2D Cloud

Vincent Stall on KFAI TONIGHT!

2012-01-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

Hey fellow cartoony reading/writing/drawing peeps. Vincent Stall AKA King Mini will be interviewed on Minnesota's KFAI by Britt Aamodt tonight around 7:30pm - 8:00pm. Pretty rad, do check out!! For a link, it will be a part of the MinneCulture Legacy series. And I am sure somewhere in there Vincent will be talking a bit about his latest release, Things You Carry put out by, you guessed it, 2DC. It's in the shop yo.

Motherlover Press Release!

2012-01-12T06:26:00.000-08:00

2D Cloud is proud to present Motherlover, an anthology in the vein of Drawn & Quarterly Showcase with a focus on some of our favorite Minnesota-based artists. In finer comic shops and bookstores in mid-February 2012!

Minneapolis, MN – January 12th 2012:

“The darkness of this book’s themes should not daunt an adventurous reader, because Motherlover explores work that is both emotionally powerful and uncomfortably familiar.”

- Rob Clough, comics critic for The Comics Journal & High-Low

Motherlover has its roots deeply embedded in Minnesota, with the four creators involved in the book hailing from different corners of the state: Nicholas Breutzman from Rochester, brothers John & Luke Holden from Bemidji, and Raighne Hogan from Minneapolis. The stories themselves have pronounced autobiographical undercurrents, each exploring the tensions, confusion, and mis-perceptions of youth. For some, these feelings circle around sex and how it can be a source of mystery or frustration, depending on where one is in life and the world. Others encounter the loneliness and ennui that is found just as easily in both rural and urban environs. These themes help illuminate much of the push and pull in Minnesota for a lot of creative types – something that compels us to venture beyond our borders, yet that same something that draws most of us back again. While these sentiments can certainly be found throughout the work, there is plenty to be discovered that’s not restricted to any particular locality.

About the Artists:

Nicholas Breutzman is the cartoonist behind the graphic novella Yearbooks, which came in at #24 in The Comics Journal’s top 50 comics of 2009 and was nominated for inclusion in Best American Comics 2010 by Neil Gaiman. His work has also been featured in anthologies like the Good Minnesotan series as well as Critical Citadel and more recently Pornhounds 2, with Sharon Lintz. Nic’s story You Can’t Be Here, featured in Motherlover, was also recently announced as a Best American Comics Notable for 2011.

Luke Holden, maker of zines, adventures, and art. Luke and his brother John are frequent collaborators in various creative projects, from punk/jazzy-guitar/folk music to spoken word, zines, and comics. Their work has appeared together and separately in the pages of Good Minnesotan as well as their zine series, Detrimental Information.

John Holden is a spoken-word artist and lapsed video blogger — at their height, his videos reached nearly 2 million hits on Youtube. John’s writings have been illustrated by his brother Luke and his friend Nic Breutzman in the pages of the Detrimental Information series and the Good Minnesotan anthology respectively.

Raighne Hogan is the co-publisher of 2D Cloud and colorist behind Yearbooks, Motherlover, and the covers of several 2D Cloud releases. Raighne’s past work has appeared in the Good Minnesotan anthology series, which he also acted as lead editor for during its four-issue run.

About the publisher:

2D Cloud is a micro-press comics publisher based in Minneapolis, MN. They publish paper-craft art books, minicomics, and graphic novels by an assortment of creatives, such as Noah Van Sciver, Nic Breutzman, and Vincent ‘King Mini’ Stall, amongst others. Recent releases include Things You Carry by Vincent Stall and The Death of Elijah Lovejoy by Noah Van Sciver, hailed by The Comics Journal’s Rob Clough as “…his single strongest work to date.” and that his involvement with 2D Cloud made “…this the best looking comic of his career”. Another semi-recent 2D Cloud release, Good Minnesotan 4, placed at #2 in The Comic Journal’s Top 50 Minis of 2010

Motherlover was made possible via a kickstarter.

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Pornhounds 2 review on Exquisite Things; ALSO, made it into the Top Ten Comics of 2011!

2012-01-09T22:29:00.000-08:00

"Even when everything’s at its bleakest, she narrates her life with a bemused fascination, delighting in the absurdity of things as she suffers through surgery and chemotherapy."

Sharon Lintz' Pornhounds 2 was recently reviewed across the pond at Exquisite Things by Matt Dick. It also made it into there Top Ten Comics of 2011 list as well (and at #3!). None too shabby! Sharon is brilliant, and the cover of Pornhounds 2 is gorgeous and provocative. It puts me in mind of that Otto Dix painting, Little Girl. If the work on the cover looks familiar, it is probably because Nic Breutzman did it. He also has two stories/chapters he illustrated inside the book.

If this sounds like something you would be down with, why don't you head to the shop and pick it up! And while your at it, check out the Pornhounds website for a lot or really interesting stuff, like the letters!!

Things You Carry reviewed! Breutzman interviewed + a NVS studio peek!

2011-12-25T10:38:00.000-08:00

"It's all very quiet and beautiful and, while open to interpretation, "Things You Carry" feels like a homecoming story..." -- Sarah Morean, taken from her review on Indie Reader.

Things You Carry by Vincent Stall, got its first review earlier in the week. It's a really sharp and perceptive review, well-thought out -- and really, what more could one ask for?

A week or two back Nic Breutzman was interviewed by Lauren Peck of Metro Magazine. Nic talks about living in NY vs MN, comics that he is interested in, etc. It's a nice quick read. Nic's most current work is in Pornhounds 2 (written by Sharon Lintz) and Motherlover. Both books are in the shop!

PICTURES: Noah Van Sciver was recently featured on the Where They Draw tumblr curated by Jordan Shiveley. There is a peek at his workspace, The Hypo, and other doodles and comics. Neat stuff!

Welp, I gotta go watch a holiday movie with my wife now. Hassle Dazzle and Happy Holidays to All!

Willy D and Where He Draws

2011-12-11T18:39:00.001-08:00

Sketch by Will Dinski take from his blog

Will Dinski makes some of the best and sharpest looking mini's out there. Recently, his work space was featured on Jordan Shiveley's Where They Draw. It's a brilliant idea -- and I am excited to see the work spaces of fellow cartoonists (Tom Neely is up there too!). I am always trying to figure out how to make mine more efficient, although I am never good at keeping it up. The unfortunate part of that WTD posting deals with the fact that some ass-hat broke into Will's place, stole his computer and a bunch of his equipment. NOT COOL! There is some silver lining, but to see that you better check out WHERE THEY DRAW!

And if you happen to head over to Will's news + sketchbook blog you can catch a glimpse of his process in the form of a really neat looking gif. You should add a few of those tasty mini's of his to your holiday list for yourself or someone else -- we got 'em in the shop you know, alongside some other cool books.

Best American Comics Notables: Nicholas Breutzman

2011-12-07T19:47:00.001-08:00

Nic Breutzman, as you may recall, has two stories in Motherlover; Photograph and You Can't be Here. The latter of which was recently selected as a Best American Comics 2011 Notable! Woohoo! He was also recently featured in Metro Magazine with an exclusive comic focusing a bit on Saint Paul! Go check it out!

That comic sorta ties into a new book that Nic has been beavering away on for the past two years or so. We will begin serializing it online early next year. More on that later. If you would like a peek, the first nine or so pages were previewed and featured on MPLS.TV a month or two back. The image at top is from said book. And if it isn't obvious, I colored 'dem pages.

For reference:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:

Motherlover is now in the shop and Nic has some more collaborative work with Sharon Lintz via Pornhounds 2 in the shop as well. We will have more news on that soon. In the meantime, why don't you visit Pornhounds.net

Noah Van Sciver in the 'Best of' News!

2011-12-06T07:38:00.001-08:00

Over at Poopsheet Foundation and Thirteen Minutes, Justin Giampaoli threw together a Best Mini-Comics and Small Press Titles of 2011 -- The Death of Elijah Lovejoy by Noah Van Sciver made the cut! Here is a quote from list: "Van Sciver is one of the small elite cadre of creators who make me yearn to still be reviewing comics 10 years from now just so I can see what he'll do next." Nice! A bunch of other great books like The Disgusting Room by Austin English, The Wolf by Tom Neely, Too Dark To See by Julia Gfrorer, Passage by Tessa Brunton and many others were mentioned as well. It's a wonderful list -- go check it out!

Speaking of that Van Sciver feller, he was featured on TCJ Talkies a while back with MariNaomi, as interviewed by Mike Dawson. I tell yah, if ever a guy had a radio voice, it is that guy. Mike also has a new comic (Troop 142) out himself by the fine folks at Secret Acres.

Last up, Noah has a sneak peek of The Hypo up on his blog. Really excited for that book, go give it a look!

Things You Carry @ BCGF + New Books in 'da Shop!

2011-12-01T20:25:00.001-08:00

If you're headed to the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest (and really why would you not be? unless of course you live thousands of miles away...), Santa comes early. Instead of cookies, bring cash-money's for gorgeous comic goodness. While we at 2DC will not be there, our compatriots at La Mano 21 and Uncivilized Books will be there representin'. Swag.

And speaking of Uncivilized, Tom K. will have Vincent "King Mini" Stall's latest and longest comic narrative at the show -- you know that awesome book pictured that we published last month, yep, that's the one! So please stop on by the table with Tom K, Zak Sally, and Gabrielle Bell behind it -- buy their books and Things You Carry!!

Oh and a small note on the snappily dressed chap -- (yep, that's a-me) Tom K, over at Uncivilized has some cool tee's featuring the 'caveman' logo and the one for True Swamp -- very metal! That's what I am modeling. I was going for that sexy underpants look as seen in those american apparel ads. Yeah, maybe not so sexy. Sorry Tom!

Using sex as a jumping off point -- we have 6 new items in the shop! The list includes the aforementioned Things You Carry, Motherlover, Arthur Turnkey Vol. 1, Prizon Food Vol.1 and two books of which have Pornhounds in the title. Those latter two are self published by Sharon Lintz -- who is awesome! They are all top notch books, so go check 'em out!

A couple more quick notes: the two mini's, Prizon Food and Arthur Turnkey are in very limited supply but they will be getting re-printed very very soon! And for all the awesome folks that are waiting on their copy of Motherlover and other thank you gifts for throwing down the green during our kickstarter -- it's on the way. We are putting together some very cool extra special items! I think y'all will be pleased!

Rosalie Lightning

2011-11-22T09:38:00.001-08:00

Having only very briefly met and interacted with Tom Hart at MIX earlier in the month I don't really know what to say other than my heart goes out to Tom and his wife Leela Corman for the loss of their daughter Rosalie Lightning. Some of their friends started a little fund raiser to help them through this difficult time. Please consider giving, any little bit helps.

Jon Lewis of True Swamp has a write up -- check that out too.

2DC@MIX2011

2011-11-17T06:01:00.001-08:00

So, MIX 2011 has come and gone already. Geez that was quick. It was a pretty spectacular show for us and easily our best sales ever. All of which I am pretty pleased about as we premiered 5 books at the event (Things You Carry, Motherlover, Arthur Turnkey Vol. 1, Prizon Food Vol. 1, Pornhounds #2 self-published by Sharon Lintz) 4 of which we published ourselves. In addition, we stayed home most of this year to put away enough dosh to launch those 4 books -- only stepping outside the state for the Chicago Zine Fest where we launched the ashcan of The Death of Elijah Lovejoy by Noah Van Sciver. Above photo by Sarah Jordet.

On Saturday, we were a little flush on folks behind our tables with Ric Schuster, Noah Van Sciver, Nic Breutzman, Justin Skarhus, myself (raighne here), Meghan Hogan, and by about 2 or 3pm John & Luke Holden dropped by as well. It wasn't until around that time that sales actually picked up, as we had a slow start, same as anybody there maybe.

Enough of this, lets look at some pictures (PS -- I stole all these pics from peeps on the net, hope no one is offended. If any of it is a bother or I didn't mention you or info is wrong, write me and I'll correct it ASAP)!

