The Copacetic Comics Company Classic Comics Collections

Classic Comics Collections

Here's the copacetic selection of classic comics from the past -- from the golden and silver ages of comic books as well as from all ages of classic daily and Sunday newspaper comics -- newly collected and preserved for the ages in fine high quality volumes from a wide variety of publishers. This is truly a great time to be a reader and collector of classic comics collections!

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Title	Creator	Publisher	Series	Price
Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Volume One: Through the Wild Blue Yonder	Walt Kelley	Fantagraphics	Pogo	$35.00 ($39.99 list)
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)
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.
Donald Duck: "Lost in the Andes"	Carl Barks	Fantagraphics	The Carl Barks Library	$19.99 ($24.99 list)
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!
Nuts	Gary Groth, Gahan Wilson	Fantagraphics		$17.77 ($19.99 list)
Read more and comment...	introduction by (none other than) Gary Groth Back in the day at the shop that was the precursor to The Copacetic Comics Company there was a book that was always out on the shelves bearing the label, "Funniest Book at BEM." That book was the original Nuts collection that was published way back in 1979, and has been long out of print. Now, thanks to the fine folks at Fantagraphics (aka Gary Groth and Kim Thompson) we now have this, the finest distillation of childhood angst, anxiety, fear, pain, suffering, disappointment, disillusion, fleeting joys, idle pleasures, and just about any other childhood emotion you can lay your finger on and draw, back in print in a hardcover "complete" collection. Nuts originally ran in the glory days of National Lampoon. We respectfully request that anyone not familiar with this work do themselves the favor of checking out this PDF preview.
The Best of Harry Lucey, Volume One	Jaime Hernandez, Harry Lucey	IDW Publishing	Archie	$22.75 ($24.99 list)
Read more and comment...	introduction by (the one and only) Jaime Hernandez First off, we'd like to nominate this book as the single most overdue volume in the history of comics. It may not win, but it will certainly be a contender. If there is one single artist that comics readers need to increase their consciousness of, it's Harry Lucey. Any comic book reader over forty is almost certainly already familiar with Lucey's work as he pencilled hundreds of stories for Archie Comics, including the majority of its flagship title for fifteen years. So, anyone who read a few Archie Comics from before 1975 – or any of the ubiquitous Archie Digests that were seemingly everywhere through at least the 1980s – has read at least a few Harry Lucey stories – but there is no way they would have known it: because LUCEY NEVER GOT ANY CREDIT – until, finally, now. With all due respect to Bob Montana, Dan DeCarlo and all the other fine artists who worked for Archie Comics over the past seventy years, Harry Lucey was the best comics artist who ever worked for Archie and his work is their greatest legacy. While this volume does not come close to presenting "The Best" of Lucey's work, the fact that it is subtitled "Volume One" fills us with hope that, when taken together with an ever expanding series of subsequent volumes, it will ultimately live up to it's title.
P*S Magazine: The Best of The Preventive Maintenance Monthly	Will Eisner	Abrams ComicArts		$19.75 ($21.95 list)
Read more and comment...	It is rare indeed when our opinion completely agrees with that of publisher provided cover hype, but in this case it does. The material that Will Eisner produced over a period of 20 years (!!!) for PS Magazine is indeed, "the missing link between The Spirit* and A Contract with God" as the cover states. The work contained in this 272 page hardcover volume has the highest critical-importance:critical-awareness ratio of any work we can think of. It represents the single largest unified body of work of one of the most admired creators in the history of comics, yet very few have read much – if any – of it. Now, thanks to Denis Kitchen, Ann Eisner, Eddie Campbell and Abrams ComicArts, we all have the opportunity to rectify this out-of-kilter relationship between material and critical appreciation. Eisner spent twenty years focusing on creating clear concise communicative comics for the United States military. Surely this is a factor that contributed to his development as an artist and the evolution of his mature style. Both forcing him to hone his cartooning skills to meet the demands of the assignment and in holding back his own personal artistic goals for so long that they burst forth so spectacularly in his later years.
