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Offsite – Zine Club Chicago on Marz: Everything's Gone Green Zinemaking Hangout, April 24th!
Zine Club Chicago on Marz: Everything’s Gone Green Zinemaking Hangout
Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave. in Logan Square/Bucktown
7 – 9 p.m. Thursday, April 24, 2025
Free!This month, Zine Club Chicago is celebrating the earth and its natural delights in collaboration with our friends at Life on Marz Community Club! Y’all are invited to help create a group zine on the theme Everything’s Gone Green.
Please join us for Zine Club Chicago on Marz: Everything’s Gone Green Zinemaking Hangout, 7-9 p.m. Thursday, April 24 at Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave. in Logan Square/Bucktown. Free!
Zine Club Chicago will provide all the zinemaking supplies! Just bring your creativity. Life on Marz Community Club, our favorite locally owned taproom and café space, offers awesome alcoholic, CBD, and non-alcoholic beverages from Marz Brewery and more, plus some very fun snacks, for purchase. DJ Soup Time will be providing sonic accoutrement during the evening, and we encourage y’all to stick around for some awesome music!
Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck is the creative force behind our visuals.
Facebook event is here. More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago
Image description: A flyer featuring an image of a pile of green leaves and this text: “Zine Club Chicago on Marz: Everything’s Gone Green; 7-9 p.m. Thursday, April 24; Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave; Free!; Info at quimbys.com”
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Zine Club Chicago Online: Writing a Letter Zine Workshop, April 15th!
Zine Club Chicago Online: Writing a Letter Zine Workshop
7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Online! Free!
On Zoom, RSVP details belowDo you love snail mail? This month, Zine Club Chicago will be making letter-inspired zines! Producer Cynthia E. Hanifin will lead a fun workshop designed to tap into your epistolary leanings.
Grab your zinemaking supplies*, BYOS(tamps + Snax) and join us on Zoom for Zine Club Chicago Online: Writing a Letter Zine Workshop at 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 15, 2025!
** RSVP required ** We want to make sure that our online Zine Club Chicago events are a safe space, so we won’t be releasing the Zoom link publicly. If you’d like to attend, please email zineclubchicago@gmail.com to RSVP by 9 p.m. CT Monday, April 14 (the evening before our event). We’ll email you the Zoom link by 5 p.m. CT on Tuesday, April 15.
Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck is the creative force behind our visuals.
Facebook event is here. More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago
* You’ll need a few sheets of 8.5×11” paper, a stapler or some tape, whichever implements you prefer for writing/drawing/etc., and your creativity!
Image description: A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with the image of a piece of paper sticking out of an envelope, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Writing a Letter Zine Workshop; Online! Free! Zoom info on quimbys.com; 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 15, 2025”
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New Stuff This Week
View this post on InstagramZines & Zine-Related
Debt Collector #1 $3
TRiP MAGAZEEN: The Complete Collection 1992-1994 by Peter Wohelski, Grumptronix, DJ Three $40
King Bourbon #5 First Anniversary Issue by Steve Gentry $5
Misfit Cinema Journal by Derek Abbott issues #1 and #2 $5 each
Zines by Lee Fearnside: Seventy Six 76 Community Is Real $4, Ohio Frontier Animal Conservation Then and Now $7
Zines by Colin Putman: A bunch of zines about pigeons! various prices!
