BIG JACK: ANIMALS #2... Why?

 We're coming up on the next Kickstarter funding campaign for my BIG JACK short comic book series. June 2nd I will officially launch the funding campaign.

Why is this funding campaign important?

1. The story has been written. I am ready to roll out the next part of JACK GALLOWAY's tale as he works to get his kidnapped family back from a maniacal bully who holds sway over a section of West Michigan in the year 2085. An adventure in a POST post-apoc landscape where we are still moving forward against all odds... but we're doing it.

2. I need money to pay for this project. I am not rolling in cash. This is a labor of love and something I've always dreamed of doing... that is, bringing my prose stories to the visual storyboard, and into comic book and graphic novel form. I need to pay the artists (the illustrators, letterers, editors, etc.).

Short and sweet, I can't do this without your help, without your support and backing. The first issue is done and people who have gotten a copy (either digital or print, or both) and very much enjoyed it.

I love creating. I love writing. I love sharing my passion and creativity with you.

Hopefully see you June 2nd and beyond. :)

Peter

Link to Kickstarter Launch Notification for BIG JACK #2 below:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stickonstump/big-jack-animals-2

BIG JACK. He's always got your back.

 

Art by Erwin J Arroza

BIG JACK: ANIMALS issue 1 is available now. Action-adventure in a POST post-apocalyptic landscape about a man trying to keep himself and his young family moving forward in an adverse world against dangerous men and beasts.

Based in my TRANSPORT "Universe," Big Jack's story takes place in West Michigan 2085, 72 years after the 2013 H7N9 (fictional) global pandemic kicked off the zombie apocalypse. The shambling undead are long gone but, due to local geneticists trying to find a cure for the initial pandemic and experimenting on the local fauna, savage, mutated beasts now roam the remote fields and forests between the bright bastion of humanity that is Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the glittering Lake Michigan lakeshore.

The first issue of BIG JACK: ANIMALS introduces the reader to Jack Galloway, farmer, salvager and part-time bounty hunter. In this initial visual episode, Jack has taken on a contract through the North Shore Coalition, a region along the Lake Michigan lakeshore extending from Muskegon to Port Sheldon. He confronts the ne'er-do-well Stewart Thompson who has a long list of criminal grievances against his name, including rape and murder. A brief scuffle ensues outside the drinking establishment they are at, and Stewart is not about to come along peaceably knowing only dark days behind iron bars is in his future. 

Instead of giving up to Jack, Stewart gives a fair warning that the big man has made a dire mistake coming after him before jumping off a nearby bridge, killing himself before Jack can apprehend him. 

The consequences for Jack, his family and Jack's aged sidekick Florence "Flori" Larsen is they have now gotten onto the wrong side of Stewart's massive and maniacal brother, Darby "The Bear" Thompson and the Congregation; a nomadic community of lawless men and women happy to follow Darby's every sinister whim.

There will be hell to pay, and Jack will be charging his way through, fighting with trusty axe and sledge to re-purchase the safety of his family and friend no matter the personal cost.

BIG JACK: ANIMALS is a gritty action-adventure tale about one's strength, perseverance, and courage in moving forward in the face of extreme adversity.

BIG JACK: ANIMALS #1 Written by Peter Welmerink & Ryan Cummins w/ Cover & Interior Art by EV Cantada is available direct through Author Peter Welmerink by contacting him at authorpeterwelmerink@gmail.com.

Physical copies - $4.99 (+ $3.50 shipping in continental US) Every book is boarded and bagged and ships in secure comic mailer. For purchases outside the US, please contact me via email above.

Digital edition - $2.99 w/ added color content

Retail stores - Please contact me via email above for bulk book bundle rates

For other ALTERED GRAND RAPIDS information, news, free short stories and illustrations - grandrapidsaltered.blogspot.com

BE WELL. BE PATIENT. KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

Battle for the WestSide - Original Fiction

 

Battle for the WestSide

Adventure fiction by Peter Welmerink

Part One: Defense Down

Mayor Ondesen had brought all his men and women in and gained a foothold on the east side of the Grand. Downtown GR was theirs and the rumors of brainwashing the populace over there, with drugged food and water, making most lethargic slugs: all confirmed.

The men and women of Bravo Company and the few thousand straggling holdouts along the west side of Grand Rapids were all that survived with sound mind and body.

“I want those civilians off the street and under cover,” I yelled, not needing to do so with the sensitivity of the throat microphone encircling my neck. Hugging the wall of the old paint store at Bridge and Broadway, I waved my team back along with the WestSiders who scampered for shelter.