The Jack Kirby Omnibus, Volume One	Jack Kirby	DC		$44.44 ($49.99 list)
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
The Best of Archie Comics	Harry Lucey, Dan DeCarlo, Frank Doyle, Bob Bolling and more ...	Archie Comics		$8.88 ($9.99 list)
Read more and comment...	While this 400 page digest size volume most certainly does not live up to its title, it is the best anthology Archie Comics has managed to publish in as long as we can remember – and possibly ever, considering how poor their track record is in this particular department – and it is especially significant in that the publishers have finally recognized the bare minimum of their responsibility to the people who built their business and has in this book published artist and writer credits for all the stories. Beginning in 1941 with the very first Archie story by Bob Montana and Vic Bloom from Pep Comics #22, The Best of Archie Comics continues on, decade by decade, through the subsequent seventy years, taking us all the way up to 2011. For us here at Copacetic HQ, the glory days of Archie Comics will always be the 1950s through the early 1970s, when Harry Lucey and Dan DeCarlo ruled the roost, and, for a few years at least, Bob Bolling and Bill Woggon were given free reign on Little Archie and Katy Keene, respectively. There is a generous selection of both Lucey and DeCarlo here, along with what is reputed to be Bolling's own personal favorite Little Archie tale, "The Long Walk," from Little Archie #20, and a modest sampling of Woggon's work, and so we won't hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who would like to be introduced to the world of Archie Comics.
Miss Fury	Tarpe Mills, Trina Robbins	IDW Publishing	Library of American Comics	$44.44 ($49.99 list)
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!
Tank Tankuro	Gajo Sakamoto	Press Pop		$27.50 ($29.95 list)
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.
Setting the Standard	Alex Toth, Greg Sadowski	Fantagraphics		$35.00 ($39.99 list)
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.
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: "Race to Death Valley" - 1930 - 31	Floyd Gottfredson	Fantagraphics	The Complete Collected Mickey Mouse	$25.00 ($29.99 list)
Read more and comment...	The Age of Classic Comics Collections continues with this premiere volume in the promised complete collection of Floyd Gottfredson's epic 25 year run on Mickey Mouse. OK, now, we know that some of you will be thinking to yourselves, "Mickey Mouse? Who cares!" Well, while we won't argue that there's quite a bit of mindless pap out there involving this particular mouse and that, as the icon of the Disney empire, this character has a lot to answer for, Gottfredson's work featuring this same mouse is simply straight up comics from the classic age of newspaper strips. This series marks the first time this epic run has ever been collected in English (this work has a bit more respect over in Europe, where it has been the subject of at least one complete collection). This volume starts right at the beginning – April Fool's Day, 1930 – and takes us through a series of adventures ending in early 1932. This well turned out 288 page volume contains heaps upon heaps of archival and supplemental material – much of it in color – that will make for a treasure trove for any and all collectors and aficionados of the mouse.
Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth	Dean Mullaney, Bruce Canwell, Alex Toth	IDW	Library of American Comics	$49.95 ($49.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth is the first of a three-book set (!!!) that is quite likely to be the definitive statement on one of the most talented and influential artists in the history of comics. Produced by the Eisner Award-winning team of Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell — who produced the amazing Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles — Genius, Isolated is a massive tome packed with both classics and rarities that will have true believers poring over every page. The scrupulously well-reproduced work is interwoven with what promises to be the first in-depth biography of this unparalleled comics master. Of critical importance is the fact that this book has been written as well as compiled with complete access to the family archives, and with the full cooperation of Toth's children. Prepare to be wowed! (temporarily out of print - we're almost out!)
Prince Valiant, Volume 3 - 1941-1942	Hal Foster	Fantagraphics	Prince Valiant	$25.00 ($29.99 list)
Read more and comment...	This volume contains the years considered by many Prince Valiant connoisseurs to feature Foster's best work. In other words, the best of the best. Regardless of where you stand in this debate, you'll find yourself gazing at page after page of truly superb comics. Foster's work on Prince Valiant set the bar for illustrative quality in comics and it has held ever since. Lou Fine, Al WIlliamson, Roy Krenkel, Frank Frazetta, Wallace Wood, Neal Adams, Mark Schulz and countless others looked to Foster for inspiration. And, as if this weren't already enough, another highlight of this volume is the erudite introduction by PictureBox publisher – and newly installed co-editor of The Comics Journal – Dan Nadel. Once you've feasted your eyes on this PDF preview (which also includes Nadel's intro), you'll begin (but only begin, mind you, as a computer screen simply is NOT the way to view this work) to understand why.
