NEW STUFF ARCHIVES
New for June 2022
Golden Boy is an exuberant portrayal of the early, formative years of the object of the Peanuts character, Schroeder’s obsession, the German composer, Ludwig van Beethoven. Originally published in Germany in 2020, it has now been released in North America in an English translation by Nika Knight that well captures the spirit and style of the original German. This attractive, 192 page, full color, hardcover edition comes to us courtesy of Fantagraphics Books. It is by turns fascinating, fun, insightful, entertaining and altogether hugely enjoyable. Mikael Ross, whose previous work from Fantagraphics, The Thud displayed a highly developed level of empathy along with amazing art chops, here demonstrates an impressive range: blending the expressivity of the likes of Gahan Wilson, Jules Feiffer, Bill Watterson – and, yes, Charles Schulz – with a realism along the lines of Blutch, Posey Simmonds and Paco Roca. A special highlight of Golden Boy is its cartooned representations of music which are among the finest ever produced. It is notable for its depictions both of the imaginative effect of the subjective listening experience and its renderings of an objective, synćsthetic visual accounting of the music in and of itself. On the one hand, this work can stand on its own outside of its relationship to Beethoven, as it would be every bit as enjoyable to someone entirely unfamiliar with Beethoven – or indeed if Beethoven were a fictional character entirely of Ross’s invention. On the other, most readers will come away from this work with a heightened empathy for and appreciation of the composer, and will so likely feel impelled to (re)explore his music; an added bonus!Golden Boy
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $26.75
At long last this eye-popping and brain-bending collection by the master of gay erotic manga is back in print. Originally published by PictureBox back in 2013, this volume was the first English language edition of Tagame’s work. It went quickly out of print and has been next to impossible to find in the wild since. While the cover of this edition is quite different from the original, the contents are a near exact replica of the original edition, with an added bonus section presenting a dozen or so full color plates, each lushly portraying an instance of Tagame's trademarked B&D/S&M imagery. Not for the faint-hearted! And, finally, this is billed as "Volume 1," so whatever is in slated for any future volumes will take readers into new territory... Here's our original listing: <<•>> produced, designed & edited by Anne Ishii, Chip Kidd & Graham Kolbeins; introduction by Edmund White <<•>> It is difficult to view the work of Gengoroh Tagame as other than pornography, but it is well worth the effort to do so. Yes, there are (extremely) graphic images of sexual activity (copiously) depicted in these pages, including – but certainly not limited to – graphic S & M imagery, but there is more to this work than what at first meets the eye. These are nuanced comics by an internationally recognized manga master that, on the one hand, provide a highly charged reading experience, while, on the other, offer up interpretive insights when parsed by those who choose to engage the work in this capacity. Starting out with a light-hearted send-up of the psychic cop genre, "The Hairy Oracle," the stories range from the bucolic humor of "Country Doctor" (is that Archie?) to the historicized Samurai drama of "Exorcism" to what is clearly the core of Tagame's passion, the violent S & M fantasies of "Arena", "Standing Ovations" and "Missing" which double as critiques of the nexus of international politics, the media and the military that strive to delineate the ideology undergirding the highly militarized global capitalism of our times, albeit in terms that many may experience difficulty in decoding. A common thread running through all the works is the erotic charge carried by humiliation. Any long time reader of superhero comics who dares to venture forth into these pages will likely be given pause when confronted with page after page of muscle-bound men beating the sh*t out of each other in the context of gay erotica. Needless to say, this item is only available for purchase by those aged 21 and older. Translated by Anne IshiiThe Passion of Gengoroh Tagame, Volume 1
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $26.75
