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, […]
Tag: comics
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 […]
Posted inFood & Drink
A bit of dumpling lore from Let’s Make Dumplings!
A chat with Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan and excerpts from their new comic book cookbook
Posted inArts & Culture
Do comic strips belong in this museum?
A new exhibition at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art surveys over 60 years of cartoonists.
Posted inArts & Culture
Lynda Barry gives a master class in creation in Making Comics
The comics artist’s latest book is the culmination of lessons learned in her decades-long career.