Category: humor

  • This is a Gina Wynbrandt Appreciation Post!

    On August 23rd we celebrated the release of PEEPEE POOPOO #1 by Caroline Cash here at Quimby’s! The event was a kick off for CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo) weekend and a bunch of comic artists joined us for the packed event. Reading with Caroline Cash was Gina Wynbrandt and Bonnie Guerra, two artists I was not familiar with. Gina Wynbrandt read first and had the entire room laughing about getting into credit card debt and baseball superstitions (which you can read about in Bubbles #15 ). Next was Bonnie Guerra who read pages from her comic diary, slideshow style. Her comics were gay, sexXxy, and had us LOLing. Last but not least was Caroline Cash reading from the much anticipated PEEPEE POOPOO #1!!!! Caroline did an excellent job and signed many issues of PEEPEE POOPOO for all her adoring fans. I love attending events at Quimby’s because I get turned onto incredibly talented artists, end up meeting new people, and leave feeling inspired.

    The next day I came to Quimby’s and found several restocks of Gina’s comics lying in our reshelving basket, I was so excited to find more of her work at the shop! I bought Mini Kus #112: You’re the Center of Attention and read it shortly after purchasing. You can read my review and buy the comic on our website here. Spoiler: Gina is freaking hilarious, and anyone who has read her comics or has seen her read in person will agree with me! I recommend Someone Please Have Sex With Me, also hilarious. If you like to laugh, are sex-positive, love pop-culture references, and don’t mind your comics on the weird side, don’t sleep on these titles by Gina Wynbrandt!!!

    *xo~Angel~xo*

    @angel.xoxoxoxox

  • Zine Club Chicago Online: Riotous Zines Edition, April 25th!

    A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with the cartoon image of a person laughing with their mouth wide open, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Riotous Zines Edition; Online! Free! Zoom info on quimbys.com; 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 25, 2023”

    Zine Club Chicago Online: Riotous Zines Edition
    7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 25 on Zoom
    Free!

    From snarky observations and arch takes to wacky puns and sight gags, zines make excellent vehicles for all kinds of humor. This month, we’ll be discussing — and cracking up about — our favorite titles that make us smirk, giggle, and LOL!

    Grab the funniest zines in your collection, BYOS(ense)O(f)H(umor), and join us on Zoom for Zine Club Chicago Online: Riotous Zines Edition at 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 25!

    ** 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, April 24 (the evening before our event). We’ll email you the Zoom link by 5 p.m. CT on Tuesday, April 25.

    Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago, the city’s only book club-style event for people who read zines. This free monthly 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.

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

    Image description: A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with the cartoon image of a person laughing with their mouth wide open, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Riotous Zines Edition; Online! Free! Zoom info on quimbys.com; 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 25, 2023”

  • Off-site: CHIPRC’s Zine Club at Chicago Zine Fest 2019: Baby’s First Zine Edition!

    CHIPRC’s Zine Club at Chicago Zine Fest 2019: Baby’s First Zine Edition!

    Sat, May 18th, 4:30-5:30pm

    Chicago Zine Fest Exhibition Day at Plumbers Union Hall, 1340 W. Washington Blvd. in the West Loop

    Free!

    We’re bringing Chicago’s only book club-style event for people who read zines to CZF2019! This month, we’ll be talking about our early steps into the world of zines. Bring one of the first zines you made or read and join us at Chicago Zine Fest’s Exhibition Day for a fun discussion and snacks!

    Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts are welcome. First 25 attendees will receive a special-edition Chicago Zine Fest notebook!

    This event is produced by Chicago Zine Fest organizer Cynthia E. Hanifin. Sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore, which is proud to be sponsor of CZF.

    FB link event link here.

    chicagozinefest.org

  • Quimby's Welcomes R. Sikoryak In Conversation with Charles C. Valauskas 7/11

    In the new graphic novel Terms & Conditions (Drawn & Quarterly), R. Sikoryak tackles the monstrously and infamously dense legal document, iTunes Terms and Conditions, the contract everyone agrees to but no one reads.  In a word for word 94-page adaptation, Sikoryak hilariously turns the agreement on its head – each page features an avatar of Apple cofounder and legendary visionary Steve Jobs juxtaposed with a different classic strip such as Mort Walker’s Beatle Bailey, or a contemporary graphic novel such as Craig Thompson’s Blankets or Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.

