Well, I hadn’t planned on making another update to our HeroesCon 2009 Guest List until tomorrow, but Shelton informed me yesterday that he has a list of over 100 guests that need to get added STAT! So it looks like the month of April is going to be a wild tidal wave of HeroesCon announcements–whew! Let’s enjoy this time of relative quiet for the hour or so we have left, and reflect upon today’s awesome addition!

Returning to HeroesCon this summer is Goon creator ERIC POWELL! With The Goon in production as a David Fincher-produced movie, you can bet we’ll be name-dropping Eric like crazy to all of our friends pretty soon. But you can still meet him in person this June at HeroesCon! Besides his work writing and drawing (and often painting) The Goon, Eric has worked all over comics on series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, The Avengers, and dozens more.

Also coming back to HeroesCon this year is acclaimed artist JOHN PAUL LEON. John is probably most famous as the artist of Earth X, as well as the original artist on the cult-favorite Static series. But more recently he’s known as the artist on the critically acclaimed The Winter Men series. Look for the addition of John’s buds in The Blvd Studio in the coming weeks!

But wait there’s more! Also joining the Guest List today are:

WILL ALLRED, an Arkansas native and writer of Diary of Night, illustrated by fellow guest Gene Gonzales. Look for more work by Will in 2009 from Bloodfire Studios.

THOMAS BOATWRIGHT is the artist on Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo, Cemetery Blues, and the forthcoming Zeke Deadwood, AND a Harvey and Eagle Award nominee!

FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA is about as nice as they come, and has a totally sweet Italian accent to boot. His bio gets more impressive every year, these days including work on Zorro and Scalped, as well as the upcoming Wildstorm series Garrison!

MICAH HARRIS is the writer of the Heaven’s War graphic novel, illustrated by Michael Gaydos. A North Carolina native, Micah has become a fixture at HeroesCon over the years, as we hope you have as well!

Okay: still another big update tomorrow, and–who knows?–maybe a FOURTH one on Friday! Get ready for HeroesCon 2009!

Another Indie Island update today, as I continue my struggle to push through the dozens of people clamoring to join our HeroesCon 09 Guest List! Plus now that Small Press Tables are sold out, space is even dearer than ever! It’s going to be some kind of crowded this summer at HeroesCon! But back to today’s announcement:

New to the Indie Island list today is PAUL MAYBURY, artist and co-writer of the hit Aqua Leung graphic novel, as well as his ACT-I-VATE webcomic Party Bear! Paul is a returning guest to Indie Island, and we’re excited to have him back!

Also returning this year is JOEY WEISER, the creator of the all-ages friendly The Ride Home, as well as Tales of Unusual Circumstance. His latest mini-comics is The Late-Night Gang.

And lastly but not leastly is newcomer STEPHEN FLOYD, another Center For Cartoon Studies alumnus, and co-founder of the esteemed One Percent Press! Vermont will be well-represented at this year’s HeroesCon!

Okay–look for another announcement later in the week, this one centering around a certain group of Georgians we’re partial to… see you then!

I’ve referred often to the massive stack of announcements I’m trying to work my way through–I’d say more than half of them are for Indie Island! Every time I’m about to announce some new indie studs, someone like Frank Cho or Guy Davis will confirm and I have to rev up our mighty publicity engine. Not that Frank and Guy are more important than my indie guys–but maybe I feel like the indie guys are my guys, and I don’t want to favor them too much? Who cares! The important thing is I have a ton of guys to add to the HeroesCon 09 Guest List still, including:

LAMAR ABRAMS, who’s attending his very first HeroesCon this year. His new book REMAKE is coming out this summer, maybe even in time for HeroesCon, and looks like it’s pretty awesome. I read the whole preview, and I never read those things.

CHUCK “MCBUCK” FORSMAN is the creator of the double-Ignatz winning Snake Oil, as well as one of the creators of the Sundays anthology, as well as one of the crop of recent Center for Cartoon Studies alums who seem poised to reinvent comics over the next few years. I love this guy.

JOE LAMBERT is not lucky enough to have a middle name with quotes, like Chuck. Maybe that’s why everyone likes Chuck better–Joe didn’t win any Ignatz’s last year. But he DID do the endpapers to the 2008 Best American Comics, as well as his own Turtle Keep It Steady, numerous anthology stories, and also CCS alum-hood.

ALEC LONGSTRETH doesn’t need any quotes to have everyone love him. He’s the super-popular creator of the Phase 7 series, as well as having comics featured all over in books like Papercutter and the Awesome Anthology series. He also has a beard that would make Bin Laden blush.

