Category: Event

  • Quimby’s Bookstore Welcomes Kevin Huizenga and Dan Zettwoch 6/15

    Gloriana is a long-form poem in graphic form, and within its pages, Kevin Huizenga exposes the mechanics that underpin everyday life. His protagonist, Glenn Ganges, has conversations about dish soap and library visits that are both faithful depictions of mundane interactions and existential dissections of the units that construct our lives.
    In Gloriana, Kevin Huizenga exposes the mechanics that underpin everyday life. His protagonist, Glenn Ganges, has conversations about dish soap and library visits that are both faithful depictions of mundane interactions and existential dissections of the units that construct our lives. Huizenga has an understated, quiet approach to story writing that allows his characters (and his readers) the self-awareness to recognize the humor and tragedy of every moment.

    Huizenga’s much-lauded work is finely detailed, and in its innovative use of form, it explores the boundaries of the comic medium, deconstructing and reconstructing panels to express temporality and lived experience more fully. Presented in this expanded edition, Gloriana employs familiar settings and thorough, sometimes scientific explanations to reach thoughtful conclusions.

    Dan Zettwoch’s Birdseye Bristoe celebrates the visual complexity of our world, and the impossibility of distilling this into a single digital signal. In Birdseye Bristoe, there are homes rigged entirely from bungee cords and 3-liter soda bottles, geodesic domes that have been turned into jungle gyms, an array of lawn-mowing routes, and guessing games inspired by the ambiguity of religious and heavy metal iconography.

    It’s a story line we know all too well: “A mysterious stranger comes to town.” Only the town is not really a town and the stranger is a gigantic cell-phone tower. The town is Birdseye Bristoe—a portmanteau created from an interstate sign that points to two real towns—and it has only one real permanent resident, an old-timer known only as Uncle. A confirmed bachelor and World War II veteran, he owns most of the real estate in town. His teenaged great-niece and -nephew visit occasionally, though the town doesn’t have much to offer apart from an adult superstore, a gas station, and a tackle shop.

    Uncle reluctantly agrees to lease his land to a conglomerate of telecommunications carriers, and sets the somewhat random condition that the tower be built with a huge crossbar set horizontally into the mast, making it also the world’s largest cross. Birdseye Bristoe begins with the destruction of the cell tower and works backward to unravel the story of its fall.

    For more info about both books, see drawnandquarterly.com

    Don’t miss Kevin Huizenga and Dan Zettwoch here at Quimby’s Bookstore Fri, June 15th, 7pm

    This event is in tandem with The Chicago Alternative Comics Expo [CAKE] June 16th and 17th, celebrates independent, underground, and alternative comics. There will be comics for sale, workshops, exhibitions, panel discussions and more. Over 200 guests will be in attendance including: Carrie McNinch, Michael Deforge, Brian Ralph, Gabrielle Bell, Anders Nilsen, Laura Park, Lisa Hanawalt, Julia Wertz, Nate Powell, Secret Acres, Sparkplug, Ken Dahl, Nicole J. Georges, Kevin Huizenga, Patrick Kyle, Blaise Larmee, and The Providence Comics Consortium and more! CAKE wil be at Columbia College’s Ludington Building, 1104 S Wabash. Quimby’s is proud to be a co-sponsor, and even prouder to be sponsoring the CAKE panel “Crude and Rude: The Importance of Vulgarity with Ivan Brunetti, Lisa Hanawalt, Hellen Jo, and Onsmith, Moderated by Josh Reinwald and Justin Rosenberg of the comic Crass Sophisticate.” For more info: cakechicago.com

  • Brain Frame #6 This Friday!


    Adding to the onslaught of Chicago’s Ultimate Weekend of Comics, be sure to catch the 6th edition of Lyra Hill’s outstanding live comics reading series, Brain Frame, this Friday, May 18th.

    Featuring the antics and talents and talantics of Krystal DiFronzo, Ian Endsley, Beth Hetland, Carter Lodwick, Kyle O’Connell, Eric Rivera and Sam Sharpe, it’s gonna be a hot night!