Will yah look at that -- MIX before anybody's arrived. Here is the director, Sarah Morean with Mike Haeg (the cool dude that made 'dem cool MIX letters!) doing some sort of interpretive dance to help ensure the success of the show for everyone.

Justin, Nic, Noah -- table-manning. This must have been our Sunday set-up. Justin was there all of Sunday versus Saturday where his girlfriends sister got married just down the street from the Soap Factory. Lotta zipping around for that guy during MIX//Marriage weekend.

Behind us and kitty-corner, Vincent "King Mini" Stall was at his table, pimping Things You Carry, the first book we've published with him -- that comic was flying out of his hands. This fellow is a comics making and selling wizard! Now, you know you should probably add it to your collection right? It's in our shop and boy is it a beaut -- go buy it! Photo by Dustin Harbin.

The elusive and camera shy Ric Schuster had the first volume of his and Joe Gillette's Prizon Food premiere proper at the event. It's a thick and solid mini filled with top notch bit art. I loves it! And you will too. It will be available in the shop shortly here.

Ittsa me, mustacheio! Maggie is crocheting away, Zak, Anna and Evan in the background.

Maggie and her cute weirdo Geirdoz! Maggie and I will be doing something neat with those crocheted creations next year. Exciting!

Toby and Maddie had a book premiere at the show as well, with Arthur Turnkey! We were pretty sure they were not going to make it the show proper, but they did! Surprise guests!

Also: check out that Kickass Annie bag that Maddie is sporting! Having met Annie for the first time at MIX I can see why everyone adores her -- she is simply put, one of the nicest generous, most sincere people I have met in quite some time. On top of that she puts out some gorgeous comics and books -- now go buy some of those beauties from her!

MIX director, Sarah Morean, as you can see here was also was quite thrilled to see those two adorable and talented young cartoonists!

I moderated my first panel with these cool comics cats: Tom Neely, Anna Bongiovanni, Noah Van Sciver, Jordan Shiveley. The name of the panel was Anthologies Anthologies, Everywhere. I was ill prepared for my own panel. With that said, I was grateful for these cartoonist pals to participate in the panel regardless. I'll be putting my thoughts together a little better on this subject at a future date over at Itchy Keen -- that is whenever I get my butt moving on it's relaunch...

Another surprise creator at MIX was our pal Will Dinski. On Saturday he dropped off some more copies of his excellent mini's for us to sell at the show and was seen at the Top Shelf table signing last year's Fingerprints.

On Friday night there was 3 pre-show parties, one over at MCAD focusing on some of the Women of MIX, 2 at Pink Hobo // Puny -- one was the Cloudy Collection Exhibition curated by Vincent Stall, the other event was a Drink & Draw with food generously donated and catered Jordan Shiveley, publisher at Grimalkin. It was held in back of Pink Hobo in the Puny offices and going on pretty much concurrently as the collection itself. There is the man himself, Vincent "King Mini" Stall! Photo by Chris Pitzer of Adhouse I believe.

A great exhibit with great company -- here is my bald head talking up Tom K of Uncivilized Books and his cold beverage.

In the background you can make out Zak Sally of La Mano, Julia Wertz, Noah Van Sciver. And I think you can just barely make out Maggie's jacket too.

If it isn't obvious, these pictures and events are not really in chronological order. Anyways, this talented young man was brought over to our table's by the wonderful and charming Annie Koyama! Jeremy Sorese is an emerging talent and one certainly to keep an eye on in the future. If you check out his site you can read In the Parlor Room, a gorgeous 2 color comic, clocking in at over 40 pages! He also has a peek of his new upcoming work -- all very exciting stuff!

As only my second panel, this one ran a little smoother. The program was titled How Not to Succeed and had Nic Breutzman, Julia Wertz, John Porcellino, Zak Sally for panelists. My thinking for the panel was that we've all had more failures than successes -- failure is not a bad thing either. It's an opportunity to learn. And in retrospect there are usually some funny stories in there as well. A big thank you to these wonderful cartoonists for their participation!

Yeah, I grabbed a bunch of strange photo's of the gang from their blogs or just online things I found for comedic effect. The talk ended with Zak telling everyone this picture of John Porcellino wearing a goofy sun hat picking raspberries was a metaphor for the future of comics -- he is so right! A bunch of these photo's are by Amaya McBatman & Caitlin Skaalrudd.

At the MIX Mixer we donated 50 copies of Yearbooks for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund -- the first 50 people in attendance got a free copy for their 5$ donation/admission to the event. Also, MNCBA donated a tablet that was later won by Neil!

Got pretty drunnnk this night. Here is a pic of me and my pal Neil Brideau!

SPARKPLUG LOVE: Friday night my wife and I ate at Sen Yai Sen Lek with the Sparkplug/I Will Destroy You gang, Tom Neely, Virginia Paine, and Julia Wertz. Always excellent food and great company!

2 pics of the IWDY + Sparkplug side by side set-up! Tom Neely took this photo with Julia wertz behind the Sparkplug table.

This photo by Virginia Paine if I am not mistaken.

The official after party for MIX 2011 was hosted at The Red Stag. I had never been there but it turned out to be a great venue! John & Luke Holden + Garret = Cause Without A Rebel, this event easily became my favorite part of the whole weekend. Love these guys! Photo by Sarah Morean I think.

At that same awesome after party event, my Rogue Citizen pals did a live-paint throughout the two bands' sets. Great stuff!

The Knotwells closed out the set -- they were short a man, but they did an admirable job filling that gap. A big thank you to these damn wonderful gents, they made the evening magical and memorable!

And another equally huge thank you to Annie Koyama of Koyama Press for her support of the arts everywhere she goes -- she has all our hearts!

There were such a large showing of out of town artists, publishers, DIY distro's at the event like Adhouse, Sparkplug and Top Shelf who returned for another year, I Will Destroy You, Microcosm, One Percent Press, Secret Acres, Spit and a Half and many many more! I spent 3 times what I thought I would allow myself -- such a wealth of drop dead gorgeous comics! GAH! A huge thank you to all them, all the awesome in town publishers, MIX2011 team//staff, the director Sarah Morean, volunteers, and of course a giant thank you to the comics loving public -- thankyou thankyou thankyou one and all! You all made it magic!

Things You Carry & MIX 2011

2011-10-31T23:36:00.000-07:00

Thursday, yes this Thursday we will be releasing Vincent Stall's Things You Carry, a silent comic novella, into the willing wildness of your eager mitts for a mere 10 spot. As a part of the closing of his solo show at CO Exhibitions, there will be an artist talk, vessels in-which to whet your gullet with some of that liquid courage should you find yourself so in awe of the works at hand. Or maybe you are just a fellow awkward creative? Do not worry, Vincent has you covered -- have a drink, buy a gorgeous King Mini screen print, a comic book, mingle. It's going to be a fun opener to this years MIX festivities.

Oh, address:
CO Exhibitions
1101 Stinson Blvd NE #2
MPLS MN

+ FB event page

Speaking of MIX, why yes, yes you can catch the book and Vincent at MIX this weekend. (And remember, it's at the SOAP FACTORY!) However, not catching them at this specific event and you will miss the man's show; screen prints galore, installations, an artist talk -- the whole shebang. Things You Carry the show acts as a perfect companion piece to Things You Carry the comic book. Just check out the vid above already to help you make your decision.

Pretty neat, right? So come ON!

While this vid is not for MIX (and is 5 years old) BUT it does feature Luke and John Holden gearing up for a comic show. We got both of these lovely dudes at the 2DC tables alongside Nic Breutzman pimping their new comic, Motherlover. I've been blabbing pretty hard about this book due to the kickstarter we held for it just a scant week ago or so. If you somehow missed said blabbing, please by all means check out a preview of it here.

These 2 mini's are premiering at MIX this weekend as well. Today I biked over to Saint Paul to see how things are looking at the printer. Pretty good I would have to say.

Arthur Turnkey is an all-ages ongoing adventure serial by Toby Jones, Alex Horab, Madeline Queripel, Amanda Thomas. It's 32 pages and in color on quality paper.

Prizon Food is decidedly cut from another cloth -- I mean, it's not not an all ages book, but then again it might not be an all ages book either. It's also in color and while a smidgen smaller dimensionally, it's a bit longer at 48 pages and it shares the same quality paper stock. So maybe it is cut from the same cloth after all? Anyways, it's a Party Food off-shoot by Joe Gillette & Eric Schuster.

I will also be moderating two panels at MIX this weekend. Anthologies Anthologies Everywhere is the first one and it's on Saturday morning at 11:30am and will run for 50 minutes. Editors and cartoonists discuss the meaning of anthologies for readers and the industry. Cartoonists talking at the panel include Noah Van Sciver, Jordan Shively, Anna Bongiovanni, Tom Neely.

On Sunday, How Not To Succeed: Stories From When Things Went Wrong , get an earful of sweet comic wisdom from comic creatives as they discuss failure, success, and everything in between in a humorous and often self deprecating manner. Cartoonists involved include Julia Wertz, Nicholas Breutzman, John Porcellino, Zak Sally.

A fair amount going on this weekend at MIX. I do hope you all can make it to the show proper. It's going to be quite fun I think. There is some awesome events going on after the show as well. Check the MIX Parties pages for more info. Here is the poster for the after party that Nic Breutzman illustrated. Our own John & Luke Holden will be performing as a part of that after party. Hope to see yah there!

Holy crap -- we made it!!

2011-10-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

The past month has been bonkers. The Motherlover Kickstarter and all the books we are premiering and previewing at MIX add up. The stress kicks in and the fun deflates a bit. With that said, WE FREAKING MADE IT!! I feel embarrassed and utterly thankful to everyone who kicked in and helped spread the word. I am so damn indebted to all you folks. Thank you, thank you.

I am also thankful to the artists working with us on upcoming projects for dealing with any bs on our end, to the artists involved in books premiering at MIX and before and to my wife and co-publisher. I got warm feelings for y'all --you know that feeling when you are a kid -- you are in the kiddy pool and there is that warm place? Yeah, so, everybody rules and hopefully everybody wins!

There is still much work to be done as we gear up for MIX, so I will say adieu to all of you. Thanks again!

This Weekend.......................TC Book Festival

2011-10-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

The hustling continues here at 2dc, as we have two big books at press simultaneously (Things You Carry & Motherlover), while two minis, Toby Jones & Co.'s new serial Arthur Turnkey, and Eric Schuster and Joe Gillette's Prizon Food, are being assembled for press in preparation for their MIX debuts as well!

Needless to say, our hands are full, but if all this activity wasn't enough, we have another show before all these new 2dc releases drop: Rain Taxi's Twin Cities Book Festival. Although this is a show primarily geared towards the printed word, comics always figure in the spectrum of exhibitors as well as at least one notable cartoonist from outside our borders.

The first year 2dc attended, it was Jaime Hernandez, interviewed by Zak Sally. Gabrielle Bell was the guest cartoonist the following year, which is also when Tom K. put out his first of what has become a reliable string of well-designed minis collecting much of Gabrielle's recent online output into print form. Last year saw a smattering of MN connected cartoonists, including newly 2dc-distroed artist Will Dinski, amongst others. This year, it looks like Rain Taxi has done it again by bringing Ben Katchor to the show. Admittedly, I haven't read as many of his books or collections of his weekly strips as I'd like, but what I have seen in anthologies (Kramers 7 is coming to mind) was definitely memorable and I look forward to hearing him talk this weekend.

Not to be outdone by Mr. Katchor, plenty from the stellar local scene will be in attendance, as we once again do battle with MCBA's Fallcon show for the hearts, minds, and hard earned currency of the local comics fan. If you have the chance, do stop by both, as there are plenty of worthwhile cartoonists in attendance at each show, but if you're looking for something a little different than what you may have seen at Springcon earlier this year, you may want to spend your afternoon in Minneapolis instead.

