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International

Contains comics produced outside of North America. We added this category late in the game, and so many comics that fit this description have yet to be tagged with it. So look for this category to grow in the future once we comb through the site.


Title Creator Publisher Series Price
The Collected John G. Miller: 1990-1999 John G. Miller Braw $20.00
Collected jgmiller
Read more and comment... 		The comics contained in this 8" x 12" 162 page softcover import collection emanating from the UK are straight up genre comics drawn in an ultra high contrast fashion with a punky lo-fi edge.   Maintaining a common touch throughout, Miller mocks authority in any and all forms.  The stories are formulaic, but full of deconstructive twists and turns that result in the normal results being turned on their heads.  Youthful exhuberence triumphs over rules and rigidity. Silly and adolescent, yes – but also winkingly knowing and fun!
Ode to Kirihito #2 Osamu Tezuka Vertical $13.75
($14.95 list)
Kirihito
Read more and comment... 		This is the big book that has it all!  Originally serialized in Biggu Komiku in 1970-71, and a personal favorite of the artist, manga founding-father Osamu Tezuka, Ode to Kirihito is a unique effort, in more than one respect.  Weighing in at a mammoth 822 pages, Ode is the first of Tezuka's works to incorporate adult themed gekiga (see Tatsumi's Abandon the Old in Tokyo) elements.  Perhaps paradoxically, it is also a work that while dealing with the darker sides of human nature simultaneously deals with Christian (Kirihito is a pun on the Japanese pronunciation of Christ, Kirisuto) themes -- specifically of overcoming the illusional dualism of beast and soul, metaphorically dealt with here as a struggle against a disease that turns men into dog-like beasts.  This book is a one-stop  for everything Tezuka as he displays a veritable cornicopia of storytelling devices, styles, page-layouts and more; if you pay attention, you will also find some fascinating foreshadowing of current alt. comics themes and representational tropes (Fort Thunder, Paper Rad, etc.).  It's a Tezuka tour de force!  He delves into a panoply of themes: most importantly that of Japanese masculinity as it confronts the sexual revolution; also explored are Japanese perspectives in the dawn of the global era as the story brings us into contact with mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, South Africans, Europeans -- but, interestingly, almost no Americans -- and we get not only Tezuka's views of these peoples but also his point of view on their views of the Japanese, creating a roundabout of perspectives.   That Tezuka fans will find this work a reading experience to relish almost goes without saying.  We'd like to take a moment here to recommend this book to those of you who are curious about Tezuka's legendary status but have been put off by his association with what is widely considered "kid's fare" -- Astro Boy, Kimba and the like.  Ode to Kirihito will stand up to any comparison with contemporary literary comics.  It is an engaging and intriguing tale, told by a master of the form at the peak of his powers.  Anyone serious about comics owes it to themselves to read this.  NOW DIVIDED INTO TWO VOLUMES, OF WHICH THIS IS THE SECOND. Recommended!
The Book of Human Insects Osamu Tezuka Vertical $20.00
($21.95 list)
Bookofhumaninsects
Read more and comment... 		Here is the latest in Vertical's excellent run of Tezuka's late-career, mature graphic novels. This story contained in this 364 page stand-alone hardcover edition was originally published in 1970 and 1971.  The Book of Human Insects ranges far and wide:  from New York City to Tokyo, from the world of design to the world of entomology, from backrooms to boardrooms, from science to sex.  A work of transformation and metamophosis full of cartooned caricatures and detailed renderings; another trademark Tezuka.
Color Engineering Yuichi Yokoyama PictureBox $29.75
($35.00 list)
Colorebig
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. 
The Man Who Grew His Beard Olivier Schrauwen Fantagraphics $17.77
($19.99 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Readers who discovered Flemish cartoonist Olivier Schrauwen's work in MOME, and, especially, those who will be coming across it for the first time here, are in for a real treat in this, his first English language collection.  Copacetic customers interested in, drawn towards and/or especially engaged by comics such as those by Christopher "C.F." Forgues, Yuichi Yokoyama and the like that are published primarily by PictureBox in the U.S. should be pleased to discover that Fantagraphics has entered the fray here by providing this collection of work that adds significantly to this continuum of comics that work to explore the mental mechanics of thought and memory and their inextricable relationship with visualization.  Get an idea of what we're talking about here, by feasting your eyes on this PDF preview of "The Assignment".
