inkstuds

4:02AM - New Question

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

What would you think of a cartoonist mixtape as an addition to the inkstuds podcasts?

1:54AM - Inkstuds Dirtybird

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

When I first started doing the Inkstuds show, many years ago, I had my good friend Robin Bougie design me a flyer. Knowing me as well as he does, Bougie creator a wonderfully awkward image of a bird type person as my stand in for radio show hosting. I have the nick-name Dirtybird that was given to me when I used to play hockey with some friends and was known for not being particularly good, but scrappy as all hell. So that’s how we get the Inkstuds Dirtybird. My extremely self-indulgent habit of late, has been to commission  cartoonists to do their versions. I am really happy with what I have been getting in the mail. You may have already seen the Joseph Bergin III image that I posted a couple of weeks ago. Today, I got another amazing piece. Many thanks to Paul Hornschemeier for lower his standards and taking my filthy money and turning out something truly terrible and wonderful. I was going to save this for my upcoming major good news, but I couldn’t wait.

7:15PM - Troy Little

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

Troy Little’s Angora Napkin is fine, fun little gem of a comic. Its one of those books where you can tell that the creator is having lots of fun making it. He also has Chiaroscuro, which seems to take on the darker part of Troy’s imagination.

6:34PM - Caitlin Black

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

I picked up Caitlin Black’s work after seeing it being nominated for Doug Wright award. I really enjoyed the three books that i pick up and look forward to seeing more work by this new Canadian talent.

12:36AM - Lauren Weinstein

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

It’s been awhile since I laughed this hard in an interview. Lauren Weinstein was a lot of fun to talk to, and I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did. Lauren’s work includes Girl Stories, Goddess of War, and Inside Vineyland. Lauren brings a unique view to comics that really expands on the artist aesthetics.

8:30AM - Prologue by Kenan Rubenstein

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

I opened Kenan’s small envelope with excitement. What manner of comic goodness (or badness) would be inside? And that’s why, though Prologue, a one-page comic in booklet form that unfolds as the plot does, is available online in its entirety, I suggest getting a paper copy, so that you too can find out what comes in small packages.

Prologue’s story concerns a shy guy at a party. With each unfolding of the comic, a new thought or event occurs in what proves to be a “too good to be true” night for him. Although the whole awkward-guy-finally-meets-adored-girl set up is overused in short story alternative comics, but I wanted to see where Kenan was going to take it and in the end I wasn’t disappointed.

By getting creative with grays, Kenan sets the rollicking party scene and night streetscapes apart from the romantic drama happening in them. His main characters are in richly shadowed black and white, also highlighting the intense quality of their interaction.

Prologue is a good example of form dictating narrative flow. I’d like to see more of these Oubliettes (French for secret dungeons) and how Kenan continues to work with the folded form.

12:40AM - Jin & Jam 1 by Hellen Jo

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

Do you remember those post-apocalyptic 80s movies where the world is all teenagers and everybody roams in packs and smokes and is bad? Hellen Jo’s world is kind of like that except everybody is thirteen years old and Asian.

We are introduced to Jam and Hank, two greasy, smoking, kids fucking around outside of a church somewhere in Californialand. When out of the church comes Jin, bored of rabid sermons on sin, long hair flowing and a disapproving remark on her lips, a strange alliance is born between her and Jam. Add Ting and Terng, foul-mouthed conjoined twins with an appetite for fighting, a potato chip beef at the bus stop and the healing power of rock n roll, and you’ve got the first issue of a kick ass fight comic all rolled up.

The story may be slight in this first issue, but the characters are so fully formed that they’re practically heaving with back story. Occasional non-instigatory dialogue bits hint at the kids’ larger worldviews in an effective way that doesn’t break the action:
“Why would they build a playground across from a bar?”
“…So all the kids in town know where they’re going to end up.”

