YES! Olivier Schrauwen's one-of-a-kind masterwork is back in print, in this very nicely done French-flapped softcover edition. Fantagraphics has done right by this classic, carrying over the production specifics from the hardcover in this softcover: same crisp duo-tone (red & blue) printing, same toothy, flat, off-white paperstock. Very nice. The one significant difference is that it is printed in a slightly (roughly 15%) smaller size – 7 3/4" x 9 1/2" compared to the 9" x 11 1/4" of the hardcover. At last, those Copacetic customers who missed out on this during its original release can experience this mind-bending work.
Here's our (woefully inadequate) original write-up:
Olivier Schrauwen makes comics like no one else, so when he decides to do a piece of biographical comics about an adventure involving his grandfather, the only thing that you do know is that you don't know what to expect in the pages of this 250 page oversize hardcover volume printed primarily in blue and red inks.... Arsene Schrauwen embodies a complex synthesis of the most adventurous contemporary approaches to comics signifying and storytelling. Evoking creators like C.F., Yuichi Yokoyama and Frank Santoro to deliver a narrative that turns early twentieth century European colonialism inside out, Schrauwen challenges readers to revisit their preconceptions and think again.