The below is printed here for posterity and as evidence of my ownership of this proposed work of comics fiction. As this is a reproduction of a script written in MS Word, the formatting will look extremely odd when presented here. That is okay, because the purpose of the script being placed here is solely to demonstrate that it is my intellectual property. If I wanted people to read read the script right off of this place, I would've definitely cleaned up the formatting!:
Hidden World #1 “Divine Intervention” Page One Panel 1. PIZARRO flies across a sunny metropolitan city with the effortless, dizzying speed that you would expect of somebody who is not bogged down by the laws of physics. His eyes are amber gold, and he has waist-length black hair that is so thick that it almost functions like a cape. He wears a pristine white trench coat with golden trim that would be heavy and cumbersome if worn by a normal person. Matching gloves and boots complete the look. A faint aura surrounds him most of the time to demonstrate his supernatural origin, but the aura is more intense as he flies. Pizarro is a quintessential good guy, exuding positivity and confidence in his youthful expression at all times. Nonetheless, Pizarro is somewhat scatter-brained from having spent eons as an invisible omnipresent extra-dimensional being with divine powers. You can’t really fault him for that. 1 PIZARRO: Don’t fall in love don’t fall in love don’t fall in love! 2 PIZARRO (small text): At least not before I get there. Panel 2. Pizarro has paused in mid-air, his hands over his head in exasperation. He bites down on his lip as he examines the city of Grand Hill below him. Two separate shopping malls are on opposite sides of the street. Signs denote that one mall is the “Grand Hill Mall” and the other is the “Green Plaza Mall.” 3 PIZARRO: Two different malls? You gotta be kidding me. 4 PIZARRO: Which one is it? Panel 3. An exact DUPLICATE OF PIZARRO hovering above the Grand Hill Mall waves his hand at the first Pizarro. 5 DUPLICATE OF PIZARRO: Over here, me! 6 PIZARRO: Ah, good work, me! Panel 4. Pizarro descends on the Grand Hill Mall. No dialogue. Page Two Splash page. Pizarro looks on at TITANIA and her friend KIM, who stand patiently on an escalator within the crowded Grand Hill Mall. They are half-way up to the second level. Titania, age 15, looks like a Precious Moments doll, big-eyed and beautiful with a bashful demeanor. Her hair is wavy black and breast-length and her eyes are a sapphire blue. She wears a dress that is cute but won’t attract gawkers. In general, Kim, age 14, has a more “modern” appearance than Titania, but Kim is not as pretty. Titania is definitely the center of attention here. They both carry purses that match their outfits. Pizarro, not visible or audible to anyone around him, watches Titania with intense, gleeful interest. If any overhanging store names are visible, they have silly names. Take your pick: “Ukrainian Eagle” “Toys Ahoy” “Game Planet” “Pete’s Ice Cream & Chili Dogs” “Beefcake Fitness Center” 1 PIZARRO: This will be my finest work since Anthony and Cleopatra! 2 PIZARRO (small text): Wait, was that me? Or was that just Shakespeare? Both of us? 3 PIZARRO: Doesn’t matter! This romance will make Anthony and Cleopatra look like a filthy back alley hookup. Page Three Panel 1. Titania and Kim are at the top of the escalator. Pizarro, in the background, has gotten closer to continue his obsessive observation of Titania. His fingers are together in an anticipative, slightly maniacal manner. 1 TITANIA: The girls said we should wait for them here, right? 2 KIM: Yeah. Let’s give ‘em a few minutes, I guess. 3 PIZARRO: Yes, lovely, just stay put and your prince will be along any minute. Panel 2. Kim and Titania lean their backs against the railing. Kim has her arms crossed and Titania appears poised and angelic beside her. If one of them were to somehow fall over the railing, they would take a pretty bad fall to the level below. Pizarro stands directly in front of Titania, his face so close to her own that they are almost head butting. Of course, Pizarro is still invisible to everyone. 3 KIM: I hate waiting. 4 TITANIA: I don’t mind. 5 PIZARRO: You are just pretty as a pickle. Radiant as a light bulb! Panel 3. Pizarro is standing in profile, perpendicular to Titania. He is daydreaming, not paying attention to anything anymore. Kim and Titania haven’t moved. 