Happy Birthday, Bob Larkin!

Posted on July 10, 2018 by Steven

Larkin_photoIf you’re a fan of comic books, or movies, or pulp fiction heroes, Bob Larkin is a painter whose work you recognize immediately; he’s provided covers and movie posters for just about every publishing house and film studio for more than four decades. Doc Savage, Dazzler, Star Wars, Star Trek, The Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian, Piranha, Night of the Creeps, and The Toxic Avenger II are just some of the painted images you’re already familiar with, even if you didn’t know they were Larkin’s work. He’s been an inspiration to artists like Joe Jusko and Alex Ross. If you’re a Panatic, then you know him as the cover artist of the Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels Blood Feud and Blood Reign. And today is his 69th birthday!

The Bob Larkin SketchbookIt’s not just his painting skills that are impressive—Bob’s also one hell of a pencil artist, as you’ll see if you order a copy of SWC’s The Bob Larkin Sketchbook. It’s a collection of some of Bob’s incredible pencil drawings, and what you’ll discover when you see them is how wide-ranging his subjects are. Sci-fi, horror, Westerns, pulp adventure, crime fiction, movie merchandise, even wrestling stars—as we say on the book’s back cover, there really islittle that he hasn’t painted. And the sketchbook features three pieces created especially for it: the Pandora Zwieback cover art; a portrait of Patricia Savage, the fightin’ cousin of pulp fiction’s top-tier adventurer, Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze; and a two-page spread in which Doc faces off against another Golden Age crimefighter—The Shadow!

The Bob Larkin Sketchbook is available in print and digital formats. Visit its product page for ordering information, as well as sample pages.

And to see more of Bob’s stunning work, pay a visit to his art blog, Bob Larkin: The Illustrated Man.

Happy birthday, Bob!

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Rest in Peace, Harlan Ellison

Posted on June 29, 2018 by Steven

ellison-photoAs you may have heard, SF icon Harlan Ellison® (his name’s a registered trademark, you see) passed away on Thursday, at the age of 84. I had a few encounters with the great man—mostly by phone—during my years as a book editor, and despite his reputation for being abrasive (because he had no time for idiots), for me it was always fun talking to him. And saying he was talented as hell doesn’t even scratch the surface of his influence on science fiction, and writing in general.

And it reminds me of this birthday post I made four years ago that described those encounters—a post, it turned out according to one of his friends, that Harlan actually saw and enjoyed!

Additionally, Pandora Zwieback editor Howard Zimmerman (who was my old boss back in my book-editor days, and editor of Starlog magazine before that) was a friend of Harlan’s and said it was okay for me to post this remembrance:

“It was summer, 1977. I was the editor of Starlog, a science-fiction media magazine. An increasingly frequent contributor was Harlan Ellison. Fortuitously, we hit it off just fine; we agreed on things; we saw eye-to-eye. (Yes, a couple of short Jews.)

“The Starlog office was in Manhattan. So was I. Harlan was in town, staying at his buddy Norman Spinrad’s apartment in the East Village. I don’t remember where Norman himself was at that time, but it’s a good bet it was Paris.

“I was there to interview Harlan—probably for his views on recently released and upcoming science-fiction movies. He did several film reviews for Starlog.

“It was a late Friday afternoon. My agenda was to get an hour of Harlan on tape, then head to Penn Station, where I would catch a Long Island Railroad train out to Bay Shore, there to board a ferry to Ocean Beach, Fire Island, and join my wife and her family for the weekend.

“Harlan had been working on finishing a draft for his latest short story. Two sheets of stationary with a piece of carbon paper between them were still in the portable typewriter on Norman’s desk. Harlan was fashioning the story’s final scene when I knocked on the door.

“At the end of the hour, I was ready to leave. Harlan was not ready to let me go. I wanted to catch my train. He wanted to read me his story. I got up to go. He got up and put his chair in front of the door, and sat down, telling me he wanted to read me his story.

“As if I had a choice.

“And so he did. And of course, he blew me away. The story was ‘Jeffty Is Five,’ which only went on to win the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, etc.

“I missed my train. And Friday night dinner.

“But . . . wow.

