NEW
STUFF ARCHIVES
New for
September 2009
Well, it appears that the folks at Fantagraphics are feeling particularly gung-ho on comics right now, based on their ten-pack of new releases. Let's start it off with the essential release. Yes, you guessed it, it's:
Love and
Rockets: New Stories #2
by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez
It's Here! We don't have a lot to say about it, yet, but what else do you need to know, really? Well, for starters, how about the fact that this issue features a 42 page pantomime comic by Beto that is a midnight ferry ride through the subconscious realm that will leave you with that tantalizing feeling you get when you wake up from a particularly vivid yet mystifying dream: that you had the answer, that you saw how all the pieces fit together and you had it all figured out... if only you could remember! And then there's the fantastic fifty-page finale of Jaime's epic opus of femme superheoics, "Ti-Girls Adventures." This contemporary classic that transcends all attempts to categorize it now only comes out once a year, so we feel that all we have to say is, "Be there, or be square!"
retail price - $14.99 copacetic price - $11.99
All and Sundry
by Paul Hornschemeier
All the bits and pieces that were scattered hither and yon have been carefully collected and sequenced in this big fat scrapbook that was (no surprise here) designed by Hornschemeier himself. There's much to be gleaned here, especially by the artists among you. Not sure what kind of work has been collected? This PDF preview should give you a better a idea.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.00
The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book
by Joe Daly
Two full color works, the novella length, "The Leaking Cello Case," and the novel length, "John Wesley Harding," make this hardcover volume a welcome arrival for all long suffering fans of South Africa's reigning comics hepster, Joe Daly. Here is work that really is like no other, a truly diverse amalgamation that brings to mind comics from Hergé to Clowes to Pete Sickman-Garner, but remains utterly unique and distinctly South African. Not enough people are hep to this guy, so we say, "Check this one out!" And we're making it easy for you, with this 10-page PDF preview.
retail price - $22.99 copacetic price - $19.99
Giraffes In My Hair
by Bruce Paley and Carol Swain
Carol Swain is one of Britain's finest artists, and with Giraffes In My Hair, written by her current companion, Bruce Paley, we have her most substantial work to date. It is a memoir of Paley's "life in the tumultuous '60s and '70s." Starting out in 1967 with hitchhiking and moving on through dropping acid, Disneyland, Chicago '68, Black Panthers and then into the '70s, and Max's Kansas City, doing drugs with Johnny Thunders and punk rock "nihilism." All told in Carol Swain's exquisite, understated and finely tuned pencil rendering that are a pleasure to behold. But you don't have to take our word fo rit; just check out this 9-page PDF preview and decide for yourself.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
The Squirrel Machine
by Hans Rickheit
It's a freaky frenzy of pen and ink in this aptly titled tale of sex and science fiction set in Victorian-era New England. Rickheit splices 19th century literary tropes onto a 21st century comics sensibility to come up with a sort of H.G. Wells meets Jim Woodring tale that defies description. 178 pages of the mind-bending and the macabre. Having trouble visualizing this work from our paltry description we have provided you with? Have no fears, a 15-page PDF preview is here!
retail price - $18.99 copacetic price - $16.66
Prison Pit
by Johnny Ryan
We have to say, from the looks of Prison Pit (Book One), that it appears that Mr. Ryan has been spending some quality time with the works of Mat Brinkman. This work is quite a departure and long time Ryan readers may not know what to make of this violent (well, at least that's familiar), nearly wordless, quest-driven narrative set in a barren and nameless terrain. Fans of hyper-violent role-playing video games may have met their match with this one.
retail price - $12.99 copacetic price - $11.75
West Coast
Blues
by Jaques Tardi and Jean-Patrick Manchette
France's king of crime comics is back! West Coast Blues is an all-new noir full of dramatic pen and ink travelogue of anarchic violence: from seashore to urban center to deep in the woods. A world full of people you don't want to meet doing things you'd be better off not knowing about, but somehow, there's something about this world which makes you curious: just what makes these people tick, and what does that say about the world we live in?
retail price - $18.99 copacetic price - $16.66
From Wonderland With Love: Danish Comics in the Third Millenium
edited by Steffen P. Maarup
This is a flexi-bound collection of 178 pages of comics from Denmark: black and white, duotone and full color. There's an amazing variety of work on display here, from three-panel pen and ink dailies to full color graphic novellas. Satire, sarcasm, cuddly cuteness, potentially discomfiting explorations of the unconscious, and much more are packed in side-by-side and executed in a dazzling variety of styles. Take a look at this 14-page PDF preview and see what you think.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.00
Rock Candy
by Femke Hiemstra
Here she is, the Dutch Pop Surrealist Queen in all her glory. This perky die-cut hardcover volume designed and edited by Jacob Covey contains a vibrant mix of painting, sketches, and mixed-media objets d'art. Get a taste with this generous 15-page preview courtesy of the fine folks at Fantagraphics.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $24.99
The Complete Collected Peanuts, Volume 12: 1973 - 74
by Charles M. Schulz
introduction by by Billie Jean King
This is the dawning of the age of... Woodstock and Peppermint Patty, who take center stage along with the rest of the Peanuts gang as we head deep into the heart of the 1970s. Billie Jean King's introduction is a real surprise and has to be the most sincerely heartfelt one yet. The range of introducers this series has accumulated thus far is a real testament to the amazingly broad appeal of Peanuts: from Walter Cronkite (Volume 2) to Whoopi Goldberg (Volume 5), from Jonathan Franzen (Volume 4) to John Waters (Volume 9), and now Billie Jean King – everyone loves good ol' Charlie Brown and Co.!
retail price - $28.99 copacetic price - $23.99
and for all of you who were waiting for this year's box set to arrive, well, the wait is over:
The Complete Collected Peanuts Gift Box Set 6: 1971 - 74
by Charles M. Schulz
As always, this box set contains the two latest volumes in the series (11 & 12, this time around) , nestled in a sturdy Seth-designed slip case, for a substantial savings.
retail price - $49.99 copacetic special price - $39.99
Whew! That's it for Fantagraphics. There are, of course, other people in the comics publishing biz, so let's continue on...
Nancy
by John Stanley
Drawn and Quarterly continues their long held dream to present the works of John Stanley in deluxe, Seth-designed volumes. Pretty much everything we said about the premiere volume in this series, Melvin Monster, holds true for this one, and then some!
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $22.22
Stitches
by David Small
This is a moving childhood memoir from renowned children's picture book illustrator, David Small. While his career has largely been devoted to serving children, this work reveals that it is likely that he was nourishing his own inner child, as his parents never did. Stitches is a fairly dark and harrowing work, as are many childhood memoirs, it must be said. It is executed entirely in pen and ink worked over with delicately nuanced ink washes that capture his pain. Fans of Will Eisner's late, mature work (also, interestingly, published by Stitches' publisher, W.W. Norton) are herein especially encouraged to take a look, as it manages to achieve a similar emotional punch. And it's garnered some pretty hefty praise from the likes of Jules Feiffer, Francoise Mouly – even Stan Lee! – but most of all, R. Crumb, who states, "David Small evokes the mad scientific world of the 1950s beautifully. Small is an innocent lamb, a sensitive boy, caught in a nightmare situation. Capturing body language and facial expression subtly, Stitches becomes in Small's skillful hands a powerful story, an emotionally charged autobiography."
