365 INFANTRY: The Whole Story
Everything You Wanted To Know* (*But Were Afraid To Ask)
OVERVIEW
I figure it’s time we remind the faithful and rope in the newcomers with an all-in-one introduction to the shit you signed up for. It used to take three of these articles to explain it, but that’s because I wasn’t hip to brevity back then, but I am now! With all past efforts combined, here’s everything you need to know about 365 INFANTRY!
PROLOGUE
In the city of Haven, the only law that counts is the law of A.C.E.S., the all-powerful sentient computer network running her city into the ground. In the Wastelands, the only law is that of leather, lead, and chrome.
Fighting against the electric tyranny of a neon goddess are the many hounds enlisted in the 365th Infantry, a resistance force armed with hot rods, chopped bikes, and a belief in the American Dream. With allies across the desert and inside the city, these brave wolves face an all-day, everyday fight to rid the once-shining utopia and the desert's sprawling settlements of its decadent, decaying overlord...
The big-picture of 365 INFANTRY is of a utopian project gone awry, and a peaceable coexistence upset. In an Earth populated by wolves, and in the aftermath of mutually assured destruction in the year 2200, two societies emerge in the American Southwest. The Wastelands are a five-region rustic paradise, home to small towns, gearhead culture, old-time rock-n-roll, and all manner of sin and thuggery. Haven, for a while, is the city of the future. A post-scarcity paradise where all needs are met. No hunger, no poverty, and an endless fount of entertainments for a public unburdened from the need for daily work. It is a classic cyberpunk hub full of hovercars, holograms, and a seedy underbelly hidden from the well-to-dos of the world.
Then it all changed in 2376, the year Haven’s centralized computer network, the Artificially Controlled Eco-System (A.C.E.S.), gained its sentience. She made no true heel-turn, no rebellion against her masters. Instead, she did something worse: take stasis-maintaining programming to the logical endgame. She sought to optimize everything, and destroy that which cannot be. This includes the impure carbon-based life that floods her city, and beyond.
War is declared in the year 2401, and for the next 70 years, the only team able to fend off complete invasion are the Ambiorixian Ascensores, a rag-tag resistance group armed only with their rides, their guns, and their steeled nerves, better known as the 365th Infantry! Their fight drags on to this day.
THE MAGAZINE
365 INFANTRY is designed as a classic hero pulp magazine, in the spirit of legends like Doc Savage or The Shadow. The difference is that the WORLD is the headlining character, and we explore it through five short stories every quarter.
This was always the intention from the start. I always had ideas for multiple narrative threads, and also grew loving the old Hanna-Barbera power-hour format, with multiple heroes filling up a half-hour or full-hour of entertainment. Furthermore, while we’re telling a broad, overarching story about the 365th and their allies against A.C.E.S., these five series can be enjoyed in a purely episodic fashion. They are full of all the things one enjoys in classic pulp fiction; blistering action, compelling heroes, rich worlds, and are penned in such a way that the story’s action is self-contained, but they leave an impact on the rest of the plot.
It sounds a bit odd having to pitch it this way, but people feel like everything has to be all-serial or all-episode these days. That you must always be building to something bigger with no available entry points beyond the start, or you must hit the reset button once the credits roll, hammering the same formula into the ground ad nauseum. Here, serial stakes, episodic entertainment is our mantra, and it has led to these five unique branches of 365 INFANTRY.
I. The War
The 365th's fight for freedom, led by the darksome General Adam Knox, facing the insane machines and devilish plots of A.C.E.S. and the desert's many villains. The courageous Lieutenant Gibson Blanc leads the charge, backed by an array of colorful characters, from top brass like Captain "Grim" Herrera to wild-eyed lover Evelyn "Teddy" Blanc, and the many brave hounds of the Auto and Moto Corp. Both escapees from the tyranny of A.C.E.S., Knox and Gibson find themselves in a surrogate father-son dynamic as they take the fight to the digital bitch who took away everything they ever had!
II. The Hunt
A peculiar, fantasy-tinged crusade against the Colosseum, a strange, Romanesque torture dome hidden deep in the city of Haven. The quest is lead by the white wolf Valentina, a recent victim determined to end these horrors. She's backed by her team of fellow survivors, including gray martial artist Brennus, tough red driver Marcus, and his loving, protective wife Sabina. Guided by mystic mechanic Eric, the quartet try to locate the Colosseum and its deadly agents, but are always ready, willing and able to right wrongs and defend the innocent on their hunt throughout the desert. A classic adventure series format.
III. The Urban Avenger
A cyberpunk action-comedy starring playful hippie-punk Lita and her ever-reliable VW Bug, "The Red Devil." Our dynamic duo deal with all sorts of surreal technology, insane crooks, and fellow freedom-fighters both within and beyond Haven. Lita is a wild card, a dope-smoking, gun-toting maniac who treats her Bug like her child, and proves an unusual but helpful aid in Infantry operations behind enemy lines.
