New for June 2025
Cloud Town: Friends in
Stormy Weather, Part One (Copacetic Exclusive
Limited Special Offer)
by Daniel
McCloskey
Cloud Town:
Friends in Stormy Weather, Part One is a
self-published, 116-page (7 3/4” x 10”), spiral-bound,
“Teen +” graphic novel printed in black & white &
blue (and also, occasionally, in other tones as well, as
called for; most notably yellow and orange) that has been
released in a hand signed and numbered limited edition of
200 copies. It picks up – more or less – right after
the events of the Cloud Town graphic novel published by
Amulet Books in 2022 (more about which shortly). As
it is self-published, it is more adventuresome in both
form and content than its precursor, starting with the
decision to publish it in a spiral-bound edition (complete
with a pair of friendship bracelets and sticker sheet!) to
better evoke the up-close-and-personal diaristic
contents. The work itself also incorporates elements
of collage along with a collagist approach to
narrative. The drama on hand unfolds in the Cloud
Town Universe™ as before, with a focus on high school
life, friendships, and, in particular, the role of
bullying in the school ecosystem and the forging and
dissolving or relationships within it – albeit in an
alternative reality in which, “high above the Pacific
Ocean there’s a chunk of another world jutting from a tear
in the fabric of the universe” through which monsters
occasionally appear, and which are then battled by human
powered mega-roots a la Neon Genesis Evangelion
and Pacific Rim; so, a little different.
It’s adventure-filled comics fun! – And there’s a lot of
it in this Copacetic Exclusive Limited Special
Offer: Anyone purchasing a copy of Cloud
Town: Friends in Stormy Weather, Part One will also
receive, a copy of the hardcover edition of the original Cloud
Town graphic novel from Amulet – with a new,
limited edition alternative dust jacket AND a copy of the
24-page, digest-size, black & white & blue (&
orange) Cloud Town Prequel AND a copy of the
12-page, full color, digest-size autobio comic book, Failing
to Quit PLUS two full color Cloud Town postcards –
all by Daniel McCloskey and ALL AT NO EXTRA COST (aka
FREE!). And, yes, we realize that
some of those likely to be most interested in this offer
may already have the original Cloud Town graphic
novel – but this offer provides the opportunity to pay it
forward by gifting one of the surplus copies and so turn a
friend or family member onto Cloud Town! We've
posted of gallery of the items along with a few pages and
spreads from each book on the Copacetic Tumblr, HERE.
retail
price - $71.93 copacetic price - $35.00
Connor Willumsen Hype*Pup Portfolio
by Connor
Willumsen
Hype*Pup hook*up! We have a very
small number of the very small (but unnumbered) edition
of Connor Willumsen Hype*Pup Portfolio.
This portfolio reproduces 13 Hype*Pup
centerfolds on heavy, coated, glossy, 11" x 17"
stock. All are reproduced in full color, but
– important note – six of the originals are black
& white ink drawings, the color reproduction allowing
for the full subtlety of the drawing to come through; the
seven full color works are created in a variety of
media. Not something you see everyday.
copacetic price - $22.50
Void Packer #3
by Lale Westvind
It's been a minute, but the third issue of
Lale Westvind's single-creator, auteur comics anthology has
at long last arrived (and we have been promised a
much shorter interval between this issue and the
next)! It's the same format as the first two, with 20
black & white interior pages and color covers (front and
back, inside and out) printed on heavy cardstock. The
bulk of this issue is, again, devoted to the ongoing saga,
"Life & Limb", with the rest of the issue rounded out
with some biological speculations in drawing and text (as
well as a heavy Steinbeck quote) and then some wacky hi-jinx
with found photographs that – while decidedly different –
are not too far removed from some of Julie Doucet's
collage-comics. In short, another funky and far out
issue!
retail
price - $10.00 copacetic price - $9.50
Butterface
by Matt Seneca
Faced with the abyssal yawn brought on by a
sense of the ultimate meaninglessness of life, leading to a
nihilistic self-abandonment to the rip tide of social animal
forces, Butterface – billed on the
cover as “a kinky dating app noir” – is indeed full on
Noir. Sex as violence as sex. So, not a comic
book to be ventured into lightly (and definitely "Adults
ONLY"). It has a rough production that feels
deliberately matched to the rough content. While the
glossy full color covers appear professionally printed, the
black & white guts – with grey tone screens, bright
yellow accents, and unintended smudges scattered throughout
its 48, digest-size pages
– look like they were printed guerrilla style, on an old
high school offset press after hours. And, regardless of the
nature of the material and the quality of presentation, this
is a comic book jam packed with old school comic book
storytelling.
