Good Minnesotan

The Curtains Close

2011-05-04T19:47:00.000-07:00

Welp folks, this is the end of the road for this here blog. You can keep up to date on all things 2D Cloud over at the 2DC blog. In addition, Good Minnesotan, as a series is also ending. It has been a fun run. Recently we have even landed the #2 spot on Rob Clough's Top 25 Minis of 2010 via The Comics Journal with our fourth and final issue, GMN#4. I want to thank everyone who has donated their time and / or cash to plunk down a copy of this humble art comics series. You have all made it worth while. Thank you.

Over at Itchy Keen, we have been doing short, sweet stock interviews with some of the creators of the 4th issue. The plan is to expand this to include everyone in the series. So please, stop by now and again to catch these little interviews as they progress.

In the interim, this is a list of folks who helped us make GMN#4 possible, through their art, funds, time and coverage.

Daniel Jay Olson
Richard Krauss of Midnight Fiction
Sarah Huneke
James Vculek of Partizan Pictures
Eric Schuster
Craig Farmer
Carolyn Belefski
Mark McGinty of Seventh Avenue Productions and author of The Cigar Maker
Lupi
Nicholas Breutzman
Daniel Moyer Artisan
Martha Iserman
Matt Wells
Vincent Stall
Meghan Hogan
Ed Choy Moorman
Luke Holden
Justin Skarhus
Sarah Dan Bee Tulius
Megan Koh Eun Tulius
Zak Sally
Sean Lynch
Noah Harmon
Joseph Nixon
Steroid Party
Mux Mool for dem beats
Maddie Queripel
Emily Kaplan
Toby Jones
Kevin Cannon
Joshana Anderson
Tom Kaczynski
Neville McKinnie
Buck Sutter
Anna Bongiovanni
Mayme Donsker
Will Dinski
Reynold Kissling
Tim Sievert
Eric Ruby
Pat Hogan of Virtual Reality
Holy Land Brand
Central Avenue Liquors
Bryan Mitchell
Nick Busse
Carrie Parra
Theresa Dew
Rossi Fraenkel
Achilles Sangster II
Charles Gearin
Debbie Skarhus
Jeanne Shields
Mike Mullan
Ruthie Hanson
Brittany Edwards
Luke Mackowiak
Rob Clough of TCJ and the High-Low blog
Matt Dick of Exquisite Thing
Kevin Bramer of Optical Sloth
Shannon Smith of File Under Other
Matthew Brady of Warren-Peace
Matthew Kessen of Playtime Magazine
Shaun Feltz
Chantel Holsather

A big thanks to everyone!

PS:
If I forgot anyone, I apologize. If you write me on the 2DC blog, I will correct it ASAP.What's written here is hidden until the readers click on Read More! link.

Good Minnesotan 4 + Kickstarter (edit)

2010-06-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hello Good Minnesotan readers. We are having a fund drive of sorts via Kickstarter. How it works, you make a pledge from $1 to $100 and get an awesome thank you gift. If we get the funds we can publish the GMN4. If we don't meet our minimum goal, we will have some serious re-thinking to do. More info available on the Kickstarter page below:

GMN4 will be about 30 contributors and somewhere around 120 pages. It's going to be an amazing little book. To get it out to shops and to shows we need your help. Take a peek, make a pledge. I don't think you shall regret it. Also, as a reminder. 2D Cloud has moved. Follow us here. Please and thank yous!

2D Cloud Blog

2010-03-09T10:06:00.000-08:00

We have begun a 2D Cloud blog. Please follow us there. This Good Minnesotan blog will continue to exist as an archive for info on the Good Minnesotan books.

Thank you!

2D Cloud @ MCBA Book Arts Fest this Saturday

2009-11-11T16:28:00.000-08:00

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

FallCon...Rain Taxi TC Book Fest...what happened

2009-10-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

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.

Rain Taxi Twin Cities Book Festival & MCBA's FallCon

2009-10-04T18:15:00.000-07:00

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!

Floo Powder, Ain't it Grand!

2009-09-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Harry Potter, Waffles, and What We've Been Avoiding

2009-09-08T14:24:00.000-07:00

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.

Headlines and Deadlines

2009-08-31T16:50:00.000-07:00

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...

2d Cloud's New Studio

2009-08-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

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!

Mini-comics reviews in Comics Related & Exquisite Things

2009-08-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

Raighne and I have received more reviews of our mini-comics Beard Growing Contest and Manny + Bigfoot.

Matthew Dick reviewed both mini-comics together in his Exquisite Things blog. Matt says, "I’ve always had a soft spot for mini comics, and these are amongst the best I’ve read in recent times."

Richard Krauss reviewed Manny + Bigfoot in Comic Related. Richard says, "If you like artsy comics with a handmade, craftsperson feel, it doesn't get any better than this."

Thanks guys!

New Digs: part one

2009-07-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

Hello lads and ladies. I have to be getting to work in 5 minutes so this will be split into two posts. Sorry for the drag that is. We are moving in a few days. Our new address to send submissions is:

2D Cloud
1620 Central Ave NE Suite 204
Minneapolis MN 55413

More next time, I promise.

Bare Tare Craft Fare

2009-07-29T16:41:00.001-07:00

Going out in sweat-blazed glory, the 2d Cloud summer touring sched has officially come to an end with Caffetto's 2nd annual Craft fair. I could have done with less sun, more money, and more serious looking little boys hula-hooping through whole noise sets, but I did appreciate seeing those who graced Sarah, Shaun, and I with their presence. Thanks to Shaun for wrangling up some customers, keeping an eye on the table while Sarah and I were away, and keeping me company for the final leg of one of the longer shows I've been a part of. Although people of our ilk were at a minimum (I think Josh Journey-Heinz was the closest I could find to a fellow countryman(get his new book, as I did!!)), I feel that overall our presence was worth the oscillation between genuine enthusies for our booksies and mild interest quickly sprinkled with disregard. Anywho, thanks Caffetto, I can't say I drink much fluids there as of late (living in Seward will do that to you), but a good time was had by us. Bye!

Cirque du Soleil: KOOZA in review

2009-07-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

For those who are unfamiliar with Cirque du Soleil, it is a Circus unlike any you will likely see elsewhere. There are no animals; only people performing amazing acrobatics coupled with fantastic live music sets. They hand pick performers from all over the world that best fit that particular Cirque show. Click on the video above for a little taste.

It's hard to believe that July has nearly past us. A few weeks ago we were gifted with free tickets to Cirque du Soleil's latest show to hit Minnesota, KOOZA. What a show it was! Through the powers of serendipity, the free showing happened to be on my birthday. A rather fortuitous turn of events.

As soon as we were ushered into our seats, a smile danced across my face and the playfulness of the clowns pre-show act kept it there until the show proper began. The show picks up with a child being unable to keep his kite in the air. A mysterious package arrive's taking The Innocent and the audience on act after act of phantasmagorical acrobatics. And all throughout, that smile never left my face.

I really feel that I can't recommend YOU going and seeing this show enough. It's a lot of fun and totally worth the admission. I should mention that I traveled briefly with the last show (Corteo) as security (through several subcontract agencies) so perhaps that coloured my view of the show, although I don't see it that way. When I stumbled upon that gig, I decided to keep it for a least a few cities because the show filled my heart with something very close to the high one gets from being in-love. And KOOZA brought it all back.

Hector, from KOOZA gave us a heads up about a special summer offer: tickets are 30% off! The offer can be accessed by clicking on BUY TICKETS at http://www.koozainstpaul.com. The show runs on until August 9th.

Many thanks to Hector and everyone at KOOZA!

Caffetto Craft Fair this Sunday + Reviews!

2009-07-25T20:16:00.000-07:00

Yes, I guess this is a little late, as the Craft Fair begins in 12 hours, but whatever. Justin will be there holding down said fort. If you are in the uptown neighborhood tomorrow (or today as it may well be), stop on by and chat him up!

And we got some more reviews in for Manny + Bigfoot and Beard Growing Contest which were reviewed together by Matthew Dick in Exquisite Things. They are positive little reviews for those little little books, "both of which are lovingly assembled to a high standard." Thanks Matt!

Twin Cities Zine Fest: Photo Blog

2009-07-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

"Good MN's elaborate display lured many..."
Thank you to tom k and Sarah Jordet for taking these pics of Justin and Sarah at the 2d Cloud table at Zine Fest.

Sarah Morean's Daily Cross Hatch report: Zinefest: The Only Good Party I Ever Threw. Crystal Erikson's TC Daily Planet story: Little, local, and made with love: Twin Cities Zinefest showcases Minnesota's tiniest media.

Zinefest Report/GMN4 Update

2009-07-13T19:52:00.000-07:00

Well, another weekend, another show in the can. Although I honestly expected to sell more than we did, I had a good time talking to peeps as well as learning of GMN submissions that loom on the horizon. Thanks to those who did pick up books and those who stopped by to inquire and interrupt my furtive bouts of staring at fellow tablers. As Raighne covered briefly in the previous post, there are going to be some changes to how Good Minnesotan is presented and released. As the new editor, I guess I should be the one to expound upon what those changes are and what they mean for you, the reader/contributor/casual observer. More after the jump.

First and probably foremost, the deadline for GMN4 submissions has changed to Friday, August 14th, so those who thought they'd missed the boat don't have to make a frantic swim for it just yet (wit in spades, I tell you). As Raighne explained before, Yearbooks, while being a real piece of work, did not come cheap for the 2d Cloud clan, causing us to pause and reconsider how we are to continue putting out quality material without morphing into paupers in the process. The first wave of our plan to get GMN4 into your discerning hands is to look for free money, i.e. grants, the first being the Xeric. Given that this is not the easiest grant to obtain, we will also be exploring other means of funding both the next issue as well as future issues, but for the immediate future, this is what will concern us.

Raighne mentioned that we're looking for a minimum of two pages from all interested in submitting to the next issue. That still holds true, but a little elaboration is required. These two pages need to be finished pages, not rough layouts/pencils/scripts/etc. The primary reason for this is that we need something presentable for the sample we'll be submitting for the Xeric, but it will also help expedite the process of compiling a final roster of contributors, which will be listed on the blog Monday, August 31st. A reminder for those submitting for the first time: in addition to our predilection for comics with a fine-art shade and/or an autobiographical bent, we tend to prefer comics that are mixed-media, stray from traditional narrative structures, and are not something you spent a couple days banging out in a sketchbook (i.e. polished work). Having said that, we are not opposed to strong linework and solid storytelling, but if you're going to go that route, make sure that this is not your first foray into the world of comics making. Another change from the original submission guidelines that I should mention is that what you turn in by the 14th need not be 1200 dpi, but must be no lower than 300 dpi. Once the final list of contributors has been posted on the 31st, those people will need to send in their files at 1200 dpi. If you can scan at 1200 dpi the first time through, that would obviously be easier, but if meeting the deadline means getting a lower res scan from you, that will suffice for now.

The other major piece of news on the submissions front is that we will now be accepting them year-round. The reasons for this are threefold: we are in the process of creating an online version of Good Minnesotan that will ideally be updated bi-weekly, but at the very least monthly with new work. This will be a way for us to promote contributors' work in the interim between print issues and give people a preview of what they can expect in future issues. Having submissions come in throughout the year will also help us in planning future print versions of the anthology. A key part of that planning will be determining a featured artist for each issue who will do the covers and set the tone for what else will comprise that issue. Ideally we will be able to return to a biannual schedule for the print version, but this will be dependent on fundage, submissions and other 2DC projects. Lastly, changing to a year-round open submissions policy will hopefully be less stressful for both contributors and for us.

