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!

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!

Another big HeroesCon Guest List update this week: and still another three updates’ worth to go… and growing! But this one is particularly juicy–check out these names:

CLAYTON HENRY is an up and coming penciller with a slick slick style, as seen on Uncanny X-Men, Exiles, or Incredible Hercules. Clayton is attending his first-ever HeroesCon, so be sure and welcome him!

MARK MORALES is no stranger to HeroesCon… and probably no stranger to you either, as inker of Secret Invasion, Thor, New Avengers… the list goes on!

BUDDY PRINCE is a Charlottean who’s also no stranger to HeroesCon, but is appearing on our Guest List for the first time this year. Besides his work on multiple sketch cards for the Marvel Masterpieces series, Buddy’s also worked on the comic Night.

SEAN SHAW is another returning guest–you can catch his work all over, on titles like Grimm Fairy Tales, Shi, Gen 13, and more.

And also attending her first HeroesCon this year, writer JENNIFER VAN METER, who collaborated with our buddy Cully Hamner on Black Lightning: Year One, not to mention her work on JSA Classified and Hopeless Savages. Welcome to Jen!

Okay–still more to come, although I was unable to get to the big Indie Island update I had planned this week. It’s order form week, so Shawn and I (mostly Shawn) are struggling to get all our numbers together. But next week! Next week! See you then!

Alright, at long last it’s here! If you’ve purchased a Small Press Table or Booth for HeroesCon 2009, that IMMENSE list is up now on both our Guest List page and Small Press page. There’s a lot of returning people AND new faces, so it should be a great mix this year–most of all, there’s just a TON of them!

As a reminder, Small Press Tables and Booths are sold out. While we took a few waiting list names last year, this year we’re not accepting any–we’re REALLY sold out! If for some reason we make more tables available, we’ll announce it here on the blog AND on our Heroes Hotline newsletter, so keep your eyes peeled for that! And thanks to everyone who’s purchased space!

Guy Davis is one of those artists’ artists, who’s not only loved by the readers of his comics, but by most working professionals in comics as well. He first garnered critical acclaim with his creator-owned series Baker Street; but many comics readers (me included) first discovered his work through Sandman Mystery Theatre, which ran for around 50 issues or so in the mid-90’s from Vertigo. But Guy’s probably most famous as the regular artist on the popular book B.P.R.D., nine volumes of which have already been published, with the tenth in the works. He also drew The Zombies That Ate The World, now being published in English for the first time by Devil’s Due Press.

Guy is a pretty extraordinarily nice guy, as his consent to this interview is ample evidence of. Thanks for sharing some time with our readers, Guy!

GUY DAVIS: Thanks for the wonderful intro, Dustin!

DUSTIN HARBIN: You’ve got one of the more distinct, recognizable (and much admired) styles in comics–where did it evolve from?

GD: I don’t know–how’s that for an honest answer! [laughs] I didn’t read a lot of comics growing up, and when I started drawing comics professionally back in ’86, I remember that one of the things that people would nail you on is if you swiped an artist’s style. So my style, for good or bad, is just something that probably evolved by trying to do my own thing and have something that was unique to me.

DH: Wow–I won’t say it came out fully formed, but it was different right off the bat for sure. I thought for sure there was a lot of European influence–I think I thought you were French until a couple of years ago.

GD: My style definitely switched gears when I discovered European comics! At first I had a really heavy animation, japanimation type style going on–especially back around ’86 when I was pencilling a fantasy series called The Realm. But when I started doing Baker Street a few years later, I discovered Tardi, Moebius and Schuiten and that really inspired me to where if you look at the 10 issues of Baker Street I did you can see my style change the most between those issues.

DH: Oh man–that Tardi reference totally makes sense. I’m super-excited about that new series of Tardi translations coming out this year.

GD: I can’t wait to start being able to actually read these Tardi books! I’ve been picking up his work over the years in French, and his style and storytelling is tops but it will be nice to actually read the whole story!

DH: You were already pretty distinctive when you were on Sandman Mystery Theatre–I think I was sold as much on how the art supported the whole period setting of the story, as I was on the story itself.

