Well, isn’t that just romantically creepy…
(Art by Captain America co-creator Joe Simon.)
It’s the Spring Training of Reading!
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.
Panapalooza 2019 Continues!
Back on January 30, I told you about two conventions stops I’d set up for 2019—MinCon in July and CT Horrorfest in September. Well, you can add one more to the tally, coming this fall:
October 4–6: Monster-Mania Con: Held at the Delta Hotel Marriott in Hunt Valley, Maryland, this horror con has been growing in attendance every year—and no wonder, considering the caliber of genre guests they always manage to bring in. So far they’ve already got Mr. “Evil Dead” himself, Bruce Campbell, on board, as well as Tony Todd and Virginia Madsen—stars of the original Candyman (there’s a remake currently in development)—and Danielle Harris of Halloween fame.
With CT Horrorfest in September, that now means StarWarp Concepts will be exhibiting at two major terror fests this year, so if you’re attending either show (or both!), be sure to stop by the dealers’ rooms to pick up all the SWC titles you’re missing.
More news to come on other SWC convention appearances as information becomes available!
Happy Women in Horror Month 2019!
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.
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…
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!
Down the Convention Path We Go…
As I mentioned back in the January 7 post, in addition to the long-awaited release of the third Pan novel, Blood & Iron, Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts (in other words, me), is making plans for convention appearances this year—the first time we’ve been on the road since…let me check…March 2016, at the Big Apple Con in Manhattan. So that means we’re long overdue for going adventuring—join us, won’t you?
We’ve currently got two venues locked in: MinCon in July, and CT Horrorfest in September, with others to come.
MinCon is a one-day show held every two years at the Mineola Memorial Library in Mineola, New York (located on Long Island), “celebrating comics, fantasy, science fiction, gaming, and anime,” as their site says. This year, it’s being held on Saturday, July 13; you’ll find the SWC table somewhere among the stacks of library books—I’ll let you know exactly where as soon as I find out.
CT Horrorfest is Connecticut’s sole horror convention, and this one-day gathering of monster kids keeps getting bigger every year. In 2019 it’s being held on September 14 at the Naugatuck Event Center in the town of Naugatuck (located in New Haven County), right at the corner of Rubber Avenue and…Elm Street?! Huh. I’m probably gonna need one of those clicker-counter things to keep track of all the Freddy Kruegers sure to show up for photo ops…
More information on both shows—and other convention appearances—as the information becomes available!
(Photo by Karen Arnold, courtesy of Public Domain Pictures)
Vincent Price Defends Horror Movies
So last Friday I was waxing philosophical on whether horror is something one can “outgrow” as you can get past your teen years. It wasn’t a question I’d ever contemplated, considering I still watch horror movies and read horror comics and write books and comics about monster fighters and succubi, but then again I never expected to encounter a Walmart cashier who equated being a horror fan with something only kids do.
“In Defense of Horror Films” was an essay penned by one of the great masters of the macabre, Vincent Price. It appeared in the fourth issue of Fantastic Monsters of the Films (a better-than-average knockoff of Famous Monsters of Filmland), published by Black Shield Productions in 1962. Fantastic Monsters was the brainchild of special effects artist Paul Blaisdell and horror and sci-fi enthusiast Bob Burns.
Vincent Price, as old-school monster kids know, is the legendary actor who starred in a ton of horror films like the original versions of House on Haunted Hill, House of Wax, and The Fly, along with The Tingler, The Last Man on Earth, and producer Roger Corman’s series of movies loosely based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, and The Pit and the Pendulum. Younger Goths might recognize him as Edward Scissorhand’s Inventor in the Tim Burton movie. And if you’ve ever heard Michael Jackson’s zombie-danceoff classic “Thriller”… well, that’s Mr. Price you hear giving voice to such immortal lines as “The foulest stench is in the air / The funk of forty thousand years / And grisly ghouls from every tomb / Are closing in to seal your doom” and laughing like a lunatic at the end.
But being a master of horror isn’t all he was known for during his career—he was also a fine-art collector, a stage actor, and an acclaimed gourmet cook who penned cookbooks with his second wife, Mary (I spent Thanksgiving and Christmas last year making pumpkin pies following their recipe; they tasted awesome)—but yes, horror was his main genre. It makes sense, then, that Price would defend something that had been so good to him.
And so without further ado, ladies and gentlemen I give you…Mr. Vincent Price. (Click to embiggen, as they say.)
Too Old to Be a Horror Fan?
“Frankenstein?!” asked the cashier at Walmart this past weekend, holding up the DVD of I, Frankenstein I’d just purchased.
“And Dracula,” I said, pointing to the copy of Dracula Untold that was next on the checkout conveyor belt.
“Dracula…” He laughed. “What are you, a teenager?”
Huh. Well, considering I’m…well, pretty well past my teenaged years, the answer would be no—but on the other hand, is there such a thing as being too old for horror? I wouldn’t have thought so, or else you wouldn’t have people like George Romero, who was still creating zombie movies in his seventies until the day he died, or Guillermo del Toro, who won two Academy Awards this year—Best Director and Best Picture—for the human-loves-monster-fishman story The Shape of Water.
Outgrowing horror? Is that even a thing?