However, all that would be nothing without Jo’s beautiful, intricate, black and white art. Her delicate lines sketch her coarse characters perfectly. There are visual cues to the character’s secrets everywhere, like when Jin meets Jam for the first time, and Jam’s mischievous face is framed by wild and beautiful fish that seem to cloud Jin’s internal controls, signaling confusion ahead. The panels explode with the surreality of teenagedom, where every sound, smell and moment is amplified to an excruciating degree. Jo creatively uses traditional panel structure to animate the fight scenes, using the rigidity to somehow highlight the physicality of her characters in action.

I fell for Jin & Jam after the second reading. Now that I’m hooked I can only hope the next issues deliver more story with the biff bang pow.

10:15PM - Second Thoughts by Niklas Asker

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

I really enjoyed Second Thoughts by Niklas Asker on an initial level. It’s quirky smart story of misguided love. Asker sets up a great story in a style similar to state side cartoonists, Nate Powell and Farel Dalrymple. He really plays with the black and white work bring the characters down to a basic level. Asker leave allot to the readers imagination to put together parts of the story in their own heads. it’s something I really enjoy in a cartoonist. It is a similar flavour in vagueness to someone like Gipi or Simon Roy, but using a completely different genre. The main fallback is that it is too short. I am curious to see what he can come up with when dealing with a longer story and has more space to play with.

1:51PM - Jordan Crane

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

Jordan Crane’s Uptight is one the last regular comics coming out nowadays. The series format is much like old issues of Love and Rockets or Yummy Fur, something that is a nice break in this “graphic novel” focused market. He has also been doing these incredible Silk Screen prints that blow my mind and as well as a little series of comics called Non.

7:58PM - Menstruation Station: Menarche Aboard! by Jen Vaughn

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

How could I resist? Though I didn’t get my copy at a convention, and therefore missed out on the free tampon, there was no way I would miss a book with such bloody themes.

Jen Vaughn is a MFA student at CCS. Her focus in Menstruation Station is less coming-of-age wah wahs and more fantasies inspired by blood and blood production. “Safety Net” is a circus love story gone down the drain and the inside of a vagina, “VIP Seats” is about sacrifices people make for the rock and roll lifestyle, and “Charms” is a funny, Buffy-style take on teenage witchery. “So Now You Are a Woman” is the only take on menarche proper, and instead of being smug and reassuring like most stories about that first bloody day, it’s a negative (and very true) rendering of the experience.

The four short stories and assorted extras in the mini show her facility depicting motion and the emotions of the characters through facial expression. The inky brushwork in concert with light, deft lines, add a lushness to some of her subjects (hair, shadows, blood fountains) and move your eye around each panel. Perhaps I’m a bit old-fashioned, but my reading experience would have been a bit better if each story had a title panel, or some other way of signaling the start of a new story.

Because Vaughn’s character design is so good, I wanted the stories to be longer and fuller. I am looking forward to the next installment.

2:26AM - The Bridge Project review by Robin

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

The Bridge Project is one of the more delightful anothologies that I have read in a while. It has all the markings of a good indie anthology, a simple theme that is easy to follow, and strong creators that were chosen for the project. The concept is pretty simple, a cartoonists from Portland and San Francisco collaborate on stories. The nice thing about it, is that while some stories are about the cities the creators live in, they avoid the easy trappings of all being autobio stries of being cartoonists in cool communities(although that is the case with a couple of the stories, it’s ok, because it’s not the majority).

Some of the favs in the book, include a nice balance piece by superstars Rina Ayuyang and Erika Moen. It highlights some of the wonders and joys of their own home towns, with the collaboration seem to be based on shared ideas but they still work independtly to their own strengths. Scott Campbell and Graham Annable team up for completely insane sea chantey that can only come from their combined minds. David Chelsea works solo for story of one mans differences and experiences between the two cities.

Overall, I am pretty happy with this book, I think people should take note of work that has gone into this book and see what goes into making a quality indy anthology.

