JUST IN! A Copacetic Selection of New Arrivals

New for December 2025

The Art of Lale Westvind Collection

by Lale Westvind
Hold onto your eyeballs, as they're liable to leap out of their sockets while viewing the artwork in this 32 page collection from the new-to-us French publisher, Banzai, which beautifully reproduces some of Lale Westvind's most vibrant comics art. Wow! Over the last decade+, Lale Westvind has been consistently producing some of the most adventurous, intellectually provocative, psychologically penetrating, and, yes, visually stimulating comics around. This collection can serve as a great introduction to her work for any comics readers who have yet to experience it, and, of course, is a must-have for all true believers. This publication has been produced in a limited edition of 1000 copies, only a fraction of which have traversed the Atlantic to American retailers, AND also includes a GIANT fold-out poster along with a 28-page bilingual (14 pages Français / 14 pages English) mini-zine featuring a list of contents along with their original sources and a brief interview. We've posted a gallery that will provide a sense of the overall package along with a peek at what's inside, HERE.
copacetic price - $15.25

How To Quit Smoking Cigarettes

by Nick Bunch

Nick Bunch, head honcho at Reptile House Comix, takes a head trip into his own brain and body – most memorably the lymphatic system (prefiguring Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein) – to explore and map pathways connecting smoking and drinking to creativity and more with this inside-out depiction of consciousness that is – for the most part; it also has a side story about small press comics riso printing – about the experience of quitting smoking, or at least trying to. Any reader who has gone through this themselves will find much to relate to, and any current smoker – who, will, most likely, be thinking, "I need to quit" – will, after reading have an idea of the grim task ahead. But, forewarned is forearmed, so, a comic book worthy of passing around! || 44 black & white risograph pages plus full color front & back covers (inside as well as outside).
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $13.75

Crepusculine #2

by Conor Stechschulte

The second issue of Conor Stechschulte's deeply mysterious (and deeply creepy) self-published comic book series has arrived! It's a hand-printed 32-page two-color risograph (with silver highlights!) that sports a silk-screened cover. Hold onto your hats! We've posted a small gallery of images from this issue up at the Copacetic Tumblr, HERE.
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $13.75

Grixly Two-Fer #71 & 72

by Nate McDonough

It's Grixly Time! Start out 2026 with this pair of 24-page digest-size issues, each packed cover to cover with comics. While both issues are dominated by Tales from the Longboxes Universe™, there are also several side trips into Family life and more – including a cameo by Connor Willumsen, a meditation on a Alasdair Roberts song as well as thoughts on Kanye West (aka Ye) that qualifies as reception theory.. #72 features a front cover by Colin Sims – who also is responsible for pages 3 + 4 – a one-pager scripted by Alex Rudolph, and an eye-popping, full-color centerfold by Victor Cayro that's suitable-for-framing (but be careful with those staples when pulling it out!) So, get ready to pull up a chair and dig into the latest from Nate McDonough & Co.
retail price - $6.00 copacetic price - $5.00

IO-RR

It's Over - tpb edition

by Ron Regé, Jr.

This 80-page squarebound collection published by Parsifal Press is largely – but not completely – the same as the 2024 self-published edition that was composed of two digest-size comics. This is a single, squarebound volume, printed in the same, digest-size dimensions (5" x 8"), but this time around the interior pages are printed on green paper, as opposed to the yellow of the earlier edition. Also, and more importantly, there is a 5-page piece included here that is not in that earlier edition. So, those who already have the self-published edition will be in somewhat of a quandary as to whether or not to purchase this one in addition. But for those Ron Regé, Jr. readers who missed out on that now out-of-print edition, getting this one is a no-brainer – especially given that it is five dollars less!
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $13.75

THB, Volume 1

by Paul Pope

Rumored to be in the works for years... decades, even, the collecting of the series through which Paul Pope's talents were first unleashed onto the comics world has at last begun with this 23rd Street release of the first volume of THB! Running 208 pages of black and white pen and ink-brushed art, this is where it all began... back in 1994, if you can believe it. Paul Pope's artwork is only just beginning to take shape here, and only hints at the form it later grows into, but the thematic concerns are already solidly in place. We're not yet sure how many and/or which issues are collected/reprinted here (but we're thinking it's the first three issues). We're also not yet sure if they've been "remixed" or edited in anyway that would differentiate them from their original appearances, but we'll let you know as soon as we find out. 23rd St. Press has put out a nice, french flapped softcover that runs 208 pages, all printed on flat white stock, just under 200 pages of which are Paul Pope comics, so, a good value.
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75

