Just In (Case You Missed It) - New Stuff Archives 3Q 2014

New for September 2014

Sugar Skull
by Charles Burns
Charles Burns has been creating and publishing his own unique brand of finely polished comics of life on the edge of sanity for well over thirty years. He forged an instantly recognizable pen and ink style from his earliest outings on, one that has influenced legions of comickers and illustrators (and writers and filmmakers) around the globe. He was a key contributor to RAW Magazine and helped redefine, as well as expand the boundaries of, comics during the 1980s. He has produced numerous genre-defying works such as El Borbah, Big Baby, and Black Hole – and he's still going strong! Sugar Skull is the third and final volume in the trilogy that began with X'ed Out and continued in The Hive. While this trilogy has taken Burns over five years to complete, that is just the tip of the iceberg, for it has spent almost a lifetime gestating. Its earliest roots are in Burns's childhood love for / obsession with Hergé's classic series of TinTin albums. This is the frame onto which Burns stretches his canvas and paints an elaborate, multifaceted and multidimensional (multiversal?) portrait of fantastic inner landscapes as seen through his mind's eye. Drug addled confusion mingles with late nights, odd ball performers, and punk rock femme fatales, precipitating failures in psychological integration which turn reality inside out, wherein comic book inspired dreams become real. It doesn't get any better than this.
retail price - $21.95 copacetic price - $19.75

Megahex
by Simon Hanselmann
Working under the radar of North American comics fans for years, this Tasmanian native currently residing in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, has at last crashed through the invisible barrier and has arrived on our shores with a big splash. With his characters Megg, Mogg and Owl (along with a supporting cast foremost among whom is Werewolf Jones) Hanselmann has created the apotheosis of the Stoner Roommates Drama (SRD) that has a long and distinguished lineage dating back to Gilbert Shelton's The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, includes the denizens of Pete Bagge's Hate, and whose most direct precursors are to be found in the pages of Paper Rad (Ben Jones, particularly) and Matt Furie's Boys Club. The comics here, along with those Simon has produced for 'Truth Zone' and elsewhere threaten to be the last word on the subject. Get an idea of what we're going on about with this PDF preview, then, get up to speed with Simon H. circa 2013, here and/or circa 2014, here. The first printing has sold out – BUT, we still have copies on hand, for now...
retail price - $29.95 copacetic price - $29.95

Lose #6
by Michael DeForge
Lose continues! This is the first new issue since the release of The Body Beneath collection, and it's all new. The bulk of this issue is taken up by a single epic of psychological exploration: "Me As a Baby." You'll need to read it twice; you'll likely want to read it a few more times, just for good measure. Michael is currently touring with Simon (see above) and Patrick (see below) – so watch for them at a city near you. Here's their tour schedule.
retail price - $8.00 copacetic price - $7.25

Distance Mover
by Patrick Kyle
Editor of comics anthology, Wowee Zonk and creator of Black Mass, north-of-the-border cartoonist, Patrick Kyle brings a heightened level of formalism to Distance Mover. Printed entirely in blue and gold and dispensing entirely with panels and ruled borders, Kyle explores the interior space of the comic book page, tweaking and twisting temporal expectations and experiences with a morphing narrative that allows borders and gutters to organically emerge – or disappear, as forms and characters merge and overlap. No less a formalist than Jordan Crane waxes, "Pure comics heartbreakingly swift in its speed and span, Distance Mover is heady and hilarious, high and low, a tightly wound breakneck paced science fictions epic, full of calmanity and beauty. Quite literally this book will bend and blend your mind with tie and space. Read it, and move great distances."
retail price - $20.00 copacetic price - $17.77

