Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in The Diaz ArchiveTagged 1954, Alfred Hitchcock, Illustrated Moments in Cinema/Television, Jimmy Stewart, L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries, Rear Window, Tim Hensley

Chris Anthony Diaz

Posted on May 27, 2016June 15, 2016

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01/09/2018

Aaron CockleJanuary 8, 2018NewsAaron here today with an Art from Guantánamo Bay Update; Comic Book Heroes of Taiwan; Austin English on the End of Krazy Kat (and Superman Comics); More Machine Learning ————————————————————————————————— Ode to the Sea An update regarding the Art from Guantánamo Bay post from a few weeks back, via Patricia Mastricolo at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: Fortnunately, the Pentagon is backing off its previous threat of incinerating art by the Guantánamo Bay detainees. Unfortunately, they still maintain all of it is the property of the U.S. military and will not be permitted to leave the prison. … The exhibit is free and open to the public and runs through January 26, 2018, at Haren Hall (899 10th Avenue at 59th Street, on the 6th floor in the President’s Gallery, New York City). The exhibit is open Monday to Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (except January 15). ————————————————————————————————— Taiwan’s comic book heroes Via the BBC: Hsu Mao-sung, one of Taiwan’s earliest comic book artists, says it may be too late to save the industry. His generation endured censorship during the martial law period from the 1960s to 80s, but he says it didn’t kill off his passion for drawing. ————————————————————————————————— Anything But Reality At TCJ, Austin English takes a long look at some comics from the 1940s-1960s: The strip that follows is June 11th, with the stick now re-purposed to prop up the scarecrow. So, the final interactions of Krazy Kat and Ignatz map out like this: Ignatz tricks Krazy into getting hit by a brick toppling from a growing tree, Ignatz passingly confuses Krazy about oak trees vs. olive trees, Ignatz works to transform a weasel’s color in an issue whose subtleties are (seemingly) obscure to Krazy and finally Ignatz’ brick is discovered with a stick from Offisa Pup while Ignatz writhes in agony, his body beneath ground. After these events, the scarecrow emerges and Ignatz discards his brick. For a brief moment the strip is silent and empty. … The tone of the line defined itself in 1958, partly by a constraint that the comics world imposed on itself. Physical violence, while not banned by the comics code, was to be avoided. So Weisinger took a line of superhero comics and instead of emphasizing brawn, made them into intricate puzzles. Now, these are not puzzles that use the unreliable world as one of its factors in the way a Raymond Chandler novel might. Instead, every story has no relation to anything real (except basic outlines of things like ‘I have a job at a newspaper’ or ‘humans need to eat food to survive’ or ‘ice is cold’)—the comic book world of Superman itself is the only thing the stories use to set up their questions and render solutions. These are mysteries whose only logic is cartooning, and I’d argue that they are more beautiful as science fiction than anything EC ever published. ————————————————————————————————— Adversarial Patch An update from the machine learning front, via Boing Boing: Another key difference here: the researchers achieve their best results using a “white box” technique where they get to design their patches through detailed knowledge of the AI they’re targeting, unlike other adversarial preturbations, which achieved good results with “black box” constraints (designing attacks without any technical knowledge of the AI). The patches they created didn’t work very well on other AI image classifiers. We show that we can generate a universal, robust, targeted patch that fools classifiers regardless of the scale or location of the patch, and does not require knowledge of the other items in the scene that it is attacking. Our attack works in the real world, and can be disguised as an innocuous sticker. These results demonstrate an attack that could be created offline, and then broadly shared. There has been substantial work on defending against small perturbations to natural images, at least partially motivated by security concerns Part of the motivation of this work is that potential malicious attackers may not be concerned with generating small or imperceptible perturbations to a natural image, but may instead opt for larger more effective but noticeable perturbations to the input – especially if a model has been designed to resist small perturbations. Many ML models operate without human validation of every input and thus malicious attackers may not be concerned with the imperceptibility of their attacks. Even if humans are able to notice these patches, they may not understand the intent of the patch and instead view it as a form of art. This work shows that focusing only on defending against small perturbations is insufficient, as large, local perturbations can also break classifiers. ————————————————————————————————— The Winter Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts January 16th 2018! 8 weeks – 500 bux – coaching for as long as you need. The course is hard, but Frank will push your comics making practice to a new level, getting you to think about timing and color in new ways. His experience and ideas have influenced the likes of Connor Willumsen, Michael DeForge, and Simon Hanselmann (quote “I consider Frank Santoro to be my L. Ron Hubbard”) among many others. Dig into something new in the new year! Full details and how to apply can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 1-9-2018 – by Cameron Arthur Share this page: [...]

