The Copacetic Comics Company Anders Nilsen

Anders Nilsen

Title	Creator	Publisher	Series	Price
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.
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.
Big Questions	Anders Nilsen	Drawn and Quarterly	Big Questions	$37.77 ($44.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The tiny seed that was planted in the back of Mr. Nilsen's mind during the course of an artist workshop exercise that took place at the D.H. Lawrence Ranch in Taos, NM in 1996 has now at last reached its maturity in this sequoia-like 592 page tome that collects the entire continuity originally published in the (mostly) long out of print series. The first six issues were self published before Drawn & Quarterly – the publisher of this collection – picked it up and added the series to their then burgeoning but now defunct series of regularly published pamphlet comics. Big Questions defies easy categorization, and many have written much about the original issues (including, in brief, us). We'll try to have something intelligent to say shortly on the event of its book publication, but for now will cede the floor to Anders himself in this interview posted on CBR on 12 August where he talks about his comics career and answers questions Big and small. The uninitiated are encouraged to read this brief, yet poignant PDF preview.
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!
Bound & Gagged	Andrice Arp, Marc Bell, Chris Cilla, Michael DeForge and more ...	Self-published		$10.00 ($10.00 list)
Read more and comment...	<<•>> curated by Tom Neely <<•>> This compendium of 71 single-panel gag cartoons from the world of independent comics is a genuine goldmine of unique comics work. Who's in this comical compendium? Well, hold on to your hats for this partial list: Andrice Arp, Marc Bell, Chris Cilla, Michael DeForge, Kim Deitch, Theo Ellsworth, Robert Goodin, Juliacks, Kaz, Anders Nilsen, Jason Overby, John Porcellino (whose lead-off contribution had us wondering if perhaps he hadn't missed his calling as a New Yorker cartoonist), Jesse Reklaw, Zak Sally, Josh Simmons, Matthew Thurber, Noah Van Sciver, Dylan Williams, Chris Wright and more!!! In full color and black & white. Anyone who misses out on this will be kicking themselves for years to come. Don't let yourself be one of them!
Big Questions #15	Anders Nilsen	Drawn and Quarterly	Big Questions	$7.25 ($7.95 list)
Read more and comment...	We sometimes questioned whether this day would ever arrive; but it has. The final, concluding issue of Big Questions, Anders Nilsen's long running series, upon which the bulk of his reputation rests, is now on sale here at The Copacetic Comics Company. Are there answers? Is there closure? We'll let you decide...
Big Questions #14	Anders Nilsen	Drawn and Quarterly	Big Questions	$7.00 ($7.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Anders pulls out his pens and gets down and does some serious drawing in this 48 page issue which is, evidently, the penultimate issue of this epic tale.
Big Questions: A House That Floats #13	Anders Nilsen	Drawn and Quarterly	Big Questions	$8.88 ($9.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Already another issue! This is the shortest interval between issues since D & Q began publishing it with the seventh issue; and not only that, but this time out we have a double-length 48-page issue! It appears that Mr. Nilson has been eating his Wheaties™. This issue comes equipped with French flaps which provide the added bonus of cameo-style portraits and mini-bios of the entire cast of characters.
The Best American Comics 2009	Dash Shaw, Koren Shadmi, David Sandlin, Ron Regé and more ...	Houghton Mifflin	Best American	$20.00 ($22.95 list)
Read more and comment...	edited by Charles Burns Well, Crumb is a tough act to follow, but we'll give it a shot with this star-studded anthology filled with the best and the brightest from the last twelve months of comics, as judged by Charles Burns. In a book like this, we feel that the contributor list says it best: Doug Allen, Peter Bagge, Gabrielle Bell, Matt Broersma, Daniel Clowes, Al Columbia, Robert Dennis Crumb, Sammy Harkham, Tim Hensley, Gilbert Hernandez, Kevin Huizenga, Ben Katchor, Kaz, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Michael Kupperman, Jason Lutes, Tony Millionaire, Jerry Moriarty, Anders Nilsen, Gary Panter, Laura Park, Mimi Pond, Ron Regé, David Sandlin, Koren Shadmi, Dash Shaw, Art Spiegelman, Ted Stearn, Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, Adrian Tomine, Chris Ware, Dan Zettwoch. 'Nuff said. Well, actually, we can't help but add that while the material contained in this anthology is absolutely fabulous, the quality of its reproduction is, mysteriously, not up to the same standard as the three previous volumes in this series, which were excellent in that department. This shouldn't stop anyone from picking up this fine volume, but it is worrisome. Let's hope that this was a one time aberration and that next year we'll find the fine folks at Houghton Mifflin have figured out what went wrong and put things in the production department back on track.
