On Saturday we held our annual Charlotte Minicon, one of the oldest one-day shows in the country! The turnout was great, with over 450 through the door, and there were smiles all around! People turned out not only to meet our guests–including (deep breath) Greg Adams, Duane Ballenger, Chris Brunner, J. Chris Campbell, Ian Flynn, Georges Jeanty, Jason Latour, Buddy Prince, Budd Root, and Andy Smith–but to enter our door prize drawings. We drew 5 different prizes, each consisting of a copy of the white-hot Amazing Spider-Man #583, with the last one being the SUPER hot Obama variant! Even better, the Obama variant was donated by our bud Paul from Dominion Comics in Lynchburg, Virginia! I think Paul earned himself a “Minicon MVP” award there. Thanks Paul!

But if it were up to me, I’d give MVP Honorable Mention to our own Seth, who (once again) made us all look bad by being the first one in with Shelton at 7 in the morning, and the last one out when we loaded back out that night! Seth makes the rest of us employees look bad, but we’re working up a smear campaign to take some of the wind out of his sails, don’t you worry!

Also earning a prize of some kind (Booby Prize? No-Prize?) is Shelton and his lady-love Linda’s dog Bodie, a puppy that they miss no opportunity to show off, carry around, or just accept generally accept and agree with compliments over. Linda brought Bodie by in the afternoon, and suddenly all the pictures Shelton was taking, which were previously of the guests, dealers, or crowds, became all about Bodie, Bodie, Bodie. I admit though–he IS a cute dog.

These are just a few of the pictures Shelton took, but you can see the whole set over at our Flickr page. Check it out, and while you’re there, feast on the bajillion other pictures! If we don’t see you in the store, we’ll see you one month from now for the George Romero signing in our store! More details to come!

Shelton just walked into the office to say that he’d had a dream. “What was it?” I asked, expecting something wild, something bizarre.

“We’re going to give away door prizes tomorrow at the Minicon.”

“Door prizes.”

“Yes, door prizes. A copy of the first print of Spidey #583 every hour. And one of them will be the Obama variant cover.” I swear this is what happened. This is how Shelton talks ALL THE TIME. In his dreams, he is thinking about Spider-Man comic books. ALL THE TIME.

But his dream will come true! When you come to the Charlotte Minicon tomorrow, bring in the postcard we sent out this week, and you’ll be registered for one of the FIVE door prizes, which will be a copy of the incredibly hard to find, already going to a 3rd printing, Amazing Spider-Man #583 FIRST PRINT! AND, also per Shelton’s magnificent dream, ONE of those copies will be the EVEN HARDER to find Obama variant cover!

If you didn’t get a postcard, DON’T WORRY–just sign up for our mailing list at the Minicon and you’ll be registered too!

And of course, there’s plenty more besides the door prizes going on: there’ll be dealers from all over the Southeast, and a guest list including Georges Jeanty, Budd Root, Andy Smith, and more! See our original post or scroll to the post below this one on our blog to get all the details.

The Charlotte Minicon will go on from 11am to 5pm in the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall (2601 E. 7th. St., click here for Google map). From our store at 7th & Pecan, head east (AWAY from uptown) to the very next light, at 5th Street. Fireman’s Hall will be on the left, and there’ll be signs a-plenty that Shelton will put out early that morning. This is presuming that he doesn’t have another wild dream and oversleeps. See you there!

This Saturday is the 2009 Charlotte Minicon! Going on in the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall (2601 E. 7th. St., click here for Google map). See below for details! This is one of the oldest 1-day conventions in the country, and with all the buzz this week over the hard-to-find Amazing Spider-Man #583 with the Obama backup story, attendance is sure to be through the roof! There’ll be dealers from all over the Southeast, plus a bevy of awesome artists and writers:

Just added to the guest list of the 2009 Charlotte Minicon is Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 artist GEORGES JEANTY! Georges is an old friend of ours, and a regular guest at HeroesCon, so we’re extra proud of how high his star has risen lately. If you’ve never met Georges (pronounced almost exactly how it looks, like GEORGE-ess), he’s a super sweet guy, and is sure to be a popular guest at the show.

