Lale Westvind, Connor Willumsen, Audra Stang, Kate Harmon, and Phil Dokes in “the Batman alley” during PIX, April 2017 – Jason Robinson and Frank on the porch at Copacetic Comics, June 2017 **R-down** – Caleb Orecchio and Audra Stang working on comics the night before PIX, April 2017 – Dash Shaw and Frank at a Pittsburgh screening of My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea, April 2017 – Frank in the Comics Work”boat” (canoe) on the Monangahela River, May 2017

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in School UpdatesTagged artist residency, cartoonists, Comics, comics residency, Comics Workbook, Pittsburgh, rowhouse residency

Comics Workbook

Posted on June 13, 2016January 6, 2019

Explore

07/03/2017

Caleb OrecchioJuly 2, 2017NewsCaleb Orecchio here with the Monday edition of the Comics Workbook Daily News! ————————————————————————————————— Paths of Victory When I was a kid, my family was part of home-church group they called Soma. All the families – around five or six of them – would host Soma at their houses alternately. When my family hosted I would hang a new installment of a one-page comic (a Sunday page if you will) called, “Be-Bo and Alex” on the fridge. They were circle-shaped characters with faces; the former the grandson and the latter the grandfather. I swear my parents have them, and they swear I have them. I’m sure they will show up one day. As a senior in high school, I had a weekly untitled comic in The Big Red Review, the hideously bad school newspaper. I would make comics about my experiences – good and bad – with girls. Mostly. They were gilded autobiographic stories. Once, an ex came up to me at lunch and said, “Nice comic asshole.” I was overjoyed, not because she called me an asshole, but because it was real reaction. The first sparks. Once the principal took me out of class and told me I had to replace that week’s comic because it was inappropriate. “You see that little “x” there?” – (he was referring to a dog’s anus I had drawn) – “You can’t do that. Either change that or make a new comic for the next issue—or no comic this week.” I confidently and defiantly retorted, “I guess there won’t be a comic this week.” I chuckle at my teenage angst now, but I thought I was on top of the world at the time. Nobody ever bought that stupid newspaper, but once they started including my comic, six whole copies were sold weekly. Everyone else read the copies lying around the lunchroom. Often people would say, “Nice comic, Caleb!” in the hallway. I made almost no comics in college. I was studying to be a graphic designer and my “cartoony” style was not going over well. I was, and still am as a professional, a hack designer. I had to “mature.” I obviously can’t keep doing comics was my thinking at the time. I can still be a fan of comics right? I can start a publishing company or write for TCJ. It wasn’t until the fall after graduation when I started making comics again. Like an idiot, I got my heart broken. Oh woe is me! I shall pour my heart into a comic! I did, and I felt better. It helped me to triangulate my situation and see it from several points of view. It exposed my idiocy and naïveté which was a thrill in some strange way. I kept making more. The cosmic feelers must have been at work because I found like-minded people (or rather they found me), half of them designers like myself here in town. These are the days when my flame was fanned. Soon I sought out others who I could talk to and learn from that were out in the far reaches of the land. They now help keep the fire burning, and I hope I am reciprocating in some way. A lot has happened between then and now though it’s still too close and abstract in my mind to write about here. I’ve gone to places and cities I’d never gone before and pushed myself to the very brink of sanity. I’ve moved around and made deals to make comics my priority. People in New York would cry if they knew how much rent I pay. It comes with a price though. Loneliness, hard labor, no sleep; it’s hard to tell which are self-imposed and which are obligations, but I would not trade my weariness for disposable income or a big comfortable home. I am a cartoonist. Money is only a means to make more comics. Like a prophet in the desert I live on honey and locusts. I am the old wizard living in a village long-abandoned by its inhabitants 4,000 years ago, soaking in the energy they left behind. There are many others like me—maybe you, dear reader, are one of them. We make comics because that is what we were put on Earth to do whether we succeed or fail—for better or for worse. Thanks CO Trails of trouble, roads of battles Paths of Victory, we shall walk -Bob Dylan ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know now you know The boys over at Comic Books Are Burning in Hell talk about the great Kevin Huizenga’s Ganges. At the New York Review of Book, Dan Nadel writes about Ellen Berkenblit’s new paintings at the Anton Kern Gallery. Michael Dooley writes about the legendary Steve Ditko at Print Magazine. You thought Pepe was dead? Oh ye of little faith—Matt Furie’s battle over his ill-fated character is not over. Graham Chaffee is the latest guest on Gil Roth’s Virtual Memories podcast. And stay tuned because he’ll be talking to Howard Chaykin on the 4th! ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-3-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-3-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Fumetto 2016!

