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Category: comics
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Anya Davidson Celebrates Band for Life 10/6
Band for Life collects the beloved series that follows a misfit band of Chicago punks trying to be self-sustaining with their finances and friendships as they navigate the often confounding art world. It’s the story, told in comic strip form, of a noise rock band and their community of friends and acquaintances based in an alternate reality version of Chicago. Though beset with disaster at every turn and frequently reduced to squabbling, they stick together because the band is the fulcrum of their otherwise confounding lives, and together they help each other find their way.
Fusing elements of the classic British sitcom The Young Ones, as well as classic kids comic strips like Charles Schulz’s Peanuts and John Stanley’s Melvin Monster, Band for Life is a work of dark humor, but also infused with genuine affection for its cast; in many ways it is a love letter to creative people compelled to create, with no hope of financial reward.
“I was raised on old school adult comics from the ’60s to ’80s, the artwork of Pedro Bell, Overton Loyd and Ronald Stozo of the Parliament-Funkadelic Universe, Ralph Bakshi movies, and the like. When I came across Band For Life, I was immediately drawn in. The art reminded me of Funkadelic album covers, but with its own original swagger. The storylines spoke to my personal experience as a lifelong musician and band leader/member, in the same way that This Is Spinal Tap made me cry once I realized my life was as absurd as the movie. Anya Davidson is tapped into the very human experience that makes life in a band the story of family.” — Norwood Fisher (Fishbone)
“Anya Davidson gets that being in a band is generally about 5% playing music and 95% anything but. In true punk form, Band For Life kicks into high gear with page number one and never lets up.” — Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt)“Anya’s comics look like Dick Sprang and Boody Rogers got locked in a Pez factory and were told they would not be released until they produced hundreds of pages of a gutter punk Herculoids meets Josie and the Pussycats soap opera dripping soul and neglect.” — Gary Panter (Jimbo)“Band for Life is a warped and hilarious portrayal of the banality and adventure of bandhood from someone who lived it, but embellished gloriously by Anya’s imagination. Fucked up, feminist and funny. If you have ever ground away late nights in a basement trying to desperately remember the bad songs you just wrote, you will recognize your strife here with ‘the Wildest Band on Earth’.” -Jessica Hopper, author & Editorial Director, MTV NewsAnya Davidson was born in Sarasota, Florida in 1983. She graduated with a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004. She is a cartoonist, musician, teaching artist and printmaker whose work appeared in many zines and anthologies, including Kramers Ergot and Best American Comics. Her debut graphic novel, School Spirits, was published by Picturebox Inc. The Ignatz award-winning series, “Band for Life” is her first book with Fantagraphics.
More info:Facebook invite for this event. Tell your friends!
for press inquiries: Anna Pederson (event manager) pederson(at)fantagraphics(dot)com -
Dame Darcy Celebrates The Meat Cake Bible 10/14
Dame Darcy is one of the sui generis artistic talents of the past two decades — musician, actress, fortune teller, dollmaker, Gen X/feminist icon, and last but not least, cartoonist to the core — and has been bewitching readers for more than 20 years with her neo-Victorian horror/humor/romance comic Meat Cake. Alternating between one-off (often cruelly tragic) fairy tales and ongoing romps starring her eclectic cast of characters, including Effluvia the Mermaid, the roguish rou. Wax Wolf, Igpay the Pig-Latin pig, Stregapez (a women who speaks by dispensing Pez-like tablets through a bloody hole in her throat), the mischievous Siamese twins Hindrance and Perfidia, Scampi the Selfish Shellfish, the stalwart Friend the Girl, and the blonde bombshell Richard Dirt, all delineated in her inimitable luxurious scrawl, Meat Cake is like a peek into the most creative, deranged dollhouse you ever saw. The Meat Cake Bible is the definitive collection of the series, collecting every story from all 17 issues (1993-2008) — including “Hungry is the Heart,” Darcy’s legendary collaboration with Alan Moore — as well as new stories from the unpublished 18th issue. A gorgeous, unjacketed hardcover edition replete with cloth deboss, gold foil stamping, and a die-cut cover.
About Dame Darcy:
Renaissance woman Dame Darcy won a scholarship to the San Francisco Art institute at the age of 17 in 1989. There she majored in film and animation, studying under George Kuchar and Larry Jordan. During this time, she self-published Meat Cake Comix; joined the band Caroliner with Lisa Carver, where she performed, released albums and toured; and illustrated Lisa’s magazine Rollerderby, as well as other Bay Area magazines and papers.
Darcy moved to New York in 1992. Her Meat Cake comic-book series began publication with Fantagraphics Books Inc., who publishes Meat Cake and its compilations, which are distributed internationally, to this day.
