Along with the opening week of the Football season and the beginning of the new school term, each year September also brings us Banned Book Week. It is an annual reminder of our freedom to read.

Banned Book Week is officially scheduled Sept. 21 – 27 but there are a variety of events that will occur throughout the month. BBW is sponsored by local libraries, independent retailers along with a supportive legion of readers all over the world From the Banned Books Website: “BBW was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982 according to the American Library Association. There were 307 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2013, and many more go unreported.”

Each year, the American Library Association (ALA) publishes a Top Ten list of Frequently Challenged Books. This year’s list (published in April) includes the # 1 Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series for offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence. The list is rounded off with Jeff Smith’s Bone series at #10 for political viewpoint, racism, and violence

“This year we spotlight graphic novels because, despite their serious literary merit and popularity as a genre, they are often subject to censorship,” said Judith Platt, chair of the Banned Books Week National Committee.

At this past summer’s HeroesCon, Prof. Craig Fischer created a panel that focused on the history of the Comic Book Defense League Fund as well as a roundtable about the local issues an NC school had with Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. This will be posted at the Dollar Bin site later this month. www.thedollarbin.net

Locally, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Libraries are offering dozens of Banned Book Week events—everything from Art contests to Reading groups. To see all of the events in your area go to: www.cmlibrary.org/programs/

This year, Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find is doing their part to support this noble and important movement.  Warehouse Manager Seth Peagler and Heroes Discussion Group leader Andy Mansell will be appearing at a number of branches this month to discuss Banned Books:

Seth will join UNCC Professors Robert Campbell (Graphic Design) and Dr. Erik Waterkotte (Print Media) to discuss the importance of comics and graphic novels and how they are susceptible to censorship. Audience: Adults, Teens (12-18) 9/18/2014 at 6:00 PM: Morrison Regional near South Park.

Andy will lead discussions at the following branches on why comics are particularly vulnerable to challenges and focus on some of the more frequently challenged titles.

9/18/2014 at 6:00 PM: Scaleybark  Audience: Teens (12-18), Adults, Seniors

9/24/2014 at 2:30 PM: Independence Regional   Audience: Teens (12-18)

9/25/2014 at 5:00 PM: Mountain Island Audience: Teens (12-18), Adults, Seniors

We hope to see you there and remember, reading is one of our greatest gifts. Never take it for granted!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Great War, Happy Birthday to you! Wow– you’re 100 years young and you still make a difference in our modern lives. There are few events in history that have had more of an historical and cultural impact than WWI. ABOVE THE DREAMLESS DEAD WWI IN POETRY & COMICS  is an anthology that selects a number of pieces from the substantial body of  poetry that emerged during and after the long bloody conflict. In addition, to the “trench poetry” of Sassoon, Owens, Graves and other great talents of the era, editor Chris Duffy has enlisted some of the finest contemporary comic talents to illustrate these harrowing and powerful poetic works. The roster includes: Stephen Bissette, Eddie Campbell, Lilli Carré, Garth Ennis, Sarah Glidden, Sammy Harkham, Kevin Huizenga, Kathryn Immonen, Stuart Immonen, Peter Kuper, Pat Mills, Anders Nilsen, George Pratt, Carol Tyler and many others. If this book moves you as much as I anticipate, I’d like to also re-confirm my earlier recommendations for other Great War comic material namely Joe Sacco’s ground-breaking panorama, The Great War and Jacques Tardi’s two brilliant WWI graphic novels from Fantagraphics– all of these important books are available from Heroes! Just have Justin point you in the direction of Flanders and remember to wipe your muddy feet!

ANDY’S PICK :: BATMAN: A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS: It seems like every time you turn around there is another HC Celebration of one character or another. They all blend into a kind of expensive jumble. But BATMAN: A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS really stands out. The editors at DC have put together one heck of a collection. This 432 (!) page book includes the following landmark tales: DETECTIVE COMICS #27 (1st appearance!), 83 (Alfred!), 211 (Catwoman!), 216 (The Batman of the Future!), 327 (First New Look!), 359 (Batgirl!), 395 (Secret of the Waiting Graves!), 442 (Toth!), 474 (Rogers/Austin/Deadshot!), 574 (Origin revamp plus Alan Davis!), 633 (Milligan!), 711 (Knight Out!) , 757 (Air Time!) and 821 (Dini /Williams!), BATMAN #1 (Joker!), 49 (Vicki Vale!), 181 (Poison Ivy!), 497 (Batman needs to see a chiropractor), BATMAN #2 (from THE NEW 52), WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #94 (The Supes/Bats Team Origin!), DC SPECIAL SERIES #21 (Frank Miller!) and BATMAN SPECIAL #1 (The Wrath!) This is going to be a great party and everyone’s invited!!

It wouldn’t be a major convention of any sort without a bit of last minute shuffling. We have  a time/date change and an addition.

First the change:

Due to some travel issues, The ARCHIE PANEL originally scheduled for Friday at 4:00 has been moved to SATURDAY at 2:00pm.

SATURDAY 2:00PM Room 201
PART I :: ARCHIE: Life, Afterlife and Beyond
Join moderator Jimmy Aquino (COMIC NEWS INSIDER) in a talk about the major events happening at Archie Comics – from the hit horror series AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE to the upcoming “Death of Archie” in the pages of LIFE WITH ARCHIE and much more – with an all-star cast of Archie staff and stars, including artist FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA (Afterlife with Archie), PAUL KAMINSKI (Archie Comics Executive Director of Editorial) and Red Circle Comics Editor and Archie SVP – Publicity and Marketing ALEX SEGURA.
PART II :: ARCHIE: SONIC THE HEDGEHOG and MEGAMAN
Get the inside scoop on what’s coming up in Archie’s best-selling “Action” line of video game titles, including SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, SONIC UNIVERSE and MEGA MAN, with SONIC/MEGA MAN editor PAUL KAMINSKI and long-time Sonic and Mega Man creators IAN FLYNN and TRACY YARDLEY

and we have a special addition to the schedule:

SATURDAY

Room 206
10:30 am
MEET THE GRAND COMICBOOK DATABASE (GCD)

Find out what all goes into compiling and maintaining the enormous (and indispensable) GRAND COMIC BOOK DATABASE. BOB BAILEY, WILL ALLRED, DANIEL NAUSCHUETZ and STEVEN ROWE will explain the challenging process of indexing comics.  Thanks to their efforts, the GCD has become the go-to source for creator listings.  DC and Marvel both use the GCD for their archives. Stop by dive deep into comics and comics’ history and prepare to be astounded by their Herculean effort.

The best just keeps getting bester.

PANELS—WE’VE GOT PANELS!!

The HeroesCon 2014 Schedule is up. Just click on this link….

http://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon/schedule/

So what have we got? Take a few minutes and look through the program; we try to have something for everyone. Plan your days around a few of these gems like:

How about THE INKWELL AWARDS? Saturday at Noon–BILL SIENKIEWICZ IS THE GUEST OF HONOR At the 4th Inkwell Awards Live Ceremony! See the live results from April’s votes for the BEST INKERS of 2013 and the recipients of the JOE SINNOTT HALL OF FAME AWARD!! To read more about this annual event, click here…

http://www.inkwellawards.com/?p=3923#more-3923

Speaking of ANNUAL HeroesCon Events— we have

• COSPLAY—3 ways! Group Photo, Meet the Cosplayers Panel and The 2^nd Annual Cosplay costume Contest
• 4 SCAD Workshops
• Inking Panel
• 2 IMAGE Panels!
• 2 MARVEL Panels
• 2 ARCHIE Panels
• The 2^nd Annual convention within a convention—THE CAROL CORPS!!!
• Self-Publishing
• The Humor Panel—this is a can’t miss panel this year
• The All Ages Panel
• THE MEGA PANEL—Comics Regulation, Comics Censorship: Past and Present
•  The Comic Strip Panel!!
• TWO (!!) Teaching Comics Roundtables
• Adam & Comfort’s Workshop
•  New Masters of Horror!!
• INDY COMICS CREATORS
• And of course The QuickDraw—All Three days

Celebrate TwoMorrows Publishing 20^th Anniversary all day Saturday with

• Modern Masters: Lee Weeks, Cliff Chiang, Mark Schultz and Art Adams!!
• CONAN Panel with Roy Thomas and Tim Truman!
• A Kirby Tribute Panel
• A Conversation with Denis Kitchen
• and A TwoMorrows Roundtable

Heidi MacDonald of THE BEAT and Tom Spurgeon of THE COMICS REPORTER head our team of all-star moderators so if it is scintillating conversation you want …

• Mark Waid
• Jim Starlin and Andy Smith
• Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez!
• KEVIN EASTMAN!
• ONLINE COMICS!
• Breaking Into Comics as a Writer
• The Challenges of a famous Property with Jeff Smith and Terry Moore

AND MORE—LOTS MORE—

And make sure you stop by on Sunday to pay respects to our absent friend NICK CARDY!!! A True Titan!

ENJOY!!–This is all for YOU!!!!

ANDY’S PICK :: DISNEY JUNIOR ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ANIMATED CHARACTERS: Where was this book when I was a kid. As a Disney obsessed youth (I blame the classic Gold Key published, Walt Disney Comics Digest) I used to make lists of every character I could. These were the years before the internet so I had to go off memory and comic books. What I wouldn’t have done for a book like this! There are over 150 entries with illustrations and character info starting with Ariel (I imagine) and ends (I’m pretty certain) with Zurg. And the inside of the book jacket is a giant poster. All for only $13.00!!! Any pre-teen will love it!