
NEW
STUFF ARCHIVES
Copacetic
Arrivals: 2Q 2012
all items still
available (unless otherwise noted)
ordering
info
New for
June 2012
Ed the Happy Clown
by Chester Brown
Yes,
it has finally come to pass: Ed
the Happy Clown is back in print in book form for the first time
in
decades, in what is likely to be the definitive edition. This is
the ground breaking work that both put Chester
Brown on the map and broadened the horizons of comics in the 1980s,
causing a seismic shift in its landscape and charting a new direction
away from heroic fantasy through a methodology that, in hindsight, can
be seen to be – at least in some respects – a deconstruction of the
psychological as well as epistemological underpinnings of that genre,
which has since become dominated by corporate entertainment
behemoths. Ed the Happy Clown
is an epic saga
of self-discovery that was simultaneously a saga of
self-annihilation that originally ran in Chester's flagship title, Yummy Fur. Beginning life as
a self-published mini-comic that lasted seven issues, it went on to run
for 32 issues. Yummy Fur was a classic
auteurist single-artist comic book series, written and drawn by a natural cartoonist, that was –
along with Love and Rockets
and Neat Stuff, and later Eightball, Hate, Dirty Plotte and Palookaville – one of the few essential comic book titles of its
day. The first 24 issues were published by the now defunct Vortex
Comics, before moving to Drawn and Quarterly, which has remained
Chester's publisher ever since.
Chester went on
a journey to the center of his mind and found the secret hideout of his
super ego, whereupon he burst in, knocked it out, tied it to a chair
and then put a strip of duct tape over its mouth. Then he took
its keys and let out all his own thoughts, impulses, drives and urges
that the super ego had kept locked up since adolescence and let them
run amok for eighteen consecutive issues of Yummy Fur. The end result is Ed the Happy Clown. You
have been warned.
retail price - $24.95
copacetic price -
$22.22
Gloriana
by Kevin Huizenga
Here
it is: the best selling work (when combining the sales of its two
previous incarnations) in the history of The Copacetic Comics Company
has finally been published in a richly deserved, shelf-worthy – and,
more to the point, library friendly – permanent edition. This 120
page hardcover is printed on archival white stock and presents the
complete original work along with bonus pages documenting its
history. Originally self-published in 2001 as Super Monster #14, "Gloriana" was
the culmination of Huizenga's development as an artist, knitting
together all his strengths as a comics theoretician, cartoonist and
graphic explicator to produce a startlingly original work that garnered
considerable critical acclaim and eventually brought him to the
attention of both Fantagraphics (who have to date published four issues
of his Ignatz series, Ganges) and Drawn &
Quarterly, who commissioned him to lead off their Drawn & Quarterly
Showcase series, and have subsequently collected and repackaged the
most significant portion of his self-published and anthologized work,
including this, which was first reissued by D&Q as the second issue
of Or Else. Huizenga
has
dedicated himself to advancing the formal capacities of comics, forging
new syntheses by consistently applying fresh perspectives to comics
from a wide variety of sources; perhaps most dramatically so here, in Gloriana. The fact that more
Copacetic customers own this work than any other won't stop us from
continuing to do our best to continue to bring it the attention of
comics readers everywhere – this means you!
retail price - $19.95
copacetic price -
$17.77
Birdseye
Bristoe
by Dan Zettwoch
And what better to follow the latest Kevin H. with than the latest by
his longtime associate and fellow St. Louisan, Dan.
Z., whose long promised graphic novel debut has at last arrived! Birdseye Bristoe is 72 full color
pages of pure Zettwoch: set in a fictional (but perhaps even more
authentic for being so) midwestern locale somewhere between St. Louis
and Louisville, and filled with cut-away drawings, explanatory
diagrams, maps and, of course, page after page of fun-filled comics
filled with down home midwestern characters of all ages and stripes, it
tells a story of industrial development and technological change that
for all it's impressiveness seems to make little impact on the locals,
who just continue to carry on apparently impervious to it all.
These characters, when combined with the story's narrative arc, give
this work the feel of a fable; one in which "progress" is something of
a conceit, and the eternal verities of a practically-minded,
human-scale life of family, friends and useful work prevail.
Anyone wondering where to find that self-sufficient, can-do, don't
bother me American spirit of yesteryear now has an answer: the
comics work of Dan Zettwoch. Never one to shy away from wearing
his heart on his sleeve, Zettwoch has rendered the entire work in
ballpoint pen, colored pencil and white-out pen on tan typing paper –
and to great effect, as these PDF
preview pages attest (but just barely; they don't do the printed
work justice). Added bonus: end papers!
retail price - $19.95
copacetic price -
$17.77
My Friend Dahmer
by Derf Backderf
And
then there's the dark side of the midwestern experience. When
Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested for the murder of seventeen young men and
teenage
boys on July 22, 1991,
Derf – along with the rest of the
world – discovered that his high school classmate and friend (after a
fashion) had
transformed into a monster since graduating in 1978, and he
knew almost immediately that he would have
to share his story. Not wanting to partake in the media feeding
frenzy
that was precipitated in the wake of the startling revelations, Derf
bided his time, taking copious notes and slowly putting his story
together. He published a short excerpt in the Fantagraphics
anthology ZeroZero in 1997,
and then managed to self-publish a 24 page excerpt of this graphic
novel as a stand alone comic book
in 2002,
which made quite an impact (we remember it well) at the time and was
widely acclaimed – even being adapted for a stage play – but it took
another ten years for the full graphic to finally be published,
courtesy Abrams ComicArts. This 224 page graphic memoir of Derf's
and
Dahmer's days at Revere High School in Akron, Ohio in the mid 1970s
gives both the big picture of high school life and the details of
Derf and Dahmer's own days; how each blended in and how, specifically,
Dahmer stood out. Imagine Black Hole instead done by Joe
Sacco and you will begin to have a vague idea of what's in
store. Sad and creepy in equal measure, My Friend Dahmer will haunt you
long after putting in down.
retail price - $17.95
copacetic price -
$16.75
Journalism
by Joe Sacco
And, speaking of Joe Sacco, his latest tome has just arrived! Journalism is a collection of "most
of the shorter reporting pieces (Sacco) has done over the years for
magazines, newspapers, and book anthologies," such as Harper's, The Guardian, Time, The New York
Times, The Virginia Quarterly, and the French magazine XXI. Sacco, ever the globe
trotter, covers, fittingly, the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia, the wars in Chechnya and Iraq, and revisits the
Palestinian Territories. He enters new territory – figuratively
and literally – with his pieces on migration and India that close out
the book. Sacco has penned a new introduction for this volume, in
which he argues for the place of comics in journalism, as well as
providing end notes on the individual works. Sacco has the most
global perspective of anyone working in comics. American comics
readers are, by and large, no less guilty of provincialism than the
general citizenry, so we feel confident in prescribing Journalism as just the tonic to
cure that particular ailment.
retail price - $29.00
copacetic price -
$25.75

