Courtesy of our buddy Matt Knapik, check out these sweet photos from Saturday’s Charlotte Minicon! I happen to have been one of the guests (super exciting!) so I can tell you from both sides of the table that it was a lot of fun!

One really cool thing was what I saw as an increased number of families attending together, both dads and daughters, and even Moms, the rarest demographic at a comics show. I love it, super fun. The highlight of the show for me was having one kid and his dad hang out in front of my table for a while, having me sketch all sorts of weird stuff (a Jedi, a stump being chased by a warrior, etc.). I had a good time talking to those guys, it made me wistful for my days as a Pokemon Leader or Jedi Master or whatever you call someone who runs a Pokemon League.

Also cool was sitting next to Rich Barrett, who is worth checking out if you guys haven’t already. He’s one of our customers who has recently taken the plunge into webcomics, and even more recently beginning to publish those comics as mini’s–I do believe you can find copies of his Nathan Sorry minis in the store! Rich was too cagey to get photographed though, he’s like Bigfoot that way.

Plus of course the tons of other talent in the room. Francesco Francavilla was in the hizzy with his lovely wife Lisavilla Francavilla (actually just Lisa), plus our bros Budd Root and Andy Smith, plus our other bros Chris Brunner and Jason Latour, plus our South Carolina bros J. Chris Campbell and Duane Ballenger. Plus our other SC bros from the Dollar Bin who were in full effect all day. Plus a ton of you guys! Thanks to everyone who came out and made the Charlotte Minicon a success! Don’t forget to check out the full photo report here!

This Saturday, January 23: the Charlotte Minicon! The precursor to HeroesCon, Shelton started the Charlotte Minicon way back in 1977, five years before he established HeroesCon!

We’re kicking the new year off right with the Minicon this year, with a guest list that includes rising star artist Francesco Francavilla (Scalped, Zorro, Black Beetle), as well as Rich Barrett (Nathan Sorry), Al Bigley (Sonic the Hedgehog), Chris Brunner (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Loose Ends), J. Chris Campbell (Zig Zag), Dustin Harbin (DHARBIN!), Jason Latour (Loose Ends, Expatriate),Budd Root (Cavewoman), and Andy Smith (Dean Koontz’ Frankenstein, 52)!

This year’s Charlotte Minicon will be held Saturday, January 23, 2010, from 11am to 5pm, at the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall. It’s just up the street from our store, maybe a half-mile east or so on 7th Street. Shelton always puts a bunch of signs up on 7th street in both directions, so it should be pretty easy to find! And for those of you with fancy GPS systems (or computers) the physical address is 2601 E. 7th St. Admission is just $3–besides the special guests, there’ll be dealers from all over the Southeast, with tons of old comics, new comics, Silver & Golden Age, weird old books, you name it! See you Saturday!

I generally try not to cross the streams, but I thought it would be a shameful waste to not get double-duty out of this little blurb advertising my guest-ness at this Saturday’s Charlotte Minicon. I’ll be doing a Clark Kent/Superman style thing all day, basically just taking my glasses on and off. More details at the post, and of course details aplenty about the Minicon in the post just beneath this one!

Coming up next Saturday, January 23 is an old Charlotte tradition, the Charlotte Minicon! The precursor to HeroesCon, Shelton started the Charlotte Minicon way back in 1977, five years before he established HeroesCon!

We’re kicking the new year off right with the Minicon this year, with a guest list that already includes rising star artist Francesco Francavilla(Scalped, Zorro, Black Beetle), as well as Rich Barrett (Nathan Sorry),Al Bigley (Sonic the Hedgehog), Chris Brunner (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Loose Ends), J. Chris Campbell (Zig Zag), Dustin Harbin (what?? that’s crazy!), Jason Latour (Loose Ends, Expatriate),Budd Root (Cavewoman), and Andy Smith (Dean Koontz’ Frankenstein, 52)!

This year’s Charlotte Minicon will be held Saturday, January 23, 2010, from 11am to 5pm, at the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall. It’s just up the street from our store, maybe a half-mile east or so on 7th Street. Shelton always puts a bunch of signs up on 7th street in both directions, so it should be pretty easy to find! And for those of you with fancy GPS systems (or computers) the physical address is 2601 E. 7th St. Admission is just $3–besides the special guests, there’ll be dealers from all over the Southeast, with tons of old comics, new comics, Silver & Golden Age, weird old books, you name it! See you there next Saturday!

Whoa-ho! Returning this year is an old Charlotte tradition, the Charlotte Minicon! The precursor to HeroesCon, Shelton started the Charlotte Minicon way back in 1977, five years before he established HeroesCon!

