Featuring author Tory Woollcott
Friday, July 3rd, 2009, 5pm-8pm
@ The Central, 603 Markham Street (next to The Beguiling)
FREE

“Mirror Mind” is a brand new graphic novel written by Torontonian author Tory Woollcott. Tory uses the comic book format to recount her childhood experiences with dyslexia; a medium that perfectly translates her memories to paper. Mirror Mind is an enjoyable read accessible to all, while reaching out directly to children and parents struggling with dyslexia.

The Beguiling is very proud to present the official launch for “Mirror Mind” with author Tory Woollcott on Friday, July 3rd, from 5pm-8pm. Tory will be doing a light-hearted presentation on her graphic novel and on her experiences, which will be followed by a Q&A with The Beguiling’s Peter Birkemoe. Book signing follows.

“Mirror Mind” is in stock at The Beguiling now, and we highly recommend attending this event. It should be along the lines of our great, well-attended book launch for Dave Lapp’s DROP-IN graphic novel.

For more information, visit http://www.mirrormind.maybemumkin.com/

What hijinks will The Beguiling staff get up to while Mr. Butcher is out of the country? How about a Queen Street Location! That’s right, starting this Friday night we will be taking over the gallery book store at MOCCA. Independent comic’s readers are likely familiar with another MOCCA but in this case I’m talking about the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art at 952 Queen Street West (near Queen and Shaw).



Tonight (Friday June 26) from 7pm to 11pm is the grand opening of MOCCA’s new show Pulp Fiction featuring Marc Bell and Peter Thompson, who Beguiling customers will know from their books in the Petit Livre series from Drawn and Quarterly, as well as many other talented Canadian artists for you to discover. The show runs through August 23rd and we will be there every hour the museum is open offering an interesting subset of the fine books from our Markham Street store.

You can find out more about the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art at www.mocca.ca and read about the Pulp Fiction show HERE.

Admission is Pay What You Can

The Museum’s hours are:
Tuesday - Thursday 11am - 6pm
Friday 11am – 9pm
Saturday – Sunday 11am – 6pm
Closed on Mondays

Hope to see you there!

Throughout June the CBC’s The Book Club has been focusing on graphic novels. This week they talked to The Beguiling owner Peter Birkemoe about his
top ten graphic novels.

Unsurprisingly local author Seth was on that list and the article also includes a short video showing some highlights of his latest book George Sprott.

I guess they must have been impressed because The Book Club will also be hosting a live moderated chat with Seth on their site tomorrow at 2 pm Eastern Time. So you should totally check that out and maybe even ask him some questions.



More exciting news about comics in Toronto is coming very soon. Plus: The smooth satisfying flavor of Beguiling Books available at a second location? Maybe so, my friends. Maybe so.

As many regular visitors are no doubt already aware store manager and regular web page updater Chris Butcher is away for the next few weeks exploring the mysterious east or, since it's a shorter flight across the Pacific from here, the mysterious west if you prefer. I look forward to bringing you mad, pirate radio style, replacement coverage* in the interim. That’s right, you’d best put a seat belt on your screen because it’s about to go for the ride of its life.

- Parrish

*user experience of actual madness and/or piracy may very.

The following comics and graphic novels are scheduled to ship The Beguiling Books & Art on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009. All Prices listed in U.S. Funds. Variant prices are generally accurate to what we will be charging in store, but all disputes between prices will defer to the stickered, in-store price.

Hello folks,

I'm Christopher Butcher and I’m the Festival Director and co-founder of TCAF, The Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Co-founder Peter Birkemoe, a handful of staff, and dozens of volunteers and I present TCAF every two years in lovely downtown Toronto, Canada. A little over a month ago on May 9-10, 2009, we held our fourth Festival. It was a first at our new home, the Toronto Reference Library, the flagship of the 99-branch Toronto Public Library system (the largest library system in North America). Following tradition, we thought a nice note sent far and wide might be a good way to sum up this year’s Festival, and make a few announcements about the next one.

