Hello to 2009! Maybe it’s just my own infectious enthusiasm, but it seems like everyone I talk to is thinking that 2009 is going to be a really great year. We tend to agree; and how could so many of us be wrong?

Just in terms of our little corner of the world, here in your friendly neighborhood comics shop, we’ve got an enormous year planned. Check out this short list, just off the top of my head:

–Our first Discussion Group of the year will be January 12, and feature the most critically acclaimed book of 2008, BOTTOMLESS BELLY BUTTON.

–The Charlotte Minicon, now in its fourth decade, going on January 17.

–An in-store appearance by acclaimed director George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead) on February 20.

—Free Comic Book Day going on the first Saturday in May (May 2).

–One of the biggest HeroesCon‘s ever, with a guest list that already includes names like Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, and Jeff Smith: June 19-21.

And that’s just the FIRST HALF of the year! Good gravy!

Oh, but while I’m on the subject of the New Year, I thought I’d mention that 29 years ago today, on January 2, 1982, then 27-year old Shelton Drum opened up Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find in a tiny, closet-sized location on Central Avenue. Today the store is one of the most well-known in the country, not to mention my employer for give or take the last 12 years. Happy Birthday, Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find, and Happy New Year’s to all of you!

As I type, 2008 is almost gone; I am already looking forward to 2009, I must admit. But I wanted to remind everyone who might see this in the next 6 hours or so that today is the last day to get your HeroesCon 2009 advance 3-day passes for just $25. As of tomorrow, they’ll be $30 apiece.

We’ll most likely be closing early tonight, sometimes after 6pm, depending on how much business there is. So if you can’t get us on the phone at 704.375.7462, just go download the ticket form, print and fill it out with your charge info, and fax it to us at 704.375.7464. Any faxes we receive before midnight will be honored at the $25 price.

Thanks to everyone who has already purchased their tickets–2009 looks like a MASSIVE year for HeroesCon. And to all of you, please have a safe and happy New Year’s! See you next year!

Going on this Saturday, December 27th is the Charlotte Comicon! Organized by our friends Dave Hinson and Rick Fortenberry, this one day comic show will be held once again in the Crowne Plaza Hotel on S. Macdowell Street in uptown Charlotte.

Shelton is really pulling out all the stops for this one, covering not one, not two, but SEVEN tables with comic books. If you didn’t get to make it to our big holiday sale a few weekends ago, he’ll have that extraordinary stock of dollar books out, dozens of boxes of comics, IN ORDER, all a buck a piece. AND he’ll have what has been a hugely popular stock of recent and “hot” books, which our man Seth has been updating and adding to each week, so it’s always fresh and ready for browsing!

AND of course he’ll have his excellent stock of classic Silver and Golden Age comics. Shelton has been hitting a ton of conventions lately, burning the candle at both ends, as they say; not to mention buying collections left and right. So if you haven’t seen him in a while, be sure to check out his stock at the Charlotte Comicon this weekend and see what’s new.

AND I ALMOST FORGOT! Shelton is going to have vouchers with him that you can bring back to our store to get 10% off all new comics and books and 25% off all regular back issues! What? No that’s right! And what’s more, if an item is already discounted in our store, that 10% will be additional! Note that this does NOT apply to reserve customer discounts. Sorry guys.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! Print out this here blog post and bring it in to the Charlotte Comicon to get $1 off admission! Or if you’re in our shop, Dave and Rick dropped off some postcards with the same $1 voucher on them for you!

OH BUT ONE MORE THING! Remembering that this Wednesday is the last day to get HeroesCon 09 tickets at the $25 price, Shelton is going to have a sheaf of ticket forms with him, so be sure and secure your lower-price tickets while you still can! Our 2009 Guest List already includes names like Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, and Jeff Smith, and you know that’s just the start. Don’t miss this opportunity to get in on the best comics convention of 2009 at a lower price!

Remember that George A. Romero signing we were supposed to host in September, but which got cancelled because Romero started filming a new zombie movie? Remember how you sort of paused your excitement at being able to meet the legendary horror director live and in person?

