What Henry Nowak’s Murder Bodes

Police confront protesters during a chaotic demonstration, with individuals clashing and using barriers for protection amid a tense atmosphere.

Some or all aspects of the Henry Nowak story may be false. I can’t blame anyone for questioning what has been reported. The safest bet, living in Clown World, is to assume everything is fake and gay. Because most narratives prove to be such.

For the sake of argument I’m going to ignore the foreign origin of the story, and assume what I’ve heard about it is all factual. Because this story, as it has been reported, perfectly encapsulates the status quo for the West in general and America in particular.

On a public street, a young white male is stabbed multiple times by a non-white foreign invader (or, at least, the offspring of foreign invaders; typically an invader is referred to as a “refugee” or “immigrant”).

(Where this murder took place, native citizens are prohibited from carrying weapons. But “the law” turns a blind eye to foreign invaders who carry weapons. Policy dictates that foreigners are not subjected to the same limitations that citizens are. This is a familiar pattern in Clown World.)

Henry Nowak stabbing: Key moments from police bodycam footage

Police arrive. The foreign invader falsely claims that the victim racially harassed him. Policy dictates that the alleged racist remark, not attempted murder, is the crime which must be addressed. The police decide the victim is the criminal, arrest and handcuff him, ignoring his own counter-claim, while blood was likely filling his lungs. He dies of his stab wounds.

Video shows Henry Nowak being handcuffed by police after stabbing | UK ...

Why? Because the victim was a young white male, while the murderer was a member of a favored demographic.

Systemic racism exists, but it’s not what you have been told it is. This is how it actually manifests in the Current Year. Henry Nowak, as a young white male, was afforded no human dignity and had no evident protected rights. The murderer had rights which were honored. The most obvious was the right to use the police as a weapon against somebody he hated. Provided that the person in question was a young white male, of course.

It pretty much goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway: the police reaction would have been completely different if the victim had been an older, important white male like Keir Starmer, Chuck Schumer, or a million other scumbag politicians (and probable pedophiles). The police reaction would have been completely different if the victim had been another non-white. The police reaction would have been completely different if the victim had been carrying a Pride Flag. The police reaction would have been completely different if the victim had been female.

Because of his demographic, Nowak’s claim of being stabbed wasn’t worth taking seriously. Because of his demographic, the murderer’s accusation against his victim was automatically taken seriously. Nobody would dare come right out and admit they consider young white men are subhuman, but actions speak louder than words. Disingenuous cowards have been speaking loud against white heterosexual males all their lives. And those young men have received the message. Some will accept it as Gospel. Others will reject it and embrace the opposite extreme. In fact, this is already happening.

For many years white heterosexual males just put up with it. We are the only demographic expected to just put up with abuse, discrimination and insults based on inherent qualities we have no control over, BTW. We just shrugged it off because we are also the only demographic without a tribal worldview, and because the implication was that if we made a stink about it, that would be racist and sexist—the two unforgivable sins in the Postwar Consensus Religion.

With the installation of Barack Hussein Obama into the highest office of the USA however, the accompanying zeitgeist abandoned all pretenses of seeking equality. Abandoned also was the subtlety that had masked the systemic prejudice from the average-IQ normies for so long. Tribalists never truly wanted equality. They wanted supremacy. And the mask slipped when one of their own (as they saw it) entered the White House and gave them delusions of invincibility. They turned up the temperature too fast and the frog jumped out of the pot.

They had been gradually heating the water in the pot for a long time. In junior high and high school, faculty and staff were disinterested in the racism directed at me, but they were righteously indignant when I had the audacity to notice out loud. That inspired lectures about how attitudes like mine were hateful and polarizing.

I have been passed over both in hiring, and for promotions, so that less-qualified females and minorities could fill open positions. Multiple aid packages were available that would have helped me pay tuition for college. Because of my academic performance, and my income level, I was qualified for countless scholarships. But my “identity” disqualified me, even as voices from every direction reminded me of how “privileged” I was. That was the 1990s. It’s only gotten worse since then.

“Diversity” was just becoming a buzz word back then. There are two definitions in use, currently. One is the kumbaya definition espoused in public for the benefit of the average-IQ normies. In reality, it means everybody is welcome except white heterosexual males. Everybody is worthy except white heterosexual males. Everybody is afforded human dignity except white heterosexual males. Because there’s something wrong with us. White heterosexual males are inherently evil you see—unworthy of fair treatment; deserving of abuse, disrespect and mockery. This is what white heterosexual males learn from 12 years in government schools, from ubiquitous pop culture, and from institutional policy.

The young boys who began learning this in elementary school, when the Obama Zeitgeist came out of the closet, are in their 20s now. Some adopted that worldview as their own and still cling to it. Others do not. While the world caters to women and minorities they are told by self-righteous cowards speaking from straight faces that they are privileged oppressors—not because of anything they’ve said or done, but because of their race and gender. No evidence (much less proof) of their sexism/racism is required, they learn, because their DNA and chromosomes ARE the proof.

