Archive for the 'bestsellers' Category

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Weekly Top 10

Published on March 27, 2012 0 Comments

What Is This? A Poster. A Book enters the top 10 at #8 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. The Believer #88 2012 Film Issue $12.00

3. Lucky Peach #3 $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

4.   Lucid Coma #2 Spr 12 by Kottie Paloma, Jaina Bee & Matt Krefting $12.00

5. 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

6. Sammy The Mouse Book 1 TPB by Zak Sally (Lamano 21) $14.00 – Zak Sally collects his curmudgeon mouse comics and prints a beautiful 2-color graphic novel-collection-thwarted spirit quest. A labor of love that fears neither the grotesque nor the unstable, to be held and dug. -EF Thanks to everybody that came out to this awesome event last week!

7.   Snot Rocket City #1 by Margot, Taylor, Cory & Jeff $2.00

8. What Is This? A Poster. A Book. by Dan Evans and Carol Sogard $4.00 – (see above for picture.) Is it a graphic design group project about book layout and printing that is also interesting and legible as a zine and poster also about book layout and printing? Why, yes, I think it is. -EF

9. Birthday Boy Comics #1 by Matthew Koerber and Eric Scheidt $6.00 – These harbringers of fun give you a  carnal comics tag team repleat with multiple costume changes and plenty of saliva close-ups. -EF

10. Kramers Ergot #8 by Sammy Harkham and Dan Nadel (Picturebox) $32.95 – This latest Kramer’s anthology feels a little bit like cocaine and a reptile tank. The contemporary comics contributions are bookended by Robert Beatty’s retro-digital airbrush wizardry and bisected by higloss cgi still lives by Takeshi Murata. Then there’s a mouthwash Preface by Ian Svenonius’ space cowboy essay “Notes On Camp, Part 2”. Followed by some great cartoonists paring it down and playing it cinematic and cool – CF’s Hunger-ish scenario, Harkham’s Kubrick’s cube, Ben Jones gives us a long yarn in a dental floss line, Frank Santoro and Dash Shaw do a foggy bit about sexual predator entrapment hued in Cold Heat pervert-purples…

Weekly Top 10

Published on March 20, 2012 0 Comments

Upset Cats #1 (above) is at #9 this week.

1. 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. Lucky Peach #3 $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

3. Hot Pink by Adam Levin (McSweeneys) $22.00 – Thanks to everybody that came to the release event for this short story collection last week. “Adam Levin’s debut novel The Instructions was one of the most buzzed-about books of 2010, a sprawling universe of “death-defying sentences, manic wit, exciting provocations and simple human warmth” (Rolling Stone).

4. Bitch #54 $5.95

5. Nobrow #6 $24.00 – “…Top-notch illustration look books in the most insanely beautiful color designing ever. -EF

6. Boneshaker Magazine #8 $10.00 – A trend! We have 4 different items for sale with Boneshaker in the title!

7. Cinema Sewer #25 by Robin Bougie et al. $4.00

8. Even the Giants by Jesse Jacobs (Adhouse) $9.95

9. Upset Cats #1 by Shen Zejian $10.00 – Mad Sad Bad Color Catface Bratastrophe. -EF

10. Maximumrocknroll #347 Apr 12 $4.00

Weekly Top 10

Published on March 14, 2012 0 Comments

This is the cover of Sketch School, which is #8 this week.

1. 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

2. 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. Sad Animals by Adam Meuse $4.00

4. Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek The Next Generation Season One $2.00 by Joshua Chapman $2.00

5. Bitch #54 $5.95

6. Butt #29 Fantastic Magazine for Homosexuals $9.90 – Good gawd, after a two year hiatus we are back in the pink. This may be the last time Butt goes to print, but it’s hardly a bitter end- this issue serves it extra long and thick. Obscene yet classy homoerotic art? Check. Juicy interviews with a whole gamut of gays? Check. John Waters? Check. Cool, let’s party like its 1999. -EF

