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LOW PRICEAnd don't forget that there are many more excellent items to be found in our:
And, yes, we do third-party shipments (i.e. we will ship direct to a recipient at a different address from the purchaser), and we will gift wrap for a nominal charge (it's free for in-store purchases).
We're starting out our list this year with a fantastic batch of anthologies. These are hard to beat as gifts. Each contains a wide variety of work united under a specific theme, and they all share one thing in common: they're great!
An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories
edited by Ivan Brunetti
Published by Yale University Press, this awesome anthology is a worthy successor to McSweeney's 13 as the must have -- and, therefore, must give -- comics collection of the foreseeable future. This volume, bearing the imprimatur of Yale and possessed of an admirable heft, both intellectual and æsthetic as well as physical, is the ideal gift to give to that person (or those persons) who you've always wanted to convert to The Way of Comics. Editor, Brunetti goes all out to offer us a canonical assemblage with the 400 pages of comics here on display. One where it is the form itself that is always at the heart of the work represented. The work we find here -- while, of course, being comics -- is also, at some level, telling us something about comics, and this latter value-added feature can be attributed in no small part to Brunetti's editorial approach in assembling this work, which he clearly views as an organic whole. Each artist represented in this collection has a distinct and original approach to the medium that embodies their personal interaction with the comics form as well as with -- and this is where this anthology is unique -- each other piece in the book. This book is organized around the principal of association. The pieces are grouped in clusters that are related in a wide variety of ways, from the form and content of the work to the geographic region and ethnicity of the creators. Brunetti tips his hand right at the outset by starting with the raw, unbridled, free-associative works of Marc Bell, Sam Henderson, Mark Newgarden, Kaz, Tony Millionaire and Bill Griffith (who all, with the exception of Bell, have NYC connections as well). This approach yields many surprising and unexpected connections as well as much that that proceeds in due course.
retail price - $28.00 copacetic price - $25.00
Best American Comics 2006
edited by Harvey Pekar and Anne Elizabeth Moore
This volume marks the first time that comics joins the well established "Best American Series." It is a surprisingly well producedbook -- surprising in that it's from Houghton Mifflin, a major NY publisher, whose eyes are usually more closely set on the bottom line -- that contains a good cross-section of work published in North America in 2004 and 2005 and functions as a fine follow-up -- as a yearbook does to an encyclopedia (for those of you old enough to know what we're talking about) -- to both McSweeney's #13 -- which is clearly its inspiration -- and the just-released Brunetti edited anthology reviewed above. This collection spans the generations, including new work from old-timers Kim Deitch, Gilbert Shelton and Robert Crumb, middle-agers Jaime Hernandez, Lynda Barry and Joe Sacco, and youngins' Anders Nilsen, Rebecca Dart and Jesse Reklaw, whose story, "13 Cats of My Childhood," we singled out for praise in our 2005 SPX report, when it appeared in it's original form as Couch Tag #2, stating at the time, "It is one of the best comics at this year's SPX... and deserving of a much wider audience than it will be able to find in this form." So, suffice it to say that we're quite happy to see it included here in this anthology. By far the longest piece included in this 320 page anthology, practically a graphic novella, "La Rubia Loca," by Justin Hall -- another SPX attending self-publisher -- is an engrossing story about a bunch of hippie slackers stuck on a bus tour through Mexico with a crazy woman. And keep in mind that these are just the highlights, there's plenty more.
retail price - $22.00 copacetic price - $19.80
Kramers Ergot 6
Edited, as always, by Sammy Harkham -- this time around with an assist by co-publisher Alvin Buenaventura -- this now seemingly biennial publication continues to live up to the promise made with the fourth and fifth volumes. Anyone interested in the more adventurous reaches of contemporary comics is sure to grateful to receive this. The format follows that of the last volume: a flat matte finish (this time sans texture) flexi cover fixed to a sturdy Smythe sewn binding that holds the contents firmly in place. And what contents! Many of those talents that readers have come to associate with Kramers Ergot are here again, and have submitted work that is as engaging as ever. Sammy Harkham, C.F., Paper Rad, Marc Bell, Souther Salazar, Ron Regé, Jr., Matthew Thurber, Dan Zettwoch and Elvis Studio are joined by Vanessa Davis, Tom Gaud, Martin Cendreda, Bald Eagles and a handful of others. Also, KE Alum Gary Panter finds himself under the same covers as former fellow Raw artist, Jerry Moriarty, who is given plenty of space to present his idiosyncratic Hopperesque visions for the first time (we've seen) in many years. In addition, with this issue Kramers Ergot adds a curatorial component to its offerings for the first time, as readers are given a rare look at two great historical figures of the comics world: we get a healthy sampling of a late sketchbook by the Dutch comics artist, Marc Smeets, which is preceded by "an incomplete appreciation" by Chris Ware; and an amazing reproduction of the early and highly influential manga, Norakuro by Suiho Tagawa. Kramers Ergot is, once again, the sine qua non for anyone involved in the contemporary comics scene.
retail price - $34.95 copacetic price - $29.75
Art Out of Time
by Dan Nadel
This is an awesome new book of amazing, little seen and hard to find classic comics. These are high quality reproductions of complete stories here, taken right from the original sources; not single page "examples" followed by lots of text "explaining" them. No! Author Dan Nadel employs his vast knowledge of the outer reaches of comics to introduce and put in context the pieces this volume contains, and then steps aside and lets the work speak for itself. This is the real deal and sure to be appreciated by any and all explorers of the comics world.
retail price - $40.00 copacetic price - $35.00
Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators
edited by Frédéric Boilet
Our friends at Fanfare/Ponent Mon -- who brought us that understated masterpiece, The Walking Man -- now bring us a fresh treat. Initiated by the powers that be at the French Institutes and Alliances in Japan, who, along with the French Embassy, bankrolled the visits of nine French comics creators to Japan in order that they be inspired to create eight of the works we have here. The other half -- eight more pieces -- were supplied by Japanese natives (one of whom, the editor, Frédéric Boilet, is a French ex-pat residing in Japan). Together, these sixteen pieces provide a kaliedoscope of views of Japan today; and not just Tokyo. This project was designed with a geographically broad view: the entire country, from the southern tip at Amakusa to the northern metropolis of Sapporo, is on display here. Creators include manga master Jiro Taniguchi (author of the aforementioned masterwork, The Walking Man), Joann Sfar, of The Rabbi's Cat fame, François Schuiten & Benoît Peeters, Kan Takahama, Fabrice Neaud, Little Fish, Aurélia Aurita and nine others. This is an excellent anthology of comics work at the same time as it is an engaging cultural survey. Of equal interest to readers of contemporary comics work and students of Japan, this is a sure fire must have for anyone who is both.
retail price - $25.00 copacetic price - $22.50
The next three items will be especially appreciated by those whose interest in comics extends into making them as well as reading and appreciating them.
Making Comics:
Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
by Scott McCloud
The author of the much heralded (and deservedly so!) Understanding Comics returns with a much anticipated new work designed for those who are ready to move beyond simply understanding and are ready, willing and able to take the plunge into actually making comics. McCloud states, "If you’ve ever felt there must be something more to making comics than just copying drawing styles then this is the book for you. In Making Comics, I’ll do my best to cover the storytelling secrets I don’t see any other books talking about."
retail price - $22.95 copacetic price - $19.50
Whatcha Mean What's a Zine?
