Weekly Update #229! Rough Riders #1 Comes Out This Week (and more)

Editor's Note

Another week in the multiverse. I finished reading Eagle in Exile by Alan Smale and should have the review up Tuesday on Amazing Stories, along with New Releases on this site. If you haven't read it already, you should also check out my review of Clash of Eagles. Additionally, my interview with Alan will be up on SFFWorld this Wednesday. Not sure what I will post Thursday, but I'm sure I will think of something. That being said, if you would like to submit a guest post for that day email be at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

Geeze I have been busy lately, especially when you add the script for my next video on Terry Bisson's Fire on the Mountain and other videos that I am planning to produce in the weeks to come. Juggling the different blogs, websites and the channel can be tough at times and I am not even factoring in my day job or the adoption.

Before I end this Editor's Note, I need to say that you should check out Flag Friday: Flags of the North Atlantic Pact Organisation by Marc Pasquin. It did extremely well last week, probably because Marc is such a talented artist. Seriously, go visit his DeviantArt page and if you commission anything from him, tell him Matt sent you.

And now the news...

Comic of the Week: Rough Riders #1 by Adam Glass and Pat Olliffe

Steampunk and secret history collide in the new comic series from AfterShock Comics new series Rough Riders. Here is the description from Amazon:

Led by a young Theodore Roosevelt, a motley crew of soon-to-be American legends must work together to solve a mystery that threatens life itself. Harry Houdini — street magician and master of misdirection. Annie Oakley — a washed-up entertainer, eager for a chance to prove herself in a real war. Jack Johnson — an undefeated brawler and the son of ex-slaves, determined to get his shot at the heavyweight championship…When a terrifying alien technology destroys the USS Maine, these unlikely allies set sail for bloody Cuba, into the heart of a brewing conflict, to wage a shadow war against the greatest threat mankind has ever known. Before they were famous, they were… ROUGH RIDERS.

This new series got a lot of press actually and was featured on USA Today. I'm actually really curious about this series. It may be a lot of fun, but it does seem multiple people are writing Theodore Roosevelt inspired fiction. For example, SM Stirling is writing a new book called And Carry A Big Stick, which features a quasi-CIA agency created by Roosevelt (and airships). Personally I look forward to more fiction featuring America's toughest president and hopefully Rough Riders will really capture how awesome Teddy was.

Video of the Week

Speaking of steampunk, the film April and the Extraordinary World has been getting a lot of press lately. If you want to see what all the fuss is about, check out this clip:

And if you want more alternate history goodness on YouTube, don't forget to check out Alana and I sharing our thoughts on Season 1 of Starz's Outlander:

Picture of the Week

In case you didn't know it, I love Polandball and I especially like it when the various artists go down the alternate history path:

If you want to learn more about my thoughts on Russian America and how they could have kept Alaska, check out this video.

You should also check out...

• How Soviet artists imagined communist life in space (via io9).
• Bernie Sanders' campaign playing the what if game (via Slate).
• The announcement that Jack Thorne will be adapting Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials for BBC (via Deadline).

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger for Amazing Stories, a volunteer interviewer for SFFWorld and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not exploring alternate timelines he enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects 

What is Polandball?

There are very few things on the Internet where knowledge of history and geopolitics are required to get the joke, but Polandball is one of them. It is technically classified as a "meme", but a better description is to call it a crowd sourced webcomic.

Polandball, or Countryballs, are short comics where balls colored to look like national flags interact with each other. Countryballs have no limbs, pupils, eyebrows or mouth and cannot into proper English (see what I did there). They personify many of the national stereotypes of the country they represent. For example, the United States (or USAball) is portrayed wearing sunglasses, is ignorant of many countries (confuses Austria with Australia) and more conservative than its fellow Countryballs (who he inevitably calls communist whenever they disagree).

Other countries, both past and present, are represented as well. The Netherlands is usually pictured stoned, Russia is obsessed with combating "homosex" and Austria-Hungary appears to have a split personality. There is, of course, Poland, the star of the series. Despite the numerous other Countryballs, he appears the most often, usually to be bullied by the other countries or chased by the UK for not cleaning his toilet properly.

Although it got its start on a German-language site as a way of making fun of a Polish user who spoke poor English, the concept has spread across the Internet in recent years. I primarily follow new creations on Reddit, but you can find them posted in many other places. They even have a Wiki, but no page on Wikipedia yet unless you use the Simple English Wikipedia.

The strip at the top right is one of my favorites, since my own job was effected by the shutdown when OFAC stopped updating their list of people not to do business with. While current events play a big role in the various stories contributors create, history isn't ignored either. I could go on and on, but I think you should just take a look and enjoy this smart and humorous meme yourself.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.