New for March 2015
Saint Cole
by Noah Van Sciver
No one does contemporary, working class (yes, even here in the 21st
century, this remains a useful descriptor), slice of life comics like
Noah Van Sciver. While he is highly prolific in the short form, Saint Cole
is only his second - published - graphic novel. In this volume,
rather
than another "slice of life" drama, it might be better to describe this
as a slicing and dicing, chopping and grinding, pulverizing and grating
and shredding of life. Saint
Cole
is at times almost unbearable to read, as it charts four days in the
life of Joe Cole, a 20-something working stiff with a food service job,
a girlfriend, a baby, and a problem with alcohol. He is living on
the
edge, and over these four days, precipitated by a snowballing of bad
decisions, made one after the other with no inkling of where it is all
leading until it is too late, he is pushed over it and his life takes a
calamitous fall. The
narrative construction provides the protagonist with a simultaneous
confrontation with "the three ages of woman" in the form of the
innocent teen hostess at his work, taking her first steps into the
world; his girlfriend / mother of his child; and his girlfriend's
brutalized, world-weary mother (would-be mother-in-law). This
construction allows an essentialization of the protagonist's life to
occur in his relations with these three women, its stages compacted
into this brief span of days, concluding with a harrowing, fearful
portrait of an all-consuming, matured, maternal female desire. As
for
the significance of the work's title and conclusion: it would
seem that Van Sciver has allowed his protagonist to obscure reality
with a veil of madness; as the weight of the world's sins which have
descended upon his own life becomes too much to bear, causing his
corporeal life to descend into hell, his ćthereal self is thereby
allowed to ascend to heaven... as Saint Cole.
A cautionary tale for our times that simultaneously serves as an
indictment of American society, Saint
Cole
is a portrait of quotidian depravity that is expertly and efficiently
rendered by Van Sciver; one that offers up an effective and affecting
example of the communicative power of the comics form.
retail price - $19.99
copacetic price -
$17.77
March:
Book Two
by John Lewis, Nate Powell & Andrew Aydin
The second volume in a trilogy, March: Book Two continues John Lewis's
autobiographical account of the civil rights era that culminates in the
epochal "March on Washington" that took place on August 28, 1963 and
was the site of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legendary "I Have a Dream"
speech. At 192 pages, this volume is significantly longer than
the
first and provides more in-depth coverage. Between
flash-forwarding
brackets of the Obama presidency, it shows the horrific trials and
devastating sacrifices of the civil rights struggle that took place in
the south during the early years of the 1960s.
retail price - $19.99
copacetic price -
$17.77
Retrofit Comics #30: Mowgli's Mirror
by Olivier Schrauwen
WOW! This is an amazing comic book. This oversize (10" x
12") comic
book magazine is filled with 44 pages of stunning pantomime (silent)
comics, composed entirely in blue and orange - and combinations
thereof. You really need to hold this one in your hands and take
it
in, one spread at a time. Jungle Book was never like this!
RECOMMENDED
retail price - $8.00
copacetic price -
$7.50
Retrofit
Comics #31: Drawn Onward
by Matt Madden
The long awaited return of Matt Madden in this 32 page romance
comic.
Appearances, perceptions, differences; build up, break down.
retail price - $5.00
copacetic price -
$4.50
Art Comic #1
by Matthew Thurber
Matthew Thurber's take on the art school comic is idiosyncratic, to say
the least. Mixing obsessions, NYC art world celebrities, an
Ivanhoe
art performance (not really) and a prayed for imagined return of Jesus
(sort of) into a zany, surreal comics cocktail, Art Comic
lives up to it's name. Let's hope that it's inclusion of "No. 1"
in
its title is not ironic, and that we can look forward to future issues.
retail price - $8.00
copacetic price -
$8.00
Intelligent Sentient?
by Luke Ramsey
Published under Drawn & Quarterly's Petits Livres imprint, Intelligent Sentient?
is presented as a series of striking images arranged around the theme
of abstracting contemporary consciousness executed in a complex
cartooning language that is shared by the likes of fellow Canadians,
Michael DeForge and Jesse Jacobs, but there are clearly hints of a
narrative embedded within the sequence that can be teased out by
readers as they flip through the pages; each will feel the process of
looking gradually evolving into the the experience of reading.
