text:
Posted in los Cómics, News
Juan Fernández
Juan FernándezMay 23, 2016NewsJuan Fernandez with: Berliac's Gwai-Lo of the Heart; Jessica Abel on becoming a professional; Sara Lautman and Sophia Foster-Dimino; Matt Furie; Abhay Khosla on Dan DiDio; New comics from Matt Seneca + Cameron Weston Nicholson; Comics in the Globe and Mail. ————————————————————————————————— Gwai-Lo of the Heart We're happy to feature Gwai-Lo of the Heart by Berliac on the site this week. Made in 2015 for Comics Workbook, Gwai-Lo of the Heart is a clever and mysteriously striking series of 4 panel comics that plays with the associations usually made with the West's gaze towards manga.These little comics pack a poetic. punch. Can you dig it? Read it all here. ————————————————————————————————— Art and Commerce – Raising the Bastard Jessica Abel has put together an honest look over on her site at why you shouldn't be disregarding the finances of your comics making practices if you want to be a professional. Jessica Abel: I hear so many aspiring cartoonists, writers, artists, audio producers, and other creatives saying something along the lines of: "I'm hoping to really master this art form so that I can achieve my dream of becoming a professional _____." But mastering the art form, finishing work that is at a professional level, this counts for maybe 40% of what it means to become a professional…whatever. Mastering your art form is how you become a great artist. It is not how you become a professional. ————————————————————————————————— Sara Lautman and Sophia Foster-Dimino in Conversation Foster-Dimino: Making art, even commercial illustration, is a tricky premise, because you want to distinguish yourself from the crowd, but not so much that you become an aberration, so you look within yourself to try to mine what makes you unique, but you also look out to confirm that your uniqueness is still relatable—it's a very delicate balance, a struggle between wanting to experiment and make progress versus wanting to play it safe and stay predictable. People want to see growth from themselves and the world, but not too much too quickly. I think many folks have an innate sense for this. But a mood disorder by nature warps your metrics. ————————————————————————————————— Myspace -> Meme -> Mainstream Creator of Boy's Club, Matt "Big Dog" Furie getting the credit he's due. It's about time! Here's a great look at Furie's invisibly effective comics technique by George Elkind. L.A. TACO interview (2016). VICE interview (2015) TMSIDK Podcast interview (2012) Boy's Club is now available from Fantagraphics! ————————————————————————————————— ISSUE, RULE, APPLICATION – Abhay Khosla on Dan DiDio For many years, I know I've complained about Dan DiDio, and this has seemed like an especially worthy topic to discuss given recent events. So below is some of my own reasoning that I've had in believing that Mr. DiDio should have been removed many years ago from his position at DC, a belief I only feel more urgently given recent events. In an ideal world, he would be promoted higher in a corporate hierarchy to a position of irrelevancy, to a position that actually utilized whatever strengths Mr. Davis and others might see in him, while removing him far from the day-to-day nuts & bolts of the mainstream comics industry, where I will argue below he is unsuited. Read it all in depth over at Savage Critic. ————————————————————————————————— Burgundy Cameron Weston Nicholson's got a new comic for sale post-TCAF. Visual Poetry, mixing the hue with who. Illustrated Poetry with visual definition, feeling. An 18 Page Poem comic. Will come signed with a doodle by yours truly. Get 'em while you can! Only 22 left 😉 ————————————————————————————————— Frankie Teardrop and 200 Deaf Boys Matt Seneca's latest comics are now available in his webstore. Frankie Teardrop, a brutal, action packed superhero parody and the 4th and final part of 200 Deaf Boys, a Christian mysticism horror show. ————————————————————————————————— 2016 Igntatz Submissions Deadline – June 7th Since 1997, the Ignatz Awards have been intended to recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. If you would like your recent work to be considered for the Ignatzes, now's the time to send in your comics. Submission details are available here! ————————————————————————————————— The Globe & Comics Sean Rogers over at The Globe and Mail has reviewed After Nothing Comes by Aidan Koch,, Bird in a Cage by Rebecca Roher and, Kramers Ergot 9. It's exciting to see quality, independently produced work reviewed online and in print by a publication with such wide range. ————————————————————————————————— Until next time! Juan Share this page: [...]
Juan FernándezMarch 7, 2018los Cómics / NewsJuan with some thoughts on examining what it means to write when making comics! ————————————————————————————————— The other night, over dinner here in Pittsburgh, Jenn Lisa and I were talking about making autobio comics and she asked "Are comics mostly writing? Only?". It made me stop in my tracks. That's a good question. To me, comics are more writing than they are drawing. That writing process though, is one that far different from this common notion: And the drawing? In comics, the drawing is really just about the recording of images. To clarify, the writing – tt's how those recorded images are arranged and presented. I just heard someone say that the dirty secret of comics is that it is mostly writing and if you haven't done good writing all you made was a pretty picture. And everything in me wants to dispute that. It isn't that cut and dry to me. – Jenn Lisa I agree and disagree. Yes, the dirty secret is that comics is mostly writing. That is true. I firmly believe that. But the only people that I ever hear touting that idea usually have a very narrow definition of writing. So how does that affect you as a comics maker? Well, indulge me in a tangent. This one is for all you folks that hate the planning and foresight that you see kill joy and beauty in many comics makers practices. It's an idea you might already be familiar with, but I just want to sing the song more fully into the ether. We don't hone in on meaning by having a creative process that follows a straight line, the reality is that most of us spiral in on that meaning, by diligent work. But what if you don't know what you're trying to say? That's ok. You can still make comics without knowing what you're trying to say, so long as you know that you're trying to say something. Your comics will still have an impact, even if you're not communicating exactly what you intend. How do you get to that meaning? There's this thing that happens, in comics making, and art in general that I'd like to talk about. What is the nature of the back and forth between the work a reader does and the work a writer does? Writer here being the operative name for the person making the comic. Sam Ombiri and I have talked about it at length during the Pittsburgh Comics Salons monthly meet ups. If I take 14 random drawings from my pile of post it notes and arrange them across 4 pages, and I give it to you in a little booklet, your brain, the readers brain, stitches together a patter of cohesion. That pattern will vary connect disparate elements. Make order out of chaos. They try to figure out a pattern. Why are these images together? The reader does all this work without trying. They can't help it. As a comics maker, that is a tool that we are using. A reader is naturally going to be interpreting what we assemble together. As a result, we can be playful, intuitive in what we draw and how we arrange what we draw. It will be stitched together by the reader. You don't need to shove the connective tissue of narrative and symbolism down a reader's throat. You don't need to know everything you are trying to do. That's all pretty explored territory conceptually among many comics makers. The part where my conversations with Sam get interesting is when we talk about signal processing a little more in depth. The signal interpreted by the listeners brain CAN be the same one that you are making. BUT, it can also not be that, while still being an interesting signal. The meaning you intend can be communicated, and you can work at figuring out how to effectively communicate that meaning so that they get what you intended them to get out of the written sequence. There's a beautiful dance between signal and noise that we are working through when we create art for others to interpret. But no matter what, their brain is going to interpret a signal. The realization was a breakthrough. You can choose how intentional you are about the signal you are transmitting. With that knowledge, you can allow the process of drawing and writing and editing to flow more intuitively. Allowing yourself. You can choose to simply be a radio antenna with your drawings on the page, and how you arrange those drawings on the page in ways that feel intuitively, "right" or "good" to you – your comic will beam a signal to the brain of the other through the reading experience, whether you are aware of that signal or not. This is a model of aural communication, just swap out aural for visual 😉 Don't be afraid to allow the process to be a Rorshach test of your subconscious. You can see what comes out in your drawing, your arranging. Allow for the accidents! Keep moving. Keep making marks, keep tracing, keep moving your index cards. You don't have to know what