visits The Beguiling with
Seth and
Chester Brown (from Matt's
Peepshow ,
Drawn & Quarterly, 1992). Founded in 1987 by Steve Solomos and Sean Scoffield on
Harbord Street near the
University of Toronto in
Toronto,
Ontario, Canada, The Beguiling quickly built a reputation for the diversity of its stock, focused on art-oriented,
avant-garde,
underground and
alternative comics—"anything that is even peripherally comic book-oriented", according to current owner Peter Birkemoe. In the earliest days, much of the store's income was made through
mail order, as the material it dealt in was not mainstream. It also built a reputation for stocking the works of
cartoonists such as
Chester Brown and
Julie Doucet, whose comics most stores would not handle due to the controversial nature of their contents. to a location at 319
College Street, near the
University of Toronto. The new location has since grown to about double the floor space of the previous one. ==Description and reputation==