GD: Thanks! Sandman Mystery Theatre was a lot of fun to draw and work on with Matt [Wagner] and Steve [Seagle]. I love old movies and pulp stories, so I was happy to have an excuse to use a lot of reference I had gotten along the way for the 30’s and 40’s. It was a huge learning experience too, my first mainstream work-for-hire job and the deadlines were crazy and tight on that series. So I learned to make art choices quick and turn work around fast to meet the deadlines–and looking back I probably made a lot of the wrong art choices along the way, but learning from mistakes is still the best teacher to me.

DH: Well, you’ve certainly done enough pages since then to learn from… which ties in nicely to my next question.

I’m not trying to be too flattertatious or anything, but B.P.R.D. is one of those books that EVERYBODY reads, from superhero fans to indie fans to whomever. What do you think the appeal of this book is, outside of its ties to Hellboy? What keeps it fresh–not only for readers, but for YOU, drawing hundreds of pages of B.P.R.D. stories over the years?

GD: Thanks! As far as the appeal goes–Mike [Mignola] has come up with a great cast of characters from Hellboy and Abe through the rest, and I was a fan of the first BPRD: Hollow Earth mini-series before I was lucky enough to get to work on it.

For me personally working on it–both Mike and John [Arcudi] keep it fresh and entertaining with all the great ideas and storylines they come up with. Whether it’s wendigo’s or frog monsters and the Black Flame–who would complain about getting to draw all that! And for me, each storyline had a different feel from the last–so Garden of Souls was different in tone and feel to what I would get to do on The Warning or Killing Ground.

Also John really makes these characters come alive, so after drawing them for a few mini-series now it’s been nice to get to draw how they’ve changed in their relationships and interaction with other characters.

DH: Is there an untapped audience out there for frog violence?

GD: Definitely–we’re your one stop read for all things frog violent!

DH: How much input do you have into the design of things–your art is so crammed with texture and detail, not to mention all the architecture and clothing and uniforms and so forth.

GD: The initial designs I do are shown to Mike, John and Scott Allie who all chime in before the finished version–but most of the final designs are worked out between me and Mike. Usually I get a series outline or script to an upcoming storyline and work up some initial designs for characters or settings and then I send those to everyone for approval–sometimes it pretty much works out with the first sketch, like on the character of The Black Flame and other times it will go back and forth with me trying different things and Mike sending sketches with ideas like we did with the Victorian cyborgs in Garden of Souls.

Most of the other smaller stuff, background architecture and settings come out just in the pencils and if something needs to be reworked I change it before inks.

DH: Okay, I know it’s obligatory, but I have to ask you about the tools that you use. You’re a nib guy, right?

GD: Yeah, I ink pretty much everything with a [Speedball] 22B nib. I really like the look of brushwork but I don’t have the steady hand for using it on finer details, so I use a #3 or #4 brush for things like hair, trees, rocks or to spot in shadows. But the rest is all quill.

DH: What do you think a nib gives you that a regular disposable pen (a Micron or brush pen, for instance) couldn’t provide?

GD: Early on before I used the nibs, I tried a technical pen but hated how it skipped alot. I’m not a slow inker (as it probably shows) so the quill lets me work more fast and expressive, it also gives me more variety of line weight. I like sketching in pens and I do convention sketches using a pen and markers which feels nice and flows easy, but I never tried it for finished work~ probably just out of habit really and more personal preference for how it feels to work with each. I’m not a tool snob, if someone wants to use tech pens, brushes or markers and it works for them~ that’s great! All that really matters is how it looks printed, and I use a lot of white out to prove that point!

DH: Do you use a lot of white-out in your art? You have such a loose style, I guess it makes sense that you’d go out of the lines sometimes.

GD: I do use it pretty freely. I don’t set out to make mistakes, but everyone does and I change my mind and try different things out on the page as I go–and if it doesn’t work or I screw up then I just white it out and try it again. For other tools of the trade type talk: I pencil using a B lead, which is soft and lets me get loose with the pencils and more expressive. Paper wise I pretty much use what Dark Horse sends me, but I guess if I have a choice I’d pick a smooth surface for inks. Black Magic ink and Pentel pen-white for the white out!

