Guest List updates on a Sunday? Well, we’re in that time of year when we’re working pretty much nonstop on the convention. In fact, we’re so swamped, I don’t have the time I’d like to spend talking about each one of these awesome creators like I normally do, so I hope none of them will feel slighted. Half of them are old buddies (Keron, pictured above, Randy Green, J. Chris Campbell and Rob Ullman), and some are brand new (Ian Sattler, Jonathan Gray). But I’m in crunch time, so for the full rundown visit the HeroesCon 09 Guest List where you can find links to their individual sites and sate your curiosity like crazy!

New today are:

DUANE BALLENGER (EATS, Wide Awake 666)
J. CHRIS CAMPBELL (Ancient Age, Wide Awake 666, Zigzag)
BRIAN CUNNINGHAM (DC Comics editor)
KERON GRANT (Son of Vulcan, Iron Man)
JONATHAN GRAY (Sonic the Hedgehog, Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories)
RANDY GREEN (Fathom, Teen Titans, Tomb Raider)
NATE LOVETT (Xombie: Reanimated, Sketch Magazine)
BILL NEVILLE (Explorers, The Tick)
IAN SATTLER (DC Comics Senior Story Editor)
ROB ULLMAN (Traffic & Weather, Atom Bomb Bikini)

Good gravy! Okay, more to come, plus a couple of big announcements for tomorrow!

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve finalized the HeroesCon 2009 Host Hotel, which will once again be the sumptuous Westin Charlotte! This year’s HeroesCon rate will be $109/night, and is active now, so click this link to go and make your reservations on their site, or you may call them at 1-866-837-4148 and ask for the “HeroesCon” or “Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find” rate!

NOTE! As in previous years, rooms may sell out for particular nights, but we will be expanding our reserved block as we go, so keep trying! We will announce on our blog when the rooms have OFFICIALLY sold out, and until then there will likely be rooms added on a weekly basis.

If you’ve never stayed at the Westin before, it is a luxurious hotel which includes the famous “Heavenly Beds”–worth the price of admission alone–gym and pool facilities, a full service restaurant and hotel bar, and is right across Stonewall Avenue from the Charlotte Convention Center, making it incredibly convenient!

Either way these rooms are not going to last long, so grab your room quick! We’ll be announcing further hotel deals with the next week or so!

I told you we had a bunch of big news this week! Brand new to the HeroesCon Guest List as of a few minutes ago is a guy you may have heard of once or twice if you like comics… a guy I like to call CHRIS CLAREMONT! Holy mackerel, right? I’m not sure, but I think the last time Chris was at HeroesCon was back in the 80’s, but Shelton will know better than I would.

Chris will be promoting his new book X-Men Forever, which more or less picks up from where he left off with X-Men #3 way back when! Not only that, the book is bi-weekly, with the first issue by amazing Tom Grummett! I’d explain further, but I’m pretty sure Chris can explain it better himself when you meet him at HeroesCon in just a few weeks!

Oh, but that’s not all–also new this week is Kabuki creator DAVID MACK, who’ll be appearing with his buddy Brian Michael Bendis. I’m still puzzling over where to put THOSE lines, but we’ll figure something out. Besides his work on Kabuki, David is also adapting Philip K. Dick’s Electric Ant into comics this summer with Marvel Comics.

But wait I’m STILL not done! Also new today are:

AL BIGLEY, an artist and educator who’s worked on Sonic, Batman Animated, Geminar, and the upcoming Tao Boy, not to mention a how-to book, Drawing Comics Like A Pro. AND Al’s a Charlottean!

RYAN BODENHEIM is returning this year–you may have seen his art in Wolverine, Black Panther, or in Red Mass For Mars, written by fellow guest Jonathan Hickman.

Hey, what about TOM FEISTER? Another old buddy of ours, these days Tom is a cover artist for GI Joe Origins, as well as having worked on Warriors: Jailbreak and the bajillion-award-winning Ex Machina.

Okay! Still more news to come before the weekend. See you after I grab a quick sandwich and splash water in my face!

I never thought I could actually enjoy a comic book that follows the adventures of the Punisher in the regular Marvel Universe.

I was a big fan of Garth Ennis’ Max Comics version of Frank Castle; his take was pure — gritty, dark, violent and as realistic as a funny book can get. So the idea of the big guy with the skull on his chest running around with superhuman superheroes just seemed silly. And yes I know that’s how he started out — back in the pages of Spider-Man — but after Ennis amped up the real-world elements, I just couldn’t see the point of going back to “Fantasy-land.”

My trepidation about the wackness of a Marvel U.-based Punisher was realized when Matt Fraction launched his super-duper edition a year or so ago. Fraction played the book for laughs, but the lack of seriousness made it hard to care about the stories. Ultimately, it didn’t work.

These days, however, there’s another Punisher comic on the stands; this one is written by Rick Remender and the art is by Jerome Opena. And this one is actually good.

From a story standpoint, Remender’s approach to Castle is similar to Ennis’ … in that he’s stripped the character down to his purest form. The dialogue is sparse and to the point. His actions are portrayed as deliberate and methodical. His emotions don’t register. This isn’t the Punisher played for laughs. This is a “normal” guy on a mission to murder some abnormal bad guys. (It’s particularly cool how the Punisher uses some iconic Marvel-style weapons to battle a cadre of villains.)

