Pandora Zwieback: Coming to Comic Shops in May 2013!

Posted on March 5, 2013 by steven

Zwieback Nation continues to expand! First our Goth adventuress took the literary market by storm, and now Diamond Comic Distributors—the U.S.’s #1 comic-related distribution company—has picked up The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, our first full-length Pan comic, for the direct market! And to make that easy to remember, just print out the handy product information listing you see here, take it to your local comic shop owner, and ask them to order it.

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 is Pan’s first foray into comic book adventures, not counting the introductory comic The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 (still available for free download). Behind some stunning cover art by Henar Torinos (Mala Estrella), you’ll find three tales: “Song of the Siren,” a 26-page comic story about Pan and her boyfriend Javier’s first date, written by Pandora Zwieback author Steven A. Roman, with art by Eliseu Gouveia (Lorelei: Sects and the City, The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0); “After Hours,” an 8-page tale of the Paniverse by writer Sholly Fisch (Action Comics, Batman: The New Brave and the Bold) and artist Ernie Colon (Amethyst—Princess of Gemworld, Damage Control); and “Shopping Maul,” a Pan short story written by Steve, with title page art by Elizabeth Watasin (Charm School, The Dark Victorian).

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 has earned a Spotlight Title listing on page 343 of the March 2013 Diamond Previews catalog (currently on sale), and is scheduled to hit stores on May 22, 2013. But right now is the time to order it through your local comic shop!

Don’t know where your local comic book dealer is located? Then visit the Comic Shop Locator and help spread the word!

Blood Reign: The Bad News and the Good News

Posted on October 5, 2012 by steven

“You want this, don’t you? The hate is swelling in you now…”

First off, loyal Pan-atics, I have to pass along the bad news: Despite my best efforts, Blood Reign, the second Pandora Zwieback novel, won’t be making its October 9 release date. Despite my best efforts to publish a book I’d be happy with (and you’d be happy with, as well) it’s not quite where I want it to be. And since I’m a stickler for perfection I just can’t let it go out. Not right now. Sorry. As TV host Craig Ferguson says, “I look forward to your angry letters.”

However, there is some good news. In order to take the sting out of not having Pan’s latest adventure on hand, StarWarp Concepts is making the following publications available—for free:

Blood Oath: A short story that you’ll be able to download as a PDF from the Pandora Zwieback Web site. Set between the events of Blood Feud and Blood Reign, it explains what became of House Karnstein’s vampiric strike-team leader Jenessa Branislav after she and her soldiers learned firsthand how foolish it is to attack monster hunter Sebastienne Mazarin in her home. And since Jenessa returns to complicate Annie’s life in the pages of Blood Reign, you’ll definitely want to check out this brand-new addition to Pan’s saga. The story will go live on October 11.

(By the way, what you see here is a dummy cover for the story that I cobbled together. Trust me, the final version by a professional designer will look much better.) 😀

Blood Reign—Special Sneak Preview: If you bought a copy of Blood Feud in the past year-plus and you’re attending next week’s New York Comic Con, come to the StarWarp Concepts booth (#2139) and receive this special printing of Blood Reign’s unedited first chapter, in its entirety. And yes, that cover art is a brand-new illustration by Eliseu Gouveia, artist of the still-free downloadable comic The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0.

Curious about what happened to Pan after Blood Feud’s shocking cliffhanger? Of course you are! Well, this is the place to find out until the novel goes on sale. Supplies will be limited (because I honestly know exactly how many copies of Feud have been sold to date), so get your copy while you can. (More than likely this preview will also appear as a PDF on the Pandora Zwieback site, after the convention and until the book goes on sale, so that Pan’s worldwide fans can join in on the excitement.)

Also for NYCC attendees, The ’Warp be making this one-time offer: If you’re willing to pay us what you would have spent at the show for a copy of Blood Reign, and give us your mailing address, we’ll send you an autographed copy of the book as soon as it’s available, with no extra charges. Think of it as a preorder…on a very late book.

I’ll keep you updated on the book’s progress, but at this point I’m not going to announce a definite publication date. I will, say, though, that when it’s done it means I’m happy with the results. And then I’ll have to immediately jump on the next Pan novel, the werewolf-centric Stalkers, so this problem never happens again.

I appreciate your loyalty and your understanding. And if you do plan on stopping by the SWC booth, please leave your pitchforks and torches at home—the con rules prohibit weapons and open flames. 😉

A Rare Pan-atic Sighting!

