Tag Archive for 'John Porcellino'

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John Porcellino Launches The Hospital Suite 9/27

Sep ’14
27
7:00 pm

porcellino092714Join Quimby’s and John Porcellino on Saturday, September 27th, at 7pm, for the launch of his latest, The Hospital Suite! There will be a presentation with a signing to follow. This event will also feature a screening of Root Hog or Die, a new documentary celebrating 25 years of King-Cat Comics.

The Hospital Suite is a landmark work by the celebrated cartoonist and small-press legend John Porcellino—an autobiographical collection detailing his struggles with illness in the 1990s and early 2000s. One day, John Porcellino suddenly fell ill with extreme stomach pain. After a gruelling abdominal surgery, he quickly recovered–briefly–and then spent the next several years experiencing various surprise illnesses, both physical and mental. First a rash of environmental intolerances left Porcellino black-eyed, cadaverous, and dizzy. Then his mild obsessive-compulsive tendencies became full-blown. With three overlapping narratives, The Hospital Suite recounts one man’s battle for health–Porcellino loses jobs, marriages, and faith but never loses his desire to live and create.

John Porcellino is the author of the iconic zine King-Cat and the graphic novel Perfect Example. His comics are lauded for their quiet, clear-eyed contemplation of every-day life. The Hospital Suite is a testimony to Porcellino’s subtle gift for transforming his struggles–this time with the medical system and its consequences for his mental health–into art that is universal and engaging.

Learn more about the documentary here.

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Laydeez Do Comics Chicago March Edition with John Porcellino (King-Cat) and Riva Lehrer 3/28

Mar ’13
28
7:00 pm

Laydeez Chicago

 

The Laydeez Do Comics March Edition will feature John Porcellino (King-Cat) and Riva Lehrer.
The monthly focus on lady comics and friends of lady comics artists returns. The first two meetings were smashing successes and this one hopes to be as amazing! Come hear comics creators speak about their work, their process, their plans, and whatever else they want to share with us.Laydeez Do Comics, London’s monthly comics salon founded by Nicola Streeten (Billy, Me, and You) and Sarah Lightman (The Book of Sarah, Graphic Details) is adding to branches in Leeds and San Francisco, and has started a branch in Chicago.

For more info: laydeezdocomics.blogspot.com

Comics Release Party with John Porcellino and Noah Van Sciver 9/19

Sep ’12
19
7:00 pm

Join John Porcellino and Noah Van Sciver as they celebrate the release of their new projects, King-Cat #73 (self-published) and The Hypo (Fantagraphics).  They’ll be reading from and showing slides of their work, answering questions, and signing books.

The Hypo, debut graphic novel from Noah Van Sciver follows the twenty-something Abraham Lincoln as he loses everything, long before becoming our most beloved president. Lincoln is a rising Whig in the state’s legislature as he arrives in Springfield, IL to practice law. With all of his possessions under his arms in two saddlebags, he is quickly given a place to stay by a womanizing young bachelor who becomes his friend and close confidant. Lincoln builds a life and begins friendships with the town’s top lawyers and politicians. He attends elegant dances and meets an independent-minded young woman from a high-society Kentucky family, and after a brisk courtship, becomes engaged. But, as time passes and uncertainty creeps in, young Lincoln is forced to battle a dark cloud of depression brought on by a chain of defeats and failures culminating into a nervous breakdown that threatens his life and sanity. This cloud of dark depression Lincoln calls “The Hypo.” Dense crosshatching and an attention to detail help bring together this completely original telling of a man driven by an irrepressible desire to pull himself up by his bootstraps, overcome all obstacles, and become the person he strives to be. All the while, unknowingly laying the foundation of character he would use as one of America’s greatest presidents.

JOHN PORCELLINO was born in Chicago, in 1968, and has been writing, drawing, and publishing minicomics, comics, and graphic novels for over twenty-five years. His celebrated self-published series King-Cat Comics, begun in 1989, has inspired a generation of cartoonists. Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man, a collection of King-Cat stories about Porcellino’s experiences as a pest control worker, won an Ignatz Award in 2005, and Perfect Example, first published in 2000, chronicles his struggles with depression as a teenager. King-Cat Classix and Map of My Heart, published in 2007/2009, offer a comprehensive overview of the zine’s first sixty-one issues, while Thoreau at Walden (2008) is a poetic expression of the great philosopher’s experience and ideals. According to cartoonist Chris Ware, “John Porcellino’s comics distill, in just a few lines and words, the feeling of simply being alive.”

For more info:

nvansciver.wordpress.com

www.king-cat.net

www.spitandahalf.blogspot.com

www.johnporcellino.blogspot.com

Wed, Sept 19th, 7pm, Free Event

Zak Sally, Dale Flattum and John Porcellino 3/23

Mar ’12
23
7:00 pm

Quimby’s welcomes Zak Sally, Dale Flattum and John Porcellino!

Sammy the Mouse: Volume 1 by Zak Sally (Colors throughout, 104 Pages) is the first collection of sammy the mouse comics, all in a beautifully bound, handmade package. This collection is the first three issues of Eisner Award Nominee Zak Sally’s comic Sammy the Mouse (previously serialized as part the international Ignatz line of comics published simultaneously by Fantagraphics Books in the United States and Coconino Press in Italy). For this collection, Sally printed each copy on his own AB Dick 9810 offset press and is releasing it under his La Mano publishing house. Sally is personally responsible for every step in the bookmaking process; from conception to execution to reproduction to delivery, making each hand-signed copy the product of one artist’s unique vision. Volume 1 introduces us to Sammy, his friends and frienemies, and a fantastical town that’s as elegantly drawn and viscerally alive as the characters themselves. Sammy is tugged and pulled about town against his own volition in this first part in the series; from a bar in the shape of a baby to the top of a giant staircase to a picnic on the beach with a mustachioed female stranger. Some characters are seemingly controlled by an unseen voice from above, others by the constant need to get drunk. Throughout the book, Sally offers glimpses of the epic tale ahead between the drinking, arguing, and vomiting. Meticulously drawn and printed using a sophisticated two-color process, Sammy the Mouse: Volume 1 is an extremely funny, weird and intense introduction to what will be a truly unique series.

