NEW
STUFF ARCHIVES
New for September 2010
Love and Rockets: New Stories #3
by Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez
Break out the champagne, it's here! The third annual installment
of the latest incarnation of the greatest comic book series of our
times: Love and
Rockets. This is the purest manifestation of the Perfect
Sphere of True Comics that we mere mortals are likely to encounter here
on planet earth. Two stories each by both Jaime and GIlbert, who
fairly evenly divide the issue between them. We'll certainly have
more to say about this issue before too long.
retail price - $14.99
copacetic price -
$11.99
Wild
Kingdom
by Kevin Huizenga
And here's another reason to get up in the morning: a new release
by Kevin H. This one is fairly convoluted in its conception and
execution, but therein lies part of its appeal. Wild Kingdom had
its humble beginnings in Super
Monster 12 that was first published way back at the dawn of the
millennium. This material was then bolstered and slightly
reconfigured for the February 2006 release of the fourth issue of Or Else, his since discontinued
Drawn & Quarterly series. And, now with Wild Kingdom, the material at last
receives its apotheosis. The core meaning of Wild Kingdom is surrounded by a
dense underbrush of irony that must be overcome by the reader. In
addition, a multiplicity of signification strategies are employed that
may throw careless readers off the scent. Only those capable of
sustained, dedicated tracking will be able to bag the prize at the
center of Wild Kingdom. Get a head start, here.
retail price - $19.95
copacetic PIX special price -
$14.95
Make Me
a Woman
by Vanessa Davis
Here we have the follow up effort to Ms. Davis's debut collection, Spaniel Rage, published a few
years back by the now (sadly) defunct Buenaventura Press. Make Me a Woman, is, at least to
our thinking, quite an apt title, for of all the supremely talented
female practitioners of comics out there, it is Davis who perhaps most
unapologetically embraces her womanhood. Davis pens page after
page of voluptuously sensuous comics that retain a strong sense of
humor and present the reader with a fully formed sensibility. Check
it out, if you think you can handle it.
retail price - $24.95
copacetic price -
$22.22
Palookaville
20
by Seth
With Palookaville 20, Seth bids a fond adieu to the world of the
pamphlet comic book, and steps into the arena of the hardcover
annual. Bringing his singular design strengths to bear, this
classy little tome continues the tale of Clyde Fans, provides an
in-depth look at his "Dominion CIty" project, replete with peeks at
some fabulous spreads from his ledger sketchbooks, a batch of
selections from his straight-up sketchbooks, volumes seven and eight,
and a new (at least to us) 14-page story, "Calgary Festival." Not
convinced? Check out this PDF
preview.
retail price - $19.95
copacetic price -
$17.77
You'll
Never Know, Book Two: Collateral Damage
by Carol Tyler
This is a comics work that leverages all the strengths of the form to
push the boundaries of intimacy within the medium. In You'll Never Know, Carol Tyler
invites us into her home and into her heart and takes us on a guided
tour of her family history that spans three generations and is grounded
in the trauma that was the Second World War, as it was experienced by
one one American who fought there, and the "collateral damage" that it
subsequently brought home to his loved ones. There is a lot going
on here on many levels, and Tyler's mastery of the form is what makes
it possible. You'll
want to take your time and savor every page of this deeply moving work that is
simultaneously a formal tour de force.
You'll Never Know is a
self-effacing and stoic achievement that embodies the best traditions
of the American midwest, ingenuity and empathy not least among
them.
retail price - $24.99
copacetic price -
$22.22
A
Drunken Dream and Other Stores
by Moto Hagio
forward by Trina Robbins
Founding mother of shojo manga, Moto Hagio finally gets an
English language collection! This hardcover volume contains ten
tales spanning three decades, and contains some of her very best work,
including the novella, "Iguana Girl," which Trina Robbins, in her
tubthumping forward, calls a "brilliant tour de force." A Drunken Dream also includes an
introductory essay by shojo evangelist Matt Thorn on "The Magnificent
Forty-Niners," the generation of female manga artists who
revolutionized girls comics in the 1970s, as well as a quite
substantial interview with Hagio, also conducted by Thorn. Anyone
interested in the history of shojo manga pretty much has no choice but to
check this one out, and we think that anyone looking for emotionally
powerful yet delicately nuanced comics will find their time spent here
rewarded. Fantagraphics has made this easy, by providing this massive
31-page preview. Be sure to take advantage of this, we're
confident that you'll find it worth your while.
retail price - $24.99
copacetic price -
$22.22
AX:
Alternative Manga - Vol. One
edited by Sean Michael Wilson
This much anticipated anthology of manga from off the beaten path
premiered at SPX and is now on our shelves. It weighs in at a
substantial 400 pages and contains the work of 33 artists, including
the recognized figures, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Imiri Sakabashira, Takashi
Nemoto and Kazuichi Hanawa, who have had books published in North
America by Drawn & Quarterly, PictureBox and Ponent Mon. More
important, perhaps, is the first time looks at lesser known and unknown
lights of Japan's alternative manga scene, and they are on ample
display here. The material in AX
runs the gamut from the crudely drawn and obscenely scatological work
of Takashi Nemoto, who makes Johnny Ryan look tame by comparison, to
the cutesy cuddly Shinya Komatsu, to the super-polished works of both
Keizo Miyanashi (think Paul Gulacy) and Takato Yamamoto (think Suehiro Maruo),
to the jaggedly angular Otoyo Mitsuhashi and a world of variety
inbetween. Sexual relations are a common thread in many, but by
no means all, of the works in AX,
and are plainly on display in more than one tale, making this a
definite ADULTS ONLY item.