Posted on August 21, 2012 by steven

Y’know, after selling a bunch of the Official Pandora Zwieback T-shirts to readers of the first Pan novel, Blood Feud, and to folks who just liked the colorful devil-girl image, I knew there had to be Zwiebackians out there proudly displaying their appreciation of my Goth adventuress—and now we have photographic evidence!

Here we have lovely Pan-atic Julie Zannino modeling her shirt at this past weekend’s ComiConn (a one-day comics convention held in Connecticut, hence the name). I had the pleasure of meeting Julie and her husband Joe (who took this picture) at the 2011 New York Comic Con, where they purchased Blood Feud after becoming enraptured by my sales pitch. 😉 T-shirt sales soon followed.

Thanks to Julie and Joe for helping to spread the word, and for allowing me to post the photo. I’ll see you folks, and your daughter, at this year’s NYCC! (Booth 2139, near the Marvel Comics island.)

Oh, and for all you shirtless masses out there, the Official Pandora Zwieback T-shirt is still on sale from the StarWarp Concepts webstore, in sizes for both women and men. Not available in retail stores, the only way to get these beauties is to order them from The ’Warp, or you can purchase them at my booth/table at convention appearances. (The next stop being Baltimore Comic Con, on September 8–9.)

Click here for ordering information and available sizes.

And Now For Something Completely Different…

Posted on July 23, 2012 by steven

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!

Writing Comics for a Goth Adventuress

Posted on June 10, 2012 by steven

Over at the StarWarp Concepts blog today I talk about the methods by which comic books are scripted—short-story style, shuffling art pages, full scripting, and what’s known as “the Marvel [Comics] Method.” Head over there and give it a read, then come back here for Part 2 of this StarWarp Concepts blogging crossover event. I can wait.

…

All done? Great! So, like I was saying at SWC, I’m a full-scripting advocate. I enjoy directing the pace of a story. (Here’s a tip I once picked up years ago: think of every right-hand page as a mini-cliffhanger and give the reader a reason for wanting to turn the page.)

What follows is the script for The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0, the freebie comic that you can get right now by clicking on the “Download the Comic” link in the sidebar. That way you can compare what I wrote to the finished product. (As you’ll see, page 3 especially follows the “mini-cliffhanger” rule.)

(And please excuse the all-cap dialogue and captions; I’m not Internet-screaming. Writing that way makes it easier for designer Mike Rivilis to copy and paste the text into the word balloons and caption boxes when he’s lettering.)

THE SAGA OF PANDORA ZWIEBACK #0

“WELCOME TO GOTHOPOLIS”

PAGE 1

SPLASH PAGE: We open on a MID-SHOT of PANDORA ZWIEBACK, dressed in her traditional all-black look of leather jacket, “devil girl” T-shirt, jeans, and thick-soled boots. She’s talking directly to us, and looks quite serious about the subject matter she’s discussing.

1.
PAN: HEY, THERE. I’M PANDORA ZWIEBACK

2.
PAN: AND I’VE GOT A QUESTION FOR YOU.

3.
PAN: DID YOU KNOW THERE ARE MONSTERS IN THE WORLD?

4.
PAN: REAL ONES, I MEAN.

5.
PAN: ’CAUSE IN MY SERIES OF DARK URBAN FANTASY NOVELS FROM STARWARP CONCEPTS

6.
LOGO: THE SAGA OF PANDORA ZWIEBACK

7.
PAN: I SEE THEM ALL THE TIME…

PAGE 2

PANEL 1: In the ruins of an old castle, a Japanese Gothic Lolita vampire girl (not the one from the Blood Reign cover, let’s have a new design) faces off against a huge, rabid-looking werewolf. It’s like Underworld—only different!

1.
CAPTION: PARANOID WEREWOLVES—

2.
CAPTION: –AND “GOTHIC LOLITA” VAMPIRES.

PANEL 2: We’re at a big concert, with the band SARKOPHAGIA on stage wailing away. In true Norwegian death-metal style, most of the band members look like escapees from a Hellraiser film festival—heavy makeup, piercings, fake(?) blood [see reference]. The lone exception is the lead singer, LEANDER FAUST, a dark-haired, shirtless, sculpted Adonis of the black arts.

In the audience is a goblin chewing on a human arm—and the fingers of both the goblin and his meal are bent in the devil-horn symbol made famous by Black Sabbath’s Ronnie James Dio!

