HeroesCon staple and recent Charlotte MiniCon guest Sanford Greene always has many diverse projects in the works.  One of the most interesting is a Gallery exhibit of his art coming up later this month.  If you’re in or around the Columbia, SC area, make it a point to stop by and check out some of Sanford’s energetic originals.  The event takes place on Thursday, February 24 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. at Ponder Art Gallery at Benedict College in Columbia, SC.  In addition to seeing Sanford’s art, the event will also feature music from DayClean (www.daycleanduo.com) and soul singer Fayth Hope (www.faythhope.com).  The event is being hosted by Preach Jacobs (www.mobettasoul.com).  For more information about the event, check out Sanford’s website (www.sanfordgreene.com).  Don’t  miss this opportunity to support a  talented artist and longtime friend of Heroes.

Happy New Year to everyone out there in internetland! We wanted to make sure that each of you knew the holiday store schedule and shipping schedule, so one more time here it is:

HOLIDAY STORE HOURS
New Year’s Eve
Friday, December 31st: 10am – 6pm
New Year’s Day
Saturday, January 1st: 1pm – 6pm

BOOK SHIPPING SCHEDULE
Completely normal! Books will arrive in the store on Wednesday throughout the holidays!

As the year draws to a close we are a little nostalgic here at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find. It was a year of changes and transitions. We saw our Creative Director Dustin Harbin move on to a full-time career of cartooning. While we miss him we are happy that he is so successful. We also saw Shawn Reynolds become Shawn Daughhetee and transitioned from Store Manager in Charlotte, NC to Events Coordinator in Greenville, SC. Also, after having worked in the store since birth, Shelley Drum took her rightful place as Store Manager. There are also rumors of Heroes hiring Rico Renzi but as of yet those are unconfirmed.

Besides the staffing changes the store was busy with conventions, store signings and day-to-day operations. Here are a few of the stand-out events from 2010: Jim Rugg Afrodisiac Tour store signing, Charlotte Minicon, Free Comic Book Day, Super: The Fine Art of Comics gallery show at Twenty-Two, Steve Niles store signing, HeroesCon 2010, Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting store signing and almost a dozen Heroes Discussion Group meetings (Walking Dead, Scott Pilgrim, Pluto and Blankets just to name a few)!

Even with all of the awesomeness of 2010, 2011 will undoubtedly be busier and better. Prepare yourselves for the craziness! We are ready! Are you? Mark your calendars for the Charlotte Minicon on Saturday, January 22, the beginning of The Savannah Collection Heritage Auctions on February 24, Free Comic Book Day on May 7 and HeroesCon on June 3 – 5. As always stay tuned to the blog and the newsletter for up-to-the-minute updates! See you next year!

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a Very Merry Christmas!  Click the image below to view our 2010 digital Christmas card featuring artwork by the great Gil Kane! We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you as we enter our 4th decade!

This is a reminder to all of you true believers out there that books will be shipping on schedule this Wednesday. So make sure to drop by for your pre-Thanksgiving fix! And check out the New Releases page for a look at all the terrific stuff that’s coming out this week. However, keep in mind that next week there will be a holiday delay and books will be in the store on Thursday, December 2nd.

But don’t forget! We’ll be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday the 25th. Don’t worry though! The store will open at it’s normal time on Friday at 10 am, and observe its regular hours for the duration of the holiday weekend (which would be a perfect time for all of you regulars to baptise your cool little cousins, nieces and nephews in all the Heroes-y radness).

And keep an eye out for details concerning our great BIG holiday sale in December! Seth has been working hard on a brand new dollar stock to debut at the sale. As if that isn’t enough, we’ll be posting full details here on the blog for you to explore soon enough.

Until then, have a safe and super-rad Turkey Day!

Trick-or-Treat at Heroes all weekend long! Stop by the store, during regular business hours, today through Sunday to get candy and special FREE Halloween comics while supplies last. It will be like a mini, scarier version of Free Comic Book Day! Plus, we would love to see your Halloween costume so be sure to come all dressed up. Have a safe and fun Halloween everyone!

Stop by the store, during regular business hours, from Friday, October 29 through Sunday, October 31 to get candy and special FREE Halloween comics! We will have freebies for kids and adults alike that way everyone can join in the fun. We always love seeing our customers all dressed up so we hope you will drop by the store before you go to your Halloween parties or while you are taking your kids out trick-or-treating!

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!

{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!

We have been trying to update our database and we need your help! Have you moved? Do you have a new email address? Do you have a new phone number? Email me at [email protected] with any changes so that your contact information can be as up to date as possible.

Shelton sent me a note about our customer Hick’ry Hawkins, who besides being one of the few customers or ours who regularly sports a great big cowboy hat with a black leather biker jacket, is also a local musician. Turns out that Hick’ry wrote a song called “Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find” which sounds suspiciously like the name of a certain friendly neighborhood local comics shop. I was going to upload the song here for you, but it turns out the file is a million times too big to upload to our little ole blog.

But listen! You can can check ole Double-H out yourself tomorrow at Puckett’s Farm, opening for the Straight 8′s. Who knows, maybe you’ll see old Sheltonious out there too! If you can’t make it, don’t despair–there’s plenty of music at Hick’ry’s MySpace page.