Happy Apocalypse Eve!

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Steven

A year ago, publisher James Roy Daley of Books of the Dead Press sent out a questionnaire to all the authors who’d contributed to his anthology series The Best New Zombie Tales; I was included in the mailing because my story “Laundry Day” had appeared in the second volume. Unfortunately, Roy used only the responses to the first question when he blogged this past summer about the questionnaire; the rest of our responses went unprinted.

And so, with tomorrow ushering in the dreaded Mayan Apocalypse—the one that not even John Cusack could prevent in the movie 2012…or Nicholas Cage in Knowing—I figured, what better time to post an updated version of the full interview? One apocalypse is as good as the next, after all…or is it? Read on!

Why did you decide to write about zombies?

The zombie apocalypse was a genre I hadn’t played with yet, and I’d had an idea for something involving people trapped in a Laundromat when literally all hell breaks loose, so I combined the two; the result was “Laundry Day” in Best New Zombie Tales 2. Since my work tends to be heavily character driven, I focused the story on an average loser so readers would see the end of the world coming through his eyes—and then things get really weird…

The twist ending (readers will have to find that out for themselves) came about early in the writing process. Since the story was going to be included in an anthology of zombie stories, I figured there’d be no surprise in, And then he became a zombie, too! I needed something that would completely throw readers for a loop and, from what folks have told me, I succeeded.

Are you sick of zombies yet, and do you think it would be better if they just went away?

My problem with the genre isn’t so much with the shambling corpses—everybody loves a good post-apocalyptic tale—as with the fact that the still-human characters are usually presented in four extremely limited categories: really annoying whiners; complete pricks; power-mad authority figures; or people who make stupid decisions solely so the plot can progress. (See the movie 28 Weeks Later as an example of all those character types in one setting—plus the added bonus of insufferable children who continually put everyone at risk.)

And yes, there are traces of the whiners and pricks in “Laundry Day,” but it’s not like you’re sitting through an hour-and-a-half movie constantly yelling, “Oh, for fuck’s sake! Really?” The short form allows the writer to get to the point and move on—which usually means the pricks and whiners get on the lunch menu all the quicker. Then you can focus on the important characters.

Do you think the zombie industry will continue to grow, or will it begin to fade? Why?

I think with the arrival of the Walking Dead TV series we may have reached the oversaturation point—the minute something once considered cutting edge has entered the mainstream it starts to lose its appeal. Hell, even the U.S.’s Centers for Disease Control set up a Web site and downloadable comic book for dealing with the zombie apocalypse—you can’t get much more mainstream than by having a government agency ride a trend’s coattails! (Not to mention the scientists at CERN, the Large Hadron Collider facility, recently made their own zombie movie!)

Like all trends, this one will start to cycle down but not go away entirely. Vampires have been in and out of vogue since Bram Stoker wrote Dracula; zombies will eventually follow suit.

What’s your favorite zombie book and film?

The first half of 28 Days Later would be my favorite zombie movie. It’s a great setup, with more than a touch of John Wyndham’s sci-fi novel The Day of the Triffids, with a hospital patient waking up to find the world’s gone to hell, and then wandering the post-apocalyptic streets of London in search of answers. Sure, 28 Days doesn’t involve “real” zombies—but close enough, right? Unfortunately, the second half of the movie becomes cliché-ridden, with its power-mad military leader (played by the ninth Doctor Who, Christopher Eccleston!) and rape-focused soldiers.

I guess the Resident Evil movies would count as a guilty pleasure, although they seem to involve the zombie element less and less as the series progresses. Hey, but it’s Milla Jovavich, man!  😉

I don’t have a favorite zombie book—or at least I haven’t found one that really impressed me. I’d heard great things about them, but Brian Keene’s The Rising and City of the Dead were filled with clichéd characters and situations (the crazed military leader, the hooker with a heart of gold, the father who makes stupid choices in his reckless quest to rescue his son, the child who puts everyone at risk), so that was a major turnoff.

An even bigger disappointment was Stephen King’s Cell. I mean, Stephen King writing the zombie apocalypse—how could that ever go wrong? But it was just a completely lame novel—started out strong, then degenerated into a low-budget version of The Stand mixed with third-rate science fiction bullshit. It’s like he was afraid to make a full-on zombie horror novel—and yet one of his closest friends is George Romero, who created the zombie apocalypse genre!