It’s an abomination, but it should come as no surprise that some young white males in this godless, lawless Clown World pretend to be female. That not only elevates them from status as second-class citizens, but magically transforms them into heroes to be praised whenever their names are mentioned. If you’re born with the wrong DNA and hormones, that’s one of only two avenues to accessing the same human rights afforded to the foreign invaders who hate you. The other way is to make a lifestyle out of taking it up the poop chute.

Harvard’s admissions policy is illustrative, here. White male students have been systematically passed over for years, so that less-qualified non-white-males could be admitted. But nobody with a platform had the guts to mention it, until it was brought to their attention that Asian students were also suffering discrimination. THEN it was a big deal to consoivatives. Here’s a summary of how the arguments went during Peak Globohomo:

Pantywaist Neocons: “You claim to want racial justice and equal opportunity. Well, look at how your unfair quota system is impacting these poor Asians!”

Mainstream Marxists: “You racist oppressors! You’re only blowing the whistle on our discrimination against Asians because we’re also discriminating against white heterosexual males! Well, we can’t punish all of you, but we can damn sure punish these young privileged oppressors!”

Notable & Quotable: Thomas vs. Jackson - WSJ

(If memory serves, Harvard has recently dialed back its discrimination against Asians. But note that nobody claimed racial/sexual discrimination was wrong when white heterosexual males are the victims. In fact, the definition of racism has been changed in recent years to exclude hatred of whites. Why? Because not only does our DNA automatically make us oppressors, but it also grants us agency, you see. The agency so prominent in Affirmative Action hiring practices, in tuition assistance, and during Burn Loot Murder riots. The agency that Henry Nowak supposedly benefited from while dying of his stab wounds.

While today’s 20-something white heterosexual males were growing up, learning that they were second-class citizens in their own country, foreign invaders like Ilhan Omar were becoming millionaires and being given a pass (so far) for robbing Americans via fraud, and sent to Congress, where she declared that Islamic terrorism is not a threat, but white men are.

Our “justice” system agrees with Omar. The burden of proof is set by default to be solely upon the man in everything from domestic disputes to divorce court. If he can’t prove that the woman assaulted him unprovoked, neglected/abused their children, or whatever, the male is assumed guilty while the woman is assumed innocent.

Ilhan Omar was just regurgitating cultural Marxist dogma when she tried to label white men as a threat. But those who agree with her agitprop are well on their way to making it a self-fulfilling prophecy. History is full of lessons about what happens when large groups of restless, angry young men propagate. Put those angry young men in a position where they have nothing left to lose, and the situation becomes even more dangerous.

All it takes is an effective “strong man” leader to harness their anger, unite them around some cause (or even just his own personality) and focus their aggression and, well…again, this is the catalyst for most of the highlights of history.

Traditionally, there has been a finite list of solutions for large numbers of frustrated, disenfranchised young men—some more constructive than others.

  1. “Just get married and have kids!” bleat the smug, self-styled sages who had a far less toxic dating pool to navigate. There is some historic validity in this. A good wife can transform a young man’s anger and a family can satisfy his restless energy. But the cultural Marxists have successfully supplanted the birds and the bees with a largely adversarial relationship between the sexes.

    Single men don’t want female adversaries, but nobody cares what they want or don’t want. Single women today are aggressive, narcissistic blowhards who are self-confident to the point of delusion. And if you think young men are frustrated and angry now, it will be much worse for the ones who get trapped in a marriage with an insufferable shrew. And while the Church should offer a godly alternative to Clown World’s traditions, the cowards behind the pulpit are just another part of the problem.

  2. “Seek out strange new worlds,” Captain Kirk might advise. That was a constructive use of young male restlessness back when there were unknown lands to explore and settle. They harnessed that energy to build civilization from a rugged wilderness. It was often also sanctioned by governments.
    Star Trek Captain Kirk phaser blasts to $100,000 pre auction

    Today governments are far more interested in replacing young white heterosexual males with foreign invaders, and/or herding them into centralized urban shitholes, where every aspect of their lives can be controlled by the lawless oligarchy.

  3. “Tune in, turn on, drop out.” Since the ‘60s recreational drug addiction has been a moderately effective method of absorbing or redirecting the anger and restless energy of alienated young men. But depending on what type of drugs are used, it results in crime, urban violence, and deaths by overdose or suicide. There are already too many young drug addicts, but the direction our government is moving right now suggests a serious war on drugs like we’ve never seen before is underway.
    Why Did Hippies Do Drugs at Mason Duckworth blog
  4. “Go give ‘em hell, son!” Sending young men to fight foreign enemies has probably been the most common way a population deals with the restless energy of alienated young men.

    But war is different now. Also, and I may be suffering the same myopia many Americans did right up until December 6, 1941, but even though we are in a 4th Turning, I just don’t see a foreign war being supported by enough of the population to motivate most of these angry young men into uniform. After Afghanistan, COVID 1984, stolen elections, trillions in fraud with no accountability, any confidence in the Establishment enjoyed by elitists of the past seems to have evaporated. Young men were the core of Trump’s voter base this last election, but they’ve watched most of new job growth go to women, minorities, and foreigners. He has not done much to improve the circumstances or opportunities for millions of frustrated, disenfranchised young men and, frankly, his verbal support for the Indian H1B visa invasion was politically just idiotic for somebody who should want to keep his base loyal.

  5. Torches and pitchforks. Again: this is a 4th Turning and as I’ve pointed out before, the smart money is on a revolution or civil war.

    Perpetual debt slavery is not an attractive future. Never being able to afford a home, never finding a good wife and raising a family of their own, never getting a fair shake in the workplace, working harder than ever for less than ever while traitors and foreign invaders help themselves to trillions of dollars confiscated from working Americans, while judges and politicians fight tooth and nail to keep the scam trains rolling…that is what they have to look forward to right now. And by the way, the existing order hates them, treats them like second class citizens, if not subhuman, all while telling alienated young men that they are the bad guys.

    Something is going to change, one way or the other. And knowing the god of this world, it won’t be change for the better. It very rarely is. All it’s going to take is some charismatic leader they can unite around to spark this powder keg. When the time comes, it will probably be at least two charismatic leaders, each driving their angry young followers in opposite directions. And if neither side has a Christian majority, then don’t expect these angry young men to show any more mercy than what they’ve been shown.

 

 

Based Book Sale Bigger than Before

What is a “based” book?

based [ beyst ] / beɪst / adjective

1. Well-grounded, resting upon a firm foundation.

2. Principled, devoted to fixed standards, especially in defiance of conventional wisdom.

3. Rejecting politically correct attitudes and celebrating nonconformity with woke opinion.

4. Committed to upholding and advancing the good, the beautiful, and the true.

antonyms: debased, cringe, woke

More on the Based Book Sale, here.

The Based Book Sale is a limited time offer, available only for a week, featuring more than a hundred different titles, including a couple dozen new to the sale. When every book is only $0.99 or free, you can afford to take a chance and check out a new author.

If you are not a goose-stepping commie, then you probably have an acquaintance on Substack with a book in the sale. That includes me—I have three books in the sale. The list is long and on my machine the BBS table of contents is not interactive—I click on it and I just get an enlarged picture of it. So in case it helps you find my stuff, here are my three entries this quarter:

Hell & Gone is my debut novel. Paramilitary commando action.

 

Escaping Fate is the first book in my magnum opus time-traveling conspiracy thriller. This first one is more coming-of-age.

Rebooting Fate is the second book in the series, and the protagonist is older. Oh yeah: it’s also a sports adventure.

 

Happy shopping and reading.

 

Only 7 Days Left for My Kickstarter:

It still needs backers. If you want a true alternative to what you’ve been being served for decades, here’s your chance to get one. Support what you want or it goes away.

Tales of the Earthbound is a planned series of graphic novels set on an alternate reality with superheroes. Threat Quotient is the first in the series—a 108 page full-color ensemble superhero epic designed to treat readers to all the thrills and dopamine hits fictional stories have tried to illicit since time immemorial. The Kickstarter is live winding down—go reserve your copy now.

If you haven’t watched the Threat Quotient trailers, they are linked for you below (and please “like” if you like them, share, and comment):

 

 

 

Girly-Girl Podcasts and Men’s Fiction

I came across a post by Kat, generously inviting authors to guest on her podcast, Pencils & Lipstick. With a name like that, it’s not the sort of podcast you might expect me to appear on. Well, I guess Ulysses might, but at least it’s not the sort of podcast I would expect to find myself on.

That said, I’m glad I took her up on her offer. We shared some uncomfortable truths about the book biz while still having a pleasant conversation. We had an easy rapport and I found her to be a sincere hostess.

 

I hope you’ll check out Pencils & Lipstick and tell folks about her podcast. It’s not just on Youtube, but on Spotify and several other audio-only platforms. Kat is an author herself and has just released a new romance for Kindle: Next, Love. Romance is a genre with hella competition and most of you know how tough it is to get any eyes on a new book in any genre. So if you like romance, I hope you’ll show her some love. If you read it and enjoy it, don’t forget to leave her a review.

My Kickstarter came up a few times on the show. I’m running a 30-day campaign which is now halfway over. I’d be grateful if you would show my superhero graphic novel, Threat Quotient, some love as well.

 

 

 

Right-wing Superhero Comics – Do they Exist?

They do now!

(Or “conservative” if you prefer that term.)

As of Noon EST today, Threat Quotient goes live on Kickstarter.

There are three physical reward tiers:

  1. The standard 108-page full color graphic novel
  2. The Deluxe Edition, which will have about 32 extra pages of behind-the-scenes content
  3. The Early Bird Special: if you pledge during these first 24 hours, you can obtain the Deluxe Edition for less than the cost of the standard version…a whopping discount!

Visitors here already know my love of superhero comics goes way back. Now Virtual Pulp is in the comics business.

For those unfamiliar with the concept behind Tales of the Earthbound:

The Builder, the Destroyer,

and the Fighting Prophet:

 

Ramjet is a turbo-powered flying knight determined to do what’s right in a world where evil is called good, and good is called evil. The Juggernaut is an unstoppable wrecking machine who wanted to just mind his own business, but now is ready to raze everything to the ground. Phantom Raider reveals truth in an empire of lies, risking his life repeatedly with every wicked secret he exposes.

