Archive for the 'bestsellers' Category

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Weekly Top 10

Published on April 30, 2012 0 Comments

Eat Zine #4 makes the top 10 this week at #4.

1. Burn Collector #16 by Al Burian (Pegacorn Press) $5.00 – It’s always a joy to see another installment of Al’s adventures, especially since we see him less and less in Chicago due to his relocation in Berlin. There’s plenty of flash rant-style review pieces (an Iron Maiden concert for one), books he’s read (a YA novel!), and also his comics. Like the last issue of BC there’s also some interviews too, like Tim Remis from Sweet Cobra (and of lesser-known Soviet folk singer fame), as well as Sascha Scatter of The Icarus Project. Published by Caroline Pequita’s art-freaker publishing house Pegacorn Press in Brooklyn. -LM

2. The Monster That Ate the Stars by Souther Salazar $1.00

3. Thickness #2 by Angie Wang et al. $10.00 – Hot ‘n slimey crypto-beast on humanoid-beast action. Eagerly anticipated sophmore release for this sexy anthological comic. Works from Lisa Hanawalt, Michael DeForge, Jilian Tamaki and more.

4. Eat Zine #4 by Jazz Robinson and Dan Varenka $6.50 – Ecclectic/eccentric food zine with  a down to earth approach, a goofy sense of humor and a crafty eye for special effects. Standouts of this issue include the street tag AGAVE, weed butter chicken livers, banana origami, and a recipe for chocolate maple bourbon bacon cupcakes. Lucky Peach totally owes these guys a cheeky move or two. -EF

5. Enchante: Short Stories by Dan Gleason $2.00 – Most recent endeavor from lovable local weirdo.

6. Crap Hound #8 Superstition by Sean Tejaratchi (Show & Tell Press)$12.00 – This issue meditates on such things as black cats, butterflies, knots, candles…All with a wonderful “Fair Use” collage-y awesomeness.

7. Roctober #50 ed. by Jake Austen $5.00 – Roctober is 20 years old! This is issue #50! I love this magazine!!!!! LOVE THIS MAGAZINE! Let’s have a party.  -EF

8. Crap Hound #5 Hands Hearts Eyes  by Sean Tejaratchi (Show & Tell Press)$12.00

9. Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Three by Joshua Chapman $1.00 –  Although the “school project” alibi is wearing a little thin on this educational zine series, the nerdery aboard this enterprise holds strong and is remarkably entertaining. Makes me wish I knew more Star Trek things to crack puns about.-EF

10. 8 Track Mind #101 Zines by F.R. Russ Forster $3.00 – 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

Weekly Top 10

Published on April 24, 2012 0 Comments

1. Open Country #2 by Michael Deforge $3.00

2. Open Country #1 by Michael Deforge $3.00 – DeForge sets some bodydrama into motion with the first installment of Open Country – The homebrew scifi premise here is youths messing around with psychic projections, avataring themselves into a fleshribbon realm where physical and mental integrity show some fraying around the edges. -EF

3. Twenty Million (20,000,000) by by Isabella Rotman $6.00 – A surreallist tale about pale white space snakes on a survivalist quest through a deadly darkness in search of some giant lifesaving “egg” or whatnot.  Where people come up with these crazy ideas is beyond me. -EF

4. Thickness #2 by Angie Wang et al. $10.00 – Hot ‘n slimey crypto-beast on humanoid-beast action. Eagerly anticipated sophmore release for this sexy anthological comic. Works from Lisa Hanawalt, Michael DeForge, Jilian Tamaki and more.

5. Kid Mafia #1 by Michael Deforge $3.00 – “That special time between the end of high school and the beginning of college… depicted by Michael DeForge, so it’s a complete fucking nightmare, OK?! With bonus skateboard action. Part one of an ongoing series. Features 2 bonus “Military Prison” strips.” – from wowcool.com

6. Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Three by Joshua Chapman $1.00 – Although the “school project” alibi is wearing a little thin on this educational zine series, the nerdery aboard this enterprise holds strong and is remarkably entertaining. Makes me wish I knew more Star Trek things to crack puns about.-EF

