comics

Title	Creator	Publisher	Series	Price
King-Cat Comics and Stories #69	John Porcellino	Spit and a Half	King-Cat Comics and Stories	$3.00 ($3.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Shame on us for neglecting to bring this to your attention earlier.  Yes, it's another 32 page gem by the zen master of comics and self-publishing.  In this issue we have comics on:  late night driving, haircuts, heavy metal, cats and cat adoption, as well as those magic meditations on nature as only John P. can manage.  Also, those hardy perennials,  'the King-Cat Top 40" and the "Catcalls" letters pages.  Year after year, King-Cat remains one of the great pleasures of comics.  Don't miss it!
Snake Oil #3	Chuck Forsman	Self-published	Snake Oil	$4.44 ($5.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Well, we hate to do this, but here goes:  (Anders Nilsen's Big Questions + Sammy Harkham's Crickets) x Alex Robinson's Box Office Poison =  Chuck Forsman's Snake Oil.  Each self-published issue is 24 pages printed on flat, textured and, respectively, grey, blue and purple stocks and sports a swell hand-silk-screened 2- or 3-color cover.  Definitely worth taking a look, which you can do without leaving the comfort of your current environs by visiting the Snake Oil site/blog.
Curio Cabinet #4	John Brodowski	Self-published	Curio Cabinet	$5.00 ($6.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Here's another new 8 1/2" x 11", 40-page, pencil-drawn pantomime comics magazine, which come to us from rugged Rutland, VT.  The  half-tone reproduction is excellent throughout each of these self-published issues, both of which feature cover-to-cover comics -- all killer, no filler -- and each of which contain several pieces.  All of these are expertly drawn with a great attention to detail which draws the reader into the dream-world they depict, all are pretty darn strange, and some readers may find themselves disturbed.  These comics are very visual and defy encapsulation.  Suffice it for now to say they feature coal mining, aliens, the Loch Ness monster, a giant bear, the grim reaper, a lonely psycho and more.  These comics are definitely not for everyone, but they might be for you.
Planet Saturday Comics, Volume One	Monty Kane	Self-published		$11.75 ($12.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Here's another Pittsburgh production, but of an entirely different stripe.  This one involves a real life dad and daughter combo that is written and drawn by the dad in question.  What the reader gets is a diary-like take on parenting that seeks to simultaneously connect with the parent's own inner child at the same time as that of the child being reared.  Makes sense to us, and seems like an approach worthy of elucidation.  Anyone curious to sample this will find a smorgasbord of strips available on line at planetsaturday.com.
Core of Caligula, Episodes 1 - 4	C. F.	PictureBox		$2.00 ($2.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Here's another "mini comic" that Copacetic regulars have been aware of for quite awhile but that we somehow failed to bring to the attention of readers of this page.  This is an eight-pager with cardstock covers that collects four two-page comics drawn in 2007 & 2008.  Together they form a sketchy, hallucinatory dream narrative that all C. F. fans will find worth their while, and those that are curious to check out his work but aren't yet ready to plunk down for Powr Mastrs might want to take advantage of the low cost entry point this piece represents.
Unlovable	Esther Pearl Watson	Fantagraphics		$18.88 ($22.99 list)
Read more and comment...	Oh, the pain of it all!  Here it is:  the horror that is high school.  Supposedly based on a diary (found in a gas-station bathroom, no less) dealing with the trials and tribulations of the high school career of one "Tammy Pierce,"  this turbulent tale of teen turmoil that is set in the 1980s delivers to its readers a heaping portion of the unrelenting pain of a self-consciousness that can't turn off, all rendered in a scratchy, messy... splatchy ink line that has a bit of the flavor of Nicole Hollander and Aline Kominsky, but is an indisputably original creation.  A remarkable artistic document of a female coming of age in the image-obsessed America of the Reagan/Bush era, this is a unique work that stands out in the crowd.  A short, squat pink hardcover (complete with green glitter), this book is presented, for the most part, at the rate of one page-filling panel at a time that makes for an up close and personal experience.  This book may be too close for comfort for some, too voyeuristic for others, and, read in the wrong light it may appear depressing, but looked at from the proper angle it is clearly a work of deep empathy -- a long, loving mile walked in another girl's shoes.
