Convention season is upon us, and starting Saturday, March 19, book lovers around the world will be virtually gathering for the second annual SMOL Fair, an online book festival that promotes indie publishing houses of all varieties. Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, is among the exhibitors setting up shop in the virtual dealers’ room, so what better reason do you need to check it out?
(Smol, by the way, is Internet slang for something that’s small and cute—or so the site Know Your Meme tells me. Yes, I had to look it up, since I thought SMOL—as it’s listed all in caps on their website—was an acronym for something related to indie publishers. So, here it means this is a small book fair. Add it to your vocabulary!)
In addition to visiting the dealers’ room, you can watch panels and author readings, plus there’s a keynote address by Shirley Jackson Award–winning author Brian Evenson (Song for the Unraveling of the World) on March 18 that will kick things off. And it’s all free (although you have to register to “attend” the panels).
There will also be book giveaways—SWC, for instance, has supplied three copies each of our two most popular titles: the young adult, dark-urban-fantasy novel Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1, by Steven A. Roman (that’s me); and Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination, Richard C. White’s how-to book for writers and RPG gamemasters that shows in detail how to create fully realized fantasy and science-fiction environments for your projects.
SMOL Fair runs March 19–26. For more information on the show, its participating publishers, and its lineup of events, visit the SMOL Fair website.
Like the header says, tomorrow is Take Your Child to the Library Day, celebrating its 11th anniversary. Founded in 2011 by librarians Nadine Lipman and Caitlin Augusta, the event is held the first Saturday in February and encourages librarians to reach out to their communities and show folks just how wonderful reading can be.
Before the Internet, libraries were the source for information and reading, and can always use our support. So now that the world is in some form of pandemic-related normalcy (not counting the actions of ignorant US school boards that are currently caught up in banning books to “protect” children), head out tomorrow, introduce your child to that big building with all the free books to borrow, update the library card that’s been stuck in the back of your wallet for all these years, and renew your acquaintance with a vital partner in the ongoing literacy campaign—vital even more so these days.
For more information, including the list of participating libraries, visit the TYCLD website.
“Short tales to appease your monstrous hunger for suspense” is how Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, describes SWC Horror Bites, their digital-chapbook series that reprints classic tales of horror that you may or may not have encountered before. Here’s what they have available so far:
White Fell: The Werewolf: Originally published in 1896 as The Were-wolf, it was written by renowned author, artist, and suffragette Clemence Annie Housman, and is regarded by scholars as perhaps the first feminist werewolf story. In it, a beautiful woman named White Fell wanders into a snowbound village—and into the hearts of twin brothers, one of whom immediately becomes smitten by her. The other brother, however, soon grows suspicious of the enigmatic White Fell. Where did she come from? Why does she always carry an ax? And is her sudden appearance somehow related to the recent sightings of a bloodthirsty wolf in the area? He may come to regret being so inquisitive…
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Washington Irving’s legendary tale of the Headless Horseman has captivated readers ever since its first publication in 1820, in Irving’s collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., and in the 200 years since it’s become the quintessential Halloween story, as well as the basis for countless movies, TV shows, comic books, and other pop-culture adaptations. When schoolteacher Ichabod Crane arrived in Sleepy Hollow, New York, he had dreams of marrying beautiful socialite Katrina of the wealthy Van Tassel family, only to lose his head (both figuratively and literally!) when he encountered the horrific Headless Horseman one fateful night!
White Fell: The Werewolf and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow are digital exclusives available for download right now, so visit their respective product pages at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.
Women in Horror Month is here again, that annual celebration held every February to shine the spotlight on the contributions of all the female creators—writers, artists, movie directors, producers, special makeup artists, special effects experts, etc.—who’ve brought thrills and chills to generations of fans around the world.
Well, if you enjoy tales of horror and empowered women, may I recommend a classic fiction title from Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts?
White Fell: The Werewolf, by Clemence Annie Housman, was originally published in 1896 as The Were-wolf, and it’s regarded by scholars as perhaps the first feminist werewolf story. In it, a beautiful woman named White Fell wanders into a snowbound village—and into the hearts of twin brothers, one of whom immediately becomes smitten by her.
