What are you kidding me? Brand new to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List today is Pixar artist painter, cartoonist, and all around art stud Scott Morse, he of Magic Pickle, Noble Boy, Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!, Red Window, and a ton more. Like literally, a ton. And somewhere in the middle of all that he finds time to work on Pixar movies including Wall-E and Ratatouille. Gracious! This is Scott’s first time to HeroesCon, and he’s sure to be mobbed as much by other artists as by fans!

Also first-timing it this year is Nathan Fox, who just announced the collection of his Heavy Metal story Fluorescent Black! Nathan is another guy with a legion of drooling admirers–his lush wild style is insane, I could look at his stuff all day. Besides the new book, recently he worked on Dark Reign: Zodiac, Pigeons From Hell, and a bunch of others.

Another firstie this year is Ming Doyle, who has been making comics for a while but is really making a splash these days, from Girl Comics to Jennifer’s Body, Zombie Tales, and more. You guys you guys–her stuff is insane, do yourself a favor and get on her sketch list early, you will walk away crying tears of joy, this I swear..

Two non-new dudes just added to the list are Rick Spears and Ben Towle–Rick is the writer behind Teenagers From Mars, Black Metal, Pirates of Coney Island, and a bajillion others. Super nice to have him back–unlike Ben Towle, who is frankly a little hard to handle, what with his rages and his tantrums and his binge gambling. If you can catch him when he’s nice and calm though, he’s pretty awesome. This year will see the release of his new book Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean, which is about just what you think it is. Another feather in “Dangerous” Ben Towle’s cap, following the critical successes of Midnight Sun and Farewell, Georgia!

Whew! Man, this is going to be our biggest Indie Island ever–hope I can figure out where to stick all these people..

New to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List! Ben McCool, co-creator of the hit series Choker with fellow guest Ben Templesmith! Ben (McC, not T-smith) has been to HeroesCon before just to have fun, but this will be his first time as a full-on guest! He’s racking up a ton of credits lately too–besides Choker, he’s got the upcoming Memoir, and I think has a couple more secret announcements saved up as well! He’ll be accompanied by his bride-to-be, our buddy Heidi MacDonald, editor-in-chief of The Beat. Heidi’s always a welcome site around the convention center, rapping with people, sittting on panels, slapping playa-haytaz in the face, what-have-you. She’s good people!

Also new this week is first-time guest David Wohl, who’s worked for Marvel Comics, been President at Top Cow Productions, and is now Editor-In-Chief at Radical Publishing. His credits  include Executive Assistant: Iris, Witchblade, Aphrodite IX, and tons and TONS more–super awesome to have him!

Mike Lilly is also making his HeroesCon debut this year–artist on Black Terror, as well as a past artist on Vampirella, Quasar, Nightwing, and more. I BET he’d love to draw in your sketchbook at the show, all you sketchbook hounds. He’s joined on the list by Tsunami Studios members Jason Walker and Garry McKee, who between them have worked on numerous illustrations for trading card sets including the new Iron Man 2 series, and for gaming companies like White Wolf, Wizards of the Coast, and more!

Oh man. Such a massive update today to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List. I wish I had more time to really go IN-DEPTH talking excitements about all these sweet peeps, but Free Comic Book Day is right around the corner! So I hope they and you will forgive me for hitting each one really quick so I can get back to the other six piles of work on my desk! Okay here goes:

REBECCA BUCHMAN is an inker with (I believe) Studio Revolver in Atlanta, who’s worked on Green Lantern Corps, Thunderbolts, Avengers: the Initiative, JSA and a bunch more.

RICH FABER is the inker and editor on the all-ages hit Buzzboy, as well as the creator of Roboy Red and others. He also has inked books including Green Lantern, Adventures of Superman, and more.

JANET LEE is making her HeroesCon debut this year, as the artist of Return of the Dapper Men from Archaia Studio Press. She’s also making her debut to comics, so make her feel welcome to both!

JAMES “DOODLE” LYLE is a HeroesCon mainstay who’s worked on a ton of books including the new Dark Candle, The PLUS, Turok, and more.

JIM MCCANN writes the ongoing Hawkeye & Mockingbird series, as well as writing and co-creating Return of the Dapper Men.

TOM RANEY (who did the pencils above) has penciled most everything, most recently Dark Reign: Hawkeye and Black Widow: Deadly Origin. And before that Thor, X-Men, Warlock & The Infinity Watch–like I said, tons of stuff.

CRAIG ROUSSEAU. Love this dude. Studly artist of The Perhapanauts, you might also have espied Craig on Iron Man: Armor Wars, the new Marvel Free Comic Book Day book, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, and more. You ask him yourself, why don’t you?

ROD WHIGHAM has most recently worked on GI Joe from IDW, although he’s still the artist on the syndicated Gil Thorp newspaper strip. He’s also known for work on The Punisher, The Shadow, and Justice League!

Okay! More to come, but that’s plenty for now, am I right?