Rocky, Volume 2: Strictly Business	Martin Kellerman	Fantagraphics		$11.75 ($12.95 list)
Read more and comment...	What would happen if a Swedish cartoonist who grew up on a steady diet of R. Crumb and P. Bagge and their cohorts decided he wanted to do an adult remake of Peanuts set in the demi-monde of self-centered, pop-culture obsessed Swedish males and their long suffering female compatriots, all on the loose in the singles-bar scene of Stockholm?  Well, we think you'd have something a lot like Rocky.  Here's the second volume.
Archie Americana Series: Best of the Sixties, Book 2	Harry Lucey	Archie Comics	Archie Americana	$10.75 ($11.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Please do your best to ignore the cover illustration -- which only proves how clueless the powers that be at Archie Comics are -- and instead focus on the name Harry Lucey.  The evidence of this volume indicates at least the possibility that the fact that they are sitting on a treasure trove of work by one of comics' true geniuses – namely, Harry Lucey – may finally be dawning on the people currently at the helm of Archie Comics; or it might be simply due to the fact they are in possession of such an embarrassment of riches that they simply stumbled onto such a large number of Lucey classics.  Whatever the case may be (and it may very well be the latter as Lucey STILL remains uncredited on all the work he produced for Archie; there's nary a mention of this comics great, even in this collection of which over half is devoted to his work -– Oh, the shame of it!  Even the monstrous Walt Disney Company eventually [after 40 years – but it's been longer than that for Lucey!] relented and allowed Carl Barks to be credited) this volume contains ten – count 'em! – solid Lucey classics from the 1960s.  Lucey is one of the original comic book artist "lifers" -- those who started their career in the original "Golden Age" of comic books in the 1940s and then dedicated their entire professional lives to creating comics.  The arc of his early career was fairly typical and resembled that of many of his peers:  beginning with heroic fantasy and then moving on to crime and romance comics along with the trends of the day; but then he discovered his true calling with Archie.  Starting in the late 1950s and running through to the mid-1970s, Lucey contributed between one and four stories to nearly every issue of the flagship title, Archie Comics, along with plenty of contributions to other titles, and who knows how many classic covers, producing during this 15-year run one of the most engaging and entertaining bodies of work in the history of comics.  In the process Lucey developed a strong, and singular personal style that has won adherents among some of today's most important comics creators -- most notably Jaime Hernandez, who is one of the very few who makes a point of singling out Lucey for praise -- as well as animators.  He originated a vocabulary of body language that stands alone.  And throw away any preconceptions you may have about Archie Comics being uniform in their blandness.  While it is certainly true that much of their output is trivial and boring, and the characters have been embarrassingly compromised on more than one occasion by the publishers' various relationships with the evangelical Christian community, Archie Comics remains one of the most important publishers in the history of comic books and Harry Lucey's work is their greatest legacy... if only they would wake up to this fact (good God, what will it take?)!  Lucey continually experimented with the form, and -- crucially -- he had years of experience under his belt, during which time he not only gained a fully developed set of both story-telling and rendering skills, but from which he came into the possession of a thorough and strong grasp of the medium as a whole.  As a result his experiments continually bore fruit, resulting in the creation of many unique works, most notably in his employment of "direct address."  There are quite a few classic Lucey tales in which Archie, Jughead, Betty and/or Veronica directly address the reader and engage them in a deconstruction of the narrative as -- or sometimes before -- it transpires.  He was also the master of pantomime comics, as this classic posted at The Copacetic Gallery attests.  Anyway... to get to the point:  while this volume we're hawking to you here barely scratches the surface of the work of Harry Lucey and contains none of his very best work, it still makes for the best single volume of Archie Comics currently available and is eminently worth the while of anyone who enjoys comics as well as anyone who wants to learn how to add a little magic to their own comics making efforts.  While we're not 100% certain of this fact -- as duties were often shared at Archie Comics and Lucey may only have a hand in some of these as opposed to being the sole artist (for example, we're pretty sure someone else worked on the last story in the book, "The Line," but it still has enough trademarked Lucey-isms to make us believe he was involved) -- we believe that all the stories in the book are by Lucey (if not soley, then at least in some capacity), except those on pages 12 - 41.  So, dig in!