Get a
foreshadowing of this by visiting the
D&Q page with an embedded slideshow of select pages from this
horizontally formatted hardcover.
retail price - $22.95
copacetic price -
$20.00
Freud & Marx
by Corinne Maier & Anne Simon
Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis, and one of the towering
figures in the landscape of the modern world, is a daunting
figure.
Marx, perhaps even more so. The
most important figure in the history of communism, which ended up
becoming a core component of the central narrative of the 20th century,
Marx gave his name to Marxism, and in the process became a figure
simultaneously revered and reviled, worshipped and feared, respected
and denigrated; in short, one of the most controversial figures in
history. Yet, he was also a mere mortal, who grew up, fell in
love,
and had a family.
While, naturally, gaining a full appreciation of the life and work of
these two titans would involve years of study, now, in this pair of
full-size, full color, 56 page, hardcover comics biographies, that are
equal parts entertainment and education, readers will have a chance to
get a feel for their lives and work, as well as gain an appreciation
for their accomplishments and respective places in history. Yes,
learning can be enjoyable.... in comics!
retail price - $19.95@
copacetic price -
$17.77@
Comics Workbook Magazine #7
edited by Andrew White, Zach Mason & Frank Santoro
The return of CWM! This issue features an interview with Gabriel
Corbera by Anthony Meloro, an interview with Oliver East by Warren
Craghead, an interview with Sab Meynert by Annie Mok, an overview of
Brazilian comics by Thales Lira, a group essay titled "I Really Don’t
Think I Would be into Comics Today If I Hadn’t Read Manga" curated by
Andrew White, and an interview with Jed McGowan by Zach Mason; cover by
Sab Meynert.
retail price - $2.50
copacetic price -
$2.25
The Buried
Giant
by Kazuo Ishiguro
A new novel by Kazuo Ishiguro is always a cause for celebration.
To learn more about it, read Neil
Gaiman's NYTimes review. Catchup with Ishiguro himself with
this unusual encounter with the author, involving his musical
aspirations, in the Guardian UK, and here's
the Guardian UK's review by Tom Holland. Finally, here's
a dissenting opinion by James Wood, who is less enthralled with the
work, in The New Yorker. Of course, it is your own take on
it that matters most...
retail price - $26.95
copacetic price -
$23.75
Items
from our March 2015 listings may now be purchased online at our
eCommerce site, HERE.
New for February 2015
Love and
Rockets: New Stories #7
by Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez
The wait is over!!! The longest stretch yet between issues has
ended and the new issue of Love and Rockets has
arrived. Is that Hopey and Maggie together there...?
No need to wait any longer to find out!
retail price - $14.99
copacetic price -
$11.99
Ofelia
by Gilbert Hernandez
And if reading the new issue of Love
and Rockets
leaves you wanting more, you're in luck, as the latest installment of
the Love and Rockets Library has also just been released. 248
more
pages of the epic Luba saga are now available in this just released
collection, the eleventh volume of the official Love and Rockets
Library series. This volume picks up where Luba and Her Family
left off in the mid-90s, and contains work that was originally created
and published in the late 1990s, also during the hiatus between the
first and second volumes of Love and
Rockets, collecting the comics that appeared in the pages of Luba #3 - 9, Luba's Comics & Stories #2 - 5
and Measles
#3. Dark impulses lead to violence and despair, are channeled
through
sex, role playing and other games, occasionally leading the players to
the light of recognition and realization in these engrossing tales in
the great sopa de la gran pena
tradition.
retail price - $19.99
copacetic price -
$15.99
Corto
Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn
by Hugo Pratt
Originally published in 1970-71 in Europe, and partially published in
translation in North America in the mid-1980s by NBM, the six stories
collected here in Under the Sign of
Capricorn
mark the official return of Corto Maltese! One of the great
creations
of European comics, the Corto Maltese saga -- along with it’s creator,
Hugo Pratt -- have been justly celebrated for decades in Europe, and
won many an adherent here in the states as well – including no less a
luminary than Frank Miller, who praises Pratt as “one of the true
masters of comic art.” Series editor – and co-translator – former
editor and publisher of Eclipse Comics, Dean Mullaney (who has here
revived the Eclipse logo to serve anew, as the logo for a new IDW
sub-imprint, Euro Comics, which is publishing this volume) has taken
pains to present this work as it is meant to be seen and the
reproduction of the art as well as the production values of the book
itself – a large format edition with extra heavy paper stock and scored
covers for ease in reading – are both sure to please. Best of all
is
that there’s more to come, as this is only the first of twelve volumes
in what, based on the evidence so far, seems likely to live up to the
promise of being “the definitive English language edition.” Take
a
quick look here.
