NEW STUFF ARCHIVES
Copacetic Arrivals: 1Q 2007
all items still available (unless otherwise noted)
ordering info
New for March 2007
A Proper Stack of Proper
Boxes
123 Lightin' Hopkins Texas Thunderbolt
122 Various
Artists Classic Rockabilly
121
Tony Bennett Young Tony
120
Kenny Clarke Klook's the Man
119 Lefty
Frizzell Give Me More, More, More
118 Bill Haley
From
Western Swing to Rock
117 Tubby Hayes
The Little Giant
116 Ella
Fitzgerald Dearly Beloved
Wow! Eight new Proper
Boxes,
all on the same day! Talk about musical mayhem. This batch
runs the gamut from the smooth and mellow tones of the young Tony
Bennett to the sweet scatting of THE classic period Ella, where she
glides through the American songbook and teams up with Louis Armstrong
and Duke Ellington and his orchestra and really just lays down track
after classic track, 83 of which are now available on Dearly Beloved, her second amazing
Proper Box. Then we have a healthy helping of the south and
west of the good ol' US of A with 86 Lefty Frizzell classics, an ear
poppin' 110 tracks by the grandmaster of Texas country blues, Lightin
Hopkins, and 94 tracks of Bill Haley with his groups The Four Aces of
Western Swing, The
Saddle Men and his legendary Comets who transformed the rhythms of
western swing into some of the first forays into rock 'n' roll.
Sharing the jukebox with the early days of rock 'n' roll were the
years of Classic Rockabilly,
and this Proper Box is a classic rockabilly
one-stop with a wallopin' 120 tracks by the likes of Elvis Presley,
Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Red
Foley, Johnny Burnette, Webb Pierce, Charlie Feathers, and many, many
others -- and it comes with an extra-hefty 68-page booklet to
give you the lowdown on all these players. And then there are the
amazing jazz instrumentalists: founding father of bop drumming,
Kenny Clarke shines on 72 bebop sizzlers, playing alongside all of the
greats; and then UK sax master, Tubby Hayes gets a chance to strut his
stuff on 71 tracks which are hard to find indeed on this side of the
Atlantic (in
fact, five of the tracks had never before been released, anywhere
-- a Proper Box first!). As with all Proper
Boxes
these contain four discs loaded up with five or more hours of
music that his been chosen with discernment and mastered, pressed and
produced with high standards, all for the truly copacetic
price of $23.75@ Wow!
American
Elf: Book 2, 2004 - 2005
by James Kochalka
Finally, the
next installment of James Kochalka's epic of self-revelation, The
Sketchbook Diaries, is on our shelves. This
time around, there's something new: the strips are printed in
FULL COLOR, as they originally appeared online. While we do our
best to check in now and then and catch up with James at American Elf,
nothing beats sitting down and reading a whole year's worth -- or two
-- and experiencing the ebb and flow of time at one's leisure.
It's the primary pleasure offered by this strip and it really is a
one-of-a-kind treat. With American Elf, Kochalka has pioneered an
entirely new approach to the daily comic strip, and, just like with all
great strips, the longer you stay with it, the deeper and richer the
experience gets. That may sound like a bit much considering how
goofy these strips get at times, but the critical key here is the
accretion that occurs. The accumulated years of this strip build
layers of associations, themes, sub-plots and leitmotifs
that all play off of each other and echo through the years creating a
prime example of a whole that is greater than the sum of its
parts. Learn more about this fine tradition, here.
retail
price - $19.95
copacetic
price - $16.95
Cold Heat #3
by BJ and Frank Santoro
The plot thickens, the mystery deepens, the pace is picked up and no
holds are barred in this
,
the third issue of the most innovative comic
book series in America. While other comic books tout their "new"
plot twists and "new" characters and "new" concepts, the comics
they
produce are, formally, all the same, maintaining the tried
and tired industry
status quo. Cold Heat
is authentically different.
Creators, BJ and Santoro understand the conventions
under girding the standard comic book format and deftly undercut them,
subverting the implicit conservatism of these conventions by
exogamously marrying them to an entirely different, diverse and
far ranging array of techniques, tropes and teleologies. Fauvism,
cubism, expressionism and pop art rub shoulders with an allusive
montage of narrative codes including action/adventure, detective,
horror, science fiction, romance and more. And that's just what's
going on beneath
the surface. What you see, starting with the startlingly
disorienting and surpassingly
original cover
image, is a powerful story indicting the wrongs of
today that is powered by some of the most visionary artwork
around. Delicate
yet defiant and densely packed, Cold Heat #3 is a one of a kind
comic book.
retail
price - $5.00
copacetic
price - $4.00
Nat Turner,
Volume Two: Revolution
by Kyle Baker
The violent conclusion to Kyle Baker's award-winning comics bio of Nat
Turner, who, after having endured epic sufferings detailed in the first
volume of Baker's series, was inspired by the Bible to lead one of the
bloodiest slave rebellions in United States history.
