Hello Comic Book Community,

        Some of you know me, others don't. Still, I assure you that this email is NOT an accident. It is a request for you to help me & my HELLFIRE series step into the light, in an effort for it to do well. More specifically, in 2027 I will be attending HeroesCon (Charlotte, NC), Baltimore Comic-Con, MegaCon (Orlando, FL), & New York Comic Con as a vendor. Despite the fact that I had a following in Southern Gospel Music Songwriter (etc), a Western Horror Literary Author (etc), & had 5 different comic books that I wrote published in 2024, plus another in 2025, cohost iShook Comics Podcast, I'm the Editor-in-Chief at iShook Comics, etc – I'm still going into this as an underdog.

         Last weekend, I attended HeroesCon. I worked at a friend's table for 2-hours, giving me a taste of what that is like. Of course, I was there to sign copies of STARCREEP #1, a very Adult Swim-esque humor book. It gave me a taste of how things are working at comic cons. It's almost like "The Haves" & "The Have-Nots", isn't it? It's prompted me to send out this email. Ideally, people who go tend to know who they want to see, what they want to buy, etc. I need to make my presence known, my books known & so forth. It's my sincere hope that you could help.

         Believe me when I say that I have spent A LOT of money producing comic books. We're talking $10K+ on this series alone, though I'd imagine that you'd assume as much. While I have managed to attain a publisher who is going to print them (thus taking that financial load off of my back), I'll still be paying for table space, lodging, food, yada, yada. Recently, I posted on LinkedIn & my Facebook Author pages, showing the first 4 pages from HELLFIRE #1. This story is told through the mobster's eyes that abducted, beat, stabbed, and burnt to death the Rev. Benny Blue, all before rolling his Volkswagen Beetle onto the frozen Mahoning River of Youngstown, Ohio – where it sank. Unfortunately for them, he rose 3 days later, passing through the veil that separates life & death – now walking as divine vengeance. This are the first 4 pages of that story:

         HELLFIRE (formerly Rev. Benny Blue) makes his appearance on pages 6 & 7. As you might assume, if is a chase/stalking scene. These books are quite violent. The narratives change throughout this series & the stories. I will tell you that in HELLFIRE #2 he discovers who put out the hit on him; his former pastor, a big wig local radio preacher who sought to protect his womanizing (Assistant Pastor) son. The third issue involves HELLFIRE seeking to rescue a young lady who threw her life away after that womanizing preacher used her & threw her away. She's trapped in a life of prostitution. Issue 3 is very much an homage to my love of the movie Taxi Driver. Of course, the series has its twists & turns. On the flip-side of these books are the comics SMALLDOG (which follows Officer Harvey "Smalldog" Pack, a crooked, racist, semi-literate, egocentric cop that thinks he's Dirty Harry more or less), HOLY GHOST EXORCIST (which follows the characters from my Southern Gothic Novel), & finally on the back of the annual will be the reprint of PHUKET MAMA #1 (which was originally on the flip-side of ZORRO KILLS #1, until ZORRO INC. made me pull it, due to trademark issues). ...Zorro Kills #1 was quite literally the first full-length comic book that I'd written. People loved it too. Zorro is Trademarked.

        As someone who has put on festivals before, I know that you really want to start ramping things up & preparing a year in advance, thus here we are. This HELLFIRE series will be my big push. It will consist of 6x 48-interior page flipbooks. The full-length comic in each is 22-24 pages. The short B-Side comic tends to be 6-8 pages. Short prose stories, faux newspapers, fan-art etc. will fill the remainder of them. I do not have any interviews within the books themselves. As much as some people have told me that they loved my forewords & such in my literary books, I think it feels lazy & would rather tell more stories & expand on this well crafted world. Also, it's a bonus that I tie things in with my main literary fiction universe.   

      These will all be Red-Band/MA, violent, and appeal to horror fans. Do I feel that gives me a license to do whatever. Sure. They're really more of a hard R-rating, primarily for themes & violence. As I writer I feel that there is an artistry to being profane without using profanity (like some edgelord poser). The worst that you get language-wise are an onslaught of racial slurs specifically from Smalldog (the racist cop) & a particular racist villain that everyone of you will know drew some amount of inspiration from DC Comics' Red Hood. His name & his cult/gang is "The Black Death." They wear a symbol & do away with their personal identities because of the concept that "you can't kill an idea." They will appear in the second season of HELLFIRE, pending that the first season makes enough money to finance that. In fact there are several villains who're set up for the second season – including the chthonic idiot god Peter Grimm & The ShadowMan, who was formerly the main protagonist Chike Bancole/Reginald Beauregard Valencia from my God Walks The Dark Hills novel series. It's also very subtly hinted at that Ahasuerus (i.e. The Wandering Jew) will appear in HELLFIRE season 2. He is a public domain character that appeared in "God Walks The Dark Hills IV: The Brightness of His Coming." Essentially, he's a 2000 year old sorcerer whom Jesus Christ cursed with immortality. While Peter Grimm has enhanced strength, speed, hearing, sight, smell, intelligence, regenerative abilities & is of an immortal antedeluvian race that descends from the Nephilim, & The ShadowMan has enhanced strength, the ability to pass through shadows & mirrors like doors, manipulate shadows, stretch, shrink, and grow, Ahasuerus doesn't use physical attacks. He's a maltheistic magic user.

           Anyway, this is a link to an article that I wrote trying to plug these upcoming comic books: "https://ishookcomics.net/b-l-blankenships-hellfire-comic-universe-characters".

