NEW STUFF ARCHIVES
New for December 2023
Michael Mouse This Giant-Size Special comic book (or graphic novel, if you prefer), is a mash-up of the famous D¡sn*y funny animal family and Charles Biro's Crime Does Not Pay comic book series, that has been created with the "anything goes" spirit of classic underground comix, and that really does the job; it is – amazingly, fantastically, incredibly – successful. Cramming every classic noir trope into one non-stop roller coaster narrative, Michael Mouse is a rollicking radical read that runs through 69 1/2 pages of full color comics, employing a merciless 12-panel grid without let up; there is no pause, no chance to catch your breath; it just goes. And where it goes – for life long comics readers, at least – is right into the rewards center of the brain (immediately adjacent to the punishment center) where addictions of all sorts lurk. As the entire plot pivots on – surprise! – a drug deal gone wrong, drug addiction is right there front and center on the page, but lurking just below the surface (or in the gutter) is the unstated but clearly implicit – "for those who know how to look" – addiction to comic books. Starting with the gateway funny animal comics through the gritty urban crime dramas before ending up at the hardcore sensations of the "return of the repressed" embodied in the underground æsthetic, Michael Mouse is a meta-comic meditation on the (addictive) pleasures of the (comics) text. While certainly influenced – or at the very least emboldened – by the comics of Simon Hanselmann, Mitch Lohmeier has nonetheless forged an original synthesis here, one that taps into a mainline of the 20th Century American psyche, linking crime, capitalism and comics – all of which run through gender roles – in an unforgettable manner, one that manages, despite everything, to craft a narrative with genuine dramatic pathos that reveals the human emotions embedded in these cartoon characters. An instant classic!
retail price - $12.00 copacetic price - $10.75
Monster Fan Club
Transitions: A Mother's Journey is exactly what the title says it is. It expertly and artfully delineates the journey of one mother (who is clearly intended as a stand-in for any and all in a similar situation, and, really, all older adults who are confronting and/or struggling with the phenomena of gender dysphoria and/or gender transition) from fear through ambivalence to acceptance and ultimately a full embrace of her child's realization that they identify as a different gender from that which they had grown up in. Élodie Durand's stylishly elegant, highly expressive and visually pleasing artwork is expertly choreographed through page after page of comics that are both well designed and thoughtfully laid out in such a way to guide the reader through the process of absorbing the considerable amount of information required to follow along on the journey, providing a valuable education that is simultaneously an engaging and enjoyable read. What more can you ask?
Transitions: A Mother's Journey
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $16.75
Marry Me a LittleMarry Me a Little is cartoonist, Rob Kirby's memoir of marrying his longtime partner, John, shortly after Minnesota legalized same-sex marriage in 2013, two years before the Supreme Court decision legalizing it nationwide. In 100 pages of clear and concise comics, this graphic novel explores the institution of marriage, alongside its traditions and ritual aspects, all within the context of the evolution of gay marriage both within the institution of marriage and society as a whole, as well as its political aspects. It accomplishes the harder-than-it-looks feat of revealing the big picture within an up close and personal accounting that is simultaneously heartfelt and matter-of-fact. While there is plenty of history and cultural observation to be had in its pages, Marry Me a Little is, at its core and most of all, a love story.
retail price - $21.95 copacetic price - $18.75
FlippyFlippy is the floppy to fling down a couple finagled fins for! Forty-eight newsprint pages jammed with ink lines from fine to fat that converge to concoct a filthy fable fit for the funny pages of the 21st century, in the tradition founded by the Fantagraphics family (but especially reminiscent of early Peter Bagge) and herein continued by the burgeoning Domino Comics. Fun!
retail price - $10.00 copacetic price - $9.50
Blah Blah Blah #4Juliette Collet really gets her groove on in this fourth issue of her series – and you will too! 64 pages of strong comics vibrations. Her work is personal and drawn from the deeps, and she is well on her way to developing a unique comics voice. In this issue, those readers who have long wished for a fix of some fresh early-days Julie Doucet flavor along with a dash of Dame Darcy might very well find what they're looking for here. Inspiring!
