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  • New Stuff This Week

     

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    Zines

    Rate of Decay #11-#12 $4

    zines by Mita Saldana:
    On Life Death and Memory Fall 2024 $5
    Raindrops #2 & #3 $3 each

    Holding Hands $5

    The Tricksters Abreast Tales vol 4 Preview Packet, Chapter 10.A by Miss C. $3.25

    Violent Treatment #1 by Hugo Reyes and Eli Enis $5

    Eavesdropping In the East Village, NYC #1 $3.50

    Mini-Comics

    Treat Yourself to a Blind Date with a Comic Book $16.66

    Terry and Dory #1 by Odin Cabal $7

    Graphic Novels

    Aya – Face the Music by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie (Drawn and Quarterly) $24.95

    Sexopatia by Marcos Trindade (Chili Con Carne) $16

    Lit Journals

    Moss Piglet Feb 2025 Nursery Rhymes and Wrongs $15

    Ground Is Uneven #3 Whisper My Love Your Social Security Number $21

    Magazines

    Border Crossings #166 $15

  • Offsite – Zine Club Chicago on Marz: Chicago-Style Traditions, Feb. 27th!

    Zine Club Chicago on Marz: Chicago-Style Traditions Zinemaking Hangout
    Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave. in Logan Square/Bucktown
    7 – 9 p.m. Thursday, February 27, 2025
    Free!

    This month, Zine Club Chicago is paying tribute to the distinctive ways our city loves to celebrate with a free zinemaking hangout in collaboration with our friends at Life on Marz Community Club! Y’all are invited to help create a group zine on the theme Chicago-Style Traditions.

    This month’s theme is inspired by one of our favorite local holidays, Paczki Day, which Marz Brewing commemorates with the annual release of their Paczki Stout. This unique seasonal beer will be available during our event!

    Please join us for Zine Club Chicago on Marz: Chicago-Style Traditions Zinemaking Hangout, 7-9 p.m. Thursday, February 27 at Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave. in Logan Square/Bucktown. Free!

    We’ll provide all the zinemaking supplies! Just bring your creativity. Life on Marz Community Club, our favorite locally owned taproom and café space, offers awesome alcoholic, CBD, and non-alcoholic beverages from Marz Brewery and more, plus some very fun snacks, for purchase. The taproom also will be holding a DJ night that evening, and we encourage y’all to stick around for an awesome selection of music spun by Rent Control Records!

    Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our visuals and created our logo.

    Facebook event is here. More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago

    Image description: A flyer featuring paczki on a plate and this text: “Zine Club Chicago on Marz: Chicago-Style Traditions; 7-9 p.m. Thursday, February 27; Life on Marz Community Club, 1950 N. Western Ave; Free!; Info at quimbys.com”

  • Zine Club Chicago Online: Show Us Your Stacks, Feb. 18th!

     

    A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with the image of books and zines stacked in a wicker basket, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Show Us Your Stacks; Online! Free! Zoom info on quimbys.com; 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, February 18, 2025”

    Zine Club Chicago Online: Show Us Your Stacks
    7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, February 18, 2025
    Online! Free!
    On Zoom, RSVP details below

    Whenever self-publishing fanatics gather, one question always seems to come up: How do you organize your zines?  Whether you’re a meticulous cataloguer, a creator of haphazard piles, or something in between, we want to know about the ways you arrange, display, and categorize your personal collection.

    Get your home stash in order (or leave it messy), BYOS(tacks + Snax) and join us on Zoom for Zine Club Chicago Online: Show Us Your Stacks at 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, February 18, 2025!

    ** RSVP required ** We want to make sure that our online Zine Club Chicago events are a safe space, so we won’t be releasing the Zoom link publicly. If you’d like to attend, please email zineclubchicago@gmail.com to RSVP by 9 p.m. CT Monday, February 17 (the evening before our event). We’ll email you the Zoom link by 5 p.m. CT on Tuesday, February 18.

    Zine newbies and longtime enthusiasts alike are always welcome at Zine Club Chicago. This free event series is produced by Cynthia E. Hanifin and sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Anna Jo Beck designs our monthly flyers, created our logo, and made our Zine Club Chicago Shout-Outs site, where folks can peruse and recommend zines we’ve discussed at our events.

