Category: comics

  • off-site but of interest: Long-Arm Stapler First Aid: OPENING RECEPTION at Spudnik Press Cooperative

    Long-Arm-WEB
    Long-Arm Stapler First Aid: Self-Care In Zines and Mini Comics

    Curated by Liz Mason and Neil Brideau
    4/20/13 – 5/31/13
     
    Opening Reception: April 20, 2013 6:00 – 9:00pm
    The Annex @ Spudnik Press Cooperative,     1821 W Hubbard, Suite 303, Chicago, IL
    (NOT at Quimby’s)
    Whether we’re soothing, grooming or creating major life changes, we’re always involved in some sort of self-care, no matter how big or trivial. Drinking coffee, petting animals, getting stuff off our chests, confronting personal and societal demons, we are perpetually creating a space for our own personal world to exist healthfully in the bigger world. Indeed, the personal is social.
    Instead of relying on professional services, one can create change using a DIY mentality, often with the help of some sort of reference. At their core, the pieces in this group show suggest we must be our own proponents for health and well-being.
    The exhibit “Long-Arm Stapler First Aid” features pieces by a variety of zinesters and comics artists. The pieces discuss and/or illustrate self-care topics that both help themselves and inspire the reader to be their own advocate in self-improvement. In honor of self-publishing as a means to foster well-being, Spudnik Press is proud to host this exhibition featuring dozens of zine makers from across the country, including Edie Fake, Rinko Endo, Kathleen McIntyre, Ramsey Beyer, Liz Prince, Dina Kelberman, Sara McHenry, Maris Wicks, Beth Barnett, Nate Beaty, Raleigh Briggs, Danielle Chenette, Emilja Frances, Turtel Onli, Trubble Club, Caroline Paquita, Sarah McNeil, Milo Miller, Corinne Mucha, Kitari Sporrong, Missy Kulik, Cathy Leamy, Erick Lyle and more.
    Long Arm Stapler First Aid will also include a limited edition exhibition zine, compiled by Liz Mason, encompassing relevant self-care themes in zines and mini-comics such as: healing, grief, fitness, and medical issues. The exhibit will also feature a limited edition screenprint by Ramsey Beyer, published by Spudnik Press.
     
    This show brings together an assortment of zines and comics that address health-related issues ranging from mental to physical, personal to societal, and preventative to regenerative, including such specifics as grooming, food preparation, self-defense, coping strategies, defense mechanisms, mental or spiritual development and even soul enrichment. These largely self-published works address, at times, incredibly personal experiences, usually with a large dose of wit.
    Unlike a film or a painting, readers of zines and comics are able to engage with these works at their own pace, choosing when they are ready to confront the next page. Perhaps this is what allows authors to broach difficult, and often very personal, topics with great breadth of emotion, honesty, and clarity. Through the combination of words and images, artists are able to rely on multiple modes of communication to bring together the tangible and the cerebral.
    Why the long-arm stapler? It’s the symbol of home-stapled periodicals, the best kind of stapler to use for getting to the center of the page that a normal stapler can’t reach. And the very act of making a zine and mini comic (and reading) is considered a therapeutic caring action.
    Long live (and maintain, groom and sooth) the long-arm stapler!
    About the curators:
    Liz Masonis the manager of Quimby’s Bookstore, known for selling a variety of self-published works, as well as the editor and publisher for the zine Caboose.

    Neil Brideau is comics artist and comics sommelier at Quimby’s Bookstore, as well as an organizer of CAKE, Chicago’s Alternative Comics Expo.

    *Image Credit to Dina Kelbermann

  • Laydeez Do Comics Chicago April Edition With Jeffrey Brown

    Laydeez Chicago

    The monthly focus on lady comics and friends of lady comics artists returns. Come hear comics creators speak about their work, their process, their plans, and whatever else they want to share with us. For more info: laydeezdocomics.blogspot.com

    This month’s guest is artist Jeffrey Brown, author of Clumsy, and his new book is Vader’s Little Princess.
    Vaders-little-princessJeffrey-Brown-Illustrator-of-Vaders-Little-Princess-book-Honorable-Mention-March

    About Jeffrey Brown:

    After growing up in Michigan, a 25-year-old Jeffrey Brown moved to Chicago in 2000 to pursue an MFA at the School of the Art Institute. By the time he completed his studies, he had abandoned painting and started drawing comics seriously. His first self-published book, Clumsy, appeared seemingly out of nowhere to grab attention from both cartoonists and comics fans. Established as an overly sensitive chronicler of bittersweet adolescent romance and nonsense superhero parody, Brown’s current direction remains split between more autobiography examining the minutiae of everyday life and whatever humorous fiction he feels in the mood for. His most popular works include Clumsy, Unlikely, AEIOU, and Every Girl is the End of the World For Me, comprising the so-called “Girlfriend Trilogy” and its epilogue. More recently his autobiographical work has included Little Things and Funny Misshapen Body. His parody The Incredible Change-Bots, the Ignatz Award winning I am going to be small and humorous cat book Cat Getting Out Of A Bag all stand out amongst his humor work, while his Sulk series continues to take on a variety of subjects with satire. Jeffrey’s work has appeared in a host of anthologies from McSweeney’s to The Best American Comics, as well as mainstream books like The Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror and Marvel’s Strange Tales. His original artwork has been exhibited in New York, Paris, and Chicago. Brown has been featured on NPR’s This American Life and even created a short animated music video for the band Death Cab For Cutie. He lives in Chicago with his wife and son. More info: jeffreybrowncomics.com

  • Laydeez Do Comics Chicago March Edition with John Porcellino (King-Cat) and Riva Lehrer 3/28

    Laydeez Chicago

     

    The Laydeez Do Comics March Edition will feature John Porcellino (King-Cat) and Riva Lehrer.
    The monthly focus on lady comics and friends of lady comics artists returns. The first two meetings were smashing successes and this one hopes to be as amazing! Come hear comics creators speak about their work, their process, their plans, and whatever else they want to share with us.Laydeez Do Comics, London’s monthly comics salon founded by Nicola Streeten (Billy, Me, and You) and Sarah Lightman (The Book of Sarah, Graphic Details) is adding to branches in Leeds and San Francisco, and has started a branch in Chicago.

    For more info: laydeezdocomics.blogspot.com

  • Gilbert Hernandez Talks About Marble Season 4/18

    MARBLE.case-webJoin beloved cartoonist Gilbert Hernandez (LOVE & ROCKETS) as he launches his new D+Q graphic novel MARBLE SEASON, his first semiautobiographical story of his childhood. Hernandez will present a fascinating slide show “From Funnybooks to Graphic Novels” featuring the comics of his childhood, in addition to a Q+A and signing.  These silver age comics not only influenced MARBLE SEASON, but also set the course for Gilbert, as well as his brothers Jaime and Mario, to become the legendary comics creator they are today.

    MARBLE SEASON is the first ever semi-autobiographical novel by  acclaimed cartoonist Gilbert Hernandez of Love & Rockets, and is also his first graphic novel for Drawn & Quarterly. Meet Huey. He’s the middle child of a big family, growing up in a California suburb in the 1960s. He stages Captain America plays in the backyard and treasures his older brother’s comic-book collection almost as much as his approval. Set against the golden age of the American dream and the silver age of comics, MARBLE SEASON is a subtle and deft rumination on the redemptive and timeless power of storytelling and worldbuilding in childhood.

    “Perhaps no other current creators of comics recognize (or vividly remember) the ways actual kids think, talk, or even stand and walk as accurately as the Hernandez brothers, and no other comics artists so delicately intertwine moments of childhood trauma with the goofy logic that otherwise sustains kids when they begin to sense that they live in an irrational world.”
    —from the afterword by Corey Creekmur

    “Gilbert Hernandez is one of the great craftsmen of modern comics.”—New York Times

    Praise for Palomar: “These deeply influential tales, a sort of Archie-comics-meets-Marquez melange of complicated pan-American inter-relationships, are a comix epic.”—Time

    Praise for Gilbert Hernandez: “He…[should]…be considered one of the greatest American storytellers. It’s so hard to do funny, tragic, local and epic, and he does all simultaneously, and with great aplomb.”
    —Junot Diaz, Los Angeles TIMES

    Need some help getting up to speed on the rich history of Los Hernandez Bros? Need a quick “How to Read Love & Rockets” 101 of sorts? There’s a helpful Love and Rockets Guide at the Fantagraphics website!

    gilberthernandez_webGilbertHernandezSelfportrait

  • Off-Site Event: Special Screening of Wonder Women: The Untold Story of American Superheroines and Superhero Expo

     

    wonderwomenflyer-1

    SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2013
    2:00-4:00 PM
    CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER
    2nd Floor Claudia Cassidy Theatre
    With a discussion featuring comics artists Jill Thompson, Lyra Hill and Jenny Frison.
    Host: Allison Cuddy of WBEZ/Chicago Public Radio.