These three, and others, are charging toward the vortex of a superpowered showdown, with the fate of civilization hanging in the balance.

If you don’t like what mainstream entertainment is offering you, consider supporting alternatives.

I invite you to visit the Kickstarter page, where you can see some full page layouts and find out more about this book.

Len Levinson’s Civil War Novel

As I’ve mentioned many times, it was the men’s adventure fiction of Len Levinson that introduced me to the genre I love and usually write in. Here he is, chatting about his experience trying to get his Civil War novel published:

After writing 83 published novels under 22 pseudonyms, I never thought of writing a Civil War novel until one afternoon approximately 1995 when I was sitting in the office of my literary agent Nancy Yost in an office building just east of Pennsylvania Station in New York City.
I was wondering out loud what to write next when Nancy suggested a mystery novel set in New York City during the Civil War, in the manner of Ann Perry.  I’m no Ann Perry but it sounded like a great idea.  I said I’d do it.
A tremendous amount of research was required.  I joined the New-York Historical Society to use their specialized library in their beautiful Beaux Arts-style palace on Central Park West at 77th Street.
Every day for around a month I walked uptown to the Society, arrived at opening time, read books like a college student preparing for an exam, departed at closing time, and walked back to my apartment on West 55th Street on the eastern edge of the neighborhood known as Hell’s Kitchen.
Finally my head was bursting with info about New York City during the Civil War.  The time had come to sit down and write.  My goal was a great towering Civil War novel that would blow away Margaret Mitchell’s GONE WITH THE WIND, Michael Shaara’s KILLER ANGELS, and Stephen Crane’s THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE.
I conceived the basic plot as a murder mystery with lots of interesting ramifications.  Someone is murdering prominent Wall Street financiers in 1861, a few months after the Battle of Bull Run, first major battle of the Civil War.
Is the culprit one or more disgruntled investors?  Insane Marxist revolutionaries?  A Confederate conspiracy to destabilize the Union banking system?  The investor’s disaffected son?  Or someone else not so obvious?  Or a combination of the above?
To complicate matters further, a massive crime wave engulfed New York City following the outbreak of the Civil War, as if that tumultuous conflict loosened the darkest passions in the hearts of men and women.  Robberies, burglaries and assaults became commonplace, including garrotings on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight!!!
The Detective Precinct is under political pressure to arrest whoever is killing financiers, but the best detectives have enlisted in New York regiments.
Out of desperation, Deputy Chief of Detectives Timothy Flanagan hires a limping former Union army officer recently wounded in the Battle of Bull Run, and a former Southern Belle stranded in the great Empire City.  Flanagan calls her his secretary because women can’t be detectives, but she carries a revolver and does actual detective work.
The ex-officer is a staunch outspoken abolitionist, and the ex-Southern Belle passionately hates abolitionists, blaming them for the invasion of Dixie.  Naturally they loathe each other on their deepest levels but must work together to solve the crime.  Their frequent arguments explore, in a manner that I considered brilliant, all the issues that led to the Civil War.
Their investigations take them from Fifth Avenue mansions to the dangerous slum called Five Points, from Gramercy Park to Battery Park, from fashionable men’s clubs to elegant and not so elegant brothels, gambling dens, the glittering Broadway theater district, colorful Bowery, and the Peyster Street docks where a man’s life isn’t worth a dead mackerel.
Along the way the reader will encounter actual historical figures such as banker J.P. Morgan, newspaperman Horace Greeley, Chief of the Union Intelligence Service Allan Pinkerton, Confederate Senator Robert Barnwell Rhett, real estate tycoon William Backhouse Astor, Archbishop John Hughes of the New York City Archdiocese, young Billy the Kid, artist John Frederick Kensett, poet Walt Whitman, recent West Point grad Lieutenant George Armstrong Custer, an actor named John Wilkes Booth, members of a criminal gang known as the Dead Rabbits, and the controversial mayor of New York City, Fernando Wood.
During the investigation, the ex-officer often is disturbed by flashbacks of Bull Run, its massive artillery barrages, thousands of bullets whistling through the air, and Confederate soldiers trying to stab their bayonets into him.  The result was the Union Army was routed and he nearly got killed.  I read two history books devoted to Bull Run and numerous references in other Civil War histories to make sure I got details right.
Will the Detective Precinct solve the case?  They dare not fail.  The future of the war and fate of the nation is at stake!
Finally I finished the novel and felt absolutely certain it proved conclusively that I was a great American novelist ranking with the best of all time.  Finally I would receive the critical adulation I so richly deserved, not to mention hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in royalties, and a major Hollywood movie deal.
I proudly delivered the novel to Nancy who promptly submitted it to publishers.  An editor at Bantam wanted to publish it and said he was “a fan” of mine, but was overruled by other editors.  Every other publisher contacted by Nancy rejected my great American Civil War novel.
To say that I was disappointed would be too mild.  I couldn’t believe this novel possibly could be rejected everywhere when novels that I considered inferior were being published and earning huge amounts for their authors.  Gradually I came to the awful realization that my entire so-called literary career was a terrible mistake, horrible joke, utter catastrophe, and in reality I was nothing more than a deluded fool.
I went bust in 1997 and had to get a job, finally ending as caseworker with the New York City Administration for Children’s Services.  In the year 2000 I became 65, went on Social Insecurity, and resumed my failed literary career.
I worked on polishing GRIP OF DEATH and two other completed unpublished novels but had nowhere to submit them because I found it very difficult to make contact with former editors, as if they had iron walls around them to protect them from the likes of me.
Nancy had become a big time agent with her own staff and office.  After jumping through many hoops I finally made phone contact with her and was shattered when she said she wasn’t even interested in reading my wonderful newly re-written version of GRIP OF DEATH, never mind representing it, although it had been HER IDEA in the first place.  Evidently, obviously, she didn’t think much of my writing abilities which broke my heart yet again and sent me into a funk which probably never will go away completely.
A few years later I mentioned GRIP OF DEATH on Facebook.  James Reasoner of Rough Edges Press offered to publish it.  He gave it an excellent cover designed by his wife Livia, and now finally GRIP OF DEATH is available as paperback and ebook on Amazon.  The link is:
It is selling very poorly, I’m sorry to say.  Am I just another crazy self-deceived author?  Or a shamefully neglected, extraordinarily talented author?  What in the hell happened to me?  In the immortal words of my old friend Gloria Wilcher:  “Go know.”

