NEW STUFF ARCHIVES
Copacetic Arrivals: 4Q 2014
all items still
available (unless otherwise noted)
ordering info
New for
December 2014
The Art
of the Simon and Kirby Studio
selected and edited by Mark Evanier
Any
Kirby fan opening this book for the first time
and realizing what they're holding in their hands will have the same
reaction we did: "WOW!" When we first heard about this
book/project a year or so ago, we assumed it would be a coffee table
type book more or less along the lines of Evanier's previous book
titled simply Kirby, which was a swell tome offering an
overview of the king's life and work along with a generous election of
high quality scans of his original art and published work. The
Art of the Simon and Kirby Studio is a different beast
altogether. Here we have assembled one of the largest selections
of high quality scans of original art ever put between two
covers. This massive, oversize, hardcover tome opens with a
fifteen page introduction by Evanier, which is then immediately
followed by a mind-boggling 350 high-resolution scans of
original art that emanated from the Simon and Kirby Studio from 1942
through 1959, with the vast majority of it from the '50s. While
other artists' work is on display here, most notably that of S&K
Studio members, Mort Meskin and Bill Draut, most is by Jack
Kirby. Many complete stories are included along with covers,
double-page splashes, unfinished pencils and unpublished pages.
Nearly 70 pages from Kirby's seminal Boys' Ranch are here,
which is some of the strongest work of his career (although six of the
pages are, sadly, incorrectly formatted, resulting in blurred/pixilated
images). Also, some amazing pages of Al Williamson inking Kirby
that will knock the socks off even the most jaded seen-it-all.
Once again, we say, "WOW!"
retail price - $60.00 copacetic price - $53.75
Creeping
Death from Neptune: The Life and Comics of Basil Wolverton, Volume One
(1909 - 1941)
by Basil
Wolverton
Basil Wolverton fans - and, for that matter, all students of comics art
history - rejoice! This long-awaited (it was originally scheduled
for release something like two years ago) volume proves itself to be
more than worth the wait by exceeding expectations (and so has
simultaneously upped expectations for projected future
volume[s]). Editor, Greg Sadowski and his crack team of Wolverton
aficionado-scholars, among their number, we presume, being Wolverton's
descendents, as there is much heretofore unseen Wolvertonania on
display in the copious archival essays accompanying the classic comics
art. A more full and rich picutre emerges here of Wolverton's
early life and artistic development than has ever before been
available, and, of course, the comics herein reproduced are tremendous
and include some revelatory early works that few have ever laid eyes
upon. AMAZING!
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $35.75
Understanding
Monster, Book Two
by Theo Ellsworth
The second volume of Mr. Ellsworth's haunting, fascinating and
absorbing interior journey has at last arrived! Learn more about
what to expect in the intricately detailed full color pages of this
full-size hardcover tome at our
review of the first volume. It is worth noting that,
according to Mr. Ellsworth, this time around we have improved color
fidelity to the original art!
retail price - $21.99 copacetic price - $19.75
Doctors
by Dash Shaw
Anyone on the lookout for intellectually stimulating, æsthetically
challenging work – regardless of the form it takes – should be sure to
investigate the comics of Dash Shaw. Shaw is a sophisticated
visual thinker and natural experimenter unconstrained by generic
conventions or audience expectations. In Doctors, soap operatic
melodrama mixes freely with science fiction concepts (Philip Jose
Farmer / Philip K Dick) and both are together presented to the reader
with a bold decisive formalism that simultaneously brings to mind
painters such as Hans Hoffman and filmmakers like Jean Luc
Godard. The final product is in intriguing investigation on our
evolving conception of where life begins and ends in our ever more
media saturated world, as dreams, hallucinations, and manufactured
artificial visions all vie for the attention of the neural pathways
that connect our biological sensory apparatus to our conscious sense of
self, in the process confusing our understanding of what is real.
This is an issue that philosophers have grappled with at least since
Descartes, but it is only fairly recently, with the advent of the
immersive artificial medias – beginning with film, and its subsequent
progeny of television, video and now the ubiquitous interconnectivity
of all electronic media – that what is experienced by our the senses is
actually beginning to test the ability of our interpretive intellect to
distinguish the real from the artificial to the extent that we are
currently faced with the situation that we either have to redefine
reality or reality will redefine us. Will we be able to remain
consciously distinct from the artificial realities that we are
creating, or will we merge with them, our sense of selves no longer
distinct from our creations. Dash Shaw reveals that comics have
the potential to effectively map our explorations of this new world.
retail price - $16.99 copacetic price - $15.00
Here
by Richard McGuire
Twenty-five years ago, in Raw, Volume 2, Number 1, Richard
McGuire published a six-page work, titled "Here"*, and comics have
never been the same since. Now, McGuire has expanded his
revelation into a full length work, that, while it may be considered to
fulfill the definition of graphic novel, is clearly something more
besides. Years in the making, Here is a meditation on
time and its passage through place that employs the power of comics to
concisely and powerfully convey their inextricable relation.
Reading Here, one is quickly gripped by a feeling of the
uncanny. The realization that the precise spatial coordinates
occupied by the room which we are currently occupying as we sit reading
has existed for billions of years and that our physical surroundings,
which seem so concrete and fixed, are as fleeting and effervescent as
clouds passing overhead, when subjected to the fullness of time, and,
what's more, that somehow all these different moments that flow through
this space, one after the other for as close to eternity as it is
possible for us to imagine, as a result of the room's seeming fixity,
must all exist together, linked in some way through their sharing of
the space, delivers a knockout punch to many an unexamined
assumption. Thoughts of ghosts, spirits and haunting suddenly
seem completely natural: "Of course!" William Faulkner's
dictum, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past," is now seen in
a more clinical, immediate light. Here; it is, now.
