Category Archives: Conventions

Conventioneering at Home: Not at NYCC 2024? Neither Are We!

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As pop culture and comic fans know, today is the opening day for New York Comic Con 2024—which, if it runs true to form, will be an absolute madhouse this weekend!

Unfortunately, StarWarp Concepts won’t be part of the festivities (I mean, small-press booth prices are around $1,200—that’s crazy!). But that doesn’t mean you can’t experience a sort of scaled-down SWC version of the big show!

You want vendors? Our webstore is open 24/7, so at any time you can order our amazing titles that range from comics and graphic novels to fantasy and dark fantasy novels, and from Illustrated Classics to nonfiction books about gaming and comics history. And while our webstore is currently offline (sorry about that; we’re working on the problem), our product pages have links to traditional book retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble for print editions, and e-book distributors Smashwords and DriveThru for e-books and digital comics.

Convention giveaways? Our Downloads page has free stuff like Pandora Zwieback wallpapers for your smartphone and computer, and book samples.

And how about some 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.

Artists Alley? Our Gallery area—think of it as an online artists’ alley—features The 13 Days of Pan-demonium, containing original renderings of our favorite goth girl by a host of artists from indie and mainstream comics, including such notables as Elizabeth Watasin (Charm School), Teri S. Wood (Wandering Star), Neil Vokes (Tom Holland’s Fright Night), and Louis Small Jr. (Supergirl)!

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!

Not at SDCC 2024? Neither Are We!

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Today is the launch day for San Diego Comic-Con 2024: 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. Or is that meet the crowds in their best collectible costumes—and hunt down their idols…? (Somebody call Security!)

StarWarp Concepts won’t be part of the festivities—in fact, we haven’t attended Comic-Con since 2005 (it’s just too expensive to exhibit there, what with cross-country travel and shipping, not to mention exhibitor and hotel fees)—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? Our webstore is open 24/7, so at any time you can order our amazing titles that range from comics and graphic novels to fantasy and dark fantasy novels, and from Illustrated Classics to nonfiction books about gaming and comics history. And while our webstore is currently offline (sorry about that; we’re working on the problem), our product pages have links to traditional book retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble for print editions, and Smashwords and DriveThru for e-books and digital comics.

Speaking of e-titles, 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? Our Downloads page has Pandora Zwieback wallpapers for your smartphone and computer, and book samples. Plus, we have free digital comic books you can download:

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 #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, Lorelei: Sects and the City), and includes two sample chapters from Blood Feud, the first Pan novel.

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 an SWC con-like experience from the comforts of your home!

SMOL Fair 2022 Is Coming!

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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.

2021 Convention Update

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What’s that, you say? Didn’t I announce back in January that the StarWarp Concepts Crew wouldn’t be making any convention appearances in 2021 due to the complications brought about by conventioneering in the middle of a global pandemic? That’s very true…as far as in-person appearances go. But that doesn’t necessarily apply to online convention—like the SPACE show being held this July, and which SWC has just signed up to participate in as an exhibitor!

SPACE—an acronym for Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo—is the creation of Bob Corby, writer/artist/publisher of Back Porch Comics. Bob launched SPACE in the late 1990s in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, and it’s an event that’s steadily grown in crowd size and exhibitor attendance with each passing year. The Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland, and the MoCCA (Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) Arts Festival, here in New York, might get all the attention when it comes to alt-press publications, but SPACE still has the sort of small-press-creator feel that reminds me of the days when StarWarp Concepts first launched, and I was turning out hand-stapled, digest-size comics on photocopiers—especially since some of SPACE’s attending creators who were my peers back then (like Bob) are still making comics today!

Coronavirus forced Bob to take SPACE online last year, and this year’s con follows suit (although he is making plans for a live show in November). The advantage here is that he’s opened wide the virtual convention-hall doors so that alt-press and indie publishers who normally wouldn’t be able to attend, like SWC, can now have a presence—for free! Hey, why pass up a good thing?

SPACE runs July 10 and 11. Visit its website for further information.

Conventions in Our Future? Not This Year, Unfortunately

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The 2021 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 how does that work in the Age of Coronavirus?

As you’re no doubt aware, if you’re a regular con attendee, the 2020 season was completely wrecked when the global pandemic erupted during the spring, forcing the closure of hundreds of genre shows around the world, from one-day venues like Connecticut Horrorfest to mega-events like San Diego Comic Con. After all, it’s hard to socially distance when you’ve got up to 150,000 people crammed into one setting. A number of them, like SDCC and New York Comic Con, opted for online iterations—virtual cons—that had downloadable content as well as YouTube channels packed with prerecorded Zoom-style panels, all to try and provide that “con” feel. SWC even experimented with that format by participating (to a small degree) in one such show—SiouxperConline in October—though it didn’t appear to generate any book sales for us.

