We’re hitting the road for appearances at two conventions this weekend!  Heroes’ own Seth Peagler and Brent Bagwell will be setting up at the Columbia Comic and Toy Con on Saturday, and the Atlanta Comic Convention on Sunday.  They’ll have a huge variety of comics for you to enjoy, including brand new discount books, hard to find recent and new comics, and selections from Shelton’s new Golden Age and Silver Age collections that debuted at the Charlotte MiniCon.  They’ll even be selling advanced tickets to HeroesCon, and will have plenty of information to pass along to you about some of the exciting things we have planned for this year’s 30th Anniversary!  Stop by and say hello to the guys and pick up some comics while you’re at it!

You can find out more information about the Columbia Comic and Toy Con HERE, or click HERE to find out more about some of the cool things you can find at the Atlanta Comic Convention.  Both events will be a lot of fun, and we hope to see you there!

There are few things more satisfying than high quality crime fiction (The Novels of Jim Thompson, HBO’s The Sopranos, and Polanski’s Chinatown just to name three).

And there is nothing more embarrassing and ridiculous than cliche-ridden badly done hard boiled crime like Mickey Spillane (OK, it’s kinda funny), Bones (yikes!), Fatal Attraction (GAH!) and sadly I could go on and on.

The essential ingredients needed to produce quality crime writing are a consistent and believable tone, a fully developed central character/narrator and solid cast of supporting characters that allow you to suspend your disbelief until the final page is turned.

In recent years there have been a number of successful crime series in comics–(Darwyn Cooke’s Hunter adaptations, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s 100 Bullets and Warren Ellis’ Fell ) and quite a few crime comics that fall headlong into cliche (the last four Sin City GNs).

One of today’s most popular crime series is Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.  For February’s Discussion Group we’ll be looking closely at two of Criminal’s story-arcs and examining what makes the stories work.  How do the writer and artist avoid cliches or how do they use them to enhance the story?  How do the creators use the comic medium to their unique advantage versus a prose writer or film director treating the same material?

Please plan to join us on Saturday February 18th at 1:00pm down at Heroes Headquarters and help us get the facts straight about Criminal: Bad Night and Criminal: The Last of the Innocent. Just leave yer pieces at home, but bring an open mind along with an air-tight alibi (See??? Bad Crime writing is a breeze!!!).

As usual, Heroes is offering the Discussion Group 10% Discount on both books,  Just remember to mention the Discussion Group as you check out.  We’ll see you on February 18th; and as always, Dames are welcome (Dear God, somebody stop me!)

Thanks so much to everyone from our great community that came out to the 35th Annual Charlotte MiniCon this weekend. It was fantastic to see so many enthusiastic comic fans at our biggest MiniCon ever. The beautiful Palmer Building was packed and we can’t wait to do it again next year! Special thanks to Cliff Chiang for making the trip down to Charlotte from New York! We’re happy to say he’ll be back down for HeroesCon 2012 in June! Click the photo below to see our MiniCon photo set featuring Cliff and all the other great comic creators that came out! You may even find a photo of yourself if you were there. Follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook page to hear about special events like this first!

Charlotte MiniCon is this weekend! Sunday, January 22nd, 11AM-5PM at The Palmer Building: 2601 East 7th Street  Charlotte, NC 28204

This exclusive silk screen poster (modeled for scale by handsome and personable Heroes staff member Brent Bagwell) by Cliff Chiang and Dustin Harbin will be available at the show for $10! Get here!

Also appearing:

Rich Barrett (Nathan Sorry)
J Chris Campbell (Wide Awake Press, Neatobots)
Sanford Greene (Rotten Apple, Wonder Girl)
Dustin Harbin (Diary Comics, Dharbin)
Jason Latour (Wolverine, BPRD, Loose Ends)
Eraklis “Herc” Petmezas (Mr Lune, Last Cigarette)
Bridgit Scheide (Brother Nash,Womanthology)
Andy Smith (War of the Green Lanterns, JSA, WWE Heroes)
Budd Root (Cavewoman)

Not only will you find great comic creators at MiniCon, the show will also feature dealers selling comics from the Golden Age through today, along with other great collectibles. If you’ve never been to the MiniCon or enjoyed the nice environment of the Palmer Building before, there’s no better time than this year. Come help us celebrate the 35th anniversary of this classic event, and make sure to bring the whole family! It’s going to be a rockin’ good time!

