Bakka at 50: Memories

Bakka: In Fremen legend, the weeper who mourns for all mankind.

Frank Herbert, Dune 

It's been 50 years since the Bakka Science Fiction Book Shoppe first opened its doors in 1972 under the ownership of Charles McKee, a dedicated American science fiction and comic book fan who had originally moved to Canada in protest of the war in Vietnam. The store's name comes from an obscure reference in the glossary at the end of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune - it's a bit of an inside joke, based on the fact that the term never actually makes an appearance in the novel.

The comic books section split off to its own store in 1976 as The Silver Snail, which has just recently returned to Queen Street.

My first visit to Bakka would have taken place only a couple of years later, when I was attending high school in Muskoka, Ontario's cottage country. A friend's father had some business to conduct in Toronto, and we went along for the ride, with the specific goal of making our way to Queen Street West and shopping at Bakka and the Silver Snail.  In those pre-internet days, I wouldn't have known that either store existed were it not for an article in the Toronto Star, and we looked up their addresses in a Toronto phone book at a booth on the corner of Queen and McCaul.

I did Saturday Greyhound bus shopping trips to Toronto every few months until 1983, when I moved to Toronto to attend university.  Other than a brief return to Muskoka (just long enough to buy a house, get a divorce, and sell the house) I lived in Toronto until 2005, when I relocated to Vancouver.     

That period of time saw the purchasing of the bulk of my science fiction and fantasy library.  I visited Bakka almost every weekend and bought a handful of used or new books on every visit, it would have been a rare event to have left empty handed. You could say that Bakka was my Cheers - everybody really does know your name if you shop in the same bookstore once a week for over 20 years. 

I think of the constants from that era as being John Rose (left) and Jack Brooks, generally seen shelving books in his distinctive coveralls.  John was originally hired to manage Bakka in 1979, but purchased the store a year later, and his thoughtful, knowledgeable and intelligent leadership was responsible for transitioning Bakka from something of an amateur business into a superb independent genre book store. 

After owning Bakka for over 22 years, John passed the baton to Ben Freiman in 2003, who added Phoenix to the store's name to indicate its reborn status.  Freiman moved the store to its current location on Harbord Street near the University of Toronto in 2010.
 

The cautionary truth of any sort of independent retail outlet is that it exists not only on the basis of its success in the marketplace, but as an expression of its ownership. The fact that Bakka has managed to survive for 50 years is a testament to the quality of its service, the loyalty of the science fiction and fantasy community, and most importantly to its great good fortune in the succession of dedicated and engaged owners who have kept the business going through recessions, relocations, megastore competition, digital books, and COVID-19. 

A very happy 50th birthday, Bakka - and best wishes for another 50.

- Sid

Four Day Geekend: Memory Lane

 

To start my four-day weekend in Toronto, today I visited two stores that used to be the focal points of my life as a fan:  Silver Snail Comics and Bakka Books, officially Bakka-Phoenix since 2003.

My experience with both stores started when I was still in high school, although, in retrospect, I find myself wondering how I even knew that they existed, in the long-lost dark ages before the internet.  The Toronto Star newspaper, perhaps? Probably some kind of review in the Arts and Entertainment section, I can't imagine that either store actually advertised in the Star.

Regardless, my desire to shop at Bakka and the Silver Snail was the start of a series of semi-annual Saturday bus trips to Toronto in the later years of my high school career - and probably also the start of my interest in travel, at that point in my life visiting Toronto was certainly an adventure, equally intimidating and invigorating.

A round trip bus ticket on the Ontario Northlander was under twenty dollars back then - I looked it up, it's a hundred and eight now - and you had to catch an early bus, 6:00 or 7:00 AM, to get the most out of the day before catching a late afternoon bus back.  Generally I'd start the day with a hundred dollars, and earnestly do my very best to come back with nothing but loose change and a couple of bags filled with comic books and paperbacks.