       Everything about them ought to tell discerning comic book folks that I'm fighting with all that I've got, aspiring to create a masterpiece. Besides what I've named, I do have two 6-page comic stories entitled A TOUCH OF HELLFIRE 1&2. They take place during the time of HELLFIRE season 1 (i.e. JAN-MAR 1974). I've already been talking to one movie producer about all of this. Whereas I am a professional graphic artist in the screenprint & signage industry, I've already designs some merch too. The stories in these books check off the boxes for Horror, Crime, Supernatural, Christian, Demonological, & Historical. They're closer to Stephen King than Superhero books. The books that will be published & the months which they are intended to stagger out are as follows:

• HELLFIRE #1 + SMALLDOG #1 (pub NOV 2026)

• HELLFIRE #2 + HOLY GHOST EXORCIST #1 (pub DEC 2026)

• HELLFIRE #3 + SMALLDOG #2 (pub JAN 2027)

• HELLFIRE #4 + HOLY GHOST EXORCIST #2 (pub FEB 2027)

• HELLFIRE #5 + SMALLDOG #3 (pub MAR 2027)

• HELLFIRE ANNUAL #1 + PHUKET MAMA #1 (pub APR 2027)

       I've also written & have print-ready MY FRIEND HELLFIRE #1, but the 8-page comic on the flip-side HOLY GHOST EXORCIST 1981 HALLOWEEN SPECIAL has not been illustrated yet. It's just a matter of getting the right person for it, you know? ...I actually have someone in mind that I'm meaning to talk to about it too. That book is a kid-friendly version. I thought it'd be cheeky & fun. Moreover, I also have a graphic novel slated to be published in 2028, entitled "Holy Ghost Exorcist: The Devil on Full Display." It's going well. I'm taking my time with it, polishing up the first act & all. Lots of research has gone into it.

        I don't think that books need more characters, but compelling characters. It all comes down to putting them in stories that matter & pull people in. Specifically, I try to anchor all of these to the real world & keep them grounded in reality. I don't Hollywood up the supernatural, I write it the way that it happens or could be permissible. Frankly, I could go on & on, but given that I'm a novelist, you'd know that. Tommy Dalitz, the head mobster & grocery store owner (where they launder money through) has seen so much bad in the world that he thinks everyone is bad or has bad in them –  you know, the way that a liar thinks that everyone else is a liar too. The ShadowMan felt like he was treated horribly in life, felt pressed to make the dark decisions that he made. He began as a Christian (which was a thing in The Kingdom of Loango/Congo, due to French Missionaries evangelizing in the 1500s). Anyway, he descended into darkness & went to Hell at the very end of God Walks The Dark Hills novel series (Spoiler Alert, right? – especially 'cause the last book hasn't been officially published yet). Ahasuerus first went through denial asto his curse of immortality, then tried to repent, then felt that God (the one true judge) had treated him unfairly, asking why he (a mortal man) was judged like The Watchers. Of course, this parallels him to Pharoah &/or Dracula. God sees people's hearts. His judgement is perfect. Whereas Rev. Benny Blue (who deems God as just) was resurrected by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ, which had trace amounts on the Spear of Destiny, Ahasuerus deems God as cruel. All of this makes for a good motive for them to be at war with the main protagonist (HELLFIRE) & allows for excellent dialogue. Peter Grimm is not of the planting of God. He has both the blood of mankind & the fallen in him. He never should have been. When I created the chthonic idiot gods it was because I didn't want to milk the vampire trope, but wanted something with similar abilities. Pastor Hal Dennison, who put the hit out on Rev. Blue kind of falls into a King Saul or Eli narrative from the Bible. The Black Death, both the individual & the gang/cult are all about being bound to a dogma/belief/creed that guides who they are, their identity. They're all about "their message", which happens to be purging the world of black people.

       A lot of the characters in this are drawn from real life people, thus they feel real. HELLFIRE lives among the homeless. His newfound friend is Leroy, an elderly black homeless man. SMALLDOG's partner is Officer Jordan Banks, a sensible normal black police officer, whom the chief hopes will curb SMALLDOG's racism. They get along, btw. Any horror writer worth their salt doesn't shy away from covering offensive topics, using offensive characters, etc. If I do get to make a season 2 of this, there'll be a black female protagonist added to this world, who I really love. Why? Because she's an outstanding character. Her story is filled with violence & trauma. People will die btw.

        If someone asked you what all of these stories were about, I've probably given a ton of good insight. People who enjoy movies like Se7en, Frailty, Lights Out, The Crow, American Mary, The Eyes of My Mother, Martyrs (the French film), etc. are likely to not just like this but love it with a profound border-line obsessive love. I feel like it needs to be marketed like the horror novel WOMB. Signs got put up saying, "You can't handle this book." Essentially, those pushes back the audience that wouldn't be interested & draws the audience in that would. This stuff is like the kind of thing you'd get if you threw Ed Brubaker, Stephen King, & Jack Ketchum thrown in a blender. That's how I feel about it. If you want to help push/promote it, please do. I genuinely need & appreciate your help. If you don't, that's okay. I don't really need fake half-heartedness behind any of this stuff. One person fighting for it that truly cared is infinitely better than 20 people who put it out there, but could care less. Thank you for your time & consideration.

      Also, please let me know if you write anything or make a video concerning any of this as I'd love to share it across multiple social media platforms. Of course, I'll have my other books with me. It's just that this is a series that I'm banking on becoming a big hit.

B. L. Blankenship

PS: I have 2 distributors who will be working with me. If you're local (within 3 hours of East TN), I don't mind personally delivering you books. I've done signings within that span of an area & plan to continue to as a homebase of operations, similar to how your build up a local following within the music industry.