Category: bestsellers

  • Weekly Top 10

    1. What The Hell Are You Doing: The Essential David Shrigley (Norton) $35.00 – “By turns hilarious, satirical, and brilliant, David Shrigley’s full-page illustrations-a combination of drawing, comics, photography, and sculpture-are sui generis: uproariously funny, pleasantly unnerving, and, most of all, really, really cool. Neither “graphic novel” nor “art book,” What the Hell Are You Doing? celebrates the surreal world of the artist who created Ants Have Sex in Your Beer and To Make the Meringue You Must Beat the Egg Whites Until They Look Like This.

    2. Optic Nerve #12 by Adrian Tomine (D&Q) $5.95 – Two pitch-perfect stories of rejection, imperfection, and relationship drama, each ending on a surprisingly uplifting note. “Hortisculpture” pushes Tomine into a stylistic camp with Sammy Harkham, Jordan Crane, Chuck Forsman and Kevin Huizenga – perhaps more than ever before. The story works with a “Chalky White”-ish suburban everyman and his tempered ambitions, but camps up the visual style into a Marmaduke-y newspaper strip aesthetic. The effect is similar to the trickiness of his wedding planning comics. The second half is a repolishing of his “Amber Sweet” college girl mistaken for porn star plot. Plus we get a glimpse into Tomine’s sad-sack mailbox, and some self-aware griping about putting out comics issue by issue.  -EF

    3. Habibi by Craig Thompson (Pantheon) $35.00 – Hotly anticipated new work from the author of Blankets and Goodbye Chunky Rice.

    4. Crap Hound #8 Superstition $12.00 – Clip art galore, collage style. Once you open it you can’t put it doooowwwnnn, superstitious theeeeeemed in time for Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeeen!

    5. Caroline Paquita 2012 Calendar  (Pegacorn Press) $10.00 – Thanks to everybody who came out last night for the release event for Pegacorn Press!

    6. Future Tense  (Pegacorn Press) $8.00 – Ditto! A fabulous comics anthology.

    7. Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910-2010 byMichael Kupperman (Fantagraphics) $19.99 – Yes, with text. Yes with illustrations. And oh yeah, yes with Mark Twain as porn star, drifter and grifter.

    8. Bitch #52 $5.95

    9. Prompts-Prompted Spr 11 The Creative Writers Guild $5.00 – Those art students! Bein’ all literary and stuff.

    10. Maximumrocknroll #341 Oct $4.00

  • Weekly Top 10

    Just a reminder that tonight artist David Shrigley will be here at 7pm. See you then!

    No surprise what tops the list of bestellers — a new issue of Crap Hound and a new issue of Optic Nerve! A double bubble of excitement!

    1. Crap Hound #8 Superstition (Show & Tell) $12.00
    2. Optic Nerve #12 by Adrian Tomine (D&Q) $5.95
    3. Wallpaper Oct 11 $10.00
    4. You Dont Get There From Here #20 by Carrie McNinch $2.00
    5. Juxtapoz #129 Oct 11 $5.99
    6. Burn Collector #15 by Al Burian (Microcosm) $3.00 – Al Burian takes on his new home town, Berlin with a little help from a Chicago All-Star team of Anne Elizabeth “Unmarketable” Moore and Liam “Secret Beach” Warfield.
    7. Animal Sex You Might Not Want To Know by Isabella Rotman $3.00 – This mini is so good! It’s a sly and pervy funny-as-shit guide to kinky sex in the animal kingdom. From ungodly long schlongs of Argentine lake ducks to pheromone-fueled Garter Snake fuckballs, Rotman’s bestiary culls the cream of the crop from what sounds like some pretty extensive -uh- “internet research”. -EF

    8. Neely Covers Comics To Give You The Creeps (Collectors Edition) by Tom Neely $6.00 – The calls are coming from inside the house as T.Neely does his number on 14 classic pulp comic covers.

    9. Filter #45 $5.95
    10. OK OK You Smote Me Stories by Al Burian (Quimby’s Exclusive) $3.00 – Quimby’s alum and international zine curmudgeon Al Burian has crafted a new zine exclusively for the store, the second in our “Quimby’s Exclusive” line of periodicals. In OK OK You Smote Me, Al takes us around the corner to his mayhem-prone stint on Wicker Park’s Dean Street, unhexing his way-too-hexed apartment and watching the tumult as Old Chicago takes a scraggly, low-level “stand” against encroaching yuppie “neighborhood improvement”. Compelling, humorous and wistful, with that trademark Burn Collector balance of heart and snark. -EF

  • Announcements and Weekly Top 10

    Three news pieces.

    Firstly, we are saddnend to hear of the passing of Sparkplug publisher Dylan Williams. Williams had been battling cancer. We send our condolences to his family and friends.

    Congratulations to our own Edie Fake, who won a 2011 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel for his book Gaylord Phoenix.

