Heroes Con 2003

My vision field is filled by an enormous HULK banner, over the dais where the art auction will be held. Everyone is leisurely arriving, because it's a Friday morning at a North Carolina show-- there's just no need- wait, let me say it Southern- there's no sense in rushing around yet. I see a Goth with a straw cowboy hat on, and am filled with pride in my Southern origins.

Shelton Drum runs a tight ship, and takes no sass from the artists.

A Misfire
Newsarama's Matt Brady comes by the table to collect me, we have an interview panel at noon to do. Way Unfortunate Scheduling, first thing on a Friday. And Dustin Harbin is fighting a losing battle on the intercom trying to tell people about it. He was practically

Davey: an audience of one.

Now, here's some collectibles I didn't know about- and they're fully detailed!


				By Jeff Parker
	Preshow signing at Silver Bullet Before the weekend began I headed over to Silver Bullet Comics in Winston-Salem. Owner Alan Davis also has a shop in the foothills of Wilkesboro, and is poised to create another store in some lucky town. His theory on the main thing that will make the comics industry grow, is the creation of new shops in unserviced towns capable of supporting them. In short, Alan wants to see a program that will help prospective comics shop owners learn the ropes of retail and startup, obtain financial support, and some initial deferment on expenses by publishers and distributors towards building inventory. His own store is a fine example of why it's a good idea-- before he opened, no shop was serving Winston-Salem (home of Wake Forest University) and now there's another regular source of income for publishers and Diamond. Also impressive was that several times I saw parents bringing children into the store, and leaving with books. Davis has a good location by the nicer movie theatres in town, and also does TV promotion, which helps. He also has plenty more opinions about the comics business and if you stop in, you'll hear them. I'll link his site when he puts it back up, which may require some agreement between him and Silver Bullet Comic Books.com, which used that name despite him already owning Silver Bullet Comics.com . I'm sure they'll resolve things without resorting to fisticuffs, as this is a civil business. Now to get rested up. Tomorrow is my return to North Carolina's premiere comics show, Heroes. Since moving out West, I haven't been in three years. Will Doctor Scuba still be there? Do they still drink sweet tea?

		To the Queen City I got a nice early start on I-85 heading down to Charlotte Friday morning. There was no mistaking that I was back in the south. A car in the next lane had it's back window filled with the text "The Intimidator is gone, but his legend lives on" (The Intimidator was NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, by the way).
Most just had Calvin Pissing stickers in the back, and because it's the Bible Belt, a few had Calvin Praying. The most important feature on the NC highways for me is America's finest fast food chain, Bojangles, where I had a proper breakfast. Their biscuits and tea were an important part of my comics-reading routine. Downtown Charlotte is always impressive. It's one of the cleanest downtowns you'll ever see, with interesting architecture to boot.
The official hotel for the show this year was The Westin, conveniently located right-dang-behind the convention center. Heroes locked the Westin into a $69 rate for the next three years, which is unbelievable. Ask anyone who's ever roomed with me of what a cheapskate I am, and how I never care about how nice the room is. That was before I checked into my Westin room. The rooms are incredible. The most comfortable hotel bed I've ever been on, with a big plush comforter. The easy chair was nice enough to sleep on, and the tv's had webbrowsing. It took some willpower to leave the room and go set up at the convention.
In the Main Hall Walking in I see Shelton Drum, the proprietor of Heroes Aren't Hard to Find and man who landed that great hotel rate. He's making sure everyone has a place to set up and that things start smoothly. His wife Cynthia is handing out exhibitor badges (that hang around the neck rather than ruin your shirt with pins, the rest of you show promoters) and listening to the excuses of people who didn't register in time.
			My vision field is filled by an enormous HULK banner, over the dais where the art auction will be held. Everyone is leisurely arriving, because it's a Friday morning at a North Carolina show-- there's just no need- wait, let me say it Southern- there's no sense in rushing around yet. I see a Goth with a straw cowboy hat on, and am filled with pride in my Southern origins.


Shelton Drum runs a tight ship, and takes no sass from the artists.
"It's pronounced GUY-Jen" The creative backbone of the Heroes show is still Gaijin Studios from Atlanta, and the Core Four--Cully Hamner, Adam Hughes, Brian Stelfreeze and Karl Story are set up at the edge of Artist Alley. In fact, Phil Noto abandons the table next between me and Casey Jones to get in on that Gaijin action. I think back to roughly 10 years ago when we were all kids in propeller beanies and the constant activity surrounding their team when they were up to their fullest complement-- I think at the time they also had Tony Harris, Dave Johnson, Jason Pearson and Joe Phillips. Back then each show day would close with the boys breaking out the hackysack or running around playing grabass or something fun. Now they're a little more reserved, except for Saturday (see photos further down). Gaijin must be the longest running artist's collective in comics by now, which is a real accomplishment. Anybody who's been part of a studio knows how hard it is to fit multiple egos and their reference books into one space, and keep everyone paying their share of rent and phone bills in the unstable workworld of comics. This makes me reflect on my old studio which recently gave up the ghost. No, too sad... I'll come back to that later.
A Misfire Newsarama's Matt Brady comes by the table to collect me, we have an interview panel at noon to do. Way Unfortunate Scheduling, first thing on a Friday. And Dustin Harbin is fighting a losing battle on the intercom trying to tell people about it. He was practically
		Davey: an audience of one.
screaming into the microphone, but the acoustics of the hall swallowed up his announcements. Thanks to catching somebody as we walked upstairs, we have an audience... Davey from Fanboy Comics in Wilmington. But Davey listens well as Matt and I babble on about my book and how to widen the playing field of comics. After our big event, Matt makes sure all copies I sell have a Newsarama bookmark in them and then sets off after comics news.
				Across from me is girly artist Thomas Fleming. That refers to his art, Tom is actually quite manly. Tom updates me on life down at the NC coast, and the news that one of his prints will be made into a Franklin Mint sculpture. The rest of the weekend is full of people slobbering on his prints, most of which are fantasy. Which reminds me..
				One of the premier Phantasy artists of the Boris Vallejo- sword wielding, women with wings- tentacle- school had a booth, the creator known as Rowena. I think lots of people were curious but afraid to ask her about her recent brush with infamy.
	When American soldiers captured one of the palaces of Saddam Hussein (or his boy Uday, I forget), much erotica was found along with some prominently featured Rowena paintings. She was horrified, but comics fans today were happy to have a taste of Iraqi royal life mixed in with their bootleg videos and back issues. Did I say bootleg? I must be wrong, I'm sure those discs of Matrix:Reloaded were on the up and up.
Show announcer Dusty comes over to the table to ask why Matt and I weren't at our panel. Now the haze lifts, and with clarity I realize that we went to the wrong room. A small crowd seems to have emerged from nowhere to laugh en masse at me. Dusty reschedules the panel for 4, and broadcasts it repeatedly, though now we can't find Brady. Soon up in room 201 I stand before a group of people waiting for me to say something revelatory. In fact, someone did ask me the secret to longevity, and I posited a strategy for eliminating Free Radicals. Tired of my snake oil, Patrick Hulman moves up to the front seat and conducts the interview himself. And does a very good job. We talked about how dealing with Hollywood works, plans for volume 2 of Interman, a possible Tales of the Slayer I might do for Dark Horse and a Vampirella short I'm currently doing for Harris Comics. I also explained vague references in past con reports. So if I make any in this one, come to a panel sometime. People started filing in for a panel by Future Comics, so we all got the hell out of there. I pick up a copy of Parliament of Justice from Neil Vokes, written by his pal Mike Oeming. The art in this is just terrific, Neil did a lot of washes over drawings inspired by Hammer horror films. Buy the originals from this if you see him at a show, before he raises his prices.
Nana Puddin I meet with Robin writer Jon Lewis for eats, and he introduces me to Rich Tommaso of Rollercoaster and Clover Honey, and Cartoon Network's Chris Waldron. Dusty told us there were food choices down by the Heroes store, so we rode out that way. By dumb luck we found a restaurant called Lupie's that had Southern dishes with odd twists to them, and it was gooood. Chris and I were especially happy that 'nana puddin' was on the dessert menu. We all discussed the recent Fantagraphics rally for sales and when Jon was going to get back to making more True Swamp volumes. Rich told us about his latest story 8 1/2 Ghosts, inspired by the idea of Fellini's 8 1/2 colliding with William Castle's 13 Ghosts. Coming out from Alternative Comics in December, I might add.
			Now, here's some collectibles I didn't know about- and they're fully detailed!
Continue to the exciting events of Saturday.