We’re kicking the new year off right with the Minicon this year, with a guest list that already includes rising star artist Francesco Francavilla (Scalped, Zorro, Black Beetle), as well as Rich Barrett (Nathan Sorry), Al Bigley (Sonic the Hedgehog), Chris Brunner (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Loose Ends), J. Chris Campbell (Zig Zag), Dustin Harbin (what?? that’s crazy!), Jason Latour (Loose Ends, Expatriate), Budd Root (Cavewoman), and Andy Smith (Dean Koontz’ Frankenstein, 52)! Holy! I hope we can squeeze all those people in with the bajillions of you who show up every year. Good thing I’m skinny.

This year’s Charlotte Minicon will be held Saturday, January 23, 2010, from 11am to 5pm, at the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall. It’s just up the street from our store, maybe a half-mile east or so on 7th Street. Shelton always puts a bunch of signs up on 7th street in both directions, so it should be pretty easy to find! And for those of you with fancy GPS systems (or computers) the physical address is 2601 E. 7th St. Admission is just $3–besides the special guests, there’ll be dealers from all over the Southeast, with tons of old comics, new comics, Silver & Golden Age, weird old books, you name it!

We’ll be talking about this more, and maybe even adding a few more names, but chew on that for right now–and mark your calendars! AND if you want to help us spread the word, you can click on the image above or right here to download a printable pdf flyer you can put up around… wherever, I guess. Just don’t get us in trouble.

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!

This Saturday is the 2009 Charlotte Minicon! Going on in the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall (2601 E. 7th. St., click here for Google map). See below for details! This is one of the oldest 1-day conventions in the country, and with all the buzz this week over the hard-to-find Amazing Spider-Man #583 with the Obama backup story, attendance is sure to be through the roof! There’ll be dealers from all over the Southeast, plus a bevy of awesome artists and writers:

Just added to the guest list of the 2009 Charlotte Minicon is Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 artist GEORGES JEANTY! Georges is an old friend of ours, and a regular guest at HeroesCon, so we’re extra proud of how high his star has risen lately. If you’ve never met Georges (pronounced almost exactly how it looks, like GEORGE-ess), he’s a super sweet guy, and is sure to be a popular guest at the show.

ALSO NEW to the list, and no less sweet, are good ole GREG ADAMS (Thunderbolts, Excalibur) and Charlotte local BUDDY PRINCE (Night). They join an existing guest list including:

CHRIS BRUNNER: Gotham Central, Loose Ends (forthcoming)

J. CHRIS CAMPBELL: Zig Zag, Project: Superior

IAN FLYNN: Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic X

JASON LATOUR: 24/7, The Expatriate, Loose Ends

BUDD ROOT: Cavewoman

ANDY SMITH: 52, Green Lantern

Add to that some of the biggest and best comics dealers from all over the Southeast, not to mention a huge number of fans, and you’ve got the Charlotte Minicon. Going on Saturday, January 17, from 11am to 5pm. Admission will be $2 per person, and the event will once again be held in the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall: from our store, just head east on 7th Street until you get to your first light at 5th St. Fireman’s Hall is on the left!

And before I forget, Ian Flynn informs us that he may have a ton of Sonic freebies available while supplies last, so be sure and bring your kids! If you have any questions, feel free to post in the Comments section below!

THIS JUST IN!

Just added to the guest list of the 2009 Charlotte Minicon is Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 artist GEORGES JEANTY! Georges is an old friend of ours, and a regular guest at HeroesCon, so we’re extra proud of how high his star has risen lately. If you’ve never met Georges (pronounced almost exactly how it looks, like GEORGE-ess), he’s a super sweet guy, and is sure to be a popular guest at the show.

ALSO NEW to the list, and no less sweet, are good ole GREG ADAMS (Thunderbolts, Excalibur) and Charlotte local BUDDY PRINCE (Night). They join an existing guest list including:

CHRIS BRUNNER: Gotham Central, Loose Ends (forthcoming)

J. CHRIS CAMPBELL: Zig Zag, Project: Superior

IAN FLYNN: Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic X

JASON LATOUR: 24/7, The Expatriate, Loose Ends

BUDD ROOT: Cavewoman

ANDY SMITH: 52, Green Lantern

Add to that some of the biggest and best comics dealers from all over the Southeast, not to mention a huge number of fans, and you’ve got the Charlotte Minicon. Going on Saturday, January 17, from 11am to 5pm. Admission will be $2 per person, and the event will once again be held in the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall: from our store, just head east on 7th Street until you get to your first light at 5th St. Fireman’s Hall is on the left!

And before I forget, Ian Flynn informs us that he may have a ton of Sonic freebies available while supplies last, so be sure and bring your kids! If you have any questions, feel free to post in the Comments section below!