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  • Logan Square Literary Review Reads: Halloween Edition

    Kick-off your Halloween weekend with the Logan Square Literary Review Reads: Halloween Edition! Grab your pumpkin beers and trick-or-treat bags and prepare yourself for the spooky, scary and creepy as read by: Lara Levitan, Michael McCauley, Alicia Hilton and others!

    The Logan Square Literary Review is a not-for-profit quarterly journal based in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, IL. This publication aims to facilitate expression and add to the thriving community of arts and ideas in Logan Square. The Logan Square Literary Review is dependent upon submissions from the public. This event is to celebrate issue VIII Fall 2011.

    Long live 60647!

  • Weekly Top 10

    1. What The Hell Are You Doing: The Essential David Shrigley (Norton) $35.00 – “By turns hilarious, satirical, and brilliant, David Shrigley’s full-page illustrations-a combination of drawing, comics, photography, and sculpture-are sui generis: uproariously funny, pleasantly unnerving, and, most of all, really, really cool. Neither “graphic novel” nor “art book,” What the Hell Are You Doing? celebrates the surreal world of the artist who created Ants Have Sex in Your Beer and To Make the Meringue You Must Beat the Egg Whites Until They Look Like This.

    2. Optic Nerve #12 by Adrian Tomine (D&Q) $5.95 – Two pitch-perfect stories of rejection, imperfection, and relationship drama, each ending on a surprisingly uplifting note. “Hortisculpture” pushes Tomine into a stylistic camp with Sammy Harkham, Jordan Crane, Chuck Forsman and Kevin Huizenga – perhaps more than ever before. The story works with a “Chalky White”-ish suburban everyman and his tempered ambitions, but camps up the visual style into a Marmaduke-y newspaper strip aesthetic. The effect is similar to the trickiness of his wedding planning comics. The second half is a repolishing of his “Amber Sweet” college girl mistaken for porn star plot. Plus we get a glimpse into Tomine’s sad-sack mailbox, and some self-aware griping about putting out comics issue by issue.  -EF

    3. Habibi by Craig Thompson (Pantheon) $35.00 – Hotly anticipated new work from the author of Blankets and Goodbye Chunky Rice.

    4. Crap Hound #8 Superstition $12.00 – Clip art galore, collage style. Once you open it you can’t put it doooowwwnnn, superstitious theeeeeemed in time for Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeeen!

    5. Caroline Paquita 2012 Calendar  (Pegacorn Press) $10.00 – Thanks to everybody who came out last night for the release event for Pegacorn Press!

    6. Future Tense  (Pegacorn Press) $8.00 – Ditto! A fabulous comics anthology.

    7. Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910-2010 byMichael Kupperman (Fantagraphics) $19.99 – Yes, with text. Yes with illustrations. And oh yeah, yes with Mark Twain as porn star, drifter and grifter.

    8. Bitch #52 $5.95

    9. Prompts-Prompted Spr 11 The Creative Writers Guild $5.00 – Those art students! Bein’ all literary and stuff.

    10. Maximumrocknroll #341 Oct $4.00

  • New Stuff This Week

    ZINES
    Radical Pet #6 by Margarat Nee $2.50

    Found Magazine #7 Willis Earl Beal Special Collection: Limited Edition Acousmatic Sorcery 17 Song Debut Album $20.00
    Translady Fanzine #1 by Amos Mac and Zackary Drucker $20.00
    Show and Tell #8 a zine made with love in Bend Oregon by Rachel Lee Carmen $3.00
    Phallic Titty Manifesto by Jackie Wang $1.50
    Peops #6 by Fly $4.00
    Great Anarchists by Peter Willis $3.00
    Solidarity Unionism at Starbucks by Dniel Gross, Staughton Lynd and Tom Keough (PM Press) $4.95
    No More Unicorns by Emilie Robin $5.00
    Train Stories #2 by Dre CTA $1.00
    Can of Air #1 by Peter E. Rosales $2.00
    Shotgun Seamstress #5 $3.00
    Bookstores and Baseball: 2nd Inning the Moneyball Issue by David Labounty $4.00