retail
price - $8.00 copacetic price - $8.00
Weird Brain
by Jerome Gaynor
Jerome Gaynor's Weird Brain is
an oversize (in between magazine and treasury edition),
saddle-stitched, 64-page, black & white publication
with full color, cardstock covers. It is filled with
short personal comics ranging in length from one page to
sixteen pages, with most being on the shorter end.
Its contents are organized in three sections: autobio
tales spanning Gaynor's earlier days, grouped together
under the heading "Tales Too True to Tell"; "Italian Folk
Tale Illustrations", which are just that; and then a
miscellany of uncategorizable stories, including the
collection's longest work, the sixteen page, "Cosmic Art
Party Dream." Gaynor is a 50-something St. Louis
native with Italian roots that he explored later in
life. His life path led him through punk rock then
fatherhood and, evidently, a lot of ups and downs, but
through it all he has kept his expressive inner child
alive – at least in part through his comics making
practice. The comics here are boldly drawn in a
manner that calls to mind a variety of like-minded
creators, something along the lines of Dave Kiersch and
John Porcellino, seasoned with a bit of Mary Fleener
and Fiona Smyth, and with Joe Chiapetta lurking somewhere
in the background. Other comics makers could also be
cited, but that should give you an idea. To get an
even better idea, check out the Weird Brain gallery up at
the Copacetic Tumblr, HERE. These
are engaging and entertaining comics, pleasingly drawn and
well worth reading to anyone predisposed to their themes
and substance.
retail
price - $20.00 copacetic price - $17.75
Kitz 'n' Katz
by Bob Laughlin
Kitz 'n' Katz is a collection of
classic, old school style funny animal comics. The
formats of the work collected here includes the three and
four-panel strips that ran weekly in The Comics Buyer's
Guide from 1981 to 1985 as well as the comic book format
short stories that made up the six issues of the comic book
series, with the first issue published by Phantasy Press in
1984, then the next four by Eclipse Comics from 1985 to
1987, and with the final, sixth issue self-published.
Laughlin, who passed away in 2006, was already well into his
fifties when Kitz 'n'' Katz began, and the drawing is highly
polished. It's a classic comics concept: a black cat
and a white cat go through the pacves from gags to
adventures to send-ups and satires. The substance is largely
on the silly side, and feels a bit like a misguided mash up
of Krazy Kat and Garfield, but there's definitely a lot of
love for Herriman here, regardless. And, the
introduction of this volume is by none other than fellow
Herriman aficionado, Patrick McDonnell, who, it turns out,
had his comics debut in the pages of Kitz 'n' Katz! These
were three one-page comics featuring "Tik 'n' Tak", a pair
of ticks that lived on Kitz 'n' Katz, and they are included
here. McDonnell completists, please take note.
All in all, a worthy addition to any true blue old school
comics fan.
retail
price - $17.99 copacetic price - $16.25
Late KIRBY Bargain
Bonanza!
by Jack Kirby
WAREHOUSE FIND! – FROM THE
ARCHIVES – Here is a collection of twelve different,
new, uncirculated comic books from 1981, 1982 & 1983,
all released by the original upstart, four color comic book
publisher, Pacific Comics who initiated their challenge to
the "Big Two" – Marvel and DC – by publishing the creative
genius behind both: Jack Kirby! The big difference was
that both the characters and material contained in these
comic books was trademarked and copyright by their
creators (NOT the publishers), Jack Kirby
first and foremost among them (there are also some back-up
features sprinkle throughout these issues, including some by
none other than Steve Ditko – who, like Kirby, also retained
copyright on his work here, including classic tales
featuring The Mocker and The Missing Man). >>
The issues included in this collection are:
CAPTAIN VICTORY and the GALACTIC RANGERS #s 2, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 12 + Special No. 1 and SILVER
STAR #s 1 & 2 << Original editions of
amazing, visually spectacular, and historically significant
work! At this late stage in his career, Kirby was
communicating primarily through his imagery and also,
crucially, through the image making. As you read these
images you can feel the work pouring out of him onto paper –
BAM BAM BAM. (To get an idea of the glory that awaits, feast
your eyes on the hefty gallery of covers and page spreads
from these issues, HERE!) AND,
here's the kicker: We're offering this collection of
all new copies at their original 1980s cover price of $1.00
each ($1.50 for the Special, which is published on glossy
paper with an early instance of photographic color
reproduction). So: DEAL!!!
