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It Took 24 Years For Bruce Zick To Get Back In The Zone

Published Sat, 27 Feb 2016 09:00:00 -0600

Bruce Zick writes in the third person. Think of him like The Hulk.

In 1992 The Zone Continuum, by Bruce Zick, was published by Caliber Press. Though it only ran for four books, it instantly became a cult classic. Bruce returned to his concept art job in the animation industry, working for Disney, Dreamworks, and Pixar on Hercules, Finding Nemo, W.A.L.L.-E., and a long list of other movies. In between projects, he produced comics like Terminal Point and Atlas for Dark Horse, not to mention penciling Thor for Marvel.

But the reader response to the Zone series was so great that Bruce always felt he needed to produce new adventures, he just couldn't imagine it would take so long. Eventually, Dark Horse Comics agreed to publish an Original Graphic Novel of the series, and now here we are, 24 years later, with an all new color version that reboots the series in an exciting and fresh way.

"I always felt that I had taken the original books into a wrong direction. There also weren't enough supporting characters, and the main conflict was too abstract", Bruce states. So he added a more compelling and immediate main story line, a rich compliment of supporting characters, and a deeper mythology that incorporates classical elements from many ancient cultures.

The Zone Continuum follows a race of ancients, the Dar, who are trapped in electro-magnetic Zones across Earth. Talon is the leader, who lives in Zone 27 in the heart of New York City. Because of global pollution and radiation, the Zones are all mutating and creating horrible creatures that attack the Dar natives. Zone 27 is rising and forcing its inhabitants to live above the fifteenth floor amongst the rooftops and penthouses of the metropolis.

Talon's leadership is challenged by Spere, who believes humanity must be eradicated so that the Continuum can be restored and Earth can return to a Garden of Eden. The two men fight across the rooftop jungle according to the Dar Codes of Combat. The victor decides if humans will live or die.

Bruce hopes he will make his old readers happy, after making them wait so long, while bringing on board a new generation of readers. If people like the new book, and it does well in the marketplace, it's certain they won't have to wait quite so long for the next adventure of The Zone Continuum.