Author Archive

NOW DISCUSS :: The Greatest Convention Of All Time, Ever.

July 26, 2007 By: Dustin Harbin Category: DISCUSS, HeroesCon

Here’s something I’d like to hear from Heroes-dom assembled on: I can say with some authority that next year’s HeroesCon is going to be the biggest one ever. We’re already at full-steam, guest list wise, and it’s still just July. There’s plenty more to come, and you can expect some sweet announcements over the next couple of months. Programming will be through the roof, Indie Island will be bigger than ever, and all signs point to standing room only all weekend.

So, since we have all this time to really concentrate on making a great, world class event next year, what you you do? How would you improve the convention? Guests you’d like to see, panels you’d want to attend, whatever–believe me, we listen very carefully to this kind of thing. After all, all our magical famousness comes from being such a convention-of-the-people, so lets hear those opinions! Negative opinions are okay too, but let’s just keep it nice and clean for everyone’s benefit, okay?

Now discuss!

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COMICS INDUSTRY :: Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, and Dan Clowes on The Simpsons!

July 23, 2007 By: Dustin Harbin Category: Comics Industry, Heroes Aren't Hard To Find

Holy star-studding, Batman! Ken Tucker at Entertainment Weekly writes here about the October 7th episode of The Simpsons, which will take place at a giant comic book convention and feature the voices of Jack Black, Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, and Dan Clowes. I read about it on the excellent Fantagraphics blog, aptly named FLOG!

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IN THE NEWS :: Happy 75th Birthday To Dick Giordano!

July 20, 2007 By: Dustin Harbin Category: Comics Industry, Heroes Aren't Hard To Find

Former DC Editor-In-Chief, inspiration to a generation of artists and inkers, repeat HeroesCon guest, and all around living legend Dick Giordano turns 75 today! Happy Birthday, Dick! Thanks to The Comics Reporter for the news.
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REVIEW :: Casper The Friendly Ghost

July 19, 2007 By: Dustin Harbin Category: Reviews

$19.95 479 pages
edited by Leslie Cabarga


Everybody knows that part of the allure of the comics form is its power to evoke nostalgia. Obviously this is not necessary for a good comic–for instance, Maus or Acme Novelty Library don’t inspire any nostalgia in me–but it often carries what might otherwise be considered pure fluff on its back. So it goes with the new Casper collection that shipped this week: Harvey Comics Classics Volume One: Casper the Friendly Ghost.

During the Golden and early Silver ages of comics (roughly the 1940’s and 50’s), comics were an incredible hodge-podge of superheroes, funny animals, licensed characters like Bob Hope and The Honeymooners, horror books, etc. Remember that by the end of the 40’s, the very idea of a comics industry wasn’t even 15 years old yet! People saw comics selling and would try practically any idea to get something on the newstands and into kids’ hands. Enter Casper the Friendly Ghost, a one-off animated short that almost immediately was turned into a comic book, and eventually became the flagship title of the future Harvey Comics, who also brought us characters like Richie Rich and Hot Stuff.
What started as a throwaway idea about a ghost who’s lonely because everyone’s too scared of him to be friends (surprisingly lonely in the very early adventures), turns into a morality tale by the end of the 50’s. I grew up on Casper comics, and never found it odd that this undead kid had such a handle on right and wrong, even despite the jeers and mockery of his ghostly peers. And this is not even to say that it’s so well-written that somehow you don’t notice–it’s more just that Casper is a very, very simple comic. This was not one of those books that broke wild new ground, or expanded the language, or whatever. It’s just a funny book about a ghost and a bunch of animals that he’s forever getting out of pretty low-key trouble.
BUT! There’s something about Casper, I tell you. Maybe it’s the incredible art, which by the 60’s had turned into a strange hybrid of the studio-style animation of the forties, standard funny animal “round-head” art, and incredible technical draftsmanship. Or maybe it’s the simplicity of the stories–I can say with some surety that much of my adult moral code (such as it is) I can see forming in these old stories. Casper always does the right thing; the worst he ever seems to do is using his ghostliness to scare some hunters away from say, a baby deer or something. And while that’s pretty laughable when you set it against some of the imagery used in Alan Moore’s Watchmen, or the extreme violence of something like Civil War, I think it’s okay to be laughable sometimes. And these are–besides the incredible brush and linework, there’s not much to these stories. But then again, Casper isn’t for college professors to deconstruct; it’s for young kids to cut their comics-reading teeth on.
If you’re a young kid, or are looking for something good for a young kid, I highly recommend this book–and at twenty bucks for nearly 500 pages of high-quality reprints, including 2 color sections, it’s pretty affordable. And if you’re just some guy who still has a stack of beat-up, often coverless Casper’s somewhere in your closet, you’ll love sitting down some Sunday afternoon and time-travelling back to when you were young enough to feel bad for a poor little friendly ghost.
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Events :: Charlotte Comicon.

