Free Comic Book Day 2017 Titles of Interest to Panatics

Posted on May 5, 2017 by steven

FCBD-logo2 Are you ready, comic book fans? Tomorrow’s the sixteenth annual Free Comic Book Day at brick-and-mortar and online comic book stores around the world, and as usual, a number of publishers are releasing a wide selection of comics that are absolutely free to fans—while supplies last at your local comic shop, of course! Here are the ones that might appeal to you Panatics out there, with descriptions provided by Diamond Comic Distributors:

FCBD2017-Titles

Attack on Titan (Kodansha Comics): “A brand-new, never-before-seen story set in the world of manga megahit Attack on Titan, written by Jody Houser (Faith, Orphan Black) with art by Emi Lenox (Plutona, EmiTown)! Plus, information about the highly anticipated season two of the anime, and more exclusives!”

Buffy: The High School Years (Dark Horse): In this all-ages offering, “you’ll thrill to a monster-slaying, citizen-saving adventure with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sixteen-year-old Buffy is still learning her trade, and sometimes battles with demons and bad luck can erode a girl’s confidence—and her ability to have high-school fun.” Written by Kel McDonald, with art by Yishan Li.

I Hate Image (Image Comics): Writer/artist Skottie Young describes this Mature Readers one-off story this way: “Gertrude has been stuck in Fairyland for decades when she finally hears of a secret passage that may be her way back home. But reaching it is easier said than done as she crosses the border into IMAGE where she’ll have to chop her way through you favorite characters from Saga, The Walking Dead, Savage Dragon, Spawn, Descender, Black Science, Southern Bastards, and any other character I can add to make sure the original art for this issue sends my children to college!”

Lady Mechanika (Benitez Productions): This issue, written and illustrated by Joe Benitez, “introduces new readers to this steampunk bestseller, [and] includes the original 14-page one-shot introducing Lady Mechanika, a young woman in Victorian England with mechanical limbs and no memory of how she got them, searching desperately for the secrets to her past, plus excerpts from the Lady Mechanika trades and comics!”

Monster High (Titan Comics): Based on the popular toy line, in this story “it’s time for a school competition, and all of the ghoulfriends are excited about showing off their talents! But Clawdeen finds it challenging and runs away! Can her friends find Clawdeen and help her out? And who will win the competition?” Written by Abby Denson and illustrated by Arianna Florean.

Riverdale (Archie Comics): It’s an Archie comic based on the hit CW television series…that’s based on Archie comic books—doesn’t that make it the funnybook equivalent of the snake that swallows its tail? “Learn the secrets and hidden tales from the summer before the eternal love-triangle begins in this special issue. Featuring two short stories focusing on the major players and events in the Riverdale series.” Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Brian E. Paterson, James DeWille, with art by Elliot Fernandez, Thomas Pitilli, Thomas Chu, and Janice Chiang.

Be sure to pick up copies (if you get the chance) before they’re all gone!

May the Fourth Be With You in 2017!

Posted on May 4, 2017 by steven

Hey, Panatics! First off, let me apologize for the lack of activity around here. I don’t usually mention my “day job” as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader—“day job” being in quotes because my work hours are very flexible—but April turned out to be a really busy month for me. And believe me, when you work a job that has feast-or-famine assignment periods, you grab what you can get and focus on that to pay the bills.

Also, there’s some Pandora Zwieback novel or something I’m working on… 😉

Anyway, if you’re a science fiction fan, you probably know what the headline of this post means—yup, today is Star Wars Day, that annual celebration of George Lucas’s legendary franchise that retook the world by storm in December 2015 with the box office mega-success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (aka Star Wars: Episode VII), which in turn set the stage for last December’s release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the “heist film” prequel to Episode IV: A New Hope that explained how Princess Leia got the plans to the original Death Star. And now this year we’ve got Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi to look forward to! It’s an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan, isn’t it?

But what’s Star Wars Day all about? you ask. To explain this occasion, we look to the official Star Wars website:

“‘May the 4th be with you.’ What started as pun warmly shared by fans has become a full-fledged Star Wars holiday: Star Wars Day, a special once-a-year celebration of the galaxy far, far away…. Once the Internet allowed Star Wars fans around the world to connect with one another, May the 4th soon became a grassroots tradition each year, with fans online and offline proclaiming it Star Wars Day.”

As for why we’d be celebrating Star Wars Day at Zwieback Central…well, it’s because I know how to take advantage of a promotional opportunity, that’s why!

What you see here is a sketch cover I drew in 2015, in time for The Force Awakens’ debut (click on the image to embiggen). It depicts Pan as an original Star Wars character: Darth Pandoricus! And standing behind her is her best friend, Sheena McCarthy, as the dreaded Lady She’naa. Hey, it only makes sense that a couple of Goth chicks would want to be dark ladies of the Sith!