you're looking for, you just need to know that you're looking. The paper trail you leave in your search for truth in your comics, that's your writing. All that said, in a more grounded sense, the process of editing, that traditional refining that we do as cartoonists, that's where writing is also happening. Every step of the way, where you change, add or subtract meaning, that's writing. Color blocking is writing. How you scoot images, how you erase, what you add after initial drawings and after you let work sit for a little while, that's all writing. The intentional arrangement of anything, to be parsed and understood a certain way, that's writing. So yes, comics are mostly/only writing. But not in the way you think they are. * It's funny to me that the "writing" in panels and across pages in comics found as lettering is fundamentally drawing. That's a point Kevin Huizenga drives home to his students. More on that, another day. ————————————————————————————————— Los cómics y las noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: ~ en Español y in English ~ En el último #FanzineMagazine Paloma García Zúñiga habla de "Necrópolis del Este" y el gran MAX les cuenta su música para dibujar con Victor Coyote y Mireia Pérez. Escúchalo aquí. Having trouble with anxiety attacks? Well fret no more! Kat Fajardo offers up an illustrated guide on remedies and why it works. Check out this Pay-What-You-Wish publication and consider sending it to a loved one! Esteban Hernández charla en Cafe con Vistas sobre tebeos y su Moneda músical. Podrá ser miercoles, sí, pero también hay nuevo número de Revista Cactus. Lo puedes leer ya enterito y gratis, aquí: http://bit.ly/2Fbz6CW Inés Estrada gives you the low down on How to Avoid Boredom over on vice.com ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 3-7-2018 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]
Charlotte, NC Scene Report
Frank SantoroOctober 30, 2011Riff Raff / Scene ReportsThis week's scene report is brought to you by Dustin Harbin. I first met Dustin at Heroes Con back in 2008. Check out this picture of me, Dan and Tim at the ComicsComics panel they had for us. Boy, that was a fun show. Dustin was working for the show's organizer and was in charge of "Indy Island"- and he got to create this awesome show within a show. There was literally a big spot in the center of the hall that was for us indy guys. Jaime was there. Evan Dorkin was there. The Pittsburgh crew of Jim Rugg, Ed Piskor, and Tom Scioli. Sammy Harkham. Kevin H. Brian Ralph. Me, Dan and Tim. In Charlotte, North Carolina? This was the kind of show that Michael Golden went to. Chris Pitzer introduced me to Matt Wagner – that should tell you what kind of show it was. Lots of great back issues – a classy old school convention. It wasn't really an "indy" show – but Dustin made it into one. (Or tried to. Long story) That was where I first met Tom Spurgeon. And his hi-larious brother, Whit. Saw Marc Arsenault – whom I hadn't seen over a decade. There was a Dub music and Hot Rod show slash dance party in the same convention center that year. So in the hotel bar there were a lot of 6 feet tall Amazon women every night. One morning Brian Ralph had this amazing story about getting into the dance party. It was a really fun time and I always think if it wasn't for Dustin most of us "indy" guys wouldn't have gone to that show. So, thanks, Dustin. Mr. Harbin has become quite a cartoonist since we first met. I asked him to fill us in on the goings on in his hometown of Charlotte. Check it out after the new DeForge cartoon! Over and out. ———————— INTERMISSION FUNNIES by MICHAEL DEFORGE ———————– Charlotte, NC scene report by Dustin Harbin Charlotte is a weird city, in that it has a fairly large comics readership, but lacks a truly vibrant comics scene; though the seeds are there. Most of the existing comics community is related in some way to Heroes Aren't Hard To Find, one of the larger comics shops in the country, the organizer of the yearly Heroes Convention, and my employer for most of 14 years. Shelton Drum started out in Charlotte selling comics at flea markets and by mail order back in the 70's, and then in 1980 he established Heroes in a teeny tiny little space just around the corner from where it is now. In the boom years of the late 80's and 90's, Heroes Aren't Hard To Find had as many as six different stores going at one time, from Florida up through Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I showed up in 1996 just in time to usher in The Great Comic Book Miasma Of The Late Nineties–within a couple years, Shelton had shrunk his mini-empire down to one shop, and since then has focused on just making that shop the best shop. I say that Heroes is the center of the Charlotte comics scene not out of loyalty to my former employer–although I am loyal–but more because I really think there would be no real scene at all without him. Shelton built comics up around here, has consistently–even despite my arguments to the contrary when I was doing the ordering–insisted on carrying the most complete stock possible, and through Heroes Convention has brought thousands of comic book pros to town over the last thirty years. There are other shops in Charlotte, but for my money without the bulwark of Heroes Aren't Hard To Find through the lean years, Charlotte would just be one of those cities with a couple of crappy strip mall shops that smell like pee and cigarettes. We're not a particularly culturally rich city; just a few affluent suburbs sprinkled around some banks, with a college about 10 miles away, completely disconnected from the city.†Without a truly vibrant cultural community, Charlotte is mainly a city of consumers, not makers. Apply this in spades to comic books–I can think of maybe half a dozen full time cartoonists working around here. If you look at the really great comics cities, they seem to coalesce around great shops, and are then perpetuated by a community of artists. Think of Pittsburgh, where you have a Jim Rugg, Tom Scioli, and Ed Piskor active in their community, talking to new cartoonists, encouraging and offering advice. That kind of thing is invaluable. You can get it from other communities, online for instance, but it's not the same as feeling like a part of a real, visceral community–meeting the other artists on equal terms, talking about what you're doing, learning as you go. Whenever I travel to another city with a strong comics scene, I'm always intensely envious. New York or Toronto or Chicago–the cartooning communities are so large there are multiple individual scenes within the same city! If you live in Chicago and are a cartoonist, it's probably old hat to ride your bike over to someone's loft and draw with Laura Park and Aaron Renier and Jeremy Tinder and Jeffrey Brown, no big whoop. But! We are making strides, in our own way. Because there is a large comics reading community in Charlotte–Heroes' continued success, and the success of HeroesCon, is testament to that. We've just been slow to build a creative community to match. But it's starting to happen. A few years ago, Eraklis Petmezas started Sketch Charlotte, a group of artists and creative people into comic books, who meet at the Showmars across the street from Heroes once a week. Weirdly, I've never actually been, even though I live right around the corner myself. I tried to go this past week, with this article in mind, but they were already wrapping things up when I showed up late. Heroes employees Seth Peagler and Rico Renzi, the latter of which is a professional comics colorist also, were outside chatting with Henry Eudy, who'd printed up some inking exercises Ben Towle had put up on his site. It was nice. I don't know why I've never been. Possibly because they don't serve booze at Showmars, and also… Showmars. Regardless, the list of regulars and semi-regulars at Sketch Charlotte is close to a complete list of the comics pros living in Charlotte: Jason Latour, he of the recent TCJ interview, Chris Brunner, Bridgit Scheide, Chrissie Zullo, and probably some more who I'm forgetting. It's a start. The other thing Charlotte's got going for it as a comics scene is Andy Mansell, who runs the semi-monthly Heroes Discussion Group, which he and I created together back in 2007 or so, but which only he has had the energy and drive and acumen to maintain. The image above is from the Ghost World discussion a few weeks ago, which was great.†Andy will read a book backwards and forwards, take another book's worth of notes on it, come up with a million theories regarding minutiae the rest of us never noticed, and still patiently allow most of the discussion to be guided by the ideas of the group. He doesn't get paid for it, he's just a smart guy who likes comics and wants to talk about them. I bring up Andy and the discussion group not to make it sound like the whole Charlotte comics scene is wrapped around that one shop–I'm sure the other store owners in Charlotte might disagree. But I do think our scene, and probably most scenes in most cities, grow up around a few passionate people who just start to make things happen. Whether it's a Shelton Drum or Andy Mansell or Bill Boichel or Jim Rugg or whoever. If you live in a town without a real comics scene, I guess you're just going to have to start one yourself. It's not going to just happen while you sit moldering in your house curled over your drawing board (like me). Share this page: [...]
