Chris Adams' Period in a Brown Paper Bag review

Sara Barnes reviews Christopher Adams’ “Period” over at Brown Paper Bag. Please check it out!! Alternatively, just go buy it in the shoppe>>

“[Period] opens up with us look­ing at the sea, mak­ing us feel small. We then delve into the lives of a fam­ily, a tele­phone com­pany employee, and guys hang­ing out play­ing with elec­tric toy cars. The details doc­u­mented are minus­cule, jux­ta­posed with moments that remind us just how BIG things, impor­tant things, are hap­pen­ing in our world. But, we’re often so bogged down with rela­tion­ships, work, and our own lives to con­tem­plate what’s really going on out­side of our front door.”

Fall Crop Reviewed at POOPSHEET FOUNDATION

Earlier this year, we snuck the first issue of Meghan Hogan’s Startled Maggie series out into the world at large. It’s a beautiful and quiet little comic. We’ll have some more to announce with this series soon. Check the new reviews -- all positivity from Justin Giampaoli at Poopsheet Foundation!

Startled Maggie

“...it’s hard not to fall prey to the charm of this book; the end shot with the dandelions is a lovely capture of the simple magic of youth.” -- Justin Giampaoli

These last 3 are the latest from our fall 2012 crop at the 2dC comic farm. Ablatio Penis is the first comic we’ve published by Will Dinski -- still pretty-damn excited by that fact. Period is by the young upstart, Christopher Adams. Also a first. We’ve got some mega-schemes with that guy for 2013. MEGA. Lastly, RDCD Fist 1.5 is a new mini by Justin. Very cool and very weird, originally made for Jason T. Miles NO ME. Glad to see Justin’s been working on a whopper for a while now per his RDCD Fist series. Excited for 2.0!

Ablatio Penis

“...proudly printed by union workers and I like the sense that he’s sort of taunting us with the use of the ol’ red, white, and blue cover graphics.”
“...a worthy topic that more people need to be exposed to in any election cycle. Grade A.” -- Justin Giampaoli

Period

“Period is a bold statement on the notion that larger things are happening in the world...” -- Justin Giampaoli

RDCD Fist 1.5

“Inside, it offers a dizzying descent into wavy black and white lines, like an old TV scramble...” -- Justin Giampaoli

Lastly, for anyone interested, we are running a little pre-order for a crinkly newsprint split called Deep in the Woods by Noah Van Sciver and Nic Breutzman via Kickstarter. Vid preview below:

Little Heart review + new tumblrs

Yay! New review for Little Heart!

print for our Little Heart backers by Jeremy Sorese

“I’m happy to say that the variety of styles and point-of-views make that book a good tool to discuss the issue.” This from François Peneaud, writing over at Gay Comics List.

Thanks François!!

Thar he be, Jeremy Sorese!! Pic and Portrait of 'da artist

I say, HWAT -- HWAT else we got? Our mega-rad intern, Greer Lawson has put together a tumblr page for Little Heart. It’s currently linked to our Little Heart FB page (though the linking/re-posting doesn’t seem to be working sadly). On it, we got short and sweet interviews with a variety of Little Heart artists, LIKE the above Jeremy Sorese. Many others on there as well PLUS, press re-postings, AND, later in the month, Greer will begin serializing a NEW web comic there as well. 

Speaking of tumblr, we’ve begun our arduous migration of Itchy Keen over to tumblr. We kicked it off with an interview with Vincent Stall. Butter laight than nuhver. It’s still rather rough around the edges and more of a drawing blog by 2dc peeps -- BUTT -- we do have some plans for it. Oh yes. More on that later in the year.

FrameUps/Capstone Gallery Event + Little Heart & Arthur Turnkey reviews!

FrameUps/Capstone Gallery is hosting an event to support the efforts of Minnesotans United For All Families (www.mnunited.org). MNUnited is a coalition set up to support the freedom of marriage for committed couples. Their goal is to help defeat the proposed ammendment to the MN state constitution being voted on in the November 2012 election. 

Please join us for an evening to celebrate art and equality. Bid on a variety of work contributed by regional artists in our silent auction. Proceeds will go to MNUnited. Appetizers & refreshments will be provided courtesy of The LowBrow restaurant (www.thelowbrowmpls.com) and Anodyne Coffeehouse. 

Auction bidding starts at 6:00 and ends promptly at 8:30. Winners must be present at end of auction to pay for items won. 


Thursday July 19th
6pm - 9pmCapstone Gallery4325 Nicollet Ave SMinneapolis, MN 55409

Unfortunately, we won't be able to be on hand personally (day jobs), but we have donated 24 copies of Little Heart to this evenings event. Please consider checking it out and bringing some friends to the event!

Per the heading -- we've gotten our first 2 reviews of Little Heart recently! Below are 2 excerpts taken from the reviews. Both worth checking out the links.

