Another Free Comic Book Day has come and gone. While we are compiling our FCBD Photo Report, we’d like to thank everyone that came out on Saturday.  You guys make this event a pleasure. Whether you came to pick up some free comics, dig through our incredible 25₵ and $1 comic boxes, get a great sketch from your favorite creator, or just shop in our store, it was a delight to serve you all. Thanks also to all the great creators who donated their time; we love having you guys here and we will see you again in less than a month at HeroesCon! Which brings us to the massive guest list update that the title of today’s blog post suggests!

We are very happy to announce that Neal Adams will be attending HeroesCon 2011! Neal is a living legend known for bringing a realism to superhero comics that didn’t exist before his arrival. Illustrating classic comics like Green Lantern #76 (pictured), Strange Adventures (creating the definitive look for Deadman), and many more, Neal went on to be DC’s primary cover artist during the 70′s. He later went on to found Continuity Comics and most recently he is writing and illustrating Batman: Odyssey at DC Comics.

Scott Hampton’s gorgeous work was recently seen in the pages of Hellboy: The Sleeping and the Dead. Try to catch Scott painting on our art stage for the Annual Art Auction.  He always creates something spectacular!

Painter Erik Jones has quickly made a name for himself in comics with his gorgeous covers for books like Hack/Slash, Witchblade, and Unkown and is currently doing covers for the new Elric series.

Heidi MacDonald is the brains behind the fantastic comics news site The Beat. Always insightful and informative, she has guided the site through it’s many incarnations while remaining a great resource to the comics industry and it’s fans.

David Mack is an Eisner-nominated and New York Times bestselling painter, writer, and cartoonist behind Kabuki, The Shy Creatures, numerous Daredevil arcs, and much more.

Writer Ben McCool has been doing tons of work lately, namely Memoir, Captain America: The Korvac Saga, and Choker.

Chris Moreno’s work has appeared in Zombie Bomb 4: Dark Daze, Disney’s Toy Story for BOOM! Studios, The Minions of Ka from Arcana, and Paul Jenkins’ Sidekick from Image Comics.  His creator-owned character, Sanz Pantz: Ninja Platypus appears in the Popgun anthologies from Image.  His other comics credits include Alien Inventor, World War Hulk: Frontline, Dracula vs. King Arthur, Monkey in a Wagon vs. Lemur on a Big Wheel, The Last Sin of Mark Grimm, the webcomic Super Frat, and Zenescope’s Grimm Fairy Tales.

Jeff Parker is no stranger to regular HeroesCon attendees or anyone that’s read a Marvel comic in the last few years for that matter! Since the success of his creator-owned The Interman, Jeff has gone on to write Hulk, Thunderbolts, Agents of Atlas and many other titles. One of my personal favorites is Mysterius the Unfathomable, with artist Tom Fowler.

We’re excited to welcome Tim Sale back to HeroesCon this summer. Besides extraordinarily popular books like Batman: The Long Halloween and Spider-Man: Blue, Tim also did the paintings (with Dave Stewart) for the Isaac character on the television series Heroes.

Also added today:

Jason “Spyda” Adams- sculptor

Josh Adams- creator of In the Garden of Steven: the tale of Adam, Eve & Steve, artist on House of Mystery #13.

Scott Hanna - inker of titles such as Detective Comics, Amazing Spider-Man, Nova and many other Marvel and DC comics.

Norman Lee - inker of titles such as X-Men, Namor, New Mutants, DCU Online Legends and many more.

Mike Lilly – artist on books like Black Terror, Annihilation Conquest: Quasar, Vampirella, Punisher, and Batman.

David Malki! is the author of the celebrated comic strip Wondermark, which repurposes illustrations and engravings from 19th-Century books into sarcastic, silly, and surreal collage-style comic strips. In 2008, the Wondermark book Beards of our Forefathers was nominated for the Eisner Award — the highest honor in comics — for “Best Humorous Publication.” He’s also the co-editor of the sci-fi anthology Machine of Death, which became a surprise bestseller in 2010 thanks to an innovative grassroots marketing campaign.

