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(:01) First Second




Title Creator Publisher Series Price
Nursery Rhyme Comics Gahan Wilson, Roz Chast, Tony Millionaire, Lilli Carre and more ... (:01) First Second $17.77
($19.95 list)
Nursery-rhyme-comics
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.
Feynman Hilary Sycamore, Leland Myrick, Jim Ottaviani (:01) First Second $26.95
($29.95 list)
Feynman
Read more and comment... 		Long the foremost popularizer of science in comics, Jim Ottaviani has here teamed up with the artist illustrator Leland Myrick – who is probably best known for his graphic novel, Missouri Boy, also published by First Second – and colorist Hilary Sycamore to present the story of the life and work of the Nobel-Prize winning physicist, Richard P. Feynman, in this 162 page full color, hardcover graphic biography. Read this review in The Washington Post to learn more and for a brief preview.
Anya's Ghost (hardcover) Vera Brosgol (:01) First Second $17.77
($19.99 list)
Anyabig
Read more and comment... 		Here's the HARDCOVER edition of the great new graphic novel in the vein of Hope Larson that will be especially appreciated by girls in the first half of their teen years (11 - 15).  Brosgol is a native of Russia who moved to the US as a child and has spent most of her life here; and from the quality of the work on display in Anya's Ghost, we'd say that she has devoted quite a bit of her life to drawing.  She holds a degree in Classical Animation (who knew there even was such a degree?) and is a professional storyboarder.  While she has previously contributed to the annual Flight anthology, this is her first book length work, and it's well work checking out.  Weighing in at 221 pages printed in black and white and shades of mauve(?), this book will make for some fun summer reading for the young adult set formerly known as teens.
Anya's Ghost Vera Brosgol (:01) First Second $14.75
($15.99 list)
Anyasghost
Read more and comment... 		Here's a great new graphic novel in the vein of Hope Larson that will be especially appreciated by girls in the first half of their teen years (11 - 15).  Brosgol is a native of Russia who moved to the US as a child and has spent most of her life here; and from the quality of the work on display in Anya's Ghost, we'd say that she has devoted quite a bit of her life to drawing.  She holds a degree in Classical Animation (who knew there even was such a degree?) and is a professional storyboarder.  While she has previously contributed to the annual Flight anthology, this is her first book length work, and it's well work checking out.  Weighing in at 221 pages printed in black and white and shades of mauve(?), this book will make for some fun summer reading for the young adult set formerly known as teens.
Lewis & Clark Nick Bertozzi (:01) First Second $15.25
($16.99 list)
Lewisclark
Read more and comment... 		While his name is not one bandied about much in comics crit circles, Mr. Bertozzi has been quietly amassing a solid body of work. The Salon was a favorite here at Copacetic and his work on the  young adult biography of Harry Houdini amply demonstrated those strengths at accurately rendering period details which are called upon in to an even greater degree here in Lewis & Clark.  A tale both of man against man (and woman) and man against nature that is filled with scenes of European eyes' discovery of uncharted wilderness, confrontations with wild animals, intercultural challenges and much more, Lewis & Clark is both a history lesson and a graphic adventure.  Publisher First Second (:01) has wisely granted a larger canvas for this work and we are treated to 136 full size 8 1/2" x 11" pages filled with fabulous Bertozzi brushwork.
Koko Be Good Jen Wang (:01) First Second $17.77
($19.95 list)
Kokobegood
Read more and comment... 		This 300 page graphic novel is a "stunning debut" by a highly regarded contributor to the popular Flight anthology.  Learn more here.
Dawn Land Joseph Bruchac, Will Davis (:01) First Second $17.77
($19.95 list)
Dawnland
Read more and comment... 		A 300 page graphic novel of American Indian life.  Read an excerpt, here.
The Unsinkable Walker Bean Aaron Renier, Alec Longstreth (:01) First Second $12.75
($13.95 list)
Walkerbean
Read more and comment... 		What better book to lead off "Back-to-School" month than the first new book by Aaron Renier, the creator of the popular Spiral Bound – a graphic novel that has the feel of having germinated in classroom doodles that subsequently took on lives of their own.  Fans who have been wondering what he's been doing with himself since its release now at last have their answer in The Unsinkable Walker Bean, an energetic and entertaining, 190-page, full color graphic novel that is quite the value.  One can infer from the raves plastered on the back covers, by the likes of Brian "Hugo Cabret" Selznick ("Gorgeous... Your'e going to love it."), Lane "Stinky Cheese Man" Smith ("Makes me feel ten years old again... The guy's a bit of a mad genius") and Jeff "Bone" Smith ("So beautiful are the drawings, that I can smell the sea salt and feel the spray... Outrageous, and wonderful!"), it appears that this book is aimed at young readers, but, clearly, as with Bone, it is a work that can be enjoyed by comics readers of all ages:  it really looks good (and, we can't help but add, it looks as though Renier has gained more than a passing familiarity with the comics of Dan Zettwoch; to which we say, "Hurrah!" Zettwoch being a long time Copacetic fave).   Walker Bean contains page after page of fantastic art in the service of story telling and is sure to encourage a burgeoning of comics appreciation in many a reader.  (Colored by Alec Longstreth)
City of Spies Susan Kim, Laurence Klavan, Pascal Dizin (:01) First Second $15.29
($16.99 list)
Cityofspies
Read more and comment... 		Fans of TinTin may want to take a look at this new release from First Second.  Set in New York City in the summer of 1942, while the city is set on edge by the Second World War, this tale focuses on the adventures of budding adolescents Evelyn and Tony as their shared fantasies of espionage takes a twist and become real in this all-ages friendly yet nevertheless complex tale of growing up.
Cat Burglar Black Richard Sala (:01) First Second $15.25
($16.95 list)
Catburglar
Read more and comment... 		An all new 128 page full color graphic novel full of trademark Sala tropes.  K. is a cute teenage orphan raised by a crazed matron to be a master thief and pickpocket.  She has now been invited to attend Bellsong Academy, a (need we say it?) mysterious boarding school where something is not as it seems...  The works of Richard Sala provide formal pleasures akin to those of  amusement park haunted house rides; their pages filled with twists that present thrills at every turn.  From (:01) First Second Books.
Stuffed Nick Bertozzi, Glenn Eichler (:01) First Second $15.99
($17.99 list)
Stuffed_cover
Read more and comment... 		Stuffed is an excellent work.  Written by award-winning, Colbert Report scriptor, Glenn Eichler, and illustrated by the under-appreciated Nick Bertozzi (read The Salon, if you haven't already).  The cast of characters, the settings, the interactions – all ring true:  these are people we know, doing things in a way that we understand, and that make sense.  At its core lie the roles, rites and responsibilities of parenting, as well as the responses to it.  Stuffed makes for a solid, enriching, rewarding – and entertaining – read. Recommended!
The Color of Water Kim Dong Hwa (:01) First Second $15.25
($16.95 list)
Colorofwater
Read more and comment... 		The second volume in the Korean comics (manhwa) trilogy that we highly praised a couple months back has arrived and it continues to live up to the promise of the first, The Color of Earth.  This too is a 300+ page work of finely drawn comics that provide an intimate and insightful portrait of a young woman's coming of age.  Be sure to give this series a look if you haven't already.
The Eternal Smile Gene Luen Yang, Derek Kirk Kim (:01) First Second $15.25
($16.95 list)
Eternalsmile
Read more and comment... 		More than a long-awaited follow-up, this hefty, full-color volume teams two of the brightest lights of the Asian-American comics scene to bring readers of comics a triptych of tales celebrating universal themes that incorporate motifs from fairy tales, myths and legends and integrate them into the fabric of contemporary California life.  Fans of formal invention will find plenty to celebrate as well.  Yang, author of the multiple award-winning American Born Chinese, and Kim, author of the amazing Same Difference, employ between them a host of styles and techniques to properly situate the content of their narratives in the readers minds
The Color of Earth Kim Dong Hwa (:01) First Second $15.25
($16.95 list)
Colorofearth
Read more and comment... 		The first volume of a trilogy, the remainder of which is scheduled for release over the coming year, The Color of Earth represents the first major Korean work of graphic fiction – known as manhwa – to be published in the United States.  The work is of uniformly high quality and is filled with many poetic interludes where the drawings and their pacing transport the reader to meditative states.  Students of manga will have much to ponder in as they study Hwa's work to discern those aspects of it that might be isolated as being specifically Korean and so distinguish manhwa from manga.  The tale is set in a timeless village in rural Korea and chronicles the relationship of a widowed mother and her daughter as the daughter matures from girl to woman.  Read Kate Culkin's (yes, again) review on Publisher's Weekly to learn more, then, if you're still not convinced, make sure you take a look at it and see for yourself what all the fuss is about.
The Photographer Frédéric Lemercier, Didier Lefevre, Emmanuel Guibert (:01) First Second $26.95
($29.95 list)
Photographer
Read more and comment... 		  • by Emmanuel Guibert (he wrote and drew it), Didier Lefevre (he lived it and photographed it) & Frédéric Lemercier (he laid out and colored it) – translated from the French by Alexis Siegel •  A unique – at least in our experience – work, The Photographer interweaving the actual photographs taken by intrepid photojournalist Lefevre during his numerous journeys in Afghanistan accompanying Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders to us Yanks) during  1986, when the country was at war with the USSR and, as the cold war had yet to be resolved, was therefore, at that time, a strategic ally of the USA; meaning that the CIA was working hand-in-glove with the likes of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.  While Che shows comics excelling at digesting large amounts of historical information into a concise cohesive narrative, this work excels in another way:  that of putting the reader right there in this far away alien place, and then guiding them while simultaneously interpreting the experience.  In this way the reader, too, can be there, after a fashion, and connect to these lives of "others" that are so different from our own, and yet, if only by virtue of our shared humanity, still remain, at their most basic level, the same. Learn more by reading Kate Culkin's review at Publisher's Weekly.
Adventures in Cartooning: How to Turn Your Doodles Into Comics James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, Alexis Frederick-Frost (:01) First Second $11.75
($12.95 list)
Advcartooning
Read more and comment... 		This volume was produced under the aegis of The Center for Cartoon Studies.   It is by the Center's director, James Sturm, and two of his students.  It very simply provides the basic building blocks of comics while embodying core CCS principles of story-telling. It is primarily geared to encourage and empower youngsters to create comics of their own and is priced to encourage parents and relatives to buy it for them (or even for them to buy it themselves).  There's a swell 17 page excerpt on the web, here.  Check it out!
Sardine in Outer Space #6 Emmanuel Guibert (:01) First Second Sardine in Outer Space $13.50
($14.95 list)
9781596434240
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Sardine in Outer Space #5 Emmanuel Guibert (:01) First Second Sardine in Outer Space $13.50
($14.95 list)
9781596433809
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Sardine in Outer Space #4 Joann Sfar, Emmanuel Guibert (:01) First Second Sardine in Outer Space $12.75
($13.95 list)
Sardine4
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Sardine in Outer Space Emmanuel Guibert, Joann Sfar (:01) First Second Sardine in Outer Space $13.50
($14.00 list)
Sardine1
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