Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in The Diaz ArchiveTagged Chris Diaz

Chris Anthony Diaz

Posted on January 27, 2016May 2, 2016

Explore

01/16/2017

Juan FernándezJanuary 16, 2017NewsJuan and Sally here to start your week off with George Herriman strips, Richard Diebenkorn sketchbooks, Illustrated PEN’s State of Emergency, the GOUFFRE anthology, and other comics and news bites. ————————————————————————————————— Here on the site, Comics Workbook student and cartoonist Jesse Rimler shares a report on the Richard Diebenkorn Sketchbook show that hung at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University last summer. “This exhibit made me think about the general use of a sketchbook. Diebenkorn called his sketchbook his “portable studio,” and it’s clear he took drawing in these beatup spiralbounds as seriously as he did etching on a copper plate or painting on a canvas. I think some comics makers, myself included, tend to treat their sketchbooks as something completely different from their final art. The idea of closing the gap between the two is appealing to me, and Diebenkorn’s example is inspiring.“ Read the rest of this “Art Trip” HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Illustrated PEN published an online graphic narrative series called State of Emergency, which is intended to help “amplify the voices and stories of the communities most at risk in this new and hostile reality“. Edited by Meg Lemke, Rob Kirby, and MariNaomi, it features pieces by Iasmin Omar Ata, Dylan Edwards, Thi Bui, Rachel Masilamani, Robert Kirby, Whit Taylor, Tyler Cohen, and Cristy C. Road. Check out the whole series HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Juan Fernandez here. Ain’t got too much to say today, just wanted to share some strips I made with you a while back. I’ve been going through the new IDW 1934 Krazy Kat Dailies book every day this year. It’s been a wonderful experience. I’ve been clamoring for an economically formatted collection of Herriman’s dailies for some years now since Fantagraphics started doing their reprints of the Sunday pages. Those are exquisite. This IDW collection features the complete run of Krazy Kat dailies from 1934, reproduced full size on high quality newsprint, in a chunky, horizontally formatted hardcover volume from IDW’s Library of American Comics Essentials series. Woo boy. That thing is amazing. In light of this, I’ve been thinking about a couple of strips I made at the Center for Cartoon Studies in 2012. The following strips were made for the second assignment in Jason Lutes’ Cartooning Studio. Aping as the building of discipline. Style as functional raincoat. The objective was to recreate faithfully the visual and narrative style of an American strip artist and to tell 3 autobiographical stories using the strip as the vehicle. The assigned artists ranged far and wide, from Walt Kelly to Scott Adams. You know, a very CCS “traditional” cartooning exercise. I was lucky enough to get George Herriman’s Krazy Kat. Thanks Jason. It was a really satisfying exercise. I won’t lie, the strips turned out nice but they don’t really work. I had never done comic strips that weren’t just Dada-ist doodle non-sequitors, so this exercise proved to be a challenge. Not because I didn’t want them to make sense, but rather because I wanted so badly for them to make sense. I wanted to express so much in a single strip and it came out garbled. Clean, but garbled. I understand structure, but traditional narrative? Man, that’s hard to do and not ham up! To make these studies I read a great deal of Herriman’s dailies, across collections, but I found that the most useful was a big green copy of Fantagraphics Books’ The Kat Who Walked in Beauty. The “Panoramic” Dailies from 1920. If you’re only familiar with Herriman’s broadsheets, you really ought to take a look at his dailies. While the broadsheets are beautiful and hyperbolic, the daily strips are immaculately fine tuned little nuggets. It’s staggering to know that he churned out these little finely crafted gems on a daily basis for 31 years. In my opinion, it’s there that you’ll find his genius. Day in and day out. At least, that’s the work that I most want to read. Speaking to what I said about structure, I want to share some of the process of thinking about Herriman’s pacing. Diagrams of panel organization schemes that appeared throughout the strips from 1920. You have the pacing of his language in balloons but, more importantly you have the pacing across his panels. Horizons dip up and down. Panels tuck themselves behind others. Panel sequences exist as objects, embedded in the desert landscape. CW Students: I recommend blocking out the essential shapes and forms of any comics that you enjoy. It’s a good warm up for thinking about structure. Roughly block out panels and black regions. Squint your eyes. Take off your glasses if you wear them. Block out a lot of pages and spreads. This can really help internalize the structures of the works that you love. And that can help you synthesize those things into work of your own that you will love. ————————————————————————————————— The new anthology GOUFFRE from Lagon Revue is now available online from revuelagon.com. Edited and conceived by editors Alexis Beauclair, Bettina Henni, Séverine Bascouert, Sammy Stein & Jean-Philippe Bretin, GOUFFRE combines multiple printing techniques: Silk-screen, Riso printing, and offset printing. A spectacle of daring comics and all out production. Grab yourself a copy and be on the cutting edge of comics. It’s 45€. GOUFFRE stands for polymorphic, plastic comics. The magazine celebrates new perspectives and unique approaches of the medium: Minimal, maximal, without characters, made of sensations, or of emptiness, mute, aesthetic, close to abstraction. You will discover toxic undergrowth, extinguished suburbs, melancholic sci-fi stories, fake magazine covers, modern love relationships and visions of the near future. ————————————————————————————————— Tea and Crumpets Maurice, Son of Noah Pt. 4 by Roman Muradov is up on Hazlett – HERE. You can catch the rest of the story as well – and check out the previous comic series’ published by Hazlett, including the story by Annie Mok and Natalie Andrewson – Straight Expectations. The Will Eisner Hall of Fame 2017 Nominees have been announced. It’s the 100th year since Eisner’s death so the list is a little longer than usual, with four judge-appointed Hall of Fame inductees instead of the usual two, and seventeen names up for the public vote – including the Hernandez Brothers. Check out Tom Spurgeon’s comments on the list HERE. Michael DeForge now has a designated Instagram for his comic series Leaving Richard’s Valley – follow along @richardsvalley. There is an interview with Erik Nebel in Fluide Glacial, the famous French comics magazine. Erik translated an excerpt and shared it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Check out Zona #2, a unique look into Frank Santoro’s process. Full color, 24 pages. Magazine sized. Cardstock covers. Edition of 100. Signed and numbered. Get a copy HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 1-16-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 1-16-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— 1-16-2017 – by Juan Fernández Share this page: [...]

