What came to be know as "The Marvel Age of Comics" begins HEREin the "pre-superhero" Marvel comics created, primarilyby Jack Kirby and secondarily by Steve Ditko (and tertiarily by Don Heck), with the inking assists of Dick Ayers, George Bell and others, andwith Stan Lee and Larry Leiber filling out the scripts. These comics provided form and color to the unconsciouscold war anxieties that lurked benearth the surface of every sentient American during the years – 1957 - 1962 –that led up to the Cuban Missle Crisis, allowing readers to finally face their fears, and, eventually, after getting to know them through the comics collected here, at...

Finally, a new edition of the seminal novel,You Can't Winby Jack Black. Here's a book that that can lay claim - if any can - to having launched the "outlaw" literary counterculture, way back in 1926. This edition sports an intense black and white cover drawn by Joe Coleman, taken from his set of illustrations of this novel originally published inBlab!(#3?); also included is a full color reproduction of the Coleman painting that graced the 1988 Amok Press republication of this classic. The foreword by William Burroughs written for that edition is also here (although we recommend that this be read as an afterword, as it gives away some...

This startlingly well produced Big Book, the latest from the greatest full grown adult comics whiz kid, that literary minded artistic genius and graphic technician extraordinaire who possesses what could possibly be the most divided consciousness in a fully-functioning adult in the known world -- yes, that's right, Mr. Chris Ware -- collects material previously presented in the comics periodical Acme Novelty Library #7 & #15 (AKA Acme Novelty Big Book of Jokes #1 & #2 ) published by Fantagraphics, along with plenty of finely crafted, bruising new work with which it has been seamlessly integrated, all bundled together in an...

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...

Charles Burchfield is an artist whom Copacetic customers, as a population, have a strong likelihood of connecting with. He spent a fifty-year career – first in his native Ohio, after studying at the Cleveland Institue of Art, and then in upstate New York – forging a startlingly original visual language. Working primarily in watercolors, Burchfield picked up where Van Gogh left off in creating artworks that manage to visually communicate non-visual perceptions. Heat Waves In a Swamp is thecatalogue of an exhibition held at the Hammer in LA, the Whitney in NYC and the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY in 2009 and 2010 that was put...

PIX Premiere. Hot off the press and straight from PIX, it's the latest from Lale Westvind! Mary posits what a cyber-spirituality might look like. Here, in 20 risographed pages, the bonding together of human spiritual energy takes place through a hyperconnected virtual reality space. Deep within the recesses of a vital strategic area of a high-tech infrastructure in the thrall of a military-industrial complex, which is in turn leveraged by high-rolling, high-financiers – slipping in through a hidden hole in an unsurveilled space, a spark! The Team is formed: drone pilot consciousness Joan and the sympathetically conscious Mary, a...

Well, talk about an embarassment of riches! Not only have we been treated to the long awaited Art of Jaime, but now we also have the latest in the splendiferous series of trade paperback volumes that, since 2007, have been repackaging the classic work of both Jaime and Beto. Penny Century is the fourth Jaime volume and the first to present his work that appeared after the conclusion of the initial seminal run of Love and Rockets. The book opens with the one of kind classic of comics choreography that is Whoa Nellie!, Jaime's 68 page ode to women's wrestling. Then we are treated to the super fabuous experience of the Maggie and Hopey Color...

Five years in the making, The Carter Family comics bio,Don't Forget This Song, by David Lasky and Frank M Young is finally here – and it's a doozy! A great story well told. The Carter Family – and their times – really come alive on the page. This 192-page, full color graphic biography is beautifully produced, sporting an embossed hardcover and coming complete with a (18-minute) CD of rare Carter Family radio broadcast music. Lasky and Young have taken their time and done it right. This is a deeply researched and deeply felt account of the founders of American country music that sheds some much needed light on the subject and will help...

Maestro Van Sciver enters middle-age and hits his stride here in the ninth issue of his auteurist anthology, Blammo. This issue is packed cover to cover with comics tightly corsetted bya requisite inclusion of those ancillary aspects associated with the traditional comic book form. Starting with the enigmatic clown in the woods cover image that is backed with an inside front cover full of pæans of praise to his work from top comics professtionals, the issue then plunges straight into 44 consecutive pages of solid comics storytelling that brings readers a dazzling dozen distinct pieces woven together into crazy-quilt whole. The issue is...