HEROES CONVENTION 2009: June 19-21, 2009!

Very exciting news: now up on our website is the very first version of the HeroesCon 09 Guest List! It looks a little spindly right now in its infancy, compared to the vastness it will grow to by the time of the show; but just look at those names! If this is any indication, this year’s HeroesCon will be the largest convention we’ve ever held.

While BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS has been to HeroesCon before, the last time it was to promote his series Jinx, to give you an idea of how long it’s been. This time it will be to promote the five million comics he writes now, from New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Powers to the current Marvel event Secret Invasion. Phew!

ED BRUBAKER is almost a returning guest–he was forced to cancel his appearance at our 2008 show at the very last minute. But Ed will take a little time off from writing Captain America, Uncanny X-Men, and Criminal to return to his very first HeroesCon next summer!

Speaking of Uncanny X-Men, Brubaker’s frequent collaborator MATT FRACTION will also be returning next summer, for I think his fourth consecutive HeroesCon. Matt’s turning into one of the biggest and most prolific writers in comics, currently also writing Invincible Iron Man, Punisher War Journal, and a bajillion others, including his own Casanova.

MICHAEL GOLDEN is also turning into a perennial guest of the show. An inspiration to an entire generation of artists with work on The Nam, Avengers, and tons of others, Michael is a favorite not only of fans, but of many of our guests as well.

Another first-timer at HeroesCon next year will be STEVE MCNIVEN, the super-popular artist behind Civil War, Wolverine, Amazing Spider-Man and many others. Steve is known for his incredible covers as well, and is sure to be a must on many peoples’ sketch lists.

Returning to HeroesCon for the first time since 2006, GEORGE PEREZ is one of our oldest friends, not to mention a guest at the very first HeroesCon, way back in 1982! I’m not sure if George is old enough to be a “living legend”, but good gravy–it’s hard to imagine an artist with a more recognizable style, who’s closely identified with such acclaimed titles like Crisis On Infinite Earths, New Teen Titans, Avengers, Fantastic Four, Avengers Vs JLA, etc., etc.

Another high profile returnee this summer is JEFF SMITH, the cartoonist behind the MAMMOTH hit Bone, which has over 2 million copies in print worldwide. Jeff is also currently at work on Rasl, and earlier this year had his DC series Shazam: The Monster Society Of Evil collected in a fancy hardcover. We’re all huge fans of Jeff’s, so we’re CRAZY excited to have him back this year.

Last but not least is another first-timer: BEN TEMPLESMITH is the enormously prolific and popular artist behind 30 Days of Night, Fell, and Hatter M, not to mention the artist and writer of Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse and the new Welcome to Hoxford. The Australian artist will be making his first ever HeroesCon appearance next year, so be sure and make him feel welcome!

Whew! More announcements to come, including a closer focus on the Indie Island Guest List (already up), as well as some additions and more! Stay tuned!

Just a quick note to let you know that–barring the possibility that some REAL news might happen in the next few hours–Heroes’ owner Shelton Drum will be on the WBTV news tonight. It should be in the 5:00 news, and I think they said it would be around 5:15 or so. I believe the topic is collectibility; SPEAKING of collectibility, Shelton recently unearthed this photo of a certain young collector from the mid 60’s, no doubt wondering how much he’d have to pay for a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15… three dollars? Five dollars? TEN DOLLARS?

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week. Provided the world doesn’t prematurely end today here’s what’s coming out today.

5. DUGOUT
Written by Adam Beechen; art by Manny Bello
Ait/Planet Lar
$12.95 | 88 pgs

Dugout is a new graphic novel that is apparently seven years in the making from Ait/Planet Lar and the same creative team of the publisher’s 2004 book Hench, Adam Beechen (recently of Teen Titans and other DC work) and Manny Bello.

Set in 1960, it concerns a down and out manager of a pro baseball team who sets up an exhibition game at a prison as a means of breaking his star pitcher out of the clink. This sounds like a fun book that combines two of America’s favorite past times: baseball and sticking it to the warden.

