Having personally known and professionally worked with Ed Piskor for over twenty years, the news that he has, evidently, taken his own life, came as a deep shock here at Copacetic. We first encountered Ed while he was still a gawky, geeky teenager and had no inkling of the major force in comics that he would go on to become. As we followed his progress from working with Harvey Pekar to self-publishing – and very savvily marketing – Wizzywig, it became apparent that he was both very capable and highly ambitious, and, perhaps most notably, extremely focused on his goals. Once he launched his Hip Hop Family Tree series, he was truly in his element. He took off from there, and didn't look back.
As there is no longer any road ahead for Ed, we will take a moment to look back now and keep him in our thoughts.
We'll really be missing him here at Copacetic.
Requiem
We are death. This thing we think of as life is only the sleep of real life, the death of what we truly are. The dead are born, they do not die. These worlds have become reversed for us. When we think we are alive, we are dead ... Everything we consider important in our active lives participates in death, is all death. What are ideals but a confession that life is not enough? What is art but negation of life?
...
To consider our greatest anguish an incident of no importance, not just in terms of the life of the universe, but in terms of our own souls, is the beginning of knowledge. To reflect on this whilst in the midst of that anguish is the whole of knowledge. When we suffer, human pain seems infinite. But not even human pain is infinite, because nothing human is infinite, nor is our pain ever anything more than a pain that we have ... The pain of not understanding the mystery of life, the pain of being unloved, the pain of others' injustice to us, the pain of life crushing us, suffocating and imprisoning us ...
To some who speak and listen to me I must seem an insensitive person. However, I am, I think, more sensitive than the vast majority of men. I am, moreover, a sensitive man who knows himself and therefore knows what sensitivity is. It isn't true that life is painful, or that it's painful to think about life. What is true is that our pain is only as serious and important as we pretend it to be. If we live naturally, it would pass as quickly as it came, it would fade as quickly as it bloomed. Everything is nothing, and our pain is no exception.
...
Everyone and everything oppresses me, chokes me, and maddens me; I am troubled by a crushing physical sense of other people's lack of comprehension ... Seeing myself frees me from myself. I almost smile, not because I understand myself, but because, having become other, I'm no longer able to understand myself. High up in the sky, like a visible void, hangs one tiny cloud, a pale forgotten fragment of the whole universe.
– Fernando Pesoa, from The Book of Disquiet (translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa)
Chad in Amsterdam Arrives in The USA
The Chad in Amsterdam hardcover published by Scratch Books in Amsterdam collects all six issues of Cleveland native, Chad Bilyeu's series – and it has just now arrived at Copacetic!
The Copacetic Comics Company is the (for now) exclusive distributor of this book in North America. We are, of course, selling it directly to our customers here on the site, but will also be distributing to shops in North America. Here in Pittsburgh, you will, of course be able to pick up from Doomed Planet Comics at the former Copacetic digs in Polish Hill, but if you live elsewhere, and would prefer to buy it in person and/or know of a shop (or, of course, are a retailer yourself) please feel free to let your local shop know about it and/or contact us directly about wholesale on this item.
And just to reassure anyone not already famliar with this series, despite being created and published in Amsterdam, it is written (almost) entirely in English.
Here are a few pages:
And, here's a press/info one-sheet PDF that may also be freely shared and/or used in promoting this book.
We're Going In... To The Copacetic Archives
Things are on enough of an even keel here at Copacetic that we have steered towards the voluminous Copacetic Archives to begin processing and listing what we find there. It will be slow going at first, but we hope to gradually increase the pace. We've created a new category where you can find these freshly unearthed items: From the Archives. There's not much up yet, but there is plenty more coming – slowly, but surely – and we hope to make it worth everyone's while to check occasionally.
We hope everyone enjoyed their holiday break and that their 2024 is off to a good start.
Here at the new Copacetic HQ we are still working away amid teetering stacks of boxes trying to create some order out of the chaos. We're making headway, but not there yet!
Current vibe:
ALSO: The unpacking continues after a hiatus, and so there are now fresh items that have been Discovered During the Move!
Yes, we're in the home stretch of 2023, as hard as that may be to believe. And as this is the first online-only holiday season, here's our picks for a Copacetic Christmas 2023, and here's our much shorter list for books (and, just so you know, these lists are both still under construction, as new holiday items are still arriving on a daily basis). Also: Pittsburgh shoppers will be able to find most of these items at Doomed Planet Comics in the former Copacetic digs at 3138 Dobson. Doomed Planet will also be offering Gift Certifcates (and, for any procrastinators out there, they will also honor outstanding Copacetic Gift Certificates; whew!).
>>> ALSO, PLEASE NOTE: Order processing will be largely on hold through the last week of the year, resuming full force at the start of the new year. We apologize for any delays. <<<
Recent arrivals include a big batch of beautifully printed (mostly risograph) books from Perfectly Acceptable Press, including the latest from Alex Graham!
And, as the unpacking of the move continues, more items that were previously unlisted and/or thought to have been out of stock also continue to turn up. So, anyone curious to see what they are can do so via the option category Discovered During the Move!, which all of these new and/or reactivated listings will be so tagged. Some of these items are standard price, some are collector priced due to scarcity (but at below market), and some are sale priced. We still have a looong way to go in the unpacking, so anyone interested in doing so will have reason to check back on occasion to see what else turns up. Also, please note: most of these items are only single copies.
And for a limited edition, handmade-in-Pittsburgh item, how about the Sense of Place Pittsbugh Postcard Box Set from Karen Lillis? It oculd double as a party game for hardcore Pittsburghers: Name that place!
