Monthly Archive for July, 2011

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Brain Frame Comics Reading at Happy Dog 7/28

Published on July 24, 2011 0 Comments

This Thursday be sure to check out the Brain Frame Performative Comics Reading at Happy Dog Gallery, right around the corner from us at 1542 N Milwaukee, starting at 8pm. It’s a great lineup of local linework from Lyra Hill, Ian McDuffie and Sara Drake and special outta-sight outta-town guest Otto Splotch, and who knows what from Nick Jackson. Maybe you should give a call and see what he’s thinking about?

Ian McDuffie – www.violetmice.com
Sara Drake – sara-drake.blogspot.com
Lyra Hill – www.lyrahill.com
otto Splotch – www.squishthefish.net
NIck Jackson – 757-284-9293

New Stuff This Week

Published on July 23, 2011 0 Comments

Tonight Cassie Sneider reads from Fine Fine Music with the always entertaining Dave Roche and Danny “Ratso” Rathbun at 7pm.

And now, new stuff this week…

Look at this cool thing we got this week: The Wolf by Tom Neely. It’s a love story in a painted novel form with horror, lore and werewolves. $25.00

ZINES!
Grabbing Good Health By the Balls by var. $7.00
BETCH Rag #1 and #2 $3.00 each
various issues of Dont Tread On Me by Ratso $1.00 each
IAM1 by var. $3.00
Beast a la Nude Coloring Book Edition $1.25
Severely Quirky Infomative Prolonged Informational Instructions by var. $6.00
Damaged Stories of Chicago No Remorse by var. $2.00
Fresh Sloth Jerkin #1 $2.00
You Should Do These Things When It’s Hot So We Can Make Money $2.00
Welcome to the Innovative Future $.01
Quitter by Rachel Tusler $1.50
Art of Ash HG #1 by ASH HG $10.00
Many Many Make One Bit By Bit #1 by Jim Swill (Now Is the Time Publications)  $4.99
Lair Molt Selected Works 2008 2011 by Brian Uhl (Now Is the Time Publications) $10.00

COMICS & (MINI) COMIX!
Issues of Future Funk #0 Exploring the Best of the Black Age of Comics and Beyond $3.00-$5.00
Lets Go Green in Da City by Turtel Onli $3.00
Alphabeta Puke: An Alphabetical Treasury for the Hour of Need by var. $1.00
Red Rogue Classics by Chad Woody $1.00
Bad Seed #1 by Marcus Howell and Chad Woody $1.00
Red Rogue Super Special #1 Pick a Path Adventure by var. $2.00
Farm Break #1 $1.00
Drama Trauma the Problem with Teen Relationships by var. $2.00
Rocketbot Demo by Ian Endsley $5.00 – Comes with a CD.
Small Advices 2010 by Sara Drake $5.00

GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPER BACKS!
Alan Moore Story Teller by Gary Spencer Millidge (Universe) $45.00
Will and Joe books (Fantagraphics) $29.99- $39.99
Gil Jordan Private Detective: Murder by High Tide by M. Tillieux (Fantagraphics) $18.99
Sibyl Anne vs Ratticus by R. Macherot (Fantagraphics) $16.99
World of Smurfs: A Celebration of Tiny Blue Proportions by Matt Murray (Abrams) $24.95
Two different authorized adaptions of Ray Bradbury books: Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Martian Chronicles (Hill & Wang) $15.95 – $24.95
Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes Miraculous Mutants and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison (Spiegel) $28.00 – OK, strictly speaking, this is not a graphic novel. But it is by Grant Morrison and is very autobiographical.
Origins of Team Blanga Heroes of the Black Age by Turtel Onli $15.00 – Includes Blanga Beatz CD Sound Track from Hard Headz.
Maffilu Chapter 1 Maffilu in the Castle of the Bees by Dafne Nesti $12.99
Krazy Kat and the Art of George Herriman a Celebration by Craig Yoe and Bill Watterson (Abrams) $29.95
Seeds by Ross Mackintosh (ComX) $10.99
Homeland Directive by Robert Venditti and Mike Huddleston (Top Shelf) $14.95