Sally IngrahamAugust 5, 2016NewsFriday, and what a week! Sally here to sift through it with you: I've got Audra Stang's new comic, a bit more time spent with Caitlin McGurk (and Lucy Caswell for good measure!), interviews and words of wisdom from Marjane Satrapi, Emma Watson, Mari Naomi, Yumi Sakugawa, Andrea Tsurumi, and me (in a more official capacity than my usual Friday ramblings…) 1…2…3…GO! ————————————————————————————————— Audra Stang spent a very productive 3 days at the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency in Pittsburgh, PA, in July, and now she is serializing the comic she made during that time (first page pictured above). See what she has shared so far HERE and look for updates every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in August! ————————————————————————————————— I (Sally Ingraham) got interrupted the other day while I was working at the Rowhouse, by Frank Santoro and a camera crew, and ended up talking about teaching comics, researching comics, and my ideas about "comics roller derby". Part One is above – watch Part Two HERE. Expect MUCH MORE from the Comics Workbook Roller Derby league soon…! ————————————————————————————————— Columbus Alive profiled Caitlin McGurk yesterday, and although CW correspondent Harrison Prince mentioned it in our Thursday news post, I wanted to spend a little more time with her. I think McGurk is an incredibly rad lady, and she's following the sort of path through comics and library science that I aspire to. As the piece states: "Caitlin McGurk was destined to work in the comics industry. There were telltale signs during her childhood on Long Island. She remembers obsessively collecting and organizing comic book cards and admiring the pictures in the "Stations of the Cross" while waiting in the communion line at her Catholic church. "That was probably my first experience with sequential art because there these beautiful stained glass or carved images with a little bit of text," McGurk said. "I'd study the image and read the text a thousand times." Following high school, McGurk put out her own mini comics and zines and interned at an auction house where she catalogued – and fell in love with – underground comix (small press or self-published comic books). She interviewed famous cartoonists like Chester Brown for her senior college thesis on memory and consciousness in the graphic novel, and went on to obtain a master's degree in library and information science from Long Island University." Erica Thompson via Columbus Alive Caitlin McGurk is now an associate curator at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Columbus, OH. There she is able to stay on target regarding one of her life goals – that is, making her own "…contribution to the world of comic scholarship…about celebrating the unsung history of women in comics." One of McGurk's recent pieces of comics scholarship was an in-depth look at the work of Etta Hulme (1923-2014), who was the chief editorial cartoonist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for 36 years. Caitlin McGurk writes: "During her long and industrious career, Etta provided a consistent voice in cartooning. Her path wasn't always easy; she was one of the only women to be hired as a full-time newspaper cartoonist, and was frequently carped for her boldly liberal views in a conservative Texan town. Etta laughed off criticism and even threats; her endless wit and terrific determination are best illustrated by her daily cartoons." – Caitlin McGurk via the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Blog You can see pictures of some of the Etta Hulme collection that the BICLM hosts HERE, and read more of what McGurk wrote about her! It's no coincidence that the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum employs incredible women like Caitlin McGurk – after all it was founded by the tremendous Lucy Shelton Caswell (pictured below during a recent interview – we'll be keeping our ears peeled for it!) Here's our fearless founder Lucy Shelton Caswell being interviewed today by WOSU about the life of Frank Higgs – Milton Caniff's dear friend and inspiration for the Terry And The Pirates character "Dude Hennick" A photo posted by Billy Ireland Cartoon Library (@cartoonlibrary) on Aug 3, 2016 at 1:51pm PDT As Tom Spurgeon wrote in a 2014 interview with Caswell: "Caswell is an accomplished author about comics, and has done significant work in bringing cartoon art to bear in the teaching of history. My favorite comics-related moment of 2013 was the long, deserved moment of applause Caswell received during the Billy Ireland opening ceremony. The comics community owes her more than it can ever repay. She is a role-model for every non-creative to work in proximity to this great art form, and for everyone else besides." – Tom Spurgeon via The Comics Reporter Spurgeon and Caswell dig deep into history and comics and the history of comics in the rest of the interview – check it out HERE. And keep Lucy Caswell on your radar – her work is nowhere near finished. ————————————————————————————————— There is an interesting interview over on Rookie with Yumi Sakugawa – Madeline Keyes-Levine asked her a series of questions and Yumi Sakugawa answered with "…magical, illustrated responses, featuring some cat friends, the pros of self-publishing (pictured above), and an exercise you can do to start meditating literally whenever you want." Check out the whole thing HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Daniel Barron conducted an interview with Mari Naomi recently for Yay!LA Art and Culture Magazine, and things got intense. "Sometimes you need to cross the line to know where it is. That's something I think about as I am seated for coffee with illustrator Mari Naomi. After an hour discussing her history and work I feel like I've said too much about myself, anxious to tiptoe back wherever the line is. Call it a testament to the honesty of her work, whose loose, confessional nature makes one desire to meet it in the middle." – Daniel Barron Get to know them both, I guess, HERE. ————————————————————————————————— It really was a big week for women cartoonists, with at least two more items that we found for you. Andrea Tsurumi appeared on the Virtual Memories Show podcast with Gil Roth – "Rising comics star — don't blame me, that's what Publishers Weekly just called her — Andrea Tsurumi joins the show to talk about her new collection, Why Would You Do That? (Hic & Hoc Publications). We get into her off-kilter sense of humor and why I love it, why she chose that title, the most sadistic children's book ever written and why she adapted it, the comics industry's saving grace (it's too small to fail), staged photos during the Civil War, the challenge of teaching comics, her attempt at a work/art/life balance, the comics, cartoons and picture books that influenced/warped her, why she left New York, the truth about cakes vs. pies, and more!" – Gil Roth Give it a listen HERE! Then of course there is the Emma Watson/Marjane Satrapi interview for Vogue that is making Harry Potter fans, at the very least, learn a thing or two about comics. And feminism. And Iran. It's really quite good. "…I think it's extremely important that we try to change our lives around ourselves. When I was 30 years old, I said, "I'm going to change this world," and after 10 years, the world was changing me. I became a cynical person who did not believe in anything anymore. And so I said, "I am losing even myself," and then decided "Okay, from now on I'm going to change myself, and if I change myself, I have changed a little bit of this world. I will try to be a better person." I don't always succeed in that because the nasty side of me is big, but I try . . . I try." – Marjane Satrapi Read the rest HERE. ————————————————————————————————— Let's keep up this pace, ladies! And the rest of you too of course. Don't let the doldrums of summer get you. More comics news coming your way Monday – till then, cheers. – Sally Share this page: [...]