(Oh, wait—was I supposed to say my favorite zombie book is Best New Zombie Tales 2, from Books of the Dead Press, because my story “Laundry Day” appears in it? Damn it! Is it too late to change my answer?)  😀

Best New Zombie Tales 2 is available from Amazon.com here.

Posted in Interviews Tagged best new zombie tales, books of the dead press

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Radio, Radio

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Steven

Well, this is different.

Those of you who read my report on this year’s New York Comic Con may remember a visit I had at the StarWarp Concepts booth by Dwight Jon Zimmerman, New York Times bestselling co-author (with political pundit Bill O’Reilly) of Lincoln’s Last Days, a nonfiction examination of the events leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Dwight and I go back a ways; in fact, he was my editor on the X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy novels that I wrote in 2000 and 2002.

Anyway, at the con Dwight and I swapped books, with me giving him a copy of the first Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Feud. Dwight e-mailed me a few days later to say he’d finished reading it and enjoyed Pan’s story a lot—so much so that he recently contacted me about appearing on his radio show At Ease, which is broadcast on the Veterans Radio network. Of course I said yes!

So on December 29, I’ll be hawking the adventures of a teenaged Goth chick who fights monsters to America’s warriors. Good thing I included a couple of battle scenes in Blood Feud to get their interest, huh?  😉

More details to come as the date gets closer.

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Lorelei: Coming to Comic Shops in February 2013!

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Steven

Have you heard the great news? Diamond Comic Distributors—the U.S.’s #1 comic-related distribution company—has picked up Lorelei: Sects and the City, our critically acclaimed Mature Readers graphic novel, for the direct market! And to make that easy to remember, just print out the handy product information listing you see here, take it to your local comic shop owner, and ask them to order this fantastic book.

Lorelei: Sects and the City is the tale of a soul-stealing succubus named Lorelei Munro who tries to stop Elder God worshipers from summoning their ancient masters. Featuring a cover painting by comics legend Esteban Maroto (Vampirella), a script by author Steven A. Roman (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback), and art by Eliseu Gouveia (The Phantom), Steve Geiger (Web of Spider-Man), and Neil Vokes (Fright Night), it’s perfect for fans of old-school horror comics, Hammer horror movies, and fantastic “good girl” art.

 

 

 

 

Lorelei: Sects and the City has earned a Spotlight Title listing on page 324 of the December 2012 Diamond Previews catalog (currently on sale), and is scheduled to hit stores on February 6, 2013. But right now is the time to order it through your local comic shop!

Don’t know where your local comic book dealer is located? Then visit the Comic Shop Locator  and help spread the word!

 

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“Just When I Thought I Was Out…

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Steven

“…they pull me back in.” So said Al Pacino’s character Michael Corleone in The Godfather 3—and boy, do I know what he means!

Back in March, I told a story about a comics project called Stan Lee’s Alexa. Published in 2005 by ibooks, inc., it was planned to be a three-issue, prestige-format miniseries plotted by Stan “The Man” Lee (loosely based on a series of novels titled Stan Lee’s Riftworld, published in the 1990s), drawn by a bunch of talented artists, and scripted by me. It told the story of Alexa Moran, a comic book artist who works for the Fantasy Factory, a Marvel-like company run by “Happy” Harry Sturdley. (Any resemblance to Stan The Man was purely intentional.) One day a pair of giants appears at the Empire State Building; it turns out that Alexa brought them over, using her power to open portals to other dimensions—a power she never knew she had…

Unfortunately, issue 1 is as far as the miniseries got. In July 2005 ibooks, inc.’s owner/publisher, Byron Preiss, died in a car accident and the company closed soon after. That didn’t mean the project was completely shut down, though. A couple of years later, I was approached by ibooks’ new owner about restarting the comic. He’d signed a deal with a French publishing house, Organic Comix, to release Alexa #1 in a French-language edition, and Organic’s owner—who works under the pseudonym “Reed Man”—was offering to pay me to write extra pages. Those pages would be drawn by Chris Malgrain, who’d originally been scheduled to take over the art duties with issue 2 of the ibooks miniseries. Sounded good to me! So I wrote ten extra pages, Chris expanded them art-wise to fourteen, and then… nothing. The project was put “on hiatus” (as they say in Hollywood when a TV series stops production).