retail
price - $10.00
copacetic
price - $8.88
Buddha, Volume Six: Ananda
by Osamu Tezuka
Now available in a low-priced soft cover edition, the sixth volume of
Tezuka's eight-volume life of Buddha ranges from rock-'em sock-'em
action to meditative contemplation to masterful illustration of
Buddhist parables; 353 pages in all. And, don't worry, it's not
too late to get started on this timeless classic, as we still have
plenty of the first five volumes in stock.
retail
price - $14.95
copacetic
price - $12.70
Garage Band
by Gipi
This
is Gipi's first full length, full color graphic novel to be translated
into English and released in the United States. This time out,
the author
of the haunting Ignatz
albums, The Innocents and They Found the Car has
produced his finest work to date. While featuring the same lithe
pen and ink stylings as his previous work -- here
accentuated by a delicate watercolor palette -- Garage Band achieves
a naturalism that is truly in a class by itself. The landscapes,
cityscapes and interiors perfectly render the emotional terrain
traversed by his cast of characters. Who would have thought that
one of the best graphic novels about being in a band would be done by
an Italian? Not us, that's for sure. The garage band of the
title is here an ideal synecdoche for that moment on the road to
adulthood when life is stuck in limbo, between the reality of the past
and the potential of the future, held suspended in isolation between
the solidity of one's home and parents and the phantasmic visions of
what is coming to be.
retail
price - $16.95
copacetic
price - $15.25
Sardine in Outer Space 3
by Emmanuel Gilbert & Joann Sfar
This surprise hit series from France continues with more hi-jinx, outer
space and under sea adventures that kids everywhere can't get enough
of. Pirates! monsters! battles! crazy machines! jazz! spankings!
(spankings?) It's all here in dazzling full color in a tidy,
French-flapped volume.
retail
price - $12.95
copacetic
price - $11.65
To Terra... : Volume One
by Keiko Takemiya
The publishers of Buddha have just added this classic series to their
line-up. A star-spanning, science fiction saga, To Terra...
was originally published in Japan 30 years ago. Delving into romance,
politics and cosmic concepts each in equal measure, it is very much
indebted to the master example of Tezuka. The publication of this
series in English presents a welcome opportunity for American fans of
manga to read a classic. Take a look and see what you think.
retail
price - $13.95
copacetic
price - $12,50
The Times of Botchan, Volume Three: Autumn's Ballerina
by Jiro Taniguchi & Natsuo Sekikawa
And speaking of classics, the third volume of this excellent manga
adaptation of Seigai Ota's novel has at last arrived. Taniguchi's
clean, assured yet understated artwork is a perfect fit with this tale
of Meiji period Japan.
retail
price - $19.95
copacetic
price - $17.95
Town
of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms
by Fumiyo Kouno
Two forcefully felt and admirably rendered tales of contemporary life
in Hiroshima, Japan by a talent that we hope we'll see more of in the
future. ToEC,CoCB tells of growing up, young love, a
determination to succeed against the odds that does not in and of
itself guarantee success, and the sixty-year long
shadow cast by a mushroom cloud. Inspiring if somewhat sombre
tales suitable for all
ages make this a book worth recommending, which we do.
retail
price - $9.95
copacetic
price - $8.95
Yukiko's Spinich
by Frédéric Boilet
And seeing as we're on the subject of Japan, now's a good time to point
out that this clever, sexy and artistically adventurous graphic novel
-- which is credited with initiating "nouvelle manga," a sort of hybrid
of French Bande Dessinne and Japanese Manga, when it was initially
released in 2001 -- is back in print and once again on our
shelves. Regardless of whether or not there is such a thing as
"nouvelle manga," Yukiko's Spinach is an original, engaging and
rewarding
work that, while somewhat scopophilic and objectifying in its visual
representation of women, and echoing anachronistic imperial attitudes
that smack of orientalism, nevertheless captures a certain
je ne sais quoi about our global village at the millenium.
retail
price - $18.95
copacetic
price - $17.00
Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Other Observations
by Jeffrey Brown
Yes, that's right, you heard it here first (well, maybe not...):
Jeffrey Brown has "sold out." This book is published by
mainstream, coffee-table-book publisher, Chronicle Books and will soon
be piled up in stacks on tables at B & N and Borders coast to
coast... at least, that's the theory. The reality is that CGOoaBaOO
is a square-format, embossed hardcover containing 100+ pages of feline
fun that is a thoroughly enjoyable read. Brown reveals a clear
debt to Kochalka here, as Misty seems a pen-and-ink descendant of
American-Elf-supporting-cast-member, Spandy, but he has gone more than
a step further with these strips, and established the territory covered
as his own. Almost all the pages are produced in a uniform
9-panel grid that works quite well in capturing the rhythms of the
domestic cat in its natural environment. This work will be
appreciated not only by Mr. Brown's pre-existent fan base, but stands a
very good chance of -- dare we say it -- "crossing over" and appealing
to the great unwashed masses of non-comics readers -- at least those
among them who are "cat people," which is a fairly significant number
-- out there... which is, obviously, the hope of the publishers and,
one can only assume, the author as well. If you're a "cat person"
or ever have need of an appropriate, suitable-for-all-ages gift for
someone who is, you are hereby advised to take a look at a Cat
Getting Out of a Bag.
