Showing posts with label Nicholas Breutzman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nicholas Breutzman. Show all posts

8.31.2009

Headlines and Deadlines

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

More to come in the following weeks regarding Fallcon...
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7.04.2009

Zinefest + New Reviews for Yearbooks + GMN changes

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!
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6.10.2009

Our Goods and Our Bads at MoCCA

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

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

Panels
After-parties
  • 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 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:

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6.03.2009

2d Cloud gearing up for MoCCA

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.
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1.22.2009

Mail Art + New Review on Optical Sloth

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.
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12.12.2008

GMN Makes Best Comics of 2008 + SIZE MATTERS reviews GM3

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".
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12.10.2008

SIZE MATTERS review + GMN Contributor News

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.
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9.18.2008

GMN #3 Color COVER and uh dfsdgfdg

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!

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8.20.2008

The Ripoff!

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.

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8.18.2008

Zucchini Rubbing Broads

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.

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5.11.2008

Decidedly Adult


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!
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