In case you missed hearing about this at our recent Charlotte MiniCon, Heroes is teaming with writer Matt Fraction for a special offer benefiting the American Red Cross and their Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.  Fraction wrote a special stand alone issue for Hawkeye #7 that directly deals with the hurricane.  In addition to writing the story, Fraction is donating all of his royalties from the issue to the Red Cross.  That means the more copies people buy, the more money the Red Cross will make.

In conjunction with Fraction and the Red Cross, Heroes is offering a special signed copy of Hawkeye #7 for $10.  As of this writing, there are less than 100 copies still available.  You can stop by the store and reserve your copy today.  All of the money we receive for this book will go entirely to the Red Cross, and each transaction will be kept separate from other store purchases.  Our costs for the book, shipping, and Matt’s time are all being handled by us and aren’t included in the $10 price of the book.  That means all of the money will go straight to the Red Cross and their relief efforts.  We’d also encourage you to donate more than $10 for the book if you’re able.

We applaud Fraction and his work to maintain awareness of the Red Cross and their work helping those afflicted by Hurricane Sandy.  Reserve your copy of Hawkeye #7 today and help us raise money for those who desperately need it.  

Are you ready for some HeroesCon 2013 news? Let’s get to it! HeroesCon 2013 will be our biggest and best show yet. We’ve announced a few of our fantastic guests here.

3-Day Passes are on sale now. If you order before the end of 2012 you will save almost 50% off the regular price for daily admission at the door. So order today to make sure you get that sweet discount!

We’ve also made Artists Alley tables available, these are first-come-first-served and they usually go fast! Reserve your space today!

Sign up for the Heroes Hotline (our twice-a-week newsletter) and check our blog frequently for more announcements and details about HeroesCon 2013! Follow on Twitter and like us on Facebook and we will make sure you are in the loop!  Thanks!

The gang here at Heroes is excited for a bunch of comics this week! Click through to see everyone’s Staff Picks and then come down to the store and see all these great new books for yourself!

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Before getting to this week’s  new books we’d like to take a minute to let you know that next week we’ll be kicking off some new segments on the Heroes Blog.  Instead of our usual Spotlight on New Releases column, we’ll be featuring a weekly Staff Picks column where different Heroes staffers offer insight into what new books they’re individually excited about.  Also, expect more reviews, interviews and guest columnists over the next several months.  As always, the Heroes Blog will remain the first place to receive any updates about HeroesCon and any of our store events like the  Heroes Pop Swap, the Charlotte Mini Con and more.  If you have any thoughts or suggestions about what you’d like to see on the Heroes Blog, leave a comment below or drop an email to chief bloggers Rico or Seth.  Thanks for reading!

1) Groo the Wanderer Artist Edition HC

I’ve written at length about the glory that has been the previous Artist Editions.  This week you can enjoy full sized Groo pages just as the great Sergio Aragones crafted them.  These are always worth a look, and any of the earlier editions are worthy of finding a home in your library.  They offer a new way of enjoying some of comics’ classic stories, and it’s hard not to be impressed by the large scale of these books.

2) National Comics: Eternity #1

Tired of continuity-thick comics and crossovers?  DC offers up an alternative to those with this new series.  These are stand alone comics designed to be accessible to readers of any kind.  This issue by Jeff Lemire and Cully Hamner features a new take on Kid Eternity, with the character this time around splitting time between heroics and a job as a medical examiner.  It’s worth a look just because of the talented creators involved with this issue.

3) Underwater Welder GN

Jeff Lemire is undoubtedly a prolific creator.  Somewhere between writing Animal Man, Frankenstein, Justice League Dark and writing and illustrating Sweet Tooth, Lemire found time to write and illustrate a brand new graphic novel.  This one features some themes familiar to Lemire fans, namely loss, family and isolation.  There are some truly impressive pages in this book, and Lemire seems to have grown even more confident and capable in his visual art.  Heroes Blog contributer Heather got a chance to read an advanced copy, and you can check out her review of it right HERE.

4) Secret Avengers #29

Rick Remender is thankfully still on board this book, but joining him for this one is Matteo Scalera.  Some of you who attended this year’s HeroesCon might remember his excellent Loki piece created for the art auction.  Scalera’s a good fit to kick off this new story that features the covert Avengers facing off against a brand new Masters of Evil.  All this and yet another fine cover by Art Adams!

5) DC Super Pets Galore!

There are six different new Super Pets books hitting the shelves this week, and all of them are perfect for your young reader.  Some of the titles include Cat Crime Club, Night of the Scaredy Crows and Swamp Thing vs. Zombie Pets.  Also, it’s worth mentioning that all of these are illustrated by Art Baltazar, who many of you will remember as the artist of Tiny Titans and the new Superman Family Adventures.  It’s a great week to pick up some new comics for your kids!