retail
price - $12.95
copacetic
price - $11.44
Wonderfool
World
by David Sandlin
Published
by the Butler
Gallery of Kilkenny, Ireland, in conjunction
with Sandlin's recent exhibit there, this 160-page full colour
catalogue is now available stateside, here at Copacetic. A
treasure trove of visionary art, Wonderfool World delves deep
down into the primordial ooze seeping out of and dripping
into the bottomless underworld of sin while simultaneously revealing
that it lies just below the surface of the eternal infinity of
salvation. Shopping, shooting,
drinking, driving, war and sex
are, for Sandlin, inexorably joined with beauty, innocence, hope, peace
and love as
two sides of the coin of the realm of our contemporary DreAmerican
"land"-scape. David Sandlin is a true original, a pioneer
exploring unmapped terrains of America's unconscious. This book
holds the rich, ripe and totally unique fruit of a thirty year career
spent intermingling fine arts and comics. While quite a few
artists have, in recent years, headed out to explore this terrain for
themselves, only Robert Williams and, maybe, Joe Coleman have been at
it as long and have as impressive a body of work;
Sandlin's vision is, however, without a doubt the one that speaks to us
most directly. It is the single most cogently formulated
contemporary expression of an
America caught in the vise of sin and redemption that we have
come across. Included in this volume -- beautifully designed by
Fabio Soletti -- are introductory essays by John Carlin and Carlo
McCormick, as well as conversations with the artist conducted by Carlin
and Dan "Picturebox" Nadel. Make sure you give this one the once
over when you're in the shop, and/or check out this online gallery of
his work.
retail
price - $24.95
copacetic
price - $22.22
The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard (CD)
by Rickie Lee Jones
Well,
we're not sure where this came from, but this is may just be the best
album Rickie Lee Jones has ever done and, as it provides the ideal
soundtrack for the work of David Sandlin just described above, we
coudn't help but mention it here. Starting off with a slow
Velvets drone and working its way through her pantheon of classic rock
tropes, employing a strong dose of Tom Waits, a healthy serving of the
Stones (think Exile on Main St. with a dash of Beggar's Banquet), a
hint of Creedence and homages to Dylan and Neil Young, Jones grafts the
whole thing onto some weird mutant child of the Gospel according to
Gillian Welch that involves some close readings of Biblical passages to
deliver this Sermon -- on how a broken heart in search of redemption
discovers that the price of redemption is precisely a broken heart --
with a sort of Jonathan Richmanesque sincerity. Did that description do
this record justice? No, probably not, so here, listen
to it for yourself.
copacetic
price - $14.44
Confessions,
Romances, Secrets and Temptations:
Archer St. John and the St. John Romance Comics
by John Benson
This is the companion volume to Benson's previously
released volume, Romance
Without Tears,
that presented the romance comics written by Dana Dutch and drawn -- primarily -- by Matt
Baker. Confessions
gives us a
detailed account of the rise and fall of St. John along with what
went on behind the scenes and how the comics were produced.
Interviews with all the surviving players are included as well as
many amazing, never-before-seen photographs. While this book has
an admittedly narrow focus and may very well only be of interest to a
small
cross section of comics readers, it covers some of the best -- but
least known -- comics of the post-WWII "Atomic Age" of comics and is a
valuable resource as well as an engaging read.
retail
price - $9.95
copacetic
price - $8.95
The Deeper You Get (CD)
by Peg Simone
Writing about confessions, romances, secrets and temptations reminds us
that anyone finding themselves in the mood for musical manifestations of
these quintessentially human attributes should do themselves a favor
and check out this brand spanking new CD from this Pittsburgh native
and erstwhile Pleasure Head. By turns sultry, rocking and
unnerving, this disc clearly (and loudly) demonstrates Simone's ample
(and multiple) musical talents and just might end up being the one you
turn out the lights for and save for last. Learn more -- and
sample some tracks -- here.
copacetic
price - $11.77
It Rhymes With Lust
by "Drake Waller"* and
Matt Baker (*actually,
Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller)
Billed upon its initial 1950 release as "an original full-length
novel," this 128-page mass market paperback can lay a very strong claim
to being a significant and important forerunner to today's graphic
novels. Released by St. John, this book's production is discussed
in some detail in Benson's book listed above, so it is an ideal
follow-up for anyone interested in reading a classic comic book while
learning more about an important era in the history of comics.