05/23/2017

Aaron CockleMay 22, 2017NewsAaron Cockle here today with Roz Chast (and Françoise Mouly); Pan Terzis; Graphic Medicine; Florine Stettheimer; Maggie Umber; Dieter Lumpen ————————————————————————————————— ‘I like taking on complicated, detailed projects, especially if I’m not a hundred-per-cent sure how they’re going to turn out.’ Françoise Mouly looks at the wonderful embroidered piece Roz Chast made for the May 15, 2017 issue of the New Yorker, including an animation of the process that went into making the cover. ————————————————————————————————— ‘Each issue has a secret formula that I have to discover. ‘ Frank Santoro continues his survey of recent developments in Art Comics Risography – this week he talks with Pan Terzis: People want to show up. They want to look at your thing in person, hold it in their hands. They want to talk to others in person about it and look at it at their own pace, without the publisher or distributor knowing how long they spent lingering on a page or whether they got to the end of the book in the same time as 76.3% of other consumers. All of this activity is still happening in the context of capitalist systems of production, supply and demand and distribution, but I think that people who work with this kind of cultural ephemera must know on some level that the real art is what happens in between the object and the viewer, and the consumer of that piece of art and the person they describe it to. It’s inherently a social act, and this can manifest through all stages of the process. People-power is what drives this activity, and just like a blade of grass can slowly destroy a piece of concrete given enough time to push to the surface, I think DIY culture might be the key to breaking out of the mechanistic, algorithm driven nightmare that our tech overlords are driving us towards. ————————————————————————————————— SAVE THE DATE: 2017 Comics & Medicine Conference: Access Points June 15-17, 2017, Seattle Public Library Central Branch ————————————————————————————————— Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry The artist Florine Stettheimer (1871–1944) is an icon of Jazz Age New York. Born to a wealthy Jewish family in Rochester, she studied at the Art Students League in New York City and then in Europe, where she encountered two profound influences: the Symbolist painters and poets and, on the eve of the Great War, the Ballets Russes. Returning to Manhattan, she hosted an elite salon together with her sisters Carrie and Ettie and their mother, Rosetta, attracting many of the leading lights of the artistic vanguard. Her circle included Alfred Stieglitz, Carl Van Vechten, Georgia O’Keeffe, Elie Nadelman, Gaston Lachaise, and many others. Among her intimate friends was Marcel Duchamp. Through over 50 paintings and drawings, a selection of costume and theater designs, photographs and ephemera, as well as critically acclaimed poems, the Jewish Museum will offer a timely reconsideration of this important American artist, revealing Stettheimer’s singular and often satiric vision and significant role in American modern art. The exhibition highlights the artist’s distinctly personal style of painting, Stettheimer’s position amidst New York’s artistic elite and avant-gardes, and her continued influence on artistic practice today. May 5-September 24 at the Jewish Museum, 1109 5th Ave at 92nd St, NYC. ————————————————————————————————— 2dcloud in Toronto Maggie Umber has a nice photo-recap of the TCAF show: Some of my favorite 2dcloud convention moments – talking with Carta’s wife Emily about our shared adoration of Junji Ito and Emily Carroll. @cartamonir letting me read Ghost Call on her phone since my Tumblr app never let me read the end last Halloween. Meeting @tommipg and watching them embroider a beautiful panel, meeting @goodcomicsbykim and being astonished by her energy and exhaustion, her humor and her seriousness. Blaise rearranging the 2dcloud table into a better format that sold more books. Juliacks casual yet persistent (and very successful) sales style and her gorgeous book trailer. I was also very excited to meet @artbl0g Xia Gordon when we did a panel together. 2dcloud is publishing a mini-comic with her soon!!!!!! ————————————————————————————————— ‘To be sure, these are the adventures of a white European wandering through the wreckage of a post-war world.’ Lastly, RM Rhodes looks at The Adventures of Dieter Lumpen, by Jorge Zentner and Ruben Pellejero: Pellejero uses color and a confident line to build on top of a very solid foundation. The real appeal of the series are the settings. The premise is that shortly after the war, a German named Dieter Lumpen gets a job as a chauffeur and the first page of the first story finds him being chased through an Istanbul market by a man with a gun. From there, he travels to the Agean, Haifa, India, Sri Lanka, Paris, Manaus, Tunisia and the Caribbean. The appeal of these destinations is Pellejero’s ability to render them almost like a documentary film maker, matter of fact about amazing sights, which adds verisimilitude. The amount of detail on each page means that every time you return to a page, you notice something new. And the stories are very rereadable. ————————————————————————————————— 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 – 5-23-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 5-23-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

03/22/2017

Juan FernándezMarch 21, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el dia con Francisca Alcalde y el Maps Zine; Josep Coll; Vanesa R. Del Rey; Inés Estrada; Isabel Bas; Dos Payadores de Vicho Plaza; Revista Cactus 22; La Caja; Space Riders; y los tebeos del dia! ————————————————————————————————— Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Javiera Tapia comparte un poco sobre Francisca Alcalde de Maps Zine en Es Mi Fiesta Magazine. Francisca Alcalde es diseñadora gráfica y es la creadora de Maps, un fanzine dedicado a abordar historias y retratar el imaginario de las madres adolescentes. LOVE AND ROCKETS: Punk Flyers by Los Bros Hernandez. Jaime and Beto’s enthusiasm for local punk bands led the two of them to design the occasional flyer for acts like Fear, Dr. Know, Youth Brigade, and Angelic Upstarts. Check it out over on Dangerous Minds. Iconos que definieron al histórico TBO: los Inventos del TBO, la Familia Ulises y Josep Coll. Pablo Vicente nos ilumina la vida creativa de Josep Coll. Vanesa R. Del Rey takes off the crown and puts on the professor’s cap this summer. She’ll be instructing during week 3 of the Illustration Academy’s summer program with the likes of Sterling Hundley, John English, and George Pratt! Want to learn from comics royalty? Sign up today. You can now read all of Inés Estrada‘s road trip diary comics on her blog! Soak them up and get inspired. Live the adventure. Draw the adventure. “Señoras del TBO. ¿Las hubo?” Sí, e Isabel Bas (con ‘Ana Emilia y su familia’) fue la que durante más tiempo dibujó para la cabecera. Elisa McCausland entrevista para el especial TBO de @TEBEOSFERA a Isabel Bas Amat, autora de Ana Emilia y su familia. ————————————————————————————————— El gran Vicho Plaza está publicando una serie costumbrista en su blog. Pueden léer la serie Dos Payadores entera AQUI. Da te prisa! ————————————————————————————————— El nuevo número de Revista Cactus ha llegado. La freelance que ocupa nuestra portada, fumando compulsivamente y alimentándose a base de pizza, como cualquier autónomo que se precie, es obra de Mariana, a miserável. La ilustradora portuguesa capta perfectamente en sus dibujos melancólicos la miseria a la que alude su nombre artístico. Su tocaya, la escritora argentina Mariana Enriquez, en cambio, es experta en mostrar lo inquietante y lo abyecto, como deja patente en su colección de relatos Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego. La texana Merritt Tierce también escribe, pero ella prefiere la autoficción, que le permite narrar su experiencia como madre adolescente y camarera que utiliza el sexo como herramienta de castigo y las drogas como vía de escape. Con una perspectiva similar, la nigeriana Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ha recogido en un breve ensayo titulado Querida Ijeawele. Cómo educar en el feminismo varias ideas para inculcar esos valores a una hija (o hijo) desde el respeto, la tolerancia y la empatía. Esos conceptos les vendrían muy bien a muchos directores de ciencia ficción que en su cine han disfrazado su trauma con la sexualidad femenina como si fuera el villano de la función, de los que también hablamos. Aplaudimos el regreso del dibujante David Sánchez, tras cinco años de espera, con Un millón de años, un cómic en el que lo divino y lo animal se entretejen para formar un relato perturbador. La protagonista de Crudo también tiene una parte animal. La ópera prima de la francesa Julia Ducournau cuenta la historia de una frágil jovencita vegetariana estudiante de veterinaria que se hace caníbal. Los Ganglios, más que de pulled pork, son de música-porc. El grupo de Badajoz, famoso por sus letras delirantes y vídeos absurdos, publicó su último disco el año pasado, donde tienen un himno que les define: ¡Soy extremeño. Tengo derechos! Léela nueva edicion AQUI. ————————————————————————————————— LA CAJA es una iniciativa del Colectivo El Globoscopio en complicidad con el espacio artístico Maleza proyectos. Se trata de un festival anual enfocado en propiciar el diálogo y la colaboración horizontal entre los actores del campo de la gráfica en Bogotá. Incluye actividades como una feria de artículos y publicaciones, charlas y presentación de artistas, y clínicas de proyectos, entre otras. Más información en nuestra página de facebook. Apúntate! ————————————————————————————————— All new Space Riders!!! March 29!!! Coming at you full force via Blackmask Studio’s dynamic duo, Fabian Rangel Jr, Alexis Ziritt. Want to get your hands on this high voltage galactic transmission? Find your local comic shop using Comic Shop Locator or if you don’t have a local spot because you live on the moon, here’s more options: Black Mask Store + ComiXology. ————————————————————————————————— La gran Vanesa R. Del Rey le ha dado permiso a Comics Workbook para publicar unas selecciónes de sus cuadernos de bocetos. Hemos diseñado esta publicación para que parezca uno de esos libros de de artistas los años 80. Arte y Entrevista. El texto es una transcripción de la entrevista que hicimos con Vanesa cuando visito la Residencia Rowhouse en 2016. Vanesa es un artista impresionante y inigualable. Frank Santoro, el director de Comics Workbook, nos cuenta un poquito sobre sus experiencias con Vanesa: Me encontré por primera vez con VRDR en un festival de cómics en Toronto (TCAF) en 2014. Había empezado a hacer comics profesionalmente después de un período como un animadora. Fui Sorprendido por su la capacidad de ser como un camaleón de cambiar de estilos, y por su puesto le pedí ver más de sus obras. Desenterró pilas de cuadernos de dibujos de sus días en Cuba, cuando estudiaba el realismo soviético y de trabajaba con George Pratt, maestro de cómics pintados. La educación de Vanesa como artista hace el balance suavemente entre los niveles alto y bajo del arte, así como los valores estéticos del este y el oeste. Es una base asombrosa. Ella es, a la vez, consciente de la historia del arte, la historia de los cómics y la historia de la animación de una manera NUEVA que casi parecía imposible hace quince o veinte años. Debo admitir como un estudiante y fan de cómics que se enfocan en la mezcla de “alto y bajo” y en ” los cómics pintados” — Nunca he visto tal mezcla de habilidades al nivel de VRDR. Feroz. Imparable. Un competidor feroz. Michael Jordan-esque? ¿Es eso posible en la fabricación de cómic? Siempre he dicho que habría un “invasor vertical” en los cómics que podría emplear el “naturalismo” de la escuela de Noel Sickles / Alex Toth pero que podría pintar como una Alice Neel o una Jenny Saville. Creo que “el invasor” ha llegado en forma de Vanesa R. Del Rey. Puedes comprar tu copia AQUI. Sigan a Vanesa por Instagram – @vrdelrey – y http://vrdelrey.com/ ————————————————————————————————— Blinkers – 3-22-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-22-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-22-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

06/04/2018

Caleb OrecchioJune 3, 2018NewsCaleb Orecchio here with thoughts on Ben Sear’s latest Double+ Adventure, Ideal Copy. ————————————————————— Often people will compare Ben Sears’ Double+ stories to comics like Tintin or Dragon Ball, and I could even make a convincing comparison to Miyazaki’s first feature Castle of Cagliostro with this new installment; but I see a true spaghetti western influence in Ben’s work. The heroes are treasure hunters not “bounty killers,” but they bring in bad guys for cash. The “sidekick” Hank may be a robot, but is as vital to Plus Man as a horse is to any drifter roaming the American West by way of Italian sets and Spanish locations. There’s a character that is introduced in the new book, Ideal Copy (published be the great Koyama Press), that really gives off a Lee Van Cleef in Death Rides a Horse vibe (the old, reticent veteran with a score to settle). I enjoy all of Ben’s work, but Ideal Copy was a particularly fun issue for me. The story moves along at a pleasurably steady pace. Read. Laugh. Turn the page. Repeat. I think the way the author builds objects within his world interestingly plays a part in this seamless rhythm. It is as if everything is made of thick, malleable Legos that can be rearranged to make anything. Everything has this chunky, charming structure and the designs throughout the book don’t deviate from this visual idea. For example, there are no sleek, chrome muscle cars next to bulky cube-based cars. Every object within the world stands sturdily together. The result is nearly one-hundred percent great despite the occasional action sequence that doesn’t quite read perfectly due to color choices when conveying depth, but overall the blockiness of the environment that fills the Double+ Adventures feels limitless. Sears is the ultimate gamer in his very own Minecraft-of-the-mind, and I really have a ball touring it. I really want to come back to my point about the spaghetti western comparison, and go off the deep end and compare Ideal Copy with Sergio Corbucci’s film The Great Silence and how they mirror one another’s, not only environmental hazards but, subtextual theme of struggling against fascistic entities…but I think I’ll save that one for another time. I’m just happy that Ben has consistently put out a good book every year for the last three years (not to mention the minis before and in between). Here’s to many more! Cheers! You can order a copy of Ideal Copy by Ben Sears from Copacetic Comics! ————————————————————— Frank Santoro‘s new book – Pittsburgh – is now available from Editions çà et là! You find out how to obtain a copy here in the States – HERE – on our site. While you’re there, takes some time to read some thoughtful French reviews featured therein. We’ve gone through the trouble to (Google) translate them for our fellow English-speaking readers. Check it out! ————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 6-4-18 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]

11/24/2017

Sally IngrahamNovember 23, 2017NewsSally here with work by Jessica Campbell, Jessica Abel and Meg Lemke, Sophie Goldstein, and more! ————————————————————————————————— Hillary Brown talks House of Women with Sophie Goldstein on Paste Magazine. About the comic itself Hillary writes: “Alternately spiky and luscious, it draws you in by receding. She writes with economy, but the resulting story isn’t irritatingly arty or hard to follow; it’s not drawn by a comics artist only for other comics artists who speak the lingo and can read the subtext. It’s no surprise, in fact, that Margaret Atwood (restless, relentless experimenter, unafraid to leap into any genre that grabs her interest, including comics) is an inspiration for this female-centered and complexly feminist story of colonization and controlled social dynamics. Goldstein provides no easy answers—the book is thematically driven rather than focused on plot first and foremost—but she knows how to be just difficult enough.“ Read the interview HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Jessica Campbell has a comic about The Bad Behavior of Men in Comics up on Hyperallergic – it’ll probably make you squirm or steam, depending, because she brings up all kinds of things that no one likes to talk about. Read it HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Meg Lemke interviews Jessica Abel about her new book Growing Gills over on Mutha Magazine. Jessica has spent her life making comics, working in arts education, and developing theories about maintaining creative focus – something that I’d say the majority of us struggle with. This book came out of a series of online courses she taught and a working group she managed – where instead of dealing with issues like “how can I tell better stories?”, for example, the overwhelming chorus from her students and peers was “how can I deal with my paralyzing anxiety and procrastination?!” In Growing Gills Jessica offers some working theories she’s developed (although she struggles with the same issues in her own life on a regular basis.) In the interview Jessica and Meg talk about organization, self-forgiveness, and process over progress. “MUTHA: You talk in the book also about process over project outcomes, can you unpack that more? JESSICA ABEL: What’s destructive is when people want to make art, but don’t want to sell art. AND at the same time they feel they can’t be artists if they aren’t attempting to be professionals. “If I’m not showing in a gallery, am I really an artist? If I don’t have a mainstream publisher, am I a writer?” Yes, you are. It may be that the business side is not what you’re interested in; it requires sacrifice of your creative time to do the work required to be a “pro.” People miss that the selling part is a separate project. If they can recognize and commit to selling as a separate project, great. If you constantly find yourself saying “I don’t want to do the things needed to sell my work,” then maybe you need to rethink the underlying model. Maybe the creative work on its own is what you need to feed your psyche. Make room in your life for your work without worrying about making it pay for itself. Maybe it’s enough to share it with your family, friends, or put it up for free on Medium. Don’t confuse the creative work with your childhood dreams of fame.“ This speaks to me right now, as a good reminder that making comics and making money can’t always be the same thing, and if I’m sacrificing making good comics in favor of making money, then I need to reevaluate. The book is long and full of good stuff, but if you don’t have time to squeeze reading it into your already busy life, at least read this interview, which unpacks a lot. Check out Growing Gills HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Thanksgiving Leftovers (always better the next day!) Melanie Gillman‘s webcomic As the Crow Flies has been released by Iron Circus Comics – the A.V. Club reviews the comic HERE. GG discusses I’m Not Here over on Smash Pages. NPR reviews Body Music by Julie Maroh – apparently “earnest romanticism buoys it over the trouble spots“. Read the review HERE. Drawn + Quarterly is publishing new work by Rina Ayuyang and the last work of Geneviève Castrée – both comics coming in 2018. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 11-24-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 11-24-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

Tim Hensley Draws L.B. “JEFF” JEFFRIES from REAR WINDOW

Posted on May 27, 2016June 15, 2016 by Chris Anthony Diaz

tim hensley’s portrayal of jimmy stewart as L.B. “JEFF” JEFFRIES in alfred hitchcock’s REAR WINDOW (1954, USA) for my ILLUSTRATED MOMENTS IN CINEMA/TELEVISION collection. the illustration was done in april 2016

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in The Diaz ArchiveTagged 1954, Alfred Hitchcock, Illustrated Moments in Cinema/Television, Jimmy Stewart, L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries, Rear Window, Tim Hensley

Chris Anthony Diaz

Posted on May 27, 2016June 15, 2016

Explore

06/23/2016

HarrisonJune 23, 2016NewsHarrison’s Daily News for June 23, 2016 starts off in the Salon, drops off midway with Inkbrick 5, and lands with some Busdriver. ————————————————————————————————— Salon Etiquette Your favorite correspondent’s favorite correspondent Juan Fernandez reflects on the latest meeting of the Pittsburgh Comics Salon. Ingest your daily vitamins of theory, modular grids, holding the center, and more below. http://comicsworkbook.com/notes-from-the-salon-june-18th-2016/ ————————————————————————————————— Visions Chris Visions was at Heroes Con last weekend, where Izzy Renzi took this photo. As soon as he got back… “’…all of a sudden, for no pahticulah reason… I decided to go for a little run…’ And draw.” Always moving. Check out The Chris Visions Summer Collection, 2016 ————————————————————————————————— Ink Squad Alexander Rothman: We’re proud to announce that INK BRICK no. 5 is now available for preorder from our online store! Yet again our submission pool brought us more excellent work than we could hope to print, and as a result this will be our largest to date. Part of the book is a special section excerpting Jenny Zervakis’s upcoming book Strange Growths, which will be published jointly by John Porcellino of Spit And A Half and Tom Hart of the Sequential Artists Workshop. ————————————————————————————————— GATOSAURIO Gatosaurio Grab Bags! Each includes one surprise tee, sticker pack, tote bag and enamel pin plus more surprises like zines, 90s tattoo chokers, a pocket notebook or a coin purse! inechi.com ————————————————————————————————— Color is Light I heart kokooma_, you should too. instagram.com/kokooma_ Quang Comics ————————————————————————————————— Thumbs “Po-pos don’t wan’t to follow me, when they see me in sneakers and cotton tees.” Busdriver Thumbs out now. Share this page: [...]

Noah Van Sciver’s FANTE BUKOWSKI

Chris Anthony DiazJuly 8, 2016The Diaz ArchiveNoah Van Sciver FANTE BUKOWSKI original art that was unpublished (first, second and fourth photos) and published (inside end covers, third photo) in the book. Plus, a chance to see how Noah colors partially on the original art before completing digitally on the computer. More of Noah’s work can be purchased at Fantagraphics Share this page: [...]

Adam Griffiths – Rowhouse Residency Report

Comics WorkbookFebruary 23, 2017Residency Reports / School UpdatesAdam Griffiths is a comics artist from Takoma Park, MD. He joined us in Pittsburgh for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency January 29th-February 4th 2017. Here are his thoughts about visiting the city and his Rowhouse Residency experience. ————————————————————————————————————— The focus for my residency was completion – this is to say, I had a project I was interested in finishing during my week in Pittsburgh, and Frank seemed to help me make this theme more concrete. My projects for the week were: Allow the Rowhouse Residency hosts to see and provide feedback on the graphic novel that I have been writing for three years. Finish drawing a mini-comic that I’d begun last summer. Work on character, setting, and script concepts for a new secret project. Follow my usual comics schedule, which includes time set aside for exercise, freestyle drawing, and a weekly illustration in an unfamiliar environment. Did I accomplish all of these tasks? Let’s start. SATURDAY I arrived in Pittsburgh around 1 AM on Saturday night. I came early because I wanted to poke around Pittsburgh. My Rowhouse Residency wasn’t supposed to begin until Monday, so I had found an AirBnB that was a 10-minute walk from downtown Pittsburgh, and stayed there for two nights. Since I’d never been to Pittsburgh before, I wanted to see as much as I could but also stay focused on art. The ToonSeum was at the top of my list, followed by the Andy Warhol Museum, and then my usual wandering, which is when I take photographs and sketch. It’s a bit like a fugue state when I do this; I don’t always schedule that, but I consider it to be work, and when it begins I sort of just know, and become less reserved about taking snapshots of whatever interests me, or stopping to sit somewhere and draw. For breakfast I walked east on Forbes Ave, up Wylie Ave to Grandma B’s, a sort of diner greasy spoon. A lot of interesting buildings along this route; I stopped to watch a group of very young-looking investors talking to a man in front of the deserted New Granada Theater, which was under some type of development. I also stopped in front of the shuttered Crawford Grill, once a center of black social life in the Hill District. I didn’t really know what to order at Grandma B’s, but the staff was really nice and wanted to know where I was from. I got some great snaps on the way up the hill. After breakfast I walked back down the hill to The ToonSeum, only a 45 minute walk. The main exhibit area was partially set up for a Will Eisner show – still I saw some really lovely works, including another Eisner comic titled Harry Karry, which was about spies. I introduced myself to John F. Kelly, Director of The ToonSeum, who was in a meeting with his landlord. While I waited for his meeting to end, I happened upon a bunch of old cartooning instruction books, and I went through all of them. There was actually quite a bit of good (albeit dated) advice on how to structure your career as a cartoonist; I worked in the fine art gallery world for about ten years as an administrator. Every five or so years a helpful book is published about creating your own career as a fine artist. With the cartoonist version of such a book, there seemed to be much more structure and visualization of the career path, which, being that cartoonists’ careers were largely appended to the newspaper and media world at first, made plenty of sense. I was able to speak with John F. Kelly briefly. I asked if there was an archive in the basement and if I could come back and have a look at it. He said there was sort of an archive, but sure. I scheduled a Tuesday visit, but ended up not returning later because I was so busy drawing. After that, I walked over to the Andy Warhol Museum. I wasn’t ready for SO MANY floors of Andy Warhol. I enjoyed the screen prints, but I wasn’t so impressed with his early drawings. I have a very “Italo Calvino writerly approach” to visual artists’ early work – which is to say, Invisible Cities (written by Calvino) was an incredible feat of early work – short stories that are concise, that point towards future works of the creative person in question (I also pretty much lump artists, writers, musicians and performers all together). One of the wall plaques stated that Warhol had a peculiar skill for “increasing his income,” which I found strange. I went into the video lounge and watched ALL of the television commercials that Warhol ever produced. I wanted to do this because I have seen quite a few of Warhol’s films, own a few of them, and I admire the aggressive boringness of Warhol’s Dracula. The commercials, however, were artless. Should I have been surprised? Evening was coming, and I’d read that the Strip District was an interesting place to go on a Saturday night. I started walking in that direction and came upon EIDE’S, a 3-floor comics emporium. The long-box comics selection there was one of the best I’d ever seen; by the time I went to another floor, I was already plotting out how to convince the owners to let me set up a home somewhere in the store. Not gonna try that, but when I checked out in the basement, the clerk gave me a ‘bonified nerd’ discount! Then, the clerk on the main floor was also kind enough to direct me to a decent place to have dinner. I walked back to my AirBnB that night, chock-full of comics-luv. SUNDAY Sunday morning I decided to meet up with Sally Ingraham from Comics Workbook. I walked up Forbes Avenue to Wylie Avenue again in order to get to the Polish Hill neighborhood. This ended up being a much longer walk than I’d anticipated; I had a suitcase full of clothes, art supplies, and books. I had breakfast and made a few sketches at Lili’s Cafe, a coffee shop located below Copacetic Comics in Polish Hill. I haven’t been around punky vegan kids for a while, but one young lady was drawing and I gave her my card. Once I finished eating, I went upstairs. Copacetic Comics was a gem of an establishment. I looked around the store, got more comics and discussed the new George Herriman biography by Michael Tisserand with the owner, Bill Boichel. After this, Sally Ingraham took me on a driving tour of Pittsburgh. We saw the sprawling Allegheny Cemetery and took in some views. It was a relief to finally get to the Rowhouse and put down my suitcase. I was ready to begin working. I started by setting out all of the books I’d brought with me, plus the new ones recently acquired. Then I wrote out my schedule for the week by hand and posted it next to my drawing seat in the kitchen. I spent the rest of the night finishing thumbnails for the mini-comic. MONDAY & TUESDAY The first two days I worked in an isolated fever, completing my weekly illustration, a jumbo post-it note sketch, lots of small drawings, and several pages of the mini-comic. While I hadn’t explicitly stated that I wished to be left alone, I knew I wouldn’t hone in on the work with tons of distractions. I TURNED OFF MY PHONE during the daytime. I had gone to the grocery store on Sunday evening, which was conveniently right across the street so no excuses to go anywhere. WEDNESDAY Toiled in isolation this day as well. At this point, I felt very concentrated on completing the work, and was very satisfied with the quality of the drawings. Part of focusing on completion has nothing to do with how fast you’re working – it’s more like being a kind of live television actor with floor marks that you need to hit during scenes. If you miss the mark, or a line, you play through anyway, and plot to sneak in the part you meant to express later. I would work on a page for as long as I could – if I hit a dead end, I’d go to the mini-library I’d set up on the floor in the front room and look through comics until I was ready to start working again. The privacy of the Rowhouse made that feasible – I just kind of tore all over the place unrelentingly, joyfully. Over dinner at Frank’s house, which was next door, I spoke with Frank about his current work, which was set up across from the dinner table. Frank read what I had completed of my mini-comic. I only had about three more pages to go at that point. Also, I left my graphic novel with Frank overnight. While looking it over, he insisted that I should go ahead and print what I had done already. This was a step I needed to make – get comfortable with – so we discussed how I’d go about getting my mini-comic printed first. I have completely drawn my graphic novel at least 5 times, and have worked the script over entirely, maybe about 9 times. Working in my edits and really being rather fussy. I am very pleased with the version I’m working on – momentum-wise I’m very good at getting myself to work, but I’m very critical of what I do! It was useful to change my frame of mind from the creative work to the production work – just the type of shock I needed. In fact, in one of my old art world jobs, I’d been responsible for printing a gargantuan full color 400-page artist catalog of fine art works for two years in a row. So, while I was familiar with most of the printing terminology, I’d never ever had to apply any of that thinking to my own work. Having to consider printing the comic renewed my enthusiasm for sharing the work. I’ve got 150 pages drawn and need to get it out there! THURSDAY Finished drawing the mini-comic on this day. 40 pages. I drew 35 of them during the residency. For the rest of the day, I worked on various sketches, including some development work for a new comics project. I invited Sally and Frank over to the Rowhouse for dinner Friday night. For dinner, I cooked herbed chicken, mashed potatoes and salad. We talked about the residency and my further involvement in Pittsburgh. FRIDAY My last day. Continued developing my new comics project. Took a late afternoon drive with Frank through Braddock, and the rest of the Steel Valley. Frank is a Pittsburgh native who has lived in other parts of the country, but is now settled here running Comics Workbook. He told me about his family’s history in Pittsburgh, and then we stopped at Jerry’s Records, where I got LPs by Gene Loves Jezebel and China Crisis. I’m hoping to return for PIX, Pittsburgh’s Indy comic con, in April. After returning home on Saturday, I’ve since put myself in conversation with four printers about the mini-comic. In keeping with the speed at which I’m now working, I’ve averaged coloring pages at about 2-5 a day. So I’m more than sure I’ll have my first mini-comic printed by then! ————————————————————————————————————— Check out more work by Adam Griffiths on his website, follow him on Instagram, and look for his new mini-comic this spring! For more information about the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency visit this page or email santoroschoolATgmail Share this page: [...]

