INSTALLMENT #1 - AUTHOR'S NOTE

Telling a story on a blog is not as easy as you might think. In a sense, blogs run "backwards." The latest stuff is on top and older stuff is further down. Thus if you come back later to recover an idea you have developed over several posts, you may find yourself digging through the archives to find all the material. And, if you have a blog with as much stuff as mine, that can be a serious chore. Thus this blog was born. Back to that in a minute.

Last December, at Blogotional, I said that one of the things I wanted to do before I die was:

Write and have published a superhero comic book miniseries

At the time, I actually had one such story "in the can." But it was a character about whom the publisher would not accept submissions.

So, I could write a story about an existing character for which they would take submissions, or I could invent a new character. No publisher is going to take a new character from an unproven talent, and I was fresh out of ideas for existing characters. Then there was the fact that as a guy with his own business, who just wanted to do this once in his life, and not develop a career, shlepping a story from comiccon to comiccon to stand at the review table and again be told "Thanks, but no thanks" was a less than appealing prospect.

Finally, since Blogotional has regular daily features, one of which was about to run out of material and need replacement, I struck on an idea. Why not write a comic story about a new character and serialize it in that daily feature space? So, that is what I have done.

However, since the installments will be posted only once a week, someone coming late to the story might have a hard time catching up over there at Blogotional. When I thought about all the backlinking that would require - I struck on the idea of this blog. So, every time I put up the next installment at Blogotional, I will also put it up here. But here, it will be added to "the bottom," so the reader can start reading the story at the beginning and catch up easily.

Pretty much since 9-11, I have been thinking of stories that bring superheroes into the GWOT fray. They all did great salutes to the true heroes in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, but I thought more was called for.

Turns out I am not alone in that thought as Frank Miller has recently announced that he is doing a Batman v Al Queda story. Alas, I am no Frank Miller, even If I have been working on this idea forever, so I can't do Bats. So, I came up with the guy you are about to read.

Superhero comics found their stride in WWII fighting the nation's enemies - the so-called Golden Age. It seems most appropriate that they should be involved in this fight as well. Who knows, maybe they can find some of the soul, and some of the genuine sense of right-and-wrong that they have lost in the intervening years.

I hope you enjoy this story. It is part techno-thriller hero, ala Jack Ryan, and part pure superhero, costume and all. The idea is to get a little more "real" - kind of like Marvel's "Ultimates" - but keep the great fantasy fun of the classic superhero. If you would like to comment, please leave it at Blogotional - it's the only link in the sidebar.

Oh yeah, and if you are comics publisher and you like what you see, even a little, please "View my complete profile" and email me - I'd love to talk.

And now, just becasue I have to:

Excelsior!