The 13 Days of Pan-demonium continue…in spaaaace!

Who’ll protect us from the Lovecraftian monsters threatening to destroy the universe? Why none other than the Gothess of Goodness, GREEN PAN-TERN, courtesy of today’s artist: CHRIS MALGRAIN!

No, Pan isn’t an actual superheroine—she just occasionally cosplays one at conventions. But our adventurous Goth heroine is the star of the dark urban-fantasy novel BLOOD FEUD: THE SAGA OF PANDORA ZWIEBACK, Book 1, available from StarWarp Concepts and fine bookstores.

The talented Mr. Malgrain and I were first teamed up in 2004 by publisher ibooks, inc. for a comic book spectacle called Stan Lee’s Alexa #1. Stan was credited with the plot; I wrote the dialogue.

Based loosely on the Stan Lee’s Riftworld series of novels by New York Times bestselling author Bill McCay, the comic introduced readers to Alexa Moran, a comics artist who worked for a Marvel-like company called The Fantasy Factory. Too quiet an idea for something from the mind of Stan the Man, you say? Not when Alexa discovers she has the power to open doorways to other dimensions—and some of those dimensions’ superpowered residents are dropping by to visit Earth!

Yeah. Now it’s a Stan project.  😀

The majority of the art for the first issue had been sitting in a drawer for years before ibooks, inc. decided to pull it out and publish it. I was hired to write new dialogue for the comic (the original script—not by Stan—had been misplaced long before), and Chris was brought in to draw a new prologue—Stan wanted a darker, grittier opening sequence, for some reason.

Unfortunately, Alexa never made it to her second issue—due to the untimely passing of ibooks publisher Byron Preiss in 2005, and the company’s closing soon after—but that hasn’t stopped French publishing house Organic Comix from picking up the reprint rights. That sole first issue is scheduled for publication later this year, with 14 new pages of art and story by Chris and me. It’ll only be available in France, though, so if you know anyone in Europe, ask them to pick up a copy for you.

In addition to Stan Lee’s Alexa, Chris has the science fiction graphic novel The Rovers set for release in November, from Arcana Comics. More info and preview pages at the link.

The 13 Days of Pan-demonium continue! Who’s our next artist? Why, Pan’s co-creator, Uriel Caton! You can’t miss that, can you?