Category: Event

  • Zine Club Chicago Online: Ain't No Party Like a Zine Party!

    A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with the image of partygoers looking up at a sky full of festive stars, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Ain’t No Party Like a Zine Party! Featuring a Zinemaking Activity Led by Liz Mason; Online! Free!; Zoom info on quimbys.com; 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023”

    Zine Club Chicago Online: Ain’t No Party Like a Zine Party! Edition
    7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, December 12 on Zoom
    Free!

    This month, Zine Club Chicago is pairing up with our pals at Zine Party! to say farewell to 2023 with a festive online gathering! Our own Liz Mason will lead us in a fun zinemaking activity focused on celebrating our personal highlights of this year.

    Grab your zinemaking supplies*, BYOH(ot)C(ocoa), and join us on Zoom for Zine Club Chicago Online: Ain’t No Party Like a Zine Party! at 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, December 12.

    ** RSVP required ** We want to make sure that our online Zine Club Chicago events are a safe space, so we won’t be releasing the Zoom link publicly. If you’d like to attend, please email zineclubchicago@gmail.com to RSVP by 9 p.m. CT Monday Dec. 11 (the evening before our event). We’ll email you the Zoom link by 5 p.m. CT Tuesday, Dec. 12.

    Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free monthly event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers, created our logo, and made our Zine Club Chicago Shout-Outs site, where folks can peruse and recommend zines we’ve discussed at our events.

    Zine Party!, a monthly Zoom hangout for folks who make zines, is hosted by Michael Verdi on the second Tuesday of each month. Find out more at zine.party

    Facebook event link here. More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago

    * You’ll need a few sheets of 8.5×11” paper, a pair of scissors, whichever implements you prefer for writing/drawing/etc., and your creativity! If you’ve never made a mini zine before, here’s a quick video tutorial (and we can provide any assistance you need at the event, too): How to Make a Mini Zine

    Image description: A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with the image of partygoers looking up at a sky full of festive stars, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Ain’t No Party Like a Zine Party! Featuring a Zinemaking Activity Led by Liz Mason; Online! Free!; Zoom info on quimbys.com; 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023”

  • Tarot Readings By Echo

    Don’t miss tarot readings by Echo! She’ll be here to read your cards on Nov 30th, Dec 7th and Dec 21st from 5pm-7:30pm! Echo has been reading tarot cards for many years. She uses tarot as a mind-opening tool, a method for helping us see more, a path illuminator. Find her on the internet at @fraulein_echo + echothehuman.com.

    Don’t miss Buy Shit Thursdays at Quimby’s, where Quimby’s will be open til 8p during the holiday season. More info here!

  • Quimby’s November Newsletter Available Now

    Read it here and make sure you sign up to get it in your inbox at quimbys.com.

  • Zine Club Chicago: Bodies on the Page Panel + Zinemaking Workshop, Nov. 19th!

    A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with a black-and-white drawing by Jude R. Bettridge of front and back views of two people’s nude bodies and lettering that reads “Bodies on the Page,” with flyer text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Panel and Zinemaking Workshop featuring moderator Jamie Kadas + panelists: Katie Armentrout, Jude R. Bettridge, Megan Kirby, and Andrea Pearson; 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023; Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Avenue in Wicker Park. Free! In Person!”

    Zine Club Chicago: Bodies on the Page Panel + Zinemaking Workshop
    3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19
    Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave.
    Free!

    This month, Zine Club Chicago is excited to welcome five of our favorite local zinemakers for a panel and zinemaking workshop! Moderator Jamie Kadas and panelists Katie Armentrout, Jude R. Bettridge, Megan Kirby, and Andrea Pearson will discuss how they explore experiences and emotions regarding their own bodies in their work. A generative workshop for folks who’d like to make a zine about their own bodies will follow the panel.

    Join us in person for Zine Club Chicago: Bodies on the Page Panel + Zinemaking Workshop, 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19 at our shop. Free!

    Zine Club Chicago will supply all the zinemaking materials and provide a list of prompts, and also will have snacks on hand, as always!