Big Questions #12	Anders Nilsen	Drawn and Quarterly	Big Questions	$5.95 ($5.95 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	Yes, it's here. Apologies for not noting it earlier... This issue features straight-up bird-on-bird action in a single, issue-length story. Anders takes us on yet another metaphorical foray into our life and times, as his fine flock of feathered friends gets jumped by a gang of crows set on mayhem and murder.
Blood Orange #3	Ben Jones, Anders Nilsen, Jeffrey Brown	Fantagraphics	Blood Orange	$5.95 ($5.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The highlight of this, the latest installment of Fantagraphics' quarterly anthology title featuring far out and fabulous comics by some of the best of the current crop of adventurous cartoonists, is an eleven page romp by Jeffrey Brown that is pretty much guaranteed to be a hit with anyone who enjoys his work. Also worthy of note is "The Mediocrity Principle," a six page story by Anders Nilsen that is of a piece with his contribution to Kramers Ergot 5 (see below). Other contributors to this issue are: Pakito Bolino, Ben Jones, Favio Zimbres , Alex Baladi, Caroline, Surym Renee Frenchm Olaf Ladousse, Nicolas Mahler , Scott Teplin and Ulf K. BACK IN STOCK!
Monologues For Calculating the Density of Black Holes	Anders Nilsen	Fantagraphics		$17.77 ($22.99 list)
Read more and comment...	400 pages of stream of consciousness cartoon monologues (that have a tendency to lapse into obliquely Socratic dialogues every now and then). This work, while challenging its readers to think while they read, is not without a sense of humor -- bleak though it may be. It's definitely a tough sell, unless, of course, you're already sold. Adherents to reader receptivity theory, in which the reader is, at least, an equal partner with the writer in forging a work's meaning, significance and value, will celebrate this release as these monologues are really more appropriately considered dialogues with the reader. So, put on your inter-comics receivo-trans and start cracking that code.
Big Questions: Dinner and a Nap #7	Anders Nilsen	Drawn and Quarterly		$4.44 ($4.95 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	After self-publishing this title for six issues, Nilsen's flagship title is now being published under the auspices of Drawn & Quarterly, following their success with his Dogs and Water. An obviously keen observer of nature, Nilsen has, over the course of the seven issues of this title, combined his native rendering skills with his eager and probing intellect to forge an (admittedly abstruse) allegory of a contemporary emotional landscape. Fear, desire, greed, anxiety, loss and despair find expression in odd and ungainly visual collision of various and sundry pairings of flora and fauna (primarily birds), inanely repetitive movements of ambulatory creatures, blank stares, and random events, with a Socratic dialogue of rudimentarily grasped abstract concepts and their dimly seen symbolic representations. Each issue of Big Questions offers the rare combination of æsthetic enjoyment and intellectual challenge, and this issue is certainly no exception.
MOME #2	John Pham, Paul Hornschemeier, Jeffrey Brown, David Heatley and more ...	Fantagraphics	MOME	$13.50 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	It's finally here, after a regrettable delay: the second issue of the most engaging regularly published comics anthology currently on the market. This issue continues to meet the high standards set by the first issue and includes the entire roster of contributors. Highlight: Jeffrey Brown redeems his shallow submission to the first issue by turning in one of his best pieces to date. Recommended! To learn more about MOME, please visit our MOME 1 page.
Big Questions #8	Anders Nilsen	Drawn and Quarterly	Big Questions	$5.00 ($5.95 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	The latest issue in Nilsen's ongoing epistemological entreaty employing avian intermediaries is currently expounding from our shelves. This issue comes to us in a deluxe 40-page, French-flapped edition, in which the flaps themselves are cleverly employed to provide us with a full-color line-up of the cast of characters that will be edifying to all but will be especially useful to newer readers in helping them to navigate their way through the symbol strewn landscape of this series.