Incinerator
by Michael DeForge
Yes, it's taken us awhile to get this one in, but now we have a good
supply, so any and all Copacetic Michael DeForge fans may now stroll in
– physically or virtually – at their leisure to pick up this new
16-page comic by the creator of Lose. DeForge is an
idiosyncratic iconoclast, working to employ the building blocks of
comics to forge (yes, sometimes a person's name is significant) a fresh
comics language for today. Matt Seneca has hosted a preview
accompanied by an interview with DeForge, here.
retail price - $5.00
copacetic price -
$4.50
Mastering
Comics
by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden
"The definitive course in comics narrative" continues, as Mastering Comics ventures deeper
into the wilderness of formal comics instruction, widening and
extending the trail blazed by Drawing Words & Writing Pictures.
This horizontally formatted volume follows the same textbookish format
as its precursor; this time around divided into eleven lessons, rather
than 15, and at 318 pages is a tad heftier. This works out to
lessons that are on average 50% longer and more in depth. In
other words, Mastering Comics
is a 200 level class to DW&WP's
100 level (although the authors clearly state that DW&WP is not a prerequisite for
MC). Covered here
are: building stories with words and pictures; getting a handle
on perspective and styles; mastering the basics of lettering, inking,
tones and coloring – by hand and on computer; and a look at the
business side of things with a crash-course in self-publishing.
This book will surely be used in many a classroom, and the companion
website – http://www.dw-wp.com
– provides a host of support for all – especially those flying solo;
which makes Mastering Comics
all that much more of an outstanding value for anyone interested in
gaining proficiency in comics.
retail price - $34.99
copacetic price -
$29.75

