Category: Store Events

  • 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

     

  • Black Eye Number 3 Release & Signing 2/18

    This event is occasioned by the publication of BLACK EYE No. 3, the final and timely volume of the Ignatz-nominated Black Eye, the anthology of humor and despair published by Rotland Press. This all-comics issue compiles 136 pages with a jaundiced eye on the zeitgeist. Subtitled “A Shameful Enlightenment,” it is a riff on the absurdity of our times, as charted by a coterie of 36 international cartoonists. Black Eye No. 3 will thrill, sicken, amuse, titillate, horrify, and fortify. This event is an opportunity to bring together five of the contributing artists who are based in Chicago: Andy Burkholder, Corinne Halbert, Paul Nudd, Onsmith and Johnny Sampson. Copies of BLACK EYE No. 3 will be available for purchase, as well as a limited edition letterpress print by Paul Nudd, and a limited edition risograph print by UK artist Ben Jones. The Sightseer’s Complement, a limited run, 40-page supplemental book to Black Eye No. 3 will also be available for purchase and signing.

      “Ryan Standfest brings together an exquisitely curated collection of funny, dark, and beguiling comic art for Black Eye No. 3. I’m going to read my copy by a roaring arson blaze.”  —Kaz, Creator of the comic strip Underworld

    The contributors to Black Eye No. 3 include: Alexis Beauclair, Tom Bunk, Andy Burkholder, Max Clotfelter, Mark Dancey, Kayla E., Vincenzo Fagnani, Penelope Gazin, Julia Gfrörer, Anna Haifisch, Corinne Halbert, Eric Haven, Ian Huebert, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Clara Bessijelle Johansson, Francis Kulikowski, Meghan Lamb, David Lynch, John Maggie, Nicolas Mahler, Jérôme Mulot, Erik Nebel, Paul Nudd, Onsmith, Pierre La Police, Helge Reumann, Josephin Ritschel, Martin Rowson, Florent Ruppert, Johnny Sampson, David Sandlin, S. William Schudlich, Santiago Sequeiros, Sammy Stein, Brecht Vandenbroucke, Chris Wright The cover is by Joan Cornellà. The book is edited by Ryan Standfest.

    Founded in 2010, ROTLAND PRESS is a small publishing house located in Detroit, Michigan, USA. It is a publisher of printed projects that promote subversive humor— be it black, dark, gallows, satirical or absurd. ROTLAND PRESS aims to occupy a place between the mainstream and the avant-garde, the philistine and the genteel, industriously manufacturing the finest in despairing entertainment. Ryan Standfest in the Publisher and Editor-In-Chief. More info: rotlandpress.com

    Sat, Feb 18th, 7pm – Free Event

    Here’s the Facebook event to invite your friends!

  • Quimby's Welcomes Michael DeForge with Sadie Dupuis 3/25

    Join Michael DeForge for a live reading and book signing as he introduces the world to Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero. Sticks has escaped her heritage for the refuge of the woods and through her story, DeForge delivers another deeply humane work, one that subtly questions the integrity of the political state and contemporary journalism, all while investigating our relationship to the natural world.

    Michael will be joined by musician Sadie Dupuis (Sad13, Speedy Ortiz) who will play a solo set following the reading. Come out for a celebratory lo-fi comics night!

    Invite your friends to this event with the Facebook invite here!

    More info about the book:

    A Johnson has his Boswell and every Sticks Angelica has her Michael DeForge

    Sticks Angelica is, in her own words, “49 years old. Former: Olympian, poet, scholar, sculptor, minister, activist, Governor General, entrepreneur, line cook, headmistress, Mountie, columnist, libertarian, cellist.” After a high-profile family scandal, Sticks escapes to the woods to live in what would be relative isolation were it not for the many animals that surround and inevitably annoy her. Sticks is an arrogant self-obsessed force who wills herself on the flora and fauna. There is a rabbit named Oatmeal who harbors an unrequited love for her, a pair of kissing geese, a cross-dressing moose absurdly named Lisa Hanawalt. When a reporter named, ahem, Michael DeForge shows up to interview Sticks for his biography on her, she quickly slugs him and buries him up to his neck, immobilizing him. Instead, Sticks narrates her way through the forest, recalling formative incidents from her storied past in what becomes a strange sort of autobiography.

    Deforge’s witty dialogue and deadpan narration create a bizarre, yet eerily familiar world. Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero plays with autobiography, biography, and hagiography to look at how we build our own sense of self and how others carry on the roles we create for them in our own personal dramas.

