1/29 After Hours: General Things Press

Jan
29
6:00 pm

After Hours with General Things Press Thursday, 1/29 6:30-8.
Readings by: Evan Fusco, Jessie McCarty, Lemmy Ya’akova, Grace Papineau-Couture
In Person at Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave, Chicago, IL

General Things Press is an assemblage of various people coming together to collaborate on producing works in the world. Underneath its umbrella it contains a publishing effort, a latent radio show, and a reading series. General Things Press makes as it can with vigor and excitement. All works are printed locally and bound by hand by the editor.

Jessie McCarty is a writer and information science worker from Louisiana. Their book, Pretty Punks, is out with Magra Books now. They often write about gender, folklore, Irish and American-Southern diasporas.

Evan Fusco is a lecturer based in Chicago, IL. Pieces of theirs have been published, performed, contained, or shown in and/or at: Other Forms, MOCA Cleveland, Apparatus Projects, The Chicago Art Book Fair, Plates Journal, Carrol University, Prompt Press, Watershed Art & Ecology, Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection.

Lemmy Ya’akova is an advocate for y2k low culture, an amateur pool player, a popcorn enthusiast and a cat parent to their son, Moose. Their work can be found in HAD (Hobart After Dark), Anti-Heroin Chic Magazine, SAND Journal and more. They’re the author of the poetry collections Overflowing the Tub, Night Gallery Press, 2024 and Tiger’s Tail, General Things Press, 2024.

Grace Papineau-Couture is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist currently based in Chicago. They are interested in sound as a generative process – something unfolding, recursive and responsive, allowing for sound and listener to have a dialectical relationship. Using old and low-fidelity technology such as cassette tapes, contact microphones, and experimental instruments, Grace’s sound performances interface with themes of haunting, environmental disaster and acoustic ecology. These compositions urge the listener to ask themselves, “what do we hear in the latency? What kind of apparition reveals itself to us through the cracks of low fidelity?”

After Hours is a production of Taylor Thornburg and Quimby’s Bookstore

–.- ..- .. — -… -.– .—-. …

Pay what you can afford in person or via Venmo.
Suggested: $10
Venmo: @quimbysbookstore
Please include “After Hours” in the note!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local authors, publishers, creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

1/23 Show & Tell: Blonde Bombastic, Frankie Lyne | Opening & Reading

Jan
23
6:30 pm

Quimby’s Show & Tell
Blonde Bombastic
Art Opening and Talk by Frankie Lyne
Comics Reading by Frankie Lynn, Gren Bee, and J.E Paeth
Friday, January 23rd, 2026 – 6:30 PM

Show runs through Sunday February 8th
in-person at Quimby’s Bookstore 1854 W. North Ave Chicago, IL 60622

Blonde Bombastic features the work of Frankie Lyne [ they/them ] centered around Marie a 50’s does 70’s heroine who’s incredible outfits, glamorous looks, and bad news boyfriend Simon keep her just ahead of the dire consequences of her full on sex-and-drugs rock and roll lifestyle.

Featuring a full wall of plush cheetah print, blow ups of the original art, process work, Risograph prints, and bejeweled safety pin bound risograph zines, Blonde Bombastic will be on view at Quimby’s Friday Jan 16 – Sunday February 8th.

On Friday, January 23rd, at 6:30 Frankie will be joined by friends Gren Bee and J.E Paeth for a artist talk and reading.

Frankie Lyne [ they/them ] is a recent School of the Art Institute Chicago graduate, comics creator, and musician. Their comics and zines include Supercvnt, Simon and Marie, Death of Marie, Devout, Vive La Vie MoonStride, Alter Ego, and Starr Ramone.

Frankie sells comics and zines at Quimby’s Bookstore, Chicago Comics, and Howling Pages. They are also published in SAIC’s Mouth Magazine and have run Starr Ramone in F News since 2021.

–.- ..- .. — -… -.– .—-. …

Register for the Event

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

Pay what you can afford in person or via Venmo.
Suggested: $10
Venmo: @quimbysbookstore
Please include “Show & Tell” in the note!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local authors, publishers, creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

01/16 Keep Your Ear to the Ground: Conversation with John R. Davis

Jan
16
6:30 pm

Keep Your Ear to the Ground: A History of DC Punk Fanzines
John Davis in Conversation with Liz Mason
Friday, January 16th, 2026 –  6:30-8:30pm
in-person at Quimby’s Bookstore: 1854 W. North Ave, Chicago IL: 60622

Register for the Event

Keep Your Ear to the Ground is the first history of the fanzines that emerged from Washington, DC’s highly influential punk community.

DIY culture has always been at the heart of DC’s thriving punk community. As Washington, DC’s punk scene emerged in the mid-1970s, so did the “fanzines” that celebrated it. Before the rise of the internet, fanzines were a potent way for fans to communicate and to revel in the joy of fandom. More than just publications; they were a distillation of punk’s allure, connecting the city to the broader punk community. Fanzines remain a meaningful, tactile, creative medium for punk fans to connect with like-minded people outside the corporate-controlled world.

In Keep Your Ear to the Ground, the archivist and musician John R. Davis unveils the development of punk fanzines and their role in supporting DC’s hardcore and punk scene from the 1970s into the twenty-first century. He sheds new light on DC’s scene and highlights some of its key personalities, including many who are often left out of punk history, with high-quality images of rare zines and insights from numerous interviews with zine creators and musicians. This book vividly weaves together the origin of zines and their importance in underground communities.

For punk enthusiasts, zine creators, American studies scholars, and anyone who has ever felt like an outsider, Keep Your Ear to the Ground traces how the unique environment of Washington, DC, helped zines thrive.

–.- ..- .. — -… -.– .—-. …

John R. Davis is the curator of Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland’s Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library. His articles and commentary appear in the Washington Post, NPR, Notes: The Journal of the Music Library Association, The Journal of Popular Culture, and Post & Post-Punk. He is a longtime participant in the Washington, D.C. punk community as a fanzine creator and as a musician in bands like Q And Not U, Georgie James, Corm, and Title Tracks.

John will in be conversation with Quimby’s Dean Emeritus Liz Mason. Liz has been self-publishing zines for almost three decades. Recent works include Caboose #15 I Was There, Awesome Things #4, Cul-de-sac #9 and The Most Unwanted Zine. Her work has also been published in such publications as The Chicago Tribune, Broken Pencil, Punk Planet, The Zine Yearbook, Third Coast Review and more. She managed Quimby’s Bookstore, home of wild and weird reading material in Chicago, for two and a half decades. In January 2025 she enrolled in the Master of Science in Library & Information Science program with a specialization in Archives and Records Management at Chicago State University. Catch her on 107.1 FM CHIRP Radio in Chicago, Wednesday mornings 6-9AM CT or co-hosting the podcast Rough Draft with Keidra and Liz.

–.- ..- .. — -… -.– .—-. …

Register for the Event

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

Pay what you can afford in person or via Venmo.
Suggested: $10
Venmo: @quimbysbookstore
Please include “Keep You Ear To the Ground” in the note!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local authors, publishers, creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

01/12 Sketch/Book: Salon

Jan
12
6:00 pm

Sketch / Book: a Wicker Park Reading and Drawing Salon
A collaboration between LMN Wedge Studio and Quimby’s
Monday, January 12th, 2026 –  6:00-8:30pm

Meet in-person at Quimby’s Bookstore: 1854 W. North Ave, Chicago IL: 60622
At 6:30 walk 2 blocks to LMN Wedge Studio 1579 N Milwaukee Ave Suite 206, Chicago, IL 60622

Cost: $40 – comes with a free zine or comic of your choice ($15 value or less) at Quimby’s Bookstore and tea and light refreshments at LMN Wedge. Funds go directly to support these vital Wicker Park artist run spaces.

Capacity: A cozy and mystical gathering of 13!

Sketch / Book is a social salon and creative meetup centered on reading and/or drawing, hosted by LMN Wedge Studio and Quimby’s Bookstore. Guests begin the session at Quimby’s to select a free zine. After browsing, and getting aquinted we’ll head over to the Flatiron Arts Building to read or sketch within the eclectic comfort of LMN Wedge Studio and Gallery. This is an opportunity to read a zine book or comic in a social setting, practice sketching people from observation, or simply journal and mark-make in your sketchbook within a social, supportive setting.

A time for round-robin sharing and networking is built into the schedule.

Register for the event on eventbrite

OR:

Register via a $40 donation to Venmo: @quimbysbookstore
Please include “Sketch Book and your name” in the note!

01/09 Conor Stechschulte: Closing

Jan
9
5:00 pm

Crepusculine Exhibition Closing Reception
with
Conor Stechschulte
Friday, January 9th, 2026 –  5:00-7:00pm

in-person at Quimby’s Bookstore: 1854 W. North Ave, Chicago IL: 60622

Join Conor Stechschulte  for the closing reception of original art related to the process and thinking behind his new comic, “Crepusculine 2.”

Conor Stechschulte is an Eisner-Nominated cartoonist, artist, screenwriter and educator. He is the author of the graphic novels The Amateurs and Ultrasound. His work has been translated into five languages and adapted for film. He teaches classes in comics, printmaking, and self-publishing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Register for the event!