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
Stuffed
Nick Bertozzi & Glenn Eichler
Stuffed is an excellent work. Written by award-winning, Colbert Report scriptor, Glenn Eichler, and illustrated by the under-appreciated Nick Bertozzi (read The Salon, if you haven't already). The cast of characters, the settings, the interactions – all ring true: these are people we know, doing things in a way that we understand, and that make sense. At its core lie the roles, rites and responsibilities of parenting, as well as the responses to it. Stuffed makes for a solid, enriching, rewarding – and entertaining – read. Recommended!
retail price - $17.99 copacetic price - $15.99
The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics
edited by Art Spiegelman and Francois Mouly
If the amazing kids' comics from the halycon days of yore are your thing, then you've hit the jackopot with this one! Well over 300 pages of classics, all scanned from the original comics themselves, and printed at approximately 120% of the originals. These scans have been digitally cleaned up a bit, so there's no newsprint background tones, just the flat white paper that they're printed on. While this might upset some purists, it was probably a good call as this book is clearly going to be marketed as a gift for children as well as for older fans, and lay people will have difficulty appreciating the nuances of newsprint; and they did a more than decent job of balancing the tones. The book is, somewhat arbitrarily, divided into five sections: Hey, Kids; Funny Animals; Fantasyland; Storytime; and Weird and Wacky. The book successfully draws across the spectrum of children's comics from the twenty years following the close of the second world war – the golden age of kids' comics that fed the baby boomers' imaginations before television took over. While certainly no one is going to agree with every choice, the editors – along with the board of advisors – picked a good crop of comics that is certain to contain favorites of every fan as well as win the hearts of every reader and, more importantly, is sure to capture the imagination of the next generation. Includes work by all-time greats Carl Barks, Basil Wolverton, Harvey Kurtzman, John Stanley, Bob Bolling, Walt Kelly, and many, many more (even Dr. Seuss, who started out in comics). Get a sneak peek, here (just click on the image of the open book at the top right, under "Sample Toon Treasury").
retail price - $40.00 copacetic price - $35.00
Big Questions #12
by Anders Nilsen
Yes, it's here. Apologies for not noting it earlier... This issue features straight-up bird-on-bird action in a single, issue-length story. Anders takes us on yet another metaphorical foray into our life and times, as his fine flock of feathered friends gets jumped by a gang of crows set on mayhem and murder.
retail price - $5.95 copacetic price - $5.35
The Art of Tony Millionaire
by (duh) Tony Millionaire
It's here, Tony Millionaire's coffee-table moment – but, professional drinker and rabble rouser that Mr. Millionaire is, it might be a tad risky to put the fine china next to this volume, as the spirit inhabiting it is liable to bubble forth and wreak havoc. It is a volume that is likely to feel more at home next to a bottle of spirits, whether it's at the corner tavern or the basement bar. Included along with page after page of Mr. Millionaire's classic-illustration-era, fine pen and ink stylings are many heretofore unknown and unseen bits and pieces of his life and times and antics: newspaper clippings, embarrasing photos, confessions of vicious boozing and more! Long time fans will find much to induldge in.
retail price - $39.95 copacetic price - $34.95
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer (DVD)
a film by Robbie Cavolina & Ian McCrudden
Years in the making, this definitive documentary film portrait of one of the all-time great jazz singers is now here. It's a two-disc marvel with a bonus disc that includes what all true aficionado's crave: 90 minutes of uninterrupted live performances! Make sure to get a taste here, at the official Anita O'Day website.
retail price - $29.98 copacetic price - $25.00
Items from our September 2009 listings may now be purchased online at our new site, HERE.
New for August 2009
Locas II
by Jaime Hernandez
418 pages of the greatest comics of our time under one cover. This volume picks up, roughly, where Locas left off, and collects nearly all the standard comic book size formatted work that Jaime has executed since the conclusion of the original 50-issue run of the magazine size formatted Love and Rockets. Locas II bring together under one cover all six issues of the Penny Century series along with Jaime's contributions to the first nineteen issues of the twenty-issue run of the second volume of Love and Rockets. Not everything from this period is here, however. The most notable exclusion is the first work Jaime completed after the termination of L&R, vol. I, the three-issue mini-series, Whoa, Nellie! As it was only tangentially connected to the Locas storyline, it is not collected here. Also not included are numerous short strips – mostly one or two pages in length – that appeared in the aforementioned issues of Penny Century and L&R, vol. II, but are not related to the Locas continuity, as well as the full color, novella length work that originally appeared (slightly abridged) in The New York Times Sunday Magazine and subsequently appeared in Love and Rockets, Volume II #20. (Completists take note!) That said, what you are getting is a big book filled with the best of the best, all laid out in a mammoth narrative arc that continues to build on the magnificent structure of past work in creating the most richly complex and deeply human work in the history of comics.
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $33.99
Masterpiece Comics
by R. Sikoryak
Literally two decades in the making, here is a book that lives up to its name! There are levels of irony upon irony and then within and in between these there lurks hints and glimmers of more. There is militant subversion and blatant transgression of the exact same material for which is simultaneously exhibited the deepest respect and greatest empathy. R. Sikoryak is a truly singular master of comics who knows its classical forms and major practitioners inside out to a degree that is simply unparalleled. His work contained here will trigger a panoply of associations to anyone devoted to the form of comics and this is then squared for those who are on equally familiar terms with the literary classics that are adapted. Sikoryak's achievment in successfully splicing together classic literature and classic comics at the deep level of their respective genetic codes is such that the reading of this collection will, for some, spark a revolution in their perceptual apparatus that will topple the reigning dominant ideology and force a reordering of priorities. We have here the Book of Genesis as a series of Blondie Sunday pages; Dante's Inferno imagined as Bazooka Gum insert comics; Shakespeare's Macbeth as a Mary Worth sub-plot; Voltaire's Candide imagined as Ziggy; Marlowe's Faust as a series of Garfield dailies; Wuthering Heights as an EC horror comic; The Scarlet Letter as acted out by Little Lulu and Tubby; Kafka's "Metamorphosis" starring Charlie Brown; The Portrait of Dorian Gray as a sequence from Little Nemo in Slumberland; Waiting for Godot starring Beavis and Butthead; and, finally the piece de resistance, Crime and Punishment as a 1950s Detective Comics featuring Batman & Robin and the Joker followed by the encore of Camus's L'Etranger condensed into a series of Action Comics covers circa the same era. No self-respecting comics fan can hold their head high without having this volume in their library. Please take a moment to feast your eyes on this PDF sneak peek. And then take a few moments to read this 3-part interview with Sikoryak.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
Cold Heat 7/8
by Frank Santoro and BJ
Cold Heat closes in for the kill with another double issue. This one brings the series one (double) issue away from completion. After the massive action blow-out of #5/6, this time around we have more of a culture jam as the saga crosses international boundaries when Castle & Co. head to the southern hemisphere, accompanied by the BBC, and the modern condition of living in the global village is given the Cold Heat treatment along the way. Land lines and laptops, mobile phones and desktops, the internet and intensive care units, wifi and the web, credit cards and music festivals, airports and hotel rooms, Starbucks and taxi cabs, bright beaches and dark alleys – all seamlessly connect to form the all-encompassing phenomenological envelope that passes for reality in the 21st century. As always, series artist, Frank Santoro takes chances – starting, most obviously this time around, with the front cover, which invokes Ellsworth Kelly and Ad Reinhardt while highlighting the "thingness" of a comic book – as he pushes and pokes at the formal elements that make up the current corpus of comics in his ongoing challenge to the received wisdom that constitutes contemporary comics orthodoxy.
The
images we've selected to illustrate this listing focus on one of
Santoro's greatest strengths that of exploring the many avenues open to
graphically rendering interior subjective states of mind beyond mere
mastery of facial expression. The many faces of Castle on display
in the pages of Cold Heat embody of the struggle to forge new tools to
place in the comics craft toolbox, making each issue of the series
double as a workshop – and none moreso than this one. There's an
aspect to the experience of reading Cold Heat that feels like being
taken behind the scenes to see how it's done while the action never
stops happening all around. It's like bringing you right there on the
set while they're filming yet still managing to maintain the
manufactured illusion of the movie. This issue has a
terrifyingly low print run of 100 copies, so delay purchase at your own
risk.
retail price - $20.00 copacetic price - $18.88
Abstract Comics
edited by Andrei Molotiu
Andrei Molotiu, college professor, art historian, and all-star poster to the TCJ message board, has pulled together a wide ranging assortment of works under the banner of "abstract comics." Molotiu well understands the vagaries that will attach themselves to an overly broad designation such as this and has penned a cogent introduction to give readers as idea of his thoughts about what areas this label could assist in classifying. Importantly, he is well aware that this primary purpose of this collection is to get the conversation started. And this it has already accomplished, as the numerous posts to the Abstract Comics Blog firmly attest. Artists represented in this volume range from celebrated masters such as R. Crumb, Gary Panter and Patrick McDonnell, to accomplished practitioners of the comics arts such as James Kochalka, Lewis Trondheim, J.R. Williams and John Hankiewicz, to marginally known art comics figures like Richard Hahn, Jason T. Miles, Blaise Larmee and Warren Craghead III, but the majority of contributors are obscure figures working on the margins that few readers of these pages will be familiar with – at least in the context of producing comics – such as editor Molotiu himself, who turned in eight pages of free floating abstractions, and Copacetic's own Bill Boichel, whose entry is a 24-page mini-comic that has been reformatted as a two-page spread. Yet lack of renown should not be conflated with lack of artistic vision as some of the most engaging works on display here are by the least recognized artists. In recognition of the fact that the purchase of this volume represents a bit of a risk for most comics readers due to the largely unfamiliar terrain, we have decided to shoulder some of that risk by offering an introductory special price of 25% below retail, which works out to a savings of $10.00 that you can either pocket... or spend on more comics!
