NEW
STUFF
A SELECTION OF RECENT ARRIVALS
New for June/July
Kramers Ergot Xedited by Sammy Harkham, w/ R. Crumb, Dash Shaw, David Collier, Simon Hanselmann, Aisha Franz, Ron Rege, John Pham, Sherri Flenniken, Connor Willumsen, C. F., Lale Westvind, et al
It's here! The long awaited return of Kramers Ergot! Edited, as always, by Sammy Harkham, this time around Kramers is a whopping 11" x 14"! This amped up format presents 168 full color pages by a host of today's most copacetic cartoonists and comics makers, heralded by an eye-scorching cover by Lale Westvind! Check out the contributer list: R. Crumb, Dash Shaw, David Collier, Anouk Ricard, C.F., Jason Murphy, Blutch, Shary Flenniken, Johnny Ryan, John Pham, Ron Regé Jr., Simon Hanselmann, Anna Haifisch, Ivan Brunetti, David Amram, Helge Reumann, Frank King, Steve Weissman, Aisha Franz, Leon Sadler, Adam Buttrick, Archer Prewitt, Connor Willumsen, Bendik Kaltenborn, Will Sweeney, Rick Altergott, Kim Deitch, Marc Bell, and, of course, Harkham himself. There are some really amazing pieces in this issue, as creators leverage the larger format to stretch out. A standout is C.F.'s pyrotechnical exposition, which works to transport its readers into an altered state, as he goes all out to tantalizingly suggest the nature of reality that our visual processors can't quite make out... and in the process delineates a heretofore undiscovered door of perception. And that's just one! Sammy has intimated that this will be the last Kramers for quite awhile, so you will want to take your time to savor this one.
retail price - $34.99 copacetic price - $29.75
Kingdom
by Jon
McNaught
Released in the UK at the close of 2018, the latest work from Jon McNaught is now, at last, available stateside. A beautifully produced, 128 page, 8" x 11" hardcover, Kingdom is a real eye opener, and is surely his most accomplished work to date. As in his previous works, forms and space are here articulated primarily through planes of color, an approach to comics-making derived from McNaught's print-making practice. Employing a limited, variable, two-tone palette throughout, McNaught largely dispenses with line, depending instead on a careful placement of shapes, edges and color overlaps to construct his images, making for a unique and highly affecting æsthetic. Readers will find themselves immediately immersed in McNaught's sharply observed comics, enjoying page after page of well balanced, crisp, clean panels, rigorously rendered and meticulously arrayed in metrical layouts so sure handed that they could do double duty as a demonstration of the capacities of the grid in comics storytelling, running the gamut from a single splash panel up to 35 panels to a page. The decision to place the entirety of the narrative within the frame of one particular holiday excursion creates an explicit union of time and space that is fundamental to the concept of kingdom, and McNaught, helpfully, if somewhat ironically, points readers' thoughts in this direction by lending his title to the name of the coastal holiday park that is the work's primary setting. That is but the opening salvo in his allusive use of the title, as it is also, clearly, intended – and successfully serves – to represent many layers of meaning, the most significant of which is the kingdom of memory, especially the memory of childhood held in the adult mind, as the work is imbued through and through with an evocation of that naivete and innocence that is the sine qua non of youth. The adolescent male's bravado, evincing as it does the atavistic drives towards violence and conquest that once served the establishment of kingdom, is pointedly evoked as well, and is additionally linked to the problematic kingdom of technological capitalism that is shown here, as it has been in McNaught's previous works, to be intent on exploiting youth's naivete and thereby colonizing its innocent consciousness, displacing the natural world that is every human's birthright in order to rule in a virtual realm. In fact, once the mind is focused on the concept of kingdom, it can be seen permeating practically every layer of the work (the animal kingdom, just for starters), and then, by extension, the reality it portrays (which is, of course, the point). While there is an implicit centering of the narrative on the adolescent male character that is, more or less, a stand-in for the author's perspective, a great deal of empathy (manifestly informed by the adult consciousness housing the recollections of adolescence) is shown for the other members of his family, here his mother and younger sister, and, in one scene, a great aunt, each of whom are successfully fleshed out with distinct, independent identities and shown to have their own concerns and unique experiences; their own kingdoms, as it were. The events depicted are, as they must be, spatially represented. These representations can, at least in older readers, additionally serve as a means to an end: the particular combination of images that McNaught has so succinctly rendered, together with their uncanny sequencing, unlocks static temporality and effects time travel in the mind of the reader, who will find themselves leaving the present behind on the reading chair and revisiting their youthful consciousness. These temporal experiences, stored and then reactivated and retrieved, take the recaller of them back into the spaces in which they took place, creating a dance between time and space that McNaught's two-tone approach is ideally suited to capture, and which the narrative itself explicitly alludes to. One of the special pleasures of this text is how the childhood memories revisited here in the pages of Kingdom take on that particular majesty of the world as seen through a child's eyes, whereby it is once again made new... Kingdom is a deeply studied work. McNaught appears to have incorporated insights gleaned from works as diverse as Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Library, Seth's Palookaville, Kevin Huizenga's Ganges, Mariko and Jillian Tamaki's This One Summer, and Frank Santoro's Pompeii, and has welcomed them into the personal, hard won and unmistakable style that is his own, true kingdom. It is a kingdom eminently worth visiting.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
by Jon
