Quimby’s Bookstore · 1854 W. North Ave · Chicago, IL 60622 · 773-342-0910

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  • Looking for a Unique Gift? Send a Qustomized Quimby's Zine Package!

    Not sure what to get a certain tough-to-shop-for someone on your gift list this year? May we suggest a Qustomized Quimby’s Zine Package? You choose the denomination (we offer $25, $69, and $100 options) and tell us a little something about what your recipient is into, and our zine specialists will choose a unique assortment of self-published delights! Oh, and our Qustomized Quimby’s Zine Packages make a great lil’ treat for yourself, too.
    Here’s an example: The person who will receive the $25 Qustomized Zine Package in this photo loves animals, resisting our robot overlords, travel, smart cultural analysis, and slice-of-life stories. Look at that awesome selection of ziney goodness that will be arriving in their mailbox, along with some free Quimby’s bookmarks!
    Qustomized Zine Packages are available right here on our website only. If you’d like some help putting together a customized gift while shopping in our store, we’ll be happy to assist you in person! And yeah, if you prefer to let your gift recipient choose some fun new zines on their own, we’ve got gift cards available online and in-store, as well.

  • December Newsletter Out Now!

    Read it here and make sure you sign up to get it in your inbox at quimbys.com.

  • New Stuff This Week

     

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    Zines

    New zines from Jam: Paper Garden #2 $6, Calcium Ornament $7, Lefty Life Forms $2, Gourd Town $2

    Vault of Slack #5 by Xenofact $8

    various photo zines by Larry Wolf, $10 each: In Conversation (multiple issues), Rough Cut & more.

    issues Thirteen Facts, $2 each: #14 Repo Man, #16 Maurice Sendak, #17 Phantom of the Opera

    Christmas Songs by Dave (Lazer Attack Zines) $4

    Fall Friends by Jax Fleming $4

    Laced $2

    Behind the Screams: Interviews from All Corners of the Chicago Alternative Music Scene by Eleanor Coughlin $5

    Park the Car: A Mini Zine by Lizzie Cooper #1 & #2 $2.50 each

    zines by Lorelei Preus $4.44 each: Commuter Cats, I Love Paczki, Bat Zine

    Librarian Against AI or I Think You Should Leave by Violet B. Fox $5

    Dragon Within Antarctica’s Prison by Will Dee $6

    New zines from Fluke Publishing, $5 each: Martha #2 Art and Words to Look Upon and Think About, Tiger and Donuts #1

    The Society of Avian Dreamers – July 13 2024 by Amaranta Isyemille Lara Ramos $8

    Comics

    Slow Leak #4 by Johnny Sampson $15

    I Am Okay by Sarah Becan $10

    (Travel) Ghouls – Bonus Supplementary Issue #4.44 by Josh Simmons $2

    Wildie by Atlas Power $5

    Scythe Unseen – Poems and Drawings by Tom Orr $5

    Sheeted Dead #2 by Michelle Spadafore (Urban Ochre Press Comics) $7

    Desert Rats #2 by Nick Bunch $10

    Nose Bleed #2 by Derick Jones $10

    Evidence of Small Pleasures by Sev GT $2

    Graphic Novels

    The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic by Alan Moore, Steve Moore & more $49.99

    (f)Art Books

    The World of Banksy by Alessandra Mattanza $35

    Politics & Revolution

    Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2025 edited by Andy Lee Roth & Mickey Huff, illustrated by Anson Stevens-Bollen $19.95

    Mayhem & Outer Limits

    Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick by Frater Barrabbas $39.95

    Appendix N, revised and expanded edition: Weird Tales From the Roots of Dungeons & Dragons edited by Peter Bebergal (Strange Attractor Press) $22.95

    Essay

    How to Fuck Like a Girl: Essays by Vera Blossom $17.95

    Music Books

    The Other Side of Reason by Andrew Schmidt (Hozac Books) $27.99

    Music from Elsewhere: Haunting Tunes from the Afterlife, Alien Worlds and Occult Realms by Doug Skinner (Strange Attractor Press) $22.95

    Magazines

    Tape Op #164 $5.99

    Chap Books & Lit Journals

    Poetry by Amaranta Isyemille Lara Ramos: Tripas an Odyssey in Haiku $22, Holydaze Again $5

    Overtime Hour 69 Vitality by Dylan Bach (Blue Cubicle Press) $2

    You’ll Hear From Me This Week by Seth Andrew Bearman $16.50

    Moss Piglet November 2024 Patterns $15

  • Quimby's Open on a Tuesday! December 24th, noon to 6pm!

    We’re normally closed on Tuesdays! But Tuesday, December 24th we’ll be open from noon to 6! Lucky you! This isolated Tuesday we thought you might want it. Live it up!

    Wanna know about our other holiday hours? We’re closed on Dec 25th and Jan 1st. Stay in and read all those zines and books and comics you have piling up!

  • Offsite: Zine Club Chicago on Marz: How to Survive a Chicago Winter Zinemaking Hangout, Dec 5th

    Zine Club Chicago on Marz: How to Survive a Chicago Winter Zinemaking Hangout

    Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave. in Logan Square/Bucktown

    7 – 9 p.m. Thursday, December 5, 2024

    Free!