6 KIM: I’m hungry. 7 PIZARRO: Hoo boy. I may be in the business of making hopes and wishes come true, but I really earned my parrot badge this time. Panel 4. Kim starts walking away, no longer able to see Titania. Meanwhile, Pizarro swings his arms up in the air joyously, accidentally smacking Titania in the face (sound effect) hard enough to send her over the top of the railing. Bet you didn’t see that coming. 8 KIM: I’m gonna grab a chili dog. 9 PIZARRO: Any minute now! Page Three (cont.) SFX: FWAP Panel 5. Vertical panel, the height of the page, going down the right-hand side of the page. Titania plunges toward the floor below her, screaming (sound effect) the whole way down. From the top of the railing, Pizarro looks down. His expression is an amalgamation of confusion and morbid terror. His hands are over his head again. SFX: AAAHHHH!!!!!! Page Four Panel 1. New scene, but still inside the Grand Hill Mall. DANTE and ART are looking through the window of the “Petsplosion” pet store at the kittens playing in their plastic cages. Our hero Dante, age 15, is tall and slender. He has messy, shoulder-length black hair and wears rectangle-frame glasses. Dante has no fashion sense, but for inexplicable reasons, he refuses to ever wear hoodies. He is comfortable in a t-shirt and jeans. In general, Dante has the appearance of a “likeable nerd” that would endear the reader. He and Art are misfits, but they’re the type of misfit you would want to get to know. Art, also age 15, is not tall by any means, a fact which is exasperated when he stands next to Dante, but Art is broad-shouldered and handsome. He has short brown hair and studded earrings. They both have brown eyes. Dante and Art are best friends, always looking out for each other. Dante has his hands and face pressed on the glass, full of glee to have the attention of the kittens. Art, shoulders sloped, head down, is depressed. The best way to angle this panel is from just inside the glass, so that we can see the characters’ expressions and the adorable little kitties all at once. 1 NARRATION BOX: Elsewhere in the mall… 2 ART: Dante, we are the most pathetic 15-year old males in the western hemisphere. 3 DANTE: Says who? Panel 2. Art is still a little gloomy, and Dante has taken his face off the glass. Dante is comfortable with their low-man-on-the-totem-pole social status. 4 ART: Says everybody who isn’t a cat. 5 DANTE: But cats are adorable, Art. 6 ART: Cats don’t throw parties on Friday night and not invite us. 7 DANTE: They would if they could. Panel 3. Art and Dante share a self-deprecating smile. No dialogue. Panel 4. Dante bites down on his lower lip. Art cringes at what Dante is proposing. 8 DANTE: I can’t hold it anymore. I gotta use the bathroom. 9 ART: The Grand Hill Mall bathroom? Page Five Panel 1. Fast forwarding a bit, Dante and Art stand before the entrances to the bathrooms in a dark, secluded hallway. The “MEN” sign on the men’s door has been eroded with time and only says “ME.” The “WOMEN” sign on the women’s door has been similarly eroded, with the first line in the “W” missing so that it reads “NOMEN.” Grime seems to permeate the hallway and the fluorescent lighting helps nothing. A freakish strain of mushrooms might be growing on the floor along the wall. Graffiti on the men’s door reads “SHIT SHRINE” with somebody strategically covering up part of the word “SHIT” in panels at all times. 1 ART: This bathroom? 2 DANTE (small text): Weren’t we just looking at cats? How did we get here? Panel 2. Art tugs at Dante’s sleeve, not wanting Dante to die a terrible, stinky death. Dante points at his crotch despairingly. 3 ART: This bathroom hasn’t been cleaned since Roosevelt took office. The first Roosevelt! 4 DANTE: I don’t have a choice. My bladder feels like the Hoover Dam. Panel 3. Dante puts his hand on the door while Art backs away nervously toward the wall. 6 ART: This is serious. You might catch a disease. 7 DANTE: I’ll be fine. We all have to become men eventually. 8 ART: Just be safe, Dante. Panel 4. Dante gives Art a perplexed look. Art is looking overly concerned for reasons we’ll get to later. 9 DANTE: Art, it’s just a bathroom. Panel 5. Dante pushes open the door ever so slightly. 