McNaughtReleased in the UK at the close of 2018, the latest work from Jon McNaught is now, at last, available stateside. A beautifully produced, 128 page, 8" x 11" hardcover, Kingdom is a real eye opener, and is surely his most accomplished work to date. As in his previous works, forms and space are here articulated primarily through planes of color, an approach to comics-making derived from McNaught's print-making practice. Employing a limited, variable, two-tone palette throughout, McNaught largely dispenses with line, depending instead on a careful placement of shapes, edges and color overlaps to construct his images, making for a unique and highly affecting æsthetic. Readers will find themselves immediately immersed in McNaught's sharply observed comics, enjoying page after page of well balanced, crisp, clean panels, rigorously rendered and meticulously arrayed in metrical layouts so sure handed that they could do double duty as a demonstration of the capacities of the grid in comics storytelling, running the gamut from a single splash panel up to 35 panels to a page. The decision to place the entirety of the narrative within the frame of one particular holiday excursion creates an explicit union of time and space that is fundamental to the concept of kingdom, and McNaught, helpfully, if somewhat ironically, points readers' thoughts in this direction by lending his title to the name of the coastal holiday park that is the work's primary setting. That is but the opening salvo in his allusive use of the title, as it is also, clearly, intended – and successfully serves – to represent many layers of meaning, the most significant of which is the kingdom of memory, especially the memory of childhood held in the adult mind, as the work is imbued through and through with an evocation of that naivete and innocence that is the sine qua non of youth. The adolescent male's bravado, evincing as it does the atavistic drives towards violence and conquest that once served the establishment of kingdom, is pointedly evoked as well, and is additionally linked to the problematic kingdom of technological capitalism that is shown here, as it has been in McNaught's previous works, to be intent on exploiting youth's naivete and thereby colonizing its innocent consciousness, displacing the natural world that is every human's birthright in order to rule in a virtual realm. In fact, once the mind is focused on the concept of kingdom, it can be seen permeating practically every layer of the work (the animal kingdom, just for starters), and then, by extension, the reality it portrays (which is, of course, the point). While there is an implicit centering of the narrative on the adolescent male character that is, more or less, a stand-in for the author's perspective, a great deal of empathy (manifestly informed by the adult consciousness housing the recollections of adolescence) is shown for the other members of his family, here his mother and younger sister, and, in one scene, a great aunt, each of whom are successfully fleshed out with distinct, independent identities and shown to have their own concerns and unique experiences; their own kingdoms, as it were. The events depicted are, as they must be, spatially represented. These representations can, at least in older readers, additionally serve as a means to an end: the particular combination of images that McNaught has so succinctly rendered, together with their uncanny sequencing, unlocks static temporality and effects time travel in the mind of the reader, who will find themselves leaving the present behind on the reading chair and revisiting their youthful consciousness. These temporal experiences, stored and then reactivated and retrieved, take the recaller of them back into the spaces in which they took place, creating a dance between time and space that McNaught's two-tone approach is ideally suited to capture, and which the narrative itself explicitly alludes to. One of the special pleasures of this text is how the childhood memories revisited here in the pages of Kingdom take on that particular majesty of the world as seen through a child's eyes, whereby it is once again made new... Kingdom is a deeply studied work. McNaught appears to have incorporated insights gleaned from works as diverse as Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Library, Seth's Palookaville, Kevin Huizenga's Ganges, Mariko and Jillian Tamaki's This One Summer, and Frank Santoro's Pompeii, and has welcomed them into the personal, hard won and unmistakable style that is his own, true kingdom. It is a kingdom eminently worth visiting.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
Love
and Rockets: Volume IV #7
by Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez
YES! Summer wouldn't be the same without a new issue of Love and Rockets, and here it is. Familial modes and their respective dynamics are a common thread that is woven throughout all the stories in this issue. The issue starts out with a brief look at the state of Maggie and Ray, before moving on through a a look at the relationship between a found family in fandom and one's own biological family in the latest from Tonta (see the next listing for more). Gilbert's "Punk Rock Reunion" goes all over the map as it charts the tortuous paths through the multifaceted complex of relationships that constitute Fritz's families. Then Jaime closes it out with another chapter in the ongoing Animus saga, in which the thread of family is most deeply buried...
retail price - $4.99 copacetic price - $4.99
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.75
by Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez
YES! Summer wouldn't be the same without a new issue of Love and Rockets, and here it is. Familial modes and their respective dynamics are a common thread that is woven throughout all the stories in this issue. The issue starts out with a brief look at the state of Maggie and Ray, before moving on through a a look at the relationship between a found family in fandom and one's own biological family in the latest from Tonta (see the next listing for more). Gilbert's "Punk Rock Reunion" goes all over the map as it charts the tortuous paths through the multifaceted complex of relationships that constitute Fritz's families. Then Jaime closes it out with another chapter in the ongoing Animus saga, in which the thread of family is most deeply buried...
