Halloween is just four days away! And what better way to pass the time than watching horror movies? Starting today, we’ll take a look at what a few of the cable channels are offering for free programming on All Hallows’ Eve. Of course, this year Halloween falls on a Saturday, so trick-or-treaters and partygoers might have other plans for that day…
Nevertheless, we begin with the Movies! channel…
As it has for years now, Movies! really gets into Halloween, with Spooky Season–themed movie marathons running throughout October—a day of vampire films, a day of ghosts, a day of alien invaders, even a day of Vincent Price flicks—and this year’s Halloween schedule is a mix of vampires and werewolves, ghosts and demons. And Vincent Price, of course!
As for Halloween, the festivities kick off at 10:45 a.m. (Eastern time) with House of Wax, the Vincent Price classic. If you’re into men turned into monsters, like the horrors to be found in the recent #1 movie Clayface, then you may be interested in Price’s villainous turn as a sculptor whose waxen figures seem a bit too lifelike…
It’s followed by Hammer Films’ Dracula adaptation Horror of Dracula and Frankenstein adaptation The Curse of Frankenstein (1958 and 1957, respectively, and both starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing); the 1950s Steve McQueen–starring monster flick The Blob; the werewolf colony tale The Howling (1981), from director Joe Dante (Gremlins, Piranha): director Robert Wise (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) unleashing ghosts on Julie Harris and Claire Bloom in 1963’s The Haunting; The Exorcist author/creator William Peter Blatty writing and directing 1990’s The Exorcist III; and Paul Schrader, director of Taxi Driver and Cat People, summoning demons in 2005’s Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist.
Programming ends in the early morning hours of November 1 (the Day of the Dead!) with the return of Vincent Price in a double feature: House on Haunted Hill (1959) and the vampire-apocalypse The Last Man on Earth (1964; based on the famous novella I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson).
Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at Freeform’s programming. Stay tuned!
If you live in a big city, you know how dangerous trick-or-treating can sometimes be, with dodging speeding cars and trucks while you’re trying to make the rounds of your favorite candy-giving haunts—even in the daytime!
In 2022, New York City took steps to try and make trick-or-treating a much safer event, by instituting “Trick or Streets,” an expansion of its “Open Streets” initiative that closes certain streets to vehicular traffic so that NYC residents can walk and bike on them without fear of injury. (It’s a popular program that started in May 2021 as a result of the pandemic lockdown, so that people could finally get out of their homes and apartments to enjoy fresh air.)
Continuing the tradition, today kicks off Year 5’s Trick or Streets 2026: a two-week festival during which a number of streets will be closed off in all five boroughs, allowing you and yours to hit the pavement and celebrate the Spooky Season with “live music, fun activities, interactive performances, and more.” (Keep an eye on local weather forecasts, though, so you can dress accordingly.)
For more information on the city’s Halloween plans and a list of family-friendly events being held, head over to the Trick or Streets website.
The 2026 NBA season has officially begun, and even though last season’s champions, the New York Knicks, lost their home opener last night the timing is still perfect for this Halloween setup I recently came across in Pan’s (and StarWarp Concepts’) home neighborhood of Sunnyside.
I think it’s meant to commemorate Knicks forward OG Anunoby’s famous tip-in basket during the 2025 Finals. If so, it’s part of a Spooky Season trend this year, with similarly themed skeleton hoop dreams on display—but hey, when you’re a sports fan and your favorite team becomes (in this case) NBA Champions, putting a Halloween spin on an outstanding moment is sort of expected.
Hey, horror fans! New York Comic Con 2026 might have come and gone, but that doesn’t mean October is lacking in the availability of comics—especially ones tailored for horror readers.
Are you into zombies? How about comic books featuring zombies? If so, then here’s a suggestion if you’re looking for an unusual type of zombie tale—one published by the US’s Centers for Disease Control!
Back in October 2021, the CDC released the downloadable comic Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic—based on their most popular blog post, from May of that year—as a way to make folks aware of how to prepare for a disaster with emergency kits, whether it’s for an earthquake, hurricane, tornado, pandemic (remember, we were still in the middle of the Covid pandemic at the time), fire…or a zombie apocalypse! As the CDC describes it:
“Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic” demonstrates the importance of being prepared in an entertaining way that people of all ages will enjoy. Readers follow Todd, Julie, and their dog Max as a strange new disease begins spreading, turning ordinary people into zombies. Stick around to the end for a surprising twist that will drive home the importance of being prepared for any emergency. Included in the novel is a Preparedness Checklist so that readers can get their family, workplace, or school ready before disaster strikes.
