Huzzah, huzzah! I’ve got a ton of news to announce today, so I’ve got to type quick, but this is too exciting to skip: new to the HeroesCon 08 Guest List today are Mice Templar creators Michael Avon Oeming and Bryan J.L. Glass. The Mice Templar has been a big hit in the store, and builds on the already impressive bodies of work of both of these guys.

Mike, who’s been to almost as many HeroesCons as I have, is also the artist on the super-popular Powers, as well a gajillion others. He’s also written a ton of books, including the whole Thor: Disassembled story a few years ago; Bastard Samurai, Hammer of the Gods, and a bunch more.

Bryan has worked with Mike before on Ship of Fools and Quixote, and also wrote the Marvel Comics adaptation of Magician: Apprentice. He’s attending his first HeroesCon, I believe, so make sure and be nice!

Also new to the Guest List today is up-and-comer Taki Soma, artist of You’ll Never Die; not to mention numerous pieces of art for trading card properties including Lord of the Rings and Heroes! Welcome to all three to an already HUGE HeroesCon!

This from Tom Spurgeon, the well-respected creator of the Comics Reporter blog, which you should read each morning, every morning: people who have purchased air tickets through ATA Airlines may be out of luck.

If you hadn’t heard already, this is a smallish airline that just declared bankruptcy on Wednesday, and it sounds like there is little recourse for ticket-holders. I only mention it in case you did buy ATA tickets already and haven’t heard the news yet. I’d heard on NPR that there’s little chance of getting refunds, unless your credit card company is good about that, etc. ATA has clearly shut the door on that idea. Crazy, no?

Also, while I’m on the subject of travel, tickets, et cetera: We’re receiving a lot of increasingly strident questions about when our Westin host hotel rate will go “live”. I’m informed by Shelton that it looks like it is just over the horizon, possibly as early as next week. When it goes live for reservations by HeroesCon attendees, I’ll announce it through a special edition of the Heroes Hotline newsletter, so make sure you’re on that list!

Great Horny Toads! This is one of our biggest updates yet, and there are still 3 or 4 names waiting in the wings I can’t announce yet. Crazy! There are so many of them that I’m just going to jump in, so hold on tight: the following six (!) names have just been added to the HeroesCon 08 Guest List:

MICHAEL LARK! We’ve been trying to get this guy forever, and at long last the stars have correctly aligned themselves! While you probably know him best from his work on Daredevil and Captain America, he’s also the guy who drew the incredibly well-liked but tragically underselling Gotham Central, not to mention the old Terminal City series (x2) way back in the last century! I’ve never met Michael, but I’ve heard a LOT from other artists and fans about what a sweet guy he is, so he should be a perfect match for HeroesCon!

ERIK LARSEN! The publisher and co-founder of Image Comics, and creator of Savage Dragon, returns for (I think) his third straight HeroesCon! Erik has turned into one of our most popular guests, not only because of his long history in comics, from his heady days at Marvel to his current helming of Image; but maybe moreso just because people like talking to him. Giggles galore from the Image booth when Erik’s in the house. Or hizzy, if you prefer.

RYAN OTTLEY! What? Not satisfied with getting Robert Kirkman to his first HeroesCon, we decided to drive Invincible fans berserk and score the artist Ryan Ottley to boot! Ryan is a super artist–check out his blog to see what looks like a dizzying creative output; not just his work on comics, either, but apparently he’s a relentless sketcher, with tons of pretty funny stuff up there.

RAFAEL KAYANAN! From his work as an illustrator on the Spider-Man Broadway show to comics work including Conan and Star Wars, plus upcoming work for Devil’s Due on a comics adaptation of R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt character, Rafael is a busy man. But not too busy to meet you!

JOHANNA DRAPER-CARLSON! Johanna’s long been a friend of ours, and runs the excellent–and monstrously profific–Comics Worth Reading blog. If you haven’t read it before, it’s a pretty refreshingly ecumenical blog, covering mainstream and indie stuff, and a TON of manga. She’ll be accompanied by her husband and former Legion of Super-Heroes editor KC CARLSON, but he comes mainly just to hang out and have a good time, so you’ll have to bring Columbo with you to find him. “Ah, pardon me, Mr Carlson…” That was my Columbo impersonation. Good, no?

As promised, this year’s HeroesCon Event Schedule is going to be filled to overflowing by the time of the convention, with each day crammed with can’t-miss panels. Why, you ask? When you factor in the INCREDIBLE number of guests we’ve got already, not to mention exhibitors, dealers, and publishers from all over the country whose booths you’ll be browsing, plus an overstuffed schedule, how can you help but buy a 3-day pass? There’s no way you can get all the HeroesCon you need in just one day. Clever, no?

On to this week’s schedule additions: Tom Spurgeon of the excellent Comics Reporter site is attending his first HeroesCon this year, and he’s informed me that he’ll run as many panels as I’ll let him, despite my warnings that this number will be a high one. He’s got some primo ideas, too, so I will definitely be working him to the bone. New to the schedule this week:

• THE CREATIVE HOUSEHOLD panel featuring Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick, Stuart and Kathryn Immonen, and Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer.

• COVERING COMICS: Criticism, Reportage, and Gossip, featuring Tom Spurgeon, Matt Brady, Dan Nadel, Johanna Draper-Carlson, and Heidi MacDonald.

• CONVERSATIONS: Jaime Hernandez & Evan Dorkin, interviewed by Tom Spurgeon.

• RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY IN COMICS, featuring Sammy Harkham, Kevin Huizenga, and Tom Spurgeon.

You can find full descriptions of each of these panels, plus the rest of the 2008 Event Schedule, right here! This is just the tip of the iceberg, too–as I type, I’m looking at a huge list of prospective panels I’m working my way through.

More updates! Including a very cool one that we’ve been working on for a while: Oni Press! Increasing the shocking number of publishers and creators attending Indie Island from the Pacific Northwest this year, Oni Press joins the ranks for their very first HeroesCon! They’ll be in good company, too, as half of their biggest creators will be here, including Bryan Lee O’Malley, Hope Larson, and Greg Rucka! Super news for us–Indie Island was always conceived as a collection of really awesome elements wrapped around nodes of indie publishers, and it’s nice to see that contingent growing as our profile expands on the “scene.”

But that’s not all: also brand new on the list today is Marc Arsenault, an old hand on the indie scene, having worked as an art director for Tundra and Fantagraphics, with books including Robert Williams’ Malicious Resplendence on his resume. His more recent venture is Wow Cool, a publisher and distributor, producing books, DVD’s, and records.

ALSO new today are Shane Heron and Joel Buxton, the creative team behind the Awesome Marcus Ninja webcomic. Which, I should say, is pretty funny. I’ve been meaning to add these guys for over a month, and keep forgetting. They contacted us a few months ago, and Todd and I went and checked out the strip, and ending up reading nearly all of them. I can’t explain it, but there’s something about it that’s really funny, almost every time. Very strange and cool. But hey–don’t listen to me–go check it out yourself!

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!

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!

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!