The Peanutbutter Sisters collects seven short-to-longish comics, all of which take a to-varying-degrees-magical realist look at life in these United States, with a primary focus on New York City. The energetically drawn and lushly inked artwork is perfectly suited for the stories here and has the appearance of being nourished by that Jillian Tamaki and Michael DeForge – or at least of having grown out similar artistic ground. Regardless, we can recommend this work to their fans. Here's what a few of of Hara's fellow comickers have to say about these stories: "Rumi Hara's The Peanutbutter Sisters is a celebration of the power, imagination, and ingenuity of women, expressed as a fever dream. In one story, two girls face off in a bubble gum-chewing contest and blow bubbles so big that they consume them; in another, a goddess merely needs to point to trigger a swarm of "Bombadonnas" to create destruction and chaos. The short stories are punctuated by surreal imagery of the Builders at work at a lumberyard, dressed in matching crotchless suits made of fur. Reading it feels like you're going on a psychedelic trip with Hara, and she's taking you by the hand deeper and deeper into her beautiful, magical, fantastical world." — Malaka Gharib, author of I Was Their American Dream and the forthcoming graphic memoir, It Won't Always Be Like This <•> "Striking stories that are precious but not polite, mysterious but inviting, untethered to reality but also the realest thing you could read." — Lisa Hanawalt, author of I Want You <•> "What a pleasure it is to lose oneself in Rumi Hara's world—one both familiar yet strange—with so many delicious details that you'll never want to leave. A delight!" — Sarah Glidden, author of Rolling BlackoutsThe Peanutbutter Sisters and Other American Stories
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $21.75
Here's an invigorating examination of the nuts and bolts of government along with an inside story of various operating systems that inform it. While these details of the functioning of our government here in the USA are vitally important, they are nonetheless unfortunately often of the variety that have the tendency to put readers to sleep. Sofia Warren overcomes this obstacle with her decisions to: 1) embed herself within the office of a state senator, becoming not only a fly on the wall and observing all the goings on, but befriending the senator and her staff in the process; 2) employ the memoir format to report her findings, thus giving readers an exciting, "you are there" experience; and 3) her choice of 27 year-old socialist, Julia Salazar who was elected (as a member of the Democratic Party, we should point out) in 2018 to represent New York's 18th State Senate District, which includes the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bushwick, Cypress Hills, Greenpoint along with parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville and East New York. Radical includes details of Warren's own life along with her own musings and doubts about everything she is experiencing, making for an engaging narrative and keeping tedium at bay. Her artwork, in black and white with grey tones, is clear and concise, effectively providing the visual context for the information, and working well to maintain the focus over the 300+ pages of her journey of political discovery – ultimately transforming that journey into the reader's own. No less an authority of political cartooning than Garry Trudeau has this to say about it: "What kind of politico embeds a cartoonist in her office for a year? Well, a remarkably savvy one, it turns out, and the payoff is Sofia Warren's beautifully-rendered account of a rookie's initiation into state politics: an exhilarating baptism of fire, and a sorely-needed love letter to the power of public service."Radical: My Year with a Socialist Senator
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75The definitive instance of pandemic lockdown romance comics, originally serialized on Instagram, and then self-published via Lulu, Alex Graham’s Dog Biscuits at last has the opportunity to get the wider audience it deserves in this hefty hardcover collection from Fantagraphics. Age, gender and relationships – both sexual and non-sexual – are negotiated, social media is dissected, and all the while precariousness reigns over lives and businesses as the pandemic and associated lockdowns are navigated by a cast of cartooned characters embodying a combination of animal and human characteristics with a dazzling naturalism. An empathic record of a dismal time running close to 400 pages that were drawn – more or less – one page at a time, Dog Biscuits provided – and continues to provide – a cathartic experience for readers. It has the feel of coming from an authentic creative urge, reading like a prismatic projection of Graham’s own lived experiences of "keeping it together" during this period in our shared history. Simon Hanselmann, who knows a thing or two about making pandemic-themed comics on Instagram, and has this to say: "Dog Biscuits was, for me, the best piece of media produced by anybody in 2020. Alex really stepped up to the plate with this thing and had all of us that were tuned-in on the edge of our seats. Gussy and Rosie's doomed romance felt realer than any bullshit in the 'real world'."
