New Stuff This Week

Published on February 3, 2012 0 Comments

Tonight (Fri the 3rd) is Punk Rock Karaoke at The Beauty Bar, a fundraiser for the Chicago Zine Fest. See you there!

Zines
Rad Dad #21 Occupy by Tomas Moniz $4.00
On Being Hard Femme #1 by Jackie Wang $1.20 – Wang presents a great little zine about identity, toughness, bike grease femininity and lace trimmed queerness and making up definitions as you go along. -EF
Xerography Debt #30 $4.00
Railroad Semantics #5 2011 by Aaron Dactyl $6.50 – Absolutely, positively, without a doubt, obsessed with the rails. Another huge, densely packed issue, plenty of nice spreads of train tags and built around a winding travelogue taking us down the line from one notable stop to the next.

Want What You Got 2012 by Ana Norell $1.00
Travel On #1 and #2 by David Solomon $2.00 each – Solomon writes about his icoloclastic sentiments and what he’s trying to iconoclash with. Conversations about scars, letters about love, essays about collecting one’s own ephemera. -EF

Ways of the Two Spirits #1 Jan 12 by Devan Elyse Bennett $3.00 – Part One in a series of a five zine series of Queer History Trans Traditions.
Notes and Bolts #1 A Compendium of Music Food and Art by Kris Stress et al. $4.50
Thought Catalog 2011 by Emily Kozik $5.00
Light in the Dark With the Neon Arms BY Sonor On $10.00
Pigeon to the Phoenix $5.00
Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek The Next Generation Season Two by Joshua Chapman, English grade 8 April 13 1991 $1.00

Comics & Comix
Nix Comics Quarterly #4 $5.00
Richie Rich: Poor Little Rich Boy by Sonor On $20.00

Graphic Novels & Trade Paperbacks
Life and Death of Fritz the Cat by R. Crumb (Fatagraphics) $19.99
Action, Mystery, Thrills: Comic Book Covers of the Golden Age 1933- 1945 (Fantagraphics) $29.99
Young Romance: The Best of Simon and Kirbys Romance Comics (Fantagraphics) $29.99
Rat Catcher by Andy Diggler et al. (Vertigo) $12.99
Unspent Love or Things I Wish I Told You by Shannon Gerard (Conundrum) $20.00
Hermoddities by Temple Bates (Conundrum) $20.00
Colliers Popular Press – David Collier’s 30 Years On the Newsstand by David Collier (Conundrum) $20.00

Art & Design Books
Lisa Anne Auerbach Umma Porjects July 11 – Oct 11 99 by Lisa Anne Auerbach et al. (University of Michigan Museum of Art) $7.00 – I love this phase from the introduction: “she probes the possibilities of craft and advocates for the leftist reclaimation of homemaking.”

Inklings by Vida Simon $20.00
Don’t Get Lonely Dont Get Lost by Elisabeth Belliveau (Conundrum) $25.00 – Sensitive, minimal and compelling. By the artist of Something to Pet the Cat About.
Electrical Banana: Masters of Psychedelic Art ed. by Norman Hathaway and Dan Nadel (Damiani) $39.95

DIY
Mend It Better – Creative Patching Darning and Stitching by Kristin M. Roach (Scholastic) $18.95

Mayhem, Miscreants, Memoirs & Misc
Grey Gardens by Sara and Rebekah Maysles (FNP) $45.00
Queer Spirits by AA Bronson and Peter Hobbs $34.95

Poltics & Revolution
Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics by Deric Shannon et al. (AK) $21.00
Armitage Avenue Transcendentalists by Janina Ciezadlo, Penny Rosemont et al. (Kerr) $17.00

Fiction
Monsieur Pain by Roberto Bolano (ND) $13.95 – Now in soft cover.
Lullabies For Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill (Harper) $13.99
Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic ed by Jimenez Eduardo Mayo (SB) $16.00
Embassytown SC by China Mieville (Del Ray) $16.00

Magazines
Cabinet #44 24 Hours $12.00
Apartamento #8 $19.95
Yeti #12 $14.95
Artbox #18 $10.99
Toilet Paper #3 Jun 11 $12.00
Toilet Paper #4 Nov 11 $12.00
Dwell Mar 12 $5.99
Wallpaper Feb 12 $10.00
Sovereign #32 Feb 12 $3.95
Flaunt #119 $10.95

