Good Minnesotan Number 4

Good Minnesotan Number 4

Published by 2D Cloud.

120 + page boxed comics anthology featuring many contributors.

Edited by Raighne and Megan Hogan.

Buy in for $5 or more through Kickstarter.

For this forth (and allegedly final, sob) edition of the Good Minnesotan anthology the 2D Cloud gang decided to make a box of comics.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, what's better than a box of comics?  Nothing. Nothing is better than a box of comics. The box is really lovely.  The scan at the top of the post does not do it justice. The height and weight is about the size of an index card as are the four minicomics inside.  Each mini comic is about 20ish pages long with it's own lovely cover (pictured above).  I've talked about the Good Minnesotan folks for the past few years and honestly each of the previous editions has been one of my favorite comics from each year it was released.  Like Kramers Ergot or Mome, Good Minnesotan is a really good snapshot of the state of alt comics at the moment of production.  But unlike Kramers or Mome the product has a much more home made feel.  It's not enough to read these comics, you want to hold them, examine them and find a really special place on your book shelf for them.

This forth edition of the series has a wide variety of stuff in there.  Art comics, comedy fummetti, psychedelia and even some comics featuring little stuffed knitted guys... it covers the alt comics spectrum.  Buck Sutter has some haunting photo comics in there.  Luke Holden has some really great stuff in his stoned out high school notebook style. Great stuff from Anna Boingiovanni, Raigne Hogan, Megan Hogan, Lupi, Nic Breutzman, Ed Moorman... actually, I liked all of it.  The most ambitious piece is a comedy history lesson from Kevin Cannon that is both hilarious and great to look at.

Without counting the pages, my rough estimate would be that the majority of the book leans towards art comics.  That's just my general impression based on what stood out to me.  

This edition of Good Minnesotan is currently a part of a Kickstarter fund raiser.  As I type this, it appears that the funding has met it's goal but I still recommend getting in on it before 8:00 PM on Sunday July 25 and you might be able to get some great extras at a very nice price.  It's also a great chance to pick up the other Good Minnesotan editions. 

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

Check out the Kickstarter for Good Minnesotan 4.

This is not really a review but rather a recommendation to check out the Kickstarter for a book before it actually exists based on my previous enjoyment of the Good Minnesotan books.  I have a copy of the preview addition of Good Minnesotan 4.  It will probably be after HeroesCon before I can give it the review it deserves but I will say that it looks great. I love the little box of books idea and I'm a big fan of several of the contributors.  I think this is a project worth getting in on as a comics customer.  If you don't have any of the Good Minnesotan books yet then I suggest getting in at a level where you will also get one of the previous issues.  I don't want to tell anyone how to spend their money but if you like good comics in a really cool package then I feel safe in saying that you will get your money's worth from the Good Minnesotan folks.

Check out the Kickstarter page here. 

An additional sneak peak is here.  

Related linkage:

The fuo review of Good Minnesotan 1.

The fuo review of Good Minnesotan 2.

Good Minnesotan 3 on the fuo best of 2009 list. 

2 D Cloud.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

GOOD MINNESOTAN EPISODE 2

Good Minnesotan Episode 2 featuring Ed Moorman, Gail Kern, Meghan Hogan, Joseph Nixon, Alex Witts, Raighne Hogan, Luke Holden, Nicholas Breutzman, John Holden and P.M.

Published by 2D Cloud.

http://www.goodminnesotan.blogspot.com/

86 pages. 8.5" x 7 ". $12.   Black and white with Ellie Poo paper cover.

Available for purchased online at Poopsheet.

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.

I'm always excited to see some work from one of my favorite young cartoonists, Ed Moorman.  The book starts off with a beautifully drawn Moorman piece about Bob Dylan. (Samples above.)  It's a fun little illustrated fake interview where Dylan speaks in song lyrics to answer the interviewer's critiques.  I can tell that Moorman is playing around with it and experimenting with his cartooning chops and page layouts.  There is a Chester Brown kind of thing going on with the panel arrangements and some really nice sight gags that are both funny and true to the whimsical side of Dylan.  I can't speak for how a Dylan fan would feel about it but as a comics fan I like it a lot.

Meghan Hogan delivers a lovely piece that is more of an  illustrated monologue than comics but it's still an enjoyable piece.  The drawings have a lot of emotional weight and Hogan gives the character an honest and believable voice. 

Like the first issue, Good Minnesotan 2 has an inclination toward adventurous art and design.  There are several pieces that are part sketch, part mixed media and part poem.  These things are fantastic to look at but often hard to review other than to say that I really enjoy them.  Joseph Nixon (sampled above) contributes several exciting pages with spontaneous graffiti feel to them.  

Raighne Hogan again contributes some beautiful and ambitious work.  Cloak of the Moon features Raighne Hogan working with Alex Witts in a story that is more traditional in it's execution but still a treat to look at. 

