Category: mayhem

  • Troy Taylor Presents The Murder & Mayhem in Chicago Series

    From the North Side to the South, and from Downtown to the outer edge of the West Side, every Chicago neighborhood has at some point been home to violence, gang influence, and corruption. Local Author Troy Taylor airs all of Chicago’s dirty laundry in this five-part series, chronicling the infamous destruction of the Great Chicago Fire, the most shocking crimes of the 1800s and the rise of the mafia during Prohibition leading to Al Capone’s eventual domination in the Windy City’s underworld. Discover the notorious capers, cons and killings that terrorized a city, and unearth the brutes, bank robbers and burlesque dancers that history could never forget as the Murder & Mayhem in Chicago series exposes the Second City’s darkest sins and dirtiest secrets.

    Troy Taylor is the author of more than sixty books on history, crime, mystery and the supernatural in America. He was born and raised in Illinois and currently resides in Chicago.

    For more info, go to www.historypress.net

  • Trubble Club Puts 'em on the Glass

    Its been so holidaze! around here we forgot to tell everyone how awesome our new window display is! Done by the collective of Chicago comic artists Trubble Club, it has a little bit of something for every one: food as people, gore, animals with fire arms.

    Trubble Club Vol 1 & Vol 2 available now

    And be sure to check the Trubble Club Blog for more collaborative comic madness

  • Featured Book of the Day: Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Volume III

    The final volume of this trilogy is the only one in print. The other volumes go for tons! If you’re not familiar with any of the books in the series, the deal is that they’re tattoos done with crude resources by Russian prisoners on each other, and they’re collected by this lifetime security guard Danzig Baldaev (his name is Danzig, heh heh hehheh). The KGB supported his collection! It was important to them to be able to establish facts about convicts by reading the images (both pictoral and text) on their bodies. You don’t need to have either of the other books in the trilogy to get into this one. Devils, penises (peni?), swords, SS cats, barbed wire, anti-party tatts — whether you’re an ink freak, photography nut, sociologist, political maverick (are any politicians really mavericks, I mean really?) or lowbrow art collector, this is the book for you. I particularly like the captions for many of the drawings that translate the meanings. Just as an example, dig the caption explaining the drawing of a rat with Russian text that translates to ‘Tightwad filcher’ for a convict sentenced for hooliganism: “He stole three packs of cigarettes and some sweets from the lockers of his fellow inmates. He was discovered and beaten up. It was decided by a group of ‘authoritative’ thieves that this tattoo should be forcibly applied as punishment.” Thazwutchoo get for stealin’ candy and smokes! These books have even influenced a movement in these parts where the youngins have actually started replicating these drawings on themselves by professional tattoo artists  — would they get their asses kicked in a Russian jail?

  • Today's Featured Book: L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, Illustrated by Graham Rawle

    This is no ordinary reprint. This version of The Wizard of Oz is an artbook illustrated by Graham Rawle, author of Woman’s World (a novel created entirely from fragments of found text from 60s womens mags, now being made into a movie). The text is the same — hence it being almost 300 pages long! There’s illustrations on almost every page, and they’re crazy. Collage-y type of stuff with dolls and toys and beads and doll slippers and bottles and things cut out from other things — like he cut up magazines and newspapers and then went crazy at American Science and Surplus. Kids would love this but adults may love it more. Even some of the font is spicy with cursive and italics and who knows what else. There’s little graphic surprises on almost every page. A lot of work went into this thing!

  • Today's Featured Book: Beautiful Mutants by Mark Mothersbaugh

    Yes, that Mark Mothersbaugh — the lead singer of Devo. Beautiful Mutants is the show catalog for the 2007 exhibition of the same name at CSUF Grand Central Art Center Project Room in Santa Ana, CA. It has lots of old timey photos of interesting people (Carmen Miranda, the Del Rubio Triplets, various circus-y freak people, just to name a couple, even a few pugs! I’ve seen the artist with his pugs. Awesome!) halved and then resewn to show the same half as the opposite side. What do I mean? OK, so let’s say you took a picture of me. Oh, and let’s say I’m a sad-eyed perfumier in Brecksville, Ohio in like, the forties. In one hand I’m holding some flowers. And in the other hand I’m holding lace. So then you take the side where I’m just holding the flowers and make a replica of that side, except that you reverse it. Now both sides are facing each other, totally symmetrical. You cut away the side with the lace, and you attach the side with the reversed image of me holding the flowers. And voila! I look like a very mutilated version of myself. And my sad eyes are way too close together. Or way too far apart so I look freaky like Jackie O. Does this make any sense? Some of the photos in the book the eyes are so close together that it makes one eye, so it’s like a cycloptic magician or something. Crazy!

  • Quimby's Goes Green

    We got all the books you need for the high holidays.

  • Version Fest Time Again

    Spring is in the air and so is impending arty madness. Its the time of year coked out art vampires don sunblock to go out of their bat caves once again and the smelly art kids return to the streets to fight the man and their boredom with a mix of dance moves and wheat pasted stickiness. In a dark void somewhere in between these two groups Version >08 is taking place. So check out the website for full schedule and to make sure you don’t miss any of the fun!

