Holy moley! I’ve just uploaded a bunch of photos of our first ever Heroes Discussion Group, which was pretty great. I’ll leave most of the description to our Flickr photo report, but here are a few highlights, for those of you on a time budget:

1) Andy Mansell is the perfect guy to run this kind of thing. He’s even more knowledgeable than he is friendly, and that’s saying a lot. The depth with which he explored League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (our discussion topic) was all anyone could talk about afterward. Super educational.

2) It is hard to talk about one Alan Moore book and not continually bring up all the other ones. Which is okay, but we kept sliding into discussion of From Hell, which not everyone had read.

3) POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT: Could the Captain Nemo we see in the book actually be Sherlock Holmes in disguise? This idea, posed by Andy at the very end of things, prompted a lot of passing back and forth of copies of the book, accompanied by “Look, he’s right!” or “I don’t see it.”

The meeting ended with everyone nominating two books they’d like to discuss next. The top vote-getters were From Hell, Sandman Vol 4., and All-Star Superman. All-Star Superman barely won, so our next discussion group will focus on the first collection of the series, reprinting issues 1-6! And what’s more, we’ve decided to offer 10% off whatever book is our next topic of discussion all month long! That means that until next month’s meeting, tentatively scheduled for Monday, April 28th, just mention the Heroes Discussion Group to get 10% off of All-Star Superman, Vol 1! This discount will not apply to single issues–just the hardcover.

If you were at the discussion group last night, we’d love to hear your thoughts or ideas on how it went. Feel free to comment below–and if you couldn’t make it last night, but still want to talk League of Gents, we can keep the discussion going! Thanks again to Andy Mansell!

Just to let you peeps know right quick–I’ve just added those two Indie Island promo shirts, which I just can’t quit talking about, to our Promotional page, along with handy Paypal links that allow you to avoid talking to us completely!

This is not only to make it easier for you to buy the shirts–although that helps; we really want as much of your money as we can get, honestly–but as a beta test for future potential use. We’ve got a lot of old promo stuff lying around–Shelton hasn’t thrown away anything with a HeroesCon logo on it since–well, ever. So if any of you guys out in Blogtasia use those Paypal links, please let me know how it works, if there are any problems, etc.: dharbin[at]heroesonline[dot]com. For serious! And in the meantime, enjoy the shirts!

OOH! OOH! Don’t forget our first ever meeting of the HEROES DISCUSSION GROUP this Monday at 7pm! We’ll be discussing Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume One–if you haven’t read it yet (Shawn Reynolds) now’s the time! And if you have read it before, I would suggest a reread this weekend. I’ll be cracking the seal on my still unopened Absolute LOEG slipcase at last!

Below is the text of discussion leader Andy Mansell’s original post. See you this Monday!

How often have you finished a really terrific comic or graphic novel and wished you had an opportunity to discuss the book in detail? For me it is a daily occurrence. By the time I get to Heroes on Wednesday for my weekly new releases, I am frothing at the mouth to discuss as many comics as possible in the shortest amount of time with a staff trying to counter all of my ideas and still assist all the other customers.

Well, now it is time we MAKE time! Presenting the Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find Discussion Group. The first meeting will be Monday, March 24th at 7:00pm in the store. We hope to meet on the third Monday of every month and discuss a different piece of graphic literature. Our first book will be Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill‘s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume One, published by ABC Comics/DC and available at Heroes for 19.95.

The book has some mature content, so everyone mature enough to buy the book is invited to join in the discussion. All we ask is that you read the book before the meeting and come prepared with an opinion and an open mind. If you loved it, tell us why; if you were disappointed, explain why… Does it hold up to second reading and various other topics: and the last 15 minutes of the meeting will be a battle royale to decide what book will be discussed at the next meeting.

