The Copacetic Comics Company Small Press Comics

Small Press Comics

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Title	Creator	Publisher	Series	Price
San Diego Diary	Gabrielle Bell	Uncivilized Books	Diary	$4.00 ($4.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This trio of diary comics continues in the vein of Bell's Drawn and Quarterly collections, and present a series of great slice-of-life comics that are sure to appeal to all of her fans and are well worth checking out by anyone interested in diary comics. Each of these roughly digest size publications features a cardstock cover and is jam packed with 20-26 pages of comics. Behind the scenes at San Diego Con!
L.A. Diary	Gabrielle Bell	Uncivilized Books	Diary	$4.00 ($4.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This trio of diary comics continues in the vein of Bell's Drawn and Quarterly collections, and present a series of great slice-of-life comics that are sure to appeal to all of her fans and are well worth checking out by anyone interested in diary comics. Each of these roughly digest size publications features a cardstock cover and is jam packed with 20-26 pages of comics. Experience L.A. through the pen of Ms. Bell.
Diary	Gabrielle Bell	Uncivilized Books	Diary	$4.00 ($4.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This trio of diary comics continues in the vein of Bell's Drawn and Quarterly collections, and present a series of great slice-of-life comics that are sure to appeal to all of her fans and are well worth checking out by anyone interested in diary comics. Each of these roughly digest size publications features a cardstock cover and is jam packed with 20-26 pages of comics. This time around, destination: Minneapolis.
The Collected John G. Miller: 1990-1999	John G. Miller	Braw		$20.00
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!
Curio Cabinet #5	John Brodowski	Secret Acres	Curio Cabinet	$7.50 ($7.95 list)
Read more and comment...	A long awaited new issue of this unclassifiable series if finally here. The first four issues were self-published by Brodowski before being collected into a trade by the fine folks at Secret Acres, who have now assumed publishing duties on the series as well. Secret Acres has put their weight behind this issue and as a result it has vastly improved production values. Brodowski's work is surreal, presenting dreamlike narratives pulsating with an elusive intuitive internal logic that while palpable, remain ever just beyond the reader's grasp. This issue features four stories, each of which confronts an often violent and/or militaristic masculinity from a particular – what can only be termed "Brodowskian" – angle.
His Dream of the Skyland	Aya Morton, Anne Opotowsky	Gestalt	Walled City Trilogy	$29.75 ($32.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Wow! This book came out of nowhere. Nearly 300 pages in length, this oversize softcover is the product of a pair of Americans that has been issued by Gestalt Publishing of Australia and beautifully printed in Singapore on heavy, flat white stock. Written by Anne Opotowsky and fabulously rendered by Aya Morton in a unique water color fashion, employing an asian-inflected brushwork style with a muted, limited palette that excludes black line and hews to blue (do yourself a favor and check out these page samples). Set in early 20th century Hong Kong, specifically the Kowloon area, it follows the adventures of a young man, Song, as he sets out to explore the possibilities life has to offer. Believe it or not, this mammoth tome is only the first volume of the Walled City Trilogy!
Blast Furnace Funnies	Frank Santoro	Carnegie Museum of Art		$8.00
Read more and comment...	2011 marked the culmination of a decades-spanning career arc as Frank Santoro found his art at the center of the 2011 Pittsburgh Biennial at The Carnegie Museum of Art, where he attended studio art classes as a youth. We are excited to at last be able to offer for sale copies of his 16-page tabloid newspaper comics work that was the highlight of that exhibit. In a signature Santoro move, Blast Furnace Funnies is a work of "High" (i.e., museum quality) art executed in the lowest of the "Low" art forms (a disposable newspaper); employing ephemerality to evoke eternity, he has here worked (in a form that often ends up) in the gutter to reach for the stars. The originals for all 16 pages of Blast Furnace Funnies were exhibited at The Carnegie alongside of a giant stack of the newspapers we're offering here, and they really stood out on the walls for the wide tonal range displayed on each page; from wispy grays to solid blacks, from strong straight lines to streaks, curves, scribbles and blurs, each page contained marks made to match the mood. The color scheme of the newspaper itself is a duo-tone of varying saturations, consisting of yellow and magenta, that yields a surprising variety of hues, suggested and actual. The message that Blast Furnace Funnies has to deliver is a meditation on the relationship between the here and now and the past and gone that is, critically, played out in parallel on the scales of the personal and the historical. The narrative works to convey how we use our sense of the historical to understand our own lives – and even more, to suggest that, at the end of the day, all we really have are our own personal histories; that perhaps the ultimate function of the history that we learn from books and at school is to help us come to grips with existence. We all live in a relentless forward motion, each moment is here and then it is gone, replaced by the next and never to be physically experienced again. The memory of each moment is, however, in the context of an individual's own life – and, like "historical" events – always there. The personal is the historical. Memory is history. Pittsburgh is Pompeii.
