Category Archives: Events

StarWarp Concepts at Baltimore Comic-Con

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Press Release:

Independent publishing house StarWarp Concepts—home for edgy dark-urban-fantasy books and graphic novels—hits the road to make its first appearance at the popular Baltimore Comic-Con, being held September 8–9, 2012 at the Baltimore Convention Center.

Artists Alley table #A189 is where you’ll find bestselling author Steven A. Roman (X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy) promoting The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, his young adult novel series about a teenaged Goth who teams up with an immortal shape-shifter named Annie to hunt monsters. Joining Roman will be author Richard C. White (Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, Star Trek: Echoes of Coventry), who will be promoting The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon, his pirate-fantasy comic book that’s perfect for fans of classic adventure and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

On sale will be:

• Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1: The critically acclaimed first novel in the series finds Pan and Annie contending with warring vampire clans who attempt to unleash hell on earth.

• Lorelei: Sects and the City: Written by Roman and featuring art by Eliseu Gouveia (The Phantom), Steve Geiger (Web of Spider-Man), and Neil Vokes (The Black Forest), this Mature Readers graphic novel is about a succubus battling the members of a fanatical cult that’s trying to resurrect the Elder Gods they worship.

• The Bob Larkin Sketchbook: From Doc Savage and Batman to Star Wars and the X-Men, there’s little that this legendary painter hasn’t drawn, and this first-time collection of some of his detailed pencil work features pulp adventurers, wrestlers, femme fatales, and superheroes, and includes three new pieces done especially for this volume.

• The Official Pandora Zwieback T-shirt: Available in sizes for both women and men, it’s a full-color recreation of the T-shirt worn by Goth adventuress Pandora Zwieback on the cover of her first novel, Blood Feud.

• The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon comic book, as well as related T-shirts and roleplaying game figurines.

Attendees are encouraged to download a free digital copy of The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0—a full-color, 16-page comic book written by Roman, with art by Eliseu Gouveia. In it, Pan introduces readers to her book series and presents a two-chapter sample from Blood Feud.

Baltimore Comic-Con’s hours are:
Saturday, September 8: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Sunday, September 9: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

The Baltimore Convention Center is located at 1 West Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland. For more information on the show, visit.

For more information on StarWarp Concepts and its projects, please visit www.StarwarpConcepts.com.

And Now For Something Completely Different…

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Well, after weeks of staring at this page every time I log on to Safari (it’s my home page, y’see), I’m kinda tired of seeing my face at the top of this blog—how about you?  😀  Here’s something far more attractive. (And I apologize for the lack of posts.)

This is a pencil sketch of Pan that I drew while killing some time at the 2011 Boston Comic Con. After seeing so many Doctor Who fans cosplaying as their favorite characters—the Doctor (many versions of the 10th and 11th incarnations), his companion Amy Pond, and the Doctor’s time machine the TARDIS (usually in the form of women wearing TARDIS dresses, with a flashing lamp worn as a hat)—I decided to do a tribute to old-school Who, back in the days when I became a fan.

Thus: Pan cosplaying as Sarah Jane Smith (played by the late Elisabeth Sladen), journalist and companion to the Third and Fourth Doctors, in the episode “The Hand of Fear.” Eldrad was an alien life force that possessed various people in the story—including Sarah Jane; you knew they were possessed because they’d always start droning, “Eldrad must live!”

As for why Pan would be wearing candy-striped overalls, here’s a screen cap from “The Hand of Fear” so you can see Sarah Jane’s now famous (infamous?) outfit. Hey, don’t you go judging 1970s costume designers!


Everyday I (Try to) Write the Book

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You might not ever get rich
But lemme tell you it’s better than diggin’ a ditch
—Rose Royce, “Car Wash”

Hi. I’m Steve Roman. You may remember me from such novels as X-Men: The Chaos Engine and Final Destination: Dead Man’s Hand. You may also know me as (no great secret) the publisher of StarWarp Concepts, and the author of its young adult, dark-urban-fantasy novel series The Saga of Pandora Zwieback. You know—the guy whose latest Pan novel, Blood Reign, is the one you’re eagerly waiting to read. (And that’s no lie—I’ve heard and read your responses to Blood Feud. Thanks for the encouragement!)

Unfortunately, I have some bad news to pass along regarding the planned June release of Blood Reign…

Now, I consider myself to be a pretty talented writer. Unfortunately, I don’t make a living from writing, and StarWarp Concepts doesn’t make anywhere close to the sort of money I’d like it to. That means I have to have a real job to pay the bills, just like everybody else. And the more expenses that SWC racks up—paying artist and designers for their work, paying for publishing costs, paying for exhibition space at conventions (plus travel and shipping expenses), etc.—the more work I have to take on to pay the bills.

