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As of now Small Press tables at HeroesCon 2011 are sold out. We will be taking a limited number of waiting list slots in case anyone needs to cancel or more space becomes available.
If you have already purchased a table look for your name to be added to the Small Press page on our site soon.
Our guest list is bursting at the seams with great guests and 2011 is shaping up to be another great year at HeroesCon!
The hits keep coming! Two guest list updates in one day! This one is Indie Island specific and filled with a plethora of great artists!
I was introduced to Paul Conrad many years ago by Mr. Adhouse, Chris Pitzer. Paul has resume with serious credentials! Some of his amazing designs can be seen in the film Up from Pixar Animation Studios. He has also worked for Walt Disney, Big Idea Productions, Scholastic & Little Golden Books.
By day Joel Carroll is training the next generation of video game designers. When he’s not doing that he’s working on his New Century Space Opera : TOPAZ. Joel has also had his comics published in the critically acclaimed FLIGHT anthology. Joel has a knack for great superhero costume design too, you can check out some of his great contributions over at Project: Rooftop. He’s also done some great sketchcards for Marvel, Star Wars, and Indian Jones card sets!
Graphic designer Ron Salas’ beautiful illustrations have recently graced the covers of Dracula: The Company of Monsters and the interiors of 28 Days Later, both from Boom Studios. His art can also be found in Existence 2.0 and Existence 3.0, written by Nick Spencer.
Maris Wicks illustrated my favorite book that I picked up at SPX this year. Maris and Galen Longstreth’s Yes Let’s from Tugboat Press is a great book for the whole family. Maris was also the glue on Adhouse’s Project: Romantic. Not only did she illustrate the cover, her Adventure Love Story is interwoven throughout the book as well.
Kristian Donaldson is responsible for the striking art on the Brian Wood penned Supermarket. The book’s unique look springs not only from Kristian’s drawing style but his dazzling colors. He has also done covers for The Guild, Dr.Horrible, and Chuck. Be on the lookout for Kristian’s art in Vertigo: Crime’s 99 Days which goes on sale the week before HeroesCon 2011!
Joe Quinones amazed many with his stunning work on Green Lantern in DC’s Wednesday Comics. When you’re digging in the comic boxes at HeroesCon be on the lookout for Joe’s great 12 page story in Amazing Spider-Man #622. Not one to rest on his laurels, Joe has been delighting eyeballs with covers on Star Wars: Knight Errant, Mass Effect, and a series of great variant covers for Amazing Spider-Man featuring pretty much all the big-time bad guys Spidey has tussled with.
Alberto Ruiz is an art revolutionary plain
and simple. Alberto had worked for corporate clients in the illustration and design but soon realized he needed to do his own thing. Seeing a void in the world of art books, Alberto blazed his own path and asked many of his talented friends to come along for the ride. Brandstudios has a reputation for putting out beautiful art books featuring great artists from around the world. Alberto now draws for himself and is much happier for it!
After last year’s popular appearance, we are happy to announce artist Ben Templesmith is returning to HeroesCon 2011! You know him as the artist behind Choker, Fell, 30 Days of Night, the writer and artist of Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse and Welcome to Hoxford. Ben has also shown his range on the beautiful and informative The Presidents of the United States.
Throughout the year, as part of our buildup to HeroesCon ’11 we’ve been shining a spotlight on several artists who will be guests at our show.
This week we’re proud to feature an interview with Chrissie Zullo, an artist who burst into the industry in recent years with several high profile gigs, most notably as the cover artist for two Fables spinoff Cinderella miniseries’. Zullo has also branched beyond covers to provide interior
art for books like Madame Xanadu #26 and Fables #100. Zullo is also one of Charlotte’s many talented local creators, which adds a lot of hometown pride for all of us at Heroes.
Seth Peagler (SP): Chrissie, thank you for taking time to talk with me. I’d like to first ask you about your background in art. What kind of training have you had both academically and in your own private studies? Who are some of the painters and illustrators both in and out of the comics industry that you’ve been particularly affected by? (more…)
Welcome to the latest installment of “Guess Who’s Coming to HeroesCon 2011”! Now with no guessing! We give you all the answers!
Mike Norton is in the top 3% of tallest comic
artists that I have met. He is currently drawing Young Justice (based on the great Cartoon Network show of the same name) for DC Comics. He is also the co-creator of Gravity, who will play a major role in another new book he is drawing called Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt for Marvel Comics. Mike apparently had too much free time on his hands and decided to start a webcomic too. You can follow the adventures of Battlepug here.