    COMICS & COMIX
    Feedback #9 by John Isaacson  $2.00 – Jon goes to a lot of punk shows. Then he does comics about them.
    Everything Dies #7 by Box Brown $5.00
    Get on My Horse by Robin Emilie $3.00
    Captcha #4 by Jojo Sherrow $4.00
    Devil Burger by Kevin Fair $10.00
    French Toast Comix #6 Coffee and Beer Money by Becky Hawkins $4.00
    Zegas #1 by Michel Fiffe $9.95

    GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS
    Habibi by Craig Thompson (Pantheon) $35.00 – New work from the artist of Blankets and Good-Bye Chunky Rice!
    1-800 Mice HC by Matthew Turber (Picturebox) $22.95 – Finally! All in one place.
    Love and Rockets New Stories vol 4 by Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics) $14.99
    Pure Pajamas: A Handsom Treasure Trove of Scrumptious Visual Delights… by Marc Bell (D&Q) $22.95
    Dawn of the Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley (Chronicle) $12.95
    Hellboy vol 11 Bride of Hell and Others by Mike Mignola etc. (Dark Horse) $19.99
    Hellboy vol 3 HC by Mike Mignola (Dark Horse) $49.99 – Collects Conqueror Worm and Strange Places.
    New York Five TPB by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly (Vertigo) $14.99
    New X Men TPB 1 by Grant Morrison etc. (Marvel) $14.99
    Astonishing X-Men TPB Xenogenesis by Warren Ellis and Kaare Andrews (Marvel) $19.99

    ART & DESIGN BOOKS
    Hip Pocket Sleaze: The Lurid World of Vintage Adult Paperbacks by John Harrison (Headpress) $22.95
    Cut and Paste 21st Century Collage by Richard Brereton and Caroline Roberts (Laurence King) $29.95
    Idols by Gilles Larrain (PowerHouse) $35.00
    Rebus by James Jean (Chronicle) $45.00
    What The Hell Are You Doing?: Essential David Shrigley (Norton) $35.00 – Thanks to everybody who came out to the David Shrigley event here at the store or the lecture at Columbia.
    Old Mens Tattoos by Thomas Jeppe (Dokument) $29.95
    Everyday Love: The Art of Nidhi Chanani $30.00 – Awfully cute.
    Roma Omnia Vincit by JB Rock (Drago) $33.00
    Graffiti 365  by Jay “J.SON” Edlin (Abrams) $32.50 – This book delivers the first real insider’s view into the contemporary graffiti and street-art scenes, as well as their antecedents. A fun, wide-ranging survey of the international graffiti movement, this book uses more than 600 rare, previously unpublished, or legendary images to introduce and describe important artists—from Blade to Banksy—and styles—from bubble to wild. Along the way, Graffiti 365 covers different eras, cities, legendary walls and crews, police and public responses to graffiti, and more. Author J.SON, has been an artist and historian of the graffiti movement for decades—he started writing graffiti in 1973 and retired in 1984. Unparalleled in its breadth and depth of coverage, Graffiti 365 is a wide-angle snapshot of an entire movement.

    DIY
    The Bust DIY Guide to Life: Making Your Way Through Every Day by Laurie Henzel and Debbie Stroller (Stewart/Chang) $29.95

    FICTION
    All The Pretty People: Tales of Carob Shame and Barbie Envy by Ariel Gore and Summer Pierre (Lit Star) $10.00
    Temple of Air by Patricia Ann McNair (Elephant Rock) $16.00
    Murder At Any Age by Tony DeMarco $14.99
    Zippermouth by Laurie Weeks (Feminist) $14.95
    Stories of Haven I ed. by Bob Nelson – An collection of stories from Anthology Magazine.
    God Complex by Chris Titus $19.95
    In Case You Didn’t Hear Me The First Time by Sharon Skinner $7.99
    Marks Night by Brian Schmarje $17.00
    50 Plays Fifty Short One Act Plays by Joe Janes $25.00 – Don’t miss Joe Janes here at Quimby’s 10/1!