But where do we go from here? Sure, there are vaccines that have started to be distributed (thank goodness!), but it’ll be quite a while before the vast majority of Americans are properly immunized, and then there was the discovery of mutations in the virus that are making the rounds, which raised the concern that infection rates will spike again. On top of that, cons in general have never had a good reputation when it comes to matters of personal hygiene. 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.

For those of us at ’Warp Central, it wasn’t as though we’d been hitting the convention circuit very hard in past years, anyway: Connecticut Horrorfest was our only 2019 show, and of the two appearances we intended on making last year, February’s Pow Con in Brooklyn, NY, didn’t turn out all that great, so we had no plans to go back, and September’s CT Horrorfest was canceled due to the pandemic. With regard to 2021’s shows…sorry, Panatics, but we’re opting out for this year to see how things progress. If plans should change, however, you can be sure I’ll keep you up to date on our status.

Stay safe, and stay well!

CT Horrorfest 2020 Canceled

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CT-Horrorfest-2019-posterWith the coronavirus outbreak wreaking havoc in the convention industry, given how impossible it is to enforce social distancing guidelines in a hall packed to capacity, it’s disappointing but no surprise that the Connecticut-based CT Horrorfest, which was scheduled for this September, has announced its cancellation, with a replacement date of September 18, 2021. I call that a smart move; it’s good to know the CTH folks are thinking of the health of their vendors, their guests, and the horror fan community.

However, this shutdown means my…well, I’m not sure you could call it a “convention schedule,” since my 2020 appearances consisted of CTH and Pow Con, back in January, but okay, let’s a call it “convention schedule.” Anyway, it means I won’t be showing up at any other cons this year—although, honestly, attending one in 2020 doesn’t make a lot of sense, since conventions are already notorious for spreading what’s become known as “con crud”: cold and flu germs spread by people who insist on foisting their poor health on everyone else instead of staying home when they’re sick. I’ve suffered from it on occasion; maybe you have, too. So why take the risk of picking up something even worse?

Well, you might not be able to enjoy the StarWarp Concepts Experience at CT Horrorfest this year, but you can still have the convention experience by buying yourself one (or all!) of the awesome books available from Pan’s publisher. From the dark urban fantasy adventures of The Saga of Pandora Zwieback and Chasing Danger: The Case Files of Theron Chase to Illustrated Classics like Carmilla and King Kong, and from the graphic novel terrors of Lorelei: Sects and the City to the Brothers Grimm’s dark fairy tale Snow White, StarWarp Concepts has a lot to offer horror fans!

Stay safe, stay well, and I’ll hopefully see you next year!

Pow Con 2020 Report at the StarWarp Concepts Blog

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PowCon2020-BadgeThis past weekend, StarWarp Concepts (and, of course, me) made its first appearance at the second annual Pow Con, held at the Brooklyn Expo Center in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

So how’d it go for SWC and me? Well, if you head over to the StarWarp Concepts blog, you can read my Pow Con 2020 report and see for yourself. I won’t say the place was really loud, but I hope you like club music…

Greetings, Pow Con 2020 Attendees!

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blood_feud_lg_cover_2013Thanks for stopping by the StarWarp Concepts booth this weekend, and for your interest in my Goth adventuress, Pandora Zwieback. If you’re here because you spoke with me, then click on the cover you see to the right and download the Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 digital comic that I showed you. Not only is it an introduction to Pan and her world, hosted by Pan herself, but it contains two sample chapters from her first novel, Blood Feud. Give it a read.

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback is the young adult, dark-urban-fantasy novel series that I write. It’s the story of 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 a shape-shifting monster hunter named Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, in the first critically acclaimed novel, Blood Feud, 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. But before Pan can learn more about what she can do, she and her parents are drawn into a conflict between warring vampire clans that are searching for the key to an ultimate weapon (or so the legend goes)—a key that just so happens to have been delivered to the horror-themed museum owned by Pan’s father.

