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New for July 2008
Drawing Words &
Writing Pictures:
Making Comics - Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond
by Jessica Abel & Matt Madden
We all knew it was only a matter of time until this day arrived, and so it has: the first textbook devoted to the practice of creating comics is now on our shelves. Billed as, "A definintive course from concept to comic in 15 lessons," the primary purpose of this work is to provide a state-of-the-art textbook for high school, trade school and college courses devoted to comics craft -- thus the 15 lessons, the average number of classes in a semester. Authors Abel and Madden (who are wife and husband, and, more germane to their authorship of this work, veteran comics instructors, most notably at SVA [the School for Visual Arts] in NYC) have not, however, forgotten about the rest of us, for they have designed the book with both lone, individual-learners -- "ronin" -- and independent study students who might like to get together and create their own self-directed learning groups -- "nomads" -- in mind. Of special note in this regard is the book's companion website, http://www.dw-wp.com , which is chock full of extra features and sample work that will help to keep on track those lacking the guiding hand of a professional instructor. "Well, yes," you say, "that's all very interesting. But is the book any good?" While we haven't managed to spend enough time with it yet to provide our own judgement, here's the opinion of the two individuals most qualified to offer one: "A gold mine of essential information for every aspiring comics artist. Highly recommended." - Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics "Matt and Jessica's experience, both in the classroom and at the drawing board, has resulted in a book that should help any aspiring cartoonist. A go-to how-to that will undoubtedly be of tremendous aid for any school or instructor attempting to map out a thoughtful and engaging cartooning curriculum." -- James Sturm, founder and director of The Center for Cartoon Studies And there you have it.
retail price - $29.95 copacetic price - $25.75
Nat Turner
by Kyle Baker
Mister Baker, perhaps the funniest cartoonist alive, steps out of his clown shoes and puts on his severest suit and tie to deliver this sermon of horror and hatred, violence and vengeance, and struggle and sacrifice, in this synecdochical story of slavery in these United States. Reading this book, in which the narrative is advanced almost entirely in images (pantomime style) interspersed with excerpts from The Confessions of Nat Turner, it is impossible not to marvel at the strength of Baker's storytelling. And, there is a method to the madness of attempting to relate so complex a tale entirely in images. It captures the forced silence of the lives of the slaves it chronicles, a silence that was doubled by the forced illiteracy imposed by the slave owners. It was exactly this imposed silence that Nat Turner intuited was at the root of the condition that he felt called upon to rise up against and destroy. Thus the interspersed text stands as the beacon that Turner meant it to be, and when the long silence of the narrative is punctuated by a lone cry, it takes on both an urgency and a poignancy as a result of its standing alone. Here's a hefty preview that might take a moment or two to load, but rest assured your patience will be amply rewarded. As will any purchaser of this elegantly produced (and quite reasonably priced) 208 page softcover edition. The character of Nat Turner is one of the fiercest embodiments of anger on the American historical register, and Baker's depiction doesn't hold back, revealing a wellspring of anger in Baker's soul. That he has both chosen and managed to channel this anger into a successful career (see below) based on making people laugh is a testament to his character and a powerful demonstration of the truth embedded in the old adage, "Laughter is the best medicine."
retail price - $12.95 copacetic price - $11.75
How
to Draw Stupid
by Kyle Baker
Yes, that's right: two new Kyle Baker books in one month. Our cup runneth over. The first thing you should know about this book is that, while it is indeed a how-to-draw art book, it's NOT for people who want to learn how to be Artists, or how to "express themselves," . This IS a book for those who are looking to learn the ins and outs of cartooning, who are interested in becoming professionals, who want a career -- especially those who need some encouragement and could use some common sense advice. The sound, solid and simple premise upon which this book is based is that if someone is or was successful then their work is worth studying, and their opinions are worth listening to. Anytime Jack Kirby, Will Eisner and Frank Miller do or say something, it is, ipso facto, worth paying attention to -- your investment of time and energy will be rewarded with personal improvement and career advancement. Kyle Baker is successful, therefore you should pay attention to what he has to offer if you too are interested in being successful. How to Draw Stupid is a potential supplement to Abel & Madden's Drawing Words, Writing Pictures listed above. Where DW, WP takes the programmatic approach of traditional pedagogy, HtDS take the personal approach of the master-apprentice relationship. Also, and importantly, whereas DW, WP takes a broad overview of the entire field of combining words and pictures to tell stories, HtDS is specifically directed at the narrow focus region of humorous cartooning. If you are interested in being a successful, professional cartoonist, and, especially if you like, enjoy an/or admire Kyle Baker's work, then getting a hold of a copy of this book should move right to the top of your to-do list. The book is written in an intimate, personal tone (it is also funny). Reading this book really feels like sitting across from Kyle as he works at his drawing table (or as you both share a booth at the local tavern, to which he has brought his portfolio and sketchbook). We felt like he was right there, talking us through his method, telling us his opinions (of which he has many and is not shy in sharing them), intermittently leafing through his portfolio and now and then whipping off a quick sketch to illustrate a point. Sometimes, you might feel like he's holding onto his opinions a little too firmly -- as we did when he insisted only one of fifteen different drawings of eyes was "truly" stupid (we could be wrong, but we'd be hard pressed to imagine that the "correct" answer would be chosen by a majority) -- but that's part of the charm: he's not holding back, he's not trying to conform to any preconceived notion of "correctness", he's just being himself, a straight-shootin' cartoonist sharing the secrets of success, and makin' a buck doing it -- which is exactly what he'd recommend you do, should the opportunity present itself.
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.25
Red Colored Elegy
by Seiichi Hayashi
It's hard to believe that it's taken nearly forty years for this truly original, one of a kind work to finally be published in North America in English translation, but now that it has it's like a missing chapter in the history of manga has at last been found. This work is not one than can simply be opened up a dived into, partly as a result of its late arrival, but mostly because it is such an original piece that most readers will immediately find themselves on unfamiliar ground that seems to shift beneath them as they progress through its pages. Seiichi was clearly a cultural omnivore and he ranged far and wide indeed in gathering his inspiration for Red Colored Elegy, which he produced during 1970 and 1971, in the wake of the tumultuous cultural upheavals of the late 1960s, which, it is not widely appreciated here in the states, created as much turmoil in Japan as in America and Europe. His visual sources range from Utamaro and Hokusai to di Chirico and Picasso to Takahama and Tatsumi, and include incorporations of Hollywood icons such as Mickey Mouse and James Dean. We'll have to admit to finding his narrative influences to be somewhat obscure -- due to our lack of expertise in Japanese literary history. Nevertheless, it is discenable that, as with his visual sources, there is an "East meets West" feel to the idiosyncracies of Hayashi's storytelling. There is also a clear generational opposition to the straight forward, propulsive narratives of Tezuka, as well as an alliance with the narrative indeterminacies of the cinema of la nouvelle vague. All this is by way of preparing you for the unique experience of reading Red Colored Elegy. It is a work full of despair and desperation that is more than a work of fiction: it embodies the struggle of its author to forge a way in the world; to survive the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune'; and, finally, to build and hold a lasting love. How successful this work was in achieving these, we cannot say, but Red Colored Elegy most certainly left a lasting legacy that is at last being shared with American readers. Here's an excellent preview that will give you a good idea of what we're talking about.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $22.22
Good-Bye
by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
introduction by Frederik Schodt
Good-Bye, the third volume in Drawn & Quarterly's series collecting the work of this manga master who pioneered the dark, mature (noir, if you will) genre of manga known as gekiga during the years that followed the cultural upheavals of 1968, has been released in tandem with Red Colored Elegy as the work it contains was produced during roughly the same historical moment. This volume collects storieds originally published during 1971 and 1972 and contains some of Tatsumi's best work. The introduction, by America's foremost expert on the history of manga, sets the work in context and gives the reader a good perspective from which to get the most out of the stories that follow. Those who missed the first two volumes in this series, The Pushman and Abandon the Old in Tokyo (both of which are still in print and available here at Copacetic), are encouraged to take a look at this one, as it's the best yet. Sceptical? Check out this nice nine-page preview.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
Windy City Magazine #2
This issue features more full color comics in crayon by its editor, Austin English, who has also, it seems, managed to convert publisher, Dylan Williams, to the way of the crayon, as his contribution (Williams is an established comics writer/artist as well as publisher) is his first full color work and it is rendered entirely in oil pastel. Other notable contributions to this anthology publication are a historical overview of the works of legendary children's author/illustrator, Lois Lenski -- also by Austin English -- and, the highlight for us, a lengthy illustrated interview (conducted by fellow cartoonist and pal, Jeremy Onsmith) with the one and only John Hankiewicz, who proves himself to be as articulate about his work as he is in control of it. The issue comes to a close with a full color back cover illustration by Copacetic customer, Juliacks. Recommended for fans of MOME who are ready to adventure a bit farther afield, and anyone else interested in the intersection of comics, art and illustration.
retail price - $10.00 copacetic price - $8.88
Rabid Rabbit #4 - 8
This is a nice anthology series out of New York City that we somehow missed out on, until now. We suspect the contributor list is populated in part by current and former students of SVA (as well as at least one instructor, David Sandlin). This is a good thing. The comics here, while generally focused on urban themes, are diverse in their styles and approaches. Each of these issues is devoted to a specific theme, to wit: #4 - Trash; #5 - Alphabet City; #5 - The Future; #7 - Pornography (18+ only, natch'); and #8 -- The Beatles! Issues #4 - #7 are digest size and are 36, 32, 40 & 48 pages respectively; #8 is 8 1/2" square -- and squarebound -- (to resemble a record jacket -- The White Album, in this case) and runs a big 64 pages. Learn more at: http://www.rabidrabbit.org
#4 - #7: retail price - $3.00@ copacetic price - $2.75@
#8: retail price - $6.00 copacetic price - $5.00
ordering info
New for June 2008
Cold Heat Special #4
by Frank Santoro & Jim Rugg
This time around we have a16-page tabloid newspaper comic book filled with further far out fables featuring Cassandra -- aka Castle -- cavorting with chaos. Santoro and Rugg employ the large (22" x 17", when opened) "canvas" of the tabloid format to excellent effect, creating a feast for the eyes with finely rendered dramatic imagery that ranges from psychedlicized fast food bathroom interiors to landscapes of the rolling hills of (what appears to be) western PA, all in the service of a tale of temporal displacement that demonstrates that the past is still here, all around us, and that travelling through time is a simple matter of opening a door or two. There may be some side effects, however...
retail price - $3.00 copacetic price - $2.50
The Goddess of War
by Lauren Weinstein
Also from PictureBox, this gigantic (10" x 15") comic book is the first installment of an epic fantasy that incorporates South and North American Indian history and lore, twentieth century European conflicts and surrealistic science fiction with a contemporary, urban art comics aesthetic to forge a modern mythology of war, and has fun doing it.
retail price - $12.95 copacetic price - $11.00
We Lost the War but
Not the Battle
by Michel Gondry (!)
