The worst thing about the Toronto Comic Arts Festival is that it only comes once a year. If you, like me, feel that the Toronto Reference Library is way more fun when it's packed with visiting indie-comix personalities, tables full of graphic novels, and stacks of novelty plushies, you'll be thrilled to learn that TCAF (and its parent comic-book store, The Beguiling) are set to open a brand-new, permanent gift shop inside the Reference Library.

The store will begin life as a pop-up over the holidays, featuring comics, graphic novels, and other goods by Canadian and international artists; they'll open the evening of December 3 as part of a launch event for Chip Zdarsky and Matt Fraction's Just The Tips.

After the holidays, the shop will be expanding and evolving into its final form - Beguiling staff say an expanded roster of TCAF-themed products will begin rolling into the space in 2015. On top of that, the library has plans to develop and sell branded merch of their own. (There's room in your life for another tote bag, right?)

Photo by PLTam in the theGentries Flickr pool.