* [sample
page]
retail price - $35.00 copacetic price - $31.50
Arsene Schrauwen
by Olivier Schrauwen
Olivier Schrauwen makes comics
like no one else, so when he decides to do a piece of biographical
comics about an adventure involving his grandfather, the only thing
that you do know is that you don't know what to expect in the pages of
this 250 page oversize hardcover volume printed primarily in blue and
red inks...
retail price - $34.99 copacetic price - $29.75
Cochlea & Eustache
by Hans Rickheit
Another book filled with Rickheit's absurdly idiosyncratic,
disturbingly twisted and more than a bit perverted nightmare visions,
Cochlea & Eustache (names both related to connected parts of the
ear, serving the functions of balance and hearing; perhaps he is trying
to give us a hint here/hear) is
clearly more than simply a pair of nubile identical
twins romping around in their haltertop babydolls.
Beginning with its copper ink log and textured cover, this is a volume
about the pleasures of the text-imbued-image/object that works to
expose the latent voyeurism in all comics reading and has fun doing it.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
Loverboys
by Gilbert Hernandez
Another
Gilbert Hernandez graphic novel! Channeling the spirit of comics
creators gone by, Beto out produces comics makers half his age.
No one handles the relations between the sexes (or within, for that
matter) like him. Here we have a series of jump cut staccato
interactions deftly carrying the
readers along on the weft through a complex weave of human cloth.
Parent, child, sibling, friend, teacher, boss; these are the core
relationships that are explored to uncover their component of sexual
connection, whether it be latent or manifest, strong or weak, hidden or
out in the open, and how all relate to each one's place in the world.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
Best of Enemies – A History
of US and Middle East Relations Part Two: 1953 - 1984
by David B. and Jean-Pierre Filiu
The inimitable David B. continues his partnership with Middle East
scholar, Jean-Pierre Fililu. Employing his amazing ability to
visually render concepts in ways that illuminate the intellect and
point the way towards comprehension and understanding
make this another truly educational read that will be sure to provide
American readers with fresh perspectives on their own history.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $22.22
Second Avenue Caper
by Joyce Brabner & Mark Zingarelli
Long in the making (and right here in the Pittsburgh area, too, as that
is where Mark Zingarelli has been hunched over his drawing table,
converting Ms. Brabner's elegiac yet uplifting script into page after
page of hard won comics), Second Avenue Caper takes readers
back to the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic in NYC, when no one knew
what was happening, what caused it, how it was spread, or how to stop
it. Many – perhaps most – Copacetic customers are too young to
have experienced the early days of AIDS, and the fear, sorrow, anger and, ultimately, hope-filled community
building, that it engendered. This 144 page hardcover graphic
history of this era brings it to life for the younger generations that
have grown up and come of age in its wake, and whose lives and
behaviors have been shaped by it, without their necessarily realizing
it.
retail price - $22.00 copacetic price - $19.75
Foolbert Funnies
by Frank Stack
This 200+ page volume presents a selection of the work of underground
comics pioneer, early independent graphic novelist and University of
Missouri Professor Emeritus, Frank Stack. Stack's career now
spans nearly half a century, and the work herein presented was created between 1970 and 2007, with most emerging
from Stack's post-1990 pen. The comics originally appeared in a
wide and sundry collection of publications, from his own, early
underground comics like Feelgood Funnies and Jesus
Meets the Armed Services, through classic anthologies like Weirdo,
Rip Off Comix, and Blab!, to National
Lampoon and Mineshaft. Some of it is fantasy, some of it
is fiction, some of it is folktale, and some of it is history, and it's
all the work of a unique figure in the comics history of our times.
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75
Maple Key Comics 4
edited by Joyanna 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! This time out
we have the first installments of several new serials, making this
issue a good jumping on point.
retail price - $18.00 copacetic price - $15.75
Nancy Loves Sluggo
by Ernie Bushmiller
What more can be said about Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy? It is that
it is: Nancy is Nancy is Nancy (and Sluggo, too, as evidenced by this
volume's exegetical cover design, which serves to graphically enlighten
us as to Bushmiller's essentialist credo). Apparently quite a
bit, as Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik have been laboring mightily for
decades to complete what even then may not be the last word, the 240
page, How To Read Nancy (due out in 2015 [in theory; this one's
been delayed so many times we've lost track]; for now, we direct
readers to the short essay
that started the whole thing). So, anyways, what we have here is
another three full years of Nancy Dailies that flowed from the mind and
pen of Mr. Ernie Bushmiller and into countless millions of newspapers
throughout America (and, surely, elsewhere around the world, as well)
during the years 1949, 1950 and 1951. This collection is preceded
by an introduction by cartoonist, comics scholar and noted
Nancyologist, Ivan Brunetti. Enjoy!
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $35.00
WINTER READS
This Changes
Everything
by Naomi Klein
The latest work by the game-changing No Logo, is a
book that pulls no punches as it articulates the profound linkages
between capitalism and climate change that is – or at least aims to
be – a
movement unto itself.
retail price - $30.00 copacetic price - $27.00
Corruption in America
by Zephyr Teachout
Money does change everything... evidently, for the worse. Zephyr
Teachout explores how the rise of big money politics has gone hand in
hand with the degradation of politics here in the US of A.
retail price - $29.95 copacetic price - $26.95
How to Build a Girl
by Caitlin Moran
A frank (i.e. sexually
explicit in parts) rite of passage tale for today's girl/woman.
retail price - $26.99 copacetic price - $24.75
Clothes Clothes
Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys
by Viv Albertine
Here's an concept-album formatted memoir of early UK Punk prime-mover,
Viv Albertine, founding member of The Slits, whose life and work took
place during a pivotal period in which women like herself pushed the
boundaries of what women could do and be in the world of music,
entertainment, taking ownership of female sexuality in a way that
challenged preconceptions and the patriarchal in/de/con-scription of
women's roles and so helped to redefine gender rules and relations.
retail price - $27.99 copacetic price - $25.00
Fields of Blood:
Religion and the History of Violence
by Karen Armstrong
Karen Armstrong is certainly one of, perhaps the, most knowledgeable
persons writing on religion today. Every one of her numerous
books is worth reading; none more so than this, her latest, and perhaps
most timely and needed. The breadth and depth of her knowledge
and the nearly superhuman empathy that she displays in her writing,
will enlighten any one who reads her. Nowhere is this better on
display than in the fifteen page introduction to this volume. We
hereby invite any of our customers to grab a coffee at Lili's and then
grab a copy of this book and plant yourself in one of our reading
chairs and spend the time it takes to absorb this introduction.
