WHOA NELLIE!! I’ll be posting a longer photo report to our Flickr site later in the week, but I thought I’d give you a little teasie-poo real quick. Holy cow did a lot of people show up to meet Claudio Sanchez of Coheed & Cambria today, with a few of them waiting for us to open the doors at 10am–even thought the event wasn’t scheduled until 2.30!

Claudio Sanchez was a super cool dude is the short version–here we see him with Shelton and Shelton’s granddaughter Faith. I’ll expound on his coolness in my full report, but that’s the short version. Faith asked me how to spell “evil” earlier in the day, for a drawing she was doing. Ah, inspiration.

As I type, the band is about an hour or two from taking the stage at Cricket Bojangles Arena, and we hope they rock everyone’s faces right off. Before he left Claudio signed up a slew of the tour-exclusive Kill Audio vinyl figures, which we’ll be selling for $50 a pop while they last. Let us know if you want one! And look for that longer post later in the week!

by Carlton Hargro

Last week, I professed my love for Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch — the current creative team behind the Fantastic Four.

This week, I’m gonna sing Millar’s praises again … but this time for his stint on Marvel’s monthly Wolverine series.

Now before I start gushing, I’ve got to admit that I don’t normally like Wolverine’s comic book. I like the character, but I’ve always thought that his series was flawed. (I’m referring to his main book, not the Origins comic or that Logan book slated to come out.)

The series started off bad a long time ago when Chris Claremont launched it featuring Logan in the country of Madripoor hiding in his “Patch” alias. The comic was short on action and packed with boring characters and scenarios. Years later, Larry Hama took over and didn’t fare much better.

All in all, I just thought the book — which starred a homicidal maniac — was always way too sedate.

And that brings us back to Millar.

As far as I’m concerned, Millar’s “Enemy of the State” storyline was the best tale ever told in the monthly Wolverine comic. (I’m not talking about the old Frank Miller-drawn limited series.) The story was action-packed, filled with cool guest stars, introduced one of Marvel’s most interesting villains and showed Wolvie being more deadly and hardcore than ever before.

When the 12-part story was done, Millar left and the book went to being sucky again. And I stopped reading it once more. That is, until a few months ago when Millar came back to Wolverine to tell his “Old Man Logan” mini-series within a series.

If you haven’t read it yet, the story chronicles the adventures of a pacifist Wolverine (and his partner Hawkeye) in a post-apocalyptic future where all the heroes have died. Like his previous run on the comic, this arc is wall-to-wall action, blood, gore and violence … and isn’t that what a Wolverine is supposed to be all about?

Looking for introspection? Pick up a Starman trade.

Carlton Hargro is the editor-in-chief of Creative Loafing Charlotte. For more comic reviews from Carlton, visit http://www.charlotte.creativeloafing.com/.

Yo Yo Yo! Now in the store are some fresh FREE sneak preview passes to the upcoming film “Push.” Each pass is good for two people, but you’d better show up early, because seating is limited. The showing is for Wednesday February 4 at 7.30 pm.

And for those of you who love to LAUGH, we have a very few passes for “The Pink Panther 2,” showing tomorrow night at 7.30pm.

In our continuing efforts to keep our readers aware of how many famous people we know, I wanted to point out that our chum Benji Hughes is going to be on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight, cold kickin it! If you haven’t heard of Benji before, he’s a Charlotte fixture, and recently his debut double album has gotten reviewed all over the place, including a four-star review in Rolling Stone. More important than that? MY opinion: this album is super great and will be your favorite album to listen to in your car for at least a couple of months, guaranteed.

Check your local listings, yo!

by Carlton Hargro

Am I the only one who’s digging the Fantastic Four these days?

If so, that’s a shame because, under the creative guidance of writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch, this is the best the book has been in quite years. In fact, I’d say Millar and Hitch’s run on the book to date is just as good as the classic stint by (gasp!) John Byrne.

What makes the work of current creative team so enjoyable? It’s just clear that these guys get what makes the Fantastic Four work.

From a writing perspective, Millar is able to blend the out-this-world cosmic stuff with the mundane family stuff; of course, a lot of FF writers try to do this. Millar, however, succeeds by presenting the cosmic stuff — like alternate dimensions and dating super-human burglars — as mundane and the mundane stuff — like finding a babysitter and the best way to celebrate your anniversary — as incredible. On top of that, while Millar does make use of classic FF supporting characters and villains, he finds a way to blaze a few new trails and tries out some things that have never been done in the pages of the comic before. And for a comic that’s been published for (at least) 562 months, that’s saying a mouthful.

When it comes to art, Hitch’s ultra-realistic style fits well in the FF; his drawings help to ground the reader and make all the extra-terrestrial/space-faring concepts, characters and landscapes more believable. Is this stuff as good as his work on The Ultimates? Yes … for the most part and on most panels. At the end of the day, Hitch at 85 percent is better than most artists at 100.

Now, all that good stuff taken into consideration, I must admit that I’m not happy with the apparent lateness of the book. But, when the comic does happen to hit the stands, the quality is top notch.

So, in conclusion: I like the FF, and you should, too.

Carlton Hargro is the editor-in-chief of Creative Loafing. For more comic reviews from Carlton, visit www.charlotte.creativeloafing.com.

Whoa seriously? Yes it’s true. I’ll say more tomorrow, because I gots to go print up some flyers to give out in the store. But I just wanted to let those of you out in the INTERNET know!

For now, feel free to leave your questions in the comments below if you have them.

