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Valentine Trauma Zine Release Party & Reading With Mike McBeardo McPadden and Friends 2/22

90s legends Mike McBeardo McPadden (Happyland) and his inimitable bride, Rachel Shitass McPadden (Saucy), are returning ceremoniously to their beloved motherland, Zine City USA, with the release of Trauma Zine No. 1: Valentine’s Day.

Expanding on the concept of their popular 2012-2013 Rock Trauma reading series, quarterly Trauma Zine incorporates personal essays and original art from talents across the country to communicate an empathetically (or just pathetically) tragic theme. And contains stickers.

So napalm another Hallmark-fabricated love (gross) day, then join us the following weekend for complimentary 70%-off Walgreen’s chocolate hearts and brief, cringe-y readings from such Valentine Trauma contributors as: Mike McBeardo McPadden (author Heavy Metal Movies, head writer Mr. Skin), Rachel McPadden (xoJane, Saucy, Self-Hate Crime), Diana Jewell (lovechild of Tura Satana & Oliver Reed), Sarah Rosenfeld (Windy City Rock), Bob Goblin (Outburst on the 66, RockStarClub, Rock Trauma alum), and Jeremy Kitchen (CPL).

May you meet your future ex-wives/husbands that fateful night and forever curse our names.

For more info: traumazine(at)gmail(dot)com

Saturday, February 22nd, 7pm – Free Event

Click here for Facebook Event Listing for this event.

January 29, 2014
New Stuff This Week

Mould Map #3, co-edited by Hugh Frost and Leon Sadler (Landfill Editions) $44.00 – Comics & Narrative Art anthology series. An exploration of the ways in which network technologies mediate our experience of each other and our surroundings. A 224 Page book and poster collection. * ALL NEW WORK * from 35 leaders of contemporary narrative art: Aidan Koch — Amalia Ulman — Angie Wang — Ben Mendelewicz — Blaise Larmee — Brenna Murphy — CF — Cody Cobb — Daniel Swan — Dmitry Sergeev — Gabriel Corbera — GHXYK2 — Hugh Frost — Jacob Ciocci — James Jarvis — Joseph Kelly — Jonas Delaborde — Jonathan Chandler — Jonny Negron — Julien Ceccaldi —Karn Piana — Kilian Eng — Lala Albert — Lando — Leon Sadler — Matthew Lock— Noel Freibert — Olivier Schrauwen — Robert Beatty — Sam Alden — Sammy Harkham — Simon Hanselmann — Stefan Sadler — Viktor Hachmang & Yuichi Yokoyama.

Zines
Recall by Gabriele Sedda & Kyle Schlie $10.00
Here I Am Walking With The Poop To The Slide by Maarten Boekweit $6.00
You Suck split zine by John Wawrzaszek and Jill Summers $1.00
SWSeven #1 by Leander Capuozzo $10.00

Comics & Comix
Laskimooses #15 Alkupisteen Piirtaminen by Herra Matti Hagelbergin $7.00
Kingdom Order #1 by Reid Psaltis $8.00
Victus #2 by Tyrell Cannon $8.00
Yearling #1 Masked Detective by Rich Tommaso $4.95
Funnies by Anthony Melero $4.00
Soft X Ray Mindhunters by A. Degan (Birdcage Bottom Books) $12.00
Bad Party by Victor Kerlow (Birdcage Bottom Books) $10.00
USA Truck by Mickey Zacchilli, CF and Charlotte De Sedouy $5.00
Butler Comic #1 by Patrick Kyle, Mickey Zacchilli & Michael DeForge $4.50
Acknowledgements #2 Edgar Allan Poe by Robert Kelsey $3.50
Chicago Cookie Monster by Amanda Bennett $4.00
Stupid by Alex Dahm $4.00
Teen Creeps #6 by Charles Forsman (Oily Comics) $1.00
Word and Voice issues #9 & #10 by Aaron Cockle (Oily Comics) $1.00 each
Real Rap #6 by Benjamin Urkowitz (Oily Comics) $1.00 each
Human Stuff #1 by Nacho Nova $3.50

