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STOP!  Don’t go and buy another pretty coffee table book that looks great but provides its recipient with only an hour or two of vacuous and ephemeral enjoyment before transforming into a lifeless chunk that its new owner struggles with guilt feelings over before giving it the inevitable heave-ho.  Just say no to that CD Box of best-selling “classics” that everyone has heard so many times already that any pleasure in owning them (again) is diminished to the point of near non-existence.  That best-seller that everyone feels that they have to read, but no one actually wants to?  Pass.  And those nifty high-priced repackagings of  “favorite” comics that everybody who's interested already has?  Ditto.

Be adventurous and provide gifts that surprise and enthuse, that stimulate the senses more than they drain the wallet, and that will be treasured for years to come.


Title Creator Publisher Series Price
Milk and Cheese: Dairy Product Gone Bad Evan Dorkin Dark Horse Milk and Cheese $18.88
($19.99 list)
Milkandcheesebig
Read more and comment... 		O, the mayhem! the brutality! the sheer unadulterated violence! the carnage! the lunacy! the unbridled ferocity in the service of adolescent petulance! and, most of all, the gut-busting laughs that all this will mercilessly shake out of the reader!  All this can now be yours in this massive, durable, oversize, 240 page hardcover volume that collects it all in one place to have and hold forever more – all for a shockingly low price (that will be sure to spike higher should this treasure go out of print; so don't delay).
The Frank Book - softcover Jim Woodring Fantagraphics $29.75
($34.99 list)
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Read more and comment... 		One of the classic colletions of contemporary comics is now back in print in this softcover edition.  This edition appears to be identical in size and contents and reproductive quality with the original out of print hardcover edition.  The 350 pages of wordless comics, both in startling black and white and luscious cartoon color, will transport readers into a vivid realm that is part waking dream part parallel universe in which natural laws are clearly in effect but off kilter.  Woodring has continued to visit this realm in a series of works, including this year's Congress of the Animals and last year's Weathercraft.  The Frank Book is where it all begins – representing the initial voyage of discovery to this previously uncharted region – and remains the essential volume  that belongs in every self-respecting comics reader's library.  Dan Clowes states, "Frank, and I say this without a shred of hyperbole, is a work of true genius by one of the all-time greats."
Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Volume One: Through the Wild Blue Yonder Walt Kelley Fantagraphics Pogo $35.00
($39.99 list)
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Read more and comment... 		forward by Jimmy Breslin; introduction by Steve Thompson    Tis the season of classic comics reprints, for sure!  First we have the complete Carl Barks Library getting under way, then we have the Simon and Kirby Crime, and now we have the first volume in Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips.  (Intriguingly, the material collected in all three of these books centers on the year 1949; hmmm... seems worth pondering.)  This project has long been in development, and more than once delayed, but it realy is here, and it looks like it was worth the wait!  What we have here is a massive, 290 page, oversize, horizontally formatted hardcover with an embossed cloth cover and a lush wraparound dustjacket.  It collects the daily strip from it's start on May 16, 1949 through to the end of 1950, as well as the Sunday pages from their start on January 29, 1950 through to the end of that year, with the Sundays in fantastic full color, scanned from the original pages and then "lovingly and painstakingly restored by hand and computer."  And, as if that wasn't enough, as an added bonus we also get the complete  "beta" version of the strip that ran in the New York Star from October 4, 1948 through January 28, 1949. 
Simon & Kirby Crime Jack Kirby, Joe Simon Titan Books $44.44
($49.95 list)
Simonkirbycrime
Read more and comment... 		Kirby fans (and everyone else, for that matter), hold onto your hats!  Kirby's work here is the most dynamic and powerful work of the first half of his career – some might even say of his entire career! – and will knock your socks off!  Clear your mind of any preconceptions and prepare yourself for the dynamic action of Headline Comics, Justice Traps the Guilty and more.  While certainly not complete, Simon & Kirby Crime provides a very healthy portion of the classic crime comics produced by Jack Kirby with Joe Simon from 1947 through 1955.  These are great stories with art that really puts you back in the day, providing an uncanny sense of the seamy side of post-WWII life.  But most of all, it is the amazing daring of Kirby's art here that will impress.  The level of pure formal abstraction, the way he breaks down pages – splashes (and double-page splashes) as well as his riffs on the standard six-panel grid – and, especially, what he manages to accomplish within each panel – the incredible bravura compositions and black placements that are at times so intense as to seem to almost prefigure Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell – this is what astonishes.  Yes, the paper stock of this volume, while flat, is a tad too reflective, and, yes, the colors are as a result a bit too bright to accurately capture the darker tone of the original comics, but these are mere quibbles next to the work itself on display here.  Really, they're that good.  Do yourself a favor and get your mitts on this one.