This straight-up 32-page full color comic book by the famed French FIlmmaker, Michel Gondry, rounds out this month's PictureBox trifecta. Perhaps the zaniest war comic ever produced, Gondry pits four former draft evading slackers against a hoard of communist babes intent on taking over France in this over the top satire that conflates the battle between the sexes, the war on communism and modern America-centric militarism to create a comic book that has a surprisingly large amount in common with the old-school underground comics of yore.
retail price - $5.99 copacetic price - $5.00
Strange and Stranger:
The World of Steve Ditko
by Blake Bell
Here it is, (many) years in the making: the long-awaited all-in-one work -- biography, appreciation and coffee-table art book -- on the one and only "sturdy" Steve Ditko. While best known as co-creator of Spider-Man, his career began in 1953 and spans five decades filled with unique, original and widely influential contributions to the medium of comics. Fans of his work pretty much have no choice but to rush out and purchase this book immediately or risk losing their hard-earned credentials, but this 200+ page, oversize hardcover volume that is filled cover to cover with amazing full color and B & W art will also serve as an excellent entry point to any and all looking to gain a further appreciation of this amazingly talented and highly eccentric creator.
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $33.99
Chiggers
by Hope Larson
A brand new 170 page young adult graphic novel by the award winning creator of Salamander Dream and Gray Horses. The setting is a summer camp, where the protagonist, Abby, returns to find that old friends have changed over the past year, but there's a new girl who brings many changes of her own to Abby's summer and therein lies the story. Great summer read for teenage girls. Learn more about the story, look at some samples from Hope Larson's portfolio, and read a sneak preview here.
retail price - $9.99 copacetic price - $8.88
Dororo, Volume 2
by Osamu Tezuka
The classic late-period Tezuka tale continues in this nicely put together volume. The publisher of this series -- and many other excellent Tezuka works -- Vertical, Inc., is head and shoulders above other American purveyors of manga when it comes to packaging and production (only the European manga publisher, Ponent Mon, can lay any kind of claim to doing a better job). So sit back and enjoy.
retail price - $13.95 copacetic price - $12.50
Pocket Full of Rain
by Jason
A lot of you may have wondered, as we did, when Hey, Wait! was first released in the US, "Hey, wait a minute -- who is this guy Jason, and how did he appear, seemingly out of nowhere, with this fully developed style?" Well, Pocket Full of Rain at long last provides US readers with the answer. Here are the works that Jason produced leading up to his US debut, but that had never before been published here until now. Pocket Full of Rain contains over 120 pages of comics, along with a 16-page color section of covers and illustrations -- almost all of which was originally published in his native Norway during the 1990s. This is the work that show us Jason's development as an artist. Jason fans will find this an engaging and possibly even fascinating collection, and students of comics will find this a volume worthy of study, so if you area among the latter, make sure to take a look.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $16.95
Fatal Faux-Pas
by Samuel C. Gaskin
96 pages of extreme goofiness printed in purple ink, answers the question, "What is a Fatal Faux-Pas?" Nothing is sacred, except maybe a sense of the absurdity of life. If your favorite comics are Tales To Demolish, Tales Designed to Thrizzle, anything by Paper Rad and/or Matthew Thurber, then this might just be for you. Immersion in popular culture is recommended for full comprehension, appreciation and enjoyment of this product. The first release (001) from rookie publisher, Secret Acres (see below for the second).
retail price - $10.00 copacetic price - $8.50
Wormdye
by Eamon Espey
Brand-spanking new publisher, Secret Acres, brings us Wormdye, a 128-page, 6 5/8" x 9 1/2", B & W collection of Eamon Espey's self-published series of the same name (some issues of which we have had on sale here at Copacetic over the past few years). Coming on strong, like a mutant offspring of Kim Deitch, Gary Panter, Charles Burns and Rory Hayes who spent all his spare time studying ancient arts from around the world, Eamon Espey is an engaging new talent. His work gathers strength and intensity from being bundled together -- taken all at once, it packs a wallop of weirdness. Ancient eras and distant cultures freely mix with contemporary comics sensibilities producing a manic hurly burly that will provide its readers with a unique and unsettling experience.
retail price - $13.00 copacetic price - $10.95
Tragic Relief
by Colleen Frakes
A fun-filled fable told entirely in textless pantomime comics about a man, his mother, and his imagination, as he fills his days waiting for the real thing to come along. This 80-page, 5" x 8", B & W, squarebound volume is by a Xeric grant-winning recent graduate of The Center for Cartoon Studies.
retail price - $7.00 copacetic special price - $4.95
untitled
by Blaise Larmee
A beautifully produced 16-page, full color work of wonder and loss delicately rendered in pen and ink and watercolor. While the narrative thread here just barely coheres, it shows an artist full of promise whose future work we look forward to seeing. Take a look, here.
retail price - $7.00 copacetic price - $6.00
McSweeney's #27
edited by Dave Eggers
This time out we have a tripartate, slipcased edition, thus: a 196-page softcover fiction anthology featuring the writings of Larry Smith, Jim Shepard, Ashlee Adams, Liz Mandrell, Mikel Jollett and Stephen King that sports a swell, architectronic wraparound cover and interior illustrations by Scott Teplin; a 72-page horizontally formatted collection of "Art" cartoons by the likes of Jean Michel Basquiat, Kenneth Koch, Raymond Pettibone, David Shrigley, Jeffrey Brown, Paul Hornschemeier, Leonard Cohen, David Mamet and others, in full color and black & white; an 80-page sketchbook executed between March 12 and May 26, 2007 by Art Spiegelman, titled "Autophobia," which Spiegelman created to overcome his "fear of drawing."
retail price - $24.00 copacetic price - $21.50
Atmospheric
Disturbances
by Rivka Galchen
We've heard a lot of good things about this debut novel that is purported to be a psychololgical thriller that accomplishes the difficult feat of simultaneously delineating human relationships and scientific principles, in the process creating a new "Pynchonian" synthesis. We'll return with a report as soon as we can. Meanwhile, check out the book's very own website, where you can absorb some of its flavor while you read an extract from the novel, an interview with the author, and more.
retail price - $24.00 copacetic special price - $19.99
Sheena:
Queen of the Jungle
by Matt Baker, Will Eisner, Bob Powell and others
A dozen never-before-reprinted, classic Sheena tales are herein collected. All the stories were originally published in Jumbo Comics, almost all during the 1940s. As an added bonus, you get to read one of the stories as it was truncated and rescripted -- or "censored" as the editor and/or publisher of this collection have it -- for republication in Sheena #12 in 1951. This collection is assembled with care. The entire volume is reproduced in full color from high quality scans of the stories as they originally appeared (as well as the original covers and many original advertisements from the same issues that the stories appeared in, which together help to provide the proper ambience for that "you are there" feeling), to insure that your reading experience will be the closest possible approximation to that of actually reading the original comics (which would cost a small fortune to purchase). If classic jungle comics are your thing, then this is a no-brainer. And remember, Sheena Is a Punk Rocker.
retail price - $18.99 copacetic price - $17.00
OMAC: One
Man Army Corps
by Jack Kirby
Even the U.S. Army has based it's philosophy on Kirby's (We will freely admit that this is pure conjecture on our part, but hey: "Be an Army of One", "One Man Army Corps" -- coincidence or co-optation? You decide!). Anyway, this full color hardcover volume collects the entirety of the original 8-issue series that Kirby created in 1974. OMAC features some of Kirby's most mind-boggling (not to mention prophetic) science fiction concepts melded to non-stop action. This is a work that can be appreciated on just about any level you can think of and represents Kirby's last hurrah at DC in the 70s before jumping back to Marvel to reinvigorate Captain America, The Black Panther and more. OMAC!
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
by David Sedaris
22 new pieces by David Sedaris, are herein collected for the first time. Readers of Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim now having something to look forward to.
retail price - $25.99 copacetic price - $22.22
Skyscrapers of the Midwest
by Joshua W Cotter
All four issues of the highly praised series that focused its creative energies on overcoming the difficulties of childhood and adolescence though comics are at last collected along with 32 bonus pages of sketchbook drawings -- and more -- in this nicely put together 282 page hardcover volume published by AdHouse Books.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
Jessica Farm #1
by Josh Simmons
96 pages that depict a morning in the life of the titular character -- Christmas morning -- and which, if we are to believe the artist's afterword, took eight years to draw. While the artwork is very spatially oriented and creates a solid sense of place, one is best off assuming that the "true" location of the places depicted here is the imagination. Crazy fun that is all topped off by the fact that it ends with a cliffhanger that -- we are told -- we will have to wait until 2016 to find out what happens next!
retail price - $14.95 copacetic special price - $9.95
Mineshaft #21
A counter-culture zine of comics and more that is still going strong. This issue features a front cover and five sketchbook pages by R. Crumb, a swell 4-page comics-bio of that beatnikita, Diane di Prima by Harvey Pekar and Mary Fleener, a selection of fine pen and ink drawings along with commentary by their creator, William Crook, Jr., Bill Griffith's 3-panel revelation of "How I Got My Start in the Comics Business!!" a back cover and more by Cristoph Mueller, and a "Sunday" page by Jay Lynch and Pittsburgh's own Ed Piskor describing an afternoon with the one and only Chester Gould. Plus plenty more!