Dog Biscuits
retail price - $34.99 copacetic price - $29.75
Corona BibleIf you've ever come across the expression "incandescent with rage" and wondered what that would look like, wonder no more! In the 500 oversize, full color pages of Pier Dola's Corona Bible, you have your answer. This MASSIVE tome is filled with page after page of densely detailed comics exploding with a fireworks display of vibrant color all in the service of a maximum force expression of anger: at the state of the world today; at the effect of this on Dola's own well being; and, perhaps most of all, at himself. His maddening frustration at his inability to overcome his own limitations and afflictions – not least of which is a debilitating porn addiction, enough details of which are shared in these pages to earn this work an X-rating – is here transfigured, through a redemptive comics confession like none other.
retail price - $50.00 copacetic price - $43.75
World War 3 #52: Frontlines of RepairThis is one of the best WW 3 anthologies yet (perhaps the best). The stated theme is "addressing social, political, and environmental damage, charting a path toward healing and repair," and the comics here fill the bill. Featuring over twenty artists, this value priced volume contains over 200 pages of comics. Most are black & white on newsprint, but there are three bonus full color sections included for good measure. There are many excellent stories here, and plenty of great art – most of which is by lesser known artists whose passion more than makes up for their lack of renown, but there also some high profile artists such as Ben Katchor (in full color, no less) and Sue Coe. The highlight of the issue – at least, certainly, for us here at Copacetic – is Seth Tobocman's mini-memoir, "Rage" which pithily and beautifully sums up a life long struggle with anger in twenty pages of hard won and heart felt comics. This piece alone is worth the price of admission.
retail price - $14.99 copacetic price - $13.75
Failing to Quit / Cloud Town TeaserHere's a full color, two-in-one, self-published comic book from Pittsburgh ex-pat Dan McCloskey. On the one hand, there's an all-new, eight page, teaser comic featuring the lead protagonists of Cloud Town, McCloskey's just published young adult graphic novel. Then, flip it over, and you have an engaging – and inspiring – twelve page autobio comic outlining, in anguished detail, Dan's trials and tribulations en route to his life long goal of becoming a professional, published author – a goal that was at long last reached with the publication of Cloud Town by Amulet Books. Thus, each of the two "sides" of this comic book perfectly compements the other, making for both a cool package and a rewarding read.retail price - $5.99 copacetic price - $5.00
Grixly #55 & 56The wait is over, the latest pair of issue's of Nate McDonough's Grixly comics have arrived. #55 is cover-to-cover Longboxes™, Nate's continuing examination of the hearts, minds and lives of the denizens of the world of back-issue comics retailing and collecting. #56 is filled with Nate's quotidian observations, this time around with a notable nod to food and eating, along with interactions with friends. old and new, recollections and a bonus centerfold by Nils Hanczar, featuring his impressionistic comicstrip interpretation of the film, Come and See (directed by Elem Klimov)!
