"The definitive course in comics narrative" continues, as Mastering Comics ventures deeper into the wilderness of formal comics instruction, widening and extending the trail blazed by Drawing Words & Writing Pictures. This horizontally formatted volume follows the same textbookish format as its precursor; this time around divided into eleven lessons, rather than 15, and at 318 pages is a tad heftier. This works out to lessons that are on average 50% longer and more in depth. In other words, Mastering Comics is a 200 level class to DW&WP's 100 level (although the authors clearly state that DW&WP is not a prerequisite for MC)....

Approximate Hellhound, the arrival of which has been highly anticipated by the Copacetic Comics Co., is now standing tall on our trusty CD rack. Listening to this disc for the first time is an experience akin to that of suddenly realizing that the movie you inadvertently ended up watching at three in the morning has you riveted, and you find yourself thinking that it is the most amazing thing you've ever seen. The ten tracks on this discflow like a conversation, each one picking up where the other left off, generating a persuasive musical argument that drives its train of thought to the end of the line. Our favorites include: "Take What...

From the Archives: ONE new copy of the original hardcover edition (2nd print; September 2011) of the first volume of the superb – and definitive – archival study of the life and work of Alex Toth.

Here's the original Publisher write-up:

Compiled with complete access to the family archives and with the full cooperation of Toth's children, this lavishly illustrated biography features many rare comics pages, photographs, and drawings and reproduces twenty complete stories, including a previously unknown and unfinished story from the 1950's, most printed from the original artwork. Includes bibliographical references. Presents a biography of...

The most lushly beautiful and haunting of all of Fellini's films, the climax of Federico Fellini's artistic collaboration with his life-long partner, actress Giulietta Masina, an experience that can never be forgotten, Juliet of the Spirits is now available on DVD from the Criterion Collection! In Juliet of the Spirits, the processes involved in identity formation -- specifically those that involve the family dynamic and religious aspirations -- are shown to involve spirits of the past which, while they typically are encountered during the process of "growing up" as the values which are transmitted through the generations, are more real...

FROM THE ARCHIVES | ONE solid second hand copy

When it comes to artfully integrating book design into the form of a graphic novel in such a way as to enhance the expression of its content, Mr. Hornschemeier has few peers. To our mind, only Clowes, Ware and Seth have been as successful in this department*, and it bears remarking that there seems to be a bit of trend in effect among these design-oriented comics craftsmen as the latest work by each of these three creators shares with Hornschemier's a strong biographical focus on the protagonist. Wilson, Lint and George Sprott each present their eponymous protagonist's life story**, and Life...

And what better to follow the latest Kevin H. with than the latest by his longtime associate and fellow St. Louisan, Dan. Z., whose long promised graphic novel debut has at last arrived! Birdseye Bristoe is 72 full color pages of pure Zettwoch: set in a fictional (but perhaps even more authentic for being so) midwestern locale somewhere between St. Louis and Louisville, and filled with cut-away drawings, explanatory diagrams, maps and, of course, page after page of fun-filled comics filled with down home midwestern characters of all ages and stripes, it tells a story of industrial development and technological change that for all it's...

Whilethis book has been enthusiastically soldin ourshop since shortly after its publication, we now feel thatitshould also be offeredhereas well. The single most important work of history to arrive at Copacetic during the course of its operation, Stamped from the Beginning is a tour de force that will foreveralter our views of the history of race – and racial relations – in America, first and foremost, but, ultimately, throughout the entire world. It’s author, Ibram X. Kendi has written a book that embodies atrulyrare combination of abilities: that of the dedicated, focused, rigorous research needed to marshalhistorical facts; that of the...

It's Jaime to the rescue! The holiday season is notably brighter with the arrival of Angels and Magpies. The latest in the uniform softcover edition of Love and Rockets brings together the meta-comics masterwork, God and Science and the unparalleled presentation of the processes of character formation, fate and destiny that is The Love Bunglers, in which readers are offered the opportunity to gaze into their own souls through the mirror of Maggie Chascarrillo. PLUS: the hard to find story, "La Maggie la Loca / Gold Diggers of 1969", from the long out of print Love and Rockets v.2 #20!

The fabulous Fantagraphics project to collect the complete classic Carl Barks comics featuring the "Disney" Ducks – which could more accurately be described as the Barks Ducks – continues with this volume devoted to Barks's most famous creation, Uncle Scrooge. "Only a Poor Man" collects the entirety of the first six issues of Uncle Scrooge that were originally published between 1952 and 1954. Not only are the classic Scrooge epics that form the bulk of each of the six issues collected here (for the record: "Only a Poor Old Man", "Back to the Klondike", "The Horse Radish Treasure", "The Menehune Mystery", "The Secret of Atlantis" and...