"One of the great things about the book is its diversity; some pieces are in color, some in black and white, some are short and some are long, some offer traditional comics panels, some are more collage-y or use free-floating prose, some use straight text as a narrative tool, while some are much more open to interpretation. They’re all comics that show the great versatility of the medium, perhaps like the dynamic nature of human sexuality and relationships themselves. There isn’t a right or wrong way to do comics, they’re all valid. Maybe that’s too obvious an analogy for the comic book literati, but I think it works very effectively and is the underlying message in this project. It’s a great batch of comics, with an even greater mission. Grade A" 

--Justin Giampaoli of 13 Minutes and Poopsheet Foundation

"There's no question that it's a beautifully designed book, as all 2D Cloud projects tend to be, and I hope that it makes a difference." 

-- Rob Clough of High-Low and The Comics Journal

Over at Clogged, Jordan Kamin wrote up a nice review for the first issue of Arthur Turnkey! He says, "The art is crisp and fun and displays a visibly practiced hand, showcasing an effective yet playful feel." 

Noice!

Here is that trailer for the book again in case you somehow missed it. 

mini review madness and linkage quickie

"2d Cloud really is the rising star publisher..."

Justin Giampaoli of 13 Minutes and senior reviewer at Poopsheet Foundation.

Praise Jesus -- we got some very nice regards pointed our way! Head over to the Poopsheet for the latest scat spat of mini reviews by Justin Giampaoli. And I should add, we are in great company with this latest batch of reviews including 2 titles published by Sparkplug Comic Books; Nurse Nurse by Katie Skelly, Passage by Tessa Brunton (!)

Justin Giampaoli’s praise binge’r continues(!!): 

Arthur Turnkey part 1

“...one of the most gorgeous wraparound covers I’ve seen in a while, and it’s emblematic of the outstanding production quality I’m seeing on the latest batch of books from 2D Cloud.” “Grade A”.

Prizon Food part 1

“There’s something about the subdued humor and fantastical creations of Prizon Food that reminds me of the great Achewood by Chris Onstad.”

“The pages feel silky and I want to rub them all over my body, err, something.”

Prizon Food part 2

“You can’t help but appreciate the incredibly strong singular vision of Prizon Food.” “Grade A+”.

And if you missed these guys reviewed at Optical Sloth, here they are once again:

Arthur Turnkey part 1 

“this strange world and [its] sheer inventiveness... all are either nicely done or brilliant.”

Prizon Food part 1

“...a funny, intriguing and delightfully warped comic...”

Prizon Food part 2

“...this is one of those series that reads like a fever dream that should have been on paper ages ago.”

Alright, take a bow Toby Jones, Madeline Queripel, Alex Horab (Arthur Turnkey team) and Eric Schuster, Joe Gillette (Prizon Food team)!!

Come next week, we’ll be posting an interview with Vincent Stall on our brothersister site, the long in the works half-baked relaunch of Itchy Keen. We’ll be mostly covering last year’s release Things You Carry. Hope to see you there!


** ps // update :: big thanks to Justin Giampaoli and Kevin Bramer, glad and thankful that you dig the work!!

Twin Cities Pride Weekend and other news

Hey Folks! This very weekend is Pride weekend here in the Twin Cities! While 2dc will not be there, Little Heart will be for sale at the [MN]Love booth/table. So please, check it out, stop by, talk up their Creative Director Simon.

In other news, the Arthur Turnkey team just turned in their web trailer, which you can see below!



Aaand, we got our first review in on Optical Sloth!


"I do have to say, in case it wasn’t clear already, that I love everything about this book." 
--Kevin Bramer, Optical Sloth


Woo! More news soon, including a post-CAKE rap!

2dc Blop Gost

Thought I'd start out this post by thanking everyone who helped make our recent trip down to chi-town memorable. Our gracious host, friend, and tireless zinefest co-organizer, Neil Brideau, can be found in the vid above putting forth some of his feelings on why zines matter to him. From what I observed that weekend, Neil seems to have unlimited energy and willingness to do whatever is in his power to make the fest a good experience for everyone. I remember being on the couch sleeping when I heard him come in around 1-2 a.m. after the zine olympics Friday night at Quimby's, only to be out the door again around 7ish for the fest at Columbia College. The guy's a machine! Anyway, thanks Neil and everyone who stopped by the 2dc table, we'll be back down in a couple of months for CAKE, which, from what I've heard thus far, should be off some sort of chain.

In further praise of near herculean feats, my co-publisher and crazyman extraordinaire, Raighne Hogan, along with a plethora of people too numerous to list here (don't want to risk leaving anyone out!) have all rallied together to make our first benefit anthology, Little Heart, a reality! Raighne and I had our misgivings as we departed for Chicago to attend CZF, as progress had stalled out for a few days at 46%, but the final week saw a very strong surge of support that helped push it over the top. When all was said and done, $9,779 was raised, which will be going into improving the book. Seeing how frazzled Raighne was becoming over making this kickstarter happen (part of why some people may not have seen him making the rounds at CZF this year, as he was taking it easy behind the table most of the day), I'm glad it wasn't for naught, as he really put a lot of himself into this book. Raighne will be providing more updates on the book soon, but for now a massive thanks to everyone who made this happen and you'll be seeing us at TCAF, where the book will debut!

