Work to Do: The 2019 StarWarp Concepts Lineup, Part 1

I’m takin’ care of business
Woman, can’t you see?
I gotta make it for you
And I gotta make it for me
Sometimes it seems, girl, I’m neglectin’ you
I’d love to spend more time
I got so many things to do
—The Isley Brothers, “Work to Do”

Last Monday, I filled you in on how off-the-rails our publishing plans for 2018 became, and that we’re focused on getting the wheels back on the tracks for this year. And so here’s part of what we’ve got in the works for 2019:

SWC Horror Bites: The Mortal Immortal by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: Kicking off the 2019 schedule is this year’s Women in Horror Month selection. A classic tale by the legendary author of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, it involves Winzy, a man accidentally blessed—or cursed—with immortality. How he deals with his extremely long life makes for a fascinating character study. The Mortal Immortal joins Clemence Annie Housman’s White Fell—The Werewolf in our budding collection of print-and-digital chapbook releases available exclusively from the SWC webstore.

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!

Lorelei: Genesis by Steven A. Roman: 2019 is a special occasion for our First Lady of Horror because it’s the 30th anniversary of her debut appearance in 1989’s Lorelei One-Shot Special, a digest-size comic that I wrote and drew. Lorelei: Genesis is a one-shot, full-size comic that collects that first appearance along with a follow-up small-press adventure from 1991. If you’re interested in taking a look back at Lori’s early days, this is the comic for you.

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!

Tomorrow: The wrap-up to our 2019 list! A brand-new Lorelei comic! A free digital comic! Two more entries in the SWC Horror Bites series! And a special project about a well-known horror character who’s celebrating her fiftieth anniversary this year!