FROM THE ARCHIVES

A run of nine consecutive volumes of Ranma 1/2 by one and only Rumiko Takahashi. Ranma 1/2 is a true classic manga series, whose influence on subsequent shoojo manga is hard to overstate. It also offers a wealth of humorous observations on gender norms and gender construction, to boot!

We came across this run in the archives; all new and unread. If there's anyone who picked up the first volume and is ready to read more, this is a perfect opportunity to do so!

GIlbert Hernandez enthusiasts, aficionados, completists and collectors have reason to celebrate the release of Comics Dementia. Here, collected in a single volume, we have over 200 pages of GIlbert's wildest and wooliest comics, drawn together from hither and yon in the comics firmament. Not for the faint of heart or weak of mind, the work here is where Gilbert cuts loose and lets you have it, right in the eyes! So, hold onto your hats! 64 stories in all!

Sub-titled, "July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme",The Great Warpresents in a single image a visual distillation of the events of that day. While this is not the first 20+ foot-long single image comics book that has come our way – that honor going to Helge Reumann and Xavier Robel's hyper kineticElvis Road, originally published in Switzerland in 2002 by Pipifax, and then in the USA by Buenaventurra Press in 2007. But whereas Elvis Road presented a frenzied instant of urban chaos that was unreadable – in the sense that there was simply no way to narratively digest the complexity of the image; all one could do was bask in...

Available again at last, courtesy New York Review Comics (thanks!), after being out of print for decades,Gary Panter's Jimbo: Adventures in Paradise originally exploded on the comics scene in 1988 and forever changed the landscape. It is arguable that moreformal innovation is contained in this work than in any other single work of comics. Jimbo open up vast new territories for comics, territories that have been avidly explored ever since by a host of innovative artists that have followed the trail that Panter blazed here (and elsewhere, of course; but this is the motherlode). Now, a new generation of readers, including the artists among...

Long treasured here at The Copacetic Comics Company, the truly unique – and rarely seen – late-period romance comics of the one and only Ogden Whitney have at last been collected in book form. This volume has been many years in the making, and we are excited to see it at last gracing our new arrivals table. Whatisit about these comics that makes themso unforgettable? There is a pathos at work here as in few other comics. Whitney was a life long cartoonist and comics maker. He had dedicated his life to his craft, and here in these comics he is heading into the home stretch. This work carries with it the private sufferings and triumphs of a...

From the view here at Copacetic, it appears that Monica has received the highest profile debut of any book in Fantagraphics history – talk about buzz! When was the last time that a graphic novel made the cover / lead review of the New York Times Book Review? (those with access can read it here) Then there's the Washington Post (ditto, about access) Then there's the pieces in the LA Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and a pair of reviews in The Guardian (first | second), and that's just for starters.

In typical Clowesian fashion, Monica follows the titular character through one rabbit hole after another, as she searches for the meaning of...

Aptly referred to as "the B-SIde to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet", Ronald Wimberly's Prince of Cats pulls off quite a feat: successfully reimagining the world of Romeo and Juliet in an hepper-than-hep 1980s NYC where hip-hop and punk exist side-by-side andduels are settled with Samurai swords. The story here centers and pivots on the figure of Tybalt, with Romeo and Juliet as supporting cast. The art is dynamic, colorful and perfectly captures the mood while doing an amazing job of visually transcribing the throbbing soundtrack of the streets, train tracks, nightclubs, tenements, alleyways, nightclubs, bedrooms, offices, backrooms and...

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...

Unstable Molecules is one of the best graphic novels Marvel has produced... well, possibly, ever, but, to hedge our bets, let’s say, "in quite awhile." In any event, it is like nothing Marvel has ever produced in the past. It is a textual analysis of comics done in comics, and it is one of the finest ever produced -- certainly the finest ever produced by Marvel! It should be considered in the context of Understanding Comics and Hicksville as much as the Fantastic Four. Telling the "true" story of the "real people" that the Fantastic Four were based on, this book is a work of metacomics and a dream come true for students of narrative theory...

Prepare to have your socks knocked off. Originally published in France in 2014, Jean-Michel Dupont and Mezzo's Love in Vain is the comics biography of this blues founding father that you've been dreaming of. Clearly drawing on R. Crumb's comics bios of blues greats such asCharley Patton, and inspired by the inking ofCharles Burns, this senusally produced, horizontally formatted graphic novelis a work befitting thelegend of Robert Johnson, perhaps the most storied bluesman of them all.

Check out this Google image search for a peek at what's in store... Amazing, right?