The Copacetic Comics Company History & Biography

History & Biography

Title	Author	Publisher	Price
The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick	Philip K. Dick, Pamela Jackson, Jonathan Lethem	Houghton Mifflin	$35.00 ($40.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Philip Dick had a very certain kind of mind. You either relate to him or you don't. It was a mind that turned ever increasingly in on itself during a lengthy career that began in 1954 with turning out science fiction stories and novels at a frantic pace and ending with a sort of quasi-relgious mysticism attempting to ground itself in hard science. To say Dick lived life on the edge is putting it mildly, and in February and March of 1974 he experienced a multi-episode revelation that changed the course of his life for its remaining eight years, and The Exegesis is, more or less, his attempt to understand it. The Exegesis is an investigation of the process of thought itself and so involves being self-aware and self-watching as the investigation proceeds knowing that the investigation ultimately transpires in the mind and so must itself be investigated at the same time that it proceeds. Dick believed that it is precisely this delicate oroborosian, mobius strip highwire balancing act of consciousness watching itself which germinates the seed of discovery. It is fascinating and frustrating in equal measure as Dick spent years pouring his thoughts out onto thousands upon thousands of pages (the introduction states that the unedited total length of The Exegesis is an estimated two million words). Thus what we have in this published volume is only a sampling of the whole, but it is a sampling that is the result of (thirty!) years of work by the people best suited for the job – including Paul Williams, Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem – and so brings you, the reader, the best possible version that could be presented in under 1000 pages. Hardy souls, prepare to venture forth!
Steve Jobs	Walter Isaacson	Simon and Schuster	$28.00 ($35.00 list)
Read more and comment...	The death of Steve Jobs must certainly mark the end of an era. What exactly that era will be defined as it is surely far too soon to tell, but we have to start somewhere, and this book, somewhat freakishly released almost exactly coincident with Jobs's passing, may very well be the best place to start. Why anyone would want to buy this particular book from The Copacetic Comics Company when they could purchase it at any bookstore in the known world we would not venture to guess, but we feel duty bound to offer anyone so inclined the opportunity to do so.
Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human	Grant Morrison	Spiegel & Grau	$25.75 ($28.00 list)
Read more and comment...	With Supergods, Mr. Morrison takes a stab at deconstructing the comics genre that pays his bills and made him famous. Here's a (relatively rare) opportunity to read (what we trust will be insightful and articulate) critical musings from inside the industry by someone who has established themselves as a leading light in the post-Watchmen era of self-aware and self-critical interpretations and applications of superhero narratives, conventions and tropes. The book opens with a Nietzsche quote employing his seminal use of the term superman (übermensch), is divided into four sections – The Golden Age, The Silver Age, The Dark Age and The Renaissance – does not contain any bibliography but does append a (very) modest list of suggestions for "further reading" that includes books on comics as well as collections of comics, and has what seems on first glance to be a half-decent index; should be interesting.
Jack Magic: The Life and Art of Jack Kirby - Volume One	Greg Theakston, Jack Kirby	Pure Imagination	$23.75 ($25.00 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	Kirby confidante – and inker! – Greg Theakston, who is well known to readers of these pages as the power behind Pure Imagination publishing, has finally completed the first part in his long awaited recollection, reflection and appreciation of, and on, the life and work of the one and only Jack Kirby, King of Comics. This book is printed in the typical Pure Imagination format: 160, 8 1/2" x 11", B & W pages; softcover. It is liberally illustrated with Kirby comics – and cartoon – art that includes some early rarities. It also includes a selection of photos that featuring Kirby family portraits and snapshots as well as shots of him at the drawing table, hanging with pals and in the army. There are plenty of Kirby books already out there, and sure to be plenty to come, but only a few of them can be written by someone who has spent as much time with him as Theakston has, so we are hopeful that unique stories and insights will unfold within these pages.
