#1withapencil

I posted this to IG back in January last year, but I think now is exactly when such a hero ought to reenter the public consciousness. After all, a wizard is never late nor early, but arrives precisely when he means to. Hafiz el-Ruqayyah is a member of an order of Zoroastrian wizard-monks who spend their lives observing, preserving, and breeding Rocs: gigantic birds of prey spoken of in Persian legend sporting plumages blue as the sky, white as clouds, and red as the setting sun. The sages revere the Roc as sacred emissaries of Ahura Mazda—the prime deity and source of all light, warmth, and good in the universe—and many sages, like Hafiz, specialize in the magics of air and lightning—without the former, fire cannot burn, and the latter being able to spark fire. Hafiz was at the end of his training, having mastered the sword and receiving his mentor's Damascus steel scimitar in recognition of his prowess, as well as unfailing command over the power of the storm. The final step was to travel to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea to assume guardianship over a juvenile Roc who would serve as Hafiz's familiar. But at the very moment the rare bird was bestowed on him, it was whisked away, summoned from a vast distance by an evil conjurer. Determined to reclaim his sacred charge, Hafiz tracked down the conjurer to Dubai, across the Persian Gulf in the UAE. When he arrived, the young sage was appalled at the disparity of living conditions between the obscenely wealthy and their slaves, for it went against every righteous teaching and instinct that Hafiz had learned his entire life. Though rescuing the Roc—whom after the ordeal he named Shamshir—tested his every skill, Hafiz realized his life's work had only just begun: to liberate the slaves of this modern society, vanquish the evil that gripped the slavers' hearts, and serve as a symbol of freedom and hope for the downtrodden across the Arabian Peninsula. By the light of day or moonlit night, whether Shamshir casts her shadow on scorching desert sands or towers built on forced labor, all who view the Keeper of the Roc know the winds of change are soon to blow through their lives.

©2026 1withapencil To the country that birthed the Bill of Rights, skateboarding, and rock & roll, happy 250th birthday! May you continue to birth artists who create for the sake of creating, and welcome the tired and poor who dare to dream the American Dream in the 21st century! As for the totalitarian disease infecting your heart, get well soon!

Sk8r Duk, though star-spangled on this 250th Independence Day, was originally conceived on a whim for no greater reason than to express the undying spirits of freedom and rebellious youth. @hermitollien may have had some influence thereupon, will neither confirm nor deny.

Among Harold Long’s many codenames, callsigns, epithets, and noms de plume, Operator Maxim is his favorite as the standard of excellence he holds himself to.

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as the only son of a wealthy banker on what was then “Black Wall Street,” Harold Long wanted for precious little growing up. He had friends in high places, but his early onset talent as a community organizer made him popular even among those children of more modest means. A certain 1916 city ordinance drove a wedge between Harry’s parents, and the heir was only too happy to graduate high school and attend Tuskegee University if only to escape his parents’ bickering.

While at University studying Communications, Harry rubbed elbows with the likes of George Washington Carver and his contemporaries. Surrounded by such pivotal figures, he did what he did best, which was to coordinate events led by these giants of the era. Harry believed that the key to the 20th century was in telecommunications, and he wanted to be the one to direct where the cables were laid.

Tragedy struck just as Harry was to begin a radio station job in New York City. The trouble brewing at home erupted into a blaze when the Longs and 300 other innocent black people were murdered in the Tulsa Race Massacre, thousands more injured. Harry’s parents, childhood home, and uncountable friends had suddenly gone up in smoke. The millions of dollars he inherited were a cold comfort compared to the immeasurable loss suffered. But the spark of hope was soon rekindled when a costumed vigilante broke up a cell of local Klansmen. It was a messy affair, but did prevent a yet greater crime from occurring. Harry had the means, the motivation, and now the idea for how he might avenge those senseless deaths.

