The first comic books were just collections of the cartoons from the Sunday funny pages. The 1930s saw the origins of superheroes and then crime, horror and romance that contained explicit sex and violence until the Comics Code forced a move to mostly kiddie comics in the 1950s.

The Chicago International Film Festival claims to be the longest running film festival in North America. Three years before it began, The University of Chicago's Documentary Film Group put on its own festival.

Trixie Records was a Chicago based label that released eight records in

the early nineties, including by DragKing and Sabalon Glitz.

The 1980s was the last decade when most college students still relied on typewriters, but recently there has been a revived interest in vintage machines.

In 1966 a summer tradition of outdoor concerts began at Wollman Rink in Central Park. Over the years it featured bands such as Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Ramones and Devo for very cheap.

The late eighties saw a burst of ads for 1-900 numbers that promised to relieve your feelings of loneliness. But the phone sex business can be traced at least back to the 1970s.

In 1971, Hyde Park had seven second hand bookstores, including Chicago's oldest bookstore. Today, Powell's on 57th is the only one still in business.

Zen Buddhism became popular in post WWII San Francisco, especially among beat poets like Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Tram Combs. The influence of Zen extended into cookbooks, when Edward Espe Brown began baking at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.

Speed Kills was a Chicago based zine that published seven issues from 1991 to 1995. Its contents inspired the name for the Chicago based band Dragking.

The Regenstein Library opened in 1970 and soon became the center of social life on the University of Chicago campus. One reason for its popularity were the comfortable study areas, including window alcoves with Pfister Lounge Chairs.