retail price - $11.00 copacetic price - $11.50
Doctor Moebius and Mister GirHere It is: over 35 years worth of interviews, conducted between 1974 and 2011, with the one and only Jean "Moebius" Giraud, all conducted by his long time friend and associate, Numa Sadoul. It can be considered as the prose companion to Jean Giraud's spiritual journey through comics, taken in his persona of Moebius. Translated by Edward Gauvin, so Anglophone readers can know they're in good hands. 282 page softcover | 8" x 11" | Illustrated (in B & W and full color) and annotated. Get ready.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $26.75
Moonray – Book One: Mother's SkinAnd, speaking of Moebius, Moonray is an epic, full color, science fiction fantasy firmly in the original Metal Hurlant / Heavy Metal mode pioneered in the 1970s – most notably by Moebius, who is clearly a big influence here. While the bulk of the artwork is by Brandon Graham, who also wrote the script, he is joined by the new-to-us artist, Xurxo G. Penalta, who contributed several short addenda scattered throughout, and then a stunning 24-page coda to the volume that will will leave readers wanting more: nice! Given that this is labelled "Book One" we can assume that it is the first in a projected series of volumes. Not sure how many more, but we can say that the second volume has already been announced, with an April 2024 release date.
retail price - $35.00 copacetic price - $29.75
Street Angel: Princess of PovertyStreet Angel is back... in print. Street Angel: Princess of Poverty is an expanded softcover reprint of the AdHouse hardcover from several years back, which was itself an expanded reissue of the Slave Labor softcover collection of several years prior to that. All three editions collect the five-issue run of the original black & white Street Angel series published by Slave Labor Press coming up on twenty years ago now(!), along with ever increasing amounts of bonus material. So, with each iteration, The Princess of Poverty gets bigger and better! This volume is, thus, the biggest and best yet! It includes everything in the previous editions along with rarely seen, fully finished Street Angel portrait and action drawings, some of which appeared in Jim Rugg's self-published zines, but have not ever before received a wide release. Also included here is the complete original, self-published version of "Street Angel's Dog," which is very different from the color version that appeared in the Street Angel: Deadliest Girl Alive collection published by Image a couple years back, and so gives readers an opportunity to view the two versions side by side, providing a fascinating look into the Creative Mind of Rugg™. And, just in case anyone was wondering, the answer is, "Yes, Street Angel: Princess of Poverty matches the physical dimensions and format of Street Angel: Deadliest Girl Alive, so they will sit snugly side by side on the shelf.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $16.75
CursesCurses is a 272 page full color collection of short works from the creator of 2120 and Internet Crusader. It opens with a republication of his first work, the long out of print Ghosts, and continues through a series of dreamlike stories for those dreaming in the age of the internet: "Within you'll find a talking church, prophecies on television, a haunted dumpster, a grinning intern, an endless hospital, a magician, a trip through heaven and hell, the most powerful realtor you've ever met, illicit substances of the distant future, an executioner, a live-streamed cremation, a gallon of bleach , evil wishes, solemn utterances, blasphemous words, coal, and cake. These are curses: a series of prayers for harm to befall someone."
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75
A Place Beyond Shame Ed Steck's latest traces a harrowing intersection between horror movies and horror life, with each overlapping the other, making for a blurry consciousness wherein nothing is clear, but, eventually leading to connections, transpositions and exchanges. As with nearly all of Steck's printed work, the look and layout of the text and its juxtaposition with images are integral, providing visual keys that serve to help readers unlock the thematic concerns communicated by the text. It feels like a transitional work that manages to unpack some difficult to access baggage, clearing it out and putting it away in order to move in a new direction.
retail price - $30.00 copacetic price - $25.75
These items and more may also be found at our eCommerce site, HERE.