The other brother, however, soon grows suspicious of the enigmatic White Fell. After all, where did she come from? Why does she always carry an ax? And is her sudden appearance somehow related to the recent sightings of a bloodthirsty wolf in the area? He may come to regret being so inquisitive…
Critics have certainly enjoyed this horror classic:
“White Fell is a powerful, independent woman, a fur-slinging, axe-wielding huntress descended straight from Hyperborea, [and] Housman shuns all of the werewolf traditions so dully repeated in many tales written before and after. White Fell is either a revenant from Valhalla or maybe just a good girl gone lupine.”—The Scream Factory
“For Housman, the female werewolf is a vehicle for her to present a strong feminist-inspired female character…. It is possible that Housman was telling the world that women had a hidden strength and that men should beware of their own hidden nature.”—The Nuke Mars Journal of Speculative Fiction
White Fell: The Werewolf is a digital exclusive available for download from the SWC webstore, so visit its product page for ordering information.
As it was last year, convention season is looming ever closer, and around this time of year I’d be announcing some of the places you’d find the StarWarp Concepts Crew in attendance—but the ongoing pandemic still has us postponing any appearances. After all, it’s hard to socially distance when you’ve got hundreds of attendees—or in the case of New York Comic Con and San Diego Comic Con, tens of thousands—crammed into one setting.
Cons in general have never had a good reputation when it comes to matters of personal hygiene (insert your own “hey, have you ever heard of soap?” joke here). Are you familiar with the term “con crud”? That’s when you come home from a show and wind up sick as a dog because you caught some virus from interacting with people who more often than not knew they were ill and attended anyway. Now, in the days of “super-spreader events,” such venues have become an even greater potential risk for infection—in fact, some of the earliest cases of the Omicron variant were traced back to last November’s Anime NYC convention.
For those of us at ’Warp Central, it wasn’t as though we’d been hitting the convention circuit very hard in past years—our last appearance was at Pow Con in February 2020, just before the lockdown. With regard to 2022’s shows…sorry, Panatics, but we’re opting out for this year and hoping matters will improve for 2023. If plans should change, however, you can be sure I’ll keep you up to date on our status.
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!
This time around, I’ve got something special. This Friday is the opening day of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, director Jason Reitman’s long-awaited (and long-delayed) sequel to his father Ivan’s iconic horror comedies, Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. Set in the present day, it’s about a young brother and sister (Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard and The Haunting of Hill House’s McKenna Grace) who discover their grandfather was none other than founding Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (played by Harold Ramis, who passed away in 2014). In no time at all, the kids find themselves picking up the family business, busting ghosts in the Midwest with the help of the other OG ’busters: Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston Zeddimore (Ernie Hudson).
So what better time for a visit to the Ghostbusters’ original headquarters in New York City—specifically the firehouse in lower Manhattan that became their office space (and garage for the Ectomobile)?
The intersection of North Moore Street and Varick Street in the neighborhood of Tribeca (which stands for the TRIangle BElow CAnal Street) is where you’ll find the home of the building’s real occupants, the FDNY’s Hook & Ladder Company 8. Yes, although it’s become quite the tourist attraction, 14 N Moore Street is still very much an active firehouse. But that doesn’t mean New York’s Bravest haven’t happily embraced their connection to the supernatural—or their location on Horror Street!
Besides the fact that the building is marked “Ghostbusters Headquarters” on Google Maps (look it up!), it was pretty apparent that the fire company was in the GB: Afterlife mood when I dropped by yesterday—as evidenced by the crowd of Ghostbusters fans I found on the sidewalk in front of the station!
Will you be dropping by GB Central this week? I’m sure the scene will get only wilder as Friday draws near!
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: the Brooklyn Vampire, the demonic D-Rod, Where the Gene Wilder Things Are, the beast called Queens’thluhu, the scarifying Ghoulmobile, the regal Griffin, the Spooky Forest, and the Demon Door!
With Halloween only a couple of weeks away, are you looking for illustrated tales of the supernatural to enjoy—as in comic books and graphic novels? Well, it just so happens that Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, has a few titles that are perfect for horror-comic fans!
The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0: A free, downloadable comic that serves as an introduction to the adventures of Pandora Zwieback and her monster-hunting mentor, Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, with an 8-page story written by me and illustrated by Eliseu Gouveia (Vengeance of the Mummy, Stargate Universe), and a preview of Pan’s first novel, Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1. Pan is a 16-year-old Goth girl who’s spent the last decade being treated for mental health problems because she can see monsters. It’s only after she meets Annie that Pan discovers she’s never been ill—her so-called “monstervision” is actually a supernatural gift that allows her to see into Gothopolis, the not-so-mythical shadow world that exists right alongside the human world.
