Blog

  • Lauren Barnett, Neil Fitzpatrick and Bernie McGovern at Quimby's 8/18

    Lauren Barnett, www.melikesyou.com
    Barnett has been posting comics to her website for almost 7 years. She has self published 4 mini comics (I’d Sure Like Some Fucking Pancakes, Secret Weirdo, Was That Supposed to be Funny?, and A story about Fish). Her work has been printed in many anthologies and carried in stores across the US. Hic and Hoc Publications recently published her first full length book collecting her comics from 2008-2012 called Me Likes You Very Much. She currently lives in Brooklyn NY.

    Neil Fitzpatrick, http://neiljam.com/
    Neil Fitzpatrick has been drawing Neil Jam comics in one form or another for many years. He self published the first assemblage of Neil Jam comics in minicomic form. Neil Jam #1 was released in the summer of 1997. Neil Jam has seen print in dozens of minicomics since then, as well as a handful of indie-comics anthologies. In addition to comic books, he’s dabbled quite a bit with Neil Jam in comic strip form. Neil Jam ran as a student comic strip at the University of Missouri for four years. He currently lives in Chicago.

    Bernie McGovern, www.rockwellfarmer.com
    Bernie McGovern is a puppet designer, illustrator, and comics artist living in Chicago. He teaches for Snow City Arts in Rush Hospital’s pediatrics ward, where children can continue to learn while missing school. Current Snow City Arts projects include a patient-designed video game and shadow puppet animation. His personal projects include the graphic novels “An Army of Lovers will be Beaten” and “The Cosmouse.” His puppets have appeared in plays by Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Neo-Futurists of Chicago, The Hypocrites, Dog & Pony, Sanculottes, and Drinking & Writing Theater. He has a great love for collaborators, juniper, hazelnut infused chocolate, and his parents.

  • New Stuff This Week

    CAKE Book 2012 $15.00 – 96 pages and 8″x10″, this puppy was pretty much the icing on the first Chicago Alternative Comics Expo: a bizarro ‘thology/look book/rogues’ gallery of modern graphic magic: 52 layers, lovingly assembled by Andy “whutta weirdo” Burkholder. Wanna slice of this? Yeah you do. -EF …Includes work from Anders Nilsen, Sanya Glisic, Blaise Larmee, Eamon Espey, Molly O’Connell, John Hankiewicz, MaxMorris, Lyra Hill, Henry Glover, Michael Deforge, Edie Fake and more.

    Zines & Zine-Related Books
    SC Simplicity Consistency Comics Jul 12 by Gene Booth, Grace tran and Krista booth $.50
    Luck by Isaac McCay Randozzi $14.00
    various issues of SSLM Special Price Edition Same Sex Life Magazine $5.00 each
    Atomic Elbow Professional Wrestling Fanzine #1 and #2 by Robert $5.00 each
    zines and comics by Rebecca Mir including: She Is Restless vol 3 Maelstrom, Apostrophe to the Ocean and more.
    various issues of Dig Deep
    Duel Citizenship by Jen Twigg $2.00
    ZSH Bunny King $3.00

    Comics and Comix
    So You Want to Work In Comics Jul 12 by Delia Jean, Jenny Frison, Nicole Hollander, Tim Seeley, Mike Norton et al. $1.00
    Hungry Bottom Comics #1 Wow You Are Colour Code by Eric Kostiuk Williams $5.00
    Them Anarchy Kids #1 by Brian D. Evans $2.00
    Fatima #2 of 4 the Blood Spinners by Gilbert Hernandez $3.99
    Reset #4 of 4 by Peter Bagge $3.50
    Dance Party #1 Andrea Tsurumi $5.00
    Lou #4 and #5 by Melissa Mendes $1.00 each
    Suck It Up by Krystal  DiFronzo $6.00
    Noah Van Sciver In Conversation with Charles Forsman, Feb 2012 Interview $1.00
    My Sincerest Apologies by Jessica Campbell $1.00
    Gagger #1 by Dane Martin $1.00
    Background by Andy Burkholder $1.00
    Moose #7 and #8 by Max De Rodrigues $1.00 each
    End of The Fucking World Part 8 and 9 by Charles Forsman $1.00 each
    Anais in Paris by Mardou $3.00
    Corn by Mark Thompson $3.00
    various issues of Act by Steve Ditko
    Morbid Dork #2 by Alex Nall $3.00
    Yellow Zine #2 Pretentious Comics and Funnies by Roman Muradov $6.00

    Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks
    Nurse Nurse by Katie Skelly (Sparkplug) $15.00
    American Elf Book 4 January 2008-December 2011 by James Kochalka (Top Shelf) $24.95 – More of the collected sketchbook diaries.
    Buffy The Vampire Slayer season 9 vol 1 Freefall by Joss Whedon et al. $17.99
    No Mans Land HC by Blexbolex (Nobrow) $21.95
    Notebook Drawings 2011-2012 1 Subject Notebook Drawings by Jim Rugg (Adhouse) $30.00
    R. Crumbs Heros of Blues Jazz and Country by R. Crumb $21.95 – Reissue! Finally back in print. Comes with CD.
    Creepy Presents Rochard Corben: Definitive Collection of the Artists Work $29.99
    Teaching Comics and Graphic Narratives: Essays on Theory Strategy and Practice by Lan Dong $45.00

    Art & Design
    A to Z of Mod by Paolo Hewitt $24.95
    Significant Objects 100 Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things by Rob Walker et al. (Fantagraphics) $24.99
    Graffitti Coloring Book 3 International Styles $9.95
    Color Ink Book vol 15 DIY Art Periodical $10.00
    Duck Tails and Car Culture by Raymond Mosken $39.95
    Classic Hits New Yorks Pioneering Subway Graffiti Writers by ALan Fleisher $39.95 – Pioneering subway graffiti writers.
    A bunch of Dover clip art books including themes like Mythological and Fantastic Creatures, Day of the Dead, Beasts etc. Most come with CDs for your zine or graphic design needs.
    Graffiti Tattoo vol 2 by Alan Ket et al. (From Here to Fame) $39.99

    Fiction
    Bluff City Underground: A Roman Noir of the Deep South by Erik Morse (Creation) $16.95
    Champleve Gallery by William Masero $11.00
    Dora: A Headcase by Lidia Yuknavitch (Hawthorne) $16.95

    Literary Journals, Poetry & Chap Books
    Time Bomb Snooze Alarm by Bucky Sinister (Write Bloody) $15.00
    The Believer #91 $12.00 – Comes with a cassette tape this issue.
    Public Space #16 $12.00
    Sinister Wisdom #86 Sum 12 $6.00
    Jubilat #21 $8.00
    Fence vol 15 #1 Sum 12 $10.00
    Feathertale Review #9 $10.00
    Upstreet #8 $12.00
    Conium Review vol 1 #1 Spr 12 and #2 Fall 12 $12.00 each

    Childrens Books
    Night Riders by Matt Furie (McSweeneys) $15.95
    Benny’s Brigade by Arthur Bradford and Lisa Hanawalt (McSweeneys) $19.95

    Mayhem, Miscreants, Memoirs & Misc
    The Conspiracy Reader: From the Deaths of JFK and John Lennon to Government Sponsored Alien Cover Ups by Al Hidell and Joan Darc $14.95
    What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Meanness by Stanley Bing $14.99

    Music Books
    Anarchy Evolution:Faith, Science and Bad Religion In a World Without God by Greg Graffin and Steve Olson $14.99 – Fuck armeggedon this is hell. Now in soft cover! -LM
    Young Flesh Required: Growing Up With the Sex Pistols by Alan G. Parker and Mick O’Shea (Soundcheck) $19.95