Frida Kahlo: Song of Herself	Salomon Grimberg, Frida Kahlo	Merrell	$8.88 ($22.95 list)
Read more and comment...	There are plenty of Kahlo books out there that give a good visual overview of her paintings, but this one is unique in its insights and it contains a good number of sketches and drawings which we have never come across before, many of which are amazing! Not only that, but we made a special purchase on a number of copies and so are able to offer it at a price that makes it a great value! Here's what the publisher has to say about it: "Frida Kahlo’s extraordinary life has been well documented, but until now little has been known about the artist’s thoughts on her internal and external reality. In Song of Herself, Kahlo expert and child psychiatrist Salomon Grimberg introduces and contextualizes an intimate, deeply introspective interview that Kahlo gave towards the end of her life to her friend the psychologist Olga Campos for an unpublished book on the creative process. Kahlo comments directly and starkly as never before on her life, her loves and her art, and expresses her attitudes towards sexuality, her body, friendship, politics and death, among other personal concerns. The most revealing autobiographical text known on this singular woman, this startling interview is accompanied here by Campos’s reflections on her relationship with Kahlo and a psychological assessment of Kahlo by Dr James Bridger Harris. The book is illustrated with selected photographs and works by Kahlo, including previously unseen and rarely seen drawings."
Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World	John Szwed	Viking	$27.50 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	At last! Here it is, the definitive biography of Alan Lomax, America's foremost renegade anthropologist and musicologist. Through his field recordings, archiving work, lectures, and writing, Lomax did more than anyone in history to bring folk music from around the world to the general public. Drawing upon a wealth of Lomax's diaries and personal correspondences, John Szwed provides an extensive account of the man's work, struggles, political views, and personal relationships. The breadth of Lomax's accomplishments and scope of his vision are truly inspiring. Spanning most of the 20th century, the book reads as a sociopolitical history of the Unites States during this period as much as a biography, featuring prominent historical figures such as Leadbelly, Zora Neale Hurston, Woody Guthrie, Eleanor Roosevelt, and many more. Essential for folk music enthusiasts and anyone interested in traditional culture from around the world. For the uninitiated, get acquainted with a true visionary! Tune in to www.culturalequity.org to get hep.
The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga	Helen McCarthy, Osamu Tezuka, Katsuhiro Otomo	Abrams ComicArts	$35.00 ($40.00 list)
Read more and comment...	We managed to somehow to fail to get around to listing this Harvey Award winning book on these pages... until now, prodded by Dash Shaw's post on ComicsComics, wherein he waxes rhapsodic about the importance of the DVD it comes packaged with, which contains the 1985 NHK TV documentary on Tezuka, Secrets of Creation, which Shaw calls, "one of the best cartoonist documentaries I’ve ever seen." The Art of Tezuka is a farily swell affair, and is – as you would expect with any book in which it's subject is referred to as a "God" – a bit of a hagiography, but if anyone deserves this treatment it's Tezuka who is roughly the Japanese equivalent of Jack Kirby and Walt Disney combined, in both influence and renown, and so was no stranger to being an object of worship.
Rat Girl	Kristin Hersh	Penguin	$13.75 ($15.00 list)
Read more and comment...	And, if that's not enough rock 'n' roll life for you, then get ready for Kristin Hersh's Rat Girl: a rock 'n' roll childhood that is haunting and affecting on many levels, as these many reviews attest: with hidden noise, Huffington Post (w/interview), Slate. While nowhere near as well known as Richards or Smith, Hersh's talent and output – solo, as well as and especially, with her original ensemble, The Throwing Muses, is of surpassing intensity. Rat Girl, while very different from Just Kids, also covers the years leading right up to her entering the professional stage of her rock 'n' roll life. Bonus fact: cover by none other than Gilbert Hernandez!