    In December, Zine Club Chicago will be easing into the frosty season with a free zinemaking hangout in collaboration with our friends at Life on Marz Community Club! Y’all are invited to help create a group zine on the theme How to Survive a Chicago Winter.

    Please join us for Zine Club Chicago on Marz: How to Survive a Chicago Winter Zinemaking Hangout, 7-9 p.m. Thursday, December 5 at Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave. in Logan Square/Bucktown. Free!

    Zine Club Chicago will provide all the zinemaking supplies! Just bring your creativity. Life on Marz Community Club, our favorite locally owned taproom and café space, offers awesome alcoholic, CBD, and non-alcoholic beverages from Marz Brewery and more, plus some very fun snacks, for purchase. The taproom also will be holding a DJ Night after our event wraps up at 9 p.m., and we encourage y’all to stick around for some chill jams, too!

    Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers and created our logo.

    More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago

    lifeonmarz.club

    Facebook event invite here.

    Image description

    A flyer featuring a photo of snow-dusted rooftops at the Western Pink Line stop and this text: “Zine Club Chicago on Marz: How to Survive a Chicago Winter; 7-9 p.m. Thursday, December 5; Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave; Free!; Info at quimbys.com”

  • Tarot Readings by Echo, Dec 14th

    Don’t miss an afternoon of tarot readings by Echo! She’ll be here to read your cards on Sat, Dec 14th, noon to 4pm! Echo has been reading tarot cards for many years. She uses tarot as a mind-opening tool, a method for helping us see more, a path illuminator. Find her on the internet at @fraulein_echo + echothehuman.com.

    Facebook event invite is here.

  • Zine Club Chicago Online: All Wrapped Up Zinemaking Workshop with Liz Mason, Dec 19th

    Zine Club Chicago Online: All Wrapped Up Zinemaking Workshop with Liz Mason

    7:30 p.m. CT Thursday, December 19, 2024

    Online! Free! On Zoom, RSVP info below

    Zine Club Chicago is putting a bow on 2024 with their annual December online zinemaking workshop led by our own Liz Mason! We’ll be creating mini zines that celebrate our personal highlights of this year.

    Grab your zinemaking supplies*, BYOH(ot)C(hocolate), and join us on Zoom for Zine Club Chicago Online: All Wrapped Up Zinemaking Workshop with Liz Mason at 7:30 p.m. CT Thursday, December 19, 2024.

    ** RSVP required ** We want to make sure that our online Zine Club Chicago events are a safe space, so we won’t be releasing the Zoom link publicly. If you’d like to attend, please email zineclubchicago@gmail.com to RSVP by 5 p.m. CT Wednesday, Dec. 18 (the day before our event). We’ll email you the Zoom link by 5 p.m. CT on Thursday, Dec. 19.

     

    Liz Mason is a founding member of Zine Club Chicago. She publishes, among other things, Caboose, which won First Runner-Up in the Best Zine Category in the Chicago Reader’s 2023 poll. Her work has been in places like Broken Pencil, Punk Planet, The Zine Yearbook and the back of her friend’s toilets. She’s worked at Quimby’s Bookstore since 2001 in a state of perpetual arrested development. Find her at LizMasonIsAwesome.com + Etsy at LizMasonZines + @caboosezine at all the places.

    Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free monthly event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers, created our logo, and made our Zine Club Chicago Shout-Outs site, where folks can peruse and recommend zines we’ve discussed at our events: https://zineclubchicagoshoutouts.spread.name/

     

    More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago

    * You’ll need a few sheets of 8.5×11” paper, a pair of scissors, whichever implements you prefer for writing/drawing/etc., and your creativity! If you’ve never made a mini zine before, here’s a quick video tutorial (and we can provide any assistance you need at the event, too): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiUzo41dh5Q

    Here’s the Facebook event invite.

  • Gift Guides to Get You in the Giving Spirit

    Since the season of giving is fast upon us, we at Quimby’s would like to offer you some guidance in your gifting.  So we will be posting our staff-curated gift guides over the next few weeks on our socials, and I’ve been honored with going first.

    For the HORROR QUEEN in your life who isn’t ready for Halloween to be over, we’ve got everything from comics and zines, to stickers and poetry, and even a game!  And just to prove that I’m recommending for a friend, I’ll start with my most recent purchase for myself and work back to one of my favorites.

    As a lifelong Gorey-phile, I bought Escape From The Evil Garden an Edward Gorey board game the moment we were both in the shop together.  I told myself it was an early Christmas present, but I already opened it and played with my bae (and won!).  The game is for ages 10 and up and plays like a spooky, more advanced Candyland. You might be cast as the Cheerful Woman or the Unwell Man with traits and abilities to match; then you have to make your way through the labyrinth to get out of the garden, battling plants and animals for your survival.  So much fun.

