About a year and a half ago, I reviewed a graphic novel here at Bearing Arms. It's not something we normally do because, well, we're a gun and Second Amendment site. Why would we be reviewing glorified comic books?

But Black Tide Rising was and is a little different. Based on a series of novels by John Ringo, it was an interesting case of a story of survival during the zombie apocalypse outbreak being written by someone who actually thinks your right to keep and bear arms is valid and incredibly useful for such an occasion.

Granted, as I noted in that earlier piece, the zombie genre isn't exactly one known for the anti-gun message, but still...

There was one problem with that one, though. It was only the first volume of a series of graphic novels that didn't even fully cover the first book. Now, a crowdfunding campaign has kicked off to bring about volume 2.

The crew is different on this one, compared to the first, but no less distinguished.

It starts with comic writer Mike Baron, who has worked on such small comic properties as Star Wars, Batman, the Punisher, and Conan the Savage, the latter of which automatically makes him awesome in my book.

Artist Elias Martins and Colorist Robb Epps may not have quite the same resume, but their talent is obvious just by looking at their work.

The cover, however, is being created by Eisner award-winner Dave Dorman, so that should be pretty awesome.

But you may be wondering, why should you care? Crowdfunding always feels sort of weird to those of us born before a certain point and graphic novels--basically books in comic form--really don't strike everyone as something worth wasting money on.

Here's the thing, folks. The comic book industry and the entertainment media as a whole don't like you. They loathe people like you and me. We're not interested in being lectured to, but they don't care. They're going to try to do it anyway, which means if you like comics and graphic novels, you either have to step away from what you love or you have to put up with the lectures.

So long as people stay, though, they know they can do what they want.

More importantly, when people bring up properties that aren't anti-gun, that contain no anti-gun message at all, and were written by an author I know to be pro-gun, and people like us don't support it, then why would the entertainment media listen to us at all? Why would they care that we don't like their media?

The truth is that when our money goes into the pockets of people who want to take our guns away, they feel empowered to do just that. Black Tide Rising ain't that. This is the absolute worst-case scenario in graphic form, based on a novel by an Army veteran and adapted by people that value your right to keep and bear arms.

Look, buy a copy for the comic and graphic novel geek in your life. There's even a tier that'll get you volume 1 along with the second volume, so you can get up to date on the story.

Personally, I can't wait to see it.

I'm tired of being treated like scum by the entertainment industry simply because I'm not waiting for a superhero to swoop in and save me and mine, but would rather just take care of it myself. Let's back those who are trying to provide some alternatives.

(Edit: Hounddog Media, the company behind this graphic novel, sent me a linktree for where you can pick up volume one without waiting on the crowdfunding campaign to finish. Also, if you're not interested in a zombie graphic novel--you should still get this one. I think zombies are overplayed and I'm still getting this one--there's an option to buy one for a servicemember. A lot of our boys and girls in uniform do love zombies, after all. They may also go to personnel in VA hospitals, so that's a  win, too.)