NEW STUFF ARCHIVES
New for March 2025
Tongues
by Anders Nilsen
It's here: the first volume of Anders Nilsen's epic look at our collective 21st Century headspace: Tongues. Like a skilled neurosurgeon, he peels back the conscious, subconscious and unconscious layers of our civilization, taking each layer then staining them with his creative intelligence and putting them under the microscope revealing a spectacular vision of their intermingling forms of mythography, history, speculative fiction and more, all entwined within the double-helix of love and war, and lays them bare for the reader's edification and private analysis (which has put us in mind of a modern La Divina Commedia di Dante – particularly “L'Inferno"). Tongues takes us from the gritty realism of Afghan battlefields and urban Kenya to the lush and fantastic realms of Mount Olympus as well as deep into unidentified underground mysteries. It also presents us with all manner of flora and fauna – including those of fantastic and mythological nature – all delineated with such astonishing panache that each level merges into a coherent equality of plausibility that works to create that sense of wonder that is at the core of great works of fantasy and science fiction. This massive, 364 page, lushly printed, full color, oversize, 8 1/2" x 11" hardcover (complete with dustjacket) is nearly as large as the 9" x 12" original issues – all seven of which (1 - 6 + Supplement) it collects. Take on online look at the book via out Tumblr gallery post >> HERE <<
retail price - $35.00 copacetic price - $29.75
Tongues Process Sketches + Outtakes Zine
by Anders Nilsen
published by Secret Headquarters
And, while we’re on the subject of Tongues, in celebration of the release of the aforementioned volume, Anders Nilsen has teamed up with Secret Headquarters to produce this process zine providing a behind the scenes look at the creation of this magnum opus. Sketches, logo tryouts, cover variations and more rarities. >> Limited Edition << 64 pages | 6.5" x 8.5" | full color cover, black and white interior | perfect bound. Check out this Tumblr post for a sneak peak.
retail price - $20.00 copacetic price - $16.75
Love and Rockets, Volume IV #16 retail price - $6.99 copacetic price - $5.99And, as we're on the subject of Love and Rockets, here it is, the latest Jaime Hernandez masterwork! Life Drawing collects the intertwining sagas of Maggie, Ray, Tonta, Vivian & Co. 132 BIG (9 1/2" x 11 1/2") pages of amazing art in the service of delineating the most vital pen & ink characters around. Every page is a gem. Many readers of this space are likely to have read these stories as they appeared in the page of Love and Rockets, but for anyone who was waiting for this collection – the wait is over! And of course, true believers will want this deluxe hardcover edition for their library, as well.
Life Drawing
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $19.99
Holy LacrimonyWith Holy Lacrimony, Michael DeForge puts a whole new spin on the alien abduction tale. For the alien abductors that fill its pages, celebrity is dependent on and proportional to, sadness. In the process of revealing the tangled connections and describing the elaborate process by which sadness converts to celebrity, DeForge provides readers with an insightful commentary, in a unique manner and from an unusual perspective, on the impact of social media on emotional health and lives. An intriguing proposition well worth pondering. > hardcover | 116 pages | tri-color and black & white Check out this PDF preview to get an inkling.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $21.75
Beat It, RufusHere's an all new, 208 page, full color, debossed hardcover graphic novel from Noah Van Sciver. Within these 208 pages, he sketches out a full-bodied portrayal of another beautiful loser, à la Fante Bukowski, only this time as a rock 'n' roller. Rufus Baxter is a rock star wannabe who believed in himself – too much – to the detriment of those around him, and, ultimately, to himself, in this fully-fleshed out yet enactment of the proverb, "pride goeth before the fall." Yet, Noah clearly still sympathizes with Rufus, and also allows that he is a memorable character, and grants him the status of being an original who remained true to himself; an ambivalent portrayal, to be sure. It's up to you, the reader, to pass judgement; or not. Regardless, Beat It, Rufus is an engaging read, employing the patented Van Sciverian blend of humor and pathos topped off wirth a garnish of bathos. Lots of rock 'n' roll tropes explored and exploded for fun and pleasure. We've posted some panels and pages up at the Copacetic Tumblr, HERE.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $21.75
Aya: Face the MusicIt's an all-new Aya adventure – the eighth! – from the fantastically talented comics-making team of Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie. The gang's all here as things heat up on the political front when business interests and brutal police intrude on Aya & Co.'s lives and loves. Aya: Face the Music is another engaging, informative and entertaining slice of life from Côte d'Ivoire. Translated by Abidjan-based writer and activist Edwige Renée Dro > hardcover | 108 pages | full color (w/black & white back up feature) < If you're not hep, take a moment to check out this great PDF preview. And should you then like what you see, but would prefer to first get up to speed with Aya's world, then we recommend the original omnibus, Life in Yop City and/or its follow-up, Love in Yop CIty, each of which collect three complete graphic novels for one low price! Aya!
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $21.75
And here's a rare treat: a pair of new works from Carol Lay:Any comics reading science fiction fans looking for an engaging and well-informed time travel tale, look no further: Carol Lay's My Time Machine fits the bill! This 168 page, full color hardcover graphic novel is by turns cautionary (of course!) and satiric – and also well paced, expertly structured and finely drawn. This came out late last year, but it took us a moment to get up on the site – but
My Time Machine
hey, it's a time travel tale, so...
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75
and
Murderburg256 pages of fine, fun comics by the one and only Carol Lay, published in a small run by Fantagraphics Underground. Ms. Lay has been honing her comics craft over four decades, and the drawing and storytelling are both as sharp as her wit.
retail price - $30.00 copacetic price - $23.75
We've posted some spreads from both books on the Copacetic Tumblr, HERE.
Land of Mirrors The 1960s spirit of Peter Max inhabits the over 300 pages of cleanly delieated, lushly colored and organically formed comics that Spanish cartoonist, Maria Medem brings to her tale of isolation and discovery in an abandoned town. Translated from the original Spanish by Aleshia Jensen and Daniela Ortiz. Check out this nice PDF excerpt to catch the vibe. You'll be glad you did. And, if you'd like to see more, we've posted over a dozen pages up at the Copacetic Tumblr, HERE. >>> Land of Mirrors has already won some quite worthy fans: “Maria Medem’s book is strange, in the best possible way. For a while, in the middle, I got lost in the labyrinth and broken mirrors. Then the ending wallops you with emotion. I’m humbled by a book like this—the visuals, in general, blow my mind. A beautiful and mesmerizing work of art." — Craig Thompson | “Spellbinding and inventive. Unlike any other graphic novel around, a truly impressive debut.” — Tillie Walden | "Medem’s Land of Mirrors is a beautifully shaped and polished comic, an intimate work of art that presents a mystical synthesis of line, colour, and story. An ambient experience that helps us see differently, a rare feat of ambitious imagination and extraordinary draftsmanship.” — Jesse Jacobs
retail price - $29.95 copacetic price - $25.75
So Buttons #13 & #14Jonathan Baylis has been writing, editing and self-publishing his Pekaresque autobio anthology, So Buttons for over a decade now, working in collaboration with a multitude of artists over the years. #13 was published in 2023 and features Pekar alumni, Gary Dumm and Joe Zabel along with plenty of other artists of more recent vintage, including Bernie Mireault (who passed away in late 2024; RIP), Maria and Peter Hooey, Whit Taylor, Kate Lacour and Michael T. Gilbert! This "Lucky 13th" issue also has a special focus on Baylis's years studying, working in and appreciating the world of cinema, along with reminiscences of comics and an eye surgery along with a number of Pekaresque anecdotes. And it closes out with a back cover portrait of Baylis by Ed Piskor that Ed had done a number of years earlier. #14 is the latest issue, and is aptly sub-titled the "Life & Death" issue, it starts off with a string of stories related to his personal encounters with creative figures who were important to his life, ranging from Chester Brown to James Earl Jones. It then switches to a series of meditations on mortality, as a number of people central to his life passed from this mortal coil, most significantly his mother, to whom this issue is dedicated. Contributing artists in this issue include MariNaomi, Box Brown, Summer Pierre, Sophia Gluck, Lisa Rosalie Eisenbertm, Ayoko Nito, Karl Christian Krumpholz, and three pieces by T.J. Kirsch.
retail price - $10.00@ copacetic price - $8.75@
Pebbles #1, 2 & #3Pebbles is a fun, quirky, ongoing, magazine-size, woman-centric comic book series from Molly Colleen O’Connell; printed in black & white, with color cardstock covers.
