What? Two posts on a Sunday? One so late it’s practically Monday morning? Truly these are the end times we’re in… or at least the convention is super close and we’re burning the midnight oil. So what could be so amazing that it couldn’t wait until tomorrow?

Brand new to the HeroesCon 09 Guest List is legendary pinup and cover painter JOE JUSKO. Joe’s behind a bajillion high-end paintings over his 30+year career, most notably his work on characters like Vampirella and the Marvel Masterpieces trading card set.

Joe’s coming to the convention this year courtesy of another Joe, our buddy JOE PRUETT over at DESPERADO PUBLISHING, which is publishing the new Art of Joe Jusko art book! Desperado also publishes comics like Negative Burn and The Atheist, among many others!

Speaking of studly painters, also new today is good ol’ NAT JONES, whose macabre style is most recently in Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer and the upcoming Frank Frazetta’s Silver Warrior; not to mention Spawn, The Nail, and a ton of others besides. If you didn’t get enough of Nat as a guest at our Free Comic Book Day shindig, we invite you to feast on him for a full three days next weekend!

Also also new today are REBECCA BUCHMAN, attending her first HeroesCon as a guest. She’s worked with Dexter Vines and Studio Revolver, and has been seen in the pages of Green Lantern, the upcoming Blackest Night, as well as JSA, Huntress: Year One, and others.

And whoever the dummy is who handles the Guest List just noticed this week that he had never added the glamorous KELLY SUE DECONNICK, who returns this year for her fourth HeroesCon in a row. Kelly Sue has collaborated as a writer with Steve Niles on 30 Days of Night: Eben & Stella, as well as worked adapting manga for US readers, including Black Cat and the hit Slam Dunk.

Let’s see what else? Tomorrow (actually “today” now, as it’s crossed midnight) we’ll be doing another update, maybe even two! See you back here in a few hours!

Yes! We’ve gotten a lot of requests over the last several weeks, and here it is at last–the HeroesCon 2009 Event Schedule! I invite you to peruse the heckfire out of this badboy, and please don’t hesitate to post here if you catch any mistakes. I work this behemoth out on paper and then hand-key everything. AND I DON’T BELIEVE IN SPELLCHECK. But I’ve been known to make mistakes once in a while.

Also: did you notice this cool part?

Yessir that’s right! We’re bringing back an old perk for buying your tickets to HeroesCon early–advance ticket buyers will enter the show 30 minutes early all three days! We’ll be cutting off advance ticket sales about a week from now, probably next Sunday or Monday, so if I were you I’d grab those badboys right now!

Last minute announcement at the end of this week–just added to the HeroesCon 09 Guest List is legendary painter, illustrator, and cartoonist BILL SIENKIEWICZ, who will be returning to Charlotte in a couple of weeks for HeroesCon! If you’re not familiar with Bill’s work, he’s the super-duper high profile artist of big books like Elektra: Assassin, Stray Toasters, and the never completed Big Numbers, among many many others. Aaaand while we’ll have an official announcement probably over the weekend or early next week, I have heard that this year’s incentive print for advanced-ticket buyers will be by a guy whose name rhymes with “Phil Blim Blevitch”, so if I were you I’d go ahead and grab your advance tickets now! More on that soon!

Also joining the Guest List today:

MATT HERMS you may have met at our ginormous Free Comic Book Day wing-ding, where his art chores on Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Universe made his table a high-traffic area.

JOSH LATTA is an acerbic four-eyes and a master of the minicomic, who hails from Georgia and who has just recently released the umpteenth issue of his own Rashy Rabbit series.

BRAD MCGINTY is even more acerbic than Josh, and posts regular comics at his site. He’s the creator of Wysteria and by day is an animator. You go, Brad!

Yes, they’re up! I know they were up before for a minute, but then I decided to start all over–the larger hall provided some extra opportunities, and that’s how we ended up freeing some tables that are for sale (for now).

BUT if you go check out the Small Press page on our website, or the bottom section of our Guest List page, all the persons who have purchased Small Press space are listed with their table locations. Hit me up with an e-mail (it’s in my profile) if there’s a problem with your listing, or you don’t see yourself there. I think I’ve addressed all the problems and little snafus you guys have identified, but just in case… HEY! I’m only human!

Well, in case you’ve been trying to access our website for the last 24 hours or so OR e-mail any of us, you probably had no luck. BUT everything is good to go now–and good thing, too; look what was in all the DC books that came out today:

Oh yeah! Just as a reminder, DC Comics will be set up at the show this year, which is more or less what all the small type says. I can’t be sure, but it MIGHT say that you need to purchase your 3-day advance passes super-quick, OR it might point out that we’ve opened up a very limited number of small press tables for sale, which you should also jump on super fast. OR BOTH!

UPDATE: Okay, everything’s cool now–sorry for any inconvenience!

