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!