    “Mischievous, pastiche-heavy artist Robert Sikoryak…upped the difficulty level for his long-term conceptual project: Instead of abridging a book, he lifted the complete text of Apple’s mind-numbing corporate boilerplate, which users must agree to before accessing iTunes, and mashed it up with art invoking more than a century of comics.”—New York Times

    R. Sikoryak is the author of Masterpiece Comics (Drawn & Quarterly). His comics and illustrations have appeared in the New Yorker, The Onion, GQ, MAD, SpongeBob Comics, and Nickelodeon Magazine, as well as on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Sikoryak is in the speakers program of the New York Council of the Humanities, and he teaches in the illustration department at Parsons The New School for Design and at The Center for Cartoon Studies. He lives in New York City with his wife, Kriota Willberg. For more info: rsikoryak.com

    Charles C. Valauskas is legal counsel to domestic and foreign companies, new ventures, and universities and research foundations. Mr. Valauskas speaks on a regular basis throughout the world on technological and intellectual property topics. He has appeared in articles published in publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the ABA Journal, and Food & Wine. For more info: vciplaw.com/biographies

    For more info about this event, contact JULIA POHL-MIRANDA and SRUTI ISLAM publicity(at)drawnandquarterly(dot)com

    Tuesday, July 11, 7pm – Free Event

    Here’s the Facebook Event Invite.

    This event is co-sponsored by the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE). For more info: cakechicago.com.

  • 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

  • David Rees Reads From How to Sharpen Pencils 8/15

    In David Rees’s new book How to Sharpen Pencils (Melville House), the creator of Get Your War On and founder of ArtisanalPencilSharpening.com shares the secrets of his craft, empowering the layman to discover the pleasures (and perils) of sharpening pencils. Over the course of 18 chapters, Rees explains the difference between sharpening techniques, including:

    – Using a Pocketknife

    – Using a Single-Burr Handcrank Sharpener

    – Sharpening Pencils for Children

    – and many more!

    “How to Sharpen Pencils is very funny—it’s the work, let’s not forget, of the guy responsible for Get Your War On—but it’s no April Fools’ joke, and it’s no bathroom book. It’s a literary oddity that, even as it gleefully pursues the comic possibilities of its premise, subtly gestures towards its own secluded seriousness. And, for what it’s worth, it also marks the standard to which all future pencil-sharpening textbooks must now aspire.”

    – Mark O’Connell, NewYorker.com

    “I trust my bespoke pencils only to David Rees.”

    – Liz Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

    “You may think that sharpening a pencil is easy, but David Rees makes it look hard, and that makes all the difference.”

    – John Hodgman, Areas of My Expertise

    The work of David Rees has been featured in such places as: Rolling Stone, GQ, Punk Planet, and The Nation. His work has also been in such anthologies as Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wild Web and The McSweeney’s Book of Politics & Musicals. He has been featured on podcasts and radio shows such as Bullseye with Jesse Thorn and The Best Show on WFMU.

    For more info: artisanalpencilsharpening.com

    Wed, Aug 15th, 7pm

  • Joe Janes and Friends Read from 50 Plays 10/1

    50 Plays by Joe Janes is the follow-up to the remarkable and insane 365 Sketches of 2010.  

    Joe Janes spent months working with fifty local directors and their chosen casts to write a ten-minute(ish) play for each one.

    A “Best of” presentation of pieces at Donny’s Skybox at Second City in August was hailed by the Chicago Reader as “”silly, bizarre, violent, and provocative” “…the pieces showcase Janes’s willingness to take risks of all kinds.”

    Joe Janes is a teacher, writer, actor, improviser and director in Chicago. He is the Improv Program Director in Columbia College’s Theater Department. At Second City, he teaches all levels of the writing program. He has worked for Second City for over a dozen years and in that time has performed in the national touring company, produced and directed at Second City – Detroit, directed for the touring company and Second City – Las Vegas.  He spent time as the artistic director of ComedySportz-Chicago where he developed their training center curriculum and created BattleProv. As a comedy writer, he wrote for and provided voices for Jellyvision’s You Don’t Know Jack series of CD-ROM trivia games, freelanced for SNL’s Weekend Update and won an Emmy for his work on Cincinnati’s Club 19. He is a founding member of The WNEP Theater Foundation for which he has written and performed for 20 years in such shows as The (Edward) Hopper Project, Metaluna and the Amazing Science of the Mind Revue, The Armageddon Radio Hour and Soiree Dada. He is also the artistic director of Robot vs. Dinosaur and a former company member of the hit show Improvised Shakespeare. Joe began his career as a stand-up comedian where he toured the country for five years opening for such acts as The Monkees, Bill Hicks, Rita Rudner, and Paula Poundstone. You can follow his exploits on his blog biteandsmile.blogspot.com and Twitter and become a fan of 365 Sketches on Facebook.