4. THE STAND: CAPTAIN TRIPS #1
Written by Roberto Aguirre-Scassa; art by Mike Perkins
Marvel
$3.99

Marvel has had some pretty good success with adapting Stephen King’s The Dark Tower and their method seems to be to roll out numerous mini-series to tell the story. In fact, there’s another Jae Lee illustrated Dark Tower mini starting this week as well called The Dark Tower: Treachery. The success of that series has led to Marvel adapting one of King’s most powerful and epic novels, The Stand into a series of 6 mini-series. It’s been a good 20 years since I read that novel but I remember being pretty blown away by it and I wasn’t alone as you can find influences from that book in many places, most notably on TV’s Lost.

Written by Roberto Aguirre-Scassa with much input from King himself, this first mini-series introduces the man-made virus nicknamed “Captain Trips” that devastates the world leaving two groups of survivors – one that follows the saintly Mother Abigail and another that is enraptured by the anti-Christ-like Randall Flagg. I can’t imagine this story won’t make for a good comic but it will be interesting to see whether the multiple mini-series format helps make this massive epic more digestible or less, well, epic.

3. SIXTEEN MILES TO MERRICKS AND OTHER WORKS
By Barnaby Ward
Frogchildren Studios
$29.95 | 208 pgs

Barnaby Ward is an exciting new creator who is releasing a collection of work through an animation company that he works for called Frogchildren Studios. Ward’s art is really interesting, showing influences of animation, manga, fashion illustration and European comics. This volume contains various illustrations and some short stories as well as one longer piece which the book draws its title from about a man who walks into an apartment and finds a strange but beautiful girl who leads him into more strange territory.

Check out a preview here at Ward’s website somefield.com

2. OMEGA: THE UNKNOWN HC
Written by Jonathan Lethem; art by Farel Dalrymple, Paul Hornschemeier and Gary Panter
Marvel
$29.99

The indie snob in me wishes that Marvel would do more books like this one. A literary superhero comic put together by an award winning novelist and a team of indie art superstars. This new premiere hardcover collects the recently concluded 10 issue mini-series that re-imagined Steve Gerber’s short-lived cult-classic 1970s comic about a young boy who learns he shares a destiny with a mute super hero from another planet. Lethem, perhaps best known for his novel Fortress of Solitude about a couple of kids growing up in Brooklyn on a steady diet of 1970s Marvel comics, is joined in his first comic outing by artists Farel Dalrymple and Paul Hornschemeier and even a guest bit done by Gary Panter of all people. It all makes for an odd package from a publisher like Marvel.

1. GOTHAM CENTRAL HC
Written by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka; art by Michael Lark
DC Comics
$29.99 | 240 pgs

Funny how it took until Ed Brubaker became an unstoppable superstar over at Marvel for DC to finally start showing some love to his and Greg Rucka’s highly praised but rarely read procedural crime drama, Gotham Central. The book petered out a couple of years back and has only been sporadically collected in trades. This new hardcover collects the first 10 issues which includes the first three story arcs (or cases as we’ll call them here). During it’s run, Brubaker and Rucka would alternate story arcs, cases and even characters with Brubaker handling the GCPD night shift and Rucka the day shift. The highlight of this collection is actually written by Greg Rucka which stars the character who would someday become the Question – Renee Montoya. In this award winning story, “Half Life”, Montoya’s life is turned upside-down when she is outed to her co-workers as a lesbian and gets kidnapped by Two-Face.

The real superstar of this book though is Michael Lark though who turns in some amazing, shadow-drenched artwork that brings the Gotham crime scene alive and makes you feel like you’re watching a great cop show that just happens to be set in Gotham City.

BONUS! Some Honorable Mentions:

Krazy & Ignatz 1943-1944: He Nods in Quiescent Siesta
At long last, the final volume of Fantagraphics’ Krazy Kat reprints.

Prince of Persia
Based on a popular computer game I’ve never heard of but it’s brought to you by the fine folks at First Second who rarely miss a step.

Batman: The Black Glove
Collecting the best part of Grant Morrison’s current run on Batman.

Bad Boy 10th Anniversary Hardcover
The new All-Star Batman and Robin may have been recalled this week but there’s always this old Frank Miller and Simon Bisley book to satisfy your fix.

