Overview
It can be summed up in very few words, but I’m pleased to report that a great deal has been accomplished over the past week.
If all has gone according to plan, I shall be sending this newsletter out in good conscience, officially declaring that first drafts for our Summer 2024 issue are COMPLETE! They’re in the hands of our cracking test-driver K. Paul who will ensure you get six riveting stories come June.
On top of that, recording on Episode 6 and the “White Line Warriors” minisode for Alan Firedale is also complete! Took quite a bit of fussing, but it was a great deal of fun reading these two stories and I can’t wait to share with you the results. They’re in the hands of our incredible announcer and editor Brendan Rechnitzer who I encourage you all to reach out to should you need a fine voice artist or audio editor.
And that’s not all!
Going forward, 365 Infantry is reinventing its visual language. Kevin isn’t ditching his style, we aren’t changing up our aesthetic sensibilities, but what we are doing is introducing comic-style paneling to our illustrations for the foreseeable future. We teased this a little in the split-screen presentation of War story “The Metal Factor” and we’re officially taking it up a notch.
Though born of the pulps we are, we here at HQ love comics, and the vibrant world of 365 Infantry is hand-crafted for the medium. That being said, getting into comics is quite the ordeal. Whether its a 30-page floppy or a full-on graphic novel, it takes a tremendous amount of time, money, and raw creative energy to get a funnybook made these days.
While we do have plans to take the series into the format (and may soon find ourselves in the wonderful racket of crowdfunding to make it happen), it’s in the spirit of starting small that we’ll be incorporating the medium directly into the main series. Our illustrations aren’t like the lovely inkwork seen in vintage pulps of yore, so making the transition has allowed us the chance to create more dynamic and exciting visuals to spark your mind’s eye as you read the latest of our 25th century tales, as well as cut our teeth on a more regular basis!
ICYMI: While Haven Sleeps
Lastly, in case you managed to miss it (and if so, could I take a timeshare out on that rock you’re under?), our debut test animation While Haven Sleeps is live and in the wild and marks the first of quite a few collaborations. First is our lovely new voice for the Urban Avenger herself @DiamondTheVA who will be our go-to for bringing the sensational hippie-punk to life in future audio and visual projects. Secondly is the amazing Andrew Clark from The Animated Moon who brought this world to life as never before, and I will forever credit with producing one of the rawest shots in series history.
It ain’t the last time you’ll be seeing this talented fellow around these parts, for I will be doing my damndest to bring this series into the realm of film. That being said, it’s also high time to remind ourselves, amidst all the excitement, what the core of this series truly is, because I think I’ve managed to lose track of that myself without even having suffered the indignities of “selling out” or losing control of my creative vision.
“The role of my manga is to be a work of entertainment through and through. I dare say I don't care even if [my works] have left nothing behind, as long as they have entertained their readers.” — Akira Toriyama in a 2013 interview with The Asahi Shimbun
Clearing Up 365 INFANTRY
It’s upon reflection, and after a good long talk with one of our five-star Generals, Weefy, that I’m bringing a piece of housekeeping to the forefront.
While I never saw it as such because I’ve managed to keep most of the narrative timeline straight in my head, and I treat all of these various series as their own entities, coexisting within a shared universe, I do acknowledge that there has been some mission-creep with 365 Infantry.
Two years ago, we were committed to publishing five short stories every quarter. Later that year, we said “hey, we’re doing offseason flash stories.” And then we went meta and made an audio drama that’s canonically fiction enjoyed by residents of the Wasteland. And then last year happens, and all hell breaks loose.
59 stories, an eight-part serial, four audio dramas, two music releases (one of which is a half-hour soundtrack album), and a test comic. Not to mention the fact that it takes me three articles to introduce the whole shebang.
While I stand by each and every one of these endeavors, for I had something to say creatively within them, and by God did I say it, I now realize just how muddled it must look for newcomers. And the weight of that doubles considering the world we live in that tries to make obsessives out of its audiences, not through natural means, but by orchestrating events upon events, and trying to make it so you have to consume every last item to get the full story.
That’s not what 365 Infantry is about.
We’re a multimedia project, so we naturally have our thumbs in many pies, but we’re also pure pulp storytelling at our core. The magazine’s core format is inspired by the seminal spinner-rack anthologies of days gone-by, where characters were born and returned to delight readers. Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane was a Weird Tales staple, Dashiell Hammett’s hardboiled hero The Continental Op was born on the pages of crime magazine Black Mask, and so on and so forth.
We’re just here to tell fun stories, and we just happen to tell a lot of them in many different ways, all within a special world. If I’m doing my job right, you can walk into any 365 story and find yourself entertained and intrigued. They’re not cleanly episodic, but the broader serialized arcs should not inhibit you from enjoying the future-war action or the cyberpunk suspense we regularly dish-up. You can chose to read only one series, or you can gorge yourself on the lot. What counts is that you came away enjoying yourself.
Coming soon, we’re going to create an all-encompassing, one-and-done guide to 365 Infantry to better clarify this and make it clear that this series is way more accessible than it may first appear. It will be a video covering the world, the characters, the magazine’s format and more. That will take some time to get together, so for now though, I’d like to ask you all to do me a favor.
Share 365 Infantry with someone, and let them know what it is YOU dig about the project. That one special something that keeps you reading and listening. I’ve decided to try out this Referrals feature, so if you use the button down below, the more people you share with, the more you’ll receive special benefits, gaining access to our growing archive of paid exclusives. I’ll introduce more rewards later on, but I feel this is a good starting point.
Conclusion
Simply put, the verdict is full-steam ahead for a summer of fun with 365 Infantry and we’ll be rolling out the welcome mat to help give new readers a much clearer idea of what this series is all about. Also: don’t be surprised if you see that previously mentioned Quick Byte this week. As you can imagine, I’ve been busy. Can’t wait to share more!
May God Bless You and This Force. Be Seeing You!
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