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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ForestRoad-KarenArnold-PubDomPics

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.)

VincentPrice-Defends-Horror

Too Old to Be a Horror Fan?

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i-frankenstein“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.

dracula-untoldOutgrowing 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.

Yo-FrankensteinThere’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

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Tales-Sorta-Tremble-CvrBack 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.

Go check it out!

StarWarp Concepts’ 2019 Plans

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Mortal-Immortal-CvrLast 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!

Go give it a read!

Takin’ Care of Business

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blood-and-iron-cvrHappy 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!

Holiday Gifts for Horror Fans

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As the song says, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” The holidays are in full swing, and that means it’s present-buying time. Have a horror fan in your life? Then allow me to recommend some books from Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, that might grab their attention—by the throat, of course!

blood_feudBlood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1: This critically acclaimed novel by yours truly explains how teenaged Goth girl Pandora Zwieback, along with her parents and friends, are drawn into a conflict between an immortal, shape-shifting monster hunter named Annie and 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 featuring the kind of gun-toting vampires that would make Selene from the Underworld movies feel right at home, and it leads immediately into the second novel:

blood_reign-coverBlood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2: Pan faces even greater challenges as the vampire 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 Annie—who, back in the day, was Zaqiel’s lover! But Pan isn’t about to let some ancient monster win the day, not when the lives of her parents and friends—along with those of every human on the planet—are at stake, so she leads a charge of her own. Yes, there’s more vampire gunplay involved—the undead sure do like their firearms—but that’s only part of the dangers Pan has to contend with, as her adventures take her to a mysterious South Pacific island where monsters dwell!

Carmilla_CoverCarmilla: The blood-drenched temptress of this 19th-century novella by author J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla Karnstein is a vampiress who desires not just blood but love from her victims, and when she enters the life of a young woman named Laura, Carmilla decides that her new friend will become her next great love—and won’t take no for an answer. Regarded as the one of the earliest lesbian vampire tales—if not the first—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. The StarWarp Concepts edition features six all-new illustrations by artist Eliseu Gouveia.

King-Kong-Final-FrontCvrKing Kong: The ultimate version of Beauty and the Beast (with killer biplanes—and dinosaurs!) celebrates its 85th anniversary this year, is currently a hit musical on Broadway, and has its star getting ready for his upcoming bout with the King of the Monsters in 2020’s Godzilla vs. Kong. Know a Kong fan or a devotee of the Great White Way? Then they’ll definitely enjoy this digital-exclusive Illustrated Classic: the 1932 novelization of the original Kong movie! Written by Delos W. Lovelace, based on the screenplay by James A. Creelman and Ruth Rose, it includes scenes cut from the final print and, as a bonus, our edition features six exclusive illustrations by pulp-influenced artist Paul Tuma.

whitefell-werewolf-cvrWhite Fell—The Werewolf: Looking for a tale of female empowerment? Then how about this SWC Horror Bite by renowned author, artist, and suffragette Clemence Annie Housman that’s regarded by scholars as the first feminist werewolf story ever published! Abeautiful woman 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? And is her sudden appearance somehow related to the recent sightings of a bloodthirsty wolf in the area?

Blood Feud, Blood Reign, Carmilla, and White Fell are available in print and digital formats. King Kong is a digital exclusive. Visit their respective product pages for ordering information, as well as sample pages and chapters.