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!

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!

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!

Well usually our Main Mansell Andy would be writing this post, but he doesn’t have access to his computer, so it falls to me to announce our next Heroes Discussion Group, going on in a little over two weeks, on November 9 at 7pm! We’ll be discussing one of the most talked-about books of the year, Darwyn Cooke’s adaptation of Parker: The Hunter. This was a gorgeous book, and much has been of it and the novel it’s adapted from, as well as the two movies made from that novel (“Point Blank” and “Payback”), so there’ll be plenty for us to talk about. I’m sure Andy will follow up with a lot of pre-discussion questions next week! Okay see you there!

On Saturday afternoon, the Heroes Discussion Group met for the lucky thirteenth time to discuss David Mazzucchelli’s new book, Asterios Polyp.

Because of the number of participants–there were over 20 in attendance!!—we held the meeting across the street at Jack’s.  We decided to sit outside.  This created a variety of obstacles: the length of the table, the oppressive August heat and the growing number of cars racing loudly up and down Seventh Avenue.

But we prevailed and the two and a half hour conversation proved to be well worth the effort. Here is a just brief list of what we covered:

The subtext of narrative: Mazzucchelli‘s use of Greco-Roman myths (Orpheus and Odysseus), literary allusions (The Secret Sharer and others) and classic comics (Krazy Kat, Dick Tracy and Sandman). We examined the role of the numbers 3 and 2 within the story.

We discussed the importance of the characters Asterios encountered and how they helped the hero on his journey.

We spent a good deal of time discussing Mazzucchelli’s artistic technique.  The book’s use of page layout, panel placement, word balloon and color choice to portray character, show emotion, illustrate change and enhance subtext.

Finally, we discussed the final scenes in the book.  There were many ways to analyze the end of our hero’s journey and to Mazzucchelli’s credit, each hypothesis was valid and especially worthwhile.

There were several topics we barely touched on: the role of Noguchi the cat, faith versus logic, the role of architecture in daily life. If you have not read the book yet, we strongly urge you to pick up a copy.  You will not be disappointed!

We want to publicly thank everyone who attended.  I felt as though we could have talked about Asterios for another few hours.

If any of you want to discuss any of these topics now, please do so.

Watch this space for upcoming announcements regarding our next Discussion group! 

Guys don’t forget this one–signs point to it being one of our most amazingest discussions yet! We expect a larger turnout that normal, so (as we did for the Watchmen discussion group) we will be meeting here at the store and then trooping across the street to one of the area restaurants. Discussionmaster General Andy Mansell will be large and in charge at the head of the table, and he has been eagerly anticipating this so I’m sure he’ll be loaded for bear!

THINGS YOU SHOULD BRING:

1) a copy of the book (if you have one). It’s a very visual book, and I bet there will be a lot of discussion of the way author David Mazzucchelli uses color in it, which means a lot of page turning.

2) some questions. I know I have some–Asterios Polyp is a book crammed–CRAMMED, I say–with layers, and I’m pretty certain I don’t understand everything. Hopefully together we can all figure this badboy out.

3) a good attitude. We welcome all comers to our discussions, and are very friendly with each other. We want–nay, DEMAND–a vigorous discussion, but we all like each other too. So remember everyone’s feelings, what say?

4) a little money (only if you’re planning on eating or drinking at the restaurant). (oh, and if you want to buy anything at the store, that’s cool too).

5) high fives. Because, why not?

Oh man this is going to be a good one. On Saturday, August 29th at 3pm, the next meeting of the Heroes Discussion Group will occur, and this time we will be rapping about one of the most talked-about graphic novels of the last several years, if not the decade: Asterios Polyp. The first long-form comic from creator David Mazzucchelli since City of Glass, Asterios Polyp is a ground-breaking graphic novel from the man who drew my favorite ever comic, Batman Year One. Not to mention his short but influential anthology Rubber Blanket, Daredevil: Born Again, etc. Dude is crazy good.

