Weekly Top 10 Bestsellers

Published on July 13, 2010 0 Comments

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1. The Believer #73 2010 Music Issue $12.00

2. Touch and Go The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine 79-83 by var. $29.95 (Bazillion Points) – If ever you needed a collected volume of zines, this may be it. Rough and wild midwest punk rock reporting and tons of tons of record reviews, Touch and Go the zine was opinionated, irreverent, and balls-to-the-walls funny. Bazillion Points has really gone berzerker lately too, churning out some of the sickest most creative and in-depth volumes of hardcore, punk and metal scene archiving I’ve ever seen. Touch and Go binds together all 22 issues and peppers it with essays a bit of commentary and notation. Bawdy and engaging, I can’t take my eyes off it, but it’s so jam-packed I have no doubt it’ll take me a year or two to read everything. -EF

3. Bike Snob: Systematically & Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling by Bike Snob NYC (Chronicle) $16.95 – A lush little volume of cheeky bike-ography coming into reality from the blogosphere.

4. Down and Derby – The Insiders Guide to Roller Derby by var. (Soft Skull) $14.95 – This insider’s derby guide is an intro, a love letter and a cheeky, dishy guide to the fierce world of rollin’. It almost makes me want to kiss my teeth goodbye and strap a pair on. -EF

5. Craphound #4 Clowns Devils and Bait $12.00 – Holy Shit, the Craphound #4 reprint landed and it makes me smile like Ren and dance like Stimpy! Tejaratchi’s obsessive hi-con picture pages are brimming with the sauciest devils, the juciest bait and the most ambiguously legal clowns. Thrilling, terrifying, mind-blowing, hands down one of the world’s greatest zines! – EF

6. End of the City – A Book of Afterwards by Oso Arcilla $4.00 – Nice, poignant poetry, like a tidy apartment or a freshly baked good, touching on a little of everything.  An especilly good one is about chilly pumpkin guts and another treat weaves about the rough edges of a drunken romancing, full of fine moments, pauses, twists. -EF

7. Crap Hound #7 Church and State Part One $12.00

8. Is It the Future Yet by Corrine Mucha $3.00 – AVAILABLE ONLY AT QUIMBY’S!

9. Hot Damn and Hell Yeah: Recipes for Hungry Banditos, Dirty South Cook Book by Ryan Splint $7.00

10. Jimmy Corrigan – The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware (Pantheon) $19.95

Also! Join us tonight at the Holiday Club at 7pm as Quimby’s co-sponsors Dating For Nerds Singles Trivia Night! 4000 North Sheridan Road. For more info: http://nerdsatheart.com

New Stuff This Week

Published on July 10, 2010 0 Comments

The well-dressed Lord Baron Joseph C.R. Vourteque IV stopped by Quimby’s to promote CLOCKWORK VAUDEVILLE IV – The Summer Spectacular at EXIT NIGHTCLUB – 1315 W. North Ave, on Saturday, July 17, 10pm. Quimby’s will be there with a cigertte girl-style collection of absinthe-flavered items, and the word on the street is that there will be DJs, a magician, and a hypnotist. Well, I do say! For more info, see www.steampunkchicago.com/
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Zines
Jacmel Working Group: Stories from Haiti After the Jan 2010 Earthquake by Jeanne Ivy $2.00 – This zine is an extrordinary record of two months of life and work after the earthquake wrecked havoc. Made in the memory of two amazing activist-powerhouses who died during the quake: Magalie Marcelin and Flo McGarrell, the zine celebrates to their lives and projects while also reporting on rebuilding efforts based in Jacmel. Ivy Jeanne, Jerry Gildea and Waffle bring us firsthand accounts of Haitian organizing and activism, the under-reported 3-day weekend of remembrance that the nation observed a month after the disaster, and a lot of ways to connect to and assist Haiti’s recovery efforts. This zine is powerful and empowering, resourceful and eye-opening. Click on the cover below for a physical record of the Jacmel Working Group blog.

JacmelWorkingGroup
Inner Swine vol 16 #1 and #2 by Jeff Somers $2.00
Stitching Together by Ed Choy Moorman $3.00
Brilliant Mistake #1 by Carrie $1.00 – Wonderful first zine from a Chicago local. Recommended.
Whaddafug #5 by Anthony Abelaye $2.00
Wanna Play A Game #1 by Crew Games $1.00 – Is the title stolen from “War Games”? Just askin’.
Bones I Saw Something This Morning by Sean Hernandez $3.00

Comics/Comix/Mini Comics
Adventrues in Service, Featuring Hobbeson and Chives Crimefighting Butlers in Love – Thrilling Morsels Snatched from the Jaws of Drama by Matt Fagan $2.00 – From local comics and Meniscus zine superstar. Always entertaining.
Philip K Dicks Electric Ant #4 by PKD, etc. (Marvel) $3.99
Mass #3 by Nevada Hill $5.00
Coordinates by Beth Hetland $8.00

Graphic Novels/Trade Paperbacks
Skin Horse vol 1 by var. $13.99
Parade of Pleasure by Geoffrey Wagner (Pure Imagination) $25.00
BB Wolf and the Three LPs by JD Arnold and Richard Koslowski (Top Shelf) $12.95
Stick Figure Hamlet by Dan Carroll $18.00 – Yes, for real. Infinitely more entertaining than using Cliff Notes.