Speaking of Papercutter, it ALSO won a bunch of Ignatz’s last year (the Ignatz is kind of like the indie version of the Eisners). It’s edited and published by last-but-not-least guest GREG MEANS, who runs Tugboat Press and occasionally makes his own minicomics.

Woo! Okay, I still have about 12-15 people to get to–if you’re a confirmed guest and haven’t shown up yet, I’m getting to you! See you next week!

When it comes to comic book villains, I’m from the camp that likes bad guys bad.

I don’t like tragic figures, misunderstood monsters, or anti-heroes. I like motivated, organized, methodical meanies who plot and scheme to do terrible things to all kinds of people, places and things on a regular basis. So — for example — I’ll take Lex Luthor over the Lizard and Dr. Doom over Black Adam.

Yes, I’m all for the humanizing of super baddies; I mean, it never hurts to add multiple dimensions to any character. But once attempts to humanize a villain make that villain “less bad,” then we’re headed for trouble.

That’s sort of what happened to the Kingpin.

The Kingpin, aka Wilson Fisk, used to be this ultra-hardcore mobster who mercilessly plagued Daredevil, and other Marvel heroes, in a number of legendary tales. But in recent years, he went from a dude trading blows with super-strong Spider-Man to a grief-stricken sissy who was easily spanked (in like 2 pages) by Daredevil not too long ago.

Needless to say, I haven’t been enamored with the “Kingpin of Crime” in recent years. But hidden within the latest issue of Daredevil lies the hope that perhaps the evil, sadistic Fisk I love to hate might be making a comeback.

The title of DD’s current story arc, “Return of the King,” sort of says it all.

In the storyline, the Kingpin returns to New York after dealing with some tragedy of his own in Europe. His goal is to bring some pain to the ninja group known as the Hand, who are currently running around the city doing ninja-type things (like disemboweling people).

Issue 116 depicts Fisk going head-to-head with an army of ninja. In issue 117, writer Ed Brubaker shows the mafia boss throwing his ample weight around against lesser criminals who now run the tatters of his former organization. By the end of the comic, the Kingpin makes an unholy deal with DD himself — a deal that promises to have buckets of blood running throughout Hell’s Kitchen. All that said, while I’m not sure what exactly lies ahead for Fisk in this storyline, it appears that things are getting back on track.

We’ll see.

THIS JUST IN! Just added to our HeroesCon 2009 Guest List are returning studs Frank Cho and Brandon Peterson! These guys hardly need an introduction to HeroesCon attendees, but just in case:

FRANK CHO first came to prominence as the creator of the cult-hit strip Liberty Meadows, but soon jumped to high-profile comics work, including Mighty Avengers, Hulk, and the upcoming New Ultimates with Jeph Loeb! Frank made his first appearance at HeroesCon last year, and is coming back for more in 2009!

BRANDON PETERSON is one of our most regular, most awesome guests, as well as a super popular cover and interior artist. These days he’s working for Marvel, with covers on books like War of Kings, past art in the Ultimate Galactus trilogy and Ultimate Vision, and an upcoming Marvel project that we can’t mention yet. Maybe you can get the scoop right from the Brandon’s mouth at HeroesCon!

But that’s not all! Also returning to HeroesCon this summer is ANOTHER of our oldest, closest friends, good ole NATHAN MASSENGILL. Nathan is a go-to inker with work for pretty much every publisher over the years, most notably on JSA, Legion of Superheroes, Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods, and Detective Comics!

CHRIS KEMPLE is a North Carolina native and another perennial face at HeroesCon–he’s currently working on his upcoming Red Vengeance graphic novel, and has had art in Fear Agent, Negative Burn, and Flashback Comics!

MATT WEBB is a colorist who has worked on everything from E-Man to John Byrne’s Next Men to Spider-Girl and beyond! Another NC resident, Matt has been working in comics for more than 20 years!

Jeez, this convention is getting huge. I’ll be posting that long-rumored Indie Island update this Friday, so stay tuned for more!

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

5. CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS 70TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1
Written by James Robinson; Art by Marcos Martin
Marvel
$3.99

Can you believe it’s been 70 years already? To celebrate, Marvel provides a one-shot containing a new story and a classic reprint. James (Starman) Robinson gives us a tale that goes way back here. Back to before Steve Rogers even became Captain America. In addition, we get to read a classic early Cap story by his creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The real draw for me though is underrated artist Marcos Martin (Amazing Spider-man) who provides the art for Robinson’s story. His cartoony style is reminiscent of Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale and exudes more energy using less lines than most superhero artists could do if they tried.

