Yes, it’s time again for Will Eisner Week: an annual celebration—held this week from March 1 to March 7—run by the Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation, to promote literacy, graphic novels, free speech, and the legacy of the late Will Eisner, the creator of the 1940s masked crimefighter The Spirit, and one of the founding fathers of American graphic novels. A Contract with God, A Life Force, Dropsie Avenue, and The Dreamer are just some of the fascinating tales Eisner wrote and drew, featuring ordinary people in extraordinary (and sometimes not-so-extraordinary) situations. And even though he passed away in 2005, Eisner continues to inspire generations of writers and artists. Events are being held this week around the world; visit the Will Eisner Week site for more information.
StarWarp Concepts, of course, has its share of graphic novels and comics that might pique your interest. Here are just a few:
Lorelei: Sects and the City: This is the critically acclaimed, Mature Readers tale of a succubus battling a cult that’s trying to revive the elder gods they worship. Basically a love letter to 1970s horror comics like Vampirella, Tomb of Dracula, and “Satanna, the Devil’s Daughter,” it’s written by yours truly, Steven A. Roman (Stan Lee’s Alexa, X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy), and illustrated by Eliseu Gouveia (Vengeance of the Mummy, Lady Death), Steve Geiger (Web of Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk), and Neil Vokes (Flesh and Blood, Fright Night). It also features a cover by legendary artist Esteban Maroto (Vampirella, Zatanna, Lady Rawhide) and a frontispiece by original Vampirella artist Tom Sutton (Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night).
Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings: Perfect for superhero fans, this graphic novel is about a supernatural team of superfolk-for-hire, consisting of a wizard, a sorceress, a female ninja, a high-tech-armor-wearing rock concert lighting designer, and a werewolf. Not every superhero team has Tony Stark’s billions to play with, you understand, and the Troubleshooters are just looking to earn a living while fighting the monsters that have always lurked in the shadows. Makes sense, right? Of course it does! Written by the husband-and-wife team of Richard C. White (For a Few Gold Pieces More, Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination) and Joni M. White, and illustrated by Reggie Golden and Randy Zimmerman, Night Stalkings presents the TSI members on their first mission: protecting a multimillionaire from a trio of Middle Eastern demons out to raise a little hell!
The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1: Although it may not be a graphic novel, at 56 pages it’s still a pretty thick comic book, with three stories of Pan and the monsters that live in her New York City hometown. The Saga of Pandora Zwieback chronicles the adventures of sixteen-year-old Pandora Zwieback, a Gothy horror fangirl who possesses amazing powers that she just learned about, including the ability to see past the human disguises worn by monsters to blend in with society. And The Saga of Pandora Zwieback Annual #1 is a 56-page, full-color special that contains stories by Steven A. Roman (yep, me again) and Sholly Fisch (Scooby-Doo Team-Up, The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold), and art by Eliseu Gouveia (Lorelei: Sects and the City, The Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0) and comic-art legend Ernie Colon (Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld).
All titles are available in print and digital formats, so visit their respective product pages for ordering information, as well as sample pages.
Happy reading!
Well, here’s the sort of literacy program our resident teenaged monster hunter, Pandora Zwieback, can totally get behind—especially since it involves her favorite baseball team!
With this past Saturday having been the seventh annual celebration of Take Your Child to the Library Day, I was reminded of a conversation I once had with Richard C. White, author of SWC’s supernatural graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings, pirate-fantasy digital comic The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon Special, the fantasy-adventure titles For a Few Gold Pieces More and Harbinger of Darkness, and the popular how-to book for writers, Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination.
Harbinger of Darkness is Rich’s third title, and his first original novel for SWC. In it, 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!
Pan is a 16-year-old Goth girl who’s spent the last decade being treated for mental health problems because she can see monsters. It’s only after she meets an immortal monster hunter named Annie that Pan discovers she’s never been ill—her so-called “monstervision” is actually a supernatural gift that allows her to see into Gothopolis, the not-so-mythical shadow world that exists right alongside the human world. You’ll find Pan battling her own brand of evil dead in the following titles:
With the 2018 edition of Women in Horror Month under way, I thought now would be a good time to remind you of a feminist horror classic in the Horror Bites series.
With February being Women in Horror Month, it’s the perfect time for you to head over to the site Comics for Sinners, where you’ll find my overview of Skywald Publishing’s 1972 answer to Vampirella, the supernatural femme fatale 
Today is the seventh annual celebration of 
Women in Horror Month
There’s also the Illustrated Classic 
So, remember that superhero comic 
On January 11, 2017, I saluted the 
The Night Stalker received the highest ratings of any TV movie at the time, and led to its network, ABC-TV, immediately green-lighting a sequel: 
Beyond the change in location it’s practically a remake of The Night Stalker—an intentional approach as producer/director Dan Curtis explains in “Directing the Night Strangler,” a featurette on the Night Stalker/Night Strangler MGM Double Feature DVD, released in 2004. “And I said, ‘What we gotta do, Dick, is it’s gotta be, y’know, a sequel, but at the same time it’s gotta be, like, the same movie. We gotta get that same feeling.’”
Still, McGavin carries the movie through his powerful, take-no-bullshit performance as Kolchak—a performance matched only by Oakland, whose Vincenzo is the only person on the planet strong enough to match the volume of his agita-inducing reporter in the many shouting matches they have. Seeing them go at it is reason enough to watch the picture, but as an added bonus, this time we even get a talking monster. In The Night Stalker, the only thing that vampire Janos Skorzeny did was hiss and growl; here, Anderson’s Dr. Malcolm is a soft-spoken, highly educated villain—utterly insane, yes, but at least he can hold a conversation. And despite the numerous murders Malcolm has racked up, Anderson even manages to make the viewer feel some pity for him when Kolchak literally shatters his plans to go on living.
While it didn’t do quite as well in the ratings as its predecessor, The Night Strangler drew in enough viewers that the executives at ABC-TV first considered a third film—The Night Killers, by Matheson and William F. Nolan, about politicians being replaced with android duplicates by alien invaders—but then decided to commit to a TV series instead: Kolchak: The Night Stalker. A good thing, too, because McGavin, who’d become extremely protective of how Kolchak was handled, hated the Killers script—his 
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