03/26/2018

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

On Reselling Comics

Juan FernándezJune 26, 2018NewsAt Comics Workbook we are testing what it means to be a new kind of learning institution for comic book making. Among the many activities engaged in by Comics Workbook is the selling of comics we publish ourselves and the reselling of comics we have purchased from others. The collecting and reselling of older and out of print comics has been – and continues to be – fundamental to the creation and maintenance of the comics ecosystem through which the medium has advanced and developed over the last half century. This activity laid the groundwork for the creation of the “direct market” for comics, which in turn enabled the establishment of the market for independent, creator-owned and self-published comics that all of us now take for granted and without which Comics Workbook could not exist. We employ a curatorial approach to buying and selling comics. Generally, we comb old mainstream and independent comics offerings wherever we find them – looking for those that contain exemplary work that inform and/or showcase the comics values promulgated here at Comics Workbook. We then display and sell them in a curated fashion, focusing on the work of individual artists – whether they be pencillers, inkers, colorists or, yes, even letterers – and, of course, those artists whose work combine some or all of the aforementioned skills – in order to document the amazing richness and diversity of work in the various comics traditions that it is difficult to successfully parse for the purposes of study without guidance. Among our wares, you’ll find old mainstream and independent comics, rare mini-comics and zines, along with work by contemporary cartoonists and comics makers. When it comes to contemporary work, Comics Workbook often buys comics from individual artists, with the dual intent of both adding the works to the Rowhouse Residency collection and supporting the artists – and small press publishers – from whom we purchase the work. In addition, it is worth noting here that we do not knowingly sell work by contemporary, independent, small press and/or self-published creators that is still readily available from the creator and/or original small press publisher – unless it is by arrangement with said creator or publisher. Otherwise, on those occasions when we resell these works, our intent is to make unavailable works available. Our goal in selling the work of contemporary creators is the same as that of selling older work: to connect comics readers and, particularly, comics makers with works the quality of which we value here at Comics Workbook. On those occasions we choose to resell a comic, we normally sell it at a higher price than paid in order offset the costs involved with maintaining, storing and organizing the collection, as well as the costs associated with connecting readers with these comics, particularly at shows, where set-up costs are often significant, but also online, where listings of individual comics is time consuming and labor intensive. Any profits made over and above these expenses go towards funding our workshops, residency expenses and publishing costs. If you have questions or concerns about our resale policy please address them to Sally Ingraham and Juan Fernandez by emailing sally.ingraham42@gmail.com or fernandez.juan.j@gmail.com Share this page: [...]