retail price - $29.95
copacetic special price -
$23.95
Ghost
Comics
edited (and published) by Ed Choy Moorman
Ed Choy Moorman has managed to pull together a really interesting cross
section of artists who have turned in some excellent – and, as best we
can tell, previously unpublished – work in this anthology devoted
to all things ghostly and benefiting RS Eden. Highlights for us
were the contributions by John Hankiewicz and Warren Craghead III,
whose works we found truly haunting. Corinne Mucha's "Dorm-Ant
Spirits" was plenty of fun, and a nice follow up to her "Growing Up
Haunted" from Papercutter
8. Also on hand are Jeffrey Brown, John Porcellino, Lucy Knisley,
Will Dinski, Aidan Koch... and quite a few more, including one of
Editor Moorman's own.
retail price - $10.00
copacetic price -
$8.88
1-800-MICE #4
by Matthew Thurber
It's cover-to-cover comics with Matthew Thurber as he takes his readers
on another trip deep inside his mind with the ever spiraling "Exploding
Head Career Path" and more!
retail price - $4.00
copacetic price -
$3.60
Catland
Empire
by Keith Jones
Here is perhaps the first true "post-Fort Thunder" graphic novel.
This lengthy, full color, square format work incorporates many of the
tropes associated with the now quasi-legendary Providence, RI comic
collective, as well as those of others who have followed in their wake,
and uses them in the service of advancing a more normative
narrative. This is not a simple regurgitation, but more of a
synthetic amalgamation. Those studied in the ways of FT will
notice the Mat Brinkman surrounded by swathes of vibrant Paper Rad
colors, engaged in dialogues somewhat reminiscent of those of Anders
Nilsen in his more experimental works; all dropped into a science
fiction setting that might be a distance cousin of Dash Shaw's
worlds. And then of course there are all these cats...
Quite a heady stew. Here's a tiny taste.
retail price - $29.95
copacetic special price -
$23.75
Eden
by Pablo Holmberg
Here's another full color work in the square format, but it is
different in almost all other aspects of its execution. Eden employs a color palette as
subdued as Catland's is
loud. While Eden, too,
is an otherworldly fantasy, where Catland is a (bizarre and fantastic)
heroic adventure replete with theatrical male bonding, Eden is a tale of heart that
focuses on quotidian domestic pleasures. Here are a few Copacetic
favorites singing it's praises: "Pablo
Holmberg's comics feel like they were written by a friend who loves you
deeply." -- James Kochalka; "Eden ... immerses us in a perfect little
universe, one tiny glimpse at a time." -- Ron Rege, Jr.; "Discovering Pablo Homberg was a revelation
to me, and Eden makes for a
perfect point of entry into his work." -- John Porcellino.
If that was enough to get you interested, then you're ready to take
the next step.
retail price - $16.95
copacetic price -
$13.75
Diary
Comics! - Number 01
by Dustin Harbin
Spend six months with your pen and ink pal, Dustin Harbin, at the
regulation rate of four panels per day. The drawing starts out a
bit rough (but only by Harbin's own exacting standards), but about half
way in he seems to start taking the project a bit more seriously and
the precision of the drawing noticeably improves. Dustin's sense
of humor may not appeal to all, but anyone who is a sucker for finely
inked cartooning at a reasonable price need look no further. This
finely crafted production of Koyama Press has all its aesthetics in the
right place and will set you back a mere half a sawbuck here at
Copacetic.
retail price - $6.00
copacetic price -
$5.00
Lucky in Love,
Book One: A Poor Man's History
by George Chieffer and Stephen DeStefano
At last, the underrated artistic talents of Stephen DeStefano get the
chance to step into the limelight. Lucky in Love
is a fictional memoir of that brings its readers an Italian-American
coming of age story set in the WWII-era. DeStefano, with the able
assistance of scripter, George Chieffet, really brings the era alive.
This volume – the first of two – divides the first half of its
protagonist's life into three parts: teenage life before the war; life
during wartime; and the "triumphant" post-war return. The book's
designer, Alexa Koenings, deserves special recognition for delivering a
book that looks and feels – from its olive drab cover color scheme to
its heavy, ivory paper stock – as though it originated in the era it
describes: which goes a long way towards immersing readers in the
illusion of going "back in the day"; this achievement is no small
potatoes, and is a very real part of the reading experience that simply
does not survive the transition to the screen of an e-reader.