#1 moves back and forth through a variety of registers. This issue features drinking and drug use and death, a singing chicken, multi-layered satire involving therapy and war and a science-fictiony dream laboratory; 24 pages. | retail price - $12.00 copacetic price - $10.75
#2 also goes all over the place, from quotidian workaday vignettes in pet stores and libraries and hangouts at home – but stays largely in one layer of society. And get ready for plenty of animal interactions, especially with our fine feathered friends (some of whom speak, providing enigmatic messages and more) – along with a daytime TV show episode featuring a spoonbill that doesn't go according to plan; 40 pages. | retail price - $12.00 copacetic price - $10.75#3 is a roller coaster ride: on the street and in the woods; shops and nightclubs; dinosaur dreams and drug-induced visions; all mixed through with memories of childhood and adolescence (old school telephones! remember those?), including forays towards the forbidden, including surreptitious horror VHS viewing and a bedroom intrusion that is rife with rock 'n' roll imagery. Plus plenty of animal interactions. This third issue runs 56 pages. She’s definitely been building some momentum with this series, as we can’t help but notice that each issue is 16 pages longer than the one before. Could there be an 80-Page Giant coming...? We'll see! | retail price - $16.00 copacetic price - $13.75
All three issues are powered by a vigorous and energetic combination of pen and brush ink work along with plenty of grey tones. These three comics magazines are tasty pieces of PIE™ (picked up at the 2025 Pittsburgh Indie Expo). We've posted a gallery from all three issues on the Copacetic Tumblr, HERE.
Negative XHere it is, at long last, the official, fully-fledged comic book edition of Matt Vituccio’s Negative X! In its 24 black & white pages, readers will discover solid comics storytelling – formally traditional and attitudinally underground/alternative – by a developing cartoonist who has the chops to pull it off. In the tradition of Crumb (Vituccio's character, Joe Pepper, could be seen as the love child of Crumb's Mr. Natural and Flakey Foont, which makes for an intriguing character!), GRiffith, Clowes, Matt, Brunetti, et al – and with an accent on surrealism – these comics work through the negativity induced by living through the problematic spaces of contemporary life. A piece of PIE™ (picked up at the 2025 Pittsburgh Indie Expo; more next month). AND, Made in Pittsburgh!
retail price - $12.00 copacetic price - $10.00
Give Me Liberty!Give Me Liberty! presents readers with the story of the American Revolution – in underground comix style. In 1975, Gilbert Shelton and Ted Richards combined forces to give an unvarnished view of the proceedings from different point of view from that provided in the school books of the time. Fantagraphics Underground herein presents a Treasury Edition-sized (10" x 13"), 80-Page Giant, 50th Anniversary Edition* of the 1976 Rip Off Press Collection of these strips that were originally serialized in alternative newspapers through 1975-76, as Bicentennial mania swept the nation. | *Yes, it's a year early, but better to get it out there now, before it's too late.
retail price - $20.00 copacetic price - $16.75
These items and more may also be found at our eCommerce site, HERE.
New for February 2025
Quite a lot can – and will – be said about he comics that make up Milk White Steed, Michael Kennedy’s first book length collection published in North America. Composed of eight short to medium length stories along with a pair of interstitial two-pagers, it is filled with comics that are artistically grounded, visually stimulating, historically informed, and intellectually challenging, and that together make for a dis- / re-orienting reading experience that, while at times unsettling, is ultimately invigorating and highly rewarding. A core component of the stories that make up Milk White Steed is their conveyance of the Black British experience. This is broadcast right at the outset, with a cover image that well sums up its unique and agglomerative nature, while also hinting at a chimerical aspect. The stories collected here largely work to articulate that experience, especially as it relates to those of West Indian heritage. It should be noted that while the realities of racial discrimination in Britain do overlap with those in America, there are considerable historical and cultural differences that many North American readers may be unfamiliar with (an introductory overview can be found here). Kennedy’s strategies in representing the quality and character of Black British lives and times often employ and/or rely upon the figure of the duppy, a concept involving a spirit or ghost that originated in central Africa and later evolved to figure prominently in West Indian folklore, where it can be used to connect generations and also, in some respects, be seen as a device through which the past can be made manifest in the present, and more, besides. These employments can veer unexpectedly, yet nonetheless aptly, into the surreal – both visually in the artwork and also narratively, as automatic writing, free association and dream states, as well via incursions from the realms of science fiction and the supernatural into the quotidian. The stories set in Britain (one is set in America) take place during the 3/4 century that has transpired since the end of the Second World War, which period coincides with the greatest in-migration to Britain from its former colonies. While historical and social realities obviously figure in these comics, it is within the realm of psychological experience that they most clearly