It is official! The HeroesCon 2011 Guest List is up! With OVER 50 guests already confirmed HeroesCon 2011 is going to be crazy awesome. While the Guest List is pretty impressive now you just wait for what we have in store. It is bound to be a gigantically long list by the time Spring of 2011 rolls around.

The initial guest list is chock full of some of the best the comics industry has to offer. Trust me on that. When I updated the website I checked all the links to the creator’s websites and I came across some of the most incredible comic art out there today. Just look at some of the names we’ve got, Mike Perkins, Steve Niles, Sean Chen, Phil Noto, Adam Hughes, Allison Sohn, Brian Stelfreeze, Stephane Roux, Tim Townsend, Jonboy Meyers, Sean “Cheeks” Galloway, Jason Latour, Chris Brunner, Andy Smith, Budd Root, Tony Harris, Bernard Chang, Eric Canete, Dave Johnson, Steve Scott, Dexter Vines, and Cully Hamner! Go check out the full list to see just how awesome it is. And while you are there click on some of the links to our guests’ websites and you too can marvel at how talented these creators are!

Plus, we are very excited to announce Butch Guice‘s return to HeroesCon! He is a North Carolina native and a HeroesCon alum from way back to the very first one in 1982. The last time time he was at the show was when he helped kill off Superman! We sure are glad he has decided to join us for next year’s show!

And, we are super pumped to add Jeff Lemire to our Indie Island Guest List! Lemire is the creator of the Essex County Trilogy and is currently writing Sweet Tooth and The Atom co-feature in Adventure Comics. If that weren’t enough, in this month’s issue of Previews it was just announced that he will be writing the new ongoing Superboy series.

Speaking of Indie Island, our Indie Island Guest List is up too! We’ve got an awesome guest list already but it is just a grain of sand compared to the beach that it will become! We are proud to announce Indie Island regulars (which is almost the whole list!) Shannon Smith, Chris Schweizer, Jim Rugg, Liz Baillie, Joey Weiser, Joe Lambert, Ben Towle, Andy Runton and Rob Ullman, publishers AdHouse Books and Top Shelf Productions, as well as internet sensation Becky and Frank from Tiny Kitten Teeth! That’s not even the full list! Check out the Indie Island page to view the whole list in all of its glory!

I think the only thing that remains to be said is, have you bought your tickets yet?

Are you ready for this? I’m super excited about this and I hope you’re about to be too:

Kate Beaton of the insanely popular Hark! A Vagrant webcomic did our Indie Island shirt this year, and it’s a doozy! These will be on sale at the convention itself, in both American Apparel and Gildan styles, men’s and ladies sizes! How about that! That aqua in the background is the shirt color itself, and let me tell you: you are going to look so good in it! All the pirates on your street are gonna be like NUH-UH!! They’re being printed by our friends at Contagious Graphics, who are pretty much the best screenprinters ever–if you are looking for quality screenprinting, it would be hard to over-recommend them.

IF we have any shirts left after the convention, we’ll sell them to you by mail order, but I have to say I really expect this thing to sell insanely well, so you’re best bet is to either come to HeroesCon and buy one, or send your cabin boy in your stead.

But what? You don’t wear t-shirts? You have too much CLASS for a t-shirt?? Well how about a fancy-dan, high quality, suitable for framing, signed and numbered limited edition PRINT of said image? Ahoy webmaster, load that image:

Looks fancy to me! Printed on heavy cardstock, this little gem will be signed by Kate herself and on sale at the show for $10 a pop. Or you can get one afterwards by “mail.” If you’re currently berthed on a pirate raider, or are a pirate ghost chained to the mast of the Queen Anne’s Revenge… well, you made your pirate bed. Now pillage in it.

Oh my goodness, TWO updates today to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List, back to back, suckazzz! First we’ll do the “edgy” update, featuring the return of some sweet peeps to HeroesCon’s already star-studded Indie Island. Behold more stars for the studding:

JIM MAHFOOD (his shirt from HeroesCon 2008 pictured at right), returns in triumph again this year. Jim’s been in comics a ridiculously long time for someone so young, with work including Felt, Grrl Scouts, Clerks, and more recently Carl, The Cat That Makes Peanut Butter Sandwiches.

ANDY RUNTON, the eternally smiling creator of the Owly series of all ages graphic novels, and a perennial favorite at HeroesCon, will be located within the Top Shelf Tower of Power™ somewhere within Indie Island itself. If you’re a fan of Lost, think of it like the Temple.

ROB ULLMAN is the creator of Atom-Bomb Bikini, Grand Gestures, Lunch-Hour Comix, and the upcoming Sellout–he’s also a prime stop on the vaunted Heroes sketch circuit, so you guys that collect original art and con sketches, don’t miss out of Rob’s brushy goodness!

