Infinite Kung Fu Launch Party – Featuring Hop Fu!
Friday September 2nd, 2011 @ Revival Bar, 783 College
Doors open at 8:30 – Presentations start at 9pm!
$5 or free admission with book purchase.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=157265297683859

Presented by The Beguiling, Top Shelf Books, and Revival Bar

THE LONG-AWAITED DEBUT! It’s the official book launch for Kagan McLeod’s INFINITE KUNG FU, a massive 464-page graphic novel by Kagan McLeod. Serialized in comics, serialized on the internet, with short stories in jams across the world, the whole story is now complete and ready for you to put in your hot little hands!

FEATURING HEADLINERS HOP FU – New York-based scratch champions DJ 1XL and DJ Excess perform as Hop Fu, providing a live remixed score to a screening of the Shaw Brothers classic kung fu film “Super Ninjas.” Must be seen to be believed!

CHIP ZDARSKY hosts the evening and interviews Kagan about the book!
KAGAN McLEOD signs copies for fans!
TBA DJS keep the evening lively and fun, dance if you wanna!
THE BEGUILING will be on hand selling books and prints

This will be the biggest book launch of 2011, don’t miss out!

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8:30pm: Doors Open
9:00pm: Q&A with Kagan McLeod, followed by book signing
11:00pm: Hop Fu performance…!

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Midori-Ko (Film Screening)
Saturday, July 22nd, @ 9PM
@ The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
6 Garamond Court, Toronto (Don Mills Rd. & Eglinton Ave.)
http://shinsedai-toronto.com/?page_id=1236
Tickets $12.00

Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Oshima, Kitano – around the world these names immediately bring to mind the best that Japanese cinema has to offer, but now that we’re at the beginning of a new century many film fans are wondering who the next generation of great filmmakers from Japan will be. Toronto’s 3rd annual Shinsedai Cinema Festival tries to answer that question by bringing some of the best work by new, young and independent Japanese filmmakers to Toronto, many for the very first time.

The Beguiling and The Toronto Comic Arts Festival are proud to be partnering with Shinsedai for a special presentation of MIDORI-KO, by director and animator Keita Kurosaka. Read on for details about the film, and visit the Shinsedai Film Festival website to buy tickets and more! http://shinsedai-toronto.com

“Midori is a young woman with some very strong morals. Since she was a baby she was repulsed by the idea of eating meat, thus she’s spent her entire life as a strict vegetarian. It’s been a hard thing to pull off, especially given that the near future world Midori inhabits is plagued by food shortages and rationing. Most people will eat whatever lands on their plates, but Midori’s resolve is solid. Things change radically when Midori discovers a mysterious vegetable… or is it a creature? This gourd-like being is indeed a vegetable, but it also possesses a human face, arms, legs and intelligence! Midori, and Midori-ko, or “Baby Midori”, soon become fast friends, but soon their new relationship finds itself in peril. First, Midori-ko is being pursued by its creators, five genetic scientists who engineered this vegetable/ human hybrid as a solution to the world’s food crisis. Second, Midori soon discovers that her new little friend is absolutely delicious.

“World renowned animator Keita Kurosaka spent over a decade creating the world of Midori-ko, drawing nearly 20,000 framesof the film entirely by hand. The end result is a surreal story of the battle between humanity’s most base desires and its highest aspirations filtered through the visual styles of artists Hieronymous Bosch and Honoré Daumier.”

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– Chris @ The Beguiling

The Beguiling is proud to announce that we will be featuring two signings with author Helen McCarthy at our booth at Anime North! Helen McCarthy is the author of numerous books on manga and anime, including THE ART OF OSAMU TEZUKA, GOD OF MANGA and HAYAO MIYAZAKI: MASTER OF JAPANESE ANIMATION.

Helen McCarthy will be signing at The Beguiling’s booth Saturday, from 1-2 pm, and Sunday, from 10-11 am.

Helen McCarthy is a wonderful author and resource on Japanese manga and anime culture, and is an official guest of Anime North 2011. She will be appearing at numerous panels and signings over the course of the three-day convention. For more information on Ms. McCarthy’s schedule, please visit the Anime North website.

Our thanks to Ms. McCarthy and Canadian Manda Group for this wonderful opportunity.

– Chris @ The Beguiling

The following comics and graphic novels are scheduled to ship The Beguiling Books and Art on Wednesday May 25TH, 2011. All Prices listed in U.S. Funds. Variant prices are generally accurate, but all discrepancies between listed prices below and in-store prices will defer to in-store prices.

Click here for the complete list:  http://www.beguiling.com/110525shipping.txt

The Beguiling Recommends:

Also of note this week:


MAR118139 Butcher Baker Righteous Maker #2 Var Cvr 2nd Ptg  2.99
MAR110573 Butcher Baker Righteous Maker #3  2.99
– Casey and Hawthorne’s violent, sexy, over-the-top superhero send-up gets a third on-time issue. Issues 1 & 2 also in stock.

MAR110267 Green Lantern #66 (war Of Gl) 2.99
MAR110269 Green Lantern Corps #60 (war Of Gl) 2.99
MAR110271 Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #10 (war Of Gl) 2.99
– DC are shipping the final three parts of the War of the Green Lanterns story-arc this week. So if you are a GL fan I guess you’ll have no choice but to come by this week eh?

MAR111016 Kirby Genesis #0 1.00
– Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek reimagine all of the Kirby-created characters not in thrall to major multinational corporations. We probably did not order enough of this, seeing as it is a dollar. A reorder is already placed.


MAR110598 Skullkickers #7 2.99
– Jim Zub & Edwin Huang’s SKULLKICKERS returns after a brief (planned!) hiatus to see a MAJOR NEW STATUS QUO FOR THE BOOK! Heh. At any rate, Issues 1-6 and the trade paperback are all currently in stock.

MAR110379 Strange Adventures #1  7.99
– Vertigo’s best and brightest on a new anthology series. Issue #1 features our good friend Jeff Lemire, as well as Azzarello, Milligan, Paul Pope on cover, and more.

MAR110601 Super Dinosaur #2 2.99
– I’m really enjoying this new series from Robert Kirkman. If you want to try it out guilt-free, we’ve still got some copies left of the Free Comic Book Day sampler. Check it out.

MAR111388 Alter Ego #101  7.95
FEB111254 Back Issue #48  7.95
– Bit of a mix-up a few weeks back on the new issue of Back Issue magazine. We’ve got them in now though, thanks for your patience.

MAR111279 Mega Man Gigamix TP Vol 01  12.95
– Hitoshi Ariga’s awesome continuation of the Mega Man universe in manga format. Pretty excited about this one.

MAR111190 Anthology Project HC Vol 02   29.95
– This collection of North American illustrators and fine artists doing unique comics projects actually made an early appearance at TCAF. If you missed it, make sure to come by and grab it this week.

JAN111358 Atelier Series Official Chronicle SC  39.99
– Another gorgeous art book from UDON.

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– Chris @ The Beguiling

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/

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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.

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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.

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– Chris @ The Beguiling

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

After a bit of a mix-up on Wednesday we’re happy to report that we now have Lots and Lots of copies of Nate Simpson’s NONPLAYER #1 2nd Printing in stock for $2.99. It’s a gorgeous new comic book, and an intriguing first issue. Second floor.

– Chris

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

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!

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.