Kolor
Klimax: Nordic Comics Now
edited by Matthias Wivel
This 250 page, full-size, flexi-cover anthology of contemporary comics contains
new, 21st century work of twenty five creators hailing
from the Scandinavian nations of Finland, Sweden, Norway and
Denmark. As editor Wivel makes plain in his introduction, there's
fertile ground for comics in this part of the world, so it should come
as now surprise that there's plenty happening on the comics
front. Kolor Klimax is only the first of a projected series of
English language anthologies of Nordic work; there's plenty more where
this came from! On hand are some creators who will already be
familiar to many Copacetic customers, most notably Amanda
Vähämäki, whose "In the Night" is yet another standout
work that is new to our shores. Tommi Musturi and Bendik
Kaltenborn have also had works here, but there are twenty new creators
to discover in these pages. Interested? Then don't miss our
special "get acquainted" price!
retail price - $29.99
copacetic special price -
$19.99

Best of
Enemies – A History of US and Middle East Relations, Part One: 1783 -
1953
by Jean-Pierre Filiu & David B.
The ever-fascinating David B. takes his readers on an unexpected voyage
through the waters of history in this informative, educational and
timely volume co-piloted by Jean-Pierre Filiu. As readers of B.'s
breakthrough masterpiece, Epileptic
already know, he is quite adept at depicting scenes of warfare, and,
what's more, in doing so in a way that reveals otherwise hidden forces
at work below the surface of the battlefield. David B.
masterfully employs the language of comics to delve into the
subconscious and the mythical archetypes that dwell there, and hint at
how these guide historical events that are putatively governed by
rational self interest. Great art, fascinating story, insights by
the bucketful. It looks like a must-read to us...
retail price - $24.99
copacetic price -
$22.75
Banga
(CD)
by Patti Smith
Patti & Co.'s first album of originals since 2004's Trampin', is a mix elegiac
tributes, informative history and ecstatic invocations, spoken,
chanted and sung to melodious rock 'n' roll. Any and every Patti
Smith listener, devotee and aficionado will find what they are looking
for here, and true believers will passionately embrace it. And,
as always, we hope that this will be the first Patti Smith record for
some, and that casual listeners will take this opportunity to step a
little closer to music and pay that critical bit of extra attention
that will allow them to reap disproportionately large rewards. Banga is a finely woven tapestry of
rock history beautifully played. Surprising hints of The Beatles
and Bowie and more (even a throw away Zeppelin quote) intertwine with
Tom Verlaine licks and classic Patti Smith Group riffs and stylings,
making for a great listening experience that just keeps getting better
each time through. And it is, of course, what Patti is saying in
the songs that takes everything to the next level. For our money,
the next to last track, Constantine's
Dream is as heavy as it gets and is well worth the price of
admission all on its own. You won't find a song like this
anywhere else. Patti Smith is
the high priestess of Rock – as if there were ever any doubt.
Then, exit to the dark lullaby of Neil Young's "After the Gold
Rush".
copacetic
price -
$12.99
BEACH
BOOKS?

A Hologram for the King
by Dave Eggers
Eggers's new novel features an American businessman trying to make a go
of it in... Saudi Arabia. A
novel for our times?
retail price - $25.00
copacetic price -
$22.75

In One Person
by John Irving
The latest from Irving has garnered quite
a bit of attention.
retail price - $28.00
copacetic price -
$25.00

Farther Away
by Jonathan Franzen
Farther Away contains a
decade's worth of Franzen's essays arranged in reverse chronological
order. Most are from that past five years since his 2006
collection, The Discomfort Zone.
Take a moment to check out what that UK master of the essay, Geoff Dyer
has to
say about it.
retail price - $26.00
copacetic price -
$23.75

