Category: top ten

1. The Baffler #20 $10.00 – In this summer issue, decomposing cities that tremble with vibrancy, art museums where cash-and-carry aesthetics is the rule, journalists on the endless education of the president, and imperial foundations and their pet broadcasters on public radio. Where else can you learn why Ira Glass’s This American Life is so damn annoying, or take in the lame, postideological pantomiming of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, or admire the performance art of Harvard fraud Adam Wheeler and laugh at the Ivy mothership’s efforts to smite the pretender down? This 172-page issue also offers poems, stories, graphic art, and, just for kicks, the first-ever look at Christopher Lasch’s 1972 novel. Contributors include Thomas Frank, Jed Perl, Steve Almond, Chris Lehmann, Jim Newell, Eugenia Williamson, Heather Havrilesky, Kim Phillips-Fein, Emma Garman, Chris Bray, Matt Hinton, Will Boisvert, Seth Colter Walls, Tod Mesirow, David D’Arcy, and The Homeless Economist, who has a timely suggestion: “Green Gallows for the Wall Street Bankers.

2. Office Girl by Joe Meno (Akashic) $15.95 – Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1999?…And don’t  miss Joe Meno at the Empty Bottle this coming Thursday (July 26th) at 9pm.

3. Razorcake #69 $4.00

4. Bust Aug Sep 12 $5.99

5. Fallen Words: Eight Moral Comedies by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (D&Q) $19.95 – “In Fallen Words, Yoshihiro Tatsumi takes up the oral tradition of rakugo and breathes new life into it by shifting the format from spoken word to manga. Each of the eight stories in the collection is lifted from the Edo-era Japanese storytelling form. As Tatsumi notes in the afterword,the world of rakugo, filled with mystery, emotion, revenge, hope, and of course, love, overlaps perfectly with the world of gekiga that he has spent the better part of his life developing. These slice-of-life stories resonate with modern readers thanks to their comedic elements and familiarity with human idiosyncrasies. In one, a father finds his son too bookish and arranges for two workers to take the young man to a brothel on the pretext of visiting a new shrine. In another particularly beloved rakugo tale, a married man falls in love with a prostitute. When his wife finds out, she is enraged and sets a curse on the other woman. The prostitute responds by cursing the wife, and the two escalate in a spiral of voodoo doll cursing. Soon both are dead, but even death can’t extinguish their jealousy. Tatsumi’s love of wordplay shines through in the telling of these whimsical stories, and yet he still offers timeless insight into human nature.”

6. R. Crumb’s Blues Jazz and Country by R. Crumb $21.95 – Finally back in print! Comes with CD.

7. Love Is Not Constantly Wondering If You Are Making the Biggest Mistake of Your Life $5.00

8. Inferno: A Poets Novel by Eileen Myles (OR) $16.00 – “Inferno” is one of the best books I have ever read. Myles’ writing here wraps the brute force of a memoir within words so gorgeously warm, honed and unstoppable you have no choice but to keep reading. Her prose barrels forward, simultaneously demolishing and defining the identities her life is tethered to. It’s a book that’s simultaneously sexy, cranky, funny, dishy, insightful and human. As suspicious as I can be of poetry, this book is undeniably poetic – and an honest-to-goodness tour de force. Beyond recommended, friends- I think this one should be required. -EF

9. Hologram For the King by Dave Eggers (McSweeneys) $25.00 – In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter’s college tuition, and finally do something great. In A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers takes us around the world to show how one man fights to hold himself and his splintering family together in the face of the global economy’s gale-force winds. This taut, richly layered, and elegiac novel is a powerful evocation of our contemporary moment.

10. Juxtapoz #139 Aug 12 $5.99

What? It’s not Halloween yet? Well everyday is Halloween in these parts.

1. Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Five by Joshua Chapman $1.00

2. Tales To Thrizzle #8 by Michael Kupperman (Fantagraphics) $4.95

3. Lucky Peach #4 Sum 12 American Food Issue $12.00

4. Prince Zine by Joshua Amberson $5.00 –  R U Ready 4 This 1? Although Amberson is no fanatical Rainbow Child, there’s more than enough purple passion and royal dedication here to assemble an inspired and juicy analysis of Prince’s dynasty, talent, discography and lifestyle choices. I like most that the zine puts some time and thought into getting behind Prince’s rampant weirdness — it’s not at all some sorry joke at Prince’s expense like that Mirror interview, but it doesn’t exactly let him off the hook either – it’s critical AND playful AND willing to admit that at everyone’s core there IS a huge weirdo. It may also be worthy of note that this zine rolled into Quimby’s on a snowy day in April, so it’s a little cosmic too, y’know? -EF

5. Animal Sex #3 Under the Sea by Isabella Rotman $3.00 – Rotman renders in chaming detail the zombie dick raunch orgy that comprises the deep blue sea. Darling it’s better down where it’s wetter, take it from me. -EF

6. The Baffler #19 $10.00

7. Hi-Fructose #24 $6.95

8. Start Your Own Haunted House by Gas Mask Horse $1.98 – Gas Mask Horse masterminds the DIY haunted punk house here in Chicago and put out this amazing spine-chilling zine bloodbath of how to grow your own Halloween hellhouse. Walk throughs, how-tos, free Frankenstein’s monster mask. Tricky treats. -EF

9. Love Is Not Constantly Wondering If You Are Making the Biggest Mistake of Your Life $5.00 – 116p, b&w, softcover, 4.25″x7″

10. Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers (McSweeneys) -“In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter’s college tuition, and finally do something great. In A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers takes us around the world to show how one man fights to hold himself and his splintering family together in the face of the global economy’s gale-force winds. This taut, richly layered, and elegiac novel is a powerful evocation of our contemporary moment.”

Twilight Man is a title we’ve had since this past winter, yet is somehow making a resurgence in the bestseller list this week at #10.

1. Maximumrocknroll #349 June $4.00

2. Henry and Glenn Forever and Ever #1 by Igloo Tornado (I Will Destroy You) $5.00

3. Bust Jun/Jul 12 $5.99

4. Cabinet #45 Games $12.00

5. The Believer #90 $8.99

6. I Like Your Work: Art and Etiquette by Paper Monument $8.00

7. Juxtapoz #138 July $5.99

8. Mash Tun #1 Craft Beer Journal $8.00

9. Crap Hound #6 Death Phones Scissors by Sean Tejaratchi (Show & Tell Press) $13.00

10. Twilight Man by Boyd Rice $15.00 – 100-page memoir by Boyd Rice. Twilight Man follows Rice through San Francisco’s darkest crevices during his time as a responder for the Twilight Alarm Company. Preface by Nina Antonia, author of Johnny Thunders: In Cold Blood.”

Daddy Lightning by Tom Hart debuts on the weekly top 10 at #9 this week.

Thanks to everybody who came out to the Comics & Philsophy Conference at the Universty of Chicago this past weekend. We have two posters Chris Ware designed for the conference we’re proud to be selling, which are both available for purchase on our website! You can look at them here and here.

1. The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist by Alvin Buenaventura and Daniel Clowes (Abrams) $40.00 – Buenaventura’s assembled a lush monograph on the wild life and secret files of one of Quimby’s favorite Ink Studs. -EF…Thanks to everybody that came out for the Clowes and Buenaventura signing here at Quimby’s last week!

2. Are You My Mother: A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel $22.00

3. Mash Tun #1 Craft Beer Journal $8.00 – Lumpen-based beer rag, crafted in Chicago. Aren’t we funny? Rag, you know like, what you clean a bar with? But also another name for a magazine? And crafted? As in, craft beer but then also this mag is crafted in Chicago? Hello? Hello? Where are you going? Are my jokes that bad? -LM

4. Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown (Chronicle) $14.95 – What if Darth Vader took an active role in raising his son? What if “Luke, I am your father” was just a stern admonishment from an annoyed dad? In this hilarious and sweet comic reimagining, Darth Vader is a dad like any other.

