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Title	Creator	Publisher	Series	Price
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.
Simon & Kirby Crime	Jack Kirby, Joe Simon	Titan Books		$44.44 ($49.95 list)
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.
Everything, Volume 1: Blabber Blabber Blabber Blabber	Lynda Barry	Drawn and Quarterly		$22.22 ($24.95 list)
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."
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.
The Man Who Grew His Beard	Olivier Schrauwen	Fantagraphics		$17.77 ($19.99 list)
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".
The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists	Seth	Drawn and Quarterly		$22.75 ($24.95 list)
Read more and comment...	And speaking of finely crafted books from Drawn & Quarterly, here's the latest from the cartoonist who more than anyone else is responsible for what might be considered the D&Q "house style", whose conscious integration of book design as a formal element into the structure, significance and meaning of his comics works may very well be his most lasting contribution to the medium. The GNBCC is a follow-up to his first "sketchbook" graphic novel, Wimbledon Green. Not exactly a sequel, it is set in the same quasi-fictional/semi-factual world and (re)creates an unequalled sense of Canadian comics cameraderie. Complete with exhaustive index and reproductions of Seth's cardboard constructions.
The Best American Comics 2011	Alison Bechdel	Houghton Mifflin	Best American	$22.75 ($25.00 list)
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.
MOME #22	Kurt Wolfgang, Tom Kaczynski, Joe Kimball, Eleanor Davis and more ...	Fantagraphics	MOME	$17.77 ($19.99 list)
Read more and comment...	edited by Eric Reynolds Say it isn't true! Sadly, this is the end of the road for the most innovative and challenging regularly published English language comics anthology of the twenty-first century. But they're going out with a bang! MOME 22 is a wallopin' 240-page double issue that is a veritable gathering of MOME alumni (along with some notable last-minute newcomers) featuring 30 artists, including Kurt Wolfgang, Tom Kaczynski, Joe Kimball, Eleanor Davis, Anders Nilsen, Tim Hensley, Paul Hornschemeier, Gabrielle Bell, Zak Sally, Jesse Moynihan, Malachi Ward, James Romberger, Nick Drnaso, Joseph Lambert, Nick Thorburn, Victor Kerlow, Jim Rugg, Chuck Forsman, Sergio Ponchione, Steven Weissman, Sara Edward-Corbett, Laura Park, Josh Simmons, Derek Van Gieson (with collaborator Michael Jada), Tim Lane, Nate Neal, Lilli Carré, T. Edward Bak, Dash Shaw, Ted Stearn and Noah Van Sciver. Whew! Get a heaping helping of PDF preview, here.
A Zoo in Winter	Jiro Taniguchi	Fanfare/Ponent Mon		$21.75 ($23.00 list)
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!
Big Questions - S/N hardcover	Anders Nilsen	Drawn and Quarterly	Big Questions	$64.95 ($69.95 list)
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.
"21": The Story of Roberto Clemente	Wilfred Santiago	Fantagraphics		$20.00 ($22.99 list)
Read more and comment...	The legendary Pittsburgh Pirate herein receives a respectful, full-length comics biography from the pen of fellow Puerto Rican, Wilfred Santiago (a personal in-store appearance by whom will be hosted here in Pittsburgh, on Saturday, May 21, 2011 by our pals at Phantom of the Attic, on Craig Street in Oakland; call 412-621-1210 for details). Clemente was one of the all time baseball greats – perhaps the greatest Pirate after Honus Wagner – and was the first Latino to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but, as this work amply demonstrates, Clemente was more than just a baseball player. He was a man with a big heart, who understood well Spider-Man's dictum that responsibility is a necessary accompaniment to power, fame and wealth, and thus his life story is an instructive tonic for our times, so pervaded as they are by selfishness and greed. Santiago's work here rises to the occasion and, perhaps motivated by Clemente's example, reaches a clear career high. Get an idea of what we're talking about with this PDF preview.

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