So,
please keep that in mind when you take a gander at this
sneak preview on your computer screen.
retail price - $19.99
copacetic price -
$17.77
h day
by renée french
The latest offering by mademoiselle French is this chunky square
hardcover from PictureBox. It is a tale told in a bifurcated
fashion that employs her two distinct representational approaches with
a heightened degree of narrative interplay and thrust. The
particular narrative being related here is one that can "be read
both as an oblique autobiography and as a suspenseful fantasy story"
and that references the artists struggles with migraine headaches and
Argentine ant infestations. The finely shaded and delicately
nuanced pencil drawings that are the artist's trademark have never been
stronger.
retail price - $30.00
copacetic price -
$26.95
Nancy,
Volume 2
by John Stanley
By our count the fifth volume in Drawn Quarterly's nascent John Stanley
Library. As with all previous volumes in the series, this one is
a finely crafted work of book design by Seth, for whom the John Stanley
Library is a lifelong dream come true. This volume is a standout
in that it contains one of the most popular of all Nancy comics: Four Color 1034 - Nancy and Sluggo Summer
Camp, from the summer of 1959. In addition, the other
issues collected each contain an episode of the John stanley creation,
"Oona and her Haunted House."
retail price - $29.95
copacetic price -
$24.95
Yes,
Let's
by Galen Goodwin Longstreth & Maris Wicks
It's full color fun for the entire family in this extremely
kid-friendly comic about a day well spent in the great out of
doors. This
is another quality publication from
our good friends at Tugboat Press, publisher of Papercutter, speaking
of which...
retail price - $6.00
copacetic price -
$4.95
Papercutter #14
edited by Greg Means
Yes, it's another fine issue of Papercutter. This time around,
Nate Beaty, the official Papercutter endpaper artist (he's done the
endpapers of every issue, you can go check, we'll wait...) gets to
stretch his legs in the 21-page, semi-epic "Winslow," written by Dave
Roche. Then there's a 10-page gem by reclusive fan favorite Farel
Dalrymple, "Live With Our Clerics," and, the icing on the cake -
a crazy one-pager by Pittsburgh's own Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca,
"Eagle, Run." Yet another great issue of Papercutter, which continues to be
the best regularly published anthology comic book in North
America.
retail price - $4.00
copacetic price -
$3.60
Indoor Voice
by Jillian Tamaki
The latest volume in Drawn & Quarterly's ongoing "petit livre"
series, Indoor Voice features
160 pages of drawings and comics in pen & ink, ink wash, water
color, and straight up pencil; reproduced in black & white and full
color as called for. Jillian Tamaki is probably best known as an
illustrator – her work has appeared in many high profile magazines and
newspapers – but she may be better known in the comics world for Skim, the Ignatz Award-winning
graphic novel she co-created with her cousin Mariko Tamaki. Check
out Jillian Tamaki's work at her website, and see what you
think.
retail price - $19.95
copacetic price -
$14.95
The
Flying Destructicate #3: Secret Pockets
A project of Pittsburgh based Encyclopedia Destructica, brain child of
Christopher Kardambikis and Jasdeep Khaira, The Flying Destructicate is
the project of a single artist. This time around The Flying
Destructicate is piloted by Mary Mack Tremonte who has chosen as her
theme the secrets we carry around with us in our pockets: hidden
yet right there with us at all ties as we walk down the street.
She and a dozen fellow artists have assembled – literally, and by hand
– a very hands-on work that is easily the most tactilely engaging
work currently on our shelves. Pick it up and open it, and you'll
see what we mean. This is a hand made limited edition – once
they're gone, they're gone.
retail price - $20.00
copacetic price -
$20.00
Items
from our September 2010 listings may now be purchased online at our new
site, HERE.
New for
August 2010
The
Unsinkable Walker Bean
by Aaron Renier; colored by Alec Longstreth Love and Rockets: New
Stories #3
What better book to lead off "Back-to-School" month than the first new
book by Aaron Renier since his wildly popular Spiral Bound – a graphic
novel that had the feel of having germinated in classroom doodles that
subsequently took on lives of their own. Fans who have been
wondering what Renier's been doing with himself since Spiral Bound's 2004 release now at
last have their answer in The
Unsinkable Walker Bean, an energetic and entertaining, 190-page,
full color graphic novel that is quite the value. One can infer
from the raves plastered on the back covers – by the likes of Brian "Hugo Cabret" Selznick ("Gorgeous...
Your'e going to love it."), Lane "Stinky
Cheese Man" Smith ("Makes me
feel ten years old again... The
guy's a bit of a mad genius") and Jeff "Bone" Smith ("So beautiful are the
drawings, that I can smell the sea salt and feel the spray...
Outrageous, and wonderful!") – that it appears that this book is
aimed at
young readers, but, clearly, as with the works of all the above quoted
blurbsters,
it is a work that can be enjoyed by comics readers of all ages.
This is a magically well-drawn work (and, we can't help but add, it
looks as though Renier has gained more than a passing familiarity with
the comics of Dan Zettwoch; to which we say, "Hurrah!" Zettwoch being a
long time Copacetic fave). Walker Bean contains page after
page of fantastic art in the service of story telling and is sure to
encourage a burgeoning of comics appreciation in many a reader.