retail
price - $14.95
copacetic
price - $12.75
Need More Love: A Graphic Memoir
by Aline Kominsky Crumb
This
is pretty much a companion piece to her husband's The R. Crumb 
Handbookof
a couple years back, only bigger; and heavier; and glitzier; and
with way more photos, but still as much comics (mostly by Aline, but
there manages to be more than a little of Crumb's comics -- primarily
those that pertain to her life -- and, for that matter, by her "twisted
sister" peers, Diane Noomin, Phoebe Gloeckner and Carol Tyler, as well
as Daughter Sophie -- it's a veritable festival here)... you get the
idea? For those of you who have been putting off figuring out
what
Aline "Yoko" Crumb is all about, now's your chance. This book
pretty
much has it all. Yes, the 1960s and '70s are center stage, but
there's plenty going on in the years that follow: the Weirdo
'80s. the Sophie '90s, the move to France -- it's all here.
Those crazy boomer kids: they may be
pushing sixty, but they're still young at heart.
retail
price - $30.00
copacetic
super sale price - $11.77
You Don't Love Me Yet
by Jonathan Lethem
The follow-up novel to Lethem's wildly successful Fortress of
Solitude, YDLMY (what's
with all the long titles this month?) tells
the tale of a help-line operator who falls in love with a caller --
"the complainer" -- but still has time to play bass in a rock 'n' roll
band along with a lead singer who works at the zoo, and a drummer who
works in a "masturbation boutique." All proceeds swimmingly until
"the complainer" joins the band... at which point things take a
screwball turn. This strikes us as being a bit more light-hearted
than Lethem's usual fare, but this could very well be a good thing, as
we could all use a nice romp now and then, and Lethem may very well
deliver us one here, as this sounds promising and he certainly is
capable of pulling it off. We'll let you know if he succeeded
once we've managed to read it (although you probably don't need us to
help you make your mind up).
retail
price - $24.95
copacetic
price - $22.22
Heyday
by Kurt Andersen
This book has our name on it, as it is written by Spy Magazine
co-founder, Andersen, whose previous novel, Turn of the Century,
was thoroughly enjoyable -- and, more importantly, Heyday is set in the USA of
the pivotal year 1848, where so much was happening that determined what
was to come (for better and for worse) that we can't wait to see what
Andersen has to say about how it all fits together. Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Charles Darwin and Karl
Marx -- to name but a few -- were producing work that was opening the
way to the future as Edgar Allen Poe (a quote from whose last work, Eureka
-- completed in 1848, shortly before his death -- was chosen for one of
the book's two opening epigraphs) was laying to rest the past.
And then there's the war with Mexico (remember the Alamo?) and the gold
rush of '49. Money, power, personalities and ideas swirl, back in
the day -- the heyday,
that is. Here are links to all
the reviews.
retail
price - $26.95
copacetic
price - $22.22
ordering
info
New for
February 2007
Love
and Rockets
Heartbreak Soup
by Gilbert Hernandez
Maggie the Mechanic
by Jaime Hernandez
Most frequenters of this space are hep to the wonder of Love and
Rockets.
However, there are still those who have yet to see the
light. Are you someone who still hasn't managed to get around to
reading the greatest comics ever produced? If so, all we've got
to say
is: if you haven't read the
original run of Love and Rockets (in any one of its extant
formats) and you are
trawling the web looking for exciting new releases and looking through
back issue bins at your friendly neighborhood comics shop for classics
of the days of yore, then
you are simply wasting your time
-- the greatest comics that have ever been produced
(and quite possibly that ever will be produced) are already right here,
sitting, waiting, 24/7 on the shelf. Those
unfortunates among you who have remained skeptical are now offered a
new and better chance of getting in on what you've been missing out on
in these two volumes, the first of
a projected series of seven that will collect the entirety of
the first volume of Love and Rockets that was originally
published from
1982 to 1996. These volumes are paragons of excellence in
every way, including price point
(muchos kudos to Jacob Covey for his sporty yet elegant design and to
Paul Baresh for his stalwart, spit and polish production).
Between the
two you get over 500 pages of comics that will still be standing -- in
one form or another -- long
after every contemporary Ozymandias has fallen to dust. They
contain
the bulk of the material first presented in the first dozen and a half
issues of the original series. Maggie the Mechanic
contains Jaime's
contributions, while Gilbert's can be found in Heartbreak Soup.
Well, what are you waiting for? C'mon already!
retail
price - $14.95@
copacetic special
price - $11.95@
Buddy Does Jersey
by Peter Bagge
forward (in comics) by Johnny Ryan
Subtitled, "The Complete Buddy Bradley Stories from 'Hate' Comics, Vol.
II (1994 - '98)" this 352 page book finishes what Buddy Does Seattle
began, namely collecting the all 30 issues of Bagge's run of
Hate. A definitive -- and caustically funny -- account of
the coming of age of the 1990s Alt. scene, Hate -- picking up
where Bagge's initial comics project, Neat Stuff,
left off -- chronicled Buddy's trek from his parents' suburban New
Jersey home to the burgeoning Seattle scene and then back again.
