Well, that was interesting…

Everyone remotely right of center was made to own what happened in Charlottesville.

But suggesting an organization like SFWA that explicitly supports the groups behind the violence ravaging communities across America bore any responsibility was beyond the pale.

The best any of the shrieking crazies could come up with was “you must be racist” or essentially parroting that old Donald Trump “there were good people” line we were endlessly told was bullshit and lie.

What is happening in America now is not just orchestrated, it is a damn symphony being conducted against black Americans.

  • conflate the struggles of African Americans with the political desires of radical ancoms [who are, ironically, mostly white]
  • create destruction in black communities, costing jobs, livelihoods and opportunity
  • that destruction and risk poisons the well to any outside investment in those communities, further depressing them
  • by tying this destruction to a black identity movement, the orchestrators know average Americans will become prone to lose their sympathies for black Americans
  • politicians, activists, the media, and global corporations are all behind and supporting this effort to destroy black america under the guise of saving it.

These politicians, these corporations, these activists, these vampires, they WANT white people to blame blacks, because it will give them further cover for the destruction of the old orders.

It’s easy to become blackpilled on race relations, but I will not go blackpilled on black people, because I know too damn many badass black folks, people who have been friends, supporters, creatives, artists and musicians who are the coolest people in the world.

And THAT is why I believe it is worth it to stand up against the vampires in BLM, SFWA, and every other “woke” organization out there.

SFWA is a Terrorist Organization

SFWA is a terrorist organization.

For several years, we have remained agnostic on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

While we have had a few friends who have had “beef” with SFWA, we have also had a number of authors and friends who have been members of the SFWA.

When authors asked us about SFWA, we tried our best to point them towards helpful resources and current members, and authors who we have worked with who have considered joining, we have done what we could to support their applications when asked.

While SFWA’s decision to discriminate based on race in a desperate attempt to become “diverse” is a gross and shallow attempt to remain relevant and deflect criticism of their organization and their members’ behavior and survive the contemporary ideological purges going on in the left side of the political spectrum, their pledge of support for terrorist organizations is beyond abhorrent.

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Everywhere that Black Lives Matters goes, destruction, vandalism, violence and hatred [largely carried about by white “allies” aiming to create further racial divides in the country] follow in its wake.

Not content to keep their violence and destruction in public places and businesses, over the weekend, hundreds of protesters broke into a private neighborhood to threaten and menace the residents.

This is the kind of terrorism that SFWA supports.

And it is for this reason that Cirsova Publishing has officially adopted the policy of recognizing the SFWA as a terrorist organization.

We strongly recommend any authors with good conscience leave this malign organization.

We strongly recommend any authors considering membership to avoid it.

While we will not make it a policy to ask, Cirsova Publishing will no longer consider submissions from new authors with SFWA credentials in the bio materials that they send us until the organization takes a real stand against racism and disavows and ceases supporting domestic terrorist groups.

Cirsova Publishing Acquires Serial Rights to All of Mongoose & Meerkat

I can now confirm that Cirsova Publishing has acquired the rights to the entire remaining Mongoose & Meerkat series!

We will begin serializing it one story per issue, beginning with Hunt of the Mine Worm in the winter issue out this December, until all 18 stories in the cycle have run.

If you JUST got into Jim Breyfogle’s Mongoose & Meerkat via our kickstarter for Pursuit Without Asking and want to keep on top of things, the next story in the sequence, The Golden Pearl, was the cover story of our spring issue.

Read The Golden Pearl in the Spring Issue!

Missed the Kickstarter? Tales of the Mongoose and Meerkat is on Amazon!

Mongoose and Meerkat Retail Edition Available for Pre-Order–Out August 3rd

Did you miss the Kickstarter? Wishing you got your hands on one of those books that people are showing off all over social media?

Well, you will still have a chance to get your hands on a copy!

The eBook and retail paperback edition are available for pre-order now and will be out August 3rd.

eBook Edition

Retail Paperback Edition

Summer Issue Needs Advertisers ASAP!

We’ve got about a week left to take advertisers for the Summer Issue!

