The Copacetic Comics Company Anthologies

Anthologies

Title	Director	Publisher	Price
Encyclopdedia Destructica: Volume Bumba, Issue the Fourth	Gordon Nelson	Encyclopedia Destructica	$15.00 ($15.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This, the final installment of "Volume Bumba," is the film and video issue. It comes with its own DVD containing a whopping 38 original film and video works running a mind-bending three and a half hours ensconced in a 118-page illustrated catalogue that is hand bound in a hand-silk-screened hardcover. Produced in a limited edition of only 500 copies, this is an excellent survey of the great variety of talent working in film and video in Pittsburgh, and an amazing value that you won't want to miss. While, yes, some of the works here are amateurish and some are obviously student films, others are totally amazing. We are still reeling from the experience of watching Gordon Nelson's 15-minute and 48-second "Sixties Teen Dance Party," which contains what is quite possibly The Greatest Found Footage of All Time, footage which has, in turn, been artfully optically printed by Mr. Nelson, who has also added an original soundtrack which itself was recorded live (although, you might find yourself unable to resist the temptation to turn down the volume on your TV and put some classic '60s dance music on the hi-fi and crank it up while you watch this amazing film). "Sixties Teen Dance Party" alone is, in our humble opinion, easily worth the price of the entire package. But there's so much more. Other highlights include Suzie Silver's "Peggy Love 101," in which the lyric "love" has been excised from the catalogue of Peggy Lee songs and rhythmically edited along with found footage (yes, we seem to have a predilection for this...) of her performances to create an abstraction of pop love. "Sports and Diversions" by Bum Lee, a series of black and white animations inspired by Eric Satie's Sports et Diveritissements, a series of short piano pieces that are performed (and quite well, too!) here by Pei Wei Lin, is quite a marvel and might very well be the single most original piece you'll see this year. Watching Jessica Fenlon's "Crossroads" provides a meditative three and a half minutes that will lower your blood pressure. And, we can't leave off without mentioning John Allen Gibel's "Pleromadromadhatu (trailer)" which is either a parody of or an homage to -- or both -- the films of Dusan Makavejev and Alejandro Jodorowsky. We could go on and on here as there are still over thirty pieces we haven't even mentioned yet, many of which we'd like to tell you about. Suffice it to say that this is something that you'll kick yourself (hard) if you miss out on it. So don't!
Wholphin #8		McSweeney's	$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Well, a new Wholphin already! Here's what the editors have to say about it: "Wholphin No 8 features Lauren Greenfield’s deeply disturbing, hilarious, and timely documentary, kids + money, the 2009 Sundance Short Award winner, Short Term 12, Carlos D from Interpol’s gorgeously-shot, surrealist dreamscape, My Friends Told Me About You, Sam Taylor-Woods’ film adaptation of a Patrick Marber short story produced by the late Anthony Minghella, a series of bedroom-trashing menu films starring James Franco, Creed Bratton and Maria Bamford, films from Sweden, England and North Korea, and much more." Liner Notes, Actor and director bios and clips for all the films on the disc are avaiable on line, here.
Wholphin No. 3 (DVD)		McSweeney's	$15.95 ($15.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Starting off 2007 with a bang, the much delayed (and much asked after) third issue of this great, theoretically quarterly, DVD "magazine" is the first new item to hit our shelves in the new year. The highlight of this disc for us was the revelation of Funky Forest First Contact, from which there is a 15 minute excerpt here which is one of the most seriously weird things we have EVER seen. Included are "The Russian Suicide Chair," a piece of explosive performance art by the one and only Dennis Hopper, an almost-feature-length film, The Passion of Martin, by Alexander Payne, director of Sideways, which reveals him to be stranger than you might have thought; a Yemeni documentary, A Stranger in Her Own City by Khadija Al-Salami, short films by Bob Odenkirk ( A Bee and a Cigarette - funny in a painful, awkward way), Alice Winocour, and more, including an original Wholphin Short, "Yeah Yeah, We Speak English, Just Serve." Also included is a bonus disc containing the the second part of Adam Curtis's powerful documentary, The Power of Nightmares. This installment, "The Phantom Victory," continues where part one, included with Wholphin No. 2, left off. NOW OUT OF PRINT, but we have a few left...