copacetic
price - $12.50
Drawn to MoMA
edited by Alex
Halberstadt & Arlette Hernandez,
Since 2019, The Museum of Modern Art has
commissioned cartoonists and illustrators to craft stories
about their experiences inside and outside the museum.
Editors Alex Halberstadt and Arlette Hernandez have gathered
together here, in the 184 pages of this horizontally
formatted, 6" x 12", full color hardcover, twenty-five
of those comics, all taking place in the comp;any of –
and inspired by – modern art, primarily that shown in and/or
part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in
New York City (NYC). These comics have been created by
a stellar array of cartoonists, including Jon Allen,
Gabrielle Bell, Barbara Brandon-Croft, Jessica Campbell, Roz
Chast, Ted Closson, Liana Finck, Ali Fitzgerald, November
Garcia, Anna Haifisch, Mari Kanstad Johnsen, Patrick Keck,
Lee Lai, Ellen Lindner, John Vasquez Mejias, Danica
Novgorodoff, Tommi Parrish, Ben Passmore, Weng Pixin, Anna
Sarvira, Walter Scott, Bishakh Som, Karl Stevens, Chris Ware
(whose contribution is a stand-alone, pull-out / fold-out
poster; of course), and Erin Williams. The
horizontaliity of the format* makes for a reading experience
akin to that of reading mammoth sized daily newspaper strips
of spectacularly diverse approaches, intents and manifested
styles (*Two of the contributing artists – Ben Passmore and
John Vasquez Mejias – decided to "flip the script"
(read, format), and chose to go vertical instead,
necessitating a ninety degree rotation of the book and
making for yet another take on the [very] Old School daily
strips that also sometimes ran vertically in the paper, as
dictated by space requirements). We will admit to
having had some trepidation that the work would veer towards
the precious and/or self-consciously arty – but no!
Our concerns were misplaced. The work presented here
largely adheres to the cartoonist ethos and stays true
to the comics making / reading experience.
So, readers whose personal Venn diagrams show a strong
overlap between museum going and comics reading have a very
good chance of connecting with much of the work that this
collection contains. If that sounds like you, then
we can say, "Recommended!"
retail
price - $45.00 copacetic price - $38.75
These
items and more
may also be
found at our
eCommerce
site, HERE.
New for May 2025
Spent
by Alison Bechdel
Spent, the new Alison Bechdel
graphic novel is here! The top story is the return of
(some of) the Dykes to Watch Out For cast – who
had been – with one brief exception in 2016 – absent
from our universe since 2008. In the pages of this 272
page, full color hardcover, we have a fictionalized
"Alison", author of a graphic memoir titled Death and
Taxidermy (an excerpt from which is shown to be
very much in the style of Fun Home) – along
with her partner, "Holly" mixing it up with a cast of
characters of Bechdel's creation – Ginger, Sparrow,
Stuart and several additional and adjacent characters from
the DtWOF Universe – thus making for
a bit of a hall of mirrors of art imitating life imitating
art imitating life. A central accomplishment of
the work – and, implicitly, of Bechdel's career – is its
simultaneous embodiment and demonstration of the reality
that in the interregnum between the conclusion of the
original Dykes to Watch Out For run and the
publication of Spent, lesbians and lesbianism have
successfully fought their way into the mainstream of
American life – well, at least in Vermont. Reading Spent,
it is self-evident that its cast of characters represent the
diligence, ethical behavior, and common decency that we were
taught to see as values central to the traditional American
identity (as well as being a bit self-satisfied about it
all, which, too, is a part of the American identity).
