I'll be doing a longer report later, but before I hit the road, I wanted to highlight a few things that I think folks should do/buy if they will be at Heroes today. And really, if you are within a short drive of Charlotte and you are a comics fan, get down here and spend your Sunday afternoon with some of the best people in the industry.
Get some sketches! I never did a lot with sketches until this year, and now that I've started, I'm totally hooked. If you want to go upscale, you can get plenty of sketches from the biggest names in comics this weekend. Prefer (as I do) to generally stay small press? Just about anyone with a mini-comic is willing to take five minutes to doodle something for you. Either way, you're sure to be entertained and come home with great memories and conversation.
Sit in on the webcomics panels. My biggest regret is that I won't get to stay for the webcomic panels being held today, but the alternative is getting home sometime around "Oh God I have to work Monday o'clock" so I am doing the sensible thing and going home. However, if you are at Heroes today, please listen to everyone from Chris Sims to Joey Weiser talk about the craft of webcomics.
Grab fliers from the webcomics folks. Speaking of webcomics, there are quite a few people at Heroes this weekend who are working hard to display their work on the web. While you might not be sure enough about a particular webcomic to buy things from them today (but you should if you can or it looks cool!), most of them have fliers for their comics that you can take with you and check out later. I've found plenty of great comics that way that are now regulars in my RSS feed.
Pick up some mini-comics anthologies. There are several good candidates here, and all of them are very affordable. Mini-comic anthologies are a great way to test the waters and see if you like these really, really small press efforts. My personal recommendations this year based on my purchases yesterday are the FLUKE anthologies and the Dollar Bin anthologies. They contain a wide variety of styles to let you see what these under-the-radar folks can do. Some of them are even at the show, so if you want more, you can find them!
Take 20 bucks and take a chance. Budget twenty dollars today to use to buy stuff that looks interesting but isn't in your comfort zone. Maybe it's a sketchbook. Maybe it's a kid's book, to see what all-ages is all about. Maybe it's to get a sketch. Maybe it's a mini-comic with a hand-drawn cover. For some of you, that means buying an Image book. Whatever it is, do it! Live a little! Experience unfamiliar comics--you might just find something you'll come to love.
Heroes is a wonderful show. Whatever you do, you'll have a blast. Enjoy your Sunday, and hopefully, I'll see you all next year!