    MAGAZINES
    Color Ink Book vol 11 DIY Art Periodical $10.00
    Bizarre #180 Oct 11 $10.50
    Purple Fashion vol 3 #16 $45.00
    Bust Oct Nov 11 $4.99
    Razorcake #64 $4.00
    Tape Op #85 Sep Nov 11 $4.95
    Wax Poetics #48 $9.99
    Harpers Magazine Oct 11 $6.99
    Tattoo Revolution Oct 11 $11.75

    POLITICS & REVOLUTION
    Rogue: Searching For the Real Sarah Palin by Joe McGinniss (Crown) $25.00
    Trans Love Radical Sex: Love and Relationships Beyond the Gender Binary by Morty Diamond (Manic D) $14.95
    Obama: The Postmodern Coup – Making of a Manchurian Candidate by Webster Griffin Tarpley (Progressive) $15.95
    Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times (Melvilee) $16.95

    LITERARY JOURNALS, CHAP BOOKS & POETRY
    Origin of My Organs: Aching What You Did to Make My Throat Stop Working by Sarah Loudin $6.95
    A Capella Zoo #7 Fall 11 $7.00
    Prompts Prompted Spr 11  by The Creative Writers Guild of SAIC $5.00
    Lady Churchills Rosebud Wristlet #27 Aug 10 $5.00
    Waukegan Pepsodent Conundrum by G. Wallace $3.00

    MAYHEM, MISCREANTS, MEMOIR & MISCELLANEOUS
    Hack: Stories From a Chicago Cab (university of Chicago) $20.00
    Crap I Bought on E-Bay: 101 Crazy Bizarre Seriously Weird Ridiculously Raunchy Items Exposed by Cary McNeal and Beverly Jenkins (Running) $13.00
    Death In the City of Light: Serial Killer of Nazi Occupied Paris by David King (Crown) $26.00
    Rude Hand Gestures of the World: A Guide to Offending Without Words by Romana Lefevre and Daniel Castro (Chronicle) $12.95
    Stories in Reserve vol 1 by The Temporary Travel Office $15.00
    Zombies Zombies Zombies: The Most Complete Collection of Zombie Stories Ever Published (Vintage) $25.00
    Maybe He’ll Grow Out Of It: Collection of 45 Outlandish Stories of Youth Idealism by Christopher Gutierrez $16.00

    SEX & SEXY
    RFD #147 Fall 11 $9.95

    OTHER STUFF
    Flavor Savers Mustache Chip Clips (Gama Go) $8.00
    New assorted wrapping papers with such graphics as: Bacon, Fancy Moustaches, Pi, Cupcake! $4.00 per pack
    Instantly Antique Wall Decals: 35 Peel and Stick Decals Easy to Apply and Remove by Julia Rothman (Chronicle) $24.95
    Crazy new toys! Finger Pickles that make your fingers into pickles! Whaaaat? Yes! ($.75 each!) And Finger Narwhals!
    Shark Attack Porcelian Mug $9.50 – So you look inside, and at the bottom there’s a shark fin. Call the troops!
    Individually Wrapped Bacon Candy $6.00 – It’s all about the tin it comes in!
    Old-Fashioned Bacon Candy Canes $4.50 – September is the new December.
    Silver Fox Sly Ceramic Desk Organizer (Gama Go) $20.00
    Blood Sucking Sour Candy Blood Cherry $1.50
    Gummy Earthworms Candy $.32
    Topps Wacky Packages Stickers Series 7 $1.99
    Best of CGW Radio by The Creative Writers Guild of SAIC $6.00
    Popcorn Jelly Beans $5.00

  • Weekly Top 10

    Just a reminder that tonight artist David Shrigley will be here at 7pm. See you then!

    No surprise what tops the list of bestellers — a new issue of Crap Hound and a new issue of Optic Nerve! A double bubble of excitement!

