The Copacetic Comics Company Anthologies

Anthologies

Title	Author	Publisher	Price
Pittsburgh Noir	Kathleen George	Akashic Books	$14.44 ($15.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The Akashic Books series of all original noir fiction anthologies set in cities around America, which began in 2004 with Brooklyn, has at last touched down here in Pittsburgh. This 237 page softcover volume contains brand-new stories by Lila Shaara, Terrance Hayes, Stewart O'Nan, Nanvy Martin, Paul Lee, K.C. Constantine, Kathleen George, Rebecca Drake, Carlos Antonio Delgado, Hilary Masters, Kathryn Miller Haines, Aubrey Hirsch, Rom Lipiinski, and Reginald McKnight, each of whom pen a dark tale of crime set in a venerable Pittsburgh area neighborhood.
McSweeney's 36		McSweeney's	$23.75 ($26.00 list)
Read more and comment...	What tha!? Yes, it's the big square head issue of McSweeney's. A literal (commodified) concretization of various figures of speech, such as, "what's on your mind?" "what are you thinking?" and "you are what you read," as well as a possible retort to "you've got nothing but sawdust between your ears!" The highlight of this issue is something we thought would never see the light of day: an annotated excerpt of Michael Chabon's failed second novel, the experience of writing which formed a theme of what became his successfully completed second novel, Wonder Boys. Also on hand are a two-act play about a modern Muslim Pakistani American family by Wajahat Ali, the oral history of Ma Su Mon, a student protester in Burma, a 1961 abridgment of the 1914 adventure tale, Jungle Geronimo in Gay Paree by Jack Pendarvis, new stories and letters by John Brandon, Colm Toibin, Jesse Eisenberg, an excerpt of Adam Levine's massive 1000+ pages The Instructions, giving you the chance to sample it without any commitment, and plenty more besides, all packed inside a cube-head. What more do you want?
Inkstuds: Interviews with Cartoonists	Kate Beaton, Gabrielle Bell, Marc Bell, Jonathan Bennett and more ...	Conundrum Press	$17.77 ($20.00 list)
Read more and comment...	<<•>> conducted, edited and compiled by Robin McConnell; introduction by Jeet Heer <<•>> Here we have an print edition collection of interviews culled from the unparalleled archives that Robin McConnell has amassed over the last five years of his Vancouver-based radio show. McConnell has been universally praised as both a sensitive and responsive interviewer and as a knowledgeable and tasteful comics connoisseur. The interview subjects included in this volume span a wide swath of the (North American) comics universe. In addition, it is worth noting that Inkstuds not only includes many of our finest contemporary comics practitioners, but also important non-creator members of the comics community as well: Kate Beaton, Gabrielle Bell, Marc Bell, Jonathan Bennett, Chester Brown, David Collier, Jordan Crane, Rebecca Dart, Kim Deitch, Mary Fleener, Sammy Harkham, Jeet Heer, Jaime Hernandez, Jeff Lemire, Jason Lutes, Billy Mavreas, Françoise Mouly, Dan Nadel, Marv Newland, Anders Nilsen, Joe Ollmann, Gary Panter, Joe Sacco, Seth, Tom Spurgeon, Ted Stearn, Barron Storey, Jillian Tamaki, and Carol Tyler.
Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009	Jonathan Franzen, Dave Eggers, Marjane Satrapi	Houghton Mifflin	$4.95 ($14.95 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	Jonathan Franzen on David Foster Wallace. The awesome Million Year Boom by Tom Kaczynski. Another great comic by Emile Bravo. Stories by Rivka Galchen and others. Denis Johnson on Iraq. Best of lists. All for a crazy great price. Don't pass this up!
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010	George Saunders, Sherman Alexie, Lilli Carre, David Sedaris and more ...	Houghton Mifflin	$7.47 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	And, while we're at it, we should bring to your attnetion the fact that, as always, we feel comfortable in recommending this year's installment of Best American Nonrequired Reading to Copacetic customers everywhere. There's something for everyone here, and quite a lot for most, from Lilli Carré's full color career high (so far), "The Carnival," to Sherman Alexie's "War Dances," to the relentless reportage of George Saunders in "Tent City, U.S.A.," and much more – including over a dozen Best American lists, among which we will bring your attention to "Fast-Food Related Crimes" and "Gun Magazine Headlines." And, just for the record, we are also stocking The Best American Short Stories 2010, edited by Richard RUsso and The Best American Essays 2010, edited by Christopher Hitchens, all at the same price point.
