I hope everyone has made their New Year’s resolutions since 2010 will be upon us tomorrow! New Year’s Eve the store will be open until at least 6 pm. We might be open later depending on traffic so if you plan on showing up after 6 pm give us a call to check and see if we are open. New Year’s Day we will be open “Sunday hours” from 1 to 6 pm.

Don’t forget to take full advantage of our SALE! It will be going on now until Tuesday, January 5!

I won’t be updating the New Releases page until Monday, January 4 so that everyone gets an opportunity to learn about the sale. But I can tease you with a few of the exciting books that will be arriving in stores on Wednesday, January 6. In no particular order: Siege #1 with variants, Siege Embedded #1, Walking Dead TP vol 11, Suicide Squad #67, Weird Western Tales #71, Unwritten vol 1 TP, Muppet Show Treasure of Peg Leg Wilson TP, Invincible Iron Man vol 3 HC, One Piece vol 24 – 28 TPs, The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century AD HC! As of next week shipping will return to normal! And as always if there are any changes we will let you know!

Oh man you guys. You guys you guys, whoa. Indie Island is shaping up to be basso profundo this year for sure, I’m really excited about it. REALLY excited, and that’s saying something.

So, adding to last week’s initial Indie Island list announcement, including some sweet HeroesCon stalwarts and some brand new titans of the webcomics world, this week we add another stalwart and two more webtitans (I just made up “webtitans,” fyi, just so you know). Check them out:

RYAN NORTH, a snippet of whose Dinosaur Comics web comic you see above, is one of the earliest and most successful of the webcomics practitioners. He’s also like 40 feet tall, so he’ll be easy to pick out in Indie Island, towering 40 feet in the air with a bunch of people around his table buying books and t-shirts and all the other bajillion things he sells, smiling all the while like a red-headed towering Buddha.

KC GREEN is someone whose comics I only twigged to in the last 6 months or so, mainly through Twitter, but man those things have grown on me. As usual, I’m the last to discover anything. KC is only like 22 or 23 or 15 or something, but the second book collection of his comic Gunshow is coming out this year, and I love it. You are going to love it as well, if you don’t already. Get ready for Love!

LIZ BAILLIE is a dynamo, a comics making dynamo, festooned in her bright pink tie and her vest. A fancy little dynamo. She’s a self-made star of the minicomics scene, originally through her strip My Brain Hurts, and currently with her new comic Freewheel. I’m working on getting her Punchbuggy Tour compatriots MK Reed and Gabby Schulz to come with her; if it works, HeroesCon 2010 will be the last ever stop on the tour! Or so I’m told. So basically it would be totally historicals.

BUT GUYS WAIT LISTEN: I have STILL ANOTHER “webtitan” (remember I made that word up, it’s mine) lying in wait for announcing next week, and possibly another several after that. Plus some sweet

This Wednesday we have a special treat for our reserve customers! Shelton has decreed that any reserve customer that comes in and buys everything in their bag on Wednesday, December 30 2009, will get 25% off ANY new comic or book in the store! All you have to do is clean out your bag, no matter how big or small, and you’ll get 25% off all the books in your bag and any other new book you want to add on that! Had your eye on one of those fancy Absolute Sandman hardcovers? Marvel Masterworks? 25% off!

What’s EVEN CRAZIER is that Shelton has decided that this promotion will go on all week–that means from tomorrow, December 30th, all the way to Tuesday, January 5th! And if you come back during the promotion and have already cleaned out your bag, you still get the discount! Insane!

And most crazy of all, we will be GIVING AWAY a free copy of the new Blackest Night #6 to anyone who spends at least $20 (before tax)! What? And before you ask, yes–this includes discounted books, sale items, whatever. Just buy $20 worth of stuff and you can have the new Blackest Night issue for free! Plus we’ll have the Marvel Origin of Siege handbooks available for free, and a free Marvel 2010 calendar, both part of the Marvel “New Year’s Eve Eve” promotion we’re taking part in. Here’s a list of all the stuff we’re getting tomorrow:

ANGEL #28 10 COPY VIRGIN FRISON INCV
ANGEL #28 20 COPY DENHAM INCV
BLACKEST NIGHT #6
BLACKEST NIGHT #6 VAR ED
BLACKEST NIGHT #6 VAR SKETCH ED
FALL OF HULKS ALPHA NYEE MCGUINESS VAR
MARVEL ORIGIN OF SIEGE GIVEAWAY
NEW YEARS EVE EVE PROMO CALENDAR

As if that weren’t enough, just as further enticement and thank you to our regular customers, Shelton has turned this into a full-fledged store-wide sale, like a sequel to our recent Holiday Sale! Deals will include:

● New Dollar Stock including nearly 10,000 back issues, sorted in alphanumeric order, just a buck apiece! Ask at the store for special “load a box” deals on both short and long boxes of dollar books!

