Critics Enjoy Troubleshooting Superheroes

troubleshooters_lrg_coverConfused and annoyed by the unrelenting superhero crossovers that publishers keep spewing onto comics racks? Then why not relax with a copy of our latest graphic novel, Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings? Written by the husband-and-wife team of Richard C. and Joni M. White, with art by Reggie Golden, Bill Lavin, and Randy Zimmerman, it’s a fun alternative to all the overwrought, overcomplicated nonsense from the Big Two.

Here’s what Aida Jacobs, the Girly Geek of the comic news Web site Word of the Nerd, had to say about our team of supernatural superheroes:

“I felt it was a very good spin on the tried and true ‘good-guys-for-hire’ formula… All in all, Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings is an enjoyable read that I would recommend to anyone.”

Read the entire review here.

And at the site Horror Talk, reviewer James Ferguson compared it to a couple of well-known and popular comic series:

Troubleshooters, Incorporated is being re-released after twenty years… In many ways it was ahead of its time, coming before the dawn of [Mike Mignola’s] BPRD and [DC Comics’] Justice League Dark.

Read the entire review here.

Congratulations to the entire TSI creative team!

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Critics Love Our First Pandora Zwieback Annual

pan_annual_lgForget all about that gun-totin’ “Trinity of Sin” gal from our Distinguished Competition—The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 is the only comic starring a Pandora-named character that you need to be reading!

Don’t believe me? Then take the word of Aida Jacobs, the Girly Geek of the comic news Web site Word of the Nerd, in her review of our first full-length Pan comic:

“Steven A. Roman demonstrates yet again his ability to write in the voice of a teenage girl without resorting to the petty whining and needless angst that seem to plague a lot of the female teenage characters in books today… With The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, entertainment is guaranteed.”

Read the entire review here.

And over at the site Comics For Sinners, reviewer Richard Boom had this to say about the annual’s lead tale, “Song of the Siren”:

“Creator/writer Steven A. Roman mixes young adult fantasy with some themes like ‘young love’ but also with equal parts of ‘female empowerment’ and lets Pandora be a real and true voice…. The art by Portuguese artist Eliseu Gouveia is just stellar and makes for a perfect match for the story!”

Read the entire review here.

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Pandora Zwieback Annual Expands Pan’s Saga

You are aware that our resident teen Goth and YA novel star Pandora Zwieback has brought her monster-fighting skills to comic books with her first full-length, full-color adventure—aren’t you?

pan_annual_lgIn The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 Pan tries to get her chaotic life in order by joining her boyfriend, Javier Maldonado, at one of his family’s picnics, only to run into trouble with an overprotective, holy-water-wielding aunt who’s not keen on her nephew dating a Goth chick. Then, as if Pan needed any more drama, one of Javi’s ex-girlfriends shows up to make matters even worse—and she’s got a terrifying secret. Stupid mythological siren.… “Song of the Siren” is written by me, with full-color art by Eliseu Gouveia (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0).

Two backup stories are included in this 56-page first issue: “After Hours,” a short tale of the “Paniverse” by writer Sholly Fisch (Action Comics, All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold) and comic-art legend Ernie Colón (Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld); and “Shopping Maul,” my first-ever Pan short story, about (blood) red-tag sales and Elegant Gothic Lolita vampires, with title page art and color by Elizabeth Watasin (Charm School). Cover art is provided by award-winning writer/artist Henar Torinos (Mala Estrella)

The print version of The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #1 is available for order from the StarWarp Concepts webstore, Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble. Or, if you prefer your comics in digital form, it’s also available for download from our webstore, as well as from DriveThru Comics. Visit the annual’s product page for all the sales links.

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Introducing Troubleshooters, Incorporated

Here at The ’Warp we have a thing we call “the Paniverse.” It’s the fictional universe in which our young adult series The Saga of Pandora Zwieback is set; a universe shared by other characters that fit within our horror and dark fantasy parameters. The mature readers graphic novel Lorelei: Sects and the City takes place there, as do the Heartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa digital comics (which are a sort of 1990s prequel to Pan’s adventures since they star her mentor, Sebastienne Mazarin). J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s nineteenth-century novella Carmilla is part of it, too, since House Karnstein, one of the vampire clans appearing in the first two Pan novels, is named after her. (For that matter, Bram Stoker’s Dracula also counts as a Paniverse title since both Vlad and his clan appear in those same Pan books.)

