Category: Store Events

  • Zizobotchi Rises at Quimby's: Selected Readings from Volume 2 on Friday, March 2nd

    Join us for a night of selected readings from Zizobotchi Papers: volume 2, fall, 2017.

    Zizobotchi Papers is a literary journal dedicated to the novella. Think double feature, with a paperback spine instead of a marquee.

    Jeff Phillips will read from his latest novella, God’s Least Likely to Succeed, about the derailing of a secret agent’s first day on the job by an ancient cult’s infiltration of their operation.

    Erin Makowski will read from Dan MacRae’s latest novella, The Dollmaker’s Grin, where an altercation changes a shuttle bus driver’s life, for better, and for much much worse.

    Copies of the book will be for sale for $13.

    Find out more about Zizobotchi Papers on the web at Zizobotchi.com

    Jeff Phillips is a washed up varsity cross country skier and storefront theatre method actor. For two years he was co-host of The Liquid Burning, an apocalypse themed reading series, and for just shy of three years, he co-hosted the Chicago reading series Pungent Parlour. His short fiction has appeared in Seeding Meat, This Zine Will Change Your Life, Metazen, Chicago Literati, and Literary Orphans. He is the co-founder of Zizobotchi Papers, a literary journal dedicated to the novella and a regular contributor of short stories and essays at the site Drinkers With Writing Problems. You can find him on Twitter as @TheIglooOven or at theotherauthorjeffphillips.com

    Erin Makowski has been acting and singing since her childhood. Her first production was as Gretel in ‘The Sound of Music’. Most of her younger years were spent in the Gilbert and Sullivan Company of El Paso going from the high seas in ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ to a little maid in school in Mikado. After her early schooling in the theater Erin received a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College right here in Chicago. Erin has worked with many companies in town, played extras on TV and sung her heart out for Cabaret audiences.

    Fri, March 2nd, 7pm – Free Event

    Click here to see the Facebook invite for this event.

  • Quimby’s 2018 Zlumber Party 1/27-1/28

    Hey zinesters and comics artists! Come to our Zlumber Party (as in Zine Slumber Party)! This is the seventh year in a row we’re inviting you to come in and spend the night with us working on your zine, and start your year off with a creative frenzy! Get here at 9:30 on Sat, Jan 27th (the store closes at 10pm). Then spend the night here! Stay until 6am Sun, Jan 28th! (And yes, you can leave whenever you want before then if you want or need to.) So bring yer jammies and a sleeping bag, then leave in the morning with what you’ve been workin’ on! There will be snacks! And coffee!

    What: Zlumber Party 2018!

    When: Sat, Jan 27th, 9:30pm – Sun, Jan 28th, 6am

    Where: Here at Quimby’s Bookstore at 1854 W. North Ave, Chicago

    RSVP: Give us a holler so we have a head count and know how much pizza to order!: info(at)quimbys(dot)com.

    Invite your friends with the Facebook invite here.

    Helpful hints!

    *In terms of what to bring, definitely whatever project you’re working on, whether it’s a zine, a comic, a book, a magazine, an artist book — independent publishing knows no bounds!

    *Be here at 9:30pm (the store closes at 10pm). This is NOT a lock in; you can leave whenever you want. You can stay as late as 6am on sunday morning, which is the official end time for the event.

    *Wear comfy clothes! Don’t forget your sleeping gear! A sleeping bag if you wanna take a break to catch a few zzzz (or just be comfy), a pillow, footie pajamas, a blanket, slippers…whatever makes you comfy.

    *We’ll provide some snacks and coffee, but you may want to bring some snacks with you if you like. A good way to make new friends is bring food, is all we’re saying. If you have food sensitivities or allergies please bring whatever nourishment you need to bring to sustain you.

    *We’ll also provide some office supplies (papers, pens, scissors, staplers, that type of thing), chairs and tables.

    *One final note: Don’t feel pressured to feel like you have to finish whatever you’re working on before you leave. If you feel excited to work on your project once you’ve been working on it here, that you’ve started your 2018 off jazzed that you got the creative ball rolling, then we’ve done our job (that’s once of the reasons we do this event in January). When you’re all done with your zine and you want to consign it here, we’re excited to sell it for you. More info about consignment here: quimbys.com/consignment

    Also, click here for more info about consigning at Quimby’s Bookstore NYC!

