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Join Josh Schollmeyer and
The Randee Players for the release of Randee II: The Legend of Randee?s Gold
Saturday, January 15th, 7:00 PM
FREE
 
After 15 months in prison for breaking and entering, Josh Schollmeyer and the Randee Players make their triumphant return to Quimby’s with the second issue of their awardless satire magazine Randee–full title: Randee II: The Legend of Randee’s Gold. Come out and enjoy the magazine NO ONE in America is talking about.
 
Along with reading and performing passages from Randee II: The Legend of Randee’s Gold. The Authors will–if in fact anyone actually wants them to–sign issues as well.
 
For more info check out www.randee-online.com.
 

Tony Fitzpatrick signsThe Wonder: Portraits of a Remembered CityFriday, January 14th, 7:00 PM
FREE
 
The Wonder: Portraits of a Remembered City, a collection of new works by Chicago artist, writer and raconteur Tony Fitzpatrick. Stories of his city and its denizens permeate Fitzpatrick?s art, already in the collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The National Museum of American Art in Washington D.C., the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In his recent work, Fitzpatrick spins magical tales from his own history and that of his beloved city via drawing-collages, vivid combinations of drawing, text and applied elements like matchbooks, postcards, gambling slips and ballgame stubs. In this gorgeous book, Fitzpatrick introduces the first set of drawing-collages as chapters in an ongoing project that is both personal diary and chronicle of Chicago: \”This is a city of bars, broads, gambling and political shenanigans. It is also a city of grace, as magical, in its own way, as Paris or Bombay. It is gypsy music and flamenco dancers and Celtic poetry. You just have to keep your eyes open.\”
 
Tony Fitzpatrick will be signing copies of his book at this event.

The 2nd Hand celebratesthe release of LE2EMEMAINThursday, December 16th, 7:30 PM
 
THIS EVENT celebrates the release of LE2EMEMAIN, the f-r-e-e-d-o-m (for one dare not speak the word aloud) issue and installment 15 in THE2NDHAND\’s broadsheet series. Reading for the event are Marc Baez, Emerson Dameron, Susannah Felts and Todd Dills. Baez will red from his contributions to LE2EMEMAIN, a catalog of LOVE LETTERS FOR SALE. The entire performance will end with a dramatic rendition of Baez’s “Talking to Strangers,” a series of street monologues in prose form featured in the best-of THE2NDHAND anthology ALL HANDS ON.
 
Marc Baez is a frequent contributor to THE2NDHAND; his work is featured in our brand-new issue 15, LE2EMEMAIN, as well as the recently released best-of anthology ALL HANDS ON.
 
Emerson Dameron was born and reared in Western North Carolina. Sometimes he yearns, sometimes he publishes the zine Wherewithal. His work appears in the Whirligig, Slush Pile, A Shout in the Street and various other scrappy organs, including THE2NDHAND. He enjoys music, sex, food and fun.
 
Susannah Felts’s “Forecast Poems” series was recently part of the Code Is Implement faculty/grad show at SAIC’s 1926 Exhibition space but debuted at THE2NDHAND.com. Felts is a instructor in writing at the school, and her work has been featured in numerous magazines.
 
Todd Dills is the founding editor and publisher of THE2NDHAND. He lives in Chicago.
 

Comic SigningAnders Nilsen author of Dogs & Water, Big Questionsand Kevin Huizengaauthor of Or Else#1, SupermonsterSaturday December 11th 4PM
 
Join comics authors Kevin Huizenga and Anders Nilsen as they sign their new comic books published by Drawn & Quarterly
 
Kevin Huizenga was born in 1977 in Harvey, IL and spent most of his childhood in South Holland, IL, near Chicago. He began drawing comics in high school, xeroxing his first issue (with friends) at the neighborhood Jewel Osco in 1993. In 2001 the Comics Journal named him “Minimalism Cartoonist of the Year” and called #14 of his Supermonster mini-comic series “one of the best comics of any kind released in 2001.” In 2001 he also started the Catastrophe Shop http://www.usscatastrophe.com, an online shop for self-published mini-comics Kevin won an Ignatz for his D+Q story GLENN GANES In the Drawn & Quarterly Showcase #1. His new comic Or Else is the first series Drawn & Quartley have launched by a new cartoonist since OPTIC NERVE.
 