A rain of hot lead spat vertically from the 131 overpass over Bridge, pocking pavement and building as far down as the boarded-up Anchor Bar and GRFD Station 3.

Gruss, one of my Recon team, hunkered behind an old rusted Durango, filled my earbud: “They’re launching drones. They’re going to swoop in and ping us then send AP rockets.”

Ondesen’s hired goons--soldiers of fortune, mercenaries, the majority of them--had pulled this stunt before. Keep us on the down-low with gun fire while sneaking SOMETHING into our domain. Drones were the most common and most pesky.

“That’s why everyone needs to stay off the streets,” I replied as the enemy gunfire died giving me an eyeblink moment to peer around the corner and up at the expressway overpass.

There came a metallic groan from down Broadway, past St. Mary’s Church. We had set up heavy metal barricades on all entrances to the west side of town. Bridge Street. Pearl Street. Fulton Street. All had thick welded metal “gates” reaching the top girders of the expressway underpass in each area. I surely did not like anyone from the opposite side messing with our work.

“Drones launched. I have one in my sights,” Gruss said.

A squeal, then a metallic clang, like someone dropping a metal trash can lid onto the ground. I tried to peer beyond the trees and buildings at the Broadway barricade.

“Someone or something has gotten through the 196 barricade. I can’t see movement though. I can’t ID who or what has come through,” I yelled over the comm as more bullets buzzed in from the 131 overpass.

“Captain, you’re out in the open,” Gruss reminded me. “The drones…”

Even over the rap of machine gun fire and bullets cracking off the asphalt, I could hear the steady hum of the multi-propped aerial drones overhead. I glanced up, seeing a white-bodied aerial hum above and by my location.

A heavy assault rifle boom. Gruss’s shot dead-on. Plastic and metal fragments of the downed drone clattered onto Bridge Street.

Unable to re-load and nail the second drone, it zipped away west down Bridge. It assuredly was snapping pictures, capturing video and marking anyone on the street and their hiding spot.

“We need to get back to HQ, gather everyone. Whatever compromised the Broadway barricade…”

I saw movement behind me. It came up quickly around the corner of the paint store building, on the Broadway side. Soldiers. Mercenaries, dressed in Ondesen’s dark navy vestments.

“Shiii…” I started to say as the lead man, assault rifle drawn and aimed at me, stepped up.

A metallic groan emit from the Bridge Street-131 barricade. The ground rumbled. Something big was coming.

“I didn’t know there were big corn-fed girls on this side of the river,” the soldier said with gun aimed at me. A red beret on his head. Dark goggles covering eyes though I could feel his gaze running me up and down. A skull-face bandana covering his nose, mouth, chin. “I figured we’d have starved you out by this time.”

“Captain, SITREP?” Gruss called in my earbud.

“Name?” the merc said to me as his other cronies lined up behind him.

The machine gun fire from the 131 overpass had subsided though the heavy metal groaning of the Bridge Street barricade continued. Out of the corner of my eye, above, I could see the remaining drone hovering.

“Name!” the merc barked at me again, irritated, anxious.

I dropped my arms, lowering my own machine gun.

“Captain Rachelle Gibson, Bravo Company.”

The merc lowered his weapon as the others behind him had theirs still raised. He pulled down his bandana, letting it hang at his stubbled neck. A big toothy grin split his face. “Dang, gents, we’ve just caught the leader of the WestSide Rebellion.”

“Captain, answer me!” Gruss yelled again in my earbud.

The Bridge Street barricade collapsed with a groan and loud metallic BOOM, but the ground continued to tremble.

I took a chance to move a bit, even with all the guns on me, and peek around the corner onto Bridge, and up the street towards the 131 and Bridge Street overpass. If the machine gun fire still continued I would’ve gotten my face shot off.

I almost wished it would happen.

Driving across the downed barricade, flattening it further like pancake, a giant, armored and tracked beast grumbled and snarled into the West Side.

“Surrender, Captain. The day is lost,” the merc said with a evil sneer.

“Tank!” Gruss yelled in my earbud, seeing the same giant, modified M2A4 Abrams-Sully main battle tank slowly entering our locale.

I turned back to the merc.

“It’s all lost, baby,” the merc grinned.

I looked beyond him then smiled back at him. “Not quite,” I replied, balling my fist behind my back. “And don’t call me baby.”