Oh my goodness oh my goodness oh my goodness, new additions to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List, including these guys:

Have you ever met Richard Thompson? Holy crap what a sweetie-pants. He was a guest back in 2008 and blew my mind he was so nice, just insanely a sweet guy. Although he’s a quiet talker, so you have to lean close. And he’s not a big guy, so you have to stoop down. I KID, I KID! Richard can afford a little smack-talk from lil ole me, because he gets nothing but accolades from anywhere else–besides being the creator of the incredibly well-loved Cul de Sac newspaper strip, he also has done the Washington Post’s “Richard’s Poor Almanack” column for years, and has done illustration for the Post, the New York Times, the New Yorker–whoever. You name it.

And he’s been nominated for the Reuben award more than once, including this year–next to the Pulitzer, the Reuben is about as big as it gets for a cartoonist. Imagine the Eisners but if there was a “The One Ring” Eisner called THE Eisner.” That’s THE Reuben. Just so you know (super proud of Richard) (did you guys get the Lord of the Rings reference?).

But enough about that guy–how about this:

Erika Moen is one of the most popular web cartoonists working today–she just wrapped up her long long LONGGGG-running diary strip “Dar,” in order (I think) to pursue new projects. Surely like a book or something right? Pretty sure that must be it. When she’s not publishing an insanely popular strip, she’s a member of Portland’s Periscope Studios, along with fellow guests Jeff Parker, Steve Lieber, and a bajillion others. Man that place, whoa. This will be Erika’s first trip to Charlotte, so I hope you guys will make her feel welcome!

But wait that’s not all! Also new to the guest list today are our buddies Pat Bollin, who besides his work on Oni’s Resurrection comic has some new secret unannounced graphic novel coming out next year that he can’t talk about.

Unlike Chris Giarrusso, who LOVES to talk about his G-Man creation, a popular series of all-ages friendly superhero digests. And you might know him as the writer and artists of the Mini Marvels, those round-headed versions of Marvel’s heroes!

Tariq Hassan is another of our chums–guys, we know like everybody–and a member of Georgia’s Studio Revolver. His work includes The Guild, Wizards of the Coasts books, and working as an artist on the Archer animated series on FX!

Harold Sipe is the writer of Screamland, as well as the writer of the new Garters & Ghouls series from IDW, an adaptation of the popular game–AND Harold is an old buddy of ours AND a North Carolinian AND a former customer in the store! No offense, but when customers make it into comics we are always super proud. If you were not a customer of ours, there is still time to buy something and rectify this.

Okay! Have a great weekend, everybody!

Jiggy-WHA?? That’s right friends and neighbors–Shelton brought back some new additions to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List from his weekend in Chicago, including J. Scott Campbell and Humberto Ramos! These guys are way wayyy up there as far as oft-requested HeroesCon guests, so we will be reinforcing the concrete around their tables to make sure it doesn’t buckle under what is sure to be heavy strain from crowds of people.

If you’re not familiar with these guys, let me help: J. Scott Campbell is the creator of the super-popular Danger Girl series, as Wildsiderz, popular runs on Gen 13 (where he started out) and more. Plus he’s a go-to cover artist, especially on Spider-Man books. Humberto Ramos has worked all over the place, recently on Spectactular Spider-Man, Wolverine, Avengers: The Initiative, Runaways, and tons of others. He gained fame as an early artist on the popular Impulse series, and created the Crimson series at Wildstorm’s Cliffhanger imprint, at the same time as JSC on Danger Girl. Synchronicity!

Whew! Super big news–happy Wednesday!

Calooh, Callay! Brand new to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List is our fellow Carolinian and Fantastic Four and S.H.I.E.L.D writer Jonathan Hickman! Jonathan has gotten bigger every year he’s been a guest at HeroesCon, since his first show in… 2006? 2007? A few years now, for sure. Super proud of this guy–people just will not stop talking about how awesome Fantastic Four is these days; jeez we get it already. While Jonathan is uber-famous these days as one of Marvel’s cadre of top writers, he initially was known for his creator-owned work, including Pax Romana, The Nightly News, and Transhuman!

Showing up for his very first HeroesCon this year is illustrator Khary Randolph, who you might know from comics like Spawn, Adventures of Spawn, and Spider-Man; OR some cartoons you might have heard of like Wolverine & the X-Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Either way, Khary is an artists’ artist who is as likely to be mobbed by other pros as by fans!

The line in front of returning guest Tom Feister‘s table is likely to be made up of… police. Yeah, he’s a ruffian. Besides his Eisner nominated work on Ex Machina, Tom is these days over the place–he’s done covers for GI Joe: Origins, The Darkness, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, and tons of others. Plus left a trail of carnage and twisted wreckage throughout Georgia!

Also new this week are Casey Edwards, who’s part of Georgia’s Studio Revolver (like Tom, incidentally) and has worked for White Wolf, the Mwahahaha card game, and covers on Lazarus: Immortal Coils, among others; and Tommy Smith, a part of Georgia’s (all these Georgians!) Jolly Roger Studio. Tommy has done art for Starship Troopers, The Hunger, and numerous Marvel Masterpieces sketch cards, plus the upcoming Undeath Row!