11/21/2016

Juan FernándezNovember 21, 2016NewsJuan here with: Recent work by Juan; the Pittsburgh Comics Salon; Moomins across media; CAKE application deadline; Mike Diana’s arrest warrant cleared; QuickDraw; Secret Acres CAB 2016 report; Tillie Walden and Anna Selheim; March and the National Book Award; Santoro School’s Correspondence Course applications. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️What have I been working on? Lots of event planning and strip thumbnailing. I’m getting a little too precious in that process as I build a backlog of ideas to work from before going live so I’ve worked out a way to make fast, loose and spirited comics to be shared through instagram. First take drawing. Doodles while reflecting on a couple of ideas. Through widely available tech, I’m arranging comics on the go. No panels, lots of space, text and image in a free floating tension. I’m using the instagram layout app and then editing the images to have. These are digital ephemera. They are jpegs. I’m making art and I don’t care about the publishability of this in print. It’s more relevant to make the work and distribute it digitally. Follow me over on instagram @juan.jose.fernandez to keep up with whatever comes out of this process. It’s a digital process where only the editing and composing happens digitally. All the drawing is done with pen on paper. Usually Pentel Rolling Writers or Papermate Flair tip pens. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️Just had a session with the Pittsburgh Comics Salon on Saturday at Biddle’s Escape. Warm space, good people. It was good to be together for Pittsburgh’s first snow. I’ve been exhausted these past couple weeks and these gatherings get me through it all. Thanks to the core crew that always comes hungry for comics making I had everyone study, copy and remix some comic books. Jenn Lisa knocked her Multiple Warheads studies out of the ballpark… Top secret exercises. Come to Pittsburgh to find out what’s up. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️My great friend, Jena Tegeler sent me a link to this funny page, Little Gems, that documents all the stop motion animation Moomin television shows via screen caps. The site, Little Gems is brought together by Steve Wright. Lots of different tv shows captured to keep them from fading into memory. I want to focus on The Moomins. 16 episodes have been captured and summarized by screenshots and text. It’s a beautiful thing to see these miniature puppet worlds bring the Moomins to life. Take a look at the one for “The Winter Bonfire”. The Moomins was a stop motion animated children’s television series based on the Tove Jansson’s Moomin series of books. produced by Se-ma-for and Jupiter Film between 1977 and 1982 for Polish, Austrian and German television. Above all, though, it’s funny to me because of how they mirror Tove and Lars Jansson’s strips – distilled through the web from TV episodes based on novella’s. 3 panels tell the story – Comics all the way through… ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️Alright comics peddlers, don’t forget: the exhibitor application for #CAKEChicago2017 is open until November 28th. People make good money out in the Midwest at this show, so try applying! Apply here. NOTE:If you live way out on the East or West coast and haven’t tabled at too many shows in your life as a comics maker, I would discourage you on applying to go so far to Chicago for CAKE. Look more locally and regionally. You’ll reap better rewards from the energies you spend. These things can get stressful and I want to spare you that.Print some comics and share them in your tristate area first ;)————————————————————————————————— ⚡️Good news in the history of free speech in America – the Kickstarter for Mike Diana film raises enough to clear arrest warrant. Does Freedom of Speech mean anything when authorities see only obscenity? Does an artist’s vision matter when community standards conspire to suppress it? In a small town in Florida back in 1994, Mike Diana learned that the answer was a resounding no. Freedom of Speech doesn’t mean anything when your art is declared obscene. And one man’s art could be another man’s obscenity. Diana’s crime? Publishing a hand-made comic zine called Boiled Angel full of graphic, outrageous, often hilarious confrontational art, full of sex and violence, meant to shock and disturb. But it was a zine only sold to adults by mail. With a print run of only 300 copies, Diana’s zine was NEVER available in comic racks or in stores. And only one copy – count ‘em, one! – was ever sold to a customer in Diana’s hometown. And that one customer was an undercover cop! You can get the details on the completed campaign here. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/ This Google Computer is a baby right now but with the right teaching, it’ll know how to decipher your poorly drawn bicycle! I live in Pittsburgh, home of Carnegie Mellon where they run computers round the clock just to build these kinds of neural networks. Go on and try your hand at QuickDraw. It’s fun. I’m always fearful of everything AI related, so this kind of thing scares me, obviously. Nevertheless, this can definitely expand the ways that humans interact in digital environments. Instead of communicating to a database via language abstracted through letters, humans can begin to communicate queries with language abstracted through images. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️the Secret Acres crew reflects on Comic Arts Brooklyn (CAB) 2016. Sean Ford takes the lead in the recap with Leon and Barry. They write about the feeling that I got this year, that because of the circumstances in the lead up to CAB, there was dominance of many exciting, yet relatively unknown cartoonists. I reckon reviewers and buyers will be unpacking much of the work that was on display over this winter… Perhaps due to the late announcement of CAB this year, (and like eighteen competing comic shows happening across the globe that same day), the show missed a few stalwarts like D+Q, Koyama, AdHouse, Fantagraphics and a spiked punch bowl full of eggnog. Who needs the carbs, anyway? Instead, artist tables dominated for once, interspersed with royalty like Charles Burns, Richard McGuire, and Dame Darcy. This left more time and space to find less obvious gems than one might otherwise. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️ Over on the Washington Post, Michael Cavna writes on the breakthrough success of Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell, and Congressman John Lewis’s March. “March: Book Three” is the first graphic novel to win a National Book Award. What a time to be alive. This is a huge achievement for the March team. Michael Cavna writes: “March: Book Three,” the third installment in Rep. John Lewis’s powerful civil rights memoir, received the National Book Award on Wednesday evening in Manhattan. Five times before, a graphic novel had been named a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature — beginning with Gene Luen Yang‘s “American Born Chinese” a decade ago. Yang, now the Library of Congress’s national ambassador for Young People’s Literature (and a 2016 MacArthur grant recipient), repeated that feat three years ago with “Boxers & Saints.” David Small’s “Stitches” and Noelle Stevenson’s “Nimona” also have been finalists. Yet this year, the building achievement that is “March” could not be denied the ultimate prize. ⚡️ And over at the Guardian, they’ve spoken with Congressman Lewis on his thoughts on the win. It’s especially interesting in the context of the emboldening that racists and misogynists have gotten through the recent election. Congressman Lewis speaks of hope: “I never lost faith, because for every racist idea there was an anti-racist idea,” said the author. “For every killer of the mind there was a lifesaver of the mind. And in the midst of the human ugliness of racism there is the human beauty in the resistance to racism. That is why I have faith. And I’ll never lose my faith that you and I can create an anti-racist America … where black lives matter.” ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️“Novel Graphics” Over on NPR Glen Weldon talks to himself about the usefulness of the term “graphic novel”. Wanting to strike a faux-populist contrarian note about the whole the graphic novel, comics, sequential art taxonomy it comes off as a dizzying bore. As you’ll likely be talking about this great achievement of the March team with grandma and auntie over your turkey when avoiding discussing politics, someone’s going to bring up their confusion over what constititues a comic vs. a graphic novel. Maybe this article will help? Fundamentally, though, only new forms of comics will be able to continue to express the continuum of what comics are and aren’t. The question isnt anymore “how” to make comics or what to call them but what to do with them. For what it’s worth as a bookseller, terms like comic book, trade paperback and graphic novel are all very useful to help understand what people are looking for. And in this world, that money is key. It’s how commodity art forms survive. For what it’s worth, here’s a little throwback from The Comics Journal for flavor. “GROTH: Let me ask you something that was nagging at me. It’s A Good Life is subtitled a “A Picture Novella.” Which seemed like a very self-conscious effort to put a tag on it. SETH: Yeah, it is a pretty self-conscious effort. I very consciously tried to come up with an antiquated-sounding term. I went through a couple of the normal varieties of labels. “A picture story,” or I could have just put “a comic book,” which crossed my mind. It goes without saying that I didn’t want to use the term graphic novel. I just don’t like that term.” – Gary Groth, “Seth,” The Comics Journal 193 (1997) ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️You might remember this comic about Tillie Walden and Anna Selheim‘s experiences at Planned Parenthood. I shared it with you all a while back, when they made it. They are now selling physical copies of this comic for $6, and all proceeds will go to Planned Parenthood. If you want it or if you’re just willing to spread the word, I’m sure they’d appreciate it. You can paypal $6 to Anna Selheim at bighappyjet@gmail.com. You can read the whole thing here: http://tinyurl.com/hwbozlw . ————————————————————————————————— ⚡️Comics Workbook has announced the Winter Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers – course starts Dec. 29th 2016! 8 week course – 500 bux – 10 spots available – apply by Dec. 13th 2016 and get $100 off course fee! Email santoroschoolATgmail for more details. Santoro School Application guidelines: -3 figure drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards -3 landscape drawings done on blank 3 x 5 index cards -3 still life drawings done on blank 3 x 5 cards -draw in a contour line style – Think Matisse – no under-drawing – draw directly in ink -just send small jpgs of images – dont post to your blog pls -specific url links to any comics work you have done. Send applications to: santoroschoolATgmail ————————————————————————————————— until next time 😉 juan Share this page: [...]