retail price - $6.00 copacetic price - $5.75
(Please Note: We're currently out of stock and awaiting the second printing of this book, but there's a hefty preview available – HERE – for anyone who feels like digging in now.)At long last we finally have a collection of from the pen of the actress – most closely associated with John Waters – adventurer, "East Village raconteur," and lifelong writer, Cookie Mueller that begins to capture a sense and degree of her literary output, which is greater than most people realize. Thanks to the fine folks at Semiotext(e), we now have a handy edition that collects not only her titular 1990 anthology but also the cache of stories discovered by Amy Scholder that was published in the impossible to find Ask Dr. Mueller along with a bunch of her art and advice columns originally published in The East Village Other and Details Magazine. Also included are a selection of stories seeing print for the very first time in these pages. All for a very reasonable price. Introduction by Olivia Laing. Here are a few accolades: "Cookie Mueller wrote like a lunatic Uncle Remus—spinning little stories from Hell that will make any reader laugh out loud. She was a writer, a mother, an outlaw, an actress, a fashion designer, a go-go dancer, a witch doctor, an art-hag, and above all, a goddess. Boy, do I miss that girl." – John Waters <•> "She was like a woman in flames – like I'd never seen before. Not just a beauty, but the freedom that she had about herself, like a comet going across the sky once in a century." – Gary Indiana <•> "People fall in love with Cookie when they read her stories (I loved her first!). As she did, the stories move through different worlds, from heavy drug use to writing a health column (at the same time); from go-go dancing to art criticism to film and theater acting, from boyfriends and girlfriends to S&M and marriage, etc., etc., etc. With Cookie there was no boundary between herself and her writings. Which isn't to say she didn't work hard on her stories—she did, the same way she worked on her hair. She was a matchless beautician of the word." – Richard HellWalking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black
retail price - $17.95 copacetic price - $16.25
These items and more may also be found at our eCommerce site, HERE.
New for May 2022
It's here! The complete collection of Conor Stechschulte's groundbreaking, decade-in-the-making masterpiece, Generous Bosom, here collected under the title Ultrasound, which is the title of the film adaptation. PLEASE NOTE: while no plot particulars will be revealed in what follows, there are implicit reveals of aspects of the work that are deliberately withheld by the author until well into the series, and then only gradually shown. These revelations are made here in order to provide an overall sense as to what the series may be getting at and of the overall experience that is in store for interested readers. So, anyone reading this who would prefer to experience this work without knowing anything and/or would prefer to puzzle things out entirely for themselves might want to stop reading here and can do so with our assurance that Ultrasound is an engaging, rewarding and one-of-a-kind read (and, if so inclined, can certainly circle back to this after having read the series). Begun in Baltimore in 2012 and finished in Chicago in 2021, the creation of Generous Bosom spanned a tumultuous decade in world history, and provides a unique, strange and unsettling filter through which to view this period. A stirring document of our transformative times, Generous Bosom takes a deep hard look at the manipulation of people – and by extension, populations. In confronting global issues on a very human scale, it is specifically aimed at providing an up-close and personal accounting of the heavy but too often invisible costs of subverting individual identity in the name of control. We are used to reading about these issues in simplified, generalized terms bandied about by partisans on both the left and right, and dealing with faceless masses on one side or the other, but the story that unfolds here is entirely non-partisan, and generally bereft of any ideological leanings. It is, however, an inescapably gendered account. One in which the agency of control is clearly aligned with the patriarchy and the perpetrators aligned with this power largely – but not exclusively – male. And while male and female alike are the target of that control, it is clearly shown that this power exercises its control primarily through the manipulative dominance of females, the female body and the reproductive process. Right from the outset, sex is shown to be a lever of control. Generous Bosom confronts both the control of sexual activity and sexual activity as control. There is, further, no question that the author’s sympathies here are with the women; with the maternal as opposed to the paternal. The plasticity and malleability of memory lie at the core of this work along with the manipulation of perceptions through the power of suggestion and through technologies