Sideral: The Last Earthman 2 Now On Sale!

Posted on July 7, 2020 by Steven

Sideral2Hey, superhero fans! If you’re looking for some indie-comics entertainment that harkens back to the Bronze Age titles of the 1970s, then here’s some good news: available right now is the second issue of a new series from indie publisher Oniric Comics: Sideral: The Last Earthman!

Created by plotter/artist/Oniric president Chris Malgrain and scripted by yours truly, Steven A. Roman, Sideral is about a scientist who makes an astounding breakthrough guaranteed to change the world—just in time for the world to be destroyed when nuclear war breaks out. Caught in a unique combination of radiation and genetic transformation triggered by his experiments, as Earth’s lone survivor he becomes the cosmic entity called Sideral, and sets out to find some meaning to his existence among the stars. In issue 2, he finds evidence of at least one intelligent species that exists somewhere in the vastness of space—but will he be able to protect that evidence before a horde of ravenous space birds tries to eat it?

The series is already popular with fans of Bronze Age (i.e., 1970s) comic books—the kind both Chris and I grew up with—as evidenced by a review from host Lloyd Smith of the site Diversions of the Groovy Kind:

“Sideral is another in the ‘New Groovy Age’ style (that’s what I’m gonna call it) that totally nails the look and feel of 1970s comics. The plot, the script, the art, the use of captions, word balloons, flashbacks, chapters…it’s all so Bronze Age that it just makes my heart smile!”

Sideral: The Last Earthman #1–2 are available for $3.99 each in print and FREE as digital downloads from Oniric Comics’ product page at IndyPlanet. If you’re into Bronze Age comics and “cosmic” superheroes like Marvel’s Silver Surfer and Captain Marvel, then Sideral is definitely worth checking out!

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StarWarp Spotlight On: The Bob Larkin Sketchbook

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Steven

The Bob Larkin SketchbookWelcome back to StarWarp Spotlight, a series of posts that runs each Monday to shine a spotlight on one of our titles, as a reminder of the awesome books and comics we publish and to introduce new SWC fans to our backlist.

This time around, we look at a pencil-art collection from a legendary cover artist who’s celebrating a birthday later this week…

If you’re a fan of comic books, or movies, or pulp fiction heroes, 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. Doc Savage, Dazzler, Star Wars, Star Trek, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Piranha, Night of the Creeps, and The Toxic Avenger II are just some of the painted images you’re already familiar with, even if you didn’t know they were Larkin’s work. He’s been an inspiration to artists like Joe Jusko and Alex Ross. If you’re a Panatic, then you know him as the cover artist of the Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels Blood Feud and Blood Reign.

It’s not just his painting skills that are impressive—Bob’s also one hell of a pencil artist, as you’ll see if you order a copy of SWC’s The Bob Larkin Sketchbook. It’s a collection of some of Bob’s incredible pencil drawings, and what you’ll discover when you see them is how wide-ranging his subjects are. Sci-fi, horror, Westerns, pulp adventure, crime fiction, movie merchandise, even wrestling stars—as we say on the book’s back cover, there really islittle that he hasn’t painted. And the sketchbook features three pieces created especially for it: the Pandora Zwieback cover art; a portrait of Patricia Savage, the fightin’ cousin of pulp fiction’s top-tier adventurer, Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze; and a two-page spread in which Doc faces off against another Golden Age crimefighter—The Shadow!

The Bob Larkin Sketchbook is available in print and digital formats. Visit its product page for ordering information, as well as sample pages.

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StarWarp Spotlight On: White Fell

Posted on June 29, 2020 by Steven

white_fell_large_book_cover2017Welcome back to StarWarp Spotlight, a series of posts that runs each Monday to shine a spotlight on one of our titles, as a reminder of the awesome books and comics we publish and to introduce new SWC fans to our backlist.

This week, we look at the first title in our SWC Horror Bites ebook imprint…

White Fell: The Werewolf, by Clemence Annie Housman, was originally published in 1896 as The Were-wolf, and is regarded by scholars as perhaps the first feminist werewolf story.In it, a beautiful woman named White Fell wanders into a snowbound village—and into the hearts of twin brothers, one of whom immediately becomes smitten by her. The other brother, however, soon grows suspicious of the enigmatic White Fell. Where did she come from? Why does she always carry an ax? And is her sudden appearance somehow related to the recent sightings of a bloodthirsty wolf in the area?He may come to regret being so inquisitive…

What have critics thought of this unusual tale?