retail price - $39.99 copacetic special price - $29.99
Sleeper Car
by Theo Ellsworth
Looking for something to celebrate? How about this: An all new 32-page comic book by Theo Ellsworth! It's been almost a year since up-and-coming indy-comics publisher, Secret Acres unleashed the full force of his massive talent in the definitive Capacity collection that was released at last year's SPX and has been one of Copacetic's best sellers since then. In the interim, the question, "Is there anything new by Theo Ellsworth?" has become perhaps the most frequent of all queries here at Copacetic (followed closely by, "Can I use the bathroom?") Now, at last we can answer in the affirmative. Sleeper Car is firmly in the tradition of the comics that filled Capacity, and is sure to be enjoyed by all its fans. The sleeper car is now ready for boarding, aaall aboooaaarrd!
retail price - $6.00 copacetic price - $5.40
Gen of Hiroshima 7: Bones Into Dust
Gen of HIroshima 8: Merchants of Death
by
Keiji Nakazawa
This amazing 10-volume saga nears its conclusion with these two volumes that, interestingly, deal, in part, with Gen's efforts to publish an eyewitness account of the bombing. Clearly, the impetus to give voice to this story, which in turn led to the creation of this landmark work, was there from the very beginning. Indeed, the original comic book publication of this tale in the United States (in the early 1970s – making it, we believe, the first US manga publication) was titled, "I Saw It!" A title that conveys a sense of urgency that belies the twenty plus years it took to get the story out. We apologize to readers of this series for our tardiness in bringing the release of these two volumes to your attention. Anyone who has yet to read the first volume of this series, is hereby given a push to do so... today!
retail price - $14.95@ copacetic price - $13.50@
A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge
by Josh Neufeld
Three years in the making, here is what is highly likely to be the definitive comics documentary of the great New Orleans flood of 2005. Heavily researched, it combines intimate human portraits with important details to create a close up and personal account.
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
Bringing Up Father
by George McManus
This is the first volume in what we hope will be an ongoing series of George McManus's immortal classic newspaper comics series, Bringing Up Father. It is also a subset of an already ongoing series from NBM, Forever Nuts, dedicated to collecting "classic screwball strips." Already available in this series are the initial volumes of Mutt 'n' Jeff and Happy Hooligan. While we have nothing disparaging to say about these two, we feel compelled to point out that, while the early strips on display in this volume are indeed exemplars of the form, Bringing Up Father is much more than simply a screwball strip. Together with Chic Young's Blondie, it pioneered the family sitcom that went on to become a staple of radio and then television entertainment that continues to this day (interestingly, The Simpsons now holds the title of the longest running sitcom of all time; perhaps the roots of the sitcom form in comics has somehow contributed to The Simpsons' longevity...). And not only that, George McManus is the undisputed progenitor of what has come to be known as the clear line school of comics. While this school came to be codified in France – hence its moniker, ligne claire (of which "clear line" is a translation) – it all begins here with these strips collected here – all dailies from the first two years of the strip, 1913 & 1914. McManus is more than just the originator of the clear line, he is also its undisputed master. The strips here are just the beginning: over the next thirty years he perfected a smooth clear line that continues to set the standard by which all others are measured. Here's hoping we get a chance to see more of it in print soon!
retail price - $24.95 copacetic special price - $19.95
Tank Girl 3
(remastered)
By Jamie Hewlett, Alan Martin and Philip Bond
Here it is, the new and improved, "remastered" edition of the third volume of that pop/punk icon, Tank Girl. While we have to admit to preferring the in-your-face covers of the original series of trades to the more discreet packaging on the new editions, we must say that the interiors are superior. The pages have been re-proportioned to bring them closer to the Deadline originals, the art that was intended for black and white reproduction is printed here as intended, while the color work receives much better reproduction; and there are two extra stories that don't appear in the original edition, making for 16 additional bonus pages. Not only that, this edition costs LESS than the old one. All in all, it's hard to knock.
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $13.50
Melvin Monster
by John Stanley
Drawn & Quarterly launches their long held dream project of a John Stanley Library with this lush, Seth-designed hardcover volume containing 112 pages of full color comics – all scanned from the original comic books, for that collector frisson (all that's missing is the smell) – that originally comprised the first three issues of the 1965 Dell series. Seth has lavished his designer attentions on this book and it is another fine fetish-worthy volume. Not sure if Melvin Monster is for you (or, perhaps, a child near you)? Well then, just take a moment out of your busy day to peruse this full color preview and see what you think.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
Items from our August 2009 listings may now be purchased online at our new site, HERE.
New for July 2009
The Hunter
by Darwyn Cooke
OK, technically the title is, Richard Stark's Parker in "The Hunter," and it is not really by, but is rather adapted and illustrated by, Darwyn Cooke. And, to make matters even more complicated, for those of who don't already know, Richard Stark is really "Richard Stark," the most important pseudonym of the famous mystery writer, Donald Westlake, who penned the original novel which Cooke here adapts. That said, this is a new and much anticipated work by the highly esteemed Mr. Cooke, who has made quite a name for himself in the comics world – and deservedly so – over the past decade. Not everyone knows that he first dipped his toes in the comics water in the mid-1980s, but found the temperature at that time not to his liking and decided instead on a career as a graphic designer. He later turned his sights on animation, and, finally, found his way back to comics at the turn of the century, bursting into the consciousness of the comics world with Batman: Ego. He secured himself a place in the nascent 21st century comics pantheon in 2004 with his seminal recreation of the dawn of the Silver Age, DC: The New Frontier. He then initiated the revival of Will Eisner's The Spirit, taking a stunning eleven-issue turn which showed him pointed in the direction that led him here to this graphic adaptation of the classic crime series featuring Parker. He is not the sort fellow you'd like to meet in the flesh, but on the page is a different matter. Cooke captures it all in bold brash brushstrokes that produce a two-toned cocktail that is one part Toth and one part Kirby, well shaken. Cooke's graphic savoir faire shines once again as he visually replicates Westlake's measured sentences and clipped dialogue in page after page of fine comics which place the reader right in Parker's shoes, and will have you believing it's 1962 in no time, for better and for worse. Parker is a cypher for the pent up male rage that was in strong supply during those years leading up to 1964 (and seems, evidently, to be making a bit of a comeboack as of late) after which the gradual change in social mores created new – or, at least, newly acceptable – avenues of release.
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
MOME 15: Summer 2009
edited by Eric Reynolds and Gary Groth
This issue is a mix of oldtimers and newcomers: rugged MOME veterans, Andrice Arp, Paul Hornschemeier, Ray Fenwick, and Tim Hensley deliver a basket full of tales, each in their own inimitable manner, and, in Hensley's case, his last (at least for the time being) as his triptych concludes the long running (since MOME #5) saga of Wally Gropius; medium-term MOMErs, Dash Shaw, Sara Edward-Corbett, Conor O'Keefe, Robert Goodin and Nathan Neal each provide readers with memorable reads, with Neal turning in his strongest narrative yet; and Gilbert Shelton and Pic conclude their tale of rock 'n' roll at the world's edge. And then we have the newcomers: T. Edward Bak debuts here with the first chapter of his work in progress, Steller, as do Noah Van Scriver and noted Spanish cartoonist, Max, whose contribution is a nice, neat 16-page mini-comic that is precisely positioned (and presumably removable – although it's readable while in place) after the last page. All in all, another fine issue.
retail price - $14.99 copacetic price - $13.50
You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation
by Fletcher Hanks
Yes, the wait is over, it's here: the follow-up volume to the most successful collection of comics by an obscure Golden Age cartoonist ever produced (by far), I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets by Fletcher Hanks. And what a follow-up volume this is! Everything you liked about the first volume is continued -- the high resolution scans, the fine quality printing, the quality paper stock, the modest design -- only this time you get more! Whereas I Shall Destroy contained 15 Hanks stories in 106 pages, You Shall Die delivers a whopping 36 stories in 229 pandemonium packed pages. As with the first, this volume is edited by Paul Karasik, only instead of an afterword in comics form, this time around he provides a introduction that fills us in on more details of his life and career as well as providing some critical perspective. This is one book that was well worth the wait. Just make sure you take your time while reading it, and savor each story: this copious compendium completes the publication of all known comics works by Fletcher Hanks; after you've closed the book on the last tale... that's it!