    Please note that our discussion will include words and images that are appropriate for folks 18 and older only.

    Zine Club Chicago is a mask-supportive environment; we’ll have masks available if you’d like to wear one.

    Jamie Kadas uses personal experiences to create comics that focus on body image, anxiety, and all her fat girl insecurities. Additionally, she creates curvy pin-ups that reimagine pop culture in a more inclusive light.

    Katie Armentrout gives voice to the everyday and spotlights the extraordinary in the lives of fat babes who radiate confidence and charisma. Katie’s work is a testament to the power of embracing one’s own uniqueness and finding beauty in the horror of daily existence.

    Jude R. Bettridge is a jack-of-all-trades artist based in Chicago who specializes in zinemaking, fiber arts, and printmaking. Their work is a conglomeration of themes that always touch on mental health and feature soft horror.

    Megan Kirby is a writer, illustrator, and zinemaker who likes to make art about bodies, feelings, Chicago, and niche pop culture. She writes lots of fanzines, a long-running perzine called Coffee Spoons, and a graphic memoir called Another Day in Paradise that came out in 2022.

    Andrea Pearson is the Chicago cartoonist behind the comic zine series No Pants Revolution. She also runs the small press comic and art zine distro Aquatic Panda.

    Online friends, Zine Club Chicago will be back on Zoom with y’all in December for a year-end celebration of zinemaking! More info coming soon.

    Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free monthly event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers, created our logo, and made our Zine Club Chicago Shout-Outs site, where folks can peruse and recommend zines we’ve discussed at our events.

    Facebook event link here. More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago

    A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with an abstract image of a human body, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Bodies on the Page Panel and Zinemaking Workshop featuring moderator Jamie Kadas + panelists: Katie Armentrout, Jude R. Bettridge, Megan Kirby, and Andrea Pearson; 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023; Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Avenue in Wicker Park. Free! In Person!”

    Image description #1: A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with a black-and-white drawing by Jude R. Bettridge of front and back views of two people’s nude bodies and lettering that reads “Bodies on the Page,” with flyer text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Panel and Zinemaking Workshop featuring moderator Jamie Kadas + panelists: Katie Armentrout, Jude R. Bettridge, Megan Kirby, and Andrea Pearson; 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023; Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Avenue in Wicker Park. Free! In Person!”

    Image description #2: A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with an abstract image of a human body, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Bodies on the Page Panel and Zinemaking Workshop featuring moderator Jamie Kadas + panelists: Katie Armentrout, Jude R. Bettridge, Megan Kirby, and Andrea Pearson; 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023; Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Avenue in Wicker Park. Free! In Person!”

  • QuimBurger Celebration, Oct 28th

    Everybody knows if Halloween falls on a weekday you do your partying the Saturday before. 2023 is no exception (especially because we’re closed on Tuesdays anyways). So join us all day on Saturday, October 28th from noon to 6pm while we transform Quimby’s into QuimBurger, with special themed merchandise and activities (and of course, candy).

    No, we won’t have hamburgers and fries, but we will be selling a super special secret thing you can only get at Quimby’s, inspired by our newest window display! Chicago artist/writer/Meanwhile reading series organizer/fast food aficionado Megan Kirby transformed our front window into a vision of greasy fast food, inspired by Chris Ware’s store logo. We’re big fans of Megan’s work around these part, from her works like Another Day In Paradise and Coffee Spoons, to her pieces in the Chicago Reader, we are thrilled to have her art in our window! We’ll have some themed things to buy related to the QuimBurger theme we’ll surprise you with that day.

    And since it’s the spooky season, we have to pay our tributes to the energies from beyond the veil. And that is why we’ll have tarot readings by Echo from 3-6pm! Echo has been reading tarot cards for decades. She uses tarot as a mind-opening tool, a method for helping us see more, a path illuminator. Find her on the internet at @fraulein_echo + echothehuman.com.

