The Beguiling Books & Art

The Beguiling is still Toronto's serious comics shop: 319 College Street, south side between Spadina and Augusta, open daily 11 a.m.–6 p.m. according to the official beguilingbooks.com contact page, phone (416) 533-9168, orders@beguiling.ca. Founded in 1987, it built a reputation on alternative, underground, and international comics when the rest of the city was still a superhero spinner rack — Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, manga, bandes dessinees, kids' and teen graphics, Canadian cartoonists, and an original-art desk. Staff helped found the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Sister kids' shop Little Island Comics is next door at 323 College. First-timers: this is not a Wednesday-new-comics mill. Ask for the small-press wall or a kids' graphic if that is the errand; masks have been required in-store on the official hours page, so check before you go. Daily 11–6 is the clock — no late Thursday. Take the College streetcar.