Being a comic collector can be an expensive hobby, especially if you’re dazzled by all those deluxe trade paperback editions and how they look stacked so neatly on your bookshelf. (Yes! Shoptalk admits it! We are that person! Arggh!) That’s why it’s a great idea to take advantage of a sale, in order to both […]
Strange Adventures, Halifax
Posted inNews + Opinion
January 17: Strange Adventures donates 100% of sales to Haiti relief
Tomorrow, Strange Adventures is very generously donating 100 percent of their sales to Haiti relief through the Canadian Red Cross, so be a super hero and get shopping!
Posted inArts + Music
Von Allan gets personal about mental illness
When Ottawan Von Allan decided to create the art for his graphic novel, he couldn’t draw. “I literally sat down, when I was 24, with Betty EdwardsDrawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and I started to teach myself,” says Allan. Eleven years later, the former independent bookstore manager is now selling his self-published […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Comics Store
The beloved comic store on Sackville has been called the best of its kind on Canada, nay, the world. “Now we want to look like it,” says owner Calum Johnston. This means a rearranging of stock, sales to clear out some back issues, bookshelves replacing spinning racks and eventually, new flooring, all to create what […]
Posted inLifestyle
A guide to Halifax’s second-hand bookstores
Back Pages 1526 Queen Street, 423-4750 A wee bookstore on busy Queen Street, its little storefront hides a large selection of non-fiction and fiction titles. The owner was away on vacation for a good chunk of August, but the nice lady at the counter said the shop carries, in addition to its history and literature, […]
Posted inArts + Music
Comics biz suits up for Free Comic Book Day
Calum Johnston opened Sackville Street’s Strange Adventures 17 years ago. Today it’s one of the most popular comic-book stores in Halifax. “I’ve always liked comics,” Johnston says, “and I like sharing them.” The economic downturn has flipped many businesses on their heads as they struggle to make ends meet. But as they get ready for […]
Posted inArts + Music
Doctor Enns strips down comics
Captain America as war propaganda. Class divisions between Archie and Veronica. The secret gay life of Batman and Robin. This is a taste of the topics that are part of a new English course called Cartoons and Comics, in its third week at Dalhousie University. Some readings are taken right from the pages of Marvel, […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Comics Store
Owner/comic guru Cal Johnston has seen the comic book movie explosion (Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and Wanted, to mention but three recent stellar examples) bring new people into his store, but he says the biggest thing to usher comic books into the mainstream of pop culture is the cross-pollination of talent, such as Sin […]
Posted inBest of Halifax
Best Comics Store
“It’s akin to theatre, film and to prose, but it’s a little different,” says perennial winner in this category, Strange Adventurer Cal Johnston, about his trade, comic books. He says that despite graphic novels and trade paperbacks finding their way into bookstores, the name “graphic novel” is something of a misnomer, and a hurdle to […]