Mailvox: eCONcomics and limited editions

Written by economist Steve Keen, one of the few professional economists to have correctly anticipated the global financial crisis of 2008, eCONcomics is a series of three satires explaining why the science of economics has gone so terribly wrong. In these savagely erudite satires, Keen highlights the lameness of the excuses offered by economists for their failure to predict anything from the financial crisis to the recent stock market highs. From “secular stagnation” to the “non-accelerating inflation rate of employment” and the “full employment real interest rate”, Keen expertly mocks both the myths and the incompetence of his professional colleagues.

After reading eCONcomics, you will understand why no economist ever seems to be able to explain what is going on today, or tell you what will happen tomorrow.

Steve Keen is Professor of Economics at Kingston University in London, and an Honorary Professor at University College London.

I wasn’t planning to announce this until next week, as it’s still not in stock on Amazon, and there are some pricing/discount issues that we have to resolve, but since I know some of you are checking out the Castalia Books Direct store and it’s as cheap to ship five comics as one, I figured I’d go ahead and make the print edition of Steve Keen’s economics comic book available to those who are interested today: eCONcomics: Taking the CON out of Economics.

Which, I will warn you, even in comic book form is challenging. On the other hand, it is indubitably a unique collector’s item from one of the great minds of economics. Imagine owning a first edition of Albert Einstein’s first comic book….

Anyhow, this is a larger 10×7 32-page book that we did not originally plan on selling anywhere but through Amazon and the chain stores – the comic stores are hardly going to carry a highly esoteric educational one-off – so we set a low retail price and a low discount. The problem is that this means the $4.99 price on the Castalia Direct store is actually higher than the $3.99 retail price. We will resolve that somehow, but whether it involves raising the retail price and the discount or something else, I simply don’t know. So, if you very understandably would prefer to wait for the retail price, it should be on Amazon by the end of the next week. While it is being published by Castalia, for the time being I put it in the Arkhaven collection on the store for simplicity’s sake. You can even pick up a copy of Steve’s Can We Avoid Another Financial Crisis? while you’re there.

Also, a reader who is a former comic book store guy had an idea for how we could produce limited collector’s editions to benefit the early supporters. He suggested that we do something to signify the first X number of copies printed, such as a gold Arkhaven logo or whatever, as this would potentially increase their value to collectors down the road. While I’m not interested in playing the variant covers game, or charging people more for mirrored reflective holographic covers, something like this that doesn’t cost the reader any more and simply rewards those who were the first to support our new comics strikes me as a win-win situation.

So, is this of any interest to the collectors in our midst, and if it is, what should X be? Our goal is to eventually hit average issue sales of at least 50,000, so keep in mind that we probably want to establish a limited edition base that we will not change in the future. Also keep in mind that it costs us both time and money to make this change on every single comic, not much, but enough that we don’t want to do it for 50 or 100 comics. My thought is that something in the range between 500 and 5,000 would be about right, but I will defer to the wisdom of the enthusiasts.

And finally, how would you like us to signify these collector’s editions? The aforementioned gold logo, distinctive yet tasteful? A giant garish COLLECTOR’S EDITION stamp? Share your thoughts.

Changing the game

That’s right. It has begun. Single-issue, full-color comics with at least one extra page of story for 24.5 percent less than the average price of the top 300-selling comics… and at your local bookstore.

Or you can buy directly from us. Not the ebook, the print edition. And if you’re just curious, you can even read them free if you’ve got Kindle Unlimited.

It’s just a trickle now, of course. But the deluge is coming. The deluge is definitely coming.

UPDATE: A helpful reader has worked out the US shipping charges. Apparently the best deals are to buy 2 paperbacks + 1-5 comics or 10-16 comics for $3.49 shipping, or 1 paperback + 1-4 comics for $3.99 shipping. We have no idea why it is less expensive to ship 10 comics than 6, but that is not our department. As for outside the USA, we expect to be able to sell directly to Europe and the UK within a month or so. No word on Australia as yet.