It’s a very comic book thing, like Spider-Man teaming up with the Fantastic Four to fight Doctor Doom—same city, same universe. Then again, Stephen King’s Dark Tower ties into a majority of his novels and short stories (in fact, the Dark Tower is the nexus of all his literary dimensions), and the “Secret History of the World” in F. Paul Wilson’s Repairman Jack books is outlined in quite a few novels and story collections. Hell, H. P. Lovecraft actively encouraged writers like Robert E. Howard and Robert Bloch to expand his C’thulu Mythos in their own works. Shared universes can be awesome.

Speaking of comics, that brings us to the latest addition to the Paniverse…

troubleshooters_lrg_coverTroubleshooters, Incorporated is the world’s first supernatural superhero team-for-hire…at least on Pan’s Earth. The group consists of a wizard named Silver Oak, a Romani sorceress named Yolanda, a female ninja named Shadowmist, an armored rock-n-roll-stage-light designer named Lightshow, and a werewolf named Night Stalker. Like the Ghostbusters, they’re the experts you call when you’re threatened by supernatural forces—as long as you can afford TSI’s substantial rates, of course.

Troubleshooters Incorporated: Night Stalkings is a trade paperback collection of TSI’s first three-part adventure, originally published by Nightwolf Graphics in 1995. It’s a tale of demons and superheroics written by bestselling author Richard C. White (Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil and Star Trek, S.C.E.: Echoes of Coventry) and his wife, Joni M. White, with art by penciler Reggie Golden and inkers Bill Lavin and Randy Zimmerman. Bonus pinups are provided by Jeff Parker (Batman ’66), Steve Lieber (Hawkeye), and Gary Thomas Washington (Speed Racer).

The print version of Troubleshooters, Incorporated is available for order from the StarWarp Concepts webstore, Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble. Visit the TSI product page for all the sales links. (And coming soon, TSI’s e-book edition, which will be available from our webstore, as well as from DriveThru Comics!)

Posted in Publishing Tagged gary thomas washington, jeff parker, joni m. white, randy zimmerman, reggie golden, richard dominguez, richard c. white, steve lieber, troubleshooters incorporated

 

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STARWARP CONCEPTS RETURNS FOR NEW YORK COMIC CON 2013

comic_con_logoIndependent publishing house StarWarp Concepts—home of dark-urban-fantasy books and graphic novels—returns for the 2013 New York Comic Con, being held on October 10–13 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

SWC_NYCC13_MapBooth #1337 is where you’ll find bestselling author and StarWarp Concepts publisher Steven A. Roman (X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy) promoting The Saga of Pandora Zwieback–a young adult novel series about a teenaged Goth who teams up with an immortal shape-shifter to hunt monsters–and Lorelei: Sects and the City, the mature readers graphic novel that reintroduced StarWarp Concepts’ first horror heroine.

Joining Roman will be:

Bob Larkin: From Doc Savage and Batman to Star Wars and the X-Men, from the Hulk and Star Trek to Vampirella and Planet of the Apes, there’s little that this legendary artist hasn’t painted. Larkin will make his return to NYCC to meet with his legions of fans and to promote SWC’s The Bob Larkin Sketchbook and The Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels, for which Larkin provides cover paintings. Larkin is scheduled to appear at the booth on Friday afternoon and on Saturday.

Sholly Fisch: The acclaimed writer of DC Comics’ Forever Evil: Bizarro, Forever Evil: Metallo, Action Comics Annual, and the Eisner Award–nominated All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Fisch will appear on Friday to sign copies of the now-on-sale Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, which includes his 8-page collaboration with art-legend Ernie Colon (Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld).

Creator appearances are as follows:

Sholly Fisch schedule:
Friday, October 11: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Bob Larkin schedule:
Friday, October 11: 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Saturday, October 12: 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM

StarWarp Concepts’ latest releases include:

The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1: Pan’s first comic book adventure–written by Roman, with art and color by Eliseu Gouveia (Lorelei: Sects and the City)–finds her awkward first date with her boyfriend made even worse by the arrival of his ex-girlfriend…who also happens to be a siren straight from Greek mythology. Two backup features are included: a short comic tale by Sholly Fisch and Ernie Colon; and a Pan short story by Roman involving Elegant Gothic Lolita vampires at a shopping mall.

Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings: Co-authored by the husband-and-wife team of Richard C. White (Star Trek SCE: Echoes of Coventry) and Joni M. White, this graphic novel about a team of supernatural superheroes for hire features pencils by Reggie Golden, inks by Bill Lavin and Randy Zimmerman, and cover art by indie comic creator Richard Dominguez (El Gato Negro).

