This post is brought to you by my new release epic space crusading novel, Justified. Available on Amazon now! Buy here! 

Greetings fellow true believers!

Over the last month, there’s been a concerted effort by identity-politics zealots in science fiction publishing to erase science fiction history in regards to the contribution of one of the most well-known editors of all time, John W. Campbell, whose work with Astounding Magazine shaped the field of science fiction as we know it today. Campbellian-style fiction became the standard with greats like Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov, and the legacy continues to this day.

We’ve been very busy in the Happy Frogs organization this year, especially within the board of trustees, and our annual Ribbit Awards were pushed back several months because of those delays. The awards, however, are returning for their second annual showing, and we are pleased to announce we will be permanently renaming them The John W. Campbell Literary Prize.

The prize is to represent excellence in science fiction and fantasy, and related speculative fields.

Here are this year’s esteemed nominees:

Best Short Story
“The Temple of Baktaar” – Jason Restrick (StoryHack)
“Kakerlacs” – Alexandru Constantin (StoryHack)
The Law of the Wolves – Schuyler Hernstrom (Self Published)
“Crying In The Salt House” – B. Morris Allen (Cirsova)
“The Faerie Pool” – Edward McDermott (Cirsova)

Best Sci-Fi Novel
Dawn Of The Iron Dragon – Robert Kroese
Combat Frame X-Seed – Brian Niemeier
A Star Wheeled Sky – Brad Torgersen
Superluminary: The Lords of Creation – John C. Wright
Star Wars: Thrawn: Alliances – Timothy Zahn

Best Fantasy Novel
Sidequest in Realms Ungoogled – Frank Fleming
Jake And The Dynamo – D.G. Davidson
Rogues of Merth: The Adventures of Dareon and Blue – Robert Zoltan
Amber Eyes – S.D. Grimm
Origins – Lindsay Buroker

Best YA Novel
Pirates of the Electromagnetic Waves – Fenton Wood
Mark of the Raven – Morgan Busse
Crosscurrent – Catherine Jones Payne
Story Peddler – Lindsay Franklin
Fawkes – Nadine Brandes

Best New Author
Paul Platt
Adam Lane Smith
Nathan Dabney
Fenton Wood
Avily Jerome

Best Comic Book Or Graphic Novel
Alt-Hero #2 – Vox Day, Richard Bonk
Grass Kings Volume 1 – Matt Kindt, Tyler Jenkins
Rebel Dead Revenge – Gary Kwapisz
Robyn Hood: The Curse – Chuck Dixon, Julius Abrera
Trump’s Space Force – Timothy Lim, Brett R. Smith, Mark Pellegrini, Chuck Dixon

Best Video Game
Underworld Ascendant
Star Control: Origins
Paladins
DUSK
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Best Film
Aquaman
Death Wish
Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse
A Quiet Place
Psychokinesis

Best Video Series
EmpLemon – YouTube Geographic
Ross Game Dungeon
The Orville
ECKVA
GusToxward – The Trainwreck Awards

Best Sci-Fi Or Fantasy Artist
Ethan Van Sciver
Dave Dorman
Kirk DouPonce
David and Liz Lillie
Boneitis

Best Geek Journalism
Ian Miles Cheong
William Usher (One Angry Gamer)
Nick Monroe
Liana Kerzner
Liz Finnegan

Best Podcast/Stream
Geek Gab With Daddy Warpig
Nick Rekeita
Metro City Boys
Literary Wonder & Adventure Show
Writestream – David V. Stewart

The Lifetime Achievement Trophy
Sarah A. Hoyt
Larry Correia
Mark Kern
Larry Niven
David Weber

Congratulations to all!

We are hard at work voting within the Happy Frogs organization and should have our winners within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for a date announcement. Congratulations to ALL the nominees — by nature, a Happy Frog is a WINNER, and you are all winning by being chosen as a finalist for the 2nd most prestigious awards in science fiction and fantasy.

If you appreciate the hard work I do for the genre, check out my new book: Justified: The Saga Of The Nano-Templar. It features a strong male lead, is pro-Christianity, and exemplifies the virtues of honor and loyalty in this space-crusading epic. You’ll love it.

Buy Justified here.

I can’t think of anything.

If you like my content, support my patreon. It helps me cover web costs, and I produce short stories, books and more for you every month. Great value. Subscribe today.

I’ve been reading a lot of comics from the 60s-70s lately, and just enjoying how much unabashed fun the artists and writers have. Drawing absurd scenarios, heroes overcoming overwhelming odds, character development that mattered and changed characters, this was the promise Stan Lee delivered when he turned the superhero paradigm on its head and ushered in the silver age.

As comics became more “brands” they stopped the focus on the fun storytelling and character development. In the 80s-90s properties got gobbled up for film rights and the folk who took over realized “wait, if we change too much these lose their iconic flavor for the potential films, we have to reset!” — and then event fever took place, with “world-shattering” and “universe changing” crossovers which always had the world ending, always had something resetting and changing when the world was made right again. A hero would die. A hero would come back to life.

When these events became the norm, comics stopped being fun. Because there’s no danger, there’s no wonder, there’s no progression, there’s just an ever stagnant property where they’re tricking you into buying the brand so they can keep Hollywood happy by having a promotional item for the film.

It sucks. It needs replacement.

On that note, I was thinking about how Stan called The Fantastic Four the “World’s Greatest Comics Magazine”, and he was right. The family dynamic, the character development, the crazy sci-fi adventures, it was all there.

And as I think about how times have changed in the industry, and what I’m doing to combat it, I’m trying to give that fun factor again. Have a storyline where things actually change, what happens actually matters. As Flying Sparks reaches its apex in this first arc (of which I hope will be many), there will be a world shattering event. It will change the entire dynamic of the comic — and it’s not just an empty promise. The events in it will MATTER. There will be no erasure, no reset.

I don’t even think readers are prepared for what’s going to happen, but I’ve hinted along the way.

We’re bringing it back. Just like FF was the World’s Greatest Comics Magazine, Flying Sparks is America’s Greatest Modern Superhero book, I’m sure of that more than ever before. We have something special going and more folk need to hear about it.

Tell your friends. Let them know the change they demanded from comics is here. Flying Sparks is the flagship and you should be reading it if you love comics.

We’ve already hit huge success. Back today and let’s get this even bigger.

I know de 10K!

Flying Sparks hit the $10,000 mark overnight, making this the four project of mine to do so.

So exciting!

It’s a huge win for the book which keeps on trucking through 3 volumes.

I’m super proud that we’ve been able to produce 210+ pages of this storyline for you in less than a year. It’s stressful to try to stay on that clock and really be an alternative to mainstream comics, but it’s worth the time and energy as people respond to the hard work we’re doing.

With each volume, we’re getting better too. The stories are tighter and more action-packed. Jethro’s lines are much more detailed than when we started. Our colors are sharper too. It’s really awesome to watch the full progression of this superhero book.

And soon we will expand this into a superhero universe.

But for now, we have to get this main storyline of Flying Sparks going still. And it means sharing it to new people who want to check out a real superhero character that develops, changes, has drama that matters, has real danger facing them.

There’s no retcons here, no magical resets of the universe, just a real story where every issue, every decision the characters make, have lasting consequences.

This is the way comics were meant to be.

I hope you’ll join the 200+ people who are already in on this great graphic novel and help push this forward and to the next level.

You’ll never believe what I have in store for you all next.

Thanks again for all the support so far! You’re the best readers ever.

I’d also like to thank Bounding Into Comics for the mention on their site last night. Please bookmark them and give them some love.

Back Flying Sparks now — and remember if you want Posters or T-shirts, just add $25 to your pledge, same if you want any additional books from my catalog.

Both are probably true, tbh.

Support my content, support my patreon. Subscribe today – great value with short stories and comics coming out every month plus more! We’re very close to having this cover my lettering expenses for my comics every month, just need your help!

If you for some reason missed Flying Sparks Volume 2 on my kickstarter, or on my backerkit, and still want to pick the book up, we’ve now got it up on Amazon.

This is just another spot where I’m part of the solution to the failed industry that’s actually DOING something about it, where others just gave lip service.

My books are available all the time. They don’t magically disappear from print, they don’t have a false inflation to them because of a fake rarity. They are here for the story first, and the story last.

In 2019 there’s absolutely zero reason to create a false scarcity of items. Over time, I will be able to keep growing Flying Sparks and really win because my book will be available always and easily.

The purpose of my comics isn’t just a single crowdfund campaign, though supporting there really helps get this engine going, it’s to create a sustainable industry alternative and keep it going. That’s how we’re going to make a difference. In comics, you can’t rest on one book a year or less.

We’re running like clockwork. Get to backers out on time. Get it up for sale for new readers. This is the real industry alternative. Join us in making comics great again.

The current campaign for Volume 3 is also REALLY close to $10K. It can get over the top today if you come in. Thanks everyone who backed so far!

’nuff said.

If you like my content, you’ll probably like my writing. Pick up Flying Sparks Volume 3 on Kickstarter now! We’re very close to 200 backers and our next stretch goal! Pre-order here.

If you missed the hoopla last month, there is a “LatinX Screams” anthology of horror stories only by LatinX authors taking submissions (by a white publisher of course).

As The Leading Hispanic Voice in science-fiction, I of course had to take this opportunity to highlight my people’s work and write a story, since there are so few outlets that will ever accept work by LatinX authors like myself.

Naturally, I took to Twitter dot com to voice my excitement, tagging the editor and mentioning how excited I was for the opportunity (like a lot of authors do) and voicing I would be writing a story.

My story, of course, is about an I.C.E. agent who has to hunt down illegal vampires crossing the border and sucking the blood out of American children.

Instead of cheering on the #ownvoices representing the 52% of ICE agents who also identify as Hispanic, the editor and publisher started calling me names, and publicly rejected the story — before I’d even finished writing it!

They hadn’t read the work to see if it’s a good story, nothing. Their hatred, bigotry, and intolerance toward LatinX authors who dare voice different political opinions than theirs was on full display, and this anthology was shown to be a sham of epic proportions.

They want us to be their thought-slaves, doing their bidding, only espousing THEIR narratives so their can feel good about themselves and pat themselves on the back for being good white saviors.

But I won’t have any of it. I will write what I want to write as a minority author.

And so, I have my story. I have put it up for Patreon subscribers, as those wonderful loyal folk care about my beautiful stories, and get a short every month plus more at higher tiers.

It’s my preferred way to get support as I’m having to deal with these publishers who say they want to support LatinX authors, but in fact, never do anything of the sort.

Subscribe here and get the story today. Just $3/month for short stories that are consistent, good, and fun. You can’t beat the value, and I guarantee the story’s a fun one.

The same thing we learn every week in this culture war: there’s a market in pissing off the SJWs.

You’re not allowed to say this, not allowed to think that, it’s the state of 2019.

Some of Chappelle’s jokes were funny, some weren’t, some were shocking, some were standard takes on issues you’d hear anywhere, they’re all hit and miss as all comedy is — and of course there’s different humor for everyone.

But overall, the theme is being a punk rocker and sticking a middle finger to the cultural police that are telling you “you’re not allowed.”

It’s a fight I’ve been fighting for two years, and I keep doing what I’m not “allowed to do”, my career keeps being declared “over”, and amazingly, I keep doing better and better as this all goes along.

Chappelle and I have it somewhat easier than others in that regard, as he’s black and I’m Hispanic, which means we get to be protected classes to some degree in this culture war. It makes it easier for us to speak our minds without fear.

Though the truth is — the fear only exists because of the social pressure created by these gatekeepers in the first place.

The more of us speak out, the more of us say we don’t care, the more of us just speak our individual minds, the less the PC-Police can do anything. It’s our one job in this “cancel culture” to have to do in order for our culture to thrive and survive.

I’ll use the special to urge everyone: write the comedy that’s not allowed, write the books they say should be burned, create the music which they don’t want the public to hear.

You’ll win in the end, because society will win in the end.

I’ve been told over and over by different publishers, writers, artists, etc. that “indie superhero books don’t work”. That it’s a dead genre. That I shouldn’t waste my time. I should be writing something more literary. I have a dream of my own superhero universe anyway, one to compete with the big studios. And I’m doing it, and it’s succeeding. Check out Flying Sparks Volume 3 and help get this book that “shouldn’t exist” to the next level.