“White Fell is a powerful, independent woman, a fur-slinging, axe-wielding huntress descended satright from Hyperborea, [and] Housman shuns all of the werewolf traditions so dully repeated in many tales written before and after. White Fell is either a revenant from Valhalla or maybe just a good girl gone lupine.”—The Scream Factory

“For Housman, the female werewolf is a vehicle for her to present a strong feminist-inspired female character…. It is possible that Housman was telling the world that women had a hidden strength and that men should beware of their own hidden nature.”—The Nuke Mars Journal of Speculative Fiction

“White Fell is interesting because she subverts many of the tropes of the monstrous woman—i.e without maternal instincts, animalistic, lustful, etc. She is a femme fatale only in the most basic sense that she is a deadly woman.”—International Gothic Association

White Fell: The Werewolf is available directly from the SWC webstore, so visit its product page for ordering information.

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StarWarp Spotlight On: Blood Reign

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Steven

Blood ReignWelcome back to StarWarp Spotlight, a series of posts that runs each Monday to shine a spotlight on one of our titles, as a reminder of the awesome books and comics we publish and to introduce new SWC fans to our backlist.

This week, we look at the sequel to our most popular young adult title…

Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 is a dark-urban-fantasy novel by Steven A. Roman (that’s me!) about a 16-year-old Goth girl from Queens, NY, who’s spent the last decade being treated for mental health problems because she thinks she can see monsters. It was only after she met an immortal, shape-shifting monster hunter named Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin in the first novel, Blood Feud, that Pan discovered she’s never been ill—her so-called “monstervision” is actually a supernatural gift that allows her to see past the human disguises worn by the inhabitants of Gothopolis, the not-so-mythical shadow world of actual monsters that exists right alongside the human world.

It was right after that revelation that Pan, her parents and friends, and Annie were drawn into a conflict among warring vampire clans searching for the key to an ultimate weapon—and then all hell broke loose! The action led directly into Blood Reign:

She was stabbed in the heart with an ancient mystical spear. Her mother was kidnapped by a band of vampires led by a fallen angel—their goal: unleashing hell on earth. And every living creature on the planet faces extinction at the hands of a race of biblical monsters. But for Pandora Zwieback, the worst may be yet to come.

In this terrifying next chapter of the story begun in the critically acclaimed novel Blood Feud, join the teenaged Goth adventuress as she discovers that death is only the beginning of her saga…

Like Blood Feud, it’s a character-driven story that balances the tribulations of a teenager just trying to make sense of her bizarre life with the fast-paced frenzy of an action-adventure movie loaded with monsters. Critics certainly enjoyed it:

“If the first volume took some deliberate pacing steps to build Pandora’s character, this volume eschews that as it thunders along at breakneck speed, barely pausing for breath at any given time (and, I must say, the volume was devoured at speed as well). The book doesn’t suffer for this…I thoroughly enjoyed this volume.”—Taliesin Meets the Vampires

“If you thought the first book, Blood Feud, was high powered, you’ll love this book! To paraphrase movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn’s quote: Blood Reign starts with an earthquake and builds to a climax…. This was one fun read!”—Dwight Jon Zimmerman, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Lincoln’s Last Days: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever

Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2 is available in print and digital formats, so visit its product page for ordering information.

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Surf’s Up!

Posted on June 19, 2020 by Steven

PIRANHA2HRBeach baby, beach baby
Give me your hand
Give me something that I can remember
Just like before we can walk by the shore in the moonlight
—“Beach Baby”
Lyrics by Bon Iver
Recorded by The First Class, 1974

Tomorrow, June 20, is the summer solstice—that time each year when the sun reaches its highest point in our skies. It’s also the longest day of the year (in terms of hours of sunlight), but best of all it means the first official day of summer has arrived!

How will you spend the day? Down at the beach, perhaps? Just be sure to bring your sunscreen, your trendy pandemic mask—and your anti-piranha spray!

[Poster art for 1981’s Piranha 2: The Spawning—James (Titanic) Cameron’s directing debut!—by the legendary Bob Larkin.]

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StarWarp Spotlight On: Lorelei: Genesis

Posted on June 15, 2020 by Steven

Lorelei_Genesis_LG_CoverWelcome back to StarWarp Spotlight, a series of posts that runs each Monday to shine a spotlight on one of our titles, as a reminder of the awesome books and comics we publish and to introduce new SWC fans to our backlist.

This week, we look at our most recent digital comic release…

Lorelei: Genesis is a 24-page one-shot comic written and drawn by me. Sporting a new cover illustration (colored by Eliseu Gouveia), it’s a flashback to the early days of StarWarp Concepts’ first lady of horror, who’s also a soul-stealing succubus. Inside you’ll find two stories: “Lorelei” is an 8-pager from 1991 in which Lori journeys through the streets of New York on an important mission: to pick up her dry-cleaning! It’s followed by “In the Midnight Hour,” the 1989 story that introduced horror-comic fans to our favorite redheaded seductress, who steps in to rescue a couple being menaced by a street gang.

