No one has ever created better Christmas comics than Carl Barks. "Christmas on Bear Mountain" is more than just another Barks Christmas Classic, however: it has the added historical significance of being the story for which Barks created his most famous character: Scrooge McDuck – Uncle Scrooge to Donald and his nephews. Scrooge – obviously patterned after the character of the same name form Charles Dickens'sA Christmas Carol– was originally created simply as the dramatic foil for Donald and his nephews in this particular story that was originally released for Christmas in 1947, and that was supposed to be that... but Barks quickly...

And while we're talking about learning more about the world around us, here's a book of historical reportage in comics that helps us come to understand how things got to be the way they are. The ever-fascinating David B. takes his readers on an unexpected voyage through the waters of history in this informative, educational and timely volume co-piloted by Jean-Pierre Filiu. As readers of B.'s breakthrough masterpiece, Epileptic already know, he is quite adept at depicting scenes of warfare, and, what's more, in doing so in a way that reveals otherwise hidden forces at work below the surface of the battlefield. David B. masterfully employs...

by David B. This comics tour de force, one of the greatest graphic novels yet produced, is now available in a fine, French-flapped softcover edition that's a true value.

How's this for value: the complete 360 page graphic novel in hardcover for the same price as the 160 page Book One in softcover issued by Fantagraphics a couple years back? Not only that, but this edition completes Kim Thompson's excellent translation that he started for Book One. Originally published in six volumes in France between 1996 and 2004, this edition represents the first time the complete story has appeared in English. As readers of David B.'s recently released...

Here it is, at last: a cosmic consciousness primer for kids. Inthese pages, Crane has stripped down his æsthetic to its core, crafting bold,optic nerve stimulating illustrations thatleapscales from the macroscopic to microscopic and back again, in dynamic andwildly colorfulimages that arestraight forward andimmediately,intuitively comprehensible.Taken together with the accompanyingsimple blocks of text, the series ofsequential combinations of images that make up We Are All Me unlock a latent power strong enough tolightup dormantneurons, leadingto new connections, and stimulatingspeculations, revealinga sense of wonder at creation capable...

This One Summer is a finely nuanced portrait of pubescents at the dawning of their age of sexuality that will have readers slowing down if not stopping in their tracks to pause and soak up every line ofstunningly good work. The Tamaki cousins enter Hernandez brothers territory here, with their deftly characterized and deeply empathic portraits of each pen & ink participant in the drama that unfolds on these pages. There are echoes, too, of Charles Burns’s Black Hole, in the presentation of the protagonists' stumbling upon detritus strewn outdoor settings that stand as a synecdoche forinnocence’s discoveringthe mysteries of sexual...

Here at Copacetic Comics, we've long been fond of calling Hicksville "The Watchmen of small press comics." This is useful in that practically all comics readers are familiar with and have positive associations with The Watchmen, and we feel that Hicksville is a similarly ambitious, successful and important work, and so is one that we like to draw attention to, and comparing it to The Watchmen is a cheap and easy way to do so. Whether or not this is a good, right or fair thing to say in regards to to the themes and content of the respective works, we're not going to try to defend. The comparison's validity rests more on a historical point...

Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth (JCTSKOE) is, first and foremost, the tale of the development of the American super-ego, it’s human cost, and its relationship to the comic book super-hero. Ware’s choice of the Chicago Exposition of 1893 to serve simultaneously as historical signifier and the origin of his narrative is key in this regard. It is with the exposition of 1893 -- most importantly, at least as far as JCTSKOE is concerned, in its design and architecture-- that the USA reveals its fantasy of, and implicit ambition towards, empire in the classical Greco/Roman mold. It was Walt Whitman’s fever dream made flesh-- or at least...

Pulses raced throughout the shop as these meticulously designed and printed 11 5/8" x 12 1/4" hardcover books emerged from the box they were shipped in. This book is cover to cover fabulosity; not a square inch of wasted space is to be found. What we have on hand here are the more than 150 (!) full color – andwhatcolor! Katchor is revealed here to be a coloristpar excellence(think Pierre Bonnard) – full page strips Katchor has been producingsince 1988forMetropolis,the excellent and, crucially for our enjoyment of these Katchor strips, oversize magazine devoted to architecture, design and, as the name suggests, urban living. Rather than...

Sky in Stereo started out life in a series of digest-size, pamphlet comic books which were then collected with additional material as Volume One. Now, at last, we have the long awaited conclusion to (Sacha) Mardou's graphic novel of growing up in a nameless British location (that likely bears more than a passing resemblance to the Manchester of Mardou's own youth).

While all children must cross thesea of adolescence to gain the continent of adulthood, eachmakes their own personal and unique crossing, and while some find this crossingrelatively smooth, others may encounter stormy seas. Here in the pages of the second and final volume ofSky...

Finally, a new edition of the seminal novel,You Can't Winby Jack Black. Here's a book thatcan 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 plot...