5. The Death Ray by Dan Clowes (D&Q) $19.95 – Coming-of-age-as-comic-book-parable-told-as-comic-book.  Another Clowes mindfuck, conveniently in gorgeous hardcover.

6. Ojitos Borrosos by Ines Estrada $10.00 – A simply killer collection of Inés Estrada’s amazing comics – charmed and pervy and smart and totally unpredictable….I can’t say enough good things about these except that you will love them. Reading them is like drinking your favorite juice and listening to your favorite record on a really nice day. In fact, if you did that AND read these comics all at once you’d probably send yourself into a self-perpetuating orgasm vortex. Ojitos collects a lot of odds and ends – minis and anthologies and one-pagees, and orders them up well with english translation for gringos like me. Get this get this get this. -EF

7. Animal Sex #2 Bugs and Slugs by Isabella Rotman $3.00 – Hot bug on slug action.

8. Girls On Girls #1 Zine and CD: Girls Singing Songs About Girls by Amara Leipzig & Isabella Rotman $5.00 – Amara Leipzig and Isabella Rotman assemble a cover album and cutes ha-hoots liner notes zine that’s all women singing songs originally written by men about women. Gender theory via aural pleasuring. -EF

9. Daddy Lightning by Tom Hart (Retrofit Comics) $6.00 –  Hart plays it fast and loose with this beach-bound poopy-baby quest. Drawn with relaxed flair – a little like maakies or old school simpsons in the cavalier slapstick and general heart. -EF

10. Straight To Hell #67 $6.00 – Anonymous reader submitted high-raunch gay sex stories. Feels like heaven to me.

1. Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown (Chronicle) $14.95 – What if Darth Vader took an active role in raising his son? What if “Luke, I am your father” was just a stern admonishment from an annoyed dad? In this hilarious and sweet comic reimagining, Darth Vader is a dad like any other.

2. My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf (Abrams) $17.95

3. Are You My Mother: A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel $22.00

4. Plastik #15 $16.99

5. Hark: A Vagrant by Kate Beaton (D&Q) $19.95

6. Crap Hound #8 Superstition by Sean Tejaratchi $12.00 – A new issue of Crap Hound! This issue meditates on such things as black cats, butterflies, knots, candles…All with a wonderful “Fair Use” collage-y awesomeness.

7. A Greater Monster by David David Katzman and Caitlin Drake McCay (Bedhead) $17.95

8. The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist by Alvin Buenaventura and Daniel Clowes (Abrams) $40.00 – Buenaventura’s assembled a lush monograph on the wild life and secret files of one of Quimby’s favorite Ink Studs. -EF And! Don’t miss Daniel Clowes and Alvin Buenaventura siging here this Thursday, May 17th at 7pm!

9. Fader #79 Apr May 12 $5.99

10. Boys Club #4 by Matt Furie (Pigeon Press) $6.00

Fag School #4  enters the topsellers this week at #10.

1. Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown (Chronicle) $14.95 – Thanks to everybody that came out for Free Comic Book Day to see Jeffrey Brown. We still have a few copies of his mini comic that he made specifically for that day. Don’t miss your chance to get this one.

2. Henry and Glenn Forever and Ever #1 by Igloo Tornado (Microcosm) $5.00 – For real. New material that’s not in the “Henry and Glenn Forever Perfect Bound Deluxe New Edition.” And it’s numbered #1, so we expect more issues. Stay tuned for more adventures.

