On the origins and backstories for creating the “Devon” vignette

The Night Zero blog has been quiet for a while, which can only mean one thing: busy busy busy! With the post-production of the Devon vignette, rolling into production of episode five, and an ambitious new comic-shop-outreach program, the Night Zero crew has been working their collective butts this last month, but I’m happy to be back here on the blog.

This new vignette seems the perfect place to start, and if you weren’t positive that Devon is Yevgeniy, there you go. This isn’t a case of actor recycling—Yevgeniy as an assumed name has always been part of the overall backstory, just never overtly addressed until now. You can catch mentions of it throughout the various vignettes and episodes, or just check out his character bio on the cast page.

Just like “Jezebel” and “Sisters”, this vignette was approached as an avenue to explore the character of Devon/Yevgeniy in detail that the ongoing serial doesn’t have time for. As the American inside the Nazarov empire, Devon’s in a precarious position but as a character is most likely to be empathized by the reader. Some times he feels as cold and tyrannical as Valentin himself; at other times he seems the only sane person in the New City. How did he come to be like this, and what is it he’s ultimately after? With that question began the concept work for this vignette.

In addition to backstory expansion, I absolutely wanted the vignette to be an opportunity to get Yevgeniy out of the (literally and figuratively) constrictive suit he wears in the “present”, and take him back to a time when his younger, more confrontational personality would lead to more physical animation. This would be a fun challenge for Ben, who has been portraying Yevgeniy for more than two years without ever breaking a sweat (although he looked it at the end of “Sisters”), and only firing a gun once (at the very end of “Insecurity”). In fact, Yevgeniy’s repeated line “Give me a gun!” from the Brothers in Arms short story (see Volume Two) comes directly from Ben, who shoot after shoot longed to get into the thick of some anti-zombie action. And here it is.

As this fight wraps up and we move onto the third act of the vignette, I’ll be back with more details from the actual production and execution of the vignette, plus some behind-the-scenes photos. I plan to return to the weekly Friday blog posts, and hope you continue to enjoy them.

Finally, over the next few weeks you may notice some changes around the website. I’ve got a nice list of improvements and new content that I’ll be rolling out, some of which you may have noticed already. This is just one part of a new campaign to spread the word about Night Zero (both online and in the world), and with these webpage improvements we hope to be more approachable to new visitors who are unfamiliar with HDR photography, photographic novels, and Night Zero’s unique take on the zombie apocalypse. If you’ve got ideas or comments, let us know!