A fair bit has been written on this site about how good HEROES is. We know and you know it. While its pop-culture references aren’t quite as overt as those in BUFFY, Hiro gets more than his fair share to make up for that. For example, in one of the earlier episodes, when Hiro and Ando are in Las Vegas someone calls him Sulu. George Takei turns up in a later episode as Hiro’s father (and in another coincidence Takei’s mother’s family name was Nakamura). One of the main threads of the story is Hiro’s love of comics and one called 9th Wonder, written and drawn by Isaac Mendez. These comics are vital because they foretell what is going to happen to the various characters as Isaac’s ability is to draw and paint the future. Because comics feature so heavily in the show, from the beginning the producers created a comic series to run in parallel and fill in some of the story gaps and give some of the backstory. These were, and still are, available from the US HEROES website, either to view online or download as PDFs.
Top comic artists were brought in to these mini stories and now the first 34 stories are available in printed hardback book form from Titan Books. In a nice touch the contents are made to look like the classic comicbook ads of the 60s for x-ray glasses and chest expanders. Each story is prefaced with 9th Wonders comicbook cover featuring many of the images from the paintings that appeared in the show. The book’s cover also features a painting by comic art supremo Alex Ross.
This book is a must have for HEROES fans and fans of quality comic art. Even at the full price of £17.99 it’s a bargain but you can get now from Amazon for just £8.99 or from Play for £10.99 delivered.
We have three copies to give away courtesy of Titan Books and one copy will come with a DVD box-set of the complete first season HEROES. Full details of the competition can be found here.