comics

Title	Creator	Publisher	Series	Price
Krazy & Ignatz 1943 - 1944: "He Nods in Quiescent Siesta"	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$17.77 ($19.99 list)
Read more and comment...	This beautiful, full color, oversize softcover volume designed by Chris Ware brings us to the end of the thirty year journey of George Herriman's amazing Krazy Kat comic strip.  It's packed with Herriman rarities including letters, photos, some wonderful one-of-a-kind hand-colored illustrations, and  several never-before-seen Herriman works that together help take the sting out of knowing that this volume completes the collection of Krazy Kat Sunday pages that began twenty(?) years ago with the Eclipse / Turtle Island editions.  For those of you who only joined this journey when Fantagraphics took it over, you still have quite a treat to look forward to as Fantagraphics intends to now circle back to the beginning and collect the first ten years of Krazy Kat, creating what is sure to be the definitive uniform edition.  For the time being, let's all savor the last fruits of Herriman's genius and then give thanks.
Moomin, Book Three	Tove Jansson	Drawn and Quarterly	Moomin	$17.77 ($19.99 list)
Read more and comment...	It's here!  The third book in the four volume Drawn & Quarterly series collecting the entirety of the Moomin comic strip.  Commissioned by the London Evening Standard over fifty years ago, created and produced in Finland by Ms. Jansson, Moomin went on to be published in over forty different newspapers around the world.  Believe it or not, to the best of our knowledge (please correct us if we're wrong), despite its global popularity and the solid US sales of the children's Moomin books -- many of which include illustrations -- these D & Q volumes represent the first time the comics manifestation of the Moominverse has ever been published in book form in North America.  Once again Drawn & Quarterly has done the material proud by maintaining their ususal standard of excellence in production.  Don't worry if this is the first you've heard of Moomin:  we still have the first two volumes (and now, the fourth, as well) in stock.  And, not only that, D & Q had the foresight to provide us with an online location at which to peruse 90 consecutive strips --  here -- so, go ahead and get Moominized!
The Portable Frank	Jim Woodring	Fantagraphics		$15.55 ($16.99 list)
Read more and comment...	If you read comics you owe it to yourself to read The Portable Frank, which contains some of the most powerful sequences of images ever produced.  The 14 classic black-and-white tales that make up the 200 pages of this vital tome will take its readers into the deepest caves of their psyche, tapping into genetic memories that reamain hidden and unreachable to other forms of communication.  The wordless, "silent" Frank tales are comics at its purest.  These are comics that can be read again and again and again and still be fresh each time, for they are  inexhaustable, like some sort of magic book of comics that is refilled each time you open it, always the same yet always new; ur-comics.  Take a peek at the book by visiting this page on Flickr.  (Long time Frank fans, please note:  most [all?] of these stories are also contained in its precursor, the mammoth mind-bender, The Frank Book, which also contains all the full color Frank tales.  But, to be perfectly honest, they look better here on the flat white paper stock, than they do on the glossy clay-coated stock of The Frank Book, which was more suitable for the full color pieces.)
Call of the Wild	Patrick McDonnell	Andrews McMeel	Mutts	$15.25 ($16.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Yesh!  We can now add to our list yet another reason why autumn is our favorite time of year:  it's when, each year, the new Mutts™ collection is released.  This year we have Call of the Wild, which brings us another full year's worth (2007, we believe) of daily and Sunday strips, in black and white and four-color, respectively.
Abandoned Cars	Tim Lane	Fantagraphics		$20.00 ($22.99 list)
Read more and comment...	OK, true believers, step right up for a dose of hardboiled comics that will take you on a ride outside of yourself and into "The Great American Mythological Drama."  Think Jim Thompson & David Goodis, Sam Fuller & Robert Aldrich, yes, but also think of a travelling carnival populated by the ghosts of Elvis, Stagger Lee, John Dillnger and their cronies:  the detritus of the American Dream.  These are stories that grab you and don't let go, put down on paper in page after page of firm, tight, highly controlled and relentless pen and ink comics powered by coffee, cigarettes and alcohol.  Do yourself a favor and give this 160 page hardcover the once over by visiting the massive page devoted to it  on the jackienoname Weblog.
Disappearance Diary	Hideo Azuma	Fanfare/Ponent Mon		$20.00 ($22.99 list)
Read more and comment...	The latest release from our favorite manga publisher, Ponent Mon, is a 200 pager that chronicles three periods of crisis experienced by its creator, renowned manga artist Hideo Azuma.  The first, was a period of iternerant homelessness brought about by his suffering an on-the-job nervous breakdown in 1989, after twenty years of working in manga.  Three years later, in 1992, he had a relapse and once again found himself wandering homeless, but this time around, with a little help from some acquaintances, he entered the world of manual labor, repairing gas lines. The common thread throughout these years was Azuma's alcoholism.  Finally, in 1998, his health deteriorated to such a point that he was forced into clinical rehab, and it is with this story that the volume concludes.  Azuma states at the outset, "This manga has a positive outlook on life, and so it has been made with as much realism removed as possible."  This is a tongue-in-cheek way of saying that, whereas most accounts of homelessness and alcoholism tend towards the dark and bleak (see above), Disappearance Diary, despite the fact that the story it tells is one of dysfunction and collapse, actually makes for a perky and enjoyable read.  Here's a brief preview to give you an idea (just click on the thumbnails).
The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard	Eddie Campbell	(:01) First Second		$15.55 ($16.95 list)
Read more and comment...	This 128 page, full color, French-flapped softcover is the third original graphic novel that Monsieur Campbell has produced for First Second.  He clearly is not one to rest on his laurels!  Set in 19th century France, it is a multi-layered work, visually as well as textually, and one that is as entertaining as it is intellectually stimulating.  Jog-the Blog certainly found it so, as you will discover if you read his in-depth review.
Omega The Unknown	Jonathan Lethem, Farel Dalrymple	Marvel		$27.50 ($29.99 list)
Read more and comment...	This full-size hardcover volume collects the entire ten-issue series that just concluded --  for the same price of the ten issue indivicual comics.  This series brought together a very interesting and diverse group of creators to bring their combined contemporary sensibilities to bear on the original, and relatively obscure, 1970s series of the same name.  Sound interesting?  Learn more by reading this interview with Jonathan Lethem that was conducted just as the series was originally being published.
How To Love	Actus Tragicus			$27.50 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	When this book first came in we sold out of it before we had a chance to write about it here.  Now that it's back in stock we are here to tell that How To Love is another fine anthology of work by the Israeli cartoonists known as Actus Tragicus.  This 144 page, full color, horizontally formatted hardcover volume contains six graphic novellas by Batia Koltonk, David Polosky, Mira Friedmann, Itzik Rennert, Yirmi Pinkus and Rutu Modan, who turns in what may be her best work yet.  Read more about this book at Read About Comics.
Country Nurse	Jeff LeMire		Essex County	$8.88 ($9.99 list)
Read more and comment...	The third and final volume in the lauded Essex County trilogy, Country Nurse follows a day in the life of this farming community's travelling nurse in a story that weaves together the first two volumes, Tales from the Farm and Ghost Stories (both of which are still available), creating a final, unified whole.
Janes In Love	Cecil Castellucci, Jim Rugg			$8.88 ($9.99 list)
Read more and comment...	This is the follow-up volume to Plain Janes, the book that launched the Minx line of graphic novels aimed at the nascent -- and booming -- market for comics among teenage girls.  Plain Janes was far and away the best selling volume of the series for us.  This is due in no small part to the excellent artwork executed by Pittsburgh's own (and Copacetic customer) Jim Rugg.  He and Ms. Castellucci prove that their team is not a one-hit wonder with Janes in Love which we are sure will be enjoyed by all fans of Plain Janes.
Jackie Ormes, The First African American Woman Cartoonist	Nancy Goldstein			$29.75 ($35.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This lavishly illustrated -- in black and white and full color -- oversize hardcover volume published by the University of Michigan Press brings us the life and career of an important American artist.  Jackie Ormes was born right here in Pittsburgh, PA and was raised just up river in Monongahela.  Her most popular comic strip, Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger ran every week for eleven years  -- from 1945 through 1956 -- in the Pittsburgh Courier, which was nationally distributed in those days.  Her other strips, including Torchy Brown, which were produced for the Chicago Defender and other papers, are also covered in detail, as is the story of the licensing of her characters for dolls and toys.  This fascinating and detailed look at an under-appreciated corner or comics history looks like it will make for a rewarding read.
The Comics Journal #292	Kim Deitch	Fantagraphics	The Comics Journal	$11.75 ($12.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Are you ready?  Do you think you can handle it?  Yes, this issue contains a mind-boggling 120-page interview -- over 100,000 words! -- with the Deitch family cartoon dynasty.  Starting off with big daddy Gene Deitch (read an excerpt here) who regales readers with tales of his storied career creating bebop illustrations, Saturday morning cartoons and Sunday newspaper comic strips, the interviews continue with underground comics legend, Kim Deitch, whose interview provides a fascinating tour of the 1960s underground comics scene, and whose interview was so long that they actually had to cut it (but the trimmings are available to read here, whew!) and his lesser known, but nevertheless talented siblings, Simon and Seth.
Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative	Will Eisner, Peter Poplaski			$20.00 ($22.99 list)
Read more and comment...	The third and final volume in the "Will Eisner Instructional Series" -- following the essential classic Comics and Seqential Art and its sequel, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative Expressive Anatomy was nearly complete before Eisner's death and offers plenty of tips and guidance in this crucial area that lies right at the heart of cartooning.
Galago, Volume 01 - From the Shadow of the Northern Lights: An Anthology of Swedish Alternative Comics #1				$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Hey you comics fans of all things Scandanavian, here's 200 pages of dark, brooding, self-conscious, introverted tales of foreboding, angst, self-doubt, self-pity and more, all originating from the center of Scandanavia -- Sweden!  There's really quite a variety of drawing styles and story-telling schemas on display here, more than you might think; so if this sounds interesting, don't forget to take a look, because our supply is small.

books

Title	Author	Publisher	Price
McSweeney's 28	Danica Novgorodoff, Nathan Englander, Ryan Bodinot, Dave Eggers and more ...	McSweeney's	$21.50 ($24.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This time around, Mcsweeney's presents us with "eight individual books, fully illustrated, which resurrect and reinvent the art of the fable -- simple, suprising, and morally direct.  More or less."  Each of these books is a snappy little hardcover, the cover illustration of each of which join together (and are held together in this cleverly designed package) to form two large painted images by Danica Novgorodoff.   The books are:  Poor Little Egg-Boy Hatched in a Shul by Nathan Englander, illustrated by Jordan Isip; The Book and the Girl by Brian Evenson, illustrated by Philip Fivel Nessen; The Guy Who Kept Meeting Himself by Ryan Boudinot, illustrated by Genevieve Sims; LaKeisha and the Dirty Girl by Tayari Jones, illustrated by Morgan Elliot; The Thousands by Daniel Alarcón, illustrated by Jordan Awan; Two Free Men by Sheila Heti, illustrated by Liz Lee; Virgil Walker by Arthur Bradford, illustrated by Jon Adams; and The Box by Sarah Manguso, illustrated by Louie Cordero.

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