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Visit Our Showroom

Our collection of illustration & comic art books is housed in our 1000 sq. ft. showroom in Beautiful Torrance, California. All of our stock is on display in two spacious, well-lit rooms. We have a wider selection of books than we could ever display at a convention or completely catalogue on this website. New visitors are consistantly overwhelmed by the quality and the amount of material we have in stock. We are gratified that so many customers have become regular visitors to our showroom.

Hours

Directions

Photos

Area Attractions

Hours

The showroom is OPEN to walk-in visitors every Saturday from 12 noon to 4pm.

During the Summer season, the showroom will be closed for the following events:

  • We will be OPEN Saturdays, April 26, May 3, May 10, 2008
  • We will be CLOSED Saturday, May 17, 2008 for The Animation Book Look
  • We will be OPEN Saturdays, May 24, June 7, June 14, June 21, June 28, July 5, 2008
  • We will be CLOSED Saturday, May 31, 2008 for the Pasadena Antiquarian Book, Print & Paper Fair
  • We will be OPEN Saturdays, May 24, June 7, June 14, June 21, June 28, July 5, 2008
  • We will be CLOSED Saturday, July 12, 2008 through Saturday, August 2, 2008 for San Diego Comic-Con Preparation
  • We will be OPEN Saturdays from August 9, 2008 through the end of the year

We are available outside of these hours and every other day of the week by appointment.

Call us at 310-539-4648 for further information or to schedule your visit.

Directions

We are located in lovely Torrance, California, home of King's Hawaiian Bakery & Restaurant, Musha, Mitsuwa Marketplace, Marukai Market, and other delights. We are just one mile from the Del Amo shopping mall.

We are just 13 miles Southeast of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and just 17 miles West of the Long Beach Airport.

Torrance is located near the intersection of the 405 and 110 Freeways and our showroom is easily acessed from the Crenshaw Blvd exit (405) or Sepulveda Blvd exit (110).

From the LAX and the Westside: Drive south on the 405. Take the Crenshaw Blvd exit. Drive south on Crenshaw to 22910.

From Glendale, Pasadena, and the North: Drive south on the 110. Take the Sepulveda Blvd exit. Take Sepulveda Blvd west. Turn left at Crenshaw Blvd. Drive south on Crenshaw to 22910.

From Anaheim, Fullerton, and the East: Drive west on the 91. take the 110 south. Take the Sepulveda Blvd exit. Take Sepulveda Blvd west. Turn left at Crenshaw Blvd. Drive south on Crenshaw to 22910.

From San Diego and the South: Drive north on the 405. Take the Crenshaw Blvd exit. Drive south on Crenshaw to 22910.

Click on the link below for a Yahoo map.

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Photos

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Area Attractions

Torrance has a wonderful mixture of Hawaiian and Japanese culture, restaurants and shops. Any visit to our showroom should include a great meal or other shopping in the area. We highly recommend the following:

King's Hawaiian Restaurant & Bakery - Great comfort food in a relaxing setting - it's like being in Hawaii.

The Local Place - Just off the 405, a take-out version of King's Hawaiian.

Mitsuwa Marketplace & Food Court - According to my daughter, this is "the most beautiful food court in the world." Uniformly great Japanese food from seven different vendors including the best katsu and ramen stands in the area.

Marukai Gardena - The biggest mainland branch of this Hawaiian / Japanese Market is a cultural immersion and lots of fun even if you don't buy a thing. Stock up on your Lion Coffee here.

Marukai Pacific Market - A Hawaiian / Japanese supermarket with an adjoining food court: Beard Papa freshly made cream puffs, Shin-Sen-Gumi Ramen & Yakitori, Sea Empress Express, sushi, etc.

Musha - "Izakaya style" Japanese cuisine. Small dishes full of flavor that you order and share like dim sum. Opens at 6pm.

Alpine Village - "Home of the 'Oktoberfest.'" A Torrance landmark just off the 110 freeway (at the Torrance Blvd. exit). The highlights are:
The Alpine Village Market, an authentic German market filled with exotic imported foods, sweets, and liquors, a bakery, and a meat counter where you can buy authentic European homemade sausage, cold cuts and cheeses, as well as choice meats (I recommend the roast beef--a 1/4-lb and a roll from the bakery is a great lunch).
The Alpine Cafe, a cafeteria-style cafe serving German home cooking--open for lunch.
The Alpine Inn, an excellent German restaurant open for lunch and dinner.

China Buffet - An all-you-can-eat buffet that has both Chinese and Japanese cuisine and is very reasonably priced.