Graphic Novels
Beautiful Monster by Maruo Suehiro $24.99
Squeak Chatter Bark: An Eco Mystery by Ali Fitzgerald (Fantagraphics) $24.99
Honoria: A Fortuitous Friendship by Janice Shapiro (Fantagraphics) $39.99
Haruki Murakami Manga Stories 3, illustrated by Jean Christophe Deveney & PMGL $19.99
Politics & Revolution Books
Anarchy in the Big Easy: A History of Revolt Rebellion and Resurgence by Max Cafard, illustrated by Vulpes (PM Press) $15.95
Music Books
Fearless Vampire Killers: The Bad Brains Photographs by Glen E. Friedman (Akashic Books) $37.50
Dressed In Black: tTe Shangri-Las and Their Recorded Legacy by Lisa Mackinney $24.95
So It Started There: From Punk to Pulp by Nick Banks $20
Teddy Boys: Post-War Britain and the First Youth Revolution by Max Décharné $16.95
Fiction
Sour Cherry: A Novel by Natalia Theodoridou $17.95
Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers $14.99
Poetry, Chap Books & Lit Journals
Luminous Beings Are We #2 (Back to Print) $15
Snow of Snow by Leon Pradeau $8
Super Gay Poems: LGBTQIA+ Poetry after Stonewall edited by Stephanie Burt $29.92
Transat #2 $10
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New Stuff This Week
View this post on InstagramZines
The Man In the Clock a Novel by David G. Cookson $10
Sisyphan #1 & #2 by Aunty $10 each
Proof I Exist #48 Corolla Buddies by Billy $3
Behind the Zines #19 $4
Scrapbooking 101 $10
Music zines by Meli, 42.50 each: Synth Punk, Third Wave Ska
Whatever #28 by Adam Courter $2
Glass #2 See Thru $8
Snake Year by Jilly Foo $5
Near Death Trip #1 $5
Room Tone #6 by Kurt $3
Zines by Pilot Lee: Things That Bring Me Joy: A Zine About Living $12, The Disability Center Told Me I Wasnt Disabled Enough: A Story About McBurney $16, The Before: An Essay on the Weapons of the Weak $6, How to Start Vending Your Art (With Basically No Money) $6
Microcosm Publishing stuff: War on Addiction: A Drunk Punk Project – How to Treat the Overdose Epidemic and Be Involved in Your Own Treatment by Tim Spock $6.99, Womb Witch: Herbal Magick for Reproductive Health by Angelica Merritt $19.95, Your Cozy Life: DIY Nesting Skills for a Sustainable Home by Raleigh Briggs $19.99, A Pocket Guide to Natal Astrology: Birth Chart Basics by Maira Sky $7.99, Unfuck Your Tarot: Using the Cards For Growth and Overcoming Trauma by Dr. Faith G. Harper $5.99, Asexual Things I Did Before Realizing I Was Asexual by Cooklin $7.99, Transition Diaries by Animal Bro $4.95 & more.
From Jacinta Bunnell: Believing In That Which Does Not Exist: Visions of Guaranteed Income $22, Hideaway Grove Apartment Complex $12
Comics
Deep End Diaries: A Sketchbook Anthology by Cole Winners $10
Graphic Novels
There’s No Time Like the Present by Paul B. Rainey (D&Q) $24.95
Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton (D&Q) $22.95
Season of the Roses by Chloe Wary (Fantagraphics) $29.99
Goes Like This by Jordan Crane (Fantagraphics) $39.99
Politics & Revolution Books
Imagination: A Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin $12
Too Late to Awaken: What Lies Ahead When There Is No Future? by Slavoj Zizek $23.95
You Can’t Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon’s Fight for Free Speech by Brad Snyder $37.99
Outer Limits & Mayhem
Compendium of the Occult: Arcane Artifacts, Magic Rituals, and Sacred Symbolism by Liz Williams $29.95
Essays
Like Love: Essays and Conversations by Maggie Nelson $20
Another Bullshit Night In Suck City: A Memoir by Nick Flynn $18.99
Music Books
Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour $32
The Secret Public: How Music Moved Queer Culture From the Margins to the Mainstream by Jon Savage $35
Interficial ARTelligence: The Moments That Met Me Chuck D $24.95
To Ease My Troubled Mind: The Authorized Unauthorized History of Billy Childish by Ted Kessler (Akashic) $31.95
Monument Eternal by Alice Coltrane (Akashic) $19.95
Fiction
Beautyland: A Novel by Marie-Helene Bertino $18
No One Knows by Osamu Dazai $15.95
Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield $18.99
Poetry & Lit Journals
Mostly Soldiers: Poems by Cora Ruskin $13
Ladies Ladies Ladies by Kristen Zory King $13
Stanchion #16 & #17 $13 each
Sexxxy
Butt Magazine #36 $20
Magazines
Gush Magazine vol 2 #1 $10
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From the Archives March Edition
Liz here, and I was having a great time in the basement organizing. Well, I mean, real talk: define “great.” But you know what I mean; I was amused by some of the things I rediscover as I get it all in order down there. But also, again, real talk: define “all in order.” YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN, STOP SASSING ME, PEOPLES. Still though. The stuff I have for you! Dig it.
