A Routine Raid Takes a Deadly Turn… An Interview with ZERO INSTANCE’s Frank Barbiere & Stephen Rhodes

July 16, 2026 - 00:02

A standard raid in a popular online game becomes a nightmare when the final boss breaks out of the screen and into reality. That is the premise of Zero Instance, a five-issue sci-fi horror comic series written by Frank Barbiere and Stephen Rhodes. The first issue is now available digitally.

In the story, a group of players expects a typical boss fight during a routine dungeon run. Instead, the creature escapes the game's code and begins to bleed into the physical world. What starts as a glitch quickly becomes a deadly threat, forcing the players to confront something that was never meant to exist outside the server.

Barbiere and Rhodes bring their experience in horror and action comics to the project. They focus on how ordinary people react when a digital nightmare becomes flesh and blood. The series blends survival horror with the social dynamics of an online gaming group, where trust and skill are tested under impossible circumstances.

The creative team aims to capture the tension of a game session gone wrong, but with real stakes. No one can log out. No one can respawn. The first issue sets up a world where the line between virtual and real is erased by violence.