DriveThru’s 2018 Halloween Sale Is Underway!

pumpkin-clipartWith the Spooky Season officially in high gear, e-book distributor DriveThru Comics has launched its annual Halloween sale, during which you can purchase thousands of horror-themed digital books and comics at special prices! It runs from now to November 1—and yes, you’ll need to set up an account (it’s free) to take advantage of this promotion. Included among the many participating publishers is StarWarp Concepts (of course), which means you can get the following titles at lower prices:

blood_feudBlood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1 is my young adult novel that’s perfect for lovers of dark urban fantasy.It introduces readers to Pandora Zwieback, 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 professional monster hunter Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin 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. In Blood Feud, Pan, 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-coverBlood 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! 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. But whose side is going to emerge the victor remains to be seen…

pan_annual_coverThe Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 is a spinoff from the novel series. In this 56-page, full-color comic special, the teenaged Goth adventuress battles Gothic Lolita vampires in a shopping mall and a jealous, man-stealing siren in the middle of New York’s Central Park. It features stories by me and Sholly Fisch (Scooby-Doo Team-Up, Mighty Mouse), 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).

troubleshooters_lrg_coverTroubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings is a general readers’ graphic novel about a group of supernatural-superheroes-for-hire taking on their first case. The team consists of a wizard, a female ninja, a sorceress, a werewolf, and a rock ’n’ roll lighting designer wearing high-tech armor. Sure, they might not be on a power level with the Avengers or Justice League of America—they’re more like superpowered Ghostbusters—but they get the job done. The graphic novel is written by the husband-and-white team of Richard C. White (Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination, For a Few Gold Pieces More, Harbinger of Darkness) and Joni M. White, and illustrated by Reggie Golden and Randy Zimmerman.

And Snow White is the classic story by the Brothers Grimm that’s been adapted numerous times. The SWC edition features incredibly lush full-color illustrations first published in 1883.

Again, the Halloween sale runs through November 1 (the Day of the Dead!), so head over to the StarWarp Concepts publisher page at DriveThru Comics and start shopping!

Spooktacular Reads from StarWarp Concepts for Halloween

Now that October has arrived and the Spooky Season is in full swing, are you looking for chilling tales of the supernatural to enjoy, as you anxiously wait for Halloween? Then look no further than StarWarp Concepts’ backlist of titles that are perfect for horror fans young and old!

Illustrated Classics
Carmilla_CoverCarmilla: 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, the SWC edition contains six original illustrations done especially for StarWarp Concepts by super-talented comic artist Eliseu Gouveia, whose work you’re familiar with if you’ve downloaded The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0, or purchased The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1.

King-Kong-Final-FrontCvrKing Kong: SWC’s e-book-exclusive Illustrated Classics edition of the official novelization of the renowned motion picture, which is celebrating its 85th anniversary this year. 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, the SWC edition of King Kong 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. What makes this version special is that it contains six exclusive, 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.

Snow White: The classic story by the Brothers Grimm. Featuring full-color illustrations first published in 1883 (and they really are beautiful drawings), this digital-exclusive titleis available for immediate download for the wickedly low price of just 99¢!

SWC Horror Bites
whitefell-werewolf-cvrWhite Fell—The Werewolf: Originally published in 1896 as The Were-wolf, it was written by renowned author, artist, and suffragette Clemence Annie Housman, and is regarded by scholars as perhaps the first feminist werewolf story. It’s also the launch title of our SWC Horror Bites line of chapbooks. In it, twin brothers encounter a beautiful, mysterious woman known only as White Fell—a woman one brother believes is a murderous werewolf. Complications arise when his twin falls in love with White Fell. Can he save his brother before he falls completely under her spell?

Young Adult Novels
blood_feudBlood 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! 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. But whose side is going to emerge the victor remains to be seen…

Carmilla, White Fell, Blood Feud, and Blood Reign are available in print and digital formats; King Kong and Snow White are digital exclusives. Visit their respective product pages at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.

StarWarp Concepts Comic Book Thrills and Chills for the Spooky Season

Pandora0_CoverLooking for illustrated tales of the supernatural to enjoy as you anxiously await the arrival of Halloween? Then look no further than StarWarp Concepts’ backlist of comic books and graphic novels that are perfect for horror fans young and old!

