Sir Reginald & the Clockwork Heart: This Skeleton Has More Adventure in Him Than Most Living Heroes!

WEPAAAAAAAA! CRUSADERS, I’VE FOUND AN ADVENTURER WHO IS LITERALLY ALL BONES AND STILL HAS MORE HEART THAN HALF THE SUPERHEROES ON THE SHELF!

Meet Sir Reginald: fearless explorer, artifact hunter and a man who has absolutely no business being alive—because he isn’t. His partner in crime? Mr. Spittle, a ghostly butler. If that duo doesn’t get your indie-comics antenna twitching, check your pulse, baby!

Sir Reginald & the Clockwork Heart is a 96-page, full-color hardcover anthology from Goats Flying Press, now seeking support on Kickstarter. Writer Joe Atalla has assembled a creative lineup that turns one big adventure into five interconnected stories, each with its own artistic flavor.

Sir Reginald and Mr. Spittle are on a quest to gather artifacts for a secret project. Their travels take them through tombs, perilous waters, ancient ruins and monster-infested territory, with each chapter adding another piece to the puzzle. Waiting at the end is a confrontation with an old enemy, Professor Zardoc.

What I dig about this approach is that the creators aren’t just pitching a random collection of short stories. The anthology is built like a serial adventure: different locations, different artistic interpretations and one mystery connecting the entire journey. It’s the kind of format that can make a book feel bigger than its page count.

Juni Ba tackles The Curse of Osiris; Joe Atalla draws In the Deep Below; Jesse Lonergan takes on The Lost Temple; Dimitrios Pantazis handles Wyrm of Destruction; and Armand Bodnar brings the saga home in The Clockwork Heart. Brad Simpson provides colors, while Jeff Powell handles lettering and design.

That’s not a one-style-fits-all assembly line. Different artists can give each chapter its own atmosphere, which suits a globe-trotting pulp story perfectly. A creepy tomb should feel different from an undersea nightmare. That’s not inconsistency; that’s an opportunity to show what sequential art can do.

Here’s what gets me excited about projects like this: nobody needed to approve a skeleton adventurer and his ghost butler through seventeen layers of corporate meetings. Somebody had a wonderfully bizarre idea and said, ‘We’re making the comic.’ THAT’S the spirit of independent creation!

Of course, a great concept still has to deliver on the page. The creative roster and connected-chapter structure are promising ingredients, but readers will ultimately decide whether the mystery and character chemistry pay off. That’s part of the fun of backing an original project: getting in early on something that might surprise you.

Check out the official Sir Reginald Kickstarter campaign for current rewards, deadlines and funding information.

Skeleton hero? Ghost butler? Pulp monsters? An indie creative team swinging for the fences? I’m listening, baby. Now somebody get Sir Reginald a sandwich. Oh, wait. WEPAAAA!