The Hero Initiative auctions for our original Archie #600 covers have started on eBay!
Every week, we'll auction off 5-10 covers ’til all 57 have found good homes! This week: Stan Goldberg and John Romita (pictured here) along with Bill Sienkiewicz, Chris Samnee and Cliff Chaing!
Each one is a unique, ORIGINAL work of art, so don't miss your chance!
Jim McLauchlin
Ah, Arthur Suydam, King of Zombies!
The Mighty Suyd has crafted a Long Beach Comic Con exclusive zombie print for sale at the con Oct. 29-31. It'll be available for sale at BOTH the Hero Initiative booth, #300, and Suydam's table in Artist Alley. Cost is $15 per, and proceeds benefit the Hero Initiative.
C'mon. What could be be more Halloween-y?
Jim McLauchlin
The Long Beach Comic Con will be held October 29-31, 2010, at the Long Beach Convention Center, and our pals at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab have cooked up something new: Heroine!
Heroine is the first scent created specifically for The Hero Initiative, and the label art is by the fabulous Adam Hughes!
The scent features Nepalese amber, East African patchouli, dark musk, apple blossom, petitgrain, aged leather, skin musk, and rhubarb.
The Hero Initiative will be selling Heroine, as well as the Dawn, Witchblade, Sachs and Violens, and Unknown scents at Long Beach Comic Con, booth #300. Wicked Goddess herself from BPAL will be volunteering at the booth on Saturday and Sunday to help you with your BPAL needs.
Heroine will be available for $25 at the booth, and will be $26 when it goes live on the BPAL site in late November.
Jim McLauchlin
The Hero Initiative is hosting a Costume Party in conjunction with the Long Beach Comic Con! Look for it at…
• Rock Bottom Brewery, corner of Pine and Ocean, ONE block from the con!
• Saturday, October 30, at 8:00 PM!
Prizes will be awarded in different categories - best superhero, best villain, best IDW character, best BOOM! character, most creative, best Zombie and more! Start planning your costume now for this awesome event.
It's going to be incredible fun, and your $10 admission benefits the Hero Initiative, the non-profit organization that helps creators in the comic book industry in medical or financial need. It also gets you a beer. Seriously—your admission ticket also gets you one free drink!
Tickets will be sold at the Hero Initiative booth, #300, at the Long Beach Comic Con.
C'mon. It's Halloween weekend. You're gonna be dressed up already…
Jim McLauchlin
My Lunch with Joe Quesada
By Greg Pelkofski
Yes, I am the fan who spent $536.51 to have lunch with Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada. Yes, it was one of the best experiences of my short twenty-one years on this planet. Yes, it was a “dream come true.” (And I’ve had some pretty strange dreams. No joke, the night before the lunch, I had a dream where Spider-Girl was fighting the Joker in a burning building. Crazy, right?) However, this meeting was even more meaningful as I am a college student looking to break into the comic book industry after graduation.
Ever since I was a kid, I knew I wanted to work in comic books. Well, I actually wanted to be Spider-Man, but by middle school I started to realize that even if a radioactive spider did bite me, it would probably kill me, not make me stronger. In college, I started tailoring my course work to becoming a comic book editor. I even got an editorial internship at AARP The Magazine in Washington D.C., after my repeated applications for Marvel met with failure.
In 2009, during a Friday night happy hour (so many of my family’s stories start this way) my parents impulsively decided to take me to the San Diego Comic Con for my birthday. There I attended Marvel’s “Breaking Into the House of Ideas” panel. I listened as writers, artists, and editors all told their unique stories of how they got a job at Marvel. One of the panelists made the point that each person needs to find their own path into comics, and once someone blazes that path, that trail goes cold forever. I knew I needed to find my own path into comics.
Jump ahead to October 1st of this year, again during happy hour, when I told my dad about how I saw Joe Quesada post on his Twitter page an auction for The Hero Initiative. The prize was lunch with Joe at the New York Comic Con. I mentioned it would be such a great opportunity if I could make it there the next week. Maybe it was the alcohol or maybe it was his parental desire to see me happy and successful (probably the alcohol), but he told me if I paid for the auction, then he would pay for my train ticket and hotel room in NYC.
Anyway, I won the auction. The next Friday morning, Oct. 8, came around quickly. But strangely, I did not feel nervous. I felt confident that the lunch would go well. Armed only with my knowledge of comics that comes from owning and reading over 3,700 of them, and with a pocket full of business cards, I set out to meet Joe Quesada at Five Napkin Burger in Hell’s Kitchen.
My first thought while waiting at the restaurant was “if this is Hell’s Kitchen, where’s Daredevil’s Japanese fortress?” No sign of the fortress, but shortly after noon Joe Quesada came in, escorted by fellow Hero Initiative Executive/Fund Raising Board member, Jim McLauchlin. Now, only seconds away from shaking Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief’s hand, the man who led my favorite comic book company through some of it’s best stories and made me want to work in comics even more, I was suddenly nervous. But I put on a smile and stuck out my hand, and with a firm shake introduced myself to one of my role models.