Popeye, Volume 5: "Wha's a Jeep?"	E.C. Segar	Fantagraphics	Popeye	$25.00 ($29.99 list)
Read more and comment...	The penultimate volume in the series of massive and wonderful oversize hardcover volumes collecting the complete E.C. Segar run of both the daily strips and the Sunday pages (in full color!) of the one and only Popeye, is here! One of the few, true archetypes of comics and cartooning, a member in clear standing of the Comics Pantheon, everyman and superman, man of the sea and salt of the earth, friend of the lost and downtrodden, enemy of the mean and greedy, Popeye is an American icon, and this Fantagraphics edition is likely to be the definitive collection. It's not too late to jump on board as the first four volumes remain in print. Check out what you're missing, with this PDF preview.
Krazy and Ignatz – 1919-1921: "A Kind, Benevolent and Amiable Brick"	George Herriman	Fantagraphics	Krazy & Ignatz	$21.25 ($24.99 list)
Read more and comment...	Three complete years of Sunday pages of the most copacetic comic strip of all time. Only one more volume to go until Fantagraphics has collected the complete run in one uniform edition designed and with covers by Chris Ware (although with this volume and the last, the actual design has been ably executed by Alexa Koenings, employing Ware's template). Treat yourself to an ample PDF preview, here. Comics readers of all stripes will be transported to a parallel universe where the mysterious workings of the heart are revealed through the magic of Herriman's pen as it graces the pages of this volume.
Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman	David Boswell	IDW Publishing		$27.50 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Speaking of classics, here's another sui generis masterwork that belongs in every library. When Reid Fleming first arrived on the scene, lo these thirty years ago (thirty years? how is that possible!?!), it existed at the cusp of the waning underground comix scene and the nascent direct market for alternative comics that was just starting to gain some traction. It was just right there at the crossroads; if any comic book can be said to capture that moment, it's that first issue. With Reid Fleming, David Boswell created a cartoon archetype that served – and continues to serve – as an anger fueled eulogy for the vanished world embodied by the figure of the milkman. This massive hardcover volume collects the initial 1980 stand alone comic book – which was all that there was for the first five years of his existence, and that really says something about the character's staying power – along with what is arguably Boswell's masterpiece, Heartbreak Comics, which, naturally, stars Reid Fleming, and then the entirety of the Reid Fleming mini-series published by Eclipse Comics in the late '80s. 224 pages in all! And there is a second volume in the works which will collect the remainder. So, rejoice!
Buz Sawyer Vol. 1: The War in the Pacific	Roy Crane	Fantagraphics		$31.50 ($35.00 list)
Read more and comment...	It all starts here: Roy Crane's WW II era follow up to Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy. Roy Crane was the one who could do it all and make it seem effortless: lengthy story arcs deftly divided into four-panel bites, dynamic intra-panel layout, expert inter-panel transitions, humorous dialogue, archetypal characterizations, and, most of all, fabulously fluid cartooning (and Craftint!) – all wrapped together in one great package. A book to read, savor and enjoy.
Truer Than True Romance	Jeanne Martinet, John Broome, Scott Pike, Mike Sekowsky and more ...			$17.77 ($19.97 list)
Read more and comment...	This book is a very funny send-up of the classic DC romance comics (from the late '50s through the '60s, along with one or two from the '70s thrown in for good measure). What Ms. Martinet does in this book is take a selection of classic DC comics romance stories and remove the original dialogue and replace it with updated dialogue of her own. The real thrill for many, however, will be just to gape at the classic comics art. This is the exact material that Roy Lichtenstein drew from in his giant ben-day dotted canvases that were basically blow-ups of archetypical panels. There's some great art here, and it is given the deluxe treatment in this high quality 8" x 11" collection. While purists will doubtless object, the added layer of the dialogue being rewritten to reflect contemporary sensibilities without in any way altering the actual visual narrative of the images and their arrangement make the revisiting of these classic comics a multi-faceted pleasure. It's really quite a bit of fun to follow the new narrative unfold within the classic conventions; you really don't know where it's going, or how it's going to end. One of the best examples of dialogue substitution we've ever come across. Makes a great gift to the right person capable of appreciating the humor.