So, if you’re looking for a free treat to add to your zombie comic collection, head on over and download the comic, and related documents, for some unique Halloween reading—it’s eduterrifying!
“Queens’oween? What’s that?” you ask. It was a feature I played around with a decade ago that focused on the Halloween displays to be found in Pan’s hometown borough of Queens, New York. Well, why not bring it back? says I. After all, there are plenty of Halloween-themed things to see in the County of Queens.
Starting things off is a bit of a repost for those celebrating Spooky Season, and for those who may have missed it the first time around: a one-page horror tale from comics’ Golden Age that takes place in one of the borough’s most well-known locations.
Set in the 1890s, “Phantom of Flushing” first appeared in Adventures into Darkness #9, published by Standard Comics in April 1953. Unfortunately, since most comics at the time didn’t include creator credits, and Standard Comics went out of business a long time ago, this story’s writer and artist are unknown.
Jokes about the name aside, Flushing is one of Queens’s oldest neighborhoods, first settled in 1645 by the Dutch (back when New York was known as New Amsterdam) before falling under British control in the 1660s. Today it’s a vibrant area that includes the Flushing Town Hall performing arts center, numerous art galleries and anime stores, countless places to eat, and a Chinatown even larger than the original in Lower Manhattan. If you’re ever in the New York City area, be sure to give it a visit.
Mini history lesson and tourism plug aside, sit back and get ready to meet…the Phantom of Flushing!
As pop culture and comic fans know, today is the opening day for New York Comic Con 2026—which means the streets of Manhattan (or at least the #7 train line) will be overflowing with costumed heroes, anime characters come to life, monsters set free from their comics and movies, and creators of all sorts in search of fans (and work!).
Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, won’t be part of the festivities, though—it’s ridiculously expensive to exhibit there, and it’s become apparent in recent years that the Small Press area we once called home is being phased out (down from the original 112 SP slots a decade ago to just 24 this year!). But that doesn’t mean you can’t experience a sort of scaled-down SWC version of the big show right here!
You want vendors?You can always order SWC’s ever-expanding roster of titles from such retail sites as Amazon, BarnesAndNoble(dot)com, Books-a-Million, Waterstones, and Bookshop(dot)org. On the e-book and digital comic front, you can purchase our books, comics, and graphic novels from our publisher pages at DriveThru Fiction, DriveThru Comics, and Smashwords.
Convention giveaways? The SWC Downloads page has a bunch of free stuff—Pandora Zwieback wallpapers for your smartphone and computer, book samples, and free digital comics:
Heroines & Heroes is a collection of comic stories and pinups all drawn by Steven A. Roman (that’s me!), dating back to my days in the early 1990s small-press movement—that age of dinosaurs in which creators like me used to make our comics by printing them out on photocopiers and then stapling them by hand. In H&H you’ll find mainstream heroes and small-press heroines, and even a couple of anthropomorphic bikers. Leading off is “V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N (in the Summertime),” a three-page Wonder Woman vs. Harley Quinn story that I wrote and drew in the late ’90s as a sample for a DC Comics editor who thought I’d be a good fit for their Batman: The Animated Series comic (long story short, it didn’t work out). The WW/Harley matchup is followed by an adventure of small-presser Jeff Wood’s rabbit-eared superspy, Snowbuni; three pages from the long-canceled indie comic Motorbike Puppies; and an adventure of the indie superheroine The Blonde Avenger.
The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 is a full-color introduction to the young adult novel series of the same name, hosted by Pan herself. Pan is a 16-year-old New York City Goth who’s not only a horror fangirl but someone with the rare ability to see the for-real monsters that regular humans can’t (she calls it her “monstervision”), and with the help of a 400-year-old, shape-shifting monster hunter named Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, she’s learning how to protect her family, her friends, and the world from the supernatural dangers out there—and maybe even have some fun while doing it. This 16-page comic features a seven-page story written by me, with art and color by Eliseu Gouveia (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, Carmilla, A Princess of Mars), and includes two sample chapters from Blood Feud, the first Pan novel.