MOME #3	Eric Reynolds, Gary Groth, David B., Andrice Arp and more ...	Fantagraphics	MOME	$12.75 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Well, the undisputed highlight of this issue is an all-new 36-page piece by David B. (Epileptic) titled "The Armed Garden". Yes! Along side of this is a line-up up the ususal MOME suspects: Andrice Arp, Gabrielle Bell, Jonathan Bennett, Jeffrey Brown, Martin Cendreda, David Heatley, Anders Nilsen, and Kurt Wolfgang, who is the interviewee this time around. (Concerned MOME devotees may be assured that both John Pham and Paul Hornschemeier will return in the next issue) R. Kikuo Johnson (Night Fisher) takes a bow in this issue with a series of three-panel strips featuring "Cher Shimura." MOME is fast becoming the official "little literary magazine" of the comics world. If you've read an issue already, you know what we're talking about; if you haven't, this is a good time to find out for yourself. To learn more, visit our MOME page.
Best American Comics 2006	Jesse Reklaw, Joe Sacco, Anders Nilsen, Jaime Hernandez and more ...	Houghton Mifflin	Best American	$8.88 ($22.00 list)
Read more and comment...	edted by Harvey Pekar and Anne Elizabeth Moore This volume marks the first time that comics joins the well established "Best American Series." It is a surprisingly well produced book -- surprising in that it's from Houghton Mifflin, a major NY publisher, whose eyes are usually more closely set on the bottom line -- that contains a good cross-section of work published in North America in 2004 and 2005 and functions as a fine follow-up -- as a yearbook does to an encyclopedia (for those of you old enough to know what we're talking about) -- to both McSweeney's #13 -- which is clearly its inspiration -- and the just-released Brunetti-edited Yale anthology. This collection spans the generations, including new work from old-timers Kim Deitch, Gilbert Shelton and Robert Crumb, middle-agers Jaime Hernandez, Lynda Barry and Joe Sacco, and youngins' Anders Nilsen, Rebecca Dart and Jesse Reklaw, whose story, "13 Cats of My Childhood," we singled out for praise in our 2005 SPX report, when it appeared in it's original form as Couch Tag #2, stating at the time, "It is one of the best comics at this year's SPX... and deserving of a much wider audience than it will be able to find in this form." So, suffice it to say that we're quite happy to see it included here in this anthology. By far the longest piece included in this 320 page anthology, practically a graphic novella, "La Rubia Loca," by Justin Hall -- another SPX attending self-publisher -- is an engrossing story about a bunch of hippie slackers stuck on a bus tour through Mexico with a crazy woman. And keep in mind that these are just the highlights, there's plenty more. 2006 • full color • hardcover • 320 pages
Big Questions: Sweetness and Light #11	Anders Nilsen	Drawn and Quarterly	Big Questions	$6.25 ($6.95 list)
Read more and comment...	This time around Mr. Nilsen appears to goes heavy on the irony, as the contents of this issue seem to more closely resemble the characteristics of bitterness and darkness than those of sweetness and light; but appearances can be deceiving; perhaps that's the point here; perhaps it's all in the eye of the beholder; perhaps it's all open to interpretation. 48 pages, seven chapters; a pilot, a sleeping idiot, a bunch of birds and a pack of dogs; heavily labored, detailed pen and ink drawings, rhythmic repetitions punctuated by startling and dramatic images. What's it all add up to? That is for Anders to know and you and I to figure out. Enigmatic, mysterious, obscurely hinting at something just beyond comprehension: yes, it's the latest -- and, at least so we've heard, the penultimate -- issue of Big Questions (although now we've heard otherwise...).
Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories: Volume Two	David Mazzuchelli, Leif Goldberg, Brian Chippendale, Elinore Norflus and more ...	Yale University Press		$20.00 ($28.00 list)
Read more and comment...	edited by Ivan Brunetti It's too early to say for certain, but this follow-up to Brunetti's already classic 2006 anthology, also published by Yale University Press, might just be even better than its precursor. One thing's for certain: Brunetti has held onto -- and further refined -- his editorial vision of arranging the work contained in this volume in an organic sequence, deftly managing to map out the similarities between artists so that each piece flows smoothly into into the other, creating an amazing sense of an innate connectivity between all areas of comics here on display. This book is a powerful ally in the struggle to bring the light of comics to those poor souls still dwelling in the darkness. It's the perfect choice to turn on a friend or relative to the joy, beauty and pleasures of our favorite medium. Hold onto your hats, here's the contributor list: Daniel Clowes, Saul Steinberg, Sammy Harkham, Chris Ware, R. Sikoryak, Michael Kupperman, Drew Friedman, Mark Beyer, Mack White, Jayr Pulga, Renee French, Kim Deitch, Richard Sala, J. Bradley Johnson, Archer Prewit, Anonymous (utility sketchbook), HJ Tuthill, Milt Gross, Bill Holman, Harvey Kurtzman, R.Crumb, Basil Wolverton, Art Spiegelman, Jess, John Hankiewicz, Tim Hensley, Bill Griffith, Richard McGuire, Gilbert Hernandez, Jim Woodring, David Collier, Eugene Teal, Charles Burns, Karl Wirsum, Gary Panter, Paper Rad, Fletcher Hanks, CF, Charles Forbell, Ron Rege, Jr., Winsor McCay, Matthew Thurber, Souther Salazar, Kevin Scalzo, Megan Kelso, James McShane, Laura Park, Vanessa Davis, Onsmith, Joe Matt, Jeffrey Brown, Martin Cendreda, Dave Kiersh, John Porcellino, Carrie Golus/Patrick Welch, Jessica Abel, Cole Johnson, Lynda Barry, Debbie Drechsler, Diane Noomin, Aline Kominsky-Crum, Ariel Bordeaux, Chester Brown, Anders Nilsen, Joe Sacco, Phoebe Gloeckner, Elinore Norflus, Brian Chippendale, Leif Goldberg, David Mazzuchelli, Jerry Moriarty, Ben Katchor, Frank Santoro, Dan Zettwoch, Kevin Huizenga, Harvey Pekar/R.Crumb, Carol Tyler, Maurice Vellekoop, Seth, Adrian Tomine, Jaime Hernandez & David Heatley. It's simply amazing. Comics Power! PLEASE NOTE: We feel compelled to mention that this volume includes several pieces that contain quite explicit sexual content; and while this content represents only a miniscule fraction of the total, it nevertheless renders this volume fit for ADULTS ONLY.
Big Questions #6: Anoesia and the Matrideicidic Theophany #6	Anders Nilsen	Self-published	Big Questions	$5.00 ($5.95 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	C'mon, you gotta give it up for a comic with a title like this one's! If this title didn't stop and make you think, well then... you're not thinking. Go back and read it again, go get a dictionary (there's probably one on your computer, but it might not be deep enough to do the job) and suss it out. It might take you longer than you guess (hint: matrideicidic is a combination of matricide and deicide that may not technically be a legitimate word; but that shouldn't stop you from being able to figure out what it means). Well, while you're doing that, we'll continue... It's been over a year since Big Questions #5, so it's good to know that the Ingmar Bergman of self-published comics is still at it. Believe it or not, this issue continues the story from #4 & #5 (both now back in stock here at Copacetic, in case you missed them the first time around), so you'll probably want to dig them out and have them handy for maximum effect. 48 pages; saddle stitched; B & W with cardstock color cover
MOME #4	Gary Groth, Paul Hornschemeier, Sophie Crumb, R. Kikuo Johnson and more ...	Fantagraphics	MOME	$12.75 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Another great issue of the comics anthology you can't afford to miss is now on our shelves. The highlight of this issue is another wonderful mythical/historical comics novella by David B., "The Veiled Prophet." Also on offer are a great new story by Martin Cendreda, "La Brea Woman" that shows him moving in a new direction. And the gang's all here: John Pham returns to 221 Sycamore Avenue to provide the cover along with the dream landscape of a high school teacher and his family; Sophie Crumb returns with more tales of street urchins on drugs, Jonathan Bennet and Gabrielle Bell take deft turns at depicting urban melancholy; Jeffrey Brown steps out of his comfort zone and turns in an atypical (and metaphorical) tale of existential angst; and David Heatley, Paul Hornschemeier, Anders Nilsen, Kurt Wolfgang and R. Kikuo Johnson each do their thing and do it well, rounding out another issue where everything is good!
Monologues for the Coming Plague	Anders Nilsen	Fantagraphics		$18.95 ($18.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Are you looking for brain-twisting, anti-aesthetic, avant garde comics? Do you want a big fat book full of this, all by the same deliberately obscure creator, consisting of one long sustained narrative that delves deeply in to the despair that lurks just below the surface of the quotidian? Do formal techniques that search and strive for new signs and symbols with which to represent the heretofore unrepresentable intrigue you? Do you wish for material that will challenge your intellect? Do you long to be asked to be a partner in the creation of meaning? Do you want to visit an artistic terrain where you laugh to cry and cry to laugh and the difference between joy and sorrow disappears? Well, we have it and this is it. NOW OUT OF PRINT. As of this writing we have only one copy in stock that has been on the shelf awhile and has obviously been read through.
