2D Cloud @ MCBA Book Arts Fest this Saturday

10am-5pm this Saturday Nov 14 Raighne and I will be at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts selling our comics and creatures at the Center's annual Book Arts Fest. I'm super excited because I've never gotten to work this event before. There will be lots of artist-created books. The thought of all those handmade papers, screen-printed covers, and letterpress printed texts makes my quiver with delight. No doubt I'll be spending any and all of my profits...  Also, I've heard from my Mom that there is a mystery writing conference going on at the Loft Literary Center (also located at Open Book) on the same day.

We will have the second edition of Beard Growing Contest for sale at our table. It has a different cover, printed by our amazing neighbor Eric Recktenwald and his company The Lab Digital Production. The printing quality makes me cry with awe.


Minnesota Center for Book Arts is located in
the Open Book Building in downtown Minneapolis
1011 Washington Ave S, Suite 100
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Phone: 612.215.2520
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FallCon...Rain Taxi TC Book Fest...what happened

Last October during FallCon it was almost 90 degrees and this year it snowed. Bahhh! I've never experienced a mild convention. Here we are freezing in our fall gear. Thanks to Renny's photo of us you can admire Raighne's Louvre-stashe. All the worthy male MIA guards are sporting them for the Louvre show.

Tom K. stopped by our table to take a photo. While I was looking for it on Flickr I found Tom's photo of Justin at the Toronto Comic Arts Fest 2009. While Justin and Sarah manned the table we stopped by Tom's table and bought a copy of the mini-comic Gabrielle Bell's L.A. Diary. He he wrote the Introduction. Gabrielle sketched a portrait of Raighne and I in our new copy. Wish we had a portrait of our lovely Shaun Feltz. He represented 2D Cloud at Rain Taxi's Twin Cities Book Fest and it was his birthday week too...

Here's a (blurry overexposed) photo of one of my Geirdoz. Geirdo is what my brother used to call me when we were kids. I translate it roughly as meaning dork or nerd. I did a test sale with two of these crocheted creatures at FallCon. We just got asked to participate in the Artist Mart at the Walker Art Center's Gift Shop in December and I will sell more Geirdoz there. Better pics to come with my Geirdoz blog.

Post-convention recap: We've got to burn lots of midnight oil what with all the minis we picked up from local comics people. This reading list most notably includes Sam Anderson who, in addition to comics, gave us a free screen print of an ear. We owe him.
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Rain Taxi Twin Cities Book Festival & MCBA's FallCon

Shaun Feltz will be holding down the fort at Rain Taxi Twin Cities Book Festival this Saturday. The Festival is a 1 day event, and admission is free! Free admission is always pretty neat. Our latest book, Yearbooks, which was co-scribed by Mr. Shaun Feltz, will be at said event. What you will find besides our latest books (and our older GMN titles) is some excellent small press books/crafts/comics and other misc. crafts created by some talented local folks and a few not so local. Take a peak, will you?

Event Hours:
10:00am-5pm... or thereabouts.

Location:
MCTC At (Minneapolis Community & Technical College) 1501 Hennepin Avenue S

The other event of which Meghan and I will be covering is MCBA's FallCon. This event is next Saturday and Sunday. There is a fee to check out all the cool local comic books, which is 11$. It is good for both days though, not too shabby ay? And Yearbooks will be there as well. In addition we do have a new little mini that Justin and I did. Something small and a bit weird I am sure. Meghan will be representing the other spectrum of the weird with little crocheted creatures crawling around a new little diorama. We may have some other little things too...

On the 2nd day of festivities, Justin and Sarah will be arriving at the our little neck of the FallCon woods as they will have just gotten back from Korea. They may still be jet lagged and bleary headed which could make for some fun and/or pleasant conversation righty?

Event Hours:
10:00am-5pm or so

Location:
At the State Fair Grounds right off of Snelling in Saint Paul

Stop by our tables, chat us up, look at our odd books and creations, and maybe buy 1 or 2!

Also, a belated thank you to anybody that stopped by to visit with Nic Breutzman, creator of Yearbooks, at SPX last weekend! Just as importantly, thank you Nic for holding down the fort and chatting up folks!
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Floo Powder, Ain't it Grand!

I wish we could use Floo Powder to travel to all of our tour dates. Planes are so expensive and dirty. Here is one of the wedding photos of us in Harry Potter travel mode. We are emerging from the chimney in our studio. This was Simon Stromberg's idea as is the photo.

