It can be all too easy to lose yourself in an excellent video game, and with the frustrations of the 21st century who hasn’t wanted to disconnect for a while? In the new series Cemetery Kids Don’t Die, a group of friends have discovered the Dreamwave. The Dreamwave is a gaming console designed for play while you sleep. While there are certain restrictions and options to protect someone’s circadian rhythms and prevent one from spending all their time playing, it isn’t all that hard to hack. The kids spend their nights moving through elaborate mazes with the plan to defeat the different bosses throughout the game. It should be a fun game, but one of the kids, Pik, is starting to discover that things happening to him in the game are starting to affect him in real life. Rather than lessen his playtime, he gathers with his friends for a sleepover to try and take out the most recent boss they’ve discovered. This decision changes everything.
In a time where the 24-7 media new cycle never seems to stop and tragedies become memes at an alarming rate, it can be a dream to disassociate for a little while. The first of this series kicks off with a serious WTF moment that made me really glad I’m not playing RPGs in a fully enveloping environment.
The new series Cemetery Kids Don’t Die comes to stores with issue #1 February 7, 2024 from Oni Press. The series is written by Zac Thompson with art by Daniel Irizarri. I’m looking forward to reading more.