Government Issue Comics Richard L Graham, Will Eisner, Milton Caniff, Al Capp and more ... Abrams ComicArts $17.77
($29.99 list)
Govissuecomics
Read more and comment... 		edited, compiled and annotated by Richard L Graham    Government Issue Comics provides readers with a 300 page overview of over sixty years of government sponsored comics.  The numerous and various branches of the US government managed, unsurprisingly, to recruit some of the top comics talent of its time, and in these pages you will find work by Will Eisner, Milton Caniff, Al Capp, Joe Kubert and Kurt Schaffenberger – and Charles Schulz, Walt Kelly, Chic Young and George McManus (and Al Wiseman!), along with a host of anonymous unknowns, all working on behalf of educating their fellow citizens on a (very) wide array of issues.  Richard Graham, an associate professor and media services librarian at the University of Nebraska has put together a broad survey of this massive but under-appreciated aspect of comics history.  It is organized into four categories:  military; economics and employment; civil defense, safety and health; and landscapes and lifestyles.  Each of these sections begins with an introductory essay by Graham that puts the comics in context.  Readers with Q-Code readers will, in theory, be able to access a large online archive of these comics by scanning the digital access code at the end of the book (or, go here and download PDF files of some of the complete comics and start reading now; just scroll down...).   Yes, history can be fun!  And now for less, as it is now on sale!
Color Engineering Yuichi Yokoyama PictureBox $29.75
($35.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		This one is a challenging excursion into the mental landscape, so you'll need some quality alone time, perhaps with some choice trance instrumentals blasting in your headphones blocking out any extraneous distractions, to take the trip that is Color Engineering.  We strongly recommend that you make your first run through solely focused on the visuals:  ignore the text and the translations – just take in the images as they build, one on the next; feel the rhythm.  Only after you have completed this journey, and have absorbed it, should you pay any attention to the text and notes.  Our quick formulaic take away is: ∫ f (Yuichi Yokoyama's Color Engineering) dx = F (Jennifer Bartlett's Rhapsody) - F (Jack Kirby's The Eternals).  In other words:  prepare yourself.  When you have finished the journey, you will doubtless come back with your own ideas.
Someday Funnies Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, C.C. Beck, Wallace Wood and more ... Abrams ComicArts $45.00
($55.00 list)
Somedayfunnies
Read more and comment... 		edited by Michel Choquette  Well, here's something you don't see everyday:  a comics anthology that has been completed but unable to find a publisher for nearly forty years, finally being published!  As readers of The Comics Journal #299 – the cover feature of which was an in-depth article on the history of this volume – already know, this volume had reached a legendary/mythical status.  Robert Greenfield's introduction squarely situates the work contained in this volume as a document of "The Sixties," While comics critic/historian Jeet Heer's foreword provides ample context and background for the comics work the book contains as well as a chronology of its epic 40-year journey from inception to publication.  We've barely dipped out toes in this majorly oversize – 11" x 17" – 216 page, full color hardcover volume containing 120 comic strips by 169 creators, so we're not going to say much about the contents at this time, but we will provide you with some of the contributors, and let you do the math:  Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, C.C. Beck, Wallace Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, Arnold Roth, Don Martin, Gahan Wilson, Bobby London, Trina Robbins, Vaughn Bodé, Steve Englehart, Archie Goodwin, Denny O'Neil, Ralph Reese, Alan Weiss, Herb Trimpe, Frank Zappa, Harlan Ellison, William S. Burroughs, Roy Thomas, Barry Smith (before he added Windsor) Guido Crepax, Ralph Steadman, Leo & Diane Dillon, Walter & Louise Simonson, Justin Green, Bill Griffith, Red Grooms, Russ Heath, Jay Kinney, Denis Kitchen, (a very young) Art Spiegelman, (also very young) Stan Mack, Ever Meulen,  Joost Swarte, Tom Wolfe,  Federico Fellini, and many, many more!  Also included is a "92-drawing take on Choquette's travels by Michael Fog" that parallels and brackets the comics the volumes contains.  Surprisingly (at least to us), the intent to create an interweaving bracketing tale was a component of the original volume's conception, and blank spaces were deliberately left in many of the pages at Choquette's instruction. 
