Category Archives: Conventions

Blood Reign: Author Steve Roman Interview from NY Horror Show 2015

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Blood-Reign-FinalCvrFor the past three days, I’ve told you the story of the editorial process involved in the creation of Pan’s debut novel, Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1—but now it’s time to focus attention back to the online promotional tour for the second part of Pan’s adventures in Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2!

Back in January of this year, I attended Long Island’s first NY Horror Show (you can read my show report here), where I met Kassandra Cosplayer. After introducing her to the wonders of Ms. Zwieback’s adventures on the first day of the show, Kassandra came back the next day with a cameraman and a microphone to find out more about Pan and StarWarp Concepts—and now you can check out the results of our one-on-one interview by going here.

Thanks for the interview, Kassandra!

Big Apple Con 2015 is This Saturday!

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big-apple-logoThe twentieth anniversary edition of the Big Apple Con is this Saturday, March 7, and StarWarp Concepts will be there! Run by noted art dealer Michael Carbonaro, this one-day gathering of geek culture has become quite the event to attend during its two decades, its aisles filled with comic book back issues, comic creators, and media guests. You’ll find me in artists’ alley, promoting StarWarp Concepts. Where, precisely? Well, that’s a good question. I guess we’ll both find out when we get there…

The Big Apple Con is being held at the Penn Plaza Pavilion, located at 401 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, directly across from Madison Square Garden and Pennsylvania Station. Show-floor hours are 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. For more information, head over to the Big Apple Con website.

Hope to see you there!

StarWarp Concepts to Attend Big Apple Con 2015

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Mets-Big-AppleIt’s a late addition to the SWC convention calendar, but with noted comic-art dealer Michael Carbonaro celebrating the twentieth anniversary of his annual Big Apple Con this year, how can StarWarp Concepts not be there to join in the festivities? This one-day Manhattan show always gets a sizable turnout of fans and professional comic creators, and so far they’ve announced that legendary talents James O’Barr (The Crow), Herb Trimpe (Incredible Hulk, Iron Man), Rich Buckler (Fantastic Four, Deathlok), Ramona Fradon (Super-Friends), and Larry Hama (G.I. Joe) will be among the folks you’ll find in artists alley.

Big Apple Con takes place at the Penn Plaza Pavilion (401 7th Avenue) in Manhattan on Saturday, March 7, 2015, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For more information, visit the Big Apple Con website. Unfortunately, I probably won’t know the location of the SWC table until I get there—right now, all I know is that it’ll be in artists alley—but I’ll be sure to give you the lowdown if that situation changes prior to the show.

Hope to see you there!

NY Horror Show 2015: The Recappening

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This past weekend StarWarp Concepts (and me) attended the first-ever NY Horror Show, held in Happauge, Long Island. Horror conventions have become a rarity in the New York City area, so I was curious to see what sort of reception our Ms. Zwieback would receive from her fellow horror fans.

How it’d go? Well, if you head over to the StarWarp Concepts blog for my convention report, you can read all about it—if you can make it past the battling Freddy Kruegers, that is!

NYHS-Battling-Freddies

The next two stops on the SWC 2015 convention tour are the Big Apple Con (March 7, in Manhattan), and the Connecticut HorrorFest (July 18, in Danbury, CT). Hope to see you there!

Greetings, NY Horror Show Fiends and Nayboars!

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Thanks for stopping by the StarWarp Concepts booth today, 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 in the sidebar 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.

blood_feud_lg_cover_2013The 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

Pan’s debut adventure continues in the second novel, Blood Reign (on sale February 2nd), 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 Pan fans (I call them “Panatics”) have eagerly been looking forward to see how it gets resolved. Feel free to join their growing ranks—we love adding new members to Zwieback Nation.

pan_annualAlong with Blood Feud, on sale right now is The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, which features two brand-new adventures (written by me) of Pan and her friends that are separate from the novels: a full-color comic story 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, Action Comics, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) and drawn by comic-art legend Ernie Colon (Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld).

(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 this post from last May, where I talk about my first published work—a science-fiction story I wrote 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 and Edgar Rice Burroughs’s A Princess of Mars); graphic novels for supernatural superhero fans and adult horror aficionados; digital and print comic books; and artist sketchbooks. Give them a visit and check out all they have to offer.

