Happy New Year to everyone out there in internetland! We wanted to make sure that each of you knew the holiday store schedule and shipping schedule, so one more time here it is:

HOLIDAY STORE HOURS
New Year’s Eve
Friday, December 31st: 10am – 6pm
New Year’s Day
Saturday, January 1st: 1pm – 6pm

BOOK SHIPPING SCHEDULE
Completely normal! Books will arrive in the store on Wednesday throughout the holidays!

As the year draws to a close we are a little nostalgic here at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find. It was a year of changes and transitions. We saw our Creative Director Dustin Harbin move on to a full-time career of cartooning. While we miss him we are happy that he is so successful. We also saw Shawn Reynolds become Shawn Daughhetee and transitioned from Store Manager in Charlotte, NC to Events Coordinator in Greenville, SC. Also, after having worked in the store since birth, Shelley Drum took her rightful place as Store Manager. There are also rumors of Heroes hiring Rico Renzi but as of yet those are unconfirmed.

Besides the staffing changes the store was busy with conventions, store signings and day-to-day operations. Here are a few of the stand-out events from 2010: Jim Rugg Afrodisiac Tour store signing, Charlotte Minicon, Free Comic Book Day, Super: The Fine Art of Comics gallery show at Twenty-Two, Steve Niles store signing, HeroesCon 2010, Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting store signing and almost a dozen Heroes Discussion Group meetings (Walking Dead, Scott Pilgrim, Pluto and Blankets just to name a few)!

Even with all of the awesomeness of 2010, 2011 will undoubtedly be busier and better. Prepare yourselves for the craziness! We are ready! Are you? Mark your calendars for the Charlotte Minicon on Saturday, January 22, the beginning of The Savannah Collection Heritage Auctions on February 24, Free Comic Book Day on May 7 and HeroesCon on June 3 – 5. As always stay tuned to the blog and the newsletter for up-to-the-minute updates! See you next year!

We love to brag about our customers especially when they are as cool as Joe Keller! Keller is the writer and director of the new short film Artifacts which is premiering at the Neighborhood Theater Saturday, January 15 at 2 pm. Special guests Bat Regurgitator will be on hand to perform Soul, the theme song from the film.

Here is the synopsis for the film direct from Keller himself:

“Photographer Clayton Ardubon leads a life of indulgence comprised of women and success. But no amount of either can satisfy the hole at the center of his life. That is, until Marion, an ex-lover from his youth, shows up unexpectedly at a showing. Fueled by an insatiable curiosity and a longing for days gone by, Clayton tracks down Marion. But his search leads to Marion’s daughter, Paige; a rebellious youth who opens the door to an unexpected love affair as dangerous as it is sincere.”

Check out the trailer for Artifacts on YouTube to get you pumped to see the short film! For more information visit the Artifacts website. It is full of behind the scenes info, cast and crew listings and trailers! I highly recommend that you make it out to support this wonderful up-and-coming filmmaker!

Artifacts Short Film Premiere with live performance from Bat Regurgitator
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Doors open at 2 pm
Neighborhood Theater
511 E 36th St.
Charlotte, NC 28205

The only thing we love more than hearing about the cool things our customers are doing is letting everyone know about the cool things our customers are doing! The debonair Adam Crohn has started a comics blog entitled Absolute Omnibus. It is jam packed with comic related news, reviews and much more! Crohn has been creating custom action figures and so far has a Red Skull, Aquaman and Moon Knight. He also has Message Boards set up so you can chat with fellow comic book readers. Coming soon to the site is a complete listing of every Absolute and Omnibus in existence. Head on over to Absolute Omnibus for your comic-related website fix!

Eric Shanower and Skottie Young have been doing an incredible job of adapting L. Frank Baum’s Oz books. I love the way that they’ve re-imagined the characters making them fresh. Despite the numerous adaptations of the Oz characters, Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Marvelous Land of Oz were full of joy and imagination making them delightfully fun books to read.

I think I am more excited about reading Ozma of Oz than I was the previous two stories. I have a particular fondness for this story because of the movie Return to Oz. I rented this a million times from the local video store when I was younger. I watched it recently and it really holds up. Mombi and the Wheelers still freak me out after all these years.

Ozma of Oz #1 started off strong and I know that this book won’t let me down despite my ridiculously high expectations. Young’s art is dynamic and expressive. The characters are bubbling over with life. Shanower’s dialogue and pacing is perfect. This is an impeccably created comic book that is great for old Oz fans or those new to Baum’s world.