But now Alexa and “Happy” Harry are back! Last month Chris Malgrain e-mailed me the new cover, along with a heads-up that the issue was now scheduled for release in February 2013. Of course, there’s just one teeny-tiny problem—the same one the project faced back in 2005: there’s only one completed issue in existence. And whether in English or French, it ends with the same three words: To Be Continued.

The hope is that sales will be strong enough to convince ibooks and Organic to put issues 2 and 3 into production. It wouldn’t take much to start the gears turning—I’d completed the first half of Alexa 2’s script before the miniseries halted, and I know how issue 3 ends—so it’s just a matter of picking up where I left off and handing it off to Chris. After I’ve got a contract in place guaranteeing payment for my work, that is. 😉

So: Stan Lee’s Alexa. Coming to France from Organic Comix in February 2013. If you live in France, buy it. If you live elsewhere, tell all your French friends to pick up a copy for themselves, and another for you. You wouldn’t wanna disappoint Stan Lee, now would you?

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Happy Halloween!

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Steven

Halloween is always a big holiday at The ’Warp’s offices, and this year we’ve decided to celebrate with all you lovers of dark urban fantasy by presenting a digital sweet for your cyber trick-or-treat bag:

Head on over to the Free Comics page and download our latest offering: Heartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa #2, a 32-page, full-comic that features a script by Pandora Zwieback author Steven A. Roman (that’s me), and art by Uriel Caton (Pan and Annie’s co-creator), Holly Golightly (Sabrina the Teenage Witch), and David C. Matthews (Satin Steele). A soul-stealing, rock-star incubus named Corum de Sade has hit Manhattan alongside his band Hellfire, and de Sade has some nefarious plans in mind for the Big Apple. First, though, he’ll have to deal with a certain monster hunter named Sebastienne Mazarin…

 

Heartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa is the long-lost comic book “prequel” to our popular young adult dark-urban-fantasy series The Saga of Pandora Zwieback. Starring immortal monster hunter Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin (currently Pan’s supernatural mentor), the short-lived series was released by Millennium Publications at the height of the 1990s Bad Girl Era, when a bestselling comic was determined by how much skin your lead heroine could display without being completely indecent. Originally planned for four issues, it was canceled with issue two—and now you can download that full-color comic for free!

Along with Heartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa #2 you can download Heartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa #1 (art by Uriel Caton and Alan Larsen), the first part of Annie’s comic adventure; and The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 (art and color by Eliseu Gouveia), an introduction to Pan’s young adult novel series.

Free horror comics for your reading pleasure, without having to brave the elements—now isn’t that a great way to celebrate Halloween?

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New York Comic Con 2012 Report: Post-Game Analysis

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Steven

So, as you probably concluded after reading my five-part report this week, New York’s show is truly becoming the East Coast equivalent of the San Diego Comic Con, which is a good thing, especially for those of us who can’t afford to make the trip West. It’s a place to see and be seen, and to promote your projects—but how well does that work for the average small presser who’s trying to at least make back the cost of their booth? Not so well, in my case.

To be brutally honest, I made less money at this year’s con than in 2011. In fact, sales were only slightly better at NYCC than the previous month’s Brooklyn Book Festival, at which I sold as many copies of Blood Feud in one day as I did in all four days of NYCC.

How could that be, when there were even more people in attendance at NYCC than last year?

Was it the location? The past two years my booth had been close to Artists Alley, which helped to slow the normally frantic pace of the crowds and spill some of the foot traffic in my direction, but this year AA had been moved to the Javits Center’s North Pavilion— a separate building quite a distance from the main show floor—and the small-press area (where The ’Warp’s booth was) was separated from mainstream publishers by the enormous (and loud) gaming islands. Also, unlike 2011, it seemed as though librarians who might order ’Warp titles for their communities were happy to stay over by Publishers Row—where houses like TOR and Pantheon and Hachette were clustered. They didn’t seem to venture past the gaming companies, over to the south side of the hall where The ’Warp was set up.

