You’ve heard me complain (and complain and complain and complain) about supposed “Comic Cons” that focus almost exclusively on stars of stage, screen, and TV not a whole lot about comic books. I heard a lot about HeroesCon being a comic focused Con. It was started and is still run by a local comic shop owner in 1982 and has stuck to a vision of what the term Comic Con means. All I know is next time in Charlotte, I want to stop by his shop which I have also heard is amazing.
Day 1 (Friday) Welcome to Valhalla, Mecca, Heaven, Brigadoon, Shangri-La, Neverland… you get the idea:
After driving in and picking up my badge on Thursday, I woke up ready to take on the Con. I had a few specific goals, mostly dealing with getting something’s signed by artists who I don’t get to see that often. I brought some books out of my library and collection to get signed. I also had some commissions I was hoping to get.
Lugging around books can be exhausting and with my hotel a half mile away I was already adding to the aches & pains that come with being old. I decided to only bring half, focusing on those artists listed as only being at the con Friday & Saturday.
I waited in line to get in (I had not paid for the VIP badge that would let me in early) and overheard conversations. Conversations about COMIC BOOKS! If people bc were talking about who they saw it was a comic book creator, not some guy who played that one guy it that show. Jim Steranko seems to get around because most sighting were of him, at breakfast, at Whole Foods…
Once they started letting us into the hall I tried to orient myself. I had written down the table numbers of my short list and just wanted to lay eyes on each location. I stopped by David Petersen’s table to get on his commission list. I was hoping for a Rocketeer Mouse, but David sadly informed me that he no longer was doing mice as someone else’s character. I completely understand. Especially after having drawn over 365 different monkeys. While I own a page from Mouseguard Winter 1152 I had my heart set on a commission. I asked him instead to do a science fiction mouse- and as with all my requests, that was it besides a “have fun.” I had no idea what I’d end up with, but knowing Dave’s skill and artistry it will be awesome. I then went over to see Tony Harris who I had asked about a commission once he announced opening his list online. I checked in and as best I could do chatted with Tony & Becky (after missing out on talking to Dave Stevens so many years ago, I embraced my inner “Bob” and tried to get over being an socially awkward introvert) it was awesome because Tony also had back issues of Ex Machina and I was missing issue 7 (How could I be missing one issue from the entire run?🙄). Then I wandered still looking for certain people while checking out each booth. The numbering scheme was a bit weird and table numbers tended to be covered by art, or just the normal table set up. What I noticed was the large number of comic sellers who had… comic books! Not just any comics, but really cool ones. Then I started to see so many… weird comics? Not weird, but ones the regular “Muggle” wouldn’t understand. For example almost every booth had a row of comics with Dave Stevens covers!
When I think about going to a con I’ve always imagined walking up to a booth, flipping through a long box and finding one of my grail issues. I’ve always been disappointed. Booths usually have the big titles, those popular with the general public. Here I started looking and was face to face with comics I had never seen. Now I had to actually think about which issues I’m missing and what I want to actually buy. So many holes that could be filled. I was good, and probably overwhelmed so I didn’t buy that much.
Then you have the artists… so many amazing artists (over 400). I know I wouldn’t have time to see everything and everyone the first day and was , of course, carrying around books I wanted signed by artists I either couldn’t find or weren’t going to arrive until two.
I headed up to my first session, a presentation on Dynamic Figure Drawing by an anatomy professor from SCAD. It was great! While I won’t completely change my style I learned a lot that will inform my approach to drawing. I hung around for the next session which was a focus on character building. We went through an exercise dealing with creating an antagonist and protagonist for a story we haven’t really worked through. I focused on a science fiction story I’d been thinking about and was very pleased with what I came up with. Will this become something I do more of? Maybe… I like the concept, but it still needs a lot of work.
Upon returning to the hall I wandered some more, a lot of the usual suspects at cons this size were noticeably missing. There weren’t that many places selling props, or t-shirts. Yes, there was a booth selling foam swords, and another with martial arts weapons, no one exclusively selling light sabers. The art was tame compared to some of the gore filled, soft pornography that will be the focus of many booths at comic cons. Again I was blown away by the shear number of people selling comic books.
At the end I checked in with Tony and saw my almost finished Rocketeer ❤️❤️❤️. Then headed out to see about dinner and maybe an Adventure Lab. Dinner won out and I headed next to the Drink & Draw.
Drinking and Drawing: a perfect combination especially for a good cause.
Drink & Draw is a an event in which attendees get coasters and then draw on them. Coasters are $1 each and 6 for $5. Supplies are available and you drink (cash bar) and draw. The coasters are then sold. All proceeds go to Parkinson’s research. Coasters (and other art) are divided onto tables $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, and if you have to ask you probably can’t afford it. You were supposed to turn your coasters into a table where their value would be determined. I didn’t know and just dropped mine on the $5 table. While drawing, I had a great conversation with an AP Science teacher and felt sorry for the guy she was with. Get two teachers together and all we they talk about is school. It was great to think -” “not my problem”, but sadly also how bad things are around the country and how education is just the “Peter Principle” in action. At the time I didn’t buy any coasters, the ones I looked at were a bit out of my price range.
Day 2 (Saturday) but wait, there’s more:
After a nice breakfast at the hotel I walked the half mile to the convention center and got there a little over an hour before the show started. Waiting in line listening to people talk about this being the only true “Comic” convention. The idea seemed to be that Heroes Con is 100% Comic Books, Baltimore Comic Con is about 90%, Mega Con in Florida is the next in line according to these folks, and everything else has evolved into a star studded photo-op con calling itself a “Comic Con.” I was amazed at the number of people who did podcasts, and had YouTube channels greeting each other and talking shop while I listened in.
I decided once I got in, to see about the line for Skottie Young. I had been a fan since he had done the art in Marvel’s The Wizard of Oz adaptations. I even have a flying monkey drawn when I first saw him at C2E2 and picked up a page from an Oz book at another Con. The day before, I saw the line and tried to jump in, but was told by a volunteer that they were marking the end. On Saturday, there was a nice family in front of me that made me realize more than ever that this isn’t a hobby for everyone. I had three comics I wanted Skottie to sign. Basically the latest issues of Spider-Boy, Miles Morales: Spider-Man, and Amazing Spider-Man. Marvel had put out Skottie Young variant covers of pretty much every comic this month and I figured I had these open my pull list- why not? The guy in front of me was an online reseller, he had brought 50 comics (the limit announced online) for Skottie to sign. These were multiple copies of various issues. From what I understood talking to them they had driven from Michigan for the day. These were strictly for resale, and I kept hearing about how much they would be worth. Now when you get something signed it used to be free. Now it costs something. If you buy something at the table, whatever you buy usually comes with a signature, if you bring something in… it is about $5 or more per book and some artists will limit the number of books you can bring. To me I kinda feels like this is turning comic books into Beanie Babies. I’ve been collecting comics since I was in 3rd grade. I don’t care if it’s popular, for me it’s the character, the art, the story. Just because Wolverine and Deadpool are the latest big thing, doesn’t mean I running out to buy them. So I had to chuckle at this guy and his poor family waiting in line. Will he make a killing? Probably, I hope so. Trends will shift and popular artists will stop being popular as new artists move up the ranks. After an hour or so in line, Skottie did sign my three issues, since I didn’t have the signatures witnessed, and the comics graded and bricked, thy probably aren’t worth anymore than they would be normally, but…
I spent a lot of time trying to hunt down certain creators and once I figured out how end caps were considered in the grand scheme of things it made it easier. One of those was Howard Chaykin. Funny thing was I had run into Howard a couple of times, but couldn’t find his table. I had my copy of American Flagg #1 and The Scorpion #1 I wanted him to sign. Fortunately he was doing a presentation in the afternoon so I started there. Howard Chaykin is one of my crazy heroes. He’s blunt, honest, and has done some amazing comics that definitely aren’t for kids. I was introduced to him in the 1980’s with American Flagg which has sadly gone on to foretell some of the crud we deal with now. The artwork was unique for time and it was (for a kid in high school and college) just a wonderfully dystopian view of society. Howard’s session was wonderful but filled with enough adult content and words, I won’t quote anything here. It was amusing when someone with a family tried to sneak in towards the end (probably to get a seat for the next session) and Howard and the moderator both told them they needed to leave, this was not a kid friendly session.
The second session I attended was on lettering. I recall my first New York Comic Con when Webcomics were just hitting their peak and I attended Webcomics Boot Camp. They critiqued my comics and the biggest issue (besides me not monetizing the strip) was my lettering. The exact comment was “Lettering is an art” with the insinuation that I did not have those skills. So they recommended I just use a hand writing font, which I have done ever since. This session was very educational in that I learned so much about what I didn’t know when it came to the history and importance of role of Letterers in comics. I’m still soaking it all in and will try to improve what I do. Will it actually work? Probably not, but I have the time to try.
I kind of rushed around after that trying to check out tables, and booths I had missed. Found some really cool stuff and even bought a page from JL8, a webcomic I had followed for years. When I buy an actual page, it is for two reasons- first I like the art, but secondly I want to see the process the artist goes through. In this case, it’s the end of an arc, but what I got to see was how the page was put together, and (after a session on lettering) how Yale did his lettering. The blue line, the layout, everything is on the page for me to see.
The Auction
The day ended with the Auction. The proceeds go to charity and to help offset the cost of the Con. A three day badge for HeroesCon costs the same as one day at New York Comic Con. Some artists also asked that the proceeds from the sale of their piece got to Heroes Initiative or to Parkinson’s research, so It isn’t just for the Con. A number of these pieces of art were actually created onsite, there was a stage in which artists would come up and create artwork in front of everyone. There were so many amazing pieces of artwork and the hardest part was just time, I’m getting old and tired out to too fast. I also looked at all the pieces and I kept thinking I just purchased three original pieces of art. Did I really need another one? Was there anything out there that was just calling out to me, the Chris Giarusso Spider-Man was amazing. I had Chris on my list, but he was busy drawing when I walked by. Scottie Young’s Deadpool and Wolverine was cool, but they aren’t characters I really have an interest in. They may be popular, but… There were a lot of pieces there that made me think “Wow I’d love to have them,” but I had to think where would I put these? I decided that maybe I didn’t need to bid, so I wanted to just see what the prices are going for, I left early, around 10 o’clock. They were trying to get through as many lots as possible with that happening, things went a lot cheaper than I thought they would. While I was there some pieces went for a couple thousand dollars, but the majority of pieces came in between $250-$500 each which really, for original art, isn’t that much. I now wish i had hung around a little bit longer and would love to have known when they actually closed everything down, but I’m old and my inner introvert needed time to be alone and recharge.
Day 3 (Sunday) on the road again:
While I have a chance to head back today is also a travel day. While I love cons, I also love being home and taking all this creative energy and doing something with it. Usually, if it is a travel day I just want to get from point A to point B. While I enjoy traveling, I miss my cats. I’d also say I miss Sue, but I know she’s out caching and even though I was about 9 hours away, I thought I might just beat her home (for the record she beat me home by 30 minutes- if only I hadn’t stopped at Buc-ee’s!). My whole thing, which annoys Sue, is when it comes down to a travel day that’s what I want to do – get home or to the next destination. So while I considered going back to the con on Sunday I decided instead I would just go home and at about 8:30ish Sunday morning I popped in the MINI and started heading home via a different route, which was through Asheville, North Carolina instead of going back through West Virginia. The thing I found is, this is Sunday and this is the South so it gave me a reason to not stop. Since when I hit Asheville most of the places that I would want to stop wouldn’t be open until long after I pass them so that it makes me just go straight and deadhead home. Note: the Sevierville Buc-ee’s is a zoo with horrible traffic and bigger crowds or at least more people squished together than I saw at HeroesCon. The Richmond Kentucky Buc-ee’s was better, but still had numerous people thinking the gas pumps were parking places. 🙄
Overall Impressions
It was amazing, I’ve been to many Cons over the years and this was by far the best when it comes to Comic Books. Early on C2E2 and San Diego were great, but they have morphed into pop culture cons. HeroesCon was exactly what I, as a comic book fanboy, need. The fans are just that, fans. They love the medium of comics and it shows. I haven’t mentioned the cosplayers, not because they weren’t there or they weren’t great, but they weren’t “Professional.” They were fans who loved a character enough to dress up as them. You could see the love put into their costumes, not the perfection (although some were amazing), but the hours of love. These are people who if you asked about their character would be able to tell you their favorite story, not that it came from a video game they like.
(Right) Squirrel Girl cosplay for my friend Janet
I loved the fact that unlike a lot of Cons there were no media stars, no wrestlers, no towers of t-shirts, no one calling me to their table to give me a hard sell about their comic or whatever they were selling. There was an understanding, a mutual respect between the participants that you know what you wanted and would stop and look if something caught your eye. If you had questions you’d ask. It was a small town comic con- the kind that is usually housed at the VFW, on steroids. Those cons might have the local comic book creator at a table, here you had over 400 creators.
Will I be back? Most definitely. Although this tends to fall the same weekend as A2CAF, and Brickworld, along with numerous other events I like, I see myself making HeroesCon a priority. While I like A2CAF and Brickworld, both are more tied to my past life as an educator. So as I look at the calendar, HeroesCon 2025 June 20-22 has been penciled in.
Sue and I talk about retiring to someplace when the time comes… We’ve considered North Carolina for decades now. We started to create a rubric of what places needed and HeroesCon ticks the “Geek” box for me. Unfortunately every place we look at then gets mentioned in some magazine or website as a great place to retire and the prices shoot up. Next time I go, I’ll still come in the night before, but I think I will get a hotel room for Sunday also. Maybe in Asheville on the way home, just so I don’t have my typical travel day anxiety and a reason to stop by some of my favorite places the area.