When I moved to Toronto in the 80s to attend Ryerson Polytechnic, I visited the two stores almost every Saturday or Sunday.  At that point in time, they were conveniently located almost across the street from each other on Queen Street, and it made for a pleasant little ritual on the weekend to take the subway downtown and do a little shopping.

That tradition continued for about twenty years - in case you've ever wondered how my library reached its current size - but finally came to an end when I relocated to Vancouver in 2004.

It saddens me to think of all the pre-internet ephemera from the two stores which has vanished over the years, lost to water damage, spring cleaning, or sheer lack of forethought - the Silver Snail newsletters, the commemorative posters that they used to hand out for free, copies of the Bakka Bookie Sheet with reviews, recommendations and new arrivals, their distinctive bookmarks, and all the other little bits and pieces of promotion and branding.  It's not all gone - I still have most of my celebratory Bakka birthday buttons, although it looks like I've misplaced the B12 button that I think started the run, and my Silver Snail Club button is battered but still with me - but as far as I know, that's all that I still have, unless there's a bookmark or two hidden away in storage.

My hotel is conveniently only a block or so away from the Silver Snail's second-story Yonge Street location, so that's the first destination of the day. 

The Silver Snail has stayed true to its roots over the years.  Although there's a small selection of toys, action figures and statuettes, along with a token gaming section, the Snail is still predominately aimed at the reader and collector, with bins of back issues, a wide selection of new comics, and a full range of graphic novels.   

I'm a bit bemused by the addition of the Black Canary coffee shop to the layout - I've previously encountered a couple of book stores that combined the two, but I do wonder if that space might be better used for retail purposes.  On the other hand, I'm not a coffee drinker, for all I know it's quite popular, although there are only a couple of patrons during my visit to the store. 

 

It's been years since I bought a single-issue comic book (although graphic novels are still part of my Christmas list) but in a fit of nostalgia, I pick out a couple of comics, one new, one used.

My used selection is issue 7 of OMAC, the One Man Army Corps, a character created by Jack Kirby* for DC in 1974 - I find it surprisingly affordable at $6.00.**  (Like so many of the Kirby characters, OMAC has periodically been revived by Kirby fans who went on to work in the comics industry - the black-and-white John Byrne miniseries from 1991 standing out as a particularly well done example, although I'm not as sure about the blue-skinned 2011 version by Keith Giffen.)

 

My new comic of choice is the first issue of an alternative reality comic, Tales From the Dark Multiverse. In its first storyline, it takes a look at what might have happened when villain-turned hero Azrael took over the Dark Knight's mantle after Bane broke the Batman's back in the 1993-1994 Knightfall saga.  Given that I'm unlikely to start buying comic books again, especially with my Marvel Unlimited subscription, it seems prudent to not engage with an ongoing series.  (As a sidebar, both Marvel and DC have produced a wide range of alternate history/timeline/dimension versions of their characters, I suspect that it demonstrates a degree of franchise fatigue on the part of the comic book creative community.  After all, some of the DC characters date back to the 1930s, and most of the Marvel universe has been in existence for close to 60 years, that's a long time to keep tilling the same ground, so to speak.)

From the Snail, I proceed to lunch at the Rivoli, a Queen Street institution since 1982, which is located just one block away from the original locations of both Bakka and the Snail.  I'm a bit saddened to see that the previous Silver Snail location is now just an empty lot, there isn't even a building left.

After lunch - I strongly recommend the Riv's pad thai - I head up Spadina Avenue towards the University of Toronto and nearby Harbord Street, the latest location of Bakka Phoenix Books.

 

Even after a sustained absence, it still feels a bit like coming home to walk into Bakka.  The new books are still racked up to the right of the entrance, they still use little hand-written notes to indicate authors and recommended books, and the selection remains comprehensive and well curated - Bakka has always enjoyed staff members who were both knowledgeable and dedicated in their interest, which is probably why the store's alumni includes so many science fiction authors.