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
Prince Valiant: Volume I: 1937-1938
by Hal Foster
A contemporary of Fletcher Hanks, Hal Foster must be considered to occupy pretty much the opposite end of the comics spectrum. Disciplined, controlled, majestic – he was the undisputed master (OK, we're sure somewhere out there is someone who would dispute this claim, given the chance) of the classic Sunday page adventure strip, of which Prince Valiant remains the gold standard. Comics as we know them are unimaginable without Hal Foster's work, which inspired a legion of imitators, many of whom went on to become greats in their own right; yet without ever completely breaking free of the master's influence. Fantagraphics' earliest (outside of their journalistic endeavors) and longest running publishing project was collecting Prince Valiant, so you know that it is a strip that rests close to the heart of Gary Groth. The fact that the vast majority of the fifty or so volumes of this series are long out of print, when combined with the much higher quality reproduction that is now affordably available for projects such as these, make the relaunch of this project an idea whose time has come. Enthusiasts will be happy to learn that Fanta has done a fine job this time around: the initial, 11" x 14", full color, hardcover volume presenting two full years of this epochal strip far surpasses their original Prince Valiant series at every level. Please do yourself a favor and at least take a look at this fine volume. Your eyes will thank you.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.00
The
Impostor's Daughter
by Laurie Sandell
Here's the debut graphic novel from esteemed publisher, Little, Brown & Co. It's also the second graphic novel to emerge from the unlikely source of the staff of Glamour Magazine (the first, Cancer Vixen, was surprisingly well received here at Copacetic). Here's the publisher's description: "Laurie Sandell grew up in awe (and sometimes in terror) of her larger-than-life father, who told jaw-dropping tales of a privileged childhood in Buenos Aires, academic triumphs, heroism during Vietnam, friendships with Kissinger and the Pope. As a young woman, Laurie unconsciously mirrors her dad, trying on several outsized personalities (Tokyo stripper, lesbian seductress, Ambien addict). Later, she lucks into the perfect job--interviewing celebrities for a top women's magazine. Growing up with her extraordinary father has given Laurie a knack for relating to the stars. But while researching an article on her dad's life, she makes an astonishing discovery: he's not the man he says he is--not even close. Now, Laurie begins to puzzle together three decades of lies and the splintered person that resulted from them--herself."
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
Comic Book Design
by Gary Spencer Millidge
While certainly nowhere near as rigorous as Abel & Madden's Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, Millidge's Comic Book Design makes a more than satisfactory complement to their work as it focuses more strongly on the specifics of visual impact and contains many more examples drawn from the annals of the (primarily recent) history of comics, most of which are well chosen and aptly illustrate his points.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $22.22
My Inner Bimbo
by Sam Keith
A skillful if convoluted and at times aggravatingly obfuscatory account of the tumultuous inner sexual turmoil of an aging fanboy victim of "too much cheesecake too soon." This is Sam Keith stretching himself to the limit in a manner somewhat akin to (if not as successful as) Bill Sienkiewicz's work in Stray Toasters. Employing the language of comics – specifically his own bag of tricks – Keith bares his psyche and confesses, albeit in a very roundabout manner. The graphic novel as purgatory. An original if frustrating work that merits an analytical attention that it may very well fail to attract.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
Flight, Volume 6
edited by Kazu Kibuishi
The latest in this successful series of full color fantasy comics. Contributors this time around include: JP Ahonen, Graham Annable, Bannister, Phil Craven, Mike Dutton, Michael Gagne, Cory Godbey, Rodolphe Guenoden, Steve Hamaker, Kazu Kibuishi, Andrea Offermann, Dik Pose, Justin Ridge, Rad Sechrist and Kean Soo.
retail price - $25.00 copacetic price - $22.22
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury
graphic adaptation by Tim Hamilton
This classic novel finally receives a full-fledged graphic novel adaptation. It's about time. Bradbury's classic short stories were adapted early on in the 1950s by some of comics' all-time greats at EC, and his writings have inspired quite a bit of fine fantasy illustration over the ensuing half-century. Now Tim Hamilton steps up to the plate to take a swing at what may be Bradbury's most famous work. This adaptation is authorized by Bradbury and he has provided a new introduction as well.
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.25
100%
by Paul Pope
Pope's most accomplished work is now back in print in this (unfortunately over-priced) hardcover edition. It's a great piece, we just wish the powers that be at DC didn't yield to the greedy need to rob Paul Pope's fans (and we also can't help but wonder what degree of complicity Pope himself shares in this). Why is this book – which, we feel compelled to note, is the third incarnation of this work (it first appeared as a four issue series, then as a softcover), which means they're all getting paid yet again for the same piece – priced a full 100% more than Jeff Lemire's The Nobody (listed below), which is identical in format – hardcover, black and white – also published by Vertigo, distributed through the same networks, and is an original work appearing for the first time. We're offering a special discount on it, which takes a bit of the sting out, but only a bit.
retail price - $39.99 copacetic special price - $33.33
The Nobody
by Jeff Lemire
We haven't had a chance to dip into this one yet, but Mr. Lemire has certainly gotten our attention (along with a large swath of the comics reading public) with his Essex County Trilogy (soon to be available in a single volume), so if you count yourself among his fans, this one should be worth a look. HEre's what a few of his better known readers have to say: "Jeff Lemire's deceptively simple artwork veils a complex mixture of life, love and regret." – Jeff Smith; "Lemire has an unparalleled ability to capture small towns, fill them with interesting yet down to earth characters, and record the drama that unfolds between them, He's at his pulpy best in The Nobody, and keeps you turning pages right to the end." – Jeffrey Brown.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
Famous
Players:
The Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor
by Rick Geary
The second Treasury of XXth Century Murder, which follow up his long running series of Treasuries of Victorian Murder, takes us to the early days of Hollywood and the first stars that populated it. Their lives intersect at the mysterious death of William Desmond Taylor on February 1, 1922. Rick Geary is a talented – if, perhaps, a bit morbid – cartoonist whose works we have been enjoying for over thirty years now. He has the uncanny ability to pick just the right ingredients and boil down a story to its essentials, preserving the fullness of its characters and concentrating its flavors and so providing a treat of a tale in one surprisingly lean volume after another.
retail price - $15.95 copacetic price - $14.44
The Believer #64: The 2009 Music Issue
Yes, believe it or not it has been a year since the last music issue. This issue's CD includes 14 new songs – all performed acoustically – from 14 "masters of the form" that are "available here and only here." Plus you'll get plenty of musically oriented essays and interviews. Check out the contents and get the chance to peruse some of it, here.
retail price - $10.00 copacetic price - $9.00
Well, it appears that the folks at Fantagraphics are feeling particularly gung-ho on comics right now, based on their ten-pack of new releases. Let's start it off with the essential release. Yes, you guessed it, it's:
Love and
Rockets: New Stories #2by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez
It's Here! We don't have a lot to say about it, yet, but what else do you need to know, really? Well, for starters, how about the fact that this issue features a 42 page pantomime comic by Beto that is a midnight ferry ride through the subconscious realm that will leave you with that tantalizing feeling you get when you wake up from a particularly vivid yet mystifying dream: that you had the answer, that you saw how all the pieces fit together and you had it all figured out... if only you could remember! And then there's the fantastic fifty-page finale of Jaime's epic opus of femme superheoics, "Ti-Girls Adventures." This contemporary classic that transcends all attempts to categorize it now only comes out once a year, so we feel that all we have to say is, "Be there, or be square!"
retail price - $14.99 copacetic price - $11.99
All and Sundry
by Paul Hornschemeier
All the bits and pieces that were scattered hither and yon have been carefully collected and sequenced in this big fat scrapbook that was (no surprise here) designed by Hornschemeier himself. There's much to be gleaned here, especially by the artists among you. Not sure what kind of work has been collected? This PDF preview should give you a better a idea.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.00
The Red Monkey Double Happiness Bookby Joe Daly
Two full color works, the novella length, "The Leaking Cello Case," and the novel length, "John Wesley Harding," make this hardcover volume a welcome arrival for all long suffering fans of South Africa's reigning comics hepster, Joe Daly. Here is work that really is like no other, a truly diverse amalgamation that brings to mind comics from Hergé to Clowes to Pete Sickman-Garner, but remains utterly unique and distinctly South African. Not enough people are hep to this guy, so we say, "Check this one out!" And we're making it easy for you, with this 10-page PDF preview.