Graphic Novels & Trade Paperbacks
Ant Colony by Michael DeForge (D&Q) $21.95 – Don’t miss DeForge here at Quimby’s on 2/8!
Concert Review Comix by Hazel Newlevant (Birdcage Bottom Books) $6.00
I Don’t Get It by Shannon Wheeler $17.99
Preacher Book Three TPB by Garth Ennis et al. (Vertigo) $19.99
Crossed: Wish You Were Here vol 3 TPB by Simon Spurrier et al. (Avatar) $19.99

Art & Design
The Coloring Book Project 2: Collection by 185 Artists From Around the World ed by Spencer Caligiuri et al. (Momento) $25.00
Royal Orphan by Amber Ibarreche (Capricious) $20.00
Wes Lang (Picturebox) $34.95

Fiction
Don’t Start Me Talkin by TOm Williams (Curbside Publishing) $15.95
Parallel Apartments by Bill Cotter (McSweeneys) $25.00
How Best to Avoid Dying by Owen Egerton (Soft Skull) $15.95

Magazines
Bust Dec Feb Mar 14 $5.99
Howler #4 Win 14 $15.00
Offscreen #7 $22.00
Make vol 37 $9.99
Flaunt #132 $10.95
Frieze #160 Jan Feb 14 $12.00
Black Velvet #79 $9.00
Wire Jan 14 #359 $11.25
Monocle Alpino #8 Win 13 14 $8.00
Harpers Magazine Feb 14 $6.99

Poetry, Lit Journals & Chap Books
Hierarchy of Genres by Amanda R. Huckins $6.00
Midwestern Gothic #12 $12.00
Ninth Letter vol 10 #2 Fall 13 Win 14 $14.95
Omissionary by Stephen James Dvorak (Back to Print) $15.00
Some Names by Georgia Herman et al. $6.00
Hands Grabbing for the Light That Moves Through Them by Travis Davis $6.00
I Want More Life Fucker by Justin Ryan Fyfe et al. $6.00
American Room Weather Sept 6 2013 by Jessica Millnitz et al. $6.00
Poems by Rachael Wolfe $20.00

Outer Limits
The Atheist’s History of Belief: Understanding our Most Extraordinary Invention by Matthew Kneale (Counterpoint) $26.00

Music
Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend by Tony Fletcher $22.99

Essays
Autobiography of Black Chicago by Dempsey Travis $17.00

Politics & Revolution
Imagine Living In a Socialist USA by Frances Goldin et al. $15.99
Ready for Revolution: The CNT Defense Committees in Barcelona, 1933-1938 by Agustín Guillamón et al. (AK) $14.95

Sex & Sexy
The Artisan’s Book of Fetishcraft by John Huxley (Greenery) $27.95
Meat #11 by Adrian Lourie $20.00
Pinups #18 Elijah $14.00

January 25, 2014
Quimby's Co-Sponsors Spudnik Press Membership

Anyone who spends a few minutes at Quimby’s is bound to run into any number of items printed at Spudnik Press, which is down the street from us, such as Ten x Ten, 2013 Edition, A Collection of Prints and Music by Chicago Artists or Struwwelpeter by Sanya Glisic. The independent publishing spirit that Quimby’s champions is in full force at Spudnik, so it stands to reason that because of this overlap (perhaps you saw the Long-Arm Stapler First Aid Exhibition: Self-Care In Zines and Mini Comics last year we curated at the Spudnik Annex Gallery?), Quimby’s is proud to co-sponsor membership at Spudnik. That is, if you become a member at Spudnik, you get the use of Spudnik resources (screen-printing! photocopying! other fancy printing and art-related classes and facilities!) as well as perks from local businesses including Quimby’s, Genesis Art Supply, Paperish Mess , Study Hall and more! For more info, see spudnikpress.org.

