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

• 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
  

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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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Walker's Multiples Mall: A Bookish Fair REPORT

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.
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Walker book fair, Treehouse Records, Xeric Grant

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

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.
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Ed Moorman to be featured in GMN #2!

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

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