    1. Crap Hound #8 Superstition (Show & Tell) $12.00
    2. Optic Nerve #12 by Adrian Tomine (D&Q) $5.95
    3. Wallpaper Oct 11 $10.00
    4. You Dont Get There From Here #20 by Carrie McNinch $2.00
    5. Juxtapoz #129 Oct 11 $5.99
    6. Burn Collector #15 by Al Burian (Microcosm) $3.00 – Al Burian takes on his new home town, Berlin with a little help from a Chicago All-Star team of Anne Elizabeth “Unmarketable” Moore and Liam “Secret Beach” Warfield.
    7. Animal Sex You Might Not Want To Know by Isabella Rotman $3.00 – This mini is so good! It’s a sly and pervy funny-as-shit guide to kinky sex in the animal kingdom. From ungodly long schlongs of Argentine lake ducks to pheromone-fueled Garter Snake fuckballs, Rotman’s bestiary culls the cream of the crop from what sounds like some pretty extensive -uh- “internet research”. -EF

    8. Neely Covers Comics To Give You The Creeps (Collectors Edition) by Tom Neely $6.00 – The calls are coming from inside the house as T.Neely does his number on 14 classic pulp comic covers.

    9. Filter #45 $5.95
    10. OK OK You Smote Me Stories by Al Burian (Quimby’s Exclusive) $3.00 – Quimby’s alum and international zine curmudgeon Al Burian has crafted a new zine exclusively for the store, the second in our “Quimby’s Exclusive” line of periodicals. In OK OK You Smote Me, Al takes us around the corner to his mayhem-prone stint on Wicker Park’s Dean Street, unhexing his way-too-hexed apartment and watching the tumult as Old Chicago takes a scraggly, low-level “stand” against encroaching yuppie “neighborhood improvement”. Compelling, humorous and wistful, with that trademark Burn Collector balance of heart and snark. -EF

  • Kevin Coval Performs Poetry From L-Vis Lives!: Racemusic Poems

    Spoken-word poet Kevin Coval, co-founder and Artistic Director of Louder Than a Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival, will perform at Quimby’s in support of his third collection of poetry L-vis Lives! Racemusic Poems (Haymarket Books, September).

    Coval, who has been hailed as “a new glowing voice in the world of literature” by Studs Terkel, explores the dynamic intersection of race and culture in America today with “L-vis,” an imagined persona and pastiche of artists who have used and misused Black music. In Coval’s poetic novella, L-vis’s story is equal parts autobiography and forgotten and re-imagined history. We see shades of Elvis Presley, the Beastie Boys, and Eminem, and meet some of history’s more obscure “whiteboy” heroes and antiheroes. A free audio preview of L-vis Lives!, with poems read by Coval and beats by Coolout Chris, can be heard here: http://bit.ly/oXSIxZ
    “This book is bold, brave and morally messy – twelve rounds of knock-down, drag-out shadowboxing against a shapeshifter. The dark humor, intellectual fervor, and emotional rigor Coval brings to bear animates these pieces, turns caricatures to characters…”
    —Adam Mansbach, author, Go the F**k to Sleep

    For performance, interview, and review requests, contact: Jon Kurinsky, Haymarket Books, jon@haymarketbooks.org

    Wed, Oct 12th, 7pm

    from hero to most
    i am a hero
    to most. the great hope
    of something other.
    a complex back-story.
    something other than
    the business of my father.
    bland’s antonym.
    jim crow’s black sheep.
    the forgotten son
    left to rise in the darkness
    among the dis
    carded in the wild
    of working class, single
    mother hoods.

  • New Stuff This Week

    Yes! Optic Nerve #12 is here! $5.95

    ZINES
    Punch Yourself In the Face and Drop Dead by Dimitri Karakostas (No Fun Press) $7.50
    Basic Paper Airplane #5 by Joshua James Amberson $3.00
    Zisk #20 Fall 11 $2.00
    Half Nelson #2 $2.50
    Bushwick Review #3 $5.00
    Class Struggle #71 Aug Sep 11 $3.00

