A solid list of guests, pre-convention parties, panels, and of course books!
Special Guests
Trina Robbins – 9B
Award-winning herstorian and writer Trina Robbins has been writing books, comics, and graphic novels for over forty years. She has written and drawn comics from Wonder Woman to Barbie. Her 2009 book, The Brinkley Girls: the Best of Nell Brinkley’s Cartoons from 1913-1940 and her 2011 book, “Tarpe Mills and Miss Fury,” were nominated for Eisner and Harvey awards. Her all-ages graphic novel, Chicagoland Detective Agency: the Drained Brains Caper, was a Junior Library Guild Selection. Her graphic novel, “Lily Renee: Escape Artist,” was awarded a gold medal from Moonbeam Chidren’s Books and a silver medal from Sydney Taylor Jewish Library Awards. Trina’s most recent books are Pretty in Ink, her final and definitive history of women cartoonists, and The Complete Wimmen’s Comix. In 2013, Trina was voted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
Leslie Stein – 9A
Leslie Stein was born in Evanston, IL in 1982 and now resides in Brooklyn, NY. She is the author of the semi-autobiographical comic series Eye of the Majestic Creature, three volumes of which have been published by Fantagraphics Books, who also recently published her daily watercolor comics in a collection named Bright-Eyed at Midnight. She plays guitar and sings in the band Prince Rupert’s Drops.
Sammy Harkham – 62A 
Harkham is an award winning cartoonist and the editor of Kramers Ergot. He draws the comic book Crickets. His last book, Everything Together, won The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Graphic Novel in 2013.
Exhibiting
Ed Luce – 6
Ed Luce is the creator of the comic series Wuvable Oaf, which has been collected into a hardcover edition by Fantagraphics Books. The series has earned two Ignatz Award nominations, one in the “Outstanding Artist” category. His illustrations and comics have also been published by Image, Dark Horse, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Slate Magazine, the Henry & Glenn Forever series, Maximum RocknRoll and as a part of the Eisner-nominated No Straight Lines.
Kevin Huizenga – 94A
Kevin Huizenga has published the (recently revived) comic book series Ganges with Fantagraphics, as well as comics and graphic novels with Drawn and Quarterly. He also self-publishes minicomics, available on his website usscatastrophe.com/kh. Currently he lives in Minneapolis and teaches comics at Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Anya Davidson – 44B
Anya Davidson was born in Sarasota, Florida in 1983. She graduated with a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004. She is a cartoonist, musician, teaching artist and printmaker whose work appeared in many zines and anthologies, including Kramers Ergot and Best American Comics. Her debut graphic novel, School Spirits, was published by Picturebox Inc. Her current project, the Ignatz-award nominated comic Band for Life, will be available in print from Fantagraphics Books in the not-too-distant future.
Lane Milburn – 44A
Lane Milburn is a Chicago-based cartoonist who studied painting at the Maryland Insitute College of Art in Baltimore, publishing his first comics with the Closed Caption Comics collective. In 2010 he was awarded a Xeric Grant to self-publish the horror comedy graphic novella Death Trap. His first graphic novel, Twelve Gems, was released by Fantagraphics in 2014. He is currently serializing a science fiction comic called Envoy online and in print.
Conor Stechschulte – 41A
Conor Stechschulte is an artist and cartoonist currently pursuing an MFA in Printmedia at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His debut graphic novel, The Amateurs was published by Fantagraphics in 2014 . He is serializing his current graphic novel, Generous Bosom with Breakdown Press.
Joshua Cotter – 91A
Joshua W. Cotter lives in rural northwest Missouri with his wife, child, cat and an acute sense of impending mortality. They keep him making comics.