This volume contains the entirety of the "back
again" part which originally appeared in Hate #16 - 30. Starting
off with Buddy and his gal pal Lisa getting off the Turnpike and
following their ever whackier hi-jinx -- and those of their splendid
and seedy supporting cast -- ending
with them... well,
that would be giving it away. Suffice it to
say that these comics are the single truest depiction of the
demographic they represent that has yet to be produced in any
medium. And, it features a long introduction by
Bagge describing (for the first time)
how the stories in this book reflected events in his own life.
If you have yet to get around to reading these comics,
now there's simply no excuse.
retail
price - $14.95
copacetic
price - $12.70
The
Grave Robber's Daughter (Evil Eye #14)
by Richard Sala
This time around, Sala gives readers of Evil Eye a self contained
grahic novella instead of a new installment of an ongoing saga.
This is a welcome change, we say. This issue has Sala doing what
he does best, namely delineating the tale of a cute girl stuck in a
strange town trying
to figure out what's going on while surrounded
by a bunch of weirdos. The perfect read on a dark and windy
night, listening to the rafters creaking and groaning and wondering if
you heard something outside your door...
retail
price - $9.95
copacetic
price - $8.95
The Living and
the Dead
by Jason
The
prince of pantomime
comics is back with this 48 page graphic
novella that visually chronicles a tall tale of the first blush of
young love and the last days of flesh eating zombies. What else
can we
say? This guy is a master.
retail
price - $9.95
copacetic
price - $8.95
Krazy
& Ignatz - 1939 - 1940: "A Brick Stuffed with Moom-Bims"
by George Herriman
introduction by Jeet Heer
Two more complete years of the one and only Krazy Kat, all in full
color. We're in the home stretch of the original run now:
only two more volumes to go (sob) ... but then Fantagraphics will be
going back to the beginning and printing the first ten years that were
previously published by Eclipse and have been out of print for over a
decade, so there's still plenty more to look forward to. For now
we have another 105 flights of fancy from the inimitable George
Herriman, all wrapped up in another fine C. Ware designed
package. What's that? You say you ain't hep to the
kat? Well then, here's
where to start.
retail
price - $19.95
copacetic special
price - $15.95
This Will All End in Tears
by Joe Ollmann
Finally, a follow up to Ollmann's fine 2001 collection, Chewing on
Tinfoil.
Ollmann is the Canadian cartoonist no one seems to have heard of down
here in the states, which is a damn shame as he really has a lot to
offer (learn more about Ollmann in this
interview he recently conducted with Tom Spurgeon).
This Will All End in Tears is one book you definitely don't
want to judge by its cover, as it contains a fascinating collection of
deftly delineated discoveries in the field of human nature.
Ollmann is an explorer who seeks out obscure and remote emotional
terrains that most other cartoonists find too arduous
to reach. He has an
unerring eye for picking out incidents that will provide just those
details in his characters that will light their souls from the inside,
serving to illuminate the
particular, often peculiar, hidden corners of our society that are his
stock in trade. Heartache, hunting,
health
care, hangovers
and more are the subjects of the short, and not so short, comics
stories that make up this thoroughly engrossing
volume. The
longest, "They Made a Movie Here Once,"
runs 52 pages, and is a pitch perfect tale a young woman's lonely life
in a small northern town. Fans
of the Caricature-era work of Dan Clowes
should seek this volume out and give it the once over, as should
readers of
Pete Sickman-Garner's Hey, Mister! and anyone else who
appreciates finely crafted stories focused on character and told in
comics. Ollmann possesses deep empathy for his fellow sentient
beings and crafts finely nuanced characterizations. His stories
generally unwind in episodic series of vignettes which conclude once
the tension has been released. We really think you ought to take
a look at this collection. Here's a .pdf
preview to give you a taste (you can skip past the first few pages,
which are just credits, etc.).
And this just in: This
Will All End in Tears was awarded the 2007 Doug Wright Award at
this year's Toronto Comic Art Festival. How about that!