Petra Chérie

by Attilio Micheluzzi

It's here – the second volume in The Fantagraphics Attilio Micheluzzi Library – and it's a doozy! Running 312 pages, nearly 300 of which are comics, Petra Chérie collects the complete adventures of the titular character which originally ran in a variety of publications between 1977 and 1982. A solid majority – over 3/4 – of these comics are in full color – acording to Fantagraphics, for the first time – with the remainder in black & white line art only, or black & white with grey tones, in the case of the final story. Also included are a pæan to Micheluzzi by Paul Pope (who confesses to basing his character Escapo on one of Micheluzzi's characters), an introduction by Loris Cantarellil that provides some handy background info on the series, and then it all closes out with an "interview" with the Petra Chérie herself, by Giovanni Nahmias. These are fantastic adventure comics by a true master. Translated by Jamie Richards.
retail price - $34.99 copacetic price - $28.75

MAGB

The Magnificent Adventure: The Perils of Giuseppe Bergman - Book 1

by Milo Manara

Yes! Here's the first – and most far out – of Giuseppe Bergman's adventures from the Italian comics maestro, Milo Manara! Originally drawn in 1978 and first published in English by Catalan Communications in the late-'80s (or was it early-'90s?) as HP and Giuseppe Bergman, The Magnificent Adventure shows Manara's alter ego, Giuseppe Bergman trying to follow in the footsteps of his hero, Hugo Pratt (HP). This book is PACKED withi twists and turns and surprises – and shocks! – and we're not going to spoil it for you by giving anything away here. And, published here at an oversize 9 1/4" x 12 1/4" on flat white paperstock, Manara's artwork is stunning! Get a look at some of it – along with some choice bits from Attilio Micheluzzi's Petra Chérie (see above), HERE.
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75

Turn Loose Our Death Rays And Kill Them All!: The Complete Works Of Fletcher Hanks

by Fletcher Hanks

It's all here in this single-volume compendium of the complete comics works of Fletcher Hanks! This softcover is, basically, identical to the now-out-of-print 2016 hardcover. 376 pages in all, including a 16-page "afterword" in comics form by the book's editor, Paul Karasik that relates a significant chapter in the back story of how this volume came to be. It's starting to feel kind of like maybe the rediscovery of Fletcher Hanks and the immediate ascendency of his work into the classic comics canon was some sort of presagement of the onset of the Trump era. Maybe time to revisit these and see what can be gleaned now... We've posted a gallery of images from this collection HERE.
retail price - $44.99 copacetic price - $36.75

YNH

Your Name Here

by Helen DeWitt & Ilya Gridneff

Helen DeWItt's tour de force, one-of-a-kind novel, The Last Samurai is a Certified Copacetic Classic™, so we've been anticipating this long-rumored (and long, at 608 pages) book for quite awhile, and now it's here. It is a collaboration with the journalist, Ilya Gridneff, and yes, it's a crazy labyrinth of lives within lives played out through books within books that will have your head spinning, but it's also a heartfelt requiem for the dismal state of classical liberal arts scholarship, literary life, and, most of all, authentic personal creativity here in the era of late-capitalism where value and price have become indistinguishable (and, in the process, more-or-less explicitly frames itself as the – or, at least, a – 8 1/2 of novels). For a more in-depth exploration of this book – and its back story – we direct you to Jess Bergman's write up for The Nation, HERE.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $21.75

These items and more may also be found at our eCommerce site, HERE.