J.D. Mettler- colorist on Ex Machina, The Talisman, JSA, War Heroes, Down, and many more.

Bill Neville- artist and co-creator of the Explorers

Joe Pruett – Desperado Publishing

Jim Starlin – writer/ artist on titles like Dreadstar, Breed, Batman, Silver Surfer, Death of Captain Marvel and many more.

Gary Reed- is the author of many titles with the most notable being Saint Germaine, Renfield, Raven Chronicles, and Baker Street.

Sara Richard- artist on Zombie Bomb and sketch cards for Marvel’s Dangerous Divas and Betty Page.

Art Thibert- inker on titles such as Ulitmate Spider-Man, X-Factor, X-Men and many more.

Wayne Vansant- artist on The ‘Nam

Alexis Ziritt- creator of Rudo and Mekano Turbo. Founder of Fistful Apparel.

Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow and the weather man has promised an absolutely gorgeous day! Heroes has a few last minute giveaways and incentives for all of you true believers out there. In local news, VisArt Video is offering a free movie rental to our first 30 customers that spend $15 dollars or more tomorrow. And the neighborhood fun doesn’t stop there! Jackalope Jack’s has informed us that anyone presenting their Heroes FCBD receipt will receive 20% off on their meal TOMORROW ONLY! Help support our local businesses while you enjoy a beautiful spring day filled with comics, art and fun! You can also pick up a pre-screening ticket for the new movie Priest, a TokyoPop production next Thursday or Bridesmaids, starring Kristen Wiig this Tuesday. These tickets are extremely limited so be sure to ask for them when you get to the register! Just say “I saw it on HeroesOnline!”

It’s time for Free Comic Book Day 2011! If you’ve been to Heroes for FCBD in the past you know it’s one of our biggest events of the year, and this year is no exception!  We’ll be open at our regular time of 10 a.m. and will have tons of Free Comics for you to pick up including a special HeroesCon Green Lantern Special Edition.  Take a look at all of this year’s free comic offerings!

2000 AD, Amazing Spider-Man, Atomic Robo & Friends, Avatar Last Airbender & Star Wars Clone Wars, Baltimore & Criminal Macabre, Bongo Comics Free For All, Captain America  & Thor, Civil War Adventure, Darkness 2 Prequel, Darkwing Duck & Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers, Deadliest Sharks & Prehistoric Predators, Elric: Balance Lost, Geronimo Stilton & Smurfs, Green Lantern Flashpoint, ICE & Loose Ends, Inspector Gadget, Intrepid Escapegoat & Stuff of Legend, Jake the Dreaming, James Patterson: Witch & Wizard, John Stanley Summer Fun, Kung Fu Panda & Richie Rich, Locke & Key, Misadventures of Adam West, Mouse Guard & Dark Crystal, MTG Path Planeswalker II Preview, Oni Rated Free For Everyone, Overstreet Guide to Collecting Comics, Pep Comics Betty & Veronica, Silver Scorpion, Sonic the Hedgehog, Spontaneous, Super Dinosaur Origin Special, The Tick, Top Shelf Kids Club 2011, Walt Disney Mickey Mouse, Worlds of Aspen, Young Justice & Batman: Brave and the Bold Super Sampler.

This year we’re also happy to be one of the few stores to offer the first ever Sketch Charlotte: Free Comic Book Day Anthology!  This anthology features contributions from many of our talented local friends and customers. Sketch Charlotte’s own Eraklis Petmezas and Bridgit Scheide will be on hand to sign the anthology and some of their own quality books! They are just two of the talented creators that will be in attendance along with:

Chris Brunner – Co-creator of the FCBD offering LOOSE ENDS from 12 Gauge Comics. Artist on Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, cover artist on Boondock Saints and Nola

Ian Flynn – Writer on Sonic the Hedgehog including the FCBD issue and the upcoming Mega Man from Archie Comics

Sanford Greene – Creator of 1000 and Rotten Apple. Artist on Wonder Girl, Method Man, and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man

Cully Hamner – Co-creator of Red. Artist on The Question, Blue Beetle, Batman: Tenses, The Ride, Daredevil, and Green Lantern: Mosaic

Jason Latour – Co-creator of the FCBD offering LOOSE ENDS from 12 Gauge Comics. Artist on Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Fist, and Daredevil

Laura Martin – Color artist on The Rocketeer, Astonishing X-Men, Planetary, Secret Invasion, Thor and The Stand

Eraklis Petmezas – Creator of Mr. Lune and Last Cigarette

Rico Renzi – Color artist on the FCBD offering LOOSE ENDS from 12 Gauge Comics, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Wolverine, Frenemy of the State, and Captain America. (I’ll mostly be making sure the real guests stay hydrated!)