The Flying Destructicate #3: Secret Pockets	Mary Mack Tremonte	Encyclopedia Destructica	$20.00 ($20.00 list)
Read more and comment...	A project of Pittsburgh based Encyclopedia Destructica, brain child of Christopher Kardambikis and Jasdeep Khaira, The Flying Destructicate is the project of a single artist. This time around The Flying Destructicate is piloted by Mary Mack Tremonte who has chosen as her theme the secrets we carry around with us in our pockets: hidden yet right there with us at all ties as we walk down the street. She and a dozen fellow artists have assembled – literally, and by hand – a very hands-on work that is easiliy the most tactilely engaging work currentlyon our shelves. Pick it up and open it, and you'll see what we mean. This is a hand made limited edition – once they're gone, they're gone.
McSweeney's 33: San Francisco Panorama	Geoff Nicholson, J.G. Ballard, Roddy Doyle, Deb Olin Unferth and more ...	McSweeney's	$14.44 ($16.00 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	I'm sure that we were not alone in thinking that the last few issues of McSweeney's had not been living up to the high design and content standards that they had set for themselves over the years. We were beginning to wonder if, perhaps, the enterprise had run out of gas, and that Eggers & Co. had set their priorities elsewhere. And while the latter may very well have been the case, we are happy to announce that, with, at least, it's thirty-third issue, all those concerned have put McSweeney's back front and center. This is a knock-your-socks-off issue that asks – and boldly answers – the question, "What's so good about a newspaper, anyway?" McSweeney's 33 is, more or less, a what-if? fantasy of what the San Francisco Sunday paper could be like in an alternative universe where profit-driven capitalism did not govern all enterprise-related decisions. Originally published and distributed in San Franciso on December 9, 2009, it is now available to the rest of us. More or less patterned after the Sunday New York Times (only bigger – a whoppin' 15" x 22"!), this hefty newspaper edition of McSweeney's is filled with engaging, well written articles on all sorts of topics and at all lengths from (rough guess, here) 100 to 10,000 words. The graphics department has taken full advantage of the oversize "canvas" offered by these large broadsheets, and the printing and paper are excellent for full visual impact. There is a 96-page book review insert printed on extra high quality paper stock that is not only filled with reviews but also: interviews with the likes of Junot Diaz, Miranda July and James Franco; new, original short works of fiction by George Saunders, Deb Olin Unferth, Roddy Doyle and others; a gigantic feature on the work of J.G. Ballard by Geoff Nicholson; pages of letters; and more! There is an oversize 112-page magazine insert that is printed on an even higher grade of paper stock that is overflowing with in-depth essays on all and sundry as well as columns by Michael Chabon, Chip Kidd and others. And, of course, we have saved the best for last: there is an honest-to-God, good-old-fashioned, 16-page, full color comics section, filled with all new work by Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Alison Bechdel, Adrian Tomine, and plenty more. And, as if this weren't already enough, there's a bonus Acme Novelty Library, Rocket Sam cut-out by Chris Ware to while away a lazy Sunday afternoon. Don't miss this vibrant, full-blooded testimonial to the power and glory of newspapers.
The Believer Magazine 67	Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Chris Ware, Jerry Moriarty, Peter Blegvad and more ...	McSweeney's	$9.00 ($10.00 list)
Read more and comment...	We haven't written about The Believer in a while, but there was no way we could let this go without throwing it your way. This is by far the most comics-centric issue yet, and it's a must! First off, there is the amazing Charles Burns cover that celebrates Chris Ware's interview of Jerry Moriarty, the latter of whom, in turn, contributes a gigantic, removable, fold-out poster of a Jack Survives page. Then there are the additional interviews with Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and the one-and-only Peter Blegvad! On top of this add a historical overview of the life and career of Morrie Turner, the creator of Wee Pals, the first nationally syndicated "comic strip of color." And, if that weren't already enough, this issue features the debut of the all-new Comics page, edited by Alvin Buenaventura and featuring full color comics by the likes of Anders Nilsen, Ron Regé, Jr., Tom Gauld, Leif Goldberg, Lisa Hanawalt, Charles Burns, Lilli Carré and Al Columbia. A keeper, we'd say.