This is my first visit to this location, and I'm pleased by the spacious layout and the general setup of the store.  To an even greater extent than the Silver Snail, Bakka isn't interested in t-shirts or toys or other ancillary merchandise - it's a bookstore, plain and simple.

As I browse the shelves, I'm a bit astonished by the high percentage of trade paperbacks*** - it's like I wasn’t paying attention and the mass market paperback died while I was looking the other way. That being said, they might as well be hardcovers, I was a little offended by the opportunity to replace my battered old first edition of Again, Dangerous Visions with a $19.99 trade version.

I pick out four books (needless to say that three of them are trade editions): Made Things, one of the unpurchased books from my 2019 Geekmas list, by Adrian Tchaikovsky; Wasteland, by W. Scott Poole, a scholarly examination of the origins of modern horror in World War One, which struck me as an intriguing idea; The Long and Short of It, a collection of time travel stories by Jodi Taylor;  and a replacement paperback copy of The Atrocity Archives, the first book in the outstanding Lovecraftian Laundry series by Charles Stross.  I haven't catalogued the S part of my library yet, but I'm reasonably confident that my current copy is more than a bit the worse for wear.  To finish my shopping, I take a fifth book from the SALE table - Wild Fell, a horror novel by Michael Rowe. I'm not a big fan of horror, but I always liked to make a random selection when shopping at Bakka, just to avoid getting stuck in a rut.

Sadly, after I pay for my books, not only do I not receive a bookmark, but my purchases go into a plain blue bag.  Apparently the days of the branded bag and bookmark have come and gone at Bakka Books, along with so many other things from years gone by.

- Sid

* I really have to do a posting on Jack Kirby.

** It turns out to be a bit rumpled, but still in good shape.  But how do you rumple a comic book?

*** In case you don't speak printing, trade paperbacks are paperbacks more or less the size of hardcovers, whereas mass market paperbacks are 4x7 inches, give or take.

A Million Vacations.

SIGHTSEEING 

You are not my guide. My guide was bipedal.
We Earth people do not do that.
Oh, what a jolly fine natatorium (mating perch, arranged spectacle, involuntary phenomenon)!
At what hour does the lovelorn princess hurl herself into the flaming volcano? May we participate?
Please direct me to the nearest sentient mammal.
Take me to the Earth Consulate without any delay.

- Joanna Russ, Useful Phrases for the Tourist

Just returned from a week and a half in Ontario, and I have to say that as vacations go, it was pretty good. Usually I visit foreign locations when I have time off, but it had been almost a year since I'd been back east, and I felt more than a little overdue. 

The World's Biggest Bookstore at Edward and Yonge in Toronto continues to be a superior shopping location. I can't speak for their approach to other genres, but from the perspective of the science fiction and fantasy fan, it's a great spot. Although currently under the umbrella of Indigo/Chapters, the WBB seems to be free from their more irritating policies: science fiction and fantasy aren't separated, thereby allowing more continuity for authors who write in both areas and avoiding conflicts over exactly what category in which to place some of the more ambiguous authors. (What IS Perdido Street Station, really?) 

In addition, they also seem to have some extra latitude in terms of their selection. One of their end displays prominently features a pulp fiction retrospective which includes lesser known characters of Robert E. Howard's such as Bran Mak Morn and Almuric in addition to the inevitable Conan the Barbarian selections. 

The same display includes a couple of C. L. Moore short story collections, Leigh Brackett, and two Norvell Page collections featuring the Spider, Page's answer to the Shadow et al. The WBB also has enough distance between displays that it's possible to see the bottom shelf without bending over or crouching down, which is greatly appreciated by those of us with iffy knees.

