Final Transmissionnnn

As some of you may have noticed, typing in 2dcloud.com no longer takes you here, but to the newest bestest indie/alt/art/blah comics site you've ever fucking seen (last night in the old house, who cares what is said!).

Anyway, this site, much like the Good Minnesotan blog that preceded it, will continue to exist as a source of evidence of a time when Raighne and I (Justin) wrote long, heartfelt blog posts, of which we do less and less, for better or worse (?).

Ok, new site, new shop, new articles, new WEBCOMICS, new everything! Over here.

Thanks, and see you in the ether.

Autoptic Kick-off Parrty

So, as you might know (and if you're reading this, you most likely do), Autoptic is on its way -- in nearly 3 weeks Minneapolis will be overrun by a COMICBOOK/ZINE/POSTER/INDEPENDENT-CULTURE- BLIZZARD -- a week's worth of events.

We'll get to the full spiel soon enough, like the TWO books we're debuting at the show (surprise!). But RIGHT NOW, we're here to give you a heads up about the AUTOPTIC KICK-OFF PARRTY!

On August 17th @ CO exhibitions, starting at 8pm and running late, we 5 different but AMAZING acts set up for YOU:

The Knotwells (live music)
Benoît Tranchand (live music)
Party Food (performance)
Joseph Nixon+Luke Holden (live sculpture and a drum solo??)
Ellen Redshaw (performance/projections/readings/music)

Next week we'll have more news regarding the kick offf parrty, including more images and info about each artist, so check back often!

Oh, and there will be a 2$ suggested cover for non-autoptic-exhibitors. Pretty minimal and TOTALLY worth it. Just coming to the 2dc curated party will grant you a coupon for 2$ off any 2dc purchase of 10$ or more for use at Autoptic or at the NEW 2dc website coming in a matter of weeks. Full details on that coming soon too. OKAY. Gotta jump ship, later!

Christopher Adams and Today's Distraction

Self-Portrait of Christopher Adams

As some of you may know, we have some big-big plans with MISTER CHRISTOPHER ADAMS later in the year. We'll have more to announce on that end very soon.

((Our first collaboration with Chris was 2012's 'Period' -- available in the 2dc shoppe!!))

In the interim, our pal recently made it into the current showcase at Eyra, an online exhibition space for contemporary illustration.  Click on his self-portrait above to be transported to the showcase. Chris' piece is titled "Revival Series" and is styled like a short 2 pager comic. All the work in the exhibition is damn solid, so, go waste a fraction of the day for today's internet distraction!

Will Dinski Double Dip

"...this is such a great comic for the run up to the election. Ablatio Penis raised, for me at least, some interesting questions about politics, men and women, sexuality, stereotypes, and above all, whether or not we, as a country, really want the truth from our politicians." -- Courtney Algeo, Paper Darts

We got our first review of Will Dinski's new book in a few days back over at Paper Darts!

This year Will has 2 books out this fall. The first one, was of course Ablatio Penis, which we published. Will's second book, At The End of An Action Movie, which premiers at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, THIS FRIDAY is self-published with the aid of a MCBA/Jerome Fellowship. It's a very very limited run -- 10 copies or something -- all exquisitely hand-made -- it's huge and letter press printed and comes in it's own freaking box!!! Again, this is all crafted, made, printed, by Will Dinksi -- it is AMAZING!! You will want to check this out!! Click the link for details and hopefully we will see you this FRIDAY!!!

2dc @ Rain Taxi's Twin Cities Book Festival

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.

MIXCAFFETTOCRAFTOPTICALSLOTHGMN4

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!

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!