Time flies! The last Heroes Discussion Group was over two weeks ago, but it sure seems like yesterday. We posted a few pictures from the meeting on our Flickr site. Everyone had a great time! Heroes would like to thank everyone who came out to a Heroes Discussion Group this year. Thanks to you, it was an exceptional year of debate and conversation and we hope that you will continue to support the group in 2011. If you haven’t made it to one yet then let your New Year’s Resolution be to attend at least one of these lively meetings. We have a great time talking about some amazing comics. Thank you everyone for your help and support! We will be announcing January’s discussion group topic shortly. Until then enjoy these pictures from the Tintin discussion group!

All of us at Heroes hope you had a great time over the holidays, and that the New Year finds you all in great places.  Thanks to Christmas falling on a weekend this year our shipping schedule will be unaffected, thus ensuring that we will have our new comics in the store today like any normal Wednesday.  On with the comics!

1) Batman: the Dark Knight #1

DC offers up what might be the last big hit of 2010 with this anticipated title.  This book should have wide appeal, reaching fans of writer/artist David Finch, and bat-fans who might not care too  much for Grant Morrison’s contributions to the character.  I’ll be turning up for this one mostly out of curiosity.  Finch is a creator who has written comics in the past, but never to the point where he garnered any kind of reputation for it.  What will Finch the writer bring to the table for his work on this book?  Will his stories match the dark tone that his art will assuredly suggest?  Give it a read and decide for yourself.

2) Hellboy: The Sleeping and the Dead #1

Why not end the year with a great Hellboy story?  Mike Mignola teams with artist Scott Hampton for this first of a two issue miniseries.  Throughout the year I’ve talked about how vampire stories have proliferated comics (and other media) to the point where the ones worth reading are often overlooked.  Though this miniseries focuses on vampires you can be assured that it will be well worth reading, if  not for Mignola’s contribution than for Scott Hampton’s art alone.  Hampton’s work on Books of Magic, Simon Dark, and Batman: Gotham County Line all illustrate that his brand of horror will be a welcome contribution to the world of Hellboy.

3) X-men Forever 2 #14

From time to time on the spotlight I like to remind people that Charlotte does indeed have a great community of talented comic artists.  If you think about it, the fact that we live in a city where creators like Marcus Hamilton, Budd Root, Jason Latour, Chrissie Zullo, Chris Brunner, Jim Scancarelli, and the numerous talented folks at Sketch Charlotte all live and work should give us all some local pride.  This week’s issue of X-men Forever features art from another talented artist, Andy Smith.  Aside from being a veteran artist who has worked on high profile titles for just about every major publisher, Andy’s also a good friend and customer of Heroes.  This issue is especially exciting  if you’re a fan of the Black Panther as Andy will undoubtedly do a great rendition of the character.  If you want to see more from Smith outside of this issue with Chris Claremont, check out his amazing Justice League contribution to DC’s Pop Up Book.  It’s unlike any pop up book you’ll ever see!  Andy’s also going to be one of our guests at our Charlotte MiniCon on January 22, so why not pick up some of his comics and get him to sign them there?

4) S.H.I.E.L.D. #5

This is hands down my favorite super hero title of 2010.  What started out as an intriguing premise has turned into a book that consistently delivers quality with each issue.  On top of that, it’s a thinking man’s comic that stands up to multiple readings without losing any of its novelty.  Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver clearly put their heads and hearts into this project, and have found a way to combine Marvel history with world history.  Ever imagine how Galileo might have handled an attack from Galactus?  How might Apocalypse or an ancient Egyptian Moon Knight have held off an attack from the Brood?  All those great moments show up in this series, plus an intricate plot filled with plenty of Easter eggs for Marvel fans.

5) Red: Eyes Only one shot

This prequel to the popular comic series (and subsequent film adaptation) is worth a look because it was both written and illustrated by original series artist Cully Hamner.  Cully’s another old friend of Heroes and an artist you can always count on to deliver interesting sequential work.  Over the past few years Cully’s had some great success with his memorable redesign of Blue Beetle, his Question back up stories in Detective Comics, and of course the Red film.  In this 48 page one shot he’s not only returning to one of the more popular books he worked on, but he’s offering up the story of how the characters ended up in retirement prior to the original book.  Also still available are the Red one shots that were released in conjunction with the film.

> Bonus Picks of the Week: Astonishing Spider-man/Wolverine #4, Widowmaker #2, Action Comics #896, Carnage #2, Incognito: Bad Influences #2, Detective Comics #872, and Nemesis #4.

Jim McCann is primarily known for his work writing Marvel properties like Hawkeye and Mockingbird, Dazzler, the current Chaos War: Alpha Flight mini series, and the new miniseries Widowmaker.  November saw the publication of McCann’s debut original graphic novel Return of the Dapper Men, a collaboration with artist Janet Lee that’s been steadily building industry buzz at major conventions throughout year.  I spoke with Jim recently about his varied creative background, his past and future super  hero projects, and of course the acclaimed Dapper Men.

