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Cobalt City: RESISTANCE

Together, the heroes of Cobalt City have defeated organized crime families, extra-dimensional conquerors, demons, & demigods. Whatever threat rose to threaten their world, they rose to face it head-on.

They were not prepared for the hate-filled media icon Lyle Prather to worm his way into the Presidency of the United States. Amid ongoing protests and outrage, President Prather assembles his cabinet, filling it with a veritable “Legion of Evil,” while stripping away rights and protections for the nation’s most vulnerable. He has even gone so far as to start filling remote “Isolation Centers” with Muslim American citizens. The people are powerless to stop him. Congress, apparently unwilling. Hate and violence are on the rise. Hope is hard to come by.

What the world needs now is heroes.

Join Gato Loco & Snowflake, Huntsman & Libertine, Archon & Gallows, Madjack & Kara Sparks, Stardust & the Wrecker of Engines, and many more as they re-examine what they stand for and what they’re willing to risk to win back the soul of a nation.

Chanson Noir

The Protectorate saga begins here! There are other worlds besides our own, stacked in an unfolding coil of possibilities. The Queen of the Black Sigh rules over her own world as the timeless avatar of physical decay. But her palace is also her prison, for the artifact she needs to breach the veil between worlds has been lost to the ages. If someone were to uncover her Obsidian Mirror, the gateway would be open to her, and countless realities would fall before her insatiable hunger. And when the mirror is uncovered, it falls to The Protectorate, heroes of Cobalt City to stop her.

Part superhero action, part horror, all adventure, Chanson Noir is a dimension-spanning tale that introduces Cobalt City and the often far-too-human heroes that call it home.

Cobalt City Blues

The wrong place at the wrong time, a moment of weakness, an ironic twist of fate — these are all things by which jazz pianist Simon Floyd measures his life. Now dead over seventy years and acting the part of super-hero Mister Grey, Simon wants nothing more than a return to some semblance of his old life. Even if it risks the safety of his friends and fellow heroes in the Protectorate.

Enter Augustus Dei — shadowy power broker with near-limitless power. Thought to be nothing more than a dark whispered fairy-tale told by occultists and lunatics, he has come to Cobalt City with a singular purpose — to help Simon with his unique problem. But is the reluctant hero willing to pay the cost required to get back what was taken from him by the barrel of a gun seven decades ago? And who can predict what chain of events might have been set up by the mischievous madman with millennia to plan?

Book Two of the Protectorate series, Cobalt City Blues is an epic novel of alternate realities, loss, redemption, jazz, super-heroes, and what it means to be human.

Cobalt City Christmas

When it comes to the holidays, Cobalt City isn’t all that different from your hometown, except for the secret headquarters, out-of-town guests capable of destroying the world, hundreds of heavily armed rubber duckies, Christmas geese that fight back, other-worldly arsonists, and inventors with jet packs, that is. Unwrap a bundle of super-powered adventure for the holidays, including tasty tales from storytellers both new and established: Nicole Burns, Rosemary Jones, Angel Leigh McCoy, Jeremy Zimmerman, and Cobalt City creator Nathan Crowder. You’ve never experienced a Christmas like a Cobalt City Christmas!

Cobalt City Christmas: Christmas Harder

The holidays have rolled around again in Cobalt City, New England’s flashpoint for superheroes.Celebrate with five seasonal tales like no other from some of Cobalt City’s favorite authors.
See Louis Malenfant face the spirit of the Christmas. Sarah Castile, the rebel Huntsman of WWII confronts family discord on the home front. Stardust throws a Christmas party for friends that might destroy downtown Cobalt City. Gato Loco helps a mother on the run fulfill a Christmas wish. And a very special holiday party hosted by an up-and-coming super villain threatens to enslave the city’s most powerful people.

It’s time to take a stand.
Diving into the history of Cobalt City, this time-spanning collection is the superhero anthology you’ve been waiting for. A perfect introduction into the world of cape and cowl fiction, Cobalt City Timeslip brings tales of lost gods, young vigilantes, steamwork ex-presidents, haunted super-spies, and displaced alien princesses.

The Devil, You Say

Thomas Carlton, wealthy man about town, and his faithful companion, Grace Glass, don masks to fight crime in 1930s Cobalt City.

This book collects together three tales of pulp heroism, pitting the Diabolical Duo against threats that are out of this world.

Cobalt City Dark Carnival

Once a generation the carnival rolls into Cobalt City. With faded canvas and chips in the garish paint of the attractions, it could be like any other struggling traveling circus.

But it isn’t. The Carnival de Pomme D’or has been around for centuries. And when it comes through Cobalt City bad things happen: vanishings, murders, inexplicable robberies, a rash of murder/suicides, and a mounting sense of urgency and danger.