11/26/2018

Caleb OrecchioNovember 26, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with the newest Love and Rockets release. ————————————————————————————————— Los Bros’ latest issue of Love and Rockets is here. Volume 4, No. 6 (or, as the front-page editorial notes, no. 84 overall). Each new release of L&R is an event in my house. Every issue to my estimation is worth its own weight in gold. Usually a satisfying 35 to 45 minute read. Pure joy. I don’t have much to say about the issue that wouldn’t reiterate what I’ve wrote about Gilbert and Jaime before. I simply see each issue as required reading. Although, I have to say, I am hit with the reality that, with the more cartoonists I meet, not everyone is reading the series religiously (!). Actually, I certainly understand why many don’t read it. For one, the long history and continuity of the title can be extremely daunting. For two, well, I will not show my hand but rather assume that everyone has their reasons. Regardless, this comic is the cornerstone of the alt-comics movement. Without L&R, there is no Fantaraphics as we know it today. Period. Something else I have noticed is that, due to the lack of cartoonists reading L&R, particularly the books from this millennium, cartoonists kind of “pretend” to read it. “Yes yes of course Love and Rockets is important. Yes I love Hopey. And uh Glory. Right? Jaime was really nice to me when I met him.” This is just a theory, but I think cartoonists love to say they read L&R like they love to say they never read Building Stories. There is pride in both. As if reading long, difficult works is something they are above. These are just some thoughts I had while reading the new issue of Love and Rockets. Cheers! ————————————————————————————————— Cement Mixer – 11-26-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Duets with Frank

Posted on January 27, 2016May 2, 2016 by Chris Anthony Diaz

All Photos by Chris Anthony Diaz and colored by Graham Willcox.

THEE chronicler of north american small press comics.

2016-01-26_08-06-39 — with Dan Clowes – CAB 2015

24468338730_f1ac135a94_b — with Aidan Koch and Ron Wimberly – CAB 2015

24468332310_518ef55773_b — with Tom Kaczynski – CAB 2015

00B — with Noah Van Sciver and Gregory Benton – CAB 2015

002 — with Grant Gronewold, a.k.a. HTML Flowers – CAB 2015

009 — with Tom Oldham of Breakdown Press – CAB 2015

011 — with Jason Leivian of Floating World – CAB 2015

00H_NotColoredByGraham — with Lala Albert – TCAF 2014

00F — with Ben Marra – TCAF 2014 – note Kevin Huizenga in background

00I — with Simon Hanselmann – CAB 2013 – this is actually minutes after we meet for first time in person

Share this page:

Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in The Diaz ArchiveTagged Chris Diaz

Chris Anthony Diaz

Posted on January 27, 2016May 2, 2016

Explore

05/16/2017

Aaron CockleMay 16, 2017NewsLATE EDITION: TCAF NOTES As promised, here are some notes and pictures RE: TCAF 2017. I’ll return to my usual posting structure next week, highlighting the ins-and-outs and comings-and-goings within and without the comics community, as well as some more expansive thoughts about TCAF. ————————————————————————————————— Some Books of Note I purchased/traded for a bunch of work, some notables are shown above. Tommi Parrish did the ONESTEPINSIDEDOESNTMEANYOUUNDERSTAND book. Not pictured is the 5th issue of the always-excellent Pope Hats, by Ethan Rilly, which was the first and only book I needed to read as soon as I got the chance. Still working through the stack, there was so much great and beautiful work on display at the show. ————————————————————————————————— Tom Spurgeon’s Recapitulation Over at the Comics Reporter, Spurgeon looks at the show, including some notes on the Sammy Harkham/Kevin Huizenga talk about the past and current state of comics distro-ing: Kevin Huizenga and Sammy Harkham presented on the distributions system as it has an effect on their recent attempts to self-publish. Kevin Huizenga provided a history of distributors — including his own USS Catastrophe effort — that may not have been aces in terms of getting books out there but were deeply personally meaningful for him at the time. Harkham went on an interesting mini-rant about how crowd-funders interfere with his conception of how the artist/audience relationship best works. I like both of those guys a lot and appreciate their seriousness about the comics they made, and thus enjoyed every second of that panel. In an after-panel conversation, Huizenga noted to me how one problem with doing things to help the small-press end things is that there are SO MANY cartoonists that they often bury any such attempts without meaning to. That helped me clarify some thinking I had on industry reform. Huizenga is a smart man and scrambles to points of perspective as well as anyone I’ve ever known, so it’s always great to talk to him. ————————————————————————————————— Random Cellphone Pics ————————————————————————————————— Economies of Scale Something Something There is a part of this work (cartooning, comics, these shows that we attend) that is in a way absurdly, almost aggressively anti-capitalist, while at the same time fitting safely and snuggly within a traditional capitalist framework. I was thinking about this a lot over the weekend, based on what came up in that Harkham/Huizenga talk, as well as some conversations I had with other people/cartoonists, and time spent sitting at my table ruminating. I need to better formulate all of this, obviously, and do some math before going into it more extensively, but these are the thoughts that plague me during these 2-day shows. ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— AM EDITION: Aaron here today with sincere apologies. Please bear with me, I was at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this past weekend, and my flight was delayed Monday evening coming back to NYC, where upon arrival I found that there were extensive (and fairly impressive, actually) traffic delays going out of the airport due to construction. I’ll have some quick notes about TCAF later today, so please check back, and I’ll take a closer look at the show in my post next week. Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read this newsblog and supporting the work we’re doing here at Comics Workbook. ————————————————————————————————— Announcing the Summer Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers! 8 weeks! 500 bux! Payment plans are available! Summer Course starts June 1st 2017! Applications are due by May 25th. Visit THIS page for more details and email santoroschool@gmail.com with applications and questions! ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 5-16-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-16-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