The Graphic Novel is a Go!

The campaign begins today on FundMyComic at 1pm EST.

Threat Quotient is a 108-page full color graphic novel that launches a planned series called Tales of the Earthbound. It’s written by bestselling author Henry Brown and illustrated by Luke Stone.

If you choose to get yours now, you can take advantage of the Early Bird Special, and lock in your copy of the Deluxe Edition for less than the cost of the standard physical copy. But this deal only lasts for the first day.

Some of you already understand how crowdfunding a book works, but I didn’t for a long time, so I’m going to explain it in case there’s anybody who is as confused as I once was:

Crowdfunding is Not Always Charity.

If you’re like I was, when you hear “crowdfund,” you think of some kind of request for charity. “Please help me buy a new car/pay for my wedding/fund my move to Memphis/etc.” And that is, indeed, what platforms like GoFundMe and GiveSendGo are for.

Fifteen years ago a friend advised me to look into crowdfunding my next book, but I dismissed the advice out-of-hand, assuming it was all about charitable handouts, not fans buying books because they liked an author’s work. As I’ve learned more about crowdfunding over the last couple years, I’ve realized that my ignorance has cost my career dearly.

Let’s say you know somebody who is trying to start a business. You can help them raise the capital via crowdfund for the startup. It’s not like buying shares in a corporation, or just donating with no recompense. You choose a reward tier and pledge the specified amount. If the crowdfund succeeds, you’ll receive that reward. If the campaign fails, you keep your money.

Help Virtual Pulp Break into Comics!

FundMyComic, as the name suggests, is a crowdfunding site specifically for comic readers to help bring a comic or graphic novel to life. “Life” means reward tiers of physical copies of the book, printed and bound with a few different choices of alternate covers—though many creators (including me) also offer digital reward tiers: a PDF or EPUB of the finished project for a lower price.

If you pledge or “back” this campaign, you are investing in Threat Quotient (and by extension, my endeavor to establish a “beachhead” in the comics business for Virtual Pulp Press) for which I am sincerely grateful. And what you’ll get out of it is a full-color 108 page graphic novel that is an intro to a brand new pantheon of superheroes and the first book in a planned series of epic adventures I’ve dubbed Tales of the Earthbound.

For my Canadian friends who buy more than one physical copy, use the coupon code “MAPLELEAF2” and I’ll discount you $10 to compensate for the shipping.

There’s a “Share this campaign” button on the page, for you to let others know about this book.

Also, please consider tipping the site when you confirm your payment method. FundMyComic is a true free speech platform. You can show your appreciation and allow them to continue charging a low fee for campaigns. Their refusal to engage in censorship is a blessing for creators. I’ve already been censored by Webtoon, and TikTok won’t let me promote my trailer there, for political reasons. I know of a few authors/creators who have been censored for political reasons on all the other platforms where comics are crowdfunded—sometimes after funding goals were already met. The risk is too real. FundMyComic is the only platform I can trust will honor their end of the bargain.

This is an exciting day for me and Virtual Pulp Press. Lots of people complain about the state of entertainment right now, and especially the comics industry. Well, we are working hard to provide a solution. This is an opportunity for you to help us make that work pay off. This could be the start of something great. Follow the link to Kickstarter, pick up a copy for yourself and somebody else who might enjoy a good comic.

Given half a chance, we’ll make American comics great again.

 

Do Politics Ruin Escapism?

The Campaign for Threat Quotient begins on FundMyComic Tuesday at 11am EST! This is the culmination of a long hard uphill slog toward a diehard dream and I invite you to jump onboard and help push it across the goal line.

