Tons more people to announce today! This update represents pretty much as many people as we can shoehorn into the convention center. If ever there was a HeroesCon to go to, this is the one! It’s EPIC! Check out these new names–and please forgive the short listings, but I need to make 3 or 4 more announcements today before I can send out the Heroes Hotline! You can see the entire current guest list here, as well as all the artists seating locations!

DAVE DORMAN is one of the most prolific painters in comics, working often on Lucasfilm-related properties like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. We always love having him!

BRIAN CLEVINGER is the writer of the hit Atomic Robo, as well as The Avengers & The Infinity Gauntlet.

IRWIN HASEN is one of our favorite people in the world, he’s just an amazing guy and dresses like a million bucks. Now in his early 90’s, Irwin (Dondi, All Star Comics) is still a snappy dude–be sure you don’t miss the “Irwin Hasen: A Life” panel/screening, now up on our Event Schedule!

P. CLELAND is setting up at his very first HeroesCon as a guest. The Asheville native is the creator of the Real Cane Sugar webcomic.

CLAY & SUSAN GRIFFITH are regulars at HeroesCon, and boy have they been busy lately, collaborating on Politial Power: Nelson Mandela, Allan Quartermain And The Lord of the Locusts, and more!

RIKI LECOTEY is no stranger to HeroesCon–she’s one of the pair of cosplayers who often assist with the annual Art Auction–Riki and costumer Chris Donio make their own costumes and they are RIDICULOUS. Plus they bring like 40 of them or something. Nuts!

MATT WIEGLE is one third of the Partyka collective of artists, and is known throughout indie comics for his ridiculously nice mini-comics. He’s done some maxi comics too, including work in Papercutter, Elfworld, and No Fear Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet!

GREG MEANS is the publisher behind Tugboat Press and its popular Papercutter anthology, one of the most critically acclaimed anthologies being done today, with one exception.

Okay! More announcements coming!

I’m about to sprain your EXCITEMENT MUSCLE!!!

SOMEBODY GET ME MORE EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!

Bernie Wrightson, you guys, Bernie Wrightson. Late breaking addition to one of the most ridiculous (and hugest) HeroesCon Guest Lists of all time. Extraordinarily influential artist, inspiration to entire generationS (note the S!) of artists! Master of creating mood and atmosphere, part of a tradition of a tradition in comics stretching back to Frank Frazetta himself! Creepy, Eerie, House of Secrets, and the recent Dead She Said with fellow guest Steve Niles! Whoa nellie, guys, whoa nellie.

But what about this guy?

Whaaatt?? Jim Starlin?? Death of Captain Marvel? Death of the New Gods? Cosmic Odyssey? Sure bring him on WHY NOT?? Holy cow HeroesCon is NUTS this year.

But wait look at all these new guys, as if Bernie and Jim weren’t enough:

Mark Chiarello and Ian Sattler of DC Comics–Mark is DC’s Art Director, and editor on high profile works like Wednesday Comics and Solo, not to mention a painter, illustrator, and occasional comics cover artist. And DC Editor Ian Sattler, who last year decimated on of the Dollar Bin‘s microphones in an ill-advised bit of stage showmanship!

Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Universe creators Tracy Yardley, Paul Kaminski, and Jon Gray! Tracy’s been with us before, but I do believe that Paul and Jon are first-timers!

And, from our guest Brian Pulido comes this exclusive HeroesCon cover–or coversss??–to Lady Death: The Rapture #1. Brian will have those only at HeroesCon at his table in Artists Alley (tables 54 and 55!)!

Okay guys tons more to come–I’ll be working late tonight getting the schedule up on the site. Will it be up when you wake up tomorrow? Can I keep from falling asleep at my desk? Only time will tell!

Behold, milords and ladies, the 2010 HeroesCon Advance Ticket Incentive, free to everyone who purchases an advance 3-day pass before 9pm on May 31st! This exclusive piece by Mike Mignola will be signed and numbered in a limited edition on fancy-dan print paper that is going to make your walls look ghoulishly amazing.

Here’s the catch: there is no catch! Just buy a 3-day pass before the cutoff, and this beauty will be waiting for you at the convention center when you check-in at the show! The last few year’s prints (by Bill Sienkiewicz in 2009 and Phil Noto in 2008) were pretty big runs, so there’s a fair chance your prints won’t be ready for you RIGHT when you show up. Mike has to sign all of them, after all.

Best of all, we give these out in the order the tickets are purchased, so the earlier you bought your pass, the lower your number will be! If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, head over to the Tickets page of our site to get the skinny on how to do it!

