The Copacetic Comics Company Craig Thompson

Craig Thompson

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.
Nursery Rhyme Comics	Gahan Wilson, Roz Chast, Tony Millionaire, Lilli Carre and more ...	(:01) First Second		$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	edited by Chris Duffy This 115 page, full-size, full color collection of 50 "timeless rhymes" includes all the favorites and then some. What makes this one different? What makes it stand out from the crowd? What makes it mind-bogglingly amazing? The list of artists who created the 50 works that fill this volumedoes, that's what. It is practically a "who's who" of contemporary cartoonists that stretches around the block. We're only going to give you a baker's dozen here, just to whet your appetite: Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez (each contributing their own comics nursery rhyme), Theo Ellsworth, James Sturm, Jordan Crane, Eleanor Davis, Patrick McDonnell, Kate Beaton, Craig Thompson, Lilli Carré, Tony Millionaire, Roz Chast, Gahan Wilson... we think you get the idea. This is pretty much a guaranteed gift success story if a comics fan is involved in any capacity: whether you're giving or getting, this one has it all. And it is practically a Platonic ideal as a gift designed to sprout a love of comics in a new reader.
Habibi	Craig Thompson	Pantheon		$31.50 ($35.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Craig Thompson's long awaited follow up to Blankets – one of the most widely and loudly lauded graphic novels in history – is now weighing heavily on the shelves here at Copacetic. A sprawling, multi-layered, multi-faceted, multi-pronged work, Habibi is part history lesson, part tutorial, part travelogue, part anthro/socio/psychological study, part sermon, and all love story. Thompson clearly had outsized ambitions for this work, likely necessitated by the high expectations surrounding any follow up to Blankets. It's always an additional challenge for creators to follow up a highly praised work. Should they try to compete with their big hit? should they use this moment of high regard to do their secret project that they had always wanted to do, but could never hope to get green lighted before? or should they just pretend that nothing's changed and just do what comes naturally? In the creation of Habibi, it seems that Thompson took all three approaches and melded them into an organic whole. In other words: Habibi tries to have it all and do it all; at times it seems that its contents may overflow. Learn more in our full page review. In any event, if the length of the lines of those waiting to buy a copy of Habibi and get it signed by Craig Thompson at SPX are any indication of the demand for this book, then it's safe to say that its publisher, Pantheon Books, will probably get over its grumpiness over how much longer it took Craig to finish the book than originally expected (2007) when they paid him his advance way back in 2005. At least part of the reason it took him so much longer to finish the book is that it is another mammoth tome – weighing in at 674 pages it's close to 100 pages longer than Blankets, which was, at the time of its publication, the longest, not-previously-serialized graphic novel ever published.
Conversation #1	Craig Thompson, James Kochalka	Top Shelf		$4.44 ($4.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Speak of the devil! Here they are again: Kochalka and Thompson. This time, however, they present their first ever collaboration; and it's an interesting one. In forty-eight 5" x 5" pages -- each co-written and co-drawn by both Kochalka and Thompson -- Conversation discovers yet another use for comics: that of carrying on the classical form of the dialogue, in the tradition of Socrates and Confucius. While the level of the dialogue in Conversation might not quite reach the hallowed heights of the founders of the form, it nevertheless represents a successful translation of the form's essentials, and provides a glimpse of what comics can bring to the table. Recommended!
Carnet de Voyage: Travel Journal, Volume One	Craig Thompson	Top Shelf		$12.75 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Well, this book is much more that we hoped for when first hearing of it. It's an impressive 224 page softcover trade. The cover has French flaps and is printed on a nice textured stock. It's the contents, however, that are the real surprise. Carnet de Voyage is a comics/sketchbook/journal travelogue of Thompson's 2004 journeys to and through France, Morocco and Spain that will have other artists weeping in jealously over the apparently effortless artistry on display. Looks good!
Rosetta 2: A Comics Anthology	Jason Lutes, R. Sikoryak, Michael Kupperman, Paul Pope and more ...			$14.95 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	For readers of McSweeney's 13 looking to cast a wider net, this great 264-page anthology (with 48 pages in full color) might be the ticket. There are some exceptional new works premiering here, including a beautifully rendered mythological fable by Craig Thompson; a very interesting (think early Spiegelman) Matt Madden that is quite probably his most challenging work to date; a Jason Lutes piece that is his first non-Berlin work in quite awhile (and it's quite good); R. Sikoryak's take on the funny pages (which is very, very funny); two short pieces by Paul Pope; a nifty Jason; and a truly amazing breakthrough piece from Michael Kupperman. In addition to this, there's a great deal of work from Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. All between covers by Peter Kuper and Megan Kelso. Check it out!
Bizarro World	Jaime Hernandez, Peter Bagge, Craig Thompson, Dylan Horrocks and more ...	DC		$26.95 ($29.95 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	DC lets its proprietary guard down for a contained barrage of absurdity; allowing its audience a glimpse at the super-id that lies beneath the super-ego of its stable of heroes. This long awaited sequel to the popular Bizarro Comics is a veritable who's who of the indy comics world. Starting off with a cover by Locas maestro, Jaime Hernandez, the line-up inside includes Rick Altergbott, Peter Bagge, Ariel Bourdeaux, Ivan Brunetti, Eddie Campbell, Dave Cooper (in a ten-page opus featuring Super Girl and Wonder Woman), Leela Corman, Evan Dorkin, Ben Dunn, Sarah Dyer, Phil Elliot, Hunt Emerson, Asaf & Tomer Hanuka, Gilbert Hernandez, Dylan Horrocks, James Kochalka, Michael Kupperman (he's in his element here), Roger Langridge, Tony Millionaire (with a very gothic Batman), Harvey Pekar teams up with Dean Haspiel, Craig Thompson, Pittsburgh's own Don Simpson -- even the French team of Philippe Dupuy & Charles Berberian! And many more. Fab fan fun.
Blankets	Craig Thompson	Top Shelf		$18.88 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The tale Blankets tells is in most respects a classic coming of age story, but the place -- emotional as well as geographical -- that it is coming from may not be familiar territory for many readers: an abnegating Christianity built on self-denial ensconced in the harsh northern environs of Wisconsin and Michigan. Yet there can be no doubt that the core questions and values dealt with in Blankets are certainly universal ones. Craig Thompson has clearly devoted himself to a serious study of Will Eisner's late work -- from A Contract With God to the present -- and this study has really paid off here. The pacing, the placement of blacks, the expressive use of brush technique, and the close attention to the nuances of facial expression all exhibit great strength and serve as expertly formed buttresses to the story which he wants to share with us. And lest there be any doubt on this account: it is a story well worth sharing. It is a story filled with many moving moments, each building upon one another -- almost imperceptibly at first -- before slowly but surely accumulating force, until, when you've finally finished the book and put it down, you realize that its made quite an impression, that is has bored more deeply into your consciousness than you had at first realized, and that now you have to deal with it. Before you can put it to rest, you have to think about it, and you have to draw your own conclusions. If you fail to make a conscious effort to come to terms with it, the spirit that inhabits Blankets will haunt you until you do.

Mon - Thu	11 - 5
Fri & Sat	11 - 7
Sun	12 - 4