Anyone who takes us up on this will surely feel much the wiser for it.
retail price - $30.00 copacetic price - $25.75
Lila
by Marilynne Robinson
The third novel set in the fictional town of Gilead, Iowa, Lila is a
novel of spiritual redemption.
retail price - $26.00 copacetic price - $23.00
Items from
our December 2014 listings (and plenty more besides) are also up at our
eCommerce site, HERE.
New for November 2014
Incomplete
Works
by Dylan Horrocks
Incomplete Works provides, indirectly, an intimate,
informative, entertaining portrait of the artist as a young cartoonist
– who goes on to age gracefully and productively – with a large degree
of creative independence – into marriage, fatherhood and middle-age
(which is no small feat). It does so while simultaneously
fulfilling its primary function of being a treasure trove of short
comics of all stripes. Auto-bio, fantasy, literary, historical,
humorous, scientific, and meta-physical comics can each be found here,
all handled by Horrocks with
dexterous aplomb. That he has been able to accomplish all this
may have something to due with his being a New Zealander, but we're not
sure... This well-produced 192 page collection was, in any event,
published by Victoria University Press, located in Wellington, New
Zealand's capital (Horrocks resides in Auckland, New Zealand's major
metropolis). VUP is also Horrock's New Zealand publisher of his
two major works, Hicksville
(published in North America by Drawn & Quarterly) and Sam Zabel
and the Magic Pen (forthcoming in North America, from
Fantagraphics). To the best of our knowledge, there are no plans
to publish Incomplete Works in North America, but we were able
to track down copies from a distributor who imported them. And
we're glad we did! This excellent collection provides an
excellent look at a quarter-century long (and counting!) career that
takes a look at available career (and life) paths, approaches to to the
medium, technical as well as stylistic and philosophical. This
feat is accomplished in part by the volume's well thought out, largely
chronological, organization in combination with its providing concise,
informative end notes, which serve to contextualize the contents. RECOMMENDED!
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $19.99
Syllabus
by Lynda Barry
The professor is back and class is now in session! From the
moment you lay eyes on this anti-professorial text book disguised as a
student's composition book (which, of course, it also is; as Lynda
Barry is nothing if not a life-long learner) you know you are going to
be in for a treat. You know this book is going to be
different. You know that you will gradually realize that you
don't know. At the outset, Barry (self-designated
as Professor Long-Title)
states that Syllabus is, "a book of notes, drawings, and
syllabi I kept during my first three years of teaching in the Art
Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The chronology
is rough and mixed up in places but all kept by hand on pages of either
legal pads or in standard black and white marbled composition
notebooks." Syllabus asks: "What is an
image?" But Lynda Barry knows that no book can answer this
question by itself, that it is up to the reader, and so she guides us
through "the unthinkable mind" in order to discover "what it is" and so
be able to "write what you see" and ultimately be at one with "making
comics." Not only will you see
her lessons and observations, but also a judicious and seamlessly
integrated selection of students' work and turned-in assignments.
(check out these preview
shots to rev up your anticipation another notch) This
facsimile is sure to inspire many an actual composition-book filling
and what could be better than that? And, as a supplement to her Syllabus,
you might want to make a visit to Lynda Barry's Tumblr page, The
Near
Sighted Monkey, where, when class is in session (and even when it's
not), you'll get the chance to learn along with Lynda as well as
occasionally get a look at what her students are up to.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
Moonhead
by Andrew Rae
Another fabulously produced, full colour, hardcover NoBrow graphic
novel is here, and it's designed with indy rock music fans – and,
especially, the budding musicians among them – in mind. It's
about how being different – like, for example, having a moon for a head
– makes life different and how that alters viewpoints and changes life
paths – like, for example, becoming an indy rock musician. Lush
full color art depicts the development of Moonhead's person and career,
and includes plenty of nods and references that will resonate with the
initiated. Here's
a review (accompanied by a very generous preview) by Big
Boing Boinger, internet writer (whose upcoming book, Information
Doesn't Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age, we'll have in
soon) and comics scripter, Cory Doctorow (whose recent collaboration
with Jen Wang, In Real Life, we'll be posting about here before
long).
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
The Secret History of Wonder Woman
by Jill Lepore
Wonder Woman appears to be undergoing a cultural renaissance at the
moment, and this epic tome by Harvard scholar and New Yorker staff
writer, Jill Lepore is right at the heart of the storm. While
much of what falls under the rubric of "secret history" has been common
knowledge to old school comic fans for decades, Ms. Lepore does manage
to uncover a few bits that will be news to all but the inner circle,
and, more importantly, contextualizes the history of Wonder Woman
within the overarching history of women in America, and American
cultural history in general, and in the process provides keys that
unlock hidden reserves of cultural and intellectual capital that have
been residing in this costumed character all along. There's a
quite lengthy piece she wrote for the New Yorker which provides a
distillation of some of the book's points, "The Last Amazon," which is
certainly well worth the time of anyone interested in Wonder Woman's
backstory. Do yourself a favor and set aside a half hour to read
it, and should you feel left wanting more at the end, you'll kneed to
look no further.
