It seems like lately I spend my entire day coding additions into our HeroesCon 09 Guest List, not to mention writing these breathless blog posts. But how in the WORLD can I not sound breathless when announcing these seven guys all at once?! Each of these guys is a member of our little (growing) HeroesCon “family”, and each deserves their own announcement, but the crazy number of guests we have this year demands speed! So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, may I present:

MARK BROOKS‘ star continues to rise, with interiors in books including Amazing Spider-Man, Dark Reign: Young Avengers, and covers all over the place!

Besides co-creating Perhapanauts (with Craig Rousseau) and Tellos (with Mike Wieringo, TODD DEZAGO has also written for Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man, Impulse, JLA, and many more!

CRAIG HAMILTON is preposterously popular artist, both within and without comics circles. Look for upcoming work from him in Fables, as well as past work in Sandman, Starman, and more!

GEORGES JEANTY‘s bio lately reads “Buffy, Buffy, Buffy”–Georges is the artist of the cult-favorite Buffy The Vampire Slayer comic series. He’s also recently done covers for Nightwing and Manhunter stories for DC Comics!

PHIL NOTO has one of the most recognizable styles in comics, most recently on display in Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom, Infinite Horizon, Jonah Hex, and many more!

JASON PEARSON has long been a fixture at our show, and is probably best known for his creator-owned series Body Bags, which recently saw the publication of a new story in Body Bags: One Shot. Jason also is a prolific cover artist, often associated with Spider-Man.

Last but not least, DEXTER VINES is one of the most sought-after inkers in the industry, often working on high-profile “event” comics like Civil War and the recent white-hot Wolverine “Old Man Logan” story. He’s probably most closely associated with penciller Ed McGuinness, especially for their work on Superman Batman and The Hulk.

Whew! Okay, more to come–tomorrow we’ll be announcing a slew of all-ages artists and writers, and later in the week a big publisher announcement!

Another week of HeroesCon 2009 Guest List updates begins! This week we start out with near-to-my-heart Indie Island, welcoming back Top Shelf Productions to HeroesCon! Top Shelf has been a central part of Indie Island since long before its creation in 2005, and in many ways laid the groundwork and made it possible! That’s why it’s particularly pleasurable for me to announce the addition of four of their biggest creators to our Indie Island list:

MATT KINDT is the award-winning creator of the Superspy book, as well as its predecessors, 2 Sisters and Pistolwhip! He’s got another book coming out later in the year from Dark Horse, but I’m not entirely sure it’s okay to announce it yet, so you’ll have to ask him about it at the show!

ANDY RUNTON is certainly no stranger to HeroesCon, one of our most regular and well-loved guests. Especially well-loved by fans of Owly, the extra cute, extra popular all ages book he writes and draws!

Speaking of cute and popular, CHRISTIAN SLADE is the creator of the Korgi series from Top Shelf, and is making his first ever appearance at HeroesCon this year. Be sure to welcome this prolific illustrator and now cartoonist to Charlotte!

And lastly but leastly: while ROB VENDITTI is only half as cute as Andy Runton, he’s twice as popular lately–Rob wrote the graphic novel The Surrogates, which is being made into a movie starring Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames, set for release later this year. Seriously, if you’ve ever met Rob, you know it couldn’t happen to a sweeter guy. In the next couple of weeks or so I’ll be sitting down to interview Rob, so we’ll see what HE has to say about it then.

But for now, welcome to these Top Shelfers! And of course, there are a ton more announcements on the way–tomorrow, more of our HeroesCon “family”, as well as another publisher!

Are you kidding me? This is the FOURTH big update we’ve made to our HeroesCon 2009 Guest List this week! For a total of twenty-six new names on the list! And that’s nothing–next week we’ll likely be adding more than thirty new names, so get your boogie shoes strapped on now: HeroesCon 09 is going to be IMMENSE!

Today’s big update includes movie mogul STEVE NILES, whose 30 Days of Night you may have heard of, as well as the upcoming Freaks of the Heartland, directed by Pineapple Express and Snow Angels director David Green! Steve is also the writer of books including City of Dust, Criminal Macabre, and the recent Epilogue!

Steve is joined by fellow returning guest STEPHANE ROUX, who makes his second trip to HeroesCon this year! Hailing from France, Stephane has made quite a name for himself over here as a comics artist, with work on Birds of Prey, Supergirl, Action Comics, She-Hulk, and a ton more! He was also the big star of last year’s Art Auction, netting the largest single amount paid for any piece!