Moving on from the WBB, I head down to Queen Street and the Silver Snail, a landmark in the Toronto comic book scene since 1976. (Gosh, what year did they move to their current address? They were about a block or so further east when I started visiting Toronto in the late 70's.) Originally focused purely on new and used/collectable comics, over time an increasingly large and varied selection of action figures, models and toys has been added to the store's lineup. Although I gave up buying comics a few years ago, I still like to go in and see if things have changed in either the store or the marketplace, and end up making a purchase after all: the DC Comics Elseworlds edition of Red Son. What if Superman's capsule had landed in Russia instead of the American Midwest? It's an interesting question - after all, Superman was only fighting for "Truth, Justice and the American Way" because that was how he'd been raised. Red Son examines how different things might have been if he had grown up on a Soviet collective farm. (Sidebar: Stalin translates into English as "man of steel".) 

A rippling drumbeat from a sidewalk performer echoes along the buildings as I cross Spadina, and a young man in cargo shorts and t-shirt rushes by, clutching a hammer and three sharpened stakes - presumably en route to some kind of Buffy inspired rendezvous with a trio of vampires. Further along the block is Bakka-Phoenix, the latest incarnation of the venerable Queen Street science fiction and fantasy bookstore. 

Originally just Bakka (it's a Dune reference, for those of you not among the cognoscenti) it opened further east on Queen Street in 1972, moved to Yonge Street in 1998, and it's been back on Queen since 2005, just a little further west and comfortably out of the trendy section. Sadly, the front window no longer explains the provenance of the name. 

 Even more sadly, the used book section is a pale shadow of its former self, although it's possible that this may not be a planned development. While I'm there, a young woman comes in desperately seeking the Amber series by Roger Zelazny, and heads to the used section in hopes of saving a little cash. The staff member on site provides the surprising statistic that no one has brought an individual Zelazny text in for sale since 1998. (Frankly, I'm a little sceptical about that, ten years seems like an awfully long dry spell, although it's a nice little tribute to the late Mr. Zelazny.) 

Bakka (I'm sorry, the Phoenix part doesn't fly for me, no pun intended) has always been distinguished by the dedication and knowledge of the staff - not surprising given the number of genre authors who have worked there. I have no idea if the woman working the cash is an author or not, but she displays a wide and varied knowledge of both the inventory and the field as customers ask her a variety of questions.

I buy a couple of books, and manage to make my escape after only a limited interaction with Michelle, a long term employee (and monumental bitch) who sweeps into the store just as I'm paying for my selections. 

 Interestingly enough, all three stores provide evidence that the US/Canadian book price situation is being dealt with on the grass-roots level as well as being addressed by the publishers. My Charles Stross novel from the WBB only has a one-dollar difference in price, as opposed to the illogical three-dollar difference of last year. The Silver Snail sells me Red Son for US cover price, rather than the four-dollar-higher Canadian price, and Bakka has marked down one of the books that I buy by fifty cents - okay, not a lot, but for an independent outlet where every penny counts, it's a noteworthy gesture. 

- Sid

Rising from the flames?

For several years now, I've been travelling to other cities for my birthday.  This year my lovely wife Karli and I have ended up in Toronto - to our relief, given that the threatened Air Canada pilot strike took us right down to the wire in terms of a possible disruption to our travel plans.

As always when I come to Toronto, we paid a visit to Canada's oldest (and best, in my opinion) science fiction and fantasy book store Bakka-Phoenix, currently located on near the University of Toronto on Harbord Street.

Karli generously purchased me a pair of hardcover novels as early birthday gifts: The Mercy of Gods, the first book in a new series by Expanse author James S. A. Corey*, and The Book of Elsewhere, a collaboration between the unexpected duo of actor/musician Keanu Reeves and fantasy-SF author China Miéville.  The Book of Elsewhere takes its inspiration from the world of BRZRKR,  the critically acclaimed 12-issue limited comic book series co-written by Reeves and Matt Kindt, with art by Ron Garney.

I also made a couple of purchases on my own - an autographed copy of All Systems Red, the first novella from Martha Wells' excellent and well-written Murderbot series, and The Folding Knife, a standalone novel by K. J. Parker*.  I enjoy Parker's writing, but I've found that his protagonists are a little too similar in their philosophies and characters - I'm hoping that The Folding Knife will break the mold a bit.