retail price - $4.99 copacetic price - $4.99
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.75
How I Tried to Be a Good Person
by Ulli Lust
Attention, fans of Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life, Ulli Lust's award-winning breakthrough memoir of her late teenage years – this is the book you've been waiting for. How I Tried to Be a Good Person is another 300+ page gritty graphic memoir that goes where others fear to tread. In it's pages readers will share in the tumult and turmoil of multi-faceted and multi-cultural love affairs all related in a straightforward, self-aware manner and depicted with Lust's skillfull, observational style.
retail price - $34.99 copacetic price - $29.75
Hot Comb
retail price - $18.00 copacetic price - $17.75
by Ulli Lust
Attention, fans of Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life, Ulli Lust's award-winning breakthrough memoir of her late teenage years – this is the book you've been waiting for. How I Tried to Be a Good Person is another 300+ page gritty graphic memoir that goes where others fear to tread. In it's pages readers will share in the tumult and turmoil of multi-faceted and multi-cultural love affairs all related in a straightforward, self-aware manner and depicted with Lust's skillfull, observational style.
retail price - $34.99 copacetic price - $29.75
Hot Combby Ebony Flowers
Hot Comb is the first book from Ebony Flowers. A former student of – and then co-worker with – the one and only Lynda Barry, this collection bears some of the hallmarks of Barry's work as it brings together a series of short autobiographical anecdotes and creates an intimate space for sharing experiences. An ethnographer by training, Ms. Flowers here weaves together her personal and professional lives in a series of black and white comics of varying lengths – ranging from four to over forty pages, eight in all – that highlight the relationship between hair and identity in the lives of African-American women, with a special focus on how this relationship plays out during childhood and adolescence – with her own life as Exhibit A. And, to help tease out the connections between self-consciousness and cultural hegemony, Flowers additionally created a series of apocryphal advertisements for hair products targeted at women and girls of African heritage, which have been interstitially inserted between the stories themselves to provide a frame of reference. Learn a bit more about where Ms. Flowers is coming from in this recent interview from her current hometown, Denver, CO.
retail price - $21.95 copacetic special intro price - $16.75
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75
Hot Comb is the first book from Ebony Flowers. A former student of – and then co-worker with – the one and only Lynda Barry, this collection bears some of the hallmarks of Barry's work as it brings together a series of short autobiographical anecdotes and creates an intimate space for sharing experiences. An ethnographer by training, Ms. Flowers here weaves together her personal and professional lives in a series of black and white comics of varying lengths – ranging from four to over forty pages, eight in all – that highlight the relationship between hair and identity in the lives of African-American women, with a special focus on how this relationship plays out during childhood and adolescence – with her own life as Exhibit A. And, to help tease out the connections between self-consciousness and cultural hegemony, Flowers additionally created a series of apocryphal advertisements for hair products targeted at women and girls of African heritage, which have been interstitially inserted between the stories themselves to provide a frame of reference. Learn a bit more about where Ms. Flowers is coming from in this recent interview from her current hometown, Denver, CO.
retail price - $21.95 copacetic special intro price - $16.75
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75
retail price - $18.00 copacetic price - $17.75
Pope Hats #6
by Hartley Lin
Break out the champagne – it's a new issue of Pope Hats! Gone is the Ethan Rilly pen name. Here is Hartley Lin in all his glory – and in a revelatory mood and mode. This issue is a collection of pithy personal pieces, most one or two pages in length. Executed entirely in a two-tier layout, almost all of which are bisected into four-panel grids, these strips delve into the life, mind and memory of the artist – particularly those aspects that are transformed by the arrival of a first child; thus rendering a portrait of the artist as a new parent.
retail price - $6.95 copacetic price - $6.25
Viewotron #1
by Sam Sharpe & Peach Goodrich
In this, the first issue of the all new AdHouse Books series of Viewotron, which follows the two-issue (right?) self-published run, co-creators Peach Goodrich and Sam Sharpe craft a great set of comics short stories, seven in all, and in the process deliver a solid 48 page comic book that is both affecting and engaging. A particular standout is the story, "That First Summer After College We All Stayed in the City and Founded Religions." Just substitute "start-ups" for "religions" in the title – and then consider the ramifications of that substitiution – and you'll come away from the story with some fresh insights into the experience of coming of age during the 21st century.
retail price - $6.95 copacetic price - $6.25
We have a pair of Baltic
Comics Anthologies this time around:S! #34 - The theme of #34 is, "Redrawing Stories from the Past II," The topic is emigration during the Second World War. Cover: Alice Socal (Italy) Contributors: Lina Itagaki (Lithuania), Emilie Josso (France), Julia Kluge (Germany), Alice Socal (Italy) and a postscript by Ole Frahm (Germany) Project Organization: MitOst e.V. Project Partner: Goethe-Institut Neapel, Goethe-Institut Rom Project Website: redrawingstoriesfromthepast.com
S! #35 - The theme of #35 is "Bonkers!" This issue's worth it just for the Theo Ellsworth story alone – an instant classic! Cover: Erlend Peder Kvam (Norway) Contributors: Agate Lielpetere (Latvia), Anna Mick (Latvia), Beatrix Urkowitz (USA), Davis Ozols (Latvia), Emilie Gleason (Mexico), Erlend Peder Kvam (Norway), Ernests Klavins & Andrejs Klavins (Latvia), Fabio Zimbres (Brazil), Jason Herr (USA), Jul Gordon (Germany), Kameeellah (Russia), Karlina Marta Zvirbule (Latvia), Konig Lu. Q.(Switzerland), Marko Maetamm (Estonia), Martins Zutis (Latvia), Olaf Ladousse (Spain), Samplerman (France), Theo Ellsworth(USA), Zane Zlemesa (Latvia).