retail price - $6.95 copacetic price - $6.25
ordering info
New for May 2008
What It Is
by Lynda Barry
It's here! What It is, the long awaited, all new, 208 page hardcover volume of heuristic metacomix by the one and only Lynda Barry, is both a beautiful and inspiring work of art and an insightful exploration of the creative process. Her first new work since her 2002 masterpiece, 100 Demons, What It Is uses the language of comics to probe the secrets of creativity itself, which leads her deep into the caverns of philosophy, where, ever the intrepid explorer, Ms. Barry undertakes an especially thorough excavation of the cave of epistemology. There in the murky darkness she discovers that memory and imagination blur and merge amidst the stalactites and stalagmites of our respective genetic heritages before condensing and collecting in placid prehistoric pools to mix with the ancient amoebas; in the process dissolving time itself. The past, present and future come together -- an instant and an eternity stand as one in the revelation that it all starts with... The Image! Lynda Barry, long considered among the major contemporary comics creators, has, with What It Is, taken comics to a new place and created a work that can stand shoulder to shoulder in the pantheon with those created by Frida Kahlo, Jean Michel Basquiat, and Hayao Miyazaki, to name but a few of her new peers. This book is full of surprises and delight. There's really only one thing to say about this book: "YES!!!" If you still need convincing, then feast your eyes on this amazing (lucky)13-page preview and/or read our full length review.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic special intro price - $19.99
Bottomless Belly Button
by Dash Shaw
Weighing in at 700+ pages, we're pretty sure this one surpasses Craig Thompson's Blankets as the longest unserialized graphic novel ever published in the US. Just think: over 700 pages of far out and freaky graphic storytelling that you've never laid eyes on before -- and neither had we... until we sat down (after getting together a solid supply of food and drink to sustain us) and read this hefty tome. Where to start? Well, first off is the fact that the book took over two years to draw, is divided into three sections (each of which you are advised by the author to take a break after reading -- although we have to admit that we ignored this warning and plowed straight through), is printed in brown ink on 6" x 9" white paper, and tells the tale of the Loony family, in particular Peter Loony. It begins with the line, "There are many types of sand." Some 700 pages later the urge to compare this book to Blankets was, at least for us, irresisitable. Like Blankets, Bottomless Belly Button is also a deeply personal work of catharsis that takes the form of a long, involved book that tells the tale of an introverted artist struggling with the emotional baggage he has been weighed down with by his family and who, in his effort to move ahead, gets involved with an extroverted, more sexually experienced girl. But, while the general narrative arc of these two works may have much in common, the specifics are different in almost every particular. The setting here is a hot and sunny beach, the exact opposite of the icy cold snowy north woods of Blankets. The sexual episodes in BBB are presented as being (at least somewhat) perverse and unsettling, as opposed to the rhapsodic and fulfilling scenes of sexual congress in Blankets. BBB is intellectual and analytical where Blankets is lyrical and expressive. The crucial difference lies in the attention given to the other family members. In BBB, while the protagonist is alienated from his family from the word go, the family itself is given much, much more attention here than in Blankets, with each family member being given a fully fleshed out portrait and their own set of challenges. While the protagonist may be alienated from his family, the creator of this work, Dash Shaw, certainly has quite a bit of empathy for all actors in his drama, and as a result the reader comes away from BBB with a surprisingly strong sense of each member of the supporting cast and, crucially, how they all fit together as a family. In the final analysis, BBB is more about probing the mystery of the family than it is a rite of passage tale, and so, really, is not so much like Blankets after all.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic special price - $25.00
Amor Y Cohetes
by Gilbert, Jaime & Mario Hernandez What It Is
It's hard to believe, but with this volume, the seventh in the new format, the repackaging of the first volume of Love and Rockets is now complete! While the first six volumes gave us the massive mythologies of Hoppers and Palomar, this issue collects all the odds 'n' ends and bric á brac that the fertile imaginations of los Bros unleashed when they were kicking back; as well as the story that started it all back in Love and Rockets #1, Gilbert Hernandez's BEM. Let us rhapsodize for a moment: It was with BEM that Gilbert Hernandez -- comics' own St. George -- slew the dragon of derivative, formulaic heroic fantasy comics by ripping out its heart and laying it bare. BEM demonstrates once and for all that the success of the formula is based on keeping fear alive, that the hero and the villain are, unwittingly perhaps, complicit in an illicit pact to keep the reader enthralled with the eternal recurrence of evil. BEM pulls back the curtain and reveals formulaic heroic fantasy comics as Ouroboric circles devoid of any real hope, real progress or real growth; promising salvation but delivering the damnation of addiction with an empty formula expertly designed to keep readers coming back for more with the dangled promise of the imminent unveiling of a mystery that not only is there no intent to deliver on, but as BEM finally and brilliantly reveals, there is not even the capacity or ability on the part of the danglers to do so in the first place for the simple reason that the creators of this formula are themselves as equally trapped within it by their fealty to the profit motive -- unable to see outside the borders of their own fear and need and so drawing in the hordes to feed their own cravings (Love and Rockets: it's not just a comic book series, it's a hermeneutics.). We'll be the first to admit that anyone coming to this story now, over 25 years after the fact -- and especially those who were never themselves in the thrall of superhero comics in the first place -- will have a hard time fully appreciating the importance of this story, but that's no reason not to try. The revelation of BEM cleared the way for a whole new approach to comics: the way that Love and Rockets went on to pioneer. Comics have never been the same since.
retail price - $16.99 copacetic price - $13.55
MOME, Volume 11: Summer 2008
Speaking of "a whole new
approach to comics,"
what better fits this description than MOME? To any readers who
might have felt a creeping worry that MOME wouldn't
be able to keep it up, that there simply wasn't enough high calibre new
work being produced to keep MOME floating on its lofty plane, let us be
first to say that these fears can be laid to rest with this issue,
which is arguably the best yet. It starts off with a new Al
Columbia piece that (finally) lives up to the promise of his outsized
rep. "5:45 A.M." is a story which shows us that, yes, God is in the
details. In a mere eight, actionless panels -- more or less a tableaux
nature morte
-- Columbia manages to quite successfully share with us his own
dark lord. "Einmal Ist Keinmal" by this issue's cover artist,
Killoffer, follows. A
variation on his singular masterwork, 676 Apparitions of Killoffer,
"EIK" will
give you
plenty to ponder while you pore over its seductive
linework. Nate Neal is up next with "The 5 Simple Cosmic Do Dats"
wherein he deftly manages the fairly astounding party trick of grafting
his own left-leaning
post-punk tendencies onto a synthetic hybridization of the aesthetics
of Kim Deitch and the narrative techniqes of Dan Clowes to create that
wonder of wonders: an entertaining work that is both funny and
smart. You might find yourself scratching your head at first
while working through this one, but keep going -- or better yet,
start over and try again -- this one has more going on in it than first
meets the eye. Four panels of "Truth Bear" by Ray Fenwick (who
doubles as this issue's [quite engaging] interview subject)
follow. Eleanor Davis serves up an irresisitable visual treat ,
"The 10,000 Rescues," and then we have seven pages of fun with the
future of the wonderful world of Art in "The Galactic Funnels,"
courtesy Dash Shaw, before plunging into John Hankiewicz's personal
gift to Copacetic -- a five-page story that combines his own totally
unique approach to narrative with a brief episode in the life of the
one and only Anita O'Day!
(Thank you, John.) Then it's Emile
Bravo's turn to wow us with his four-page assembly of signs &
meaning which deftly deconstructs the quandary of globalization, "A
Question of Human Resources." Newcomer, Conor O'Keefe brings
a novel approach to his two pieces, combining an old-old-school
Sunday page design sense (we suspect he may have spent some time curled
up with Art Out of Time)
with a very contemporary sensibility. We look forward to watching
his
talent develop (and we hope that it continues to do so in the pages of
MOME). And
then there's the topper:
"Million Year Boom," by Tom Kaczynski will knock your socks off.
It is probably the first succcessful translation of the Ballardian (as
in J.G.
Ballard)
narrative approach to science fiction yet achieved in comics
form. This deeply creepy tale brings us face to face with a world
where major corporate leaders so deeply internalize their own marketing
messages and stock market hype that they become untethered from
consensus reality and move into the ambiguous landscapes of delusion,
paranoia and insanity that were so successfully mined by Ballard (and,
to be fair, by many others, most notably Philip K Dick; but none so
well as Ballard, who is most convincingly evoked here). While the
influence of Clowes is certainly evident in Kaczynski's work, he has
created a wholly original synthesis here. This issue is rounded
out with contributions by MOME regulars Andrice Arp, Paul Hornschemeier and Kurt
Wolfgang. Encore! Encore!
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $12.75
Gary Panter
by Gary Panter
The definitive monograph on the one and only Gary Panter is here. Published by PictureBox, "This monumental, slipcased set is split into two 344-page volumes. The first is a comprehensive monograph featuring over 700 images of paintings, drawings, sculptures, posters and comics, alongside essays by Robert Storr, Mike Kelley, Edwin Pouncey, Richard Klein, Richard Gehr, Karrie Jacobs and Byron Coley, as well a substantial commentary by the artist himself. The second volume features a selection from Panter’s sketchbooks–the site of some of his most audacious work–most of which has never been published in any form."
retail price - $95.00 copacetic price - $77.77
The Explainers
by Jules Feiffer
OK, this is the one we've been waiting for. It all starts here. Jules Feiffer is the founding father of the alternative newsweekly comic strip. He walked into the offices of the Village Voice at some point during the first year of its operations and pitched an idea for a continuing comic strip. The editors took him up on it and for the next forty years Feiffer turned in a strip nearly every week, ALL of which will be collected by Fantagraphics in four fat volumes, each collecting a decade's worth of strips. This 546 page volume is the first. Feiffer reinvented the comic strip for the then nascent "Alt." crowd that had The Village as it's ground zero. These strips seem amazingly contemporary even today. Try saying that about any other 50 year old comic strip (well, not counting Peanuts, which is, evidently, timeless). Feiffer created the template, and pretty much owned it for twenty years. Once the punk rock generation clawed their way into the newsweeklies Feiffer's way became ubiquitous, and cartoonists the likes of Matt Groening, Lynda Barry, Mark Stamaty and Stan Mack spread the gospel. The comics contained in The Explainers are smart and funny and made a vital contribution to the development of American comics.
retail price - $28.99 copacetic price - $25.00
Comic Arf
edited by Craig Yoe
It's time for another oversize collection of "the unholy marriage of comics + art" as defined by editor Yoe. The highlight this time around is the opening salvo: 31 of today's top cartoonists each complete an installment of "Draw Your Own Conclusion," a series originally created in the late 1920s by old-school-comics-master, Milt Gross, as a contest wherein readers sent in their version of the last panel, and the winner received $25 (a lot, in those days) and saw their conclusion see print. This time around we're all winners as the responders whose conclusions see print range from R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman and Kaz to Xaime Hernandez, Pete Bagge and Ivan Brunetti to Mike Mignola and Sergio Aragonés to Patrick McDonnell and Bill Griffith to Jules Feiffer and Matt Groening to Mort Walker and Bil Keane... and more! There's also a hefty dose of Gross's full-page full-color Sunday pages from the same period. There's plenty more on hand here including color scans of the original art for a seven-page Bob Powell pre-code horror story.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
Maps and Legends
by Michael Chabon
The first non-fiction collection by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Kavalier & Clay ranges from autobiographical essays (growing up in the then experimental community of Columbia, MD) to book reviews (Cormac McCarthy's The Road, for one) to artist appreciations (Howard Chaykin, Will Eisner, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) to Judaism (Golems anyone?) and then back to memoirs (writing Mysteries of Pittsburgh, childhood encounters with literature). We can pretty much guarantee that any and all readers who are enamored of Chabon's fiction will take great pleasure in reading this volume, as the same discerning intelligence is on ample display here in sentences and paragraphs that are as finely crafted as any he has written and that will leave each reader with greater appreciations of and deeper insights into all the covered topics. And then there's the way fab, three tier, Jordan Crane dustjacket.
retail price - $24.00 copacetic price - $22.22
The
Yiddish Policemen's Union
by Michael Chabon
Oh, yeah -- we should mention that this fine novel, wherein Mr. Chabon grafts his own set of concerns -- faith, family, father and failure -- on top of a straight, down and dirty hard-boiled detective story with sterling results, is now available in s fine, french-flapped softcover edition for all those of you who were unable, for whatever reason, to obtain a copy of the hardcover.
retail price - $15.95 copacetic price - $14.44
Dig!!! Lazurus, Dig!!!