Luke Holden's untitled piece (sampled above) seems to come from a different world than the rest of the book.  Much of the Good Minnesotan work feels like and attempt to fuse  mixed media, painting, poetry and prose into cartooning but Holden's work is much more a study in cartooning itself.   Holden uses a strict system of panels and rigid pacing like Brian Chippendale's Maggots to play around with motion and light.  Like Maggots, if there is a story going on I have failed to notice it but there is a tone and life to it worth reading.  I'm not sure reading is the right word though.  There is something about the short lapse of time between the many panels that challenges my mind.  It makes me study each panel for changes in detail and feels more like a game than a story.  It's almost the opposite of Josh Latta's panel-less Rashy Rabbit #4 which moves so quickly without the panel borders that it seems to read itself.  Holden's panels, again, like Maggots, force you to be invested in each panel, each motion, each transition.  Having read and re-read Maggots and now this,  I still don't know how to wrap my mind around this kind of storytelling.  I know there will be continued discussion on it.   Looking at this piece, and Moorman's piece and this book in general, I am increasingly aware that minicomics/alt comics/underground comic/etc. comics  are officially in a post-Chester Brown post-Fort Thunder world.  I as a cartoonist and writer-abouter-of-comics need to invest more time and thought into these kinds of narrative experiments if not to improve myself to but better understand the work of others.  At this moment, all I can say is that I like it but I just don't yet know why.  Let me also be clear that I'm not assuming that Brown or any of the Fort Thunder gang are influences on Moorman, Holden or any of the Good Minnesotan cast.  I'm just saying that this art must come from a place similar to that art and that it is a place I need to spend more time visiting. 

My favorite entry in the book is The Ripoff by Nicholas Breutzman and John Holden.  It's probably the most traditional bit of comics in the book and there is nothing especially outstanding about the cartooning or writing.  It's just really good.  Honest characters in a funny situation.  Just good comics.  Good writing, good drawing, good inking, good lettering.  Just good comics.  I like it. 

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.  As I said in my review of the first issue, I am excited that a book like this exists and I am encouraged that a regional group of talent this good was able to get together.  I hope to see more and more of this kind of thing.  Good Illinoisan?  Good Oregonian?  Good Virginian?  Chop chop you forty-nine other states.  What are you waiting for?

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

(p.s.  Apologies for not covering every single contributor and piece in the book.  It's a pretty thick book.  I tried to include as many of the contributor's links as I could find in the credits under the cover image.  I encourage my file under other pals to check out the links.  You will find a not of really neat stuff.  I did.)

Hogan, Smith and Skarhus GOOD MINNESOTAN #1

Good Minnesotan Episode #1 featuring Meghan Smith, Raighne Hogan and Justin Skarhus.

Published by dot dot dot ink press.

http://good-minnesotan.blogspot.com/

good.minnesotan@gmail.com

27 pages. 8.5" x 7". Black, white and grey tone cover on "Elli Poo" paper. Black and white interior pages "printed on 100% post consumer recycled Wausau Papers".

$5.00 cover price. On sale here for $7.00.

From the last page of the comic: "Good Minnesotan is a comic/sequential art compendium. The focus of the collections will be experiments in story-telling through the printed form with an obvious keen look at comics all over the board. We give a hard push on the local crowd and those just cutting their teeth on the medium."

That is a pretty lofty manifesto for the first issue of a mini comic but the Good Minnesotan gang seem to be on track to pull it off. Any time a comic uses the word "compendium" you know you are in for some heady stuff. The dot dot dot ink press gang have put together a good looking book with an emphasis on visual design. Of the five stories presented in this collection only Revenge Fantasies (written by Justin Skarhus with art by Raighne Hogan) bears much resemblance to traditional comic book story telling and even it has a pretty avant garde visual style.

All of the art is ambitious featuring a lot of mixed media work with aggressive variations in tones.
Raighne Hogan's story Cookie demonstrates some strong character design but the story was a bit hard for me to follow. It felt more like a series of images from a music video than a comic.

Hogan has a lot of range though and seems to be unafraid of experimentation. My favorite art in the book is from his stories Teddy Bears and Time Travel and Portraitist (a sample of which is above). These pages remind me a lot of Dave McKean and of the work David Mack has been doing over the past few years. Each page existing as it's own art object but still communicating enough narrative to give it the feel of a good mystery or riddle unfolding with the turn of the page.

Hogan's pages alone are worth the price of admission as far as I'm concerned but Meghan Smith also provides a eerie yet charming little story that would fit right into Tim Burton's world. Smith's art is quite polished and would make for a great little creepy children's book. Smith also provides a great looking wrap around cover for the book but unfortunately my scanner is too small to capture the whole thing.

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. It looks good and the "Elli Poo" paper feels good. The feel of the paper matters a lot to me when deciding which mini comics to buy at a convention or in those wonderful few shops that support minis. I'm also encouraged by the fact that this thing exists at all. I love the idea of a regional anthology. I love the idea of these talented folks getting together and making a book come to life. I hope they keep it up.

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith