Get thee to PopCons for great convention pics!

All the cool kids know: If you want to see the best in comic conventions and all they have to offer—including creators, celebrities, art, costumes and more—PopCons.com is your one-stop source. They now have decades worth of photos from great conventions. Heck, you can even see Howard Chaykin wearing glasses that look like they've been repurposed into lenses from the Hubble telescope.

And of course, Hero has its mighty presence, including pics from the "Avengers Mansion" party at Chicago's C2E2 con (above). That's writer/artist Phil Hester and our lovely bottle girls.

And from the C2E2 floor, artists Gordon Purcell, John McCrea, and Hero volunteer Maryann Borelli.

And of course, ALL the great "100 Avengers" cover!

So check it out! PopCons is like Flickr, but without all those annoying pictures of someone's cat!

Jim McLauchlin

Overstreet #41 Cover…the Process!

Process junkies of the world…unite! We give you the step-by-step on the STELLAR Hero-exclusive Overstreet #41 cover that will be available at this year's San Diego con!

(And ya know what? No one guessed that that's what this piece was for!)

It starts, of course, with the gorgeous pencils and amazing attention to detail of the inimitable John Romita!

John, being a man of great taste and distinction, specifically requested the legendary Tom Palmer to provide the inks, and Tom did so, adding AMAZING tones to the piece as well!And as both Messrs. Romita and Palmer are no one's fool, they wanted none other than Dean White to do the colors, and Dean did the whole group proud!


And once the folks over at Gemstone Publishing got through with the trade dress, we had ourselves a full cover!


More announcements soon, and in the meantime…set aside $35 for San Diego, huh? This'll be your FIRST chance to lay paws on this great exclusive-covered edition of the hobby's essential reference guide!

Jim McLauchlin

Hero Memorial Day sale at Phoenix Comicon!

Hero Initiative will be wheelin' and dealin' at the Phoenix Comicon over a looooong weekend, May 26-29 at the Phoenix Convention Center and Hyatt Regency in downtown Phoenix. Look for special sales on TONS of Hero merch, with savings of up to 80% off regular prices!

Get there, save a buck, help the cause, and walk away with some cool swag!

Jim McLauchlin

John Romita/Tom Palmer art; take a guess!

Splendid, splendid, splendid stuff from two masters: John Romita and Tom Palmer!

Anyone wanna guess what this is for? You'll find out soonly…

Jim McLauchlin

Joe Madureira Ultimates art up for auction!

Joe Madureira is a heckuva nice guy. So much so, that a couple years ago, he donated some of his Ultimates 3 pages to Hero Initiative. Now Joe parts with his originals very dearly—it's a rarity when he lets them go. But he gave a few to us ’cause…well, as mentioned, he's a heckuva nice guy.

The others were auctioned of a couple years ago at New York Comic Con, but we still have a two-page spread featuring Wolverine and dinosaurs up for auction right now at the mighty ComicArtFans.com. Check it out!

I mean…Wolverine and dinosaurs. What else is there, really?

Jim McLauchlin

Hero members FREEBIE at San Jose con, May 21-22!

Folks,
As we're such nice fellas, we love to show a li'l love to our Hero Initiative members. So if you're one of the anointed few, all you have to do is flash your Hero membership card at the San Jose Big Wow Comic Fest May 21-22 and get a FREE super-cool print!

You choose from Frank Cho's Howard the Duck, Dan Brereton’s Iron Fist, or the Terry Moore/Matt Wagner Strangers in Paradise/Grendel! All them thar artists just mentioned will be the the con, so you can get yours signed RIGHT at the show!

If you’re not already a Hero Initiative member, NO problem! You can join at our booth, #605/607, and get one of these precious prints on the spot as a free membership bonus.

Jim McLauchlin

Hero product sale at Atomic!

Folks,
Books, button, prints, you-name-it. Practically the whole durned Hero product catalog is on sale this month at Hero's store at Atomic Comics!

Heck, you can get Hero Comics for a mere 80 cents! Five-buck T-shirts! Hop to it! Sale runs through May 31, so get in while the gettin's good!

Jim McLauchlin

If you buy ONE thing on Free Comic Book Day…

…make it this:
The Spider-Man print, limited edition of 250 pieces. Autographed by artist Josh Medors at $25, autographed by BOTH Medors and Spidey co-creator Stan "The Man" Lee at $100.

Health permitting, Josh will be at Packrat Comics in Hilliard, OH in suburban Columbus, on Free Comic Book Day, May 7.

You can also order via Packrat's blog.

Thanks!

Jim McLauchlin

Hero Comics 2011 is coming, Sam Kieth preview!

Folks,
Hero Comics 2011 is on its way, courtesy our pals at IDW Publishing!

As part of the festivities, Editor Scott Dunbier is "putting the band back together," reuniting the ORIGINAL Sandman creative team of Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg. That trio will be doing an all-original story for the book, and one-third of that team will be taking you behind the scenes.

Sam Kieth has finished a nine-page story for Hero Comics 2011 all about putting the three ol' collaborators back together. Up above, an unlettered preview of the first three pages. It's a bit allegorical.

One guess who the little kid is.
One guess who the koala bear is.
One guess who the black cat is.

You can read the whole thing, plus the Gaiman-Kieth-Dringenberg story, PLUS an original "Chew" story by John Layman and Rob Guillory, PLUS an original "Elephantman" story by Richard Starkings and Doug Braithwaite and more in Hero Comics 2011 in late June!

Jim McLauchlin