Chicago Bike Adventures

Chicago Bike Adventures If you like cycling and want to explore Chicago's neighborhoods, I offer small custom bike rides

To celebrate Halloween day with Karen Reyes and her brother Deez, we have a couple more cemetery shots from CBA’s map of...
10/31/2025

To celebrate Halloween day with Karen Reyes and her brother Deez, we have a couple more cemetery shots from CBA’s map of locations in Uptown set My Favorite Thing is Monsters (Emil Ferris, 2017 & 2024). I thought putting out the map on Halloween would be too on the nose. Maybe creature feature fan and self-identified werewolf Karen would treat the day like barflies treat St Patrick’s Day – “…that’s for the amateurs…” – But, in a 2017 Comics Journal interview Ferris talked about the original plan for the first book to be released on Halloween, 2017. I think I am safe….for now.

Pic 1 - Eternal Silence (Lorado Taft, 1909) in Graceland Cemetery (10/2/25)
Pic 2 - “...if you're brave enough to stare straight into the face...you'll see a vision of your death” (Emil Ferris, 2017, Fantagraphics)
Pic 3 - Grave of Joseph “Josie” Lyon in Calvary Cemetery, Evanston (10/10/25)
Pic 4 - Diego “Deez” Reyes is haunted by something from his past (Emil Ferris, 2017, Fantagraphics) And yes, she does say stone d**g 🙂
Pic 5 - My Favorite Thing is Monsters (2017 & 2024) Map

Click through the link in the bio for the interactive version of the map, for guided ride booking and for The Map for you to use as you plan your own ride with friends.

The Uptown Broadway Building (Walter W Ahlschlager, 1926) in Uptown (10/2/25). The building shows up a couple of times i...
10/30/2025

The Uptown Broadway Building (Walter W Ahlschlager, 1926) in Uptown (10/2/25). The building shows up a couple of times in Emil Ferris’s two volume graphic novel My Favorite Thing is Monsters (2017 & 2024). To celebrate Halloween week, an interactive map with 40+ locations from the Uptown set books can be found on the CBA blog.

-The story starts with our hero Karen Reyes’ transformation into a werewolf, stage 1 in finding her true self -

“All over Uptown, skinny shepherds and toothless chihuahuas...joined me in my howl.”

“...and [the humans] marched down Broadway”

Pic 1 - The Uptown Broadway Building (Walter W Ahlschlager, 1926), 10/2/25
Pic 2 - "Kill the monster!" A comparison (Emil Ferris, 2017, Fantagraphics)
Pic 3 - My Favorite Thing is Monsters (2017 & 2024) Map

Click through the link in the bio for the interactive version of the map, for guided ride booking and for The Map for you to use as you plan your own ride with friends.

A Green Man detail on the Michigan Boulevard Building (Jarvis Hunt, 1914) in the Loop (10/23/25). The building makes a c...
10/28/2025

A Green Man detail on the Michigan Boulevard Building (Jarvis Hunt, 1914) in the Loop (10/23/25). The building makes a cameo in Emil Ferris’s two volume graphic novel My Favorite Thing is Monsters (2017 & 2024). To celebrate Halloween week, an interactive map with 40+ locations from the Uptown set books can be found on the CBA blog.

“...they looked like they were laughing right at me!”

While our hero Karen Reyes processes a family secret she can hear the city’s Green men mocking her. This guy in particular!

Pic 1 - Michigan Boulevard Building (Jarvis Hunt, 1914)
Pic 2 - “Purposely” mediocre shot of the excellent book for comparison (Emil Ferris, 2024, Fantagraphics)
Pic 3 - My Favorite Thing is Monsters (2017 & 2024) Map

The clever story and amazing art (mostly done in Bic ballpoint) put the books firmly onto my “Media to Revisit Once a Year” list. They are available through Fantagraphics and your library.

Click through the link in the bio for the interactive version of the map, for guided ride booking and for The Map for you to use as you plan your own ride with friends.

Grave of Kate Warne in Graceland Cemetery. New this Halloween week on the CBA blog is an interactive map with 40+ locati...
10/27/2025

Grave of Kate Warne in Graceland Cemetery. New this Halloween week on the CBA blog is an interactive map with 40+ locations from Emil Ferris’s two volume graphic novel My Favorite Thing is Monsters (2017 & 2024). Drawn and colored almost exclusively with Bic ballpoint, the books tell the dream logic story of Karen Reyes, a Chicago pr***en in late 1960s Uptown who loves art, creature features and her older brother Deez. In volume 1 of the tome/comic, our hero visits Graceland and gets help from the ghost of the female Pinkerton detective with her budding investigation of her neighbor Anka’s death.

Pic 1 - Kate Warne grave (misspelled on grave!)
Pic 2 - Purposely mediocre shot of the excellent book to compare. (Emil Ferris, 2017, Fantagraphics)
Pic 3 - My Favorite Thing is Monsters (2017 & 2024) Map

The books are available through and your library.

Click through the link in the bio for the interactive version of the map, for guided ride booking and for The Map for you to use as you plan your own ride with friends.

“I can” by in 2019 in South Loop (4/14/25) The Wilaya building, an emblem of Casablanca, is depicted behind the man. A ...
09/18/2025

“I can” by in 2019 in South Loop (4/14/25) The Wilaya building, an emblem of Casablanca, is depicted behind the man. A mural exchange between sister cities Casablanca and Chicago brought the Moroccan artist here.

Click through the link in the bio for more South Side neighborhood murals and for The Map for you to use as you plan your own ride with friends.