Aside from those changes, consult the link on the sidebar for anything else regarding submissions. Thanks again to all who showed last weekend and we look forward to seeing what will be sliding under our door, dropping into our mailbox and popping up in our inbox in the coming weeks...

Zinefest + New Reviews for Yearbooks + GMN changes

2009-07-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

So first things first-- this weekend-- ZINEFEST! It's this bloody weekend! Saturday 11am-5pm (the poster has the incorrect start time for Saturday), with an afterparty at ARISE! books!. Sunday 11am-4pm

Justin Skarhus, Sean Lynch and their ladies will be holding down the 2D Cloud/Good Minnesotan fort. Luke Holden and his zine machine will possibly make an appearance as well.

In addition, Sean will be premiering Zine Supreme at said event. It's going to be a mouthful of mouth-wateringly Jawsome zines and comics, so please swing on by the event (and pick up yerself a copy of ZINE SUPREME)!

In other news, we have several new reviews of our latest comic, Yearbooks recently thrown-up on the internets. Huzzah! Up first is one performed by Mr. Shawn Nyland-Hoke of Size Matters. And while you really should read the whole review (and the comic!) here is a snippet "what really makes this project crackle with energy is the vibrancy of Raighne Hogan's colors." Ahh shucks, I turns me head and bats my eyes. Seriously, I do. I have tried really hard to complement Nic's amazing line work with the colours, and after spending me and Maggie's honey moon money on the book, it's nice to hear that.

Up next is a review by Kevin Bramer of Optical Sloth. "Nicholas uses the silences of his characters beautifully to convey emotions that would take him pages of exposition and Raighne nails the drabness of high school while still managing the vibrancy of the students and the general high school art world". Kevin ends the review with "I wouldn’t have guessed Minnesota to be one of the places that could legitimately be called the future of comics, but if these people keep this up they might well get there". Wow! Very grand, thanks Kevin!

"From the jarring psychedelic dream sequence that opens the book, to its closing apocalyptic meditation on the intrusion of the adult world, Yearbooks presents a realistic, sometimes darkly skewed vision of high school life". The above comes curtesy of Matt Dick's review on Exquisite Things. Another wonderful review, thanks Matt!

The last topic to cover in this blog post is that yes, we are having some changes in how we run Good Minnesotan. GMN#4 is going to be delayed until early 2010. The reason for this is pretty simple, Yearbooks was expensive and we wish to focus on pushing that book. The deadline is still roughly in place... Although pushed back several months. We would still ideally like something by folks by mid-August, even if it is only 2 pages of progress as we plan to be applying for grants and what-not to get funding for the project.

Justin Skarhus is the new lead editor going forward as well. We will talk more about this in a very near future blog post. Thanks for reading!

Yearbooks Launched into the Basket!

2009-06-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

When Shaun, Raighne and I were setting up the Launch Party we met a woman who summed up the night's events perfectly:"I have like 600 people's numbers on my phone but only 6 I could call to pick me up at the airport."

We threw our party on Sunday night, on Father's Day, in the rain! Most folks who would normally attend an outdoor summer party stayed home. However, the friends who would pick us up at the airport, wait, let me ammend that, the friends who have picked us up at the airport, formed the bulk of the party. We enjoyed the intimate gathering, and it was fun to meet our friends' friends that had braved the poor weather.

We attempted to project Basket Case on the big screen, but phantom technology problems prevailed despite all efforts by Amanda of Arise and a friendly Walker Arts guard. We ended up hovering around a laptop! It was better suited to the smaller turn out!

We had a lengthy discussion about our shared dislike of Holy Land's hummus's new packaging (more paper, less food) and receipe (way over-whipped). The garlic flavor, which used to be my fav, is now inedible. Luckily Raighne and I baked some cookies which Shaun photographed. They tasted delicious but look like poop in the photo. Sort of fitting?

Thank you to Arise Books, Big Time Attic, Ed Choy Moorman, Dirk Deppey of Journalista, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Dan Olson of the International Cartoonist Conspiracy, and Minneapolis's Comic Examiner Ted Anderson for promoting the Yearbooks launch. For anyone who has Minneapolis and/or Minnesota comics events coming up in the future: contact Ted!

Finally a big thank you to Shaun, co-birther of Yearbooks. He helped us copy our flyers, get our stuff and selves to and from the event, bought lots of sweet yuppie treats for our guests, and he was so nice and funny the whole time. He even remembered to take pictures at the party...which once again, we did not. Friends! Airports! Yearbooks!

Publisher's Weekly previews Yearbooks

2009-06-22T07:13:00.000-07:00

Ada Price was kind enough to preview Yearbooks in Publisher's Weekly's newsletter of comics and graphic novel publishing last week. Ours was one of three books featured in her Panelmania: Comics from the MoCCA Art Festival.

Launch Party at Arise this Sunday + Yearbooks Preview

2009-06-16T00:56:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More shaun feltz

Kinda neat? Maybe? In any case that was just a snack to give you a taste of what you will be seeing this Sunday, should you stop on by for the launch party.

Yearbooks reviewed on High-Low

2009-06-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

We got our first review of Yearbooks in Rob Clough's High-Low blog on Friday. In the review, Yearbooks: The Betrayal of Dreams, he says, "Breutzman's visuals tell the story effortlessly. His character design, body language, use of gesture and unusual placement of panels give the reader subtext and a richer understanding of the story's ultimate emotional resolution." Whoo-hoo! Go read it!

We also noticed that Rob's review got a nice mention by Dirk Deppey in Journalista (in the Literary Comics section).

Our Goods and Our Bads at MoCCA

2009-06-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

Whew! MoCCA 2009 is over and we are back in MN. It's time to reflect on our goods (high-five) and our bads (oops!) at NYC's small press convention. We'll also talk about a change we're making at 2d Cloud based on how we fared.

ps. thank you to Shawn Nyland-Hoke for taking this pic of us at MoCCA. There were six of us at this table and not one of us had a camera!

Without further ado, the Good and the Bad:

Table Display

Our Bad: A cardboard cutout of a pink lactating moonbat was poor advertising.

How we made Good: We removed the moonbat and used the space to leave copies of our mini-comics and Yearbooks opened up on the table. Customers flipped through books they barely glanced at before!

Sales

Our Bad: Sales were slooooow on Saturday. Raighne, Nic, and I watched in heat-exhausted awe as Sean Lynch charmed con-goers with his friendly demenour: "Even with ketchup-stained fingers you can flip through my sketchbooks." Meanwhile, we drank water and tried not to faint.

How we made Good: Sunday was a .05% cooler. After a day of observing Sean, the undefeated master of customer service, and a pep talk from Ed, the great self-promotion guru, I gathered my wits. I opened my mouth and people bought comics.

Marketing

Our Bad: 1) Aesthetically, we make comics that are grey matter. They are neither light and happy nor dark and homicidal. 2) We publish an anthology about Minnesota. Limited appeal...anyone?

How we made Good: 1) Ed Choy Moorman. His comics are universally loved by all people and press. We were able to pass our comics on to all of the reviewers that stopped to check out his books. 2) We decided that after GMN #4 Good Minnesotan will become an online-only anthology. This will give us a chance to start creating more of our own books whose audiences are not limited by geography.

Networking

Our Bad: Not meeting up with Julia Rothman from Book-by-Its-Cover.

Double Bad: Failing to give review copies to Matt Phelan from Anthem Magazine.

How we Made Good: We're mailing Julia and Matt their review copies.

How we made Double-Good: We were overjoyed to hear Jose Villarubia say he was so glad we made it. We got to meet our sales rep, Tony Shenton, in person, and chat with Tom Neely about self-publishing. We gave a distribution sample to Dylan Williams of Sparkplug comics and promo copies of Yearbooks to our favs Charles Burns, Al Columbia, Dan Nadel, Matt Madden & Jessica Abel. We met Shawn Nyland-Hoke of Size Matters: the Mini-Comics Blog (he's vegetarian!) and Ada Price of Publishers Weekly who loved Yearbooks.

Panels

Our Bad-est Bad: 1) We missed yet another one of Tom K.'s panels. 2) Going to the Making Comics panel that Heidi MacDonald of Publisher's Weekly's The Beat moderated and not getting her a copy of Yearbooks.

Our Good-est Good: 1) Nic was a panelist in a talk with successful School of Visual Arts graduates. This panel included Nate Powell and Dash Shaw. He mentioned Yearbooks. 2) The Comics vs. Art panel with Frank Santoro, Gary Panter, and Raymond Sohn ("the swingin' 80's"). I thought I was going to pass out. I didn't know anyone else was melded across the divide like me.

After-parties

Our Bad: Missing the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art's opening night for David Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp because we hadn't eaten dinner. Not hanging out with Matt Madden & Jessica Abel...because we were too tired...? WTF.

Our Good: Nothing good. We sucked the big one here, folks. Too much hot air, not enough liquids, foodstuff or sleep to make wise decisions.

Comic Books Shops:

Our Bad: Not visiting Forbidden Planet.

Our Good: Dropping off Yearbooks at Jim Hanley's Universe. They have the best organized mini-comics section we've ever seen. Our comics were placed at eye level with our shelf-talker. Unbelievable!

Conclusion
At MoCCA 2010 we resolve to eat breakfast, talk to con-goers instead of hiding behind cardboard moonbats, attend after-parties with or without our dinners, and to avoid flights that are likely to be delayed. See you at MoCCA 2010...when we plan to commit more Good deeds than Bad!

Links:

Here's our table-mates Sean Lynch and Ed Choy Moorman's take on MoCCA.
Jog the Blog: MoCCA '09: The Tourist
Publisher's Weekly: MoCCA's Heated Success
Newsarama: MoCCA
Comic Book Resources: MoCCA Hits Manhattan

2d Cloud gearing up for MoCCA

2009-06-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

At first, we were going to the MoCCA comic convention, then we were not. Raighne submitted the forms within the first week of registration BUT THEN we learned that tables were sold out. That canceled our NY trip.

While tabling at TCAF in Toronto, we met Jose Villarrubia. I'm not exaggerating when I write that if you read comics you've read his. Raighne read interviews when he was young in which Jose talked about how he first painted things by hand and then scanned them into the computer and reworked them digitally. In other words, his opinion means a lot to us, and he's a wonderful man. Jose told us in the airport on the way back to Minnesota that we needed to go to MoCCA, even if we didn't have a table. We decided to go.

We booked our flight, and then a couple of weeks later, we were taken off the waiting list and given a table. Whew! Nic Breutzman, Ed Choy Moorman, and Sean Lynch decided (again, thank goodness) to share a table with us.

If you are in New York City on June 6 & 7, please stop by our table at MoCCA.

Thank you, Jose! Thank you Richard Krauss for posting Yearbooks info on Midnight Fiction. Thank you Brian Heater for including us in the MoCCa Festival 2009 Preview on the Daily Cross Hatch.

Shaun + Brendan = movie manstuff

2009-05-26T14:53:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons Raighne and I became publishers is because we have many talented friends to work on projects with. Our friend Shaun Feltz is a filmmaker and writer. He is collaborating with Nic and Raighne on our current series of 3 Yearbooks the first of which we just published. He is also editing our much-hyped and still absent (apologies...we have been doing too many comic cons) podcast interviews.

Shaun directed Raighne in two of his short films. Maybe some of you remember An Expression of Woe within which Raighne cries over a wooden duck? I would like to share another video of Shaun's with you today. It carries a special place in our hearts because it stars Brendan Holloway. Brendan was our roommate for a couple of years (read Justin and Raighne's Sex Box in GMN #3). We are all going to his wedding this Saturday. We wish Brendan congratulations and now let's watch Shaun's film.