    Politics & Revolution
    Not Working: People Talk About Losing a Job and Finding Their Way In Todays Changing Economy by DW Gibson (OR Books) $20.00
    Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox For Revolution From the People Who Brought You the Yes Men/Billionaires For Bush by Andrew Boyd (OR Books) $25.00

    DIY
    Mini Farming Guide to Fermenting, Self Sufficiency from Beer and Cheese to Wine and Vinegar Bread by Brett L. Markham $14.95
    Little Paper Airplanes: 20 Artists Reinvent the Childhood Classic by Kelly Lynn Jones et al. $19.95
    Handmade to Sell: Hello Crafts Guide to Owning Running and Growing Your Crafty by Kelly Rand et al. $16.99

    Magazines
    Bust Aug/Sep 12 $5.99
    Amass #44 $4.95
    Globetrotter #1 $15.00
    Spike Art Quarterly #32 Sum 12 $14.90
    Girls Like Us vol 2 #3 $12.00
    True Crime Sum Special 12 20 All True Murder Stories $6.99
    World Explorer vol 6 #4 $8.95
    Make vol 31 $14.99
    Meatpaper #18 Sum 12 $7.95
    Open Minds Aug Sep 12 $6.50
    Mother Earth News #253 Aug Sep 12 $5.99
    Bizarre #190 Jul 12 $10.50
    Fortean Times #290 Aug 12 $11.99
    Razorcake #69 $4.00
    Black Velvet #73 $9.00
    Wire #341 Jul 12 $9.99
    Harpers Magazine Aug 12 $6.99
    Progressive Aug 12 $4.95
    Against the Current #159 Jul Aug 12 $5.00
    various issues of Upping The Anti Journal of Theory and Action
    Tattoo Collection #51 $7.75

    Sex & Sexy
    Kinky Nylons by Holly Randall $37.95
    Girls Who Score: Hot Lesbian Erotica Ily Goyanes (Cleis) $15.95
    Anything For You: Erotica for Kinky Couples by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Cleis) $15.95
    Sadomania Sinema de Sade by Jack Hunter (Creation) $16.95
    Housewives at Play: Wide Open Spaces by Rebecca (Eros) $9.99
    Spunk #8 by Aaron Tilford $9.00

    Other Stuff
    Witches Almanac #32 Spr 2013-Spr 2014 $11.95 – Just in time for your hand fasting or ham fasting ceramony or whatever the pagans call it.

    The things listed in this list are at our brick and mortar store at 1854 W. North Ave. Occassionally we make some of it available for mail order on our website, but we curate what we put up there. To see which new items are on our website, see quimbys.com/store and mail order them for prompt home delivery.

  • David Rees Reads From How to Sharpen Pencils 8/15

    In David Rees’s new book How to Sharpen Pencils (Melville House), the creator of Get Your War On and founder of ArtisanalPencilSharpening.com shares the secrets of his craft, empowering the layman to discover the pleasures (and perils) of sharpening pencils. Over the course of 18 chapters, Rees explains the difference between sharpening techniques, including:

    – Using a Pocketknife

    – Using a Single-Burr Handcrank Sharpener

    – Sharpening Pencils for Children

    – and many more!

    “How to Sharpen Pencils is very funny—it’s the work, let’s not forget, of the guy responsible for Get Your War On—but it’s no April Fools’ joke, and it’s no bathroom book. It’s a literary oddity that, even as it gleefully pursues the comic possibilities of its premise, subtly gestures towards its own secluded seriousness. And, for what it’s worth, it also marks the standard to which all future pencil-sharpening textbooks must now aspire.”

    – Mark O’Connell, NewYorker.com

    “I trust my bespoke pencils only to David Rees.”

    – Liz Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

    “You may think that sharpening a pencil is easy, but David Rees makes it look hard, and that makes all the difference.”

    – John Hodgman, Areas of My Expertise

    The work of David Rees has been featured in such places as: Rolling Stone, GQ, Punk Planet, and The Nation. His work has also been in such anthologies as Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wild Web and The McSweeney’s Book of Politics & Musicals. He has been featured on podcasts and radio shows such as Bullseye with Jesse Thorn and The Best Show on WFMU.