Budd Root - Creator of Cavewoman

Bridgit Scheide – Creator of The Kindle Kind and Brother Nash

Chris Schweizer - Creator of The Crogan Adventures

Andy Smith – Artist on X-Men: Legacy, WWE Heroes, and Superman Confidential

Brian Stelfreeze – Artist on Wednesday Comics, Jonah Hex, Batman: Shadow of the Bat, Matador and Domino

Matt Wilson – Color artist on the FCBD offering CAPTAIN AMERICA/THOR: THE MIGHTY FIGHTING AVENGERS, Y the Last Man, Phonogram, Thor the Mighty Avenger, and Wolverine

Please remember to be respectful of these folks! They are taking time out of their schedules and time away from their paying jobs to be here for all of us!

In addition to the talented artists who will be on hand to sketch and sign their work we’ll have lots of great bargains available for you on Saturday.  If you’ve been to our store in recent weeks you’ve noticed our fancy new redesign which moved the art books up front where the manga formerly was, and vice versa.  Instead of putting our overstock of this great manga collection in storage, we will be selling them outside at ridiculously low prices!  We also have over 100 long boxes of books that we’ll be selling for $1 and 25¢!  That’s over 25,000 comics to pick through and find books you might be missing from your collections!  Join us this Saturday for great comics, artists, and bargains!

It’s almost that time of year again for Free Comic Book Day! FCBD at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find is one of the biggest FCBD events in the country. Not only do we have tons of free comics for comic book fans of all ages, we also invite a bunch of great creators who will sign your comics and do quick sketches for you! This year we’ll be hosting :

Chris Brunner - Co-creator of the FCBD offering LOOSE ENDS from 12 Gauge Comics. Artist on Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, cover artist on Boondock Saints andNola.

Ian Flynn - Writer on Sonic the Hedgehog and the upcoming Mega Man from Archie Comics.

Sanford Greene - Creator of 1000 and Rotten Apple. Artist on Wonder Girl, Method Man,and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

Cully Hamner - Co-creator of Red. Artist on The Question, Blue Beetle, Batman: Tenses, The Ride, Daredevil, and Green Lantern Mosaic.

Jason Latour - Co-creator of the FCBD offering LOOSE ENDS from 12 Gauge Comics. Artist on Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Fist, and Daredevil.

Laura Martin - Color artist on The Rocketeer, Astonishing X-Men, Planetary, Secret Invasion, Thor and The Stand.

Rico Renzi - Color artist on the FCBD offering LOOSE ENDS from 12 Gauge Comics, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Wolverine, Frenemy of the State, and Captain America. (I’ll mostly be making sure the real guests stay hydrated!)

Budd Root - Creator of Cavewoman.

Bridgit Scheide - Creator of The Kindle Kind and Brother Nash.

Chris Schweizer - Creator of The Crogan Adventures.

Andy Smith - Artist on X-Men Legacy, WWE Heroes, and Superman Confidential.

Brian Stelfreeze - Artist on Wednesday Comics, Jonah Hex, Batman: Shadow of the Bat, Matador and Domino.

Matt Wilson - Color artist on the FCBD offering CAPTAIN AMERICA/THOR: THE MIGHTY FIGHTING AVENGERS, Y the Last Man, Phonogram, Thor the Mighty Avenger, andWolverine.

Sketch Charlotte – Several artists from this local sketch group will be on hand and word has it they are self-publishing their own FCBD anthology with Heroes being one of the few place you can get it!

Wow! NOTE that free sketches are at the discretion of the artists, and are not guaranteed.

So, mark that date on your calendar folks! Saturday, May 7th at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find will be a good time and you won’t want to miss it!

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find has become famous across the country for throwing one of the most rip-roaringest, rootin-tootinest, BIGGEST Free Comic Book Day bashes anywhere! And this year we’re really going nuts!

FIRST: From 10-9 on Saturday, May 1st, we’ll  be giving away copies of select comic books! I don’t mean a few either–it’s around 2 dozen different titles! There’s no catch either–just show up to get your copies, while supplies last! We won’t be mad if you spend some money though, and we’ll have plenty to spend it on, with special stocks of dollar books on hand, sale items throughout the store, deals on books and toys and statues and whatever else Shelton has been collecting on his travels!

SECOND: From 1-5 pm we’ll be hosting all these guys, who’ll be participating in a MEGA signing, not to mention doing FREE sketches:

MARK BROOKS (Amazing Spider-Man)
CHRIS BRUNNER (Legends of the Dark Knight, Loose Ends)
NATHAN EDMONDSON (The Light, Olympus)
IAN FLYNN (Sonic the Hedgehog)
SANFORD GREENE (Wonder Girl, Method Man)
CULLY HAMNER (Detective Comics, Red)
ADAM HUGHES (Wonder Woman, Tomb Raider)
JASON LATOUR (Loose Ends, The Expatriate)
TOM LYLE (Amazing Spider-Man)
BUDD ROOT (Cavewoman)
ANDY SMITH (Nevermore, Superman Confidential)
ALLISON SOHN (Lord of the Rings: Evolution)
BRIAN STELFREEZE (Batman, The Ride)

Good gravy! NOTE that free sketches are at the discretion of the artists, and are in no way guaranteed. Many thanks to everyone for donating their time so kindly, but there will be A LOT of people there and they can’t do sketches for everyone. Some may choose to accept donations for different charities, so please respect that as well–I know Sanford collects for a charity on Free Comic Book Day, so don’t be shy about ponying up a little scratch for him.

And, if that wasn’t enough, THIRD we have an amazing POST-Free Comic Book Day celebration! We’ll be heading up the street to one of the coolest new night-spots in Charlotte, TWENTY-TWO, a gallery and wine bar that is s-w-w-w-wank! Besides the fact that the owners Rodney and Lise are friends of ours, they’re also hosting THIS:

SUPER! The Fine Art Of Comics is a month long art exhibit featuring original art from some of the biggest names at HeroesCons past and present, as well as some choice pieces from Shelton Drum‘s personal collection! Saturday night we’ll have the opening exhibition at Twenty-Two, and then the exhibit will run throughout the month of May, with the closing party scheduled for Friday, June 4–right after day one of HeroesCon! Just a few of the names who will have art hanging–Adam Hughes, Tony Harris, Brian Stelfreeze, Joe Jusko… the list goes on and on. This will be a perfect capper to an awesome day–hope to see you there!

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find has become famous across the country for throwing one of the most rip-roaringest, rootin-tootinest, BIGGEST Free Comic Book Day bashes anywhere! And this year we’re really going nuts!

FIRST: From 10-9 on Saturday, May 1st, we’ll  be giving away copies of select comic books! I don’t mean a few either–it’s around 2 dozen different titles! There’s no catch either–just show up to get your copies, while supplies last! We won’t be mad if you spend some money though, and we’ll have plenty to spend it on, with special stocks of dollar books on hand, sale items throughout the store, deals on books and toys and statues and whatever else Shelton has been collecting on his travels!