“Blood Feud is far and away one of the best young adult supernatural fantasy novels released in the last few years. Pan is exactly the kind of teen heroine that readers should be standing up and cheering for.”—Melissa Voelker, HorrorNews.net

“One of those fabulous books that manages to straddle the young adult/adult fiction divide, catering equally for teens and more, ahem, ‘mature’ readers alike with a light touch that makes it a joy to read.”—Kell Smurthwaite, BCF Book Reviews

blood_reign-coverPan’s debut adventure continues in the second novel, Blood Reign, in which she and Annie face challenges from not just vampires but legions of monsters led by a fallen angel—who happens to be one of Annie’s ex-lovers! Blood Feud ended on such a shocking cliffhanger that Blood Reign picks up right where the previous novel left off and hits the ground running, in a story filled with danger, high-speed car chases, vampire hit squads, and a generous helping of romance—all while Pan tries to make sense of her increasingly weird life. Pan fans (I call them “Panatics”) can’t seem to get enough of StarWarp Concepts’ resident Goth girl, so feel free to join their growing ranks—we love adding new members to Zwieback Nation.

“If Blood Feud, the first volume, took some deliberate pacing steps to build Pandora’s character, Blood Reign eschews that as it thunders along at breakneck speed, barely pausing for breath at any given time (and, I must say, the volume was devoured at speed as well)… I thoroughly enjoyed this volume.”—Andrew Boylan, Taliesin Meets the Vampires

“If you thought the first book, Blood Feud, was high powered, you’ll love this book! To paraphrase movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn’s quote: Blood Reign starts with an earthquake and builds to a climax…. This was one fun read!”—Dwight Jon Zimmerman, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Lincoln’s Last Days

Pan’s first prose adventure concludes in the upcoming Blood & Iron, in which she, as well as her friends and family, will try to stop the legions of monsters from taking over the world.

pan_annual_coverAlong with Blood Feud and Blood Reign, also available is the 56-page comic book The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, which features two adventures (written by me) of Pan and her friends that are separate from (and take place after) the novels: a full-color drawn by Eliseu Gouveia (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback#0), in which Pan and her boyfriend, Javier, run into one of his ex-girlfriends…whom Pan can see is really a mythological siren that can enrapture men with her voice; and a short story that pits Pan, Annie, and Javier against a trio of Elegant Gothic Lolita vampires—in a shopping mall! An additional backup tale, “After Hours,” is provided by DC Comics writer Sholly Fisch (Scooby-Doo! Team-Up) and comic-art legend Ernie Colon (Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld).

Give the site a look-over—we’ve got plenty of free stuff you can download, and a gallery called “The 13 Days of Pan-demonium”: 13 unique drawings of Pan and Annie by a host of talented artists.

A special shout-out to teen readers and Pandora Zwieback fans who are budding authors, but who may think their work isn’t all that good and worth continuing: Check out “Again, He Who Stalks”—a science-fiction story I wrote for my high school’s literary magazine when I was 16. Take a look at that and tell me you can’t do better! 😀

And please keep in mind that Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, is not just a YA fiction house. It also publishes illustrated classics (including J. Sheridan’s Le Fanu’s vampire romance Carmilla, Edgar Rice Burroughs’s A Princess of Mars, and the official 1932 novelization of the original King Kong); graphic novels for superhero fans and adult horror aficionados; digital and print comic books; artist sketchbooks; and writing guides for budding authors. Give them a visit and check out all they have to offer.

Pow Con 2020 Is Next Weekend!

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This coming weekend, January 25–26, New York’s pop-culture fans of all ages will be gathering in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, at the second annual Pow Con, being held at the Brooklyn Expo Center. It’s The ’Warp’s first convention appearance of the year!

PowCon-2020Map

 

You’ll find us at table A9 in Artists Alley. And since we’ve luckily been assigned an endcap booth at the corner of two aisles that means we’ll have two tables on which to display all our finery.

Pow Con’s show hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. Guests include comics legend Larry Hama (Wolverine, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero) and the usual complement of Power Rangers, wrestlers, and anime voice actors that have become the norm at today’s pop-culture shows.

For more information on the convention, visit the Pow Con website.

CT Horrorfest 2019 Report at the StarWarp Concepts Blog

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Frank-Romano-DevilThis past Saturday, StarWarp Concepts (and me, naturally) made its first appearance at the sixth annual Connecticut Horrorfest, held at the Naugatuck Event Center. It was the perfect setting for creating horror convention nightmares, given its location: on Elm Street! (Freddy says hi, by the way, and he’ll see you in your dreams.) And considering the headliners were Doug Bradley (Pinhead of the Hellraiser movies), Tobin Bell (Jigsaw of the Saw movies), and David Naughton (star of An American Werewolf in London), it’s no surprise that horror fans came out in droves.

So how’d it go for SWC and me? Well, if you head over to the StarWarp Concepts blog, you can read my CT Horrorfest 2019 report and see for yourself!