Sally IngrahamApril 27, 2016Festivals and ShowsComics Workbook special correspondent Raúl Burgos Paredes brings us this exciting report from his trip to Fumetto on Saturday, April 23rd ————————————————————————————————— I had the pleasure of attending the Fumetto festival in Luzerne last Saturday. Although I would have liked to attend more days and for longer periods of time, personal constraints did not make it possible – nevertheless the experience I had was very rewarding. Knowing beforehand that my time in Luzerne would be limited, I planned ahead what I wanted to explore and left open the possibility for randomness. My main motivations were the “Small Press Heaven” and the exhibitions of Frémok and Lorenzo Mattotti. When I arrived at the festival’s main meeting point I headed directly to explore the Small Press Heaven. My first interaction was with the Latvian publiser kuš!. They publish a great deal of their books in small format, A6, which I find especially appealing. I treated myself to several of their mini kuš!, which are individual artists’ comics, and also to some of their regular numbers where they publish a large amount of artists in the same issue. Then I talked with the people of Stripburger (Slovenia), Kutikuti (Finland) and Centrala (Poland). They were all really friendly, and enthusiastic to discuss their publications and aims. All I can say is that the books I bought are all great discoveries because even if I had seen some of what they publish on the net, it can never be the same as having them in your hands in a neatly printed form. They’re all sometimes fun, at times odd, and overall very unique and highly recommendable. Afterwards I found out that there would be a panel discussion with Frémok’s artists Yvan Alagbé and Olivier Deprez. I impatiently headed there and listened to their talk, where they discussed the history of Frémok as a collective. They also gave details about their editorial concept, which is non hierarchical. They seek to incorporate the use of mixed techniques to have, as a result, works that depart from the classical comics style. Frémok’s works are highly poetic and experimental as well. For example, they talked about Match-Catch, which is a book that was made by some of Frémok’s people in collaboration with handicapped artists. Something I found quite interesting was their visible commitment to producing books that have a different kind of vision, a vision that clearly reflects artistic freedom. The moderator of the panel discussion inquired about how comfortable they were in financial terms, taking into account that the works of Frémok are not maybe bestsellers because of their style. Both Olivier and Yvan were emphatic in being both keen and confident to maintain their artistic freedom, not thinking too much about financial matters. For Yvan, it’s a chosen lifestyle, he prefers to be joyfully producing the work he does than maybe being more financially comfortable, but producing works that he would not feel like doing. This response was very much inspiring! Then I headed to the Fremok’s exhibition and reception. By the way, I did not know there would be one so I was quite happy to know that I would be able to interact more with the artists while having a glass of wine. This was a really fantastic exhibition where the works were smartly ordered to create a world of its own. I was delighted to see in original some of the works I appreciate the most. During the reception I could talk more in detail with Mr Alagbé about Match-Catch. He explained to me that they regarded handicapped people as independent artists of their own and that they were not imposing limits on them. He said that Frémok’s artists had to adapt to them and not the other way around. The result is a formidable book in which narrative is not linear and therefore, very dynamic. Personally, I’m not very much into narrative styles in general, I’ve always preferred to read a poetry book than a novel, and Frémok’s books are poetical imagery linked with sometimes poetic writing. I highly recommend école de la misère by Yvan Alagbé, coloforme by Etienne Beck, and plus si entente by Dominique Goblet and Kai Pffeifer. During the exhibition I also talked a little bit with Kai Pffeifer and I told him I was surprised to realize that the original works did not differ that much from their form in a the published book. He explained to me that first of all the editorial committee was formed by the artists themselves and that they placed high importance first, to the scanner, and second, to the printing process. He explained with great detail the complex printing process, but I can not tell you more about it because I forgot and it encompassed things I did not know. Then I headed to see Lorenzo Mattotti’s exhibition named Oltremai. Oltremai is another world of its own, all in black and white, populated by dark and ever moving characters. As you enter the exhibition room you sense you’re entering something special by starting to notice the soft and eerie music that accompanies the works. The imagery contained in it is fantastic, sometimes mythological, and an aspect that astonished me is the flow that can be felt in each individual work. The whole works do not follow a narrative and the pieces are nameless. The book of Oltremai, big and heavy, does good justice to the original works of the exhibition. Finally I headed to the train station to catch my train back home (Neuchâtel). To make my travel more enjoyable I started drawing some of my impressions of the festival. One of those drawings is my interpretation of Yvan Alagbé. To conclude, I would like to say that it was overall a very gratifying experience and I was very much pleased to interact with publishers and artists alike. Surely something to repeat in 2017! ————————————————————————————————— Raúl Burgos Paredes is a Mexican tripolar social scientist who has been living in Switzerland for the last 7 years. He finds time, in the midst of writing his dissertation, to explore his drawing abilities and enjoy all the comics he can find. You can see more of his work HERE. Share this page: [...]

