THIS JUST IN! Just added to our HeroesCon 2009 Guest List are returning studs Frank Cho and Brandon Peterson! These guys hardly need an introduction to HeroesCon attendees, but just in case:

FRANK CHO first came to prominence as the creator of the cult-hit strip Liberty Meadows, but soon jumped to high-profile comics work, including Mighty Avengers, Hulk, and the upcoming New Ultimates with Jeph Loeb! Frank made his first appearance at HeroesCon last year, and is coming back for more in 2009!

BRANDON PETERSON is one of our most regular, most awesome guests, as well as a super popular cover and interior artist. These days he’s working for Marvel, with covers on books like War of Kings, past art in the Ultimate Galactus trilogy and Ultimate Vision, and an upcoming Marvel project that we can’t mention yet. Maybe you can get the scoop right from the Brandon’s mouth at HeroesCon!

But that’s not all! Also returning to HeroesCon this summer is ANOTHER of our oldest, closest friends, good ole NATHAN MASSENGILL. Nathan is a go-to inker with work for pretty much every publisher over the years, most notably on JSA, Legion of Superheroes, Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods, and Detective Comics!

CHRIS KEMPLE is a North Carolina native and another perennial face at HeroesCon–he’s currently working on his upcoming Red Vengeance graphic novel, and has had art in Fear Agent, Negative Burn, and Flashback Comics!

MATT WEBB is a colorist who has worked on everything from E-Man to John Byrne’s Next Men to Spider-Girl and beyond! Another NC resident, Matt has been working in comics for more than 20 years!

Jeez, this convention is getting huge. I’ll be posting that long-rumored Indie Island update this Friday, so stay tuned for more!

Another big HeroesCon Guest List update this week: and still another three updates’ worth to go… and growing! But this one is particularly juicy–check out these names:

CLAYTON HENRY is an up and coming penciller with a slick slick style, as seen on Uncanny X-Men, Exiles, or Incredible Hercules. Clayton is attending his first-ever HeroesCon, so be sure and welcome him!

MARK MORALES is no stranger to HeroesCon… and probably no stranger to you either, as inker of Secret Invasion, Thor, New Avengers… the list goes on!

BUDDY PRINCE is a Charlottean who’s also no stranger to HeroesCon, but is appearing on our Guest List for the first time this year. Besides his work on multiple sketch cards for the Marvel Masterpieces series, Buddy’s also worked on the comic Night.

SEAN SHAW is another returning guest–you can catch his work all over, on titles like Grimm Fairy Tales, Shi, Gen 13, and more.

And also attending her first HeroesCon this year, writer JENNIFER VAN METER, who collaborated with our buddy Cully Hamner on Black Lightning: Year One, not to mention her work on JSA Classified and Hopeless Savages. Welcome to Jen!

Okay–still more to come, although I was unable to get to the big Indie Island update I had planned this week. It’s order form week, so Shawn and I (mostly Shawn) are struggling to get all our numbers together. But next week! Next week! See you then!

Alright, at long last it’s here! If you’ve purchased a Small Press Table or Booth for HeroesCon 2009, that IMMENSE list is up now on both our Guest List page and Small Press page. There’s a lot of returning people AND new faces, so it should be a great mix this year–most of all, there’s just a TON of them!

As a reminder, Small Press Tables and Booths are sold out. While we took a few waiting list names last year, this year we’re not accepting any–we’re REALLY sold out! If for some reason we make more tables available, we’ll announce it here on the blog AND on our Heroes Hotline newsletter, so keep your eyes peeled for that! And thanks to everyone who’s purchased space!

“Davis, Doran, Glass, and Moreno” sounds like a trio of three acoustic guitar players and one dude with a recorder. Only one of them is American, and at least one is Welsh. Very popular in Scandinavia. Wait, what was I talking about?

OH YES!! Check out this sweet addition to the HeroesCon 09 Guest List I just TOTALLY made:

GUY DAVIS: OMG Guy Davis! I love this guy–he and Cliff Chiang could have sweetness contests, but I’m sure they’d spend the whole time nominating each other for the prize. Guy is the uber-admired artist behind B.P.R.D., as well as the recent Zombies That Ate The World, and a zillion more. I’ll say more about Guy next week–I’ll be interviewing him for this blog!