Everything, Volume 1: Blabber Blabber Blabber Blabber Lynda Barry Drawn and Quarterly $22.22
($24.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Having, in What It Is and Picture This, given us her latest and greatest, Lynda Barry now takes us back to her (artistic) beginnings – the years 1978-1983 – and gives us a guided tour from her current, older and wiser vantage point.  It pretty much goes without saying that  all Lynda Barry fans will find this volume a treasure.  In addition to including the entirety of her first published (and looong out of print) book collection, Girls + Boys, Blabber Blabber collects over 100 pages worth of her earliest comics work in book form for the first time!  The format of this, the first volume of Drawn & Quarterly's "Everything Lynda Barry" series, preserves that of What It Is and Picture This, and it seems likely that subsequent volumes of the series will continue to do so as well.  The archival work is presented here cocooned in a design that is a product of her current sensibility and that includes comics 'n' collage introductions and annotations produced specifically for this volume.  As a result, the entire feel of this book is very much a piece with those preceding it and allows new arrivals to the world of Lynda Barry to feel right at home.  And, in a moment of copacetic synchronicity, the opening epigraph to this work is taken from Gahan Wilson's classic of childhood angst, Nuts, the re-release of which we celebrated in last month's listing.  To wit:  "The hardest part about growing up was trying to figure out what was growing up and what wasn't, and you were never sure at any point whether or not you got it right."
Donald Duck: "Lost in the Andes" Carl Barks Fantagraphics The Carl Barks Library $19.99
($24.99 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Over the past decade, probably the single biggest frustration we've experienced here at The Copacetic Comics Company was the inability to offer customers the opportunity to experience the magic of Carl Barks in book form. This frustration was then exponentially magnified by the fact that at any given moment, nearly the entire body of work of the comics creator who was measurably the most widely read and putatively the most beloved in the history of American comic books was out of print!  The influence on American culture of the Disney duck comic books Carl Barks wrote, penciled, inked and lettered for roughly a quarter century is incalculably large.  George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are just two of the literally millions of baby-boomers who grew up reading the comics of Carl Barks and who felt the imprint of Barks's wide-ranging spirit of adventure and pomposity-puncturing sense of humor; R. Crumb's entire sensibility is grounded in Barks; and this is just the tiniest tip of the iceberg – most of all was the influence that the millions upon millions of childhood hours spent reading works that were both wildly entertaining and subtly subversive had on the generation that came of age in the 60s.  Carl Barks is one of the true titans of comic books, one of the very few who can hold their own with the likes of Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman and R. Crumb.  Now, at last, well over a decade since Gladstone Publishing's incarnation of the Barks oeuvre went out of print, his collected works will once again become available for North American readers (his works have been in print in parts of Europe; elsewhere?) in what – based on the evidence of the first volume – is sure to be the most outstanding edition ever produced.  Rather than potentially put off novice Barks readers by starting the series right at the 1942 beginning of Barks's tenure on Donald Duck, Fantagraphics has launched the series with a period that is both one of the most popular and critically heralded (think Duke Ellington's Blanton-Webster era band):  the stretch in 1948 and 1949 that contains this volume's "title track," Lost in the Andes, as well as the equally classic March of Comics giveaway, Race to the South Seas, along with two other "feature length" tales, nine consecutive (and classic) 10-pagers, and a sizable helping of one-page gag strips, which, taken together, give a good idea of the tremendous range and quality of his work.  An eight page introduction by Donald Ault, one of the foremost North American Barks authorities, starts off the collection, and it concludes with twenty pages of notes on the stories by a bevy of Barks scholars from around the world, including The Comics Journal's Rich Kreiner.    So, thank you Gary Groth, Kim Thompson and Eric Reynolds, for undertaking to edit and publish the The Carl Barks Library.  Thank you Jacob Covey and Tony Ong, for your excellent design.  Thank you Rich Tommaso and Paul Baresh, for, respectively, your superb coloring and production.  Thank you Donald Ault and the host of other fine Barks scholars for your thoughtful contributions to aid in the understanding of and provide context for the work presented here.  And, of course, most of all, thank you Carl Barks for producing one of the greatest bodies of work in the history of comics.  Doubters among you may want to take a moment to read this generous 17-page PDF preview, but bear in mind that the experience simply won't be nearly as satisfying as that provided by the print edition.  Click on the image at left to read our full review and learn more about Barks and this fabulous book, the first volume in a fifteen year long project to collect the entire works of Carl Barks!
copacetic gift certificates Copacetic Comics The Copacetic Comics Company

Read more and comment... 		It's about time – COPACETIC GIFT CERTIFICATES!  Starting at $5.00.  (PLEASE NOTE:  Do NOT click on the "Add to Cart" button on the right; instead, click at left on "Read more and comment..." to go to ordering page, and then click on "Buy Gift Certificate."  You will be able to choose amount on the page you are then taken to.)