7. Bound to Struggle vol 5 Praxis Strikeback $5.00 – Playing with power and taking it dead serious, Bound to Struggle #5: Praxis is smart writing about consent and non-consent, feminism, kink, identity and control. The six essayists almost read like six different perzines, but combined present a diverse and astute collection of non-formulaic observations on the personal/political process/practice of kink. Bites as hard as you want it to. -EF

8. Sketch School #1 by Carol Sogard $7.00

9. Naughty Hen Song by by Jim Stoten (Landfill Editions) – A nutjob animal band gets its first gig at Froggo’s hypercolor jazz club and they wing it through Stoten’s party platter color palette to play their song about a certain Naughty Hen. Peace planet design in a dreamy homemade world, this is maybe the feel good comic of the year? -EF

10. Cinema Sewer #25 by Robin Bougie

Weekly Top 10

Published on March 6, 2012 0 Comments


This issue of Lucky Peach debuts at #10 this week.

1. Chicagoan #1 $19.95 – 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.

2. Doris #29 $2.00

3. Monocle vol 6 #51 Mar 12 $10.00

4. The Plot #1 A Monster in the Forbidden Forest by Neil Brideau $4.00 – Fantastical coming-of-age story in mini comic form by a Quimby’s employee and comics sommelier!

5. Being a 13 Year Old Girl #1 by Liv Love $1.00 – Chicago youths represent!

6. Halfsteps and Cloudfang by Daniela Olszewska $4.00

7. Girls On Girls #1: Girls Singing Songs About Girls Zine and CD $5.00 by Amara Leipzig and Isabella Rotman – Amara Leipzig and Isabella Rotman assemble a cover album and cutes ha-hoots liner notes zine that’s all women singing songs originally written by men about women. Gender theory via aural pleasuring. -EF

8. The First Line vol 13 #4 $3.00- The first lineof every piece in this issue is “It Had Been a Long Year.”

9. Maximumrocknroll #346 Mar 12 $4.00 – Still going strong! The zine that will still be here after the apocalypse.

10. Lucky Peach #3 Cooks and Chefs Issue $12.00 – The much anticipated third issue of McSweeney’s food mag.

Weekly Top 10

Published on February 28, 2012 0 Comments

1. The Chicagoan #1 $19.95 – 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.

2. Inside Pee-Wees Playhouse: The Untold Unauthorized and Unpredictable Story of a Pop Phenemenon by Caseen Gaines (ECW) $19.95 – Thanks to everybody that came out to this event this past Friday. We were told Large Marge sent them. The word of the day was AWESOME.

3. Notes For A Peoples Atlas: People Making Maps of Their Cities (AREA Chicago) $8.00

4. Truckface #15 $3.00 – Third year teaching high school English for CPS starts with LB hacking up a foreboding bloody clotball snotball. Truckface continues to be an annual report of both teaching and being taught- moving through all the drama, anger, goofiness and apathy and learning how to learn from it all. -EF

5. Mono Kultur #30 Win 11/12: Chris Ware a Sense of Thereness –  Well, yes…..Surprising, compelling interview zine import with Mr. Ware. 24p, red and black ink, color cover, 6″x8″

6. Gangsta Rap Posse #2 by Benjamin Marra (Traditional Comics) – You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge.

7. Chameleon #2 by Jesse Balmer and Jonny Negron $10.00 – Rage exercises and messy ends. Jesse Balmer gives us a dirty line to feline mind control, Jon Boam does a room study that reminds me of Luke Ramsey’s Islands’ Fold books, Patrick Kyle sends us to the trollverse and keeps us there, Uno Moralez keeps it pixelatin’, Roman Muradov works some stylish melancholy into his piece on sheltering umbrellas- it reminds me a little of Laura Park’s work for Mome- Jonny Negron drafts a great, gritty street fight and Zejian Shen takes the cake with a nocturnal mission – her drawing of a pool of virgin blood is maybe my favorite thing in this book that’s already all-thriller, no-filler. Look straight into these eyes, kiddies. -EF

8. Hark a Vagrant by Kate Beaton (D&Q) $19.95

9. Bust Feb Mar 12 $5.99

10. Giant Robot #65 $4.99