2DC @ TCAF '09: The weekend in hindsight

2009-05-17T18:48:00.000-07:00

Given the wealth of tasks and events on Raighne and Meghan's proverbial plates (this weekend's Art-a-Whirl–ends today!–, getting review copies of Yearbooks sent out, preparing for our release party at Arise!, getting ready for MOCCA next month, working on their pieces for GMN4 and Rdcd Fist, and sundry tasks I'm forgetting), they have delegated the task of recounting our time in Toronto for TCAF to me, the increasingly less silent partner in the 2D Cloud enterprise, Justin. If interested in what transpired, click below for the full account. Otherwise, thanks to those who stopped by our table to converse or pick up a book! (Note: Thanks to our superior saleswoman, Sarah T., for visually documenting the trip)

Riding the rail, fresh faced and ready to undergo multiple bouts of vomiting in a few short hours. A few miles away, Raighne and Meghan are stuffing their faces with home-made pancakes before they depart.

Here Sarah and I sit, awaiting the arrival of Raighne and Meghan.

All are accounted for, and I'm about to begin my cold sweats and vomiting shortly.

Here I am, Mr. dried sweat and stale vomit, but who gives a shit, we're in Toronto! Time for us to contribute to the Canadian economy and the coffers of our fellow TCAFers.

Our lovely bearded chief, Raighne, is about to let the rest of the 2D Cloud clan set up camp, unawares to the Le Meridien staff. "Do not disturb"=cheap hotel for all!

And

Now

We

Rest?

Preparing for day one of TCAF. Raighne is putting his final touches on a display that, sadly, will not realize its full potential. Notice the sun glowing behind the curtain? That won't last.

Foreground: me posing for subway photo.
Background: Raighne and Meghan figuring out how to get to our vegan breakfast.
Aboveground: Stormclouds gather.

Little do

we

know

This awaits us upstairs

After some scrambling and a thorough soaking, we make it there. Raighne and Meghan get started on damage control while Sarah and I...

Sneak off to eat breakfast at Tim Horton's. I think Toronto has the friendliest hobos I've ever met.

I relieved Raighne and Meghan of their posts shortly after we returned. I think this is around the time that Tom K. stopped by to check up on us.

Here's what we had to offer the people. Of note is the addition of Yearkbooks to our spread for the first time. It almost didn't make it, but Westcan was able to ship a couple of boxes to the hotel.

Depending on whom you ask, this could've been to our benefit or detriment, but we were placed in the same loop as Drawn and Quarterly , who was hosting three of the primary draws for the show: Seth, Adrian Tomine, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi. All were signing books for a large chunk of Saturday and part of Sunday as well.

Our top salesperson of the fest, Sarah T. She made a quarter of the weekend's sales in one hour. Apparently some people prefer to buy our books from a cute Asian girl than scraggly white people.

Upon being granted their newfound freedom from the table, Raighne and Meghan don't know what to do with themselves. They quickly came to their senses, however, and decided to hand out a few copies of Yearbooks to people we admire and those offering to review it: namely Chester Brown, Frank Santoro, Jose Villarrubia, Jim Munroe, and the good people at Broken Pencil.

This was somewhat early on in the day. As the fest wore on, it became difficult to make one's way around any part of the show.

Just like everyone else, we have photos of Seth, Tomine, and Tatsumi, but there are plenty of people with better shots of them that you can find easily. This one pretty much sums up Raighne's feeling about waiting in line for at over an hour to have Tatsumi sign and sketch in his copy of A Drifting Life.

Day two of the fest saw the 2D Cloud clan split up for a large portion of the day, hence the dearth of fest photos and a couple of what Sarah and I ate in their stead. I did break down and return to the Picturebox table to buy issues 1 and 2 of Powr Mastrs by CF and sat in on a couple of panels. Raighne, Meghan and I attended one on editing comics, which consisted of Alvin Buenaventura, Brendan Burford, and Greg Means. Not much was said that any of us deemed illuminating and Alvin didn't seem to know how to talk into a mike, but nevertheless it was still entertaining. The latter panel was a critics roundtable which consisted of Jeet Heer, Douglas Wolk, Dan Nadel, and Bart Beaty. This panel was great and I wished it was twice as long, but alas, it was not to be. Jeet and Dan seemed to dominate the panel, with Bart getting his thoughts in there when he could. They covered topics ranging from the level of critical discourse concerning comics in the press to the selective lineage modern cartoonists seem to be constructing for themselves with the reissues and promotion of older cartoonists. All in all, it was fun to see people who knew their shit argue and bemoan current trends in the 'biz'.

After the fest had ended and we all gathered our meager earnings and growing stack of reading materials, we split to fill our stomachs (Raighne and Meghan chose an excellent but exorbitant vegan pizza from Magic Oven, while Sarah and I went for cheap, mediocre bento boxes). Once reconvening at the hotel, Meghan decided call it a night and cozy up with some of said reading materials, while the rest of us ventured to the DeLeon White gallery
to see NoisePopper/Twee producer Dan Deacon. After a twenty minute wait and tantalizing wafts of chronsmoke gliding past our noses, we made it in. Seen here is Raighne and I amused at how much shitty beer costs and how old we are in relation to many of our fellow show-goers.

Sarah demonstrating how fast she could sell books in relation to the rest of us.

Here's a couple samples of what Dan Deacon had to offer those in attendance:

Aside from a tasty breakfast the following morning and a brief encounter with Jose Villarrubia at the airport, that pretty much sums up the weekend. Thanks again to all who stopped to see us, those who picked up a book or two, and to you for getting through what will probably be the longest GMN blog post ever.

?

A little late?

2009-05-13T22:06:00.001-07:00

VISIT! Yeah sorry, that's all I got.

Art-A-Whirl @ 2d Cloud Studio!

2009-05-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

Join us in our studio this weekend for ART-A-WHIRL! We will have our new comic book Yearbooks for sale, plus Good Minnesotan comics, mini-comics, and buttons.

There will be artwork and comics by Raighne & Meghan Hogan with guest artists Sean Lynch, Joe Nixon, Dave Digre.

We are located directly above Diamonds Coffee Shoppe!
2d Cloud
1618 Central Ave NE Suite #214
Mpls, MN 55413

Friday May 15 6pm - 10pm
Saturday May 16 Noon - 8pm
Sunday May 17 Noon - 5pm

GMN In The Daily Crosshatch's Microcon Roundup

2009-05-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

During one of our regular perusals of The Comics Journal's Journalista page this past week we noticed to our delight that, as promised, Sarah Morean had included us in her coverage of last Sunday's MCBA Microcon . Focusing on the methods and means by which various indie creators distinguish their tables to attract con-goers, Sarah stopped to chat with Justin, our "often unsung, but frequent frontman". Although Sarah found our setup spread a little thin in comparison to February's Multiples Mall show at the Walker, she was impressed with the work we had on hand. Admittedly, our little display house had seen better days and we were running sans-clothesline, but our pins and pair of minis by Raighne and Meghan helped give the table a greater sense of balance than past cons. Thanks to Sarah for her interest and support and to Dirk Deppey for keeping us Minnesotans in the news!

MicroCon, mini-reviews+Yearbooks

2009-04-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

Yearbooks is off to the printer! We are so thrilled (and exhausted)!

So, MicroCon is this Sunday? Crikey! Yes, MicroCon is indeed this Sunday at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds
Progress Center
1621 Randall Ave
St. Paul, MN 55108

We will be represented there by Justin and quite possibly myself (raighne here). If I am ambitious I will have a preview of Yearbooks on hand. We'll see on that one.

On Rob Clough's High-Low site there is a new review of Me and Meghan's mini's. In the review , Rob says: "Both of these minis are beautiful, weird art objects". Thanks Rob!

There is a lot more to say and show here, but I have run out of time. Sorry folks! New post soonish!

TCAF & TwinCities Zinefest

2009-04-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

Crunch. We are in a bit of a crunch mode as we are getting ready for the Toronto Comic Arts festival. At the event, which takes place on May 9th and 10th, we will be premiering Nicholas Breutzman's Year Books! His comic will be our first larger scale full colour comic book and we are very excited to be having it debut at the show!

You can read up about TCAF here. We are in the international section, so be prepared to scroll down forever!

For local folks who will not be making it to TCAF, we will be in attendance at the Twin Cities Zinefest this July. Be sure to check that out.

Also of note, for those who might have missed out on our GMN#3 review that was up on Sequart, well, Rob Clough has been kind enough to throw it up on his temporary comic's review blog at High-Low. Thanks Rob!

Okay, thanks for reading and apologies to anyone waiting for our video podcast series. We are a little frazzled with moving, colouring Year Books, and life's other pleasantries. I'll get back to task on that podcast launching soon.

Manny + Bigfoot Reviewed in the Daily Cross Hatch

2009-03-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

My husband Raighne woke me up at one in the morning last night to tell me the news: "Your mini-comic's been reviewed in The Daily Cross Hatch!" I was sure I was dreaming, because this has been one of our oft wished and oft denied goals over the past year and a half of making comics. So I rolled over and said, "Uh, huh. Nice honey." He kept talking, saying the review was positive. "Wait, what?" And that some people had ordered Manny + Bigfoot through our online shop after reading the review.

Today, I found out that it wasn't just a dream. My new mini-comic Manny + Bigfoot was reviewed on The Daily Cross Hatch on March 26. According to Sarah Morean, the mini-comics editor/reviewer at the Daily Cross Hatch, "Its a charmer." To read the full review please click here. Sarah's review is an excellent introduction to the mini-comic if you are curious about it.

Also...Sarah's review of Manny + Bigfoot got mentioned in Journalista (the Comics Journal Weblog). Here's what Dirk Deppey said after reading Sarah's review: "Praise for Meghan Hogan comic, which is printed on elephant-poop paper. No, really. Elephant=poop paper." Sweet old ellie poo, how I love you. If you want to see it for yourself, click here and scroll down slowly, and lovingly.

Thank you Sarah Morean and Dirk Deppey! Thank you Justin for noticing the review and informing Raighne!

Manny on Midnight Fiction + Make Better Books podcast

2009-03-15T17:48:00.000-07:00

On Feb 21, the day of the Multiples Mall at the Walker Art Center, Richard Krauss mentioned my new mini-comic Manny + Bigfoot under the Sites to See section of his Midnight Fiction blog. He also included a link to the Startled Maggie blog where I write about making comics and knitting/crocheting. Thanks, Richard!!!!

Also, Sarah Morean's Making Better Books podcast has gone live! You can now listen to her first podcast. She interviews Patrick Callahan about how to Screenprint with Housepaint.

Good Minnesotan on Nikasha Designs blog

2009-03-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

My friend Sarah Thole mentioned visiting the Walker's Multiples Mall and buying Good Minnesotan comics in the latest post on her Nikasha Designs blog. Sarah and her husband Mark were kind enough to stop by our table and buy all three Good Minnesotan episodes and our two mini-comics.

Sarah and I graduated from Hamline University with degrees in Studio Art. Mark is a photographer. Together with their friend Cole Pederson they manage Thole Imagery, a photography business. Sarah also runs several of her own Etsy stores for her custom portraits, original artwork and reproduction prints and home decor.

Thank you, you guys!

Scott Stulen's Multiples Mall: Epilogue

2009-03-04T08:02:00.000-08:00

Scott Stulen, the Project Director for mnartists.org at the Walker Art Center, posted a Multiples Mall: Epilogue on the Walker blog.

In his epilogue, Scott included 9 photos and a written overview of his experiences of the day. It looks to me like the crowd shots were taken in the first 5 minutes of the fair before anyone had arrived yet! Over the course of the Multiples Mall 5 hour run 1200+ people attended the event.