10 DANTE (small text): I hope. Page Six Panel 1. Dante slides through the small opening he has made in the doorway. His eyes are closed as he enters, imagining the myriad stinky terrors that might await within. The walls are pristine white, though. Nothing seems to be dirty yet. No dialogue. Panel 2. This is an immaculate bathroom, a sparkling piece of cleanliness and tranquility. There is not an ounce of grime or dust to be found anywhere. The stalls are airy and inviting, and the urinals are a testament to fine living. The row of sinks shimmers and a long mirror hangs above. It is as if this bathroom has never been used. Dante stands dumbfounded. 1 DANTE: Ooooookay. Panel 3. Dante occupies a urinal. He looks around as he takes a well-earned whiz. 2 DANTE: Must be the mall’s idea of a big joke. 3 DANTE: I bet the employees keep up the charade so they can have it all to themselves. Panel 4. PIZARRO sticks his head out of one of the stalls. Dante is facing forward and does not see him, but we can see that Dante is visibly startled. 4 PIZARRO: That’s a good guess, actually! But no. 5 PIZARRO: And how did you know I was here? 6 PIZARRO (small text): Or are you just one of those weirdos who talks to themselves? Page Seven Panel 1. Dante swings around, his hands zipping up his pants (sound effect). He is utterly vulnerable to the whims of the psycho who has him cornered in the bathroom. Pizarro is much closer than before, almost within arm’s reach. Dante sees Pizarro’s hair and clothes and cannot comprehend who or what this guy is supposed to be. 1 DANTE: What the fuuuuuu-- SFX: ZIP Panel 2. Pizarro puts his hand over Dante’s mouth. Dante continues to be terrified. 2 PIZARRO: Let’s save that sort of language for prison movies, ‘kay? Panel 3. Pizarro runs his free hand through the thick furry mass that he calls his hair. The other hand remains over Dante’s mouth. Dante’s hands are pressed against the wall. 3 PIZARRO: The truth is, this bathroom isn’t real. It’s a good thing, too! Because the real bathroom is a death trap. I practically saved your life! 4 PIZARRO: And I really really hope that you keep that in mind once you understand why I’m here. Panel 4. Pizarro gives Dante a very big, very toothy, very desperate smile. It is intended to alleviate Dante’s fears. It achieves the exact opposite effect. 5 PIZARRO: Can we be friends? Panel 5. Pizarro takes his hand off of Dante’s mouth and droops his shoulders in dismay. Dante wipes his lip with the back of his hand instinctively; Dante has an impulsive quirk that drives him to wipe himself any time he is touched on the skin. 6 PIZARRO: Okay, I can see this is going to be a long day. Page Eight Panel 1. We’re back to ART now, standing patiently against the wall in the hallway, unable to hear anything going on in the bathroom. There is a lot on Art’s mind, and the anxiety is getting to him. In just a couple seconds, we are going to justify Art’s anxiety. In this panel, Art is just a solitary figure in a dark place. No dialogue. Panel 2. Pull in closer to Art. He is looking at something out of the corner of his eye. No dialogue. Panel 3. Extreme close-up as Art goes wide-eyed with terror. For a light-hearted comic, these characters sure do get filled with wide-eyed terror a lot. No dialogue. Panel 4. HAT MAN looms ominously at a distance in the hallway, watching Art. “Hat Man” is a phenomenon that can be researched on the Internet, but I’ll just save you the time and tell you what you need to know. Hat Man is a three-dimensional solid black entity that wears a trench coat and fedora hat, Dick Tracy style. Bits of jagged blackness hover or smear around the outline of his body to suggest his ethereal nature. His eyes are intense, malevolent white. By his very nature, he is an embodiment of fear and desolation, and he is stalking Art. 1 ART (shout): No! Page Nine Panel 1. Art falls to the ground, his face buried in his knees and his arms above his head. Whether or not any part of his expression is visible, Art is already crying. 