New for
September 2007
Comic Art #9
The best magazine about comics ever published is back with another
amazing jam-packed issue. Edited by comics aficionado
extraordinaire,
Todd Hignite, this 208 page
signature-bound squareback is produced and printed to the highest of
standards. Each and every article, interview, and feature centers on or
is accompanied by excellent, high-resolution reproductions of original
art, comics pages, prints, letters, photographs, and more; each a
pleasure to behold. This issue spans continents as well as
centuries
as we are treated to a truly eclectic assemblage of top comics
talent.
Jerry Moriarity (Raw, Kramers Ergot, SVA) is visited by
publisher Alvin Buenaventura; fellow NY hepster, KAZ, is profiled by
Ben Schwartz; Tom de Haven goes long on Chester Gould's "Plainclothes
Tracy;" Thierry Smolderen explores Lyonel Feininger's "Lost Continent;"
the work of definitive Tarzan comics artist, Jesse Marsh, is examined
by comics historian, Ron Goulart, and discussed by none other than
Gilbert Hernandez and Adrian Tomine; Jeet Heer pens an in-depth
piece
on New Yoker cartoonist Gluyas Williams and his relationship with E.B.
White... and there's plenty more, it's too much to list, but here's a
preview).
We can't sign-off on this issue, however, without mentioning the three
one-page strips by Copacetic favorite, Dan Zettwoch, which features his
dad's strips for the church newsletter(!). And then there's the
issue's bonus book, which might just be the best thing about the whole
issue. It's an 80-page paperback book that comes shrink-wrapped
together with the magazine, it's written and illustrated by Ivan
Brunetti, it's titled, Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice, it
is described as a "classroom in a book," it represents the
distillation of Mr. Brunetti's 15-week college course -- and it's yours
free with Comic Art #9! Is that a deal, or is that a deal?
retail
price - $19.95 copacetic
price - $17.77
The
Ganzfeld 5: Japanada
edited by Dan Nadel w/ Marc Bell &
Yuki Minami
You'll want to strap yourself in before cracking open the latest issue
of The Ganzfeld, as the going gets going and doesn't stop until it's
solid gone, and
things get so far out you might wonder where it is you've gotten
to. Well, the answer, if you haven't already guessed, is, of
course:
Japanada! The artists featured in this issue all hail from either
Japan or Canada -- hence the title -- and the end result could be seen
as an imaginary island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but we'll
assert here that it would be more accurately described as representing
a heretofore unexplored province of the mind; more a state of mind than a place
on a map.
This volume invites
you to get away from the restrictive conformity of life in these United
States and take a walk on the wild shores of Japanada where anything
goes. Here you'll find artistic risk taking the like of which you
aren't likely to find between any other two covers. You'll
discover new and daring works by (from Japan): Saseo Ono, Shigeru
Sugiura, Keiichi Tanaami, King Terry, Eye Yamatsuka, Misaki Kawui,
Yuichi Yokoyama; (and from Canada) Julie Doucet, Bobo Boutin &
Dominique Pétrin, "the All-Star Schnauzer Band", Tommy Lacroix,
Amy Lockhart, Owen Plummer & Andrew Dick, Scott Evans, Mark
Connery and Shayne Ehman. Each artist's work is prefaced by a
short - or not so short -- essay to help get the reader up to
speed and ready to confront the artistic frenzies of Japanada.
retail
price - $29.95 copacetic
price - $25.00
MOME 9
Yes, it's another issue packed with swell contemporary comics, as MOME
continues to deliver. The unquestioned highlight of this issue
is the first new extended comics work by Jim Woodring in several
years: Part I
(of 2) of the 45 page piece, "The Lute String." (This issue
provides the first 25
pages and the next issue will provide the 20-page conclusion.) There's
no one like Woodring, and "The Lute String" proves that he still has
the magic touch. He's joined here by team-MOME:
the relative newcomers Ray Fenwick, Tim
Hensley, Al Columbia, Eleanor Davis, Joe Kimball and Tom
Kaczynski, along with the stalwart veterans Gabrielle Bell, Kurt Wolfgang, Paul
Hornschemeier and Sophie Crumb.
retail
price - $14.95 copacetic
price - $12.75
I Killed
Adolf Hitler
by Jason
What is it about Jason, you may ask, that
has his readers coming back
for every new book, year after year.
Well, for one thing, it's consistency: Jason is a conscientious
craftsman who delivers the goods; his work is consistently well done in
all particulars, as well as being consistently entertaining. And
for another, it's the mordant -- and, to be honest, morbid -- wit that
informs the extremely dry sense of humor that permeates all his
work: Jason's way of seeing seems peculiarly well suited to
looking at the world of today. I Killed Adolf Hitler is
certainly no exception. It is a time travel tale which might
appear at first glance to have disregarded all the normative parameters
of the genre -- altering of history, paradox, etc. -- but which, upon
consideration, seems to leave enough wiggle room to allow readers to
provide their own interpretation of what exactly is going on in that
department. As for the rest, it's sex and death, doomed romance
and, maybe, yes - a second chance! As an added bonus, this 48 page, full
color, ligne claire album may, perhaps, be profitably viewed as
a commentary on Hergé's legacy.
retail
price - $12.95 copacetic
price - $11.00
A Dangerous Woman:
The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman
by Sharon Rudahl
Speaking of legacies, few can match that of Emma Goldman.
