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.

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

"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.

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

!!!!

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!

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!)

Yearbooks on Rob Clough's Top 50 of 2009

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).