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RONIN ILLUSTRATED #7
"STARS FELL ON ALABAMA"
written by Thommy Melanson
PAGE ONE
PANEL 1 - A petite female finger points at a shooting star streaking across a beautiful star-filled twilight sky.
1 MISSY (off panel): >gasp< A falling star! Quick, make a wish!
PANEL 2 - DOWNSHOT - A pair of teenage lovebirds, MISSY - a cute blonde in pigtails, and KEVIN - a jock, gaze skyward as they lie entwined on a blanket spread across a grassy field.There’s a few empty beer bottles around the blanket.
2 MISSY: Y’ever think maybe there’s a couple of aliens up there, in love and looking down on us?
3 KEVIN: Not sober I don’t.
PANEL 3 - She playfully slaps his chest as he grins.
4 MISSY: I’m serious, Kevin! Don’t make fun!
5 KEVIN: I know you’re serious, that’s why I have to make fun.
PANEL 4 - She continues as he plays with one of her pigtails.
6 MISSY: Just think it’s romantic, y’know? That maybe across millions of miles and all, that if there is life out there in space, that maybe love would be the one thing we’d have in common with them.
7 KEVIN: Well that, and the need to procreate.
PANEL 5 - She elbows him in the ribs.
8 MISSY: Pig!
9 KEVIN: Oww! I’m just teasin’!
PAGE TWO
***ARTIST NOTE - Remember JC, as per our e-mail correspondence: real subtle and not obvious, have a falling star or two in the skies behind their heads every other panel or so. This the set-up device for Page 4’s surprise. They’ll be too caught up in their argument to notice, and hopefully so will the reader.
PANEL 1 - She gets up, leaving in a huff. He half-heartily tries to stop her.
1 KEVIN: Missy, wait! Come back!
PANEL 2 - He’s gotten up, and grabs her by the arm as she continues to walk away.
2 KEVIN: Don’t be like this - not tonight, ple--
PANEL 3 - TIGHT ON MISSY as she whips around, miffed.
3 MISSY: My point exactly! You’re going away tomorrow and I wanted our last night together to be more...meaningful than, than just beer and boning!
4 MISSY: You - you never take me seriously.
PANEL 4 - Kevin’s tried to take her hand to comfort her, but she whips it away sulkily.
5 KEVIN: Missy, you know that’s not tr--
6 MISSY: Yes it is! Also, I don’t understand why you won’t transfer to UA! Tuscaloosa’s one of the best campuses in the country, and you could play for the Tide, and and and...
7 MISSY: ...and I’ll be there.
PANEL 5 - TIGHT ON MISSY, her eyes brimming with tears.
8 MISSY: I mean...don’t you love me? Don’t you want to stay with me?
9 MISSY: What’s so important up north that it means losing me?
PANEL 6 - TIGHT ON KEVIN, sheepish.
10 KEVIN: Mis...it’s not that I don’t...y-you know.
11 KEVIN: I’ve gotta leave. I have to.
PAGE THREE
PANEL 1 - Missy, frustrated and emotional.
1 MISSY: See! Right there! You can’t even say "I love you!" Even when we’re being all cutesy and playful...you never say, like, "I wub noo" or, or anything!
2 MISSY: Is it soooo hard for you to tell me?!
PANEL 2 - MEDIUM SHOT of the two of them facing one another.
3 MISSY: It’s like, I don’t even remember my life before we met. And I don’t feel like you really lov--
4 KEVIN: --C’mon, Mis... we’ve only known each other four weeks...
PANEL 3 - MISSY as she wipes a tear from her eye.
5 MISSY: I know, but...I mean, don’t you feel it too? Like we’re meant to be together?
6 MISSY: Like some higher power has drawn us to each other?
PANEL 4 - TIGHT on Kevin, looking skyward, his eyes glassy and full of emotion.
7 KEVIN: Awww, Missy...
PANEL 5 - TIGHT on Missy, smiling slightly, her face full of hope and anticipation.
8 MISSY: What, Kevin?
PAGE FOUR
PANEL 1 - HALF PAGE SPLASH - Kevin lunges, knocking Missy out of the way of a crashing energy ball!!
1 KEVIN: LOOK OUT!!!
2 SFX (electric): ZZZAAOOWWZZZTTT!!!
PANEL 2 - Eerie light. Dazed and confused, Missy shakes her head as Kevin glares directly ahead in terrible certainty.