ART & DESIGN & PHOTO BOOKS!
Behind Every Curtain by Marcel Dzama (Zwirner) $22.00
Instead of Eros Avenged by Mark Gonzales (Nieves) $38.00
I Guess I Shouldn’t be Telling You by Stefan Marx (JRP) $39.95
Alice Cooper Suzi Simpson by Brian Kennon $18.00
Remembering 911 by Martha Cooper (MBP) $10.95 – Photographs and words from this hip hop and street art photographer.
How To Be the Best Bubble Writer In the World Ever ed. by Linda Scott (Laurence King) $14.95 – When we think of bubble writing we think of middle school and note passing. Well, you’re wrong. Street artists use it too.

CHILDRENS BOOKS!
Adventures of Tintin: Cigars of the Pharaoh, Young Readers Edition by Hérge (LB) $8.99

MUCKRACKING, MEMOIRS, MAYHEM, MISCREANTS & MISCELLENOUSNESSESESNESS!
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring (FSG) $18.00
Retromania: Pop Cultures Addiction to Its Own Past by Simon Reynolds (Faber) $18.00
Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Businesses Represent Everything You Want To Fight For by Andrew Laties (Seven Stories) $16.95 – New edition with a foreword by Edward Morrow and an afterword Bill Ayers.
The Ultimate, Illustrated Beats Chronology  by Robert Niemi (Soft Skull) $15.95 – Did you know that less than two weeks after Jack Kerouac reported to the Newport, RI U.S. Naval Training Station (the same month that the German 6th Army was surrendering at Stalingrad), he was discharged, diagnosed with a “Constitutional Psychopathic State, Schizoid Personality”? That just a few months later, William Burroughs moved from Chicago to New York, where he took a small apartment at 69 Bedford Street and began a heroin addiction that was to last until 1956? That meanwhile, Gregory Corso, thirteen and homeless, was being arrested for petty larceny, while Hubert Selby, Jr., fifteen, joined the Merchant Marines? And that the very same year, Allen Ginsberg, a new graduate from Eastside High School in Patterson, New Jersey, began his first semester at Columbia University, where he first made the acquaintance of Herbert Gold and Jack Kerouac? Packed with month-by-month and week-by-week anecdotes, The Ultimate, Illustrated Beats Chronology is a meticulous timeline detailing the life events and literary accomplishments of the writers who became known as the Beat Generation. Covering an entire century and then some, this beautifully illustrated volume is certain to be an invaluable resource for anyone curious about the Beat Generation.

FICTION!
Lights Out in Wonderland by DBC Pierre (Norton) $25.95
Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham by Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas (Dark Horse) $14.95 – A hilarious, shocking, terrifying thrill-ride across the American landscape, The Damned Highway combines two great flavors of weird: the gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson and the uncanny terrors of H.P. Lovecraft! Horror legend Brian Keene and cult storytelling master Nick Matamas dredge up a tale of drug-fueled eldritch madness from the blackest depths of the American Nightmare. On a freaked-out bus journey to Arkham, Massachusetts and the 1972 Presidential primary, evidence mounts that sinister forces are on the rise, led by the Cult of Cthulhu and its most prominent member – Richard M. Nixon!
Happily Ever After: Fairytales Retold ed. by John Klima (Night Shade) $16.99 – Over thirty stories by, amongst others, Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, Charles de Lint,  Kelly Link, Garth Nix and Gregory Maguire.

POETRY & CHAP BOOKS!
Twinning by Meg Prichard $4.00
RSVP by var. $4.00
Facts of Light by Laura Goldstein $4.00
Some Were Awake by Connor Stratman  $4.00

POLITICS & REVOLUTION BOOKS!
Revolution at the Gates: Selected Writings of Lenin From 1917 Writings ed. by Zizek (Verso) $24.95