(Colored by Alec Longstreth)
retail price - $13.95
copacetic price -
$12.75
Amulet, Book
Three: The Cloud Searchers
by Kazoo Kibosh
The Amulet series has won a veritable legion of enthusiastic young
readers here at Copacetic, and we're certain they will all be happy to
hear that the third, 200 page, full color volume in this series has at
last arrived – just in time to provide a welcome weekend reward after a
week of scholarly striving. Flying monsters, robot pilots, cities
in the sky, and more fills the fantastic parallel universe – one that
comes complete with prophetic glances into our own – with adventure
and thrills. The Amulet series is definitely reminiscent of
Miyazaki's work, with The Cloud
Searchers bringing to mind Castle
in the Sky in particular, so we feel comfortable recommending this
book to Miyazaki fans as well as fans of Jeff Smith's Bone who are looking around for
something new to read. Anyone who has yet to experience Amulet,
or is considering it as a gift, is encouraged to start at the
beginning, with the first volume in the series, The Stonekeeper (which is, of
course, readily available here at Copacetic, along with it's sequel, The Stonekeeper's Curse).
retail price - $10.99
copacetic price -
$9.99
Bone: Tall Tales
by Jeff Smith with Tom Sniegoski
The eleventh volume in the immensely popular Bone series, Tall Tales collects previously
published material along with an all-new framing sequence that
weaves it all together,
featuring Smiley, Bartleby, Ring, Bingo and Todd telling the "tall
tales" that fill the collection. The largest portion of the book
is a now-colored-by-Steve-Hanamaker representing of the out-of-print,
B&W collection Stupid, Stupid
Rat Tales, which features three adventures of Big Johnson Bone,
that were written by Tom Sneigowski and drawn by Bone-creator,
Smith. In addition there is a hard-to-find short story that
originally appeared in Disney
Adventures Magazine. And, for those readers that pay
attention to these sort of things, technically, the story-telling
framing sequence that weaves together the "Tall Tales" takes place after the conclusion of the Bone
saga,
while the stories that they tell take place before, making them
prequels of a sort. This volume will set snugly on the shelf next
to the previous ten volumes in the Bone saga, and is sure to be enjoyed
by all its fans.
retail price - $10.99
copacetic price -
$9.99
Set To
Sea
by Drew Weing
Adopting both the format and template of Sammy Harkham's Poor Sailor – that of a mini-comic
sized hardcover volume composed of a series of single-panel pages
dealing with an inadvertent maritime adventure – Drew Weing has
attacked the page with a formidable inking technique that calls to mind
Roger Langridge's fine work on Fred
the Clown. A key difference between Harkham's and Weing's
respective mini-epics, is that Set
to Sea, while suffering its hero to sustain one rather gruesome
injury, is, nevertheless, suitable for younger readers – especially
those of a nautical bent, who enjoy finely crafted renderings of 19th
century ships and towns.
retail price - $16.99
copacetic price -
$15.00
The
Anthology Project
edited by Joy Ang & Nick Thornborrow
This is a very attractive, 238 page, full color, hardcover anthology of
comics that is designed to appeal to fans of the popular Flight comics anthology edited by
Kazu Kibuishi (creator of Amulet; see above) and that is part of the
new generation of comics artists and cartoonists who create their work
largely using computers. We encourage you to check out the
generous apportionment of previews (and plenty more besides) at the elegantly
designed website that accompanies this work. Contributing
creators include Darren Rawlings, Matt Rhodes, Christine Choi, Jeff
Thompson, Chris Ryzebol and Ed Kwong, along with editors Ang and
Thornborrow.
retail price - $24.95
copacetic price -
$22.22
The Life
and Times of Botchan, Volume Four
by Jiro
Taniguchi and Natsuo Sekikawa
Long
suffering readers of the extremely drawn out release schedule of this
collaboration between manga masters Jiro Taniguchi and Natsuo Sekikawa
that chronicles the life and times of renowned Meiji era writer, Soseki
Natsume now have reason to rejoice with the release of this looooong
awaited fourth volume (of ten! - will we live long enough to make it to
the end?).
retail price - $19.95
copacetic price -
$17.77
MOME 19:
Summer 2010
edited by Eric Reynolds
Whew! This issue of MOME is a frantic roller coaster ride of
graphilocity that left our minds reeling. The journey begins with
this issue's bifurcated cover, which sets the stage for the lead
story: the first part of Josh SImmons new serial, The White Rhinoceros. We are
then treated to "The Imaginist," Olivier Schrauwen's most fully
realized work to date. Next up is Gilbert Hernandez with a new
tale of the one and only Roy! Then hold onto your hats for the
precipitous plunge that is the tale of "Evelyn Dalton-Hoyt."
Within this work's 21 tumultuous pages, author/artist, D.J. Bryant has
penned a demonically deft deconstruction of "Driven to Destruction," a
1970s Steve Ditko story originally published in Haunted #4 published by
Charlton Comics,
that infers (with a little help from Ditko's sideline of bondage
comics) a torturous sexual repression at the heart of Ditko's seventies
sensibility. So as not to give anyone the wrong idea, let
us be clear and state that "ED-H" is a story that is fully capable
of standing on its own merits, that can (and will) be wholly
appreciated without any knowledge of the work of Steve Ditko; the Ditko
angle is, however, vertigo inducing to all long time fans of his
work. Then we have Tim Lane's "Hitchhiker," a tale full of Lane's
trademarked dark and foreboding pen and ink work, but one that takes an
unexpected turn. We then take a pastoral pass through the pastel
colorings of Conor O'Keefe in "Vote Lily at the Dog Show" before being
put through the twisted sensibility of Robert Goodin in "The Spiritual
Crisis of Carl Jung." MOME 19 then closes with the latest chapter
in T. Edward Bak's Wild Man.