Bumperhead
by Gilbert Hernandez
Gilbert's follow up to 2013's Marble Season, Bumperhead is another full-size, hardcover graphic novel from Drawn & Quarterly. He packs a lot more into this time; Marble Season now feels more like a warm up exercise by comparison. Divided into five sections, Bumperhead provides a highly condensed life story of a Mexican-American member of the punk generation, from childhood to middle age. It is presented in a historical frame that roughly parallels that of Gilbert's own, with a focus on the musical evolution that took place in the early to mid-seventies rock from prog and glam to punk and hard core that is filled with band and LP references that will ring a bell in anyone conversant with the music of that era and/or Gilbert's own musical history and taste. There are several unexpected/unusual twists – like a character who walks around with an iPad... in the 1970s! This is a narrative device that takes a moment to get used to; it feels like Gilbert had the urge to do it and just went with it (you can almost hear him saying, "if they don't get it, fuck 'em") ... and he manages to pull it off as a sort of quasi-Brechtian chorus-like [Verfremdungseffekt] device to reference our contemporary consciousness. It's not going too far out on a limb to proclaim Bumperhead Gilbert's most fully realized work outside of the Love and Rockets continuity. He is in the zone here, playing to his strengths as a storyteller and artist as he relates life events, group dynamics and family to character formation and the Hernandezian Arc of Life™. It's almost magic the way Bumperhead's players are brought so vibrantly to life that the reader comes away feeling that they know the pen & ink people that populate this volume's pages, especially – and unsurprisingly – the girls/women (as they mature and age [or not, as seems to be the case with the character that seems to be intended as the manifestation of a Platonic ideal] as well). Like Marble Season, this is at most a semi-autobiographical work and most definitely not "the Gilbert Hernandez Story" (not even a roman à clef). That said, it is nevertheless almost irresistible to attempt to tease out what is taken from Gilbert's own personal experiences and what is novelistic invention; in the process adding another layer of enjoyment for the long time fan; speaking of which, this is a book that is sure to resonate with and be savored (and treasured!) by the original generation of Love and Rockets readers, but one that will also, of course, be easily enjoyed by any and all comics readers – especially those whose identities are inextricably entwined with their life's mix-tape soundtrack. RECOMMENDED!
retail price - $21.95 copacetic price - $19.75

Luba and Her Family
by Gilbert Hernandez
Finally, another Gilbert volume in the updated format of the complete Love and Rockets collection. Luba and Her Family marks the tenth volume in the series. This 228 pages of comics in this volume encompass Gilbert's work from Measles #1 - 8, New Love #1 - 6, Luba #1 - 4 and Luba's Comics & Stories #1. Savor and enjoy.
retail price - $18.88 copacetic price - $14.99

Shoplifter
by Michael Cho
Born in South Korea, but immigrating to Canada at age six and a current resident of Toronto, Michael Cho is a widely respected illustrator who moonlights as a comics creator. Shoplifter is his first graphic novel, and an impressive debut it is. In its pages, Cho manages the feat of creating an elegant synthesis of contemporary Canadian cartooning. Combining the deftly dynamic page layouts of Darwyn Cooke, J.Bone & Jay Stephens, the reflective ennui of Seth, the urban introversion of Chester Brown and the urbane sophistication of Ethan Rilly into finely nuanced work of life in that part of North America that continues to swear allegiance to the Queen. The story told in Shoplifter is that of one young woman's lonely struggle to find her place in world. The tale is solidly constructed, well balanced, filled with strongly delineated characters and likely to please the readers it is intended for. Comparisons with the work of Adrian Tomine are, perhaps, inevitable. While there are certainly numerous points of contact between the two artists' work, Cho's protagonist, Corrina Park, is cut from a different cloth than Tomine's superficially similar young working women, demonstrating a greater vulnerability, naivete and sincerity, in contrast to Tomine's generally more jaded and sarcastic heroines, and Shoplifter ends on a more upbeat and hopeful note than the typical Tomine narrative. There is one important quality shared by Cho and Tomine: they are both top notch cartoonists who produce excellent work.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77

GOI

Get Over It
by Corinne Mucha
Ms. Mucha is a prolific creator of comics, having produced work for a number of excellent anthologies such as Papercutter, along with stand alone works such as the Xeric funded My Alaskan Summer, the Ignatz award winning, "The Monkey in the Basement and Other Delusions" (Retrofit Comics), and the young adult graphic novel, Freshman: Tales of 9th Grade Obsessions, Revelations and Other Nonsense. Here, in Get Over It, she delves into the pain and heartbreak of a failed relationship – first discovering, then confronting, and finally healing – in a graphic memoir that shows her continuing to grow as a cartoonist.
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $13.75

Amulet, Book 6 - Escape from Lucien
by Kazuo Kibuishi
The hit series returns, after a two year hiatus.
retail price - $12.99 copacetic price - $11.75