For those of you unfamiliar with Pan—just in case you stumbled across the above illustration during your Internet journeys—allow me to provide you with some background:

Pan—the star of Zwieback in my young adult novel series The Saga of Pandora Zwieback—is a 16-year-old Goth girl who’s spent the last decade being treated for mental health problems because she can see monsters. It’s only after she meets Annie that Pan discovers she’s never been ill—her so-called “monstervision” is actually a supernatural gift that allows her to see into Gothopolis, the not-so-mythical shadow world that exists right alongside the human world. You’ll find Annie battling evil in the following titles:

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0: A free, downloadable comic that serves as an introduction to Pan and Annie—with an 8-page story written by me and illustrated by Eliseu Gouveia—as well as Pan’s 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 friends, and Annie 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 and Annie face 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!

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).

Blood Feud, Blood Reign, and the Pan Annual are available in print and digital formats. Pandora Zwieback #0 is a digital exclusive. Visit their respective product pages for ordering information, as well as sample pages and chapters.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to watch Rogue One again…

Simian Saturdays Takes an Audio Trip to Skull Island

Posted on April 1, 2017 by steven

king-kong-audio Over at the StarWarp Concepts blog, you’ll find the latest installment of Simian Saturdays, a series of reviews I’ve been doing that examine the movies (and other media) that focused on King Kong, the giant monkey who’s captured generations of monster fans’ hearts. It’s part of SWC’s celebration of King Kong, the latest addition to its Illustrated Classics library that’s now on sale.

Today I give a listen to King Kong: The Original RKO-General Motion Picture Classic, an audio-drama adaptation of the original movie released in LP-album form in either the late 1960s or early 1970s. I remember seeing ads for it all the time in the back pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, but I never had a chance to listen to it until recently—and it’s actually a pretty good take on Kong’s story.

King Kong (the SWC Illustrated Classic) is an e-book-only release that reintroduces monster fans to the 1932 novelization of the original movie classic. Written by Delos W. Lovelace, based on the story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper and the screenplay by James A. Creelman and Ruth Rose, it includes scenes that didn’t appear in the final cut of the film—including the notorious “spider pit” sequence in which Kong’s human pursuers are attacked by horrific arachnids and insects. The SWC version features six original black-and-white illustrations by comics artist Paul Tuma, whose pulp-influenced style has appeared in the pages of The Twilight Avenger, Flare, and Dan Turner: Hollywood Detective.

King Kong is on sale right now, so visit its product page at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.

Kong is King of Comic Books at Simian Saturdays

Posted on March 25, 2017 by steven

giant-classic-kong Over at the StarWarp Concepts blog, you’ll find the latest installment of Simian Saturdays, a series of reviews I’ve been doing that examine the movies (and other media) that focused on King Kong, the giant monkey who’s captured generations of monster fans’ hearts. It’s part of SWC’s celebration of King Kong, the latest addition to its Illustrated Classics library that’s now on sale.

Today’s focus is on Giant Classic King Kong, a comic book adaptation of the original story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper. Drawn by the super-talented Alberto Giolitti (Star Trek, The Twilight Zone), it was first published in 1968 by Gold Key Comics and then reissued by Whitman Publishing in 1976 as an oversize “treasury” edition. It’s the ’76 version I’m reviewing, because that’s the one I picked up back in the day and have read the hell out of. Go check it out!

King Kong is on sale right now, so visit its product page at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.

King Kong: Monster Magazine Cover Model

Posted on March 23, 2017 by steven

famous-monsters6 Over at the StarWarp Concepts blog, you’ll find the latest installment of Hail to the King (Kong), a series of posts about King Kong–related merchandise and the like. It’s part of SWC’s celebration of King Kong, the latest addition to its Illustrated Classics library that’s now on sale.

In part 1, I looked at movie theater lobby cards for the original King Kong. Today it’s a gallery of Kong covers from Famous Monsters of Filmland, the classic horror magazine created by editor Forrest J Ackerman (who also created Vampirella). Go check them out!

King Kong is on sale right now, so visit its product page at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.

Skull Island Explored at Simian Saturdays

Posted on March 18, 2017 by steven

kong-skull-island-japan Over at the StarWarp Concepts blog, you’ll find the latest installment of Simian Saturdays, a series of reviews I’ve been doing that examine the movies (and other media) that focused on King Kong, the giant monkey who’s captured generations of monster fans’ hearts. It’s part of SWC’s celebration of King Kong, the latest addition to its Illustrated Classics library that’s now on sale.