Raighne and I managed to get into 3 of the 9 photos! One of the photos is a close up shot of us at our table thanks to Raighne's ingenius diarama, which Scott loved. Thanks, Scott!
Thanks to:
Sarah Peters
Scott Stulen
Walker Art Center
Rain Taxi
mnartists.org
and to all of the book artists that participated with us in the Multiples Mall.

Book Arts on 3 Minute Egg

2009-02-27T17:06:00.000-08:00

"3-Minute Egg is “The Twin Cities arts seen,” created and produced by Matt Peiken, former staff arts writer at the St. Paul Pioneer Press and managing editor of the Walker Art Center’s magazine." --3minuteegg.org

Anybody who attends art events in the Twin Cities has bumped into Matt Peiken and his video camera at some point. I recommend watching his video-reporting on his website. It's a neat way to be find out what's happening in the local arts community.

I'm happy that he's taken notice of the Book Arts in Minneapolis!

Here is the Multiples Mall 3 Minute Egg video. My favorite part is the Sean Lynch interview. His stuff is so amazing!

This 3 Minute Egg report from Nov 2008 highlights some of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts Book Arts Fest. Justin and Raighne had a table there, but aren't in the video. However the immensely talented and wonderful Tom K. and Sarah Morean are interviewed!

Now go visit 3minuteegg.org!

Walker's Multiples Mall: A Bookish Fair REPORT

2009-02-25T08:50:00.000-08:00

In Attendance
Thank you to everyone who made it to the Walker Art Center's Multiples Mall: A Bookish Fair on Saturday! It was wonderful opportunity to catch up with friends and family, to network with local book artists, and get more of our books read. Thank you for buying our comics!!!

We saw many Good Minnesotan contributors at the Fair. Fellow guests Abby Mullen and Ed Choy Moorman had their own tables. Abby wore a pen drawn mustache, red sweater, and found name tag and stayed in character as the lead from her latest mini-comic throughout the afternoon. Ed had his latest mini-comic Scenes from the Life and Death of Jim Henson. GMN Contributors Justin Skarhus, Luke Holden, Toby Jones, and Maddy Queripel also attended.

Highlights
Raighne built a 3D house with a clothes line to hold his mini comics. It was very popular. One woman even wanted to know if it was for sale. We were just glad anyone noticed our house, because the table next to us had a much bigger house in their table display! We plan on building more of these 3D sets for future shows and possibly a whole town for Art-A-Whirl 2009.

Trades
Sarah Morean traded us 3 mini comics "MAN UP", "CRIMINAL", and "Stuff in a Book". Sarah will be starting the Make Better Books podcasting series in March for bookmakers and self-publishers. Bookmark it!

Sean Lynch traded us an untitled (?) mini-comic. I would promote it more but it isn't anywhere to be found on the internets. Let's just say that it gets a prize for the best villianous name (Skully McShootface) and most ingenius format of video game play as mini-comic. Plus it comes with a hand-drawn love note.

Eric Brandt & Elisabeth Workman traded us an Opolis book and a_city_a_cloud poster. "Opolis" was printed on phonebook paper and both it and the poster were printed in Doha, Qatar. Gorgeous.

Press
Nick Busse took the photos of us included in this post. He and his wife Patty are an amazing couple and also talented political writers. And they're beautiful. Last summer Nick was nominated for the 2008 Most Beautiful People at the Capitol Awards by Rake Magazine.

Matt Peiken of 3 Minute Egg was roaming around with his camera so check next week for a video about Multiples Mall. We shan't be on it, because he wanted to cover artists he hasn't interviewed previously. We did make the cut for his "2008 The Year in Eggs" DVD for sale on his site.

Preview of Meghan's "Manny + Bigfoot" Mini

2009-02-17T13:44:00.000-08:00

Raighne and I have been slaving over printing, cutting, binding, and Velcro-ing my new mini-comic this past week. It will debut at the Walker Art Center's Multiples Mall: A Bookish Fair. Come and visit us there this Saturday Feb 21 from 11am-4pm to get your own copy. We'll give you a free button to go along with it! Also we will have all of our Good Minnesotan swag: the comic compendiums and buttons + Raighne's ever-popular Beard Growing Contest! To see more previews of my Manny + Bigfoot mini-comic click here.

Mail Art + New Review on Optical Sloth

2009-01-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

I've been a little confused as to what to work on of late...SO I made some mail art for a hopefully new online retailer to carry Good Minnesotan. I think I am going to get back on track though...
We have yet another review up at Optical Sloth. "This one can go right on your bookshelf", Kevin Bramer follows that with "what with the spine and all." HA! He then alludes to GMN#4 having a gold foil cover. Perhaps a dare? Hmmm...
It's a very solid review with the highest praise saved for Anna Bongiovanni, Nic Breutzman, Luke & John Holden, and a funny image capture of Toby Jones' "Its Much Worse". Mr. Bramer, gives us our highest praise and recommendation by telling his viewers to send us some money! Why, that would be lovely, thanks!

With that, I'd advise all contributors and mini-comic lovers and lumbers to check out Kevin's updated and re-vamped review site. Easier on the eyes and thus far he appears to be keeping his promise to reviewing them mini's like mad. I know I now unfortunately have more comics on my "do want" list.

Just Married and More Mad Props for Good Minnesotan!

2009-01-11T09:00:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Meghan and I went downtown with a few members of our families and signed some papers in front of a judge. Turns out we are now married! We plan on having an art show/party in summer '09 to celebrate. For folks with interest and in town, stay tuned to this blog and we will announce the date in the coming months.

Good Minnesotan # 3 is now available to purchase at the Poopsheet Shop. If you have any interest in purchasing or even just peaking at an awesome array of mini comix and alternative/underground comix, I urge you to check the Poopsheet Shop out. Rick Bradford has an online mini-comix/underground comix Museum that you actively participate in and purchase amazing ART from. For more of the historical angle, check out Poopsheet Foundation.

Back in September Dank! AKA Danno Klonowski (GMN#3 contributor) was interviewed on Cream City Comics and gave us a little mention. It's a cool interview and worth checking out! You can read it here.

On Rob Clough's High-Low Best of 2008 we were given an Honorable Mention. It's a very cool list.

Lastly, I made a bit of a boo-boo in my last post. To clarify, Struktur and GMN#4 are two separate projects. Sorry for the confusion!

NEW Review at Midnight Fiction!

2009-01-10T19:40:00.000-08:00

Yay another wonderful review of GMN#3 up on the intraweb by the fine folks of Midnight Fiction!

Richard's write-up calls Noah Harmon's comic "a humorous musing that attempts to clear the waters when a cephalopod is suddenly struck by inspiration."

He precedes down the list of GMN #3 creator's where he closes his review with Danno Klonowski's "The Shriner" which he call "a fitting finale to GMN #3".

You can read the review in full here.

STRUCTURE! more information

2009-01-08T12:43:00.000-08:00

An update about Struktur.

It has come to my attention that the submission guide lines were a little vague. I am going to go about this a little weird, so this may or may not make things more clear.

This is very much a conceptual/experimental project. I got the idea for this a few years ago and tried to get folks interested in it, without too much success. But what originally inspired me was the work of Georges Perec, a brilliantly experimental writer and member of Oulipo.

In W, or The Memory of Childhood, Georges Perec, balances two narratives that may or may not have anything in common. As the reader delves deeper into the novel something happens. A 3rd narrative emerges, one that ties it into a whole. It’s the same kind of magic that happens in a comic, the juxtaposition of text and image. The reader becomes an active participant and fills in the gaps.

My idea for this conceptual anthology is to lay down some basic rules, and, similar to how wikipedia works, perhaps a common thread or in wikipedia’s case- facts, will emerge, while in the case of this anthology, the forming of a between the lines narrative.

In my previous write-up for Struktur I said that the overall theme was escapism. That’s not quite true. What the theme for this project ought to be based on is the machinations of miniature societies, utopia’s or even dystopias (thanks to Tom K for reminding me of this!) Obviously escapism can be a part of this project in addition to the above theme’s, it needn’t be the root.

So, back to the rules:

There is a building or some kind of general housing structure. There are its inhabitants who have never left that place nor seen what physically lay beyond there for X generations. Then there is the WHY and the HOW. Why are they there/why haven’t they left. How are they able to exist in that microcosm (food/breeding/heading/water/religion//clothing/etc)?
Those questions are up to the creator to explain or hint at in 1-25 pages (10 pages preferably- your story can go above or below the 1-25 page limit, but this might make the likely hood of it’s accompaniment in the printed version unlikely).

As to the visuals:

Due to the nature of this first appearing on the internet (and general visual preference that I have) I would ask that your art be of the hand-crafted/drawn/coloured/mixed-media-ed variety. Why? I feel that the showing of nature or handcrafted things brings an organic openness to new(ish) media/art (in this case, being the web) and makes it easier for the mind to step in. In the extra’s section on the dvd of the film Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky, he talks a bit about why this is (this may be on the extra’s in the film Stalker if not Solaris).

An Evolving Project:

This Project currently has 3 phases, but that could change. In phase one, the above rules will have to be adhered to with some seriousness. In phase two, the rules can be loosened. Finally, In phase three, the rules can be broken. The reason for this set-up is that let’s say you are in a strange city. What do you do/where do you go if you could do anything/go anywhere? Obviously, you could go anywhere/do anything just as soon as you could go nowhere/do nothing. I think it is easier to start something if you have a destination. Once phase one is complete and online, this could provide a direction to continue in, or equally to go in the opposite direction. Phase three will continue in opening up the project.

This Anthology will provide a bit of an elevation platform as it will ideally provide both established creators and new creators with an outlet for something new and a bit different for the cynically small small press comic market.

Creative-Commons Initiative:

Collaboration is a large part of this project. As such usage of your art/characters/media by your peers/fellow collaborators is to be granted and advocated. Everyone involved with this project is free to turn their contribution into a mini or evolve it into any sort of large or small scale project without needing permission from anyone. What we do ask from everyone that decides to try is to somewhere on their project to make reference to our project and its web address (which will most likely be an extension of our 2D Cloud website, you know, once that becomes an ACTUAL website...).

Walker book fair, Treehouse Records, Xeric Grant

2008-12-20T17:20:00.000-08:00

Book Fair
2D CLOUD will have a table at the Walker Art Center's Multiples Mall: A Bookish Fair in February. We will be selling the Good Minnesotan compendium, Beard Growing Contest, GM buttons, and a new mini comic by Meghan.

Multiples Mall accompanies the Walker exhibition Text Messages: Books by Artists. Feb 21 activities include tour of exhibition, a presentation on the history of chapbooks by Rain Taxi editor Eric Lorberer, and the artists book fair and sale open for browsing throughout the afternoon.

Multiples Mall: A Bookish Fair
Walker Art Center
Cargill Lounge & Lecture Room
Feb 21, 2009
11am - 4pm
FREE

New Retailer
The next time you're in Treehouse Records in Mpls, MN pick up a copy of GOOD MINNESOTAN episode #3.

Contributor News
Ed Moorman (contributor to GMN #2 & #3) has just won a Xeric Grant to publish his benefit anthology Ghost Comics: A Benefit for RS Eden. In addition to Ed, Ghost Comics includes the work of GMN contributors Toby Jones (GM#3), Abby Mullen (GM#3) and many other talented artists.

The Xeric Foundation was established by Peter Laird, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It offers assistance to committed, self-publishing comic book creators by covering the costs associated with self-publishing their work.What's written here is hidden until the readers click on Read More! link.

GMN Makes Best Comics of 2008 + SIZE MATTERS reviews GM3

2008-12-12T18:02:00.000-08:00

Zak Sally told Raighne he saw GOOD MINNESOTAN mentioned on The Comics Reporter blog. We looked and found that Tom Spurgeon posted Shannon Smith's Best of 2008 and we had made Shannon's list!