The following are Cirsova’s Advertising Rates:

250 Character Text Advertisement $25
1/4 page Advertisement $35
1/2 page Advertisement $50

Advertisement images should be 300 dpi, with the following measurements:

1/2 Page – 7.5″ w x 4.5″ h or 3.5″ w x 9″ h
1/4 Page – 3.5″ w x 4.5″ h
Please send as png, jpg, or tiff!

Contact us at cirsova at yahoo dot com for details.

eBook available for pre-order now!

Print pre-order available soon!

Final Days of LR Comic Shops + Michael Tierney on with Critical Blast

This saturday was the last weekend of Central Arkansas’s oldest comic shops before they close their doors forever.

Friday, I managed to finish going through the 50 cent boxes in North Little Rock, then Saturday I took Misha Burnett’s suggestion that I go back and grab every single issue of Jon Sable Freelancer. So, between the Covid Crisis and the shutdown, I’ve easily quadrupled my collection. Largely for 50 cents a piece.

I’ve converted my pull to mail-order, so I’ll still be getting new comics, but I’m sad that I’ll never get a chance to peruse the back catalogs and just buy an issue of this or that, here or there, without feeling the need to go entirely all-in. All those Duck comics I’ll never get a chance to get my hands on without having to “special order”!

Cirsova is no longer available on shelves for consignment. I’ve taken all of them back except for issues that featured Michael’s stories, which he bought off me.

We still have lots of plans to work with Michael going forward as his publisher and with a freelance project we’ve got him working on for us.

If you want to support him through us, be sure to check out his Wild Stars! Now is a great time to catch up.

Book of Circles is available at deep discounts on Amazon right now.

If you’re interested in signing up for his mail-order program, you can find details on his site.

Thinking Critical Interview with Michael Tierney

Michael was on with Wes of Thinking Critical to talk about the closure of his retail fronts and the state the comic industry.

He also confirms that he IS working on the next installments of Wild Stars, which we are planning on serializing next year alongside Paul O’Connor’s Badaxe comic, Jim Breyfogle’s Mongoose & Meerkat, and more!

Now is as good a time as any to support Michael in his transition to being a full-time writer! Catch up on ALL of the Wild Stars in one go in the 35th Anniversary Omnibus or read the Individual Volumes.

Why I Like Duck Comics

I swear that it is a coincidence that I started getting into Duck Comics around the same time as Jon Del Arroz, but now is as good a time as any to get into them.

I always loved Duck Tales as a kid, and rewatching them on DVD as an adult recently, I found they held up really well. Except, maybe for the Gizmoduck stuff, which kinda dragged… I had a few Duck comics as a kid, and I remember I liked them, but I don’t remember anything about them [except that Scrooge sells a steam calliope to a hermit in the mountains]. Haven’t had any in years.

Well, over the last few months, during Covid, to support Michael’s store, I hit the back-issue boxes hard. One of the 50-cent finds was a readable copy of Don Rosa’s Return to Plain Awful. It was a lot of fun! I ended up grabbing one or two others here and there, and enjoyed those as well. Then I started grabbing any I could find at flea markets, because a)they were cheap, b) they were really good!

Duck Comics have been teaching me to abandon a lot of autistic collector habits, like looking for consecutive runs, filling in gaps, worrying about continuity, etc. With one or two exceptions, most of what I have are 70s reprints of 50s stories. The weak cover game on most disney comics was a bit of a hurdle at first [they are almost always generic covers featuring one of the characters against a plain background], but I learned to not worry about it and trust that whatever was inside was good.

One great thing about Duck comics is that, for the most part, each issue has several short stories, each some kind of exciting adventure in a strange or exotic place, or there’s some nutso scheme that Scrooge is trying to pull, or Donald is trying to get a job with disastrous results. The average Duck comic is basically like an issue of The Wide World Magazine, only with Donald or Scrooge instead of some mustachioed British expat.

So, here is a silver-age Duck Comic I picked up at the con for $3 [an amazing find and an amazing bargain, really.]

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Weak cover game, right?

The first story is Donald Duck has a snow-mobile and he wants to be a mailman. He’s promised a job, but only as a back-up mailman for if there’s enough mail to go the island in the middle of a frozen lake. So, to help out, his nephews send all sorts of crazy crap in the mail.

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Well, the white rats chew their way out and start gnawing the ropes holding all the mail down. Then things go full-on Final Destination as the gas tank gets punctured and lighter falls out.

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Of course, there’s a [somewhat] happy ending–Donald survives and even finds steady employment!

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Every multi-page story is about as weird and crazy, but the best part is that they’re unpredictable. The Ducks don’t ‘have to win’ every time. If they’re looking for treasure, sometimes they get it, sometimes they don’t. If Donald’s looking for a job, sometimes he gets it, sometimes he doesn’t. If Scrooge has a wild business plan, sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. You never really know going into it, so the stories keep you on your toes. The writing is also miles above and beyond contemporary cape comics; it bucks the trend of silver age writing that’s just endless words, narration, and the characters describing what’s happening on top of everything.

Plus, you can take just about any page and you can find shitpost / reaction meme grade material.

In short, read some Duck Comics!

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Quick Con Rundown

We had a pretty good time at Saline County Comic Expo over the weekend. While the crowds were small and the sales were few, we DID have some sales, so it was far from one of our worst con showings.

Most of the people who stopped by had heard of Michael Tierney and a lot of them had already actually bought Wild Stars [or claimed they had], and a bunch of people took pictures of the books and said they would look it up later.

One of the things I heard frequently from vendors, including a conversation overheard in the bathroom, was that despite the small crowd, they were making pretty good sales. My theory is that because the hall was not crowded elbow to elbow and with cosplayers bumping into people with props and wings, people felt more comfortable to actually dig through boxes and peruse for what they’re looking for. I know personally that I don’t usually look through boxes at cons, because I’ll have tons of people on either side and behind and feel like I just really need to get out of the way. At this con, though, I scored some pretty good finds, including some silver age duck comics for only a couple bucks a pop!

I snarked a bit last time I was at a con about the guy selling Street Fighter doujin ashcans for $15 a pop… Well, I was taking a look at one and he offered me one for $10. Still kinda high, but I’d made some sales, so why not? I do not feel like I was ripped off. I was entirely unprepared for it to be legitimately good and now I want the next 15 issues. If he were teamed up with an inker, colorist, and letterer, it could be an A-tier title, even if it is a bit cheesy [there’s no such thing as a battle academy story that’s not cheesy].

The real highlight, though, was getting to hang out with Mark Pellegrini and Tim Lim, just talking about comics, movies, and crazy shit happening in Arkansas. As some of you may be aware, Mark has a story in the new Summer Special, and Tim did our cover for the upcoming Summer regular issue [#4] which we are taking advertisements for now.

Central Arkansas Comic Stores Closing Their Doors

It’s with a heavy heart today that I picked up my consignment copies of Cirsova from The Comic Book Store on Treasure Hill Road in Little Rock.

After nearly 40 years, Michael Tierney is closing his shops.

He’s sold his Collectors Edition property on JFK in North Little Rock, the lease is up on The Comic Book Store at the end of this month, and he’s found a buyer for all of his inventory.

While this is very sad for his many loyal customers, in many regards it’s a blessing for Michael who is moving into a highly active retirement. He’ll still be fulfilling comic mail orders for subscribers, engaging in his duties as a city councilman, and working very diligently on his writing. If all goes according to plan, he should have a new Wild Stars novel read for next year among myriad other projects.

If you’re in Central Arkansas, now is the time to swing by his shops before it’s too late.

If you’re not in Central Arkansas but want to support Michael, now would be a great time to check out his Wild Stars series published through Cirsova.

For more information about Michael’s stores, the future of his pullbox customers, the Wild Stars, and more, visit http://thewildstars.com/.

I’ll be at Saline County Comic Expo in Benton, AR over the weekend and will have a handful of Wild Stars stuff with me, including the 1st editions of Wild Stars III. If you stop by and pick some up, be sure to swing by The Comic Book Store on Saturday afternoon, and Michael will sign them for you for free!