Twin Cities Zine Fest: Photo Blog

"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.

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Zinefest Report/GMN4 Update

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...

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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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TCAF & TwinCities Zinefest

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.
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