Daily Archive for April 16th, 2008

Luke “You” & Dave Roche

Jun ’08
27
7:00 pm

Meet Luke the mind behind YOU and zinster Dave Roche the author of On Subbing: the First Four Years at Quimby’s
youzine_01.jpg

Luke is the mind behind YOU a free weekly zine from Melbourne. Every week since 2001, YOU has arrived usually taking the form of a handwritten letter sealed with staples in a paper bag. Issues of YOU are distributed for free in culture and books shops around the globe. YOU is now the subject of a zine anthology YOU: some letters from the first five years.


Dave Roche is the author of On Subbing: the First Four Years. The book contains his tales of woe from working as an substitute education assistant in Portland’s school system. He helps kids who can’t function in normal classrooms focus on their work and keeps kids from fighting while they tease him or adorably flirt with him.  It’s a rewritten “best of” collection from issues #1-4 (The stuff Dave isn’t too embarrassed about) plus some extra stuff from his second to last year of Subbing.

Both authors will be on hand to read and sign books.

Liz Prince

Jun ’08
26
7:00 pm

Join Liz Prince as she signs comics and answers questions at Quimby’s

Liz Prince has been drawing comics ever since she was in 3rd grade, and her work has been published since 1994 when she began regularly contributing to the Santa Fe based zine Are We There Yet? From there, the offers didn’t stop coming. Her comics have been featured in several zines/comic anthologies, 5 gallery shows, and she has produced 2 mini-comics. Influenced by autobiographical greats like Evan Dorkin, Ariel Schrag, James Kochalka, and Jeffrey Brown, her comics mix her real-life foibles with charming cartooning and comic timing. Her fans have described her work as being “cute,” making them feel “warm & fuzzy,” or simply being “too much information.” Liz’s first full length book Will You Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed? explores the banal and yet somehow fascinating intimacies of her first true love.

Delayed Replays, the second comics collection from Ignatz Award winner Liz Prince further explores how one incredibly self-centered twenty-something finds contentment in her everyday life. From the amusing to the banal, Liz’s comics are slice-of-life at its best, or if not best, at least most relatable. These strips could easily find their home in many alternative weekly papers, but Liz is too lazy to post them anywhere but her live journal or her website.

First Line Event

Jun ’08
24
7:00 pm

The First Line, the most important (*) literary journal in the country, is celebrating ten years of killing trees and making the grammar gods cringe. Come meet the editors (and mascots), at Quimby’s in Chicago. If you’re lucky, Robin and David will read from the new anthology: The Best of The First Line, Editors’ Picks: 2002-2006 (don’t worry, you’ll get lucky).

The purpose of The First Line is to jump start the imagination-to help writers break through the block that is the blank page. Each issue contains short stories that stem from a common first line; it also provides a forum for discussing favorite first lines in literature. The First Line is an exercise in creativity for writers and a chance for readers to see how many different directions we can take when we start from the same place.

(*) ten-year-old, Texas-based, 64-page, perfect bound, 8” x 5”,
$3.00-a-copy, quarterly, unaffiliated, unfunded, unassuming, and far
from uninspiring

more info at: www.thefirstline.com

Version Fest Time Again

Spring is in the air and so is impending arty madness. Its the time of year coked out art vampires don sunblock to go out of their bat caves once again and the smelly art kids return to the streets to fight the man and their boredom with a mix of dance moves and wheat pasted stickiness. In a dark void somewhere in between these two groups Version >08 is taking place. So check out the website for full schedule and to make sure you don’t miss any of the fun!

The Gay Utopia

May ’08
31
7:00 pm

The Gay Utopia is an online symposium devoted to exploring that ideal realm in which gender, sexuality, and identity dissolve. It includes poetry, artwork, comics, personal essays, reviews, fiction, drama, slash, and more by Ursula K. Le Guin, Jennifer Baumgardner, Dame Darcy, Johnny Ryan, Ariel Schrag, Julia Serano, Michael Manning, Matt Thorn, Neil Whitacre, Edie Fake, and a host of other contributors.

The forum covers an enormous range of topics, from early animation to Restoration romance novels, from horror films to shojo manga, from the kinship structure of ferns to the relationship between men and trucks. Some highlights are:

–Scott Treleaven’s classic 1997 essay on an unusual use for the orgasm
–Tabico’s insect-sex-zombie apocalypse
–Paul Nudd’s vile recipes for chutney
— Kinukitty on why teenage girls need more manporn
–gay utopia questions answered by a Giant Squid.

Incidentally, this forum has a fair bit of explicit adult content. Please proceed with caution if that seems advisable. So in other words, the Gay Utopia has something for everyone. Please come by and check it out: The Gay Utopia

For this event Gay Utopia contributors will read essays, stories, etc. from the Gay Utopia website. There will also be a zine containing material from the website (including contributions from Ursula K. Le Guin, Johnny Ryan, Dame Darcy, Ariel Schrag, Edie Fake, Lilli Carré, and others.)

The Performers for this event will include:
Noah Berlatsky (critic),Bert Stabler (critic and artist), Paul Nudd (artist),Dewayne Slightweight (comics creator and artist), David Erik Nelson (official emissary of the Giant Squid)They will be reading content from the zine and website.