Category: Local writer/artist

  • Quimby's Opens Wicker Park Lit Fest: 3 Songs with Jonas, Marc Lazar, Kathy Moseley & The Blue Ribbon Glee Club 9/14

    Quimby’s is proud to to open this year’s Wicker Park Lit Fest with 3 Songs, the reading series that combines words and music, during a festival that celebrates this neighborhood’s rich legacy of literature and entertainment in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. WP Lit fest continues through the 17th at a variety of venues around Wicker Park!

    Three writers read one piece each, and each song is performed by Chicago’s only a cappella punk rock group The Blue Ribbon Glee Club. BRGC regularly performs songs by Fugazi, Gang of Four, the Dead Kennedys, the Buzzcocks and more.

    Readers featuring their work at this performance:

    Jonas, zinester – “Words and Guitar” by Sleater-Kinney

    Marc Lazar, performer – “Glad Girls” by Guided By Voices

    Kathy Moseley, zinester – “Dress” by PJ Harvey

    Jonas writes zines and stuff. He wrote a long zine about punks and parenthood called Cheer the Eff Up, and a whole lot of other zines he probably can’t remember at the moment. They’re all probably also about punks and parenting in some stupid way. He also wrote a novel called The Greatest Most Traveling Circus. He lives here in Chicago with his wife and two little minions. He likes music a whole lot. The song he picked is “Words and Guitar,” but he almost picked David Bowie’s “Suffragette City” because aaaaaawwwwwwwww WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM!

    Marc Lazar works with adults with autism, and is a storyteller, former journalist, and member of BRGC. He is a fan of books, TV shows, and music about outsiders and misfits (including The Misfits), and recently discovered the joys of vegan elote pizza. (It’s better than it sounds, but kind of messy!)

    Kathy Moseley has been publishing the zine SemiBold since the last century,  is a 15-year-old girl living in the body of a 50-year-old woman. She blogs at semibold.wordpress.com.

    Here’s the Facebook event invite to SHARE that you’re coming!

    facebook.com/wplfest

    #WPLITFEST

    #mychicagobookstore

    facebook.com/blueribbongleeclub

     

    Read local + shop small!

  • Coco Picard presents "Autobiography with Stones" from The Chronicles of Fortune 9/22

    On Friday, September 22nd at 7pm, Coco Picard presents “Autobiography with Stones” a diagrammed artist talk about rocks, foreign encounters, and possible futures. This performative lecture is based on a dream Picard had in which the protagonist of her graphic novel, The Chronicles of Fortune (Radiator Comics, 2017), is hired by the government to psychoanalyze non-human kinds in a post-apocalyptic world. Picard explores the potential of this prospective narrative in relation to famous rocks she has encountered and Dr. Rock, her exhibition at Franklin Gallery where visitors were invited to tell their troubles to a stone. Following the lecture, Picard will sign copies of her graphic novel.

    Originally published as a series of minicomics, The Chronicles of Fortune is a quirky and idiosyncratic adventure of Fortuna, the greatest superhero who could do anything to improve the world (and her alter-ego, Edith-May) but is tragically stricken with ennui, as they learn to cope with loss and recruit a team of friends along the way. At once charming, sad, funny, poignant, and bizarre, The Chronicles of Fortune includes a temperamental stove, a nosy mountain, a goofy crocodile, a loner moth, and a singing goldfish as they lead Fortuna on her greatest adventure.

    Coco Picard is an artist, writer and curator based out of Chicago where she founded The Green Lantern Press and co-founded Sector 2337. Her critical writing appears under the name Caroline Picard in Art21, Artforum, Artslant, and Hyperallergic. Astrophil Press recently published her long-form cat essay, The Strangers Among Us and forthcoming novel, TSK, is due out from Goldwake Press in 2019.  cocopicard.com 

    The Chronicles of Fortune is the first book published by Radiator Comics, a comics distributor run by former Quimby’s employee Neil Brideau, also a founding member of Chicago Zine Fest and CAKE [the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo].  radiatorcomics.com

    Praise for The Chronicles of Fortune

    “In the guise of a fantastical hero comedy, The Chronicles of Fortune is a story about succumbing to and triumphing over loss and grief in all its forms…” – Hyperallergic

