We hope you and yours have a happy and safe holiday season, filled with visions of comic panels dancing in your heads, and we hope you’ll stick around in the new year to see what’s coming up from Pop! Goes the Icon. Cheers!

But don’t delay, because these offers will only last as long as we have these comics in stock … which won’t be long.

Once again, we’ll be celebrating the release of a commemorative comic anthology designed to both benefit the festival and highlight local talent: Tales from Fremont Street, a murder mystery told by 10 Vegas-based writers and artists. Most of those creators — including Warren Wucinich, Deryl Skelton and Victor Moya — will be signing, sketching and chatting at the PGTI booth throughout the day.

As well, we’ll have our full selection of titles, including Omega Comics Presents, The Utopian, and last year’s benefit anthology, Tales from the Boneyard, from which sales have raised more than $1000 for the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District Foundation.

The Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival is entirely free and open to all ages. Visit the website for more information about guests, panels, film screenings, music, and exhibitors.

So we’re proud to announce that pre-orders are now open for our next anthology benefiting the Library District Foundation: Tales from Fremont Street. Once again, this 48-page, black-and-white comic features six new stories from all Vegas-based talent, but this year’s edition features an interconnected tale of murder, lust and deceit, all taking place along the less glittery side of Las Vegas’ once-main drag, Fremont Street.

Featuring the talents of Evan Dent, The Fillbach Brothers, Ed Hawkins, Jarret Keene, Victor Moya, Pj Perez, Deryl Skelton, F. Andrew Taylor and Warren Wucinich, with a cover by Jska Priebe, this limited-edition comic will be unveiled at the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival on Nov. 5, but you can have a copy shipped directly to your doorstep by pre-ordering now. And they’re only $5 a pop, with all proceeds benefiting the Foundation’s support of the Comic Book Festival. Get yours today.

The Best of Omega Comics Presents, Vol. 1, collects the most critically acclaimed entries from the first four issues of the anthology. Featuring work by writers Pj Perez, Russell Lissau, Alex De-Gruchy and Dino Caruso and artists Marvin Mann, John Bivens, Michael Montenat, Robert Durham, Jason Copland, J Korim and Sam Agro, among others, this 102-page trade paperback has something to please every lover of graphic fiction — all for only $7.95!

Pre-order a copy now, and relive the magic of the series Ain’t It Cool News says “continues to impress with each issue.”

Russell Lissau, writer of multiple OCP stories, including the acclaimed “L’ange de Bastogne” from issue four (“a thrilling WWII vampire story”), will be at Quad Cities Anime-Zing! in Davenport, Iowa from June 17 to 19. Lissau will also be at Wizard World Chicago Comic-Con, which hits the Windy City Aug. 11 to 14.

Meanwhile, Canadian writer Dino Caruso, who has contributed a number of OCP comedic shorts, will hold court at the Calgary Comics & Entertainment Expo on June 17, 18 and 19 and at FanExpo Canada in Toronto from Aug. 25 to 28. His most recent contribution, “The Night Shift,” has been hailed as “a derivative and clever play on words and super hero stereotypes.”

If you can’t get to these shows, at least get your hands on the comics — find a store near you, order online, or download a copy!

Yes, if you visit table 237 in the convention’s Small Press area, you’ll find Perez and Taylor selling comics, signing undergarments and shooting rubber bands at passers-by. And we expect to see you there.

Phoenix Comicon expands this year to five floors combined across the North building of the Phoenix Convention Center and the Hyatt Regency, and includes top-shelf guests such as Stan Lee, Wil Wheaton, Leonard Nimoy, J. Scott Campbell, Todd McFarlane and lots of others whose names we didn’t bother looking up. It’s also pretty cheap to attend — four-day passes are only $35! Crazy, right?

So, yeah, we’ll see you there. Let us know you’re coming on Facebook!

*We won’t be there on Thursday, because we’re awesome like that.

Come by our table and meet editor/Utopian creator Pj Perez, as well as frequent Omega Comics Presents contributor John Bivens. We’ll have a whole slew of Pop! Goes the Icon goodies there, including the latest issue of Omega Comics Presents, the Utopian trade paperback and the Tales from the Boneyard one-shot. If you’re nice, the guys will probably do sketches, sign comics and kiss babies.

If you’re an iPhone or Android user, there’s a neat, FREE app called “Conventionist” available. Install the app, download the info for Stumptown Comics Fest, and you’ll be able to plan out your Stumptown experience, including adding a to-do reminder to stop by our table, of course. See you there!

Russell Lissau poses at the Reading With Pictures table.

Artist John Bivens surrounded by his array of published work.

Artist Michael Montenat showed up unexpectedly, seeing his work published in Omega Comics Presents #3 for the first time at the show.

Stay tuned for more creator appearances and special events!

Led by “L’ange de Bastogne,” Lissau and Mann’s gripping cover feature, the latest collection of all-new stories by some of today’s best, unsung indie comic book talents also includes gems such as “Cold,” Steve Wallace’s alternately humorous and dramatic exploration of two space miners caught in a possibly hopeless situation, and “The Night Shift,” a short by Dino Caruso and Sam Agro with a twist ending that will leave readers smiling. Rounding out the issue’s offerings is the final chapter of “Omega,” the action-espionage serial by Editor Pj Perez, in which the drama of the siege at Hoover Dam comes to an explosive conclusion.

Critics have been digging what they’ve seen in Omega Comics Presents so far. Comics Should Be Good enjoyed Alex DeGruchy’s “The Hero’s Journey” from issue three, calling it “a cool little superhero story that we probably wouldn’t see from one of the Big Two.” Ain’t It Cool News loves the series, declaring “Omega Comics Presents continues to be a powerful anthology featuring some surprisingly talented folks you’ve more than likely never heard of … yet.” And Bookgasm simply demanded “more, please!” Who are we to argue?

Omega Comics Presents #4 is now available for pre-order directly from Pop! Goes the Icon for $3.99 per copy, and will be available in select comic book stores on April 6. A digital download will be available at the same time, exclusively at DriveThruComics.com for only 99 cents.