Welcome friends, to week four of DC’s massive Villains Month event! We’re in the home stretch, and last week we attempted to clarify some aspects of this situation. A friendly reminder:

Demand is far outstripping supply, especially now that everyone and their mother wants some sweet, sweet lenticular goodness. This event has been in the making for a while, and savvy customers were already logging their requests as early as late June.  We must repeat: as always, orders will be filled in the order in which they were received, while supplies last.

We cannot guarantee we will be able to fill every request we’ve received. This might sound unfair, but it is the nature of big bandwagon events where demand outnumbers supply.  However, this is a perfect opportunity to remind everyone about Previews, the catalogue that Diamond Comic Distributors publishes on a monthly basis. This catalogue advertises product three months in advance, is available to the public, and is the exact same resource Heroes uses to stock its shelves. Previews is available to you every single month, and we are happy to order anything (within reason) you’d like to purchase, even products we might not opt to stock in the store itself.  This is the best way to ensure you get any items you want or need.

Again, we understand the frustration, and even empathize. It hasn’t been easy for us, either! But also, isn’t this part of the fun of collecting? Do we want everything in a nice, neat package, simply for convenience sake? The hunt is part of the fun! For those of you who might scoff at that last statement, DC is also offering a complete box set of second printings of the villains books, complete with 3D covers, that will be available in February 2014. And we will have the standard, 2D editions of all the villains issues on hand in the coming weeks, as well.

Thanks again for your business and your patience, and we will see you soon!

Heroes is proud to welcome Justin Crouse to the position of Store Manager!  Justin has been a valuable staff member for the past three years.  Like many employees over the years, Justin was a customer for some fifteen years before he worked his way up from HeroesCon volunteer to full fledged staff member.  In addition to being an endless source of humor for staff and customers alike, Justin has a wide range of comic tastes – his favorites include  Howard the Duck, Savage Dragon, Bulletproof Coffin, Captain America, Asterios Polyp and Black Hole.  Justin’s also a talented artist, with his work appearing in several anthologies and self-published comics in recent years.  He values the aesthetics of the form, and, like the rest of us, unabashedly loves comics.

As store manager, Justin will handle all comic ordering, which means if you have any requests for specific items or variants, or would like to change your Previews orders, you’ll need to contact him at [email protected].  He will also be helping to coordinate volunteers for HeroesCon 2014.

We are very excited to have Justin as our new store manager, and hope you’ll also welcome him.  After the success of this year’s HeroesCon, we’re all reinvigorated and ready to bring you an even better comic shop and convention in the coming year.  Great things are happening at Heroes, and we hope you’ll continue to join us along the way.

This year marked my seventh year as a member of the capable HeroesCon management and organization team.  Every year there are countless little moments that make me (and the rest of the staff) happy to be a part of this incredible comics community.  This year, more than any other year, I was especially heartened and humbled by our 3rd Annual Drink and Draw.  It was at our first Drink and Draw back in 2011 that I met Richard Thompson, the genius cartoonist behind the award winning Cul de Sac comic strip.  It was Richard for whom Team Cul de Sac started, in an effort to raise money for Parkinson’s research.  And it is Richard’s humor, humility and general kindness that made us want to continue to do more to battle this disease.

This year, thanks in part to a spacious new venue (the Hilton), an appropriately Southern soundtrack from Jack the Radio, and the creativity of professional and amateur artists alike, we raised over $7,000 for Team Cul de Sac and the Michael J. Fox foundation!   The combined total from money raised in the first two years was under $3,000, so that alone should let you know the extent to which our fundraising increased this year.

Planning for this year’s Drink and Draw began earlier than ever before.  Team Cul de Sac founder Chris Sparks, my wife (and fellow Drink and Draw organizer) Heather and I had a few meals together in Asheville this past Spring, and talked at length about what we could do to bring even more money and awareness to Team Cul de Sac at HeroesCon’s Drink and Draw event.  Chris took those brainstorming sessions and turned them into original art from Patrick McDonnell (Mutts), Jim Borgman (Zits), Mark Tatulli (Lio), Roger Langridge (Snarked), and more, all for us to auction at the Drink and Draw.  In addition to these pieces, Chris brought an Art Spiegelman signed and sketched edition of Maus, and Bill Watterson signed editions of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes and Team Cul de Sac: Artists Draw the Line at Parkinson’s.

With all the art produced and auctioned off at the Drink and Draw, we not only raised a sizable donation for Parkinson’s research, but sent a strong message that the philanthropic efforts at HeroesCon have never been more vibrant than they were this year.   I look forward to working with Chris to bring even larger things to HeroesCon 2014’s Drink and Draw.

Thanks to all the fine volunteers who continue to come back every year to help us run the event (Heather Peagler, Brian Purvis and the rest), all the artists who still draw for us after a long day on the convention floor, and everyone who donated money for the various pieces produced that night. Thanks to Chris Sparks for his perseverance, Richard Thompson for his ever-present inspiration, and Shelton Drum for giving us so much time and space at HeroesCon to continue to raise money for this worthy cause.

If you’d like to continue to support Team Cul de Sac throughout the year, please visit them HERE.  The battle against Parkinson’s disease needs more than just our annual event to help fight it.  We hope to see you next year at Drink and Draw.  We’ve already started planning, so trust me when I tell you – HeroesCon 2014 is going to be bigger and better than ever!

This past weekend at the Small Press Expo in Maryland, Seth was able to meet the genius cartoonist Chris Ware and pick up an advanced copy of his newest book, Building Stories, for Heroes.  Since Ware was one of the show’s guest, we even got it signed!  Building Stories won’t be available to retailers until next month, and Ware rarely makes convention appearances, so here’s your only chance to pick up an early signed copy of this amazing book.  It’s hard to call this a book, since it’s a box full of books, newspaper comics, fold out boards and various sizes of strips, but it is an amazing set of comics however you look at it.

Of course we’ll have several copies of the book in our store when it comes out next month but they won’t be signed, don’t miss this rare opportunity!

Bid on this rare item now in our eBay store.