DIY, How-to & Food
Growing Stuff: An Alternative Guide to Gardening by var. (Black Dog) $24.95
Make These Toys by Heather Swain (Perigree) $13.95
Bricks: For Young Adults, Cancer Awareness and Resource Guide $5.00

Fiction/Poetry Books
Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr (Scribner) $24.00 – In multiple O. Henry Prize–winner Doerr’s book of short stories, the presence and persistence of memory thematically binds stories set apart by vast distances of time and space. The title story finds a South African woman at the end of her life, taking part in a procedure that records her memories on cassettes; meanwhile, a pair of thieves rifles through the recordings, hoping to discover a secret her husband took to his grave.
Shiny Shiny by Michael O’Flaherty $16.95

Steampunk/Speculative Fiction
Android Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Ben Winters (Quirk) $12.95 – Are we done with this mashy uppy Victorian literature mixed with monsters and robots business? Apparently not. The guy behind Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is back with Android Karenina, the love story set in a dystopian world of robots, cyborgs, and interstellar space travel.

Outer Limits/Mayhem Books
Hidden Realms, Lost Civilizations and Beings From Other Worlds by Jerome Clark (Visible Ink) $24.95
Circus and Carnival Ballyhoo: Sideshow Freaks Jaggers and Blade Box Queens by AW Stencell (ECW) $22.95

Magazines/Literary Journals
Believer #73 2010: Music Issue $12.00
High Times Sep 10 $5.99
Mojo #201 Aug 10 $9.99
Bizarre #164 Jul 10 $10.50
Dumbo Feather #23 Fall 10 Pass It On $19.99
Kaiserin #8: Magazine for boys with problems $22.99
Monocle vol 4 #35 Jul Aug 10 $10.00
Apartamento #5 $19.95

Chap Books
Hornet Homily by Patrick Culliton $8.00
Toucan #7 by Liz Baudler and Laura Rynberg $3.00

Music Books
KrautRock: Cosmic Rock and Its Legacy by Nikos Kotsopoulos (Black Dog) $29.95

Sexy Stuff
Pornsaints Catalog www.pornsaints.org by F. DIsa $4.00
Filament vol 2 #1 issue #5 $12.50

Essays/Criticism/Cultural Commentary
We the Dreamers: Young Authors Explore the American Dream by The John O’Connell High School and Daniel Alarcon (826 Books) $18.00
Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson by Anita Thompson and Christopher Hitchens (Da Capo) $18.00
I’m Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand Up Comedys Golden Era by William Knoedelseder (Public Affairs) $14.95
The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought to You by Pop Culture by Nathan Rabin (Scribner) $15.00 – From one of the writers of The Onion. Now in soft cover.


Also! Stuff That Can/Can’t Be Fit In Any Categorey Exactly But Are Awesome:
Silly Stickers by Koyama Press $10.00
All My Friends Are Dead by var. (Chronicle) $9.95 – Hilarious. And sad. So sad. But hilarious!
365 Sketches: A Comedy Sketch A Day For One Year by Joe Jones $40.00 – Don’t miss his event here at Quimby’s on Saturday, August 21st at 7pm featuring the author and some of Chicago’s finest comedic actors performing monologues from 365. What’s this all about? On January 19, 2009, Chicago teacher and playwright Joe Janes decided to write a comedy sketch a day for a year. He did that. When he was done, Don Hall of the WNEP Theater Foundation decided to produce them. All of them. In June of 2010, Don and Joe gathered together over 200 Chicago actors and directors and over eleven nights presented 26 shows each featuring two weeks worth of sketches (although one has 15 scenes). Yep. Crazy. All 365 comedy sketches are collected in this book along with a complete list of directors and actors from the Strawdog shows. Joe teaches comedy writing at The Second City and Columbia College. For more info: 365sketchesbyjoejanes.blogspot.com/

365 Sketches

Bear in Underwear by Todd Doodler (Blue Apple) $12.99 – We don’t order a lot of kids books. This one was irresistable. And you will think so too, no matter how old you are.