(CD)
by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
A finely crafted old school rock album filled with hard-driving songs populated by angst-ridden characters that strain to shed some light on the state of things while simultaneously rocking out. Grinding guitars and whining keyboards glide over a solid rhythm while Cave drones on. While this is certainly not up to the level of Abattoir Blues -- his masterpiece, in our opinion -- it's a finely crafted piece of work that gives ample evidence that Cave & Co. are still on a roll, and is certainly worth a listen (you'll have to click around a bit to find it, but the whole album is [or, at least was] up for your listening pleasure).
retail price - $17.98 copacetic price - $16.17
The Diving Bell
and the Butterfly (DVD)
directed by Julian Schnabel
Where to begin with a film like this? Well, for starters, this film single-handedly renewed our faith in the existence of a cinema of redemption, of the sort we had thought had long ago passed from this earth. The viewing of this film reveals a complex signification system constructed of layer upon layer upon layer of meaning-generating signs, symbols and referents and designed to address the core theme of communication and those inter-personal relations that most closely -- at least, in Schnabel's view -- inhere to it. These the film differentiates as inter-generational familial relations -- particularly the father-son relation -- along with its corallary, gender relations; the relation between self-interest and self-sacrifice, which can, in turn, be further parsed to the relation between self-expression and submission; which leads, finally, to the relationship between art and religion. These themes are explored to such a depth as to reveal their shared roots. At the end we discover that the essence of life is a struggle to communicate our being in the face of mortality, and that the cinema is -- when properly employed -- a powerful language in this struggle, one that is, in fact -- as powerfully demonstrated by this film -- capable of redeeming the life led in its service.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.75
Dororo, Volume One
by Osamu Tezuka
Hard to believe, but here's yet another late sixties masterwork by the one and only Tezuka, published by Vertical. This time around the publisher, Vertical, has opted for the original righit-to-left Japanese page order; in other words, unlike the other Vertical editions of Tezuka's work (Buddha, MW, etc.) this one reads "back" to "front." This is the first of three volumes. Get a nice preview, here.
retail price - $13.95 copacetic price - $12.75
Speed Racer: Mach GO GO GO
by Tatsuo Yoshida & Co.
Just in time for the Wachowski Bros. full-length (2 1/2 hours!) CGI-intensive feature film, DMP has put together a complete edition of the original Speed Racer manga from back in the day. It's a slip-cased edition composed of two hardcover volumes that will be sure to rev up the emotional engines of Speed Racer fans (you know who you are). Read this, for a fairly thorough accounting of its merits, a nice photo of the actual item and a general meditation on all things Speed Racer.
retail price - $39.95 copacetic price - $33.33
Little Nothings: The Curse of the Umbrella
by Lewis Trondheim
Fully cognizant adult funny animals walk and talk through the streets and across the skies of Europe, searching for meaning and beauty in this 120 page graphic novel that is confidently rendered in pen and ink and sensitively colored in watercolor by one of the most popular of contemporary European comics artists.
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $13.50
Three Shadows
by Cyril Pedrosa
Hey, this one's a beaut. :01 (First Second, to you) made all the right choices to emphasize the aesthetic pleasures in this fine 268 page graphic novel by reknowned (at least in France) French artist Cyril Pedrosa. All we have to say is that if dramatic narratives, cinematic storytelling and great ink brush work are your thing, then this is for you! Not sure, check out this preview.
retail price - $15.99 copacetic price - $14.44
Little
Vampire
by Joann Sfar
Vampires. Little vampires. A cute li'l blood-sucker doing his thing in a big book full of full color comics. Little vampire, little vampire, won't you come out and play? What more can be said, which is more or less a sort of follow up (prequel?) to Sfar's earlier Vampire Loves, which presents the gambollings of a moody adolescent vampire. It seems the world just can't get enough of vampires. Here's the comic that dares to ask the question, "Can vampires be cute?" To help you decide the answer, here's a preview. It's cute!
retail price - $13.95 copacetic price - $12.75
Life Sucks
by Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria and Warren Pleece
:01 seems intent on moving in on Vertigo's turf with this one. A tall tale of walking on the wild side with twenty-something, surfer-duding, night-clerking, goth-rocking (and not-so-cute -- what a difference fifteen or twenty years makes, huh?) vampires. Might be good, let's check out this bloodless preview and see what we think. Hmm, looks a bit like Ghost World meets a PG-13 version of Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss. Vampires. It looks like there's no getting away from them. Why are we not surprised?
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
ordering info
New for April 2008
Thoreau at Walden
by John Porcellino
Thoreau & Porcellino: a perfect match if there ever was one! We have nothing but good things to say about this, the third volume in the Center of Cartoon Studies series of American Biography in Comics. Printed in brown and black ink, this new hardcover book is a fantastic intro to the life and works of Henry David Thoreau and makes for a transporting read. Porcellino had extracted the key quotes from Walden (along with a few from Civil Disobedience, for good measure) and then given them plenty of space to breath in the reader's mind, as the gently paced visuals flow across the page and work to capture the deliberate and gradual rhythms of Thoreau's day to day existence, which is to say real life, as it is lived: the practical realization of his philosophy, in comics.
retail price - $16.99 copacetic price - $14.44
The James Brown Reader: 50 Years of Writing About the Godfather of Soul
edited by Nelson George and Alan Leeds
Talk about contrasts! Henry David Thoreau and James Brown may very well be the alpha and omega of American culture -- everything else will fit in between these two giants. Here's your first chance to follow the life and career of James Brown as it happened. This entire volume is all from original source material penned as history was made, beginning with an unsigned Variety review of a 1959 show at the Apollo through to a lengthy 2006 appreciation of his life by Jonathan Lethem for Rolling Stone, The James Brown Reader presents the most multi-faceted single-volume view of its subject yet. And, co-editor Alan Leeds is a Pittsburgh homie. A must!
retail price - $17.00 copacetic price - $15.00
Hall of Best Knowledge
by Ray Fenwick
A book like no other, HoBK is very tough to concisely describe, but we'll give it the old college try: It is a meditation on ideas concerning knowledge; specifically on what constitutes authority in the realm of knowledge, and how this authority is represented. It is -- whether consciously so or not is open to debate -- an examination of the perception that an innate authority lies in manuscripts -- literally "writing by hand" -- the medium through which all traditional knowledge was stored and distributed during the millenia preceding Gutenberg's invention of movable type and the printing press which ushered in the era of print (which era, we hasten to add, is now coming to a close -- what better time to revisit its precursor?). Fenwick employs walls of irony and sarcasm to seal off the reader into chamber of darkness wherein he lights a single candle and everything is illuminated.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
Dead Ringer
by Jason Miles
Whew, this one's another toughie. This is an 11" x 15" handmade narrative portfolio. Limited to 500 copies, (hand?) printed on heavy flat white stock, with hand-scored cardboard covers, Dead Ringers is a graphic meditation on death and personal mortality that employs stasis as its central metaphor. Learn more, here.
retail price - $14.00 copacetic price - $12.00
The Rabbi's Cat 2
by Joann Sfar
Hey, here's a swell surprise: another fine hardcover edition continuing the series of elegantly eloquent tales set among the Jewish diaspora in the French inflected culture of northern Africa, centered in Algiers, and taking place during the more innocent days of the 1930s. The eternal mysteries of love, faith, ritual and nature are probed with a delicate and nuanced touch in the 130, lush, full color pages of this hardcover volume. A real treat. Get a nice sneak preview, here.
retail price - $22.95 copacetic price - $20.00
Papercutter #7
Another fine issue of this perky peppy anthology published in Portland, Oregon by Tugboat Press. This time around we have an epic of 8th grade outsiders by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill followed by a one-pager by Aron Nels Steinke and a striking adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Sheperdess and the Chimney Sweep" by Andy Hartzell, who has clearly built on the momentum of his successful Fox Bunny Fox and turned in his finest work to date here. We can't wait for the next issue!
retail price - $4.00 copacetic price - $3.50
Welcome
to the Dahl House:
Alienation, Incarceration and Inebreation in the New American Rome
by Ken Dahl
Are you worried that things are going just a little too good? Need to be brought down a notch from your giddy heights of blissful contentment? No? Didn't think so. But, if you were, then Welcome to the Dahl House would be the ticket. The harsh world view on display here in this finely crafted compendium make the comics of Chris Ware and Ivan Brunetti seem the work of dewy-eyed optimists by comparison. And, it's priced on the assumption that you're broke, so you can actually afford it!
retail price - $7.00 copacetic price - $6.25
Wordless Books: the Original Graphic Novels
written and edited by David A. Beronä w/ introduction by Peter Kuper
Lynn Ward, Franz Masereel, Milt Gross and Laurence Hyde -- they're all here along with several of their lesser known cohorts in this lavishly produced survey of the picture novel that flourished in the first half of the twentieth century. High quality, full page reproductions abound, all are accompanied by historical and crictical essays that help put the works in context. Also full color scans of the volumes themselves. This volume is a great primer to this important area, and a work of art in itself!
retail price - $35.00 copacetic price - $19.75
A
People's History of American Empire
by Howard Zinn • adapted by David Wagner & Paul Buhle with art by Mike Konopacki
This 272 page, 8 1/2" x 11" volume provides a graphic interpretation of the key points of Howard Zinn's seminal, alternative reading of American history, A People's History of The United States. If you' haven't been able to find the time to read Zinn's opus, this volume just might be the ticket. We used to say that A People's History will teach you a whole different American history from what you learned in school, but this book (and/or the material it introduced) has now begun to be introduced into curriculums, as well as bits and pieces being disseminated through the culture at large through the mainstream media, so maybe you've already been introduced to some of the events and perspectives delineated here, but nothing beats getting the big picture, and that's what this book is intent on delivering. In any event, if you're not familiar with Zinn's work and you enjoy history in comics form, then you owe it to yourself to check this out.
hardcover - retail price - $17.00 copacetic price - $15.00
softcover - retail price - $30.00 copacetic price - $25.00
Wholphin No. 5
The fifth issue of the "DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short FIlms" has arrived. Documentaries, short fiction films and animations from Africa, Spain, Canada, the UK and (primarily) right here in the USA. Spend a day with the Sudanese Liberation Army, see drunk bees, watch Spanish science fiction, experience a herion addicted carnival monkey (don't worry, it's an animation), be outraged at the treatment of American Indians and enjoy the 20 minute adaptation of Michael Chabon's short story, "House Hunting," directed by Amy Lippman and featuring Paul Rudd & Zooey Deschanel; along with much more -- all of which you won't be seeing anywhere else (at least for now). Get the whole story -- and the chance to watch tons of web-only short films -- here.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
Other new arrivals include:
More Old Jewish Comedians
by Drew Friedman
'Nuff said.
retail price - $16.99 copacetic price - $15.00
Kaput & Zösky
by Lewis Trondgein w/Eric Cartier
Great hi-jinx fun for kids of all ages. Full color.
retail price - $13.95 copacetic price - $12.75
Funeral of the Heart
by Leah Hayes
Dark (very dark, like, black) musings from the author of Holy Moley.
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $12.75
Daddy's Girl
by Debbie Dreschler
This landmark comics work of the hell and purgatory of childhood and adolescence is now back in print in this finely crafted hardcover edition.