    If you’re more in the mood for stocking stuffers, there are oh so many spooky stickers.  I love this sexy trick-or-treater, Bat Girl drawn by Mel Stringer.  Riding Roller Coasters with Vincent Price is a micro-zine by Dayna Meyer celebrating the Master of Horror’s love of the terrifying amusement park ride.  I also really enjoy Spooky Nova by Ari Ganahl.  This all-ages mini-comic shows the meet-cute between a kid and a friendly ghost trick or treating (with a poke at gender roles).  Perfection.

    From the folx at Pork Belly Press, I would recommend haunted, a limited edition anthology of poems rooted in the idea of haunting.  If you’ve never noticed the gorgeous chapbooks they make, the cover designs would make them stand out even if we didn’t have them in a special spot on the chapbooks rack.  They’re also hand-numbered and hand-sewn, so yes, I swoon over these.

    And last but certainly not least on my list is My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Books One and Two by Emil Ferris.  I’ve included both in case your HORROR QUEEN already has the first or if you’re just feeling generous.  These beautiful comics are drawn in heavy pen and follow Karen, an adolescent who sees themself as a werewolf, as they try to solve the mysteries of the adult world while characterizing everyone as monsters of the silver screen.  Extra bonus features include being created by a Chicago native, so there’s lots of Uptown and the Art Institute among other great Chicago locations and legends.  Among my favorite comic books of all time, I cannot recommend these books enough, whether or not you love horror.

    I hope this helps ease you into this holiday season.  And if you’ve already checked your favorite HORROR QUEEN off your list, then stay tuned in on our social media for more gift guides to come.

    -elizabeth @getbacktoprint

  • Now Ya Know!: 2024 Holiday Hours & Shipping Deadline

    Quimby’s will be closed Nov 28th, Dec 25th and Jan 1st. Now ya know!

    And guess what? We’ll be open on one Tuesday! 12/24 noon to 6. Thought you’d want that day to shop, even though we’re normally closed on that day of the week. Now you know that also!

    Are you in the U.S. and hoping to get your mail order by Dec 24th? Please place your order by Dec 12th. Now ya know about that too!

    Now you know everything, Know-It-All!

  • New Stuff This Week

     

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    Zines

    more zines from Catmothcrow: Zines as Activism: An Abridged History $1, Ritual Tradition $1, Catmothcrow Guide to Terrariums by Dayna Moth $6

    more zines by John Dishwasher: Beauty as Power $3, Street Gallery vol 2 Photographs with Street Art from Southern California and Baja, California (Six Fires Press) $15

    Loneliness of the Electric Menorah by Aaron Cometbus (originally Cometbus #51) (PM Press) $12.95

    Cross Mountain by Isaac Barnett $15

    American Surveillance: A Video Look Into Human Experience by Dylan Simon $12

    A Document of a Chicago Music Community: The Second One by Braeden Long $10

    Life of Work issues #3 & #4 by David LaBounty $3 each

    issues of Sabotage, $7 each: Top Secret CIA Operations, Native Resistance Part 1 & more.

    Nuclear Eye #1 by Dan Ducas $5

    new comics by Steve Schaberg: Car World $15, Manifest Content Dream Comics $10

    Spukschloss and Heimweh Unofficial Publication $8

    Die Madchen $5

    …and zine-related stickers $1.99 each: Ask Me About My Long Arm Stapler, This Is Going In My Perzine, I’d Rather Be at a Zine Fest

    Comics

    comics by Sam Rose, $1 each: Sex and Magic, Feygele Shabbes Parshas Vayechi 5784 & more.

    Funeral Dreams by Danielle Stanko $10

    Art Books

    The British Invasion! by Herve Bourhis $34.99

    Music Books

    High And Rising: A Book About De La Soul by Marcus J. Moore $29.99

    What is Anarchist Music by Ruud Noys (PM Press) $5

    Piss in the Wind vol 1 Misadventures of an Indie Troubadour by Brett Newski $16

    A bounty from Underworld Amusememts:
    Sorceries and Scandals of Satan by Henry M. Tichenor $15.95
    Infernalia by Michael Rose $16.95
    Critique of Anarchist Communism by Ken Knudson $6.95
    Hotcha! Three Vintage Booklets on Scandalous Broads and Sinful Sweethearts $14.95
    Occult Technology of Power by the Transcriber $8.88
    Anarchist Ephemera by Peter Lamborn Wilson $8
    …and more!

    Mayhem & Outer Limits

    How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later by Philip K. Dick (Isolarii) $17.95

    Haunted World: 101 Ghostly Places and Encounters by Theresa Cheung $17.99

    Beyond Esoteric: Escaping Prison Planet (2nd Edition) by Brad Olsen $22.95

    Essays

    Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People’s Business by Roxane Gay $19.99

    Fiction

    Nosferatu Unbound edited by Steven Paulsen Christopher Sequeira $14.99

    The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson (British Library Tales of the Weird Series) $16.99

    Food

    Cocktails from the Crypt: Terrifying Yet Delicious Concoctions Inspired by Your Favorite Horror Films by Jonathan Dehaan & Kimberley Elizabeth $23.99

    Poetry

    20 Erasure Poems of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jennifer Roche $14.99

    Sexxxy

    Butt Magazine #35 $17

    Newspapers

    County Highway vol 2 #3 Nov Dec 2024 $8.50