Sex & Sexy
Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots  – Flaming Challenges… by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (AK) $17.95
Luscious: Stories of Anal Eroticism ed. by Alison Tyler (Cleis) $15.95

This Just In! “Zine Firsts” Submissions Wanted

Published on February 1, 2012 0 Comments

Are you a Chicago-based zinester or a zine-friendly reader? One of our Quimby faves, Jami Sailor, wants to hear from you. Here she is, we’ll put her on the line…

Recently I did a reading at Quimby’s that evolved into a talk about how we get into zines, the first zine we encounter and how that encounter has influenced us, and other first experiences relating to zines. This lead me to want to make a project focusing on this topic ZINES and FIRST TIMES = the first time you heard about zines, the first zine you ever got, your first zine fest (attending or tabling), the first time you bought something from a distro or from a brick and mortar store like Quimby’s, first time reviewed in Factsheet 5, Zine World, MMR, any first relating to zines.

Please consider submitting. For the first issue I am focusing on (present and past)  zinesters currently living in the Chicago area. The deadline for the first issue will be April 1, 2012. Submissions can be text, comics, or a combination. You can submit a comic, write an essay, submit a photograph, your choice. If you would prefer I could also interview you on this topic. Just let me know.

Topic: Firsts relating to zines
Deadline: April 1, 2012
Format: I will layout text pieces unless you have thoughts about how your piece should be laid out. No word limit. If you are submitting a comic or graphic-based piece, the dimensions are half letter size. Try to keep your comic four pages and under.

If you are interested in submitting let me know, and I will harass you. If you are not interested let me know, and I will not harass you. If I don’t hear from you, you may be harassed. Please forward this onto any current or past zine and mini-comic creators you think might be interested. I would really appreciate it. Thanks for your time and I look forward to your submissions!

Jami Sailor,
yoursecretaryzine (at) gmail (dot) com

Dan Clowes Signs The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist 5/17

Published on January 31, 2012 0 Comments
May ’12
17
7:00 pm

The First Monograph on the Celebrated Cartoonist:

The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist

 Edited by Alvin Buenaventura

Designed by Jonathan Bennett

Interview by Kristine McKenna

Introduction by George Meyer

Essays by Chip Kidd, Susan Miller, Ken Parille,

 Ray Pride, and Chris Ware

“Clowes has explored the tedium and mystery of contemporary American life with more wit and insight than most novelists or filmmakers.” —New York Times

“A master storyteller and artist. There is poetry in every panel.”—Esquire

“The country’s premier underground cartoonist.” —Newsweek

Throughout his twenty-five-year career, Daniel Clowes has always been ahead of artistic and cultural movements. In the late 1980s and 1990s his groundbreaking comic-book series Eightball defined the indie aesthetic of alternative comics, with wit, venom, and even a little sympathy. His breakthrough success, Ghost World, convinced mainstream readers of comics’ literary potential. In the new millennium, with works such as Ice Haven, Wilson, Mister Wonderful, and The Death-Ray, Clowes has redefined the graphic novel as an art form.

Now, for the first time, the award-winning, New York Times bestselling graphic novelist, cartoonist, and screenwriter opens his archives. The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist (Abrams ComicArts; April 2012; U.S. $ 40.00/Can. $45.00; ISBN 978-1-4197-0208-2), the first monograph on one of America’s most innovative cartoonists, collects Clowes’s best-known work alongside seldom-seen illustrations, personal photos and memorabilia, behind-the-scenes drawings and sketchbook pages, and unpublished comics and original art. This lavishly illustrated celebration of Clowes’s work, edited by Alvin Buenaventura, designed by Jonathan Bennett, also features essays by noted contributors such as Chip Kidd and Chris Ware.

The Art of Daniel Clowes ties in to a touring retrospective of Clowes’s work opening at the Oakland Museum of California in April 2012.

About the Author

Alvin Buenaventura recently started the publishing company Pigeon Press. He previously published artistic and insightful graphic novels, books, and prints under the imprint Buenaventura Press from 2003 to 2009. Buenaventura also edits the monthly comics section for McSweeney’s literary magazine The Believer. He lives in Oakland, California.