Born in
Russia, joining the mass, late-19th century emigration to the
United States as a teen, and then deported back to Russia just as the
Bolshevik revolution was tranforming it into the Soviet Union, the life
of Emma Goldman is storied indeed -- a perfect choice for a graphic
biography. And who better to accomplish this task than Sharon
Rudahl. One of the founders of the feminist wing of underground
comics, Rudahl has been producing progressive, politically aware comics
for well over thirty years, and without any doubt, A Dangerous Woman
is her most significant work yet. An engaging tale of an
inspiring woman, this graphic biography will leave its readers with a
sense of awe at this amazing life lived to the limit and far ahead of
its time.
retail
price - $17.95 copacetic
price - $16.15
Super Spy
by Matt Kindt
Fans of Kindt's previous work (2 Sisters, Pistolwhip, etc) will
be sure to enjoy what is clearly Kindt's best work yet. Those who
have yet to check him out are advised to take a close look at this
multi-faceted work that clearly demonstrates Kindt's growth as an
artist. Incorporating quite a few clever formal devices, Kindt
assembles a file cabinet full of dossiers in comics form -- 52 in all
(it originally appeared as a weekly online comic - Check it out here)
-- telling stories within stories -- all set in WWII era Europe
-- that link to other stories that turn out to be connected to
others down an alley or around a corner or -- oh no, what's that, LOOK
OUT.... whew!
retail
price - $19.95 copacetic
price - $17.77
Cult
Fiction: Art and Comics
The catalogue for the exhibition of the same name co-curated by Kim L
Pace and Emma Mahony, and currently touring Britain through 2008, this
lushly printed oversize volume includes an excellent introductory essay
by noted comics critic, Paul Gravett and contains 123 illustrations of
the varoius ways comics and art interact by the likes of Robert Crumb,
Dan Clowes, Marcel Dzama, Debbie Dreschler, Kiloffer, Joe Sacco, Julie
Doucet, Kerry James Marshall, Raymond Pettibone, Mark Kalesniko,
Melinda Gebbie, and quite a few others. Also included are the
reproductions of the 27 artists' questionnaires -- made up of six
business card sized rectangles, each with a question on one side and a
blank space for the answer on the other -- as completed by each of the
contributing artists. Makes for fun and fascinating
reading. A nice contribution to the growing discourse.
Sound interesting? Learn more at Paul
Gravett's link-packed page devoted to this book.
retail
price - $30.00 copacetic
price - $27.50
Miss Fury
by Tarpe Mills
You want a gorgeously drawn, action packed, golden age
super hero comic
book, that centers on the adventures of an occasionally costume-clad
heroine that's written and drawn by a women and that, while it doesn't
shy away from presenting its readers with a gaggle of curvaceous gals,
is clearly the product of feminist thinking? What's that?
You thought
no such thing exists? Well, that's where you'd be wrong, as Miss Fury
by Tarpe Mills fits the bill in spades. While these issues appear
to
have been cobbled together at least in part out of newspaper strips and
as a result are
occasionally subject to reiterations, the story races ahead at
breakneck speed and there really is never a dull moment. In fact,
there is so much going on in the issues reprinted here, that
occasionally you'll find yourself thinking, "Hold on a second here,
what's going on?"
(and one page in the third issue
is printed out of order [it may very well have been out of order in the
original])
but, you'll find that if you flip back through the last few pages,
you'll figure it out, because everything is there. Comes complete with
an informative introduction by the noted feminist comics historian,
Trina Robbins
(who, we hasten to add, is also a fine cartoonist in her own right),
that will help get you up to speed. As these comics were created
during WWII, Miss Fury is not only compelled to deal with thugs,
burglars and blackmailers -- as well as a femme fatale, a petulant
boyfriend and an amoral seductress bent on getting him -- but also Nazi
spys and soldiers: the major villian is a Nazi general, who,
while
clearly evil, is nevertheless surprisingly presented as courageous and
heroic -- a far cry from the typical comic book caricatures of vicious
bunglers, and a highly unusual example of ambivalence in the face of
the enemy. Perhaps most fascinating is that during the Nazi
invasion
of Brazil (we told you this story was action packed) a fiery Latina
forges an alliance with rugged gauchos and rainforest indians to repell
the Nazi attack (assisted by Miss Fury, naturally) -- shades of today's
leftist alliances to save the rainforest from rapacious multinational
conglomerates. This book is a revelation! Thanks once again
go to
Greg Theakston's Pure
Imagination publishing for bringing yet another
comics classic to light.
retail
price - $25.00 copacetic
price - $22.22
Wholphin
#4
The wait is over, the fourth issue of Wholphin, The DVD
Magazine
of Rare and Unseen Short Films, is here! Eight short, and
not-so-short -- the running times span from 2 to 48 minutes in length
-- films that you won't see anywhere else; a re-scripted Russian
sitcom; a 13 minute preview of the forthcoming Strange Culture,
a feature film documenting the Kafka-esque adventures of a CMU art prof
mistaken for a bio-terrorist); and the third and final installment of
the BBC documentary, Power of Nightmares, that focuses on the
shared behaviors of Islamic Fundamentalists in the Middle East and
Neocon Fundamentalists in the USA (the first two installments are
contained in Wholphin 2 & 3, which we still have in stock!)
Read all about it (and watch some previews and some cool, web-only
short films) HERE.
retail
price - $19.95 copacetic
price - $17.77
Arthur #26
Hallelujah, Arthur is risen and has been born again. Yoko
Ono, Henry Jacobs and Becky Stark front an all new issue that includes
the return of coumnists Douglas Rushkoff, Byron Coley and Thurston
Moore. Learn all about it, here. And, yes, it's
still FREE! While supplies last...
copacetic
price - FREE
Top Shelf
Seasonal Sampler 2007
And while we're on the subject of "FREE!" how about these apples:
a 264 page squarebound trade paperback chock full o' comics that Top
Shelf has released or will be releasing in 2007. Also included
are a complete back catalogue listing and company chronology for all
you comics history buffs. Included are James Kochalka, Jeffrey
Brown, Renee French, Matt Kindt, Lilli Carré, Alan Moore,
Melinda Gebbie, Aaron Reiner, Eddie Campbell, Liz Prince, Brain Ralph,
Alex Robinson, Andy Runton, Craig Thompson and plenty more. Did
we say "FREE?" Yes, but we must add the obligatory, "While
supplies last," because supplies are indeed limited and when something
is free, you can be pretty sure it won't last forever. Ask for it
when you're in the shop or when you place an order online or over the
phone.
copacetic
price - all gone! sorry (they've promised
a new one next year, so keep a look out...)
