Hobbies Galore

Okay, deep breattthhh.....lots to cover:


First off, thanks to any and all who found their way to our table at the TC Zine Fest last weekend. I was playing Lonewolf, so I wasn't able to see many people besides my neighbors Anna B. and Eric S., who both had some fun mini's I picked up. I wholly recommend tracking down copies of each, if you can. Will Dinski's new mini, The Old Guys, did well on it's 2dc debut, which was good to see. I did manage to run over to Tom K.'s Uncivilized books table to pick up his new Gabrielle Bell Mini, as well as a couple of solid choices from the always polite John P. and his Spit and a Half distro, on tour now! Besides an overactive child (even when the Geirdoz aren't present, they seem to find our table) and her little ugly dog who was dangerously close to besmirching the last copy of Nic's You Can't be Here I had on hand, a good time was had by me. Nice job Lacey, here's to the 2012 show!


Onward and upward, we have our still newish and awesome 2dc (and NOW Fantagraphics) cartoonist Noah Van Sciver on his way to the city by the bay for APE this weekend, right alongside Joseph Remnant, who was kind enough to share table space with Noah and by extension, 2dc. Noah will have some of our more travel-ready 2dc books on hand, in addition to 2009 Isotope winning Covered In Confusion by Will D., not to mention his other thoughtfully crafted mini's, both old and new. This will of course all be accompanied by Noah's standard spread of Blammo's and other Van Sciver ephemera, such as his new mini, Dueling, which is just a taste of what's to come in Noah's forthcoming book from Fantagraphics:

Thats'anice'acover'a

As I've already mentioned multiple times already, Will Dinski's new mini is officially out in the world, and you can make the moves on getting your copy over at our online shop, in addition to a few other choice releases Will decided to have us distro for him. As with all of Will's work, he does limited runs, and these won't be available in shops, so unless you want to meet us in the flesh, get over there!


Now for the big-tent items. Vincent Stall/King Mini's first work with 2d Cloud, Things You Carry, is officially off to the presses! After pouring over the files and proofs (thanks Raighne and Vincent), everything should be in place and this will be one fine, fine book come October. We were hoping for the book to have a preview launch at Vincent's new show going up at the CO gallery 10/8, but some fine-tuning will probably push it back a little bit, possibly to the Rain Taxi Book Festival, possibly to an event all its own, details will be forthcoming. I know both Raighne and I are very excited and honored to be working with Vincent, given his reputation both in the sequential arts as well as his numerous other accolades and achievements. Below is a sample from Vincent's upcoming show of the same name at the CO gallery:

Last, but in no way least, we have just begun our push to get our other big 2011 release out the door in time for MIX: Motherlover. I can say that I've read this book multiple times already, both for copy editing purposes and in earlier permutations (for Nic's pieces anyway), and all of the work in here was already solid. Now, with a few minor editing choices by Raighne and I to "You Can't Be Here" so Nic's great pacing shines to its full extent and some of Raighne's as always stellar color work, we really have something of interest on our hands. Rob Clough has been gracious enough to put 2dc in context with the Minneapolis comics scene and beyond, as well as expound upon what makes the Holden Bros. and Nic's comics  so oddly compelling by providing a foreword, all of which can be read here, which sits below the following video from the kickstarter: 

We're about a quarter of the way there already (huge THANKS to those who have already shoved numbers our way!), but to keep the momentum going we'll need YOU to find it within yourself to bring this book the attention it deserves. We have quite a few worthwhile incentives tied to each price level, some of which I'll be making sure I snag a copy of before they're gone, so make that hard for me to do and drop the coinage!

Alright, another night of little sleep at the 2dc abodes. Show up to Vincent's show if you're able, we'll be there!

