It’s the Spring Training of Reading!

Posted on February 13, 2019 by steven

mets-ya-gotta-read If there’s one thing Pandora Zwieback loves—other than her boyfriend, her skill at painting, and…oh, yeah, monster fighting—it’s reading. And when it’s a literacy program that involves her favorite baseball team, well, she’s just all over it!

A partnership between the New York Mets and Delta Air Lines that launched last year, Ya Gotta Read (a playful twist on the old Mets saying, “Ya Gotta Believe!”) is, according to the press release:

…a program to help foster a love of reading in students. More than 5,000 students at nine elementary schools in Queens are participating in the program. The goal is for students to read one book a week for a total of six books. Students will write a book review for each book and hand it in to their teachers. The more books students read, the more prizes they will earn!

The student from each school that reads the most books will be awarded four field level tickets a Mets game at Citi Field and be invited participate in an on-field pregame ceremony. The student who reads the most books in the overall program will win four Delta Club tickets behind home plate.

The class that reads the most books will win a visit by a Mets player and Mr. Met and memberships to Mr. Met’s Kids Club. The top class from each school will receive additional Mets premium merchandise.

Ya Gotta Read runs from today (the start of Mets spring training—the day pitchers and catchers report for duty!), to March 25. For more information, and to follow the schools’ progress, visit the Ya Gotta Read page at the Mets website.

Happy Women in Horror Month 2019!

Posted on February 2, 2019 by steven

Women in Horror Month is here again, that annual celebration that shines 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.

whitefell-werewolf-cvr To join in on the celebration, later this month Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, will be publishing The Mortal Immortal, a tale of longevity gone wrong, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the author and creator of Frankenstein!

In the meantime, you can always purchase SWC’s previous Women in Horror title: White Fell—The Werewolf, by Clemence Annie Housman. Originally published in 1896 as The Were-wolf, 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. 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…

Carmilla_Cover There’s also the Illustrated Classic Carmilla, J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s nineteenth-century vampire love story that features great black-and-white illustrations by Eliseu Gouseia, the artist for Lorelei: Sects and the City, A Princess of Mars, and the Pandora Zwieback comics. In Carmilla, a young woman named Laura is so desperate for a friend that when a woman her age 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 by literary scholars as one of the earliest lesbian vampire tales, 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.

White Fell—The Werewolf and Carmilla are available in print and digital formats, so visit their respective product pages at StarWarp Concepts for further information. If you enjoy tales of horror and empowered women, be sure to give them a read!

It’s Banned Books Week 2018!

Posted on September 23, 2018 by steven

Got a favorite book? Well, odds are good there’s someone out there in the United States who’d liked to see it censored. And 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. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information.

That value is stressed even more in this year’s theme, “Banned Books Silences Stories,” which the Banned Books Week Coalition describes as “a call to action to speak up for the right to read” and “a reminder that everyone needs to speak out against the tide of censorship.”

Banned Books Week 2018 is happening right now, September 23 to September 29, so visit the BBW website for more information, including a list of the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2017 that they’re celebrating this year.

It’s Buy Indie Comics Day 2018!

Posted on August 4, 2018 by steven

buy-indie-comics-day Yes, once again it’s time to celebrate and support the creations of independent comic book publishers—a notion fully supported by me and the staff of StarWarp Concepts. Held the first Saturday in August, Buy Indie Comics Day has a pretty straightforward idea. To quote their mission statement:

Buy Indie Comics Day [was founded] so indie, small press, and local creators around the globe could synergize on a single day designed to celebrate their work. It’s our hope that retailers across the globe will take this chance to stock up on Indie Comics, that consumers will take a risk on new comics and creators they’ve never heard of, and that creators have an event to push their project on.

For more information on all the events being held today, visit the Buy Indie Comics Day Facebook page.

Speaking of indie comics you should buy (what? You thought there wasn’t an ulterior motive behind my promotion of this celebration? Hah!), StarWarp Concepts just happens to have some comic and graphic novel titles that would be perfect for reading today!

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1: A spinoff from the novel series, this 56-page, full-color comic special finds the teenaged Goth adventuress battling vampires and a jealous, man-stealing siren. It features stories by me and Sholly Fisch (Scooby-Doo Team-Up), art by Eliseu Gouveia (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0), comic-art legend Ernie Colon (Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld), and Elizabeth Watasin (Charm School), and cover art by award-winning artist Henar Torinos (Mala Estrella).

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-wife team of Richard C. White (Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination, For a Few Gold Pieces More, Harbinger of Darkness) and Joni M. White, and illustrated by Reggie Golden and Randy Zimmerman.