04/04/2018

Juan FernándezApril 4, 2018los Cómics / NewsRaquel Echenique, Jim Puk, y un poquito sobre El Fruto Prohibido! —————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ en Español y “sometimes in English” ~ Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo tienen una nueva edicion de La Polola Podcast! Las chicas conversan con Raquel Echenique acerca de sus influencias, el lugar en donde pasó su infancia, su trabajo, muestran sus referentes, hablan de su amor por el cómic y se Echenique confiesa como rabiosa, entre muchas otras cosas. ————————————————————————————————— Entrevista a Ghor Bosch (2015) – dibujado por Pablo Delcielo – publicado en Buenos Aires por Yegua ediciones. Este comic es parte de una serie de entrevistas imaginiarias, que son bastante graciosas y serias con Ghor Bosch aunque. Léanlo AQUI. ————————————————————————————————— Caricaturista colombiano ‘Matador’ deja de usar redes sociales por amenazas de muerte Julio César González, más conocido como ‘Matador’ por sus caricaturas en el diario El Tiempo, anunció en la madrugada de este martes su retiro de las redes sociales, después de haber estado en el ojo del huracán durante varias semanas luego de haber personificado al candidato uribista, Iván Duque, como un cerdo en varias de sus publicaciones. Aunque hace menos de dos semanas la Jueza Hilda María Saffon negó una tutela interpuesta contra el caricaturista por el dibujo titulado ‘Duque reflexiona’, argumentando que “la creatividad e ingenio del caricaturista no debe limitarse por quienes no comparten su opinión”, los simpatizantes del Centro Democrático y el expresidente Uribe no han cesado de expresarle su descontento con insultos y agresiones en medio de la contienda electoral. Léanlo todo en El Espectador ————————————————————————————————— Jim Pluk – @jimpluk Estaré publicando en las historias de mi Instagram ( @jimpluk ) algunos cómics de autores contemporáneos que recomiendo personalmente, por si quieren indagar más sobre estos, tanto Colombianos como extranjeros. Estos posts estarán bajo el hashtag #leacomix y #hagacomix ————————————————————————————————— Por qué lo llaman vagina cuando quieren decir vulva – Elizabeth Casillas Puede que sea uno de los tebeos más controvertidos que vayas a leer este año, y no precisamente por decir sandeces. La historietista sueca Liv Strömquist firma El fruto prohibido (Reservoir Books, 2018), un cómic que repasa la historia cultural de la vulva con argumentación teórica pero, sobre todo, mucho humor. Anuncios de compresas o tampones que recurren, en exceso, a las palabras “limpia” y “segura”. Señores que se preocupan, en exceso, de lo que suele denominarse «el órgano sexual femenino». Autoridades, organizaciones, periódicos, médicos y demás organismos empeñados, en exceso, de producir (des)información sobre el sexo. Y así sucesivamente, Liv Strömquist termina enumerando una serie de cosas que están mal (muy mal) en nuestra sociedad en lo que a la mujer y su sexo se refiere. Léanlo todo en REVISTA CACTUS ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-4-2018 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-4-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