3.
CAPTION: ROCK-STAR DEMONS—

4.
CAPTION: –AND FLESH-EATING GOBLINS.

PANEL 3: Hey, it’s a crossover! We find LORELEI in an alley, sucking the soul out of some loser with a kiss while, in the background, a rotting, business-suited corpse sits on the ground, shoving a handful of stale donuts into his mouth.

5.
CAPTION: SOUL-STEALING SUCCUBI—

6.
CAPTION: –AND SUGAR-ADDICTED ZOMBIES.

PANEL 4: A kid’s room late at night. Six-year-old Billy looks terrified as he clutches the superhero blanket on his bed—not just by the Bernie Wrightson-esque monsters lurking under his bed, but by the ones starting to creep out of his closet! It doesn’t look good for little Billy…

7.
CAPTION: ALL THE THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT–

8.
CAPTION: —INCLUDING THE ONES HIDING UNDER YOUR BED.

PANEL 5: Pull back to a HIGH ANGLE SHOT of Pan, standing with her arms spread wide to gesture at the world around her. She’s standing on a foggy, cobblestoned city street, done up with all the spooky trappings: gnarled trees, weeds sticking up through the cracks, and “monster” eyes peeping out from a sewer drain. And a full moon in the night sky for added dramatic lighting effect. Wispy images of scary monsters swirl in the mist around her.

9.
PAN: THE WORLD IS FILLED WITH MONSTERS–

10.
PAN: –AND ONLY I CAN SEE THEM!

PAGE 3

PANEL 1: ANNIE, Pan’s monster-hunting mentor, steps through the fog in her standard leather-and-lace costume. She looks a little annoyed by the comment Pan just made. Pan, still talking to us, gestures at her.

1.
ANNIE: EXCUSE ME?

2.
PAN: Oh, OKAY…ONLY ME–AND SEBASTIENNE MAZARIN.

3.
PAN: ANNIE’S A MONSTER HUNTER WHO’S TEACHING ME EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT FIGHTING GHOULS AND GHOSTS.

PANEL 2: Pan enthusiastically continues her description of Annie, who looks surprised by what she’s telling us—no woman likes to have people discussing her age!

4.
PAN: SHE’S ALSO A SHAPE-SHIFTER—AND OVER FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OLD!

5.
PAN: FOUR HUNDRED YEARS! ISN’T THAT, LIKE, TOTALLY INSANE?

6.
PAN: THAT MEANS SHE’S BEEN DOING THIS MONSTER-HUNTING STUFF FOR, LIKE, FOREVER!

PANEL 3: SILENT, BEAT* PANEL. Pan, grinning, looks at Annie, who’s all wide-eyed and horrified with shock at Pan for revealing her age.

[*From TVTropes.org: “A silent panel in sequential art, it approximates the comedic pause before a punch line. Particularly efficient comic artists may copy and paste adjacent panels, since the point of the Beat Panel is usually that the characters are frozen in contemplation.”]

PANEL 4: EXACT SAME AS PANEL 3, with Pan still grinning, only now Annie lowers her head in exasperation (and embarrassment) to put her head in her hand.

7.
ANNIE: (small) >sigh.<

8.
ANNIE: (small) YOU MAKE ME SOUND LIKE SOME OLD HAG…

9.
PAN: Oh, DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT.

10.
PAN: TRUST ME, ANNIE–YOU LOOK TOTALLY HOT.

11.
PAN: …FOR AN OLD HAG, I MEAN…

PANEL 5: Pan smiles as she holds up and extends her hand toward us. A friendly invitation to take her hand and join in her adventures.

12.
ANNIE: (small) Hmmf.

13.
PAN: SO…

14.
PAN: WANNA SEE WHAT I SEE…?

PAGES 4–5: TWO-PAGE SPREAD [FULL BLEED]

A montage of action scenes. (Feel free to mix up their order as they fit your page layout.)

CENTER IMAGE: Pan and Annie side by side in action poses, around which are grouped:

SCENE 1: Pan in a cemetery, running for her life from one scary MF of a slobbering, psychotic, Howling-style werewolf that’s loping after her.

SCENE 2: A group shot of the Japanese “Elegant Gothic Lolita” vampire clan from Blood Feud. (See GothVamp.doc for descriptions.)

SCENE 3: Rock concert scene with enormous Cthulhu-like monster rearing up behind the stage as Sarkophagia plays and the huge crowd roars its approval.

SCENE 4: Annie and Pan in an underground sewer tunnel, Pan holding a large mirror in a gilded frame. They rear back from the sight of a giant chicken-headed basilisk exploding out of the water behind them.

SCENE 5: Wide shot: Pan has jumped off a building’s roof. We find her in mid-fall, holding a mystical staff as she dives toward a huge, ugly Cloverfield-type monster. It roars as it spots her, and it’s clear this thing has a snaggle-tooth–filled mouth the size of a subway tunnel. Not her wisest decision…

SCENE 6: Annie in a junkyard, facing off against an oversized goblin in a filthy Adidas tracksuit he pulled out of a Goodwill contribution box. She’s in mid-leap, transforming from hot-looking woman to lethal panther along the way, her fangs and claws ready to do some serious damage.

PAGE 6

PANEL 1: LARGE PANEL (so we can fit in the important information about the book). Pan holds up a copy of Blood Feud [a Photoshopped insert of the cover image] next to her head so we can all get a good look at the cover.

1.
PAN: PRETTY WILD, HUH? AND THE FUN ALL STARTS IN THE FIRST NOVEL:

2.
DISPLAY TYPE: BLOOD FEUD
THE SAGA OF PANDORA ZWIEBACK, BOOK 1

3.
PAN: THAT’S WHERE ANNIE AND ME WIND UP IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR AMONG RIVAL VAMPIRE CLANS, WITH THE SAFETY OF THE WHOLE WORLD AT STAKE! (no pun intended)

4.
PAN: IT GOES ON SALE [DATE TK].

5.
PAN: IN THE MEANTIME, YOU CAN ORDER A COPY BY USING THE COUPON ON PAGE 8 OF THIS COMIC, OR BY VISITING MY WEB SITE

6.
DISPLAY TYPE: WWW.PANDORAZWIEBACK.COM

7.
PAN: WHERE YOU’LL ALSO FIND ALL THE LATEST NEWS ABOUT MY BOOK SERIES!

PANEL 2: A smaller, inset panel near the bottom right-hand corner of the page. Pan, interrupted in the middle of her sales pitch, looks off-panel at a voice calling to her.

8.
PAN: AND DON’T FORGET TO VISIT MY PUBLISHER’S SITE, STARWARPCONCEPTS.COM, TO CHECK OUT THEIR OTHER PROJ–

9.
SHEENA: (off-panel) HEY, ATTENTION WHORE!

PAGE 7

PANEL 1: Pan looks to the side, where we find her best friend, SHEENA McCARTHY, and Pan’s boyfriend, JAVIER MALDONADO, working behind the scenes on this “shoot.” Sheena is an Irish, blue-haired, 16-year-old full-on Goth chick (black clothes and heavy makeup) with a “Rubenesque” figure (in other words, plump but curvy and not your typical comics hottie); she’s working the fans and fog machines used to create the spooky atmosphere—and she doesn’t look happy about it.

Right beside her, Javi is wearing the shaggy fur costume for one of the monsters we saw lurking in the fog, but he’s scratching himself like the costume’s infested with bugs. Javi is a 16-year-old Puerto Rican, dark-haired, handsome, muscular (he plays high school baseball and is a top-level base stealer), and clean-shaven (color-wise, give him a light tan to distinguish him from the white chicks).

1.
SHEENA: YOU ABOUT DONE PIMPIN’ YOUR BOOKS?

2.
SHEENA: THIS FOG MACHINE IS GIVIN’ ME HELLACIOUS CHILLS!

3.
JAVIER: YEAH, AND THIS STUPID MONSTER COSTUME’S MAKIN’ ME ITCHY.

4.
JAVIER: (small) I THINK IT’S GOT BEDBUGS OR SOMETHING…

PANEL 2: Pan grins at us as she jerks her thumb toward her friends. Sheena looks pissed.

5.
PAN: DON’T MIND THE DRAMA QUEENS.

6
PAN: THAT’S JUST MY BOYFRIEND, JAVIER MALDONADO, AND MY BEST FRIEND, SHEENA McCARTHY.

7.
PAN: THEY’RE WHAT YOU CALL “SUPPORTING CHARACTERS”–KINDA LIKE MY BUMBLING COMEDIC SIDEKICKS.

8.
PAN: WELL…AT LEAST SHEEN IS…

9.
SHEENA: HEY! I’M STANDIN’ RIGHT HERE!

PANEL 3: Pan continues speaking to us, while Sheena and Javier join Annie behind her. Annie gazes at Sheena like she can’t believe what Pan is saying; Sheena just shrugs.

