WINTER ISSUE OUT NOW!

Greetings Hellions! Looks like real pulp fun at real pulp prices is back on the menu! We’re once again partnering with the to help spread the good word about our special brand of untamed wolven sci-fi.

Not without a hiccup in the engine, of course.

The goal was to have all three of our current annual collection eBooks at our usual cut-rate of $0.99 USD and while we had no problem getting the first two discounted, big ol’ beefy 2024 was too fat in the image files for Amazon to allow. So while not formally part of the sale, you are getting this bad-boy for a steep discount of $1.99 USD.

2022 ANNUAL COLLECTION!

2023 ANNUAL COLLECTION!

2024 ANNUAL COLLECTION!

But that’s not all.

We’re but one of hundreds of humble merchants flogging our wares in celebration of the short story. You can check out all the returnees and fresh faces over on the BBS’s Substack and play klepto to your heart’s content! All titles are priced the same or for the low-low price of FREE. Lord knows I’ll be going for a raid myself for some fresh reads. Sale ends March 24th!

Based Book Sale

Based Book Niche Sale: Short Stories

One week only, March 18th-24th: indie authors’ books in the Short Stories niche sale - get ‘em while they last! This is the fourth niche event Hans has allowed me to curate for the Based Book Sale, and I am working to make it a success for the participating authors. Help them out by getting a look at their work, or at least sharing this post on your soc…

Read more

a month ago · 4 likes · Michael Finney

And while our eBooks are on sale, the one thing that is definitely FREE around these parts are the exciting adventures of Alan Firedale: Desert Delinquent. All episodes are available now for all our subscribers’ listening pleasure. Binge from the start, check out our latest adventure, or take my favorite episode for a spin: Devil’s Gold. This is one of my favorite projects and I’m so happy to have it running free and in the wild.

Lastly, for those curious about my non-365 activities, you’re in luck too! Two more of my stories have graced the pages of two great magazines. You can find the Southern Gothic demon-slaying of “Reborn From The Blackened Bayou” in Cirsova #25 and another tale of justice served by my black-clad Navajo hero Chindi, “The Hangman’s E-String” in Go West #3. It is an honor to share space with such incredible writers in both magazines and it reminds me I’ve got plenty more stories to tell.

Most recently I’ve been able to share one of my great pride-and-joys: the first of two film scores from last year. David Alkhed’s short romantic drama Antagonist proved a most affecting muse and resulted in a humble salute to mid-century Italian film music. Grab it on Bandcamp and share it around if you dig the sound.

That’s all for now, as I’ve got plenty more where ALL of that came from.

As Always: May God Bless You & This Force!

WINTER ISSUE OUT NOW!

Five more wicked tales of hot-rodding, hog-riding hellions from the 25th century! The story of the 365th’s fight for freedom against the electric tyranny of A.C.E.S. and her cybernetic hellhole Haven continues! Get yours today!

UPDATES

Now for the real meat and potatoes: where have I been, where’s the new Firedale, and why has the Quarterly taken so long? To answer all these questions and more is quite simple: I was out sick for the better part of two months.

Just when I thought I was out of December’s woods with all the crap that kept me from getting the Winter issue finished at all, January doubled-down and kicked my ass. I won’t go into the exact details of my condition because I prefer to keep those private, but let’s just say there was a good chance that I wouldn’t be here to write to you at all had things taken one more wrong turn.

The good news: what I’m dealing with is treatable and I’m taking to it like a duck to water. I’m feeling much more like my old, over-productive self again which is a hell of a relief. It’s going to take time, and there are things I’ll be living with for the rest of my life, but I should be able to kick out of it alright. Needless to say, it was a shock to the system in every sense going through what I had, including an extended hospital stay throughout the length of February.

During all of this, my brain was absolutely shot. I couldn’t create, I couldn’t focus, and even the most menial tasks were impossible to belly up to. So needless to say, that’s why none of the usual accessories to the Winter issue started appearing until recently.

That said, there are some serious changes I’m making around here in what shall be our final full year of storytelling. Here are those changes:

1. SCHEDULE — Because of the health woes, I’m pushing the whole schedule back one month. Our Spring issue will be arriving next month in April, Summer in July, and Autumn in October. This also means that the Winter issue will become our grand finale in January. More on that in due time.

2. ALAN FIREDALE — For the sake of sanity, I’ve held back Episode 12 of Alan Firedale for this coming Spring issue. It’s a wonderful story with some fresh twists on the formula that Brendan and I can’t wait to share with you. Honestly, I’m a bit grateful to have the extra time to ladle on some more TLC in my usual areas of production, including a rather lush musical score!

3. THE PAYWALL — Or rather its removal, because after some serious deliberation, I feel it’s time to retire the paid subscription service in its entirety. I never made that much from it and I don’t see the point in holding those who did contribute to an agreement that isn’t providing the same value-for-money it once did, especially in the project’s final year where all efforts will be put to sending the main series off in style. All previous paid content will be made FREE to all subscribers. Every flash story, every bonus collection, and yes, every episode of our exciting audio drama Alan Firedale.

Now for those who wish to support the series financially, you can still do it through all the usual channels. Buy our books on Amazon, grab yourself some sweet merch on Redbubble or Teepublic, and don’t forget to share us with your friends if you think they’ll dig some high-octane wolven sci-fi.

With this being our last full year, we got plenty of great stuff coming down the pipeline, including new releases, a proper launch for all our second editions, and our second-ever foray into the world of animation! More on all of this in due time as well. But for now, I thank you all for your patience and your support. Here’s to getting the New Year back on track! — Jake C.

Created by Jacob Calta

Art by Kevin John Jacob
Logos Designed by Kely Christmas
Additional Designs by Ben Rodriguez (@bar1scorpio), Moritz Kubald (@ruiningblueart), Spookitty & Andrew Clark (@TheAnimatedMoon)

Test Driver: K. Paul, Daniel Watts, & Frank Theodat

Conceptual Consultant: Theo Schaefer

Alan Firedale Audio Editor & Announcer: Brendan Rechnitzer

Generals: Weefy, BBP & M.F.R. (@PaladinDragoon)
Lieutenants: Dave Perlmutter

Special Thanks to Kit Sun Cheah, Rob Rimes, Joseph Wiess, Anthony Joseph Buffa, Erik Waag, Evaleigh, John A. Douglas, Mikhail J Clive, Detective Wolfman, Spenser Rudolph, D. Edward Lemmink, Gustavo A. Martinez, “Johnnie Walker,” HowlingFang, Ryan Maguire, Amos Lamb, Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, JVP Music, Salvestro, JD Cowan, ByteMapper, Cirsova, The Lord Otter, Nicky P from Iron Age Marketing, RazörFist, Richard from IronAge.Media, Royce from A Drink With Crazy, Daniel P. Riley, Retehi, & Temiree

NEW ISSUE! OUT NOW!

We’re back riding shotgun with the toughest hounds of the 25th century! Five more electrifying tales of dystopian action, mind-bending sci-fi, and good old fashioned pulp fun, plus the print debut of five fresh slices of flash fiction! Available on paperback and eBook!

Created by Jacob Calta

Art by Kevin John Jacob
Logos Designed by Kely Christmas
Additional Designs by Ben Rodriguez (@bar1scorpio), Moritz Kubald (@ruiningblueart), Spookitty & Andrew Clark (@TheAnimatedMoon)

Test Driver: K. Paul, Daniel Watts, & Frank Theodat

Conceptual Consultant: Theo Schaefer

Alan Firedale Audio Editor & Announcer: Brendan Rechnitzer

Generals: Weefy, BBP & M.F.R. (@PaladinDragoon)
Lieutenants: Dave Perlmutter

Special Thanks to Kit Sun Cheah, Rob Rimes, Joseph Wiess, Anthony Joseph Buffa, Erik Waag, Evaleigh, John A. Douglas, Mikhail J Clive, Detective Wolfman, Spenser Rudolph, D. Edward Lemmink, Gustavo A. Martinez, “Johnnie Walker,” HowlingFang, Ryan Maguire, Amos Lamb, Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, JVP Music, Salvestro, JD Cowan, ByteMapper, Cirsova, The Lord Otter, Nicky P from Iron Age Marketing, RazörFist, Richard from IronAge.Media, Royce from A Drink With Crazy, Daniel P. Riley, Retehi, & Temiree

GET THE LATEST IN WOLVEN SCI-FI TODAY!

The important news: 365 Infantry is being delayed for one more week, and will start running its Autumn 2025 issue on Monday, September 22nd. We’ve been here before, but not like this. I’m going to cut to the chase and speak without any of the ad-man frills:

I’m losing my will to write this series.

This isn’t a great thing to say as people are onboarding, this isn’t a great thing to say in your fourth year of publication, but as an artist first and a marketer second, it’s time to kick this elephant from out the corner and into the center of the room. I’ve already addressed the big picture concerns for 365 going forward as being part of my overall oeuvre as an artist, but this is something I can’t pawn off on my interest in other projects.

The reason why the new issue is getting kicked to next week is because of how it is affecting my production capacity with this series. I have 3/5 stories past the first draft phase with notes, and 2 tales remaining. It’s like pulling teeth, it’s felt impossible to get back inside the world, and it’s a miracle it hasn’t driven me to complete insomnia. Kevin’s done a phenomenal job on the art this issue, I await Brendan’s final mixdown of Alan Firedale for sound designing and scoring, work on our first proper short film is underway, but it all doesn’t mean shit if I don’t have actual stories to tell.

I’m over the fact that most of my readers do not say a goddamn word about what I make. I’m over the fact I can barely get a “buy, leave, or blow me” out of you people. I’m over the hill about prose as a niche in the modern day, I’m over the hill about what “the mainstream” wants, I’m over the hill that this series isn’t horny enough for your average furry and the mere presence of bipedal wolves sends genre fans screaming into the hills. I’ve got other stories in me, I’ve got other work to tend to, even other anthro stories I want to tell. Whatever the fuck this current audience is, I accept it for what it is and can only pray more people who actually want to engage this series will show up one day.

Part of this has been my undisciplined pinballing between projects, making it hard to make the space this series used to have acres of in my mind. Changing from series to series isn’t like flipping a switch, as much as I’d like it to be. Each world has its own unique vision and energy that you have to take time to pivot towards, and I just haven’t found my way back into the series proper. And to be frank, part of it is still the two-time failure of my crowdfunding campaigns. There’s nothing cute to say here; it sucks when you’re told by the public at-large, “your work isn’t worth the money.” It just sucks.

That rebuke combined with my present workload makes it feel like its completely futile to keep working on this series. It also doesn’t help that the internet is a uniquely miserable place to do business or passion projects on, and that it will more often than not throw absolute fuck-loads of atrocities and hair-triggers in your face than allow you a moment of reprieve from the day-to-day grind. This is a godawful racket that makes miserable people on the daily.

So the obvious question: why bother then? If you’re so damn fried, why bother?

Frankly, I don’t know. I know how this series ends, so the completionist in me would sooner chop his hands off than leave a job undone. On a more personal level, I love what this series has been for me in the past. This series has gotten me through some tough times and I owe it the dignity it deserves on that ground.

But the biggest reason for why I’m bothering at all is that not knowing. It’s the fact that this series could break open wider than the Western frontier. If I’ve got nothing to lose, if most of you don’t want to pipe up and say what about this series works and what doesn’t, this series is as good as a blank canvas. A blank canvas with a special set of tools mind you, but a blank canvas nonetheless. There’s room to do some real damage (complimentary) and make something that actually excites me. Maybe we play with structure more, maybe we introduce some real hairbrained shit.

Maybe I’m about to already.

Point is, y’all had your chance to make this consumer-friendly. Those of you who do come to me, sharing your thoughts, reviews, and ideas, you’re beautiful people and I cherish every line. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. It’s nice to have people who give enough of a shit to say something. You’re real ones for it.

To the folks around the globe who have likely stumbled upon this through stray searches and the algorithm gods, none of this concerns you as I was you once myself. Surfing the web and finding cool shit wherever it was. I’m honored I could be that for you and I hope this series has given you plenty of joy over the years as we near the end.

But to the rest of you.

To the rest of you who could have taken the time to comment a simple “wow, cool,” y’all blew it, your silence is a blank check, and now I’m gonna tear the roof of the fucker and see how it flies. You’ve been warned.

Only other housekeeping is to say is this: after taking a look at the paid subscriptions, I’m fully suspending Red Light Bytes. No newsletter, no new stories for the foreseeable future. If I barely have it in me to deliver the bare minimum, I don’t have anything extra left to give. You guys still have access to all of what’s already behind the paywall and your patronage is valued as it will help keep the project going throughout its final year. What flash stories we have from this year will go into the 2025 Annual Collection alongside the bonus story.

I do still have the editorial work to do on those official second editions of the 2022 and 2023 Annuals and Electric Anthology Vol. 1. I also still have assembly work to do on Electric Anthology Vol. 2. I’ll see about having things ready in time for a holiday rush, but no guarantees. I’m still giving the audiobook thought, and if that’s what finally takes the damn thing over the top, well a pox on me I guess.

There will be no “No. 14 Special” this time as I genuinely don’t know if I have the words in me to hype anything at this point. After the drop, I’ll send out periodic pushes for the Quarterly on Amazon via email, but you won’t hear from me until late in November when Issue 15 is in full swing. I’ll include a table of contents in the quarterly credits as substitute but that’s it. Otherwise, we’ll return next week on Monday. Be there or piss off.

GET THE LATEST IN WOLVEN SCI-FI TODAY!

Welcome back once again, friends! Now, those who’ve been with us for the past few years know I’m not afraid of the one-week delay if things are going south and the magazine’s quality is on the line. However, I don’t normally break out the gap week this early, but there are two good reasons for doing so:

1. NEW SCHEDULE — Going forward, 365 Infantry will drop during the third week of the month rather than the second. I’ve been doing it so damn often that I figured it’d probably be better to simply make it the new time than to keep desperately clinging to some frail idea of a perfect schedule. The work’s done when it’s done, and seeing as I’m now 0 for 2 on crowdfund campaigns, I think it’s clear I get to be about as precious as I wish with the series. It’s my passion project from here on out, and that’s the way it’ll stay until the end.

2. NEW ME — This is where I’m gonna have to ditch the list format and explain myself a bit…

This little gem of a piece I wrote during the first of two short film scoring assignments, the backup track for a house party sequence. I’ve never penned anything quite like it, and it came after two months of things I never quite thought would happen, happening.

Firstly, I’ve been published again! In fact, this seems to be the year of me being published all over the place.

• Mistcreek Tales #1 (Aug. 2025)

• Space Opera Stories Vol. 2 (Aug. 2025)

• ‘til Death Do Us Part (May 2025)

• Rock and Roll Mercenaries (May 2025)

• Go West: Frontier Adventures #2 (Apr. 2025)

I’ve penned tales of clashing swords, spaceship battles, Old West retribution and more, on top of some incredibly rewarding stories ripped from the world of Haven and the Wastelands.

Secondly, my tastes have been changing. No, this isn’t the classic tale of “hair metal” being made passé by grunge, only for that to OD in the corner and give birth to modern radio rock. I would be as much a hipster ass-hat for abandoning my love of classic metal as I was for snubbing the fruits of grunge, shoegaze, and the New Rock Revolution because I decided to get my teenaged opinions from others instead of growing a pair and owning my tastes.

No, this change of pace is the end result of me trying new things, enjoying them, and welcoming them into my increasingly eclectic fold. I’ve found myself falling in love with films I didn’t think I’d ever enjoy like Blade Runner 2049. I finally broke my long-standing fast from Mad Max: Fury Road and loved it (though that wasn’t really a leap of faith on my part judging by my work here, was it?). I’ve been delighting in books I hadn’t gotten around to, and finding genuine merit in art that—while not written off—I hadn’t thought much of even in my defense of it. Yes, I am that Great Gatsby-reading, Nirvana-blasting, 12 Angry Men-watching, Rothko-studying sonofabitch all your favorite right-wing tut-tutters warned you about and I’m loving every second.

But I’m also deepening my love of Walter Hill and his brilliant brand of American masculinity in genre cinema. Even my tepid response to 1984’s Streets of Fire last year has improved substantially after pairing it with the 1979 classic The Warriors. Also didn’t hurt that I washed it down a month later with the killer crime flick The Driver, itself now in my Top 100 of All-Time. I’ve also been digging up heaps of killer deep cuts from the world of 80s metal and electronica. If y’all ain’t heard ZAR yet, drop everything you’re doing and crank this shit up:

And if Lucifer’s Friend John Lawton and ZAR aren’t your cup of tea, try the AOR of a supergroup-free John Wetton on for size:

Didn’t mean for the crossfire theme to double up there, that’s just luck of the draw.

But speaking of music! While I’m starting to make softer rock in my DAW, I’ve also been learning a few other neat tricks:

Chiptunes, baby! And legit ones too thanks to the Genny VST giving me the 16-bit superpowers I’ve been wanting since high school. You have no idea the funk that’s been unleashed upon this world thanks to these tools. Funk that’s gonna be put to very good use in the not-too-distant future...

The big picture point is this: I’m expanding in all directions. I’ve got my old loves I cherish and my new loves I’m fostering. I’ve got film projects back on the table alongside Wild Eye Archive (still coming soon), new music I’m writing, and a comical amount of shit behind-the-scenes on everything from the sword-and-sorcery world of Battleborn to good-old Go West and beyond.

Now, what the hell does all this have to do with 365 Infantry?

Simple: its purpose in my life.

I’m no longer in a place where 365 is my only purebred creative outlet. It never was, but it always bore the brunt of being my “vision statement.” I approached this series as an Artist with a capital A.

Was I an indie author? Yes.

Was I a multitasking freak of nature? Certainly.

But above all else, I treated this series as my creative playground and a place where some of my most personal thoughts came out. They made their veiled appearances in storylines such as The Hunt or the pointed desert politics of “Madhound Theory” from last year. They’re baked into this denim-and-leather world I cooked up all those years ago. I can call it pulp all I like, but it was never purebred, Street-&-Smith-worthy stuff. Nor was it bona fide New Wave cut from the Ellison-sanctioned cloth of Dangerous Visions. It was as all my favorite works are: amalgamations of everything I had in me at the time.

The problem is that so many of my current muses, ideas, and fascinations do not fit what 365 is. They cannot be crowbarred into the world the way I tried with surfing in “Beats A Wave Pool” or model railroading in “Tin Plate Alley.” Because of its retrofuture conceit, I can’t really address the state of today that—for the first time in my actual, honest-to-God life—I finally feel ready and willing to address in some literary-minded humorist prose (if not in my cinema just yet). It’s not that I lack the ability to do any of these things with the necessary finesse, but that I don’t think they should be footnotes to what we’ve built here, nor should I be muddying up the crystal-clear aesthetic and thematic vision I’ve had for this series since the get-go.

I know where the series’ overarching story ends. I know which stepping stones to put in place, stepping stones that’ll be falling into place sooner than I expected. I also know what blank spots to take advantage of for when I return to the series down the road. The gaps in time I can call on when, for old time’s sake, Annual Collections can become just plain-old Annuals. Anthologies packed with previously untold tales of Gibson, Knox, Lita and all the rest, as well as the offbeat speculative fiction and comics that’ve made stories like “The Sabbath of J.F. Kwan” personal favorites of anything I’ve ever written.

Point is: without the piss-and-vinegar of my long-since spoiled undergrad experience coursing through my veins and without the weight of my entire artistic process resting on this project’s shoulders, I’m taking another week on 365 Infantry because I need to know what the hell this series means to me now. I need to know why it is I’m still writing it, and I don’t have any slick advertiser truisms left to hoodwink me into faking that faith. I know it’s not for nothing; frighteningly specific fortune cookies do not lie. But I need to know now, more than ever, what it stands for in my body of work.

If you’re feeling up to it, let me know what 365 Infantry means to you in the comments below. But as always:

May God Bless You & This Force.

BACK IN ACTION & RIDING HIGH!

Five more wicked tales of hot-rodding, hog-riding hellions from the 25th century! The story of the 365th's fight for freedom against the electric tyranny of A.C.E.S. and her cybernetic hellhole Haven continues, jam-packed with twists galore, exciting illustrations, character profiles, and more! Enter a new era with General Knox, fight the electric hoards with Valentina & Her Pack, ride shotgun on a city-wide scream with Lita! All that and more awaits! Available now on paperback ($4.99) and eBook ($0.99)!

GET THE BEST IN WOLVEN SCI-FI TODAY!

Created by Jacob Calta

Art by Kevin John Jacob
Logos Designed by Kely Christmas
Additional Designs by Ben Rodriguez (@bar1scorpio), Moritz Kubald (@ruiningblueart), Spookitty & Andrew Clark (@TheAnimatedMoon)

Test Driver: K. Paul, Daniel Watts, & Frank Theodat

Conceptual Consultant: Theo Schaefer

Alan Firedale Audio Editor & Announcer: Brendan Rechnitzer

Generals: Weefy, BBP & M.F.R. (@PaladinDragoon)
Lieutenants: Dave Perlmutter

Special Thanks to Kit Sun Cheah, Rob Rimes, Joseph Wiess, Anthony Joseph Buffa, Erik Waag, Evaleigh, John A. Douglas, Mikhail J Clive, Detective Wolfman, Spenser Rudolph, D. Edward Lemmink, Gustavo A. Martinez, “Johnnie Walker,” HowlingFang, Ryan Maguire, Amos Lamb, Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, JVP Music, Salvestro, JD Cowan, ByteMapper, Cirsova, The Lord Otter, Nicky P from Iron Age Marketing, RazörFist, Richard from IronAge.Media, Royce from A Drink With Crazy, Daniel P. Riley, Retehi, & Temiree

22 HOURS LEFT! BACK NOW!

OVERVIEW

Next week will see the launch of our 13th issue of 365 Infantry! Such an auspicious event—filled only with the luckiest of charms—is being marked by a return to our creative roots. A deft blend of white-knuckled action and surreal concepts across five exceptional stories and one of (stop me if you’ve heard this before) my top favorite episodes of our dear little radio series yet.

As always, this will be your best hub for exploring the digital zine as when stories start rolling out Monday, June 9th. Let’s dive in!

365 INFANTRY #13: What To Expect

THE WAR: Angel’s Dawn — Having recovered from his assassination attempt and assured that the Black Country are no longer an active threat, General Knox is making a few changes in his life. He’s romancing Captain Atlanta Westley, drawing up plans for the final invasion, and in Am Base Alpha, he’s building something very special. A Porsche 356, exactly like his late wife Angel’s car. A car that’s about to get a hell of a workout when a probe from Haven starts wreaking havoc on the Outpost network…

THE HUNT: Melee — Val and The Pack take apart their captured Gladi-Model to learn its secrets. While the Colosseum’s true location eludes them, what doesn’t is hell the disjointed machine brings down upon them. A signal is sent, and heeding its call are the terrible agents of these horrific games. It’s time for the fighters to test their mettle against the fates they’ve evaded for so long!

THE URBAN AVENGER: Streetsweep — To complete the Avenger’s Creed, Lita enlists the help of a street-racing team to play security for the organization. What no one suspects is their first trial-by-fire when A.C.E.S. breaks out the big guns in a big way. The crusty old autocops are evolving!

THE SPEEDFREAK FILES: Back To Basics — During a dive-bar gig for Metröpolis, Nic discovers none other than rock-n-roll legend The Duke having a bourbon in a quiet corner of the bar. The beloved artist vanished years ago, but not without good reason. Good reasons that come to haunt him that very night. It’s up to Nic and the Boys to protect their hero from certain death!

TALES FROM THE FRONT LINE: Cherokee Gold — Buck Sterling loves telling his pups about his wild adventures as young hound about the desert. Tonight, he tells a tale of digging for gold and escaping greedy bandits on one wild drive!

ALAN FIREDALE: Red-Hot Rails — Alan Firedale takes Golden Cloud on her first true train ride while helping out a local historical society. Little does he know how lucky driver Frank Benson and his beloved express will need the dynamic duo when ruthless scrap bandits lay eyes on the antique steam engine!

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FROM THE MAGAZINE

Our latest issue will feature all five of our exciting prose stories, Kevin John Jacob’s striking half-page comics, and exclusive character profiles. For the bonus article, we will be producing an updated version of our 2023 piece “Drawn & Quartered: The Art of 365 Infantry.” Here, we will be reflecting on the stylistic origins of the series, how the project’s look evolved through various collaborations, as well as our new approach of incorporating mini-comics.

Whether it sinks or swims, backers of our Ride for 2025 campaign will be the first to get digital copies of the Quarterly and a free MP3 of the new Alan Firedale. There’s still time to get in on the action, so don’t delay and BACK TODAY! As always:

May God Bless You & This Force. Rock On, Hellions!

BACK THE KICKSTARTER

We are in the home-stretch of this, and yes, we’re still under our goal. And I’m going to get blunt: with roughly 700 of you beautiful bastards, what we’d need is 154 of you to grab our physical-tier of the 2024 Annual Collection to help us make it happen. For our American readers, that’s $20 USD total (shipping & fees included). For our international readers, that’s $35 USD (again, shipping & fees included).

For a collection of over 20 stories with striking comic art, a fresh take on post-apocalyptic worlds, and a huge cast of playful, rough-riding characters, that’s a steal by any definition. From our favoritest hippie-punk maniac Lita in The Urban Avenger to the stone-cold revelations about General Adam Knox in “The Day Knox Died,” this collection represents some of the best the series has to offer. But to sweeten that deal, what I’ll do for you is this: I’ve cut the price on the 2024 Annual Physical Deluxe tier, so you’re getting our first-ever audiobook FOR FREE.

Now the recording and assembling of this audiobook will still take time (hence why the “Physical Deluxe” tier is slated for December 2025), but paperback editions of the book will still be ready to ship the second the funds are cleared. We’re taking our sweet time as well because you are getting a full recording of every story from the collection with original music interludes.

Whether you order the “2024 Annual Physical” or “2024 Annual Physical Deluxe,” the audiobook is yours for FREE. I’ve got to get back to getting our Summer 2025 issue on order, but in the meantime, help us take this campaign over the top. We’ve got ONE WEEK to make some magic happen, and I know you’ve got it in you.

Next week, we’ve got our No. 13 Special, revealing all the latest about the stories yet to be told in our latest issue. We’ve got some wilder tales on offer, as well as some old-school, ass-kicking action! If you need to get caught up on the series, don’t forget to check out our brand-new 365 Infantry Primer, a video series exploring all the basics of our pulp-slinging project.

Either way, you better be there or be squared, hellions, ‘cuz we don’t stop for shit ‘round here! As always: May God Bless You & This Force! — Jake C.

GRAB A BOOK ON KICKSTARTER!

Today we play favorites with our wide array of stories and heroes. Who's my favorite character to write for? What's my personal favorite story? Why DO I keep doing this to myself? All those answers and more in tonight's epic finale to the 365 INFANTRY PRIMER!

After taking its sweet time rendering, here it is! Our last episode in the series. It’s been a long, hard fought process (even for the smaller videos) but I’m honestly grateful for the experience and for now having such an exhaustive resource for newcomers. I’ll be making a formal post here on Substack that will be pinned to The Blog tab, but for those who may have missed a few episodes, we do have a handy-dandy playlist with all episodes in their proper order. We may do an 80-minute supercut for algorithm purposes, but for the time being, that’s the best way to binge the Primer!

And in more surprising news, we have TWELVE DAYS LEFT! My how time flies, but there’s still plenty to make your pledge and help keep the Force riding high for the rest of 2025! If you’re new around here, our “Recruitment Package” has our first two years of adventures all at one great price, whether for eBooks or paperback editions. For those seasoned readers, why not grab a subscription to our 365 Quarterly and follow along with the series as it drops?

There’s plenty of great options…

Let’s take it over the top, hellions! Have a killer weekend.

BACK THE KICKSTARTER!

BACK THE KICKSTARTER!

We get asked a lot of questions about 365 Infantry. Old favorites like "what are you inspired by," "why wolves," and "have you gone completely mad?" Today we address some of them in the first of a surprise two-part FAQ finale to our Primer series! This became a two-parter because I wound up answering a whole half-hour more answering questions and the visualizer render times would’ve meant dropping this at two in the morning (hence the slight delay tonight).

I’m still counting them all as Episode 8 because they cover the same topic, so we’ll be bring it all home FRIDAY!

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UPDATES

To all the bad enough dudes who backed the Babylon White campaign, your perks are in the inbox. For those who missed out…hit up the link at the top of the page. Our “Recruitment Package” tier and our “Alan Firedale's Greatest Hits!” add-on mirror those perks, just with different exclusives to our campaign.

Speaking of, Episode 10 of Alan Firedale has been recorded and is in the capable hands of our editor Brendan Rechnitzer! Had a blast recording this story, and may have shredded my throat with some of the hooting and hollering. All I'll say is I hope y'all are ready to ride the rails in this latest adventure starring our favorite rebellious red wolf and his honey of a hot rod! The rest of our stories will be following suit as he let our test drivers put them through the ringer. Kevin’s still cooking on the art but I do have another rough sheet I wanted to share:

In this story, the boys find themselves in the company of a Wasteland rock legend who has more to him than just some dusty old gold records. This story in particular aims to blend the music and the crimefighting in a whole new way. Similar to 2023’s “Rivals Ride Shotgun” but with a unique dimension thanks to our guest character this quarter. Speaking of rock-n-roll…

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Yes friends, they’ve set the beast free! From Mistcreek Publishing comes Rock and Roll Mercenaries, a new anthology pulling 15 tuneful tales melding flights of fantasy with monstrous music. Featuring yours truly with the story “An Airbrushed Odyssey,” a tale of a seasoned cover artist and the mystical secrets of his success, alongside fellow pulp-slingers like , , John A. Pretorious among many others. Mad props to N.R. LaPoint for bringing me in on this and rumor has it a paperback version is well on its way. Stay tuned!

Wild Eye Archive

WILD EYE WEEKLY (5/19/2025)

Welcome to Wild Eye Weekly. The place where old and new, popular and rare, and all shades between are welcome. This week is a little of Column A, a little of Column B. Above all else, we’re playing it cool. Have this one on the rocks. — Jake C…

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a year ago · 1 like · Jacob Calta

Otherwise, we’ve also got this week’s Wild Eye Weekly, drinking from the refreshing well of cool with salutes to everything from arthouse action classic Drive to the majesty of Miles Davis!

Other than that, the band plays on and so do we. As always:

May God Bless You & This Force. See ya Friday!

ROCK THE CASBAH, HELLIONS!

BACK THE KICKSTARTER!

PREVIOUSLY ON THE 365 PRIMER…

1. OVERVIEW

2. THE WAR

3. THE HUNT

4. THE URBAN AVENGER

5. THE SPEEDFREAK FILES

6. TALES FROM THE FRONT LINES

From the world of Wasteland radio comes a thrilling new character to entertain generations to come! Created by writer "Stan Winshaw," we welcome you to the one-hound storytelling show where cars can think and danger lurks around every corner. All in another exciting adventure from "ALAN FIREDALE: DESERT DELINQUENT!"

Born from a college assignment and ferried throughout a tumultuous time in my life, this little radio show afforded me the luxury to indulge in all the absurdities and charm old-time radio had to offer, from our fun-loving dynamic duo to the wild plots they played out. Writing, recording and scoring the adventures of the rebellious red wolf Alan and his high-tech honey of a hot rod Golden Cloud always makes my day, week, and month! We have two free episodes available for you to try and to see the series evolve.

Click here to listen to “Flames Along The Homeland”

Click here to listen to “Devil’s Gold”

We are working on remastering our older episodes to fit with our current production style and look forward to sharing those soon. In the meantime, if you want access to the entire Firedale archive, our white-label subscription tiers start at $50 USD on Kickstarter and come with heap of other bonuses from across the entire series. With Amazon bringing the blade down on our low prices, the deals we’re offering on Kickstarter are a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Get ‘em while you can, hellions!

SUPPORT THE FORCE ON KICKSTARTER!

NEXT WEEK: LAST EPISODE! Our FAQ Finale!

Leave Your Questions in the Comments Below!

BACK TODAY ON KICKSTARTER!

I’m fronting the bad news today because this effects 365 Infantry a great deal. In my on-going quest to deliver quality, pulp-era entertainment at true pulp prices, a new challenger has arrived: Amazon operating costs.

While this wouldn’t seem to be that hefty a cut, what it has done is nullified the profitability of the 365 Infantry Quarterly in several regions, including the United Kingdom and Australia, and shaved our main American market down to as little as 20-cents/book. It may also eat into the profits on our Annual Collections as well. I’ll be spending some serious time deliberating on how to adjust pricing across all our titles, but what it does also mean is this: I need The Ride for 2025 to do well. And I mean very well.

I need it do well for YOU.

This will be your LAST CHANCE to get the kind of low prices I’ve been offering for the past two years. After this, the party’s over and I’ve got to figure out how to balance my goal of affordable entertainment with the current economic climate.

Because I’m fulfilling this campaign through the author’s copy function in KDP (print cost + shipping and taxes), this will be the most money I’ll be able to make per title during this change. That’s money being put back into the series, its art, its bonus materials, everything. Whether you’re just joining us and want to give the series a try or you’re a longtime fan who’s been with us from the beginning, I NEED YOU to help take this campaign to the next level.

The good news is that this shakeup doesn’t effect sales of eBooks. The better news is that you actually own what you buy from me directly, unlike when you “purchase a digital license” from Kindle. So even if you can’t give much, our $3 Quarterly tier will still help make a huge difference in keeping this series riding high. If you want to go above and beyond, our range of stylish paperback collections and digest magazines are worth their weight in gold with how many exhilarating stories of courage, bravery and hellraising fun they’re filled with.

Nowhere else can find our brand of heavy metal science fiction, led by our badass pack of hardened wolves, and nowhere else can you get deals this good!

Should this campaign succeed, going forward I will honor every single backer in a permanent space in our quarterly credits and acknowledgements. Your name etched into every single book we make going forward as one of the intrepid soldiers who helped the Force take all in the The Ride for 2025. Every annual collection, every magazine issue.

Everything from a $1 donation to a $120 Top Brass subscription will be honored, so ACT NOW to secure you’re name in the Base’s Hall of Fame. We need you on the frontlines now more than ever! ENDS JUNE 5!

Now, speaking of frontlines…

DON'T DELAY, BACK TODAY!

NEW PRIMER: TALES FROM THE FRONT LINES

Action, crime, romance! The lone anthology within the five-prong attack leaves many opportunities for special stories to be told in the world of 365 INFANTRY. Their given name: "TALES FROM THE FRONT LINES!"

Listen on to learn more about why I keep this potpourri of storytelling in play and some of the series most special stories. A friendly reminder that this year’s offerings in the series are part of a project called Wasteland Warriors, chronicling tall tales from across the desert. First story “Acid Arrows” starring J.B. Marshall received a wonderful review from in his DREAD Reviews series.

Favorite line: “He’s that one rugged uncle you probably know at the family reunion, complete with a doe-eyed Dodge truck that’s got more personality in it than your half of the Thanksgiving cast.” Absolutely killed me when I read it.

UPDATES

Production on the series itself is chugging along nicely. Goal is to have Alan Firedale recorded and off to our crack editor Brendan Rechnitzer later this week, and to have stories off to our test driving team shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, Kevin John Jacob has pulled through with roughs of everything, and one very special piece I just had to share:

There’s a reason this man has been with us since the beginning. When he’s good, he’s goddamn-right on the money. I’ll be keeping the details tight to the chest on the meaning of these stories, but know that they will be a little more introspective while still maintain that driving action style…

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Friend of the Force has finally launched his Space Opera Stories fundraiser, so for the newbies not too sure about the whole wolf thing, here’s your chance to read a story by me that’s all about people.

Or rather an Earthling, a Venusian, and a sentient off-roading buggy. But now I’m just getting ahead of myself!

Each of the four volumes is packed with six riveting tales (yours truly features in Volume 2: Alien Invasion) featuring the tremendous talents of writers like B. Harlan Crawford, Andrew Darlington, Angelique Fawns, Matthew Ross and many more. Each also feature a punchy little cover by the great Jason J. McCuiston, perfectly capturing that pure pulp spirit. Campaign ends JUNE 12!

New episode of On The Culture’s Crest dropped last week, with Richard and I focusing our attention on the expansive, lucrative and controversial world of video games! Always available on YouTube, Transistor.fm, and your podcasting platform of choice!

Wild Eye Archive

WILD EYE WEEKLY (5/12/2025)

Welcome to Wild Eye Weekly. This week’s a little different because last week was a little different. All the same, what we have here is sure to intrigue. Enjoy. — Jake C…

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a year ago · 2 likes · Jacob Calta

Lastly, we’re continuing to chug along with work on Wild Eye Archive. This week’s edition runs a wild gamut from talking about Bo Burnham’s 2021 postmodern comedy special Inside to the depraved depths of NYC’s 42nd Street!

Other than that, the band plays on and so do we. As always:

May God Bless You & This Force. See ya Friday!

BACK OUR KICKSTARTER!

PREVIOUSLY ON THE 365 PRIMER…

1. OVERVIEW

2. THE WAR

3. THE HUNT

4. THE URBAN AVENGER

Today we journey into our other sideshow, a metallic western series starring three tough hombres who slay crooks by day and shred by night. The baddest Hell Patrolmen the Wastelands have ever known, as told in "THE SPEEDFREAK FILES!"

This series.

This. SERIES.

One of my all-time personal favorite to write for. The kind of anarchic genre-mashing I commit all across 365 INFANTRY is honed to a fine point as we take equal inspiration from Old Western lawmen, a slice of rock-n-roll life, and pure grindhouse violence to weave a uniquely off-the-wall project. Lead by heroes just this side of sadistic, but always with a righteous cause at their back, if there was ever a reason to read what we’ve done here, I would hang the project’s hat on Speedfreak Files. If you like what you’re hearing the Primer, get started with our “Recruitment Package” tier on Kickstarter and bring home the first two years of Nic, Harry & Rory’s kickass adventures!

JOIN THE FORCE ON KICKSTARTER!

NEXT WEEK: Tales From The Front Line & Alan Firedale: Desert Delinquent!

P.S. — This week’s paid subscriber story will go up TOMORROW. Couldn’t catch an idea to save my life today and I don’t pump these stories out absent-minded. Thanks for your patience, Soldier! Will see you then.

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When the chips are down and justice is nowhere to be found, one wicked bitch and her souped-up Bug are always there to make things right. Join us as we explore the manic world of a true-blue cyberpunk, for Lita is "THE URBAN AVENGER!"

One of our pride-and-joy projects here at HQ, it was fun taking the time to revisit the rogues gallery of influences and the character’s unique blend of hippie-punk madness. If there was ever a testament to our love of genre-blending, episodic insanity, Lita and her escapades are Exhibit A, every time!

In series news, Kevin is cooking up the Summer 2025 artwork as we speak. We’re going to be playing around our series’ visual style while maintaining that special blend of American flair and manga design. We’ll update you with sketches the second they hit my digital desk.

On the writing front, I’ll cop to the fact I’ve been looking for a hook. I don’t explicitly write each issue with a unique theme in mind, but I do often overlap elements from one story to another. This is most evident in the way we trade off from Lita and Nic’s love affairs all the way back in Winter 2022, allowing the action from the Urban Avenger story to flow almost seamlessly into the Speedfreak File story for that issue.

This issue’s directive won’t be that binding. This issue’s directive is as follows:

SHOOT STRAIGHT.

I want to go whole-hog in on the kind of white-knuckle, whip-smart action that I love in my pulps. The kinds of fights, chases, and purebred fun I look for in this branch of genre fiction. Whether its how I’ll poor Val out of the jam I left her in at the end of “Fire Tests The Gold” or the heap of trouble I’m about to drop on Knox and the gang, Summer 2025 will be one piping-hot adrenaline shot, right in the veins. As good ol’ Commander Shore from Stingray would say:

We’ll let you know what does.

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This week will be a little more lax, but not without some hot properties.

Up for digital preorder is Rock and Roll Mercenaries: A Pulp Rock Anthology. Fifteen (count ‘em, 15) electrifying tales of killer music meeting killer worlds and wild fantasies. Featuring yours truly alongside a heap of headliners, including the likes of JD Cowan, Erik Waag, TJ Marquis, Milton Lane and ringleader NR LaPoint among many others. Brand-new from Mistcreek Publishing, the book drops on May 21st!

Two projects I’ve been commissioned by in the past I decided to drop last Friday for Bandcamp Friday. But even if the sales window is gone, the EPs live on, both going for $3 USD/album.

For fantastical orchestral music, check out my collab with the Crytures TTRPG.

For slick synthwave and bizarro funk, check out my collab with JD Cowan’s Phantom Mission and Psycho Mission! You can read those on his Patreon.

And lastly, we’re easing into work on Wild Eye Archive with our weekly curated newsletter. For killer deep cuts and cool classics, join us over on our Substack. This week featured a prog rock classic, an underrated spy drama, and a slick new skate video!

Wild Eye Archive

WILD EYE WEEKLY (5/5/2025)

Welcome to Wild Eye Weekly. Arranged for Your Delectation. Recommendations from the World of Cinema, Song, Skating & More. Enjoy. — Jake C…

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a year ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Jacob Calta

Other than that, the band plays on and so do we. As always:

May God Bless You & This Force. See ya Friday!

SUPPORT THE FORCE ON KICKSTARTER!

PREVIOUSLY ON THE 365 PRIMER…

1. OVERVIEW

2. THE WAR

The survivors of a surreal torture scheme unite to rediscover their prison's location and destroy it once and for all! Learn about these unique heroes and their bizarre plight in our peplum-flavored adventure serial THE HUNT!

One of our most special series, inspired by my own difficulties in college, but under the thick veneer of a sword-and-sandal-meets-cyberpunk framework, delving into a unique cadre of characters as they work together to put an end to the horrors that haunt them.