When not working on her comics, illustration, and fine art, Renaissance woman Dame Darcy also works as a touring musician, dollmaker, animator, fashion model and designer, celebrity interior designer, art teacher, and reality TV star.
For more info:
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Offsite & More: CAKE Kick Off Events & Tabling Exhibition …AND a QUIMBY'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY PANEL!
Quimby’s is proud to co-sponsor The Chicago Alternative Comics Expo [CAKE], a weekend-long celebration of independent comics, inspired by Chicago’s rich legacy as home to many of underground and alternative comics’ most talented artists– past, present and future. Featuring comics for sale, workshops, exhibitions, panel discussions and more, CAKE is dedicated to fostering community and dialogue amongst independent artists, small presses, publishers and readers. The Fifth Annual CAKE tabling exhibition will take place on June 11th-12th at the Center on Halsted (more info below). Special guests include Chester Brown, Tyrell Cannon, Ezra Clayton Daniels, Sammy Harkham, Cathy G Johnson, Patrick Kyle, Laura Park, Trina Robbins, and Leslie Stein.
There are all sorts of awesome CAKE-related things happening that weekend in other places that weekend too! Here are just a few:
Thurs, June 9th, 7pm David Alvarado & Tyrell Cannon at Sulzer Library at 4455 N. Lincoln Ave (NOT at Quimby’s)
Fri, June 10th, noon-1:30pm Chester Brown at Graham Crackers Comics Downtown, 77 E Madison St. (NOT at Quimby’s) He’ll be signing and discussing his new graphic novel Mary Wept at the Foot of Jesus.
Fri, June 10th, 7pm YES, THIS IS AT QUIMBY’S: CAKE Presents Kramer’s Ergot 9 Signing, with Sammy Harkham, Andy Burkholder, Anya Davidson, Kevin Huizenga, Patrick Kyle, John Pham, and Lale Westvind. This event is also sponsored by Revolution Brewery, and will have refreshments provided while supplies last!
Sat, June 11th & Sun, June 12th 11am-6pm Tabling exhibition at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N Halsted Ave. (NOT at Quimby’s) Workshops and panels and all that fun stuff!
AND OH!!! Don’t miss the Quimby’s 25th Anniversary Panel at CAKE!
11:30–12:30 A 25th Anniversary Celebration of Quimby’s!
All Panels are located on the 3rd Floor Hoover-Leppen Theatre at the Center on Halsted
Ok, so a lot of things happened in 1991: with George H. W. Bush still in office, the Gulf War came to an end, the indie comics scene was still recovering from the so-called “black and white implosion,” Superman had about a year left to live, and Nirvana released Nevermind. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Steven Svymbersky opened a little shop on Damen Avenue that, he said, would “carry every cool—bizarre—strange—dope—queer—surreal—weird publication ever written and published,” a place where you could discover, he added, “something you never even knew could exist.” A quarter of a century later, Quimby’s, stuffed with comics and zines and poetry and novels and magazines and newspapers and other paper things that don’t even have a name yet, remains one of the premier bookshops in North America. Jake Austen, editor and publisher of the legendary Chicago music and comics zine Roctober, will moderate a conversation with zinemaker Liz Mason and cartoonists Gabby Schulz (a.k.a. Ken Dahl) and CAKE Special Guest Laura Park (Do Not Disturb My Waking Dream) about the history of Quimby’s and its legacy of strangeness and delight. Who’s bringing the cake? This panel is sponsored by The Center for Cartoon Studies.
For more info about CAKE: cakechicago.com & Max Morris cakeexpo(at)gmail(dot)com.
This year’s banner by Chicago’s own Krystal DiFronzo.
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Chicago Alternative Comics Expo presents Kramers Ergot 9 Signing 6/10
CAKE is excited to present a signing event for Kramers Ergot 9, with CAKE Special Guest Sammy Harkham. Joining the signing will be contributors Andy Burkholder, Anya Davidson, Kevin Huizenga, Patrick Kyle, John Pham, and Lale Westvind.
“I think this is the best issue yet and I couldn’t be happier doing it with any other publisher. Fantagraphics is the place where the best of the low brow and the literary strands of comics are equally represented and cherished on their own terms, and that’s something I have always strived for with Kramers, as well. So it’s a great fit.” – Sammy Harkam
Since Kramers Ergot ‘s inception in 2000, it has introduced new talents and solidified aesthetics; each volume is an of-the-moment, state-of-the-medium manifesto. This anthology has always been a reflection of creator/editor Sammy Harkham’s comics passions, both past and future. Kramers Ergot 9 gathers many of the best and brightest together in one giant, oversized collection.