  • Offsite: Quimby's Co-Sponsors The Independent World Karaoke Championship at the Co-Prosperity Sphere Dec 7th-9th

    Chicago is the new karaoke capital, and The Independent World Karaoke Championship is happening Dec 7th-Dec 9th in this great city to prove it. Quimby’s is proud to co-sponsor the first IWKC, which boasts 3 nights of karaoke, special awards, bands, celebrity appearances, raffles, screenings and more. This karaoke-related multi-media experience explodes in lowbrow hi-fi at the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport, the Community of Future. This festival is a fundraiser for WLPN, Lumpen Radio.

    Dec 7-9, 2017

    All events take place at the Co-Prosperity Sphere (NOT Quimby’s), 3219 S Morgan St • Chicago Il 60608

    Admission is $10 – 3 Day Pass is $25

    THURSDAY DEC 7 Shameless Karaoke Night
    7pm: Screening of the movie Karaoke Terror
    9pm: Performance by: Bill Mummy
    9:30pm-midnight – Karaoke provided Shameless Karaoke

    FRIDAY, DEC 8 Green Screen You Tube Karaoke Freakout!
    7pm Screening of the documentary Karaoke Fever
    9pm Performance by Winston Lasker ( Hunter Husar )
    9:30pm-midnight Green Screen You Tube Karaoke Freakout!

    SATURDAY, DEC 9 The Finals!
    4pm Interview with Rob Drew, author of Karaoke Nights: An Ethnographic Rhapsody (recorded live with studio audience for WLPN broadcast)
    7pm Screening of the worst karaoke movie ever made: Duets
    9pm Performance by Bobby Conn
    9:30 pm-Midnight: Judged competition- Karaoke provided Shameless Karaoke

    full schedule located at c-ps.org.

    #IWKC

    Wanna see the list of songs Shameless Karaoke offers for Thurs and Sat? Click here!

    Wanna see this event on Facebook? Click here!

  • Offsite: Quimby's Co-sponsors Chicago Printers Guild Publishers Fair

    Sat Nov 11th & Sun Nov 12th
    at Elastic Arts, 3429 W Diversey Ave. 2nd Floor

    Quimby’s is proud to help co-sponsor The 2nd Chicago Printers Guild Publishers Fair. The CPG Publisher’s Fair is a two-day event that offers a strong platform of exchange for the public to intersect with artists who “make things print”.

    OPENING NIGHT PARTY
    Sat, Nov 11th, 6pm-midnight, $8
    Featured Speakers: Luke Drozd (London), Tanner Woodford (Chicago) + Print Trivia + Jolly Jogger Award (Print Practioner of 2017) + DJ Jan Jammerlappen

    PUBLISHERS FAIR
    Sun, Nov 12th, 10am–6pm, Free
    Featured Artists/Publishers: Alexandra Blom, Alison Filley, Anna Hasseltine, Ben Chlapek, Bert Green, Bobby Sims, Caitlin Jayes, Carrie Lingscheit, Colette Lehman, Cristal Tucker, Dan Black, Daniel Luedtke, Dan Grzeca, Deborah Maris Lader, Emma Bilyeu, Farrah Blake, Jay Ryan.

    More info at chicagoprintersguild.org/fair

    *Please note, both of these events are at Elastic Arts, NOT QUIMBY’S.*

  • Chris Ware Signs MONOGRAPH 11/3

    While Chris Ware’s singular body of work is often categorized as comics, his writing/drawing defies classification. Whether he’s creating graphic novels, making paintings or building sculptures, Ware explores social isolation, emotional pain and human desperation with a fine visual clarity and uncertain mnemonic organization, the end result being intentionally empathetic and complex. Like Charles Schulz, Art Spiegelman and R. Crumb before him, Ware has attempted to elevate cartooning to a fine art form.