ALSO NEW to the list, and no less sweet, are good ole GREG ADAMS (Thunderbolts, Excalibur) and Charlotte local BUDDY PRINCE (Night). They join an existing guest list including:

CHRIS BRUNNER: Gotham Central, Loose Ends (forthcoming)

J. CHRIS CAMPBELL: Zig Zag, Project: Superior

IAN FLYNN: Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic X

JASON LATOUR: 24/7, The Expatriate, Loose Ends

BUDD ROOT: Cavewoman

ANDY SMITH: 52, Green Lantern

Add to that some of the biggest and best comics dealers from all over the Southeast, not to mention a huge number of fans, and you’ve got the Charlotte Minicon. Going on Saturday, January 17, from 11am to 5pm. Admission will be $2 per person, and the event will once again be held in the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall: from our store, just head east on 7th Street until you get to your first light at 5th St. Fireman’s Hall is on the left!

And before I forget, Ian Flynn informs us that he may have a ton of Sonic freebies available while supplies last, so be sure and bring your kids! If you have any questions, feel free to post in the Comments section below!

Just added to the HeroesCon 2009 Guest List are an old chum and a new chum. Adam Hughes is one of the most reconizable and sought-after artists in comics, and one of our very dearest and best friends. He and fellow new-to-2009-guest-list-artist Allison Sohn are part of the “spine” of the convention, which is hard to imagine without them, frankly.
Loston Wallace is no stranger to HeroesCon either. And this year sees the release of his new book Lorna Relic Wrangler from Image Comics!

David Petersen is the creator of the extra-super-popular comic Mouse Guard, now in its second series. David’s making his very first appearance at a HeroesCon, joining what promises to be our most massive Indie Island yet, which already includes luminaries like Jeff Smith, Ben Templesmith, and a bunch more, and to which we’ll be adding half a dozen MORE names to next week!

This year’s HeroesCon is already shaping up to be IMMENSE! Look for announcements over the coming weeks regarding more HUGE names, some brand new incentives, and more! And don’t miss the Charlotte Minicon this weekend!

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week.

5. FINAL CRISIS #6 (of 7)
Written by Grant Morrison; Art and covers by J.G. Jones and Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino
DC Comics
$3.99 | 40pgs

If you read the last issue of Grant Morrison’s Batman: RIP and thought “hey wait a minute, Batman didn’t really die” well, he might die here since this is now billed as the actual end to that story. Yeah I don’t get logic of these cross-pollinating event books either. But then again, superhero stories never really end anyway, do they? Who knows what’s really going to happen in this book which is definitely turning out to be a crazy bit of superhero ragnarok as Darkseid is reborn and reshapes the world into a nasty place. I don’t know for sure if Batman is going to die in this issue but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that something potentially earth-shattering could happen here.

4. HOUSE OF MYSTERY VOL 1
Written by Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham; Art by Luca Rossi, Ross Campbell, Sean Murphy, Zachary Baldus, Steve Rolston and Jill Thompson; Cover by Sam Weber
DC Vertigo
$9.99 | 128pgs

I mentioned this book in this list before, back when the first issue was released, and it’s worth mentioning now that the first softcover collection is out because it’s been one of Vertigo’s highest acclaimed new books. Not surprising since it comes from the creative minds of Vertigo’s most acclaimed books – the Fables franchise. Bill Willingham and Matthew Struges write this anthology series that is structured around a supernatural bar in which the patrons pay their way by telling strange and otherworldly stories.

This first volume collects the first 5 issues of the series and like all first volume Vertigo books it’s priced at an affordable $9.99 so to make sampling a new book that much easier.