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0: A free, downloadable comic that serves as an introduction to the adventures of Pandora Zwieback and her monster-hunting mentor, Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, with an 8-page story written by me and illustrated by Eliseu Gouveia, and a preview of Pan’s first novel, Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1. Pan 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.

pan_annual_coverThe 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).

Lorelei Presents: House Macabre is Lori’s debut as the hostess of a horror anthology comic. Behind a cover by bad-girl artist supreme Louis Small Jr. (Vampirella, Vampirella/Lady Death), you’ll find stories by me and Dwight Jon Zimmerman (Iron Man, Web of Spider-Man). Art is provided by Uriel Caton & “Chainsaw” Chuck Majewski (Heartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa), Lou Manna (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents), John Pierard (Graphic Classics: Horror Classics), and Juan Carlos Abraldes Rendo.

troubleshooters_lrg_coverTroubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings is a general readers’ graphic novel about a group of supernatural-superheroes-for-hire taking on their first case. The team consists of a wizard, a female ninja, a sorceress, a werewolf, and a rock ’n’ roll lighting designer wearing high-tech armor. Sure, they might not be on a power level with the Avengers or Justice League of America—they’re more like superpowered Ghostbusters—but they get the job done. The graphic novel is written by the husband-and-white team of Richard C. White (Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination, For a Few Gold Pieces More: Tales of the Rogue With No Name) and Joni M. White, and illustrated by Reggie Golden and Randy Zimmerman.

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual, Lorelei Presents: House Macabre, and Troubleshooters Incorporated are available in print and digital formats. Pandora Zwieback #0 is a digital exclusive. Visit their respective product pages at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information, as well as sample pages.

You Can’t Celebrate Halloween Without Some…Tales to Sorta Tremble By!

Tales-Sorta-Tremble-CvrHey, horror fans! On October 13, Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, be releasing Tales to Sorta Tremble By, the second title in its new SWC Horror Bites series of dark-fantasy chapbooks. It’s a collection of little-known mini terror tales that first appeared during comics’ Golden Age. To quote the back-cover copy:

The Flower of Evil. Jardini’s Jaw. The Living Brain. The Walking Dead.

These, and many others, are the tales you’ve long forgotten—or never even heard of before. They were the text stories, sometimes written anonymously or pseudonymously, that 1950s comic book publishers inserted in each issue of their macabre series to meet postal mailing requirements in order to be considered magazines.

This collection spotlights a baker’s dozen of those time-lost terror shorts, so gather round the jack-o’-lantern and prepare to be a little bit shocked and a tiny bit horrified by these…TALES TO SORTA TREMBLE BY!

Includes: The Walking Dead • Jardini’s Jaw • The Lonely Place • Call for Claws • Land of the Dead • Call of the Werewolf • The Flower of Evil • The Lady in Black • The Living Brain • The Shadow in the Moonlight • Just What the Doctor Ordered • Death and the Maiden • The End of the Line

Just as with SWC’s debut Horror Bite, Clemence Annie Housman’s White Fell—The Werewolf, Tales to Sorta Tremble By will only be available through the StarWarp Concepts webstore, so be sure to order a copy when October 13 rolls around!

Got Plans This October? I Sure Do…

pan-countdown-vampirabanner

Believe it! In a major undertaking for this blog, I’ll be writing thirty-one straight days of posts about horror movies, horror comics, and other horror stuff for you to enjoy as we wait for the arrival of Pan’s favorite holiday (mine, too)—as well as the publication of Blood & Iron: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 3, which will occur right in time for Halloween!

The annual Countdown to Halloween is a blogathon event started in 2009 by comic writer John Rozum and blogger Shawn Robare, and every year the list of participating sites gets longer as more folks join in—and this year, Pan’s online home is getting involved!

The fun starts October 1st. Be sue to mark it on your calendar!

Comic Book Treats for Online Trick-or-Treaters

Pandora0_CoverHappy Halloween! If you’re a horror fan like me (and Pan, of course), then All Hallows’ Eve is probably your favorite time of year, so in keeping with the fine tradition of handing out free treats to boils and ghouls everywhere, the folks at Pan’s publisher, StarWarp Concepts, and I have some digital-comic offerings for you!

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0: A full-color introduction to the young adult novel series of the same name, hosted by Pan herself. Pan is a girl with the ability to see the monsters that regular humans can’t, and with the help of a 400-year-old monster hunter named Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, she’s going to protect the world from danger—and maybe even have some fun while doing it.

This 16-page comic features a seven-page story written by me, with art and color by Eliseu Gouveia (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, Lorelei: Sects and the City), and includes two sample chapters from Blood Feud, the first Pan novel.

Heartstopper_CoverHeartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa #1–3: Before she became Pan’s monster-hunting mentor, Sebastienne Mazarin made her debut in this short-lived, 1990s Mature Readers series from Millennium Publications. A nefarious heavy metal band has arrived in New York City, and its lead singer is more than just a sex magnet for his female fans—he’s an incubus! Will Annie put an end to his plans for worldwide chaos, or fall prey to his supernatural charms?

Written by me (of course), issue 1 is drawn by Pan and Annie co-creator Uriel Caton (JSA Annual) and inker Alan Larsen (Femforce); issue 2 is penciled by Uriel, Holly Golightly (School Bites), and David C. Matthews (Satin Steele) and inked by Larsen; and issue 3 is penciled by Holly, with four pages of inks by “Chainsaw” Chuck Majewski (Harvey Kurtzman’s New Two-Fisted Tales).

heroinesandheroes-1Heroines and Heroes is our latest free digital comic. It’s a collection of comic stories I’ve drawn over the years, starring indie characters the Blonde Avenger, the anthropomorphic Motorbike Puppies, and the humanoid-rabbit spy Snowbuni. The feature story is “V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N (in the Summertime),” a short adventure that I wrote and drew in the late 1990s as an audition for DC Comics’ Batman: The Animated Series comic (spoiler: I didn’t get the job), and pits the Harley Quinn—Clown Princess of Crime and star of this past summer’s blockbuster film Suicide Squad—against none other than Wonder Woman!

All these comics are available for download right now, so visit their respective product pages at StarWarp Concepts and add them to your digital trick-or-treat bags today!

Halloween TV Marathons: Turner Classic Movies

tcm_kong_logoWrapping up our overview of U.S. cable-TV Halloween programming, this time we focus the spotlight on the mother lode of classic horror flicks: the schedule for TCM, Turner Classic Movies. Halloween’s a major event for TCM—they dedicate the entire month of October to it! This year’s marathon is hosted by Ron Perlman (Hellboy himself!).

Halloween weekend is especially busy for the network, and a must-see for horror fans; this past Friday night’s lineup alone boasted Bela Lugosi in 1931’s Dracula, Boris Karloff in 1932’s The Mummy, Claude Rains in 1933’s The Invisible Man, and Lon Chaney in 1941’s The Wolfman! And the classic shocks continued all day Saturday and Sunday, leading up to tonight’s and tomorrow’s schedules:

youngfrankensteinStarting at 8:00 p.m. (ET) on October 30, it’s Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, and Peter Boyle in the Mel Brooks–directed 1974 comedy Young Frankenstein, followed by another horror-comedy classic, with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello on the run from Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, Lon Chaney’s Wolfman, and Glenn Strange’s Frankenstein monster in 1941’s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (one of my all-time-favorite movies).

At midnight (Halloween!), it’s Lon Chaney making an immediate return to the movie schedule in 1925’s silent horror-comedy The Monster, followed by 1955’s French psychological thriller Diabolique. Charles Boyer tries to drive wife Ingrid Bergman crazy in 1944’s Gaslight. Bela Lugosi and on-screen daughter Carroll Borland rise from the grave in 1935’s Mark of the Vampire. Producer Val Lewton springs were-panther Simone Simon on audiences in 1942’s Cat People. Another Lewton production, 1943’s I Walked With a Zombie, has nurse Frances Dee encounter one of the walking dead. Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) makes his proper directorial debut in 1963’s Dementia 13, produced by B-movie master Roger Corman.

house-haunted-hillThen Vincent Price stalks the halls of 1953’s House of Wax. Boris Karloff introduces the three tales of director Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath, from 1963. It’s followed by another anthology: 1945’s Dead of Night. Vincent Price returns in 1958’s House on Haunted Hill, produced by B-movie-gimmick king William Castle. The Haunting is director Robert Wise’s 1963 adaptation of author Shirley Jackson’s acclaimed novel The Haunting of Hill House. Then it’s a Christopher Lee triple feature, with 1968’s The Devil’s Bride (aka The Devil Rides Out), 1959’s The Mummy—with Lee as the title character and his longtime friend (and Dracula film series nemesis) Peter Cushing as the hero—and the 1959 adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, with Cushing as Holmes and Lee as Sir Henry Baskerville.