Juan FernándezFebruary 8, 2017los Cómics / NewsJuan José con un poquito sobre: Sirio de Martín López Lam; talleres en #GRAFBCN2017; Chicks on Comics's full slate of programming; VRDR Scarlet Witch Preview; Inés Estrada's Alienation 3; La Hora del Bocadillo; La Polola Podcast; Hits with Tits talk posters. Sirio – Martín López Lam (Fulgencio Pimentel – 2016) I've been looking for a gripping work of comics poetics that can hold a candle to the winds of narrative… The wait is over. Sirio is here. Lovers in crisis amidst a holiday during low season on the coast, an unresolved death and an even deeper mystery in the observation of nature. Clouds, rocks, the behavior of dogs and children in the neighborhood become signs that are offered to a narrator's/our stunned eyes. An earthly thriller, many questions and a single answer, or at least an insinuation, in the stars. Sirio. Sirio is a graceful, cloud-like story, intense and as awe-inspiring as a summer storm, combining the best of the titanic visual skills of Martin López Lam with his extraordinary literary sensibility. The texture and atmosphere of these pages confronts us with the underground stream of antagonistic feelings that flow between a man and a woman, in the best tradition of narrators like Raymond Carver, John Cheever, or James Salter. To achieve this, Martín speaks a language that bridges the comics and cartooning idioms of arguably the most Eastern of the great western cartoonists (David Mazzucchelli) and the most western of the great mangaka (Seiichi Hayashi). Sirio confirms Martín López Lam as one of the most gifted and versatile visual narrators of the in contemporary Spanish comics. No comic has buffeted me viscerally the way that Sirio does. The elemental force of Sirio is incredible. Sirio is not yet in English. Alas! Not to worry though, the images do the heavy lifting here. I hope an English translation comes soon so it can grip you tightly. Until then, order a copy from the great Spanish publisher, Fulgencio Pimentel. Practice your Spanish and soak in the images and the words! DO IT! Cómics y noticias que me han llamado la atención esta semana: Chicks on Comics have a full slate of programming this weekend at Fundación PROA in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Don't miss Power Paola, María Delia Lozupone, María Luque and co. for two amazing afternoons of talks. Marvel's got a preview of Vanesa R. Del Rey's work with James Robinson Scarlet Witch #15 – (take note VRDR devotees: on sale February 22nd). Berliac's got some new comics on Vice – Asian Food Store Junkies – A match made in heaven, or the opposite? You decide… #GRAFBCN2017 has announced several workshops for their March 3-5 comics festival in Barcelona. Among them is a master class con Natacha Bustos y Javi Rodríguez. Sign up for their talleres HERE. Inés Estrada just finished the 3rd issue of Alienation. Copies will be available on Feb. 22 along with the reprint of issue 1! Keep up with her at @inechii on twitter for all the details on her latest works. Along with her own comics she distros some incredible work from Mexico on her shop www.gatosaurio.com, so get hep. On the radio in Spain: La hora del bocadillo – 04/02/17 – La Grieta, tebeos y neurociencia y Generación X. ——— La Polola Podcast is on hiatus! Vacation is vacation. As Sol Díaz Castillo y Marcela Trujillo gear up for their new season they have a contest going while on vacation! Draw your favorite song and catch up with the podcast! It's always a fun, relaxing and enlightening listen. If you haven't tuned in to La Polola just yet, Póngale Play. Hits With Tits is exhibiting the show poster work of 40 women in Barcelona. Quique Ramos presents a poster making play-by-play by 6 comics makers and illustrators that'll be at the CARA B festival on February 17-18: Roberta Vázquez, Nuria Riaza, Conxita Herrero, Cristina Daura, Maria Herrero y Marlene Krause. Echale un vistazo a este medallón estilo Pompeii! Hecho en Pittsburgh. Frank Santoro le encarguo a la gran Airi Maeno que le hiciera unos medallones de plata utilisando uno de sus dibujos. Este dibujo viene de su libro Pompeii. Es algo que podrias imaginar que alguien se pondría hace dos mil años. Unico. Clasico. Un simple medallón de un ser querido. Un retrato. Algo permanente para desafiar a la desaparición. ————————————————————————————————— 2-8-2017 – by Jack Brougham ————————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 2-8-2017 – by Sally Ingraham ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-8-2017 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— Cozytown – 2-8-2017 – by Juan Fernandez Share this page: [...]
Posted on March 28, 2018 March 28, 2018 by Juan Fernández
Juan Fernandez on Pepo's EL CONDORITO and the Spring Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers!
El primer libro de Condorito por Pepo esta descargable gratuitamente en el sitio de la Bibilioteca Nacional de Chile. You can now download the first collection of Chile's national treasure, Condorito.
Condorito is lazy, charming, and irresponsible. It's a wonderful, top notch gag strip full of character. The strip was created in 1949 by René Ríos Boettiger(Pepo) in Chile as a specific response to the arrival of the American cultural offensive offensive to conquer South America ideologically via Walt Disney in 1942. His eponymous strip has been one of the most popular in all Latin America, in part because it is unmistakably Chilean.
Download your copy of this 100+ page PDF HERE!
The sterilization of Condorito
Over on The Week, Lili Loofbourow's written a piece in response to Condorito's CGI arrival to the big screen. Her piece does a good job contextualizing Condorito in today's media landscape and what is wrong with the latest movie. Condorito is a victim of the "design by committee" process that sterilizes anything that is ever intended for children…
Essential to El Condorito is Pepo's attention to sense of place. Pelotillehue, Condorito's hometown, is a real, scrappy town with nooks and crannies and a history of its own. Akin to Carl Barks'/Don Rosa's Duckburg in their respective Donald Duck comics, we learn and laugh as much from graffiti and street corners as we do from the strip's gags.
Lili Loofbourow: It's hard to overstate how different Disney's version of Chile as a paradise with snowy peaks and tidy houses is from Ríos' irreverent corrective. Condorito's world is hard and adult, and his town, Pelotillehue, is dirty and vital and populated by all kinds of weirdos. There's Don Máximo Tacaño (Sir Maximal Stingy), a miser in tattered finery who'll do the absurd to save a buck. There's Ungenio (literally A Genius), a buck-toothed imbecile with the best intentions. There's Garganta de Lata (Tin Throat), a red-headed alcoholic whose wife routinely awaits his return from the bar with a bowling pin. And then there's Yayita, Condorito's bombshell girlfriend, and her large and fearsome parents, Don Cuasimodo and Doña Tremebunda.) They had higher hopes for their daughter than a condor in patched pants who routinely brings her flowers ripped from her own yard.
You can read it all HERE.
Announcing the Spring Semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers
8 weeks! $500 bux! 10 spots available!
Rolling start date because of spring break – start as early as March 30th 2018.
Deadline to apply is April 12th.
Read all about the course HERE and email santoroschool@gmail.com for more details or to apply.
