New Stuff This Week

Published on August 3, 2012 0 Comments

The Minus Times Collected 20 Years 30 Issues, ed. by Hunter Kennedy $16.95 – Begun as an open letter to strangers and fellow misfits, The Minus Times grew to become a hand-typed literary magazine that showcased the next generation of American fiction. Contributors include Sam Lipsyte, David Berman, Patrick DeWitt, and Wells Tower, with illustrations by David Eggers and Brad Neely as well as interviews with Dan Clowes, Barry Hannah, and a yet-to-be-famous Stephen Colbert. With sly humor and striking illustrations, The Minus Times has earned a fervent following as much for its lack of literary pretension as its sporadic appearances on the newsstand. All thirty of the nearly-impossible-to-find issues of this improvised literary almanac are now assembled for the first time, typos and all.

Zines & Zine-Related
Serial Killers Unite #10 $2.00
Telegram #24 Feb 12 by Maranda Elizabeth $3.00
Real Life: A Magical Guide to Getting Off the Internet by Maranda Elizabeth and Dave Cave $3.00
Hippie hippie shake: The dreams, the trips, the trials, the love-ins, the screw ups, the sixties by Richard Neville $16.95 – Collected retrospective of Oz Magazine, at the centre of a cyclone of radicals, rock musicians, artists and hustlers in the 60s.
Nuts #10 $4.00
Noisy Boy #2 Jul 12 by PJ Franzen $5.00
Echo by Aaron Smith $5.00
Snot Rocket City #2 $2.00
Some Things Make No Sense, Like Jeggings by Carrie $1.00
Paper Houses #7 The Batman Issue by Kriss Stress $1.00

Comics & Comix
Maddie #1 by Gabriela Cracraft $5.00
Gold Star by John Martz (Retrofit Comics) $5.00
Sheep Rumble by Sue Cargill $2.00
Beasts of Burden: Neighborhood Watch by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson $3.50
Genius and the Fatass by Alex Martin $1.00
Pretentious Record Store Guy #3 by Carlos Gabriel Ruiz $2.99
James Joyce by Ed Choy Moorman $5.00
Art Appreciation vol 2 Sunday on la Grande Jatte 1884 by Georges Seurat $2.00

Graphic Novels & Trade Paperbacks
How Would I Know If Youre Dreaming: Finn and Charlie Are Hitched vol 3 by Tony Breed $12.00
Making Of byBrecht Evans (D&Q) $29.95
Karma Tastes Like Diet Coke by Chris McKay $8.00
Blasted: An Ink and Drink Comics Science Fiction Anthology $11.99
Blind to Blue and Other Things: A Stack of Poetry Comics by Paul K. Tunis $10.00

Fiction
The Emily Dickinson Reader: An English-to-English Translation of Emily Dickinson’s Complete Poems by Paul Legault (McSweeneys) $17.00

Thirteen Girls by Mikita Brottman $13.00
Pyg: The Memoirs of Toby the Learned Pig by Russell Potter $15.00
Xanthous Mermaid Mechanics by Brion Poloncic $15.00
Books by Eckhard Gerdes: Including Hugh Moore, The Sylvia Plath Cookbook: A Satire, Three Psychedelic Novels

Mayhem, Miscreants, Memoirs & Misc
Ascent of the A-Word: Assholism, the First Sixty Years by Geoffrey Nunberg $25.99 – Considering how much the word asshole does for us, and to us, it hasn’t gotten nearly the attention it deserves –– at least until now.
The Lords of 2112: The Poignantly Vulgar & Vulgarly Poignant Chronicle of America’s Future by Daniel Marion Mitchell Jr. $14.23 – Everything is weird about this book. Even the price.
More Baths Less Talking: Notes from the Reading Life of a Celebrated Author Locked in Battle with Football Family and Time Itself by Nick Hornby $14.00 – More Beleiver columns from this High Fidelity author.

