Blog

  • Tao Lin Reads From Richard Yates

    RichardYatesTaoLin

    Richard Yates is a startling change of direction for Lin: his trademark minimalism takes on a much darker edge as he narrates the story of a young man dealing with the consequences of an affair with an underage girl.  But buried within Lin’s work is a more troubling question—what exactly constitutes illicit sex for a generation with no rules?  Tao Lin’s second novel tracks the relationship between writer Haley Joel Osment, a New Yorker in his early twenties, and Dakota Fanning, his 16-year-old lover.  Moving between Fanning’s suburban home and Osment’s Wall Street apartment, the couple increasingly shuns the outside world as they work to navigate the moral ambiguity of their love. But as they grow more obsessive and become more intimately involved, Fanning reveals her increasingly self-destructive personality.  Osment’s own guilt and anger entrap him as they find the relationship—and their lives—hurtling out of control. 

    “Richard Yates is hilarious, menacing, and hugely intelligent. Tao Lin is a Kafka for the iPhone generation. He has that most important gift: it’s impossible to imagine anyone else writing like he does and sounding authentic. Yet he has already spawned a huge school of Lin imitators. As precocious and prolific as he is, every book surpasses the last. Tao Lin may well be the most important writer under thirty working today.”
    —Clancy Martin, author of How to Sell

    For more info: http://www.mhpbooks.com and http://richardyates.info

  • Joe Janes and Friends Read From 365 Sketches

    365 Sketches

    Joe Janes does not believe in writer’s block. To prove the point, he wrote a full comedy sketch a day for a year and posted them live on his blog for everyone to read and comment on. Pretty brave for a teacher at the famed Second City and Columbia College. Many of his best friends tried to talk him out of doing 365 Sketches, but Joe decided to put his butt on the line. The general quality of the scenes were so high and the topic and styles so varied, all 365 sketches were performed at Strawdog Theater in a WNEP production earlier this year over the course of eleven nights with 26 directors and over 175 actors. The book is being lauded for not only being a fun read, but also a primer for comedy writers.

    Joining Joe Janes will be some of Chicago’s finest comedic actors; Kevin Gladish, Chloé Ditzel, Bernie Balbot and Heath Cordts. They will be performing some of the most popular comic monologues from 365 Sketches.

    For more info: http://365sketchesbyjoejanes.blogspot.com

  • Work in Progress Tonight!

    uncleenvelope024Come to Quimby’s tonight at 7pm for Work in Progress!

    If you’re unfamiliar with Work In Progress, it’s our monthly creative and social get-together.  Bring projects you’re working on, and you can get feed back, give feed back to others, or just work in a social atmosphere.  We usually have some snacks too!

    Work In Progress happens at 7pm on the last Wednesday or every month, and is designed to help foster the self-publishing community of Chicago.

  • Weekly Top 10

    1. Scott Pilgrims vol 6 Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni) $11.99
    2. Touch and Go The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine 79-83 by Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson (Bazillion) $29.95
    3. Is It the Future Yet by Corrine Mucha $3.00
    4. Henry and Glenn Forever Perfect Bound Deluxe New Edition (Microcosm) $6.00
    5. Black Carrot #15 Free Sandwich Zinewich by DF $5.00
    6. Debbie’s Story by Kelly Froh $2.00
    7. Doris #27 by Cindy $2.50
    8. Nine Ways to Disappear by Lilli Carre (Little Otsu) $12.95
    9. Meanwhile 3856 Story Possibilities by Jason Shiga (Abrams) $15.95
    10. Acne Paper Sum 10 $15.00

  • Dead Advice

    cemetary

    Do you hope to someday send a message to your loved ones from BEEEEEEYOOOOOOND THE GRAAAAAAAVE? Do you wish that day could be today without the hassle of dying?  Well, here’s a neat little project by Chicagoan Felix Jung we thought our death-obsessed friends might be interested in:

    DEAD ADVICE, a website that acts as a repository for ruminations on life by folks pretending to be dead.  Check it out, either as one hoping to consume faux-posthumous wisdom, or as one wishing to contribute your own ultimate hindsight.

    http://www.deadadvice.com

  • New Stuff This Week

    We start the branding young.

    A Happy Camper

    So yes. We do have many sizes. For more info, click here.