Well what do we have here? It’s famed sculpture artist legend Cynthia Plaster Caster and former Quimby’s employee and CUFF legend Bryan Wendorf at an event here, talking to whoever’s hand is in the photo. Are they talking to the hand? You know it. The best I can triangulate the date is as follows: this is from before I started here because whatever this event was, it was pre-me at Quimby’s, so it would be sometime before 2001. It was clearly after Quimby’s moved from the original location at 1328 N. Damen to here at 1854 W. North Ave., so it was definitely the late ’90s. And the guy all the way on the right has a chinstrap beard that screams 1998 in a way that I can’t even begin to describe. So I think somewhere between 1998-2000. No YOU go do the carbon-dating, I’m too busy scanning weird mail art.
Sir! My soul is beaten down! Me too, bucko. I’m 90% sure we included this postcard in one of our MiniMagalogs but it is totally worth showing it off in its full glory here. How did this get here with no post date? And notice it is addressed to “SQUIMBY’S.” I understand why that happened. If you look at our logo, if you didn’t know otherwise. Allow me to explain once you look at the picture below.
Check out our patches through the ages. The one we have now is the one on the left. Why did I not put them in order? Because I am a fool. When I placed them down on the scanner I accidentally put them in the reverse order because I am just that sort of absentminded hippo. Don’t @ me, people. And no, we don’t have the white or yellow rimmed ones. Just the peach-y salmon ones, which you can get here. ANYWAY, notice how close that S is at 8:00 to where Quimby’s starts at 9:00, you know what I’m saying? That’s why I know someone is a Quimby’s nube when they’re like “SQuimby’s!” But still, I understand how they arrived at that, even if there’s a color separation.
Well look at that! It’s Matt Fagan, of Meniscus comic fame. And one of the founders of Brainstorm comics, which used to be down the street. The Evil Dead lunchbox! Can I tell you I forgot we even carried that? Or did he come in carrying it? Like on his way to work with a sandwich in it? Or maybe a necronomicon or something? No, you know what? I think we did sell that lunchbox.
As the flyer says, Adrian Tomine and Seth did events at both here and Chicago Comics, but what really grabs me are the incidentals: the Chicago Comics phone number! It has a 312 area code. The 773 area code didn’t become a thing until 1996. And the event was at the OQ (Original Quimby’s, as coined by Billy McCall). So was this pre-1996? Wow. And anybody who has done stuff with print and photocopiers recognizes that white tape. It’s so that you don’t see the marks of the paper underneath. Yesssssss. Or if this was 1996, should I say “rad” and “booyah?” You’re welcome.
I’m pretty sure Shappy (RIP) made this. He worked at both Quimby’s and Chicago Comics, so he dealt with the alternative comics vs superhero comics dichotomy on the regular. I loved his signs. But boy did he hate working! He said to me once, “Can’t I just sit and read issues of Eightball?” Chicago poet Robbie Telfer told me that Shappy got in trouble for using up all the toner in the printer for printing out pictures of Hanna-Barbera characters. Oh Shappy, I miss you. I’m so glad I was never your manager though.
It’s Jake Austen, editor of the famed Chicago zine Roctober and Chic-a-Go-Go cable access impresario! With baby! So this must have been two decades ago. But I can tell by the placement of the lighting overhead that he was standing in front of the counter, and it was taken by whoever was sitting in the very spot I am sitting in at this very moment. It was me. I think I took this photo. At least, I’m pretty sure. There was a period of time before smart phones in which I always a had a camera with actual film in it, and then we’d take the film over to the Walgreen’s at Wood and Milwaukee to get developed. We’d pick it up like a million weeks later when we remembered it was there.
Thanks for those super sick Gremlins in 2012, Cara Bean! These are excellent. We get a lot a lot of good mail art on envelopes. We could do a zine or a book of just the correspondence we get from people.
Jesus saves big money! Thanks for the mail art in 2014, Peter Sickman-Garner! I bet this contained Hey, Mister. Sent Media Mail, the postal choice of self-publishers everywhere.
