Weekly Top 10

Published on July 10, 2012 0 Comments

What? It’s not Halloween yet? Well everyday is Halloween in these parts.

1. Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Five by Joshua Chapman $1.00

2. Tales To Thrizzle #8 by Michael Kupperman (Fantagraphics) $4.95

3. Lucky Peach #4 Sum 12 American Food Issue $12.00

4. Prince Zine by Joshua Amberson $5.00 –  R U Ready 4 This 1? Although Amberson is no fanatical Rainbow Child, there’s more than enough purple passion and royal dedication here to assemble an inspired and juicy analysis of Prince’s dynasty, talent, discography and lifestyle choices. I like most that the zine puts some time and thought into getting behind Prince’s rampant weirdness — it’s not at all some sorry joke at Prince’s expense like that Mirror interview, but it doesn’t exactly let him off the hook either – it’s critical AND playful AND willing to admit that at everyone’s core there IS a huge weirdo. It may also be worthy of note that this zine rolled into Quimby’s on a snowy day in April, so it’s a little cosmic too, y’know? -EF

5. Animal Sex #3 Under the Sea by Isabella Rotman $3.00 – Rotman renders in chaming detail the zombie dick raunch orgy that comprises the deep blue sea. Darling it’s better down where it’s wetter, take it from me. -EF

6. The Baffler #19 $10.00

7. Hi-Fructose #24 $6.95

8. Start Your Own Haunted House by Gas Mask Horse $1.98 – Gas Mask Horse masterminds the DIY haunted punk house here in Chicago and put out this amazing spine-chilling zine bloodbath of how to grow your own Halloween hellhouse. Walk throughs, how-tos, free Frankenstein’s monster mask. Tricky treats. -EF

9. Love Is Not Constantly Wondering If You Are Making the Biggest Mistake of Your Life $5.00 – 116p, b&w, softcover, 4.25″x7″

10. Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers (McSweeneys) -“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.”

Quimby’s Participates In Bookstore Crawl 2012

Published on July 7, 2012 0 Comments

 

Participating:
Heritage Bicycles • 2959 N Lincoln Ave
Powell’s North • 2850 N Lincoln Ave
Bookworks • 3444 N Clark St
Unabridged • 3251 N Broadway
Quimby’s • 1852 W North Ave
Open Books • 213 W Institute Pl
Powell’s • 1218 S Halsted St
Crawl starts at 1pm at Heritage Bicycles! Spend the day with your two favorite inventions, bicycles and books!

It finally ends at Powell’s in University Village (1218 S. Halsted) for the opening of “Bike Crawl: An Art Show,” which starts at 7pm.
Featured local artists: Kyle Baker, Todd Irwin, Deborah Maris-Lader, Jay Ryan, Maria Sanchez, Shawn Stuckey, Michael Una, and Julia Victor Curated by Kyra Termini
For more info, click the images above.

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Eliza Frye Reads From Regalia 8/11

Published on July 7, 2012 0 Comments
Aug ’12
11
7:00 pm

Regalia is a collection of short stories exploring themes of sex and death through visual metaphor, magical realism, and white tigers. Some of the stories have been previously published and some are brand new. They are all love letters.

“Frye has a powerful style. I had an immediate, almost visceral reaction to the images.”

—  Derik A. Badman, COMIXTALK

“I really want this … but I’m afraid of what my pastor will say.”

— Chicago Comic Con Attendee

Eliza Frye is a graphic novelist, illustrator and exhibiting artist. Her comics have been featured in literary magazines and anthologies in the United States and Europe, and her short story “The Lady’s Murder” was nominated for a 2009 Eisner Award. She has studied Character Animation at California Institute of the Arts and has a BA in Japanese Literature from UCLA. She enjoys her tea earl grey, hot.

