Have I mentioned that I love Toronto?

[bcholmes]

"Toronto has always been my first girlfriend," grins the super-popular author [Neil Gaiman] as he stretches out on a hotel-suite sofa for a recent chat. "It's always been special to me.

[...]

He traces this special feeling to Mark Askwith (now with the Space network), who was the manager of the legendary Silver Snail Comics on Queen St. W. back in 1986.

"He picked up on my first book, Violent Cases," recalls Gaiman, "and sold more copies in his store than were sold anywhere else in North America. No exaggeration."

— The Toronto Star

Of course, I read that and immediately thought, "Hey, I bought my copy of Violent Cases at Silver Snail."

Comments

[lovecraftienne.livejournal.com]

It was in a different place, back in '86, wasn't it? Hadn't moved to the big building it's in now yet. Back when it was only one of three comic stores in that stretch (Dragon Lady was another, can't remember the name of the third), before the hipsters started moving in in a big way - it was all vintage clothing and secondhand shops back then. I remember they opened the Club Monaco in that area a year or two later.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Funny, the topic of Mark Askwith and Neil Gaiman came up this afternoon at my Aurora Awards meeting with gurudata and Liana. This post explains some things...

[professor-booty.livejournal.com]

I bought Violent Cases there too. :) But my first encounter with Neil as a writer was Black Orchid. At the time, I was more interested in Dave McKean as the artist, which is what led me to Violent Cases.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I remember that Neil had been announced as the replacement for Moore on Miracleman (which, at the time, was my absolute favouritest comic) and that's what got me to take a look at Violent Cases. That was probably in 1988 or thereabouts.

I think that was pretty close to the same time frame as Black Orchid (which didn't do much for me).

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Really? I don't recall the Silver Snail prior to the building it's in now. (Although I do recall frequenting a northern branch of the store at Eglinton (?)). The first time I lived in Toronto was January '86.

I recall Dragon Lady (which later moved up to College St., just down the road from the house I had in little Italy). It was the comics store closest to the subway.

Was the other one called Grey Legion or sumpthing like that?

[lovecraftienne.livejournal.com]

Yep, that was it, I think.

I believe the Snail was either in the place where Bakka was for a while (across the street and a few places toward University), or next door to it.

[professor-booty.livejournal.com]

Grey Legion it was. They later changed the name to Gray REGION, apparently as the result of legal action by the Royal Canadian Legion (I would have guessed it was the makers of Warhammer). Then they moved to Yonge and Wellesley.