MAGAZINES!
Bust Aug Sep 11 $4.99
Tape Op #84 Jul Aug 11 $4.95
Razorcake #63 $4.00
Wallpaper Aug 11 $10.00
Cine Qua Non #4 $10.00
CNTRMTR #1 the Photo Issue $25.00
Make vol 27 $14.99 – The DIY hacking magazine, not the Chicago-based lit journal.
Colors #81 Sum 11 $8.95
Z Magazine Jul Aug 11 $6.95
Harpers Magazine Aug 11 $6.99

SEX & SEXY!
Obsessed Erotic Romance for Women ed. by Rachel Kramer Bussel $14.95
Handbook vol 5 #3 2011 $6.00
Heat Wave hot hot hot Erotica by Alison Tyler (Cleis) $15.95
Hot Daddies – Gay Erotic Fiction ed. by Richard Labonte (Cleis) $14.95
Days of the Cougar: Outrageous Visual Diary of Sexual Adventurer Liz Earls ed. by Dian Hanson (Taschen) $39.99 – This kitty has claws. Through the cougar’s eyes: the road to sexual liberation. ‘My life had become a playground, and it was exactly what I wanted,’ writes photographer Liz Earls in the introduction to this groundbreaking book detailing her transformation from middle-aged, overweight Human Resources director to sexual adventurer, self-portraitist, and unabashed cougar.
Whip Smart by Melissa Febos (TD) $14.955 – Febos’s candid, hard-slogging debut, now in soft cover, about her four years working as a dominatrix at a midtown Manhattan dungeon cuts a sharp line between prurience and feminist manifesto.
Ultimate Guide to Orgasm for Women: How to Become Orgasmic For a Lifetime by Mikaya Heart (Cleis) $17.95

Alison Bechdel comes to Quimby’s 10/8

Published on July 21, 2011 1 Comment
Oct ’11
8
7:00 pm

Alison Bechdel is guest editing THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2011.

“An insightful compilation.”—USA Today

It is widely acknowledge that comics is, by and large, a printed medium, and in the foreword of THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2011, series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden trace the evolutionary print trends of this art form – from Sunday pages and daily strips to fanzines and minicomics to a mail art movement and self-publishing faction.  However, they also recognize that comics have invaded the digital medium, and many of the aforementioned DIY-ers have created a webcomics scene that parallels, yet doesn’t necessarily intersect with, the print world.  In part as a reflection of this new trend, this year’s volume of THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS features a first for this series: Kate Beaton’s clever, buzz-worthy, and hilarious Hark! A Vagrant, the first included comic by an artist who emerged entirely from the webcomics scene.

Star guest editor Alison Bechdel, author of the seminal chronicle of lesbian lives and loves, Dykes To Watch Out For, and the highly-acclaimed graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, continues this reflection on comics trends in her introduction.  Though she originally became a cartoonist because of its alternative, underground nature far from mainstream literary and art criticism, she acknowledges – and appreciates – the incredible growth spurt and popularity boost comics have undergone in the past decade.

Submission after submission, Bechdel writes, shows how cleverly, confidently, and infectiously young comics are playing with the balance of art and language.  Selections like Brendan Leach’s Pterodactyl Hunters about fictionalized 1904 New York, Chris Ware’s Jordan Lint to 65 about the complete, fictionally-realized life of Jordan Lint, and Joe Sacco’s historiography, Footnotes in Gaza don’t fit neatly into a single category.  And yet, many of these pieces address a metacomic theme, commenting on their own art form in some way – David Lasky’s cheeky send-up of recent trends in the ‘graphic novel’ phenomenon and Joey Allison Sayers’ Pet Cat, which investigates the negative qualities defining the more commercial reaches of the comicsphere.

And although Bechdel questions why there’s still such a gender disparity in the field, she also lauds the fact that female cartoonists are beginning to experience a form of freedom that she hopes will extend to the art form as a whole.  “Freedom from having to explain or defend ourselves.  Freedom from being confined to one section of the bookstore.  Even freedom—one day, maybe—from books like this one.”  And it is this liberation, this ability to “look just a little beyond the horizon” that truly defines each of the pieces in THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS™ 2011 which begins, appropriately, with Gabrielle Bell’s heartfelt Manifestation.