Big Hero 6 #1
Chris Claremont does Japanese superhero teams.

Kick Drum Comix #1
Short stories from Jim Mahfood.

In case you were wondering, New Releases for this Wednesday’s books are now up here. Bon Appetit!

As initially announced way back in June in the HeroesCon 08 Program Book, we will be hosting a double-signing event on October 17 in our store! American Splendor creator Harvey Pekar and Fun Home creator Alison Bechdel will be signing autographs in our store in advance of their appearance this fall’s Novello Festival of Reading uptown!

We’re super-thrilled to welcome these two giants (or, as officially described by Novello, “Titans Of The Graphic Novel”) to our little old store. They’ll be signing autographs for around 2 hours that afternoon, prior to their appearance at the ImaginOn youth library uptown, where they’ll be giving a lecture. While our event is free, we’re selling tickets for the uptown event to help out our buddies at the library. They’re $15 apiece, so pick up a pair on your next trip into the store. Novello has brought a lot of big comics names into town, including Neil Gaiman, Jeff Smith, and Michael Chabon, so we’re excited to be working with them!

We’ll be posting more info as we get closer to the event, but we just wanted to get you all excited! So get excited!

Please join us on Monday evening September 29th at 7:00 pm as the Heroes Discussion Group meets to tackle Gipi‘s Notes For a War Story.

After the chaotic storytelling of Ice Haven and the multi-layered symbolism of Watchmen, we agreed we wanted to focus on a book that is gripping, deep and extremely readable.

Gipi–the Italian master–is on a major roll. In the past year, 4 books have been published in English: Garage Band, The Innocents, They Found the Car, and Notes For a War Story. In War Story, the tension starts in panel two and does not let up until the end. We feel confident that once you have read War Story, you will want to read the other 3.

Topics will include but not be limited to the following:
–How does the book’s two-tone coloring scheme work ?
–Does the symbolism in the book add or detract from the story?
–Does the impressionistic art heighten or detract from the reality of war?
–How do you interpret the title?
–Does a translated comic read differently than a book created specifically for an American audience?
–How has Gipi’s (and other Europeans’) art been influenced by American film noir?

If you read it and find the reading experience to be outside your usual comfort zone, come by on September 29th and tell us why… All comments are welcome. We will be meeting in the back of the store, so bring your own coffee or soda.

For those that wish to keep thing closer to the vest (or cape and cowl as it were) we will be having another dinnertime Saturday night discussion about Frank Miller‘s The Dark Knight Returns. Watch this space as details cement.

Remember, Heroes is offering a 10% discount on both Notes For a War Story and The Dark Knight Returns. Just be sure to mention the Heroes discussion discount when you check out!

Ten-hut! Though it seems like nearly five days ago now, it was actually just last Saturday that we had our biggest-ever Heroes Discussion Group, helmed as ever by the supple Andy Mansell! While I’m sure part of the credit for the roughly 25-person turnout was the topic itself, an unknown little book by the name of “Watchmen”, I like to think most of the credit goes to Andy himself. He really knocked this one out of the park! I’ve probably read Watchmen at LEAST six or seven times all the way through, and Andy brought up some things that I’d never even dreamed were there–really a fascinating conversation.

But don’t take my word for it: I’ve posted a few scratchy cellphone-camera photos of the discussion, which this time took place across the street from our store at the Philosopher’s Stone restaurant. Our buddy Vy had her fancy-dan camera out, so hopefully she’ll be posting her photos to her own Flickr account, or post a link to same in the comments below. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a huge success! I believe the next discussion will be around the end of the month, and feature Notes For A War Story, by Gipi. I’ll try to get a date hammered out tomorrow before I send out the Heroes Hotline!

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week. This week new comics are actually shipping on Thursday because of Labor Day but let’s do this today anyway.

5. MARVEL APES #1
Written by Karl Kesel; art by Ramon Bachs
Marvel
$3.99

In case you didn’t know, Zombies are so last year. Same with Pirates. Apes are the new thing now. As someone who has studied the work of both Jane Goodall and Dr. Zaius, I’m a bit turned off by all these bandwagon jumpers that all of a sudden claim to have always been into monkeys. And they’ve only seen Project X once! If you only knew how much time I’ve logged sending letters trying to get BJ and The Bear released on DVD. Or how I drive around town blasting the Stones’ “Monkey Man” from my car stereo. I’m the real deal when it comes to all things simian.