Study Group Magazine #1	Zack Soto, Malachi Ward, Aidan Koch, Michael DeForge and more ...	Study Group	Study Group Magazine	$10.00 ($12.00 list)
Read more and comment...	edited by Zack Soto Anyone on the prowl for a new comics anthology to sink their teeth into since the demise of MOME is sure to be pleased by the promising first issue of Study Group Magazine currently beckoning from the Copacetic central display table. Rising from the fertile loam of the Portland, OR comics scene, it is edited and published by Zack Soto and features some delectable work from some of the freshest talents chosen from among the current crop of comics creators, including Malachi Ward, Aidan Koch, Michael DeForge, Chris Cilla and cover artist, Eleanor Davis, who is also the subject of an interview and who provides a nice transition for MOME readers, as her story was one of the highlights of MOME's last issue. Study Group Magazine's format is a tall vertical format (8 1/2" x 12") printed in deep sepia against a light purple and deep yellow duo-tone color scheme that reminds us somewhat of the NoBrow aesthetic. A highlight of this issue is an excellent, in-depth, heavily illustrated – with character studies, thumbnails, layouts, and finished pages – 17 page interview cum essay with Craig Thompson conducted and assembled by Milo George that focuses on his approaches to making comics in general and the creation of Habibi in specific, as well as providing valuable insight into his career and development as an artist. In addition, there is an appreciation of European comics wunderkind Brecht Evens by Greice Schneider that provides some food for thought. Did we mention that it is a numbered addition of 1000 copies? that DeForge's contribution is an instant cartoon classic that will burrow deep within your subconscious mind and take up residence? All in all an auspicious debut.
Retrofit Comics #3: Bowman	Pat Auliso	Retrofit Comics	Retrofit Comics	$4.00 ($5.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Philadelphia's Box Brown is on a mission to save the monthly 32-page comic book from extinction, and so has launched Retrofit Comics to do precisely that. We just want to let customers know that Copacetic has signed up and will be stocking all issues as they are published, and the first three are now on the stands, here at Copacetic and around the world! Believe it or not, there are books already scheduled clear through January of 2013, so there's plenty more to look forward to. This one's the trippy one, so be prepared...
Retrofit Comics #2: Drag Bandits	Colleen Frakes, Betsy Swardlick	Retrofit Comics	Retrofit Comics	$4.00 ($5.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Philadelphia's Box Brown is on a mission to save the monthly 32-page comic book from extinction, and so has launched Retrofit Comics to do precisely that. We just want to let customers know that Copacetic has signed up and will be stocking all issues as they are published, and the first three are now on the stands, here at Copacetic and around the world! Believe it or not, there are books already scheduled clear through January of 2013, so there's plenty more to look forward to. Check out this sophomore effort. #3) Bowman by Pat Auliso
Retrofit Comics #1: Fungus	James Kochalka	Retrofit Comics	Retrofit Comics	$4.00 ($5.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Philadelphia's Box Brown is on a mission to save the monthly 32-page comic book from extinction, and so has launched Retrofit Comics to do precisely that. We just want to let customers know that Copacetic has signed up and will be stocking all issues as they are published, and the first three are now on the stands, here at Copacetic and around the world! Believe it or not, there are books already scheduled clear through January of 2013, so there's plenty more to look forward to. It all starts here.
