HeroesCon fills the city of Charlotte with comics fans and professionals!  This year the demand for hotel rooms has forced us to set up a HeroesCon block of rooms at the Hilton Charlotte City Center hotel.  While the Westin still has a few rooms available for Friday and Saturday nights, it is completely booked for Thursday, June 2nd.  The Hilton is also lconveniently located only one block from the Charlotte Convention Center on E. 3rd Street and has graciously offered the same low HeroesCon rate.  We have added a live reservation link to the “Hotels and More” page  for easy booking.  Or if you don’t want to navigate through our site, you can link here to Hilton’s HeroesCon reservation site.  Staying uptown and hanging out with thousands of comics people is half the fun of HeroesCon.  Make plans to park your car once and enjoy the whole HeroesCon experience!

Don’t forget that this Saturday, March 5 at 1:00 p.m., the Heroes Discussion Group will be meeting in the store to tackle one of 2010’s most acclaimed books, Daytripper.  Join discussion group coordinator Andy Mansell and the rest of us as we delve into this thought-provoking comic.  We always have a great time, and you’re guaranteed to walk away with a new perspective on the book.

We are pleased to announce Sean Gordon Murphy will be returning to HeroesCon! Sean garnered a lot of attention in 2010 for his work on Joe the Barbarian with Grant Morrison. However, Joe isn’t Sean’s first time at the rodeo. In 2005 he published his first original graphic novel called Off Road, which went on to win an American Library Association award for young adults and was recently re-released by IDW.   Sean’s work can also be seen in the pages of  Hellblazer, Batman/Scarecrow: Year One, and Teen Titans: Cold Case.  The guest list for HeroesCon 2011 continues to expand with talented additions.  Stay tuned to the Heroes blog for further updates!

The first round of Savannah Collection Comics in the Signature Auction on Heritage starts and ends today. The regular online bidding is closed but you can place proxy bids online by going to Hertage Live beginning at 2 PM EST.  Please note that tons of books from this collection will be in every weekly auction starting this week. Thanks and happy bidding!

Click the image to be taken right to the current auction on Heritage Live!

We’re happy to welcome Clay Mann to his first HeroesCon! Clay is a testament to hard work and perseverance. After sending absurd-sized postcards to the Marvel office, he was given his first shot at the big time on X-Men Unlimited. From there he has gone on to work on titles such as Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Dark Reign: Elektra, X-Men Legecy, and AGE of X.

Returning for her second HeroesCon is Ming Doyle. Ming first caught our eye over at Project Rooftop, redesigning the heck out of several classic superhero costumes while staying true to the spirit of each character. Ming just completed work on Tantalize: Kieren’s Story, a 190 page graphic novel written by young adult author Cynthia Leitich-Smith that is scheduled to be published by Candelwick Press this August. You can also check out her work weekly on the webcomic The Loneliest Astronauts.

Professor Shawn Crystal drops science on his students while also maintaining a healthy output of comics. He not only teaches sequential art at SCAD Atlanta, but has drawn several titles for Marvel featuring everyone’s favorite “Merc with a Mouth,” Deadpool. His latest work can be seen on the Marvel Digital comic, Wolverine/Deadpool: The Decoy. All this while raising two adorable kids with his lovely wife.  Way to go Shawn!

Please give a warm welcome to our friend Tom Fowler making the trek to Charlotte all the way from the Great White North. Tom’s amazing art can be found in the pages of  Mysterius the Unfathomable, Deadpool Team-Up, and MAD Magazine. As if comics weren’t enough to keep him busy, he has banded together with several other ne’er-do-well artists to form Voltron…I mean, Comic TWART. Check out their weekly character sketches.  It’s some sweet eye-candy, just like Tom.

Lamar Abrams is the creator of Remake from AdHouse Books.  AdHouse head honcho Chris Pitzer gave me a scoop that Lamar’s all new Remake Special will be available at HeroesCon 2011! Fans of video games, anime, and funny comics will REJOICE!