Just Kids	Patti Smith	Ecco	$14.44 ($16.00 list)
Read more and comment...	OK, true believers, THIS IS IT! Just Kids is the most poetic evocation of the spirit of rock 'n' roll rebellion that we are likely ever to have. The story told here, of Patti and Robert, is a modern American version of the classic tragedy of the doomed lovers (think Troilus and Cressida, Pelléas and Mélisande, Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde – you get the idea). The intensity and historical importance (well, at least to the history of rock 'n' roll and the nexus at which it connects to art, at any rate) of the events related in the story are at times overwhelming. Whereas throughout Western history, the tragic paradigm has been for the tragedy to occur within the realm of history and to be later redeemed within the realm of art, here in Just Kids, Patti Smith spins the tale of how her and Robert Mapplethorpe have redeemed their own personal tragedies in the present through their own work, thus breaking on through to the other side by being both actors on history's stage and creating artists themselves. It's the American way. While, surely, they aren't the only couple to have done so, Just Kids is the purest and strongest literary embodiment by an actual living participant in such a story that we have come across. Do someone a favor and give them this. Patti Smith has a poet's eye, a poet's ear, a poet's tongue and a poet's pen, all animated by a rock 'n' roll soul.
Life	Keith Richards	Little, Brown	$25.00 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Well, doubtless eveyone already knows that this one is out; just thought we'd let you know it's here. Clearly, everyone reading this is likely to know someone who will have Life on their Christmas list. Inevitably, someone somewhere is going to end up with ten copies...
Just Kids	Patti Smith	Ecco	$24.00 ($27.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Here's a book that is, if you're "in the demo", simply impossible to pass up. The story of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, in New York City, in 1969, written by none other than Patti herself – what more could you ask for? Opening the book at random (no foolin'!) we came upon this paragraph: "A cold front passed over New York City in October. I developed a bad cough. The heating was erratic in our loft spaces. They were not meant to live in and were cold at night. Robert often stayed at David's, and I would pile up all our blankets and stay awake till quite late reading Little Lulu comics and listening to Bob Dylan." Yes, we'll be quite at home here... A cursory look through this book reveals that it, unsurprisingly, echoes Dylan's memoir of his own early days in NYC, Chronicles, Volume 1; we can hardly wait to see how it stacks up. Should you feel like reading more about this one before taking the plunge, you're in luck, as it has been the recipient of plenty of media attention and has received ample online-accessible-reviews.
Starting Point: 1979 - 1996	Hayao Miyazaki	Viz	$27.77 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	This 460 page hardcover is a dream come true for anyone wanting to learn more about the life and mind of Miyazaki, the man behind what are probably the greatest animated films of our time. This volume collects essays, interviews, and memoirs written and conducted during the first two decades of his career. Readers will discover his theories of animation as well as how he came to formulate them, stories of his childhood, the founding of Studio Ghibli, as well as how all these came together. Food for thought, indeed.
Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s	Ann Douglas	Noonday Press	$12.00 ($15.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This volume comes as close as any one book can to first uncovering and then diagraming the myriad ways which, in New York City, during the 1920s, the United States of America created and then defined a new way of organizing the intellectual civilization that apprehends the reality of our world. Up until this point the reality of the west that the United States saw itself as a part of had been built up through a gradual accretion of intellectual developments over the centuries in the "old world"-- primarily, but certainly not exclusively, Europe. A definitive break was made in the wake of the First World War, after which, as this book demonstrates, the "new world" of the United States forged ahead on its own, and Manhattan was the crucible of this transformation. The foundation of the United States had been constructed out of those elements of what its founders and guides perceived as best in contemporary, Christian, and classical European civilization, with, naturally enough, a large bias towards its British component. At the conclusion of WWI, however, the US found itself ascendant if not actually dominant in the western world and while the center of political power in the US was, of course, Washington, the cultural capital was unquestionably Manhattan, and it was here that, emboldened by their nation’s nascent position of growing power, a new way of being was erected upon this foundation that was carved out of the essence of America. And within the cultural sphere at that particular historical juncture nothing was more essentially American than the African-American culture that had risen in Harlem. Douglas demonstrates time and time again in the pages of Terrible Honesty that a key element in distinguishing American culture from European was-- and by extension clearly continues to be-- America’s inclusion of its African cultural heritage, whether intentionally or, as was more likely-- at least at first-- unconsciously. And let's not forget the epochal ninety page bibliographical essay that concludes the volume. It puts the knowledge of the ages at your fingertips. Read this and you're good to go. Terrible Honesty is -- or at least so we argue -- one of the most significant books of cultural history of our times, don't miss it!