Most of a .Zimbro mural done this year in East Pilsen (8/20/25). There are plenty of things to take in when riding betwe...
09/17/2025

Most of a .Zimbro mural done this year in East Pilsen (8/20/25). There are plenty of things to take in when riding between locations on CBA maps. This week on the CBA blog are five “new-to-me” murals seen while taking pictures for the maps.

Click through the link in the bio for more South Side neighborhood murals and for The Map for you to use as you plan your own ride, walk or run with friends.

The Emperor's Choice restaurant in Chinatown (4/19/22) can be found on CBA’s Michaelsen & Rognstad map (pic 3). Using te...
09/08/2025

The Emperor's Choice restaurant in Chinatown (4/19/22) can be found on CBA’s Michaelsen & Rognstad map (pic 3). Using terra cotta from the American Terra Cotta Company, our Jazz Age duo gave this pre-existing building a 1932 facelift for the Moy Family Association. The mutual aid and protection organization is still headquartered on the top floor. From 1933-1980s the Ling Long Chinese Museum, a private attraction founded by Gerald Moye (resident of another M&R building on Cermak), occupied the first two floors. Some of the collection can still be seen at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago on 23rd street. The building has been home to Emperor's Choice since the late 80s.

Visit chicagobikeadventures.com for an interactive version of the map with pictures and info links, for guided ride booking and for The Map for you to use as you plan your own ride with friends.

The former Midwest Athletic Club (8/21/25) in West Garfield Park, today’s Midwest Apartments (pics 1-2). You can find it...
09/05/2025

The former Midwest Athletic Club (8/21/25) in West Garfield Park, today’s Midwest Apartments (pics 1-2). You can find it on CBA’s Michaelsen & Rognstad map (pic 3). Opened in 1928 the club hosted visiting athletes and assorted neighborhood events. In 1946 known local baddy Charles “Chick” Hadesman held a fundraiser for himself which a Lawndale police captain encouraged people not to attend. Boxing was the main activity well into the 1960s. Visiting Golden Glove Irish boxers were hosted in 1933 and Sonny Liston was reported to have trained here for a 1963 fight with Floyd Patterson. It seems to never have had a strong footing. Cook County bought the property in a ‘64 auction for its owed taxes going back to 1928. In the 1990s it was converted to affordable housing by Holsten Chicago which continues to manage the Midwest Apartments today. The first floor also houses a Walgreens and the ACCESS Madison Family Health Center, not too different from the Ucitel drugstore that was reported held up there in 1934.

Visit chicagobikeadventures.com for an interactive version of the map with pictures and info links, for guided ride booking and for The Map for you to use as you plan your own ride with friends.

2 flat 5342 W Warner (2/27/25) in Portage Park is on CBA’s Michaelsen & Rognstad map (pic 3). It’s an example of several...
09/04/2025

2 flat 5342 W Warner (2/27/25) in Portage Park is on CBA’s Michaelsen & Rognstad map (pic 3). It’s an example of several early, less showy buildings the Norwegian-Americans designed in the neighborhood. According to the 1922 permit Edward Johnson hired them to build a two flat at 5344. The 1924 Sanborn Fire Insurance map has both numbers. Polks 1928 Directory of Chicago lists EW & Lilian E Johnson (owners) and GM & Dora Ackerman at 5342. I thought maybe the wheel design (pic 2) would relate to Edward’s job but the 1930 Census has both men, Edward and George, in the paper carton business. The building is still a 2 flat today.

Visit chicagobikeadventures.com for an interactive version of the map, for guided ride booking and for The Map to use as you plan your own ride with friends.

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The former Northside Auditorium Building (today’s Metro) in Wrigleyville is on CBA’s Michaelsen & Rognstad map (pic 3). ...
09/03/2025

The former Northside Auditorium Building (today’s Metro) in Wrigleyville is on CBA’s Michaelsen & Rognstad map (pic 3). I’m sticking with some of their hits before getting to the deep cuts. The Northside Auditorium was designed by Michaelsen & Rognstad in 1925 for the Independent Order of Svithiod, a Swedish social club still in action at 5518 W Lawrence. While it served as their Lodge No 1, it also hosted amateur boxing bouts and assorted events. In the 1970s it went through several theatre/club permutations. It became the Metro in 1982.

Go to chicagobikeadventures.com for an interactive version of the map, for guided ride booking and for The Map to use as you plan your own ride with friends.

Former On Leong Chinese Merchants Association, today’s Pui Tak Center. 1 of 37 buildings on the new CBA map (pic 3) for...
09/02/2025

Former On Leong Chinese Merchants Association, today’s Pui Tak Center. 1 of 37 buildings on the new CBA map (pic 3) for 1920s architects Michaelsen & Rognstad. There are some deep cuts on the map but this building is one of the hits.

In the 1920s the Chicago Chinese community relocated en masse to a new neighborhood and the decision makers hired Christian Michaelsen & Sigurd Rognstad to design several buildings. The two Norwegian-Americans read up on Chinese architecture and commissioned terra cotta from the American Terra Cotta Company in Crystal Lake (pic 2), The On Leong Merchants Building opened in 1928, serving as the unofficial Chinatown city hall. Landmarked in 1988, the building was shut down by the FBI for housing an illegal casino, then taken over by the government. The Chinese Christian Union Church purchased it back later in the 90s, renaming it the Pui Tak Center. It continues today to be a hub for the community.

In light of the Guardian reporting last week that sports fans are now being exposed to gambling advertising/logos roughly every 13 seconds, the breathless pearl clutching reports on the OLCMA’s illegal casino activities read quite literally as from a different century.

Go to chicagobikeadventures.com for an interactive version of the map with pics and info links, for guided ride booking and for The Map to use as you plan your own ride with friends.

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