: The Art of Making Zines and Mini-Comics
by Mark Todd & Esther Pearl Watson
This is a nifty guide to zinemaking and zinestering that is a great primer for anyone who is getting started -- or even thinking of getting started -- down the road of making a zine, and it's a perfect companion piece to Scott McCloud's aforementioned Making Comics. It's purposefully designed to be exactly the kind of guide that the authors wished they had when they started out. In covers the practical ins and outs such as formats and print-marriage set ups, the pros and cons of various drawing tools and printing methods, and a wide array of binding methods that one might never think of on one's own. But there's much more as the authors bring in a bevy of talented cartoonists, zinesters and self-publishers to offer their artistic, poetic, historical and technical perspectives, encouragements and insights. Among those creators featured are John Porcellino, Ron Regé, Jr., Souther Salazar, Dan Zettwoch, Martin Cendreda, Dave Kiersh, Allison Cole and Raina Lee. All in all this book has a great feel and is sure to be enjoyed even by those who are well on their way down Zinester Avenue. And it's bargain priced to boot!
retail price - $12.95 copacetic price - $11.69
In the Studio: Visits with Contemporary Cartoonists
by Todd Hignite
WOW!!! It's here and it's a dream come true. Founding editor of Comic Art magazine, Todd Hignite has given us an elegant, oversize, beautifully produced, 320 page hardcover book that takes you into the studio and collections of today's top independent cartoonists. Featuring tons (499! - to be exact) of reproductions of the highest quality, depicting the original art and collections and physical environs of R. Crumb, D. Clowes, J. Hernandez, C. Ware and more, side by side with extensive interviews with the creators themselves, this is a book to savor. Recommended!
retail price - $29.95 copacetic price - $26.95
Now let's take at look at the truly amazing bounty of worthy new graphic novels and collections currently gracing our shelves:
Fun Home
by Alison Bechdel
Fun Home is as forcefully felt a memoir as any yet published in comics, but it quite possibly can lay claim to being the single most thoroughly thought out as well. The deeply cleansing catharsis that Bechdel achieves here is enabled to no small degree by her extensive use of literary reference. She draws on a full complement of her artistic forebears to create an elaborate intertextual support narrative in a manner that is akin to that which her father employed in his painstaking restoration of the gothic revival mansion which is the central setting for the story. Sound interesting? Read our full length review.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.95
Chicken with Plums
by Marjane Satrapi
This much anticipated new work by Iranian cartoonist Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis, Persepolis 2) is now on our shelves. Those of you who who were -- like us -- fans of Persepolis but were subsequently disappointed -- as we were -- with Satrapi's last work, Embroideries, and were worried that she was a "one-hit wonder" and Persepolis was all she was going to be good for can now rest assured that this is not the case: Chicken With Plums is an amazing tale that is artfully told and that leaves the reader with much to ponder. Our only gripe is with Pantheon for doing a fairly shoddy job on the printing as there are several places where her white-on-black lettering is blurred by poor attention paid somewhere in the printing process. Her work deserves better. This time around Satrapi gives us a family legend, the story of her great-uncle, a celebrated Iranian musician who gave up his life for music and love. Set in Tehran in 1958, her uncle, one of Iran’s most revered sitar players, discovers that his beloved instrument is irreparably damaged. Though he tries, he cannot find one to replace it, one whose sound speaks to him with the same power and passion with which his music speaks to others. In despair, he takes to his bed, renouncing the world and all its pleasures, closing the door on the demands and love of his wife and his four children. Over the course of the week that follows, his family and close friends attempt to change his mind, but Nasser Ali slips further and further into his own reveries that are filled with flashbacks and flash-forwards, all related in Satrapi's warm and welcoming style that, while it at first comes across as being naive in its simplicity, reveals itself to be exceptionally perceptive as it effortlessly exposes much about the workings of the human psyche.
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.25
La Perdida
by Jessica Abel
This hardcover volume collects the entirety of the five-issue series published by Fantagraphics, with ammendations and corrections (and for a price that is 20% less than the cost of the original comics!). La Perdida -- which translates as "The Loss," -- presents an in-depth and unflinching look at a group of well-to-do American ex-pats in Mexico and the Mexican locals that they interact with. The entire tale pivots around Carla, a daughter of divorce whose father was Mexican and who heads to Mexico from her native Chicago "in search of her roots" -- but also because she's at a bit of a loss as to what to do with herself. The epigraph that opens the work is from Malcolm Lowery's dark and desperate novel, Under the Volcano, and that sets the tone for what follows. There are no heroes (or heroines) here. What the reader is confronted with is sin and error: selfishness; self-righteousness; ignorance; sloth; greed; exploitation; indiscriminate sex, drinking and drug use; and, finally, kidnapping and murder. Abel has stated more than once that she was initially inspired to try her hand at comics by Love and Rockets, the work of the Mexican-American los hermanos Hernandez. While her approach to characterization is very NYC -- and reminiscent of the early work of fellow New Yorker, short story writer Deborah Eisenberg (especially Transactions in a Foreign Currency), whose latest collection, Twilight of the Superheroes, is, in an intriguing twist, thematically related to comic books -- La Perdida, by far Jessica Abel's most ambitious work to date, is clearly informed by Jaime's and Gilberto's work (especially the latter's) in Love and Rockets, and is very much her tribute to the inspiration that catalyzed her career as a comics creator. And we are happy to report that her inspiration is alive and well here: the characters that populate this work fairly leap off the page, providing the reader with that singular pleasure of feeling that one knows the characters better than they know themselves. A unique mixture of sensibilities and a challenging work in its own right, La Perdida is a welcome addition to the growing body of literary graphic novels.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.95
ACME Novelty Library 17
by Chris Ware
And what would Christmas be without a new Chris Ware tome to help us through the holidays! This is, as all Chris Waredevotees doubtless already know, another finely crafted hardcover from the master himself that contains the next chapter in the sordid saga of Rusty Brown; or as Mr. Ware himself puts it: "Continuing with the second half of the introduction to his shamelessly meandering graphic novel “Rusty Brown” (which began last issue at a private school in the 1970s midwest) the six-sided crystal suggested by the exegisis of the first installment is slowly turned and examined in mid-morning winter sunlight sometime between the bell of first period and the conclusion of lunch for the first through the fourth grades. Also included are more thorough examinations of many of the main characters’ cloudy motivations, personal habits, and favorite restaurants, to say nothing of the small dust mote around which they have coalesced and the complications in its life due to the acquisition of superpowers sometime the night before." The brightly colored picture story which is this issue's back up feature is that tragic tale of Bradford the Bee. Hot off the press!
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.00
Kings in Disguise
by James Vance and Dan Burr
with an introduction by Alan Moore
At last, this long neglected masterpiece of comics is once again available, and in the finest edition yet produced. Originally published as a comic book mini-series in the late 1980s by Kitchen Sink Press, Kings in Disguise started out life as a one act play. Around the time that the play premiered in 1984, Vance stumbled into a comics shop became intrigued by the comics renaissance that he discovered that was then in first bloom and a lightbulb went off. Set in America at the nadir of the Great Depression of the 1930s, Kings in Disguise is a thoroughly engaging story told with heart and finely rendered by long suffering alternative comics stalwart, Dan Burr. It is a story of tramps, bums and yeggs, young and old, weak and strong, good and bad, all caught up in the forces of history and trying to do the best they can. This is a story that tries to capture the reality of lives of struggle, in direct opposition to the traditional role of comic books as escapist fare read precisely to avoid confronting these hard realities. Do yourself a favor and give this one a look.