Unpause that excitement! George A. Romero, director of the acclaimed “Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,” and numerous other movies both in and out of the whole zombie world, will be making an appearance in our store this February 20. The event is part of the The Light Factory‘s upcoming Romero retrospective: American Zombie: George A. Romero’s Film Revolution, going on February 20-22. For more info on the retrospective, check out their Romero-tastic website.

As far as our part goes, the Romero event in our store will be the ONLY chance you’ll have throughout the retrospective to get the famous director’s autograph. He’ll be signing and meeting people between 3 and 5 pm, as well as selling memorabilia and more.

This is going to be a big event for us, and we’ll be talking about it more in the new year, but we wanted you to go ahead and clear your calendars for that weekend–especially those of you who have been patiently waiting since the original event was postponed!

STOREYVILLE by Frank Santoro is published by PictureBox. They are known for their art comics. Some of you might be familiar with two of their most famous books Maggots and Ninja, both by Brian Chippendale. I will admit I don’t really “get” these two books, and most of the other books PictureBox publishes, for that matter. I like to think of myself as an educated reader. I have a degree in art so I like to think I have the proper education to be able to understand and appreciate these works. I want to enjoy these works, but I can’t get past my initial response of “this looks like a bunch of scratchy lines” or “my friends used to draw these flip books in 5th grade.”

But Storeyville has helped me to get past all my biases. It wasn’t something I had to “get,” it was something I could just enjoy. The art and the format are out of the norm for most of the comics I read. Storeyville isn’t like an issue of Spider-Man or Superman. Generally speaking I read standard sized floppies (or pamphlets, whatever you want to call them), comics that have 32 pages, are 10 inches by 6 3/4 inches, have bright colors and have staples in the middle.

Storeyville is a hardcover collection of issues originally published on newsprint; it is oversized at 11 x 16 inches; and it has a muted color palette mainly consisting of browns, grays and yellows. The one thing that Storeyville has that connects it to standard comics is a linear narrative. Some art comics lack a linear narrative and that can make them extremely difficult to connect to and decipher. Storeyville is an excellent introduction to art comics because you still have a footing in familiar territory.

Storeyville focuses on a grifter named Will and his journey to find his former partner, Reverend Rudy. Will leaves behind his friends in Pittsburgh and travels to Montreal hoping to find Rudy there. The story is delicately paced. It is slow and winding, like Will’s journey. Many of the panels are devoted to mountains, trees, lakes and cityscapes. The journey is as important as the destination.

Along the way we learn why Rudy is so important to Will and why Will is so determined to find Rudy. The rough art style and the color palette make the story feel like a memory or a dream. It feels ephemeral. It is like Will is remembering his journey. All of the events are playing out in his mind years later. The colors are dull and faded. People’s faces are blurry and just out of reach. The storytelling and the art blend perfectly to create a story about how the past stays in the past and can never be regained. It is a story about searching for something and finding yourself.

This wonderful graphic novel came out earlier this year and has made most of the Year’s Best lists published so far (including #2 on our own Dustin Harbin’s list).

The plot: The Loony family get together at their vacation house and an earth-shattering announcement is made. It is a work of serious fiction that is screaming to be discussed and dissected. It is a book that can be looked at differently by different members of different generations.In other words, I found myself relating more to the parents; but I anticipate most of the readers will respond more to the Loony children.

Issues to discuss will include:

–The title: what does it mean?
–Does this fictional family chronicle have the same tone as contemporary biographical comics?
–Does the cartoony presentation of our protagonist add to or detract from the reading experience?
–How do the shifts in panel and page layout affect the storytelling?
–And believe me–lots more!!!!

Don’t be put off by its length; it is a deceptively fast read.
And don’t be put off by the price– $29.99 (27.00 if you mention the Heroes Discussion Group 10% discount!!) It is a book you will re-read and grow old with!!

NOTE: The author recommends that you read this three part book in three separate sessions taking a break between each chapter; we at Heroes concur! There’s a lot of under-the-surface material that will percolate nicely in your brain during these breaks.

So come one, come all, lets start the New Year with a bang!!
You won’t be disappointed!