Toby Cypress will be attending his first HeroesCon this year! I’ve been telling him how great it is and he decided to come and see for himself. Back me up and show him some love in June! Toby just released his first self-published OGN, Rodd Racer. The initial print run sold out quickly and he is going back to press in June with the help of Image Comics. He is also a part of the art super-team on the new Blue Estate from Image Comics. His past credits include Strange Tales II (Luke Cage!), Killing Girl, and The Tourist.
Tom Fleming has painted covers for
Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Heavy Metal, Vampirella, and Image. He has also been nominated for Chesley Awards in Fantasy Art painting for World of Warcraft, Magic the Gathering, paperback covers, and more. Aside from his great fantasy covers, Tom has also worked in movies and television. Last year he released his very popular book Draw & Paint Fantasy Females, and this year his tutorial painting DVD!
Atlanta-based color artist Brian Reber began his comic career in 2001. He has worked on over 50 titles for Marvel, DC, and Image. As one of the mainstay colorists in the X-Men line the past few years he has worked on every major X-title. In the past year he has worked on Outsiders, Red Hood: The Lost Days of Jason Todd, Adventure Comics, New Mutants, Dark X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and X-Men Legacy.
Wook-Jin Clark is a 
Savannah College of Art and Design alumn (they make lots of comic artists there in the Sequential Art Department). He is the artist for The Return of King Doug OGN from Oni Press. His work has also appeared in the dearly departed Nickelodeon Magazine. He is currently working on a new webcomic called Megagogo!
Join us in welcoming all these guests to HereosCon ’11! Stay tuned for even more great guest list announcements every week!
Stephanie Buscema’s art takes me back to a time when I couldn’t be trusted to handle a book with paper pages. It’s easy to imagine her art right there on those board book pages held together with gold spines. I see the influence of Charley Harper, Mary Blair, Miroslav Sasek, and other greats of the 50’s and 60’s. Stephanie’s art has been appearing on comic shelves lately and it’s been a blast to see her take on some of Marvel Comics’ classic characters. From learning the tools of the trade with her legendary grandfather to editing books for DC Comics to a very promising freelance career, Stephanie has covered a lot of ground, and it looks like she’s just getting started!
Rico Renzi: Were you getting tons of freelance work while you were editing at DC?
Stephanie Buscema: At first, no. I started working
up at DC editorial a month after graduating from college. Knowing going completely freelance and being able to pay rent would be near impossible at the beginning, I took a job at DC during the day and took on freelance work at night. About a year in things started moving, more freelance work was coming in. I basically worked both jobs until it became too overwhelming, then I took the leap and finally went freelance after a little under 2 years of working at DC.
RR: I would imagine your art style is a hard sell to most comic editors. Is painting comics for Marvel and DC something you have pursued or has your work in other fields led to these editors seeking you out?
SB: A hard sell? Is it really that bad?? I kid 😉
I think it depends on the editor, their art tastes as well as the project they’d be considering me for. Painted comics is something I’ve always wanted to do. I grew up around/reading comics and from a young age always wanted to work in comics more then anything, in my teens I started learning a lot from my Grandfather, who had been working in comics for years. I knew my work wasn’t like his, and that was ok-I knew this was something I wanted to pursue. I really enjoy the characters, costuming and colors of the traditional superheroes-to be able to paint them by hand is just so much fun.
RR: Is all your comic stuff traditionally painted? How do you deal with editorial corrections? (more…)
Two updates in one week?! This could become a common occurrence around here until the show starts on June 3rd. Join our newsletter or follow us on Twitter or Facebook so you don’t miss any HeroesCon 2011 news! On with the show this is it…
Gabriel Hardman is an illustrator for comics and film. He’s currently drawing the Hulk for Marvel comics, but has also done storyboards for films such as Inception, Superman Returns, X-Men 2 and Tropic Thunder. He also drew Heathentown, an original graphic novel written by Corinna Bechko and published in 2009 by Image. His convention sketches are killer, so make sure you pay him a visit!
No stranger to anyone who has been to HeroesCon, Tony Shasteen is returning in 2011. Tony has done work for everyone. What’s that? You want a list? OK, you asked for it…
Coca-Cola, BellSouth, IBM, Siemens, Nascar, Business Week, Hasbro, White Wolf, Shadowrun, Ten Speed Publishing, Picador Publishing, Realms of Fantasy, DC Comics, Boom Studios, Markosia, Devil’s Due, Dark Horse, Top Cow, Virgin and Image Comics. His work has been featured in the prestigious annual, Spectrum, The Best In Contemporary Fantastic Art.