First and foremost, we think that TCAF 2009 was a great success. Our main goal with TCAF is to create a stage for the comics, art and graphic novels that we love, so they can really shine and find the audience that they deserve. Canada is a country that produces great cartoonists and comics and we’re proud that more than 250 creators, a dozen publishers, and more attendees than ever could participate in this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Despite economic concerns, TCAF 2009 proved that comics are still a boom medium, bursting with creativity, craft, and passion—and people want to come out and be a part of it!

Attendance at TCAF 2009 events more than doubled over our 2007 figures, with 10,500 TCAF-specific attendees visiting Toronto Reference Library across both days (official numbers, at that: from audited data provided by Toronto Public Library’s turnstile powers-that-be), and with over 14,000 attendees visiting TCAF-branded events in total. Feedback from guests, attendees, and partners has been overwhelmingly positive so far. While we did experience some growing pains this year (heat, crowds, traffic-flow) familiarizing ourselves with and settling in to the new
venue, we’re confident that moving forward we’ll be able to rectify these issues.

On that note, we’d like to thank all of the wonderful cartoonists, publishers, artists and writers who came out to exhibit this year. TCAF 2009 featured our largest and most diverse collection of guests to date, and as always these creators and their work are the reason there is a Festival in the first place. Thanks to our honored guests François Ayroles, Anke Feuchtenberger, Emmanuel Guibert, Derek Kirk Kim, Kid Koala/Eric San, Scott McCloud, Tara McPherson, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Paul Pope, Florent Ruppert, Seth, Adrian Tomine, and Craig Yoe. And a very special thanks especially to Mr. and Mrs. Yoshihiro Tatsumi, who overcame medical troubles to attend this Festival: you gave us a truly special event.

We’ve continued to receive amazing support from both Canada's national and Toronto's local print and online media, with many of our guests surprised at the level of coverage that we received both as an event, and around specific guests. Of particular note is the superlative support of the Arts & Life section of Canada’s National Post newspaper, who ran over a hundred biographies and Q&As of comics creators attending TCAF, several feature articles and art pages, blog and print wraps and updates -- they even live-Twittered several panels. We appreciate their support of comics and their recognition of TCAF’s prominent role in promoting the medium. These efforts, alongside coverage from TCAF Media Sponsor Eye Magazine, newspapers The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and L’Express, online coverage from BoingBoing, Torontoist, BlogTO, NOW, Publishers Weekly, Quill and Quire, Sequential, Walrus, The Comics Reporter, dozens of blogs, thousands of tweets, and the fine folks at Open Books Toronto and WHAZAMO! declaring May GRAPHIC NOVEL MONTH, created unprecedented awareness not only of TCAF, but of the hundreds of publishers and cartoonists at the event. Thank you!

Peter and I would like to thank all of our sponsors and partner organizations, and especially TCAF Presenting Sponsor, Toronto Public Library (TPL). TPL graciously donated the use of the beautiful, airy Toronto Reference Library building to act as our venue for the main exhibition and programming. Holding TCAF at Toronto Reference Library re-enforces the fact that TCAF is completely FREE for the public to attend. We’ve long maintained that making the show free removes the barriers to entry for anyone who might be interested in the medium of comics and graphic novels, and by partnering with an organization that offers free access to a fantastic, comprehensive collection of the best comics literature all year-round, we've found a great partner in our goals. TCAF strives to present a broad, accessible, and varied view of comics and it is with the support of TPL and their staff—particularly tireless Director of Communications Ab Velasco—that we were able to reach more people with our message than ever before. Thank you. Thanks also to our sponsors at Harbourfront Centre, Owlkids, Le Consulate General de France a Toronto, the Goethe-Institut, Eye Weekly, The Japan Foundation, Magic Pony, Teletoon Canada, and of course, The Beguiling Books and Art: You supported us with great guests, with great venues, great programming, and so much more.

As the public face of TCAF, I often get a lot of the credit and praise directed at the event (the complaints too!), but there are a number of people who help put this show together that don’t always get the credit they deserve. Foremost amongst those people is Steven Murray (aka Chip Zdarsky), who went above and beyond this year to help us put together weeks and months worth of projects related to the Festival. He is a wonderful artist, writer, designer and friend, and we are sorry for making him uncomfortable with this praise but: We literally could not have done what we did without you.

Thanks also go out to: our 2009 Festival Poster Artist Bryan Lee O’Malley; Emmanuel Guibert for lending us Sardine for our Comics Festival! comic; Professor Andrew Lesk for organizing a fantastic academic program; Jocelyne Allen for superb Japanese translation skills; our many programming hosts and moderators including: Bill Kartalopoulos, Deb Aoki, Bart Beaty, Mark Askwith, Mark D. Nevins, Mark Siegel, Douglas Wolk, Jose Villarrubia, Jason Azzopardi, Stacy E. King, Jim Zubkavich, and Robin McConnell; The hosts and staff of The 2009 Doug Wright Awards for throwing an excellent event Saturday evening; our 2009 Festival Staff including Logistics Coordinators Rob Broughton and Sean Rogers, Kids Programming Coordinators Scott Robins and Naseem Hrab, Volunteer Coordinator Andrew Woodrow-Butcher; Parrish Kilthei for his A/V assistance; the staff of The Beguiling; Kate Dickson from Teletoon Canada; Peggy Burns from Drawn & Quarterly for all of her help coordinating an incredibly busy schedule; and the shrewd advice of Nathalie Atkinson. We had an army of talented, passionate volunteers again this year who helped to ensure that things went as smoothly as they possibly could, and we greatly appreciate their contribution to making the event a success (and that they happily wore the ketchup 'n' mustard-coloured TCAF t-shirts). We hope that all of you will come out and be a part of next year’s event.

That’s right, the next Toronto Comic Arts Festival will be held Saturday May 8^th and Sunday May 9^th, 2010, at Toronto Reference Library. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST. And yes, we know that's Mother's Day… All of the cool moms read comics.

What, so soon, you ask? Following up on feedback from our partners, our guests, our staff, and attendees, we’ve decided to build on the incredible momentum of having a new home and incredibly supportive presenting sponsor in Toronto Public Library, and produce our first annual show. This is something of an experiment for us, and I can’t say for sure that we’re “going annual” with the event, but we feel that a 2010 event is the best course of action to ensure that TCAF stays a fun, vital, and prominent festival both within the city of Toronto and in the larger comics community. That's around the corner so we'll be running a tight ship, and further details about TCAF 2010 (including exhibitor application & information) will be released later this summer.

Thanks again to everyone who made the 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival such a fantastic success. We greatly appreciate your support, your promotion of the festival through great word of mouth and online, and your attendance. We’ll do our best to keep putting together a great show.

Thanks,

Christopher Butcher, Festival Director
Toronto Comic Arts Festival

On behalf of the executive, staff, and volunteers of TCAF

MIRROR MIND Graphic Novel Launch Party
Featuring author Tory Woollcott
Friday, July 3rd, 2009, 5pm-8pm
@ The Central, 603 Markham Street (next to The Beguiling)
FREE

“Mirror Mind” is a brand new graphic novel written by Torontonian author Tory Woollcott. Tory uses the comic book format to recount her childhood experiences with dyslexia; a medium that perfectly translates her memories to paper. Mirror Mind is an enjoyable read accessible to all, while reaching out directly to children and parents struggling with dyslexia.

The Beguiling is very proud to present the official launch for “Mirror Mind” with author Tory Woollcott on Friday, July 3rd, from 5pm-8pm. Tory will be doing a light-hearted presentation on her graphic novel and on her experiences, which will be followed by a Q&A with The Beguiling’s Peter Birkemoe. Book signing follows.

“Mirror Mind” is in stock at The Beguiling now, and we highly recommend attending this event. It should be along the lines of our great, well-attended book launch for Dave Lapp’s DROP-IN graphic novel.

UNDERGROUND CLASSICS: The Transformation of Comics into Comix
Book Launch and Discussion with author James Danky
Sunday, June 28th, 2009, 3pm-5pm
@ The Central, 603 Markham Street (next to The Beguiling)
FREE

The Beguiling is proud to present James Danky, editor of the new book “Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix”. BoingBoing says that Underground classics is “The first [book] to really focus on the artwork of underground comics,” and it really is a gorgeous book, loaded with beautiful art reproductions and essays from historians including Paul Buhle, Trina Robins, Jay Lynch, and Patrick Rosenkranz amongst others.

Danky will be giving an audio/visual presentation on the art and history of underground comix. A moderated discussion between Danky, The Beguiling’s Peter Birkemoe will follow, including a special Underground Comix Trivia Contest and a chance to win a copy of the book! A book signing will follow.

Hope to see you there!

RED TRESSES AND FRECKLES: Junko Mizuno Solo Exhibition
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 18 from 7-10pm
Artist will be in attendance

Narwhal Art Projects (Near Magic Pony Gallery)
680 Queen St. West, Toronto, ON, Canada
647.346.5317

Exhibition Dates: June 18 - July 26, 2009

For more information, including a selected gallery of pieces, please check out http://www.magic-pony.com/gallery/2009_junkomizuno.php.

--

See you there!

- Chris @ The Beguiling

I know some stores are getting Captain America #600 from Marvel early, as in today. Those stores are all, to the best of my knowledge, in the United States. Unfortunately Canadian retailers are never offered early shipping on these kinds of books, due to shipping/customs issues. Yes, even though the books are printed in Canada. We know it's kind of stupid, not much we can do about it.

The following comics and graphic novels are scheduled to ship The Beguiling Books & Art on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009. All Prices listed in U.S. Funds. Variant prices may not be accurate.

Released in conjunction with the 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival, The Beguiling has published it's first book ever: Key Moments from the History of Comics! This witty chapbook collection of French cartoonist Francois Ayroles' humour cartoons is a fantastic and funny read for alternative and literary comics fans, imagining what the most important moments in the lives and times of great cartoonists the world over were like...

A collection taking the best and most relevant cartoons from Ayroles' French language livres 'Moments Clés de la Bande Dessinée' and 'Nouveaux Moments Clés de la Bande Dessinée.'

This book is now available in-store and online for the reasonable sum of just CDN$10. Here's a little preview of some of the lovely cartoons that you can find within:

Sorry for the delay in posting. While these are mostly for posterity's sake now, here are the lists of items that shipped to The Beguiling on Wednesday June 3rd, and Wednesday June 10th, 2009. All Prices listed in U.S. Funds. Variant prices may not be accurate.

Shipped June 3rd, 2009: /090603shipping.txt

Shipped June 10th, 2009: /090610shipping.txt

--

Thanks!

- Chris

Northlanders #17
By Brian Wood & Vasilis Lolos
SPECIAL: $2.00 UNTIL JUNE 1ST, 2009

DESCRIPTION: "The Viking Art of Single Combat." On a snowy coastline of Norway, two Vikings face off in single combat. Seconds slow to minutes. Minutes slow to hours. Then, slower still, until the fight takes on a greater meaning. Viking warfare is deconstructed and dissected in this bitter and lonely brawl to the death with visually stunning art from Vasilis Lolos (Last Call).

--

So a few months back our friend Brian Wood e-mailed us, excited about the new issue of his ongoing viking-series for Vertigo, NORTHLANDERS. He wanted us to know that Northlanders #17 would be an amazing issue, and a great jumping-on point for potential new readers. So we said "sounds good to us!" and we bumped up our order and we're offering a special on the book. This week only NORTHLANDERS #17, by Mr. Wood and LAST CALL and PIRATES OF CONEY ISLAND artist Vasilis Lolos, is only $2.00.