retail
price - $16.95
copacetic price - $15.25
Red
Eye, Black Eye
by K. Thor Jensen
Occupying the opposite end of the empathy scale, K. Thor Jensen has
created a bit of a hybrid with his graphic travel memoir, Red Eye,
Black Eye. With it, he takes a page out of
the
playbook of Aaron
Cometbus -- who seems a clear inspiration here -- and
splices it together with the comics language of James Kochalka and
Jeffrey Brown, and the chops of a host of others to tell his tale of
dropping out of his day to day life and turning on to two months
bumming around the USA on Greyhound buses in his attempt to tune in to
what it's all about, hoping that this will enable him to find how to
start the next chapter of his life. While it is clear that he was
successful in dropping out and turning on, the scenarios Jensen has
chosen to delineate provide little if any
evidence that he managed to tune in. The reader of this tale is
likely to find it a frustrating experience for, as he portrays himself,
Jensen
seems totally
unable
to really connect with anyone, and remains trapped in a singularly
unattractive personality throughout the entire epic journey, returning
home, 300 pages later, apparently no wiser. Red Eye, Black Eye can be an
instructive, if somewhat awkward -- at times painfully so --
experience, as Jensen repeatedly reveals his woeful lack of the social
graces. The dictum "character is destiny" receives a solid
endorsement here as Red Eye, Black
Eye provides a veritable catalogue of personal-growth inhibiting
character traits; and it
is crystal clear that lack of empathy is chief among them. This
approach may or may not -- it is not clear -- have been an intentional
decision, a self-lacerating attempt at self-correction, but this
lack of clarity impedes an appreciation of the work. Jensen
is
not without storytelling abilities, however, as he effectively puts his
tale across. He is strongest when he relates the individual
stories that he is told by his numerous hosts during his various
stays. Woven
within the overall fabric of the tale of his journey, these
short -- most are one or two pages -- stories are the best part of this
book. One cannot help coming away from reading this hoping that
Jensen has learned something from all this, that
he has moved towards a better understanding of and closer
feelings for his fellow beings and so will be better able to connect
with those around him.
The fact that he has acted on a desire to communicate his
experience and has completed the arduous task
of crafting this lengthy work means that, in all likelihood, he
has.
retail
price - $19.95
copacetic price - $16.95
McSweeney's No. 22
This issue's design, with
its slipcase containing three separate softcovers,
harkens all the way back to issue No. 8; but there's a twist -- this
time around the books are held together with magnets rather than the
industrial strength rubber band of yore. And, you rightly ask,
what is there about these books that they need magnets to keep them
together? Well, our guess is that their contents are so disparate
that this was the only way. The first book writes the unwritten
stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. "Come again?" you say:
Fitzgerald left notebooks at the time of his death and in these
notebooks were 32 story ideas that he never realized. Michelle
Orange has assembled 17 writers -- including herself -- to take upon
themselves the task of writing 16 of these stories (one twice); this
book bears the fruit of this undertaking. The second book is
titled, The State of Constraint, and presents 17 new works from
the Oulipo
group. The third and fattest of the books is The Poetry
Chains of Dominic Luxford,
which assembles, "one hundred favorite works of some of the best poets
writing today" selected by a novel and ingenious method too involved to
relate here but which is succinctly explained in Mr. Luxford's
introduction. All in all, this issue of McSweeney's looks very
much like a winner.
retail
price - $24.00
copacetic price - $21.50
R.
Crumb's Heroes of the Blues, Jazz & Country
Yes, we know this one came out a few months back, but we neglected to
bring it to your attention and felt the need to rectify this sad state
of affairs: Those former perennials, the little boxes containing
complete sets of
R. Crumb's Heroes of the Blues,
Early Jazz Greats and
Pioneers of
Country Music that could always be found on the front counter of
hep
comics shops around the world, have been given a new -- and improved --
lease on life in this chunky spunky li'l hardcover. Measuring 6"
x 7" this book, expertly produced by the fine folks at art house
publisher Abrams, presents Crumb's illustrations for the cards
-- 112 in all -- in
full page, high quality, full color reproductions that do full justice
to the work. And, of course, the card-back descriptions --
written by Stephen Calt and David Jasen -- are all
here, the only difference being they are now printed on the left facing
page so that they may be read with the illustration rather than having
to flip the page. (At first this seemed a minor heresy, but
then we realized that this was
only common sense.) But that's not all! This edition
contains
a full-length CD containing 21 classic tracks -- seven each of blues,
jazz and country -- all selected by Crumb himself from the archives of
Yazoo Records, the label that Crumb has long been associated
with. All this fabulosity for a fraction of what you would have
paid for the trading cards. Another fine illustration of the
adage, "All things come to him (or her) who waits."
retail
price - $19.95
copacetic price - $17.95
ordering
info
New for
January 2007
Wholphin No. 3 (DVD)
Starting off 2007 with a bang, the much delayed (and much asked after)
third issue of this great, theoretically quarterly, DVD "magazine" is
the first new item to hit our shelves in the new year. Included
are "The Russian Suicide Chair," a piece of explosive performance art
by the one and only Dennis Hopper, an almost-feature-length film, The
Passion of Martin, by Alexander Payne, a Yemeni documentary, A
Stranger in Her Own City by
Khadija Al-Salami, short films by Bob Odenkirk, Alice Winocour, and
more, including an original Wholphin Short, "Yeah Yeah, We Speak
English, Just Serve." Also included is a bonus disc containing
the the second part of Adam Curtis's powerful documentary, The
Power of Nightmares. This installment, "The Phantom Victory,"
continues where part one, included with Wholphin No. 2, left
off. For complete info on this issue, click here.
retail
price - $15.95
copacetic price - $14.35
MOME 6 (Winter 2007)
edited by Erid Reynolds and Gary Groth
Yes, we have all the ususal suspects again this time around -- J.
