A Typical Week's Worth of Books

I indulge my love of comic books and art books by,

almost every week, on New Comic Book Day,

visiting the book shops of downtown Toronto.

I don't usually come home without at least one addition to the collection and fairly often, quite a few new items are in my backpack.

So, here is a typical "haul":

Starting out at the BMV book shop at

10 Edward Street, close to the new location of the Silver Snail Comic Shop.

I already own this one, I bought it when it was released and I was 18 and living in Birmingham, England.  It was cheap enough that I couldn't pass over the chance of a "reading copy" and it is in lovely condition too.

Somewhere along the line, I had stopped being overly impressed by Dean Yeagle and his creation, "Mandy".

Don't get me wrong, Dean is a wonderful cartoonist but the subject matter was always the same and I am no longer a teenage boy!

That being said, the books weren't cheap when they were released and that played a part too.  This one, I just simply overlooked and at $15, for a collection of images by a variety of artists, was too good to pass up.

This was in the $2 bin and it has some lovely photos of pretty women in luxurious lingerie.  I have a separate library of photography and images, which this will fit right into.

Moving on, to the largest BMV outlet, up on Bloor Street, I found these treasures:

Amazing X-Men #4 by McGuinness

Amazing X-Men #5 by McGuinness

Der Mond, a very attractive art book about a japanese artist, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto.  A book that I had checked-out at it's full price of $50, being sold for $10, meant that it too was going home with me!

This one was simply a lucky find, in the 50 cent box.  The lead story is by the fledgeling Travis Charest.

Neal Adams Presents, Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Menace.

Published by Vanguard/David Spurlock

in 2006, this one just didn't register on my radar.

I already own the large compilation of the same strip, that was published in the 1980's, soon after the strip's initial run in Adam's "Echo of Future Past" magazine.

But after rereading the extensive interview with Michael Golden, the artist, in the issue of Modern Masters about him and his career, it was an item that I wanted for the collection.  It had been sitting in the glass case/check-out counter at BMV for weeks, calling my name...

 After that stop, I walked across the road to The Labyrinth, a tiny, well stocked Art Book Shop that has the misfortune of facing the largest discount book store in the city.

The owner does his best to stock the type of publications that appeal to Art Geeks like me and this is one of them.  Produced in England and costing a staggering $35, here in Canada, this is a lovely magazine.  It is comparable to the Illustrators Magazine produced in the USA, but with a slant toward British and European artists.  Worth every penny.

One last Port-of-Call.

The Beguiling, on Markham Street.

I was completely unaware that this was to be Stuart Immonen's last issue on this title and it is a shame to see him go.  As I have said before, Stuart is a total craftsman and I have enjoyed poring over his pages, trying to glean the arcane knowledge of how to tell stories effectively in a comic book.

I wish him well in his future endeavours and wherever he goes, whatever he does, I will be buying it and learning from him.

That's all Folks!

Books, Books & More Books

I have been a collector of comic books and art books for over forty years and while I am not a "pack rat", at least I don't think I am, my collection is fairly large.

Today, I finally had to do something about the books that would not fit on the, already extensive, shelves and that had made navigating the floor space an issue.  I hasten to add, that this is a room set aside for the books and not all over the house!

So, using the age old method of boards laid across milk-crates, I created a centre island, two shelves tall, plus the floor beneath and set about tidying up.  The end result is very satisfying but there are still a couple of areas of the floor that wouldn't fit.

Ah, well.  Baby steps.

I would impress upon anyone reading this, that I also have a second room that houses the Girlie Magazines that I collected in my younger days, comic book and Science Fiction related fanzines and all of my Art Instruction books.  The same room also has piles of reference material, often called an Artist's Morgue, my cartoons, the original art that I have bought over the years, my poster collection, a filing cabinet, a drawing table and boxes of old video tapes.

I need to tidy that mess up too but as I said above, baby steps.

I must sound like a buying machine but seriously, it has taken me 40 years to get into this state, it did not happen over night.

In the last couple of years, since I turned 55, I find that I buy fewer items but the ones I do buy are usually expensive.  For example, the IDW Artist's Editions, which are lovely but at $120 to $175 Canadian, they knock a hole in my old wallet.  I have most of the volumes that they have published so far but some of the newer offerings have not tempted me.

I still think that the one dedicated to Will Eisner's The Spirit is the best of the bunch, mainly because it is comics 101 for we students of the medium to pore over.  It is a revelation to see whole panels cut out and patched over with a different image.  Not to mention all the other repairs and corrections.

It is not very interesting or exciting to buy a book where the original art is as "clean" as the printed page.  As an amateur cartoonist, I understand the personal drive toward a pristine original but it won't teach anyone looking at it a thing; it is the repairs, the overworking with a better idea, that are ultimately more informative and interesting.

One last thing, Stuart Immonen.

This Image is from his own web page

and I do hope he will not object to it's use here.

I was not an immediate fan of his work when he began

but over the last few years, probably since he worked on the Ultimate Fantastic Four, he has impressed the HECK out of me.

His recent run on the All New X-Men is stunning and looking at his pages is a lesson in how to draw comics that flow.  Panel to panel, tier to tier and page to page.  The only other people, in my mind anyway, who made comics that worked so well, were Alex Toth and Joe Kubert.  I mean it.

On top of being a marvellous technician, he is also a work horse.  Of the 29 issues of the title released so far, he has turned in 21 and done all that work in only 20 months!

Mister Immonen, as little as it is, I salute you.

The fact that he is a fellow Canadian is just icing on the cake!