New for November 2025

Black Arms To Hold You Up

by Ben Passmore

Beginning with the first impression – the juxtaposition of the book’s title, “Black Arms to Hold You Up” and its accompanying cover illustration of large, looming black arm(ament)s against a background of skeletons, between which the human actors are running in fear – it is clear right from the start that we are being presented with a multivalent and irony-rich agitprop work. It will be equally clear by the end that it is also a work capable of constructing new meaning through a masterful synthesis of image and text. The phrase “to hold you up” in the title can have (at least) three possible meanings: 1) to physically hold you up, as in to keep you from falling; 2) to hold you up, as in to slow your progress; 3) and to hold you up in a robbery, as in “this is a hold up.” A key conundrum being posed here, at the outset, is the question of the relationship between the organic natural protection offered by the arms of family and community and the artificial, manufactured “protection” offered by fire arms. Black Arms opens with the protagonist/narrator stand-in for Passmore watching, on his phone, the video of Philando Castile’s murder by a police officer on July 6, 2016, to which the entire work may be seen as an eloquent response. Passmore then ventures into some of the lesser explored corners of (African-)American history and shines his light into the darkness of our national ignorance. Well over a century of historical terrain is covered – too much to really dig into here – beginning more-or-less at the conclusion of the American Civil War with a brief summation of the repeated organized White violence against Black efforts at self-determination in former slave-holding states in the wake of emancipation that is folded into an episode focusing on a specific instance of Black resistance fomented by the one-man army that was Robert Charles in the Louisiana of the first decade of the Twentieth Century. We then head to the post-WW II south with the rise of Robert F. Williams amidst the struggle of the NAACP against the violent oppression of the KKK, leading (somewhat indirectly) to the formation of 1960s Republic of New Afrika (RNA) which also involved Malcolm X’s widow, Betty Shabazz, Gaidi Obadele, and others, leading in turn (again, indirectly) to the advent of Assata Shakur (née JoAnne Chesimard), taking us into the 1970s and then on to 1980s with the infamous confrontation between MOVE and the City of Philadelphia before heading to the west coast for a look at “Monster” Kody (aka Sanyika Shakur) as an embodiment of L.A. gang culture, and then into the 21st century before, finally, looping back to the beginning with Micah Xavier Johnson’s killing of five Dallas police officers that was evidently triggered by Philando Castile’s murder the day before. As you would expect from foregoing, these illuminated episodes each intersect at some point with violence and the use of fire arms, and Passmore is unstinting in his probing examinations and postmortems. Ultimately, Black Arms to Hold You Up posits a better way, one that is grounded in the study of history in the service of building a secure and sustainable community through the self-empowerment that knowledge brings. The central narrative device that Passmore employs to explore his theme – that of a time-traveling narrator – is particularly successful. While other cartoonists presenting historical events in comics have employed the technique of vacillating between depictions of their present selves and the historical events they are recounting – notably Art Spiegelman and Joe Sacco – Passmore’s technique of actually inserting himself into the historical setting, in the capacity of a (for the most part) passive actor, introduces a playful element that allows him to bring his wry skepticism and disarming humor into his representation of the series of historical events that make up the bulk of the narrative. Working to keep a contemporary perspective on past events present also avoids the pitfalls of presenting images of the past as self evident. Explicitly showing the presence of a contemporary perspective on past events avoids the illusion of their absence. This demonstrates how the process of discovering the ways in which the past is present in us – through the reading and exploration of history – necessarily involves the projecting of our present selves into that past. This further enables Black Arms to function simultaneously as history and memoir, creating a dialectic between the factual existence of the past and the personal interpretation of it in a manner that is brought into being by the formal qualities of the comics medium. The book concludes with a powerful coda asserting that the pen (which we comics readers know can draw as well as write) is mightier than the sword (read here as gun), followed by a substantial bibliography for further reading to help bolster the hermeneutic front of this ongoing struggle. To anyone who feels like getting a head start, we suggest Ida B. Wells’s 1893 speech, “Lynch Law in All Its Phases,” available in its entirety HERE.
retail price - $22.00 copacetic price - $18.75