08/29/2016

Sally IngrahamAugust 29, 2016NewsSally here to start the week with you: I’ve got Dame Darcy on VICE, the new Rowhouse Residency auction, the last days of the Composition Competition, a major event at the ToonSeum, a brand new column on Comics Workbook, and everything you ever wanted to know about Ben Day Dots… ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Workbook Composition Competition 2016 is drawing to a close! The last day to submit work is August 30th, right up until 11:59pm EST, and not a moment later. That means 8:59pm for the West Coast – no complaining! The entries are coming in at a terrific rate now, and it’s all we can do to keep up with the rush of talent and excitement. THE LIST of entries is updated as often as we can manage, but for those who don’t see their name on the list (yet!) – if you have emailed us your entry and it has been reblogged on the Comics Workbook tumblr then you are IN, no worries. Before you send those entries in PLEASE double-check that you have met all the contest specifications – and thank you for joining the Composition Competition this year. Full contest details HERE. Again, submission deadline is August 30th, 2016, at 11:59 Eastern Standard Time! Good luck!! ————————————————————————————————— The latest auction to benefit thee Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency is a set of 3 pages donated by Sammy Harkham. THEY ARE AMAZING as you can see from the video above. Check out the rest of the action details HERE. ————————————————————————————————— On the site today we are pleased to feature a brand new column! “QUESTIONS is an anonymously curated column that will appear occasionally on Comics Workbook. It presents articles, interviews, drawings, and more under the rubric of a general theme. TRANSITION might refer to: changes in the artistic, personal, or professional life of an individual creator; changes in the wider zeitgeist of a medium or industry, which can in turn affect individual works; and of course the implied passage of time from page to page, panel to panel, that is arguably the central characteristic of comics. TRANSITION features interviews with Cameron Nicholson and Simon Moreton, an article by Kim Jooha, and reviews of work by Warren Craghead, Sarah Ferrick, and Aseyn. Thanks for reading. Thanks to all contributors for their time.“ The anonymous columnist has questions for themselves as well as the folks listed above, and the piece is a wondrous and extensive collection of thoughts on transition. Please dig into it HERE – and look for more Questions columns on Comics Workbook in the future. ————————————————————————————————— Dame Darcy on VICE last week (above). And the 1994 interview from The Comics Journal – HERE. She answered a question about what she liked about the 1800’s to 1920’s: “I like the fact that everybody was uptight and really conservative and bound, and they had these twisted views, this weird morbid society, that they romanticized death because it was around them, it was such a big part of their lives all the time. They accepted death rather than trying to hide it beneath all this crazy youth culture plastic ideology like they do today.” – Dame Darcy via tcj.com I guess she’s still very much into “this Victorian thing” as Darcy Sullivan put it in 1994. It’s probably about time I put my mitts on her Meat Cake Bible (Fantagraphics, 2016)… More about that book HERE on Observer (an interview from earlier in August, right before Dame Darcy went “to sea school to get my captain’s licence“…!) ————————————————————————————————— A recent discovery by the CW Daily News team is the blog Legion of Andy – where you can dig into topics like “The Most Important Colour Printing Technique You’ve Never Heard Of: Resin Grain Chromotypography“, and “Tarzan and the Ben Day Dots – Secrets of 1930s Comic Strip Colour“. In his most recent post, the writer is bidding farewell to his second 8-part series on Ben Day Dots, and welcoming in Craftint. He has fun quotes, like: “Those first engravings were beautiful things. They had the Ben Day process then and those Ben Day men were artists—they could get the colors. Then they got cheaper and cheaper and now finally there’s no Ben Day work at all. They use a different process that’s cheaper and not nearly so good. —Hal Foster, 1971—talking about the early days of his renowned Sunday newspaper strip, Prince Valiant, which started in 1937. Quoted by Phil Normand, here.” This blog is one rabbit warren that you might never find your way out of…! Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Here in Pittsburgh we are lucky to have one of the world’s only museums dedicated entirely to the art and history of comics – the wonderful ToonSeum! The recent opening party for a new exhibit was attended by many of the region’s cartoonists – including Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, Frank Santoro, Mark Zingarelli – and local legend Rick Sebak. Sebak described the show later on his Facebook page: “A new show called DRAW ME! opened last night at The ToonSeum. It’s a great collection of artifacts that show some of the ways that people have tried to make money by teaching people to be cartoonists! I love the old cartooning styles, and the amazing collection of stuff gathered by John F. Kelly and Mark Zingarelli. Worth a visit or two for sure!“ The exhibit features part of the collections of John Kelly, Frank Santoro, Warren Bernard, Bill Boichel, and Mark Zingarelli, among others. If you live nearby definitely check it out, and if you live far away, you should still come check it out – heck, Fiona Smyth flew in from Toronto for it! Show runs through October. ————————————————————————————————— I’ll catch up with you again in September- have fun out there! – Sally Share this page: [...]

A Studio Visit with Steven Weissman

Chris Anthony DiazJune 6, 2016The Diaz ArchiveBe on the lookout for Steven’s upcoming book LOOKING FOR AMERICA’S DOG from FANTAGRAPHICS this September, and the awesome BUTTER AND BLOOD from RETROFIT is out now. And you can purchase original art and merch directly from Steven. Photos taken in Little Armenia, Los Angeles, Thursday, May 19 2016 and color by Graham Willcox. Thanks Steven! Share this page: [...]

09/20/2016

Aaron CockleSeptember 20, 2016NewsAaron here today with the post-SPX malaise/norovirus update; Some upcoming shows of note; ‘We are Pepe/Pepe is us’; T. Edward Bak; Storyboarding for the movies; Seymour Chwast; ‘This amusing textile’ The Small Press Exposition was held this past weekend in scenic and sprawling Bethesda, MD. This is a big show, and each year it provides an overview of some of the best comics being made in North America, in Europe, and other parts of the world. There really is something for everyone at this show, some works seen this weekend of specific interest to readers of this news-blog include: Powdered Milk vol. 15, Keiler Roberts Roberts was handing out freebies in promotion of her Ignatz nomination for Outstanding Series, which she ended up winning on Saturday night. Congrats, Keiler! The Black Hood: An Anthology of Depression and Anxiety, edited/published by Josh Bayer, co-edited/designed by Mike Freiheit Including work by CW favorites E.A. Bethea, John Porcellino, Katie Fricas, Mike Taylor, Bayer, and a very remarkable list of fellow contributors. BLAMMO #9, Noah Van Sciver The time jumps in the White River Junction story were used really well, and reminded me of how Chester Brown’s Louis Riel jumped around in random places. Van Sciver is consistently doing high level comics, and this issue is a really nice chronicle of work. The Shirley Jackson Project, edited by Robert Kirby Another terrific lineup of contributors here: Colleen Frakes, Robert Triptow, Jennifer Camper, Eric Orner, Josh Simmons,Annie Murphy, Pinc Roq, Dan Mazur, Gabrielle Gamboa, Ivan Velez Jr.,Hannah Blumenreich, Maggie Umber, Asher & Lillie Craw, Jon Macy, W. Woods, Rob Kirby. Rob Clough was in attendance this weekend. He gave CW a quick peek of his heavily annotated map of who he wanted to see at which table, but we were unable to get a picture of it for the record. One of these years. Rhode Island Independent Publishing Expo Saturday-Sunday, September 24-25, Providence, RI Paper Jam Small Press Festival 6 Saturday, October 1, Bushwick, NY Indigenous Comic Con Friday-Sunday, November 18-20, Albuquerque, NM Furie on Pepe Abraham Riesman talks with Matt Furie about the Pepe meme phenomenon: Furie says people email him Pepes “retty much everyday.” “Someone just sent one that was based on a quote I said at a comic convention panel,” he adds. “Something about a new frog in town and it had ‘Dat Boi’” (referring, of course, to the year’s best meme so far). That said, he doesn’t seek Pepes out. “I don’t sit there and trip out on Pepe all day like you seem to think,” he says. “I’m just a normal guy trying to connect with people and have a good time.” He doesn’t seem that interested in discussing the other characters and comics, either. “They are what they are: just weird comics about a bunch of weird fraggles hanging out in mysterious nothingness,” he says. I ask him if he sees any sadness in the quartet’s gross lives and his reply is blunt: “No, they are just dumb cartoons.” T. Edward Bak has an essay comic about family history at High Country News In a dream that follows my grandfather’s death, everyone is familiar but I recognize no one. Passengers drift on and off the train as it wends through the prairie. The dream unfolds as a temporally distorted vignette, like a comic strip. My grandfather’s death seems a strange plotline, half-remembered. Storyboarding Blood Simple …photographer Grant Delin created a video that compares scenes from the film to their original storyboards. Featuring commentary by the Coens, Sonnenfeld, and actor Frances McDormand, this fascinating glimpse at their creative process highlights the careful planning that went into the film’s construction. The 160th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016 at 7pm at Parsons The New School for Design, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. Seymour Chwast on GOD WAR SEX P.W. Herman at Brooklyn Museum This amusing textile was clearly manufactured as a commercial tie-in for Paul Reubens’ enormously successful TV show Pee-Wee’s Playhouse that aired from 1986-1990. The show was designed by Wayne White, Gary Panter, Craig Bartlett, and others, and this brightly printed textile faithfully depicts the characters and props of this wildly inventive program. Manufactured commercial product tie-ins to motion pictures and television programs are almost as old as the media. The acquisition of this textile helps to explain the myriad impetuses for the production of textiles and to elucidate the taste and preoccupations of a specific historical moment. The actual printer of this textile is not known, but the company was formulated specifically to manufacture promotional souvenirs. Posted by Barry R. Harwood, Lark Morgenstern, and Caitlin Crews. Share this page: [...]

The Rowhouse doors are open! We are accepting applications for 2018 and 2019 Residencies!

Application details are below –

visit Pittsburgh and make comics in 2018 or 2019!

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