The first books from our Savannah Collection are up for bid at Heritage Auctions! This is just the tip of the iceberg, more great books from this historic collection will be offered on HA.COM in the weeks to come! Come back for updates about future auctions right here.

1) Fantastic Four #587

The book most likely to move quickly this week is probably this anticipated issue featuring the death of one of the members of FF.  There’s been healthy speculation in recent months about which character will meet their end.  While the media has already leaked that information, the issue is still guaranteed to sell out, so make sure you pick up a copy.  Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting have been building their entire run up to this moment, and are planning a relaunch for March that is simply called FF.  Come see how they end this incarnation of Marvel’s flagship title.

2) Shazam #1

Fans of the Big Red Cheese rejoice!  This is only a one shot, but for Captain Marvel fans any new issue is worth appreciating.  Eric Wallace and Cliff Richards offer up this issue which has the added bonus of featuring a great cover by Cliff Chiang.  I’d be remiss not to mention that we still have several copies of Chip Kidd and Geoff Spear‘s excellent pictorial history of the character, Shazam! The Golden Age of the World’s Mightiest Mortal.

3) Age of X: Alpha

This new X crossover seems to me like it will be a strong seller for Marvel.  Like the popular Age of Apocalypse of years past, Age of X features an alternate take on the X universe, with the last remaining mutants trying to survive on the fringes.  The draw of this series is the curiosity it raises around how certain characters will be portrayed.  Mike Carey, Paul Davidson, and others are the creators behind this series, which Marvel is touting as another universe-changing event.

4) Detective Comics #873

Scott Snyder and Jock wrap up their acclaimed “Black Mirror” storyline with this week’s issue.  Readers seem to be excited to see Jock doing interiors for this arc, as lately he’s become a go to cover artist for Marvel and DC.  Snyder has capitalized on his American Vampire success by doing a respectable job following Greg Rucka‘s popular Batwoman issues of Detective.

5) X-men #7

The inclusion of vampires into the X universe probably kept a few of you away from this newest ongoing X-men book.  If you’re among that lot, consider picking up this issues, as the X-men team up with Spider-man in a story set in New York.  Regular writer Victor Gischler is joined by artist Chris Bachalo, who is no stranger to illustrating Spidey or the X-men.  His Lizard story arc in Amazing Spider-man still gets plenty of talk around Heroes from staffers and customers alike.

>Bonus picks of the week: Uncanny X-force #4, Question: Pipeline TP, Magneto #1, Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Lost Command #1, and a slew of Avengers titles, including Avengers #9, New Avengers #8, and Secret Avengers #9.

Available now?! But new comics only come out on Wednesday! That’s right, this week we’re bringing you a new comic on Tuesday. Marvel has everyone so excited about Fantastic Four “Casualty” #587 that they are allowing us to sell it a day early! Come by the store today so you don’t miss out on this historic “Death in the Family” event!  We should point out that this is the only new title available for purchase today, but we’ll have all our new releases ready for you bright and early Wednesday morning!

The 33rd anniversary of the first Charlotte Mini·Con has come and gone and it was a blast!  We’d like to thank everyone who came out to celebrate comic books with us.  You are what make the show so fun for us. Thanks also to all of our great guests, Duane Ballenger, Rich Barrett, Chris Brunner, J. Chris Campbell, Sanford Greene, Dustin Harbin, Jason Latour, Buddy Prince, Budd Root, Bridgit Scheide, Andy Smith, and Chrissie Zullo. Be sure to stop by our Flickr and Facebook pages for our extensive photo report!

So once again this is an update for our customers that, despite the wintery conditions, our store is open today and will be until about 6 o’clock tonight. 7th street looks pretty clear but our side streets are a bit icy. We hope to have the books out on time for everyone tomorrow. Check the blog again in the morning for updates. Until then, come by and grab a book to cozy up with next to the fire. Just like Calvin and his friend.