McSweeney's 31	Douglas Coupland, Joy Williams, John Brandon, Shelley Jackson and more ...	McSweeney's	$12.95 ($24.00 list)
Read more and comment...	We're offering a special price on some McSweeney's publications this month, so if you've been thinking about checking in with them, sow's your chance. Here's the official word from Eggar's & Co.: "Barthelme said that "The Novel of the Soil is dead, as are Expressionism, Impressionism, Futurism, Imagism, Vorticism, Regionalism, Realism, the Kitchen Sink School of Drama, the Theatre of the Absurd, the Theatre of Cruelty, Black Humor, and Gongorism." But he left out, pointedly, the Biji, the Nivola, the Graustarkian Romance, the Consuetudinary, the Whore's Dialogue, the Fornaldarsaga, and the eighties, which are not dead; they are all in McSweeney's 31, as rendered by Douglas Coupland, Joy Williams, John Brandon, Shelley Jackson, Mary Miller, and Will Sheff, along with other fugitive genres recaptured by our finest writers, as part of a project to bring them back alive (except for the eighties, there is actually nothing about the eighties). In an oversized format, with annotations, illustrations, and pantoums, Issue 31 aims to introduce you to all the genres you never knew you loved."
Read Hard	Paul La Farge, Ben Ehrenreich, William T. Vollmann, Jonathan Lethem and more ...	McSweeney's	$9.95 ($18.00 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	We're offering a special price on some McSweeney's publications this month, so if you've been thinking about checking in with them, sow's your chance. Here's the publisher's official word: "This volume collects the finest essays and articles from the four-time National Magazine Award–nominated Believer magazine. The book combines all the erudition and wit readers have come to expect from its pages: Jonathan Lethem on Nathanael West, William T. Vollmann on W. G. Sebald, Ben Ehrenreich on Brian Evenson, Paul La Farge on Dungeons & Dragons, and much, much more. It’s an essential anthology, collecting the best in creative nonfiction, the best in literary journalism, and the best writing in English from the beginning of the twenty-first century, from one of the smartest, weirdest, and funniest magazines in the country. SPECIAL WEB ONLY SALE!!!
McSweeney's 32	Chris Adrian, Wells Tower, Heidi Julavits, Anthony Doerr and more ...	McSweeney's	$12.95 ($24.00 list)
Read more and comment...	We're offering a special price on some McSweeney's publications this month, so if you've been thinking about checking in with them, sow's your chance. Here's the official word from Eggar's & Co.: "Because it seemed important to know in advance, we've dedicated Issue 32 to an investigation of the world to come—near-future stories written by the likes of Anthony Doerr, Heidi Julavits, Wells Tower, Chris Adrian, and Salvador Plascencia, each of 'em unearthing a different corner of life in the year 2024. This will be, we are sure, way more entertaining than waiting fifteen years for the real thing." SPECIAL WEB ONLY SALE PRICE!!!
Murdaland #1	Palo Leandri, Anthony Neil Smith, Daniel Woodrell, Paolo Madrigal and more ...	Mug Shot Press	$10.00 ($12.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Will wonders never cease? This new book format, semi-annually published periodical that aims to revive the values of classic pulp fiction -- think Jim Thompson and David Goodis (whose long lost novella, "Professional Man," graces these pages) -- is edited right here in Pittsburgh, PA, practically in our own back yard! Here's what they have to say for themselves: "Included are fifteen original stories from such masters of the form as Daniel Woodrell, Ireland's Ken Bruen and Latin America's new prince of noir, Rolo Diez. Adding an air of utter veracity are an ex-con's autobiographical lament of botched stick-ups and lustful romance in the heartland and a former Sandinista rebel's tale of jealousy and fatal ambush. Topping the debut off are an excerpt from Tom Franklin's new novel, Smonk, the picaresque tale of a murderous riverboat whore in the early 1900s and an unnerving work-in progress by literary icon, Mary Gaitskill. Expect visceral scenes of violence, repercussion, mayhem and dread. Dark moments offering an array of ugly insights you never asked for."
Murdaland 1 & 2 - SPECIAL SALE		Mug Shot Press	$15.00 ($24.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Here's an official COPACETIC BARGAIN on the complete run of Murdaland! See the individual listings for contents.
Murdaland #2	Scott Phillips, Harry Hunsicker, Henry Chang, Vicki Hendricks and more ...	Mug Shot Press	$10.00 ($12.00 list)
Read more and comment...	It's here, the second issue of the magazine that peels back America's facade to reveal what's going on in the darkness within. Issue #2 Table of Contents STORIES \| Click for previews Notes on Contributors The Emerson, 1950 Scott Phillips Roachkiller R. Narvaez Vivian and Bobby Ray Harry Hunsicker Bo Sau (Vengeance) Henry Chang Sinny and the Prince: A Fairy Tale Vicki Hendricks Larry the Swollen and Manny the Art Gimp Rupert Wondolowski NOVEL EXCERPT Zebulon (from The Drop Edge of Yonder, Two Dollar Radio, 2008) Rudolph Wurlitzer Termite Makes the Shape (from Termite, Knopf Publishers, 2008) Jayne Anne Phillips CLASSIC REPRINT From Hard Rain Falling Don Carpenter NON FICTION Chuck and Bob: A Letter from Kuwait Anonymous
McSweeney's 14	Joshuah Bearman, T.C. Boyle, Denis Johnson	McSweeney's	$12.75 ($15.00 list)
Read more and comment...	The usual susupects are back in this plain vanilla issue of McSweeney's. Joshuah Bearman, T.C. Boyle, Denis Johnson, Susan Straight, Lawrence Weschler and many others fill out 306 high quality pages.