● Selected statues on sale–look closely throughout the store for some insane deals on some great statues, with discounts up to 90% off!

● Lots of new BOGO (buy one get one) deals and 50% off trades and hardcovers!

● Plus a whole rack of 75% off trades and hardcovers!

● Select toys marked down to giveaway prices!

● Spend $100 and Shelton will give you a free T-shirt of your choice from our in-store inventory!

All this is just our way of saying “thanks” to our regular customers, while still making it easy for new customers to get their toe wet in comics! Happy New Year to everybody–don’t miss this chance to end one year and start another with some great deals and free books at Heroes!

Brand new to our HeroesCon 2010 Guest List this week is Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich, who has been a popular guest over the last couple of years. Gary was tied to practically every Marvel title at some point in the 70′s, most notably on Ghost Rider, X-Men, and Iron Man among many many others. Gary’s joined by another person famliar with Iron Man and 70′s Marvel properties–Austin Janowsky worked on Iron Man: The End and Red Sonja to name just two, as well as art on Stanley the Snowman.

Today we’re also adding a couple of prominent all-ages comics creators, including NASCAR Heroes writer and Kids Love Comics co-founder John Gallagher. His creator-owned book Buzzboy is super popular, and he’s currently at work on a new GN entitled “Zoey & Ketchup.” He’s joined by artist Dan Parent, whose worked all over the industry, but probably most famously on Archie titles like Betty & Veronica, Archie & Friends, and a bunch of others. Not to mention Barbie for you Barbie-holics out there (Seth).

Last but certainly not least today is our good buddy Jim Scancarelli, the writer and artist behind the Gasoline Alley newspaper strip, the longest running comic strip… ever, I think. Pretty sure. Anyway, Jim’s a super classy guy and always a lot of fun to talk to, whether at HeroesCon or just hanging out in the store. He’s got more stories than the Brothers Grimm, except his stories end happier and feature guys like Charles Schulz and Milt Caniff.

This Wednesday we have a special treat for our reserve customers! Shelton has decreed that any reserve customer that comes in and buys everything in their bag on Wednesday, December 30 2009, will get 25% off ANY new comic or book in the store! All you have to do is clean out your bag, no matter how big or small, and you’ll get 25% off all the books in your bag and any other new book you want to add on that! Had your eye on one of those fancy Absolute Sandman hardcovers? Marvel Masterworks? 25% off!

Plus I’m told there will be other deals throughout the store, as we try to make space after Christmas for new stock in 2010! So even non-reserve customers can join in the savings jamboree! We almost NEVER discount new books this deeply, but Wednesday is a very rare “skip” week for comics, and we just wouldn’t feel right without a ton of customers in our store on Wednesday! Plus, our regular “reserve” customers (if you don’t know, it’s kind of like an in-store subscription service) are our life’s blood, so it’s doubly great to be able to thank you guys like this!

NOTE that the discount only applies to new books, not back issues, “hot” comics (variants, signed stuff, like that), etc. The discount applies only if you empty your bag completely, and that doesn’t mean just putting a bunch of comics back on the rack somewhere either. Besides, at 25% off, it’s a lot easier to afford those books! Plus it helps us clear some space in our reserve boxes. So come on in this Wednesday and clean out those boxes!

Something I forgot to mention in the Heroes Hotline on Christmas Eve: this Sunday is the end-of-year edition of the Charlotte Comicon, run by our friends Dave Hinson and Rick Fortenberry.  There are numerous reasons you should go, which I will now enumerate:

1) Because you love to support local businesses, not to mention a bunch of local comic book artists, both established ones like Andy Smith and Budd Root, plus up-and-comers like our buddies and customers Eraklis Petmezas and Rich Barrett. The image above is from Rich’s online comic Nathan Sorry, which he’ll be selling the first ever print versions of at the show Sunday!

2) Because Shelton is going to be there hawking his ridiculous Silver Age stock, not to mention his also-ridiculous “travel” stock, which has become a huge hit at the crazy number of shows Shelton has done this year. Seth re-ups the stock after every show too, so the stock stays so fresh and so clean clean!

3) Because by printing out this blog post and bringing it in, you can get a dollar off the already cheap $3 admission! I made a fancy printable coupon a few months ago, but today I’m dogsitting and working from a strange computer, and I can’t find that thing. So just view this post by itself so you can print just it instead of the last 10 or so, and bring that in!

4) Because you have relatives in town visiting, and you’d love to take them somewhere off the beaten path–hey, it wouldn’t kill you guys to get out of the house, right?

5) Because you have relatives in town visiting, and you’ll do anything to get away from them for a few hours–hey, it wouldn’t kill them to hang around your house alone for a few hours, right?

Okay, hope to see you there tomorrow for the Charlotte Comicon!

From all of us at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find and Heroes Convention, please accept our warm wishes for the holidays! Thanks so much to all of those that make it possible for us to do what we do, year in and year out!