excel. Here at Copacetic, over the course of reading Milk White Steed, there were numerous moments of déjà vu, that feeling of, “wait, have I read this before?” as Kennedy repeatedly connected this reader with archetypes undergirding their experience. How, exactly, he was able to effect this remains ensconced within the mystery of creativity, but certainly his evident immersion in and thoroughgoing study of the visual culture of the same 3/4 century in which these stories largely transpire is what enabled him to do so as successfully as he did. The tributary sources of the visual schemas and art styles that variously emerge and submerge as one travels across the surface of the work in Milk White Steed reach back to the 1950s, connecting with the artistic streams that animated the comics exemplified by Harvey Kurtzman, as well as the surreally tinged science fiction artwork of the period, most fully embodied by Richard Powers, and the jazz illustration of the era, represented by the works of David Stone Martin, Jim Flora, and, of course, Jack Kirby, in whose body of work so much is subsumed, in order to best capture, render and evoke the historical forces shaping that period, and then moving on through imagery, styles and approaches derived from subsequent periods represented, which are threaded together tapestrically to present the simultaneity of being in their intermingling, as ancestors and progeny interact in the psyche of the present moment. Imprints of the comics of Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez, along with Dan Clowes are perhaps the most clearly visible (and Crumb), but glimmerings of a host of contemporaries including Dash Shaw, Jillian Tamaki, Yvan Alagbé along with the off-kilter perceptions embedded in the works of Ben Katchor and Eric Haven, and the novel graphic expressivities of the likes of Fort Thunder, Frank Santoro, Michael DeForge and E.S. Glenn, which also shine through. Whether or not, or to what degree, Kennedy's work directly connects to or derives from that of the aforementioned artists is of only secondary importance, or even entirely beside the point; the main thing is that he's "been there." Yet this synthesis of his precursors is simply the base level upon which his comics edifice is erected. Kennedy brings a great deal of originality to his works. While Kennedy’s work is likely to be new to most readers, he has a decade’s worth of comics-making behind him and has been a professional illustrator for quite some time. His work on the 2018 graphic novel Tumult, shows him already having mastered the normative narrative comics form in its current state. Both prior to and following that work Kennedy produced a large body of personal/alternative comics work, much/most of which was collected in the self-published Mr. Hardee and five issues of MiNT, all of which are notoriously difficult to track down on this side of The Atlantic. Kennedy understands better than most the communicative power of color, especially the three primary and secondary colors. He makes no secret of the importance of color to his works as they often figure in the story titles, as in “Green Men” “Yellowbird Blues”, “In the Blue Corner”, “Red Snapper in the Rea”, and, of course, the titular “Milk White Steed.” All lettering throughout is by hand, with a special attention paid to the the title pages, each of which evokes a unique form of hand painted (shop) sign lettering that harkens back to the production technologies of yesteryear and serves, together with the rest, to build the world in which the characters and stories inhabit and evoke the environment in which they arose. We've posted a hefty selection of pages from Milk White Steed on the Copacetic Tumblr to help; give you an idea of what we're talking about. Check it out. Kennedy’s comics have broken new ground and his adaptation of the duppy to the world of comics is quite successful, revealing it to be ideally suited to the form. Milk White Steed is a signal work that has the potential to open a new chapter in the history of comics.
Milk White Steed
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $21.75
World Within the World: Collected Short Comix, 2010 - 2022
by Julia Gfrörer
Fans of Julia Gfrörer's hard to find, dark, gothic and eerily erotic, self-published, black & white comix now have ecstatic fulfillment at hand with this omnibus collection of more than thirty of these (four of which were scripted by Sean T. Collins) that has now been published by Fantagraphics in a very nice, smyth sewn, cloth, hardcover edition – with dust jacket. What's more, Fanta has honored the originals by setting the background colors on the pages to match (or approximate) that of the paper used in the printing of the individual comix self-published by Gfrörer, which grants readers, as much as possible, the pleasures of the originals. Visual tropes derived from classical, medieval, renaissance and Victorian periods predominate, but, notably towards the end of the collection, contemporary life veers into view. Those unfamiliar with Gfrörer's work are hereby cautioned that it contains instances of up close and personal violence – often quite grim and occasionally extreme – that is in turn often adjacent to – or at times mixed with – unrelentingly graphic sexuality that ranges from the holy natural to the wholly perverse. These comics are stark, forceful and haunting. This work's greatest significance, and where these comics most excel and most strikingly display their unique power, is in their unflinching portrayals of visceral, unmitigated, female sexual desire – as well its male counterpart – straining against, while inscribed within, without and against patriarchal civilization.