DH: Wow, I think there’s enough info in those three paragraphs to start a career in cartooning!

Okay let’s change the subject, or I’ll quiz you about nibs and brushes and ink all day. This new book of yours, The Zombies That Ate The World–that was originally published in French, right? Through Les Humanoides? I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve looked lovingly for months through my copy of one of the French albums.

GD: Yeah, the Zombies books were done for Les Humanoides Associes, originally it was a short story written by Jerry Frissen that saw print in an issue of their Metal Hurlant around 2004, but they liked the idea and how it turned out and that short turned into a serial and then it started coming out as original graphic novels with the fourth volume that saw print last year.

DH: Is it a one-time thing, or can we expect to see more after this initial series ends?

GD: That fourth volume had an ending but left it open for more stories to follow. The four French volumes are being reprinted in English now, broken up into 8 comic issues.

It was a really fun series to draw, Jerry has a great and twisted sense of humor and it was fun to draw the series in a different more cartoony style than I do on BPRD or The Marquis.

DH: Okay, don’t kill me, but I’ve never read Baker Street OR The Marquis before–which one should I read first? I need more Guy Davis!

GD: Well, I know what comps to bring you at the next Heroes Convention! The Marquis and Baker Street are pretty different, if you want devils and madness horror stories go with The Marquis. If you want a punk retelling of Sherlock Holmes type mysteries, then there’s Baker Street.

I would push The Marquis since I’m currently working on new stories and also so I can plug that The Marquis is now at Dark Horse and a huge new collection of the existing stories is slated to come out in September. It’s called The Marquis: Inferno and it’s a monster at over 300 pages, and includes a new 54 page sketchbook section along with a full color cover gallery–all the guest covers and foreign edition covers, great covers to Danse Macabre that were done by Mike Mignola, Matt Wagner, Teddy Kristensen, Kelly Jones and Charles Vess. The book is purposely done in black, white and greys–but Dave Stewart came on to recolor the Hell scenes that were just a red plate before. I’m really proud at how the books shaping up and Dark Horse is really putting a lot into this edition.

And hopefully all that will lead to more new Marquis graphic novels starting in 2010; I really want to finish off the Marquis which had 3 more series plotted out that tells the whole story. But alongside all that I’m already gearing up for the next BPRD mini-series after Black Goddess along with some other side projects at Dark Horse that I can’t really hint at.

DH: I’m putting Marquis on my “must-buy” list right now, Guy! You’ve already given me too much stuff already! I’m looking forward to seeing you again at HeroesCon. You’re going to be there all three days this year, right?

GD: All three days this time~ sorry I had to skip out early last time, but I had a great time last year and I’m really looking forward to going back.

DH: I can’t wait. One of the great crimes of HeroesCon is that we invite all these great artists and writers, but none of the staff ever get to hang out much because we’re all so busy running around!

GD: I want to see you sitting behind a table one of these year so I can dig through your portfolio!

DH: One of these years Shelton will wise up and fire me, and then I’ll finally have the time!

Hey, I’ve got one last question that Mark Burrier sent us through Facebook (if you don’t know Mark’s work, he’s an AMAZING cartoonist and illustrator). Mark wants to know: “How do you feel the market for your art has changed over the years?”

GD: Great stuff~ now Mark’s a guy who knows how to use a brush!!

That’s a tough question really, I’ve gotten a lot more interest for my work since BPRD started, and besides the connection with Hellboy which is a lot more high profile, I think BPRD has given me an opportunity to do more of the type of comics I wanted to do. I mean I’m a monster-art type of guy and I like horror and surreal stuff. So early on finding an outlet or work-for-hire type job was a lot harder because editors didn’t really know what to put me on; It seems like the market itself has grown to accept a lot more diversity and I’ve been lucky to carve out a small niche and hang on through the years.

DH: Well, if that market ever dries up, Guy, you can always come work here at Heroes. And by “work here at Heroes”, I mean doodle on stuff for us all day. In the mean time, thanks for taking time out of what must be a PACKED schedule to talk with us! Looking forward to chatting in person at HeroesCon!

GD: Thanks Dustin! See you at the show!