retail price - $22.99 copacetic price - $19.99
Giraffes In My Hairby Bruce Paley and Carol Swain
Carol Swain is one of Britain's finest artists, and with Giraffes In My Hair, written by her current companion, Bruce Paley, we have her most substantial work to date. It is a memoir of Paley's "life in the tumultuous '60s and '70s." Starting out in 1967 with hitchhiking and moving on through dropping acid, Disneyland, Chicago '68, Black Panthers and then into the '70s, and Max's Kansas City, doing drugs with Johnny Thunders and punk rock "nihilism." All told in Carol Swain's exquisite, understated and finely tuned pencil rendering that are a pleasure to behold. But you don't have to take our word fo rit; just check out this 9-page PDF preview and decide for yourself.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
The Squirrel Machine
by Hans Rickheit
It's a freaky frenzy of pen and ink in this aptly titled tale of sex and science fiction set in Victorian-era New England. Rickheit splices 19th century literary tropes onto a 21st century comics sensibility to come up with a sort of H.G. Wells meets Jim Woodring tale that defies description. 178 pages of the mind-bending and the macabre. Having trouble visualizing this work from our paltry description we have provided you with? Have no fears, a 15-page PDF preview is here!
retail price - $18.99 copacetic price - $16.66
Prison Pitby Johnny Ryan
We have to say, from the looks of Prison Pit (Book One), that it appears that Mr. Ryan has been spending some quality time with the works of Mat Brinkman. This work is quite a departure and long time Ryan readers may not know what to make of this violent (well, at least that's familiar), nearly wordless, quest-driven narrative set in a barren and nameless terrain. Fans of hyper-violent role-playing video games may have met their match with this one.
retail price - $12.99 copacetic price - $11.75
West Coast
Blues by Jaques Tardi and Jean-Patrick Manchette
France's king of crime comics is back! West Coast Blues is an all-new noir full of dramatic pen and ink travelogue of anarchic violence: from seashore to urban center to deep in the woods. A world full of people you don't want to meet doing things you'd be better off not knowing about, but somehow, there's something about this world which makes you curious: just what makes these people tick, and what does that say about the world we live in?
retail price - $18.99 copacetic price - $16.66
From Wonderland With Love: Danish Comics in the Third Millenium
edited by Steffen P. Maarup
This is a flexi-bound collection of 178 pages of comics from Denmark: black and white, duotone and full color. There's an amazing variety of work on display here, from three-panel pen and ink dailies to full color graphic novellas. Satire, sarcasm, cuddly cuteness, potentially discomfiting explorations of the unconscious, and much more are packed in side-by-side and executed in a dazzling variety of styles. Take a look at this 14-page PDF preview and see what you think.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.00
Rock Candy
by Femke Hiemstra
Here she is, the Dutch Pop Surrealist Queen in all her glory. This perky die-cut hardcover volume designed and edited by Jacob Covey contains a vibrant mix of painting, sketches, and mixed-media objets d'art. Get a taste with this generous 15-page preview courtesy of the fine folks at Fantagraphics.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $24.99
The Complete Collected Peanuts, Volume 12: 1973 - 74by Charles M. Schulz
introduction by by Billie Jean King
This is the dawning of the age of... Woodstock and Peppermint Patty, who take center stage along with the rest of the Peanuts gang as we head deep into the heart of the 1970s. Billie Jean King's introduction is a real surprise and has to be the most sincerely heartfelt one yet. The range of introducers this series has accumulated thus far is a real testament to the amazingly broad appeal of Peanuts: from Walter Cronkite (Volume 2) to Whoopi Goldberg (Volume 5), from Jonathan Franzen (Volume 4) to John Waters (Volume 9), and now Billie Jean King – everyone loves good ol' Charlie Brown and Co.!
retail price - $28.99 copacetic price - $23.99
and for all of you who were waiting for this year's box set to arrive, well, the wait is over:
The Complete Collected Peanuts Gift Box Set 6: 1971 - 74
by Charles M. Schulz
As always, this box set contains the two latest volumes in the series (11 & 12, this time around) , nestled in a sturdy Seth-designed slip case, for a substantial savings.
retail price - $49.99 copacetic special price - $39.99
Whew! That's it for Fantagraphics. There are, of course, other people in the comics publishing biz, so let's continue on...
Nancy
by John Stanley
Drawn and Quarterly continues their long held dream to present the works of John Stanley in deluxe, Seth-designed volumes. Pretty much everything we said about the premiere volume in this series, Melvin Monster, holds true for this one, and then some!
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $22.22
Stitchesby David Small
This is a moving childhood memoir from renowned children's picture book illustrator, David Small. While his career has largely been devoted to serving children, this work reveals that it is likely that he was nourishing his own inner child, as his parents never did. Stitches is a fairly dark and harrowing work, as are many childhood memoirs, it must be said. It is executed entirely in pen and ink worked over with delicately nuanced ink washes that capture his pain. Fans of Will Eisner's late, mature work (also, interestingly, published by Stitches' publisher, W.W. Norton) are herein especially encouraged to take a look, as it manages to achieve a similar emotional punch. And it's garnered some pretty hefty praise from the likes of Jules Feiffer, Francoise Mouly – even Stan Lee! – but most of all, R. Crumb, who states, "David Small evokes the mad scientific world of the 1950s beautifully. Small is an innocent lamb, a sensitive boy, caught in a nightmare situation. Capturing body language and facial expression subtly, Stitches becomes in Small's skillful hands a powerful story, an emotionally charged autobiography."
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
Stuffed
Nick Bertozzi & Glenn Eichler
Stuffed is an excellent work. Written by award-winning, Colbert Report scriptor, Glenn Eichler, and illustrated by the under-appreciated Nick Bertozzi (read The Salon, if you haven't already). The cast of characters, the settings, the interactions – all ring true: these are people we know, doing things in a way that we understand, and that make sense. At its core lie the roles, rites and responsibilities of parenting, as well as the responses to it. Stuffed makes for a solid, enriching, rewarding – and entertaining – read. Recommended!
retail price - $17.99 copacetic price - $15.99
The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comicsedited by Art Spiegelman and Francois Mouly
If the amazing kids' comics from the halycon days of yore are your thing, then you've hit the jackopot with this one! Well over 300 pages of classics, all scanned from the original comics themselves, and printed at approximately 120% of the originals. These scans have been digitally cleaned up a bit, so there's no newsprint background tones, just the flat white paper that they're printed on. While this might upset some purists, it was probably a good call as this book is clearly going to be marketed as a gift for children as well as for older fans, and lay people will have difficulty appreciating the nuances of newsprint; and they did a more than decent job of balancing the tones. The book is, somewhat arbitrarily, divided into five sections: Hey, Kids; Funny Animals; Fantasyland; Storytime; and Weird and Wacky. The book successfully draws across the spectrum of children's comics from the twenty years following the close of the second world war – the golden age of kids' comics that fed the baby boomers' imaginations before television took over. While certainly no one is going to agree with every choice, the editors – along with the board of advisors – picked a good crop of comics that is certain to contain favorites of every fan as well as win the hearts of every reader and, more importantly, is sure to capture the imagination of the next generation. Includes work by all-time greats Carl Barks, Basil Wolverton, Harvey Kurtzman, John Stanley, Bob Bolling, Walt Kelly, and many, many more (even Dr. Seuss, who started out in comics). Get a sneak peek, here (just click on the image of the open book at the top right, under "Sample Toon Treasury").
retail price - $40.00 copacetic price - $35.00
Big Questions #12
by Anders Nilsen
Yes, it's here. Apologies for not noting it earlier... This issue features straight-up bird-on-bird action in a single, issue-length story. Anders takes us on yet another metaphorical foray into our life and times, as his fine flock of feathered friends gets jumped by a gang of crows set on mayhem and murder.
retail price - $5.95 copacetic price - $5.35
The Art of Tony Millionaireby (duh) Tony Millionaire
It's here, Tony Millionaire's coffee-table moment – but, professional drinker and rabble rouser that Mr. Millionaire is, it might be a tad risky to put the fine china next to this volume, as the spirit inhabiting it is liable to bubble forth and wreak havoc. It is a volume that is likely to feel more at home next to a bottle of spirits, whether it's at the corner tavern or the basement bar. Included along with page after page of Mr. Millionaire's classic-illustration-era, fine pen and ink stylings are many heretofore unknown and unseen bits and pieces of his life and times and antics: newspaper clippings, embarrasing photos, confessions of vicious boozing and more! Long time fans will find much to induldge in.
retail price - $39.95 copacetic price - $34.95
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer (DVD)
a film by Robbie Cavolina & Ian McCrudden
Years in the making, this definitive documentary film portrait of one of the all-time great jazz singers is now here. It's a two-disc marvel with a bonus disc that includes what all true aficionado's crave: 90 minutes of uninterrupted live performances! Make sure to get a taste here, at the official Anita O'Day website.
retail price - $29.98 copacetic price - $25.00
Items from our September 2009 listings may now be purchased online at our new site, HERE.
