HEROESCON 09 :: Indie Island Initial List!

As we did last week in announcing the beginnings of the 2009 HeroesCon Guest List, I wanted to shed a brief ray of light on the Indie Indie side of the list, here in its formative, gestative form. Gross!

This year will be the FIFTH Indie Island, which is I suppose somewhat auspicious. For those of you who have never had the distinct and oft-referred-to pleasure of attending Indie Island or its great big sugar-daddy HeroesCon, basically the Island is around 5,000 square feet located at the middle of the hall for maximum exposure. As HeroesCon very famously is a "comics-first" show, with historically an enormous number of "mainstream" comics readers making up the attendees, show owner Shelton Drum had the idea of placing an indie section in the middle of things, rather ghetto-ized off in some corner or in a room or underground or whatever. Kind of a forward-thinking idea, especially for a mainstream con organizer, and I for one think he deserves a lot of credit for it.

Slowly, as Indie Island grows up, the idea is paying off: last year saw the biggest Indie Island guest list (by far!) ever, with artists and publishers traveling from all over the country to exhibit. Next year's show should be even bigger, and we'll be pushing it all year long to try and bring as many people as possible into the convention center next June.

So, some of the "early adopters" for next year's Indie Island include (there are already a few people waiting to be announced, but I'll leave them for next week so I can give them some special attention):

ADHOUSE BOOKS: Who doesn't love Chris Pitzer? Chris has been an integral, if not central, part of each Indie Island thus far, since the first one in 2005, when he appeared with fellow guest James Jean to promote his new art book PROCESS: RECESS.

DANIELLE CORSETTO: So scrappy, with her giant moustachioed cactus thing--Danielle is the head of a growing online empire centered around her webstrip Girls With Slingshots.

CHRIS SCHWEIZER: Besides Chris' extensive credits producing his own minicomics, he's about to have his very first graphic novel (Crogan's Vengeance) published by Oni Press. Literally, any day now.

JEFF SMITH: It's hard to call anyone with 2,000,000 copies of his Bone in print "indie", but just because Jeff's super successful doesn't mean he has to give up his indie cred. Plus his new Rasl series is occasionally racy, if that helps. Two MILLION copies--that's like early 90's numbers (think Spawn #1 twice) except BOOKS! And so good, too...

BEN TEMPLESMITH: The only first-timer on this list, Ben Templesmith is so prolific that only the INTERNET provides me with enough space to list his credits. Which I will not do, but here are just a few of the many: 30 Days of Night, Fell, and his own Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse and Welcome to Hoxford.

BEN TOWLE: This occasional educator, constant cartoonist, and former Charlottean is currently cornering the market on historical graphic novels, with his past Midnight Sun and future works focusing on Amelia Earhart. I myself would like to see Ben do a fight-comic featuring Abe Lincoln and Stephen Douglas beating the tar out of each other, but he's probably too busy.

OKAY! More next week, including some returning New Yorkers and more! But for now, Indie Island ho!