Yen Press announced that their manga adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series will have a national sale date of Tuesday, March 16. So one week from today Twilight Manga GN vol 1 will be sparkling up our shelves! It is a hardcover, $19.99 and clocks in at 224 pages. This adaptation is being done by Young Kim under Meyer’s close supervision. The manga is reportedly more close to the book than the movies, especially in regards to the depiction of the main characters. In other words you won’t see Robert Pattinson’s likeness in the manga. It is Kim’s interpretation of Edward you will see. There is a lot of buzz on the internet about it both good and bad. Personally, I think people on the internet need to lighten up and stop complaining. I am happy that Yen Press is doing a manga adaptation of the Twilight series and I am happy we will have it for sale in our store!  And as we know by now all the cool kids like vampires.

Whoa! Have you guys ever heard of Tim Sale? I know Shelton has; Tim’s one of Shelton’s favorite creators (he has a lot, admittedly), so I know he’s excited to be able to welcome Tim back to HeroesCon this summer. Besides extraordinarily popular books like Batman: The Long Halloween, Spider-Man: Blue, and Captain America: White, Tim also did the paintings (with Dave Stewart) for the Isaac character on a little show you might have heard of called… Heroes? I could be wrong but I think the last time Tim was here was back in 2006 or 7, so it will be interesting to see how his already-massive lines are affected by his increased fame since then. Either way, I’m pretty sure he’s still a sweet dude. Pret-ty sure, guys.

Oh! And also returning to the HeroesCon Guest List is inker Mark Morales, who has turned into one of the foremost inkers in the comics industry, most recently working on enormous event books like Siege and Secret Invasion, and over smaller but acclaimed books like Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine and Young Avengers. Smoooooth style he’s got, especially over smooth guys like Olivier Coipel and Jim Cheung. I love it.

And! Stepping back into the ring again this summer is Stephanie Gladden. Stephanie’s worked on pretty much every major cartoon license, including The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy, Looney Tunes, Powerpuff Girls and more. She’s also a character artist for Cartoon Network, working on shows like Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends and Chowder (my favorite!). BUT she’s probably most excited about her new creator-owned project, Girls of Monster Paradise!

Still more to come next week, I’ve got updates stacked up, including someone who hasn’t been to HeroesCon in at least ten years, and today is one of the biggest names in the industry–no lie!

Holy moley! Returning to the HeroesCon Guest List this week are three of the best! You almost certainly know Sean “Cheeks” Galloway from his epic turn in Wednesday Comics, not to mention his Teen Titans Go! work, his bajillion sketch cards for Upper Deck and other trading card publishers, and more. He’s also a lead character designer for the Spectacular Spider-Man and Hellboy cartoons–check out that Hellboy up there, it’s GORGEOUS. I swiped it from Cheeks’ blog, which is just an embarassment of drawing riches.

Joining Cheeks is his buddy and fellow mack-daddy talent Jonboy Meyers. While Jonboy’s work has been in a bunch of comics like She-Hulk, GeNext, and JLA, he’s enormously prolific as a sketch and commission artist. His commissions are like full-on covers, they’re kind of amazing. I don’t know how much he charges but I bet his sketch list fills up lickety-split at the con, so better wear your running shoes and show up early.

Also returning this year is our buddy Mike Choi, whose pencils on Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, and Witchblade (among others) have made him a darling of the original art scene. He’s got a smooth style that’s mm-mm good like Campbell’s Soup, and that’s no lie!

That’s not all–we’ve got another big announcement set for tomorrow, and then a couple of HUGE announcements next week–we’re getting close to the show now; it’s only going to get more exciting from here on in.

Oh yes, as Phil Collins said, “Tonight, tonight tonight! Oh-ohhh!” Yes Phil, tonight will indeed be alright, as Heroes Discussion Master Andy Mansell leads another book club discussion. This time we focus on Craig Thompson’s extraordinarily successful memoir Blankets. This is a book that’s not only a critical and market success, but a big entry-point for female readers into comics, which is always great.

Andy will be kicking some knowledge tonight, March 4, at 7.00 at our store. All you need to bring is yourself, a copy of the book if you have one handy, and a good attitude. Bonus points if you bring some questions, which will save some of Andy’s breath–after all, he’s got quite a slate of discussions to do throughout the spring!

So The Flash: Rebirth is finally over. And as it ends, we’re left with one question: Was it any good?

