And Yet Another Roadstop…for Next Year!

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pow-con-logoSo far, the StarWarp Concepts list of 2019 convention appearances has included comic shows, horror cons, and even a library. Well, add one more to the list—but this one doesn’t happen until 2020!

January 25–26, 2020: Pow! Con 2: This Brooklyn-based comic show debuted this past January in the neighborhood of Bay Ridge, and was apparently received so well that it needed to expand to a larger venue. In 2020, it’ll be held at the Brooklyn Expo Center in Greenpoint.

I’ll admit there was a slight hesitation before we signed on: The Expo Center was also the location for BoroughCon 2018 last June, and the reports on that were extremely discouraging—poorly run, no promotion, practically no attendees other than the vendors and artists, the fact that security doesn’t lock the doors at night when more than one event is being held there. Things turned out so badly that the BC showrunners decided they needed to take a year off to take stock of their situation.

But Pow! Con creator and showrunner Salvatore Lo Medico has assured me that the doors will be locked at night for this show, and hopefully they’ll do some heavy promotion as 2019 progresses for peak fan attendance. Considering how expensive it’s become to exhibit at conventions these days, especially in Manhattan, it’d be nice to have a moderately priced, successful outer-borough show to go to.

More news to come on other SWC convention appearances as information becomes available!

There’s More Than One Cosmic Superheroine…

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Sure, everybody’s talking about Captain Marvel, the new Marvel Studios film that stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, aka the titular cosmically powered heroine, but StarWarp Concepts has a superheroine of our very own, as evidenced by this illustration by artist Chris Malgrain, creator/writer/artist of the superhero-team indie comic The Formidables (which I also happen to co-script and edit).

Say hello to…Green Pantern!

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It’s Will Eisner Week 2019!

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Will-Eisner-Week-2019Yes, 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. (Also, click on the poster here to see it at full size.)

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

troubleshooters_lrg_coverTroubleshooters, 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, anda 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 (Harbinger of Darkness, 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!

pan_annual_lgThe 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 #1is a 56-page, full-color special that contains stories by Steven A. Roman (yep, that’s me) and Sholly Fisch (Scooby-Doo Team-Up), 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).

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

Happy reading!

It’s the Spring Training of Reading!

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mets-ya-gotta-readIf 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!

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monster-mania-logoBack 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!

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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-cvrTo 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_CoverThere’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…

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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

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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.)

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