For more info: elizafrye.com and mail@elizafrye.com

Sat, Aug 11th 7pm

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Derf Reads My Friend Dahmer at Quimby’s 8/9

Published on July 7, 2012 0 Comments
Aug ’12
9
7:00 pm

“If you want to read a heavy story about a disturbing teenager, My Friend Dahmer will certainly quench your dark little desires. But this book is about a lot of other things that matter much, much more: the institutionalized weirdness of the suburban seventies, what it means to be friends with someone you don’t really like, a cogent explanation as to why terrible things happen, and a means for feeling sympathy toward those who don’t seem to deserve it.”
— Chuck Klosterman, author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs and The Visible Man

 

“A solid job. Putrid serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s origins are explored in this fine book. Dig it—it’ll hang you out to dry.”
— James Ellroy, author of My Dark Places and L.A. Confidential

My Friend Dahmer (Abrams ComicArts; March 2012; Non-fiction; Graphic Novel; Paperback $17.95; ISBN: 978-1-4197-0217-4; Hardcover $24.95; ISBN: 978-1-4197-0216-7) is an original graphic novel that gives a unique perspective on the notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, he was “Jeff,” a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways and car rides. Using a combination of his own memories and journals, conversations with old friends, and Dahmer’s interviews and transcripts, writer-artist Backderf unveils a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man—a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a misfit who never quite fit in with his classmates—struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche.

My Friend Dahmer:

  • offers fascinating and disturbing answers to the question, “What was Jeffery Dahmer like as a kid?”
  • raises the question “Could these murders have been prevented?”
  • touches on the issues of bullying, teen alcoholism, and the role of parents and teachers in a troubled teen’s life.

 

About the Author:

Derf Backderf lives in Cleveland, Ohio. He has been nominated for two Eisner Awards and has received a host of honors, including the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for political cartooning. His weekly comic strip, The City, has appeared in more than 100 newspapers over the past 22 years.

Thurs, Aug 9th, 7pm

The author is available for interviews, and images are available upon request. Contact: Katrina Weidknecht, Executive Director, Publicity, kweidknecht@abramsbooks.com

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Brion Poloncic and Eckhard Gerdes Read 8/3

Published on July 7, 2012 0 Comments
Aug ’12
3
7:00 pm

Brion Poloncic’s novel Xanthous Mermaid Mechanics pushes at all of our preconceptions and misconceptions not only about the self, but also about art.  Artists are too often and too easily cast as outsiders, and Outsider Art has become somewhat of a commodity with so-called “outsiders” who seem to market their “outsidedness” for monetary gain.  One wonders if in some cases the outsider stance isn’t merely a con.  But with Poloncic, who has been called the “Daniel Johnston” of literature, we see the real thing, and it is beautiful and scary, marvelous and delightful, yet also angry, insecure, self-doubting.  In other words, this is as human as it gets.  And sometimes it as humorous as it gets as when, in the depths of his artistic quest, Poloncic begins channeling William S. Burroughs, who dictates a manuscript to him, or when he realizes that all we really need to get through our lives successfully is a sequence of form letters.  Although it is deliciously funny, the book is, simply put, both charming and discombobulating, which is a note that rings absolutely true to the ear.  Brion Polonic is also an accomplished artist and musician.  He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his dog Tinca.

“This book was a very interesting read. At times, the author goes on a road that I don’t follow, but above and beyond, the first person narrative is brilliant. Dealing with mental illness, drug abuse and some very bad behavior without making excuses or apologies, this book chronicles parts of the author’s psyche that most of us keep locked away. My personal favorite was ‘Schizophrenia 101’. It is a step by step guide for “new” schizophrenics. Though written with humor, one can’t help but wonder if the advice and detailed guide of symptoms and meanings WOULD be a useful tool for people experiencing their first psychotic episode.”   –Kyle Muntz, Author of VII (A Novel): The Life, Times, and Tragedy of Sir Edward William Locke the Third: Gentleman.

Also joining the bill is Chicago author Eckhard Gerdes, who will read from his new books The Three Psychedelic Novellas of Eckhard Gerdes (Enigmatic Ink Books) and The Sylvia Plath Cookbook (Sugar Glider Press).

For more info: www.experimentalfiction.com, www.eckhardgerdes.com

Fri, Aug 3rd, 7pm

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