FUBAR has enough going on that it requires its own section of RANDOM NOTES!

To me, I think that FUBAR represents the best of what independent comics (and comics in general) can accomplish: a lot of different, talented people from all over coming together to tell fun stories on a regular basis.  The formula is difficult to sustain; having a regular creative team on a book comes with its own challenges, but an anthology, with all of its moving parts, can easily get bogged down in a "too many cooks" situation.  For whatever reason, FUBAR has bucked that trend and is moving along at a faster pace than ever before, and there are some new developments that should propel the book and concept into 2014 and, hopefully, beyond.

The latest news has to start with the final tally for Jeff McComsey's outrageously successful Kickstarter campain, which will bring us all the anticipated "Mother Russia" original graphic novel and a few other projects.  As you can see from the image above, there were almost 1900 backers, nearly all of whom ordered at least the book itself.  In terms of independent comics, selling this many books right off the bat is a huge success, one that we're all looking to build on.

One of the projects springing from this campaign is FUBAR: Better Red than Dead, a short anthology that'll be written by McComsey and me.  It, of course, takes place during the Cold War period and features a knock-down cover by the great Pietro.  This book will ship out to all Kickstarter backers who pledged at least $25 to the campaign, and I believe it will be offered to comic shops and at conventions at a later date.

The book soon to be on shelves is our new Guts and Glory feature, with stories taking place in earlier times, as the Steve Becker cover suggests.  This book will also ship to Kickstarter backers, though it'll show up in comic shops first.  As a matter of fact, it's available to order right now, with a Diamond order code of OCT130801.  Similar in format to the two By the Sword issues, I've got a story in this issue title "I Am".

The FUBAR crew, including the pictured Becker, Dom Vivona and McComsey, made a scene at the recently concluded New York Comic-Con.  I had a chance to sit in on the booth on the Saturday of the show and it was a busy, fun time.  The comic news website Bleeding Cool ran an interview about FUBAR, and McComsey and I took the time to answer some questions about the book and the concept in general.  The interview can be read in its entirety here: http://live.bleedingcool.org/2013/10/12/848/

Lastly, Swedish artist Daniel Thollin posted this picture recently of a magazine interview he gave.  Thollin has worked on a number of FUBAR projects, including the "Old Ghosts" story story that I wrote for volume two of the series.  You can see the book in the extreme foreground of the publicity shot, which is fun to take note of.  I don't speak Swedish, but I'm assuming that the article headline outs Thollin as the Batman of Sweden, which, let's face it, I kind of already figuerd.