And trust me, The ’Warp wasn’t the only exhibitor feeling the lack of love in the room. When other small-press creators come around, asking if you’re having as much of a sucky show as they are, or you see a pair of artists who are sharing a booth close up shop early two out of the four days because no one’s buying anything, you know the show’s not quite the big-con experience you were hoping for.

Was it the fact that the second Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Reign, wasn’t ready in time for the show? No, that wasn’t it. Other than a handful of Pan-atics who stopped by to chat and pick up the limited edition Blood Reign Preview I made available (containing an unedited version of the book’s first chapter), everyone else I’d talked to was either a brand-new fan buying a copy of Blood Feud, or a potential new one considering a digital purchase from Amazon or Barnes & Noble after the con. (And thanks to all those Pan-atics who offered words of encouragement—it makes all the hard work worth the effort!)


Was it the audience? Mainstream comics fans, gaming junkies, and anime/manga devotees were the people I was trying to attract, but I’ve noticed that in the past few years fandom has become extremely compartmentalized—anime fans love anime, gaming fans love gaming, mainstream comic fans love mainstream comics, indie and webcomic fans love indie titles and webcomics. That’s it. There seems to be a severe lack of interest in trying new things, a distinct change from when I was doing con tours in the 1990s and people were willing to experiment with their reading choices.

It is true that anime fans (and there were legions of them in attendance) have little interest in non-anime things (a warning my buddy J. D. Calderon once gave me because he knows the scene), so I wasn’t surprised to see cosplayers literally turning up their noses as I tried to pitch them on Pan’s adventures, or just hand them a promotional bookmark. Not even having the leader of the Japanese vampire clan in the first two novels displayed on the banner helped—and she’s dressed in Elegant & Gothic Lolita fashion. In fact, the last sale of the con was to an anime cosplayer who wanted to know about Pan—but first had to break away from a friend who literally dragged her away from the booth while I was watching! (That girl, BTW, did buy Blood Feud. Victory is mine!)

But blaming the con attendees for poor sales would be like the Yankees blaming the fans and their booing for costing the team the American League Championship in this year’s playoffs against the Detroit Tigers.

Oh, wait, they did blame the booing…  😉

Maybe not enough people knew where to find the booth? A very good possibility. Trying to get the attention of bloggers and genre news sites is almost a full-time occupation—if you’re not a major publisher, few of them will bother to give you any coverage. Often I have to ask superfan Richard Boom and his Boom Art Department  to help spread the word about ’Warp projects—he’s got an extensive mailing list—but even that‘s not a guarantee that our press releases will be run. So, yes, lack of press coverage can be a huge part of the problem, and if people don’t know where to find you, sales will of course be adversely affected.

Was it the economy? Were attendees watching their dollars? Doubtful. Con-goers don’t usually think in terms of budgetary limits—they spend money until they’re out of cash. I’m used to hearing excuses from people like “I’d love to buy it right now, but I just spent all my money,” or “I have to get more money, but I’ll be right back” (which, 9 times out of 10, means you’ll never see them again). And in my Day 2 report I told the story of the girl who couldn’t buy a copy of Blood Feud because she’d already planned to spend the majority of her money at the Adventure Time booth… in order to obtain a free bag. (FYI, it’s not free if you have to spend money to get something.) So, fiscal responsibility—not a major concern.

Was it because I was selling books at a comic convention? I wouldn’t think so. True, you’ll never confuse NYCC with the Brooklyn Book Festival, but like San Diego Con, this show is becoming less about comic books and more about… everything. Gaming. Anime. Hollywood. Craftsman Tools had an NYCC booth, for Pete’s sake! (Nice motorcycle, huh?) So did the Hard Rock Café, the New York Times, and Hallmark (although they were selling genre-related Christmas ornaments, so they had an excuse for being there). Chevrolet was displaying cars wrapped in comic book imagery—anyone interested in a car based on the Goon comic? Or Saga? So, it wasn’t the titles I was offering—hell, I’d been promoting the Lorelei graphic novel for four days, two of them alongside one of the book’s artists, and that thing’s just a really thick comic. Besides, you had all those Publishers Row booths, and they were selling books.

