9781937541392 • 104 pp • 8.25 × 11.7" • 2018
"Jaakko Pallasvuo has a gift for rendering the anxiety of contemporary life with complicated sincerity. He blends art-world satire and queer tragedy with a cosmic sensibility that can ruminate on ecological deep time and crack absurdist jokes on the same page. Retreat is his most accomplished comic to date: an ambitious, fully-realized post-apocalypse narrative in lush, impressionistic watercolour. Like everything he makes, I adore it." —Saelan Twerdy, critic
"Currently nothing excites me more than a new project from Jaakko. I don't care if he's making films, masks, comics or papier mache hats, I'm in for anything, but I'm very happy he's come back so strongly to comics over the past few years. I generally find his stories of 'pretentious groups of art-people' to be actually very unpretentious and quite matter of fact. I found RETREAT to be propulsive and full of emotion and 'social action'. It made me feel for the characters. It felt real. And most importantly: I LOL'd. <|:-) (i heard a rumour that james van der beek purchased the screenplay rights in a secret google hangout.)" —Simon Hanselmann, author of Megg, Mogg, and Owl
The angst, ennui, and malaise of the queer apocalypse sublimated to the equally ravishing graphic novel.
A gay couple flees the city from the impending apocalypse. They meet another artist on the way. Their clashing relationships, emotions, ideologies, hopes, and plans all transform unpredictably at the twilight of the human race. Jaakko Pallasvuo tells the convoluted and beautiful drama in the face of oblivion with stunning colors and visual and literal innovations in the way that are only possible in contemporary comics.
Jaakko Pallasvuo is a Finnish artist and novelist working in painting, sculpture, video, photography, books, and digital media. He has exhibited his work all around the world including Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, Berlin, London, Paris, Stockholm, Warsaw, and Seoul. His previous graphic novels are Pure Shores and Easy Rider, both by British artist book publisher Landfill Editions.




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praise...
i had a hard time coming up with a way to say this — i want to read all of [ 2dcloud’s ] books. [ 2dcloud is ] one of the few publishers who consistently puts out material I love. maybe that's better than the quote below.
2dcloud has a specific, idiosyncratic voice, like that of an artist. it’s a point of view that’s recognizable, but hard to define. it’s art books-meet-comics with a sense of warmth, humanity and vulnerability. it’s pain, with hope, always beautiful and surprising. —keiler roberts, author of rat time, and chlorine gardens
nobody is publishing weird, avant-garde, and visually innovative art comix like 2dcloud. it’s the kind of work that, by its very nature, will never be lucrative, but they do it because they believe in artists, and i believe in them.
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[this] small publisher [is] upping the whole country’s alt-comics game. —aiga eye on design
2dcloud takes its inspiration from the loose, in-progress aesthetic of some conceptual artists. —hyperallergic
2dcloud continues to publish work that, with exhilarating honesty and fresh illustration, captures the vastness of what it is like to be alive in this moment. —rachel davies, rookie magazine
2dcloud [is] one of the most interesting and exciting independent publishers working today. —blouin artinfo
2dcloud is king of the jungle! their books are wild! Their artists are nuts! I love everything they're doing. —anna haifisch, author of the artist
2dcloud takes chances on work that takes chances. their optimism is contagious. the world of comics — and the world of culture — can’t afford to be without them. —bill kartalopoulos, the best american comics series editor
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everything 2dcloud is doing right now isn’t just good; it’s exciting. there’s no better publisher of its size and orientation working in comics." —tom spurgeon, the comics reporter
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2dcloud is a vital force within the comics industry and print publishing as a whole. they showcase the work of experimental practitioners of the medium; [work that] widen[s] the scope of comics beyond what most readers think is possible. 2dcloud’s dedication to creating books with the highest quality production value exemplifies their understanding of what consumers in the mass market are attracted to. comic shops and bookstores alike would benefit from carrying the 2dcloud line. —jacquelene cohen, director of publicity & promotion for fantagraphics books inc.