retail price - $39.95 copacetic price - $33.75
Evocatively titled, Chrysanthemum Under the Waves can be seen, figuratively, as a haunted house. Its present is hollow and vacant, a shroud of neglect is draped over the loneliness that pervades. Its hey day was in the 1930s, but the hauntings extend even further back in time. More prosaically, it is a collection of a series of independent – but thematically linked – “silent” comics pieces, that were created over a number of years. Most have previously appeared in anthologies such as NOW. This 280-page softcover volume is printed in a monochrome of an almost black midnight plum which effectively communicates the permeating mood of one step beyond mood indigo. Umber’s talent shines here as she demonstrates her artistry across a variety of mediums – ranging from pen and ink to block printing, but with a watercolors predominating – employing each to bring the reader into a variety of physical spaces and then draw them in further to reveal the emotional spaces within. Evoking memory-drenched loneliness in which sadness can tip over into despair revealing glimpses of a horror lurking beneath. Each story seems to choose its own method of execution, in order to best bring out its particular truth. Ranging from the harsh scratchy pen & ink of “Rine” to the lush and wet watercolors of “The Witch”, an extended meditation which most strongly evokes the gothic, filled with nocturnal landscapes with flickering glimpses and intimations of ghosts, vampires, castles, all transpiring in near total darkness; a work that is more felt than read. “Those Fucking Eyes”, “Rine”, "Intoxication" and “Chrysanthemum” evoke the 1930s and 1940s, with a clear nod to the visuals of classic studio Hollywood films of the era – and with an eye towards Katherine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy – in a sequence of enigmatic narratives with occasional notes of Al Columbia. Strong Edward Munch vibe permeates "The Devil Is a Hell of a Dancer” which incorporates an excerpt from a traditional Scottish ballad that dates to the 17th century, generally known under the title “The Daemon Lover” (but also as “James Harris” and "A Warning for Married Women”, among other variants). The figure of James Harris is referenced elsewhere in the work, serving as a motif, and so can be seem as functioning as somewhat of a thematic unifier. “The Tooth”, an adaptation of a Shirley Jackson short story, has a film noir, Edward Hopper feel that works to evoke the fundamental loneliness of pain. The overlapping woodblock prints of the closing piece, “The Rock”, which also have a bit of a Munch vibe, read as a short early silent film of a woman being rowed out to a rocky outcrop where she is left, alone. You can get a good idea of what we're talking about by checking out this gallery of images from the book that well demonstrates the strength and diversity of Umber's artwork. Taken as a whole, Chrysanthemum Under the Waves reads as a work of emotional catharsis in which all too present traumas are put at a temporal remove, through displacement onto archetypal and mythical pasts and therein æstheticized to process the pain and dissolve the grief... and step into the light of a new day.Chrysanthemum Under the Waves
retail price - $35.00 copacetic price - $28.75
Saints & SandThis elegantly produced, 7 3/8” x 5 3/4”, horizontal hardcover (with gold gilt page edges) presents readers with 250 variations on a theme (10 of which we've posted here). Alpha and Omega, zeroes and ones, male and female, and paternity and maternity battle it out in high-contrast black & white. With Saints & Sand, Michael Olivo has crafted a graphic disquisition into the psycho-sexual – and, ultimately, biological – underpinnings of Christianity that is grounded in a radical engagement with Christian iconography and the religious tropes embedded therein. Foreword by J.F. Martel | And just FYI: this is an edition of 500.
retail price - $30.00 copacetic price - $26.75
It's been a minute since we last caught up with Mr. White, so here's a look at the 2020s, so far, through the lens of his self-published annual series, Yearly:
Yearly 2024 is another annual, digest-comic book from Andrew White. This year we have a full 100 pages of comics in monotone, duotone and full color. It starts of with the third and concluding chapter of "Paint" which began in Yearly 2022. It is followed by three stories, each of which follows a title page / "cover" titled "Yearly 2024". While all three share the same title, each is very distinctly its own thing, and so show how much is going on "under the hood" of Andrew White's comics-making machine. Of special interest to us here at Copacetic, and likely to Copacetic customers as well, is the second of these stories, which is a bildungsroman à clef comics tale about coming of age in comics that strives to incorporate the comics making methods, tools, tropes, grammar and language of those centrally formative comics into the comics on the page that are telling the story of how those comics came to be formative making for a formal layer of circularity. As an added bonus, there's a brief, gestural, initialed, colored pencil sketch across the last two panels of page three, which serves to personalize the copy, making each unique. So, all in all, a particularly interesting and rewarding issue.Yearly 2024
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $13.75
Yearly 2023Here's another 48 page, full color annual collection of comics from Andrew White. There's a particularly strong focus on color this issue. Once again there are four comics works, along with a couple pages of editorial content, which also includes a poetic prelude of sorts. "Watching Paint Peel" is a continuation of "Like Layers of Paint" from Yearly 2022 (see below); "A Question" is a nicely drawn and beautifully colored fable; "And One Night More" works to give credit where credit is due regarding the genesis of the first European language translation of The Thousand and One Nights; "Wait" is an oblique, Poe-esque short vignette related to "Like Layers of Paint."
