#2d cloud

Maggie Umber is the acclaimed cartoonist behind the books 270˚, Sound of Snow Falling, Time Capsule and other comics. She is also one of the founders of 2d Cloud, which in the past decade has established itself as one of the most important comics publishers in North America.

Umber wrote a blog post recently about the state of 2D Cloud and her own health, and about how the company plans to move forward. The company has just launched Artist Book Boxes at the Center of the Universe, a Kickstarter for the company’s 2019 lineup. We spoke recently about her new book, what kinds of books 2d Cloud will be publishing this year and why they just couldn’t walk away from the company.

“Architecture of an Atom” by Juliacks (2017)

1. Rob Clough described Juliacks’ style of comics as the “immersive school” with fellow practitioners Austin English, Theo Ellsworth, Dunja Jankovic, and Olga Volozova.  Of that group Austin English is the closest to what Juliacks is doing where traditional narrative is deprioritized over various compositional elements that are more common to gallery art than print publications.  I find that I like Juliack’s work more than Austin English’s, but why is that?  Is there something about the ideas in their art, the way they use narrative, or just the formal aspects of their compositions?  Is it a superficial if it’s just because I find the pages more attractive?  

2.There are several two page spreads that have text that spans the two pages and gets lost in the binding gutter.  This reads as an indication that a bound comic was not the first format some of the art was created for - which we know to be true.  Does this say more about the priority of the narrative or the priority of exhibition vs publication?

3. “Architecture of an Atom” scans like an exhibition catalog, which isn’t surprising based on the construction and context.  The all white and all black pages in the final third of the book enforce this similarity.  How does this sense of the book impact the narrative?

SPX ’17: Celebrating 10 Years Of 2D Cloud And Being ‘Unwisely Ambitious’

At the 2D Cloud Panel celebrating 10 years of the press at Small Press Expo on Sunday, September 17th, panelists included Raighne Hogan, Laura Lannes, Xia Gordon, Fifi Martinez, and Margot Ferrick. Starting with an anthology comic, 2D Cloud was always something that Hogan wanted to do, and they followed that with minis published by friends. The founders met at a small art school in Minnesota and…