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.25
New York: Life in the Big City
by Will Eisner
This is the follow-up to last year's wonderful Contract with God Trilogy. Also published by W.W. Norton, this too is a high quality, heavy duty hardcover omnibus edition, printed in Eisner's trademarked sepia tones on light cream stock. This volume collects New York, The Building, City People Notebook, and Invisible People for a fraction of the total cost that these would set you back in their respective softcover editions. So, in addition to being and amazing collection of some of the finest late work by one of comics' undisputed masters, it's also a bargain!
retail price - $29.95 copacetic price - $25.47
We Are On Our Own
by Miriam Katin
This is a comics memoir of a Jewish mother and child's persecution and flight in Hungary in the last year of the Second World War. It is a harsh story of pain and persevering, of suffering and survival against the odds that is written and drawn by the grown child and bracketed by scenes of her own motherhood safely ensconced in the United States. A unique endeavor from cover to cover, the story is told entirely in rugged pencil drawings that eloquently testify to the strength of its actors. This attention to matching form and content continues in Tom Devlin's thoughtful design of the book itself. Holding the book in one's hands, one immediately feels that its origins are in a harsh world filled with privation that is quite alien to the sleek comforts amidst with we comport ourselves in America today.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $16.95
Lucky
by Gabrielle Bell
D & Q sez: " Gabrielle Bell fascinatingly documents the mundane details of her below-minimum wage, twenty-something existence in Brooklyn, NY with a subtle humor. Her simple, unadorned drawing style, heavy narration and biting wit chronicles transient roommates who communicate only through post-it notes; aspiring artists who sublet tiny rooms in leaky, greasy broken-down border-house loft apartments crawling with bugs, cats and bad art. Bell tackles a string of forgettable, unrelated jobs including nude modeling, artist’s assistant, art teacher, and jewelry maker that only serve to bolster her despair, boredom and discomfort in her own skin. Bell’s self-scrutiny leads her to dream sequences that allow her to rise above her banal actuality and hyper-awareness. Bell fantasizes about her vision of a perfect world as she becomes the accomplished artist and world traveler she longs to be. Bell’s daily comics allow her to escape the harsh, judgmental gaze of the world and the monotony of daily life. Her unpolished art speaks to a desire to record all the messy details while the pain and confusion is still fresh. Coming of age amidst the zine revolution, cartoonist Gabrielle Bell has been creating her comics to much acclaim, even winning an Ignatz Award for the self-published serialization of Lucky."
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $16.95
Get a Life & Maybe Later
by Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian
A double-header of classic French comics -- or bande dessinée, as they say dans le Français -- by two Angoulême award winning cartoonists. Best known in North America for their appearances in Drawn & Quarterly's eponymous flagship title, Dupuy & Berberian's work combines an urban and refreshingly adult wit -- one in which adult actually means adult and not the worn and torn euphemism for graphic sexual content -- with an astute artistic flair to produce thoroughly engaging reading experiences that no one will ever feel ashamed for enjoying. Get a Life is a full color collection of about a dozen of the early Monsieur Jean short stories and serves to introducereaders to the titular character, "a laconic, single Parisian male struggling through the usual calamities of life." These extremely entertaining tales will leave you basking in a warm afterglow and looking forward to your next encounter. Maybe Later presents the rare initial solo outing of Dupuy and Berberian as each tackles the task of describing the behind-the-scene experience of creating their popular Monsieur Jean series from their own point of view. Along the way these black and white tales introduce the creators' individual idiosyncrasies, as well as take quite a few flights of fancy. The result is a rollicking rollercoaster ride. Each of these books is beautifully designed by Tom Devlin and lushly produced in the inimitable Drawn and Quarterly fashion.
Get a Life: retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $16.95
Maybe Later: retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $14.40
:01 (First Second)
We're happy to announce the first batch of graphic novels from a new publisher devoted solely to the publication of quality graphic novels in the European tradition: :01 - First Second. The works here in their first batch place this publisher on the aesthetic spectrum somewhere between Drawn & Quarterly and NBM, along with seeming ambitions to compete with Pantheon's graphic novel line. These works are certainly worth a look. We can easily recommend the Eddie Campbell as a fresh, delightful and adventurous take on the nascent conventions of the graphic novel that show evidence that he wants to keep playing with those conventions to keep them fast and loose and prevent them from becoming setin stone. And Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar (The Rabbi's Cat) is a marvelously entertaining compendium of four graphic novellas -- each of which was released on its own in France -- each devoted to a chapter in the life and loves of a shy and conservative... vampire.
The Fate of the Artist by Eddie Campbell
retail price - $15.95 copacetic price - $14.40
hardcover collector's edition
retail price - $25.00 copacetic price - $22.50
Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.25
And here's two more from First Second
Klezmer, Book One: Tales of the Wild East
by Joann Sfar
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.00
American Born Chinese
by Gene Luen Yang
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.00
We would like to draw your attention to the first book of Joann Sfar's Klezmer series, "Tales of the Wild East," and American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. Both of these works are full color graphic novels printed on heavy semi-gloss stock with French-flap softcovers. While the graphic style of these two works could not be more different -- Sfar's art is as loose, wild and impressionistic as Yang's is tight, sharp and controlled -- both of these titles contain equally solid and moving tales of minority ethnic identity: in Sfar's case of Jews -- itinerant Klezmer musicians, to be exact -- in pre-WWII Eastern Europe; and in Yang's case of a Chinese community in California that focuses on the coming of age adventures of a self-conscious youth (some Copacetic customers may remember that we carried American Born Chinese during its original serialization in Yang's self-published B & W mini-comic version that was released over the last two or three years).
Curses
by Kevin Huizenga
The much anticipated first collection by up-and-coming-new-comics-champ, Kevin Huizenga is at last on our shelves. Its arrival may, however, signal the end of Huizenga's status as an up-and-comer, and initiate his ensconsement in the ranks of established contemporary masters of comics. This volume brings together a wide range of Huizenga's work from a wide variety of sources. It starts off with a little known (well, not to long time Copacetic customers) gem from the Orchid anthology published by Sparkplug Comics, titled, "Green Tea." It is adapted from a classic Victorian horror story of the same name by Sheridan Le Fanu, but is given the inimitable Huizenga treatment and stands as an original work. Following this there is the trilogy that first appeared in Drawn and Quarterly Showcase #1, several selections from the now out of print first issue of Huizenga's ongoing solo title, Or Else, a 2-pager originally done for Time Magazine, and the full color story, "Jeepers Jacobs," originally executed for Kramers Ergot 5. Anyone not already familiar with these works is heartily encouraged to consider this a great opportunity to read some excellent comics delivered in a fine package for a reasonable price. And, it should go without saying (but, of course, we can't help but say it anyway) that this is makes for a swell gift. Learn more about the works of Kevin Huizenga here.
retail price - $21.95 copacetic price - $17.95
Ninja
by Brian Chippendale
Here's one for the crazed art comics fiend on your list. This mega-blast of comics and more by Fort Thunder co-founder, Brian Chippendale is book that stands out from the rest. Five years in the making, it's Chippendale's first book publication, and he's gone all out to make it a debut to remember. It's a giant oversize (11" x 17") 144 page hardcover volume printed in black and white and full color where it counts. 80 pages are devoted to the titular graphic novel that is both an epic -- and deranged -- fantasy and an urban allegory. The remaining 64 pages are chock-a-block with drawings, collages, posters and more. While much is simply pen and ink and/or pencil, this is reproduced with full attention to all details and subtleties. Ninja is a sensual onslaught that will stagger your brain as it ttries to take it all. We found ourselves going back again and again to soak up the richness of his imagery while simultaneously working to crack the riddles of his narratives. Published by the design wizards at Picture Box.
retail price - $34.95 copacetic price - $29.75
Asthma
by John Hankiewicz
We've been big fans of the work of Mr. Hankiewicz for quite some time, and are thrilled to be able to offer Sparkplug Comic Books' massive new 108-page, 8 1/2" x 11" collection of his totally unique, perplexingly obscure, abstrusely enigmatic, elegantly rendered pen and ink parables and small tales. This work is frustratingly difficult to describe, and we're not going to try at this juncture. (OK, we'll give it a lame whirl: think of a blend of David Lynch, René Magritte and Franz Kafka dropped into the middle of the American midwest and perhaps you'll have an inkling) Suffice it to say that this is truly one-of-a-kind work on display here, and that we offer it as our number one gift choice for the adventurous comics reader. This is the ideal gift choice for anyone on your list who is frustrated by the plethora of commonplace comics offerings and is constantly on the look out for new and challenging work. Check out these sample pages to get an idea of what we're talking about. Recommended for all adventurous comics readers everywhere!
retail price - $17.00 copacetic price - $14.44
The Lost Girls
by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie
This one was a surprise bockbuster, with the first printing selling out even before the book hit the shelves -- and that's natiowide, not just here at Copacetic. We've put in a supply of the second printing, and we happen to know that there's more than few people out there with this one on their wish list. "For more than a century, Alice, Wendy and Dorothy have been our guides through the Wonderland, Neverland and Land of Oz of our childhoods. Now like us, these three lost girls have grown up and are ready to guide us again, this time through the realms of our sexual awakening and fulfillment." So states publisher Top Shelf in their announcement of the release of this much anticipated work, over a decade in the making. ADULTS ONLY.
retail price - $75.00 copacetic price - $60.00
I Love Led Zeppelin
Panty-Dropping Comics
by Ellen Forney
with an introduction by Sherman Alexie
This slick oversize volume collects a decade of Forney's fun-filled frolics in the funny pages. In full color and black and white this 110-page collection includes collaborations with Margaret Cho, Kristin Gore, Dan Savage and a host of various experts. Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll are the order of the day. Alison Bechdel sez, "Ellen Forney's hilarious, exuberant, powerfull, voluptuous drawings are a frickin' force of nature." AND: WHILE SUPPLIES LAST (there's only a few left!!!), as a special bonus to readers of this page, we are offering a copy of Forney's first Fantagraphics collection, the 142-page Monkey Food (a $12.95 value) for FREE with any purchase of I Love Led Zeppelin (BUT... You have to ask for it; if you don't ask for it, you won't get it). How about them apples!
