Interview with creator Gary Reed on Level X.

Cal: What exactly is Level X?

GR: Level X is the next level of consciousness. Beyond the level of dreams, of unconsciousness, beyond everything except perhaps imagination. Essentially, Level X is the stage where dreams or imagination can become reality.

Cal: So is the reality uh, real or just in the minds of those imagining it?

GR: Both. At the level X stage, imagination via dreams becomes as real as reality itself. Of course, whether this is something that can actually exist in nature is something that only experts of the space continuum could determine and I’m not sure if they could agree on it or not.

Cal: What’s the basic principle behind this series?

GR: Six subjects are hooked up to a computer because they’re vivid dreamers. The type of people who can recall their dreams and actually influence them even while they’re sleeping. There’s been cases of people who even when dreaming can take extraneous input and contort them into their dreams simultaneously. That’s what these people are like. Anyways, they’re hooked up to monitors so their dreams can be evaluated when suddenly, the computer they’re connected to, decides that they’re some kind of computer virus and pulls them in to, well, basically destroy it.

Cal: So, it’s going to be a very, very short series?

GR: Of course not. What happens is that the six subjects, or rather their dreams, all merge together into one entity. So while their bodies are still separate, their dream states….their level X states, if you will, are now all connected.

Cal: In other words, they’re now all sharing the same dream?

GR: Exactly. But since they’re obviously all different from each other, they’re not going to have identical dreams. Each will add, or subtract from the consensus dream. So, each is a contributing member of that dream.

Cal: But doesn’t someone have to be like the focal point, the base for the dreams that the others can build on?

GR: No. Even though they all share the dream, at different points, one of them will exert more control. Usually, this is based on knowledge, fear, or just a more general awareness of the particular locale that the dream is in at that particular point.

Cal: So, the dreams will constantly shift?

GR: Right. Anything that can be imagined can be part of the dreams. For example, one dream takes place during the Black Plague. That was exerted by the historian. But something that happens there might trigger the science fiction writer into a whole new dimension and shift everyone over there.

Cal: What about the research facility? Can they shut down the computer or something.

GR: No, the subjects are now an integral part of this massive computer. So while the subjects are in the different dream worlds, the researchers try to find a way to get them out. In fact, one way might be to send someone in after them!

Cal: You created the series but you’re not writing it?

GR: I created the concept and plotted out the first issue in detail and generalized about where the first 4-6 issues should go. I turned it over to Dan Harbinson who has taken what I gave him and added quite a bit of his own to it. He’s doing a real good job with it and I think that fans are really going to enjoy this series that can go anywhere and do anything because that’s exactly what happens.

Cal: And the art team is Randy Brock and Ray Snyder.

GR: Yes, and the book has a very clean style to it which is necessary because of all the places it can go. Easy to follow and all of the characters have a definite look to them.

Cal: Anything else?

GR: Just that if in Level X, dreams can become an actual reality, that means all aspects can become real….including death. But of course, it takes our group awhile to figure that one out and they find out the hard way, of course.