WATCHMEN: The Saturday Morning Cartoon
This is FANTASTIC!
Watch.
HERO SQUARED
The surprisingly fun HERO SQUARED, written by the unsurprisingly excellent Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, can be found on the Boom! website here.
ZOMBIE SCRIPT G(al)ORE!
It was a Twitter comment (Tweet, yes?) by Mr Andre Navarro concerning the excellent reading experience that was/is ‘World War Z’ by Max Brooks that apparently resulted in tonight’s travesty: I WROTE THE FIRST 3 COMIC BOOK PAGES OF SOME SORT OF ZOMBIE EPIC THAT *WILL* GO NOWHERE.
Yeah.
So here below are the fruits of my labour. Not great. But something to work on.
UNTITLED ZOMBIE ‘EPIC’
PAGE 1
3 PANELS
1.
EXT. JUNGLE – DAY
Wide angle shot of a stretch of green, lush rainforest: dark and deep. The humidly is evident by the scorching sun above.
2.
EXT. JUNGLE CLEARING – DAY
Dotted throughout the jungle are areas like this: vast expanses of open ground: likely due to logging (oh, I’ve CLEARLY done research!)
The clearing provides a stark contrast of bright sunshine against the emerald darkness of the treeline from where-
A SOLDIER has suddenly emerged.
Bedraggled, dirty and TERRIFIED, the soldier is in a full blown sprint.
The little detail we can make out is that he is weapon-less and armoured. Green khakis, of course.
3.
EXT. JUNGLE CLEARING – DAY
CLOSER on the soldier as he stumbles on the final stretch. Behind him, the darkness seems to shift…take shape. It isn’t clear yet but… THERE ARE FUCKING ZOMBIES RIGHT BEHIND HIM.
PAGE 2
2 PANELS
1.
CLOSER and same angle.
The soldier is getting up – A SECOND AWAY FROM THE HUNGRY GRASP OF UNDEAD HANDS. They are everywhere, reaching out from above, below, all around.
The worst thing? Our friend the soldier doesn’t even REALISE they are that close….
2.
….UNTIL KNOW.
REALLY CLOSE NOW, chest-level up. Claustrophobic and terrifying as, now in the next second, the soldier reacts in horror.
Over his shoulders, among the pawing, all-pervading hands, the outline of the shambling horde can be glimpsed, about to enter the hot sunlight.
PAGE 3
Page-sized panel
HEAD-LEVEL SHOT
What we can see, in his final moments, of the soldiers head are his open, screaming mouth. The rest: almost absorbed in the five or six rotting, septic hands clutching onto it.
The monstrous features of a zombie (we’ll call him Groucho) is now in view over the right shoulder-
RIPPING HUNGRILY INTO THE SOLDIERS NECK!
(Groucho will be of MASSIVE importance to the story. So, best describe him as he is now.
First off: he’s BIG. He actually has to stretch down to get his share of fleshy goodness. So, about 7”.
What remains of his hair is a mad mess of blood soaked curls and ripped up scalp. His skin is a sickening white colour, as is the rest of his (currently unseen)ilk.
Oh, and he wears glasses.)
This Is Batman
I did once consider resigning from my position in the Wayne Household.
“I need a disguise” he said and I thought he’d finally gone mad with grief, especially those next words…
But when I saw what he meant, when I watched how he surrendered himself to an ideal… How he used each ordeal, each heartache and failure, to become a better man, in the service of others…
What could I do but stand in humble awe? And keep his wounds clean and his uniform tidy. And send him safely on his way.
“I shall become a Bat”.
“Alfred” he said not long ago. “If anyone asks for an obituary, tell them Batman’s big secret was the classic whodunnit?”
“Only, its not about who killed Batman but who kept him alive all these years.”
And he stopped there, leaving the rest to me.The whereabouts of Batman remain unknown.
And yet…
I can see him now, in the grip of implacable forces, innumerable foes. Somewhere without hope. In a place where all seems lost. And I know this…
The enemy will look away for just a moment, underestimating him for that single fraction of a second too long
And no matter how dark the night…
There will be no hiding place for evil.
- Alfred (Batman 683)
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