Which brings us to the title itself. What has been –
is being – "spent" here? Bechdel clearly wants her
readers to be considering this question. The first
thing we are presented with upon opening the book is a table
of contents revealing that the entire work is organized
around chapter headings taken verbatim – if more than a
little ironically – from (the English translation of) Karl
Marx's Das Kapital (Capital), an
illustration of an open copy of which is shown below, as a
clue to those who may not be familiar enough with the work
to otherwise make the connection. The noun "capital" and the
verb "spend" are both multivalent and related: In
addition to financial capital, there is human capital,
social capital, sexual capital and creative capital – to
name a few – all of which are shown being spent here. The
title also seems to bring with it a hint of finality, of
something – some or another form of capital – having been
depleted; spent, as in nothing left. One gets the
sense upon completing the book, that the conclusion it has
reached is that capitalism itself is now in the process of
revealing itself to be a spent force. There's a solid sneak
preview of the book, that will give you a head start in
reading along with a nice look at the vivid color work by
Bechdel's partner Holly Rae Taylor (and solid shadowing by
CCS faculty member, Jon Chad), available HERE.
retail
price - $32.00 copacetic price - $25.75
Salt Green Death
by Katarina
Thorsen
Salt Green Death takes its title
from a line in James Joyce's Ulysses, further
excerpts from which are interwoven throughout and seem to
provide something of a template for the meandering stream of
consciousness form of the narrative structure of the work,
while the expressive distortions of the British painter,
Francis Bacon serve as a point of reference for the stunning
and haunting visuals created by Thorsen to bring you into
the emotional maelstrom that lies at the core of this
work. While the primary focus is on Joseph O'Dwyer,
child number four in the O'Dwyer family – who was
institutionalized for most of his adult life, during which
period the treatment regimes he was subjected to are shown
to be largely a series of failures – it can more accurately
be described as a chronicle of the entire family,
who migrated all together from Ireland to Canada in
1927, in pursuit of a better life. The artistic methods
and manner of the portrayal work together throughout this
work's 196 full color pages to capture the bleakness
that permeates this chronicle of misfortune, ignorance,
failure and death that at last provides an empathic
reconsideration of what would otherwise be forgotten
casualties of the cruelties of the 20th Century. We've
posted a selection of pages from the book HERE to prepare
readers for the experience that awaits. ||
And here are some insightful comments from a pair of
fellow comics makers:
This is a remarkable book: a
graphic novel that will challenge your notions about the
meaning of the genre. In essence, it is an investigation
into a history of family trauma but Thorsen’s presentation
of the material that has constituted her research turns
Salt Green Death into a catalogue of innovations:
ingenious compositional turns and strategies make every
page a delight, a map of visual possibilities. Doctor’s
reports, family letters, administrative records join in a
dance with feathers, fur, yarn, bone: you will not find
another book so lovingly devoted to textures of such
variety. Thorsen has the mind of an archivist, the eye of
a painter and the heart of a poet." — Bishakh Som, Apsara
Engine || “Katarina
Thorsen has pushed creative non-fiction in astonishing new
directions. Salt Green Death invites the reader
to take an active role in sorting through documents and
correspondence, drawing their own conclusions and
inferences along the way. And she weaves (sometimes
literally) the sorry saga of the O’Dwyer family together
with her vivid charcoal drawings and buoyant, color
renderings of the natural world, lending poetry and grace
to this tale of utter heartbreak.” —Matt
Madden, 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style
retail
price - $30.00 copacetic price - $25.75
How Comics Are Made
by Glenn Fleishman
Here's a book we've really been
looking forward to. It was self-published last
year – with the differently tensed title of How Comics
Were Made – and sold out. Now it has
been released in a (lower-priced!) hardcover by Andrews
("Calvin and Hobbes") McMeel. This edition contains the
entire contents of the original, with just a few tweaks, so
you can get a good idea of what's in store by visiting the
author's page for his self-published edition, HERE. Cool!