1 ART: You’re all in my head! Panel 2. Hat Man is much closer to Art now, but his posture has not changed whatsoever. Without indicating whether or not Hat Man moves or talks, we can leave the reader guessing whether Hat Man is real or a product of Art’s crazy mind. 2 ART: Just, just get out! I’m not a psycho. Panel 3. Art lifts his head. The tears are fresh and streaming. He and Hat Man stare each other down. 3 ART: You’re not real. Panel 4. Hat Man is gone. Everything else remains the same. No dialogue. Panel 5. Art stares at the ceiling with his head resting back against the wall, and his legs have straightened out. He has reached a tenuous calm. 4 ART: Yep. Not real at all. You’ll never get to me. 5 ART (small text): And you can’t have him either. Page Ten Panel 1. Back to DANTE and PIZARRO in the bathroom. Dante, who considers Pizarro to be more goofy than scary now, has eased up. Pizarro spreads his arms at his sides like he is Jesus on the cross. 1 DANTE: So, what are you? If you have the power to zap a room full of working toilets into existence? 2 PIZARRO: Ooo, good question. Well, some people might consider me an angel. Panel 2. Pizarro pounds his fist in a downward motion into his other hand. 3 PIZARRO: Those people would be wrong! Angels don’t exist, not in the conventional sense anyway. Panel 3. A mysterious sparkle fills Pizarro’s eye. 4 PIZARRO: I’m what you would call a celestial. Panel 4. Dante is intrigued now, but not wholly convinced that Pizarro isn’t just a lunatic. Pizarro is excited that Dante is starting to believe him. 5 DANTE: Celestial, like a heavenly body? 6 PIZARRO: Don’t read too much into it. We just think it’s a cool-sounding word. 7 PIZARRO: The truth is, celestial is a blanket term used to describe every supernatural or paranormal phenomenon you can imagine. Panel 5. Dante gets a little closer to Pizarro, further indicating his growing belief. Pizarro’s fingers are together in the same mischievous manner as they were on Page 3 Panel 1. 8 DANTE: Really?... 9 DANTE: Like what? 10 PIZARRO: Well, if you really want to know what a day in my life is like-- Page Eleven Full-page shot. Pizarro and Dante are hovering amidst the vastness of the cosmos. Stars, planets, asteroids, comets—the whole shebang. Pizarro breathes it all in (okay, not literally) with his hands in front of him, as if he has returned home. Dante is reacting exactly how anybody would react to be staring at the vastness of the cosmos. 1 PIZARRO: --It’s like this. 2 DANTE (shout): Where are we and what happened to the floor!? 3 PIZARRO: Celestials don’t have bodies, per se. Normally, I exist everywhere at once! 4 DANTE (shout): That answers nothing! 5 PIZARRO: Don’t you see? The whole cosmos is my playground! I’m omnipresent, baby! I can exist in all places in all time periods simultaneously. Like Santa! 6 PIZARRO: In fact, I normally have very little personality. It is only when a celestial personifies into a physical form that he develops full personality. Page Twelve Panel 1. The cosmos has gone away and we’re back inside the bathroom. Dante is looking pretty rough around the edges and leans over a sink, staring into the mirror. Pizarro has a look of longing on his face. He misses the ability to be omnipresent, which he does not possess in the literal sense when he takes a physical form. 1 DANTE: Fine, I believe everything. 2 DANTE: But why are you here? When you could be literally everywhere else right now? 3 PIZARRO: Everywhere is not an option anymore. At least, not for the next seventy-five years or so. Panel 2. Pizarro stares at himself in the mirror as he steps beside Dante. Pizarro’s expression is a little more serious as he builds toward the revelation of why he has come. Dante turns the faucet and water gushes out (sound effect). SFX: FSS 4 PIZARRO: I beat around the bush a lot. That’s my style. I guess. Maybe? Well anyway, it’s time I tell you the truth. 5 PIZARRO: I am a celestial created by the wishes and desires of all living things everywhere. As far as celestials go, I’m one of the most powerful. 6 DANTE: Created by wishes? You mean, you’re a literal manifestation of conscious and unconscious thought? Panel 3. Pizarro holds up his forefinger, pleased with Dante’s intellect. Dante splashes water on his face. 7 PIZARRO: Yes, precisely! It’s a big job. And sometimes, lots of people wish for the same thing. Such as… true love. 8 DANTE: Sure… 9 DANTE (small text): I bet that’s a popular one. Page Twelve (cont.) 10 PIZARRO: Yes! But this world has become jaded against love! So much divorce, so much abuse. As such, I devised a plan to bring back true love. Panel 4. Pizarro looks at Dante out of the side of his eye. His other eye is closed. Dante freezes up from what he hears, water dripping off his blank face. 10 PIZARRO: Dante, you were supposed to meet the love of your life today. 