Seth Peagler (SP): First off Jim, thanks for taking time out of your busy week to answer a few questions.  I’d imagine you’re pretty excited about the public finally getting a chance to get a copy of Return of the Dapper Men.  Before we talk about that book I’d like to ask you a little bit about your history in comics.  Some people might not be aware that you worked for Marvel for several years in the publicity and PR arenas.  How and when did you decide to transition over to the creative side of things?

Jim McCann (JM):   Thanks, Seth.  I started at Marvel with a complete leap of faith.  It was literally on my 30th birthday when I packed everything up, moved, and sold the house.  I didn’t have a job, but within two months was working there.  I started three days after I submitted my resume, so it was definitely a quick turn around process.  Initially I wrote ad copy before they moved me over to PR and marketing.  That’s when I started doing publicity and moderating panels.  Two years into being over there I wrote my first eight page story in a Marvel Western book.

SP: As someone who was a big part of Marvel convention panels, what’s it like to be on the other side of the scene now?  Were there specific aspects of your publicity work that has influenced your approach to comic writing?

JM: I definitely made a number of friendships.  Marvel does a great job of marketing their books, and I learned from seeing that and reading every single interview that went through there. But it absolutely helped me on creator owned projects too.  It really helped me learn how to sell and market my books.  Ultimately, its up to the creators to market themselves.

SP: Many comic writers study screenwriting at one point or another, but I’m not immediately aware of many who have a background in theater.  You co-founded and were the artistic director for the Nashville Theatre Company.  How has your involvement in the theater informed your writing work in comics?  Are there certain similarities between the process of writing for comics and writing for theater that you’ve noticed?

JM: I think it’s important for writers to study all forms of writing as well as acting.  It teaches you how you can write a line of dialogue and the ways it can be interpreted.  Theater taught me how to write under pressure, and also about the economy of words.  Directing theater helped me check out what people were interested in and what types of stories people wanted to see.

SP: Switching gears to your mainstream super hero work, I’d like to ask you a little bit about your recent Marvel work.  There’s been an obvious proliferation of Avengers titles in the past few years; do you think that a book like Hawkeye and Mockingbird benefits from that, or can it get lost in the shuffle?

JM: There were a lot of great books that came out around the time of Hawkeye and Mockingbird. I think it’s funny because the same thing holds true for indie books as well.  People are afraid to try things because they’re not sure if a book matters in the whole comic universe.  It was a different culture when Marvel Knights started.  People started wanting a more cohesive universe and ended up following only the core Avengers books or X books.  Titles were a little shaky for solo books when the characters were on other books.

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In today’s final holiday gift suggestions blog, I’ll focus on our bread and butter, Super Heroes!  Here are some great suggestions for a variety of heroic fans.

1) Shazam: the Golden Age of the World’s Mightiest Mortal

I first heard Chip Kidd talking about this book at this year’s C2E2 Convention in Chicago, and the slideshow he presented got me excited to see the finished product.  Now that’s it’s in the store, it more than lives up to the hype.  Kidd and collaborator Geoff Spear dig deep into the Captain Marvel vaults to give a pictorial history of the character’s merchandise through the years.  Want to see stills from the various black and white Captain Marvel serials?  They’re in here along with items featuring the largely forgotten Hoppy the Flying Marvel Bunny!

2) the Marvel Encyclopedia/the DC Encyclopedia

These are always popular gift suggestions.  Do you have a friend or family member who is just getting into comics and wants to know everything about every character?  These are great ideas for them, as well as longtime super hero fans who want the ultimate in source book material.

3) Wednesday Comics HC

One of the great books published in recent years, the deluxe Wednesday Comics HC collection features every strip from the 12 issue newsprint series along with a couple of unused strips and sketchbook material.  All this and it’s all published in a glorious oversized format.  Who wouldn’t want to see Ryan Sook‘s Kamandi or Karl Kerschl‘s Flash strip in a large bookshelf format?

4) The Simon and Kirby Superheroes/The Best of Simon and Kirby HC

Longtime Heroes friend Steve Saffel worked closely with the legendary Joe Simon to start bringing the many volumes of the Simon and Kirby archives back to the public.  The Best of Simon and Kirby is a great overview of some of the legends classic works before they went on to create so many timeless characters for Marvel and DC.  And The Simon and Kirby Superheroes reminds us just how relevant their early costumed heroes were for their time, and how influential they remain.  These are great books by great people that any fan of comics history should want to include in their library.

5) 75 Years of DC Comics: the Art of Modern Mythmaking by Paul Levitz

If you haven’t seen this coffee-table sized opus from Paul Levitz, you’re in for a treat.  If there’s any person qualified to do a complete examination of DC’s history it’s Levitz, and he more than delivers in what is one of the year’s great studies of comics history.  At over 700 pages in length, this is the ultimate gift idea for any lifelong DC fan.  It’s also large enough to be a hefty weapon, though we don’t encourage that kind of thinking during this or any other time of year.

