ZAQ’S PICK :: DARK TOWER: THE DRAWING OF THREE #1: If you call yourself a Stephen King fan & haven’t read the Dark Tower series you’re a charlatan in my book!  But don’t fret Constant Reader, for Marvel, in their infinite wisdom, have given us the comic adaptation of The Dark Tower: The Drawing of Three – The Prisoner!  It’s written by veteran writer, Peter David, & penciled by Piotr Kowalski, the greats responsible for MadroX & the art of What If? Age of Ultron, respectively.  One of the great things about the Dark Tower series is the genre hopping.  It spans everything from Western (obviously), fantasy, sci-fi & even romance!  This one has more of sci-fi bent with elements of real world grit.  I could go on and on in my clumsy writing style but you should just read it.  I’ll think you’re so cool if you do.

JUSTIN’S PICK :: GOD HATES ASTRONAUTS #1: Ryan Browne sent me some VERY inappropriate pictures. However, they were not sent via cellphone, and they were not unsolicited. Rather, they were contained in his delightfully grotesque book (OGN, as the kids say these days) God Hates Astronauts. Lucky for us mere mortals, Browne has come back down the mountain, and deigned to grace us with an ongoing follow-up from Image Comics. A glorious misappropriation of the superhero genre, I LOL’d more at GHA than I have at 1,000 cat memes. That’s kind of GHA in a nutshell: cat memes, with more punching. And violence. And potty humor. And cool drawings instead of stupid cat pictures. I don’t know, just buy the darn thing! Twice, because it has two covers.

SETH’S PICK :: SOUTHERN BASTARDS #4: When each new issue of Southern Bastards is released, I find myself doing the same thing I did with Jason Aaron’s Scalped: re-reading each issue of that particular story line before enjoying the final chapter. While both books have strong elements of crime fiction within them, the greater similarity is that hold up to multiple readings and remain impressive. Aaron’s reliability as a storyteller is part of Southern Bastards‘ success, but just as key is the quality of the art.

Jason Latour is finally receiving the attention he’s been due as a unique cartoonist in an ever-expanding field of comic book pin up artists. I’ve particularly been impressed with Latour’s ability to convey the mindsets of characters through their facial and body language.  This sounds simple, I know, but how many times have you looked at a comic in recent years and every character’s face looks exactly the same? You don’t have that monochromatic wave of expressions in Southern Bastards. In fact, I would argue that you could infer the story’s meaning by simply reading the pictures without the script. Again, that seems like a fairly obvious role of comic book art, but how often do comics actually succeed on that front?

Southern Bastards exemplifies strong literary and visual storytelling, and if you haven’t yet realized what so many of us already have, make sure to pick up the first three issues or the upcoming trade paperback. Oh, and in this issue Earl Tubb fights Coach Boss. It’s set in the South, you see.

Just a reminder that we’ll be hosting our big Labor Day Sale this Sunday and Monday! Remember that we’ll be opening three hours early on Sunday (at 10 am) to accommodate early bird shoppers, and will be open until our regular Sunday time of 6 pm. We’ll open again at our normal Monday hour of 10 am, with the sale lasting until 6 pm that night.

In addition to the 7500+ comics in our brand new dollar stock, Shelton has also deemed every single one of our statues to be on sale for this event. The more you buy, the bigger the discount. That means you can buy:

1 statue for 20% off

2 statues for 25% off

3 statues for 30% off

5+ statues for 35% off

Select statues will be marked down to rock bottom close-out prices, and will not be eligible for the discount tier above. If you’ve had your eye on any statues in recent months, this is the weekend to buy them. It’s rare for us to have a statue sale of this scale, and there won’t be another one like this any time soon, so take advantage of the sales while you can!

We’ll also be offering big discounts on toys, and the statue discount tier also applies to our entire selection of manga. However, if you buy 10 or more manga selections, you’ll get 50% off those books! Dang!

It’s going to be a fun Labor Day at Heroes! We look forward to seeing you this weekend:

Sunday (8/31): 10 am – 6 pm

Monday (9/1): 10 am – 6 pm

RICO’S PICK :: BOB’S BURGERS #1: If the folks making these books can capture the heart and hilarity of the TV show, Bob’s Burgers is going to be a great comic. I’d read a solo Tina Belcher comic honestly. Tina is the daughter of the titular Bob and blossoming into womanhood in the most awkward and wonderful ways possible. I’m a HUGE fan of the show and look forward to checking this out.

JUSTIN’S PICK :: TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE TP VOL 01: If you don’t like this comic, I cannot help you. I can maybe pretend to help you, and I may be accommodating and pleasant, but we both know that the thrizzle is gone. That flame is doused. How could I really, truly concern myself with someone who would deprive themselves of the joy and the ecstasy that is Michael Kupperman‘s Tales Designed to Thrizzle? You just hate laughter, don’t you? We have a name for people like you: the Enemy of Fun. That’s right! ENEMY! OF FUN! Go read a Chris Ware comic, you miserablist! GOSH.

…and JUST SO YOU KNOW the calibre of AWESOME JOKES you’re WILFULLY IGNORING, here’s a favorite bit o’ mine. LIKE YOU CARE.

In honor of Labor Day, we’ll be hosting a two day sale next weekend! It kicks off on Sunday, August 31 from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., then picks back up on Monday, September 1 from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Note that we’ll be opening three hours early next Sunday to start the festivities and give you all a few extra hours to shop.

What will be included in this sale? To start, we’ll have 30 long boxes of a brand new dollar comics on hand. This stock has never been displayed at a Heroes event, nor has it been on the road at any of our numerous convention appearances. We’ve been saving these especially for this event, so know that you’ll have plenty of good dollar comics to find.

If that’s not enough, Shelton has declared that every statue in the store will be on sale, all priced to move! It’s rare that our entire stock of statues will be on sale, so if you’ve had your eye on any of them, next weekend will be the perfect time to pick them up.

It’s going to be a busy Fall at Heroes, and we’ll have some exciting announcements in the coming weeks about store signings and our annual Heroes Pop Swap. Stay tuned to this very blog for all the news, and we’ll look forward to seeing you next weekend.

Heroes Labor Day Sale

Sunday, August 31: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Monday, September 1: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

JUSTIN’S PICK :: HIP HOP FAMILY TREE VOL 02: Ed Piskor and Fantagraphics drop the second volume of this exhaustively researched and obsessively detailed history of America’s most misunderstood (and misappropriated) indigenous art form. Like comic books, baseball, and its predecessor jazz, hip-hop is a mode of expression that is undeniably ours, and for better or worse, it has infiltrated the global consciousness. Piskor has revealed himself as an authority on the subject, and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather see setting pen-to-paper in this pursuit. The treasury format gives the art plenty of room to breathe, while lending an essential old school nostalgia. If you missed out on the opening chapter of this modern masterpiece, worry not…Fantagraphics also offers a new printing of volume one to satisfy your souls. Read up, son!

RICO’S PICK :: MULTIVERISTY #1: DC Comics is giving Grant Morrison the keys to 51 alternate Earths in the DC U. 51 different universes (The Multiverse), each with their own particular spin on the superheroes we know and love. The concept of the DC Multiverse isn’t a new one, it’s been around since the 1960s but Grant Morrison is attempting to flesh it all out in this new series. Sounds pretty interesting. I really like this variant cover by Morrison himself.

Chris Burnham’s cover is pretty great too.