Happy New Year! 2014 is shaping up to be an exciting year for those of us at StarWarp Concepts, and here’s what we’ve got in store:
First off, please welcome our new (and first-ever) production manager, Annie Wilkes!
Hailing from Sidewinder, Colorado, Annie loves books…with the exception of anything starring our succubus character Lorelei, whom she regards as a “dirty bird” (which is okay; Lori’s not for everyone). She’s a voracious reader and likes to bill herself as the “#1 fan” of quite a few writers (she’s particularly fond of the works of Paul Sheldon), and she’s a stickler for punctuality, which is a definite plus. Her method of motivating our creative talent to meet their deadlines—a method she calls “Misery Loves Company”—might be considered incredibly unorthodox and highly unethical by those outside the book publishing industry, but it has proven to be surprisingly effective. We think she’ll fit in just fine around here.
The first job we’ve tasked her with is straightening out the unfortunate delay with the long-awaited and much demanded Blood Reign, second in our critically acclaimed Saga of Pandora Zwieback young adult novel series. Annie has promised to right this ship so that readers eager to follow Pan’s adventures will finally learn what became of her after the cliffhanger ending of the first novel, Blood Feud.
You’ll definitely be seeing Blood Reign this year—no matter how much its elusive author, Steve Roman, complains about his broken ankles. Walk it off, you big baby. 😉
Blood Reign is just the first ’Warp release scheduled for this year. In September, our dirty-bird succubus returns to host Lorelei Presents: House Macabre, a one-shot special in the tradition of horror anthology comics like Creepy, Eerie, and Bela Lugosi’s Tales From the Grave.
Behind that (not final) cover you see here by bad-girl artist supreme Louis Small Jr. (Vampirella, Lady Death), you’ll find stories by the deadline-challenged Roman as well as by Dwight Jon Zimmerman, former writer of Web of Spider-Man, She-Hulk, and Transformers, and most recently the New York Times bestselling co-author (with Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly) of Lincoln’s Last Days. Art is provided by Ernie Colon (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1), Lou Manna (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents), Uriel Caton (Heartstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa), and John Pierard (My Teacher Fried My Brains).
And on sale right now in comic shops is the graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings. Yes, the book originally came out last year, but then it was picked up by Diamond Comics Distribution for retail sales this month. Head on down to your local comic shop and ask them to stock our supernatural superhero team’s debut adventure—and then pick up a copy for yourself!
On the convention scene, we’ve already got three appearances lined up: Awesome Con DC in April; Eternal Con in June; and the Brooklyn Book Festival in September. Unfortunately, we’ll be skipping October’s New York Comic Con—it’s become a really expensive show at which to exhibit—but we may return to it one day.
One final note: If you haven’t already, please Like our StarWarp Concepts and/or Pandora Zwieback Facebook pages. We love keeping in touch with our fans, and that’s just one more way you can follow the doings around here.
Best wishes to all our readers for 2014!
—K. C. Winters