1 comic + 1 paperback $3.99 USPS Economy (1-2 Weeks) or $4.99 USPS Priority (1-3 Days)
1 comic + 2 paperback $3.49 USPS Economy (1-2 Weeks) or $4.99 USPS Priority (1-3 Days)
1 comic + 3 paperbacks $4.49 UPS Ground (3-5 Days)
1 comic + 4 paperbacks $5.99 UPS Ground (3-5 Days)

2 comics + 1 paperback $3.99 USPS Economy (1-2 Weeks) or $4.99 USPS Priority (1-3 Days)
2 comics + 2 paperbacks $3.49 USPS Economy (1-2 Weeks) or $4.99 USPS Priority (1-3 Days)
2 comics + 3 paperbacks $4.49 UPS Ground (3-5 Days)
2 comics + 4 paperbacks $5.99 UPS Ground (3-5 Days)

3 comics + 1 paperback $3.99 USPS Economy (1-2 Weeks) or $4.99 USPS Priority (1-3 Days)
3 comics + 2 paperbacks $3.49 USPS Economy (1-2 Weeks) or $4.99 USPS Priority (1-3 Days)
3 comics + 3-4 paperbacks $4.49 UPS Ground (3-5 Days)

4 comics + 1 paperback $3.99 USPS Economy (1-2 Weeks) or $4.99 USPS Priority (1-3 Days)
4 comics + 2 paperbacks $3.49 USPS Economy (1-2 Weeks) or $4.99 USPS Priority (1-3 Days)
4 comics + 3-4 paperbacks $4.49 UPS Ground (3-5 Days)
4 comics + 5 paperbacks $5.99 UPS Ground (3-5 Days)

5 comics + 1 paperback $3.49 USPS Economy (1-2 Weeks) or $4.99 USPS Priority (1-3 Days)
5 comics + 2 paperbacks $3.49 USPS Economy (1-2 Weeks) or $4.99 USPS Priority (1-3 Days)
5 comics + 3 paperbacks $4.49 UPS Ground (3-5 Days)
5 comics + 4-5 paperbacks $5.99 UPS Ground (3-5 Days)

6-9 comics: $3.99 USPS Economy or $4.99 USPS Priority
10-16 comics: $3.49 USPS Economy or $4.99 USPS Priority
17+ comics: $4.49 UPS Ground

You don’t say

A Hillary staffer attends CPAC:

‘Make sure to check in with us!” one friend told me. “Try not to get killed,” another warned. I wasn’t off to a war zone or a spy mission in Moscow. I was riding a bus from New York to Washington to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference.

To be sure, I’m a tiny, talkative South Asian woman who spent four months on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign staff. I wasn’t exactly in my element surrounded by people in “Make America Great Again” hats chanting “Lock her up! Lock her up!“ But there was more to CPAC than that….

I found myself … nodding my head in agreement with parts of Ben Shapiro’s speech.

Imagine that.

Americans don’t need God

At least, not to be good. Or so most of them think.

Americans took God out of public schools. And universities, mostly. And, over the years, government. And social issues. And holiday references. And there even have been attempts to banish God, or belief in Him, from business, including in the fight over abortion funding in Obamacare.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a new Pew Research poll found 56 percent of Americans say it’s not necessary to believe in God to be moral and have good values.

That’s up from the 49 percent who expressed that view in 2011.

“This increase reflects the continued growth in the share of the population that has no religious affiliation, but it also is the result of changing attitudes among those who do identify with a religion, including white evangelical Protestants,” Pew said.

After answering the poll question and confirming “her” opinion that “she” did not need God to be moral, the transgender “woman” posted lies on Facebook about a political opponent being a neo-Nazi homophobe, before prostituting “herself” to a gay man, and donating a small portion of the proceeds to Planned Parenthood in order to help murder unborn children.

Then “she” went to the Episcopalian “church” to worship “God the Mother”.

It must be all those “Judeo-Christian” values of which we hear so much about these days. Who needs God when you’ve got Judeo Christ? This should end well. In any event, as Christopher Hallpike amply demonstrates, those Americans are wrong.

Come see the violence

Inherent in the insane, shamelessly hypocritical world of SJW comics:

Comics creators really hate criticism. Every time “Diversity and Comics” creator Richard Meyer reviews a comic book he doesn’t like, industry professionals lose their minds and wish violence on him. The last time it happened he was threatened by a Marvel professional and told to stay away from Comicon. This time, Image Comics’ transgender writer Michelle Perez tweeted that he wishes Meyer had died in an IED attack.

Michelle Perez@rubblewoman
richard c meyer, aka the diversity and comix guy. he did a 30 minute video about a comic book circular that featured an article of mine. hes a multiple divorcee piece of shit. hes a war veteran so of course he’s a cryptofascist. unfortunately an IED didnt blow him up

Michelle Perez@rubblewoman
my unvarnished opinion: man it sure sucks that this guy didnt get blown up by an IED

Twitter has not removed the posts for violating community standards.

Meyer is an Afghanistan combat veteran who survived multiple IED attacks and served his country honorably. He has now carved out a popular niche for himself reviewing comic books and has a huge following on YouTube. He has been at the forefront in bringing attention to the far-left ideologues who have taken over the comics industry and he isn’t shy about reporting their terrible behavior and penchant for always running to violent ideation any time they are offended….

