All posts by beguiling_admin

Shipping February 27th, 2013

UNCANNYSKULLKICKERSThe following items are scheduled to ship to The Beguiling from Diamond Comics Distributors on Wednesday, February 27th, 2013. All prices should be accurate, but in the case of a dispute between a listed price here and in store, we always defer to the in-store price.

Click here for the list: 130227shipping

Some Books We’re Interested In This Week:

Adventure Time TP Vol 02 14.99

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Nemo Heart Of Ice HC 14.95

Unearthing (Alan Moore) 29.95

Amalas Blade #0 2.99

Batman Incorporated #8 2.99

Hawkeye #8 2.99

Rocketeer Hollywood Horror #1 3.99

Uncanny Skullkickers #1 Cvr A Huang & Coats 3.50

Young Avengers #2 $3.99

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The Top 10 Graphic Novel Bestsellers at The Beguiling in 2012.

We don’t normally cotton to populism, but we had to dig these numbers up for something else we were working on and we were quite happy to see what was selling at The Beguiling in 2012. We thought it might be a nice thing to share with all of you, to reinforce your excellent tastes and maybe nudge you towards picking some of the other books listed.

As a note, we have confined this list to books released in calendar-year 2012, as there are a number of perennials that would skew the top ten listing considerably.

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10. Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes, by Michael Cho. Published by Drawn & Quarterly.

9. New York Drawings, by Adrian Tomine. Published by Drawn & Quarterly.

8. Loeg III Century #3 2009, by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill. Published by Top Shelf Productions.

7. Saga Volume 01, by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples. Published by Image Comics.

6. Jerusalem, by Guy Delisle. Published by Drawn & Quarterly.

5. King City, by Brandon Graham. Published by Image Comics.

4. Are You My Mother, by Alison Bechdel. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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3. Underwater Welder, by Jeff Lemire. Published by Top Shelf Productions.

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2. The Hive, by Charles Burns. Published by Pantheon Books.

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1. Building Stories, by Chris Ware. Published by Pantheon Books.

Honorable Mentions:
11. (TIE) Jinchalo, by Matt Forsythe. Published by Drawn & Quarterly.
11. (TIE) Walking Dead Volume 16: A Larger World. Published by Image Comics.

Quite a different list than perhaps might be reported elsewhere, but one we weren’t terribly surprised by. We thank all of the wonderful creators and publishers whose work is represented on this list, as well as the hundreds more making great books, for keeping us in business.

– Chris @ The Beguiling

 

UPDATED: Geneviève Castrée launches SUSCEPTIBLE @ Little Island Comics!

THE EVENT HAS BEEN MOVED TO LITTLE ISLAND COMICS (742 Bathurst). See you at 7pm!
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SUSCEPTIBLE Book Launch & Talk
with author Geneviève Castrée
Monday, February 18th, 2013
7:00pm @ LITTLE ISLAND COMICS, 742 Bathurst
Free to attend

http://www.facebook.com/events/446235965441778/

The Beguiling is proud to present Susceptible, the important new graphic novel from Geneviève Castrée.

Susceptible is the story of Goglu, a daydreamer growing up in Quebec in the ’80s and ’90s with a single mother. From a skillful artist comes a moving, beautiful story about families, loss, and growing up. Whether she’s discussing nature versus nurture or the story of her birth, Castrée imbues her storytelling with a quiet power and a confidence in the strength of imagery.

We think this is one of the most important graphic novel releases of the season, from an enormously talented young Canadian cartoonist. Best of all, we’ve been told her presentation from the book is excellent, so we hope you’ll be able to make it out for this.

For more information on exactly what this graphic novel is all about, please visit  the Drawn & Quarterly blog.

Praise for Geneviève Castrée

“With mesmerizing honesty Castrée resurrects the obscenely disorienting turning points of a childhood, the ones that haunt a person for a lifetime. After reading the last page I closed the book and wept a little bit about its simple, perfect ending.” –Miranda July, authorofitchoosesyouand noonebelongsheremorethanyou

“[Castrée] offers three connected minimalist fables dreamily portraying a young woman’s reactions to depression, domesticity, and mother hood in delicate watercolors that, thanks largely to her keen graphic skills, made them whimsical without being cloying.” –Booklist

“[Castrée’s work], illustrated in a delicately watercolored style that suggests Richard Scarry in the throes of an Edward Gorey obsession, is an episodic meditation on love, belonging, and personal identity. The visual metaphors for depression and home will break your heart; the care taken with their rendering will join the broken pieces back together on every page.” —The Austin Chronicle

About the Author

Geneviève Castrée was born in Québec in 1981. Sometimes interdisciplinary, she is mostly known for her work as an illustrator and cartoonist. Impatient and lazy, Geneviève never officially studied “art”. She has made a few books and has had a few exhibitions in places such as Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Geneviève Castrée lives and works in the Pacific Northwest. She also has a music project called “Ô PAON”

Review: Weapons of the Metabaron

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Title: Weapons of the Metabaron
Words: Alexandro Jodorowsky
Art: Travis Charest, Zoran Janjetov
Publisher: Humanoids

Review by John Anderson

At the beginning of Weapons of the Metabaron, the Metabaron has lost his memory. He meets eight ancient wise men who help him remember a vivid, heroic episode of his life, which is beautifully painted by the popular superhero comic book artist Charest. This episode was thought lost, but the Metabaron experiences it as part of a framing story illustrated by Janjetov. So the structure of the story is a metaphor for the history of the project itself.