Whew, indeed.
retail price - $14.95
copacetic price -
$12.75
Wholphin
#11
The DVD magazine of rare and unseen short films is back in a
Pittsburgh-way as it features James Blagden's "animation sensation" Dock Ellis & the LSD No-No,
about Pittsburgh Pirate, Doc Ellis's legendary 1970 no-hitter, pitched
while tripping on acid. Woah... As always, there is a wide
ranging selection of films here, including a half-hour Russian
documentary, Bitch Academy,
and Plastic Bag, an eighteen minute wonder in which Werner Herzog
provides the voice of, yes, "a lovelorn plastic bag." Learn what
else is on it, here.
retail price - $19.95
copacetic price -
$17.77
Trickster:
Native American Tales
edited by Matt Dembicki
This square, full color volume contains over two hundred pages of
comics and is the first graphic anthology devoted to American Indian
"trickster tales." Over twenty tales in all are adapted into
comics form in this "inspired collaboration between native writers and
accomplished artists" working to "bring the trickster back into popular
culture." This book generated plenty of positive responses (read
more at the book's blog, here) and immediately sold out
its initial printing and we have only now been able to get outr hands
on it. Tales of raccoons and ravens, coyotes and crayfish,
wolves, owls, minks and more are given form by a host of comics talents
including Pittsburgh's own Pat Lewis. Anyone looking to
experience the original American culture in comics form need look no
further, Trickster delivers.
retail price - $22.95
copacetic price -
$20.00
Freedom
by Jonathan Franzen
Presumably, anyone interested already knows all about Franzen's new
novel, given that it has been the recipient of a stratospheric level
media coverage. We just thought we'd let you know that it's
available at
Copacetic for decent price. It's a good book, actually.
retail price - $28.00
copacetic price -
$22.22
Alec:
"The Years Have Pants" (A Life-Sized Omnibus)
by Eddie Campbell
Our face is red with embarrassment for not having brought this massive
638 page compendium to the attention of Copacetic customers
sooner. "The
Years Have Pants" collects all seven previously published Alec books – The King Canute Crowd, Graffiti Kitchen,
How to Be an Artist, Little Italy, The Dead Muse, The Dance of Lifey
Death, and After the Snooter
– and "a generous helping of rare and never-before-seen material,
including an all-new 35-page book, titled (you guessed it), "The Years Have Pants." No
less an authority than Tom Spurgeon, has stated, "There's no artist
working in comics today whose body of work I admire more than Eddie
Campbell's." Alec is, for those of you who are unaware, the Alec
series is autobiographical, with the title character serving as Eddie's
alter ego through which he channels both his inner and outer life in a
series of adventures, reflections and fantasies that fold back on
themselves to graphically reveal a multi-faceted portrait of the
artist. This is, needless to say, an incredible value.
softcover edition
retail price - $35.00
copacetic price -
$29.75
hardcover edition retail price - $50.00
copacetic special price -
$37.50
The
Tango Collection
edited by Bernard Caleo; foreword by Dylan Horrocks
Get ready for a healthy serving of comics work from down under.
The Tango Collection contains the work of over 50 comics creators from
Australia and New Zealand in its 240 black and white 8" x 10"
pages. There really is quite a variety of styles and approaches
to comics on display here that will amply reward the curious.
Feel the funky vibes by checking out this Google™
Preview.
retail price - $26.95
copacetic price -
$24.75
Archie:
The Complete Daily Newspaper Comics, 1946-1948
by Bob Montana
Here's another fine volume in the Library of American Comics series
from IDW. Our hats are off to its creative director, industry
veteran, Dean Mullaney, and his crack team.
Bob Montana was the Jack Kirby of the Archie Universe, creating the
visual and situational template that has endured for nearly 70
years. His work on these strips is absolutely outstanding and it
probably represents his career high as an artist; leading to the
conclusion that he must have been pretty pumped about appearing in the
newspapers. The strip is built from the ground up on the
assumption that a significant number of the strip's readership would be
unfamiliar with the comic book appearances of the freckled teen and his
gang and so have the added value of providing a sort of "origin of
Archie." The
big surprise reading this sumptuous, oversize 300+ page horizontally
formatted, hardcover volume is how good they are! These
are really great comics,
that pretty much do it all: in addition to the expected gags,
teen antics and domestic humor, there are stretches wherein these
classic Archie facets are integrated into Roy Crane
inspired serial adventures. This volume is really worth
celebrating in that –
believe it
or not – this is the very first time these strips have ever been
collected, and so will be – finally
– getting the notice they deserve. The level of artistry on
display in these strips will go a long way towards solving the
riddle of Archie's longevity: he got off to a great start (and,
it is worth noting here, Bob Montana shared his studio during these
years with the greatest of all
Archie artists, Harry Lucey, who obviously was inspired by Montana's
work).
