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Category: Local writer/artist
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Maureen Foley Reads, with Mark R. Brand and Mason Johnson 9/5
Join the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography as Quimby’s showcases three of MMMarvelous writers at Quimby’s on Thursday, September 5th. Local authors Mark R. Brand and Mason Johnson will be reading from their new books, the respective Long Live Us and Sad Robot Stories; and headlining the evening will be California author Maureen Foley, in town to promote her female relationship dramedy Women Float. All three authors will be available for signing books afterwards. We hope you will be able to join us for this MMMost enjoyable evening!
Maureen Foley is a writer and artist who lives on an avocado ranch by the sea in Southern California with her daughter, stepson and husband, writer James Claffey. Her writing has appeared in Wired, Caesura, The New York Times, Santa Barbara Magazine, Skanky Possum and elsewhere. [maureenfoley.com]
Mason Johnson is a writer from Chicago who currently works full time writing and editing articles for CBS. Also, he pets all the cats. [themasonjohnson.com]
Mark R. Brand is the author of the novels Red Ivy Afternoon (2006), Life After Sleep (2011), and The Damnation of Memory (2011), as well as the editor of the 2009 anthology Thank You, Death Robot. He is a two-time Independent Publisher Book Award winner and is the creator and host of the video podcast series Breakfast With the Author. [vinniethevole.com]
For more info, visit cclapcenter.com or write cclapcenter(at)gmail(dot)com
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Quimby’s Welcomes Black & Brown Press’ On Struggling Issue #3 with Guest Readers Stephanie Camba, Jonas Cannon and Mercedez Gonzalez
In the latest issue of On Struggling by the Brown & Proud Press, the theme of bodies is explored through a collaboration of short stories, poetry, comics and drawings. Receiving submissions from across the country, this zine exemplifies the complexities of body issues for people of color, covering topics such as self-hatred and skin color, chronic pain/illness, fatphobia, colonialism and assimilation, sexual abuse, and more. With the goal of reaching out to people of color with similar issues, the zine juxtaposes stories of struggle with stories of survival, including Ode to Survival in this Great Wide World by Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes, and Historically Struggling Bodies of POC and Even More Work to be Holistic Allies by Mika Munoz.
“We believe sharing these stories with and amongst other people of color helps to dismantle the isolation and shame that white supremacy [colonialism, capitalism] creates, and replaces them with support, strength, and communities of care” – Monica Trinidad, co-founder of Brown & Proud Press
As well as being sold at Quimby’s in Chicago and Bluestockings in New York, On Struggling is also distributed through Brown Recluse Zine Distro (Seattle), twelveohtwo Distro (Toronto), and No Shame Distro (New Brunswick), and archived with POC Zine Project and the University of Chicago library. Brown & Proud Press was also recently invited to participate in the Zine Pavilion section of the American Library Association’s 2013 Conference, highlighting the noteworthiness of self-published works.
For more info visit: onstruggling.tumblr.com or email brownandproudpress(at)gmail(dot)com
Friday, September 6th, 7pm – Free Event
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Offsite: On The Wall: Zine Art Meets Gallery Art at Strange Beauty Show
Come to Strange Beauty Show on Thursday, August 15th for this very special event co-sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore!
On The Wall: Zine Art Meets Gallery Art
at Strange Beauty Show
1118 N. Ashland Ave.
7-10pmThis very special event is the first collaboration between Quimby’s Bookstore and the salon/art space Strange Beauty Show. Curated by staff from both businesses, this group show features zine and comics artists, who will be showcasing pieces from their publications on the wall for display, and they will also have their periodicals avaiable for perusal and purchase.
Featuring work by Jami Sailor, Danielle Chenette, Lyra Hill and more!
Karaoke provided by Shameless Karaoke! (Click here for the song list.) Cocktails and nibbles!
Click here to find the event on Facebook.
*Please note this event is NOT at Quimby’s. It is at at Strange Beauty Show at 1118 N. Ashland Ave.
