STAFF PICKS :: BATGIRL #35 :: OCTOBER 08, 2014

October 02, 2014 By: Rico Renzi Category: DISCUSS, Staff Picks

staff_picksrico_staff_picksRICO’S PICK :: BATGIRL #35: Project Rooftop has known it for years, passion for old characters can be reignited with a great costume redesign. This is tricky though. The entire New 52 launch was redesigned across the board with varying levels of success. An almost universally loved costume redesign for an established character is almost unheard of. Babs Tarr and Cameron Stewart have accomplished this rare feat with their Batgirl revamp which starts next week. Brendan Fletcher (co-writer of the wonderful Gotham Academy) is co-writing Batgirl along with Cameron Stewart while Stewart does layouts for Tarr who does the finished black and white art. The team is rounded out by brilliant cartoonist and HeroesCon darling Maris Wicks on colors. I’m looking forward to seeing where this team takes Barbara Gordon!
Batgirl35

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STAFF PICKS :: BATMAN BLACK & WHITE #1 :: SEPTEMBER 04, 2013

September 05, 2013 By: Justin Crouse Category: DISCUSS, Staff Picks

staff_picksjustin_staff_picksJUSTIN’S PICK :: BATMAN BLACK & WHITE #1: In the wake of DC’s massive roll-out of Forever Evil and Villains Month, it might be easy to overlook a black and white anthology, even if it does feature one of the greatest comic book icons of all-time. Batman as a character tends to attract comics’ top talent, and in that interest, DC has revived the Black & White series. Boasting a stunning cover by Marc Silvestri, this issue is a cornucopia of amazing art and writing, from Chip Kidd and Michael Cho‘s wonderful team-up tale to a Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy yarn by dream team Maris Wicks and Joe Quinones. Bat-luminary  Neal Adams flies solo, John Arcudi pairs nicely with Sean Murphy, and Howard Mackie and Chris Samnee round out this outstanding issue with a truly grisly character study of one of the Caped Crusader’s most intriguing villains. In the sound and fury of all these .1 issues, take a little quiet time with this gem, and revel in the art form we all love and appreciate.

silverstri batman b&w 1

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STAFF PICKS :: PRIMATES: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas :: JUNE 19, 2013

June 17, 2013 By: Rico Renzi Category: DISCUSS, Staff Picks

RICO’S PICK :: PRIMATES: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas: Jim Ottaviani has been making entertaining non-fiction comics for years now and when I heard he had Maris Wicks on art duty for his latest I was very excited! Ottaviani and Wicks have put together an informative book that never gets dry and is always entertaining. This is the kind of book you can give to someone who hasn’t fallen in love with comics yet to turn them on to the wonderful world of sequential art. I give this book 5 bananas way up!


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HEROESCON 2013 :: NEW STORE ARRIVALS!

June 17, 2013 By: Seth Peagler Category: DISCUSS, Feast Your Eyes, Heroes Aren't Hard To Find, HeroesCon, HeroesCon News, NEWS, Now Read This!

Every year during HeroesCon, we try to find time to run through Indie Island and pick up a few things we think should be in our store.  This year we managed to obtain a few excellent new items that we hope you’ll consider picking up during your next visit.

First up is an assortment of Michael Deforge books from our friends at Koyama Press.  Among them are Lose #2-4 and his newest collection, Very Casual.  Deforge’s art is interesting, trippy, and somehow still capable of appealing to all ages readers, as evidenced by his contributions to Adventure Time.

Speaking of Adventure Time, we stopped by Boom Studios‘ booth and picked up 43 – that’s right – 43 different covers from various Adventure Time comics.  More accurately, we picked up copies of Fiona and Cake #1-5, and Adventure Time (Finn and Jake) #1 – 16 plus copies of this year’s annual.  And, as I mentioned, there are multiple covers for many of these issues, including sought after ones by artists like Scott C., Maris Wicks, Joe Quinones, Stephanie Buscema, the aforementioned Michael Deforge, Jeffrey Brown, James Kochalka and more!

It wouldn’t be a HeroesCon if we didn’t stumble on a new small press book, and this year we found two from Galactic Press, a small Georgia-based company that introduced us to their books Galaxy Man and Hero Cats of Stellar City.  These are both fun all ages titles, with Galaxy Man offering up a twist on the Father/Daughter super hero team, and Hero Cats being…well…kind of self explanatory in its title.  We picked these up for our young customers, so if you’ve got young readers at home who are bored with the same old kinds of all ages stories, let them take a look at these during your next trip to Heroes.

As with every year, we had to stop by Adhouse Books.  Not only have they been a longtime anchor of Indie Island, and not only are they really great people, but they always have fascinating books on their tables.  This year we picked up another copy of the dense, epic masterpiece Duncan the Wonder Dog.  We’ve had this book in the past, but I couldn’t resist.  It’s really something to see and read, if you haven’t yet taken the plunge.

We also picked up copies of Pulpatoon Pilgrimage by Joel Priddy (outstanding cartooning), Bumperboy and the Loud, Loud Mountain by Debbie Huey(a fine all ages book), Ace Face: The Mod with the Metal Arms by Mike Dawson (another book with an aptly descriptive title), and Nobrow’s The Wolf’s Whistle by Bjorn Rune Lie and Co. (Think a European take on nursery rhymes filtered through the lens of Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox).