    COMICS & COMIX
    The Plot #1 a Monster in the Forbidden Forest by Neil Brideau $4.00 – Charming new comic from Neil, our comics sommalier. He got it all ready for SPX and boy, was it worth it!
    Leper by Jeff Zwirek $3.00
    Love Pile #1  by Ze San San $8.00
    Barefoot On Bumblebees #1 $2.00
    Fest #1 by Nicholas Bennett and Christopher Stryker $3.00
    You Dont Get There From Here #20 by Carrie McNinch $2.00
    Jumping Bo: An American Legend by Alex #1 and #2 each $2.00
    19 Short Comics by Drewscape $7.00
    Boy and the Worm by Drewscape $5.00
    Cartoon Picayune #2 Fall 11 by Josh Kramer, James Sturm, and Katherine Roy $4.00
    Homos In Herstory 19th Century Edition by Elvis Bakaitis $3.00
    Twinks for Sale: A Humble Comics Zine $3.00

    GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS
    Mark Twains Autobiography 1910-2010 by Michael Kupperman (Fantagraphics) $19.99 – Michael Kupperman has already indulged his love for Mark Twain in the pages of Tales Designed to Thrizzle, but the recent publication of Twain’s (real) autobiography has inspired the cartoonist to a full-blown book-length master- piece of hilarity.
    Readers eager to see how Twain hunted the Yeti (“Come out here and face me, you snow-covered coward!”), met the Six Million Dollar Man, had a love affair with Mamie Eisenhower (“Boy oh boy, this lady was one hot dish”), and accidentally became involved in X-rated films, will devour this tome, which of course is augmented with Kupperman’s hilariously deadpan illustrations. 128 pages of full-color comics.


    Prison Pit Book 3 by Johnny Ryan (Fantagraphics) $12.99
    Armed Garden and Other Stories by David B. (Fantagraphics) $19.99
    Man Who Grew His Beard by Olivier Schrauwen (Fantagraphics) $19.99
    Art of Joe Kubert by Bill Schelly (Fantagraphics) $39.99
    Evil Garden by Edward Gorey (Pomegranate) $12.95
    Troop 142 by Mike Dawson (Secret Acres) $20.00
    Korgi Book 3 by Christian Slade (Top Shelf) $9.95
    Zahras Paradise by Amir and Khalil (First Sec) $19.99
    New X-Men TPB vol 5 by Grant Morrison etc. (Marvel) $14.99
    Crossed vol 2 Family Values by David Lapham (Avatar) $19.99
    Lost Lions by Edward Gorey (Pomegranate) $12.95

    ART & DESIGN BOOKS!
    Hip Pocket Sleaze The Lurid World of Vintage Adult Paperbacks by John Harrison (Headpress) $22.95
    Old Mens Tattoos by Thomas Jeppe (Dokument) $29.95
    Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (Tascen) $39.99 –
    Twenty-seven of the famous Grimms’ fairy tales in an all-new translation, containing illustrations by some of the most famous illustrators from the 1820s to the 1950s.
    Roma Omnia Vincit by JB Rock (Drago) $33.00

    DIY
    Rabbit Food Cookbook: Practical Vegan Recipes Food History and Other Miscellany by Beth A. Barnett (Sasquatch) $21.00
    Salad Daze: The Hot Knives Vegetarian Cookbook by Alex Brown etc. (MBP) $25.00
    Happy Buds: Marijuana For An Occasion by Ed Rosenthal (Quick) $12.95 Dance, play, chill, snuggle, this book is all about helping readers – whether they are casual or regular users. Select the right varieties for any mood or activity. This book offers expert guidance on marijuana buds that work best for more than 25 occasions, profiling more than 80 varieties of bud. Ed Rosenthal is joined by buds. That is, his friends Anna Foster and Mamakind.

    FICTION
    Karaoke Singers Guide to Self Defense by Tim Kinsella (Featherproof) $14.95 – Member of Cap’n Jazz and Joan of Arc, Chicago’s own Tim Kinsella’s first novel tells the story of family members that reunite for a funeral, published by local publisher Featherproof.


