Law school and comic books may have little in common, but University alumnus Alexander Theoharis mastered them both.
Theoharis graduated from the University’s law school earlier this year with both a law degree and endless pages of comic book scripts. While Theoharis attended the University’s law school, his thoughts not only revolved around freedom of speech, defamation and habeas corpus, but extended into the realm of fictional writing.
With experience in script writing and an interest in creative writing, Theoharis was unknowingly soon to be a law student by day, comic writer by night. During his second year of law school, some of his friends started an online comic book series called “Night Zero,” produced in the Seattle area.
“Night Zero” captures the lives of the survivors of a deadly viral outbreak in Seattle. However, “Night Zero” is unlike traditional comics in that there is no drawing or sketching involved. This comic is produced like a feature film, using a process called “tone mapping,” which uses the images of real on-set characters to tell a story.
When “Night Zero” was lacking a fitting script, Theoharis wrote a new one. Deemed a success, it was used for the first episode.
Shortly after, Theoharis became the comic’s script writer while juggling the demands of being a law student.
Because “Night Zero” is an online comic, Theoharis said this element has really helped him and the rest of the team stay on track.
“We put up three new pages each week, and there is always a push to add more content. It really keeps the momentum going and keeps things on schedule,”
Theoharis said.
The plot of “Night Zero” features outbreak survivors who have created a new walled-off community where they struggle to secure their futures. Theoharis said he enjoys building and developing the various characters in “Night Zero” because he gets to create and build them from scratch.
“I love developing characters, it is a blast,” he said. “I get to figure out why they exist in this imaginary world and what they are getting out of it. I get to see the characters I create from my imagination as an actual person on set. It is interesting to see how the character will have their makeup done and what costume they end up wearing; sometimes it’s how I pictured it, other times they turn out better than I had hoped for.”
Theoharis said that when he has been in school, classes took priority, but writing the script for “Night Zero” was an ideal hobby for him.
“I got the vast majority of ‘Night Zero’ written during any free time I had in law school,” Theoharis said. “Legal research and writing requires such structured thoughts; it really helped to be able to do something creative and have some fun with outside-of-the-box thinking.”
Now, Theoharis is a lawyer in the state of Washington and continues to write for “Night Zero.”
“This is definitely a hobby for me,” he said. “I really love writing, and I am constantly working on something.”
With the future of “Night Zero” and its characters in his hands, Theoharis said he is constantly thinking of ideas for what will come next and gets most of his ideas
from television.
“Television has a ton of wonderful ideas,” Theoharis said. “I even watch a lot of failed TV shows and really bad movies because they tend to have some part of them that can create a spark. Using other resources and re-applying them in new and unique ways is where the best ideas come from.”
[email protected]