Dark Horse Comics has announced Knight City, a three-issue series that will debut in February. The project reunites Matt Kindt and David Lapham, who worked together on The Hero Trade from Bad Idea.
Kindt will write and color the book, with illustrations by Lapham and letters Joshua Reed.
The comic is about a superhero who lives two lives: While awake, he’s tasked with protecting the entire world. But while sleeping, he shifts to a mundane world where he has no super powers. Kindt has explored similar ideas in Revolver and Subgenre, where the main characters also had two different lives and worlds they traveled to when they slept.
“I wanted to write a story where the most powerful hero on earth can’t sleep because he can hear the cries for help no matter where he is…and it’s driving him crazy,” said Kindt. “Until he wakes up and he has no powers. And he’s a normal guy and happy. Then he’s forced to make a choice – does he sacrifice his mental health to help earth or does he protect himself and just live a normal life. I think there’s something compelling about that choice and I’m not sure what the right answer is…so we made this book to figure it out. Working with Dave is pure joy and he makes everything he touches twice as good.”
From the press release:
A legendary hero is caught between two worlds. By day, he soars as a symbol of hope, but the moment he falls asleep, he enters a universe devoid of heroes where he leads a mundane life. As the pressure of his dual universes mounts, his heroic self begins to crack, pushing him toward a mental breakdown.
In a world that measures the loss of human life that occurs when he takes one night off, the weight of his responsibilities becomes too much. Ultimately, he’s left with a choice: embrace his extraordinary abilities or seek solace in the ordinary.
Will he stand tall in a world that needs him, or find peace in a simpler existence?
“It’s always great to work with Matt,” Lapham said. “He has the most effortless imagination of anyone I’ve ever worked with, and somehow still leaves space for collaboration and my bonkers ideas. Knight City is superheroes that are totally familiar but in a way that’s completely sideways and couldn’t come from anyone else.”
The first issue of three while arrive Feb. 4. It’s coming out under Kindt’s Flux House imprint, which will shift to Oni Press next summer.