    Sour Candies by Jon Dambacher $19.95
    Black Like Us a Century of Lesbian Gay and Bisexual African American Fiction ed. by Devon W. Carbado (Cleis) $24.95
    American Wasteland: Bleak Tales On the Future On the Tenth Anniversary of 911 ed. by Jason Pettus $20.00

    MAGAZINES
    Juxtapoz #129 Oct 11 $5.99
    Shots #113 Fall 11 $6.50
    Wallpaper Oct 11 $10.00
    Up Magazine #44 Sum 11 $8.75
    Goodfellas #3 $12.00
    True Crime Aug 11 $8.99
    Romka #5 $12.00
    Open Minds Oct Nov 11 $6.50
    Skeptic vol 16 #4 $6.95
    ID Magazine Pre Fall 11 $12.00
    High Times Nov 11 $5.99
    Art of Mary Jane #6 $6.99
    BlackBook #86 Sep 11 $4.95
    Laphams Quarterly vol 4 #4 Fall 11 $15.00
    Explosion Proof Magazine #3 Sum 11 $9.00
    Creative Nonfiction #42 Sum 11 $10.00
    Radical History Review Fall 11 $14.00
    Against the Current #156 Sep Oct 11 $5.00

    POLITICS & REVOLUTION
    Surviving the Cataclysm: Your Guide Through the Greatest Financial Crisis in Human History by Webster Griffin Tarpley (Weinstein) $25.00
    F’em Goo Goo, Gaga, and Some Thoughts on Balls by Jennifer Baumgardner (Seal) $17.00
    How the World Works: Four Classic Bestsellers in One Affordable Volume by Noam Chomsky, Arthur Naiman and David Barsamian (Soft Skull) $18.00 – Published as four short books in the famous Real Story series—What Uncle Sam Really Wants; The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many; Secrets, Lies and Democracy; and The Common Good.
    Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream by Arianna Huffington (Seven Stories) $14.00
    Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction by Colin Ward (Oxford) $11.95
    Liberating Society From The State and Other Writings by Erich Musham and Gabriel Kuhn (PM Press) $26.95
    Radical: A Portrait of Saul Alinsky by Nicholas Von Hoffman (Nation) $15.99

    CHILDRENS
    Treehorn Trilogy by Parry Florence Heide and Edward Gorey (Pomegranate) $29.95
    Wonder Struck by Brian Selznick (Scholastic) $29.99 – By the author of Invention of Hugo Cabret.
    Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking by Philipe Coudray (Toon) $12.95

    LITERARY JOURNALS, CHAP BOOKS & POETRY
    Origin of My Organs Aching: What You Did to Make My Throat Stop Working by Sarah Louden $6.95
    South Loop Review vol 13 $10.00
    First Line vol 13 #3 $3.00
    Literary Review vol 54 #4 Sum 11 $8.00
    Maximumrocknroll #341 Oct 11 $4.00
    Sound Projector #20: Full Colour Edition $39.50, Mono Black and White Edition $12.00
    Grow No Moss by Julia Hendrickson $16.00 – Local poet, with screen-printed images done at the local Spudnik Press.
    I’m Not Your Fucking Doctor: Medicine Poems by Dustin C. Pickett $10.00

    MAYHEM, MISCREANTS, MEMOIR & MISCELLANEOUS
    Blood In, Blood Out: Violent Empire of the Aryan Brotherhood by John Lee Brook (Headpress) $19.95
    Steampunk Poe by Zdenko Basic and Manuel Sumberac (and oh yeah, Poe) (Running Press) $18.95 – Every Poe story and poems is fully illustrated with steampunk-inspired art—from 1920s aviation gear to elaborate musical instruments—creating a fresh perspective on his work containing bizarre characters of madmen and mystery.
    Crap I Bought on EBay: 101 Crazy, Bizarre, Seriously Weird, Ridiculously Raunchy Items Exposed by Cary McNeal and Beverly Jenkins (Weinstein) $13.00
    Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey and Peter F. Neumeyer (Pomegranate) $35.00
    Amsterdamned If You Do: An Anthology About Setting ed. by Traci Kim (CCLaP) $20.00
    99 Problems: Essays About Running and Writing by Ben Tanzer (CCLaP) $20.00
    Spiritual Snake Oil: Fads and Fallacies in Pop Culture by Chris Edwards (See Sharp) $11.95

    SEX & SEXY
    Steamlust Stempunk Erotic Romance ed. by Kristina Wright (Cleis) $14.95 – Fetishizing the wardrobe, language, fantasy and rituals of steampunk, editrix extraordinaire Kristina Wright selects erotic stories of shiny brass and crushed velvet; mechanical inventions and romantic conventions; sexual fantasy and kinky fetish.