11 DANTE: What? 12 PIZARRO: Yep! It would’ve been a fairy tale romance, so beautiful, so enduring that movies would have been made about it! Your story would’ve been legend. Panel 5. Dante and Pizarro stare straight at each other. 13 DANTE: Would’ve been? 14 PIZARRO: I sent her plunging to her doom. Page Thirteen Panel 1. Back to the hallway, no more bathroom. DANTE flings the bathroom door open (sound effect) as he storms out alone into the dark hallway. ART is taken aback by the careless strength of the push. SFX: FWOOSH 1 DANTE: This is a weird mall, Art. 2 ART: Dante! You were in there forever. Panel 2. Dante walks at a brisk pace down the hallway, his hands in his pockets and his head down. Art stumbles after him. 3 DANTE: Let’s go to the Green Plaza Mall from now on. 4 ART: What happened in there, Dante? Did you… 5 ART: See someone? Panel 3. Dante stops and turns to face Art. They both share a sense of dread and suspicion. 6 DANTE: Like who? 7 ART: You tell me. Panel 4. PIZARRO pops up beside Dante in a panic, startling Dante in the process. Art cannot see Pizarro. People are going to start “popping up” a lot for the rest of this script, so it’s a good idea to include some action lines or a special aura to indicate that the character has materialized in a given spot. Otherwise, things will start to look awkward and disjointed very fast. 8 PIZARRO: Please stop running! There are rules I need to follow! 9 DANTE: Ack! Get away from me, murderer! 10 ART (small text): Uh, what? Page Thirteen (cont.) Panel 5. Dante takes off at top speed back in the direction of the main area of the mall. Pizarro scratches his head, standing in place. 11 DANTE: Run, Art! Just run! 12 PIZARRO: What for? He can’t see me. Panel 6. A DUPLICATE OF PIZARRO blocks Dante’s path, and Dante runs right into him. The first Pizarro is behind Dante, a little further away. 13 DANTE: Oof! 14 DUPLICATE OF PIZARRO: Me neither. Page Fourteen Panel 1. Dante punches the duplicate of Pizarro in the face (sound effect). SFX: BFF 1 DANTE: No omnipresence, huh? Get away from me! Panel 2. Pizarro stands with arms akimbo next to his rattled duplicate, who is rubbing his swollen face. Dante escapes into the distance. 2 PIZARRO: Well, now he’s done it. 3 DUPLICATE OF PIZARRO: We awe scwewed. 4 PIZARRO: At this rate, he’ll be killed next! And I don’t want to think about what will happen to me. Panel 3. CUTIE pops up, sinking her long scythe into the duplicate’s spine and coming out through the heart. The duplicate’s eyes roll back in his head and his tongue sticks out in a comical fashion. There isn’t too much blood, since Pizarro can’t really die anyway. Cutie is another celestial, gorgeous and curvaceous. Her skin is violet and her hair is silver. She wears form-fitting armor that matches her hair. Cutie’s singular purpose is to kill, so “bloodlust” would be her defining characteristic. She always displays an eerie closed-mouth smile, regardless of circumstance. 5 CUTIE: Maybe it’s time to start thinking about it. Panel 4. Having seen or heard absolutely nothing, Art stares at the empty hallway and raises an eyebrow. 6 ART (small text): Uh, what? Page Fifteen Panel 1. Back to the open mall. DANTE is still running, and several shoppers have stopped just to stare at him. 1 DANTE (small text): All I wanted to do was look at the cats! Panel 2. CUTIE stops Dante right in his tracks, scythe in her hand behind her back. It isn’t difficult for Dante to decipher she is a celestial. 2 CUTIE: Oh, honey, if only it were that simple! 3 DANTE: Aw geez, not again! Panel 3. PIZARRO pops up between Dante and Cutie with his arms spread out at his sides. He faces Cutie with feigned stoicism. Dante hides behind Pizarro instinctively, since he isn’t the one with the scythe. 