> Bonus Picks of the Week: X-treme X-men #1, Daredevil by Mark Waid vol. 1 TP, Manhattan Projects #5, Hit Girl #2, Star Wars: Blood Ties: Boba Fett is Dead #4, Before Watchmen: Comedian #2, Batula HC, Avengers #28, Wolverine and the X-men #14 and Flannery O’Conner Cartoons HC.

Batman: Incorporated #3 was supposed to be released this week, but out of respect for the victims and families of the recent Colorado tragedy, DC has pushed the release date back one month to August 22.  We’ll have the books available for you then.

We debuted our new store shirts at HeroesCon and quickly sold through our stock! We went back to press after the show and now they are available in the store and online. Did I mention how soft this shirt is? It’s super comfy. Buy yours today and wear it all summer long!

If you attended HeroesCon last month you know it was both the 30th Anniversary of our show and Love and Rockets by Los Bros Hernandez. You also know that Jaime Hernandez was kind enough to provide art for our shirts and program covers to commemorate this special event! These shirts were so popular that  they sold out at the show but Jaime has granted us permission to go back to press on these for those that missed out and for anyone that was unable to attend the show but would like to have one! The shirts will be available for pre-order on our site for a limited time. We only printed the pink and gray shirts for the show but we are going to make teal shirts available for pre-order too. We’ll keep this up for about a month before we go to press so order your today! Place your order here!

We will have lots of great new books on the shelf today but unfortunately Walking Dead #100 will not be one of them. We are expecting our shipment to come in on Thursday, July 12 and we’ll have them on our shelves as soon as they do. We apologize for the delay and we hope to see you soon!

Check out all the new items available in our online store! If you missed these things at HeroesCon 2012 now is your chance to get them!

Astonishing X-Men #51 :: HeroesCon 30th Anniversary Variant

Phil Noto was kind enough to create an image of Heroes owner Shelton Drum and his wife Linda for our very special Astonishing X-Men #51 variant cover. The image was professionally printed on label stock and placed on the blank area of the cover.

Available unsigned and signed by Shelton Drum and Linda d’Olivat

Adventure Time #5 HeroesCon Variant by Dave Cooper

Ultra-rare HeroesCon 2012 variant of Adventure Time #5!

This striking image of Finn and Jake went viral when it was posted online a few weeks before HeroesCon 2012. Now you can own it! Adventure Time #5 also features a guest story by Paul Pope!

Cover art by Dave Cooper

Only 500 on the planet!

New Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find Store T-shirt

Heroes logo 1 color (pale blue) screenprint on a dark grey heather, tri-blend t-shirt.

This shirt is so soft you won’t want to take it off!

Available in:

Unisex Fashion Fit: XS-XL

Standard Fit: 2XL-3XL

Spider-Men #1 :: HeroesCon 30th Anniversary Variant

SPIDER-MEN #1
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Penciled by SARA PICHELLI
Variant Cover by MARK BAGLEY

It’s rare for us to go to conventions and not walk away with cool new items to bring back to the store.  HeroesCon was no exception, and here are a few of the awesome books we picked up in case you missed these in your own travels.

1) Pterodactyl Hunters

This oversized offering from Brendan Leach and Top Shelf is really something to see.  Beautiful art on newsprint and a story featuring – you guessed it - big flying dinosaurs.  This one’s rightly getting some high praise.  Give it a look for yourself and you’ll see why.

2) Scott C. Books!

Awesome cartoonist/super friendly guy Scott C. had some great books at his booth this year. We were fortunate to pick up copies of his picture books Zombie in Love and East Dragon, West Dragon, along with Double Fine Action Comics vol. 1 and Amazing Everything, his wonderful art book.

3) Encore by Eric Canete

You may have seen this on Kickstarter, you may have heard fans raving about it, and now we’re happy to make this book available to our customers.  At a staggering 350 pages, this may well be the art book to end all art books.  Not only do you get a huge amount of art from the insanely talented Eric Canete, but you get chapter intros from the likes of Becky Cloonan, Rick Remender, Mark Chiarello and Dave Johnson.

4) Becky Cloonan minis!

If you loved her recent work on Conan the Barbarian or remember her Demo collaboration with Brian Wood, you owe it to yourself to check out Becky’s excellent minis Wolves and The Mire.  She’s a unique artist, and these books only solidify that fact.

5) Notebook Drawings by Jim Rugg

Jim Rugg’s a fantastic cartoonist.  Just pick up Afrodisiac again if you need a reminder.  This new book features Jim’s art as he prdouced them in wide ruled notebooks.  In addition to that novel approach, Jim produced these pieces using only ballpoint ink pens.  Just wait ’til you see what kind of incredible pieces he was able to conjure with such simple, everyday instruments.

Other books galore:  We also picked up a bunch of books from talented folks like Jeffrey Brown, Lilli Carre, Maris Wicks, Joe Quinones, Grant Reynolds and more.  They’ll all be available in the store starting this week, so give them a try and support some fine Indie books and creators.