MOME: Fall 2006 #5	Jeffrey Brown, Andrice Arp, Anders Nilsen, Zak Sally and more ...	Fantagraphics	MOME	$12.75 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	This issue welcomes new talents Tim Hensley -- whose ongoing character, Wally Gropius, Teen Millionaire graces the front cover -- Robert Goodin, whose amazing ink brush technique powers a quirky, kinky vision that pops up when you least expect, and artist/publisher, Zak Sally (The Recidivist). Also beginning this issue is "Lucid Night-mare, part 1," an ongoing saga by Sophie Crumb. THey are joined by MOME regulars, Martin Cendreda, Anders Nilsen, Jeffrey Brown (who turns in a intriguing and atypical work this time around), Paul Hornschemeier, Andrice Arp -- who is also this issue's interviewee -- Kurt Wolfgang and Gabrielle Bell.
Big Questions #9	Anders Nilsen	Drawn and Quarterly	Big Questions	$6.00 ($6.95 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...
The End	Anders Nilsen	Fantagraphics	Ignatz	$7.50 ($7.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The End finds Anders employing his comics-as-art skills to work through his personal pain, creating a diary of loss in the process. This is, for our money, the best stand-alone work by Nilsen currently available. Recommended.
MOME #6 (Winter 2007)	Anders Nilsen, Paul Hornschemeier, Lewis Trondheim, Tim Hensley and more ...	Fantagraphics	MOME	$12.75 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	edited by Eric Reynolds and Gary Groth Yes, we have all the ususal suspects again this time around -- J. Bennett, J. Brown, Sophie Crumb, M. Cenreda, Anders Nilsen, Paul Hornschemeier, David Heatley, Tim Hensley, and some pretty amazing apocryphal neo-romance covers by R. Kikuo Johnson -- but there are a couple new entries from Europe that are quite worth noting: Lewis Trondheim makes his MOME debut with the first part of his new comics diary, Loose Ends; and Vosges Studio co-founder, Émile Bravo provides this issue's standout story, The Brothers Ben Qutuz in "Frustration Land." This ten page pantomime (no text or dialogue) story -- enabling it to be read and understood without it having to be translated -- is a startlingly succinct exegesis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as experienced at street level on the Palestinian side, that will invade your consciousness and refuse to leave; a perfect example of the value of comics as a form of commmunication.
Big Questions #10: The Hand That Feeds	Anders Nilsen	Drawn and Quarterly	Big Questions	$5.85 ($6.50 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	The world's most philosophically inquisitive birds continue in their confrontation with the mysteries of the (at least to them) unknown while you, the reader, are left to find the proper perspective from which to view the diverse diffractions of Anders's angled arguments. Highlights in this issue include: crows, the pilot of the plane and doughnuts. See you there.
MOME #7: Spring 2007	Al Columbia, Andrice Arp, Kurt Wolfgang, Eleanor Davis and more ...	Fantagraphics	MOME	$12.75 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	This issue finds MOME at a crossroads of sorts as this is the the last time -- at least for now -- that it will feature work by the core of MOME regulars Anders Nilsen -- who also provides this issue's interview -- Jeffrey Brown, Gabrielle Bell and Martin Cendreda all of whom except Brown (who is, evidently, already gone) turn in their farewell pieces this issue. New team-MOME members premiering here are self-publishing stalwarts Eleanor Davis and Tom Kaczynzki who both turn in the first of what promises to be a string of fine pieces, and we can only presume that they will be joined next issue with more voices from the alterna-ground. Also on hand this issue is cover artist, Lewis Trondheim's hybrid/sketchbook/collage comics work, "At Loose Ends, Part 2," continued from last time. Sophie Crumb -- about whom we admit to having been a bit skeptical, at first -- has proven herself a keen observer of humanity in her short pieces for MOME, and her contributions this time around are some of her finest to date. David Heatley and Kurt Wolfgang soldier on with their respective continuing sagas; Andrice Arp and Paul Hornschemeier both shift gears -- Arp with a dream piece and Paul H. with a couple of oddball toyings with words and pictures; finally, "weird" Al Columbia turns in a batch of "Chopped-Up People." You have been warned.

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