    (NOT AT QUIMBY’S; AT THE CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER, 78 E Washington St  Chicago, IL 60602)

    Superhero Expo
    2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
    in the 1st Floor Garland Room
    with Brain Frame, Girls in the Game, Quimby’s Bookstore and more.
    Featuring the Superhero art show (see details below), Photo Booth (with costumes),
    and the Superhero Portrait Slam with Project Onward artists (11am – 4pm)!

    Envision Superheroines for the Modern Age!
    Renditions will be displayed at the Wonder Women Expo at the Cultural Center on March 16th during and following the screening of the documentary Wonder Women: The Untold Story of American Superheroines. From the birth of the comic book superheroine in the 1940s to the blockbusters of today, this documentary looks at how popular representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation.

    Bring your drawings/paintings/art to the Expo.  Any format for the art is fine.

    To consider:
    What is her mission?
    What does she look like? What is her costume?
    What powers does she possess?
    What issues does she tackle? Whom is she going to save?
    Does she have an everyday alter-ego/cover?  If so, what is her occupation?
    What are her personal challenges?
    Does she have a sidekick?
    What is her mode of transportation?
    Special gadgets she employs in her feats?
    What is her “kryptonite”?

    Presented by WTTW Channel 11 and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in partnership with Chicago Foundation For Women, Eileen Fisher Foundation, Project Onward and Quimby’s Bookstore.

    Community Cinema is a national civic engagement initiative featuring free monthly screenings of films from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens. Every month in 100+ cities, community members come together to learn, discuss, and get involved in key social issues of our time.

     

  • Laydeez Do Comics Chicago February Edition 2/28

    Laydeez Chicago
    Laydeez Do Comics, London’s monthly comics salon founded by Nicola Streeten (Billy, Me, and You) and Sarah Lightman (The Book of Sarah, Graphic Details) has added to branches in Leeds and San Francisco by starting a branch in Chicago.

    The first meeting was a smashing success and this one hopes to be as amazing!

    Come hear comics creators speak about their work, their process, their plans, and whatever else they want to share with us.

    February speakers will be:

    Laura Szumowski (zoo-mouse-key.com)
    David Mitchell (realityenginecomic.com)
    and MK Czerwiec (comicnurse.com)

    For more info: laydeezdocomics.blogspot.com
    and/or
    comicnurse (at) mac (dot) com
    As always, this event at Quimby’s is free.

  • Geneviève Castrée Presents & Signs Susceptible 2/16

    Goglu is a daydreamer with a young working mother, a disengaged stepfather, and a father who lives five thousand miles away. Drawing, punk rock, and the promise of true independence guide Goglu to adulthood while her home’s daily chaos inevitably shapes her identity. Susceptible is a devastating graphic novel debut by Geneviève Castrée about the heartbreaking loss of innocence when a child is forced to be the adult among grownups

    Praise for Geneviève Castrée:

    “With mesmerizing honesty Castrée resurrects the obscenely disorienting turning points of a childhood, the ones that haunt a person for a lifetime. After reading the last page I closed the book and wept a little bit about its simple, perfect ending.” –Miranda July,authorofitchoosesyouand noonebelongsheremorethanyou

    “[Castrée] offers three connected minimalist fables dreamily portraying a young woman’s reactions to depression, domesticity, and mother hood in delicate watercolors that, thanks largely to her keen graphic skills, made them whimsical without being cloying.” –Booklist

    “[Castrée’s work], illustrated in a delicately watercolored style that suggests Richard Scarry in the throes of an Edward Gorey obsession, is an episodic

    meditation on love, belonging, and personal identity. The visual metaphors for depression and home will break your heart; the care taken with their rendering will join the broken pieces back together on every page.” —The Austin Chronicle

    GENEVIÈVE CASTRÉE was born in Quebec. She has been drawing since the age of two. Castrée lives and works in the Pacific Northwest, where she makes visual art, and records and plays music under the name Ô PAON.

    For more info, see quimbys.com
    Preview the book here.