Suzy and Cecil – 3-28-2018 – by Gabriella Tito
Joanie and Jordie – 3-28-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio
Juan FernándezSeptember 19, 2018NewsJuan here checking in with a mini SPX Report. First off, a huge thank you goes out to team at SPX, especially Warren Bernard, Lynda Bernard, Rob Clough, Danethin Mejia and Eden Miller for helping us with making these workshops happen! WE had a great time! Also thank you to all of our workshop instructors – you made it happen <3 SPX was solid this year for me. I had some great experiences teaching, caught up with fellow CCS graduates, connected with Santoro School alums, and reconnected with tumblr and instagram comics makers new and old. Nothing ground breaking, just a good continuation of the story from previous years. As is our Comics Workbook tradition, we held down the fort in the Glen Echo Room offering back-to-back workshops with world class cartoonists and comics makers. Attendee's ages ranged wildly, which was exciting. For the most part, all attendees were aspiring makers or folks who wanted to dip their toes into comics making. It's nice to be able to offer a space for these people. Sally Ingraham masterfully coordinated all of our workshops and the Workbook crew assisted in shifts. It all went gloriously smoothly. This year, I wrangled up the core group of the Pittsburgh Comics Salon to form the heart of this year's crew. Above all, my priority this year was being of service to the Pittsburgh Comics Salon's crew that was in attendance. Lane Graff, Graciela Sarabia, Audra Stang, Syd Blackwell, Sam Ombiri, Ann Lewis, Caleb Orecchio and Sally Ingraham. SPX, if you're coming from outside of the D.C./Maryland area can be overwhelming, and at times especially strange. There's no explicit program for after hours mingling other than the Ignatz Awards and the newly developed "Prom", for better or for worse. If you stay in the hotel, you can sometimes feel trapped. While, yes it's, folks can just figure out how to take care of themselves – look up food on their phones, find hotels, etc. it is difficult to properly optimize your experience of this weekend without having been there. I wanted to bridge that gap for my fellow comics makers in Pittsburgh. Going to SPX is like entering a bubble. It's an interesting, satisfying comics bubble, but it is one that takes getting used to. If you don't go into that bubble prepared to take breaks, with a plan for food, with snacks and water on hand, or with a comics budget, SPX can really wreck you! It's a monster of a show that way. In light of this I wanted to make sure that everyone had access to what they needed. I attended SPX for the first time in 2010 on Bill Boichel's urging. I'm thankful he was there that year so that I could check in with him every now and again as he sailed across the room meeting makers and buying work to sell at Copacetic Comics. Without that anchor during my first year, would have been quite different and far more overwhelming. To be able to attend with this group in tow was a really satisfying experience. I'm thankful I could coordinate this trip from Pittsburgh and be their support in Bethesda. As I've said before my priority has been to cultivate this local community of makers. I love comics making, but people come before them, always. Workshop Report Sally Ingraham, will have a full report on Friday. Our workshops were more full than ever. Lots of networking between students and instructors happened after each workshop. Comics Reviews You can expect some reflections on books that we received or purchased at SPX to trickle out as the month progresses. It takes time to read comics, to experience them and enjoy them so you won't see any rushed reviews or reflections from us here at Comics Workbook. Stay tuned for more insights. Thank you! juan 09-29-2018 – by Niall Breen Share this page: [...]
Sally IngrahamAugust 10, 2017NewsSally here with Jenny Zervakis and Jackie Ormes, plus other comics and news from the wide world of #VisibleWomen! ———————————————————————————————— This comic turned up in the latest box we received at Copacetic Comics from Spit and a Half Distro and I couldn't have been happier. I loved the Strange Growths collection that John Porcellino put out for Jenny Zervakis earlier this year, which covered the comics she made from 1991 to 1997 (issues 1-13 – get a copy of the book HERE!) Strange Growths #14 (1998) carries on with 7 short stories and a lengthy letter from the brother who showed up in more than a few of her earlier comics. The collection showcases the poetic way that Jenny captures the weirdness of life, with overheard conversations, dream sequences, housing woes and tragic animal deaths, and the shortness and sweetness of it all. I particularly enjoyed the story Like a Butterfly With One Wing. Simple drawings, no text, and the mysteries of nature and humans. Get a copy of Strange Growths #14 from Spit and a Half, and pick up issues #15 and #16 as well. ———————————————————————————————— I read Nancy Goldstein's biography of Jackie Ormes a few years ago (Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist), and ever since then I've been meaning to visit the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh to take a look at Jackie's comics in The Pittsburgh Courier. I finally made it last week, and was thrilled to discover the debut of her very first published strip – Torchy Brown in "Dixie to Harlem" – in the May 1st, 1937 copy of the paper. Jackie had been a proofreader and reporter for the Courier right out of high school, but with the debut of her comic strip she became the first Black woman to become a professional newspaper cartoonist. The Courier ran Torchy Brown for a year. It's the story of an adventurous girl from Mississippi who decides to venture north with the aim of becoming a star at the Cotton Club. Here is the first month's worth of strips: I'm blown away by how good Jackie was at cartooning right off the bat. She's a terrific artist, great at characterizations, and the strip is quite funny. Action and adventure, physical humor, glamour – it's all there in the first 5 strips. Jackie moved with her husband to Chicago shortly afterward, and published a few shorter running strips in The Chicago Defender (most notably Candy, about a wise-cracking domestic worker, which ran for 4 months). By September 1945 she was back in the Courier however, with Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger, which ran for 11 years and featured the snappy political commentary of little sister Patty-Jo, and the silent foil of gorgeous big sister Ginger. I'll be heading back to the library to catch up with those ladies! Torchy Brown made a second appearance later in Jackie's career, in Torchy in Heartbeats (1950 – ran for 4 years). I highly recommend Nancy Goldstein's bio if you're at all curious about Jackie Ormes – it's thorough, and full of pictures. For further reading at the moment, check out this article from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum on Jackie. "No matter the strip, Ormes was presenting African American women in a way that no other cartoonist in the papers had done previously. Her characters were demure and dynamic, involved in and commenting on current events, sporting the latest fashions. They were upper class women." – Caitlin McGurk ———————————————————————————————— In Other Words Mimi Pond's latest comic – The Customer is Always Wrong – just came out from Drawn and Quarterly. Mimi chats with Jezebel, covering the service industry, cocaine, and writing for The Simpsons. The Comics Journal has a review of The Customer is Always Wrong – HERE. Kelly Sue DeConnick started the Twitter sensation #VisibleWomen, a hashtag that serves as a database for women working in comics. She talks about the project HERE on Player.One. Over on HuffPost they're also talking about #VisibleWomen, and proclaim that "The Comic Book Industry Officially Has No Excuse Not To Hire Women". Julia Gfrörer is in the pet issue of The Portland Mercury talking about why cats attack (and why they attack HER) – HERE. Here's an interview with Anya Davidson on Cool Yeah Right from earlier this year. And one with Daria Tessler from this week! Renae De Liz offers a tutorial on how to "De-Objectify" women in comics – HERE on Heroic Girls. ———————————————————————————————— Suzy and Cecil – 8-11-2017 – by Sally Ingraham Share this page: [...]
HarrisonMarch 3, 2016News "This wasn't universally true of the comic book industry, but it was true enough for long enough in this country to inhibit the medium's growth to full potential. Oddly, in the 1980s, a compensatory effort to make comic books more appealing to older readers erred in another direction by supposing that "mature themes" would enable comics to grow up. Although that's probably valid to some extent, the notion too frequently took flight by mistakenly equating "social issues" or "personality portrayal" with "mature themes." – R.C. Harvey on the Economics of Comics Connor Willumsen is looking to supplement the cost of a move by taking commissions and selling original drawings. If you're interested email him at mail@connorwillumsen.com. Also Sarah Ferrick and Connor talk about their work on We Should Be Friends Podcast below. [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/247971503″ params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166″ iframe="true" /] Will Tempest just uploaded part 4 of his series Massive Crustacean. Artist GG continues with parts 20-22 of her series These Days. If you like her work support it on Paypal or Patreon. Illustrator and Animator Jonathan Djob Nkondo (a.k.a. Absenteism) uploaded this excerpt a few months back from his series Square 1. Not sure if there is going to be second printing for Square 1 but these web pieces are good too. Unrelated, but here's a song for a rainy day. Share this page: [...]