If that sounds cool to you, we got plenty of stories for you to get caught up over on Kickstarter! The 365 Infantry Annual Collections come in extra-handy with this series as each installment covers a specific leg of the journey!

JOIN THE FORCE ON KICKSTARTER!

NEXT WEEK: The Urban Avenger & The Speedfreak Files. A Match Made in Hell!

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After a long and hard battle with the effects chain in my editing suite, we are proud to present our more stripped-back but just as informative introduction to the first of our five branches in 365 INFANTRY: THE WAR. Our latest affair covers everything from the brave wolves fighting on the frontlines to series inspirations and the original vision for it. I enjoyed taking a more conversational approach to the subject, and I hope you enjoy it as well. That said, if you got questions about the series, its lore, or specific stories, we got answers! Ask them in the comments below. Coming up on Friday will be our third episode devoted to THE HUNT.

For the sake of sanity, I’ll postpone the story intended for last Friday and will make it up later in the year. Given all the plates in the air, I think it’s best to stick with one-per-week

Progress on Summer 2025 has been somewhat slow. Our main goal is finalizing designs for the five art sheets this issue as well as getting the stories written. Coming off of Spring 2025 which crystallized many changes to the status quo, I want to lean more into the series roots. Straight-ahead, character-fueled action aiming to salute our roots in everything from Blade Runner to Mad Max to Cannon-era Death Wish and beyond. On the art side, however, I want to try some very different things than what we’ve done before. Still in the spirit of the series and its pulp/underground comic origins, but we’re going to play around with aesthetics in a big way.

One inspiration in particular (though we’ll stick to black-and-white, thank you) is comic legend Jim Steranko’s striking adaptation of 1981’s Outland.

The lighting in this man’s work is unhinged in its brilliants. Contrast you could cut yourself on, and enough intersecting linework to qualify as honorary crosshatching. I’m not sure if the direction will be this dense with detail, but the goal will be for it to pop off the page. Stay tuned for more as things develop…

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ICYMI

I’ve actually got three big releases to talk about at the moment and I’ll make the pitch brief on all of them. First up, Episode 2 of On The Culture’s Crest went up a few weeks back. In our sophomore outing, Richard and I cover the unique state of modern music, its future in the atomized age of streaming, and how the medium has always been one step ahead of the rest of art and entertainment.

Available on YouTube, Transistor.fm, and your favorite podcasting places!

Also of note recently was the release of Go West #2! 15 sensational slices of Old West action, romance and suspense and a killer comic too! Featuring fantastic illustrations, real Old West history, and contributions from the likes of Bill Willingham (Fables, Elementals), Kevin Seccia, (The Great North), Sascha Ciezata (The Hippie Hunter), and many more, including another tale of the mysterious Chindi from yours truly!

Available now on Amazon.

And lastly, starting Monday, I’m officially opening the floodgates of art and entertainment history with Wild Eye Archive. Production has officially begun on our first videos, and the forthcoming month will see weekly curations here on Substack. Learn more about the project in our debut post!

Wild Eye Archive

WELCOME To Wild Eye Archive

We live in a world packed to the gills with everything. We have access to nearly everything mankind has ever made or known at the touch of a button. Naturally, when it comes time to sort the wheat from the chaff, to make that ever infamous choice of what to watch/read/listen to, it isn’t surprising many seize up and default to doom-scrolling and mindles…

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a year ago · 7 likes · 1 comment · Jacob Calta

Other than that, the band plays on and so do we. As always:

May God Bless You & This Force. See ya Friday!

HELP US STAY WINNING ON KICKSTARTER!

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We at 365 Infantry are proud to present the first in our Primer series, a collection of videos where we take a moment to explore the world and characters of 365 Infantry and introduce them in a way to help new readers learn the ropes. Today, we’re taking a broad-strokes look at the five core series and our special audio program, but through a very different lens than usual: we’re gonna let the Neon Goddess herself take the wheel.

Comb through the Artificially Controlled Eco-System’s databases and learn about the key players in the four storylines and other adventures that make up this exciting sci-fi series!

UPDATES

This took…much longer than anticipated. I lay the delays squarely at the feet of ambition meeting my editing software. For that I do apologize. In fact, the circus of assembling this special introductory episode has changed several things about how I want to approach the remainder of the series, and that will demand a rearranging of the schedule. Here are the new rules:

• The Primers will drop every Wednesday and Friday, starting April 30th.

• Red Light Bytes will carry in its usual formats.

• Wednesday posts and the Friday Primer will drop around 4 PM EST

• The Friday Red Light Bytes story will drop around noon, 12 PM EST

This will be for the sake of making room for work on the series, the Primer videos, as well as my other projects like Wild Eye Archive. As always, I thank you so very much for you patience and I hope you enjoy the first of what will be a very unique series. We’ll see you next week!

The 365 INFANTRY Primer

Created by Jacob Calta

Illustrated by Kevin John Jacob

Attribution: Sci-fi Laboratory Ambience by Iwan Gabovitch under CC-BY 3.0 License with sounds by wolick, swiftoid, Diboz via Freesound

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I’ll keep the post lean and mean because everything you need to know is in that Kickstarter, but the long-and-short: The Ride for 2025 is BACK!

We’ve done some whittling to the main goal, expanded our fundraising window and reshaped our offerings accordingly. We’ve still got great bundles of our back catalogue and brand-new titles, including the debut of our second flash collection, The Electric Anthology Vol. 2! Everything from our official second editions of the 2022 and 2023 Annual Collections to physical magazine subscriptions for the rest of the year! And best of all, everyone who backs this campaign gets them FIRST! We’re hoarding ‘em like gas in a Mad Max movie!

For those who have been keeping score at home with my updates, there are some housekeeping items I do want to make note of:

1. Audiobook(s) — I’ve learned that a dash of pragmatism goes a long way, and readings of such a prolific series are a major undertaking. So I’ve opted to start small by just recording the 2024 Annual Collection. Available in select tiers, this will be a reading of all 20+ stories in the collection, and will put yours truly through his paces with such a varied cast! If I can nail this, going back to the previous two years will be a cinch. Updates on progress will be made throughout the campaign.

2. Shipping — All physical books will be shipped directly from Amazon via KDP and all merch orders direct from Teepublic. This has not only been a cost-cutting measure (seeing as we’re a small outfit still), but has also aided me in more accurately assessing shipping costs. I’ve had to get very choosy with my international backers, unfortunately, as some tiers would be dwarfed by the combined international shipping rates and country-dependent Value Added Tax (VAT). All physical quarterly subscriptions are USA-only, as are the “Both Barrels” tier and the “Flashback” add-on.

3. The Primers — Goal is to space this out in a way that won’t drive me up a wall, as again, I must slowly learn that I’m not Lord King of All Creation. Sad. Our first episode, “Overview & FAQ” will aim to debut on Wednesday, April 23rd, and we hope to have two episodes a week going out Mondays and Wednesdays thereafter. We will be covering all five series, their sets of characters, inspirations, trivia and more, as well as Alan Firedale: Desert Delinquent.