Fear of Music
They Live
by Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem, he's our man / When cool stuff needs explained, he's
the one that can! If there's anyone out there who can be said to
have the back of copacetic culture, it's JL. While he is best
known as an award-winning novelist (Motherless
Brooklyn, Fortress of Solitude, etc.) he is also an intelligent
and eloquent essayist and critic – especially in defense of works on
the margins that other critics of his stature seem to have an inability
to appreciate. His critiques clearly embody the author's
personality and are often in themselves playfully creative, making them
engagingly enjoyable in a way that is a rarity among works of cultural
criticism. This is certainly the case with these two in-depth,
pocket-size looks at two works that can, in hindsight, be seen as
effectively (and affectingly) bookending the Reagan years: 1979's
Fear of Music, an LP by The
Talking Heads and 1988's They Live,
a film by John Carpenter. Are you ready?
Fear of
Music - retail price - $12.95
copacetic price -
$11.75
They Live -
retail price - $13.95
copacetic price -
$12.75
Items
from our June 2012 listings may now be purchased online at
our eComerce
site, HERE.
New for
May 2012
Are You My
Mother?
by Alison Bechdel
The long awaited and hotly anticipated follow up to Bechdel's mega-hit
memoir, Fun Home, is
here. While Fun Home
concentrated on Bechdel's coming of age and her relationship with her
father, this time around, as the title clearly declares, it is her
relationship with her mother that is detailed. At 288 pages, this
work is noticeably longer than its precursor. It is also more
controlled in its structure. In fact, control
– primarily of the self –
and the lack thereof, is one of the themes running through this work; a
thread that tethers the subject to its object as it is buffeted by the
elemental forces of the psyche. Ms. Bechdel turns herself inside
out to locate the exact nexus in her psyche where her mother continues
to direct traffic, to extricate her own self from that of her mother's,
and to finally define and manage her own subjectivity. Plenty of
psychology is employed here, from Freud to D.W. Winnicott to
Alice Miller. In fact, one of the most significant contributions
made by this work is to familiarize the uninitiated with the processes
and values of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, along with their
theoretical underpinnings. These are additionally linked
tangentially to the example of Virginia Woolf's life and work, from
which
much strength is derived.
This is a thoroughly engaging work in which the author's personal
struggles come alive on the page. Are You My Mother? is well worth
the while of not only fans of Ms. Bechdel's previous work, but anyone
who enjoys an engrossing story well told, and especially to those
intrigued by the possibility of gaining insights into the psychological
approach to attaining personal growth
in the process.
Alison Bechdel continues to to produce work that rises to the challenge
of portraying a life of the mind in comics form.
retail price - $22.00
copacetic price -
$20.00
Cleveland
by Harvey Pekar and Joseph Remnant
introduction by Alan Moore
Harvey Pekar was perhaps the most significant chronicler of Cleveland
life during his lifetime, so it is fitting that he devoted a book to
his hometown. Just published by Top Shelf books as one of the
raft of posthumous Pekar releases, Cleveland
blends local history with Pekar's own personal relationship with the
city to create a simultaneous self-portrait of person and place.
Pekar was always one to reach out to new talent (as he did most notably
with Pittsburgh-based artist, Ed Piskor when he was just getting
started), and he has done so again in Cleveland,
with great results. Joseph Remnant has done a fabulous job here,
demonstrating a skill at storytelling and combining it with a
disciplined research which provides a pictorial
verisimilitude that gives a you-are-there
feel to the tales told.
retail price - $21.99
copacetic price -
$19.99

Jerusalem
by Guy DeLisle
We can't resist following one city-based graphic memoir with another,
and so here we have the 2012 winner of the Fauve d’Or, or Best Comic Book
Award, at the prestigious Angouleme Comic Festival. Jerusalem is DeLisle's most
ambitious work yet. In 336 pages he observes, explores, examines
and reports from
many locales to create a well rounded portrait in multiple perspectives
on the many sides of
days in the lives lived in this multi-faceted city of many intertwined
meanings. To get up to speed, read this
CBR interview with DeLisle.
retail price - $24.99
copacetic price -
$22.22
Don't Come Back
by Nate McDonough
And, while we're on the subject of cities, here we have the latest
graphic novel issuing from Copacetic's home town by one of Pittsburgh's
own. Don't Come Back is
the first extended work by fledgling cartoonist, Nate McDonough.
Best known for his regularly published, digest-sized comic book, Grixly, McDonough goes long in Don't Come Back with a meditation
on 'burgh life that takes many a flight into fancy and beyond.
retail price - $12.00
copacetic price -
$12.00

Nonnonba
by Shigeru Mizuki
Heralded as Mizuki's "definitive work", Nonnonba is a "poetic memoir"
chronicling his lifelong involvement with yokai (spirit monsters). Nonnonba is an essential manga
masterwork that was awarded
the top prize at Angouleme in 2007. It is finally making its
English language, North American debut in this finely crafted 432 page
edition. For a tiny teaser, take a gander at this
PDF preview.
retail price - $26.99
copacetic price -
$23.75
Fallen Words
by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Fallen Words is the
seventy-five year old Tatsumi's follow up work to his epic memoir, A Drifting Life. Taking its title from the
centuries-old tradition of rakugo,
an interpretive and performative type of storytelling that has been
handed down over many generations in Japan, with each performer
providing his (or her?) own spin on the story through their respective
manners of performance, Fallen Words offers a look at an
art form that is a comics kin to the interpretive preformative
tradition of jazz here in the USA, where each performer can put their
own stamp on a tune, whether it is a timeless classic or a passing pop
song.
retail price - $19.99
copacetic price -
$17.77

Folly
by Hans Rickheit
Fans of the now out of print Squirrel
Machine, as well as, of course, those who have been following
Mr. Rickheit's deliberate and detailed dreamscapes since his Chrome Fetus days will be happy to
see this 144 page, full-size, French-flapped soft cover volume
collecting together his far flung recent works, gathered primarily from
a host of anthologies. This work is uncategorizable, but does
occupy comics territory that will also be familiar to readers of Jim
Woodring's Frank comics. Like Woodring, Rickheit channels visions
from his own personal dream planet, and has the artistic chops to
pull it off and make you believe. And we encourage anyone
unfamiliar with his work to check it out and get a feel for what we're
talking about with this 14-page
PDF excerpt.
retail price - $18.99
copacetic price -
$17.00

Object 5
by Kilian Eng
Our pals at Floating Worlds in
Portland, Oregon have published the first monograph of illustration and
graphic design work by this Swedish artist. This pint-sized
portfolio publication packs a wallop. It's diminutive dimensions
– A5 (a tad over 5" x 8") – are more than made up for by the full flat
color on all of it's 64 pages. It's a tad on the pricey side, but
it's a limited edition of 1000 copies, so one day it may seem cheap at
today's price (especially once the Copacetic discount is factored
in). There's more than a hint of Moebius influence here, but to
this we say, "Hurray!" This is a side of comics we haven't been
seeing as much of as we'd like of late, and with Moebius gone, we
sorely want to see his legacy live on. And, of course, there's
plenty of other sources flowing into the work on display here, all of
which are synthesized into a contemporary sensibility that is Mr. Eng's
own. Here's hoping that he finds his way to producing (or at
least inspiring) some comics in this same mold.
retail price - $20.00
copacetic price -
$17.77

Eclipse
Series 33: Up All Night With Robert Downey Sr.
Five feature films by the inimitable Robert Downey Sr., all in a single
box set for the same price Criterion charges for a single film!
Long unavailable in any form, these films, originally produced during
the decade spanning 1964 to 1974, are in a league of their own.
Get all the details of this set here.
retail price - $39.98
copacetic price -
$37.75
And here
are a few suggestions for some solid summer reading:

End
This Depression Now!
by Paul Krugman
Get the inside dope at: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/may/24/how-end-depression/
retail price - $24.95
copacetic price -
$20.00
Rebuild
the Dream
by Van Jones
Van's the man! Get hep at: http://rebuildthedream.com/
and http://www.theroot.com/views/van-jones-advisor-outsider
retail price - $25.99
copacetic price -
$22.22
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American
Innovation
by Jon Gertner
Learn more at: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-22/book-review-the-idea-factory
and http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/21/2887206/jon-gertner-idea-factory-bell-labs
retail price - $29.95
copacetic price -
$26.95
The
Great Animal Orchestra
by Bernie Krause
Curious? Here's the lowdown: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/books/review/the-great-animal-orchestra
retail price - $26.95
copacetic price -
$25.00

