Friend of SG, CSI creator, executive producer and writer Anthony E. Zuiker will be at Comic Con this year to promote his latest project, Level 26. Termed a digi-novel, the book at the hearth of an ancillary web-based experience will be published by Dutton on Sept 8.

The title of the novel, which was co-written by Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski, refers to a classification hierarchy used by law enforcement agencies to grade serial killers. That system goes up to 25 -- but Zuiker hopes to break new ground and bust through boundaries with Level 26.

"It's gonna be like an interactive Silence of the Lambs or CSI," says Zuiker's partner in crime, Miles Beckett, whose company, EQAL, is responsible for many of the project's interactive elements.

To augment the traditional text experience, Zucker has produced and directed what he terms cyber-bridges, which are essentially cinematic shorts that are hosted online, the links to which will be embedded in the book every 20-pages or so.

Beckett, who was part of the team behind YouTube sensation LonlyGirl15, the spin-off vlog KateModern, and the interactive elements of the CBS show Harpers Island, has created the web world for Level 26. The website, created by Beckett's company EQAL, will feature a blog for news and behind the scenes footage, and Wiki's that fans can help curate. In the community areas, members will be able to create profiles and characters, enter into discussions, and post their own fan fiction. Beckett promises that "Anthony will be hanging out on the site too."

The full Level 26.com site will go live, sans cyber-bridges, in advance of the book's release to coincide with a special Comic Con panel. In the meantime mystery fans who like their crime fiction "really dark and kind of twisted" can enter their emails via a splash page to get the inside scoop on the launch and updates.



Anthony E. Zuiker and EQAL's Miles Beckett, along with Level 26 actors actors Daniel Buran (CSI) and Michael Ironside (Terminator Salvation), will be speaking on the panel "Introducing The World's First Digi-Novel - Level 26: Dark Origins" at Comic Con 2009 on Saturday July 25 at 4:30pm in Room 5AB. The panel will give audience members a sneak-peak at the digi-novel and will feature an exclusive preview of one of the cyber-bridges. Additionally, designer Marc Ecko has created limited-edition Level 26 T-shirts that will be given exclusively to panel attendees. Audience members will receive a password that they can exchange for a shirt at the Dutton/Penguin booth. The garments will be hand-signed by Anthony E. Zuiker or Marc Ecko, and promise to be one of the best freebies on offer at the convention.