Gazetta: Comics from Belgrade to Bangkok Ron Regé, Dylan Horrocks, Amanda Vähämäki gazetta $15.00
($15.00 list)
Gazettabig
Read more and comment... 		This international anthology of comics from around the world has much to recommend it both in terms of scope and quality.  Cover artist Ron Rege, Jr.'s contribution is the first publication of his latest project, Cartoon Utopia.  Here he is producing what are, in effect, sermonistic lectures in spritual psychology (or, perhaps, lecturistic sermons on pyschological spirituality) in comics form; whatever one might decide to call them, they are both uniquely fascinating and uplifting, and, really, are worth the price of admission.  The Dylan Horrocks, the first new work by him we've read since we don't know when (what? Atlas #3, was it?), is so good that it makes us mad that this is all we get. Dylan's work has been so sporadic over the last decade that we suspect that there are plenty of folks out there who aren't familiar with his work.  If you fit this description, then you should change your status with all due speed, and picking this up might just be the ticket.  Then there are the two! – count them – contributions by Finland's greatest export, Amanda Vähämäki, rendered in her trademarked delicate yet precise pencils.  The remainder of the contributions are all quite worthy, and will have readers asking themselves why they haven't seen work by these creators before and/or where they can find more:  Belkis Ayón from Havana; Edmund Baudoin from Paris; Igor Hofbauer from Zagreb; André Lemos from Lisbon; Aleksander Opacic from Belgrade; Maurizio Ribichini from Rome; and Sam Seen from Bangkok.  Recommended!
The Raven Lou Reed, Lorenzo Mattotti, Edgar Allan Poe Fantagraphics $20.00
($22.99 list)
The-raven-lou-reedmattotti
Read more and comment... 		Lorenzo Mattotti! Lou Reed!!  Edgar Allen Poe!!! The Raven!!!!  HOW?  Check it out in this sumptous PDF preview.
Tank Tankuro Gajo Sakamoto Press Pop $27.50
($29.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		In releasing what they hope will be the first of an ongoing series of collections of unseen-in-the-west, pre-WWII manga, publisher Press Pop has pulled out all the stops and released a super-deluxe, slip-covered, 256-page volume designed by Chris Ware which reproduces these never-before-published-in-America foundational manga classics employing a printing process that preserves their original 1935 duo-tone form.  Visit TCJ.com for an eight-page preview introduced by Dan Nadel and Press Pop president, Yasutaka Minegishi.
The Incal Moebius, Alejandro Jodorowsky Humanoids $44.95
($44.95 list)
OUT OF STOCK!
Incalbig
Read more and comment... 		Perhaps the single greatest science-fiction-adventure bande dessinée series of all time, the six-book series that was originally published in France throughout the 1980s has at last been collected in its entirety in a single hardcover volume for a price that works out to less than $7.50 per book.  Massively influential (see Brian Michael Bendis's introduction cum rant), The Incal has informed many a popular culture work, across mediums:  films, television series, and books, in addition to countless comics, manga and graphic novels  have been influenced and/or informed by this Jodorowsky-Moebius masterpiece.  While the page-size is here slightly reduced from the original, the magnificent colors – along with their registration and reproduction – are of high quality and enable the reader to plunge right into the definitively fantastic Moebius art that propels the twists and turns of the epic Jodorowsky plot in this now definitive English language edition.
A Zoo in Winter Jiro Taniguchi Fanfare/Ponent Mon $21.75
($23.00 list)
Zooinwinter
Read more and comment... 		Fans of Taniguchi's singular work, from the now-out-of-print Walking Man (which the cover image at left meaningfully evokes) to his ongoing Summit of the Gods, can now rejoice with the release of this new hardcover release (which is, amazingly, priced less than his last few softcover releases!). Originally released fairly recently (2008) in Japan, A Zoo in Winter's 231 pages amply display Tanuguchi's mature skills as he combines all of his interests - meditative scenes of walking outdoors, detailed urban landscapes, animals and snow, all in the service of a complex, deftly constructed narrative involving the intricacies of the human heart.  The story is an autobiographical roman á clef recounting Taniguchi's early years, beginning in the winter of 1966, at the point when he had recently moved to Kyoto to follow his dream of being a textile designer. Events there lead him to takie up a friend's invitation to move to Tokyo to work as a mangaka assistant... but we don't want to give too much away here! And as always with Taniguchi, that's just one layer of the complex weavings of the story, there's plenty more going on, all skillfully rendered and deftly paced. Recommended!