So why the reduction in sales? It’s a question I still haven’t found an answer to, even two weeks later. Maybe I need to upgrade to a Publishers Row booth next year, finances permitting, and try to catch those librarians’ attention…

Guess we’ll find out in 2013, huh?  😉

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New York Comic Con 2012 Report: The Finale

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Steven

Not the best start to my day: three 9-hour days of being “on” for con-goers + not getting enough sleep = a very grumpy hour and a half to start the last show day. I just want this thing over already, but I’ve got another seven-hour day ahead of me. Still, around 11:30 I come out of my funk and get back to work.

Sales today run extremely slow. Sunday’s not always the best time for exhibitors because: a) most every attendee has spent their con money over the past three days and now they’re broke; b) most everyone’s looking for a discount; and c) for NYCC, it’s Kids Day, and kids don’t have money to spend—they’re looking for free stuff. As evidenced by one boy who picked up a Pan T-shirt and asked, “Is this free?” despite the price sign next to it. Still, Blood Feud, Lorelei: Sects and the City, and Carmilla continue to interest potential readers.

Next door, the students from Alfred University’s Drawn to Diversity program have packed up their booth and moved to the Javits Center’s lower level, where they’re participating in a kids’ craft show. For the past three days director Dan Napolitano and his students have been entertaining kids (and some adults) by showing them how to make their own superhero action figures with clothespins, pipe cleaners, and pieces of fabric for capes, while explaining the program’s goal “to teach history, inspire artists, cultivate dialogue, and fight ignorance using popular art and media forms.” Considering how busy the booth was, I can only imagine how overwhelming the craft fair must have been for them on Kids’ Day!

Drawn to Diversity’s absence leads to an unexpected plus. I ask if I can borrow their booth for an hour to accommodate Steve Geiger, who has another Lorelei signing scheduled in the afternoon, and Dan says I can have the booth because they’re done with it: “If you want, go ahead and move the pipe-and-drape between us so you can spread out.” Well, that was mighty neighborly! And when Steve arrives that’s exactly what we do.

It didn’t take him long to have his first customer of the day. “Can you draw a stormtrooper?” a young boy asks him, and shows Steve a Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith action figure. Steve gets right to work to meet his request. And if you take a closer look at the photo, you’ll see another sketch Steve had been working on before the Star Wars kid came along—one of a certain teenaged Goth girl who might be familiar to ’Warp fans…  Can’t wait to see the final, Steve!

Of course, Steve was really there to promote Lorelei, so whenever a copy was purchased he put aside his pencils to add his signature to the title page. (That Lori-and-zombie frontispiece is by the late Tom Sutton, by the way, who was Vampirella’s first artist, way back in the Warren Publishing days.)

And then five o’clock rolled around and the lights of the Javits Center began going dark as the loudspeaker announcement was made that the show was over. Over! Another four-day marathon survived! Time to pack up and go home, and try to catch up on much-needed sleep.

So, there you have it: New York Comic Con 2012, as experienced by the guy who runs this horror madhouse. A round of applause goes to Rich White, Dave De Mond, J. D. Calderon, and my brother Frank, who all pitched in to help to keep The ’Warp on track while I juggled conversations with readers new and old, reporters, and the legions of passersby who wanted to know what was going on with that Goth chick on the banner. Thanks to Steve Geiger and his fiancée Kristie for making the long trip from Upstate New York to promote Lorelei: Sects and the City. And, of course, thanks to all the Pan-atics and ’Warp fans who came out to offer words of encouragement.

We’ll see you all next year!

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New York Comic Con 2012 Report: Day 3

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Steven

Saturday. The day every exhibitor both fears and looks forward to. The day when the full strength of fandom is unleashed and the aisles are filled to overflowing with cosplayers, booth babes, budding artists and writers, and collectors. Remember the 116,000 attendees that were estimated for the show, as I mentioned back on the Day 0 write-up? This is the day when it feels like all of them have arrived.

By the time Rich, Dave, and I reached The ’Warp booth at ten o’clock, the show was once again in full swing and before you knew it I was pitching The ’Warp’s wares to everyone who stopped by. Next to the first Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Feud, our illustrated classic Carmilla drew quite a bit of attention, especially when I explained it predated Dracula and was an influence on Bram Stoker (where do you think the idea for the count’s vampire brides came from?). What sealed the deal every time was when I flipped through the book to show off the fantastic illustrations by Pandora Zwieback and Lorelei: Sects and the City artist Eliseu Gouveia.