And then there’s Heartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa #1–3. Before she became Pan’s monster-hunting mentor, Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin made her debut in this short-lived, 1990s Mature Readers series from Millennium Publications. A nefarious heavy metal band has arrived in New York City, and its lead singer is more than just a sex magnet for his female fans—he’s a soul-stealing incubus! Will Annie put an end to his plans for worldwide chaos, or fall prey to his supernatural charms? Written by me (of course), issue 1 is drawn by Pan and Annie co-creator Uriel Caton (JSA Annual) and inker Alan Larsen (Femforce), and colored by Dan Peters; issue 2 is penciled by Uriel, Holly Golightly (Archie Comics), and David C. Matthews (Satin Steele), inked by Larsen, and colored by Zeea Adams; and issue 3 is penciled by Holly, with four pages of inks by “Chainsaw” Chuck Majewski (Harvey Kurtzman’s New Two-Fisted Tales).
As a special bonus, issue 3 includes a brief look at the never-published Heartstopper/Trollords, a crossover special that would have had Annie meet Harry, Larry, and Jerry, the Three Stooges–inspired trolls created by Scott Beaderstadt and Paul Fricke for their popular comic series of the 1980s. H/T was to be written by me with pencils by Holly and Scott and inks by Bill Lavin (Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings), but unfortunately it just never got past the starting gate.
(Warning: Heartstopper is designated a “Mature Readers” comic for violent scenes and some sexual innuendo, so younger Panatics should avoid it.)
Artists Alley? Our Gallery area—think of it as an online artists’ alley—features two sections, The 13 Days of Pan-demonium and Visions of Lorelei, both containing original renderings of our two best-known characters by a host of artists from indie and mainstream comics. The Pan-demonium gallery includes such notables as Elizabeth Watasin (Charm School), Teri S. Wood (Wandering Star), Neil Vokes (Tom Holland’s Fright Night), Dave Hoover (Captain America), Louis Small Jr. (Vampirella), Chris Malgrain (Stan Lee’s Alexa), and Pan’s cocreator, Uriel Caton (JSA Annual)!
Activities? You can check out Horror Street, a recurring feature on this very blog that showcases amazing horror-themed graffiti murals that I’ve come across while wandering the streets of New York City. And what with it being Spooky Season right now, this photographic art exhibit should help put you in the mood for Halloween.
So the StarWarp Concepts crew might not be hanging out at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center over in Manhattan, but at least you can have a con-like experience from the comfort of your home!
Welcome back to Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!
Somebody call Brendan Fraser! I know he’s currently making The Mummy 4 (or whatever it’ll eventually be called that’s coming next October) but he needs to know there’s another bandage-wrapped menace on the loose—and this one’s in Brooklyn!
What we’ve got here is a mural I came across in June of last year, during a wander through the industrialized neighborhood of East Williamsburgh—by “industrialized” I mean it’s all factories and warehouses and storage facilities, no homes or apartment buildings, although there are some after-hours clubs and the like to be found.
Prince Kharis (or maybe it’s Imhotep?) lurks just blocks away from the femme fatale I christened the Brooklyn Vampire, who kicked off the Horror Street series in 2020. If you’re ever in the area, be sure to track them down…unless, that is, the art has been replaced by some other intriguing mural. That’s the trouble with street art: it’s incredibly transitory. A mummy today might be a Hazbin Hotel tribute tomorrow. Who knows what you’ll find!
Stay tuned for further installments of Horror Street—there’s plenty of macabre graffiti art to be found on the streets of New York, if you look in the right creepy places! And be sure to check out my previous HS entries, including: Jason Voorhees, Where the Gene Wilder Things Are, a Beetlejuice sighting, the scarifying Ghoulmobile, the Spooky Forest, and a ride on the Spirit Halloween Terror Train!