TO BE CONTINUED

#

Interested in reading more action-adventure by Peter Welmerink, contact him at authorpeterwelmerink@gmail.com

Also visit his Patreon page for more exciting material: www.patreon.com/pwelmerink

Battle for the Westside copyright 2020 Peter J Welmerink

Why writing West Michigan Apocalypse is fun

I am not a weirdo (yes, you are), or a doomsayer. I am not a negative person. I am not some guy that feels down, full of despair, and desiring of bringing people to the pits of fear, anguish and loathing.

I AM AN ADVENTURER, fictionally. I write ADVENTURE FICTION.

Why is it I enjoy writing post-apocalyptic tales of action and adventure based in and around my home state, and old hometown here in West Michigan? Why? WHY? Because...

Because I know THIS PLACE. I know my old hometown, and my locale here in western Michigan. I know the nooks and crannies, the towns and out-of-the-way places. The woodlands and the concrete jungle.

I do not have to go far along the roadway to get thought and inspiration on new tales of epic adventure to bring to my little warped mind, and to paper or blank writing screen. There can be a whole shite ton of adventure right where you are sitting if you ponder it long enough.

But why, you ask, why do you write that END O' THE WORLD stuff?

I don't write END OF THE WORLD stuff. If you read my material you know the stories don't end. Humankind does NOT disappear. Yeah, we get roughed up a bit, a few not make it, but the survivors keep standing up and moving onward. It's never a real END, just another opportunity to rise up and keep fighting the good fight... sometimes after a little rest from getting beaten down.

Sometimes my post-apoc material doesn't paint a pretty picture. That's reality isn't it? Sometimes it's not pretty nor smells great, looks great, feels great. But somewhere in the midst of the mud and blood, there is a spark of HOPE. The main characters might not survive their travels, but they certainly will have fought the good fight for others to live a new day and a potential brighter future.

I'm going to keep writing adventure fiction, and most likely keep venturing in the West Michigan fictional apocalyptic world.

#

I carry my own stock of my books. Contact me at: authorpeterwelmerink@gmail.com if you hanker for some adventure fiction.

The roll out of the BIG JACK Comic Book

Come this August 2020, with Skeletal Press and APW Productions, we will be kicking off a Kickstarter Campaign to help fund the completion and publication of my first TRANSPORT "Universe" comic book project entitled BIG JACK: ANIMALS. 

The script for BIG JACK: ANIMALS #1 is done. The covers, both regular and variant, are done. The first 7 PAGES of the interior story are done. The two pin-ups for this specific issue are in rough sketch phase. The launch of the digital and print copies of BIG JACK #1 will be available November 2020 (as long as we can fund this bad boy), and a physical launch party in Grand Rapids, Michigan, hosted by a local comic book store, has already been given the green light.

So, yes, we're doing this!! 

Written by the cooler-than-evah Ryan Cummins and li'l ole me, Peter Welmerink, with the main art jazz done by the also cooler-than-cool EV Cantada, BIG JACK is going to be a action-packed hardcore adventure in the alt-history post-post apoc world of TRANSPORT.

Stay tuned. MUCH more to come on this awesome illustrated book and BIG character.

Keep moving forward.

Peter

BIG JACK #1 regular cover, art by EV Cantada

I've Been Bad

I've been bad. I haven't updated this blog since January of this year. Time flies when you're working and doin' the family thang, and breathing, and writing, and running around.

Also, I let certain things going on in our nation get me down, batter my spirit and make me feel like WHY I AM EVEN DOING THIS WRITING STUFF?

I have to tell you, being down and letting it get the best of you, killing your passion for life, when it is something you really can't control...that is bad and you shouldn't let the stuff you can't directly control or influence kill your creative spirit or drive for life. Keep moving forward. KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

As it's been a while since I have spoken to you, dear friend and reader, I have a few offers from my written work that have since been released for public consumption.

BULL is the second novella involving JOE CROSS: URBAN SALVAGE ENGINEER. The last time we'd seen him (Running with the Devil), he and his stuffed brown bear companion Albert had been goat-roped into working for Reganshire, a very nasty little place to the west of Grand Rapids.

In BULL, you get to find out what became of the massive mutated bull that crashed and trashed the VSU campus out in Allendale in TRANSPORT. You thought it was gone. Nope. Still here.

On a salvaging mission to get some "treasure maps" of northern Michigan, Joe barely gets out of town when he runs across two Reganite troopers who want to head to the lakeshore for a new life. They want Joe to take them and are very persuasive as they do it at gun point.

Fate or luck (the bad kind) step in and decide different.