This project was first announced ten years ago, as Dreamshifters. But Charest’s work took much longer than expected, and we had to wait until 2008’s Les Armes du Méta-Baron to see the 29 pages that Charest had completed. To speed the completion of the book, the remaining 26 pages were illustrated by Janjetov (the artist of Before the Incal and The Technopriests). It came out in English as Weapons of the Metabaron in 2011; this week’s release is a new edition with thicker paper stock.

For the most part, Charest’s hyperrealistic and beautifully coloured paintings are fantastic. They shine in depicting the sci-fi sword and sorcery battles of the Metabaron against huge demons and hordes of lizard men. The dynamic panels and two-page spreads allow the action to be told with few words. Part of the story is an exciting and moving retelling of the final battle between the last Metabaron and his father-mother, Aghora, and I like how Charest uses a collage of action shots to illustrate it. However, there are some places where it looks like Charest left out the backgrounds. The lack of detail in a few panels is jarring compared with the incredible detail in the rest of his art.

Unfortunately, Janjetov’s art seems pedestrian compared to Charest’s. There are no pages where the panels are divided by lightning, no two-page collages of terrific battles. However, as I’ve mentioned, Janjetov’s art serves as a framing story for the segment drawn by Charest. This is a clever idea and helps make the change in art less disrupting.

The story is one of the most mystical that Jodorowsky has written. The Metabaron is sent on a number of dream-quests to find the most powerful weapons in the universe. But although he is dreaming, the weapons he finds in his dreams become real. It reminds me of some of Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion stories, where the hero is sent on quests, often for a reason he doesn’t quite understand. He’s simply an agent of a higher power.

My biggest complaint with Weapons of the Metabaron is that it ends much too suddenly. Now that the Metabaron has been transformed into a living weapon, what will he do? This feels like a prelude to a much bigger adventure. I wonder if the original project had been intended to be something bigger, but circumstances forced the creators’ hands.

But the book we ended up with is a worthy addition to the Metabarons story. Charest’s dynamic and vibrant images paired with Jodorowsky’s mystical storytelling is something very special.

Promotion: Add HELHEIM to your Pullfile for a buck!

Oni Press has a new, full-colour, ongoing series launching in early March, and we think that our regular comics customers are going to dig it. It’s called HELHEIM and it’s by Cullen Bunn (Deadpool, Sixth Gunand Joelle Jones (Fables, Dr. Horrible). It’s about a group of brave warriors in ancient times defending themselves against unspeakable horrors. That’s the book trailer for it above…!

We think you’ll dig this (we also think you’d really dig SIXTH GUN too).

So here’s the deal: If you have a pull-file at The Beguiling, and you add HELHEIM to your pullfile, we’ll sell you the first issue for just a dollar. That’s 75% off cover price! The only rules are that you have to pick up (or have delivered) the first issue by the end of March, and you have to at least try the second issue.

It’s not easy to launch an ongoing comic series as an indy publisher, and Cullen and Joelle are two very talented creators that we’re happy to support, so why not give this one a shot? Hey, it’s only a buck.

You can add HELHEIM to your pullfile next time you’re in, or by e-mailing chris@beguiling.com.

– Chris

 

Review: District 14

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Title: District 14
Words: Pierre Gabus
Art: Romuald Reutimann
Publisher: Humanoids

Review by John Anderson

District 14 is a tale of gangsters, newshounds, and costumed vigilantes in a dreamlike early twentieth century New York inhabited by humans, animals, and extraterrestrials.

The protagonist is an elephant whom we meet as he is going through immigration. He is given the name “Michael” because the official can’t pronounce his real name. After meeting Hector, a beaver who works as a journalist for a big newspaper, they start working together to uncover some of the city’s biggest stories, including the attempted kidnapping of a politician and the history of the popular caped crime fighter Tigerman. But it soon becomes clear that Michael is hiding more than one secret. In fact, every character is hiding something.

Continue reading Review: District 14

Junko Mizuno Silkscreen Posters – Warehouse Find!