07/09/2018

Caleb OrecchioJuly 9, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with brief thoughts on Steve Ditko, and other news! ————————————————————————————————— You’ve probably heard by now that Steve Ditko has passed away. Thee great Steve Ditko. I’ve been going through my annual Ditko obsession these past few months which makes his passing all the more surprising. For a while, I’d figured he’d live forever–and he will, being survived by his work. Often, I can’t decide if I’m more in awe of his strange imagination, his incredible storytelling chops, his amazing formalistic skills or his unstoppable work ethic. Ditko is a true inspiration to cartoonists, or at least to this cartoonist. I could go on and on, but am wary of adding to the noise. “What can be said that hasn’t been said before?” I’ve already written multiple columns about Ditko’s work and will continue to do so, so I’ll not exhaust my praise and admiration here. I constantly find new challenges as a cartoonist, formalistically and idealistically, in Ditko’s work. I am constantly blown away by the man’s innumerable innovations. I am sure he is on the Astral Plane, navigating the cosmos with the other long-lost comic book greats. Or maybe not. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d spend the afterlife working in isolation, and mastering his art as he did in this life. Below are three of my favorite Ditko spreads lately. Two of which I’ve written about on this site. ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————— if you don’t know, now you know Michael Dean has written an obituary for Ditko over at TCJ.com. Also on TCJ.com, an obituary for Harlan Ellison (also by Dean), along with the infamous 1979 Comics Journal interview with Gary Groth. In case you are curious what The Comics Reporter’s latest Five For Friday was… Scott Cederlund on Young Frances by Hartley Lin at Panel Patter. Robin McConnell has read some comics recently, and talked to Mariko Tamaki. Finally, on TCJ’s latest installment of Retail Therapy, we get a look at Mission Comics. Share this page: [...]

07/21/2017

Sally IngrahamJuly 21, 2017NewsSally here with Rachel Masilamani live from Pittsburgh, PA; Sophie Yanow saying “No!”; Florida witches at large thanks to Vanesa R. Del Rey and Jordie Bellaire; and much more. —————————————————————————————————— The Pittsburgh Comic Salon had the great pleasure of hosting Rachel Masilamani last night at the ToonSeum. She has been making comics since 1997 and has a veritable constellation of work in print and online publications, as well as a number of self published works. Her first comics collection – RPM Comics #1 – received a grant from the Xeric Foundation. Her ongoing graphic novel project – Non Partum – appears on MUTHA Magazine in installments. Her most recent pieces are the powerful Battleground, which was part of Illustrated PEN’s series “State of Emergency”, and Who Does He Favor? from this month on the LA Review of Books. Rachel spoke eloquently about how she uses comics to control and contextualize her experiences and memories, how “lies” illuminate the truth, and her belief in the power of making good art. She relates to Lynda Barry’s term “autobiofictionography” and names her as a main source of inspiration. Rachel pushed through her first successes and then bitter disappointments with the realty of making comics (and not making a living) and now 20 years into the game she is confident in her work and herself, and is excited about the medium. It was wonderful to hear her speak, and to see her address a crowd of mostly women last night. Sharing our work and experiences this way is more important than ever. Check out more of Rachel’s work HERE. Read Juan Fernandez’s discussion of Rachel’s foundational work HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Sophie Yanow has captured the constant struggle of many artists to maintain their space to make their work – and turned that “NO” (so often combined with wracking guilt and anxiety) into something glorious. Thank you Sophie! This comic should go above everyone’s desk – and she has made it available as a “pay what you want” downloadable PDF so get your copy HERE asap! —————————————————————————————————— Vanesa R. Del Rey and Jordie Bellaire talk Redlands over on Multiversity Comics in anticipation of the upcoming release of #1 (August 9th). I can’t wait for this comic, which will mix small town Florida with fed up witches, hopefully with wicked and wonderful results. Alice Castle interviewed the two makers about the work: “The idea of using witches as the protagonists in “Redlands” is fascinating to me. Witches have usually been cast as figures of impurity; the kind of women who refuse to adhere to patriarchal society. What was it that drew you to this idea? What made witches the right pick for this story? Jordie Bellaire: Women and the archetypes of crones, witches, succubi, etc go hand-in-hand. If women were sexually liberated, educated or sought knowledge or were generally unfettered by whatever social construct was pushed upon them at the time, they were written about as evil, dark and inhuman. This was in an effort to push women down and make them seem as if they were against not only men, but against god as well. It dates back to the story of Adam and Eve. This is a compelling trope that I wanted to dive into it as I think it has really set the tone for how women are seen in our culture and in our media. Women have been taking back the idea of being a witch or she-devil and owning it. The women in my story are unapologetic, flawed but liberated and real. Vanesa, you’ve dabbled in the world of horror comics before with “The Empty Man,” which was where I first discovered your artwork. “Redlands,” from what I’ve seen, seems even more somber and atmospheric. How would you describe your approach to this series? Vanesa R. Del Rey: The visual tone for the series is inspired by turn of the 19th-century illustration and printmaking, mainly. But I was also visiting Goya’s etching works which are pretty dark in terms of the commentary he made with the work as well as the imagery he used. I thought a hatching technique would be appropriate to illustrate the uneasiness, distress and anxiety in this land we have created. It’s also very classical, with attention to details and line weight…. I’m playing with the energy of the line to express a feeling in all ways. Things in “Redlands” are very strange and confusing, much like the place from which we are taking inspiration, Florida; it’s beautiful and colorful, but dark and unsettling too.“ Read the rest of the interview HERE and get ye to a comics shoppe on August 9th to grab your copy of Redlands #1! —————————————————————————————————— Working the Circuit Karen Berger announces the lineup of her new publishing imprint, Berger Books – Vulture has the details HERE. Katie Skelly was on Inkstuds recently, interviewed by guest host Joe McCulloch – listen HERE. Over on Comics Alternative Interviews Andy and Derek spoke with Gabrielle Bell about Everything is Flammable – HERE. Nicola Scott wades into the whys of how she’s drawing Wonder Woman for W Magazine – read the interview HERE. If you’re in the San Francisco area join Nicole J. Georges for an evening and celebrate the release of her new book Fetch on July 21st – part of the Comics in the City speaker series at California College of the Arts – details HERE. —————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 7-21-2017 – by Gabriella Tito —————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-21-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/19/2017

