Yes, Lord! Showing again why he’s the boss on his recent trip to NYC, Heroes Owner-In-Chief Shelton Drum has secured superstar artist Frank Cho to appear next year at HeroesCon 08! You can’t drop a cup of coffee in our store without splashing two or three books Frank’s worked on over the last few years, including Mighty Avengers, Ms. Marvel, Jungle Girl, and of course his own Liberty Meadows. Frank Cho might be the top of our most requested creators, so this is a HUGE announcement for attendees of the show, both new and old. Whew–next year is looking CRAZY! And it’s still NOVEMBER!

Whoa! Comics power-couple Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Connor are two of the most prolific creators working in comics, not to mention two of the most popular guests at conventions. Most of the stories I hear from shows end with, “…and then Jimmy showed up and laughter ensued…” Jimmy’s an old buddy of Shelton’s too, but it’s been SO long since he’s been to HeroesCon, so we’re pretty jazzed to have him and Amanda next summer! Shelton got to hang out with them some on his trip to NYC last weekend, where he bulldogged them into being part of the HeroesCon 08 Guest List.

You’re probably well aware of their extensive resumes, but just in case: Jimmy is associated with, I think, all the comics out there, but most recently he’s worked on Jonah Hex, Countdown, and the upcoming Terra miniseries. Besides that, he’s also written for numerous TV shows, including Painkiller Jane, which he created with Joe Quesada. Amanda is the artist behind The Pro, the Power Girl origin in JSA Classified, and the upcoming Terra, as well as a gajillion of others stretching all the way back to the late 80’s. This is one prolific pair, so fans of theirs may need to load up a special dolly for all the books they’ll need to get autographed.

Keep your eyes peeled for more announcements after the Thanksgiving holiday, as Shelton was a busy beaver in NYC last weekend!

Man, I think I’ve stressed that whole Indie Island metaphor to the breaking point. If I’d known I’d run out of good material this soon, I would have chosen a different name way back when. But that’s not what I’ve called you all here to talk about.

What I want to talk about is the two SWEET additions we’ve just made to Indie Island! Firstly, cartoonist and animator Chris Harding, who does the thrice-weekly web comic WE THE ROBOTS, as well as some pretty slick animation. WE THE ROBOTS is still fairly new, so you should definitely jump on the bandwagon early, which is really going to make you look cool when it breaks big-time.

But that’s not all! Also brand new is Tugboat Press, the publisher of Papercutter, the shockingly well-made anthology out of Portland, OR that’s published future big-names like Aaron Renier, Alec Longstreth, Liz Prince and Kazimir Strepek. I met these guys at SPX, and I’m super-jazzed that they’re making the trip all the way from the West Coast to be part of their first ever Indie Island! It’s also exciting because it means our cred is getting pretty big, if publishers are choosing to make a transcontinental trip just to be here! Still more names to come as well, as I work out some details. Plus, with Shelton up in NYC this weekend for the Big Apple Comicon, there’s sure to be more big New Yorkers added to the list soon!

I just wanted to throw a quick post up, pointing out that I’ve updated the little Indie Island poster on the related page of our website. Normally this sort of stuff wouldn’t be anywhere close to news, but I wanted to point out that the art is by the enormously talented Roger Langridge. Even this isn’t really news–other than me ruining the art with a bunch of type and logo’s and stuff–but what IS news is that Roger is donating the original black and white art to our Art Auction, which means you might be able to own it yourself! This is the first submission to the Auction, although by the time of the auction itself there’ll be hundreds–we’ll be posting them as we receive them, and eventually will build a page on our site to display them, to push your Art Auction enthusiasm to a fever pitch! Huzzah!

These guys actually confirmed last week, but I didn’t want to steal the limelight from Steve Saffel’s big signing. Plus, I wanted you to be able to really savor this news: Matt Wagner is the creator of Grendel and Mage, as well as the writer and/or artist of a million other things, including Batman & The Mad Monk, The Sandman Mystery Theatre, Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman: Trinity, and a bunch of others over the year. His Grendel/Batman was one of the first books I ever bought when I started shopping at Heroes way back in the early 90’s, and I spent the first few years of my employment here hunting down issues of Grendel for my collection. Which, for my money, is one of the most well-realized creator-owned books ever, just in terms of the sheer scope of the thing–especially the last ten issues or so of the Comico series. While it’s hard to believe, Matt’s probably better known these days for his work on Batman books, as well as his many covers. It was actually hard to figure out whether he should “go” with Indie Island, but Shelton has assured me that Matt’s definitely one of the founders of the original indie movement of the 80’s, and as such is, if anything, an Elder Statesmen of Indie Island. That’s a lot of metaphors to juggle, but I’m with it.

But what about Alec Longstreth? Like Matt Wagner, I talked to Alec at SPX about coming to the show–Alec is a mainstay of the indie and minicomics scene at conventions, and won this year’s Ignatz Award for Outstanding Debut for his work on Tugboat Press‘ Papercutter #6! He’s also been self-publishing his own Phase 7 minicomic since, um, forever, and is so nice he’ll make you blush. Not me–I’m tough–but I’m sure he’ll make you blush.

