FREE COMIC BOOK DAY @ THE BEGUILING (Updated)
Featuring a bunch of great comics creators!
Saturday, May 5th, 12Noon-6pm
The Beguiling, 601 Markham Street (Just around the corner from Bloor & Bathurst)
FREE!

For the third year in a row, The Beguiling is proud to present it’s own special contribution to FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! Just come by the store on Saturday May 5th between noon and 6pm, and receive free comics! Choose up to 5 comics per person, from dozens of different publishers! The whole event will occur in front of the store (if the weather holds…) and will feature over a dozen local comics creators who will be signing books and sketching for fans throughout the day! The schedule of appearances includes:

All Day!
Roxanne Bielskis (Torontoist.com, Poverty)
Michael Cho (Max Finder)
Jason Kieffer (Downtown Toronto, BlogTo.com)
Cameron Stewart (The Other Side)
Zach Worton (Corpse)
Jim Zubkavich (Makeshift Miracle, UDON Comics)

Noon-3PM Only:
John Martz (Drawn.ca)
Brian McLachlan (Princess Planet)
Jim Munroe (Therefore, Repent!, No Media Kings)
Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics)
Kean Soo (Jellaby)

3PM-6PM Only:
Ray Fawkes (Apocalipstix)
J. Torres (Teen Titans GO!, Legion of Super-Heroes)
Howie Shia (Comics Festival 2007!)
Chip Zdarsky, author of PRISON FUNNIES, MONSTER COPS, and without whose valuable assistance, COMICS FESTIVAL! 2007 would not have been possible.

In addition, we’ll be giving away copies of COMICS FESTIVAL 2007, a brand new comic that features new comic strips from pretty-much everyone attending our Free Comic Book Day event, as well as new material from Darwyn Cooke, Hope Larson, Bryan Lee O’Malley, and many more creators!

For more on Comics Festival, check out http://comics212.net/2007/03/06/comics-festival-2007-final-line-up/.

A Conversation with Bryan Talbot
In support of his new graphic novel ALICE IN SUNDERLAND
Monday, April 16th, 2007, 6PM
The Merril Collection (Lillian H. Smith Library, 239 College St.
Free to attend.
Hosted by SPACE’s Mark Askwith

Bryan Talbot is coming to Toronto! The creator of One Bad Rat, Luther Arkwright, and the artist of The Sandman Special #1: The Song of Orpheus is touring North America in support of his massive new graphic novel, Alice In Sunderland.

Talbot will be doing a presentation from the work, and will be interviewed on stage by Mark Askwith from the SPACE channel.

We’re very excited to see such an esteemed creator visiting us all the way from the U.K., so save the date and make sure to come out for this rare appearance. Both The Tale of One Bad Rat and the brand-new Alice In Sunderland are available for sale at The Beguiling now!

– Chris @ The Beguiling

Hey there. Our friends at Magic Pony art hosting an art show featuring He-Man and She-Ra, but ironic, sort of? It’s a benefit for Sick Kids Hospital, which is cool. We’re selling tickets for $5, which is a deal, because they’re 10 bucks at the door. It’s all for a really good cause, so if you like the art and the She-Ra hopefully we’ll see you there.

—

And a quick plug for Gary Taxali’s art show at Magic Pony this Thursday March 22nd. It’s called “Save The Boreal” and it’s a benefit for Greenpeace. Check it out at http://www.magic-pony.com/gallery/greenpeace.php. That’s a mighty nice poster he’s got there, eh?

– Christopher

Hi folks. As you might be aware, Captain America #25 (released Wednesday May 07th) was kind of a big deal. We tried our best to keep copies in stock for as long as possible, and even had some until about 6pm on Thursday, long after most shops had sold out. But, we’re out right now.

According to Marvel, the reorder that we placed for more copies of #1, first printing, will be arriving on March 21st. We might have as few as 25 copies more, or as many as another hundred or so. What we’re saying is, essentially, don’t bother with eBay, because there will be more copies in the market soon (and probably a second printing before the end of the month as well) even if they aren’t from us.

We try very hard to make sure that everyone gets a fair crack at books like these (which explains our limit of 2, and then 1, per customer) and will be doing so if and when we get more copies in, on a first-come, first-served basis. So yeah, don’t bother e-mailing or calling or asking us to hold one for you. We’ll post here as soon as we have an idea of how many more copies are coming and when, and we’ll continue to provide them to you as fairly as possible.

Thanks very much for your understanding, and your patience.

Best,

– Chris @ The Beguiling

It looks like, as was the case with SIN CITY and HELLBOY before it, Dark Horse Comics may or may not have copies of 300 by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley available when the movie debuts next month. What this means is that many stores will not have copies of the 300 HC in stock for the next month or so, or when the movie arrives. And if you’re excited about or even interested in this film, you’re REALLY gonna wanna read the graphic novel first.

Luckily, we have that. 300 I mean. We have that.

We have that now, we will have that for the next few months, and we can even sell you two or three if you and your friends ALL want a copy. We saw this coming and stocked up. I’m not saying we’re smarter or anything, I’m just saying, 300? We have that.

– Chris @ The Beguiling
P.S.: No, there is not a softcover, and no, there is not likely to be a softcover due to the unique shape and size of the book. Stranger things HAVE happened but I’m betting against it for the time being.
P.P.S.: We also have The Art of 300 in stock, as well as more-or-less every Frank Miller graphic novel in print (and a few that aren’t).