Approximate Continuum Comics Lewis Trondheim Fantagraphics $17.00
($18.99 list)
Approximatebig
Read more and comment... 		Trondheim's autobiographical masterpiece is at last collected!  This 160 page French-flapped softcover collects the entirety of the six issue series originally published between 1993 and 1996 along with seven pages of "rebuttals" from individuals – mostly French comics creators – who were subjectified in Trondheim's tale of comics in comics, including such L'Association luminaries as David B., Killoffer, Charles Berberian and Philippe Dupuy.  Get an intimate inside look at the world of French comics – or should we say, bande desinee – while simultaneously receiving an inside look at the mind that is perceiving that world; it's a comics feedback loop!
Isle of 100,000 Graves Fabien Vehlman, Jason Fantagraphics $12.75
($14.99 list)
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Read more and comment... 		A new work by Norway's greatest comics creator is always a cause for celebration.  Isle of 100,000 Graves marks a departure of sorts for Jason in that it marks his first original collaboration with a writer.  Fabien Vehlman has crafted a "tortuously funny yarn" that Jason has made his own with his highly addictive comics stylings.  Full color by Jason's longtime colorist, Hubert.  Anyone worried that this might not be the Jason they've come to know and love can check out this six page PDF excerpt.
Farm 54 Gilad Seliktar, Galit Seliktar Fanfare/Ponent Mon $22.75
($25.00 list)
Farm54
Read more and comment... 		Here's an graphic roman á clef of growing up on a farm in Israel.  Told in three tales, one each from childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, and all of which center on a feminine protagonist, Farm 54 is the product of a sister-brother team whose talents merge seamlessly. Written by the older, poet, sister, and drawn by the younger, illustrator, brother, the book has been beautifully produced by Fanfare • Ponent Mon.  An evocative look at Israeli life skillfully told in words and pictures.
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.
Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths Shigeru Mizuki Drawn and Quarterly $17.77
($24.95 list)
Onwardtowardsournobledeaths
Read more and comment... 		OK, here with their publication of this noted, historically significant work, D&Q has provided an introduction and notes by the pre-eminent American manga scholar, Frederik Schodt, as well as an afterword by and Q & A with Mizuki himself, that goes a long way to answering our complaints regarding the previously listed work (and, it must be said, quite a few other recent D&Q archival manga publications).  So, kudos to D&Q this time around.  Originally published in 1973, when Mizuki was 51 years old, Onwards to Our Noble Deaths is a fictionalized memoir of his own military service that is an artistically masterful, highly engaging and historically important work by one of Japan's most celebrated mangaka that was awarded the Heritage Essential award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.  Be sure to check out this PDF preview and see for yourself whether or not you think you're interested in further exploring this 372 page tome.  Now at special price.
A Single Match Oji Suzuki Drawn and Quarterly $22.22
($24.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		A Single Match is a hardcover collection of eleven psychological tales, originating from the early days of the gekiga movement in Japan.  Suzuki's work originally appeared in the consciously avant garde monthly manga anthology, Garo, which was founded in 1964.  Drawn & Quarterly has, in this new volume of historically important manga, continued with its recent – and irritating – trend of providing no background information whatsoever regarding either the material's original publication or the artist's life and career development, other than the line on the back cover blurb implying that it was originally published in Garo, and the most cursory of bio paragraphs.  It is crucial to developing both an understanding of the history of the form in general and the development of the artist in particular to provide some background on the artist and of the publications in which the work originally appeared, as well as the dates of original publication; especially when dealing with an artist as obscure and offbeat as Suzuki, so we hope that D&Q will wake up to the fact that it is incumbent upon them to provide this.  Ironically, they do provide information in exactly those books where it's less needed; in the more widely recognized classics, about whih there is already extant information on in English (such as Tatsumi's; and see below).  It's difficult to really give the work its due in a written description, so at least we an be grateful that D&Q has provided this PDF preview.  So check it out and see what you think.  Anyone in the know about the sources of this work and the life of the artist, is hereby invited to send that info this way!