Hey guys–if you’re on the fence about buying a table at HeroesCon, you’d better get off that fence! We’ll be closing down sales of Small Press tables Friday at 9pm EST. There may still be a small number of booths available, but no tables after that point! All the info on purchasing  a table is right here. If you’ve already sent payment in, especially in the last few weeks, relax before you freak out if your name isn’t on the list yet–I’m still digging through this MOUNTAIN of forms. Okay!

Oh man, how the heck are we actually going to get the convention itself together if we have to keep ANNOUNCING THESE DARNED GUESTS?!? Well it’s hard not to get excited about an update like this one though, not that our massive HeroesCon 2010 Guest List isn’t already choked to the gills with amazing–

Today’s new slice of amazing comes in the person of 4 men, first of whom (alphabetically) is Steve Epting, the longtime friend of the con who has worked for pretty much every company in comics for over twenty years, shining at each of them. Most recently he’s known for working with Ed Brubaker on blockbusters like The Marvels Project and Captain America, but before that he was known for the swashbuckling El Cazador for the now-defunct CrossGen Comics, Aquaman at DC, and of course a little book called The Avengers back in the 90’s.

Next up in the F-slot in our alphabetical list is another old chum of ours, inker John Floyd. John has been known for years for his work on Batman titles like Batman Confidential and Batman: Gotham Knights. He was also the studio inker for Barry Windsor-Smith, working on books like Conan, Silver Surfer, and Archer & Armstrong.

E, F… now G! Mike Ransom Getty has been exhibiting for years at HeroesCon, but this year he  moves to official “guest” status for the first time! Mike’s been working his tailfeather off lately on a bunch of stuff for Marvel, most notably What If: Astonishing X-Men, Skrull Kill Crew, Spider-Man Family and more–moving on up, Mike, nice work!

Also G-in’ it up on our G-uest List today is stud writer Bryan J.L. Glass, the Harvey Award-winning co-creator of the Mice Templar series with Michael Avon Oeming. Bryan is also the writer of the Marvel adaptations of Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar series, and the co-writer of the Ship of Fools comic series and novel Quixote, also with Mike Oeming!

AND that’s not all–another update tomorrow! *grumbles, wipes brow*

In our continuing effort to host every single comics-creating citizen of Portland, Oregon–or at least everyone who has ever collaborated with Jeff Parker–today we are pleased to announce the addition to the HeroesCon 2010 Guest List of Whiteout artist Steve Lieber! You might know Whiteout from its adaptation into a 2009 film starring Kate Beckinsale, OR EVEN from the Eisner Award Whiteout Volume 2 got for Best Limited Series. But that’s all the past: more recently Steve and fellow guest Jeff Parker have dished up the Underground series, and Steve also worked on Civil War: Frontline, among a bunch of other stuffs. I do believe this will be his first visit to Charlotte, so make sure you stop by the ever-expanding “Jeff-Parker-World” section in Artists Alley and give him a hug!

Also new this week are returning buddies Andy Kuhn and Derec Donovan–Andy has been the artist on Firebreather, Marvel Team-Up, Easy Way, and Rex Mantooth, which was the first published comic by then-newcomer Matt Fraction! Andy is also a sweet guy and an ace artist if you’re looking for some sketch lists to get on at the show. Derec has worked all over the place, including on Image’s Youngblood, Marvel’s Jubilee, and DC’s Robin and Connor Hawke series!

And! Another pair of good buddies returning this summer are Chris Moreno and Stuart Sayger–Chris is the current artist on the hit Toy Story series from Boom!, and has had work in the Popgun anthology series, World War Hulk: Frontline, and Paul Jenkins’ Sidekick. Stuart is the artist on IDW’s Deathship series, as well as past artist on Lego’s Bionicle series!

Yes! I just took this fancy screen capture of (a part of) the freshly updated listing of Small Press creators at HeroesCon 2010! While this is a fairly complete list, it doesn’t include forms we received over the last week or so, so don’t freak out or anything if you’re name’s not on there yet. Unless you got us your forms a long time ago maybe–in that case, or if you have a problem with your existing listing, you can drop me an email and I’ll fix it or look into it or apologize profusely. One of those, almost definitely.

Couple of notes:

1) You’ll notice all the locations are “XX-XX”–that’s because I haven’t located everyone yet. I’ll update that as I get those locations fixed, but it won’t be this week and probably not next week, so please don’t ask me for your location for a little bit longer.

2) I expect to get a lot of emails with name misspellings to correct, links to change, etc. It happens all the time, sometimes it’s my fault, sometimes you guys have terrible handwriting and I can’t tell what your name is. Regardless, please do me a favor and try to group all your questions/corrections/concerns into a single email, so I can attack it and get it done and move on. Super busy this time of year, and it’s hard to stay on top of a chain of correspondences.

3) ARTISTS ALLEY IS ABOUT TO SELL OUT, probably within a week. You should be fine if you get your forms to us before the end of this weekend, but after that it is going to be close. If you are on the fence about buying a table, now is double-definitely the time to get off the fence! You can find the forms and prices and specs (as well as the aforementioned list of creators) at the Small Press page on our site!

Okay! More tomorrow!