Comic Fans, don't miss Heroes Convention 2009!

There's not much for this blog to do on Thursday's -- the deadline for the caption contest has passed and the new winner won't be announced until tomorrow -- so this might be a good day to plug the best event in Charlotte for fans of cartoons and comic art.  It's the HeroesCon 2009, the huge, annual comic book convention sponsored by Charlotte's Heroes Aren't Hard to Find comic shop and superbly organized by its tireless proprietor, Shelton Drum.  This year's guests will include many of the top names in the business, tons of dealers, and lots of seminars and events.

Two events in particular might be of interest to fans of this site.  The first is The Art of the Comic Strip, at 1:30 pm Friday.  Andy Mansell sits down with some of the greats of strip cartooning, including Richard Thompson (Cul De Sac), Jim Scancarelli (Gasonline Alley), Marcus Hamilton (Dennis the Menace), and June Brigman (Brenda Starr). Don't miss this look into one of America's oldest and most unique artforms, the newspaper strip!

The second is at 3 pm Saturday: A STEVE DITKO CELEBRATION!  Midnight Sun cartoonist Ben Towle  and Thought Balloonist blogger Craig Fischer host an extensive tribute to one of the most creative and  enigmatic figures in comics: Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko! The first hour will be a screening of Jonathan Ross’s provocative BBC documentary In Search of Steve Ditko (2007), featuring interviews with John Romita, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and other high-profile Ditko fans. Following the documentary, two comics legends who worked extensively with Ditko--writer/editor Roy Thomas and artist/editor Dick Giordano--will share their memories of the man and his art. The tribute ends with Ben, Craig, and cartoonist/educator Chris Schweizer (Crogan's Vengeance) analyzing their favorite Ditko pages and dissecting Ditko’s contributions to comics history. (Well, ok, maybe this isn't the cup of tea of most who like to write captions for political cartoons, but Ditko was the guy whose Spider-man made me want to be a cartoonist -- so I know I don't want to miss this!)

There's also an original comic art auction at the Westin Hotel Saturday night.  For more info, admission fees, a complete list of guests and events, check out their web site at http://www.heroesonline.com