Brooklyn Book Festival 2015 Report

“Do you know what zombies are a metaphor for?” the crazy lady in the wide-brimmed sunhat barked at me. “Climate survivors!”

She pointed at the copies I was selling of Best New Zombie Tales 2, the Books of the Dead Press anthology for which I’d contributed a story. “The Syrian refugees, the nuclear threat posed by Iran, the environmental damage caused by climate change—that’s what you should be writing about”—she swept her hand over the SWC titles arranged across my booth—“not this silly nonsense that no one will remember in a year!”

The noncommittal, blank-eyed stare I’d been giving her during her three-minute rant turned into a snarl. “Thanks for your input,” I growled. Completely oblivious to the “go ____ yourself” undertone to my response, she moved on to the next booth and repeated the process, adding she was a “bestselling author” who’d worked with “major publishers,” apparently in an attempt to give her diatribe some weight. Was she? Who knows—she never mentioned her name, or any of the “major” publishers. I guess that makes her the living embodiment of things no one will remember in a year, then…

Welcome to Brooklyn Book Festival 2015.

This past Sunday, StarWarp Concepts joined the Brooklyn Book Festival’s tenth-anniversary celebration, to spread the word about our 2015 releases: the long-awaited Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2, the horror comic Lorelei Presents: House Macabre, and the upcoming writers’ reference book Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination (on sale October 6th!). Despite the nonsensical ravings of a lunatic mind—as Gene Wilder’s Frederick Frankenstein described such word-salad ramblings in the movie Young Frankenstein—we generally had a good time, although the turnout for the festival seemed aurprisingly low, given the bright, sunny day and moderate temparatures. It might have had to do with a major construction project going on right in the middle of BBF’s home, Brooklyn Borough Hall Plaza, which forced the showrunners to limit the number of exhibitors (from around 800 last year to 400 this year) and move a hundred of them to a park one block north of the main action. Or maybe folks just wanted to enjoy the last official Sunday of summer without lugging around a truckload of books. 😉

Rich White and SWC head Steve Roman get ready to greet ‘Warp readers new and old.

Joining me this year was my friend Richard C. White, who was on hand to promote his upcoming Terra Incognito (did I mention it goes on sale October 6th?), as well as his two current SWC releases: the supernatural-superheroes graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings, and the pirate-fantasy digital comic The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special. Helping with the booth setup was my brother Frank, who also took the pictures you see in this report—and since this year it turned out we had a booth at the end of an aisle, which gave us extra space to play with, we had plenty to set up! Along with the SWC titles and Pandora Zwieback T-shirts, out came the backstock copies of my X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy novels, the Sunn young adult graphic novel, and the Best New Zombie Tales 2 anthology. We had something for just about everyone!

The larger exhibition space also gave us an opportunity to debut the new Saga of Pandora Zwieback banner. I realized earlier this year that most of the convention spots I’ve been paying for tend to run 10’ x 10’, and the original five-foot banner looked tiny in comparison. A larger one was definitely in order. So, retaining artist Bob Larkin’s cover paintings for the novels Blood Feud, Blood Reign, and Stalkers as the centerpiece, I had designer Mat Postawa add two new panels at the end: a full-body shot of Pan by artist Eliseu Gouveia, from the opening splash page of The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0; and a section of the cover painting for the novel Blood & Iron, from digital artist Candra. You certainly can’t miss seeing it, as was evidenced by a number of folks who visited the booth to take photos of it. And the original banner was still in play, backing up the new one so that passersby approaching the booth from behind could take notice of Ms. Zwieback.

Steve Roman explaining the history of Pandora Zwieback to a new Zwiebackian convert.

Dwight Jon Zimmerman—author of the recently published nonfiction graphic novels Steve McQueen: Full-Throttle Cool and Area 51: The Graphic History of America’s Most Secret Military Installation (as well as contributing writer to our horror anthology comic, Lorelei Presents: House Macabre)—stopped by to say hello, as did a couple of longtime ’Warp fans who always visit the festival. What we maybe could have done with less of were the individuals passing by who felt the need to comment on our horror/dark fantasy titles by grimacing, sticking out their tongues in disgust, and, in the case of one woman, going out of her way to walk right up to loudly say, “Ewwww!” and then tell us how much she disliked what we publish.

What happened, Brooklyn Book Fest? You didn’t used to be this judgmental.

Man, I don’t even know you anymore…

Rich White autographs a copy of Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings for a new fan.

Still, there were plenty of new readers—horror fans, teens and adults, even Doctor Who fans (well, my outfit is kinda Master-ish)—who thought SWC published exactly the kind of books they loved, especially when it came to Pan’s adventures and Rich’s upcoming Terra Incognito (did you hear it’s coming out on October 6th?). The zombie and superhero fans were happy to discover the X-Men novels and the zombie anthology, so it turned out that adding that side table was a really smart move. And Troubleshooters, Incorporated, Lorelei, and the illustrated classic Carmilla also gained new fans.

By day’s end, there might have been a low turnout, and maybe a few too many attendees felt the need to express their displeasure with our output, but we still love you, Brooklyn Book Festival. We’ll see you again in a year’s time.

Just…tell the climate-survivor spokespeople and the prudes to stay home, okay?