SECOND: From 1-5 pm we’ll be hosting all these guys, who’ll be participating in a MEGA signing, not to mention doing FREE sketches:

MARK BROOKS (Amazing Spider-Man)
CHRIS BRUNNER (Legends of the Dark Knight, Loose Ends)
NATHAN EDMONDSON (The Light, Olympus)
IAN FLYNN (Sonic the Hedgehog)
SANFORD GREENE (Wonder Girl, Method Man)
CULLY HAMNER (Detective Comics, Red)
ADAM HUGHES (Wonder Woman, Tomb Raider)
JASON LATOUR (Loose Ends, The Expatriate)
BUDD ROOT (Cavewoman)
TOM LYLE (Amazing Spider-Man)
ANDY SMITH (Nevermore, Superman Confidential)
ALLISON SOHN (Lord of the Rings: Evolution)
BRIAN STELFREEZE (Batman, The Ride)

Good gravy! NOTE that free sketches are at the discretion of the artists, and are in no way guaranteed. Many thanks to everyone for donating their time so kindly, but there will be A LOT of people there and they can’t do sketches for everyone. Some may choose to accept donations for different charities, so please respect that as well–I know Sanford collects for a charity on Free Comic Book Day, so don’t be shy about ponying up a little scratch for him.

THIRD: We just undated our New Releases page with the titles that will be available here on Free Comic Book Day. And remember it is first come first serve, so get here early if you want to have the best selection. Here is the list of the titles:

ARCHIES SUMMER SPLASH
ARTIFACTS FIRST LOOK
ATOMIC ROBO AND FRIENDS
BONGO COMICS FREE FOR ALL
DC KIDS MEGA SAMPLER 2010 EDITION
DEL REY SHOWCASE
DOCTOR SOLAR MAGNUS ROBOT HUNTER
FEARLESS DAWN ASYLUM PRESS SAMPLER
FRACTURED FABLES
GI JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO #155 1/2
GREEN HORNET
IRON MAN SUPVERNOVA
IRON MAN THOR
IRREDEEMABLE #1
KIZOIC SHREK & PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR
LIBRARY OF AMERICAN COMICS #0
LOVE & CAPES #13
MOUSE GUARD FRAGGLE ROCK FLIP BOOK
ONI PRESS FREE FOR ALL
OVERSTREET GUIDE TO COLLECTING COMICS
OWLY & FRIENDS
RADICAL BIGGER BOOKS BIGGER VALUE
S E HINTON FAME #1
SIXTH GUN #1
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG HIDE SEEK DESTROY #1
STORM LION
STUFF OF LEGEND & MORTAL INSTRUMENTS
TICK #1 SPECIAL EDITION
TOY STORY
WAR OF THE SUPERMEN #0
WEATHERCRAFT
WORLDS OF ASPEN
YOW THE JOHN STANLEY LIBRARY

See you at Free Comic Book Day!

{don’t actually click there for more info, this is just the big version of a smaller banner}

Whoa that sure is yellow! Caught your eye, didn’t it?? Just a brightly-hued reminder of the upcoming exhibit at Charlotte’s Twenty-Two gallery! Rodney & Lise will be featuring a gallery-wide exhibit of some of today’s best comic art, put together with Shelton Drum and the artists of HeroesCon‘s past and present!

The show will run at Twenty-Two throughout the month of May, with an opening reception on Saturday, May 1, right after Free Comic Book Day! Enjoy the art, hobnob with many of the artists and patrons, all in a primo stylish gallery with a classy high-end wine and beer bar! Oh man this is going to be posh for sure–probably wear sneakers instead of flip-flops. Class it up: you deserve it! And of course you can enjoy it all month, then hit it one last time on Friday June 4 for the closing reception, right after Day 1 of HeroesCon!

We’ll be chatting it up more between now and then, but if you’re not already planning on making the scene for Free Comic Book Day, this should cinch it for sure!

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find has become famous across the country for throwing one of the most rip-roaringest, rootin-tootinest, BIGGEST Free Comic Book Day bashes anywhere! And this year we’re really going nuts!

FIRST: From 10-9 on Saturday, May 1st, we’ll  be giving away copies of select comic books! I don’t mean a few either–it’s around 2 dozen different titles! There’s no catch either–just show up to get your copies, while supplies last! We won’t be mad if you spend some money though, and we’ll have plenty to spend it on, with special stocks of dollar books on hand, sale items throughout the store, deals on books and toys and statues and whatever else Shelton has been collecting on his travels!

