Heroes Con

[Tom]

I hate that i've missed Heroes Con. Again. This time it was due to mandatory overtime and Father's Day (my dad's not a comic book reader). Every year i intend to go, and every year the date passes and i've missed it. There's only a few people there i'd like to meet-- Tony Harris, David Mack, Mark Waid, and maybe Jeff Smith and Casey Jones (to see if i could get him to draw me a train)-- and i haven't actively or regularly read comics in years. Still, it would have been nice to go look through the booths, see if i could find some old issues of Badger or Nesus, and just see what's out there now*. Dammit.











*I would NOT have sought out the booth that always has an old tape of the FF movie Marvel supposedly bought the distribution rights for and suppressed because it was so bad. I've seen bits. It's not just bad, it's worse.

[Rusty]

I'm assuming these are all non-mainstream comics and artists you're mentioning, because I don't recognize any of it. I think the only non-mainstream I liked was The Heckler, which didn't last very long. I still read comics, but only because the two library systems that are nearby are well-stocked. I think it would be interesting to hit one of those conventions, but from what I hear they're prety expensive.

[Kasia]

I was to a manga comic con once - so not my thing. I got bored even before we went in. You had to spend half a day waiting in line, being ogled by some dressed up freaks, just to get through the door. Where's the the fun in that? Never again will I let people drag me to such a thing.

[Tom]

Rusty, David Mack is writer and artist for Kabuki, Tony Harris did the 90s Starman comic, and Mark Waid was a writer for The Flash and (i think) creator of the Implulse character who had his own DC title for a while. He also wrote the Kingdom Come mini series, which was pretty good. Those 2nd two, then, are/were mainstream. Kabuki not so mainstream, but i think Mack has done some mainstream stuff. Jeff Smith wrote Bone which i'm not a HUGE fan of, which is why i said maybe. Nexus and Badger were both by Mike Baron/Steve Rude and originally published by First Comics. Nexus is an assassin, sort of, with god-like powers, sort of, who rules a planet. The Badger is costumed hero with 7 personalities (well...the Badger is one of the 7). I think it's hilarious, but my sense of humor is suspect. Casey Jones i don't know anything at all about, except for the whole train thing.

The tickets for the con were $15 for one day, $30 for all three. Not cheap, but not all that pricy either for a chance to meet Chris Clairemont (OOOOooohhh!) or some of the other big names in comics (i don't know who the big names in comics are anymore).

[Dave]

Thank god San Diego doesn't have one of these nerd conventions.

[Tom]

Kasia, Heroes Con is a bit different from a manga con. For one thing, manga just barely qualifies as comics-- it's like comics for artists that can't really draw. For another, this con is held Father's Day weekend, deliberately, so there's a bit more of a family friendly, bring your kids and get them interested in comics kind of feel to it. In other words, the crowd ranges from little kids to older adults-- anyone who might read comics-- rather than horny teenage boys and 20-30 year old basement dwelling guys who come to leer at models dressed as their favorite cartoon characters.

[Jini]

Right there with you, Tom. We were in NY for the weekend. I was looking forward to taking my kid to his first nerd event.