My friend Ulysses gave me the opportunity to answer some interesting questions:


Comics Odyssey: Tell us again the main premise of Threat Quotient and what is the central conflict?

Henry Brown: Threat Quotient takes place in an alternate timeline. There are differences, like many place names, and the existence of superheroes, but ideologically it is every bit as polarized as our reality in the 2020s.

The Pentagon builds a Quick Reaction Force manned by “ultrahumans” both native to that world, and alternate Earths who are falling through dimensional fissures into this reality.

Their first mission is to keep the peace in a small Asian country where civil conflict is imminent. There’s a local ultrahuman there (Captain Dynamo) who is aligned with the faction opposed to letting Weishaupt International set up a central bank that will rule over Tinidor’s economy…and therefore their government and every other institution.

Captain Dynamo is on a collision course with the United Nations-backed super-team–and he’s going to have some help before all is said and done. The fate of Tinidor hangs in the balance.

CO: Threat Quotient has a pretty large cast of characters. Which ones are the bigger focus and who are they? What kind of challenges should we expect them to go through?

HB: Yes, there is a fairly large cast. This story leads to a clash of two super-teams, after all. I’m stoked about these characters, and would like to eventually to send many of them on their own solo adventures, but for this graphic novel, three of them are in starring roles.

Ramjet is a disabled WWII veteran who built his flying exoskeleton not just for the robotic legs, but also out of his passion for aviation and Medieval armor. While rescuing other pilots shot down behind enemy lines in Korea, he is swallowed into a dimensional fissure and spat out 70 years into the future. The culture shock between 1950 and 2020 America is a lot for him to handle. His New Deal-era blind faith in the government is going to be challenged right from the beginning. Let’s just say his character arc will extend through the entire series as he struggles to do what is right in a world where evil is called good and vice-versa.

Juggernaut, representing Generation X

The Juggernaut has super strength and is very tough to hurt, with a supernatural healing factor when he is. He was swallowed from 1986 in his home world. This loner prefers to just mind his own business and “do his own thing.” He does manage to make a couple good friends in this world…only for them to be wrongfully killed by overzealous paramilitary police. That sets him on a rampage. The name really fits him. He comes to the Pentagon’s attention and it turns its considerable firepower on him. Survival is going to be his most obvious challenge. But under the surface, he’ll have other struggles, like the choice between getting payback or letting it go for a chance at love and peace. And will he continue just looking out for Number One, or decide that there is something greater than himself that’s worth fighting for?

I kind of cheated by saying there are three starring roles. Phantom Force is a family. They are a non-powered, street-level team. All of them are tech-savvy and can hack into surveillance and other networks to use it for their own purpose. That purpose is similar to what Julian Assange/Wikileaks once did, and James O’Keefe/Project Veritas more recently…only on a bigger scale and with ironclad anonymity. Usually only the father and one of his four sons actually deploy for missions, while the other sons handle the remote tech backup. The father, Phantom Leader, has developed the tech they employ, like the “active camouflage” which can turn them invisible. The hands-on son, Phantom Raider, is the martial arts natural, with an aptitude for acrobatics as well. The ongoing challenge for Phantom Force is to continue exposing the truth without getting doxxed themselves. And, while putting their skills to use in Tinidor, they step on the toes of the super-team helping to rig the election there and cover it up. They are the very best at what they do, but are now going to be matched against ultrahumans.

Phantom Raider from the Phantom Force hacker team

CO: “So what’s the snake thing about? The snake on the yellow background with the “Don’t Tread on Me” slogan. I have seen that alot in association with America. But I never questioned what it was. The image is self-explanatory: step on snake, get bit. But why is it an Americanism? And why does Juggernaut wear this as his costume?”

HB: That emblem is from the Gadsen Flag, which some of the American patriots flew before, during and after our War for Independence. It’s basically how those individuals back then expressed the sentiment “fool around and find out” (FAFO) or “Get off my lawn” on a national level. It’s a warning and a show of defiance against stuff like, say, government agents marching from Boston to enforce “gun control” by confiscating cannons (militia weapons) at the Concord Armory.

I once read that Benjamin Franklin wanted the rattlesnake to be our country’s mascot, instead of the bald eagle. The rattler wouldn’t go looking for trouble with human beings, he reasoned, and wouldn’t attack unless you intruded on its territory. Even then, it would give you fair warning. But woe to the man who ignored that warning. In that aspect, it was like the collective American temperament at one time.

The Juggernaut isn’t political, and would prefer to live and let live, keeping his abilities secret from everybody but family. The Gadsen emblem really symbolizes his disposition very well. The America he lands in is being fundamentally transformed into a Third World police state. But he’s not interested in causes or crusading against injustice. But when the Man intrudes on his territory, so to speak, he will “stick it to the Man” and “fight the Power” on a scale we can only dream about.


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He doesn’t look as patriotic as Ramjet, but it could be argued he embodies the classic American spirit better than any other character. The early transformation you’ll see is similar to what the stereotypical American went through from December 6 to December 7, 1941, for example.

Dr Detente, defender of the Status Quo, whatever it may be

CO: “So in Threat Quotient, a portal opens up which draws people from different times to all end up in the same time. It’s a very clever way of giving characters from different generations a way to interact on an even playing field due to them all being of roughly the same age. But because they all get pulled into OUR time it also allows these different generational archetypes to react to the current day we live in. I am particularly interested in this.

During lockdowns of 2020-22 here in Canada, it occurred to me that many of the younger ones had not yet learned to live in history. Even my generation had only minimal training at the time of the 9/11 event due to our proximity to America. I think that is part of the explanation for the overreaction of my co-citizens during covid. Many were too easily shaken. But our grandfathers lived through deeply impactful world wars. THEY had training living in history. I think that the characters in your graphic novel looking at our time through different lenses might allow readers to more clearly “see” truly what is the moment in time we live in, providing with more perspective.

Thoughts?”

HB: Yes–I hope you’re right and it does. People today (especially Millennials and Homelanders, on average) have no interest or respect for history. As Twain and Santayana warned us, that will come back to bite them unless that changes. So if my superhero epic contributes to people realizing their place in history somehow, that would be a positive side effect.

When I first encountered Generational Theory, I became borderline-obsessed with it. The more I learned about what Richard Strauss and Neil Howe had discovered, the more my own observations and experiences over the years made sense, for the first time. I had never thought in that way before, but it meshed with what I did know. It explains so much of what you so astutely observed and inferred, plus so much more.

I discovered it in the process of writing my much-interrupted magnum opus, Paradox. I couldn’t help myself, so retrofitted it into the story where appropriate. Paradox didn’t require that much modification, as it turned out, because it was already about a young man who got relocated in time from one era to another and encountered an entirely different zeitgeist as a result. It’s my most personal work, and as such it’s the most painfully honest on a personal level. Because of that, I had already noted some phenomena that I later learned Strauss and Howe codified. I was still learning about Generational Theory during editing, and my grasp on the theory was improving. The theory helped me explain more thoroughly what I had already alluded to. I could more effectively show the character’s experience and provide historical context by deliberately leaning on my newfound knowledge.

Captain Dynamo isn’t having any of it.

Threat Quotient is the first-ever story I began writing with this knowledge already at hand. While brainstorming, I pondered how the characters in some very familiar timeless myths, legends and folk tales conform to the generational archetypes. That’s fascinating all by itself and I partially explore it in my Substack articles for the series “Generational Storytelling.” But since I was already seeing the truths in Generational Theory in almost everything, it’s only natural I would start examining some of my own superhero concepts from that perspective.

Most of the characters in Threat Quotient have been living in my imagination for decades–a few go back to childhood, though they’ve evolved considerably–even when I assumed I’d never get a chance to make comic books. When I considered putting the Juggernaut in this ensemble epic, of course I reexamined him through the lens of Generational Theory. He’s a destroyer, an antihero, an angry young man and a violent agent of chaos. “Everything sucks, so burn it all down,” sez he. “The Black Muslim of comic book characters” as Jules Feiffer would likely have dubbed him. This character should be Generation X (Nomad Archetype), I realized. Once I figured that out, everything else about him was already there or just came to me easily: the divorced parents, the alienation, individualism, pragmatic survivalism, apathy, nihilism, distrust of institutions, even superficial details like the mullet. It’s a cliche, but he kind of writes himself.

Another character who goes way back in my imagination is the TurboKnight, who is already transitioning to the catchier name of Ramjet. I don’t want to call him a “hopeless romantic,” but he has a romantic concept of chivalry, similar to how many martial arts nerds look at Buddhism and other Eastern belief systems through rose-tinted glasses. He’s an aspirational hero: “God, mom, and apple pie.” To me, that makes him naturally G.I. Generation (Hero Archetype). When I was a young paratrooper, I had the privilege of meeting several WWII veterans at Airborne Conventions and sharing “There I Was” stories (they shared; I listened). From those guys, and some G.I. Generation church elders I knew back in the day, I picked up on their peer personality and am able to blend that with the book knowledge to flesh out this character.

I could go into detail on each character (and plan to, in my “Generational Storytelling” articles), but will leave it at this for now: I thought it would be fun and fascinating to bring all the archetypes together into one storyline. But these are superheroes–men and women of action. So they should all be in their prime, regardless of what year they were born. So I’ve got a G.I., a Silent, Boomers, X, Millennials and a Homelander all on the same playing field in roughly the same age bracket. That’s why I built a multiverse. It fits with my concept of timestreams–which I also explored in Paradox. As I assured you and your audience on the Comics Odyssey podcast, it’s not so I can kill characters off then bring them back, or justify crossover gimmicks.

CO: This question is a bit more of a challenge. Your substack bio reads: “Author of the bestselling (military thriller) Retreads Series and bestselling (time travel) Paradox Series…and, soon, based comic books. Unsatisfied (or flat out revolted) by modern entertainment? Let’s go do some fun escapist stuff.” But your graphic novel deals with real world things, such as references to wokeism, covid restrictions, and various ideologies used as artillery in the culture war. Do you think this may run counter to your “let’s go do escapist stuff” rallying cry?

HB: It’s a fair question and I understand how it might look like I’m giving mixed signals.

I’m a fan of escapist adventure, and consider myself to be a writer of it. Escapist literature, whether the classic pulps, the “men’s fiction” paperbacks, or comic books, all has an element of wish fulfillment, whether it’s Tarzan fighting greedy ivory hunters or the Executioner/Punisher gunning down hordes of gangsters.

Wish Fulfillment allows you to escape while still noticing/acknowledging aspects of reality which are unjust, depressing or infuriating. As in the case of Mack Bolan and the Punisher, the depressing reality of organized crime and its corrupt control of big cities…that ugly reality provided the very opportunity for the wish fulfillment. Would a well-armed Special Forces or Force Recon veteran really be able to effectively and single-handedly wage war on the Mafia? Uhhhhhh no. But it’s a pleasant escape to imagine it could happen. And the experience of the average reader is so far removed from the combat experience of an SF operator or Recon marine, that it can even seem plausible to them.


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A reasonable person can’t honestly argue that Superman wasn’t wish fulfillment on steroids. His stories were escapism if there ever was such. Yet the Golden Age Superman stories included elements of reality like wife abuse, greedy business owners, warmongering dictators, and, as you pointed out on Comics Odyssey: bad drivers. Those were aspects of reality then and now, but they didn’t ruin the escape from the readers’ personal hardships during the Great Depression.

Comics from DC and Marvel in the Current Year are chock-full of activism while providing very little escape. I would argue part of the reason is because the writers and editors are divorced from reality–not anchored to it.

Threat Quotient is not a skinsuit for some right-wing polemic, and I don’t think I get preachy. There are simply elements of reality that I and many others notice, like fake news and mass media brainwashing; what central banks and fiat currency do to sovereign countries; and how cultural Marxism has conquered and corrupted pretty much every institution. It actually adds verisimilitude, making the wish fulfillment all the sweeter.

I fully understand that including those elements is going to upset the crowd that believes all the above are positive hallmarks of progress. They’ve still got mainstream entertainment to indulge their delusions and confirm their biases–they can indulge it to their heart’s content. I also know they’re going to call me a Nazi, conspiracy theorist, etc. Why should I try to appease such people, at the cost of discarding honesty and relevancy?

It’s not just green-haired, pierced-face sexual deviants who will take offense at me for noticing and reflecting reality. Others have been consuming leftist messaging in entertainment all their lives, supporting it with their voting dollars, and defending it as “not that bad” until it grew to the ridiculous proportions of the Current Year. But they simply won’t tolerate entertainment that notices what all that cultural conditioning has wrought. They want comic books wherein the most compelling problems in the world are bank robberies and art gallery heists.

There is a place for that flavor of escapism, and I enjoyed it immensely once. But the world in which that seemed to be an accurate view was long gone before I was born, and not what I need escape from.

It’s often hard to come across good news in our reality, and we can’t identify many real-life heroes. Well, I’ve got a treat for you in my alternate reality.

Read the rest of it on Comics Odyssey. And while you’re there, peruse  the treasure trove of comics-related content, and consider picking up his indie comic, Spirit Girl.

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The Balance Between Perfection and Results

On Comics Odyssey, Ulysses and I chatted about his comic, Spirit Girl, as he showed the artwork from the first few comics and some of his current sketches.

“The Art of Starting Before You’re Ready” is an apt description, and I admire his ability to do it. He weighed the cost of waiting until his art was better before starting, and decided that he wasn’t willing to pay it. Instead, he began chasing his dream immediately, and would learn and improve along the way.

You can tell from what he shows that his art has already improved dramatically since he started that first comic. It has worked for him and was obviously the wise call.

I’m still too much of a perfectionist to do what he did. And at this stage of my life, I wouldn’t have enough patience with myself to start from where I’m at, artistically. But it looks like Ulysses’ strategy worked brilliantly for him.

He is currently working on Issue Four. He’s considering full-color in the future. Also, he contemplates bringing a writer on board for Issue Five.

You should visit Comics Odyssey, and consider reading Spirit Girl, which you can access there.

 

A True Alternative to Mainstream Comics

The rumors about my death are greatly exaggerated. The slow-down in posting here is not due to a lack of news to share (quite the opposite is true. It’s simply because I’ve been even busier than normal).

In less than a month, the Threat Quotient campaign launches on FundMyComic. I still don’t have the size of an email list you’re supposed to when crowdfunding, and I’m hustling every spare minute to get the word out.

I recently had a nice interview by the Brothers Krynn.

And Ulysses of Comics Odyssey had me on his show frequently. Here’s him, me, and James talking character concepts. He even let me write an article for his Substack.

Not only that, Ulysses even drew some “fan art” of Phantom Raider:

In case you missed it, Threat Quotient has some trailers on Commietube and Rumble.

Here’s the Juggernaut trailer:

And the latest–the Phantom Force trailer:

Watch, enjoy, and spread the word!

Sign up for the Kickstarter.

 

Red-Blooded American Men Examine Pop-Culture and the World