Bennett,
J. Brown, Sophie Crumb, M. Cenreda, Anders Nilsen, Paul Hornschemeier,
David Heatly, Tim Hensley, and some pretty amazing apocryphal
neo-romance covers by R. Kikuo Johnson -- but there are a couple new
entries from
Europe that are quite worth noting: Lewis Trondheim makes his
MOME debut with the first part of his new comics diary, Loose Ends;
and Vosges Studio co-founder, Émile Bravo provides this issue's
standout story, The Brothers Ben Qutuz in "Frustration Land."
This ten page pantomime (no text or dialogue) story -- enabling it to
be read and understood without it having to be translated -- is a
startlingly succinct exegesis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as
experienced at street level on the Palestinian side, that will invade
your consciousness and refuse to leave; a perfect example of the value
of comics as a form of commmunication.
retail
price - $14.95
copacetic price - $11.95
The
End
by Anders Nilson
Calvario Hills
by Marti
The
latest two releases in the Ignatz series of high end comic books
could not be more dissimilar, proving that the Ignatz tent is a big one
indeed. The End finds Anders employing his comics-as-art
skills to work through his personal pain, creating a diary of loss in
the process. This is about as far as you can get from Marti's Calvario
Hills,
a startlingly reductive -- a la Chester Gould, Marti's idol -- fantasia
of a racially polarized America that is ripped from the tabloid
headlines and given life by Marti's thick, smooth brushwork.
retail
price - $7.95@
copacetic price - $6.75@
Nog
A Dod
by Marc Bell & the Vancouver Comics Mob
Many a Copacetic Customer is a fan of the work of Marc Bell, but is was
difficult to absorb his work in the proper context -- as the leading
light in a vibrant scene -- until now! Nog A Dod is a revelation and a
mind blower. Page after page of drawings over, under, sideways,
down in both basic black & white and fabulous full color
reproductions. Here's what publisher, Conundrum Press has to say:
"Nog
A Dod is a landmark in Canadian Oddball Art
Publishing. It documents nearly a decade of work by a loosely
affiliated group of primarily Vancouver artists who draw with and about
each other. Like their contemporaries and friends in the Royal Art
Lodge, they work on each other's drawings, create small run books and
ephemera, and collaborate so closely that it is sometimes difficult to
tell where one begins and another ends. Their work falls somewhere
between children's book art, comics, psychedelia and fine art... The book documents hundreds of unique
mini-books by artists including
editor and designer Marc Bell, Peter Thompson, Jason McLean, Amy
Lockhart, Owen Plummer, Tommy
Lacroix, S.P. Ehman, Scott Evans, Julie Voyce and Mark Connery."
So, what are you waiting for?
retail
price - $25.00
copacetic price - $22.22
Cartoon Workshop/Pig Tales
by Paper Rad
The comics digest to end comics digests is here, CW/PT
is a 96 page 69
format that is simultaneously a tribute and challenge to the
comics digest form. Slick, glossy covers enfold a nice heavy
gauge newsprint, almost all of which is printed in the eyeball-searing
full color we've
come to expect from PR; there are also a dozen or so single-page
strips in black and white that are set, every other page, against the
color, serving to further accentuate it. Another fine Picture Box
production.
retail
price - $14.95
copacetic price - $11.95
The
Trenton Doyle Handbook
by Trenton Doyle Hancock
This full color, 24 page standard size comic book could be sub-titled,
"When Worlds Collide." Mr. T.D. Hancock gives his oevre the Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe
treatment. Fine art meets fanboy obsessing in this strange fusion
of two distinct ways of seeing. Baby Curt, Shy Jerry, The Bebeaver,
F-Shine, Torpedoboy and many other Hancock characters are profiled in
the standard Marvel Handbook format. Your mind will reel.
Bonus treat: front cover inked by Marvel Handbook inker and
industry stalwart, Joe Rubinstein! And, yes, you guessed it, this
too is from Picture Box (who else?).
retail
price - $6.00
copacetic price - $5.00
Ode to Kirihito
by Osamu Tezuka
This is the big book that has it all! Originally
serialized in Biggu Komiku in 1970-71,
and a personal favorite of the artist, manga founding-father Osamu
Tezuka, Ode to Kirihito is a unique effort, in more than one
respect. Weighing in at a mammoth 822 pages, Ode is the
first of Tezuka's works to incorporate adult themed gekiga (see
Tatsumi's Abandon the Old in Tokyo)
elements. Perhaps paradoxically, it is also a work
that while dealing with the darker sides of human nature simultaneously
deals
with Christian (Kirihito is a pun on the Japanese
pronunciation of Christ, Kirisuto) themes -- specifically of overcoming
the illusional dualism of beast and soul, metaphorically dealt with
here as a struggle against a disease that turns men into dog-like
beasts. This
book is a one-stop for everything Tezuka
as he displays a veritable cornicopia of storytelling devices, styles,
page-layouts and more; if you pay attention, you will also find some
fascinating
foreshadowing of current alt. comics themes and representational tropes
(Fort Thunder, Paper Rad, etc.). It's a Tezuka tour de force!