Romare Bearden in Black-and-White: Photomontage Projections 1964	Gail Gelburd, Thelma Golden, Albert Murray	Whitney Museum	$15.75 ($17.50 list)
Read more and comment...	Romare Bearden in Black-and-White is the catalogue of a show mounted by the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1997. The show traveled for two years and made it as close to Pittsburgh as the Trout Gallery at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. The book contains an essay by each of the authors along with the transcript of a conversation between Ms. Gelburd and Albert Murray. Each of the essays combines a social-historical context for understanding the milieu out which the work emerged with an art-historical appreciation of the nature and degree of Bearden’s achievement, with Ms. Gelburd’s concentrating on the former while Ms. Golden’s is weighted toward the latter. The often fascinating conversation with Mr. Murray focuses on his theories relating to the centrality of ritual to art, and his inferences of Bearden’s own thoughts on ritual arising both from his friendship with Bearden and from the works themselves. It was, in fact, Murray who provided the phrase, "The Prevalence of Ritual," that has become closely associated with Bearden's work. Please click on the image at left to read our full length review.
Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America	Bradford Wright	John Hopkins University Press	$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Anyone wanting to pursue a study of comic books can’t do better than to begin with Comic Book Nation. Bradford W. Wright’s book, published in April of 2001 by Johns Hopkins University Press, provides a solid foundation in the history, analysis and criticism of the principal events, trends and personalities as well as of the companies, creators and characters of the first century of comic books in America. The only caveat to this statement is that Wright focuses almost entirely on the mainstream of comic books that has been typically- although certainly not totally-- devoted to the adolescent market. More than simply a history of comic books, however, Comic Book Nation works to articulate and demonstrate the role comic books have played in the rise of the consumer culture that has so altered the American way of life. Specifically, how the marketplace insinuated itself into the transfer of tradition that takes place between each current generation (i.e. that of the parents) and the next (i.e. that of their children). Prior to the introduction of a youth market for consumer goods, of which Wright shows that comic books were arguably in the vanguard, the values of each generation were reproduced through parents, schools, and religious institutions. Comic books managed to get right in between the generations (perhaps initiating what came to be known as the “generation gap”) and present values and versions of reality-- however distorted-- directly to the youth of the 1930’s, ‘40’s and ‘50’s, and, although to an ever decreasing extent, to the youth of the 1960's to the present as well. Wright intimates that the commodification of youth culture began with the comic book. It was the recognition of this, however ill-formed and misapprehended, that precipitated the anti-comic hysteria that gripped the nation in the early 1950’s. The anti-comic crusade led by Dr. Fredric Wertham ended comics' dominance of the youth and young adult entertainment market, but in no way had any lasting effect on the rise of a consumer culture in which values are transmitted-- to all, but especially to the young and impressionable-- through commodities marketed by corporations. Thus, while the youth of today-- as well as, it is important to note, more and more of the adults of today who were, of course, the children of yesterday-- are presented with a myriad of choices in the marketplace out of which to forge their identities-- from television programming (the primary form of which is the commercial), movies, music, video games, books and magazines produced and delivered to them by the established entertainment conglomerates to all the offerings of the internet and world wide web which are, of course, being rapidly colonized by these same established interests-- few today realize or even consider that it was the comic book that pioneered this transformation of American culture that lies at the roots of the “Culture Wars” that currently divide this country (and seem likely to divide the rest of the world as well), in the process rendering obsolete the old political divisions of Left and Right. More than any political policy, it is the struggle over who exactly is in charge of transmitting tradition from one generation to the next, and by extension who gets to decide what constitutes that tradition that is what defines and divides “liberal” and “conservative". Regardless of which side of the debate you find yourself on it is hard to argue against the statement that it is exactly this ability-- some might say necessity-- to forge one’s own identity in the marketplace and away from the traditional bearers and transmitters -- some might say imposers-- of value (i.e. the institutions of family, education and religion) that distinguishes American culture from all others that have come before it, responsible for both the adulation and the vituperation that American culture is greeted with around the world. Time and again, when American culture begins to make inroads into a foreign land it is feared and denigrated by the old (i.e. the present generation, the bearers of tradition) while it is embraced by the young (i.e. the next generation, the intended recipients of that tradition). It is not difficult to understand why. Comic Book Nation charts the rise and decline of the comic book industry with a deft hand and observant style that is markedly free of cant and stridency. Wright’s ability to meld a critical understanding of the history and practices of the companies that produced and distributed comic books with an incisive cultural interpretation of the meaning and significance of their contents is admirable and one can only hope that it will be seen by others working in the field as an example worthy of expanding on. This is a book that will increase the appreciation and understanding of the place of comic books in American culture for anyone-- whether a life long aficionado of comics or a novice initiate-- who reads it. And should anyone be considering teaching a class either entirely on comic books or incorporating a unit on comic books within a course on American popular culture, that person need look no further than Comic Book Nation to have an ideal core text in hand.
