The Black '75
Announces itself before Nick says a word
Story World
Inside The Folklore
A field guide to the fictional setting of the Mr. Delco saga: a heightened, Delaware-County-inspired world of backyard fire pits, night work, borrowed stories and machines that answer when they are called.
The Setting
The series takes place in an invented version of Delaware County, Pennsylvania — the “Delco” of the title — assembled out of township roads, corner stores, ball fields, body shops and back porches. Nothing in it maps to a real address, a real institution or a real person. It is a stage built to hold a folklore, and it is treated with the affection of somebody who never left.
Pillars of the World
- The Fire Pit
- A ring of cut stone in a Delco-inspired backyard, behind a house with six lit windows. In this fictional world the pit is not a power source so much as an agreement: it burns while people gather around it, it dims when the block turns on itself, and it has never once been used to take something from somebody. Every ability in the saga is measured against it.
- The Keepers
- The invented antagonists of the series. The Keepers do not smash anything. They collect — deeds, debts, favors, and eventually the stories people tell about themselves — and file what they collect in a tower that only opens for someone carrying something worth taking. Their fictional leader, the Curator, believes a story locked in a drawer is a story preserved.
- The Ember Crown
- A ring of dark iron threaded with living ember. The Crown offers exactly one thing: never lose anything again, on the condition that everyone else's story passes through you first. Its inner curve is scratched with the names of everyone who has ever accepted that trade. It is broken in Issue No. 19 and refused for good in Issue No. 21.
- The Night Engine
- A wheel of teeth turning slowly beneath the county roads, with a hollow at the center exactly the size of a person. When its countdown ends in Issue No. 20 it does not eat light; it eats recognition, erasing the roads from the memory of the people who drive them. It can only be pushed back by residents saying the names of their own streets out loud.
- Cabana Gear
- The crew has no uniform. Nick works in a black pinstriped cabana shirt, Tiny in a headlamp he refuses to upgrade, Vance in whatever fits, Shh in plain workwear, Boochi in running shoes that are always newer than everything else he owns. The Cabana Code — introduced in Issue No. 10 — is the rule that you show up as yourself or you do not show up.
The Crew
- Nick Reynolds
Controlled fire drawn from family, faith, grief turned to purpose, loyalty, courage, truth, rebirth and protection.
- Tiny
Fearlessness in the dark. He finds what evil tries to hide.
- Vance
Immovability. Discipline. He does not negotiate with pressure.
- Spark
Nick carries the flame. Spark makes it spread.
- Shh
He owns everything beneath the town, and he built The Red Devil.
- Boochi
Total commitment. He finishes what the crew starts.
The Machines
The White Shield
Carries the whole crew and then some
The Red Devil
Heavy excavation and demolition in truck form
Reading Order
All 24 issues are free to read in order. Start at Issue No. 1 and read straight through; each arc runs eight issues and ends on a complete turn in the story.
Arc 1 · Issues No. 1–8
The First Flame
The fire pit wakes, the crew finds each other, and a quiet builder learns that the thing nobody can buy is the thing everybody wants.
Arc 2 · Issues No. 9–16
Roads of Delco
The saga moves onto the blacktop: storms of living glass, a market that trades in memories, a false sunrise, and six lanterns that teach Nick to share the weight.
Arc 3 · Issues No. 17–24
The Keeper Vault
The Keepers open their tower, the crew opens their own history, and the fire finally decides who it belongs to.
The Folklore of Nick Reynolds is a work of fiction set in a heightened, fictionalized world. Antagonists, supernatural events, organizations and story conflicts are fictional.