Dirt: More Stories from the New Yinzer	Michael Byers, Karl Elder, Sherrie Flick		$11.35 ($11.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Their latest softcover collection, this 188 page sophomore effort features Michael Byers, Karl Elder, Sherrie Flick and eleven other writers from Pittsburgh's past and present. The editors have this to say: "Dirt is a place to explore what's hiding under the couch, shut tight in the upstairs cupboard and locked away in the dark parts of a person, place, or thing, It's fourteen dirty little secrets straight from us to you."
Encyclopedia Destructica: Volume Coatlicue 2	Ed Steck, Karl Hendricks, Wayne Wise	Encyclopedia Destructica	$10.00 ($10.00 list)
Read more and comment...	edited by Jerome Crooks Yes, believe it or not, it's yet another handmade-in-Pittsburgh comopendium of culture from the folks at E.D. This time around we have a fat post-bound volume with (approximately) 80 different covers -- collect them all! (or not) This book contains work by 29 (count 'em) writers and 18 artists. In our opinion, this is one of E.D.'s most solid outings. Editor Crooks has assembled some great local talent including Karl Hendricks, whose story, "Less Than Mick Jagger," has to be considered one of the collection stand-outs. Other contributors on board who should be familiar to many a Copacetic customer include writers Ed Steck and Wayne Wise, along with artists Tom Scioli and Nils Balls. This collection runs a whopping 241 pages, is chock-a-block with work by talented people some of whom many of you will doubtless know, is handmade here in Pittsburgh in a limited edition of between 200 and 300 copies (sorry, forgot the exact copy count...240?), and is bargain priced. How can you say no?
McSweeney's 18	Edmund White, Joyce Carol Oates, Dave Eggers, Roddy Doyle and more ...	McSweeney's	$19.80 ($22.00 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	It's here. Here's what they have to say about it: "Even beyond Edmund White's youthful hustler, Joyce Carol Oates's fatherly killer, and Roddy Doyle's Rwandan refugee, Issue 18 will not stay at home. Bears, clouds, assassinations, and demons lurk in a high-concept labyrinth of stories." In addition, this issue comes complete with a deluxe slip-cased edition of the first issue of Wholphin, the new DVD quarterly, about which you can learn more at http://www.wholphindvd.com/. (Please note that this is the same issue of Wholphin -- albeit with deluxe packaging -- that comes with Believer #30 -- see below.)
McSweeney's 16	Roddy Doyle, Dave Eggers, Denis Johnson, Robert Coover and more ...	McSweeney's	$21.60 ($24.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This is one of the craziest designs yet -- a sort of cloth covered fold-out folio in which the contents are then inserted. You'll have to see it for yourself to understand. Here's what McSweeney's has to say: "Issue 16 presents new stories from McSweeney's regulars like Roddy Doyle and Denis Johnson, and exploits a never-before-seen tripartite format to bring you a hilarious Ann Beattie novella and a special deck-of-cards story from Robert Coover, one of the great masters of American experimental fiction. This issue uses more cloth than any issue to date. Also, it comes with a comb."
McSweeney's 15	Steven Millhauser, Roddy Doyle	McSweeney's	$20.00 ($24.00 list)
Read more and comment...	official hype - "Issue 15 is also known as The "Icelandic Issue". Printed in Iceland, half of the stories are written by actual Icelandic writers. And the kicker? It also comes with a Icelandic tabloid mini-mag filled with words you won't understand and images that speak for themselves. Included in this issue are new stories from Roddy Doyle, Steven Millhauser and many exceptional newcomers. Hardcover, bound in fine cloth. This issue makes us want to sit by a fireplace on a snowy day."
Encyclopedia Destructica, Volume Two (aka Volume Bumba) # 3			$8.00 ($10.00 list)
Read more and comment...	If you're looking for unique, hand-made, one-of-a-kind artistic, literary magazines that defy definition, AND are made right here in Pittsburgh, PA, well then, there's only one place to look and that's right here. Recently funded by the ever active Sprout Fund, three new editions are currently on display.