KyoChon - If you are a fried chicken fan, you have to try KyoChon fried chicken! Jonathon Gold, the L.A. Weekly's food critic, raves about this place! It's not your typical Southern fried chicken, it's "Korean-style" fried chicken, with a light garlic and soy sauce glaze, and it's terrific. KyoChon is located inside the Freshia Market at Crenshaw and Torrance (just a few blocks North of our showroom).

Creme de la Crepe - a lovely authentic French restaurant in Redondo Beach serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert! It's located in the heart of the Riviera Village, a lovely shopping/dining district near the beach.

Back Home in Lahaina - A great Hawaiian restaurant with two locations: Carson and Manhattan Beach. Lahaina's menu features several Hawaiian dishes not offered at King's. (The Leiato Special is my personal favorite: Two eggs and two Portuguese sausage patties over a big mound of bacon fried rice drizzled with tabasco sauce.)

The Farmers' Market at Wilson Park - Every Tuesday and Saturday - excellent plate lunches as well as fresh produce from 60 California farms

Del Amo Fashion Center - This sprawling enclosed shopping mall was at one time - and for a long time - the biggest shopping mall in the country. An open-air section has been recently opened adding an 18 screen AMC theatre.

Redondo Beach Pier - A triangular pier & boardwalk due west on Torrance Blvd. Salt air, sea breezes, and sunsets. Full of seafood restaurants and kitschy souvenir shops.

Cabrillo Marine Aquarium - A small aquarium and marine science center that is great for kids and families. Very well lit and rarely crowded, so it is conducive to sketching.

Lomita Railroad Museum - Our local train museum.

Aquarium of the Pacific - This aquarium in Long Beach is the largest aquarium in the greater Los Angeles Area.

Four of the top five Southern California ramen restaurants are in the Torrance area!!!

From the Los Angeles Times - January 2, 2008:

Five ramen restaurants that'll bowl you over

Los Angeles Times - January 2, 2008

Five favorite noodle spots

Here are Rickmond Wong's (Rameniac.com) five favorite Southern California ramen restaurants.

Santouka: Despite their pedestrian locations in Mitsuwa Marketplace food courts, these restaurants are hands-down the best in Southern California, Wong says. "That's right. The best noodler in town is roughly the Japanese equivalent of a Panda Express or an Orange Julius," he writes on his website. "Rich and luscious, Santouka's Asahikawa-style tonkotsu shio broth is the reigning champion of world-class ramen in Los Angeles." 21515 S. Western Ave., Torrance, (310) 212-1101; 3760 S. Centinela Ave., Los Angeles, (310) 398-2113; 665 Paularino Ave., Costa Mesa, (714) 434-1101.

Asa Ramen: Wong raves about this new place, open only since early fall. "Already, a bowl of Asa's kotteri shoyu ramen rates among the best in town," he writes on the website. "Though it lacks the institutionalized perfection of a Santouka shio ramen, Chef Kubo's shoyu-tonkotsu creation already stands head and shoulders above nearly everything else in the local game." Furthermore, he says, Asa is one of the few ramen shops in town to source its noodles domestically, from an artisanal maker in the Bay Area. 18202 S. Western Ave., Gardena, (310) 769-1010.

Gardena Ramen: Wong loves the spirit of this place so much that after first eating here he ranked it second, behind only Santouka. But, he now says, the quality may be slipping a little -- or maybe it's just that Asa has come on so strong. Gardena Ramen is a one-man operation run by Isao Nakamura. On his website, Wong describes the soup as a "complex (the key word here) concoction derived from torigara (chicken bones), genkotsu (pork knuckle), and niboshi (dried sardines). It is slightly opaque and just a tad too salty, but flavorful in impossibly distinctive ways. It is sweet yet savory. Rich yet light."1840 W. 182nd St., Torrance, (310) 324-6993.

Shin-Sen-Gumi Hakata Ramen: In Japan, Wong says, Hakata ramen is "super popular, and is actually my favorite style of ramen overall; Shin-Sen-Gumi's version of it comes close to what I miss most about living in Kyushu." Hakata ramen is made with ultra-thin, firm noodles; is a purely pork bone soup with no shio, shoyu or miso; and has a wide range of toppings. 2051 W. Redondo Beach Blvd., No. C, Gardena, (310) 329-1335; 8450 E. Valley Blvd., No. 103, Rosemead, (626) 572-8646; 18315 Brookhurst St., No. 1, Fountain Valley, (714) 962-8971.

Daikokuya: Though this Little Tokyo standard is a favorite among Internet foodies, Wong demurs. "It is a decent place," he says, "but I have to say it's also the most over-hyped place in L.A. You have to wait for hours to get in, and it's just not that great." 327 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, (213) 626-1680.

-- Russ Parsons