If you haven’t read this book yet, WHOA NELLIE you need to. Even if you don’t love it as much as I did, Mazzucchelli brings his A-game and creates something both playful and serious, inventive and satisfying. This will be a talked-about book for years and years: let’s start talking about it now!

NOTE: this is a grown-up book, and we will be having a grown-up discussion. To that end, we’ll meet here at the store and then troop across the street to one of our fine restauranting neighbors. All that we ask is that you bring an open mind and your brain. We’ll handle everything else (except the tab). This is going to be one to remember!

So how on earth can we possibly top the last three discussion groups?

In the past few months, we had Matt Fraction join us for a dissection of Iron Man.

Then we had an in-depth analysis of the Umbrella Academy.

Finally we had our infamous panel-by-panel discussion of Brave and the Bold #4 with Mark Waid and George Perez at HeroesCon.

Well how about this to start off the post-con season: come to the store on Monday July 27th at 6:00pm, and we will discuss Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel about growing up in Iran: Persepolis.

Topic will include:

• The author’s use of cartoon-y art for extremely serious topics
• Looking at the story as a whole or as two separate graphic novels combined
• How do readers from the West relate to Islamic society?
• How reliable is our narrator?
• and many, many more…

If you have not read the book, you are in for a treat. It is impossible to read the book without some emotional attachment; so come by and tell us about it — or just come by to listen– participation is NOT mandatory.

Ater we have spent an hour or so discussing the book and it’s influences we will turn off the lights and watch the animated film adaptation of the book right in the store!

Once we have finished watching the award-winning movie, we will retire across the street for libations and a discussion that will focus on the adaptation of the book into the film, including:

• What worked and what did not?
• We can discuss scenes that were added or removed or combined from the original graphic novel
• Could the movie have been more successful in CGI or even as a live action film?
• We can discuss the success or failure of other comic related movies

and/or

• We can have a round-table about adaptations in general:
• How do we view the films if we’ve already read the book?
• Can films be judged on their own merit without citing their source material?
• and a whole lot more…Trust us — this conversation could go on into the wee hours.

This will be a unique and exciting discussion–all we ask is that you read Persepolis prior to July 27th. A previous viewing of the film is not necessary

If you cannot make the early 6:00pm start time, please plan to arrive by 7:30 pm when we will promptly start the film!

So come one, come all, tell your friends!!

We will see you at 6:00pm on Monday July 27th and remember, you can purchase Persepolis at Heroes and receive a 10% DISCOUNT– all you need to do is mention the Discussion Group Discount when you are checking out!

The Heroes Discussion Group returns with a vengeance!!

We are sticking with the mainstream and this time we are going to tackle the immensely popular Umbrella Academy written by Gerard Way front man for the band My Chemical Romance (MCR).

Please join us on Monday May 18th at 7:00pm when we will be discussing the “The Apocalypse Suite,” the first storyline of Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s The Umbrella Academy. The book is available from Heroes in both single back issues (1-6) or as a recently released softcover collection.

PLEASE NOTE: The single issues on the rack at Heroes are 1-5 of the second series. We will be discussing the first series!!!!!!

Potential topics will include (but are NOT limited to) the following:

• Does the cartoony art properly service a super-hero story? Were Ba’s references and influences a help or hinder to the storytelling?

• Could you relate to any of the characters on a gut level?

• Does any of MCR’s music overlap into Gerard Way’s comics writing?

• Did the creators successfully capture the European feel they were striving for?

• Does the story hold up well on a second reading?

• And lots and lots of plot points I don’t want to mention here so we can avoid spoilers for those who have not yet read?

• If we have time, I’d love to discuss the covers as well. James Jean is a true talent!

So please join us for this exciting discussion!! Remember the The Apocalypse Suite is offered at 10% discount as long as you remember to mention the Heroes Discussion discount when you purchase it!

Hope to see you on May 18th It’s gonna be terrific!