We’re VERY busy getting ready for our biggest Free Comic Book Day event ever but we have some more great guests coming to HeroesCon that we wanted to tell you about!

Heroes Convention is in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 7-9 2013. Get your 3 day passes today! Our full guest list (so far) is here.

We still need volunteers too!

ROBERT ATKINS – Artist: Castle, Amazing Spider-man, GI JOE/Snake Eyes

ALEAH BAKER – Colorist: Sonic the Hedgehog

STEVE BIRD – Inker: Pacific Rim: Tales From Year Zero, Robin, Blue Beetle, Hard Time

BERNARD CHANG – Artist: Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman

AMANDA CONNER – Artist: Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre, Power Girl, The Pro, Vampirella

TOMMY LEE EDWARDS – Artist: Turf, Marvel 1985, The Question

IAN FLYNN – Writer: Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man

STEPHANIE GLADDEN – Artist: Peanuts, Jingle Bell,  Simpsons, Powerpuff Girls

RANDY GREEN – Artist: Witchblade, Emma Frost, X-Men

TARIQ HASSAN – Artist: Redeemer, Swordborn, The Walking Dead Social Game

RICK KETCHAM – Inker:

MIKE MAIHACK – Artist/Writer: Cleopatra in Space

GARRY MCKEE – Artist: Legend of the 5 Rings, Batman Legends Cards, Warhammer 40K

CHRIS MORENO – Artist: Sidekick, Toy Story, The Minions of Ka

JIMMY PALMIOTTI – Writer/Artist: All Star Western, The Pro, Queen Crab, Creator Owned Heroes

PAT QUINN – Artist: The Phantom, GI Joe: Declassified, Necrotic

BRIAN REBER – Colorist: Bloodshot, Harbinger Wars, Shadowman, Batwing

BUDD ROOT – Artist/Writer: Cavewoman

CRAIG ROUSSEAU – Artist: Avengers, Perhapanauts, Impulse

STEPHANE ROUX – Artist: Star Wars, Zatanna, Supurbia, Birds of Prey, Action Comics, Batman Confidential

BRIAN SHEARER – Artist: Transformers, G.I. Joe, Doctor Who

ANDY SMITH – Artist: Tone & Flex, WWE Heroes, 1st Man

JASON WALKER – Artist: White-Wolf, True 20 Worlds of Adventure

JOHN “WAKI” WYCOUGH – Inker: Fear Itself, Chaos War, Transformers, Vitriol : The Hunter

RICO’S PICK :: ANIMAL MAN #20: You should check out my pick of the week  because John Paul Leon drew it! He doesn’t do tons of comics but his work is always sought after by students of sequential storytelling craft. It’s always a great new comics day when something JPL draws hits the shelves!

SETH’S PICK :: MISTER X: EVICTION #1: It’s true that this Saturday is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, and while you know we’ll have plenty of quality free comics to give you, I’d encourage you to ease through the crowds and find this book on the genre side of the store.  If you don’t know about the character or any of Motter’s work, I’d encourage you to give it a look.  When Mister X appeared in the early eighties, it brought several novel elements into American comics, like art deco design, stylish noir, and even German Expressionism.  Beyond the book’s intelligence, just look at a list of its contributers (Jaime Hernandez, Seth, Dave McKean and more) to find reasons to read this title.  It’s a beautiful book that continues to deliver strong stories and design.  This first issue of a new miniseries is a great place to learn about the character, as is the recent Mister X: Hard Candy one shot that collected new Motter material from Dark Horse Presents.  And if scholarly comics don’t do it for you, there’s always Hawkeye #10 out this week.  It just so happens that this issue is the first of the series to feature art from Francesco Francavilla, who will be among the guests at Heroes for the FCBD excitement this Saturday.  Get him to sign a copy and a few of his excellent Black Beetle issues while you’re at it.

We all know that HeroesCon is a great annual event–But did you know there is much more to HeroesCon than the Comic Vendors and the Artist Alley?  Just above the convention floor there is additional world of fun, excitement and informative discussion.  Each year we offer over 50 Panel events up in the 2^nd floor Meeting Rooms.

The 2^nd Floor is a great place to take a short break from the hustle and bustle. It is an oasis where a weary conventioneer can have a seat, lay down those bulging shopping bags down for an hour or two, rest those weary feet & shoulders and sample some great comics’ conversations.

The majority of these Panel Events fall into four categories: Contests, The SCAD Workshops, Presentations and Panels .

Contests: Have you been to the QuickDraw?  If so, you know what all the fuss is about.  If not, boy, are you missing out.  Amateur artists are given pencil, Bristol board and exactly 20 minutes to create their masterpiece.  The submissions are reviewed and judged by the Faculty of SCAD and the winners receive art supplies! You can actually feel the excitement in the room.  And here is the best part—we have a Quick Draw every day of the convention and anyone of any age can participate!!

SCAD Workshops: Each year, the faculty from SCAD hosts 3 classrooms per day where any HeroesCon Convention goer is welcome to sit in and see what kind of curriculum SCAD offers. They have held classes in Storytelling, Animation, Inking, Comic Sculpture and Coloring.  Every year SCAD provides an exciting mix of instruction and enlightenment (and they’re a lot of fun too!).

Presentations: HeroesCon hosts The Annual Inkblot Awards for excellence in the art of Inking.  We have an annual Cosplay Costume Show.  We’ve shown short films—The Irwin Hasen Documentary and The Joe Simon Story. We’ve had Frank Cho Draws Sexy Women, How to Create a Comic with Adam Withers and Comfort Love, Laura Martin’s Coloring Forum.  We’ve had Live Podcasts.  Mark Waid and George Perez discussed Brave and The Bold—Panel by Panel. (We didn’t get very far, but it was great!) The variety is endless, a few years ago, we had a band called Kirby Krackle perform their music live!!

Panel Discussions and Interviews:  When it comes to the Panels, our goal is to provide something for everyone regardless of their taste in comics.  The All-ages Panel, The Humor in Comics Panel and The Newspaper Strip Panel are annual main-stays.  Each year we have an Inking Panel featuring some of the top inkers in the field.  We’ve also had numerous group interviews that focused on The Art of the Comic Book Cover. We’ve had one-on-one interviews with Stan Lee, Warren Ellis, Mike Mignola and Matt Fraction. We’ve had Comic Discussion Groups where we’ve sat down with a creator to discuss—in detail—their favorite books: Bill Willingham on Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, Darwyn Cooke on Parker: The Outfit.  Jaime Hernandez on Love and Rockets: New Stories, Scott Snyder on Batman: Dark Mirror, Skottie Young on OZ and many others including a panel of nine (9!!!) of the creators from Wednesday Comics together for one epic talk.

So what it comes down to is this–What do you want to see? Take a look at the list of Scheduled Artists and let us know whom you’d like to see interviewed.  What books would you like to discuss?  What Panels would you like to see? This is YOUR convention.  We want you to get as much out of it as possible!!

Feel free to respond on this site.  As the weeks fly by and additions to the guest-list are announced, don’t hesitate to make a suggestion or two to me, Andy Mansell.  I can be reached at [email protected].  We can’t make any guarantees, but every suggestion will be considered.

And thanks again for being part of HeroesCon 2013—I can’t wait!!!!

Today’s Guest List update is enormous! We’ve added 23 creators scheduled to appear at HeroesCon this June. Check it out!

Heroes Convention is in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 7-9 2013. Get your 3 day passes today! Our full guest list (so far) is here.

We still need volunteers too!

AARON CAMPBELL – Artist: The Shadow, Uncanny, Green Hornet

TOM FEISTER – Artist: G.I. Joe, Ex-Machina

BILLY FOWLER – Artist: The Thrilling Adventure Hour

JENNY FRISON – Artist: Revival, Angel, Spike

MENTON3 – Artist: Monocyte, Silent Hill

TODD NAUCK – Artist: Invincible Universe, WildGuard, Spider-Man, Young Justice

STEVE SEELEY – Writer: Hoax Hunters Artist: Awesome paintings like this

RICH TOMMASO – Writer/Artist: The Cavalier Mr. Thompson, Pete & Miriam, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow

WILFREDO TORRES – Artist: The Shadow: Year One, Lobster Johnson, Aliens

TIM VIGIL – Artist:

Also also added today: Elliot Fernandez, Jerry Gaylord, Penelope Gaylord, Dan Johnson, Eric Layton, Leo Leibelman, Mike Lilly, Andrew Pepoy, Rodney Ramos, Matt Slay, Chris Uminga, Michael Watkins, Matt Webb. Full guest list (so far) is here.

SETH’S PICK :: EAST OF WEST #2: Alongside the excellent new book Five Ghosts: The Haunting of Fabian Gray, East of West is reminding readers that Image is producing some truly interesting books these days.  It’s something of a post apocalyptic tale, though I feel like that limits it in some way.  When I read the first issue my initial thought was that this is an idea Jonathan Hickman must have been saving for a creator owned book.  It’s got all the scope and intrigue of his Marvel work, but like his other Image title, Manhattan Projects, this one seems like he’s able to stretch out a little more.  Hickman’s scripts are brought to life by Nick Dragotta, and while they’ve collaborated before this project, they seem to be working even more to each other’s strengths this time around.  And don’t feel bad if you missed the sold out first issue – a second print of it will also be available this week.  There are plenty of reasons why so many of us on this blog and other sites are talking about East of West.  Pick up both copies and see why.

KARLA’S PICK :: HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE #1 ONGOING :  By the POWER OF GRAYSKULL, we have a new HE-MAN COMIC!! Yeah, NO ONE should be surprised that this is my pick of the week. Heck, even my profile photo is a picture of me next to one of my most FAVORITE characters in the world SHE-RA, who is one of the prominent characters in the Masters of the Universe realm. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe #1 picks up where the six-issue mini-series, as well as the digital-only issues,  left off in January!
Peace has once again returned to Eternia after the defeat of Skeletor and the return of He-Man and the Masters. But as is all too often true, peace is short lived. Eternia quickly finds itself under attack once again, this time from an outside invader: The Evil Horde! This issue introduces Despara, force Captain of the Evil Horde, who is a ruthless conqueror loyal to the evil Hordak, and much to my relief a RED-HEADED Teela. (My favorite Teela will ALWAYS be red-headed! No offense to blonde Teela.)
With a new story-line by writer Keith Giffen and beautiful artwork by Pop Mhan, I am TRULY looking forward to getting my hands on this new ongoing series!!

SETH’S PICK :: NOVA #3:  Like many of us who grew up reading comics, I freely admit that I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the characters I loved when I was a kid.  You might have even heard me in the store extolling the virtues of the nineties comic, New Warriors, which was one of those books I loved.  I say all that to say that even though this new Nova isn’t the same one I grew up with, I knew I’d give it a shot.  What has surprised me about this new book is how much it reminds me of the innocence of old Marvel Comics.  I’ve never been a diehard fan of Jeph Loeb, and while I’m not blown away by everything he’s doing on this series, it seems to me that he achieved exactly what he set out to this time.  It’s all about recapturing that innocent young hero for new readers.  It’s made all the better by the art team of Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines, who are as reliable as ever.  It’s old school Marvel cosmic characters for a new age, and it’s actually quite fun.