David Lester’s THE LISTENER in Toronto

Musician and Author David Lester will be travelling through Toronto to promote his new graphic novel The Listener, coming soon from Arbeiter Ring Publishing. The Listener, a 312-page graphic novel, reveals a tragic act of spin doctoring that changed the course of history. Complacency, art and murder collide in Hitler’s terrible rise to power in 1933, and in the artist Louise Shearing’s search for meaning in the art of Europe after the fictional modern death of a political activist.

Unfortunately we were not able to put together an event with David Lester due to our intense schedule in the months leading up to TCAF, but the folks at Type Books and Toronto Public Library did, and we recommend attending what’s sure to be some very interesting discussions of this new work.

For more info on The Listener (sample pages, film, author bio): http://thelistenergraphicnovel.wordpress.com/

Launch of David Lester’s new graphic novel The Listener
Friday June 10th, 6pm to 8pm.
@ Type Books, 833 Queen Street, Toronto
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=186255328090749

Broken Pencil magazine invites you to attend the launch of David Lester’s graphic novel The Listener (Arbeiter Ring Publishing). Presentation, Q+A with Lester and BP fiction editor Hal Niedzviecki, plus music by Mecca Normal.

David Lester – Graphic Novel: The Listener
Tuesday June 14th, 3:30pm to 4:30pm
North York Central Library Room 1, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM82020&R=82020

North York Central Library invite you to attend a presentation by David Lester from his graphic novel The Listener (with Jean Smith and Mecca Normal). Tuesday, June 14. 3:30-4:30 in program Room 1. 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M2N 5N9. Tel: 416-395-5535. FREE.

– Chris @ The Beguiling

Now in Stock: Rebecca Kraatz’s SNAPS

Debuting at this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival, we’re pleased to announce that we now have copies of Rebecca Kraatz’s brand new graphic novel SNAPS in stock on both floors. Published by our friends at Conundrum Press, SNAPS is a pulpy dose of magic realism, set during the Second World War and featuring a large cast of everyday people. It is $15.

You might remember Rebecca Kraatz from her fantastic 2007 debut collection House Of Sugar, which earned her a Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent. This looks to be work in a similar vein, which is excellent news to those of us who loved that debut work.

– Chris

NOW IN STOCK: Becky Cloonan’s WOLVES, Diesel Sweeties SOCKS

Heh, get ready for this. We picked up a TON of awesome books and merch at TCAF and boy-oh-boy are we happy to share it with you. First up, Diesel Sweeties Pixel Socks in all sorts of styles. Includes Mens & Ladies versions of Red Robot on Yellow, Little Red Robot Pattern on Red, Pixel Skulls on Black, Pixel Clouds on Blue, and then Mens Owls and Mens Pixel Hearts. $7.50/pair, available 2nd floor.

Next up is one of the hottest books of the show! Sold out Sunday afternoon but we were lucky enough to grab some, it’s Becky Cloonan’s AWESOME new mini-comic WOLVES. A complete, original story, all are signed and numbered to a limited edition of 1,000. $10, available both floors.

Look for lots and lots more of these updates to come.

– Chris @ The Beguiling

Shipping May 11th, 2011 (Today!)

The following comics and graphic novels are scheduled to ship The Beguiling Books and Art on Wednesday May 11th, 2011. All Prices listed in U.S. Funds. Variant prices are inaccurate, see in-store for prices.

Click here for the complete list: http://www.beguiling.com/110511shipping.txt

Of note this week:

MAR110447 30 Days Of Night Night Again #1 (of 4) 3.99
– Sam Keith does a 30 Days of night story! Very cool.

MAR110289 Batman Arkham City #1 (of 5) 2.99
– Bridging the smash-hit video game with the next game in the series. Yeah, I know, I know. But PAUL DINI is writing it, and he’s not too shabby with the Batman stories.

MAR110507 Breed III #1 2.99
– Jim Starlin’s Breed returns.

MAR110276 Flashpoint #1 3.99
– DC’s next big event book sees a parallel version of the DC U pop up, with some surprising results. While the main thrust of this seems to be making Aquaman seem cool (sorry Jerry), I’m more interested in the upcoming mini’s by Jeff Lemire (featuring Frankenstein from Morrison’s SEVEN SOLDIERS) and Peter Milligan (a new Shade the Canging Man!).

MAR110033 Hellboy Being Human One Shot 3.50
– MIGNOLA & CORBEN.

FEB111186 Twin Spica GN Vol 07 10.95
– An extra-sized volume of the excellent sci-fi story.