Anyway, so this book looks pretty good. It’s pretty much like Marvel Zombies except instead of Spider-man being undead he’s a monkey. Cool!

4. ROBERTS #1 (of 2)
Written by Wayne Chinsang; art by Erik Rose
Image Comics
$5.99 | 48 pgs

Roberts is a new two issue mini about two old guys that get to know each other while living in a nursing home.

Wait, don’t stop reading! Let me finish.

One guy is the Boston Strangler and the other is the Zodiac Killer. The two serial killers rehash their past glories and then make a bet to see who still has what it takes.

The black and white artwork is by newcomer Erik Rose and judging by this preview on his website it looks pretty good. If you take him for his word, he drew it all using his and writer Wayne Chinsang’s blood.

3. BERLIN BOOK TWO: CITY OF SMOKE
By Jason Lutes
Drawn & Quarterly
$19.95 | 200 pgs

Holy cow! I’ve been waiting half my adult life for Jason Lutes’ second volume of Berlin to come out. Seriously though, when I first started getting back into comics way back in the early aughts, volume one was one of the first graphic novels I tried out. At this point I don’t even remember what the story is about except that it takes place in pre-Nazi Berlin.

If you love period pieces about interesting places set during a crucial moment in its history then you must give this book a try. While it explores the city during the fall of the Weimar Republic it does so through the eyes of two lovers named Kurt and Mathe. It’s the middle book of a trilogy that is turning out to be Lutes’ lifework and a test of patience for tradewaiters everywhere.

2. SECRET SIX #1
Written by Gail Simone; art by Nicola Scott and Doug Hazelwood
DC Comics
$2.99 | 32 pgs

Back during DC’s Countdown to Infinite Crisis, the most surprisingly enjoyable tie-in to that event was Gail Simone’s Villains United which introduced us to an all new version of the Secret Six. Since then there’s been a successful Secret Six mini-series that has now lead to a new ongoing series written by Simone and her Birds of Prey collaborator, Nicola Scott. The Secret Six is a team of super-villains that has had a somewhat revolving cast since it first appeared in Villains United but its mainstays include Deadshot, Scandal, Ragdoll and Catman whose reinvention from lame Wonder Woman bad guy to tough-with-a-sensitive-side anti-hero has made him the unofficial star of this team. Some new members will be added to the team in this series including a mysterious “A-list” Batman villain.

1. LOVE & ROCKETS: NEW STORIES
By The Hernandez Brothers
Fantagraphics
$14.99 | 100 pgs

The Hernandez Brothers have decided to take their long running comic, Love & Rockets, into the potential future of comics by eschewing the floppy format for an annual, 100 page digest of all new material. It seems like a big deal to me when major American comic book creators decides to publish their book in the manga method. Could an annual one-volume Amazing Spider-man in place of the current weekly 22 pagers be far behind? Yeah probably pretty far indeed but trade-waiters and bookshelf owners will be rejoicing in this move by the venerable indie creators. All three brothers – Jaime, Gilbert and Mario – have offerings in this introductory volume. Jaime, though takes up half the book with a new Penny Century story that takes her usual superhero leanings and goes full tilt with it.

If you’ve never read Love & Rockets, this could be a good place to start. Like any good ongoing comic, it’s built on decades of it’s own continuity but it’s not to hard to jump in, get to know the characters and catch up to speed pretty easily.

OKAY, so one of my favorite cartoonists right now is Sammy Harkham, who you may or may not have met at this year’s HeroesCon. I met him, and might as well have been meeting Farrah Fawcett, considering how nervous I was the whole time. I LOVE HIM! But besides being a studly cartoonist, Sammy also edits the preeminent anthology KRAMER’S ERGOT, six volumes of which have come out over the last 8-10 years or so.