The Halloween celebration winds down in the wee hours of November 1’s morning, with three final Lee entries: 1961’s Scream of Fear, 1960’s The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, and 1976’s To the Devil…a Daughter. Six Christopher Lee films in a row—that’s one hell of a way to close out the holiday!

And then Halloween 2016 is over. But don’t fret, horror fans, it’s a good bet that TCM is already making plans for next year’s countdown!

Halloween TV Marathons: Movies! and Get TV

It’s part 3 of our overview of the kind of scare-related programming you’ll find on television this Halloween. This time we’ll take a look at a couple of cable movie channels in the U.S. that are showing old-timey horror films.

movies-halloweenFor the Movies! TV Network, the day starts off with 1959’s The Tingler at 8:00 a.m. (ET), starring master of the macabre Vincent Price (younger Panatics might recognize him as the creepy voice and sinister laugh at the end of Michael Jackson’s hit single “Thriller”: “The foulest stench is in the air/The funk of 40,000 years…”). The Tingler is a parasite that can only be halted from killing you if you scream at the top of your lungs—a plot device that made a lot of sense when the movie was in wide release, because the sales pitch to audiences was that at some point the Tingler would be loosed in your theater! It involved certain seats being wired with an electrical current that would mildly shock the “victims,” causing them to scream—scream for their lives! (In the late ’80s, I saw The Tingler in a small movie house here in Manhattan—and yep, they wired the seats, just like back in the day. That was the best!)

 

swamp_thing1982Movies! continues its programming with 1967’s Berserk!, starring Joan Crawford; 1965’s Die! Die! My Darling!, with Tallulah Bankhead and Stephanie Powers; 1971’s The Mephisto Waltz, with Alan Alda and Jacqueline Bisset; the 1988 remake of The Blob, with Shawnee Smith and Kevin Dillon; John Carpenter’s 1980 thriller The Fog, with Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween) and Adrienne Barbeau (Escape From New York); Wes Craven’s 1982 adaptation of DC Comics’ Swamp Thing, starring Louis Jordan, Ray Wise, Adrienne Barbeau, and Dick Durock as the walking, talking swamp critter; and 1975’s Bug—about killer cockroaches—starring Bradford Dillman and Joanna Miles. Wrapping up the marathon with 1967’s The Deadly Bees, with Suzanna Leigh and Frank Finlay.

Not a bad lineup at all. So what’s happening on those higher TV-remote numbers?

get-tv-logoGet TV—a cable channel owned by Sony Pictures that runs TV shows and movies from Sony’s extensive library—hosts a brief Halloween schedule, starting late Sunday night (October 30) at 10:00 p.m. (ET) with the one-hour documentary Vincent Price: The Versatile Villain, an overview of the actor’s life and career. It’s followed by the 1954 Price vehicle The Mad Magician, about a murderous illusionist who terrorizes costars Mary Murphy and Eva Gabor.

return-vampireThen comes 1944’s The Return of the Vampire, starring Dracula himself, Bela Lugosi, as he tries to put the bite on Nina Foch and Frieda Inescourt. After a break for a Western (1954’s Jesse James vs. The Daltons—what the hell?), horror returns for a trilogy of documentaries: Bela Lugosi: Hollywood’s Dark Prince; Boris Karloff: The Gentle Monster; and Peter Lorre: The Master of Menace. Then another break, with episodes of the TV series Nanny and the Professor and Ensign O’Toole, before a final, minor supernatural-themed show: an episode of the ghost-comedy series The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, starring Edward Mulhare and Hope Lange as the eponymous characters.

Hey, Get, if you’re owned by Sony, and you have access to their film library, where are the Sony horror movies for a full-out marathon? What about The Howling for the overnight hours? Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II for prime time? (GB’s producer, Columbia Pictures, is a subsidiary of Sony.) Producer William Castle’s The Old Dark House or Homicidal? Maybe Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre in the 1942 horror comedy The Boogie Man Will Get You?

Let’s…er, get on the ball for next year, okay?