As I was paying for my selections, I noticed that there are Bakka-Phoenix pins available for five dollars, so I added one to my bill.  Given the legendary nature of the phoenix as a bird which is reborn from its own ashes, I do wonder if there's any significance in its addition to the store's name - I'd hate to think that the store might have needed to be brought back from an apparently final immolation.

- Sid 

* James S. A. Corey is actually a nom de plume for authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and K. J. Parker is actually British author Tom Holt.  I'm reasonably certain that Keanu Reeves is Keanu Reeves.

Whatever.

 

From the Bakka-Phoenix bathroom: good policy all around, really.  (And, surprisingly, not the first bathroom signage featured on this blog.)

- Sid

pReviews.

A lovely Saturday here in Vancouver, sunny and double digit temperatures, so after finishing my laundry, off I went into the afternoon sunshine to do some shopping.  After taking advantage of the apparently constant sale at Sears by picking up three shirts for work, I decided to celebrate the raise at my new job by crossing the street to Chapters and having a go at the science fiction and fantasy sections.

However, first I took a pass through the Reduced section, often the home of unregarded trifles, and never made it any further into the store. I've been trying to cut back on my hardcover purchases, but if they're going to sell them for less than the cost of the paperback editions, it's very difficult to say no!  As a result I walked away with four books* sharing space with my new shirts - no need to increase our petroleum debt by using another plastic bag.  

The books that I purchased are:  Matter, by Iain M. Banks; The Heart of Valor, by Tanya Huff; The New Moon's Arms, by Nalo Hopkinson; and Hell and Earth, by Elizabeth Bear.  Now, I realize that you're not supposed to review books until after reading them, but in this case I thought I could at least offer an explanation as to why I picked these four novels, and my expectations of them.

Iain M. Banks is a fabulous writer, if a slightly schizophrenic one - his non-SF work is published as Iain Banks, no initial.  (There's a reason for this, but I leave it to my readers to research that as an extra credit assignment.)  Banks, who has become the front man for the Scottish / British SF boom of the last decade, is best known for his Culture books.  

How to describe the Culture?  The Culture is a hedonistic, non-materialistic futuristic society that exists on a galactic level and creates on a macro scale, with the greater burden of maintenance and warfare falling upon artificial intelligences of varying capabilities.  In spite of its apparent softness, Banks portrays the Culture as having a core of brutal, almost cruel realism, and the combination of these elements gives his stories a disturbing ambiguity.  Matter is the latest Culture novel, and when I saw it on the shelf I picked it up instantly - Banks has never failed to entertain, amuse and startle me.

I actually have a casual nodding acquaintanceship with Tanya Huff from her years as an employee at Bakka Books in Toronto.  To be honest, that's why I purchased the first book in her Valor series when it came out in 2000.  However, the series has turned out to be a good, solid, well-crafted addition to the sub-genre of military science fiction, and as such I expect this third book in the series to be an entertaining read.

Huff is probably the only person on this page that non-fans might be familiar with, whether knowingly or not.  Her Blood books, a vampire - detective series set in Toronto, were adapted for TV under the title of Blood Ties. It's currently in syndication and shows up now and then on whichever cable channels are looking for Canadian content.

Nalo Hopkinson is the closest thing to a wild card in my selections.  She's a strong talent, and a rising one, but so far I've only read her short work without having picked up either of her breakthrough novels: Midnight Robber or Brown Girl in the Ring.  Hopkinson's work draws heavily upon her Jamaican heritage for both story-telling style and inspiration, resulting in a unique and special flavour to her writing.

The New Moon's Arms continues this approach, with the story actually being set on a Caribbean island.  Since it won both an Aurora Award and a Sunburst Award when it was originally published in 2008, I have every reason to expect it to be a suitable introduction to Hopkinson's longer work.

Although Elizabeth Bear had her first story published in 1996, I've only started reading her books within the last year  - regular readers may remember her name from my posting about representations of Canada in SF.