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week.

5. SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD BATMAN TEAM-UPS VOL. 3
Written by Bob Haney; Art and Cover by Jim Aparo
DC Comics
$16.99 | 520 pgs

It’s worth reminding you every once in a while that DC puts out great, affordable reprints of their classic material in these black and white showcase books. The latest collects some comics that are near and dear to my heart – mid ’70s era Brave and the Bold comics with art by the MAN, the late Jim Aparo. His Batman was the definitive Batman for me when I was growing up and here you get to see his take on various other characters who team up with Bats like Mister Miracle, The Demon, Aquaman and even The Joker. These are fun stand alone stories and you get 25 of them for just $17.

4. NAOKI URASAWA’S MONSTER VOL. 18 (of 18)
By Naoki Urasawa
Viz Media
$9.99 | 266 pgs

One of the most acclaimed manga of the past ten years reaches its conclusion with the final, 18th volume hitting the US this week. If you’re not following it, Monster is about a Japanese doctor living in Germany who once saved the life of a young boy. Eleven years later he finds that the boy has grown up into a sociopath who is plotting an inhuman massacre that the doctor hopes that he can stop. The story has moved from Dusseldorf to Berlin to Munich to Prague to a small village in Germany where the final chapter unfolds.

This book has been adapted into an episodic anime and a US film is planned for release next year. Some consider this the Watchmen of manga so if that strikes a chord with you, check it out from the beginning. If you’ve been following it all the way through, then you must be excited to see how it all ends.

3. THE BOYS DEFINITIVE EDITION HC
Written by Garth Ennis; art by Darick Robertson
Dynamite Entertainment
$75.00

The Boys is an ongoing superheroes-behaving-badly comic by Mr. Cynicism himself, Garth Ennis, and artist Darick Robertson. The book started its life as a DC comic until the Powers That Be caught wind that it was full of thinly veiled versions of their trademark characters doing awful things to each other. It has since moved over to Dynamite Entertainment and has really evolved into an excellent book.

Seventy five bucks for a hardcover collection is a tough pill to swallow but you should at least pick up the first softcover volume for fifteen bucks or whatever if you want to give it a try. I highly recommend it but I warn you that you need to be open-minded to scenes of superheroes sexually harassing each other and blithely dismembering innocent civilians in their quest to defeat the bad guys.

2. HELLBLAZER #250
Written by Brian Azzarello, Jamie Delano, Dave Gibbons, China Miéville and Peter Milligan; Art by Eddie Campbell, Rafael Grampá, David Lloyd, Giuseppe Camuncoli and others; Cover by Lee Bermejo
DC Vertigo
$3.99 | 48 pgs

Vertigo’s longest running comic book reaches it’s milestone 250th issue and to commemorate, they’ve assembled an all-star creative team to tell five holiday themed stories about supernatural con man, John Constantine. This is a little like, “John Constantine, This Is Your Life” with just about every creator that has worked on this book being brought out from behind the curtain to say hello to John again. People like Brian Azzarello, David Lloyd, Sean Philips, Eddie Campbell and original series writer Jamie Delano. Plus there’s some people that are new to the Hellblazer world like Dave Gibbons, Peter Milligan and Rafael Grampá. I think the only guy who couldn’t make it was Constantine’s creator, Alan Moore.

1. KRAMERS ERGOT 7
By Various
Buenaventura Press
$125 | 96 pgs

I’m sure when cartoonist and publisher Sammy Harkham started recruiting artists for the ambitious, over-sized seventh volume of his comic anthology/art project, Kramers Ergot, he wasn’t anticipating a global economic meltdown. But you don’t get to choose the economy that you publish in so Mr. Harkham finds himself releasing his long-awaiting $125 book to a suddenly cash-strapped public.

The thing is, this is likely going to be the comic release of the year. For the admittedly high price you get a book that is not only freaking huge (clocking in at 16×21″ and 96 pages) but it contains work by over 50 great cartoonists – both newcomers and big names – all doing original work on a tabloid size you’re not used to seeing them at. We’re talking some big names here like: Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Ivan Brunetti, Kim Deitch, Anders Nilsen, Adrian Tomine, Jaime Hernadez, Johnny Ryan, Matt Groening, Dash Shaw and many more.