    For more info: artisanalpencilsharpening.com

    Wed, Aug 15th, 7pm

  • Weekly Top 10

     

    KerBloom #96 May Jun 12 is at #7 this week, on giving birth and having the universe thwart your best-laid plans.

    1. Bitch #55 $5.95
    2. Tales Designed to Thrizzle #8 by Michael Kupperman (Fantagraphics) $4.95
    3. The Baffler #20 $10.00
    4. Monocle vol 6 #55 Jul Aug 12 $12.00
    5. Telegram #25 Feb 12 $3.00
    6. Train Wreck #9 by Dave Brainwreck $1.00 – Like “Big Hands”, “Train Wreck” is packed deep with a from-the-eyes record of living, the experience of different places, the gut of what it means.

    7. KerBloom #96 May Jun 12 by Artnoose $2.00 (See above)
    8. Living Cooperatively In Intentional Community by Dan Copulsky $3.00 – An introduction to co-op living from an intentional communicator – easy to digest with a page of Chicago-specific resources. With Chicago resource List.

    9. Gather (Artist Publications Editions) by Todd Freeman (Issue Press) $12.00 – Beautiful drawing zine of meticulous penline knotwork. This one’s got some serious net rewards. -EF

    10. Gems #1 Interview Zine Featuring Sic Alps, Kraftwerk and Geneva Jacuzzi by Mike S. (Strange Cessation) $4.00

  • New Stuff This Week

    Galactic Zoo Dossier #9 (Drag City) $21.98 – Galactic Zoo Dossier #9 has over 100 pages on overlooked freak rock bands, heady comics and populist pop-psych. Contributors include creator Plastic Crimewave, Byron Coley (The Wire), Eric Colin (Ugly Things / Shindig), Avi Spivak (Human Being Lawnmower) and Scott Wilkinson (Ugly Things, Endless Trip). Contains Interviews with Arthur Brown, Black Widow, Poppy Family, Rodriguez and Mark Fry. Features on Egg & East Of Eden, Collectors & Folklords, Curtis Knight, John Berberian, Psyched Archie & Mad, Kirby, Texas psych scene, Kak, Moody Blues, White Witch. Trading cards of damaged guitar gods and astral folk maidens, in full colour. The CD compilation contains unreleased and mind-frying sounds by Mainliner, Secret Syde, Ultima Thule, Mark Fry, Daze Of Night and The Light Company, amongst others.

    Zines
    Pieces #7 On Belief Delusion and Love by Nichole $3.00
    Hoax #7 Feminism and Change $3.00
    Suck It and See by Zanny Begg $5.00
    NA680 by Blaise Larmee $3.00
    Zines from Drippy Bone: Locked Up Forevers by Alicia Ordal $4.00, Freak Scene $7.00, MOCA #1 Magazine of Contemporary Alchemy by Gordon Magnin $5.00
    Decrepit Americana #1 and #2 by Iowa Joe $3.00 each
    Magic Afternoon #1 $10.00
    Stuff from the Transgender Oral History Project Distro, including: Transgender Herb Garden An MtF Guide to Disconnecting Ones Self From Big Pharma, Trannydykewhore #1, Excerpts From a Journal of a Trans Girl and more.
    Telegram #25 Feb 12 by Miranda Elizabeth $3.00
    Cop Dad #1 Premier Issue Magazine of the Exceptional Personal Experience $2.00
    zines by Dan Copulsky: Concisely #7 Stories Under 500 Words, Living Cooperatively In Intentional Community by Dan Copulsky with a Chicago Resource List. Personal Account of Tipping
    Cocaine Makes the Heart Grow Fonder by Harry  Marker et al. $3.00
    Quick Non Monogamy Glossary by Max Mandax $.25
    Prickly Places Raisin Catalog #1 by Alex Nichols $28.00
    Playing Victim #5 by Brittany Maksimovic $2.00
    Little Otsu Living Things vol 8 featuring Jessica Seamans $6.95
    Period by Christopher Adams $5.00
    Acid Kat #4 Jun Jul 12 by Austin et al. $3.00

    Comics & Comix
    Executive Werewolf Raisin Catalog #.5 by Alex Nichols $3.00 – Were the 99%.

