Monthly Archive for August, 2017

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Coco Picard presents “Autobiography with Stones” from The Chronicles of Fortune 9/22

Published on August 15, 2017 0 Comments
Sep ’17
22
7:00 pm

On Friday, September 22nd at 7pm, Coco Picard presents “Autobiography with Stones” a diagrammed artist talk about rocks, foreign encounters, and possible futures. This performative lecture is based on a dream Picard had in which the protagonist of her graphic novel, The Chronicles of Fortune (Radiator Comics, 2017), is hired by the government to psychoanalyze non-human kinds in a post-apocalyptic world. Picard explores the potential of this prospective narrative in relation to famous rocks she has encountered and Dr. Rock, her exhibition at Franklin Gallery where visitors were invited to tell their troubles to a stone. Following the lecture, Picard will sign copies of her graphic novel.

Originally published as a series of minicomics, The Chronicles of Fortune is a quirky and idiosyncratic adventure of Fortuna, the greatest superhero who could do anything to improve the world (and her alter-ego, Edith-May) but is tragically stricken with ennui, as they learn to cope with loss and recruit a team of friends along the way. At once charming, sad, funny, poignant, and bizarre, The Chronicles of Fortune includes a temperamental stove, a nosy mountain, a goofy crocodile, a loner moth, and a singing goldfish as they lead Fortuna on her greatest adventure.

Coco Picard is an artist, writer and curator based out of Chicago where she founded The Green Lantern Press and co-founded Sector 2337. Her critical writing appears under the name Caroline Picard in Art21, Artforum, Artslant, and Hyperallergic. Astrophil Press recently published her long-form cat essay, The Strangers Among Us and forthcoming novel, TSK, is due out from Goldwake Press in 2019.  cocopicard.com 

The Chronicles of Fortune is the first book published by Radiator Comics, a comics distributor run by former Quimby’s employee Neil Brideau, also a founding member of Chicago Zine Fest and CAKE [the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo].  radiatorcomics.com

Praise for The Chronicles of Fortune

“In the guise of a fantastical hero comedy, The Chronicles of Fortune is a story about succumbing to and triumphing over loss and grief in all its forms…” – Hyperallergic

“…each facet of [The Chronicles of Fortune’s] publication illustrates how, when publishers, distributors, and creators are truly invested in a work, the result will be wonderful.”-Women Write About Comics

“The Chronicles Of Fortune stands as a confirmation of the misfit’s path in life. Not only is it okay to be different, it’s okay to look like a failure in the eyes of others. Who cares? Just you, you’re the only one who needs to care. And are you happy? That seems to be what Picard is asking.” – Comics Beat

“Edith May/Fortuna’s urban adventures are reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland’s vignettes. With the appearance of Death as the ultimate foe, Picard creates a superhero with emotional resonance and a deeply empathetic story of one woman re-entering the world.” – Chicago Artist Writers

“You should buy The Chronicles of Fortune, read it, then share it with someone you love.” – Entropy

Here’s the Facebook invite to Share that you’re coming and invite your friends!

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Poet Carrie McGath Reads From Her New Chapbook, Dollface: Poem-Songs 9/7

Published on August 8, 2017 0 Comments
Sep ’17
7
7:00 pm

Carrie McGath’s new chapbook, Dollface: Poem-Songs (self-published), is comprised of lyrical strains representing conversations between Surrealist artists, Hans Bellmer and Unica Zürn. After studying the work of these artists and their tumultuous love affair that ended with Zürn jumping out of the window of Bellmer’s Paris apartment, these poem-songs started to come to life for McGath. In addition to the poems that make up Dollface, collage emerged as well as an amalgam of work by Bellmer and Zürn commingled with McGath’s.

“Dark, playful, and startling, these poems read like a lucid dream hovering at the edge of nightmare; no, not nightmare. Ecstasy. They feel their way around staircases, ribcage muscles, gray smoke, rolling pins – oh, the “hard, cold, beautiful” rolling pin. McGath invites us to the recesses wher  e bodies revise, scatter, retrograde, reify: ‘Touch,’ she writes, ‘Your hearts are hot.’ Indeed, there is much to feel, face, and reface in these irresistible pages.” –Kathleen Blackburn, Essayist and PhD in the UIC Program for Writers

Carrie McGath’s first collection of poetry, Small Murders (New Issues Poetry and Prose, 2006) was followed by several handmade chapbooks including So Sorry to See You Go and Ward Eighty-One. Her poems have appeared in journals such as The Chariton Review, Barrow Street, The Hiram Poetry Review, Nude Bruce Review, and others. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is at work on her second full-length poetry collection, The Luck of Anhedonia. She is also an arts contributor to Chicagoist and  resides in Chicago.

For more info: carriemcgath.com

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Thurs, Sept 7th, 7pm – Free Event

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New Stuff This Week

Published on August 5, 2017 0 Comments

Mike Diana: RIP by Mike Diana (Divus Adventure) $44.00 – A new book of horror, fun, unexpected adventure and disaster from Mike Diana?an internationally known underground cartoonist, and the only artist in America to have received a criminal conviction for artistic obscenity. His run-ins with the law have seemed to have the opposite of the intended effect; since first arriving on the scene in the 1990s with his (in)famous Boiled Angel magazine, Diana has only refined and expanded his vision of a culture engorged and overloaded on greed and violence.