    Take Me There Trans and Genderqueer Erotica ed. by Tristan Taormino (Cleis) $14.95
    Hurts So Good: Unrestrained Erotica ed. by Alison Tyler (Cleis) $14.95
    Pinups #15 Micka $14.00
    Front #159 $9.99

    OTHER STUFF
    Field Notes Blank Journals $9.95 – Our customers asked us to get these awesome blank books sold in packs of 3. And here they are! Blank, lined and graph styles. Also in other styles like neon colors, balsam fir and Illinois County Fair. They’re movin’ fast!


    We Wish You a Crazy Christmas: 30 Oversized Postcards (Darling & Co.) $9.95 – Never to soon to get in the holiday craze.

  • Happy Birthday To Us!

    We’re 20 years old today! Almost old enough to drink. Definitely old enough to cause some trouble.

    Thanks to Original Quimby’s founder Steven Svymbersky, all the way overseas in Amsterdam, who sent us these flowers with the card that says “Congratulations On 20 Years of Weirdness and Depravity!” We are proud to carry on two decades of mayhem!

    Celebrate with us tonight at our event featuring Rebekah Mercuri reading from her book Weeding the Seeds of Deceit, her book of fiction closely based on her own experiences growing up in a catholic cult. 7pm.

  • Announcements and Weekly Top 10

    Three news pieces.

    Firstly, we are saddnend to hear of the passing of Sparkplug publisher Dylan Williams. Williams had been battling cancer. We send our condolences to his family and friends.

    Congratulations to our own Edie Fake, who won a 2011 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel for his book Gaylord Phoenix.

    Billy McCall (aka Billy Da Bunny) of Proof I Exist zine moved to New Mexico and got involved with the ABQ Zine Fest 9/30-10/2, and as part of the fest, he’s hosting The First Annual ABQ Zine Fest OLYMPICS on 10/1 with events like Speed Stapling, Precision Folding, and Synchronized Zining.  Yes, you read that correctly. So, if you’re in Albuquerque in a few weeks, go and git yer zine on.

    Here are the top 10 bestsellers of last week:

    1. F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel by Dan Sinker and Biz Stone (Simon) $12.00
    2. Tiki Magazine vol 7 #2 $5.99
    3. The Believer #83 Sep 11 $8.00
    4. Wrongful Convictions: Causes, Solutions, and How You Can Get Involved by The Innocence Project $2.50 –  This zine outlines the basic ways wrongful convictions easily happen in the current American justice model, develops solutions and talks to activists about what their approaches are towards changing the system. Clear, informative, hopeful and helpful.
    5. I Dont Understand Farming #6 $.75
    6. I Will Bite You and Other Stories by Joseph Lambert $14.00 – 2011 Ignatz Winner for Outstanding Artist! Weird and toothsome stories of child-planetary interaction, monsterous consumption, ants-in-the-pants urgency and geometric breakdown. Lambert’s drawings have an assured mischieviousness like Steve Weissman’s early Lemon Kids, and these tales operate in a cosmic system that eschews outright snark and didactic symbolism in favor of suprising solutions and original visions. -EF
    7. Chicago Street Art by Joseph J. Depre, Oscar Arriola, etc. $15.00 – Text by Joseph J Depre and photos by Oscar Arriola, Chris Diers, Thomas Fennell IV and Patrick Hershberger. A love letter of sorts to Chicago and its many street artists, photos published here so that when the art gets graffiti blasted they’ve been documented somewhere. With work by such artists as Tiptoe, Artillery, The Viking and more. Traverlers, fuck bringing home a snowglobe from the souvenir stand. Get this book instead.
    8. Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco) $16.00
    9. Exxxtinction: 1st Known Circle Jirk by Sy Loady $3.00
    10. Warmer by Aiden Koch (Sparkplug) $5.00 – Koch’s moody, pencilled mini builds itself out of vaguely nihilist non-events. Pregnant pauses dwell on crumpled clothes and antique light fixtures, limbs and patterns. The structure plays itself long and loose, the slow clues that build narrative poignancy do an equal turn at washing away any meaning so we’re left with the dissolution of an empty visit to an empty day. -EF