ROB VENDITTI has returned (for now) from his sojourn in the land of “Hollywood”, where they made a big movie out of his graphic novel The Surrogates. He’s still just “Rob From The Block” though, and you can catch him along with Andy in the aforementioned “T.o.P™”.

JASON YUNGBLUTH, creator of the Weapon Brown webcomic (among others) will be making his HeroesCon debut this year in Indie Island, adding to the already ridiculous lineup of webcomics creators we’ve got this year.

Oh! That reminds me, speaking of webcomics, I have a few cancellations to announce in Indie Island. Unsuperfortunately for us, KC Green and New Reliable Press publisher Ed Brisson have had to pull out of this year’s show, more than likely because they don’t like me. Sniff! Hopefully we can have them back in future years, once we get rid of .. me! Also cancelling his appearance is “Dashing” Ryan North, although he has a way better excuse: he’s getting married this summer, and has had to cut back on his convention appearances as a result. As Miracle Max said, true love is like “a nice MLT, mutton-lettuce-and-tomato, where the mutton is nice and lean. So perky, I love it!” So congrats to Ryan and his presumably blushing bride!

Okay! I’d say more but I need to get the next update out still! Whew!

New today to the HeroesCon 2010 Indie Island list: my super homey Paul Maybury, artist on the uber-acclaimed Aqua Leung and the forthcoming Act-I-Vate strip-turned-book Party Bear. Paul might do the best con sketches ever, they’re pretty nuts. I mean NUTS. I wish I had more money, I swear I do, because I would give it to Paul.

Also new is first-timer Ed Brisson, proprietor-in-chief of New Reliable Press, and publisher of the awesome You Ain’t No Dancer anthology, as well as Jan’s Atomic Heart and the brand new Horribleville, by fellow HeroesCon guest KC Green. Very excited that Ed is making the trip all the way from Vancouver for the show this year–be sure to stop by his table and make it worth the trip for him!

More updates coming tomorrow and Friday, including a fan-favorite all-ages artist AND  fan-favorite cover artist! Stay tuned!

Oh man, this is super exciting for me, I’m such a fan:

Sammy Harkham is one of the most influential cartoonists of his generation, maybe the most influential. That’s a crazy statement to make maybe, but heckfire, I have made it. Besides his very famous editing of the seminal Kramer’s Ergot anthology, the last iteration of which was a massive 16″ x 21″, and his more recent guest-editing of Bart Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror (itself a sort of Kramer’s reunion); my very favorite of Sammy’s work is his own Crickets. Crickets is a throwback of sorts to the great 80′s one-man anthologies like Yummy Fur, Love & Rockets (okay, 3-man in that case), etc. A recent casualty of the squeeze on indie publishers due to Diamond’s change in their minimum orders for small press books, a lot of people thought Crickets was dead. BUT #3 is due this summer, and I cannot tell  you how excited I am to tell you you can buy one from Sammy right smack in the middle of Indie Island. Sweet!

But listen, Sammy’s not the only person doing 1-man anthologies (1-manthologies?)–he’ll be joined at HeroesCon this summer by cohort and friend John Pham. John is the proprietor of Sublife, which I think will see a third issue this year as well. He’s also been in another great anthology, Mome. I think I first twigged to his work when Chris Staros hand-sold me a copy of Epoxy, which maybe he was distributing for John back in 2000 or so? Chris also sold me my first copy of Kramer’s Ergot (#3). Which I hated. Hey listen, people change, I never promised you a rose garden.

Oh! But there’s more good news! Returning to HeroesCon this year will be mighty Tom Scioli, co-creator of Godland and the creator of The Myth of Opus-8. Tom is a sweet dude and extraordinarily knowledgeable about comics. Most recently he did the art for the Freedom Force comic, as well as writing and drawing the “Space Smith” stories in Image’s The Next Issue Project.

Man, those are three quality dudes. But there’s more to come this week, so stay tuned!

Five studly new names this week for HeroesCon’s already-epic Indie Island, let’s splash right in shall we?

EVAN DAHM is one of the fastest-rising stars of the webcomics community–while he’s appeared at HeroesCon before, this year marks his first appearance as an invited guest. At last year’s HeroesCon Jeff Smith brought Evan’s book Rice Boy up to Chris Pitzer and I and basically forced us to go buy it; he was freaking out about it. Having the creator of one of the best comics of all time hand-selling your book at conventions… well, there are worse problems to have. Plus we’re extra super proud of Evan, as he’s a North Carolinian, hailing from lovely Asheville!

