Hey, book lovers! Today marks the annual celebration of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day.
Founded in 2010 by author Jessica Milchman, the event, held on the first Saturday in December, “is about instilling a love of bookstores in children so that they will value and support this most precious of resources as they go on to enter and create communities of their own” (according to its website).
Kids + reading + brick-and-mortar bookstores? Always a great combination!
For more information, including a map of the bookstores that are celebrating with events of their own, visit the TYCBD site.
Hey, comic fans! Today is Local Comic Shop Day. It’s an annual appreciation held on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (here in the U.S.) because Wednesdays are always New Comics Day at your local comic shop. (Unless, of course, you’re a DC Comics fan who knows that their titles are released on Tuesdays.)
The event was “conceived and implemented by ComicsPRO comic book specialty retailers to call attention to locally owned independent comic book specialty stores, celebrating their unique and vital role in being the primary fire-starters of pop culture.” In other words, it’s a way of encouraging comic fans to visit their LCS and give them some business as the holiday season kicks into high gear. So get out there and support your LCS!
For more information, including a list of participating stores and the special collectibles they’ll be offering for sale, visit the Local Comic Shop Day website.
But it’s not just the retail shops that have something of interest for comic fans—not when Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, has its own comics and graphic novels to offer horror and dark fantasy fans!
Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings is a general readers’ 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—but they get the job done. The graphic novel is written by the husband-and-white team of Richard C. White (Harbinger of Darkness, For a Few Gold Pieces More) and Joni M. White, illustrated by Reggie Golden, Bill Lavin, and Randy Zimmerman, and features cover art by Richard Dominguez (El Gato Negro).
And The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 is 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 (that’s me!) and artist Eliseu Gouveia (Vengeance of the Mummy, Lady Death), 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.
Even better, how about a couple of free comic books you can download right now?
The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 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 Steven A. Roman and illustrated by Eliseu Gouveia. Plus there’s 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.
And Heroines & Heroes is a collection of comic stories and pinups all drawn by yours truly, 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: “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); “Dirty Laundry,” an adventure of small-presser Jeff Wood’s rabbit-eared superspy, Snowbuni; three pages from the mid-‘90s indie comic Motorbike Puppies; and “I Was a Super-powered Vampire Slayer!,” an adventure of the indie superheroine The Blonde Avenger.
The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual and Troubleshooters Incorporated are available in print and digital formats. Pandora Zwieback #0 and Heroines and Heroes are digital exclusives. Visit their respective product pages at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information, as well as sample pages.
Welcome to another installment of Horror Street, my ongoing journey in search of awesome yet spooky graffiti art on the streets and little-traveled corners of New York City!
Today, in honor of Halloween, we have on display a little demon artwork for your enjoyment: the eerie New York Oni, a fantastic mural I came across during my wanderings in Long Island City, Queens, way back in 2016.
The oni is a cave- and mountain-dwelling demon found in Japanese folklore that doesn’t just like to kill wayward travelers, it likes to eat them, too (would that make them distant cousins of Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?). For more information on these devilish creatures, check out this entry at Yokai.com.
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, which include such sights as the Brooklyn Vampire, the demonic D-Rod, the regal Griffin, and even a trip to the Ghostbusters firehouse!
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!
Last year, 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.) And now it’s back for its second year!
On Halloween, certain streets will be closed off in Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn, allowing you and yours to hit the pavement and fill those goody bags. (Weather forecasts indicate chilly temperatures, cloudy skies, and possible showers during those hours, so be sure to bring along an umbrella.)
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.
When the spooks have a midnight jamboree They break it up with fiendish glee Ghosts are bad, but the one that’s cursed Is the Headless Horseman, he’s the worst —“The Headless Horseman,” from Ichabod and Mr. Toad Sung by Bing Crosby
Halloween is just five days away, so the timing couldn’t be better for fans of the Spooky Season than right now to familiarize themselves with a classic story that’s an entry in StarWarp Concepts’ SWC Horror Bites line: Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow!
The tale of schoolteacher Ichabod Crane’s terrifying encounter with 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-plus years since, it’s become the quintessential Halloween story. It’s also been the basis for countless movies, TV shows, comic books, and other pop-culture adaptations (and knock-offs), but if you’ve never read the original source material, then there’s no time like the present!
Here’s the back-cover copy to pique your interest:
Getting Ahead in This Town Can be Murder…
Sleepy Hollow, New York, appears to be the perfect peaceful location for newly arrived schoolteacher Ichabod Crane, whose nerves always seem a little on edge. The people are nice enough—with the exception of the town bully, Bram Bones—the meals they serve are even better, and most appealing of all is the beautiful Katrina Van Tassel, daughter of one of the town’s wealthiest families.
But lurking behind Sleepy Hollow’s peaceful setting is a terrifying secret: a murderer stalks the countryside—specifically, the ghost of a Hessian soldier whose head was blown off by a cannonball during the American Revolution. Ever since his grisly death, the dreaded Headless Horseman has been searching for a replacement…
…and Ichabod Crane’s noggin looks to be just the right size…
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a digital-exclusive chapbook available from the StarWarp Concepts webstore. Visit its product page for ordering information.
Got a favorite book? Well, odds are good there’s someone out there in the United States who’d liked to see it censored or made completely unavailable—an unfortunate phenomenon that seems to grow larger with each passing year.
According to a March 23rd Publishers Weekly article, the American Library Association “tracked a stunning 1,269 ‘demands to censor library books and resources’ in 2022.” That’s a huge jump from previous years: 319 in 2019, 681 in 2020, and 729 in 2021.
That’s where Banned Books Week comes in—an annual celebration of literacy in which the spotlight is shone on the problem of censorship in U.S. libraries and bookstores. To quote the Banned Books Week website:
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries…. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
This year’s theme is “Let Freedom Read,” which, according to an ALA press release, “captures what’s at stake for our democracy: that the safety of our right to speak and think freely is directly in proportion to our right to read. ALA encourages libraries in every context to mark Banned Books Week by inviting other groups within their communities to celebrate and take action to protect our freedom to read all year long.”
And if you’re a resident of Queens, NY (home to ’Warp’s Central), there are events being held all this week at public libraries across the borough to mark the occassion. Check out this article at QNS.com for further info.
Today is National Comic Book Day, an unofficial “holiday” that’s celebrated every year on this date…although no one seems to know why that is, or who exactly started the tradition. Nevertheless, if you’re thinking that the friendly fiends at StarWarp Concepts must have some illustrated fiction that would be perfect for this occasion—you’re absolutely right!
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 Steven A. Roman (that’s me) and illustrated by Eliseu Gouveia (Hell High), 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,” written by me with art by 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 mewith 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.
Heroines and Heroes: Another free digital comic book! It’s a collection of stories (and a few pinups) that I’ve drawn over the years, featuring mainstream and indie comic characters that include the superheroic Blonde Avenger fighting a (maybe?) vampire, the anthropomorphic Motorbike Puppies, the half-human/half-rabbit superspy Snowbuni, and my “legendary” Wonder Woman-meets-Harley Quinn three-page tale that was meant to be my entrée to fame and fortune as a DC Comics artist (it didn’t work out, though).
Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings: A general readers’ 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—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 and Heroines and Heroes are digital exclusives. Visit their respective product pages at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information, as well as sample pages.
Like the header says, today is the annual celebration of International Read Comics in Public Day.
Started in 2010 by Brian Heater and Sarah Morean, it’s an appreciation of comic books and graphic novels, demonstrated by folks not afraid to celebrate their reading choices by taking them out in public. And if you’re thinking that the friendly fiends at StarWarp Concepts must have some illustrated fiction that would be perfect for this occasion—you’re absolutely right!
The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 is 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, 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 is 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 me 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 me 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.
Heroines and Heroes is another free digital comic book. It’s a collection of stories (and a few pinups) that I’ve drawn over the years, featuring mainstream and indie comic characters that include the superheroic Blonde Avenger, the anthropomorphic Motorbike Puppies, the half-human/half-rabbit superspy Snowbuni, and my “legendary” Wonder Woman-meets-Harley Quinn three-page tale that was meant to be my entrée to fame and fortune as a DC Comics artist (it didn’t work out, though).
And Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings is 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—but they get the job done. The graphic novel is written by the husband-and-white team of Richard C. White (Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination, Chasing Danger) and Joni M. White, and illustrated by Reggie Golden and Randy Zimmerman. Cover art is provided by Richard Dominguez (El Gato Negro).
The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual and Troubleshooters Incorporated are available in print and digital formats. Pandora Zwieback #0 and Heroines and Heroes are digital exclusives.
Visit their respective product pages at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information, as well as sample pages. And then get out there and start reading them in public!
Hey, fans of reading! Today is Book Lovers Day, a worldwide event whose origin and first appearance on the calendar aren’t really known, but what is known is that it’s celebrated every August 9th to encourage reading, and any reason to help folks fall in love with books is always a good thing. And if you’re looking for the right book on this special day, StarWarp Concepts is the place for quality reading material!