Hopefully I’ll see you again next year!

The 2015 Convention Machine Gears Up

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Corpse-Con

Over at the StarWarp Concepts blog, today’s post discusses the 2015 convention tour as the promotional wheels start turning to get the word out on the company’s latest and upcoming releases—including those involving a certain Goth adventuress. If you look over to the Events listing in the sidebar on this site, you can see where you’ll find The ’Warp (and me, of course) this year, but the SWC blog post goes a little bit more in-depth about the selections. Go give it a read!

(“Corpse Convention” from Adventures Into Darkness #6, published October 1952. Art by George Tuska and Mike Peppe.)

NY Horror Show Floor Plan

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This just in: the floor plan for this weekend’s inaugural NY Horror Show. Yes, it’s kind of general in appearance, but hey—all you really need to know is that you’ll find the StarWarp Concepts crew in the Vendor Room. That’s why you’re coming, isn’t it? 😀

NY-Horror-Show-MapThe NY Horror Show is being held at the Upsky Long Island Hotel, located at 110 Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, in Happauge. Vendor Room hours are 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM on Saturday, and 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Sunday. For more information, head over to the NY Horror Show website.

NY Horror Show 2015 is This Saturday!

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The inaugural edition of the NY Horror Show starts this Friday, January 16, and runs through Sunday, January 18, and StarWarp Concepts will be there! A collaboration between the folks behind Eternal Con—Long Island’s acclaimed pop-culture show—and TwitchTwitch Productions, the NY Horror Show kicks off with a red-carpet opening of the Macabre Faire Film Festival on Friday night, and then expands into a full-blown convention for the next two days. You’ll find me in the Dealers Room on Saturday and Sunday, promoting The ’Warp; as always, just look for the Pandora Zwieback banner.

ny-horror-poster

The NY Horror Show is being held at the Upsky Long Island Hotel, located at 110 Motor Parkway, in Happauge. Dealers Room hours are 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM on Saturday, and 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Sunday. For more information, head over to the NY Horror Show website.

Cover Painter Bob Larkin at Doc Con 2014

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SWC_Larkin_SketchbookThis past weekend, Saga of Pandora Zwieback cover painter Bob Larkin was the guest of honor at Doc Con XVII, the latest gathering of fans of pulp action hero Doc Savage. Interested in finding out what happened? Then head on over to the StarWarp Concepts blog and read the convention report.

By the way, Panatics, have you purchased a copy of The Bob Larkin Sketchbook yet? If not, you’re missing out on spectacular pencil drawings of Doc Savage, Spider-Man, Batman, the X-Men, and other subjects, and features a special, full-color cover drawing of a certain Goth adventuress. It’s 24 pages of artistic goodness, available exclusively from the StarWarp Concepts webstore. Visit the Bob Larkin Sketchbook product page for all the ordering information, as well as sample pages.

Bob Larkin at New York Comic Con 2014

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SWC_Larkin_SketchbookNew York Comic Con 2014 starts today, October 9th, and runs through Sunday, October 12th. And although the StarWarp Concepts crew won’t be attending (we’ll be at the Collingswood Book Festival on Saturday), Bob Larkin—cover painter of my Saga of Pandora Zwieback novel Blood Feud, and featured artist of his own Bob Larkin Sketchbook—will be tucked behind Table C4 in Artists Alley, signing autographs, taking commissions, and selling prints of his well-known cover paintings for Marvel Comics, Bantam Books, and other publishers. If you can’t remember the number, you’ll probably have to look no farther than the growing line of Doc Savage and Dazzler fans at his table.

New York Comic Con is being held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, on Manhattan’s West Side. For more information, head over to the NYCC site.

By the way, have you purchased a copy of The Bob Larkin Sketchbook yet? If not, you’re missing out on spectacular pencil drawings of Doc Savage, Spider-Man, Batman, the X-Men, and other subjects, and features a special, full-color cover drawing of a certain Goth adventuress. It’s 24 pages of artistic goodness, available exclusively from the StarWarp Concepts webstore. Visit the Bob Larkin Sketchbook product page at StarWarp Concepts for all the ordering information, as well as sample pages.