The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special: Written by Richard C. White, with art by Bill Bryan (House of Mystery, Dark Oz), this pirate-fantasy digital comic–available for download from the StarWarp Concepts webstore and DriveThru Comics–features 48 pages of high-seas adventure for the low price of 99¢. Cover art is by Eliseu Gouveia.

New York Comic Con is being held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, located at 34th Street and 11th Avenue in Manhattan. For more information on the show.

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Chronicles of the Sea Dragon On Sale Today

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

seadragon_lrg_cov_revAre you a fan of seafaring adventure like the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise or classic films like Captain Blood, The Crimson Pirate, and The Sea Hawk? Then does StarWarp Concepts have the comic for you!

The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special is a one-shot digital comic created and written by Richard C. White, bestselling author of Star Trek S.C.E.: Echoes of Coventry and SWC’s supernatural superhero graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings. Drawn by Bill Bryan (artist of Caliber Press’ Dark Oz and DC Comics’ House of Mystery), and featuring cover art and color by Eliseu Gouveia (SWC’s The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 and Lorelei: Sects and the City), it’s a story perfect for Captain Jack Sparrow cosplayers young and old—what d’ya think of that?

BuyThatA dollar? I’ll do you one better, Guy From Original Robocop: It’s 48 pages of high-seas adventure for just 99¢! You can put that penny savings in your treasure chest right next to the gold doubloons.

The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special is available right now for download from our webstore, as well as from DriveThru Comics. Visit the Sea Dragon’s product page for more information, including sample pages.

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Return of the Monster Hunter’s Jacket

For Pan-atics interested in having their very own replica of Ms. Zwieback’s unique leather jacket detailing, look no further than bomber jacket painter supreme Dan McQuality!

mcquality_PanJacketFrtEarlier this year I was searching for an artist who could duplicate the original Pan jacket painted in 2011 by our friend Bob Larkin, the legendary Marvel Comics and Doc Savage painter who provides the covers for the Pandora Zwieback novels. Dan’s site popped up near the top of Google’s listings, so I took a look and discovered that he was an amazing artist who specialized in working with leather jackets, mainly recreating the sort of nose art you see painted on bombers in World War II–era photographs. The question was, would a guy who does WWII art be interested in painting stick figures burning in hell and a giant devil head swallowing souls?

mcquality_PanJacketBkThe answer was an enthusiastic yes! As Dan explained, it would be a change of pace from the nose art, and provide him with a challenge to paint something (really) different. Not only that, but when I mentioned that the devil art on the back panel would be a recreation of a 16th-century woodcut, it turned out that Dan collects 16th-century woodcuts! It seemed like I’d found the right artist, right off the bat. (Even funnier was when I read his “About the Artist” bio, and learned that the guy I’d just commissioned to paint the devil is an ordained Lutheran minister!)

 

If you provide the jacket (available for purchase here), Dan will recreate the hellish scenes “Pan” painted on hers. And he offers a lifetime guarantee to repair the paintjob if it ever cracks!

mcquality_PanDaughterAs you can see, Dan did a fantastic job for me, then did another for his daughter (who’s now a Pan-atic herself). Check out his other stellar jacket work at his Web site  and then drop him a line about getting started on your own—after all, you can’t fight monsters correctly if you’re not dressed right!

 

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Author Richard C. White at Shore Leave 35

Sorry about the lack of updates around here, folks, but this summer’s turned out to be a pretty hectic period for us at ’Warp Central as we put the finishing touches on our upcoming titles—but that doesn’t mean we don’t have some exciting news to share!

This weekend marks the 35th anniversary of the fan-run Shore Leave convention, and along with special guests like Star Trek’s William Shatner, Stargate SG-1’s Amanda Tapping, author Peter David, and BJ and the Bear’s Greg Evigan (…the hell?), you’ll find bestselling author Richard C. White, who’ll be promoting his upcoming ’Warp releases: the graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings; and the digital pirate-fantasy comic book The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special!

Here’s where you’ll be able to find him this weekend:

Friday, August 2

10:00 pm – midnight: Meet the Pros (Hunt/Valley Corridor)

 

Saturday, August 3

11:00 am – noon: Writing Historical Fiction Workshop (Concierge Suite)
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Writer Beware (Concierge Suite)
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm: The Legend of Korra: Let’s Review (Salon F)

 

Sunday, August 4

Noon – 1:00 pm: World Building in Writing (Derby Room)
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Old Tyme Radio (Salon E)

 

Be sure to ask Rich to show you his advance copy of Troubleshooters, Inc., hot off the presses—it’s a good-looking supernatural adventure!