New for August 2009
Locas II
by Jaime Hernandez
418 pages of the greatest comics of our time under one cover. This volume picks up, roughly, where Locas left off, and collects nearly all the standard comic book size formatted work that Jaime has executed since the conclusion of the original 50-issue run of the magazine size formatted Love and Rockets. Locas II bring together under one cover all six issues of the Penny Century series along with Jaime's contributions to the first nineteen issues of the twenty-issue run of the second volume of Love and Rockets. Not everything from this period is here, however. The most notable exclusion is the first work Jaime completed after the termination of L&R, vol. I, the three-issue mini-series, Whoa, Nellie! As it was only tangentially connected to the Locas storyline, it is not collected here. Also not included are numerous short strips – mostly one or two pages in length – that appeared in the aforementioned issues of Penny Century and L&R, vol. II, but are not related to the Locas continuity, as well as the full color, novella length work that originally appeared (slightly abridged) in The New York Times Sunday Magazine and subsequently appeared in Love and Rockets, Volume II #20. (Completists take note!) That said, what you are getting is a big book filled with the best of the best, all laid out in a mammoth narrative arc that continues to build on the magnificent structure of past work in creating the most richly complex and deeply human work in the history of comics.
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $33.99
Masterpiece Comicsby R. Sikoryak
Literally two decades in the making, here is a book that lives up to its name! There are levels of irony upon irony and then within and in between these there lurks hints and glimmers of more. There is militant subversion and blatant transgression of the exact same material for which is simultaneously exhibited the deepest respect and greatest empathy. R. Sikoryak is a truly singular master of comics who knows its classical forms and major practitioners inside out to a degree that is simply unparalleled. His work contained here will trigger a panoply of associations to anyone devoted to the form of comics and this is then squared for those who are on equally familiar terms with the literary classics that are adapted. Sikoryak's achievment in successfully splicing together classic literature and classic comics at the deep level of their respective genetic codes is such that the reading of this collection will, for some, spark a revolution in their perceptual apparatus that will topple the reigning dominant ideology and force a reordering of priorities. We have here the Book of Genesis as a series of Blondie Sunday pages; Dante's Inferno imagined as Bazooka Gum insert comics; Shakespeare's Macbeth as a Mary Worth sub-plot; Voltaire's Candide imagined as Ziggy; Marlowe's Faust as a series of Garfield dailies; Wuthering Heights as an EC horror comic; The Scarlet Letter as acted out by Little Lulu and Tubby; Kafka's "Metamorphosis" starring Charlie Brown; The Portrait of Dorian Gray as a sequence from Little Nemo in Slumberland; Waiting for Godot starring Beavis and Butthead; and, finally the piece de resistance, Crime and Punishment as a 1950s Detective Comics featuring Batman & Robin and the Joker followed by the encore of Camus's L'Etranger condensed into a series of Action Comics covers circa the same era. No self-respecting comics fan can hold their head high without having this volume in their library. Please take a moment to feast your eyes on this PDF sneak peek. And then take a few moments to read this 3-part interview with Sikoryak.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
Cold Heat 7/8by Frank Santoro and BJ
Cold Heat closes in for the kill with another double issue. This one brings the series one (double) issue away from completion. After the massive action blow-out of #5/6, this time around we have more of a culture jam as the saga crosses international boundaries when Castle & Co. head to the southern hemisphere, accompanied by the BBC, and the modern condition of living in the global village is given the Cold Heat treatment along the way. Land lines and laptops, mobile phones and desktops, the internet and intensive care units, wifi and the web, credit cards and music festivals, airports and hotel rooms, Starbucks and taxi cabs, bright beaches and dark alleys – all seamlessly connect to form the all-encompassing phenomenological envelope that passes for reality in the 21st century. As always, series artist, Frank Santoro takes chances – starting, most obviously this time around, with the front cover, which invokes Ellsworth Kelly and Ad Reinhardt while highlighting the "thingness" of a comic book – as he pushes and pokes at the formal elements that make up the current corpus of comics in his ongoing challenge to the received wisdom that constitutes contemporary comics orthodoxy.
The
images we've selected to illustrate this listing focus on one of
Santoro's greatest strengths that of exploring the many avenues open to
graphically rendering interior subjective states of mind beyond mere
mastery of facial expression. The many faces of Castle on display
in the pages of Cold Heat embody of the struggle to forge new tools to
place in the comics craft toolbox, making each issue of the series
double as a workshop – and none moreso than this one. There's an
aspect to the experience of reading Cold Heat that feels like being
taken behind the scenes to see how it's done while the action never
stops happening all around. It's like bringing you right there on the
set while they're filming yet still managing to maintain the
manufactured illusion of the movie. This issue has a
terrifyingly low print run of 100 copies, so delay purchase at your own
risk. retail price - $20.00 copacetic price - $18.88
Abstract Comics edited by Andrei Molotiu
Andrei Molotiu, college professor, art historian, and all-star poster to the TCJ message board, has pulled together a wide ranging assortment of works under the banner of "abstract comics." Molotiu well understands the vagaries that will attach themselves to an overly broad designation such as this and has penned a cogent introduction to give readers as idea of his thoughts about what areas this label could assist in classifying. Importantly, he is well aware that this primary purpose of this collection is to get the conversation started. And this it has already accomplished, as the numerous posts to the Abstract Comics Blog firmly attest. Artists represented in this volume range from celebrated masters such as R. Crumb, Gary Panter and Patrick McDonnell, to accomplished practitioners of the comics arts such as James Kochalka, Lewis Trondheim, J.R. Williams and John Hankiewicz, to marginally known art comics figures like Richard Hahn, Jason T. Miles, Blaise Larmee and Warren Craghead III, but the majority of contributors are obscure figures working on the margins that few readers of these pages will be familiar with – at least in the context of producing comics – such as editor Molotiu himself, who turned in eight pages of free floating abstractions, and Copacetic's own Bill Boichel, whose entry is a 24-page mini-comic that has been reformatted as a two-page spread. Yet lack of renown should not be conflated with lack of artistic vision as some of the most engaging works on display here are by the least recognized artists. In recognition of the fact that the purchase of this volume represents a bit of a risk for most comics readers due to the largely unfamiliar terrain, we have decided to shoulder some of that risk by offering an introductory special price of 25% below retail, which works out to a savings of $10.00 that you can either pocket... or spend on more comics!
retail price - $39.99 copacetic special price - $29.99
Sleeper Car
by Theo Ellsworth
Looking for something to celebrate? How about this: An all new 32-page comic book by Theo Ellsworth! It's been almost a year since up-and-coming indy-comics publisher, Secret Acres unleashed the full force of his massive talent in the definitive Capacity collection that was released at last year's SPX and has been one of Copacetic's best sellers since then. In the interim, the question, "Is there anything new by Theo Ellsworth?" has become perhaps the most frequent of all queries here at Copacetic (followed closely by, "Can I use the bathroom?") Now, at last we can answer in the affirmative. Sleeper Car is firmly in the tradition of the comics that filled Capacity, and is sure to be enjoyed by all its fans. The sleeper car is now ready for boarding, aaall aboooaaarrd!
retail price - $6.00 copacetic price - $5.40
Gen of Hiroshima 7: Bones Into Dust
Gen of HIroshima 8: Merchants of Death
by
Keiji NakazawaThis amazing 10-volume saga nears its conclusion with these two volumes that, interestingly, deal, in part, with Gen's efforts to publish an eyewitness account of the bombing. Clearly, the impetus to give voice to this story, which in turn led to the creation of this landmark work, was there from the very beginning. Indeed, the original comic book publication of this tale in the United States (in the early 1970s – making it, we believe, the first US manga publication) was titled, "I Saw It!" A title that conveys a sense of urgency that belies the twenty plus years it took to get the story out. We apologize to readers of this series for our tardiness in bringing the release of these two volumes to your attention. Anyone who has yet to read the first volume of this series, is hereby given a push to do so... today!
retail price - $14.95@ copacetic price - $13.50@
A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge
by Josh Neufeld
Three years in the making, here is what is highly likely to be the definitive comics documentary of the great New Orleans flood of 2005. Heavily researched, it combines intimate human portraits with important details to create a close up and personal account.