retail price - $12.00@ copacetic price - $12.00@
The
Nib #3
edited by Matt Bors
And, while we're on the subject of thematically organized comics anthology, here's one from the US of A. The new issue of the print comics anthology of the online comics publication of the same name, which employs comics to provide multiple perspectives that focus on the contemporary political dimension, is here. This issue, the focus is "Empire" and the comics within explore the significations attached to that term in the context of America today. You can tell there's a lot packed into this list form the contributor list alone: Hussein Adil, Malaka Gharib and Trinidad Escobar, Andrew Greenstone, Whit Taylor, Tom Humberstone, Robyn Smith, Max Loh, Niccolo Pizarro, Mariah-Rose Marie, Eleri Harris & Masha Gessen, Vreni Stollberger, Ellen Crenshaw, Ben Passmore, Andy Warner, Sofie Louise Dam, Victoria Lomasko, Rosa Colón, Spencer Ackerman, Matt Bors, Nero O’Reilly, Ann Telnaes, Kasia Babis, Marty Two Bulls, Matt Lubchansky, Chelsea Saunders, Fionn McCabe, Brian McFadden, Gemma Correll, Joey Alison Sayers, Rob Rogers & Mark Kaufman.
retail price - $14.99 copacetic price - $13.75
edited by Matt Bors
And, while we're on the subject of thematically organized comics anthology, here's one from the US of A. The new issue of the print comics anthology of the online comics publication of the same name, which employs comics to provide multiple perspectives that focus on the contemporary political dimension, is here. This issue, the focus is "Empire" and the comics within explore the significations attached to that term in the context of America today. You can tell there's a lot packed into this list form the contributor list alone: Hussein Adil, Malaka Gharib and Trinidad Escobar, Andrew Greenstone, Whit Taylor, Tom Humberstone, Robyn Smith, Max Loh, Niccolo Pizarro, Mariah-Rose Marie, Eleri Harris & Masha Gessen, Vreni Stollberger, Ellen Crenshaw, Ben Passmore, Andy Warner, Sofie Louise Dam, Victoria Lomasko, Rosa Colón, Spencer Ackerman, Matt Bors, Nero O’Reilly, Ann Telnaes, Kasia Babis, Marty Two Bulls, Matt Lubchansky, Chelsea Saunders, Fionn McCabe, Brian McFadden, Gemma Correll, Joey Alison Sayers, Rob Rogers & Mark Kaufman.
retail price - $14.99 copacetic price - $13.75
Bubbles
#3
According to Bubbles, #3 features: Interview with Brian Blomerth where we talk about his new book 'Bicycle Day'; Interview with Ryan Holmberg where we talk manga and translation; Interview with Tetsunori Tawaraya where we talk scifi, risograph printing and process; Interview with Bob Lewis where we talk comic collecting and lots more; Essay by M. Thomas Inge; Comic reviews; And more!
retail price - $6.00 copacetic price - $5.75
According to Bubbles, #3 features: Interview with Brian Blomerth where we talk about his new book 'Bicycle Day'; Interview with Ryan Holmberg where we talk manga and translation; Interview with Tetsunori Tawaraya where we talk scifi, risograph printing and process; Interview with Bob Lewis where we talk comic collecting and lots more; Essay by M. Thomas Inge; Comic reviews; And more!