3. TALES OF OUTER SUBURBIA
By Shaun Tan
Arthur A. Levine
$19.99 | 96 pgs

Shaun Tan’s last book The Arrival was a critically acclaimed book that was part graphic novel, part collection of beautiful full page prints. His work takes the fantastic elements of children’s book and renders them realistically into our own world. Here he presents fifteen short stories in which a strange situation occurs in the down to earth reality of suburbia. Things like a wise water buffalo that lives in a vacant lot, a nut-size foreign exchange student named Eric and a sea creature that appears on a family’s front lawn.

2. DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN PREMIERE HC
Written by Frank Miller; art by David Mazzucchelli
Marvel
$24.99

There’s been a lot of Frank Miller reprints flooding the shelves lately, especially of his long and historic run on Daredevil, but this is the one that it’s all about. This is the one where then-regular Daredevil artist, David Mazzuchelli, transformed into the master storyteller he’s known as today. This is the one where Frank Miller went from being a successful writer/artist of ongoing montly comics to a creator (and collaborator) that told complete, self-contained and character-defining stories. And this is the one where Daredevil became a book that would be here on out about the main behind the mask, Matt Murdock.

Yeah, it gets a little crazy in that last chapter with that very ’80’s bad guy– the bare-chested, drug-addicted, Vietnam Vet named Nuke – but this is an amazing book that reads like a great film. So good that it took almost 20 years for the book to live up to it, when Brian Michael Bendis finally made it great again with his run a few years ago.

1. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #583
Written by Mark Waid; art by Barry Kitson
Marvel
$3.99

Is your Collector-sense tingling? If so you better hit the store early this morning because this one is going to go fast. The latest comic release to get a barrage of mainstream media coverage is also a comic that features our President-elect on the cover and if you tried to buy a newspaper on the day after he was elected you’ll have an idea of how fast this book is going to fly off the shelves. Not to mention the fact that the book has probably been underordered since no one expected the media flurry. Bring your own mylar bags!

Barack Obama actually only appears in a backup story of this issue. The main story deals with Peter Parker going on a date or something. But this is the first time Obama has appeared in the Marvel Universe which historically sticks close to the real world as far as presidents go, unlike DC which has people like Lex Luthor as president.

Plus, Obama is an admitted comic fanboy who used to collect Spidey comics so you know this has got to make him feel pretty cool (I mean if he has room to feel any cooler than he already does).

AND THEN WE HAVE THESE…

PIGEONS FROM HELL VOL 1
Collecting the creepy mini-series by Joe R. Lansale with great art from newcomer Nathan Fox

BPRD: BLACK GODDESS #1
A new mini-series of the best Hellboy series that doesn’t have Hellboy in it.

RASL VOL 1: DRIFT
A quickie collection of the first few issues of Jeff Smith’s new post-Bone series.

by Jen Van Meter and Cully Hamner
reviewed by Carlton Hargro.

I hate Black Lightning.

And, honestly, I hate him mostly because I’m black.

You see, African-American comic readers — especially guys my age — have been subjected to a legion of lame black characters over the decades, and Black Lightning is one of the lamest.

I mean, here’s a guy who wore a 1970s-inspired costume with big, flyaway collars until the 1990s — and a mask that was attached to a huge afro wig.

On top of that, the guy had lame powers and lame villains (like the fat gangster Tobias Whale). Moreover, he was another brother (one of many and plenty) fighting crime in “the hood” while guys like Green Lantern were flying to other planets.

Taking my hate for the character into consideration, you shouldn’t be surprised to hear that I wasn’t excited about picking up Black Lightning: Year One #1. I figured that any re-telling of the character’s first year in action would be some lame storyline involving BL fighting gangs in the ghetto. After reading the comic, however, I’m happy to say that I was only partially right about the series.

In BL:Y1, the hero does fight gang members, but the story — by writer Jen Van Meter — is far from lame. The issue does wonders for showing BL as a complex person, instead of one-note B-lister. Read an old issue of The Outsiders, and BL comes off very Tabula Rasa-ish. But Meter presents him as someone who gets angry, has hopes and sometimes gets things wrong.