Another founding member of the Heraldic Society of America, Firecracker Jack made his debut as an icon of America during the Golden Age of Heroism in the 1920s and ‘30s. When Charlie Jackson’s childhood dream of playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team was undone by a bullet to the knee in WWI, he had all but lost his will to live. However, upon hearing the stories of war heroes like Major Valor and the all-powerful Chosen One, Charlie discovered his new calling in life. Once honorably discharged from the army (sent home early due to his knee injury), Charlie resolved himself to intense training while, and after, his knee healed. By day, he built muscle constructing the skyscrapers that would eventually comprise New York’s famous skyline, and by evening, he honed his batting, pitching, and catching skills at the ballpark while paying special care to strengthen his knee by running the bases. Two years later, with his body in peak condition, Charlie fashioned a baseball uniform to represent the nation he adored, and took his wartime experience to New York’s criminal underworld for the next two decades. Along the way, he would come to meet, fight alongside, and form the Heraldic Society of America with the other heroes in his beloved city: Amber Light, Mobian of Molorak, the first Sapien, and eventually his very own sidekick, Bullpen Bobby.

On today's episode of flooding Tumblr with my work, may I introduce Mobian of Molorak, the Ambassador of Mars! Full disclosure right off the bat: Mobian isn't actually from Mars. In fact, Zachary Moses Alaverdian is quite human. His appearance is due simply to the psychically imbued Waistband of the Beheld which allows its wearer to alter their physical characteristics while worn. The remaining suite of his powers can be attributed to others in his collection of Relics from his past lives, for indeed, Zachary is a previous incarnation of Ankhmage Mobius (read all about him in a previous post of mine!), and as such is the inheritor of a soul steeped in 12,000 years of magical experience. However, Zachary is also the inheritor of a strong psychic lineage, which—due to the mutually annihilating nature of magics and psionics—meant every ounce of power he has attained in his current life, every shred of his past lives, had to be earned or reclaimed through great effort. As for why he chose the guise of a "green Martian," he found that a personage straight out of the pulp science fiction novels of the early 20th century would be a convenient euphemism for and draw more attention to the Armenian diaspora that preceded his birth, to make it easier to digest considering the delicate sensibilities of New Yorkers at the start of the roaring '20s. Plus, with the public's nascent fascination with the "super-hero" as a concept, Zachary was able to openly practice his psychic abilities in service of New York's citizens so long as he did so as Mobian of Molorak. In history's curious way of repeating itself and foreshadowing future events, Mobian wound up becoming a founding member of the Heraldic Society of America (stay tuned for the other members in future posts!), the modern age's first true team of superheroes, and thus kicked off the Golden Age of the Superhero.

Young Tobias Michaels first put on the guise of 1-Ups Man at age 14, and became one of the staunchest allies of many New York-based crimefighters, but his path to heroism began at half that age. When his beloved grandmother was hospitalized with multiple organ failures, all it took was one look of intense, concentrated will from 7-year-old Toby to bring her back from the brink, and for him to discover a miraculous power when she made a full recovery. As an enthusiast of all things four-color and daringly heroic, Toby was eager to begin saving the day, but instead he honored the sage advice of his father to wait until he was "old enough to hold a job." In the meantime, he learned all he could from every subject of his school curriculum, but truly found his calling, his passion in invention, the practical application of his academic aptitude in novel ways. Some of Toby’s inventions would even be field-tested by the likes of Sapien, Carbonclad, Gun Runner, and Osprey Man before becoming part of his arsenal of gadgets once he finally donned his own costume, to say nothing of the rapid-healing services he would frequently provide. Whether it was his inborn gifts or his practiced skills that earned him the title of “super” is a matter of perspective; the desire to use them in the service of others is indisputably what made him a hero.

Sapien's first true sidekick, Devon Neely was a Bronx kid who grew up around the fisherfolk on City Island. Even when he and his father were forced to sell their boat and move to an apartment project far from the shore during the 2008 housing crisis, he would return to defend his home turf when he grew out of the shadow of his mentor, fully fledged as his own hero: Osprey Man! When Sapien moved away to a new city in 2013, he knew he was leaving the Big Apple in good hands. Devon had come a long way from the scrappy kid he was as Sapien’s protégé, and used his righteous fury creatively to fuel his passion for justice rather than let it consume his humanity. Variously known as the Sea Hawk, Fish Hawk, or Flyfisher, Osprey Man fights crime primarily with his Multi-Pole—both as a weapon and as a tool for reaching faraway objects or sowing mischief among organized crime. And like the predatory bird of his namesake, Osprey Man is comfortable both high in the air and below the waves (though sea salt is the least of his concerns about swimming in NYC’s waterways).