THIS FALL WILL SEE the release of Kramer’s Ergot #7, which will be published as a 16″ x 21″ massive tome for $125, filled with a laundry list of great creators, including Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Adrian Tomine, Seth, Kevin Huizenga, Matt Groening, Jaime Hernandez, and a bajillion others. It’s crazy. While the book will only be 96 pages–I know, I know, let me FINISH–it’s all material created SPECIFICALLY to see print at this size, comparable to the size of old Sundays like Gasoline Alley, etc. This has NEVER BEEN DONE in comics before, and from all accounts some of the work is breathtaking. Imagine what someone with the graphic sense and careful pacing of Dan Clowes could do with a page over 4 times larger than a standard comic page. I’m getting sweaty just thinking about it, and I’m not even that big a Clowes fan. But I AM a big fan of comics, and the thought of pushing into this kind of territory is really exciting to me.

BUT NOT to everybody. A lot of people–maybe even YOU–are put off by the high price point and relatively low page count. Which is totally fine. There are a lot of books that are too expensive to buy at ANY price for some people. But the strange thing is that a lot of people have decided that they need to COMMENT on how expensive the book is, regardless of whether they care of not about what’s in the book, whether they’d have EVER bought it, etc. Boring, I know; but on the Internet people have to talk-talk-talk, especially bloggers, even when they pretend to be objective and journalisty. Imagine needing to say something EVERY DAY to an audience you can’t see. You can almost forgive these guys for their digital demagoguery.

ALMOST.

I have been more vocal in this dumb debate than I normally would be, half because I find it childish for people to complain about art–ignoring art is the best defense against art you don’t like. And half because I REALLY AM excited about this book, and want to stick up for it like you would for anything you like. And my excitement was only quadrupled a few days ago when Tom Spurgeon posted this excellent interview with Sammy Harkham about the book, the creators involved, et cetera, rather than flinging opinions out all willy-nilly with little more information than the size and cost of the book. But I’m a fan of Tom Spurgeon too, so maybe I’m just playing favorites.

SO, I say all this NOT to bring this cacophonous kerfuffle into our blog. I am uninterested in hearing what everyone thinks about expensive artsy books–I like the folksy neighborly vibe we have on this blog, and would prefer not to enter into some rejoinder war with anyone. So, if you’d like to be heard, please feel free to post on any of the threads I’ve linked to above.

THE REAL PROBLEM WITH THIS BOOK for me is all about the retail risk. Kramer’s Ergot #7 will be available for much less than $125 on Amazon, possibly as low as $80–how in the world can we compete with that? While I intend to support the book by purchasing it here, I get a fat employee discount, so it’s a wash. And while I’d love to order a bajillion, just to shut up the people who say that comic shops will never order such a pricey book, I’d have to defend to Shelton why I spent so much of his money (which is never in surplus anyway) on even a few of such a pricey book.

SO LET’S SAY (pending confirmation from the publisher of what our cost will be) that we offer the book to anyone who special orders it for an even $100. That’s 20% off the retail price; a little more than it costs on Amazon, but we throw in the satisfaction of supporting your locally owned and operated comic shop for no additional charge. This will ONLY apply to people who special order the book by posting here or e-mailing me directly–other copies purchased in the store will be at regular price, although stuff like your reserve discount, etc., would still apply. If I don’t know you, I may ask for some sort of confirmation, just so we don’t end up with a stack of these things unsold if you change your mind later. If you’re from out of town and would be mail-ordering the book, it’s probably better if you order it directly from the publisher (Buenaventura Press), as it’s an oversized package and would add too many weird costs for us.

ANY TAKERS? I really do think this is going to be one of the most talked-about and influential books of the DECADE, a historical event in comic book publishing. I CANNOT STOP USING CAPITAL LETTERS when talking about it.

I’M SORRY.

Now up on Newsarama is an article I wrote for Matt Brady on selling Watchmen to customers–very apropros considering this Saturday’s Watchmen Discussion Group. Matt asked me to write something after a conversation he and Shari Brady and I had at the recent Mark Millar/Tony Harris signing. Sweet! This will increase the value of any copies of Superior Showcase #3 I’ve signed for anyone, so all FOUR of you go ahead and start thinking of how to spend all that money!