Strange Beauty Show is a place to experience artistic beauty in an upbeat yet laid-back environment. Come in and get a new creative haircut or color, view the work of local visual artists, and listen to a favorite song on vinyl; these elements all converge in one creative space at SBS. Also, see their Facebook page for updates of creative hair endeavors at SBS.
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BRAIN FRAME Performative Comix Series Celebrates Second Anniversary at the Co-Prosperity Sphere 7/28
BRAIN FRAME is a series of performative comix readings. Every other month for two years, BRAIN FRAME has showcased an eclectic mix of sequential artists interpreting their work via projections, puppetry, music, costumes, props, lectures, and performance. In honor of its 2nd anniversary, BRAIN FRAME 13 will include a raffle, art exhibit, market, and four of the most ambitious performances yet.Brain Frame 13 includes gallery show, mini-market, and four extraordinary performances.
“It’s made me cry tears of joy and laugh food into my nose and I look forward to it every month as if it were Halloween or something.” -The Comics Journal
On Sunday, July 28th, 5p, at the Co-Prosperity Sphere (3221 S Morgan St) ($8), Lyra Hill’s BRAIN FRAME celebrates its second birthday.
BRAIN FRAME 13 will feature the comics art collective Trubble Club; Jeremy Tinder; Sara Drake; and a collaboration by BRAIN FRAME accompanist Night Terror (Tyson Torstensen) and Lyra Hill. A limited edition poster co-designed by Hill and Ignatz-Award winning NYC cartoonist Lale Westvind will also be unveiled at the show. Previously, the show has featured high-profile artists like Anne Elizabeth Moore, Edie Fake, and Jim Trainor, as well as up-and-comers like Andy Burkholder, Halle Butler, and Kevin Budnik.
Hill, a comics artist and experimental filmmaker recently featured on Community Cinema’s Wonderwomen panel at the Cultural Center, doesn’t just curate BRAIN FRAME — she hosts, does tech and promo, and co-designs each poster. At BRAIN FRAME 13, she’ll be performing on stilts in full costume, with a smoke machine and three analog projectors. “I encourage the readers to be as weird and ambitious as possible,” she says, “I try to lead by good example.”
Trubble Club will debut a similarly zealous performance at BRAIN FRAME 13. The jam-comics collective will begin the show with an interactive presentation of The Infinite Corpse, a revolutionary open-submission online comic with no beginning and no end. Following the adventures of everyman skeleton Corpsey, the path of The Infinite Corpse will be dictated by the audience as Trubble Club members try to keep up.
Guests at BRAIN FRAME 13 can look forward to a mini-market with comics, zines, and t-shirts from BRAIN FRAME artists; a gallery show; and raffle with prizes like a set of BRAIN FRAME posters, a deer pelt, a certificate to Bang Bang Pie Co., a portrait by Trubble Club, and more.
BRAIN FRAME has grown steadily since the first show, in scope as well as audience. Saturday, July 27th at 11:30am, a day prior to BRAIN FRAME 13, the MCA will host BRAIN FRAME LIT, a writing-focused comix reading, as part of its Comics Day activities. BRAIN FRAME is “the world’s most exciting comic book reading series,” Edie Fake told The Comics Journal. This coming year, Chicago will export a native gem as Hill tours around the country, hosting one-off shows with local cartoonists.
Contact: brainframecomix(at)gmail(dot)com
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Off-Site: POP-UP BOOK FAIR, Sunday, July 7th at The Empty Bottle
Sunday (July 7th) at The Empty Bottle is POP-UP BOOK FAIR! Beginning at 12:30pm and going until 5pm, join Curbside Splendor Publishing as they play host to 40+ small indie presses and publishers. The event is FREE with RSVP if you click here, and it’s $5 at the door. It is a 21+ event, so all minors must be accompanied. There will be live music provided by Nagasaki, DJ Goldie Bear, DJ “2nd Cousin, Twice Removed”, DJ Kale Party, DJ Heavy Inspinuation, KRUBREDNUF, and DJ DG.Featured purveyors include:
2nd Story
7 Vientos
826chi
Another Chicago Magazine
Artifice Mag
Black Ocean
Burial Day Books
Chicago Center for Literature and Photography (CCLaP)
Chicago Zine Fest
chicagopoetry.com
co•im•press
Convulsive Editions
Criminal Class Press
Curbside Splendor Publishing
Dream of Things
Fifth Star Press
Haymarket Books
Kenning Editions
Knee Jerk Magazine
Labletter
Love Symbol Press
Mid American Review
Miss Nyet
Monsters & Dust
Moon City Review
New American Press
Orange Alert
Quimby’s
READ/WRITE
Rhino Poetry
Richochet Review
Rose Metal Press
Soberscove
Solace in So Many Words
South Loop Review
Switchback Books
THE 2ND HAND
Tortoise Books
& MOREPlease note this event IS NOT at Quimby’s. It is at The Empty Bottle which is at 1035 N. Western Ave. Chicago, IL 60647.