“He was a force of nature.”
—Copyright © 2018 Howard Zimmerman

You had some hard edges, Mr. E, but you were a softie inside. Thanks for putting up with this idiot. 😀  —Steve

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And Now, a Special Message From the SWC Staff

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Steven

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The Great Adventurous Princess

Posted on June 13, 2018 by Steven

A Princess of MarsOn sale today from Dynamite Entertainment is The Greatest Adventure, the hardcover collection of the nine-part comic-book miniseries written by Bill Willingham (Fables) and drawn by Cezar Razek (Red Sonja: The Black Tower), in which a team of characters created by the late, great author Edgar Rice Burroughs unite to stop a cabal of mad scientists from activating a doomsday machine. Leading the charge are jungle lord Tarzan of the Apes and his wife, Jane, alongside John Carter, Warlord of Mars, and his wife, Martian princess Dejah Thoris, accompanied by a huge supporting cast of Burroughs heroes.

Speaking of tales of pulp adventure by Edgar Rice Burroughs, are you familiar with the story of John Carter and Dejah Thoris? They star in Burroughs’s classic science-fantasy novel A Princess of Mars—one of the titles in our Illustrated Classics line of books.

A Princess of Mars, originally published in 1912, is the first in Burroughs’s “John Carter of Mars” ten-novel series about a post–Civil War era American who suddenly finds himself on the Red Planet, battling to stay alive against all sorts of alien threats. It served as the basis for Disney’s 2012 film adaptation, John Carter, and inspired a century’s worth of SF works, including Flash Gordon, Star Wars, and James Cameron’s Avatar. The StarWarp Concepts edition—available in both print and digital formats—features six incredible illustrations by SWC artist supreme Eliseu Gouveia (Carmilla, Lorelei: Sects and the City), and a special introduction by Mars-fiction expert John Gosling, author of Waging the War of the Worlds. Here’s the back-cover synopsis:

Captain John Carter thought his days as a fighter were over. The South had lost the Civil War, and as a soldier now without a battle to fight or a cause to believe in, he journeyed west in search of a new life.

But not even Carter could have expected that his new life would begin with his death in the Arizona desert, and his inexplicable arrival on the barren plains of the planet Mars. Or that he would find love in the eyes of the beauteous Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium.

A prisoner of the giant, green-skinned warrior race called the Tharks, Dejah Thoris is meant to be used as a pawn in the ongoing war between the Tharks and her people, the red Martians—unless the gentleman from Virginia takes sword in hand to free her…and thus unite a divided world.

Once more, John Carter has a cause to fight for—and this time, a love to win, as well….

A Princess of Mars is available in print and digital formats. Visit its product page for ordering information.

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Happy Wonder Woman Day 2018!

Posted on June 3, 2018 by Steven

ww-day.jpgLast year, DC Comics made a formal declaration that June 3rd would forevermore be known as Wonder Woman Day. Of course, the fact that it only fell on the day following the U.S. release date for the first-ever Wonder Woman big-screen motion picture, and that there are no official plans to make it an annual celebration, surely had nothing to do with it…

But that shouldn’t stop you from celebrating it! And how can you do that? Well, how about downloading a free digital comic that’s only available right here, at StarWarp Concepts!

heroines_large_coverHeroines and Heroes is a collection of comic stories and pinups all drawn by me, dating back to my days in the early 1990s small-press movement—that age of dinosaurs in which creators like me used to make our comics by printing them out on photocopiers and then stapling them by hand. In H&H you’ll find mainstream heroes and small-press heroines, a couple of anthropomorphic bikers—and a certain member of the Justice League.

“V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N (in the Summertime)” is a three-page Wonder Woman vs. Harley Quinn story that I wrote and drew in the late ’90s as a sample for a DC Comics editor who thought I’d be a good fit for their Batman: The Animated Series comic (it didn’t work out). It’s followed by an adventure of small-presser Jeff Wood’s rabbit-eared superspy, Snowbuni; three pages from the long-canceled indie comic Motorbike Puppies; and an adventure of the indie superheroine The Blonde Avenger.

Heroines and Heroes is available for free download right now, so visit its product page for more information, including sample pages. It’s a small-press wonder!

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The Formidables: Now On Sale in Print!

Posted on May 31, 2018 by Steven

Well, it’s taken longer than expected, but at last The Formidables—the superhero comic that I’m involved with as editor—has finally reached comic shops!