The Incredible Change-Bots
by Jeffrey Brown
It looks like good ol' Jeffrey Brown has decided to throw caution to
the wind and induldge a childhood fantasy of producing his very own
Transformers™ adventure. Whether or
not this 144-page, full color
graphic novel was timed to "cash in" on this summer's release of the
blockbuster Transformers
movie, we'll leave it up to you to decide.
Here's how Mr. Brown describes this work: "Part parody, part
nostalgic
tribute, part moral fable - 'The Incredible-Change-Bots' re-invents
the shape changing robot genre into an occasionally stopping action
comedy half-full of romance, drama and epic battles!"
retail
price - $15.00 copacetic
price - $13.50
Fox Bunny Funny
by Andy Hartzell
This 102 page pantomime graphic novel is an ambitious allegory in which
foxes and bunnies are enlisted by Hartzell to represent a fundamental
duality in society. The fairly complex narrative successfully
relates a self-doubting fox
and his attempt to bridge the gap that ends in a change of allegiance,
all told images with no text whatsoever, quite an achievement when you
stop and think about it.
retail
price - $10.00 copacetic special price - $7.95
also
worthy of mention:
Miriam #1
by Rich Tommaso
Mr. Tommaso's most Clowesian comics work yet is a tale of growing up
different, immersed in pop culture. Follow Miriam and her pals as
the narrative jumps back in forth through time to portray crucial (and
not so
crucial) moments in their development.
retail
price - $4.95 copacetic
price - $4.44
Laika
by Nick Abadzis
This 200 page full color graphic novel by British comics veteran Nick
Abadzis, mixes fiction and historical fact to tell the tale of the
first earth being in space, a
dog named Laika, who was launched into orbit aboard
Sputnik Il on November 4, 1957,
never to return. Fair warning: If you're a softie when it
comes to animals, this book will probably make you cry. Read an
excerpt, here.
retail
price - $17.95 copacetic
price - $16.15
Finder: Sin-Eater
by Carla Speed McNeil
This 380 hardcover collects the first two Finder TPBs into a single
hardcover that sells for 20% less. This is now the best place to
start reading the finest ongoing science
fiction series in comics.
retail
price - $29.95 copacetic
price - $25.00
The Princes of Time
by Jon Vermilyea
A twelve
page newspaper comic featuring crazy time traveling Edwardian scientists, drug abuse, monsters, and
more; from PictureBox.
copacetic
price - $3.00
Hunter
& Painter
by Tom Gauld
This 24-page horizontal format (9 1/2" x 4") comic by the idiosyncratic
-- and British -- Gauld is set 40,000 years in the past, but is on our
shelves in the present day.
retail
price - $4.95 copacetic
price - $4.44
Ladyfriend
#10: The Friendship Issue
edited by Christa Donner
A great zine that we're happy to see is still going strong.
Sadly, according to an editorial note, this may prove to be the last
issue; if so, Ladyfriend is
ending on a high note as this
issue may very well be the best one yet. It gives us an amazing
twenty short pieces spanning a shining spectrum of females and their
friendships: from Ghanian girl power to Iris Chang to teens with
disabilities to figs and their wasps (you have to read it to get it)
and much more inbetween. Recommended.
copacetic
price - $4.00
and from the McSweeney's conglomerate:
Comedy By Numbers
by Prof. Eric Hoffman™ and Dr. Gary Rudoren©
169 ways to be funny followed by an end-of-the-book-bonus Comedy
Test: 44 questions and one extra credit. You too can become
an instant expert on all things funny. It is to laugh.
retail
price - $14.00 copacetic
price - $11.90
Bowl of Cherries
by Millard Kaufman
This provocative 326 page first novel by 90 year old Millard Kaufman
follows the world spanning adventures of 14 year old Judd Breslau and
"rivals the liveliest comic epics for giddy wordplay and gleeful
invention" (at least, according to the fine folks at McSweeney's),
proving once again that adolescnce is a state of mind.
retail
price - $22.00 copacetic
price - $19.80
ordering
info
New for August 2007
The Kat Who Walked in Beauty:
The Panoramic Dailies of 1920
by George Herriman
edited by Derya Ataker
Designed by Jacob Covey, who is clearly on a roll, this magnificent
giant (15" x 12") hardcover volume presents a classic run of the Krazy
Kat daily strips from 1920 (primarily) & 1921 that have never
before (we
believe)
been collected. In addition we get to see the very earliest
(1911)
appearances of Krazy and Ignatz in "The Dingbat Family," an earlier
Herriman strip, a nice run of Krazy Kat dailies from 1914, and, as and added bonus,
the illustrated sheet music of "Krazy
Kat" A Pantomime by
John Alden Carpenter; none too shabby, we'd say. This is the
first time
we've ever seen Herriman dailies presented at full size (13" x 3") and
we have to say that it's really a treat. Thank you, Mr. Ataker
& Co.
retail
price - $29.95 copacetic
price - $25.00
The Complete Peanuts, Volume 8: 1965-1966
by Charles M. Schulz
introduction by Hal Hartley (!)