4 PIZARRO: If you want him, you have to go through me. 5 CUTIE: You and what army? Panel 4. Pizarro does not move his head, but he looks straight up. 6 PIZARRO: Well-- Page Sixteen Panel 1. An army of Pizarros packed to the teeth with weaponry falls out of the air toward Cutie. Most Pizarros wear futuristic armor and wield gigantic guns or laser swords. One Pizarro is dressed like a wizard. Another Pizarro is dressed like a cowboy. One Pizarro is holding a rocket launcher with the circular yellow/black “nuclear symbol” on it. One Pizarro is dressed like Super Mario. Throw in any other ridiculous costume that makes sense to you. Cutie looks up, her scythe readied in both hands. Regular Pizarro points up with glee. Dante watches on in awe. The shoppers notice nothing, except that maybe Dante has stopped running. This panel should take up roughly two-thirds of the page. 1 PIZARRO: --Me! Panel 2. In the background, the army of Pizarros has already jumped on top of Cutie, kind of like the Neo/Agent Smith fight in The Matrix Reloaded. Regular Pizarro takes Dante off to the side to avoid the action. 2 PIZARRO: Friend, we need to talk, now. It’s the only way to save your life. 3 DANTE: But who is that woman? Who are you? Panel 3. Pizarro puts a hand on his face in an “oops! Silly me!” manner. Dante is beginning to trust Pizarro again. 4 PIZARRO: Oh, I didn’t tell you my name? That’s no way to build a friendship! 5 PIZARRO: My name is Pizarro. Page Seventeen Panel 1. A few Pizarros, including the cowboy, are ripped in half (sound effect) by Cutie’s scythe. Once again, there isn’t much (if any) blood, since Pizarro can’t die. In the foreground, regular Pizarro points to the carnage while still staring at Dante. Dante is listening seriously now. SFX: KA-SEEW 1 PIZARRO: And that lady is Cutie the Executioner--as in Judge, Jury, and Executioner. Celestials have judged you an imminent threat to our well-being. 2 DANTE: Great! I always wanted to be assassinated by the first hottie who ever noticed me. 3 PIZARRO: Hey, chin up! You’re only considered a threat because you won’t talk to me. Panel 2. Dante shrugs his shoulders, hands extended in front of him in exasperation. Pizarro puts his hands together in a pleading gesture. 4 DANTE: Are you serious? You really want us to talk now? 5 PIZARRO: If you do, Cutie will leave and never come back! Panel 3. Dante watches with despair as Cutie punches through a Pizarro soldier’s chest (sound effect). SFX: BOOF Panel 4. Dante looks back at Pizarro. 6 DANTE (small text): Okay. Panel 5. Pizarro takes Dante by the shoulders. 7 PIZARRO: Wonderful! Now let’s take this to a place less insistent upon using my corpse as décor. Page Eighteen Panel 1. New scene. A beach on a desert island. PIZARRO rests comfortably in the sand, suddenly wearing shades and pink swim trunks for no apparent reason. DANTE takes in the new sights with growing acceptance of his situation. 1 PIZARRO: That’s better. 2 DANTE: I have to admit, I could get used to teleportation. Panel 2. Pizarro gives Dante a thumbs-up. 3 PIZARRO: Good! I’ll take you wherever you want to go from now on. Panel 3. Dante kneels down to be next to Pizarro. 4 DANTE: What do you mean by that? 5 PIZARRO: This is what I’ve been trying to tell you. What I did to your dream girl was a total accident! 6 PIZARRO: And the rulebook states specifically that I owe you now. Panel 4. Dante gets up in Pizarro’s face, and Pizarro awkwardly lifts his shades to meet Dante’s gaze. 7 DANTE: Say what? 8 PIZARRO: Yep. She was supposed to make you happy for the rest of your life. Now she can’t! It is my duty to compensate you appropriately. Panel 5. Dante puts a hand to his chin and his eyes narrow in suspicion. Pizarro sits up and throws his hands into the air. 9 DANTE: This sounds like a scam. If you can teleport like this, why didn’t you save my dream girl before she hit the ground? 10 PIZARRO: The rulebook forbids intentional physical contact, even if it is to undo a mistake! This is because a mistake might undo itself without celestial intervention. Page Nineteen Panel 1. Pizarro stands up. Dante is still kneeling. 1 PIZARRO: But that sure wasn’t the case here! Nope, that girl sunk like a scone. 2 DANTE: Like a scone? 