Joey Comeau Reads From One Bloody Thing After Another

Published on July 9, 2010 0 Comments
Aug ’10
12
7:00 pm

One Bloody Thing

One Bloody Thing After Another is a funny, strange, and sad book about the horror of losing family, and the things people will do to hold on. Jackie’s mother, who died of cancer, is still around. Glowing in the dark, vomiting into the toilet, but nobody else can see her. And Jackie has a crush on a girl named Ann, though Ann has other things to worry about. Her own mother and sister have turned into violent creatures, and she has to keep them locked in the basement so they won’t hurt anyone. But they need to be fed living things, so Ann starts hunting neighbourhood pets. She’s against this idea, but, you know, family is important.

Joey Comeau, writes the comic A Softer World, which has appeared in The Guardian and been profiled in Rolling Stone. He’s the author of Overqualified and Lockpick Pornography. You can find him online at http://www.asofterworld.com.

“The tone is poignant, sometimes wistful, and deadpan funny . . . The novel is more eccentric than gory, and what’s really shocking about it is that all the mayhem is finally about family ties, both severed and reconnected.” — Booklist

“Canadian author Comeau, best known for his darkly surreal Web comic, A Softer World, turns his adaptable talents to overt horror in this oddly touching novel of ghosts, friendship, bloody secrets, and family relationships. . . . the crescendos of terror are leavened by moments of unexpected humor and warmth.” — Publishers Weekly

For more info: http://www.ecwpress.com/onebloodything

Call out to self-publishers Re: Printers’ Ball

Published on July 8, 2010 0 Comments

The Printers’ Ball, Chicago’s biggest celebration for printed matter is just around the corner:

July 30th from 6pm to 11pm to be precise.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Printers’ Ball, imagine a free party full of books, magazines, zines, comics, periodicals, etc. etc. all for the taking!  Sounds too good to be true?  Well, it’s not.

Quimby’s is contributing special grab bags to the event, mystery bundles full of self-published comics, zines and books! Of course we need to fill them with something, so that’s why we’re sending a call out to our consignors:

HEY CONSIGNORS!

We’re looking for donations for Printers’ Ball Grab Bags.
Drop off copies of your zine/comics/books by Monday July 26!
Please specify it’s for the Printers’ Ball Grab Bags

If you’re not a consignor, but make zines (et al) that you would like to have included in these bundles, you’re welcome to do that too.  But I gotta ask, why aren’t you consigning with us?

See You at the Ball!

Weekly Top 10

Published on July 6, 2010 0 Comments
Sonja Ahlers

Sonja Ahlers

The lovely artist Sonja Ahlers (left) came through Quimby’s this spring. She presented her wonderful art book The Selves (Drawn & Quarterly).

Here’s this week’s top 10:

1. Lose #1 by Michael Deforge $5.00 – Klassick Komicks going through DeForge’s leperous Canadian meat grinder and fine line work going gleefully awry. Seriously, do not miss out on this one. -EF
2. Is It the Future Yet by Corrine Mucha $3.00 – What does the future hold for you? Well, I predict you will fall madly in love with Corinne’s amazing new mini-comic, Is It the Future Yet?, which she made ‘specially for Quimby’s! I see you laughing out loud at the fresh psychic hijinx and time-travel schemes that grace every delightful page. I can see your love for this comic growing rich, deep, and strong and you will find it brings you much good luck and happiness as years go by…Yes, my friend, the future looks very bright indeed!
3. Lose #2 by Michael Deforge $5.00 – Bacterial throwdown-throwup in this new beautifully drawn book mostly about -what else- deadly festering horse parasites. Love it. -EF
4. Paul Is Undead by Alan Goldsher (Gallery) $15.00
5. To Teach: The Journey In Comics by William Ayers and Ryan Alexander-Tanner (Teachers College Press) $15.95 – William Ayers is a school reform activist, Distinguished Professor, and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ryan Alexander-Tanner is an art teacher and a Xeric Award-winning comic artist.
6. Hypertheticals: 50 Questions for Insane Conversations Card Set by Chuck Klosterman (Potter Style) $14.99
7. Taffy Hips #7 by Zara Messano and Gil Gentile $3.00 – Yow- Good to get these newsprint hips, a nice pure comics section shakedown with Margaret Powers, Gil Gentile, Jaime Kanzler, Pat Aulisio, Patrick Kain, Zoe Kraus, Katja Tukiainen, Austin English, Zara Messano, Jon Chandler, Ian Harker, Jose-Luis Olivares, Melissa Mendes, Chuck Forsman, Zak M, Blaise Larmee, Cella Costanza and Jack Rohman. -EF
8. Flesh and Bone by Julia Gfrorer (Sparkplug)$6.00
9. Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking, Second Edition by Nicolas Collins (Routledge)$34.95
10. Bike Snob: Systematically & Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling by Bike Snob NYC (Chronicle) $16.95