Archie: Archie Firsts	Bob Montana, George Frese, Vic Bloom	Dark Horse		$22.22 ($24.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Finally, Dark Horse has put out a classic comics reprint edition that gets it right with paper stock and reproduction. This attractively put together hardcover collection of Archie "firsts" – appearances and issues – is printed in bold colors on flat, non-reflective off-white stock that is a pleasure to read. Here are the first appearances of Archie, Betty, Jughead and Mr. and Mrs. Andrews from Pep Comics #22, followed by the premiere issues of Archie Comics, Archie's Girls Betty & Veronica, Archie's Pal Jughead, and Archie's Rival Reggie, along with a bonus in the form of Reggie's first appearance in Jackpot Comics #5. However, Dark Horse has apparently acceded to the Archie Comics Co. aversion to giving credit where credit is due, evidenced by the lack of any attempt to provide credit listings beyond those of the cover artists of the four number one issues; and God forbid they should actually make an attempt to provide some biographical information and background on these historically important works. Luckily for us, Montana, Frese and Bloom did not shy away from signing much of their work, and in these halcyon days, The Archie Comics Co. did not prevent them from doing so. This volume is an intro lead-in volume to a projected series of Archie Comics Archives, and we here at Copacetic sincerely hope that Mike Richardson & Co. can manage to lift the veil of ignorance that is casting a pall over everything related to the classic Archie Comics catalogue.
Wild Wood	Wallace Wood	Pure Imagination		$18.88 ($25.00 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	<<•>> edited by Greg Theakston <<•>> 160 pages of lesser known comics, cartoons and illustrations by the one and only Wally Wood.
The Will Eisner Shop	Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Greg Theakston	Pure Imagination		$18.88 ($25.00 list)
Read more and comment...	<<•>> edited by Greg Theakston <<•>> 160 pages, roughly 2/3 of which is filled with rare early art from the Will Eisner shop, with the remaining 1/3 devoted to a transcript of a 1939 trial that editor Theakston has managed to track down. This is the infamous trial in which DC sued Fox over the infringement of their copyright and trademark on Superman, and offers some rare insights into the nascent era of the comic book publishing world.
The Simon and Kirby Superheroes	Jack Kirby	Titan Books		$44.44 ($49.95 list)
Read more and comment...	<<•>> introduction by Neil Gaiman <<•>> Wow! 469 – count 'em! – pages of eye-popping, brain-blasting, Golden Age, Atomic Age and Silver Age Jack Kirby artwork! Here we have the complete Kirby runs (which in most cases is the run in its entirety) on Stuntman, Fighting American, Captain 3-D (speaking of which, here's an online preview of a full-length Captain 3-D story, courtesy of the fine folks at BoingBoing), The Double Life of Private Strong, The Adventures of The Fly, and more, all in full color, printed on flat white stock from scans of the original comics. All in full color, printed on flat white stock from scans of the original comics. AND, as if this weren't already more than enough, there are a pair of previously unpublished covers, a pair of previously unpublished double page splashes and a pair of complete stories, one of which, "Stuntman Crowns a Jungle Lord," is, intriguingly, caught mid-process, in which, at least according to an editor's note, only Kirby's actual pencil lines have been inked, before the heavy chiaroscuro detail inking was laid down. The publishers' in house production team has then, evidently, created an era-appropriate color scheme that seamlessly blends in these unpublished pieces into the rest of the book, the last page of which promises further volumes that promise to focus on the great Kirby Romance, Crime and Horror comics that Simon packaged for Prize Comics during their great Atomic Age partnership. Yes!
Sergio Aragonés: Five Decades of His Finest Works	Sergio Aragones, Patrick McDonnell	Running Press		$27.50 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The latest volume in the Mad's Greatest Artists series, this one will be very hard to pass up for anyone who grew up reading Mad Magazine and found their eyes constantly straying to the margins, where Aragonés uniquely plied his trade. Only Mad would make doodling in the margins a regular feature. The tacit acceptance and then official incorporation of this normally frowned-upon activity exemplifies the spirit of Mad perhaps more than any other aspect of what can now safely be considered an American institution (and the spirit of which is perfectly captured in this volumes cover image). These drawings are celebrated in a giant fold out poster that is included in this volume that displays 500 favorites! And, of course, there is much, much more to Aragonés's work than the marginalia. Here, in the close to 300 oversize pages of this affordably priced hardcover, readers will discover timeless insights into the human condition side-by-side with graphic commentaries on nearly fifty years worth of fads and trends of the day.