Nightworld #2
by Paolo Leandri & Adam McGovern
Leandri and McGovern are back with their 21st Century take on the Kirby-Lee method of producing multi-level comics that edify while they entertain, as we travel together to Nightworld "In the Midnight Hour."
retail price - $3.99 copacetic price - $3.99

TG2

Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #2
by Tom Scioli s/ John Barber
And the non-stop mega-action continues here in the latest installment from the Scioli-verse™; this time around you have your choice of covers by Scioli or "Edifying" Ed Piskor.
retail price - $3.99 copacetic price - $3.99

Maple Key Comics 3
edited by Joyana McDiarmid
There's nothing else like Maple Key Comics currently on the US small press market, as it follows the Manga model of a big, fat – each issue is over 250 pages – regularly published book of ongoing comics serials. Unique, hybrid comics abound in its pages: Science fiction / Teen romance, nautical adventure/romance, funny animal / auto-bio – you won’t find these types of comics together under one cover anywhere else! There are a baker's dozen continuing, serialized tales here, all that began in the first issue, and several of which conclude here, with most continuing on. There are also a few new, stand alone tales by newcomers including Rebecca Roher's "Primordial Soup" and Anna McGlynn's Lynda Barry-esque tale, "Like Water", which, respectively, open and close this issue. Check it out!
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $13.75

HotC

Heroes of the Comics
by Drew Friedman
Years in the making, Drew Friedman's epic mash note to the bygone greats of comics has at last arrived, and what a treat it is. Talent, not fame, is the key to entry here, so we have titans of the industry such as Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee rubbing shoulders with collector favorites like Ogden Whitney, Boody Rogers, Dick Briefer and Ramona Fradon – and many more inbetween. Also included are industy figures such as Max Gaines and Harry Chesler, and with a nod to history, the book closes with Frederic Wertham! Over 80 portraits in all – and what portraits they are! Take a gander at Drew's meticulous renderings and heartfelt meanderings, HERE.
retail price - $34.99 copacetic price - $29.75

Witzend
by Wallace Wood & Co.
One of the classic old school greats of comic book illustration, Wallace Wood was also among the earliest champions of creator rights for cartoonists, and Witzend was perhaps his most important legacy in this regard. Produced during the heyday of underground comics, Wood saw that "the kids" were taking control – and creative ownership – of their work. As, of course, had his colleague, Harvey Kurtzman with Humbug & Help. Witzend was Wood's contribution to evolving the commercial framework in which comics were made and sold, and the comics and supporting material herein produced reflect these aims. Fantagraphics has produced the definitive collection here in this full size, two-volume, slipcased edition. And, realizing that they're going to have to go the extra mile to convince readers to part with the hefty chunk of change that is required to purchase this masterwork*, Fantagraphics has provided their biggest ever PDF preview. Do yourself a favor and check it out. *(here at Copacetic, we've done our part to ease the pain by offering an extra hefty discount; see below).
retail price - $125.00 copacetic price - $93.75

The Bone Clocks
by David Mitchell
The Bone Clocks is a book into which Mitchell tries to squeeze in everything under the sun, and moon, and, especially, that which is under neither. He opens up literature's bag of tricks and grabs everything he can carry. He starts with the framework of a classic 19th century British novel – think George Eliot – and works in the likes of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Twin Peaks, and Mai, the Psychic Girl, before delivering an action-packed, climactic denouement that is possibly the closest a work of prose has come to portraying a cosmic Marvel Comics superhero battle; roughly the equivalent of pitting Dr. Strange and the X-Men against Dormammu, Eternity and Magneto in the Dark Dimension (penciled by Steve Ditko in mid-60s but then shelved for twenty years and inked by Bill Sienkiewicz in the mid-80s). The entire work is constructed in a series of Mitchell's trademarked, finely crafted first-person voices, each occupying their own temporal slot. The overarching narrative is propulsive, but also meditative, and it is the meditative component that is the most compelling. More than anything, The Bone Clocks is a work about the role of literature – all literatures: secular, religious, fictive, scientific, mythological – in linking together mortal humans in an immortal chain of knowledge, wisdom and tradition that is made possible by the creation and implementation of symbolic systems, such as – one among many – the English language. While each of us individually is destined to shuffle off this mortal coil, collectively we experience immortality through our interactions with the works of art and literature that withstand the tests of time, wherein we are immersed in a stream that is simultaneously connected to both the past and future.
retail price - $30.00 copacetic price - $25.75

IoK

The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning
by Marcelo Gleiser
A good book to read after finishing Bone Clocks? Check in with this review on physics.about.com and/or this one at The Nation and/or listen in on this conversation with Dr. Gleiser on KERA and see what you think.
retail price - $28.99 copacetic price - $25.75

Items from our September 2014 listings may now be purchased online at our eCommerce site, HERE.

