The plot thickens, the mystery deepens, the pace is picked up and no holds are barred in this, the third issue of the most innovative comic book series in America. While other comic books tout their "new" plot twists and "new" characters and "new" concepts, the comics they produce are, formally, all the same, maintaining the tried and tired industry status quo. Cold Heat is authentically different. Creators, BJ and Santoro understand the conventions under girding the standard comic book format and deftly undercut them, subverting the implicit conservatism of these conventions by exogamously marrying them to an entirely different, diverse...

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...

Bill Griffith, widlely heralded as a founding father of underground comics and late-20th century pop counter culture, primarily for his star creation, Zippy the Pinhead, but also for his pioneering editorial contributions to the important comix anthologiesYoung Lustand, with Art Spiegelman,Arcade,has here, in the pages of this200 page graphic memoir, told the story that he has been keeping to himself all these many decades. This one's got a title -- well, subtitle, anyway -- that pretty much doesn't hold back the punch line; what was the big surprise for the author isfait accomplifor all readers going in. The reason for this is that there...

The tale Blankets tells is in most respects a classic coming of age story, but the place -- emotional as well as geographical -- that it is coming from may not be familiar territory for many readers: an abnegating Christianity built on self-denial ensconced in the harsh northern environs of Wisconsin and Michigan. Yet there can be no doubt that the core questions and values dealt with in Blankets are certainly universal ones. Craig Thompson has clearly devoted himself to a serious study of Will Eisner's late work -- from A Contract With God to the present -- and this study has really paid off here. The pacing, the placement of blacks,...

<<•>> WAREHOUSE FIND <<•>> Much to our amazement, a heretofore unknown secret stash of the original 1995 newspaper edition of Storeyville has been unearthed! Each copy had been sealed in a polypropylene bag and the entire box had been taped up and stored away in a corner where it was eventually forgotten... until now! We haven't seen a copy of this for sale anywhere for years (except for one that was on sale on Amazon for $1000!) so, if this is something you've been thinking about, don't debate about it too long, as there's only this one box, and when it's empty, that's it! A perfect match of form and content, ...

Accruing accolades and awards by the bushelful, McBride's novel employs a staccato, jump-cut prose style reminiscent of Samuel Beckett, and puts it to new and original uses in this harrowing coming of age tale

Here's Anne Enright's review in the UK Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/20/girl-half-formed-thing-review

Here's James Woods in The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/29/useless-prayers

Writtenand drawn – and designed – by the Italian artist, Igort (translated into English by Jamie RIchards) and printed in Italy, Japanese Notebooks is a sumptuous visual feast. It is also, of course, much more. It is: an investigation of the personal forces that drive artists to create in general andto pursuethe particular paths they do; an exploration ofhow their imaginationscome to be possessed byspecific images; a memoir of one particular artist's journey; and much else. Igort is one of the most accomplished comics makers currently working, and Japanese Notebooks is likelyhis most personal work yet, one that is apt to hold aparticular...

BACK IN PRINT AT LAST! This is the big book that has it all! Originally serialized in Biggu Komiku in 1970-71, and a personal favorite of the artist, manga founding-father Osamu Tezuka, Ode to Kirihito is a unique effort, in more than one respect. Weighing in at a mammoth 822 pages, Ode is the first of Tezuka's works to incorporate adult themed gekiga (see Tatsumi's Abandon the Old in Tokyo) elements. Perhaps paradoxically, it is also a work that while dealing with the darker sides of human nature simultaneously deals with Christian (Kirihito is a pun on the Japanese pronunciation of Christ, Kirisuto) themes -- specifically of overcoming...

Inspired by Raymond Queneau's 1947 opus, Exercises in Style, reigning comics formalist, Matt Madden undertook to transliterate this deconstructive approach to the practice of storytelling into the language of comics. Six years in the making, 99 Ways has accomplished exactly that. Taking the most mundane of events so as not distract from the formal elements, each of the 99 ways meticulously illustrated in this volume tell the story of Matt's journey from his drawing table to the refrigerator. Absurd? Yes, but that's the idea. It's all about how, not about what. It may sound like a crazy idea, but we're pretty sure that this volume will be...