S! – Baltic Comics Magazine #7: Forest Tales Michael DeForge, Derek Ballard, Pat Aulisio Biedriba Grafiskie Stasti S! $8.00
($8.50 list)
S!
Read more and comment... 		Yikes!  Yet another forest-themed comics anthology!  What does it mean?!  Straight out of Latvia, this pint-sized powerhouse is 98 pages of full color comics from around the world – but with a very strong accent on the Baltic States.  North Americans on hand are Pat Aulisio, Derek Ballard and Michael DeForge, whose 4-page "New Signal" is quite the eye-opener.
Garden Yuichi Yokoyama PictureBox $22.75
($24.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Yokoyama's newest – and longest, weighing in at 319 pages – work to be translated into English is now on our shelves.  Readers of Yokoyama's previous mind altering works, New Engineering and Travel, know what to expect:  monomaniacal manga rife with lucid layouts, novel narratives, power-packed pen & ink, revelatory riffs and spectacular sound effects that taken together add up to a new way of seeing the world presented as only comics can.  Garden presents a group of Yokoyama-oids as they work their way into a "garden" that has been metamorphozised and is more technology than nature.  In doing so, Yokoyama holds up a transformational mirror that forces us to confront our preconceived notions of the natural world.; from PictureBox, of course.
Bete Noire Ludovic Debeurme, Anke Feuchtenberger, Helge Reumann , Suzy Amakane and more ... Fantagraphics $9.95
($9.95 list)
Betenoire
Read more and comment... 		<<• edited by Chris Polkki •>>  Don't let the fact that some of your favorite comics anthologies are concluding their runs get you down:  there's a world of comics out there waiting to be discovered.  Take this swell 100-page anthology from 2005, for example.  We thought it was long gone, but we stumbled on a source and so are eager to let late-comers in on this swell package of comics from around the world, with a special emphasis on the Japanese avant garde.  Bête Noire features what we believe was the first North American publication of Yuichi Yokoyama, as well as works by fellow Japanese manga masters Junko Mizuno, Ichiba Daisuke, Takeshi Nemoto and Suzy Amakane.  Also on hand are Helge Reumann of Switzerland, Anke Feuchtenberger of Germany, Ludovic Debeurme, Lucie Durbiano and Caroline Sury of France, as well as artists from Italy, Spain, Finland, along with Kevin Scalzo, Renée French and cover artist David Heatley from the USA.  Recommended for readers of Kramers Ergot, MOME and Blood Orange (which Mr. Polkki also edited).
Night Animals Brecht Evens Top Shelf $7.50
($7.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Night Animals contains two lushly rendered sequences of pantomimic pen and ink drawings employing monochromatic color schemes, each relating a revealing insight into humanity's animal nature.  Equally informed by Maurice Sendack and David B., this 2007 work by the Belgian creator of the highly lauded 2010 release (and official 2011 Angoulême International Comics Festival selection), The Wrong Place, finally gets a chance to wow North American comics readers, courtesy of Top Shelf Publications, who put together a classy French-flapped edition employing an excellent paper stock.  A mere 24 years old, Evens is clearly a comics prodigy from whom we have every reason to believe much more is to come.  A brief word of caution is in order for potential readers of this particular work:  while the image that graces this volume has a whimsical air about it, the work it previews is at its core an unsettling cautionary tale tinged with darkness. BACK IN STOCK!