Although things are starting to look a little grim, we are still hoping beyond hope that our goal for the Motherlover Kickstarter can be met in the week and a half we have left before the curtain is lowered. We truly appreciate all of the backers that have donated thus far, and we'd like to be able to shell out those gifts we have listed, but if that goal can't be reached, well, we can't promise anything. If you haven't checked out the page in a while, it has been updated with more images of the book as well as some samples of the awesome prints Luke Holden has conjured as gifts, not to mention a limited edition of Detrimental Information 8. But enough out of me, if you like this book or what we're doing overall, feel free to share this kickstarter in any way you see fit; we want to pay the artists what they deserve for this book and we want to give people some awesome art and comics!

If you're reading this and you're out west, Raighne and Meghan will be at the Plush You! show at Schmancy in Seattle this Saturday as well. Meghan's always popular Geirdoz will be standing alongside other handmade creations of all shapes and stripes, so if you're up in the pacif northwes, make a point to stop by!

Hobbies Galore

2011-09-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, deep breattthhh.....lots to cover:

First off, thanks to any and all who found their way to our table at the TC Zine Fest last weekend. I was playing Lonewolf, so I wasn't able to see many people besides my neighbors Anna B. and Eric S., who both had some fun mini's I picked up. I wholly recommend tracking down copies of each, if you can. Will Dinski's new mini, The Old Guys, did well on it's 2dc debut, which was good to see. I did manage to run over to Tom K.'s Uncivilized books table to pick up his new Gabrielle Bell Mini, as well as a couple of solid choices from the always polite John P. and his Spit and a Half distro, on tour now! Besides an overactive child (even when the Geirdoz aren't present, they seem to find our table) and her little ugly dog who was dangerously close to besmirching the last copy of Nic's You Can't be Here I had on hand, a good time was had by me. Nice job Lacey, here's to the 2012 show!

Onward and upward, we have our still newish and awesome 2dc (and NOW Fantagraphics) cartoonist Noah Van Sciver on his way to the city by the bay for APE this weekend, right alongside Joseph Remnant, who was kind enough to share table space with Noah and by extension, 2dc. Noah will have some of our more travel-ready 2dc books on hand, in addition to 2009 Isotope winning Covered In Confusion by Will D., not to mention his other thoughtfully crafted mini's, both old and new. This will of course all be accompanied by Noah's standard spread of Blammo's and other Van Sciver ephemera, such as his new mini, Dueling, which is just a taste of what's to come in Noah's forthcoming book from Fantagraphics:

Thats'anice'acover'a

As I've already mentioned multiple times already, Will Dinski's new mini is officially out in the world, and you can make the moves on getting your copy over at our online shop, in addition to a few other choice releases Will decided to have us distro for him. As with all of Will's work, he does limited runs, and these won't be available in shops, so unless you want to meet us in the flesh, get over there!

Now for the big-tent items. Vincent Stall/King Mini's first work with 2d Cloud, Things You Carry, is officially off to the presses! After pouring over the files and proofs (thanks Raighne and Vincent), everything should be in place and this will be one fine, fine book come October. We were hoping for the book to have a preview launch at Vincent's new show going up at the CO gallery 10/8, but some fine-tuning will probably push it back a little bit, possibly to the Rain Taxi Book Festival, possibly to an event all its own, details will be forthcoming. I know both Raighne and I are very excited and honored to be working with Vincent, given his reputation both in the sequential arts as well as his numerous other accolades and achievements. Below is a sample from Vincent's upcoming show of the same name at the CO gallery:

Last, but in no way least, we have just begun our push to get our other big 2011 release out the door in time for MIX: Motherlover. I can say that I've read this book multiple times already, both for copy editing purposes and in earlier permutations (for Nic's pieces anyway), and all of the work in here was already solid. Now, with a few minor editing choices by Raighne and I to "You Can't Be Here" so Nic's great pacing shines to its full extent and some of Raighne's as always stellar color work, we really have something of interest on our hands. Rob Clough has been gracious enough to put 2dc in context with the Minneapolis comics scene and beyond, as well as expound upon what makes the Holden Bros. and Nic's comics so oddly compelling by providing a foreword, all of which can be read here, which sits below the following video from the kickstarter:

We're about a quarter of the way there already (huge THANKS to those who have already shoved numbers our way!), but to keep the momentum going we'll need YOU to find it within yourself to bring this book the attention it deserves. We have quite a few worthwhile incentives tied to each price level, some of which I'll be making sure I snag a copy of before they're gone, so make that hard for me to do and drop the coinage!

Alright, another night of little sleep at the 2dc abodes. Show up to Vincent's show if you're able, we'll be there!

Reminder: 2DC2011TCZF

2011-09-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

Before the day draws too near, just one more reminder that the Twin Cities Zine Fest is occurring this Saturday, the 24th. With Lacey taking the reins for the first time, there are a few changes, all of which I'm (Justin) looking forward to: a later start time (Noon), a new location (Powderhorn Park building--3400 15th Ave. S.) and a little bit different approach to the scheduling (Lacey describes it as a three-ring circus). We'll have copies of Will Dinski's new mini The Old Guys on hand for the first time, not to mention the usual gaggle of 2dc books. I know a couple of 2dc cohorts (Eric Schuster, Anna Bongiovanni) will have new mini's debuting at the show as well, which only sweetens the pot. There are a few other cartoonists/distros/labels of note that will be there as well, but I'm going to leave it up to you to discover them yourselves between 12-5 this Saturday.

Not 100% related, but I'm putting out the call for an unofficial after-party spot: Skoal Kodiak will be dropping their first load (records) release the very same night at the Eagle's Club in the Seward neighborhood. These boys don't disappoint and Load has its own history of putting out records by stellar cartoonists (Lightning Bolt--Brian Chippendale), so this sidetrack has come full circle.

No excuses, see you Saturday.

Dylan Williams, Publisher at Sparkplug Passes Away

2011-09-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

I heard the news last night and I felt like I left my body. Going to sleep early and feeling alone, even with my wife sharing the bed. This morning it hit me pretty hard. I never knew Dylan as well I would have liked -- I would see him with Tom Neely at shows, have dinner with him on a few occasions, and we’d exchange emails from time to time. But I only had this rapport with him for little more than a year or two.

I’d try to inquire as to whether he would distro some of our books, chat him up about also being a vegan, and generally come off often as a tongue-tied pest. If he found any of my blathering and blatant hero-worship the least bit obnoxious, he didn’t show it. Instead, he would tolerate my silly behavior, took me up on attending MIX, answered my questions on running a tiny comics operation, etc. In short, he was a patient, modest person who I perceived as my late 20’s role model.

Just being around Dylan put me in mind of having or being an older brother (I am the oldest amongst my siblings so I can recall being on the other end -- in addition, my younger brother’s name is in fact Dillon). Anyways, as you can imagine, the usual awkwardness and fumbling that arises from these sort of scenarios. This was my relationship with Dylan and he was fine with my interactions very much coming off like a foal’s first steps.

Dylan was also aware of this effect he had on people -- we talked a bit about it at one point and he wasn’t always sure if people were genuinely trying to befriend him or merely trying to schmooze / network with him. He may have even been politely nudging me with this. In any case, Dylan was a true, ethical, hard working dude. He dared to publish comics no else had much interest in and to continue putting out many of them in the staple-bound format as comic books. It was no mistake that Sparkplug Comic Books had ‘comic books’ in the name.

Sparkplug was and is my favorite comics publisher and Dylan is the reason for that. I am deeply indebted to him for his openness, his example, for personally introducing me to awesome cartoonists like Noah Van Sciver, and just for being an honest and decent human being. He is sorely missed.

My heart goes out to Emily, the rest of his family & friends, and the comics community at large. We lost a great hero today.

Twin Cities Zine Fest 2011 is coming up!

2011-09-06T06:17:00.000-07:00

Hello folks! In a few short weeks the Twin Cities Zine Fest will be upon us. The date to mark on the calender is this Sept. 24th, a Saturday. Noon to 5pm, Justin and maybe Nic Breutzman will be holding down the 2DC table. We will have the usual books, comics, mini's and maybe a couple new little things premiering at the show. We will see.

That image is the first part of a 3 pager that I submitted to TCZF -- they are going to have a How-To zine / comic encyclopedia / anthology thing involving everyone that is at the show! A pretty neat idea if you ask me.

I'll have another update tomorrow covering our fall line up, new books in the shop, and perhaps some other odds and ends. See yah then!

Lovejoy at Copacetic

2011-08-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

The latest shop to get on the Noah Van Sciver // Death of Elijah Lovejoy band-wagon is the Copacetic Comics Company. While I have never made it to Copacetic myself, that shop looks to be a comics / art / literature / media mecca. So folks in Pittsburgh, why don't yah treat yourself to some gorgeous tactile media and stop on by the Copacetic Comics Company? I don't think you'll regret it. And besides, how could you not want to add a little bit of that Noah Van Sciver magic to your collection?

This image is snipped from a bunch of misprints of Noah's Lovejoy comic booklet. We plan on having a show sometime this year involving those misprints and some originals from the comic itself. For those unaware, the entire book was printed by La Mano's head-cheese, Zak Sally (they have their own press!). Anywho, I'll keep yah in the loop on that as it develops.

Ganked

2011-08-18T06:24:00.000-07:00

Ha! I think the last time I used that word was when I was 12 or so and would bike to Target every day after school with my friend Thien-Mihn (I don't remember how to spell his name -- it's a mystery that I can spell my own as my spelling is indeed that atrocious. Maybe you've noticed?). We would go there purely to steal comic book cards. What put a stop to my early years of thievery was that I was hit by a car -- which at the time I was pretty sure was an act of god telling me to knock it off or something.

Anyways, this image was ganked from Noah Van Sciver's blog. It's a preview of a newsprint comic that he is splitting with Nic Breutzman AND that we are publishing early next year. The title of Noah's story is the The Cows Head and is based on some folklore. Noah has another preview of a short story that we are publishing next year titled The Lizard Laughs. That story is going inside a new anthology that we are starting sometime in 2012. I'll be talking more about that at a future date. To see more cool stuff that Noah is up to, like 1999 (put out by new comics publisher, Retrofit) check out his blog.

Before the month is out I will be adding a small distro section on the blog as we have a few of Will Dinski's gorgeously designed and illustrated mini's that we'll be selling direct. Speaking of which, Will just finished a new one in collaboration with Mark Ehling. The story is called The Old Guys and will be made available in two formats -- one, as a short in the literary journal, The Nashville Review, and two, as a very limited mini, which you can take a gander at above. In the interim, hit up Will's blog for details. I'm pretty sure these handsome mini's will be making it to the aforementioned distro section of the site in the near future.

Oh and before I go, Will is designing a little comic to fit squarely on our new business card. That ought to be "out" in time for Vincent Stall's Things You Carry launch this October.

A peek at King Mini's new book

2011-08-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

Hello folks! So a couple of weeks ago, Vincent Stall's work was previewed on MPLS.TV -- some of which, like the image to the left, was a re-jiggered version of his upcoming graphic novel Things You Carry which we will be launching at Gallery CO this October 9th, which is a Sunday. He will also have a ton of drop-dead fucking gorgeous screen prints available at the show. That large bulge of bills in your pants is going to want to buy a few of 'em so be sure to stop by and pick up his new comic!

In other news, Metro Magazine is running a promo in collaboration with the Twin Cities Zine Fest, giving away a bunch of free zines / comics / and the like -- heck you could even win a free copy of that comic we did with that Noah Van Sciver fella, The Death of Elijah Lovejoy! All you have to do is email giveaways@metromag.com by August 15th, Monday at 5pm. So get cracking! And if your brain requires more deets prior to writing that time consuming email, follow the link to see some of the other participants or check out their neat zine right up here.

Speaking of the Zine Fest, Nic Breutzman made it into the City Pages Comics Issue! And if you should take a look at his comic and dig it, well, he just might have something for your peepers at the Twin Cities Zine Fest in September, perhaps a new mini-comic? I was hanging out with Nic the other day and got to see a bit of his upcoming newsprint split with Noah Van Sciver that we are publishing early next year. It's looking really great and I think we are all in for a treat!

Did I mention that my wife is participating in the Plush You Show at Schmancy Toys this October? Well, she is and we are flying to Seattle for the opening! I just bought tickets for the show a couple of days ago. We are definitely going to hit up the Fantagraphics Book Store and some vegan food places, not sure what else. It's bound to be fun though!

tuna-face-melt

2011-07-25T20:21:00.000-07:00

Avoided the heat last week by going to my mother-in-laws house (with my talented wife in tow), ate her food and watched her movies while she was at work (I owe her a trip to Italy, so please by our books ;-)

Watched Harry Potter the Deathly Hollows part deux --Liked it quite a bit actually.
New shop orders over at Jim Hanley’s Universe and Forbidden Planet New York (ordered some weeks back, so, new-ish order) two of our staunchest supporters -- please support them so that they may continue to support us.

More new shop orders from Chicago Comics, Atomic Books, and Fantastic Comics for, you guessed it, The Death of Elijah Lovejoy by none other than Noah Van Sciver (he recently put up an excerpt from his graphic novel, The Hypo on his blog-- very cool!). All top notch shops-- in a couple weeks they should have their orders and perhaps 5 of your green backs...? Do it! You recall me blathering a bit about Escapist Comic Booksore ordering our books 2 weeks back? Well, the other shop that sprung from the ashes of Comic Relief is Fantastic Comics. They are the one that inherited (in a manner of speaking) the physical shop of Comic relief while Escapist Comic Bookstore inherited the back stock and the cats.

NEWS::EXTRA_LIVES::CONTINUES
A couple of excellent mini’s by our pal, Willy D AKA Will Dinski to enter our web shop sometime next month.

Speaking of mini’s, we have details on a book we are doing with Vincent Stall, the proprietor of King Mini International. It’s looking likely that we can pencil in the date for an October launch for Things You Carry. This of course could change. It’s going to be a gorgeous little book in any case, I mean check out that cover! Just bought an ISBN for it too. Actually, I bought 100 of ‘em.

Lastly, last Friday was Zak Sally’s fortieth! Go support the man -- buy his comics!!

In 'Da News: New Distro, New Shop

2011-07-11T23:18:00.000-07:00

Tony Shenton, who just so happens to be our main man and sales rep. has been been pushing Noah Van Sciver’s 'The Death of Elijah Lovejoy' aggressively, which is awfully kind of him. He even got on the horn, calling it “...the best handmade minicomic of 2011 so far.” BOOYAH!! We now have a publisher page listing off books available to shops through Shenton as well. What this all means of course is you ought to order away (and why not make it today?)!

A fair portion of the 2DC catalogue is making it’s way over to John P. at Spit and a Half. Spit has some excellent, obscure and amazing small press comics, zines, art books, and other miscellaneous visual paraphernalia. Do check it out and order it up! I don't think you will regret it. You’ll likely see John at just about any small press show as he tours frequently. Also, like Noah Van Sciver, his drawings have a way of multiplying, becoming several different beautiful comic books. The drawings themselves must have some king of drinking habit to include the copious amounts of workahol they consume. For example John’s regular output of touring, distro-ing, and 'King-Cat Comics' comic-ing, he also has a new book, 'The Next Day' just released by the nice folks at Pop Sand Box. It’s a beautiful book, I just bought a copy of it myself. And before I derail myself any further, it looks like John has a new book coming next year as well as a split with Noah that is forthcoming! That's all I am trying to say, he is busy and on top of a lot, go support him and us while you're at it!

So, back to tooting our own horn: the orders keep on coming for 'The Death of Elijah Lovejoy' and I say-- keep ‘em coming! Last weekends new retailer was the Escapist Comic Bookstore, based in Berkley. They have quite a bit of history for a newer shop as they acquired Comic Relief’s back stock (prior to it shuttering) and their two cats. They also added a couple copies of 'Yearbooks' by Nic Breutzman to their order. If you are in the area and curious as to what we are up to, visit the Escapist Comic Bookstore and buy our comics!!

Over at Quimby’s Bookstore in Chicago, another damn fine shop, Neil Brideau has just informed me they received their order. And thanks to Ed Choy Moorman, we’ve had a sale at that shop too. Thank you kindly gentlemen! I hope thar be more where that be coming from!

Lastly but certainly not least, it’s been confirmed but maybe not formerly announced that 'The Hypo' now has a home at Fanta! Congrats to yah yet again Noah-- the stars align for you sir and your glorious mustache!

K-I-S-S-I-N-G: Noah and 2DC get more love for their Lovejoy baby

2011-07-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

"Noah Van Sciver's The Death of Elijah Lovejoy is his single strongest work to date..." --Rob Clough, High-Low

We love yah Noah!

"Van Sciver also uses a lot of interesting panel shapes which often help convey the chaotics circumstances of this story." --Xaviar Xerexes, ComixTalk

I've had my eye on our pal Noah Van Sciver for a little while now and when I saw his Lovejoy comic on his blog I saw this as a strong leap forward in his work. It made me wish I were a wealthy fellow instead of small press comics publisher-- so as to shower him with dough (not bread or cookie dough-- MONEY!), so as to allow him to continue the good work in style. In any case, I am immensely pleased that Noah and 2DC were able to bring this project to life with Zak Sally over at La Mano. I think it's a perfect fit if I do say so myself. AND, I am really happy about these reviews we have been having come in too! The Death of Elijah Lovejoy really is a tasty salvo for Noah's upcoming graphic novel about Abraham Lincoln, The Hypo. That book is going to rock so hard!

We recently got another order from a shop we had not had any books at previously-- the awesome shop that is Floating World Comics! I have not been there myself-- but I really really ~~liked~~ no, LOVE the Diamond Comics newsprint anthology that FWC puts out. It is a glorious thing!

Well, I gotta split, my wife has to update her mouth therapy blog.

New review over at 13 Minutes, new retailer added, um...

2011-06-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

Moving drudgery concludes with half of 2DC's, uh, "crew" (?) settling in to their/our new pad. I am tired and have been staring at the screen for about an hour trying to figure out what in the heck I am doing. Anyways and elsewhere--

"The Death of Elijah Lovejoy plays like a tasty appetizer for whatever main course awaits us in the form of the pre-Civil War toiling-away-in-obscurity Abe Lincoln book called The Hypo that Van Sciver has been crafting and promising us for months."

As I was trying to get at, Justin Giampaoli, the chap that write's thoughtful, intelligent reviews over at 13 Minutes, did just that for our first book with the very talented, newly mustached Noah Van Sciver-- which is of course The Death of Elijah Lovejoy. Oh, the above blurb is taken from his review of said book. So, make with a habit and click with the links!

Twin Cities Comics, which incidentally is on the edge of MPLS and Columbia Heights, has just picked up Yearbooks (and at it's new price of 10 bones)! I am always thrilled to see that book in shops.

Speaking of shops & Mustache Van Sciver, I finally managed to get some copies of The Death of Elijah Lovejoy over to Big Brain Comics. Now please folks, if you happen to be in either 'dem woods of the neck, pick and peck them's books on up. A Hairy Backed Hogan sends yah.

Dry Spell, Moving Hell

2011-06-24T06:15:00.000-07:00

Hello folks, we have quite a few things a brewing here at 2DC. As I (raighne here) have been in the middle of a very slow move, progress on much has also turned to a gelatinous crawl. We should be having some major-ish announcements (for a tiny operation such as we are) pretty soon. What I can tell yah is we will be adding a few more things to the shop and future release's once Meghan and I have settled into our new digs.

Oh, and the preview above. That is for The Death of Elijah Lovejoy which is making it's way to reviewers and the first shop orders in NY thanks to our sales rep. Mister Tony Shenton. A special thanks to my co-pub for mailing all 'dem suckers out and staying on top of shit while I am in moving purgatory!

Jim Woodring at the Walker Art Center this Saturday!!

2011-05-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

Special Announcement: This Saturday, the Walker Art Center and Rain Taxi Review of Books are throwing together a little something for comics lovers outside of the cities here to be damn jealous of-- as a special midnight performance, Jim Woodring is going to compose a series of drawings live with a 7 foot tall pen!! Last year he raised funds for the giant pen via the United States Artists Special Projects, a crowd funding site in the vein of Kickstarter but with a non-profit spin. For more info check out Rain Taxi or the Walker Art Center.

Also, did I mention it appears to be free and open to the public? You would be wise to not miss this!

2D Noah Van Sciver

2011-05-25T22:57:00.000-07:00

Photo by Tom K

"Noah Van Sciver was frozen in this position for the entirety of Spring Con. Raighne & Justin thought that was funny. Weird Funny. Not haha funny." --Tom K's Flickr page.

Spring Con 2011 was a lot of fun-- more so than I would have expected for a non-alternative/indie/art show. Part of that fun came from the excellent company of one Noah Van Sciver. We hosted that fella and premiered his book at the show. A big shout out to Zak Sally for the printing-hell to get it done in time for Spring Con. It's a beautiful little book and I am certainly proud of it. While at the show and shortly thereafter it's made some noise here in MN via a review by local cartoonist Alexander Fukui, and a brief interview with the nice chaps over at the Geek Report. Included in the interview/Spring Con post is Lars Martinson and the North Star Roller Girls.

Photo by Will Dinski

Speaking of The Death of Elijah Lovejoy, it is now available to order from the shop. So, head on over there and pick it up!

Also at our table we had Nic Breutzman, who drove up from Rochester MN on Sat. He is in the process of moving back to the cities. He has quite a load of work coming out the second half of the year. Keep a look out for it, 'kay? Other 2DC regulars included Justin, my wife Meghan and myself. We kept the table and a half stocked with people and books. Thanks to all who stopped by and chatted us up!!

I am sure everybody's done hearing about how the rapture/end of the world scenario did not happen this weekend, but we did get some heavy rain and a tornado dropped down in North Minneapolis and made a mess of things. That was a little worrisome...

Photo by Tom K

One grave error that I made during the duration of the show was forgetting to bring cash, thus I ended up staying put and not tempting myself with books I could not buy. Which was sad as I wanted to check out lots-o-stuff. And I opted to not use an ATM as I HATE doing that. Little did I know I would end up having to do that at Matt's Bar in South Minneapolis as Justin, Noah, Tom K. and myself had lunch there AND they do not accept plastic. I really should have known better. No matter.

Photo by Tom K

On monday I stopped at Big Brain and picked up 21 by Wilfred Santiago, Evolution by Kevin and Zander Cannon of Big Time Attic, True Swamp 01 by Jon Lewis, Book of Logo's by Dan Wieken.

Oh, and if you happen to stop over at Itchy Keen in the next week or two, my apologies-- it's in the middle of a redesign.

Fleeting Pages & SpringCon 2011 + notes

2011-05-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

Last week Justin sent out some copies of Yearbooks to Fleeting Pages, a pop-up book store in Pittsburgh, PA. They ended up taking over the Borders that went out of business and will be selling independently published and small press books of all stripes in their HUGE 24,000 square foot shop until early June. They have also been getting a ton of press coverage on their venture. If you are in Pittsburgh between now and early June, stop by, pick up some gorgeous small press books and check out their workshops and film showings!!

Next on the agenda: This Saturday and Sunday is SpringCon 2011! We will be premiering Noah Van Sciver's 'The Death of Elijah Lovejoy' at the show. The show opens to the public at 10 am both days and ends at 5 pm and takes place and the MN State Fair Grounds. Below is the address for quick reference.

1265 Snelling Ave North
St. Paul MN 55108

At our table will be Nic Breutzman, Justin Skarhus, Meghan Hogan, and myself (raighne here). Noah might be at our table too, not sure if he has his own table or not... Hrm. So visit us, say hi, take a look at our new book!

2 quick notes:

1:
Help Zak get this baby out in the world!! Pre-ordering the book is only 12$!

2: in a future post, after SpringCon I will talk a bit about my curatorial picks for MIX-- sorry about the delay JP.

Maggie's 30th: A Photo Post

2011-05-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

Last Monday was my wife's 30th Birthday. As Meghan is not much of party-person we kept it a mostly solo affair. In the morning Meghan opened some gifts, about 95% comics. Some of the new additions to our comics library include: Doghead by Al Columbia, Stigmata by Lorenzo Mattotti & Claudio Piersanti, From Inside by John Bergin, The Kim Deitch Files put out by the ever lovely La Mano. It's pretty wonderful being married to this wonderful gal-o-mine as our interest in comics, art, music, literature is about 90% spot on-- thusly I do SO enjoy getting her comics! Ha!

Meghan and I went had breakfast and picked up a bottle of ice wine and a vegan cake then headed back home, where I began cooking some dinner, a mango tofu stir-fry.

Maggie helped get the cake out of the fridge.

Mmm. Cake!

Better eat some dinner first. This is how I look when I eat.

Better take those green things off.

Have some wine Maggie.

Cake-time!

I like cake too.

But Maggie LOVES cake!

This is probably a little sappy-- sorry folks, but I love my little Maggie "Cake" Monster!

A double dose of dat Noah Van Sciver fella'

2011-05-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

First, as seen from the picture, The Death of Elijah Lovejoy has been a little cursed over at the printer -- running into snags and complications due in part to the way I coloured and designed the cover and inside cover. The good news is that 10 or so copies have made it through unscathed and will be giving 2D Cloud a minor presence at TCAF today and Sunday via Zak Sally of La Mano 21. Should you find yourself in Toronto-Land this weekend, stop by the downtown library for comics goodness and be sure to checkout the beautiful books at La Mano 21 and Uncivilized Books! And while we're dispensing recommendations, stop by Sparkplug Comic Books and i will destroy you!

Ok, I lied about the Noah double dip, it is a Quad Powered trip into the Van Sciver world: A week or so ago our pal, Noah Van Sciver, had the latest issue of Blammo reviewed over at The Comics Journal. It was maybe a sterner review, but still a positive one. Shortly thereafter he was interviewed over at Ink Panthers. They talk about getting harsher reviews, make it or break it deals with their female counter parts, etc. It's interesting and funny stuff -- go give it a listen. If you want to take a peek at one of the stories included in Blammo # 7 (and trust me, you do), head on over to Top Shelf 2.0 for 'Who Are You, Jesus?'

And speaking of this Noah Van Sciver fella', The Death of Elijah Lovejoy is getting closer and closer to finally being realized in print and will be premiering proper at SpringCon 2011 in exactly 2 weeks!! Noah will be on hand for the show, so stop on by then and chat him up. We will have more news on SpringCon soon.

TCJ's Top 25 Minis of 2010: 2D Cloud makes the cut

2011-05-05T16:29:00.000-07:00

!!!!

The last book in the Good Minnesotan series, GMN4, makes it into The Comics Journal's Top 25 Minis of 2010. Hoo-haa, heady company we is in -- landing in the #2 spot, as decreed by indie comics maven Rob Clough feels, I don't know, nice. I worked my beard and bum off on that issue, so thanks much to Rob for digging into and appreciating the work. But don't take my word for it -- go check out the article! Fellow Minnesotans (past and present) like Tom K, Toby Jones, Ed Choy Moorman, and Nic Breutzman, not to mention our newest 2D Cloud artist, Noah Van Sciver, all made the list for their own releases over the past year as well. Congrats to them, and keep an eye on the future releases page as you're likely to see some, if not all of these great cartoonists in new 2D Cloud books in the future.

A big thanks to our contribs/supporters as well. You know, I still have yet to finish binding all 500 copies of GMN4. Ugh. Gotta get back to that prior to SpringCon!

Extra, Extra: Spring Cleaning Addition

2011-04-10T07:05:00.000-07:00

So, some news: we at 2DC have been doing some spring cleaning on this old blog, perhaps you have noticed it looks a bit less-- fugly? Well, I do hope so, dear reader. I have been distracted working on it, instead of colouring comix, which puts me at 3 weeks behind schedule. I will, however, have time to catch up soon as I'll be shaving a day off my schedule by months end.

Our pal, Noah Van Sciver was recently interviewed on Indie Spinner Rack, pimping his new works: Blammo 7; The Hypo; and the first book we are doing with him, The Death of Elijah Lovejoy! WOO-YAH! Sorry, excited there. We have some big plans for that little book. More news on that front soon.

The Chicago Zine Fest was Justin and I's first out of town solo show without the ladies in tow. You know, for a minute there, I thought we'd probably get a little too blissed out in our adventuring. Not so much though, nearing and hitting 30 does that I suppose. Megabussing in also took some of that wind out of our sails. Enough wind that after Neil Brideau directed us to his fun-house, Ed Moorman gave us a ring and asked me when I/we started drinkng-- haha! No drinking, just dehydration, hunger, and my own sense of goofy-odd behavior.

CZF, which was a blast and is now about 2 weeks in the past. While we did not have a final finished version of The Death of Elijah Lovejoy available at the show, we did have some last minute ashcan's dropped off by none other than Zak Sally the very day prior to our departure! I was super thrilled to have them there-- I am seriously indebted to Zak for pushing to get us those ashcans for the show. Ed did a huge favor by us with lending us usage of his awesome stapler-- a life saver fer sure, as those books needed binding bad (Michael Jackson Bad).

Another huge thank you to Neil for helping to make CZF the awesome show it is AND for letting us crash at his pad! And before I forget-- thanks to everyone who made it out there and stopped at our table to chat us up and/or purchase something!! We love yah!

In other beleaguered and belabored news, a spell back I, Raighne here, was announced to be one of the curators for MIX. I am in some pretty cool company, the curators are as follows:

Rob Stenzinger
Michael May
Ursula Murray Husted
Brittney Sabo
Jason Loeffler
Barbara Schulz
Michael Drivas
Raighne Hogan
Tom Kaczynski
Zak Sally

Purty neat. Well, thanks for lending me your earballs and eyeholes. More pots and pans banging concerning our 2011 plots and plans soon! Also, apologies for any bad grammar or spelling issues. J-Stud, our co-pub, moved to NE recently and has been needing to get his place in order-- Justin normally makes me sound/look better in all regards, including editing my posts before they go live. Regards!

3/26/11=2DC@CZF

2011-03-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

We're a mere 10 days away from 2D Cloud's first appearance in Chicago at the illustrious Chicago Zine Fest! After hearing good things from our friend, GMN4 contributor, and recent Top Shelf published cartoonist Will Dinski about the show last year, we decided that this is a show we wanted to be a part of. Since we didn't take CZF organizer and minicomiker Neil Brideau up on his offer to table with him in Stumptown this year, this is the ONLY confirmed beyond-our-borders show we're going to this year, so if you can't make it to MN to see us in person, this is most likely your only chance!

A word on the status of Noah Van Sciver's The Death of Elijah Lovejoy: the files have been sent to Zak Sally of La Mano, and if everything runs smoothly, there's a slight chance the comic will still make its debut in Chicago. Considering the chance for unforeseen developments is high, don't be flabbergasted if there's no Noah on the table come Saturday. We'll do our damndest to get it there though!

Looking forward to seeing one of our first contributors to GMN (GMN2) outside of our immediate social circle(s), Ed Moorman, as well as the rest of you beautiful zinesters and small-press whackjobs...

Chi cag o.

Lovejoy Proof

2011-02-28T13:12:00.000-08:00

High draw-ma in Noah Van Sciver's The Death of Elijah Lovejoy. The above pic is a rough proof to catch any tom-foolery like mirror-flipped pages in the guts prior to dropping it off at La Mano. The book should be seeing print the end of March or early April. Keep your fingers cross-eyed for a debut at the Chicago Zine Fest on the 25th of next month.

Oh, those requiring regular nourishment of info on Noah Van Sciver may wish to check out the NVS interview saga over at Itchy Keen. It's a 1 2 3 parter, partner. Gettyup on all that already.

Noah Van Sciver on Itchy Keen + new book pre-order ready

2011-02-16T23:54:00.000-08:00

Well it's late into the night or early into the morning and I've just finished re-organizing the Itchy Keen blogsite. There's more work to be done, but, I gotta a whole lot of other things to take care of, know what I mean? Anywho, as the title suggests, I have also put up the first part of that Noah Van Sciver interview I've been working on. Parts 2 & 3 come next week.

Oh, the weird illustration. I hate prep work. Sometimes it works to my favor, sometimes not. These are some attempted doodle's for the interview. It's supposed to be Noah. Not sure that it looks like him. I think the final one included in the interview does all right though. They were fun to do in any case.

Here I am quoting myself, from an email to Noah 2 months back:

"Last year and early this year I re-read a bunch of the single issues of Yummy Fur, and seeing/reading Blammo definitely put me in mind of Yummy Fur. What you are doing Noah is some of my favorite comic work right now. Your push of the traditionally sized comic single and the regular out put and how quickly you are growing-- if I could I afford it I would do my damnedest to steal you and your Blammo series."

Although I cannot (yet!) steal Noah, we will be doing a number of books with him in the coming years. The first one out the gate drops late next month. The Death of Elijah Lovejoy is now available for pre-order!

Yearbooks made it in Drawing Words & Writing Pictures Notables for 2010!

2011-02-03T15:41:00.000-08:00

Nic's work was recently mentioned as a 2010 notable on Drawing Words & Writing Pictures ran by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden. I'm happy to see Nic's Yearbooks get a shout out. I'm obviously a little biased, but if I didn't think it was quality work I wouldn't have worked so hard to see it published. I also really enjoyed colouring it, and will be colouring about 130 pages of comix before the year is out. 100 of those pages are comix by Mr. Breutzman. This is going to be a packed year. Hopefully y'all will keep an eye or two on some of the projects we got coming up. Thanks!

Noah on Inkstuds and BLAMMO #7 pre-order ready!

2011-01-25T05:24:00.000-08:00

Yeah this was a couple weeks ago... That is, that Noah and a few other cartoonists discussing Best of 2010 comics on the comix radio show, INKSTUDS. Follow the link. Noah named Nic's You Can't Be Here as one of his favorite reads of 2010! Thanks Noah for the shout out! Anyone interested in picking up that newspaper comic best act on it soon, there's only like 30 of 'em left!

Imma slow moving, tree dwelling sloth lately. But, yeah. Here is my current stab at colouring the cover of Noah's Lovejoy book. Yeah?

Update: I forgot to mention, BLAMMO #7 is currently available for pre-order. Do yourself a favor and pick up that book from Kilgore! It's got a beautiful colour cover!

Best of 2010 Links (and not the Jimmy Dean or Atari variety)

2011-01-05T08:10:00.000-08:00

Across the pond at the excellent Exquisite Things blog, Matt D made mention of GMN #4 making the best of 2010 cut! Awesome, thanks Matt, and thanks to everyone involved with that book, it was great fun working on it! Of note, there are some great interviews and articles at Exquisite Things, and worth checking out. I've stumbled upon numerous works and cartoonists that I've added to my list of things to acquire...

Speaking of best of nonsense, I threw together some of my fav's for 2010, which made its way onto the Daily Crosshatch. I love those title's and I love a lot more of them then that. At a later date I will talk a bit more about some of my fav-o-flav's of 2010, and those I missed and still lust after.

Also, a while back I was interviewed about crowdfunding over at Inforum, the Forum of Fargo and Moorhead by Marino Eccher. It's an interesting read, check it out! In a month or two, we will be going at it again with crowdfunding site Kickstarter for our largest undertaking of 2011. More on that soon, son.

Happy New Year Folks!