Our ever-growing list of titles ranges from the young-adult thrills of supernatural heroine Pandora Zwieback to the nonfiction books Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination (perfect for writers and RPG game masters) and From the Stars…a Vampiress: An Unauthorized Guide to Vampirella’s Classic Horror Adventures, and from the Illustrated Classics A Princess of Mars, Carmilla, and King Kong to the swashbuckling adventure of the fantasy novel Harbinger of Darkness.
And our titles are critically acclaimed, with overwhelmingly positive responses from reviewers:
“Far and away one of the best young adult supernatural fantasy novels. Pan is exactly the kind of teen heroine that readers should be standing up and cheering for.”—HorrorNews.net on Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1
“This is without a doubt the essential, authoritative reference book for anything related to the Warren-era Vampirella… There are lots of books out there with good information, but none offers such a broad, all-encompassing look at the history of this character.”—Vampirella of Drakulon (news blog) on From the Stars…a Vampiress: An Unauthorized Guide to Vampirella’s Classic Horror Adventures
“A solid introduction to the subject of world building. The book succeeds in helping the aspiring writer in creating a skeletal framework on which to hang the moving parts required of a believable fictional setting.”—The Gaming Gang on Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination
“A visceral adventure through a world of magic with well-developed characters, dynamic dialogue and a good dose of two-handed sword fights.”—Experience Writing on Harbinger of Darkness
“With a cover that looks like it belongs on the paranormal romance shelf in a bookstore and half a dozen illustrations provided by Eliseu Gouveia, this edition stands a good chance of tempting some younger readers to pick up this classic vampire tale…. I wish I’d picked this book up in seventh grade instead of slogging through Dracula.”—The Gothic Library on Carmilla
With the exception of King Kong (a digital exclusive), all SWC titles are available in print and digital formats, so head over to StarWarp Concepts and check out all the books, comics, and graphic novels we offer. Happy reading!
Out in movie theaters right now is Meg 2: The Trench, the follow-up to the surprisingly popular 2018 giant-shark movie in which action star Jason Statham (The Fast and the Furious and Expendables franchises) fought two megalodons; this time, he’s got a whole aquarium full of giant underwater monsters to battle!
You know who else has had an encounter with a megalodon? Our friend Bob Larkin, who’s spent a four-decade career painting all manner of colossal beasts from beneath the sea—as well as from outer space!—in a host of covers and movie posters for just about every publishing house and film studio.
Doc Savage, Dazzler, Star Wars, Star Trek, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Piranha, Night of the Creeps, Humanoids from the Deep, and Godzilla are just some of the painted images you’re already familiar with, even if you didn’t know they were Larkin’s work. He’s been an inspiration to artists like Joe Jusko and Alex Ross. Around these parts, Bob was the cover artist of my Pan novels Blood Feud and Blood Reign.
Bob’s connection to The Meg is that he was a cover artist for one of the printings of The Trench, author Steve Alten’s follow-up novel to his 1997 bestseller Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, and the basis for Statham’s Meg 2: The Trench—which means Bob got to paint a giant shark!
What you see here are the original painting and its final printed version. As to why the book has a reversed color scheme, Bob explained it this way to me:
“[The original painting] is what the art director and author wanted: an all-white shark with big teeth, in color. But then they decided to make the shark negative with the red eye; I couldn’t understand why. Scarier? They’re both scarier, to a degree. I did the painting in 1999 and didn’t sign it, like a lot of my rush covers.”
Impressive, right? But like I always like to say, it’s not just his painting skills that are impressive—Bob’s also an amazing pencil artist, as evidenced by the StarWarp Concepts art book that showcases his work. Cue the shameless plug!
The Bob Larkin Sketchbook is a collection of some of Bob’s incredible pencil drawings, and what you’ll discover when you see them—behind that eye-catching cover featuring Ms. Zwieback—is how wide-ranging his subjects are. Sci-fi, horror, Westerns, pulp adventure, crime fiction, movie merchandise, even wrestling stars—as we say on the book’s back cover, there really is little that he hasn’t painted.
The sketchbook also features three pieces created especially for it: the Pan-portrait cover art; a portrait of Patricia Savage, the fightin’ cousin of pulp fiction’s top-tier adventurer, Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze; and a two-page spread in which Doc faces off against another Golden Age crimefighter—The Shadow!
The Bob Larkin Sketchbook is available in print and digital formats. Visit its product page at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.