New for November 2023
Just as we are being inundated by AI hype, on the verge of being overwhelmed... Here comes the new issue of Love and Rockets to the rescue! Gilbert starts things off with a complexly tangled meta-movie/comic featuring two versions of the same "movie", Lie in the Darkness ("based on the story, 'Lie Down in the Dark'") in parallel. The first is a "never-completed remake" starring Fritz of the (unshown) original, which "starred" her mother, Maria M. (see, it's already complicated, and we haven't even started the story). It is rendered in a standard comic book page layout occupying the top 2/3 of each page, while below it, taking up the lower 1/3 of each page, is a later, completed remake, also starring Fritz (sporting a very different "look"), done in a uniform grid of ten square panels, in two horizontal rows of five. This simultaneously makes for an entertaining (if violent) read, a study in cultural trends and, most rewarding of all, a lesson in comics storytelling techniques, as the two approaches are contrasted with each other. Any and all comics makers will want to spend some time with this one! But, of course, there's more, much more! Jaime weighs in with a Maggie and Hopey meetup, some wacky hi-jinx with Alice Brown and Tonta, outer space adventure with Lumina & Co., and, oh yeah, someone gets married... Love and Rockets!Love and Rockets, Volume IV #14
retail price - $4.99 copacetic price - $4.75
The premiere issue of Viscere has arrived, and its theme is: Body Horror! Edited by Katie Skelly, who has penned an introduction in the course of which it is revealed that this anthology was born out of the isolation and fear brought on by the Pandemic, and the idea animating the works assembled here is that of confrontation with one's own – and others' – inescapable physicality. In the 120, magazine-size (8 1/2" x 11") pages of this first issue of Viscere , the group of talented women cartoonists who have herein banded together to provide readers with eight short comics works – in black & white, duo-tone and full color – and one essay (appropriately, on the Y2K comics of Junko Mizuno). This a wide-ranging anthology, as stories and approaches span the spectrum from subtley psychological to over the top psychotic, each one presenting its own take on body horror, with no-holds-barred. And there is plenty of variety in art styles as well, as they range from anime-inflected cartoony to detailed old school illustration, each artist embodying a style that is distinctly their own. Cover by Kate Lacour.
Viscere #1
retail price - $25.00 copacetic price - $19.75
Cicadas
edited by Riley Gale & Co., w/ Lale Westvind, Anya Davidson, Lane Milburn, Marc Bell, Stathis Tsemberlidis, Lando , Josh Simmons, Chris Wilson, Jason Tarpey, Nick Kucway, Joseph Kelley, Dylan Chadwick, JB Roe, Aubrey Sitterson, Stellar Leuna
Cicadas is the brainchild of Riley Gale, who in addition to being a widely known, admired and loved musician, was very much a comics fan (and had visited Copacetic on occasion, when in town on tour with his band, Power Trip). Begun before the pandemic put it on hold, the idea was to cross fertilize the worlds of thrash metal and alternative comics, and particularly to introduce Power Trip fans to the work of Riley's favorite comics artists via the mercha table. After his death in the summer of 2020, this project might never have been completed if not for the commitment of his friends in both the music world and the comics world, who all came together to make it happen. A squarebound magazine-size softcover, featuring work in both black and white and full color, and printed on nice flat white stock (with a few stories employing a paper tone underlayer), Cicadas is a great collection, featuring new work by many Copacetic faves. While a wide variety of stories are on hand here, with stories involving interplanetary travel, post-apocalypse mutant wars, cloud-computer-based robot life forms, and a variety of alien life forms, it is clear that science fiction / fantasy is the dominant mode. Even within these tales the mood ranges widely, from bright to dark, from lusty to deadly. Overall, the focus of the stories assembled in Cicadas ranges from political to philosophical while the tone ranges from action to reflection, from critical to exuberant from serious to zany, and it closes on a note of unmitigated terror.