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $16.95
My Most Secret Desire
by Julie Doucet
Back in print, at last, this, perhaps our favorite of Ms. Doucet's collections, is presented here in an elegant hardcover edition that is in every way superior to the original of ten years ago, yet, amazingly, is priced less! Those crazy kids at Drawn & Quarterly -- how do they do it? For those of you who don't know what the fuss is about, Julie Doucet is one of the select torch bearers of the surrealistic confessional school of comics. This volume is dominated by graphic recountings of her vivid dreams, many of which center on her unconscious relationship with that most intimate aspect of the male anatomy. Doucet's intuitive grasp of the symbolic capacities of comics enables her to give lucid -- occasionally unnerving, often hilarious -- visual signification to the stress, anxiety, fear and loathing which are an all too familiar part of our lives.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $16.95
Premillennial Maakies
by Tony Millionaire
This volume presents the long out of print original classic Maakies strips for the first time in a hardcover, full-size, horizontal-format version that matches those editions that his later work has appeared in; with one, important distinction: this one is a massive 264 page monster of a book that will peel back your eyeballs and sear your brain. You have been warned.
retail price - $24.95 copacetic price - $21.25
I Am Going To Be Small (new, giant-size edition)
by Jeffrey Brown
Incorporating most, if not all, of the 96-page 2003 mini-comic edition of the same title, this new, mega-edition, despite its relatively diminutive 4" x 6" page size, is -- with 384 pages of caustic self-deprecation, witty observations (ironic and otherwise), Jesus jokes, sex and super heroes that's capped off by "Cuticle," a lengthy run of all-new funny animal strips featuring Bunny, Bear, Bird and Cat; all by the inimitable Mr. Jeffrey Brown -- far from small.
retail price - $14.00 copacetic price - $11.90
Meow, Baby
by Jason
This one is our favorite Jason tome. It's a 144-page collection of pithy shorts of all shapes and sizes, that demonstrates his mastery of the medium. While ranging in length from the healthy dose of standard, newspaper-style, three-panel gag-strips that closes out the volume, to a Hergé-esque, 20-page graphic short, "The Mummy's Secret," which immediately precedes them, the bulk of the book is made of of short -- one to seven pages in length, with most falling in the middle range -- gag pieces that are all variations on a small set of themes. Some are as minimal as a set-up followed immediately by a denouement, while others play with the formula a little. The one thing that all the pieces in this book have in common is that they all work and they're all quite humorous... in the dark, depressing sort of way that is Jason's trademark.
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $14.40
The Squirrel Mother Stories
by Megan Kelso
This is Ms. Kelso's second solo collection of stories. Beautifully designed by former Highwater Press publisher Tom Devlin, this volume will have all those who were mourning Highwater's passing up on their feet and doing a little dance, as it is proof positive that the production values that won a place in the hearts of so many comics readers are still alive and well. This edition is a pleasure to peruse, and was clearly done in collaboration with Ms. Kelso. (Devlin is also currently more-or-less the in-house designer at Drawn & Quarterly as well, helping them maintain that presses already high standards). Squirrel Mother brings together fourteen stories, including three which have not been previously published. Full color, duo-tone, monochrome and black and white as the story calls for, each finely crafted work contained herein is a perfect match of form to content. Childhood memories are the dominant theme here, but the collection ranges far and wide and includes three truly excellent (not to mention unexpected!) essays in comics on Alexander Hamilton's life and role in the founding of the American republic, as well as the unclassifiable "The Pickle Fork," and "Split Rock, Montana." Recommended.
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $13.55
Gray Horses
by Hope Larson
Another beautiful two-color book by the creator of Salamander Dream. Here's a fairly substantial preview and summary from publisher Oni Press. Check it out!
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $13.45
Bardin the Superrealist
by Max
Spain's rockin' rebel cartoonist (Peter Pank, The Extended Dream of Mr. D) has at last found his true voice, and it is unveiled in this full color hardcover collection just published in the US by Fantagraphics. Max shamelessly commits artistic miscegenation by wildly mixing a dischordant variety of artistic traditions. First and foremeost he digs deep in drawing on his roots in classical European art -- from Füssli and Goya to Dali and Ernst -- then he mixes it up with eastern mystical religious tropes, and contemporary European and North American comics and cartooning styles ranging all over the map from Dupuy & Berberian to Mattotti to Julie Doucet to Chris Ware, all unmistakably imprinted with Max's own deft style. We encourage you to take a look, and, to further entice you, we're offering this one at a special price; but only for this first batch!
retail price - $19.95 copacetic special price - $14.95
Sloth
by Gilbert Hernandez Blurred Vision
Two years in the making, Gilbert H.'s all new graphic novel for Vertigo is an allegorical tale of a suburban teen who wills himself into a year long coma, waking up a year later unchanged except that he is now the anti-Flash -- the world's slowest teen; the embodiment of sloth. We'll be back with a review as soon as we read it. True believers don't need to wait to hear what we have to say about it, of course, this is, after all, an all new work by Gilbert Hernandez.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.95
The Bakers
by Kyle Baker
A funky, fun and full color hardcover collection of all the Bakers strips seen so far, PLUS a brand new piece created especially for this volume. This book is the funniest comics work dealing the early years of child-rearing -- especially those aspects related to gender roles -- we've ever read. A great gift idea for comics-reading fledgling parents. Do yourself a favor and check out Kyle's wild website.
retail price - $18.95 copacetic price - $17.00
Project: Romantic
edited by Chris Pitzer
This is the final installment of the "Project Trilogy" which provides the up-and-coming generation of cartoonists to work with traditional comics themes. Inititated by Project: Telstar, which dealt with science fiction themes with a focus on robots, and continued by Project: Superior, which had super heroics as its unifying theme, this time around, as the title suggests, the same generation of cartoonists is given a chance to tackle the romance comics genre. As with the first two anthologies, the works assembled here bear little semblance to their generic progentiors in the mainstream comics of yore, a guided tour of which we are given in the introductory essay by Bill Boichel (which is currently available online as a downloadable .pdf). "True" romance seems mostly a thing of the past in the stories that follow, which here primarily focus on -- at best -- snatching a moment of happiness with a fellow being. Many of the pieces center on unrequited love, heartbreak, romantic disaster, murder, mayhem and confusion. Sometimes it's played for laughs and sometimes for tears. Exceptions include Aaron Renier's "Reflectors and Rutabegas," which comes closest to being a traditional romance, and McGovern & Leandri's Dr. Id story, which employs a 1960s-Dr.-Strange-as-sex-therapist narrative that is certainly traditional in its form, if not in its content. As with all AdHouse Books, the production values are excellent and the quality of the artwork is uniformly high. Stand-outs for us include the contributions of Paul Rivoche, Hope Larson, Roger Petersen and Junko Mizuno, but doubtless every reader of this anthology will find their own favorites. And there's no way we can avoid singling out Robert Goodin's contribution: if there were an award for excellence in the service of perversion, this one would have the comics category all wrapped up.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic special price - $15.95
Unicorn Mountain, Volume 2
edited by Curt Gettman
Support the home team and give a great gift at the same time. It's a win-win propposition! As the cover states, this is a compendium of comics, writing and music. This time around Unicorn Mountain is a chunky 206-page squarebound squareformat anthology printed in umber ink on flat white paper of (mostly) Pittsburgh culture that contains an eclectic 21-track CD, all for less than the prie of the average stand-alone CD! Made possible in part by a grant from the seemingly omnipresent Sprout Fund, this issue is a big step up from the first issue. Highlights include "Thousands of Mistakes" by Frank Santoro, "Niran and Theola" by Curt Gettman and Owl Kahol Systems (a pseudonym for a local comics artist), "Like Lace" by JULIACKS, "Rock & You" by Paulette Poullet, a two-page untitled piece by Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg of Street Angel fame, and a fistful of untitled illustrations by Paper Rad. The material on the CD ranges far and wide and includes new tunes by Modey Lemon, Oneida, Ex-Models, Elf Power and Pink Mountaintops. The Karl Hendricks Rock Band's "The Last Uncompromising Hardcore Band" will have you tapping your toes and singing along before you even realize it.
retail price - $15.00 copacetic price - $12.00
Gødland, Volume One: "Hello, Cosmic"
by Tom Scioli and Joe Casey
Now it's time for you latecomers who missed the now sold out and out-of-print early issues of this wild and wooly homage to Jack Kirby's cosmic capers of the sixties, seventies and eighties to jump on the bandwagon and get all caught up so you can plunge in for the next batch. Pittsburgh artist -- and Copacetic neighbor -- Tom Scioli has mastered the late-Kirby style, and not just the superficial stylings; he understands what's going on underneath as well, and uses his comprehension of the underlying mechanics of Kirby's vision to be able to rebuild it from the ground up to say something new (an ability perhaps best demonstrated in his self-published Myth of 8-Opus series, all issues of which are available here at Copacetic >plug, plug<). Joe Casey, the seasoned scripter of Gødland, sprinkles the dialogue with plenty of wit and keeps the plot one twist ahead.
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $12.75
The Complete Peanuts, Volume 6: 1961 - 1962
by Charles M. Schulz
introduction by Diana Krall
Really, what can we possibly say to further burnish the legend of Charles Schulz's Peanuts? This volume continues the luxurious stroll through the golden years of wonder and greatness where every strip -- many of which have never before been collected -- is a masterpiece. To learn more about this series, please visit our Complete Peanuts page.
retail price - $28.95 copacetic price - $23.15
and, also now available:
The Complete Peanuts, Box Set 3: 1959 - 1962
by Charles M. Schulz
This box set contains Volume 5 and Volume 6 of the Complete Peanuts, both encased in a heavy-duty illustrated slipcase by series designer, Seth. All for one amazing low price. The perfect gift? Yes.
retail price - $49.95 copacetic price - $39.95
Krazy & Ignatz 1937 - 1938
"Shifting Sands Dusts Its Cheecks in Powdered Beauty"
by George Herriman
The latest in this amazing series is now on our shelves, wrapped in its fine Chris Ware designed cover and endpapers and packed with a full complement of 104 full-page full-color Sunday strips. Page after page of visual and verbal whirlygigs and whackiness, formal experimentation, philosophical meanderings and just plain fun.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $15.95
And here's a few items especially for the younger set:
Moomin, Book One
by Tove Jansson
Publisher Drawn and Quarterly has this to say: "The Moomins saw life in many forms but debuted to its biggest audience ever on the pages of world’s largest newspaper The London Evening News, in 1954. The strip was syndicated in newspapers around the world with millions of readers in 40 countries. Moomin, Book One is D & Q's first volume in their projected plan to reprint the strip's run through to 1960. This is the first time the strip will be published in any form in North America and will deservedly place Jansson among the international cartooning greats of the last century. The Moomins are a tight-knit family – hippo-shaped creatures with easygoing and adventurous outlooks. Jansson's art is pared down and precise, yet able to compose beautiful portraits of ambling creatures in fields of flowers or rock-strewn beaches that recall Jansson’s Nordic roots. The comic strip reached out to adults with its gentle and droll sense of humor. Whimsical but with biting undertones, Jansson’s observations of everyday life, including guests who overstay their welcome, modern art, movie stars, and high society, easily caught the attention of an international audience and still resonate today." This is one of those rare classics that truly can be enjoyed by all ages.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $16.95
Castle Waiting
by Linda Medley
introduction by Jane Yolen
A classical, magical fantasy tale that provides the reader with that rare pleasure: the fully realized artificial world to which one can escape, to immerse oneself in an alternate reality, banishing the humdrum cares and tediums of our own world for the repspite offered by a work that is described in Ms. Yolen's introduction as "feminist fairy tale with attitude, heart, imagination, laughter, love and truth." 457 pages of careful, finely crafted art in the service of a story fit for all ages fill this nicely designed hardcover volume that's a perfect gift for tween and early teen comics reader who's looking for something to engage her imagination.
retail price - $29.95 copacetic price - $25.00
Carl Barks' Greatest DuckTales Stories, Volume 1
by Carl Barks
Hallelujah! At last, Gemstone delivers on their promises with this nicely done 144 page comic book size volume printed in vibrant flat colors on bright flat white paper, very much along the lines of the high quality work of the Carl Barks Library volumes produced in the 1990s by Gladstone, only this time in the comic book rather than album format. The six -- count 'em! -- unexpurgated Barks classics presented here are: Back To The Klondike (Uncle Scrooge #2; technically Four Color 456), Land Beneath the Ground (US #13), Micro-Ducks from Outer Space (US #65), Lemming With the Locket (US #9), Lost Crown of Genghis Khan! (US #14), and Hound of the Whiskervilles (US #29). Looking to introduce someone to Carl Barks, possibly the greatest storyteller in the history of comics? Well then, look no further (unless you want to double up, in which case see below) this is it!
retail price - $10.95 copacetic price - $9.85
Carl Barks' Greatest DuckTales Stories, Volume 2
by Carl Barks
A second volume of Barks classics is now also available: Six more wonderful Uncle Scrooge tales by the greatest of them all, Carl Barks. This time around we've got "Giant Robot Robbers," "The Golden Fleecing," "The Horseradish Story," "The Status Seeker," "Tralla-La" and more. This is the rare item that can truthfully be described as "Sure to be enjoyed by ALL ages."
retail price - $10.95 copacetic price - $9.85
Sardine in Outer Space by Emmanuel Guibert & Joann Sfar
retail price - $12.95 copacetic price - $11.50
Sardine in Outer Space 2
by Emmanuel Guibert & Joann Sfar
retail price - $12.95 copacetic price - $11.65
The Owly Plush Doll
Egads! Who would've thought we'd actually carry a plush doll? But this is different, it's Owly! A plush doll that has its origins in a series of self-published mini-comics by the unflappable Andy Runton. How could we say no? Once you see it, you may end up asking yourself the same question. There's sure to be someone on your list who'd like to see this under the tree. SPECIAL BONUS: Free Owly comic book with every purchase. While supplies last!