Today I’m reviewing Kong: Skull Island, the latest movie reboot of the king’s story. This one stars Tom Hiddleston (Loki of the Thor movies), Academy Award winner Brie Larson (Room, and star of Marvel’s upcoming Captain Marvel), Samuel L. Jackson (Marvel’s The Avengers), John C. Reilly (Guardians of the Galaxy), and John Goodman (10 Cloverfield Lane). I liked it a lot, so if giant monsters, building-size monkeys, and a tease for the upcoming crossover Godzilla vs. Kong are your thing, head over to the SWC blog and check out my review!

King Kong is on sale right now, so visit its product page at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.

Forgotten Frights: Leprechaun

Posted on March 17, 2017 by steven

There’s a Leprechaun in me head,
and I wish that I were dead
For I don’t think he’ll e’er let me be.
Oh, he tempts me with his gold,
and if I were e’er so bold
I’d strangle him and leave him in the street.
—“The Leprechaun (You’re No Irish Laddie)”
Lyrics by Marc Gunn

Ah, the Leprechaun movies: that low-budget, R-rated horror series created by writer/director Mark Jones that starred Warwick Davis (Star Wars, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Willow, the Harry Potter films) as an evil Irish sprite who, over the course of six(!) movies, spouted groan-worthy one-liners as he ruthlessly murdered anyone stupid enough to steal his pot o’ gold—sort of a low-rent Celtic Freddy Krueger. In case you missed any, here’s a quick primer to bring you up to speed in honor of today being Irish-Americans’ favorite holiday: St. Patrick’s Day!

Leprechaun (1993) is better known for being the big-screen acting debut of Jennifer Aniston, who went on to fame in the TV show Friends, but this story of a leprechaun who travels from Ireland to North Dakota to take back what’s his is clever enough to introduce a new type of supernatural baddie who wasn’t a straight-up knockoff of Krueger, or Jason from Friday the 13th. If you think about it, it’s sort of like that Mel Gibson movie, Payback, where he’s a crook just trying to collect the money he’s owed—only in this case, it’s a nasty sprite handing out gruesome punishments to the jerks who ripped him off. And Davis works really hard at selling the evil character he’s playing.

Besides, in spite of getting savaged by critics, the movie did well enough at the box office to get a sequel green-lighted, so that’s saying something, right?

Leprechaun 2 (1994) involves the little terror searching Los Angeles for a potential bride—he just has to find a woman who sneezes three times without anyone saying “God bless you” to her. Of course, that depends on him not killing her first for taking his gold…

Leprechaun 3 (1995), the first straight-to-video release, finds the Leprechaun popping up in Las Vegas, where he hunts new victims in the casinos and adds a new twist to his powers by using his bite to start turning one particular target into a leprechaun—a wereprechaun, maybe?

Leprechaun 4: In Space (1996) took the franchise to…well, it’s there in the title, right? Although, really, it should have been Innnn Spaaaaaaace! Sure, it’s a helluva stretch, but when you realize that both two other franchises, Friday the 13th (Jason X in 2001) and Hellraiser (Hellraiser IV: Bloodline in 1996), followed the same formula, with Hellraiser beating Leprechaun 4 to the finish line by a few months, I guess it’s not that much of a stretch.

Leprechaun in the Hood (2000) returned the action to Earth and co-starred rapper/actor Ice-T (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) in a tale of rappers, a magic flute, zombie fly girls, and—to quote the film’s entry at Wikipedia—“the Leprechaun rapping about being an evil Irish leprechaun.” That sounds…terrible.

Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood (2003)—oh God, that title—provided an origin for the gold-obsessed baddie as he hunts down the latest group of unfortunates to steal his gold. This entry brought the Davis-led series to a close, and that was probably for the best—the series was getting progressively worse with every sequel.

There’s one other movie out there, 2014’s Leprechaun: Origins—a reboot of the franchise that was produced by WWE Studios, released by Lionsgate Films, and starred pro wrestler Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl. Critically panned, it apparently crashed and burned on release to theaters, sending the malicious sprite and the franchise to their final resting place. That’s…probably not such a bad thing.

Still, you know that someday some Hollywood producer is going to become aware of the dormant Leprechaun franchise and say, “Hey, why don’t we revive this thing?” Let’s just hope there’s a bit more thought given to the writing that results in a good movie for a change. I mean, even an evil leprechaun deserves a little Luck of the Irish, right?

Well, anyway…Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

E-books for Librarians in Search of Quality Titles

Posted on March 16, 2017 by steven

blood_feud In recent years, librarians have expressed interest in adding StarWarp Concepts’ titles to their e-book collections. But how, they’ve asked, would they be able to obtain them? As librarians, they’re required to order books from distributors, not from publishers; that applies to e-books as well.