Wild
by Cheryl Strayed
A memoir of desperate self-invention that paid off. Looked at
through a decade-plus worth of digestion that provides a mature
perspective that proves that it was worth the wait. More
at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/books/wild-by-cheryl-strayed
retail price - $25.95
copacetic price -
$23.75
Let's
Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir
by Jenny Lawson
Ms. Lawson, AKA "The Blogess" is a bit of an online phenomenon, and
this book is a distillation of her unique voice. But you already
knew this, right? If not, learn more here: http://thebloggess.com/lets-pretend-this-never-happened-a-mostly-true-memoir/
retail price - $25.95
copacetic price -
$23.75
Items
from our May 2012 listings may now be purchased online at
our eComerce
site, HERE.
New for
April 2012
Nancy:
Nancy Is Happy
by Ernie Bushmiller
foreword by Daniel Clowes
Well. At long last, after all these years, it's finally
here. This one's been in the works for what
seems like forever (it was originally
scheduled for Spring 2010 release), but the wait is finally
over. Nancy and Sluggo are the sine
qua non of comics archetypes. As rendered by the
inimitable (though many have tried!) Ernie Bushmiller, they have
entertained, mesmerized and fascinated generations of comics readers,
from the most humble of lonely lunchers to the most erudite of
intellectual aficionados. Nancy
collapses the cultural divide in a work that is a multiverse unto
itself, existing simultaneously
on as many planes as there are
perspectives; in the process rendering meaningless much of what
purportedly distinguishes "high" and "low" art. Nancy by Ernie Bushmiller is an
essential achievement in American art. Nancy Is Happy is
published by Fantagraphics Books and is
the first of a series of volumes that will cover at least
the years 1938 through 1961 (more may follow, depending on the success
of the these volumes and the solvency of Fantagraphics at the
conclusion of their publication). It
is a hefty, square-formatted, flexi-cover volume which is yet another
design triumph by Jacob Covey and offers
up three full years – 1943, 1944 & 1945 – of Nancy dailies. Daniel
Clowes provides a perfect start to the volume (and the series as a
whole) with his witty and perceptive foreword, one that will – together
with the following information packed introduction
by "the editors" that provides background and historical context –
put readers in an enhanced state of expectancy: after all these
years, alone together with Nancy at last! Can't wait?
Get started now with this 20-page
PDF preview.
retail price - $24.99
copacetic price -
$22.22
Krazy + Ignatz,
1922 - 1924: "At Last My Drim of Life Has Come True"
by George Herriman
In a bit of fitting Fantagraphical synchronicity, this, the final
volume of their series collecting the complete run of Krazy Kat Sunday pages in a single
uniform edition, was published in tandem with their initial volume of Nancy dailies. While in most
repsects the respective creations of Herriman and Bushmiller could not
be more different, on the level of achievement they certainly have much
in common, and taken together their work provides ample demonstration
of the breadth and depth of the comics form. "At Last My Drim of Life Has Come True"
is an apt title in more ways than one. First and foremost as it
applies to series editor, Bill Blackbeard,
in that it completes what may have been his own dearest "drim", to
shepherd the complete run of this great work into a lasting
posterity. Blackbeard died shortly before this item saw print,
but not before he penned yet another joyfully enthusiastic
introduction. Let us all give thanks to his life spent in the
service of preserving and promoting the great legacy of the first half
century of American comics and look to his example in going
forward. This volume, weighing in at over 250 pages, is by
far the heftiest in the series, and provides a wealth of bonus
materials. Its highlight is the inclusion of the ten experimental
color Sundays that ran in 1922, over a decade before the series
switched over to color on a regular basis. These pieces are ¡el primo! Herriman and
cannot be oversold. Also, just in the nick of time ("Better Late
Than Never" declares the essay introducing them) this volume includes
Herriman's very first comic strip, Mrs.
Waitaminnut – The Woman Who Is Always Late, that originally ran
way back in 1903! And, as if that weren't already enough, we are
presented with the parting gift of the complete run of Herriman's
Sunday-only series focusing on domestic life, Us Husbands that ran for fifty
weeks in both full-color and duo-tone in 1926, and for which Jeet Heer
provides an introduction to bring you up to speed. We all knew
this series would have to end eventually, but at least it went out with
a bang! (Now, if only we can persuade Gary and Kim to collect the
dailies...)
retail price - $24.99
copacetic price -
$22.22
Annie
Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller
by Joseph Lambert
