OVERSERVED UNDERDOG
The Belcher
A reluctant hero, a government censor, and an urban war over the right to make noise.
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Prefer an independent shop? The eBook is also sold by Mutiny Information Cafe in Denver. Every audiobook outlet is listed on the audiobook page.
Synopsis
A long-brewing clash between a Mile-High music legend and an aggressive government censor has come to a head, as Pablo Vasquez, aka The Soothsayer, must contend with the diabolical Blatherskite and his minions. To bolster his crusade, Vasquez recruits Earl Danners, a prolific beer drinker with a burgeoning talent for belching forth sonic blasts of guttural decimation.
A reluctant hero, Earl must quickly grow into his role of The Belcher as advancing forces of evil threaten to stomp out every iteration of artistic expression and rip apart the very essence of life itself.
The Soothsayer and The Belcher encounter other outcasts and biological super freaks, and form a rag-tag team of vigilantes with Knockers, Red-eye Robinson, The Whine-o and an alluring femme fatale named Cricket.
Together, they align against Blatherskite, the ranks of the Environmental Agency of Restrictions (EAR), the Army National Guard and a sinister, stench-spewing super villain known as The Gasser. The standoff escalates into an urban war, and the face of downtown Denver will never again be the same.
The illustrated edition
The Belcher is being republished as an illustrated edition with a new cover and a full set of commissioned character illustrations. The story stays the same. The visuals are all new, and a sequel arrives this fall.
Characters
ALL CHARACTERS →
Praise
“Packed with punk filth, pulp grit, and the darkest humor this side of death itself, The Belcher is the drunken chronicle of an ultraviolent miscreant of a hero, the kind the 21st century has forgotten but truly needs.”
“This is a real gem for troubadours. It is Kafkaesque, super-human, high ladder bullet-train to absurdity and yet it has a worldly critique baiting us by the pop grammatology of Hollywood. Utterly enjoyable, but only for the ‘uncommitted.’”
“Take one shot superhero mythology for the modern age, one shot of ‘Fritz the Cat’-style sleaze humor and mix thoroughly in a trash can, and you’ve got ‘The Belcher.’ As a writer for Modern Drunkard Magazine, Luke Schmaltz has already established himself as a top-tier tastemaker of all things down and dirty, be it a martini or a street fight, and with ‘The Belcher’ his literary voice finds a fitting everyman character in Earl, a ramshackle drunk with a throat of vengeance. Prepare to be entertained.”
“Awash with booze and brutal action, Luke Schmaltz’s first book sings like a cruel and richly-deserved whipcrack across the back of America’s complacent reading public.”