Heavy Metal CEO Matthew Medney and Publisher David Erwin Announce VIRUS Imprint: A New Way of Bringing Comics to Readers
LOS ANGELES, CA – Heavy Metal is excited to announce VIRUS, a new platform for comics publishing that will bring real comics, printed on paper, to readers while paying the creators a fair price for their work.
With the COVID-19 crisis hitting the comics industry hard, freezing distribution chains and forcing shops to close their doors, now is the time for a better way to get real, new comics titles into the hands of readers. VIRUS takes advantage of today’s nimble, on-demand technologies, backed by the magazine’s enduring mojo as the authority in science fiction, fantasy and horror.
Heavy Metal believes that a ‘comic books on demand’ platform can provide some much-needed escapism during these difficult and challenging times. With a distribution shut-down shuttering comic shops nationwide, fans are starving for their weekly dose of new titles. VIRUS’ commitment to innovation, accessibility and quality is the solution. Heavy Metal CEO Matt Medney explains VIRUS’ origin as, “birthed from a viewpoint of the industry needing evolution, as well as us wondering, ‘How do we serve the Heavy Metal fan base more, with more stories and more content?'”
As for creators, VIRUS’ mission is to create a platform where all participating talent can earn on dollar one. Medney says theirs is the only platform “where the creator will make money, whether one or 10,000 books are sold.” All creators will receive 15% of the sticker price for each book sold, from the first book sold.
Calling an imprint VIRUS in the wake of a pandemic may seem like a questionable idea, but Medney sees it through a different lens. “When a virus pulls us apart, nothing brings us closer together than great stories,” Medney explains. “And that’s what we’re trying there. We’re trying to bring people together through great stories, find the silver lining of the pandemic through genre, and that’s the message. So even though the name is kind of more on the dark side, the ethos is on the light side, and that sort of juxtaposition has always been Heavy Metal.”
The first issues from VIRUS will go on sale on Wednesday, April 29, and new issues will be added to the shop each Wednesday. Launch titles include The Red (by Rosenblum, Medney, Bownz, Handler and Lam), Nomobots (by Agrimbau and Tumburus), Hymn of the Teada (by Medney, Rosenblum, Mechler, Fung, Pinchuk and Bownz) and Garbage Factory (by Jakofire and Kim). Bob Fingerman’s upcoming book, Dotty’s Inferno, will also be published through VIRUS.
“I think VIRUS is going to be a major player in the comic book space,” writer Morgan Rosenblum, who’s behind two of the imprint’s launch titles, told SyFy Wire. “Heavy Metal already has a loyal and tuned-in fan base, and with Matt and his team at Heavy Metal‘s collective brain trust running the ship, I know they have a great eye for finding amazing stories.”
The “eye” is all-important — VIRUS is more than a platform, it’s an extension of Heavy Metal magazine. Medney, Erwin and Heavy Metal’s editorial staff of Tim Seeley, Joseph Illidge, RG Llarena and Frank Forte review submissions and decide what VIRUS publishes. Many companies have been publishing creator-owned work for years — the key difference here is that VIRUS all but eliminates the financial risk that publishers and creators have had to shoulder.
“There’s even more of a need to connect, to reach out and tell stories to each other,”says creator Ron Marz (Batman/Aliens, DC vs. Marvel, Green Lantern). “Anything that makes that easier is a huge boon. VIRUS is going to outlast this pandemic.
Bob Fingerman, a MAD magazine and Heavy Metal contributor who’ll be an early adopter of the VIRUS imprint with Dotty’s Inferno, expressed his affection for the Heavy Metal brand. “When it debuted, Heavy Metal was the magazine that opened my eyes to what comics could be,” Fingerman says. “Not just cheaply produced superhero stuff, but bold, adult, unconventional, and beautifully executed.”
“When the pandemic hit, disrupting everything and everyone, it forced us to look at how we can continue to keep the industry alive and provide fans of comicdom with the medium we all love,” Heavy Metal publisher David Erwin explained in a SyFy Wire exclusive. “Unfortunately, there will be casualties in the retail space and perhaps some publishers. But, we’re fortunate to offer an alternative and ability to service all the fans, as well as talented creators of this wonderful medium, comic books.”
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