Well, it sucked a bit but, ultimately, it was an satisfying — and necessary — comic.

First the bad. The story – written by DC demi-god Geoff Johns — was a tad bit convoluted. Each issue delivered page after page of gobbledy-smack about the Speed Force, the Negative Speed Force and other crap. Throw in a heaping helping of time travel, and you’ve got one confusing limited series.

In addition to a rather perplexing plot, the other bad thing about Rebirth was the lateness. I mean, I appreciate the fact that one creative team executed the entire project — which makes for better trade paperback — but the long delay between issues only added to the confusion I felt when reading the book.

OK, that was the bad — now on to the good. Although John’s story was confusing, the writer did succeed in fleshing out Barry Allen and (as I’ve said before) giving him the personality he never had.

Rebirth also succeeded in dusting off, restoring and refocusing the Flash family of characters. All of the characters who’ve been screwed over so much over the years — like Bart Allen, Max Mercury, Wally West and even the Rogues — all got a new lease on life as a result of this comic. And, honestly, wasn’t that the point of Rebirth?

Carlton Hargro is the Editor-In-Chief of Charlotte’s  Creative Loafing newspaper. You can read more of his reviews at the paper’s Comic Proportions blog.

In which Shawn looks at the New Releases and lets you know which ones she is most excited about!

1) Girl Comics #1

I still don’t know how I feel about the name, but there are some awesomely talented people working on this book. Including: Amanda Conner, Laura Martin, Colleen Coover, Robin Furth, Trina Robbins, Stephanie Buscema and MORE!

2) Buffy #33

In this issue the identity of Twilight will finally be revealed! I thought it was Oz until the last story arc. I have it on good authority that it will blow my mind though. This will probably be the first book I read when I get home tonight!

3) Superman TP Braniac

I love it when Geoff Johns and Gary Frank work together, especially on Superman. This was a good, solid Superman story. The art is fantastic and the story is really entertaining.

4) Ultimate Comics New Ultimates #1

The name may be silly but Frank Cho’s art sure is pretty to look at.

5) First Wave #1

Brian Azzarello and Rags Morales bring you a new world where there are no superheroes, just pulp heroes. The Batman/Doc Savage one-shot that they put out several months ago was surprisingly awesome so I am looking forward to checking out First Wave #1. And I am very excited that they are bringing back the Spirit.

Well! a family-friendly update to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List this week, or at least friendly to the Van Sciver family. Star artist Ethan Van Sciver, he of  Green Lantern, Flash Rebirth, and Blackest Night fame, is returning to HeroesCon this year.

But this year, Ethan will be joined for the first time by his younger brother Noah Van Sciver. Noah is the creator of the Blammo series that he self-publishes, and has recently been featured in MOME and in The Comics Journal as the cartoonist interviewer. Those are my faves, those little cartoon interviews, I love them.

Noah recently did a “redo” cover of his brother’s cover to Flash: Rebirth #3 over on Robert Goodin’s Covered blog, which I thought was extra appropriate to feature here, as Robert will also be at HeroesCon. So yeah, sensible.

But wait, there’s more! Also also returning to the show this year is “Comics Reporter” Tom Spurgeon. Tom has informed me several times that he has something mysterious planned for his time at HeroesCon, as opposed to in 2008 when he moderated 1,000 panels. I’m not sure what it is, but today he referred to it as “very specific” which for some reason has made me a little worried. Expect to need to sign hold-harmless disclaimer agreements at the door to any panel Tom is involved in this year.

In which Shawn looks at the New Releases and lets you know which ones she is most excited about!

1) Choker #1

This was originally supposed to ship a couple weeks ago but there was a printing problem that delayed it. It is now in our lovely store, for real this time! Ben McCool wrote the story and Ben Templesmith did the art. At first glance this book reminds me of Fell. I’m sure that is because of the combination of cops and Templesmith’s art.

2) Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman HC vol 1

This hardcover collects the first 4 issues of Jonathan Hickman’s run on Fantastic Four. All the cool kids are digging FF these days. Don’t you want to be one of the cool kids?

3) Gotham City Sirens #9

Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn versus the Riddler!

4) Muppet Show King Arthur #2

I know I talk about Muppets a lot but it is because I genuinely enjoy all the Muppets books. I especially love David Petersen’s covers!

5) Jet Scott GN vol 1

I will admit to not knowing a whole lot about this book. But what I do know is that Jerry Robinson’s art is beautiful. The brushwork is so expressive!

