Oh man, this is super exciting for me, I’m such a fan:

Sammy Harkham is one of the most influential cartoonists of his generation, maybe the most influential. That’s a crazy statement to make maybe, but heckfire, I have made it. Besides his very famous editing of the seminal Kramer’s Ergot anthology, the last iteration of which was a massive 16″ x 21″, and his more recent guest-editing of Bart Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror (itself a sort of Kramer’s reunion); my very favorite of Sammy’s work is his own Crickets. Crickets is a throwback of sorts to the great 80’s one-man anthologies like Yummy Fur, Love & Rockets (okay, 3-man in that case), etc. A recent casualty of the squeeze on indie publishers due to Diamond’s change in their minimum orders for small press books, a lot of people thought Crickets was dead. BUT #3 is due this summer, and I cannot tell  you how excited I am to tell you you can buy one from Sammy right smack in the middle of Indie Island. Sweet!

But listen, Sammy’s not the only person doing 1-man anthologies (1-manthologies?)–he’ll be joined at HeroesCon this summer by cohort and friend John Pham. John is the proprietor of Sublife, which I think will see a third issue this year as well. He’s also been in another great anthology, Mome. I think I first twigged to his work when Chris Staros hand-sold me a copy of Epoxy, which maybe he was distributing for John back in 2000 or so? Chris also sold me my first copy of Kramer’s Ergot (#3). Which I hated. Hey listen, people change, I never promised you a rose garden.

Oh! But there’s more good news! Returning to HeroesCon this year will be mighty Tom Scioli, co-creator of Godland and the creator of The Myth of Opus-8. Tom is a sweet dude and extraordinarily knowledgeable about comics. Most recently he did the art for the Freedom Force comic, as well as writing and drawing the “Space Smith” stories in Image’s The Next Issue Project.

Man, those are three quality dudes. But there’s more to come this week, so stay tuned!

Oh yes, as Phil Collins said, “Tonight, tonight tonight! Oh-ohhh!” Yes Phil, tonight will indeed be alright, as Heroes Discussion Master Andy Mansell leads another book club discussion. This time we focus on Craig Thompson’s extraordinarily successful memoir Blankets. This is a book that’s not only a critical and market success, but a big entry-point for female readers into comics, which is always great.

Andy will be kicking some knowledge tonight, March 4, at 7.00 at our store. All you need to bring is yourself, a copy of the book if you have one handy, and a good attitude. Bonus points if you bring some questions, which will save some of Andy’s breath–after all, he’s got quite a slate of discussions to do throughout the spring!

Well! a family-friendly update to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List this week, or at least friendly to the Van Sciver family. Star artist Ethan Van Sciver, he of  Green Lantern, Flash Rebirth, and Blackest Night fame, is returning to HeroesCon this year.

But this year, Ethan will be joined for the first time by his younger brother Noah Van Sciver. Noah is the creator of the Blammo series that he self-publishes, and has recently been featured in MOME and in The Comics Journal as the cartoonist interviewer. Those are my faves, those little cartoon interviews, I love them.

Noah recently did a “redo” cover of his brother’s cover to Flash: Rebirth #3 over on Robert Goodin’s Covered blog, which I thought was extra appropriate to feature here, as Robert will also be at HeroesCon. So yeah, sensible.

But wait, there’s more! Also also returning to the show this year is “Comics Reporter” Tom Spurgeon. Tom has informed me several times that he has something mysterious planned for his time at HeroesCon, as opposed to in 2008 when he moderated 1,000 panels. I’m not sure what it is, but today he referred to it as “very specific” which for some reason has made me a little worried. Expect to need to sign hold-harmless disclaimer agreements at the door to any panel Tom is involved in this year.

New to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List are some old chums and brand new bros; even though I write these announcements each week I’m still a little flabbergasted at the size/quality of this list already–we’re only halfway through February, you know what I mean?

Joining up today is first time guest Marc Bernardin, writer behind hit series like The Authority, The Highwaymen, Push, and X-Men Origins: Nightcrawler. Marc’s career has taken him all over the place, with stints writing/editing for Starlog, Entertainment Weekly, Fangoria, screenwriting, you name it. And now he adds “Charlotte, NC” to his resume. Just watch the money roll in now, Marc!

Returning for his second HeroesCon this year is Clayton Henry, who has a gorgeous slick style that I could just look at all day, I tell you what. I think his most recentish work is on Adventure Comics, but Lord knows I’ve been wrong before. He’s done a ton of stuff for Marvel too, including Incredible Hercules (above), Exiles, and more.

Nathan Massengill is certainly no stranger to Charlotte–one of our favorite guys and an inker par excellence. These days you can catch nathan on JSA, Deadpool, and Deadpool Team-Up, and he’s done a ton of stuff on Bat-books in the past, like Detective and Nightwing.