retail price - $6.00 copacetic price - $5.75
Alay-Oopby William Gropper
Gropper's 1930 classic is at long last once again available. This sumptously produced new edition from the fine folks at NYRC is a handy-sized but heavy-duty hardcover that sports a cover designed by Sammy Harkham, starts off with an introduction by James Sturm and has Art Spiegelman singing its praises (see below) – so you know, with friends like these, that this is a worthy work, and that readers will be in for a special treat. Here's what NYRC has to say about it: "William Gropper was one of the great American cartoonists and illustrators of the twentieth century. A student of George Bellows and Robert Henri, he was a prolific newspaper cartoonist, a WPA muralist, a Guggenheim recipient, and committed political activist—the first visual artist called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, after which he was blacklisted (though he got revenge with his pen). He was also a master of visual storytelling, best seen in his only full-length narrative work, Alay-Oop. First published in 1930, just as Gropper was coming to the height of his powers, this lost classic of the graphic novel presents an unusual love triangle: two circus acrobats and the honey-tongued schemer who comes between them. In page after page of charming, wordless art, Gropper takes us from the big top to bustling New York streets, from a cramped tenement apartment to the shifting landscape of a dream, as his characters struggle with the conflicting demands of career, family, and romance. A timeless and surprisingly modern yarn—with backflips aplenty." And, here's Spiegelman: "Now that ‘the graphic novel’ is no longer just a marketing euphemism for A Very Long Comic Book, I’ve begrudgingly come to terms with the term—especially since it allows anomalous treasures like William Gropper’s 1930 story in pictures a new chance to be discovered. Gropper, a founding editor of the New Masses, was probably the most revered left-wing American Political painter and cartoonist of his day, but the low-key love triangle at the heart of Alay-Oop has little to do with, say, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed Gropper’s aunt when he was a kid and helped radicalize him—and that surreal horse in the woman aerialist’s dream chapter has way more to do with Freud than with Marx. The book is a witty social realist graphic novel of life among working-class variety performers—or maybe it’s a graphic ballad, with its surface simplicity. But the story gains in depth on repeated viewing—and each viewing is a delight, as Gropper’s cartooning masterfully reveals character through expressive gestures in efficiently observed spaces. He tells his story with a bold, graceful, and athletic brush line—somehow both light and weighty—that soars and swings across the pages until the artist, and the woman at the center of this tale, land firmly on their feet." 'Nuf said?
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75
These items and more may also be found at our eCommerce site, HERE.
New for May 2019
The Structure Is Rotten, Comrade
by Viken Berberian, Yann Kebbi
The Structure Is Rotten, Comrade is, while fiction, very much a book about the contemporary Armenian experience. It is simultaneously a fable about the wider post-Cold War era, during which the collapse of the authoritarian communist Soviet regime in the east has been gradually replaced by a global capitalist – here, largely European – enterprise from the west, which is here revealed to be, in its own fashion, perhaps no less authoritarian. Yann Kebbi's colorful cartooning, playful, bordering at times on anarchic, perfectly captures the spirit of Berberian's deconstructive narrative in which the past is being continually destroyed by one side or the other to make way for a future that neither side has yet to build. Readers completing this 300+ page work will lay the book down with a greater understanding of the dynamic social forces in play in our ever evolving world and an increased appreciation of Armenia's place in it all.
retail price - $34.99 copacetic price - $29.75
Red
Ultramarine
by Manuele Fior
Fior's early, 2006 work – published by Atrabile in France as Icarus, and by Coconino Press in Italy as Rosso oltremare (thence the English title) – has at last been published in North America. Fior here starts out appearing to be following Blutch, to some degree, both in style and content in this tale that mines classical Greek mythology, but then switches gears, fusing it to the present via Goethe's Faust, and then presents the entire tale from a woman's perspective, making for an intriguing multi-layered take on the individual self's struggle to navigate the labyrinth of destiny.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $16.75
by Manuele Fior
Fior's early, 2006 work – published by Atrabile in France as Icarus, and by Coconino Press in Italy as Rosso oltremare (thence the English title) – has at last been published in North America. Fior here starts out appearing to be following Blutch, to some degree, both in style and content in this tale that mines classical Greek mythology, but then switches gears, fusing it to the present via Goethe's Faust, and then presents the entire tale from a woman's perspective, making for an intriguing multi-layered take on the individual self's struggle to navigate the labyrinth of destiny.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $16.75
Bezimena
by Nina Bunjevac
Nina Bunjevac pulls out the stops in her first graphic novel for Fantagraphics. Bezimena is an oversize hardcover volume printed in a stark and dark black and white that contains the finest work of Bunjevac's career (thus far). Page after page of striking visuals take readers through a labyrinth of memory and imagination to share a tale of sexual repression and abuse that is by turns haunting, lurid and surreal.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.75
by Nina Bunjevac
Nina Bunjevac pulls out the stops in her first graphic novel for Fantagraphics. Bezimena is an oversize hardcover volume printed in a stark and dark black and white that contains the finest work of Bunjevac's career (thus far). Page after page of striking visuals take readers through a labyrinth of memory and imagination to share a tale of sexual repression and abuse that is by turns haunting, lurid and surreal.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.75
O Josephine!
by Jason
The new Jason has arrived! All new takes on walking and talking, singing and fighting, lying and stealing, loving and dying from the master of melancholy, O Josephine collects four graphic novellas by the master of deadpan comics. This 176 page hardcover collection starts off with an auto-bio of Jason's trek along Ireland's Wicklow Way, which is more or less a follow up of his last release, On the Camino, and serves as a segue to the rest of the collection. Next up is fantasy-bio, "L.Cohen: A Life," which tells the tale of Leonard Cohen's life, as Jason imagines it. Next up, "The Diamonds," is a classic Jason noir. The collection then closes with the title tack, "O Josephine," a complex tale that transports its readers through time and space in a playfully morose internalization of history. "Wicklow Way" and "O Josephine!" are in black and white, "L. Cohen" and "Diamonds" are two-tone, orange-yellow and mustard-yellow, respectively. Jason!