SECOND: From 1-5 pm we’ll be hosting all these guys, who’ll be participating in a MEGA signing, not to mention doing FREE sketches:

MARK BROOKS (Amazing Spider-Man)
CHRIS BRUNNER (Legends of the Dark Knight, Loose Ends)
NATHAN EDMONDSON (The Light, Olympus)
IAN FLYNN (Sonic the Hedgehog)
CULLY HAMNER (Detective Comics, Red)
ADAM HUGHES (Wonder Woman, Tomb Raider)
JASON LATOUR (Loose Ends, The Expatriate)
BUDD ROOT (Cavewoman)
ANDY SMITH (Nevermore, Superman Confidential)
ALLISON SOHN (Lord of the Rings: Evolution)
BRIAN STELFREEZE (Batman, The Ride)

And, if that wasn’t enough, THIRD we have these two late-breaking additions:

TOM LYLE (Amazing Spider-Man)
SANFORD GREENE (Wonder Girl, Method Man)

Good gravy! NOTE that free sketches are at the discretion of the artists, and are in no way guaranteed. Many thanks to everyone for donating their time so kindly, but there will be A LOT of people there and they can’t do sketches for everyone. Some may choose to accept donations for different charities, so please respect that as well–I know Sanford collects for a charity on Free Comic Book Day, so don’t be shy about ponying up a little scratch for him.

AND if that’s not enough, that night is the gallery opening for a new exhibit at Twenty-Two: “SUPER! The Fine Art of Comics.” We’ve teamed with Twenty-Two to put together an exhibit of some of the best comic book art being done today, featuring many past and present guests at HeroesCon! Reception will begin some time in the evening–we’ll post more as we have exact details. But for now, get excited!

Now up over on our Flickr photostream–an exhaustive photo report on last Saturday’s Free Comic Book Day! Without a doubt this was our most successful FCBD event ever–the number of people in our store was MASSIVE all day long, really stunning, and with the roster of talent we had signing and doing free sketches, there were just as many people OUTSIDE under one of the four tents Shelton set up for the event.

If you weren’t able to make it, or just want to see a really nice comics shop with a hundred people inside, I invite you to mosey over and check out the Flickr set we’ve created to venerate it! Tons of pictures of fans, guests, and a bunch of the sketches.

And thanks to everyone who made this year’s Free Comic Book Day such a massive success! Not just the many MANY fans who showed up (although thanks!, or the 14 different guests who generously gave their time and drawing power to us for the day (thanks to them also, of course!), but to our bedraggled Heroes staff, who did a really amazing job getting the store ready and then being friendly and helpful all day long!

Today is Free Comic Book Day at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find! We’ve got the tents set out, Seth’s put out his magical dollar stock–25 boxes of dollar books, all in order, tons of gems–and fans are already lining up in front of our door! Matt Brady, Newsarama’s Editor-In-Chief, is here and will be live-blogging all day long, and if you follow our Twitter stream, we’ll be tweeting all day as well! With thirteen special guests signing autographs (from 1-5pm) under four tents, something is bound to we worth talking about!

To review: this is what you get when you’re a customer of Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find on Free Comic Book Day:

TWENTY-SOMETHING DIFFERENT COMICS, which you can have absolutely free. No catch, you don’t have to do or buy anything, although we hope you will. Our buddy Rich Barrett posted a great list of suggestions of things to buy related to the Free Comic Book Day books right here.

THIRTEEN (or more) GUESTS, including Mark Brooks, Chris Brunner, Ian Flynn, Sanford Greene, Cully Hamner, Matt Herms, Adam Hughes, Jason Latour, Budd Root, Chris Schweizer, Andy Smith, Allison Sohn, and Brian Stelfreeze! Whew! They’ll be signing and doing sketches from 1-5pm! NOTE that previously announced Laura Martin, Doug Wagner, and Karl Story will be unable to make it this year, but all three will be at HeroesCon next (gulp!) month!

FOUR TENTS set up in front of our store and down its side, which will not only contain our many guests, and their many fans, but also:

MANY DIFFERENT ITEMS including a ton of dollar boxes, as always COMPLETELY IN ORDER and containing tons of hidden gems. AND a selection of half-off trade paperbacks, deep-discounted statues and other stock.

Okay, Happy Free Comic Book Day and we hope to see you here!