Category: Store Events

  • Grow Author Eleanor C. Whitney Moderates DIY Success Panel with Selena Fragasi, Rebecca Ann Rakstad & Bradley Adita

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    Eleanor C. Whitney’s new book Grow: How to Take Your Do It Yourself Project and Passion to the Next Level and Quit Your Job (Microcosm Publishing), is a practical field guide for creative people who want to achieve success with their ideas for independent projects.  Author Eleanor Whitney enables readers to clarify their vision, set goals, create a plan, fundraise, publicize, and manage their “do-it-yourself” endeavor. Whitney will discuss achieving success and sustainability as an independent writer, publisher and creative business owner with Chicago-based creatives Selena Fragassi (Boxx Magazine), Rebecca Ann Rakstad (Rarrar Press), and Bradley Adita (PopPunk.com).

    “The ultimate creative person’s companion- for anyone who’s thought of, attempted to, or has already made some steps to turning their vision into a  viable product, this practical and personal how-to is like a business-savvy mentor.” – Cathy Erway, author of The Art of Eating In: How I learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove and editor of Not Eating Out in New York

    Eleanor Whitney is a Brooklyn-based writer, musician and arts professional. She has written for publications such as Venus Zine and Remedy Quarterly and contributes regularly to Idealist.org and Artsfwd.org. She has spoken about creative success and sustainability at national conferences such as South by Southwest and the Creative Chicago Expo.

    For more info: growdiy.com

  • Quimby’s Welcomes Dan Gleason and Friends 7/6

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    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

  • Off-Site: Saturday Strip: Comic Day MCA

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    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.Clowes_Eightball18cover

    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.

  • Off-Site: Quimby's Co-sponsors the EX. MONEY. RACE. GENDER Ladydrawers Exhibition

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    Quimby’s Bookstore (and our sister store, Chicago Comics) are proud to be a sponsor of the Ladydrawers Comics Collective exhibition entitled SEX. MONEY. RACE. GENDER, curated by Anne Elizabeth Moore, at Columbia College Chicago’s A+D Gallery, opening June 27th.  S.M.R.G. will also feature a series of workshops that explores hot button topics with everything from site-specific murals to performance to empirical conversations to yes, comics.
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    Beginning with the opening night spectacle, the gallery (Columbia’s A+D Gallery, not Quimby’s) will be activated through fun, radicalthinking, and art making, a space to observe and reflect on ideas of SEX, MONEY, RACE, and GENDER.  Instead of creating a catalog for the show, Quimby’s is proud to co-sponsor a comics anthology including work by Robyn Chapman, Danielle Chenette, Clay Harris, Lyra Hill, MariNaomi, Corinne Mucha, Laura Szumowski, Lauren Weinstein.

    SEX. MONEY. RACE. GENDER.  The Ladydrawers (of Chicago, IL)

    Exhibition & Workshop Schedule

     

    Opening Reception: June 27, 5:00-8:00 p.m.

    Exhibit closes on July 27th

    Curated by Anne Elizabeth Moore

    S.M.R.G OPENING NIGHT EXTRAVAGANZA!

    Featuring comedy, art making, readings, performance, and much more. Come explore issues of SEX, MONEY, RACE, and GENDER with a sprinkling of humor and pathos through stand up comedy, femcore anthems, live mural making, and interpretations of texts, personal readings (in the bathroom!), and even hula hooping. Join us, won’t you?

    Opening Night Performers

    Sarah Bell, Blizzard Babies, Gretchen Hasse, Lyra Hill, Elliott Junkyard, Francis Kang, Ever Mainard, Carolina Mayorga, Katie McVay, Yasmin Nair, Polly Yates

    Exhibition Participants

    Nicole Boyett, Jacinta Bunnel, Danielle Chenette, Gretchen Hasse, Elliott Junkyard, Francis Kang, Carolina Mayorga, Melissa Gira Grant, Lyra Hill, Franny Howes, Nia King, Viet Le, Nicole Marroquin, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Sarah Morton, Liz Rush, Rachel Swanson, Laura Szumowski, Bonsovathary Uoeung, Lauren Weinstein, Sarah Welch, Elizabeth White, Mara Williams, Polly Yates

    S.M.R.G Workshops

    These workshops are collaborative and exploratory projects lead by outstanding cultural producers and thinkers—all amazing, smart people that you will like very much.