Northlanders is a great series, one of Vertigo's best, and the first trade is only 10 bucks. Give it a go, eh?

- Chris @ The Beguiling

The following comics and graphic novels are scheduled to ship The Beguiling Books & Art on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009. All Prices listed in U.S. Funds.

NEW COMICS
Aliens #1 (of 4) 3.50
Amazing Spider-man #595 Dkr 2.99
Amazing Spider-man #595 Granov Var Dkr TBA
Archie #597 2.50
Astounding Wolf-man #16 2.99
Avengers Initiative #24 Dkr 2.99
Avengers Invaders #11 (of 12) 2.99
Back To Brooklyn #5 (of 5) 2.99
Batman In Barcelona Dragons Knight 3.99
Batman The Brave &/t Bold #5 2.50
Cartoon Network Block Party #57 2.50
Crossed #5 (of 9) 3.99
Crossed #5 (of 9) Wrap Cvr 3.99
Cursed Pirate Girl #1 (of 3) 4.95
Dark Reign Elektra #3 (of 5) Dkr 3.99
Dark Reign Hood #1 (of 5) Dkr 3.99
Darkness #77 2.99
Dellec #0 1.99
Doktor Sleepless #12 3.99
Enders Shadow Battle School #5 (of 5) 3.99
Eureka Dormant Gene #2 (of 4) 3.99
Fall Of Cthulhu Nemesis #2 (of 4) 3.99
Farscape Dargos Lament #2 (of 4) 3.99
Fathom #7 Ale Garza Cvr 2.99
Final Crisis Aftermath Ink #1 (of 6) 2.99
Fringe #5 (of 6) 2.99
Futurama Comics #43 2.99
Garth Ennis Battlefields Tankies #2 3.50
Ghost Rider #35 2.99
Glamourpuss #7 3.00
Godland #28 2.99
Gotham Gazette #1 Batman Alive 2.99
Gravel HC Vol 01 Bloody Liars 32.99
Green Lantern #41 2.99
Green Lantern #41 Var Ed TBA
Guardians Of Galaxy #14 2.99
Hero Squared Love & Death #3 (of 3) 3.99
Ignition City #3 (of 5) 3.99
Ignition City #3 (of 5) 3-copy Incv 3.60
Ignition City #3 (of 5) Painted Cvr 3.99
Ignition City #3 (of 5) Wrap Cvr 3.99
Immortal Iron Fist #26 2.99
Impaler #3 2.99
Incredible Hercules #129 2.99
Jans Atomic Heart 5.95
Justice League Of America #33 2.99
Justice Society Of America #27 2.99
Last Days Of Animal Man #1 (of 6) 2.99
Literals #2 (of 3) 2.99
Madame Xanadu #11 2.99
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #48 2.99
Marvel Apes Grunt Line Special 3.99
Moon Knight #30 2.99
Mouse Guard Winter 1152 #6 (of 6) 3.50
Ms Marvel #39 Dkr 2.99
Muppet Robin Hood #1 (of 4) 2.99
New Avengers #53 Bachalo Var Dkr TBA
New Avengers #53 Dkr 3.99
Northlanders #17 2.99
Nova #25 2.99
Promethea Covers Book SC 5.99
Rapture #1 Incv Maleev Cvr 2.99
Rapture #1 Oeming Cvr TBA
Red Sonja #44 2.99
Resistance #6 (of 6) 3.99
Robert Jordans New Spring #6 3.99
Runaways 3 #10 3.99
Sonic Universe #4 2.50
Spider-man Short Halloween 3.99
Spirit #28 2.99
Squadron Supreme 2 #11 2.99
Stand American Nightmares #3 (of 5) 3.99
Star Wars Legacy #36 Renegade 2.99
Starcraft #1 2.99
Starcraft #1 Var Ed TBA
Superman #688 2.99
Sword #17 2.99
Tarot Witch o/t Black Rose #56 2.95
Teen Titans #71 2.99
Transformers Revenge o/t Fallen Movie Adapt #2 3.99
Trinity #52 2.99
Ultimate Wolverine Vs Hulk #6 (of 6) 2.99
United Free Worlds #4 (of 6) 3.50
Unknown Soldier #8 2.99
Usagi Yojimbo #120 3.50
War Machine #6 2.99
Wildcats #11 2.99
Wolverine #72 2.99
Wolverine First Class #15 2.99
Wolverine Origins #36 Dkr 2.99
Wonder Woman #32 2.99
Wonder Woman #32 Var Ed TBA
X-force #15 Xmw 2.99
X-men Future History Messiah War Sourcebook 3.99
X-men Legacy #224 2.99