retail price - $29.95 copacetic price - $25.75
Hip Hop Family
Tree Vol. 1-2: 1975-1983 Gift Box Set
by Ed Piskor
OK, Hip Hop fans, here's the deal. This item is
a deluxe
box-set, with a twist. What we have here is a textured slip-case
containing both of the volumes of Hip Hop Family Tree
that have been released to date – BUT, while the contents of each
volume contained in this box set is identical to the stand-alone
volumes, each of the volumes has a new and completely different cover. PLUS, this box also contains a
24-page comic book — Hip Hop Family
Tree #300 — specifically made for this boxed set. This is
a mock Image Comics-era "ashcan" edition that deconstructs the comic
book production process while presenting an epic Hip Hop / Comic Book
crossover tale of the Rob Liefeld / Spike Lee team-up that occurred in
the process of making a Levi Jeans TV commercial; with special
appearance by Eazy E. And we're offering a special price on this
that works out to basically the same cost as the two stand alone
volumes, making this a value-priced point of entry to the series.
retail price - $59.99 copacetic price - $49.99
Cartozia Tales #1-6
edited by Isaac Cates
An ambitious, well thought out and nicely produced
and printed new (well, kind of) anthology title, Cartozia Tales
features an ongoing series of related, sometimes interconnecting tales
all set in the same fictional world. It's a bit more complex than
this cursory description allows, but readers will quickly discover this
on their own. There is a regular ongoing group of artists and
writers who return each issue. This group includes series editor,
Cates, Shawn Cheng, Sarah Becan, Tom Motley, Jen Vaughn, Lupi McGinty,
Lucy Bellwood and Mike Wenthe. This core group is then joined
each issue by special guest artists, which so far include Dylan
Horrocks, James Kochalka, Corinne Mucha, Luke Pearson, Matt Weigle,
Sally Madden, Kevin Cannon and many others. Each 6" x 9" issue
runs 40-44 pages and is printed on heavy off white stock with card
stock covers. Some issues include added bonuses such as cardboard
cut-out "paper dolls" with their own cut-out paper outfits (#2), fold
out maps (#5), a board game (#6). This is a engaging and well
done series that shows continued promise; it also stands to fill the
vacancy left with the demise of the similarly excellent, but sadly
erstwhile comics anthology, Papercutter.
Based on the infromation contained in the Kickstarter for this project,
it seems as though the series will only run for ten issues... but we're
hoping that they're having such a good time doing it that they decide
to continue. Regardless, this series is well worth a look!
retail price - $6.00@ copacetic price - $6.00@
Morgan
by Frank Santoro
Out of the blue, it's an all new work by Frank Santoro! Morgan is
a nearly wordless, 32 page, horizontally formatted, 6.5" x 5" Risograph
printed in royal purple. Myth and symbol merge in a series of
sensual images that link nature, sexuality and power within a framework
that hinges on the inherently deceptive character of appearances. Once
again, it's all about the spread. The narrative of Morgan is
biplanar in construction, grounded in two, alternating modes of
perception – asserting any fixed view of "reality" (or history) as
being inherently unstable, illusory and based on self-deception,
willful or otherwise – and challenges the reader to synthesize the
story's latent content in the collision at the center: to read
each image first individually and then in tandem, the spread as a
single unit; to incorporate the basic principle of Eisensteinian
montage in simultaneously reading both images to identify a new,
synthetic meaning that rises out of their combination. The
uniform sensuality of both the drawings and the images serves to
formally adhere the layers, while momentum is built through parallel
storytelling occurring on two planes of reality, primarily – but not
solely – represented across the spread, and the climax occurs at their
intersection. All this in 32 highly compacted images.
Needless to say, you'll want to read this one through multiple
times. Anyone unfamiliar with the Arthurian legend and/or Morgan
Le Fay's role – which has been, over the centuries, highly mutable and
often debated – is hereby directed to delve a bit deeper into this
foundational legend that is a primogenitor for much in Western myth,
including a significant swath of that underpinning the heroic fantasy
genre, aka superheroes.
Britannia.com's Morgan Le Fay page is one good place to start as it
includes a bibliography of sources for further reading. Santoro's
Morgan has been produced in an edition of a mere 200 copies, so don't
snooze on this one!
retail price - $10.00 copacetic price - $8.00
The Complete Peanuts 1950-1954 (Vols. 1 - 2) Gift Box Set – Softcover
by Charles Schulz; w/ intros by Walter Cronkite and Garrison Keillor
Anyone who missed out on the initial hardcover iteration of
Fantagraphics' Complete Collected Peanuts, now has a second chance to
start in right at the beginning of the softcover edition of the series
with the attractive and quite reasonably priced two-volume, slipcased
set of the first four + years of Peanuts strips (dailies and Sundays!)
just released in time for the holidays.
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $35.00
Cringe: An Anthology
of Embarrassment
edited by by Peter S. Conrad
This is anthology is aptly titled. Within its 112 pages readers will
encounter over two dozen tales of mortal embarrassment nearly all of
which have at least one cringe-worthy moment. Inadvertent
insults, awkward and/or accidental sexualizations, plenty of dumb moves
–major and minor, failed bowel control, errors of judgment galore –
often due to drug and/or alcohol induced impairment, and plenty more
are graphically detailed here by the likes of Cara Bean, Jeffrey Brown,
Elijah Brubaker, Box Brown, Chad Essley, Shaenon Garrity, Julia
Gfrörer, Victor Kerlow, Fred Noland, Adam Pasion, and many
others. The cringes will come hard and fast as readers make their
way through this anthology, which perhaps begs the question, "why would
anyone want to read this?" The answer is, of course, that we've
all had moments of terrible embarrassment, so it can come as a relief
to know that, here, as in so many things, we're not alone, and as
embarrassing as may have been for us, there's a good chance someone
else had it worse. And there's something to be said for the
community building powers of sharing personal mistakes and errors in
judgement. Some might squirm and think TMI, but we'd guess that
most would feel a little bit closer to their fellow human beings after
reading something like this.
retail price - $8.00 copacetic price - $7.25
What Nerve!