Yes, the glory days of Peanuts roll on, one perfect strip after
another. The highlights this time around include the first Snoopy
"dogfights" with The Red Baron as well as his first forays into writing
(you remember: "It was a dark and stormy night...") as well as
the first appearance of Peppermint Patty. This volume's
introduction, by one of our favorite contemporary film makers, Hal
Hartley (Henry Fool, Fay Grim,
etc.), provides further proof of just how pervasive the influence of
Peanuts truly was, and is. To learn more about this series, please
visit our Complete
Peanuts page. (P.S. -- the background cover color on the
actual book is green, not blue as in the image above)
retail
price - $28.95 copacetic special price - $25.00
The
Complete Peanuts Gift Box Set: 1963 - 1966
This box set
contains Volume 7
and Volume 8 of the Complete Peanuts,
both encased in a heavy-duty illustrated slipcase by series designer,
Seth, for a price that can't be beat. (As much as we hate to be the one to
break it to you, we have to tell you that the annual release of the
Complete Peanuts Gift Box Set signals the beginning of the Christmas
Parade. It's almost a month earlier than last year [which was, in
turn, almost a month earlier than the year before that -- we shudder at
what this might portend]. In a Farmer's Almanac sort of way, it
may mean an especially bountiful Christmas comics cavalcade may be in
the making. Only time will tell, of course...)
retail
price - $49.95 copacetic
price - $44.44
Chance in Hell
by Gilbert Hernandez
It's here, another all new, original graphic novel by Gilbert "Palomar"
Hernandez (who must be working overtime these days). The title
and the dustjacket painting (by
Hernandez-pal, Rick Altergott) set the tone with their clear evocation
of 1950s pulp paperback covers -- think Jim Thompson: you know
right away that this story is going to take you to the wrong side of
the tracks. The novel -- and it is graphic in every sense of the
word -- opens with a lengthy prelude that has to rank as one of the
greatest evocations of lawlessness ever accomplished in any
medium. Set in a seemingly endless garbage dump that has been
narratively constucted as the "outside" to the inside of "the city,"
the vision we are presented with is a brutal ballet demonstrating the
consequences of a viral despair catalyzed by long-term, unmet human
emotional needs. It is unsparing in its presentation of the
ensuing spiral into chaos that such despair inevitably generates.
This sequence will leave you haunted, and its climax creates the window
through which the central character, the ironically (or, then again,
perhaps not) named "Empress," -- who is, at this point, a small child
-- escapes to the city, whereupon the next, more sophisticated and
complex manifestation of hell transpires, and in which Empress has
become an adolescent. Here we have the classic battle between the
spirit and the flesh; idealism and cynicism. And while hope is
held out for the former, it is, inevitably, the latter that triumphs
here -- we are in "hell" after all. The third and final act --
save for a brief coda -- brings us Empress as a married woman.
Intriguingly, from this perspective, the preceeding events come to be
viewed as a series of repressed childhood traumas which now serve to
inform her present day behavior, adding a specifically psychological
dimension to the narrative. The roots and repercussions of the inability to emotionally connect form the
crux here and, finally, through a synechdochical episode, bring
the reader full circle to an abreaction of the childhood trauma and,
thereupon, resolution. Added on top of it all, as the proverbial
icing on the cake, is the "fact" that Chance in Hell is
"actually" a movie featuring, in a relatively minor role, a long
running Love and Rockets heroine, the B-movie actress, Fritz.
Thus, this graphic novel "takes place" in the Love and Rockets universe, although in
a narratologically problematic manner. Gilbert Hernandez is a
master of comics and with Chance in Hell he has managed once
again to expand the boundries of the form's artistic territory.
retail
price - $16.95 copacetic
price - $13.55 (a
bargain!)
Notes for a War
Story by Gipi
Robot Dreams by Sara
Varon
What a study in contrasts we have in the latest pair of releases from
that fast rising star of graphic novel publishing, (:01) First Second. On the one hand we 
have Notes for a War Story, a
harshly realistic and remorselessly grim account of youthful thuggery
and stupidity, which, coming on the heels of Garage Band
being released in English for the first time earlier this year, has us
thinking of Gipi as the premier comics deconstructor of
contemporary European youth (and
likely had others thinking along similar lines as it was awarded the
2005 Goscinny prize for best script and was provlaimed book of the year
at at Angouleme in 2006); while, on the other, we have Sara Varon's Robot
Dreams,
a fantastic and whimsical account of a friendship between a robot and a
dog. What could be more different? Confrontation or
escape... which is the best approach to deal with these trying
times? Well, from the looks of things, there's no need to
choose. Both are equally valid on their own terms, as these two
timely works more than adequately express.
retail
price - $16.95@ copacetic
price - $15.25@
Spent
by Joe Matt
Here it is, the grande finalé to Matt's Canadian
chronicles. A US citizen who lived (illegally) in Canada from
1988 to 2002, Matt, along with Seth and Chester Brown
formed the
quintessential Canadian indy comics troika. Matt's shtick
is one of horrifying self-criticism, in which he mercilessly (and, we
have to admit, courageously) parades his flaws and quirks for all to
see. In his own twisted way, Matt's parade manages
to float the (well, more than) occasional celebration of degeneracy -- perhaps most
fully
and disgracefully here in Spent, in which, as the
title suggests, he made what we can all hope was an at last successful
attempt to get it all out of his system. Only time will tell if
it did the trick, but we can enjoy the perverse pleasures of this
comics text now and that everything will work out for him in the end.
retail
price - $19.95 copacetic
price - $16.95
Exit Wounds
by Rutu Modan
This 172 page full color hardcover work by Rutu Modan, a founding
member of the Israeli comics group, Actus Tragicus, is a real graphic
novel.
