"The Adventures of BLUE EAGLE" -- Cover Reveal and Why I'm Only Selling It For 99 Cents
I’m so excited!
This is a big day in the annals of superhero fiction. This will be remembered along with April 18, 1938–the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics #1!
Today I reveal the cover of my debut book, The Adventures of BLUE EAGLE, Vol. 1!
But before I get into it, I want to first talk about the project and the price.
Then, after I’ve teased you for a bit, I’ll show you the cover.
Or you can just scroll down and look if you’re impatient.
The Adventures of BLUE EAGLE
Many of you already know what this is all about. I’ve written about my project in the past here when it was posted. But for those of you first finding me through this blog post, I’ll give you the rundown.
The Adventures of BLUE EAGLE is an anthology of short stories taking place in the same setting and featuring Blue Eagle, the premier superhero of Herald City. Along with his sidekick, Switch the Blue Eaglet, they battle their archnemesis, Queen Venus, and a host of other supervillains such as Music Major and the Technomancer.
This is only the first volume of the two I have planned. When all is said and done, there will be 24 short stories, each one ranging from 5,000 to 7,000 words.
The series is a spinoff of the main series I am working on. You see, I first conceived of a very Teen Titans/Young Justice story about five years ago called SWITCH and the Challengers Bravo, following a former sidekick who is now leading his own team of teenage superheroes. I won’t say it’s “dark, gritty, and realistic”, but it swings back and forth between those two shows in terms of maturity.
But I also love the contrast between old and new, between the Batman Arkham games or the Robert Pattinson film and the old Batman cartoon from 1968. Even between non-explicitly superhero works, like between Netflix’s She-Ra reboot and the original one that took place in the He-Man universe. And I wondered what an equivalent would be like for my own characters.
And so The Adventures of BLUE EAGLE was born.
This is my debut work, and it is inspired by the old superhero cartoons put out by Filmation and Hanna-Barbera. Super Friends, The Adventures of Batman, and so on. It is appropriate for kids of all ages, but specifically geared to spark that nostalgic tone for those who watched those cartoons back in the day (I saw them during the 1990s on Cartoon Network). Each episode is what one person who read it called a “novelization” of those stories, completely played straight and self-contained to the point of being able to be read out of order.
I know superhero stories, and fiction in general, have generally moved away from this trend, but this isn’t supposed to be my big work. It’s a side project, an introduction to my Blue Eagle Universe.
Though, in the same way watching the 1968 The Adventures of Batman isn’t necessary to understand–and doesn’t take place in the same continuity as–the 2003 Teen Titans, this anthology set I’m releasing is in no way necessary to understand and enjoy my main series when it eventually comes out.
But I do think there’s value in classic superhero tales. And while superhero fiction has drifted in the direction of more realistic takes, grander stories, and gritty deconstructions, we can all stand to read and watch the true classics to help remind us why we all fell in love with the superhero genre in the first place.
I hope The Adventures of BLUE EAGLE can contribute to that, but with original characters and stories that aren’t literally sixty to seventy years old.
99¢? Is that a mistake!!!???
No, it is not. You’ve read that right.
The Adventures of BLUE EAGLE, Vol. 1 will be sold for only 99¢!
But why!? Why does my messianic generosity seemingly know no bounds!?
The answer is that most of the book is available for free here.
That’s right. Eleven out of the twelve episodes are already available for free!
You see, as of this writing, I’m a brand new author. No name recognition, no prior work, no nothing. Maybe you are reading this a decade in the future when I’m a big name and appearing on talk shows and at conventions, but here in the present, no one has heard of me and no one has heard of Blue Eagle and Switch. I am not at the point where I can start demanding big money from people, and I want as many people to be introduced to the Blue Eagle mythos as possible.
So these episodes will remain free forever. And they will remain free not just for those who subscribe to my newsletter (though they get extra freebies and content, so you should consider subscribing, too), not just for those who subscribe to my Patreon, but to everyone.
I am committed to keeping these eleven episodes completely free for everyone to read, regardless of the work I put into them. Because I want you and everyone else to enjoy them.
But I’m not going to charge you all full price for an ebook that has 11/12ths of its content freely available online.
So 99¢ it is.
The Cover Reveal for The Adventures of BLUE EAGLE, Vol. 1
And so, here we are. Time for the big reveal. The cover reveal for my debut book, The Adventures of BLUE EAGLE, Vol. 1!
Drum roll, please!
I like it. It’s simple, which invokes the simplicity of the stories of yesteryear as well as the feel of a comic book cover.
And it prominently shows Blue Eagle and Switch racing into battle!
I am finalizing all the front and back matter stuff now and will be announcing soon when the book will be on sale and where you can go to pick it up.
Subscribers to my newsletter will be the first to get the announcement, so make sure you sign up!
I hope you like the cover! And I hope you enjoy The Adventures of BLUE EAGLE, Vol. 1!
For exciting superhero fiction written by me, be sure to check out the BLUE EAGLE Universe!