DIY
Lickin the Beaters 2 Vegan Chocolate and Candy by Siue Moffat, Celso and Missy Kulik (PM Press) $17.95
You Cant Make This Stuff Up: Complete Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction from Memoir to Literary Journalism and Everything in Between by Lee Gutkind $16.00

Politics & Revolution
Letters to a Young Activist by Todd Gitlin $14.99

Magazines
Maximumrocknroll #351 Aug 12 $4.00
Decibel #95 Sep 12 $4.95
Adbusters Sep Oct 12 #103 vol 20 #5 $8.95
various issues of Uppercase: A Magazine For the Creative and Curious
Dwell Sep 12 $5.99
Wallpaper Aug 12 $10.00
Skunk vol 8 #1 $5.99
Ghetto Blaster #32 $3.95
Makeshift #3 Sum 12 Journal of Hidden Creativity $10.00
In These Times Aug 12 $3.50

Weekly Top 10

Published on July 31, 2012 0 Comments


This most recent issue of Remedy (#9, featuring the them of escape) is at #10 this week.

1. Office Girl by Joe Meno (Akashic) $15.95 – Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1999?

2. Lucky Peach #4 Sum 12 The American Food Issue – The McSweeney’s food rag rampages on with the American Food Issue. Less cranky then issue 3, this round has a sprawling Tex-Mex choose your own adventure, plenty of odes to diners and, unsurprisingly, the movie Diner, Cambodian American doughnut culture, Harold McGee being typically delightful and loads of recipes looking that scrummy kinda yummy you know tastes fine. -EF

3. The Baffler #20 $10.00 –  In this summer issue, decomposing cities that tremble with vibrancy, art museums where cash-and-carry aesthetics is the rule, journalists on the endless education of the president, and imperial foundations and their pet broadcasters on public radio. Where else can you learn why Ira Glass’s This American Life is so damn annoying, or take in the lame, postideological pantomiming of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, or admire the performance art of Harvard fraud Adam Wheeler and laugh at the Ivy mothership’s efforts to smite the pretender down?

4. The Believer #91 $12.00

5. Lose #3 by Michael DeForge (Koyama Press) $5.00 – Lose has the same doomsday “joy” of early Dan Clowes or Chris Ware: pathetic characters trapped in a endless plummet of unaware-over-self-awareness that cuts straight to the heart of a modern crisis of meaning. Perhaps an interesting distinction here is that while D.C. and C.W. were dishing out their snarkiest and perhaps crassest work as absurd technology and media alienation was revving up, DeForge’s fined-tuned portraits of apocalyptic failure are being produced in sync with a deep cultural wallow in the bitter joke of “first world problems”. Whatever the case, his self-absorbed characters attempting (and failing) to toddle through their collapsed and bombed out trash cities unscathed is consistently scary and resonating. With each issue, his rotwater post-apocalypse hauntscape looks more and more like the 4 month pasta salad leftovers back of my fridge, but somehow it keeps you hungry for more. -EF

6. Boys Club #1 by Matt Furie (Buenaventura Press) $6.00 – A collection of Matt Furie’s mini-comics featuring teenage monsters Andy, Brett, Landwolf and Pepe: drinkin;, stinkin; and never thinkin’.

7. Acme Novelty Library by Chris Ware (Pantheon) $27.50

8. Even the Giants by Jesse Jacobs (Adhouse) $9.95 – Jesse Jacobs bursts onto the comic scene with his first published work EVEN THE GIANTS. The work beautifully captures the isolation of the Great White North while also giving the artist a sequential canvas to explore and experiment. This book will be printed in three Pantone spot colors. Jesse’s work has been nominated for the Doug Wright award and has won the Gene Day award.

9. Nurse Nurse by Kate Skelly (Sparkplug) $15.00 – Description from the back of the book: “It is a comic book about the future. It is a prediction about television. It is a cautionary tale about butterflies. It is science fiction for all kinds of people. It collects all seven issues of the mini-comic series and the never-before-seen eighth issue. Please have an adventure….Love is real. NURSE NURSE this.”