retail price - $39.99
copacetic price -
$35.00
Salem
Brownstone
by John Harris Dunning & Nikhil Singh
Very nice presentation immediately sets this oversize, clothbound
hardcover apart from the pack (But, evidently, not enough so that we
noticed it when it came out... last year). One part Aubrey
Beardsley,
one part Mobius, one part Michael Kaluta, one part Theo Ellsworth, all
seasoned with an Alan Moore sensibility, combines to yield a neo-Heavy
Metal-esque fare that is a special treat. Paul Gravett says, "Our new century demands a new charismatic
comic book magician to weave his spells on us. Updating classic
conjurers like Mandrake and Doctor Strange with a twist of Oscar Wilde
and Aubrey Beardsley, John Harris Dunning and Nikhil Singh have crafted
a haunting, hypnotizing master of the mystic arts in Salem
Brownstone. Their sharp, surprising storytelling and intense,
imaginative illustration combine to create real magic on the page."
retail price - $18.99
copacetic price -
$17.17
The
Signifiers #1
by Michael Neno
Hailing from Columbus, OH, Mr. Michael Neno is working hard to put the
oomph! back in comics. ACTION! ADVENTURE! INTRIGUE!
MYSTERY! MAYHEM! All this and more are on hand in the jam-packed
48-pages of the premiere issue of The
Signifiers.
As the title none-too-subtley implies, there is more than simply these
surface thrills at work here. The
Signifiers joins Tom Scioli's Myth
of 8-Opus and Adam McGovern and Paolo Leandri's Dr. Id,
in bringing a post-modern perspective to bear on the works of Jack
Kirby – and,
to be fair, Stan Lee, as well. All these fine works manage the
nifty
hat trick of providing good ol' comic book fun at the same time as
deconstructing this fun and providing insights into what makes it
tick.
All of these works, too, focus on the Kirby (and Lee) works from the
'60s and '70s, and focus on the psychological and psychedelic aspects
that were both implicit and explicit in the comics of this time.
There
really was something magical in the comic books of those days that we
seem, for the most part, to have lost in the comics of today. But
a
dedicated cadre is working feverishly, around the clock, going without
food and sleep, ink-stained hands trembling in the late night
candlelight to bring this work back to our desperately craving
concsciousnesses before all is forgotten and the reign of Doctor Doom
and Darkseid
descends.
retail price - $4.95
copacetic price -
$4.44
Items
from our August 2010 listings may now be purchased online at our new
site, HERE.
New
for July 2010
George
Herriman's Krazy Kat: A Celebration of Sundays
edited by Patrick McDonnell and Peter Maresca
Yes, it's true!!! Sunday Press, the fine folks who brought us the
game-changing Little Nemo
in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays,
and its myriad Sunday strip sequels have at last seen their way clear
to produce an equivalent volume of that greatest of all( well, at least
to us here at Copacetic) Sunday strips, the work that introduced poetry
to comics: the one and only Krazy Kat, by George Herriman. Finally,
KRAZY KAT as it was meant to be seen: 135 full-size Sunday pages from 1916-1944
Plus, dozens more early comics from George Herriman. Included in
this splediferous 14 x 17-inch
collection is a sampling of each of Herriman's creations for the Sunday
newspaper comics from 1901-1906: Professor
Otto, The Two Jackies, Major Ozone, and more, many of which have
never been reprinted before. HERE
are some sample pages, BUT the whole idea of this book is lost in
reading them on a computer screen, so think twice before clicking
over: you may want to wait for the real thing.
retail price -
$100.00 copacetic price
-
$95.00
By Brakhage, Volume 2
Here we have it: a whopping seven and a half hours of work by the
undisputed master of independent American experimental cinema, selected
by his widow, Marilyn Brakhage, and expertly transferred to digital
media by the Criterion Collection Crew. While most movie-goers
have
never even heard of him, it's hard to over-estimate Brakhage's impact
on the history of film. Beginning in the 1950s, he opened up a
whole
new way of thinking about and working with film. It could be said
(and
so, we will) that what Einstein was to Newton in the realm of physics,
Brakhage was to Eisenstein in the realm of film.
Learn quite a bit about what's on this 3-disc set by reading this
in-depth essay by Ms. Brakhage.
retail price - $39.98 copacetic
price -
$34.95
The
Believer Magazine #70 & #71
Well, once again it's time to remind Copacetic Customers that The
Believer is still going strong. #70 is this year's Film Issue,
and it
comes complete with a jam-packed DVD featuring a crash course in the
Yugoslavian "Black Wave". What is the Yugoslavian Black
Wave? Well,
we don't know either, but we will – once we watch the DVD. #71
has the
now elusive Mr. Daniel Gillespie Clowes pinned down in a short but
sweet interview where he reveals some of what went into his latest
graphic novel, Wilson, talks about meeting up with Adrian Tomine for
the first time, and a little bit of this and a little bit of
that.
Believe!