But that’s not all–also new to the Guest List today are:

ROBERT ATKINS, the artist of IDW’s new GI Joe series, and a member of North Carolina’s own Tsunami Studios! Robert has also worked on Ultimate Fantastic Four, She-Hulk, and much more!

REILLY BROWN is making his first appearance at HeroesCon this year–you’ve probably seen his work on Marvel’s Cable Deadpool, Hulk Vs Hercules, New Warriors, and more. Be sure and give him a warm welcome this June!

SHAWN CRYSTAL, on the other hand, is no stranger to HeroesCon. Besides his duties as a professor at SCAD, he’s also more recently been doing art for Deadpool!

ANDY SMITH is also no stranger–heckfire, he’s one of our most regular store customers! His star is really rising lately, as artist on Dean Koontz’s Nevermore, Superman Confidential, Stormwatch Phd, and more–not to mention his how-to-draw books, including Drawing Dynamic Comics!

SARAH WILKINSON is a sought-after artist, with dozens and dozens of trading cards to her credits for pretty much every company, as well as recent cover art on the Dark Delicacies comic!

Whew! Okay, more to come next week! Have a great Easter and Passover, everyone!

You can tell we’re gearing up for HeroesCon when we start making Guest List updates EVERY DAY! It sure is going to be crowded this year! But this week we’ve been trying to extra-officially confirm a lot of our closest “family”-type guests, the delicious candy center of the vast and nougaty exterior of HeroesCon. While I hate to announce all these guys together in one big post–this is like a who’s-who of some of our favorite people in the world, and I’d prefer to make a great big fuss over each of them–the stack of announcements I need to make is growing all the time! So, without further ado, the lords and ladies of three of comics’ finest art studios:

GAIJIN STUDIOS is like royalty at HeroesCon, and with good reason–check out this lineup they boast–

CULLY HAMNER is the artist of the upcoming Question backup in Detective Comics, written by Greg Rucka. He’s also recently received accolades as the artist of Black Lightning: Year One, as well as an exclusive contract with DC Comics.

LAURA MARTIN has colored, well, about everything. Her resume reads like a most-popular-ever list of comics: Astonishing X-Men, Secret Invasion, The Stand, Authority, Planetary… you get the idea. Swank!

BRIAN STELFREEZE is the only person ever in my life to take the time to (sniff!) teach me to moonwalk. Of a less tender nature, he’s the influential artist and generally chatty dude behind The Ride, GunCandy, Matador, and about a bajillion Batman covers over the years.

KARL STORY is, all joking aside, one of the best inkers working in comics, period. The number of actual inkers working in comics dwindles all the time, but Karl is pretty amazing to watch, which you will be able to do in a couple of months. Some of his higher-profile jobs include Ultimate X-Men, Number of the Beast, Tom Strong, Ocean, and Nightwing.

DOUG WAGNER is the smiling writer of the crew, with books including The Ride, The Ride: Die Valkyrie, and the upcoming Hammer Sound! He’s also one of the higher-ups with our buddies over at 12 Gauge Comics!

And, while he’s no longer technically a Gaijin-er, TONY SHASTEEN has got the stink of that office all over him still, so I’ll announce him with these other dudes (and Laura). HeroesCon attendees might know Tony first as the artist of the recent Rosario Dawson co-created O.C.T., and thus one of the people in the corner of the frame in about ten billion photos of Rosario that got taken at HeroesCon in 2006 and 2007. BUT more recently he’s been announced as the artist of the upcoming Stephen King’s The Talisman adaptation, as well as Final Crisis: Secret Files.

JOLLY ROGER STUDIO of Macon Georgia is ALSO extra royal at HeroesCon, and like Gaijin, extra Georgian. Though many stupendous stars have been part of Jolly Roger over the years, these days it’s largely centered around:

TONY HARRIS, the Grand Buccanneer of HeroesCon, and a prolific cover artist, as well as artist of the hugely popular Ex Machina, Starman, and the Mark Millar-penned War Heroes. Busy busy!

JD METTLER somehow looks even more like a pirate, due in large part to a mighty moustache. He’s a well-known colorist both working with Tony and on his own, on books including Ex Machina, Spider-Man: With Great Power, and Conan.

But wait–there’s also THE BLVD, the home studio of already-on-list John Paul Leon, as well as new additions:

BERNARD CHANG, who gets some of the funniest pictures taken of him each year. When he’s not cracking photographers up, he’s also been a former Disney Imagineer and artist on Wonder Woman, Superman, and Deadpool, among a bunch of others.