A Quimby’s ad in a 1998 edition of Lumpen! That font is so fabulously 1990s-cocktail-exotica-space-age-bachelor-pad-revival that I just want to go drink a martini and listen to Combustible Edison.
That’s what I got! Now go get in your time machines and listen to the Four Rooms soundtrack.
xoxo
Liz @caboosezine
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2025 Chicagoland Indie Bookstore Day Challenge! April 26th
On Saturday, April 26th Quimby’s will participate in celebrating Independent Bookstore Day with Chicago bookstores from all over the city!
One of the best ways to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day is the annual bookstore crawl (aka, the Chicagoland Indie Bookstore Day Challenge)! The crawl promises to be bigger and better than ever this year! Dozens of stores—both brand-new stores and old favorites will be participating. (See the complete list at www.ChiLoveBooks.com.) And, yes, the bus tour will be BACK!
Again this year, the goals will be:
• Visit TEN stores in one day and get 10% off at all participating bookstores for an ENTIRE YEAR!
• Visit FIFTEEN stores in one day and get 15% off at all participating bookstores for an ENTIRE YEAR!Readers are encouraged to post a snapshot of themselves and their Independent Bookstore Day haul on social media with the hashtags #TeamIndie, #ChiLoveBooks, #IBDCHI25, plus the hashtags of each store they’ve visited.
Independent Bookstore Day is the last Saturday of April, and yet again, Chicagoland proves itself to be the dream destination for book lovers and readers of all ages! More than 50 independent bookstores in the greater Chicago area — from Lake Forest to Beverly, and Naperville to the Loop — are collaborating on our annual Chicagoland Bookstore Crawl, which encourages book lovers to indulge in bookstore tourism by visiting 10 or more stores in a single day.
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New Stuff This Week
View this post on Instagram
Zines2 Angel Xoxo zines! $5 each: All Drafts #2, What Was it Like Growing Up in the Bay
Room For Rent by Bill Sassenberger (Fluke Publishing) $5
Cocktail Recipes for Those Who Like the Stories issues #1-#5 by Wil Martinez Petre $8 each
Qwerty Quarterly #7 $5
Healing Is the Best Revenge #5 Love Letters for Survivors by Karina Ebba Hagelin $11
Enlighten Me, You Nincompoop: The Misadventures of Trial and Error by C.M. Davassi (Happy Tapir Press) $5
Minor Inconveniences of Infidelities: Poems by Nicole Zwolinski $6
From The Word Distro: What I Watched When I Had COVID $3, Pencil of the Week #19 $5, Touring America Skylines the Limit featuring Billy McCall and August Personage $3, Soap Dish #2 a Zine About Soap and Stuff $2
Comics
Looking for the Cat issues #1-#5 by Matthew Thurber (Neoglyphic Media) $12-$15
Fructus Seminalis #1 by Dan Loeb and Maxim Mel $10
Blood Trucker #3 by Lauren Ramsey and Michael Ehrenreich $7
Hacienda #3 by Dave Ortega $10
Void Trust #1 The Universe’s Best Comics Anthology by Finn Walker and Danny Cooper $8
Graphic Novels
Life Drawing: A Love and Rockets Collection by Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics) $24.99
Raised By Ghosts by Briana Loewinsohn (Fantagraphics) $18.99
Tedward by Josh Pettinger (Fantagraphics) $24.99
Beat It, Rufus by Noah Van Sciver (Fantagraphics) $22.99
Baby Blue by Bim Eriksson (Fantagraphics) $29.99
Santos Sisters vol 1 by Greg and Fake (Fantagraphics) $24.99
Music & Film Books
I Like People That Can’t Sing: Paul Nelson Interviews Leonard Cohen & Lucinda Williams edited by Kevin Avery (Fantagraphics) $29.99
The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir by Neko Case $30
Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr $20
Getting Help
Love in a Fucked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together by Dean Spade $19.99
Newspapers
County Highway vol 2 #5 March/April $8.50
Fiction
Forgotten Titles: The Problem of Eternity by Emma Wong $5
Lit Journals & Chap Books
Moss Piglet March 2025 $15
Sinister Wisdom #136 $16
chap books by PT Orbizol $5 each: Communal Education, Greysonic Codex
Live from the Monkey Show Poems by Samuel L. Rubinstein $7
No Stop November Poems by Jonathon Addington $5
Sexxxy
Elska #51 Buenos Aires Argentina $20
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March Newsletter Out Now
Read it here and make sure you sign up to get it in your inbox at quimbys.com.