Halloween is just four weeks away (although if you’re a horror fan, you might have been celebrating it year-round), so what better time to get in the mood for tricks and treats than today? Here’s some ways to spark your inner ghoul:
Horror movies and TV shows! AMC Fearfest, Turner Classic Movies, the SyFy Channel, Movies! TV Network, Freeform, and Svengoolie (on MeTV) are just some of the cable stations chock full of Halloweeny programming during October, most of it kicking off today, and streaming sites like HBO Max, Tubi, Apple TV, Netflix, and Pluto are constantly adding horror movies to their lineups. There’s a lot to see before All Hallows’ Eve, so check online listings for more information.
The new Resident Evil movie (for you zomboids) and Practical Magic 2 (for you witchcraft fans) are still in theaters, and this year’s mega–box office hits Obsession and Backrooms are currently available for streaming. Clayface, a body-horror origin picture for one of Batman’s most grotesque villains, opens on October 23. And Crystal Lake is a prequel series to the Friday the 13th movie franchise that stars Linda Cardellini as Jason’s mom, Pamela Voorhees, and is set to debut on Peacock on October 15.
Countdown to Halloween is an annual collection of blogs (mostly horror-themed) that commit to posting daily entries every day of the month, on a wide range of topics from comic books to toys, classic horror movies to to music, even wanderings through local cemeteries.
How about some music? The ghoulish deejays over at Halloween Radio and its five channels (Main, Soundtracks, Atmosphere, Oldies, and Kids) stream tunes 24/7, 365 days a year—perfect for when you’re looking for background music to play while you’re decorating your home or apartment, carving pumpkins, or working on your costume.
But the true meaning of horror can be found on the Hallmark Channel, which is set to debut The Spirit of Halloween, an actual Halloween-themed romance movie, on Saturday, October 10! Taking its inspiration from the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, it involves a Halloween-hating businesswoman who learns the true meaning of the holiday (Is it candy? Cosplay? Monsters?) after a visit by three ghosts.
(Actually, it’s pretty well known that horror and Hallmark have a weird relationship. For all the counter-Halloween programming they do, Hallmark does have a following for their Christmas movies among horror fans, and then there’s the fact that not only have a number of horror writers and directors contributed to the yuletide filmfests (Fred Olen Ray, David DeCoteau, Michael Varrati), but even horror icons like Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead), Natasha Henstridge (Species), and Patricia Velasquez (The Mummy) have starred in them!)
Whatever it is you do to get ready, have a fun time doing it!
Welcome back to Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!
What we have here is a bit of graffiti-mural nostalgia: a tribute to a popular cartoon character named Courage the Cowardly Dog.
In case you didn’t know, Courage the Cowardly Dog was an animated series that launched in 1999 on the Cartoon Network and ran for four seasons (52 episodes) and a special. Starring an easily frightened beagle ironically named Courage, the series involved him protecting his owners, an elderly farm couple named Eustace and Muriel Bagge, from all sorts of supernatural and sci-fi threats that showed up in the nearby town of Nowhere. Apparently, his last appearance was in a 2021 straight-to-DVD crossover movie, Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog.
I don’t remember exactly when I took this picture, but it was probably in the early 2000s, at the height of the series’ popularity, as I was wandering through the Long Island City area of Queens. I do remember the mural took up a good share of the warehouse wall on which it was painted, that I shot this with one of those single-use disposable cameras you could buy at a pharmacy, and that I was aware of the series, but had never watched it.
If you’re a fan of Courage, it’s a pretty good likeness, don’t you think?
Interested in checking out Courage’s animated adventures (like I am)? Then head over to Tubi, where the series currently streams. (Unfortunately, the Scooby-Doo crossover is unavailable.) With Halloween fast approaching, it’ll help you get into the Spooky Season mindset.
Stay tuned for further installments of Horror Street—there’s plenty of macabre graffiti art to be found on the streets of New York, if you look in the right creepy places! And be sure to check out my previous HS entries, including: Day of the Dead 2025, the Brooklyn Vampire, Where the Gene Wilder Things Are, a Beetlejuice sighting, the scarifying Ghoulmobile, the Spooky Forest, and a ride on the Spirit Halloween Terror Train!
Today is opening day for San Diego Comic-Con 2026: four days in which hordes of comic and pop-culture fans descend on the San Diego Convention Center to meet their idols, hunt down collectibles, pose in their best costumes, and crowd the aisles. (Somebody call Security!)