Shannon has posted his "favorite minicomics and webcomics of 2008" on his File Under Other review site. Here's what Shannon had to say about us: "The Good Minnesotan books are amazing looking. Vol. 3 is more of a graphic novel format (I'll review it soon) but 1 and 2 are two of the "best" designed minicomics I saw all year. Especially 2." He also singled out Ed Moorman (GMN #2 & #3 contributor) for his work in various anthologies and books in 2008.

We also are thrilled to announce that Shawn Hoke wrote a review of GOOD MINNESOTAN episode #3 on SIZE MATTERS: The Mini Comics Blog. He commended the work of Toby Jones, Maddy Queripel, Ed Moorman, and Nic Breutzman's comics as his favorites but reserved his highest praise for Nic's "My Town" calling it "the best story in this book".

SIZE MATTERS review + GMN Contributor News

2008-12-10T10:42:00.000-08:00

Shawn Hoke has just posted a review of GOOD MINNESOTAN episodes # 1 & 2 on SIZE MATTERS: The Mini Comics Blog. He says, "Good Minnesotan is an impressive collection of art and comics[.]" Check back at SIZE MATTERS throughout the week for an upcoming review of GM #3!

GOOD MINNESOTAN has been picked up by another retailer. Atomic Books in Baltimore, MD will be selling GM beginning in January. This place has so many awesome underground comics & books that John Waters picks up his fan mail there.

Meanwhile, GMN contributors have been busy:

Nic Breutzman (GMN#2 & 3 contributor) has comics in two anthologies. The first Critical Citidal has received praise from David Mazzucchelli, Gary Panter, Matt Madden, and Dan Nadel which is a strong indicator of the quality of this book. The second, Porn Hounds #2, will be released in the Summer 2009.

Reynold Kissling's (GMN#3 contributor) original comic art is on display in the MN Museum of American Art's Hot Ink: Comic Art in Minnesota from Oct 3, 2008 - Jan 4, 2009. He is shown alongside the original comics of Zak Sally, Tom Kaczynski, King Mini, Will Dinski, Big Time Attic, and Tim Sievert who are all wonderful people and amazing comic artists.

Danno (GMN#3 contributor) and our studio neighbors Big Time Attic (Zander & Kevin Cannon) will be on KFAI radio at 6pm Sunday, Dec 14 to talk about comics for the Wave Project.

2 New Reviews for GMN! + Beard in Shop

2008-12-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

Richard Krauss has reviewed GMN #1 on Comic Related and GMN #2 on Midnight Fiction. He has also posted a news item heralding the launch of GMN #3 on his blog.

Richard was interviewed on Indie Spinner Rack's first installment of their Mini-Comics Book Club (episode #138). He talked about the history of mini-comics and being a part of the Newave Comix Scene.

On that note, I must mention that Raighne's mini-comic Beard Growing Contest is now available in our 2D CLOUD store.

Also I must mention that Rob Clough's review of GMN was mentioned in Journalista, the online blog of The Comics Journal. Scroll down if you want to see it, it's pretty small, just a link, but hey we're proud fans of TCJ! Thanks to Justin for finding this.

GOOD MINNESOTAN #4 and Struktur submission info

2008-11-26T09:58:00.000-08:00

2D CLOUD is seeking submissions for our upcoming GOOD MINNESOTAN episode #4 and Struktur phase one. Please read through the following submission requirements and email any remaining questions to Justin, Raighne, or Meghan at good.minnesotan [@] gmail.com.

GOOD MINNESOTAN episode #4 Submission Guidelines

For those of you unfamiliar with our comic art compendium, GOOD MINNESOTAN, each episode contains experiments in sequential storytelling created by artists from or living in MN. To see the previous three episodes visit the 2D CLOUD Store.

We have often leaned towards odd, somewhat autobiographical fine-art comics and to artists who have never worked in the comics medium before. With GMN#4 we hope to make this our most beautiful and expressive fine art comic compendium yet.

To read the rest of the GMN #4 Submission Requirements click here and/or continue reading below.

GMN #4 Submission Checklist: Your comic pages, self-portrait, and bio.

The comic pages and self-portrait you submit must be: gray scale, a minimum of 300 dpi for initial submission, 1200 dpi for final pages, .tiff files, 8.5" x 7" page size for comics, 2.5"x 3.5" for self-portraits. For those who want their comic pages to have bleeds, they must extend at least 1/8th of an inch past the page edge and within that 1/8th of an inch don't include anything vital.

We prefer stories that are 1-10 pages in length, but do not exceed 25 unless you consult with us first. DO NOT INCLUDE PAGE NUMBERS.

Your comic must be sequential art. Do not send us unrelated images that cannot be read in a sequence. We're looking for stories, not sketchbook material. Your bio should include your contact info such as email, website, blog, myspace, facebook, etc.

At this time, the payment you'll receive if your submission is accepted is your comic posted on GOOD MINNESOTAN online, a free copy of the print issue of GOOD MINNESOTAN your comic is included in and free promotion. GOOD MINNESOTAN is sold in comic and book stores in Minnesota, Illinois, California, New York, Portland, Maryland and online. Tony Shenton, our indy sales rep, markets GMN to comic book shops across the US. We do local conventions such as FallCon, MicroCon, Rain Taxi's Twin Cities Book Fest, the MCBA Bookarts fest, Twin Cities Zinefest, The Walker Art Center's Multiples Mall and national/international conventions such as APE, TCAF and MOCCA. GMN gets reviewed on comic review sites such as Optical Sloth, File Under Other, and High-Low and is referenced on The Comic Journal's 'Journalista' blog.

WE ONLY ACCEPT EMAIL AND MAILED CD SUBMISSIONS. Don't send us your originals. We won't be able to send them or any submission material back to you.

Title your email or burned disc: GMN4 Submission from (your first and last name). In the message of your email or on the disc package include: your first and last name, your email address, the title of your comic, the number of pages. Attach/burn to disc/or send via FTP: your comic pages, bio, and self-portrait.

Send your submission to: good.minnesotan@gmail.com or Raighne & Meghan Hogan 2D CLOUD 1618 Central Ave NE Suite #214 Mpls, MN 55413

Deadlines and Notification

Fri 8/14/09: GMN#4 Submissions DEADLINE
Mon 8/31/09: Accepted comics will be listed on the GMN blog
First half of 2010: GMN#4 release

Struktur Submission Guidelines

EDIT : Click here for an update to the Struktur submission info.

This is very much a conceptual/experimental project. I got the idea for this a few years ago and tried to get folks interested in it, without too much success. But what originally inspired me was the work of Georges Perec, a brilliantly experimental writer and member of Oulipo.

In W, or The Memory of Childhood, Georges Perec, balances two narratives that may or may not have anything in common. As the reader delves deeper into the novel something happens. A 3rd narrative emerges, one that ties it into a whole. It’s the same kind of magic that happens in a comic, the juxtaposition of text and image. The reader becomes an active participant and fills in the gaps.

My idea for this conceptual anthology is to lay down some basic rules, and, similar to how wikipedia works, perhaps a common thread or in wikipedia’s case- facts, will emerge, while in the case of this anthology, the forming of a between the lines narrative.

In my previous write-up for Struktur I said that the overall theme was escapism. That’s not quite true. What the theme for this project ought to be based on is the machinations of miniature societies, utopia’s or even dystopias (thanks to Tom K for reminding me of this!) Obviously escapism can be a part of this project in addition to the above theme’s, it needn’t be the root.

So, back to the rules:

There is a building or some kind of general housing structure. There are its inhabitants who have never left that place nor seen what physically lay beyond there for X generations. Then there is the WHY and the HOW. Why are they there/why haven’t they left. How are they able to exist in that microcosm (food/breeding/heading/water/religion//clothing/etc)?
Those questions are up to the creator to explain or hint at in 1-25 pages (10 pages preferably- your story can go above or below the 1-25 page limit, but this might make the likely hood of it’s accompaniment in the printed version unlikely).

As to the visuals:

Due to the nature of this first appearing on the internet (and general visual preference that I have) I would ask that your art be of the hand-crafted/drawn/coloured/mixed-media-ed variety. Why? I feel that the showing of nature or handcrafted things brings an organic openness to new(ish) media/art (in this case, being the web) and makes it easier for the mind to step in. In the extra’s section on the dvd of the film Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky, he talks a bit about why this is (this may be on the extra’s in the film Stalker if not Solaris).

An Evolving Project:

This Project currently has 3 phases, but that could change. In phase one, the above rules will have to be adhered to with some seriousness. In phase two, the rules can be loosened. Finally, In phase three, the rules can be broken. The reason for this set-up is that let’s say you are in a strange city. What do you do/where do you go if you could do anything/go anywhere? Obviously, you could go anywhere/do anything just as soon as you could go nowhere/do nothing. I think it is easier to start something if you have a destination. Once phase one is complete and online, this could provide a direction to continue in, or equally to go in the opposite direction. Phase three will continue in opening up the project.

This Anthology will provide a bit of an elevation platform as it will ideally provide both established creators and new creators with an outlet for something new and a bit different for the cynically small small press comic market.

Creative-Commons Initiative:

Collaboration is a large part of this project. As such usage of your art/characters/media by your peers/fellow collaborators is to be granted and advocated. Everyone involved with this project is free to turn their contribution into a mini or evolve it into any sort of large or small scale project without needing permission from anyone. What we do ask from everyone that decides to try is to somewhere on their project to make reference to our project and its web address (which will most likely be an extension of our 2D Cloud website, you know, once that becomes an ACTUAL website...)

More Infoz:
The comic pages and self-portrait you submit can be in either gray scale or colour, 1200 dpi, .tiff files, 8.5" x 7" page size for comics, 2.5"x 3.5" for self-portraits. For anyone who wants their comic pages to have full bleeds, have the file 1/8" minimum larger than given page size and within that 1/8" of an inch do not include anything vital.

Your comic should ideally be 1-25 pages. We prefer stories that are 1-10 pages in length. DO NOT INCLUDE PAGE NUMBERS on your comic pages.

Your comic must be sequential comic material. Do not send us unrelated images that cannot be read in a sequence. We want stories. Your bio should include your contact info such as email, website, blog, myspace ect.

At this time, the payment you'll recieve if your comic is accepted is a free copy of Struktur and free promotion. 2D Cloud comics are sold in comic and book stores in Minnesota, Illinois, California, New York, Portland and online. Tony Shenton, our indy sales rep, markets GM to comic book stores across the US. We do local conventions such as FallCon and Rain Taxi's Twin Cities Book Fest, and national conventions such as APE in California. GM gets reviewed on comic review sites such as Optical Sloth, File Under Other, and High-Low.

WE ONLY ACCEPT EMAIL AND MAILED CD SUBMISSIONS. Don't send us your originals. We won't be able to send them or any submission material back to you.

Title your email or burned disc: Struktur Submission from (your first and last name). In the message of your email or on the disc package include: your first and last name, your email address, the title of your comic, the number of pages. Attach/burn to disc/or send via FTP: your comic pages, bio, and self-portrait.

Send your submission to: good.minnesotan@gmail.com or Raighne & Meghan Hogan 2D CLOUD 1618 Central Ave NE Suite #214 Mpls, MN 55413

Deadlines and Notification

* Sat 11/11/09: Struktur Submissions DEADLINE
* Fri 12/31/09: Accepted comics will begin to be serialized online!
* MoCCA 2010: We ought to have the printed version out by then.

KSHHHHHHHHHHH!

2008-11-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

So. As a part of holiday sale/open studio thing that's taking place at this here Thorp Building, we are taking part. We will have some original art on the walls from GMN#1-3. Not everything, mind you, but some. There will be some prints and other strange art up on the walls.

