comics

Title	Creator	Publisher	Series	Price
George Herriman's Krazy Kat: A Celebration of Sundays	George Herriman, Patrick McDonnell, Peter Maresca	Sunday Press		$95.00 ($100.00 list)
Read more and comment...	<<•>>  edited by Patrick McDonnell and Peter Maresca <<•>>  Yes, it's true!!!  Sunday Press, the fine folks who brought us the game-changing Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays, and its myriad Sunday strip sequels have at last seen their way clear to produce an equivalent volume of that greatest of all( well, at least to us here at Copacetic) Sunday strips, the work that introduced poetry to comics:   the one and only Krazy Kat, by George Herriman.  Finally, KRAZY KAT as it was meant to be seen:  135 full-size Sunday pages from 1916-1944  Plus, dozens more early comics from George Herriman.  Included in this splediferous 14 x 17-inch collection is a sampling of each of Herriman's creations for the Sunday newspaper comics from 1901-1906: Professor Otto, The Two Jackies, Major Ozone, and more, many of which have never been reprinted before.  HERE are some sample pages, BUT the whole idea of this book is lost in reading them on a computer screen, so think twice before clicking over:  you may want to wait for the real thing.
Rambo 3.5	Jim Rugg	Self-published		$2.00 ($2.00 list)
Read more and comment...	A near-perfect embodiment of the mini-comics aesthetic, by that ace Pittsburgh comics all-star, Jim Rugg.  A 32-page comics meditation/investigation on/of the post-9/11 American nexus between power and violence, Washington and Hollywood, high culture and pop culture, toys and art, dream and reality, repression and oppression and, finally, the resultant confusion between signifier and signified.  Featuring a former President of The United States of America along with you-know-who (or do you?). Heady stuff, and fun to boot!
Andromeda #3	Andy Scott, Jess Lavecchia, Nate McDonough	Self-published	Andromeda	$2.00 ($2.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Edited by Andy Scott, Andromeda is a made-in-Pittsburgh monthly anthology of comics.  And, while it might not yet be operating at quite the level of Diamond Comics (see below), these guys are nothing if not ambitious, and so far they have published the first three issues on schedule and the fourth is promised shortly, so  Regular contributors include Nate "Grixly" McDonough and Jess Lavecchia, as well as editor Andy Scott himself, and there are plenty of others who have made their way into individual issues.  In order to keep up with their monthly schedule, Andromeda is hungry for fresh contributions and is always on the lookout for new talent and is accepting unsolicited submissions, so any cartoonists reading this interested in having their work appear in the pages of Andromeda should get in touch with Mr. Scott at littletired@gmail.com.
Grixly #11	Nate McDonough	Self-published	Grixly	$1.00 ($1.00 list)
Read more and comment...	While we're on the topic of monthly comic books made in Pittsburgh, the trend-setting example of Nate McDonough is of paramount importance, as he has managed the impressive feat of writing, penciling, inking, lettering and publishing no less than thirteen issues of Grixly within – roughly – the past year.  Grixly will put you right smack dab in the middle of the Yinzer Zone™:  not a dimension of sight or of sound, but of mind; a particular mind – that of a dedicated cartoonist living in Pittsburgh.  So, as a result, while much of the work you will find in the pages of Grixly – the first twelve issues of which are filled with a hodge podge of short stories, vignettes, anecdotes and fantasias – are straight-up auto-bio, readers will also often confront work that is the depiction of an actual event that took place not on the streets or in rooms of tha 'Burgh, but rather in the imagination of the person whose life has been impacted and imprinted by these.  Beginning with the thirteenth and latest issue, however, McDonough is down-shifting to a bi-monthly schedule, with the aim of producing longer issue-length works.  It should be interesting...
Goat Helper	Chris Cornwell	Self-published		$1.00 ($1.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This 12-pager by Pittsburgh's foremost formalist and friends serves up a comics meditation on sacrifice, mortality and transformation.   The main course consists of a pair of concise genre deconstructions that are simultaneously penetrating and ironic.  These are interrupted by a bracing palette-cleanser of fulsome gross-out humor, and followed by a satiric pairing of propaganda and advertising that extends and concludes the theme.
Ten Thousand Things To Do	Jesse Reklaw	Self-published		$17.77 ($20.00 list)
Read more and comment...	And, speaking of cartoonists with strong work ethics, it would be impossible to pass over the Portland, Oregon-based indie-comics powerhouse, Jesse Reklaw.  In addition to his long-running (now well into its second decade) independent newsweekly strip, Slow Wave, Reklaw regularly produces award-winning mini-comics (check out his now out-of-print classic, "Thirteen Cats of My Childhood" in the 2006 Best American Comics, and is a founder and co-manager of the invaluable Global Hobo Distribution.  And, as if that weren't already enough, he has endeavored to provide his readership with an intensely (some might say obsessively) detailed comics diary accounting of a year in the life of a cartoonist:  Jesse Reklaw, from 17 September 2008 to 16 September 2009.  Many Copacetic regulars have already come across the mini-comics that collected this diary in two-month installments, but now one and all have the opportunity to sit down with this chunky tome and plow through the year in its entirety – along with an all-new five-page introduction and five-page epilog.  This is a real "page-turner," from its Boggle™-inspired title page through to the final "make your own list" closing page.  And, for any crazed comics completists among Copacetic customers, we feel compelled to point out that approximately a dozen of the 365 strips that make up this volume are by (fellow Portland, OR) guest cartoonists, including Andrice Arp, Theo Ellsworth, Sarah Oleksyk, Dylan WIlliams, Clutch McBastard, Aron Nels Steinke and others – and there's even a couple "comic con jam" strips involving way too many cartoonists to mention.  Another fine, hard-to-pass-up Reklaw value, we'd say.