The Complete C Comics

by Joe Brainard

The New York Review of Books publication of the complete collection of Joe Brainard's legendary C Comics has arrived! There were only two issues of C Comics published – in 1964 & 1965 – but that was still enough to create quite a splash. Unsurprisingly, given their unprecedented – and somewhat abstruse – conflation of comics and poetry, they had low print runs and have been quite hard to come by (not to mention expensive) for years. But no longer! This hefty, oversize hardcover – with the accent on the vertical, measuring 8 1/2" x 14" – replicates the original dimensions of the first issue (the second issue was published in the standard 8 1/2" x 11" size and is also reproduced here at its original size, bracketed with 1 1/2" gray bars at top and bottom). This edition also includes a foreword by Ron Padgett and an essay by comics historian Bill Kartalopolous, who details the creation (and creators) of C Comics. While the underground comix makers that emerged a few years later are, rightly, associated with deliberate transgression against status quo society, often employing explicit in-your-face imagery that was blatantly sexual, the work contained in C Comics can be seen as being equally (and precociously) transgressive, just differently so, its modus operandi more subtly encoded, relying primarily on the textual elements and their juxtaposition with specific imagery. Initiated by the then twenty-two year-old Brainard, C Comics works to fuse the energies of self-directed drawing with those of poetic composition – drawn from work of his friends in the poetry scene* – within the framework of comic book production to create a hybrid form of comics poetry, one that intriguingly evokes – and to some degree incorporates – then-current advertising line-art and advertising copy. Key to this modus operandi was a deliberate æstheticization of consumerism. Here in the pages of C Comics, the manufacture of desire that is advertising’s raison d'être is inserted into the comics text and manifested in the cartooned forms. Brainard’s comics bring cartooned characters into the advertising process and position them in such a way so as to leverage the detachment of the manufacture of desire from the goods and services that it was the designed function of the advertising to direct and/or entice the consumer towards – primarily through an adept use of irony. Doing so allows that detached desire to escape into the reader/recipient’s own control via the variety of adjacent cartooned imagery which were (are) more or less free floating, not attached to any specific good or service other than themselves. This process provided – and continues to provide – readers with an opportunity to repurpose, shape, and direct this freed desire as they see fit, enabling it to be incorporated into a the individual reader’s personal self-reflexivity, bringing a liberation from (some) dictates of capitalism. Notable among the cartooned characters so employed are Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy, but also Wonder Woman, and the eternal triangle of Archie, Betty and Veronica – occasionally in overtly sexual and/or sexualized ways – as well as cartooned works of fine art. C Comics was, of course published at the outset of the ascendancy of Pop Art and clearly overlaps in places with Warhol's – and others’ – concerns and strategies, but its key differentiating factor is that while other artists incorporated comics, comic books and the characters that populated them into their own art practices involving painting, sculpture, etc. designed for display in galleries and museums, the work that makes up C Comics was actually comics and published as such and so provided material that was – and continues to be – more useful to the comics form. Making its republication today a cause for celebration. | | | *Largely those associated with what has come to be known as The New York School, notably Frank O’Hara, Ted Berrigan, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Peter Schjeldahl, Barbara Guest and Ron Padgett.
retail price - $45.00 copacetic price - $38.75

The Once and Future Riot

by Joe Sacco

Written and drawn by the undisputed master of comics journalism,The Once and Future Riot is a 135 page hardcover that takes a deep dive into the forces driving Hindu/Muslim sectarian violence in India. Sacco focuses on exploring the mechanics of mob behavior and in these pages he pushes his abilities to leverage the comics medium to do what it does best. Sacco's labor-intensive renderings of the scenes of mob violence are filled with heavily detailed drawings of individuals which together enable this work to demonstrate the physicality of mobs in ways that prose journalism simply can't – but also in ways that are more tangible than what can be accomplished by film or video documentaries. You'll come away from this work with a deeper appreciation of the volatility of human nature and the fundamental irrationality of much of human behavior, but also with a sense that while individual actions are often unpredictable, mob behavior is driven by underlying social/biological/chemical/physical forces that exist wholly outside of consciousness, and, as such, conditions for the advent of mob violence can be foreseen in ways analogous to natural disasters such as forest fires and the like, or forecast like a hurricane – but, alas, like them, also difficult, and at times impossible, to prevent or control. There's a nice preview up at The New Yorker online, HERE. And we've posted a gallery of images from the book up on the Copacetic Tumblr, HERE.
retail price - $27.99 copacetic price - $23.75

C-less

Comfortless

by Miguel Vila

And you thought you had it bad during the pandemic. Here in the pages of Miguel Vila's latest, we revisit those days of lockdown and more.... when Vila takes the ball and runs with it into a dark endzone where things just keep getting worse in this 200 page, full color, Swiftian satire of contemporary humanity fully fleshed out with Dantean gradations of character and set in the Po Valley region of northern Italy, in which Vila zooms in to focus his unflinching eye on the frail human foibles and failures of an interconnected cast of (largely 20-something) characters and then zooms out to show the consequences of these same failures writ large. Vila's expertly cartooned and precisely paced comics combine to create a rich portrait of contemporary society, but it is one that renders a harsh verdict that indicts us all. Translated from the Italian by Jamie Richards. Not to be missed.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $16.75