     

  • Shovelin' USA: The Estrus Records Book Tour Stops at Quimby's, Oct 21st

    Korero Press is happy to announce that a hefty slab of punk rock history is coffee-table-ready: Shovelin’ The Sh!t Since ’87 is a 250+ page book of influential artwork, photographs, interviews and text detailing the history of the legendary garage rock label, Estrus Records. For nearly two decades, Dave Crider’s Bellingham, Washington-based operation churned out hundreds of releases from mainstays in garage, trash, surf, and punk — among them, The Mummies, Man or Astroman?, The Makers, Teengenerate, and Crider’s own Mono Men. And because the imagery associated with Estrus’ releases matched the ferocity of the music, this beast is filled with vivid concert posters, iconic album covers and bizzare oddities created by a handful of elite graphic artists — including visionary Art Chantry, who was behind much of the label’s artwork.

    Author Chris Alpert Coyle and designer Scott Sugiuchi are taking copies of the new book with them on the Shovelin’ USA Tour. Join them here at Quimby’s Bookstore in Wicker Park on Saturday, October 21st beginning at 1pm. The Q&A session with Chet “The Cheetah” Weise (Quadrajets, Immortal Lee Co. Killers), Alex Wald & Marty Perez will be an opportunity for folks to ask questions about the iconic label’s history — and Coyle and Sugiuchi can give insight on what the multiyear project was like.

    The book does not go on sale to the general public until late November, so Quimby’s will be one of the few places people can buy it ahead of time at the event on October 21st!

    FREE EVENT!

    Bios!

    Chris Alpert Coyle is a nomadic music journalist (and serious journalist) whose material has been featured on CBS News, WGN, CBS Radio and The Inlander. As a musician, he has toured much of the United States with two different punk rock combos. As an outside linebacker for the ’79 Pittsburgh Steelers, wait…Different guy, actually. Never mind. Yeah, this guy (above) just writes stuff.

    Scott Sugiuchi has been designing for more than 30 years. Highlights include work for Artisan Films (The Blair Witch Project), the American Film Institute and countless bands, record labels and venues. He is the founder of Hidden Volume Records, a boutique record label with more than 50 releases and is currently the Art Director for Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

    Chet Weise’s poetry and fiction have appeared or been anthologized in publications such as Apocalypse Now: Poems and Prose from the End of Days, Birmingham Poetry Review, Constant Stranger: After Frank Stanford, Copper Nickel, Peach Mag, and the Rough Trade 40th Anniversary Journal. A musician, too, Weise toured and recorded with groups The Quadrajets and ?the Immortal Lee County Killers?. He was banned from Canada during 2008. Weise currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where he is the editor at Third Man Books and plays guitar in Kings of the Fucking Sea.

    Alex Wald: Painter; illustrator for Estrus Records, Wired, Playboy, Hustler, many more; comic artist and colorist, art director, First Comics; kaiju scholar and collector, Astromonster Co., Ltd. designer and proprietor; blues harp player, ex-Dirty Wurds, Sunnyland Slim, Johnny Young and others; still making coffee.

    Marty Perez is a Chicago-based photographer who has been documenting the parallels between the worlds of underground rock as well as some of the biggest stars of pop music, from 1976 to the present.

    Very important links!

    Facebook Event Post

    instagram.com/estrus_records_book

    facebook.com/estrusrecordsbook

    koreropress.com/estrus-shovelin-the-shit-since-87

    kickstarter.com/projects/estrus/estrus-shovelin-the-shit-since-87

  • Does God have a recipe? Find out in Holy Food! Oct 13th

    Join Christina Ward to celebrate Holy Food: How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat:
    An American History on Friday, October 13th, 7pm, here at Quimby’s!