    Facebook event is here. More info on the Zine Club Chicago social media channels: @zineclubchicago

    Image description: A red-and-blue infographic flyer, with the image of books and zines stacked in a wicker basket, and text that reads: “Zine Club Chicago: Show Us Your Stacks; Online! Free! Zoom info on quimbys.com; 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday, February 18, 2025”

  • New Stuff This Week

     

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    Zines

    A Fat Chick’s Take on New Years Resolutions by Jamie Kadas (Curvy Girl Comics) $10

    Test Patterns #2 by Lizzie Cooper $10

    Collected Variations $20

    Rubber Ducky Portraits by Marxalot $11

    Cowgirl $15

    Zines by Cullen Parr $3.50 each: Stories We Tell, Tiny World

    Questions and Answers by Dave Hankins & friends $5

    Thirteen Facts $2 each: #20 Sister Rosetta Tharpe, #21 Nosferatu, #22 Boris Karloff

    Zines Can Be About Anything $2

    Urban Guerrilla #28 Winter by Jay Unidos $10

    The Human Experiment by Riley Brady $12

    Comics

    Fizzle #5 by Whit Taylor (Radiator Comics) $8

    Comics by Zaponator: Ego Trip May 2024 $2.50 + Fun Times Comix #4 Jan 2025 $5

    Queer Ecology Pigeons by S. Maloney $10

    People Feelings by Data $4

    Every Plant in My Room 2nd Edition by Sarah Leslie McNeil (Room Press) $4

    Graphic Novels

    Why Don’t You Love Me? by Paul B. Rainey (Drawn & Quarterly) $22.95

    Museum of Degenerates: Portraits of the American Grotesque by Eli Valley (OR Books) $44.95

    Politics & Revolution Books

    Tsunami: Women’s Voices from Mexico by Heather Cleary & friends (Feminist Press) $25.95

    The Young Person’s Illustrated Guide to American Fascism by Sue Coe with Stephen F. Eisenman (OR Books) $22.95

    Revolution In These Times: Black Panther Party Veteran Dhoruba Bin Wahad on Antifascism, Black Liberation, and a Culture of Resistance by Dhoruba Bin Wahad & friends (Common Notions) $20

    Music & Film Books

    Cold Glitter: The Untold Story of Canadian Glam by Robert Dayton (Feral House) $39.95

    Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn: A Walk On The Wild Side With Andy Warhol’s Most Fabulous Superstar by Jeff Copeland (Feral House) $22.95

    PONK! by Marcus Clayton (Nightboat Books) $19.95

    Poetry

    Pictosyntax by Chris Carlozo $7.50

    The Technicolor Sycamore 10000 Afternoon Family Earth Band Revue by Ryan Skrabalak $15

    Magazines & Newspapers

    The Internationalist #74 $1

    Tape Op #165 $5.99

    Lit Journals

    From Blue Cubicle Press: The Last Line #10 $3, The First Line vol 26 #4 $6

  • Recommended Reading: Vibrant Voices on the Page

    A pile of books and zines that tell personal stories, available at Quimby’s Bookstore in Chicago.

    The world is a flaming mess right now. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, I’m right there with you. Whenever I’m struggling, I know that I can find respite in personal narratives. Reading about another person’s challenges, triumphs, sorrows, and joys reminds me that, as Adrienne Rich wrote, our stories flow in more than one direction.

    Our shop is, of course, packed to the brick walls with vibrant voices on the page. Here are a few of the tales in which I’ve taken solace lately.

    Every single issue of Lucinda J. Williams’ Bookshelf Voyeur series is a pure delight. Her latest release, #8: On Scrapbooks, delves into the fascinating lives that the zinemaker first encountered within a collection of turn-of-the-century ephemera.

    Anxious Critters #1 and #2: I adore this pair of sweet zines about the relationship between creator Alex O’Keefe and her housemate: A very cute bunny named Ivy.

    Although I’m a native Chicagoan, I’ve lived a good chunk of my life in small Midwestern towns, each with its own unique DIY community. Punks in Peoria: Making a Scene in the American Heartland by Jonathan Wright and Dawson Barrett takes a compelling look at how the hardcore punk movement played out in one central Illinois city in the ’80s and ’90s.