Wholphin #7		McSweeney's	$17.77 ($19.99 list)
Read more and comment...	It would be hard to improve on their own blurb: "Wholphin No. 7 features a short film by Gus Van Sant based on a William S. Burroughs short story; a face off between American gray squirrels and British red squirrels; a hallucinogenic post-Katrina New Orleans masterpiece; a documentary exploring autism from the animators of Waking Life; an incredibly close look at the sun in its most inactive and gorgeous state; Field Notes from Dimension X, bumper cars, UFOs and more. Issue 7 also includes a special bonus disc containing a highly controversial interactive scientific experiment in retroactive causality, in which the Wholphin audience, just by watching, will help to determine the role of consciousness in the establishment of a physical reality." Yes, it's another great issue of the "DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short Films." Wholphin has yet to let us down. Every issue has been a winner. We heartily encourage anyone who enjoys intelligent, adventurous, independent films and has yet to check it out, to do so as soon as opportunity and finances permit. We have all seven issues in stock for our regular discount.
Wholphin No. 5		McSweeney's	$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The fifth issue of the "DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short FIlms" has arrived. Documentaries, short fiction films and animations from Africa, Spain, Canada, the UK and (primarily) right here in the USA. Spend a day with the Sudanese Liberation Army, see drunk bees, watch Spanish science fiction, experience a herion addicted carnival monkey (don't worry, it's an animation), be outraged at the treatment of American Indians and enjoy the 20 minute adaptation of Michael Chabon's short story, "House Hunting," directed by Amy Lippman and featuring Paul Rudd & Zooey Deschanel; along with much more -- all of which you won't be seeing anywhere else (at least for now). Get the whole story -- and the chance to watch tons of web-only short films -- here.
Wholphin #6		McSweeney's	$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Here's what's on deck this time around: "Lizards, John Cleese, Lee Harvey Oswald, freat white sharks, Toddy Doyle, sasquatch hunters, Daniel Handler, cockroaches, intolerable guy next door, surreal dating with Michael Cera, Chinese third graders dabbling in American style democracy" and more! Lucky, a six-minute Australian film that is the cinematic equivalent of Vaughn Bodé's one-page comics masterpiece, "A Nickel Ride," is, for our money, the most profound short-film ever made. Please Vote for Me, a 32-minute excerpt from a documentary film of the same name that covers an elementary school election in China, should be seen by everyone in this election year, as it provides the most intimate portrait of an election we've ever seen, and, for those viewers who are paying attention, offers many insights into the democratic system, and, especially, the problems facing any transition from an autocratic system to a democratic one. 13 films, 141 minutes. Preview it here.
Wholphin #4		McSweeney's	$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The wait is over, the fourth issue of Wholphin, The DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short Films, is here! Eight short, and not-so-short -- the running times span from 2 to 48 minutes in length -- films that you won't see anywhere else; a re-scripted Russian sitcom; a 13 minute preview of the forthcoming Strange Culture, a feature film documenting the Kafka-esque adventures of a CMU art prof mistaken for a bio-terrorist); and the third and final installment of the BBC documentary, Power of Nightmares, that focuses on the shared behaviors of Islamic Fundamentalists in the Middle East and Neocon Fundamentalists in the USA (the first two installments are contained in Wholphin 2 & 3, which we still have in stock!) Read all about it (and watch some previews and some cool, web-only short films) HERE.
Wholphin #2		McSweeney's	$15.95 ($15.95 list)
Read more and comment...	It's here, the second issue of the new DVD quarterly brought to you by the fine folks at McSweeney's. Many of you obtained the first issue as a bounus with The Believer Magazine end -of-2005 special issue or McSweeney's #18. This issue is chock-a-block with new material from around the world. Here's the official blurb: "The second issue of Wholphin includes Steven Soderbergh's intense sci-fi homage to Godard. The Japanese "Bewitched" re-scripted by Daniel Handler and writers of the Daily Show. A hallucinogenic tale of murder and absolution, featuring Boris Karloff's melting head. Donald Trump channeling Citizen Kane. Two Oscar-nominated shorts. A miraculous, scientific discovery 7000 feet below sea. A gothic horror mystery about an aeronautical navigator, his plague-ridden home and the blood-sucking beast with the antiserum. "American Storage:" a short that is soon to become a feature. An instructional video on "poke-poling a monkey-faced eel." And a special moment with Andy Ritcher. This issue will also include a free bonus disc containing Part One of Adam Curtis's highly acclaimed documentary, The Power of Nightmares, which follows the simultaneous rise of Islamic fundamentalism and American neoconservative thought." NOW OUT OF PRINT - but we have a few left...
