VIRUS and a lesson learned

In 1992 I was trying to expand my inking work to other companies after getting some books like Punisher and Ghost Rider to ink.  I wanted to do this because I wanted to work for everyone and was worried if my Marvel work dried up I would have to hustle on the spot and take on things I didn’t want to do to pay bills, so I took on a small gig for Dark Horse inking an issue of something.  I can’t remember what it was, but they liked what I did and said they would find more work for me. Cool, I had an in with some editors there and waited on them for the next gig, which came pretty soon. I had learned from my years in advertising before comics to always have a plan “B”.

So about 6 months later, Dark Horse comics finally called on me - I was offered to ink a 4-issue 30 page plus series called VIRUS. I asked what it is, who was the artist, and so on. Getting the details and looking over the work, I just wasn’t sure it was for me. While thinking about it and seeing if I did take it on, I could fit it, and waiting for samples of what I was going to ink, I got to speak to Mike Richardson himself and he gave me the pitch. Mike explained VIRUS was based on a screenplay written by Screen Writer Chuck Pfarrer and adapted to graphic novel form and illustrated by Howard Cobb. He gave me some back history all about who the players were, told me the basic story and honestly, I didn’t want to do the gig but he told me if it ever got sold as a property for film and TV, that there would be a decent payday for me, so Mike sold me on that promise. Cool, right? Crazier things have happened. This was my first gig that existed to try to get a movie deal from.

Little did I know that VIRUS was about 117 pages of super detailed shots of boats in storms and machinery and well, it was a ton of work. The stuff inkers look at and say to themselves, “well, I will never be able to sell a single page of art from this book” Yeah, we think about that stuff when we get our 1/3 of the original pages back after print. We live by those sales.

So, You can read more about the artist Howard cobb here: https://www.howardcobb.com/about .

Howard killed himself on this gig and he was one of those artists that if he stuck with it, he would have just gotten better and better, but he moved to fine art and is enjoying a successful career there. Had he stayed with comics, the consistency of his characters would only have gotten better and his framing within the panels would have been more dynamic. That said, he did a solid job on something I thought was a bit of a sleeper of a story for the page count. He did a solid job on something that to me needed major editing.

Well, the gig took me months, mostly because the story probably worked much better as a screenplay and was a bit tedious. This was the first book I did that was supposed to get someone a movie deal. Not the last, sadly. Description below.

Virus is a  story about an alien life form which takes over a Chinese Navy research vessel and reconfigures it—using both the damaged electronics and the dead bodies of the crew, it propagates itself by making various "creatures" created out of both organic and inorganic parts. When a salvage ship shows up they have to deal with the life form or be taken over as well.

Sounds wild, yes? Well, it was okay. The books came out with little to no push, did not sell well and in the end, it was a page rate gig that opened the door for more inking work in the future on projects like “X” with Steven Grant and Doug Mankie. Lesson note: In the beginning, you can’t be too picky, just get in there and get it done best you can.

 Oh, and it was made into a movie eventually in 1999 with Jamie Lee Curtis [ Love her] and Donald Sutherland[ Love him] … the movie bombed. The idea was fun, but the execution of the movie was dull and in the end, just did not connect with people.  It cost 75 million to make and grossed 30 million. Not my fault, as you know…but when I finally was able to call out my promise of getting a piece of the deal Dark Horse made selling the property, I was told the movie bombed and they [Dark Horse] made no money and that’s why I never got a single dime. Well, I was not born yesterday and I already know that a lot of people were payed upfront, Producers, directors and yes, even the writer and the comic book company. I learned a valuable lesson - never do a handshake deal with a comic company and have every single detail and promise put on paper, handed to a lawyer and have it signed and dated.

 I love the crew at Dark Horse, but business is business and in the end, it was my fault.  

Anyway, that’s a look back on a 4-issue series that taught me a thing or two. Hope this doesn’t take away from enjoying the actual comic if you find it in a dollar bin or collected into a trade, but if it does, well, remember next time when you see a creator fighting for their slice of the pie to maybe think twice posting that they knew going in what the deal is. It not always what it seems. Catch you next time!

Jimmy Palmiotti