MATT’S PICK :: CLEOPATRA IN SPACE: Hey kids (and adults with distinguished tastes) there is a new book coming out this week that I want to tell you about! Its called Cleopatra In Space Volume One. It contains some of the most dynamic and appealing artwork you will find in any book this week (two aesthetics that I look for in a comic book or graphic fiction). The narrative part of this book is pretty awesome as well! Ancient Egypt meets outerspace, genius!

This is a frolicking, swashbuckling roller coaster of a book! Female historical figure meets Flash Gordon, modernized. Or, if you prefer, Adventure Time as realized through the eyes of a butt-kicking, snarky, alien-world-visiting Disney Princess! Buy this book for your kids (and read it yourself) you’ll see what I’m talking about. It is obvious Mike has put a lot of time and passion into creating this story.

Another Friday another HUGE HeroesCon guest list update! We hope you can join us for 3 days of everything we love about comic books along with the people who make them at the Charlotte Convention Center June 20-22, 2014. Tickets for Heroes Convention 2014 are on sale now!

CREATORS! Artists Alley tables are still available but they are going fast! Reserve your space today!

JEREMY BASTIAN – Artist: Cursed Pirate Girl

JOHN FLOYD – Inker: Batman: Mortality, Django Unchained, Treatment: Seoul

GABRIEL HARDMAN – Artist: Hulk, Star Wars: Legacy, Kinski

TED NAIFEH-Artist/Writer: Courtney Crumrin, Polly and the Pirates, Ame-Comi Duela Dent

DAVID PETERSEN – Artist: Mouse Guard, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

KHARY RANDOLPH – Artist: Techjacket, Deadpool, Justice League Beyond
CRAIG ROUSSEAU – Artist: Avengers, Perhapanauts, Batman Beyond, Impulse RON SALAS – Artist: Existence 2.0/3.0, Dracula: Company of Monsters

TOM SCIOLI – Artist/Writer: Transformers vs. G.I.Joe, Godland, American Barbarian

CAT STAGGS – Artist: Smallville, Vampire Diaries, Star Trek, Star Wars

ALSO ADDED TODAY: CORINNA BECHKO, TODD DEZAGO, NICK FILARDI, KEVEN GARDNER, MEG GOLDING, VAN JENSEN, KEVIN MELLON, SAM SPINA, IRENE STRYCHALSKI, DOUG WAGNER

Heroes Convention takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 20-22 2014. Get your 3 day passes today! The full guest list (so far) is here.

RICO’S PICKS :: THE ELTINGVILLE CLUB #1: Evan Dorkin has been exposing and skewering the dark recesses of fandom since the days before the internet existed. I love to hate these guys and this book comes at a time when tolerance for this kind of entitled fan is at an all time low. If you read this and think it’s about you, it’s time to make a change!

ELEKTRA #1: When a creative thinker who has been turning in brilliant cover after brilliant cover for years at Marvel is let loose on the inside of one of their comics you shouldn’t take it for granted. Mike Del Mundo has been producing some conceptual cover masterpieces for Marvel and I can’t wait to see what he does on this book!

ANDY’S PICK :: Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: “Trail Of The Unicorn”: I will not rest until everyone is reading these reasonably priced and beautifully designed and edited volumes of  Carl Barks’ Disney Duck masterpieces.  This is the 6th volume to be published by Fantagraphics and every one of them are great. You can purchases ANY single one of them and read them in any order.  Fantagraphics is not even bothering to number the series, so readers can just jump in anywhere they want.  Gasp! That goes against everything our passion/hobby usually requires. But these are arguably some of the greatest comics ever published. And they are as vital and funny today as they were when they were first published over 65 years ago.  Each volume includes a handful of the Donald duck full length adventures and the, marvelous 10 pages as well as a number of single page gag cartoons. And each volume contains short essays about each story from some of the best critics and comic writers around. Please buy this volume–Trail of the Unicorn or any other volume Justin keeps  on the shelf. You can’t lose!

SETH’S PICK :: SOVEREIGN #2: Many readers have only recently realized that Image Comics is putting out some of the highest quality comics on the stands.  But for every runaway hit that sells out immediately (think Black Science), there are others with a slower burning fuse of public awareness.  Sovereign may fall into that latter category, but I’m here to let you know that it’s a new series well worth your time and money.  In the first issue, creators Chris Roberson and Paul Maybury establish a range of themes and possibilities.  There are obvious fantasy elements present, namely in the book’s inclusion of a healthy amount of magic and the undead, but those are all balanced with strong characters amid societies rife with civil unrest.  I’ve seen the book regaled as a story existing in the vein of Game of Thrones, and there may well be some truth to that.  This is, however, a story that was born for the comics medium, and Maybury’s always impressive cartooning eloquently reminds us of that.  Sovereign is a comic with endless potential, and may just be yet another long running and entertaining series for Image. 

JUSTIN’S PICK :: Some weeks, doing a staff pick can be pretty tough. I mean, I know there are homeless and starving people in the world, but do THEY have to sift a SINGLE comic book – out of hundreds – to highlight on a weekly basis? NO. Clearly, my plight is underrated. Taking a cue from our man Phil, I’m just going to babble about a few things that’ve struck my fancy of late. We’ll call this the Southern Variation, since that’s an appropriately nerdy in-joke one out of ten of you will understand.