Formidables-MidtownComics-May2018

Originally self-published digitally by creator/writer/artist Chris Malgrain through his Oniric Comics company, its print rights were picked up by Red Anvil Comics in 2017, and the first two issues have just hit comic shops—as evidenced by this cell-phone photo I took yesterday at Midtown Comics in New York City!

The Formidables are a quintet of superheroes battling evil and bigotry in 1950s America, with their first challenge coming in the form of a Communist super-villain…who’s disguised as a white supremacist! It’s a unique take on the genre, with Chris examining topics like race relations and sexual identity in a Cold War setting, with an appropriate amount of punching and explosions mixed in, of course—we are talking superhero comics, after all!

So face front, true believer, and head on down to your local comic shop to pick up copies of The Formidables #1–2!

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Author Richard C. White Achieves Escape Velocity

Posted on May 23, 2018 by Steven

Rich-New-PicThis weekend, science fiction fans from far and wide (well, at least the ones not at the beach for Memorial Day weekend) will be gathering at the Escape Velocity convention, being held at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland on May 25–27. And among the guests in attendance will be SWC’s own Richard C. White, who’ll be there to promote his latest book, Harbinger of Darkness.

According to its website, Escape Velocity is “a futuristic world’s fair to promote STEAM [Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics] education within the context of science fiction using the fun of comic cons and fascination of science and engineering festivals.”

Harbinger-of-Darkness-FinalCvrHarbinger of Darkness is Rich’s original novel in which a thief named Perrin steals an extremely valuable—and magical—gem from the evil king ruling her home country. With thugs and fellow thieves and the king’s assassins hot on her trail, Perrin finds just staying alive is becoming a full-time occupation, which directly conflict with her secret life—and identity—as a humble bookseller’s daughter. It’s sword-swinging adventure at its finest!.

If you’re attending Escape Velocity this weekend, be sure to purchase books directly from Rich, who’ll be selling copies of Harbinger, his story collection For a Few Gold Pieces More, and his nonfiction book, Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination all weekend.

For more information on the convention, visit the Escape Velocity website.

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Richard C. White: For a Few Geek Radios More

Posted on May 14, 2018 by Steven

Rich-New-PicAttention, fantasy fans! Last year, SWC author Richard C. White was interviewed by podcaster Rich Sigfrit for the show Geek Radio Daily, to promote Rich’s For a Few Gold Pieces More—and now, one year later, it finally got posted on the site. So head on over to GDR right now and give Rich’s interview a listen as he discusses the background of some of Gold Pieces’ stories and gets in a plug for his follow-up SWC project, the fantasy novel Harbinger of Darkness (which is also now on sale!).

For a Few Gold Pieces More is a collection of ten critically acclaimed short stories. Think Lord of the Rings meets the “spaghetti Westerns” of director Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly), as a Rogue With No Name travels a world of epic-fantasy adventure, looking for treasure—and revenge against the woman who sent him to prison for a crime he didn’t commit (but she did). Here’s the back cover copy:

pieces_gold_large_book_cover2017For the right price, he’ll get you out of trouble. Cross him, and you’ll never pay enough…

It’s amazing what you learn living on the run.

Fleeing for my life, convicted on trumped-up charges, and denied the use of my own name, I’ve stayed one step ahead of the Imperial Guard by focusing on one thing—taking care of myself first. So, I don’t know where you heard the ridiculous rumor about me helping people here and there around the Empire. And if, and that’s a big if, it was me, there was something in it for me. Trust me on that.

In the various towns and villages I’ve visited over the years, I’ve seen depravity, cruelty, torture, greed, lust—and that’s just the humans. Trust me; compared to them, the creatures that haunt the edges of the Empire are more honest and trustworthy. At least they’re not trying to slip a knife into your back…usually.

Only a few things have been constant while I’ve been on the run. My desire for revenge against the person who framed me all those years ago tops the list. Weird things happening in quiet villages, dark forests, or icy mountains never seem to change. And third? Well, that would be my luck.

 I can always count on it to be bad.