You can find out more about Guy Davis at his website. And of course, you can meet him this summer at HeroesCon, June 19-21. If you’ve never met him before, Guy’s a pretty shockingly friendly guy, for someone who draws demons and frogs and zombies all day.

“Davis, Doran, Glass, and Moreno” sounds like a trio of three acoustic guitar players and one dude with a recorder. Only one of them is American, and at least one is Welsh. Very popular in Scandinavia. Wait, what was I talking about?

OH YES!! Check out this sweet addition to the HeroesCon 09 Guest List I just TOTALLY made:

GUY DAVIS: OMG Guy Davis! I love this guy–he and Cliff Chiang could have sweetness contests, but I’m sure they’d spend the whole time nominating each other for the prize. Guy is the uber-admired artist behind B.P.R.D., as well as the recent Zombies That Ate The World, and a zillion more. I’ll say more about Guy next week–I’ll be interviewing him for this blog!

COLLEEN DORAN: Colleen is like the Queen of Comics–besides being an artist over the years on books like Wonder Woman and Spider-Man, she ALSO created the space epic A Distant Soil AND is a constant collaborator with luminaries like J. Michael Straczynski and Warren Ellis, with whom she’s working on the forthcoming Stealth Tribes. She’s a popular guest at HeroesCon, and we’re super excited to welcome her back!

BRYAN J.L. GLASS: Bryan is making his second trip to HeroesCon this year. Bryan is the co-creator of The Mice Templar with Mike Oeming, and is also writing the upcoming Riftwar adaptation of Raymond E. Feist’s popular fantasy series.

CHRIS MORENO: can do just about anything, and work in about any style. WITNESS his work on titles like World War Hulk: Frontline, Toy Story, and Paul Jenkins’ Sidekick! Chris has become a perennial guest, and a hot stop for those collecting sketches and commissions!

Whew! I’ll be doing another update before the end of the week, and the stack of additions is STILL GROWING! Also this week, the list (so far) of all those persons who’ve purchase Small Press Tables! Stay tuned!

The addition to the HeroesCon 09 Guest List are coming fast and furious, and it looks like we’re going to have a well and truly packed house this year once more! New to the Guest List today is legendary “Duck” artist Don Rosa, whose The Life And Times of Uncle Scrooge has sold through a bajillion printings and reinvigorated a whole generation’s interest in Scrooge, Donald, and the whole Disney duck-universe. We’re super excited to welcome Don back to HeroesCon this year; if you’ve never met him, he’s like a character out of one of his own books!

ALSO new this week is another old buddy, the talented Jamal Igle. Jamal has worked on a bajillion books over the years including Teen Titans, Nightwing, Green Lantern Corps and more–but most recently you cna catch him on DC’s Supergirl! But wait that’s STILL not all! Also new this week are three more returning guests:

GENE GONZALES has been to practically every HeroesCon over the past 15 years or so–he was pretty upset about having to miss last year’s massive show, so we hope you’ll join us in giving him a warm welcome back. Most recently you can read his work in Diary of Night and Tales of the Cherokee.

JOE PEKAR has been doing a ton of comics covers lately, for titles including Grimm Fairy Tales and Hexed. He’s also released his own art book, Strawberry, through BrandStudio Press.

CAT STAGGS is a titan (titaness? what do you call a lady-titan?) on the trading card scene, with work in sets including Star Wars Galaxy 4, X-Men Archives, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, and more. I like “Lady-Titan,” I think.

Okay, still more to come! I TOLD you I had a stack of announcements to make–except it’s GROWING, not shrinking!

That headline is correct, sports fans. Small Press tables at HeroesCon 09 will be considered sold out as of next Sunday, March 21. That means you have just over a week to purchase your table at HeroesCon 09! We will take a limited number of waiting list slots afterwards, but if last year was any indicator, there aren’t exactly a ton of people cancelling their tables, you know?

SO: to purchase your table now, just click that thumb on the right or right here, download the form and send it in with your check OR fax it in with your charge info OR just give us a call and we’ll set you up right over the phone.

Ladies and gentlemen: prepare for the most massive HeroesCon ever!