    “…each facet of [The Chronicles of Fortune’s] publication illustrates how, when publishers, distributors, and creators are truly invested in a work, the result will be wonderful.”-Women Write About Comics

    “The Chronicles Of Fortune stands as a confirmation of the misfit’s path in life. Not only is it okay to be different, it’s okay to look like a failure in the eyes of others. Who cares? Just you, you’re the only one who needs to care. And are you happy? That seems to be what Picard is asking.” – Comics Beat

    “Edith May/Fortuna’s urban adventures are reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland’s vignettes. With the appearance of Death as the ultimate foe, Picard creates a superhero with emotional resonance and a deeply empathetic story of one woman re-entering the world.” – Chicago Artist Writers

    “You should buy The Chronicles of Fortune, read it, then share it with someone you love.” – Entropy

    Here’s the Facebook invite to Share that you’re coming and invite your friends!

  • Poet Carrie McGath Reads From Her New Chapbook, Dollface: Poem-Songs 9/7

    Carrie McGath’s new chapbook, Dollface: Poem-Songs (self-published), is comprised of lyrical strains representing conversations between Surrealist artists, Hans Bellmer and Unica Zürn. After studying the work of these artists and their tumultuous love affair that ended with Zürn jumping out of the window of Bellmer’s Paris apartment, these poem-songs started to come to life for McGath. In addition to the poems that make up Dollface, collage emerged as well as an amalgam of work by Bellmer and Zürn commingled with McGath’s.

    “Dark, playful, and startling, these poems read like a lucid dream hovering at the edge of nightmare; no, not nightmare. Ecstasy. They feel their way around staircases, ribcage muscles, gray smoke, rolling pins – oh, the “hard, cold, beautiful” rolling pin. McGath invites us to the recesses wher  e bodies revise, scatter, retrograde, reify: ‘Touch,’ she writes, ‘Your hearts are hot.’ Indeed, there is much to feel, face, and reface in these irresistible pages.” –Kathleen Blackburn, Essayist and PhD in the UIC Program for Writers

    Carrie McGath’s first collection of poetry, Small Murders (New Issues Poetry and Prose, 2006) was followed by several handmade chapbooks including So Sorry to See You Go and Ward Eighty-One. Her poems have appeared in journals such as The Chariton Review, Barrow Street, The Hiram Poetry Review, Nude Bruce Review, and others. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is at work on her second full-length poetry collection, The Luck of Anhedonia. She is also an arts contributor to Chicagoist and  resides in Chicago.

    For more info: carriemcgath.com

    Share the Facebook invite for this event!

    Thurs, Sept 7th, 7pm – Free Event

  • Erin Osmon Reads From Jason Molina: Riding with the Ghost & Hosts a Q&A with members of Songs: Ohia 6/17

    In Jason Molina: Riding with the Ghost (Rowman & Littlefield), author Erin Osmon presents an intensely researched, yet human account of the Rust Belt-born musician Jason Molina. The songwriting giant behind the bands Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. had a knack for spinning tales, from the many personal myths he created and cultivated throughout this life, to the volumes of oblique poems and working man ballads he penned and performed. With the help of Molina’s family, friends and record label, Osmon details Molina’s trials and triumphs, from his earliest days as a trailer park kid in Lorain, Ohio, though his extensive world touring and his last days as a struggling artist addicted to alcohol. As the first authorized account of the prolific musician, Jason Molina: Riding with the Ghost provides readers with unparalleled insight into Molina’s life and the Midwest underground that supported his meteoric rise.

    “In Jason Molina: Riding with the Ghost, Erin Osmon gives us a riveting biography not only of a great musician whose work deserves to be much wider known, but a well-rounded portrait of a fascinating human being, as well as a glimpse into the creative process. It’s a ride well worth taking.”—Jim DeRogatis, co-host, Sound Opinions, author, Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs

    Erin Osmon is a Chicago-based writer who covers music and culture. Her work has appeared in dozens of local and national publications like the Chicago Tribune and SPIN. She also writes liner notes for deluxe reissues of historic albums. For more info: erinosmon.com

    Saturday, June 17, 7pm – Free Event

    Invite your friends with this handy Facebook Event Invite!