The Best American Comics 2011 Alison Bechdel Houghton Mifflin Best American $22.75
($25.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		  edited by Alison Bechdel   This year's volume gets off to a good start with Bechdel's own illustrated introduction wherein, in addition to introducing the work that follows she meanders autobiographically and waxes philosophical in and about comics.  It must mean something that this year's volume is the first in which there was a substantial amount of work that we here at Copacetic were not previously familiar with.  It seems that we can no longer keep up with all the deserving work out there.  As it doesn't feel like we're reading any less, the only conclusion to draw is that there's even more good work out there than we can keep up with.  A good sign, indeed!  The contributor list includes the essential work by those key artists whose work over the past year it is the first and foremost responsibility annual "best of" collection to present: Jaime Hernandez, Chris Ware, Joe Sacco, three of the best cartoonists of our times, did some of the best work of their career over the past year, and it is duly represented by excerpts here.  Dash Shaw's Bodyworld also receives a massive excerpt here (second in length only to Sacco's), and there are about a half dozen additional excerpts, most notably from Kevin Huizenga, Jeff Smith and Ken Dahl.  Then there are the short pieces, from all over, many of which – for the first time, as we noted – were new to us.  Included under this category are David Lasky and Mairead Case's "Soixante Neuf," Michael DeForge's "Queen," (how did we miss this one?), cover artist Jillian Tamaki's "Domestic Men of Mystery," Eric Orner's "Weekends Abroad" and Angie Wang's sumptuous "Flower Mecha."  Other great short pieces that we had already read and were glad to see here, include stories by Gabrielle Bell, John Pham, Joey Alison Sayers (from Papercutter, our favorite comic book anthology series), Noah Van Sciver, the webcomics sensation Kate Beaton and Paul Pope.  And we can't leave without mentioning the six-page "Anatomy of a Pratfall" by Peter and Maria Hoey from their self-published comic book series, Coin-Op.  This is a strongly Joost Swarte-inflected piece that would have been at home in Raw Magazine back in the day; it also reminds us, in its complexity, of some of Michel Gondry's more adventurous music videos.  We weren't hep to Coin-Op before reading this year's Best American.  Now we are; that's the idea.
The Death-Ray Daniel Clowes Drawn and Quarterly $17.77
($19.95 list)
Deathray
Read more and comment... 		2011 PEN Center USA Literary Award Winner, Daniel Clowes originally wrote and drew this work a few years back for what remains the last issue (#23) of his epoch-making comics book series, Eightball.  Here in this laminated, oversize, full color hardcover edition from Drawn & Quarterly it is represented in a "revised" version.  We have not yet had the opportunity to do a page by page comparison between the two versions of the story (sadly due to our inability to locate our copy of the issue of Eightball in question), but are confident that the story will continue to pack the same wallop that it did back when it first appeared – especially to those readers who are encountering it here for the first time.  We remember well when Clowes first announced that he was working on "a superhero story set in the 1970s" and he stated that his doing so was "a sure sign that I have lost my mind" (or something along those lines).  Yet, for all that, when it arrived on the stands, it was another Certified Clowes Classic™.  And here it is again for all those who weren't there the first time around – and for those who were, as well.