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
Bringing Up Fatherby George McManus
This is the first volume in what we hope will be an ongoing series of George McManus's immortal classic newspaper comics series, Bringing Up Father. It is also a subset of an already ongoing series from NBM, Forever Nuts, dedicated to collecting "classic screwball strips." Already available in this series are the initial volumes of Mutt 'n' Jeff and Happy Hooligan. While we have nothing disparaging to say about these two, we feel compelled to point out that, while the early strips on display in this volume are indeed exemplars of the form, Bringing Up Father is much more than simply a screwball strip. Together with Chic Young's Blondie, it pioneered the family sitcom that went on to become a staple of radio and then television entertainment that continues to this day (interestingly, The Simpsons now holds the title of the longest running sitcom of all time; perhaps the roots of the sitcom form in comics has somehow contributed to The Simpsons' longevity...). And not only that, George McManus is the undisputed progenitor of what has come to be known as the clear line school of comics. While this school came to be codified in France – hence its moniker, ligne claire (of which "clear line" is a translation) – it all begins here with these strips collected here – all dailies from the first two years of the strip, 1913 & 1914. McManus is more than just the originator of the clear line, he is also its undisputed master. The strips here are just the beginning: over the next thirty years he perfected a smooth clear line that continues to set the standard by which all others are measured. Here's hoping we get a chance to see more of it in print soon!
retail price - $24.95 copacetic special price - $19.95
Tank Girl 3
(remastered)By Jamie Hewlett, Alan Martin and Philip Bond
Here it is, the new and improved, "remastered" edition of the third volume of that pop/punk icon, Tank Girl. While we have to admit to preferring the in-your-face covers of the original series of trades to the more discreet packaging on the new editions, we must say that the interiors are superior. The pages have been re-proportioned to bring them closer to the Deadline originals, the art that was intended for black and white reproduction is printed here as intended, while the color work receives much better reproduction; and there are two extra stories that don't appear in the original edition, making for 16 additional bonus pages. Not only that, this edition costs LESS than the old one. All in all, it's hard to knock.
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $13.50
Melvin Monster
by John Stanley
Drawn & Quarterly launches their long held dream project of a John Stanley Library with this lush, Seth-designed hardcover volume containing 112 pages of full color comics – all scanned from the original comic books, for that collector frisson (all that's missing is the smell) – that originally comprised the first three issues of the 1965 Dell series. Seth has lavished his designer attentions on this book and it is another fine fetish-worthy volume. Not sure if Melvin Monster is for you (or, perhaps, a child near you)? Well then, just take a moment out of your busy day to peruse this full color preview and see what you think.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
Items from our August 2009 listings may now be purchased online at our new site, HERE.
New for July 2009
The Hunterby Darwyn Cooke
OK, technically the title is, Richard Stark's Parker in "The Hunter," and it is not really by, but is rather adapted and illustrated by, Darwyn Cooke. And, to make matters even more complicated, for those of who don't already know, Richard Stark is really "Richard Stark," the most important pseudonym of the famous mystery writer, Donald Westlake, who penned the original novel which Cooke here adapts. That said, this is a new and much anticipated work by the highly esteemed Mr. Cooke, who has made quite a name for himself in the comics world – and deservedly so – over the past decade. Not everyone knows that he first dipped his toes in the comics water in the mid-1980s, but found the temperature at that time not to his liking and decided instead on a career as a graphic designer. He later turned his sights on animation, and, finally, found his way back to comics at the turn of the century, bursting into the consciousness of the comics world with Batman: Ego. He secured himself a place in the nascent 21st century comics pantheon in 2004 with his seminal recreation of the dawn of the Silver Age, DC: The New Frontier. He then initiated the revival of Will Eisner's The Spirit, taking a stunning eleven-issue turn which showed him pointed in the direction that led him here to this graphic adaptation of the classic crime series featuring Parker. He is not the sort fellow you'd like to meet in the flesh, but on the page is a different matter. Cooke captures it all in bold brash brushstrokes that produce a two-toned cocktail that is one part Toth and one part Kirby, well shaken. Cooke's graphic savoir faire shines once again as he visually replicates Westlake's measured sentences and clipped dialogue in page after page of fine comics which place the reader right in Parker's shoes, and will have you believing it's 1962 in no time, for better and for worse. Parker is a cypher for the pent up male rage that was in strong supply during those years leading up to 1964 (and seems, evidently, to be making a bit of a comeboack as of late) after which the gradual change in social mores created new – or, at least, newly acceptable – avenues of release.
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
MOME 15: Summer 2009edited by Eric Reynolds and Gary Groth
This issue is a mix of oldtimers and newcomers: rugged MOME veterans, Andrice Arp, Paul Hornschemeier, Ray Fenwick, and Tim Hensley deliver a basket full of tales, each in their own inimitable manner, and, in Hensley's case, his last (at least for the time being) as his triptych concludes the long running (since MOME #5) saga of Wally Gropius; medium-term MOMErs, Dash Shaw, Sara Edward-Corbett, Conor O'Keefe, Robert Goodin and Nathan Neal each provide readers with memorable reads, with Neal turning in his strongest narrative yet; and Gilbert Shelton and Pic conclude their tale of rock 'n' roll at the world's edge. And then we have the newcomers: T. Edward Bak debuts here with the first chapter of his work in progress, Steller, as do Noah Van Scriver and noted Spanish cartoonist, Max, whose contribution is a nice, neat 16-page mini-comic that is precisely positioned (and presumably removable – although it's readable while in place) after the last page. All in all, another fine issue.
retail price - $14.99 copacetic price - $13.50
You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creationby Fletcher Hanks
Yes, the wait is over, it's here: the follow-up volume to the most successful collection of comics by an obscure Golden Age cartoonist ever produced (by far), I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets by Fletcher Hanks. And what a follow-up volume this is! Everything you liked about the first volume is continued -- the high resolution scans, the fine quality printing, the quality paper stock, the modest design -- only this time you get more! Whereas I Shall Destroy contained 15 Hanks stories in 106 pages, You Shall Die delivers a whopping 36 stories in 229 pandemonium packed pages. As with the first, this volume is edited by Paul Karasik, only instead of an afterword in comics form, this time around he provides a introduction that fills us in on more details of his life and career as well as providing some critical perspective. This is one book that was well worth the wait. Just make sure you take your time while reading it, and savor each story: this copious compendium completes the publication of all known comics works by Fletcher Hanks; after you've closed the book on the last tale... that's it!
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
Prince Valiant: Volume I: 1937-1938by Hal Foster
A contemporary of Fletcher Hanks, Hal Foster must be considered to occupy pretty much the opposite end of the comics spectrum. Disciplined, controlled, majestic – he was the undisputed master (OK, we're sure somewhere out there is someone who would dispute this claim, given the chance) of the classic Sunday page adventure strip, of which Prince Valiant remains the gold standard. Comics as we know them are unimaginable without Hal Foster's work, which inspired a legion of imitators, many of whom went on to become greats in their own right; yet without ever completely breaking free of the master's influence. Fantagraphics' earliest (outside of their journalistic endeavors) and longest running publishing project was collecting Prince Valiant, so you know that it is a strip that rests close to the heart of Gary Groth. The fact that the vast majority of the fifty or so volumes of this series are long out of print, when combined with the much higher quality reproduction that is now affordably available for projects such as these, make the relaunch of this project an idea whose time has come. Enthusiasts will be happy to learn that Fanta has done a fine job this time around: the initial, 11" x 14", full color, hardcover volume presenting two full years of this epochal strip far surpasses their original Prince Valiant series at every level. Please do yourself a favor and at least take a look at this fine volume. Your eyes will thank you.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.00
The
Impostor's Daughterby Laurie Sandell
Here's the debut graphic novel from esteemed publisher, Little, Brown & Co. It's also the second graphic novel to emerge from the unlikely source of the staff of Glamour Magazine (the first, Cancer Vixen, was surprisingly well received here at Copacetic). Here's the publisher's description: "Laurie Sandell grew up in awe (and sometimes in terror) of her larger-than-life father, who told jaw-dropping tales of a privileged childhood in Buenos Aires, academic triumphs, heroism during Vietnam, friendships with Kissinger and the Pope. As a young woman, Laurie unconsciously mirrors her dad, trying on several outsized personalities (Tokyo stripper, lesbian seductress, Ambien addict). Later, she lucks into the perfect job--interviewing celebrities for a top women's magazine. Growing up with her extraordinary father has given Laurie a knack for relating to the stars. But while researching an article on her dad's life, she makes an astonishing discovery: he's not the man he says he is--not even close. Now, Laurie begins to puzzle together three decades of lies and the splintered person that resulted from them--herself."