Diamond Comics #5	Panayuitus Terzis, Benjamin Marra, Jason Levian, Michael DeForge and more ...	Floating World Comics	Diamond Comics	$3.00 ($3.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Edited by Jason Levian and published by the fine folks at Floating World Comics – also located in Pittsburgh's west coast sister-city, Portland, OR – Diamond Comics has nothing whatsoever to do with the comics distribution behemoth of the same name (except, perhaps, a satiric jab), but is, rather, an excellent tabloid newspaper comics publication that provides a refreshingly bracing outlet/showcase for comics work that is focused on visual impact.  #5 is the first ALL full-color issue, yet it remains priced at the super-value price of $3.00 that held through the first four issues (all of which have full-color covers and centerfolds).  Artists featured in the latest issue include Benjamin Marra, Panayuitus Terzis, Michael DeForge and plenty more.  Previous issues feature such contributors as Al Columbia (whose amazing full color centerspread for #4 is worth the price of admission), Dame Darcy, Jason Overby, Aidan Koch, Blaise Larmee, Dunja Jankovic, Josh Simmons, Marko Turunen, Nathan Fox, Luke Ramsay and many, many others!  This newspaper is funded, at least in part, by a Kick Starter grant, which, presumably, enabled the full color printing.  Check these out!
Papercutter #13	Matt Weigle, Tim Root, Jonas Madden-Connor	Tugboat Press	Papercutter	$3.60 ($4.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Well, in continuing our stream of consciousness free association, we will segue from one ambitious Portland, OR comics project to another:  namely the little-engine-that-could of comics anthologies, Papercutter – which brings a further association in that it is now, like Grixly, on its thirteenth issue. This issue features:  "The Orphan Baiter," a 19-page detailed period piece by Matt Weigle; "Heroes Drink Schmutz," a 10-page look at life through the blurred vision of alcohol, THC and firearms by Tim Root; and finishes up with "Champ/Ulysses," a 3-pager that is a nice formal piece on fighting by Jonas Madden-Connor.  Edited by Greg Means
Stories #3	Martin Cendreda	Self-published	Stories	$3.00 ($3.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Catch Me If You Can            Let's keep going in the small press and self-publishing vein.  It seems like we're on a roll here.  Here we have three all-new minis, all produced, published, packed and shipped by that Angeleno mini-master, Martin Cendreda!  The art and production here is top rate and very reasonable priced considering the effort and low print runs.  By turns whimsical, satirical and insightful, these are musts for any and all adherents of the mini-comic form.  Recommended!
World War 3 Illustrated #40	Sandy Jimenez, Jess Wehrle, Fly, Seth Tobocman and more ...	Self-published	World War 3	$4.44 ($5.00 list)
Read more and comment...	One of the grand daddies of self publishing, WW3 is still going strong. This, the fortieth issue, subtitled, "What We Want," is cover to cover comics: all 128 pages!  Editor Seth Tobocman is joined by Jess Wehrle, Eric Laursen, Fly, Sandy Jimenez, Susan Simensky Bietila, and many others, all working towards creating a vision for "building a new and better society" by presenting this 'list of possible demands" in comics form.  This is a thought provoking inspiring collection that should have you asking yourself, "What can I do?"
BFF	Nate Beaty	Microcosm		$7.77 ($9.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Here's another great comics value:  over 200 pages of a life lived in comics, BFF – Brain Fag Forever – is a an enjoyable grab bag of personal comics that has fellow artists singing its praises:  "Nate Beaty's straightforward comics are striking in their variety and they form a captivating document of his growing skill and evolving soul." – Ivan Brunetti; "Nate breaks down the structure of the comics page the way he takes apart an old bicycle or a vintage laptop  His seething psyche roils to the surface, whether he's slapping his inks down over a carefully observed landscape or painstakingly delineating how another relationship went wrong." - Sarah Oleksyk; "Oh, all these cartoonists look interesting... Wait, what?  There is only one?" – Lewis Trondheim
Undeleted Scenes	Jeffrey Brown	Top Shelf		$12.75 ($15.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Well, anytime anyone is on the subject of big fat little books filled with fun personal comics, it's almost inevitable that the conversation turns to Jeffey Brown, who has made this form his mainstay, and has developed one of the most recognized bodies of personal comics work around.  Undeleted Scenes finds Mr. Brown back at Top Shelf Productions after a trio of books from mainstream book publisher, Simon & Schuster.  The majority of the comics collected in Undeleted Scenes have been previously published, primarily in Minisulk, Feeble Attempts and Be a Man.  There are also works that are a bit off the beaten path and so have likely been inadvertently passed over by many of Brown's fans, such as the pieces that originally apperared in Kramers Ergot #4, McSweeney's, Blood Orange, Tilt, Hobart, The Florida Review and Galago.  In addition to all these, this 350 page collection contains a decent number of strips that have never been published before.  There's something for everyone here!