July 11, 2007 By: Dustin Harbin Category: Comics Industry, Other Events

Coming up this weekend here in Charlotte is the Charlotte Comicon, organized by our buddies Dave Hinson and Rick Fortenberry. It’s a one-day show being held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, located at 201 S. McDowell St., this Sunday, July 15, 2007 from 10am – 4pm. You can find a guest list and more info at their website. SPECIAL OFFER! We’ve just been informed by the show promoters that you can print this post out, bring it in to the show, and they’ll give you $1 off admission! Now that’s nice–thanks, guys!

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Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer Join Indie Island!

July 11, 2007 By: Dustin Harbin Category: Guest List, HeroesCon, HeroesCon News, Indie Island

The problem with the whole “Indie Island” thing is that the bigger it gets, the less like a desert island it seems. Especially when it’s at the center of an 80,000 square foot convention hall. Whose idea was this anyway? But that’s not what we’re here to talk about: just added to the Guest List are indie comics royalty Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer. Evan is the creator of Milk & Cheese, Dork!, and Hectic Planet among others; Sarah is the writer and artist behind Action Girl. Together they’ve written for shows including Space Ghost: Coast To Coast, Superman Adventures, and probably a bunch more I don’t even know about. Does that make me ignorant? Well sure it does!
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IN THE NEWS :: Doug Marlette Dies At 57.

July 10, 2007 By: Dustin Harbin Category: Comics Industry, Heroes Aren't Hard To Find

We are saddened to report that Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Doug Marlette was killed this morning in single car accident, as reported on The Charlotte Observer’s website. Besides being one of the most recognizable names in editorial cartooning for decades, with work for The Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Newsday and more, Marlette was the creator of the long running Kudzu newspaper strip, as well as author of two novels. He was a guest of ours at HeroesCon ’96, along with strip artists Marcus Hamilton, Jim Scancarelli, and the late Fred Lasswell. We first learned of the accident through Tom Spurgeon’s Comics Reporter blog.

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Guy Davis, Alex Robinson, & More Join Indie Island!

July 10, 2007 By: Dustin Harbin Category: Guest List, HeroesCon, HeroesCon News, Indie Island

While I would certainly never say that we like any one guest over another, still I’m giddy with excitement over the news that Guy Davis, the monstrously creative artist behind books like B.P.R.D., Sandman Mystery Theatre, The Marquis, and a jillion more, has confirmed as a guest for HeroesCon 2008! Making his first appearance at HeroesCon, Guy will add some class to the regular group of ruffians in Indie Island. You sketchhounds get your books ready–I’ve seen some of his sketches, and they are awesome! Also making his first official appearance at the convention is up-and-comer Chris Schweizer, whose work you may have seen in any of his many mini-comics, or in Negative Burn, or in The Crogan Adventure Series!

Oh, but that’s not all–making his second appearance at HeroesCon next year will be Box Office Poison and Tricked creator Alex Robinson–and word is he’ll have something brand new out by then! And last but not least, Tsunami Studios’ Garry McKee will be joining his studiomates on our guest list! You can view the entire guest list here!

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Welcome To The Heroesonline Blog!

July 09, 2007 By: Dustin Harbin Category: Heroes Aren't Hard To Find, HeroesCon

Well, hello there! This is the very first post on our brand new blog. Over the coming weeks this space will become the portal for all news and other content relating to not only Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find (our sweet comics store located in Charlotte, NC, USA), but also to Heroes Convention, the yearly 3-day show we organize and promote. We’re undergoing a number of changes over the next several weeks, as we redesign ourselves for maximum sleekness in preparation for HeroesCon 2008, which promises to be our biggest show ever!

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