2011-01-01T08:14:00.000-08:00

So, it's 2001, er 2011. Happy New Year folks! We have some big plans for 2011. For the past 2 years we have only put one or two books out all year. This year, we are upping that to at least 4-5 titles at minimum. We've budgeted for considerably more, but we have to wait on the artists to finish or for some (myself included) to start their respective books with the gusto required to get them done on schedule. In a future post I will go over some of the titles and the artists involved. It's going to be a full year!

The first book out of the gate for 2D Cloud will be Noah Van Sciver's The Death of Elijah Lovejoy. To the left is a very rough colour test-- I'll be doing a number of these and having Zak Sally take a look at seeing which ones would be easiest to run off his press.

I'm very excited to be working with Noah, who recently had a fling with the press via the Most Memorable Comics and Graphic Novels of 2010 on NPR. He is also going to be on Inkstuds in the very near future and he has a comic in an upcoming issue of MOME! Congrats Noah!

I am also very excited to be using Zak Sally's press for The Death of Elijah Lovejoy, it's a perfect fit. In the next month or so we will have a more in-depth interview with Noah over at Itchy Keen. And at some point here we will get that video interview we did between Zak Sally and Dylan Williams up.

Speaking of interviews on Itchy Keen, we have a new one up with Jordan Shiveley, head cat over at fellow minneapolis based small press publisher, Grimalkin. They have title out by Noah Van Sciver at their shop.

GMN4 Reviewed on TCJ + Shopping Infoz

2010-12-09T06:18:00.000-08:00

SO, GMN4 got reviewed on the luxurious webpages of The Comics Journal-- Wahoo! And it's a pretty positive review to boot. Cha-cha-check it out!

I gotta split for work in a sec so I will be keeping this short. Our online shop is now, barely functional. Which is much better than, not functional at all. Barely though.

And should you be in Barcelona (yeah the one in Spain), come this Friday, our friends at FATBOTTOM BOOKS will be having their grand opening, so visit if yer in their neck of the woods!

re-organization aka winter cleaning

2010-12-01T16:28:00.000-08:00

I know it's a mess right now on our little blog. It's being re-organized and will be beautified by Nic Breutzman at some point in the near future plus the actual shop is on it's way to getting out of ugly town and being operational. Thanks chitterlings, love!

Rob Reviews RDCD Fist (RRRF...)

2010-11-26T19:29:00.000-08:00

Well, it finally happened: my first mini made its way through the gates of The Comics Journal and into a thoughtful review by Rob Clough. I feel fortunate to have had Rob take the time to parse my brief, mostly stream-of-consciousness little narrative; it definitely helps me maintain my motivation to plug away at Redcd Fist II. One comparison that has come up at least twice that I can recall (once from Tom K. when I traded him for his first Gabrielle Bell mini, the second from Raighne) before Rob's review is the Cronenburgian undertones of the story, something I didn't think about while making it, but in hindsight makes perfect sense. I'm a huge admirer of his work (Videodrome is easily in my top tier of movies), so I'm not surprised his influence seeped in there.

I'm also glad to have been reviewed together with Jason Overby, someone I really respect as a cartoonist. I picked up my first copies of his work at Stumptown last April and I'd have to say that his work, along with Blaise Larmee and Jason T. Miles', were definitely my favorite single-creator comics of the show. The blog that he runs with Blaise and Austin English, cometscomets, is also one of the most interesting comics blogs of the moment in the way I used to feel about the Comics Comics blog. Still like those guys, but it feels like that blog finally found a job after college and had to start 'taking shit seriously'. Anyway, what copies are left of this guy will be available on the new 2dc internet store once Raighne creates it. We have a lot of comics I'm excited about slated for 2011, more on those as they become ready (or rather, when we become ready to beg for your monéy!)

You Can't Be Here gets it's first review!

2010-11-18T08:28:00.000-08:00

Nic Breutzman got his beautiful newspaper biggie reviewed over at The Comics Journal by none other than Rob Clough. You Can't Be Here will be colored and collected into Mother Lover early next year, along with another short by Nic and a new story by John and Luke Holden. Some time before that we will get the new web shop up and open and have You Can't Be Here available for sale there as well as some some of Shenton's shops (currently waiting on Nic getting us some more copies as we are a little low).

On a side note, I got to meet with Grimalkin's publisher, Jordan Shiveley, over tea talk a bit about his outfit as he makes the move to Minneapolis. We'll be doing an interview with him over at Itchy Keen at a later time. Our own Reynold Kissling has a very pretty short in the forthcoming fifth volume of Hive! If I haven't said it before, Hive is doing some things really well and I applaud them on their ability to release regularly, the beautiful hand-craftedness of their releases, and their ability to put out better and bigger books with each iteration. Anthologies are hard, this I know.

New Shops, New Review, and a Thanks to YOU!

2010-11-13T06:22:00.000-08:00

First review of Justin's wonderfully strange mini RDCD Fist over at Midnight Fiction. It is an odd little book and my short diddy taking up the rear probably doesn't help make anything more clear. Anyways--Woohoo! Thanks Richard Krauss!

Note: RDCD Fist will be for sale in the shop in the next month. It's a super limited run and will thusly not be made available to shops.

Meghan and I spent the first week of this month in France, more on that soon, but in the mean time we got orders for GMN4 and other books at some new shops! They are as follows:

Fatbottom Books in Barcelona Spain, Le Pied de Biche Galerie Librarie (The Crowbar Gallery & Bookstore) in Paris France; Desert Island in Brooklyn, NY; Casablanca Comics in Portland, ME; Ada Books in Providence, RI.

And last but not least, 2 of our more usual shops in NY ordered some copies of GMN4, Forbidden Planet and Jim Hanley's Universe! Thank you for your orders and thank you Tony Shenton!!

Oh, and this is the last page from RDCD Fist (from the story I did). I don't think it gives anything away other than being weird.

Yearbooks and GMN4 get reviewed AGAIN--Woop Woop!

2010-10-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

Over at the excellent Warren Peace Sings the Blues, Matthew Brady writes some thoughtful reviews on a handful of mini's including Yearbooks (which really isn't quite a mini, but--) and Good Minnesotan #4.

Side note: anthologies are generally a bit of a mixed bag. Sometimes they work out better when there is a smaller list of contributors and tighter focus on the vision. Sales tend to reflect this as well. Obviously, I really like GMN4 as it is, but then, I am the editor. I'll have more masturbatory thoughts on anthologies over at Itchy Keen in the FUTURE.

Oh yeah, the drawing is another image by Luke Holden from the comic/anthology Mother Lover which comes out next year. It's going to be pretty awesome.

2 new reviews at Playtime Magazine and a post thank you

2010-10-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone that came out to Rain Taxi's Book Festival! A double thanks to those that stopped by to pick up a book off our table and gave it a sincere look. Also, it was nice being sandwiched between Will Dinski and Kevin Cannon and that the cartoonists were all tabling together for the event!

In other news, we got 2 new reviews over at Playtime Magazine, one for Yearbooks here, and the other for GMN4 here. Both by the tall and quite bearded fellow Matt Kessen! Playtime Magazine is a smart, cool snapshot of arts & culture, an eMagazine covering comix, trash novels, films, video games; leaning towards genre work- it's top notch and worth checking out ! In the back issue's there is a review of a Primal Rage novel!! Strange and stupidly awesome! In any case, check out them reviews!

Photo of our table at the Rain Taxi Book Fest by Will Dinski-- thanks Will!

2dc @ Rain Taxi's Twin Cities Book Festival

2010-10-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

Us 2d Cloud folk were expecting to be pulling double duty this upcoming weekend, having part of the camp over at Fallcon and the rest at Rain Taxi's Twin Cities Book Festival. When we were asked by one of our GMN contributors, Anna Bongiovanni, if she could share our table this year, we realized we hadn't had any formal communication with the MCBA people for a while, so Raighne took it upon himself to confirm our table. We were told that unfortunately they couldn't accommodate as many creators this year due to the smaller size of the show, meaning that we would have to wait until Springcon to peddle our wares in the ghost-town that is the State Fair Grounds. Looking at the creator list for Fallcon this year, it looks like people from the Big Time Attic/Cartoonist Conspiracy clans have spots as well as some of our GMN contributors, such as Toby Jones, Madeline Queripel and Sean Lynch. The rest of the non-superhero/genre comics scene seems to be setting up shop at the Rain Taxi show (as of now I believe that in addition to us will be Tom K., Will Dinski, Tim Sievert and probably a few other people I'm [Justin] not aware of).

Raighne and I were speculating as to why so many of the indie cartoonists who have tabled at both MCBA events in years past did not have a table this year, and the first reason that popped into our heads was the existence of MIX. Maybe the MCBA feels that since there's a big show devoted to the local indie comics scene, they need to give the superhero/genre comics creators and fans a little more precedence when it comes to a show with limited space. At first I was a little offended that we weren't invited to Fallcon, but the more I think about it, I think it's really just an indication that the comics scene in Minnesota as a whole has grown to the point that there are enough cartoonists and fans to populate two shows simultaneously, which ultimately is just a testament to the health of the medium.

With that said, we are more than happy to be a part of the Rain Taxi show.Their continued support of comics, both locally and nationally, is also encouraging in terms of the increasing legitimacy of comics to the larger reading public. Dealing with the persistence of a sort of inferiority complex that still crops up in a lot of discussions regarding comics as they relate to casual readers can get a little tiresome, but nevertheless we are glad that our work is considered to have enough merit to be included. There will be a panel at the show, Minnesota Comics, that I believe will highlight the current strength of the local comics scene and will help demonstrate what I mentioned above about the diversity and size of the comics community currently in Minnesota. Not to foster any rivalry between the two shows, but we'll be at the one with free admission, which means more dollars to drop on comics! Hope to see you there.

Holy CRAP!! I am late: OR : a MIX wrap up nearing a month after the fact

2010-09-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

Fore-warning: Lots of pictures, not so much text. The MIX weekend was pretty spectacular. I really should have written this much much sooner. I am not sure how I managed not too. Nor am I terribly sure what I have all been up to in the meantime.

In any case, the MIX WEEKEND began with a screening of Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I was unable to make it to this as I worked. Also, not being a huge fan of the comic, I don't know that I could enjoy it as a film either. Lot's of folks did though I am sure!

Photo by Will Dinski?

On Friday, Dylan Williams and I ran over to Big Brain for pre-MIX festivities. Specifically, 3 signings. One of Zak Sally's new book, Sammy the Mouse; Will Dinski's Fingerprints; Aaron Renier's The Unsinkable Walker Bean.

I snatched a copy of each. It's the second time I bought Will's story, and well worth it. The earlier version I had also came in a hardcover, but was in black and white and limited to 35 copies as it was hand-bound.

Photo's by Michael May

The pre-MIX fun continued into the evening at the 501 club. Thar be Kenin Cannon, Tim Sievert, Brett Warnock.

Mr. Renny Kissling and his band Robot's From the FUTURE were there as well, playing in the past. Renny has a colour comic we will be serializing called Pale Blue Dot. A preview snapshot can be viewed in GMN4 or online. More on that at a future time.

Photo's by Will Dinski.

The site of the show was pretty perfect at the Soap Factory. I love the area, very warehousy.

Photos's by Melissa S. Kaercher.

Did I yet mention that there were VEGAN DONUTS!? Yup, pretty awesome and damn tasty. Donuts provided by the newly formed Donut Cooperative, but of course! Check 'em out!

Photo by Sharyn Morrow.

Here is Sam Sharpe. One of many talented cartoonists that we would be having as house guests shortly.

BT Livermore and Banner Year Press were some of the first place's I stopped. Anyone with a 'stache should take a looksy here for friendly write up on his Man's Face Stuff line. Great stuff!

There's our table! Meghan, Nic, and Sarah holding down the fort while Justin and I are probably at a panel (either the one with John Porcellino or with Tom Kaczynski).

We premiered GMN4 at the show. This was the full final version. I have been neglectful on getting this out to Shenton, shops, contributors, supporters, reviewers. I will amend that shortly.