Bounding Into Comics reported that Erik Larson, Image Comics co-founder and board member, responded to the uproar.

Larsen’s initial reaction was to explain Perez’s wish for Meyer to be killed is part of freedom of speech, “I can’t control what other people say or do anymore than they can control what I say or do. It’s just words, man. Nobody was hurt. That’s the freedom of speech in action. None of us have to like it.”

But comics artist and veteran Will Caligan lost his job at Short Fuse Media for expressing his opinion that men can’t change their DNA by wishful thinking. His First Amendment rights meant nothing to the mob. His innocuous truth about the impossibility of DNA morphing by the power of wishes took food off his table, but Perez can wish to see a veteran blown up in an IED attack and suddenly #FreeSpeechMatters.

We’re not fooled. The double standard for conservative voices in comics is deafening—and #Comicsgate is about to boil over.

It is increasingly evident that the entire “free speech” movement of the so-called Enlightenment was never about anything but getting Christians to relax their blasphemy laws. Obviously that was a tremendous mistake. Again and again, we have seen that tolerating evil merely leads to the rule of intolerant evil.

The sad truth is that Image and the other independents are actually more converged than Marvel and DC. At least the Big Two have to pretend to acknowledge the mass market, even when they make major mistakes like trying to claim this bare-faced Western whore is a Muslim. The indies are free to let their freak flags fly, and they make the average Lovecraft cultist look sane and reserved by comparison.

No worries. Alt★Hero is coming. And speaking of comics, don’t forget that Rebel Dead Revenge #2: Satan’s Army is now available and the #1 comic in four categories. I’m also pleased to report that our distributor has successfully addressed the technical issue and the first two Arkhaven print editions should be available on Amazon soon. But you don’t need to wait if you want to acquire both #1 issues.

The younger religion

There has been a similar debate at Steve Sailer’s over the propagandistic term “Judeo-Christian”. There were four things in particular that I noted from the comments:

1) The great American intellectual Harold Bloom reached a similar conclusion about the myth of the “Judeo-Christian tradition”.

There is no such thing as a Judeo-Christian tradition. That is absolutely ridiculous. And fascinatingly enough there are two things that I’ve said throughout my life when I’ve addressed Jewish audiences, say at the Jewish Theological Seminary or such places, and they always get furious at me. But they’re both true. One is that nowhere in the whole of the Tanakh does it say that a whole people can make themselves holy through study of texts. That’s a purely Platonic idea, and comes out of Plato’s Laws. That simply shows how thoroughly Platonized the rabbis of the second century were. The other one, which I say in this book and it has already given some offense, is that in fact not only is Judaism, which is a product of the second century of the common era—and it’s worked out by people like you know Akiba and his friends and opponents like Ishmael and Tarphon and the others, is a younger religion than Christianity is. Christianity in some form exists in the first century of the common era. What we now call Judaism comes along in the second century of the common era. Christianity is actually the older religion, though it infuriates Jews when you say that to them.

2) Christianity has considerably more in common with Islam than with Judaism. The Muslims regard Jesus Christ as a divinely inspired prophet. The Jews regard him as at best a fraud, and at worst, an evil sorcerer who is in Hell boiling in excrement. The Jews are also awaiting the Antichrist and will worship him. The Muslims are not.

Unlike Islam, Judaism does not accept Jesus as a prophet or as having performed any miracles. The rabbi’s best guess was that Jesus was the illegitimate offspring of a Roman soldier and that Mary made up the “virgin” thing as an excuse. Nowadays they would go on Maury Povich and get a paternity test. They most certainly do not believe that Jesus came back to life after his crucifixion and then flew up to heaven. 

3) Oliver Cromwell never allowed the Jews to legally return to England. The celebration of the “informal resettlement” is pure historical revisionism meant to hide the fact that they were illegal infiltrators there for hundreds of years, until 1858. And it was the same sort of evangelical ecumenites as today’s churchian cuckservatives who were responsible for the legal emancipation of the Catholics and the Jews. Less than a century later, England found itself enmeshed in global wars, lost its empire, then its sovereignty, and was invaded by third world savages. Sound familiar?

4) This exchange was both informative and hilarious. The amusing thing is the way in which that David Goldberg’s semi-autistic fan actually thinks he’s being conciliatory rather than infuriating.