The rest is all on Kickstarter. We need your help gang, now more than ever. If you can’t grab a subscription or paperback collection, we’ve got DRM-free digital offerings. If you don’t have the spare change (believe me, I get it!), please share this campaign with anyone and everyone you know who might enjoy this series and can help pitch in. Let’s make this a real killer of a campaign! Back us TODAY and we’ll catch ya this Friday with our first paid story of April.

As always: May God Bless You & This Force.

FOLLOW OUR KICKSTARTER!

Greetings again, hellions! As promised, here we are on Wednesday with the first in our weekly newsletters going forward. After trying to “spread the wealth” last year with 3 posts/week, I’ve decided to settle on just doing one newsletter and one story each week. Part of it is because of changes to my schedule and workload elsewhere explained in a Monday email to our subscribers. The other is staving off the issue of burnout I’ve struggled with in building up this series.

I’m at a point where I’m comfortable “letting go” of 365 Infantry. Not in the sense I would just drop it on a whim to chase some shiny new toy, but that I’m not putting all my eggs into this project’s basket. I love it dearly, I love the purpose it gave me at a uniquely infuriating time in my life, but I’m comfortable letting it ride out on its own without me jamming it into everything I do. There will be cross-promotion, of course, but I will be keeping 365 separate from certain projects, and vice versa. I’m a creative of many talents and many interests, and I can’t think of a better time than my 20s to pursue all-and-sundry until one fully takes off. Maybe my revived YouTube channel, maybe my films, my other writings. Hell, maybe 365 finally explodes!

Point is, I’m both confident and at peace with this project’s place in my life and I am plenty comfortable letting it grow on its own alongside my other pursuits.

This new Red Light Byte format (complete with a smoking-new thumbnail) will mainly focus on news regarding series developments, my work on other writing projects, cross-promoting the work of peers in this wing of the indie world, and the occasional op-ed focusing on something related to the series. This week, we’re taking things easy and the blurbs will be brief.

As that button at the top of the page suggests, I managed to get the preview page up and running over the last 48 hours! Coming soon to Kickstarter is our revived Ride for 2025 campaign. This campaign includes brand-new second editions of older titles, special subscription packages for the Quarterly, and a host of great new bundles. We’re hoping to fund the remainder of our 2025 season through this campaign, and will need all hands on deck to make it happen. Follow the Kickstarter preview page so you can be first in line for some of these killer deals!

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Yours truly has been quite the busy bee in selling stories, with multiple titles coming soon to digital store shelves and fundraisers the world over. The unique tale of rock album artistry “An Airbrushed Odyssey” and my first sword-and-sorcery story “Born of Crimson Bones” were both sold to recent upstart Mistcreek Publishing. The former is due out in their “pulp rock” anthology Rock and Roll Mercenaries and the latter in the debut issue of seasonal anthology Mistcreek Tales. It’s been a pleasure to work with head honcho N.R. LaPoint and a jaw-dropping experience to see my name alongside fellow pulp-slingers like Misha Burnett, JD Cowan, Declan Finn and scores more!

Also coming soon from is ironically NOT my second sword-and-sorcery story (yet), but rather a madcap little space opera romp for his Space Opera Stories series from Tule Fog Press. I’m in Volume 2 of 4 that will be running its own fundraiser on Kickstarter. Best of all, he’s dishing them up in classic pocketbook size! Be sure to follow the preview page so you’ll know when it goes live! I’ve got one more project with my name on it, but I haven’t been given the go-ahead to share details yet. In the meantime, I will be writing like hell and cooking up stories for both zines, collections, and more!

From Sascha Ciezata (here on Substack as ) comes the first in a brand-new series: The Hippie Hunter. From the man himself:

“The Hippie Hunter is a graphic novel about a fictionalized version of Colonel Paul Tate (Sharon Tate’s father and a former Army Intelligence officer) and his real life mission going undercover in the LA hippie subculture to hunt down his daughters killers. In doing so he discovers a dark conspiracy behind the 60’s counterculture movement and the murders themselves.”

Done up in slick mid-century style, this period piece set against the backdrop of Californian counterculture is shaping up to be something thoroughly refreshing and engrossing through sheer force-of-will. You can grab a pulp-styled paperback from Amazon, or do yourself a real favor and check out the Indiegogo campaign where you can grab posters, variant covers, and bundles of all of the above. Sascha’s cooking with real gas right now, so help top his tank off, will ya?

TWO DAYS LEFT! For those who want in on the final hammer-blows of Kit Sun Cheah’s apocalyptic cyberpunk series with Babylon White, you got 56 hours (and counting) to grab the latest in the series, bundles to help you get caught up, Cheah’s other killer titles, and of course, my humble add-on contributions. The music single “Nova Babylonia” (heard in the trailer) is one of my most favorite pieces in recent memory, and the digital 365 bundles are a great way to dive into the series. They include the first two Annual Collections with the complete novella “The Short-Circuit Revolution” included in the 2022 Annual, an Alan Firedale starter pack with four episodes and a special selection of music, and a combo pack of all three titles and a year-long subscription to our Substack! Help send off Cheah’s thrilling series in style on Kickstarter.

That’s it for now! As always: May God Bless You & This Force. Be seeing you!

NEW YEAR. NEW STORIES. SAME BADASS PACK!

Back at it again, the hounds on the frontlines in the ongoing fight for freedom! Join the 25th century’s bravest wolves in five more sensational stories of cyberpunk action and neo-western wilds!

• WATCH Knox and the Force try to defeat the remnants of the Black Country!

• JOIN Jovian in his first adventure with Val and her pack of gladiators!

• REVEL in latest madcap escapades from hippie-punk Lita and cowboy metalhead Nic “Speedfreak” Ridgefield!

• DISCOVER one of the Wasteland’s most treasured, folkloric heroes in his FIRST mainline story.

Also included are brand-new character snapshots and a special article detailing the callsigns and police codes used by the Force and Hell Patrol! Available now on paperback ($4.99) and eBook ($0.99)!

GET THE BEST IN WOLVEN SCI-FI TODAY!

Created by Jacob Calta

Art by Kevin John Jacob
Logos Designed by Kely Christmas
Additional Designs by Ben Rodriguez (@bar1scorpio), Moritz Kubald (@ruiningblueart), Spookitty & Andrew Clark (@TheAnimatedMoon)

Test Driver: K. Paul, Daniel Watts, & Frank Theodat

Conceptual Consultant: Theo Schaefer

Alan Firedale Audio Editor & Announcer: Brendan Rechnitzer

Generals: Weefy, BBP & M.F.R. (@PaladinDragoon)
Lieutenants: Dave Perlmutter & maryh10000

Special Thanks to Kit Sun Cheah, Rob Rimes, Joseph Wiess, Anthony Joseph Buffa, Erik Waag, Evaleigh, John A. Douglas, Mikhail J Clive, Detective Wolfman, Spenser Rudolph, D. Edward Lemmink, Gustavo A. Martinez, “Johnnie Walker,” HowlingFang, Ryan Maguire, Amos Lamb, Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, JVP Music, Salvestro, JD Cowan, ByteMapper, Cirsova, The Lord Otter, Nicky P from Iron Age Marketing, RazörFist, Richard from IronAge.Media, Royce from A Drink With Crazy, Daniel P. Riley, Retehi, & Temiree