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...

Gilbert's follow up to 2013'sMarble Season,Bumperheadis another full-size, hardcover graphic novel fromDrawn & Quarterly, but it is much more than just a follow up. It's not going too far out on a limb to proclaimBumperheadGilbert's most fully realized work outside of theLove and Rocketscontinuity. He is in the zone here, playing to his strengths as a storyteller and artist as he relates life events, group dynamics and family to character formation and the Hernandezian Arc of Life. It's almost magic the wayBumperhead's players are broughtso vibrantly to lifethatthe reader comes away feeling that theyknowthe pen & ink people that...

Where to begin with such a book. It is clearly and definitely the best book ever done on Krazy Kat, which is, at least in our estimation, the greatest of the classic newspaper comics. Ergo, it is, Copacetically speaking, one of the single best volumes of comics ever produced. In other words, it wins the Desert Island Award: If there were one comics related book to take to a deserted island, this might very well be it. And as if that weren’t enough, it has now been reissued in an economy softcover edition that’ll only set you back a double sawbuck. Think of it-- a lifetime of pleasure and consolation for what it would cost you to spend a...

From the Midwest to the Middle Kingdom, Ginseng Roots spans global history through the lens of this humble plant in Craig Thompson’s latest epic work – the first of his works to be serialized in individual issues. Now, all twelve issues are available in a nifty collector box designed by Craig specifically to house the series, along with a few bonus doodads, all for less than the price of the individual issues alone. Ginseng Roots is engrossing – it’s hard to stop reading – educational – you’ll definitely be learning plenty you didn’t know before, about ginseng, about American and Chinese history and culture, and much more besides – and...

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

In the full color pages of Inappropriate, her latest hardcover collection from Uncivilized Books, Gabrielle Bell delves into the porous borderland between fact and fantasy, a land populated by daydreams,conjectures, anxieties, obsessions, recollections, ruminations, self-doubts,self-incriminations and much more, all clearly communicated in her ever more confidently created comics.And then there is the collection's standout piece, "The original, true, biographical versionof Little Red Riding Hood," which sets the tale in an ahistorical New York City. Inappropriate isBell's best collection to date. Here, she has broken through to a more...

The most critically lauded graphic novel of the year has arrived!

Chris Ware: "Some middle-aged colleagues and I believe literary comics fiction is possible without resorting to fantastical heroics, however, and the youngest and finest exemplar, 28-year-old Nick Drnaso, offers a new book to possibly top us all:Sabrina, about a missing woman, a video and the unspeakable possibilities of our contemporary mitigated reality."

Zadie Smith: "Nick Drnaso's Sabrina is the best book – in any medium – I have read about our current moment. It is a masterpiece, beautifully written and drawn, possessing all the political power of polemic and yet...

Ron Regé, Jr. strikes again! What Parsifal Saw collects Regé's work since The Cartoon Utopia. The two key pieceshere are "Cosmogenesis," illustrating the "secret doctrine" of Madame Helena Blavatsky, the key figure in the history of Theosophy (which had a significantinfluence on the first generation of modernist artists, notablyPiet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky), and"Diana," Regé's unique spin on W*nder W*man; both originally appeared in (now out-of-print)self-publishedmicro-editions. Also included are: "Pythagoras," which first appeared in The Pitchfork Review (andlater in Best American Comics 2015!);Regé's brilliant use of Alex...

Hot House has at long last arrived here at Copacetic! The publisher, Fieldmouse Press, has produced a very nice, heavy-duty, oversize (9" x 11"), Smyth-sewn hardcover edition that runs 100 pages; in black & white, of course.

A notably multidisciplinary artist, John Hankiewicz is best known among Copacetic customers for his comics work, which features a labored, detailed pen & ink drawing style that has gradually evolved over his quarter century of comics making. His comics work is also especially notable for its highly successful translations of verbal/textual poetic principles such as meter, foot and rhyme into their visual/comics...

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...