Some of our contributors will have their own mini's for sale as well.

Dates: DEC 5-7
Friday 5pm-10pm
Saturday 11am-9pm
Sunday 11am-4pm
I know I am really just re-iterating what's in the little digital post-card, but that's really all I got.

In anycase- just be there! It's free, there's drinks downstairs at Diamonds (that part ain't free tho') and there is music in a Freight Elevator! Thanks much, MUAH!

APE + NEW REVIEW OF #3!

2008-11-12T10:45:00.000-08:00

Sorry this is a little late but WE HAVE BEEN BUSY! ARGHH!!! I wish it were our out of my system- OH WELL!

First our footage from APE. All shot by little Maggie (except when she is on the camera).

Good Minnesotan Gang at APE from raighne Hogan on Vimeo.

Rob Clough starts off his review of our GMN #3 with: "Minnesota is fertile ground for comics talent these days. Zak Sally is probably the best known name from the north country, though Will Dinski is starting to get more recognition. The GOOD MINNESOTAN anthology proves that there's a full-blown comics scene, rapidly improving from issue to issue." You can read the rest of the review up at Sequart

I must say, APE was a lot of fun. I even did a bunch of wandering around. I kept trying to run into Jessica Abel & Matt Madden, but I think I was too dehydrated, hungry, drunk (well tipsy for a short while) to find them. Added onto that I was not 100% sure what they looked like and they were only there on Saturday.

We shared a table with the very awesome & VEGAN Tessa, her comics are so awesome in fact that Matt Groening bought all three of her comics. Other Awesome vegan + cartoonist folk we ran into were David Bessent and Camilla Taylor. Their work is very beautiful, I would urge you to check it out!

In a most uncomfortable and awkward moment, I blathered like an idiot and gave some of our comics to Graham Annable. I do not think he cared much for the gift, but he accepted anyways. My awkward moments continued through trying to talk to someone at Top Shelf and give them a copy of our book. I won't bore you with the details, but I think next time I will try and remain hydrated and have my wits about me.

Drawn & Quarterly were the most receptive to my uh, advances. They said they thought it was really top notch work and would be taking it back to D+Q HQ. Yay!

I also was able to trade GMN#1 to Joshua Hagler, creator of The Boy Who Made Silence and artist assistant for Sam Kieth's My Inner Bimbo.

In conclusion Ape was a blast, but it wore me out; San Francisco is awesome and many parts of it are beautiful but the other parts are covered in human poop, pee, trash; Meghan had fun too (wined er just dined her at Millennium, a very nice+ expensive vegan restaurant), but got sick; got to hang out with Mike Sgier at the Isotope after party & prior to that at Golden Era; uh, you know this sentence and post is too long so I am ending it.

Thanks for reading!

New review of #2 by Optical Sloth & An Expression of Woe

2008-10-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

We have another review of our 2nd volume of Good Minnesotan over at the Optical Sloth written by Kevin Brammer, mad drinker of a billion hours of workahol. Kevin says: "If you like your anthologies diverse and thought-provoking, you could do a whole lot worse than this" To read that sucker in full DO click on above link. Thanks Kevin!

Now something a bit more silly for y'all. The quality is a bit shotty, due to youtube's trade of accessibility for shotty quality. Oh well, oh bloody hell! The video, shot by Shaun Feltz is without sound butt enjoy it anyways-cause I sez so!

Today just shot another goofy short with Shaun Feltz. Much love to that fellow beard. I'll throw that up here at a later date along with some other stuff. Tomorrow Meghan and I are off to APE! Maybe we will see you there?

Postcards for Tiny Bits + MCBA Book Arts Fest

2008-10-21T14:44:00.001-07:00

Here are postcards for tiny bits and the MCBA Book Arts Fest. Raighne will have 5 original comic artworks from his upcoming mini-comic Beard Growing Contest on display at the tiny bits show. We will also be selling Raighne's mini-comic, and our GOOD MINNESOTAN comics and buttons at the opening.

Raighne and I won't be at the MCBA Book Arts Fest because we have to be at our regular jobs, but Justin Skarhus and his awesome girlfriend Sarah will be there selling Raighne's new mini, our GMN books and buttons. I wish we could be there personally. We tried to get into the MCBA Book Art Fest before but it was invite only. I was so happy when they changed that this year. It's hard to find enough local comic/book fest events to sell at.

Book Festival + 3 Minute Egg Interview!

2008-10-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

If you have been paying attention, you will know that last Saturday we made an appearance at Rain Taxi's Twin Cities Book Festival. AND, that Jaime Hernandez was interviewed there by Zak Sally (who just happened to have a table next to Meghan and myself).

A very cool and fun event. We were also interviewed by Matt Peiken of 3 Minute Egg fame, which you can watch below. 3 Minute Egg is Matt Peiken's one-man blog-band. He is the host/producer/camera man/journalist for said site, which focuses on the Arts/Music scene of Minnesota. Do check out!

Other very cool people that were sitting around us were the Big Time Attic folk, and Big Brain Comics. It was nice being seated by such a rad array of comic people's!

Did I mention that we were able to trade Zak Sally GMN#3 for Sammy The Mouse #2 (AMAZING!) and to give GMN#3 to Jaime who in turn gave us positive feedback (AMAZING X10!)?

I also wanted to thank friends/contributors, (the likes of Shaun, Justin, Sara, Ed, Abby, Toby, Maddie) and family (Tommy, my mom, my sister Chantel) that stopped by to chat and take a peak at number 3. THANKS! Glad to see all. Sorry if we were gone while you stopped by, but Maggie and I had to check out the above interview! Ultra thanks go to Sara, Justin's Lady-friend for holding down the fort and being the best Sales Person EVERZ!

We did and maybe still do have a pic from the Book Festival by Meghan's brother Tommy to put up, but the internets is making getting it difficult. Thanks Tommy, no thanks internet.

Art Cellar, Arise Books Carry GMN #1 2 & 3

2008-10-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

We have added two new GOOD MINNESOTAN retailers. You can now pick up a copy of our latest GOOD MINNESOTAN, plus any back issues you're missing, at MCAD Art Cellar and Arise Books.

The MCAD location holds a special place in our hearts for several reasons. GMN episodes #2 and 3 feature several students and alumni from MCAD's comic book program. The MCAD Art Cellar sells awesome art supplies, that's where I picked up all of the paint I used for my comic in GMN#3. AND I studied printmaking at Hamline University under Leonardo Lasansky with two of the guys that work in the store, Chris and Jacob. Jacob created SHOULD YOU ENCOUNTER A COUGAR which I have been eyeballing in many comic book shops without realizing it was his.

As for Arise Books, they are a cooperative volunteer-run book store/resource center that gives POWER TO THE PEOPLE! They have all kinds of kick ass political books such as "The People's History" by Howard Zinn and amazing t-shirts and zines. Also, this is where Raighne and I first came across Ed Moorman's minicomics. Now he is one of our dearest GMN contributors. Ed is also a comic student at MCAD.

FallCon08 + Snark Infested Waters Interview

2008-10-07T13:56:00.000-07:00

Babble rabble- Pic by The Edwardian Moor-Man using my 5 year utter shite cell camera featuring our core gang: Justin Skarhus, my bearded self, and Maggie! We are featured in a small press interview collage Snark Infested Waters give a listen.

Much and many thanks and apologies go to Justin for being the owner of wheels, patience, goodly friendshipness.

We also got to see a bunch of our contributors at the Con, like Ed Moorman, Maddie Queripel, Reynold Kissling, Alex Witts, and Anna Bongiovanni. Thanks for stopping by and/or just saying hi!

My braighne is currrrrently caffinated, so I apologize for any forthcoming jumbled thoughts or forgetfulness. A couple other very talented artists swung by our table to do comic trades or consideration submissions such as Sean Lynch and Will Schar.

Additional thanks go to the transient artist Maxeem Konrardy , the creator of the recently print "Ballad of Toby & Sara" Mike Sgier and the talented Kevin Cannon who also had a new book out titled "Sloth Force Seven in Time Travel". All picked up the recently minted GMN#3! THANKS!

Our Twin Cities Book Fest Flyer

2008-10-06T17:32:00.000-07:00

This Saturday the Twin Cities Book Festival will be kicking off. A lot of cool people are going to be there like it says right above Jaime FREAKING Hernandez AND Zak FREAKING Sally!!!
I guess you could say I am excited. Also, we shall be there as well and our third effor, soz-ah-course, GMN#3 will be there for your perusal. This weekend visit with bated breathing of most uncomfortableness & wet kitchen fruit.

oh yeah, click to enlarge.

GAH! FallCon + Butt-ons!

2008-10-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

UH WE will be at FallCon Tomorrow and The Twin Cities Book Festival next Saturday with GMN#3! 104 pages of awesome! Do visit! We will be giving away free buttons with each comic purchase. I also wanted to thank everyone who came to our tiny Farty Party to make buttons, eat food stuff, watch Tim & Eric, etc. It was nice meating yawl!

GMN #2 Gets Filed Under Other

2008-09-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

YaY! Nice comments about GMN #2 from reviewer Shannon Smith. He is the voice of mini-comic wisdom at File Under Other.

Shannon says, "Like Episode 1 before it, Good Minnesotan Episode 2 is an example of how great a fine hand crafted minicomic can be. This book is a truly beautiful thing to read, look at and hold. The first issue was really strong and the second improves upon that good start.

If you, my file under other reading pal, have not been able to hold an issue of Good Minnesotan in your hands then you really should make the effort. As I always say, the computer scans can't do the book justice. It is simply a beautifully crafted minicomic anthology that needs to be held in your hands to be appreciated."

To find out which GMN #2 comic story was his favorite and other opinions of interest read the entire review here. THANK YOU, Shannon!

GMN #3 Color COVER and uh dfsdgfdg

2008-09-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

WEll. The Comic is now on its way to the printer. FUCKING YAY! I'm so tired.... This is the cover and back cover. More ramblings if you read on.

manwomanchild, I am just so happy that this is done. Drawings by Nic, colourings by raighne, type on cover by justin. For the back cover, there is a bar coder and some names of fellow contributers.

104pages of awesomZedawg. I will post more coharently after I sleep for a day or two. PReviews and buggering of shawn for crying duck videozsdfdfdgdfbcvb/ okbye kisses on yer eyes!

DAnK ART trade!

2008-08-21T06:23:00.000-07:00

Danno Klonowski AKA Dank, swung by our studio last week or so for an art trade and to drop off his GMN #3 submission, which fills my humour bone with blood. and uh... sperm. sorry.

As we get closer to our launch and I have a bit more spare time I will post a preview of his book. It is, pants-off-fun & funny. Thus the humour erection, that I only hinted at.

Give him a visit at staplegenius.com, or tommychicago.com or cartoonistconspiracy.com.

I think the first link may be down, so apologies about that. Check back later perhaps?

Also, you may have noticed, that there is a tent behind me. Currently, I live in that tent because I am a very slow cartoonist and getting this comic done on time is destroying me and making me fat. Thanks Justin.

I shouldn't be so harsh, Justin Skarhus, the writer, has been very gentle with me.

Lastly, scroll down and click on the Yearbooks blog link to visit Nic yet again, he has a peak at the cover of volume 3. As per usual with Mr. Gelato, friggin' beautiful drawings!

The Ripoff!

2008-08-20T07:12:00.000-07:00

Spoken word artist, John Holden, reads from The Ripoff, illustrated by Nicholas Breutzman.

This story had my dentists cackling. It was great too hear. Now, if only they'd buy the damn book. I kid, I am just happy to see and hear folks enjoying our comic collections.