I find Bear's writing to be odd in that she is quite a good descriptive author, handles character, action and dialogue extremely well, but her end game is somehow lacking.  It's as if she puts so much into the initial stages of her stories that there's no room to raise the energy level at the end, resulting in something that's more like the slope down to that flat bit at the end of a roller coaster than a real loop-the-loop. (If you want to be technical, it's all denouement, no climax.)  Regardless, she is a very good writer, and I'm willing to accept that there may not be a cymbal clash at the end of this book, and simply enjoy the ride.

The sad part for me about all of this is that when you have a lot of experience as a reader, it can be difficult to expand your horizons - obviously I have a clear idea of what to expect from these books in spite of the fact that I haven't cracked a single cover.  Sometimes when I'm in a used book store, if it's not busy I'll ask the counter staff to recommend something that they've found to be a great read.  If it's a place where they know my buying habits, sometimes they'll try to tailor their suggestions to what they've seen me buy, but I discourage them from taking that route.  After all, I already know what I like - that's the problem. 

- Sid

* If you can no longer grip your book selections with one hand, you have too many.  This is a useful rule which has saved me from overspending in the past, although after years of shopping in this fashion I can probably span well over an octave on a piano.

Four Day Geekend: Itinerary

 

As I type this, I'm in a departure lounge at YVR, waiting to board a flight for a solo four-day weekend trip to Toronto. In addition to getting together with my friend Colin (aka Cloin – you know, the pretty Campbell Brother) I've also put together a bit of a geek itinerary for my four day trip: a visit to the Yonge Street location of Silver Snail Comics, which apparently now also has a coffee shop; some shopping at Toronto science fiction and fantasy mainstay Bakka-Phoenix Books, currently located on Harbord Street near the University of Toronto; and a comparative dinner (or perhaps lunch) at the Toronto branch of Vancouver's geek and gaming franchise, the Storm Crow Manor on Church north of Wellesley. If time (and weather*) permits, I’ll also be doing a bit of a used bookstore crawl along College and Bloor Streets - after all, I have books to replace.

"Now boarding Zone 1 for Air Canada flight AC120...Zone 1, passengers for Zone 1...."

- Sid

* They're calling for a substantial winter storm on Saturday, which feels a bit unfair given that I just experienced a substantial winter storm in Vancouver.

Four Day Geekend: Re-Moving.

If, as per my previous posting, the paperback is in fact dead, I know where it went to die.

After my visit to Bakka, I hopped on the subway and headed over to Pape and Danforth, and Re:Reading*, a used book and DVD store, with the emphasis on books. Re:Reading - which is in desperate need of a new awning - had an impressively wide selection of used science fiction, and to my intense pleasure, I was able to purchase eight of the books from my inventory list that were due to be replaced. 

However, to my equally intense frustration, when I returned to the hotel and attempted to remove their two-layered price tags, I ended up ruining four of the books that I'd bought, as the glue on the stickers peeled up the cover material rather than just peeling off.  Now, just for the record, I've removed a lot of price tags from books over the years, and these particular examples were particularly evil in their persistence and adherence - how can a used book store not be using easily removed price tags, for heaven's sake???

- Sid

 
* We walked past Re:Reading during my last visit to Toronto in 2016 and admired their signage.

  

Four Day Geekend 2022: Apocalyptic?

Mathew Borrett, HYPNAGOGIC_CITY_II

In the wake of our successful trip to England last month, I've decided to double down with a four day trip to Toronto over the Easter weekend. (My workplace is conveniently closed on both the Friday and the Monday.)  It's a bit of a gamble: because it's Easter, there's a chance that not all the places that I want to go will be open, but I'm reasonably certain that I won't have any trouble filling the time no matter what happens.

In addition to spending some time with my friend Colin (the pretty Campbell Brother) I'm hoping to visit my traditional shopping favourites: the Silver Snail, newly returned to Queen Street West, for comics, graphic novels and action figures; Bakka-Phoenix Books for, well, books; and whatever other shopping opportunities offer themselves.  I'm travelling light, with just carry-on luggage and my shoulder bag, so if for some reason I should hit the jackpot for shopping, I could always buy a cheap bag and check in my purchases, although I doubt that things will get that far out of control.