NEW TRADE PAPERBACKS AND BOOKS
Bart Simpson Son Of Homer TP 15.99
Bayou TP Vol 01 14.99
Berserk TP Vol 29 13.95
Biographic Novel 14th Dalai Lama GN 15.95
Bound Beauty GN Vol 03 10.99
Chicken With Plums SC 12.95
Comic Books 101 History Method & Madness SC 22.99
Conan TP Vol 07 Cimmeria 17.95
Dames Doll And Gun Molls SC 24.95
Dawn TP Vol 01 Lucifers Halo (new Ptg) 17.99
DC Library Roots o/t Swamp Thing Hc 39.99
DC Library Roots o/t Swamp Thing Hc 39.99
Dead At 17 Ultimate Ed TP 24.99
Dead Of Night TP Devil-slayer 14.99
Death Defying Devil TP Vol 01 14.99
Elephantmen HC Vol 02 Fatal Diseases 34.99
Essential X-men TP Vol 09 19.99
Galveston TP 15.99
Garth Ennis Battlefields TP Vol 02 Dear Billy 12.99
Ghost Rider Danny Ketch TP Addict 19.99
God Of Comics Osamu Tezuka SC 25.00
Guardians Of Galaxy Prem HC Vol 02 War Of Kings 24.99
Hi Fructose Collected Ed Hc 35.00
Incognegro Sc 14.99
Incredible Hercules TP Love And War 14.99
John Stanley Library Melvin Monster HC Vol 01 19.95
King Of Cards Vol 07 9.99
Kirepapa GN Vol 01 (of 3) 12.95
Least I Could Do TP Vol 02 Velcro Pants Are Awesome 11.95
Lucky Luke TP Vol 16 Black Hills 11.95
Marvel Adventures TP Thor Digest 9.99
MMW Amazing Spider-man TP Vol 02 24.99
MMW Amazing Spider-man TP Vol 02 Var Dm Ed 5 24.99
Moon Knight TP Vol 04 Death Of Marc Spector 16.99
Mpd Psycho TP Vol 09 12.95
My Inner Bimbo TP 19.95
Nancy Drew GN SC Vol 17 Night o/t Living Chatchke 7.95
Neil Gaiman Coraline TP 9.99
Neil Gaiman Dave Mckean Crazy Hair Yr HC 18.99
Off Hb Marvel Univ A To Z Prem HC Vol 08 24.99
Part-time Pets GN 12.95
Power Up Gn 12.99
Pride And Prejudice And Zombies SC 12.95
Robin Teen Wonder TP 17.99
Sparrow John Watkiss Hc 11.99
Special Forces TP Vol 01 16.99
Spider-man Noir Prem Hc 19.99
Star Trek Omnibus TP Vol 01 24.99
Star Wars Clone Wars TP Vol 03 Wind Raiders Taloraan 7.95
Star Wars Vector TP Vol 02 Chapters 3 And 4 17.95
Static Shock Rebirth o/t Cool TP 19.99
Tarzan The Jesse Marsh Years HC Vol 02 49.95
Terry Moores Echo TP Vol 01 Moon Lake (jun083602) 15.95
Teru Teru X Shonen Vol 05 9.99
This Is A Souvenir Songs Of Spearmint & Shirley Lee Gn 29.99
T-minus GN Race To The Moon 12.99
Trinity TP Vol 01 29.99
True Loves GN Vol 02 8.95
Wonder Woman Love And Murder TP 12.99
World Of Warcraft Ashbringer Hc 19.99
X-force Premiere HC Vol 02 Old Ghosts 19.99
X-men Magneto Testament Prem Hc 24.99
X-men Worlds Apart Hc 19.99