Juan FernándezApril 19, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con fanzine alacarta!; Chicks On Comicks; Berliac; Albert Monteys; Liniers; Pablo Selin; Mariana, a miserável; y los tebeos de Comics Workbook. ————————————————————————————————— Dibujos en femenino plural – El PAÍS os ofrece una toma sobre el mundo del cómic dibujado por mujeres. Más que nada, el enfásis es en la pluralidad de perspectivas. Las protagonistas de autoras como Gina Wybrandt, Flavita Banana, Raquel Riba, Monstruo Espagueti, Meritxell Bosch, Hardcore maternity… no son las mujeres hipersexualizadas de algunos cómics. Tienen vello, sus curvas son imperfectas, andan semidesnudas por su casa, tienen la regla y la sangre mancha (que parece que es un tabú), practican sexo o no lo practican y se quejan por ello… “Reflejo la normalidad”, dice Flavita Banana, que, como las demás, se inspira mirando alrededor. Todas tienen un toque desenfadado, irónico. Cada una en su línea pero con el humor muy presente y, a veces, con un punto de mala leche, de hacer que lo que cuentan sea una sacudida, que levante algunas ampollas. A pesar de que hay algunos temas como el de la bulimia que se trata en Yo, gorda, o el cáncer de mama, del que habla Jennifer Hayden en La historia de mis tetas (Reservoir Books), que son más femeninos porque por suerte para los hombres ellos sufren en un porcentaje mínimo estas enfermedades, cualquiera se puede sentir identificado con, por ejemplo, Lola Vendetta y la idea de hacer rodar cabezas (metafóricamente) cuando algo resulta desesperante. Y de esta empatía, al éxito. ————————————————————————————————— Inmersate en el mundo Ernesto Franco, el dibujante colombiana que creó ‘Copetín’, la tira cómica que esta semana cumple 55 años, con este tronco de perfil en EL TIEMPO. Una mañana de abril de 1962, un artista sin dinero y sin trabajo decidió probar suerte llevando unos dibujos al tradicional edificio de EL TIEMPO, en la avenida Jiménez con carrera 7.ª. Había cumplido 33 años y cargaba a cuestas varias quiebras económicas. Pero tenía una idea. Y esa idea cambió la vida del artista: Ernesto Franco. ————————————————————————————————— Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: fanzine alacarta! La segunda seccion de la nueva edicion de Panorama Federal sección esta dedicada a las historietas en una publicación muy especial realizada por 151 artistas, bajo la coordinación del colectivo Chicks On Comicks. “Arte” es el título de el fanzine gratuito que se distribuyó en la muestra que se realizó en la Fundación Proa. Dale un vistazo! Berliac‘s got some new comics on Vice – Asian Food Store Junkies – S01 E06 The fracas gets international… The Funny Pages, un extra de Orgullo y Satisfacción La historia de los cómics está trufada de maravillas olvidadas que pasaron desapercibidas en todo tipo de revistas y catálogos. Durante décadas, Albert Monteys ha estado recopilando y clasificando meticulosamente estos residuos de narrativa gráfica olvidados por el tiempo que ahora se presentan Audioentrevista con ilustrador Liniers – es Pura Mestiza nº3. Pablo Selin nos trae una hola de cómics nuevos en su sitio! Dale a los que se mueven! Perfil de fanzinera, Mariana, a miserável en la Revista Cactus – Con un estilo fresco y desenfadado, la artista portuguesa Mariana, a miserável muestra las escenas cotidianas de la vida a través de unas ilustraciones con regusto agridulce. Un golpe de realidad al dia. ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 4-19-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-19-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-19-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply