Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in The Diaz ArchiveTagged 2000, Edward Yang, Illustrated Moments in Cinema/Television, Jonathan Chang, Oakland Museum of California, Steven Weissman, Yang Yang, Yi Yi

Chris Anthony Diaz

Posted on July 20, 2016July 22, 2016

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10/31/2016

Juan FernándezOctober 31, 2016NewsJuan here with the good stuff: Chris Diaz photographs CXC 2016; Connor Willumsen’s LICAF report; interview with NYRB Comics Editor, Gabriel Winslow-Yost; Rob Clough on Patreon; Maggie Umber on great horned owls; Tom Spurgeon interviews Gabe Fowler; thoughts on CAB + APE. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡Want to see some of North America’s finest cartoonists? Chris Diaz has shared some photographs of the greats who showed up at CXC in the Diaz Archive here on the site – Seth, Sacha Mardou, Charles Burns and many more! This is just part 1 of 2, so stay tuned! ————————————————————————————————— ⚡Connor Willumsen’s LICAF report is live on the site. Mint Cakes, sheep-gazing, his workshop experiences, and Frank’s “intuitive” driving. All detailed in full. Hilarious and inspiring. You’re not going to want to miss this one! It is a struggle to reflect on anything without first commenting on the unfathomable number of sheep abstractly pacing between an ancient network of low stone walls up in the Lake District of northern England. I guess I saw, by virtue of my eyes being open, over a thousand sheep over the weekend. I became self conscious and learned to be discreet about my developing preoccupation with photographing them. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ The Arkansas International has an interview with NYRB Comics Editor, Gabriel Winslow-Yost. NYRB’s comics publishing in the last year have been a delightful curation over forgotten cartooning gems. All of which have been especially visceral. A hell of a reprint project! Perhaps related to the above — what do you see as the mission of the imprint? Our main inspiration is the NYRB Classicsseries, which we’ve both been huge fans of for a long time. It’s brought hundreds of absolutely wonderful books into English and back into print over the past decade-plus, and built an audience that is adventurous and open — readers who will take a chance on books from all sorts of times and places, and in all sorts of styles. The idea behind NYR Comics is simply that something similar could be done for comics. Because of the somewhat tortured history of comics publishing in the US, there are a lot of fantastic works that have fallen way out of print, or never really even got into print, or were never translated into English —but that are still vital and exciting. And that have an audience out there, waiting for them, if only they knew… ————————————————————————————————— ⚡Rob Clough has launched a Patreon. Clough is one of the most attentive small press comics reviewers out there. He can contextualize even the most seemingly ephemeral publication. It’s incredible. AND he makes the valiant effort to review the work of cartoonists and comics makers whose work has usually never been reviewed. I encourage you to support his writing through patreon. We’ve gotten to read his excellent writing for years for free, it’s time we support his craft. I’ve been writing comics criticism for fifteen years now, in places like Savant, The Comics Journal, Cicada, Sequart, Foxing Quarterly, Sequential Magazine and the Poopsheet Foundation. Of course, my home base for a decade has been my own High-Low site: http://highlowcomics.blogspot.com I’ve been providing criticism about comics from across the alternative/indy spectrum, including shedding light on new artists, short-run minicomics, YA comics, and of course the major releases from Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, etc. Anyone who’s been following my blog for the past six months has seen that I’ve been adding reviews five days a week. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡Maggie Umber has cooked up a cool little reflection on the development of her latest long-form comics work, the Sound of Snowfalling. Learn more about the whole process over on Medium. In my tenth grade biology class we did the usual things: dissected frogs, identified birds from slide shows, and raised plants from seedlings in paper towels. It seemed like the typical high school science experience until we were asked to write a research paper in first person from an animal’s perspective. My imagination went into overdrive. The idea took ahold of me like nothing has since. For three weeks in tenth grade I became a great horned owl. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡CAB is right around the corner this weekend in Brooklyn, NY! To get you into high gear for the comics freak explosion that will sound descend upon Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, you’ll want to check out this interview with head festical organizer, Gabe Fowler. Thanks to Tom Spurgeon for always asking the right questions over on Comics Reporter. SPURGEON: My impression is that this year’s show was not a sure thing, and as I recall you announced a bit later than most shows might announce. Why the hesitancy? What put you over the top in terms of wanting to do another one? FOWLER: I’m basically burned out. Organizing a show by myself is a lot of work, I care about it a great deal, and it takes a lot out of me personally. I also have seen a widespread proliferation of shows since I conceived of our first show in 2009, and I have mixed feelings about it. When I initially wanted to start a show I knew it had to be something vital to the culture and a kick in the ass.. I don’t want to beat a dead horse. I want to make an innovative and fresh show out of nothing. Since I lack the funds or institutional support of larger festivals it becomes exhausting to create a worthwhile show while I’m running a business and working on my own creative projects. But in the end, I love it, and I can’t not do it. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡ As the latest iteration of CAB approaches, I think it serves us well to think about the constant change that these kinds of festivals take in the US. Take APE or example. The show used to be HUGE. In the early 2000s it was a juggernaut that rivaled SPX. It seemed that for everyone on the West Coast, APE was a rite of passage. Stephanie Tran‘s written a little on what it’s like today over on Women Write About Comics. It’s welcoming to new comers and is taking a different, smaller form, as demanded by the rest of the West Coast’s comics ecosystem. Interesting. It was held not in the San Jose Convention Center’s Exhibit Hall as I expected, but in its South Hall, a metal-framed structure that resembled more of a hanger than an actual hall. This turned out to be perfect for APE–unlike Heroes and Villains Fan Fest, APE spread out its exhibitors, leaving them with about a foot on each side instead of placing tables end-to-end. The setting was much more intimate and casual than Heroes and Villains, and, when coupled with the lack of a large crowd, encouraged dialogues and gave attendees the opportunity to mill around the booths and flip through a comic or look over the exhibitor’s art. According to veteran exhibitors and other attendees, the con has been getting smaller over the years (one person suggested that this was due to another independent comic fest in Berkeley though perhaps it has more to do with the SF Zine fest), but the size of APE was just right for my first time at an independent publishing expo. ————————————————————————————————— ⚡Even if you didn’t making it to one of the Comics Workbook-hosted workshops at SPX, CXC, or LICAF this year, you can still bring your comics game to a new level via thee Santoro School Handbook for Making Better Comics by Frank Santoro and Kurt Ankeny. Printed offset on cardstock by the professionals at The Prolific Group, Winnipeg, Canada, this is not some cheap color xerox or risograph. Looks great, feels great, and even smells great. Always available at our store HERE – free shipping worldwide! ————————————————————————————————— until next time! Juan Share this page: [...]

07/10/2018

Aaron CockleJuly 10, 2018NewsPanels to/for the People; Médecins Sans Frontières; Maiden Form; LAAB; Art of/for War ————————————————————————————————— Panels to the People x Vinyl Fantasy Panels to the People is a comics reading showcasing a variety of creators. Come to Bushwick’s best comic book store Vinyl Fantasy for a night of brilliant comics. Admission is FREE! Readings by: Neil Dvorak (Easy Pieces) Michael Giurato April Malig (Goths on Ice, My Dumb Feelings) & more TBA! Thursday, July 12, 7-9pm at Vinyl Fantasy, 194 Knickerbocker Ave, Brooklyn, U.S.A. ————————————————————————————————— Paintings of people I met in Mosul Australian psychologist Diane Hanna turned to art to tell the story of the people she met while providing mental healthcare to people displaced from Mosul, Iraq, during her first field assignment with us. Via Doctors Without Borders. ————————————————————————————————— An Interview With Heather Benjamin, Curator and Participating Artist Of “MAIDEN FORM” Do you have a statement about the exhibition you’d like to share, some over-arching theme or discussion you’d like to be at the forefront? MAIDEN FORM is a show presenting meditations on contemporary notions of femininity. As a starting point, I’m inviting artists to interpret that and explore their own personal experiences through the lenses of any of the following perceived/desired/imposed attributes of conventional femininity, including but of course not limited to – concepts of sensitivity, purity, tenderness, deference, empathy, nurturance, beauty, sexual objectification, fragility, passivity. This is just a cross-section of some of the concepts which contribute simultaneously to the subjugation of all kinds of women, as well as provide structures which we both lean on and transgress against in order to define each of our personal womanhood. Betty Friedan wrote in 1963 that the key to women’s subjugation lay in the social construction of femininity as “childlike, passive, and dependent”, and called for a “drastic reshaping of the cultural image of femininity”. Over 50 years later, in many ways, we have progressed past some of the “classic” stereotypes about womanhood, but in just as many ways, we still struggle to throw off the same chains – and carry new ones as well. And that struggle has never been cut and dry – we can feel pulled in so many directions as we fight to hold onto pieces of our identities and shed others, to embrace one culturally imposed facet of femininity while transgressing against another, and all this happening under the shadow of what is societally or traditionally deemed appropriate or desirable. This show is a collection of artists making work about the multifaceted nature of that struggle, which can be so different for every individual and type of woman. My hope with the show is to create an exhibition of vibrant, poignant, and emotional work about individual experiences of femininity, different takes on personal experiences of womanhood by different kinds of women, with the goal of creating an environment where any kind of woman who walks into the gallery can find something moving and relatable within the body of work as a whole. ————————————————————————————————— LAAB, Ronald Wimberly This was probably posted to CW already, but here’s a youtube flip through of Wimberly’s excellent LAAB magazine. ————————————————————————————————— A conversation with C.C. Tsai, a Chinese artist and illustrator of Sunzi’s classic “The Art of War” (Princeton University Press, 2018), translated into English by Brian Bruya What do you think people most often get wrong about “The Art of War”? I think there is a basic misunderstanding that it’s not really about war — it’s about preventing war. From very early times, the Chinese attitude toward warfare was that you need to end it as quickly as possible. The way to do that was to use irregular fighting: special strategies and tactics so that you could minimize the loss of life and the damage to crops and villages and so on. This started very early in Chinese history. Sunzi says the point of warfare is not the fighting but the winning. He says that anger can turn to happiness later, but a dead person can’t be brought back to life. A country that is lost can’t be brought back either. So the main goal of war from a Chinese perspective is to avoid it at all costs, or to figure out how to win while suffering the least amount of damage. ————————————————————————————————— Vision Box – 7-10-2018 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 7-10-18 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

03/13/2018

Aaron CockleMarch 12, 2018NewsAaron here today with Comic Arts Tyumen; Lianhuanhua; Dorothy Iannone; Liana Finck; Pénélope Bagieu; The World of Airships ————————————————————————————————— Georgy Eleav is a current student of Frank Santoro’s Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers, and one of the primary organizers of the first ever Russian alternative comics festivals. This new festival – Comic Arts Tyumen – will take place in Tyumen City, in western Siberia, at the end of March. Georgy told us: “…we are focusing on small press, zines, indie comics scene and underground authors who are working far away from capitals. We are glad to announce that, with support from Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation, our special guests will be Anna Vaivare and David Schilter from kuš! – Anna is going to put a workshop for young local cartoonists, and David will tell about Latvian comics scene. Also we are very grateful to Breakdown Press team – they were unable to make such a long trip this time, but supplied us with a huge variety of their books to present. Our festival is also supported by Russian alternative comics publishers Boomkniga and Comfederation – they will bring indie authors to make signings, more workshops and public discussions about the current state of comics in Russia, women and comics, and the future of the scene. Local Siberian cartoonists will present an exhibition of alternative comics art and also will present themselves at huge comics & zine fair. And to sum it up, the entrance is free for everyone! Also, the event is hosted by Space Cow comicbook store and small press company (which I own) and funded and hugely supported by the local cartoonists and zinemakers community – and inspired, of course, by Gabe Fowler’s Comic Arts Brooklyn festival, Comics Workbook reports and researchings, Josh M. Bayer’s interview for Russian readers, and Copacetic Comics Company’s wide variety of all kinds of graphic literature!“ ————————————————————————————————— Migraine by Woshibai and Two Stories by Gantea Greg Hunter on 2 recent books from Paradise Systems: The effect of these sequences is alienating yet compelling. Woshibai’s narrator provides a litany of personal details, and even so, some readers might find the gulf between themselves and the cartoonist growing as the comic advances. Woshibai maintains this separation in part by depicting his adult and younger selves with blank, featureless faces. It’s the central gesture of a cold but memorable piece. Migraine leaves readers with some grim conclusions about the reliability of a person’s self-concept, never mind the challenge of sharing it with other people. Memory and memoir both can only help us so much. Two Stories, meanwhile, is less likely to stir up existential dread. Gantea has a cute aesthetic, giving her figures round heads, feet like dinner rolls, and hands like oven mitts. A reader might imagine either of the book’s pieces going viral. In addition to the cute factor, they’re quick, easy reads in basic visual-literacy terms, and they have animals too. But the net effect of these stories is something more proximal to cute; the comics aren’t Trojan horses exactly, but they’re agreeably strange at times. ————————————————————————————————— Dorothy Iannone: I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door In NYC, through March 2019 For the High Line, Iannone creates a new, large-scale mural installation at 22nd St. Iannone’s mural features three colorful Statues of Liberty. Between them runs the words, “I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door,” which is the final line from Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus,” the ode to the freedom promised by immigration to America engraved on a bronze plaque mounted inside the statue at Liberty Island. Iannone’s piece was conceived before the recent months of upheaval in the United States around immigration, an already contested topic; these recent debates have raised the Statue of Liberty anew as a symbol of the openness of New York City and the United States to those seeking asylum, freedom, or simply a better life. Iannone’s vibrant Liberties bring a bit of joy to an often exhausting and demoralizing political debate. ————————————————————————————————— Review of ‘The Real Life of Sebastian Knight’ Liana Finck on the Vladimir Nabokov book at the NY Times: ————————————————————————————————— Pénélope Bagieu Comics At The Paris Review: ————————————————————————————————— Via MTSHELVES: “Military School“, an animatic video made in response to the phallic death culture surrounding school shootings, the “soft civil war” hastened by the current administration, promoted by the encouragement of schools as battlefields, N.R.A. and other Death-merchant-encouraged arming of teachers and other civilians, capitalist promotion of final-gunshot-to-the-forehead imagery as plot resolution in films…with a detour into a Christian charity shop… ————————————————————————————————— VISION BOX — CAMERON ARTHUR — 03/13/2018 ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-13-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

04/11/2017

Aaron CockleApril 11, 2017NewsAaron here today with the INK BRICK Submission Deadline Reminder; Public Health Comics; EMISSARIES; How the petroleum and natural gas industries are reshaping the Colorado landscape; TEACHING STAFF FOR A SCHOOL OF MURDERERS ————————————————————————————————— Submissions Deadline for Ink Brick no. 7 Hey friends! Submissions for INK BRICK no. 7 are due Sunday, April 16, 2017. More details at inkbrick.com/submission An interview with editors Alexander Rothman and Alexey Sokolin was conducted back in February by Alex Dueben over at the Beat blog: Dueben: Alex, you wrote a manifesto of sorts in 2015 and there was a line in it that really jumped out at me: “art is an empathy engine.” I wonder if you could talk a little about that. Sokolin: I’ll jump in on the concept. Famously, the filmmaker Chris Milk has called virtual reality “an empathy engine” as well. I think it boils down to the fact that humans are a tribal, social animal. One of the things that separates from the apes is technology, and in particular the technology of language. Scientists think that the invention of language helped humans build mental models that they could then share with others, and then record those models on different media for connection more broadly. Today, we have many languages — from analytical ones (Excel), to engineering ones (Python), to informal spoken ones (English), to emotional languages (Art). Art, whether in music, virtual reality, or poetry, helps us transfer emotional content to others, to infect them with feeling. Comics poetry is special in this regard because it can focus on this space in between, the space of not looking at something directly, but feeling its hum and mystery. How else can you describe nostalgia, or memory, or regret. Comics poetry allows us to see from the corner of our eye something that may be too embarrassing or crude to put into any other language. Elsewhere, it would shatter and break. But here, it can be universally translated. Rothman: I mentioned above that I use broad definitions of “comics” and “poetry”—there are of course plenty of others. And one of my favorite ones is that a poem serves as a map to the poet’s thinking. It doesn’t just impart information to the reader; the act of reading actually recreates or walks one through another person’s thought process. There’s obviously a lot of distance between individuals. We naturally have little sense of what other people are thinking, how they experience the world. And expressing ourselves is one of the few opportunities we have to try bridging that. For me, art’s most important function is helping us to inhabit other subjectivities—or really to translate them into our own. Not to agree with or like others, necessarily, but to try to understand them. A lot of people hear a word like “empathy” and they think it means capitulation or weakness. That’s not the case at all. I think the election throws this into stark relief: our political system requires contestation of ideas, and it requires certain approaches to win out over others. But for argument to even be possible, we need some shared context, some agreement to basic terms. And we can see how things like cultural divides and confirmation bias are severely eroding that. Now, false equivalency is a real problem, too, and I’m not saying “both sides are wrong!” here. Just that when people inhabit fundamentally different realities, they have no productive options to resolve their differences. ————————————————————————————————— Outbreak Responders Meredith Li-Vollmer has a strip about epidemiology and immunization over at the Public Health Insider blog. ————————————————————————————————— Ian Cheng at PS1 EMISSARIES is presented as a large-scale installation that transforms the gallery into a portal-like environment for Cheng’s simulations to build, generate, regress, and progress. The 10-foot-tall projections allow each simulation to unfold at life-size, positioning viewers as observers who can follow the lives of specific characters as they interact within the simulated worlds and each other in an ever-changing environment. The exhibition is extended into the digital space through a collaboration with Twitch, a social video platform and community for gamers. Over the course of the exhibition, all three works in the Emissary trilogy will be available for viewing on Twitch in unique versions that exist online only. The Twitch live stream of these works will also be on view in the gallery space, highlighting the iterative nature of these works across platforms both physical and virtual. Available for viewing continuously at www.twitch.tv/moma, Emissary In the Squat of Gods will stream from April 9 to May 22, Emissary Forks At Perfection from June 6 to July 24, and Emissary Sunsets the Self from August 8 to September 25. Alex Greenberger reviewed Cheng’s work last year at ARTNEWS: Describing Cheng’s simulations can be a challenge. The characters in them look like computerized versions of real-life animals and humans, but, because Cheng is working with a video-game engine that keeps creating new combinations, the figures can smash into each other and break into overlapping geometric planes. Though what the work will do is left up to chance, Cheng has a narrative in mind before he starts working, and his works loosely follow it. When I met him, Cheng had just returned from Zurich, where he had opened a solo show at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, and he was still jetlagged. Cheng had also recently overseen the installation of his simulation at the Hirshhorn, and another work of his had just gone on display in MOCA Cleveland’s “Stranger,” which surveys artists who depict humans in odd, new ways. All three shows opened in the past three months, and all speak to the way Cheng creates scenarios in which humans have to rethink their relationship to technology. What if software updates and new models aren’t the only way technology is evolving? What if technology is evolving us, rather than the other way around? ————————————————————————————————— There’s Never Enough Oil Over at the Nib, T. Edward Bak takes a long look at oil production in Colorado over time. ————————————————————————————————— Max Ernst at Paul Kasmin Gallery The dadaist conceived the pieces (price on request) in 1967, a time in his life when he became fully committed to sculpture, having dabbled in it throughout his career. Typically Ernst ian – he was always a master of provocation – there’s a biting sense of humour here, from the wordplay to the overturning of artistic convention. There is also an unsettling, anxious comment ary on postwar European society, embodying fears about authority and corrupt political surveillance that are perhaps as relevant now as they were then. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 4-11-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 4-11-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 4-11-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

10/20/2017

Sally IngrahamOctober 19, 2017NewsSally here with Ann Nocenti, Julia Wertz, Sarah Glidden, and many more women and comics and news! ————————————————————————————————— The Comics Beat has a great interview with the incredible Ann Nocenti (above). Edie Nugent sat down with her at NYCC to discuss her upcoming project – the “sci-fi political thriller The Seeds with artist David Aja for the Dark Horses’ newly minted Berger Books imprint“, and her legendary career as a comics writer and editor. She speaks of her experience working in comics in the 80s, compared to later on: “Nocenti: What’s strange is that there were so few girls in the industry, that it was the opposite of sexism, I think. You know, I had Archie Goodwin and Denny O’Neill coming into my office talking to me about story–asking me if I wanted to write a story. I had, you know, Larry Hama, Al Milgrom, he had all these wonderful men in comics.They were all really encouraging. Ralph Macchio gave me the Daredevil to write. Denny gave me my first story, and they were extremely encouraging of the idea that a woman wanted to make comics…even the idea that a female wanted to write Daredevil. Nugent: So you felt industry support. Going all the way back. Nocenti: I wouldn’t call it industry support so much as it was bullpen support. This is pre-Internet So everyone was right there in the office. I was mentored by Louise Simonson, who basically taught me everything. Across the hall, you had Joe Duffy writing Star Wars, and then in the bullpen, we had Marie Severin…a powerhouse. So between me and Marie’s generation, we did have sexism. I mean she did so much in the industry and in the business, and she’s kind of unrecognized. She was right there on staff doing sketches when they needed them and covers when they needed them. So her generation–I think there was maybe more sexism than in the ’80s, ’cause you’re talking a post-’60s, ’70s culture, post-women’s liberation, you know, and so we were encouraged. I probably I felt more sexism when I came back to comics at DC and I was working with Gotham, in the Bat family. All those guys individually are really nice, but it definitely felt like a boy’s club.“ She goes on to talk about The Seeds (which I can’t wait to see – David Aja’s art in Hawkeye was so good! so that paired with Ann’s writing?!) and close to the end of the interview she speaks eloquently about why comics always pull her back. It’s a great interview with a powerhouse of the comics industry in her own right. Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— I can’t wait to get my hands on Julia Wertz‘s new comic, Tenements, Towers & Trash, which reviewers are calling “dazzling” among other sparkly things. She herself hasn’t been able to say much about the book or go on her planned tour for it, as the fires in CA have called her home to be with her family. But The New York Times and Hyperallergic both have reviews of the comic this week and plenty to say. From Parul Sehgal’s passionate review on The New York Times: “The city rises majestically in these pages. The crowded panels evoke the jostle of urban life. Your eye doesn’t know where to settle; there’s so much to absorb. Wertz loves New York down to its guts: the pneumatic tubes that stretch the length of the island and were once used to send gusts of letters from one post office to another. She loves the arteries of the subways, the lungs of the parks. She goes uptown to sketch movie theaters in the Bronx and peers down to the bottom of the Hudson River, the “ watery grave” where illegal pinball machines were dumped by the city in the 1970s. She unearths so many strange, wondrous facts that my exclamation marks in the margin resemble elaborate Morse code.“ Read the rest HERE. Hyperallergic offers more pages from the book to tantalize you in their review, and is equally glowing. Read that one HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The Nib is running Sarah Glidden‘s comic The Art of War, which was originally published in Spanish in El País Magazine. She draws herself (above) looking at Goya’s painting titled “3rd of May at Prado”. The comic is about the interaction between a viewer and a famous piece of art, and like all of Sarah’s work, is thoughtful and thought-provoking. Check it out HERE. ————————————————————————————————— In other words/images Annie Mok is on Episode 24 of Comic Book Decalogue on The Comics Journal – listen HERE. Rob Clough is working through his recent comic show mini comics acquisitions, so there are reviews of comics by Jen Lisa, Katie Fricas/Sara Lautman/Cara Bean, Lauren Weinstein/Gale Galligan and others on High-Low recently. PEN America‘s Illustrated PEN series presents Ajuan Mance‘s Requiem for a Hot Comb – see it HERE. Our Comics, Ourselves has a review of Kabi Nagata‘s My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness – read it HERE. Lauren Weinstein‘s latest Normal Person strip for Village Voice is a #MeToo story. Comics Alternative Interviews sat down with Sophie Goldstein to discuss her new book House of Women (Fantagraphics, 2017). The A. V. Club takes a look at Maggie Umber‘s Sound of Snow Falling, and the value of comics as a record of natural life. Zainab Akhtar found herself once again forced to leave a social media platform due to the horrific harassment of internet trolls, following a Twitter fallout with the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival. Send her some love and support via her Patreon – HERE. In a somewhat out-of-character move, The Comics Journal offers a review of the new film Professor Marston and the Wonder Women – which is apparently an interesting flick, but one that still fails to present the compelling/mysterious truth behind the creation of Wonder Woman. ————————————————————————————————— Connor Willumsen says ‘Cartooning is a lot like magic’ in this video, directed by Fatine-Violette Sabiri. It offers a glimpse into his head space and a look at his new comic, Anti-Gone (Koyama Press, 2017). Read Brian Nicholson’s review of Anti-Gone, HERE. Get a copy of Anti-Gone, along with two zines by Connor – a 20 page bootleg, and a special collage zine – as well as a unique Anti-Gone drawing, as part of the exclusive Connor Willumsen bundle from Comics Workbook – available HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 10-20-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 10-20-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

YI YI by Steven Weissman

Posted on July 20, 2016July 22, 2016 by Chris Anthony Diaz

Steven Weissman’s portrayal of Jonathan Chang as Yang Yang in Edward Yang’s YI YI (Taiwan, 2000) for my ILLUSTRATED MOMENTS IN CINEMA/TELEVISION. The illustration was completed January 2011 in India and Pearlescent inks complimented with Screentone patterns, and Steven’s candid with his son was taken at the Oakland Museum of California’s cafeteria in August 2012. And Graham Willcox did the color on Steven’s candid

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Comics Workbook

An online magazine for comics makers

Posted in The Diaz ArchiveTagged 2000, Edward Yang, Illustrated Moments in Cinema/Television, Jonathan Chang, Oakland Museum of California, Steven Weissman, Yang Yang, Yi Yi

Chris Anthony Diaz

Posted on July 20, 2016July 22, 2016

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02/01/2018

Comics WorkbookJanuary 31, 2018NewsBryce Davidson shares the work of Honore Daumier, and Chris Diaz has 3 new photo reports for us! ————————————————————————————————— Bryce Davidson here: What’s up with cartoons? Caricatures perhaps might be more accurate. Simplified, amplified, and elegant, is it just good drawing? Nice shapes and lines? No, there’s something more. Most of us who read comics and appreciate the form will understand what I am referring to. Why do we spend so much time looking at these distorted images when we could look at a real person with actual facial expressions? Why does that twisted grin of a Chuck Jones character seem to portray more emotion and depth than any actor in Hollywood? It’s a tough question. For one thing it seems that the exaggeration of a cartoon help consolidate and refine the emotions and actions of character. It’s like boiling down syrup – only the essential, the truth, remains. This brings me to the artist whom I want to focus on, one who everyone should know, especially within the current political climate – Honore Daumier, the quintessential political cartoonist. Coupling the revolutionary political climate of 17th century France and the burning hate of the bourgeoisie, “He revealed, as a true visionary, the faults endemic to the system that transcended the cast of political players” (Erlanger). The venom this guy spits in his drawings is insane. The introduction to Daumier: Politicians goes on to explain: “The overfed, somnolent, or sneering deputies in Daumier’s picture are physically and morally hideous. Here is an art that denounces not only individuals, but underlying attitudes. Daumier brings to the pitiless light of day monsters serving as puppets for monied interests, electoral fraud, and the inextricable links between money and power.“ I shouldn’t even have to mention how relevant it all is. If you’re looking for an artist who defined the sneer and critique of political caricature, look no further. I could rattle on about artists who are still producing work that rips this guy. His stuff is that universal. The characters are timeless, truly human, no smoke and mirrors. It’s really something that only a cartoon can do. Following are some more scans from the previously mentioned book, Daumier: Politicians by Philippe Erlanger. It can be purchased HERE if you’re interested in learning more. – Bryce Davidson Works Cited: Erlanger (Author), Philippe. “Introduction.” Daumier: Politicians, Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1992. ————————————————————————————————— Chris Diaz was busy attending comics events in the last few months! He shares photos from Jaime Hernandez’s Dec. 11th 2017 chat with Jordan Crane HERE, Charles Forsman at Comix Experience on Dec. 6th 2017 HERE, and Tom Gauld at a few places in Nov. 2017 while he was on tour for his new comic Baking With Kafka HERE. As always, comics fandom thanks you Chris! ————————————————————————————————— Collected from the thousands of pages of material that Frank has left scattered all over the digital landscape, these 4 PDF collections contain Frank’s best writing on comics and comics making from the past decade. Theory and process, reviews and discoveries, journeys both physical and spiritual. Check out the “Best of Frank Santoro” PDF collections, available HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-1-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio Share this page: [...]

09/25/2018

Aaron CockleSeptember 25, 2018NewsJulie Doucet; L. Nichols; Best American Comics; Richard McGuire; Everything is Connected at the Met Breuer; Art in Brussels ————————————————————————————————— Dirty Plotte—The Complete Julie Doucet by Austin English By the end of Dirty Plotte, the panels become increasingly dense and claustrophobic—beautifully so, but a trap all the same. The imposition of the rules of comics come to a head: clear, pure storytelling, the same character over and over, refine-refine-refine your style—a far remove from the infinitely open plane Doucet grafted onto the medium when Plotte began. An author of endless skill, she observed these principles and easily mastered them. Could the wide canvas of the early issues have been similarly exhausted? ————————————————————————————————— L Nichols: Day One ————————————————————————————————— The Best American Comics 2018 Panel discussion at Strand Book Store, NYC, Wednesday, October 3, 7pm “I love comics. Comics is (Comics ARE?) a perfect language, robustly evolving and expanding like any other living language,” writes Phoebe Gloeckner in her Introduction to The Best American Comics 2018. This year’s collection includes work selected from the pages of graphic novels, comic books, periodicals, zines, online, and more, highlighting the kaleidoscopic diversity of the comics language today. Join us as panelist Bill Kartalopoulos, Julia Gfrörer, Julian Glander, Kevin Hooyman, and Julia Jacquette talk about this year in comics. ————————————————————————————————— Richard McGuire: Art for the Street – 1978-1982 September 27 – November 4, 2018; Opening: Thursday, Sept. 27, 6-8 pm Alden Projects, 34 Orchard Street, NYC “A shadow is a strong and simple graphic,” McGuire explains. “The titles evolved from a Burroughs-esque cut-up method — just grabbing selected phrases that caught my ear. I would make lists. Later, I made a stencil. I would see what worked best with that image as a ‘sound picture’.” Incorporating cryptic phrases such as “Moved Then Set on Fire” (1979); “Holes and Corners” (1980); “Doubles are Inevitable” (1980); and “Different Nervous Rhythms (1981); McGuire’s Ixnae Nix drawings transmogrify the layout and content of quotidian newspapers into personalized tabloids in which the central silhouette appears with “a crypto-mystical graphic style, a great touch,” to borrow Glenn O’Brien’s 1981 praise in Interview magazine. The stream-of-consciousness poetics of McGuire’s Ixnae Nix drawings share explicit aesthetic dialogue with Basquiat and his early poetics, but later, these conversations arguably go both ways. McGuire’s Incident Instantly Becomes Memory , to name one, shared a pivotal stage with Basquiat, Haring, and others at the New York / New Wave show, curated by Diego Cortez at P.S. 1, Queens in 1981, and clearly anticipates some of Basquiat’s later pictorial developments. The Ixnae Nix drawings also confabulate with Keith Haring’s early street-based work, particularly with the latter’s Xeroxed collages of cut-up newspaper headlines, which he began in 1980. McGuire stopped his wheatpasting activities in early 1981—around the same time that Haring first began making chalk drawings in the subway. ————————————————————————————————— Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy The first half of the exhibition comprises works by artists who hew strictly to the public record, uncovering hidden webs of deceit—from the shell corporations used by New York’s largest private landlord, interconnected networks encompassing politicians, businessmen, and arms dealers. In the second part, other artists dive headlong into the fever dreams of the disaffected, creating fantastical works that nevertheless uncover uncomfortable truths in an age of information overload and weakened trust in institutions. ————————————————————————————————— 09-25-2018 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]

08/12/2016

Sally IngrahamAugust 12, 2016NewsSally here on this August Friday, where the temps are hot, hot, and the comics are too…! Today we’ve got Sarah Glidden with new reportage comics, Brigid Alverson and Rob Kirby bringing the review roundups, an Art Trip with Gabriella Tito, self-help from Yumi Sakugawa, Shapereader from Ilan Manouach, and something new from Inés Estrada. ————————————————————————————————— First off, we have the TOTALLY AMAZING AUCTION of an Eightball era time capsule box, donated by Daniel Clowes to help support the school. Check out the video above for a taste of the contents and the firecracker commentary of Jim Rugg and Frank Santoro. Personal items, artwork…we weren’t sure we even wanted to part with things like Clowes’ Windsor-Newton Series 7 brush #3…!! However, all the items in the box could be yours, so jump into the mayhem – auction runs until Wednesday, August 17th at noon EST. Check it the auction HERE! ————————————————————————————————— The School Library Journal recently published a great roundup of comics that display a bicultural America. Compiled and thoughtfully investigated by the amazing Brigid Alverson (editor of the Good Comics for Kids blog and 2012 Eisner Awards judge) the list includes many self-published and small press works, and features insights from the makers and perspective on what makes the comics medium especially well suited for telling culturally specific stories. ‘Many creators are drawn to how the visual aspect of the graphic novel medium enriches their narratives. “My story has a lot of awkwardness, and not all awkwardness is verbal,” says Brosgol (author of ‘Anya’s Ghost’). “I want the reader to feel for my protagonist, and being able to see her eyes when she’s going through something is so effective. I have big stretches with no text at all; those are the biggest treat to draw because it’s pure acting. I also love comics’ breezy ability to show physical humor—it’s much funnier to see someone falling in a ditch than to read a laborious description.”‘ Read the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Staying very much on topic, Yumi Sakugawa guest posted over on the Angry Asian Men blog this week (see image above for a description of what you can get into) – check out the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Gabriella Tito visited the Orlando Museum of Art recently and scribbled down some thoughts on the work she saw there and how it related to her own comics process. “…there was a video of Dawn Roe’s Mountain Field Studies being projected onto the wall. I almost felt like I was looking at a comic of fleeting observations of a mountain. In this series, she carefully put together details of a mountain into a series of blocked out images, and even some grids thrown in there! I couldn’t help but think about the observations I make when I’m creating a comic based on the environment around me. When I’m making an observational comic, I’ll usually make broader “statements” at first, meaning I don’t go too much into detail with the environment. These drawings will usually be wide shots of the scene, or even quick silhouettes of the subject matter. Then, I’ll start zooming in more and capturing those details in different ways. I like holding the tempo sometimes and lingering on a subject for a panel or two and then moving on. I apply this concept to other works I make as well and it hasn’t failed me yet!“ Read the rest of Gabriella’s Art Trip HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Hyperallergic caught up with Ilan Manouach, the artist who is making up an “entire new language composed of sculptural, touchable symbols and patterns, which are pieced together to tell a story.” Comics for the blind. With the Shapereader system, Manouach has made a 57-page comic called Arctic Circle. ‘The tundra of Lapland served as inspiration for Arctic Circle. “My whole visual landscape consisted of layers of dense snow imprinted by different animal traces, leftovers of a frenetic night activity,” Manouach says. Readers feel their way through the textural narrative, piecing together the story of two climatologists exploring the North Pole, research an ice column containing records of climate change in past ages. On their journey, they encounter traders, human rights activists, and Inuit dwellers. “They hope to decipher cryptic patterns, pretty much the same way the readers of Arctic Circle engage with the work,” Manouach says.‘ Check out more pictures of the book pages HERE and find out more about the Shapereader project. ————————————————————————————————— Sarah Glidden made a comic about Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein for The Nib this week. See the whole thing HERE! ————————————————————————————————— Rob Kirby’s Review Roundup, August 2016 Edition, wound up on Panel Patter this month, and as usual it’s full of excellent comics odds n’ ends. Of particular interest to me were his notes on work by Sophie FS – “…a mere 15 years old, she has a strikingly fluid, organic style of drawing—the antithesis of the manicured digital art that’s everywhere these days.” He reviewed three of her comics, settling on Iced Tea as his favorite. “…I was most struck by the emotionally direct Iced Tea, a short memoir about an incident of childhood emotional abuse. Sophia relates the time she and her brother were deliberately dropped off on the side of a country road by their mother for unspecified reasons: “She was angry at us and needed some time to cool off, I guess.” The bewildered pair, wondering if she will return, wander off into some sort of woodsy artist commune, where a simple act of kindness—something the children are clearly unused to—triggers a deep emotional reaction. Readers may find this story triggering memories of their own childhood sorrows—I’ve rarely seen such an honest depiction of vulnerability. The piece is made all the more moving by its straightforward presentation. I look forward to seeing what Sophia FS will be doing in the future—she is a talent to watch.” – Rob Kirby See what Sophie is getting up to HERE – and check out the rest of Rob’s August 2016 reviews HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Inés Estrada has a new book out called Sixth Mass Extinction, available via Perfectly Acceptable Press. It’s a “…psychedelic vision of creatures and ecosystems in decline. 20 (!!) new 4-color Risograph drawings. We fucked up and nature knows.” More picture samples HERE. ————————————————————————————————— This is Sally, signing off. Cheers! Share this page: [...]

03/07/2017

Aaron CockleMarch 6, 2017NewsAaron here today with CHOICES; Squid Maps; Stuck in the Middle; Terms & Conditions; Shaw Screening at SVA. ————————————————————————————————— Over at try harder, Carrie Jones takes another look at the 1990 anthology, CHOICES: A Pro-Choice Benefit Comic: White supremacism, economic injustice, incest, suicide, and religious persecution all make appearances in CHOICES. Re-reading this book has been an unpleasantly surreal experience. 27 years have gone by since its publication and women are still fighting to be seen as human beings. It’s frightening to see how fragile the gains made are. As a personal touchstone, the book reminds me of the special power of comics to convey complicated stories in an accessible way. As an artifact, CHOICES is a stark reminder to take nothing for granted. ————————————————————————————————— Serio-Comic War Map For The Year 1877 Donna Seger at streetsofsalem posted a few years back about octopus propaganda maps from the 19th-20th centuries: 1870 marks a turning point in European and world history with the unification of Germany (as well as Italy): Europe was now “filled out” and further territorial ambitions could only be satisfied by global imperialism and/or war. The maps from this time forward reflect this jingoism and fear, but anthropomorphic satire dulls the edge. One of the first major octopus maps, Fred Rose’s “Serio-Comic War Map For The Year 1877” shows Russia as the octopus-aggressor rather than Germany, even though the Crimean War had revealed the severe weaknesses of the Russian Empire (this is reflected on the map below by a wound on one of the octopus’ tentacles–that which is located in the proximity of the Crimea). From the British perspective that this map represents, it’s a bit early to portray Germany as the aggressor, and so Russia becomes either the ferocious bear or the reaching octopus. ————————————————————————————————— CBLDF Interviews Ariel Schrag Betsy Gomez at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund spoke with Ariel Schrag about the anthology she edited, Stuck in the Middle, being challenged for removal from a school library in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.A. : What would you say to parents who consider some of the subject matter of Stuck in the Middle inappropriate for their middle school-aged kids to read? Ariel Schrag: Every parent has the right to monitor his or her child’s reading (or TV watching, or movie watching, etc.), and if you don’t want your child reading Stuck in the Middle, I completely respect that choice. However, there’s a big difference between making that choice for your child and making it for every child, which is what banning the book does. My intent in editing this book was to help children who might be experiencing some of the things the characters in the book experience — bullying, rejection, acne, depression, etc. — feel less alone. These ‘messages’ are expressed through art and humor to make them more accessible and fun. In terms of foul language, sexual content, and teen smoking in the book, all the authors strove to present the teens and pre-teens in a realistic light. We may not like all of the decisions teenagers make, but if we sanitize their speech and behavior in our stories, our characters won’t be authentic. Real teens and pre-teens sometimes use these words and say and do these things. A book like this can present a good opportunity for dialogue between children and parents. Banning the book isn’t going to change children’s behavior or somehow save them from the hard truths of teenage life — I find it very hard to believe that a child would hear a swear word for the very first time in the book or that he or she would be made aware that teenagers sometimes have sexual relationships or smoke cigarettes. The only thing that can make an impact in the way children act is communication, and this book provides a platform for that. What would you say to students in Mid-Del School District who want to read your book? Thankfully, it is available in public libraries and for purchase at stores or online. ————————————————————————————————— Terms and Conditions: the bloviating cruft of the iTunes EULA combined with extraordinary comic book mashups Cory Doctorow reviews R.Sikoryak’s iTunes Terms & Conditions collection: In his end-notes, Sikoryak notes that he didn’t try to match the language to the action in the panels, drawing his pages first then shuffling them and flowing the text into them. What’s interesting (and revealing) is how often there is some weird confluence between the text and the pictures, and this says something important about the Terms and Conditions Sikoryak is lampooning. ————————————————————————————————— “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea” Screening with Director Dash Shaw Thursday, March 16, 7-10pm SVA Amphitheater, 209 East 23rd Street, 3rd floor, NYC Free and open to the public. Dash Shaw will introduce the film and Cartooning Coordinator Jason Little will interview him following the screening. ————————————————————————————————— The Spring Semester of the Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts today! There is a rolling start date for this semester of the course, so we will continue taking applications beyond this date. There are a few spots left – just apply! The course is 8 weeks long – 500 bux – payment plans are available. More details can be found HERE – or email santoroschoolATgmail to apply. ————————————————————————————————— A Cosmic Journey – 3-7-2017 – by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-7-2017 – by Gabriella Tito ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 3-7-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 3-7-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]

09/27/2017

Juan FernándezSeptember 27, 2017los Cómics / NewsEmpezamos el día con Andrea Galazina; El Publicadero en Manizales; Maria Luque y los tebeos de Cómics Workbook! ————————————————————————————————— Juan here: I’ve been blasting through this fall and am running on empty – OOF- the usual SPX circus, organizing the Pittsburgh Zine Fair, scheming for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) + organizing press conferences, handling catering and other administrative craziness at the day job at the Arts Council have me running ragged. I know, I know, no complaining, no complaining. It’s all good stuff and the haul will be over come October 12th. Just wanted to let you know how I’m doing . Anyway here’s the usual comics gold I bring you every week from Latin America and Spain. A little lighter a haul than usual, but just as shiny. *Turn on your translation devices* ————————————————————————————————— Andrea Galacina acaba de publicar “¡PUEDO DECIR LO QUE QUIERA! ¡PUEDO HACER LO QUE QUIERA! UNA GENEALOGÍA INCOMPLETA DEL FANZINE HECHO POR CHICAS“, una autoedición sobre el contexto del fanzine feminista en España. La fundadora de BOMBAS PARA DESAYUNAR también da algunos detalles del próximoPICHI FEST y habla sobre el DEPARTAMENTO DE FANZINES de la biblioteca de Mujeres. Ana Flecha les ofrece todos los detalles en esta entrevista en Madriz.com Léanlo todo AQUI. ————————————————————————————————— ¿Ya están listos para el Publicadero en Manizales, Colombia? Acá la programación. Todas las actividades son gratuitas: https://goo.gl/kUdxsQ ————————————————————————————————— Las estampas de color de María Luque – Entrevista “Usa el color como Matisse y los espacios de sus dibujos parecen salidos de algún sueño naíf. Le gusta viajar, los gatos y perseguir a extraños en los museos para luego consignarlos en su libreta de dibujo.” – Andrea Uribe Yepes En la casa de familia Luque en Rosario, Argentina, hay un daguerrotipo de su abuelo Teodosio Luque. Es un cuadro de un señor solemne de barba larga y cara de serio que asustaba a todos. María recuerda que de pequeña el cuadro rodaba por la casa: lo escondían en el baño, debajo de las camas. Cree que ese daguerrotipo lo hizo Cándido López, uno de sus artistas favoritos y de los únicos que manejaban la técnica por la zona. Esto es importante porque cuando empezó la Guerra de la Triple Alianza, su abuelo Teodosio fue enviado como médico y Cándido como soldado. Esa proximidad fue la que generó curiosidad en María y la historia de la cual partió su primera novela gráfica: La mano del pintor (2016). Léanlo todo AQUI. ————————————————————————————————— Frank Santoro made a comic book about his parents and now he needs help making a handbound copy of the book for each of them. It’s a good story. Check out the Indiegogo campaign HERE – or if you want to contribute via PayPal, look at the campaign HERE. ————————————————————————————————— The fall semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts October 1st 2017. 8 weeks of comics instruction that will bang your practice into shape – 500 bux. Full details about the course and how to apply can be found HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 9-27-2017 – by Gabriella Tito Share this page: [...]

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