Like I was saying in last week’s Heroes Hotline, the fall convention season is practically as busy as the summer! A bunch of us were wending our way hither and thither last weekend, and some of us will be thithering for weeks to come! Let’s start with last weekend though:

Our man Seth Peagler traveled with our other man Matt Knapik to scenic and mountainous Asheville, for the aptly named Asheville Minicon. Highlights include one of them–details are unclear, it was all very exciting–meeting Jack Davis and getting an autograph on an old copy of Yak-Yak for Shelton, who was away seeing Lucinda Williams in Charlottesville.

Speaking of Shelton, he was away seeing Lucinda Williams in Charlottesville, with his wife Linda. This was like the 7,000th time they’d seen Lucinda or something; Shelton keeps trying to convince Linda to add a little “uc” in the middle of her name. Creepy!  In between enthusiastic hoots and hollers, SD managed to squeeze off a couple of blurry iPhone pics; here’s one:

If you’ve ever seen Shelton talk about Lucinda in person, you know his eyes were probably as big as saucers while he was taking this. Dude sure does love him some Lucinda!

Meanwhile, I was up at SPX in Bethesda, although only tangentially for work, chatting up pros about HeroesCon and spreading good cheer. The rest of the time I was set up as a cartoonist, a secret aspiration I have been fanning into flame lately, and it was awesome. Here is what it looked like:

Gorgeous! I just can’t get enough of this guy. There’s a slowly building con report up at my own site, although I’ve been catching up like crazy this week so the rest is coming soon. So far most of it is about hotel room parties. SPOILER ALERT: so is the rest of it.

But check it: THIS weekend there’s even more travel afoot! Seth and Young Winslow will be driving down to Myrtle Beach for XCon World this weekend, while Shelton will be heading up to Mid Ohio Con, where he’ll be joined by daughter Enola and grand-daughter Faith, who’ll be helping her “Pop-Pop” for the very first time at a comics convention! And next weekend Shelton and Son Winslow will head up to the Baltimore Comicon! And next next weekend Shelton, Winslow and Daughter Shelley will drive up to NYC for the Big Apple Con, where they’ll be meeting our friends Steve and Dana! 5-person NYC onslaught! Be sure to stop by one of our many spots and say hello and buy some comics!

The next few weeks are FILLED with travel for your brave Heroes crew. Coming up Saturday is the Asheville Minicon, where our own Seth Peagler and Matt Knapik will be sojourning. I heard Matt suggest that they should take the long way so they’d have more time to listen to Phish records together. Seth just closed his eyes and smiled.

ANYWAYS, the show will go on from 10-5 on Saturday at the Ramada Biltmore West in Asheville, and admission is FREE! I bet those leaves are starting to change already, so why not make a lovely weekend of it? Feel free to not listen to Phish if you like, too–how could it hurt? More information available here!

Our buddies Rick Fortenberry and Dave Hinson are putting on another of their Charlotte Comicons this Sunday, September 13 from 10am to 4pm, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in uptown Charlotte.

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. Have a great weekend!

Do you like Seth Peagler, our Warehouse Manager and taciturn Hero? Sure we do!! Do you like to rock out for totally free? You know that’s right!! Are you a fan of musical genres including “Americana,” “Jazz,” “Rock,” “Blues,” and “More?” What are you kidding those are my top 5 musical genres in exactly that order!!Well, you are going to be pleased as punch when you enjoy Seth’s band American Motel, which is playing tonight at the Borders Morrocroft location, next to the “Taj Ma-Teeter” palatial Harris Teeter over by Southpark Mall. What? You don’t live in Charlotte and aren’t familiar with all these landmarks? You should already be in your car making the road trip, not reading blogs!!

Most of us will be there, if you like hanging out with us. And if you don’t, I believe there is enough seating for you to comfortably avoid us! Especially Shawn, who is on this new broccoli diet. Gross, Shawn! Okay see you there!

Lots of stuff going on this weekend in the comic book world!  Tomorrow (Saturday, August 22) will be the Greenville Sports Card & Comic Book Show, going on at the Greenville Elks Lodge #858, 7700 Pelham Rd, from 10am to 4pm!  Admission is just $2–if you keeps your eyes peeled you may espy our store manager Shawn Reynolds, who’ll most likely be making moon eyes at the guys from the Dollar Bin podcast and/or J. Chris Campbell, who did that zippy graphic up above there.  Sounds like a bargain for $2!

And if that weren’t enough, you can continue on down I-85 to Atlanta for Sunday’s Atlanta Comic Convention, happening at the Marriott Atlanta Century Center from 11am to 5pm.  Our boss Shelton Drum will be down there selling his sweet new stock of Silver and Golden Age books, plus regular back issues and probably some surprises.  He and Seth have been pulling out all the stops getting a really primo stock together, so if you’re anywhere near Atlanta on Sunday, be sure to stop by and check it out, or just say hi!  More info at the convention’s website.

While you may not always know to hear US talk about it, we’re not the only game in town when it comes to local comics conventions–our buddies Dave Hinson and Rick Fortenberry have been organizing the Charlotte ComiCon, for the last few years. It’s a seasonal one-day show, with the summer installment taking place this Sunday, July 12th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Charlotte. The show will go on from 10am to 4pm, and there are a host of guests and exhibitors you can check out at the official site. Our resident tough guys Seth Peagler and Rusty Baily will be manning the Heroes booth, so be sure to drop by and slap some high-fives with those guys.

