The Handshake Interview with J.C. Gabel  by Dan Duffy /
Photography by Dan Duffy  J.C. Gabel is the founding editor
of Stop Smiling magazine, and edits and publishes books at Stop
Smiling Books. Back in Spring, I met up with J.C. at
Intelligentsia Coffee in the South Loop. We talked about the
rise and fall of his magazine and their transition into small
press publishing, and about his current project: the
resurrection of The Chicagoan, an American magazine modeled
after the New Yorker and published from June 1926 until April
1935. -Dan Duffy  The Handshake: Stop Smiling was founded in the
mid-90s, and you are now 35 years old. You were just a teenager
when you started the magazine?  J.C. Gabel: Yeah, I was pretty
young. It was a zine for all intents and purposes. Right around
then was the birth of desktop publishing, where if you had
friends at Kinkos, you could get them to scam you a card so you
could print everything there. Then you could perfect bind it or
saddle stitch it yourself. There was something ent