New for August 2014

Hip Hop Family Tree, Volume 2: 1981-1983
by Ed Piskor
The Hip Hop Family Tree Express has reached the next station in its epic, era-spanning journey, and so is ready to deliver up this second, Treasury Edition sized, flexi-bound, full color volume that collects another year of HHFT strips from Ed's weekly Brain Rot feature, hosted by BoingBoing, along with a pulse-pounding panoply of bonus pin-ups by Michel Fiffe, Ben Marra, Katie Skelly, Wilfred Santiago, Jasen Lex, Matt Bors, Jarrett Williams, Kagen McLeod, Scott Morse, and Tom Neely. Highlights included in this volume: the moment when RUN-DMC takes the stage; the creation and unleashing of era-defining hits such as Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock” and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message”; the filming of the crucial hip hop movie, Wild Style; and the arrivals of NWA, The Beastie Boys, Doug E Fresh, KRS One, ICE T, and early Public Enemy. Also included are cameos by Dolemite, LL Cool J, Notorious BIG, and, sadly, New Kids on the Block. The introduction to this volume was penned by Wild Style director, Charlie Ahearn, no less. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Copacetic is hosting the Release Party for Hip Hop Family Tree, Volume 2 this Saturday, August 23, from 7:00pm to 10:00pm. We hope to see you there!
retail price - $27.99 copacetic price - $24.75

Street Angel
by Jim Rugg
The latest incarnation of the skateboarding ninja-fighter from Wilkesborough is a nifty 176 page hardcover that includes the complete five issue series, along with all the additional material from the earlier Slave Labor softcover, plus additional never-before-collected material such as short strips, full color front and back cover reproductions of all issues including the original mini, and more! This edition is published by AdHouse Books, who have generously posted this PDF preview.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77

Forming II
by Jesse Moynihan
The wait is over. The second full color, oversize, hardcover volume filled with cosmic, mind-altering comics adventures has arrived. You can take a peek at what's in store in this preview slideshow over at NoBrow... Wow, right?
retail price - $30.00 copacetic price - $25.75

Barnaby, Volume Two
by Crockett Johnson
Speaking of long-awaited follow-ups, here's the second volume of the complete collection of Crockett Johnson's one-of-a-kind comic strip masterpiece, Barnaby. Covering the years 1944 and 1945, this volume also comes packed with bonus material, including a foreward by Jules Feiffer, and an afterword and appendix of allusions by Barnaby scholar, Philip Nel. Art Spiegelman states that Barnaby, "radiates human warmth and whimsy... The artist's brilliantly written characters keep their feet planted in the all-too-real world of 1940s America while flying off on pink wings into one of the greatest fantasy strips ever made." Cushlamachree!
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $34.75

And, yes, Copacetic sells a few old school comics, now and then...

Nightworld
by Adam McGovern & Paolo Leandri
Here, at last, we have the first issue of this long-gestating series, drawn with diabolic dynamism by comics conceptualizer and Italian artist extraordinaire – the artist with the greatest Kirby flair – Paolo Leandri, and scripted by a comics professor with an erudition that encompasses not only the world of comics, but that of traditional art and culture as well; a knowledge that spans the centuries back to the classics of antiquity... and beyond – Adam McGovern. This is the same team that, way back in 2006, brought us a black and white one-shot comic book scripted with panache and drawn with smashing vivacity – Dr. Id – about which we waxed rhapsodic, and we are excited that they have at last managed to reunite around this full color, four issue mini-series released by Image Comics. Nightworld is a multi-layered meta-phantasmagoria in comic book form. On the one hand, it is a fabulously entertaining traditional comic book yarn with page after page of eye-popping art that is very much the direct descendant of Jack Kirby's classic work in Black Magic, Strange World of Your Dreams, and, of course, The Demon, while on the other, it is a deconstruction of / meditation on the mythical infrastructure that underpins and links all these works to the Jungian collective unconscious we all share in, aware or not, and which guides our waking life through indirectives, which we could do worse than imagine originating in... Nightworld, a work that is perhaps best described by Mr. Leandri himself, in his succinct summing up, as being "pure comics for now people."
retail price - $3.99 copacetic price - $3.99

TG1

Transformers vs. G.I. Joe #1
by Tom Scioli, w/John Barber
Once we start going on about comics in the grand Kirby tradition, it's hard to stop. And, really, why should we? Especially when we have our own certified Kirby Master right here in town. We presume that our local customers are all aware of "Titanium" Tom Scioli's status as a dimension-busting metacomics champ whose Myth of 8-Opus, American Barbarian and Final Frontier have challenged preconceptions and deepened appreciation of the capacity of traditional comics forms to carry weighty themes and confront contemporary concerns. They will doubtless now be joined by the previously uninitiated as Scioli begins his run on Transformers vs. G.I. Joe: Apparently, close to 200,000 comics readers have glommed onto a copy of #0 on Free Comic Book Day. So, while we assume most readers of this space are already hep, just in case anyone needs reminding, here's another shout out for Tom's (re)visionary take on the respective Transformers™ and G.I. Joe™ mythoi, both individually and in tandem. Be sure to check it out; anyone who has yet to do so so, may still pick up a copy of the FCBD #0 here at Copacetic, for no cost – just ask!
retail price - $3.99 copacetic price - $3.99

Cap'n Dinosaur
by Shaky Kane & Kek W
retail price - $3.99 copacetic price - $3.99

Cosplayers 2
by Dash Shaw
What happens when the life of the mind overwhelms the reality supporting it? When the need for fantasy outstrips the requirements of survival? Dash Shaw takes us behind the scenes, behind the masks, and into the minds of a select group of participants at this year's "Tezukon", an anime-centric gathering held to honor – with wildly varying degrees of awarness on the part of the participants – the life and work of "God of Manga" Tezuka Osamu. Can you find yourself anywhere in this picture?
retail price - $4.99 copacetic price - $4.44

DKW1

DKW
by Sergio Ponchione
retail price - $4.99 copacetic price - $3.99

Captain Victory #1
by Joe Casey, Nathan Fox, Ulysses Farinas & Jim Rugg
retail price - $3.99 copacetic price - $3.99

Operation Margarine
by Katie Skelly
Girls night out cum epic adventure filled with motorcycles, thugs, drugs, guns and nuns, all drawn in Skelly's signature clean line style.
retail price - $12.95 copacetic price - $11.75

KMM

Kill My Mother
by Jules Feiffer
Jules Feiffer is back, from Out of the Past, sporting a trenchcoat and packing heat as he revisits a half-century long career of cartooning in this comics noir tale that reveals that Mother is behind it all, in a work that Chris Ware states "stretches the long-form graphic novel into formidable textures of compact expression, daring to try things that film noir could only dream of."
retail price - $27.99 copacetic price - $25.00

Gast
by Carol Swain
In Gast, a 171 page graphic novel – what we believe is her longest sustained work to date – Swain sticks to the grid (9 panel) to deliver the stillness and steady rhythms of rural Welsh life as perceived and experienced by an isolated teen trying to find her place in the scheme of things by sifting through the life of another. Swain's trademarked pencil art has never been sharper, and it has been employed here to delineate just enough detail to describe the arc of the protagonist, Helen's personal journey of self-discovery, aided by neighbors and local animals, with whom she is able to matter-of-factly converse. Check it out in this pdf preview.
retail price - $22.99 copacetic price - $20.00

World War 3 Illustrated: 1979 - 2014
edited by Peter Kuper and Seth Tobocman
The longest running, politically active, North American comicszine anthology of our time, World War 3 was (and still is!) unabashedly radical left and NYC-centric in its outlook. Shepherded for over three decades by Kuper and Tobocman, who in addition to editing and publishing WWIII, produced a substantial percentage of the work that graced its pages, the best of which is reproduced here – in black and white and full color – along side that of a diverse group made up of many other contributors, including leftist luminaries like Sue Coe, Eric Drooker, Spain Rodriguez, Art Spiegelman, Tom Tomorrow and many others whose work is not as widely known and whose presence here is perhaps the greatest attraction of this hefty 300+ page hardcover volume, as readers encounter their work for the first time.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $27.50

MH-CTT

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
by Haruki Murakami
The wait is over! Patti Smith reviews it!
retail price - $25.99 copacetic price - $22.22

Items from our August 2014 listings may now be purchased online at our eCommerce site, HERE.