Well, it just so happens that one of SWC’s digital distributors, Smashwords, makes our titles available to libraries through Baker & Taylor Axis360 and OverDrive, as well as around the world through Odilo, Gardners Books (Askews & Holts for public libraries), and, most recently, Bibliotheca CloudLibrary. To quote from Smashword’s arrangement with the programs:

“Library patrons are able to check out only one copy at a time. The books are wrapped in DRM so they time out after a specific period of time. The library can purchase multiple copies if they decide demand warrants multiple simultaneous checkouts. Otherwise, the library purchases a single copy and allows only one copy at a time to be lent out. If a library patron wishes to obtain a book that’s already checked out, the patron is sometimes given the option to purchase a copy through a retailer.”

In the case of OverDrive, “If a library patron wishes to obtain a book that’s already checked out, the patron is sometimes given the option to purchase a copy direct through OverDrive (for libraries that utilize OverDrive’s ‘Buy it Now’ feature).”

Via Smashwords, the following titles can be ordered:

Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination is a popular how-to book for writers and gamers in which bestselling fantasy author Richard C. White (Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special, Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings) takes you through the step-by-step process of constructing a world for your characters, from societies and governments to currency and religion. Included is an interview with New York Times bestselling author Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance) that discusses his methods of world building, as well as his creative experiences during his time as a designer for gaming company TSR, the original home of Dungeons & Dragons.

For a Few Gold Pieces More is Richard C. White’s latest release, a short-story collection of ten critically acclaimed short stories. Think Lord of the Rings meets the “spaghetti Westerns” of director Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly), as a Rogue With No Name travels a world of epic-fantasy adventure, looking for treasure—and revenge against the woman who sent him to prison for a crime he didn’t commit (but she did).

Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1: This critically acclaimed novel by yours truly is the beginning of Pan’s story, explaining how she, her parents and friends, and Annie 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:

So if you’re a librarian interested in adding those titles to your digital bookshelves, head over to your e-book distributor for libraries and place your order today!

It’s Storytime with King Kong at Simian Saturdays

Posted on March 11, 2017 by steven

Browne-King-Kong Over at the StarWarp Concepts blog, you’ll find the latest installment of Simian Saturdays, a series of reviews I’ve been doing that examine the movies (and other media) that focused on King Kong, the giant monkey who’s captured generations of monster fans’ hearts. It’s part of SWC’s celebration of King Kong, the latest addition to its Illustrated Classics library that’s now on sale.

In week 1, I reviewed the original King Kong, from 1933. Week 2 was the 1976 remake of King Kong. Week 3 was the 2005 remake of King Kong by director Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit). Today it’s Anthony Browne’s King Kong, a children’s book adaptation of the original story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper. Go check it out!

King Kong is on sale right now, so visit its product page at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.

StarWarp Concepts’ Classics Collection

Posted on March 9, 2017 by steven

This past Tuesday saw the release of King Kong, an e-book-exclusive release that’s the latest entry in StarWarp Concepts’ growing collection of classic dark-fantasy titles. Written by Delos W. Lovelace, based on the story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper and the screenplay by James A. Creelman and Ruth Rose, it’s the novelization of the original 1933 film that introduced monster-movie fans to a version of “Beauty and the Beast” like no other. The SWC edition features scenes that didn’t appear in the final cut of the film—including the notorious “spider pit” sequence in which Kong’s human pursuers are attacked by horrific arachnids and insects. The SWC version also features six original black-and-white illustrations by comics artist Paul Tuma.

King Kong, however, isn’t the only title that Panatics might find interesting—just check out the following:

Carmilla is J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 19th-century classic vampiric tale of love gone wrong. Laura is so desperate for a friend that when a young woman named Carmilla 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 as the one of the earliest female 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. Just like with A Princess of Mars, our edition contains six original illustrations done especially for StarWarp Concepts by the super-talented Eliseu Gouveia (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0, The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1).

Snow White is the classic story by the Brothers Grimm, and was the first of our e-book-exclusive titles. You know the tale: A wicked queen, jealous of her stepdaughter’s beauty, plots to kill the girl so that the queen can become “the fairest of them all.” But standing in her way are seven dwarves who’ve taken quite a liking to the young lady—and they’re not about to let the queen win this particular beauty title. Featuring lush full-color illustrations first published in 1883, it’s always on sale for the wickedly low price of just 99¢!

White Fell—The Werewolf: Originally published in 1896 as The Were-wolf, the launch title in the new SWC Horror Bites line was written by renowned author, artist, and suffragette Clemence Annie Housman, and is 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 and White Fell—The Werewolf are available in both print and digital formats; King Kong and Snow White are digital exclusives. Visit their respective product pages at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.