Unfortunately, we here at StarWarp Concepts won’t be part of the festivities—it’s just too expensive to exhibit there, what with cross-country travel and shipping, booth costs, hotel fees, and meals. But that doesn’t mean you can’t experience SWC’s sort of scaled-down version of the big show right here!
You want vendors? A good number of our digital titles are currently available at discounted prices, as part of our annual involvement with Smashwords’ Winter/Summer E-book Sale and the Christmas in July Sale at DriveThru Comics and DriveThru Fiction. Both sales run until the end of the month, so click the links to check out the bargains!
Convention giveaways? How about some free digital comic books?
Heroines & Heroes is a collection of comic stories and pinups all drawn by Steven A. Roman (that’s me!), dating back to my days in the early 1990s small-press movement—that age of dinosaurs in which creators like me used to make our comics by printing them out on photocopiers and then stapling them by hand. In H&H you’ll find mainstream heroes and small-press heroines, and even a couple of anthropomorphic bikers. Leading off is “V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N (in the Summertime),” a three-page Wonder Woman vs. Harley Quinn story that I wrote and drew in the late ’90s as a sample for a DC Comics editor who thought I’d be a good fit for their Batman: The Animated Series comic (it didn’t work out). The WW/Harley matchup is followed by an adventure of small-presser Jeff Wood’s rabbit-eared superspy, Snowbuni; three pages from the long-canceled indie comic Motorbike Puppies; and an adventure of the indie superheroine The Blonde Avenger.
The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0is a full-color introduction to the young adult novel series of the same name, hosted by Pan herself. Pan is a 16-year-old New York City Goth who’s not only a horror fangirl but someone with the rare ability to see the for-real monsters that regular humans can’t (she calls it her “monstervision”), and with the help of a 400-year-old, shape-shifting monster hunter named Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, she’s learning how to protect her family, her friends, and the world from the supernatural dangers out there—and maybe even have some fun while doing it. This 16-page comic features a seven-page story written by me, with art and color by Eliseu Gouveia (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, Carmilla, A Princess of Mars, Lorelei: Sects and the City), and includes two sample chapters from Blood Feud, the first Pan novel.
Heartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa #1–3. Before she became Pan’s monster-hunting mentor, Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin made her debut in this short-lived, 1990s Mature Readers series from Millennium Publications. A nefarious heavy metal band has arrived in New York City, and its lead singer is more than just a sex magnet for his female fans—he’s a soul-stealing incubus! Will Annie put an end to his plans for worldwide chaos, or fall prey to his supernatural charms? Written by me (of course), issue 1 is drawn by Pan and Annie co-creator Uriel Caton (JSA Annual) and inker Alan Larsen (Femforce), and colored by Dan Peters; issue 2 is penciled by Uriel, Holly Golightly (School Bites, Archie Comics), and David C. Matthews (Satin Steele), inked by Larsen, and colored by Zeea Adams; and issue 3 is penciled by Holly, with four pages of inks by “Chainsaw” Chuck Majewski (Harvey Kurtzman’s New Two-Fisted Tales).
As a special bonus, issue 3 includes a brief look at the never-published Heartstopper/Trollords, a crossover special that would have had Annie meet Harry, Larry, and Jerry, the Three Stooges–inspired trolls created by Scott Beaderstadt and Paul Fricke for their popular comic series of the 1980s. H/T was to be written by me with pencils by Holly and Scott and inks by Bill Lavin (Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings), but unfortunately it just never got past the starting gate.
(Warning: Heartstopper is designated a “Mature Readers” comic for violent scenes and some sexual innuendo, so younger Panatics should avoid it.)
Artists Alley? Our Gallery area—think of it as an online artists’ alley—features two sections, The 13 Days of Pan-demonium and Visions of Lorelei, both containing original renderings of our two best-known characters by a host of artists from indie and mainstream comics, including such notables as Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Elizabeth Watasin (Charm School), Teri S. Wood (Wandering Star), Neil Vokes (Tom Holland’s Fright Night), Frank Thorne (Red Sonja), Louis Small Jr. (Vampirella), Dave Simon (Ghost Rider), Bill Ward (Torchy), and Joseph Michael Linsner (Red Sonja)!
So even though the StarWarp Concepts crew—and possibly you, as well—isn’t in sunny San Diego, at least you can have a con-like experience in the meantime from the comforts of your home!