Critics certainly enjoyed the work from back in the day:

“Roman obviously likes good-girl art, but the writing is quite good, too—the stories are interesting and intriguing. They move at a good clip and are injected with humor.”—Randy Reynaldo, creator/writer/artist of Rob Hanes Adventures

“Primo material here, folks. Super concept for an exotic succubus-type supernatural ‘superheroine.’ Good storytelling and art, great character.”—Comics F/X

Lorelei: Genesis is a digital exclusive for just 99¢. Visit its product page for ordering information, as well as sample pages.

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Goodbye, Facebook?

Posted on June 12, 2020 by Steven

Goth-EeyoreIt’s become commonplace these days for folks to deactivate their Facebook accounts—they’re tired of the rampant political divisiveness, the self-serving actions of the company’s owner, the randomness of how it treats its account subscribers. I’ve seen publishers and authors (including our own Richard C. White) leave it behind, usually with a pinned note to visitors explaining that if they want to keep up-to-date with that person’s or that company’s activities, they should bookmark the blogs run by those individuals. I’d toyed with the idea myself but never acted on it.

And then last week, for some inexplicable reason, the decision was taken out of my hands when I found myself blocked from accessing the Facebook pages for both StarWarp Concepts and Pandora Zwieback.

I can login to Facebook, but then I’m immediately redirected to the “Your Pages” page—and that’s as far as I can go. Clicking on either link just brings me back to that page.

It doesn’t appear that my account was hacked—thankfully, there haven’t been any posts to the pages since the last ones I put up, and I can still sign in—but since this is Facebook we’re talking about, there’s no way to really find out because they make it impossible to contact anyone to resolve the problem. And, for some other inexplicable reason, clicking on the Support email icon at the Help Center just…brings me back to “Your Pages.”

I tried asking the question to the Help Community, where answers are provided by other subscribers, not anyone from Facebook itself (why be helpful to their customers, right?), but was blocked from posting it because doing so requires having a personal account; business pages are “gray accounts” that can’t access even the Help Community.

So unless this problem somehow resolves itself, I guess we’ve given up on Facebook—or rather Facebook has given up on us. Should access suddenly be restored one day, I’ll login long enough to pin a note directing readers to the SWC and Pan websites.

Bottom line, if you want to keep up-to-date with StarWarp Concepts’ or Pandora Zwieback’s activities, you should bookmark our blogs to follow along. I mean, 99% of my Facebook posts just point you to these blogs anyway. This way, it cuts out the middle man. 🙂

Thanks, as always, for your continued support.

Hmmm…maybe I should look into this Twitter thing all the kids talk about. How bad could that be…?

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Amazon Reviews Needed for From the Stars…a Vampiress

Posted on June 9, 2020 by Steven

vampiress_LG_CoverAre you a fan of Vampirella, the outer-space huntress who traveled from a planet of vampires to Earth in 1969 and has been fighting monsters and cultists for the past 50-plus years? Have you read and enjoyed our nonfiction comic history tome From the Stars…a Vampiress: An Unauthorized Guide to Vampirella’s Classic Horror Adventures?

If so, then we need you to post reviews on Amazon US and Amazon UK!

After all, critics have certainly enjoyed the book:

“This is without a doubt the essential, authoritative reference book for anything related to the Warren-era Vampirella… There are lots of books out there with good information—Empire of Monsters, The Art of Vampirella: The Warren Years, The Art of Jose Gonzalez, etc.—but none offers such a broad, all-encompassing look at the history of this character.”—Vampirella of Drakulon

“It’s obvious that the author, Steven A. Roman, is a fan as the book is lovingly written…. If you have ever felt the need to geek out on Vampirella you have everything you need right here.”—Ravenous Monster

“Author Steven A Roman clearly has a love for the subject and his writing is conversational in tone, with a bounce to it that makes it very readable…. This is an excellent volume for the Vampirella connoisseur and an education for folks like me, who didn’t know too much and who want to learn.”—Taliesin Meets the Vampires

“I expected it would make me want to become a Vampirella fan; however, minus reading the original material, there’s everything I need here to already be one. If those original comics and magazines somehow fail to impress, the guides and checklists offered by Steven A. Roman do not.”—Classic Horrors Club

So, how about it, Vampi fans? A few good words might not only help sales (which we’d definitely appreciate) but also let other Vampi-philes know about a new book about their favorite bloodsucker that would be perfect for their own bookshelves. Spread the word—and thanks for the help!

Vampirella #1. Cover painting by Frank Frazetta.

Vampirella #1. Cover painting by
Frank Frazetta.