retail price - $29.99
copacetic price -
$26.95
Earthling
by Aisha Franz
Fantasy and reality blend in this delicately rendered 200 page graphic
novel from Germany. Two sisters and their mother are home
together
(along with the present absence of the [philandering] husand/father) –
but also alone with their thoughts. Past, present and future
possibilities mesh to varying degrees for each of them, with the
younger, pre-pubescent, sister looking forward, the mother looking
back, and the older, adolescent, sister powering through the
present.
A fable for our times. Check it out in this PDF
Preview.
retail price - $19.99
copacetic price -
$17.77
Displacement
by Lucy Knisley
Following fast on the heels of An Age of License,
here's another travelogue in a matched edition. This time around
readers will follow Lucy to the Caribbean as she is recruited to
chaperone her aging grandparents on a "getaway cruise." This trip leads
indirectly to a multi-genrational micro-saga in miniature; role
reversals are experienced, insights are gained and laughs are had, all
delinieated in Knisley's multi-faceted and increasingly adept melange
of drawing, journaling and cartooning; full color throughout.
retail price - $19.99
copacetic price -
$17.77
Happy Stories About Well-Adusted People
by Joe Ollmann
The work of Joe Ollmann has been flying below the radar for well over a
decade now (Seth states in his blurb that he is “criminally
under-appreciated”). While there has long been a core cadre of
Copacetic customers who have been hep to Ollmann’s unique brand of
Canadian-inflected, sarcasm-filled, self-flagellating satire, these
classic gems have had difficulty gaining traction with a wider
audience. It is the hope that this new Conundrum Press
colllection wil
go some way towards rectifying this situation and connecting new
readers with this most deserving work. Nothing is spared here in
these
tightly structured, fluently written tales that are drawn with a keenly
expressive edge. Ollmann is driven by a deep empathy for
suffering;
doubtless his own, but also very much so for that of others, sensing
the pain that lurks below the surface in his fellow humans. That
said,
it is clear that Ollmann’s core competency lies in delineating culture
clashes and the psychological toll they take on those on the borders of
their respective cultures, and especially those that are stuck right in
the middle. Here, he is in his element, and he delivers. Happy Stories is a 242 page
“omnibus” that contains “most” of his Doug Wright Award-winning
collection, This Will All End in
Tears, and “the best stories” from his other major and
now-out-of-print collection, Chewing
On Tinfoil,
as well as two new stories, created "just for this book.”
Introduction
by noted Canadian comics scholar, Jeet Heer. What more do you
need to
know? Recommended!
retail price - $20.00
copacetic price -
$17.77
Photobooth: A Biography
by Meags Fitzgerald
Meags Fitzgerald, this quirky volume's creator, fell in love with the
old school (read, employing the photochemical process, as opposed to
digital) photobooth. Realizing that the photobooth was fading
out, due
- as with so much else - to the unyielding economic imperative, she
embarked on a journey to document the depth and breadth of the life and
times of the photobooth. Travelling through North America, Europe
and
Australia, sketchbook, notebook and camera in hand, she documented the
photobooth in situ around the world. She then proceeded to reach
out
to the global photobooth community (yes, there is such a thing; why
should you be surprised?) and received ample supporting materials
including, most importantly, plenty of photobooth photos. The
result
is this 276 page comics history that provides an in-depth look at what
may be the sine qua non of machine age ephemerality, a small room
that
sets up and then captures a fleeting instant in a life - often lives in
tandem, as couples and friends were among the most frequent patrons of
the photobooth, cementing a relationship in a strip of self-consciously
posed photos that are among the classics of 20th century
mementos.
Reading this book, you'll have a greater understanding of
why.
According to one sestimate in the book, the supply of old school,
photochemical-based, photobooth paper will run out this summer, so
anyone inspired by this book to seek these out for a last hurrah, might
want to start planning a trip to the photobooth of their choice now...
retail price - $19.99
copacetic price -
$17.77
The
Portable Not My Small Diary
edited by Delaine Derry Green
You will simply not find a better selection of personal, independent,
small press comics in one place for anywhere near this price
point.