COLLEEN DORAN: Colleen is like the Queen of Comics–besides being an artist over the years on books like Wonder Woman and Spider-Man, she ALSO created the space epic A Distant Soil AND is a constant collaborator with luminaries like J. Michael Straczynski and Warren Ellis, with whom she’s working on the forthcoming Stealth Tribes. She’s a popular guest at HeroesCon, and we’re super excited to welcome her back!

BRYAN J.L. GLASS: Bryan is making his second trip to HeroesCon this year. Bryan is the co-creator of The Mice Templar with Mike Oeming, and is also writing the upcoming Riftwar adaptation of Raymond E. Feist’s popular fantasy series.

CHRIS MORENO: can do just about anything, and work in about any style. WITNESS his work on titles like World War Hulk: Frontline, Toy Story, and Paul Jenkins’ Sidekick! Chris has become a perennial guest, and a hot stop for those collecting sketches and commissions!

Whew! I’ll be doing another update before the end of the week, and the stack of additions is STILL GROWING! Also this week, the list (so far) of all those persons who’ve purchase Small Press Tables! Stay tuned!

The addition to the HeroesCon 09 Guest List are coming fast and furious, and it looks like we’re going to have a well and truly packed house this year once more! New to the Guest List today is legendary “Duck” artist Don Rosa, whose The Life And Times of Uncle Scrooge has sold through a bajillion printings and reinvigorated a whole generation’s interest in Scrooge, Donald, and the whole Disney duck-universe. We’re super excited to welcome Don back to HeroesCon this year; if you’ve never met him, he’s like a character out of one of his own books!

ALSO new this week is another old buddy, the talented Jamal Igle. Jamal has worked on a bajillion books over the years including Teen Titans, Nightwing, Green Lantern Corps and more–but most recently you cna catch him on DC’s Supergirl! But wait that’s STILL not all! Also new this week are three more returning guests:

GENE GONZALES has been to practically every HeroesCon over the past 15 years or so–he was pretty upset about having to miss last year’s massive show, so we hope you’ll join us in giving him a warm welcome back. Most recently you can read his work in Diary of Night and Tales of the Cherokee.

JOE PEKAR has been doing a ton of comics covers lately, for titles including Grimm Fairy Tales and Hexed. He’s also released his own art book, Strawberry, through BrandStudio Press.

CAT STAGGS is a titan (titaness? what do you call a lady-titan?) on the trading card scene, with work in sets including Star Wars Galaxy 4, X-Men Archives, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, and more. I like “Lady-Titan,” I think.

Okay, still more to come! I TOLD you I had a stack of announcements to make–except it’s GROWING, not shrinking!

That headline is correct, sports fans. Small Press tables at HeroesCon 09 will be considered sold out as of next Sunday, March 21. That means you have just over a week to purchase your table at HeroesCon 09! We will take a limited number of waiting list slots afterwards, but if last year was any indicator, there aren’t exactly a ton of people cancelling their tables, you know?

SO: to purchase your table now, just click that thumb on the right or right here, download the form and send it in with your check OR fax it in with your charge info OR just give us a call and we’ll set you up right over the phone.

Ladies and gentlemen: prepare for the most massive HeroesCon ever!

You know that it will. That Michael Golden art is totally sweet.

I’ve updated the Promo page at our website, and will be adding banners in different shapes and sizes over the next few weeks, including some with wild moving pieces and flashing portions of the Guest List and so forth. If you have a particular size in mind you’d like (other than the accepted standard sizes like 468×60, etc.) feel free to let me know privately, and I’ll see if I can whip something up for you.

To download a banner, just go to the Promo page and right-click (or Option-click, or Apple-click, or whatever you zany Mac users do) the image and download it to wherever you need it to go to get on your site. All’s I ask is that you point the image’s link towards us at: http://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon.html

More to come!

LORD LORD LORD! The march toward HeroesCon continues this week, with 4 new additions to the HeroesCon 09 Guest List:

BOOLA BOOLA BOOLA! I’ve made no secret over the years that Cliff Chiang is one of my favorite people in comics–they just don’t come any sweeter than this dude, who is a straight-up prince. I wish I read more DC comics, because it’s rare for me to actually have the pleasure of reading comics he’s worked on… The above image is from one of the many fine sketches he did at last year’s HeroesCon–just look at that! No one walks away with a Cliff Chiang sketch thinking they got gypped, for sure.

