MAY 9, 2008

Whew! This week was a real doozy, and we still haven't gotten to all the news. In fact, there's so much news that I hope you won't mind if we just briefly describe each thing. I'll provide a link to the relevant posting on our blog, which will have all the details.

• On Monday we posted our massive Free Comic Book Day photo report, from one of our biggest and best FCBD's ever! Besides the blog post, there are 55 pictures in the dedicated Flickr set, and that's before I've even had the time to go through the excellent Chris Baker's several hundred photos he took! Jeez!

The short version is that it was GREAT! Many thanks to all of our guests, who signed and did free sketches all day; in some cases well past the advertised 5pm end (to the consternation of others waiting to go eat dinner, ahem). Also big ups to our friends Ann Geary and Scott Valeri, who hosted an afterparty at their suh-weet house. More thanks to our sore-footed staff, and the biggest thanks to the HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of you guys who showed up! Holy cow, were there ever a lot of you. Don't believe me? Man, just check out the report!

• Here's one that slipped through the cracks, although some of you Newsarama readers may have caught the announcement there: in August (date to be finalized) we will be hosting Mark Millar and Tony Harris, who'll be doing a 7-stop signing tour in support of their new series War Heroes. Yes, I know--very exciting.

So exciting, in fact, that Matt Brady announced it before we were ready, but that's okay--I guess a little free press isn't so bad, huh? But stay tuned for more details as we finalize them. And before someone else scoops us, I can tell you that we have three more big heavies in store for this fall, but I'll wait a little longer to announce them. But man, what a fall this is going to be...

• Expect a more official blog post, but we just finalized today with our man Andy Mansell that the next Heroes Discussion Group will be Monday, May 19th, at 7pm. The subject will be Batman: Year One, which is so good it's silly. One day we'll talk about a book that's terrible, but that will probably be boring, so for now we're having fun. Don't miss it! And as always, between now and the time of the meeting, you can get Batman: Year One for 10% off in our store, in any form: hardcover, softcover, or a set of all 4 original issues!

• Before we get into convention news, a quick word about another convention: our buddies Rick Fortenberry and Dave Hinson are putting on their Charlotte ComiCon tomorrow, May 10, from 10-4. The event will be held uptown at the Crowne Plaza, and will feature guests including Al Bigley, Andy Smith, and Budd Root, among others. Admission is just $3--and if you print this part of our newsletter out and bring it in, you'll get another $1 off! Que Bargain! For more info check their website.

Where to begin with HeroesCon 08 news this week? I guess we'll begin with the announcement we made yesterday, and work backwards through the week, as they're all pretty big announcements:

• Yesterday we announced that Cap-killers Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting will be appearing at HeroesCon 08! Good gravy, this is going to be a big show. Ed is appearing for the very first time, although I'm not sure he's bringing the Eisner Award he won last year for Best Writer or not. Besides Captain America, he also writes Daredevil and Uncanny X-Men, as well as collaborating with fellow guest Matt Fraction on Iron Fist and their upcoming stint together on Uncanny. Oh, and that's not even mention Criminal, the creator-owned book he does with Sean Phillips.

Steve Epting is no stranger to HeroesCon, but it's been a few years since we've been able to get him back, so we're super excited! Shelton and I were looking at his website yesterday, and Shelton called him "a super-artist". Aww. Aside from his gorgeous run on Captain America, he's also pretty famous for a little book he used to draw called The Avengers, not to mention El Cazador for CrossGen.

• On Wednesday, we made an announcement that is another record-breaker: a full month and a half before the convention, we are TOTALLY SOLD OUT of all Small Press space, including tables and booths. Not only that, our waiting list is past the 30-person mark. The number of Small Press tables we sell is always a good indicator of the kind of attendance we can expect at the show, so this is pretty exciting news for us. You know what else is a good indicator? When Exhibitor booths sell out. Expect more news pretty soon on that front!



