Zero #14, illustrated by Marek Oleksicki, has recently been released in the U.S.
Zero is a comic book series created by a screenwriter Ales Kot. It tells the story of Edward Zero, a spy from the near future who tries to change his profession after finding out that he works for “the wrong people”. However, the past comes back to him in many surprising ways. The story begins in 2018 but the plot isn’t linear – it sometimes shows events that won’t take place for another 20 years. Subsequent issues reveal the missing pieces of the puzzle. Each issue is illustrated by a different artist; number 14 was drawn by Marek Oleksicki, who also illustrated the cover. Zero is published by Image Comics, a celebrated American publisher that also releases the famous Saga, The Walking Dead and Spawn, which is currently drawn by Szymon Kudrański. Oleksicki's realistic line drawings are eye-catching, refined and distinctive. This impeccable style was precisely the reason he was offered work on this issue of Zero.
The plot I drew is based on a visual narrative, and the text seems to play a secondary role. Work on this issue was quite challenging. It’s pure action happening in a short period of time. The screenwriter, Ales Kot, described how to divide and set the frames in detail, but he was also open to suggestions – said Oleksicki.
The comics is 28 pages long and was published in January 2015 in both printed and digital versions.
Marek Oleksicki is a graduate of the Faculty of Graphic of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He works in advertising, as an illustrator, a creator of posters and a cartoonist. Odmieniec. Trzy and Ursynowska specgrupa od rozwałki. Metametal are the two albums with his drawings that have been published in Poland. He was also published in the famous anthology about the Warsaw Uprising, 44, and took part in City Stories workshops at the International Festival of Comics and Games in Łódź (resulting in an international anthology). He’s been mainly working with foreign publishers for many years. His most famous comics are Frankenstein’s Womb (script by Warren Ellis) and The Darkness: Close Your Eyes (script by Ales Kot). Along with a screenwriter Bartosz Sztybor, Oleksicki publishes in the W Sieci and in W Sieci Historii periodicals.
Łukasz Chmielewski, February 2015