Also returning to HeroesCon this year is Chris Yambar, who’s happy to work in pretty much any genre you please. His credits include Bart Simpson Comics, Popeye, Mr. Beat, I Dream Of Jeannie… well it goes on for quite a while. I believe you can get the full list from Chris himself at HeroesCon!

With all the excitement surrounding Free Comic Book Day on May 1st and HeroesCon June 4th- June 6th, we wanted to make sure the old reliable Heroes Discussion Group didn’t fall off any of our already loaded plates

So we are doing something a little different and something that is rather exciting.

Today, we are announcing our next 5 Discussion Groups!

1) Blankets

Join us on Thursday (note the day of the week!!) March 4th as we sit down and discuss Blankets by Craig Thompson.

This is with a doubt one of the most popular and influential graphic novels of the past half decade. We know many of you have already read this wonderful story and we hope you will join us.

For anyone who has yet to tackle Thompson’s intimate story of first love, do not let the sheer size of the book intimidate you; it is a fast-moving enjoyable read with fabulous page design and clear-cut story-telling.

2) Book of Genesis by R. Crumb

One month later, we invite you to join us on Tuesday (note the day!) April 6th when we will dissect and discuss the powerful and challenging Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb. Moderator Andy Mansell is studying up on some Biblical History and we are certain this will be our most exciting and most talked about discussion group to date.

3) Astro City: Confession

Then on Thursday (note the day) May 13th– in order to wet your whistles for HeroesCon, we return to the super-hero genre to discuss Astro City: Confession by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson. Readers who visit Astro City never leave that wonderful town. We envy those of you who have never read any of these books; you are in for a big treat! These are super-hero comics created by artists who love superheroes. This will be big time fun.

4) Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

Then we have an exciting surprise for you. We will be having a special meeting of the Discussion Group disguised as a Panel at HeroesCon. By popular demand, we will analyze and discuss the Anthology: Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall. And seeing as how it’s taking place in the middle of HeroesCon, don’t be surprised if a special guest or two shows up to join in the discussion!

5) The Complete Pluto Series

Lastly– and certainly not leastly–we have a special surprise for all manga fans. On Tuesday, (again, note the day) June 29th, we will get past our post-convention exhaustion by hunkering down to discuss the landmark Japanese series Pluto by Naoki Urasawa. No, not just the first volume; but rather we intend to discuss the 8 volume series in its entirety! More details as we get closer!

So here is a quick re-cap:

Thursday March 4 – Blankets

Tuesday April 6 – Genesis

Thursday May 13 – Astro City: The Confession

Heroes Con – Fables 1001 Nights

Tuesday June 29 – The Complete 8 Volume Pluto

All of these books are available from Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find for a Special 10% discount. But remember–in order to take advantage of the special price, you need to mention the Heroes Discussion Group Discount when you check out.

We look forward to seeing you! Watch this space for more details and reminders as each event gets nearer. In the meantime, pick up Blankets and Genesis; you’ll be glad you did!

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!!

Unless the whole world is wiped away in the Continuing Great Blizzard of 2010, we will be hosting Afrodisiac co-creator and artist Jim Rugg this Sunday! NOTE that we’ve moved the time up an hour from the 3-6pm listed in the image above. To give you guys more time to get home and safely ensconced in your many sofas and Barca-loungers for the Super Bowl, we’ve changed the time to 2-5pm.

WHICH MEANS that you can come join in the event, which will not only be a signing, but a discussion of the book, which is drawing praise from every direction. Publisher Chris Pitzer will be in attendance as well, and the two will answer questions about the book, its design, sandwiches, whatever you want to ask! The discussion will be led by our own Heroes Discussion Group leader Andy Mansell, so it’s sure to be a lively one!

Hope to see you on Sunday–come support us before you throw corn chips at the TV that night!

Dudes! Brand new to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List this week is none other than Mr Mark Bagley. It’s hard to imagine a more prolific creator working today than Mark, who followed up his 100 issue run on Ultimate Spider-Man with 52 issues of Trinity, then Batman, and now JLA–fortunately Mark was engineered by NASA scientists to not need sleep or food. Once a day he just gurgles down a bottle of 10-W-30 and a couple of D batteries and he’s good to go! We’re excited to have him back and have already stocked up on oil and Duracells!

Mark is joined in this here update by the FCHS team of Vito Delsante and Rachel Freire–the book’s preview was a big hit at last year’s HeroesCon, and Rachel’s amazing art was a surprise hit at the Art Auction. But after getting kicked in the stomach by Diamond’s order minimums last year, the book was cancelled. Never fear, Vito and Rachel are self-publishing it themselves, so you should be able to check out FCHS this June at HeroesCon!

