Jason McNamara And Greg Hinkle Kickstart ‘The Rattler’ And It Looks Terrifying

One of the really cool things about Kickstarter and what it's done for comics is that you can have the experience of heading to a con and walking down Artist's Alley to see what's new and interesting without ever leaving your house. It's a cool feeling, especially when you find something that seems immediately thrilling, like I did when I caught a glimpse of Jason McNamara and Greg Hinkle's The Rattler, a new 96-page graphic novel that just met its funding goal.

It was the premise that got me: A man watches his fiance as she's abducted without a trace right in front of him, and then starts hearing her voice ten years later. It's the kind of immediately chilling idea that I want to learn more about as soon as I hear it, and fortunately, that's now an option. Check out the video below!

If it was the premise that grabbed me, it was Hinkle's art that sunk its teeth in -- it's exactly the kind of stuff I like, smooth and exaggerated with a cartoonishness that in no way detracts from the moody horror of it all, especially once a dude in a Halloween mask shows up and starts waving around an electric eggbeater. So, you know, I've got that new nightmare to look forward to. Plus, those spot reds do a pretty amazingly effective job of bringing out the bloodstains and upping the creepiness to a whole new level.

It's also an interesting tactic with a Kickstarter video. It's not often that you get one that doesn't feature a single word from the creators, instead letting the art of the book itself speak for the project. Of course, if you're like me, you're going to be interested enough to go digging a little deeper, which is when you'll find the other video on the Kickstarter page, where it's revealed that Rattler's creepy, inherently disturbing premise is based on something that actually happened to McNamara.

So that's nightmare #2, and this book hasn't even come out yet.

As of this writing, The Rattler is fully funded and has cruised on through its first stretch goal, meaning that backers can get both Rattler itself and a digital minicomic by Hinkle, and even for someone whose nightmares stack up as easily as mine do, it's becoming increasingly tempting to check it out.