that are surreptitiously employed. In even going so far as to include those involving nutrition, Stechschulte acknowledges the body-mind connection as well as mind-body. And, in other aspects of the narrative, does so in such a way as to connect this to “body issues” among women, and how they can be triggered and/or generated by outside suggestion. In a tour de force of comics sophistication, Stechschulte developed a complex visual schema that includes color variation, layering and differences as subtle as line weight and color density to specifically assign the representation of realities, memories, fantasies, dreams, and stories told, and their blending with beliefs suggested and memories that are artificially implanted. These tools enabling an increased degree of communicatory power in order to take on the challenge of confronting and revealing the manipulations to which we are subject. Generous Bosom demands a significantly higher degree of concentration than that required to read most comics, and for those who commit to meet those requirements the experience drives home what a complex and heady mix our identities are – along with the undeniability of their being constructions. The larger message/implication of the work is that as technology ever further impinges on our lives and shapes our reality, not just through the manipulation and distortion of events, but also through their displacement, we – all of us – are living, to varying degrees, artificial, inauthentic lives that have been created by others and been imposed on us without our consciously given permission in order to advance the hegemonic interests of these others. Inevitably, at some point, the question arises, “Is this all about how social media messes with our minds?” And, while the answer has to be some sort of, “Yes,” it is unlikely that this aspect was consciously involved in the genesis of the work, and may not necessarily been at the forefront of Stechschulte’s mind during its creation – but it's in there somewhere. And, the seeming disconnect between the work’s title and its contents is a point worth pondering. While the most common, current usage of bosom is in conjunction with female anatomy, it is a fairly old word with multiple meanings and connotations, some linked to closeness and connection – think “bosom buddies” and “in the bosom of one’s family” – and including, somewhat archaically, of relating to one’s inner thoughts. It is in the coming together of these various threads of meaning in this word that its appropriateness as part of the title becomes clear. And, the generosity on display can be seen as that engendered on the part of the core group by the commonality of their humanity and by the shared recognition of their experiences of being equally deceived and in need of assistance. And here's an interview with Conor on Solrad that's definitely worth checking out (but is in depth enough that it might too require some sort of spoiler warning). And, Pittsburgh area customers, please note: The Ultrasound Tour, featuring Conor Stechschulte in person, is scheduled to stop in at Copacetic HQ on Saturday, July 23, from 5 to 7pm. Further details forthcoming.Ultrasound
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $34.75
Tongues #5The latest issue of Anders Nilsen's Tongues has at last arrived, another oversize, French-flapped edition of one of the most singular comic book series currently on the market. In this issue, a key piece of the puzzle is revealed and readers can at last begin to get a sense of the central conflict and an outline of the pending denouement. Its singular combination of amazing art, fantastic storytelling and gripping pacing in the service of an audacious concept blending classical mythologies and science fiction tropes with a strong sense of current global politics and culture make Tongues a one-of-a-kind reading experience. Recommended!
retail price - $18.00 copacetic price - $15.75
Schappi! Anna Haifisch's latest work collects five short pieces, three of which had previously appeared in English – "A Proud Race" in Now #3, "The Hall of Bright Carvings" Kramers Ergot #10 and "Mouseglass" as a standalone risograph from Perfectly Acceptable Press – along with "Fuji-San" and "Letter to Weasel", which appear here in English for the first time. Her trademark style is in full effect here. Minimal outline drawings, bold swathes of solid color and limited palette define each of the five stories: red & yellow; red, yellow & green; red & purple; purple; red, yellow & purple. The humorous undertone of The Artist books has attenuated here, morphing more into melancholy, as humans are largely displaced by anthropomorphic animals. That said, the work collected here is Haifisch's strongest to date and clearly demonstrates her ongoing maturation as an artist, with the standout being "Mouseglass", which provides an intriguing look at post-colonialism through the lens provided by Babar the Elephant; at least for those readers old enough to have been exposed to the Jean de Brunhoff series (continued for years by his son, Laurent).
