AndyHirsch

As much as I like digging through the quarter bins for a run of Punisher 2099, the real action at a convention always comes from browsing through Artist's Alley for the new books that you can't get anywhere else. As much as the focus at conventions falls on superheroes, there's a lot of great independent stuff out there that you can pick up directly from the people who made it -- and it's especially easy at a convention like Charlotte's HeroesCon, which gives a huge amount of floor space over to the indies.

I'm not much of an original art collector, but getting a sketch from an awesome artist is one of my favorite things to do at a convention. For someone who can't draw at all, watching artists at work is like seeing actual magic happen, and at the end of it, you have a picture of Batman. It's basically the best thing.

The Land of Ooo is home to many emotional souls, but the Earl of Lemongrab is perhaps the most high-strung of them all - and that's the way Adventure Time fans like him. As such, artist Liz Prince will metaphorically crank the character to 11 in the special "Fruit Salad Days" backup in next week's Adventure Time: Marceline and the Scream Queens #3 from Boom Studios...