    When someone I know returns from a trip, the first thing I ask is what they ate during their journey. April Malig chronicles her culinary adventures, with words and gorgeous colorwashed images, in April’s Eating Zine #5: Everything I Ate in Japan (Part One: Toyko!) and April’s Eating Zine #5.5: Everything I Ate in Japan (Part 2: Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Atami!).

    I love a pocket-size zine, since I like never want to be without a story to get lost in. Ker-bloom! always delivers a perfect bite-sized tale presented in a beautiful letterpress package. Issue #171 begins with the epic statement: “Sometimes it pays to be a known Lord of the Rings nerd.”

    So perhaps you’d like to add your own story to the glorious chorus of voices in this universe? We’ve got two of my favorite books about writing in stock right now. 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round by Jami Attenberg and many of the writer’s literary friends — including Carmen Maria Machado, Roxane Gay, and Kiese Laymon — just came out in paperback. Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos is the book I would put into the hands of any storyteller who wants to deepen their own practice.

    If you do decide to share your story with the world, please consider putting it into a zine and consigning it with us! You might want to grab a This is Going in My Perzine sticker to give folks a heads-up. 🙂

    —   With love and solidarity, C.E. Hanifin

  • New Stuff This Week

     

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    Zines

    Zines by Chuck Melnychuk, $3 each:
    Branta #1 The Zine of New Honking Birds of a Feather
    Melnychuk’s Borsch Recipe Zine
    Make the Gods Weep

    Hi-Fi Anxiety issues #26-28.5 $10 each

    Sherl Stepped Sideways $3

    Comics

    Grixly issues #67 + #68 by Nate McDonough & friends $3 each

    New stuff & restocks from Joe Sikoryak:
    Awful Tooth #1 A True Tale of Dental Denial $4
    When We Were Trekkies #8-$10 $5 each

    Graphic Novel

    Joe Galaxy December 2024 Space Wonders and Horrors by Massimo Mattioli (Fantagraphics) $34.99

    Film Books

    Black Coffee Lightning: David Lynch Returns to Twin Peaks by Greg Olson (Fayetteville Mafia Press) $24.99

    Mayhem & Outer Limits Books

    Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World by Dorian Lynskey $32

    All Directions Point Home by BHM $24

    Fiction

    Tominic Dorito vs the Unreliable Narrator by Jesse Mack $12

    Poetry

    Haiku by Bill Albert (Grilled Cheese Publishing) $10.95

    Eleven Austin Poets #1 edited by Tom Jennings (Udumbara Press) $9.99

    New stuff & restocks from Pig Roast Publishing:
    On High at Red Tide by Gabriel Hart
    Abuser by Morgenrede
    No Lands Man by Lisa Carver
    Rockin’ Out On the Machine by Jeff Schneider
    Blaze Kimber by Adam Johnson
    …and more.

  • From the Archive

    I was organizing the basement, particularly a flat file cabinet and the piles of stuff that had amassed around it. I was reminded that we tend to hire people that are artists and writers (often they’re people who have consigned their work with us too). If you work here you find yourself doing a variety of tasks including making signs, and we have a nice collection of them. It would be impossible to show you all the signs we’ve amassed over the years in one post, so I’ve selected a few of my favorites today.

    Former Quimby’s employee Gabby Schulz made this hilarious sign when we were having a tiki-themed day. The part that really slays me is the “So to speak.”

    If you’re a Peter Bagge fan, you 100% will find this clever AF. Aaron Renier didn’t work here but made us this awesome sign anyway. So great.

    That devil cabbage! Gabby made both the weed one and the Harder Drugz signs above, and they are little nuggets (ba ha ha ha) of hilarity. I love the tiny character portraits on both that serve as amusing commentary.

    Here’s former Quimby’s employee Corinne Halbert’s contribution to the weed bag (THE JOKES NEVER END I CAN’T HELP IT). The fact that it has a tab of LSD on it is quintessential Corinne, and is a nice little inadvertent shout out to her book Acid Nun.