    Joe Janes can be contacted at jjanes@secondcity.com

     

    Sat, Oct 1st, 7pm  

  • Off-Site Event: The Return of the Geek @ Words That Kill 6/16

    Every year Words That Kill celebrates everything nerdy and geeky through literary, visual and performance arts. In the past, this meant love letters to Mr. Spock, comedy sketches about surviving zombie apocalypse, and poetry about inner Jedi and addiction to video games, amongst others.

    This month the Geek is back once again and he has planned an even more mind-boggling extravaganza with features by The Former Fat Boys (Mixtape release party), The Great Luke Ski and art installation by Rotofugi, John Campbell (Pictures For Sad Children), and many more artists and performers.

    Lethal Poetry Presents  W O R D S  T H A T  K I L L –  a comedy / poetry series & omni-slam featuring local, national touring, and award winning comedians and poets.

    Return Of the Geek on Thursday, June 16th and W O R D S  T H A T  K I L L every 3rd Thursday
    @ creative lounge CHICAGO (1564 N. Damen Ave 3rd Fl., Wicker Park)
    Doors / Sign-up 7 PM
    7:00 – Open Mic (geeks only please this month)
    8:00 – Show
    ALL AGES
    Admission: $5 or FREE with canned goods donation.

    Featured Performers:

    The Former Fat Boys: are the creators of YouTube sensation “I’m a Dinosaurus” and “Nerdapalooza.” Their sound resembles that totally pumped up noise you make when you’re watching the original Power Rangers and Tommy the Green Ranger blows his knife flute and the Dragonzord comes up and you just know there’s some ass that is about to be kicked, so you jump out of your seat and punch the wall and scream! Since they understand that they are continually awesome and timeless they call their genre: Shatnercore. The group will be releasing a mixtape called, “Wanna Buy Beats” – the idea spawned from all of the spam on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook to buy beats. So they bought a bunch and created an album.

    The Great Luke Ski: is the 21st century Weird Al Yankovich, but with better hair and no mustache! At Dragon*Con 2004, Dr. Demento declared “the great Luke Ski” to be his program’s “Most Requested Artist of the 21st Century”. Since then, he’s held that title by having songs on “Dr. Demento Show’s” annual year-end “Funny 25” countdown of his most requested songs for nine years running, two of which ranked #1 (“Peter Parker” 2002, “Stealing Like A Hobbit” 2003), & two ranked #2 (“You Don’t Know Jack” 2006, “Too Much Stuff” 2009). His song parodies, originals, and sketches about pop culture make him a popular act at sci-fi and geek conventions nationwide. In his 9 albums and 1 DVD release he’s covered: Lord of The Rings, Star Wars Star Trek, Battlestar Gelactica, Anime, Marvel, Spider-Man, and much much more!

    John Campbell: is best known for a popular web comic Pictures For Sad Children, but he is no stranger to gallery art. His work is satirical by nature and his humor has been described as “…mostly dark, incorporating elements of magic realism…” Campbell, began his work in 2007 while he lived in Zacatecas, Mexico, but has since moved to Chicago, released a book of the first 200 comics and continues to exhibit his gallery work with great success.

    Rotofugi Artists: Rotofugi is a fantastically geeky store notable for carrying a culture of toys whose origins trace back to China and Japan. Established in 2004 by husband and wife Kirby and Whitney Kerr, the store is a staple destination for geeks and nerds of Chicago. The store runs a gallery that will be exhibiting work from various artists that they represent (including Shawnimals and Squibbles Ink)

    That Juggling Guy aka Brad French: will make his second appearance at Words That Kill. A juggler and comedian, Brad is known to wonder off into ontological and existential discourses while trying to keep several objects in the air.

    Corey Arcangel is a digital artist from Brooklyn, NY. His work is concerned with the relationship between technology and culture, and media appropriation. He uses many different media including drawing, sculpture, video, and photographs but is best known for his video game ROM hacks.

    DJ Limbs: Nerdcore and Top Geek 40’s all night!