Schappi
retail price - $16.99 copacetic price - $15.25
2022 has clearly been a watershed year for Ms. Julie Doucet. First she won the 49th Angouleme Festival’s Grand Prix (only the third woman to do so). Then, a month later, her first (drawn) comics work in 15 years, Time Zone J was published to a flurry of press, including in the NY Times (along with stalwarts, TCJ and The Beat and others). A result of all this publicity is that it, apparently, generated a significant early demand for the book – as we initially struggled to get and keep it in stock. But, the pressure has abated, and we've managed to put in a good stock. Time Zone J opens with Doucet thinking, “I’m 52 now" (which would make "now" 2017/18, presumably when she started the work). She then proceeds to visually free-associate in a free-form amalgamation of drawings that creates a portrait of her memory banks situated within a visualized mental landscape. At a certain point she zeroes in on a particular set memories of her 23 year-old self traveling to Paris in 1989. Her comics here are experimental and unique – think a comics equivalent of Free Jazz – and well worthwhile. The entire book is printed in the same Japanese method employed by her 2006 PictureBox book, Elle Humour (currently on special here at Copacetic, by the way) that of the paper being printed on one side only and then being folded over and bound. Here, in Time Zone J, Doucet takes this printing method and runs with it. It isn’t long before the reader will realize that the entire book is an ongoing, interconnected series of drawings that, technically, together form one epic, single drawing that could (it seems) be assembled into a horizontal scroll of fifty feet, or so, in length. You can get a feel for what’s in store in this PDF preview, from D & Q (but, by having the pages scroll down in the normal vertical fashion, when they could – should! – have had the images scroll horizontally from left to right instead, they missed a golden opportunity to show what she was up to!)Time Zone J
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $26.75
BACK IN PRINT AT LAST! This is the big book that has it all! Originally serialized in Biggu Komiku in 1970-71, and a personal favorite of the artist, manga founding-father Osamu Tezuka, Ode to Kirihito is a unique effort, in more than one respect. Weighing in at a mammoth 822 pages, Ode is the first of Tezuka's works to incorporate adult themed gekiga (see Tatsumi's Abandon the Old in Tokyo) elements. Perhaps paradoxically, it is also a work that while dealing with the darker sides of human nature simultaneously deals with Christian (Kirihito is a pun on the Japanese pronunciation of Christ, Kirisuto) themes -- specifically of overcoming the illusional dualism of beast and soul, metaphorically dealt with here as a struggle against a disease that turns men into dog-like beasts. This book is a one-stop for everything Tezuka as he displays a veritable cornucopia of storytelling devices, styles, page-layouts and more; if you pay attention, you will also find some fascinating foreshadowing of current alt. comics themes and representational tropes (Fort Thunder, Paper Rad, etc.). It's a Tezuka tour de force! He delves into a panoply of themes: most importantly that of Japanese masculinity as it confronts the sexual revolution; also explored are Japanese perspectives in the dawn of the global era as the story brings us into contact with mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, South Africans, Europeans -- but, interestingly, almost no Americans -- and we get not only Tezuka's views of these peoples but also his point of view on their views of the Japanese, creating a roundabout of perspectives. That Tezuka fans will find this work a reading experience to relish almost goes without saying. We'd like to take a moment here to recommend this book to those of you who are curious about Tezuka's legendary status but have been put off by his association with what is widely considered "kid's fare" -- Astro Boy, Kimba and the like. Despite having been created over 50 years ago, Ode to Kirihito will stand up to any comparison with contemporary literary comics. It is an engaging and intriguing tale, told by a master of the form at the peak of his powers, a work in which Tezuka at last fulfills the ambition to fully embody Dostoyevskian themes in manga that he proclaimed with his adaptation Crime and Punishment twenty years earlier. Anyone serious about comics owes it to themselves to read this masterwork.Ode to Kirihito
retail price - $34.99 copacetic price - $29.75
These items and more may also be found at our eCommerce site, HERE.