Then our first pro visitor of the day stopped by: Dwight Jon Zimmerman, former editor and comics writer, now bestselling historian with a bunch of hit books to his credit. Dwight and I used to work together as editors, back in the days of ibooks, inc.; he was even my editor on my X-Men: The Chaos Engine novels. Dwight was set up over in Artists Alley (located in a separate part of the Javits Center, quite a distance from the main show floor), promoting his most recent release: Lincoln’s Last Days, an adaptation for younger readers of TV host Bill O’Reilly’s bestselling biography, Killing Lincoln. We traded books; I signed Blood Feud: To Dwight, It ain’t Lincoln, but it does have vampires!

There were other friends who visited (though I didn’t have a camera at the ready), sometimes while I was juggling conversations with new potential Pan-atics. So an apology and a shout-out to: Uriel Caton, Pan and Annie’s co-creator (you’ll get your chance to draw Annie again, I swear!); Grey, former comics artist and now gallery owner; and Mike Sargent, host of WBAI radio’s Niteshift.

Welcome to Gothopolis

“So, what’s this about?” the woman asked, pointing to the Pandora Zwieback banner. I gave her my slightly updated pitch (“Sixteen-year-old Goth who can see monsters but has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic for the last ten years, teams up with a 400-year-old shape-shifting monster hunter. The first two books are about how they get caught in the middle of a vampire war.”), then the jokey punch line (“It’s like Ellen Page and Salma Hayek in a Hellboy move.”).

Intrigued, she wanted to know more. I told her the story of my pleasant encounter with a concerned father at Baltimore Comic Con, when his 11-year-old daughter bought Blood Feud, and followed it up with an explanation of Pan’s characteristics and motivations.

“Wow! That all sounds fantastic,” she said.

I smiled. “Thanks.”

“Is the woman who wrote the book here?”

Er…

I pointed to the cover byline, then to my badge. Her eyes grew wide.

“Oh, it’s you! But you… “

Are a dude?

“You get it!”

Apparently I do; I’ve heard similar comments from other women, who’ve expressed amazement at how a middle-aged guy can express the inner thoughts of a complicated teenaged girl so well.  I can’t figure it out, either, to be honest. It just happens.  😀

That woman bought a copy of Blood Feud, by the way. Another satisfied Pan-atic!

Meet the Press

“Hi,” the man said, and introduced himself. “I’m working on an article for a romance Web site and I’d like to talk with you about how women are portrayed in this book.”

Inwardly I groaned. He had to mean the graphic novel Lorelei: Sects and the City. I’ve been getting grief over that character for years—she’s pornographic, she’s objectified, she’s an unrealistic physical portrayal of a woman—usually from critics who’d never read the material and reached their politically correct conclusions based solely on the covers, or who didn’t understand/care for the kind of horror stories I was trying to tell. I thought I was past those days, but apparently not. The last thing I needed was bad press.

I quickly launched into a description of the plot, the concept of the book being a tribute to 1970s horror comics like Vampirella, the strength of the character. See? I was practically saying. If you look closer you’ll understand it’s not porn.

“Oh. Okay,” he said when I was done. “But I meant the other book.” And pointed at Blood Feud.

That one? Oh, hell, then lemme introduce you to the woman who wrote the book…  😉

When I was done with my mini-lecture on Ms. Zwieback, he looked impressed. “You put a lot of thought into that character.” I nodded. “Maybe we should do an article on just her alone…” He handed me his card and promised to get in touch.

He was followed by another reporter, this one working on an article titled “The 5 Coolest Superheroines at New York Comic Con.” By the time I finished explaining Pandora to her, she was considering an expansion of the article’s roster…

The Artist in Residence

Around 3:30, The ’Warp hosted its first official signing, with the arrival of Steve Geiger—one of the artists for Lorelei: Sects and the City—and his fiancée, Kristie. (Sorry if I misspelled that!) And as usually happens with such events, sit an artist at a table and he’s gonna draw a crowd. In fact, Steve already had one fan standing by to meet him!