From an art standpoint, Opena renders everything in a gritty, rough, shadowy style — and that further helps to ground situations that could easily turn ultra-fantastic. Honestly, Opena is one of the best artists drawing comics today. I can see this guy moving to more high-profile Marvel books soon. For now, you can enjoy his handiwork in these blood-soaked pages.

WHOA check out that big bright logo! Hot on the heels of last week’s announcement of DC Comics return to HeroesCon, today we added Marvel Comics to the list as well. Oh yes that’s right! They’ll be bringing editors, doing portfolio reviews, and be set up in force at this year’s HeroesCon 09! And coming with them is the first name on the list of guests we added today–check it out:

C.B. CEBULSKI is pretty much Marvel’s top talent-scout and occasionally an editor, AND he’s a writer on books like X-Men Fairy Tales, War of Kings: Darkhawk, and his own Wonderlost. Eat that, Renaissance Men!

SEAN FORD is an alumnus of the esteemed Center for Cartoon Studies, the creator of Only Skin, and one of the editors of the Sundays Anthology.

SANFORD GREENE is one of our good buddies, and a sweet dude. On top of that, he’s pencilled books including Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man, Marvel Adventures: Superheroes, Wonder Girl, Legion of Super Heroes, and last year’s Methodman graphic novel.

STEVE SAFFEL is not just a friend of ours, but we work him to death every year helping out as well. It’s not like he hasn’t got enough to do–Steve was the editor of last year’s Spider-Man: The Icon book, and the brand new Best of Simon & Kirby volume, both from Titan Books!

RICHARD THOMPSON is the creator of the incredibly acclaimed Cul de Sac, which just failed to win this year’s Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society. Oops! Richard is also the proprietor of Richard’s Poor Almanack, which runs in the Washington Post on Sundays!

CHRISSIE ZULLO is a Charlotte resident AND the cover artist on a forthcoming super-secret Fables limited series. If you want to know more you’re gonna have to show up at the convention and ask her yourself–she won’t even tell US!

Whew! Okay, all those announcements that I referred to last week are pretty much happening today and tomorrow, so buckle up everybody! Tomorrow there’s a HUGE guest who hasn’t been to HeroesCon in a bajillion years, plus more super-studs.. phew! I’m running out of exclamation points. Oh wait–and are you wondering about the HeroesCon host hotel rate? Tomorrow! I PROMISE!

Hey if you haven’t already seen it, I did an interview with Tim O’Shea of the Robot 6 team over at Comic Book Resources. Although Tim didn’t ask me any questions at all about a) whether I was single; b) my top 5 desert island CD’s; or c) if I could spell Bill Sienkiewicz’s name without having to look it up, it was a fun interview and Tim is a nice guy. Check it out right here and drop a comment about how excited about HeroesCon you are!

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Memorial Day is Monday, May 25 and as a result books will ship THURSDAY instead of WEDNESDAY. You have officially been warned! If you come by Wednesday you won’t have new comics but you will have us and our sparkling personalities and razor sharp wit. And Matt will be there trying to get you to buy Umbrella Academy!

SURROGATES trailer in HD

Oh yes! HeroesCon guest Rob Venditti is blowing up! The Surrogates film, adapted from Rob and Brett Weldele’s graphic novel, comes out this fall! While we’re not really into the whole Hollywood-at-comics-conventions kind of thing, we’re happy to do it this way, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy than Rob!

Whoa Nellie! Did you see that headline? DC Comics is returning this summer to HeroesCon! For the first time in some years, DC will be setting up in force at HeroesCon, with editors, panels, and probably lots of swag and glimpses at the upcoming shape of the DC Universe! We’re super-DUPER excited about this, and have been trying to make it happen for awhile now–the stars have aligned! Be sure you let DC know that you want them to stay at HeroesCon in coming years!

And on the DC tip, fan-favorite artist Ethan Van Sciver will be appearing at HeroesCon as well this summer–Ethan has become a popular guest at the show over the last few years, and will know doubt have long lines once more this year with his work on Flash Rebirth and the big DC event, Blackest Night!

Oh, and there’s still another big publisher announcement to make, but I think I’ll save that one for next week when I have a few more details locked down. Let’s just say that it’s going to be a banner year this year!

So, who’s reading the new Robert Kirkman comic Destroyer?

I get the feeling this is a book that — because it doesn’t star an A-list character and because it’s a coming from the sometimes overlooked Max mature readers line — folks can and will easily pass up. But, really, you should pick it up. It’s an entertaining read, and if you like Kirkman you’ll really dig it.

Two issues into the five-issue limited series, Destroyer tells what appears to be an out-of-continuity tale about the old Timely Comics hero called Destroyer who, now a senior citizen, is dying from some kind of heart problem. But on his way to the grave, he plans to take some bad guys with him. Simple story, eh? Well, that simple story works perfectly with Kirkman’s easy-going writing style. The scribe is no Alan Moore but, with minimal captions or thought balloons for exposition, his approach to writing is ultra-economical; he basically gets out of his story’s way and lets it tell itself. Other writers could learn a lot from Kirkman’s skill.

The script’s simplicity is outdone only by the art’s simplicity. Artist Cory Walker is from that “clean” school of drawing, only leaving the most necessary marks on the page to illustrate a panel. And the lines Walker does decide to put down are some of the most confident strokes in the business.

Take my word for it. Buy this book.