As a Jew, I have nothing against Jesus. At best, “Jesus” is a fairy tale creation, akin to Santa or the Easter Bunny. At worst, Jesus was a dangerous cult leader/sorcerer/terrorist, but who cares cause he’s dead. The real issue is political reality. And the fact is, Israel needs evangelical support.
– SpenglerFan

Really? Why is that? Why not use your awe-inspiring 115 IQs to take care of yourselves for once? I’d also like to let you know how much I enjoyed hearing the rationalist, “fairy tale” explanation of Jesus, juxtaposed with the suggestion that he might really have been an evil sorcerer. You don’t get that combination very often.
– Anon

Celebrate Wakanda

I think it is great that Wakandans resident in the United States have their own anthem. They are clearly a distinct people and they should be encouraged in their national pride. “Next year in Wakanda!”

Several NBA teams have played what is known as the “negro national anthem” at games during Black History Month thanks in part to the urging of a retired Howard University professor.

Eugene Williams, a 76-year-old retiree in Clinton, Maryland, has made it his goal to get professional and collegiate teams to play “Lift Every Voice and Sing” during February. He has been calling and writing teams for the past six months.

The Washington Wizards became the fourth NBA team to play the song at a game, doing so during a timeout midway through the first quarter against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night. As the song played, a video was shown with on-court highlights and Wizards players engaging in community activities.

The Oklahoma City Thunder played it in January, Williams said. The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Warriors played “Lift Every Voice and Sing” in February.

Williams attended the Warriors-Wizards game on the last day of Black History Month to hear the song played.

“I had no idea it would amount to all of this,” Williams said.

He plans to keep advocating for more NBA teams to play the song during Black History Month. He is also reaching out to universities to include the song during games, having already heard it at Georgetown University games.

However, I think we can all agree that it would be considerably less racist if the various organizations were to change the name of the month-long holiday from Black History Month to Wakandan History Month.

And can you even imagine how beautiful it would be to celebrate Kwanzaa in Wakanda!

It’s a start, anyhow

Kurt Schlichter appears to have correctly concluded that more dire warnings will not suffice to deter the Left:

They hate you. And we must act accordingly.

 The first step is the political battle. Wake up – the midterms are coming and we need to ensure that these people do not gain the power to undercut our rights. At CPAC, President Trump demonstrated that his competitive nature is in full effect – he intends on winning. We need to do the same. Volunteer. Donate. Activate. Yeah, it’s a hassle. We’d all like a pause to this constant cold warfare. That is not happening.

The second step is the cultural battle. The left is intent on mobilizing the corporations that form the infrastructure of society against us. We need to respond with our own political power, and that means casting off the tired shackles of an ideology that assumes we are in a pure free market scenario. “Free market solutions” don’t apply where companies instead act based on political ideology when choosing to exercise political power; how, exactly, do we respond to a company that acts against us but decides it doesn’t care about the market consequences? Well, we can’t – unless we use our own political power. Georgia refusing to give Delta a tax break – which it should not have gotten in the first place – is the template. If they want to declare a cultural war on us, let’s give them one. It’s not how you or I want it to be, but it is how it is. Maybe pain will motivate them to re-adopt the old rules. Surrender sure won’t.

The third step is to create deterrent facts on the ground. Demonstrate your commitment to your rights by joining the NRA and, further, by buying guns and ammunition. Tyranny is not out of the question – hey, aren’t they always calling Trump Hitler? Tens, even hundreds of millions of armed American Normals provide a deterrent to the kind of insanity we’ve seen the left hinting at. Be prepared to protect the Constitution, and the chances of them getting violent will diminish exponentially. Remember, they don’t want to fight; they prefer we give up under a barrage of hectoring from CNN and vicious tweets about how we hate children.

Yes, it’s ugly. Yes, perhaps it’s even frightening. But it is how it is, with leftists who makes no bones about what they think of you. They hate you. And you need to act accordingly.

It’s something. It’s a start. But it’s still very far from sufficient. If you’re still hoping that “pain will motivate them to re-adopt the old rules”, then you’re still failing to understand and accept the current situation. And sure, it could be somewhat demoralizing to see how many so-called conservatives, and how much of the so-called Right, simply refuses to support the only people willing to stand up and defend America, Christianity, and the West.

But so what? We don’t need those cowardly, lukewarm ninnies more concerned about appeasing the enemy than they are about defending their nation, their faith, and their families any more than Gideon needed the mouthdrinkers, George Washington needed the Tories, or Jesus Christ needed the masses he fed with the bread and fish. Alt★Hero has 2,160 backers. After only one video, Voxiversity already has 261. And all our Lord and Savior needed was 12.

We can win. And we will win. All we have to do is find the courage to show up and fight. Support those who openly stand up for the good, the right, and the true. Ignore those who won’t, and oppose those who attack them.

Rebel Dead Revenge #2: Satan’s Army

The Devil is raising an army!