Alternative Figures in American Art, 1960 to the Present
edited by Dan Nadel
Dan Nadel strikes again! What Nerve! is a unique and original
amalgamation of -- as the sub-title succinctly states -- alternative
figures in American art, 1960 to the present. Here together under
one cover for the first time are a widely diverse, and, at least at
first glance, wildly divergent artists. Only in this collection
will you find work by The Hairy Who's Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt and Karl
Wirsum along side of Destroy All Monster's Mike Kelly, Niagara and Jim
Shaw alongside Jack Kirby and H.C. Westermann, Gary Panter and
Forcefield's Mat Brinkman, Ara Peterson, Jim Drain and Leif Goldberg...
and many more besides! What Nerve! accompanies an exhibit of the
same name running at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum from 19
September 2014 thorugh 4 January 2015 that was put together with Judith
Tannenbaum. The book is dvided into ten sections, each devoted to
a particular artist or group of artists, and each accompanied by an
essay written by a diverse body of art scholars including Nicole
Rudick, Robert Cozzolino, Naomi Fry and, of course, Nadel
himself. Check out publisher D.A.P.'s page on the
book where you will be able to take in the rave reviews and links
to further info. Once you spend some time with this collection,
the connections amidst the diversity become manifest and a fresh
narrative emerges.
retail price - $40.00 copacetic price - $36.00
Items from our November 2014 listings (and plenty more besides) are
also up at our eCommerce site, HERE.
New for October
2014
The Lonesome Go
by Tim Lane
The long
awaited follow up volume to Abandoned
Cars has arrived. The Lonesome Go is a giant
oversize volume packed with more carefully placed ink lines than any
book this side of Black
Hole. Taking a hint from the Legend
of Duluoz, St. Louis resident and Washington University lecturer,
Tim Lane takes a turn down a Lost
Highway on a Savage
Night, where A Good Man
Is Hard to Find and a sprawling chaos of comics ensues,
recorded employing a visual lexicon that is part Charles Biro and
part Charles Burns
and shines a light on those parts of the
American psyche that are usually left festering in the dark, all in
the service of creating an acutely observed and fully realized vision
that will knock your socks off. The work contained in this volume
– some of which has previously seen the light of day in Lane's
self-published series, Happy Hour in America, some in other
various and sundry publications, and some here for the first time – is
suffused with the spirit of the 20th century – "The American
Century": Train engines, boxcars, tracks, yards, switches,
signals; warehouses, factories,
back alley hotels, bars and nightclubs constructed of bricks, wood beams, iron and steel, all
connected by heavily riveted bridges that are mystically immune to
rust; hobos, psychos, the helpless, the hopeless; coffee,
cigarettes, booze of all stripes; guns, knives, truncheons, lead
pipes. This volume is not for the faint of heart. Truly Hollow Men
haunt these pages, where sadism mixes with the violence of a nonchalant
misanthropy which is even more frightening. Adventure and risk
are here, as well – as one would expect from the Great American
Mythological Drama that Lane is crafting here. Yes, all is
delineated with grim, determined care, to ensure the reader doesn't
miss a thing, but there is also poetry here, of a decidedly romantic
bent, that evokes – to simultaneously celebrate and mourn – the America
that is no more...
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $33.75
An
Age of License: A Travelogue
by Lucy Knisley
Here's an engaging tale of a young
American woman abroad, 21st century comics style! As opposed to
the introverted tales of angst and woe that we have come to associate
with the autobio comics genre, here we have an extroverted (and, as it
turns out, exogamous) tale of European adventure wherein our heroine
heads off to gain new experiences and fresh perspectives, in what is,
after all, a travelogue. Readers may vicariously share in her fun
and far-ranging travels as well as her various interludes and
escapade. Knisley has done one previous travel memoir, 2008's French
Milk,which we were only lukewarm about, but her cartooning
abilities have vastly improved in the interim, and the story she has to
tell this time around has a lot more going for it, so fans of travel
comics, fans of autobio comics, and fans of Knisley's popular foodie
comic, Relish, all have something to look forward to here in
this 200 page book; a mix of black & white and full color.
Take a sneak peek at it, here
in this PDF preview and see what you make of it.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
Hospital Suite
by John Porcellino
The first original, all new graphic
memoir by John Porcellino is here. Unlike previous books by
Porcellino, which were all culled in part or whole from issues of
his long-running King-Cat Comics and Stories series, everything (except
for four short pieces in the appendices, which most people will not
have seen) in Hospital Suite appears here for the first time. It
is divided into three novella-ish sections, each of which confronts a
health crisis in John's life. The titular "Hospital Suite"
provides an overview of John's first major health crisis, a mystery of
pain and suffering that descended without warning; "1998" focuses on
the events of this year where sounds become painful followed by the
onset of OCD; and "True Anxiety" shows what happens when OCD collides
with post-9/11 atmosphere of paranoia and fear. This may sound
like a giant bummer of a read, but it's not; in true King-Cat fashion,
the silver lining in each cloud is revealed, and each crisis is
transformed into a spiritual journey towards inner peace.
retail price - $22.95 copacetic price - $20.00
Root Hog or Die (DVD)
a film by Dan Stafford
While we're on the subject of John Porcellino, now would be a good time
to bring to your attention this documentary film which takes John P. as
its subject. Yes, you heard that correctly, Root Hog or Die is a
feature length documentary film on the life and times of John
Porcellino. What's more it serves as a highly appropriate
complements Hospital Suite as it too delves deeply into health issues -
both physical and mental, and works to situate them in John's life
story as well as contextualize them in relation to his work (although
less the latter and more the former). The film's maker, Dan
Stafford – co-founder/owner/manager, with Luke James, of Kilgore Books
& Comics of Denver, CO – spent years putting together this film,
and roams far afield to interview both of John P.'s exes (the first of
which is interviewed with John, as they sit together and reminisce
about the bad old days) along with a host of other folk from
Porcellino's past and present personal and professional life, including
Noah van Sciver, here seemingly cast as John P.'s teen (not) sidekick,
and Zack Sally, John's concerned peer. Worthy of special note is
the inclusion of a live musical performance by John with one the band's
of his youth, playing at an outdoor festival; get ready to rock out
with a young – and long-haired! – John P. & Co.
