Publisher's Weekly previews Yearbooks

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.
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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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GMN In The Daily Crosshatch's Microcon Roundup

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!
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Manny + Bigfoot Reviewed in the Daily Cross Hatch

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!
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Manny on Midnight Fiction + Make Better Books podcast

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.
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Scott Stulen's Multiples Mall: Epilogue

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.

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Book Arts on 3 Minute Egg

"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!
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Book Festival + 3 Minute Egg Interview!

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.
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FallCon08 + Snark Infested Waters Interview

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!
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GMN #1 in The Daily Cross Hatch

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.
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Raighne Awarded Daily Deviation

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."
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Monkeys on the Bed included in Expressive Comics Section

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."
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Panel, Line and Letter in the News

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.
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Press

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.

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