January 24, 2014

Art Spiegelman's WORDLESS! with music by Phillip Johnston at the Logan Center, Performance Hall

Two performances only

Sat, Jan 25, 2014 / 3 pm and 8 pm

Logan Center, Performance Hall

In his Pulitzer prize-winning masterpiece, Maus—a moving father-son memoir about the Holocaust drawn with cats and mice—Art Spiegelman changed the definition of comics forever. In WORDLESS!—a new and stimulating hybrid of slides, talk and musical performance—he probes further into the nature and possibilities of his medium.

A noted artist, historian and theorist of comics, Spiegelman collaborates with critically-acclaimed jazz composer Phillip Johnston, whose all-new scores performed by his sextet will accompany the cartoonist’s personal tour of early graphic novels and their influence on him: silent picture stories made by early 20th Century masters like Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward and Milt Gross. As Spiegelman explores “the battle between Words and Pictures,” he smashes at the hyphen between High and Low Art in a presentation featuring a new work drawn specifically for this project, “Shaping Thought.”

The Logan Center is proud to host the Chicago premiere of Art Spiegelman and Phillip Johnston’s WORDLESS!, an innovative show combining slides, talk, film, and live musical performance.

January 23, 2014

New Stuff This Week

Sonnet Youth: Daydream Nation by Jeffrey Lewis $2.00 – All of Daydream Nation’s fourteen songs have been rewritten by Jeffrey as fourteen sonnets in the Shakespearian mode in iambic pentameter, accompanied by illustrations.

Zines
The Operature: A collaboration with ATOM-r -Book from The Operature 25-screen exhibition . Comes apart to reveal a 33″ x 42.5″ poster.
Blank Stare #2 $5.00
Jazz Tobacco #1 $5.00
Brain Damage #1 Bjork Is Up Your Ass by Johan Bjorkegrens $18.00
Earth Is Mostly Ocean by Tyler Meese $2.00
Future Trash #1 by Adam Wiesner $3.00
Sunfighter Gunfighter by Abe Lampert $5.00
Dire Earth Chronicles #1 Dead Walls & Dire Earth Chronicles #2 Transparent Color by Luke Thompson, Kevin Moran & Nic Collins $10.00 each
The Unsuccessful Artists Handbook by Dana Jeri Maier $10.00
Victory Journal #6 Fall 13 Blood and Asphalt $5.00
Soulbond #2 A Dorky MTG Fanzine $1.00 – Magic The Gathering in the house.
Duke City Graffiti #1 by Lisa Barrios and Agustin McCord $5.00 – Devoted to Albuquerque graffiti. 8×11-inch full color.

Comics & Comix
Stripburger #62 $8.00 – A kick-ass international zine with a Slavic flavour.
Havawood #1 by April Hava Shenkman $15.00
Weird Magazine #4 $10.00 – Comics from the likes of Noel Freibert, CF, Sua Yoo, Chris Day, Dash Shaw, Andy Burkholder & more.
Night of the Shears #1 by Noel Freibert $3.00
Addicted to Garbage #2 by Mathyou Landvote $2.00
Roundhouse Kick by R. Burns $3.00

Graphic Novels & Trade Paperbacks
Gut Feelings by Leah Wishnia $6.00

Art & Design
Schizo-Culture, 2-vol. set, The Event, The Book, ed. by Sylvère Lotringer and David Morris (Semiotext(e)) $34.95 – This slip-cased edition includes The Book: 1978, a facsimile reproduction of the original Schizo-Culture publication; and The Event: 1975, a previously unpublished and comprehensive record of the legendary 1975 “Schizo-Culture” conference, conceived by the early Semiotext(e) collective conference, that set it all off. The journal that came later was designed by a group of artists and filmmakers including Kathryn Bigelow and Denise Green, it documented the chaotic creativity of an emerging downtown New York scene, and offered interviews with artists, theorists, writers, and No Wave and pre-punk musicians together with new texts from Deleuze, Foucault, R. D. Laing, and other conference participants.
Exposure Nudity and Graffiti In Albuquerque by Billy McCall (and friends) $30.00

Essays
White Girls by Hilton Als (McSweeneys) $24.00

DIY/How to
Alive With Vigor: Survivng Your Adventurous Lifestyle by Robert Earl Sutter III (Microcosm) $9.95