Panels
All panels will take place at the Center on Halsted, 3rd floor Hoover-Leppen Theatre
Saturday, June 11th
1:00–2:00 Wimmen’s Studies: A Lecture and Conversation with Trina Robbins
From her early stories in It Ain’t Me, Babe (1970) to her work on Meet Misty and Wonder Woman in the 1980s to influential studies like Women and the Comics (1985) and Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896–2013, Trina Robbins has inspired a generation of other cartoonists, writers, and herstorians. CAKE is honored to welcome one of the living legends of comics in the U. S. as she presents her lecture “Wimmen’s Studies,” which will touch on the history of Wimmen’s Comix, the groundbreaking series recently collected in hardcover (complete with 3D glasses) by Fantagraphics. Then, Trina will join writer and comics scholar Brian Cremins (Captain Marvel and the Art of Nostalgia) for a conversation about comics, art, life, and (maybe) cats. Be ready to take notes, ask questions, and maybe write some comics of your own after Trina works her magic. This panel is sponsored by Busy Beaver Button Co.
Sunday, June 12th
11:30–12:30 “With Eyes to See”: Chester Brown in Conversation with Sammy Harkham
An old man, his face lined and thin, sits in darkness. He’ll try one more time to tell his story, with the “hope that, eventually, readers with eyes to see will understand.” The writer is St. Matthew, one of the luminous figures in Chester Brown’s new book Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus. What does the world look like once we learn to see it with new eyes? And how might comics inspire these sorts of visions? Please join us as Sammy Harkham, the mastermind behind Kramer’s Ergot and Crickets, talks informally with Chester about the mysteries of comics and storytelling. This panel is sponsored by Quimby’s Bookstore. Chester Brown’s appearance is sponsored by Graham Crackers Comics.
Workshops
All workshops will take place at the Center on Halsted, 2nd floor John Baran Hall
Sunday, June 12th
1:00–2:00 Sound and Vision: Color with Leslie Stein
Come explore color with Brooklyn-based artist and musician Leslie Stein, author of Eye of the Majestic Creature and Bright-Eyed at Midnight. Following an introduction to her materials and process, Leslie will demonstrate how she hand colors her drawings, then lead participants through colored pencil and watercolor exercises that show how color can grab readers’ attention and establish control (or lack of control) around a design. Some exercises will incorporate music to investigate how it can affect one’s drawing. Supplies will be provided, but feel free to bring your favorite color media for this trip beyond black and white. This workshop is sponsored by Fantagraphics Books.
Debut Books
Time Clock by Leslie Stein
Leslie Stein returns with the third volume of her series Eye of the Majestic Creature appropriately titled “Time Clock.” Becoming ever more ambitious in her artistic pursuits, our protagonist Larrybear attends her first sand counting convention to debut her new creation, an apple named Ron. There she meets other sand counters — who do exactly what their title implies, count grains of sand in order to make sculptures out of them — for the first time, as well as her new nemesis, the “minimalist “ counter Tim Heerling. Things go awry when a hurricane hits New York and she is left to her own devices to get through the next night of work, with a packed bar, no food or beverage deliveries, and plumbing problems. To make matters worse, the new job is doing nothing to help Larry’s ever-worsening drinking problem…
Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 4: 1984-1985 by Ed Piskor
Book 4 of the best selling series showcases: The rise of Def Jam records! The birth of Dr. Dre’s record career leading to Straight Outta Compton! Introducing new branches on the tree such as Will Smith, Salt N Pepa, Rakim, and Biz Markie. Hollywood also takes notice and releases loads of films like Breakin’, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, Beat Street, Krush Groove and more, all highlighted within this jam packed edition.
Hip Hop Family Tree 1983-1985 Gift Box Set by Ed Piskor
We are releasing our gift box set of Books 3 and 4, in time for the holidays. Exclusive with this box set is Piskor’s crash course comic, Understanding Hip Hop and Comics, a documentation of how the two media have intersected over the past 40 years, spanning graffiti, to album covers, and to actual comics collaborations between cartoonists and rappers.
Events
Join us at Quimby’s on Friday night for a discussion and signing event to celebrate the 9th volume of the Kramers Ergot anthology. Guests include: Sammy Harkham, Anya Davidson, Andy Burkholder, John Pham, Kevin Huizenga, Lale Westvind, and Patrick Kyle. Beer provided by Revolution Brewing!
Friday, June 10th
7 PM
Quimby’s Bookstore
1854 W North St
Chicago