Best of all, readers of our blog and this Friday’s Heroes Hotline will get an extra bonus! You can print out the coupon below and bring it in for $1 off your ticket price! You’re welcome!

Check out our pal Tommy Lee Edwards, who beyond being an amazing AMAZING artist on comics like Marvel: 1985 and more, is also a bigtime illustrator who’s worked for Lucasfilm among a ton of other high-profile clients. Tommy Lee is once more participating in the Ride For Kids program this year, which benefits the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. We love Tommy Lee and hope you can help, or pass this along to help get the word out. From TL’s e-mail:

“Giving my time as a motorcyclist is my way of showing support for those families battling every day with childhood brain tumors.

Last year, hundreds of North Carolina bikers and I traveled the Triangle area and contributed to a national fundraising total of $4.5 million. With generous donations from friends and family, I was able to personally deliver $9,350. This total earned me the title of “Champion Fundraiser”. Along with that honor, I will be leading this year’s ride as we strive to beat the 2008 total and get even closer to a cure.

The 2009 Ride for Kids is next weekend, May 3rd, and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation needs your help.

DONATE NOW to sponsor my ride
http://www.firstgiving.com/edwardsillustration

Our primary source of donations in 2008 came from teaming up with Lucasfilm. We shipped a limited-edition Star Wars print, illustrated and signed by me, to anyone donating a minimum of $30. I’ve been unable to gather the resources in time to offer the same incentive for donors this year, but have planted seeds for 2010.

For this year, I’ve decided to go for a wild blitz-week of fundraising. We have one week to raise as much as possible. The cut-off is May 1st. So if you can, please donate today.

You can visit my firstgiving website to make a donation. Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to make a contribution to our fundraising efforts. Large or small, anything helps. And please don’t feel any pressure to donate at all. Many of you may not be in a position to do so, or chose to put your funds toward a separate charity.”

In our continuing efforts to keep our readers aware of how many famous people we know, I wanted to point out that our chum Benji Hughes is going to be on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight, cold kickin it! If you haven’t heard of Benji before, he’s a Charlotte fixture, and recently his debut double album has gotten reviewed all over the place, including a four-star review in Rolling Stone. More important than that? MY opinion: this album is super great and will be your favorite album to listen to in your car for at least a couple of months, guaranteed.

Check your local listings, yo!

Going on this Saturday, December 27th is the Charlotte Comicon! Organized by our friends Dave Hinson and Rick Fortenberry, this one day comic show will be held once again in the Crowne Plaza Hotel on S. Macdowell Street in uptown Charlotte.

Shelton is really pulling out all the stops for this one, covering not one, not two, but SEVEN tables with comic books. If you didn’t get to make it to our big holiday sale a few weekends ago, he’ll have that extraordinary stock of dollar books out, dozens of boxes of comics, IN ORDER, all a buck a piece. AND he’ll have what has been a hugely popular stock of recent and “hot” books, which our man Seth has been updating and adding to each week, so it’s always fresh and ready for browsing!

AND of course he’ll have his excellent stock of classic Silver and Golden Age comics. Shelton has been hitting a ton of conventions lately, burning the candle at both ends, as they say; not to mention buying collections left and right. So if you haven’t seen him in a while, be sure to check out his stock at the Charlotte Comicon this weekend and see what’s new.

AND I ALMOST FORGOT! Shelton is going to have vouchers with him that you can bring back to our store to get 10% off all new comics and books and 25% off all regular back issues! What? No that’s right! And what’s more, if an item is already discounted in our store, that 10% will be additional! Note that this does NOT apply to reserve customer discounts. Sorry guys.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! Print out this here blog post and bring it in to the Charlotte Comicon to get $1 off admission! Or if you’re in our shop, Dave and Rick dropped off some postcards with the same $1 voucher on them for you!

OH BUT ONE MORE THING! Remembering that this Wednesday is the last day to get HeroesCon 09 tickets at the $25 price, Shelton is going to have a sheaf of ticket forms with him, so be sure and secure your lower-price tickets while you still can! Our 2009 Guest List already includes names like Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, and Jeff Smith, and you know that’s just the start. Don’t miss this opportunity to get in on the best comics convention of 2009 at a lower price!

This has been a crappy week for blogging (excepting of course Rich’s excellent weekly column), but the Heroes staff got hit hard this week by some sort of wild gypsy caravan of illnesses. Poor Shelton got not much of a post-sale rest, with the store understaffed pretty much all week.

But dry those sniffly noses! I wanted to write before I posted this week’s Hotline, to announce that our next big event is the Charlotte Minicon, coming up on January 17, 2009! That’s a little over a month from now, so be sure and save that date. Shelton started the Charlotte Minicon way back in 1977; this year it’ll be taking place again in the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall, located right down the street from our store at the corner of East 7th and East 5th streets.

After HeroesCon and Free Comic Book Day, this is the biggest event of the year for us. In the next week or so we’ll be announcing a guest list; we’re just waiting for a few more names to confirm before we announce them. Rest assured we’ll announce those names here on the blog and on the Heroes Hotline first! Stay tuned!