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $12.75
M: A Graphic Novel based on the Film by Fritz Lang
by Jon J Muth
Here's a deluxe, expanded, hardcover collection of the 1990 series.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $22.22
One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box
• How the Water Feels to the Fishes by Dave Eggers
• Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape by Sarah Manguso
• Minor Robberies by Deb Olin Unferth
These three hardcover books are snugly enclosed together in an illustrated (by Jacob Magraw-Mickelson) slipcase and bring you together the 145 short (generally very short) stories of the overarching title; from the fine folks at McSweeney's.
retail price - $25.00 copacetic price - $21.25
Drawing Words &
Writing Pictures:Making Comics - Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond
by Jessica Abel & Matt Madden
We all knew it was only a matter of time until this day arrived, and so it has: the first textbook devoted to the practice of creating comics is now on our shelves. Billed as, "A definintive course from concept to comic in 15 lessons," the primary purpose of this work is to provide a state-of-the-art textbook for high school, trade school and college courses devoted to comics craft -- thus the 15 lessons, the average number of classes in a semester. Authors Abel and Madden (who are wife and husband, and, more germane to their authorship of this work, veteran comics instructors, most notably at SVA [the School for Visual Arts] in NYC) have not, however, forgotten about the rest of us, for they have designed the book with both lone, individual-learners -- "ronin" -- and independent study students who might like to get together and create their own self-directed learning groups -- "nomads" -- in mind. Of special note in this regard is the book's companion website, http://www.dw-wp.com , which is chock full of extra features and sample work that will help to keep on track those lacking the guiding hand of a professional instructor. "Well, yes," you say, "that's all very interesting. But is the book any good?" While we haven't managed to spend enough time with it yet to provide our own judgement, here's the opinion of the two individuals most qualified to offer one: "A gold mine of essential information for every aspiring comics artist. Highly recommended." - Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics "Matt and Jessica's experience, both in the classroom and at the drawing board, has resulted in a book that should help any aspiring cartoonist. A go-to how-to that will undoubtedly be of tremendous aid for any school or instructor attempting to map out a thoughtful and engaging cartooning curriculum." -- James Sturm, founder and director of The Center for Cartoon Studies And there you have it.
retail price - $29.95 copacetic price - $25.75
Nat Turnerby Kyle Baker
Mister Baker, perhaps the funniest cartoonist alive, steps out of his clown shoes and puts on his severest suit and tie to deliver this sermon of horror and hatred, violence and vengeance, and struggle and sacrifice, in this synecdochical story of slavery in these United States. Reading this book, in which the narrative is advanced almost entirely in images (pantomime style) interspersed with excerpts from The Confessions of Nat Turner, it is impossible not to marvel at the strength of Baker's storytelling. And, there is a method to the madness of attempting to relate so complex a tale entirely in images. It captures the forced silence of the lives of the slaves it chronicles, a silence that was doubled by the forced illiteracy imposed by the slave owners. It was exactly this imposed silence that Nat Turner intuited was at the root of the condition that he felt called upon to rise up against and destroy. Thus the interspersed text stands as the beacon that Turner meant it to be, and when the long silence of the narrative is punctuated by a lone cry, it takes on both an urgency and a poignancy as a result of its standing alone. Here's a hefty preview that might take a moment or two to load, but rest assured your patience will be amply rewarded. As will any purchaser of this elegantly produced (and quite reasonably priced) 208 page softcover edition. The character of Nat Turner is one of the fiercest embodiments of anger on the American historical register, and Baker's depiction doesn't hold back, revealing a wellspring of anger in Baker's soul. That he has both chosen and managed to channel this anger into a successful career (see below) based on making people laugh is a testament to his character and a powerful demonstration of the truth embedded in the old adage, "Laughter is the best medicine."
retail price - $12.95 copacetic price - $11.75
How
to Draw Stupidby Kyle Baker
Yes, that's right: two new Kyle Baker books in one month. Our cup runneth over. The first thing you should know about this book is that, while it is indeed a how-to-draw art book, it's NOT for people who want to learn how to be Artists, or how to "express themselves," . This IS a book for those who are looking to learn the ins and outs of cartooning, who are interested in becoming professionals, who want a career -- especially those who need some encouragement and could use some common sense advice. The sound, solid and simple premise upon which this book is based is that if someone is or was successful then their work is worth studying, and their opinions are worth listening to. Anytime Jack Kirby, Will Eisner and Frank Miller do or say something, it is, ipso facto, worth paying attention to -- your investment of time and energy will be rewarded with personal improvement and career advancement. Kyle Baker is successful, therefore you should pay attention to what he has to offer if you too are interested in being successful. How to Draw Stupid is a potential supplement to Abel & Madden's Drawing Words, Writing Pictures listed above. Where DW, WP takes the programmatic approach of traditional pedagogy, HtDS take the personal approach of the master-apprentice relationship. Also, and importantly, whereas DW, WP takes a broad overview of the entire field of combining words and pictures to tell stories, HtDS is specifically directed at the narrow focus region of humorous cartooning. If you are interested in being a successful, professional cartoonist, and, especially if you like, enjoy an/or admire Kyle Baker's work, then getting a hold of a copy of this book should move right to the top of your to-do list. The book is written in an intimate, personal tone (it is also funny). Reading this book really feels like sitting across from Kyle as he works at his drawing table (or as you both share a booth at the local tavern, to which he has brought his portfolio and sketchbook). We felt like he was right there, talking us through his method, telling us his opinions (of which he has many and is not shy in sharing them), intermittently leafing through his portfolio and now and then whipping off a quick sketch to illustrate a point. Sometimes, you might feel like he's holding onto his opinions a little too firmly -- as we did when he insisted only one of fifteen different drawings of eyes was "truly" stupid (we could be wrong, but we'd be hard pressed to imagine that the "correct" answer would be chosen by a majority) -- but that's part of the charm: he's not holding back, he's not trying to conform to any preconceived notion of "correctness", he's just being himself, a straight-shootin' cartoonist sharing the secrets of success, and makin' a buck doing it -- which is exactly what he'd recommend you do, should the opportunity present itself.
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.25
Red Colored Elegyby Seiichi Hayashi
It's hard to believe that it's taken nearly forty years for this truly original, one of a kind work to finally be published in North America in English translation, but now that it has it's like a missing chapter in the history of manga has at last been found. This work is not one than can simply be opened up a dived into, partly as a result of its late arrival, but mostly because it is such an original piece that most readers will immediately find themselves on unfamiliar ground that seems to shift beneath them as they progress through its pages. Seiichi was clearly a cultural omnivore and he ranged far and wide indeed in gathering his inspiration for Red Colored Elegy, which he produced during 1970 and 1971, in the wake of the tumultuous cultural upheavals of the late 1960s, which, it is not widely appreciated here in the states, created as much turmoil in Japan as in America and Europe. His visual sources range from Utamaro and Hokusai to di Chirico and Picasso to Takahama and Tatsumi, and include incorporations of Hollywood icons such as Mickey Mouse and James Dean. We'll have to admit to finding his narrative influences to be somewhat obscure -- due to our lack of expertise in Japanese literary history. Nevertheless, it is discenable that, as with his visual sources, there is an "East meets West" feel to the idiosyncracies of Hayashi's storytelling. There is also a clear generational opposition to the straight forward, propulsive narratives of Tezuka, as well as an alliance with the narrative indeterminacies of the cinema of la nouvelle vague. All this is by way of preparing you for the unique experience of reading Red Colored Elegy. It is a work full of despair and desperation that is more than a work of fiction: it embodies the struggle of its author to forge a way in the world; to survive the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune'; and, finally, to build and hold a lasting love. How successful this work was in achieving these, we cannot say, but Red Colored Elegy most certainly left a lasting legacy that is at last being shared with American readers. Here's an excellent preview that will give you a good idea of what we're talking about.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $22.22
Good-Bye
by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
introduction by Frederik Schodt
Good-Bye, the third volume in Drawn & Quarterly's series collecting the work of this manga master who pioneered the dark, mature (noir, if you will) genre of manga known as gekiga during the years that followed the cultural upheavals of 1968, has been released in tandem with Red Colored Elegy as the work it contains was produced during roughly the same historical moment. This volume collects storieds originally published during 1971 and 1972 and contains some of Tatsumi's best work. The introduction, by America's foremost expert on the history of manga, sets the work in context and gives the reader a good perspective from which to get the most out of the stories that follow. Those who missed the first two volumes in this series, The Pushman and Abandon the Old in Tokyo (both of which are still in print and available here at Copacetic), are encouraged to take a look at this one, as it's the best yet. Sceptical? Check out this nice nine-page preview.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
Windy City Magazine #2
This issue features more full color comics in crayon by its editor, Austin English, who has also, it seems, managed to convert publisher, Dylan Williams, to the way of the crayon, as his contribution (Williams is an established comics writer/artist as well as publisher) is his first full color work and it is rendered entirely in oil pastel. Other notable contributions to this anthology publication are a historical overview of the works of legendary children's author/illustrator, Lois Lenski -- also by Austin English -- and, the highlight for us, a lengthy illustrated interview (conducted by fellow cartoonist and pal, Jeremy Onsmith) with the one and only John Hankiewicz, who proves himself to be as articulate about his work as he is in control of it. The issue comes to a close with a full color back cover illustration by Copacetic customer, Juliacks. Recommended for fans of MOME who are ready to adventure a bit farther afield, and anyone else interested in the intersection of comics, art and illustration.
retail price - $10.00 copacetic price - $8.88
Rabid Rabbit #4 - 8
This is a nice anthology series out of New York City that we somehow missed out on, until now. We suspect the contributor list is populated in part by current and former students of SVA (as well as at least one instructor, David Sandlin). This is a good thing. The comics here, while generally focused on urban themes, are diverse in their styles and approaches. Each of these issues is devoted to a specific theme, to wit: #4 - Trash; #5 - Alphabet City; #5 - The Future; #7 - Pornography (18+ only, natch'); and #8 -- The Beatles! Issues #4 - #7 are digest size and are 36, 32, 40 & 48 pages respectively; #8 is 8 1/2" square -- and squarebound -- (to resemble a record jacket -- The White Album, in this case) and runs a big 64 pages. Learn more at: http://www.rabidrabbit.org
#4 - #7: retail price - $3.00@ copacetic price - $2.75@
#8: retail price - $6.00 copacetic price - $5.00
ordering info
New for June 2008
Cold Heat Special #4
by Frank Santoro & Jim Rugg
This time around we have a16-page tabloid newspaper comic book filled with further far out fables featuring Cassandra -- aka Castle -- cavorting with chaos. Santoro and Rugg employ the large (22" x 17", when opened) "canvas" of the tabloid format to excellent effect, creating a feast for the eyes with finely rendered dramatic imagery that ranges from psychedlicized fast food bathroom interiors to landscapes of the rolling hills of (what appears to be) western PA, all in the service of a tale of temporal displacement that demonstrates that the past is still here, all around us, and that travelling through time is a simple matter of opening a door or two. There may be some side effects, however...
retail price - $3.00 copacetic price - $2.50
The Goddess of War
by Lauren Weinstein
Also from PictureBox, this gigantic (10" x 15") comic book is the first installment of an epic fantasy that incorporates South and North American Indian history and lore, twentieth century European conflicts and surrealistic science fiction with a contemporary, urban art comics aesthetic to forge a modern mythology of war, and has fun doing it.
retail price - $12.95 copacetic price - $11.00
We Lost the War but
Not the Battleby Michel Gondry (!)