TOMMY LEE EDWARDS is either a talented illustrator who does a ton of high-profile work for movies like Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Harry Potter, OR a talented cartoonist who’s drawn Marvel: 1985, The Question, and Batman. Or both. It’s both, actually.

Jeez! That took a lot out of me. I’m going to go have a cool refreshing lemonade with Shawn and Seth and get my strength back. But I’ll be back tomorrow with–I’m not kidding–ANOTHER addition to the list! Good gravy!

I haven’t been thrilled with Marvel’s Black Panther title since writer Reginald Hudlin took over the comic a few years ago.

Although, to be fair, I probably wouldn’t have been happy with the work of any writer who followed up Christopher Priest’s run on the Panther’s solo series.

For those who never had a chance to read the Priest-helmed Black Panther, let me just say it was brilliant. I would even dare to say that it was “Alan Moore/Neil Gaiman good.” Yeah — THAT good.

During that series, which ran for more than 80 issues (I think), the Panther was remade from a sometimes-bumbling supporting character into an enigmatic, powerful and ultra-competent leading man.

Then along came Hudlin … who basically took Priest’s revitalized Panther and wrote a few lackluster stories based around the cat-tastic hero. Which brings us to the latest issue of Black Panther. I like it.

Yeah I know I just bashed the guy’s work on the book. But since the series was relaunched with a new No. 1 three months ago, setting the stage for a new female Panther, things have improved.
Hudlin has assembled a great cast of characters, and he’s given them some interesting conflicts to resolve. The dialogue is crisp and witty — yet still in character. And the mystery surrounding the new lady Panther is surprisingly intriguing and doesn’t seem as contrived as I initially feared.

Another great, well probably the best, aspect of the new Panther series is the art by Ken Lashley. Where did this guy come from? While not perfect, his work is lush, yet lightly stylized; it strangely seems to marry the best elements of Jim Lee and Keith Pollard. I hope he sticks around a while.

And speaking of sticking around, I’ll do just that for this new iteration of the Black Panther. Let’s hope it takes a while to start sucking.

Well, I hadn’t planned on making another update to our HeroesCon 2009 Guest List until tomorrow, but Shelton informed me yesterday that he has a list of over 100 guests that need to get added STAT! So it looks like the month of April is going to be a wild tidal wave of HeroesCon announcements–whew! Let’s enjoy this time of relative quiet for the hour or so we have left, and reflect upon today’s awesome addition!

Returning to HeroesCon this summer is Goon creator ERIC POWELL! With The Goon in production as a David Fincher-produced movie, you can bet we’ll be name-dropping Eric like crazy to all of our friends pretty soon. But you can still meet him in person this June at HeroesCon! Besides his work writing and drawing (and often painting) The Goon, Eric has worked all over comics on series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, The Avengers, and dozens more.

Also coming back to HeroesCon this year is acclaimed artist JOHN PAUL LEON. John is probably most famous as the artist of Earth X, as well as the original artist on the cult-favorite Static series. But more recently he’s known as the artist on the critically acclaimed The Winter Men series. Look for the addition of John’s buds in The Blvd Studio in the coming weeks!

But wait there’s more! Also joining the Guest List today are:

WILL ALLRED, an Arkansas native and writer of Diary of Night, illustrated by fellow guest Gene Gonzales. Look for more work by Will in 2009 from Bloodfire Studios.

THOMAS BOATWRIGHT is the artist on Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo, Cemetery Blues, and the forthcoming Zeke Deadwood, AND a Harvey and Eagle Award nominee!

FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA is about as nice as they come, and has a totally sweet Italian accent to boot. His bio gets more impressive every year, these days including work on Zorro and Scalped, as well as the upcoming Wildstorm series Garrison!

MICAH HARRIS is the writer of the Heaven’s War graphic novel, illustrated by Michael Gaydos. A North Carolina native, Micah has become a fixture at HeroesCon over the years, as we hope you have as well!

Okay: still another big update tomorrow, and–who knows?–maybe a FOURTH one on Friday! Get ready for HeroesCon 2009!

Another Indie Island update today, as I continue my struggle to push through the dozens of people clamoring to join our HeroesCon 09 Guest List! Plus now that Small Press Tables are sold out, space is even dearer than ever! It’s going to be some kind of crowded this summer at HeroesCon! But back to today’s announcement:

New to the Indie Island list today is PAUL MAYBURY, artist and co-writer of the hit Aqua Leung graphic novel, as well as his ACT-I-VATE webcomic Party Bear! Paul is a returning guest to Indie Island, and we’re excited to have him back!