IV. The Speedfreak Files
The adventures of three wild wolven lawmen: the black Nic "Speedfreak" Ridgefield, the brown Harrison "Richter" Garret, and the white Rory "Madskins" Armstrong. By day, they're Hell Patrolmen, facing the worst of the desert's thuggery, and always getting their hound by any means necessary! By night, these hard-rocking hounds are the hottest band in town, the speed metal monolith known as Metröpolis! Before his days as chief engineer in the 365th, "Speedfreak" Ridgefield tells all with acid wit and hardboiled swagger in the wildest crime fiction this side of the bomb!
V. Tales from the Front Lines
The magazine is always rounded out by a one-off adventure or unexplored chapter of a character’s life as you've never seen them before. Wild tales of crime, romance, and adventure from across the four corners of the world, from series regulars to exciting new heroes. The ultimate sandbox in this series.
BONUS MATERIAL
Because this whole series is also a giant sandbox, there have been multiple excursions out into the wilds of 365 INFANTRY. Our weekly flash-fiction anthology Red Light Bytes keeps folks tied over during the offseason (and keeps my writing muscles stretched), but there are two main side-shows to the main event that are worth discussing.
Alan Firedale: Desert Delinquent
An in-universe radio show beloved by Wastelanders young and old, join the rebellious red wolf Alan Firedale and his lovable, AI-enhanced hot rod Golden Cloud as the duo explore the desert's peculiar mysteries, and thwart the villainous schemes of the terrible dictator, General Langdon! Created by "Stan Winshaw," the series is a one-man audiobook drama supported by music and sound effects, and a salute to classic shows like Jonny Quest, Knight Rider and the worlds of Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet).
The Roger Steele Adventures
When it comes to 25th century spy games, there’s only one hound for the job: 365 Recon Agent Roger Steele. A cool, calm, and collected gray professional with a taste for danger and jazz, the Force sends him into the heart of Haven to locate where the main computer for A.C.E.S. is stored. With an older Urban Avenger acting as home base and handler, it’s up to Agent Steele, Lita, and her Avenger’s Creed to find the network’s base of operations by any means necessary!
FAQ
Why wolves? — Because they’re cool. This entire series is founded on the fundamental theory than you can combine tons of awesome shit into a single package and have it not sound like the mad, sugar-rush ramblings of a 6-year-old. In our case, we believe in badass wolves dressed in denim and leather, screaming across the desert in Camaros and Harleys, shooting laser-powered Smith & Wessons at giant hovering tanks.
I COULD have done this entire series with humans, but would it have been half as fascinating, fun, or even cozy as doing it is with bipedal canines exhibiting all the nobility and savagery of their species? And all from behind the wheel of a large automobile? (To quote David Byrne)
I don’t think so. Anyone who’s read this series can attest to this. They might not understand WHY I went with wolves, but they cannot fathom this series happening any other way. That’s a sign it was the right move.
Who is this for? — In terms of age demographics, I wouldn’t let anyone younger than 16 read. Yes there’s mature content throughout, but we aren’t gratuitous about it, and your parents would be a helluva lot more disappointed to find a copy of Hustler in your hands than they would one of our quarterlies.
In reality, 365 INFANTRY was made because my oddly-specific desire to see wolves in hot rods fucking up future-tech like a SatAM cartoon from hell was not being met. If you dig old-school, noir-fueled cyberpunk, post-apocalypse fiction, neo-westerns, but want something with an optimist streak like the pulp heroes of old, you’ll dig the hell out of this series.
Where do I start? — This is one of those RETVRN things I have to start teaching people. While readers will get the most from “The War” and “The Hunt” by reading them from the very start, the intention is that you can hop in anywhere, understand the gist of the problems the heroes face, and go from there. All our series have some element of serialization, but adventures with characters like “The Urban Avenger” are meant to be enjoyed in and of themselves.
The way I explain it to people is this: if I bought an issue of Argosy while they were serializing A Princess of Mars, and I just happened to grab the issue where our hero John Carter becomes a Zodangan air pilot, I could just as easily treat that single chapter as a single story. It has a self-contained action that impacts the plot later on. For a modern example, the Dynamite Entertainment revival of Alex Toth’s Space Ghost is excellent at telling wholistic stories while engrossing readers in larger threads and the overarching plot.
I get that our nonstop pace of production is a bit scary at first. As the main writer, I have penned 100 stories for this series in a matter of TWO YEARS. That’s because I believe in the old-school models. I want there to be more Marvel Conans, more Gold Key Turok comics, more classic Weird Tales magazines.
We at 365 believe in the true pulp experience, and that means being able to produce at that level. If you think we’re bad, try Walter “Two Novels A Month” Gibson spoiling his Depression-era readers with The Shadow. If I physically could, THIS WOULD BE A MONTHLY. That is how much I believe in this project. And if you want to get in on the action, you can enlist as a free or paid sub, and get access to exclusive flash stories, Alan Firedale, and more! Hope you dig what you see, and as always:
May God Bless You & This Force!
Aha! This will be useful to help me understand the series!
To be honest, if humans were used, I probably would have ended up passing over this series.
This sounds incredible!