Monthly Archive for October, 2009

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Off-Site Event: Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves Release Event at the Hideout

Celebrating the release of Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves, editor Jason Bitner presents along with The AV Club’s Kyle Ryan, artist Derek Erdman and more special guests. This expert panel will shed light on the power of mixtapes and share their own tales of tapes given and received, crushes turned to heartaches. And special bonus! Illustrator Arthur Jones presents his hilarious loss-of-virginity tale as a Post-It Note Story.

Date: Monday, November 9, 2009
Time: 8:00pm – 9:30pm
Location: The Hideout
Street: 1354 West Wabansia
City/Town: Chicago, IL
Price: $5

Quimby’s will be there selling books! Please note this event is at the Hideout and not at Quimby’s!

Monday, November 9th, 8pm, $5.00
At the Hideout
1354 W Wabansia Ave
Chicago, IL 60642-1519
(773) 227-4433
www.hideoutchicago.com

Book Release Party for Pinstriped Bloodbath

Nov ’09
17
7:00 pm

How does one honor the tradition of Chicago’s checkered past? By embracing it’s bloody cliches. The comic anthology Pinstriped Bloodbath does just that, showcasing several of the best  Chicago area cartoonists, as they tackle the seedy gangland crime of the 20’s and 30’s. Each  book is painstakingly silkscreened and constructed by hand and features simulated blood spray  across the jacket. Inside are 38 pages of beautiful black and white artwork featuring comics by  Bernie McGovern, Neil Brideau, Nate Beaty, Rickey Gonzales, Neil Jam, Sam Sharpe, Jeff  Zwirek, and Jeremy Tinder. The book also features illustrations by comic greats, Ivan Brunetti  and Joshua Cotter. The book is a limited print run of 250 copies and is $8.00.

Be there for the party celebrating the release of the book in Chicago after its debut at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda Maryland.  Meet and have your book signed by the cartoonists  representing the current alternative comic scene in Chicago.

For more info: http://www.pinstripedbloodbath.blogspot.com

The ACT-I-VATE Experience and Salon With Dean Haspiel!

Nov ’09
13
7:00 pm

Dean Haspiel, co-founder of the premier online comic art collective, ACT-I-VATE.com, will be hosting a multimedia salon to celebrate the release of The ACT-I-VATE Primer,  16 original stories by some of the most highly respected visual storytellers working today. This will also be the Chicago debut of The ACT-I-VATE Experience, a 30-minute documentary by filmmakers Seth Kushner and Carlos Molina about how ACT-I-VATE is leading the webcomics revolution. Dean will be projecting panels from his contribution to the Primer,  “Bring Me The Heart Of Billy Dogma,” while discussing the journey these stories have taken from print to web and back again. Joining Dean will be Chicago-area multimedia writer Tim Hall, whose groundbreaking text-comics for ACT-I-VATE have already sparked spirited discussion and debate in the comics community about visual writing and pictureless comics.

The Act-i-vate Primer boasts original art and stories by Joe Infurnari, Roger Langridge, Mike Dawson, Nick Bertozzi, Tim Hamilton, Dean Haspiel, Simon Fraser, Molly Crabapple & John Leavitt, Mike Cavallaro, Pedro Camargo, Jim Dougan & Hyeondo Park, Ulises Farinas, Michel Fiffe, Maurice Fontenot, Jennifer Hayden, and Leland Purvis.

“ACT-I-VATE makes comics better.”        –Warren Ellis [from the ACT-I-VATE PRIMER foreword]

For more info: http://www.act-i-vate.com

Jay Ryan and Paul Hornschemeier!

Nov ’09
11
7:00 pm

Chicago postermaker Jay Ryan has been busy since the 2005 release of his book 100 Posters, 134 Squirrels (in its third printing with Akashic/Punk Planet Books), a collection of his favorite prints from the first decade of his work. This debut collection of Jay’s was praised by Chicago media and publications across the globe, including:

“Not only a gorgeous catalog of the artist’s many memorable posters,  but a history of sorts of the Chicago underground rock scene in the  last 15 years.”    –Chicago Sun-Times

“Jay Ryan takes the germ of an idea and makes it uniquely great. His genius is in knowing what matters and what doesn’t . . . His genius is in having the image matter.”        –Steve Albini

Since the release of that book, he has honed his craft continuing without the use of computers, and screen-printing the work in his shop called the Bird Machine for bands such as the Melvins, the Shins, Modest Mouse, Andrew Bird, Shellac, My Morning Jacket, and hundreds of others. His new book, Animals and Objects In and Out of Water features 120 of Jay Ryan’s favorite pieces of art from the last three years, including text about each of the prints, detail photos (shot at the  MCA in Chicago), and original drawings. With a  foreword by Andrew Bird and an essay by best-selling novelist Joe  Meno (Hairstyles of the Damned), this volume solidifies Jay’s  position as one of the most unique postermakers in a thriving and  exciting field.