    Billy McCall (aka Billy Da Bunny) of Proof I Exist zine moved to New Mexico and got involved with the ABQ Zine Fest 9/30-10/2, and as part of the fest, he’s hosting The First Annual ABQ Zine Fest OLYMPICS on 10/1 with events like Speed Stapling, Precision Folding, and Synchronized Zining.  Yes, you read that correctly. So, if you’re in Albuquerque in a few weeks, go and git yer zine on.

    Here are the top 10 bestsellers of last week:

    1. F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel by Dan Sinker and Biz Stone (Simon) $12.00
    2. Tiki Magazine vol 7 #2 $5.99
    3. The Believer #83 Sep 11 $8.00
    4. Wrongful Convictions: Causes, Solutions, and How You Can Get Involved by The Innocence Project $2.50 –  This zine outlines the basic ways wrongful convictions easily happen in the current American justice model, develops solutions and talks to activists about what their approaches are towards changing the system. Clear, informative, hopeful and helpful.
    5. I Dont Understand Farming #6 $.75
    6. I Will Bite You and Other Stories by Joseph Lambert $14.00 – 2011 Ignatz Winner for Outstanding Artist! Weird and toothsome stories of child-planetary interaction, monsterous consumption, ants-in-the-pants urgency and geometric breakdown. Lambert’s drawings have an assured mischieviousness like Steve Weissman’s early Lemon Kids, and these tales operate in a cosmic system that eschews outright snark and didactic symbolism in favor of suprising solutions and original visions. -EF
    7. Chicago Street Art by Joseph J. Depre, Oscar Arriola, etc. $15.00 – Text by Joseph J Depre and photos by Oscar Arriola, Chris Diers, Thomas Fennell IV and Patrick Hershberger. A love letter of sorts to Chicago and its many street artists, photos published here so that when the art gets graffiti blasted they’ve been documented somewhere. With work by such artists as Tiptoe, Artillery, The Viking and more. Traverlers, fuck bringing home a snowglobe from the souvenir stand. Get this book instead.
    8. Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco) $16.00
    9. Exxxtinction: 1st Known Circle Jirk by Sy Loady $3.00
    10. Warmer by Aiden Koch (Sparkplug) $5.00 – Koch’s moody, pencilled mini builds itself out of vaguely nihilist non-events. Pregnant pauses dwell on crumpled clothes and antique light fixtures, limbs and patterns. The structure plays itself long and loose, the slow clues that build narrative poignancy do an equal turn at washing away any meaning so we’re left with the dissolution of an empty visit to an empty day. -EF

  • New Stuff This Week

    ZINES!?
    Show Me The Money #35 $2.50
    Gleaming Armament of Marching Genitalia by Joao Maiopinto and Marcos Farrajota (MMMNNNRRRG) $14.22
    Penny Man Trashed 12 x 12 Screenprint Included by Ben Chlapek $8.00
    Backward Jane #2 Noelle Havens $3.50
    Take That Crap Off Your Wall $3.00

    COMICS! COMIX!
    Nix Comics Quarterly issues #1-#3 (prices vary)
    Upset Cats #1 Zejian Shen $10.00

    GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS!
    Caminhando Com Samuel by Tommi Musturi (MMMNNNRRRG) $28.44
    Malus by Christopher Webster (MMMNNNRRRG) $17.06
    Dimensions #1 $25.00
    Ozma of Oz by Eric Shanower and Slottie Young (Marvel) $29.99

    ART & DESIGN BOOKS!?
    Neuro Trip by Neuro (MMMNNNRRRG) $21.32
    Just My Type a Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield (Gotham) $27.50 – With a forward by Chip Kidd.
    Sacred Skin: Thailands Spirit Tattoos by Tim Vater (Visionary) $32.95

    FICTION!?
    Howl on Trial the Battle for Free Expression by Bill Morgan and Nancy J. Peters (Citylights) $14.95

    MAGAZINES!?
    Fortean Times #279 Oct 11 $11.99
    VMan #23 Fall 11 $5.95
    Boneshaker Magazine #6 $10.00 – This bike mag is one of our topsellers.
    Fifth Estate vol 46 #2 #385 Spr 10 $4.00
    Tattoo Revolution Sep 11 $11.75

    LITERARY JOURNALS, CHAP BOOKS & POETRY!?
    Vain #10 Fall 11 $10.00
    Annalemma #8 $15.00