I mean, I can somewhat see the cashier’s point of view. Over the years I’ve talked to people who are surprised I still read comics, let alone write them, because they gave them up when they were young—they “outgrew” them. (They usually have two clichéd responses: “They still publish those things?” and “I used to read Archie comics—when I was a kid.”) The same thing with people who can’t imagine other adults still collecting toys. Funny they never find it strange to be a grown-up collecting sports memorabilia…
Anyway, the real reason I bought the two movies was because they were in the clearance bins in the back of the store: I, Frankenstein for $3.74, Dracula Untold for $5.00—low enough prices to get me to add them to my collection. True, neither of them was a blockbuster, but I, Frankenstein was created by actor Kevin Grevioux, who co-created the Underworld franchise starring Kate Beckinsale (he was also the right-hand man to Michael Sheen’s werewolf leader in the first entry), and Dracula Untold had been meant to function as Universal Studios’ revival of their monster-filled shared universe.
Okay, it’s true that Dracula Untold got tossed aside as the relaunch point in favor of Universal’s Mummy reboot starring Tom Cruise (which also tanked at the box office), as Dracula had tossed aside the Benicio del Toro–starring remake of The Wolfman that came out in 2010, and Wolfman had knocked over 2004’s franchise attempt, the Hugh Jackman vehicle Van Helsing. And although Aaron Eckhart’s a handsome guy and I liked his work in The Dark Knight and Battle: Los Angeles, I, Frankenstein simply lacks the visual attraction of a Kate Beckinsale in a latex catsuit. But they’re enjoyable-enough films and make for a good double feature.
There’s also the fact I grin like an idiot whenever I remember that the Spanish-language title for the Eckhart film is Yo, Frankenstein.
Still, I don’t think enjoying monster movies is any reason for somebody to look down their nose at horror buffs, or fans of anything, really. I mean, I proofread manga and Japanese light novels for a major publisher and they’re not my thing at all—but then I’m not the audience for it, I’m just the guy making sure the English translation is spelled correctly. Do I look down my nose at the otaku? No—but I sure do scratch my head sometimes over the storylines they’re reading… 😉
So…too old for horror? Never!
StarWarp Concepts’ Other 2019 Plans
Back on Monday, I clued you in to some of the publishing plans in the works by Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts. Well, if you head over to the SWC blog, you can read all about the remaining titles they’ve got lined up this year.
There are a couple comic projects starring Lorelei, a Mature Readers succubus character I created in 1989 (making 2019 her 30th anniversary). Lori is my homage to the horror comics I grew up with in the seventies, like Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Night, Ghost Rider, Son of Satan, and Man-Thing, and Warren Publishing’s outer-space vampiress, Vampirella.
And speaking of Vampirella, there’s a special nonfiction book I’m working on that you can learn about in the SWC blog post.
There are also two more SWC Horror Bites chapbooks that’ll drop in time for Halloween and Christmas—the cover for one you can see up top.
StarWarp Concepts’ 2019 Plans
Last week I told you that the next Pan novel, Blood & Iron: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 3, is scheduled to come out this year from her publisher, StarWarp Concepts. Well, Pan’s book isn’t the only title they have lined up for 2019, and if you head on over to the SWC blog you can read about the start of their publishing plans.
There’s a new entry in the SWC Horror Bites chapbook series, this one by Mary Shelley, the legendary author/creator of Frankenstein; a collection of dark-urban-fantasy stories by author Richard C. White, about a detective whose clients tend to be creatures of the night; a one-shot comic collecting my old small-press stories starring my succubus character, Lorelei; and Blood & Iron, of course!
Takin’ Care of Business
Happy 2019! Better buckle up, it’s gonna be a fast-paced year—especially for our favorite teenaged Goth chick!
She’s been shot at by vampires, killed by a fallen angel, come back from the dead, and nearly trampled in a zombie stampede for sweets, she’s maybe started to fall in love with a boy named Javier, and her mother’s been turned into a vampire, but teenaged Goth Pandora Zwieback has a whole new set of challenges facing her in the latest volume of her adventures: Blood & Iron: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 3!
That’s right: After a four-year gap after the previous volume, Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 (sorry about that), the conclusion to Pan’s first literary adventure will finally make its debut, bringing to an end an epic story that started in the critically acclaimed novel Blood Feud. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of Pan’s adventures—I’ve got plenty of others in mind!
Spoilers ahead: When we last saw Pan, she, Javier, and their friend, the immortal, shape-shifting monster hunter named Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, were trapped on a remote South Pacific island, and the fallen angel Zaqiel—not just Annie’s former lover, but the creature who had killed Pan and turned her mother vampiric—was leading an army of monsters to free his fellow bad angels. Could things possibly get any worse? Well, if you asked Pan, she’d probably say that’s a rhetorical question when it comes to her increasingly complicated life—and she’d be right!
But it’s not just Blood & Iron that’ll be coming out this year—after a 3-year hiatus, StarWarp Concepts (and therefore yours truly) will be stumbling out from its subterranean headquarters to hit the convention trail again. We’ll be attendng a mix of street fairs, libraries, and horror conventions to spread the word about SWC’s widening range of titles—including Pan’s, of course!
In October, Pan will be hosting her first Countdown to Halloween—an annual event started by writer John Rossum in 2006 that involves a wealth of bloggers posting 31 straight days of Halloween- and horror-themed entries to help get you in the mood for All Hallows’ Eve. I’ll also have some bonus material to pique your interest over at the StarWarp Concepts blog.
And in December, because 31 straight days of Halloween blog posting apparently isn’t enough punishment for me, Pan will be joining in on the 13 Days of Creepmas, another online event that celebrates terrors of the Yuletide variety.
It’s gonna be a busy time at Zwieback Central this year, so stay tuned for further information!