  • New Stuff This Week

    ZINES!?
    Show Me The Money #35 $2.50
    Gleaming Armament of Marching Genitalia by Joao Maiopinto and Marcos Farrajota (MMMNNNRRRG) $14.22
    Penny Man Trashed 12 x 12 Screenprint Included by Ben Chlapek $8.00
    Backward Jane #2 Noelle Havens $3.50
    Take That Crap Off Your Wall $3.00

    COMICS! COMIX!
    Nix Comics Quarterly issues #1-#3 (prices vary)
    Upset Cats #1 Zejian Shen $10.00

    GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS!
    Caminhando Com Samuel by Tommi Musturi (MMMNNNRRRG) $28.44
    Malus by Christopher Webster (MMMNNNRRRG) $17.06
    Dimensions #1 $25.00
    Ozma of Oz by Eric Shanower and Slottie Young (Marvel) $29.99

    ART & DESIGN BOOKS!?
    Neuro Trip by Neuro (MMMNNNRRRG) $21.32
    Just My Type a Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield (Gotham) $27.50 – With a forward by Chip Kidd.
    Sacred Skin: Thailands Spirit Tattoos by Tim Vater (Visionary) $32.95

    FICTION!?
    Howl on Trial the Battle for Free Expression by Bill Morgan and Nancy J. Peters (Citylights) $14.95

    MAGAZINES!?
    Fortean Times #279 Oct 11 $11.99
    VMan #23 Fall 11 $5.95
    Boneshaker Magazine #6 $10.00 – This bike mag is one of our topsellers.
    Fifth Estate vol 46 #2 #385 Spr 10 $4.00
    Tattoo Revolution Sep 11 $11.75

    LITERARY JOURNALS, CHAP BOOKS & POETRY!?
    Vain #10 Fall 11 $10.00
    Annalemma #8 $15.00

  • Joe Janes and Friends Read from 50 Plays 10/1

    50 Plays by Joe Janes is the follow-up to the remarkable and insane 365 Sketches of 2010.  

    Joe Janes spent months working with fifty local directors and their chosen casts to write a ten-minute(ish) play for each one.

    A “Best of” presentation of pieces at Donny’s Skybox at Second City in August was hailed by the Chicago Reader as “”silly, bizarre, violent, and provocative” “…the pieces showcase Janes’s willingness to take risks of all kinds.”

    Joe Janes is a teacher, writer, actor, improviser and director in Chicago. He is the Improv Program Director in Columbia College’s Theater Department. At Second City, he teaches all levels of the writing program. He has worked for Second City for over a dozen years and in that time has performed in the national touring company, produced and directed at Second City – Detroit, directed for the touring company and Second City – Las Vegas.  He spent time as the artistic director of ComedySportz-Chicago where he developed their training center curriculum and created BattleProv. As a comedy writer, he wrote for and provided voices for Jellyvision’s You Don’t Know Jack series of CD-ROM trivia games, freelanced for SNL’s Weekend Update and won an Emmy for his work on Cincinnati’s Club 19. He is a founding member of The WNEP Theater Foundation for which he has written and performed for 20 years in such shows as The (Edward) Hopper Project, Metaluna and the Amazing Science of the Mind Revue, The Armageddon Radio Hour and Soiree Dada. He is also the artistic director of Robot vs. Dinosaur and a former company member of the hit show Improvised Shakespeare. Joe began his career as a stand-up comedian where he toured the country for five years opening for such acts as The Monkees, Bill Hicks, Rita Rudner, and Paula Poundstone. You can follow his exploits on his blog biteandsmile.blogspot.com and Twitter and become a fan of 365 Sketches on Facebook.

    Joe Janes can be contacted at jjanes@secondcity.com

     

    Sat, Oct 1st, 7pm