copacetic price - $21.75
The Collected Audra Show #1 - 6by Audra Stang
Here it is, finally – a collected edition of the first six issues of The Audra Show! It's a sturdy 6" x 9", 172 page softcover, printed in full color on heavy semi-gloss stock. It collects all six issues – most of which were created right here in Pittsburgh – including covers, along with a few bonus pages. The Audra Show is an all new series that embodies classic, old school comic book values. Stang likes to tell a good story and knows that character design and development are key to getting it across to readers. She brings her characters alive on the page through hard won cartooning chops years in the making that include a vibrant color palette that really enhances the reading experience. Having all these issues brought together under one cover is a real treat. Only 300 copies have been printed in this first edition, so don't miss your chance to (re)visit the goings on in Star Valley in the alternating eras of 2008 and 1988, featuring the lives and (mis)adventures of Adelaide Lane, Bryson Yogurt & Oliver Chance in the one, and Margaux Delmar, Bea Allen, Owen Minnow, Jonah Jones & Flower in the other. Many plot twists and thematic turns! And, SUPER SPECIAL BONUS: each of the Copacetic copies opens with a FULL PAGE, original head and shoulders portrait drawing of a member of the cast, each one different! Nice!
retail price - $25.00 copacetic price - $22.75
Satan's Kingdomby Robert Sergel
The aptly titled Satan's Kingdom portrays a series of protagonists each caught in their own personal hell, which Sergel clearly implies is of their own making. And, speaking of clear, comics artwork doesn't get any more ligne claire than that through which these stories are conveyed, a style which, ironically to the point of paradox, heightens the eerie, ouroboric feel that haunts a number of these stories, most notably the lead, title story. An inference that could be drawn here is that it is precisely in the illusion of clarity that the horror of today is located. But for the two which appear here for the first time, all of the stories collected here were originally published between 2014 and 2021, in a variety of publications, most notably Sergel's own series, Eschew. Readers of Daniel Clowes's just released graphic novel, Monica may occasionally feel a sense of déjà vu reading through Satan's Kingdom, as they share a number of similar "notes" (as in musical).
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.75
The Magicians is a real beauty of a book, thoughtfully designed from cover to cover. It is printed in the traditional Japanese style known as fukuro-toji, wherein only one side of each sheet of paper is printed, and then folded over. This mode of printing eliminates the issues associated with recto-verso image bleedthrough, making for a superior reading/viewing experience. Each page contains a single, full-page image, with a caption below, employing bold, block style, lettering in blue. The entire work is has been created in blexbolex's trademarked silkscreen-style illustration employing overlapping flat planes of color to form the images and create space without the use of lines – which is no small feat. Ultimately it is blexbolex himself who is the true magician here! Plus, heavy cardstock, French-flapped wraparound cover (which is printed inside as well out) and bronze metallic endpapers. And: suitable for all ages. Translated fro the original French by Karin Snelson. Visit the publisher, Enchanted Lion's page for The Magicians for a nice preview, HERE (just click on the thumbnails).
The Magicians
retail price - $34.95 copacetic price - $29.75
Tongues #6The wait is over, the new issue of Tongues has arrived! Over fifty pages of full color comics in a lush oversize format by a master of the form. In this issue things get dark – literally – as Astrid is taken deep into the recesses of The Mountain and confronts that which goes by no name, that is that it is. While, outside in the conflict zone, things get stranger and stranger... Tongues is a triumph of the imagination. Mythological figures from classical antiquity mix it up with science fiction concepts amidst the social disintegration accompanying late-stage capitalism and its attendant politics to forge a unique vision that supplies readers with a much needed sense of wonder at our current historical moment.
retail price - $18.00 copacetic price - $15.75
Kus! mono #11: This Year Is Next Year's Last Year
by Christopher Sperandio
This Year Is Next Year's Last Year takes classic old school public domain comics – that look like they're largely from the 1950s, but maybe also some from the '40s and/or early 60s – and remixes them in all their newsprint saturated four-color glory in high quality scans repurposed via newly created (by Mr. Sperandio, we can only assume) text approriately rendered in a digital recreation of Leroy Lettering (or a close approximation therof) to create a caustic comics satire of the sad state of affairs that is the USA today. Everything is printed just right and really delivers that old school comics feel. Also on hand are equally caustic reworkings of comic book advertisements, gift listings and an apocryphal game journal all recreated in the appropriate manner. A real treat for the comics æsthete. | Specs: A5 (6" x 8"), 68 pages, full-color, perfect bound. Printed in Latvia on FSC certified paper.