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $12.75
I Saw Him
by Nate McDonough
Dante’s Divine Comedy begins, "In the middle of the journey of
our life, I came to myself, in a dark wood, where the direct way was
lost,” establishing a narrative paradigm that has taken many twists and
turns before arriving here in Pittsburgh, channeled through the
ceaselessly drawing hand of Nate McDonough and taking the form of this
work. I Saw Him has been delivered to the Copacetic
Made-in-Pittsburgh Table™ just in time to steep in the spirits of
Halloween and Dia de los Muertos, and is tailor-made to pre-chill your
bones in preparation for the long winter to come. Set in the
proverbial Woods, I Saw Him communicates a mood of pervasive
anxiety about mortality that may put some readers in mind of American
progenitor of the tale of existential dread, Edgar Allan Poe (to whom,
we can’t help but note, its protagonist bears a passing resemblance)
while the setting and action may bring to mind Nathaniel Hawthorne and
Jack London. McDonough’s notes indicate that he was accessing
this mode through the 20th century cinematic works of Tarkovsky and
Bergman, which makes sense, but the feeling here, while arguably more
old country than new world in flavor, is distinctly pre-modern.
Regardless of all precursors, the aim here has been to create a
timeless sense of mortal fear, one that can plug right into our own
contemporary dreads that make up the daily news. Nate has
striven to capture a wintry walk through a light snow that doubles as a
metaphor for the isolating effect of mortality and delivers his
strongest art yet, with subtle snow fall and cold wintery breaths
exhaled in a leafless and bare forest of varying density boldly
delineated in strong contrast to the surrounding whiteness and grey
sky, creating an interplay of tones that together set the stage for the
bringer of the terror: the pack of roving wolves; each of which
are drawn with such devotion that readers will find themselves
squirming in their armchairs as they close in… The plot is bare
bones, but takes twists and turns as it moves through the woods of its
theme; by the end, you too will be able to say, “I saw him.”
retail price - $8.00 copacetic price - $6.95
SubCultures
edited by Whit Taylor
Here's a great new anthology published by 9th Art
Press that features a whoppin' three dozen tales each focusing on a
unique subculture. It should come as no surprise that our
civilization's growing trend towards ever-increasing specialization is
accompanied by a parallel trend of ever-increasing social
compartmentalization. Aided and abetted – and in some cases
entirely enabled – by all things internet, most notably, of course, the
fertile soil of social media, subcultures are sprouting and thriving as
never before. This is not an unalloyed good, as some subcultures
are possessed of varying degrees of toxicity, such as child porn
devotees and violent extremists of all stripes up to and including
"terrorists." Yet, generally speaking, the phenomenon of
subcultures is creating a new and vibrant ecosystem of human potential
that will, in the long run, surely form
the component bases for a spawning ground for the evolving of new and
progressively adaptive ways of being that will assist humans in their
braving of the new world they are in the midst of creating. The
SubCultures delved into in this anthology range from the relatively
erudite circles of Esperanto speakers and ham radio operators to the
freaky worlds of BIg foot enthusiasts and goth fetishists, but most
revolve around varying permutations of pop culture. This is an
absorbing and intriguing anthology, and there is plenty to ponder while
traversing the subcultural terrain mapped out in this volume's 200+
pages by 37 comics creators including Sam Alden, Box Brown, Andrew
Greenstone, Dan Mazur, Hazel Newlevant, Liz Prince, Stevie Wilson and
many other talented cartoonists. Recommended!
retail price -
$15.00 copacetic price - $13.75
BUMF,
Volume 1
by Joe Sacco
After close to two decades of literally deadly serious comics,
culminating in last years epic instant, the 24-foot wide drawing of the
Battle of the Somme, Sacco has with BUMF made good on his long-standing
threat to produce a humorous work. BUMF seems, at least at first
glance, closer in spirit to Sacco's earlier Yahoo work (the
comic book series, not the company [guess which came first; right - no
surprise there; it seems like a grand tradition to lift from comics
with impunity]). Upon closer examination, however, while clearly
drawn in a looser more relaxed manner than the work for which he is
best known, it is not a reversion to any mean, but has more of the feel
of a long awaited and much deserved vacation from the world of
journalism taken in the sunny climes of cartooning. Yet, it does
not take long – one page, for those who are counting – for a cloud to
pass over, a cloud that gathers in darkness 'til all is
black. Yes, while BUMF adheres to many of the conventions of
cartooned humor, the content that it delivers is relentlessly
bleak. So much so, that we can't help but feel that Sacco has
found himself, at
least morally and emotionally, buried alive by his years spent focused
on violence and war in conflict ridden areas of the globe, and that
BUMF is his attempt to dig himself out. We're glad that this has
been labelled "Vol. 1", as it feels like he has a ways to go yet...
retail price - $14.99 copacetic price - $12.75
Jim
by Jim Woodring
Here we have it all together in one major hardcover: the moment
when Woodring burrowed deep within and discovered the teeming land of
his unconscious. Witness the transformation of his consciousness
as these discoveries make their way into his drawing and, perhaps more
importantly, his inked rendering of the forms of his imagination.