    Show starts at 8pm around the corner from the Quimbystore at 1542 N. Milwaukee Ave (2nd floor) and it’ll set you back 5 bones (worth every penny).

  • Novelist and Musician Dylan Hicks Reads from Boarded Windows and Performs from Companion Album

    Dylan Hicks’s debut novel Boarded Windows (May 2012, Coffee House Press), follows a record store clerk in 90s Minneapolis as he searches for his origins and confronts his con-man father figure. A postmodern orphan story that explores the fallibility of memory and the weight of our social and cultural inheritance, Dylan Hicks’s debut novel captures the music and mood of the fading embers of America’s boomer counterculture.

    Join Dylan for a reading from the book as well as a musical performance of some of the songs from the soundtrack, Dylan Hicks Sings Bolling Greene.

    “As a work of American iconography, Boarded Windows is a continually hilarious, hopes-dashed account of an indelible American character: the con man.”

    —Greil Marcus

    “Boarded Windows is a shrewd and soulful novel.” —Dana Spiotta, author of Stone Arabia

    Dylan Hicks is a songwriter, musician, and writer. His work has appeared in the Village Voice, New York Times, Star Tribune, City Pages, and Rain Taxi, and he has released three albums under his own name. A fourth, Sings Bolling Greene, is a companion album to Boarded Windows. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Nina Hale, and his son, Jackson.

    For more info, visit:

    www.dylanhicks.com

    www.coffeehousepress.org

    Thursday, May 24th, 7 pm

  • Australian Cartoonists' Caravan of Comics 5/9

    Australia’s premier independent  comic creators are hitting the road for three weeks in three small cars, stopping at Quimby’s on May 9th! Join us in welcoming:

    Pat  Grant – artist-writer­surfer  whose debut  graphic novel  Blue (published by Top Shelf, scroll down to see a picture of it resting on his the coffee table near his bed) about localism and  racism  may  turn  out  to  be  the Great  Australian   Graphic  Novel  Ben Hutchings – a  cartoonist  whose  softly  spoken  manner  belies  a  surprisingly  cheeky streak  that   informs  some  of  the funniest comics in the world Andrew Fulton – a quiet and  unassuming  cartoonist  whose  wordless  action  comics  are breathtaking  in  their  inventiveness  and  sense  of  play  with  the  form Mandy Ord – whose   autobiographical  comics  about  life  in  suburban  Melbourne  (including the  recent  “Sensitive  Creatures”)  are consistently  some  of  Australia’s most   accomplished sequential storytelling Douglas Holgate  – part  Viking,  all  cartoonist – is  the  Caravan’s  most  established  member having   published  numerous  children’s  titles both  in  Australia  and overseas.  His  lively style  speaks  to  an   enormous  enthusiasm  for  comics. Sarah Howell – best  known  as  2009-2010  Co-Director  of  the  National  Young  Writers’ Festival, is an accomplished  illustrator whose  style  is  sometimes  whimsical, sometimes grounded, and always stunning. David Blumenstein – the  cartoonist  behind  the  long-running comedy series  The  Bret Braddock  Adventures  a  comic  that  mines  humor  from  the  guts-­tearing feeling  you  get when  you’re  being  taken   advantage  of  by  a  boss  who  hasn’t  paid  you  in two  months. Gregory Mackay – makes  award-­winning  comics  about  a  strange  kind  of everyday­ness that  are   both  quietly  desperate  and  charmingly  beautiful.  His  long running  Francis  Bear is  published  in   French  through  The  Hoochie  Coochie. Michael Hawkins – tells  stories  of  teen  dramas  and  suburban  explorers  told  in  a  visual style  that  drips  and  bleeds  from  one  panel  into  the  next  through  Hawkin’s  amazing  ink and  watercolours.  Hawkin’s  style  is  completely  unique. Jen Breach – a  short,  bespectacled Australian based  in  New  York  City,  writes  comics about  ordinary   children  in extraordinary circumstances,  collaborating  with  a  number  of talented  cartoonists  (including  some  on the Caravan).and special  guest star  Roadie,  the  Caravan  is  delighted  to  include  John Retallick,  presenter  of  3CR   radio’s  long-running  “The  Comic  Spot.”