NEW MAGAZINES
Dr Who Magazine #408 7.99
Geek Monthly Jun 2009 5.99
Jack Kirby Quarterly #15 7.95
Juxtapoz Vol 16 #5 May 2009 5.99
Wizard Mag #213 Pacheco Ultimate Avengers Cvr 5.99
Wizard Mag #213 Transformers 2 Movie Cvr 5.99
Wizard Magazine #213 Obama Cvr 5.99

NEW MANGA
Century Of Black Ships HC 27.99
Code Geass Nightmare Of Nunnally GN Vol 01 10.99
Divine Melody GN Vol 02 (of 6) 9.95
Dogs TP Vol 00 12.99
Dogs TP Vol 00 12.99
Higurashi When They Cry GN Vol 02 Abducted By Demons (c: 0-1 10.99
Kamichama Karin-chu GN Vol 04 10.99
Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya GN Vol 02 10.99
Naoki Urasawa 20th Century Boys GN Vol 02 12.99
U Dont Know Me GN 9.99

Note: We actually have tons more new manga than this in. Hopefully we'll do a little post later...

--

- Chris @ The Beguiling

Hey folks, just a reminder that The Beguiling is open today, Monday May 17th, from 12pm-6pm and despite the Victoria Day Holiday. This is because we're in a tourist area (Honest Ed's) and because comics never rest.

- Chris @ The Beguiling
(Shown is the cover image from Bryan Talbot's Heart of Empire #4 featuring an alternate-universe Princess Victoria. Surprisingly, the Heart of Empire trade paperback is currently in print and in stock at the shop.)

The following comics and graphic novels are scheduled to ship The Beguiling Books & Art on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009. All Prices listed in U.S. Funds, variant prices may not be accurate (but probably are).

Click here for the complete list: /090520shipping.txt

THE BEGUILING RECOMMENDS:

MAR094261 The Photographer: Into War Torn Afghanistan GN 29.95
This beautiful from Toronto Comic Arts Festival Guest of Honour Emmanuel Guibert ships this week from First Second. I think that people are going to be surprised first by how big the book is; it feels twice as large (and thick) as a regular release from the publisher. They'll be surprised secondly by how effortlessly the photography is inserted into the narrative, how the art and photos compliment and feed into one another. It really is a wonderful, important book, and we were honoured to have M. Guibert to Toronto. If you missed it at TCAF, make sure to pick it up now.

FEB094281 You'll Never Know Vol 01: A Good And Decent Man HC 24.99
I have seen this one yet, but I feel that like Lynda Barry's recent What It Is, this one will blur the edges of the definition of a graphic novel. It's a graphic narrative, a biography, a scrapbook. It sounds incredibly interesting to me, perhaps moreso than any of creator Carol Tyler's previous work. Looking forward to it.

OCT084161 Brinkley Girls Best Of 1913-1940 HC GN 29.99
A few years ago I had the pleasure of working with Trina Robbins on her series Go Girl!, first from Image and then at Dark Horse. In the course of working with Trina, she sent me a copy of one of her earliest books, The Great Women Cartoonists, which featured an extensive section on Nell Brinkley. I'd never heard of Brinkley but was instantly captivated by her lovely work. Elegant, beautifully dressed women; flappers having fun; Joy. It's just great, energetic, incredibly accomplished cartooning, and beautiful. I don't think at the time (almost 10 years ago?) either Trina or I thought that a time would come in the industry when a giant, full-colour retrospective of Brinkley's work would be feasible. But comics' current fascination with its own history and the great work almost-lost to the ages has made this a book that Fantagraphics is willing to take a chance on, and I'm grateful. If my aesthetic recommendation carries any weight with you, might I humbly suggest you pick up a copy of this for yourself? I think it's unlikely that you'll regret it.