The Jack Kirby Omnibus, Volume One Jack Kirby DC $44.44
($49.99 list)
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Read more and comment... 		As much as it pains us to endorse a work published by the corporate behemoth that is Time-Warner, this book is simply too good to pass by.  Perhaps the only one able to follow the genius of the Hernandez brothers without seeming puny by comparison, Jack Kirby was a juggernaut of creativity unsurpassed in the annals of art, and this volume presents a great selection of his work, much of which has not been available since its original publication over fifty years ago.  With the exception of eight pages of work culled from the pages of issues of Real Fact Comics that were released in the late 1940s, the entirety of the work in this 300 page hardcover volume are from the year's 1957, 1958 and 1959; in other words, the years immediately preceding those in which Kirby (with the able assist of Stan Lee & Co.) remade the world of comics forever:  The Marvel Age (aka the 1960s).  The production on this volume is surprisingly good, with Digikore and Harry Mendryk doing a great job of reconstructing the original art and colors, all of which are smartly printed in the state of Kentucky right here in the USA, on flat, clean newsprint of low-reflectivity, that, taken together, makes for a reading experience that is as close to reading the original comics as one could have any reason to hope for.  Introduction by Mark Evanier
Habibi Craig Thompson Pantheon $31.50
($35.00 list)
Habibi
Read more and comment... 		Craig Thompson's long awaited follow up to Blankets – one of the most widely and loudly lauded graphic novels in history – is now weighing heavily on the shelves here at Copacetic.  A sprawling, multi-layered, multi-faceted, multi-pronged work, Habibi is part history lesson, part tutorial, part travelogue, part anthro/socio/psychological study, part sermon, and all love story.  Thompson clearly had outsized ambitions for this work, likely necessitated by the high  expectations surrounding any follow up to Blankets.  It's always an additional challenge for creators to follow up a highly praised work.  Should they try to compete with their big hit? should they use this moment of high regard to do their secret project that they had always wanted to do, but could never hope to get green lighted before? or should they just pretend that nothing's changed and just do what comes naturally?  In the creation of Habibi, it seems that Thompson took all three approaches and melded them into an organic whole.  In other words:  Habibi tries to have it all and do it all; at times it seems that its contents may overflow.  Learn more in our full page review.  In any event, if the length of the lines of those waiting to buy a copy of Habibi and get it signed by Craig Thompson at SPX are any indication of the demand for this book, then it's safe to say that its publisher, Pantheon Books, will probably get over its grumpiness over how much longer it took Craig to finish the book than originally expected (2007) when they paid him his advance way back in 2005.  At least part of the reason it took him so much longer to finish the book is that it is another mammoth tome – weighing in at 674 pages it's close to 100 pages longer than Blankets, which was, at the time of its publication, the longest, not-previously-serialized graphic novel ever published.
Miss Fury Tarpe Mills, Trina Robbins IDW Publishing Library of American Comics $44.44
($49.99 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Yes, it's one classic after another here at The Copacetic Comics Company!  Miss Fury – the Golden Age comics work that ran in full color in the Sunday comics pages for 351 consecutive weeks from 1942 through 1949, and was also collected in comic book form by Timely Comics (the precursor company to Marvel), and which provided (and continues to provide!) a uniquely female perspective to the heroic fantasy genre that simultaneously provided (ditto!) a solid proto-feminist critique of the genre's conventions, all the while delivering finely crafted, solid entertainment –  gets the mega-deluxe Library of American Comics treatment in this massive, oversize 232 page hardcover volume edited and introduced by Trina Robbins.  At least in part due to the fact that the earliest Miss Fury strips have previously been collected – albeit in black & white – by Pure Imagination in their now-out-of-print volume (note to Greg Theakston:  now would be a good time to reprint it!) which helped to get the Miss Fury revival rolling, the powers that be (i.e., Dean Mullaney) have decided to present the "never before reprinted" strips that comprise roughly the second half of the Miss Fury run: strips #159 - #351 which originally ran from April 1944 through August 1949.  As Mullaney's brief preface makes clear, it was no mean feat to assemble this complete, high quality, full color run.  Get ready to be wowed!
Forming #Volume One Jesse Moynihan NoBrow $27.00
($30.00 list)
Forming
Read more and comment... 		The first of a projected three volumes collecting Mr. Moynihan's ongoing webcomic detailing "the spawning of worlds, and the trajectory of consciousness on Earth."  This oversize, full color, hardcover volume is published under the auspices of NoBrow, and is another feather in their cap of excellence in craft (printed in Belgium!).  Jesse Moynihan has been producing adventurous self-published comics for quite awhile, as those intrepid Copacetic customers who managed to score Backwards Folding Mirror and/or Follow Me already know.  Forming is by far his most ambitious project yet, and we feel confident in recommending it to fans of C.F's Powr Mastrs, Frank Santoro and Ben Jones's Cold Heat, the works of Yuichi Yokoyama and all those waiting around for the next Kramers Ergot.  Yes, that's quite a broad recommendation, we know; but! – you don't have to take our word for it as you can read the entire saga online, starting here.  Until you come down and see it for yourself, you will, however, have to take our word that this sumptuously produced book provides an aesthetic experience all its own. 