Populated by fully fleshed out characters and beautifully rendered in a
personal style that is clean, colorful and capable of conveying the
full depth of the strong script which expresses the complexities
and nuances that we expect from something called a novel, Exit Wounds
is a book you'll be likely to read more than once. Joe Sacco
(Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde)
call Exit Wounds "a profound,
richly
textured, humane, and unsentimental look at societal malaise and human
relationships and that uneasy place where they sometimes intersect."
retail
price - $19.95 copacetic
price - $16.95
Paper
Cutter #4 & #5
Published quarterly in Portland, Oregon by Tugboat Press, Papercutter is possibly the best
standard 32-page, comic book size anthology title currently on the
market. High production values deliver quality
work issue after issue. #4 
features
the work of Sarah
Oleksyk ("Roadside," "Ivy"), on the wraparound cover and in the story of
a pair of lovestruck misfits who meet at an all-night copy shop.
Vanessa Davis ("Spaniel Rage") and John Porcellino ("King-Cat")
complete the issue with tales of friendship, club-hopping, and
snowstorms. #5 features a Kazimir Strzepek ("Mourning Star")
story about a post-apocalypic world where two rival gangs battle for
control of a war torn city along with new work by Liz Prince ("Will
Your Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed") and Bwana Spoons ("Pencil Fight").
retail
price - $3.00@ copacetic
price - $3.00@
Elfworld, Volume One
Compiled by Jeffrey Brown, edited by François Vigneault,
designed by Jonas Madden-Connor, and published by Family Style, Elfworld is a sword and
sorcery comics anthology that features the
artwork of many contemporary indy comics stalwarts, some of whom
you might not have suspected of harboring elfin-oriented
fantasies. Contained with the Jesse Reklaw cover, this 128-page
squarebound anthology presents 19 stories, ranging from brief sorties
by Jeffrey Brown, Martin Cendreda, Matt Wiegle and the team of Ron
Regé, Jr. & Souther Salazar, to mini-epics by
François Vigneault, Kazimir Strzepek, Dave McKenna, Grant
Reynolds, Ansis Purins and the teams of Erik Nebel & Jesse Reklaw
and Sean Collins & Matt Wiegle. In between we are treated to
bite-size fare by Liz Prince, Jason Overby, K. Thor Jensen,
Dalton Sharp, and Jason & Jody Turner. Laughs, thrills,
action,
romance -- it's all here! Check it out and see what you think.
retail
price - $12.95 copacetic
price - $11.65
Stop
Forgetting to Remember
by Peter Kuper
13 years in the making, Peter Kuper's autobiographical magnum opus,
which cleverly incorporates much of his earlier autobiographical comics
into an intricately designed framework that mimics the manner in which
the fundamental connections of memory constuct both our dreaming and
our waking selves, is a 200+ page duo-tone hardcover volume that is
priced to sell. As always, Kuper's work is highly engaging, and
while some of the material in Stop Forgetting bears a
resemblance to the Joe Matt's tales of
self-revelation -- especially in its focus on sexual
yearnings --
Kuper is clearly focused on self-reflectivity, and this is perhaps this
work's raison
d'etre, providing as it does an ongoing analysis that cogently
delineates his
emotional development.
A great read!
retail
price - $19.95 copacetic
price - $17.95
new on the DVD front are these gems:
Inland Empire (2006)
a film by David Lynch
It is safe to say that David Lynch films are like no other films, and
that his stories operate much closer to
the edge of consciousness and adhere more closely to the logic of
dreams than typical Hollywood fare. His plots twist
and turn in on themselves like a möbius strip that a cat's gotten
a
hold of, and it's easy for the casual viewer to get lost; but that's
precisely the
point. Lynch always aims to destroy the cosy sense that all is
right with the world which is the goal of the majority of films,
especially those emanating from southern California.
Where other forms work to achieve closure, Lynch works to plunge his
audience into the abyss that lurks just below the surface of
quotidian normalcy. Nowhere is this tendency more evident than in
his latest release. Inland Empire
is, when you get right down to it, an art
film, of the type that is usually a tiny fraction of its length.
Its disjointed, discontinuous
narrative works to portray how modern consciousness has been subjected
to a fundamental reformation as a result of its virtual submersion in
the the alternate reality of artificial moving images that surround us
in
a multiplicity of forms delivering the basic mediums of film and
video (which are beginning to merge in the medium of digital video,
which, signifigantly, Inland Empire
was entirely shot in). The age old sense of a single, contained,
isolated and
particular self (which may very well have been illusory to begin with)
has, in the Lynchian view, given way to a continuous,
connected field in which the individual's identity, and, indeed, his
or her very being, is constantly in a state of flux and can, at times,
be located in other bodies and places, even, at times, those that do
not physically exist, but are instead creations of the self same
mediums that are responsible for this transformation.
Confusing? You bet, but, again, that's the idea. To delve more
deeply into Inland Empire,
read Dennis
Lim's review (complete with clips from the film) at Slate.
