'Laydeez do Comics' Comes to Quimby's

A monthly comics salon with roots in London is coming to a Wicker Park book store.

Laydeez Do Comics will be at Quimby's, 1854 W. North Ave., on the last Thursday of every month starting Jan. 31. Speakers at the first meeting will include Kris Dresen, Corinne Mucha and Rinko Endo, coordinators said.

Laydeez Do Comics started in London in 2009 by comics creators Nicola Streeten and Sarah Lightman. It was the first women-led comics forum in the UK, "with a focus on comic works based on life narrative, the drama of the domestic and the everyday," according to the forum's website.

The focus is on indie comics rather than the more mainstream superhero fare from publishers like Marvel and DC, and while the discussions are organized by women, they aren't strictly limited to female creators.

"It's just basically a supportive environment for people to talk about their work and kind of how they got started, what they've been doing, what the concerns of their work are," MK Czerwiec, founder of the Chicago branch, said. "People just kind of talk about it and try to get reactions, but the overall tenor is that it's a supportive environment."

The discussion series has expanded since its creation with chapters in Leeds and Bristol in the UK, as well as the first US chapter in San Francisco. The Chicago chapter is the newest addition to the family.

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Czerwiec—a nurse, comic creator and artist-in-residence at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine—became interested in bringing the series here after meeting and working with Streeten and Lightman in the past. When she saw that the series was already expanding to different cities, she thought Chicago and its active comics community would make a good fit for the discussions.

She also decided that Quimby's—known for its support of indie comics and the thriving community of fans and creators surrounding it—would be the perfect home for the city's Laydeez Do Comics discussions.

"Quimby's is just a fantastic comic shop with an international reputation," Czerwiec said. "I had worked with Liz at Quimby's for the Comics in Medicine conference two years ago that we hosted at Northwestern, and she was just really a joy to work with and I think she's really just trying to do great stuff there. So I reached out to her to ask her if it's something Quimby's would be interested in, and she's just been amazingly supportive."

The event will begin at 7 p.m. and is free to the public. See the Laydeez Do Comics website or the Quimby's event listing for more information.