We'll try the Floo Powder when we attend "An Evening of Fine Wine and Fine Books" Tuesday, October 13; 6-8pm at The Shop and in MCBA’s gallery. You're welcome to do the same.

Here is MCBA's event description: "Peruse new and exclusive book art represented by The Shop at MCBA, sample a delectable variety of wines and cheeses, and socialize (or talk shop) with other artist’s book collectors, enthusiasts and artists. New work will be on display this evening by book artists from across the nation and beyond. Sponsored by the MCBA Collectors Forum."

2d Cloud's books will be displayed at a table there...and we'll be roaming the gallery as well.
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Harry Potter, Waffles, and What We've Been Avoiding

I've been downright neglectful of my business duties lately. My computer died, our friend Simon's computer died (the friend who took our wedding photos), and then my Grandma died. Thus, Raighne and I spent the last couple of weeks hiding in our apartment eating waffles and reading Harry Potter. Now that we've recuperated, we're settling into our new studio and into our old familiar hardcore work mode. Here's a little rundown of what's been happening since we've been gone:

Retailer News
In addition to buying comics at their store, you can now buy Good Minnesotan comics online at Chicago Comics! Thanks to Caitlin for posting our books.

Thanks also to our newest retailers, Bergen Street Comics of NYC and Pilot Books of Seattle, for carrying Yearbooks!

Fall Tour Schedule
We have a neat line-up planned although we had to forego our annual trip to San Fransisco due to having no vacation time and no vacation funds. Ah well.

Nic Breutzman will be representing 2d Cloud at SPX Sept 26-27. If you're in Bethesda, MD buy a copy of Yearbooks and have him sign it! Then on October 11 and 12, Raighne and I will be at Midwest Comic Book Association's FallCon at the State Fair Grounds in MN. We hope to have Reduced Fist and a second edition of Beard Growing Contest printed butt um, no promises. Justin and Sarah will be flying back from South Korea that weekend so they will in attendance on Sunday. Shaun Feltz will be holding down the fort at Rain Taxi's Twin Cities Book Festival on the same weekend and signing and selling lots of his Yearbooks. We will close the fall with the MN Center for Book Arts Book Arts Festival on Saturday November 14. If you love books arts you should visit us at these events since they will be humming with bookmakers!

Beard News
There is none. That's right. Even the little neighbor girl who rides around on her electric scooter couldn't fail to notice: "Your beard's gone!" Raighne shaved his three year old beard. Please read on before you break down in gut-wrenching sobs. The beard will reemerge as the subject of a stop-motion animation in the months to come.
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Headlines and Deadlines

Hey reader, Justin here. So the 31st has arrived, but many of the submissions we were expecting for the next installment of Good Minnesotan have not. The reasons for this vary: some are simply not done yet while others have committed to submitting at later dates. Due to this paucity of finished material and the amount of work required to get the Xeric grant application in by the end of September, we have decided to get rid of deadlines altogether and instead have just an open submissions policy. If things have congealed enough by early 2010, we'll apply for the Xeric then. Given that we had agreed to post a list of contributors today, here's what we know will be in GMN4 thus far: Raighne & Meghan's first GMN (first ever?) collaboration, a story by Nic Breutzman, and a new story by Luke Holden, who will also have cover duties. There are other submissions we are leaning towards for the next issue, but we don't want to commit to anything just yet since Luke's piece will be what helps set the tone for the rest of the issue and his is still incubating. Just so we're not leaving those who have submitted already in the lurch, we will be contacting each of you individually to give you an update on where your submission stands.

More to come in the following weeks regarding Fallcon...
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2d Cloud's New Studio

Here's a tantalizing glimpse of our new studio. We are still on the 2nd floor of the Thorp Building, but we are across the parking lot. It's like an Escher print!

Here we are in our comics & games area. It's still unorganized, but you can see part of the display case for convention decor and my drawing desk. Through the doorway behind us is where we are assembling our screenprinting, papermaking, and bookmaking areas. Not pictured is our painting studio, inventory closet, and bathroom. Yes, the possibilities have expanded.

Our first project is our contribution to Good Minnesotan episode #4. The deadline has been somewhat flexible as we have decided to postpone the publishing date until we have organized funding. We will be applying for grants beginning at the end of August so that is when we need finished pages. Watch for additional pics as we set the studio up!
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