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...

Anyone who ever wondered whatpornographic comics produced by Chris Ware would be like to read probably won’t ever get an answer closer to Italian cartoonist, Miguel Vila’s North American debut, Milky Way, seamlessly translated by Jaime Richards and delivered to readers in a solid, well-designed, 176 page, 7" x 10", full color hardcover. As would be expected in such a case, Milky Way is not, of course, a work of straight-up pornography, but rather it is – as it would be if penned by Ware – a complex work of meta-porn, a look at the context, function and effects of pornography at the same time as it is also pornography; it examines the...

The long awaited follow up toAbandoned Carshas arrived.The Lonesome Gois a giant oversize volume packed with more carefully placed ink lines than any book this side ofBlack Hole.Taking a hint from theLegend of Duluoz, St. Louis resident and Washington University lecturer, Tim Lane takes a turn down aLost Highway on aSavage Night, whereA Good Man Is Hard to Findand a sprawling chaos of comics ensues, recorded employing a visual lexicon that is partCharles Biroand partCharles Burnsand shines a light onthose parts of the American psyche that are usually left festering in the dark, allin the service of creating an acutely observed and fully...

Craig Thompson's long awaited follow up to Blankets – one of the most widely and loudly lauded graphic novels in history – is now weighing heavily on the shelves here at Copacetic. A sprawling, multi-layered, multi-faceted, multi-pronged work, Habibi is part history lesson, part tutorial, part travelogue, part anthro/socio/psychological study, part sermon, and all love story. Thompson clearly had outsized ambitions for this work, likely necessitated by the high expectations surrounding any follow up to Blankets. It's always an additional challenge for creators to follow up a highly praised work. Should they try to compete with their big...

Wow, a double dose of Ron Regé, Jr.! (along with YH #12, which was released simultaneously) This one is technically Yeast Hoist #(lucky)13. It is a beautifully drawn, designed and produced square format volume. Printed in two colors with a full color flexi cover and endpapers this book is an aesthetic treat and a bargain to boot. Ron Regé, Jr. is channelling the spirit of the 20th century American painter, Charles Burchfield into 21st century comics. Like Burchfield's paintings, Regé's comics in this volume fill the viewer/reader with a sense of wonder at the impossible beauty and strange otherness of nature. His work really puts you...

Though he is better known now as the creator of a series of Victorian murder mysteries, back in the day Rick Geary was (more or less) the Richard Brautigan of comics. He pioneered the genre of short, off-kilter stories that, by virtue of their peculiar slant on the events they portray, continue to provide readers with fresh perspectives on the mundane. The stories contained in Housebound are, on average, over twenty years old, but they are as unique now as they were when he first laid Rapidiograph pen to paper. Quirky, entertaining and fun, this book is a one of a kind* treasure that is now out of print... but we still have a few left!...

OK, this is not just the perfect gift book for the jazz fan on your list, it is also makes for an ideal gift to give to anyone -- of any age -- who has a love of words and pictures. This sumptuous hardcover volume has the potential to turn the squarest square into the heppest cat. Everyone is a jazz fan in the making: this is just the ticket to inspire them to take a closer look. Jazz ABZ is a pæn to jazz in art and poetry that simply has to be seen to be believed. The essence of jazz -- collaboration, composition, and improvisation -- is embodied in this singular tribute to the form. The overall package is designed to resemble the...

(Book One of the New Edition of the collected Love and Rockets) Most frequenters of this space are hep to the wonder of Love and Rockets. However, there are still those who have yet to see the light. Are you someone who still hasn't managed to get around to reading the greatest comics ever produced? If so, all we've got to say is: if you haven't read the original run of Love and Rockets (in any one of its extant formats) and you are trawling the web looking for exciting new releases and looking through back issue bins at your friendly neighborhood comics shop for classics of the days of yore, then you are simply wasting your time -- the...

Miraculously, after two decades of less than stellar recordings, Iggy has managed a return to form here on this album, produced at age 65 and released close on the heels of his 66th birthday. This is doubtless due in no small measure to the return of James Williamson on the heels of the multi-year reunion of Iggy with the (almost) original Stooges line-up. The presence of the Ron and Scott Asheton was not enough to saveThe Weirdness. Ready to Die is another story, however. Backed by James Williamson on multiple-tracked guitars, Scott Asheton on Drums, Mike Watt on Bass and Steve Mackay on Sax (of which there is plenty) as well as a number...