First Watch: Avalon and Oil Wells: The Crude Knight

By John Jack

on September 12, 2018

The Crude Knight is an updated tale of King Arthur mysteriously intertwined with an oil rig, an ancient wizard and corrupted crude oil. I contacted series writer Ryan Little (Prometheus) to find out more about tthis intriguing concept.

Why King Arthur and Oil Wells? Such an interesting concept, this being your second project involving a character of antiquity making their way through our world.

I truly wish there was a more rational way to explain the combination of story elements. I keep a notebook full of story titles and one day wrote down “The Crude Knight”. I’d been wanting to dive into Arthurian legend for a while. I loved the sword in the stone as a kid, but as I got older I couldn’t help but feel like I only saw the knights in these dour stories of being doomed to a tragic destiny. That’s when I decided to flip them into the outright villains. If the knights of Camelot are truly victims of some miserable cosmic fate, I’d rather watch them rage against those odds.

How does the oil play into Arthurian lore?

Camelot gets all the credit, but it’s Avalon that is the source of the kingdom’s power. The materials I explored described Avalon as this ethereal wellspring of mystic energy with unknown potential. When coupled with the title, I knew this had to be a story about an oil well. It probably didn’t hurt that Mad Max: Fury Road had recently come out, so I had harsh landscapes and gasoline on my mind. As the story progresses we’ll see Merlin wield the contaminated oil and explore its other properties.

How many issues do you plan to do within this world?

The entire series is already written and will span 5 issues. Issue 2 is being colored for out stretch goals and issue three is being drawn!

It seems like this project was instantly funded, and you started talking stretch goals, what kind of bonuses are subscribers getting?

This is my seventh campaign. My goal with The Crude Knight, and all my Kickstarters, is to put out as much content as possible. We are nearly at our latest stretch goal which will extend issue one into a 50-page double issue, giving all backers issue two along with issue one at no additional cost. This will mean we’re putting out 40% of the story which would be my favorite way for readers to meet the world we’ve created.

What would you consider your biggest distraction? How do you take time off at the end of the day?

I’ve been making comics for five years now in addition to my other writings. Focusing on a career as a writer meant making my work the core of my life. I love my work and look forward to it every day. It’s never something I need a break from. It actually is what ends up distracting me from parties, phone calls, football games, and all the other arbitrary stuff we do. I’ll often look for ways to sneak away from other life responsibilities to write instead. Once you start putting work out, you just can’t live with an idea in your head. Now that I’ve started making comics, my focus is always to crank out as many stories I can and to spread them as far as possible.