This straight-up 32-page full color comic book by the famed French FIlmmaker, Michel Gondry, rounds out this month's PictureBox trifecta. Perhaps the zaniest war comic ever produced, Gondry pits four former draft evading slackers against a hoard of communist babes intent on taking over France in this over the top satire that conflates the battle between the sexes, the war on communism and modern America-centric militarism to create a comic book that has a surprisingly large amount in common with the old-school underground comics of yore.
retail price - $5.99 copacetic price - $5.00
Strange and Stranger:
The World of Steve Ditkoby Blake Bell
Here it is, (many) years in the making: the long-awaited all-in-one work -- biography, appreciation and coffee-table art book -- on the one and only "sturdy" Steve Ditko. While best known as co-creator of Spider-Man, his career began in 1953 and spans five decades filled with unique, original and widely influential contributions to the medium of comics. Fans of his work pretty much have no choice but to rush out and purchase this book immediately or risk losing their hard-earned credentials, but this 200+ page, oversize hardcover volume that is filled cover to cover with amazing full color and B & W art will also serve as an excellent entry point to any and all looking to gain a further appreciation of this amazingly talented and highly eccentric creator.
retail price - $39.99 copacetic price - $33.99
Chiggers
by Hope Larson
A brand new 170 page young adult graphic novel by the award winning creator of Salamander Dream and Gray Horses. The setting is a summer camp, where the protagonist, Abby, returns to find that old friends have changed over the past year, but there's a new girl who brings many changes of her own to Abby's summer and therein lies the story. Great summer read for teenage girls. Learn more about the story, look at some samples from Hope Larson's portfolio, and read a sneak preview here.
retail price - $9.99 copacetic price - $8.88
Dororo, Volume 2
by Osamu Tezuka
The classic late-period Tezuka tale continues in this nicely put together volume. The publisher of this series -- and many other excellent Tezuka works -- Vertical, Inc., is head and shoulders above other American purveyors of manga when it comes to packaging and production (only the European manga publisher, Ponent Mon, can lay any kind of claim to doing a better job). So sit back and enjoy.
retail price - $13.95 copacetic price - $12.50
Pocket Full of Rainby Jason
A lot of you may have wondered, as we did, when Hey, Wait! was first released in the US, "Hey, wait a minute -- who is this guy Jason, and how did he appear, seemingly out of nowhere, with this fully developed style?" Well, Pocket Full of Rain at long last provides US readers with the answer. Here are the works that Jason produced leading up to his US debut, but that had never before been published here until now. Pocket Full of Rain contains over 120 pages of comics, along with a 16-page color section of covers and illustrations -- almost all of which was originally published in his native Norway during the 1990s. This is the work that show us Jason's development as an artist. Jason fans will find this an engaging and possibly even fascinating collection, and students of comics will find this a volume worthy of study, so if you area among the latter, make sure to take a look.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $16.95
Fatal Faux-Pas
by Samuel C. Gaskin
96 pages of extreme goofiness printed in purple ink, answers the question, "What is a Fatal Faux-Pas?" Nothing is sacred, except maybe a sense of the absurdity of life. If your favorite comics are Tales To Demolish, Tales Designed to Thrizzle, anything by Paper Rad and/or Matthew Thurber, then this might just be for you. Immersion in popular culture is recommended for full comprehension, appreciation and enjoyment of this product. The first release (001) from rookie publisher, Secret Acres (see below for the second).
retail price - $10.00 copacetic price - $8.50
Wormdyeby Eamon Espey
Brand-spanking new publisher, Secret Acres, brings us Wormdye, a 128-page, 6 5/8" x 9 1/2", B & W collection of Eamon Espey's self-published series of the same name (some issues of which we have had on sale here at Copacetic over the past few years). Coming on strong, like a mutant offspring of Kim Deitch, Gary Panter, Charles Burns and Rory Hayes who spent all his spare time studying ancient arts from around the world, Eamon Espey is an engaging new talent. His work gathers strength and intensity from being bundled together -- taken all at once, it packs a wallop of weirdness. Ancient eras and distant cultures freely mix with contemporary comics sensibilities producing a manic hurly burly that will provide its readers with a unique and unsettling experience.
retail price - $13.00 copacetic price - $10.95
Tragic Relief
by Colleen Frakes
A fun-filled fable told entirely in textless pantomime comics about a man, his mother, and his imagination, as he fills his days waiting for the real thing to come along. This 80-page, 5" x 8", B & W, squarebound volume is by a Xeric grant-winning recent graduate of The Center for Cartoon Studies.
retail price - $7.00 copacetic special price - $4.95
untitled
by Blaise Larmee
A beautifully produced 16-page, full color work of wonder and loss delicately rendered in pen and ink and watercolor. While the narrative thread here just barely coheres, it shows an artist full of promise whose future work we look forward to seeing. Take a look, here.
retail price - $7.00 copacetic price - $6.00
McSweeney's #27
edited by Dave Eggers
This time out we have a tripartate, slipcased edition, thus: a 196-page softcover fiction anthology featuring the writings of Larry Smith, Jim Shepard, Ashlee Adams, Liz Mandrell, Mikel Jollett and Stephen King that sports a swell, architectronic wraparound cover and interior illustrations by Scott Teplin; a 72-page horizontally formatted collection of "Art" cartoons by the likes of Jean Michel Basquiat, Kenneth Koch, Raymond Pettibone, David Shrigley, Jeffrey Brown, Paul Hornschemeier, Leonard Cohen, David Mamet and others, in full color and black & white; an 80-page sketchbook executed between March 12 and May 26, 2007 by Art Spiegelman, titled "Autophobia," which Spiegelman created to overcome his "fear of drawing."
retail price - $24.00 copacetic price - $21.50
Atmospheric
Disturbancesby Rivka Galchen
We've heard a lot of good things about this debut novel that is purported to be a psychololgical thriller that accomplishes the difficult feat of simultaneously delineating human relationships and scientific principles, in the process creating a new "Pynchonian" synthesis. We'll return with a report as soon as we can. Meanwhile, check out the book's very own website, where you can absorb some of its flavor while you read an extract from the novel, an interview with the author, and more.
retail price - $24.00 copacetic special price - $19.99
Sheena:
Queen of the Jungleby Matt Baker, Will Eisner, Bob Powell and others
A dozen never-before-reprinted, classic Sheena tales are herein collected. All the stories were originally published in Jumbo Comics, almost all during the 1940s. As an added bonus, you get to read one of the stories as it was truncated and rescripted -- or "censored" as the editor and/or publisher of this collection have it -- for republication in Sheena #12 in 1951. This collection is assembled with care. The entire volume is reproduced in full color from high quality scans of the stories as they originally appeared (as well as the original covers and many original advertisements from the same issues that the stories appeared in, which together help to provide the proper ambience for that "you are there" feeling), to insure that your reading experience will be the closest possible approximation to that of actually reading the original comics (which would cost a small fortune to purchase). If classic jungle comics are your thing, then this is a no-brainer. And remember, Sheena Is a Punk Rocker.
retail price - $18.99 copacetic price - $17.00
OMAC: One
Man Army Corpsby Jack Kirby
Even the U.S. Army has based it's philosophy on Kirby's (We will freely admit that this is pure conjecture on our part, but hey: "Be an Army of One", "One Man Army Corps" -- coincidence or co-optation? You decide!). Anyway, this full color hardcover volume collects the entirety of the original 8-issue series that Kirby created in 1974. OMAC features some of Kirby's most mind-boggling (not to mention prophetic) science fiction concepts melded to non-stop action. This is a work that can be appreciated on just about any level you can think of and represents Kirby's last hurrah at DC in the 70s before jumping back to Marvel to reinvigorate Captain America, The Black Panther and more. OMAC!
retail price - $24.99 copacetic price - $22.22
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
by David Sedaris
22 new pieces by David Sedaris, are herein collected for the first time. Readers of Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim now having something to look forward to.
retail price - $25.99 copacetic price - $22.22
Skyscrapers of the Midwest
by Joshua W Cotter
All four issues of the highly praised series that focused its creative energies on overcoming the difficulties of childhood and adolescence though comics are at last collected along with 32 bonus pages of sketchbook drawings -- and more -- in this nicely put together 282 page hardcover volume published by AdHouse Books.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
Jessica Farm #1by Josh Simmons
96 pages that depict a morning in the life of the titular character -- Christmas morning -- and which, if we are to believe the artist's afterword, took eight years to draw. While the artwork is very spatially oriented and creates a solid sense of place, one is best off assuming that the "true" location of the places depicted here is the imagination. Crazy fun that is all topped off by the fact that it ends with a cliffhanger that -- we are told -- we will have to wait until 2016 to find out what happens next!
retail price - $14.95 copacetic special price - $9.95
Mineshaft #21
A counter-culture zine of comics and more that is still going strong. This issue features a front cover and five sketchbook pages by R. Crumb, a swell 4-page comics-bio of that beatnikita, Diane di Prima by Harvey Pekar and Mary Fleener, a selection of fine pen and ink drawings along with commentary by their creator, William Crook, Jr., Bill Griffith's 3-panel revelation of "How I Got My Start in the Comics Business!!" a back cover and more by Cristoph Mueller, and a "Sunday" page by Jay Lynch and Pittsburgh's own Ed Piskor describing an afternoon with the one and only Chester Gould. Plus plenty more!