The Complete Peanuts Box Set 7: 1975-1978	Charles Schulz	Fantagraphics	The Complete Peanuts	$39.99 ($49.99 list)
Read more and comment...	And, speaking of box sets, how could we complete this month's listing without mentioning the latest annual box set in Fantagraphics' The Complete Peanuts? We couldn't! As with all previous box sets, this one contains the exact same two volumes that were released during the year, along with an especially sturdy, Seth-designed slipcase, all for almost 15% less than the price of the two volumes alone – and that's before taking into account the Copacetic discount!
Six Novels in Woodcuts (boxed set): Gods’ Man • Madman’s Drum • Wild Pilgrimage Prelude to a Million Years • Song Without Words • Vertigo	Lynd Ward, Art Spiegelman	Library of America	Library of America	$63.00 ($70.00 list)
Read more and comment...	We are quite happy to report that the venerable Library of America has done right by the unique works of Lynd Ward. From the Art Spiegelman introduction through the choice of texts, and, most crucially, to the quality of the reproduction and presentation, this two volume collection of the works of this pioneering, Depression-era master of the art of telling stories without words has opened the door of the official American literary canon to the graphic novel form. Please visit the LoA page on this work and be treated to an overview of the work and an exclusive pdf interview with Art Spiegelman about the project, along with a 16-page preview.
Denys Wortman's New York: Portrait of the City in the 1930s and 1940s	Denys Wortman, James Sturm, Brandon Elston	Drawn and Quarterly		$27.50 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	And, while we're on the topic of pencil-rendered realities, it would be a gross injustice not to bring this amazing volume to your attention. Editors James Sturm and Brandon Elston haven't messed around, but have simply cut to the chase and delivered the goods. What we have here is over 250 simply beautiful cartoons depicting life in NYC over two full decades. This book is a real "Wow!" It is indeed a true "portrait of the city": a crystal clear picture window which provides neglected and forgotten views that will reinvigorate our understanding of the times it depicts and the lives of those who lived through them. A perfect book to remind us about real people and an excellent antidote to the dehumanizing electronic entertainments that seem to have us hemmed in on all sides in the present moment. Denys Wortman's New York provides us with an escape hatch. It couldn't have come at a better time.
Dick Briefer's Frankenstein	Dick Briefer, Craig Yoe	IDW Publishing		$20.00 ($21.99 list)
Read more and comment...	Billed as the first volume in The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics!™, and edited by Craig Yoe, this 144 page, full color hardcover is by far the best book yet produced under the Yoe Books imprint, and is the third in our Halloween horror threesome. The ample selection of high quality scans straight from the original comic books takes readers from the 1940 debut of Briefer's Frankenstein in Prize Comics #7 through to the 1954 release of Frankenstein #31, near the end of the run. The book begins with a biographical overview of Briefer's life and career, replete with nice repros of original art, comic covers, ephemera and rarities. Great comics, sharp scans, crisp printing, engaging support material, nice package, reasonable price – it all comes together here. Let's hope Yoe can keep it up.
Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s	John Benson, Greg Sadowski, Jack Cole, Basil Wolverton and more ...	Fantagraphics		$26.95 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	edited by John Benson and Greg Sadowski Just in time for Halloween, here's a trio of classic horror comics that provide a great window on the great thrill that comics once provided... and still can! First up we have Fantagraphics' Four Color Fear: 320 pages of fulsome full color comics, all scanned from the pre-code originals and printed on flat white paper (except for the cover reproductions, which are, appropriately, reproduced on bright white glossy stock to best mimic their original appearance). This is the horrific follow-up volume to last year's wild and woolly Supermen, that presented a revealing display of the earliest superhero comic books that showed the form before its tropes and conventions were still in flux, before they fully gelled (and later hardened). Aficionados take note: this is not one to miss – in fact, we sold out of our initial shipment almost immediately. Not to worry: new copies are on the way! So, while you wait for our restock, take a moment and read the editor's introduction and check out the table of contents; and then... feast your eyes on this tumultuous 26-page preview that contains four complete stories!
Popeye, Volume 3 – "Let's You and HIm FIght!"	E.C. Segar	Fantagraphics	Popeye	$17.77 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The latest giant-size, full-color, die-cut-hardcover collection of the classic Sunday pages (as well as also containing, in glorious black and white, the accompanying daily strips, cleverly laid out six [as in Monday through Saturday] to a page so as to perfectly balance out the weekly rhythm of the Sunday pages) is here. Classic comics written and drawn by E.C. Segar collected in a book designed by Jacob Covey that is published by Fantagraphics so as to be offered for sale by Copacetic, and purchased by... you?

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