Heroes Con 2025 - Part 2

Heroes Con 2025 - Part 2

Friday, June 20, 2025

I got up bright and early, packed my stuff and was out the door by 7:30 AM. I stopped at a bagel place in Lynchburg and got a couple bagels toasted with butter and a bottle of water for the road. Once I had eaten enough I hit the road and continued south to Charlotte, NC. I didn’t get a great night’s rest so I was a little punchy. I stopped a couple more times than I otherwise might have, just to take a break from the road.

I got to Charlotte around 12 PM. I parked in the usual garage where I have parked several times before. It is just a couple blocks from the convention center. I had to wait in-line to pick up the 3-day pass that I bought online a couple days ago. I headed to the showroom floor, once I had my pass.

The first place I headed was the Twomorrows Publishing booth. I bought two magazines from them: Back Issue 159 (which celebrates the 40th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths) and Retro Fan 33 (which has at least two articles that interest me; one is about the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman and the other is about Fantastic Four cartoons).

I wandered around a bit after that. I stopped and visited with Tom Heintjes, the publisher of Hogan’s Alley. He told me a little bit about the upcoming issue. I also stopped at Craig Rousseau’s table. I looked through the rough sketches that he was selling for $20 each. There were a few that caught my eye but I decided to hold off on buying any, at least for now. I also talked to Rich Case, who was at the next table over. He had some very nice prints and pieces of original art. I wasn’t familiar with his work so I asked more than a few questions about his work. I really like some of the Doom Patrol prints that he has for sale. I may have to go back and get one tomorrow.

I went to two panels today. The first was at 2 PM. It was the Fantastic Four panel. It was moderated by Badr Milligan. The other panelists were Mark Buckingham, Tom DeFalco, Ralph Macchio, Paul Pelletier, and Tom Scioli. They talked about

• their earliest memories of the Fantastic Four
• creators and runs of FF that influenced their own work on the book
• their favorite storylines and supporting characters
• story ideas that they never got around to doing
• the upcoming movie

I did some digging around in long boxes between the two panels and found a few things that were on my list 

The second panel was at 5:30 PM. It was the Prince Valiant panel. It was moderated by Tom Heintjes. The other panelists were Mark Schulz and Gary Gianni. They talked about

• their own work on the strip
• how they got the job
• their predecessors: Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy
• how the strip has changed over the years
• advice they received from their predecessors
• limitations of the comic strip format
• the state of newspapers and it’s impact on comic strips

The Prince Valiant panel ended at 6:30 PM. The show was open for another half hour but I decided it was time for me to go get some dinner. I didn’t eat lunch today. I just kept nibbling at the bagels that I bought for breakfast. I still had half a bagel left when I headed to dinner.

I got a little lost when I headed back to my car. I took a different elevator down to the parking garage than I took earlier in the day. It took me a few minutes but I located my car before full-on panic mode got a chance to take over.

I had dinner tonight at an Indian restaurant several miles from the convention center. I had Lamb Biryani. I asked for medium spice. I didn’t get any bread to go with it but I did get a mango lassi.

I finally checked into the AirBnB where I will be staying, for tonight and tomorrow night, around 8:30 PM. I sat down to start writing this summary soon after that.