TPIaGA

The Past Is a Grotesque Animal

by Tommi Parrish

The Past Is a Grotesque Animal (which is a great title, by the way – ed.) is a nicely put together compact hardcover that brings together over 200 pages of Tommi Parrish's work created over roughly a decade – in both black & white and full color, and in a variety of media – assembled in such a manner so as to provide a bit of a scrapbook feel while also providing a reading experience undergirded by a cohering narrative structure – of which the scrapbook is, in turn, an integral component (think Carol Tyler); a formal mirroring that does double duty in also adding a layer of psychological insight into the characters' apprehension of the reality of their surroundings and its interiorization, into which gender identities and sexual behaviors are folded and unfolded, constructed and deconstructed. Suffice it to say, Parrish fans will not be disappointed; also, great jumping on point for new readers interested in this terrain.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.75

Rebirth #1

by Noah Van Sciver

Yes – it's an all-new Noah Van Sciver (autobio) comic book series! We join Noah in medias res at the Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado where he divides his time between taking art classes, dreaming of life as a famous artist, and working at a bagel shop "next to Barnes & Noble," when he receives a phone call from his brother Ethan... What might from another artist have been simply another portrait of the artist as a young man, becomes here, in the capable artistic hands of Noah Van Sciver, gradually expanded to encompass a tale of the end of innocence and the extirpation of naivete – one that is also, at moments, laugh-out-loud funny. Concludes with a full-page pin-up of Galactus! ("after Kirby", natch') 28 digest-size black & white pages, with color cover.
retail price - $7.00 copacetic price - $6.75

DF1

Distant Flame #1

by Lane Milburn

Distant Flame is the latest project from Chicago-based, indie-comics stalwart, Lane Milburn. It's an ongoing series featuring all-new material. This premiere issue features the first installment ("Act 1") of "The Law of Contagion." The story focuses on a black metal band at the center of which are the dyad of Devin and Keith. Introverted and extroverted, respectively, they are two sides of the same coin, with Keith's dark, somewhat psychotic (and potentially violent) side more immediately apparent. Where will it all lead? This issue's 56 magazine-size pages, all crisply printed in black & white with gray tones will get you started down the road – driving late at night, somewhat under the influence... We've posted a gallery from the issue HERE.
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $13.75

KC84

King-Cat Comics & Stories #84

by John Porcellino

The latest – or, "this year's", if you prefer – King-Cat has arrived, and it's a great issue! 48 pages of unfiltered John Porcellino; bookended by heartfelt memorials to his mother and close friend. Comics & Stories, check: memories, Zen stories, anecdotes, epiphanies, pet tales and more. Dreams, check – maybe the best assortment yet. King-Cat Top Forty, check (although this time around, it's "Kinc-Gat Tarp Farty"!). Letters page, check (plenty!). Take your time savoring it, as it's likely going to be awhile until the next one... King-Cat!
retail price - $7.00 copacetic price - $6.50

MFC3

Monster Fan Club #3

by Jason T. Miles, Shaky Kane, Jane Kane, Jesse McManus, Bobby Madness, et al

It's the return of Monster Fan Club – just in time for Halloween 2025! This issue is, as expected, another 48-page, full color, jumbo-sized (8" x 12") mag, filled with great Shaky Kane comics scripted by Jason T. Miles – but it also has plenty more! Jesse McManus joins the team this issue with a dozen pantomime-bordering-on-abstract one-pagers that will put (at least some) readers in mind of Michael DeForge (channeling Mat Brinkman?). And there's also a short but sweet, nostalgic Bobby Madness story, "Way Way Way Way Back Inna Day." The big surprise is the host of amazing, color saturated, monsters-meet-1950s-suburbia photo collages – half-page, full-page, and double-page – by Jane Kane; they're fantastic!
retail price - $13.00 copacetic price - $11.75

This Is a Message to Persons Unknown: The Story of Poison Girls

written by Rich Cross; designed by Alec Dunn; edited by Erin Yanke

A labor of love and beautifully designed, This Is a Message to Persons Unknown: The Story of Poison Girls has been years in the making... and has at last arrived! Take a moment to view this gallery of spreads from the book, and you'll see what we mean. | | | 8" x 10" softcover | 320 pages | full color and black & white | | |
retail price - $34.95 copacetic price - $28.75

These items and more may also be found at our eCommerce site, HERE.