Also returning this year is JOEY WEISER, the creator of the all-ages friendly The Ride Home, as well as Tales of Unusual Circumstance. His latest mini-comics is The Late-Night Gang.

And lastly but not leastly is newcomer STEPHEN FLOYD, another Center For Cartoon Studies alumnus, and co-founder of the esteemed One Percent Press! Vermont will be well-represented at this year’s HeroesCon!

Okay–look for another announcement later in the week, this one centering around a certain group of Georgians we’re partial to… see you then!

I’ve referred often to the massive stack of announcements I’m trying to work my way through–I’d say more than half of them are for Indie Island! Every time I’m about to announce some new indie studs, someone like Frank Cho or Guy Davis will confirm and I have to rev up our mighty publicity engine. Not that Frank and Guy are more important than my indie guys–but maybe I feel like the indie guys are my guys, and I don’t want to favor them too much? Who cares! The important thing is I have a ton of guys to add to the HeroesCon 09 Guest List still, including:

LAMAR ABRAMS, who’s attending his very first HeroesCon this year. His new book REMAKE is coming out this summer, maybe even in time for HeroesCon, and looks like it’s pretty awesome. I read the whole preview, and I never read those things.

CHUCK “MCBUCK” FORSMAN is the creator of the double-Ignatz winning Snake Oil, as well as one of the creators of the Sundays anthology, as well as one of the crop of recent Center for Cartoon Studies alums who seem poised to reinvent comics over the next few years. I love this guy.

JOE LAMBERT is not lucky enough to have a middle name with quotes, like Chuck. Maybe that’s why everyone likes Chuck better–Joe didn’t win any Ignatz’s last year. But he DID do the endpapers to the 2008 Best American Comics, as well as his own Turtle Keep It Steady, numerous anthology stories, and also CCS alum-hood.

ALEC LONGSTRETH doesn’t need any quotes to have everyone love him. He’s the super-popular creator of the Phase 7 series, as well as having comics featured all over in books like Papercutter and the Awesome Anthology series. He also has a beard that would make Bin Laden blush.

Speaking of Papercutter, it ALSO won a bunch of Ignatz’s last year (the Ignatz is kind of like the indie version of the Eisners). It’s edited and published by last-but-not-least guest GREG MEANS, who runs Tugboat Press and occasionally makes his own minicomics.

Woo! Okay, I still have about 12-15 people to get to–if you’re a confirmed guest and haven’t shown up yet, I’m getting to you! See you next week!

When it comes to comic book villains, I’m from the camp that likes bad guys bad.

I don’t like tragic figures, misunderstood monsters, or anti-heroes. I like motivated, organized, methodical meanies who plot and scheme to do terrible things to all kinds of people, places and things on a regular basis. So — for example — I’ll take Lex Luthor over the Lizard and Dr. Doom over Black Adam.

Yes, I’m all for the humanizing of super baddies; I mean, it never hurts to add multiple dimensions to any character. But once attempts to humanize a villain make that villain “less bad,” then we’re headed for trouble.

That’s sort of what happened to the Kingpin.

The Kingpin, aka Wilson Fisk, used to be this ultra-hardcore mobster who mercilessly plagued Daredevil, and other Marvel heroes, in a number of legendary tales. But in recent years, he went from a dude trading blows with super-strong Spider-Man to a grief-stricken sissy who was easily spanked (in like 2 pages) by Daredevil not too long ago.

Needless to say, I haven’t been enamored with the “Kingpin of Crime” in recent years. But hidden within the latest issue of Daredevil lies the hope that perhaps the evil, sadistic Fisk I love to hate might be making a comeback.

The title of DD’s current story arc, “Return of the King,” sort of says it all.

In the storyline, the Kingpin returns to New York after dealing with some tragedy of his own in Europe. His goal is to bring some pain to the ninja group known as the Hand, who are currently running around the city doing ninja-type things (like disemboweling people).

Issue 116 depicts Fisk going head-to-head with an army of ninja. In issue 117, writer Ed Brubaker shows the mafia boss throwing his ample weight around against lesser criminals who now run the tatters of his former organization. By the end of the comic, the Kingpin makes an unholy deal with DD himself — a deal that promises to have buckets of blood running throughout Hell’s Kitchen. All that said, while I’m not sure what exactly lies ahead for Fisk in this storyline, it appears that things are getting back on track.

We’ll see.

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!