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Wow, are you guys in for a treat or what!? We just unearthed some very rare Junko Mizuno silkscreen posters in the warehouse! These are large posters, screened with up to 6 colours, produced by Junko Mizuno and Vacuum Records. We thought they sold out years ago, but we found some and if you’ve been looking for that rare Mizuno print/poster to own, this is it!

We’ll be putting these in the online art-store on Monday, so if you can make it into The Beguiling this weekend you’ll have first-crack at them.

They are currently selling for $200 each.

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We aren’t getting any Bryan Lee O’Malley Young Avengers #1 variants

youngavengers1Hey everyone,

I’m very sorry to say that we won’t be getting any of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s variant cover for Young Avengers #1. The ordering incentive required to get this cover was changed 2 or 3 times, and I didn’t keep up with the changes.  It’s a really great cover, and a bummer that we won’t have it. If you see it in your travels, please pick it up. If you want a postcard featuring this art, we’ve got some left on the second floor.

I do want to say that Young Avengers #1 is still looking like a really great book, Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie are a great team and what I’ve read of the first issue is a lot of fun. I hope you’ll give it a shot.

Sincerely,

Chris @ The Beguiling

 

Review: Hicksville

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Review: Hicksville
By Dylan Horrocks
Published by Drawn & Quarterly
$19.95

Review by Jason Azzopardi

Is it cliché, a decade and a half after its original publication, to say that Dylan Horrocks’ tender love letter to comics is one of the most important books in the medium, even after many, many people have already said it before?  It might be.  It doesn’t make that statement any less true.  Amongst certain comics circles – the cords-cons-sweater-wearing types – Hicksville is the Rosetta Stone of sequential storytelling, and the inspiration for an entire generation of cartoonist.

There have been numerous articles written about the beauty of the book and its gentle affection for the past, and I’m not sure I can contribute much more to that.  It is everything they say it is; a fable set in a secluded coastal village in New Zealand that seems to exist solely for the purpose of celebrating the comic book; a romance of lost souls trying to find love and contentment; a sly mystery that digs deep into the buried wrongs of an unrepentant medium.  And while I have always loved the relationship bits, it’s that last one that mostly gets me now.

Continue reading Review: Hicksville

TATSUMI – Screening at TIFF January 25th (CONTEST)

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Good news, everyone! The critically acclaimed film TATSUMI is returning to Toronto, in a  screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox running from Friday January 25th through Thursday January 31st. Details on the film and tickets are now available at http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiffbelllightbox/2013/2330006101.

Directed by Eric Khoo, TATSUMI is the innovative exploration of the life of comic author Yoshihiro Tatsumi, creator of Gekiga (“serious pictures” as opposed to Manga, which means “funny pictures”). Adapting his most renown period short stories, set in the time period following World War II, and incorporating elements of Tatsumi’s own life from the memoir A Drifting Life, TATSUMI is a fascinating, uniquely animated and performed film that has drawn ravesat Cannes, Dubai, Rotterdam, and around the world.

As you may remember, The Beguiling and TCAF partnered with Reel Asian Film Festival in November for a screening of this film, and I was a little disappointed to have missed it (I was in Japan for Kaigai Manga Festa at the time). I’m personally really stoked that this film is back and at TIFF, and I hope everyone who missed its previous screening will get a chance to come out for this one.

Oh, and of course, all of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s graphic novels adapted into this film are currently available for sale at The Beguiling, including The Push Man, Abandon The Old In Tokyo, Good-Bye, A Drifting Life, and Black Blizzard. We also have his post-A Drifting Life book, Fallen Words!

Check out the trailer for TATSUMI below, and just past that look for a special contest!

CONTEST: WIN TICKETS TO SEE TATSUMI AT TIFF!

The Beguiling and TIFF Bell Lightbox are teaming up to give three lucky people run-of-engagement passes for two to see TATSUMI between January 25th and 31st.

Want to win? Here’s what you need to do:

For a chance to win, make sure you’re subscribed to The Beguiling Mailing List and send an e-mail with your name, daytime telephone number, and “BLACK BLIZZARD” in the subject line to beguilingcontests@gmail.com before Friday, January 25th at 11am. 3 winners will be drawn and contacted from all valid entries at that time. Their first name may be announced on the website.

RULES & REGULATIONS:

  1. Subject line MUST contain entrant’s name, phone number, and “BLACK BLIZZARD” and must be sent to beguilingcontests@gmail.com.
  2. Entries must be made from an e-mail address subscribed to The Beguiling’s mailing list. Signup in the upper-right-corner of this on the front page of beguiling dot com. (Seriously, we check and we disqualify people not subscribed to the mailing list.)
  3. Entries must be received before Friday, January 25th, at 11am.
  4. Employees and family members of The Beguiling are not eligible to win.
  5. One entry per household/phone number.
  6. No purchase necessary, void where prohibited, no cash value, odds of winning depend on total number of entries received, etc.

Good luck!

– Chris @ The Beguiling