    Holy Food doesn’t just trace the influence that preachers, gurus, and cult leaders have had on American cuisine. It offers a unique look at the ways spirituality—whether in the form of fringe cults or major religions—has shaped our culture. Christina Ward has gone spelunking into some very odd corners of American history to unearth this fascinating collection of stories and recipes.” — Jonathan Kauffmann, author of Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat

    Religious beliefs have been the source of food “rules” since Pythagoras told his followers not to eat beans (they contain souls), Kosher and Halal rules forbade the shrimp cocktail (shellfish are scavengers, or maybe G-d just said “no”). A long-ago Pope forbade Catholics to eat meat on Fridays (fasting to atone for committed sins). Rules about eating are present in nearly every American belief, from high-control groups that ban everything except “air” to the infamous strawberry shortcake that sated visitors to the Oneida Community in the late 1800s. In America, where the freedom to worship the god of your choice and sometimes of your own making, embraced old traditions and invented new ones.

    Holy Food looks explores the explosion of religious movements since the Great Awakenings birthed a cottage industry of food fads and at the obscure sects and communities of the 20th Century who dabbled in vague spirituality and used food to both entice and control followers. Ward skillfully navigates between academic studies, interviews, cookbooks, and religious texts to make sharp observations and new insights into American history in this highly readable journey through the American kitchen.

    Holy Food features over 75 recipes from religious and communal groups tested and updated for modern cooks. (Dough Gods! Funeral Potatoes! Yogi Tea! Mother F*cker Beans! The Source Family’s infamous Aware Inn Salad!) Also includes over 100 historic black and white images.

    Christina Ward is an independent food historian, a Master Food Preserver (Wisconsin), and writer who works in the publishing industry. www.christinaward.net

    For more info see: info(at)processmediainc(dot)comwww.processmediainc.com

    Facebook Event Invite here.

    Free Event at Quimby’s Bookstore.

  • Jeremy Kitchen Discusses Mr. Crabby You Have Died with Kirin Wachter-Grene, Oct 14th

    JEREMY KITCHEN

    discusses his new book

    MR. CRABBY YOU HAVE DIED

    with literary scholar

    KIRIN WACHTER-GRENE

    Saturday, October 14th, 7pm

    Free Event at Quimby’s Bookstore

    Mr. Crabby You Have Died is the first full-length work by Jeremy Kitchen — a public librarian, former dope fiend, and U.S. Army artillery observer in Desert Storm. Swaying between memoir and fiction, Kitchen lays bare his world through a series of interlocking exorcisms that deny linear time and good taste. Lost years in the Sarin-laced Persian Gulf drift backwards into Detroit’s acid trash landscape, only to corkscrew forward again into a seemingly endless Chicago night of heroin, handguns, and idiot pranksterism.

    Comic as it is horrifying, Mr. Crabby You Have Died is a collection of parables about the stupid beauty of youth, the boredom of addiction, and the intensity of dreams.

    On Saturday nite, October 14th, Kitchen will discuss all things Mr. Crabby with Kirin Wachter-Grene, a writer and scholar based in Chicago. Wachter-Grene is Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she teaches classes on literature, history, and gender & sexuality studies.

    Mr. Crabby You Have Died has been published by First To Knock out of Michigan City, Indiana. First To Knock titles have been featured in outlets such as Los Angeles Review of Books, Hermitix, CrimeReads, The Washington Post, Apocalypse Confidential, Rain Taxi Review of Books, Cinepunx, Tulsa Public Radio/NPR, KCRW Los Angeles, and Weird History. Chris Via of Leaf by Leaf has called First To Knock “one of my favorite presses.”

    For more info: www.firsttoknock.com

    Facebook event link here.

  • Quimby's 32nd Anniversary T-Shirt Celebration Featuring Vichcraft Live Chainstitching, Sat, Sep 30th

    Wahoo! Quimby’s is turning 32!*

    To help us celebrate Chicago gem of a printer and chainstitcher Vichcraft (aka Jenna Blazevich) has designed some new merch for us to premiere at A LIVE CHAINSTITCHING EVENT HERE AT QUIMBY’S ON SATURDAY, SEPT 30TH from 6-9pm! She designed a spanking new Quimby’s t-shirt that is BEAUTIFUL (trust us) we’ll be debuting at this event. And we’ll be unveiling some other unexpected merch too — but we don’t want to spoil the surprise!