This 2-disc DVD release features a whopping 211 minutes of bonus
material, including 75 minutes of additional scenes referred to as "More
Things That Happened." This addition extends the total running
time of the film to a vertigo-inducing 254 minutes, so make sure you
brew a strong pot of coffee before settling in to watch it (you might
even want to consider brewing Dave's own
personal roast).
retail
price - $29.95 copacetic
price - $22.22
Night on Earth (1991)
a film by Jim Jarmusch
w/ Gena Rowlands, Roberto Benigni, Winona Ryder and plenty more
Music and original songs by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan
Our favorite Jarmusch film at last makes it to DVD, in this bonus-laden
2-disc Criterion edition. Five cities. Five taxis. One night. One
film. Watch it. Night on
Earth is a true pleasure; one that presents us with
a world -- so different from the one we seem stuck in today -- in which
a variety of people of different stripes manage to share their
fundamental humanity with each other, all at once, all over the world,
and we, the audience, can believe
that we too are part of it. Finishing the film you will feel more
hopeful that this day (or should we say night?) will come again.
retail
price - $39.95 copacetic
price - $33.97
Stranger than Paradise (1984)
another film by Jim Jarmusch
w/ John Lurie, Richard Edson & Eszter Balint
music by John Lurie
Accompanying the aforementioned release of Night on Earth is
the
film in which Jarmusch first forged his idiosyncratic, humorous and
insightful brand of alienation and came into his own. Stranger
than Paradise established Jarmusch on the indy film scene and its
success enabled him to pursue his vision; which he has vigorously
done ever since, creating a singular body of work that includes
some of the most memorable films of the last twenty years. Also
included on this 2-disc Criterion edition is Permanent Vacation
(1980), Jarmusch's first feature film, which has never been widely
distributed and will be first seen here by most.
retail
price - $39.95 copacetic
price - $33.97
also worthy of mention:
Tintin and the Secret of Literature
by Tom McCarthy
This hardcover volume published by Granta Books in London provides a
unique decoding of Hergé's archetypical character.
retail
price - $29.95 copacetic
price - $25.00
and, finally...
If you're a collector of Silver Age comics, you might want to
check out this freshly loaded
page (well, it was freshly loaded in August 2007, but there's still
enough up to make it worth checking out today, provided, of course,
that you're interested in Silver Age DC) listing a tidy little stash of
DCs from the 1960s that
we just picked and have priced to sell.
ordering
info
New for July 2007
Uptight #2
by Jordan Crane
All hail Jordan Crane in his effort to reinvigorate the standard
pamphlet comic book. Uptight
is what a comic book should be: an intense, well thought out,
tightly crafted, personal expression at an affordable price. Not
for the faint of heart, this issue plunges the reader into a stressed
out, anxiety prone world where everyone is right on the edge and some
are going over: "Take Me Home" follows a lonely shift worker
haunted by a late night encounter; "Before They Got Better" gives us a
perfect pitch rendition of domestic tensions rocking the boat without
ever quite dragging it under the waves; and the second installment of
"Keeping Two" shows its protagonist's imaginiation running away with
him as he anxiously awaits his girlfriend's return from renting a
video. Each is vividly rendered and expertly paced. This
is a comic book. Recommended.
retail
price - $2.50 copacetic
price - $2.25
Love and Rockets v.2 #20
by Gilbert, Jaime & Mario Hernandez
While we're on the topic of what's right with comic books today, what
better to segue to than this 56-page double size issue includes the
entirety (and then some, as it is the "director's cut" which restores
some deletions made at the behest of NYT editors) of Jaime's "La Maggie
la Loca" strip that ran in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, an all
new 24-page story (well, it's 24 half-pages, so, quibblers
could make the case that it's more like a 12-page story... but we
won't!) by Jaime operating in his patented Dennis the Menace/Peanuts
mode, and an epic 24 page Beto tale featuring Venus and Co. that works
to analyze how female gender and sexuality are constructed in a variety
of media from print to film to television while telling a tale of love,
loss and spiritual rebirth, as is his wont.
retail
price - $7.99 copacetic
price - $6.39
Speak of the Devil #1 (of 6)
by Gilbert Hernandez
We can't move on yet, as we have to mention the latest from L& R
co-founder, Gilbert
H, Speak of the Devil.
This series will be of special interest to artists and students of the
form as Gilbert, here freed from any considerations pertaining to his L
& R mythos, concentrates on the formal
elements that make up comics as we know them: story structure
& pacing, page layout & body language, quality of line &
black placement (positive and negative space), dialogue (and the lack
thereof) and balloon placement -- all have been carefully considered
and bear evidence of years of experience. Gilbert's
tendency towards a neo-classicism has never been clearer, and Speak
of the Devil is a full-blooded example of the coalescing of the
years into a mature style. Make sure you take a look.
retail
price - $3.50 copacetic
price - $3.00
Elvis Road
by Xavier Robel & Helge Reumann
Robel and Reumann, known collectively as Elvis Studio, have with Elvis
Road
produced a true one-of-a-kind item: a 9" x 264" (that's 22 feet!)
comic book panel in which everything happens at once. When
the entirety of the "story" is laid out in a single image and the mind
has to pick and choose on its own, the reader can't help but recognize
that the process of creating a story out of an assemblage of visual
information is transformed. While, at least in theory, the
entire spectacle as presented to the reader is intended to be seen as
occurring in a single instant, the reader will almost certainly find
him or herself processing the image into some form of narrative as it is simply
impossible to achieve a simultaneous apprehension of the image's
entirety the way one can and does when reading the intellectually
bite-size pieces presented in standard comics. Elvis
Road enables --
one might even go so far as to say forces -- the reader to invent a new
approach to reading the
image, as the methods developed to read a standard comic book will be
insufficient here.
The temporal dimension necessarily becomes
opened to the reader, who can and must move forward and backward, left
and right, up and down through the image, in the process assigning a
temporal order.
This in turn will allow
the reader an opportunity to examine and reevaluate just how the
distinct order and layouts of panels that constitute standard comic
book language represent a digestion
of visual experience, and to ponder that it may very well be
just this compartmentalization of experience into discrete units that
forms our sense of time as a narrative. In other words, Elvis Road is
a meta-narrative in comics. It achieves, through the authors'
choice
of presenting an entire "saga" in a single image, an auto-critique of
standard comics' narrative forms. In addition, it harkens back to
the
tapestry, which is, arguably, one of the tributary streams that served
as a source for the mighty river of comics; and by doing so hints at
further, overlooked possibilities for comics in the future.
retail
price - $24.95 copacetic
price - $22.00 (a
dollar a foot!)