New for July 2014

How to Be Happy
by Eleanor Davis
Eleanor Davis has been producing comics of all sorts and sizes, employing a dazzling array of techniques and styles, for over a decade. In addition, she is an accomplished and widely published illustrator who also engages in a personal art practice. These multiple disciplines have continually informed and reinforced each other, leading to the rich and varied nature of the work that she continues to create. The work collected between the covers of How to Be Happy – much of it previously published in MOME – amply demonstrates the quality and range of her work, with a special focus on her most recent watercolor comics work, most notably "In Our Eden" and "Nita Goes Home", both of which are real standouts. Also on hand are plenty of pen & ink and mixed-media comics, which together demonstrate Davis's range and stylistic evolution. While a disclaimer at the start states, "This is not actually a book about how to be happy," we would beg to differ, for there is evident joy in the work printed on these pages, and, while the narratives presented by the work do not (nor pretend to) provide guides to the pursuit of happiness, it is clear that Ms. Davis herself has found, if not happiness itself, then consolation, certainly, in its production and that the contents of this work promises to bring a similar contentment to its readers. Take a moment out of your hectic schedule to get a taste in this PDF preview.
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75

Twelve Gems
by Lane Milburn
Four years in the making, Twelve Gems jolts the science fiction adventure comic book back to life. An important classic form of comics, the science fiction adventure goes back to the very beginning of comics – think Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers – and had its heyday during the "Atomic Age" of comics (1946 - 1955), most notably in the comics that were part of the EC SF line, particularly Weird Science and Weird Fantasy, where artists like Wallace Wood, Al Williamson, Joe Orlando and Al Feldstein apotheosized the genre. Lane Milburn comes out of the Baltimore-area independent comics scene, where he first rose to prominence as a member of Closed Caption Comics, an informal group of comickers that clustered together in the orbit of the Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art (aka MICA), that also included Ryan Cecil Smith, Noel Freibert, Molly O'Connell and Conor Stechschulte. This group was notably attentive to the craft element in comics production, and produced many treasures, among them Milburn's own The Mage's Tower, which was a big hit here at Copacetic after we picked it up for the shop at the 2008 SPX. In Twelve Gems, Milburn has created a playful homage to the genre that also incorporates some of the "Marvel-isms" that were injected into the form in the '60s and '70s by Jack Kirby (primarily in The Fantastic Four and Thor) and Jim Starlin (during his stints on Captain Marvel and Warlock). The result is a work that can be enjoyed by a diverse body of comics readers, ranging from old school fans of the form all the way through to newbies who just saw the Guardians of the Galaxy. Fantagraphics has kindly posted a hefty 23 page PDF preview to allow readers to test the waters. We're confident that many will subsequently decide to take the plunge.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77

God and the Devil at War in the Garden
by Anders Nilsen
This is a self-published, limited-edition, saddle-stiched, black & white, oversize edition collecting recent miscellaneous works by the inimitable Mr. Nilsen. The mainstay of the collection is the 16-page "An Angel of Heaven," executed employing the silhouette technique of Rage of Poseidon. The accompanying pieces – along with the massive wraparound cover – are rendered in the detailed stipple and line technique of Big Questions. All of the works in GatDaWitG are both visually pleasing and intellectually stimulating. In other words: what are you waiting for ? Every copy of our initial stock comes with a BONUS: a copy of his dialectical allegory in mini-comic form that takes on Amazon.com, Conversation Gardening.; rendered in a rough approximation of the cartooning style of the Monologuist books.
retail price - $18.00 copacetic price - $16.25