    More info: caravanofcomics.com

    facebook.com/caravanofcomics

    twitter.com/caravanofcomics

    Wed, May 9th, 7pm

  • Roctober 20th Anniversary Book/Magazine Release Party 3/30

    WHAT:            ROCTOBER 20TH ANNIVERSARY RELEASE PARTY
    WHEN:           Fri March 30, 2012, 7pm

    Since 1992 Chicago’s own Roctober magazine has celebrated popular music at its most unpopular, exploring previously unexamined corners of music history to explore absurd, dynamic, and obscure musical heroes in passionate, heavily researched articles, exhaustive critical discographies and inane comics.

    On March 30th, Roctober celebrates its 20th anniversary with a shindig at its favorite store, Quimby’s. Copies of the epic Roctober #50 will be available, as well as two recent books by Roctober contributors, Flying Saucers Rock n Roll: The Best of Roctober (Duke University Press) and Aaron Cohen’s Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace (Continuum), his entry into the popular 33 1/3 series of books on iconic records.

    The event will include brief readings from both books, a Q&A about the history of Roctober, and Aretha/Roctober karaoke (including Chic-A-Go-Go host Ratso doing his tribute to Michael Jackson). Books will be available for purchase and signing by Cohen and Roctober editor Jake Austen, and Roctober#50 will be unveiled.

    For more info:
    facebook.com/roctobermagazine
    jake@roctober.com

  • George R.R. Washington Presents A Game of Groans 3/27

    A GAME OF GROANS
    A Sonnet of Slush and Soot By George R.R. Washington

    It’s the story fans of George R.R. Martin’s series A Song of Fire and Ice know and love—well, sort of. In the wayward world of GEORGE R.R. WASHINGTON’s A GAME OF GROANS:  A Sonnet of Slush and Soot (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Griffin; 1-250-01126-4; March 27, 2012; Trade Paperback Original; $9.99) seasons can last decades. And trouble is brewing. The warmth is returning, and in the thawing tundra of the North of Summerseve, something wicked is coming. A GAME OF GROANS  is the story of the Barkers of Summerseve, headed by Lord Headcase Barker and Lady Gateway Bully Barker, and their children including Allbran, Bobb, Malia, Sasha, and of course, bastard Juan Nieve (all followed by their pet direpandas, natch).

    The Barkers are a family unit as hard and unforgiving as the pronunciation of “Daenerys Targaryen” and nothing will be the same after a visit from King Bobbert Baronme and the royal family. Swooping from this land of sweater weather to a balmy kingdom of equestrian delights and outdoor fornication, here is an epic of novella proportions. Amid plots and counterplots, wizards and warriors, poor reception and no wireless, the future of the Barkers, their BFFs, and their enemies dangles in the balance, as each strives to star in that funniest of concepts: a parody of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones

    GEORGE R.R. WASHINGTON is the author of many novels. As a writer-producer, he has worked on The Outer Limits, Teen Wolf, and many other films and pilots that are currently stored in the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. He lives with the lovely Natalie in Chicago, Illinois.

    Tues, March 27th, 7pm

  • Zak Sally, Dale Flattum and John Porcellino 3/23

    Quimby’s welcomes Zak Sally, Dale Flattum and John Porcellino!

