The Labyrinth Bookstore

I’ve been going to Labyrinth for nearly four years now and it is my weekly comic destination. Yes, it is small but the selection is good. If they don’t have what you’re looking for they will gladly order it for you as well.
Doby at the Toronto location is fantastic. Great service.
The membership is buy 10 comics/​graphic novels/​art books/​etc get the 11^th free. It’s great for those who buy lots of issues.
Great selection of toys and nicknacks. I’ve found many birthday presents for many friends here.
Love the store!

Dear Toronto,
You don’t understand what you have. In Vancouver our artbook store is closing, and so has our Japanese book stores, and our French bookstore… You get the point. In Vancouver it’s become *nearly* impossible to pick up French comics, art books, and the like PERIOD. (There are a few places that carry them for usually insane prices/​and or limited selection.)
Labyrinth has come to every single Fan Expo (Vancouver) convention over the past few years, and has been a breath of fresh air. You mean I can get that french comic? The Wakfu art book? That reference book of poses from Japan? That sketchbook from Germany? Hallelujah!!! Tears of joy!
Yes, you may have to sell your new born child for them but darn it all it’s better to have the option of buying them than not at all. I can’t speak for their super hero comics/​manga selection which seemed average compared to our local comic shops. But their french comics, and Japanese art books?! It’s glorious, and wonderful. The fact is I’ve seen people in the review complaining about the selection which has led me to imagine that Toronto is the Disney World of art books or something.
I can’t speak to the store layout in Toronto but I can speak to how awesome and wonderful the staff have been towards me in Vancouver. Super nice, and friendly.
So Toronto, please take care of Labryinth in your art book disney world city so they don’t close… ever and keep returning to Vancouver.
Cheers,
The Vancouverite

This store is hella hard to spot, but luckily I got it right on time.
Basic animé store with artbooks, posing books, and a good selection of manga to choose from.
Also they have little figurines which are sure to brighten your day!
Not a bad place. Might come back again.

I am not cool with the service here.
Dan from the Oakville location was running a fair at Seneca @ York. I was looking for a last minute present for a friend and wanted to pick up a really nice art book. The only problem was that the dust jacket was dinged up and dirty.
He assured me that I could buy the book now and exchange the jacket later, even saying that he would bring the dust jacket with him during the next fair at S@Y, all I had to do was email and call to remind him the day before. I said I had very limited time left at the school (I’m an instructor there) so it would be very inconvenient for me if I wouldn’t be able to pick it up during the two days that he would be there next. Lots of assurances later, I walked away with a pretty expensive purchase.
I emailed and called like he asked with no response to either attempt. I showed up at the next fair expecting him to honour his promise. He flaked out and didn’t show up the first time and then I had to (not proud to admit) leave my class to track him down the second day and caught him just as he was packing up the truck to leave.
«Oh sorry, yeah I got your message about the dust jacket but it was in the warehouse and I couldn’t get it.»
a) Maybe you could have emailed or called back to let me know?
b) You had two weeks to look in the warehouse that other staff have looked through for the same product in an hour. So???
Anyway, he said I could go to the location in downtown Toronto, which I did, except he told me the wrong location. He said Queen and Spadina instead of Bloor and Spadina. How an employee of an establishment can get a major location like that wrong is beyond me. I ended up wasting transit time and money to get back to the Annex store. Not impressed.
Finally, the staff member at that location was surly and simply gave me another dinged up and smudged dust jacket to replace the one I already had.
Thanks, Dan!

Just a brief check in, as not much has changed. What has changed is for the better; A better stock and selection of books, as well as toys, figures, shirts and other knickknacks. Plenty of North America comics and artist’s sketchbooks, as well as massive manga, animé and Japanese gaming sections.
Customer service is friendly as usually, although they do become caught up in conversation for long periods. Labyrinth now has a rewards program where they count graphic books you buy and reward you down the line.
Also new is their frequently updated site, that keeps you updated on new arrivals and comic news in general. I had them at a four star before, given their smaller selection, but given that they’ve remedied that, I see no reason not to call this the best shop in the city for high quality illustration collection books and imports.

I love the Labyrinth so much!
I’ve been going here for the past 4 or 5 years whenever I needed to restock on my manga collection. Although there is usually (almost always) one staff chillin’ by the cashier, I don’t see the problem with it as my questions always gets answered and whichever is the staff for the day is always nice. The place is usually empty albeit one or two customers on regular days, anyways.
They have a rewards program that’s buy 10 (with every purchase you do) manga (I don’t know if it applies to other material) and get the 11 for free. Although it might not seem much, it actually helps in the long run since I tend to buy my manga in bulks.
They also have a blog site for updates on new stock of merchandise, illustration books, manga, comics and even just relevant news on the animé/​comic world so that’s also a plus.
The Labyrinth is awesome and it’s always on my to-​go list whenever I go downtown whether I need to buy something or not. Definitely give this place a try for your bookshelf needs if you haven’t already. (:

I gave Labyrinth two stars because and only because of 1 — the lady owner is nice. 2 — the artbook selection is decent. As an animation/​art student, I’m always on the lookout for artbooks, so naturally I stumbled upon Labyrinth back in 2008.
My first experience with Labyrinth is not great. In fact, I’ve never been or has been treated so rudely by a store owner/​worker since. Truthfully, most of the stars they lost in my eye is due to the owner (the male owner, who’s the husband to the nice lady owner). He is extremely rude and annoyingly talkative, trying to get you to buy books that, seriously, had I any inclination of buying, would not have NOT bought it, so the little ongoing advertisement is NOT appreciated. He just doesn’t know how to stop :/​
The first time I bought anything from Labyrinth, it was at a convention, and I bought a adult book from an artist I liked that was all wrapped up. I open it as I walk away from the store, and I usually randomly flip through the pages. I realize that in the middle of flipping, on one of the pages, was a weird yellow stain. Urgh. Obviously, I go back and I want to trade it back for another copy, because… yellow stain :(. The clerk guy said i had to talk to the owner, and so I did. The owner looked at it, and in a really condescending manner, asked me «how would i know if you or your friends didn’t spill some thing on it?», which was a strange question because not only did I JUST buy it not 5 minutes ago, but the stain wasn’t wet or look like it was just made. Thankfully the clerk was there and I said to ask him, and he proved that I just bought the book. I was able to exchange it back, not without some unhappy looks from the owner, as if it was my fault :/​.
Second time i bought something, i made sure to open it in front of sales person, and sure enough, of the set of posters I bought, half of them had folded corners. Thankfully i opened it in front of them and could exchange it (and it was pretty expensive set of posters –_​-​;).
Third time, I bought James Jean’s Process Recess 3, and a set of pages in the middle wasn’t bound into the book and started falling out. I went back and asked for an exchange because I paid the full price for the book whereas I could’ve paid a lot cheaper (at a website that I’m sure everyone knows about where I could’ve bought books for cheaper) But I didn’t. I mistakenly bought at Labyrinth. Again, I had to go to the owner, who told me, again in that «it’s all your fault» kind of manner, that I could exchange it for not, but if I have a problem again, I’d have to deal with it myself (wtf? I didn’t even do anything the first time :().
So yes, out of the 5 times I’ve ever bought from Labyrinth, 3 of them were not great experiences. I’d rather browse online for books and i’d be able to get them a LOT cheaper than Labyrinth and without the hassle of the owner.
The only upside labyrinth is that they have artbooks from Japan and China that, if you weren’t japanese or chinese, they’d be pretty hard to get your hands on. Unfortunately I am Chinese and has no problem getting my hands on them when I go back to China, so that perk isn’t much of a perk for me. Also, their asian artbooks are about 3 – 6 times more expensive than their original price… especially the Chinese ones.
If the owner changes his attitude (which I doubt he will… I’m not the only one who’s been annoyed by his attitude.), I’d be willing to go there more often and give them more stars.

Labyrinth is the sort of place that you go to if you are looking for your average kind of stop-​and-​grab spot. While bright, the shop is small, it’s cramped, and there’s usually only one staff member so you’ll have to be patient if you have any questions. Not conducive to browsing.
They carry an alright selection of manga, comics, art books as well as paraphernalia like bookends and figurines, etc. They also have a buy 10 get 1 free deal and charge US cover price, so those are both good things.
However! Their «free comic book» days are basically unmanageable because of the size of the shop and how its innards are arranged. If you are more than a fairweather comics fan, they just don’t have the kind of stock to accommodate your needs. Once we were looking for Charles Burns’ Black Hole – a staple, I’d say – and they had it behind the counter, not out on the shelf. What’s that about? They also don’t support local artists and writers as much as they could. I’ve heard that they sometimes do art shows but I’ve never seen them promoted and I’m not sure I would go if I did because. well, where on earth would the art go and where would people stand to gaze at it? This place is tiny!
Bottom line: save your cash and go two blocks over to The Beguiling in Mirvish Village, which is generally better in every respect.

I like Labyrinth.
It’s main feature is that it’s close to my house, so it has that going for it. But besides that, the place is always clean, cool, and the staff is really friendly, laid-​back, and accommodating.
Selection is somewhat small compared to some places, but they almost always have what I’m looking for and if I don’t they are happy to order it in.
I love the front of the store where they display all the new/​hot/​relevant trade paperbacks. I often browse there when I don’t know what to read next. Everything I’ve bought from that section has been awesome.
Also they have a program where every 10^th trade you buy you get for free (kinda. depends on the price. they’ll give you a credit if it’s expensive).
So yeah I have no issues with this place.

I’m always intimidated when I go into hard core comic book stores, because the extent of my comic knowledge stems from the Archie Comics I read growing up, and I don’t think they’re decidedly «cool» in the comic world.
However, this store is slightly different because it carries art books too, some of which I happen to know a fair bit about. And so, my confidence returns and I feel comfortable that no one is going to challenge me to a spontaneous comic book final Jeopardy round.

A narrow, sometimes cramped store, The Labyrinth is, in addition to being a comic book store, an art book store. They specialize in art books relating to sequential arts as well as animation and graphic design. This is what makes these guys unique in Toronto’s comic retail landscape. It’s an excellent shop to visit if you’re interested in the design process that goes into making your favourite graphic novels and cartoons.
That’s not to say that they don’t sell comics and manga. They do that as well, and often you can find books here that you’ll have a hard time finding at other places like 1,000,000 Comix or Silver Snail.
They’ve also been known to put on the occasional art show, which is a great testament to their support for the art community in Toronto.