     

    Author Bio:

    Michael DeForge was born in 1987 and grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. His one-person anthology series Lose has been nominated for, or won, every major comics award including the Ignatz and Eisner awards. His previous graphic novels with Drawn & Quarterly are Ant Colony, Big Kids, and First Year Healthy. This March he releases Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero.

    Sadie Dupuis is a musician, writer and artist who most frequently performs as the frontdemon of the rock group Speedy Ortiz, which has released two critically acclaimed albums for Carpark Records. She also writes politically-geared pop songs under the moniker Sad13. Based in Philadelphia, her writing on music has been published in Spin, New York Magazine, and Nylon, and she earned an MFA in poetry from UMass Amherst.

    Sat, March 25th, 7pm  FREE EVENT

  • In New York? GRAND OPENING QUIMBY’S BOOKSTORE NYC, 2/4/17!

    GRAND OPENING

    QUIMBY’S BOOKSTORE NYC

    SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4th, 2017

    7:00 – 10:00

    At 7:00 PM, Steven Svymbersky will give a short slide show talk on the history of zines followed by champagne and hors d’oeuvres.

    This event is also the opening for the first major survey of works by sculptor and collage artist, Eric Kirsammer.

    Quimby’s Bookstore NYC

    536 Metropolitan Ave

    Brooklyn, NY 11211

    718-384-1215

    quimbysbookstorenyc(at)gmail(dot)com

    quimbysbookstorenyc can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & Tumblr

    Quimby’s Bookstore NYC joins Desert Island Comics on Metropolitan Ave in Williamsburg to bring you every cool, queer, sick, rad, aberrant, dope, weird, impossible publication available, something you never knew existed but that now you need.

    Steven Svymbersky originally opened Quimby’s Bookstore in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood in 1991.  That store recently celebrated their 25th anniversary. Quimby’s specializes in zines, alternative magazines and underground books. Subject matter includes LGBTQ, Anarchism, Tattooing, Creative Resistance, Drugs, Minority and Women’s Issues, Taxidermy, Occult, Punk Rock, Cycling, Urban Farming, Vegetarianism, Morbid Anatomy, as well as the more outré artists working in fiction and photography. 

    In December 2016, Svymbersky opened the second Quimby’s location next door to Desert Island Comics (Best Comics Resource, Village Voice 2016). Desert Island has been on Metropolitan Ave over eight years.  Founder, Gabe Fowler is also the publisher of the comics anthology Resist!/Smoke Signals and every year in November organizes New York’s largest underground comics convention, Comics Art Brooklyn.

  • 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

  • Quimby’s 2017 Zlumber Party 1/28-1/29

    Hey zinesters and comics artists! Come to our Zlumber Party (as in Zine Slumber Party)! This is the sixth 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 28th (the store closes at 10pm). Then spend the night here! Stay until 6am Sun, Jan 29th! (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 2017!

    When: Sat, Jan 28th, 9:30pm – Sun, Jan 29th, 6am

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

    RSVP: Give us a holler so we have a head count: 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: Please 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 2017 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: https://www.quimbys.com/consignment

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

  • Offsite: Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) June 10th & 11th, 2017 – Tabling Exhibition at Center On Halsted

    Quimby’s is proud to co-sponsor the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) is a weekend-long celebration of independent comics, inspired by Chicago’s rich legacy as home to many of underground and alternative comics’ most talented artists–past, present, and future. Featuring comics for sale, workshops, exhibitions, panel discussions, and more, CAKE is dedicated to fostering community and dialogue among independent artists, small presses, publishers, and readers. The sixth annual CAKE will take place Saturday, June 10, and Sunday, June 11, 2017, at Center on Halsted, 3656 North Halsted Avenue in Chicago.

    2017 Special Guests include: Ron Regé, Jr. (The Cartoon Utopia), Jesse Jacobs (Safari Honeymoon), C. “Spike” Trotman (Iron Circus), Jessi Zabarsky (Witchlight), Gary Panter (Jimbo), Kevin Budnik (Handbook), Emil Ferris (My Favorite Thing Is Monsters), Ben Passmore (Your Black Friend), Gabrielle Bell (Everything is Flammable)!

    The event is free to attend. Please visit cakechicago.com for more information. For any questions about CAKE, please email cakexpo@gmail.com.

    Join and share the event on Facebook!

    Banner by Chicago’s own Anya Davidson.

    Info about the CAKE kick off event at Quimby’s on Fri the 9th here!