Politics & Revolution
Socialist and Labor Songs: An International Revolutionary Songbook by Elizabeth Morgan (PM Press) $14.95
Talking Anarchy by Colin Ward & David Goodway (PM Press) $14.95
Until the Rulers Obey: Voices From Latin American Social Movements by Clifton Ross & Marcy Rein (PM Press) $29.95
Slash They Ass Up: A Black Punk Manifesto by Yumii Thecato $16.00

Sex & Sexy
Erotic Stories ed. by Rowan Pelling $16.00 – Erotic tales from all over the world, by such writers as Pauline Réage, Anaïs Nin, Nicholson Baker and more.

Fiction
Last Girlfriend on Earth and Other Love Stories by Simon Rich $13.00 – Now in soft cover.
Highly Unlikely Scenario: Or a Neetsa Pizza Employee’s Guide to Saving the World by Rachel Cantor $16.95
Orfeo by Richard Powers $26.95
Gun Machine by Warren Ellis $17.00 Now in soft cover.
Leaving the Sea: Stories by Ben Marcus $25.95

Magazines
The Baffler #24 $12.00
Juxtapoz #157 Feb 14 $5.99
Neural #46 $8.00
2600 Hacker Quarterly vol 30 #4 $6.95
Disfunkshion vol 18 $5.99
Tom Tom Magazine #16 Magazine For Female Drummers $6.00
Makeshift #8 Win 13 Journal of Hidden Creativity $10.00
Colors #88 $16.95
High Times Mar 14 $5.99
Man of the World #6 $20.00
Special Request #1 Food $20.99 – Like design? Like food? Like mags like Gather? This is for you.
Dazed and Confused vol 3 #29 Jan 14 $9.99
Film Comment vol 50 #1 Jan Feb 14 $5.99
Fangoria #330 $10.99
The Shadow #55 $1.00
In These Times Jan 14 $3.50
Against the Current #168 Jan Feb 14 $5.00
Dissent Win 14 $10.00
Freshly Inked vol 4 #1 Mar 14 $6.99
Tabu Tattoo #56 $6.99
Mountain Astrologer Feb Mar 14 $7.95
Outburn #72 $4.95
Tape Op #99 Jan Feb 14 $4.95

Poetry, Lit Journals & Chap Books
Comb #2 by Ian Hubert $3.00
Calyx by Michael Anichini and Elizabeth Chisholm (Convulsive Editions) $8.00
Means of Egress by Chad Chmielowicz (Convulsive Editions) $8.00
June Cuckold by Catherine Theis (Convulsive Editions) $8.00
In Forest Static by Christopher Hund (Convulsive Editions) $6.00
The Believer #104 Jan 14 $8.00
The Iowa Review vol 43 #3 Win 13 14 $9.95
Poetry: Sit With Me a While, Collected Works 2000-2011 by Michael A. Horvitch
Geist Fact Fiction #91 $6.95

Kids Stuff
Hearts by Thereza Rowe (Toon Books) $12.95
Glass Owl by Cecilia Pinto & Megan Williamson $10.00

January 18, 2014
Chicago Zine Fest Looking For Submissions For Zine

As per their press release:

The Chicago Zine Fest will be celebrating its fifth year of existence next year! We’re blown away by the massive zine love that takes place in Chicago each spring, and we are thankful that you’ve been a part of making that happen. To celebrate this five year milestone, we are putting together a comp zine of CZF stories. Do you have a memorable CZF experience, anecdote, or adventure? We’d love it if you could be a part of this project!

The details:
Submissions should be 1-3 pages
Submissions should be half size (5.5” x 8.5”)
New or previously published work accepted
Submissions should be about something related to the Chicago Zine Fest
A high resolution (at least 300 dpi) JPEG or PDF of the submission can be emailed to chicagozinefest@gmail.com.

Along with your submission, please send a contributor bio (featuring your name, the title of your zine, contact info, and a few sentences about yourself) to be listed in the back of the zine.