This week saw the arrival of a few more cool new books, and we thought we’d share the news with you.

First up is les Enfants d’ailleurs, by Bannister and Nykko. A new French language children’s graphic album, it features art by FLIGHT contributor Bannister and is quite pretty, if you like the animation/illustration-style stuff. The book is also appropriate for younger readers, and features a much more approachable vocabulary than most graphic albums if you happen to be looking to brush up on your francais. Second floor.

les Enfants: http://www.beguiling.com/productview2a.asp?P_NUM=5383

Secondly, we have RAGNI. The debut 5-song EP from Canadian songsters Ragni features a brand new 21 page graphic novella from Canadian illustrator Karl Kerschl, famous for his work on SUPERMAN and X-MEN. It’s actually a really nice, wordless black and white story and the music is good too. Sort of a late-period ambient Radiohead kind of thing? At any rate, it’s a pretty excellent (and unique!) addition to any comics library. $15.00, second floor.

RAGNI: http://www.beguiling.com/productview2a.asp?P_NUM=5384

Finally, we have a book that isn’t new this week but IS sort of a wonderful rarity that we should’ve mentioned a little while back. Canadian painter Ryan Heshka released a fun little artbook called ABC Spook Show, a 60 page collection of paintings that have the cute/goth look totally wrapped up. You can see more art at Heska’s website, http://www.ryanheshka.com. We’ve got plenty in stock at $22.95, available on the main floor.

ABC Spook Show: http://www.beguiling.com/productview2a.asp?P_NUM=5385

That’s it for this week! See you soon with more great books and events.

– Christopher

Happy Monday Morning, everybody.

We got two new books in this morning that you might be curious about. First is the new one by Charles Burns… What’s that, you say you didn’t know there was a new Charles Burns in the works? Well then, you apparently missed the news about One Eye, “a collection of paired photographs by Charles Burns that captures the strange undertones of a staggering range of objects and locales.” As the cover shows, it’s some pretty interesting stuff and if you’re a fan of Burns’ sequential narrative work, chances are you’re going to absolutely love his photography.

One Eye: http://www.beguiling.com/productview2a.asp?P_NUM=5381

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum is a brand new work featuring the art of fan-favourite Terry Dodson. Known for his ‘good-girl’ art, the new French-language album Songes Tome 1: Coraline is considerably more risque than Dodson can get away with on projects like Wonder Woman. Fans of animation and illustration books already scooped up our first shipment of this one, and it’s unlikely that the copies we have will be around for long. Better make your way to the store post-haste.

Songes Tome 1: http://www.beguiling.com/productview2a.asp?P_NUM=5380

That’s all for this morning. Check back all week, there’re always new books showing up…

– Chris

Update: Scott Pilgrim @ the Library
Presented in partnership with Toronto Public Library
Part of Keep Toronto Reading 2007

Sit down with critically acclaimed graphic novel creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, the man behind the witty and hilarious Scott Pilgrim series, selected as the Independent Comic of the Year by Entertainment Weekly (2006). Bryan chats with The Beguiling’s Peter Birkemoe and you never know, he might just give away a few exciting teasers about the highly anticipated new volume of Scott Pilgrim.

North York Central Library (Concourse)
Tues. Feb. 20, 6 – 7:30 p.m.

Also: Live chat with Bryan Lee O’Malley!

Can’t wait until the 20th? Chat online with Bryan a day before the
event on Book Buzz: Toronto Public Library’s Online Book
Club. It’s the perfect appetizer to what will be a highly
memorable event.

Mon. Feb. 19, 4-5 p.m. FREE.

—

We hope to see a whole bunch of our customers and friends out at this event, as we think it’s gonna be a good one…!

– Christopher

We’re happy to announce that artist Matt Forsythe has dropped off copies of issues one and two of OJINGOGO here at The Beguiling. These mini-comics collect his Eisner-nominated online comic, and are funny and beautifully drawn. Also? Wierd-as-hell, but in a great ‘these are comics that aliens make’ sort of a way. Actually, it reminds me a little bit of last year’s excellent A.L.I.E.E.E.N. by Lewis Trondheim in that way. Good stuff which will leave you wanting more, and Canadian too! Issue 1 is $5, and issue 2 is $6. Main floor, in front of the cash desk.

– Chris
P.S. You can check out Matt’s work at his website, http://comingupforair.net/.

Broccoli is a smaller manga publisher, and one of the few that doesn’t have some sort of exclusive arrangement with Diamond Comics Distributors. As a result, Diamond doesn’t tend to stock their books and their titles tend to get overlooked when we’re doing our own reorders. We’re sorry.

We’re happy to announce we’ve just restocked all-things Broccoli, your manga-prayers are answered. Here’s what’s come in:

Aquarian Age Juvenile Orion Vol 1-5, plus 5 w/artbox.
Aquarian Age Juvenile Orion: Realm Of Light Art Book – New!
Di Gi Charat Theater Vol 1-2
Galaxy Angel Vol 1-5
Galaxy Angel Beta Vol 1-3
Galaxy Angel Party Vol 1-2
Kamui Vol 1-5
Until The Full Moon Vol 1-2
Yoki Koto Kiku Vol 1

Expect more product updates this week, there’s a ton of new stuff in or coming soon.

– Christopher