New for October 2025

Death in Trieste

by Jason

This black & white, 176 page hardcover, the latest from the Norwegian cartoonist (now living in France) known as Jason, is really a treat. Jason's pen & ink delineations are as sharp, crisp and spot on as ever and he is fully in his element here, with this trio of black & white tales, "The Magritte Affair", "Sweet Dreams", and the title track, "Death in Trieste", all of which revel in fatalistic romanticism in all its glory. Jason is the master of employing cultural figures from various strata of art, literature and music (and comics) and mixing them together despite their diverse eras – although often displaying a clear affinity for the 1920s. These particular tales are also notable for being linked – tangentially – through the figure of David Bowie. One way of looking at this recent work is that Jason is creating a self-portrait of the life of the mind – in this case, his. In a unique embodiment of the autobio genre, Jason shares with his readers the sources of his inspiration, as well as the relationships between them, as a way of revealing himself. In a variation on the famous adage, "you are what you eat," Jason posits the thesis, "your identity is what you culturally consume."
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75

VP4

Void Packer #4

by Lale Westvind

Void Packer #4 has arrived! This issue features the fourth installment of Lale's ongoing saga, "Life and Limb", in which the story begins to expand, heading both sideways in space and backwards in time – and really starts to get interesting! This is then followed by the comics cri de cœur, "Tomorrow..." a story designed to serve as an antidote to our toxic times – and to lift the spirits of one all.
retail price - $10.00 copacetic price - $9.25

BAF1

Brownfield Action Family #1

by Ted May

.... (drum roll)... — > cymbal crash! < = > TED MAY IS BACK! It's been a minute since we last had a full length comic book from Ted May – as in a full decade since his last comic book, Men's Feelings #2 was published. For anyone wondering: this isn't just some cobbling together of odds 'n' ends. This is an entirely new project that Ted has obviously been working on for quite some time. Brownfield Action Family #1 is not only a whoppin' 57 pages of all new Ted May comics, but it's the first issue of an ongoing series, with the promise of plenty more to come. And, yes, he's still got the chops Take a look and you'll see what we're talking about; you won't be disappointed.
retail price - $7.99 copacetic price - $7.25

Magick Lantern

by Shaky Kane & Jinx

A brand new comic book by Shaky Kane! – scripted by Jinx, no less. This team of expert hands brings classic old school comic book tropes back to life by injecting them with a mutant strain of punk attitude and then splicing that with a deranged jumble of cultural and topical referents to create... something... different. Magick Lantern serves up a no-holds-barred, off-the-wall take on The Fly that delivers some solid insights into our current zeitgeist – and has plenty of fun while doing it! Full color; 24 pages on heavy, flat white stock; glossy cardstock cover.
retail price - $4.99 copacetic price - $4.50

Key Change

by Miles MacDiarmid

Key Change offers up 32 packed pages of 21st Century 20-something urban life, comics-style. There's plenty of attitude, irony, laughs and more. MacDiarmid knows his way around the comics language. These pages have a density that well embodies the up close and personal manner of urban living. Readers are able to get right up to speed even as they are plunged in medias res into obviously long running relationships with plenty of back story; not an easy trick to pull off. In addition to great pacing, there's a leveraging of the inherent qualities of the representational aspects of comics language, as when characters' physical attributes are employed as a shorthand for their personalities; and there are plenty of great characters here. This is the first of a promised three-issue series. It might be a minute before the next one arrives, but we'll be waiting.
retail price - $12.00 copacetic price - $10.75

