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