While a Soft Fog Wanders
by Andrew White
This new work by Comics Workbook Magazine editor and pioneering comics formalist, Andrew White presents six sections, each consisting of four spreads of four uniform-sized (1/2-page) images, each divided from the other by a blackened two-page spread at which the author suggests that the reader, "take a slight pause" and "hesitate before moving forward." This nature of the narrative is impressionistic; associative rather than linear. There is a proto-surrealist aspect to it, in that the flow of images do not appear to be consciously structured with a specific aim in mind, but rather flow, directed by the sub-conscious, like "a soft fog wanders." This puts it in (a perhaps more staid corner) of the neighborhood in which you would find the paintings of Giorgio DeChirico and the films of Maya Deren. Upon completion, the reader is left with a feeling somewhat analogous to waking from a dream; the fog of sleep lifts and you try to put together the image fragments that you struggle to recollect before they fade away. Each copy includes an original, signed black marker sketch on the last page!
retail price - $5.00 copacetic price - $4.00

MK2

Maple Key Comics 2
edited by Joyanna McDiarmid
There's nothing else like Maple Key Comics currently on the market. Unique, hybrid comics abound in its pages: Science fiction / Teen romance, nautical adventure/romance, funny animal / auto-bio – you won’t find these types of comics together under one cover anywhere else! And, of course, there’s plenty more on hand in the 250+ pages of the right-on-schedule second issue of Maple Key Comics: Mystery, intergenerational saga, fantasy adventure, work place gaffs, domestic drama, straight-up auto-bio, a historicized mythological tale, as well as several other variations of science fiction; plus a “Star Artist Interview" with Nicole Georges. Whew! The bulk of these are the second chapter of serials begun in the first issue, but there are several that are self-contained stories as well. A regularly published, big, fat book of engaging, personal, unique, innovative long and short form comics created by practiced, trained cartoonists doing what they love. Contributors are too numerous to list here, but include Carl Antonowicz, Sophie Goldstein, Billage and many more. Check it out!
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $13.75

U.D.W.F.G. (Under Dark Weird Fantasy Ground), Vol. 1
edited by Michele Nitri
This is the first in a projected six-volume series of – as the title suggests – dark fantasy comics. Published by Hollow Press of Italy, U.D.W.F.G. is an international effort with creators hailing from Europe and America, including, morst notably for Copacetic customers, Mat Brinkman, along with Tetsunori Tawaraya, Miguel Angel Martin, Paolo Massagli, and Ratigher! It's an over-sezed, French-flapped edition printed in black & white (with a heavy emphasis on black). This first volume of U.D.W.F.G. has been published in a hand-numbered limited edition of 700 copies, so it's probably a good idea to leave your dungeon and come on up to Copacetic before they're all gone.
retail price - $25.00 copacetic price - $25.00

Seconds
by Bryan Lee O'Malley
It's here: the all new, full color, hardcover graphic novel from Scott Pilgrim creator, Bryan Lee O'Malley. As might be expected, this one features characters a bit older than those found in the Scott Pilgrim, allowing for the aging of the original demographic of readers of that amazingly popular series (the indicia of our latest reorder of the first volume showed it to be the 30th printing!). Seconds centers on the character of Katie, a 29-year old chef and would be restauranteur. A current fling, an Ex-boyfriend, a boss, a partner, and batch of co-workers round out the cast. Oh yeah – and a house spirit with the power to grant the wish of a second chance to do things over. This dash of fantasy spices up the already lively goings on. And, while O'Malley currently makes his home in Los Angeles, the setting of Seconds is clearly his native Canada. An entertaining and fun read that is sure to enjoyed by the first generation of Scott Pilgrim fans, and is likely to click with anyone looking for a little magic in graphic novel form...
retail price - $25.00 copacetic price - $22.50

Escapo
by Paul Pope
One of Paul Pope's late '90s classics gets a second lease on life – this time in full color, courtesy of Shay Plummer. Also included are bonus extras that include heretofore unpublished layouts and sketches as well as a pin-ups section with all new art and a "Coda" afterword penned by Pope especially for this edition. And, of course, a new cover as well. Pope's work from this period was hugely influential on the then up-an-coming generation of cartoonists and would-be comic book artists. Boldly expressive ink work splashed across the pages forming compelling imagery in unique layouts on oversize pages in books self-published by Pope himself shone a light on a path to the future of comics that many strove to follow. Anyone who missed this the first time around should do themselves a favor and take a look now.
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22

