Tag: comics
Posted inInkling
Let us stare out the windows
Last month, I had the misfortune of catching the Lunchables bus. Have you seen it yet? The windows and doors are obscured by a full-wrap ad that creates the illusion of a stack of crackers, meat, and cheese moving horizontally along the street. I boarded the Lunchables bus and found my window blocked by a […]
Posted inAgenda
Queer Art Party, Afrofuturist performance, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and Zine Not Dead
Palmer Square Art Fair and Queer Social Club are teaming up to debut Queer Art Party at Sleeping Village (3734 W. Belmont). From noon-5 PM, vibe out to queer art, music, food, and community. You’ll have a chance to get your makeup done or portrait taken. Herbivore Chicago will be on hand providing plant-based comfort […]
Posted inAgenda
Vintage, Afrofuturists, comics, and more
Vintage clothing, art, jewelry, furniture, home decor, and nostalgic items from mid-century through the 1990s are available for the seekers at today’s Vintage Garage meet-up. This is the second to last Vintage Garage before the end of the year, and 75 vendors offering all things vintage (rumor has it there might be a Reader staffer […]
Posted inFilm
Funny Pages
Kline’s trick to getting everything to coalesce is commitment—of himself, his passion, and his love—resulting in a distinctly dark comedy that is worth seeing.
Posted inArts & Culture
Recombinations
Editor’s note: Coco Picard’s comic for this issue examines artists Jennie C. Jones and Norman Teague on the occasion of their respective exhibitions this summer at Patron Gallery and Converso Gallery. Edited text from the comic is transcribed here to ease readability. Two summer exhibitions repurposed and remixed materials to make designed objects, furniture, paintings, […]
Posted inCity Life
Your heart is an empty storage unit
There’s a mannequin staring down from the second-floor window of the Lock Up Self Storage on Lincoln. She has a blonde wig and a stoic demeanor—the sort of world-weariness that comes from being frozen in one spot against your will. When I moved the bulk of my earthly possessions into an eight-by-ten-foot storage unit in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Loving, repeating, collaborating, and intimacy
In a new exhibition, longtime collaborators Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger created an immersive multimedia installation that explores intimacy, distance, and the fluctuations between. The above comic captures their reflections on making together and materials in play. Text from the comic is transcribed here to ease readability. Our collaboration developed organically. We were both ceramic […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Julie Doucet is back
In 2018, the Reader ran a cover story: “Julie Doucet is done making comics.” The underground artist famously abandoned the scene in 2006, leaving fans of her cult-classic series Dirty Plotte and graphic novels like My New York Diary bereft. Through the years, her autobiographical comics became renowned in the canon. She explored other art […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Two stories of diasporic movement
Azadeh Gholizadeh & Elnaz Javani on their two-person exhibition “Phonetic Fragments” at Roots & Culture Gallery: March 11th – April 9th, 2022
Posted inArts & Culture
Lynda Barry is the North Star
One of my prized possessions is a 1989 playbill from Lynda Barry’s The Good Times Are Killing Me. Before the play’s award-winning off-Broadway run, it was produced here in Chicago by City Lit Theater Company at Live Bait Theater. My sister plucked the playbill from the magical chaos of Ravenswood Used Books and gifted it […]
Posted inCity Life
Nito Café seeks to create community for local anime lovers
In Japan, manga cafes are innumerous. They are places where manga or anime fans can enjoy snacks and refreshments while reading or spending time together. Somehow, despite the culture’s popularity in the United States, there are none of these types of cafes around—until now. Chicagoan Tayler Tillman wants to bring these Japanese mainstays stateside with […]
Posted inCity Life
Home Sweet Alone
When I moved into my first studio apartment in 2017, I got obsessed with the 1995 Jewel single “You Were Meant For Me.” In the song, Jewel has recently split with her lover and moved into her own apartment. She’s heartbroken, but she also digs having her own spot. She fries eggs and reads the […]
Posted inCity Life
Farewell, my lovely jumpsuit
Every time I opened my closet, I saw the jumpsuit. Thick denim, dark blue, with a wide 70s-style lapel—beautiful, even on the hanger. Whenever I spotted it, my heart sank. Because it used to fit me, and now it didn’t. I know all bodies change, but I feel betrayed when mine does. Over 18 months […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The scene report from space
Elaborate hologram displays. A satellite planet. A mysterious deity. On the surface, Lane Milburn’s rollicking sci-fi graphic novel Lure doesn’t have much to do with Chicago. But Milburn drew inspiration from his old neighborhood, his punk band, his friends, and his near-decade living in the city. Lure takes place on an alternate earth, orbited by […]