How amazing is this? It was in 1989, thirty years ago this very month, that StarWarp Concepts’ first leading lady of horror—the soul-stealing succubus, Lorelei—made her comic book debut in the pages of the digest-sized Lorelei One-Shot Special. To celebrate the occasion, we’ve got some exciting releases and events coming this year that you Lori fans are sure to enjoy:
We kick things off tomorrow with a new addition here to our Visions of Lorelei gallery (scroll down): convention sketches of our favorite succubus by some of the comic industry’s best artists. Who’s up first? You’ll have to come back tomorrow to find out!
In April, we’ll present Lorelei: Genesis, a comic that collects Lori’s original small-press appearances, including the One-Shot Special from ’89—tales written and drawn by her creator, Steven A. Roman (hey, that’s me!).
Then in September comes Lorelei Halloween Special #1, a brand-new one-shot comic written by yours truly and drawn by Eliseu Gouveia (Lorelei: Sects and the City,The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, Stargate Universe) and Steve Geiger (Lorelei: Sects and the City,Web of Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk), with a cover painting by legendary Warren Publishing artist Bob Larkin (Vampirella, Creepy, The Rook, Famous Monsters of Filmland). In “The Blue-Eyed Queen of Souls,” Lori and her girlfriend Felicia attend a concert by a sixties folk duo, only to find out one of them is another succubus, but this one’s from the distant future—and from outer spaaace! She also sets her hungry eyes on Lori’s soul, so you know the special won’t exactly be a love-in! The special will be offered to comic shops through Diamond Comic Distributors. I’ll let you know when it pops up in the Diamond catalog this June. It’ll also be available through the StarWarp Concepts webstore and DriveThru Comics.
Vampires of the Void will also be out in September. It’s a digital-only reprint of the 1950s sci-fi comic story that inspired Lorelei Halloween Special #1, by three comic legends—writer Gardner Fox (Green Lantern, Justice League of America) and artists Wally Wood (Daredevil, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents) and Joe Orlando (Superman, Tales From the Crypt)—and involves an invasion of Earth by a race of aliens whose vast technology runs on the power of human souls!
Succubus Saturdays: In the tradition of last year’s Simian Saturdays (in honor of our King Kong Illustrated Classic), Succubus Saturdays will be a series of reviews in which I’ll examine movies, comics, and whatever else I find related to soul-stealing seductresses, sirens named Lorelei, and similar femme fatales. Succubus Saturdays will start appearing here in late summer, as we count the days until the release of the Lorelei Halloween Special.
And don’t forget, our other Lori titles are still available in print and digital formats, and can be ordered from the SWC webstore:
Lorelei: Sects and the City is a Mature Readers graphic novel in which Lori battles a cult of Elder God worshipers attempting to unleash hell on Earth. Basically a love letter to 1970s horror comics like Vampirella, Tomb of Dracula, and Ghost Rider, it’s written by yours truly, Steven A. Roman (Stan Lee’s Alexa, X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy), and illustrated by Eliseu Gouveia (Vengeance of the Mummy, Lady Death), Steve Geiger (Web of Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk), and Neil Vokes (Flesh and Blood, Fright Night). It also features a cover by legendary artist Esteban Maroto (Vampirella, Zatanna, Lady Rawhide), a frontispiece by original Vampirella artist Tom Sutton (Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night), and a one-page history of succubi illustrated by Ernie Colon (Vampirella, The Grim Ghost).
“Kudos to Roman for capturing the essence of 1970s fare like Vampirella. Filled with ghouls, chicks, and some strong artwork, this is a title that might’ve piqued Hammer Studios’ interest back in the day.”—Dread Central
Lorelei Presents: House Macabre: It’s Lori’s first outing as the hostess of a horror comic anthology, in this one-shot special that contains four tales of horror, behind eye-catching cover art by fan-favorite artist Louis Small Jr. (Vampirella, Supergirl, Batman 80-Page Giant).
- “The Old, Dark Manse” is written by me and illustrated by Uriel Caton (JSA Annual, The Ex-Mutants, Heartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa) and “Chainsaw” Chuck Majewski (Harvey Kurtzman’s New Two-Fisted Tales), and has Lori welcoming readers to this special.
- “All in Color for a Crime” is another tale from me, with art by Lou Manna (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Young All-Stars). Two comic book collectors clash over a rare back issue—and only one of them will be adding it to their long boxes!