That work for the past five years has been as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader for a number of book publishers here in New York. And, all modesty aside, I’m very good at my job—and very much in demand. (It helps that I developed my skills for this career by having been a fiction editor for 10+ years.) Here, for example, was part of my workload this past April:

That’s five assignments right there: two proofreading jobs and three manuscripts to copyedit. (Oh, and yes, that’s a Dalek alarm clock in the middle of the pile—yay, Doctor Who!)

Here are May’s seven assignments:

 

 

Three books to proofread, two manuscript copyedits, and two manga proofreads. (I freelance for Yen Press—if you read series like Pandora Hearts, Bunny Drop, Soul Eater, Black Butler, or The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, I’m the guy checking the spelling and punctuation.) As for June, well, there were those two emergency copyediting jobs that were due at the start of the month…

I usually average around ten assignments a month—which makes 120 jobs in a year. Holiday seasons and summers are especially crazy—freelancers and editors go on vacation, page proofs arrive late from the typesetter, etc.—which means companies will offer increased rates for those of us not on vacation to meet publishing deadlines that can’t be moved. And I really can’t say no to short-term pay increases when I have people and my own bills to pay.

Believe me when I tell you
It gets a little rough
Work a little harder
But it never is enough
Lot of friends say
I’m a total loss
All I want is a couple days off
—Huey Lewis and the News, “Couple Days Off”

So, why am I telling you all this? Well, so that you’ll know why Blood Reign is running late. It was scheduled to come out in June 2012; in all likelihood, it will now be released in October, in time for this year’s New York Comic Con. And the Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 is now being shifted to summer 2013, so I’ll have more time to write that comic book script, as well as the first-ever Pan short story I’ve got planned for a backup tale.

All these delays and rescheduling of books kill me. They really do. Because I pride myself on StarWarp Concepts’ reputation as “a small press company that presents itself with nothing but professionalism” (thanks, Severe Magazine), and it’s not very professional to delay the company’s major release when readers are counting on it. But like I said, I’ve gotta pay StarWarp’s bills (plus my own) somehow, and until Pan’s series becomes a bestseller or StarWarp generates some serious sales figures so it can carry its own weight, I have to spend time that could be dedicated to writing on freelance assignments.

I deeply apologize for the delay, and hope you understand my position. And I hope you’ll stick around to find out where Pan’s adventures are headed—they might not always be on time, but they’ll always be fun.  😉

Pandora Zwieback Celebrates Free Comic Book Day

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—Press Release

This Saturday, May 5, 2012, will be a cause for celebration as comic shops around the world mark the tenth annual Free Comic Book Day. Independent publishing house StarWarp Concepts joins the occasion with a pair of free e-comics that will be available for download from the SWC Web site that day—comics that tie directly to its critically acclaimed young adult, dark-urban-fantasy novel series The Saga of Pandora Zwieback.

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0: Introducing 16-year-old Goth adventuress Pandora Zwieback! Pan is a girl with the ability to see the monsters that regular humans can’t, and with the help of a 400-year-old monster hunter named Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, she’s going to protect the world from danger—and maybe even have some fun while doing it.

Written by series author Steven A. Roman (X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy) and drawn by Eliseu Gouveia (The Phantom), this 16-page, full-color comic book is hosted by Pandora and includes two preview chapters from Book 1: Blood Feud, in which rival vampire clans search for the key to an ultimate weapon—a key that’s been delivered to the horror museum owned by Pan’s father!

(For those who can’t wait until Saturday, the comic is available right now here at the Pan site—just click on the “Download Free Comic” link in the sidebar and start reading today!)

Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 (ISBN 978-0-9841741-0-2) is available in both print and e-book editions from such retailers as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Kobo.com, Smashwords, and DriveThru Fiction.

Heartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa #1: In 1994, Sebastienne Mazarin made her debut in this short-lived Mature Readers series from Millennium Publications. Now, for the first time in almost two decades, StarWarp Concepts re-presents this long-lost comics adventure of the monster hunter known as La Bella Tenebrosa (“the beautiful dark one”).

A nefarious heavy metal band has arrived in New York City, and its lead singer is more than just a sex magnet for his female fans—he’s an incubus! Will Annie put an end to his plans for worldwide chaos, or fall prey to his supernatural charms?

Written by Roman, with art by co-creator Uriel Caton (JSA Annual 2000) and Alan Larsen, this 32-page, full-color comic offers a rare look into the past of the immortal shape-shifter, long before she became mentor to Pandora Zwieback.