    We sure seem to have a lot of signs about the drug books we sell, ha ha. I’m sure there’s more in the collection. Why didn’t I wait until 420 to whip these out? Because they’re awesome and you need to see these little pieces of art and history right now.

    Did you know Quimby’s used to sell DVDs? And when I started here in 2001 we had VHS tapes! Over time we phased out selling that stuff because it stopped moving for us. But there was a moment when we had it, and when it got cheap to burn your own stuff people were more prolific in consigning that type of thing with us. We had to keep the discs behind the counter because otherwise they’d get stolen though. And god forbid we get some design book that came with a disc! Forget about it. Former Quimby’s mini-comic sommelier Neil Brideau (of Radiator Comics) made this sign for us, and it’s very telling of an era.

    This is the flat file I was telling you about. The labels on the files have zero bearing as to what’s in the drawers, but they are hilarious: “Satanic Sex,” “Manson,” “Naked Wings.” And so on. I laugh out loud every time I look at them. I hope they stay on there forever.

    xoxo

    Liz

    @caboosezine

  • New Stuff This Week

     

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    Zines

    More issues of Pound the Pavement:
    #24 Bonus Tracks to an Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels $8
    #33 Shut Rikers $15
    #34 Barricade Documentation of the Student Occupations of 2024 In Solidarity With Palestine $25

    2 zines by Robert Zant:
    Thin Places $15
    Bits and Bobs $10

    Nature Is Queer by Eve Gordon $2.50

    Zines by Wynter Appleford, $10 each:
    Cannabis Is Queer
    It’s Giving Cuntry: In Queer Defense of Country Music a Fanzine

    Why I Left Higher Ed and You Can Too: The TLDR Zine by thetranscribe $10

    Comics

    new issues of mini kuš!, $6 each:
    #123 Undertow by Sara Boica
    #124 COMICUM by Majenye
    #125 Into the Thicket by Mark Antonius Puhkan
    #126 On the Honeylands of Mars by Matti Hagelberg

    Intrusive Thoughts at the Bean #1 by Erika Saindon $4

    Novice #2 by Sean McCarthy $10

    New comics by Finn Walker:
    My Life As a Weapon $5
    Myrodemus #4 Genesis $8

    Graphic Novels/Manga

    The Legend of Kamui vol 1 by Shirato Sanpei (Drawn & Quarterly) $39.95

    Art Books

    Armed By Design: Posters and Publications of Cuba’s Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (OSPAAAL) by Interference Archive & friends (Common Notions) $40

    Funkadelic: The Vibrant Artistry of the ’70s by Victionary $49.95

    Politics & Revolution & Essay

    Iran in Revolt: Revolutionary Aspirations in a Post-Democratic World by Hamid Dabashi (Haymarket Books) $24.95

    In Defense of Barbarism: Non-Whites Against the Empire by Louisa Yousfi $17.95

    After Accountability: A Critical Genealogy of a Concept (Revised and Updated Edition) by Pinko Collective $19.95

    Between Existentialism and Marxism (New Edition) Jean-Paul Sartre $24.95

    Talking About Abolition: A Police-Free World is Possible by Sonali Kolhatkar $16.95

    Class, Crisis and the State by Erik Olin Wright $24.95

    Sumud: A New Palestinian Reader edited by Malu Halasa & Jordan Elgrably $24.95

    Self-Care

    Black Psychedelic Revolution: From Trauma to Liberation–How to Heal From Racial, Generational, and Systemic Trauma Through Reclaiming Black Psychedelic Culture by Nicholas Powers, PhD $19.95

    Mayhem & Outer Limits

    The Real Story of Dinosaurs and Dragons: Science Sets the Fossil Record Straight by Philip J. Senter (Feral House) $24.95

    Time Machines: Telegraphic Images in Nineteenth Century France by Richard Taws $50

    Film

    Blood on Satan’s Claw: or, The Devil’s Skin by Robert Wynne-Simmons with illustrations by Richard Wells (Unbound) $18.95

    Food Books

    A Story About Pizza by Erica D’Arcangelo $14.99

    Sexxxy

    Elska #50 Odesa Ukraine $20

    Fiction

    Big Lofty Dream by Karloz Belasquez $10

    Roberto Bolano reprints:
    Monsieur Pain $15
    The Insufferable Gaucho $16
    Amulet $17