NOV080012 Clover Omnibus Tp Vol 01 19.95
...and speaking of beautiful books, I never really got into the 'story' of Japanese cartooning collective CLAMP's dreamlike steampunk-esque series CLOVER when it was being released by Tokyopop. I'm actually not convinced it has a real story. But my god is it gorgeous. Now the whole thing is coming in one gorgeous book for $20. So, you know, buy it.

FEB094482 Oishinbo Gn Vol 03 Ramen & Gyoza 12.99
FEB094481 Pluto Urasawa X Tezuka Gn Vol 03 12.99
JAN094527 Real Gn Vol 04 12.99
FEB094483 Vagabond Tp Vol 29 (Mr) 9.95
JAN094528 Vagabond Vizbig Ed Gn Vol 03 (Mr) 19.99
Alright, I'm cheating here, I normally only pick about five titles for the "Beguiling Recommends" section at the top of these posts... But come on! Look at this! It's an amazing week for manga. We've already got Oishinbo, Pluto, and Vagabond 29 here in stock at the store, and they're all f'ing amazing. Three cheers for manga!

ALSO OF NOTE:

MAR094165 Boys Herogasm #1 (Mr) 2.99
MAR090130 Final Crisis Aftermath Dance #1 (Of 6) 2.99
MAR090215 Killapalooza #1 (Of 6) 2.99
Heh, these three books just have fantastic names. Just going over the invoice this week, and each one gave me a smile, so what the hell, let's make a note of that right? It's even better when Diamond has stripped the punctuation out too. Hehe.

JAN090225 Batman Mad Love And Other Stories Hc 19.99
I know this is maybe the fourth or fifth incarnation of this story, but the Paul Dini/Bruce Timm team-up is still fantastically popular here at the store, particularly amongst animation nerds. So if you haven't picked it up yet, or have read it so many times that it's fallen apart, it's now available in a sturdy hardcover format.

MAR092625 Hulk World War Hulk Hc 34.99
I know we had a number of folks coming in looking for this last week, must have been on Marvel's site or something. Anyway, it's actually shipping this week and we seem to have a few copies at least.

FEB090264 Transmetropolitan Tp Vol 02 Lust For Life New Ed 14.99
The second volume of re-formatted Transmet trades by Ellis and Robertson arrives this week. This really is the strongest material in the series;dense with ideas and beautiful art. I don't think Ellis has densely packed as many interesting ideas into anything he's done since these first 12 issues of Transmet, they're absolutely essential for anyone with any interest in genre comics.

FEB094408 Big Book Of Barry Ween Boy Genius Tp (Res) 19.95
I don't know what to say about this that won't make me sound like I'm being a jerk to Judd Winnick, so I'm just going to go for it: This book is worth more and is better than anything he's done since, by a factor of 10. It has more humour, more heart, and more to say about humanity than every shitty superhero book he's written. It didn't pay the bills; fine, I get it. But man, there was some truly creative stuff in here that just got completely lost in... what followed. So, yeah. Judd Winnick may be box-office-poison for many of you at this point, but this is some pretty funny, fucked-up, and downright-enjoyable stuff.

DEC080026 Dawn: Worlds Of Final Fantasy Hc 29.95
And here's Dark Horse's inexpensive Final Fantasy artbook. To those of you that will enjoy it, enjoy!

- Chris @ The Beguiling

Who doesn't like free graphic novels and free concert tickets?

The National Post is giving away three prize packs featuring a selection of books being launched at this weekend's Toronto Comic Arts Festival, as well as a pair of tickets to see Kid Koala at Lee's Palace Thursday Night!

To enter, head on over to:

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/afterword/archive/2009/05/04/our-fabulous-tcaf-2009-giveaway.aspx.

Bonne Chance!

- Chris