    Sign up for Tiny Letter CAKE updates here.

  • Off-Site: Chicago Zine Fest Karaoke Fundraiser Thursday Dec 8th at Beauty Bar

    czf-karaoke-120816

    Calling all Karaoke Idols, you can stop singing to yourself while driving to work and join Chicago Zine Fest at our annual karaoke fundraiser, Thursday, December 8th at Beauty Bar, 1444 W Chicago Ave. NOT at QUIMBY’S.

    Hosted by Joe and Liz Mason of Shameless Karaoke, dig deep into their songbook of over 3000 songs (w/ 100 new ones just added for you to try out!). They’ve got tons of artists from classics to contemporary from the like of David Bowie, Neil Diamond, Katy Perry, Michael Jackson, No Doubt, Madonna, Prince, Rolling Stones, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears and “more more more” (yes Billy Idol too).

    There is a $5 admission which will benefit the 2017 Chicago Zine Fest. Beauty Bar offers their signature martini and a manicure drink special! Plus walk away with some extra cash by entering the CZF Split the Pot raffle. 

    Now all that’s left is you and some friends (can’t sing duets alone). The event beings at 8pm and is 21+.

    Get on stage and rock out! 

    About Chicago Zine Fest: The Chicago Zine Fest is an independent event creating an outlet for small press and independent publishers to showcase their work. CZF’s mission is to showcase the culture and accessibility of zine-making through workshops, events, and an annual festival that welcomes artists and creators to share their stories, knowledge, and love of zines. The 2017 Chicago Zine Fest is Friday May 5 with the 8th Annual Zine Exhibition on Saturday May 6 at Plumber’s Union Hall. For more information visit chicagozinefest.org.

    Quimby’s Bookstore is proud to be a sponsor for Chicago Zine Fest.

    Flyer artwork by Chicago illustrator Chema Skandal.

    Here’s the Facebook invite for this event. Tell yr friends!

  • Offsite: Chicago Zine Fest 2017!

    czf_2017-poster_72dpi_11x17-1

     

    Quimby’s is proud to be a co-sponsor of the Chicago Zine Fest, a celebration of small press and independent publishers, with free workshops, events, and an annual festival. The next CZF will be held May 5th-6th, 2017.

    Fri, May 5th at Co-Prosperity Sphere (3219 S Morgan St in Bridgeport) – NOT AT QUIMBY’S
    6:30pm: “Tools of Survival: Using Zines for Self-Care Panel” moderated by School of Life Design co-founder Kelly Cree. With JC, Rinko Endo, and Kevin Budnik. Panel sponsored by The University of Chicago Library.
    8pm: Exhibitor Readings, featuring zinesters & comics artists Natasha Hernandez, Bianca Xunise, Aus & Lauren, Eryca Sender, Sage Coffey, Javier Suarez + Cameron Del Rosario, Fiona Avocado, and Jim Joyce.

    Sat, May 6th at Plumbers Union Hall (1340 W Washington Blvd) – NOT AT QUIMBY’S
    11am-6pm: Zine Exhibition – Quimby’s will have a table, yes! Here’s the list of other exhibitors, sponsors, and guests!
    noon-1pm “Ever Evolving Bastion of Freakdom: A Quimby’s Panel.” Chicago Zine Fest offers the community a way to engage and learn through a selection of workshops held during the expo. CZF is pleased to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Chicago’s Quimby’s bookstore with the panel “Ever Evolving Bastion of Freakdom: A Retrospective of Quimby’s” featuring a discussion (moderated by CZF co-organizer Alex Nall) with store founder Steven Svymbersky (and owner of Quimby’s Bookstore NYC), Quimby’s Bookstore Chicago store manager and zinester Liz Mason, with special guests, Neil Brideau (former employee and founder of Radiator Comics) and artist/photographer/Quimby’s regular customer Oscar Arriola. Come for a rousing discussion of how Quimby’s Bookstore got started, how it has evolved over the years, and how each panelist played a vital role in where it is today! Here’s the Facebook event invite for this panel! (And here’s the post on our blog about the panel.)

    Here’s a list of other workshops etc during the fest!

    Be on top of all things CZF:
    chicagozinefest.org
    twitter.com/chicagozinefest
    facebook.com/chicagozinefest
    chicagozinefest.tumblr.com
    instagram.com/chicagozinefest

    You can support the Chicago Zine Fest by donating through Paypal, contacting them about an in-kind donation, or volunteering!

    Art by Quimby’s employee Mike Centeno!

  • 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