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
Comic Book Design
by Gary Spencer Millidge
While certainly nowhere near as rigorous as Abel & Madden's Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, Millidge's Comic Book Design makes a more than satisfactory complement to their work as it focuses more strongly on the specifics of visual impact and contains many more examples drawn from the annals of the (primarily recent) history of comics, most of which are well chosen and aptly illustrate his points.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $22.22
My Inner Bimbo
by Sam Keith
A skillful if convoluted and at times aggravatingly obfuscatory account of the tumultuous inner sexual turmoil of an aging fanboy victim of "too much cheesecake too soon." This is Sam Keith stretching himself to the limit in a manner somewhat akin to (if not as successful as) Bill Sienkiewicz's work in Stray Toasters. Employing the language of comics – specifically his own bag of tricks – Keith bares his psyche and confesses, albeit in a very roundabout manner. The graphic novel as purgatory. An original if frustrating work that merits an analytical attention that it may very well fail to attract.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
Flight, Volume 6
edited by Kazu Kibuishi
The latest in this successful series of full color fantasy comics. Contributors this time around include: JP Ahonen, Graham Annable, Bannister, Phil Craven, Mike Dutton, Michael Gagne, Cory Godbey, Rodolphe Guenoden, Steve Hamaker, Kazu Kibuishi, Andrea Offermann, Dik Pose, Justin Ridge, Rad Sechrist and Kean Soo.
retail price - $25.00 copacetic price - $22.22
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury
graphic adaptation by Tim Hamilton
This classic novel finally receives a full-fledged graphic novel adaptation. It's about time. Bradbury's classic short stories were adapted early on in the 1950s by some of comics' all-time greats at EC, and his writings have inspired quite a bit of fine fantasy illustration over the ensuing half-century. Now Tim Hamilton steps up to the plate to take a swing at what may be Bradbury's most famous work. This adaptation is authorized by Bradbury and he has provided a new introduction as well.
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.25
100%by Paul Pope
Pope's most accomplished work is now back in print in this (unfortunately over-priced) hardcover edition. It's a great piece, we just wish the powers that be at DC didn't yield to the greedy need to rob Paul Pope's fans (and we also can't help but wonder what degree of complicity Pope himself shares in this). Why is this book – which, we feel compelled to note, is the third incarnation of this work (it first appeared as a four issue series, then as a softcover), which means they're all getting paid yet again for the same piece – priced a full 100% more than Jeff Lemire's The Nobody (listed below), which is identical in format – hardcover, black and white – also published by Vertigo, distributed through the same networks, and is an original work appearing for the first time. We're offering a special discount on it, which takes a bit of the sting out, but only a bit.
retail price - $39.99 copacetic special price - $33.33
The Nobody
by Jeff Lemire
We haven't had a chance to dip into this one yet, but Mr. Lemire has certainly gotten our attention (along with a large swath of the comics reading public) with his Essex County Trilogy (soon to be available in a single volume), so if you count yourself among his fans, this one should be worth a look. HEre's what a few of his better known readers have to say: "Jeff Lemire's deceptively simple artwork veils a complex mixture of life, love and regret." – Jeff Smith; "Lemire has an unparalleled ability to capture small towns, fill them with interesting yet down to earth characters, and record the drama that unfolds between them, He's at his pulpy best in The Nobody, and keeps you turning pages right to the end." – Jeffrey Brown.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
Famous
Players:The Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor
by Rick Geary
The second Treasury of XXth Century Murder, which follow up his long running series of Treasuries of Victorian Murder, takes us to the early days of Hollywood and the first stars that populated it. Their lives intersect at the mysterious death of William Desmond Taylor on February 1, 1922. Rick Geary is a talented – if, perhaps, a bit morbid – cartoonist whose works we have been enjoying for over thirty years now. He has the uncanny ability to pick just the right ingredients and boil down a story to its essentials, preserving the fullness of its characters and concentrating its flavors and so providing a treat of a tale in one surprisingly lean volume after another.
retail price - $15.95 copacetic price - $14.44
The Believer #64: The 2009 Music Issue
Yes, believe it or not it has been a year since the last music issue. This issue's CD includes 14 new songs – all performed acoustically – from 14 "masters of the form" that are "available here and only here." Plus you'll get plenty of musically oriented essays and interviews. Check out the contents and get the chance to peruse some of it, here.
retail price - $10.00 copacetic price - $9.00
Old Rare New: The Independent Record Shop
by Emma Petit
And, speaking of music, if you count yourself among those of our customers who regularly – dare we say, inevitably – stop in at Jerry's Records before or after visiting our humble shop, then this book may very well have your name on it. A celebration of the spirit of those who own, work and/or patronize – and especially those who live for – the shops that specialize in vinyl old, rare, and new, this volume takes its readers on a tour of many of the more notable of these shops (somehow managing to miss the one and only Jerry's Records, however), replete with interviews with and essays by vinyl devotees of many stripes. And, of course, there is plenty of visual documentation of the shops and the records that fill them. Learn more and access some full length reviews, here.
retail price - $29.95 copacetic price - $26.95
The Comics Journal #298
Fans of tell-all interviews can't afford to miss this issue's with long neglected comics ace, Trevor Von Eeden (and after you read it, we sincerely hope you spend the time and money to track down his amazing Batman Annual #8). Also on hand this issue are interviews with Brazilian comics stars, Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, as well as with Perry Bible Fellowship creator, Nicholas Gurewitch. Then there's the sneak preview of manga maestro, Jiro Taniguchi's new multi-volume serial, A Distant Neighborhood and 32 pages of classic Skippy strips by Percy Crosby. Yes, it's another issue of TCJ.
retail price - $11.99 copacetic price - $10.75
Everybody
is Stupid Except For Me: And Other Astute Observations
by Peter Bagge
Here it is, at last the awful
truth is revealed: the wages of a punk rock 'n' comics life
are... crotchety middle-aged libertarianism. Well, at least in
the case of one P. Bagge. Read it and weep – or laugh – or, most
likely, both: you won't know how you react until you actually
confront these four color comics on the printed page. Are you
ready? Do you think you can take it? Fantagraphics sez:
Fans
of Peter Bagge's Hate comic
may
not realize he's been contributing comic-strip opinion pieces to Reason
magazine for the last several years... finally collected in this
volume. Although a libertarian, Bagge is hardly dogmatic, and most of
the pieces undermine traditional party lines in favor of a rather
personal, rational and informed take on hot-button issues: Favorite
topics include the erosion of our civil liberties, ongoing boondoggles
of the American public, the Iraq war, politicians both in general and
in particular, and the conservative/religious war on sex. Each piece
features Bagge himself front and center as the puzzled, indignant, or
deeply conflicted everyman-on-the-street trying to make sense of this
21st century.
retail price -
$16.99 copacetic
price
- $15.00
American Splendor Presents Bob & Harv's Comics
by Harvey Pekar and R. Crumb
What's new about this one is the price. We are now able to offer this classic 1996 volume that collects the entirety of R. Crumb's contributions to Harvey Pekar's trailblazing comics series at an amazing low price that we hope will be a boon to all of those who are watching their wallet yet have their eyes out for high quality comics. It really doesn't get much better than these titanic team-ups. These are the comics that put American Splendor on the map and transformed Harvey Pekar from just another working schmoe to an icon of the independent artistic spirit that inheres to the American working class. Yowza! Anyone who hasn't managed to get around to reading these yet is in for a real treat, and even those that have may want the chance to savor them yet again (and again, and again...). RECOMMENDED! Preview it, here.
retail price - $16.00 copacetic price - $7.77
