Writers Frank Barbiere and Stephen Rhodes are teaming up on Zero Instance, a new five-issue sci-fi thriller debuting July 14 from Comixology Originals. The series features artwork by Vic Malhotra on the first two issues and Eoin Marron on issues #3-5, with colors by Lauren Affe, letters by Taylor Esposito and design by Dylan Todd.
Zero Instance follows Rhys, a recent college grad whose routine raid in his favorite MMO takes an unexpected turn when the game’s final boss appears to break free from the digital world. As an experimental artificial intelligence called Braxir begins manipulating connected technology and human behavior in the real world, Rhys and his friends must confront a threat that no longer ends when the game’s over.
“Zero Instance was born out of a shared love of tense thrillers, MMOs and game development, and I’m so excited to be telling this story with fantastic collaborators,” Barbiere said.
Barbiere has worked extensively in comics, on titles like Five Ghosts, Avengers World and Violent Love, before moving to video games around 2017. His credits there include Darksiders Genesis, Ruined King: A League of Legends Story and Behemoth. He began writing comics again recently, working on Astonishing Times for Comixology and Author Immortal at Image Comics. His writing partner, Rhodes, has worked on games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Vampyr, Call of Duty and the upcoming Iron Man game from Electronic Arts. While Rhodes has previously written tie-in comics for Call of Duty, Zero Instance marks his first creator-owned comic series.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of comics, but I only started experimenting with it as a creative outlet in recent years. After working on some tie-in comics for a video game project, I absolutely fell in love with the format and how creatively liberating it is,” Rhodes said. “Getting to work with my long-time friend and collaborator, Frank Barbiere, has been incredible. We have both spent many years working in video game development, so it was fun to draw on that experience within the story. Zero Instance emerged as a result of our love of video games as a medium and explores where the future of interactivity could be heading in the not-too-distant future.”
Zero Instance #1 arrives digitally on Amazon July 14.