Hi there! Remember me? It seems like it’s been a while, but over here we’ve all got our noses to the grindstone getting everything in place for this weekend’s HeroesCon. THIS WEEKEND’s HeroesCon–crazy, no? Just think, a couple of weeks from now this blog will be back to talking about comics and our store again–imagine!

But not yet: I wanted to let you in on the details of this weekend’s coolest con-event–our Annual Art Auction! This has become one of the most popular events on the comics convention calendar, and this year we’re pulling out all the stops.

First of all, we’re having it for the first time in Charlotte’s coolest uptown club, to give you all a bit of local flavor. This year’s Art Auction will take place Saturday at 6.30pm at THE ALLEY CAT, located at 314 N. College St., just five blocks from the convention center. Heckfire, if you’re feet are tired, you can take the Light Rail! Feel free to quiz us at the Info Booth on how to get there once you’re at the convention.

One of the coolest things about the Alley Cat is that right inside is a miniature version of the famous Penguin burger restaurant–for the first time you can go to the Auction, have a great dinner, and bid on original art all at the same time. Plus there’s a full bar and a super-friendly staff on hand, so this should be our most fun Auction yet!

Also new this year is our Silent Auction–because of the HUGE number of donations we get for the Auction, we’re going to place most of them in a Silent Auction, to take place throughout the weekend at the front of the convention. Near the end of each day we’ll award pieces to the winners, so each day there’ll be new works to bid on!

Oh, one more thing–while I’m no Rosario Dawson, this year I will be auctioneering the Auction, so things are going to have a distinctly ME flavor to them. Hopefully that’s a good thing, but we’ll see.

Oh, and one MORE one more thing–the Auction couldn’t happen with the help of our friend Allison Sohn, one of our most tireless supporters. We wanted to mention someone that I forgot to get on the guest list in time was going to be set up at the convention–Allison’s friend Mark McHaley, who’s done a ton of trading card art for companies like Rittenhouse Archives and Topps, including the recent Indiana Jones series. He won’t be in the program book, but search him out at table AA-214 this weekend!

Okay, tons more to do, but I wanted to drop that knowledge on you really quick. More coming!