    Linework #3 Spr 12 $12.00
    RAV #6 by Mickey Z $6.00
    Freal Real by Pat Aulisio $5.00
    John Blaze #1 by Leslie Weibeler $4.00
    Nome #1 by Jason T. Miles et al. $7.00
    Jason T. Miles titles: Pines #2-#4, No Body Move Know Buddy Moves Love and more.
    Swamr #1 by Michael Olivo $3.00
    Ductile Anchor by Karneeleus $3.50
    Crestfallen #5 by Sandra Sierra $4.00
    Swaying Gates by Naji $4.00
    Jason Ludtke titles: Colossal Feathers and Composite Armour, Colossal Vulpes Vulpes
    LCB (Liberty Crew Breakers) by Nate Beaty $5.00
    Pizza Face #1 by Mikey Anderson $4.00
    Donda by Jon Dradoer $2.00
    Spazz Factory #1 by “Bill Cosby” $2.00
    Breakfast for Dinner by Kelci Crawford $3.50
    Sweetmeats #1 by Edie Fake $2.00
    Slurricane #3 by Will Laren $8.00

    Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks
    Cake Book 2012 $15.00 – The official anthology of CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo) $15.00
    Hellboy vol 5 by Mike Mognola et al. (Dark Horse) $49.99 – Contains the stories Darkness Calls and The Wild Hunt.
    Flannery O’Connor The Cartoons (Fantagraphics) $22.95
    JLA vol 2 TPB by Grant Morrison et al. $24.99
    Midnight Days Deluxe Edition by Neil Gaiman $24.99

    Art & Design
    Wolf the Artist From Apocalypse Back by Wolfgang Carver and Lisa Carver $13.00

    Fiction
    Gather Yourselves Together by Philip K. Dick $13.95
    My American Unhappiness by Dean Bakopoulos $13.95
    Torn in Two by Brit Sigh $10.00
    Year Zero by Rob Reid $25.00
    Enchantment New and Selected Stories by Thaisa Frank (Counterpoint) $16.95

    Politics & Revolution
    Black 911: Money, Motive and Technology by Mark H. Gaffney (Trine Day) $19.95

    Mayhem, Miscreants, Memoirs & Misc
    Books by Prof Oddfellow (and friends): Annotated Ellipses Revealing Hidden dot to dot game within a novelists Eccentric $9.95, Presumptive Conundrums Rhetorical Math Questions and Answers $14.25, Moon Fish Ocean a Zen Converstion of Rock Paper Scissors $11.49 Wyes Dictionary of Improbable Words by Craig Conley $27.99
    It Chooses You by Miranda July (McSweeneys) $16.00 – Now in soft cover, this book is about Miranda July’s fascination with PennySaver classified ads. Then it turned into this big meditation on the creative process. And she got a photographewr in on the action. Then it became a movie.

    Music Books
    If You Like Metallica Here Are Over 200 Bands, CDs, Movies, and Other Oddities That You Will Love by Mike McPadden (Backbeat) $14.99 – This book illuminates the sounds and styles that influenced and have been influenced by this band, in addition to non-musical elements such movies, books, and cultural iconoclasts.
    Hammered: Heavy Tales from the Hard-Rock Highway ed. by Kirk Blows – Whether being threatened by members of Motörhead, sipping soup with Ozzy Osbourne, sharing a stage with Metallica, drinking with UFO or enjoying candid conversation with Queen, veteran journo Blows presents a collection of enticing tales that provide an often hilarious, always unique insight into an exciting and largely unseen world. Packed with over 200 adventures and anecdotes that span a twenty-year period.