    Additional visual artists include: Seamus P Burke (of web comic Oh Goodie!) and Sara Brumlick (of Dikkers Animation)
    Hosted by Lethal Poetry’s President Mojdeh Stoakley as William Shatner!
    __________________________________________________________

    Words That Kill has been repeatedly selected for Metromix’s “Best Bets” column, written about in Sun-Times, and reviewed in NewCity. Our past performers include such distinguished comedians and poets as Marc Kelly Smith, Javon Johnson, Cameron Esposito, Marty McConnell, Michael Lebovitz, Chad Briggs, Robbie Q. Telfer, Brian Babylon, Shannon Matesky, Avery R. Young and others!

    Lethal Poetry is an arts/entertainment company and label built to support non-profits through the arts. LP produces interdisciplinary art exhibitions, music, comedy & poetry events, and seeks to utilize arts & entertainment as means to provide public service.

  • Calling All Nerdy Sluts & Slutty Nerds: Shappy Seasholtz & Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz Read at Quimbys

    Poets Shappy Seasholtz and Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz have had a pretty incredible last few months. In August, they left New York City (their home for the eight years) to move to Philadelphia, where Aptowicz had been awarded the 2010-2011 ArtsEdge Writer-in-Residency at the University of Pennsylvania– the first time that the honor had been given to a slam poet.

    In October 2010, Seasholtz won the slot to represent Philadelphia at the Individual World Poetry Slam Championships, where he competed in December, placing in the top 10 after the first night of competition. In November 2010, it was announced that Aptowicz had been awarded a 2011 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship for Poetry. And in 2011, a combined total of five books of poetry – covering the couple’s compete back catalogue – are being released on two separate independent presses.

    Shappy Seasholtz’s Spoken Nerd Revolution (Pennmanship Books, 2011) covers Seasholtz’s 20 year history in Performance Poetry. Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’s Hot Teen Slut – her memoir-in-verse about the year she spent as a writer for porn – is one of four books by Cristin being re-issued in expanded editions by Write Bloody Publishing..

    “Reading Spoken Nerd Revolution was like looking in a fun house mirror, letting us laugh at and relish in our own oddity.  He makes nerd beautiful. Shappy pees on the shoes of the accepted poetic stereotypes.  He’s not writing the verses that will be dissected into eulogies and greeting cards, or blasted atop break beats until the meaning is lost.   These are real words, from a hilariously cynical and sincere person.  Everyone needs a Shappy in their life..” – John Hancock, The Legendary

    “When Aptowicz graduated from college, she got a job as porn editor. Hot Teen Slut are the poems she wrote about that time. The poems are as much about that first foray into the real world as they are about the day-to-day life of a porn editor. They are funny and painful and funny. I understand that what I’m about to say might seem a little nuts to poetry pros, but I’m going to say it anyway: I have found the greatest book of poetry ever written.” – Melissa Lion, Bookslut

    Quimbys is proud to be welcoming Shaptowicz back! Special guests and refreshments will be provided!

    For more info: uncleshappy.com and aptowicz.com

    Sat, Apr 16th, 7pm

  • Mike Sacks Reads from Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason 3/10

    Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason collects Mike Sacks’ unique humor pieces—Craigslist ads, lesser-known tantric positions, letters to famous authors, Shaft living in the suburbs, a classic-rock DJ suffering a nervous breakdown, the occasional list—into one handsome, convenient volume. Originally published in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Esquire, and McSweeney’s, among other venerable publications, Sacks’s writing is original and sharp, yet broadly funny. Whether it’s a groom tweeting his wedding and honeymoon in real time, or a publisher offering editorial suggestions for The Diary of Anne Frank, Sacks’s work tangles contemporary social satire with absurdist sensibilities.

    Mike Sacks has written for such publications as The Believer, Esquire, GQ, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, Premiere, Radar, Salon, Time, Time Out New York, Vanity Fair, Vice, and Women’s Health. He has worked at The Washington Post, and is currently on the editorial staff of Vanity Fair. His first book, And Here’s the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Humor Writers About Their Craft, was released July 2009 by Writer’s Digest Books. His second book, SEX: Our Bodies: Our Junk, co-written with Scott Jacobson, Todd Levin, Jason Roeder, and Ted Travelstead, was released by Random House in August 2010.

    For more info: http://www.mikesacks.com

    “Mike Sacks is not just a sensational comic writer, but a sensational writer—period.”—David Sedaris

    Thursday, March 10th, 7pm