3. Monocle vol 6 #53 May 12 $12.00

4. Maximumrocknroll #348 May 12 $4.00

5. Handbook vol 6 #2 2012 $6.00 – As if Handbook needed a greatest hits, here’s volume 6, issue 2 delivering second dates with 3 of HB’s hawtest, surrounded by erotical essays and gaynotes of current concern. -EF

6. Cave Girl by Ireal $1.00 – Unfoldable stories of Cave Girl living, a lot about mushroom hunting, musings on bears and beasts, spiders too. -EF

7. How to Be a Good Zine Citizen by Carrie and Liz $1.00 – Manners with their self-publisher’s ettiquette guide. Please? Thank you.

8. Shut Up And Love The Rain by Robnoxious (Microcosm) $4.00 – “Robnoxious takes us along his path from early sexual exploration to his current sex-positive, constantly-deprogramming, uber-healthy queerness! Rob’s writing and comics show us that experimentation should start early, that guilty pleasures needn’t be guilty, and that talking it over and being honest with each other will lead to nothin’ but good. There’s hilarious, illuminating essays, intimate accounts of relationships outside the margins, and a touching, inspiring interview with Rob’s parents after his father came out as transgendered.”

9. Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs by The Icarus Project $6.00

10. Fag School #4 New Fiction – Johnny Would You Love Me If My Dick Were Bigger by Brontez (Paquita Press) $5.00 – Fag School is in session and I suggest you try to handle the full course load. This zine is fucking brilliant and amazing – always has been, and I think it might always will be. -EF

Eat Zine #4 makes the top 10 this week at #4.

1. Burn Collector #16 by Al Burian (Pegacorn Press) $5.00 – It’s always a joy to see another installment of Al’s adventures, especially since we see him less and less in Chicago due to his relocation in Berlin. There’s plenty of flash rant-style review pieces (an Iron Maiden concert for one), books he’s read (a YA novel!), and also his comics. Like the last issue of BC there’s also some interviews too, like Tim Remis from Sweet Cobra (and of lesser-known Soviet folk singer fame), as well as Sascha Scatter of The Icarus Project. Published by Caroline Pequita’s art-freaker publishing house Pegacorn Press in Brooklyn. -LM

2. The Monster That Ate the Stars by Souther Salazar $1.00

3. Thickness #2 by Angie Wang et al. $10.00 – Hot ‘n slimey crypto-beast on humanoid-beast action. Eagerly anticipated sophmore release for this sexy anthological comic. Works from Lisa Hanawalt, Michael DeForge, Jilian Tamaki and more.

4. Eat Zine #4 by Jazz Robinson and Dan Varenka $6.50 – Ecclectic/eccentric food zine with  a down to earth approach, a goofy sense of humor and a crafty eye for special effects. Standouts of this issue include the street tag AGAVE, weed butter chicken livers, banana origami, and a recipe for chocolate maple bourbon bacon cupcakes. Lucky Peach totally owes these guys a cheeky move or two. -EF

5. Enchante: Short Stories by Dan Gleason $2.00 – Most recent endeavor from lovable local weirdo.

6. Crap Hound #8 Superstition by Sean Tejaratchi (Show & Tell Press)$12.00 – This issue meditates on such things as black cats, butterflies, knots, candles…All with a wonderful “Fair Use” collage-y awesomeness.

7. Roctober #50 ed. by Jake Austen $5.00 – Roctober is 20 years old! This is issue #50! I love this magazine!!!!! LOVE THIS MAGAZINE! Let’s have a party.  -EF

8. Crap Hound #5 Hands Hearts Eyes  by Sean Tejaratchi (Show & Tell Press)$12.00

9. Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Three by Joshua Chapman $1.00 –  Although the “school project” alibi is wearing a little thin on this educational zine series, the nerdery aboard this enterprise holds strong and is remarkably entertaining. Makes me wish I knew more Star Trek things to crack puns about.-EF

10. 8 Track Mind #101 Zines by F.R. Russ Forster $3.00 – This issue goes light on the 8-trackology but stays true to its analog-obsessed roots with a well-rounded symposium all about “Zines Versus Blogs”. -EF