Reminder: 2DC2011TCZF

Before the day draws too near, just one more reminder that the Twin Cities Zine Fest is occurring this Saturday, the 24th. With Lacey taking the reins for the first time, there are a few changes, all of which I'm (Justin) looking forward to: a later start time (Noon), a new location (Powderhorn Park building--3400 15th Ave. S.) and a little bit different approach to the scheduling (Lacey describes it as a three-ring circus). We'll have copies of Will Dinski's new mini The Old Guys on hand for the first time, not to mention the usual gaggle of 2dc books. I know a couple of 2dc cohorts (Eric Schuster, Anna Bongiovanni) will have new mini's debuting at the show as well, which only sweetens the pot. There are a few other cartoonists/distros/labels of note that will be there as well, but I'm going to leave it up to you to discover them yourselves between 12-5 this Saturday. 


Not 100% related, but I'm putting out the call for an unofficial after-party spot: Skoal Kodiak will be dropping their first load (records) release the very same night at the Eagle's Club in the Seward neighborhood. These boys don't disappoint and Load has its own history of putting out records by stellar cartoonists (Lightning Bolt--Brian Chippendale), so this sidetrack has come full circle.


No excuses, see you Saturday.

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.

Twin Cities Zine Fest 2011 is coming up!

Hello folks! In a few short weeks the Twin Cities Zine Fest will be upon us. The date to mark on the calender is this Sept. 24th, a Saturday. Noon to 5pm, Justin and maybe Nic Breutzman will be holding down the 2DC table. We will have the usual books, comics, mini's and maybe a couple new little things premiering at the show. We will see.

That image is the first part of a 3 pager that I submitted to TCZF -- they are going to have a How-To zine / comic encyclopedia / anthology thing involving everyone that is at the show! A pretty neat idea if you ask me.

I'll have another update tomorrow covering our fall line up, new books in the shop, and perhaps some other odds and ends. See yah then!

Lovejoy at Copacetic

The latest shop to get on the Noah Van Sciver // Death of Elijah Lovejoy band-wagon is the Copacetic Comics Company. While I have never made it to Copacetic myself, that shop looks to be a comics / art / literature / media mecca. So folks in Pittsburgh, why don't yah treat yourself to some gorgeous tactile media and stop on by the Copacetic Comics Company? I don't think you'll regret it. And besides, how could you not want to add a little bit of that Noah Van Sciver magic to your collection?

This image is snipped from a bunch of misprints of Noah's Lovejoy comic booklet. We plan on having a show sometime this year involving those misprints and some originals from the comic itself. For those unaware, the entire book was printed by La Mano's head-cheese, Zak Sally (they have their own press!). Anywho, I'll keep yah in the loop on that as it develops.

Ganked

Ha! I think the last time I used that word was when I was 12 or so and would bike to Target every day after school with my friend Thien-Mihn (I don't remember how to spell his name -- it's a mystery that I can spell my own as my spelling is indeed that atrocious. Maybe you've noticed?). We would go there purely to steal comic book cards. What put a stop to my early years of thievery was that I was hit by a car -- which at the time I was pretty sure was an act of god telling me to knock it off or something.

Anyways, this image was ganked from Noah Van Sciver's blog. It's a preview of a newsprint comic that he is splitting with Nic Breutzman AND that we are publishing early next year. The title of Noah's story is the The Cows Head and is based on some folklore. Noah has another preview of a short story that we are publishing next year titled The Lizard Laughs. That story is going inside a new anthology that we are starting sometime in 2012. I'll be talking more about that at a future date. To see more cool stuff that Noah is up to, like 1999 (put out by new comics publisher, Retrofit) check out his blog.

Before the month is out I will be adding a small distro section on the blog as we have a few of Will Dinski's gorgeously designed and illustrated mini's that we'll be selling direct. Speaking of which, Will just finished a new one in collaboration with Mark Ehling. The story is called The Old Guys and will be made available in two formats -- one, as a short in the literary journal, The Nashville Review, and two, as a very limited mini, which you can take a gander at above. In the interim, hit up Will's blog for details. I'm pretty sure these handsome mini's will be making it to the aforementioned distro section of the site in the near future.

Oh and before I go, Will is designing a little comic to fit squarely on our new business card. That ought to be "out" in time for Vincent Stall's Things You Carry launch this October.

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!