On the art side of things, I have to admit that Cully Hamner really put his foot in these pages (that’s a compliment). His line work, as usual, is clean and confident. You’ve got to love an artist like Hamner, who gets the storytelling right, fills the background with great details and still serves up everything with his own stylized personal style. I wish all these wannabes artists who swipe from manga art could learn lessons from Hamner.

Oh and, still focusing on the art, the colors — by Laura Hamilton — are very much on point: rich, moody and cinematic.

After reading this, do I still hate BL the superhero? Yep. But, I’ll be sticking with this series.

Carlton Hargro is the editor-in-chief of Creative Loafing. For more reviews from Carlton Hargro, visit the Arts section at http://www.charlotte.creativeloafing.com/.

THIS JUST IN!

Just added to the guest list of the 2009 Charlotte Minicon is Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 artist GEORGES JEANTY! Georges is an old friend of ours, and a regular guest at HeroesCon, so we’re extra proud of how high his star has risen lately. If you’ve never met Georges (pronounced almost exactly how it looks, like GEORGE-ess), he’s a super sweet guy, and is sure to be a popular guest at the show.

ALSO NEW to the list, and no less sweet, are good ole GREG ADAMS (Thunderbolts, Excalibur) and Charlotte local BUDDY PRINCE (Night). They join an existing guest list including:

CHRIS BRUNNER: Gotham Central, Loose Ends (forthcoming)

J. CHRIS CAMPBELL: Zig Zag, Project: Superior

IAN FLYNN: Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic X

JASON LATOUR: 24/7, The Expatriate, Loose Ends

BUDD ROOT: Cavewoman

ANDY SMITH: 52, Green Lantern

Add to that some of the biggest and best comics dealers from all over the Southeast, not to mention a huge number of fans, and you’ve got the Charlotte Minicon. Going on Saturday, January 17, from 11am to 5pm. Admission will be $2 per person, and the event will once again be held in the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall: from our store, just head east on 7th Street until you get to your first light at 5th St. Fireman’s Hall is on the left!

And before I forget, Ian Flynn informs us that he may have a ton of Sonic freebies available while supplies last, so be sure and bring your kids! If you have any questions, feel free to post in the Comments section below!

Hello to 2009! Maybe it’s just my own infectious enthusiasm, but it seems like everyone I talk to is thinking that 2009 is going to be a really great year. We tend to agree; and how could so many of us be wrong?

Just in terms of our little corner of the world, here in your friendly neighborhood comics shop, we’ve got an enormous year planned. Check out this short list, just off the top of my head:

–Our first Discussion Group of the year will be January 12, and feature the most critically acclaimed book of 2008, BOTTOMLESS BELLY BUTTON.

–The Charlotte Minicon, now in its fourth decade, going on January 17.

–An in-store appearance by acclaimed director George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead) on February 20.

—Free Comic Book Day going on the first Saturday in May (May 2).

–One of the biggest HeroesCon‘s ever, with a guest list that already includes names like Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, and Jeff Smith: June 19-21.

And that’s just the FIRST HALF of the year! Good gravy!

Oh, but while I’m on the subject of the New Year, I thought I’d mention that 29 years ago today, on January 2, 1982, then 27-year old Shelton Drum opened up Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find in a tiny, closet-sized location on Central Avenue. Today the store is one of the most well-known in the country, not to mention my employer for give or take the last 12 years. Happy Birthday, Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find, and Happy New Year’s to all of you!

As I type, 2008 is almost gone; I am already looking forward to 2009, I must admit. But I wanted to remind everyone who might see this in the next 6 hours or so that today is the last day to get your HeroesCon 2009 advance 3-day passes for just $25. As of tomorrow, they’ll be $30 apiece.

We’ll most likely be closing early tonight, sometimes after 6pm, depending on how much business there is. So if you can’t get us on the phone at 704.375.7462, just go download the ticket form, print and fill it out with your charge info, and fax it to us at 704.375.7464. Any faxes we receive before midnight will be honored at the $25 price.

Thanks to everyone who has already purchased their tickets–2009 looks like a MASSIVE year for HeroesCon. And to all of you, please have a safe and happy New Year’s! See you next year!

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!