books

Title	Author	Publisher	Price
The Believer Magazine #70		McSweeney's	$9.00 ($10.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Well, once again it's time to remind Copacetic Customers that The Believer is still going strong.  #70 is this year's Film Issue, and it comes complete with a jam-packed DVD featuring a crash course in the Yugoslavian "Black Wave".  What is the Yugoslavian Black Wave?  Well, we don't know either, but we will – once we watch the DVD. Believe!
The Believer Magazine #71		McSweeney's	$7.20 ($8.00 list)
Read more and comment...	#71 has the now elusive Mr. Daniel Gillespie Clowes pinned down in a short but sweet interview where he reveals some of what went into his latest graphic novel, Wilson, talks about meeting up with Adrian Tomine for the first time, and a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

dvds

Title	Director	Publisher	Price
By Brakhage, Volume 2	Stan Brakhage	Criterion Collection	$34.95 ($39.98 list)
Read more and comment...	By Brakhage, Volume 2 << • >>  Here we have it:  a whopping seven and a half hours of work by the undisputed master of independent American experimental cinema, selected by his widow, Marilyn Brakhage, and expertly transferred to digital media by the Criterion Collection Crew.  While most movie-goers have never even heard of him, it's hard to over-estimate Brakhage's impact on the history of film.  Beginning in the 1950s, he opened up a whole new way of thinking about and working with film.  It could be said (and so, we will) that what Einstein was to Newton in the realm of physics, Brakhage was to Eisenstein in the realm of film.   Learn quite a bit about what's on this 3-disc set by reading this in-depth essay by Ms. Brakhage.

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