Conquistadores from Beyond: The Comic!

Back in 1939, Nicholas Kenealy was a 20 year old killing time at Ft. MacArthur reading the latest issue of THRILLING WONDER STORIES, when he saw an ad for their January amateur writers' contest. Quickly he typed off the tale of Pete West, a young soldier stationed as Observer on a United Earth Spaceship, and his first encounter with alien life, the Tripeds of Sereria. He sent it off and thought nothing of it until his new issue followed him to his new base in Hawaii, including his story and his winnings, $50!





My name is Heather Kenealy, and Nicholas was my grandpa. My mother was a single mom, and Grandpa helped out a lot, as my sisters, brother and I grew up. He gave me my first car, he paid for my college dorm, my acting classes, and most of all, he encouraged me to write. He died in 2005, long before I ever got anything published, but believing that someday I would.

In 2011, I won MTV Geek and POW!Entertainment's "Stan Lee Presents The Seekers" contest, my script submission selected by Stan "the Man" Lee himself. In November of this year, my five chapter graphic novel based on Stan's story of a disgraced archaeologist and an investigative reporter stopping an ancient alien invasion will debut at Comikaze in Los Angeles, followed in a couple months by a four issue comic series for Bluewater Comics, currently titled Siren. I'm honored to be working on these projects, and hope to use them to start my comic career, a difficult road for a girl in a male dominated field like this. I want to write superheroes (the X-Men in particular) not romance, so I have to prove myself.

I would like to honor my grandfather who was such an influence in my life by turning Pete's story into a short graphic novel, expanding the four page tale into one of five to six chapters in a collected work that I'll submit to one of the creator owned comic book companies, Dark Horse perhaps. The money I raise here will be put towards finding an artist, and getting an ashcan put together to use as a step towards getting a fully realized graphic novel. I currently work at a comic shop and am close enough to the periphery of the industry, that I can get this into the right hands.

Thank you for helping me bring my grandfather's forgotten story into this new age where science fiction is so quickly becoming science fact.