And what exactly makes these stories “critically acclaimed”? Well, just look at what these folks have to say:

“Entertaining, old-school sword and sorcery, in the tradition of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.”—Jim C. Hines, author of the Magic ex Libris, Jig the Goblin, and The Princesses series

“Richard C. White knows how to spin a yarn. These stories do not disappoint.”—Bobby Nash, author of Evil Ways, Domino Lady: Money Shot, and Alexandra Holzer’s Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt

“A great read that had the main character learning that he is a better man than what he thinks he is.… It was easy to visualize the characters and find yourself rooting for them. I have no problem recommending this book to those that like this genre.”—Drue’s Random Chatter’s & Reviews

Weighing in at a hefty 420 pages, For a Few Gold Pieces More sports a cover painting and a frontispiece illustration by fantasy artist Shane Braithwaite, who also provided the cover art for Rich’s 2015 SWC release, the writer’s reference book Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination.

For a Few Gold Pieces More is available in print and digital formats, so visit its product pages for ordering information.

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Happy Mother’s Day 2018!

Posted on May 13, 2018 by Steven

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Happy Free Comic Book Day 2018!

Posted on May 5, 2018 by Steven

FCBD-logo2That’s right, comic book fans, today is the eighteenth annual Free Comic Book Day at brick-and-mortar and online comic shops around the world.

Held the first Saturday in May, this year’s event is timed to coincide with last week’s release of Marvel Studios’ latest blockbuster, Avengers: Infinity War, in which Earth’s Mightiest Heroes join forces with other Marvel heroes—including the Guardians of the Galaxy—to battle the space villain Thanos as he tries to take possession of the Infinity Stones: jewels that will give him the power to destroy the universe! And in keeping with FCBD’s fine tradition of gifting comics to fans everywhere, here’s a list of StarWarp Concepts’ offerings that you can download—for free—directly from us!

heroines_large_coverHeroines & Heroes: A collection of comic stories and pinups all drawn by me, dating back to my days in the early 1990s small-press movement—that age of dinosaurs in which creators like me used to make our comics by printing them out on photocopiers and then stapling them by hand. In H&H you’ll find mainstream heroes and small-press heroines, and even a couple of anthropomorphic bikers. Leading off is “V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N (in the Summertime),” a three-page Wonder Woman vs. Harley Quinn story that I wrote and drew in the late ’90s as a sample for a DC Comics editor who thought I’d be a good fit for their Batman: The Animated Series comic (it didn’t work out). It’s followed by an adventure of small-presser Jeff Wood’s rabbit-eared superspy, Snowbuni; three pages from the long-canceled indie comic Motorbike Puppies; and an adventure of the indie superheroine The Blonde Avenger.

Pandora0_CoverThe Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0: A full-color introduction to the young adult novel series of the same name, hosted by Pan herself. Pan is a 16-year-old New York City Goth who’s not only a horror fangirl but someone with the rare ability to see the for-real monsters that regular humans can’t (she calls it her “monstervision”), and with the help of a 400-year-old, shape-shifting monster hunter named Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, she’s learning how to protect her family, her friends, and the world from the supernatural dangers out there—and maybe even have some fun while doing it. This 16-page comic features a seven-page story written by me, with art and color by Eliseu Gouveia (The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1, Carmilla, A Princess of Mars), and includes two sample chapters from Blood Feud, the first Pan novel.

Heartstopper #1Hearstopper: The Legend of La Bella Tenebrosa #1–3: Before she became Pan’s monster-hunting mentor, Sebastienne Mazarin made her debut in this short-lived, 1990s Mature Readers series from Millennium Publications. A nefarious heavy metal band has arrived in New York City, and its lead singer is more than just a sex magnet for his female fans—he’s an incubus! Will Annie put an end to his plans for worldwide chaos, or fall prey to his supernatural charms? Written by me (of course), issue 1 is drawn by Pan and Annie co-creator Uriel Caton (JSA Annual) and inker Alan Larsen (Femforce); issue 2 is penciled by Uriel, Holly Golightly (School Bites), and David C. Matthews (Satin Steele) and inked by Larsen; and issue 3 is penciled by Holly, with four pages of inks by “Chainsaw” Chuck Majewski (Harvey Kurtzman’s New Two-Fisted Tales).

Warning: Heartstopper is designated a “Mature Readers” comic for violent scenes and some sexual innuendo, so younger Panatics should avoid it.

All these comics are available for download right now, so visit their respective product pages for more information.

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