  • Weekly Top 10

    1. Big Questions (soft cover edition) by Anders Nilsen (D&Q) $44.95 – Thanks to everybody that came out to both off-site events we sold books at for Anders, at both Lula and the Hideout!
    2. Encyclopedia of Doris by Cindy Crabb $18.00
    3. F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel by Dan Sinker and Biz Stone (Simon) $12.00
    4. Bitch #52 $5.95
    5. Design Bureau Sep Oct 11 $8.00
    6. lose #3 by Michael Deforge (Koyama) $5.00
    7. Believer #83 Sep 11 $8.00
    8. The Game by Anders Nilsen $9.00
    9. We Are Wisconsin ed. by Erica Sagrans $18.00 – Wisconsin Uprising in the words of the activists writers and everyday wisconsinites who made it happen. Contributors include Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Van Jones, John Nichols, Medea Benjamin, Mike Elk, Andy Kroll, Tony Schultz, Ian Murphy, Allison Kilkenny, Billy Wimsatt, Chris Bowers, and more.
    10. Archiving the Underground #1 ed. by Jenna Brager and Jami Sailor $2.00

  • Weekly Top 10

     

    1. SPS #9 Sad People Sex by Heather Benjamin $3.00

    2. Lucky Peach #1 Sum 11 $10.00

    3. McSweeneys #38 $18.00

    4. The Lonely Hippopotomous by Leslie Perrine $2.00

    5. Tiki Magazine vol 7 #2 Fall 11 $5.99

    6. Yiddishkeit Jewish Vernacular and the New Land by Harvey Pekar and Paul Buhle (Abrams) $29.95

    7. Big Questions by Anders Nilsen (D&Q) $44.95

    8. Sad Animals by Adam Meuse $4.00

    9. Make Your Place: Affordable Sustainable Nesting Skills by Briggs (Microcosm Publishing) $7.00

    10. SPS #7 Sad People Sex by heather Benjamin $3.00

  • Weekly Top 10

    How many weeks in a row is Lucky Peach at #1 now? I lost count. Nice to see a title like Abolish Restaurants is in the top sellers even though it’s months old now ; often what makes it into the bestsellers are the new stuff, but some titles just always do well, like Sad Animals and Make Your Place. People often ask, “How many copies does it take to land in the bestsellers?” The answer: usually somewhere between eight and three copies. Sometimes even just 2 or 3 copies! Yes, that’s kind of weird. 2 or 3 copies a bestseller?! Why bother having a top 10 then? Well, the answer to that lies in this fact: As of this moment we have 11,157 items in stock in our database. So even selling 2 of some things is a lot sometimes! Of course, if there’s an in-store event with a writer or artist, fans will buy their stuff at the event, which can push something into the top 10 also. And then there are things we don’t actually include in the Top 10 because they’re hardly reflective of the reading material people buy, like postcards and grab bags (only $2.50 each!). Now you’ve been schooled in our Top 10! -Liz

    1. Lucky Peach #1 Sum 11 $10.00 – I read this straight through right before I went to sleep the other night and had an INTENSE NIGHTMARE ABOUT RAMEN. Woke up hungry. -EF

    2. Sad Animals by Adam Meuse $4.00 – Sad and cute. What is it saying that this is often in our top 10?

    3. Cabinet #42 Forgetting $12.00

    4. Maximumrocknroll #340 Sep 11 $4.00

    5. Make Your Place: Affordable Sustainable Nesting Skills by Raleigh Briggs (Microcosm) $7.00

    6. Monocle Mediterraneo #3 $8.00

    7. N Plus 1 #12 Fall 11 $13.95

    8. Abolish Restaurants by Prole.info (PM Press) $5.95

    9. Sand Dune Press #1 by Erik Schneider $2.00 – Cutest little comic about tough guys killing each other I ever did see. -EF

    10. Noah Novella: The Peoples History of Noah Van Sciver: Selection of Autobiographical Comics by Noah Van Sciver $4.00 – Noah VanSciver does autobio comics by taking us into his personal troll hole, and it’s not such a bad place to be. He’s a hater, for sure. His crabcake one-pagers about growing up poor, awkward and unlucky really do start to have the Crumb-y effect of explaining the chips on his shoulder. He’s got a good drawing sensibility too that just wrings extra angst and neuroses out of the story. I gotta say, his constant pursuit of fame and fortune through making weird comics wears me down stresses me out a little. The comics are good, they’re being published and noticed, and they’re getting better all the time, it might be time to stop sweating the small stuff and just go for it. -EF

  • Weekly Top 10

    Once again, Lucky Peach at the top, followed by some of the usual suspects. However, we got in a publication from AK about Zapatistas, which is a topic that always seems to work here. Also, a local Chicago guide that I think may be its first time on our Top 10, if I remember correctly. Noah Van Sciver’s history comic rounds out the mix, and that’s available on our website, as are all of the items that have links. Other things, well, guess you’ll have to come in the store or give us a buzz at 773-342-0910.

    1. Lucky Peach #1 Sum 11 $10.00 – I read this straight through right before I went to sleep the other night and had an INTENSE NIGHTMARE ABOUT RAMEN. Woke up hungry. -EF

    2. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol 3 Century #2 1969 by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill (Top Shelf) $9.95 – The newest issue!