More than just a simple collection of comics, Jim presents readers with
a quasi-scientific exploration of manifestations of mind in matter.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $26.75
The
Walking Man - hardcover reissue
by Jiro Taniguchi
FINALLY! The long promised hardcover reissue of – believe it or
not – the best-selling manga in Copacetic history has arrived. The
Walking Man is a sui generis work of pen and ink
contemplation, a book filled with page after page of microcosmical
meanderings that follow the whim of the moment, ungoverned by any
societal dictate, yielding neither to appetite but only to impulse,
following the life force in page after page of disciplined and reserved
yet discreetly joyous artwork that sympathetically stimulates the
senses in a work freed from consciously directed narrative to wander
where the heart roams. Here's what we wrote when the book was
first released: "his 160-page french-flapped softcover volume collects
eighteen zen-like tales of the "man who walks." Reflective,
insightful meditations on the modern, suburban condition, these stories
embody the soul of manga. While the landscape through which our
hero walks is indisputably Japanese, the stories told and the lessons
learned on his brief treks are indisputably universal. Taniguchi
has managed a unique feat here. The comics work in The
Walking Man is stripped of all extraneous elements. There is
a near total absence of narrative in the pieces collected in this
volume. With extraneous temporal distractions removed, the pure
essence of comics remains and we are left face to face with a direct,
graphic communication of the here and now. These are comics that
dig deep into the mind and trigger a panoply of sensations: the heat of
the sun on one's back, a cool breeze along the side of one's face, the
smell of flowers, the cold, creamy taste of ice-cream, the hard
exertions of a fast run, the overall feel of the encroaching darkness,
the sounds of children laughing, water flowing, a passing train... all
these sensations and more are triggered by the series of images that
the reader is presented with as the pages are turned and the walking
man goes on his way. To get a better idea, check out this
preview. Recommended. And then, at any time before, during
or after reading The Walking Man, we also recommend that you
read the essay that laid the foundation for the philosophy (or, at the
very least, its American branch) that suffuses this work, "Walking"
by Henry David Thoreau.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $22.22
You Can Did It #1
by Nils Balls with Mike
Carretta
There were doubters, who said this day would never come – but they were
wrong! The yinzer beer lover's comic book has arrived. You
Can Did It is a paean to the potent powers of fermented hops
and the life that goes with its consumption right here in tha
'Burgh. Mitch and Ollie are a couple of regular guys who are also
regulars at their local tavern. In a twist on the mythical origin
of many a super hero icon, the pair hit upon the secret formula for the
ancient ur brew – the apotheosis of ale – and life takes a turn for the
better – or at least it seems to; we'll have to wait and see what the
rest of the story brings. The real enjoyment here, however, is in
soaking up the genuine Pittsburgh vibe that permeates every line.
Here is a pen and ink slice of life that you can almost taste.
And, to be clear, this is not just any old comic book. As any
beer connoisseur knows, the best beers tend to be made by small-scale,
"micro-" and home-brewers such as Mitch and Ollie; the same holds true
in comics. You Can Did It is a finely crafted
comics work that Nils and Mike took their time on to make sure they hit
all the right notes; we're here to tell you that they did it.
Readers will savor every page and smack their lips with satisfaction as
they close the cover and lay it back down on the bar. The only
downside here is waiting for a refill. It's likely to be awhile
before you'll be able to toss back the next issue. But as we all
know, you can't rush quality; as with the process of fermentation, you
have to take your time to get it right; you'll know when it's done.
retail price - $5.00 copacetic price - $5.00
Dog City
3
edited by Juan Fernandez
This third volume in the Dog City series of boxed comics collections is
the first we've listed here for the simple reason that the others sold
out before we had the chance to! This time around we're making a
point of getting the word right out with the hope that someone new will
get a chance to lay their hands on one of these hand-made (in
Pittsburgh and Vermont) box sets containing a baker's dozen
books. Contributors this time around are Amelia Onorato, Jenn
Lisa, Allison Bannister, Tom O'Brien, Simon Reinhardt, Caitlyn Rose
Boyle, Luke Healy, Sophie Goldstein, Iris Yan, Tom Dibble, Reilly
Hadden, Laurel Lynn Leake, Steven Krall, Dan Rinylo and editor, Juan
Fernandez. Limited to 120 copies!
retail price - $20.00 copacetic price - $20.00
Study
Group Magazine #3D
edited by Zack Soto
It was a long time coming, but the third – and 3D! – issue of the
one and only Study Group Magazine has arrived. The centerpiece of
the issue is a celebration of 3D comics, and one the form's prime
progenitors, Ray Zone, who passed away in 2012. The 3D comics
start out with a celebrated Kim Deitch tale, "4-D", with separations by
the only and only Ray Zone. This is followed by a brief history
of the 3D comics by Jason Little, who is responsible for all the 3D
seps that follow on comics by Dan Zettwoch, Chris Cilla, Malachi Ward,
and one drawn by Little himself. But that's only the center
section! There are plenty more awesome 2D comics in full color,
duo-tone and black white. The highlight has to be the stunning
twelve-page full color story by Connor Willumsen, but there is plenty
more to be looking forward to here, including work by Sean T Collins
and Julia Gfrörer, Benjamin Urkowitz, Mia Schwartz, Trevor Alixopulos
and Sophie Franz, plus engaging articles – Rob Clough on the
significance of Ryan Sands, who has played a major but
little recognized behind-the-scenes role in the development of 21st
century comics as an editor
(Electric Ant), publisher (Youth in Decline) and
translator (of manga, such as Suehiro Maruo's The
Strange Tale of Panorama Island);
James Romberger on William Burroughs (which includes an excellent,
short comics adaptation of Burroughs by Romberger himself, "Shits
versus Johnsons"; and Sean Wittzke on Scud the Disposable
Assassin. Plus "a conversation" between Milo George and Ronald
Wimberly about Wimberly's hip hop inflected adaptation of Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet, which is follwed by a review
of the same by Sarah Horrocks. All wrapped in an amazing cover by
Jim Rugg. Bonus: 3D glasses are included with every
issue!