Encyclopedia Destructica, Volume Two (aka Volume Bumba) # 2			$5.00 ($5.00 list)
Read more and comment...	If you're looking for unique, hand-made, one-of-a-kind artistic, literary magazines that defy definition, AND are made right here in Pittsburgh, PA, well then, there's only one place to look and that's right here. Recently funded by the ever active Sprout Fund, three new editions are currently on display.
Encyclopedia Destructica, Volume Two (aka Volume Bumba) #1			$7.00 ($8.00 list)
Read more and comment...	If you're looking for unique, hand-made, one-of-a-kind artistic, literary magazines that defy definition, AND are made right here in Pittsburgh, PA, well then, there's only one place to look and that's right here. Recently funded by the ever active Sprout Fund, three new editions are currently on display.
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?
Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006	David Eggers	Houghton Mifflin	$12.75 ($14.00 list)
Read more and comment...	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.
McSweeney's 21	Roddy Doyle, Stephen Elliott, Peter Orner, Joyce Carol Oates and more ...	McSweeney's	$14.40 ($16.00 list)
Read more and comment...	McSweeney's sez: "With work by Roddy Doyle, Stephen Elliott, Peter Orner, Joyce Carol Oates, Yannick Murphy, and Miranda July, as well as the triumphant return of Arthur Bradford and stories concerning fistfighting Mormons, New Zealand police malfeasance, and a man named Trang, and with all of those works interspersed with heartfelt letters to Ray Charles and storyboards by some of the finest pen-and-ink artists of our day, our twenty-first issue is sure to be one of our best assemblages yet."
McSweeney's No. 22	Michelle Orange	McSweeney's	$21.50 ($24.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This issue's design, with its slipcase containing three separate softcovers, harkens all the way back to issue No. 8; but there's a twist -- this time around the books are held together with magnets rather than the industrial strength rubber band of yore. And, you rightly ask, what is there about these books that they need magnets to keep them together? Well, our guess is that their contents are so disparate that this was the only way. The first book writes the unwritten stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. "Come again?" you say: Fitzgerald left notebooks at the time of his death and in these notebooks were 32 story ideas that he never realized. Michelle Orange has assembled 17 writers -- including herself -- to take upon themselves the task of writing 16 of these stories (one twice); this book bears the fruit of this undertaking. The second book is titled, The State of Constraint, and presents 17 new works from the Oulipo group. The third and fattest of the books is The Poetry Chains of Dominic Luxford, which assembles, "one hundred favorite works of some of the best poets writing today" selected by a novel and ingenious method too involved to relate here but which is succinctly explained in Mr. Luxford's introduction. All in all, this issue of McSweeney's looks very much like a winner.
McSweeney's 24	Christopher Howard, Justin Taylor, Donald Barthelme, Robert Coover and more ...	McSweeney's	$19.95 ($24.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This issue comes in the form of a "Siamese Twin" book jacket in which two separate books share the same back cover (can't visualize it? well then, you'll have to come in and see it for yourself). Stories in the first of the "twins" include: "How to Make Millions in the Oil Market," by Chritopher Howard, "Bored to Death," by Jonathan Ames, "The Death of Nick Carter," by Philippe Soupault -- which was originally written in French in 1926 and was only translated this year by Robin Walz -- and several others. The special highlight, and the entire contents of the second twin is a symposium entitled, "Come Home, Donald Barthelme," which is edited and curated by Justin Taylor, starts off with his introduction "for the belated and immediate beatification of Donald Barthelme," includes a host of participants among whom are Ann Beattie, Robert Coover, and includes two uncollected and long out of print Barthelme stories.
McSweeney's 23	Chris Bachelder, Ann Beattie, Roddy Doyle, Clancy Martin and more ...	McSweeney's	$17.77 ($20.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Well, what do you know? This time around, McSweeney's is a plain old book, containing a nice and neat ten tales by writers known -- such as Chris Bachelder, Ann Beattie and Roddy Doyle -- and, at least to us, unknown -- such as Clancy Martin, Christopher Stokes and Wells Tower. Well, upon closer inspection, we notice that the cover folds out into a gigantic poster on one side, while on the other is a brain scrambling piece that involves a complicated division of two-dimensional space that is too elaborate to elaborate on here. And, oh wait, what have we here attached to the inside back cover? It's a special "trial-size edition" of Comedy by Numbers, a "new manual (that) makes the secrets of comedy accessible..." It is to laugh.

Mon - Thu	11 - 5
Fri & Sat	11 - 7
Sun	12 - 4