Guest Editor, Phoebe Gloeckner supported
by Series Editor, Bill Kartalopoulos have
together sifted through the American comics of 2017,
pulling together a kaleidoscopic collection
featuring tons of great work from the past year, all
under a dazzling brand new cover by Lale Westvind
(who also has a piece included). Plus,
Pittsburgh-based Laura PallMall (aka Jason Lee)
takes a bow for the second year in a row. In
the nearly 400 pages of this years
anthology, readers will discover a whopping 33
comics. Created in full-color, duo-tone
and tri-tone as well as straight-up black &
white, some of the pieces are complete in and of
themselves, and others are excerpts of longer
works. There's a nearly mind-boggling range of
material here. We'd be surprised if there were
more than a handful of comics readers who
have come across all the work contained in this
collection before. No matter what corner
of the comics universe you come from, you will both
discover new comics creators and find work that
will challenge your conceptions of what comics can
be.
I Feel Machine
by Shaun Tan,
Tillie Walden,
Box Brown,
Julian Hanshaw,
Erik Svetoft,
Krent Able
I Feel Machine is a
timely comics intervention into our ever more
technologically interfaced and mediated existence.
This anthology is edited by Julian
Hanshaw, who also has contributed one of the six
comics pieces created especially for this 152
page, full color, French-flapped softcover
volume. In addition to Hanshaw, the all-star
line-up of contributors is: Shaun Tan,
Tillie Walden, Box Brown, Krent Able and Erik
Svetoft. The works range from fable to
fantasy to science fiction to
horror, including mash-ups of some or
all of these. And yes, these are all
new works appearing here for the first time.
The Shaun Tan story, it must be said, is an
instant classic. It's so good that it seems
likely to us that it will not be long before it is
issued as a stand alone book, to bring it to
the wider audience it surely merits. But you
can get it
now, along with five
other great works, for what will be close to the
same price of this hypothetical Tan
volume. Nice, right?
retail
price - $22.99 copacetic price - $20.00
On a Sunbeam
by Tillie Walden
Yes, it's a new 540 page full color graphic
novel by the relentless Tillie Walden, who is
doubtless already hard at work on her next
comics epic. There's a lot of great work here
for your comics dollar.
On a Sunbeam is
a science-fictional take on a boarding school
romance that goes one step beyond...
retail
price - $21.99 copacetic price - $18.75
Draw Stronger: Self-Care for
Cartoonists & Visual Artists
by
Kriota Willberg
The sub-title serves up a fairly good idea of
what this book is about, and who it's for.
If you think it may be for you, here are
some pretty solid endorsements: "Draw Stronger is
a life-saver. Every artist – pro and
amateur alike – needs to memorize this
essential little book." – Scott McCloud
"A concise, thoughtful, and informative manual
that should be required reading for all
aspiring (and aging) cartoonists." – Adrian Tomine
"Draw Stronger is
an indispensable guide to help artists and
writers practice self care and sustain their
creative practice." – James Sturm
"Draw Stronger is
a must-have resource for anyone
who spends long hours drawing.
Kriota Willberg's clear (and charming)
drawings lay all our physical frailties bare,
but also arm us with both information and
techniques to safeguard our health
and make it possible to keep on drawing
long into the future." – Jessica Abel
retail
price - $16.99 copacetic
price
-
$15.00
Constant Companion
by
Noah Van Sciver
It's a Noah Van Sciver sketchbook!
Drawn between 2013 and 2017! 156
pages! "Covering Noah's time in
Denver, White River Junction (as a Fellow of
the Center For Cartoon Studies), and
Columbus, Ohio, the sketchbook is a
record of his failed relationships,
sketches of his surroundings, strange
recollections from life, and portraits of
fellow artists." There are plenty of
actual comics and cartoons filling these
pages, in addition to life drawing, lists
and more. A nice variety that is
enjoyable to leisurely peruse.
retail
price - $25.00 copacetic price - $22.22
The Agency
by Katie Skelly
Through the 80 full color, magazine size pages
of
The Agency, Katie
Skelly takes a walk on the wild side with
some sexy adults only fare. Agents 8, 9
and 10 each have their own approach to getting
the job done, and Ms. Skelly takes a different
approach to depicting each agent's progress,
employing in each case, an artistic
technique to match the spy/sex
technique of the agent she is
representing. An intriguing linking
of form and content.
retail
price - $25.00 copacetic price - $21.75
Dementia 21
by
Shintaro Kago
Finally, a hefty, easily obtainable dose of
the wildly inventive and surrealistically
inclined mangaka, Shintaro Kago is now
available to English language readers in the
US. This Fantagraphics edition of Dementia 21 is
a fun, flexi-cover edition that contains the
titular 272 page graphic novel, along
with an afterword by Gary Groth, a brief
interview with Kago conducted by Groth, and a
bonus portfolio of ten full page, full
color illustrations by Kago that are quite a
nice bonus. Groth succinctly summarizes
Kago's "persistent theme" as "the totalitarian
reductio ad absurdum of mass
bureaucracies and technologies, whose
limitless humiliations we suffer, large
and small," and which Kago
"render(s) with a mocking, abrasive
contempt."
retail
price - $24.99 copacetic
price
-
$21.75

Berlin - Omnibus Edition
by
Jason Lutes
Here it is, all 580 pages of the now
classic, twenty-years-in-the-making comics
saga,
Berlin,
by Jason Lutes. While many have
been following this series all along,
buying either the individual issues and/or
the first two collections, there are also
those that have been meaning to check it
out, but just never got around to it.
Here, for those of you who fall into
this latter category, is a complete
collection. Not only is it a
deluxe hardcover, but it is one that is
priced noticeably less than the
combined cost of the individual softcover
volumes. And here at Copacetic, we're
taking that value pricing one step further
and offering this hefty tome – for
a limited time – at a special,
procrastinators-rewarded price!
retail
price - $49.99
copacetic price
- $39.99
You Are There
by
Jacques Tardi & Jean-Claude Forest
Fantagraphics has at last re-issued their
English language edition (edited and
translated by Kim Thompson) of You Are There,
a work it states is, "The
Satirical Masterpiece That Ushered in the
Graphic Novel Era to European Comics."
David B. (Epileptic)
opines, "You
Are There is
a masterpiece — a work unique in the history
of comics, one of those books one reads and
re-reads." Sounds like it's worth a
look. Hardcover | 8 1/2" x 11" | 192
pages | B & W
retail
price - $29.99 copacetic
price
-
$26.75

His Dream of the Skyland
by Anne Opotowsky
&
Aya Morton
Back in print at last, courtesy Top Shelf
Production, this epic graphic novel of nearly
300 pages in length remains in it's
original oversize softcover form. It
is the product of a pair of Americans that had
originally been issued by Gestalt
Publishing of Australia in 2011(and so hard to
come by here in the States). Written by
Anne Opotowsky and fabulously rendered by Aya
Morton in a unique water color fashion,
employing an Asian-inflected brushwork style
with a muted, limited palette that excludes
black line and hews to blue. Set in early
20th century Hong Kong, specifically the Kowloon
area, it follows the adventures of a young man,
Song, as he sets out to explore the
possibilities life has to offer. Believe
it or not, this mammoth tome is only the first
volume of the Walled City Trilogy! Anyone
interested in learning more, should take a
moment to read Paul Gravett's heavily
illustrated review of His Dream,
HERE.
retail
price - $29.99 copacetic
price
-
$25.75