JULY 4, 2008

Happy Independence Day! We sure do hope you're having an excellent one, not to mention the rest of the weekend. If you're in Canada, just replace "Independence Day" above with "Boxer Day". If you're from elsewhere, I don't what to tell you except happy Fourth of July!

SPEAKING OF holidays, due to this much-described holiday, books will be shipping a day late next week from Diamond, which means they'll be here Thursday, July 10 instead of Wednesday. Please update your DayTimers and other leatherette purse-binders accordingly.

Be advised that this week we're wrapping up the all-out, senses-shattering deluge of HeroesCon related news, updates, and other tidbits. We'll still be chiming in with the occasional sweet report, unearthed special offer, or whatever, but we're going to try and spread it over the next 6 months a little evenly, opting to beef up our comics and store news a little bit to replace it. Although we would never admit to being tired of talking about our popular convention, there's plenty of other stuff to talk about, too!

But for now...



Well, if you got the Heroes Hotline last week, you saw the long, long, extra long HeroesCon 08 Con Report, which you can still read here at our blog. Even more massive is our Flickr collection of photos. Also mentioned was Tom Spurgeon's excellent con report, and his comprehensive collection of other HeroesCon reports, memories, photo galleries, podcasts, you name it. So if you want to enjoy some memories, or see what you missed, I would suggest one of those worthy options.

But for now, in HeroesCon news: This week we announced our first ticket price increase since the early 90's, although the reaction has been pretty positive so far. It helps that we've had a crazy-low ticket price forever, and the increase is pretty slight: starting this week, ticket prices for HeroesCon 09 are $15/day, or $30 for a 3-day advance pass (the only advance pass available). Just to ease the transition a little, we're offering a special deal of $25 for a 3-day pass to anyone who purchases before December 31 of this year. And of course, buying a 3-day pass guarantees you any ticket incentives (such as this year's awesome Darwyn Cooke signed & numbered incentive print) that we produce, AND the earlier you buy, the lower the number of anything like that. So get with it! All that ticket stuff is available right here, and pretty soon we'll have a snazzy Paypal link up there so you can buy em quick!

Let's see, what else? Volunteer-In-Chief Andy Mansell posted two different nosy questionnaires this week: what people bought at HeroesCon; and who people met at HeroesCon. Feel free to join those conversations on our little ole blog now!

Last up this week, our Heroes' Creative Director Dustin Harbin (it's me!) posted a predictably self-deprecating (but somehow also self-spotlighting) mention of a story he recently had published in AdHouse Books' Superior Showcase #3. You can find out all about that, as well as the much better stories from Jim Rugg and Laura Park, and Dustin's/my offer to sketch in any issues sold here at the store, at the blog post!

WELCOME TO HEROES,
NEWCOMERS!

group review by Daniel Von Egidy

Our convention brings in lots of new business, whether that is people brand new to our jolly little industry or people who have been out of the loop for a while. The staff is always happy to help people find their way into comics whether you’re a Marvel guy, a DC guy, an indie guy or (like me) someone who likes a bit of each. With that in mind here’s a handy dandy guide of fantastic collections and series on the book racks and then I’ll give you some things to be on the lookout for in the coming summer and fall months.

MARVEL:

Civil War: Customers come in and frequently inquire about this series, the necessity of the crossovers and what they need to read. If you get the main trade paperback collecting the 7 issues then you’ll be set. This series is the pivot which the Marvel U moves around even a year after its finale. The crossovers aren’t necessary but they do add layer and subtext to the main series and a lot of them are quite good. Out of the whole lot I recommend the Wolverine, Punisher War Journal, and Warren Ellis Thunderbolts trade.

New Avengers: Marvels biggest seller since its inception, New Avengers is probably Marvel’s flagship book at the moment. There are currently seven New Avengers trades, the Avengers Disassembled and Secret War trades which occur before New Avengers starts but are written by NA author Brian Michael Bendis. The House of M mini is also collected and features the New Avengers and X-Men and acts a follow up to Disassembled. All of these things have been leading to this summer’s Secret Invasion event.

Annihilation: This series of mini-series collected into three trades revamped Marvel’s space heroes completely making them viable and important and really really cool again. The likes of Nova, the Super-Skrull, Ronan the Accuser, and the Silver Surfer band together to defeat the Annihilation Wave and unstoppable bug army from the Negative Zone. Millions of lives are lost and it’s only a matter of time before the Wave reaches Earth. This doesn’t have the immediate weight that New Avengers and Civil War had but it is arguably a better story and definitely a lot of fun.

Other quite notable things from the House of Ideas include much beloved Immortal Iron Fist, collected into two fantastic trades and with a new writer coming on in the next issue. Fraction assures me that readers should stick around after he’s gone and I’m gonna take him at his word. Captain Britain and MI: 13 was a huge surprise. This book breathes new life into Marvel’s British characters with crisp and emotionally honest writing and clean vibrant art and lots and lots of action. Invincible Iron Man intentionally or not is the best place to start with the character if you loved the movie. Incredible Hercules comes out of World War Hulk and is a lot a more clever than it has any right to be.

Seeing as how short punchy articles tend to get more comments on here I’ll leave you with that and next time I’ll cover the DC side of things.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2008
MARK MILLAR & TONY HARRIS
Meet WAR HEROES creators Mark Millar and Tony Harris in a rare in-store appearance. Heroes Aren't Hard To Find is one of just seven stores in the country to host a leg of the "Tour of Duty" the pair is doing to promote their book, and the ONLY leg of the tour in the Southeast! This is sure to be one of our biggest store events, so don't miss out!

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2008
GEORGE A. ROMERO
In association with The Light Factory, Charlotte's museum of film and photography, and their retrospective "AMERICAN ZOMBIE: George A. Romero's Film Revolution," going on Sept 19-22 at the Light Factory. This store signing at Heroes will be Mr. Romero's sole signing of the weekend, so this is a great chance to meet a living legend of pop culture and film, before enjoying a weekend-long retrospective of his work!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2008
HARVEY PEKAR & ALLISON BECHDEL
In association with The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County's Novello Festival of Reading, meet two "Titans of the Graphic Novel." Store signing at Heroes precedes a lecture the two are giving at the ImaginOn uptown! Harvey Pekar is the writer of the AMERICAN SPLENDOR series and subject of the film of the same name; Allison Bechdel is the author of the multiple-award winning FUN HOME graphic novel.