Monthly Archive for April, 2009

Quimby’s welcomes James Danky, co-author and co-curator of Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics Into Comix

May ’09
28
7:00 pm

The impact of American underground comix is profound: They galvanized artists both domestically and abroad; they forever changed the economics of comic book publishing; and they influenced generations of cartoonists, including their predecessors. While the works of Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman are well-known via the New Yorker, Maus, and retrospective collections, the art of their contemporaries such as Gilbert Shelton, Trina Robbins, Justin Green, Kim Deitch, S. Clay Wilson, and many other seminal cartoonists who came of age in the 1960s is considerably less known.

Underground Classics (Abrams) provides the first serious survey of underground comix as art, turning the spotlight on these influential and largely underappreciated artists. Essays from the book’s co-writers and co-curators James Danky and Denis Kitchen, alongside essays by Paul Buhle, Patrick Rosenkranz, Jay Lynch, and Trina Robbins, offer a thorough reflection and appraisal of the underground movement. Over 125 original drawings, paintings, sculptures, and artifacts are featured, loaned from private collections and the artists themselves, making Underground Classics indispensable for the serious-minded comics fan and for the casual reader alike.

James Danky is the author/editor of dozens of books on topics as varied as African-American newspapers, women’s publications, and the Native American press. In 1974 he published his first book, Undergrounds, a bibliography of alternative newspapers. He is on the faculty of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also founded and directed the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America. In 2007 Danky retired from the Wisconsin Historical Society after building their nationally renowned collections for thirty-five years. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Joey Comeau Reads From Overqualified at Quimby’s

May ’09
27
7:00 pm

Dear Sirs or Madams . . .    “I wrote a series of letters, many of which appear in the book, and sent them to real companies. I really sent them, and I never got one response, until one day  the police came to my door. They’d been called by the HR department of a company that received one of the letters.”

Joey Comeau’s startling new novel Overqualified (ECW Press), is told through job application cover letters. But these letters have very little to do with finding work. Joey’s anger and hopes and fears become the focus — he tells jokes when he should be outlining his  relevant job experience; he tells stories about his childhood when he should be talking about his education.   Over the course of this series of letters, a narrative emerges. The reader comes to know Joey through confessions of family secrets and embarrassing sexual experiences. And there’s been a terrible car accident involving Joey’s younger brother.    Overqualified is a funny, unhinged, and angry book — but it’s hopeful, too.

Joey Comeau writes the comic A Softer World, which appeared recently in The Guardian has been profiled in Rolling Stone, and which Publishers Weekly called, “subtle and dramatic.” He is the author of a previous novel, Lockpick Pornography, and a collection of  short stories, It’s Too Late to Say I’m Sorry.

Quimby’s Top Ten Best Sellers For the Week of April 19th – April 25th, 2009

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1.    The Great Perhaps HC by Joe Meno (WWNorton) $24.95
2.    Revolutionary Women Stencil Book $2.50
3.    Unfinal Call CD by Bonnie Prince Billy (Drag City) $8.00
4.    A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (D+Q) $29.95
5.    Bizarre #148 $10.50
6.    Juxtapoz #100 May 09 $5.99
7.    Make Your Place: Affordable Sustainable Nesting Skills by Raleigh Briggs (Microcosm) $7.00
8.    Dwelling Portably 2000 – 2008 by Bert Davis (Microcosm) $8.00
9.    Tape Op #70 $4.50
10.  Please Dont Feed the Bears Vegan Cookbook by Abjorn Intonsus (Microcosm) $9.00

New Stuff As of This Moment: 4/27/09 3:10pm

Lotsa goodies, including Gorgeous and Hung: Kinky Jimmys Gallery of She-Males In Action (Eurotica) $18.95

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Also, dig all this!:

Wholphin #8 $19.95
Banksys Bristol Home Sweet Home: Unofficial Guide to Banksys Early Years by Steve Wright (Last Gasp) $24.95
Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine (Drawn and Quarterly) $14.95 – Now in soft cover! Collects issue #’s 9 through 11 of Optic Nerve.
Fifth Estate vol 44 #1 Spr 09 #380 $4.00
Myster Theater Episode #1 The Human Brain – New comic from Julia Wertz of Fart Party fame
Artists Sessions at Studio 35 1950 edited by Robert Goodnough $10.00
Literary Review vol 52 #2 $7.00
Junk Pirate #17 $3.00
Stolen Sharpie Revolution vol 2 A DIY Resource For Zines and Zine Culture by Alex Wrekk $6.00 Now with more zine-y info!
In Practice Stream of Consciousness DIY $.50
Inner Swine vol 15 #1 by Jeffrey Somers $2.00
RFD #137 $7.75
50 Years of Hot Rod by the editors of Hot Rod Magazine (Motorbooks0 $24.95
Sublime Stitching Embroidery Patterns in a variety of awesome kinds, $5.00 each, including tattoo variations, pictures based on the drawings of Daniel Johnston and Mitch O’Connell and more!
Christian Conservative Coloring Book by Kevin Stone (Garrett County Press) $7.95
I See It All by Deth P Sun (Rowan Morrison Publishing) $20.00 – Beautiful drawings of the fantastical (and possibly Potter-ian)
Guerilla Art by Sebastian Peiter and Goetz Werner (Laurence King) $19.95
Furverts by Michael Cogliantry (Chronicle) $12.95 – With fur! And sexy!
Cryptozoological Play Set $17.00
Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5 by Michael Kupperman (Fantagrphics) $4.50
Teens at Play Winter Break Special by Rebecca (Eros) $4.95
Juxtapoz #100 May 09 $5.99
Compleat Motherfucker A History of the Mother of All Dirty Work by Jim Dawson (Feral House) $13.00
God Says No by James Hannaham (McSweeneys) $22.00
Studs Terkels Working A Graphic Adaptation by Harvey Pekar and Paul Buhle (New Press) $22.95
World of Wonders by Jimmy Katz and Dena Katz (PowerHouse) $39.95 – Beautiful circus/midway book!
Ride The Lightning (mini comic) by John Isaacson $3.00 – based on the Metallica album!
Herakut The Perfect Merge (Publikat) $34.95
Beyond Illustration: Finest in Contemporary International Art and Illustration (Pro-Actif) $39.95
Untitled: Street Art in the Counter Culture by Gary Shove (Pro-Actif)
Made For Skate by Jurgen Blumlein (FauxAmi) $45.00
Artist Artshow: Inside Contemporary Artshow Culture (Gingko) $45.00
Charley Harpers 123s and Charley Harpers ABCs (both published by Ammo) $9.95 Each
Lowboy by John Wray (FSG)
Heeb #20 Spr 09 $5.99
33 1/3 Series: Celine Dion’s Lets Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl Wilson (Continuum) $12.95 – It had to happen eventually!
33 1/3 Series: Nas’ Illmatic by Matthew Gasteier (Continuum) $10.95
The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim (First Second) $16.95
Nobody Move by Denis Johnson, read by Will Patton, on 4 CDs (FSG) $24.95
In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan (Penguin) $15.00 – From the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Enough with the vitamin water, eat some real food!

Dan Gleason and Friends Read from Pieces of Paper, Amongst the Words That Rest Upon Them, at Quimby’s

May ’09
23
7:00 pm

Chicago-based weirdo Dan Gleason once again graces us with his presence and brings some friends to entertain us. Like who else? These fine folks:
Marc Arcuri: poet/advocate
Thax Douglas: author/scholar
Dan Gleason: journalist/hair pie
Greg Jacobsen: painter/songstress
Meg McCarville: autobiographer/leading lady
Mike McPadden: writer/musician
Dave Tortuga: artist/mover

Well, what will happen at this event? Here is what Dan told us:

“Chewing tobacco will be provided.
(Chewing tobacco will not be provided.)
Large chunk of melba toast accidentally placed in ear.
Together we transform into one being that possesses a lot of the same power as that recently cancelled Michel Gondry.
People should drink.
Ingrown hair in my left nostril.”

You don’t want to miss that, do you?
FREE EVENT