The Copacetic Comics Company Aaron Cometbus

Aaron Cometbus

Title	Author	Publisher	Price
Chicago Stories	Aaron Cometbus	Self-published	$3.00 ($3.00 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	His first new release in quite awhile, Chicago Stories is a nifty little 48 page tome composed of eleven short stories culled from the pages of later issues of Cometbus with Chicago as their focal point. This one represents a bit of a format departure for Mr. Cometbus, as the contents are (gasp!) typeset and printed on a nice heavy stock, plus there's a color wraparound cover by Megan Kelso and illustrated chapter headings by Frank Sirk.
Despite Everything: A Cometbus Anthology	Aaron Cometbus	Last Gasp	$15.25 ($16.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Review by Frankie Sirk <<<•>>> Those of you who know about Cometbus can understand how amazing it is that Last Gasp has published an anthology of Aaron’s best work. To me, it represents a passing of the torch, the old ringing in the new, a continuation of the San Francisco Bay area press. I think it is also a show of respect between two unique and original underground publishing forces. And really it’s just an amazing and truly enjoyable book to read. Those of you who don’t know about Cometbus, well, you’re in for a treat. I can tell you that this collection presents a rare opportunity to study the birth, growing pains, wasted youth and early old age of an incredible culture that most people have only heard about through mainstream media sources. Cometbus is a fanzine that has transcended its own label and even its own ambitions. Inspired by punk rock magazines of the late 70s, a teenaged Aaron began to edit and publish his own fanzine in order to add his own voice, and document the bay area music scene that he found himself participating in. A junkpile of ideas, Cometbus was refreshing in that it abandoned the general formula of record review, band interviews and the like. Acting mostly as an editor, Aaron crafted a remarkably original mag full of features focused on what didn’t even enter into most people’s peripheral vision, let alone center stage; things like dumpster diving, kids’ cereal reviews, and small time scams like how to reroute your one-way Greyhound ticket into a round-trip cross country bonanza--free of charge! Over the years Cometbus began to introduce more fiction pieces from its contributors and Aaron began to turn his rambling travel journals into digestible short stories. This is where Cometbus really began to take off and go beyond any expectations that were set up by the early issues. Aaron’s writing became sharp and quick yet subtle and tender- a counterpoint to the music he and his friends were documenting. I remember thinking then that-- finally!-- here was a voice that I could trust. He wrote stories that spoke to me and used my language, our language. He wrote about things, places, concerns, even people that I knew. Yet somehow he was able to make it-- write it-- in a way that didn’t seem insular or elitist. He wants his comrades to get his point, but he also wants his neighbor, the old guy with the cats to get it too. And that is why I think Aaron is one of the most valuable of young writers working today. He’s concerned with his milieu, but he also sees the big picture. Personally, I don’t know many youthful voices who do both and do it well. Aaron’s writing is about telling all the old stories with a new cast of characters. It isn’t about being clever and toying with the medium. Straight forward honesty is at work here, like Bob Dylan’s best songs or the Ramones’ first album. Cometbus holds a special place in the hearts of its readers because it is one of the few underground voices that hasn’t allowed itself to be watered down and filtered though bigger, generally corporate outfits. Aaron’s stories have appeared in other underground magazines and newspapers, but never in, say, the Utne Reader, Granta, or the New Yorker. At the end of Despite Everything Aaron addresses his botched and bungled dealings with publishers and magazines, including a hilarious episode with an editor from Harper’s. To put it simply, Aaron didn’t sell out when he had the chance back in the mid-90s. By teaming up now with Ron Turner’s Last Gasp-- the publisher and distributor which figured prominently in the birth of the underground comics movement, and has been at or near the center of the US underground press ever since-- Aaron has anchored his work to a strong counter-cultural tradition, and by doing so has simultaneously enabled this tradition to affirm its commitment to the next generation. Last Gasp’s decision to publish Despite Everything combined with Aaron’s choice to allow it to be published by someone other than himself is quite an event. I really think it embodies a changing of the guard: Ron Turner and Last Gasp have recognized that Cometbus is in fact the new regime-- the new model of the underground press. Despite everything, this anthology has found its way into print and onto the shelves of the Copacetic Comics Company. I can’t recommend it highly enough: It is truly indispensable. A real cup of coffee. No decaf.
I Wish There Was Something The I Could Quit	Aaron Cometbus	Last Gasp	$7.20 ($8.00 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	It was bound to happen eventually: Aaron Cometbus has written his first novel. It's here, and, as you would expect, it deals with a group of social outcasts that are right out of the pages of Cometbus. And, as with all his published works, it's bargain priced. We'll get back to you with more details soon.
Cometbus #50	Aaron Cometbus	Self-published	$2.00 ($2.00 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	This one is a jam issue with Aaron getting by with a little help from his friends to produce 96 pages of punk rock life for $2.00! This issue has it all: The centerpiece made up of seven new stories, that together are titled "New York Journal"; a panoply of punk rock interviews -- with the one-and-only Ian Mackaye, Zak Sally (Low, Dirty Three), Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio),Greta Brinkman (Moby and Deborah Harry bands), Alison Wolfe (Bratmobile), Blake Schwarzenbach (Jawbeaker) and Christina Billotte (Casual Dots); a lengthy "Book Report" on the state of used book stores in New York City (with Photos by Katie Glicksberg); and the biggest batch of letters yet. Bonus features include "Pensacola Songs" by Scott Mylxine and two stories by Maddalena Polletta: "Driveway" and "American Elm." It's safe to that this is the deal-of-the-month.
Cometbus #51	Aaron Cometbus	Self-published	$2.75 ($3.00 list)
Read more and comment...	A book length excursion into the people and places that together make up the history of the Berkeley, CA alternative bookstores centered on Telegraph Avenue that played no small part in the history of the 1960s counter-culture explosion that reverberates to this day. Aaron focuses primarily on the personalities involved, and there's a veritable deluge of empathy here, so be prepared to be carried away.
Mixed Reviews	Aaron Cometbus	Self-published	$3.00 ($3.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Aaron Cometbus is back with a follow-up volume to last year's well received (and now totally sold out) Chicago Stories. This one has the same square-bound, pocket-size format but weighs in with an extra twenty pages -- 68 in total -- for the same price. Not only that, but these pieces have not appeared in Cometbus, but instead are a mixture of new, never-before-published work and rareties culled from sources as diverse as the Philadelphia Independent and Maximum RocknRoll. This time around we have ten pieces (three of which are super short) that, as the title intimates, are reviews... of sorts. What's actually being reviewed, as with all the best writing, is life itself, and the quality thereof, as it can be located and isolated with certain people, at various places and times, in particular objects and products. Casting this, the widest of nets, Aaron shares his catch: reviews of coffee, a thirtieth birthday, a restaurant (tangentially, at best), NYC, the NYC life, love at the library, the inherent integrity of being a punk, and more. Another volume perfectly suited to a life in the back pocket of your pants, by the guy who should know.
Cometbus #53	Madalena Polletta, Aaron Cometbus	Self-published	$2.75 ($3.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Aaron is still riding the Punk Train (see #52 for more). This time out we have a lengthy piece on the early days of punk and art and comics in NYC in the mid-1970s that is largely derived from an in-depth interview Aaron conducted with John Holstrom, the co-founder of the legendary Punk Magazine. But that's just the main course, there's plenty more on offer here. For starters, this issue is co-authored by long-time Cometbus pal, Maddalena Polletta, who contributes a half dozen pieces which are interspersed throughout, providing contrapuntal hamony and making for a idiosyncratic and personal – if dolorous – production. Grab a copy and stick it in your pocket, so that when you head out into the cold harsh world you'll know you have a friend along.
Cometbus 52: The Spirit of St. Louis, or How To Break Your Own Heart, a Tragedy in 24 Parts	Aaron Cometbus	Self-published	$3.00 ($3.00 list)
Read more and comment...	It's safe to say that here we have the item that delivers the biggest bang for your buck in the year 2009. A mere three dollars will get you this memoir of Aaron's early days of punk rock life spent in St. Louis that fills sixty-four prose-packed pages. Angry? Yes, but filled with insights into human nature and recognitions of the inevitable patterns that so many fall prey to. The definitive DIY writer continues his literary journey. It is certainly safe to say that long time Cometbus readers will want to join him, but for those of you who have yet to take a walk on the Cometbus side of life, this is an excellent place to start. We're still working our way through this one here at Copacetic, but we can report that so far Cometbus #52 is shaping up to be a strong contender for the best issue yet.
Cometbus 54: In China with Green Day	Aaron Cometbus	Self-published	$4.00 ($4.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Other writers would take this exact same piece of writing we find here, blow up the font a couple notches, scatter a bunch of concert and "behind-the-scenes" photos throughout it, shop around for a big name publisher, and put it out as a $30 or $40 coffee table book - but not Aaron Cometbus! No! Instead, what we have here is "only" the latest issue of Cometbus. No one gives you your money's worth like Aaron. This time around it's a just-shy-of-100-page issue filled cover to cover with the highly engaging tale of life on tour with a bunch of friends who happen to be a world famous rock band. Here, we'll even help you get started: "What happens when friends grow up together but make choices that lead them down different paths? Can they still travel together, despite their differences? That's what I wondered as I boarded the plane bound for Thailand, and, for the first time in my life, took a seat in first class..."
Add Toner	Aaron Cometbus	Last Gasp	$11.00 ($12.00 list)
Read more and comment...	A sequel of sorts to his perennial collection, Despite Everything, Add Toner picks up where that volume left off and collects the "highlights" (according to Aaron's introductory essay) of Cometbus issues #44 through #48 – which must be close to everything, as it's 368 pages. It also contains, an addendum, "8 Out of 10 Days," which is "a conglomeration of books, that for one reason or another were never released," complete with an all new essay contextualizing them.

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