Glaeolia #3

edited by emuh ruh & zhuchka

It took us awhile to finally get this one in stock, but it was worth the wait. Glaeolia 3 is the biggest – and best – issue yet in this series published by Glacier Bay Books. Its 400 pages bring together a wide range of great manga, largely from little seen artists, many new to us and unlikely to have been previously published in English. Edited by emuh ruh and zhuchka, it features deluxe soft-touch laminate covers and sewn binding. Offset printed Winter 2021 (like we said: it took us awhile). Here's the contributor list, to give you an idea: Fukitsu Reiji, Hadena Kangofu, Isao Yamada, Junichiro Saito, Komachiya Suzuka, Kondoh Akino, KOYUBI, Mitsuhashi Kotaro, Nishimura Tsuchika, oratnir, Oumi Konomi, Yagi Nagaharu and Yokoyama Yuichi! Translations by zhuchka, rkp, Anna Schnell, and Jocelyne Allen. Get a look at a bit of what's in store on this preview gallery on the CopaceticTumblr. > LIMITED SUPPLY <
retail price - $35.00 copacetic price - $35.00

Beautiful Monster

by Suehiro Maruo; edited and translated by Ryan Holmberg

WARNING: This book contains EXTREME CONTENT + DISTURBING IMAGERY *

Suehiro Maruo is a singular creator possessed of enormous – and disturbing – talent. His career spans five decades and he has amassed a large body of work in his native Japan, but his work has only been published sporadically in English translation, likely due to it being considered beyond the pale by most publishers outside of Japan. As recently as 2024 none of his work was in print in North America. That changed with this Bubbles Press release of Beautiful Monster in the spring of 2025 and Last Gasp’s subsequent softcover reissue of The Strange Tale of Panorama Island in the fall. In addition to appearing, right out of the gate, to be the product of a manga master, Maruo's work also incorporates drawing techniques, visual stylings and tropes from early 20th century illustration originating in America and Europe. Maruo’s aim of generating a sense of horror in the reader is not gratuitous nor solely employed for shock value, but is in turn in the service of other goals. Many of the 16 short pieces collected here are narratively structured along lines analogous to those of the classic EC horror comics that were created in America during the early 1950s. Those, usually eight-page, comics that EC produced employed horror motifs to critique social and cultural mores and norms, to show the rot and decay that dwelt beneath the gleaming surfaces of post-war American abundance. Thirty years later, in the early 1980s, Maruo created work similarly exposing rot and decay that went far deeper, into the ancient roots of Japanese society, where heretofore unsuspected skeletons lurked in closets and previously hidden spirits had been secretly haunting society’s margins, and which had festered becoming ever more putrid – along with those adjacent and associated skeletons and spirits from the Western world – revealing the dark and debased side of patriarchal rule and its support structures. Maruo’s work is visually riveting, serving to pull readers’ eyes further and deeper into the page… in order to assault them! His signature motif of a tongue to the eye can be interpreted as a potent symbol of this aim. In Beautiful Monster, Maruo’s depictions of the grotesque and perverse are unrestrained, and unparalleled in their particularity and detail, representing his pursuit of an obscene carnality – one that can be seen as the epitome of body horror, wherein horror is equated with the human body per se. This volume has been edited and translated by North America's foremost expert on underground horror manga, Ryan Holmberg and includes two short essays, one by Maruo, himself and the other by Michiro Endo. For those readers intrigued by Maruo’s artistry but preferring not to be subjected to his more extreme obsessions we recommend the recently reissued The Strange Tale of Panorama Island, an exquisitely rendered phantasmagoria in which Maruo’s impulses have been somewhat restrained as a result of it being a comics adaptation of a preexistent literary work. |•|•| * By way of illustration we’ll share the following anecdote. “In the early 00’s, a professional comics maker, whose work had been published adjacent to and within the world of underground comics, and so was already well acquainted with work containing strong imagery from the fringes of society, asked (roughly) “what’s new that would knock my socks off” and I recommended a then in-print collection of Maruo’s work that contained some of the same stories that are collected in Beautiful Monster, which he then purchased. When I next encountered him, I asked him what he thought of it. His response was, ‘I wish you had never showed me that book. It really messed with my head.’”
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.75

