ANDY’S PICK :: FABLES ENCYCLOPEDIA: There are few in fandom as detail oriented and obsessed as the living legend Jess Nevins.  He is the man who annotated every single panel from every volume of Alan Moore’s detail oriented work with League of Extraordinary Gentleman Companion (highly recommended!).  (Why is that car in the back ground on page 4 panel 2?  Whose car is it and what about the license plate?)  Once Nevins embarks on a project he never sleeps until all is explained. Now Vertigo and Bill Willingham have unleashed the very hard working and very focused Mr. Nevins on the expansive Fables Universe.  Fables Encyclopedia is just brimming with fun facts and anecdotes about this popular long running VERTIGO series.  Trust me, if there is minutiae to mined, Mr. Nevins is our man.  This coffee table book features illustrations from cover artists James Jean,  Joao Ruas, Adam Hughes, as well as contributions by the regular series art team of Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha.  Enjoy!!!

SETH’S PICK :: SAMURAI JACK #1: I’m not often drawn to comics based on animated shows, but I felt obliged to write about Samurai Jack this week.  It might be one of those cult classics, but even if you’re not all that familiar with the show, you’ll find the subject matter easily accessible.  There’s something to be said for the simplicity of a story centering on a samurai lost in a world ruled by a demon.  Cheers to IDW for translating a popular animated property into what very well could be a successful comic book.  Additional cheers to them for enlisting creators like writer Jim Zub (Skullkickers) and artist Andy Suriano (who happened to work on the animated show) to bring the character to a new medium.  Wednesdays are supposed to be fun for comic readers, and books like this epitomize that potential. 

RICO’S PICK :: PACHYDERME GN: Swiss cartoonist Frederik Peeters’ award winning graphic novel is making it’s way to the US thanks to excellent publisher Self Made Hero. From what little I’ve seen, this story takes place in beautiful yet sinister world similar to the ones the characters of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch inhabit. It also features a foreword by late master cartoonist Moebius.

Our next road show will be Comic Book City Con sponsored by ACME Comics on Saturday, October 26th & Sunday, October 27th at the Empire Room in historic downtown Greensboro, NC! We hope to see you all at this one!

HeroesCon 2014 will be our biggest and best show yet. We’ve announced a few of our fantastic guests already here. If you’d like to exhibit at a true comics-focused comic convention now is your chance! Artists Alley tables are on sale now! These spaces are available on a first-come-first-served and they usually go fast! Reserve your space today!

Well, the Heroes’ Discussion Group reunited with a bang.  We talked about Saga on and off for three hours and spent the rest of the time talking comics with legendary penciller Steve Bissette who stopped by with our friend Craig Fischer on a lark!  It was a tremendous afternoon—I was less a moderator and more of a plate-spinner with an itch between the shoulders.  We had a blast.  Thanks to all of you who attended.

Now we turn our sights onto Halloween.  In the past we’ve done Walking Dead and From Hell.  This year it is time we jumped feet first into the Mike Mignola-verse and talk about Hellboy and B.P.R.D.  The amount of consistent quality pages delivered by Mignola and team centering on everyone’s favorite earth-bound demon and his fellow bureau agents of Paranormal research and defense is legion.  So, we asked all of our Mignolaphiles which books we should tackle.  Based on a consensus over-seen by our own Seth Peagler (thanks Seth!) we have decided on the following trade paperbacks:

• Hellboy: Wake the Devil—an early complete Hellboy story arc
• Hellboy: The Chained Coffin—a really solid collections of shorter Hellboy pieces
• B.P.R.D.—The Dead—one of the best of the early B.P.R.D. extended stories.

Topics will include:

• The art by Mignola (Hellboy) and Guy Davis (BPRD) and how their different styles affect the storytelling
• The supporting cast (certainly one of the largest and most interesting around)
• The way Hellboy/BPRD is published—can new readers jump in anywhere?
• The use of comedy relief
• The consistency of the series
• And for any who are already well-versed with Mignola’s work: What should the new readers pick up next?
• And a whole lot more!  If you’ve been putting these series off—this is a perfect time to give it a try!

We hope you will join us for a belated Halloween on Saturday November 2^nd at 1:00pm.  As usual we will meet at the store and repair to either the Tavern or Bakery across the way.

As usual, Heroes is offering the 10% Discussion Discount on these three books.  But as a special incentive–if you purchase all three we are offering a 20% savings.  That’s 3 Trades for only 45.00.  Just remember to remind the clerk of the discount when you check out.  (The overwhelming and ever-present smell of Mylar is starting to get to us.)

Hope you’ll join us and Happy Halloween!

RICO’S PICK :: INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK SPECIAL #1: Mike Costa, Jake Wyatt, and Jordie Bellaire bring you this special issue which is part 2 in “The Arms of The Octopus” trilogy. Part 1, the All New X-Men Special illustrated by Kris Anka, was great and sucked me in like the superhero comics of my youth. I love Jake Wyatt’s art and can’t wait to read this issue! If you haven’t seen Jake’s new web comic Necropolis please check it out because it’s even better than this even though it’s only about 3 pages in.

Andy’s Pick :: The Sandman: Endless Nights: With the new series due to drop any week now, the comic world will be abuzz with The Sandman. And rightfully so, it is one of the most influential and arguably one of the best comic book series of all time. In my opinion this anthology, Sandman: Endless Nights is the perfect place for the uninitiated to sample Neil Gaiman‘s comic work. Sandman is Dream. He and his siblings known as the endless (Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Destruction and Delight/Delirium) are each featured in stand alone stories all written by Gaiman and drawn by P. Craig Russell (Death), Milo Manara (Desire–natch!), Miguelanxo Prado (dream– this is a story set long before Earth came into being) Barron Story and Michael McKean (Despair) Bill Sienkiewicz (Delirium) Glen Fabry (Destruction) and Frank Quitely (Destiny) Each time I read it, a different story rises to the top of my favorites.  Now The Sandman: Endless Nights is available in an affordable softcover, you can’t put off the inevitable any longer.  The Dream Story will knock the socks off of any DC comics fan. Oh, BTW– this was the very first comic periodical to debut on the NY Times Bestseller list. Give it a try!

JUSTIN’S PICK :: BUZZKILL #2 : This is a concept that, in incapable hands, could be dreadfully rote: a guy derives superpowers from drug and alcohol abuse. Not necessarily a wholly original premise, but the creative team’s approach elevates the proceedings beyond the mundane. Donny Cates’ characterization of the main character is sympathetic and believable, without making a sappy sob story out of it (truth be told, he’s kind of a jerk, but a likable jerk). Geoff Shaw’s art inhabits a comfortable space somewhere between the likes of Tradd Moore and Matteo Scalera, with Lauren Affe punching things up quite beautifully in the color department. Issue one ended on an ingenious cliffhanger; I’m clamoring for issue two. If you missed this Dark Horse offering in the shuffle, pick #1 up along with #2, and save yourself the agony of turnaround.

Shelton is on the road again! He’ll be at the New York Comic Con all 4 days this weekend starting Thursday. He’ll have great Golden, Silver and Modern Age comics as usual. Follow Shelton and Heroes on Twitter for updates and special offers during the show!

Our next show will be Comic Book City Con sponsored by ACME Comics on Saturday, October 26th & Sunday, October 27th at the Empire Room in historic downtown Greensboro, NC! We hope to see you all at one or both of these shows!