The Quest for the Missing Girl	Jiro Taniguchi	Fanfare/Ponent Mon		$22.22 ($25.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Here's an item that we've had in stock at the store for awhile now, but failed to give it the attention that it deserves.  And so now, in emulation of this fine work's protagonist, Takeshi Shiga, we are coming down from our mountain refuge to set things straight.  This work is as excellent a piece of craftmanship as you are likely to find anywhere in comics today.  Let's just come right out and say it:  Jiro Taniguchi is the man.  Divided into a meticulously planned and expertly paced thirteen chapters, this book presents a classic story arc involving an archetypal man of honor repaying a debt.  The archetype to which Shiga belongs falls into the same category as Wolverine™ and The Punisher™:  that of  the emotionally wounded male unable (or unwilling) to commit to a loving, reciprocal, sexual relationship but ready, willing and able to commit everything to a heroic task to compensate for this lack and so close the wound.  Shiga's character, abilities and environs are, however, endowed with a far, far greater degree of verisimilitude than those of any character on display in corporate-owned American comics; not to mention the fact that his actions show him to be possessed of a significantly greater moral acuity and personal virtue.  The narrative follows the well worn path – defined by Raymond Chandler sixty years ago, when he wrote, "(D)own these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid" – of the virtuous civilian soldier, personally above reproach, who pushes his way through the morass of a contemporary urban environment, wherein he must make his way over, under, around and/or through a wall of lies – erected by the inevitably corrupt powers-that-be with the self-serving purpose of maintaining their unjust and clearly exploitative control of the society they share with the hero – and thereby reach the truth and bring justice.  The Quest for the Missing Girl is so close to a perfect realization of this particular form that we might want to consider it a material manifestation of its Platonic ideal in comics.  Taniguchi's attention to detail is such that  gaijin readers will receive the added bonus of being taken on what amounts to a guided tour through a cross section of Japan that will provide them with a greater understanding and appreciation of its topography, society and character.  We're not in the business of spoiling the immense reading pleasure afforded by a work such as this, so we will refrain from revealing any of the plot particulars, prefering instead to offer our assurances that you will not be disappointed.  And, while we would be the first to concur that today the term "graphic novel" primarily serves to promote the marketing of comics in bookstores, should this term ever manage to cohere into an actual literary form, we feel confident that The Quest for the Missing Girl will fit the bill.   Anyone wanting to know how it's done need look no further, this is quest's end.

books

Title	Author	Publisher	Price
2008 Flying Destructicate: Jonathan Brodsky - Make Your Own Truth	Jonathan Brodsky	Encyclopedia Destructica	$25.00 ($25.00 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	Limited to 200 handmade copies, this item pretty much has to be seen to be fully appreciated.  Put together by Jonathan Brodsky and the folks at Encyclopedia Destructica, it's a hand assembled slipcase containing: a hand bound hardcover book containing work by Brodsky, Alberto Almarza, Josh Atlas, Juliacks, Rick Gribenas and Paus Akid; eight file-folder-art-zines (for lack of a better term) that are hard copy manifestations of power point presentations made by eight different Pittsburgh artists (among them Unicorn Mountain's Curt Gettman) on a wide variety of topics; and a DVD that contains several pieces by Brodsky along with pieces by Almarza and Gribenas.  A limited edition, hand crafted work of multiple media art from Pittsburgh, PA.  Need we say more?
Atmospheric Disturbances	Rivka Galchen		$21.50 ($24.00 list)
Read more and comment...	In her debut novel, Atmospheric Disturbances, Rivka Galchen has attempted to create a romantic, even sentimental, take on the works of P.K. Dick. J.G. Ballard, (early)Thomas Pynchon and (to a degree) William Burroughs, authors who created obsessive -- some might say delusional -- renderings of the altered states that contemporary consciousness takes when overloaded with raw data, cultural and/or scientific input, technological stimulus, education, or some combination of any or all of these, and wove them into intricate tapestries filled with complex patterns the meanings of which have been ceaselessly debated.  Galchen enters this essentially masculine debate specifically to ask the reader to step outside of it and consider how it might be impacted by gender. She coaxes readers to her point of view through the device of employing a masculine first-person voice to tell a tale in which the authorial sympathies are clearly more aligned with the feminine perspectives on the the events as they unfold.  The book provides an important -- some might say essential -- proviso to the literary creation of the modern mind.  Check out the book's very own website, where you can absorb some of its flavor while you read an extract from the novel, an interview with the author, and more.

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