Setting the Standard Alex Toth, Greg Sadowski Fantagraphics $35.00
($39.99 list)
Tothstandard
Read more and comment... 		WOW!  It's a dream come true for long suffering fans of the work of Alex Toth:  over 370 pages of full color comics all scanned directly  from the original 1950s comics published under the banner of Standard Comics in Toth's glory days of 1952 through 1954; and not only that, this 432 page softcover includes a heavily illustrated 30-page vintage interview with Toth from 1968; and, that's not all – there are also fourteen pages of notes by editor Sadowski (who, we must add, is also responsible for this volume's knock-out design and production) plus full color scans of the original black and white artwork for two complete stories (as well as a stray page or two)!  While this book is a total no-brainer for all Toth initiates, we feel confident, despite it's relatively hefty price tag, in unreservedly recommending this volume to any student, practitioner and/or aficionado of comics:  Toth is one of the few great masters of the comic book story, and Setting the Standard is – by far – the single best collection of his comic book work ever published.
Big Questions - S/N hardcover Anders Nilsen Drawn and Quarterly Big Questions $64.95
($69.95 list)
Bigquestions
Read more and comment... 		Deluxe, Signed and Numbered, Hardcover Edition (of 1000) Please note that this edition – in addition to possessing a signed and numbered tipped-in plate – includes the entirety of the standard softcover edition, plus 3 appendices that comprise an additional 55 (or so) pages that are not in the softcover.  What you get is:  the extra, non-essential stories from Big Questions #1 & #2; all the covers of the original series – including an unseen (by us, at any rate), unused (to the best of our knowledge...) extra cover for #5; "bird strips" from other publications that did not appear in the original Big Questions series.
Long TIme Relationship - signed hardcover Julie Doucet Drawn and Quarterly $50.00
($29.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		This is a brand new, uncirculated copy of the signed and numbered edition, originally released in July 2001.  It is #304 / 400. 
The Monologuist Paper Blog Update Supplemental Postcard Set Sticker Pack Anders Nilsen Self-published $10.00

OUT OF STOCK!
Monologuist
Read more and comment... 		And here's a unique little something-or-other from the author of Big Questions.  It's fairly limited and we only have a few left.
Life with Mr. Dangerous Paul Hornschemeier Villard $20.00
($22.00 list)
Lifedangerous
Read more and comment... 		When it comes to artfully integrating book design into the form of a graphic novel in such a way as to enhance the expression of its content, Mr. Hornschemeier has few peers.  To our mind, only Clowes, Ware and Seth have been as successful in this department*, and it bears remarking that there seems to be a bit of trend in effect among these design-oriented comics craftsmen as the latest work by each of these three creators shares with Hornschemier's a strong biographical focus on the protagonist.  Wilson, Lint and George Sprott each present their eponymous protagonist's life story**, and Life with Mr. Dangerous is solidly centered on its female protagonist, Amy Breis.  While, Mr. D shares many formal qualities with these works, it should not be seen as being derived from them as it has been under construction in MOME since 2005.  It is clearly an original work rather than a pastiche, and is unique in several respects.  First of all, Hornschemeier has clearly striven to create and maintain a woman's perspective throughout the diegesis of Life with Mr. D.  Secondly, in keeping with his relative youthfulness, his protagonist is squarely in her mid-twenties, and stays there for the duration.  Most of all, as we intimated at the outset, Life with Mr. Dangerous is a gift to biblio-æsthetes everywhere, as each line, letter and color on every surface from front to back of this hardcover edition has been thoughtfully designed, elegantly composed and carefully executed.  Not everyone will agree with every design decision he has made, but there is no arguing the the high level of craft on display here at each turn of the page, solidly bolstering this tale of a woman in her mid-twenties struggling to come into her own, accompanied by her mother, a cat, and the ongoing television adventures of "Mr. Dangerous."  *(although, as always, we have to credit Crumb for introducing this level of craft consciousness to the medium) **(It is additionally worth noting that Clowes's immediately previous work is the ironically titled, Mr. Wonderful, initially serialized in the NY Times.) 
