STATE OF THE BASE: An Update from 365 INFANTRY!
All The Latest From The Frontlines of Our Metallic Future...
Greetings Soldiers! Back in from the staycation to gab all about where we’re at, where we’re heading, and how we’re going to get there. Firstly, huge thanks goes out to everyone who turned out for our latest batch of high-octane awesome at the end of September, and for your patience in the rollercoaster ride of getting it there. Now for the long-and-short of it.
The important news regarding the series is as follows:
Production of 365 INFANTRY #11 Starts TODAY — I’ve got Kevin back on the hook for another exciting issue, and after conferring with my test drivers and some peers, I’ve come to one conclusion: we have to go BIGGER. In the spirit of our pulp and comic forebears, I want to deliver a KING-SIZED issue of this series, sending off The War’s parallel serial in style, exploring the latest reveal in The Hunt and its quest for that mysterious Colosseum, and giving everyone a chance to do something a bit more than they usually do. And of course, such ambition demands time and planning, which I’m getting deadly serious about. This dovetails into our next point…
Red Light Bytes Will Return in NOVEMBER — I am taking the rest of October off to not only pursue this new vision, but other things. I have non-365 stories to write for a variety of publications, housekeeping of my own career as a freelancer, and some audiovisual extracurriculars back on the menu. Simply put, I don’t have the time to slam my head on this particular grindstone, and I’m honestly not ready to. I stand by every word I write on this project, but fatigue sat in near the end of this last run, and I don’t want to burn out again. I write RLB stories to explore the world, to indulge in how certain ideas interact with the world. If I’m not feeling it, I’m not feeling it. And speaking of pacing myself…
The Ride for 2025 Starts NEXT YEAR — This was a tough decision to make, but one that had to be made. I am grateful to everyone who backed, and I hope they will return in Spring 2025 when we relaunch our crowdfunding campaign. Instead of brute-forcing it, I want to take time to develop more promotional materials, more multimedia projects, and to get the products themselves completed. Everything promised in that campaign will still happen. The new Roger Steele story for the 2022 Annual Collection, the audiobooks, as well as some projects we DIDN’T mention. Not only will the campaign be the benefactor of a great deal more preparation, it will also enjoy the luxury of having everything completed. And since it will be running in the Spring, backers to choose one of our subscription packages will be able to get started on 2025’s run of stories from the start.
Only other thing to keep an eye out for is a story that may or may not materialize on October 31st. Truth be told, I can never say no to a good Halloween special, and there’s a special kind of crazy that’s been at the back of mind from the start.
With all the news out of the way, I do want to make up for some lost time, and so I’ve got a handful of projects I’d like to direct your attention to. I won’t be laboring the pitches like I used to, but needless to say, all of these are fun-looking projects from some familiar faces.
RED LIGHT ROUNDUP: LIGHTENING ROUND!
From and the fine folks at Pulp, Pipe & Poetry comes a thrilling new aural experience: Mind Tuner Theater. An anthology program of speculative fiction, featuring the music of yours truly! Episode 1, “Electric Love,” is available FREE on their Substack, with many more astounding tales to come.
“Mankind and its empire spanning the Nine Worlds are ruled by a powerful triumvirate of long-lived dreamers: the Dream Lords…Galad Sarian, son and heir of one of the Dream Lords, discovers not only the truth behind the crumbling Zurjahn empire and faltering of the powers that maintain humanity's grasp on alien worlds but also a plot by Daras Vorta, the Warden of Earth, to overthrow the Dream Lords with the aid of demonic forces.”
A trilogy of cult fantasy favorites turns 50. Early work from the impossibly prolific Adrian Cole, brought back to life by publisher Cirsova with a brand-new omnibus edition and some stylish stretch goals. Learn more on Kickstarter.
“Issue 10 comes at you like a prophetical god-whale bursting out of the sea floor crust with a belch of molten precambrian lava. Boiling the ocean as it chomps its way through the tangled seaweed gardens of the sunken Atlantean city. Your soul flies with exultation as you cling to a barnacle older than Egypt on the beasts belly, whisked away at high speed down black crevasses into the Earth's core. Such is the thrill you will encounter on these pages.”
There ain’t no topping that sales pitch. Grab ‘er on Amazon.
“In the time before Atlantis sank and the lands of the world were savage and untamed, one man would claim his destiny…”
I gave their adaptation of the Robert E. Howard classic The Shadow Kingdom a shout, but I just backed the first issue of Kull’s continuing adventures under the custodianship of writer Randy Zimmerman and artist Russ Leach, because what The Atlantean promises is everything I want in comics. Not just sword-and-sorcery excitement, but quality episodic entertainment at a terrific price. Pledge today at FundMyComic.
“Wulf and Batsy thought the quaint suburb of Thin Tree, Ohio might be a nice place to stay. But, like our Monster Heroes, this town has its own evil secrets. A weird species of illegal, hallucinogenic Fungi has become the drug of choice among the locals…and even greater horrors lurk under the surface. Only too late, do Wulf and Batsy realize they have stumbled into a savage adventure of survival horror, with an innocent girl’s soul hanging in the balance.”
While I took Baugh’s latest campaign as a chance to complete his most recent story arc in the series on paperback (Issues 10 & 11), one-off Issue 13 “The Onyx Slide” sounds like another humorful homerun for the fangtastic duo. One of indie comic’s most inveterate series, no silver bullet nor wooden stake can kill this grotesquely entertaining series. Funding now on Kickstarter.
Also in time for the Halloween season is a new discovery that brings things full-circle. Tales from the Scarlet Vault is an audio anthology series, a sendup to midcentury British horror produced by the likes of Amicus. Our host, the Custodian (whose voice is awful familiar…) spins us terrible tales of peculiar artifacts stored in the vault. Artifacts “too powerful, too dangerous to exist.” The latest episode, “The XXXperiment,” and all others can be found wherever you procure your podcasting delights, with a home base on Buzzsprout.
That’s all I got for now, and I shall bid you adieu for the time being. Thanks again for all your support and patience. And of course, don’t forget to grab your own copy of our Autumn 2024 Quarterly! Every sale helps keep us afloat in these wild times. And as always: May God Bless You & This Force!
How exciting! Sure feels like we're riding the thunderbolt with this one, eh?