Where Stories Come From: ALWAYS PUNCH NAZIS

(Revised 03/04/2024)

One year ago, Nazis and white supremacists held their "Unite the Right" protest in Charlottesville. A young woman who was protesting against white supremacy was run over by one white supremacist; a black man was violently assaulted by a group of white supremacists.

Pals Ben Ferrari and Silas Dixon of Pilot Studios (who graciously invited me to review Longhunters and Carriers in the past) held an open call for an anthology called Always Punch Nazis, focusing on efforts to fight white supremacy and to serve as a fundraiser for a noble organization.

And when they put out a call for stories, I said "Hell, yes"...and cranked out a script in an hour and a half. It was a story called "One Bullet Too Many." and was a relatively easy script to write based on an idea for an unpublished Black Bat story for Excelsior Webcomics. Rather than the original premise of a big game hunter gone rogue, the story focused on a Nazi whose intentions were to clear the way for the "Master Race"...by any means necessary.

(Plus, I was engaged in writing my Black Bat novel for Pro Se Productions, and writing a then-classic Black Bat helped me stay "in the mood" when revamping him for the 21st century."

Admittedly, it's a simple story (after all, I only had six pages of art), but after cranking out the script...the right art team came together. Stuart Berryhill drew the *hell* out of this story from Kurt Belcher's breakdowns. Micah Myers did a great job of lettering, and the colorist (whose name escapes me right now) hit the right Batman: The Animated Series vibe that I wanted.

The only bummer is that Breitbart decided to jerk Pilot Studios around, claiming that their Always Punch Nazis Kickstarter violated their terms of service. Between this and Facebook preventing online advertising of my friend Dawn Xiana Moon's fundraiser for immigration rights due to "political content", well...you might understand why I'm feeling outraged.

We're living in contentious times. Some people still don't want to see the pernicious and toxic role racism plays in American society. It's easy to adopt a philosophy that "both sides are equal"...but unfortunately, neutrality is no longer an option.

Both sides are not equal: one side wants to see the destruction and denigration of various groups due to skin color, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The other side believes in the inherent dignity and worth of human beings.

You can order Volume One of Always Punch Nazis via Amazon, and you can find my other writings via my Amazon Author page.