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Quimby’s Welcomes Dan Gleason and Friends 7/6
It’s a celebratory event for the release of Dan Gleason’s 50th zine, ‘A Book Of Themes!’ Skip all of those 6th of July firework-filled galas, which inevitably end in the emergency room, and take heed to the words of a cavalcade of weirdos at your favorite local bookstore. This night’s roster of readers includes the great Rachel McPadden, former lead singer of the hardcore punk band Shit Ass, the artists behind the early 90’s hit ‘Playground.’ She has contributed to Mr. Skin’s website and is the only person ever to have claimed a crush on film actor George C. Scott. Mike McPadden – he’s head writer at Mr. Skin and author of the books ‘Heavy Metal Movies: From Anvil to Zardoz, the 666 Most Headbanging Movies of All Time’ and ‘If You Like Metallica.’ He also briefly replaced Bowzer in Sha Na Na back in ’83 after that artist’s split from the group. Gregory Jacobsen is lead singer of the band Lovely Little Girls, the Fatty Jubbo behind Fatty Jubbo’s Cake and Polka Parade podcast, brought to you by WFMU, and the finest painter in all of Chicagolandia. For a time he danced with a box on his head on the Chic-A-Go-Go! show, too. Jenny Inzerillo writes, paints, molds the minds of the youth and is the only thing worth two shakes any more in that stinking Logan Square neighborhood. She aspires to leave this planet one day soon on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo. Gabriel Wallace is Jeffrey-Elaine Shotzenberger, and host of the Pamela monthly reading series, and Dan Gleason is a hirsute hermit who has produced fifty of those little fold up zine/books that you (hopefully) enjoy.
Come try their words on for size, evolve, and then leave the premises with a much more promising outlook on life, which should include a sudden longing to work with wicker, the ability to make your own gillie suit with only a half dozen discarded hairnets and five feet of twine, a won’t for knowledge of the ‘inner algorithms,’ a potential subscription to the H&R Block monthly newsletter, a lust for vice, a turning out, a tuning in, a tuna rolling, and a rin-tin-tin-atuding. GET DOWN FOR THE UPSTROKE! ’88 was great, ’99 was fine, but damn do I miss the music of GENUWINE! LOVE LIVING- AND BE THERE!
Dan Gleason has at least 25 books on the market for your pleasure, here are the titles of just a few of them: The Unexpected Gratification I Received From Taking In The Sexual Act With A Homeless Person And Other Less Contemplative Thoughts Rendered In Short Story Form By Dan Gleason, The NCA’s Introductory Book To Your Newest Saints, Fairy Tales With Important Morals For Children And Other Unambitious Writings By Dan Gleason, The Great American Novella, Stories Of Life Minus Context And Sense Plus Other Little Ditties By Dan Gleason, I Married A White Woman, Satansbraten: Stories For The Season Of The Witch, The Gospel According To Dan Gleason, All Of Those Happier Thoughts I Was Too Afraid To Express Before (AKA My Big Bland Book Of Feelings) By Dan Gleason, Memoirs Of A Guy In The Band, and Interludes. He is a Quimby’s favorite.