New for April 2022
The Crater provides readers with a heaping helping of prime Tezuka. Its 570 pages contain 18 classic Tezuka 30-pagers, 17 of which were produced for Shonen Champion and originally published between August 10, 1969 and April 1, 1970 – on roughly a bi-weekly schedule. This workload of 60 pages a month was on top of his simultaneous production of the graphic novel Apollo’s Song – and more! – as well as overseeing an animation studio. While, as those familiar with the standard manga production system knows, Tezuka, like most if not all major mangaka, had studio assistants also working around the clock filling in blacks, ruling lines, completing backgrounds, lettering, etc., he nonetheless remained responsible for the writing and drawing all these stories. No matter how you slice it, Tezuka, whose professional manga career ran 40 years, was a non-stop powerhouse of comics creation, likely producing more pages of published, professional comics than anyone in history. The unifying formal quality that links the stories in this collection is their 30-page length combined with the constraint of the bi-weekly deadline. By the time Tezuka created the works collected here, he had been creating manga for over twenty years and met hundreds of deadlines, producing thousands of pages of work n the process. He had, by then, developed a deep understanding of visual storytelling, possessed an intuitive grasp of narrative form, and had an inexhaustible supply of ideas. Reading these stories, it becomes increasingly evident that Tezuka simply didn’t have the luxury of time to fully work up a story and then figure out how to break it down and tie it up nice and neat into the requisite 30 pages before hand. Tezuka did his thinking in – and while – drawing; drawing was thinking, and thinking drawing. When it was time to start in on the next story, he picked an idea, pulled out a fresh sheet of paper, grabbed a pencil, and started drawing, operating on his sharply honed instinct. Occasionally, the pacing is slightly off and the story seems to come to end…. but is still a few pages short of the requisite 30, and so a kind of epilogue is appended. Other times, it’s like the story needed to go on a few more pages, but, time’s up, and the story comes to an abrupt end. But always, the thirty pages are filled with twists and turns and action in the service of fleshing out an amazing idea, along with a weird and/or wild concept. The high pressure atmosphere under which Tezuka labored, forced by the demands of the market, bypassed the normal roadblocks of rationality and flushed out his unconscious drives from their hiding places in the id and ego,enabling his create genius to connect with previously uncharted areas. Among the concepts on display here include a several that work through variations of we would now call “the multiverse”. These employ ghosts, spirits, possession and more in the service of demonstrating the multiple possibilities that always lurk just below the surface. Several of the tales take place in America – as seen by Tezuka – including another morality play involving black/white race relations, this time in “the future” America of 1990. One of the more intriguing tales is “Ochiro’s Strange Experience,” in which a high school boy is forced (by a devilish Jesus?) to share his consciousness with the spirit of a deceased high school girl who isn’t quite ready to go to heaven yet. This leads to all sorts of gender confusion and role-playing, along with bathroom dilemmas, that are surprisingly contemporary in their substance, if still totally Tezuka in their form. Then there’s the truly strange menŕge a trois involving two race car driving roommates and… a mannequin, that seethes with a repressed and sublimated homo-eroticism. “Bag Containing the Future” centers on a bizarre (and visually repulsive) concept that is only revealed to the initiated by their donning a pair of special glasses (a decade and a half before They Live) and that, in the process, confronts concepts of fate, destiny and free will. And, with the tale, "Sergeant Akuno”, Tezuka produced a terse accounting of the profound cynicism at the heart of nationalistic, militaristic propaganda, which, Tezuka himself being very much an anti-militarist, he infuses with a strong dose of “what goes around, comes around” karmic retribution. Tezuka originated so many powerful, raw concepts that have subsequently been mined and refined by countless creators working across all storytelling mediums that most culture consumers have already encountered them in their synthetic forms during the their reading of novels, short stories and comics, as well as cartoon and movie watching. Here, in the pages of The Crater, – a title which could be seen as representing the impact Tezuka has made in the cultural landscape – is a great opportunity to experience the real thing. Before signing off, we will here offer the caveat that Tezuka is very old school, and also that he dispenses will most formal niceties. Always dynamically drawn, and packed with action – physical as well as psychological and even spiritual – his stories are often structurally formulaic; although we can testify that he keeps quite a few formulas under his beret! Tezuka's confident employment of formula allows him to cram in a variety of variables into his barebones narratives, and it is the exponential possibilities in combination that provide him in turn with the capacity to generate a graphic novel's worth of ideas into each short story. Readers coming to Tezuka’s short form works for the first time may find themselves disoriented at first, but it’s most likely a matter of simply getting up to speed.The Crater
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $26.75
The Projector and Elephantby Martin Vaughn-James
After multiple delays, the much anticipated New York Review Comics two-in-one edition of these long (as in over 40 years) out-of-print Martin Vaughn-James masterworks has at last touched down here at Copacetic. It's hard to believe that these two, linked works were created back in the 1970s.... but they were! And now, in this deluxe, oversize, hardcover edition designed by Seth and including two separate (but linked) introductions by comics scholar and man of the world, Jeet Heer, we can finally dig into these formally inventive and prescient works from Martin Vaughn-James. Want to learn more? Jeet Heer adapted an edited form of his introductions into this essay (which includes a nice preview) on The New York Review of Books, HERE.