However, it's been over two years since I last visited Toronto, and let's not forget that there's been a near-apocalyptic pandemic event since then.  Maybe an extra bag for books is the least of my concerns - it's possible that I should be planning for the traditional post-apocalyptic challenges of finding clean water and evading roving bands of cannibals.  Or even without that, it may just be a very different place...

- Sid

As well they should be.

I stumbled across this scan while looking for something completely unrelated - it's from a Ryerson student assignment that required us to document a small business in eight photos. I had selected Bakka Books - the only small business in Toronto that I was really familiar with - and this was one of the prints from my final submission. I recall there also being a shot of staff member Jack Brooks shelving books, and a picture of a blonde woman with glasses behind the front desk - sadly, her name is lost to me after all this time.

I wonder if I still have those shots somewhere?  It's very likely that I've since disposed of those amateurish 35-year old black and white negatives, which, in retrospect, is a bit of a shame, it would be fun to scan those shots and post them.  Well, who knows, they might still be in a box in storage, after all, I do have a bit of a reputation for hanging onto things.

- Sid

Four Day Geekend 2022: Is The Snail Slowing Down?

Every time I visit Toronto, I’m surprised by the degree to which Queen Street has remained fundamentally unchanged over the decades. It’s gotten a bit gentrified in terms of its shopping options, and a couple of tall buildings have crept in, but it’s still very much the two and three story street that I first encountered in the 1970s.  The old Silver Snail location near Spadina is still a vacant lot – surprising that prime real estate on a central Toronto thoroughfare could remain undeveloped for so long. 

I walk on past the empty spot, and eventually arrive at the new location, about halfway between Bathurst and Ossington. I’m a bit early for their Good Friday hours, so I take advantage of the lack of walk-in traffic to take a picture or two of the storefront. The current branding is substantially different from the slick presentation of years gone by – more cartoon, less comic book.  

Waiting on the doorstep for the door to be unlocked is a bit of a fanboy thing, so I decide to do a lap around the block instead. When I get back, the store is open, and I head inside. 

I’m a bit surprised to see that the new Silver Snail footprint is considerably smaller than their previous location – logic says that moving to a location on Queen West West* would have let them at least match the square footage of a Yonge Street address. The front counter is just a stand with an iPad on it, the number of used comics bins seems much reduced, and the range of action figures and other toys seems to be a bit crammed in and cut back. It also appears that their coffee shop has fallen by the wayside.** However, there’s still a comprehensive selection of graphic novels and specialty publications on display, and the new comic racks are in good shape.

I would never leave the Snail without buying something, but my online subscriptions to DC Infinite and Marvel Unlimited are taking care of all my comic book reading needs - which may go a long way toward explaining their reduced footprint. It’s possible that online reading may be starting to push out paper-based purchasing, although I’d expect that collectors would still want the real thing. 

As I browse the store for alternatives, I'm a little tempted by the Jack Kirby Fourth World**** boxed set - after I see the price tag, not $180 tempted, but tempted nonetheless. Price aside, it probably weighs more than all my carry-on luggage together, so it’s with only minor regret that I keep looking.

I finally settle on an action figure: a McFarlane Toys Sister of Battle from the Warhammer 40K universe, to compliment the Space Marine that I purchased last year.  It will take up some of the empty space in my luggage, but certainly not as much as the Kirby collection.

As I head back to my hotel, I notice that the original Bakka Books location at 282 Queen West is vacant. I suspect the prohibitive rent situation that pushed them out is still in place, but it would please my sense of balance to have them move back to Queen Street as well. Well, I’m headed to their current Harbord Street home on Monday, if I see anyone I know perhaps I’ll suggest it to them and see how it goes over.

- Sid

 

* Not a typo - Queen West West is a thing.

