Who are we?
Reality is what exactly? Who determines it? Is it as simple as one man’s insanity is another’s reality? Is it something you would even know was happening to you?
Do we ever truly know what is real?
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Writer/Creator – Kevin Chilcoat
Artist/Letterer – Marc Olivent
Kickstarter Campaign ends on Friday, September 7, 2018 at 9:45 PM EDT.
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The Pitch:
Allister must determine if he’s really suffering from delusions or if everything in both worlds is real. If that’s the case, he needs to worry about how to not get killed by his “delusions.”
The Story:
In Knight in the Snake Pit, we follow a character Allister Ward who is stuck in two worlds, jumping back and forth at random. One world is 19040’s Los Angeles, where he’s a patient at a mental hospital and the other world is a medieval fantasy world, where he’s being begged by a king to save his daughter and his kingdom from an impending invasion that could happen at any moment.
Issue 1 has Allister fearing for his life in the mental hospital, as he’s one false move away from a lobotomy. Issue 2 has Allister fighting for his life and freedom in a Gladiator pit. Both issues have a combined 48 pages (without inserts and variant art).
John’s Thoughts:
I’m utterly fascinated by the idea of who we are deep down and whether the reality I’m experiencing is the same as the reality others are experiencing. Stories like Knight in the Snake Pit take that conceit and enter it into a more fantastical realm that any of us might see on a daily basis, but that doesn’t mean what Allister Ward is experiencing (in either reality) is any less real for him than it would be for any of us.
Plus, I’m really digging the name of the comic…
As this is a Kickstarter for the second issue, it allows you to really sink your teeth into the overall story… and there are plenty of rewards to get you all caught up, so no worries there.
The Rewards:
So many Kickstarters tend to overload the Rewards, trying to anticipate every possible combination, however, Knight sticks to pretty much the basics. At the lower end, you can get the first two issues in PDF at the $5 level. Going up a little, if the physical copy is more your speed, you can get a hard copy of both issues ($20). And if what you really want is something to call all your own, you can get an original quick sketch from Artist Marx Olivent ($40).
The Verdict:
Bouncing between a more contemporary time period and one that looks to be a mixture of the Roman Coliseums… with dragons.
I mean, you had me at Dragons… or stuck in two worlds… or a lobotomy? Maybe not the last one. But if you’re in the mood to question your own reality for a little while, it looks like Knight in the Snake Pit might be your next favorite comic.
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To find out more about Knight in the Snake Pit, check out the Facebook Page here. And check out the Kickstarter here.
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John McGuire has co-written, along with his wife, two Kindle Worlds novellas set in the world of Veronica Mars: Theft & Therapy and There’s Something About Mac.
He is also the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. The Trade paperback collecting the first 4 issues is finally back from the printers! If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!
Want to read the first issue for free? Click here! Already read it and eager for more?
Click here to join John’s mailing list.
His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.
He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com