10/04/2016

Aaron CockleOctober 3, 2016NewsAaron here today with CW in the UK (and USA); Best North American Comics; Alex Citrin Remembers Geneviève Castrée; Review of Dane Martin Comics; Tentacular Thinking; New CW Auction Items ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook will be participating in two festivals next week: One in the UK The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, October 14-16. Join Frank Santoro, Aidan Koch, and Connor Willumsen for some cool workshops and visit table 67 in the Comics Clocktower to meet Oliver East and Jack Brougham, among others. We will be hosting 3 special workshops, “Visual Poetry” with Aidan Koch, “The Hammer Party” with Connor Willumsen and “Composition Competition” with Frank Santoro. Tickets for the main events at this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival are on sale now. Visit our event page for more information. And one in the US Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, October 13-16. We will be hosting workshops and tabling. Join Comics Workbook, along with cartoonists Alyssa Berg and Kurt Ankeny, for an immersive weekend of comics creation. We will examine art and the grid, bringing the strong artistic practices of Berg and Ankeny together with the discipline and rhythm of the grid, as laid out by Comics Workbook founder Frank Santoro. Four hours across two days will be filled with the exploration of a variety of techniques and methods which will inspire the beginner, and challenge the established cartoonist. Comics as jazz; comics as architecture; how a simple index card can transform your sequencing and storytelling process – come join us for an hour or four and take your comics making to a new level. More information on our CXC exploits to come soon – the full festival schedule is here! ————————————————————————————————— Wednesday at the Strand Roz Chast and Bill Kartalopoulos will be in conversation at Strand Books in NYC on Wednesday, October 5 at 7pm with Anne Emond, Lianna Finck, and Char Esme in promotion of the 2016 edition of the Best American Comics. Chast guest edits this year, Bill K remains the series editor. Cover by Marc Bell. ————————————————————————————————— For Geneviève and Elsewhere: A comic by Alex Citrin ————————————————————————————————— Upon Review of Dane Martin’s Unfortunate Horse Magazine Dane’s comics are grouped generically under the title The Horror of the Gag, which, while apparently at odds with itself, perfectly describes his product. These strips and stories follow the funny animal tradition of anthropomorphic critter hijinx and have an olde timey aura befitting the venerable genre. However, unlike the blithe cavorting of a Mickey or a Mini, Dane takes the ire and consternation of Donald and stokes its flames until it they reach a fever pitch of pride, loathing and anxiety–and injects this toxic serum into the veins of his bug-eyed characters. So burdened, Dane’s ducks and their compatriots scramble across a crepuscular dust bowl, seemingly located in the early 20th century, manipulating and terrorizing each other as they compete for capitalist supremacy, or bicker about false memories, or worry the internal scars of childhood. And yet, somehow, in the midst of this unenviable existence, their antics are frequently, legitimately funny. – via Donner, Party of One ————————————————————————————————— Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene Donna Haraway has a lovely (and lovingly-footnoted) piece at e-flux about homo sapiens from, like, a geological perspective: As a provocation, let me summarize my objections to the Anthropocene as a tool, story, or epoch to think with: (1) The myth system associated with the Anthropos is a setup, and the stories end badly. More to the point, they end in double death; they are not about ongoingness. It is hard to tell a good story with such a bad actor. Bad actors need a story, but not the whole story. (2) Species Man does not make history. (3) Man plus Tool does not make history. That is the story of History human exceptionalists tell. (4) That History must give way to geostories, to Gaia stories, to symchthonic stories; terrans do webbed, braided, and tentacular living and dying in sympoietic multispecies string figures; they do not do History. (5) The human social apparatus of the Anthropocene tends to be top-heavy and bureaucracy prone. Revolt needs other forms of action and other stories for solace, inspiration, and effectiveness. (6) Despite its reliance on agile computer modeling and autopoietic systems theories, the Anthropocene relies too much on what should be an “unthinkable” theory of relations, namely the old one of bounded utilitarian individualism — preexisting units in competition relations that take up all the air in the atmosphere (except, apparently, carbon dioxide). (7) The sciences of the Anthropocene are too much contained within restrictive systems theories and within evolutionary theories called the Modern Synthesis, which for all their extraordinary importance have proven unable to think well about sympoiesis, symbiosis, symbiogenesis, development, webbed ecologies, and microbes. That’s a lot of trouble for adequate evolutionary theory. (8) Anthropocene is a term most easily meaningful and usable by intellectuals in wealthy classes and regions; it is not an idiomatic term for climate, weather, land, care of country, or much else in great swathes of the world, especially but not only among indigenous peoples. ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]

