Thoughts on the "Empires" Classic Comics installments (Patreon)

The current feature in my "Classic Comics" category is a sort of dual story I wrote in the 1990's. It is "Empires: the Ace of Spades" and "Empires: Morrigan's War". Of the two interwoven tales, I default to "Ace of Spades" as the primary plotline.

In 1989 some friends of mine were putting together a fan magazine, or "fanzine". They knew I was interested in doing a comic and asked if I could commit; I agreed to do "a mini-series or something". I had a military-genre science-fiction setting in mind and was ready to get started.

There was just one little problem. 

My science-fiction setting was one of humans and aliens; the fanzine was based on "furry" fandom. I did have aliens that were covered in fur (like Chewbacca in Star Wars) but these weren't based on any Terrestrial mammals-- they were *aliens*. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to work with the fanzine's stated goal of featuring "furries". I was asked if I could change the alien races to furry races, and it seemed a small thing to do to get the story published. So one race of aliens became fox-like people, another became wolves, others became mice, and so on. 

The project ran for 40 chapters, 440 pages in all, and while I started it in December of 1989, it wasn't published to the public until January 1990, when the fanzine --"Yarf!"-- made its first print run. I consider 1990 to be the birth year of the story, which went on to run as a regular feature in "Yarf!" until mid-1996. The story wrapped, with an ending and everything, and was done.

The story was (at the time) well-received and popular; I was, however, glad to finally wrap it up. It had been a daunting task meeting the deadlines, and I am glad to say I never missed an issue. That 6-year run was a solid run; no skipped deadlines or hiatuses.  And while I was originally planning three separate spin-offs at varying points in time, I was kind of quietly relieved when those didn't pan out. I was kind of exhausted. 

That said, I am proud of my accomplishment even as I also say there are many things I would do very differently, if I could do it over again. Sometimes I lost track of my story and went on tangents or down rabbit holes; my dialogue and pacing was at times amateur and sloppy; I had experience as a junior soldier in the Army but I had no real grasp of command or NCO thought processes. And, of course, I'd try to avoid the use of the furries.

I have nothing against furries or furry fandom; it's just not where I want to be. I wanted this to be a science-fiction story without being tied to any particular social genre or group. In fact, towards the end of the story, I started re-introducing some of the original alien races I had intended, while wrapping up the story with the furry characters. I want to present this story here, as it was, in the hopes of stirring interest in a re-boot of this universe with tighter writing and plots, better focus, more maturity, and the original cast of aliens and humans that was intended. I'm not going to re-write the "Ace of Spades" storyline, but rather focus on new characters on new adventures, just in the universe I created. 

So come along and enjoy the story, which I will try to post new chapters on the 1st and the 15th of each month. I welcome questions or comments and, at some time in the future, I may also re-issue this story in a trade paperback for sale if anyone is interested. 

The story is available as part of the "Classic Comics" offer for members of "Sergeant" rank and above. For just $5 a month, you can join the crew and enjoy the ride!