Pinocchio Winshluss Last Gasp $27.75
($29.95 list)
Pinocchiobig
Read more and comment... 		In this massive, deluxe, 188 page, full color hardcover, the classic tale of Pinocchio, originally penned by Carlo Collodi towards the close of the 19th century, gets a 21st century makeover; which, we hasten to add, renders it unsuitable for children.  Winner of the 2009 Angoulême best book of the year prize it is now published in English for the first time by Last Gasp in the US and Knockabout in the UK.  In the wake of its success, its creator, Winshluss (the pen name of French cartoonist, Vincent Paronnaud) has won many converts.  We now refer you to Ben Towle's infectiously enthusiastic write up that does its best to add you to their ranks.  Replete with illustrations and links, Towle does his best to convince you of this book's merits, which are many and various.
The Finder Library, Volume 1 Carla Speed McNeil Dark Horse $22.75
($24.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		OK:  any reader who enjoys both world-building science fiction and comics who has yet to experience the wonder that is Carla Speed McNeil's Finder should simply stop reading this now and go out and buy this 664 page mega-collection that collects the first 22 issues of this long running series.  These works were originally collected in four volumes – Sin-Eater 1 & 2, King of the Cats and Talisman – with a combined price of $69.80 and that was a great value, so, basically, this new volume is practically giving it away!  Do yourself a favor and head on over to this page, where you can learn more and read a 28-page excerpt from the early pages of this book that reveals a clear Dave Sim influence.  McNeil's work has constantly evolved over the years since the inception of Finder in 1996. McNeil has developed her own clear comics voice; she has absorbed a wide array of techniques and styles that will be familiar to readers of Joe Sacco, Gilbert Hernandez, and Alison Bechdel.  And then there are the characters!  The series is anchored by a female-friendly (he'd better be, considering he was created by a woman) bad boy.  As it develops, he is brought into contact with a a wide array of fully formed characters that successfully combine realism and fantasy in delivering to the reader an intriguing host of aliens, humans, half-breeds and mutants. 
Mister Wonderful Daniel Clowes Pantheon $18.88
($19.99 list)
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Read more and comment... 		It's been so long since this was serialized in the New York Times, that we'll bet some of you had forgotten about it – but that's all part of the master plan.  This laminated, horizontally formatted hardcover just released by the industry leading Graphic Novel division of the eminent Pantheon imprint of the storied Knopf Doubleday publishing group of that pillar of publication, Random House, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann AG, is simply the next step in the inevitable domination of the globe by Daniel Gillespie Clowes.  By insinuating himself at the lowliest point in the media food chain, Clowes has, with this aptly named work, been able to surreptitiously release a virus of comics irony that will slowly but surely work its way up to the top, wherein it will catalyze a linguistically encoded polymerase chain reaction that will initiate a resequencing of heretofore normative power relations the end result of which will be a catapulting of comics to its rightful place at the center of the palace of wisdom, with Clowes himself firmly ensconced on the throne.  So, if you want to find a place for yourself in this coming new world order, you are hereby advised to purchase and study this essential tome.
Scenes from an Impending Marriage Adrian Tomine Drawn and Quarterly $8.88
($9.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Only Adriane Tomine would dare to turn his own wedding into a comic book, hawk it to the public, and hope to get away with it.  And get away with he does, in this cute, little 56 page hardcover that is quite a pleasure (perhaps a guilty one) to read.  He tells his tale in an expertly prepared formal blend that is composed of a series of vignettes – all executed employing a standard nine-panel grid – that are punctuated with single-panel gag cartoons that are part New Yorker, part Family Circus.  Tomine's art here is as expert as ever, but is rendered in a slightly less polished manner that stands in regard to his previously published work in a way that is somewhat analagous to how Seth's "sketchbook" graphic novel Wimbledon Green stands to his previously published work.  The perfect gift for that special someone you'd like to drop a hint to.
What It Is Lynda Barry Jonathan Cape $12.95
($24.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		What It is, the long awaited, all new, 208 page hardcover volume of heuristic metacomix by the one and only Lynda Barry, is both a beautiful and inspiring work of art and an insightful exploration of the creative process.  Her first new work since her 2002 masterpiece, 100 Demons, What It Is uses the language of comics to probe the secrets of creativity itself, which leads her deep into the caverns of philosophy, where, ever the intrepid explorer, Ms. Barry undertakes an especially thorough excavation of the cave of epistemology.  There in the murky darkness she discovers that memory and imagination blur and merge amidst the stalactites and stalagmites of our respective genetic heritages before condensing and collecting in placid prehistoric pools to mix with the ancient amoebas; in the process dissolving time itself.  The past, present and future come together -- an instant and an eternity stand as one in the revelation that it all starts with... The Image!  Lynda Barry, long considered among the major contemporary comics creators, has, with What It Is,  taken comics to a new place and created a work that can stand shoulder to shoulder in the pantheon with those created by Frida Kahlo, Jean Michel Basquiat, and Hayao Miyazaki, to name but a few of her new peers.  This book is full of surprises and delight.  There's really only one thing to say about this book:  "YES!!!"  If you still need convincing, then feast your eyes on this amazing (lucky)13-page preview and/or read our full length review.  PLEASE NOTE:  In this listing we are offering the Jonarthan Cape edition from the UK.  This edition – also a hardcover – is printed on firmer, heavier paper stock, giving the book more heft than the D & Q edition.  Not only that, but we were able to purchase an allotment at a special price and are passing on the savings to you!  While supplies last.