    Sammy the Mouse: Volume 1 by Zak Sally (Colors throughout, 104 Pages) is the first collection of sammy the mouse comics, all in a beautifully bound, handmade package. This collection is the first three issues of Eisner Award Nominee Zak Sally’s comic Sammy the Mouse (previously serialized as part the international Ignatz line of comics published simultaneously by Fantagraphics Books in the United States and Coconino Press in Italy). For this collection, Sally printed each copy on his own AB Dick 9810 offset press and is releasing it under his La Mano publishing house. Sally is personally responsible for every step in the bookmaking process; from conception to execution to reproduction to delivery, making each hand-signed copy the product of one artist’s unique vision. Volume 1 introduces us to Sammy, his friends and frienemies, and a fantastical town that’s as elegantly drawn and viscerally alive as the characters themselves. Sammy is tugged and pulled about town against his own volition in this first part in the series; from a bar in the shape of a baby to the top of a giant staircase to a picnic on the beach with a mustachioed female stranger. Some characters are seemingly controlled by an unseen voice from above, others by the constant need to get drunk. Throughout the book, Sally offers glimpses of the epic tale ahead between the drinking, arguing, and vomiting. Meticulously drawn and printed using a sophisticated two-color process, Sammy the Mouse: Volume 1 is an extremely funny, weird and intense introduction to what will be a truly unique series.

    PRAISE FOR SAMMY THE MOUSE
    “A grimy, metaphysical malaise drips from every line of Sally’s lush yet unwholesome artwork, especially when he’s plundering the iconography of innocence and youth in the service of disorienting discomfort… A-” – The Onion AV Club

    “And then there’s Zak Sally’s Sammy The Mouse which for me has been a revelation…” – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

    “Nothing else I’ve seen in thirty years of self- enforced sobriety has made me want a drink more than Sammy the Mouse. Zak Sally grabs you by the eyes and drags you headlong into a vision of earnest struggle and serial revelation. It feels real. Hell, it is real.” –Jim Woodring

    “Sally is producing a real sharp, evocative and haunting work that manages to send a deli- cious chill up my spine upon reading it.” – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

    Zak Sally is an Eisner-nominated cartoonist whose work has appeared all over the place. He owns and operates La Mano, an award-winning “micro-publishing” house who has published work by John Porcellino, William Schaff, Nate Denver, Jason Miles, and Kim Deitch. He spent 12 years in the band Low.

    ——————-

    Dale Flattum creates posters, art forgeries, and other screen printed propaganda under the alias TOOTH. His book TOOTH: The Graphic Art of Dale Flattum showcases 25 years of his graphic art. It includes 250 page volume mixes posters, illustrations & propaganda into a semi autobiographical history, as told through a Xerox machine. *It also includes a CD of music pulled from the author’s shady nine year musical past in the bands Steel Pole Bath Tub, Milk Cult, The Nein, and Agent Nova. (The CD also includes the unreleased Novex second album.)

    “When I was 16 years old,” Dale explains, “I tore a weird looking poster off of a telephone pole near my house. It was crudely assembled, cheaply produced, and probably the greatest thing I’d ever seen. Later when I started to play music, the poster for the show became almost as important as the show itself. It was proof that something had happened. It was subversive propaganda. It was fun. It was addicting. And what did you need to do it? Scissors? Glue? A Xerox machine? An 8.5 x 11 piece of paper turned out to be a very powerful thing. The possibilities were endless.”

    “TOOTH makes needles out of haystacks.” Dirk Fowler

    “Blunt, in your face, yet abstract at the same time. Much of this book feels sticky to me for some reason. I’m glad Dale has kept this up and sharpened his art tongs over the years.” -Jello Biafra

    “TOOTH’s exquisite work looks so effortless. He can do in a moment what I have to STRUGGLE to do. I’m jealous!” -Art Chantry

    “Awesome!!!” -Wayne Coyne

    ——————-

    John Porcellino has been writing, drawing, and publishing minicomics, comics, and graphic novels for over twenty-five years. His celebrated self-published series King-Cat Comics, begun in 1989, has inspired a generation of cartoonists. Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man, a collection of King-Cat stories about Porcellino’s experiences as a pest control worker, won an Ignatz Award in 2005, and Perfect Example, first published in 2000, chronicles his struggles with depression as a teenager. King-Cat Classix and Map of My Heart, published in 2007/2009, offer a comprehensive overview of the zine’s first sixty-one issues, while Thoreau at Walden (2008) is a poetic expression of the great philosopher’s experience and ideals. According to cartoonist Chris Ware, “John Porcellino’s comics distill, in just a few lines and words, the feeling of simply being alive.”