Right? And, we've now also posted some pages from
the book to help give you an even better idea of what's in
store, HERE. Just to
be clear, the term "comics" in How Comics Are Made indicates,
specifically, newspaper comicstrips, the "funny pages", and
it is the genesis and evolution of the production processes
of newspaper comicstrips that is the primary focus of
this book. And while it seems as clear to Fleischman
as it does to the rest of us that the vast bulk of work
produced for this particular form of printed
comics that dawned in the last decade of the 19th
Century is likely behind us, and that this form appears to
have now entered its twilight years, newspaper
comicstrips nevertheless continue to be printed to this
day; thus the "were" of the original title being
updated by Andrews McMeel – a still active comicstrip
collection publisher – to "are". That said, as is well
known by anyone schooled in comics history, comic books
originated as reprint collections of newspaper comicstrips
that were, at l;east initially, printed on the same or
analogous presses using the exact same processes – just
adding an extra fold and then staples and glossy
covers. So, while the focus here is entirely on
newspaper comics, most of the same production techniques and
technologies carried over to comic book production
throughout the era of newsprint comic books, which dominated
American comic books up to 1980s. Thus there are
plenty of insights into how comic book production evolved to
be found here, as well. How Comics Are Made
was designed and illustrated by Mark Kaufman, and has an
introduction by Michael Chabon, in which he reveals a
personal connection – through his grandfather – to the world
of newspaper production. It also includes an
intriguing aside into Watergate-era Doonesbury
strips that reminds us of the unique place in comics history
occupied by Gary Trudeau's long-running strip.
288 pages | 10 1/2" x 8 1/4" | full color
retail
price - $40.00 copacetic price - $35.75
The Giant: Orson Welles, the Artist and the
Shadow
by Youssef Daoudi
Orson Welles was only 25 years old when he
directed Citizen Kane, one the single most important and
influential movies of all time – it was ranked "the greatest
film of all time" by many film critics for decades (for
example, The British Film Institute's Sight & Sound
magazine's decennial poll, which gathers the opinions of
critics, had "Citizen Kane" at the top for four decades,
from 1962 to 2002). Hard to believe, right?
Think of what you were up to when you were 25. So,
suffice it to say, starting out that big, that early is
going to have an effect on anyone's self-perception, and, of
course, on the perception that others had of him, in
turn. Youssef Daoudi has already given us an intriguing look at Thelonious Monk that
focused on his relationship with Pannonica de Koenigswarter, and here in the 272
pages of The Giant, expressively drawn black &
white, he provides a look at the effects that such a level
of early success had on the arc of Orson Welles's later life
and career.
retail
price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.75
Mineshaft #46
edited by Everett
Rand & Gioia Palmieri
Mineshaft #46 has arrived – and
it's quite the issue! Starting with front and back
covers by – yes, you guessed it – Drew Friedman, and then
filled with contributions from the Mineshaft All-Stars,
including Noah Van Sciver, Max Clotfelter, Pat Moriarty,
Cristoph Mueller, Glenn Head, David – and James! – Collier,
Kim Deitch, and more, along with a one-page strip by Sammy
Harkham, eight pages from new-to-us contributor, Simone
Baumann – and R. Crumb on... death! 52 pages in all.
retail
price - $15.00 copacetic price - $13.75
Arsène Schrauwen - softcover
by Olivier
Schrauwen
YES! Olivier Schrauwen's
one-of-a-kind masterwork is back in print, in this very
nicely done French-flapped softcover edition.
Fantagraphics has done right by this classic, carrying
over the production specifics from the hardcover in this
softcover: same crisp duo-tone (red & blue) printing,
same toothy, flat, off-white paperstock. Very nice.
The one significant difference is that it is printed in a
slightly (roughly 15%) smaller size – 7 3/4" x 9 1/2"
compared to the 9" x 11 1/4" of the hardcover. At
last, those Copacetic customers who missed out on this
during its original release can experience this
mind-bending work.retail
price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.75
Nancy Wears Hats
by Ernie
Bushmiller
It's about time! After a
full decade hiatus, Fantagraphics continues its ongoing
series collecting Ernie Bushmiller's legendary Nancy
dailies. While Nancy Wears Hats has
been produced with a slightly smaller page
size than the earlier volumes, and with a standard
softcover binding, rather than the flexi-cover of the first
three volumes, it is nonetheless a nicely designed
edition, also presenting three strips per page on glossy
paper, as previously. Regardless, here we have two
complete years of Nancy – 1949 & 1950 – cued up
for your delectation; well over 600 strips in all. We
know it's been a long wait, but don't rush through these –
take your time and savor each strip in all its glorious
absurdity...