Let’s skip the fancy banter usually found in my snazzy reviews and just cut to the chase: Here’s my list for the best superhero comics of 2009:

Invincible: While Robert Kirkman’s Brit and Astounding Wolf-Man bit the dust (Wolf-Man ends in 2010), Invincible still soared — and that’s probably because the book is a fun read with tons of action, vomit-inducing gore and humor.

Secret Warriors: Who knew that anybody — other than Jim Steranko — could make a viable comic about Nick Fury? Well, writer Jonathan Hickman proved it could be done. If you haven’t picked up this smart, mystery-laden series yet, please run to the shop now.

Wonder Woman: I talked about this book in my all-inclusive list of books for 2009 in the current issue of Creative Loafing, but I’ll say it again: Writer Gail Simone finally found the winning formula on Wonder Woman. She knows how to add just enough mythology, straight-up superhero slugfests and emotion to make it worth snagging every month. And artist Aaron Lopresti has turned in some of the best pages of his career for this comic.

Detective Comics: Batwoman: I talked about this comic over in Creative Loafing this week, too, but I stand by that decision. The first arc by Greg Rucka was not that compelling, but the engrossing second story line more than made up for it. And J.H. Williams is — hands down — the best artist on a superhero book right now.

Blackest Night/Green Lantern: OK, I talked about this one already as well. But both books were killer this year.

Captain Britain and MI13: Sadly, this comic was canceled. But while it lasted, it was intelligent, confidently paced and character-focused — a rarity for Marvel and the industry as a whole.

Dark Avengers: Marvel’s most entertaining Avengers book. Seriously.

Oh my goodness! In our first published Indie Island Guest List, today we added three titans of the webcomics scene, oh lordy lordy, super exciting!

Kate Beaton is the creator of the Hark! A Vagrant! webcomic, and one of the fastest rising stars in comics these days. I think she started doing it like, two years ago or something? These days she’s ridiculously mobbed at conventions, to the point where I’ll definitely need to think hard about where to seat her, so that her neighbors don’t get huffy if her lines are in their way.

Anthony Clark probably wouldn’t get huffy–he’s a pretty sweet guy. PRETTY SWEET. He’s also the man behind Nedroid comics, a web strip featuring the very understated (and impeccably well-written) hijinks of Beartato and Reginald. And some other guys. This is turning into one of my favorite comics lately, I’ll admit. Here’s one of my recent faves. Anthony is also the colorist on the comics of–

Christopher Hastings, who does the bizarrely, insanely popular Dr. McNinja comic. If I have my internet comical history right, I think Dr. McNinja was one of the early success stories in the world of online comics. We are delighted to be riding on the coattails of this success, signifying as it does that–by dint of Mr Hastings very presence in Indie Island–the whole darn thing is going to be one massive success.

And returning to HeroesCon is one of our most loyal and earliest adopters, Danielle Corsetto. She does the also preposterously popular webcomic Girls With Slingshots, a new book of which just came out, I do believe. I know she’s been mailing them to her readers practically by the crateful.

But hold the phone, Sister Susan! Man cannot live by webcomics alone! Also new to our roster today are returning studs of the minicomics scene, including J. Chris Campbell (Attic Bugs, Zig Zag), Jason Horn (Ninjasaur), Joe Lambert (Sundays, also designed our righteous 2009 Indie Island shirt), Alec Longstreth (Phase 7) and Shannon Smith (Small Bible)! Whoa! 9 new names in one day–well, it is the holiday season after all. I’m super excited–this year’s Indie Island is going to be the biggest and most diverse one yet, which is going to be great. For you.

Where Shawn looks at the New Releases and lets you know which ones would make good Christmas gifts!

1) History of the DCU Series 3 action figures

Figures in this series include Braniac, Ocean Master, Plastic Man and Superman. I have really liked the sculpts on the History of the DCU figures. They are really cool looking! We are also getting in a number of the Eaglemoss lead figurines. So be sure to take a look at those. Toys make perfect stocking stuffers!

2) Supergirl Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade TP

Perfect for your little sister or younger cousin who enjoys superheroes but is tired of reading stories about Batman, Superman or Spider-Man. It is a cute, well-done Supergirl story that portrays her as a believable character.

3) Retro Grey Hulk statue

What do you get the Hulk fan who has everything? Why a Hulk statue of course! Also coming out Wednesday are two Ghost Rider related busts: Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch.

4) Mini Marvels Ultimate Collection TP

Mini Marvels appeal to comics fans of any age. Chris Giarrusso has a wonderful sense of humor that is greatly underappreciated. I got the image to the left from Acme Comic’s website (please forgive me Jermaine). It was too perfect not to use!

5) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Willow One Shot

Joss Whedon and Karl Moline (who did the art for Fray) explain what Willow did after Sunnydale implodes. Great jumping on point for new readers!