Streakers	Nick Maandag	Mean Dog Comics		$7.00 ($7.00 list)
Read more and comment...	And, speaking of John Porcellino, he personally recommended that we carry this book; and of course we readily obliged. Also recommending this work by this Torontonian is fellow Canadian cartoonist, Seth, who states: "Streakers is that rare creation – a work whose subject matter is unexpected, unasked for, and probably unwanted (!)... and yet, one that is both funny and genuinely affecting. I certainly laughed plenty while readin it. It's a very funny book. But I also felt strangely moved by these unpleasant creeps. I was in their corner cheering them on the whole time. Against all odds, Streakers is surely the book of the year!"
Freddy Stories	Melissa Mendes	Self-published		$9.00 ($10.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Ms. Mendes has, with Freddy Stories, produced a collection of vignettes of life as seen and experienced from a child's perspective which are simply spot on, and demonstrate an abundance of sympathy for the condition of child consciousness. Accurately recreating a child's state of mind and world view is especially difficult to manage in any medium, but comics' formal qualities have seemed to have provided creators with a toolkit well adapted for exactly this job. Even so, the vast majority of comics deptictions of childhood are mawkish, simpering, sentimental and just plain wrong. Here, in what is – sadly – one of the last books that will be funded by the Xeric Foundation, Center for Cartoon Studies graduate Melissa Mendes gets it right, and has produced a work that truly captures one of the most elusive of artistic subjects – the child mind. See what we're talking by taking a look at this excerpt of the first few pages.
Cartoon Picayune #2	Josh Kramer, Bill Volk, James Sturm, Katherine Roy and more ...	Self-published	Cartoon Picayune	$3.00 ($3.00 list)
Read more and comment...	edited by Josh Kramer 36 pages of feature news stories in comics form. This time around we have the second half of editor Kramer's story of high school ski jumpers, "Fly By Night"; Pittsburgher Bill Volk provides a tale of Pittsburgh (and post-Pittsburgh) brewing in "'Arn: A Brief History of Iron City Beer"; Josh Kramer is back again with "School's In for the Summer," a tale of – if you can believe it – a day camp school-of-rock; and then the issue closes out with a piece by Center for Cartoon Studies founder and director, James Sturm and Katherine Roy, "Honk and Wave," that follows Vermont gubernatorial candidate, Matt Dunne around for a day of his election campaign. A small press comics innovation!
Typewriter #6	Nick Bertozzi, Kurt Wolfgang, Dylan Williams, Nicolas Robel and more ...	Self-published		$9.00 ($10.00 list)
Read more and comment...	<<•>> edited and published by David Youngblood <<•>> One of the highlights of the 2003 SPX, and one of the best anthologies of the year, this 160 page squarebound volume features a lot of great work by a lot of great people like Souther Salazar, Sammy Harkham, Josh Simmons, Kurt Wolfgang, Farel Dalrymple, Dylan Williams, Marc Bell, Paul Hornschemeier, Nick Bertozzi, and Pittsburgh's own Jim Rugg, among many others! The concept with this issue is that each story must begin with the sentence that the previous story ended with. This is one of the best out there: small press, community building, unique, original and good. Long out of print, but we just discovered that we have a secret stash! 2003 • 160 pages • B & W
Gay Genius	Anne Murphy, Edie Fake	Sparkplug Comic Books		$17.00 ($20.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Gay Genius is the latest, and possibly last, anthology from from venerable independent comics publisher, Sparkplug Comics, founded and run by Dylan Williams, an independent comics hero if there ever was one, who passed away on September 10, 2011. "A showcase of contemporary radical queer visionaries-to-watch-out-for," Gay Genius is a squarebound softcover that runs 144 pages, most of which are in full color, and features twenty pieces that range from straight forward comics to collage to illustrated prose to unique combinations of these, all in celebration of the title theme. Edited by Anne Murphy; cover by Edie Fake.
Sundays #4	Lydia Conklin, Damien Jay, Max de Radigués, Mari Ahokoivu and more ...	Self-published	Sundays	$12.75 ($15.00 list)
Read more and comment...	It looked for awhile that we weren't going to be able to lay our hands on any of these, but thanks to trusty Tony Shenton, we snagged a handful before they went the way of the Dodo. Limited to 300 copies, this horizontally formatted anthology of super indy comics was printed and bound at The Center for Cartoon Studies and sports a hand pulled silk screen cover drawn by Damien Jay and pulled by Alex Kim and Joseph Lambert. Here's its contributor list: Mickey Z, Jeff Lok, Ed Piskor, Warren Craghead III, Aaron Cockle, Melissa Mendes, Joseph Lambert, Mark Burrier, Alex Kim, David Libens, Ariyana Suvarnasuddhi, Dane Martin, Julie Delporte, Michael DeForge, Sean Ford, Samuel C. Gaskin, Scott Longo, Jose-Luis Olivares, Mari Ahokoivu, Max de Radigués, Damien Jay, Lydia Conklin. Whew! Grab it before it's gone!