Kus: The Baltic Comics Magazine #8 Biedriba Grafiskie Stasti Kus $8.00
($8.00 list)

Read more and comment... 		(112 pages; 6" x 9")
S! – Baltic Comics Magazine #6 Biedriba Grafiskie Stasti S! $4.50
($4.50 list)

Read more and comment... 		(60 pages; 4 1/2" x 6")
S! – Baltic Comics Magazine #5 Biedriba Grafiskie Stasti S! $6.00
($6.00 list)

Read more and comment... 		(80 pages; 4 1/2" x 6")   
S! – Baltic Comics Magazine #4 Biedriba Grafiskie Stasti S! $6.00
($6.00 list)

Read more and comment... 		Ever wondered what comics might look like if they had the backing of a national government along with a few private foundations?  Well, wonder no more!  S!, along with its sibling publication Kus, receives support from the Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation as well as a rotating group of foundations, and it shows.  These anthologies are fabulously produced in full color on nice, heavy, off white newsprint.  They look and feel great, and they're modestly priced, even though they've had to travel here to Copacetic all the way from the Baltic state of Latvia.  Most of the work in these issues is by European artists that we are not familiar with, but there are also a few familiar faces.  Oh yeah:  despite the fact that these are published in Latvia, all the comics are in English, the language of global commerce. (80 pages; 4 1/2" x 6")
Kus: The Baltic Comics Magazine #7 Matthew Thurber, John Porcellino Biedriba Grafiskie Stasti Kus $8.00
($8.00 list)
Kus7
Read more and comment... 		Ever wondered what comics might look like if they had the backing of a national government along with a few private foundations?  Well, wonder no more!  Kus receives support from the Latvian State Culture Capital Foundation as well as a rotating group of foundations, and it shows.  These anthologies are fabulously produced in full color on nice, heavy, off white newsprint.  They look and feel great, and they're modestly priced, even though they've had to travel here to Copacetic all the way from the Baltic state of Latvia.  Most of the work in these issues is by European artists that we are not familiar with, but there are also a few familiar faces, such as John Porcellino, who gets a chance to strut his stuff in full color in #7, as does Matthew Thurber.  Check this out when you get the chance.  Oh yeah:  despite the fact that these are published in Latvia, all the comics are in English, the language of global commerce. (96 pages; 6" x 9")
King of the Flies 2: The Origin of the World Mezzo, Pirus Fantagraphics $17.77
($19.99 list)
Kingofflies2
Read more and comment... 		Here's another volume of German comics for the jaded palette.  Schadenfreude, angst, ennui and more inhabit these tales of suburban Deutschland.  This 64 page, oversize, full color graphic album continues and extends the themes of last year's initial album.  As with the first volume, this one is organized around a series of vignettes, each opening a window on a sordid suburban scene of lust, betrayal, disappointment, dissolution, deceit and more, all fueled by copious consumption of drugs and alcohol. All of which is finely rendered in a hallucinatory Charles Burns inflected style with an added boost of a truly garish color scheme that really accentuates the feelings of vertigo and nausea that accompany being adrift in a sea of os the senses without any moral compass to guide you. 
Ayako Osamu Tezuka Vertical $25.00
($26.95 list)
Ayako
Read more and comment... 		Ayako is another massive – over 700 pages – work from Tezuka's fertile late '60 early '70s period that includes Ode to Kirihito, MW and Apollo's Song (all excellent graphic novels also introduced to US readers by Vertical Publications over the last few years).  It is an ambitious epic spanning the quarter century following Japan's defeat in the Second World War.  This work contains many mature themes and employs sexual behaviors – including rape – as metaphors in making points about the psychology of post-war Japan.  It's certainly humbling to read these Tezuka epics that were produced long before the term "graphic novel" had even been conceived of in the west.  Here are two in-depth reviews from The Comics Journal and Mangacritic that interested readers will find worth their while. 
Stigmata Lorenzo Mattotti, Claudio Piersanti Fantagraphics $17.77
($19.00 list)
Stigmata
Read more and comment... 		Well – it's about time!  At last this 1999 pen and ink masterpiece by the fabulously talented Lorenzo Mattotti receives its long sought after English language translation in this smartly packaged hardcover edition just released by Fantagraphics.  Mattotti is best known for his stunning pioneering pastel rendering style in works such as Fires, Murmur and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  In Stigmata we are shown another side of his prodigious talent: his pen and ink work.  We received what now amounts to a preview of this in his contribution to the Ignatz series, Chimera, but with Stigmata we have Mattotti's most sustained narrative to date. 
Summit of the Gods #2 Jiro Taniguchi, Yumemakura Baku Fanfare/Ponent Mon Summit of the Gods $22.75
($25.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		All right!  It may have taken longer than expected, but the second volume of the massive five volume epic that is destined to be the last word in mountaineering manga is now out at the front of the Copacetic table of new arrivals.  Jiro Taniguchi is simply one of the best visual story-tellers out there, and with the help of scripter Yumemakura Baku he has here managed to produce his longest sustained narrative.  Thrills, suspense, intrigue – it's all here.  Read more about this work in our listing for the first volume.