Juan FernándezFebruary 22, 2016NewsLet's start off right with a look at Ron Wimberley's latest offerings! He's published his 12 powerful illustrations of black luminaries. He did 12 last year in February. He did 12 this year. You can see the full set in detail over here. For snippets of the inking process, hop on over to Ron's Instagram. He's also got the whole behind the scenes action over at his Patreon. Very much worth checking out if you've been looking to step up your inking game. I dropped three a week. Here are most of them. Original inks and zip are for sale, $350 a piece. DM me with inquiries (All but Zadie Smith are available as of this posting) – Ron Ever been to Prague? Yeah, me neither! But with Sophia Foster-Dimino's most recent travel diary I now know a good deal of what I should check out should I ever have the good fortune to go. Art, history and day drinking with KJ Martinet. She's shared her pages via twitter as she completed them and it seems some were made while abroad and others upon returning. I love Sophia's way of plugging in completed comics sequences, illustrations and doodles and filling the text around them. Really refreshing and inspiring assemblage process. One for the utility belt, kids. For now, take a peek on her travels! I'm in Prague for a week with @kjmartinet, gonna try to document it as much as possible, travel tips appreciated ✨ pic.twitter.com/MRXJR5AvFn — Sophia Foster-Dimino (@hellophia) February 10, 2016 Thursday part one! pic.twitter.com/icN0wYZdxl — Sophia Foster-Dimino (@hellophia) February 12, 2016 Thursday part two ✌ pic.twitter.com/0iXycZ00TW — Sophia Foster-Dimino (@hellophia) February 13, 2016 Saturday part two and Sunday part one ? pic.twitter.com/wDjSSbqcri — Sophia Foster-Dimino (@hellophia) February 16, 2016 aaand Tuesday part two and then we went home and now I'm home. ? pic.twitter.com/Ue5eD63lFh — Sophia Foster-Dimino (@hellophia) February 21, 2016 Isabel Ryan's got some floaty, dreamy, goofy cartooning going on over at Rookie Mag in her comic Magic 8 Ball. Should you go over and read Isabel's latest *shake shake shake* Definitely . Zainab Akhtar's been thinking about Jane Mai's See You Next Tuesday. It's time you did too. She's got a really interesting review of this whirlwind of comics by Mai. Really puts Mai's work in context for greater appreciation. Big ups to Koyama Press for making this showcase of Mai's skills possible. While the relative 'democracy' of the internet has allowed people to bypass instituionalised gatekeeping to some degree, the transition of culture from 'in real life' to online remains the same (if not worse in that it facilitates rampant, unchecked abuse). Mai is one of many contemporary artists who have built followings after publishing work online, a feat that often requires a specific level of engagement and giving of oneself in order for it to be successful. The nature of that interaction can feel more direct and personal to the audience, fostering (with regard to female creatives, especially) entitlement and attempted ownership. There's a sense of people playing a part in your persona, a 'we made you' mentality; a collective Frankenstein-ing. – Zainab Blaise Larmee joined Robin over at Inkstuds to talk about some of the new work he has been involved with from 2d Cloud. Most recently, Blaise edited the Mirror Mirror anthology which is part of 2d Cloud's current Kickstarter efforts. Most awkward inkstuds ever. Highly recommended. [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/248252491″ params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166″ iframe="true" /] Print wizards Justine and Jordan Hurder over at Chance Press have announced a gorgeous new Kim Deitch print for ya. Really cool story behing this one: There's another unique thing about this print: it's not based on original artwork. Usually with fine art printing, the goal is to reproduce an original piece of work as faithfully as possible. Here, the original black and white artwork was sold long ago, the color was done in Photoshop, and the only scan was on a disc that didn't work anymore. In fact, the only surviving record of the artwork was a yellowing page from an early-90s issue of the LA Weekly. After an extensive color correction process, I was able to restore it and include it in the 2014 publication of 'A Deitch Miscellany.' For this print, I tweaked some more color, made the blacks a little deeper and more consistent, pulled out some of the oversaturation, and came up with something I'm really happy with. It definitely doesn't look like a normal print made from a modern high-res scan, but that's part of the charm. Preorder a copy now over at Chance Press. Last but not least, Paper Jam 5 took place this past weekend. Seemed like it was a buzzing hive of color and camraderie in NYC. A party for sharing that deep, deep zine love. Photos are trickling in from attendees and exhibitors. You're going to want to follow the paperjam tumblr to stay abreast with photos, interviews and the like that happened during the happening. More news to come! Juan Fernandez, over and out. Share this page: [...]
Aaron CockleFebruary 20, 2018NewsAaron here today with Barbara T. Smith + Experiments in Electrostatics; A.T. Pratt; Uno Moralez; Old-Timey Cellphones ————————————————————————————————— Barbara T. Smith: Outside Chance Through Feb 28 at Andrew Kreps Gallery, 537/535 West 22nd St, NYC, USA Smith's pioneering Xerox work is the earliest series in the exhibition dating from 1965 to 1967, and reflects a pivotal moment in the trajectory of her life and practice. Initially intending to make lithographic prints, Smith discovered the then-new technology of the Xerox copy machine, a mass-printing device that she perceived to be the future of printmaking. Smith leased a 914 Xerox Machine, at the time only in use by large corporations, and feverishly experimented with, among other things, images of her children taken by the artist-photographer Jerry McMillan. Simultaneously, Smith discovered her body as a performative tool by placing it upon the machine. Obsessively repeated and layered, the resulting works form a preemptive, and melancholic reflection on the loss of her family in her subsequent 1968 divorce. Following this, Smith fully devoted her life to art-making, with works that reflected a similar engagement with a burgeoning community of artists in Los Angeles, as well as an exploration of the new relationship between performance artworks and their audience. Experiments in Electrostatics At the Whitney Museum of American Art, through March 25, 2018 Experiments in Electrostatics: Photocopy Art from the Whitney's Collection, 1966–1986 explores the use of the photocopier as a creative tool, from its public emergence in the 1960s to the dawn of the digital era in the 1980s. Despite the machine's intended function to reproduce office documents, artists inventively utilized it as a camera and printing press to create original fine art prints. They placed objects on the flatbed, distorted imagery in the process of scanning, and manipulated the exposure, density, and saturation settings to achieve imaginative, often unexpected results. Far from "copies," these still lifes, portraits, abstractions, and collages reflected the ingenuity of their makers. Focusing on three artists and one collective—Edward Meneeley, Lesley Schiff, Barbara T. Smith, and the International Society of Copier Artists—this exhibition investigates how artists found self-expression through a machine designed for replication. Experiments in Electrostatics is organized by Michelle Donnelly, curatorial fellow. ————————————————————————————————— "the great American Graphic Novel Masterpiece of our time" At Broken Frontier, Robin Enrico looks at A.T. Pratt's Ink Toby In another way the true target of Pratt's scorn may be Pratt himself. Ink Toby was drawn under the very constraints that Pratt is mocking. The constant grinding away at making comics in an attempt to move the needle on an artist's social profile. Reducing art to grist for the content mill. Even if as Pratt admits, the work was not finished during Inktober, it still adheres to that push to rapidly produce pages. This doesn't always play to Pratt's advantage, as his pages can be overly dense with at times cramped panel layouts. There are also a few instances where dialogue does, as Toby's father cautions against, dominate the page. In Ink Tommy's own words, "You think everyone wants to read all that shit?" Making a joke of the works shortcomings does not completely alleviate them. ————————————————————————————————— 'This is an internet comic, not a printed volume, after all…' Matt Seneca on Blue Teeth by Uno Moralez But what Blue Teeth attests to even more than Moralez's image making expertise is his power as a comics maker. In a way, this is work as formally simple as it gets: a screen that shows one single image at a time, each isolated and complete in itself, yet linked by subject to the others. What's so impressive is how immersive Moralez makes his work without any page-layout tricks or advanced sequencing or even words, for crying out loud! He gives his trust to the effectiveness of comics at its most basic level, comics as a simple accretion of image after image. It's like hearing music played along with the strict, ticking beat of a metronome, where none of the power is in the timing and all of it is in the harmonies, the way every new note bounces off the vibration of all the ones that came before to expand the size of the world being created. Anybody can format a comic the way Moralez does here; that's not the point. It takes someone who really understands the form, who gets that it's about the thoughts that flicker in the reader's head between the images as much what's as inside of them, to make it work this well. The routes Moralez takes through his story's information are unusual and exciting – in my favorite transition, a sexy stolen glance between Marina and her man's road dog is followed immediately by a shot of two butterflies hovering above a flaming rose. Moralez's sensibility is more poetic than literal, always willing to forgo the direct approach to accommodate a moment of beauty or bizarrerie. ————————————————————————————————— Via Myko Clelland / BoingBoing ————————————————————————————————— Joanie and Jordie – 2-20-2018 – by Caleb Orecchio ————————————————————————————————— VISION BOX — 02/20/2018 — by Cameron Arthur ————————————————————————————————— Share this page: [...]


