Exquisite Corpse making with Grant Reynolds

Published on October 29, 2005 0 Comments
Oct ’05
29
12:00 am

Exquisite Corpse making with local comics artist Grant Reynolds Wednesday, September 7th, 7PM
FREE
 
Grant Reynolds is twenty-six (26) and has lived in more apartments than years he\’s been alive. He\’s been drawings comics since at least fourth grade, mostly in the form of newspaper comic strips and short-run minis. His first professionally printed book Smaller Parts is totally available like, right now. As for street-cred, Grant has boatloads, and he owns almost two pairs of sturdy pants, though he has almost no money of which to speak.
 
For this event Grant will be hosting a night of exquisite corpse making. It\’ll go down something like this: a space will be cleared for folding chairs and a table. On the table the following will be placed: clipboards (near twenty), a stack of blank paper (folded into thirds), some Bic-type pens, and two baskets. The event will be contained to the back half of the store and will carry a very chill vibe of good, clean fun (although Grant is sure almost nobody will be able to resist the impulse to draw giant excruciating looking genitals on the corpses at least once during the event). The rules of exquisite corpse making will be briefly explained at the beginning of the event (and throughout as needed). They are these: take a sheet of folded paper from the Unfinished Corpse basket and do a drawing on the top third of the sheet (also write your name in the corner), then fold appropriately so that the drawing is all hidden from view and place the sheet back into the Unfinished Corpse basket. Everyone keeps doing this on different sheets of paper until all three panels are finished by three different people. Then the finished drawings are placed in the Completed Corpse basket, where they will be revealed at the end of the event. Everyone gets to take home their respectively named drawing to put on their refrigerators at home. Grant?s books will be signed and sold throughout the evening. Also, during the event the band The Ink Spots will be piped in through the overhead, and some sort of complementary warm cheap beverage in cans will be served.
 
Additional information on Grant and his comics can be accessed at www.grantreynolds.net

Adrian Tomine & Seth!

Published on October 28, 2005 0 Comments
Oct ’05
28
12:00 am

Mon, Nov 7th, 7PM
Join Seth (Palooka-Ville, Clyde Fans, Wembelton Green) and
Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve, Summer Blond, Sleepwalk)
as they sign books and comics at Quimby?s
 
While still in high school, Adrian Tomine started writing and drawing his mini-comic Optic Nerve. After some success Adrian began producing Optic Nerve as a regular comic book series for Drawn & Quarterly. D&Q also published Sleepwalk and Other Stories collecting the first four issues of Optic Nerve it remains a best-seller for the company Adrian?s work has graced numerous CD and album covers as well as magazines like The New Yorker, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Time.
 
Aside from the forthcoming issue of Optic Nerve, Adrian has recently edited The Push Man and Other Stories the debut volume in a groundbreaking new series that collects Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s short stories about Japanese urban life.
 
Seth was a childhood fan of “Peanuts” and Jack Kirby?s “Eternals,” Seth was also influenced by the work of R. Crumb, Edward Gorey, the Hernandez Bros., Herge, Yves Chaland, John Stanley, and the cool, wry wit of mid-century “New Yorker” cartoonists. Drawing from this disparate group of inspirations Seth has distilled one of the most distinctive and recognizable cartooning styles of the past decade and has his illustrations in The Washington Post, Details, Spin, The New York Times, and the New Yorker. He is the author of Palooka-Ville and its two collections Clyde Fans and It’s A Good Life. He the lead designer on the 27 vol. project The Complete Peanuts, Seth lives in Guelph, Ontario with five cats, a huge collection of vintage records, comic books.
 
With his new Graphic Novel Wimbledon Green, Seth creates a farcical world of the people whose passion lies in the need to own comic books and only in pristine, mint condition. A charming and amusing caper where comic-book collecting is a world of intrigue and high finance. Part riotous chase, part whimsical character sketch, Wimbledon Green looks at the need to collect and the need to reinvent oneself.

33 1/3 EVENT

Published on October 23, 2005 0 Comments
Oct ’05
23
12:00 am

Saturday Nov. 19th 7PMan event for two of our 33 1/3 series authors: J. Niimi, who wrote a title in the series on Murmur and Franklin Bruno, the author of a book about Elvis Costello\’s Armed Forces.
 
More Info TBA

Joshua Cohen reads from The Quo

Published on October 22, 2005 0 Comments
Oct ’05
22
12:00 am

Joshua Cohen reads from The QuoSaturday, October 8th, 7 PM
FREE
 
Joshua Cohen has performed in-depth investigations into mirrors and navels to return with The Quorum, his first collection of short fiction. A set of ten stories, a set of dreams, and a long monologue, these are all first-person rants given over by the somehow alienated, individuals seeking only a sympathetic hearing, all dealing with identity and religion as well as occupied with technical ideas of reliable narration and the structure of the mind\’s ear. From a review of a book about the Holocaust that\’s six-million blank pages to a suicide note from a young university student, from a letter to home outlining an economy based on hair to a eulogy for a poem, from a story narrated by three-hundred concubines to the title story about a group of people who interchange appearances, habits, proclivities and talents, The Quorum is a sensitively written and inevitably absurd take on the individual\’s lifelong quest to get someone, anyone, to listen.
 
About the author:
Joshua Cohen was born in 1980 in New Jersey. He has worked as a journalist, essayist, translator and editor for many publications, including the Prague Literary Review, and the Forward. His fiction has appeared in many journals and anthologies, such as Sleeping Fish, Zeek, Fiction Warehouse, and The New Book of Masks (Raw Dog Screaming Press). Cohen\’s novel, Cadenza for the Schneidermann Violin Concerto, is forthcoming from Fugue State Press in 2006.

Jolene Siana author of Go Ask Ogre: Letters from a Deathrock Cutter

Published on October 15, 2005 0 Comments
Oct ’05
15
12:00 am

Signing with Jolene Siana author of Go Ask Ogre: Letters from a Deathrock CutterThursday November 10th 7pm
 
Go Ask Ogre: Letters from a Deathrock Cutter by Jolene Siana captures teen angst and music obsession like no author before her. Through confessional letters Siana sent to the singer of her favorite band, Go Ask Ogre reveals a troubled but hopeful and often hilarious ?goth? girl, determined to rise above her dysfunctional family life in a dying Midwest city full of head-bangers and fast-food futures.
 
Siana?s life throughout the Reagan era was a deeply troubled one. Her mother was single, alcoholic, and abusive. Jolene grew suicidal and became a ?cutter??someone who cuts their skin to feel relief from emotional pain. A suicidal tailspin led her to reach out to Ogre, the enigmatic singer of the influential industrial band Skinny Puppy. For more than three years, Siana sent Ogre a stream of letters, elaborately decorated with illustrations, photos, stories and clippings.
 
Ogre was so moved by the letters that he kept them in a box for more than a decade, returning them to the author after a chance meeting. After sifting through the details of her former life, Siana?now a well-adjusted and vibrant woman living in Los Angeles?found herself with an ?unintentional memoir,? and a persuasive testament to the power of art and music?even ?Devil Music??to transform lives.
 
Go Ask Ogre features Jolene?s accounts of personal interaction with several alternative heroes from the ?80s?including bailing Skinny Puppy out of jail, attending a slumber party with punk legends The Descendents, getting a pep talk from the Revolting Cocks, meeting Peter Murphy, and more.