    Radical Noticing: Riot Grrrl Press and Contemporary Comics

    May Summer Farnsworth and Jamie Davida Lee

    Saturday, June 29, 2013 2:00-4:00 p.m.

    May Summer Farnsworth will discuss her experiences working on the formation of Riot Grrrl Press in 1993. Cartoonist Jamie Davida Lee will simultaneously lead a silent workshop on making comics and zines.

    Lexicon of Sexicana

    Esther Pearl Watson and Terri Kapsalis

    Thursday, July 11, 2013, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

    Speech balloons! Giant boons! Big muscles! The hundred-year-old lexicon of comics was developed by its most prominent practitioners, mostly straight white dudes. It’s time to re-think the language of comics. Esther Pearl Watson and Terri Kapsalis will create a work exploring sexual health based on Mort Walker’s satirical look at comics devices for cartoonists, The Lexicon of Comicana.

    Life and Labor

    Delia Jean Hickey and Sarah Jaffe

    Thursday, July 18, 2013, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

    We all know what it means to work, but what extra effort do certain forms of labor extract from us? This workshop explores what it takes to make an honest living, with a particular focus on the service industry.

    Boi Band Poser Poster Workshop

    Viet Le and Morgan Claire

    Thursday, July 25, 2013, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

    This workshop challenges identities and identifications through pop and props. Thinking through gender, race, and (inner and outer) space, participants will form and “perform” their own pop bands and solo acts. Fun FOBulous times!

    Please note: these events are at the A+D Gallery at 619 S. Wabash Ave, Chicago, Il 60605, NOT QUIMBY’S BOOKSTORE.

  • Off-Site: Quimby's sells Marijuanamerica by Alfred Ryan Nerz at Jerry's Sandwiches

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    Quimby’s will journey down the street to Jerry’s (the Wicker Park location, at 1938 W. Division) to welcome Alfred Ryan Nerz and sell his book Marijuanamerica: One Man’s Quest to Understand America’s Dysfunctional Love Affair with Weed. What BoingBoing called “a fascinating and entertaining snapshot…it reads something Hunter S. Thompson might have written in his Hell’s Angels days, had he laid off the hard stuff and graduated from Yale.”

    Alfred Ryan Nerz is a Yale-educated author, journalist, and TV producer. He’s also a longtime marijuana enthusiast who has made it his mission to better understand America’s long-standing love-hate relationship with our favorite (sometimes) illegal drug. His cross-country investigation started out sensibly enough: taking classes at a cannabis college, hanging out with a man who gets three hundred pre-rolled joints per month from the federal government, and visiting the world’s largest medical marijuana dispensary.

    However, after connecting with a mysterious friend of a friend, his journey took an unexpected turn and he found himself embedded with one of the largest growers and dealers on the West Coast. He quickly transformed from respectable journalist into an underworld apprentice — surrounded by pit bulls, exotic drugs, beanbags full of cash, and trunks full of weed.

    While struggling to navigate the eccentric characters and rampant paranoia of the black market, he maintained enough equanimity to explore a number of vital questions: Is marijuana hurting or helping us? How is it affecting our lungs, our brains, and our ambitions? Is it truly addictive, and if so, are too many of us dependent on it? Should we legalize it? Does he need to quit?

    As entertaining as it is illuminating, Marijuanamerica is one man’s attempt to humanize the myriad hot-button topics surrounding the nation’s worst-kept secret—our obsession with weed—while learning something about himself along the way.

    Alfred Ryan Nerz is a freelance journalist whose pieces have appeared in Esquire, the Village Voice, and Time Out New York. In addition, he has written for NPR and produced television shows on Spike TV and the Biography channel. He lives in Brooklyn. He is also the author of Eat This Book: A Year on the Competitive Eating Circut.

    Marijuanamerica: One Man’s Quest to Understand America’s Dysfunctional Love Affair with Weed
    By Alfred Ryan Nerz
    Abrams Image / April 2013
    U.S. $19.95
    ISBN 978-1-4197-0408-6
    Hardcover
    272 pages

    Please note this event IS NOT at Quimby’s. It’s at Jerrys Sandwiches (the Wicker Park location) at 1938 W. Division, 773.235.1006.

  • Michael DeForge, Lisa Hanawalt & Patrick Kyle sign at Quimby's 6/14

    Come to Quimby’s the night before the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo to meet three of the most exciting alternative comics makers working today. Michael DeForge (Very Casual, Koyama Press), Lisa Hanawalt (My Dirty Dumb Eyes, Drawn & Quarterly), and Patrick Kyle (Black Mass) will be signing their graphic novels and minicomics as part of the official festivities surrounding CAKE. This event will be followed by Ezra Claytan Daniels’ Comic Art Battle.

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    Michael DeForge lives in Toronto and works as a cartoonist and illustrator. His series Lose is published annually by Koyama Press. His web strip Ant Comic is serialized weekly and will be collected into a graphic novel by Drawn and Quarterly upon its completion. Michael DeForge is a Special Guest at CAKE this year.

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    Lisa Hanawalt is a renowned self-publisher and illustrator living in Brooklyn, New York. Her comics work has won several awards, and she was recently nominated for a James Beard Award for Humor for her piece, “The Secret Lives of Chefs.” Hanawalt’s illustration and comics clients include The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Hairpin, McSweeneys, Chronicle Books, and Vanity Fair. She lives in Brooklyn with a dog and a comedian. MY DIRTY DUMB EYES (May 2013) is her first book with Drawn & Quarterly.newcomics1_patrickkyle

    Patrick Kyle is an artist and illustrator from Toronto, Canada. He is the author of Black Mass and the monthly science fiction series Distance Mover. Patrick was nominated for a Doug Wright Award and an Ignatz award in 2012 for his work in Black Mass. Patrick’s newest work New Comics #1 was published in May 2013 by Mother Books.

    Quimby’s is a proud sponsor of the CAKE which will take place Saturday and Sunday, June 15 & 16th, 11am – 6pm at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N Halsted.

    This event previously featured a presentation by Derf Backderf. Unfortunately, Derf had to cancel his trip to Chicago, and will no longer be involved in this event. We hope to host him again soon.

  • Jason Robert Bell Brings The White Feathered Octopus to Quimby’s 6/11

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    Jason Robert Bell, Mystical Rebel Outlaw Baddasss, whose Advance Thothic Practice in Theatomix will one day rule the world, is releasing a limited paperback first edition of his new book The White Feathered Octopus (Tetragrammatron Press, 2012). This book talks about the gritty hard realties of growing up a blinded street beggar in Cairo, 1937, as if a mutant midwifed counterclockwise to the distant Jauntpads of Rocketcityutopia. It is a science fiction novel, written from one giant cryptographic anagram of Herman Melville’s Moby DIck. Not for the faint of heart! Read it if you dare. An erotic sexperiment in Philikdicking ones own mind back from the brink of madness and disability  a biography of lowdown heights, back alley knife fights, and cold uptown delights, the whole while you have the sinking feeling that this all might not actually be happen, as if you are a chess piece on a scrabble board.

    In other words, prepared to have your MindPenis Blown!

    Mr. Bell will have a limited edition of 12 artist proof unedited copied of his 365 page unreadable sci fi sex, steampimp, one giant anagram of moby dick novel. They will be for sale for $17.766 cents Lumarian, $20 usd. The books come with a digital portfolio of images and the text in complete iPad friendly PDF.

    Robin Dluzen, editor in chief of Chicago Art Magazine is having nightmares about:

    The White Feathered Octopus – The cornerstone of Jason Robert Bell‘s “One Man Army Corpse” exhibition at Thomas Robertello Gallery is The White Feathered Octopus, a 300-page book written by the artist during a three-month, pharmaceutically laden, bedridden recovery from a medical injury, available for viewers to peruse on a shelf in the gallery.

    Not since my adolescent discovery of William S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch have I felt the same heavy, sinking feeling in my stomach from a work of art, visual, written, or otherwise. The artist is the author, protagonist, and narrator of this digitally composed, fragmented, stream-of-consciousness piece, fluctuating between seemingly autobiographical reality and fantastical nightmares.

    Like Naked Lunch, The White Feathered Octopus is difficult to read in both structure and the nature of its content, and it is capable of giving a reader actual nightmares (as it did for me). But also like Burroughs’s masterpiece, it absolutely must be read for its courageous and frightening sincerity.

    Jason Robert Bell is a Brooklyn-based experimental artist and mystic, who produces paintings, drawings, comics, sculpture, experimental films, outdoor installations, performances, and now text, that are the by-products of a mystical journey, conjuring a highly charged, alternative reality. His work has been exhibited at Postmasters Gallery, New York and Thomas Robertello Gallery, Chicago. Bell received a BFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute Chicago and an MFA from the Yale School of fArt.