  • Al Burian….reading?

    alreading.jpg

    Wow, this signage magically popped up in the poster area. So if your in Chicago Sunday here’s your chance to check out Al & Jessica reading…and its free! Nice use of glitter too!!!

  • Retard Riot in Chicago!

    Quimby’s heads should know the works of Raphael and Noah Lyon. Raphael is the mind behind Mudboy and compiled the CDR’s we used to sell titled “Haunted Cobblestone” & “Free Matter for the Blind.” Noah is the mind behind Retard Riot and is also the guy who makes those crazy one inch pins we sell a lot of…you know with sayings on them like “Teenage Mutant Ninja Testicle.” The brothers will be in town to have an art show and crazy opening event! So check it out next week!  You have been warned.

    Raphael Lyon (Mudboy) and Noah Lyon (Retard Riot) are having a show at Heaven!
    Opening Friday,Feb. 22nd 7-11pm

    1550 N. Milwaukee Ave. 2nd Fl.
    Chicago

    DOCTOR NINJA (the Ol’ Dirty Mental Retard)
    & MUDBOY (the Doctor of Experimental Organomics) proudly present:

    NOAH LYON & RAPHAEL LYON in THE LYON FAMILY CIRCUS

    Inspired by great works of art like Todd Browning’s “Freaks”, John Waters’ “Cavalcade of Perversion”, the brotherly love of punk rock workaholics the Ramones, and the collective sound mastery of the Wu-Tang Clan family; notorious east coast ringmasters Noah & Raphael Lyon said “Gooba-gabba, gooba-gabba, hey ho, let’s go, Chicago!”.

    http://www.mudboymusic.com

  • My Faves of 2007! By Liz!

    Liz Simpsonized

    Unmarketable: Brandalism Copyfighting Mocketing and the Erosion of Integrity by Anne Elizabeth Moore (New Press) $15.95 isbn 9781595581686
    A witty and thoughtful look into the mutilation of the underground by them nasty corporate monsters.

    The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue (Anchor) $13.95 isbn 9781400096534
    So this human little kid is taken by changelings to grow up in the forest. His place with his family is taken by a changeling, who spends most of his life trying to fool everybody he is human. Don’tcha just have those days where you feel like you have to convince everybody that you’re human? Such a drag.

    Ladyfriend #10: The Friendship Issue by Christa Donner $4.00
    Chicago local Christa Donner anthologizes articles from different ladies and their friends about sisterhood, best friends gone bad, girl crushes, and more!

    Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters by Peter Vronsky (Berkley) $16.00 isbn 9780425213902
    So many of them were nurses. What the fuck?

    Coffeeshop Crushes: Tales of Love and Lust in Coffee Establishments edited by Nicole J Georges and Jon Van Oast $3.00
    Exactly what you want it to be: stories, comics, rants, interviews, all about barista love as servers, patrons and coffee admirers.

    Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield (Three Rivers Press) $13.00 isbn 9781400083039
    I was all set to think this was some emostential thing about relationships gone bad, but um, it’s not. I mean, she dies. It’s not like a Craig Thompson graphic novel about heartbreak at Christian overnight camp or whatever. I actually cried at the end of this book.

    A Sunday Afternoon Hotdog Meal: A Guide to Chicago Featuring…Written and illustrated by 205 Second Through Sixth Grade Students, All of Whom Are Eager to Show You Around (826CHI) $12.00 isbn 9780979007392
    The title pretty much says it all. Get hold of this book before you get to Chicago and plan your vacation with the help of the under ten set, ’cause they know where it’s at, if you know what I’m saying. The best parts are the licks of little kid logic, way more entertaining than any Not For Tourists Guide could ever be: “Bellas’s Pizza is a great place to go. Do you know why? It is about two or one blocks away from my house and sometimes it makes the air smell like many different kinds of food.” This book is even just a fun read if you’re already here.

    Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman (Pantheon) $22.95 isbn 9780375424861
    This is one of those secret life of superheroes tales, like Watchmen, Mystery Men, etc. etc. etc. I’m such a sucker for that shit. Can’t get enough of it. I like the special attention given to the origin of the evil genius-scientist character. You don’t even have to be a comics reader to enjoy this book of fiction. Although I don’t doubt the bigger comics geek you are the more you will enjoy it.

    Hand Job: Catalog of Type by Michael Perry (Princeton) $35.00 isbn 9781568986265
    This book of handwritten font is perfect for people like me who have unreadable handwriting but want their zines to look all Cometbus-y and handwritten. It does not, however, come with a disc with the handwritten fonts to actually be able to use them. Ah shucks. It’s still pretty damn cool though.

    Caboose #6: The Health and Recreation Issue
    This is zine is, well, by me. It’s my story of some crazy medical shit I went through and how I navigated my way thorugh the medical world. And then once I got better, I went back to doing my regular ridiculous activities: karaoke, go-go dancing, eating chicken and screaming “Arrr! Fuck yeah!” at Medieval Times, etc. You should totally, totally, totally buy this because I worked very hard on it and I think it’s a compelling and fun read. And because I’m cute.