This Sunday Heroes celebrates the 35th Anniversary of the Charlotte MiniCon!  As part of the celebration we are honored to have artist Cliff Chiang appear as one of our featured guests.  Aside from being universally regarded as one of the nicest guys in the industry, Cliff’s also one of comics’ top illustrators.  Just take a look at DC’s new Wonder Woman series and you’ll see why.  We recently talked with Cliff about his appearance this weekend, and some of his recent work. Make sure to stop by the MiniCon this Sunday and welcome Cliff back to Charlotte!

Heroes (H):  Your collaboration with Brian Azzarello dates back to your time as an editor of 100 Bullets and your work together on DC’s excellent Doctor 13 stories.  What made Wonder Woman seem like the natural next step in your collaboration?

Cliff Chiang (CC): I’d been itching to work with Azz again ever since Doctor 13, but I had some longer projects that delayed those plans. When Azz called me about Wonder Woman, I realized it was a great opportunity to be creative and confuse people at the same time! I was in.

CC: As long as they’ll have us. We have some long term plans for the story, and I’d love to be able to see them though.

CC: We’ve got the exclusive MiniCon screenprint by me and Dustin Harbin, for a measly $10! Hopefully, I’ll get another image done for HeroesCon later this year. So much to do!

H: We’re glad you mentioned that! We’re happy that you’ll be back in Charlotte for HeroesCon this summer to help us celebrate our 30th anniversary.

Super (Fly) Mario for the What Not Blog

H: Whose idea was the What Not Blog?

CC: I think it was Reverend Dave Johnson’s brainchild. It’s inspiring to see such a diverse group of artists just messing around like that.

H: Where do you guys find the time to do these fully realized illustrations on top of your paying work?!

CC: It can be hard, but it is a lot of fun. I probably should do less-finished stuff and post more often, but sometimes I love an idea and wanna show some more care.

H: Finally, what are some of the comics that you’re most looking forward to seeing in 2012?

CC: Two things I’m looking forward to in 2012 are the conclusion to Loose Ends (I did not pay him to say that. -rico.) and the print version of Robbi Rodriguez’s Frankie Get Your Gun.

Thanks to Cliff for taking time to answer a few questions.  You can meet him and a slew of other great artists this Sunday at the 35th Anniversary of the Charlotte MiniCon!

Check out Cliff’s website and follow him on Twitter @CliffChiang

Just a Planetar-reminder that the Heroes Discussion Group will meet this Saturday January 7th at 1:00pm to discuss Planetary— Warren Ellis and John Cassaday’s magnum opus of superhero archetypes and the team that investigates them.

As usual there are a myriad of topics to discuss, the two that come to mind first are:

Why make villains out of the 4? What does it say about–well, everything?

and

How much of the narrative is serious storytelling and how much is a self-parody?  And does it really matter?

I’d also like to discuss colorista extraordinaire and Heroescon regular Laura Martin and how her contributions affect the story-telling.

So remember, bring an open-mind and your sweet-tooth (if we end up at the bakery).

And as usual: All of the Planetary volumes including the enormous, beautiful omnibusseses  are available from Heroes with the 10% Discussion Group Discount.  As usual, be sure to mention the discount to your clerk as they are ringing up your order.

Santa must have been some-what disillusioned or at the very least pre-occupied this Holiday season, because I landed quite an unexpected haul this year.  My stocking runneth over with all kinds of comic book goodies.  Here is a just a brief summation of my first official time on the Nice List:

Marvel Masterworks The Inhumans Volume 1— a gorgeous reprinting of the Lee/Kirby Inhumans back-up series for Thor, followed by the short but fabulous Kirby and then Neal Adams(!) runs from the gone-but not-forgotten Amazing Adventures.

The Late, Great Joe Simon.