6) Essentials, Showcases, and Archives!

As a young comic reader I always enjoyed receiving DC Archive editions of classic stories.  While those are still available and ideal for fans of any age, both Marvel and DC have done a great job of continuing their Essential and Showcase lines which are very affordable reprints of renowned tales from past decades.  If you know someone just getting into super hero comics that you’re interested in buying something for, this may be the best and most varied option.

7) Popular Modern Collections in TP and HC

Maybe you’re trying to buy something for something you know who likes comics but has gotten away from them in recent years.  Why not think about getting a trade paperback of some of the most popular stories and crossovers?  For the Marvel fan try Civil War, Siege, World War Hulk, X-men: Messiah Complex, X-men: Second Coming, for DC fans try Blackest Night and it’s related crossover collections, Green Lantern: Rebirth, Identity Crisis, Brightest Day, or any of the great Grant Morrison Batman collections.

Today’s gift giving suggestions cater to the fans of comic book art.  The following art books would be a welcome addition to many collectors libraries.

1.) The Art of Brian Bolland

Fans of Mr. Bolland are treated to an incredibly in depth career retrospective. This weighty, decades spanning volume is loaded with informative essays and gorgeous fantasy and superhero art brought to life by one of Britain’s top illustrators.

2.) The Art of P. Craig Russell

P. Craig Russell’s illustrations have a very unique, dreamlike quality to them. Fans will enjoy pouring over Russell’s lush, intricately detailed illustrations in a nice, large format. Readers are treated to samples of artwork from such varied sources as sketchbook pages, album covers/compact disc inserts and independent published work.

3.) Telling Stories: The Comic Art of Frank Frazetta

Not quite an art book, but worthy of mentioning among them. Legions of fans and artistic-followers will tell you Fritz was THE TRUTH! There truly was nothing this man could not do when it came to illustration. This handsome, slip cased volume contains a wide sampling of work realized during the lone decade he spent drafting comics. Anyone who possesses the gift of sight will delight in being gifted such a wonderful book!

4.) Centifolia – Sketchbook Illustrations of Stuart Immonen

When is an art book not an art book? When its a published sketchbook! Stuart gives fans an intimate look at one of the most important pieces of artistic exercise equipment – the sketchbook. Remarkably, he only recently began keeping one of his own. This compact volume is a neat way to see what a mainstream superhero illustrator works on for fun.

5.) The Art of Hellboy – Mike Mignola

How can so much black ink on a page look so incredibly interesting and so full of depth? It’s not always what is seen that is so scary but what is sensed. Mignola is a master creature creator with a delightfully twisted sense of humor. Its not an easy task to repulse and entrance a viewer within the same image. See how he does it on every page of this nice, over sized volume.

Once again, Happy Holidays to all of our loyal customers and supporters!  There would be no Heroes without all of you, and we’re happy to be a part of your comic experience.  Here are some standout titles released this week.

1) Batman Incorporated #2

Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette continue their worldwide Batman title in this second issue.  Why pick it up?  Simply put, Morrison has found a way to return Batman to his detective roots while increasing the characters international presence.  This opens the door for numerous possible story lines and new characters in a way that shouldn’t take away from the detective element.

2) Guild: Vork one shot

Felicia Day‘s Guild returns to Dark Horse with this first of five upcoming one shots.  The initial series sold well and received some critical acclaim.  This one shot stands out because it’s co-written by Day and Vork actor Jeff Lewis and is illustrated by Darick Robertson, who always manages to bring a few fans to whatever project he’s working on.

3) Green Lantern: Larfleeze Christmas Special

The popular orange ringbearer from the Blackest Night series gets his very own holiday special this week.  As the orange ring represents avarice, it’s not a stretch to imagine why Larfleeze would want to steal Christmas.  Calamity will understandably ensue.  This special issue is brought to you by Geoff Johns and Brett Booth.  Come enjoy the final Blackest Night-related issue of 2010!

4) Fantastic Four #586

Here’s your final chance to see the Fantastic Four all together one last time before one of them dies!  Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting have been steadily building to this major alteration of the title for several months, and it’s a good bet these issues will be increasingly hard to find over the next few months.  Grab it while you can if you’re a longtime FF fan or want to get in on the ground floor of this Marvel-altering event.

5) Archie #616

Political fans should take note of this issue as President Obama and Sarah Palin both make trips to Riverdale in this week’s issue.  We all remember how the Obama appearance in Amazing Spider-man sold, so collector’s should be lining up for this one as well.

> Bonus picks of the week:  Green Lantern Corps #55, Superior #3, Ultimate Comics Doom #1, Secret Avengers #8, Jeffrey Jones HC A Life in Art, and Peter and Max TP a Fables Novel