** Some follow-up research indicated that the Black Canary Coffee Shop has unexpectedly gone solo and set up shop over on the other side of Yonge Street at Sherbourne and Adelaide.  Hmm, maybe they should change the name to Nightwing.**

***Batman joke.  Well, Robin joke, really.

**** It’s funny - when Kirby originally introduced the Fourth World in 1971 with the publication of Mister Miracle, The New Gods, and The Forever People, even his stellar reputation in the comic book industry wasn’t enough to sustain sales of the comics. But over the years since then, Darkseid, brutal ruler of fiery Apokolips and grim master of the Anti-Life Equation in the Fourth World, has become the de facto main villain of the DC Universe. Trust Kirby to recognize the need for an ultimate evil to balance out all the good guys. 

Geekmas 2019: And we're done here.

It's almost a month now since Christmas Day, and since then I've also received the first book in the Epic Yarns Star Wars series as an unexpected gift, bought one of the unpurchased books from my seasonal gift list at Bakka Books in Toronto, and just received a well-made NOSTROMO t-shirt and the third Epic Yarns book from Amazon™ at work today, purchased with gift cards that I received for Christmas.  So let's call it a wrap for Geekmas 2019 - no pun intended.

- Sid

Four Day Geekend 2022: Conclusion.

My last shopping stop for the 2022 Toronto trip is Bakka-Phoenix Books, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. I didn't notice that there was still a used book section in my last trip, so I'm hoping to spend a bit of time there and find some of the more obscure replacements for my collection, as per the ongoing (and apparently never-ending) book cataloguing project. 

Unfortunately, the store's been closed over the Easter weekend, my flight home leaves at 4:00 PM, and they don't open their doors until 11:00 in the morning.  It shouldn't be a problem, I just need to keep an eye on the clock and make sure that I have enough time to grab my luggage from hotel storage and get down to the Union Pearson Express train at Union Station for the 1:00 PM departure at the latest.

I'm confident enough that I don't camp on the doorstep - as I mentioned in my Silver Snail posting, that makes you look a bit overeager - but I'm there within ten minutes of opening.

I've done some pre-shopping research, so I stop at the New Releases display to get a copy of Escape from Yokai Land by Charles Stross, in hardcover at $26.99.  Not a crazy price for hardcover, really, and it's part of Stross' excellent H.P Lovecraft-meets-John le Carré Laundry series, which I've quite enjoyed and is overdue for a new book in the Bob Howard narrative. At least, it's not a crazy price until you get to the store and discover that it's only 96 pages.  I take a hard pass and head downstairs to look at the used book offerings.

The lower area is a bit industrial, rather like visiting someone's partially finished rec room.  Based on the setup, it's being used for signings and other public events in addition to housing the used books and TV/movie franchise material.  Having enough space for group events is a smart addition, things used to be quite cramped at the original Queen Street location - maybe I won't recommend that they move back after all.

I'm a bit surprised to find that even Canada's best known science fiction bookstore doesn't have a comprehensive catalogue of used books, at least by my standards - in fact, I don't see anything on the downstairs bookshelves that's of interest.  

However, I don't leave empty-handed, although I'm a bit concerned about loading too much more into my carry-on luggage.  I pick up A Practical Guide to Conquering the World, the third novel in K. J. Parker's entertaining fantasy series in trade paperback, and a signed copy of Memory's Legion, the postscript to the Expanse series that collects all the short stories and novellas that act as grace notes to the main storyline.  In addition to it being signed, at least at 432 pages for $35.00 I feel more like I'm getting my money's worth out of the purchase.

Coda:

I pay for the books, charge out the door and up to the Spadina subway stop, switch to Yonge, jump off at Dundas and collect my luggage, jump back on, and it's straight down to Union.  It's a bit of a hike from the subway exit to the Pearson platform, but I still make the 12:30 train.  It conveniently stops at my terminal, NEXUS gets me through security in short order, and I'm at the gate with lots of time to spare.  Good to see that I've kept my skills through two years of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

- Sid