HeroesCon starts today and runs through Sunday at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, N. C. The convention has a “straight up 100% comics vibe, without all the actors and movie stuff and all that," according to one of the show's organizers, Dustin Harbin. Marvel, DC Comics, BOOM!, AdHouse and Top Shelf will all be exhibiting at the show.

The con will be the first place fans can hear from Mark Bagley about his upcoming run on Justice League, Ed Brubaker on the recent Cap announcement, and Brian Michael Bendis on Avengers both Dark and New. The guest list also includes Chris Claremont, Matt Fraction, Mark Waid, Ethan Van Sciver, Colleen Doran, David Mack, Adam Hughes, Cliff Chiang, Mark Brooks, George Perez, Cully Hamner, Frank Cho, C.B. Cebulski, Roger Langridge, Eric Powell, Roy Thomas, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jonathan Hickman, Scott Wegener, Steve Epting, Dustin Nguyen and many, many more. Find the full list here.

HeroesCon also plays host to Indie Island, where you can meet Jeff Smith, Matt Kindt, Jason Lutes, Paul Maybury, Carla Speed McNeil, David Petersen, Andy Runton, Chris Schweizer, Dean Trippe and Ben Towle, among many others.

Here are some of the highlights (you can find the complete programming schedule here):

• The Hero Initiative will have several creators signing at their table all weekend, a panel on Friday and a free Punisher #1 Hero Initiative/Atomic variant for anyone who signs up for a membership at the show.

• Cebulski will host "Pint O' C.B." at the show on Friday, a variation of Joe Quesada's Cup O' Joe panels. He'll be joined by Bendis, Fraction, Brubaker and no doubt a lot of other Marvel creators. Saturday they have a Dark Reign panel, which "will have the announcement of the next big chapter in Marvel history."

• DC editors Ian Sattler and Brian Cunningham will be on hand and at several panels, including a DC Nation one on Saturday.

• The Savannah College of Art and Design will have a big presence at the show, hosting several workshops for aspiring creators. Tom Lyle and June Brigman both teach at the school and will be hosting a couple of the workshops.

• Rob Venditti, writer of The Surrogates graphic novel, will be on hand to talk about the sequel to the book and the upcoming film.

• Also on Saturday, Ben Towle and Craig Fischer will host a tribute to Steve Ditko. And there will be cake. Cake!

• Rantz Hoseley will unveil his long-awaited Longbox project on Sunday. Check out this blog post from Rantz for more info on what Longbox is.

• Jeff Smith will be on hand for several panels and signings all weekend, including a showing of The Cartoonist documentary.

• Thom Zahler will be giving away comics to female attendees. "I've been reading the silly "guys only" contest stuff at San Diego, and the Jake Gyllenhaal abs comments and all, and I've had enough. So, first 75 ladies who come up to my table at Heroes Con this weekend get a free randomly selected copy of Love and Capes. One per customer per weekend is all I ask. I'll be at booth SP-638 in small press," he wrote in an email. Johanna has more details on the "guys only" contest he mentions.

Overall, it looks like an outstanding line-up. For more on the show, check out this post on Creative Loafing and this post by Tom Spurgeon on ten things he liked about last year's show.