RETRO VIRION: A Tale of Lunacy & Loss
PANDEMIC-THEMED NOVELETTE
A man spirals into madness, believing he's in touch with prehistoric animals, the unborn, and the dead. The world around him teeters on a knife-edge, threatened by a nightmare virus that destroys everything in its path. The unreliable narrator, who's immune to the plague, takes you on a journey into the broken heart of existence, to a fractured consciousness as big as the universe itself, and as small as one man's mind. But is he really mad or is he right? Or is he the hallucinating survivor of a devastating pandemic?
55 pages (12,000 words). ISBN: 9780645159523
RETRO VIRION ART
THE POSTER
The book cover, poster, and main image are all available as art prints and merchandise. The picture is a coronavirus binding to a cell (derived from my animation below). Coronaviruses are not retroviruses, the title refers to time travel. Also, the word retrovirus is split in two and the word virus is replaced by virion (an individual particle).
(ABOVE) ANIMATION OF A CORONAVIRUS VIRION BEING ENGULFED BY A CELL
Coronavirus particle binds to ACE2 receptors on the surface of a human cell and is engulfed by endocytosis. After membrane fusion, the virus releases its RNA (yellow string) which directs the production of new virus particles. This animation inspired part of my RETRO VIRION book, and a graphic derived from it was used to make the cover.
I've been involved in viral graphics since the mid-80s when I helped to make an early teaching video on AIDS. This latest COVID virus animation was done in 2020.