The super-heroes of the city have been unable to destroy the carnival before, but those who have witnessed its coming in previous generations can not deny its power. Before the big top rolls out of town, heroes will fall, villains will rise, and Cobalt City will be changed, perhaps forever!

Snowflake War Journal

Warning: Contains Snowflake

This hyper-evolved and foul-mouthed panda has had a variety of jobs, from pilot to a super hero team to sidekick to a motorcycle vigilante. This book contains three tales of Snowflake’s solo adventures in the world of Cobalt City! In “A Snowflake’s Chance in Hell,” he finds himself in trouble at a sinister carnival. “One Giant Leap for Panda-kind” has him face off against an evil version of himself from an alternate reality. And in “Better Dead Than Red,” a new story created for this collection, his past catches up with him in the form of a deadly assassin.

Cobalt City Los Muertos

Halloween descends upon Cobalt City, and a legendary figure known only as Trepanning Mary stalks the leaf-blown avenues, spreading fear and chaos in her wake.

Even the detective skills of cycle-riding vigilante Gato Loco’s might not be up to the task of catching this phantom who has somehow eluded capture for almost a century. Fearing a magical threat, Gato Loco enlists the help of undead jazz pianist and reluctant protector Mister Grey, putting them both at odds with the mysterious, haunted hero Tatterdemalion.

The cat. The dead man. The tattered woman.

Will they be enough to save Cobalt City from an evil centuries in the making? Because Trepanning Mary has returned to the city. And hell is coming with her

Sparx and Arrows

Cobalt City is home to super heroes and villains. And trouble follows the heroes even when they aren’t at home. Kara Sparx and three different incarnations of the Huntsman battle killer Ferris wheels, mecha, clockwork ex-presidents, and Russian communists in five different stories of daring and adventure!

Cobalt City Ties that Bind

It’s a multi-billion dollar industry in a country that would rather look away–an insidious crime so horrible that authorities are powerless, or unwilling, to stop it.

Not even Cobalt City, the bright, cosmopolitan center of the superhero world, is safe from human trafficking and sexual slavery. For heroes used to dealing with madmen and megalomaniacs, the decentralized nature of the blight is difficult to comprehend, much less impact. How do you combat not just criminals but the very nature of a crime itself?

Velvet, society girl turned powerhouse, has slugged it out with gods. But when she crosses paths with a dead young woman, she finds herself dragged into a grim underworld that challenges her understanding of the city. With the mysterious vigilante Bantam as her guide, Velvet goes in search of justice for the victims of sex trafficking—whether the deadly Harlequin and Crime Kings of Cobalt City like it or not.

But how can she hope to stop something as nebulous as an idea?

And who can she really trust?

Cobalt City Double Feature

The Place Between by Minerva Zimmerman (“Muffin Everlasting” and “Apples and Arrows”) breathes life into the world of the Norse Gods. In 1975, Cole Washington returned home from the U.S. Army bearing the mantle of Thor. Taking the name Midnight Thunder, he waged war against Loki for the soul of the West Key neighborhood, if not all of Cobalt City, for over a decade. Now it’s 2012, and it’s time for the title of Thor to be passed to his daughter Tera as she forges her own identity as Tempest. But this time, the battle lines are not so clear. And Lucky, one of the aspects of Loki, might be her best chance of surviving her trials.

Eye for an Eye by Erik Scott de Bie (Shadowbane, “Vengeance on the Layover”) shakes up the happy family life of Cobalt City’s brightest star, Stardust. Injured, on the run, and without a friend in the world, Lady Vengeance returns to Cobalt City. Stardust can’t be sure which is more dangerous—the murderous vigilante chasing her, the dark secret which grants Lady Vengeance her powers, or the threat this dangerously sexy bad-girl poses to his family life. Is it a team-up or a free-for-all? And is Cobalt City big enough to contain the sheer firepower all sides are willing to unleash to assure victory?

Cobalt City Rookies

Cobalt City, Jewel of New England, has been the home of superheroes since the first people settled on the rocky shore. But as the old heroes move away, die, or retire, it falls to a new generation to step up and bear the burden—protecting Cobalt, and the world, from the nefarious plans of madmen and malicious Gods. Join a diverse band of new teen heroes as they pick up the mask, challenge destiny, and dare to become legends in a collection of three novels that show what it means to be a hero.

 Kensei (Volume 1)

Jamie Hattori’s alter ego, the masked hero Kensei, has been doing pretty well protecting her neighborhood from petty villains with her martial arts skills, her father’s katana, and a little help from the local spirits. But things get rough when the spirits start flaking out, the Goddess of Discord throws a few cursed apples, and an online gossip site sics an angry football player on her. Then there’s her slipping grades, the vampire owls, and the cute roller derby chick looking for romance. And even worse, Jamie’s hero-hating mom is starting to get suspicious. Can Jamie defeat her mysterious nemesis without tearing her family apart? And more importantly, will she score her first kiss?

