ANDY’S PICK :: BATMAN: A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS: It seems like every time you turn around there is another HC Celebration of one character or another. They all blend into a kind of expensive jumble. But BATMAN: A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS really stands out. The editors at DC have put together one heck of a collection. This 432 (!) page book includes the following landmark tales: DETECTIVE COMICS #27 (1st appearance!), 83 (Alfred!), 211 (Catwoman!), 216 (The Batman of the Future!), 327 (First New Look!), 359 (Batgirl!), 395 (Secret of the Waiting Graves!), 442 (Toth!), 474 (Rogers/Austin/Deadshot!), 574 (Origin revamp plus Alan Davis!), 633 (Milligan!), 711 (Knight Out!) , 757 (Air Time!) and 821 (Dini /Williams!), BATMAN #1 (Joker!), 49 (Vicki Vale!), 181 (Poison Ivy!), 497 (Batman needs to see a chiropractor), BATMAN #2 (from THE NEW 52), WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #94 (The Supes/Bats Team Origin!), DC SPECIAL SERIES #21 (Frank Miller!) and BATMAN SPECIAL #1 (The Wrath!) This is going to be a great party and everyone’s invited!!

SETH’S PICK :: DEADLY CLASS TP VOL. 1:  Rick Remender is a writer who continues to tell entertaining and expansive stories regardless of whether he’s writing creator-owned properties or popular Marvel characters. Continuing their recent trend of affordable debut trade paperback collections, this week you have the opportunity to pick up the first six issues of Remender’s excellent Image title Deadly Class for a mere $9.99.  This series, set in the 1980s, follows a new student at the world’s premiere high school for assassins. It’s wonderfully brought to life by the art of Wesley Craig, who perfectly matches the tone and energy of the writing.  This collection is well worth your attention, and gives you yet another chance to see why so many of us Heroes staffers dig Remender’s impressive body of work. 

Bonus Pick: Cap’n Dinosaur One Shot: The latest from the inimitable Shaky Kane is bound to be a fine addition to his fabled catalog of pop culture explosions. Besides the title character, who has one of the great charcter names in recent history, you can likely expect to see an abandoned amusement park, giant insects, monsters, weird killers and/or clowns. If all of those strange entities don’t appear, I’m sure there will be plenty of comparably odd inclusions to entice you.  Shaky Kane is another creator whose work many of us around here love, and hopefully a few of you will give this standalone book a shot. 

RICO’S PICK :: SPREAD #1: OK, I’ll be honest, I don’t usually like gory and/or scary stuff. I know a lot of you do though and I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss this new book by Luther Strode writer Justin Jordan and the very talented art team of Kyle Strahm and Felipe Sobreiro. The short pitch on this book is “Lone Wolf and Cub in a world eaten by John Carpenter’s The Thing”. Spread looks like it’s going to be insane and you can grab issue #1 at Heroes on Wednesday. I don’t think this one will stay on our shelves for very long.

I do have to mention how much I LOVE the logo Strahm created for this book, it’s gross and gorgeous!

We are honored to  welcome Tula Lotay to Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find for her only 2014 scheduled U.S. appearance besides SDCC! Lotay, artist of the Warren Ellis penned Supreme: Blue Rose will be signing copies of this exciting Image Comics #1 at our store on Tuesday, July 29, 2014 at 12 noon. Plan to spend your lunch break at Heroes that day!

Let us know you’re coming on our Facebook Event page! Tell your friends!

We will be open today until at least 6PM for all your comic shopping needs. If you haven’t been in the store lately, be sure to check out our $1 comics, they’re going fast and won’t last long. Southern Bastards #3 came out this week and it has a great looking fried apple pie recipe in the back. Impress your family and friends with that today!

We’re still posting HeroesCon 2014 links that people are sending us on our Facebook page and Twitter. Join the fun over there if you haven’t already.

Our web store is always open. New items coming soon!

JUSTIN’S PICK :: DKW DITKO KIRBY WOOD ONE SHOT: Hello, Staff Picks, how have you been? Sorry, I’ve been a real jerk. I haven’t called, I didn’t write. HeroesCon had us all hopping…I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Maybe if I offer you this awesome Fantagraphics one shot? Would that help? Cartoonist Sergio Ponchione draws three different stories in the signature styles of those titular titans Steve, Jack, and Wally. It’s a gorgeously designed book, as well, tastefully toned and wrapped in a masterful cover. I know I’ve neglected you, Staff Picks, but can’t we put that all behind us now, and just be together again? Aw, you’re the best. I knew you’d understand.

HEATHER’S PICK :: ROCKET RACCOON #1: Occasionally the mere announcement of a book is enough to convince me to put it in my pull list.  Rocket Raccoon is one of those books.  I’ve been waiting to read this book since it was announced that Skottie Young would be both writing and drawing it.  Rocket is an amusing draw all on his own (Who doesn’t love a wise cracking, gun toting raccoon?), but a solo book by a creator I adore? Sold!

The previews of the first issue prove this book is going to be ridiculously fun!  I can’t wait to find out how Groot is starring in some sort of intergalactic wrestling match. I look forward to seeing all the adventures Rocket and Groot have ahead of them.

Thanks to everyone that came out to HeroesCon 2014! We are once again thankful and humbled by the great things that happen we when our wonderful community of comic book makers and comic book loving people get together. You are all amazing! Save the dates for our 2015 show, June 19-21, 2015!

It wouldn’t be a major convention of any sort without a bit of last minute shuffling. We have  a time/date change and an addition.

First the change:

Due to some travel issues, The ARCHIE PANEL originally scheduled for Friday at 4:00 has been moved to SATURDAY at 2:00pm.

SATURDAY 2:00PM Room 201
PART I :: ARCHIE: Life, Afterlife and Beyond
Join moderator Jimmy Aquino (COMIC NEWS INSIDER) in a talk about the major events happening at Archie Comics – from the hit horror series AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE to the upcoming “Death of Archie” in the pages of LIFE WITH ARCHIE and much more – with an all-star cast of Archie staff and stars, including artist FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA (Afterlife with Archie), PAUL KAMINSKI (Archie Comics Executive Director of Editorial) and Red Circle Comics Editor and Archie SVP – Publicity and Marketing ALEX SEGURA.
PART II :: ARCHIE: SONIC THE HEDGEHOG and MEGAMAN
Get the inside scoop on what’s coming up in Archie’s best-selling “Action” line of video game titles, including SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, SONIC UNIVERSE and MEGA MAN, with SONIC/MEGA MAN editor PAUL KAMINSKI and long-time Sonic and Mega Man creators IAN FLYNN and TRACY YARDLEY

and we have a special addition to the schedule:

SATURDAY

Room 206
10:30 am
MEET THE GRAND COMICBOOK DATABASE (GCD)

Find out what all goes into compiling and maintaining the enormous (and indispensable) GRAND COMIC BOOK DATABASE. BOB BAILEY, WILL ALLRED, DANIEL NAUSCHUETZ and STEVEN ROWE will explain the challenging process of indexing comics.  Thanks to their efforts, the GCD has become the go-to source for creator listings.  DC and Marvel both use the GCD for their archives. Stop by dive deep into comics and comics’ history and prepare to be astounded by their Herculean effort.

The best just keeps getting bester.