That’s still not it for new guests: maybe more by the end of the week!

Sweet Calabash! Stemming in part from my recent trip to Bethesda, Maryland for the Small Press Expo, I’m delighted to announce that Matt Kindt and Roger Langridge will be making their very first trips to HeroesCon next June to be part of Indie Island! We’ve also just added Brian Hurtt, the super-talented artist behind The Damned and Queen & Country: Declassified–I was all excited about adding his name to the list, but then I noticed it was already there, which I don’t think he or I noticed when we were talking on the phone last week. Either way, he’s coming–Brian made his first HeroesCon appearance, where he was immediately inundated by commissions. Once you check his blog out, you’ll be considering getting a commission yourself this year–they’re pretty awesome.

Matt Kindt is a St. Louis buddy of Brian’s, but has plenty of cred himself–not only is he the creator of Super Spy, The Yellow Menace, and co-creator of the Pistolwhip series, but he just won a Harvey Award for co-designing the giant Lost Girls slipcase edition, along with Top Shelf co-founder Brett Warnock. You may congratulate him in person at next year’s Indie Island! And while you’re congratulating him, make sure to check out the ton of cool little, um, things he sells at shows, like Super Spy cyanide capsules (I think it’s actually some sort of breath mint), paintings on the actual torn-out pages of classics, of the scene on that page, etc. You’ll see.

Roger Langridge is not yet a buddy of Brian Hurtt’s, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. Possibly the nicest guy I met at SPX, he’s the creator of the Fred the Clown series, not to mention the man behind those Fin Fang Foom stories in the recent Marvel Monsters; and a ton of shorts and strips which you can find here. Not shown are his recent Muppet Show strips, done for the now-defunct Disney Adventures magazine. He had some of the originals for sale at SPX, and I barely was able to restrain myself from buying them–his originals are outrageously under-priced, usually under $100 apiece. I bought a copy of two different Disney Adventures issues I found at the grocery store over the weekend, but at four bucks a pop for a little digest-sized thing, it’s not hard to figure out what the problem was. But I digress! Roger will be coming all the way from New Zealand, by way of London, so make sure you make this hard-travellin’ dude feel welcome on his first trip to Charlotte!

Gosh, it’s been like weeks since we made a guest-list update hasn’t it? Never fear, loyal blog readers: we’ve just been saving up for you. So today we’re not announcing one or two but seven new names on our guest list, including Ryan Rubio and Thomas Boatwright of Cemetery Blues, painter extraordinaire Cat Staggs, writer and editor Dan Johnson, and Indie Island additions Duane Ballenger and Pat Lewis, both of which can be found in the Wide Awake 666 anthology from Greenville, SC’s Wide Awake Press. Heckfire, Pat’s even got a new book coming out from IDW:
The Claws Come Out!

Wait, that’s only six, isn’t it–oh yeah, I nearly forgot! Just confirmed this very morning is Invincible and Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman! One of the most prolific creators in comics, Robert Kirkman has written more comics in his relatively short career than some of you have read, including also Ultimate X-Men, Marvel Zombies, Brit, Battle Pope–well, I could go on all day. Just more proof that our 2008 HeroesCon is going to be our biggest ever! And there are more announcements around the corner, so don’t let that excitement die down just yet, sports fans!

Oh yes baby! Long time collaborators Rick Spears and Rob G will be returning to HeroesCon’s Indie Island next year. Besides the self-published Teenagers From Mars and Dead West, the pair also collaborated on Repo from Image Comics. But wait there’s more! Rick is also the writer behind Pirates of Coney Island (with artist Vasilis Lolos) and Black Metal from IDW, with artist Chuck BB. But wait there’s more! Rob G is also the artist on the cult-hit Couriers series of graphic novels with writer Brian Wood. I’m sure there’s more, but to find it out you’ll need to visit Rob and Rick’s respective sites, or the site of their publishing company, Gigantic Graphic Novels. Tell them we said hello!

At this rate, we’re going to have to hold part of the convention outside. Just added to our HeroesCon 2008 Guest List are cover artist and animation director Stephane Roux. He’s probably best-known for his cover work on Birds of Prey and Supergirl: Stephane will be coming all the way from France for his very first HeroesCon, so be sure to make him feel welcome! Also just added to the list is Image Comics inker G.W. Fisher: besides work on Jim Valentino’s Shadowhawk and The Intimidators, G.W. is working on the forthcoming Revival! Coming hot on the heels of yesterday’s big Homestarrunner addition, this HeroesCon may be our biggest ever! Stay tuned for more!

Oh yes, babies! Just confirmed today, Homestarrunner.com creators Matt and Mike Chapman will be guests at their first ever Heroes Convention next June! Very exciting news–for those of you who don’t know, Homestarrunner is only one of the most popular methods of time-wasting-at-work ever to be devised by mortal minds–duh! By all accounts these guys are super friendly, so don’t miss the chance to meet the creators of Strongbad, Trogdor the Burninator, and the entire ginormous cast of the site, not to mention the rest of the already ridiculously awesome Indie Island guest list. Special thanks to our buddies Carsten Wyche and Scott Clackum for helping us land this big fish! You guys…