retail price - $20.00 copacetic price - $18.75
Mini-Kus #112: You're the Center of AttentionGina Wynbrandt is back! "You're the Center of Attention" is a 24 page full color mini that imagines Gina as a TV Game Show contestant on the Spanky Monkey Production, You're the Center of Attention, featuring host Clark Daniel Dirk, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Willem Dafoe, and who, unsurprisingly, does his best to humiliate the contestants. Will Gina have what it takes? You'll have to read it to find out.
retail price - $6.00 copacetic price - $5.75
Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White: 30th Anniversary EditionIt's hard to believe that Tekkonkinkreet is now thirty years old, but here's the 30th Anniversary Edition to prove it. And quite an edition it is, putting all previous editions in the shade. This sturdy – and hefty! – full size hardcover, running well over 600 pages, has restored the work to its original right-to-left orientation and features all the original color pages, a full-color foldout poster, and a new afterword by the author, presenting this major work in all its glory. Nice!
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $34.25
Sense of Place: PittsburghThis gift-ready box set contains 20 Pittsburgh postcards, with 20 different images all photographed right here in Pittsburgh, PA by a Pittsburgh-based artist. (plus the cover images!) The postcards are high quality, two sided, full color postcards. Each card has a brief description on the reverse, plus appropriate markings for mailing and space for writing. The sturdy white box is decorated with a photo-printed sticker and bound by a photo-printed belly band. This box set was created as a numbered, limited edition of 75 only (and we only have a small fraction of those). Have a Made-in-Pittsburgh Christmas!
retail price - $25.00 copacetic price - $21.75
These items and more may also be found at our eCommerce site, HERE.
New for October 2023
Time Under Tension
Time Under Tension is: A) at 260 pages, by far the most substantial work yet from M.S. Harkness; B) her first solo work published by Fantagraphics; C) her most ambitious – and successful – work to date, wherein she manages to integrate the themes reflecting the far ranging aspects of her life that populated her earlier works – hook-up culture, weight lifting, sex work, comics making, family history including traumatizing childhood sexual abuse, art school, drug use, popular culture – and weave them into mesmerizing pattern. Most of all, Time Under Tension amply demonstrates the advances that Harkness has made in her cartooning, as through its pages she takes her comics making to the next level. The artwork on the page clearly shows her continuing to hone her sharply observed, cleanly delineated (and instantly recognizable) drawing style. Her greatest advances are in her breakdown of the narrative into comics: the expert employment of a variety of grids – primarily 6-panel, 8-panel and 9-panel – yes; but she also knows when to break out of them for best effect, with splash pages that make an impact and wild, free-for-all spreads that really work to convey the temporal and spatial shifts brought about by changes to and shifts in psychic states – especially within the context of their signifying a release from the regimentation of standard temporality signified by the grid. Worthy of special note are her keen observations regarding our now established dependency upon mobile phone texting as a default mode of communications. The naturalistic and fluid manner in which these observations are incorporated into the narrative diegesis convincingly illustrates the behavioral changes that texting has brought about – as well as its incipient impact upon consciousness and identity. There's some real food for thought there. Added Bonus: includes a visit to Pittsburgh that features both Frank Santoro and Nate McDonough! Recommended! Special price!