Here, for a measly $8, you will find 212 pages of personal diary form
comics by a who’s who of 21st century small press and self-publishing
comics creators including John Porcellino, Misun Oh, Dan Zettwoch,
Ramsey Beyer, Dave Kiersh, Alec Longstreth, Sarah Oleksyk, Julia Wertz,
(Pittsburgh’s own) Lizzee Solomon, Alixopulos, Hellen Jo, Kurt
Wolfgang, Joel Orff, T Edward Bak, Donna Barr, Sam Spina, MariNaomi,
Jeff Zenick, Lucy Knisley, Carrie McNinch, Liz Prince, and many, many
more! Culled form the pages of Green's long running series of the same
name, these comics take up-close and personal looks at a wide range of
topics as only comics can; making for a simultaneously edifying and
entertaining experience.
retail price - $8.00
copacetic price -
$8.00
Cold Heat
Special #10
by William Cardini
The pink and blue are back! William Cardini has teamed up with
Frank
Santoro and Sacred Prism to show that there’s life in the old girl
yet. The “old girl” we’re referring to here is Castle™, the
hero(ine)
of the cult classic comic book series, Cold
Heat
that ran for either six or eight issues, depending on how you look at
it (the last two issues were both double issues; 5/6 & 7/8), along
with, now with this issue, ten stand alone Cold Heat Specials
by ten different artists, each involving some (widely varying) degree
of involvement with series co-creator, Frank Santoro. This time
out we
have a 16 page two-color (pink & blue, ’natch) Risograph that has
Castle meeting the minotaur in the maze, but, of course, there’s a
hallucinatory twist along with Cold Heat specific plot elements.
Get
it now before it vanishes into the haze of rarity along with all the
other Cold Heat Specials...
retail price - $5.00
copacetic price -
$5.00
Now and Here
by Lale Westvind
Now and Here is a 16-page
risograph with a wraparound cover, printed in blue on pink interior
pages and cream cardstock for the cover. The approach to comics
on
display in Now and Here
provides evidence that Westvind is refining her sensibility and honing
in on some specifics. Her loose, angular artwork here might put
some
readers in mind of Yuichi
Yokoyama,
who wouldn’t be wrong to relate the two creators. The concerns of
the
narrative – such as it is – can also be seen to inhabit the
neighborhood of Ron Regé, Jr. and Theo Ellsworth in its persistent
questioning and exploring of the nature of consciousness and the
perception of time. A stronger sense of frustration pervades the
pages, however, and there an is almost antagonistic quality to its
prodding of reality’s cage. As have countless others before her,
Westvind has created a “fantastic realm” of the imagination here – a
psychic space within which to confront her frustration with the
quotidian. It is one that shares some structural similarities
with the
multiverses of superhero™ comics (such as The Marvel Universe™), yet
hers is clearly personal. Her comics precursors are more
underground
that mainstream – in as much as the remnants of attachment to specific
fantasy are fetishes of the motorcycle outlaw and high-heels – and have
been finely filtered to strain out as much as possible of extraneous
attachment to contemporary popular power fantasies; in both script and
art her approach is concerned with creating new and personal
abstractions that share little with those typically found in comics
that operate in this realm. With its staccato narration and total
absence of dialogue, an entirely interior space is created that
communicates the struggle of reaching towards an intentional agency
in a world of dictated consequences.
retail price - $5.00
copacetic price -
$5.00
Mr. Incompleto
by Josh Bayer
When superhero sagas bore deep into the mind, they blend in with the
surrounding grey matter and transmute what they find there, turning it
to their own, ultimately unknowable ends. Mr. Incompleto
is a highly idiosyncratic (and that's putting mildly) take on comics
space opera. This 48 page black and white comics magazine
contains a
furious pen & ink foray into the history of comics that ferries the
spirit of Fletcher Hanks in the vessel of 1970's era Guardians of the
Galaxy™ adventures (NOT the team of the recent film). And, while
the
narrative is very involved with time travel and its related paradoxes,
the actual creation of this work is very much a work of time travel as
it is currently practiced by our species, in which the "travel"
involves immersing the mind in the past by employing a melange of
memory and preserved cultural artifacts, in this case old comic books
and classic reprint collections thereof. And then there is the
iconography of the character of Mr. Incompleto himself, a hooded figure
with a cigar-chomping face for a body and a swinging crucifix that is
permanently aloft, suggesting roots in Christianity, Freudian
psychology and, naturally, comics itself, as the clenched-jaw chomping
on a cigar is a classic comics trope. So, in a nutshell then, Mr. Incompleto
is a comic book that is best approached with a dual frame of mind to
simultaneously follow the progress of the narrative and decipher the
embedded codes. Not a comic book for everyone, certainly, but
there is
a fairly singular pleasure
of the text to be had here.
