As regular ZONErs know, it's become a Zablo family tradition to attend the annual Heroes Convention in Charlotte. I start talking up the show each year as the date for the convention gets closer and new guests are announced. Usually my hype begins about six months before the show.

This year I'm starting a bit early.

Like NOW.

WizardWorld [a big company that puts on conventions all over the US] has purposely scheduled their convention in Atlanta the
same weekend as Heroes.

Coincidence you say? Nope.

You see, Shelton has made it an annual tradition to announce his next convention
date a year in advance [and his show has always been held in mid to late June].

This year, because there were rumors that Wizard was looking at Atlanta, Shelton wrote them to find out the date that they were looking at. Shelton even offered to support their show as long as their schedules didn't fall on the same weekend.

You can imagine everyone's surprise when Wizard announced that their Atlanta convention would fall on the same weekend as Heroes. You can read the details
here and here.

Well, I'm happy to say that pros and fans have rallied around Shelton's show.
Casey Jones, Tony Harris, Bryan Hitch, Greg Rucka, Joe Pruett, J. Michael Straczynski, Cliff Chiang, Mark Bagley and Ethan Van Sciver all quickly
announced that they'd be at HEROES and NOT the Atlanta convention next year. Additionally, Cully Hamner, Brian Stelfreeze and Karl Story who live in Atlanta
have announced that they will be at Heroes as well!

Heroes 2006 may end up being the best Heroes ever. My hope is that the folks
running the Wizard show will reconsider and reschedule. They've already
started a bit of backtracking...

At any rate, if Wizard changes their date or not, I'll be at Heroes in '06.

Hopefully you will too!

In the movie DeNiro keeps waking up at 2:06 AM. The first time that this happens,
he discovers his wife has committed suicide. As the movie progresses 2:06 AM
becomes a significant plot point and the audience is left wondering [until the
resolution] why DeNiro wakes up at 2:06 AM.

It was pretty creepy. Especially late in the movie, as Deniro searches for a killer
in the house and suddenly Dakota holds up a child's clock set to 2:06 AM. Now
THAT was very creepy, but it's still not the creepy moment I'm leading up to.

Overall the movie was a fun way to spend a couple of hours and I really enjoyed
how the dvd set up the alternate endings [there were several]. Ah, but I digresss...
so on to the REAL creepy moment...

Later that night I woke up feeling the need to go to the restroom. Now most nights,
I sleep through until the morning. Occasionally I'm compelled to get up in the middle
of the night for a trip to the john, so it's not totally unusual that this would happen.
Last night when I woke to go, I looked to see what time it was... and you guessed
it... the digital clock read 2:06 AM.

Now THAT was creepy!

Remember when I told you that I thought that Mariah Carey looked like she had painted on her abs for her 4th of July Macey's performance?

I thought it was just a funny little item and was surprised when it was picked up here, here, here, and a bunch of other places.

The July 25, 2005 issue of US Weekly even has the story in it's This Minute You Want to Know About section.

The piece, Did Mariah Fake Her Six-Pack? brings everyone up to speed: "Sure, Mariah Carey's back on top of the charts, but who knew her stomach muscles were also making a comeback?" The author then asks a make-up expert and a rep for Mariah Carey to weigh in on the subject.

The make-up artist [Sally Blenkey-Tchasova, owner of one of the places that started the whole "spray-on" craze] was quoted as saying, "It looks like she was helped by make-up or air-brush tanning. Even if a woman is really ripped, abs are generally not that symmetrical."

You're probably as surprised as I am [meaning not very], that Mariah's rep denies that the abs are fake without every really saying their not. "This is ridiculous. She has been eating right and working out for three hours a day. Mariah has never looked or felt better.

The picture to the right was taken about three weeks before the one at the top of this post. So, ZONErs... what do you think?

Way back in April, I posted an
item about the return of Jason Pearson's "Body Bags."

At that time Jason said if the
response to the reprints was good enough, we'd see the return of Mack and Panda.

Today it was announced that two
new Body Bags projects are in the works.

In November we'll get Body Bags:
3 The Hard Way, which will include a new 20 page story called “Hit ‘Da Switches,” along with two older short stories that will be re-printed in color for the first time
ever. Then in January, Jason will follow up with an all new 48 page Body Bags
one-shot.

Ah, life continues to be good!

Michael Golden art day. No more words are needed.

A few days ago I made the statement,
"Sequels are rarely as good as the original."
And yet I, like many of you, love to see sequels.

On the weekend of September 2, I'll probably be
in a theater watching Transporter 2. The original was an unexpected toddy. The Transporter not only did better at theaters than was expected; it also was a hit with the dvd crowd. So much so,
that a Transporter Special Edition dvd is in the works.

I thought The Transporter would be an enjoyable way to spend an hour and a half, but was surprised at just how much fun it turned
out to be.

Much of that enjoyment was the result of Jason Statham in the lead role and the
over the top action.

Well, I'm happy to say that both will be back in full force. Check out the trailer and
then let me know your thoughts!

My recent trip to Heroes Con 2005 was recounted here, but now that I've posted my art pick-ups in my Stallone Gallery, I thought that I should also provide links not only on the SZ [for Stallone fans], but also here in the ZONE for my blog and comic friends.

My first piece posted, by Steve McNiven,
was actually one that I got at MegaCon
2005 when Steve was sketching for the
ACTOR charity.

Rick Leonardi was the first artist I
approached at Heroes 2005. I'm a
long-time Leonardi fan and was very
pleased that he agreed to draw Rambo
for me.

Brian Walker surprised me with this
fun sketch of Sly as Lincoln Hawk from
Over the Top. As a bonus, Brian even
through in [or is that drew in] Bull Hurley!

What a great gift!

Mike Ploog was an artist that drew
some of my favorite childhood comics.
I couldn't pass up a chance at a freebie
head sketch from Mr. Ploog and love
his take on Jack Carter.



I loved Nat Jones's work with Steve Niles
on The Nail. Nat was one of the artists that I
really wanted to try and get something from
at Heroes. You can imagine how happy I was
when he agreed to draw Cobra.

Gary McKee and I have been talking about
him doing a piece for my Stallone gallery for a
while. I was extremely happy when he agreed
to do me a water color piece. I was even happier
when I saw the end result.

Let's cut to the chase. Casey Jones did
one of the finest Stallone sketches I have
yet to receive. He hit a homerun, raised the
bar, use whatever metaphor you'd like...
or just click HERE and... see for yourself!

I knew that my sketch from Cliff Chiang was going
to be very good. How could it not be, it's Cliff Chiang!
What I didn't know was that Cliff was going to follow
Casey Jones' lead and create one of my all-time
favorite pieces. Not only did Cliff add Adrian to the mix,
but he also captured the essence of their characters. Wow!

If you've read this far, you're a true fan of Stallone, comic art or both. Either way, let me give you a heads-up... yesterday I received a piece of art for my Stallone gallery from an artist whose work I've admired for years. I never dreamed that I get something from him, since he rarely goes to conventions or sketches for fans. I'm still in shock. The piece was a gift and is so nice. I'll add it to my gallery in a day or two after I quit staring at it.

Anyone want to comment on my latest sketches or take a guess as to who the mystery artist might be?