So come one, come all… We can hardly wait…

Huzzah, huzzah! Big updates today across the board in HeroesCon news. So big it’s taken me most of the day to get into position to deliver these updates into the world. So, without further ado:

New to the HeroesCon 08 Guest List today are Secret Invasion and Thor inker Mark Morales. Mark is a familiar sight for HeroesCon attendees, but we’re happy to see him getting these super high-profile projects. With luck he’ll share some of his paycheck with us when he hits it REALLY big.

Also brand new today is another HeroesCon mainstay, our buddy Ford Gilmore of Illuminati Entertainment. Ford is not only a writer, with credits including Thundercats and his own The Hollow horror novel series, but a movie producer as well! Well hello, Hollywood!

And today we’re also adding two new exhibitors: returning to HeroesCon this summer will be Image Comics, coming all the way from California to set up at the show! This will no doubt be a huge year for them, with big Image studs like Invincible writer Robert Kirkman on the list, and we’re happy to have them back.

And also returning this year is CGC, the industry-standard grading company that has turned the idea of comics grading on its ear! While they WON’T be doing “on-site” grading at the show–apparently it’s monstrously time-consuming, and people spend the whole convention waiting in line–they will be accepting books for grading back at CGC HQ. So you can save yourself some shipping by bringing books you want to get graded to HeroesCon!

And the other big update today is a brand new homepage for Heroes Convention! Including recent updates, quick reference info, and a snapshot of prominent guests and exhibitors coming to the show, this is the homebase for all things convention-related! Check it out right here!

Whew! A couple of our appearing exhibitors wanted HeroesCon banners for their sites to show the love, but we didn’t have any in their sizes, so I had to whip them up. The one above, in good old 468 x 60 pixel size, was made so that our buddies at The Dollar Bin podcast out of South Carolina could help spread the word.

The tall one, weighing in at a hefty 160 x 600 pixels, is for Mirage Studios, who publish the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, and who are extra super nice guys, which is just how we like them.

If you’d like to use these to spread the word yourself, please feel free to grab them–all we ask is that you make the image link to this URL: http://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon.html, and that you not use them in conjunction with anything really objectionable–we’re a family convention, after all. Just click on the image to see the full-sized version, which you can right-click to “save as” or option-click if you’ve got a Mac, or what-have-you. You can find more banners on the Promotional page of our website!

I’m in the midst of a number of long-term photo archiving projects, and in getting ready for the upcoming Free Comic Book Day (Saturday, May 3; sure to be huge), I realized we didn’t get any photos of last year’s event. I’d love to have some for our Flickr page–if you or someone you know was here for FCBD last year and took some photos, send them to me and I’ll pick a bunch to put up for a photo report, with your name credited. You can send them to me at dharbin[at]heroesonline[dot]com. I thank you in advance.

Answering the loud and often petulant requests of our entire staff and pretty much all of our customers, this week we’re super excited to announce the addition of Darwyn Cooke to our already vast HeroesCon 08 Guest List! Darwyn is probably the most requested guest by fans of HeroesCon, and this summer we aim to slake your thirst! I can’t imagine that people aren’t aware of this guys’ work, but recent highlights include DC: The New Frontier, the JLA New Frontier special of a few weeks ago, and of course the new movie that just came out, called coincidentally “…The New Frontier.” This is not even mentioning his multiple Eisner-award winning run with J. Bone on The Spirit relaunch, and older favorites like Catwoman: Selina’s Big Score, Batman: Ego, his issue of Solo, and so forth. Whew!

I’ve seen Darwyn in action at last year’s excellent Toronto Comics Art Festival, and I can tell you that he was SUPER approachable, loved to chat, and was a big hit not only with whoever he was talking to, but people in his line seemed to have a great time just listening to him talk. In short, a perfect HeroesCon guest!

But wait, there’s more! Also brand new to our guest list today is our friend Laura Martin, the colorists’ colorist whose work graces pretty much all the biggest books–Astonishing X-Men, Ultimates, Authority, Planetary, etc. Laura’s also super-nice, and at last year’s HeroesCon she had a complete coloring workstation set up with a second monitor turned out so fans could see what she was doing as she worked. Amazing!