retail
price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75
Krazy &
Ignatz 1928-1930
by George Herriman
Here's the latest addition to
Fantagraphics' ongoing George Herriman Library: Krazy
& Ignatz, 1928-1930. It's another massive –
3 1/2 pounds – oversize – 11 1/2" x 14" – hardcover –
this time, embossed – volume. It collects the entirety of
the Krazy Kat Sunday pages from 1928, 19290 & 1930 –
thus, covering that pivotal era that marked the end of The
Jazz Age and the beginning of The Great Depression – runs
228 pages almost entirely in black & white – as befits
the work – but with a smattering of color where the work
requires it. It is also chock-a-block with informative
essays from Bill Blackbeard and other Herriman
scholars. And we can't resist tossing in this quote
from the Fantagraphics' website, as we wholeheartedly agree:
"One could argue the claim — confidently, persuasively,
and with an all-but-inexhaustible store of ever-fresh
evidence — that George Herriman was one of the very great
artists, in any medium, of the 20th century." —
Michael Chabon
retail
price - $49.99 copacetic price - $42.75
These
items and more
may also be
found at our
eCommerce
site, HERE.
New
for April 2025
Ginseng Roots
by Craig Thompson
It's here – the graphic novel edition
of Craig Thompson's epic memoir that centers on his
personal relationship with ginseng, Ginseng Roots!
While it starts out specifically focusing on his family
roots in ginseng cultivation, it gradually spreads out
into an in-depth historical biography of the humble plant
itself, one that reveals the many unexpected ways in which
ginseng's roots are deeply entangled in the history of
America – both before and after 1492 – and that in the
process touches on international cultures, war, world
trade – specifically that between East Asia and the US –
Christianity, family values, work ethics and much
more. In short, Ginseng Roots takes
readers on a fantastic voyage of discovery that provides a
unique cluster of insights into our shared present.
While it does collect (nearly*) the entirety of the Ginseng
Roots story pages from the twelve-issue series, there are
also quite a number of new pages that have been weaved in
throughout – *at least a few of which replace pages from the
original issue – with the aim of creating a unified work
that can be read as a graphic novel rather than simply a
collection of the series. Craig worked on Ginseng Roots
for over five years, and so, understandably, his conception
of the work developed during that period and he could better
see by the end of the process how to make the work cohere
into an organic whole than he did at the outset; thus the
additions/edits/changes to the original issues. It is
worth noting that, on the other hand, most of the bonus /
back-up material from the individual issues is not included
(but a small smattering is, at the end, in a short bonus
section, of sorts). So... it should be
interesting to read this and compare it to the original
issues. We plan to! But, no matter how you slice
it, Ginseng Roots is a masterpiece of the form –
as enlightening as it is engaging – and the Copacetic
favorite among Craig Thompson's works thus far in his
career. RECOMMENDED!
retail
price - $35.00 copacetic price - $29.75
Goes Like This
One Little Goat
by Theo Ellsworth
& Dara Horn
One Little Goat goes deep down a
rabbit hole, but with a singular purpose: that of
discovering the history, meaning and origin of
Passover. Through 160 detailed pages of his
trademarked mega-level mark-making, Theo Ellsworth brings
Dara Horn’s script vividly to life in such a way that the
inherent psychological energy of each scene is released into
the reader’s consciousness in a series of brain
blasts! It all begins around a contemporary Passover
dinner table, where family dynamics take center stage and
problems arise – until someone has to take the
fall… cue arrival of the (scape)goat, who can take the
blame. Then, once the titular goat has arrived on the
scene, look out, things takes one turn after another each
riffing on an aspect of the Passover tradition as its
history, significance and, finally, origin, until ultimately
looping back into the present Passover to bring the story to
a close. This is an all-ages work, published by the
Norton Young Reader’s imprint, but adult readers will find
it entertaining as well. And you don’t have to be at
all familiar with Passover to savor and appreciate this
work. In fact, it might even be the most fun for
readers totally unfamiliar. Intriguingly, the
structure and epic nature of the story arc is not entirely
dissimilar from that of an inter-dimensional, star-spanning
Marvel comic featuring, say the Silver Surfer or Dr.