retail price - $6.50
copacetic price -
$5.85
Titan #1
by François Vigneault
Sure you can read this comic online, as it is being serialized @
studygroupcomics.com (see below), but there's nothing like the real
thing when it comes to comics. Titan #1 is a 32-page, duo-tone comic
book, printed on nice newsprint, and staplebound into a full-color
cardstock cover. Nice.
http://studygroupcomics.com/main/titan-by-francois-vigneault/
http://studygroupcomics.com/main/titan-part-2-by-francois-vigneault/
http://studygroupcomics.com/main/titan-part-3-by-francois-vigneault/
http://studygroupcomics.com/main/titan-part-4-by-francois-vigneault/
(currently in progress)
retail price - $4.95
copacetic price -
$4.44
The Tiny
Report: Micro-Press Yearbook 2013
by Robyn Chapman
On the 12 pages and massive double-sided fold-out center-fold
data-table contined within the Charles Forsman rendered cover
illustration of a confrontation of human and machine, Robyn Chapman has
assembled a detailed report on the state of affairs in the
"micro-press" community during the year 2013 that will make for
engaging reading to anyone who considers themselves a part of this
self-same community. Text, photos, diagrams, charts and more!
retail price - $3.00
copacetic price -
$3.00
A Girl Is
a Half-Formed Thing
by Eimear McBride
Accruing accolades and awards by the bushelful, McBride's novel employs
a staccato, jump-cut prose style reminiscent of Samuel Beckett, and
puts it to new and original uses in this harrowing coming of age
tale. Here's
Anne Enright's review in the UK
Guardian. And, Here's
James Woods in The New Yorker.
retail price - $24.00
copacetic price -
$21.75
Retromania:
Pop Culture's Addiction to It's Own Past
by Simon Reynolds
We've been getting a lot of positive feedback from customers on the
copies of this book we've sold here at the shop, so we've decided that
it would be a good idea to offer it up on the site as well (and by
doing so, perhaps indulging in a bit of "retromania", as this book was
published three years ...). To got some idea of what to expect
here,
check out this
fairly lengthy interview with the author, that's illustrated with
YouTube videos!
retail price - $16.00
copacetic price -
$14.44
Items
from our February 2015 listings may now be purchased online at our
eCommerce site, HERE.
New for
January 2015
Sam Zabel and
the Magic Pen
by Dylan Horrocks
Many years in the making, this long awaited work is Horrocks’s first
graphic novel since his epochal Hicksville,
published way back in 1998. Sam Zabel is more or less Horrocks’s pen
& ink alter ego, and The Magic
Pen
is, at its core, a roman á clef in comics, but, intriguingly, a roman á
clef that is primarily concerned with the author’s fantasy life as
lived through the consumption and creation of comics. As such, this
work manages to cleverly function as both an escapist fantasy and a
meta-comics commentary on the nature of this fantasy and the role which
comics play. This is, of course, far from the first time that comics
have been employed to comment on fantasy as a key component of the life
of the mind. One can make an argument that it has been a central pillar
in the edifice of comics since day one, beginning with Winsor McCay’s
demonstration of comics’ ideal suitability for conveying dream and
fantasy in Little Nemo in Slumberland
(and Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend,
as well), which marked the dawning of the comics era. The originality
embodied in the Magic Pen lies in Horrocks bringing this tradition
successfully into the age of the graphic novel. There is a hint of
Dante’s Divine Comedy here; instead of wise Virgil leading Dante
through the realms of Christian theology as informed by classical
Greco-Roman philosophy, we have sexy manga/anime girl, Miki guiding Sam
through the fantastic realms of comics – the historical as well as the
creative processes that brought it into being through pen and ink on
paper (which, given New Zealand’s relative proximity to Japan, both
seems appropriate and adds another layer of significance). That the
relationship(s) between the sexes and the nature and boundaries of
gender are keys to most if not all fantasy – at least of the variety
that makes its way into comics – is amply on display here, as
repressed, oppressed and otherwise frustrated sexual energies are
clearly sublimated in the the rituals and activities that take place in
the comics fantasies of The King of
Mars and The Queen of Venus
which are the inner core of this work, created by the “magic pen” of
the title, which here conflates the the pen’s symbolic value as a
phallus with that of a metaphor for creativity (as in “the pen is
mightier than the sword”). This magic pen both brings sexual fantasies
to life and redeems the creator by doing so. Horrocks also cleverly