Last up this week are two Missourans who are always big hits at cons for their sketches, which means they’ll be doubly–or even triply–welcome at HeroesCon, where doing sweet con sketches is like printing money. Oh wait I got so excited I almost forgot to mention their names–Brian Hurtt is the artist and co-creator of The Damned, and did the art on the upcoming Cowboys from the Vertigo Crime imprint, not to mention The Sixth Gun, coming this spring from Oni. And his buddy Chris Samnee is all over the place lately, on Siege: Embedded most recently, not to mention X-Men Vs Agents of Atlas and DC’s The Mighty.

More updates in store this week–stay tuned all y’alls!

Next Sunday, while Shelton’s selling comics at Wes Tillander’s Atlanta Comic Con, and before you sit down to the Super Bowl (or something else, depending on your interests), we hope you’ll sit down with us for a store signing/discussion group hybrid that should be pretty righteous.

Afrodisiac co-creator and artist Jim Rugg will all up in our store to sign and discuss the book, which is getting some pretty high-falutin’ reviews lately from up and down the comics press! Jim is a great guy too, and a stellar cartoonist, and a super-knowledgeable dude, so any discussion with him in it is sure to be a fascinating one. Our own Discussion Group leader Andy Mansell will be on hand to grill Jim, which I am double-definitely looking forward to.

NOTE that, due to the Super Bowl at 6 or 6.30 or whenever that thing cranks up, we’ve moved the signing up by an hour so that people can get home afterwards to see the game. Earlier announcements had it at 3-6pm.

Oh, that reminds me–the discussion itself (and the book) are not for kids, so please be advised! There are so many quadruple entendres in that thing, I don’t think you could discuss a single page of it in a “SFW” way, you know what I mean?

I’ll link up the trailer video below again, just because I love watching it. Note the “December 2009″ release date–bogus! Okay, hope to see you guys there next Sunday!

Courtesy of our buddy Matt Knapik, check out these sweet photos from Saturday’s Charlotte Minicon! I happen to have been one of the guests (super exciting!) so I can tell you from both sides of the table that it was a lot of fun!

One really cool thing was what I saw as an increased number of families attending together, both dads and daughters, and even Moms, the rarest demographic at a comics show. I love it, super fun. The highlight of the show for me was having one kid and his dad hang out in front of my table for a while, having me sketch all sorts of weird stuff (a Jedi, a stump being chased by a warrior, etc.). I had a good time talking to those guys, it made me wistful for my days as a Pokemon Leader or Jedi Master or whatever you call someone who runs a Pokemon League.

Also cool was sitting next to Rich Barrett, who is worth checking out if you guys haven’t already. He’s one of our customers who has recently taken the plunge into webcomics, and even more recently beginning to publish those comics as mini’s–I do believe you can find copies of his Nathan Sorry minis in the store! Rich was too cagey to get photographed though, he’s like Bigfoot that way.

Plus of course the tons of other talent in the room. Francesco Francavilla was in the hizzy with his lovely wife Lisavilla Francavilla (actually just Lisa), plus our bros Budd Root and Andy Smith, plus our other bros Chris Brunner and Jason Latour, plus our South Carolina bros J. Chris Campbell and Duane Ballenger. Plus our other SC bros from the Dollar Bin who were in full effect all day. Plus a ton of you guys! Thanks to everyone who came out and made the Charlotte Minicon a success! Don’t forget to check out the full photo report here!

This Saturday, January 23: the Charlotte Minicon! The precursor to HeroesCon, Shelton started the Charlotte Minicon way back in 1977, five years before he established HeroesCon!

We’re kicking the new year off right with the Minicon this year, with a guest list that includes rising star artist Francesco Francavilla (Scalped, Zorro, Black Beetle), as well as Rich Barrett (Nathan Sorry), Al Bigley (Sonic the Hedgehog), Chris Brunner (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Loose Ends), J. Chris Campbell (Zig Zag), Dustin Harbin (DHARBIN!), Jason Latour (Loose Ends, Expatriate),Budd Root (Cavewoman), and Andy Smith (Dean Koontz’ Frankenstein, 52)!

This year’s Charlotte Minicon will be held Saturday, January 23, 2010, from 11am to 5pm, at the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall. It’s just up the street from our store, maybe a half-mile east or so on 7th Street. Shelton always puts a bunch of signs up on 7th street in both directions, so it should be pretty easy to find! And for those of you with fancy GPS systems (or computers) the physical address is 2601 E. 7th St. Admission is just $3–besides the special guests, there’ll be dealers from all over the Southeast, with tons of old comics, new comics, Silver & Golden Age, weird old books, you name it! See you Saturday!