Do unto others as you would have them do unto you and see the light of compassion.
I had a rather one-sided conversation the other day with a fellow cyclist. The conversation has been lingering on my mind ever since. All I could think about during this conversation was how unkind, heartless and lacking in empathy this man was. There were a handful of other men present and I could tell some of them were uncomfortable with this man's words (he wasn't ranting, but close to it), yet, none of us were willing to create a scene and bluntly call this man out on his rhetoric..
Cyclists on group rides come from all walks of life, careers, educational backgrounds and political leanings. This diversity can usually make for good, educated discussions on all sorts of topics.
[/caption]This individual stated that "all homeless people are drug addicts and that they chose that life". I don't know how this conversation had started. I had just rejoined the group after filling up my water bottle and others were in getting a 'Starbucks'. This comment is what made my ears perk up and I started to listen in more on the conversation.
Wow, just wow. I sort of joined the conversation and I stated that I believed most homeless people 'probably' suffered from mental illness or had had unfortunate family life circumstances that had brought them to this point in their lives and that yes, some are now drug addicts. My belief and understanding are that no one "chooses" to become a drug addict. Often it is a result of 'said' unfortunate life circumstances. Drugs are often an escape and there is more often than not, an underlying mental illness.
Are there seriously people who are this cold-hearted?
He also said he wants to move to Tennessee where it would be so much cheaper to retire. He said he'd keep his California home and be okay paying California property taxes.
I asked him what he'd suggest as a solution in regards to the opioid crisis and homelessness? Many of these individuals have had a work injury and ended up getting addicted to the pain meds. Is this the life they chose? And whose responsible? The families, the individual, the former employer, the doctors, the pharmaceutical companies?
Of course, he didn't try to answer but diverted to mentioning how terrible it was that churches in the East Bay were going to build tiny house pods for homeless. Clearly, he didn't want this in "his" backyard. I was preferring to not become a part of this one-sided conversation, but it was really hard to ignore.
I probably prodded with a few more questions, trying to elicit any sign of compassion or empathy. Never saw any.
I mentioned to this person that I am a "pre-existing" condition, both by being female and by actually having a disease (I did not mention what that disease is). Couldn't illicit any indication of surprise or concern on his part. I thought if he could put a face with a situation, he might show a level of empathy. Please note, I was the also the only female out of 10 riders on this group ride.
As a married woman, my husband and I made the choice for me to forgo a larger more lucrative career and to work only part-time while choosing to raise a family and to put our children's upbringing first. It's a choice we made, but in reality, for a woman to choose family over career means she will most likely forever be dependent on that man/partner to live a secure life or will most likely lead a life with far greater risk of leading to homelessness and poor health care. This isn't a blog post about equality and shared responsibilities, though I can see the connection. The poor, the unlucky and the mentally ill sometimes need some assistance. Again, whatever happened to the biblical rule of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (Matt. 7:12). This is commonsense ethics.
I guess for an individual like this man, until it is him, his child or brother or best friend, that suffers a crisis, such as a mental health issue or injury that leads to an opioid addiction, they just can't see the light of compassion. Or maybe they are so cold-blooded, they would just abandon their family member or friend.
As the following news story link points out, it doesn't appear like most of these individuals are homeless due to their choice to be drug addicts. In fact, sounds like a lot of homeless are not drug addicts at all. I do think the homeless that people see and are aware of, are those who are mentally ill. These homeless mentally ill individuals are mistaken for being on drugs. Homelessness is a complex issue with many diverse contributing factors.
Government Data Report Homelessness rates per 100K from US government data.
Note that Oregon is at 341/100K, basically the same as California.
I did not look at every state, And clearly, if you even glance at the numbers, 1/4th of the homeless in the nation do not live in California. One also needs to take into account the size of California and the total population relative to the number of homeless.
I think this man has believed a lot of propaganda that he has been fed and seen.


text:
British Council RSS
British Council, Cultural Exchange, Haydar Ergülen, Literature Wales, Poetry, poets, Pomegranate Garden, Translation, Turkey, Wales - November 25, 2019
Photo Blog: Haydar Ergülen in Cardiff
Representatives from the Cardiff poetry scene, Literature Wales and the British Council were at St Canna's in Cardiff yesterday to welcome the Turkish poet and writer Haydar Ergülen to Wales and share a cultural exchange with readings from his new selected poems Pomegranate Garden as well as poetry about Cardiff, about Wales, about place and about love. All with a bonus buffet and wine! It was a superb way to spend a Sunday lunchtime. Featuring tanslator, editor and poet Caroline Stockford alongside Cardiff-based poets Topher Mills, J. Brookes, Kate North, Roberto Pastore, Luca Paci, Mab Jones and Susie Wild. Thanks to...
British Council, India-Wales, Literature Wales, Parthian Books, Wales, Wales Arts Review - August 20, 2018
Celebration of The Valley, the City, the Village
Join Parthian Books, Literature Wales and Wales Arts Review for an afternoon of discussion, information sharing and readings, in celebration of last year's collaborative project The Valley, the City, the Village, which formed part of British Council Wales' & Wales Arts International's India-Wales initiative.
#IndiaWales, 2017, Bee Books, British Council, Cardiff, Events, international, Kolkata Bloggers, Literature Wales, Natalie Ann Holborow, Poems, Poetry, Siôn Tomos Owen, Wales, Wales Arts International, Wales Arts Review, writing, Young People's Laureate - May 22, 2017
The Valley, The City, The Village: Bringing Wales and India together through literature
Audiences in Wales will have the chance to hear from six writers, three Welsh and three Indian, who are taking part in the UK-India 2017 cultural season. The writers have already worked together in India and will be appearing at a number of events in Wales, as part of the India Wales project The Valley, The City, The Village.
Welsh writers Natalie Ann Holborow, Siôn Tomos Owen and Sophie McKeand will be joined by Indian writers Aniesha Brahma, Srijato Bandyopadhyay and Arunava Sinha. The writers have been brought together by Welsh publisher Parthian Books, Kolkata-based Bee Books, Literature Wales and Wales Arts Review, for their new project The Valley, The City, The Village.
The project is supported by India Wales, a new funding scheme by the British Council and Wales Arts International. The scheme supports artistic collaboration and exchange between creative professionals and arts organisations in Wales and India to build sustainable, creative relationships and networks between the two countries.
The Valley, The City, The Village brings together the six writers in a series of residencies and live performances, which will result in a trilingual publication of new writing in Bengali, English and Welsh to be published by Parthian in 2018. The project incorporates prose, poetry, art and reportage from Bengal and Wales. A special 48-page full colour magazine celebrating The Valley, The City, The Village will also be launched on 26 May, featuring contributions from all writers.