10. Remedy Quarterly #9 Escape $9.50 – From the Remedy website describing this issue of this popular food zine: Issue 9 will leave you ready to make you’re own great escape—hopefully to your kitchen. Inside we’ve got a Q&A with Bonnie Slotnick of Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks in New York City (one of my personal favorite escapes), we’ll take you the countryside of Italy where you’ll learn to enjoy the sound of silence in Italy, and get adventurous at a Louisiana crab boil complete with a trip to the bayou. Plus recipes, tips & tidbits, and more!

New Stuff This Week Including New Quimby’s Podcast Episode

Published on July 28, 2012 0 Comments

Yes! There is a new episode of the Quimby’s Podcast, which you can listen to and/or download on Podbean or I-Tunes. This episode features an interview with the charismatic, funny and extremely articulate Caseen Gaines, the author of Inside Pee-wee’s Playhouse: The Untold, Unauthorized, and Unpredictable Story of a Pop Phenomenon. Relevant topics? Public persona, breaking the fourth wall, hommage vs. rip off, tribute vs authorization…Mr. Gaines is a high school teacher, so let’s just say we bet sitting in his class must be awesome.

Zines & Zine-Related Books
Not Bored Anthology 1983-2010 by William J. Brown (Colossal) $25.00
Rad Dad Zine Compilation Issues 1-10 by Tomas Moniz (1984) $15.00
Taking the Lane vol 7 BikeSexuality $4.00
Bipedal By Pedal #3 A History of Bicycle Activism in Portland Oregon by Joe Biel $4.00
The Worst of While You Were Sleeping (Schiffer) $39.99 – 496-page compilation of The Worst of While You Were Sleeping magazine, over 900 images of the graffiti crazed, boozed-up partiers, and scantily clad ladies, and pop culture. WYWS magazine was started by graffiti supply business owner Roger Gastman when he was 19.

Mumbo #9 $6.00
Please You Will Sodomize Me #3 Sum 12 $4.50
Lady Gardens $2.00
Art of Dismantling: A Radical Artisan Collective and Ongoing Interview Series by Chris Richards, Matt Gauck, Lantz Arroyo, Alan Moore et al. (AK) $3.00 issues #1 and #2 $3.00 each
Beyond the Affinity Group: The Organisational Challenge for Anarchists by Andrew Flood $4.50
American Worker by Paul Romano (AK) $3.00
Peops #7 by Fly $4.00
Finite and Flammable: A Zine About Zines by various $3.00
Drop Target #3 by Jon Chad and Alec Longstreth $5.00
The Nutella Cookbook by Anna Williams $4.00
Born To Kill Cheese Bike #5 by Pat McCarthy $2.00
Infecticitis #11 Selfish by Halley $2.50
Pulling Ink: Build a One Color Press and Start Screenprinting Zine by Rio $2.00
Xerography Debt #31 by Davida Gypsy Breier $4.00
Publick Occurances #13 by Danny Martin $2.00
Gold by Sarah Royal $3.00
Roll Big or Go Home by Rio Safari $2.00
zines by Kriss Stress: Paper Houses #6 Margin Walker #4 $1.00 each
ByUs #1 the Gary Historical and Cultural Society Summer Enrichment Program Zine by Miss Curiouser $4.00
How To Commit Revolution In Corporate America by Domhoff G. William $5.00

Comics & Comix
Everybody Loves Tank Girl #1 $3.99
comics by Noah Van Sciver: Dueling $2.00, Blammo #7.5  $4.00
Blindspot #2 by Jospeh Remnant $5.00
Gorilla Year #1 by Cara Bean $5.00
East West Zodiac and Journal by Turtel Onli $5.00
Raccoons by Cathon $5.00
Pulse Burst and Wagon Engourdi by Vincent Giard $6.00
Colibri #4 $6.00
Mille Putois comics by Pascal Girard: Apartment Number 3 $4.00, Des Adolescents $5.00
Hellenistic Philosophers by Drew Damron $2.00
Cup O Noodles by JF $.50
comics from Emily Armstrong: I Don’t Really Use a Recipe $2.00, Some of Us #3 $6.00
Pilot Theory #1 by John L. Gehron $1.00

Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks
Luchadoras by Peggy Adam (Blank Slate) $17.99
Flower of Battambang by Em Satya $2.00
Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf) $19.95
No Straight Lines HC Four Decades of Queer Comics by Justin Hall (Fantagraphics) $35.00
Scalped vol 9 Knuckle Up TPB by Jason Aaron and RM Guera $14.99
Fables Deluxe Edition Book 4 by Bill Willingham et al. $29.99
3 Story Secret History of the Giant Man by Matt Kindt $19.99

Art & Design
Melamine Car Bomb by Mark Connery $9.95
Art By Tattooists: Beyond Flash by Jo Waterhous $9.95

Fiction
City Life Coming of Age in Chicago by John G. Lineham $12.00
This Bright River by Patrick Somerville $24.99 – New fiction from this popular local writer.
Sorry Please Thank You Stories by Charles Yu $24.95

Mayhem, Miscreants, Memoirs & Misc
The Steampunk’s Guide to the Apocalypse by Margaret Killjoy  and Colin Foran (Combustion Books) $10.00
Pickled Punks and Girlie Shows: A Life Spent on the Midways of America by Rick West (Schiffer) $24.99
Chicago’s Haunt Detective by Raymond Johnson $16.99
The Art of Mediumship: Psychic Investigation Clairvoyance and Channeling by Elaine Kuzmeskus $16.99
The UFOs Hunters Guide: Sightings, Abductions, Hot Spots, Conspiracies, Cover Ups, Identified and Unidentified and More by Bret Lueder (Weiser) $19.95
God Forgive These Bastards by Rob Morton (Cantankerous) $7.95
Toilet Yoga: Because Sometimes Shit Doesnt Happen by John Johnston and Jeff Tow $11.99
Witchs Brew: Secrets of Scents by Morwyn (Schiffer) $16.95

Poltics & Revolution
Labor Rising: The Past and Future of Working People in America by Daniel Katz and Richard A. Greenwald $20.95

Magazines
True Crime Jul 12 $8.99
Sneaker Freaker #24 $14.50
BlackBook Sep 12 $4.95
Empire Aug 12 $9.99
Tattoo Society #34 $7.99

Sexy & Sexy
Handbook vol 6 #3 2012 $6.00

Music Books
The Gun is Loaded by Lydia Lunch (Black Dog) $55.00

Other Stuff
More 2013 Moleskines.
Gless DVD Lonliness is Contagious $3.00

Matt Madden Comics Seminar at Chicago Comics 8/2

Published on July 25, 2012 0 Comments

Our sister store, Chicago Comics is proud to present award-winning comic author Matt Madden to the store for a three hour seminar entitled “Checklist For a A New Comic: A Guide to Getting Started.” He’ll walk you through the many considerations you should keep in mind when you embark on creating a new comic, whether a one-pager, a webcomic, or a graphic novel. Madden will help you strategize and come up with a working plan for your next project. He will cover a variety of bases, including:: creative block and coming up with ideas, choosing a format and platform that makes sense, setting goals and scheduling your time so that you can reach them, finding an audience and looking for collaborators and/or publishers. So bring some paper and be ready to take notes on your next big (or small) project! The event begins at 5 and goes until 8.  And! Chicago Comics will also be giving away 3 free copies of Matt Madden and Jessica Abel’s new book Mastering Comics to random attendees! Updates and more information on the event can be seen on the Facebook Page for the event.

Matt Madden is a former Chicagoan, now New York transplant, who is best known for his original alternative comics, and teaches comics at the School of Visual Arts and Yale University.

Thurs, Aug 2nd, 5-8pm

*Please note, this event is NOT at Quimby’s. It is at CHICAGO COMICS, at 3244 North Clark Street, Chicago. Call 773-528-1983 for more information.