But Cliff isn’t the only stud joining the list this week. He’s joined by the following tough guys:

BUZZ has worked all over comics on titles including X-Factor, JSA, and Vampirella. Look for his upcoming book Luna Moonhunter.

MARC DEERING is no stranger to HeroesCon, and a super tough inker to boot. Recent credits include Miranda Mercury and GI Joe.

BRIAN DENHAM is making his first ever trip to HeroesCon this year. If you haven’t see his current work on the X-Files comic, you may have seen him on Nova, Thunderbolts, or the recent Iron Man: Hypervelocity miniseries.

Okay! More to come STILL–people are falling all over themselves to get on the list!

YES LORD! This summer Mark Bagley returns to HeroesCon, after an absence of a few years–in fact, I think the last time we’ve seen Mark may have been at one of the first few Free Comic Book Day shindigs we ever had. Although I could be wrong–Shelton’s memory is better than mine for dates and stuff.

ANYway, Mark is coming HERE in JUNE for HEROESCON! He’s one of the most consistent on-time dudes in the business, with some incredibly lengthy continuous runs on books like Ultimate Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man, and a little weekly book you may have heard of called Trinity. We’re pleased as punch to welcome Mark back–but he’s not alone! Also this week we added 4 other suh-weet names to the list:

NATHAN EDMONDSON is an excellent dude to NOT get into a bar fight with, as I discovered last year in the Westin hotel bar. What is the deal with drunk people hanging out in BARS all the time? Anyway, Nathan is also a writer of some skill–look for his upcoming book Olympus, from Image!

CHARLIE KIRCHOFF is a studly colorist, with work on a TON of Doctor Who books, including the recent hit Doctor Who: The Forgotten, as well as Angel: After The Fall and Spike: After The Fall; and my favorite, the new Zombies That Ate The World, over our buddy Guy Davis!

SUNNY LEE has worked in comics on and off in comics for the last ten years, most notably on Superboy, Young Justice, and Wolverine, and most recently on the Gen 13 relaunch.

And our new buddy MARK MCHALEY comes to us from the wild world of trading card art, where we got turned on to him through the lovely Allison Sohn. Mark has had work in a ton of different trading card sets including Star Wars Galaxy 4, Indiana Jones Masterpieces, and Batman Archives.

Okay–there’s STILL a sheaf of names I need to work through, so if you’ve contacted me and haven’t seen your name yet, I’m working my way towards you! Look for another update next week, right here!

As I try to work my way down through my pile of guest list confirmations (it’s huge), not to mention the tons of e-mails I still need to return (even huger), I am starting finally to if not catch up, then at least start to pull abreast of the influx of guests. Just added to our HeroesCon Guest List this week are the following studbolts:

JOHN BEATTY is one of the best artists and inkers in comics, period. He is probably most well-known for his stint inking the legendary Mike Zeck on acclaimed runs on Punisher and Captain America, plus work on Secret Wars, Batman, and a zillion others.

JEREMY DALE is an illustrator best known for his work on the popular GI Joe comics for Hasbro, with writer Larry Hama. He’s also had art in Popgun and Wildguard, and is currently working on upcoming books from the Big Two.

SHANNON GALLANT also has worked on GI Joe comics, in this case the upcoming IDW movie prequels featuring Duke and Destro; as well as Monsters Vs. Aliens and Mack Bolan: Executioner.

CASEY JONES is practically a member of the staff, so helpful is he every year in putting on the show. But fortunately, since we don’t pay him, he’s a fan-favorite comics artist as well, most recently on New Warriors and Marvel Adventures: Avengers.

DANIEL WAY has become a member of our little HeroesCon family over the last few years, as well as one of the hottest writers at Marvel Comics. He’s probably most closely associated with Wolverine, as the writer of the longrunning Wolverine: Origins, as well as the upcoming Dark Wolverine series tying into the current Dark Avengers kerfuffle. And this isn’t even mentioning his work on Ghost Rider!

Okay, look for MORE additions to the list next week, to be followed by another Indie Island update around the beginning of March! The “march” to HeroesCon 2009 is indeed on!