Inspired by our pal Andy Runton months ago at Fluke, the Dollar Bin’s staff had a special art project in mind this year for Heroes Con. From this inspiration a plan was hatched to try to join our Indy Island and Small Press friends together to give something back to the great sponsors of Heroes. That plan took fantastic shape in the “sketch jam piece” we donated to the annual art auction Saturday night at Heroes Con 2009.

23 different artists from Small Press and Indy Island tables at this year’s convention happily donated a bit of their time and a lot of their talent to the piece. Some of it is dark and scary while other areas are light hearted and happy. History met sci-fi on the same page as ghosts, ghouls and girlies. There are bold heroes in dramatic poses and animals both cuddly and savage. With each artist we asked, great contribution after great contribution was added to turn a blank sheet into an amazing page of both individual and collaborative art. As we slid it into a frame before turning it over to the Con’s excellent staff, in our ever so humble opinion the piece had it all. To us it symbolized a little taste of what you can find touring the amazing artistic talent on display at the tables of Heroes Con every year.

At the art auction Saturday evening in the Westin’s ballroom, we were both nervous and excited to have something that we helped create on display for the large crowd of generous bidders. To our surprise and delight, Mike a friend of the site and the owner of Planet Comics was the high bidder for our donation at $325. We hope that he will enjoy the piece as much as we enjoyed putting it together and we look forward to seeing it on display in his great shop in Anderson, SC.

A very special thank you goes out to all 23 artists who shared their time and talent with us in helping to create this awesome piece. They are (in no particular order): Andy Runton, Chris Schweizer, Budd Root, Buddy Prince, Nat Jones, Bradd Parton, J Chris Campbell, Duane Ballenger, Rob Ullman, Ben Towle, Francesco Francevilla, Brandon Padgett, Mark Godby, Falynn Koch, Mitch Rogers, Roger Langridge, Dean Trippe, David Peterson, Loston Wallace, Josh Latta, Guy Davis, Christian Slade, and Danielle Corsetto.

Click on the thumbnail to the right for a better view of the finished product and keep an eye on the video section of our site because we have clips of each sketch on this piece that we can’t wait to show off. Thanks again to everyone who helped to create this and of course the great staff of Heroes Con as well.