Strange, but of a pedagogical bent. The primary appeal
for Copacetic customers is, of course, the art of Theo
Ellsworth, and One Little Goat provides a
heaping helping – and it's a heavy-duty, die-cut hardcover,
to boot. Enjoy!
retail
price - $18.99 copacetic price - $17.00
Alien Disclosure
by Jim Rugg
Alien Disclosure provides a guided
tour through the labyrinth of conspiracy theory
thinking. Leveraging the comic book form to
craft a concise – and precise – schematic diagram, by
employing a rhythmic variation between image and text that
serves to illustrate the paradoxical – and profoundly
disorienting – nature of “seeing is believing” when you can
no longer trust your own eyes. As readers will expect,
given its title, Alien Disclosure goes straight to
the ultimate unified conspiracy: that of aliens controlling
everything on earth. But, crucially to understanding
the work's aim and import, bracketing this conspiracy is its
flipside – that the conspiracy theory of aliens controlling
everything is itself, in turn, a conspiracy employed by a
secret, human cabal here on earth in order to manipulate the
masses into trading – to this conspiratorial cabal – their
personal liberty for (the illusion of) personal safety,
allowing the cabal to usurp control of civilization.
By employing this structure, Rugg deftly illustrates the
hall of mirrors leading to circular reasoning that lies at
the heart of conspiracy theories. Each copy is individually
signed on the cover – and, for an added and appropriate
touch – the iconic flying saucer on the cover is
hand colored in silver ink, making each, objectively,
unique. A pithy – and potentially profound – document
of – and for – our times (also, fun).
retail
price - $10.00 copacetic price - $9.25
Broken Wires - Complete
Set Special #1 - 3
by Cameron Arthur
Cameron Arthur is the master of the slow
burn, and with Broken Wires being divided into three
issues, he can really stretch out. In the 81-pages
that make up the three Golden-Age-comic-sized issues – each
laid out in a four-tier grid that ranges from four to twelve
panels per page – we go through a classically paced
story arc from set up, through an action set piece, to
denouement and fade out. This arc moves at staggered
paces – think contrapuntal choral parts in a polyphonic
arrangement – as it weaves through the POVs of four
characters – Marcy, Ben, Ruben and Artie. All four are
met in medias res, in Texas – on the job, on the
road or in the home – and each is given two to twelve pages
at a stretch in which their portion of the plot – along
with their individual characteristics – are revealed
– and dissected – in page after page of tightly
controlled, well-paced comics. The story’s primary
focus is on the family of Ruben, Marcie and their young,
school age son, Artie. The arc centers on a Christmas
pageant in which out of town guest, Ben
performs. How their stories intersect, both in
time and space, constitutes the weft and the warp of the
work; the melody and the harmony; the pattern of life.
A PIE Premiere™ (that debuted at the 2025 Pittsburgh Indie
Expo)!
retail
price - $20.00 copacetic price - $15.00
Grixly two-fer #69 & ...69? (Actually #70!)
by Nate McDonough
The wait is over! Here are the latest
issues of Grixly from Nate McDonough (with a
little help from his friends*). While Longboxes strips
continue to dominate, and to transpire largely in the
mountain states, with different shadings of "local color",
these are all post-collection and so appear here in print
for the first time. They are also interspersed
throughout with domestic scenes, philosophical reflections,
comics digressions, disquisitive observations on dogs in
public spaces and voting in presidential elections, and
more! 52 jam-packed pages in all. All for one
low price. Grixly! > *The front and back
covers of #69 are by Victor Cayro and Adam Falp,
respectively; the centerfold (in vivid black & white
& red) and the back cover of #70 are collaborations with
Lyla Maloney, who also has a spot illo in #69.
retail
price - $6.00 copacetic price - $5.00
You Are a Sacred Place: Visual Poems for Living in
Climate Crisis
by Madeleine
Jubilee Saito
Having honed her craft over the years, and
devising an Instagram-friendly approach that
represents an innovative, 21st-Century update on the classic
four-panel daily newspaper comicstrip, Madeleine Jubilee
Saito has, in this 180-page, full color, smyth sewn
hardcover, adapted her practice to a long form poem-prayer
of a graphic novel. >> It has some fans:
“Madeleine Jubilee Saito has given us a singular gift. At
once gentle and piercing, spare and profound, her artistry
breaks open hearts, releasing rivers of love for what is —
and grief for what is already lost." — Naomi Klein
|| "Using a sort of visual 4/4 time signature, Madeleine
Jubilee Saito's You Are a Sacred Place is a heartfelt song
about the state of our planet. In gentle watercolors and
sparse colors, Saito sings to us about love, loss, hope,
and our need for one another." — Aidan Koch || "A
series of perfect four-panel comics that build toward
something vast and beautiful." — Andrew
White || Take a moment to check out this hefty preview to get a good idea
of what everyone is talking about here.
retail
price - $21.99 copacetic price - $18.75
These items
and more may
also be found
at our
eCommerce
site, HERE.