Almost immediately, Joe began asking me questions about myself and I was able to explain my desire to be a comic book editor. With an attentive ear, he patiently listened to me speak of my college studies and my experience as an intern at AARP. He explained how tough it is to actually break into comics, especially in today’s job market, but he also told of how rewarding the work is. We discussed editorial work in comics and what a typical day at Marvel is like, and I found myself wanting to work there now more than ever. (Also, finding out that I wouldn’t have to wear a suit and tie to work was a huge bonus.)
Soon, my inner nerd broke loose and I had to ask some questions about the comics that I enjoy so much. I listened as Joe explained his reasoning behind “annulling” Peter Parker’s marriage to Mary Jane (also the name of my cat), after which I completely understood why he made that decision. I also got some insight into the timeline of the Marvel Universe that appeared in a two-page spread in Avengers #5.
Throughout lunch, Joe and Jim told some funny stories of their experience in comics. Their stories just made me want to work with these people who sounded so similar to myself and with whom I felt a common geeky connection. Though, I seemed to have the last laugh when I said that I paid for the auction with my profits as an investor after Disney bought Marvel.
Nearly 90 minutes and one big-ass burger later, it was time for Joe and Jim to move on to their next scheduled events. Both were surprised when I said that I did not have a NYCC pass and came up only for the lunch. Jim let me borrow his pass for the afternoon so I could get into the convention and Joe introduced me to a few of Marvel’s staff. Joe and I got our picture taken together at the Marvel booth. It was an unexpected bonus in an incredible day.
While I realize I face great odds at being hired by Marvel straight out of college, I do believe this was one of the best opportunities I’ve had to help realize my dream of becoming an editor. More importantly, I had a great time and got to support the Hero Initiative, which helps the comic book creators who have provided me and countless others so much joy over the years. So, thank you Hero Initiative and Jim McLauchlin for setting up the auction in the first place. Thank you Joe Quesada for meeting me and listening to my little dream of being an editor. Thank you mom and dad for supporting me and my dream by paying my way to New York. And thanks to the comic creators for the heroes they made.
Greg Pelkofski
Those of you attending the Long Beach Comic Con or residing in the Los Angeles area should absolutely check out, RIGHT NOW, what is bound to be the combination seafood-social event of the season!
Hero Initiative is hosting a private party on FRI., 29 OCT at 5 PM where you can enjoy booze, banter, and stuff that used to swim in the ocean at Gladstone's, just a few blocks away from the Long Beach Convention Center. Now take it from a man with a gut: I have eaten many a finny critter in my time, and Gladstone's serves up about the best!
In addition to writer/artist Jimmy Palmiotti, pictured above, you also get to hand-and-bang with:
Power Girl artist Amanda Conner!
Occasional comic writer and star of the new TV series Hung, Tom Jane!
The Right Rev. Dave Johnson who's both an artist and an ordained minister. He can marry you and stuff!
And Tim Bradstreet, another amazing artist whose Punisher and Hellblazer covers have blown us all away!
So check it out on eBay right now! You'll be glad ya did!
Jim McLauchlin
Because some ideas are so good, you just have to repeat them…
The great folks at Ford Motor Co. donated another $5000 to Hero Initiative at the recently completed New York Comic Con in support of the launch of the new Ford Fiesta. This is in addition to the $5000 they already ponied up at Baltimore Comic Con. And for this, we thank them tremendously. Those of you checking the weather have probably noticed party cloudy with a chance of job loss and budget-tightening, so the Hero coffers have been tapped into at a slightly more rapid pace these days. We just finished dashing off a few smallish checks to Gene Colan, Ed Hannigan, and a few other guys, with, I'm sure, more down the pike.
The kindness and generosity Ford has shown us, and the comics world as a whole, in an outta-the-blue way is truly remarkable. Makes me wanna throw away my Acura. But I gotta drive it today. And special props to Brian K. Vaughan for pointing them in our direction in the first place.
Up top: Ford's check presentation at New York con. Ugly dude on the left is me, followed by Patrick Dorrington, Marketing Development Manager of Ford, and of course, the inimitable Mark Waid, writer of Irredeemable, Amazing Spider-Man, and every other comic you love.
As always, you can check out the new Fiesta at www.thefordcast.com and catch them a-Twittering as well.
Jim McLauchlin
And the winner of Hero's 2010 Membership Photo Contest is…Roch Vaillancourt of Orlando, FL. For nothin' more than being a Hero member and sending us a photo, Roch scored this custom Black Widow art from comic legend John Romita Sr.!
Keep yer eyes peeled, folks. Info on Hero's 2011 Membership program will be coming SOON. Like, say, late October-ish.
Jim McLauchlin
The Hero Initiative
11301 Olympic Blvd., #587
Los Angeles, CA 90064
818-776-1918
Want to donate NOW? Do it through PayPal!