retail price - $8.00 copacetic price - $7.25
Yearly 2022 is a 48 page, full color digest size comic book that , as you likely already suspect, collects a year's worth of Andrew White's comics work and was published in 2022. This issue contains four works" "Compile"; "Smoke and the Sound of Not Forgetting"; "Like Layers of Paint"; and "I Feel a Closeness to the Quiet of the Morning." As these evocative titles suggest, these are works reaching to convey emotional states more than to simply tell a story. BONUS: Each issue includes a modest two-color, initialed, colored pencil sketch on the inside back cover.Yearly 2022
retail price - $8.00 copacetic price - $7.25
Yearly 2021Yearly 2021 contains three 5" x 7" black & white comics that run between 70 and 80 pages each – for a total of well over 200 pages – and features the (complete) serialization of "Like a Cloud on the Waves", a comic about Virginia Woolf; and "Dearest", a comic about Georgia O’Keeffe, which were both later collected in Together and Apart from Fieldmouse Press. Each of the three issues also contains a "back-up" bonus feature: issue one contains the illustrated essay, "Language Models Are Clumsy Poets," that explores "text generation models as a collaborative partner for comics poetry"; issue two and three feature, "How to Listen, or Instructions Executed", a tangentially related experimental comics work. All three issues come wrapped in a band on which is printed a short comics work, à la Chris Ware PLUS, each issue is lightly hand embellished in colored pencil.
retail price - $18.00 copacetic special price - $9.00
>> We've posted a gallery of covers, pages & panels from all the issues of Yearly, from 2018 to 2024 on our Copacetic Tumblr, HERE.
Pocket Full of Rain and Other Stories Here's a deluxe, expanded (224 pages) hardcover reissue of the seminal collection of the formative years (the 1990s) of the phenomenal, Norwegian comics creator, Jason. Pocket Full of Rain and Other Stories presents a thoroughly enjoyable collection of his comics, while simultaneously providing a fascinating look at the evolution of his cartooning abilities and approach that led to his instantly recognizable mature style. This volume is also packed packed with Jason's fantastic homages to his comics & art heroes (and heroines), including: Hergé, Edward Hopper, René Magritte, Moebius, Gilbert Hernandez, Frida Kahlo, Basil Wolverton, Ernie Bushmiller, George Herriman and more (including some amazing mash-ups, especially the Hopper/Magritte and Moebius/Herriman), providing further clues to the not-so-secret origins of his sensibilities. But readers will still have to to work out on their own how he came to develop his singular style. This expanded edition also preserves James Sturm's enthusiastic and insightful introduction from the original edition. Speaking of which, here's our write-up of the original (2008) edition. Check out some pages we posted on the Copacetic Tumblr, HERE. These are comics to read while the world ends.
retail price - $30.00 copacetic price - $25.00
From Ted to Tom: The Illustrated Envelopes of Edward GoreyWe have a sneaking feeling that this book is going to lead to a renaissance in personalized illustrated letters... we certainly hope so! This horizontally formatted 248 page hardcover is filled with page after page of full color scans of illustrated envelopes, typewritten notes and handwritten quotations that form the corpus of the correspondence from Ted to Tom. We've posted a gallery of pages from the book on the Copacetic Tumblr, HERE.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $21.75
Attention original comics art fans: Here's a massive, oversize exhibition catalogue for the show of the same name that was held at the Centre Pompidou in Paris from 19 May to 4 November 2024. It's filled with high quality, full page, full color scans of the original art from the exhibit – much of it (beautifully) hand colored. All are very sharply printed on flat, non-reflective paper stock. Excellent pieces from the comics canon – of the stated period – from Japan, North America* and Europe – with an unsurprising accent on France – make up the bulk of the volume. Interspersed throughout the pages of art reproductions is a series of brief essays, and one interview (with Joe Sacco). | *(Although, please note that there are only token examples from mainstream, newsstand, American comic books, which makes sense as these are already much more widely available – at least here in the States – in the now ubiquitous artist editions.)
Comics: 1964 - 2024
retail price - $60.00 copacetic price - $50.00
New for January 2025
Here's an anthology to boost your start to 2025! Alive Outside takes the baton from Kramers Ergot, Mould Map and Freak Buck and heads out into the unknown armed only with a free-for-all editorial approach and an anything-goes æsthetic. The first thing you notice about Alive Outside is its funkiness as an object, with it’s hand-folded outer wrap by Lilli Carré, the four 6” x 8” insert comics – two 8-pagers, two 16-pagers – and then the 20-page, full-size, bound in, underground-comic-book that is printed on a different, newsprinty paper stock, along with an amazing variety of art styles throughout. The focus, if there is one, is on exploring through drawing, following the impulse, building on it, seeing where and how far it will go. The results of these explorations range from work focused on the process(es) and their production of imagery to observational drawing to caricatured cartooning and through straight-up sequential comics all the way to mythographic world building. It’s all here. The editing, curation and sequencing have a DJ vibe, making for an experience that’s part reading, part gallery exhibit, part dance party/rave. Taken as an organic whole, it feels like being led on a tour of the hive mind. Moving through the book is like being led deeper and deeper into the swarm, until reaching the pulsing center in the sequence of Andy Cahill, Lukas Weidinger, Marc Bell & Christian Schumann and Trenton Doyle Hancock, and then being slowly led back out again. And, a special highlight for us here at Copacetic is the 10-page full color meta-story, "Hyper Curious” which covers all the bases, providing an internalized avatar for the reader, and then proceeding to insert it into a story that could be taken as a narrative of the experience of reading the book being read; worlds within worlds. Alive Outside is a work that pulls you in, and that you will find yourself returning to – dipping in, flipping through and/or poring over – to fathom its mysteries and find clues for existing today.Alive Outside
retail price - $55.00 copacetic price - $51.75
Crease is an ambitious and challenging 56 page, 8 1/2" x 11" comics anthology edited by Austin English. It is printed on newsprint in black & white with full color covers and features entirely new material. All of the comics are adaptations of written works penned in Europe from the late-19th through mid-20th century. There is a strong focus on the intersectionality of sex lives with the wider world of class and gender, and economic and political orders. These adaptations, for the most part, plunge in medias res* as readers are immediately brought face to face with lives lived on the edge *(E.A. Bethea's adaptation of selections from Harriet Sohmers Zwerling's journals of her life in 1950s Paris is the exception in its provision of context and additional biographical details for a fuller portrait). Importantly, none of these works are simply visual transcriptions of texts. Each of the artists here brings their own talents to bear on the material and each piece is something more akin to a collaboration – with, of course, the adapting artist having free reign to proceed according to their own creative impulses. Settings range from the historically appropriate 1930s Europe of Pris Genet's adaptation of George Bataille's Blue of Noon, to Ian Sundahl's substituting a contemporary American milieu for that of the original Victorian England of My Secret Life. And then there are the more complexly layered adaptations of Alfred Jarry stories by Chris Cilla and of Jean Genet's Thief's Journal by John Hankiewicz, with each of these cartoonists bringing their unique visions to bear, transforming the original material and bringing it more fully into the comics dimension. Additionally, the front cover is by Caroline Sury, the back cover is by Marlene Frontera, and the table of contents illustration is by Lillian Ansell. We've posted a few selections on the Copacetic Tumblr, HERE.Crease
retail price - $12.00 copacetic price - $10.75
In the Garden of Earthly Delights is "a Tea Leaves Caper", featuring the dynamic duo, Trina and Dina, and, evidently the first in a series? (we hope so!) It's a fun, throwback, semi-comic, art-heist story that is a drawn by Tommaso in a slightly tweaked variation of his trademark clean line cartoon style that brings in hints of Dan DeCarlo mixing it up with Darwyn Cooke – and that also provides an opportunity for him to provide crisp comics renderings of some classic/famous works of art. HERE'S a sneak peak on the Copacetic Tumblr. See what you think. Set, apparently, in 1960s L.A., it looks and reads like it was originally published as a series of three stand-alone comic books (perhaps originally available only through Mr. Tommaso's Patreon?), each runing 26 pages and with its own cover – all three of which are paragons of cover design, by the way. Regardless of whether or not this is indeed the story of their genesis, these three chapters/comics have been assembled/collected here in this 80+ page, handy 5" x 7" edition, crisply printed in a brisk, minimal color palette of yellow, red and black on classic newsprint, for that Real Comic Book Feel™, making for a thoroughly enjoyable read, just the way we like it!