7. Brainscan #29/No More Coffee #4 (split zine) by Alex Wrekk and Ben Spies $3.00

8. Chicago IRL #3 Spr 12 $11.00 – Chicago’s homegrown queer art rag, issue #3 and going strong!

9. The Chicagoan #1 $19.95 – Joining the literary-minded ranks of n+1, The Paris Review, The Believer and Lapham’s Quarterly, and doing it with Midwestern flair, The Chicagoan ressurects a long defunct jazz-age magazine and focuses in on non-profit production, local distribution and general excellence in writing and design. The debut issue is a stunner, a cohesive and relevant blend of fiction, history, innovation, interviews and a 50-page oral history of Siskel and Ebert. -EF

10. Burn Collector #16 by Al Burian (Paquita Press) $5.00 – It’s always a joy to see another installment of Al’s adventures, especially since we see him less and less in Chicago due to his relocation in Berlin. There’s plenty of flash rant-style review pieces (an Iron Maiden concert for one), books he’s read (a YA novel!), and also his comics. Like the last issue of BC there’s also some interviews too, like Tim Remis from Sweet Cobra (and of lesser-known Soviet folk singer fame), as well as Sascha Scatter of The Icarus Project. Published by Caroline Pequita’s art-freaker publishing house Pegacorn Press in Brooklyn. -LM

Weekly Top 10

Published on April 17, 2012 0 Comments

Michael Deforge rules the Top 10 this week! And a new issue of Burn Collector!

1. Burn Collector #16 by Al Burian (Paquita Press) $5.00

2.   The Chicagoan #1 $19.95 – Joining the literary-minded ranks of n+1, The Paris Review, The Believer and Lapham’s Quarterly, and doing it with Midwestern flair, The Chicagoan ressurects a long defunct jazz-age magazine and focuses in on non-profit production, local distribution and general excellence in writing and design. The debut issue is a stunner, a cohesive and relevant blend of fiction, history, innovation, interviews and a 50-page oral history of Siskel and Ebert. -EF

3. Hoody #1 A Hip Hop Comic Graph Novel by Joel CRAVE Maxime Jr $5.00 – Bouncing through a chromosplash cityscape of graffitipsychedelia, Hoody’s an all-blue Vaughn Bodian anti-hero on a trail of pig roasting secret clues. Wild motions that sometimes remind me of Bernie McGovern’s “Army of Lovers” comics. -EF

4.  Thickness #2 by Angie Wang et al. $10.00 – Hot ‘n slimey crypto-beast on humanoid-beast action. Eagerly anticipated sophmore release for this sexy anthological comic. Works from Lisa Hanawalt, Michael DeForge, Jilian Tamaki and more.
5. Proximity #9 Grassroots Planning and Placemaking Objects Spr 12 vol 4 #1 $11.99
6. Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek The Next Generation Season Three by Joshua Chapman $1.00 – Although the “school project” alibi is wearing a little thin on this educational zine series, the nerdery aboard this enterprise holds strong and is remarkably entertaining. Makes me wish I knew more Star Trek things to crack puns about.-EF
7. Colors #83 Win 12 $8.95
8. Incinerator by Michael Deforge (Secret Headquarters) $5.00

9. Kid Mafia #1 by Michael Deforge $3.00 – “That special time between the end of high school and the beginning of college… depicted by Michael DeForge, so it’s a complete fucking nightmare, OK?! With bonus skateboard action. Part one of an ongoing series. Features 2 bonus “Military Prison” strips.” – from wowcool.com

10. Open Country #2 by Michael Deforge $3.00

Weekly Top 10

Published on April 10, 2012 0 Comments

Proximity #9 is at #3 this week.

1. The Chicagoan #1 $19.95 – Joining the literary-minded ranks of n+1, The Paris Review, The Believer and Lapham’s Quarterly, and doing it with Midwestern flair, The Chicagoan ressurects a long defunct jazz-age magazine and focuses in on non-profit production, local distribution and general excellence in writing and design. The debut issue is a stunner, a cohesive and relevant blend of fiction, history, innovation, interviews and a 50-page oral history of Siskel and Ebert. -EF

2. Hi-Fructose #23 $6.95 – Showcasing an eclectic mix of underground artists, pop surrealists, emerging and rediscovered counter cultures, and awe inspiring art.

3. Proximity #9 Grassroots Planning and Placemaking Objects Spr 12 vol 4 #1 $11.99

4. Lucky Peach #3 Cooks and Chefs Issue (McSweeney’s) $12.00 – Dave Chang of the Momofuku restaurant empire alternates between griping about everything being done already and the kids having no motivation these days in this new issue which I thought was themed “The Death of Integrity” but instead seems to be about, uh, “Cooks and Chefs”. I’m still up in the air about how self-referential this magazine is – it’s sort of like a chef perzine with a big magazine budget, which sometimes makes it’s cavalier attitude feel like chef crony-ism and empty trash talk. All the same, I’m interested in eating and the Matt Furie centerfold is sooper cute. Food is dead, long live food. -EF

5. Cave Girl by Ireal $1.00 Unfoldable stories of Cave Girl living, a lot about mushroom hunting, musings on bears and beasts, spiders too. -EF

6. Trubble Club #5 by Everybody – Mi Familia! The cartoonist cabal is back for more with this deluxxx edition full color comics offering, silkscreen print and possibly stickers (Thanks Post Family!)! Trubble from: Nate Beaty, Grant Reynolds, Laura Park, Jeremy Tinder, Aaron Renier, Rachel Niffenegger, Bernie McGovern, Lilli Carré, Corinne Mucha, Jeffrey Brown, Lucy Knisley, Becca Taylor, Jose Garibaldi, Joshua Cotter, Joe Tallarico, Onsmith, Lyra Hill, Sam Sharpe and Carrie Vinarsky with assists from Ezra Claytan Daniels, Craig Thompson, Thorne Brandt, Erika Moen, Antoine Dode and Alec Longstreth. KAPOW! -EF
(P.S. Edie is far too modest to write that he himself is also in it! -LM)

7. Judas Goat #53 by Grant Schreiber $1.50

8. My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf (Abrams ComicArts) $17.95 – Backderf puts together a memoir of high school in the washed out suburban seventies when he was classmates and comrades with grisly serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. My Friend Dahmer is a compelling read in the way it maps the social environment and reflects on Dahmer’s self-awareness. Backderf focuses in with a too-close-for-comfort look at Dahmer’s disturbed adolescence and also his humanity, and this is the most shocking and intriguing part of this book, the separation -for a minute- of the man from the monster. It doesn’t attempt to tackle the truly gruesome part of Dahmer’s biography, the part we all know, and so the portrait the book produces is both intimate and casual – a bit like Gus VanSant’s Elephant, a character study where we are looking at some trecherous moral precipices, and trying to understand what makes someone leap from them. -EF

9. Lucky Peach #2 The Sweet Spot $12.00

10. Cat & Gnome by Graham Roumieu (Blue Q) $7.99

Weekly Top 10

Published on April 3, 2012 0 Comments

1. The Chicagoan #1 $19.95 – Joining the literary-minded ranks of n+1, The Paris Review, The Believer and Lapham’s Quarterly, and doing it with Midwestern flair, The Chicagoan ressurects a long defunct jazz-age magazine and focuses in on non-profit production, local distribution and general excellence in writing and design. The debut issue is a stunner, a cohesive and relevant blend of fiction, history, innovation, interviews and a 50-page oral history of Siskel and Ebert. -EF

2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins $8.99

3. Roctober #50 $5.00 – Roctober is 20 years old! This is issue #50! I love this magazine!!!!! LOVE THIS MAGAZINE! Let’s have a party.  -EF P.S. Thanks to everybody that came out for this event last week.

4. The Avocado #1 by Mellie Manfredi- Winter writing about feelin’ chilly and eating chili! -EF

5. Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace (33 1/3 Series) by Aaron Cohen (Continuum) $12.95

6. Doris #29 by Cindy Crabb $2.00 – More mini horse adventures(!), tales of life, grandparents and Girls Rock Camp plus half the issue devoted to a longer personal essay, charmingly titled “How I learned to stop worrying and love being queer.” It’s a new issue of Doris, of course you should read it. -EF

7. DIY Magic (Floating World Comics) $13.95 – Magical practice for the roving tripper, sloppy scrapper, intuitive lifesprout, beligerent believer, permanent vacationer and dirty weirdo. Illustrated by a dream team of visual power – Ron Rege, Pippi Zornoza, Aiden Koch, Tommi Musturi, Inés Estrada, Dunja Jankovic, Christian DiFilippo and Lala Albert amongst much others! Call these corners, pronto! -EF

8. The Baffler #19 $10.00 – What?! A new issue of THE BAFFLER?! For reals.

9. Crap Hound #8 Superstition by Sean Tejaratchi (Show & Tell Press) $12.00 – A new issue of Crap Hound! This issue meditates on such things as black cats, butterflies, knots, candles…All with a wonderful “Fair Use” collage-y awesomeness. “One of my favorite zines of all time” –Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing

10. Bust Apr May 12 $5.99