FROM THE ARCHIVES

A run of nine consecutive volumes of Ranma 1/2 by one and only Rumiko Takahashi. Ranma 1/2 is a true classic manga series, whose influence on subsequent shoojo manga is hard to overstate. It also offers a wealth of humorous observations on gender norms and gender construction, to boot!

We came across this run in the archives; all new and unread. If there's anyone who picked up the first volume and is ready to read more, this is a perfect opportunity to do so!

Now at last available in the USA, here is a look at where it all started – manga that is! This pint-sized box set is truly power-packed! While it’s pages measure a mere 4 1/4" x 5 3/4”, its three volumes contain well over 1000 pages total, over 900 of which are fully devoted to reproducing the most extensive selection of Hokusai’s ten-volume handbook of drawings – which he dubbed manga – that he originally published between 1814 and 1820 (although an additional five volumes were published long after his death, bringing the total to 15 – we think; read the notes accompanying these volumes for the full details) currently available in a...

This book presents the strongest of David Collier's work and is one of our perennial best-sellers here at Copacetic. It is filled with extremely engaging stories of the lives of minor, obscure and offbeat Canadian figures. Some of these are full fledged biographies, such as the fascinating account of Humphrey Osmond, the Canadian scientist who was an early researcher into psychotropic drugs and reputedly coined the term "psychedelic." Then there's the life story of Ethel Catherwood, the Olympic high jumper known as the Saskatchewan Lily, who ended up obscure and reclusive. A more tightly focused tale is that of "Grey Owl," an enigmatic...

In 2017, after having lived in Amsterdam for coming up on a decade, the ex-pat native of Cleveland, OH, Chad Bilyeu wasn’t sure what to do next. After a meaningful encounter with Harvey Pekar’s original, self-published run of American Splendor, he decided: comics. And so he embarked on the journey that became the comic book series, Chad in Amsterdam, which has to date yielded six issues, all entirely written, edited, art-directed and self-published by Chad. These six issues have now all been collected in a spiffy hardcover volume from Scratch Books, along with a forward –well actually, a voorward – by EI-P of alt-hip-hop fame, and an all...

What more can be said about the genius of Carl Barks? It towers over the landscape of comics history like the statue of Duckburg's founder, Cornelius Coot (erected by Uncle Scrooge in "Statuesque Spendthrifts" fromWalt Disney's Comics and Stories#138; collected inA Christmas for Shacktown),towers over that fair city. The title tale of this latest volume in the 15 year project to collect the entirety of Barks's Disney oeuvre, "The Old Castle's Secret" is a classic book-length tale of eerie mystery that was originally presented inFour Color#189, published in the summer of 1948, that provides the first fleshed out iteration of Uncle Scrooge...

Quite a lot can –and will – be said about the comics that make up Milk White Steed, Michael Kennedy’s first book length collection published in North America. Composed of eight short to medium length stories along with a pair of interstitial two-pagers, it is filled with comics that are artistically grounded, visually stimulating, historically informed, and intellectually challenging, and that together make for a dis- / re-orienting reading experience that, while at times unsettling, is ultimately invigorating and highly rewarding.

A core component of the stories that make up Milk White Steed is their conveyance of the Black British...

FROM THE ARCHIVES

FOUR new copies of the fifth printing of the original one shot comic book edition of Reid Fleming, The World's Toughest Milkman – the one that started it all!

This is a comic book.

With the arrival of this, the second issueof the series, it becomes clear that the first was but a prologue. Here, in the 88 full color pages ofUnsmooth #2: BUM, E.S. Glenn opens up new portals and reveals previouslyunseen dimensions of what will henceforth be known as the Unsmooth Multiverse. Enmeshed within an encompassing framework of ligne claire bande dessinée, readers will encounter mechamanga (along with a snatch of horror hentai)– plus sub-titled anime videos – New Yorker cartoons (and anold school Penguin paperback), cartooned modern art (along with some graffiti),some classical, newspaper Sunday-pagestrips,photobooth strips,and...

Dauntless Dames is the latest in the series of beautiful mega-sized (13" x 17") hardcover collections of classic newspaper comicstrips from Sunday Press. Edited by Trina Robbins and Sunday Press publisher, Peter Maresca, Dauntless Dames is a feast for the eyes. An amazing amalgamation of classic Sunday pages featuring women protagonists, many of which were also created by women, including Pittsburgh's own Jackie Ormes, including some super rare strips from The Pittsburgh Courier!

We'll provide a bit more info soon, but suffice it to say that this volume includes page after oversize page – 160 in all – of classic full color (and along with...

Discipline, the latest comics work from Dash Shaw, has been in the works for over five years. Shaw set himself the difficult challenge of creating a calm, still work about war – specifically the American Civil War – one that would embody the Quaker ethos. Whereas most fictional depictions of war focus on strategy, technological prowess and valor on the battlefield, or, conversely, on the tragedy, absurdity and horror of war,Disciplinefocuses instead on the moral quandaries of war. These are approached within a philosophical matrix firmly grounded in the traditional Christian ethics of the Quaker faith, which hold, among much else, that one...