Summerland is a unique piece of comics work, one which turns the typical creative hierarchy on its head, with the coloring in the dominant position, followed by the inking, then pencilling, and with the scripting tacked on almost an afterthought. The boldly inked lines are minimal yet effective in delineating the scene, and to brace the colors and let them do their stuff, and what they do here is something new. In the pages ofSummerland, Ms. Dawkins has improvised an innovative approach to color, one in which she "plays" the color scheme using tone clusters and chords, rather than the normative approach of hitting single notes and then...

From the view here at Copacetic, it appears that Monica has received the highest profile debut of any book in Fantagraphics history – talk about buzz! When was the last time that a graphic novel made the cover / lead review of the New York Times Book Review? (those with access can read it here) Then there's the Washington Post (ditto, about access) Then there's the pieces in the LA Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and a pair of reviews in The Guardian (first | second), and that's just for starters.

In typical Clowesian fashion, Monica follows the titular character through one rabbit hole after another, as she searches for the meaning of...

The much anticipated first collection by up-and-coming-new-comics-champ, Kevin Huizenga is at last on our shelves. Its arrival may, however, signal the end of Huizenga's status as an up-and-comer, and initiate his ensconsement in the ranks of established contemporary masters of comics. This volume brings together a wide range of Huizenga's work from a wide variety of sources. It starts off with a little known (well, not to long time Copacetic customers) gem from the Orchid anthology published by Sparkplug Comics, titled, "Green Tea." It is adapted from a classic Victorian horror story of the same name by Sheridan Le Fanu, but is given the...

edited by Ivan Brunetti Published by Yale University Press, this awesome anthology is a worthy successor to McSweeney's 13 as the must have comics collection of the foreseeable future. Editor, Brunetti goes all out to offer us a (OK, well, his) canonical assemblage with the 400 pages of comics here on display, where it is the form itself that is always at the heart of the work represented. The work we find here -- while, of course, being comics -- is also, at some level, telling us something about comics, and this latter value-added feature can be attributed in no small part to Brunetti's editorial approach in assembling this work, which...

OK, this is not just the perfect gift book for the jazz fan on your list, it is also makes for an ideal gift to give to anyone -- of any age -- who has a love of words and pictures. This sumptuous hardcover volume has the potential to turn the squarest square into the heppest cat. Everyone is a jazz fan in the making: this is just the ticket to inspire them to take a closer look. Jazz ABZ is a pæn to jazz in art and poetry that simply has to be seen to be believed. The essence of jazz -- collaboration, composition, and improvisation -- is embodied in this singular tribute to the form. The overall package is designed to resemble the...

(Book Three in the New Edition of the collected Love and Rockets) Yes! The next two volumes in the fantastic new packaging of the One True Classic of Modern American Comics have arrived ahead of schedule. We can hardly believe it, but are pleased to report that these two are, if possible, even more wonderful than the first two. The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. contains the long out of print Death of Speedy in its entirety along with so much more greatness. Should you be looking for a good entry point into the world of Love and Rockets for yourself or another, look no further! Start here.

Currently/temporarily out of print, but we still have a...

The Sky Is Blue with a Single Cloud,the first, and likely definitive, English language collection ofthe work of Kuniko Tsurita, the firstwoman contributor to Garo – debuting in 1965 at the age of eighteen(!) – is a revelation. The eighteen uniquely powerful stories collected in this softcover volume provide readers with340 pages of formally inventive and visually daring manga,alloriginally published between 1966 and 1980, during which period Tsurita was the only regularly contributing woman in the pages of Garo. In addition, there is an invaluable 40 page illustrated essay, "The Life and Art of Kuniko Tsurita," by Ryan Holmberg and...

I Am Young reads likea series oflushly renderedpostcards sent through time from eras past, eachaccompanied by an illustrated "soundtrack" consisting of classic LPs. Running throughout, as the main theme, is an ill-starred love story set to the music, lives and times of The Beatles. Other LPs incorporated into the narratives of love and heartbreak are Eddy Arnold's Anytime, The Beach Boys Pet Sounds, theTom Jones debut, Along Came Jones (ironic or not ironic? / that is the question), along withChuck Berry's greatest hits collection, The Great Twenty-Eight –and it all gets started with a Brunswick 78 rpm 10" of Cab Calloway's "St. James...

(Book Two of the New Edition of the collected Love and Rockets) Most frequenters of this space are hep to the wonder of Love and Rockets. However, there are still those who have yet to see the light. Are you someone who still hasn't managed to get around to reading the greatest comics ever produced? If so, all we've got to say is: if you haven't read the original run of Love and Rockets (in any one of its extant formats) and you are trawling the web looking for exciting new releases and looking through back issue bins at your friendly neighborhood comics shop for classics of the days of yore, then you are simply wasting your time -- the...

Yes! 382 pages of comics selected from the next-to-impossible-to-find first fifty issues of King-Cat Comics (currently published under the title King-Cat Comics and Stories) by the long suffering self-publishing champ, John Porcellino. King-Cat Comics is an ideal illustration of the existentialist project that brings order and meaning to a life lived in an inherently absurb world. Beginning in May of 1989, Porcellino put pen to paper and declared that he would have no rules dictating what he would produce, only that it would be true to his artistic instincts and that it would all be called King-Cat Comics. As the years passed, King-Cat...