Simon and Kirby Library: The Superheroes-– this book– by itself– is a must have for all comic fans, The complete Fighting American, 3-D man and Stuntman (whoa!) are worth the price of admission.  But my copy was signed by the late, great Joe Simon, by our pal and series editor Steve Saffel (Happy Birthday, Steve!) and also by Neil Gaiman who wrote the Intro. Dang–I hope Santa isn’t on the Heroes mailing list because if he reads this he will realize his mistake and make a surprise January visit to replace this gem with some socks or maybe a nice scarf.

The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all-time.  This book is the result of a poll taken by over 1000 professional cartoonists.  It is a great book!  I have spent the last few days scouring Netflix and amazon in search of these celluloid classics. (#1 is What’s Opera, Doc)   Thank God that Heroes is the kind of Comic Shop that offers a variety of books like this in addition to their ample stock of Usual Suspects!

An Iron Man Spatula from Williams-Sonoma.  It makes Waffles that have Zero Trans(istor) Fats. Also, Captain America/Spider-man/Hulk Head cookies from Sur Le Table. My wife (a civilian!) claims all three cookie heads tasted the same, but I know the Cap Cookies were the tastiest!)

Christmas is always so much more fun when you get Comic related gifts!

So my question for Heroes United (sounds like a Soccer team doesn’t it?) is–

Share with us:  What did you get this Uncanny X-mas???

2011: What a great year for the Heroes Discussion Group! In one ten month period February to November, we tackled Death of Speedy, Sandman: Endless Nights, Ghost World, Superman Earth One, Parker: The Outfit, Wednesday Comics, Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love, Daytripper and Jimmy Corrigan!  It’s hard for me to to pick a personal favorite discussion but (after review) I am leaning towards the afternoon that Jimmy Corrigan reared his round head.

So, how do we start 2012?  On the weekend of the Feast of the Epiphany, let’s do the those star following Magi one better than Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh by presenting 4 gifts–The entire four volume Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday.  This is a book that creates some serious division amongst comic readers.

Many love Ellis’ work; many do not.

A large number of readers are intrigued by the conceit behind Planetary; some view it as an attack on some of our beloved superhero archetypes.

But there is more than one way to approach this world that Ellis and Cassaday have carefully constructed?

So, there is only one thing to do–talk about it.  I promise you this; it is an exciting read; even if your feathers get a bit ruffled, Planetary is certainly worth your time.

Serving Suggestion: Perhaps Planetary can be approached as a 20th Century Superhero take on  the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  (And that incredible art alone is worth the price of admission).  Please plan to join us on Saturday January 7th at 1:00pm as we will tackle all four volumes of Planetary.  After the discussion, we want to hear your recommendations for the 2012 Discussion groups.  All of the Planetary volumes (including the enormous, beautiful omnibi (I know, I know)) are available from Heroes with the 10% Discussion Group Discount.  As usual, be sure to mention the discount to your clerk as they are ringing up your order.

We can’t wait to see you!

Excitement is building  for the Charlotte MiniCon on SUNDAY, January 22, 2012!  We already told you Cliff Chiang will be there but we didn’t tell you about the sweet poster we’ll be offering! Cliff and local hero Dustin Harbin have teamed up to create this gorgeous poster that will be available at the MiniCon. Did we mention it’s huge? 16 by 24 inches of glorious hand silk screened art on a nice heavy sheet of paper. Wait until you see these things! We will be offering them for a measly 10 bucks a piece! That’s a deal and a half! Get a friend to pick one up for you if you can’t make it to the show!

Besides Cliff Chiang and Dustin Harbin other great guests on hand will include:

• Rich Barrett
• J. Chris Campbell
• Sanford Greene
• Jason Latour
• Eraklis “Herc” Petmezas
• Bridgit Scheide
• Andy Smith
• Budd Root

We’ll take a closer look at all of these great creators (and maybe a couple more!) as we get closer to MiniCon time.

Not only will you find great comic creators at MiniCon, the show will also feature dealers selling comics from the Golden Age through today, along with other great collectibles. If you’ve never been to the MiniCon or enjoyed the nice environment of the Palmer Building before, there’s no better time than this year. Come help us celebrate the 35th anniversary of this classic event, and make sure to bring the whole family! It’s going to be a rockin’ good time!

Charlotte MiniCon
January 22, 2012
11 am to 5 pm
Admission is just $3!
Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall
2601 E 7th St
Charlotte, NC 28204