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
by
Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez
This issue of Love and Rockets contains both a
mourning for loss and a celebration of life. It is
the first issue published since the passing of Gilbert and
Jaime's mother, Aurora Hernandez (this issue's cover
artist, in case you were wondering). It presents a
special essence of that duality that underpins the series,
and is, fittingly, divided neatly into two halves, about,
more or less specifically, love and rockets. The
lead story, by Gilbert, "Love Is Everything," can be read
as a moving eulogy to their mother, while in the second
half, Jaime presents (a quite violent, by his standards)
conclusion to his long-running science fiction epic
featuring Animus. Also, now would be a good time to
take a moment to read this excellent interview with Mario, Gilbert
and Jaime conducted by Jeet Heer, which provides a
wonderful window onto the world of their childhood and
their mother's engagement with and encouragement of comics
reading.
retail
price - $6.99 copacetic price - $5.99
Life Drawing
by Jaime
Hernandez
And, 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.
retail
price - $24.99 copacetic price - $19.99
Holy
Lacrimony
by
Michael DeForge
With 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, Rufus
by
Noah Van Sciver
Here'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 Music
by
Marguerite Abouet & Clement Oubrerie
It'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:
My
Time Machine
by
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 
hey,
it's a time travel tale, so...
retail
price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75
and
Murderburg
by
Carol Lay
256 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
by
María Medem
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 & #14
by
Jonathan Baylis
Jonathan 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 & #3
by Molly
Colleen O'Connell
Pebbles 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
X
by Matt
Vituccio
Here 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!
by
Gilbert Shelton and Ted Richards
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
Milk White Steed
by
Michael D. Kennedy
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.
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
Chrysanthemum Under the
Waves
by
Maggie Umber
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.
retail
price - $35.00 copacetic price - $28.75
Saints
& Sand
by
Michael Olivo
This 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
by
Andrew White
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.
retail
price - $15.00 copacetic price - $13.75
Yearly 2023
by
Andrew White
Here'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
by
Andrew White
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.
retail
price - $8.00 copacetic price - $7.25
Yearly
2021
by
Andrew White
Yearly 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 Gorey
We 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
Comics: 1964 - 2024
by Paul
Gravett, Benoît Peeters, Thierry Groensteen, Joe Sacco,
Marguerite Demoëte, Johanna Schipper, Tristan Garcia,
Emmanuèle Payen, & Anne Lemonnier
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.)
retail
price - $60.00 copacetic price - $50.00
These
items and more
may also be
found at our
eCommerce
site, HERE.
New
for January 2025
Alive Outside
edited
by Cullen Beckhorn & Marc Bell, w/Theo Ellsworth,
Angela Fanche, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Roman Muradov,
Bridget Trout, Leomi Sadler, Doug Allen, et al
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.
retail
price - $55.00 copacetic price - $51.75
Crease
edited
by Austin English, w/ John Hankiewicz, Chris Cajero Cilla,
E.A. Bethea, Pris Genet, Ian Sundahl, et al
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.
retail
price - $12.00 copacetic price - $10.75
In the Garden of Earthly Delights
by Rich
Tommaso
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!
retail
price - $12.00 copacetic price - $10.75
I.L
by Osamu
Tezuka
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.
retail
price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.25
Boys and Boomboxes
by
Carolyn Swiszcz
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!
retail
price - $8.00 copacetic price - $7.50
Grixly Two-Pack #67 + 68
by
Nate McDonough
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?)
retail
price - $6.00 copacetic price - $5.00
Wally Wood from Witzend:
Complete Collection
by
Wallace Wood
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.
retail
price - $39.95 copacetic price - $33.75
These
items and more
may also be
found at our
eCommerce
site, HERE.