    3. Juxtapoz #128 Sep 11 $5.99

    4. Add Toner: A Cometbus Collection by Aaron Cometbus (Last Gasp) – Collects Cometbus 44-48 and a bit of new material. Tales from the Dead End, Lanky, and the Back to the Land series.

    5. Cometbus #54 In China With Green Day by Aaron Cometbus $4.00 – Always a Quimby’s staple.

    6. Commune In Chiapas: Mexico and the Zapatista Rebellion (PAGP) $5.00

    7. We Should: A Selective Guide to Chicago by Laura Szumowski $7.95 – Need a cooler guide to the city than those other alternative weekly or NFT books? Try this one.

    8. Death of Elijah Lovejoy by Noah Van Sciver $5.00 – VanSciver’s snarly lines and curmudgeonly tendancies lend themselves nicely to his mayhem-laden comic about pre-civil war lynch mobs and the ambush and murder of abolitionist and jounalist, Elijah Lovejoy. -EF

    9. Plazm #30 $10.00

    10. Dazed & Confused #100 Aug 11 $9.99

  • Weekly Top 10

    1. Lucky Peach #1 Sum 11 $10.00 – I read this straight through right before I went to sleep the other night and had an INTENSE NIGHTMARE ABOUT RAMEN. Woke up hungry. -EF

    2. Under the Radar #37 $5.99

    3. 8-Track Mind #101 Zines vs Blogs By Russ Forster $3.00 – After a 10-year hiatus 8-Track Mind heeds the call of the Revenge of Print and pulls a fresh new issue out of the oven!

    4.  Bitch #51 $5.95

    5. Cometbus #54 In China With Green Day by Aaron Cometbus $4.00

    6. So Raw its Downright Filthy: A Raw Vegan Cookbook by Joshua Ploeg (Microcosm) $4.00 – Weirdo delicious recipes that also happen to be raw.

    7. Mountain Wilds by Jay Krevens $6.00 – Jay moved to the Portland and just sent us some new scenic love of misty lore and cabin crafts, looming, owling, bear worship and astral travails. Accordian folded booklet has crafts on one side and mountainscape panorama on the reverse. -EF


    8. OK OK You Smote Me Stories by Al Burian (Quimby’s Exclusive) $3.00

    9. Readin and Fightin #3 Mental Health/Education Issue – Insisting on Literature by Women of Color by Camille Yarnover $1.50 – Thoughtful post-collegiate musings from a New Haven zinester exploring issues of race, edication and mental health and how they intersect. -LM

    10. Tiny Bangs #1 by Olivia Horvath $5.00 – This is the build: Emily, with a swarm of hair, working as a nude model, feels the twinges of coming apart at the seams. On her psychic wavelength are her lover Bea full of balance calm and touch and the drawing teacher Ben, smitten and shy. Moody with the light changing like clouds rolling in. -EF

  • Weekly Top 10

    Wow! Except for a few items, Comics R Us this week on the top 10.

    1. Lucky Peach #1 Sum 11 $10.00 – McSweneey’s food mag. The Ramen Issue.
    2. Wax Poetics #47 $9.99
    3. Too Dark to See by Julia Gfrorer (Sparkplug) $5.00 – Another dark, disturbing gorgeous tale from Julia Gfrörer, about a couple being visited by supernatural spirits.
    4. Hi Fructose #20 $6.95
    5. All I Want Is Everything #1 by Caitlin Constantine $3.00 – After a 6-year hiatus on zinemaking, Constantine comes back to the format to tackle a painful part of her personal history, the years she spent with an abusive husband. This resulting zine is powerful and profound; she confronts societal hate and invisibility with articulate and personal writing, wrestling her own demons in the process. -EF
    6. Incredibly Fantastic Adventures of Maureen Dowd #1: A Work of Satire and Fiction by Benjamin Marra (Traditional Comics) $3.00
    7. Alien Invasion #1 by Lauren Albert $5.00
    8. Rambo 3.5 by Jim Rugg (Sparkplug) $2.00 – Ignatz winner for Outstanding Mini-Comic. With the Ruskies gone from Afghanistan, the Taliban, led by anti-Soviet Mujahideen, siezed power in Kabul. After apparently forgetting how awesome and badass Rambo is, the Taliban gave refuge to Osama bin Laden and his terrorist gang – al Queda.
    9. Everything We Miss by Luke Pearson (Nobrow) $20.00 – a compendium of the things that we happen to miss when something else seemingly more important comes along.
    10. Diary Minneapolis, California, New York, What The, Manifestation by Gabrielle Bell $4.00 – Gabrielle’s ‘adaptation’ of the notorious Scum Manifesto. Named as one of the top 25 mini-comics of 2010 by The Comics Journal.