    Zines
    Little Brother #2 $4.00 – Arty little anthology of writing and art. Comes with 2 simple yet compelling postcards. Unless they fall out on our shelves. In which case, you have to buy something else and find these random postcards in them.
    Overtime Hour 14 Route 28 by Mickey Burriss $2.00
    Judas Goat Quarterly #46 Sum 10 $1.50
    Moral Guidance by Leisge $4.00
    Drawing Down the Moon by Dennis Polames $4.00
    Dog Faced #9 by Alice Wynne $1.00
    Its Curtains #3 $2.00
    Reality Mom vol 7 #3 by Corbin Lewars $3.00
    Me and You #1 $1.00
    Succumb To Scum vol 1 #2 $3.00
    Welcome to Bend #2 Jun 10 by Laura Walker $2.00
    Handbook vol 4 #3 2010 $6.00     – The sultry and seductive men between the pages of this sexy zine!

    Comics/Comix/Mini Comics
    Mustaches For Fun and Profit A 24 Hour Comic by BT Livermore $4.00 – So cute! A glossery of illustrated mustaches.
    B Is For Beard also by BT Livermore (Banner Year Press) $20.00 – Sort of like the above, but bigger. Jut like beards to mustaches! And this one was some kind of huge school project. And! ZZ Top is in it!
    Neonomicon #1 by Alan Moore (Boom) $3.99
    CBGB #1 $3.99 – Yes, as in the club.
    Weird Schmeird #0 Conversations in Your Neighborhood – Fun Book Toy Thing Turn Off Your TV by Cecil Ryan Smith $7.00
    Two Eyes of the Beautiful A Grotesque Horror Manga – Based On Umezuo Kazuos Blood Baptism by Cecil Ryan Smith $5.00
    Double by Sarah Welch $7.00
    Gutter by Sarah Welch $7.00
    Cheapest Sobs by Kelly Froh $1.00
    Debbies Story by Kelly Froh $2.00
    Eyeball Comix #1: First Issue Horror Special     $5.00 – with Paul Arserott, Rob Amos, Barry Cook and more.

    Graphic Novels/Trade Paperbacks
    Light of Thy Countenance by Alan Moore and others (Avatar) $7.99
    Hypothetical Lizard TPB by Alan Moore and others (Avatar) $14.99
    Cats Are Weird and More Observations: A Cat Book by Jeffrey Brown (Quirk) $12.95 – Makes a nice companion book to his other cat-related material.
    Chew vol 1 TPB Tasters Choice by var. (Image) $9.99
    Tekkon Kinkreet Black and White by Taiyo Matsumoto (Viz) $29.95
    RASL Pocket Book 1 by Jeff Smith (Cartoon) $17.95
    The Troll King by Kolbeinn Karlsson (Top Shelf) $14.95 – Part of this summer’s comics Swedish invasion!
    Mome vol 19 Sum 10 (Fantagraphics) $14.99 – This issue features The Partridge in the Pear Tree (Shaun Patridge), Josh Simmons, Olivier Schrauwen, Gilbert Hernandez, D.J. Bryant, Tim Lane, Conor O’Keefe, Robert Goodin, and T. Edward Bak.
    Dar vols 1 and 2 A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary by Erika Moen $10.00 and $15.00 respectively – Deeply personal story about life, the things we do, the mistakes and triumphs that we have in our daily lives, the things we don’t do for whatever reason.
    Moomin vol 5 by Tove Jansson (D+Q) $19.95 – Not a hippo!

    DIY, How-to & Food And Drugs
    Creative Inc: The Ultimate Guide to Running A Successful Freelance Business by var. (Chronicle) $16.95
    Home Economics: Vintage Advice and Practical Science for the 21st Century Household by Jennifer McKnight-Trontz (Quirk) $14.95 – If you weren’t paying attention in junior high when they forced you to take home ec.
    Fishers of Men: The Gospel of An Ayahuasca Vision Quest by Adam Elenbaas (Tarcher) $24.95
    Little Book of Shocking Food Facts by var. (Fiell) $14.95

    Art Books
    Outermost: The Art and Life of Jack Gaughan by Luis Ortiz (Nonstop Press) $39.95 – Science fiction and fantasy collide in this Hugo Award winner’s illustrations.
    Pens Are My Friends by Jon Burgerman (IDN) $55.00 -Though known for his colourful work in drawing and print, animation and toy design, Jon Burgerman retains a British sense of self-deprecation, humour and anxiety in his aesthetic. He regularly exhibits and publishes in venues around the globe, while making sure his pop-influenced characters find their way onto bags, books, mobile phones, lunch boxes, and Frisbees, to name a few. The book includes a poster, mini-sketch book and DVD and packed with animated goodies, documentary stuff and things to beautify your computer. And um, a sick bag.
    Donald Baechler & Wes Lang: Skulls and Shit (Ajax Press) $39.95 – In the Spring of 2006, the influential Stockholm gallery and social space, Loyal, exhibited drawings, collages and paintings by the emerging New York City painter Wes Lang alongside works by his similarly skeletally-obsessed mentor and friend, Donald Baechler. The two artists have been friends since the early 1990s, and there are many overlaps, echoes and rhymes in their work. Skulls and Shit collects reproductions from the exhibition, where every piece featured a skull or skeleton, photo documentation and edited transcripts from free-wheeling conversations between the artists and their gallerists/publishers, as well as revealing anecdotal writings about the artists’ everyday lives by the Swedish screenwriter and cinematographer, Fredrik Wenzel. Also includes documentation Lang giving Baechler his first tattoo.
    What Do You Love IDN 15th Anniversary Edition $59.95
    Invisible Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes by Trevor Paglen (Aperture)$49.95 – With an Essay By Rebecca Solnit. First photographic monograph for this guy who explores the secret activities of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies—the ‘black world’—for the last eight years, publishing, speaking, and making astonishing photographs.
    Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s by Rian Hughes (Fiell) $45.00
    Custom Lettering of the 60s and 70s by Rian Hughes(Fiell) $45.00 – If only it came with a CD so you could use them. They’re so cool.
    Know Your Rodent by Ziggy Hanaor and Thibaud Herem (Cicada) $13.99 – Strangely compelling and cool, we bet even for someone who is freaked out by rodents.
    Awdrey Gore Legacy by Edward Gorey (Pomegranate) $14.95
    Utter Zoo by Edward Gorey (Pomegranate) $14.95

    Fiction/Poetry Books
    Anatomy of a Cratedigger chap book by Eric Evans $5.00
    Contention: A Sara Grey Tale by Aaron Brownell $20.95

    Steampunk/Speculative Fiction
    Steampunk Prime: A Vintage Steampunk Reader by Mike Ashley (Nonstop) $15.95
    Grandville: A Detective Inspector Lebrock of Scotland Yard Scientific Romance by Brian Talbot (Dark Horse) $17.95

    Outer Limits/Mayhem Books
    Suburban Knights: A Return to the Middle Ages by EF Kitchen (PowerHouse) $35.00 – Yes, these folks really get into dressing up like that. This book is more artsy tribute than mockery. With telling quotes. Chain mail your penpals about it while wearing chainmail.

    Magazines/Literary Journals
    Juxtapoz #115 Aug 10 $5.99
    Bust Aug Sept 10 $4.99
    In These Times Aug 10 $3.50
    Yeti #9 $11.95 – New issue of this indie music journal.
    Hi Fructose #16 $6.95
    Razorcake #57 $4.00
    Tape Op #78 $4.95
    Ready Made #48 Aug Sep 10 $4.99
    Nexus vol 17 #3     $5.95
    Maximumrocknroll #327 Aug 10 $4.00
    Harpers Magazine Aug 10 $6.99
    Sovereign #14 Aug 10 $3.95
    Make vol 23 $14.99
    Skunk vol 6 #3 $5.99
    Girls and Corpses #4 Sum 10 $8.99
    Urban Garden #11 Jul Aug 10 $5.95
    Radical Philosophy #162 $13.00
    Front #143 Jul 10 $9.99
    Eye Spy #68 $6.50
    Dissent Sum 10 $10.00
    Race & Class vol 52 #1 $18.00
    Granta #111 Sum 10 Going Back $16.99
    Golden Handcuffs Review vol 1 #13 $9.95
    IdN vol 17 #3 $17.50
    IDN Extra 03 Society6 $25.00
    ASR #54 Sum 10 Anarcho Syndicalist Review $5.00
    Tattoo Energy #65 $6.99
    Ugly Things #30 $8.95
    Monster Children #27 $9.00
    Shindig vol 2 #17 Jul Aug 10 $9.99
    Eyemazing 2010 #2 $19.99
    Creative Review Jul 10 $14.99
    True Crime Summer Special 10 $10.99
    Upping The Anti vol 10 $10.00

    Music Books
    Arcana V Music Magic and Mysticism, edited by John Zorn (Hips Road)$39.95 – This special edition of John Zorn’s much acclaimed Arcana series focuses on the magical aspects of the act of making music, illuminating the sympathies between music and the esoteric tradition with the help of today’s finest experimental musicians and occultists. Among these are William Breeze, Gavin Bryars, Steve Coleman, Alvin Curran, Frank Denyer, Jeremy Folgel, Fred Frith, Sharon Gannon, Peter Garland, Genesis P-Orridge, Terry Riley, Peter Lamborn Wilson and more.
    Trapped in a Scene UK Hardcore 1985-1989: Frontline Reports From the Hardcore Punk Underground by Ian Glasper (Cherry Red) $24.95
    Sonic Youth Sensational Fix (Koning) $85.00 – This comprehensive 784-page volume includes two 7-inch records with unpublished songs by each member, and ephemera that includes album covers, band portraits and documentary photos, many of which have never been published before.

    Also!
    Beautiful Losers DVD Make Something From Nothing – The documentary that told the story of California street/lowbrow art culture as it was remembered by the artists and gallery owner that experienced it. Starring: Harmony Korine, Mike Mills, Ed Templeton, Aaron Rose, Margaret Kilgallen (in footage from before she passed away), Barry McGee, Thomas Campbell, Cheryl Dunn, Shepard Fairey, Jo Jackson, Chris Johanson, Geoff McFetridge, Stephen Powers & Deanna Templeton. $29.99
    Everything Is Terrible 2 Tokyo Drift DVD $20.00 – Oh snap! New one from those found footage websiteers of http://www.everythingisterrible.com/. Don’t miss them on their Quest For the Magick Crystal tour, coming to a theater near you this summer.
    Sexy Book of Sexy Sex by var. (Chronicle) $24.95
    Book of Unnecessary Quotation Marks: A Celebration of Creative Punctuation by Bethany Keeley (Chronicle) $14.95 – “Insert” “a” “joke” “here.”
    Night of the Living Trekkies by var. (Quirk) $14.95 – The zombie mash-up craze continues.

    New to our website this week!:

    For a complete list of any new item available at quimbys.com for the week of August 17th-24th, click here.

    But here are just a few!:

    Breathers Book 5 by Justin Madson $6.00

    Brilliant Mistake #1 by Carrie $1.00

    Core of Caligula Episodes 1 through 4 by CF (Picturebox) $2.00

    Dan Gleasons Big Book of Short Stories and Dogs by Dan Gleason $2.00

    Ganzfeld #7 ed. by Ben Jones and Dan Nadel (Picturebox) $30.00

  • Author Kyle Smith Reads from His New Novel 85A

    85A

    Kyle Smith will read from his Chicago-set coming-of-age novel out this summer from Bascom Hill Publishing Group. Set in late 1980s Chicago, 85A follows its half Johnny Rotten, half Holden Caulfield antihero, Seamus O’Grady, through a watershed day in his adolescent life. As a gay teen from a conservative Catholic home—in one of the most racist neighborhoods of a notoriously segregated city—Seamus begins to seek his niche in 1980s Chicago’s multicultural punk and bohemian circles.

    Originally from Chicago, Smith infuses 85A with the rich detail of his own experiences with the Chicago punk scene as his protagonist struggles with universal themes of identity, rebellion and belonging. Today, Smith lives in Brooklyn, New York and regularly contributes to Edge, The Brooklyn Rail, and WhiteHot Magazine.

    “Like Holden [Caulfield], Seamus serves as an important reminder of the universal urge to self-define in a world hostile to anyone who dares to be different.” – Edge on the Net

    “[Seamus’] treatment at the hands of his family and his teachers is heart-wrenching.” – Booklist

    For more information, visit: http://85anovel.com/events.htm

  • Aaron Renier Signs THE UNSINKABLE WALKER BEAN

    walkerbeanweb

    Adventure on the high seas!  A cursed skull!  Fearsome pirates!  Wicked sea-witches!  And almost certain peril!    Boy inventor Walker Bean and his scruffy new friends must summon their courage to face the direst scourges of the sea in this all-new graphic novel by Aaron Renier.  For this signing, Quimby’s presents a unique event with Aaron, with a signing followed by piratical interactive drawing activities.

    “So beautiful are the drawings that I can smell the sea salt and feel the spray as giant creatures of the deep draw near the ocean’s surface.  Outrageous and wonderful!” – Jeff Smith, creator of Bone

    “Aaron’s work makes me feel ten years old again.  He makes me want to whip up a root beer float, climb into a pirate-ship-playhouse, slap on a record of sea chanteys and read Walker Bean over and over.  The guys’a bit of a mad genius.” – Lane Smith, illustrator of The Stinky Cheese Man

    “The Unsinkable Walker Bean is gorgeous.  Jump feet first into this rip-roaring, wild-eyed, high-sea adventure story.  Join up with a young, pudgy, bespectacled hero, a brave powder monkey, a terrifying girl with the best red pigtails since Pippi Longstocking, and two seriously revolting sea witches.  Be prepared.  You’re going to love it.”  — Brian Selznick, creator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret

    For more info: http://aaronrenier.com/

  • Zines On Toast Show at Quimby's

    RadIllustrRumLSSR2ZineOnToast1

    An evening of entertainment and information with zine writers from the UK (Rumlad, Last Hours, Hey Monkey Riot and Morgenmuffel) on tour with Portland’s Alex Wrekk (Brainscan zine and Stolen Sharpie Revolution). Join them for accounts of UK zine culture including stories from Alex’s trip to the UK last year, plus tales of the London zine symposium, vegan mass catering, UK social centres, revolution, punk rock, anarchy and more! For more info: http://zinesontoast.org

    Alex Wrekk “Author of the popular how-to guide of zine-making, Stolen Sharpie Revolution, over fifteen years of zine-making under her belt, and the most intimate details of her life photocopied, stapled, and mailed around the world, this is a woman committed to taking her experiences in life and putting them on display in a way that is not for ratings or profit. Rather, she does it for the love of writing, creating, and sharing.” (Feminist Review) www.smallworldbuttons.com

    Isy Morgenmuffel “For the past ten years Morgenmuffel comic zine has been documenting the world that Isy inhabits. A world of riots in the city of London, cooking for hundreds of punks, starting housing co-ops, local social centres, or simply hanging out with friends and drinking. Through it all Isy’s love of life, and humour, is at the heart of the stories.” (Last Hours)  www.morgenmuffel.co.uk

    Edd Baldry, a radical illustrator and editor of Last Hours, and creator of Hey Monkey Riot: “Edd’s perhaps one of the few people drawing autobio comics who actually does interesting stuff, … with an angle on activism which is celebratory rather than polemical, yet also unafraid to point out absurdities.” (Lucid Frenzy) www.eddbaldry.co.uk

    Steve Larder “Rum Lad is part comic, part scene report, part diary but all with a subtle positivity that works to remind you that being a punk is fucking awesome.” (Pete Willis)  www.stevelarder.co.uk

    Tom Fiction and Natalie of Last Hours magazine and resource for creative resistance, and the London Zine Symposium, an annual event now in its 6th year.  www.lasthours.org.uk

  • Weekly Top 10 Bestsellers

    1. Touch and Go The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine 79-83 ed. by Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson (Bazillion Points) $29.95 – Touch and Go binds together all 22 issues and peppers it with essays a bit of commentary and notation. Tesco Vee and Steve Miller were at Quimby’s this past weekend signing copies of this collected edition. Tesco’s charmingly tattooed son came, and while here Tesco fielded a phone call from his daughter who had just in a fist fight. Ah, the next generation makes itself known.

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    2. Pizza Time by Joe Vermilyea (Koyama Press) $5.00 – This amazing atomic ninja turtle meltdown with extra cheese includes a breakdown of Krang’s perverse relationship with his android body and putty portraits of Bebop and Rocksteady. Turdle Power! -EF

    3. Al Burian Goes To Hell by Al Burian (Migraine) $6.00 – We just learned that this periodical is actually an unauthorized bootleg of one of Al’s college assignments from many years ago and have opted not to sell it anymore. For more information, see Al’s blog.

    4. Role Models by John Waters (FSG) $25.00 – Essays on admiration from my favorite catty bachelor. John Waters, I love you. -EF

    5. Why Be Something That You’re Not Detroit Hardcore 1979 to 1985 by Tony Rettman (Revelation) $16.00 – chronicles the first wave of Detroit hardcore from its origins in the late seventies to its demise in the mid-eighties.

    6. Tales Designed to Thrizzle #6 by Michael Kupperman (Fantagraphics) $4.95

    7. Stories vol 3: Catch Me If You Can by Martin Cendreda $3.00 – Eloquently drawn Giving-Tree-esque twists and turns of children growing and parents giving. -EF
    8. The First Line vol 12 #2 $3.00

    9. Core of Caligula Episodes 1 through 4 by CF (Picturebox)$2.00 – Cinematically paced and mostly outside the Darger-ian territories of Powr Mastrs, CF’s Core of Caligula slips in and out keeping its tape player close and its psychic mis-steps closer.-EF

    10. Limbs of the Megalith by Eamon Espey (Sparkplug)$2.00 – Fraught focus on the myth-adventures of humanity and its xenophobic whims- Espey’s packed pages time travel from the city to the country, the beast to the chair, death to the rabbit hole and back again with a fluid language of modern hyroglyphics. -EF