Today is the launch day for Comic-Con@Home: the all-free online iteration of the ever-popular San Diego Comic-Con (aka Comic-Con International), which has been forced to go viral due to the coronavirus pandemic. If you head over to their site, you’ll find links to a virtual exhibition hall and other goodies, along with a massive list of newly recorded videos of panels that will each go live on YouTube according to their respective times on the four-day schedule.
StarWarp Concepts won’t be there, unfortunately—although truthfully we haven’t attended SDCC since 2005 (it’s just too expensive to exhibit there, what with travel, hotel, and shipping costs)—but that doesn’t mean you can’t experience a sorted of scaled-down version of the big show right here!
You want vendors? Our webstore is open 24/7, so at any time you can order our amazing titles that range from comics and graphic novels to fantasy and dark fantasy novels, and from Illustrated Classics to nonfiction books about gaming and comics history.
Our Downloads page has a bunch of free stuff—Pandora Zwieback wallpapers for your smartphone and computer, full-color-comics, and book samples. Why, it’s just like receiving convention giveaways!
Our Gallery area—think of it as an online artists’ alley—features two sections, The 13 Days of Pan-demonium and Visions of Lorelei, both containing original renderings of our two best-known characters by a host of artists from small press and mainstream comics.
And while we don’t have online panels, we do have links to interviews with authors Steven A. Roman (that’s me!) and Richard C. White:
There’s my recent appearance on the YouTube series Indy Comics Explained, hosted by J.D. Calderon, in which I discuss my history as a writer, editor, and publisher, touch on my work for fellow indie house Oniric Comics, and promote SWC and my latest project, the nonfiction comics history From the Stars…a Vampiress: An Unauthorized Guide to Vampirella’s Classic Horror Adventures.
Rich made an appearance earlier this year on the podcast series Dicegeeks to talk the intricacies of fantasy world building and to promote his nonfiction writers guide, Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination, which has become extremely popular with roleplaying gamers and gamemasters—and is even used as part of a college course on game design!
In 2019, Rich was interviewed by Paranormal Underground magazine to discuss his noir-fantasy story collection, Chasing Danger: The Case Files of Theron Chase, and you can read that interview, as well as the entire issue, online for free.
And then there’s Rich’s 2018 appearance on the podcast Geek Radio Daily to promote his fantasy short-story collection For a Few Gold Pieces More and his fantasy novel Harbinger of Darkness.
So even though you won’t find the StarWarp Concepts crew attending any real-world conventions for the balance of the year, at least you can have a con-like experience in the meantime, right from the virus-free safety of your home. And with luck (and science), hopefully we’ll see you live on the convention floor next year!
Stay safe, and stay well!
In the Before Times: Rich White and SWC head Steve Roman at the 2015 Brooklyn Book Festival. Photo by Frank Roman.
