Tag Archives: bob larkin

Cover Painter Bob Larkin at Doc Con 2014

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SWC_Larkin_SketchbookThis past weekend, Saga of Pandora Zwieback cover painter Bob Larkin was the guest of honor at Doc Con XVII, the latest gathering of fans of pulp action hero Doc Savage. Interested in finding out what happened? Then head on over to the StarWarp Concepts blog and read the convention report.

By the way, Panatics, have you purchased a copy of The Bob Larkin Sketchbook yet? If not, you’re missing out on spectacular pencil drawings of Doc Savage, Spider-Man, Batman, the X-Men, and other subjects, and features a special, full-color cover drawing of a certain Goth adventuress. It’s 24 pages of artistic goodness, available exclusively from the StarWarp Concepts webstore. Visit the Bob Larkin Sketchbook product page for all the ordering information, as well as sample pages.

Bob Larkin at New York Comic Con 2014

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SWC_Larkin_SketchbookNew York Comic Con 2014 starts today, October 9th, and runs through Sunday, October 12th. And although the StarWarp Concepts crew won’t be attending (we’ll be at the Collingswood Book Festival on Saturday), Bob Larkin—cover painter of my Saga of Pandora Zwieback novel Blood Feud, and featured artist of his own Bob Larkin Sketchbook—will be tucked behind Table C4 in Artists Alley, signing autographs, taking commissions, and selling prints of his well-known cover paintings for Marvel Comics, Bantam Books, and other publishers. If you can’t remember the number, you’ll probably have to look no farther than the growing line of Doc Savage and Dazzler fans at his table.

New York Comic Con is being held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, on Manhattan’s West Side. For more information, head over to the NYCC site.

By the way, have you purchased a copy of The Bob Larkin Sketchbook yet? If not, you’re missing out on spectacular pencil drawings of Doc Savage, Spider-Man, Batman, the X-Men, and other subjects, and features a special, full-color cover drawing of a certain Goth adventuress. It’s 24 pages of artistic goodness, available exclusively from the StarWarp Concepts webstore. Visit the Bob Larkin Sketchbook product page at StarWarp Concepts for all the ordering information, as well as sample pages.

It’s Cover Painter Bob Larkin’s Birthday!

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If you’re a fan of comic books, or movies, or The Saga of Pandora Zwieback (and how could you not be?), Bob Larkin is a painter whose work you recognize immediately; he’s provided covers and movie posters for just about every publishing house and film studio for more than four decades. And if you head on over to the StarWarp Concepts blog, you can read a little write-up I did about this amazing artist and his equally amazing career, in honor of his 65th birthday.

Go check it out now!

Eternal Con 2014 is This Saturday

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The second annual Eternal Con starts on June 14, and StarWarp Concepts will be there! Artists alley is where you’ll find me promoting The ’Warp; as always, just look for the Pandora Zwieback banner. Also scheduled to appear, at his own table, is art legend Bob Larkin, cover painter of my Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels and spotlight artist of The Bob Larkin Sketchbook.

Eternal Con is being held at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, located on Charles Lindbergh Boulevard, in Garden City, Long Island. Show-floor hours are:

Saturday: 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM

Sunday: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

For more information, including directions and how to order tickets, head over to the Eternal Con Web site.

StarWarp Concepts Webstore Opens!

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It’s true— the SWC webstore is finally up and running! Now you can spare yourself the frustration of hunting down Pan’s adventures, and order them—as well as other StarWarp Concepts titles—directly from her publisher.

Currently available are print editions of Blood Feud, the classic vampire tale Carmilla (with illustrations by Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 comic artist Eliseu Gouveia), and The Bob Larkin Sketchbook (which features Pan on the cover). And since the sketchbook is an SWC exclusive not available in stores, the webstore’s the only place you’ll be able to get it—not counting when we sell it at conventions, of course.

Also:

The official Pandora Zwieback T-shirt! You asked for it (repeatedly) and now you’ve got it! Available in both men’s and women’s sizes, it’s the same devil-girl T that Pan wears on the cover of Blood Feud, and an essential piece of clothing for every budding Goth adventuress.

The Blood Feud Art Print! It’s Bob Larkin’s cover art for the first Pan novel—as you should be well familiar with by now—presented on 11” x 17” cardstock without text, and limited to 100 copies.

So, head on over to the StarWarp Concepts site and start ordering already—I gotta clear some space in this office!  😉

“Pandora Zwieback” Cover Artist’s Online Gallery Launches

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This is fantastic news! Bob Larkin—the legendary artist whose work graces the covers of the Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels, as well as the pages of his own Bob Larkin Sketchbook—now has an online gallery, and it’s open for business!


Bob Larkin: The Illustrated Man was launched on January 6 by two of Bob’s biggest fans, Courtney Rogers and Scotty Phillips, and it showcases a wealth of painted covers, movie posters, and toy packaging that Bob has created during his long career.

From pulp hero Doc Savage to superheroes like the Hulk and the X-Men (even the Toxic Avenger!) and horror icons like Dracula, the Wolfman, and Godzilla, one look at the gallery and you’ll see why Bob has been such an inspiration to a generation of artists.

Just click on the logo above to get started, and prepare to be amazed!

What the Best-Dressed Monster Hunter Is Wearing

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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

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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?!

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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…


Cry Havoc!

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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…