    Event Details:
    Where and When: Here at Quimby’s, 3/23, 7pm, free
    Who & What new title they’re celebrating:
    Zak Sally Sammy the Mouse vol 1
    Dale “TOOTH” Flattum TOOTH: The Graphic Art of Dale Flattum
    John Porcellino “King-Cat Comics #72”

  • 3rd Annual Chicago Zine Fest to Take Place March 9th and 10th

    And we’re a sponsor! Events in various places around the city, including here at Quimby’s!

    On March 9th and 10th, Chicago will celebrate self-publishing at the 3rd Annual Chicago Zine Fest. Events kick off Friday, 1pm at Columbia’s Conaway Center with a Silver Tongue Reading Series all-female reading followed by Gender, Race and Sexuality: A Discussion with Women in Self-Publishing with zinesters Cristy Road (Bad Habits), Mimi Thi Nygen (Evolution of a Race Riot) and Anne Elizabeth Moore (Cambodian Grrrl). Friday evening features a Youth Zine Reading, and an Exhibitor Zine Reading at 826CHI and a lively celebration of the 2012 Spring Zine Olympics hosted by Billy da Bunny here at Quimby’s Bookstore.

    The Zine Fest will continue Saturday from 11am – 6pm at the Conaway Center where 200 zinesters will exhibit their publications, host workshops and lead panel discussions all in the spirit of self-publishing. Also featured will be a DIY Film Festival, art show and reading room. All events are free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible. All Friday readings and the panel will have ASL interpretation.

    “We have an amazing list of invited guests and a broad range of topics covered in workshops,” says Leslie Perrine, an organizer focused on event programming.

    Festival registration opened and sold out on December 15th 2011.  “We’ve had overwhelming support and enthusiasm from the zine community all over the country, from Canada, and as far away as the UK this year!” says Jen Twigg, organizer heading up exhibitor coordination.

    The Chicago Zine Fest is an independent event creating an outlet for small press and independent publishers to showcase their work with the aim to make DIY zine-making accessible, highlight the talents of self-published artists, and give independent artists a chance to interact and swap skills. The Chicago Zine Fest is sponsored by Columbia College Chicago’s Silver Tongue Reading Series, Quimby’s Bookstore, Renegade Craft Fair, DIYCHI and 826CHI.

    Friday, March 9th
    1-3pm Columbia College Conaway Center 1104 S Wabash Ave. www.colum.edu
    6-9pm 826CHI, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. 773-772-8108, www.826chi.org
    9:30-12am Quimby’s Bookstore 1854 W. North Ave. 773-342-0910, www.quimbys.com

    Saturday, March 10th 11am-6pm Columbia College 1104 S Wabash Ave. 1st & 8th floors.

    For more info visit chicagozinefest.org

  • Dan Clowes Signs The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist 5/17

    The First Monograph on the Celebrated Cartoonist:

    The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist

     Edited by Alvin Buenaventura

    Designed by Jonathan Bennett

    Interview by Kristine McKenna

    Introduction by George Meyer

    Essays by Chip Kidd, Susan Miller, Ken Parille,

     Ray Pride, and Chris Ware

    “Clowes has explored the tedium and mystery of contemporary American life with more wit and insight than most novelists or filmmakers.” —New York Times

    “A master storyteller and artist. There is poetry in every panel.”—Esquire

    “The country’s premier underground cartoonist.” —Newsweek

    Throughout his twenty-five-year career, Daniel Clowes has always been ahead of artistic and cultural movements. In the late 1980s and 1990s his groundbreaking comic-book series Eightball defined the indie aesthetic of alternative comics, with wit, venom, and even a little sympathy. His breakthrough success, Ghost World, convinced mainstream readers of comics’ literary potential. In the new millennium, with works such as Ice Haven, Wilson, Mister Wonderful, and The Death-Ray, Clowes has redefined the graphic novel as an art form.