Honarable Mentions go out to: Blackest Night #7, New Avengers #62, Flash Rebirth #5, Marvelous Land of Oz #4, Wall-E #3, Deadpool #20, Marvels Project #6, Viking #5 and King City #5.

New to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List are some old chums and brand new bros; even though I write these announcements each week I’m still a little flabbergasted at the size/quality of this list already–we’re only halfway through February, you know what I mean?

Joining up today is first time guest Marc Bernardin, writer behind hit series like The Authority, The Highwaymen, Push, and X-Men Origins: Nightcrawler. Marc’s career has taken him all over the place, with stints writing/editing for Starlog, Entertainment Weekly, Fangoria, screenwriting, you name it. And now he adds “Charlotte, NC” to his resume. Just watch the money roll in now, Marc!

Returning for his second HeroesCon this year is Clayton Henry, who has a gorgeous slick style that I could just look at all day, I tell you what. I think his most recentish work is on Adventure Comics, but Lord knows I’ve been wrong before. He’s done a ton of stuff for Marvel too, including Incredible Hercules (above), Exiles, and more.

Nathan Massengill is certainly no stranger to Charlotte–one of our favorite guys and an inker par excellence. These days you can catch nathan on JSA, Deadpool, and Deadpool Team-Up, and he’s done a ton of stuff on Bat-books in the past, like Detective and Nightwing.

Also returning to HeroesCon this year is Chris Yambar, who’s happy to work in pretty much any genre you please. His credits include Bart Simpson Comics, Popeye, Mr. Beat, I Dream Of Jeannie… well it goes on for quite a while. I believe you can get the full list from Chris himself at HeroesCon!

With all the excitement surrounding Free Comic Book Day on May 1st and HeroesCon June 4th- June 6th, we wanted to make sure the old reliable Heroes Discussion Group didn’t fall off any of our already loaded plates

So we are doing something a little different and something that is rather exciting.

Today, we are announcing our next 5 Discussion Groups!

1) Blankets

Join us on Thursday (note the day of the week!!) March 4th as we sit down and discuss Blankets by Craig Thompson.

This is with a doubt one of the most popular and influential graphic novels of the past half decade. We know many of you have already read this wonderful story and we hope you will join us.

For anyone who has yet to tackle Thompson’s intimate story of first love, do not let the sheer size of the book intimidate you; it is a fast-moving enjoyable read with fabulous page design and clear-cut story-telling.

2) Book of Genesis by R. Crumb

One month later, we invite you to join us on Tuesday (note the day!) April 6th when we will dissect and discuss the powerful and challenging Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb. Moderator Andy Mansell is studying up on some Biblical History and we are certain this will be our most exciting and most talked about discussion group to date.

3) Astro City: Confession

Then on Thursday (note the day) May 13th– in order to wet your whistles for HeroesCon, we return to the super-hero genre to discuss Astro City: Confession by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson. Readers who visit Astro City never leave that wonderful town. We envy those of you who have never read any of these books; you are in for a big treat! These are super-hero comics created by artists who love superheroes. This will be big time fun.

4) Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

Then we have an exciting surprise for you. We will be having a special meeting of the Discussion Group disguised as a Panel at HeroesCon. By popular demand, we will analyze and discuss the Anthology: Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall. And seeing as how it’s taking place in the middle of HeroesCon, don’t be surprised if a special guest or two shows up to join in the discussion!

5) The Complete Pluto Series

Lastly– and certainly not leastly–we have a special surprise for all manga fans. On Tuesday, (again, note the day) June 29th, we will get past our post-convention exhaustion by hunkering down to discuss the landmark Japanese series Pluto by Naoki Urasawa. No, not just the first volume; but rather we intend to discuss the 8 volume series in its entirety! More details as we get closer!

So here is a quick re-cap:

Thursday March 4 – Blankets

Tuesday April 6 – Genesis

Thursday May 13 – Astro City: The Confession

Heroes Con – Fables 1001 Nights

Tuesday June 29 – The Complete 8 Volume Pluto

All of these books are available from Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find for a Special 10% discount. But remember–in order to take advantage of the special price, you need to mention the Heroes Discussion Group Discount when you check out.

We look forward to seeing you! Watch this space for more details and reminders as each event gets nearer. In the meantime, pick up Blankets and Genesis; you’ll be glad you did!