10.
PAN: SO, THAT’S IT. BUT I HOPE YOU’LL JOIN US ON BOARD THE FUN HEARSE WHEN IT REVS UP IN OCTOBER 2010.

11.
ANNIE: THE “FUN HEARSE”?

12.
ANNIE: REALLY?

13.
SHEENA: Ah, FORGET IT, ANNIE–SHE’S ON A ROLL…

PANEL 4: CLOSE-UP of Pan, smiling a sinister little smile.

14.
PAN: IN THE MEANTIME…

15.
PAN: (in creepy font) PLEASANT SCREAMS…

16.
DESIGN TYPE: THE END…?

What the Best-Dressed Monster Hunter Is Wearing

Posted on December 23, 2011 by steven

Back in the November 7 post, I told you about my decision to go with Bob Larkin–painted covers for Pan’s novel series as opposed to the fairly interchangeable photo covers that just about every other publishing company uses for their Young Adult titles. One of the reasons was that I couldn’t imagine what it would take to have a replica of Pan’s leather jacket created, complete with the bat ornament that hangs off its left shoulder.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, courtesy of master artist and sculptor Bob Larkin, I proudly present the one-of-a-kind, real-life Pandora Zwieback leather jacket—complete with bat shoulder ornament and pentagram choker!

Sweet, aren’t they? It’s the same make of women’s motorcycle jacket that Bob used for the Blood Feud painting. The neckwear is a combination of a three-tier choker I found through Amazon.com, and a large piece of Halloween costume jewelry. The bat ornament is constructed of Sculpey modeling clay over a metal frame, then baked in the oven—which means that once it hardened, the thing became extremely fragile; drop it on the floor and it’s bye-bye, ornament.

The devil art is the 16th-century title page image from Eloy d’Amerval’s epic poem Livre de la Deablerie (reproduced in the Picture Book of Devils, Demons and Witchcraft, from Dover Publishing, which is where I found it). I scanned it and Bob printed it on cotton, then attached it to the jacket with industrial-grade glue—that thing is never coming off!—and painted over the image. Then, after he stripped the oil from the jacket cuffs, the sleeves each took about 30 coats of white paint as a primer so the black leather wouldn’t show through. And after many more hours of painting and waiting for each coat to dry, the sleeves were done—and Pan’s jacket was finally complete!

What about the bat-faced belt buckle she also wears? (And if you’ve read Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1, you know where she’ll be getting that from, at some point…) I’m so glad you asked—because Bob sculpted that, too!

That’s just damn creepy-looking, isn’t it? Not to mention those wings would probably stab Pan in the stomach every time she bent over—but hey, she’s a fictional character with the reader-influencing power of suspended disbelief, so she can wear whatever she wants! 😀

And before you ask, I’m still using painted covers on the series!

* * *

And with that we come to the end of 2011. (Yeah, I know there’s one more week left, but the office’ll be closed between Christmas and New Year’s—at least that’s the plan.) It’s been a mildly bumpy road, this first year back in the publishing saddle for StarWarp Concepts after a six-year hiatus, but the madness has been fun in its own way. And rest assured, we’re just getting started!

However, we couldn’t have made it this far without the support of you folks out there, so on behalf of book designers Mat Postawa and Mike Rivilis, Web designer Dave De Mond, artists Bob Larkin and Eliseu “Zeu” Gouveia, and photographer Marc Witz, I wish you and yours a fun and safe holiday season and a Happy New Year.

See you in 2012!

When the (Internet) Radio Is on

Posted on December 12, 2011 by steven

Last Thursday I appeared on the Scifi Diner podcast to promote Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1, but that’s not all we discussed! It turned into an hour-long, freewheeling conversation that spanned my writing and editing careers, my fanboyish obsession with Doctor Who, the state of young adult fiction, praise for Pandora Zwieback artists Eliseu Gouveia and Bob Larkin, and even a plug or two for some StarWarp Concepts releases.

A big shout-out to hosts Scott Hertzog and Miles McLoughlin for allowing me to ramble on as much as I did, but once they got me started on a topic it was hard to shut up. 😀

Grab yourself a snack and a favorite beverage, then click on the Scifi Diner logo to head over to the show’s site and download the new episode. It’s a Pan-tastic interview!

Painted Covers? What’s Up With That?!

Posted on November 7, 2011 by steven

Early in the process of conceptualizing the cover style for the Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels, I toyed with the idea of a photo shoot—hiring a model to dress as Pan, and then using her pictures for the book covers. Then I realized the costs that would be involved: the model and the photographer (not to mention that the pics for all the book covers would have to be taken in one session); the makeup artist and the hairstylist (or at least a really good black wig with a blond streak painted on); and, most of all, the costume.