Henrik had brought along a stack of Steve’s Incredible Hulk comics, and asked him to sign them, which Steve was more than happy to do. Henrik then asked if Steve was willing to do a sketch. “Sure!” Steve said. “But you have to buy a copy of the book I’m here to promote.” And pointed at Sects and the City.


Sold! In fact, while he was signing Henrik’s copy another fan bought his own for Steve to sign. Hey, maybe I should have these artist-guys show up more often—they seem to draw crowds…  😉

 

 


Then Steve got to work on the sketch: a head shot of the Hulk’s old pal, Rick Jones, after he’d turned into a Hulk himself. Even in the rough pencils you can tell that Rick-Hulk is one angry dude.

 

 

 

 


And there’s the end result. Nice, huh? Now you know why I hired him for Lorelei; I thought he showed a lot of promise as an artist. 😀 (Yeah, okay, so Marvel hired him first, and there was that period when he was their art director, but so what? He was at NYCC to promote The ’Warp!)

 

 

 


And here’s Steve (center) with his first two fans of the con. Before you knew it, though, the day was over and it was time to head for dinner. Saturday was over, and we’d all survived!

Tomorrow: Is It Over Yet?

 

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New York Comic Con 2012 Report: Day 2

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Steven

Friday got off to a quick start. Saturday is normally the busiest, craziest day of the con, but for me it was Friday because I had so many folks stopping by to say hello and catch up on things.

First off, ‘Warp webmaster Dave De Mond (that’s him on the far left) had flown in from Chicago the night before to join the crew, and chronicle the con for an upcoming video he’s now editing. (I’ll let you know when that’s ready for viewing, and where.) After he got settled in, old friends just seemed to come flying in:

 First up was Sal Quartuccio (aka Sal Q), owner/publisher of SQP Art Books, home to many adult-themed “good girl” and “bad girl” collections, as well as The Savage Art of Bob Larkin, a book I highly recommend since it showcases the work of our favorite Pandora Zwieback cover painter. I’d include a link to the SQP site, but it’s Not Safe For Work—or for under-18 fans of The ’Warp and Pan. (Lorelei fans, though, are a different story.) I will say this, however: Sal is one publisher who definitely knows his audience!  😀

 

 Amanda Sprecher dropped by with her mother, Kim. Amanda is the creator/writer/artist of The Adventures of Jade and Butch, a small-press comic about two kids who are constantly thwarting the invasion plans of an evil alien race. Here, she’s modeling the Jade & Butch T-shirt and alien-eyestalks hat that she sells, along with her comics, at her Web site. Go check it out!

 Super Pan-atic Julie Zannino came by with her husband Joe to chat about Pan’s upcoming adventures (yes, including the still-in-the-works second novel, Blood Reign), and to take a gander at a preview of Eliseu Gouveia’s art and color work for next year’s Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1. It’s some amazing stuff! I caught a glimpse of their daughter, Abby, on Sunday, but she was riding hellbent-for-leather for a presentation of the new CW show Arrow. You don’t get in the path of someone that dedicated!  😀

And Enrica Jang, publisher of Red Stylo Media and writer of the crime-noir/apocalyptic comic series Azteca, stopped by to chat. Enrica told me that Red Stylo’s expanding into a new book-publishing imprint. Go check out her growing list of acclaimed titles, and then keep an eye on her company for all the latest news!

Also paying visits were Matt McElroy of DriveThru Fiction, one of The ’Warp’s e-book distributors; artist Vince Evans, whom I hadn’t seen since my days as an editor for ibooks, inc.; and my buddy J. D. Calderon, who was handing out bookmarks to promote his Kickstarter campaign for publishing a hardcover collection of his Oswald Chronicles webcomic.

Damn! That was like two days of activity packed into one afternoon!

Sales-wise, our Goth adventuress Pandora Zwieback picked up a few more fans with the purchase of Blood Feud copies and Pan T-shirts, as did Lorelei, the star of our Mature Readers graphic novel Lorelei: Sects and the City. Pan might have gained even more readers, but there were a lot of potential buyers who had their eye on other items; as one teenaged girl remarked, “I can’t buy [Blood Feud] yet. First I have to find out how much money I have to spend at the Adventure Time booth so I can get the free bag! But I’ll be back.”