integrates the act of collecting comics in such a way as to demonstrate
the key role played by the comics collector/dealer ecosystem in the
maintaining and transmitting comics history. This works especially well
here in that Zabel, as Horrocks, is a New Zealander, and the history of
New Zealand comics is relatively uncharted territory compared to that
of the US, and certainly far less familiar to readers here. So, while
the generic conventions on display will be familiar to most readers, it
is easier to imagine the possibility of there being undiscovered comics
in far off New Zealand. And, of course, there is the comics work
itself. The art Horrocks has produced here is the finely crafted work
of someone who has been honing their craft for twenty plus years. Not
only is it uniformly fine throughout, it is also his first full color
work of any significance, and while he acknowledges some “generous
colouring help” from some peers, the coloring is perfectly suited for
the work and belies Horrocks’s relative inexperience in this area. This
is a graphic novel. You can dive right in now with this PDF
preview.
retail price - $29.99
copacetic price -
$25.75
Mutual Paradise #1 - #4
by Lizzee Solomon
Adventurous comics readers looking to start 2015 with a bang should
consider turning their attention to Lizzee Solomon’s self-published
series, Mutual Paradise.
Between the covers of the four issues published so far, they will
encounter page after page of arresting – and diverting – comics and
cartoons that will glom onto their brains and start rewiring them.
Solomon is an artist who casts her mind’s eye in a very particular
direction – and it should be stated at the outset that this is a
direction that not all readers will want to themselves pursue – but
those who are ready, willing and able to get a handle on the
psychological states that are externalized onto finely wrought
fleshiness and projected onto surreally distorted surroundings will
find themselves both intrigued and informed. We have been selling these
in the shop for awhile and are glad to at last have got our hands on
enough copies of the first four digest-sized issues to offer them here.
Each contains 32 black and white interior pages contained in a full
color wraparound cover. Interested potential readers can preview much
of her work at lizzeesolomon.com.
retail price - $5.00@
copacetic price -
$5.00@
Youth Is Wasted
by Noah Van Sciver
Noah Van Sciver has been quietly making comics since 2006. Now, in 2015
he can look back on a solid body of work of ever increasing quality.
Some of the very best has now been collected in this volume from
AdHouse Books. The 100 pages of comics on offer here range from
self-deprecating autobio to wryly ironic satire, and include forays
into traditional genres such as folk tales and science fiction (with a
sociological twist), but the core of his work are the deeply empathic
tales of humble twenty-somethings trying to get by in our mixed up
world. Well developed characters are presented with a pithy
psychological verisimilitude that draws the reader in and holds them
there. Van Sciver is working in the tradition of R. Crumb, David
Collier, and middle-period Chester Brown, producing gritty, emotionally
rich comics that ring true. Carve a moment out of your busy day to read
the comics in this generous PDF
preview. Keep up with Noah and check out some comics at The Little
Blog.
retail price - $14.95
copacetic price -
$13.75
UR
by Eric Haven
UR marks the return of Eric
"Tales to Demolish" Haven. UR
is a collection like no other, filled with 48 pages of pulse-pounding,
full color comics bound together in a very stylish edition complete
with silky smooth dust jacket. Here in these pages you will come face
to face with Man Cat, Reptilica, Bed Man, Dream Lord of the Night
Sky,and... The Equestrian! You will also have the opportunity to
follow along with Havens alter-ego, Race Murdock in a series of
increasingly unnerving four-panel adventures. Readers who are already
familiar with Havens work will have some idea of what to expect, but
to others who have yet to trod these strange pathways we can only say,
Beware! After reading the comics contained in UR, you may never see
things quite the same way again. An innocuous distraction can suddenly
veer off in a most unexpected way. Check out this PDF
preview of Man Cat to see what were talking about. Catch up with
Mr. Haven by reading this
recent interview with him, conducted by Tom Spurgeon.
retail price - $14.95
copacetic price -
$13.75
Notebook Drawings: 2012 - 2014
by Jim Rugg
This is the second collection of Jim Rugg’s mind-bending, eye-poppin’
ballpoint pen drawings. It too is a cleverly formatted volume,
resembling a spiral notebook, but this time around the notebook itself
has gone a bit upscale, with a heavier stock and debossed title logo.