La Jetée/ Sans
Soleil - DVD
by Chris Marker
While separated by twenty years and superficially very different -- La
Jetée is a half hour "science fiction" tale of time travel
told entirely in still images (think comics, as Marker surely was)
while Sans Soleil
is a 100 minute "travelogue" of a journey to Africa and Japan --
these two masterworks of cinema are, at their core, both focused on a
space where time and memory intertwine and united in their fearless
experimentation and stunning creative vision.
Here on this new Criterion release, both films have been restored,
received high-definition digital transfers, and are accompanied by
loads of cool bonus materials.
retail
price - $39.95 copacetic
price - $34.44
Comics by
Theo Ellsworth
• Paper Wasp #1 - 3 copacetic
price - $3.00@
• Capacity #6 copacetic
price - $3.50
• Always Somewhere
Nearby copacetic
price - $4.00
• Minnow #1 copacetic
price - $7.00
We just received a healthy portion of the fabulous self-published works
of Theo Ellsworth. Possessed of a fantastic imagination combined
with a strong technical rendering ability both of which are bonded to
an obsessive need to draw, Ellsworth has been cranking out an ever
growing stack of meticulously weird assemblages of drawings, writings
and comics, in series and stand alone pieces. Paper Wasp
is 
his "ongoing art zine;" Capacity
is where he publishes his comics work, and might be the place to start;
Always Somewhere Nearby is a "narrative sketchbook
experiment;" and Minnow is his new series designed to showcase
his drawings. These works are digest size (5 1/2" x 8 1/2")
except for Capacity, which is semi-legal (7" x 8 1/2") and Minnow,
which is magazine size (8 1/2" x 11"). Both Minnow and Always
Somewhere Nearby have two-color hand-silkscreened covers.
Learn more at http://www.artcapacity.com.
MOME 8 -
Summer 2007
edited by Eric Reynolds and Gary Groth
This issue pretty much completes the transition to the new "Team
MOME." Original members Jonathan Bennet, Sophie Crumb and Paul
Hornschemeier are joined here by new comers (some of whom showed up
last issue) Eleanor Davis, Ray Fenwick, Tom Kaczynski, Al Columbia,
Émile Bravo and Joe Kimball, while Lewis Trondheim wraps up his
three-part "At Loose Ends." Davis is the featured artist this
issue with her work gracing the cover and providing the lead story,
while she is the interview subject as well. Her story,
"Stick and String" is a moody meditation on exogamous bonding that
shows her work moving a bit in the direction of Sammy Harkham
(although, in her interview, she identifies Joann Sfar as her current
fave). The Copacetic pick for this issue is Tom Kaczynski's
"10,000 Years," a mordant take on contemporary alienation that, while
clearly indebted to Clowes, brings an original perspective to the table
with its smart synthesis of dialectical materialism and post-industrial
consumer culture. And we can't sign off on this issue without
mentioning Émile Bravo's "Young Americans," which is certainly
one of the cleverest short comics we've read in a while.
retail
price - $14.95 copacetic
price - $12.75
Flight 4
edited by Kazu Kibuishi
And, speaking of notable anthologies, the fourth volume of this annual
(or close to it) full color anthology
contains 344 pages of comics flights of fancy by a diverse cast of
creators including Graham Annable, Neil Babra, Scott Campbell, Thomas
Herpich, Azad Injejikian, Fábio Moon, Lark Pien, Raina
Telgemeier, Joey
Weiser and many others, all of which are designed to elevate your mood
and
float your boat. Here's a spiffy preview.
retail
price - $24.95 copacetic
price - $22.22
Pulphope:
The Art of Paul Pope
by Paul Pope
It's here: the Paul Pope coffee table book. Who would've
thunk it?
There's everything from comics to posters to CD covers to prints to
sketchbooks and more. The book is divided into sections grouping
the
work in a variety of categories including the just stated formal
divisions as well as thematic units such as Ukiyo-e and erotica.
Connecting it all together is an ongoing exegesis of the works by Pope
himself. It turns out that he has quite a bit to say as the text
roves
far and wide: personal reminiscences, ruminations on art and
literature, technical explications, insights into the processes of
artistic creation, manifestos and more amply fill the spaces between
the artwork on display.
retail
price - $29.95 copacetic
price - $25.00
Nexus: Space Opera - Act One
By Steve Rude and Mike Baron
The day has at last dawned on the return of Nexus. The best
heroic fantasy adventure series of the 1980s and 1990s, featuring what
is arguably the greatest science fiction super hero of all time, Nexus
is back! This issue is, technically, the 99th issue of Nexus,
but it is best thought of as the first chapter of the latest in an
illustrious line of limited series that are, for all intents and
purposes, graphic novellas broken up into chapters. The depth of
the wonderfully complex cast of characters as well as each individual
characterization is unique in the history of heroic fantasy, and the
back story is an epoch spanning galactic history in the grand tradition
of classic science fiction, making the total package a truly essential
comic book experience.
retail
price - $2.99 copacetic
price - $2.69
Reading Comics
by Douglas Wolk
Reading Reading Comics has led us to the decision to anoint
Douglas Wolk as the budding Andrew Sarris
for comics. While Reading Comics is not a work that is
ready to go one on one with Sarris's The American Cinema, Wolk
is an obviously literate individual, a clearly articulate writer, and
possessed of a discerning eye. Reading Comics
is a fine volume that will be engaging to many a comics enthusiast, and
will be especially valued by the comics novice who is working to get up
to speed. Mr. Wolk is also an opinionated reviewer, so chances
are you
won't always find yourself in agreement with him. He has, in
fact,
already generated several small scale controversies -- but controversy
often clears the air and can be healthy (read
an excerpt of Reading Comics and get a
taste of some of the controversy).
