In 2002, Marvel Comics and the Sci-Fi Channel announced a miniseries adaptation of STRIKEFORCE: MORITURI to be called A THOUSAND DAYS. When Peter Gillis heard about this, he sent Marvel a letter pointing out that he had never signed a contract on the book, so they did not own it and the Sci-Fi Channel deal could not go forward. Marvel responded with an extremely lowball rights offer and a letter saying that Peter ought to accept it, because if he didn’t the project would never happen and he would see nothing at all from the property. Peter held steadfast to his position, at which point Marvel claimed that he HAD signed a contract with them. As “proof” they offered up one of the standard character rights assignments documents that Marvel used to make its freelancers sign back in the ‘80s whenever they wrote an issue of an established title like SPIDERMAN or THE AVENGERS. Peter had signed quite a few of these when he wrote books like CAPTAIN AMERICA and DOCTOR STRANGE. Now someone at Marvel took the signature page from one of those, attached it to a new blank contract, and penciled in “Strikeforce Morituri” where the name of the created villain or supporting character would normally have been typed. The result was pretty laughable (the typeface on the sig page didn’t match that of the rest of the document, for example) and Peter once again insisted that he had never signed his rights away.