Gazetta: Comics from Belgrade to Bangkok	Ron Regé, Dylan Horrocks, Amanda Vähämäki	gazetta		$15.00 ($15.00 list)
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!
Pope Hats #2	Ethan Rilly	AdHouse Books	Pope Hats	$6.25 ($6.95 list)
Read more and comment...	We at Copacetic do indeed generally embrace the old adage that "you can't rush quality." Following at least two years after the first issue, Ethan Rilly certainly can't be accused of rushing to get this second issue of his series onto store racks , but it's so good we sort of wish – against our better judgement – that he'd, if not rush exactly, perhaps then devote a little more time to it, so we won't have to wait three years for the next issue. It's no coincidence that we've listed Pope Hats immediately below Optic Nerve. Rilly's strong delineation of character and setting puts us in mind of Tomine, and, certainly, puts him in the lineage that begins with the Hernandez brothers, and flows through Clowes. One thing that links all these creators is that they are highly skilled artists who produce organically rich characters that the reader trusts and believes in; and this takes time. BACK IN STOCK!
Amazing Facts & Beyond #5	Dan Zettwoch, Kevin Huizenga	Self-published	Amazing Facts & Beyond	$5.00 ($5.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This one is titled Factual Healing and features another (see above) hand-colored cover by Kevin H, collecting 32 punctures of the over inflated super ego of our times. Special bonus feature: one strip is by guest artist Sammy Harkham.
Amazing Facts & Beyond #4	Kevin Huizenga, Dan Zettwoch	Self-published	Amazing Facts & Beyond	$5.00 ($5.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Another big batch from beyond, Leon Beyond, that is (the first of two this month; see below!). This issue is titled Brain Dump and sports a sturdy Dan Z silk screened cover, binding together 33 strips worth of Amazing Facts for posterity. For those of you unfamiliar with Amazing Facts and Beyond, with Leon Beyond, it is, more or less, Ripley's Believe It or Not! for the Onion set, but with an index to boot! Funny, smart, well drawn, and extremely collectible, these collections are here today and gone tomorrow.
The Body of Work	Kevin Huizenga	Self-published		$4.00 ($4.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Fall 2011 is a good time to be a Kevin Huizenga fan. Not only do we have this brand spankin' new 32 page mini comic and two new issues of Amazing Facts and Beyond (co-produced with dazzlin' Dan Zettwoch; see below), but the long awaited fourth issue of Ganges is just over the horizon! There is no other cartoonist of equivalent stature – unless it's his pal, the aforementioned Dan Zettwoch – that we can think of that continues to self-publish their own mini-comics, but Huizenga's been at it so long it's in his blood. Lucky us! The four stories here range from the two, colloquial "Postcard from Fielder" tales, to the logical abstractions of "First Try." All are tied together by the title tale, which ponders the significance of a life spent in art and the meaning of the "Body of Work" that is produced. Added Bonus: each cover is uniquely (if modestly) hand colored!
Shrimpy and Paul	Marc Bell	Highwater Books		$16.95 ($16.95 list)
Read more and comment...	When Marc Bell passed through town earlier this month, as Anders Nilesen's "opening act," he was kind enough to part with a few copies of this long out of print 2003 work published by Tom Devlin's fabled Highwater Books. No self-respecting Marc Bell fan should be without this finely crafted tome, printed in black and white, duotone and full color, on heavy cream stock of low reflectivity. Don't let this rare opportunity slip through your fingers!