    Witchcraft for Wayward Girls: A Novel by Grady Hendrix $30

    The Contortionists Handbook by Craig Clevenger $18.99

    Plastic: A Novel by Scott Guild $18

    Lit Journals

    KSMT #1 by MJ Woods & friends $7

    Drift #14 Fall 2024 $19.99

    Moss Piglet January 2025 $15

  • More From the Archive

    I pulled some more stuff from the archive for you people today. LUCKY YOU. I know you all really wanted to see this envelope that says “INVOICE” on it that only contains a letter E  and a fortune cookie fortune. Is that E for sale? Only if you want to — wait for it — BUY A VOWEL.

    Or maybe you wanted to see this sign Edie Fake made when they worked here for wood pizza slices someone consigned? This sign was filed away taped (probably accidentally) to a sign for some kind of fish item we were selling for 30 cents. I don’t think those signs were in any way related to each other but they were right next to each other in the crate for 23 years. Good enough for me! I’m thrilled to see that versatility is one of our outstanding traits, people!!

    Sidenote about the above 2 pictures: If I had to hazard a guess, I feel like that’s a John Porcellino envelope and a fish sign made by Neil Brideau. Maybe????

    Hey! A signed 2003 Sof’ Boy calendar from cartoonist Archer Prewitt of the Coctails/The Sea and the Cake. But why does this one start with October? I mean, I’m sure he gave us a full calendar (probably before 2002 was even over) but I’m trying to remember what happened here in 2003 that we were prematurely like, “Well that’s it! This year IS OVER!” and promptly took the calendar into the basement for storage. Knowing what it’s like around here though, it probably has more to do with us getting a tremendous amount of mail, and we were afraid of it getting lost in the shuffle. Hence it went downstairs to live with whatever else we’ve been hording down there, waiting for over 20 years later to reappear and be given love, in some kind of toy-that-became-real scenario. Well time is now, Velveteen Rabbit 2003 ‘Sof Boy Calendar! It’s October 2003! Log into Friendster and scream into your camera phone because you think nobody can hear you!

    Is that Neal Pollack? Reading from The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature here in 2000? Why yes it is. Happy graduation, sir!

    And check out that classy all caps serif flyer for the event.

    Look at this! It’s queercore luminaries Lynn Breedlove (left) and Nomy Lamm (right) when they were here in 2002. Lynn (Tribe 8) read from their first novel Godspeed, with Nomy (zinester and musician extraordinaire) on the bill as well. This hilarious photo says it all, and I couldn’t love it more.

    What else will I unveil in the near future? Will I be buying vowels? Do they offer those wholesale or is that the kind of thing people consign? Stay tuned!

    xoxo

    Liz

    @caboosezine

     

     

  • New Stuff This Week

     

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    Zines

    In Loving Memory of Rabbits, Rats, Birds, Squirrels $12

    A Treasury of Florida Man WTF: News Headlines From the Internet and Beyond by Alexandra Montclair (Harpy House Press) $12

    Things I Chewed Reviewed $4

    Uppercase #64 $24

    Comics

    Beach Day by Lucy Rose Till-Campbell $8

    Princess Reverie’s 10000 Year Curse (Wiggle Bird Mailing Club) $10

    Comics by Sunny Sponder, $10 each: Plunge, Flish Flash Flush (with Swami Tsunami)

    Spin Cycle by melonfarm $8

    Politics & Revolution Books

    Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman, edited by Jessica Moran and Barry Pateman (AK Press) $18

    Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education by Jesse Hagopian (Haymarket) $24.95

    Art Books

    Out of Order by Kay Westhues $20

    Doing Stuff

    1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round by Jami Attenberg $19.99

    Lazy Witchcraft for Crazy, Shitty Days: Easy Spells and Rituals for When You’re Stressed Out, Wiped Out, or Just Have No More Spoons to Give by Andrea Samayoa $19.99

    Fiction

    Horse Girl Fever: Stories by Kevin Maloney $16.95

    Chap Books

    I Want to be a Bowl $2