    Childrens
    Just Add Water: Making the City of Chicago by Renee Kreczmer (Lake Claremont Press) $12.95

    Magazines
    The Baffler #20 $10.00
    Hi-Fructose #24 $6.95
    Wallpaper Jul 12 $10.00
    Juxtapoz #139 Aug 12 $5.99
    Wilder Quarterly vol 1 #3 Sum 12 $18.95 – Art mag about gardening. All the rage!
    Brownbook #33 $14.99
    High Times Sep 12 $5.99
    Boneshaker Magazine #9 $12.00
    Dazed & Confused vol 3 #11 Jul 12 $9.99
    Z Magazine Jul Aug 12 $6.95
    Inked Aug 12 #47 $6.99

    Literary Journals, Poetry & Chap Books
    Literary Review vol 55 #2 Spr 12
    Artifice Magazine #4 $7.00
    Bad Version vol 1 #3 Sum 12 $9.00
    Women Arts vol 2 #3 Sum 12 $10.00
    Ninth Letter vol 9 #1 Spr Sum 12 $14.95
    Tape Op #90 Jul Aug 12 $4.95

    Sex & Sexy
    Our sister store, Chicago Comics sent us a buncha their sexy books and comics that are –um, how shall we phrase this? — more appreciated over here. Soem of them we’re selling for cheaper than their original retail price. And there are a lot of them, probably too many to mention. Stuff by Kevin Taylor, older Housewives at Play stuff, hilarious older sexy comics and more.
    Housewives at Play – Do You Work Here? by Rebecca (Eros) $9.99
    Meat #7 by Adrian Lourie $20.00 – Fresh pack.

    Other Stuff
    We just a big shipment of stuff in from Buy Olympia, including cards by artists like Little Otsu, Nikki MCClure, Paper Milk, Stumptown Printers and more. And a few prints in too, including a Jill Bliss Octopus print.

  • Weekly Top 10

    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.”

  • Quimby's Participates In Bookstore Crawl 2012

     

    Participating:
    Heritage Bicycles • 2959 N Lincoln Ave
    Powell’s North • 2850 N Lincoln Ave
    Bookworks • 3444 N Clark St
    Unabridged • 3251 N Broadway
    Quimby’s • 1852 W North Ave
    Open Books • 213 W Institute Pl
    Powell’s • 1218 S Halsted St
    Crawl starts at 1pm at Heritage Bicycles! Spend the day with your two favorite inventions, bicycles and books!

    It finally ends at Powell’s in University Village (1218 S. Halsted) for the opening of “Bike Crawl: An Art Show,” which starts at 7pm.
    Featured local artists: Kyle Baker, Todd Irwin, Deborah Maris-Lader, Jay Ryan, Maria Sanchez, Shawn Stuckey, Michael Una, and Julia Victor Curated by Kyra Termini
    For more info, click the images above.

  • Eliza Frye Reads From Regalia 8/11

    Regalia is a collection of short stories exploring themes of sex and death through visual metaphor, magical realism, and white tigers. Some of the stories have been previously published and some are brand new. They are all love letters.

    “Frye has a powerful style. I had an immediate, almost visceral reaction to the images.”

    —  Derik A. Badman, COMIXTALK

    “I really want this … but I’m afraid of what my pastor will say.”

    — Chicago Comic Con Attendee

    Eliza Frye is a graphic novelist, illustrator and exhibiting artist. Her comics have been featured in literary magazines and anthologies in the United States and Europe, and her short story “The Lady’s Murder” was nominated for a 2009 Eisner Award. She has studied Character Animation at California Institute of the Arts and has a BA in Japanese Literature from UCLA. She enjoys her tea earl grey, hot.