#70 - retail price - $10.00 copacetic
price -
$9.00
#71 - retail price - $ 8.00 copacetic
price -
$7.20
Pittsburgh-is-in-the-house
Dept. – In preparing you for the wealth of
talent that will be on display at the forthcoming PIX:
The Pitsburgh Indy Comics Expo, here's a sample serving of
local coimcs productions that are currently on offer here at Copacetic:
Rambo 3.5
by Jim Rugg
A near-perfect embodiment of the mini-comics aesthetic, by that ace
Pittsburgh comics all-star, Jim Rugg. A 32-page comics
meditation/investigation on/of the post-9/11
American nexus
between power and violence, Washington and Hollywood, high culture and
pop culture, toys and art, dream and reality, repression and oppression
and, finally, the resultant confusion between signifier and
signified. Featuring a former President of The United States of
America along with you-know-who (or do you?). Heady stuff, and fun to
boot!
copacetic
price -
$2.00
Andromeda
#1-3
edited by Andy Scott
Andromeda is a
made-in-Pittsburgh monthly
anthology of comics. And,
while it might not yet be operating at quite the level of Diamond Comics (see below), these
guys are nothing if not ambitious, and so far they have published the
first three issues on schedule and the fourth is promised shortly,
so Regular contributors include Nate "Grixly" McDonough and Jess
Lavecchia, as well as editor Andy Scott himself, and there are plenty
of others who have made their way into individual issues. In
order to keep up with their monthly schedule, Andromeda is hungry for fresh
contributions and is always on the lookout for new talent and is accepting unsolicited
submissions, so any cartoonists reading this interested in having their
work appear in the pages of Andromeda
should get in touch with Mr. Scott at littletired@gmail.com.
copacetic
price -
$2.00@
Grixly #1 - 13
by Nate McDonough
While we're on the topic of monthly comic books made in Pittsburgh, the
trend-setting example of Nate McDonough is of paramount importance, as
he has managed the impressive feat of writing, penciling, inking,
lettering and publishing no
less than thirteen issues of Grixly
within – roughly – the past year. Grixly will put you right smack dab
in the middle of the Yinzer-Zone™: not a dimension of sight or of
sound, but of mind; a particular mind – that of a dedicated cartoonist
living in Pittsburgh. So, as a result, while much of the work you
will find in the pages of Grixly
– the
first twelve issues of which are filled with a hodge podge of short
stories, vignettes, anecdotes and fantasias –
are straight-up auto-bio, readers will also often confront work that is
the depiction of an actual event that took place not on the streets or
in rooms of tha 'Burgh, but rather in the imagination of the person
whose life has been impacted and imprinted by these. Beginning
with the thirteenth and latest issue, however, McDonough is
down-shifting to a bi-monthly schedule, with the aim of producing
longer issue-length works. It should be interesting...
copacetic
price -
$1.00@
Goat Helper
by Chris Cornwell & Co.
This 12-pager by Pittsburgh's foremost formalist and friends serves up
a comics meditation on sacrifice, mortality and transformation.
The main course consists of a pair of concise genre deconstructions
that are simultaneously penetrating
and ironic. These are interrupted by a bracing palette-cleanser of
fulsome gross-out humor, and followed by a satiric pairing of
propaganda and advertising that extends and concludes the theme.
copacetic
price -
$1.00
____________________________
Ten
Thousand Things To Do
by Jesse Reklaw
And,
speaking of cartoonists with strong work ethics, it would be impossible
to pass over the Portland, Oregon-based indie-comics powerhouse, Jesse
Reklaw. In addition to his long-running (now well into its second
decade) independent newsweekly strip, Slow Wave, Reklaw
regularly produces award-winning mini-comics (check out his now
out-of-print classic, "Thirteen Cats of My Childhood" in the 2006
Best American Comics, and is a founder and co-manager of the
invaluable Global
Hobo Distribution. And, as if that weren't already enough, he
has endeavored to provide his readership with an intensely (some might
say obsessively) detailed comics diary accounting of a year in the life
of a cartoonist: Jesse Reklaw, from 17 September 2008 to 16
September 2009. Many Copacetic regulars have already come across
the mini-comics that collected this diary in two-month installments,
but now one and all have the opportunity to sit down with this chunky
tome and plow through the year in its entirety – along with an all-new
five-page introduction and five-page epilog. This is a real
"page-turner," from its Boggle™-inspired title page through to the
final "make your own list" closing page. And, for any crazed
comics completists among Copacetic
customers, we feel compelled to point out that approximately a dozen of
the 365 strips that make up this volume are by (fellow Portland, OR)
guest cartoonists, including Andrice Arp, Theo Ellsworth, Sarah
Oleksyk, Dylan WIlliams, Clutch McBastard, Aron Nels Steinke and others
– and there's even a couple
"comic con jam" strips involving way too many cartoonists to
mention. Another fine, hard-to-pass-up Reklaw value, we'd say.