JOSH LATTA is from some southern part of North Carolina called “Georgia,” but he’s a sweet guy so we don’t hold it against him much. No stranger to Indie Island, Josh is the creator of the Rashy Rabbit series of minicomics, and has appeared in a ton of anthologies, most notably J. Chris Campbell’s Wide Awake Press anthologies like Ancient Age and Piltdown!

MIKE MAIHACK is another making his debut as an invited guest–he’s the man behind the webcomics Cleopatra In Space and Cow & Buffalo. You may have also espied his work in the Eisner-winning Comic Book Tattoo anthology. He’s a popular sketch-destination at cons, so you sketch-hounds put him on your list and hit him quick before his list fills up at the show!

ED PISKOR is the kind of success story I like to hear about. After first working in comics under Harvey Pekar illustrating American Splendor stories, Ed hit the stratosphere after his fictional hacker-bio comic Wizzywig got mentioned on the influential Boing Boing site. I think Ed has sold upwards of a thousand copies of the first volume all by himself, which is kind of crazy for small press comics. The third volume just came out, and I’m looking forward to picking up Volume 3 at the show. Although I probably could just go ahead and buy it if I wanted to.

And lastly is “Good Ol’” JIM RUGG, who some of you met a couple of Sundays ago as part of the Afro-Tour. Jim is one of the most fascinating people I’ve talked to in comics circles, the way his brain works is pretty interesting. And don’t even get me started on his comics–the just released Afrodisiac is killing on all levels, selling a ton and garnering some incredibly positive critical praise. And with good reason, too! Check out the wraparound cover I stole off of Jim’s Flickr page:

This year’s Indie Island is shaping up to be even more insane than the mammoth 2008 edition. If you don’t believe me, just check out the Guest List–and remember it’s still February, and we’ll be adding names all the way into May! Goodness gracious.

Today the ranks swell by five more, all high quality people of decent and law-abiding backgrounds, all ready to meet you and maybe shake your hand if you look clean. Alphabetically kicking things off is the redoubtable (I had to check on what that word means to make sure it’s not an insult) Evan Dorkin, he of Milk & Cheese fame. Although recently he’s almost better-knowned for the successful Beasts of Burden minseries from Dark Horse, beautifully painted by fellow-guest Jill Thompson.

Evan is coincidentally followed alphabetically by his wife Sarah Dyer, who’s known for her Action Girl Comics series in the 90′s, not to mention as an Eisner Award-nominated colorist for her work on Dave Lapham’s Amy Racecar specials, Hellboy: Weird Tales, and more. But these days she’s a writer whose worked with Evan, on the original Beasts of Burden story in Dark Horse Book of Monsters, and Superman Adventures; as well as writing English-language adaptations of manga like DNAngel and Snowdrop, and most exciting (for me) as a writer and designer for the awesome Yo Gabba Gabba TV show. I could watch that show all day, and I don’t even have kids. It’s totally hypnotic.

While I think Van Jensen made his first “official” appearance in Indie Island last year, he’s more famous this year–his book Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer was recently nominated for all kinds of YA book industry awards, and it’s sort of “blowin up,” which is to say that more and more people are liking it all the time, and also buying it. Just in case you’re not hip to that slang. Van is a super sweet dude too, he hangs with that Top Shelf crowd, and I don’t think there’s a mean one in that bunch, so they probably calmed him down from the wild wooly behavior of his youth.

Brad McGinty is no stranger to HeroesCon, he’s been exhibiting for years and is a workhorse without compare. He’s got super-curly hair too, like a young dark-haired version of–what’s that guy that played the Greatest American Hero?–that guy. Anyway, when Brad isn’t a studly animator, he is a cartoonist without compare, most recently in the pages of his Tobey McGuire Comics & Stories, Wysteria, and tons more. Welcome back to Bradwick!

Rounding out our list this week is a pretty wildly popular webcartoonist, furthering my goal of having the whole Internet as guests at HeroesCon. David Malki! first came to the show back in 2008, but we have made up and agreed to disagree and he’s coming back this summer! David, if you don’t know, is the cartoonist/designer behind the wildly popular Wondermark online strip, the fourth collection of which, Dapper Caps & Pedal-Copters, is scheduled for an April release! David’s weird blend of old-timey stuff with new-timey stuff is pretty hilarious, I think this is his most recent strip (click on it to read the whole thing on his site:

Oh man it’s an all-star indie comics revue today, very exciting for Indie Island! Attending his first ever HeroesCon will be Mome contributor and Covered blogger-in-chief Robert Goodin. Many of you thrilled to his book The Man Who Loved Breasts last year from Top Shelf, and his religiously-tinged historical comics in Mome are some of my very favorites. Man, I sure do love Mome. Monsieur Goodin is coming all the way from sunny Pasadena for HeroesCon, so be sure and make him feel welcome!

