In 'Da News: New Distro, New Shop

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!

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

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.

Fleeting Pages & SpringCon 2011 + notes

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.

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

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!

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!

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...

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).