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 shawn@heroesonline.com 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.

Something I forgot to mention in the Heroes Hotline on Christmas Eve: this Sunday is the end-of-year edition of the Charlotte Comicon, run by our friends Dave Hinson and Rick Fortenberry.  There are numerous reasons you should go, which I will now enumerate:

1) Because you love to support local businesses, not to mention a bunch of local comic book artists, both established ones like Andy Smith and Budd Root, plus up-and-comers like our buddies and customers Eraklis Petmezas and Rich Barrett. The image above is from Rich’s online comic Nathan Sorry, which he’ll be selling the first ever print versions of at the show Sunday!

2) Because Shelton is going to be there hawking his ridiculous Silver Age stock, not to mention his also-ridiculous “travel” stock, which has become a huge hit at the crazy number of shows Shelton has done this year. Seth re-ups the stock after every show too, so the stock stays so fresh and so clean clean!

3) Because by printing out this blog post and bringing it in, you can get a dollar off the already cheap $3 admission! I made a fancy printable coupon a few months ago, but today I’m dogsitting and working from a strange computer, and I can’t find that thing. So just view this post by itself so you can print just it instead of the last 10 or so, and bring that in!

4) Because you have relatives in town visiting, and you’d love to take them somewhere off the beaten path–hey, it wouldn’t kill you guys to get out of the house, right?

5) Because you have relatives in town visiting, and you’ll do anything to get away from them for a few hours–hey, it wouldn’t kill them to hang around your house alone for a few hours, right?

Okay, hope to see you there tomorrow for the Charlotte Comicon!

Well, it may be Black Friday over the rest of the country today, and we’re seeing tons of you guys coming into the store today… but we’re scheduling our huge annual sale this year to coincide with a sweet store signing! Coming up on December 12-13 will be our Annual Holiday Sale, with deals on pretty much everything in the store! From discounts on new comics and books, DEEP discounts on Shelton’s stock of marked-down trade paperbacks and hardcovers, toys, statues, and more.. it’s hard to think of something that WON’T be on sale.

Plus as usual we’ll have not only 50% off all regular back issues, but an enlarged, expanded, and untouched stock of $1 books courtesy of Seth Peagler. This has become one of the most popular parts of our events recently, and Seth works super hard on putting these stocks together and making sure there are tons of “gems” in there.

And we’ll be hosting a number of special guests, including Olympus writer Nathan Edmondson–Nathan will have advance copies of the Olympus trade on hand for you! Plus our buddy Andy Smith will be on hand, and we’ve got even more names to roll out over the next few weeks! So be sure and mark your calendars now–this will be a great opportunity to pick up some gifts for your comics-reading friends and loved-ones, and hey–we won’t argue if you want to pick up some things for yourself, too. Your secret is safe with us!

Come to Richmond, Virginia this weekend, November 21-22, and support the Virginia Comicon! Our good friends Brett Carreras and Guy Rose are pulling out all the stops promoting Richmond’s first two-day comic convention in over 25 years! The guest line-up is fantastic, several cool exclusives will be available, and tons of great comics, old and new, will be available for sale to add to your collections. Including our rather impressive stock I might add.

I’ve been on the road a lot this past year, especially this Fall, and everywhere I’ve been, Brett has been there too, promoting the heck out of this show. The VA Comicon boasts a heavy-hitting line up of comic creators including Larry Hama, Chris Claremont, Chuck Dixon, Billy Tucci, Randy Green, Mike McKone, Budd Root, Andy Smith, Alex Saviuk and many more. There will be a full schedule of programming including a panel with Marc Nathan, the owner of the Baltimore Comic-Con, Brett and ME, talking about our comic conventions and how we do what we do.

Up to the minute info and announcements will be made.

Randy Green has produced an exclusive holiday themed cover for the VA Comicon edition of Witchblade #132. The first 1000 paid admissions get a copy of this “Sweet Christmas!” variant for FREE! There will also be a extremely limited sketch variant cover produced as a thank-you to the attending exhibitors and guests. I’ll be giving my copy away to some lucky customer before the show is over. Just print out the attached 20% off coupon and use it at my table this weekend to be entered into the drawing for this hot collectible.

I can’t wait for this weekend! I’m going to have a blast and I know you will too!

I’ll see you all in Richmond!

Get it? Do you get that post title? “C-on The Road”? Cos it’s like On The Road? Except like with comic cons? Ok nevermind that part.

INSTEAD focus on the two comics conventions Heroes is setting up at this weekend. Right here in sunny Charlotte North Carolina, our buddies Rick Fortenberry and Dave Hinson are putting on another of their Charlotte Comicons this Saturday, November 7 from 10am to 4pm, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in uptown Charlotte. Our own Seth Peagler will be slinging comics left and right so go by and say hey!

Admission is just $3, BUT you can knock an extra dollar off if you print the coupon above and bring it in! Click on the image or right here to open a printable pdf coupon. You can find a complete guest list, exhibitors and more at the Charlotte Comicon site.

Not to be outdone, Shelton is traveling south to Florida this week for the Tampa Comic Book & Toy Convention, also going on tomorrow from 10-4. Synchronicity! Be sure you drop by and say hey to good ole Shelton and slap him some high-fives, not to mention get the latest dirt on HeroesCon before I announce it next week!

Don’t forget that going on all day tomorrow is our Halloween Costume Contest! Come by in costume, especially all our younger customers, and we’ll take your picture to put up on our site! We’ll judge all the entries and announce the winner on Monday!

AND THAT’S NOT ALL! Shelton and Seth have put together one of their super dollar box stocks, so be sure and come early to look for some sweet deals on back issues. Plus we’ll have a selection of horror-themed books and graphic novels discounted 20% for those of you looking for some macabre reading material! PLUS tons of free comics for trick-or-treaters, candy, and more! It’s a celebration!

Well, after a crazy busy month that included the Mid Ohio Con, Baltimore Comic Con, and the Big Apple Comic Con, Shelton is taking it easy this weekend… at another convention. Although this one is in our backdoor, run by old buddy Rob Young: the Greenville Comic Con is going on tomorrow, October 24, from 10 am-4 pm at the Comfort Inn, located at 2756 Laurens Road in good ol’ Greenville, South Carolina!

Shelton will be setting up at the show with our very own Store Manager, Shawn Reynolds, so be sure to go by and say hey to Shelton and Shawn. A bunch of our SC bros will be down there too, including J. Chris Campbell and the Wide Awake Press crew, the Dollar Bin guys, and tons more! For more info check out the show’s MySpace page!