After May 5, the comics will remain accessible on the StarWarp Concepts Web site’s “Free Comics” page. For more information on the company and its projects, please visit www.StarwarpConcepts.com and www.PandoraZwieback.com.

Hey, Boston Comic Con Fans!

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Thanks for stopping by and for your interest in Pan’s adventures.

The free e-comic can be found in the sidebar to the right, as I’ve mentioned. If you like what you see, hit the Buy the Book Button to the right. It’ll take you to the book-buying links.

Blood Feud is also available as an e-book. You’ll find the links for those on the buying links page as well. It’s just $3.99!

Boston Comic Con is This Weekend!

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The 2012 Boston Comic Con is being held April 21–22 at the Hynes Convention Center, in the Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts. With a nurses convention, the Yankees playing the Red Sox, and the 100th anniversary celebration of the Red Sox’ baseball home, Fenway Park, all going on at the same time, it’s gonna be one insanely busy weekend in Beantown!

Regardless, you’ll find me in the BCC Artists’ Alley at Table 106 (AA106), manning the StarWarp Concepts post; just look for the Pandora Zwieback banner. On sale will be copies of Blood Feud, Carmilla, A Princess of Mars, and The Bob Larkin Sketchbook, as well as the Official Pandora Zwieback T-shirt. I’ll also be handing out Pandora Zwieback bookmarks—while supplies last, of course.

Boston Comic Con runs from 10 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The Hynes Convention Center is located at 900 Boylston Street.

For more information, head over to the Boston Comic Con Web site. Just click on the logo up top. Hope to see you at the show!

Latest Convention Reports for Your Reading Pleasure

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So, you’ve seen the notices here of the conventions I’ve been attending recently, but where, you might ask, can you find the reports on my first two con appearances of 2012? Why, over at the StarWarp Concepts blog, that’s where!

You’ll find the write-up of the March 24th Institute of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction gathering (hosted by Blood Moon Rising magazine) here, and the report on the March 31st New York Comic Book Marketplace is here.

Next stop on the SWC 2012 Promotional Tour is the Boston Comic Con, being held April 21–22 at the Hynes Convention Center, in the Back Bay area of Beantown. I’ll be manning the SWC table in Artists’ Alley—just look for the distinctive Pandora Zwieback banner.

New York Comic Book Marketplace Tomorrow

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The 2012 New York Comic Book Marketplace is being held this coming Saturday, March 31, at the Penn Plaza Pavilion at the Hotel Pennsylvania, in Manhattan (across 7th Avenue from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden). Stan “The Man” Lee is the guest of honor—but more important, StarWarp Concepts will be there, too!

You’ll find us in Artists’Alley; just look for the Pandora Zwieback banner. On sale will be copies of Blood Feud, Carmilla, A Princess of Mars, and The Bob Larkin Sketchbook, as well as the Official Pandora Zwieback T-shirt. I’ll also be handing out Pandora Zwieback bookmarks—while supplies last, of course.

The New York Comic Book Marketplace runs from 10 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on March 31, and admission is $10. The Hotel Pennsylvania is located at 401 Seventh Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd Streets.

For more information, head over to the NYCBM Web site.

StarWarp Concepts’ 2012 Convention Season Starts This Weekend

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The annual gathering of the Institute of Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction—hosted by Blood Moon Rising magazine—is being held this coming Saturday, March 24, at the main branch of the Queens Public Library, in Flushing (just a few blocks from Main Street—the final stop on the #7 train—and smack in the middle of the borough’s own Chinatown). Not only will I be manning the StarWarp Concepts table, but I’ll be doing my first public reading of Blood Feud. (Now that’s terrifying!)

On sale will be copies of Blood Feud, Carmilla, A Princess of Mars, and The Bob Larkin Sketchbook, as well as the Official Pandora Zwieback T-shirt. I’ll also be handing out Pandora Zwieback bookmarks—while supplies last, of course. The print version of the free Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 introductory comic won’t be available, unfortunately—I’ve burned through its 3,000-copy run (so where are the sales?!). At the moment, I’m still debating whether or not to go back to press (three thousand 16-page, full-color freebies don’t come cheap, after all).

After this weekend, on March 31st The ’Warp will be appearing at the New York Comic Book Marketplace—more details on that next week—and then in April we’ll be heading back to Beantown for the Boston Comic Con. For us, the 2012 convention season has officially begun! Check out the Events listing for all our upcoming appearances and come out and see us, if you get the chance.

The Institute of Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction runs from noon to 5:00 p.m. on March 24, and admission is free. The Queens Library is located at 41-17 Main Street, in Flushing.

For more information, head over to the Blood Moon Rising Web site.