Allison Bechdel began drawing the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For in 1983.  Dykes was syndicated in fifty alternative newspapers, translated into multiple languages, and collected into a book series with over a quarter of a million copies in print. Bechdel is also the author of the best-selling graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, which was named a Best Book of the Year by Time, Entertainment Weekly, the New York Times, People, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others.  Her new graphic memoir, Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April 2012.

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Announcing Anobium

Published on July 20, 2011 0 Comments

Anobium: Volume 1, due July 31st, is the first literary biannual from Chicago’s Anobium Books. It features new writing from local and international names and artwork from Jacob van Loon. It will also feature work from Jonathan Greenhause, Rich Ives, Stephanie Plenner, Joe Meno, and a fancy-dancy handful of other spectacular folks. We’ll have it here when it comes out, but until then for more info see anobiumlit.com

Weekly Top 10

Published on July 19, 2011 0 Comments

Here’s the topsellers. But first, a reminder about our event this coming Saturday (July 23rd) at 7 pm, we’re excited to welcome Cassie J. Sneider with Dave Roche and Danny ‘Ratso’ Rathbun, which should be hilarious and fun. See our event calendar for more info.

Weekly Top 10

1. Add Toner: A Cometbus Collection by Aaron Cometbus (Last Gasp) $12.00 – Collects highlights from #44 to #48. including tales from the Dead End, Lanky, and the Back to the Land series.

2. Logan Square Literary Review #7 Sum 11 $5.00 – Fiction from Ray Cline and Evan Seeder, photos from April Lynn, poetry from Alicia Hilton and Brandon Holmquesta bike comic, a profile on the Logan Square CROP project and a recipe for kroppkakor.

3. Five Stories Published on a Printer #1 by Dustin Michael Edward Davenport $2.00

4. Roctober #49 $4.00

5. Believer #82 Jul Aug 11 Music Issue $12.00

6. Mojo #213 Aug 11 $9.99

7. 8-Track Mind #101 Zines vs Blogs ed. by F.R. Russ Forster $3.00 – WELCOME BACK 8-TRACK MIND!!!! Holy Moly! After a 10-year hiatus 8-Track Mind heeds the call of the Revenge of Print and pulls a fresh new issue out of the oven! Man, this was the zine that I remember reading way-back-when that REALLY made me think, “Woah, you really can make a great zine about ANYTHING.” Truly. This issue goes light on the 8-trackology but stays true to its analog-obsessed roots with a well-rounded symposium all about “Zines Versus Blogs”. -EF — Contributors: Chris Barrows, Peter Bergman, Joe Carducci, Kim Cooper, Brendan DeVallance, Tony DuShane, Sam Green, Lance Laurie, Alison Levy, Tom Lynch, Danny Plotnick, Dan Sutherland, V Vale and Lucien Williams.

8. Your Secretary #10 Dig Deep #3 by Jami Sailor and Heather C. $2.00 –  Library-themed librarian zine split. Heather gushes about working the Young Adult program and Jami gives a run down of Library School field work and public library porn use. Something to definitely check out! -EF

9. Hobo Magazine #13 $15.00

10. Yeti #11 $11.95 – Another great issue of Yeti – a cd of exclusive tracks and a thick journal of comics, interviews, photos and art. Always a stunner. This issue: ON THE CD: all rare/unreleased music –a dozen tracks that are as long as their respective track numbers, so that track 12 is 12 minutes long and track 4 is 4 minutes long and you probably don’t need any more examples than that. The result is a 78-minute-long disc featuring Snake Hole, Sloppy Heads, Johnita and Joyce Collins, Atole, Gospel Creators, White Rainbow, The Dirashi Tribe, Roy Montgomery, Golden Retriever, Oneida, Phill Niblock, and Happy New Year. INSIDE THE BOOK: .interviews with Phill Niblock, Roy Montgomery, and Brian Chippendale; photography by Olivia Wyatt and Megan Holmes; art by Marcellus Hall and Victor Kerlow; an archival interview with Joe Brainard by Anne Waldman; fiction by Kimberly Parko and R. Foggo; rare May ’68 posters from Grenoble, and the Skaters.