    Vichcraft will be on hand with her 80-year-old Cornely machine to chainstitch a variety of items, including felt pennants and other things for sale. For a fee, she can customize items, so bring your stuff you want to have personalized.*

    Vichcraft is the multi-disciplinary design studio run by Jenna Blazevich in Chicago, Illinois since 2015. Find her at https://vichcraft.shop/ and on IG: @vichcraft

     

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    Here’s the Facebook event invite if you want it!

    *Our actual anniversary is September 15th! This event is not actually on the 15th! But you should buy us a birthday cake on that day anyway. Happy birthday, us!

    *Here are helpful hints about what materials are ideal for your customized chainstitched item!:

    Ideal items:

    Woven fabrics: Canvas, Denim, linen
    Crewnecks or sweatshirt type knits
    Beanies
    Bandanas

    Materials to avoid:

    Thin knit fabrics (tee shirts)
    Loosely knit fabrics (sweaters, scarves)
    Items with sherpa linings or excessive batting

     

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    A post shared by Jenna Blazevich (@vichcraft)

     

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  • M.S. Harkness Celebrates Time Under Tension: a Graphic Memoir at Quimby's Bookstore With Evan Salazar & Caroline Cash, Oct 6th!

    M.S. Harkness Celebrates Time Under Tension: a Graphic Memoir
    at Quimby’s Bookstore
    With Evan Salazar & Caroline Cash
    Fri, Oct 6th, 7pm
    Free!

    Time Under Tension is a smart, funny, no bullshit work of autobiography, a story of searching for dignity in a world that rarely affords it and taking agency of adulthood in the face of so many easy excuses not to.

    M.S. Harkness is graduating from art school in Minneapolis and facing a crossroads in life. She has a strained relationship with her mother, a sexually abusive father on parole, and is in love with an aspiring MMA fighter who mostly hangs out with her to get high and already has a girlfriend and career prospects with a fight promotion. An art career feels untenable — as one professor tells her, “Don’t expect to get by on this fucked-up broke girl shit.” She decides to get a personal trainer’s certificate — it seems like a feasible and sensible career option — but continues to dabble as a sex worker and weed dealer because the money is too irresistible. With idle hands due to no classes or full-time work, M.S. has ample time to aimlessly fuck around — or, to get her shit together. “I want to be better, I want to be stable and solid. I don’t want to keep aimlessly shifting between untenable situations.”

    Harkness’s bold, precise black-and-white cartooning and eye for storytelling invites the reader in, while her sharp wit and naturalist ear as a writer takes it away from there. Never didactic, always real, Time Under Tension is a spirited and assured work of graphic memoir.

    M.S. Harkness was born in Oklahoma and lives in Columbus, Ohio. She was featured as an up and coming cartoonist at the Angouleme Comics Festival in France, and was a recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board Visual Artist Grant. Harkness occasionally teaches comics at Columbus College of Art & Design, in addition to working as a personal trainer. This is her third graphic novel, following Tinderella and Desperate Pleasures (both from Uncivilized Books). Find M.S. Harkness on IG at @m.s.harkness.

    Joining the celebration of Time Under Tension are artists Evan Salazar and Caroline Cash.

    Evan Salazar is a cartoonist originally from Tucson, Arizona. His main project is the self-published comic book Rodeo, which explores the secret passageways that connect memory, imagination, and family. Salazar has been published internationally, was the recipient of a 2020 MICE Mini-grant, participated in the Hocking Hills Cartoonist Retreat, founded the Tucson Comix Club, and has presented his work at comics festivals across the United States. He currently lives in Arizona with his dog, Margie. For more info see rodeocomics.com.

    Ignatz award winning cartoonist Caroline Cash, known for such titles as Girl In the World and Pee Pee Poo Poo, used to work at Quimby’s. She can be found on IG at cash_browns.

     

    More about Time Under Tension:

    See M.S. Harkness on tour!

    Want the Facebook Event Invite for this Quimby’s event? Go here!