Besides, the Fed cut interests rates to near zero yesterday. This book might be worth taken out a loan for.

GOT TIME FOR MORE? THERE’S ALSO THESE:

SECRET WARS OMNIBUS
If you’ve got $100 to spare I’d recommend Kramers Ergot 7 as I said above. However, Kramers Ergot 7 will not show you how Spider-man got his black costume. You can only find that here in this inexplicably pricey reprint of the classic Marvel event comic.

SPIDER-MAN NOIR #1
Oh Ed Brubaker, what have you wrought? His deft weaving of noirish storytelling into books like Daredevil and Criminal seems to have inspired this new batch of Marvel comics that mixes 30s gangster movie cliches with radioactive spiders and stuff.

BEANWORLD HOLIDAY SPECIAL
Tales of Beanworld fans have been waiting ten years for a new book from Larry Marder. It’s here now.

THOR GOD-SIZED #1
Another one shot Thor in Asgard comic written by Matt Fraction.

This has been a crappy week for blogging (excepting of course Rich’s excellent weekly column), but the Heroes staff got hit hard this week by some sort of wild gypsy caravan of illnesses. Poor Shelton got not much of a post-sale rest, with the store understaffed pretty much all week.

But dry those sniffly noses! I wanted to write before I posted this week’s Hotline, to announce that our next big event is the Charlotte Minicon, coming up on January 17, 2009! That’s a little over a month from now, so be sure and save that date. Shelton started the Charlotte Minicon way back in 1977; this year it’ll be taking place again in the Palmer Building at Fireman’s Hall, located right down the street from our store at the corner of East 7th and East 5th streets.

After HeroesCon and Free Comic Book Day, this is the biggest event of the year for us. In the next week or so we’ll be announcing a guest list; we’re just waiting for a few more names to confirm before we announce them. Rest assured we’ll announce those names here on the blog and on the Heroes Hotline first! Stay tuned!

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week.

5. PUNISHER WAR ZONE #1
Written by Garth Ennis; art by Steve Dillon
Marvel
$3.99

You wouldn’t be off-base to assume this is a comic adaption of the new Punisher movie that just came out last week but in fact it’s a new weekly mini-series from Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon that I’m not sure has anything to do with the movie but is instead a sequel to their “Welcome Back, Frank” story arc from the Marvel Knights Punisher comic from a few years ago. If you’re more familiar with Ennis’ recent run on the Marvel Max version of the Punisher, the Knights version was what is referred to as the “funny” version of the character at least by comparison. If you’ve read Preacher by the same guys than you know what their idea of “funny” is.

4. BUCK ROGERS IN 25TH CENTURY DAILIES HC VOL 01 1929 1931
By Philip Francis Nowlan & Dick Calkins
Hermes Press
$39.99

The latest hardcover offering of newspaper strip reprints brings us good old Buck Rogers. When guys my age hear the name “Buck Rogers” we can’t help but think of Gil Gerard and Twiggy and the dreamy Erin Gray…

…what were we talking about again? Oh yeah, old newspaper strips. Though the character got it’s start in a pulp novella, this comic strip is where he really took off into the public consciousness. From an artistic perspective, we’re not talking Alex Raymond or Milton Caniff levels of greatness here, but from a historical perspective this is an important one, worthy of the $40 hardcover treatment. Without Buck Rogers we wouldn’t have Star Wars, Duck Dodgers in the 24-1/2th Century, and our fond memories of Erin Gray.

3. NOCTURNAL CONSPIRACIES NINETEEN DREAMS GN
By David B.
NBM
$14.95 | 128 pgs

David B. has a bizarre dreamlike style that lends itself perfectly to a book in which he describes nineteen dreams that he’s had between the period of 1979 and 1994. If you’ve read his highly acclaimed book, Epileptic, or any of his recent work in the anthology, MOME, you know that his graphic, black and white line work is all about imagination and psychological expression and not so much about reality. That said, the art in the previews for this one look a little more reined in than some of the wacked out stuff he’s capable of. Oh and look there’s a color in there.