Shore Leave 35 is being held at the Hunt Valley Inn, 245 Shawan Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland. For more information on the show, including a full list of celebrity guests and dealers, visit the Shore Leave Web site.

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Rejections: No Flys On (Or For) Me

Check it out, aspiring writers: another rejection letter from the archives! This one’s from around 1983, when I pitched a story idea to Archie Comics, home of that immortal high school teenager, Archie Andrews. Only I wasn’t interested in writing an adventure of Riverdale’s redheaded ladies’ man—it was Archie’s Red Circle line of superhero comics I had my eye on.

fly_ditkoAt the time, the Powers That Be had decided it was time to revive a line of superhero titles that had long been part of their character library, no doubt to compete with Marvel and DC Comics. Overall the series that Archie published—The Mighty Crusaders, The Fly, and Black Hood, to name just three—were pretty entertaining, and the lineup of talent included a busload of heavy hitters: comic-art legends Alex Toth, Carmine Infantino, Alex Nino, Jim Steranko, and Gray Morrow were just some of the major players they’d signed.

Foremost among these A-listers was Steve Ditko: artist and co-creator of Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange; creator of Charlton Comics’ (later DC’s) The Question and Captain Atom; creator of DC’s Hawk and Dove, Shade—The Changing Man, and The Creeper. For Archie, he was the writer/artist of the revived Fly comic.

flygirlBut it was the Fly’s sidekick, Fly-Girl, who caught my attention. It wasn’t that she was drawn in a sexy manner—for all his incredible talents, Ditko is not an artist synonymous with “good girl” art—but because there was potential in developing a character I thought wasn’t getting enough spotlight time. (FYI: The art you see here isn’t by Ditko.)

Thus, “Return of the Junk King” as a pitch. In it, Fly-Girl—who, like the Fly, was a creation of Jack Kirby and Joe Simon (creators of Captain America)— would clash with another Kirby/Simon character, the little-seen Fly villain the Junk King (first introduced in a story called “The Master of Junk-Ri-La”). Hey—my first attempt at pitching a superhero story!

Archie_RejectionMy two biggest obstacles? As you can see here, Ditko of course had his own ideas for the series (along with former DC writer/editor Robert Kanigher); and Robin Snyder, who sent this letter, was not only Ditko’s editor on The Fly but his collaborator/co-writer. Makes the line “as long as I control it” take on a whole new meaning, doesn’t it? 😉

Still, Snyder liked what I did, and looking back, it seems I was destined to become known for character-driven stories, as evidenced by my pitching a Fly-Girl story in which she wore street clothes instead of her costume. It was similar to an approach I used many years later when I wrote the X-Men: The Chaos Engine novel trilogy: taking the superheroes out of their costumes for large portions of the story and constantly referring to them by their real names, not their code names (“Scott” instead of “Cyclops,” “Logan” instead of “Wolverine,” “Ororo” instead of “Storm,” etc.). I felt it helped the reader identify more with the character.

Anyway, as with my Twilight Zone rejection, I took encouragement from the letter. I did have the talent to be a writer; I’d just have to keep at it.

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Rejections: Everybody Gets ’Em

Submitted for your approval: one Steven Roman, who in the mid-1980s wrote a short story that he discovered had no place in…The Twilight Zone.

rod_serlings_twilight_zone_198304In the 1980s, Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine was a publication that was half glamour mag and half literary anthology—coverage of Hollywood’s latest science fiction and fantasy productions, balanced with short stories by some of the genre’s most well-known writers as well as some up-and-comers who went on to big careers.

As a fledgling writer, I figured why not try out for it? So I got to work on “Night Visitor,” about a man haunted each night by the spirit of a boy who drowned—no matter how far the man ran, the spirit followed him. I forget how the story ended (I no longer have a copy of it), but I was pleased enough with the results to mail out a copy to TZM’s editors.

TwilightZone_RejectionUnfortunately, as you can see here from the rejection note I received, it wasn’t quite up to their standards. Sure, I was disappointed, but blind submissions to magazines and anthologies are always hit-or-miss. At least the note was an encouraging one, which I appreciated. It showed I had some talent in telling a story.  😉  Still, as the late TZ creator Rod Serling would say, “File this one under ‘Better luck next time.’”

My point here is that rejections go along with being a writer. If you get one, treat it as a badge of honor instead of a mark of failure, because at least you tried to get your work out there. And when you do get published, it makes the efforts you made along the way—and the rejections you collected—all the sweeter.

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