No, she didn’t come back. (Hey, it happens.) And… spending money in order to get a free bag? Definitely a Comic Con thing. But that’s what you have to expect when you’re an exhibitor at… Thunderdome!

Tomorrow: Unleash Hell!

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New York Comic Con 2012 Report: Day 1

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Steven

Thursday isn’t really a full convention day, even though as an exhibitor you’re working a full day; Day 1 is open only to professionals, press, and four-day-pass buyers, and the doors don’t open until three p.m. Which is great because, in The ’Warp’s case, that meant enough time for setting up the booth and getting ready to meet the attendees.

As he’s done for the past couple of years, my buddy Richard C. White—author of the novella Star Trek: Echoes of Coventry, the novel Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, and the recent e-book The Demon’s Head  —came up from Maryland to help run the booth. This time he brought along his Chronicles of the Sea Dragon comic book and merchandise to see how con-goers would receive his pirate-fantasy story line.

 

 

 

 

Before he could find out, though, it was time to plant the SWC flag—or, rather, the Pandora Zwieback banner—and stake our claim to the fairly small-ish booth. Once that was done, it didn’t take all that long to put the displays together, and then—in my case—throw on my con “uniform”: black shirt, jeans, frock coat, and skull-decorated tie. The candy-corn lapel pin—actually a Halloween eraser that I superglued a pinback to—was a new addition. Then we were ready for action!

Except it was too early in the day for action.  😀  So with plenty of time to kill before the show opened, Rich and I wandered the aisles to check out the other exhibitors—a whole lot easier to accomplish without yesterday’s construction materials in the way. We found:

 

 • The Lego island protected by the Incredible Hulk, while close by stood Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins from the upcoming movie version of The Hobbitt.

 • Some nice-looking statues at the DC Comics island: (right to left) Death from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic book series; the new Harley Quinn from Batman behind her; and Supergirl (with Wonder Woman behind her) from the DC Bombshells line I’d never heard of that line before—looks like they’re going for a 1940s pinup-girl design.

• A set of Death-and-Sandman bookends. Gee, those would look nice in The ’Warp offices…

• And best of all, over at the Doctor Who Store, a replica of the World War II Dalek featured in the episode “Victory of the Daleks.” Unfortunately, it lacked the voice to tell me “I. Am. Your. Sol-dier.” And it never offered me make tea. (There you go—a shout-out to my fellow Doctor Who fans!) That TARDIS is a bit rubbish, though…

Soon enough the con officially started, and I had my first visitor: old college pal Sholly Fisch, who’s been impressing everyone (no doubt including his biggest fan, superstar writer Grant Morrison) with his work scripting the backup stories for DC Comics’ Action Comics, and the lead story in the new Action Comics Annual #1 (on sale Halloween!). Sholly also writes Scooby Doo for DC, and received some well-deserved acclaim for writing two of DC’s popular kids’ comics series: Super Friends and Batman: The New Brave and the Bold.

Not only that, but he and comics legend Ernie Colon (co-creator of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld) have crafted a fun eight-page story for our own Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, which is scheduled for release next April. The basic setup? “A demon walks into a bar…”—but don’t expect it to be your typical horror story!

After Sholly headed off to one of the DC Universe panels in which he was participating, James Ferguson and the crew from the Web site Horror Talk  stopped by to chat. They all loved Lorelei: Sects and the City, our Mature Readers graphic novel about a succubus battling a cult of Elder Gods worshipers; in fact, James had given it a four-out-of-five-star recommendation back in September. The question on their minds: Would there be further Lorelei stories? I told them that depended on sales. At the moment, Diamond Comic Distributors is mulling over whether to pick up the book; if things work out, then more Lori stories are a good possibility.

Overall con sales were slow, but the day ended with a sale of the Official Pandora Zwieback T-shirt (still available from our webstore)—a reproduction of the T that Pan wears on the cover of her first novel, Blood Feud. A man walked up to the booth, took one look at the shirts, and asked, “You wouldn’t have one in a double-XL, would you?”

I reached under the table and pulled one out. His eyes lit up. “It’s like it was waiting for me!”

Indeed.

Tomorrow: Welcome to Thunderdome!

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