In the Garden of Earthly Delights
retail price - $12.00 copacetic price - $10.75
I.L is a 350-page, mature-theme/adult graphic novel by the one and only Tezuka Osamu. Originally serialized in Big Comics from August 1969 to March 1970, it is being published here in English for the first time (!) in this handy, budget-priced softcover format. It is composed of a series of 14 short comics (which are divided into two parts for reasons that aren't immediately obvious; maybe 1969/1970?) of roughly equal length, each running 16 - 23 pages – except for the triple-length 55-page finale! – all linked by the central figure of I.L, who is identified as a sort of vampire/actress/robot(?) – decidedly female – but, more prosaically, functions as a plot device that allows Tezuka to concoct far-fetched scenarios. She is put in the service of failed movie director, Daisaku Imari, who has lost his connection with film audiences and/or movie producers in the wake of a shift in tastes that has arisen in the wake of the moon landing, enabling him to put his directing skills to use in novel – and perhaps more profound – ways in these magical manga meditations. I.L is very much a work firmly rooted in its historical moment. Each story focuses on various facets of the sexual/cultural revolution of the late 1960s, featuring both wide-angle and close-up looks at a wide variety of social shifts and conflicts that emerged during this period, in a diversity of areas such as politics, relationships, family structure, power dynamics, feminism, capitalism vs communism, technology vs nature, pro-war vs. anti-war, cross dressing, lesbianism, gender reassignment, student demonstrations, and more – all of which are approached through the lens of role playing. So, in addition to providing insight-packed entertainments, the stories also offer up a psychological snapshot of this historical moment. And, in keeping with the advent of the sexual revolution which was blasting off at that time, there is a sexual element to each and every story – along with death; this collection has a pretty high body count – and it's clear that Tezuka let his id off the leash here (the cover blurb has "'From the start, I just let myself be completely swept away in my imagination.' Tezuka on I.L"). From a narrative point of view, most of the stories involve some sort of Tezuka Twist™ "surprise" ending (that is often telegraphed to attentive readers). On the other hand, as is so often the case with the insanely overworked Tezuka, you can sometimes feel him making it up as he goes along, which can make for some serendipitous free-associating stream-of-consciousness moments and strange contiguities (starting literally on the first page). So: plenty of unexpected twists and turns along the way. Tezuka strives to produce a moral to each story along with revealing psychological truths. His good intentions are clear. But he also reveals his own unconscious biases along the way, and his morals are often ham-fisted. Regardless, long time Tezuka readers who are familiar with the lens through which he views reality, and are prepared to forgive his foibles, will be able to mine some riches from these pieces, which at times have the paradoxical power to be simultaneously puerile and profound. Evidently, Tezuka intended the title of the series to be I'll – as in I Will – but bungled typography at the outset led him to settle on I.L as the title, and to then also make it the protagonist's name. No matter how you slice it, I.L makes for some great comics/manga reading. Enjoy! Here's a small preview we posted to the Copacetic Tumblr.I.L
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.25
Here's a fun 24 page, self-published autobio comic book from Minnesota. Printed in a pleasing tri-tone of russett orange, aquamarine and black, Boys and Boomboxes relates "four true tales from tweenhood." Nice, clean line cartooning complements satisfyingly storytelling, making for a great read. More, we say!
Boys and Boomboxes
retail price - $8.00 copacetic price - $7.50
Hot off the press, it's... the two latest issues of Nate McDonough's inimitable Grixly – for one low price! There's plenty of Longboxes (but, just FYI, almost all of the Longboxes comics in these two issues are included in the Longboxes collection. But there's also some choice non-Longboxes work here as well. Most notable are reflections on Colorado life, but also youthful reminiscences, third-party anecdotes and dreams (including one which contains a recapitulation of the key opening point that sets in motion the entire plot of Dash Shaw's Blurry... but dreamt before the book's release?)
Grixly Two-Pack #67 + 68
retail price - $6.00 copacetic price - $5.00
Here's an up close look at an important publication, focusing on it's driving force, Wallace / Wally Wood. Witzend is an intriguing anomaly in comic book history. It was a creator-driven, creator-owned, self-published, independent comics magazine series that began publishing in 1966. And while it was a very forward thinking, new school style of publication in this respect, it was also largely old school in its approach to comics making. Another way of looking at it is that it combines the free spirited approach to comic books that was only barely just getting underway in the world of underground comix (Witzend was published before Zap) and the high degree of professionalism that came with artists with decades of experience in the mainstream comic book industry. It didn't earn Wood the financial returns commensurate with the labor that it required to create, but that didn't stop him from keeping at it. Eight issues were published between 1966 and 1971, and then five more between 1972 and 1985 (the last two posthumously, as Wood died in 1981). Some of Wood's comics here are over the top in their sexism, and objectification of women, clearly serving his psychological needs to various degrees. So, a certain level of detachment is required to be able to appreciate the artistry and historical significance of the work. By all reports Wood was often difficult and/or unhappy and seems to have perhaps given himself over to comics making to a degree that proved psychologically and emotionally – as well as as financially – unsustainable in the long run. Regardless, he produced a body of work that is widely considered one of the greatest in the storied history of American comic books.Wally Wood from Witzend: Complete Collection
retail price - $39.95 copacetic price - $33.75
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