4. THE DESTROYER #1
Written by Robert Kirkman; art by Cory Walker
Marvel
$3.99

Robert Kirkman rejoins Cory Walker, his original artist on Invincible for a new 5 issue mini-series published in Marvel’s mature readers MAX line. Kirkman has chosen to use this series to update an old Golden Age hero no one’s ever heard of who apparently is the first superhero ever created by Stan Lee (as far as I know this isn’t an April Fools Joke but you never know today). Keen Marlowe, once known as the superhero The Destroyer, finds out he is dying and decides to take as many bad guys with him as he can in the time he has left.

Kirkman is wildly popular due to his two Image creations – Invincible and The Walking Dead but his Marvel work has been kind of spotty. Under the freer reign of the MAX line though and with an obscure, blank slate character he’ll probably be able to be the Robert Kirkman we love.

Here’s a preview.

3. BOODY. BIZARRE COMICS OF BOODY ROGERS
By Boody Rogers
Fantagraphics
$19.99 | 144pgs

Never heard of Boody Rogers, huh? You’re not alone. The last few years have taught us though there is a wealth of forgotten comics creators from the early days of the medium whose weird and imaginative work may not have caught on with readers in the 1940s but is comic gold for ironic hipsters and comic historians alike. Retrospective books like I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets! introduced us to twisted golden-age genius Fletcher Hanks and Dan Nadel’s anthology Art Out of Time showcased many obscure creators from comics past including Boody Rogers.

This new book, devoted entirely to Rogers’ work, contains many warped stories with goofy looking monsters and sexy babes. Allot for roughly 24 hours time after reading this to readjust to your own boring reality.

Here’s a slideshow preview.

2. THE FLASH: REBIRTH #1
Written by Geoff Johns; art by Ethan Van Sciver
DC
$3.99 | 40pgs

Back in 2005, Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver made 30- and 40-something fanboys ecstatic by bringing back the One True Green Lantern – Hal Jordan – in Green Lantern: Rebirth. It was an exciting series full of surprises and some interesting retcons that helped set the stage for the new Jordan-focused Green Lantern series that Johns is still writing.

Lightning is striking twice, so to speak, with this new mini-series by the same creative team that hopes to bring Barry Allen back to his rightful mantle of the One True Flash. In some ways his task could be harder here as the current Wally West Flash has been pretty popular for many years thanks to Johns himself who had a long and popular run on the Flash title, making Wally West a very human and likable character. Plus, Barry Allen famously dying at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths is one of the most important moments in the modern DC universe that some fans may not want undone. But, don’t discount us pre-Crisis fanboys and our nostalgia for the way things were. Plus, don’t you want to live in a world where no one stays dead?

1. SEAGUY: THE SLAVES OF MICKEY EYE #1 (OF 3)
Written by Grant Morrison; Art and Cover by Cameron Stewart
DC Comics
$3.99 | 40pgs

For a small but vocal minority of the comic book community, this book is the most anticipated release of 2009. I’d count myself as part of that group. Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart’s first Seaguy series was a bizarre story about a somber hero dressed in a diving suit and accompanied by a cigar chomping fish named Chubby Da Choona who embarks on an adventure to save a sentient food from the corporate evil of Mickey Eye and impress the bearded girl that he pines for. Beneath it’s seemingly obtuse plot lay Morrison’s commentary on the cynical business of superhero comics.

Hardcore Morrison fans loved it but no one else really bought it. Morrison had always planned the first series to be part one of a trilogy and rumor has it he bargained with DC to help write their weekly series 52 in exchange for reversing their decision not to publish any further Seaguy adventures.

In this new 3-issue middle volume, Seaguy has become bitter and has grown to hate the sea. But the world needs him so hopefully he can pull himself together.

Here’s a preview!

ALSO:

CARS: THE ROOKIE #1
I failed to mention last week that Boom! Studios released a new Incredibles comic. This week they give us another Pixar book. It’s a Cars mini-series that tells the early days of Lightning McQueen

PREACHER #1 SPECIAL EDITION
The latest After-Watchmen recommendation from DC. It’s the first issue of their classic Vertigo series about a Texas preacher, a vampire, some angels and a guy named Arse Face.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE #1
If you’re really interested in seeing what Jane Austen’s classic novel is about you should probably read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES but who knows, this could be good too.

HO ! THE MORALLY QUESTIONABLE CARTOONS OF IVAN BRUNETTI
Title probably says it all there.

JONAH HEX: BULLETS DON’T LIE TP
How’s this for a lineup? Art by Darwyn Cooke, JH Williams III, Jordi Bernet and Richard Corben.