Eric Skillman is making his first trip to HeroesCon this year. Eric is a Brooklyn-based writer, graphic designer, and art director best known for his design 
work on Criterion Collection DVDs and the design process blog Cozy Lummox. His comics work includes the self-published comic series EGG: Hard Boiled Stories, and his first graphic novel, Liar’s Kiss, drawn by Jhomar Soriano, is available in April from Top Shelf Productions.
Vito Delsante has written for DC, Marvel, Image, and Simon & Schuster, among others, and his stories have been reprinted the world over in a gajillion different languages. He is also a frequent contributor to the superhero redesign site, Project : Rooftop.
Five years ago Nolan Woodard gave up lucrative
career in illustration to dive into comics, beginning at SCAD-Atlanta teaching digital coloring, conceptual illustration, and storyboarding in the Sequential Art department. Over the past year he has also cultivated a career as a colorist and completed work for Oni Press, BOOM! Studios, Dark Horse, Image, and Marvel. If two careers at the same time don’t keep him busy enough, he works on his own project “8th Day” when able, does sketch cards for TOPPS’ “Star Wars” trading card series, and is expecting his first child this summer! Congrats Nolan!
HeroesCon staple and recent Charlotte MiniCon guest Sanford Greene always has many diverse projects in the works. One of the most interesting is a Gallery
exhibit of his art coming up later this month. If you’re in or around the Columbia, SC area, make it a point to stop by and check out some of Sanford’s energetic originals. The event takes place on Thursday, February 24 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. at Ponder Art Gallery at Benedict College in Columbia, SC. In addition to seeing Sanford’s art, the event will also feature music from DayClean (www.daycleanduo.com) and soul singer Fayth Hope (www.faythhope.com). The event is being hosted by Preach Jacobs (www.mobettasoul.com). For more information about the event, check out Sanford’s website (www.sanfordgreene.com). Don’t miss this opportunity to support a talented artist and longtime friend of Heroes.
Khary Randolph is an artist who isn’t easy to pin down. With sequential 
art, editorial illustration, toy design, and animation work on his resume, Randolph has shown the type of versatility needed to succeed in today’s marketplace as a commercial artist. With two books hitting shelves this week, Starborn #3 from BOOM and Charismagic #0 from Aspen, his work will be more visible than ever to comic fans. We recently had an opportunity to talk with this talented artist
about his career and upcoming work.
Rico Renzi: Your work has appeared all over the place from animation to illustrations for ESPN the Magazine. Would you say you are a full-time comic artist right now?
Khary Randolph: For the first time in my career, yes I can say. All I’m doing is drawing comics right now, all day every day. It’s a pretty crazy time in my life.
RR: Are you working on Starborn and Charismagic simultaneously?
They say variety is the spice of life, and the old adage is proven true at HeroesCon 2011! Check out this guest list update!
We are happy to announce Strangers in Paradise and Echo creator Terry Moore will be joining us at HeroesCon 2011! Terry has published his creations through his own imprint, Abstract Studios, for years. Besides writing and drawing his own characters’ adventures, he has recently done work on Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Runaways, and Strange Tales II.
Khary Randolph has had a career that runs the gamut
from comics to animation to editorial illustration! His stylish art has graced the pages of Spawn, New Mutants, Sleepwalker, Spider-Man and many more! Most recently Khary has provided art for Stan Lee’s Starborn and Charismagic from Aspen.
Cat Staggs is an in demand artist in the world of highly 
collectible artist’s sketch cards. She did over 130 illustrations for the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith card set from TOPPS. She has also done cards for Rittenhouse Archives’ Complete Marvel Avengers, X-Men Archives and DC Legacy card sets, as well as The World’s Finest VS trading card game and Iron Man I and II trading cards for Upperdeck. Cat always does something gorgeous for our Annual Art Auction, don’t miss it!
Joe Staton is a North Carolina native and a longtime
guest of HeroesCon. He’s also an artist who has worked on everything from E-man and Green Lantern, to All Star Squadron and Scooby Doo. Most recently Joe was announced as the new artist on the classic Dick Tracy comic strip, marking yet another timeless character he’ll leave his indelible mark upon. Don’t miss a chance to stop by and say hello to one of the nicest folks in the industry.
Chris Stevens was such a big hit with fans and artists at last year’s show that we had to have him back! In 2010, Chris made a big splash in comics with his gorgeous covers for various Marvel titles and Image’s Skullkickers.