About the Book

The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist

Edited by Alvin Buenaventura

Designed by Jonathan Bennett

Interview by Kristine McKenna

Introduction by George Meyer

Essays by Chip Kidd, Susan Miller, Ken Parille, Ray Pride, and Chris Ware

Abrams / April 2012

U.S. $40.00 / Can. $45.00

ISBN 978-1-4197-0208-2

Hardcover with jacket

224 pages / 9 ¼” x 12″

300 color illustrations

Weekly Top 10

Published on January 31, 2012 0 Comments

1. The Point #5 Spr 12 Symposium: What is the Left For $12.00 – Chicago-based philosphy/criticism/literary journal.

2. 1-800-MICE by Matthew Thurber (Picturebox) $22.95 – 1-800-MICE is Matthew Thurber’s comic book anthropological study of the imaginary city of Volcano Park: a cross between Thomas Pynchon, Robert Altman and J.R.R. Tolkien. Over the course of the story we meet Peace Punk, a punker on the verge of a bourgeois lifestyle; Tom Chief, a beat cop with an identity crisis; and Groomfiend, a daffy creature who leads the narrative. The serial has earned Thurber rave reviews from, among others, cartoonist Ben Katchor, who writes: “Matthew Thurber has singlehandedly revived the Surrealist program of revolutionary politics through dreamwork. What more can you ask for in a comic-book?” This edition collects five issues of 1-800-MICE, plus 48 pages of new material.

3. Hi Fructose #22 $6.95 – For lovers of Juxtapoz.

4. 1Q84 HC by Haruki Murakami (Knopf) $30.50 – The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.”

5. King Cat #72 by John Porcellino $3.00 – Porcellino feels out the fall apart as life unravels…and unravels some more….the first half of this issue travels through some solitudes and stillnesses. An LSD story rustles the banches a little and punctuates a South Beloit diary. Also squirrely letters and bat dancers. Understated, quietly eloquent comics… but you already knew that, right? -EF

6. My Aim Is True #4 by Carrie $1.00 – Winter reviews and recipes, talking about loving yrself and fat femininity, sex toy stories, cursive typewriter cut-n-paste school.

7. Remedy Quarterly #7 Heritage $7.50 – Inside you’ll find an interview with Patrick Martins from Heritage Foods USA (and Heritage Radio Network and the new Heritage Meat Shop) that will leave you inspired. Allison Kave of First Prize Pies fame shares her recipe for Bourbon Ginger Pecan Pie (yup, you read it right) and a story about finding inspiration in your kitchen, Erin Wengrovius whipped up a lovely illustrated recipe for us, and Zara Gonzalez Hoang gives us a peek into her Puerto Rican Christmas. Plus you’ll find even more stories, recipes, and tips inside.

8. The Femicide Machine (Semiotexte intervention ) by Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez (Semiotexte) $12.95 – “In Ciudad Juárez, a territorial power normalized barbarism. This anomolous ecology mutated into a femicide machine: an apparatus that didn’t just create the conditions for the murders of dozens of women and little girls, but developed the institutions that guaranteed impunity for those crimes and even legalized them. A lawless city sponsored by a state in crisis. The facts speak for themselves.” This title is Semiotext(e) Intervention Series #11.

9. Handbook vol 6 #1 2012 by by Darren Ankenbauer $6.00 – Another meaty issue of this cock-fueled nouveau physique rag. -EF

10. Maximumrocknroll #345 Feb 2012 $4.00

Call for texts: Mash Tun, A Craft Beer Journal

Published on January 28, 2012 0 Comments

Introducing…..

Mash Tun
A Journal about Craft Beer

The Mash Tun is a paean to craft beer. It follows the pleasures and aesthetics of craft beer and how it intersects with food, culture, and society.

The Mash Tun will feature interviews and profiles with brewery owners, beer lovers, brewmasters, beer distributors, scientists, industry impresarios, coopers, bottle makers, bar owners,  home brewers and anyone who loves and is part of the process of making beer. There will features about figures in the industry as well as historical narratives. Short and long form entries will be interspersed with recipes, comics and photography featuring participating breweries, bars and restaurants.

The  Mash Tun will be a four-color, 120-160 + page, perfect bound publication that takes the from of a journal and it will be published by Public Media Institute (PMI), producer of Lumpen, Proximity, Materiel and other periodicals. PMI is a non profit arts organization that produces publications, festivals and host cultural events in Chicago and sometimes elsewhere. Its home is in Bridgeport.

Volume 1 Issue 1 will launch during Craft Beer Week.

If you like writing about beer then you should participate. Send them a one paragraph pitch, a writing sample or two, and email edmarlumpen (at) gmail.com  There is room for a few more pieces.

The deadline for texts on Issue 1 is March 1, 2012.