Also at the Adhouse booth I saw recent works from the guys behind Tell Me Something I Don’t Know, one of our favorite comics podcasts.  We picked up signed and sketched copies of Jim Rugg’s Drawings 030413.  If you liked last year’s Notebook Drawings, you’ll love this new sketchbook.  Jim continues to impress us with the virtuosity of his work, and his latest offering Supermag only solidifies the fact that he’s one of the most diverse cartoonists working today.  His podcast-mate Jasen Lex also had some books on display, and we picked up copies of Henchman, Washington Unbound #1, and The Bottom Feeders #1.  He’s another creator with a seemingly natural sense of design.  While I didn’t pick up any new books from their podcast-mate Ed Piskor, I did see even more of his pages from his upcoming Hip Hop Family Tree.  You might remember my interview with him about it HERE.  Trust me when I say that this is not only the visual history of a revolutionary genre of music, but one of the finest examples of cartooning I’ve seen of late.  If you haven’t pre-ordered it yet, let us know and we’ll make sure you get a copy.

Finally, as Sunday was winding down, the talented Maris Wicks stopped by the Heroes booth and we made sure to pick up a few copies of her (and Jim Ottaviani‘s) excellent new graphic novel Primates.  This book focuses on the work of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas, how they changed the science of Primate study, and brought an increased awareness to these astounding animals.

You can find all of these books and more in our store right now.  Thanks to all these companies and creators, and be sure to pick up some of these titles the next time you visit Heroes.

 

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HEROESCON 2013 GUEST LIST UPDATE :: TIM TOWNSEND! MING DOYLE! MARK MCHALEY! JOE QUINONES! & MORE!

January 10, 2013 By: Rico Renzi Category: Guest List, HeroesCon

While were pushing hard to get ready for the Charlotte MiniCon this month (register for your FREE pass here) we can’t forget about the big show coming up in June! We have a bunch of great guests to tell you about today! Get your HeroesCon 2013 tickets here, don’t miss the fun!

Please give a warm welcome back to Ming Doyle! Ming combines science fiction, super powers and sports in her new miniseries Mara (with Brian Wood) and we are happy she is returning to HeroesCon this year!


Tom Fleming is a talented painter who has worked on titles such as KULLElektraVampirellaHeavy MetalMagic: The Gathering and many more!

Artist Tom Lyle is also returning to HeroesCon 2013.  Tom has illustrated numerous books like Spider-manRobin,Punisher and Batman.  He’s also an instructor at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)!

Mark McHaley began his career when he was just 19 years old and since then he has illustrated for countless companies. Recently has done a wide array of sketch cards including DC Universe: Legacy, Indiana Jones: Heritage, Star Wars Galaxy 5 and Lord of the Rings: Masterpieces II. Check out his website for more!

Joe Quinones is well, I’m just going to let the beautiful Captain Marvel cover below do the talking. Geez Joe!


Robbi Rodriguez has self published 2 volumes of his acid western comic Frankie Get Your Gun and is working on the 3rd now. His first comics work was 2004’s Hero Camp followed by Image titles which include Night Club, 24seven vol.2 and Hazed. He also illustrated Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen and the Harvey nominated series Maintenance, published by Oni Press. Look for his new monthly series Collider from Vertigo later this year!

Tony Shasteen was the illustrator behind the Burn Notice graphic novel for DC Comics and USA Network, the Talisman graphic novel, co-written by Stephen King and Peter Straub, and 12 Gauge/Image Comic’s The Occult Crimes Taskforce (the O.C.T.), co-created by David Atchison and Rosario Dawson.

Tim Townsend pleased our eyes with his immaculate inks on Chris Bachalo’s Wolverine and the X-Men art in 2012 and this year he’s on Marvels big re-launch of Uncanny X-Men with Bendis and Bachalo. He’s been inking Marvel Comics for 20 years, stop by and wish him a happy anniversary!


Maris Wicks wowed us a few years ago with her beautiful Yes, Let’s comic and has continued to show that she is comfortable with all aspects of comic storytelling. From doing covers for Bravest Warriors and Adventure Time to writing scripts for Spongebob Comics. Check out her blog for more great drawings of your favorite superheroes as you’ve never seen them before!
Kubert School grad Thom Zahler’s Love and Capes series is a fan favorite. He has won awards for both his graphic design and illustration work. He is also a recurring presence on Cleveland broadcast media, both television and radio. He recently made the jump to the national spotlight as a contestant on the syndicated version of “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” where he won $32,000. He could have gone farther, but he didn’t know who the heck Charles Goren was.

 


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STAFF PICKS :: ADVENTURE TIME FIONNA & CAKE #01 :: JANUARY 02, 2013

January 01, 2013 By: Rico Renzi Category: DISCUSS, Staff Picks

RICO’S PICK :: ADVENTURE TIME: FIONNA & CAKE #01: Natasha Allegri, who works on TV’s Adventure Time, is writing AND drawing this 6-issue series starring the characters she created for the show. I’m a huge fan of Fionna and Cake and Natasha’s Tumblr is just about one of the funniest things you can see on the internet. So I’m not really sticking my neck out when I say this series is going to be great! And check out that sweet, sweet cover by my pals Joe Quinones & Maris Wicks!!

 

 

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