The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special is a digital pirate-fantasy comic created and written by Richard C. White, coauthor of SWC’s supernatural-superhero graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings. Drawn by Bill Bryan (artist of Caliber Press’ Dark Oz and DC Comics’ House of Mystery), and featuring cover art and color by Eliseu Gouveia (SWC’s The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual), it’s 48 pages of high-seas adventure perfect for fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise, as well as classics like The Crimson Pirate, Against All Flags, Captain Blood, and The Sea Hawk—and it’s available for download for just 99¢!

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual and Troubleshooters Incorporated are available in print and digital formats. The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special is a digital exclusive. Visit their respective product pages for ordering information, as well as sample pages.

Happy World Goth Day 2018!

Posted on May 22, 2018 by steven

world-goth-poster Now celebrating its ninth anniversary, World Goth Day (always held on May 22) puts a spotlight on Goth culture and all its perks (it’s not all about black clothes and clichéd dour attitudes, you know). To quote the official website:

Goth Day is exactly what it says on the wrapper—a day where the Goth scene gets to celebrate its own being, and an opportunity to make its presence known to the rest of the world. It all started off as “Goth Day” just in the UK back in 2009—originating as a musical subculture weekend on the BBC 6 music station which focused on punk, Brit-pop and Goth (the Goth feature was on May 22)—but the following year we decided to push the idea across the globe.

For more information on World Goth Day, including links to the many events being held to celebrate the occasion, visit the WGD website.

And who better to celebrate World Goth Day than our resident Goth adventuress, Pandora Zwieback? Generally a happy Goth (yes, they exist) and major horror fangirl who likes to paint and write and hang out with her friends and her new boyfriend, Javier Maldonado, Pan also has her hands full these days battling monsters and fallen angels in her novel series The Saga of Pandora Zwieback—written by yours truly. And you can check out her adventures in these titles:

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0: A free, downloadable comic that serves as an introduction to both Pan—with an 8-page story written by me and illustrated by Eliseu Gouveia—and her first novel, Blood Feud (via a pair of preview chapters).

Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1: This critically acclaimed novel is the beginning of Pan’s story, explaining how she, her parents, and her friends, are drawn into a conflict among warring vampire clans 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. It’s a character-driven action-fest that leads immediately into the second novel:

Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2: Pan faces even greater challenges as the clans draw up plans to go to war with humanity. Leading the charge is a fallen angel named Zaqiel, whose previous attempt at subjugating the world was stopped by Pan’s monster-hunting mentor, Annie—who, back in the day, was Zaqiel’s lover!

Blood Feud, Blood Reign, and the Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual are available in both print and digital formats. The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 is a digital exclusive. Visit each of the titles’ product pages at StarWarp Concepts for more information, including sample pages and chapters.

Happy Free Comic Book Day 2018!

Posted on May 5, 2018 by steven

FCBD-logo2 That’s right, comic book fans, today is the eighteenth annual Free Comic Book Day at brick-and-mortar and online comic shops around the world.

Held the first Saturday in May, this year’s event is timed to coincide with last week’s release of Marvel Studios’ latest blockbuster, Avengers: Infinity War, in which Earth’s Mightiest Heroes join forces with other Marvel heroes—including the Guardians of the Galaxy—to battle the space villain Thanos as he tries to take possession of the Infinity Stones: jewels that will give him the power to destroy the universe! And in keeping with FCBD’s fine tradition of gifting comics to fans everywhere, here’s a list of StarWarp Concepts’ offerings that you can download—for free!

Heroines & Heroes: A collection of comic stories and pinups all drawn by 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). It’s 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: 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.

Hearstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa #1–3: Before she became Pan’s monster-hunting mentor, Sebastienne Mazarin made her debut in this short-lived, 1990s Mature Readers series from Millennium Publications. 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 me (of course), issue 1 is drawn by Pan and Annie co-creator Uriel Caton (JSA Annual) and inker Alan Larsen (Femforce); issue 2 is penciled by Uriel, Holly Golightly (School Bites), and David C. Matthews (Satin Steele) and inked by Larsen; and issue 3 is penciled by Holly, with four pages of inks by “Chainsaw” Chuck Majewski (Harvey Kurtzman’s New Two-Fisted Tales).

Warning: Heartstopper is designated a “Mature Readers” comic for violent scenes and some sexual innuendo, so younger Panatics should avoid it.

All these comics are available for download right now, so visit their respective product pages for more information.

