It’s the day after Small Press Expo 2011 and we’re back to work early to let you know about some of the great books we picked up for our Heroes customers.
We’ll start with Paying For It. Yes, the latest book from Chester Brown has already been in stock at Heroes for a few months, but we just had to get another one. What makes this one different though, is that Mr. Brown was nice enough to sign and sketch in the book for us. If you’d like this signed/sketched copy of Paying For It, it’s yours for cover price. There’s only one of these, so we’ll have it for the first person who comes to the store, mentions that they read it on our blog, and asks to purchase it. We should note, if you comment on the blog and ask us to hold it for you, or if you call us and ask us to hold it for you via phone, we won’t honor that as a request. We want you to come to the store and ask in person.
Though not officially released yet, we managed to snag a copy of Blue Collar/White Collar by Sterling Hundley. This new offering from Adhouse features a variety of works from Hundley, an artist you might not be familiar with, but should seek out. He primarily illustrates for magazines, but also exhibits in galleries, and covers a wide range of topics and themes in his explorations of diverse art styles. If you’re an art lover, do yourself a favor and check out this book. Hundley could end up having a James Jean type career that crosses over the worlds of fine art and comics.
We also picked up Stargazing Dog, an acclaimed manga from Takashi Murakami that will soon be released by NBM. This one was being well received by fans of manga and literary comics, and its story of a frustrated man and his loyal dog should appeal to a variety of readers.
Old-Timey Hockey Tales is a new book from respected indie creators Robert Ullman and Jeffrey Brown. Though the subject matter is hockey, the real draw of this book is the chance to see two very talented, and very stylistically different creators explore the history of the sport in their own unique ways. In addition to this one we also picked up two volumes of Ullman’s Traffic and Weather strips.
Since we’re on the subject of mini comics, I’ll go ahead and mention some of the others we picked up. Dan Zettwoch and Kevin Huizenga had a nice selection of minis, and we picked up three of their collaborative books, The Factoids of Life, Fact Parader, and Factual Healing, all three feature the two creators alternating stories. Both of these guys are really talented cartoonists, and it’s something to see their distinctive individual works take place in a collaborative setting.
Also new to our mini comics sections are new
arrivals Monster Isle, from Mermin creator Joey Weiser, March by Bill Burg, and 3 volumes of Messed Up Fairy Tales, featuring art from attendee Joe Foo, whose art caught our eyes.
The Venice Chronicles is described as “a travelogue in pencil, watercolor and varying shades of silliness.” Written and illustrated by Pixar director/head of story Enrico Casarosa, this one reminds me a little of Lewis Trondheim and Scott Morse, but stands on its own for the sheer quality of the author’s original voice.
We also ran into Alec Longstreth and his magnificent beard and Tugboat Press publisher Greg Means. We picked up Yes, Let’s, a comic written by Alec’s sister Galen Goodwin Longstreth and illustrated by Maris Wicks. This book’s fun use of rhyming couples nicely with Wicks’ fine line work. This is one of the best all ages offerings we picked up this year, so be sure to check it out.
Heaven All Day is a wordless comic from John Martz. He has a style that evokes Canadian cartooning great Seth, among other cartoonists, and this simple, well-paced story of a the comings and goings of a scientist/machinesmith and a robot stood out to both myself and Rico in our SPX wanderings.
Finally we have A Graphic Cosmogony. This is an anthology I picked up for myself at Fluke in Athens a while back, and was glad to pick up a copy for our store this weekend. This is a fine example of Adhouse’s Adistro program, where publisher Chris Pitzer has started to distribute comics from around the world that he wants readers to become more familiar with. This book comes from England’s Nobrow Press, and features 24 artists each taking 7 pages to tell a story of creation. There’s a lot of variety and quality within these pages, and chances are if you pick this one up you’ll be introduced to the work of a few cartoonists you’ll want to continue to enjoy.
We had a blast at SPX and are happy we were able to pick up some really interesting books for all of you to enjoy. Stop by the store and give them a look for yourselves!
SPX photos by Heather McKinney
We’re hitting the road for appearances at two conventions this weekend! Heroes’ own Seth Peagler and Brent Bagwell will be setting up at the Columbia Comic and Toy Con on Saturday, and the Atlanta Comic Convention on Sunday. They’ll have a huge variety of comics for you to enjoy, including brand new discount books, hard to find recent and new comics, and selections from Shelton’s new Golden Age and Silver Age collections that debuted at the Charlotte MiniCon. They’ll even be selling advanced tickets to HeroesCon, and will have plenty of information to pass along to you about some of the exciting things we have planned for this year’s 30th Anniversary! Stop by and say hello to the guys and pick up some comics while you’re at it!
This Saturday and Sunday Heroes’ own Rico Renzi and Seth Peagler will be in Bethesda, Maryland for this year’s Small Press Expo. We’ll be there promoting HeroesCon’s 30th Anniversary, and will have plenty of fliers and info about the show. If you’re interested in talking with us about reserving a small press table of your own, we’ll also be happy to assist you with that. So if you happen to be at SPX, make sure to find us and say ‘hi.’ This year’s lineup includes talent like Jim Woodring, Johnny Ryan, Jim Rugg, Chester Brown, and Craig Thompson will be on hand to debut his long awaited followup to Blankets called Habibi. Also on hand will be our friends from AdHouse Books, Heroes alumi/cartoonist Dustin Harbin, and more. We’re glad to be attending, and hope to see some of you there!
Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find is on the road again but this time we don’t have to go far! Sunday, July 31 is the 