    For more info: elizafrye.com and mail@elizafrye.com

    Sat, Aug 11th 7pm

  • Derf Reads My Friend Dahmer at Quimby’s 8/9

    “If you want to read a heavy story about a disturbing teenager, My Friend Dahmer will certainly quench your dark little desires. But this book is about a lot of other things that matter much, much more: the institutionalized weirdness of the suburban seventies, what it means to be friends with someone you don’t really like, a cogent explanation as to why terrible things happen, and a means for feeling sympathy toward those who don’t seem to deserve it.”
    — Chuck Klosterman, author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs and The Visible Man

     

    “A solid job. Putrid serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s origins are explored in this fine book. Dig it—it’ll hang you out to dry.”
    — James Ellroy, author of My Dark Places and L.A. Confidential

    My Friend Dahmer (Abrams ComicArts; March 2012; Non-fiction; Graphic Novel; Paperback $17.95; ISBN: 978-1-4197-0217-4; Hardcover $24.95; ISBN: 978-1-4197-0216-7) is an original graphic novel that gives a unique perspective on the notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, he was “Jeff,” a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways and car rides. Using a combination of his own memories and journals, conversations with old friends, and Dahmer’s interviews and transcripts, writer-artist Backderf unveils a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man—a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a misfit who never quite fit in with his classmates—struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche.

    My Friend Dahmer:

    • offers fascinating and disturbing answers to the question, “What was Jeffery Dahmer like as a kid?”
    • raises the question “Could these murders have been prevented?”
    • touches on the issues of bullying, teen alcoholism, and the role of parents and teachers in a troubled teen’s life.

     

    About the Author:

    Derf Backderf lives in Cleveland, Ohio. He has been nominated for two Eisner Awards and has received a host of honors, including the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for political cartooning. His weekly comic strip, The City, has appeared in more than 100 newspapers over the past 22 years.

    Thurs, Aug 9th, 7pm

    The author is available for interviews, and images are available upon request. Contact: Katrina Weidknecht, Executive Director, Publicity, kweidknecht@abramsbooks.com

  • Brion Poloncic and Eckhard Gerdes Read 8/3

    Brion Poloncic’s novel Xanthous Mermaid Mechanics pushes at all of our preconceptions and misconceptions not only about the self, but also about art.  Artists are too often and too easily cast as outsiders, and Outsider Art has become somewhat of a commodity with so-called “outsiders” who seem to market their “outsidedness” for monetary gain.  One wonders if in some cases the outsider stance isn’t merely a con.  But with Poloncic, who has been called the “Daniel Johnston” of literature, we see the real thing, and it is beautiful and scary, marvelous and delightful, yet also angry, insecure, self-doubting.  In other words, this is as human as it gets.  And sometimes it as humorous as it gets as when, in the depths of his artistic quest, Poloncic begins channeling William S. Burroughs, who dictates a manuscript to him, or when he realizes that all we really need to get through our lives successfully is a sequence of form letters.  Although it is deliciously funny, the book is, simply put, both charming and discombobulating, which is a note that rings absolutely true to the ear.  Brion Polonic is also an accomplished artist and musician.  He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his dog Tinca.

    “This book was a very interesting read. At times, the author goes on a road that I don’t follow, but above and beyond, the first person narrative is brilliant. Dealing with mental illness, drug abuse and some very bad behavior without making excuses or apologies, this book chronicles parts of the author’s psyche that most of us keep locked away. My personal favorite was ‘Schizophrenia 101’. It is a step by step guide for “new” schizophrenics. Though written with humor, one can’t help but wonder if the advice and detailed guide of symptoms and meanings WOULD be a useful tool for people experiencing their first psychotic episode.”   –Kyle Muntz, Author of VII (A Novel): The Life, Times, and Tragedy of Sir Edward William Locke the Third: Gentleman.

    Also joining the bill is Chicago author Eckhard Gerdes, who will read from his new books The Three Psychedelic Novellas of Eckhard Gerdes (Enigmatic Ink Books) and The Sylvia Plath Cookbook (Sugar Glider Press).

    For more info: www.experimentalfiction.com, www.eckhardgerdes.com

    Fri, Aug 3rd, 7pm