    Sat Feb 16th, 7pm – Free Event

  • Laydeez Do Comics Chicago Premieres 1/31, With Kris Dresen, Corinne Mucha and Rinko Endo


    Laydeez Do Comics,     London’s monthly comics salon founded by Nicola Streeten (Billy, Me, and You) and Sarah Lightman (The Book of Sarah, Graphic Details) is adding to branches in Leeds and San Francisco by starting a branch in Chicago! Come hear comics creators speak about their work, their process, their plans, and whatever else they want to share with us.

    Our inaugural speakers will be Kris Dresen (Max & Lilly, Manya, She Said),

    Corinne Mucha (Freshman, My Alaskan Summer, Chicago Magazine),

    Rinko Endo (Aggression Management Manga, The Cage)

    join us for our inaugural event:

    Thursday, January 31, 7pm

    and following will be the last Thursday of every month

    Free Event

    For more info: laydeezdocomics.com or comicnurse@mac.com

    Facebook event info: https://www.facebook.com/events/510206982333483/

  • Dame Darcy Reads Handbook for Hot Witches: Dame Darcy's Illustrated Guide to Magic, Love, and Creativity

    Just in time for Halloween! Quimby’s is excited to welcome Dame “Meat Cake” Darcy for her new book Handbook for Hot Witches.

    Plenty of artwork to satisfy her comics and illustration fans both young and old, Dame Darcy combines a graphic novel with a dash of crafts, a sprinkle of feminist fairy tales, and a whole cauldron of spells and voilà! Handbook for Hot Witches: Dame Darcy’s Illustrated Guide to Magic, Love, and Creativity is the guide for girls who want cool things to do and great friends to do them with, who aren’t afraid to be their different, awesome selves. It’s a celebration of powerful, creative girls—the sort of girls who may have been called “witches” once, but who, as this book proclaims, are “hot,” because of their talent and their uniqueness. With sections on banjo playing, beauty spells, palm reading, and much more, this fully illustrated handbook will send girls of any age on their way to independence, creativity, and magic DIY-style.

    “Part graphic novel, part New Age primer, with dashes of astrology and crafts and pinches of beauty hints, the book packs a lot into its 200 pages.” —School Library Journal

    What others have said about Dame Darcy:

    “Darcy’s comics are aesthetic manifestos. . . . Darcy is a star.” —The New York Times

    “I think she’s exquisite, let’s put it that way. I wish I knew her in high school.” —Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth

    Praise for Meat Cake:

    “[Darcy] has created a childlike, otherworldly realm, a land that hovers in the twilight space between the whimsical and the macabre. Ghosts and goblins, foul-tempered stepmothers, lovesick mermaids and charmed forest are all rendered in Darcy’s distinctive hand, loose and flowing lines reminiscent of the work of Edward Gorey.” —The Los Angeles Times

     Dame Darcy currently resides in New York City and Savannah, Georgia. She is known worldwide as an illustrator, writer, fine artist, musician, filmmaker, animator, environmentalist, and Cabaret Mermaid. Her illustrated titles include The Illustrated Jane Eyre, and she has been publishing her comic book series, Meat Cake, for twenty years. More info about her at damedarcy.com.

  • Scott Campbell Discusses Great Showdowns


    Since the beginning of time, there has been struggle. The epic clash of being against being. Tyrannosaurus Rex vs. Triceratops. Giant Squid vs. the Sperm Whale. The Circle vs. the Square.  The struggle is forever. It makes the world turn around. These are the struggles that make us stop what we are doing and sort of check things out… wondering what the eff. Scott C. chronicles some of the greatest confrontations in FILM HISTORY. The greatest moments of melee. These are the GREAT SHOWDOWNS. And they sort of enjoy that they are the great showdowns.

    With equal parts style, humor, and insight, Scott C. has delighted an international fanbase with his unique watercolor paintings, illustrations, and drawings. Amazing Everything: The Art of Scott C. is his first monograph, the best and most imaginative works of art in his emerging career.

    Admirers and collectors seek out Scott C.’s appearances at such diverse venues as Comic-Con in San Diego and Galerie Arludik in Paris to see his unusual depictions of pop-culture subjects and original creations: Victorian-era dinosaurs at high tea; lumberjacks and their sometimes-awkward relationship with trees; and ninjas lounging in their living room at home. These and other reflections of Scott C.’s artistic vision have kept him on the radar of such pop-culture trend outlets as Flavorpill and Hi-Fructose.