It’s National Library Week 2018!

Posted on April 8, 2018 by steven

Peanuts-Library Hey, book lovers! It’s time to recognize another annual reading event, because if there’s one thing we enjoy around these here parts, it’s reading! This time, it’s National Library Week!

According to the American Library Association (ALA), the organization that runs the event:

“First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries—school, public, academic and special—participate.”

National Library Week runs April 8–14, so be sure to see if your local library has any special events planned for the celebration.

Will Eisner Week 2018 is Here!

Posted on March 1, 2018 by steven

Eisner-Week-2018 Yes, it’s time again for Will Eisner Week: an annual celebration—held this week from March 1 to March 7—run by the Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation, to promote literacy, graphic novels, free speech, and the legacy of the late Will Eisner, the creator of the 1940s masked crimefighter The Spirit, and one of the founding fathers of American graphic novels. A Contract with God, A Life Force, Dropsie Avenue, and The Dreamer are just some of the fascinating tales Eisner wrote and drew, featuring ordinary people in extraordinary (and sometimes not-so-extraordinary) situations. And even though he passed away in 2005, Eisner continues to inspire generations of writers and artists. Events are being held this week around the world; visit the Will Eisner Week site for more information.

Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, of course, has its share of graphic novels and comics that might pique your interest. Here are just a couple:

Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings: Perfect for superhero fans, this graphic novel is about a supernatural team of superfolk-for-hire, consisting of a wizard, a sorceress, a female ninja, a high-tech-armor-wearing rock concert lighting designer, and a werewolf. Not every superhero team has Tony Stark’s billions to play with, you understand, and the Troubleshooters are just looking to earn a living while fighting the monsters that have always lurked in the shadows. Makes sense, right? Of course it does! Written by the husband-and-wife team of Richard C. White (For a Few Gold Pieces More, Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination) and Joni M. White, and illustrated by Reggie Golden and Randy Zimmerman, Night Stalkings presents the TSI members on their first mission: protecting a multimillionaire from a trio of Middle Eastern demons out to raise a little hell!

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1: Although it may not be a graphic novel, at 56 pages it’s still a pretty thick comic book, with three stories of Pan and the monsters that live in her New York City hometown. The Saga of Pandora Zwieback chronicles the adventures of sixteen-year-old Pandora Zwieback, a Gothy horror fangirl who possesses amazing powers that she just learned about, including the ability to see past the human disguises worn by monsters to blend in with society. And The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 is a 56-page, full-color special that contains stories by Steven A. Roman (that’s me!) and Sholly Fisch (Scooby-Doo Team-Up, Mighty Mouse), and art by Eliseu Gouveia (Lorelei: Sects and the City, The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0) and comic-art legend Ernie Colon (Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld).

All titles are available in print and digital formats, so visit their respective product pages for ordering information, as well as sample pages.

Happy reading!

Tomorrow is World Book Day 2018 in the UK!

Posted on February 28, 2018 by steven

First it was the New York Mets’ “Ya Gotta Read” literacy program that launched on February 12; now, the first day of March brings World Book Day!

Run by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), World Book Day (aka World Book and Copyright Day, and the International Day of the Book) is, to quote their website:

“World Book Day is a celebration! It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.”

To explain this event further, let’s turn to Wikipedia for its origin story:

“The original idea was of the Valencian writer Vicente Clavel Andrés as a way to honour the author Miguel de Cervantes [author of Don Quixote], first on October 7, his birth date, then on April 23, his death date. In 1995 UNESCO decided that the World Book and Copyright Day would be celebrated on 23 April, as the date is also the anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and [16th-century Spanish author] Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, as well as that of the birth or death of several other prominent authors.”

So then it’s really World Book Death Day? Hey, as long as it gets people to read…

In Ireland and the United Kingdom, World Book Day is held the first Thursday of March—so if you live in that part of the world, visit the World Book Day site for all the latest news and events listings.

Now get to celebrating—with StarWarp Concepts titles like the Saga of Pandora Zwieback, of course!

Ya Gotta Be Reading!

Posted on February 12, 2018 by steven

mets-ya-gotta-read Well, here’s the sort of literacy program Pan can totally get behind—especially since it involves her favorite baseball team!

A partnership between the New York Mets and Delta Air Lines, Ya Gotta Read (a playful twist on the old Mets saying, “Ya Gotta Believe!”) is, according to the press release:

Ya Gotta Read runs from February 12 (the start of Mets spring training) to March 23. For more information, and to follow the schools’ progress, visit the Ya Gotta Read page at the Mets website.

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