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75
by Jason
The new Jason has arrived! All new takes on walking and talking, singing and fighting, lying and stealing, loving and dying from the master of melancholy, O Josephine collects four graphic novellas by the master of deadpan comics. This 176 page hardcover collection starts off with an auto-bio of Jason's trek along Ireland's Wicklow Way, which is more or less a follow up of his last release, On the Camino, and serves as a segue to the rest of the collection. Next up is fantasy-bio, "L.Cohen: A Life," which tells the tale of Leonard Cohen's life, as Jason imagines it. Next up, "The Diamonds," is a classic Jason noir. The collection then closes with the title tack, "O Josephine," a complex tale that transports its readers through time and space in a playfully morose internalization of history. "Wicklow Way" and "O Josephine!" are in black and white, "L. Cohen" and "Diamonds" are two-tone, orange-yellow and mustard-yellow, respectively. Jason!
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $21.75
Science Comics – Cars: Engines That
Move You
by Dan Zettwoch
Long time Copacetic fave, Dan Zettwoch takes a turn at bat in the (:01)First Second series, Science Comics, and hits a home run with Cars: Engines That Move You. This book is equal parts science and science history, and the roadmap followed is one of scientific progress, one that goes all the way back to the discovery of fire and the invention of the wheel, up through the laws of thermodynamics and even a bit of rocket science, covering engineering, physics, chemistry, archeaology, paleontology and more, in the process demonstrating just how much of human knowledge is incorporated into cars and driving. With Zettwoch in the driver's seat, however, you know there's going to me more – and there is! Dynamic layouts accompanied by bold and brash lettering power this mighty engine of entertaining education. Readers will also come across plenty of cultural asides (with a noted emphasis on the mid-west) incorporating his own brand of madcap humor – and, of course, plenty of his amazing cut-away diagram drawings! 120 pages of full color science comics, suitable for all ages.
retail price - $12.99 copacetic price - $11.75
by Dan Zettwoch
Long time Copacetic fave, Dan Zettwoch takes a turn at bat in the (:01)First Second series, Science Comics, and hits a home run with Cars: Engines That Move You. This book is equal parts science and science history, and the roadmap followed is one of scientific progress, one that goes all the way back to the discovery of fire and the invention of the wheel, up through the laws of thermodynamics and even a bit of rocket science, covering engineering, physics, chemistry, archeaology, paleontology and more, in the process demonstrating just how much of human knowledge is incorporated into cars and driving. With Zettwoch in the driver's seat, however, you know there's going to me more – and there is! Dynamic layouts accompanied by bold and brash lettering power this mighty engine of entertaining education. Readers will also come across plenty of cultural asides (with a noted emphasis on the mid-west) incorporating his own brand of madcap humor – and, of course, plenty of his amazing cut-away diagram drawings! 120 pages of full color science comics, suitable for all ages.
retail price - $12.99 copacetic price - $11.75
Laura Dean Keeps
Breaking Up With Me
by Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O'Connell
Mariko Tamaki is back at First Second with a new young adult graphic novel, this time around in tandem with Rosemary Valero-O'Connell, who delivers some well paced comics replete with a feeling of openness. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me creates a welcoming environment with a diverse and likeable cast of characters and puts them all together to tell a contemporary tale of young love, with a twist.
retail price - $17.99 copacetic price - $15.75
by Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O'Connell
Mariko Tamaki is back at First Second with a new young adult graphic novel, this time around in tandem with Rosemary Valero-O'Connell, who delivers some well paced comics replete with a feeling of openness. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me creates a welcoming environment with a diverse and likeable cast of characters and puts them all together to tell a contemporary tale of young love, with a twist.
retail price - $17.99 copacetic price - $15.75
Monks Mound
by Conor Stechschulte
Here's a surprise new release from Closed Caption Comics co-founder and PIX 2016 special guest, Conor Stechschulte. Monks Mound looks and feels like it grew out of the same creative ferment that is currently nuturing his ongoing series, Generous Bosom. Printed in dark blue-green/evergreen on cream stock, this 20 page short story interweaves two narratives: the central ground narrative tells of two adult siblings spending the night at their mother's and as such offers a slice of life in these United States; the secondary, is, more or less, a guided, historical tour through the titular Monks Mound, an ancient Native American burial mound that recevied its present designation in the early 19th century after some Trappist monks settled nearby. How the two interconnect is up to the reader to determine...
retail price - $34.99 copacetic price - $29.75
by Conor Stechschulte
Here's a surprise new release from Closed Caption Comics co-founder and PIX 2016 special guest, Conor Stechschulte. Monks Mound looks and feels like it grew out of the same creative ferment that is currently nuturing his ongoing series, Generous Bosom. Printed in dark blue-green/evergreen on cream stock, this 20 page short story interweaves two narratives: the central ground narrative tells of two adult siblings spending the night at their mother's and as such offers a slice of life in these United States; the secondary, is, more or less, a guided, historical tour through the titular Monks Mound, an ancient Native American burial mound that recevied its present designation in the early 19th century after some Trappist monks settled nearby. How the two interconnect is up to the reader to determine...
retail price - $34.99 copacetic price - $29.75
Motel Universe
by Joakim Drescher
Joakim Drescher's highly imaginative cartooning pulls out all the stops in forging a science fictional visual interpretation of our current psychological state. A misfit mash-up, part Henry Darger, Part S. Clay Wilson and part Fletcher Hanks all grafted onto a base of Mark Beyer, Motel Universe gives its readers a front row seat to a grotesque battle royale for America's soul.