We reserve the right not to include every submission. Contributors will receive a copy of the zine, so please include your mailing address with your submission.

Submissions are due by February 1, 2014. The zine will be sold at CZF 2014 & online, with all proceeds going towards CZF.

Thank you for being a part of the Chicago Zine Fest!

January 17, 2014
Jim Mitchell discusses The Walrus and The Elephants: John Lennon’s Years of Revolution 2/13

Author and journalist Jim Mitchell will discuss his recently released The Walrus and the Elephants: John Lennon’s Years of Revolution. Jim will be speaking about John Lennon’s early years of social activism, his music with the progressive New York band Elephant’s Memory, and Lennon’s special relationship with Ann Arbor.

Based entirely on new interviews and research, The Walrus and the Elephants is the first book about John Lennon to show how his emergence as a solo artist, his embrace of radical politics and feminism, and his love affair with New York City coincided. From controversial television appearances, to benefit concerts, to his new, post-Beatlemania band Elephant’s Memory, Walrus and the Elephants is Lennon’s story told by a cast of close friends and fellow activists from his Greenwich Village days.

JAMES A. MITCHELL is the author of But for the Grace: Profiles in Peace from a Nation at War, the story of an orphanage in Sri Lanka’s war-torn northeast; rock biography It Was All Right: Mitch Ryder’s Life in Music; and tales from a rural newspaper, Applegate: Freedom of the Press in a Small Town. A reporter and editor for more than twenty years, his writing has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The Humanist, and Starlog.

“The Walrus and The Elephants is an indispensable window into an amazing time in American history and the history of rock and roll.” —Danny Goldberg, author of Bumping Into Geniuses

For more info:

The book at publisher Seven Stories’ site.

The Facebook event invite.

To arrange an interview with James Mitchell, please contact Ruth Weiner at ruth(at)sevenstories(dot)com or (212)-226-8760.

Thursday, February 13th, 7pm – Free Event

January 16, 2014
David Witter reads from Chicago Magic: A History of Stagecraft & Spectacle 2/15

In David Witter’s new book Chicago Magic: A History of Stagecraft & Spectacle (The History Press), he keeps track of the shell game of Chicago’s fascinating magic history from its vaudeville circuit to its contemporary resurgence. By the end of America’s “Golden Age of Magic,” Chicago had taken center stage in front of an American audience drawn to the craft by the likes of Harry Houdini and Howard Thurston. Cashing in on a craze that rivaled big-band mania, magic shops and clubs sprang up everywhere across the Windy City, packed in customers and put down roots. Over the last century, for example, Magic, Inc. has outfitted magicians from Harry Blackstone Sr. to Penn and Teller to David Copperfield. Magic was an integral part of Chicago’s culture, from its earliest venture into live television to the card sharps and hucksters lurking in its amusement parks and pool halls.

David Witter is a Chicago historian and author of the book Oldest Chicago. A native Chicagoan, he attended Louisa May Alcott School (the same grammar school as Marshall Brodien), Lane Technical High School, Columbia College (BA in writing) and Northeastern Illinois University (BA in secondary education). Also a freelance writer and photographer, he is a regular contributor to New City and Fra Noi. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reader, Living Blues, The Best of the Chicago Blues Annual, the Bay Area Music Magazine, the Copley News Syndicate and Lerner Newspapers.

For more info: danielle.raub(at)historypress(dot)net

Click here for Facebook event posting for this event.