Because You're a Robot
by Shaky Kane & David Quantick
Why should you read this 32 page full color comic book that delivers a heretofore-presumed-impossible compound of previously unbonded elements – part Tales to Thrizzle, part Flaming Carrot and part Judge Dredd? Because you're a robot, that's why.
retail price - $3.99 copacetic price - $3.99

Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present
by Dan Mazur & Alexander Danner
Comics provides a much needed corrective to the USA-centric comics histories (as well as it's cousins, the Euro-centric and manga-centric histories), by providing a look at what was going on in each of these areas simultaneously, readers are better able to see the relative progressions made in each region's respective scene as well as their relative strengths, focuses, trends, and reciprocities. Comics/manga/bandes dessinées/et al each take their turn on the stage of this global history. Mazur and Danner know their stuff, choosing the primary creators and pivotal works that define each era and area, and providing a rich, broad and detailed tapestry in the process. Anyone searching for an introduction to the world of comics, need look no further. Recommended.
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $35.00

2014 Summer Reading Part Two

Tomorrow and Tomorrow
by Thomas Sweterlitsch
John Dominic Blaxton is an insurance investigator, a cross between Walter Neff (née Huff, in the novel) and Philip Marlowe, a hard luck case whose pregnant wife was killed, and he feels he should have been as well, and so is barely able to drown his sorrows. While working on a claim, he stumbles on a dead body and finds himself caught up in a complex web of money, power, sex, religion and guerrilla art. Except... this is happening some thirty years or so in future, and nothing is what it seems. The central irony of Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Pittsburgh author, Tom Sweterlitsch's debut novel, is that in order to "put Pittsburgh on the map" of literary locales, he had to completely annihilate it: before the novel opens, Pittsburgh has been vaporized by a nuclear blast. Then, through the course of the novel, and Blaxton's mission, a simulacra of the non-existent city is gradually (re)assembled out of "The Archive," the massive digital storage which, in the future posited here, contains the records of a nearly – but, crucially, not completely – total surveillance of every instant at every location in which every action of every person at every place at every time is recorded and stored. Through this particular device, Sweterlitsch hits on a vital metaphor for the literary imagination itself. For what is writing but a replacing of reality with an imaginative construct built out of the materials of memory (this applies to film-making as well, and it will come as no surprise to anyone who reads this work that it has been optioned for a film, as the imaginative reconstruction that takes place in the pages of Tomorrow and Tomorrow is of a highly visual nature). The plot of the novel turns on the twist that the memory out of which reality is recalled here is man-made: The Archive. As it is man-made, it can be man-unmade as well, and this is precisely what happens as the murder mystery at the core of the plot involves a hacking of The Archive that attempts to rewrite memory and hide the crime(s), echoing concepts explored in William Gibson's Neuromancer and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (based on Philip K Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), which are now thirty years old and very much in need of the updating which they get here. But there's more! The digital recollection and subsequent reconstitution of the entire population of the annihilated city of Pittsburgh adds another – allegorical – layer. Although unstated in the novel, employing the parlance of the present, The Archive storing the virtual afterlives of the dead would be located in "the cloud," which repository then becomes the simultaneous locus of both history and heaven, wherein the facts of the past can be accessed and lost loved ones revisited, and wrongs righted; or not. Current and former residents of Pittsburgh will have the added bonus of finding aspects of their current (or former) environments reconstituted in these pages, as the human memory powering the novel draws on its own recollections of the city and its people.
retail price - $26.99 copacetic price - $24.00

Capital in the Twenty First Century
by Thomas Piketty
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $35.00

The Society of Equals
by Pierre Rosanvallon
retail price - $35.00 copacetic price - $32.50

The French have come to save us from our own animal spirits (and the "invisible hand" that guides them), under the ægis of Harvard University Press and via the translations of Arthur Goldhammer (what a great name for a translator of economic texts!). Ignore at your own – and our entire society's – peril... You can actually start right in reading The Society of Equals on GoogleBooks.

Items from our July 2014 listings may now be purchased online at our eCommerce site, HERE.

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Want to keep going? There's tons more great stuff here, most of which is still in stock. Check out our New Arrivals Archives:

2Q 2014: April - June, New Arrivals
1Q 2014: January - March, New Arrivals

4Q 2013: October - December, New Arrivals
3Q 2013: July - September, New Arrivals