Perdition had a brief cameo in an early issue of Brat Pack, but even then I had a full character write-up for him. In the attempt to fill the gap left in the ranks of solo heroes, I decided I needed an anti-hero (because the Shadow isn’t enough…) I had every intention of fleshing him out eventually. This is the first step in that respect. I hope.

Also, the villains in this issue were chosen mostly for the opportunity to write one simple line. ‘[Vampires] Don’t. Fookin’. SPARKLE!’ … Yeah, I don’t like Twilight. Lets leave it at that. Ok, I’ll admit, I had a brief outline for the story in my head, and decided that I’d slip that in, and all of a sudden that idea seemed to be the one to go with.

Also, thanks for the comment Jenna, good to know someone’s still reading.

Later Days,

The Author
<3 Comics

Not really happy with this issue, when I’m world famous, this one will be editted heavily before the re-release

It’s a little rushed, I had the outline written up in my creative writing class (best course ever!), while the teacher was droning on about creative non-fiction or something. I noticed I was over a month behind on <3C Presents, so I whipped this up in record time.

Speaking of things I wrote in class while I was supposed to be doing something else, here’s a teaser for an upcoming title. The teaser is titled:

Mr Universe on Uncle Sam

“My great-grandfather worked at a movie theatre. He was a ticket collector or something. Back then, the movies were where you went to watch the news. They’d play these newsreels before the movie. When they got a new one, they’d throw the old ones out.

“My great-grandfather would steal the reels from the trash. He knew that what was news then would be history later on. He felt he should keep track of this stuff.

“Turns out he was right. He showed my grandfather, who went on to write books about the Depression. My father is now a war buff.

“Whenever I went to visit my grandfather, he would show me his father’s newsreels. I was a kid at the time, so naturally, the news and history bored the living crap out of me.

“And then one Saturday afternoon I saw <em>him</em>.

“He was running rings around the Nazi’s. Dodging bullets. Bashing skulls in. Flipping jeeps over. I had never seen anything better. Nothing cooler. Now I know it was all propaganda, war recruiting and such, but that didn’t matter. Still doesn’t.

“On the playground, nobody understood. Uncle Sam was just some old guy who used to hang around with Liberty Force. Who cared when there was Coldstar, and Thunderbolt?

“So we’d play. They would fight over Coldstar, Thunderbolt and The Freak. The girls would always play as Talon or Statuesque.

“Me… I always wanted to be Uncle Sam.

“I guess I still do.”

LessThanThree Legends: Uncle Sam, The First American Superhero. Coming soon.

I hope you’re excited. I sure am.

Later Days,

The Author
<3 Comics

Shadow will be primarily a solo guy, but if he ever works with anyone, it’ll be Pumpkin King… Partially because he’s so fun to write, but mostly it’s a character thing. Mosley has to prove himself as a hero, in any way possible. So he has two alter-egos, and gets twice as much work done.

Shadow will have at least one, most likely two, big story arcs, spaced out across the months here at <3C Presents. I’m not sure if the next issue will be SOLA as yet, but I’m finding it hard to think of anything else at the moment. We’ll see what comes around next month. There are a lot of heroes in the <3-Verse.

Not being from Los Angeles… Or even the US for that matter, I’ll be relying on Wikipedia for my research… King Estates is listed as a suburb in the area I wanted, and further Googling leads me to believe it’s a somewhat lower-class neighbourhood. The ‘Estates’ part threw me off initially too. Shadow’s definitely not of the Orange County mindset

It’s also been a while since I wrote in first person (except last issue, of course). Most likely, I’ll be saving that for Shadow… And possibly any other solo heroes. Well, except Thunderbolt. Something tells me his pure awesomeness would be best served by a third-person perspective. Because ‘Hmm, I flew down the street at 300 mph and took out a guy with my hammer’ doesn’t have the same ring as ‘Thunderbolt was a blur, as he tore along the street, swinging his hammer as he moved. Radon didn’t stand a chance. Mjolnir hit him in the side of the head, and sent him tumbling.’

Any requests for a particular character (or team) will be appreciated, but I make no promises.

Later Days,
The Author
<3 Comics

Anyway, thanks for the comment maedel, as always. I was going for a darker tone with Shadow, he fights low-level crime, the drug dealers, the muggers, the carjackers… He’s my attempt at the Iron Age. Kind of a cross between Batman, Wolverine and maybe a little bit of the original Shadow. I wanted a noir-ish feel, but I’m fairly sure I didn’t quite get it. Hopefully I improve.

Shadow is more mature than the Brats because, whilst they were raised in their perfect little Orange County lives (well, Mosley excluded), and they’re happy, average teenagers, Shadow has a past. I’ll get into that one of these days. The most important thing to know is, Shadow decided to fight crime before he knew he had powers. He didn’t wake up one day, accidentally cut himself and find out he spontaneously regenerates. He got injured on the job. He wanted to take down the crooks without superpowers. His healing factor is just a bonus.

He’s cocky because, let’s face it… He’s a teenager, who knows he can’t die. He has a cause, he thinks he’s above the crooks (well, he kind of is, but you know what I mean). He’s entitled to a little cockiness.

Anyway, I hope everyone sticks around for the second issue, which will be posted within a few weeks.

Later Days,
The Author
<3 Comics