The Love of Danger (Kensei Volume 2)

Jamie Hattori can’t get a break. As the superhero Kensei, she defeated the goddess Eris and figured her life could just get back to normal. Or, at least, as normal as things can be when you fight crime and can talk to the spirit world. But now her girlfriend is flaking out on her, her parents have separated, and a World War Two supervillain has come back from the dead with plots to kill Jamie. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she has to deal with two of her least favorite people: her grandparents.

Kensei Tales: Offensive Driving

Jamie Hattori, who fights crime as Kensei, is not the only superhero in her neighborhood. Traffic Enforcer is an obsessed vigilante with a grudge against vehicular crimes. When a demon-possessed car begins terrorizing her neighborhood, Jamie is torn between protecting her neighborhood, maintaining her school responsibilities, and protecting the neighborhood from the other “hero.”

Kensei Tales: It’s the Great Yule Cat, Jamie Hattori

Raised Buddhist, but with friends and family pushing Christmas on her all her life, Jamie Hattori is a superhero who hates Christmas. But when the Yule Cat begins terrorizing Cobalt City, she has to don her mask as Kensei and deal with the issue. Even with her friends at her side to solve the problem, she’s still going to complain a lot.

Kensei Tales: Live and in Concert

Parker Fiorenza always wanted to be a superhero. When a supervillain implanted new memories and skills into her brain, she thought this could be her chance. Instead she’s dealing with an equal mix of boredom and poorly-timed blackouts. Just as she’s about to hang up her mask, she’s thrust into being the only person who can stop a sinister plot by a retired super-spy. She might be a hero whether she wants to or not.

Kensei Tales: Unorthodoxy

Sabrina Alvarez never wanted to be a superhero. But when she was chosen by St. Jeanne d’Arc, Sabrina had to rethink her priorities. Now an archbishop is trying to draft Sabrina into his secret army within the church, forcing Sabrina to make a decision about where her loyalties lie.

Greetings from Buena Rosa

When Manuel de la Vega testified against his fellow officers in a corruption investigation within the Mexico City Police Department, he knew his old life was over. He fled the country, joining the police force in Cobalt City, center of the superhero world.

But when his cousin is accused of murder in a company-run border town, Manuel finds himself making a long-overdue return to Mexico.
With a signed confession in the hands of the police, it might not matter how innocent she is.

It will take all of his craft and guile and the help of Manuel’s half-panda assistant Snowflake to see that justice is done in Buena Rosa. And if all that fails, he may have no choice but to resurrect the life he thought he had left behind–that of the masked vigilante Gato Loco!

Ride Like the Devil

Once a year, thirty racers gather from all over the world to compete in an illegal cycle race from Mexico to Canada. Big money and bigger bragging rights go to the winner of the Devil’s Run International. Some would do anything to win–even murder.

It falls to Manuel de la Vega and his vigilante alter ego Gato Loco to find this murderer among madmen. Or his friend Xander Tesla might be the next victim.

Follow de la Vega and his panda sidekick Snowflake for a high-octane thrill ride up the Pacific coast, where danger waits around every bend, and death comes at you at 200 miles an hour!

Rites & Desires

Ruby Killingsworth relies on magic to keep her entertainment empire on top. When a ritual gone wrong robbed her of this magic, she wasn’t about to take it lying down. Enlisting Loki’s aid and commanding the band of supernatural henchmen he’s proffered, Ruby embarks to capture the magic of an ancient African gem.

While endeavoring to regain her powers, Ruby must also contend with the daily business of Goblin Records, her romantic designs on her billionaire neighbor, and the unwanted attention of the newly elected U.S. president. The return of her power and a relationship with the city’s most prominent citizen would give Ruby all she ever desired. But magic comes with a price, politics are a dirty business—doubly so when a trickster god gets involved—and Loki is never on anyone’s side but his own.

Ephemera

Enjoy your favorite hot beverage in a mug from popular Cobalt City gathering spot, Schrodinger’s Cup Coffeehouse. Located just south of University of Cobalt City along Parkside, it has been the favorite meeting place for coffee-loving locals. Proudly independent with late hours and perfectly brewed fair-trade shade-grown coffee.

Cobalt City’s up and coming center for coffee culture, Ground Zero Coffee has five locations around the city (two in Cannonade!) with comfortable seating, free Wi-Fi, and late night hours. Because creativity never sleeps, so why should you?

They’re everywhere, with 60 locations in the greater Cobalt City area, Cup-O-Chino’s coffee empire is ubiquitous. What does it matter if their coffee tastes burnt as long as they roll out the Pumpkin Delight Latte or Maple Mocha every year like clockwork?

Once a package liquor store famous for its giant clown marquee, Clown Liquor rebranded as a music venue, becoming THE place for punk and metal shows in the 1980’s. Now celebrating 35 years as the premier destination in Cobalt City for those who like their music loud and dangerous.