Dreamland	Kevin Baker	Harper Collins	$13.00 ($26.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Dreamland presents us with a fictionalized account of the dawn of the American Century as experienced by those who have fled the twilight of the era of Europe. It is a novel of the immigrant experience with a primary focus on the lives of Jews who had emigrated from Eastern Europe and a secondary focus on the Irish, but more importantly it is a novel of imagination, of specifically that imagination that it takes to remake oneself afresh in pursuit of one’s dreams: the American imagination. Like E.L. Doctrow’s Ragtime, but broader and deeper, it also includes and integrates figures and episodes from history within its narrative. Dreamland writes an often overlooked chapter in American history, and it does so with a great deal of flair. Peppered with slang and yiddishisms (for which a glossary is wisely and kindly provided) the novel features a cast that includes such characters as Gyp the Blood, Trick the Dwarf, the Mad Carlotta, Big Tim “Dry Dollar” Sullivan, Drs. Sigmund Freud & Carl Jung, and at the center of the whirlwind, Kid Twist and Esse Abramowitz. Taking place almost entirely in New York City circa 1910, the novel is meticulously researched (author Kevin Baker is a professional historical researcher, and recently served as chief historical researcher for The American Century by Harold Evans) and obviously a labor of love. Dreamland paints an epic mural bursting with unflinching details of the harsh realities of quotidian life in the New World. It amply demonstrates how the new freedoms of this new world made for tragedy -- and comedy -- as well as opportunity. It gives us the lives of pimps and prostitutes, gangsters and pols, working girls and factory bosses, husbands and wives, sons and lovers, freaks and Freud. But most importantly, it restores “Dreamland” and all the rest of Coney Island that has been lost, and re-imagines it in all its symbolic glory. Upon completing the book a new understanding and appreciation of the fantasy provided by Coney Island emerges, one in which the “Dreamland” of Coney Island is revealed as a precursor to the “Dream Factory” of Hollywood which was founded by these same Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe that populated New York at this time. It was the complete disorientation, disequilibrium and discombobulation engendered by the utter harshness, strangeness and stress of the new world that gave rise to the need for the mass release provided by the Coney Island experience. This in turn gave rise to the imaginative state of mind that we now know as Hollywood, which figured out how to bottle this experience and by doing so created the American Entertainment that defined the American Century. And so, as the 21st Century presents itself and we wonder what brave new world awaits, we can take some solace in knowing that in some weird way it all started out on Coney Island...
From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women's Comics from Teens to Zines		Chronicle Books	$17.95 ($17.95 list)
Read more and comment...	This is a nicely produced oversize survey by the grand dame of women's comics, Trina Robbins. It's jam packed with full color illustrations, and covers the history of women and comics -- as characters in as well as creators of -- from the 1940s through the 1990s. This book makes for a nice gift as it is a great introduction for someone who is only casually aware of the relationship betwen women and comics but would like to learn more. We've had this book in stock since it's initial publication.

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