PRAISE FOR SAMMY THE MOUSE
“A grimy, metaphysical malaise drips from every line of Sally’s lush yet unwholesome artwork, especially when he’s plundering the iconography of innocence and youth in the service of disorienting discomfort… A-” – The Onion AV Club

“And then there’s Zak Sally’s Sammy The Mouse which for me has been a revelation…” – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

“Nothing else I’ve seen in thirty years of self- enforced sobriety has made me want a drink more than Sammy the Mouse. Zak Sally grabs you by the eyes and drags you headlong into a vision of earnest struggle and serial revelation. It feels real. Hell, it is real.” –Jim Woodring

“Sally is producing a real sharp, evocative and haunting work that manages to send a deli- cious chill up my spine upon reading it.” – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

Zak Sally is an Eisner-nominated cartoonist whose work has appeared all over the place. He owns and operates La Mano, an award-winning “micro-publishing” house who has published work by John Porcellino, William Schaff, Nate Denver, Jason Miles, and Kim Deitch. He spent 12 years in the band Low.

——————-

Dale Flattum creates posters, art forgeries, and other screen printed propaganda under the alias TOOTH. His book TOOTH: The Graphic Art of Dale Flattum showcases 25 years of his graphic art. It includes 250 page volume mixes posters, illustrations & propaganda into a semi autobiographical history, as told through a Xerox machine. *It also includes a CD of music pulled from the author’s shady nine year musical past in the bands Steel Pole Bath Tub, Milk Cult, The Nein, and Agent Nova. (The CD also includes the unreleased Novex second album.)

“When I was 16 years old,” Dale explains, “I tore a weird looking poster off of a telephone pole near my house. It was crudely assembled, cheaply produced, and probably the greatest thing I’d ever seen. Later when I started to play music, the poster for the show became almost as important as the show itself. It was proof that something had happened. It was subversive propaganda. It was fun. It was addicting. And what did you need to do it? Scissors? Glue? A Xerox machine? An 8.5 x 11 piece of paper turned out to be a very powerful thing. The possibilities were endless.”

“TOOTH makes needles out of haystacks.” Dirk Fowler

“Blunt, in your face, yet abstract at the same time. Much of this book feels sticky to me for some reason. I’m glad Dale has kept this up and sharpened his art tongs over the years.” -Jello Biafra

“TOOTH’s exquisite work looks so effortless. He can do in a moment what I have to STRUGGLE to do. I’m jealous!” -Art Chantry

“Awesome!!!” -Wayne Coyne

——————-

John Porcellino has been writing, drawing, and publishing minicomics, comics, and graphic novels for over twenty-five years. His celebrated self-published series King-Cat Comics, begun in 1989, has inspired a generation of cartoonists. Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man, a collection of King-Cat stories about Porcellino’s experiences as a pest control worker, won an Ignatz Award in 2005, and Perfect Example, first published in 2000, chronicles his struggles with depression as a teenager. King-Cat Classix and Map of My Heart, published in 2007/2009, offer a comprehensive overview of the zine’s first sixty-one issues, while Thoreau at Walden (2008) is a poetic expression of the great philosopher’s experience and ideals. According to cartoonist Chris Ware, “John Porcellino’s comics distill, in just a few lines and words, the feeling of simply being alive.”

Event Details:
Where and When: Here at Quimby’s, 3/23, 7pm, free
Who & What new title they’re celebrating:
Zak Sally Sammy the Mouse vol 1
Dale “TOOTH” Flattum TOOTH: The Graphic Art of Dale Flattum
John Porcellino “King-Cat Comics #72”

John Porcellino reads from Map of My Heart

Oct ’09
16
7:00 pm

Map of My Heart celebrates the twentieth anniversary of John Porcellino’s seminal and influential comics zine, King-Cat Comics, which he began self-publishing in 1989, and which has been his predominant means of expression ever since. In this collection, Porcellino, while living in isolation and experiencing the pain of divorce, crafts a melancholic, tender graphic-ballad of heartbreak and reflection. Known for his sad, quiet honesty, rendered in his signature deceptively minimalist style, Porcellino has a command of graphic storytelling as sophisticated as the medium’s more visually intricate masters. Few other artists are able to so expertly contemplate the sadness, beauty, and wonder of life in so few lines.

John Porcellino was born in Chicago in 1968, and began drawing and writing at an early age, compiling his work into little hand-made booklets. His acclaimed self-published zine, King-Cat Comics and Stories, begun in 1989, has found a devoted worldwide audience, and is one of the most influential comics series of the past twenty years.

For more information please visit www.king-cat.net or www.drawnandquarterly.com.

Also on the bill is musician and poet PATRICK PORTER who will read from his work and perform an acoustic set.

“Beneath the crude linework and dream-journalism, Porcellino has crafted an affecting scrapbook of a part–time artist’s life. The decade-plus remove from these comics’ initial publication only adds another layer of poignancy, since so many of its concerns are those of a young man, unaccountably adrift in a decade geared towards his generation… A–”
—THE ONION AV CLUB

“Porcellino is a master at miniature poignance.” –ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY