I seek out good bookstores wherever I travel, and really good ones that specialize in commix/art/illustration can be hard to find. Cool places like Meltdown in LA are gone, but I was delighted to find Stuart NG Books in Torrance. This storefront in a non-descript strip mall contained a treasure trove of great stuff –"drawing inspiration" is their slogan. Any fan of graphic novels, comic book artists, and illustrators will dig it. I liked the framed art with original Walt Kelly, Moebius, and more. Lots of artists' sketchbooks, postcards, posters, and a huge foreign/import section.
My test of store is to ask if they have any Yves Challand stuff. They were busy pulling stock to attend an upcoming con, but they graciously took time to help me. Instead of the usual "who?" response, SNB had fantastic offerings of the English-translated "Freddy Lombard" books and beautiful, large format "camera art"-style imported books in French.
Plus fanzines, SIGNED comics back issues, illustration and rendering instruction books, vinyls and toys, Little Golden Books, even Blackwing pencils, sharpeners and tip caps.