Also traveling from the West, although in this case the Mid-West, is returning Indie Island champeen Matt Kindt, whose book Superspy was a huge hit for him a few years ago. Matt followed that up with 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man, and this year will see the publication of Revolver and The Tooth. Whew! Matt always has a ton of little geegaws and gimcracks for sale at conventions, and does primo sketches, often in watercolor!

Hailing from much closer are Drew Weing and Joey Weiser, who will be driving up again this year from Athens, Georgia for HeroesCon. Drew is the cartoonist behind the GORGEOUS “Set To Sea“, which Fantagraphics will be publishing this summer. He’s also known for him minicomics and his many many strips in Nick Magazine and Disney Adventures.

Joey is the author of The Ride Home and Tales of Unusual Circumstance, and has been making waves lately in comics circles for his unique way of funding his next graphic novel, Cavemen In Space. Love to see the Southern cartoonists mixing it up on the world stage, it warms my heart it does.

Man, Indie Island is looking RIDIC for this year (short for ridiculous)!! RIDIC!

Yessir! New to the HeroesCon Indie Island Guest List for the first time ever this year is one of my very favorite cartoonists, Ken Dahl–I’m pretty excited to have Ken (or Gabby, as most people know him–Ken Dahl is a pseudonym AS IF YOU COULDN’T TELL) as a guest, and I suspect I’m not the only one. Gabby’s book Monsters was on pretty much every critic’s “best of” list for 2009, so many that it ended up #6 on the “meta-list”, compiled by the guys at the I Love Rob Liefeld comics blog. Gabby’s a pretty amazing cartoonist, and I suspect still with his best work ahead of him–there are worse places to be than there.

Gabby is joined this week by his fellow Punchbuggy Tour member (along with already-guestified Liz Baillie) MK Reed, who self-publishes her own Cross Country books, and has a a book coming out from First Second in 2011. In fact, I am informed that HeroesCon will be the final stop on Gabby, Liz, and MK’s Punchbuggy Tour, and they’ll be doing readings and discussions and all manner of public panel stuff at the show to celebrate.

And they are joined by up-and-comer Sally Bloodbath, who sharp-eyed attendees may recognize from early Indie Island appearances as a talented helper of Liz and MK’s. This year Sally has attained full-blooded Guest status, and we are happy to have her. She co-edits the anthology Always Comix, and does pretty hilarious (and angry) comics of her own.

While not affiliated with these guys or Punchbuggies other than friend-wise, Chris Schweizer is a popular guest each year in Indie Island, almost since the first one back in 2005. This year he returns on the wings of success, in this case the critical success of his all-ages adventure series, the first volume of which (Crogan’s Vengeance) was published last year. Or late 2008? Crap, now I can’t remember. Anyway, it’s great and Chris is better!

Okay, another non-indie update in the next day or so, but these guys kept emailing me to ask if I was ever going to add them, so it was the best way to shut them up!

Whoa whoa WHOA! Joining the Indie Island Guest List today are two more super-duper high profile greats of the webcomics scene, joining what is already a pretty web-tastic list. I mean, Kate Beaton, Anthony Clark, Danielle Corsetto, KC Green, Chris Hastings, Ryan North… who else is there?

Well, Meredith Gran for one, the creator of the hit Octopus Pie comic–Octopus Pie is one of the few comics that gets mentioned to me by my non-comics friends, I even had buddies asking me to bring them back her cool pint glasses from SPX, where I met her last year. Besides her acclaimed comic, she’s also the source of a treasure-trove of merchandise, like most of the webcomics success stories of the last few years. And while she’s published several books on her own, she’s recently signed her first official book deal, although I can’t remember if the publisher is secret or not. Probably not, but I’d better not say just in case, plus I can’t remember if I’m even remembering it right. Anyway, it’s a pretty massive publisher, I was kinda shocked when I heard. This is why I’m not a journalist.

BUT, as if that weren’t enough for one day, we also today added fellow web luminary R Stevens, who does the crazy popular Diesel Sweeties strip, which updates an insane 12 times a week?? Mr Stevens is also the head of his own internet empire; and like Meredith isn’t content with just t-shirts. He’s got his own line of “Pixel Socks” and “Pixel Ties”, although I’m not sure that they match, or should be worn together at all. I know you’re not supposed to combine plaid and stripes, but I’m not sure what the rules are on pixel art. Truly we live in an ever-changing landscape.

Okay! Pretty exciting stuff, guys. More updates next week, both for Indie Island and good ole “Original” HeroesCon!