From the Stars…a Vampiress: An Unauthorized Guide to Vampirella’s Classic Horror Adventures, by Steven A. Roman (that’s me!), is a nonfiction history of Vampirella that takes an extensive look at her early days, from the debut of her series in 1969 to the death of Warren Publishing in 1983. In addition to telling the tale of Hammer’s unproduced film adaptation that was to star Barbara Leigh and Peter Cushing, I provide an in-depth guide to all her Warren stories; a checklist of all her Warren appearances (plus the publications from Harris Comics and Dynamite Entertainment that reprinted her Warren adventures); an overview of the six novelizations by pulp sci-fi author Ron Goulart that were published in the 1970s by Warner Books; and a look at the awful 1996 direct-to-cable-TV movie that was made, starring Talisa Soto and Roger Daltrey. There’s also a peek at Mr. Cushing’s personal copy of the ’70s Vampirella screenplay; a foreword by Official Vampirella Historian Sean Fernald, a frontispiece by Warren artist Bob Larkin, and photographs from the personal archives of Forrest J Ackerman.

From the Stars…a Vampiress: An Unauthorized Guide to Vampirella’s Classic Horror Adventures is available right now in print and as a PDF e-book, so visit its product page for ordering information.

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StarWarp Spotlight On: For a Few Gold Pieces More

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Steven

pieces_gold_large_book_cover2017Welcome back to StarWarp Spotlight, a series of posts that runs each Monday to shine a spotlight on one of our titles, as a reminder of the awesome books and comics we publish and to introduce new SWC fans to our backlist.

This week, we look at a short story collection perfect for fans of fantasy adventures…

For a Few Gold Pieces More presents ten fast-paced adventures by Richard C. White, author of Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, and a growing number of SWC titles: the novel Harbinger of Darkness; the fantasy-noir story collection Chasing Danger: The Case Files of Theron Chase; the writer’s aid Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination; the supernatural-superhero graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings; and the pirate-adventure digital comic The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special.

Gold Pieces is about a Thief with No Name on the run for a crime he didn’t commit, and his pursuit of the woman who set him up. While he’s tracking her down, along the way he runs into various monsters and demons, crosses swords with a variety of enemies, gains allies, and even finds romance. Here’s the back cover copy:

For the right price, he’ll get you out of trouble. Cross him, and you’ll never pay enough.

It’s amazing what you learn, living on the run.

Fleeing for my life, convicted on trumped-up charges, and denied the use of my own name, I’ve stayed one step ahead of the Imperial Guard by focusing on one thing: taking care of myself first. So, I don’t know where you heard the ridiculous rumor about me helping people here and there around the Empire. And if, and that’s a big if, it was me, there was something in it for me. Trust me on that.

In the various towns and villages I’ve visited over the years, I’ve seen depravity, cruelty, torture, greed, lust—and that’s just the humans. Trust me—compared to them, the creatures that haunt the edges of the Empire are more honest and trustworthy. At least they’re not trying to slip a knife into your back . . . usually.

Only a few things have been constant while I’ve been on the run. My desire for revenge against the person who framed me all those years ago tops the list. Weird things happening in quiet villages, dark forests, or icy mountains never seem to change. And third?  Well, that would be my luck.

 I can always count on it to be bad.

Critics certainly enjoyed these adventures:

“Richard C. White knows how to spin a yarn. These stories do not disappoint.”—Bobby Nash, author of Evil Ways, Domino Lady: Money Shot, and Alexandra Holzer’s Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt

“Entertaining, old-school sword and sorcery, in the tradition of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.”—Jim C. Hines, author of the Magic ex Libris, Jig the Goblin, and The Princesses series

For a Few Gold Pieces More is available in print and digital formats, so visit its product page for ordering information.

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Getting a Head Start On Halloween…

Posted on June 3, 2020 by Steven

SWC-Sleepy-Hollow-ad

Sure, it’s true that we’re not even into the official start of summer, which happens later this month (on June 21, to be precise), but when you’re a horror fan there’s never really a bad time to start thinking about October—the Spooky Season.

Bad post-title “head” puns aside, if you’re a lover of all things horror and Halloween, it should come as no surprise that what we’re talking about here is the latest addition to our SWC Horror Bites imprint: the classic spookfest The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving!

First published in 1820, in the Irving short story collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., the tale of schoolteacher Ichabod Crane, socialite Katrina Van Tassel, town bully Brom Bones, and the ghostly Hessian soldier who constantly rides in search of a replacement noggin is known around the world and is considered one of the quintessential stories to get you in the right mood for Halloween. It’s inspired countless movies, TV shows, cartoons, comic books, and novels—and this year it celebrates its 200th anniversary!

There’s also a bit of serendipity involved in this selection: Irving lived on an estate in Tarrytown, NY that he named Sunnyside—and the ’Warp Central offices are based in Sunnyside, NY! For the Horseman, why, it’s almost like coming home. (We’ll keep the doors locked, though, should he come by to visit.)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow goes on sale October 13, 2020. Stay tuned for further news!

(Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the image up top is a photograph I took of a Headless Horseman sculpture at the October 2016 Great Jack-O-Lantern Blaze in upstate New York. Nice work they did, right?)

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