Polybius Dreams
The arcade was supposed to be safe.
At school, they were bullied, but when the bell rang, Patrick, Michael, and Paul could always count on blowing off some steam playing video games and pinball. In the small town of Autumn Hill, there wasn’t much else to do.
But then the whole town seemed to go crazy, and it was right after the new game with the weird name showed up. Suddenly the arcade wasn’t as much fun anymore. The kids became sinister and violent. Some of their classmates went missing from school or got in trouble with the law. And the bully that wouldn’t leave them alone… why did he commit suicide?
Now the parents are organizing, looking for something to blame for the danger their children are in. Can a video game really cause this much damage?
A coming of age, psychological horror tragedy set in 1986, Polybius Dreams is a loose retelling of the popular internet urban legend about the killer video game. The main focus of the comic is not the conspiracy surrounding the game, but rather the fragmentation our protagonists experience when adolescent deaths lead to social unrest in their community.
Three high school freshmen find their lives upended when the arrival of a mysterious new video game causes a sudden outbreak of violent and suicidal acts among the youth of a small town. Their world begins to unravel just as they are dealing with their recent transition to high school. Outbreaks of violence occur among people exposed to the game, and as the main characters try and make sense of the situation, they start having menacing nightmares that seem to be leading them down a very dark path. Our goal with Polybius Dreams is to create a suspenseful story with rich characters and emotional impact, but also with a fair amount of social critique, and nostalgia for arcade culture.
Why the game shows up in the town or where it comes from is a mystery. In the end the reader will have to come to their own conclusion as to what it means, but by then the lives of the protagonists will be irrevocably altered.