retail price - $6.95 copacetic price - $6.25
ordering info
New for May 2008
What It Isby Lynda Barry
It's here! What It is, the long awaited, all new, 208 page hardcover volume of heuristic metacomix by the one and only Lynda Barry, is both a beautiful and inspiring work of art and an insightful exploration of the creative process. Her first new work since her 2002 masterpiece, 100 Demons, What It Is uses the language of comics to probe the secrets of creativity itself, which leads her deep into the caverns of philosophy, where, ever the intrepid explorer, Ms. Barry undertakes an especially thorough excavation of the cave of epistemology. There in the murky darkness she discovers that memory and imagination blur and merge amidst the stalactites and stalagmites of our respective genetic heritages before condensing and collecting in placid prehistoric pools to mix with the ancient amoebas; in the process dissolving time itself. The past, present and future come together -- an instant and an eternity stand as one in the revelation that it all starts with... The Image! Lynda Barry, long considered among the major contemporary comics creators, has, with What It Is, taken comics to a new place and created a work that can stand shoulder to shoulder in the pantheon with those created by Frida Kahlo, Jean Michel Basquiat, and Hayao Miyazaki, to name but a few of her new peers. This book is full of surprises and delight. There's really only one thing to say about this book: "YES!!!" If you still need convincing, then feast your eyes on this amazing (lucky)13-page preview and/or read our full length review.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic special intro price - $19.99
Bottomless Belly Buttonby Dash Shaw
Weighing in at 700+ pages, we're pretty sure this one surpasses Craig Thompson's Blankets as the longest unserialized graphic novel ever published in the US. Just think: over 700 pages of far out and freaky graphic storytelling that you've never laid eyes on before -- and neither had we... until we sat down (after getting together a solid supply of food and drink to sustain us) and read this hefty tome. Where to start? Well, first off is the fact that the book took over two years to draw, is divided into three sections (each of which you are advised by the author to take a break after reading -- although we have to admit that we ignored this warning and plowed straight through), is printed in brown ink on 6" x 9" white paper, and tells the tale of the Loony family, in particular Peter Loony. It begins with the line, "There are many types of sand." Some 700 pages later the urge to compare this book to Blankets was, at least for us, irresisitable. Like Blankets, Bottomless Belly Button is also a deeply personal work of catharsis that takes the form of a long, involved book that tells the tale of an introverted artist struggling with the emotional baggage he has been weighed down with by his family and who, in his effort to move ahead, gets involved with an extroverted, more sexually experienced girl. But, while the general narrative arc of these two works may have much in common, the specifics are different in almost every particular. The setting here is a hot and sunny beach, the exact opposite of the icy cold snowy north woods of Blankets. The sexual episodes in BBB are presented as being (at least somewhat) perverse and unsettling, as opposed to the rhapsodic and fulfilling scenes of sexual congress in Blankets. BBB is intellectual and analytical where Blankets is lyrical and expressive. The crucial difference lies in the attention given to the other family members. In BBB, while the protagonist is alienated from his family from the word go, the family itself is given much, much more attention here than in Blankets, with each family member being given a fully fleshed out portrait and their own set of challenges. While the protagonist may be alienated from his family, the creator of this work, Dash Shaw, certainly has quite a bit of empathy for all actors in his drama, and as a result the reader comes away from BBB with a surprisingly strong sense of each member of the supporting cast and, crucially, how they all fit together as a family. In the final analysis, BBB is more about probing the mystery of the family than it is a rite of passage tale, and so, really, is not so much like Blankets after all.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic special price - $25.00
Amor Y Cohetesby Gilbert, Jaime & Mario Hernandez What It Is
It's hard to believe, but with this volume, the seventh in the new format, the repackaging of the first volume of Love and Rockets is now complete! While the first six volumes gave us the massive mythologies of Hoppers and Palomar, this issue collects all the odds 'n' ends and bric á brac that the fertile imaginations of los Bros unleashed when they were kicking back; as well as the story that started it all back in Love and Rockets #1, Gilbert Hernandez's BEM. Let us rhapsodize for a moment: It was with BEM that Gilbert Hernandez -- comics' own St. George -- slew the dragon of derivative, formulaic heroic fantasy comics by ripping out its heart and laying it bare. BEM demonstrates once and for all that the success of the formula is based on keeping fear alive, that the hero and the villain are, unwittingly perhaps, complicit in an illicit pact to keep the reader enthralled with the eternal recurrence of evil. BEM pulls back the curtain and reveals formulaic heroic fantasy comics as Ouroboric circles devoid of any real hope, real progress or real growth; promising salvation but delivering the damnation of addiction with an empty formula expertly designed to keep readers coming back for more with the dangled promise of the imminent unveiling of a mystery that not only is there no intent to deliver on, but as BEM finally and brilliantly reveals, there is not even the capacity or ability on the part of the danglers to do so in the first place for the simple reason that the creators of this formula are themselves as equally trapped within it by their fealty to the profit motive -- unable to see outside the borders of their own fear and need and so drawing in the hordes to feed their own cravings (Love and Rockets: it's not just a comic book series, it's a hermeneutics.). We'll be the first to admit that anyone coming to this story now, over 25 years after the fact -- and especially those who were never themselves in the thrall of superhero comics in the first place -- will have a hard time fully appreciating the importance of this story, but that's no reason not to try. The revelation of BEM cleared the way for a whole new approach to comics: the way that Love and Rockets went on to pioneer. Comics have never been the same since.
retail price - $16.99 copacetic price - $13.55
MOME, Volume 11: Summer 2008
Speaking of "a whole new
approach to comics,"
what better fits this description than MOME? To any readers who
might have felt a creeping worry that MOME wouldn't
be able to keep it up, that there simply wasn't enough high calibre new
work being produced to keep MOME floating on its lofty plane, let us be
first to say that these fears can be laid to rest with this issue,
which is arguably the best yet. It starts off with a new Al
Columbia piece that (finally) lives up to the promise of his outsized
rep. "5:45 A.M." is a story which shows us that, yes, God is in the
details. In a mere eight, actionless panels -- more or less a tableaux
nature morte
-- Columbia manages to quite successfully share with us his own
dark lord. "Einmal Ist Keinmal" by this issue's cover artist,
Killoffer, follows. A
variation on his singular masterwork, 676 Apparitions of Killoffer,
"EIK" will
give you
plenty to ponder while you pore over its seductive
linework. Nate Neal is up next with "The 5 Simple Cosmic Do Dats"
wherein he deftly manages the fairly astounding party trick of grafting
his own left-leaning
post-punk tendencies onto a synthetic hybridization of the aesthetics
of Kim Deitch and the narrative techniqes of Dan Clowes to create that
wonder of wonders: an entertaining work that is both funny and
smart. You might find yourself scratching your head at first
while working through this one, but keep going -- or better yet,
start over and try again -- this one has more going on in it than first
meets the eye. Four panels of "Truth Bear" by Ray Fenwick (who
doubles as this issue's [quite engaging] interview subject)
follow. Eleanor Davis serves up an irresisitable visual treat ,
"The 10,000 Rescues," and then we have seven pages of fun with the
future of the wonderful world of Art in "The Galactic Funnels,"
courtesy Dash Shaw, before plunging into John Hankiewicz's personal
gift to Copacetic -- a five-page story that combines his own totally
unique approach to narrative with a brief episode in the life of the
one and only Anita O'Day!
(Thank you, John.) Then it's Emile
Bravo's turn to wow us with his four-page assembly of signs &
meaning which deftly deconstructs the quandary of globalization, "A
Question of Human Resources." Newcomer, Conor O'Keefe brings
a novel approach to his two pieces, combining an old-old-school
Sunday page design sense (we suspect he may have spent some time curled
up with Art Out of Time)
with a very contemporary sensibility. We look forward to watching
his
talent develop (and we hope that it continues to do so in the pages of
MOME). And
then there's the topper:
"Million Year Boom," by Tom Kaczynski will knock your socks off.
It is probably the first succcessful translation of the Ballardian (as
in J.G.
Ballard)
narrative approach to science fiction yet achieved in comics
form. This deeply creepy tale brings us face to face with a world
where major corporate leaders so deeply internalize their own marketing
messages and stock market hype that they become untethered from
consensus reality and move into the ambiguous landscapes of delusion,
paranoia and insanity that were so successfully mined by Ballard (and,
to be fair, by many others, most notably Philip K Dick; but none so
well as Ballard, who is most convincingly evoked here). While the
influence of Clowes is certainly evident in Kaczynski's work, he has
created a wholly original synthesis here. This issue is rounded
out with contributions by MOME regulars Andrice Arp, Paul Hornschemeier and Kurt
Wolfgang. Encore! Encore!retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $12.75
Gary Panter
by Gary Panter
The definitive monograph on the one and only Gary Panter is here. Published by PictureBox, "This monumental, slipcased set is split into two 344-page volumes. The first is a comprehensive monograph featuring over 700 images of paintings, drawings, sculptures, posters and comics, alongside essays by Robert Storr, Mike Kelley, Edwin Pouncey, Richard Klein, Richard Gehr, Karrie Jacobs and Byron Coley, as well a substantial commentary by the artist himself. The second volume features a selection from Panter’s sketchbooks–the site of some of his most audacious work–most of which has never been published in any form."
retail price - $95.00 copacetic price - $77.77
The Explainersby Jules Feiffer
OK, this is the one we've been waiting for. It all starts here. Jules Feiffer is the founding father of the alternative newsweekly comic strip. He walked into the offices of the Village Voice at some point during the first year of its operations and pitched an idea for a continuing comic strip. The editors took him up on it and for the next forty years Feiffer turned in a strip nearly every week, ALL of which will be collected by Fantagraphics in four fat volumes, each collecting a decade's worth of strips. This 546 page volume is the first. Feiffer reinvented the comic strip for the then nascent "Alt." crowd that had The Village as it's ground zero. These strips seem amazingly contemporary even today. Try saying that about any other 50 year old comic strip (well, not counting Peanuts, which is, evidently, timeless). Feiffer created the template, and pretty much owned it for twenty years. Once the punk rock generation clawed their way into the newsweeklies Feiffer's way became ubiquitous, and cartoonists the likes of Matt Groening, Lynda Barry, Mark Stamaty and Stan Mack spread the gospel. The comics contained in The Explainers are smart and funny and made a vital contribution to the development of American comics.
retail price - $28.99 copacetic price - $25.00
Comic Arfedited by Craig Yoe
It's time for another oversize collection of "the unholy marriage of comics + art" as defined by editor Yoe. The highlight this time around is the opening salvo: 31 of today's top cartoonists each complete an installment of "Draw Your Own Conclusion," a series originally created in the late 1920s by old-school-comics-master, Milt Gross, as a contest wherein readers sent in their version of the last panel, and the winner received $25 (a lot, in those days) and saw their conclusion see print. This time around we're all winners as the responders whose conclusions see print range from R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman and Kaz to Xaime Hernandez, Pete Bagge and Ivan Brunetti to Mike Mignola and Sergio Aragonés to Patrick McDonnell and Bill Griffith to Jules Feiffer and Matt Groening to Mort Walker and Bil Keane... and more! There's also a hefty dose of Gross's full-page full-color Sunday pages from the same period. There's plenty more on hand here including color scans of the original art for a seven-page Bob Powell pre-code horror story.
retail price - $19.99 copacetic price - $17.77
Maps and Legendsby Michael Chabon
The first non-fiction collection by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Kavalier & Clay ranges from autobiographical essays (growing up in the then experimental community of Columbia, MD) to book reviews (Cormac McCarthy's The Road, for one) to artist appreciations (Howard Chaykin, Will Eisner, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) to Judaism (Golems anyone?) and then back to memoirs (writing Mysteries of Pittsburgh, childhood encounters with literature). We can pretty much guarantee that any and all readers who are enamored of Chabon's fiction will take great pleasure in reading this volume, as the same discerning intelligence is on ample display here in sentences and paragraphs that are as finely crafted as any he has written and that will leave each reader with greater appreciations of and deeper insights into all the covered topics. And then there's the way fab, three tier, Jordan Crane dustjacket.
retail price - $24.00 copacetic price - $22.22
The
Yiddish Policemen's Unionby Michael Chabon
Oh, yeah -- we should mention that this fine novel, wherein Mr. Chabon grafts his own set of concerns -- faith, family, father and failure -- on top of a straight, down and dirty hard-boiled detective story with sterling results, is now available in s fine, french-flapped softcover edition for all those of you who were unable, for whatever reason, to obtain a copy of the hardcover.
retail price - $15.95 copacetic price - $14.44
Dig!!! Lazurus, Dig!!!
(CD)by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
A finely crafted old school rock album filled with hard-driving songs populated by angst-ridden characters that strain to shed some light on the state of things while simultaneously rocking out. Grinding guitars and whining keyboards glide over a solid rhythm while Cave drones on. While this is certainly not up to the level of Abattoir Blues -- his masterpiece, in our opinion -- it's a finely crafted piece of work that gives ample evidence that Cave & Co. are still on a roll, and is certainly worth a listen (you'll have to click around a bit to find it, but the whole album is [or, at least was] up for your listening pleasure).
retail price - $17.98 copacetic price - $16.17
The Diving Bell
and the Butterfly (DVD)directed by Julian Schnabel
Where to begin with a film like this? Well, for starters, this film single-handedly renewed our faith in the existence of a cinema of redemption, of the sort we had thought had long ago passed from this earth. The viewing of this film reveals a complex signification system constructed of layer upon layer upon layer of meaning-generating signs, symbols and referents and designed to address the core theme of communication and those inter-personal relations that most closely -- at least, in Schnabel's view -- inhere to it. These the film differentiates as inter-generational familial relations -- particularly the father-son relation -- along with its corallary, gender relations; the relation between self-interest and self-sacrifice, which can, in turn, be further parsed to the relation between self-expression and submission; which leads, finally, to the relationship between art and religion. These themes are explored to such a depth as to reveal their shared roots. At the end we discover that the essence of life is a struggle to communicate our being in the face of mortality, and that the cinema is -- when properly employed -- a powerful language in this struggle, one that is, in fact -- as powerfully demonstrated by this film -- capable of redeeming the life led in its service.
retail price - $29.99 copacetic price - $25.75
Dororo, Volume One
by Osamu Tezuka
Hard to believe, but here's yet another late sixties masterwork by the one and only Tezuka, published by Vertical. This time around the publisher, Vertical, has opted for the original righit-to-left Japanese page order; in other words, unlike the other Vertical editions of Tezuka's work (Buddha, MW, etc.) this one reads "back" to "front." This is the first of three volumes. Get a nice preview, here.
retail price - $13.95 copacetic price - $12.75
Speed Racer: Mach GO GO GO by Tatsuo Yoshida & Co.
Just in time for the Wachowski Bros. full-length (2 1/2 hours!) CGI-intensive feature film, DMP has put together a complete edition of the original Speed Racer manga from back in the day. It's a slip-cased edition composed of two hardcover volumes that will be sure to rev up the emotional engines of Speed Racer fans (you know who you are). Read this, for a fairly thorough accounting of its merits, a nice photo of the actual item and a general meditation on all things Speed Racer.
retail price - $39.95 copacetic price - $33.33
Little Nothings: The Curse of the Umbrella
by Lewis Trondheim
Fully cognizant adult funny animals walk and talk through the streets and across the skies of Europe, searching for meaning and beauty in this 120 page graphic novel that is confidently rendered in pen and ink and sensitively colored in watercolor by one of the most popular of contemporary European comics artists.
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $13.50
Three Shadows
by Cyril Pedrosa
Hey, this one's a beaut. :01 (First Second, to you) made all the right choices to emphasize the aesthetic pleasures in this fine 268 page graphic novel by reknowned (at least in France) French artist Cyril Pedrosa. All we have to say is that if dramatic narratives, cinematic storytelling and great ink brush work are your thing, then this is for you! Not sure, check out this preview.
retail price - $15.99 copacetic price - $14.44
Little
Vampire by Joann Sfar
Vampires. Little vampires. A cute li'l blood-sucker doing his thing in a big book full of full color comics. Little vampire, little vampire, won't you come out and play? What more can be said, which is more or less a sort of follow up (prequel?) to Sfar's earlier Vampire Loves, which presents the gambollings of a moody adolescent vampire. It seems the world just can't get enough of vampires. Here's the comic that dares to ask the question, "Can vampires be cute?" To help you decide the answer, here's a preview. It's cute!
retail price - $13.95 copacetic price - $12.75
Life Sucksby Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria and Warren Pleece
:01 seems intent on moving in on Vertigo's turf with this one. A tall tale of walking on the wild side with twenty-something, surfer-duding, night-clerking, goth-rocking (and not-so-cute -- what a difference fifteen or twenty years makes, huh?) vampires. Might be good, let's check out this bloodless preview and see what we think. Hmm, looks a bit like Ghost World meets a PG-13 version of Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss. Vampires. It looks like there's no getting away from them. Why are we not surprised?
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
ordering info
New for April 2008
Thoreau at Waldenby John Porcellino
Thoreau & Porcellino: a perfect match if there ever was one! We have nothing but good things to say about this, the third volume in the Center of Cartoon Studies series of American Biography in Comics. Printed in brown and black ink, this new hardcover book is a fantastic intro to the life and works of Henry David Thoreau and makes for a transporting read. Porcellino had extracted the key quotes from Walden (along with a few from Civil Disobedience, for good measure) and then given them plenty of space to breath in the reader's mind, as the gently paced visuals flow across the page and work to capture the deliberate and gradual rhythms of Thoreau's day to day existence, which is to say real life, as it is lived: the practical realization of his philosophy, in comics.
retail price - $16.99 copacetic price - $14.44
The James Brown Reader: 50 Years of Writing About the Godfather of Soul
edited by Nelson George and Alan Leeds
Talk about contrasts! Henry David Thoreau and James Brown may very well be the alpha and omega of American culture -- everything else will fit in between these two giants. Here's your first chance to follow the life and career of James Brown as it happened. This entire volume is all from original source material penned as history was made, beginning with an unsigned Variety review of a 1959 show at the Apollo through to a lengthy 2006 appreciation of his life by Jonathan Lethem for Rolling Stone, The James Brown Reader presents the most multi-faceted single-volume view of its subject yet. And, co-editor Alan Leeds is a Pittsburgh homie. A must!
retail price - $17.00 copacetic price - $15.00
Hall of Best Knowledgeby Ray Fenwick
A book like no other, HoBK is very tough to concisely describe, but we'll give it the old college try: It is a meditation on ideas concerning knowledge; specifically on what constitutes authority in the realm of knowledge, and how this authority is represented. It is -- whether consciously so or not is open to debate -- an examination of the perception that an innate authority lies in manuscripts -- literally "writing by hand" -- the medium through which all traditional knowledge was stored and distributed during the millenia preceding Gutenberg's invention of movable type and the printing press which ushered in the era of print (which era, we hasten to add, is now coming to a close -- what better time to revisit its precursor?). Fenwick employs walls of irony and sarcasm to seal off the reader into chamber of darkness wherein he lights a single candle and everything is illuminated.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
Dead Ringer
by Jason Miles
Whew, this one's another toughie. This is an 11" x 15" handmade narrative portfolio. Limited to 500 copies, (hand?) printed on heavy flat white stock, with hand-scored cardboard covers, Dead Ringers is a graphic meditation on death and personal mortality that employs stasis as its central metaphor. Learn more, here.
retail price - $14.00 copacetic price - $12.00
The Rabbi's Cat 2by Joann Sfar
Hey, here's a swell surprise: another fine hardcover edition continuing the series of elegantly eloquent tales set among the Jewish diaspora in the French inflected culture of northern Africa, centered in Algiers, and taking place during the more innocent days of the 1930s. The eternal mysteries of love, faith, ritual and nature are probed with a delicate and nuanced touch in the 130, lush, full color pages of this hardcover volume. A real treat. Get a nice sneak preview, here.
retail price - $22.95 copacetic price - $20.00
Papercutter #7
Another fine issue of this perky peppy anthology published in Portland, Oregon by Tugboat Press. This time around we have an epic of 8th grade outsiders by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill followed by a one-pager by Aron Nels Steinke and a striking adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Sheperdess and the Chimney Sweep" by Andy Hartzell, who has clearly built on the momentum of his successful Fox Bunny Fox and turned in his finest work to date here. We can't wait for the next issue!
retail price - $4.00 copacetic price - $3.50
Welcome
to the Dahl House:Alienation, Incarceration and Inebreation in the New American Rome
by Ken Dahl
Are you worried that things are going just a little too good? Need to be brought down a notch from your giddy heights of blissful contentment? No? Didn't think so. But, if you were, then Welcome to the Dahl House would be the ticket. The harsh world view on display here in this finely crafted compendium make the comics of Chris Ware and Ivan Brunetti seem the work of dewy-eyed optimists by comparison. And, it's priced on the assumption that you're broke, so you can actually afford it!
retail price - $7.00 copacetic price - $6.25
Wordless Books: the Original Graphic Novels
written and edited by David A. Beronä w/ introduction by Peter Kuper
Lynn Ward, Franz Masereel, Milt Gross and Laurence Hyde -- they're all here along with several of their lesser known cohorts in this lavishly produced survey of the picture novel that flourished in the first half of the twentieth century. High quality, full page reproductions abound, all are accompanied by historical and crictical essays that help put the works in context. Also full color scans of the volumes themselves. This volume is a great primer to this important area, and a work of art in itself!
retail price - $35.00 copacetic price - $19.75
A
People's History of American Empireby Howard Zinn • adapted by David Wagner & Paul Buhle with art by Mike Konopacki
This 272 page, 8 1/2" x 11" volume provides a graphic interpretation of the key points of Howard Zinn's seminal, alternative reading of American history, A People's History of The United States. If you' haven't been able to find the time to read Zinn's opus, this volume just might be the ticket. We used to say that A People's History will teach you a whole different American history from what you learned in school, but this book (and/or the material it introduced) has now begun to be introduced into curriculums, as well as bits and pieces being disseminated through the culture at large through the mainstream media, so maybe you've already been introduced to some of the events and perspectives delineated here, but nothing beats getting the big picture, and that's what this book is intent on delivering. In any event, if you're not familiar with Zinn's work and you enjoy history in comics form, then you owe it to yourself to check this out.
hardcover - retail price - $17.00 copacetic price - $15.00
softcover - retail price - $30.00 copacetic price - $25.00
Wholphin No. 5
The fifth issue of the "DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short FIlms" has arrived. Documentaries, short fiction films and animations from Africa, Spain, Canada, the UK and (primarily) right here in the USA. Spend a day with the Sudanese Liberation Army, see drunk bees, watch Spanish science fiction, experience a herion addicted carnival monkey (don't worry, it's an animation), be outraged at the treatment of American Indians and enjoy the 20 minute adaptation of Michael Chabon's short story, "House Hunting," directed by Amy Lippman and featuring Paul Rudd & Zooey Deschanel; along with much more -- all of which you won't be seeing anywhere else (at least for now). Get the whole story -- and the chance to watch tons of web-only short films -- here.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.77
Other new arrivals include:
More Old Jewish Comedians
by Drew Friedman
'Nuff said.
retail price - $16.99 copacetic price - $15.00
Kaput & Zösky
by Lewis Trondgein w/Eric Cartier
Great hi-jinx fun for kids of all ages. Full color.
retail price - $13.95 copacetic price - $12.75
Funeral of the Heart
by Leah Hayes
Dark (very dark, like, black) musings from the author of Holy Moley.
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $12.75
Daddy's Girl
by Debbie Dreschler
This landmark comics work of the hell and purgatory of childhood and adolescence is now back in print in this finely crafted hardcover edition.
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $12.75
M: A Graphic Novel based on the Film by Fritz Lang
by Jon J Muth
Here's a deluxe, expanded, hardcover collection of the 1990 series.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $22.22
One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box
• How the Water Feels to the Fishes by Dave Eggers
• Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape by Sarah Manguso
• Minor Robberies by Deb Olin Unferth
These three hardcover books are snugly enclosed together in an illustrated (by Jacob Magraw-Mickelson) slipcase and bring you together the 145 short (generally very short) stories of the overarching title; from the fine folks at McSweeney's.
retail price - $25.00 copacetic price - $21.25
