Dylan Williams, Publisher at Sparkplug Passes Away

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.

A double dose of dat Noah Van Sciver fella'

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.

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.