To hear more of John Holden's excellent spoken wordery, visit his TotalVOM show through the intranets.

Also, visit Nicholas, new stuff has a habit of diasppearing.

Zucchini Rubbing Broads

2008-08-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

Good Minnesotan Volume 3 cover artist, Nicholas Breutzman, has sample pages previewing his comic for GM#3 here: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4. I would advise you to check them out.

In our last collection he illustrated the RIPOFF.

FallCon Cards

2008-08-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

So, back in May we got some cards from FallCon to doodle on. Yesterday, I finally done-did that dang doodling. Nothing fancy, just simple fun. Enjoy.

Toronto!

2008-08-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

Meghan and I went to TORONTO last month! We got to check out the Paradise Comic's Con, not exactly my cup of tea. However, we did run into Jim Munroe and Salgood Sam, creator's of THEREFORE REPENT! a post-rapture graphic novel. Very cool stuff, beautifully illustrated!

Jim, invited Meghan and myself out for a beer, which made my day. I would advise anyone interested in creative smart DIY culture check out his website at no media kings.

Poopsheet & High-Low Review

2008-07-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

You can now buy Good Minnesotan Comics from our friends over at Poopsheet! And while you're there, you ought to check out there huge selection of AWESOME small press comics!

AND, we have gotten a wonderful review of episodes 1 & 2 by Rob Clough in his High-Low column at SEQUART.org.

"This is a group of artists with an interesting and distinctive set of voices...a good mix of storytelling styles and a palpable desire to experiment. That boldness is the anthology's greatest strength."

For the full review go here where we share a review with Nerd Burglar.

GMN #1 PREVIEW

2008-07-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

For anyone who may have missed our first episode, click to enlarge! This issue was done by myself, Meghan Hogan & Justin Skarhaus, whose last name I am probably, unfortunately misspelling.

GMN #2 PREVIEW

2008-07-07T18:09:00.001-07:00

-Cloak of The Moon: Featuring Story & Art by Alex Witts & Raighne Hogan

-The BACK COVER + logo - words I know you can't really see what it is in the actual book so I thought I would put it up here for anyone who was curious.

-Yard Work: by Meghan Hogan

-Too Much Time On Land: by Meghan Hogan

-2 untitled comics: by Joe Nixon & Luke Holden, respectively. A correction for episode # 2. Regarding Joe Nixon's story, a few years ago Joe related the story to Meghan. Meghan, being Meghan found it amusing and jotted it down. I (raighne here) put it together with Joe's art.

-The aptly titled, THE RIPOFF: Art & Story by Nic Breutzman & John Holden -Back Pages: by Ed Moorman (his is the first story in the compendium, amazing stuff!)

-Blah Blah Blah: Featuring mail art + fun doodles I found on my computer by PM
-Halloween: by Gail Kern, a painter and a fellow MIA-er

ALSO, PLeASE DO:
click on any image to make BIGer

OK OFF TO TORONTO-LAND
later folks

FART-A-WHIRL 2008!

2008-06-04T10:32:00.001-07:00

For those that missed our fART-A-WHIRL COMIC BOOK SHOW, Enjoy! Awesome music borrowed from Mux Mool, thanks Brian!

The following contributers were able to stop by Luke Holden, Alex Witts, Joe Nixon, and Gail Kern.

I had home brewed Kombucha tea at the show for folks who attended the first day. It was the colour of a very unhealthy persons piss. I would end up refilling it in back as that is where the mini-fridge was to comical effect.

It was a fun show, but also exhausting. In fact our studio is still a mess. Meghan and I will be cleaning it today after consuming tasty vegan BLT's!

adios!

Decidedly Adult

2008-05-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

yes yes, the new comic is for MATURE AUDIENCES, in the true meaning of them words. and here be a hint in the NEWER BETTER flyer. We didn't print enough of the other one so... here is a new one thrown-up here and else where on the intranet for your viewing pleasure!

Lutefisk Sushi Opening Friday NIGHT!

2008-05-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

Holden Brothers in GMN #2

2008-04-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

Animation by Luke Holden | Music by Sunsblood

We were lucky enough to get stories by the brothers Luke & John Holden in GOOD MINNESOTAN Episode 2. The pair does make the DETRIMENTAL INFORMATION mini-comics together, but that's hardly the tip of the 'berg. In addition to writing, John performs spoken word and is an avid video blogger. Luke does not only illustration and lettering, but he plays drums in a band and creates animations, paintings, and tattoo designs. Look for them in the next episode of GOOD MINNESOTAN (release date May 16, 2008 at ART-A-WHIRL)!

Web Links:
> Total Vom Show website: Luke & John's website which includes their animations, video blogs, albums and mini-comics.

> In November 2007, John was interviewed by Curtis Gilbert for the Minnesota Public Radio story: Video blogger learns YouTube stardom has a price.

Ed Moorman to be featured in GMN #2!

2008-04-28T17:03:00.000-07:00

Howdy gang (crickets chirping...)

Yes, well- The very talented Ed Moorman shall have a short in our 2nd episode. To see more of mr. Ed check out : edsdeadbody.com

GMN #2 dropping NEXT MONTH!

2008-04-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

Hello friends. I just spend yesterday stabbing myself in the eyes working in front of the computer all day. Braighne not understand..... BRAIGHNE SMASH! Okay, so the cover and back cover are mostly done, as is the interior.

Throughout the next couple weeks leading up to the release (during Art-a-Whirl here in MPLS) we will try and post a preview/snapshot(s?) of the 2nd Episode of Good Minnesotan. It is roughly 3-times the size of the first issue.

I will also try and post some vids' of one of our contributers and long time friends, Joe Nixon, assisting us in some wall building for studio/gallery. Joe is one talented and, funny, tough dude! His forearms are the size of my thighs!!

GMN #1 gets Filed Under Other

2008-03-12T15:47:00.000-07:00

"As a whole, I would say that the Good Minnesotan gang's visual strengths outweigh the storytelling at this point but it is only a first issue and as far as first issues go this one is a gem," writes Shannon Smith in his review of GM1. In his mini-comics blog he aptly calls File Under Other, Shannon described my comic work as "eerie yet charming", Raighne's as a "good mystery or riddle unfolding" and Justin's Revenge Fantasies as the most traditional yet still "avant garde". He also wrote that the good feel provided by the Elli Poo paper would be a deciding factor for him when making purchasing decisions at a convention or store. Read the entire review here.

Shannon Smith of Castlewood, VA is a mini-comics creator as well as a reviewer. He is also a member of the Small Press League and was recently the subject of one of their online interviews. Currently he is working on Sleepwalker, a collection of his mini-comics, which he will make available in the spring of 2008.

GMN #1 reviewed in Optical Sloth

2007-12-26T15:40:00.000-08:00

Kevin Bramer of opticalsloth.com has published the first online review of Good Minnesotan #1. He requests, "More like this please! [T]his book as a concept is exactly what's needed to keep this medium going strong: regional anthologies."

How did he grade it? "Overall a pretty solid collection." Kevin was in agreement with the majority of feeback we've heard from other readers when he said, "There's the strongest piece of the book, also by Raighne Hogan, called Teddy Bears And Time Travel." For those who are wondering more about the stories in GMN #1, Kevin provides a good summary. Read the entire review here.

Reviewer Kevin Bramer hails from Columbus, Ohio. Optical Sloth is a Kevin's website for small press comics. Anyone who enjoys mini-comics should peruse its reviews, online store, and forum.

GMN #1 Box at Belfry Winter Market

2007-12-13T15:23:00.000-08:00

The 3rd Annual Belfry Winter Art and Handmade Goods Market runs from December 14th-16th 2007. All three nights have free admittance. 2D CLOUD will have a box full of Good Minnesotan Episode #1 comics there. If you want to buy GMN #1 for someone (or even yourself!) this will be the perfect time. It will also be the perfect time to finish your Christmas shopping without ever stepping foot in the mall.

Belfry Winter Market Hours: Fri (Dec 14th) the evening starts @ 8pm, Sat (Dec 15th) 10am-6pm, Sun (Dec 16th) 10am-6pm

The Belfry is located at 3753 Bloomington Ave S Mpls, MN

Get your copy of GMN #1 at EFC

2007-11-13T15:08:00.000-08:00

2D CLOUD is a proud member of the Eastside Food Co-op in NE Mpls. That is why the EFC's Holiday Arts & Crafts Show will have a magically designed cardboard box filled with Good Minnesotan Episode #1. Please join us at the special events listed below. Remember that you can also stop in during regular store hours from Nov 16-Dec 23.

Art Opening | Fri Nov 16, 2007 5-8pm
Holiday Sale Kickoff | Fri Nov 23, 2007 5-8pm
EFC's 4th Anniversary Party | Sat Dec 8, 2007 11am-5pm

Pig's Eye visits The Source

2007-10-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

GM #1 was so close to being unfinished for FallCon 2007 that an hour before the convention we didn't have any comics. That costly time crunch is why the person on the GMN #1 cover never got properly identified in the comic. Thus, I was completely floored when a FallCon guest saw the freshly printed covers and recognized Pig's Eye in Fountain Cave. The intuitive guest who identified Pig's Eye was Bob Source, manager of The Source Comics & Games and a big supporter of local comics.

GMN #1 for sale in San Francisco

2007-10-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

Raighne and I visited San Francisco this past week with Good Minnesotan Episode #1 stowed away in our luggage. We wandered San Francisco seeking mini-comic retailers and vegan raw food restaurants. In the end, we dined upon many a feast, spent copious amounts of money adding to our comics library, and made two successful mini-comics deals. As a result of our trip you can now purchase Good Minnesotan Episode #1 in San Francisco. Simply stop by Comix Experience or Needles + Pens and lay down some cash.

Raighne featured in Expressive Comics Vol. 2

2007-10-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from Vol. 2 "raighne produces some of the most exciting and visually interesting and stimulating pages that you'll see around." Check out the article here.

GMN #1 in The Daily Cross Hatch

2007-10-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

On October 9 I made an appearance in the alternative comics blog The Daily Cross Hatch. My messy red hair and indie comic ways earned me and GMN #1 some notoriety! You can see my photo in Sarah Morean's article on FallCon: That Special Something.

Sarah Morean is the Mini-Comics Editor for The Daily Cross Hatch. I was amazed to learn that after reporting on the messy haircuts of FallCon's alternative comic artists, Sarah was back at her table selling her mini-comic City/City.

Pic of GMN #1 Release at FallCon

2007-10-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

That strange box to the right of us in the pictures was made the morning of the second day of the con as we belatedly learned our GIANT table looked a little sad with only one comic on it. Next time we will have a lot more weird attention getting bizarre constructions pushing our comics.

Missing from our pics is our fellow contributer Justin Skarhus, who helped us get it all done in time for the con. Our thanks go to him and his falafel sandwich bringing ways in day two.

We still have to print up the rest of the run of 500, but once that is done you ought to be able to buy them over the computer machine.

GMN #1 to be Released at FallCon 2007

2007-10-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

2D CLOUD's comic art compendium Good Minnesotan Episode #1 will be released October 6 and 7 at FallCon 2007. We'll be there along with Justin Skarhus on both days, and we look forward to getting feedback about our first comic at our first convention!

Raighne Awarded Daily Deviation

2007-08-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

On July 6 Raighne's drawing Perky at Perkins was awarded a Daily Deviation from deviantArt.com. According to deviantArt "a small assortment of submissions is chosen each day by a select group of staff members who wish to showcase an image which they found impressive or otherwise interesting enough to deserve being brought to the attention of the community-at-large."

DeviantArt gallery director Joseph Arruda chose Perky at Perkins. He writes, "I see influences like Dave McKean, Bill Sienkiewicz and George Pratt, but presented in a direction that is its own. The lush uses of gray tones to add depth to image is a highly successful adventure."