Pebble Island Jon McNaught NoBrow $18.00
($18.00 list)
Pebbleisland
Read more and comment... 		Here it is:  another precise yet elegiac evocation of the quotidian in comics form from the surprising Jon McNaught.  This quiet controlled volume  follows his masterful Birchfield Close (as well as what is, in our opinion, his most singularly impressive work, his seven-page contribution to Graphic Cosmogony, "Pilgrims."), also published by the London-based NoBrow Publications.  Pebble Island, as its title suggests, presents us with the quiet rhythms of Island life. First off is a simple childhood memory, the presentation of which says so much more than just, "this is what happened."  Next up is a small series of single images that form a guided tour of island sites that combines the whimsy of early Rick Geary with the melancholy of Seth.  The volume closes with a dense, rhythmic meditation on the intersection of artificial and natural spectacle.  McNaught is a master of employing the page layout grid to weight each image with its proper proportion of time and space, as well as its proper location within the series, to create the ideal balance between the elements of each piece and so create the sense of a natural unfolding.
Portraits from Life David Collier Drawn and Quarterly $8.88
($12.95 list)
Collierportraits
Read more and comment... 		This book presents the strongest of David Collier's work and is one of our perennial best-sellers here at Copacetic.  It is filled with extremely engaging stories of the lives of minor, obscure and offbeat Canadian figures.  Some of these are full fledged biographies, such as the fascinating account of Humphrey Osmond, the Canadian scientist who was an early researcher into psychotropic drugs and reputedly coined the term "psychedelic."  Then there's the life story of Ethel Catherwood, the Olympic high jumper known as the Saskatchewan Lily, who ended up obscure and reclusive.  A more tightly focused tale is that of "Grey Owl," an enigmatic British man who managed to convince those he came into contact with in the Canadian north that he was a North American Indian.  The acme of the collection is the tale of David Midgaard, a Saskatchewan man arrested as a teenager and imprisoned for decades for a rape and murder he didn't commit.  This is a gripping tale told in the inimitable Collier fashion, wherein he weaves his own life into the tale of another, and so really makes it hit home hard.  The stories in this volume were key to pioneering the comics journalism movement.  They amply illustrate why the most notable of the new comics journalists, Joe Sacco once said, "I don't think there's a cartoonist whose every new work I approach with such anticipation as David Collier."  RECOMMENDED!
The Littlest Pirate King (Le roi rose) David B. Fantagraphics $15.00
($16.99 list)
Littlepiratedavidb-big
Read more and comment... 		A graphic album (bande desinee) for kids from the one and only David B. (Epileptic).  David B. is a monster talent who can make comics do things that no one else can, so whatever he tries his hand at is worth a look.  We're confident that this will be no exception.  Adventurous kids of all ages should find this a work to relish.
The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics Harvey Kurtzman, Denis Kitchen, Paul Buhle Abrams ComicArts $22.22
($40.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		This massive hardcover volume is now the definitve account of the life and work of the one and only Harvey Kurtzman, the man who brought the world Mad and so much more.  Written by Kurtzman's friend and one-time publisher, Denis Kitchen, who also currently represents the Kurtzman estate.  Kitchen is an accomplished cartoonist in his own right, one who was influenced by Kurtzman, and who was active during the glory days of Underground comix, and so is more fully capable of appreciating Kurtzman's achievement than your average biographer.  This book has it all:  miraculously preserved childhood drawings, early comics and illustration work, Kurtzman's glory days in comics, the creation of Mad, Humbug, Trump, and Help! followed by Little Annie Fannie and much, much more, including plenty of rarities that will astound and delight Kurtzman fans.  And now available for an amazing price!  What's not to like?