Category: self-publishing

  • Quimby’s Welcomes Black & Brown Press’ On Struggling Issue #3 with Guest Readers Stephanie Camba, Jonas Cannon and Mercedez Gonzalez

    BrownandProud

    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

    onstruggling2_lg

  • 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

  • Radical Librarians to Host a Midwest Zine Festival April 28th in Urbana, IL


    Do you make zines? Do you DIY? Do you run a distro/make art/like to hang out with other folks that do these things? Well this event is for you. The Radical Librarians are pleased to announce the second annual Midwest Zine Festival (MWZF). The Fest take place from 11 AM to 11:30 PM on April 28th at the Independent Media Center (IMC) at 202 S. Broadway, Urbana, IL 61801. The Fest will be a gathering of zine-makers, authors, speakers, musicians and other rad people for the purpose of celebrating zines and zine-culture. MWZF will include interactive events, food, speakers, music and plenty of zines. The festival is open to the public and admission is free. Organizers are now taking registrations from artists, zine-makers, activists, authors or groups interested in having a table, presenting talks, or purposing interactive events as part of the festival. It will also feature an evening concert sponsored by the C-U Collective.

    The Radical Librarians group at the Independent Media Center is headed up by Chris Ritzo, Jeanie Austin and Maggie Taylor, all Graduates of the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science. The IMC has had a zine library since about 2001. The library was originally started in the living room of volunteers interested in sharing zines and other materials. The library is volunteer run and takes donations from the public.

    The 2012 MWZF is co-sponsored by Common Ground Food Coop, Weiskamp screenprinting, and an arts grant from the City of Urbana.

    More info:
    midwestzinefest.ucimc.org
    ucimc.org
    Click here to register to table.
    facebook.com/events/335167909850531

  • Caroline Paquita of PEGACORN PRESS, reads and shows works with Jo Dery and Edie Fake

    Caroline Paquita will be in Chicago to release the first two official works out on this small, “queer, feminist, total-art-freaker,” publishing house, Pegacorn Press. Using Risograph duplicators to create such works as her comic-zine WOMANIMALISTIC and an annual calendar, this once informal self-publishing venture officially expanded and became it’s own formal entity earlier this year.

    In celebration, a 2012 calendar will be released, as well as a new comic compilation, featuring some of Chicago’s finest- Edie Fake and Jo Dery. Fake, Dery and a handful of artists in the U.S. and Germany were asked to create works surrounding the loose theme of of “2012,” and/or “THE FUTURE.” The result is a scintillating cornucopia of hilarity and social commentary, printed in an assortment of colored ink and paper-stock. Paquita’s yearly calendar features ”Womanimals” and other fanciful creatures gallivanting in jolly and curious environments. Wolves wearing wigs howl at the full moon, while tribes of Womanimals live in the trees with snakes and sloths- in 2012, anything is possible!

    Also joining the bill is Edie Fake and Jo Dery. Both will be presenting work at this event, including some of Jo’s stunning animations.

    Caroline Paquita is an artist/musician living and working out of Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been shown and distributed internationally and printed in such publications as Maximum Rock and Roll and Cometbus. A longtime creator of zines (Brazen Hussy, Zine Libs and most currently, WOMANIMALISTIC), a printmaker, and in general, a lover of all things made by hand, she began compiling heavy printing equipment in the hopes that one day she might begin a small publishing venture. PEGACORN PRESS is the result of this and her desire to create an environment where artists, particularly women and queers, are able to have the luxury to make work that will get printed and distributed to a larger audience. When she has spare time, she tends to her bees and hangs out with the chickens in her backyard.


    Jo Dery     is an artist who experiments with narrative form, using both traditional and new media. Her works include short films/videos, drawings, prints, illustration, installation, and artist/small-press book publications. Through the playful invention of characters and events, she investigates her relationship to the built environment, natural phenomena, history and current events, as well as aspects of cognition and consciousness. She currently lives in Chicago.

    Edie Fake was born in Chicagoland in 1980. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence in 2002 and has since clocked time in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Baltimore. He’s received a Critical Fierceness Grant for queer art and was one of the first recipients of Printed Matter’s Awards for Artists. His drawings have been included in Hot and Cold, Creative Time Comics, and LTTR. Gaylord is his first full-length book. Currently, he lives in Chicago where he works as a minicomics sommelier for Quimby’s Books.

    For more info:
    http://pegacornpress.blogspot.com/
    www.carolinepaquita.com
    http://www.jodery.com/
    http://vimeo.com/jodery
    http://www.ediefake.com/

  • Save the Date! Chicago Zine Fest 2012 Dates Announced!

    The 2012 Chicago Zine Fest will take place Friday and Saturday, March 9th & 10th of 2012!  For Saturday’s Zine Exhibition, it will return to Columbia’s Conaway Center as the first two years.

    Stay tuned to chicagozinefest.org for updates.

    Also, perhaps you attended last years? Fill out a short survey to provide feedback to help make 2012’s extra awesome here: http://bit.ly/kL7sIz

    And hey! Here’s some highlights from Chicago Zine Fest 2011:

    flickr.com/groups/czf11/pool/

    youtube.com/watch?v=sPscJYW_7Ak

  • Learnapalooza Comics Workshops Schedule at Quimby's 6/25 With Sara Drake

    Learnapalooza Workshops 6/25

    Quimby’s welcomes Learnapalooza for a second year. It’s a festival of free workshops, where Chicagoans will share their skills by leading free workshops throughout the day in different places. Quimby’s welcomes “Arty Party” and “Transmission” comics artist Sara Drake, who will be leading comics-making sessions in the afternoon. Her free workshops will be held at these times here at Quimby’s:

    1:45 comics making demo

    3:00 self-publishing demo

    4:45 comics drawing workshop



    Here’s more info about the rest of the festival!

    Want to be the next National Geographic photographer? Or learn to build a website, prepare a summer sandwich, knit, cure bacon, or dance like a Bollywood star? Don’t miss a bounty of workshops on Saturday, June 25th, 2011 from 10am to 5pm for the 2nd annual Learnapalooza, a summer festival of learning with nearly 100 free workshops across Wicker Park, led by neighbors, business owners, or you! The workshops are held at a variety of places around Wicker Park, including Quimby’s!

    Free workshops will include everything from improv comedy to social entrepreneurship to board games to worm composting and much more. Workshops will be hosted at more than a dozen businesses and organizations, and headquartered at the Wicker Park Art Center. The majority of the workshops are aimed at adults, but there will be a few options for children and families as well. It’s a fun, free way to share your passions, learn new skills, and connect with your neighbors.

    Learnapalooza is a volunteer-organized event and run in partnership with CommuniTeach, a website that makes it easy to learn from your neighbors for free throughout the year. Please visit www.learnapaloozachi.com to see the current list of classes and venues, sign up to teach a workshop, and join the Learnapalooza mailing list.

    We look forward to seeing you on June 25th!

    Learnapalooza is sponsored in part by WPB, the Special Service Area for the Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhoods. For more information on their partner, CommuniTeach, visit www.communiteach.com