    For more info: http://www.tetragrammatron.com/ or cavemanrobot@gmail.com

    June 11th, 2013, 7pm – Free Event

     

  • Graham Kolbeins Presents The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame 6/7

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    Celebrate the release of legendary Japanese gay erotic artist Gengoroh Tagame’s first English-language collection of manga at Quimby’s! The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: Master of Gay Erotic Manga features seven of Tagame’s dazzlingly brutal and sumptuously sexy S&M-influenced tales, exclusive sketches, author commentary and essays by Chip Kidd and Edmund White. Come explore Tagame’s oeuvre, background and artistic impact with the book’s editor, Graham Kolbeins. Plus, take part in an audience-facilitated performance of one of the book’s stories!

    “The reader can’t help but feel they’ve been granted a delectable sneak peek into the debauched world of impossibly virile, nasty-as-hell alpha males.” – Ed Luce, creator of Wuvable Oaf

    Gengoroh Tagame (born 1964) is a legend in gay comics throughout the world and in the American underground, where loyal fans have quietly shared foreign-language editions of his groundbreaking work in the outermost edges of bondage and pornography. Beyond the comic book format, Tagame’s original artwork has been exhibited internationally and paired with the works of Tom of Finland. Tagame was also the founding Editor and Art Director of Japan’s most widely circulated gay journal, G-Men.

    For more info: gaymanga.tumblr.com

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    Friday, June 7th, 7pm – Free Event

  • Quimby's Hosts Comic Art Battle with Ezra Claytan Daniels CAKE Edition!

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    Quimby’s is excited to host Ezra Claytan Daniels’ Comic Art Battle as part of official festivities surrounding the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo!

    The Comic Art Battle pits teams of ferocious comics artists against each other in a knock-out, drag-down frenzy of improvised gags, comics strips and chaos. Hosted by its founder, Ezra Claytan Daniels, this battle will feature a match-up between Chicago’s favorite comic book sons and daughters against an all-star coalition of visiting comics makers. It’s Chicago vs. the world! You wont want to miss it! This event is preceded by a signing by Michael DeForge, Lisa Hanawalt and Patrick Kyle.

    EZRA CLAYTAN DANIELS is a writer and illustrator based in Chicago, IL. His critically acclaimed graphic novel series, The Changers, began a unique comics career peppered with a number of collaborative multimedia projects ranging from video games to animation to feature documentaries. Ezra is also the creator of the popular live art spectacle, The Comic Art Battle, and Loaded Blanks Greetings, a line of fill-in-the-blanks comic-art greeting cards featuring both established as well as up and coming comics artists. Ezra recently collaborated with Chicago-based chamber group Fifth House Ensemble on the narrative concert series, Black Violet, which the Chicago Sun-Times called “a modern classic”. Ezra is currently working on Upgrade Soul, a science fiction graphic novel about an elderly couple and their malformed clones. Upgrade Soul will be released in 2012 from Opertoon. http://dream-chocolate.com

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    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 amongst independent artists, small presses, publishers and readers.

    Quimby’s is a proud sponsor of the CAKE which will take place Saturday and Sunday, June 15 & 16th, 11am – 6pm at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N Halsted.

  • Laydeez Do Comics in June, CAKE-Inspired Edition: Mita Mahato & Zan Christensen 6/13

    Laydeez Do Comics is London’s monthly comics salon. Quimby’s is host to the Chicago edition. Come hear comics creators speak about their work, their process, their plans, and whatever else they want to share with us.

    The special June CAKE-inspired edition will feature Seattle visitors:

    Cartoonist and academic Mita Mahato is an associate professor of English at University of Puget Sound. Her academic work often incorporates graphic novels, specifically those around illness. She is currently working on her own graphic novel in collage about grief and the loss of her mother. View her work in progress on her blog, theseframesarehidingplaces.com

    Mita Mahato

    LGBT comics writer and activist Charles ‘Zan’ Christensen founded Seattle’s Northwest Press in 2010. It’s a book publisher dedicated to publishing the best lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender comics collections and graphic novels and celebrating the LGBT comics community. He travels the country promoting and supporting his award winning creators. northwestpress.com

    Peruse NW Press titles at http://northwestpress.com.

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    For more info: laydeezdocomics.com and  comicnurse@mac.com