Anders Nilsen was born in rural Northern New Hampshire in 1973 and grew up on a steady diet of comics and stories, from Tintin and the X-Men to Raw and Weirdo. He attended college at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, studying art and doing political work followed by a stint in graduate school at the Art Institute of Chicago. After college a group of paintings he did developed into an artists book called The Ballad of the Two Headed Boy. The graphic nature of this book moved him toward comics. While Anders still makes other kinds of work, it’s the comics that seem to have a life of their own, receiving two Ignatz nominations for Big Questions #4 in 2002 as well as a Xeric and several grants from the City of Chicago to help keep him making them. Nielsen is currently working on finishing Big Questions as well as a couple of further collections of strips from his sketchbooks. Dogs and Water is his new comic published by Drawn and Quarterly. Check: www.theholyconsumption.com
 

Lost in the Grooves eventwith David Smay
Russ Forster, Jake Austen, James Porter, Gene Booth & Erin McKeanSaturday, December 4th, 7:30 PM
 
LOST IN THE GROOVES BOOK RELEASE PARTY!
Featuring: David Smay (Scram Magazine), Russ Forster (8-Track Mind), Jake Austen (Roctober), James Porter (Roctober), Gene Booth (Mantis), Erin McKean (Verbivore)
 
David Smay, the co-editor of the new book Lost in the Grooves – Scram’s Capricious Guide to Music You Missed (Routledge) joins the Chicago writers who contributed to this unique tome for an evening of music, video, reading, puppetry and free bubblegum. In celebration of this book, which acknowledges unjustly obscure recordings by famed and unknown musicians, rare videos by artists in the book (including David Alan Coe, the Chipmunks, Tony Joe White and the Who) will be screened. This will be followed by an Inside the Actor?s Studio-style interview of Mr. Smay by Ratso, the puppet host of local cable-access show Chic-A-Go-Go. Concluding the evening will be the writers reading their entries, followed by their own musical interpretations of their subject?s songs. Refreshments will include free bubblegum, recognizing Mr. Smay?s previous book on bubblegum music.
 
Lost in the Grooves – Scram’s Capricious Guide to Music You Missed (edited by Kim Cooper and David Smay with illustrations by Tom Neely) is required reading for all vinyl junkies and lovers of the obscure, wild, and weird. Contributors include Richard Meltzer, Rick Moody, Jim O?Rourke, Kelly Kuvo, Peter Bagge and the late Greg Shaw. Lost in the Grooves is a fascinating guide to the back alleys off the pop-music super highway, covering such gems as Peter Laughner’s “Take the Guitar Player for A Ride,” John Trubee’s “The Communists Are Coming to Kill Us,” Chad & Jeremy’s “Of Cabbages and King,” John Phillips’s “Wolf King of L.A.,” Swamp Dogg’s “Total Destruction to Your Mind,” Don Cole’s “The Outer Limits of Twang,” and Michel Magne’s “Moshe Mouse Crucifiction.” Pop music history is full of little-known musicians, whose work stands defiantly alone, too quirky, distinctive, or demented to appeal to a mass audience. This book explores the nooks and crannies of the pop-music world to unearth lost gems from should-have-been major artists (Nico, Judee Sill), lesser works by established icons (Marvin Gaye’s post-divorce kissoff album, “Here My Dear”; Prince’s post-Warner Bros. work of the’90s), or bands that simply don’t fit into neat categories (the Only Ones, Roky Erickson’s Aliens). The bands are divided into thematic sections, including bubblegum; folk-psych individualists; pop vocal bizarre; punk/new wave; outsider artists; obscurities from the stars; lo-fi/garage rock; roots Americana; and kiddie music. This book will delight any jukebox junkie or pop culture enthusiast.
 
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Kim Cooper and David Smay are founders/coeditors of the fanzine, Scram, which is devoted to pop music obscurities. Scram was an editor’s choice in Factsheet 5 for “unusually great writing” and cited by LA Weekly as a best-of-LA publication. They are coeditors of Bubblegum Music Is the Naked Truth: The Dark History of Prepubescent Pop from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears.
 
Author Tidbits:?!
 
RUSS FORSTER has been involved in unjustly obscure music scenes since the mid-1980s, when he shocked audiences with his Hershey-syrup-branding band FUDGETUNNEL and put out the first Screeching Weasel LP on a tiny record label called UNDERDOG RECORDS. In the 1990s he made two music-related feature-length documentaries: So Wrong They?re Right and Tributary. His rantings and ravings have appeared in zines like Roctober, 8-Track Mind, Go Metric and Scram
 
Jake Austen edits Roctober; the journal of popular music?s dynamic obscurities, and (with wife Jacqueline) produces the children’s dance show Chic-A-Go-Go. His work has appeared in The Cartoon Music Book, Playboy, The Spice Girls Comicbook and Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth. His books include A Friendly Game of Poker and a forthcoming idiosyncratic history of rock on television.
 
Erin McKean is the Editor in Chief of US Dictionaries for Oxford University Press and the editor of the only magazine for word geeks, VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly. She is the author of Weird and Wonderful Words and More Weird and Wonderful Words. She lives in Chicago and cannot remember life before the iPod.

Caveman Robot live for the release of the new
Caveman Robot Gigantic Mega-AnnualSaturday, November 20, 4:00pmFREE
 
Caveman Robot-A grooming-challenged, 100 thousand year old, bipedal ape-machine-man that roams the mountain regions of North America. Some have called it The original Clockwork Primitive. Most know it as Caveman Robot. Come meet Britton Walters, and Shoshanna Weinberger – two of the latest comic\’s creators.
 
This will be a Book signing for the 96 page Caveman Robot Gigantic Mega-Annual Graphic Novel – by Britton Walters, Jason Robert Bell, Shoshanna Weinberger, and Joe Infurnari. With your Chance to meet and get your picture taken with the 7 foot tall Real Live Caveman Robot himself also there will be chances for you to win new Caveman Robot Dolls and other exciting prizes.
 
Check out: www.tetragrammatron.com/cavemanrobot.html
 

P. S. Mueller signs
Your Belief System is Shot
Sunday November 28th 4PM
 
“P.S. Mueller is the cartoonist America trusts.” Carol Kolb, Editor, The Onion
 
Cartoonist and radio personality P. S. (Pete) Mueller has just released a new collection of cartoons and short stories, Your Belief System Is Shot: Cartoons and Stuff.
 
A premiere chronicler of these strange times, Mueller is a familiar contributor to The New Yorker, Field & Stream, Reader’s Digest, The Chicago Reader and many other books and publications.
His new collection of cartoons and short stories takes on toasters, hell, embryos, tax law, peanut butter and an unusual array of artifacts and characters lurking in American culture. In addition to being a cartoonist, Mueller writes, co-produces and anchors, as the voice of Doyle Redland, the Onion Radio News, which is syndicated nationally by the American Comedy Network. Your Belief System Is Shot is his fourth book. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife, artist Deb Gottschalk.
 
He will discuss and sign copies of his book for the event
 

Mark Reed reads fromSomething Different!!!Wednesday, November 17th, 7:00 PMFREE
 
In SOMETHING DIFFERENT!!! by Mark Reed, a bizarre psychotic strangler brutally murders one of the Cormier family housemaids in Scotland. Then two of the Cormiers’ devious housemaids become international celebrities after granting sensational interviews to the press. But who is this strangler who decapitates young men and women in Scotland? And can Justin Cormier possibly replace his fraternity brother Jeff Cleghorn as the chief White House intern? GRAPHIC SEX AND VIOLENCE–ENORMOUS RICHES AND FAME!!! In this neo-Classical struggle between good and evil, depraved and sadistic murders conflict with the comparatively normal lives of seemingly innocent characters, such as the five-year-old Mary Cormier…
The American President as you’ve never seen him before; Domestic servants as you’ve never seen them before! These are just some of the shocking elements of this murder mystery
 
Our rather eccentric author Mark Reed is British to the backbone! Holding two Master’s Degrees from the University of Southern California, he has comprehensive real world experience in California municipal government executive management and administration.
 

Saturday, November 27, 11:00 AM
MEGA HUGE BACKSTOCK ZINE BLOW-OUT
Oh my god, almost 10-13 years worth of vintage rare and old school zines go on sale today from the Zine Guide archives. Most of them will be priced at $1 to $2, so complete your collection or just come get some great holiday suprises. You are guaranteed to FREAK OUT. These zines will be out for sale for the next month or so, but we suspect the good stuff will disappear on the 27th. So wake up early and join in the hunt

At 8:00PM on December the 17th join the Holy Consumption for Win Loose or Draw
 
The Holy Consumption consists of:
 
Jeffrey Brown, author of Clumsy, Unlikely, and the recently released Bighead. His work has also been featured in McSweeney\’s no.13, Drawn and Quarterly Showcase no.2, Blood Orange, and Kramers Ergot 4.
 
John Hankiewicz, creator of the series Tepid, and winner of the Xeric Grant for Self-Publishing. John?s work has also appeared in Arthur, Blood Orange, The Chicago Reader, and Kramers Ergot 4.
 
Paul Hornschemeier, creator of the series Forlorn Funnies and Sequential, as well as the graphic novel Mother, Come Home. Paul\’s work has also appeared in Michael Chabon\’s Escapist series, The Chicago Reader, Project:Telstar, and Autobiographix.
 
Anders Nilsen, author of the recently released Dogs and Water from Drawn and Quarterly, as well as the series Big Questions and the xeric grant winning Ballad of The Two Headed Boy. Anders work has also appeared in Blood Orange, Kramers Ergot 4, and The Chicago Reader.
 
The Holy Consumption will be marking its two year anniversary with the second ever (simultaneous) appearance of its four members and with a game of Win, Lose, or Draw. The Holy Consumption will play the now defunct television show with audience members, with Anders, Jeffrey, Paul, and John doing the drawing, and prizes going to the winning team. Afterwards the four creators will sign books.