Boom! Studios is coming to HeroesCon this year LOADED FOR BEAR! They’re camping out in a massive fortress-like block of booths, and will have FIVE different HeroesCon exclusive covers available! Whattt??? I’ll pepper this post with those images, but the get-a-sketch covers (the white ones) will get you a sketch (see how that works) from artists Allen Gladfelter (Cars), Amy Mebberson (Muppet Show Comic Book), or Travis Hill (Toy Story)!

And just look at all the PEOPLE they’re bringing! Probably most familiar to HeroesCon goers will be Mark Waid, enormously popular writer and editor of everything from Kingdom Come to Spider-Man to Flash to Captain America and a million more! These days he’s Editor-In-Chief at Boom!, and writes the hit books Incorruptible and the newly Eisner-nominated Irredeemable!

While Mark is a regular at HeroesCon and one of our favorite regulars at that, this year is extra special because it’s the first time Mark and his Irredeemable collaborator Peter Krause will be doing a con appearance together! Super awesome. Besides his current work on Irredeemable, Peter has also worked all over comics on books including Flash, Power of Shazam, and Superman!

Boom! is super organized–they were nice enough to send complete (and exciting!) bios for all the pros they’re bringing as well–check out this roll-call of talent!

THE MUPPET SHOW COMIC BOOK/MUPPET PETER PAN’s Amy Mebberson
Amy Mebberson’s biggest tours of artistic duty are 5 years with Walt Disney Animation Australia, followed by two graphic novels for TOKYOPOP. Her work with BOOM! Studios includes MONSTERS INC., MUPPET PETER PAN and countless covers for other Disney/Pixar and Muppet titles. Born in Sydney, Amy Mebberson is currently living and working in Oregon.

TOY STORY’s Travis Hill
Travis Hill soaks up the sun in Orlando, Florida.  His artistic debut with BOOM! Studios began in the pages of Disney/Pixar’s Cars.  With a tool-belt of experience in interactive and edutainment, publishing, licensing, performance, writing, illustration/design, and comics… he is currently a Producer in the video game industry and the father of a fledgling movie-geek.

CARS’ Allen Gladfelter
Allen Gladfelter lives and draws comics in Boise, Idaho.  It’s a comfortable place tucked on the opposite expanse of the vast high desert from the locale of Radiator Springs.  The people are kind and energetic, Boise life is smooth and comfortable, my family is supportive and my friends are close at hand.  What better way to pass the days than to amuse children with fun drawings of cartoon cars? Life is good.

28 DAYS LATER’s Michael Alan Nelson
Michael Alan Nelson is known for his work on such BOOM! Studios titles as 28 DAYS LATER and FALL OF CTHULHU, as well as creating supernatural thrillers HEXED and DINGO.  In 2004, Nelson won the NEW TIMES 55 Fiction Contest for his short story “The Conspirators” and was tagged as a talent to watch by horror tastemaker RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE. Nelson lives and writes in Los Angeles.

28 DAYS LATER’s Declan Shalvey
Declan Shalvey received much acclaim in the UK comics scene after winning an Eagle Award for his first published work HERO KILLERS in 2007. The Irish artist has since illustrated chapters of the series FREAK SHOW and a graphic novel adaptation of Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN for UK publisher Classical Comics. His work with BOOM! Studios on 28 DAYS LATER marks his American comics debut.

MR. STUFFINS’ Johanna Stokes
Johanna Stokes is a screenwriter and comic book writer who has worked on such projects as the EUREKA television series. Her work for BOOM! Studios is extensive, ranging from zombie comedy with DEATH VALLEY to historical drama with GALVESTON to who-done-it murder mystery with STATION. Stokes currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

FARSCAPE’s Keith DeCandido
Keith R.A. DeCandido has authored Farscape novel HOUSE OF CARDS, as well as short stories that appeared in FARSCAPE: THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE and the FARSCAPE role-playing game. For BOOM! Studios, Keith has helped in writing all of the FARSCAPE books, including the UNCHARTED TALES series featuring the adventures of Ka D’Argo.

FARSCAPE’s Will Sliney
Will Sliney initially worked as a 3D and storyboard artist, and from there he was able to begin his comic book career illustrating several Irish and British graphic novels. Soon after, he moved to Canada to break into the American market. His work with BOOM! Studios includes FARSCAPE: STRANGE DETRACTORS and the FARSCAPE ongoing series.

Man alive!

Are you ready for this? I’m super excited about this and I hope you’re about to be too:

Kate Beaton of the insanely popular Hark! A Vagrant webcomic did our Indie Island shirt this year, and it’s a doozy! These will be on sale at the convention itself, in both American Apparel and Gildan styles, men’s and ladies sizes! How about that! That aqua in the background is the shirt color itself, and let me tell you: you are going to look so good in it! All the pirates on your street are gonna be like NUH-UH!! They’re being printed by our friends at Contagious Graphics, who are pretty much the best screenprinters ever–if you are looking for quality screenprinting, it would be hard to over-recommend them.