    MONOGRAPH is a personal, never-before-seen look at how the artist’s private and work life intersect, beginning with the influence of his newspaper family to his art school days in Austin and Chicago to his life from the early 1990s to the present day. The book delves into how, as a storyteller and builder, Ware’s work in three dimensions feeds into the thinking of his finely textured narrative art, offering a prismatic look at his work, including rarely-seen early attempts, previously unpublished strips and notes, all serving as a window into how artwork made for reproduction is still fundamentally “art.”

    “There’s no writer alive whose work I love more than Chris Ware. The only problem is it takes him ten years to draw these things and then I read them in a day and have to wait another ten years for the next one.” –Zadie Smith    

    About the Author: Chris Ware is a contributor to the New Yorker, and his “Building Stories” was selected as a best book of the year by both the New York Times and Time magazine. Ira Glass is the creator and producer of the radio program This American Life. Françoise Mouly is the publisher of TOON Books and the art editor of the New Yorker. Art Spiegelman is the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Maus.

    MONOGRAPH
    By Chris Ware
    Contributions by Ira Glass, Françoise Mouly, and Art Spiegelman
    Hardcover, three-piece case / 13” x 18” / 280 pages / 300+ color and b&w photographs
    $60.00 U.S., $80.00 Canadian, £45.00 U.K.
    ISBN: 978-0-8478-6088-3 / Rizzoli New York / Release date: November 2017
    www.rizzoliusa.com

    Here’s the Facebook invite for this event!

  • Singer-Songwriter-Guitarist and Author Phil Circle Launches His New Book The Outback Musician's Survival Guide 10/19

    In Phil Circle’s new book The Outback Musician’s Survival Guide (Guilt By Association), he uses his 30+ years as an independent musician to shed some light on the real world of music for 99% of American musicians. Through a series of tales both whimsical and dark, reflections on the craft and the business, and admissions of his own faults, he brings a human face to a seemingly glamorous world. You’re likely to find that some of what you’ve heard about being a musician is sadly or hysterically true, and that other widely held beliefs are little more than hot air.

    “Towards the end of the book, Phil says, “I don’t have some profound message.” In fact, by sharing his humanity and his failings as well as his high points, he has created a profound message. It is often in mere survival that we create greatness, although we ourselves don’t know it at the time. The touch of human grief amidst all of the adrenaline pumping adventure makes this book something of a celebration of what it means to be human.” -Sarah Jane Clarke, Beat Media, Oxford, UK

    Phil Circle has written, recorded and produced eight albums of his own music and two albums of cover songs, one featuring almost entirely music by Chicago songwriters. As a writer, Phil’s work has appeared in articles for various music zines and other publications over the years, including Chicago Music Guide, Pro-Am Guide and a report on the industry for NARAS.

    For more info: www.philcirclemusic.com @philcircle

    Here’s the Facebook invite for this event!

    Thursday, October 19th, 7pm – Free Event

  • “Godzilla” Director Ishiro Honda’s New Biography Presented by Author Ed Godziszewski at Quimby’s 10/13

    Godzilla first laid waste to Tokyo more than 60 years ago in a symbolic reenactment of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. But even as the monster has become recognizable worldwide, the filmmaker who brought it to the screen has remained in Godzilla’s giant shadow.

    Ed Godziszewski comes to Quimby’s Bookstore to present ISHIRO HONDA: A LIFE IN FILM, FROM GODZILLA TO KUROSAWA, the first major overview of the life and career of Ishiro Honda, the director behind the original GODZILLA and many of its beloved sequels and spin-offs of the 1950s and ‘60s. Godziszewski, a lifelong Chicagoan, is one of the leading scholars of Japanese science-fiction and fantasy cinema and publisher of JAPANESE GIANTS magazine. He co-wrote the book with Steve Ryfle, also a noted genre scholar. Nearly 10 years in the research and writing, the book is published by Wesleyan University Press.

    Honda was the most internationally successful Japanese director of his generation, with an unparalleled succession of genre movies that were commercial hits worldwide, including MOTHRA, RODAN, THE MYSTERIANS, and many others. Honda’s films reflected postwar Japan’s real-life anxieties and incorporated fantastical special effects, a formula that still appeals to audiences around the globe. The new book sheds light on this long-overlooked director’s work and the experiences that shaped it—including his days as a reluctant Japanese soldier, his witnessing of the aftermath of Hiroshima, and his lifelong friendship with Akira Kurosawa.

