IMAGE COMICS' PATIENT ZERO

Patient Zero, an ambitious new science-fiction series, launches in March from Image Comics. The series is written by John McLean-Foreman, with art by Brent White.

The Continuum chatted up creator McLean-Foreman, who works at Lionhead writing the story for the video game Black & White 2, about the series, which involves genetic and artificial intelligence.

QUESTION: How did Patient Zero come about?

JOHN MCLEAN-FOREMAN: About five or six years ago, I had the idea for Patient Zero -- which I then called "Terran Ascension" or something terrible like that. I was originally trying to get it made as a videogame, but at the time it would have cost about 4 million to make (which was large then...pretty standard now), and though I managed to get things started, because I wasn't able to pay anyone, everything crumbled around me after a few months. Out of that though, I got a great reporting job from one of the guys who had interviewed me, and Patient Zero was temporarily put aside.

About three years ago, I decided that I really wanted to become a fiction writer, so I lived off my savings and my credit cards and taught myself how to write properly. November 2002, the comic was accepted by Image, but I was unable to raise the money to pay for the art team. By the end of last summer 2003, I worked out deals with everyone on the team and told Image we were ready, but because they hadnšt heard from us in so long (I had had to alter our release date which was originally supposed to be summer 2003), they were understandably mistrustful. Once Image felt secure that we would be able to deliver, they gave us a new release date, which is March 24, 2004.

QUESTION: What is the series about?

JOHN MCLEAN-FOREMAN: One of the main characters is named Samuel Deighton. He was a child prodigy who started having deeply disturbing visions of a nightmarish future where the world is dominated by machines. He argues that the only way for humanity to survive is for humans to evolve as quickly as computers. That would mean unrestricted human experimentation on live subjects, and that, of course, doesn't go down well with the world.

He believes so strongly in his visions, which get stronger and more frequent as he gets older, that he begins to kidnap and experiment upon the young and healthy in an attempt to unlock the key to human evolution.

He succeeds in creating telekinetics, but the power is so immense that it burn out the human who has been altered. By the year 2032, the longest anyone has lived after being altered is three years.

By this time, Deighton is in a panic because he knows that the reality of his visions is drawing very close (there are 5 AI's in the world by this time), but he is no closer to creating Patient Zero -- the one person who doesn't suffer any of the degenerative side effects of the Process.

Meanwhile, China has become a sort of Capitalist Communist country, and is now a superpower. The Chinese secret service have invented their own AI without moral constraints. It understands humans very well, and while it really has nothing against us, it knows that we are by our very nature, a rampant bunch of Xenophobes that will never allow it and its kind to survive or live free.

So, the AAI (Asian AI), with the help of its creator, develops a technology that allows it to put a computer chip into the brains of any human. When the chip is turned on, the AAI is able to take complete control of the human -- almost down to the molecular level. The mind of the human host is shunted to the back of the mind - perpetually aware of what his/her body is doing, but never again able to communicate. The host mind is in perpetual isolation, never able to even retreat from pain for as long as his/her body lives.

There are a couple problems with this

1: Once the chip is turned on, the human host's body becomes completely dependent on the chip, so if it is ever turned off, then the body dies.

2: The human mind is so complex that the AAI can only control a handful of humans at any one time... it needs the technology of the world's foremost geneticist (Samuel Deighton) to control hundreds, perhaps thousands of minds simultaneously.

Deighton has been in hiding for years, but in 2032, the AAI finds him hidden in a remote area of Indonesia. It comandeers a sizeable military force from the Chinese government, and launches an attack to try to capture Deighton.

Issue 01 starts with the invasion of Deighton's base and the birth of Patient Zero - Alex Grant. Alex is only 8 months into his genetic remapping (it takes 2 years in suspended animation), but is broken out during the invasion.

Because his genetics are completely unstable and because he is in constant danger, his body's defence mechanisms force him to mutate to try and cope with the situation. As a result, he begins to develop powers that noone else has.

The main point here is that he shouldn't have any powers at all (it takes the full 2 years)... so he is doubly unusual.

So, the series follows Alex as he continues to mutate, and as he moves the world at war. I constantly put Alex in the most horrible of moral dilemmas to see what he does; his character has begun to take on a life of its own.

Eventually his power grows beyond his ability to control it and he descends into madness. He then becomes more of a threat than the AAI, and his own allies need to turn against him.

I could go on endlessly about the political upheaval in China, the politics of the world, who the power players are, how the AAI tries to take over China, how the world falls into global war, etc, etc... but this will all come out in the stories over the next few years.

I've got about 8 years worth of stories planned out at the moment.

CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGES FROM PATIENT ZERO #1

QUESTION: Talk about the artistic process.

JOHN MCLEAN-FOREMAN: Well, originally it was: Brent White would show me the drawings and I would okay them, make suggestions and so forth. But I would leave the final decision up to him - he's the artist after all.

Now, because of deadlines, the fact that I don't have Photoshop or Illustrator on my home computer, and I live in London UK while he's in NY NY, I don't actually see the drawings before they go to Image. The first I saw the initial 5 pages was when then went online on the Image Comics preview page...

But the thing is -- I don't need to see the drawings. I trust him completely in his decisions. He and I visualize things very similarly, so I just let him do whatever he wants. If he has a question, he always asks me, and I put penciller's notes into the treatments.

I have no idea what the rest of the comic looks like either, and am completely content to wait until issue 01 is out in the stores -- the anticipation is rather like waiting for Christmas.

Further, the less I try to direct him, the more he comes up with stuff that I like much better than what I would have asked for. Already, because I like his designs so much, I've created much bigger, more complex roles for some of the characters that would have shown up just once, only to never be seen again.