Storeyville (original newspaper edition)	Frank Santoro	Sirk Productions		$50.00
Read more and comment...	<<•>> WAREHOUSE FIND <<•>> Much to our amazement, a heretofore unknown secret stash of the original 1995 newspaper edition of Storeyville has been unearthed! Each copy had been sealed in a polypropylene bag and the entire box had been taped up and stored away in a corner where it was eventually forgotten... until now! We haven't seen a copy of this for sale anywhere for years (except for one that was on sale on Amazon for $1000!) so, if this is something you've been thinking about, don't debate about it too long, as there's only this one box, and when it's empty, that's it! A perfect match of form and content, Storeyville is a 40 page tabloid newspaper -- printed in black and white and a set of muted tones ranging from sandy yellow to a deep sepia -- that describes the arc of a youthful adventure that takes its protagonist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the USA to Montreal, Quebec in Canada at the opening of the 20th century. Click on image at left to read our full length review.
Queen of the Black Black	Megan Kelso	Fantagraphics		$17.77 ($19.99 list)
Read more and comment...	Fantagraphics brings back into print this collection of Megan Kelso's early work that was originally published by small press pioneer Highwater Books way back in 1998. Queen of the Black Black collects Kelso's Girl Hero series, six issues of which were released between 1992 and 1997, along with two 1998 stories including the title tale. Kelso charts the ups and downs of growing up a girl and building an original, independent female identity in life and comics.
Papercutter #16	Greg Means, Liz Prince, Joey Alison Sayers, Alexis Frederick-Frost and more ...	Tugboat Press	Papercutter	$3.50 ($4.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This issue leads off with "Professor Pearson," by Joey Alison Sayers: an epic of despair in the form of a 20-page comics story about a junior high school teacher who loses his mind (did we neglect to mention that it is, as with all work by Sayers, quite funny?) Also on hand are a two-page by Liz Prince, "Endless Lizcation," and "A Good Catch," a ten-pager depicting a slice of life that is red in tooth and claw by Alexis Frederick-Frost. Papercutter delivers yet again.
The New Ghost	Robert Hunter	NoBrow		$11.00 ($11.00 list)
Read more and comment...	And here's another fine NoBrow publication. Mr. Hunter shares with fellow NoBrow creator, Jon McNaught, a great respect for, strong understanding of, and an exceptionally deft hand working with the comics page as a creative unit in and on which to express temporal and spatial relationships that are both informative and aesthetically pleasing. The New Ghost is a welcome addition to this shared perspective. Get an idea of what we're talking about at NoBrow's own preview page for this fine new 24 page deluxe pamphlet comic book.
Unicorn Mountain, Volume 2	Curt Gettman, Frank Santoro, Juliacks, Paulette Poullet and more ...	Self-published	Unicorn Mountain	$12.00 ($15.00 list)
Read more and comment...	As the cover states, this is a compendium of comics, writing and music. Edited once again by Curt Gettman, this time around Unicorn Mountain is a chunky 206-page squarebound squareformat anthology printed in umber ink on flat white paper of (mostly) Pittsburgh culture that contains an eclectic 21-track CD, all for less than the prie of the average stand-alone CD! Made possible in part by a grant from the seemingly omnipresent Sprout Fund, this issue is a big step up from the first issue. Highlights include "Thousands of Mistakes" by Frank Santoro, "Niran and Theola" by Curt Gettman and Owl Kahol Systems (a pseudonym for a local comics artist), "Like Lace" by JULIACKS, "Rock & You" by Paulette Poullet, a two-page untitled piece by Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg of Street Angel fame, and a fistful of untitled illustrations by Paper Rad. The material on the CD ranges far and wide and includes new tunes by Modey Lemon, Oneida, Ex-Models, Elf Power and Pink Mountaintops. The Karl Hendricks Rock Band's "The Last Uncompromising Hardcore Band" will have you tapping your toes and singing along before you even realize it.
The Monologuist Paper Blog Update Supplemental Postcard Set Sticker Pack	Anders Nilsen	Self-published		$10.00 OUT OF STOCK!
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.
The Game	Anders Nilsen	Self-published		$8.25 ($9.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Here's a little handmade gift-edition of Mr. Nilsen's contribution to the now out of print Kramers Ergot #7 – plus one additional page available only here. It comes packaged in a 5" x 7", resealable glassine envelope, but once removed folds out to its full (and full color) 14" x 20" glory. Includes bonus trading card!

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