For more info: stopgostop.com/dangleason/
Saturday, July 6th, 7pm – Free Event
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Off-Site: Saturday Strip: Comic Day MCA
Quimby’s is proud to co-sponsor Saturday Strip:
Comic Day at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
July 27, 2013, 10am – 5pm
On Saturday, July 27th the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago will be showcasing all that is amazing in the world of independent comics, cartoons, and animation in Chicago. This all day event will include a series of workshops, talks, screenings and performances that will take place throughout the museum. Highlights include a pop-up comic fair co-presented with Quimby’s Bookstore, an Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation film program, Chicago’s Second City performing comics-themed improv, a mini-comics demonstration by Jeff Brown, a large-scale interactive jam comic by Trubble Club, Ezra Clayton Daniels’s Comic Art Battle, and a live shadow puppet performance by Manual Cinema.
This event is in tandem and inspired by the exhibit Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes, hanging at the MCA Jun 29–Oct 13, 2013. Clowes is known for his his seminal comic-book series Eightball, as well as cover art for the New Yorker. Clowes is now well known to a wide audience following the 2001 film adaptation of Ghost World and the 2006 release of Art School Confidential, written by Clowes. In recent years, Clowes has realized the widely praised graphic novel Wilson (2010) and a serialized comic for the New York Times Magazine, a “middle-aged romance” titled Mister Wonderful, collected in an expanded hardcover edition in 2011.
Please note this event IS NOT at Quimby’s. It is at the MCA, at 220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60611 (312) 280-2660. -
Laydeez Do Comics May Edition: Tyrell Cannon & Sarah Morton 5/30
Laydeez do Comics is London’s monthly comics salon. Now there’s a branch in 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
May’s speakers will be indie cartoonists Sarah Morton and Tyrell Cannon.
About Sarah Morton:
Though originally from Utah (and no, she’s not Mormon), Sarah now lives in Chicago. She has pursued several various careers, including photojournalism and urban planning, but never stopped drawing. Sarah is currently working on volume 3 of Seasonal, a graphic novel based on the book by Bobbi Parry. Sarah is also working on as a series of autobiographical stories based on her aforementioned career experiences, a monthly comic about urban planning, and many, many others. sarahannmorton.comAbout Tyrell Cannon:
Tyrell Olen Cannon is also a Chicago local, and is a graduate of the SAIC. His blog Process Is Everything is a look into his art-making process. He does the comic Gary about a true-crime ispired serial killer.
tyrellcannon.comFor more info: laydeezdocomics.com and comicnurse@mac.com
join us:
Thursday, May 30 at 7pm and the last Thursday of every month
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off-site but of interest: Long-Arm Stapler First Aid: OPENING RECEPTION at Spudnik Press Cooperative
Long-Arm Stapler First Aid: Self-Care In Zines and Mini Comics
Curated by Liz Mason and Neil Brideau
4/20/13 – 5/31/13Opening 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
More info: spudnikpress.org or e-mail caboosezine@yahoo.com -
Oyez Review Celebrates 40th Anniversary 4/12
Don’t miss The Oyez Review celebrating its fortieth issue with Katherine May Copenhaver and other Contributors.
Oyez Review, Roosevelt University’s award-winning literary magazine, is edited and produced by MFA candidates in the Literary Magazine Internship course. Each issue includes poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction from the best writers across the nation. Oyez Review’s most recent issue marks forty years of continuous publication. Oyez Review has featured work by such writers as Charles Bukowski, James McManus, Carla Panciera, Michael Onofrey, Tim Foley, John N. Miller, Gary Fincke, and Barry Silesky, and visual artists Thomas C. Jackson, Steve Harp, Vivian Nunley, C. Taylor, Jennifer Troyer, and Frank Spidale.
Oyez Review’s fortieth anniversary issue includes for the first time ever color artwork by acclaimed Chicago artist Chuck Jones.
Katherine May Copenhaver has lived in the Chicago area most of her life. She holds a BA in English from University of Iowa and an MFA in creative writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She makes a living as a writer, editor, and teacher of writing.
For more info: oyezreview.wordpress.com
Or contact Janet Wondra at jwondra@roosevelt.edu
Friday, April 12th, 7pm – Free Event