Quimby’s is proud to co-sponsor The Chicago Alternative Comics Expo [CAKE], a weekend-long celebration of independent comics, inspired by Chicago’s rich legacy as home to many of underground and alternative comics’ most talented artists– past, present and future. Featuring comics for sale, workshops, exhibitions, panel discussions and more, CAKE is dedicated to fostering community and dialogue amongst independent artists, small presses, publishers and readers. The Fifth Annual CAKE will take place on Saturday, June 11 and Sunday, June 12, 2016, at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N Halsted Ave. in Chicago. For more info about CAKE: cakechicago.com & Max Morris cakeexpo(at)gmail(dot)com.
This event is sponsored by Revolution Brewery, and will have refreshments provided while supplies last.
Friday, June 10th, 7pm – Free Event
Click here to see the Facebook event to invite your friends!
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Daniel Clowes Brings “Patience” To Quimby's 3/30
Daniel Clowes returns to Quimby’s to celebrate the release of Patience, the most anticipated graphic novel of 2016!
Patience is the first all new, original graphic novel from Daniel Clowes (Ghost World) in over a half-decade, and also the biggest and most ambitious book yet in a storied career that includes multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards, a PEN Award, and an Academy Award nomination.
Patience is an indescribable psychedelic science-fiction love story, veering with uncanny precision from violent destruction to deeply personal tenderness in a way that is both quintessentially “Clowesian,” and utterly unique in the author’s body of work. This 180-page, full-color story affords Clowes the opportunity to draw some of the most exuberant and breathtaking pages of his life, and to tell his most suspenseful, surprising and affecting story yet.
Wed, March 30th, 7pm at Quimby’s! As usual, our events are free.
Patience by Daniel Clowes
$29.99 – 180 pages
ISBN: 978-1-60699-905-9For more info:
Here’s the Facebook event invite. Put it on your FB calendar and invite your friends!
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Josh Cotter Celebrates the Release of Nod Away 2/27
In Josh Cotter’s new book Nod Away (Fantagraphics Books), deep-space transport has been developed to take a small crew to a habitable planet in a nearby system in an attempt to begin colonization/repopulation. The Internet is now telepathic and referred to as the “innernet.” When the hub is revealed to be a human child, Melody McCabe is hired to develop the new nexus on the second International Space Station. The intersection of human psychology and the ethics of progress is examined through a sci-fi graphic novel that takes place in a not-so-far away future, while hitting home with the realities of consequence and consciousness.
“Cotter is pure cartoonist, in the truest sense,” explains Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds. “He has such an intuitive grip on the language of comics that he makes it look easy, creating these fully realized characters in a fully realized world.”
Cotter garnered international acclaim in 2008 with his original graphic novel Skyscrapers Of The Midwest, released by AdHouse Books. For the past seven years, comics fans and critics alike have been calling out to Cotter for a new book. Nod Away is shaping up to be the most highly anticipated graphic novels of the year. Joshua Cotter lives in rural northwest Missouri with his wife, child, cat, and an astute sense of impending mortality. They keep him making comics.
For more info:
Facebook event post here. Invite your pals!
http://fantagraphics.com/flog/events/chicago-josh-cotter-at-quimbys/
Saturday, February 27th, 7pm – Free Event
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Steven Krakow, author of My Kind of Sound: The Secret History of Chicago Music, in conversation with the Reader’s Philip Montoro on 2/18
Steven Krakow’s My Kind of Sound (Curbside Splendor) compiles more than a decade worth of “The Secret History of Chicago Music,” the illustrated column by Steve Krakow (“Plastic Crimewave”) that has been printed bi-weekly in the Chicago Reader since 2005. There is much to discover in these stories; amidst the slighted fame, botched contracts, overdoses, and break-ups, Krakow spotlights the glory that exists in making music.
Some of these musicians made considerable contributions to Chicago’s music culture, rivaling those of the legends we all know and collect. And some of them didn’t, but Krakow insists that you know about them. Each of the more than 200 columns included in My Kind of Sound were painstakingly constructed by Krakow in his signature scissor-and-glue process, the same he employs in his long-running psychedelic zine, Galactic Zoo Dossier. Charmed though his process may be, Krakow’s gigantic love for music and the people who make it is serious and staggering and the resulting collection is as fun as it is important.
“[The Secret History of Chicago Music] is an education even for us know-it-all music obsessives, and are the only comics that have sent me directly to the record store to dig in the bins for dusty gems.”