The Believer Magazine - March/April 09 (#61): The 2009 Film Issue	Jean Luc Godard	The Believer	$9.00 ($10.00 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	It's been awhile since we went out of our way to mention The Believer in this space. It seems as though we've begun to take it for granted: another month (or two), another Believer. But this time around we were compelled to sit up and take notice. The DVD that accompanies this issue would, in all likelihood, under normal circumstances command a price higher than that being charged for this entire issue. Titled JLG in USA, this 3+ hour disc contains what may possibly be the entirety of extant work documenting French filmmamker, Jean-Luc Godard's stateside forays. It contains 2 not-quite-full-length documentaries – Two American Audiences (Mark Woodcock, 1968, 40 minutes) and Godard in America (Ralph Tranhauser, 1970, 50 minutes); Two 30-minute episodes of The Dick Cavett Show devoted to Godard that were taped on the occasion (circa 1980) of Godard's "come-back" film, Sauve qui peut (la vie); an eight-minute romp with Godard and friends at Del Mar Beach near San Diego – A Weekend at the Beacch with Jean-Luc Godard (Ira Schneider, 1979, 8 minutes, video); and a slideshow by Jeffrey Blankfort of Godard's visit to San Francisco and Oakland during Huey Newton's trial. And that's just the DVD! The issue itself is overflowing with film related contents, most notably interviews with key independent filmmakers Michael Leigh (a Copacetic fave), John Sayles, Julie Delpy and Sam Mendes; an illustrated feature on the wonder of Polish film posters; The Believer Book Award (always worth reading) and plenty more. All for one amazinzgly low price! WELL, THIS IS NOW OUT OF STOCK - BUT WE'RE WORKING ON GETTING IT BACK IN - SO CHECK BACK!
Wholphin #11		McSweeney's	$17.77 ($19.99 list)
Read more and comment...	The DVD magazine of rare and unseen short films is back in a Pittsburgh-way as it features James Blagden's "animation sensation" Dock Ellis & the LSD No-No, about Pittsburgh Pirate, Doc Ellis's legendary 1970 no-hitter, pitched while tripping on acid. Woah... As always, there is a wide ranging selection of films here, including a half-hour Russian documentary, Bitch Academy, and Plastic Bag, an eighteen minute wonder in which Werner Herzog provides the voice of, yes, "a lovelorn plastic bag." Learn what else is on it, here.
Wholphin 1		McSweeney's	$17.77 ($19.99 list)
Read more and comment...	The amazing first issue of the magazine of rare and unseen films. Worth it for "The Delicious" alone!
Wholphin 9	Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Amanda Micheli, Isabel Vega, Spike Jonze	McSweeney's	$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	It seems like some of you have forgotten about the wholesome goodness that is Wholphin, The DVD magazine of rare and unseen short films. Seeing as how we like all things related to the number nine, we've chosen this issue to offer a special "let's-get-reacquainted" price on. It's a packed disc – over three hours worth of material. It's an especially good issue, filled with all sorts of films from around the world. The official hype states: "Wholphin No. 9 features three, hilarious, never-before-seen short films by Spike Jonze; Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s short story, "Sparks," starring Carla Gugino and Eric Stoltz; the Academy Award-nominated documentary, "La Corona," about a high-stakes beauty pageant in a Colombian women’s prison; an incredibly rare and candid glimpse into the life of a Mormon fundamentalist who shares a husband with her younger biological sister; the Jury Prize-winning short from Cannes; Caveh Zahedi; meteorites; motordromes; acting lesson orgasms; films from Belgium, France, Germany, Australia and Japan, and much more." Preview it here. SPECIAL WEB ONLY PRICE FOR A LIMITED TIME!!!

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