IF we have any shirts left after the convention, we’ll sell them to you by mail order, but I have to say I really expect this thing to sell insanely well, so you’re best bet is to either come to HeroesCon and buy one, or send your cabin boy in your stead.

But what? You don’t wear t-shirts? You have too much CLASS for a t-shirt?? Well how about a fancy-dan, high quality, suitable for framing, signed and numbered limited edition PRINT of said image? Ahoy webmaster, load that image:

Looks fancy to me! Printed on heavy cardstock, this little gem will be signed by Kate herself and on sale at the show for $10 a pop. Or you can get one afterwards by “mail.” If you’re currently berthed on a pirate raider, or are a pirate ghost chained to the mast of the Queen Anne’s Revenge… well, you made your pirate bed. Now pillage in it.

Lots of new names today for the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List, let’s jump right in!

First of all, Joe Jusko, as pictured above on his magical wheel-less skateboard, is silver-sailing his way back to HeroesCon this year. Joe’s super duper famous as a cover and pinup painter, notably on books like Silver Surfer, Punisher, Savage Sword of Conan, and 1,000,000 trading cards. You can also see his famous She-Hulk pinup LIVE AND IN PERSON for the rest of the month, as part of the SUPER! The Fine Art Of Comics show still up at 22 here in Charlotte. It’s pretty impressive stuff.

Roy Thomas is no stranger to fans of HeroesCon: the former Marvel Editor-In-Chief, Alter Ego Editor-In-Chief, and writer of comics including Conan, Amazing Spider-Man, and more recently the Marvel Illustrated series of classic adapations will be appearing Saturday only this year!

J.D Arnold is the writer of the new BB Wolf And The Three LP’s from Top Shelf, and a first-time comics writer and HeroesCon guest!

Rich Barrett has been a guest at our Charlotte Minicon, but this will be his very first HeroesCon as a full-on guest. We’ll see how he handles THREE DAYS of promoting his awesome webcomic Nathan Sorry.

Pat Broderick has worked in comics for decades, on titles like Micronauts, Alpha Flight, Firestorm, Captain Atom, Batman, and a ton more! I think this is his first trip back to HeroesCon since 2005 or 2006, so it’s super good to see him again!

Dana Hayward is digital content manager for HarperCollins Children’s Books. And as an independent designer and letterer she’s worked on some of the hottest manga and graphic novels around, including Tsubasa, xxxHolic, Bakugan: Battle Brawlers, the Evo Tournament, and the Terry Brooks Shannara graphic novel, Dark Wraith of Shannara. She’s also one of the people that make the show possible with her tireless help and advice!

Steve Saffel is the U.S. editor for Titan Books, the London-based popular culture publisher. His book The Best of Simon and Kirby is up for an Eisner Award, and he has four big books coming this summer: Jim Lee: Icons, The Art of Drew Struzan, Beetle Bailey 1965, and The Simon and Kirby Superheroes. As a fiction editor, he works on science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other genre novels, and in his spare time he wrote Spider-Man: The Icon. Steve is also an insanely helpful guy at the convention–it’s hard to imagine what we’d do without him and Dana (his wife) (sorry dudes).

Chris Pitzer is an old friend of ours, and a big help around con time believe me. He’s also a hot-snot publisher lately, with works like Afrodisiac (by fellow guest Jim Rugg), The Ancient Book of Sex And Science (by fellow guest Scott Morse), Process Recess and Pulphope (by James Jean and Paul Pope respectively), and his own series of critically acclaimed anthologies, Project: Superior, Romance, etc.! Whew!

Art Director at one of the hottest SFX houses in Hollywood, Blur Studios, Chuck Wojtkiewicz got his start in North Carolina at Artamus Studios where he drew Justice League for DC and then Imperial Guard for Marvel. Great to have him back!

CGC might be the most-asked about exhibitor at HeroesCon every year–people are interested! Well these many interested parties will be super excited to know that CGC will be back at HeroesCon this year! The Comics Guaranty Company is pretty much the standard for high-order grading and preserving of comics, in a sense “locking” the condition so that if you ever need to sell a book or get an insurance quote or whatnot, a respected grader has taken care of it for you. For a fee of course, but hey–this is America.

I need to check with Shelton to see if they’ll be doing “live” grading, but I bet they’ll be accepting books at their booth, which they will ship back to you after the grading process. From what I hear, it’s a HUGELY labor-intensive process, and thus an expensive one to take on the road to cons. I’ll stick an update in here when I find out for sure!

–UPDATE–Textmaster Shelton Drum just sent me this note:

“CGC won’t be doing on-site grading, but will be taking submissions, especially signature series stuff, certifying autographs by all of our attending pros on their comics (for a fee). For instance, the Steve Niles’ signature on the HeroesCon exclusive Mystery Society #1 variants! How about those sketch-cover BOOM! Studios HeroesCon 2010 variants? Deadpool Corps #1 with a special Liefeld mini-print? You betcha! Plus all your old stuff and mint new stuff too!”