FEB110017 Goon Vol 01 Nothin But Misery 2nd Ed 16.99
– Marking the first time that all of the GOON books have been in print in at least 5 years. Hurrah!

Okay!

Hey there folks,

Following what was clearly the most successful TCAF we’ve ever had, we’re going to work hard to get things back to normal over the next week or two–if not better. Thank you to all of our regular customers here at The Beguiling while we’ve dealt with more boxes, more phone calls, more interruptions, and less time than we’ve ever had since working at the store. We appreciate your continued patronage of a great deal.

Best,

– Chris & Peter
Photo by Dustin Harbin. Full TCAF update next week.

Chester Brown Runs Again

Chester Brown, friend of The Beguiling and author of award winning Louis Riel and highly anticipated Paying For It, is again running as MP for the Libertarian Party in the Trinity-Spadina riding here in Toronto. In the 2008 federal election Chester received .8% of the vote, the second highest vote percentage of any Libertarian Party candidate in the country!

Coincidentally The Beguiling is throwing a release party for Chester’s new book Paying For It the night before the election. So, whether you’ve enjoyed his work for years or you’ve just discovered his comics through his political career, come on out May 1st for a good time.

PAYING FOR IT – Book Launch & Party
Hosted by NOW Magazine’s Sasha Von Bon Bon
7:30, Sunday, May 1st at Goodhandy’s

See the Event Announcement for details.

Free Comic Book Day & TCAF & The Mini-Maker Faire & More…

Hey everyone,

Christopher Butcher of The Beguiling and TCAF here. Hope you enjoyed (are enjoying?) your holiday weekend!

TCAF: So, I have a couple of things to let you know about. First and foremost, TCAF: The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, is coming up in just under two weeks–May 7th and 8th to be precise. This is the third year in a row that we’ve decided to hold TCAF on Mother’s Day weekend because, frankly, no other North American comic book event has ever counter-programmed Mother’s Day weekend. We’re cool because, hey, cool Moms like comics! And most brunch/dinner events don’t tend to overlap with TCAF’s programming hours. So, as in years past, come out for TCAF and/or one of the many awesome events we’re holding, and check out the full (and still-being-updated) schedule at http://torontocomics.com/events/.

Free Comic Book Day: But because of this, unfortunately, The Beguiling will not be participating in Free Comic Book Day this year. Let me explain:

So remember how I mentioned that, previously, no North American comic book event had counter-programmed Mother’s Day Weekend? Well there’s a first time for everything! This year, the annual Free Comic Book Day comic specialty store marketing event is actually the same weekend as Mother’s Day, and TCAF. FCBD is held on “The First Saturday in May” every year and this ended up being May 7th, the first time ever it was held on Mother’s Day weekend, and so… well, frankly it takes all of our resources at the store to make TCAF a success. The show is run by all of us at the store and a team of great volunteers on top of that, and we just didn’t have the time or staff to run both events.

We’re sorry about this, I for one actually love Free Comic Book Day as an event, and we try to go all-out every year doing outreach into the wider community on behalf of comics. Luckily, there are still a bunch of great Toronto retailers doing Free Comic Book Day events this year, including Paradise Comics at: http://tinyurl.com/68zhmbo. You can also check the official Free Comic Book Day website at http://freecomicbookday.com/ to see which stores in your area are participating.

Mini Maker Faire + More: And that’s the great thing about living in Toronto–every weekend there are dozens of amazing events happening. Festivals and fairs, gallery openings and closings, movies, concerts, readings, sales, and so much more. Another amazing event happening the May 7-8 weekend is the Toronto Mini Maker-Faire, a celebration of making, crafting, DIY-ing, tinkering, hacking and sharing. It’s a weekend where makers of all kinds will show off their projects and hold how-to workshops, with hands-on activities for all ages. It’s going to be great fun, and it’s the kind of thing that–if I weren’t running TCAF–I’d be at all weekend to check out. For more info go ahead and check out http://makerfairetoronto.ca.

Toronto’s Pretty Cool: While we are going to have a jam-packed, comic-book filled weekend at TCAF, there should still be time for you to slip away and check out the Maker Faire, Free Comic Book Day, or any of the other great comics/crafting/diy/arts events going on May 7th and May 8th. We at TCAF and The Beguiling wish nothing but the best of luck and support to all of our friends in the arts community, and we hope everyone has bustling, busy, and successful events!

Sincerely,

Christopher Butcher, The Beguiling & The Toronto Comic Arts Festival