To the horror of his loyal servant, Jim, Confederate general Stonewall Jackson has been summoned back from the grave to lead Satan’s army of ravenous undead. But the great general’s arm is missing, and only Jim knows where it might be. He doesn’t know why Satan needs it, but he knows that he has to do everything he can to prevent the Devil from finding it.

The South rises again in REBEL DEAD REVENGE!

Written and illustrated by Savage Sword of Conan and The Punisher artist Gary Kwapisz, Rebel Dead Revenge #2: Satan’s Army is 30 pages and $2.99. Available on Kindle and KU, it is the second Dark Legion Comics release but it will not be the only one in March, as we plan to release Chicago Typewriter: The Red Ribbon later this month. Check out the Look Inside on Amazon, it’s as intense as its predecessor. And, apparently, as well-received.

#1 in Kindle Store > Comics & Graphic Novels > Historical Fiction
#1 in Kindle Store > Comics & Graphic Novels > Zombies
#1 in Kindle Store > Comics & Graphic Novels > Military

In Arkhaven news, we’ve had some trouble getting our first two print editions to show up in stock on Amazon due to an internal issue at our distributor that was inadvertently created by our very low retail prices of $2.99. That is in the process of being resolved, but in the meantime, you can order both Right Ho, Jeeves #1 and QUANTUM MORTIS A Man Disrupted #1 from Castalia Books Direct. Note that we do considerably better if you order print editions there than from Amazon, and that the shipping cost is the same from one to five comics. That doesn’t matter much when we’ve only got two in print, but we will have more available soon, starting with Steve Keen’s eCONcomics.

And on the Alt★Hero front, backers who are Site Heroes should check their email later today, as Markku and I will be holding an online meeting tonight at 7 PM Eastern with all 68 of them to introduce the Alt★Hero forums. This is an independent site that is hosting discussion forums for all of the comics, including both Arkhaven and Dark Legion series. There are special Backer’s Only forums, including one just for the Site Heroes to discuss how the site should be structured and run. Everyone will be able to read the forums, but only approved and registered users will be permitted to post there. The fact that Freestartr had to recently remove the ability to comment on all three campaigns there due to pornographic graffiti being posted by SJWs should suffice to explain why open registration and posting will not be the site policy.

It’s really not that hard

Keep in mind, all of this is after many repeated warnings, bannings, and finally, spammings.

Hi,  I was a chatter on your blog,  Mature-Craig, citizen Pepe

I want to apologize for not staying away as you asked

There was a couple topics you brought up that gave me a chance to get some things off my chest publicly that I needed to get off my chest.

I am going to stay away from now on.

I sincerely wish you all the best
– Craig Joseph, 4/3/2017 5:56 PM

OK sir I will leave and not come back.  My wife doesnt liike me spending too much time on this anyway.

I wanted to apologize to you one more time.  I wanted to apologize to both you are and your wife as well for my gamma behavior ten years ago.  I want both you and your wife to know I think very highly of both of you.  I think back at some of the things I was saying 2004-05 and I am disgusted with myself.     Best to you and your family.

Its not a good spot for me.
– Craig Joseph, 2/25/2018 4:41 PM

American Christianity has generally had a deeper love for the Old Testament than European Christianity. And the vast majority of religious American Christians see the Jews as the root of the tree of Christ.

fair enough I guess

The fact that America is Judeo-Christian and not merely Christian is a reflection of those facts.

kind of an antagonistic thing to say,

its also fact that America has a lot of Anglo Saxon Christians, its a fact that America is also Anglo-Christian, Italo-Christian, Afrikana-Christian, Latino-Christian, Oriento-Christian etc

The roots of the Jewish people are more closely tied to Jesus Christ than those other groups that is true, but I say its a fact that America is Anglo-Christian, there are many many Anglo Christians in this country
– Craig Joseph aka The Pepe report 3/1/2018 10:40 AM

it wont happen again,
– Craig Joseph 3/1/2018 5:04 PM

Seriously, what is the problem? Look, it’s really NOT THAT HARD to not visit a blog, let alone not comment on it. For example, John Scalzi asked me to stop commenting on his blog back in 2008. I haven’t commented on it since and I’ve barely even visited it except to occasionally copy a post that someone else has pointed out to me for subsequent quoting here.

If you’re told not to comment here, then don’t do so. You are not welcome. You are trespassing. You may even by illegally cyberstalking, depending upon the law in your jurisdiction. You’re not going to change anyone’s minds, you’re not going to get me back somehow, and you’re not going to prove anything except for the fact that you have less self-control than the average crack-addicted teenage prostitute.