retail price - $20 copacetic
price -
$17.77
Diamond
Comics #5 (and, while
we're at it – #s 1 -
4, as well) (in fact, #4 is pictured at right)
edited by Jason Levian
Published by the fine folks at Floating World Comics
– also located in Pittsburgh's west coast sister-city, Portland, OR – Diamond Comics has nothing
whatsoever to do with
the comics distribution behemoth of the same name (except, perhaps, a
satiric jab), but is, rather, an
excellent tabloid newspaper comics publication that provides a
refreshingly bracing outlet/showcase for comics work that is focused on
visual impact. #5 is the first ALL
full-color issue, yet it remains priced at the super-value price of
$3.00 that held through the first four issues (all of which have
full-color covers and centerfolds). Artists featured in the
latest issue include Benjamin Marra, Panayuitus Terzis, Michael DeForge
and plenty more. Previous issues feature such contributors as Al
Columbia (whose amazing
full color centerspread for #4 is worth the price of admission),
Dame Darcy, Jason Overby, Aidan Koch, Blaise Larmee, Dunja Jankovic,
Josh Simmons, Marko Turunen, Nathan Fox, Luke Ramsay and many, many
others! This newspaper is funded, at least in part, by a Kick Starter
grant, which, presumably, enabled the full color printing. Check
these out!
copacetic
price -
$3.00@
Papercutter
#13
edited by Greg Means
Well, in continuing our stream of consciousness free association, we
will segue from one ambitious Portland, OR comics project to
another: namely the little-engine-that-could of comics
anthologies, Papercutter – which brings a
further association in that it is now, like Grixly, on its thirteenth
issue. This issue features: "The Orphan Baiter," a 19-page
detailed period piece by Matt Weigle; "Heroes Drink Schmutz," a 10-page
look at life through the blurred vision of alcohol, THC and firearms by
Tim Root; and finishes up with "Champ/Ulysses," a 3-pager that is a
nice formal piece on fighting.
retail price - $4.00 copacetic
price -
$3.60
Stories Vol. 1: The Green
Umbrella Man in the Mirror & Expecting
Stories
Vol. 2: Copy • Matthew and Buster • Swimming • Free Hugs
Stories Vol.
3: Catch Me If You Can
by
Martin Cendreda
Let's keep going in the small press and self-publishing vein. It
seems like we're on a roll here. Here we have three all-new
minis, all produced, published, packed and shipped by that Angeleno
mini-master, Martin Cendreda! The art and production here is top
rate and very reasonable priced considering the effort and low print
runs. By turns whimsical, satirical and insightful, these are
musts for any and all adherents of the mini-comic form.
Recommended!
copacetic
price -
$3.00@
World War 3 Illustrated #40: What We Want
One of the grand daddies of self publishing, WW3 is still going strong.
This issue is cover to cover comics: all 128 pages! Editor Seth
Tobocman is joined by Jess Wehrle, Eric Laursen, Fly, Sandy Jimenez,
Susan Simensky Bietila, and many others, all working towards creating a
vision for "building a new and better society" by presenting this 'list
of possible demands" in comics form. This is a thought provoking
inspiring collection that should have you asking yourself, "What can I
do?"
retail price - $5.00 copacetic
price -
$4.44
BFF
by Nate Beaty
Here's another great comics value: over 200 pages of a life lived
in comics, BFF – Brain Fag
Forever – is a an enjoyable grab bag of personal comics that has fellow
artists singing its praises: "Nate
Beaty's straightforward comics are striking in their variety and they
form a captivating document of his growing skill and evolving soul."
– Ivan Brunetti; "Nate breaks down
the structure of the comics page the way he takes apart an old bicycle
or a vintage laptop His seething psyche roils to the surface,
whether he's slapping his inks down over a carefully observed landscape
or painstakingly delineating how another relationship went wrong."
- Sarah Oleksyk; "Oh, all these cartoonists look
interesting... Wait, what? There is only one?" – Lewis
Trondheim
retail price - $9.00 copacetic
price -
$7.77
Undeleted
Scenes
by Jeffrey Brown
Well, anytime anyone is on the subject of big fat little books filled
with fun personal comics, it's almost inevitable that the conversation
turns to Jeffey Brown, who has made this form his mainstay, and has
developed one of the most recognized bodies of personal comics work
around. Undeleted Scenes
finds Mr. Brown back at Top Shelf Productions after a trio of books
from mainstream book publisher, Simon & Schuster. The
majority of the comics collected in Undeleted
Scenes have been previously published, primarily in Minisulk, Feeble Attempts and Be a Man. There are also
works that are a bit off the beaten path and so have likely been
inadvertently passed over by many of Brown's fans, such as the pieces
that originally apperared in Kramers
Ergot #4, McSweeney's, Blood Orange, Tilt, Hobart, The Florida Review
and Galago. In addition
to all these, this 350 page collection contains a decent number of
strips that have never
been published before. There's something for everyone here!
retail price - $15.00 copacetic
price -
$12.75
Items
from our July 2010 listings may now be purchased online at our new
site, HERE.
4Q
2008: October - December, New
Arrivals
3Q 2008: July - September, New
Arrivals
2Q 2008: April - June, New
Arrivals
1Q 2008: January - March, New
Arrivals
4Q
2007: October - December, New
Arrivals
3Q
2007: July - September, New
Arrivals
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 Arrivals2002: January - December New Arrivals
ordering info
prices and
availability
current as of 30 September 2010