Okay, black jeans were not a problem, the pentagram choker could be cobbled together, and adding the devil-girl face to a black T-shirt was as simple as running out its image on an iron-on transfer from my inkjet printer… but that jacket. That flame-sleeved, bat-shoulder-ornamented jacket. Where the hell would I ever find that? They don’t sell those things at Walmart, y’know. And what might it cost to have one made?

Numbers began piling up in my head. And this didn’t even figure in the prospect of hiring an Annie model as well—and you know how complicated her outfit is!

Ultimately, I decided to go with painted covers by Bob Larkin. Not just because he’s an incredible artist, not just because a live-action Pan might have cost way too much for my small-press budget, but because… well, have you seen the covers of most Young Adult vampire-related novels lately?

They all use photographs. And they all. Look. The. Same. They don’t even look vaguely vampiric. I’m amazed that, outside of the author bylines, people can tell the difference between one series and another.

Now, I’m not a dope. I know there’s a certain appeal to portrait shots of attractive women on dark-fantasy covers—why do you think the StarWarp Concepts reprint of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s vampire novella Carmilla has one? But at least we gave her red eyes so you’d know she was one of the undead! 😀

With Pan, however, I thought (and still think) it was the right decision to go with painted covers. It helps the series stand out from the multitude of pretty headshots, and allows us to be more dramatic with the images: the iconic-yet-attitudinal pose on Book 1; the bloodthirsty Goth Loli holding Pan on Book 2; the snarling werewolf stalking Pan and Annie on Book 3, the… well, I won’t say what the other covers will involve. “Spoilers!” as Professor River Song says on Doctor Who. Yet, after the first three paintings were completed, I still wondered if it were even possible to create an actual replica of Pan’s leather jacket.

And then came the day when Bob Larkin made it happen…

Zwieback: Now an Official Goth-approved Brain Food!

Posted on October 14, 2011 by steven

I might be in the middle of attending New York Comic Con this weekend, but that doesn’t keep the good news from continuing for Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1!

Lillian Hawkins of the Goth-culture site Gothic Blend has posted a great review:

“This modern day, urban Goth horror will have readers turning the pages to discover how Pandora comes to terms with a very old problem . . . encountering the monsters among us!”

Read the entire review here.

Cry Havoc!

Posted on October 11, 2011 by steven

New York Comic Con 2011—being held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center here in New York City—is this week, October 13–16. I’ll be manning the StarWarp Concepts location: BOOTH 2539 in the Small Press Publishers Area.

Helping me out at the booth (as he did last year) will be my good friend Richard C. White—bestselling author of the fantasy novel Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, Book 1: Paths of Evil and the e-book Star Trek: Echoes of Coventry.

We’re located in Level 3, Hall 3A, near Artists Alley—and against the wall of the construction area that’s slowly been moving across the building since last year. Those of you who attended the 2010 show may remember that the construction site breaks the show’s main exhibition hall into two parts: the larger, more mainstream exhibitors on one side, the smaller publishers on the other. So please don’t forget that we’re on the other side of that wall!

Here’s a map so it’ll be easier to find us:

On sale will be:

• Copies of BLOOD FEUD: THE SAGA OF PANDORA ZWIEBACK, Book 1, CARMILLA, and THE BOB LARKIN SKETCHBOOK

• 11″ x 17″ full-color prints of Bob Larkin’s cover art for Blood Feud. It’s a limited-edition print, though, so be sure to pick up one while supplies last.

• THE OFFICIAL PANDORA ZWIEBACK T-SHIRT! Now you can dress like our favorite Goth girl, and proudly show off your monster-hunting skills while wearing the same T that Pan models on the cover of Blood Feud. The shirt makes its debut at NYCC; after the con, it’ll be available exclusively through the StarWarp Concepts webstore.

I’ll also be handing out free print copies of the Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 promotional comic book and Pandora Zwieback bookmarks—while supplies last, of course. (And that comic supply is getting pretty thin.)

And wait until you see the one-of-a-kind, not-for-sale Pan Zwieback leather jacket that we’ll have on display—painted by Bob, who’ll be on hand Saturday to sign the sketchbook and prints, as well as copies of his much-sought-after art book, The Savage Art of Bob Larkin.

You’ll find it all at booth 2539—just look for the Pandora Zwieback and StarWarp Concepts banners. So spread the word:

Of course, that depends on whether I can still get Hell a ticket this close to the show…

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