retail price - $49.95 copacetic price - $43.75
Cloud Town Long time Pittsburgh writer/comics-maker and Cyberpunk Apocalypse founder, Daniel McCloskey (aka BeanCanDan) – currently residing in Oakland, CA – has at last released his long-in-the-works young adult graphic novel, Cloud Town! Hold onto your hats and get ready for 220 pages of non-stop, high-school-oriented, manga-inflected, duo-tone comics action! It's a new school for Cloud Towners, Pen and Olive, and that means new friends, new enemies and new challenges, not the least of which is helping to protect Cloud Town from gigantic monsters that come through "The Rip" (as in, a tear in the fabric of reality, a rending of the space-time continuum) by learning to pilot a giant-size, piloted android knonwn as a Care Corps Storm Catcher – with a little help from the eccentric scientist/inventor, Dr. White – all while managing family responsibilities and shredding the town. There is enough concept and back story squeezed in here for an entire series, so readers will want to stay focused to get it all. AND, online orders from copaceticcomics.com include a complimentary signed and number mini-sticker pack; in-store purchases include a complimentary signed and numbered print!
retail price - $14.99 copacetic price - $12.75
The Third Person Emma Grove's comics memoir, The Third Person is a veritable brick of a book, running over 900 pages, (nearly) all laid out in a uniform 8-panel grid. Roughly half of the book takes place in first one, then another, therapist's office, so the action on the page is primarily in the form of a dialogue. As the initial therapist in particular is somewhat oppositional, the reading experience at times feels like that of a conceptual tennis match, as verbal volleys fly back and forth between the protagonist and therapist, each of whom is trying to score various sorts of points. The adventure that this story conveys is a voyage of discovery that largely takes place in the protagonist's head, as s/he works with their therapists – in, as it is revealed, three separate identities. At its core lies a mystery – allowing it to be read as a sort of detective story – as Emma, along with her alternate identities, Ed and Katina – work together with the therapists to discover the root trauma(s) of this situation and whether or not it should be diagnosed as DID (Disassociative Identity Disorder). The Third Person is likely to be of special interest to those who are or have been in therapy, especially therapy focused on recovering from trauma – as well as to those who would like to learn more about the therapeutic experience. Check out this hefty PDF preview to get a good idea of what's in store in those 900 pages.
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $31.75
Bark Bark GirlJust in from PEOW, Bark Bark Girl is Michael Furler's 200 page comics meditation on contemporary dichotomous living. Situated at the intersection of virtual/simulated realities of art, cartooning and computing and the physical realities of home, family and Kuma the dog – with plenty of bicycle riding to and from in between – Bark Bark Girl works to show the process of identifying priorities and values and how decisions regarding these can lead to inflection points in life's progress. The artwork varies accordingly, between pixilated computer art and cartooning that varies widely between the poles of expressionism and realism. Printed in black and fluorescent green on a finely textured off-white paper, it's a treat to read. To go a bit more in-depth on what's in store here, and check out a few samples of the interior art, read Arpad Okay's review on The Beat, HERE.
retail price - $19.00 copacetic price - $17.25
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