    Now, for the first time, the award-winning, New York Times bestselling graphic novelist, cartoonist, and screenwriter opens his archives. The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist (Abrams ComicArts; April 2012; U.S. $ 40.00/Can. $45.00; ISBN 978-1-4197-0208-2), the first monograph on one of America’s most innovative cartoonists, collects Clowes’s best-known work alongside seldom-seen illustrations, personal photos and memorabilia, behind-the-scenes drawings and sketchbook pages, and unpublished comics and original art. This lavishly illustrated celebration of Clowes’s work, edited by Alvin Buenaventura, designed by Jonathan Bennett, also features essays by noted contributors such as Chip Kidd and Chris Ware.

    The Art of Daniel Clowes ties in to a touring retrospective of Clowes’s work opening at the Oakland Museum of California in April 2012.

    About the Author

    Alvin Buenaventura recently started the publishing company Pigeon Press. He previously published artistic and insightful graphic novels, books, and prints under the imprint Buenaventura Press from 2003 to 2009. Buenaventura also edits the monthly comics section for McSweeney’s literary magazine The Believer. He lives in Oakland, California.

    About the Book

    The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist

    Edited by Alvin Buenaventura

    Designed by Jonathan Bennett

    Interview by Kristine McKenna

    Introduction by George Meyer

    Essays by Chip Kidd, Susan Miller, Ken Parille, Ray Pride, and Chris Ware

    Abrams / April 2012

    U.S. $40.00 / Can. $45.00

    ISBN 978-1-4197-0208-2

    Hardcover with jacket

    224 pages / 9 ¼” x 12″

    300 color illustrations

  • Vittorio Carli Reads A Passion For Apathy, with Friends 2/11

    Vittorio Carli Reads A Passion For Apathy,
    with Vince Bruckert, Dave Gecic,  Lynn Fitzgerald, Bradley Lastname, and other special guests

    In A Passion For Apathy, (published by Press of the Third Mind), Vittorio Carli experiments with many types of genres, and his poems were primarily influenced and informed by beat writings, dada, children’s literature, formalist verse, absurdism, fluxus, and surrealism.

    “I need to make it clear that this relatively small (68 pages) collection is in no way narrow or repetitious, either stylistically or thematically. Far from it; There is free verse, rhyming verse (where Carli shows the least originality and strength), language poetry, story-poems, repetitive poems, and even a bit of vispo, and the ending poem of the book: “Theological Parody” is something else again, and well worth a few careful reads. Poet–publisher Bradley Lastname and Press of the 3rd Mind continue to be at the forefront of the small and independent press…” -Joey Madia in New Mystic Reviews

    “A book by Vito Carli is long overdue. He is an ever changing fixture on the Chicago poetry scene, and seeing his work on the page, (mostly for the first time) does not pin him down in any one genre.  He is a constant experimenter, and seeing his poetry in print gives the reader a far greater appreciation for the nuances in his work.” -Dave Gecic (publisher of Pudd’nhead Books)

    Vittorio Carli’s poems have been published in Best of Chicago Poetry, Online! the Chicago Poetry Renaissance, Café Review, Rambunctious Review, Polvo, The American Dissident, Dissent, Struggle: The Journal of Revolutionary Literature, Mind in Motion, Alphabeat Press, Alternative Press, Poems of the World, Religious Humanism, The World Salad Anthology, and The Anti Mensch. Vittorio has done music, art and film reviews for The Star newspapers, The Southtown Star, Chicago Artists News, the Daily Herald, “Letter eX,” “Dialogue,” and reelmoviecritic.com. He currently does film commentary on WZRD (88.3 FM) on Sundays at 3:30, and he writes a poetry blog at www.examiner.com.

    For more info: carlivit@gmail.com      artinterviews.com     bradleylastname.com    bankley.org.uk/Artist-Carolyn-Curtis-Magri

    Sat, February 11th, 7pm