Journal Zero

The title says it all. We are less than a month away from the official release of Night Zero: Volume Two, and are now accepting preorders for this gorgeous volume of collected works. At 190 pages, this book is twice the size of our first volume and contains everything that Night Zero produced in our second year. It’s not cheap for an independent production to self-publish a book of this caliber, printed right here in the USA, and your preorders help make it possible. Every preordered copy will be signed by the cast and crew, shipped free anywhere in the continental US, and include admission (and perks) at the release party in Seattle on March 6th.

Hard to believe it’s already been a full year since our book came out, and what an incredible year it’s been. So much of 2008 was just figuring out how to produce a photographic novel, while in 2009 we were able to take flight and really explore what our incredibly capable team could do. Volume One was our inception, and contained two comics: the Pilot and Episode One, as well as a short story and a variety of behind-the-scenes and origin pieces. Volume Two is our expansion, and contains five comics: Jezebel, Episode Two, Episode Three, the untitled vignette, and Sisters, plus a prequel short story and special insights on the graphic novel.

Thanks to the crossover scene between Episode One and Episode Two, the oldest photos in this new book reach all the way back to the summer of ‘08, one of the first times many of the cast members met, and spans all the way through the Quarantine shoots that fall; Jezebel, the untitled vignette, and some Seattle exterior shoots in the winter; the various skullhunters in the spring; the amazing Sisters vignette during the summer; all the way to the Nazarovs’ scenes and the scratcher catchers the following autumn. I cannot count the number of people involved nor the thousands of combined hours spent to create the contents of this book, but I can say that it is a beautiful piece of art and a deserving sequel to our debut release.

In these tough economic times, luxuries and entertainments are all the more harder to justify, and art is one of the first victims of tightened budgets. Should you decide to purchase Volume Two, know that Night Zero is a not-for-profit organization which supports local businesses and organizations through production purchases and rentals, and that the books themselves are printed in the Chicago area by a small, family-owned business. Not only are these beautiful books priced to sell, but your support helps us cover the cost of printing and continue producing this unique and exciting graphic novel of the post-apocalypse.

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY

By popular demand, I modestly present (the rough approximation of) the official Night Zero store! It seems that people can’t get enough of Night Zero, and for those that already own our completely awesome book, a little something is needed to tide them over until Volume Two comes off the press.

To be fair, members of the production team both current and former have long pressed for official merchandise, specifically a branded T-shirt beyond the coveted red CREW shirts made available to our team. I was the one who resisted these calls, thinking it proper to hold off printing a shirt until… I don’t know what. Until the perfect shirt design magically appeared on my lap, I suppose. Friends, team members, online visitors, all were requesting that T-shirts be made for Night Zero, and I realized that our shirt (and general swag production) would just have to follow the same path as the comic itself: just start somewhere, and keep making it better from there.

The design I wanted to keep simple, and the stylized logo for the comic has always been a good look on black. For the reverse, I went back to the very first synopsis I ever wrote for Night Zero, from November 2007 when I first tried to sell the idea to Forest and Katrina. The one-paragraph backstory for the Night Zero universe ended with a simple, haunting sentence, and now, so can you. Some readers have already suggested ideas for other runs of shirts, and if you’ve got some ideas or (better yet) some graphic design chops, don’t hesitate to send them our way.

The other new item in the store, just to make it seem like it’s worth having a store, are some very chic shot glasses with the Night Zero logo printed on the front. These were originally used in the (very awesome) “survivor packs” that were given to everybody who pre-ordered our book, and people started trying to buy them when they were on display at the Emerald City ComiCon. You can never have too many shot glasses, it seems, especially in case of the zombie apocalypse. I’ll be perfectly honest and say I really have no idea how many of these shot glasses are left, but it’s not a lot and when they’re gone they’re gone, so if you’d like one you should act fast. Don’t forget to pick up an extra copy of the book while you’re at it, for your friend/coworker/awkward-family-member.

An update for those who have inquired previously, work on Night Zero: Volume Two continues slowly but surely. Like Volume One, our sophomore release will include episodes from the serial, vignettes, behind-the-scenes goodies, and other insights and bonus features. Right now the partial lineup includes episodes two and three, Sisters, the untitled vignette, and some advance previews of some episode four action that you won’t want to miss. Unlike Volume One, which was self-published, we’re trying to track down a publisher who’s interested in taking on the (understandably stigmatized) genre of the photographic novel– partially to get ourselves to a wider distribution network, and partially because self-publishing an entire graphic novel is just a lot of work. Work that could be better spent, for example, producing more comics.

Whether we find salvation through a publishing house or go a second round alone, the calendar is still on track for printing the second volume early next year, for a release in late February or early March. Just like last year, when we’re within a month of release a preorder invitation will go up, and who knows what kind of awesome swag it’ll include this time around.

We’ve been back with Claire and Edge for a while now, so I’ll have plenty to discuss about them and these pages next week on the blog. I’d just like to quickly say that today’s page has got some great imagery and camera work, and segues into some framing and layout choices that I look forward to sharing with you. And of course, everybody’s favorite thing, behind-the-scenes photos. Stay tuned.