3 MISSY: >koff koff< W-what the hell is going --!
PANEL 3 - TIGHT ON THEIR ILLUMINATED FACES - Kevin remains exactly as he was, only now Missy sees what he does. Whatever it is, it’s so surreal her eyes and mouth are wide with shock.
4 MISSY (lowercase): --on.
PAGE FIVE
PANEL 1 - HALF PAGE SPLASH - THEIR P.O.V. - HOLY SHIT SCARY MOMENT!!!! A monstrous silhouette looms before them! Underlit and rising from a glowing crater as does clouds of ashy smoke and electrical charges!
PANEL 2 - Full shot of the eight foot tall, three sets of six spider-eyes between tentacles that hang like dreads, elongated wraith-clawed fingered, saber-toothed reptilian-bodied ALIEN!!! Think a cross between Marvel’s Man-Thing and DC’s Killer Croc.
PANEL 3 - SIDE VIEW - As Missy stares bewildered, Kevin’s pleading to the alien, whom is off-panel.
3 KEVIN: Please... don’t hurt her!
PANEL 4 - The alien disgustedly grabs Kevin by the shirt. Missy is concerned, but frozen in shock and fear.
**LETTERER NOTE: Please make the alien’s dialogue within a jagged-shaped black colored word balloon w/ bold white lettering.
4 ALIEN: <You dare speak to me like that?! And remove that hideous garb before you address me!>
5 MISSY (lowercase): kevin.
PAGE SIX
PANEL 1 - Like an overripe pumpkin, Kevin’s head and body splits open - revealing his true ALIEN FORM beneath it!!! Really gross gory shot, with syrupy muck from all of the human meat molting off!! He is really Khuuv-N, a watcher!!
1 KHUUV-N (jagged black alien balloon): <Yes, my lord.>
PANEL 2 - Missy is bulged-eyed, slack-jawed horrified!
PANEL 3 - A submissive"Khuuv-N" before his alien king.
3 ALIEN: <You are relieved from reconnaissance duty, Khuuv-N.>
4 ALIEN: <Rejoin your fellow watchers once they land.>
5 KHUUV-N: <Lord Nglii-Z, please. I beg you to not harm her.>
PANEL 4 - Scanner lights from the alien lord's eyes x-ray a suddenly transparent Missy, whom is still stunned and staring transfixed in the direction of the OFF-PANEL Khuuv-N.
5 ALIEN: <Hmmmm. It appears this fuel bag is... impregnated.>
6 ALIEN: <What curiosity.>
7 ALIEN: <Have the scientists remove the embryo for study, then dispatch its host to the refinery.>
8 MISSY (lowercase): kevin.
PANEL 5 - MEDIUM SHOT - Both bewildered, Missy staggers backward with tears streaming and Khuuv-N stares at her in shock. Meanwhile...the slightest tip of a mechanical pincher appears to be sneaking behind her from the top of the panel, much like when you see an accidental boom mic hovering above in a movie scene.
9 MISSY (lowercase): kevin?
10 KHUUV-N: I-i-is that why you wanted me to st--?!
PAGE SEVEN
**ARTIST’S NOTE: Panels 1-2-3 will probably work best as a staggered triptych starting in the lower left hand corner and each identically-sized panel rising incrementally higher across the width of the page toward the upper right hand corner, but ending just shy of it. Will give the feeling of motion that Missy is floating higher and higher away.
PANEL 1 - KHUUV-N’S P.O.V. - DRAMATIC WORM’S EYE - Missy being yanked skyward by a mechanical tentacle that has wrapped around her like a python! Her eyes bulge in mortal horror and mouth frozen in scream!
1 MISSY (electric): KEVIN!!!
PANEL 2 - EXACT SAME SHOT - Only she’s nearly too far away to distinguish any features.
PANEL 3 - EXACT SAME SHOT - Only there’s no sight of her, just a twinkling far-off star. She’s gone.
PANEL 4 - As the invasion begins - glowing meteors crash-land into the hills and fields behind him, and fellow aliens can be seen in the distance, Khuuv-N has turned away somberly. A single tear streaks down his tentacled monstrous face.
2 KHUUV-N (lowercase): i wubbed noo.
THE END
copyright 2006 Thommy Melanson ; all rights reserved |