Saturday, February 15th, 7pm – Free Event at Quimby’s Bookstore

January 14, 2014
New Stuff This Week

Ten x Ten, 2013 Edition, A Collection of Prints and Music by Chicago Artists $35.00 – Ten x Ten is a collaboration between visual artists and musicians exploring visual and auditory interaction. By challenging artists to conceptualize their work across media, Ten x Ten asks participants stretch and expand their creative process. Through producing a limited edition compilation and public presentation of the resulting artworks, Ten x Ten documents, celebrates, and promotes Chicago’s artistic community. Ten x Ten 2013 investigates the relationship between color and sound. Through exploring the underlying concepts of synesthesia, both academically and intuitively, artists and composers have worked together to produce artwork that takes the form of both a fine art print and an original score. This project is presented by Access Contemporary Music, Homeroom, and Spudnik Press. The collection of prints includes an LP with ten unique tracks, a hand-printed folio, and a plastic protective sleeve. Featured print and song collaborations: Lilli Carre and Michael Miller, Edie Fake and Andrew Tham, Jo Dery and Jude Mathews, Aaron Renier and Brain Baxter, Chad Kouri and Marjorie Rusche, Craig Hansen and Betsy Start, Aaron Maurer and Tim Corpus, Ann Worthing and Amos Gillespie, Angee Lennard and Randall West, Renee Robbins and Seth Boustead.

Zines
Fashionable Activism Photozine #1 Hardcore Punk by Kevin McCaughey $8.00
Annular Obsession b y David Wicik $3.00
Any Questions #1 an Interactive Chicago Comedy Magazine $2.00
Smells Fingers Smells Fingers Smells Fingers by Alicia Rose $2.00

Comics & Comix
Believed Behavior Season 1 $5.00 – With contributions from the likes of KrystalDiFronzo, Edie Fake, Jeremy Tinder, Grant Reynolds, Andy Burkholder, Brad Rohloff.
Good Death vol 1 by Sydney Fletcher $5.00
Castle and Wood issues #1-#7 $4.00 each
Reptile Mind #1 by Bernard Stiegler $10.00

Graphic Novels & Trade Paperbacks
Prison Pit Book 5 by Johnny Ryan (Fantagraphics) $12.99
Terra Obscura: Smash of Two Worlds by Alan Moore et al. (Vertigo) $24.99
Swamp Thing vol 1 Brian K Vaughan TPB by Brian K. Vaughan et al. (Vertigo) $19.99
Multiple Warheads TPB Book 1 by Brandon Graham $17.99
Ex Machina Book 1 TPB by Brian K. Vaughan et al. (Vertigo) $19.99

Fiction
Mustache Hes Always Wanted But Could Never Grow and Other Stories by Brian Alan Ellis $10.00
Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar $18.00

Politics & Revolution
Our America A Hispanic History of The United States by Armesto Felipe Fernandez $27.95

Magazines
Fool #4 Food Insanity Brilliance and Love $18.00

Uppercase #20 A Magazine For the Creative and Curious

Color Ink Book vols 19 & 20 DIY Art Periodical by The Brothers Washburn $10.00 each
Out of Order Win 13 $24.00
V Magazine #87 Spr Preview 14 $7.50
Iron and Air #12 $15.00

That’s it for this week! The polar vortex put a hold on a whole mess of shipments!

Don’t miss our Zlumber Party tomorrow night!

January 10, 2014
Michael DeForge Talks About Ant Colony 2/8

On Saturday, February 8th, at 7pm, join Quimby’s and Drawn and Quarterly for the launch of Michael DeForge’s darkly existential graphic novel Ant Colony! In just a few short years, DeForge’s singular, idiosyncratic style has made him an important new voice in alternative comics. Here, he will present a slideshow with a signing to follow.

Ant Colony follows the denizens of a black ant colony under attack from the nearby red ants: from its opening pages, DeForge immerses the reader in a world of false prophets, unjust wars, and corrupt police officers. On the surface, Ant Colony tells the story of this war, the destruction of a civilization, and the ants’ all-too-familiar desire to rebuild. Underneath, though, Ant Colony plumbs the deepest human concerns – loneliness, faith, love, apathy, and more. DeForge’s striking visual sensibility – stark lines, dramatic color choices, and brilliant use of page and panel space – stands out in this volume.

More info about Michael DeForge:

http://michaeldeforge.wordpress.com/

http://kingtrash.com/

Click here to see Facebook event invite.

Also! Santullo’s Eatery down the street (1943 W. North Ave) has generously agreed to provide pizza for the occassion! For more info about their delicious New York style pizza see santullos.com.

January 8, 2014