First of all, Uncanny Avengers. This is my favorite Marvel comic going right now (but it better watch its back, She-Hulk’s creeping up fast). Rick Remender packs more into a single issue than most writers manage to squeeze into a trade paperback. The pacing can be pretty glacial, and he wanders off on a lot of tangents, but man, are they good tangents. Remender is one of those guys that really understands the synthesis of plot and characterization, and how crucial that alchemy is to comics. Too many of his contemporaries seem to sacrifice one for the other, and it makes for some pretty boring and/or predictable comics. Of course, having Daniel Acuña illustrate your scripts is never collateral damage, and this guy’s stuff just gets better and better. I liken his artistic development to whittling: the more he shaves off, the more beauty is revealed. Uncanny Avengers #16 is part two of a big denouement for the series – Avenge the Earth – and even though the involvement of Kang makes any incident inherently undoable, it’s about the trip, not the destination.

If you’d like to take a different trip, why not visit the fantastical land featured in Chris Roberson and Paul Maybury’s new Image sword and sorcery series, Sovereign? Issue two is out this week; #1 teased just enough to really whet the imagination.  Understandably, it concerned itself more with exposition and conceptualizing, but hinted at broad enough conflicts to fuel this title for some time. The focus is split between a few different classes: religious, royal, and warrior, and an underlying sense of dread informs the whole issue. This is an obvious choice for fans of Saga or Game of Thrones, and the art! Paul Maybury is consistently overlooked as a reliable and deft storyteller. The guy deserves more eyes on his stuff. Provide a pair, won’t you?

Lastly, my generation will not permit the publication of a Simpsons one-shot without at least a passing remark. After the likes of Mr. Burns, Professor Frink, and even Lisa Simpson have proven to be shining solo stars, who could warrant the treatment next? Moe Szyslak? Bumblebee Man? The Captial City Goofball? Close, but no cigar! It’s the one, the only…DUFFMAN! That’s right, Springfield’s resident swill shill is ready for Spring Break with an issue of his very own comics magazine! What shenanigans may ensue are anyone’s guess, but here’s hoping the Seven Duffs show up (“Surly only looks after one guy: Surly.”). I suppose for this particular issue, we’ll have to move back to the former genre rack residency…but then again, what 80s kid didn’t adore Spuds MacKenzie? Alas, those were different, heady times.

Welp, that’s the top of the heap for me this week. Good night, and good luck. See you in the funnypages. Etc.

Regular Hilton rooms at our convention rate are sold out for HeroesCon weekend! Hilton Charlotte Center City has special con rate of $159 (regularly $229) available now on City View rooms but we are predicting a quick sell out. So, book now! See you in June!

And don’t forget your 3 day passes!

Welcome to another HUGE HeroesCon guest list update! We hope you can join us for 3 days of everything we love about comic books along with the people who make them at the Charlotte Convention Center June 20-22, 2014. Tickets for Heroes Convention 2014 are on sale now!

CREATORS! Artists Alley tables are still available but they are going fast! Reserve your space today!

Andy Belanger – Artist: Black Church, Kill Shakespeare, Bottle of Awesome

Joel Carroll – Artist: Li’l Sonja, Cuttle & Chirp, Skullkickers, Topaz, Flight

Tom Feister – Artist: GI JOE, Ex Machina, The Awesomes

Joe Harris – Writer: X-Files, Ghost Projekt, Wars in Toyland, Spontaneous

Clayton Henry – Artist: Uncanny X-men, Incredible Hercules, Archer and Armstrong

Sandy Jarrell – Artist: Batman ’66, Meteor Men, Unfair

Brad McGinty – Artist: GLORP Gum, Adventure Time, Regular show, Batlle Zoo

Babs Tarr – Artist:  Bosozoku Sailor Scouts,  Lady Knights//Women Warriors

Dean Trippe – Artist: Something Terrible, Power Lunch, Butterfly, Project: Rooftop

Brett Weldele – Artist: Surrogates, Pariah, Spontaneous, The Light, Southland Tales

ALSO ADDED TODAY!: Natalie Andrewson, Duane Ballenger, J Chris Campbell, Jamie Cosley, Jared Cullum, Scott Fogg, Jason Horn, Alex Saviuk, Matthew D Smith, James Tynion IV, Wayne Vansant, Tim Vigil

Heroes Convention takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 20-22 2014. Get your 3 day passes today! The full guest list (so far) is here.

ANDY’S PICK :: ART OF DISNEY GOLDEN BOOKS HC: Chances are good that the first book you ever held in your hand, ripped its pages, drew in, or drooled on was a Golden  Book and if your parents were anything  like mine and in as much of a hurry to buy a Golden Book to shut me up that they only noticed and bought the  one’s that featured familiar Disney characters, well sir (or madam) this is the book for you. These books have inspired generation after generation of budding animators and cartooists.  Now comes The Art of Disney Golden Books.  It is a beautiful hard cover book celebrating eighty years of the marvelous Disney character art that every kid spent time tracing, copying or spilling juice on.  Either way, Golden Books are an essential link in the chain that eventually can lead to …comic books!!  Enjoy! And good luck keeping it ‘mint’.

JUSTIN’S PICK :: BOHEMIANS GN: Being sequestered in the sticks as a teenager, and being something of an inherent weirdo, I took some solace in my creative side, and also developed a healthy fascination with the Beats (i.e. Kerouac, Ginsberg, and my personal favorite, William S. Burroughs). Bohemians promises to chronicle the predecessors of America’s original counter-pop-cultural movement. If this is an area that interests you, I’d also heartily recommend the late Harvey Pekar’s Beats Graphic History (mostly illustrated by Hip Hop Family Tree’s Ed Piskor, among others, but happy hunting…it’s out of print!). Hopefully, Bohemians will take a similar tack to Pekar’s examination, and dispose with the glamorizing of its subject matter. The lives lived under the radar, by their own rules, are easily romanticized with the benefit of hindsight. In all honesty, it’s a lot more squalid than that. Either way, I’m reading.