#IndiaWales, 2017, Authors, Bee Books, British Council, Kolkata Bloggers, Kolkata Book Festival, Literature Wales, News, Parthian Books, Poetry, Wales Arts International, Wales Arts Review - February 02, 2017
The Valley, The City, The Village
Parthian Books, Literature Wales and Wales Arts Review have teamed up with Bee Books in Kolkata, India for an exciting new collaborative new literature project between Welsh and Indian writers, entitled The Valley, The City, The Village. Taking the title from Glyn Jones's classic novel The Valley, the City, the Village (part of our library of Wales series) the project will involve three writers from each country visiting India and Wales respectively, focusing on aspects of modern society referenced in the title and engaging with these through writing poetry, prose, blogs and stories. The project will further result in an anthology...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Bursting with dried fruits, cinnamon and toffee candy.
Incredible layers of sweet vanilla oak, dark chocolate and oriental spice.
The second sample in our Glen Moray tasting set was this relatively new Sherry Cask finish edition in their Elgin Classic range. Again no age declarations are bore upon them, however the rumour is that this expression was matured in American Oak (ex-bourbon) barrels and finished for no less than 8 months in ex-Oloroso sherry seasoned casks.
Very accomplished and a pleasantly surprising dram, it felt a little youthful in places but the sherry influence had been balanced against this beautifully to play alongside rather than disguise the underlying spirit characters. For the price again I wouldn't be disappointed with this for an everyday lightly sherried whisky.
Also available at sainsburys for £22, well worth it at that price.


text:
Home / Abia News / Appraising the surgery at Abia State Polytechnic
Appraising the surgery at Abia State Polytechnic
Abia Online September 9, 2019	Abia News, News, Politics Leave a comment 87 Views
By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu
It has been the utmost desire of Gov Okezie Ikpeazu to leave an efficient civil service system in Abia when he ceases to call the shot as the governor of the state in 2023.
Part of the strategy driving this reform was Ikpeazu's stance to plug every avenue through which government's resources leaks,which necessitated an intensive staff verification exercise to uncover the ghost workers in the civil service system.
The exercise in the early periods of Gov. Ikpeazu's administration yielded good results as the government announced that it saved up to N160million from the exercise.
The development has signalled an end to the ghost-worker racketeering in the state as the governor also declared those involved in the racketeering and misappropriation of peoples salaries as enemies of the state.
The governor decried the then situation thus:"And even as I speak, the biometric verification exercise of workers will be an ongoing thing. This is an opportunity to call on those involved in this to turn a new leaf, because if anybody is fished out to be involved in ghost workers syndrome, misappropriation of peoples' salaries, will be treated as enemies of the state, because they have held Abia down for so long.
"Some people are in this racket, it has become their business and even as we speak they are looking for ways to cut corners. But I want to declare to them that the game is up, because I will keep at it and make sure I put a final stop to the anomaly," the governor said.
Abia government stopped at nothing to ensure that there was a sanitised service system in the state as it proposed a re-orientation of the state civil service, to bring about a new way of thinking within the system.
The massive re-orientation programme, according to Ikpeazu, will help identify those capable and determined to work, while those who cannot keep pace with what is happening will drop by the way side.
Indeed, Gov Ikpeazu's reform of the civil service is ongoing, especially those parastatals that should put in immense efforts in paying staff salaries outside subventions from the state government, has shifted to Abia State
Polytechnic, Aba, which has been saddled with nagging salary issues for some period now.
The management of the institution in a bid to reposition the Polytechnic for greater operational efficiency commenced the implementation of the review report on verification of staff and their certificates, which was approved by the state executive council in April this year recently. The exercise disengaged 258 staff from the services of the institution.
The institution,in a release signed by its Public Relations Officer, Chinyere Eze on behalf of the management noted :" following painstaking verification and reviews, letters have been issued to 258 staff members whose services are no longer required by the institution".
According to the release, all the affected staff are receiving full severance payment in line with their condition of service with the school, adding that the affected staff receive due outstanding salaries as other workers are being paid.
The institution says that the ongoing reform is expected to position the institution to achieve its motto of "towards excellence in technology", meet regular salary obligations of its workforce as well as create necessary environment for academic excellence that the institution is known for.
The exercise is apt, commendable and the best way to go for a polytechnic encumbered with a bloated workforce of 1250 workforce.Out of the 1250 staff , 900 are non- teaching staff while 350 are teaching staff, opposed to National Technical Board for Education (NBTE's) recommended ratio of 3 teaching staff to 2 non-teaching staff.
This situation has saddled the institution with an astronomical monthly salary profile of over N160million.
The internally-generated revenue of the polytechnic has depleted drastically as a result of the decline in students enrollment- the mainstay of the institution's IGR. The students enrollment declined to all time low of 12,000(upper limit) to 10,000(lower limit).
Also, with revenue situation of N53,150 schools fees from students and N90million subvention from the state government, the polytechnic will not be able to sustain eight months salaries of staff, assuming staff salary payment is the only monetary need bothering the school.
In a bid to reduce cost and proffer a way of how the institution can navigate the muddy waters of salaries payment, staff verification exercise had to be conducted.
The grounds of verification bothered on those who have issues with their files, those who are about to retire, those found guilty of irregularities in their birth certificates and First School Leaving Certificates, and those with hanging disciplinary issues.
On this note, while the management of the institution continue to wield its surgical scalpel to weed out more staff that are not qualified to constitute the staff strength of the polytechnic, members of the teaching staff should also contribute their bid to ensure that the school is totally pulled out from its salary logjam.
These efforts should manifest through an unresolved commitment of members of the teaching staff to disengage from other private teaching activities with other higher institutions within and outside Aba. This will enable the lecturers to concentrate more and give their best, thereby improving the dampened image of the school.
The staff unions also have a hand in the recuperation of the institution by desisting to call out their members for strike periodically, especially during admission periods. This has strongly hampered the enrollment strength of the school.
Gov Ikpeazu also deserves kudos for rescuing the school from N2billion facilities which were hanging on the neck of the management of the institution like the sword of Damocles. The servicing of the facilities was also taking toll on the institution monthly.
The same kudos should be extended to the management of the polytechnic for blocking leakages in the revenue of the institution. Now, every financial transaction in the institution is made through the bank to avoid misappropriation, while admission and checking of results and other processes are now done online.
The surgery sessions at Abia State Polytechnic, Aba should not cease, and the surgeon should not lay down his scalpel until all malignant growths are removed.
Tags Abia Abia Online
About Abia Online
Previous PROACTIVE GOVERNANCE: ANYATONWU AND HIS MANY LEADERSHIP QUALITIES[PHOTOS]
Next Breaking :Tribunal Nullifies Orji Uzor Kalu's Election


Welcome to Lockwood Family Dental Care in Webster Groves, MO!
in taking care of your dental needs.
While we understand that many people often don't associate the dentist with having a good time, our friendly team is here to change your mind. We aim to consistently raise the bar, showing you and your family the difference that state-of-the-art dentistry can make in your lives.
Dr. Majeed and his experienced team work together to help you achieve your smile goals! Your smile is our passion!
We do our best to help you achieve your goals and stay in your budget. We have many options to help you do just that!
Whenever possible, our team aims to keep your visits to a minimum. We want to work with your family's busy schedule.
Dr. Majeed and his network of trusted specialists feel strongly that patients should feel comfortable with the treatment they recommend. The best patient is an informed patient–and you deserve the best!