Red Light Bytes: 8-4-2023
Catching Up on the Latest with 365 Infantry
Overview
Welcome to August, friends! I am coasting on coffee, cheap gas, and metal to keep things rolling here at HQ, but man am I having a ball doing it. This one's going out closer to lunchtime here on the east coast, but c’est la vie.
On with the updates!
Updates
WRITING! - We are nearing FULL FIRST DRAFT status, with four of our five stories in the hands of Test Driver K. Paul, and the fifth coming up the rear.
RECORDING! - Episode 4 of Alan Firedale: Desert Delinquent has been recorded and sent off to our wonderful audio editor and announcer Brendan Rechnitzer.
ART! - Production has been halted on forthcoming one-shot comic “The Avenger’s Creed,” and production on the art for Issue 6 has kicked off. Lead artist Kevin John Jacob has sent in sketch sheets for all five stories and is hard at work making some of his most dynamic work yet!
Supporting the Force!
Here are all the awesome ways you can help us out and keep us rolling in the fight for quality independent entertainment:
FOR SALE
Subscription on Substack - At just $5/Month or $50/Year, gain access to all exclusive stories, comics, audio adventures, behind-the-scenes content & more! Founding members under our “General of the Armies” plan ($100/Year) gain access to free digital products like eBooks and music.
The 2022 Annual Collection - Collect all 24 of last year’s electric tales and bonus novelette “Lions Among the Lambs” in this special print collection.
Alan Firedale: Original Soundtrack Vol. 1 - Dig into the wild world of a young loner and his magnificent machine with this half-hour blend of vintage electronica and classic orchestral radio scoring. Buyers get THREE FREE MONTHS of 365 Infantry’s paid membership.
Available on Bandcamp ($5 USD)
Wolves of Steel - Rock hard and ride free with the official anthem of the 365th Infantry, an epic metallic instrumental in the killer tradition of classic acts like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.
Available on Bandcamp ($3 USD)
Merchandising, Merchandising! - Buy our quality range of designs on everything from shirts to mugs to posters and more!
NO VICTORY BONDS? NO PROBLEM!
Donate via Ko-fi - Our goal is to raise $900 USD to cover all basic production costs for the rest of 2023. This includes three issues worth of art. We have raised $100 of our goal, with $800 left to go!
Minimum Amount on Ko-fi is $1 USD
Donate via PayPal.Me - All donations made here will count towards our goal on Ko-fi. Big or small, we welcome them all!
No minimum amount on PayPal.Me
We encourage contributions of 25 cents ($0.25 USD) to keep in the spirit of our pulp magazine roots. If everyone subscribed to 365, as of today, dropped us an American quarter, that would be over $65 USD alone! More than a full annual subscription!
From the Frontlines
This is going to be less a list of hot-ticket items (mainly because I’ve been so busy), but more a catchup.
GREAT NEWS! The Mighty Sons of Hercules is funded! Anvil #2 is thundering ahead in its month-long campaign, fully funded and gunning for more with a concurrent campaign over on Indiegogo. This week, the official trailer, edited and scored by yours truly, made its debut.
Funding still rolls on for Saga of the Swordbreaker and, to give you something new to sink your teeth into, the monthly sword-and-sorcery magazine Savage Realms has just released their latest audiobook edition over on Audible, narrated with barbarian aplomb by the wonderful Moose Matson. Go support all these killer creations and creatives and let us know who else we should shoutout!
Now let’s hightail it off the frontlines and hit the streets!
Streetwise Caviar
This Week’s Playlist: “Vice Roulette”
The “MTV cop show” classic Miami Vice has been a very informative influence on us here at 365, from inspiring character traits and conceptions, to its polished New Wave affectations influencing some of the aesthetics of the series. One of those has been the music. Slick, polished pop and AOR of the highest order.
This week’s playlist is a bit gameified: four tracks are from the series, and the remaining six are not. Can you guess which? Leave a comment down below with your answers. No prizes (not this time), just some fun to be had with one of TV’s snazziest shows.
Speaking of television, this week’s recommendation is a big one. Available for free with ads on AdultSwim, it’s the Production I.G. cyberpunk anime Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
I say this without exaggeration, but this is one of my favorite shows of all time. I loved the original 1995 adaptation, I’ve been meaning to get into Masamune Shirow’s manga, but Stand Alone Complex is probably one the best anime series I’ve had the pleasure of seeing. One of the finest dubs, some of the most thrilling stories in modern cyberpunk, and with the goddess Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop, Escaflowne) on composing duties, one of the best scores to support.
The stories surrounding Public Security Section 9 are a smart blend of serial and episodic adventures with a thoroughly engaging cast of characters, all set in a future as close to ours as it is beyond, asking all manner of questions as man and machine grow closer and closer to one another.
And the best part: they do it all at just half-an-hour.
Probably the last bastion of the Y2K futurism movement (one admirably rendered via the wizards at Production I.G.), and a fine continuation of monolith within the cyberpunk genre. Recommended without reservation.
Byte of the Week
So, this was a bit of an unexpected move, but a scene I nixed from Part 6 of The War was simply too good to leave on the cutting room floor.
“Catching Up” sees Chief Ridgefield and Captain Herrera working late one night on Ambiorixian Base Alpha, home to all weapons development on the Force, and gives an insight into the unique dynamic between the two as fellow engineers. I hope you enjoy this little teaser of a piece.
As always, May God Bless You and this Force. See you next week!