—Jessica Hopper, Pitchfork, author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock CriticFacebook invite for this event: https://www.facebook.com/events/106144166435422/
For more info, email Catherine Eves: catherine(at)curbsidesplendor(dot)com
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Quimby's Welcomes Brian Chippendale and Nick Drnaso 2/20
Brian Chippendale (Puke Force) is hitting the road with Nick Drnaso (Beverly). Cartoonist and Lightning Bolt drummer Chippendale’s debut with Drawn & Quarterly is a dark and dense social satire that comments on social media narcissism, the malice of the right, and the hypocrisies of the left. Drnaso’s Beverly delves into the barely repressed anxieties and obsessions of suburban teens. Join Brian Chippendale and Nick Drnaso for an evening of great comics and book signings!Brian Chippendale is a musician and artist based in Providence, Rhode Island. He was one of the founding members of the Fort Thunder collective. Chippendale is the author of Maggots, If n Oof, and Ninja, and the drummer/singer half of the noise rock band Lightning Bolt. His most recent publication Puke Force comes out this Fall. More info here.
Nick Drnaso was born in 1989 in Palos Hills, Illinois. He has contributed to several comics anthologies, self-published a handful of comics, been nominated for three Ignatz Awards, and co-edited the second and third issue of Linework, Columbia College’s annual comic anthology. Drnaso lives in Chicago, where he works as a cartoonist and illustrator. His debut publication Beverly comes out this Fall. More info here.
Click here to see the event invite on Facebook!
Click the links below to download pdf press releases about these titles from Drawn & Quarterly, the publisher:
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Announcing the 2nd Annual TRANSIT Residency for CAKE 2016!
As per a CAKE e-mail!:
CAKE is proud to announce our continuing partnership with Transit Residency and Chicago Public Resources Center (ChiPRC) as applications open for the second annual inbound comics artist residency!
Transit Residency is looking for non-Chicago-based cartoonists and zinesters to apply for a chance to spend the 2 weeks leading up to CAKE (May 29 – June 12) creating work at the beautiful ChiPRC studio/workspace. The winner of this juried residency is awarded a stipend of $1000 to help cover travel and lodging expenses. They will also receive a free table space at CAKE as well as integration into programming at CAKE 2016!
Last year Transit and ChiPRC hosted Ignatz nominee and Society of Illustrators Gold Medal winner Roman Muradov, who wrote about his experience here for the Transit blog. We hope all of our out of town exhibitors, friends, and visitors will apply! For more information, please follow this link.
The Fourth Annual Chicago Alternative Comics Expo will take place on Saturday, June 11 and Sunday, June 12, 2016 at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N Halsted Ave. If you have any questions about the residency, please contact Meredith Winer at meredith@transitresidency.org.
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HOW MANY FINGERS AM I HOLDING UP? Release Event With Andy Slater and Marisa Choate 11/21
You may have seen blind man-at-large, Andy Slater (aka Velcro Lewis) walking around Chicago with his trusty white cane. He makes being blind look so easy but if you ask him about his disability he’ll tell you just how hard it can be. From the stereotypical Mr. Magoo routines like walking into a tree to the confrontations with people who accuse him of faking his disability, Andy’s stories can be both amusing and heartbreaking. In an honest one-on-one or a sardonic rant, Andy is always willing to talk about his experiences.Slater’s Chick Tract-inspired comic, How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up?, chronicles his experiences as a blind pedestrian enduring harassment from aggressive ableists and the unwanted “help” from busy-body gawkers. The book doubles as a DOs & DON’Ts guide on assisting blind folks.
The comic was created so that Slater had something physical to hand to curious people or aggressive jerks that he runs into. Witnessing Slater cut a loudmouth down to size is an act of beauty but has weighed on the author’s soul. This comic ends the debate before it starts and saves many from embarrassment.
Slater looks to spread his propaganda like a Chick comic. Illustrated by Steve Krakow How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up?, stays true to the Chick tract format. The comic will blend perfectly on any church’s reading rack between The First Jews and The Gay Blade.
Andy Slater will read from his comic and share more or his absurd experiences. There will also be a Q & A with the author. Ask anything… learn everything!: “How do you wipe your butt?” “Can you fight like Daredevil?” “How come you don’t have a guide dog?” “Do blind people dream of invisible sheep?” “Do you know Stevie Wonder?”
Artist, Marisa Choate, will read excerpts from her piece, 1000 Voices, a collection of personal stories about disability told by people with and without disabilities. Slater will also make chili!
More info: thisisandyslater.com
Facebook event invite to send to people can be found here on Facebook.
Sat, Nov 21st, 7pm – Free Event, Quimby’s Bookstore
P.S. You might be interested in his most hilarious video he made for Rock Trauma:
