Free Comic Book Day 2013 @ Heroes is going to be our biggest and best yet! Come out on May 4th to meet more great comic creators than we have ever had at this fun annual event! Also, it says it right there in the name but in case you missed it, there will be lots of FREE COMICS to choose from too! Check out our awesome guest list and save the date!

• CHRIS BRUNNER – Artist: Loose Ends, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, The Ride

• IAN FLYNN – Writer: Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man

• FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA – Writer/Artist: Black Beetle Artist: Captain America & Black Widow, Detective Comics

• SANFORD GREENE – Artist: Rotten Apple, Deadpool, Wonder Girl, Methodman GN

• CULLY HAMNER – Artist: Red, The Question, Detective Comics, Black Lightning

• DUSTIN HARBIN – Writer/Artist: DIARY COMICS, Nutted!, DHARBIN!

• TONY HARRIS – Artist: JSA: Whistling Skull, Ex Machina, Starman, War Heroes

• ADAM HUGHES – Artist: Before Watchmen: Doctor Manhattan, Fairest, Wonder Woman, Catwoman

• JUSTIN JORDAN – Writer: Legend of Luther Strode, Superboy, Deathstroke, Green Lantern: New Guardians

• JASON LATOUR – Writer: Winter Soldier, Loose Ends, Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted Artist: B.P.R.D., Django Unchained

• JACKIE LEWIS – Artist: Play Ball

• TRADD MOORE – Artist: Legend of Luther Strode, Legends of the Dark Knight

• ERAKLIS PETMEZAS – Writer/Artist: Last Cigarette

• JAY POTTS – Writer/Artist: World of Hurt

• RIDDLE – Cosplayer

• BUDD ROOT – Writer/Artist: Cavewoman

• ANDY SMITH – Artist: The First, Weapon X, Green Lantern, WWE Heroes, Flex and Tone

• BRIAN STELFREEZE – Artist: Domino, Matador, Batman: Shadow of the Bat

NOTE that free sketches are at the discretion of the artists, and are not guaranteed.

So, mark that date on your calendar folks! Get here early on Saturday, May 4th at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find will be a great time and you won’t want to miss it!

ANDY’S PICK :: HAND DRYING IN AMERICA: Ben Katchor is one of the greatest cartooning talents working today.  I would highly recommend any of his books– Julius Knipl Real Estate Photographer, The Cardboard Valise, The Jew in New York or his new book Hand-drying In America and Other Stories which is a collection of weekly strips from Metropolitan Magazine.  The main focus of each strip is supposed to be New York architecture, but with Katchor at the helm, the strips quickly veer off into a world all their own.  Katchor’s world is a nostalgic love-letter to a NYC that never quite existed.   The disposable, the mundane– old catalogs, stand-alone coat racks, used door bells– become intrinsically important because some grown-up makes his living by selling them or managing a plant that manufactures them.  It is the adult world from our collective childhood based on old movies and Black & White sitcoms– a downtown business district so alien to a child’s view-point that it may as well reside in another dimension. Take the world of Saul Bellow and Phillip Roth’s fiction and siphon it through the minds-eye of an absurdest comedian like Steven Wright. That is Katchor’s universe, but as hard as I try, I am still not doing Katchor justice. And the artwork– Katchor has named Bill Griffith, R. Crumb, Poussin and Rembrandt as four of his biggest influences. Quite an odd mix and what exquisite execution. Treat yourself and pick up any of his books.  You will be amazed, tickled and just a bit sad throughout. And then you will be back for more.

SETH’S PICK :: SLEDGEHAMMER 44 #1: I had a long, detailed paragraph prepared as to why I think you should spend your hard earned money on this comic. . .and then it disappeared from my computer.  Instead, I’ll just keep it short and simple.  1) There aren’t many war stories set in the Mignola-verse.  2) This one features an Iron Man archetype fighting Nazis, but is just as much about the normal soldiers on the ground as it is the armor.  3)  Though it was written (by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi) for genius John Severin to draw, when he passed away it was given to Jason Latour, who excels at the kind of detail-oriented research this story requires, and understands the importance of balancing that research with a focus on the characters themselves.  4)  In a week where I could easily write about the Hawkeye vol. 1 TPB, Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror #2, or Ben Katchor’s Hand Drying in America, this is the book I’m most excited about seeing and reading. 

Today’s HeroesCon Guest List update should cause excitement and anticipation in comic fans of all ages! Check out who’s coming to the show, June 7-9, 2013. The full guest list (so far) is here. Don’t miss it, get your 3-day passes today!

TOM BANCROFT – writer/artist: Opposite Forces, Mulan

JAMIE COSLEY – writer/artist: Cody the Cavalier

CREATUREBOX – artists: Ratchet & Clank, The Monster Volume

DREW GERACI – inker: Iron Man 3, JLA, Green Lantern Corps, Thor

JASON HORN – writer/artist: Ninjasaur, Gruff

JACKIE LEWIS – artist: Play Ball

DAN PARENT – writer/artist: Archie, Betty & Veronica, Kevin Keller

ANDY PRICE – artist: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

JEFF SHULTZ – writer/artist: Betty & Veronica, Jughead

JOEY WEISER – writer/artist: Mermin, Cavemen In Space, The Ride Home, Flight

CRAIG’S PICK :: MESSAGES IN A BOTTLE: COMIC BOOKS STORIES BY B. KRIGSTEIN: A confession: until 2002, Bernard Krigstein was one of my least favorite of the E.C. artists. I preferred Graham Ingles’ drippy corpses, Johnny Craig’s noir angularity and Jack Davis’ rubbery bigfootery over Krigstein’s minutely divided, precisely timed panel layouts. I had read essays by critics convinced of Krigstein’s genius—most notably in Squa Tront #4 (1975), featuring a classic page-by-page analysis of “Master Race” by John Benson, David Kasakove and some obscure fanboy named Art Spiegelman—but I didn’t really “get” Krigstein until I read Greg Sadowski’s spectacular B. Krigstein: Volume One (1919-1955) (Fantagraphics 2002).

Sadowski’s book is one of the best biographies of a cartoonist I’ve ever read, full of rare visuals (Krigstein was an impressive Expressionist painter), tart testimony (check out page 145, where Robert Kanigher calls Krigstein “a liar”), reprints of great stories (“Master Race,” E.C. adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s “The Flying Machine”) and sharp visual commentary. Thanks to Sadowski, I’m now crazy for Krigstein, and I’m eager to read the second part of Sadowski’s biography, which promises to cover the second half of Krigstein’s career, from 1955 to his death in 1990.

In 2004, Fantagraphics published B. Krigstein Comics, a collection of stories designed as a supplement to Sadowski’s biography. The quality of the scripts varies widely—E.C. tales like “Pipe-Dream” are the pick of the litter—but B. Krigstein Comics ably represented the oeuvre of one of comics’ early visionaries.

Available this week from Fantagraphics is Messages in a Bottle: Comic Book Stories by B. Krigstein. According to Fantagraphics’ website, Messages in a Bottle

reprints the out-of-print 2004 hardcover B. Krigstein Comics, with a number of stories re-tooled and improved in terms of reproduction, and several new stories added. Legendary EC colorist Marie Severin, in her last major assignment before her retirement, recolored 20 stories for this edition. The remainder has been taken from printed comics, digitally restored with subtlety and restraint. Original art pages, photostats from Krigstein’s personal archives, and an extensive set of historical and editorial notes by Sadowski round out this compelling volume.

Sounds lovely, especially for readers who don’t already have B. Krigstein Comics. Messages is also formatted in virtually the same dimensions as the volumes in Fantagraphics’ E.C. Comics Library set, and should fit neatly on the shelf with Corpse on the Imjin! and Came the Dawn. Find yourself a copy of Sadowski’s biography, read it alongside Messages in a Bottle, and feel comics history come alive.

And below is a portrait of Bernard Krigstein drawn by master caricaturist Drew Friedman, and purloined off Tumblr. Just because.

BRIDGIT’S PICK :: WINTER SOLDIER #16: So, I’ve never been a monthly Captain America reader or followed Winter Soldier much but, that being said, in the last few months I’ve been reserving both of these titles… the books are sooo good! Marvel has used their re-launch as a chance to pair us up some really awesome creative teams. Jason Latour and Nic Klein really surprised me with their first issue of Winter Soldier last month.

Not only was it a fun read, but the art was so right for this title. A lot of times in comics, when the story is more action-oriented, the art loses touch with the character, which bothers me because I like to feel connected and read, through the art, what the character is thinking or going through internally. Nic Klein totally owns both action and the quiet moments, and keeps us connected with the internal dilemmas Latour is writing through the characters and their interactions.

All of you Brubaker lovers need not fear either, Latour hasn’t exactly taken Bucky Barnes out on a limb. Though Latour has definitely branched off into his own creative storytelling, he’s rooting the story in the plot Brubaker has already constructed. So no re-launch for Winter Soldier, thank God. In fact, Latour is resolutely building upon the foundation of Barnes’ dark past and using this to really push the boundaries of the character. These panels also make up some of the most reflective and introspective comic pages I’ve ever read.

And of course, no comic written by Latour would be complete without a good bit of humor and wacky antics. A Bond-like character named Robards who Barnes encounters in the last issue proved to be a great source of comic relief.

Something else about this series that I’m SUPER excited about too, is the creation of Latour’s new female (super?!)villain, the “Electric Ghost”. What we’ve seen of her so far is awesome but she’s still – literally – veiled in a shroud of mystery. In the last issue, she exhibited this cool sense of intelligence through some pretty wicked dialogue. This might be the sweetest female villain – let alone character – I’ve seen introduced in Marvel Comics in a long time.

JUSTIN’S PICK :: SEX #1: Joe Casey is an author with a flair for both compelling high-concept and creative characterization. He also takes great care to pair his unique projects with artists that absolutely suit them, and his new Image title, Sex, is no exception. Newcomer Piotr Kowalski employs a bold, open style reminiscent of talents such as Tonci Zonjic or Ben Stenbeck, offset by a bright and punchy color palette. As the unfeasibility of the superhero lifestyle becomes more and more apparent in today’s staggering, event-driven market, Sex asks the question: what would a hero do without all that great responsibility?

SETH’S PICK :: ROCKETEER: CARGO OF DOOM HC: Didn’t I just write about Rocketeer last week?  Indeed I did, and while there are several other books I’m excited about this week (Winter Soldier #16, Hellboy in Hell #4, Lost Vegas #1), it’s inevitable that I’ll re-read the new Rocketeer collection first thing Wednesday night.  There’s an innocence to Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s take on Dave Stevens’ classic character, but also a love for the traditions of pulp and adventure stories.  Anyone could wax poetic about the genius of the Rocketeer, but it still boils down to entertainment value, and this collection has plenty of that.  Oh, and there are dinosaurs.  A guy with a rocket pack fighting dinosaurs in 1930’s California.  That’s enough for me.