10/07/2016

Sally IngrahamOctober 7, 2016NewsSally here with reviews of Sarah Glidden’s new book, some Village Voice features, Clara Jetsmark in The Nib, an odd new Washington Post strip, Anya Davidson, Jessica Campbell, and M. S. Harkness, and a funny Pittsburgh encounter. ————————————————————————————————— Sarah Glidden‘s Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq (Drawn & Quarterly, October 2016) just landed on the bookshelves and is already inspiring discussion and garnering praise. “Part memoir, part ethical inquiry and part travelogue, “Rolling Blackouts” resembles the work of her great hero, Joe Sacco, the author of Palestine and “Safe Area Goražde”, at least in the sense that it is about as serious and careful as a comic can possibly be. But it also has a gentleness that is all its own, perhaps because Glidden works mostly in soft watercolour, a medium that seems somehow to reflect her refusal to deal in certainties. Stories, as she writes in her introduction to Rolling Blackouts, are “how we make sense of a chaotic world” and she wants those she tells to be gripping; clearly, her material has to be edited, refined. But that doesn’t mean that she isn’t aware of her responsibilities or that they don’t weigh heavily with her. Just as a person’s life is much more to them than a mere story, so true objectivity is all but impossible in narrative journalism.” – The Guardian Read the rest of this article HERE. The article that the Huffington Post published on the work features some of Sarah Glidden’s sketches and notes from her travels – check it out HERE. Observer also has some thoughts on the book and comics journalism – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— 1st comic for Village Voice! A photo posted by Lauren Weinstein (@vineshtein) on Oct 6, 2016 at 8:39am PDT Lauren Weinstein has a strip in The Village Voice this week (preview above – check the news stands to see the whole thing!) ————————————————————————————————— The Village Voice also ran an article about the new Ms. Marvel series this week – an in-depth look at the character’s development, the author (G. Willow Willson), the acclaimed editor of the series – Marvel’s Sana Amanat – and the constantly swirling discussion of diversity in comic book stories AND their creators. Ms. Marvel is getting a lot of things right. “Written by Wilson, and inspired by the stories of Marvel editor Sana Amanat, the new “Ms. Marvel” is a study in conversion. Not of a religious sort (though Wilson, who is white, converted to Islam in college), but a creative transfiguration: the small to the large, the honest detail into mass appeal. The series is one of Marvel’s most successful, having entered an elite class within months of its debut, when that first issue hit a sixth print, a rare mark achieved by only a few genre classics, like the first issue of Wolverine. Amanat says she and Wilson never dreamed they’d make it to thirty issues, as they did this year. She puts their success down to Khan’s believability. “There’s that quote,” she told me recently, speaking by phone from the Marvel offices. ” ‘You achieve universality through specificity.’ We didn’t have a political agenda to prove to the world that Muslims are like this or not like this. You get to know Kamala Khan through the fact that she really wants to eat a BLT and she would really like to have her first kiss. And then you get to know that yeah, she’s a Muslim. She goes to mosque.” – The Village Voice Read the rest of the article HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Michael Cavna has a story about a new Washington Post “funny” you might have noticed – it stars a USDA worker, and begs the question “how?” Cavan explains how the real life Abbey Powell, public affairs specialist with the Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, became an action-adventure comic character in James Allen’s new strip – HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Clara Jetsmark and Tom Kaczynski collaborated on a recent comic for The Nib – Clara was interning with Tom for a few months, on loan from Denmark’s The Animation Workshop (like her fellow classmates Cathrin Peterslund and Emil Friis Ernst, who are currently spending time in Pittsburgh with Ed Piskor and Frank Santoro, respectively!) Here’s a taste of The Nib comic (it tromps through the political nostalgia and nationalism that surround the Trump campaign…): Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Anya Davidson‘s Band For Life enjoyed it’s book release party last night at Quimby’s in Chicago, IL. Get a copy of Band For Life (Fantagraphics, September 2016) HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I’ve been dipping into Jessica Campbell‘s Hot or Not: 20th Century Male Artists (Koyama Press, September 2016) and can confirm that it is a hilarious and gratifying guide – a must-have reference for any trip to the art museum. “With the way Campbell reduces Borduas’s or Mondrian’s abstractions even further, or captures what’s cute about Calder’s mien, she poo-poos macho ideas of artistic greatness, at the same time she showcases her own slyly unassuming skill.” — Sean Rogers, The Globe and Mail Jessica will be on tour this fall – catch her at The Beguiling on Oct. 28th and ask for her further thoughts on Matisse’s overall hotness… ————————————————————————————————— The Rowhouse received a package from M. S. Harkness and Peter Faecke the other day, and I immediately stole all of M. S. Harkness’ comics. Her stories about wrestling and love are a perfect combination of badassery and humor, and the energy in her drawings is catching. Download some of her comics HERE – and catch her at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus next weekend! ————————————————————————————————— Naomi Nowak is a Comics Workbook sponsor – she is a cartoonist, illustrator, and fashion designer based in Sweden. Give her clothes and jewelry a look at her online shop – Raintower – where you will find some beautiful new items (all the clothing is made to order), and the majority of my Christmas wish list…! ————————————————————————————————— Copacetic Comics had a cool visitor today – David Conrad @crawford_conrad stopped by looking for Bill and left with some books ? @copaceticcomics ❤️ #pittsburgh #comics #marvelagentsofshield A photo posted by Sally Ingraham (@sally_ingraham) on Oct 6, 2016 at 6:44pm PDT Here’s a funny story – I was working at Copacetic Comics in Pittsburgh, PA, yesterday, and who should walk into the store? It was David Conrad – a Pittsburgh native and the actor who played Jim Clancy on the TV show Ghost Whisperer, and Ian Quinn on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which is why I recognized him), among other things. He was visiting from L.A. and had been told to look up Bill Boichel at Copacetic Comics. Although he splits time between a number of locations, Pittsburgh is still his hometown, and he recently started writing a column for Pittsburgh Magazine – here is the September “Talk of The Tahn”. He grew up very close to where Comics Workbook and the Rowhouse Residency is located, and is still invested in the neighborhood and surrounding city. Keep up with him via Instagram – @crawford_conrad – and you may just bump into him somewhere in the city this weekend! ————————————————————————————————— Comics Workbook is heading to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Art Festival and to Columbus, OH, for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus next week. Hang out with Frank Santoro, Aidan Koch, Connor Willumsen in the UK – more details HERE. The team in Ohio will be doing workshops next weekend, and you can sign up in advance to get a seat – details HERE. Advanced signups will end Friday, October 7th, 2016. ————————————————————————————————— There is still time to get a bid in on the Michael DeForge drawings that we have up for auction – details HERE. Have you seen the recent collaboration between Frank Santoro and master jeweler Airi Maeno? Check out the Pompeii Medallion HERE. Help us get Connor Willumsen to The Lakes International Comic Art Festival – this way please! ————————————————————————————————— I’ll be back with you next Friday, reporting live from Ohio and Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. See you there! – Sally Share this page: [...]

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