retail price - $21.95 copacetic price - $18.75
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Uncle Scrooge, "The Mines of King Solomon"
by Carl Barks
It's the dawn of the Gyro Gearloose era, here in the latest volume of The Carl Barks Library, Uncle Scrooge: "The Mines of King Solomon." Yes, it's another 200 pages of classic comics from the mind and pen of Carl Barks, whose ambivalence towards technological advance is embodied in his creation, Gyro Gearloose, whose antics point out both the promise and peril inherent in technology, in a manner directly analogous to Barks's use of Uncle Scrooge in critiquing capitalism. Laugh and learn!
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.75
by Joakim Drescher
Joakim Drescher's highly imaginative cartooning pulls out all the stops in forging a science fictional visual interpretation of our current psychological state. A misfit mash-up, part Henry Darger, Part S. Clay Wilson and part Fletcher Hanks all grafted onto a base of Mark Beyer, Motel Universe gives its readers a front row seat to a grotesque battle royale for America's soul.
retail price - $21.95 copacetic price - $18.75
Yellow
YellowUncle Scrooge, "The Mines of King Solomon"
by Carl Barks
It's the dawn of the Gyro Gearloose era, here in the latest volume of The Carl Barks Library, Uncle Scrooge: "The Mines of King Solomon." Yes, it's another 200 pages of classic comics from the mind and pen of Carl Barks, whose ambivalence towards technological advance is embodied in his creation, Gyro Gearloose, whose antics point out both the promise and peril inherent in technology, in a manner directly analogous to Barks's use of Uncle Scrooge in critiquing capitalism. Laugh and learn!
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.75
These items and more may also be found at our eCommerce site, HERE.
New for April 2019
This Woman's Work
by Julie Delporte
Delporte initially planned this work to be a biography of Tove Jansson, but as it progressed it eventually morphed into the volume we now have before us, which is more about Delporte discovering herself through Jansson's life and work than it is about Jansson herself (in this way it is somewhat like Geoff Dyer's struggle with D.H. Lawrence's life in Out of Sheer Rage). Jansson's presence is woven throughout, and represents a role model illuminating (Jansson, fittingly, lived in a lighthouse) a path for Delporte to follow. Yet This Woman's Work is primarily a meditation on being a (young) woman (artist) today. Delporte's painterly approach to comics, combined with her exquisite color palette, work together to craft an extended treat for the eyes. Each turn of the page brings a new pleasure (you can flip through a few pages, here). While Delporte articulates a clear dissatisfaction with her condition, as a woman in a world that she perceives as over(t)ly masculine, and struggles to identify and embody a feminist stance within the narrative, it is clear that she has quite successfully embodied being simultaneously a woman and an artist in This Woman's Work.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $21.75
Alienation
by Inés Estrada
Inés Estrada's self-published, six-issue, digest-size comic book series has now been collected in this solid 240 page softcover. It is also herein printed in a moody blue-grey (grey-blue?) tone throughout. Taking place roughly 40 years in the future, Alienation is a science fiction tale that posits a world in which people haven't changed all that much, but what constitutes reality has. In the world of Alienation, perception is reality and it can be altered at will through technology, making for disconcerting shifts, some strange times, and plenty of great comics! We posted a few pages for anyone who'd like to check them out, here.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $16.75
retail price - $7.00 copacetic price - $6.25
Through
a Life
by Tom Haugomat
A poetic minimalist voyage through space and time – specifically the 70 years spanning 1956 to 2026, those years that coincide with the life of one man, who aspires to become an astronaut and, at his life's apogee, achieves his dream and is launched into space, after which he comes down to earth and lives out his days... And, this life story is told entirely in bold tri-color illustrations that eschew black line entirely, in the grand NoBrow tradition. This volume was originally published in France, however, translation was minimal as the work's only text are captions providing the temporal and spatial coordinates for each image. Smartly printed in Poland on a slightly coarse, flat white stock, this 184 page hardcover volume is value priced.
retail price - $18.95 copacetic price - $17.00
by Tom Haugomat
A poetic minimalist voyage through space and time – specifically the 70 years spanning 1956 to 2026, those years that coincide with the life of one man, who aspires to become an astronaut and, at his life's apogee, achieves his dream and is launched into space, after which he comes down to earth and lives out his days... And, this life story is told entirely in bold tri-color illustrations that eschew black line entirely, in the grand NoBrow tradition. This volume was originally published in France, however, translation was minimal as the work's only text are captions providing the temporal and spatial coordinates for each image. Smartly printed in Poland on a slightly coarse, flat white stock, this 184 page hardcover volume is value priced.