Pornhounds 2 continues to accrue praise, this time from Daniel Elkin over at Comics Bulletin. In a very thoughtful review that touches on a lot of the prominent themes (and tosses in a Videodrome reference for bonus points), Daniel surmises: 

Pornhounds 2 is another incredible example of the possibilities of comics. It is a confessional, thoughtful, funny, and empowering story told by someone clearly in command of her craft. All the artists on the book contribute to the book's overall effect, adding emotional tones and focus that would not exist were this story presented in any other medium. It is a great comic book.

While PH2 is back in stock, Pornhounds 1 is out of stock again, so for those of you who have or are looking to order a copy, hold tight, more are on their way!

Raighne and I had the pleasure of chatting briefly with Matt Brady at CZF this year, who was gracious enough to have a go at two of our big releases from last year, Motherlover and Things You Carry. Vincent's book was a bit of a head scratcher for Matt, and understandably so. It's a fairly open-ended work, one that welcomes a wide range of interpretations, which for me is part of its appeal. Raighne and I have had the privilege of hearing Vincent talk about the book on numerous occasions, which has brought many insights to light that I would have otherwise missed. Even without the author's intent(s) rattling around in your head, I had fun reading this book and teasing out my own meaning before I ever heard Vincent talk about it. Despite the bouts of confusion on Matt's end, the quote below encapsulates what he took away from the book:

It's weird stuff, but it's pretty gorgeously drawn, with chunky ink lines marking out all the jumbled details of wrecked buildings, clouds that seem to be alive billowing through the scenery, stacks of oddly orderly piles of papers, and what might be an even more apocalyptic ending. This is weird shit, but I dig it. Maybe someday somebody can explain it to me, but I'll be enjoying the mental imagery it provides whether that ever happens or not.

Moving on to Motherlover, Matt wasn't exactly sold on this book, but "...while it's not necessarily something I would seek out, I'm glad I read it, just to get a feel for what kind of comics they make." I can see where he was coming from with how this book struck him, but how he took it was sort of the point. This is a book that explores the ennui and confusion of youth in multiple ways, which doesn't always make for pleasant reading. Raighne and myself are drawn to these kinds of stories and cartooning styles, as they resonate with both of us in ways we don't find a lot of, at least locally, and this book was our way of adding that dimension to the collective voice of the Minneapolis scene, for better or worse. But enough defense, to each his own, and thanks Matt for taking the time to put some thoughts down on both books for us. Better to elicit a less favorable reaction than no reaction at all!

Check back here in a few weeks for more on 2dc's April events: Stumptown with Vincent/King Mini Stall and a one of a kind release party for Prizon Food vol. 2!

Valentine's Day, Little Hearts, and Pornhounds too

Welp, happy Valentines day folks! If you are looking for something fitting to get that special someone, I have 2 recommendation for yah.

1: Why not pre-order a comic anthology on marriage equality? This vid/montage is for Little Heart, a kickstarter project that happens to be another one that I am involved with. The project itself was created in partnership with local non-profit [MN]Love. Their creative director, Simon Stromberg got that ball rolling for this project to happen. Music is by the multi talented Dan Moyer.

2: Why not pick up a copy of Pornhounds 2 by the brilliant Sharon Lintz and various artists, including killer work by 2DC favorite Nic Breutzman. Say, did I mention that Pornhounds 2 made it into the Top 15 Comics of 2011 over on High-Low via Rob Clough? Well, it did. Nice! You can pick that book up in the shop, just scroll down a bit.

Some of our fav cartoonists are on that same list: Noah Van Sciver, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, Julia Gfrörer, Tessa Brunton and many other amazing cartoonists -- go check it out yourself!

Anna Bongiovanni had her self-published comic, The Offering recently reviewed over at 13 minutes. From the review:  "I like to imagine The Offering as a softer version of Julia Gfrorer’s Flesh & Bone, which was one of the best books I read last year. It has that same sort of flickering line weight, this rustic quality that reverberates with kinetic potential."  -- Justin Giampaoli

In the fall we will be publishing Out of Hollow Water by Anna Bongiovanni, which will collect some of her past work and some new stuff as well. Really really excited for that book! 

Pornhounds 2 reviewed on TCJ

"The comic kicks into high gear with “Daily Office Life” and “Photo Meetings”, the two chapters illustrated by up-and-coming cartoonist Breutzman. He captures both the sleaze and the quotidian dullness of office life as described by Lintz, though porn provides a number of hilarious but incidental laughs. (Lintz’ idea for a porn based on The Crying of Lot 49 made me laugh out loud, but not as much as the bizarre tattoo found on one naked actor in an orgy scene.)"  -- Rob Clough, TCJ

Sharon Lintz' Pornhounds 2 was just reviewed on The Comics Journal by Rob Clough! Quick, go read the review and if it looks to be your cup o tea, come back to our shop. It is a damn amazing comic; humor, humanity, Videodrome horror/sci-fi; all wrapped up in an autobio floppy. And sorry kiddies, this is a comic for mature audiences.

GMN4 Reviewed on TCJ + Shopping Infoz

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!

Rob Reviews RDCD Fist (RRRF...)

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

Matt Dick Reviews Good Minnesotan 4 + Other Odd Ends

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.





  

Belated Bumpage

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...