    “This carefully researched and detailed book gives us a full picture of the man and his life.” — Martin Scorsese

    For more info:

    Facebook Event Invite for this Event.

    Facebook.com/IshiroHondaBook

    Fri, Oct 13th, 7pm Free Event

  • Nicole Georges Reads From FETCH: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home, Thurs 9/28 with guests Jessica Campbell & Gina Wynbrandt

    From an award-winning artist, a memoir of life with a difficult, beloved dog that will resonate with anybody who has ever had a less than perfectly behaved pet.

    When Nicole Georges was sixteen she adopted Beija, a dysfunctional shar-pei/corgi mix—a troublesome combination of tiny and attack, just like teenaged Nicole herself. For the next fifteen years, Beija would be the one constant in her life. Through depression, relationships gone awry, and an unmoored young adulthood played out against the backdrop of the Portland punk scene, Beija was there, wearing her “Don’t Pet Me” bandana. 

    Georges’s gorgeous graphic novel FETCH: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home chronicles their symbiotic, codependent relationship and probes what it means to care for and be responsible to another living thing—a living thing that occasionally lunges at toddlers. Nicole turns to vets, dog whisperers, and even a pet psychic for help, but it is the moments of accommodation, adaption, and compassion that sustain them. Nicole never successfully taught Beija “sit,” but in the end, Beija taught Nicole how to stay.

    Comics art superstars Jessica Campbell (Hot or Not, Koyama Press) & Gina Wynbrandt (Someone Please Have Sex With Me, 2dcloud) will provide added voices for this event!

    “Nicole Georges makes my favorite art about love and vulnerability. More than a tribute to a canine best friend, Fetch maps Georges’s journey from teen to adult with heartbreaking honesty and tender joy. I am in awe of Georges’s uncanny ability to transport me right into her world of moldy crusty punk houses and glorious vegan lesbian barbecues. Funny, gorgeous, and true.”  —Jill Soloway, creator of Transparent

    “From feral child to leader of the pack, Nicole Georges comes to know a thing or two about dogs, and incidentally, about herself. Her luminous, lyrical drawings of animals are charged with strange insight, and add a potent nonverbal element to the narrative of Georges’ youth. Fetch combines the best qualities of diary comics—particularity and granular detail—with the zoomed out view of someone who has completed an arduous, mythic, and expansive journey.”

    —Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home and Are You My Mother?

    “Nicole’s work always punches me in the guts with her unending longing for a home. Through constant disappointments and the challenges of owning a rescue dog and a rescue heart, she unflinchingly refuses to quit. A magical world so full of tenderness it might just break you, it’s a place I love to visit and rarely want to leave. I want Nicole to draw the whole world, but her hands would fall off.” 

    —Sarah Shapiro, co-creator of Unreal

    “This book is an homage to classic zine aesthetics that captures an incomparable friendship. An honest, moving portrayal of the essential bond between humans and animals.”

    –Publishers Weekly, starred review

    “Touchingly, beautifully conveyed. Part grief memoir, part coming-of-age story, part feminist manifesto, this well-written, splendidly illustrated title…will stir the hearts of misunderstood riot grrrls, owners of unruly canines, and LGBTQ readers.” –Library Journal, starred review

    Nicole J. Georges is a professor, writer, and illustrator, who has been publishing her own zines and comics for twenty years. She is the author of the Lambda Award–winning graphic memoir Calling Dr. Laura and the diary comic Invincible Summer. She lives in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, CA. Follow Nicole: nicolejgeorges.tumblr.com Twitter: @nicolejgeorges Instagram: @nicolejgeorges

    For more info: Publicity Contact: Liz Deadrick, 212-598- 5730,  liz.deadrick@hmhco.com

    Thursday, September 28, 2017  7pm – Free Event at Quimby’s!

    Here’s the Facebook Event Posting For this Event!

  • 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!