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New Stuff This Week
View this post on InstagramZines & Zine-Related
One Skate Beyond #2 Indoor Skating Edition by Buster $4
From Stephen Poon, $6 each: Cincinnati Mushroom House & Pondering the Infinite: 2 Short Stories
From Sofa Melon, Melon Press: Numerology: A Easy Guide to the Age of Your Soul the Zine $8, Midnight Shift: A Spooky RPG $12, Knaffgata #1 The Missing Link $10 & more.
Mayhem in Miniature: Graphikos Tradition by Jim Blanchard (Waterhead Books) $6
For the Love of Ray Navarro by Ruben Esparza (Mattazine Society) $12
Trashy by Brenna Brash $10
THING: Issues #1-10 The Voice of Americas Black Queer Underground in the Early 1990s edited by Robert Ford, Trent Adkins, and Lawrence Warren (Primary Information) $35
Knight of Cups by Erica Dawn Lyle $5
Brick House by Adam Green (Wiggle Bird Mailing Club) $10
Comics
Duplicator Magazine $22
Sliced Timber #1 by Lumberjack Nick (Killer Pterri Comics) $9.99
Fever Dream #1 by Scott Gerard Ruhl $6
My Comic Final LOL $10
Satellite Sunset by Madeline Mouse $10
From Leo Covault: Early Gender Crushes #1 $6, Transition Hacks for Ye Old Mascs $10, The Harpist $22 & more.
Graphic Novels
Holy Lacrimony by Michael DeForge (Drawn & Quarterly) $24.95
Confessional by Paige Hender (Silver Sprocket) $29.99
Hourglass by Barbara Mazzi (Silver Sprocket) $15.99
You Must Take Part in Revolution: A Graphic Novel by Badiucao and Melissa Chan (Street Noise Books) $23.99
Politics & Revolution
ALGOFFSHORE: The Art of Automating Tax Evasion by Rybn.org $25
Art Books
Freeks: Astounding Aberrations and Mutations by JR Williams (Waterhead Books) $34.95
It’s Worse than I Feared Drawings by Tom Howes $24.99
Newspapers & Lit Journals
The Shadow #62-#64 $2 each
Lyrics as Poetry #5 A Journal of Songwriting and Prose $20
edited by Nabeela Washington: How We Make Fire $12, How the West Was Black $11
Music Books
There and Black Again by Don Letts (Omnibus Press) $20
Sex & Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll: The Life Of Ian Dury by Richard Balls (Omnibus Press) $20
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Zine Club Chicago on Marz: Zinetronica Zinemaking Hangout, March 13th!
Zine Club Chicago on Marz: Zinetronica Zinemaking Hangout
Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave. in Logan Square/Bucktown
7 – 9 p.m. Thursday, March 13, 2025
Free!
In March, Zine Club Chicago is celebrating the music that moves us in collaboration with our friends at Life on Marz Community Club! Y’all are invited to help create a group zine on the theme Zinetronica.
This month’s theme is inspired by Marz Community Brewing’s Synth Fest 2025, a week of awesome bloops, bleeps, and beats taking place March 7-15 at both Life on Marz and the Marz Mothership.
Please join us for Zine Club Chicago on Marz: Zinetronica Zinemaking Hangout, 7-9 p.m. Thursday, March 13 at Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave. in Logan Square/Bucktown. Free!
Zine Club Chicago will provide all the zinemaking supplies! Just bring your creativity. Life on Marz Community Club, our favorite locally owned taproom and café space, offers awesome alcoholic, CBD, and non-alcoholic beverages from Marz Brewery and more, plus some very fun snacks, for purchase. Conflict Bureau’s Tactical Acid Weapon will be providing sonic accoutrement during the evening, and we encourage y’all to stick around for some awesome music!
Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck is the creative force behind our visuals.
More info:
Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago
Image description
A flyer featuring images of a vintage synthesizer and this text: “Zine Club Chicago on Marz: Zinetronica; 7-9 p.m. Thursday, March 13; Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave; Free!; Info at quimbys.com”