He delves into a panoply of themes: most importantly that of Japanese
masculinity as it confronts the sexual revolution; also explored are
Japanese perspectives in the dawn of the global era as the story brings
us into contact with mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, South Africans,
Europeans -- but, interestingly, almost no Americans -- and we get not
only Tezuka's views of these peoples but also his point of view on their
views of the Japanese, creating a roundabout of perspectives.
That Tezuka fans will find this
work a reading experience to relish almost goes without saying.
We'd like to take a moment here to recommend this book to those of you
who are curious about Tezuka's legendary status but have been put off
by his association with what is widely considered "kid's fare" -- Astro
Boy, Kimba and the like. Ode to Kirihito will stand up to
any comparison with contemporary literary comics. It is an
engaging and intriguing tale, told by a master of the form at the peak
of his powers. Anyone serious about comics owes it to themselves
to read this. Recommended!
retail
price - $24.95
copacetic price - $22.22
and while we're on the subject of
Tezuka...
Buddha 5: Deer Park
by Osamu Tezuka
We'd
like to take this moment to mention that the fifth volume of the
softcover edition of the eight volume life of Buddha is now on our
shelves.
retail
price - $14.95
copacetic price - $12.75
Shadowland
by Kim Deitch
This sturdily produced oversize softcover collects pretty much all of
Deitch's heretofore uncollected work of the last two decades.
Deitch has the 
semi-miraculous
ability to capture the deranged hidden
spirit of bygone eras -- primarily the 1920s and '30s -- that he
renders here, in all their freakish glory, with his meticuous
Fleischer-esque pen and ink style. Shadowland is made up of ten
complete stories, including the five shorts that were originally
published in Weirdo ("Murder on the Midway!" "The Mystic
Shrine," "Pong Wook-Ee!" "Young Ledicker," and "Two Old Birds"), "The
Road to Rana Poona" which originally appeared in Raw, "No
Business Like Show Business" (which originally appeared in 3-D and
receives its first conventional printing here). The feature
attractions are the 41-page novella, "The
Strange Secret of Molly O'Dare" that was originally serialized over a
half-dozen issues of Zero, Zero,
and the epic, 45-page "Crafton Curse" that originally appeared in the
2-issue Shadowland
mini-series and which makes up the centerpiece of
this collection. Also included are a series of newly executed
framing illustrations, an introduction by the author and a full color
"Shadowland Art Gallery" that includes many images only previously seen
by a select few, along with reproductions of the covers of the comics
many of these stories first appeared in. All in all, quite a
treat!
retail
price - $18.95
copacetic price - $16.00
And our
new favorite label, Yep Roc Records, has just released these fabulous
toe-tappers that will have you up and keep you moving and fighting off
those winter doldrums:
Sing
Like a Star
by Kristen Hersh
This new solo album by Throwing Muses founder, Kristen Hersh, whose two
decades of work as both a song-writer and performer has influenced an
entire generation, is another soul-stirrer. Learn more, here, and listen to it, here.
copacetic price
-
$14.44
Never
Hear the End of It
by Sloan
Thirty tracks of seamless, classic rock from Canada's ruling rock
band. Learn more, here, and listen to it, here.
copacetic price
-
$14.44
New
Magnetic Wonder
by Apples in Stereo
This,
the first new Apples in Stereo release in five years, is a
multimedia extravaganza that contains 14 songs, 12 additional "link
tracks," and an Apples first -- the newly invented "Non-Pythagorian
Music Scale" included in both digital sound files and an in-depth video
description on the enhanced portion of this multimedia CD. If
you're looking for an up-tempo head-bobber of a record that will
leaving
you feeling sunny on the inside on the coldest and darkest of days,
look no further: this is it. Learn
more, here, and listen to it here.
copacetic price
-
$14.44
ordering
info
Want to keep going? There's tons more great stuff here, almost all of which is still in stock. Check out our New Arrivals Archives:
4Q 2006: October - December, New Arrivals
3Q 2006: July - September, New Arrivals
2Q 2006: April - June, New Arrivals
1Q 2006: January - March, New Arrivals
4Q 2005: October - December, New Arrivals
3Q 2005: July - September, New Arrivals
2Q 2005: April - June, New Arrivals
1Q 2005: January - March, New Arrivals
4Q 2004: October - December, New Arrivals
3Q 2004: July - September, New Arrivals
2Q 2004: April - June, New Arrivals
1Q 2004: January - March, New Arrivals4Q 2003: October - December, New Arrivals
3Q 2003: July - September, New Arrivals
2Q 2003: April - June, New Arrivals
1Q 2003: January - March, New Arrivals
prices and
availability
current as of 31 March 2007