Category: comics

  • CAKE Bake Auction Fundraiser at No Nation Art Gallery on April 25th

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    The Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) will be holding its annual art auction fundraiser at 7:00 pm on Saturday, April 25th, at the NO NATION art gallery, located at 1542 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. The event, called CAKE Bake, will be hosted by Lyra Hill, a well-known Chicago cartoonist and filmmaker.

    The event will feature live and silent auctions of over 30 pieces of art by cartoonists from Chicago and elsewhere, including Jeffrey Brown, Ivan Brunetti, Lilli Carre, Anders Nilsen, Lucy Knisley, Edie Fake, Keiler Roberts, and Anya Davidson. In addition, live comics readings will be performed by Lyra Hill, John Porcellino, Sara Heymann of the Mortville Collective, and Ben Marcus.

    Max Morris, a member of CAKE’s organizing committee, said, “We are very excited to hold CAKE Bake, which has been a great success for us in the past. As a volunteer-run non-profit event, we rely on fundraisers like this to make each year’s CAKE a success, and we greatly appreciate the support we get from the local comics community, especially all the pieces of art that our great cartoonists have donated. We’re really excited about this year’s CAKE, in which we’re going to be offering hands-on workshops for the first time, as well as programming featuring our amazing special guests, including Jillian Tamaki, Eleanor Davis, Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez, Dash Shaw, and Zak Sally. We think this year’s CAKE is going to be the best one yet, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop trying to keep making it better and better.”

    The Chicago Alternative Comics Expo [CAKE] is 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 Fourth Annual CAKE will take place on Saturday, June 6 and Sunday, June 7, 2015, at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N Halsted Ave. in Chicago.

    Quimby’s Bookstore is proud to be a CAKE co-sponsor.

    More info:

    cakexpo(at)gmail(dot)com

    cakechicago.com

  • Josh Simmons Reads From Black River 5/7

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    Josh Simmons returns with his first full-length graphic novel since 2007’s acclaimed House. A group of women, one man, and two dogs are making their way through a post-apocalyptic world in search of a city that supposedly still has electricity and some sort of civilization. Along the way, they go to a comedy club, take a drug called Gumdrop, and encounter gangs of men who are fools, lunatics, or murderous sadists. In other words, all manner of terrors.

    Simmons is one of the field’s most distinctive voices in the genre of horror, (The Furry Trap, House) and this full-length graphic novel is his best work yet – echoing director John Carpenter’s perfect tick-tock pacing, as well as Shirley Jackson’s ability to transcend genre and turn it into literature.

    “Josh Simmons has concocted a hellish world in which madwomen roam a post-apocalyptic landscape – but its battlescars are nothing compared to the self-obliterating hell of their own minds. A horrifying, unforgettable vision.”

    – Kier-La Janisse (House of Psychotic Women)

     

    Josh Simmons was born in Connecticut in 1977. He is the creator of the graphic novels House, Jessica Farm Volume One, and The Furry Trap. He currently lives in New Haven, CT.

    For more info:

    jhscomics.tumblr.com/

    http://www.fantagraphics.com/blackriver

    Click here to see video of pages from the book.

    Facebook event invite for the event.

    Thursday, May 7th, 7pm – Free Event

  • There Will Be Popcorn: Celebrate Free Comic Book Day and Independent Bookstore Day

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    Have you heard the good news? This year both Free Comic Book Day and Independent Bookstore Day fall on the same awesome Saturday (May 2)! Come to Quimby’s for free comics PLUS popcorn and Quimby’s-centric movies playing all day long. Pop a squat with some corn and be awed by the rad collision of a mega-bookstore event.

    Click here for Facebook invite.

    *** Awesome concession stand artwork by Neil Brideau ***

     

  • Quimby's Welcomes Joyce Brabner 4/18

    secavecapcvrThe renowned graphic-book author Joyce Brabner’s Second Avenue Caper is the true story of a tight-knit group of artists and activists living in New York City in the early 1980s who found themselves on the front lines in the fight against AIDS.

    Struggling to understand the disease and how they could help, they made a deal with a bona fide goodfella, donned masterful disguises, piled into an “A-Team” van, and set off for the border, determined to save their bedridden friends by smuggling an experimental drug into the United States from Mexico.

    With their community in crisis and the world turned against them, this impassioned gang of misfits never gave up hope as they searched for ways to raise awareness and beat the plague. Fast-paced, poignant, and beautifully illustrated by the award-winning illustrator Mark Zingarelli, Second Avenue Caper is a heartfelt tribute to the generation that faced down AIDS.

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    Joyce Brabner is an award-winning author of nonfiction comics about tough social issues. She frequently collaborated with her late husband, Harvey Pekar, on his American Splendor series. Her own titles include the Real War Stories series, Activists!, Brought to Light (with Alan Moore), numerous short stories, and Our Cancer Year (also with Harvey). She lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and is rather more lighthearted than any of the actresses who have portrayed her in various plays or in that movie.

    Facebook event post: https://www.facebook.com/events/869711073072299/

    SAC Author_Artists- Joyce

    Sat, April 18th, 7pm

  • A Night of Cartoonists: Keiler Roberts, Gina Wynbrandt, and Special guest Nicole J. Georges 3/26

    Nicole J Georges 2015Nicole Georges will reading from her book, Calling Dr. Laura and discuss the process of making it, and will talk about her senior citizen zine project, Tell It Like It Tiz.

    Keiler Roberts (Powdered Milk) and Gina Wynbrandt (Big Pussy) will read from their comics.

    powderedmilk6someonepleasehave

    Info about Keiler Roberts here and Gina Wynbrandt here.

    Nicole J. Georges is a writer and illustrator from Portland, Oregon. Her Lambda Award winning graphic memoir, Calling Dr. Laura, was called “engrossing, lovable, smart and ultimately poignant” by Rachel Maddow, and “disarming and haunting, hip and sweet, all at one” by Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home. She has been publishing her own zines and comics for almost twenty years; and has toured the country extensively, including two appearances on Michelle Tea’s Sister Spit tour. Nicole’s diary comic zine, Invincible Summer, has been collected into two anthology books. Nicole was the 2013 Fellow at the Center for Cartoon Studies, where she was also on faculty. She won the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Arts Education in 2012, and currently teaches at California College for the Art’s MFA in Comics Program.
    In her spare time, Nicole writes an advice column for Bitch Magazine, publishes a yearly animal calendar, and volunteers with senior citizens at Portland’s Marie Smith Center (she publishes a zine about these seniors, called Tell It Like It Tiz). She is currently at work on a graphic memoir called Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home. It will be out with Mariner books in 2017.? More info:  nicolejgeorges.tumblr.com.

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    Facebook event invite here.

  • Daniel Clowes Signs The Complete Eightball 1-18 on 4/30

    Complete Eightball Tour Poster_Quimbys

    Daniel Clowes’s new book The Complete Eightball 1-18 (Fantagraphics Books) collects 18 issues of the beloved comic books series Eightball, originally published between 1989 and 1997, and widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential comic book titles of all time. Before he rose to fame as the author of bestselling graphic novels Ghost World, Ice Haven, and Daniel Boring, Clowes made his name with such seminal serialized graphic novels/strips/rants as “Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron,” “Ghost World,” “Art School Confidential,” “Glue Destiny,” and so many more, including many never reprinted before now. For this 25th Anniversary, Fantagraphics is collecting these long out-of-print issues in a slipcased set of two hardcover volumes, reproducing each issue in facsimile form exactly as they were originally published.

    “[Clowes’s comics have] the perfect interplay between his tightly controlled artwork, the empty rage…simmering just beneath it, and just below that, a strangely simple yearning for simple and solid things, like, say, love…There’s poetry in every panel.” – Dave Eggers

    The work of Daniel Clowes has been featured in The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Esquire, GQ, and many other magazines. He was the first cartoonist to be selected for Esquire’s annual fiction issue in 1998, created the much-praised animated video for the Ramones’ “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up,” designed the poster illustration for Todd Solondz’s Happiness, and has contributed numerous memorable covers to The New Yorker.

    In 2001, the adaptation of Ghost World, based on a script by Clowes and director Terry Zwigoff, earned an Academy Award Nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and won the Independent Spirit award. He currently has several film projects in development.

    For more info:

    fantagraphics.com/complete8ball

    danielclowes.com

    facebook event post

    Thursday, April 30th, 7pm – Free Event

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  • Off-site Event: Zine Book Club at CHIPRC "Is It the Future Yet" With Corinne Mucha 2/11

    Zine Book club at the #CHIPRC with #CorinneMucha 2/11. “Is It the Future Yet?” sold here. More info at chiprc.org

    A photo posted by Quimbys Bookstore (@quimbysbookstore) on

    CHIPRC’s Zine Book Club returns in 2015 on Wednesday, February 11th at 7pm at The Chicago Publishers Resource Center (CHIPRC) at 858 N. Ashland Avenue (not Quimby’s). The discussion will feature local comic artist Corinne Mucha’s work, Is It the Future Yet?, which was commissioned exclusively by Quimby’s! Corrine Mucha will be present to join the discussion, sign work and will have other titles available for sale.

    Also, bring in your favorite zine/comic from 2014 to discuss and share. Pick up this month’s comic here at Quimby’s bookstore, located at 1854 West North Avenue (while supplies last).