Man, sounds like Shelton’s referring to a bunch of stuff we still need to announce, eh? I smell some more (sigh) blogging! Okay stay tuned, sports fans. Also coming pretty soon will be a complete list of the other exhibitors appearing at HeroesCon (huge list, huge list) and their locations. Plus the last of the Small Press locations! Stay tuned!

The above image is a pinup Todd Nauck did (!!!) especially for our HeroesCon 2010 Art Auction! Pretty insane. The auction itself will get cranked up as usual after the show on Saturday, June 5. We’ll say more before then, but we just had to share this image with youse guys.

But we also wanted to let you know that (most) of the Small Press locations are now up. Note the following things:

1) All of these locations are subject to change without notice! Give us a couple of days to kick the tires, correct any errors, etc., before you start printing up stuff with your table number on it. Especially tables numbered along the back wall–I will likely fiddle with those table numbers as I get everything just so.

2) We’re expanding Artists Alley over last year’s diagram, so you’ll note that there are tables referred to (the 100 and 800 aisles, especially) that don’t exist on the current diagram. Don’t get yourself into an existential crisis! I’ll have a new diagram up, maybe tomorrow if the stars align (they never do).

3) Any locations that still list as “XX-XX” have not been assigned yet. We see them! We haven’t forgotten you–how could we ever forget you?

Okay it’s super late, it’s OH MY GOD IT’S AFTER 2.30 IN THE MORNING so more tomorrow but for now zzzzzzzzz

Newly added to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List today! Forgive the speedy announcements, as I’ve got updates scheduled for pretty much every day this week in the middle of 40,000 other things–please read EXCITEMENT into everything I write this week! Numerous names to add, Small Press locations will be going up, Schedule stuff, and more! Oh but let’s do these guys first, what say?

NAT JONES is probably most closely associated with the recent resurgence of publication of some of the late great Frank Frazetta‘s characters, including Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer (image above). He’s also worked on Spawn, Rob Zombie’s The Nail, and a ton of others, and is a regular and an awesome one at that. Welcome back, Nat!

JOE LINSNER is the head of a wild, screaming legion of fans, not only for his popular creation Dawn, but for his more recent creation Dark Ivory. He’s also worked on numerous other titles including Killraven, Mystique, and Claws.

SCOTT BEADERSTADT is probably best-known for his work on Troll Lords, which he wrote, illustrated, and co-created. He’s relaunching the series with a 3-issue miniseries coming soon. He’ s also worked on Archie: Superteens and The Mummy.

TOMMY CASTILLO has had popular runs on Detective Comics and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, as well as more recently on Grimm Fairy Tales and Se7en: Gluttony from Zenescope.

DERRICK FISH is a member of Headhunta Studios and the creator of The Wallkeeper and Dandy & Company, and is a regular pinup contributor to books like Atomic Robo and PvP.

KOI TURNBULL first attended HeroesCon as a fan at the age of 13, so it’s always a pleasure to welcome him back as a guest. Since that 13-year-old visit he’s worked on Superman Confidential, Wolverine: Killing Made Simple, Fathom, New Warriors, and many more!

Okay! More to come tomorrow you guys. Busy busy!

Two updates to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List in one day means we’re getting super close to HeroesCon. Don’t remind me, there’s still so much for us to do!

First up, courtesy of our friends at the Hero Initiative, comes first-time HeroesCon guest Jim Cheung! With one of the slickest, most polished styles in comics, Jim is sure to be mobbed in Artists Alley. His newest book is Avengers: Children’s Crusade, plus recent work including Secret Warriors covers, the 2009 Avengers Free Comic Book Day book, and more–not to mention his older stuff like Iron Man, Uncanny X-Men, Illuminati and Young Avengers, the book that really put him “on the map,” so to speak!

Also new to the list today is Otis Frampton, appearing for the first time as a guest of the show, though he’s attended several times before. He’s the creator of Oddly Normal for Viper Comics!

Jeremy Haun returns to HeroesCon once more, which no one is happier about that us–dude is stone-cold sweetsville. His credits include Detective Comics, Arhkam Reborn, Berserker, and Battle Hymn!

Georges Jeanty is also no stranger to HeroesCon–the longtime penciller of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer comic series has also drawn The American Way, Green Lantern, Superboy, Superman, and tons more!

Last up alphabetically in this update is first-timer Mike Leib, who’s been writing comics for the last five years including Tag: Cursed, Jeremiah Harm, Zombie Tales, Marvel’s Romance Redux series and many more! Please help us welcome him to his first HeroesCon!