#Arkhaven INFOGALACTIC #Castalia House
Some of you may recall Dynamique. In ALT-HERO Book Two, we learn that the Global Justice Initiative utilizes some rather unusual recruitment practices. We are currently in the process of preparing for the Kickstarter, which will launch in approximately 4-6 weeks. The plan is to produce four digital books, which will be collected in a single hardcover book.
Just a little taste of what we’re working on for the Alt-Hero project. This is going to be a graphic novel project of bigger scope than most people are probably anticipating; the story infrastructure has to be large enough to support a wide range and variety of storylines and I have no interest in simply retelling lame versions of Marvel and DC stories. Alt-Hero is going to be as influenced by The Incredibles and, to a lesser extent, Sandman, as it is by Batman and the Justice League of America.
The most important mainstream superhero organization is the Global Justice Initiative, which is divided into EU and US divisions. Capitán Europa is the leader of the Initiative, which reports directly to the European Commission, while the US division is led by Dr. Ladarius Nano, PhD, a brilliant African-American scientist. Dynamique is a French member of the Initiative, who is a Parisian fashion model by day, and who is frequently getting in trouble for being caught smoking cigarettes by the paparazzi.
Besides fighting crime, racism, smoking, and nationalism, the main job of the Global Justice Initiative is to hunt down rogue superheroes who refuse to use their powers for the common good, at least as it is defined by the European Commission and the United Nations. One of the Initiative’s ongoing concerns is to put an end to the Vigilant Front, a ragtag collection of politically problematic vigilantes linked to the suspiciously long-lived Prophet.
As there has been a tremendous amount of interest expressed in supporting the launch of a Castalia Comics line, and because the Brainstorm almost unanimously decided it was a project that merited pursuing, I’ve done some preliminary work in developing storylines, creating characters, finding good artists, and sorting out what sort of formats we should utilize. This is a mostly new area for me – writing the text for three Archangels comics is the full extent of my previous experience – so there is a bit of a learning curve involved, but I’m leaning towards a combination of smaller digital products combined with larger softcover print books and the occasional hardcover book for the hard core supporters and comics aficionados.
We also have to deal with the fact that Kickstarter is not a serious option. I contacted them and was open about what we intend to do with Alt-Hero, but instead of simply telling us that there was no chance in Hell they would permit such an egregious offense to their SJW principles, they said that we should put the entire campaign together, launch it, and then at that point they would let us know if it was acceptable or not.
Right. Fortunately, there are other options, as needless to say, even this small glimpse of the world of Prophet, Captain Euro, Michael Martel, and the UN-sponsored Global Justice Initiative will suffice to trigger outrage in the average SJW. Assuming that support for the project continues to remain strong, I expect we’ll launch the Alt-Hero kickstarter in 2-3 months.