Laura is joined by returning guests Kevin Sharpe (Legion of Superheroes, Marvel Adventures: Avengers), and Sean Shaw (Shi, Lady Death), as well as Alter Ego editor and former Editor-In-Chief of Marvel, Roy Thomas! Roy will only be able to attend the Saturday of the show (June 21), but we’re always happy to have him.

Holy crap, that was a big update–stars galore! How are we ever going to fit all of you in the convention center?

I’m going to make this a lot faster than these creators deserve, but I should already be home and I’m worried I might be getting sick, which SUCKS because I made it through the entire staff getting the flu one after the other, remaining unscathed. Oh well.

But that’s not what I called you all here to announce! Let us forget the waves of ersatz sympathy you are no doubt flooded with currently–forget them! We shall focus instead on a super-awesome group of additions to our Indie Island guest list: just added are Liz Baillie, the SVA grad behind My Brain Hurts and up-and-comer on the indie scene; Mike Dawson, whose book Freddie and Me (upcoming) describes what it’s like to grow up as a huge Queen fan (I have to assume it’s awesome, right?); and most of the Partyka group of artists. These guys not only put out some really WICKED (nice!) minicomics, but they’re regularly getting exposure in big-name venues like Giant Robot. Partyka members attending HeroesCon include Shawn Cheng (The Would-Be Bridegrooms, The Monkey & The Crab, AND the awesome image above I stole from his site); Matt Wiegle (No Fear Shakespeare Illustrated, Elfworld), and guest Partyker John Mejias, who also does the sweet Paping zine.

While I love all my Indie Island guests the same, I’m particularly excited about this group of names, not because they’re all giant “draws” or anything, but because they all add a really sweet diversity to the party–Indie Island is going to be less like a little indie section this year, and more like a bazaar, which all sorts of different stuff going on. I’m really looking forward to using my 3 days of influence and sway to score a bunch of free stuff off of all these peeps. You hear me, peeps?

UPDATE!
First of all, I’m not sick, for those of you who are worried. I bought some pomegranate/blueberry juice on special at the grocery store, and it was so thick and nasty that it scared any sickness away. But enough about me! I was so wrapped in self-pity when I posted yesterday that I forgot to mention Jason Horn, the up-and-comer behind the webstrip Ninjasaur, who is also brand new to the Indie Island list. Jason’s been to the convention plenty of times over the years, but this will be his very first OFFICIAL appearance as a guest! Welcome, brother!

We’re putting more effort into building an amazing schedule this year than ever before–by the time of the show, there are going to be so many must-see events that the schedule will end up being as much of an attraction as the guests and exhibitors!

To that end: just added to our 2008 Event Schedule is “The Nicholas Gurewitch Fellowship“, an interview with the crazy-famous creator of The Perry Bible Fellowship. I had a chance to hang out with Nick a little bit at last year’s SPX, and he was awesome, so put together with my own awesomeness, this promises to be an AWESOME(squared) interview. Oh, I forgot to mention that I’d be doing the interviewing–fortunately, this will be one of the only events that I’m running, leaving the bulk of any thinking and erudition to people much more qualified.

The interview is scheduled for 2.00 pm on Saturday, June 21, but NOTE! all times and locations are subject to change with nearly no notice. You can check out the current up-to-date schedule right here!

That’s right–it’s spring, and people are starting to confirm left and right for this year’s HeroesCon. All signs point to our biggest guest list ever, period, far and away, holy crud what a lot of people! But good gravy, this makes 12 people just this week! Returning to HeroesCon this summer will be Karl Kesel, known not only as a writer but as a prolific inker, and a frequent collaborator with the late great Mike Wieringo, not to mention fellow guests Mark Waid, Todd Dezago–the list goes on. From Fantastic Four to Daredevil to Spider-Man to Superman, there aren’t many characters Karl hasn’t had his inky fingers all over!