    There will be a $3 donation asked at the door. Meet other zinesters, read new work, bring in your favs, be part of the discussion and have a good time. Chicago Publishers Resource Center is located at 858 N Ashland Ave.

    ABOUT: CHIPRC’s Zine Book Club gets together periodically to discuss and support zine culture. At each event, new self published zine and comic titles will be selected to read and discussed. CHIPRC works with community partners and local self-publishers to select the titles read for the month.

    Go to chiprc.org for more information.

    This event is NOT AT QUIMBY’S. It is at CHIPRC at 858 N. Ashland Avenue.

  • Meet the Artists of Speculative Relationships at Quimby's Fri, 10/24

    Speculative Relationships poster

    Join the creators behind the recently released sci-fi romance comics anthology Speculative Relationships at Quimby’s on Fri, Oct 24th at 7pm.  The event will feature 4 Chicago comics creators featured in the book:

    Isabella Rotman (Scarleteen.com, Animal Sex, Dig)

    Daniel Warren Johnson (Space-Mullet.com, Ghost Fleet)

    Tyrell Cannon (Victus, Gary)

    Scott Kroll (Bone Dog, A Cramped Well-Pressurized Space)

    There will be a presentation by the artists and copies of Speculative Relationships will be available for purchase and signing.

    Speculative Relationships: A Science Fiction Romance Comics Anthology

    In the mid-twentieth century, romance was the most popular genre in comics. Comic publishers produced dozens of titles throughout the 1950s and 60s, and many of the medium’s top artistic talents such as Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, and Frank Frazetta worked in romance comics. However, by the 1970s, the once-dominant genre of romance comics all but died out.

    The artists featured in the new Speculative Relationships anthology are ready to start the revival.  The anthology features up-and-coming artists creating brand-new science fiction romance comics:

    Isabella Rotman

    Michael Manomivibul

    Rinko Endo

    Daniel Warren Johnson

    Tyrell Cannon

    Scott Kroll

    The eight stories in the anthology include  a cyborg fighting alien hordes for love, a computer AI in love with a sleeping interstellar voyager, two robots that were literally made for each other, and so much more!

    Find out more:

    speculativerelationships.tumblr.com

    Twitter@scifiromancecom

  • John Porcellino Launches The Hospital Suite 9/27

    porcellino092714Join Quimby’s and John Porcellino on Saturday, September 27th, at 7pm, for the launch of his latest, The Hospital Suite! There will be a presentation with a signing to follow. This event will also feature a screening of Root Hog or Die, a new documentary celebrating 25 years of King-Cat Comics.

    The Hospital Suite is a landmark work by the celebrated cartoonist and small-press legend John Porcellino—an autobiographical collection detailing his struggles with illness in the 1990s and early 2000s. One day, John Porcellino suddenly fell ill with extreme stomach pain. After a gruelling abdominal surgery, he quickly recovered–briefly–and then spent the next several years experiencing various surprise illnesses, both physical and mental. First a rash of environmental intolerances left Porcellino black-eyed, cadaverous, and dizzy. Then his mild obsessive-compulsive tendencies became full-blown. With three overlapping narratives, The Hospital Suite recounts one man’s battle for health–Porcellino loses jobs, marriages, and faith but never loses his desire to live and create.

    John Porcellino is the author of the iconic zine King-Cat and the graphic novel Perfect Example. His comics are lauded for their quiet, clear-eyed contemplation of every-day life. The Hospital Suite is a testimony to Porcellino’s subtle gift for transforming his struggles–this time with the medical system and its consequences for his mental health–into art that is universal and engaging.

    Learn more about the documentary here.

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  • Lane Milburn Talks About Twelve Gems 8/30

    TwelveGemsQuimbyPosterThe sci-fi epic Twelve Gems by Lane Milburn takes place somewhere in the outer cosmos, beyond reckoning or observation. The mysterious Dr. Z has enlisted three space heroes to search the galaxy for the fabled Twelve Gems of Power: the hulking alien-brawn Furz; the beautiful and deadly sabre-wielding Venus; and the soft-spoken canine technician, Dogstar. They meet many strange and storied characters on their journey, but none so strange or sinister as their dear benefactor himself. With a heavy dose of humor and wall-to-wall action, this is one of the most action-packed and funny books of the year.

    “It’s ’80s-indie black-and-white space-opera action as you like it!” – Robot 6

    Lane Milburn was born and raised in Lexington, KY. He graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2008 with a degree in Painting. While living in Baltimore, Milburn self published several minicomics with the underground art collective, Closed Caption Comics. The Xeric Foundation awarded him a grant in 2009 for his book Death Trap which he self published in 2010. Milburn currently lives and works in Chicago, IL where he is an active member of the alternative comics community.

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