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.95
GLAM! An Eyewitness Account
by Mick Rock
foreward by David Bowie
This is an oversize (10" x 13") softcover collection of some of the greatest rock 'n' roll photos ever taken. Centering on the glammest of the glam years -- 1972 -- but with numerous forays before and after, Mick Rock was and is the undisputed chronicler of this moment in rock. All the classic photos are here: Bowie, Iggy and Lou are the trinity at the center of it all, but there are plenty more pics on offer: of The Spiders and The Stooges; Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno and Roxy Music; Freddie Mercury & Queen; Ian Hunter and Mott; the original cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show; Deborah Harry and Blondie; and much more. Concise, insightful commentary accompanies many of the photos, amply demonstrating that Rock is a man possesed of a discerning intelligence as well as artistic talent. The photo that was originally slated to run as the cover of Mott the Hoople's classic LP, All the Young Dudes -- but was mysteriously axed at the last minute -- is a wonder! We can guarantee you that this book will greatly appreciated by anyone who has an interest in this vital era.
retail price - $29.95 copacetic price - $25.47
From the Velvets to the Voidoids: The Birth of American Punk Rock
by Clinton Heylin
Speaking of vital eras, this one, which followed right on the heels of and was much informed by that of Glam, has been fairly well documented -- perhaps most famously by Legs McNeill's Please Kill Me -- but, in our opinion, never better than by Clinton Heylin in this fine tome that -- inexplicably -- was out of print for many years before being recently reissued. While incorporating a healthy portion of the personal accounts associated with the oral biography format of Please Kill Me -- in this case primarily sourced from original interviews conducted 'back in the day' -- Heylin's account soars above the others with its critical eye and articulate voice. As proto-punk Richard Hell testifies, "From the Velvets to the Voidoids is the first book I can remember reading about rock & roll that gives the impression that its subjects -- the musicians/performers -- are actually intelligent. That itself alone is enough to justify the book and make it important... No other book or account I've encountered succeeded so well in accurately bringing the period to life." This edition comes complete with an all-new 30-page postlude in which Heylin talks about what's transpired among those concerned over the last ten years. Other bonus material includes a set of appendixes: a chronology of the CBGB's shows; a zine-iology of all the music rags referenced; a 'Dramatis Personae' -- micro-bios of the key players; and a great discography of all the essential recordings along with a bibliography of key works. Anyone and everyone interested in the music and performers of the original punk rockers will find this a thouroghly engrossing -- and educational -- read. Recommended!
retail price - $16.95 copacetic price - $15.25
James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
by Julie Phillips
We've been waiting for this one for a long, long time. Alice Sheldon -- more widely known under her nom de plume, James Tiptree, Jr. -- is, in our opinion, the most significant science fiction writer since Philip K Dick (and then some), but is still far from gaining the wide readership and critical acceptance that her writings warrant. More than this, she may very well have led the most intriguing life of any science fiction writer in history, and now, with this biography, her life story has at last been told in what is an amazingly thorough and fully fleshed out account, one that draws on the biographer's unprecedented access to not only the author's archives but that of her mother -- a well known author in her own right -- as well. Carter Scholz has written a detailed review containing a capsule summary of the biography that we encourage interested parties to read.
retail price - $27.95 copacetic price - $25.00
I Am Plastic: The Designer Toy Explosion
a Kid Robot Production written by Paul Budnitz
Well, this one might be aptly described as a survey of a product that is for people who know they have to grow up, but regret that this is so, and so, as a sort of consolation, do their best to take a piece of their childhood with them; but this is no simple nostalgia trip here, no -- it is much more complex, for these designer toys contain within them fairly sophisticated critiques of the childhood longings that spawned them; they may even be considered, in a critical sense, to be "self aware" of their status as visible links to and tokens of childhood pasts that are forever beyond recapturing, except within their own plastic bodies, which are three-dimensional materializations, not of the past, not the memories of the past, but the process of recollection itself, the remembrance of things past -- in plastic. I Am Plastic is probably the best collection of its sort, and weighing in at 368 oversized pages covered with full color representations of the galaxy of toys thus far extant, it's going to be hard to pass up for anyone who finds themselves longing for the sort of connection these toys provide.
retail price - $40.00 copacetic price - $35.00
Gorillaz: Rise of the Ogre
For those of you who are confident that you're never going to grow up, and, furthermore, know that you're never even going to try -- that perpetual adolesence is just another name for home, sweet, home -- well then, chances are -- at least, if you're male -- that The Gorillaz are already somewhere in your lexicon and that this book -- which is chock-a-block with Jamie "Tank Girl" Hewlett's artwork along with much, much else -- is something you'd find of interest. If this doesn't apply to you, please move on.... If it does, well then, you'll probably be wanting to watch the "trailer" for this book, here.
retail price - $35.00 copacetic price - $29.75
Beginner's Guide to Community-Based Arts
by Keith Knight, Mat Schwarzman and a host of others
This is a book that aims to make a difference, and does. It's goal is to promote an awareness, first and foremost, of the simple fact that arts make a difference -- a positive, life affirming difference that can and does effect substantial grassroots social change -- in the lives of both individuals and the communities they are a part of. In addition, as the book's title clearly suggests and where it especially excells, this book's central function is to serve as a guide on how to go about initiating, organizing and planning community arts. It does so by providing in depth presentations of ten transformative local arts projects. Each of these presentations begins with a description of the setting in which it takes place -- in 7 of the 10 cases it is an inner city neighborhood -- in order to understand that there is a necessarily organic connection of the form the art takes to the community it grows out of and takes root in. The core of each presentation (and why we here at Copacetic are especially excited about this particular book) is a narrative in comics describing the people (primarily), the place(s), the genesis of the project and how it plays out. Each of these pieces are excellent examples of the power of comics to effeciently and effectively communicate both stories and ideas. All the comics pieces are between seven and ten pages in length. The lion's share of the comics work is by the much acclaimed satirist Keith Knight of The K Chronicles Fame, who here amply demonstrates heretofore hidden strengths.Several pieces are done by Ellen Forney, author of the under-rated Monkey Food: The Complete "I Ways Seven in '75" Collection (which we currently have on offer at a quite affordable price), who employs a different but equally successful approach. The final piece by newcomers Courtney Collins and Rondall Crier. This a book that has so many potential uses that it is hard to know where to begin. Let's just start off by saying that evey community group in America could benefit by having a copy of this in their library, and every co-op with a bookshelf should make sure to have a copy on hand at all times. This is a book that is sure to inspire.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.95
The Education of a Comics Artist
edited by Michael Dooley & Steven Heller
This is a truly amazing compendium of the ins and outs of making comics in the world today. The list of contributors is eye-popping, and their writings are inspiring. Anyone interested in creating comics stands to benefit from this. Here's a partial list of the contributors: Bob Mankoff, R.C. Harvey, Tony Auth, Peter Kuper, David Rees, Stan Mack Mark Alan Stamaty, Bill Griffith, Nicole Hollander, Jim Steranko, Barron Storey, Bill Sienkiewicz, Dave McKean, David Mack, Monte Beauchamp, Gary Panter, David Sandlin, Peter Blegvad, Mark Newgarden, Chip Kidd, Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi, Kim Deitch, Rick Geary, Ho Che Anderson, Tom Spurgeon, Dan Nadel, Robert Williams, Heidi MacDonald, Todd Hignite, Eric Reynolds, Graig Yoe, Trina Robbins, Scott McCloud, Joe Kubert, Will Eisner, Ted Stearn, James Sturm, Matt Madden, Rich Kriener... and that's not all! Whew, what a line-up. Recommended.
retail price - $19.95 copacetic price - $17.95
McSweeney's 19
If you have someone in mind to whom you'd like to give a gift that will leave them scratching their head and wondering, "What the?!?" then this might very well be what you're looking for. This time around the McSweeney's package is a wild-and-crazy... (wait for it)... cigar box! Illustrated in lavish full color on all six sides by Michael Kupperman, this issue includes replications (many) of zany ephemera -- primarily of cold-war era vintage, but some earlier and some later, all of which is mixed together as a political cocktail of sorts. And then, buried under it all at the bottom of the box, is the issue itself. Here's what the folks at McSweeney's have to say about it all: "Our first issue of 2006 turns toward earlier and equally uncertain years, traveling back by way of pamphlets, info-cards, and letters addressing bygone conflicts and still-constant concerns. Expect, among other recovered works, carefree strategies for insurgencies in Nicaragua, astrological advice for the Nixon/Agnew campaigner, sanguine guidance for the soldier stationed in the Middle East at mid-century, and commonsense reinforcement for the doughboy drifting toward a gonorrhea infection. Also: T.C. Boyle's feral child novella and additional quasi-historical work by new writers."
retail price - $22.00 copacetic price - $19.80
Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006
edited by David Eggers
While we're on the topic of best-of anthologies, we might as well hep you to this year's installment of McSweeney's editor, David Eggars ongoing anthology selecting work from his corner of the world. This year's edition is more comics laden than is typical, from the cover by Art Spiegelman and introdcution by Matt Groening, to an excerpt from Pyongyang by Guy Delisle, a short piece of political reporting by comics journalist Joe Sacco, that is, we believe, receciving its first US appearence here, to a full-length graphic novella by Italian cartoonist, Gipi that first apeared as part of the Coconino-Fantagraphics Ignatz line of comics. In addition to all this comics work there is, of course, plenty of what readers have come to expect from this series, including contributions by Kurt Vonnegut, Haruki Murakami, Rick Moody, Judy Bunitz, Sam Shaw, Julia Sweeney, George Saunders, a discussion between Jon Stewert and Stephen Colbert, headlines from The Onion, and much, much more.
retail price - $14.00 copacetic price - $11.90
Art
by Patrick McDonnell
From the irrepressible creator of Mutts comes this 48-page hardcover children's book on art and creativity. It's the book you want to give to encourage the creativity that lies dormant in every child to erupt in fun filled frenzy!
retail price - $14.95 copacetic price - $13.33
Well, in the music department, it probably comes as no surprise that we are once again featuring our favorite series of all time: the Proper Box! This series passed the 100 mark this year and shows no sign of letting up: the releases are as strong as ever. Each offers the best music in the best package at the best price. We just can't stop recommending it! All the titles in this series are uniformly excellent, but we will nevertheless highlight a handful of our favorites. We'll start out with the must have for 2006:
Proper Box Update
We've been remiss in not keeping up to speed with the latest from the greatest reissue label in the business: Proper Records. While you wouldn't have known it from this page, they've been keeping as busy as always, and have released their 100thProper Box, and then some.
Here's what's new:
PROPERBOX102 Muddy Waters King of Chicago Blues
PROPERBOX101 Thelonious Monk Monk's Moods
PROPERBOX100 Various Artists We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll
PROPERBOX99 Charlie Parker Chasin' the Bird
PROPERBOX98 Charlie Christian The Original Guitar Genius
#100 is a doozy! Proper has put their knowledge of musical history to the test of their vast musical archives and created a definitve take on the origins of Rock 'n' Roll out of the primordial ooze of the music on the ground during the years of its formation. Anyone listening to the 118 tracks on Proper Box 100 will come to appreciate the incredible breadth of musical languages that participated in the confluence of the river of rock 'n' roll. The Charlie Christian box features the breakthrough work of this originator of the electric guitar sound, including much of his classic work with Benny Goodman; the Charlie Parker -- the second Parker Proper Box -- is all live and all amazing; Thelonious Monk's box is the definitive collection of his first half decade of recording, in which practically all his standards were first recorded, and includes his revealing treatment of Duke Ellington's standards as well (it was these recordings of Duke's works that first brought Monk national acclaim); and the Muddy Waters box presents the complete development of the this crucial Bluesman, from his earliest recordings in 1941 through to his hit, "Hootchie Kootchie Man." As always with the Proper Box, the single most amazing aspect is the price: 4 fully packed, CDs, containing 5+ hours of amazing music, along with a comprehensive 40 - 64 page booklet containing a complete discography of all tracks -- all for the copacetic price of only $22.50@!!!
Proper Box 93: Louis Armstrong - King Louis
99 Tracks of absolute greatness. This is the music that defines the twentieth century, that once and for all distinguished the unique and original culture of The New World from that of its Old World forebears. Louis Armstrong changed the face of music and the music he created changed history. His career is nothing short of miraculous. No self-respecting American can be ignorant of the music contained on this set: it's the real declaration of independence. Finally, this music gets the Proper Box treatment: Five hours of music on four discs, each enclosed in their own LP-style jacket, accompanied by an informative 40-page illustrated booklet, all packed in a stylish, compact box for the copacetic price of only $22.50!
Proper Box 71: "Fats" Waller - Handful of Keys
YES!!! At last it has come to pass: Fats Waller gets the Proper treatment. One of the all time great personalities in the history of jazz, Fats would be a legend just for his mastery of the keyboard with which he launched his career, but he has so much more to offer. He crafted a true persona which he then donned for each and every performance. And what performances! Fats was the very embodiment of entertainment. And finally, there's the songs themselves. Fats Waller is one of the greatest song writers of all times. He brought a jazz sensibility to show tunes and a show tune sensibility to jazz. Some, like Ain't Misbehavin', have become standards, interpreted over and over again by cats of all colors, able to be made fresh each time. Others, like My Very Good Friend the Milkman, belong to Fats alone. The people of Proper Records really had their work cut out for them with this one: how do you bring the whole of Fats when you have a mere four CDs? It's painful to leave out even one timeless classic! Handful of Keys proves once again why Proper Records is the reigning champion of classic jazz packages: They jammed this box full with 95 tracks and Fats is here in all his glory, from his early days as keyboard prodigy to his final blazing days of songmanship. This is a set that will bring a lifetime of enjoyment. If the music of Fats Waller isn't part of your life, then, man, you ain't livin'! Here's the complete track listing and discography.
copacetic price - $22.50
Proper Box 62 - Slim Gaillard: Laughing in Rhythm
This is it! The ideal antidote to these trying times. Slim’s wit, style, charm, and grace will make the world vout oroonee in no time! As with all Proper Boxes, this one includes 4 CDs packed to the limit (102 tracks total!) for over 5 hours of music, and a 44 page booklet containing a comprehensive history of Slim's career along with fab photos, old ads, record labels, and, best of all, complete track by track annotation -- where you’ll note the appearances of Slam Stewart, Ben Webster, Zutty Singleton, Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker among many others -- along with a bountiful biographical career history by the all-knowing Joop Visser. All this for the copacetic price of only $22.50! How!?!?!
The Duke Ellington Proper Box -- The best of the best, the créme de la créme, the Duke Ellington Proper Box is 98 tracks on four CDs filling five hours of the digital time/space continuum with the greatest jazz there ever was. It simply doesn’t get any better than this. Really. This is music that can't be outgrown. No on can be disappointed with this music. It can be listened to over and over again for a lifetime, and will renew the listener's spirits each time without fail. Duke Ellington was arguably (and we're ready, willing and able to argue this case!) the most significant somposer of the twentieth century. When he said, "We love you madly," he meant it. The music here is an expression of that love.
copacetic price - $22.50
Want to know all your options before making up your mind? Check out the rest of the Proper Boxes, where you'll find the best music, in the best package, at the best price. 110 different boxes to choose from!
And here's what we'd suggest from this year's crop:
Tales from Turnpike House
by Saint Etienne
This release -- on Savoy Jazz(!) -- amply demonstrates why St. Etienne have maintained such a devoted following for as long as they have, which is fifteen years or so, by our reckoning. Superbly crafted pop from beginning to end, Tales from Turnpike House presents a series of songs linked -- as both the title and cover suggest -- in a manner akin to a block of flats and their respective inhabitants. Each song is in and of itself a pithy commentary on the post-modern condition and taken as a whole, the album is an instant classic.
copacetic price - $17.77
The Million Colour Revolution
by The Pinker Tones
This is it, the party record you've been looking for! The Pinker Tones are a Spanish band that are new to us, and on Million Color Revolution they've managed to put together a tasteful blend of every pop genre you can think of, sung in a bevy of languages including, French, German and Spanish (but mainly English). From the Beach Boys and the Pixies to Sly Stone and Funkadelic, to The Pizzicato Five and St. Etienne, and delicately seasoned with spicy Latin rhythms, it's guaranteed to elevate your spirit. Check out their funky low-budget video.
copacetic price - $12.77
Return to Cookie Mountain (CD)
by TV on the Radio
This disc finds TVR once again preaching the gospel of the redemptive power of rock (for lack of a better label) music. Listening to this disc you can't help but get the feeling of TVR as embodying a sort of 00s rebirth of the 80s spirit of The Pixies. While we will grant that, yes, TVR certainly lacks the manic energy and zany humor of The Pixies, the two groups definitely share some common spiritual and philosophical underpinnings when it comes to their respective creative processes and aims. Regardless of this or any other comparison, which is fairly inevitable when attempting to commmunicate new(er) music, TVR has established a fabulous signature sound, while Mssrs. Adebimpe, Malone and Sitek have proven themselves to be effective lyricists and excellent tunesmiths -- together and each in their own right. Return to Cookie Mountain, while not -- we have to admit -- being a title we are particularly fond of, is, nevertheless, a great record and their finest outing to date, and one we recommend you make sure to check out. There are four TVR tracks(only one -- "Wolf Like Me" -- is from this record) that you can listen to on their MySpace page. And, if you don't feel like taking our word for it, check out all the raves assembled by Metacritic.
copacetic price - $11.77
Tom Verlaine - Around - CD
Tom Verlaine - Songs and Other Things - CD
Wow, after nearly 15 years without releasing a new album, one of the founding fathers of Punk Rock - at the center, along with Pattti Smith and Richard Hell, of the Romantic sect of the Church of Punk -- Tom Verlaine has just released two at once. Around is a purely instrumental LP and may be seen as a sequel to his last solo work, Warm and Cool, while Songs and Other Things is a bit of a rocker and is more in line with the 1992's Television reunion LP. While we will be the first to admit that this and other late work by Verlaine is an acquired taste, it is completely original and unique work that has influenced many performers over the years. Unlike the vast majority of contemporary pop, the music on these two records improves with repeated listenings, the subtleties and humor gradually emerge, allowing for an equally gradual increase in appreciation. If you're willing to take a chance, these two LPs are worth the risk. Of course, it goes without saying that, for long time Verlaine fans, their release is a cause for celebration. And not only that, those of us in Pittsburgh will get a chance to see him perform on Saturday, June 10 at this summer's Three Rivers Arts Festival. Don't forget to mark your calendars!
copacetic price - $14.44@
Frank Black - Fast Man Raider Man (CD)
As with, Honeycomb, Frank Black's last CD, Fast Man Raider Man was recorded primarily in Nashville, Tennessee employing the all-star talents of some of the greatest session musicians in the business, including: Steve Cropper, Rich Gilbert, Levon Helm, Jim Keltner, Ian McLagen and Spooner Oldham. This is a record that stands on pure musicianship alone. And then there's the songs themselves: This release contains some of the best compositions of a post-Pixies solo career that is well into its second decade. But there's more. Snugly nestled in the middle of the 27 tracks on this 2-Disc release are four songs co-written by the storied Brooklyn performer and former FIVE frontman, Reid Paley. Included among these gems is the masterpiece of melancholy, "I'm Not Dead, I'm in Pittsburgh." If there's a theme uniting the material on hand here, it's learning the lessons that life meets out as you roll on down the long haul of life. These aren't hits for the kids, but rather finely aged tunes equally fit for looking forward and looking back. This is a great CD to take on the road for that long summer drive, and we're willing to bet that once you get there you'll find yourself going back to the car to bring it in and listen to again.
copacetic price - $18.00
The Seven Samurai
Criterion has remastered Akira Kurosawa's epic classic, and added a host of bonuses in this new slip-cased, three-disc edition. Read all the details, here.
retail price - $49.95 copacetic price - $44.44
Playtime
Criterion went back to the drawing board with Jaques Tati's crowning achievement and came back with this new and improved deluxe two-disc edition of this truly singular film. Read all the details, here.
retail price - $39.95 copacetic price - $34.95
The Preston Sturges Collection:
THE LADY EVE, SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS, THE PALM BEACH STORY, THE GREAT MCGINTY,
CHRISTMAS IN JULY, THE GREAT MOMENT, and HAIL TO THE CONQUERING HERO.
The casually caustic humor and trenchant wit of Preston Sturges is exactly what we need today. He managed the difficult feat of creating films that be fantastically funny while simultaneously offering up critical insights. His films, more than that of just about any other director, manage to hit the nail on the head in their observations of American life and society. This new box set -- so new we won't have it in stock until after Thanksgiving weekend -- brings together seven of Sturges's eight films -- all but The Miracle at Morgan's Creek (why is this one missing? your guess is as good as ours) -- on seven discs in one box set for a price that makes for a solid value; especially when you take into consideration the fact that the only currently extant stand-alone versions of The Lady Eve and Sullivan's Travels are priced at $39.95 each! Learn more about Preston Sturges, here.
retail price - $59.98 copacetic price - $55.55 (that works out to less than $8.00 per picture)
Paper Rad -- Taking Out the Trash/Trash Talking (DVD)
To boldly go where no DVD has gone before, this is the mission of this particular project of the Paper Rad art collective "that has bubbled under the elastic waistline of the world’s slacks for over a decade. This DVD that includes lots of ephemera filling every color on the PANTONE wheel, but also including the recurring Alfe character in a brand new (never aired) TV Pilot. Also included will be the ultimate PAPER RAD 'Guide to CD-ROMS' - essential knowledge for jammers everywhere. 60 minutes in all!" If you don't have any idea what we're talking about here, but think it sounds kind of interesting, you might want to check out the trash talking trailer on YouTube. Paper Rad, on DVD. 'Nuff said. Well, maybe not -- we should probably add this WARNING: Don't get this for anyone over 30 -- they won't "get" it.
retail price - $15.98 copacetic price - $12.77
Cartune Xprez:
A Collection of Contemporary Animated Videos from the USA and Canada
This is an amazing, eye-popping new anthology of, for the most part, new school, lo-fi, DIY animations that we're pretty confident you won't be seeing anywhere else anytime soon. Not only that, you'll be hard pressed to find this disc anywhere else. So we're working overtime to bring this disc to your attention as there's some really creative and original work here, the likes of which you may not have prviously encountered, at least not on a purchasable DVD. Artists on this disc include Paper Rad & Peter Burr (both Pittsburgh-connected), Amy Lockhart, Takeshi Murata, Phillippe Blanchard, Michael Bell-Smith, Christopher Doulgeris, as well as Hooliganship and Slow Dance Recyttal. Feel free to ask us to pop it on when you're in the store. Get more details here.
PLEASE NOTE: One of the shorts (Gretchen Hogue's Where's My Boyfriend?) is composed of a rapid-fire montage of still images -- most appear to have been cut out of magazines -- that includes quite a few that are pornographic in nature. The on-screen time of these images is generally under one second, they are all employed to humorous effect, and one would be hard pressed to find anything of prurient interest here, but, nevertheless, it renders this entire collection inappropriate as a gift for children and anyone who would be offended by this type of material.
copacetic price - $12.00
Avant-garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 30s
This great new 2-disc DVD release from Kino has really performed a singlular service. Before this was released, your chance of seeing any of the films it contains outside of a university film history class or a rare special screening at a major metropolitan musem were slim to none. But now anyone anywhere can feast their eyes on these gems from the Raymond Rohauer collection in Los Angeles. See what artists working towards self-expression rather than a paycheck did with film while it was still a young and fresh medium. Check out the contents.
copacetic price - $26.97
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Can't make up your mind? Afraid they might already have it? Not to worry, we offer a full complement of gift certificates: Currently available in $10, $20, $25, $50 & $100 denominations.
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And last -- but least only terms of how much it costs:
Here's Cheap but good, or More for Less
This is a page of great gift items... for less! We have assembled a selection of items that we believe will serve as good choices for more casual gifts. Most items are priced below $10! There's some terrific stuff here. Really. Check it out.
And, yes, we do third-party shipments (i.e. we will ship direct to a recipient at a different address from the purchaser), and we will gift wrap for a nominal charge (it's free for in-store purchases).
Don't forget: we'll be updating this page throughout the holiday season, as new items arrive.
And of course there's all the rest of the Copacetic Comics Company offerings to choose from:If you're looking for a one-of-a-kind classic collectible comic book, may we suggest perusing:
Many bargain priced books may be found at:
To learn more about some Copacetic favorites check out:
Tried and true gift ideas may be found at:
And here's the latest:
prices and availability current as of 22 November 2006