2. PHONOGRAM 2 SINGLES CLUB #1
Written by Kieron Gillen; art by Jamie McKelvie
Image Comics
$3.50 | 32 pgs

The first Phonogram mini-series was a popular book that presented a world in which 90s British pop music had magical powers. It made stars of its creators, Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie – the latter has recently been seen doing some Marvel work. This new mini-series is a collection of single stories that each take place on the same night in the same nightclub. All revolve around music and magic and if you passed on the first series because it was in black and white you’ll be pleased that, like McKelvie’s beautifully pop-colored Suburban Glamour, this one is in full color. There’s also a couple of backup stories with guest artists Marc Ellerby and Lauren McCubbin.

1. SECRET INVASION DARK REIGN
Written by Brian Michael Bendis; art by Alex Maleev
Marvel
$3.99

I believe it was the esteemed Dr. Manhattan that once said “Nothing ever ends.”

If you went into last week’s final issue of Marvel’s latest mini-series event, Secret Invasion, expecting an actual ending to what you couldn’t be faulted for thinking was a “story” you were mistaken. Again. These things don’t end, they just lead you right into the next event. The good news is that the creative team is Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, frequent collaborators from such books as Daredevil, Illuminati and the occasional outstanding issue of New Avengers. Their run on Daredevil alone has filled me with enough good will that I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on any cash grab event they want to pull. Oh and I guess I’ll go ahead and admit that the premise here sounds pretty good too. A “dark” version of the Illuminati. A group of villains that have been pulling strings in the same way that the “good” version of the Illuminati has been doing. And the funny thing is that Namor appears to be a member of both groups.

And then there’s this stuff…

SULK GN VOL 02: DEADLY AWESOME
The second volume of Jeffrey Brown’s new anthology where he branches out into new genres like mixed martial arts fiction. I hear this one has an 80 page fight sequence.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #27
DC brings back the Milestone characters so that the JLA can beat them up, apparently.

NICOLAS GN
A graphic novel by Quebecois cartoonist Pascal Girard that deals with the true story of the death of his younger brother but in a direct, honest way that at times is actually funny.

YTHAQ FORSAKEN WORLD #1
Marvel’s latest release from their Soleil line of European reprints. This one is a classic series about the three survivors of a spaceship crash on a strange planet being pursued by deadly mercenaries.

HERBIE ARCHIVES HC VOL 02
If you’d prefer, save your money on the Buck Rogers reprints and pick up the second reprint volume of this classic strip instead.

WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ #1
A Marvel adaptation of the classic novel by Eric (Age of Bronze) Shanower and Skottie (New X-men) Young.

This Just In! Because he likes you, Shelton has decided to give everyone who buys HeroesCon passes this weekend 20% OFF all new comics, graphic novels, books, mangas, etc.–basically new books. So instead of getting the regular weekend-long 10% off, you’ll get 20%, and all you have to do is buy something you were probably planning on buying anyway.

NOT TO MENTION that HeroesCon 09 tickets are just $25 until the end of the month anyway–on January 1, they go up to $30 apiece! So this is like a double-bargain–let’s do it!

NOTE that this special offer only applies in the store itself, and only during the sale. The 20% discount does not apply to other items in the store, including (but not limited to) statues, back issues, toys, and so forth. Heck, in a lot of cases, those items will be MORE than 20% off!

Speaking of discounts, let’s recap those real quick:

10% OFF all new comics, trade paperbacks, manga, magazines, and more (15% off for qualifying reserve customers)!

50-75% OFF of select mangas (separate from our regular stock)!

10-70% OFF all statues and toys!

50% OFF regular back issues!

20% OFF “Hot” back issues!

PLUS Seth and Shelton will be unveiling a brand new ENORMOUS stock of dollar comics–nearly 20,000 individual comics, IN ORDER! And all just ONE DOLLAR apiece! This is going to be a great chance to get a lot of holiday shopping out of the way early, both for you AND your loved ones, who are surely wondering what to buy you!

Okay, see you this weekend!