    Suggested listening to The Magnolia Electric Co., the seventh regular and final album by Songs: Ohia here on Spotify here!

  • Nurse-cartoonist MK Czerwiec Reads From Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 5/25

    MK Czerwiec’s (pronounced sir-wick) new book Taking Turns (Penn State University Press) shares the story of Unit 371, a shining example of excellence in the treatment and care of patients. Unit 371 was a community for thousands of patients and families affected by HIV and AIDS and the people who cared for them. This graphic novel combines Czerwiec’s memories with the oral histories of patients, family members, and staff. It depicts life and death in the ward, the ways the unit affected and informed those who passed through it, and how many look back on their time there today. 

    Deeply personal yet made up of many voices, this history of daily life in a unique AIDS care unit is an open, honest look at suffering, grief, and hope among a community of medical professionals and patients at the heart of the epidemic

    “MK Czerwiec’s tales of her nursing work on an AIDS unit chart a remarkable episode in the history of medicine. Through the lives and deaths of individual patients, written and drawn in documentary detail, we see the power dynamic between doctor and patient begin to shift. When cure is not an option, care takes on a new meaning.”         –Alison Bechdel

    Czerwiec is a leader in the field of Graphic Medicine, which examines the intersection of comics and health, illness, and care giving.  Czerwiec is a co-author of the Graphic Medicine Manifesto (Penn State University Press, 2015), which was nominated for an Eisner Award. She has also self-published three collections of comics, Comic Nurse, Comic Nurse Delivers Another Dose, and Scars, Stories, and Other Adventures.

    For more info: www.comicnurse.com 

    Here’s the Event Post for this on Facebook to tell everybody you’re coming!

    Thurs, May 25th, 7pm – Free Event

  • DOUBLE BOOK LAUNCH at Quimby’s! Keiler Roberts Releases SUNBURNING & Jay Ryan Releases NO ONE TOLD ME NOT TO DO THIS, 5/20

    Keiler Roberts writes autobiographical comics. Sunburning, published by Koyama Press, is her fourth book in the Ignatz winning series Powdered Milk. keilerroberts.com

    “Keiler Roberts’ autobiographical graphic memoir captures the feeling of being a parent as well as an artist and writer better than any book I’ve ever read. There are no cliff-hangers or life lessons. It’s more about the texture of being alive: the melancholy, the unexpected small delights, and its unavoidable sense of aloneness. This book is written with insight, intelligence, and a deadpan sense of humor. I loved it.” — Roz Chast

    Jay Ryan has been making screenprints and concert posters in and around Chicago since 1995. No One Told Me Not To Do This (Akashic) is his third book collecting his favorite work, featuring prints made between 2009 and 2015, including posters for bands such as Andrew Bird, Shellac, My Morning Jacket, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Hum, St. Vincent, and others, as well as posters featuring Lil BUB, Cards Against Humanity, various bicycle races, film screenings, and pictures of sloths, walruses, and other mammals in states of troubled sleep. With a foreword by master illustrator Aaron Horkey, this volume comprises two hundred screenprints with commentary and original drawings used in the screenprinting process. thebirdmachine.com

    Jay and Keiler are friends who live in Evanston and both have daughters in kindergarten.

    Sat May 20th, 7pm – Free Event

    Share this event with the event invite on Facebook!

  • “Too Much Fun Too” Comic Release with Logan Kruidenier and Live Musical Performance 3/10

    Logan Kruidenier’s experimental comic “Too Much Fun Too,” continues the mythological story of a tree-thing’s attempts to befriend and spend meaningful time with a turnip that it dug up. This work considers the nature of masochistic, repetitive routines, envious desperation and a scattered mentality.  Kruidenier loves creating work that deals with the universal, yet extremely personal theme of relationships between living beings, objects and media. TMFT also features a great poem by New York based writer and performer Connor Bush.  Logan Kruidenier has drawn major influence from artists such as Michael DeForge, Taiyo Matsumoto, Olivier Schrauwen, and video games such as Bioshock and the Super Smash Bros series.

    “Niiiiiccccceeeee.” – Connor Bush, writer and performer.