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $19.75
Yes, we've got 'em! Straight out of the box from the printers, hot off the press! It's been a long time coming, but the second issue of comics maestro, Kevin Huizenga's magazine-size, one-person anthology comic book series has at last arrived. The first thing you notice about this issue is that it has a nice feel and solid heft, with sturdy cardstock cover and heavy, flat, off-white stock. Its 32 pages offer deep dives into comics consciousness that make many explorations into the what and how of comics mechanics, with a special focus on Kevin H.'s long-running protagonist, Glenn Ganges and his partner, Wendy. Taken together, these pieces form a jangled, juxtaposed, jump-cut portrait of the comics artist at middle age that features a blending of interior and exterior lives. While the world of comics and comics making is the subject of only some of the narratives, each piece has its own discrete form of address, from the abstractions of "Fight or Run" to the personal reflections of "Maps and Calendars" to the formal studies embodied in "The Body of Work Keeps The Score" and more – most notably the grimly timely adaptation of the 1914 hymn-like poem, "All the Hills and Vales Along" by Charles Sorley (dubbed the "GG Remix"). The unique attribute linking them all is that every piece is about comics at the same time that it is comics. That's the Huizenga magic at work.Fielder #2
retail price - $12.00 copacetic price - $10.00
Originally published in Japan in 1982, this collection of playful, one- (mostly) and two-page, black & white, pantomime comics is a special treat for the comics æsthete! There’s a feeling in these strips that brings to mind the great pantomime strips of Sergio Aragonés and Antonio Prohías (Spy vs. Spy) that appeared in the Mad magazine of the 1960s & ‘70s – with a bit of Don Martin thrown in for good measure. But while Tateishi’s strips certainly embody a strong sense of humor – and are a lot of fun to read – he is much more of a formalist than they, with his primary interest being in literally playing with line and illusion and also to address, in his own inimitable fashion, Buddhist concepts relating to the illusory nature of reality. This edition of Cheat Sheets is co-published by 50 Watts Books of Philadelphia, PA and Nieves Books of Zurich, Switzerland. It is a no frills squarebound edition that runs 100 pages, cleanly printed on 7 1/2" x 10” flat white stock with flat white card stock covers – and it’s cover to cover comics! You can read more about the history of this book and its creator – as well as have the opportunity to check out a generous sampling of the strips – at the 50 Watts Books page devoted to it, HERE. Read once for fun. Read again to ponder the illusory nature of reality. Then read (at least) one more time to study how Tateishi does it.Cheat Sheets
retail price - $28.00 copacetic price - $25.75
Now these are abstract comics: non-representational and/or abstract symbols arranged in sequence on a single page, with formal considerations of size, density, orientation, direction – and flow – being the central concern and primary focus. A perfect companion work to Cheat Sheets, the work collected here in Pictograms was originally drawn by the Swiss artist, Warja Lavater between 1976 and 1999, the sixty pictograms that make up this collection were first published in 2008 by Nieves Books of Zurich, Switzerland. That collection has now been reissued as a co-publication of Nieves and 50 Watts Books of Philadelphia. This too is a no frills square bound edition that runs 124 pages, cleanly printed on 7 1/2" x 10” flat white stock with flat white card stock covers. Each pictogram is printed on the right of the spread, with the left (which is the backing page of the previous pictogram) left blank to provide a clear field with which to confront and absorb each image – which you’ll want to do repeatedly, as each is very open to interpretation. Here’s a book that will get any rusty synapses in the visual cortex back in action!Pictograms
retail price - $32.00 copacetic price - $28.75
This is it, the final issue of Craig Thompson's epic comics journey embodying the depth and breadth of global capitalism in a humble herb. Ginseng Roots is a one-of-a-kind work that expertly zooms from the micro to the macro and then pans around the globe and tracks through history to deliver an amazing portrait of the world as viewed through the lens of ginseng production and consumption. Also included are some illustrated notes on the production/process that address the creation of the series as a whole – which include thumbnails, roughs and tests – as well as notes specifically regarding this issue's content. And this giant 64 page, double-sized comics book is it's conclusion! We are simultaneously happy that it has been successfully completed and sad that this amazing series is now over. (But, there is still the promised collection cum graphic novel due in 2025. It will differ in some respects from this series – and will lack all the single-issue-related addenda, like "Shang Garden Bar", etc., leaving the series with its unique status – but is planned to offer additional material, so the journey isn't over yet!)