Also pictured is Meghan's Geirdo Ferris Wheel. For a better look, check out her site.

Photo's by Neil Brideau.

This is such a goofy picture. There is a semi-closer look of the tiny book that is GMN4. Plus a funny look at myself (Raighne here), Meghan, Justin.

Photo by TwinCities MetroMix.

A nice photo of a cute little red head.
Photo by Sarah Jordet.

Dylan Williams and the beautiful amazing books that his outfit, Sparkplug Comic Books puts out.

Photo's by Neil Brideau.

On the left we have a couple of talented Chicagonites, Ian McDuffie and Lane Westvine. Information is scant from a brief scan of the internets, but they both had some promising comics on hand...

Photo's by Melissa S. Kaercher.

Neil Brideau and Sam Sharpe Mega Bussed it to the Xpo together with Aaron Renier. Interesting note: Sam, Neil and Eric Schuster were all next to each other at MIX. Why is that interesting? 'Cause they're all redheads! It's uncanny and weird!

Photo's by Neil Brideau.

Photo by Melissa S. Kaercher.

Brett and Top Shelf tabling. Check out the excellent signage! Also, they are having some amazing sale going on there now with ultra cheap Eddie Campbell and Alan Moore book's as part of the sale. Check it out! The sale ends this Friday! Had I a few extra bones I know I'd be spending 'em there.

The one and only JP Beaty. Keep an eye on this talented kid. His output is top notch. As we were just talking about Alan Moore, his latest is the Adventures of Alan Moore. Pick it up!

Photo's by Michael May.

I very much enjoyed this funny book.

The organizers! Andy Krueger and Sarah Morean. Take a bow you two! Photo by Sharyn Morrow.

Grabbing a bite to eat after MIX at Sen Yai Sen Lek. One of my favorite places to go for food stuffs. And they are the exclusive carrier of my favorite beer, the Flat Earth Xanadu. Here is another strange pic of me and little Maggie.

There is a bottle of it and Sam and me.

Sarah Tulius and who's that in the back?

Why it's the elusive Tom Kaczynski eating a whole slop of noodle's while Aaron Renier watches on.

Ahh shit, we've been spotted, they're calling the cops!

We've escaped to the house, where Dylan Williams, John Porcellino, Noah Van Sciver, Neil Brideau, Sam Sharpe all shall be spending the night. It's going to be a rather full house. Pictured is Sarah and Justin.

Justin and myself in the dark prior to going to the after-party at Altered Esthetics.

Getting an air mattress and a sleeping bag for Neil and Sam to have a place to sleep.

Dylan picked up this comic from Big Brain. Everyone is pouring over it.

That's it, lights out.

Photo's by Neil Brideau.

MIXCAFFETTOCRAFTOPTICALSLOTHGMN4

2010-08-12T21:58:00.000-07:00

The time is almost upon us, the time being MIX at the Soap Factory on 8/21! As we've noted in past posts, GMN4 will be printed and for sale to the public at large. The plan is to have 100 of the 500 assembled in time for the show, but about a third will be spoken for by contributors, meaning the remaining 70 will be available for the low low price of $5 a pop. We've added about 40+ pages of new content, so for anyone who took a gander at the Sunday edition earlier this year, we've upped the ante noticeably. There were a couple of people who slipped through our last drag of the net, but I feel that what we have is a very strong cross-section of the cartooning/sequential art scene currently in existence in this state we call home. We will be accompanied by many of Minnesota's finest cartoonists and comics-related institutions as well as plenty of out-of-towners, it should be a sight to behold. There will be other events circling the show:

...all of which and more can be found at the show's site. Thanks again to Sarah Morean for giving us advance notice of the show and all of her efforts in putting this together. The local comics scene is richer as a result of her.

I (Justin) haven't had any formal feedback from our man in the field known as Feltz about last weekend's Caffetto Craft Fair, but I'd like to thank any and all who stopped by our table and dual gratitude to those who picked something up! It goes without saying that we appreciate Shaun's efforts in repping 2D Cloud as well.

Although it was posted a little after our fundraising efforts had concluded, Kevin Bramer of Optical Sloth fame did us the honor of doing a quick rundown/impression of "the sprawling Good Minnesotan #4" (his words). Barring a little confusion in regards to what we sent him (he was sent a copy of the Sunday edition of GMN4 as well as a copy of my first mini, RDCD Fist, but he thought it was all part of GMN4), the review was generally positive. Given how much ground there was to cover and the average length of his reviews, it's understandable that a lot of the anthology wasn't discussed, which he acknowledged. Overall he seemed to be impressed with what we had put together, as he concluded with "If you’ve seen the past issues of this series you know that “Good Minnesotan” is a mark of quality, and they didn’t disappoint this time around." Although it was lumped in with the GMN4 review, he did seem to enjoy RDCD Fist as well, describing it as "...a bizarre pile of transporting vaginas, submachine guns, brain-eating and quiet contemplation. You’d love it!" A little side note on RDCD Fist: due to the small run (around 30-some copies), I have been only selling them at shows, but if anyone outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul is interested in buying one and wants to pay shipping, we'll gladly mail you a copy! Here's a shot of the first batch at it's debut at Fallcon 2009:

In addition to all this hubbub, we are hoping to record a conversation between the venerable Dylan Williams of Sparkplug and Zak Sally of La Mano on the trials, tribulations, and rewards of running a one man label successfully, as they're both proof of. If we can pull this off it will be posted to our semi-new Comics Crit/Interview/wannabe comicscomicscometscometsmarvelouscomahoodedutilitarian blog Itchykeen Art Fiends sometime in the near future. Following next weekend we will be sending gifts out to the proper peoples and starting on books for 2011! We have a couple shows lined up in October, but until then stay crass-y.

Kickstarter goal toppled! La Mano 2nd Annual Report report! GMN4 Filed Under Other!

2010-07-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

Ah summer, a time of cervezas, unchecked turpitude, and the inevitable fallout known as August. Guess no one told us summer has arrived, because 2D Cloud has been too busy pestering our friends (that's you) and loved ones (that's probably you) about this little project known as Good Minnesotan 4. Raighne slaved over this gem of a anthology earlier this spring and has just about rallied the last of our new troops into what will be our finest hour as promoters of local comics/sequential artists.
Check it: +$110 (Non-internet monies)= an astounding collection of cartoonists/artists who are just mere weeks away from being gathered together within the snug confines of ink-slathered elephant poop paper! Thanks so much to everyone who threw down some money, especially in these times of broketude to help us fund this thing. We are beyond grateful and we hope you enjoy the gifts that will be making their way into your hands in the coming weeks. Now comes the fun part for us, nailing down who is printing this (as of now the covers will be going to the Lab and the comics will likely be printed under the watchful eye of the masterful Tom K. of Mome/Uncivilized Books fame) and then getting these guys assembled in time for MIX! Can't wait to see this thing fully grown. Doing these anthologies over the past three years has been great and we hope people enjoy this final installment as much as I know we have and will. A side note: although we didn't raise double the goal amount, we will still be aiming to print twice the projected copies, meaning 500 instead of 250!

To segue ungracefully to last weekend, thanks to Zak Sally for his gracious invite to be a part of his 2nd Annual Report (can't help but think of the Throbbing Gristle record of the same name every time I hear this title, hope it was a reference). It was fun sharing horizontal door space with Tom K. and Camden/Cole's noise ephemera while sweating to the faint hum of aged arcade machines. Was definitely a memorable summer show, we hope to do it again if Zak will have us.

Rounding off a week of greatness for 2D Cloud was another shot in the arm from our staunch supporter and discerning comics connoisseur Shannon Smith on his minicomics blog File Under Other. As usual, Shannon doesn't hesitate to surround us with impressive company in his reviews of our anthologies, as evidenced by lines like:

Like Kramers Ergot or Mome, Good Minnesotan is a really good snapshot of the state of alt comics at the moment of production. But unlike Kramers or Mome the product has a much more home made feel.

Although I typically feel a little sheepish putting our books in league with these captains of industry, I do feel our final issue reaches as close to the lofty standards those books set than any of our prior anthologies. Thanks as always to Shannon and best of luck with the book he just edited, Shiot Crock Sixteen!

And finally, I, Justin Skarhus, will hopefully be making semi-regular appearances on this and the Itchykeen Art Fiends blog from here on out, as I'm now along with Raighne the co-publisher of 2D Cloud. I've been working with Raighne on comics we never made since we were in high school and I'm looking forward to our 'formal' partnership at the helm of 2D Cloud. Look for 2D Cloud as repped by Shaun Feltz at the Caffetto Craft Fair on Sunday!

La Mano 2nd Annual Report + awesome but mostly unrelated note

2010-07-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, starting at 5pm is Zak Sally's La Mano 2nd Annual report. It's an awesome-strange combination of a comic/zine/art fair, music show and benefit, all wrapped into one with a side order of fries, er, fun! The place to be is:

Eclipse Records
1922 University Ave. W.
Saint Paul MN

The musical acts are as follows (though, not in this order):

CAMDEN (Cole from Daughters Of The Sun project)
PINK TEETH (me and Tooth making a racket)
NOSE QUEAN ANT (newly reconstituted)
TUNNELER (a couple guys from Moonstone doing "a hair metal project about drills", whatever the hell that means...)
MARIJUANA DEATH SQUAD
ARCTIC UNIVERSE
and
GAY WITCH ABORTION

Also, there is a door fee of $6. With that door fee you get a $6 discount off select La Mano books. Other cartoonists selling their wares include Zak Sally/La Mano, Tom K, Maddie Queripel (?), Vincent Stall(?) and a few 2D Cloud folks (of course!). I should mention that I am not really sure who all is attending the fest to sell their comix and the like. I apologize if I forgot anyone or if folks listed above are actually, you know, not in attendance. Not 100% sure...

Here is a clip from last year's event:

Also of awesome note: Sean Lynch and Mako Homura got hitched! Congrats you two love birds, sorry we missed yah!

Matt Dick Reviews Good Minnesotan 4 + Other Odd Ends

2010-07-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

Across the pond at Exquisite Things, Matt Dick reviews our forth and final outing of Good Minnesotan.

Matt writes: “Good Minnesotan sits neatly alongside the likes of Kramer’s Ergot and Mome”. There are more positive words regarding what was once our flagship title over at Exquisite Things. Give it a read.

I almost feel that sending this book out to reviewers is unfair. There is something like 22 contributors to the little guy, so he quickly stacks up to 120 pages. To make matters more confusing, the copy sent to reviewers is a part of the “early sunday” edition. The final edition, the one in which we are actively raising funds for, will be 30+ contribs, adding another 40 pages onto an already full volume. So, many thanks Matt!

Before the month is out I will be posting a huge preview of the book, for anybody to check out. In the mean time, take a minute or two to visit Itchy Keen Art Fiends for some interviews with the contributors. Interesting stuff.

The above image is just one cover of the four books housed in GMN4's elephant poop paper sleeve. It was illustrated by Luke Holden. We will be doing a new book with him, his brother John and Nic late this year or early next. It's going to be something special. Then again, I am probably biased.

Last month my sister, Chantel graduated from the Perpich Center for Arts Education. Before the year is out, when we move into the new space we will be taking in an intern, and you guessed it, it will be my sister. She has a great work ethic and is more organized then I often am. Chantel is also a talented illustrator and cartoonist.

Meghan and I at Chantel's Graduation party. Looking tired, tired.

ZineFest 2010

2010-06-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

Man. The days are flying by. ZineFest 2010 is just about upon us! Crikey!

The important stuff:
The place = Steven's Square Center for the Arts
1905 3rd Ave S Minneapolis (it's a few blocks north of the MIA)

Date = July 10th, 2010.

Time = 11am-5pm

It's going to be a pretty sweet event, and we would really love to see you there!