The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1: A 56-page, full-color comic special that features cover art by award-winning artist Henar Torinos (Mala Estrella) and contains three original stories. In “Song of the Siren,” by writer Steven A. Roman and artist Eliseu Gouveia, the teenaged Goth adventuress matches wits with a man-stealing enchantress who’s set her sights on Pan’s boyfriend, Javier. It’s followed by “After Hours,” by writer Sholly Fisch (The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries), and comic-art legend Ernie Colon (Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld), in which a demon walks into a bar to unwind after a long day of scarifying. And rounding out the issue is “Shopping Maul,” a short story by Roman with title-page art by Elizabeth Watasin (Charm School), in which Pan and Annie, along with Javier and Pan’s best friend, Sheena, run into a group of Gothic Lolita vampires out to do more than a little window shopping.
Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings: A graphic novel about a group of supernatural-superheroes-for-hire taking on their first case. The team consists of a wizard, a female ninja, a sorceress, a werewolf, and a rock ’n’ roll lighting designer wearing high-tech armor. Sure, they might not be on a power level with the Avengers or Justice League of America—they’re more like superpowered Ghostbusters, or along the lines of the JLA’s supernatural spin-off, Justice League Dark—but they get the job done. The graphic novel is written by the husband-and-white team of Richard C. White (Chasing Danger: The Case Files of Theron Chase) and Joni M. White, and illustrated by Reggie Golden and Randy Zimmerman.
The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual and Troubleshooters Incorporated are available in print and digital formats. Pandora Zwieback #0 is a digital exclusive. Visit their respective product pages at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information, as well as sample pages.
With the Spooky Season in full swing this month (although, really, it started in August, when the decorations started popping up in stores), are you looking for chilling tales of the supernatural to enjoy, as you anxiously wait for Halloween? Then look no further than the backlist of titles produced by Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, that are perfect for horror fans young and old!
Carmilla: J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 19th-century classic vampiric tale of love gone wrong. Laura is so desperate for a friend that when a young woman named Carmilla practically turns up on the doorstep of the castle owned by Laura’s father, she thinks her prayers for companionship have been answered. But as she comes to realize, Carmilla isn’t as interested in making friends as she is in spilling blood.
Regarded as the one of the earliest female vampire tales—if not the first—Carmilla was an influence on author Bram Stoker in the creation of the vampire brides in his seminal novel, Dracula, and remains a popular character in fiction to this day. The SWC edition contains six original illustrations done especially for StarWarp Concepts by super-talented comic artist Eliseu Gouveia, whose work you’re familiar with if you’ve downloaded The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0, or read The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1.
King Kong: SWC’s e-book-exclusive Illustrated Classics edition of the official novelization of the renowned motion picture, first published in 1932. Written by Delos W. Lovelace, based on the story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper and the screenplay by James A. Creelman and Ruth Rose, the SWC edition of King Kong features scenes that didn’t appear in the final cut of the film—including the notorious “spider pit” sequence in which Kong’s human pursuers are attacked by horrific arachnids and insects. What makes this version special is that it contains six exclusive, original black-and-white illustrations by comics artist Paul Tuma, whose pulp-influenced style has appeared in the pages of The Twilight Avenger, Flare, and Dan Turner: Hollywood Detective.
Snow White: The classic story by the Brothers Grimm. Featuring full-color illustrations first published in 1883 (and they really are beautiful drawings), this digital-exclusive titleis available for immediate download for the wickedly low price of just 99¢!
White Fell—The Werewolf: Originally published in 1896 as The Were-wolf, it was written by renowned author, artist, and suffragette Clemence Annie Housman, and is regarded by scholars as perhaps the first feminist werewolf story. In it, twin brothers encounter a beautiful, mysterious woman known only as White Fell—a woman one brother believes is a murderous werewolf. Complications arise when his twin falls in love with White Fell. Can he save his brother before he falls completely under her spell?
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Washington Irving’s legendary tale of the Headless Horseman has captivated readers ever since its first publication in 1820, in Irving’s collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., and in the 200+ years since it’s become the quintessential Halloween story, as well as the basis for countless movies, TV shows, comic books, and other pop-culture adaptations. When schoolteacher Ichabod Crane arrived in Sleepy Hollow, New York, he had dreams of marrying beautiful socialite Katrina of the wealthy Van Tassel family, only to lose his head (both figuratively and literally!) when he encountered the horrific Headless Horseman one fateful night!
Carmilla is available in print and digital formats; King Kong, Snow White, White Fell: The Werewolf, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow are digital exclusives. Visit their respective product pages at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.
