RED LIGHT BYTES: Updates Dossier (11-18-2024)
All The Latest From The Frontlines of Our Metallic Future...
OVERVIEW
Back again, and a little earlier too! 365 INFANTRY keeps chugging along this November, making good time with the kickass tales we love telling. In case you missed the latest of our surprises, check out our flash anthology “LOVE Machines” to learn about how some of the series’ great romances came to be, all through the songs sent spinning in the background. A concept I have quite literally been sitting on all year, but hadn’t the chance to hunker down and focus on until now. This was a fun one!
In terms of series production, writing is making good time. Glad I took October off as I’ve found myself with renewed inspiration, and a greater clarity of vision that’s yielding much better results all around. Was jamming out our introduction a certain someone in the new Hunt story and was shocked at how fast those 1600 words flew out of me. Goal is to have the new Alan Firedale recorded this week, as well getting things wrangled for the 2024 Annual Collection, whose exclusive this year is something truly special.
In the meantime, let’s catch up on Maestro Kevin with some of his latest work:
The man keeps getting better with each page, God bless ‘im. Looking forward to sharing more details about the stories we’re telling this time around. High-stakes, high-octane action and drama with some of the rawer moments of the series yet to be seen, and quite a few team-ups that sure to thrill both inveterate and freshman readers alike!
In other news, yours truly was reached out to by a special website called Shepherd, an exciting indie platform devoted to helping readers discover books through curated lists. This came to me completely out of the blue, but proved an excellent exercise in interrogating my tastes. Ben Fox & Company are not only wonderful hosts with an attention to detail, but are serious movers and shakers in helping us small guys connect with readers. If you want to know (or a need a quick refresher) why I love these five adventurous novels, check out my list here and send the crew at Shepherd some love!
And lastly, before we roll into the other full-on items in this newsletter, a very special bulletin about a VERY special property to us here on the Force:
HEAVY METAL’S BACK, BITCHES!
Yes friends, your eyes do not deceive. Not only is the stateside legend in illustrated adult fantasy back, but so is OG that started it all!
Humanoids’ Metal Hurlant is swimming in psychedelic green with its latest Kickstarter campaign, reviving the original French label founded by bande dessinée titans Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, and Philippe Druillet. More kickass quarterly installments of brain-bending speculative fiction from names new and old. Take that ride if you so choose, but that ain’t all.
Coming soon to the same stage (after quite the 2022) is a full-on Volume 2 of its American doppelganger Heavy Metal Magazine in what could be a glorious return to form. The relaunched Issue 1 features one of the last works of the late great Greg Hildebrandt, who left us on Halloween of this year, and aims to “Make Heavy Metal HEAVY Again.” Here’s hoping the landing is stuck! I’ll try and do these spotlights more often for cool shit I want you guys in on, but it might not be as frequent as in the past, mainly because of my nose-to-grindstone attitude. But I do have more than just other people’s wares to hawk.
BATTLEFIELD THOUGHTS
So about that election.
And no, you’re not prying my dark, twisted political fantasies from the back of my mind. This is more about things I’ve been thinking about in the afterglow, and one was “the man question.” Namely how you’ve probably seen a half-gajillion autopsies mentioning young men’s swing rightward, and the left scrambling for answers to a pretty freaky problem to have. And what it got me thinking about was not necessarily policy or which team on the ODST map I should play as, but aesthetics and vision.
Instead my own autopsy of Dem failings or partisan rah-rahing, I asked myself: “what vision IS there for guys in and around my age?” And more specifically, to what media can we point for solid role models and aspirational visions. It would be pretty damn obvious to list some of the guys I’ve been saluting here in the newsletter and elsewhere, the John Carters and Shadows of the world. I also think my general tastes and sensibilities with this project speak for themselves. I’m a metalhead cowboy with a love of machines, it ain’t exactly rocket science what I want more of!
Instead, I’m going to break it down to description, and then let a certain pulp legend of yore take the wheel. Leave a comment below for who you feel fits the bill, or some part of it worth discussing.
The Description: He is a man unto himself. Content in his being, secure in his faculties, and confident in stride, posture, and conviction. He is well dressed because the clothes reflect him wholly, be they the leather jacket or the pinstriped suit. He is knowledgeable, but always willing to learn. He is strong, but always judicious in use. He is compassionate, fair, but honest. He is not a perfect man, for no man is. He falters, and stumbles, and gaffes as much as the rest of us, but he is a man who can be confided in, relied upon, and befriended. He’s here to help, sometimes that help is simply being here.
Now for the quotation, a very familiar one for those in the pulp space:
Let me strive, every moment of my life, to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it.
Let me think of the right, and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice.
Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage.
Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do.
Let me do right to all, and wrong no man.
— The Doc Savage Oath
Now who else does that sound like?
THE FORCE’S TOP 10
Lo and behold, I’ve actually (re)discovered enough kickass tunes to do another of these! I’m currently in a game of chicken with Spotify’s algorithm, for our epic Megamix playlist has been fully loaded with everything that ain’t nailed down. During these excursions, quite a few tunes came out and smacked me on across the face. Some of these include:
“Break it Up” by Foreigner — A five-alarm screamer from Lou Gramm and a dynamite showing from the rest of the pack, especially Mick Jones. A bona fide hard-rocker with a flair for classical tragedy. Malmsteen before Malmsteen, sans some face-melting solos.
“Moving in Stereo” by The Cars — A more embarrassing story, as its another one of those classic rock standards I had no idea the name of until I sat down, listened to it, and heard that rock-steady synth riff. This happened to me with “Learning to Fly” by Pink Floyd to even greater face-palming.
“Taximan” by éVoid — A recommendation from South African writer John Pretorius, the band’s brand of culture-blending “ethnotronic” fashion supported what is easily some of the most infectious and underrated New Wave on the world stage.
“Children of the Earth” by Praying Mantis — Another one for the NWOBHM pile, this apocalyptic rocker paints a helluva picture as all great metal of the era does. Ditto for Diamond Head’s powerful “In The Heat of the Night.”
All that and more in this week’s Top 10. Otherwise, we’ll catch you later this week with another shot of high-octane action for our paid subs, and next week with more news from the front lines. As always:
May God Bless You & This Force. Be Seeing You!
