TCAF Store Finds Permanent Home in Reference Library
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TCAF Store Finds Permanent Home in Reference Library

After three months under a pop-up banner, the TCAF store announces that it will stay put in its Yonge and Bloor location, and launches its new name.

By • Photos by Giordano Ciampini

The TCAF store, the pop-up comic book and merchandise outlet that has operated in the Toronto Reference Library since early December, announced today that it will become a permanent fixture at 789 Yonge Street. The store unveiled a logo today designed by Howard the Duck writer and Sex Criminals artist Chip Zdarsky, and its new name, Page & Panel: The TCAF Shop.

Adjacent to the main entrance of the reference library, the almost-2000-square-foot shop will occupy a space close to its marquee event, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. The annual Mother’s Day weekend event is one of the premier comic festivals of its kind in North America, and its growth has attracted cartoonists and publishers from around the world. The 2015 edition of TCAF will use three floors of programming and exhibition space at the library, an increase from two floors that’s designed to use newly available space at the library and give patrons more breathing room to browse various comics.

Festival managing director Miles Baker, who is also the manager of Page & Panel, says that as TCAF has grown, so too has the scope of the organization; It now does outreach missions to Japan and elsewhere as part of its mandate. But TCAF is still a registered not-for-profit, and its growing scale requires increased financial support.

This store is meant to provide that financial sustainability by selling books and merchandise. Some items available for purchase include Asterix figurines, Kate Beaton–designed mugs, literary tote bags, and prints of drawings of libraries from around the city. Baker says Page & Panel is also looking to produce its own merchandise, and points to the success of a tea towel designed by Beaton and wrapping paper designed by local cartoonist and illustrator John Martz.

Page & Panel also plans to host various comic-related events, and will host a launch and signing for the Toronto-centric anthology Monstrosity II tonight at 5:00 p.m.

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