#

The second offering of my writing insanity is THE SAGA OF BRACCUS STRAUN. This is a epic fantasy yarn that I have been working on, and re-working, for quite some time. I finally got it all spit and polished, and it came out around Halloween of this year.

Braccus was and is a labor of love and a huge nod to the purple prose and fantasy pulp fiction I read as a kid and young adult...and still read from time to time now. It is definitely a nod towards Michael Moorcock's ELRIC character and his "living sword" STORMBRINGER. I liked the idea of a character venturing across the land with a sentient weapon at his side. Braccus Straun and his sentient whip were the result.

In this first book, we meet Braccus Straun: husband, father and town executioner. He is simply trying to provide for his family, and took the only job a lumbering gent like he could acquire. Unfortunately, he picks the wrong day to go into work as a very very powerful sorcerer, Falkair Kem, decides he's had enough of the local king butchering his people. He ensnares Brac's wife and young daughter, puts a 48-hour poison in Brac's system and sends the big man on a series of missions to acquire magical artifacts to take down the king.

Should Brac succeed in acquiring all the items Kem wants, Straun's wife and daughter will go free though Brac will still die from the poison. If Brac fails, the sorcerer promises the man will see his family butchered before his dying eyes the same way Brac butchered Falkair's associates.  

If you are looking for truly EPIC fantasy adventure, you need go no further than reading about the adventures of Braccus Straun.

#

Going forward, I will try and not be so bad as to let this blog stagnate.

If you are interested in purchasing any of the books mentioned (other than Michael Moorcock's LOL), I have a link here in which you can purchase directly from me and I will send you a signed copy.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

Pete

BULL (Peninsulam Publishing) 

$7.99 + $2.63 shipping and handling within continental US

THE SAGA OF BRACCUS STRAUN (APW Productions)

$11.99 + $2.63 shipping and handling within continental US

TRANSPORT (Book One) (Seventh Star Press)

$10.00 + $2.63 shipping and handling within continental US

An Interview with JOE CROSS: URBAN SALVAGE ENGINEER

By Grand Rapids Herald Reporter, Pink Watermink

As far as adventures in the POST post-zompoc West Michigan and along the Lake Michigan lakeshore, all the way from his hometown of Alsip, Illinois, JOE CROSS has been through quite a bit. After coming up to the Grand Rapids area, Joe worked for the Wyoming-Grandville Consortium, and then, after revealing his skills, became a member of the infamous village of Reganshire.

We caught up with Joe, his stuffed toybear traveling companion, Albert, and his vehicle called Lacey, just before leaving for Grand Rapids Proper with the daughter of Reganshire's town leader, Rebecca Regan.

#

WATERMINK: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk to you.

CROSS: Buddy, you cornered me. Lucky I'm not one of the true locals, or you would've gotten your head blown up.

(Watermink Note: Reganshire isn't known to be the friendliest of places. It may have something to do with the rows of spiked heads waving along the village's fence-line perimeter. End note.)

WATERMINK: What is a URBAN SALVAGE ENGINEER anyway? What do you do? Do you need special training?

CROSS: In a less glorified title, some people might call us Trash Collectors. But in this day and age, the stuff we collect can be used for building, trading ...survival. As people have migrated to walled and fenced and guarded cities and towns, there is a lot they left behind, and I am one of those that can be contacted to go outside comfortable confines and, hopefully, bring you back what you've requested or need. You don't need special training, just a good head on your shoulders, a rational (or maybe not) thinking brain inside that head, a fully gassed-up vehicle ...and a gun or ten.

WATERMINK: Do you simply collect things for other people, or for yourself also?

CROSS: I need to survive also, so often times, if I am just working for myself, I go out and "salvage" things I can take back to town and sell or trade.

WATERMINK: Besides the feral zombies still wandering the land, do you run across any other things or creatures that have tried to foil your salvaging activities?

(Watermink Note: Cross looks at me funny here. Like I ought to know something that recently transpired. End Note.)

CROSS: The zombies, really, are nothing compared to, ummm, some of the BULL I've run across out there.

(Watermink Note: Cross pauses, looking at me again like I should know something of importance or that has recently made news. End Note.)

WATERMINK: Elaborate please.

CROSS: You're from the Grand Rapids Herald? Grand Rapids?

WATERMINK: Yes, umm, well, I was stationed in Lansing until recently so...