*ZINES*

Xerography Debt #41 $4.00 – The review zine with perzine tendencies!

If You See Something Sketch Something #1 by Jason Das $10.00 – 56 pages of beautiful sketchbooking in a variety of media. Featuring images from life drawing class, the Chicago L, cafes, restaurants, the woods, and the beach. -Lane

Spirit House #3 by Rylan Thompson $10.00

Anything that Can Go Wrong #3 by Mia Cruz $3.00

My Fav Comics: A drawing zine by CHIPRC $1.00

What Had They Done by Baillie Vensel $5.00

*COMICS & MINIS*

Slasher #3 by Charles Forsman $4.99

Love and Rockets Magazine #3 by Gilbert and Jamie Hernandez (Fantagraphics) $4.99

Comic School USA, various issues, by Kevin Huizenga and his comics classes, $5.00 each

Blind Justice #1 All Time Comics by Josh Bayer and Benjamin Marra (Fantagraphics) $3.99

Stripburger #69 $8.00 – The latest issue of this Slovenian anthology delivers 96 pages of comics from fascinating creators around the globe! Spanish and Brazilian artists are featured most prominently in this issue, plus a 12-page miniature fold-in zine with an in-depth interview with Kus! Much of the text in this issue is in Slovenian, but the comics and the Kus! interview are in English. -Lane

Gas Water Nothing, various issues by Jason Das, $2.00-$4.00

*GRAPHIC NOVELS*

Not My Small Diary #19 Unexplained Events by Delaine Derry Green $7.00 – Comics anthology with 43 artists on UFOs, ghosts, curses, superstitions, coincidences too strange to believe, and more! Work from Carrie McNinch, Liz Prince, J.T. Yost, John Porcellino, MariNaomi & more!

The Customer Is Always Wrong by Mimi Pond (D+Q) $29.95 – A young woman’s art career begins to lift off as those around her succumb to addiction and alcoholism, in the confines of restaurant culture composed of charming drunks, junkies, thieves, and creeps of Oakland in the late 70s.

Education by John Hankiewicz (Fantagraphics Underground) $30.00 – A father and son road trip as depicted in a surreal and experimental graphic novel.

A Castle in England by Jamie Rhodes (Nobrow) $19.95 – Inspired by Scotney Castle in Kent, this is a collaboration between writer Jamie Rhodes and five different artists (Isaac Lenkiewicz, Briony May Smith, William Exley, Becky Palmer, and Isabel Greenberg).

Paper Girls vol 3 by Brian K. Vaughan & friends $12.99 – Now in paperback!

Otherworld Barbara vol 2 by Moto Hagio (Fantagraphics) $39.99 – Conclusion of the shojo manga pioneer’s sci-fi mystery.

*ART & DESIGN*

Just to Cover the Cost of Printing: My First Coloring Book by Aaron Romaine $15.00

Metal Cats Coloring Book by Alexandra Crockett $9.99

*POLITICS & REVOLUTION BOOKS*

Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea Ritchie $21.00

Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults by Laurie Penny $27.00

*ESSAYS*

I’m Supposed to Protect You from All This by Nadja Spiegelman $16.00 – From the daughter of Francoise Mouly (and Art Spiegelman).

*FICTION*

Eat Only When You’re Hungry: A Novel by Lindsay Hunter $25.00

Grip of It: A Novel by Jac Jemc $15.00

One Night by Deanna Cabinian (Timpi Publishing) $12.99

*MUSIC BOOKS*

From the Inside by John Henry Timmis IV (Featherproof) $14.95 – Writings about his time in the famed Menninger Foundation psych clinic, from the late troubled Drag City musician (of J.T. IV) and filmmaker. With a foreward by Steve “Plastic Crimewave” Krakow.

*DIY*

How to Change the World Pocket Guide $4.00

Power of the Seed: Your Guide to Oils for Health & Beauty by Susan M Parker (Process) $19.95

*SEXXXY*

Phile #1 The International Journal of Desire and Curiosity $20.00

Johnny Would You Love Me If My Dick Were Bigger by Brontez Purnell (Feminist Press) $17.95 – He’s a slut. He’s a nerd. He’s a waiter, bored at work. This is his diary. A dirty cult-classic!

*FOLKLORE n GHOST STORIES*

Sea Girl: Feminist Folktales from Around the World, edited by Ethel Johnston Phelps & illustrated by Suki Boynton (Feminist Press) $14.95

Pantheon: The True Story of the Egyptian Deities by Hamish Steele (Nobrow Press) $22.95 – Incest! Decapitation! Suspicious salad! Fighting hippos! All illustrated!

Ghostly Tales: Spine-Chilling Stories of the Victorian Age by Various $22.95

*MAGAZINES*

Maximumrocknroll #410 Aug 17 $4.99

Juxtapoz #200 Sep 17 $6.99

Razorcake #99 Bad Sports $4.00

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