Saga de Xam

by Nicolas Devil, Jean Rollin, et al

Full-on, 1967 / Summer of Love psychedelia meets science fiction via Prince Valiant and Weird Tales in this period classic. Starting out as what was an unrealized science fiction film script by Jean Rollin, Saga de Xam was adapted by cartoonist provocateur, Nicolas Devil (née Deville) who, with the aide of some peers including Philippe Druillet, Barbara Girard, ran it through the psychedelic mixing bowl of the times to produce a work that, together with its bookends – Guy Peellaert's Adventures of Jodelle (1966) and Iris (1968) by Thé Tjong-Khing, Lo Hartog van Banda and Rudy Voorman – provides a sort of unoffical trilogy documenting the swinging-psychedelic-era of continental Europe, comics-style (And it's worth noting here that the titles of all three of these works* incorporate the name of their respective – and sexy [aka sexualized] – female protagonists; which points to the fact that thse comics – and so, by extension, this era – can be defined at least to some degree as men looking at women and thinking about (imagining) their bodies, and so worked to bring to the surface of critical consciousness the concept of "the male gaze"). This edition from Anthology is a nice – and hefty – oversize (10" x 13") hardcover that reproduces the complete original work in full color and black & white (as it originally appeared) and also includes a lengthy introduction by Christian Staebler. Amazingly, this is the FIRST ever English language translation of this work, courtesy Anna Bialostosky. Learn more about this work and this edition by heading over to TCJ.com and reading Joe McCulloch's in-depth review, HERE. Learn about its Lovecraftian elements – and get some peeks at the original 1967 edition – via Bobbie Derie's write-up, HERE. AND, we've posted a hefty gallery of spreads up on the Copacetic Tumblr that will give you a pretty good idea of what's in store, HERE. |•|•| *Contrary to what will be the immediate impression of most Anglophone readers, the "Saga" of the title refers not to a saga, in the sense of a story, but rather to the protagonist, Saga, a blue-skinned (alien) woman from the planet Xam.
retail price - $60.00 copacetic price - $50.00

DD-CapeQuack

Donald Duck: The Lonely Lighthouse on Cape Quack

by Carl Barks

As this is the 29th volume, it looks like we're getting close to the finish line of the Fantagraphics Complete Carl Barks Disney Library, however... While, when this series was first announced, it was stated that it would run 30 volumes in total, the fact that this volume does not yet reach the end of the Barks run of Donald Duck 10-pagers from Walt Disney Comics & Stories – along with the fact that there are over two dozen issues of the Barks issues of Uncle Scrooge yet to be collected – indicates that the series will extend several volumes beyond its initially stated length. So, lots more Barks still to come. Yay! The stories collectied here are entirely from the 1960s, and we experience the expiry of the long running Dell Comics imprint and see the emergence of its replacement, Gold Key Comics – but Barks just keeps on keeping on, here in thirteen more classic ten-pagers, including "The Master Wrecker," "Merry Ferry," "Movie Mad," "Raven Mad," the titular "Cape Quack" and more! These are then followed by a quartet of Junior Woodchuck tales scripted and laid out by Barks at some point after he had ceased to draw himself (likely the late 1960s and/or early 1970s; as of this writing we're not sure). The four tales collected here were re-drawn – in very Barksian fashion – at the dawn of the new millennium by Daan Jippes. Good stuff!
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $33.75

Keep an Eye on the Figs!

by Karen Lillis

Keep an Eye on the Figs! is the latest funky photography collection from Pittsburgh book maven, Karen Lillis. It is, as the sub-title states, "an ode to Pittsburgh's international grocers," and as such serves as a nice reminder of the great benefits on offer as a result of the wide diversity of Pittsburgh's communities. As the photos in this full color, 64-page, saddle-stitched volume illustrate, Pittsburghers can experience a wealth of global cultures without leaving their hometown! There's an appended list of the depicted grocers, but you'll have to connect the dots yourself to match the photo with the name (sounds to us like you could make a game of it; value add!). Furtherore, anyone inspired by this book to explore Pittsburgh's international grocers, will surely discover the existence of additional international and/or ethnically-themed grocers on their own, as practically every one of Pittsburgh's innumerable neighborhoods has one that they can call their own. And, yes, this makes a nice gift for Pittsburghers, both current and erstwhile. As the holidays are now just over the horizon we're offering an early bird special to those who already have someone in mind. We've posted a sneak preview of the book HERE. And, while we're at it, we should let you know that Karen has also released a second edition of Sense of Place, her nice gift box set of Pittsburgh postcards.
retail price - $25.00 copacetic special price - $15.75

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