retail price - $16.00 copacetic price - $14.44
Best
American Comics 2014
edited by Scott McCloud; series editor Bill Kartalopoulos
Whether you've been buying this volume every year since its inception
in 2006, or you've yet to give it a try, we think everyone interested
in what's going on in comics should check out this volume. After
shepherding it through nearly a decade of great comics, the original
series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden have put the series in the
eminently capable hands of comics scholar (and comics festival
organizer), Bill Kartalopoulos, who has teamed up with this year's
editor, the one and only Scott "Understanding Comics" McCloud to
produce what we are going to go out on a limb and declare the best
Best American Comics volume yet. Organized into ten thematically
unified sections, each with its own introduction defining and
justifying the theme and selections, the comics included in this volume
range far and wide, from the recognized masters of the form such as
Jaime Hernandez (whose work graces the cover), Chris Ware, Ben Katchor,
Charles Burns, R. Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb to amazing work by the
up and coming generation of cartoonists like Theo Ellsworth, Michael
DeForge, Lale Westvid and Sam Alden to boundary pushing works by the
likes of Aidan Koch and Erin Curry. And there's much more!
Readers will also herein find amazing work by many other creators of
all stripes, including mainstream heroic fantasy, web comics, comics
for young readers, newspaper strips, works of history in comics form
(like an excerpt from Ed Piskor's Hip Hop Family Tree!),
some particularly intense examples of the ever popular comics memoir,
and more, including work by perennial Copacetic favorites like Ron
Rege, Jr. and "C.F.". We recognize that Copacetic customers are
likely to already be familiar with if not already own many of the works
found here, and so may be less inclined to consider it for themselves,
but we all know someone who could greatly benefit being hepped to the
dazzling spectrum of comics on hand here (and we are in full agreement
with Kartalopoulos's "suggestion" that the material contained in
this single volume better represents the wide array of comics today
than the entire "graphic novel" section of most bookstores), so
consider pointing them in this direction...
retail price - $25.00 copacetic price - $22.22
Also available...
Best American Non-Required Reading 2014 edited by Daniel Handler
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $13.75
Best American Short Stories
2014 edited by Jennifer Egan
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $13.75
Best American Essays edited
by John Jeremiah Sullivan
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $13.75
Best American Science and
Nature Writing 2014 edited by Deborah Blum
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $13.75
Best American Infographics
2014 edited by Gareth Cook
retail price - $20.00 copacetic price - $17.77
Best American Poetry 2014 edited by Terrance
Hayes
retail price - $18.99 copacetic price - $17.00
Masterful Marks:
Cartoonists Who Changed the World
edited by Monte Beauchamp
comics by Drew Friedman, Dan Zettwoch, Mark Alan Stamaty, et al
It's hard to gauge what's in store when you first espy a copy of Masterful Marks, so we're
going to let you know that, while in the world of comics you often
can judge a book by it's cover,
this is one of those books that fits the old
adage, as between
its staid and stolid covers
is a riot of colorful comics homages to the giants of comics, by a
great assemblage of currently working cartoonists. Among the
pieces you will find here are Mark Alan Stamaty on Jack Kirby,
Beauchamp and Ryan Heshka on Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster, Dan Zettwoch
on Tezuka Osamu, Denis Kitchen on Dr. Seuss (and yes, for those of you
who don't know, he started out doing comics), Peter Kuper on Harvey
Kurtzman, and Drew Friedman turns in what may be the best comics work
of his career with "R. Crumb & Me." And there's plenty
more. While we would take issue with Beauchamp's decision to
include comics-packagers/promoters like Walt Disney and Hugh Hefner in
the collection, presumably for commercial reasons, given their greater
name recognition with the general public, we're not going to let it
detract from our enjoyment of the bulk of the book. So, make sure
to pry open this one when you see it, and take a look.
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
Hey, Mister: Come Hell or Highwater Pants
by Pete
Sickman-Garner
There's no need to despair: Pete Sickman-Garner has already done it for
you! The inherent absurdities of key aspects of the
Judeo-Christian tradition, as manifested in popular religious
literature, are herein literalized for laughs. Witness the
hi-jinx adventures of Satan, God, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, a horde of
demons at various levels in a very "corporate America" sort of hell,
and Teddy Roosevelt (don't ask) as they get in all sorts of mischief
with Mister, Mary, Little Tim, a cartoon stand-in for the artist, and a
cast of supporting characters composed primarily of working stiffs,
misfits and social castoffs. In many respects
, Pete Sickman-Garner's Hey, Mister clan are the
southern Baptist cousins of Pete Bagge's Bradleys & Co., in their mutual revealing of the copious flies
in the ointment of our American Lives, and having plenty of fun doing
it. While we are well aware that the humor on display on these
pages is not for everyone, we feel that there are laughs here for those
that have trouble finding them. Downtrodden, depressed and
dejected? Look no further. BONUS: To add to the
levitical levity, we are throwing in a FREE copy of the
previous Hey, Mister volume, The Fall Collection, with every
purchase of Come Hell or Highwater Pants.
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $12.75
Items
from our October 2014 listings (and plenty more besides) are
also up at our eCommerce site, HERE.
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 2013: April - June, New Arrivals
1Q 2013: January - March, New Arrivals
4Q 2012: October - December, New Arrivals
3Q 2012: July - September, New Arrivals
2Q 2012: April - June, New Arrivals
1Q 2012: January - March, New Arrivals
4Q
2011: October - December, New Arrivals
3Q 2011: July - September, New Arrivals
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4Q 2010: October - December, New Arrivals
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Arrivals
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2002:
January - December New Arrivals
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