Jay Ryan has been making screen-printed concert posters in Chicago since 1995. Known for his hand-drawn type, humorous animal subjects, and muted color selections, he has worked for thousands of rock bands, as well as clients like Patagonia clothing, Converse shoes, Burton Snowboards, and the BBC. When he’s not playing bass in his band Dianogah, Jay lectures students and  shows his prints at universities and galleries across the U.S. and  Europe.

Jay will be joined by fellow artist and author, Paul Hornschemeier, who will be presenting his newest book, All and Sundry: Uncollected Work, 2004-2009, which corrals Hornschemeier’s work from the last five years —   work previously ungathered, and in many cases never before seen in  print. These works span the globe, from periodicals to museums, including: conceptual drawings and comics of Ulysses S. Grant created for an exhibit in Paris; an award-winning cover exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; the seventeen-part serialized  tale of divine intervention, non-linearity, and social webs “Huge  Suit Visits the People” created for the celebrated German newspaper Frankurter Allgemeine Zeitung; and comic strips for The Wall Street Journal and CNN featuring the unlikely cartoon protagonists of  Michael Jackson, Sylvester Stallone as Rambo, and the “gray fox,”  Anderson Cooper. In addition to these oddities, All and Sundry collects covers and designs from multiple foreign editions of Paul’s  books, ranging from Holland to Korea; recent album art for David  Byrne’s Luaka Bop record label; a collaboration with celebrated  comics humorist Michael Kupperman (Tales Designed to Thrizzle); as  well as short, illustrated prose (thus far seen only in the pages of  the anthology Mome). The collection concludes with extensive selections from sketches and sketchbooks, providing an unusual glimpse at the chaotic world of Hornschemeier’s work, before the polishing of lines and colors of the printed page. Here we see how  works have developed and what the future holds for still gestating projects. All and Sundry, perhaps more than any previous collection of Hornschemeier’s work, demonstrates the variety and depth of the artist’s interests and pursuits, and invites an examination of the entirety of his process, from first fevered scrawl to final, pristine brush line.

“Hornschemeier doesn’t simply push the panel edges of the comics medium; he designs entirely off the page, encouraging other creators to join him over the horizon.”    –Chicago Tribune

Believer Beware!

Nov ’09
14
7:00 pm

So a transgender cowboy, a pornographer/Bible teacher, and a nostalgic former fundamentalist walk into a bookstore. It’s not a joke; it’s what will happen at Quimby’s Saturday, November 14 at 7 pm when Quince Mountain, Erik Hanson and E.J. Park read their contributions to Believer Beware, edited by Jeff Sharlet and Peter Manseau:“Cowboy for Christ”, “Bible Porn”, and “The Joy of Dissent (Or, Why I Miss Fundamentalism)”, respectively. The second collection from killingthebuddha.com, Believer Beware uncovers “first person dispatches from the margins of faith” and exposes them to the world. As editor Jeff Sharlet describes in his introduction

“Caught between comics and scripture is the stuff of this collection, memoir. Memoir, after all, is euphemistic label for testimony, a cleaned-up manifestation of the comic book sensibility.”

Join contributors and killingthebuddha.com editors for this Chicago launch of Believer Beware.

“Shocking, exhilarating, and never dull…. Highly recommended.” — Library Journal
“A complex, fascinating collection, full of surprises.” –Booklist
“Believer Beware is a door that leads from religious indoctrination to freedom. It is a book worth reading, vastly entertaining and (for me anyway) yet another liberating step from exile to better place. —Frank Schaeffer Author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back and the forthcoming Patience With God: Faith For People Who Don’t Like Religion (Or Atheism)
For more info: http://killingthebuddha.com/ktblog/believer-beware/