This is the fifth volume in the series of young adult graphic
biographies published by Hyperion under the ægis of The Center for
Cartoon Studies, which reaches an important milestone here in that
this volume is the first to be created by a graduate of their program,
and as such provides proof positive that CCS is fulfilling its
mission. Annie
Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller is the most substantial work yet
in this series and represents
its strongest artistic achievement.
It runs for 86 full color pages, each of which
works from a 16-panel grid in which all panels are either a single or a
multiple of a uniform 1/16-page size. Lambert, who already has a
solid body of self-published work under his belt (much of which has now
been collected by Secret Acres in I
Will Bite You!), amply demonstrates his artistic growth by forging
an original approach to the challenge of visually communicating the
process by which Helen Keller, a blind, deaf and dumb child, grasped
the concept of language, while simultaneously presenting the
heart-rending drama of the life of Helen's teacher, Annie Sullivan, who
accomplished this still
amazing feat. Lambert's skill and artistic insight in producing
this work
belie his youth and together
provide a fitting testimony to the
value of his CCS education. This book will make an impression on any reader, regardless of age, but
should prove to be especially valuable in engaging
the empathy of
younger readers while
simultaneously providing them with instruction in
both visual concepts and moral precepts. Recommended!
retail price - $17.99
copacetic price -
$16.75
American
Barbarian
by Tom Scioli
Get ready for 256 pages of pulse pounding pencils – and inks and
colors, not to mention the story and script as well - by the
pandemonium producing Pittsburgh comics creator, Tom Scioli!
Author and artist of the the Xeric-winning Myth of 8-Opus saga, and co-creator
of Godland, Scioli has here
brought the past and the future together in a post-apocalyptic fusion
of all things adventurous. It's Devil
Dinosaur and the Forever
People meet Conan the
Barbarian and Captain America,
with a dash of The Mighty Thor
and Star Wars thrown in for
good measure. If you need more convincing, read this rave
Robot 6 review. American Barbarian started out life
as a web-comic, so feel free to dive right in (and while you're
there, you can also check out Scioli's latest project, Final Frontier, which is just
now getting underway). Yes, American
Barbarian is a fun-filled romp that will scratch that comic book
itch, but, like all the works by Scioli's patron saint, Jack Kirby, it
also contains a good deal more. In its meshing and blending of
ancient mythical archetypes
and religious
narrative tropes with pop culture iconography, Scioli provides cogent (if
sometimes obscure) social and historical commentaries that can be reached by anyone willing to
scratch (and sometimes dig) below its action-packed surface.
retail price - $19.99
copacetic price -
$17.77
The
Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist
edited by Alvin Buenaventura
This swellegant follow up volume to last year's The Art of Jaime Hernandez
brings us up close and personal to the life and work of one of the most
influential contemporary comics creators. High resolution
reproductions of his comics work – original art as well as in
published form illustrate an in-depth look at his life and appreciation
of his work by an all-star line-up on contributors assembled by former
art comics publishing magnate, Alvin Buenaventura. The ball
starts rolling with an all-new interview conducted by Kristine
McKenna. This is followed by a forty page gallery of work from
the Eightball Years, 1989-2004. Next up is an appreciation of
Clowes by fellow Chicagoan comics master, the one and only Chris
Ware! Ray Pride then writes about the relationship between comics
and movies in David Boring. Two critical appreciations of
Clowes's 21st century work by Ken Parille and Susan Miller
follow. Chip Kidd closes out the book with an analysis of how
graphic design figures into Clowes's storytelling. Clearly,
Clowes fans will be delighted by this hefty oversize hardcover designed
by Jonathan Bennett and published by Abrams ComicArts. Here's
hoping that its hefty footprint and eye catching cover will combine to
lure casual browsers into the Clowesian perceptual plane, where they
can then discover for themselves that unique combination of
intellectual insight and comics craftsmanship which opens the mind onto
fresh vistas where the world is revealed from new perspectives,
unleashing reconceptualizations of reality and the inescapable
conclusions that follow, leading ineluctably to an uneasy transition to
a new sense of
the workings of the machinery of civilization,
and then, finally, to one's place in the scheme of things.
retail price - $40.00
copacetic price -
$37.50
Items
from our April 2012 listings may now be purchased online at
our eComerce
site, HERE.
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