The drawings themselves continue in the tradition established in the
first volume, with the added twist that several are 3D drawings – using
a red pen and a blue pen – that have been composed in 3D at the time of
drawing, in other words drawn twice, once in red and once in blue, by
hand in the notebook. Don’t try this at home! Only Jim Rugg could pull
this off. To prevent impressionable minds from biting off more than
they can chew, the PDF
preview does not include any of these 3D drawings. Only 300 copies
were printed, so don’t snooze on this one.
retail price - $35.00
copacetic price -
$35.00
First Year Healthy
by Michael DeForge
First Year Healthy is a bit of
a departure for DeForge. This 32 page, full color, hardcover work
employs the superficial structure of an illustrated children’s fable to
none-to-subtly subvert this genre’s assumptions. The story starts out
strange and, as this is a Michael DeForge story we’re talking about, of
course gets stranger. Clean lines delineating a flattened perspective
filled with lush, vibrant colors present a story that starts out in a
fish market, involves sexual shenanigans and mental illness, and
features an immigrant, a gun, a knife, a holiday dinner, a baby and a
holy cat. We’ll let you see for yourself how they all fit together.
retail price - $14.95
copacetic price -
$13.75
Frontier 5
by Sam Alden
The
fifth issue of Youth in Decline’s artist showcase series, Frontier
delivers up the latest release from the nimble hand and sharp eye of
comics wunderkind, Sam Alden. An “outtake” from his ongoing work (and
presumed future graphic novel release), Hollow, the 32 pages of comics
on hand here employ a two-color palette to great effect. Set upon the
backdrop of two sisters’ beach outing, the story deftly weaves an
elegant pattern of memories and the emotional states they engender that
will surely imprint itself on readers’ minds and linger there long
enough to inspire re-readings designed to pick up on the nuances missed
the first time around. Recommended.
retail price - $8.00
copacetic price -
$8.00
Cometbus 56: A Bestiary of Booksellers
by Aaron Cometbus
Hot off the press, the latest issue of Cometbus is a 112-page,
squarebound ode to bookselling in NYC that is, as the title intimates,
presented as alphabetized bestiary, running the gamut from "A Is for
Adam" to "Z Is for Zoo." This one is a real treat for all those for
whom books play a central role in their lives, and pretty much a must
read for anyone who sells books for a living. Thanks, Aaron!
retail price - $5.00
copacetic price -
$5.00
Cometbus 55 3/4: East Bay Only Mostly
by Aaron Cometbus
And
there's more! This time around we have a double dose of Cometbus:
Previously available exclusively at Pegasus Books in the East Bay (SF)
area, Cometbus #55 3/4 has at last made its way east to The Copacetic
Comics Company! A rag tag assemblage of pieces of widely varying
lengths, this 60-page issue starts off with a section titled,
"Obituaries and Appreciations", in which Aaron reflects on a few people
(and one place) in his life, including the recently deceased founder of
Sparkplug Comics, Dylan Williams. These are followed by a series of
essays on the East Bay, a soap box speech on self-publishing and the
"undergrond press", a reflection on music scenes, a couple reviews, and
closes with a series of - gasp! - poems (or, at least, poetry-like
musings), "The City Disappears."
retail price - $4.00
copacetic price -
$4.00
The Strange Library
by Haruki Murakami; designed by Chip Kidd
Haruki Murakami + Chip Kidd = The Strange Library: a unique blend of
word and image.
retail price - $18.00
copacetic price -
$15.95
Items
from our January 2015 listings may now be purchased online 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:
4Q
2014: October - December, New Arrivals
3Q 2014: July - September, New Arrivals
2Q
2014: April - June, New Arrivals
1Q 2014: January - March, New Arrivals
4Q
2013: October - December, New Arrivals
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4Q
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2002:
January - December New Arrivals
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