His arguments are,
generally, well constructed, so you are able to see where you stand in
regards to his perspectives. We suspect, however, that an
obsessive fanboy lurks still within him, based on the evidence of this in-depth
account/deconstruction of DC's 52 Weeks. In
short: If you like reading about
comics, then there's a good chance Reading Comics is for you.
retail
price - $22.95 copacetic
price - $20.00
My
Life in a Jugular Vein:
Three More Years of Snakepit Comics
by Ben Snakepit
288 more pages of Snakepit. Chronicling the years 2004, 2005
& 2006, Jugular gives us
plenty of touring, rocking, partying and
eating (seems that Ben is a bit of a gourmet). Comes with 18
track
CD "Soundtrack" featuring the bands that rock Ben's world, including
Blotto, Drunken Boat, The Methadones, and Toys That Kill. This is
the punk rock value of the year!
retail
price - $15.00 copacetic
price - $13.44
... in the comics &
cartoon history department:
Popeye The Sailor: 1933 - 1938 (DVD)
This
is it, the one we've all been waiting for! The first sixty
Fleischer Studios Popeye cartoons, fully restored and uncut; PLUS the
first two three-color Technicolor double-length cartoons: "Popeye the
Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor", and "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali
Baba's Forty Thieves", and plenty of great bonus features. It's
hard to believe that it's finally here...
retail
price - $64.92 copacetic
price - $55.55
Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland, Volume One
Yet another LIttle Nemo book! The highlight of this particular
294
page, full color, oversize hardcover volume is the prelude featuring
the clearly (looking back from today's point of view) unfortunate, yet
-- presuming that it is viewed from the proper perspective --
instructive adventures of the Jungle Imps in which skewed versions of
traditional African legends are given the Winsor McCay treatment.
Obviously, McCay, a product of a Victorian upbringing, is
ill-equipped
to properly perceive this material, yet it is in precisely this nexus
point -- of the collision of white Victorian culture and black African
culture -- that much of modern American culture was born. The
comics
apotheosis of this fertile union is found in the work of George
Herriman, and McCay's 1903 strip (which ran, we believe, only in
Cincinnati) is clearly a wrong-headed failure, but it remains a
valuable document of the sunset of 19th century perspectives. As
for
Little Nemo, what more can be said? It's the single most
spectacular
work in the history of comics, and certainly among the most
influential. We offer several alternatives to this volume, all of
which have their merits. It's up to you to decide which one is
the
best fit for you. It's
best if you come in and compare. If you have yet to take the
plunge, this volume has several things going for it, not the least of
which is that, when taken together with the forthcoming second volume,
it purports to be the most complete collection of Little Nemo ever
published. We'll let you know our opinion of that claiom as soon
as we get our hands on volume two.
retail
price - $49.95 copacetic
price - $44.44
Harvey
Classics, Volume One - Casper the Friendly Ghost
edited and designed by Leslie Cabarga
Well, if this is something you're interested in, we're here to tell you
that Carbaga has done a bang-up job with this book. It contains
over
400 Silver-Age-size pages of crisp, high resolution, black and white
comics along with 64 pages of full color remastered scans of covers and
stories. 100 stories in all! The Ghostly Trio, Spooky,
Wendy and
Nightmare are all here. If Casper is your boy, then this is your
book.
retail
price - $19.95 copacetic
price - $17.95
Will Eisner: Edge of Genius
A fascinating compendium of Eisner's earliest work beginning with his
amateur work of the early '30s and continuing through his first
published efforts later
that decade. Reading this book you can see his influences and
watch his style form. It contains 160 pages of comics (mostly)
and illustration in an 8 1/2" x 11" squarebound format; from Pure
Imagination.
retail
price - $25.00 copacetic
price - $22.50
Alex Toth: Edge of Genius, Volume One
This new release
contains 160 pages of Toth stories in an 8 1/2" x 11" squarebound
format, as with all previous Pure Imagination volumes.
There are 24 stories total, with 21 from 1952. This is the period
where Toth forms his trademarked style and will be of interest to all
students of this seminal artist.
retail
price - $25.00 copacetic
price - $22.50
Comics Introspective, Volume One: Peter Bagge
Aging
indy comics crank P. Bagge gets the treatment in this TwoMorrows
publication that is filled with old, new and rare artwork along with
brand new interviews with and commentary on the one and only Mr.
Bagge. I guess this means Pete is now officially part of the
comic
book mainstream. Or does it?
retail
price - $16.95 copacetic
price - $15.00
Modern
Masters, Volume Twelve: Michael Golden
On the opposite end of the comic book spectrum from Mr. Bagge lies
Michael Golden, comics craftsman extraordinaire, whose work has had
an immense influence on the look of the last two decades of superhero
comics. Todd McFarlane, Arthur Adams and even, if you can believe
it,
Glen Danzig -- among countless others -- all owe a major stylistic debt
to
Michael Golden. Plenty of high quality reproductions accompany an
in-depth interview in this TwoMorrows volume.
retail
price - $14.95 copacetic
price - $12.75
and, also worthy of note:
Berlin #13
by Jason Lutes
The saga continues...
retail
price - $3.95 copacetic
price - $3.55
Buddha,
Volume Eight - Jetavana
by Osamu Tezuka
The epic comes to its stunning conclusion.
retail
price - $14.95 copacetic
price - $13.45
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:
2Q 2007: April - June, New Arrivals
1Q 2007: January - March, New Arrivals
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