• Also on Wednesday, we announced an update to our Guest List that included "Gasoline Alley" (the longest continuously-running newspaper strip ever) artist Jim Scancarelli and "Dan Flagg" creator Don Sherwood. Also included in the update were Dave McDonald (The Secret Adventures of Hamster Sam: Attack of the Evil Boll Weevils!) and Chris Kemple (Negative Burn).



• Also this week, we announced through a special edition of the Heroes Hotline and on our blog the news that we finally finalized our HeroesCon Host Hotel rate! The hotel will be the Hilton Charlotte Center City, located on 3rd Street in uptown Charlotte--the side entrance is right across the street from the Charlotte Convention Center! The rate is $99/night, which is fabulous for a hotel that just underwent a $25 million renovation. While we've gone with the Westin the last few years, they were just unable to give us the number of rooms we need at a good price--the Hilton stepped up, and Shelton has negotiated a sweet deal for us!

Call to reserve your room: 704.377.1500, or toll-free at 1.800.HILTONS--ask for the "HeroesCon" rate of $99/night. These rooms are held for us in blocks, so if they say a night is sold out at that rate, just have them make the reservation at the regular rate and put a note on it that you want the HeroesCon rate--the demand has been so high, we've had to expand the block of rooms several times already. Don't fret! If you have any problems, post a comment on our blog, which we monitor closely all day--we'll get right back to you with an answer!

• And that's still not all the HeroesCon news this week! On Tuesday we announced the confirmation of Boom! Studios, who'll be returning to HeroesCon this summer. Besides the recent hit North Wind, Boom! also publishes Cthulhu Tales, Zombie Tales, the Warhammer comics, and a bunch more. Studio co-founder Ross Richie and writer Johanna Stokes (Zombie Tales) will be attending, not to mention Editor-In-Chief Mark Waid, who confirmed for the show last year!

Also returning to the convention this year is Blue Line Pro, who have been a huge hit in past years not only for their huge stock of art supplies, comic boards, markers, etc., but also for sponsoring our annual Quickdraw Contests. They provide not only some huge prize packages, but all the paper used in the contest, which regularly draw 100+ fans each day! Watch our Event Schedule page for more updates on the Quickdraw Contests and the prize packages.

I pretend like today it's official that we're in full-on crazy mode for HeroesCon; but all it takes is a cursory look at last week's news to see that it was already well underway:

• Of course, at the top of the news was last Saturday's Free Comic Book Day, but I've already said enough about that above. But just in case, you can click here to check out our report online.

• Speaking of reports, we also reported on the April installment of the Heroes Discussion Group, in which we fell on our knees and made obeisance to All Star Superman Volume 1.

• But soft! A word or two before you go: completing our photo report trifecta last week was Shawn Reynolds' New York Comic Con report. Othello references: no extra charge.

• And of course there was a ton of HeroesCon news, but I think things are so nuts now that I'm just going to have to list all the news bits individually, linking each to a blog post with more info.

With that in mind, last week we made three different updates to the HeroesCon 08 Guest List: 1) Brian Pulido and Joe Pekar on Monday; 2) Gary Friedrich, Andy Kuhn, Tom Fleming, Steve Scott, and Bill Neville on Wednesday; and 3) Dan Didio, Jann Jones, and Matt Sturges on Friday. Whew!

MAY 12, 2008 | 7PM
MANGA NIGHT!
Don't miss this month's Manga Night! From 7-9, you can mix and mingle with other fans of manga, anime, and Japanese culture, AND enjoy 10% off all manga in the store! See you there!

MAY 19, 2008 | 7PM
THE HEROES DISCUSSION GROUP!
In this month's installment of our discussion group, our subject is one of the most acclaimed (and some would say, undersung) graphic novels ever: Batman: Year One. From it's tight script by Frank Miller, to the incredible art of David Mazzucchelli, this one's got it all. And best of all, this really is a Batman book you could read and love even if you'd NEVER HEARD of Batman. Mm! Can you tell I'm excited! Don't miss it!