6:42PM - T. Edward Bak

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

T. Edward Bak’s Service industry is high on my list of comics that you haven’t read yet, but really should. Since putting that out, he has a great ongoing story begining in Mome 15, Drawn and Quarterly Showcase 5 and the great anthology, Orchid(worth picking up just for Lasky’s adaptation of the Raven alone). He also did a couple of great pieces that are on the National Geographic site from his trip to Alaska.

6:30PM - Noah Van Sciver

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

Noah Van Sciver makes some great self publish comics that read like they came from the mind of a crazed hobo. Seriously, they are great. Check out Blammo and his story in the Mome 15.

4:26AM - Scott McCloud on Comics as a Form of Media

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

For the conclusion of my own going interviews regarding comics as a form of media, Scott McCloud. I am really thankful for Scott taking the time to chat with me, given the importance of Understanding Comics in courses on comics, it is vital to have him taking part in an ongoing dialogue on comics.

4:21AM - Matt Madden on Comics as a Form of Media

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

Matt Madden brings some really great idea’s from the artists point of view on Media topic.

7:12PM - Jeet Heer on Comics as a Form of Media

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

Jeet Heer brings some really interesting ideas to the table in regards to the formation and history of comics.

7:08PM - Tom Spurgeon on Comics as a Form of Media

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

Here is the full interview with Tom Spurgeon for the Comics and Media Audiodoc.

3:57AM - Eddie Campbell on Comics as a Form of Media

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

Here is my conversation with Eddie Campbell, about comics as a form of media. I think you will be Surprised by what Eddie has to say.

4:55PM - Comics as a Form of Media

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

This weeks Inkstuds is a little different. I put together an audio documentary as a project for school on the history of media. As you can no doubt guess, my interest is in comics and I try to do as many of my papers as possible on some kind of topic that has to do with comics.  This project is an audio documentary that looks at comics as a form of media in itself. I was lucky to get some really great guests that allowed me to subject them to my somewhat pedestrian questions.

Where do the roots of comics stand in regards to other forms of media?
How do comics work?
What were the strengths of early comics/weaknesses?
Was there a central use for comics?
How did that change with time?
How do modern comics compare with early examples? Is it a continuation?
When looking at the Mohamed comics controversy, is that an isolated incident, or does it hold a place in the greater scope of the medium?
Where does Werthams studies on juvenile delinquency belong in the development of the medium?

I will be posting the full interviews over the coming week, at a rate of one a day. The guests featured in this documentary include:

Jeet Heer - Co-Editor of A Comic Studies Reader, as well as countless articles about comics and introductions to collections like Krazy Kat and Walt and Skeezix.

Tom Spurgeon - His blog, www.comicsreporter.com is a resource that is respected across the comics industry for Tom’s journalistic integrity and in-depth coverage.

Matt Madden - Co-Author of Drawing Words and Writing Pictures and teaches cartooning at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.

Eddie Campbell - Cartoonist behind works like Alec, Bacchus, From Hell, Fate of the Artist and much more.

Scott McCloud - Author of Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics and Making Comics.

1:30AM - Dater’s Dozen by Melaina

Originally published at Inkstuds. You can comment here or there.

Dater’s Dozen by Melaina is a fun little mini. I really enjoyed this book. It’s the kind of autobio comic I enjoy, personal, friendly and does not take it self too seriously. The art is a nice simplistic style, that at times, is reminiscent of John Porcellino. The story itself, is an engaging journey following Melaina through a series of disastrous dates. The story makes me feel a little old at times, as I forget how painful the awkwardness of attempted courtship could be. I am kind of surprised by the long list of mini comics that she has listed in the back of Dater’s Dozen, but this is the first thing that I have seen by her. I know that she is friends with MariNaomi, and you can see that carry over into this work in the type of story that she is telling. It’s not a direct type of related cartooning, but more like a similar grouping(do I make sense here). In the world of reading autobio comics by dudes, writing about their relationship mishaps, it’s nice to see it from the other side.