Love to you all! Click here or on the link below to my final goodbye. Mwah! xoxo Liz
Archive for the 'our illustrious past' Category
Liz here, and I was having a great time in the basement organizing. Well, I mean, real talk: define “great.” But you know what I mean; I was amused by some of the things I rediscover as I get it all in order down there. But also, again, real talk: define “all in order.” YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN, STOP SASSING ME, PEOPLES. Still though. The stuff I have for you! Dig it.
Well what do we have here? It’s famed sculpture artist legend Cynthia Plaster Caster and former Quimby’s employee and CUFF legend Bryan Wendorf at an event here, talking to whoever’s hand is in the photo. Are they talking to the hand? You know it. The best I can triangulate the date is as follows: this is from before I started here because whatever this event was, it was pre-me at Quimby’s, so it would be sometime before 2001. It was clearly after Quimby’s moved from the original location at 1328 N. Damen to here at 1854 W. North Ave., so it was definitely the late ’90s. And the guy all the way on the right has a chinstrap beard that screams 1998 in a way that I can’t even begin to describe. So I think somewhere between 1998-2000. No YOU go do the carbon-dating, I’m too busy scanning weird mail art.
Sir! My soul is beaten down! Me too, bucko. I’m 90% sure we included this postcard in one of our MiniMagalogs but it is totally worth showing it off in its full glory here. How did this get here with no post date? And notice it is addressed to “SQUIMBY’S.” I understand why that happened. If you look at our logo, if you didn’t know otherwise. Allow me to explain once you look at the picture below.
Check out our patches through the ages. The one we have now is the one on the left. Why did I not put them in order? Because I am a fool. When I placed them down on the scanner I accidentally put them in the reverse order because I am just that sort of absentminded hippo. Don’t @ me, people. And no, we don’t have the white or yellow rimmed ones. Just the peach-y salmon ones, which you can get here. ANYWAY, notice how close that S is at 8:00 to where Quimby’s starts at 9:00, you know what I’m saying? That’s why I know someone is a Quimby’s nube when they’re like “SQuimby’s!” But still, I understand how they arrived at that, even if there’s a color separation.
Well look at that! It’s Matt Fagan, of Meniscus comic fame. And one of the founders of Brainstorm comics, which used to be down the street. The Evil Dead lunchbox! Can I tell you I forgot we even carried that? Or did he come in carrying it? Like on his way to work with a sandwich in it? Or maybe a necronomicon or something? No, you know what? I think we did sell that lunchbox.
As the flyer says, Adrian Tomine and Seth did events at both here and Chicago Comics, but what really grabs me are the incidentals: the Chicago Comics phone number! It has a 312 area code. The 773 area code didn’t become a thing until 1996. And the event was at the OQ (Original Quimby’s, as coined by Billy McCall). So was this pre-1996? Wow. And anybody who has done stuff with print and photocopiers recognizes that white tape. It’s so that you don’t see the marks of the paper underneath. Yesssssss. Or if this was 1996, should I say “rad” and “booyah?” You’re welcome.
I’m pretty sure Shappy (RIP) made this. He worked at both Quimby’s and Chicago Comics, so he dealt with the alternative comics vs superhero comics dichotomy on the regular. I loved his signs. But boy did he hate working! He said to me once, “Can’t I just sit and read issues of Eightball?” Chicago poet Robbie Telfer told me that Shappy got in trouble for using up all the toner in the printer for printing out pictures of Hanna-Barbera characters. Oh Shappy, I miss you. I’m so glad I was never your manager though.
It’s Jake Austen, editor of the famed Chicago zine Roctober and Chic-a-Go-Go cable access impresario! With baby! So this must have been two decades ago. But I can tell by the placement of the lighting overhead that he was standing in front of the counter, and it was taken by whoever was sitting in the very spot I am sitting in at this very moment. It was me. I think I took this photo. At least, I’m pretty sure. There was a period of time before smart phones in which I always a had a camera with actual film in it, and then we’d take the film over to the Walgreen’s at Wood and Milwaukee to get developed. We’d pick it up like a million weeks later when we remembered it was there.
Thanks for those super sick Gremlins in 2012, Cara Bean! These are excellent. We get a lot a lot of good mail art on envelopes. We could do a zine or a book of just the correspondence we get from people.
Jesus saves big money! Thanks for the mail art in 2014, Peter Sickman-Garner! I bet this contained Hey, Mister. Sent Media Mail, the postal choice of self-publishers everywhere.
A Quimby’s ad in a 1998 edition of Lumpen! That font is so fabulously 1990s-cocktail-exotica-space-age-bachelor-pad-revival that I just want to go drink a martini and listen to Combustible Edison.
That’s what I got! Now go get in your time machines and listen to the Four Rooms soundtrack.
xoxo
Liz @caboosezine
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
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
We’ve got some major news to tell you about the future of the store. More information here at Block Club Chicago.