Members from the dA community added their feedback as well. DeviantArt artist and UK resident Jack Teagle says, "The signs that it's digital are very subtle, and that's the great thing about this. Great line, and the intensity backs off perfectly for the background." dA artist Nancy from Portugal says, "Quite messy, I must say I like this."

Monkeys on the Bed included in Expressive Comics Section

2007-08-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

Monkeys on the Bed, my comic art contribution to GMN #1, was included in the Expressive Comics section of DeviantArt News yesterday. Emma Reynolds described Monkeys on the Bed as: "beautiful sepia ink wash and black ink outlined comic, about a little girl called Celest, her elderly relative aptly named Aunty Grim, and Celest’s five pet monkeys."

Expressive Comics is a new feature on deviantArt. Emma Reynolds, a deviantArt member from the UK, came up with the idea. She defines an expressive comic artist as someone whose "painting and drawing often has a definite impressionist and expressionist quality, and they make use of working over textures, combing collage, using mixed media, ink, charcoal, pastels."

She says she highlighted these expressive cartoonists because "[i]t is rare to find artists who utilize such techniques within Comic and Cartoons here on DeviantArt."

Panel, Line and Letter in the News

2007-08-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

A newspaper article featuring Panel, Line and Letter: Black and White Selections from Modern Midwest Comics appeared in The Albert Lea Tribune yesterday. Blog posts and photos also popped up on the web (see Will Dinski's habitual entertainment and Kevin Cannon's Big Time Attic blogs).

The exhibit opened yesterday. If you missed the opening you have until August 30, 2008 to visit the gallery and see our comic art in person. You can also view Kevin Cannon's photos of the exhibit here. Justin Skarhus, Raighne's comic book artist sister Chantel and I are in two of Kevin's photos.

During the entire run of the show you can purchase comics and original comic art from the Albert Lea Art Center. We were thrilled when we found out that curator Max Konrady's comic "COMMUNE" was printed on 100% recycled paper using vegetable-based inks. We suggest you support this eco-friendly comic artist and buy it.

Panel, Line and Letter PRESS RELEASE

2007-08-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

This August comic art from 2D CLOUD's first effort, Light Painful Light, will hang alongside some of the greatest original comic art in our region.

Panel, Line and Letter: Black and White Selections from Modern Midwest Comics Aug 5 -30, 2007 | Opening on August 5th from 5-7pm | Albert Lea Art Center | 242 South Broadway Albert Lea, MN 56007

Maxeem curates for the first time to celebrate his Minnesota comic brethren. Through the month of August, original pages by over a dozen Minneapolis and greater-state cartoonists will be on display in the historic opera palace of Albert Lea. See the frontier of the artform through the culture-piercing eyes of Steve Stwalley, Will Dinski, Kevin Cannon, Tim Sievert, Dank!, and many more. This event is free and open to the public.
--press release by Maxeem Konrady, comic art by Raighne Hogan

Reviews

2007-08-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

2009

Krauss, Richard. Manny + Bigfoot by Meghan Hogan. Comic Related. 1 Aug 2009.

Dick, Matthew. 2d Cloud mini comics roundup - Beard Growing Contest & Manny plus Bigfoot. Exquisite Things. 17 July 2009.

Krauss, Richard. Yearbooks by Nicholas Breutzman, Shaun Feltz, and Raighne Hogan. Poopsheet Foundation. 8 July 2009.

Dick, Matthew. March of the Moonbat-Yearbooks by Breutzman, Feltz, and Hogan. Exquisite Things. 7 July 2009.

Bramer, Kevin. Breutzman, Nicholas. Yearbooks (with Shaun Feltz and Raighne Hogan. Optical Sloth. 28 June 2009.

Nyland-Hoke, Shawn. Yearbooks by Nicholas Breutzman, Shaun Feltz and Raighne Hogan. SIZE MATTERS: The Mini Comic Blog. 23 June 2009.

Clough, Rob. Yearbooks: The Betrayal of Dreams. High-Low. 12 June 2009.

Clough, Rob. Mini-Comics Round-Up: Sayers, Dinski, M.Hogan, R.Hogan, Trivial, Carcieri. High-Low. 17 April 2009.

Morean, Sarah. Manny + Bigfoot by Meghan Hogan. The Daily Cross Hatch. 26 March 2009.

Krauss, Richard. Good Minnesotan #3 edited by Raighne & Meghan Hogan. Midnight Fiction 2009.

Bramer, Kevin. Various Good Minnesotans: Good Minnesotan #3. Optical Sloth. 11 Jan 2009.

2008

Hoke, Shawn. The Good Minnesotan Issue Three by Various Artists. SIZE MATTERS: The Mini Comics Blog 11 Dec 2008.

Hoke, Shawn. Good Minnesotan Issues 1 and 2 by Various Artists through 2D CLOUD Publishing. SIZE MATTERS: The Mini Comics Blog 8 Dec 2008.

Krauss, Richard. Good Minnesotan Episode 2. Midnight Fiction 2 Dec 2008.

Krauss, Richard. Good Minnesotan Episode #1. Comic Related 29 Nov 2008.

Clough, Rob. Anthology Round-Up: Good Minnesotan 3, Papercutter 8, Fluke 6. High-Low #222. Sequart Research & Literacy Organization 10 Nov 2008.

Bramer, Kevin. Various Good Minnesotans: Good Minnesotan #2. Optical Sloth 22 Oct 2008.

Smith, Shannon. GOOD MINNESOTAN EPISODE 2. File Under Other 10 Sept 2008.

McBroom, Rob. Scatological Review of GMN #1. myspace.com 28 July 2008.

Clough, Rob. Mini-Anthologies: Nerd Burglar and Good Minnesotan. High-Low #169. Sequart Research & Literacy Organization 25 July 2008.

Smith, Shannon. Hogan and Skarhus GOOD MINNESOTAN #1. File Under Other 10 March 2008.

2007

Bramer, Kevin. Various Good Minnesotans: Good Minnesotan #1. Optical Sloth 26 Dec 2007.

Press

2007-07-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

2009

Price, Ada. Panelmania: Comics from the MoCCA Art Festival. Publisher's Weekly Comics Week: The newsletter of comics and graphic novel publishing. 16 June 2009.

Deppey, Dirk. Literary Comics [Review] Yearbooks. Link: Rob Clough. Journalista The Comics Journal Weblog 15 June 2009.

Heater, Brian. MoCCA Festival 2009 Preview. The Daily Cross Hatch. 1 June 2009.

Krauss, Richard. Yearbooks. Midnight Fiction. 30 May 2009.

Morean, Sarah. Tricks and Swag: A MicroCon Round-up. The Daily Cross Hatch. 30 April 2009.

Deppey, Dirk. Small Press/Minicomics [Review] Manny + Bigfoot. Link: Sarah Morean. Journalista The Comics Journal Weblog 27 March 2009.

Stulen, Scott. Multiples Mall: Epilogue. blogs.walkerart.org 27 Feb 2009.

Krauss, Richard. Sites to See. Midnight Ramblings: Midnight Fiction 21 Feb 2009.

Clough, Rob. My Top 50 Comics of the Year. High-Low: Sequart Research & Literacy Organization 1 Jan 2009.

2008

Spurgeon, Tom. Shannon Smith’s Best of 2008. The Comics Reporter 12 Dec 2008.

Smith, Shannon. My favorite minicomics and webcomics of 2008. File Under Other 11 Dec 2008.

Krauss, Richard. 2D CLOUD Reports the Third Episode of Good Minnesotan has been Released. Midnight Fiction 1 Nov 2008.

Peiken, Matt. Twin Cities Book Festival. 3 Minute Egg 15 Oct 2008.

Kent, Taylor. Live from FallCon. Snark Infested Waters 5 Oct 2008.

Rodriguez, Amado. Cream City Conversations with Danno. 9 Cream City Comics Sept 2008.

Sanna, James. Art Note: Tasty “Lutefisk Sushi” at Altered Esthetics. Twin Cities Daily Planet 27 May 2008.

2007

Gilbert, Curtis. Video blogger learns that Youtube stardom has a price. Minnesota Public Radio 29 Nov 2007.

Reynolds, Emma. Expressive Comics - Volume 2. News: Cartoons & Comics: deviantART.com 7 Oct 2007.

Morean, Sarah. That Special Something. The Daily Cross Hatch 9 Oct 2007.

Arruda, Joseph. Perky at Perkins. Daily Deviations 6 July 2007.

Reynolds, Emma. Expressive Comics. News: Cartoons & Comics: deviantART.com 11 Aug 2007.

Tour

2007-07-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

2009

11/14/09 | Book Arts Festival, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Mpls, MN

10/13/09 | An Evening of Fine Wine and Fine Books, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Mpls, MN

10/10/09 | Rain Taxi's Twin Cities Book Festival, Minneapolis Technical & Community College, Mpls, MN

10/10-11/09 | Midwest Comic Book Association's FallCon, State Fair Grounds, St. Paul, MN

9/26-27/09 | Small Press Expo (SPX), Bethesda, MD

7/29/09 | Caffetto's Annual Craft Fair, Caffettos, Mpls, MN

7/11-12/09 | Twin Cities' Zine Fest, Steven's Square Center for the Arts, Mpls, MN

6/21/09 | Yearbooks Book Launch Party! Arise Bookstore, Mpls, MN

6/6-6/7/09 | Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival, MOCCA, New York, NY

5/15-5/17/09 | Brap 2d Cloud Open for fART-A-WHIRL, Thorp Building, Mpls, MN

5/9-10/09 | TCAF (Toronto Comic Art Festival), Toronto Public Library, Toronto, Canada

4/26/09 | Midwest Comic Book Association's MicroCon Comics Party, State Fair Grounds, St. Paul, MN

2/21/09 | Multiples Mall: A Bookish Fair @ Walker Art Center, Walker Art Center, Mpls, MN

2008

12/5-12/7 | Thorp Holiday Sale/2D CLOUD Open Studio, Thorp Building, Mpls, MN

11/15-16 | MCBA Book Art Fest, MN Center for Book Art, Mpls, MN

11/1-2/08 | Alternative Press Expo, San Francisco, CA

10/24/08 | Tiny Bits, Audubon Coffee Shop, Mpls, MN

10/11/08 | Rain Taxi’s Twin Cities Book Festival, Minneapolis Community & Technical College, Mpls MN

10/4-5/08 | Midwest Comic Book Association’s FallCon, State Fair Grounds, St. Paul, MN

5/16-18/08 | ART-A-WHIRL, 2D CLOUD Open Studio, Thorp Building, Mpls, MN

5/1-31/08 | Lutefisk Sushi Vol C, Altered Esthetics, Mpls, MN

2/4-3/1/08 | Good Minnesotan #1 Exhibition, Tea Garden, St. Paul, MN

1/16-25/08 | PCAE Open Show, Perpich Center for Arts Education, Golden Valley, MN

2007

12/14-16/07 | Belfry Winter Market, Belfry Center, Mpls, MN

11/16-12/24/07 | EFC Members' Holiday Art Sale, Eastside Food Coop, Mpls, MN

10/6-7/07 | Midwest Comic Book Association’s FallCon, State Fair Grounds, St. Paul, MN

8/5-30/07 | Panel, Line & Letter: Black & White Selections from Modern Midwest Comics, Albert Lea Art Center, Albert Lea, MN

Retailers

2007-07-27T05:14:00.000-07:00

Retailers that wish to carry 2D Cloud^TM comics please contact Tony Shenton (shenton4sales [@] aol.com).

Readers who would like to purchase 2D Cloud^TM comics please visit the following stores in person or online:

California