- “The Basilisk,” from me and artist John Pierard (Graphic Classics: Horror Classics, My Teacher Fried My Brains), is a “Lori’s Feary Tale” that examines the history of a supernatural creature that’s a cross between a deadly snake and a…chicken?!
- Wrapping up the special is “Requiem for Bravo 6,” by New York Times bestselling author and comic writer Dwight Jon Zimmerman (She-Hulk, Steve McQueen: Full-Throttle Cool) and artist Juan Carlos Abraldes Rendo. A special-ops team goes on a life-or-death mission…but will they be prepared for what awaits them at mission’s end?
“Any fans of the old-fashioned horror anthology comics (Eerie, Creepy, Tales From the Crypt, etc.) is gonna want to take a look at this one-shot from StarWarp Concepts…. If campy horror fun is your thing, this should be a hit for you.”—The Pullbox
Visit their respective product pages for ordering information, as well as sample pages.
He picked a magazine off the coverlet which showed an incredibly endowed young woman in a skintight costume who was sucking the blood of a young man…. The name of the magazine—and of the young woman, apparently—was Vampirella.—Stephen King, ’Salem’s Lot
So why are we so excited about this momentous occasion? Well, if you read yesterday’s post about our publishing plans this year, you know it’s because we have a project in the works that ties directly into Vampi’s anniversary. (What, you thought I was just gonna plug some other publisher’s character for no reason? You should know me better than that by now!)
Lorelei Halloween Special #1 by Steven A. Roman, Eliseu Gouveia, and Steve Geiger: 2019 is also Lorelei’s 30th anniversary, and to celebrate the occasion the creative team behind the critically acclaimed graphic novel 
Tales to Sorta Tremble By, edited by Steven A. Roman: During the 1950s, comic book publishers were required to include text pages in their releases if they wanted their publications to meet U.S. postal requirements as magazines. They solved this problem by running mini prose stories, one to two pages in length, in the comics—including the horror ones. Tales to Sorta Tremble By collects 13 of those stories, with subjects ranging from vampires and werewolves to evil killer plants and mean-tempered zombies.
I’m takin’ care of business
Chasing Danger: The Case Files of Theron Chase by Richard C. White: The popular author of Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination, Harbinger of Darkness, and For a Few Gold Pieces More takes a walk on the noirish side of dark urban fantasy with this collection of stories starring a private eye whose clientele are of the supernatural kind—werewolves, mer-folk, and the like. Think Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe meets Lev Grossman’s The Magicians—with all the strangeness that goes with it!
Blood & Iron: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 3 by Steven A. Roman: The conclusion to Pan’s first epic literary adventure brings to a head all the action from the previous novels, Blood Feud and Blood Reign. Trapped on an island of monsters and fallen angels, what can she, her maybe-kinda new boyfriend (they’re still working on the details) Javier, and their immortal-shape-shifting, monster-hunting mentor, Annie, do to prevent a horrorpocalypse? Is that even a word? Will Pan live long enough to consult a dictionary? Do they have dictionaries on monster isle? Guess we’ll all find out!
Rejoice, comic fans! The fourth issue of 
Then welcome aboard! In case you’re wondering who we are, StarWarp Concepts is a publisher of dark-fantasy and fantasy novels, comic books, and graphic novels that are available for sale in brick-and-mortar stores and through select online booksellers and distributors (as well as our own webstore, of course).
Dark urban fantasy: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback is a young adult, dark-urban-fantasy novel series written by Steven A. Roman. It stars 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 a shape-shifting monster hunter named Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, in the first novel, 
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Fantasy adventure: 
Comic book and graphic novels: 
Classic literature: Know a reader with a passion for genre literature? They might be interested in our line of illustrated classics. 
2018: Well, there was a year that could have gone better for us. Just ask Goth Eeyore over there.
That’s right: Although SWC officially launched as a publishing house in 1993, Lori made her comics debut in SWC’s first-ever release in 1989, in the pages of the Lorelei One-Shot Special. A digest-size, b&w small-press comic written and drawn by yours truly, it was my first attempt at doing my own comic book, with all the mistakes and lessons learned that come with being a first-time self-publisher. Sure, the final result was kinda rough, with my hand lettering and an art style that fell somewhere between Archie comics and Frank Thorne’s Red Sonja (are you familiar with the story of the 
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