This just in! New to the HeroesCon 09 Guest List on this fine Friday afternoon are some fine, fine fellows. I say Witness:

GEORGE BRODERICK JR :: has worked all over the place, most recently for Bongo on books like Radioactive Man and the Simpsons Super Spectacular; as well as for Moonstone on Kolchak the Night Stalker!

VITO DELSANTE :: is a sweet dude and an up-and-comer; besides writing in the past for Superman and Scooby-Doo, this year will see the premiere of his new book from AdHouse Books, FCHS–first as a FREE Comic Book Day book, and later as graphic novel!

BOB MCLEOD :: is no stranger to X-Men fans OR HeroesCon. He’s most noted as the co-creator of the New Mutants, as well as creator of the Superhero ABC book, and editor of Rough Stuff Magazine.

THOMAS SCIOLI :: is the creator of the Xeric-winning The Myth of 8-Opus, as well as the artist of the popular Godland series!

Okay! I’m looking at my “to-do” list of guests to announce and they are seriously starting to back up, so expect weekly additions from pretty much here to June! And have a great weekend!

by Carlton Hargro

OK, you’ve got to give it up to Robert Kirkman.

He said he’d get his trio of Image-brand comics (The Astounding Wolf-Man, Invincible and The Walking Dead) out on time, and for the last few months it appears that he’s been delivering on that promise.

And I’ve got to say, now that his books are coming out more frequently, I find myself reading everything he writes — which has given me a newfound appreciation for his talents.

Kirkman is not a blockbuster-level writer yet (like, you know, guys like Mark Millar, Grant Morrison or even Brian Michael Bendis) but he churns out some entertaining stuff.

Invincible is a consistently engrossing superhero comic that’s fun without being silly or devoid of substance; The Walking Dead is a dark, violent, gory, unpredictable and addictive horror comic; and The Astounding Wolf-Man is an action-packed, scary and blood-soaked superhero/horror series.

If you only read comics from the Big-Two, then you may have read Kirkman’s runs on Ultimate X-Men or Marvel Zombies. But honestly, those works weren’t a great representation of his writing abilities. Flip through the pages of his creator-owned stuff (like, you know, those three comics I previously mentioned), and his love of comics and command of the art form is evident.

On top of that, his books feature the best letter columns in comics (yes, even better than the letters pages in Powers).

All that to say, buy some Kirkman books. You’ll dig ’em.

For more comic reviews from Carlton, visit www.charlotte.creativeloafing.com.

On Saturday we held our annual Charlotte Minicon, one of the oldest one-day shows in the country! The turnout was great, with over 450 through the door, and there were smiles all around! People turned out not only to meet our guests–including (deep breath) Greg Adams, Duane Ballenger, Chris Brunner, J. Chris Campbell, Ian Flynn, Georges Jeanty, Jason Latour, Buddy Prince, Budd Root, and Andy Smith–but to enter our door prize drawings. We drew 5 different prizes, each consisting of a copy of the white-hot Amazing Spider-Man #583, with the last one being the SUPER hot Obama variant! Even better, the Obama variant was donated by our bud Paul from Dominion Comics in Lynchburg, Virginia! I think Paul earned himself a “Minicon MVP” award there. Thanks Paul!

But if it were up to me, I’d give MVP Honorable Mention to our own Seth, who (once again) made us all look bad by being the first one in with Shelton at 7 in the morning, and the last one out when we loaded back out that night! Seth makes the rest of us employees look bad, but we’re working up a smear campaign to take some of the wind out of his sails, don’t you worry!

Also earning a prize of some kind (Booby Prize? No-Prize?) is Shelton and his lady-love Linda’s dog Bodie, a puppy that they miss no opportunity to show off, carry around, or just accept generally accept and agree with compliments over. Linda brought Bodie by in the afternoon, and suddenly all the pictures Shelton was taking, which were previously of the guests, dealers, or crowds, became all about Bodie, Bodie, Bodie. I admit though–he IS a cute dog.

These are just a few of the pictures Shelton took, but you can see the whole set over at our Flickr page. Check it out, and while you’re there, feast on the bajillion other pictures! If we don’t see you in the store, we’ll see you one month from now for the George Romero signing in our store! More details to come!

Shelton just walked into the office to say that he’d had a dream. “What was it?” I asked, expecting something wild, something bizarre.

“We’re going to give away door prizes tomorrow at the Minicon.”

“Door prizes.”

“Yes, door prizes. A copy of the first print of Spidey #583 every hour. And one of them will be the Obama variant cover.” I swear this is what happened. This is how Shelton talks ALL THE TIME. In his dreams, he is thinking about Spider-Man comic books. ALL THE TIME.

But his dream will come true! When you come to the Charlotte Minicon tomorrow, bring in the postcard we sent out this week, and you’ll be registered for one of the FIVE door prizes, which will be a copy of the incredibly hard to find, already going to a 3rd printing, Amazing Spider-Man #583 FIRST PRINT! AND, also per Shelton’s magnificent dream, ONE of those copies will be the EVEN HARDER to find Obama variant cover!

If you didn’t get a postcard, DON’T WORRY–just sign up for our mailing list at the Minicon and you’ll be registered too!

And of course, there’s plenty more besides the door prizes going on: there’ll be dealers from all over the Southeast, and a guest list including Georges Jeanty, Budd Root, Andy Smith, and more! See our original post or scroll to the post below this one on our blog to get all the details.

The Charlotte Minicon will go on from 11am to 5pm in the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall (2601 E. 7th. St., click here for Google map). From our store at 7th & Pecan, head east (AWAY from uptown) to the very next light, at 5th Street. Fireman’s Hall will be on the left, and there’ll be signs a-plenty that Shelton will put out early that morning. This is presuming that he doesn’t have another wild dream and oversleeps. See you there!