retail price - $18.95 copacetic price - $17.00
Comics:
Easy as ABC
by Ivan Brunetti
Comics may not just be for kids anymore, but, of course, they are still especially well suited for stimulating the construction of those neural pathways involved in decoding text and images, and linking them together in chains of meaning – aka learning! – all of which are crucial to developing kids' minds. Even more importantly, many kids are naturally drawn to comics and quite a few actually enjoy making them. What better way to keep kids out of trouble and get them in touch with their creative side than encouraging them to make their own comics? And that's exactly what Comics: Easy as ABC aims to do. Penned by noted comics educator and author of the staple of adult comics pedagogy, Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice published by Yale University Press, this new work by Ivan Brunetti presents comics as a most approachable form, and jumps right in to teaching its ABCs. RECOMMENDED!
retail price - $9.99 copacetic price - $9.25
retail price - $9.99 copacetic price - $8.75
by Ivan Brunetti
Comics may not just be for kids anymore, but, of course, they are still especially well suited for stimulating the construction of those neural pathways involved in decoding text and images, and linking them together in chains of meaning – aka learning! – all of which are crucial to developing kids' minds. Even more importantly, many kids are naturally drawn to comics and quite a few actually enjoy making them. What better way to keep kids out of trouble and get them in touch with their creative side than encouraging them to make their own comics? And that's exactly what Comics: Easy as ABC aims to do. Penned by noted comics educator and author of the staple of adult comics pedagogy, Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice published by Yale University Press, this new work by Ivan Brunetti presents comics as a most approachable form, and jumps right in to teaching its ABCs. RECOMMENDED!
retail price - $9.99 copacetic price - $9.25
retail price - $9.99 copacetic price - $8.75
Smashed
by Junji Ito
Within the pages of Smashed lurk a baker's dozen of all new (to North American readers, at least) gruesome stories awaits – by the manga master of horror, Junji Ito; over 400 pages in all! " Bloodsucking Darkness," "Deathrow Doorbell," "I Don't Want to Be a Ghost," "Library Vision," and more. Get smashed... on horror manga! Here's a brief preview from our Instagram™ feed.
retail price - $22.95 copacetic price - $20.00
The Nib #2: Family
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $13.75
retail price - $28.95 copacetic price - $25.00
by Junji Ito
Within the pages of Smashed lurk a baker's dozen of all new (to North American readers, at least) gruesome stories awaits – by the manga master of horror, Junji Ito; over 400 pages in all! " Bloodsucking Darkness," "Deathrow Doorbell," "I Don't Want to Be a Ghost," "Library Vision," and more. Get smashed... on horror manga! Here's a brief preview from our Instagram™ feed.
retail price - $22.95 copacetic price - $20.00
The Nib #2: Familyretail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $13.75
The
Book of Weirdo
by Jon B. Cooke
When Weirdo first premiered nearly 40 years ago ( > Good Lord, Choke! < ), it would have been hard to imagine it ever being the subject of a coffee table book, but times change! Here we have a heavy duty, oversize, 288 page book chock full of photos, illustrations, and, of course, comics – entirely in black & white, natch' – edited, and largely written, by comics scholar Jon B. Cooke, with plenty of help from Weirdo alumni. In addition to covering the life and times of the magazine and its contributors – most notably, and centrally, R. Crumb – there are plenty of interesting asides to tangential issues such as Weirdo's connection to the Church of the Sub-Genius, its link to the creation of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. the influence of Bruce Duncan's Tele-Times, and much more!
retail price - $39.95 copacetic price - $35.75
by Jon B. Cooke
When Weirdo first premiered nearly 40 years ago ( > Good Lord, Choke! < ), it would have been hard to imagine it ever being the subject of a coffee table book, but times change! Here we have a heavy duty, oversize, 288 page book chock full of photos, illustrations, and, of course, comics – entirely in black & white, natch' – edited, and largely written, by comics scholar Jon B. Cooke, with plenty of help from Weirdo alumni. In addition to covering the life and times of the magazine and its contributors – most notably, and centrally, R. Crumb – there are plenty of interesting asides to tangential issues such as Weirdo's connection to the Church of the Sub-Genius, its link to the creation of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. the influence of Bruce Duncan's Tele-Times, and much more!
retail price - $39.95 copacetic price - $35.75
Foodgirls
by Lizzee Solomon
We finally got our hands on a stack of Lizzee Solomon's compendium of her best selling – and ineffable – Foodgirls™ postcards. This 8 1/2" x 11" squarebound softcover, presents all 46 of these unique illustrations, one per page. This volume's sub-title indicates that it can also be considered an "Adult Coloring Book." So, anyone so inclined can go to town here – the paper is extra heavy stock, ready to absorb markers as well as crayon and colored pencil.
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $12.75
retail
price - $2.00@ copacetic price - $2.00@
by Lizzee Solomon
We finally got our hands on a stack of Lizzee Solomon's compendium of her best selling – and ineffable – Foodgirls™ postcards. This 8 1/2" x 11" squarebound softcover, presents all 46 of these unique illustrations, one per page. This volume's sub-title indicates that it can also be considered an "Adult Coloring Book." So, anyone so inclined can go to town here – the paper is extra heavy stock, ready to absorb markers as well as crayon and colored pencil.
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $12.75
retail
price - $2.00@ copacetic price - $2.00@retail price - $28.95 copacetic price - $25.00
These items and more may also be found at our eCommerce site, HERE.