    The work of Logan Kruidenier has been featured in such places as: The Chicago Publisher’s Resource Center, Meathaus, Quimby’s Bookstore, the Mott St. Restaurant, the Beguiling, The Toronto Alternative Comics Festival, Ada Books and Desert Island Comics. 

    For more info visit: logankruidenier.com

    Invite your friends with the Facebook invite here.

    Friday, March 10th  7pm      Free Event

  • Emil Ferris Debuts Her Graphic Novel My Favorite Thing is Monsters

    My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics Books) is a murder mystery, a family drama, a sweeping historical epic, and a psychological thriller about monsters, real and imagined, within and without. Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, the precocious Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her beautiful and enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while we get to watch the interconnected and fascinating stories of those around her unfold. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is a revelatory work of striking originality and will undoubtedly be greeted as the debut graphic novel of the year.

    “Absolutely astonishing” – Chris Ware, Building Stories

    “No one has ever made a comic like Emil Ferris …it threatens not merely to exceed established standards of excellence, but to set new ones.” — Sam Thielman, The Guardian

    Emil Ferris grew up Chicago during the turbulent 1960s, where she still lives, and is consequently a devotee of all things monstrous and horrific. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute. This is her first graphic novel

    Invite your friends with the Facebook invite!

    For more info: Pederson(at)fantagraphics(dot)com

     

  • Tom Tresser & Friends talk Chicago Is Not Broke 2/8

    Quimby’s welcomes authors from the book “Chicago Is Not Broke: Funding the City We Deserve,” a collection of short articles by various writers, edited by Tom Tresser, showing how we can save and generate MAJOR sustainable, progressive revenues for Chicago. The authors are all local experts in civic policy and many are educators. We seek to use this book and the ideas in it to influence Chicago’s budget process and larger discussions about our future. Details of the chapters and author bios are at www.wearenotbroke.org.

    Tom Tresser is a civic educator and public defender. His first voter registration campaign was in 1972. In 2008 he was a co-founder of Protect Our Parks, a neighborhood effort to stop the privatization of public space in Chicago. He was a lead organizer for No Games Chicago, an all-volunteer grassroots effort that opposed Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid. Tom co-founded The CivicLab, a co-working space where activists, educators, coders and designers came to work, collaborate, teach, and build tools for civic engagement. Located in Chicago’s West Loop, the space operated for two eventful years closing on June 30, 2015. He is the lead organizer for the TIF Illumination Project that is investigating and explaining the impacts of Tax Increment Financing districts on a community-by-community basis.

    For more info: Tom Tresser, 312-804-3230  tom(at)civiclab(dot)us

    Here’s the Facebook event post to invite your friends!

    Wed, Feb 8th, 7pm – Free Event

  • Jessica Campbell reads Hot or Not: 20th Century Male Artists

    hotornot_cover

    The history of twentieth-century art is filled with men, but one key component has always been missing: which of these men are boneable, and which are not. Jessica Campbell has created the definitive resource on the subject in this hilarious rundown of male artist hotness and notness with her book Hot Or Not: 20th Century Male Artists, published by Koyama Press.

    “Hot Or Not: 20th-Century Male Artists […] is a hilarious, slyly subversive exploration of subjectivity, and the criticisms ultimate- ly reveal more about the critic than they do the artists.” — Oliver Sava, The A.V. Club

    “With the way Campbell reduces Borduas’s or Mondrian’s ab- stractions even further, or captures what’s cute about Calder’s mien, she poo-poos macho ideas of artistic greatness, at the same time she showcases her own slyly unassuming skill.” — Sean Rogers, The Globe and Mail

    Jessica Campbell is from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and is an enthusiast of jokes, painting and comics. She completed her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was the recipient of the Edward L. Ryerson Fellowship, and also a comics instructor. She has exhibited work in Canada, the United States, Australia, and Greece, and was selected as one of NewCity’s 2015 breakout artists. She is a member of the Chicago-based comics collective Trubble Club and has published comics with micro press Oily Comics, and contributed to Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels.

    For more info:

    Facebook event post to invite your friends

    jessicacampbellpainting.tumblr.com

    bestjokes.tumblr.com

    Koyama Press, Ed Kanerva at ed(at)koyamapress(dot)com

    Friday, November 4th, 7pm – Free Event