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Weekly Top 10

Published on July 24, 2012 0 Comments

1. The Baffler #20 $10.00 – In this summer issue, decomposing cities that tremble with vibrancy, art museums where cash-and-carry aesthetics is the rule, journalists on the endless education of the president, and imperial foundations and their pet broadcasters on public radio. Where else can you learn why Ira Glass’s This American Life is so damn annoying, or take in the lame, postideological pantomiming of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, or admire the performance art of Harvard fraud Adam Wheeler and laugh at the Ivy mothership’s efforts to smite the pretender down? This 172-page issue also offers poems, stories, graphic art, and, just for kicks, the first-ever look at Christopher Lasch’s 1972 novel. Contributors include Thomas Frank, Jed Perl, Steve Almond, Chris Lehmann, Jim Newell, Eugenia Williamson, Heather Havrilesky, Kim Phillips-Fein, Emma Garman, Chris Bray, Matt Hinton, Will Boisvert, Seth Colter Walls, Tod Mesirow, David D’Arcy, and The Homeless Economist, who has a timely suggestion: “Green Gallows for the Wall Street Bankers.

2. Office Girl by Joe Meno (Akashic) $15.95 – Umbrellas of Cherbourg 1999?…And don’t  miss Joe Meno at the Empty Bottle this coming Thursday (July 26th) at 9pm.

3. Razorcake #69 $4.00

4. Bust Aug Sep 12 $5.99

5. Fallen Words: Eight Moral Comedies by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (D&Q) $19.95 – “In Fallen Words, Yoshihiro Tatsumi takes up the oral tradition of rakugo and breathes new life into it by shifting the format from spoken word to manga. Each of the eight stories in the collection is lifted from the Edo-era Japanese storytelling form. As Tatsumi notes in the afterword,the world of rakugo, filled with mystery, emotion, revenge, hope, and of course, love, overlaps perfectly with the world of gekiga that he has spent the better part of his life developing. These slice-of-life stories resonate with modern readers thanks to their comedic elements and familiarity with human idiosyncrasies. In one, a father finds his son too bookish and arranges for two workers to take the young man to a brothel on the pretext of visiting a new shrine. In another particularly beloved rakugo tale, a married man falls in love with a prostitute. When his wife finds out, she is enraged and sets a curse on the other woman. The prostitute responds by cursing the wife, and the two escalate in a spiral of voodoo doll cursing. Soon both are dead, but even death can’t extinguish their jealousy. Tatsumi’s love of wordplay shines through in the telling of these whimsical stories, and yet he still offers timeless insight into human nature.”

6. R. Crumb’s Blues Jazz and Country by R. Crumb $21.95 – Finally back in print! Comes with CD.

7. Love Is Not Constantly Wondering If You Are Making the Biggest Mistake of Your Life $5.00

8. Inferno: A Poets Novel by Eileen Myles (OR) $16.00 – “Inferno” is one of the best books I have ever read. Myles’ writing here wraps the brute force of a memoir within words so gorgeously warm, honed and unstoppable you have no choice but to keep reading. Her prose barrels forward, simultaneously demolishing and defining the identities her life is tethered to. It’s a book that’s simultaneously sexy, cranky, funny, dishy, insightful and human. As suspicious as I can be of poetry, this book is undeniably poetic – and an honest-to-goodness tour de force. Beyond recommended, friends- I think this one should be required. -EF

9. Hologram For the King by Dave Eggers (McSweeneys) $25.00 – In a rising Saudi Arabian city, far from weary, recession-scarred America, a struggling businessman pursues a last-ditch attempt to stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter’s college tuition, and finally do something great. In A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers takes us around the world to show how one man fights to hold himself and his splintering family together in the face of the global economy’s gale-force winds. This taut, richly layered, and elegiac novel is a powerful evocation of our contemporary moment.

10. Juxtapoz #139 Aug 12 $5.99