Yes! But you’d better hurry! We’re in Hall A of the Charlotte Convention Center this year, instead of Hall C like the last few years. Hall A is about 20,000 square feet bigger, which means that we have a few small press tables available for sale! So if you missed the original cut off, now is the time to jump on the wagon!

So for a super-limited time, you can call in your order to us at 704.375.7462, or fax the form with your charge info to 704.375.7464. It’s so late in the game we’re leery of suggesting you mail us checks, but if you live in or around Charlotte, just bring those badboys in and we’ll set you up in-person-style.

Also of note: I’ve been locating the existing Small Press tables, but those are tentative, and will likely change in the next week or two. I’m getting some e-mails about them, but don’t stress yet! They should be pretty firm by the end of the weekend. Okay back to work!

Guest List updates on a Sunday? Well, we’re in that time of year when we’re working pretty much nonstop on the convention. In fact, we’re so swamped, I don’t have the time I’d like to spend talking about each one of these awesome creators like I normally do, so I hope none of them will feel slighted. Half of them are old buddies (Keron, pictured above, Randy Green, J. Chris Campbell and Rob Ullman), and some are brand new (Ian Sattler, Jonathan Gray). But I’m in crunch time, so for the full rundown visit the HeroesCon 09 Guest List where you can find links to their individual sites and sate your curiosity like crazy!

New today are:

DUANE BALLENGER (EATS, Wide Awake 666)
J. CHRIS CAMPBELL (Ancient Age, Wide Awake 666, Zigzag)
BRIAN CUNNINGHAM (DC Comics editor)
KERON GRANT (Son of Vulcan, Iron Man)
JONATHAN GRAY (Sonic the Hedgehog, Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories)
RANDY GREEN (Fathom, Teen Titans, Tomb Raider)
NATE LOVETT (Xombie: Reanimated, Sketch Magazine)
BILL NEVILLE (Explorers, The Tick)
IAN SATTLER (DC Comics Senior Story Editor)
ROB ULLMAN (Traffic & Weather, Atom Bomb Bikini)

Good gravy! Okay, more to come, plus a couple of big announcements for tomorrow!

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve finalized the HeroesCon 2009 Host Hotel, which will once again be the sumptuous Westin Charlotte! This year’s HeroesCon rate will be $109/night, and is active now, so click this link to go and make your reservations on their site, or you may call them at 1-866-837-4148 and ask for the “HeroesCon” or “Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find” rate!

NOTE! As in previous years, rooms may sell out for particular nights, but we will be expanding our reserved block as we go, so keep trying! We will announce on our blog when the rooms have OFFICIALLY sold out, and until then there will likely be rooms added on a weekly basis.

If you’ve never stayed at the Westin before, it is a luxurious hotel which includes the famous “Heavenly Beds”–worth the price of admission alone–gym and pool facilities, a full service restaurant and hotel bar, and is right across Stonewall Avenue from the Charlotte Convention Center, making it incredibly convenient!

Either way these rooms are not going to last long, so grab your room quick! We’ll be announcing further hotel deals with the next week or so!

WHOA check out that big bright logo! Hot on the heels of last week’s announcement of DC Comics return to HeroesCon, today we added Marvel Comics to the list as well. Oh yes that’s right! They’ll be bringing editors, doing portfolio reviews, and be set up in force at this year’s HeroesCon 09! And coming with them is the first name on the list of guests we added today–check it out:

C.B. CEBULSKI is pretty much Marvel’s top talent-scout and occasionally an editor, AND he’s a writer on books like X-Men Fairy Tales, War of Kings: Darkhawk, and his own Wonderlost. Eat that, Renaissance Men!

SEAN FORD is an alumnus of the esteemed Center for Cartoon Studies, the creator of Only Skin, and one of the editors of the Sundays Anthology.

SANFORD GREENE is one of our good buddies, and a sweet dude. On top of that, he’s pencilled books including Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man, Marvel Adventures: Superheroes, Wonder Girl, Legion of Super Heroes, and last year’s Methodman graphic novel.

STEVE SAFFEL is not just a friend of ours, but we work him to death every year helping out as well. It’s not like he hasn’t got enough to do–Steve was the editor of last year’s Spider-Man: The Icon book, and the brand new Best of Simon & Kirby volume, both from Titan Books!

RICHARD THOMPSON is the creator of the incredibly acclaimed Cul de Sac, which just failed to win this year’s Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society. Oops! Richard is also the proprietor of Richard’s Poor Almanack, which runs in the Washington Post on Sundays!

CHRISSIE ZULLO is a Charlotte resident AND the cover artist on a forthcoming super-secret Fables limited series. If you want to know more you’re gonna have to show up at the convention and ask her yourself–she won’t even tell US!

Whew! Okay, all those announcements that I referred to last week are pretty much happening today and tomorrow, so buckle up everybody! Tomorrow there’s a HUGE guest who hasn’t been to HeroesCon in a bajillion years, plus more super-studs.. phew! I’m running out of exclamation points. Oh wait–and are you wondering about the HeroesCon host hotel rate? Tomorrow! I PROMISE!