And with a bicycle activist panel led by Microcosm's Joe Biel, letterpress demos, a Zinefest button vending machine, live zine readings, a history of the postal service + "Can I Ship This?" Q&A delivered by the USPS, and an after-party with live music; ALL priced at the recession proof price of FREE-- How could you be so foolish as to miss it?

Justin S. and Sarah T. will be at the 2D Cloud table with our usual stable of odd funny books to check out, including an early sunday edition of Good Minnesotan 4. There are only one or two of those versions left. Snap 'em up, and again, visit!

Collage

2010-06-07T22:01:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, we are having what is likely to be our last show in our studio, curated by Noah Harmon. It ought to be a enjoyable event, hope you can make it.

Good Minnesotan #4 + Kick Starter

2010-06-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

Hello all! This is Raighne here, and I have finally put up that Kick Starter page for Good Minnesotan 4. I am very eager to get the final edition in people's hands. It will be having it's grand premier at MIX in August on the 21st. We will have a post all about that shortly as well Zinefest.

I should emphasize that we REALLY need your assistance in funding GMN4. I think there are some neat thank you gifts for folks and hopefully you do too. Anyways, here is the link:

There is a video and a link to a partial preview. It's going to be a great looking book thanks to it's awesome contributors! In the next week or so I will be posting a list of those who made it into the final volume.

Thanks so much!

They come in three

2010-05-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

One:
A thank you to everyone who made it out to Immaculate: Works by Anna Bongiovanni at our studio last Friday. Due to the time creeping up on us for the prep of the show, I did not give Anna or myself a ton of time for set-up, so thanks Anna for slogging through! And thanks for tasty wine!

In the end it all worked out and some wonderful smiles showed up!

Thar be David "Mister-no-where-to-be-found-on-the-internet" Lundin (captured in a Good Minnesotan 3 story illustrated by Renny Kissling).

Alison Stump, who helped set-up the show on a late late Thursday night, enjoying some wine.

Jenny Considine, in the foreground, David's back, my forehead, and Christina's hands.

Several members of my family showed up, my mom and my sister, Chantel and her friend Tiffany.

Mako Homura having just the right bit of fun with those yummy vegan cupcakes!

Myself, Mako, and Evan Palmer enjoying some "apple juice".

Yummy yummy vegan cupcakes and fun photo's taken by Heather Buscho with Christina Beard. Flowers provided by the two of 'em. Thank yah ladies!

Two:
Immaculate continued into the weekend with the Art-A-Whirl crowd making their way through the Thorp Building. Big thanks to everyone who stopped by and made the show so fun! Extra big thanks to Meghan's Mom for food & table sitting and to James who bought the green mini Geirdo + rocket.

Three:
Meanwhile: Elsewhere: in the cosmos.... Justin, Sarah and meself were at SpringCon talking to peeps, selling some of the last Sunday edition's of GMN4 and picking up some books as well. Unfortunately we did not take any photo's but Will Dinski has got us covered here. Speaking of Will, he had some really nice things to say about the last Good Minnesotan comic on his blog, thanks Will!

You know, I had originally planned to write a lot more when this was all fresh in my head, but my internet has mostly not worked the past 3 days. SO. I will end this with mention of JP's 1890. A very beautiful book. I urge you to check it out!

One more thing before I forget. Sarah Tulius noticed a mention of GMN4 on Midnight Fiction and a photo of Justin and Sarah taken by Richard Krauss as part of their Stumptown 2010 coverage. Cool! Thanks Richard!

Immaculate at Art-A-Whirl + SpringCon

2010-05-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

To kick off Art-A-Whirl this Friday night we are opening Immaculate: works by Anna Bongiovanni. This is our 1st solo artist show in our studio. Anna will be there at the opening with Meghan and myself (raighne here) showing up about 6pm. There will be vegan cupcakes made by Heather Buscho, vegan cookies made by me, wine, Geirdoz, our comix and of course Anna's beautiful art!

The other event going on this weekend is SpringCon at the State Fair grounds. I will be there with Justin Skarhus and perhaps Sarah Tulius. Anna Bongiovanni will be at SpringCon Saturday and Sunday at her own table. Meghan will be holding down the fort at our studio for Art-A-Whirl. Lots of stuff- sorry for the tardy notice- check it all out!

River City Ransom AKA Post-Stumptown Blues

2010-04-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, our 2D Cloud gang made it to the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland Oregon. We arrived on a Friday, famished. After dropping off our books and baggage at the Hotel we enjoyed a meal at Arabian Breeze. Downing 2 beers a piece, the males in our group (myself being one of them, I just double checked) quickly grew weary. By 9 pm we were on our way to slumberland.

The following morning Meghan and I awoke to run over to Voodoo Doughnuts for, wait, VEGAN DONUTS!? NAHM NAHM NAHM!! Justin and Sarah awoke for similar reasons I am sure. Though their donuts were topped with bacon. Thus, a jittery start to day 1 at the fest.

We had 4 new-ish books at the show. In the right hand corner there, we had Nic Breutzman's newspaper biggie You Can't Be Here. On the left, we've got the Sunday Edition of Good Minnesotan #4 (limited to 30 copies).

Next up, that yellow guy is Sarah Tulius' Shortrounds. The paper bag coloured fellow is Justin's RDCDFist. I have a short in there as well.

Staring Contest?

More yummy vegan fair at Blossoming Lotus. A long wait, but ate some good eats.

Stumptown was an amazing show, and Portland an amazing city. This has certainly been our best show yet. GMN#4 sold out at the show, which was exciting! To nestle our ego's back to earth, we only brought 16 books, so, maybe not a HUGE deal, it was pretty neat though.

There was a whole gaggle of awesome books that we picked up. From the top of my head they are: Diamond Comics 2-5 edited/published Jason Levian (the fella who own Floating World Comics), Young Lions by Blaise Larmee, 2 Reporter comic books by Dylan Williams, Flesh and Bone by Julia Gfrörer (a beautiful book that I read during the early hours of the morning and in the dark so as not to wake my fellows), Paper Cutter #12 edited by Greg Means, Faces Spaces by Sean Lynch + Ed Choy Moorman, Henry & Glenn Forever by Igloo Tornado, Neely Covers Monsters to Give You The Creeps Collectors Edition by Tom Neely, uh, a bunch of other books that my mind is currently blanking on. Justin had the excellent idea of only picking up books from the small distro's and small presses (which is why we did not pick up Wilson--yet).

Our trip ended with a vegan dinner at the Vegetarian House, where we ate yummy vegan food stuff with the likes of Blue, Neil Brideau, Kane Lynch, Tom Neely, Dylan Williams and bunches of other cartoonist's whose names I am blanking on (not so good with names).

Let's see am I forgetting anything else... Most likely. Did get to meet Eli Bishop of Global Hobo, missed Richard Krauss... I am probably missing more things and people's but I am tired, and me missing sleep wins out. To bed!

Oh Portland, I already miss ye.

Stumptown

2010-04-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

We leave for Stumptown tomorrow! For the show we will have a hand-full of Meghan's Geirdoz. A couple of the little fellows are staying home from the trip. Blueberry, the little guy in the middle, gets motion sickness on planes. Don't worry though, he will be protected by a mid-sized Geirdo with battle damage-- COOL BATTLE DAMAGE! (not pictured, he's camera shy).

Nic Breutzman's single, oversized newsprint comic, You Can't Be Here, will also be on hand. I really dig the awesome biggy-ness of it, and I think YOU will too.

Last up, Good Minnesotan#4 will be previewed and on hand to purchase. We will only have a small number at the table, so snatch 'em up. GMN#4: One Last Taste will make it's proper debut later in the year at MIX.

The cover sleeve was illustrated by Martha Iserman + Matt Wells, back cover was illustrated by Nic Breutzman with me man-handling the colours. Good Minnesotan #4 is a four part comic/book, with each mini volume fitting inside the sleeve in a good and proper inelegant fashion.

A full write up of the artist's (all 20+ of 'em) included in the fourth and final volume after Stumptown.

Not pictured (as I don't have it on me) is Shortrounds, a cute mini by Sarah Tulius. It will be making it's WORLDWIDE debut! ZOMBGOGD! Justin and myself will have RDCDFist as it was meant to be, premiering properly there as well... if you bought it prior, well, I owe you. Hope to see y'all there!

Belated Bumpage

2010-03-30T21:07:00.000-07:00

Shannon Smith, one our earliest supporters, has reappeared on our radar after a long (and we thought at one point permanent) absence to include us in his best of 2009!

In his run-down of what struck him as impressive over the past year, Good Minnesotan 3 and Yearbooks were both placed at the top of his "Non-Minicomics" portion of the list. Smith had nothing but good things to say about our third outing, putting GMN in league with the venerable Mome quarterly anthology, heady company indeed. The praise for Yearbooks was just as glowing, with a couple of choice lines like:

The color pages are so vibrant it feels like you are holding an original water color painting. I had to double check a few times to see if the page was still wet.

When we had sent off GMN3 and Yearbooks to Shannon last year, we were somewhat surprised by his silence regarding both books, given that we felt they were some of the best work we had put out thus far. Now that he has explained (or at least alluded to) the reasons for his sluggish response time to submitters, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and simply thank him for the kind words. Thanks Shannon!

Also worth mentioning is the plug by local comics blogger Ted Anderson over at his page on examiner.com. In a small post covering the recent attention given to some of the more prominent local releases last year, specifically Rob Clough's best of list on The Comics Journal's page a while back (see our earlier post), Ted notes the inclusion of Yearbooks on the upper half of said list. Cheers Ted!

More to come as our tour season lurches back into action...

Lee Harvey Oswald in 2D Cloud studio

2010-03-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

During the past few months our studio has undergone a transformation.

A blue cot, two wooden canes, dozens of JFK photos and newspaper clippings, Russian maps, and piles of books about the Soviet Union were thrown about amid blankets, old sweaters, cardboard boxes, scummy dishes, and discarded socks.

Our friend James Vculek was filming "The Confessions of Lee Harvey Oswald".

James wrote and directed the film. You can watch a clip below and find additional clips on his youtube page.

He has written, directed, and produced two other movies: "The Quietest Sound" and "Two Harbors". Four of his plays have been a part of the MN Fringe Festival ("Shtick, and Its Relation to the Unconscious", "The Princeton Seventh", "Angelina Jolie is a Zionist Whore! or, Plan 9 from Baghdad", and "Something Witchy") and he is currently writing for this summer's Fest.

We were thrilled to provide one of the locations for this film. We will let you know when the release date is announced.

more James Vculek:
on Minnesota Public Radio
on Blue Glow
in City Pages

Yearbooks on Rob Clough's Top 50 of 2009

2010-03-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

We're thrilled to hear that The Comic Journal's Rob Clough gave Yearbooks #24 in his Top 50 Comics of 2009. Clough writes that "Breutzman’s grotesque style and the lurid color scheme of Raighne Hogan created a grim and nightmarish world that’s compelling from beginning to end."

We're among good company. The Top 50 also included some of our favorite cartoonists and publishers: The Book of Genesis Illustrated, by Robert Crumb (WW Norton), Be a Nose! by Art Spiegelman (McSweeney's), Asterios Polyp by David Mazzuchelli (Pantheon), George Sprott, by Seth (Drawn & Quarterly), and Minnesota cartoonists Will Dinski's Covered in Confusion (self published) and Zak Sally's Like A Dog (Fantagraphics).

Foot in the Door 4

2010-03-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

Raighne and I both have artwork in the Minneapolis Institute of Art's Foot in the Door 4. This exhibition will be up until June 13 in the MAEP galleries.

Raighne's piece is a portrait of his friend Laura Kincaid. My piece is a crocheted sculpture of a geirdo within an alien plant form.

What is Foot in the Door?
MPR: Minnesotans Flock to get a 'Foot in the Door' at the MIA

Watch these MIA videos to find out:
Foot in the Door 4
Time Lapse of the Installation
The Spot at the Foot in the Door Opening Reception