Ginseng Roots #12
retail price - $9.00 copacetic price - $8.00
Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American LegendNoah's in his sweet spot in this exposé of the creation (or, perhaps more accurately, as the subtitle has it, "invention") of the classic American legend of Paul Bunyan. Fun for all ages! This full color hardcover runs 48 pages and, in addition to 32 pages of Noah Van Sciver comics, also includes an introduction by Lee Francis IV, stories and art by Marlena Myles and a postscript by Deondre Smiles. Check out this page hosted by the publisher, Toon Graphics, which is chock-a-block with info and reviews of this fine volume, and also provides a hefty preview. Available in both hardcover and softcover editions. NICE!
softcover – retail price - $11.99 copacetic price - $10.75
hardcover – retail price - $17.99 copacetic price - $15.75
Ed Piskor Hip Hop Family Tree: The OmnibusIf there are still any Copacetic customers who have yet to partake in the most important work by unstoppable Pittsburgh comics maker (and comics evangelist), Ed Piskor, namely Hip Hop Family Tree, now is the time as this omnibus collects the series in its entirety, and then some, in a single, finely crafted hardcover volume, all for a price that is significantly less then previously available for the complete series. Procrastinators rewarded! This omnibus collection includes the original 360-page series with over 140 pages of extra material: a cover gallery of every HHFT book and comic book cover and back cover Piskor ever created, pages from the HHFT comic book series that have never been collected, new annotations of the entire series by Piskor, and much more. Plus, it features a foreword by Charlie Ahearn and an afterword by Bill Adler.
retail price - $75.00 copacetic price - $62.75
Melvin Monster OmnibusHere it is, the complete run of John Stanley's mash up of Little Lulu's Tubby with the monstermania that swept the USA during the early and mid-1960s (cultural historians take note) that is most widely recalled via the Addams Family and Munsters sitcoms (and, most robustly, in Forrest Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland). But, of course, comics does it better and John Stanley was one of the best. And, of course, there is the fact of the primary focus and perspective from which reader identification is located being on that of the child who has internalized the monster metaphor, making for more psychological nuance that was ever on offer in any sitcom. Melvin Monster was one of Stanley's final forays in comics, running from 1965 through 1969 (its final issue was a reprint of the first), and so incorporates a full career of comics know-how. This pint-size, 296-page softcover volume (with spotgloss cover) collects the entirety of the Melvin Monster run in full color scans of the original comics cleaned up for publication. One and done!. Fun!
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $21.75
Dauntless Dames is the latest in the series of beautiful mega-sized (13" x 17") hardcover collections of classic newspaper comicstrips from Sunday Press. Edited by Trina Robbins and Sunday Press publisher, Peter Maresca, Dauntless Dames is a feast for the eyes. An amazing amalgamation of classic Sunday pages featuring women protagonists, many of which were also created by women, including Pittsburgh's own Jackie Ormes, including some super rare strips from The Pittsburgh Courier! This volume includes page after oversize page – 160 in all – of classic full color (and along with a small smattering of monochrome and black & white) strips including Miss Fury, Connie, Brenda Starr, Flyin’ Jenny, Invisible Scarlet O’Neill, Myra North: Special Nurse, Cairo Jones, Deathless Deer, and Torchy Brown!, all of which were originally published in the 1930s, '40s & '50s (and at least a handful – of Brenda Starr strips – from 1960). Amazing!
Dauntless Dames
retail price - $100.00 copacetic price - $85.00
Pittsburgh - softcover editionAnd, last but not least, the best selling book in Copacetic history, Frank Santoro's one-of-a-kind memoir in which the nature of memory itself is the real subject, Pittsburgh is now back in print in a sturdy softcover edition, also from New York Review Comics. This edition features heavier, slightly brighter paper – making for a subtly different color reproduction relative to the hardcover, yet every bit as sharp. And that's key, as this book is all about the color. To go more in depth, check out the original Copacetic take, which we've reposted to the softcover listing on the site, here.
retail price - $29.95 copacetic price - $25.75
These items and more may also be found at our eCommerce site, HERE.