CROSS: That explains it. Anyway, yes, there are some big ass, wild animals roaming these parts because of, what I've heard, some geneticists from the local university mucked around with diseased DNA, trying to find a cure for the Undead. I think that DNA testing statement was a lie, as what I've seen out there are ...things much more frightening than the actual Undead. So I wouldn't recommend going unescorted, say, west of Grand Rapids and Reganshire, though I may have helped take care of one of the bigger threats out there.

(Watermink Note: Cross seems to shiver uncontrollably at this last statement, and his dour look tells me he'd rather not discuss the subject further. End Note.)

WATERMINK: The latest news is that you are taking Rebecca Regan into Grand Rapids. I thought the Regans, old man Silas, and Rebecca were on the outs with the big city.

CROSS: Where did you hear this? Is it common knowledge in Grand Rapids that Regan is heading there?

(Watermink Note: Cross seems suddenly very, very nervous. End Note.)

WATERMINK: No, not common news at all outside of Reganshire. I just learned about the trip when I stepped foot in here. I take it Grand Rapids and good Mayor Honeywell don't know you are coming to visit?

CROSS: ...

WATERMINK: If there is something you need to say off record, feel free. I know the price if you get in trouble around here.

(Watermink Note: Severed heads on pikes along town perimeter. Armed Reganshire guardsmen in black uniforms. Stockades in town square. A stone's throw west into the feral wilderness. Nuff said. End Note.)

CROSS: ... Myself, personally, I think it's a bad idea to bring Rebecca Regan into the city. I don't know where her father actually left things with Grand Rapids, but, for better or for worse, I think taking his daughter in there might end up being extremely ...catastrophic.

WATERMINK: How so? Do you know her motives?

CROSS: I don't. That's why it's a bit unsettling. She's given me various reasons to take her: visiting an old boyfriend ...nasty... going after one of her mother's stolen heirlooms ...I never have heard what happened to her mother... having a meet-up with a pharmacist-of-sorts...

WATERMINK: Drug dealer? I know that goes on in the city. I heard they use some of the local undead as mules.

CROSS: Heard rumors of that.

WATERMINK: Who is going to the city with you, just yourself and Rebecca?

CROSS: The Regans never travel without their big-armed, armed thugs. Rebecca's got four giant gentlemen she plans on taking, along with her personal nurse of who I think is more CAPTIVE participant than willing assistant. 

WATERMINK: How much city opposition do you think you'll face if Rebecca goes in with hostilities?

CROSS: Oh geez. Let's see: the city police, the city militia Grand Rapids Central Command. Tanks. Armored gun vehicles. Troops with all many of weaponry.

WATERMINK: I get it. And, honestly, you're going why?

CROSS: ... (He nods towards the rotting heads waving on the pikes.) I kinda have no choice, and since Rebecca knows I'm a Salvage Engineer and can help her find those aforementioned items I mentioned earlier...

(At this point, Joe Cross looks at the toy stuffed brown bear, he says something to it that I don't think I hear correctly. "You think I ought to shut up you say, Albert? Maybe you're right." And he seems to wait for the things response. A vehicle drives past us, rumbling the ground. The bear's head wobbles back and forward a few times.)

CROSS: I think we're done with this interview. Where can I read this when it comes out?

(I look at the heads again. Those rotting, sad heads wagging on those tall poles.)

WATERMINK: I'll ...um... be in contact when the interview is published. Good luck with your excursion into Grand Rapids. I'll say hello if I see you.

CROSS: (Under his breath but just loud enough for me to hear) With Rebecca Regan with me, you may want to NOT do that.

END OF INTERVIEW

##

There's a monster in Grand Rapids. The dread beast's name is Rebecca Regan, and Joe Cross can be blamed for bringing her into the big city. A vengeful spirit cannot be calmed or detoured. Joe discovers this when he ventures into Grand Rapids with Rebecca, her main body guards, and Regan's "medical attendee." Providing vague, questionable motives for entering the city, Regan's excursion quickly unravels into danger and chaos. In the midst of Grand Rapids' heavily-armed and mechanized militia, the GRPD, and a underground group of anti-zombie renegades, Joe finds there is no rest for the wary or the wicked. Joe is neck deep in it this time, and realizes, sometimes, you have to stand up, and take matters into your own hands to resolve a bad situation.

Where to get THE GIRL WHO RULED THE WORLD, the next JOE CROSS installment:
Amazon

Or for a signed copy by the author (free shipping in continental US), email: authorpeterwelmerink@gmail.com

Or, February 24th 2018 (Saturday) Peter Welmerink will be at THE COMIC SIGNAL where you can pick up this book and the other Joe Cross novellas and MORE!

KEEP MOVING FORWARD