July seems to be Birthday Month in the ’Warp Central offices! On Wednesday we celebrated cover painter Bob Larkin’s 70th birthday; yesterday, it was author Richard C. White’s 60th; and today, it’s comic-art legend Ernie Colon’s 88th!
I’ve known Ernie since the late 1990s, when I was the assistant editor at book packaging company Byron Preiss Visual Publications who’d been handed the editorial reins on a quartet of science-fiction anthology books for middle-grade (ages 8–12) readers. Ernie provided the cover art and interior illustrations for all four: Bruce Coville’s UFOs, Bruce Coville’s Alien Visitors, Bruce Coville’s Strange Worlds, and Bruce Coville’s Shapeshifters. (Bruce, in case you were unaware, is the award-winning author of the My Teacher is an Alien book series.) Ernie later did an illustration for The Ultimate Hulk, another anthology I wound up editing—and even he gave me the original art to keep!
But I was a fan of Ernie’s work long before that. He was the artist of DC Comics’ popular teen-fantasy comic, Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld and a truckload of titles for all manner of comic publishers during the course of his lengthy career, including Magnus Robot Fighter, Monster in My Pocket, The Grim Ghost, Airboy, Doom 2099, and Star Wars: Droids. He’s drawn superheroes and adult fantasy characters, but what fans probably know him best for is his work on Harvey Comics’ kid-friendly Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich.
In 2017, he got a “special thanks to…” acknowledgment in the closing credits for Spider-Man: Homecoming because, back in 1988, he and writer Dwayne McDuffie (Static Shock, Justice League) created Damage Control, the Marvel Comics crew that cleans up all the rubble and ruin generated by superhero battles—and its involvement in the Spidey flick is what leads Michael Keaton to become the Vulture!
Among Ernie’s most recent projects is the forthcoming graphic novel Uncle Sam Presents The Great American Documents, Vol. 2, which is written by his wife, Ruth Ashby, and examines some of the most important documents and books that helped shape the United States. I mention it because I had a hand in the editorial side as its project manager—so that doubly means you should go and check it out!
Oh, and he also did a little art wizardry for a company called StarWarp Concepts…
In The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, Ernie teamed up with fan-favorite comics writer (and my old college buddy) Sholly Fisch (Scooby-Doo Team-Up, Action Comics, The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold) to present “After Hours,” an eight-pager about a demon dropping in at his favorite watering hole after a hard day of scaring the crap out of folks. It’s a lighthearted character piece that Ernie told me he really enjoyed drawing, which meant a lot to Sholly, who’s also a longtime fan of his. You should definitely check it out, by ordering a copy today (said the publisher 😉 ).
The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 is available in print and digital formats. Visit its product page for ordering information, as well as sample pages and chapters.
Ernie doesn’t have a website, so to see more of his amazing work, pay a visit to the incredibly detailed fan site, Ernie Colon Unlimited.
Happy birthday, Ernie!
If you’re a fan of fantasy adventure, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with the work of Richard C. White, author of Gauntlet: Dark Legacy: Paths of Evil, Star Trek SCE: Echoes of Coventry, and a growing number of SWC titles. Rich has a new book that just came out (I’ll get to that in a second), but this weekend is a special occasion because yesterday was the day that Rich turned 60! (Hey, a day late with the announcement, but it’s a heartfelt one.)
If you’d like to celebrate Rich’s birthday in style, you should definitely buy yourself a present of one (or all) of his awesome SWC books:
Summertime and convention season are both in full swing, and so it’s time for StarWarp Concepts to hit the road and meet the public. Sure, it’s been a few years since the SWC crew has made a con appearance (was Big Apple Con really three years ago?), but I think we still remember how to set-up and take down our vending material. It’s just throwing stuff in boxes, right?
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 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!
Today was the launch day for acclaimed fantasy author Richard C. White’s latest release: 
In case you missed the news, the July 4th weekend has been ruled at the box office by Spider-Man: Far From Home, sequel to the 2017 blockbuster that introduced everyone’s favorite friendly, neighborhood web-slinger to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tom Holland returns as Peter Parker and his wall-crawling alter ego, alongside Marisa Tomei as the…well, the sexiest Aunt May to ever appear on film. Set after the last two Avengers movie (Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame), it concerns how Peter deals with the aftereffects of that mega-event, introduces one of his old comic-book villains, Mysterio (played by Jake Gyllenhal), and sets the stage for Marvel’s next slate of films. It’s a really good movie (of course we’ve seen it!), and considering it’s already made a half-billion dollars worldwide, it’s obvious that Marvel Studios has another major winner on their hands.
Well, if superheroes are your thing, you might be interested in a couple of our titles…
Two years ago, DC Comics made a formal declaration that June 3rd would forevermore be known as 
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