3 PIZARRO: Isn’t that the phrase? It’s hard to know the nuances of a language when you have to remember an infinite number of them. Panel 2. Pizarro materializes the open rulebook over his head. It is an utterly massive tome that nearly crushes Pizarro under its weight. Dante recoils at the sight of it. 4 PIZARRO: But go ahead and read the rulebook if you want. This is the first volume. Might take a couple eons to get through it all. 5 DANTE: No thanks! Panel 3. Dante is settling into the idea that Pizarro might be a good person to have around. He stands comfortably beside Pizarro, who wipes sweat off of his face since the rulebook has abruptly disappeared. 6 DANTE: So, for the rest of my life, I have 24/7 access to you and your powers? 7 PIZARRO: You got it, pal. And teleportation is just the tip of the iceberg. Panel 4. Pizarro is counting on his fingers, holding up one hand and touching one of the fingers with his other hand. 8 PIZARRO: My power is almost literally infinite. I could make you king of your own universe if you want. 9 PIZARRO: And I can bestow specific powers upon you for personal temporary use. I can’t make you omnipotent, but I could let you breathe fire! 10 PIZARRO: And I can read minds. And I even know the secrets of the universe! All the juicy stuff. Page Nineteen (cont.) Panel 5. Dante goes wide-eyed, but for a pleasant reason this time. Pizarro bites down on his lip and stares in the other direction. In the foreground, the blade of Cutie’s scythe is visible. It is lodged in the sand. 11 DANTE: Really? What’s the meaning of life? 12 PIZARRO: Ooo, sorry. There’s a rule against telling you that. 13 DANTE (small text): Stupid rulebook. Page Twenty Panel 1. CUTIE approaches Dante and Pizarro without her weapon. Dante is immediately afraid, whereas Pizarro is aware that the danger has already passed. 1 CUTIE: Seems like you made a friend, Pizarro. 2 PIZARRO: Eeeyep. 3 CUTIE: Just remember to tell him the important part. Panel 2. Pizarro smacks himself on the back of the head for forgetting another important detail. Dante has not eased up yet. 4 PIZARRO: Oh, right! Dante, you must never tell anyone about the celestials, no matter how crazy you look talking to me! 5 DANTE: Is that all? That’s why I was an imminent threat? Panel 3. Cutie puts a tender hand on Dante’s cheek. Dante, who has a pathological inability to communicate well with women, freezes up at this touch. 6 CUTIE: Not anymore, handsome. You’re free to go. Panel 4. Cutie takes her scythe out of the sand, looking away from the others. 7 CUTIE: You have quite the little adventure ahead of yourselves, boys. Panel 5. Cutie is gone, and Dante and Pizarro smile at each other in soothing silence. No dialogue. Page Twenty-One Panel 1. DANTE and PIZARRO have returned to the interior of the mall. Things are as normal as ever, and the Pizarro copies are all gone. Well, actually, stick the Super Mario Pizarro somewhere in the background licking an ice cream cone. Anyway, regular Pizarro is back in his standard garb, and Dante has his hand on the back of his head. 1 PIZARRO: Well, first things first. Let’s go tell your buddy Art about me! 2 DANTE: Tell Art!? But didn’t you just say-- 3 PIZARRO: It’s all in the rules, my boy! It wouldn’t be fair if you had to keep this secret from everybody. Panel 2. Pizarro puts a “let’s keep this between us” hand over his mouth and leans in toward Dante. 4 PIZARRO: You only become a threat if I can’t regulate your ability to tell the secrets of celestials. 5 PIZARRO: As long as you don’t become a blabbermouth, you can select three people to tell about me. Then I will become visible to them too. Panel 3. ART spots Dante from the background and waves vigorously. Dante waves back in a half-hearted way. Pizarro stands to the side. Super Mario Pizarro’s ice cream has slipped off the cone and hit the floor somewhere else in the background. 6 DANTE: Three people, huh? I can’t even think of more than two. 7 PIZARRO: Not a problem. There’s no time limit on this. Just choose carefully. Panel 4. Art is visibly concerned for Dante’s safety. Dante is thrilled to tell Art the news. Pizarro is forced to interject as Dante starts talking. 8 ART: Dante, what happened to you? You took off like you saw a ghost. 9 DANTE: Close enough! You’re never gonna believe the experience I’ve had. I just met-- 10 PIZARRO: Oh no! Stop right there! Get the heck away from him! Page Twenty-Two. Full-page shot. This is more of an abstract pin-up page. Dante and Pizarro stand in the foreground with Art further back between them. A massive HAT MAN looms over Art menacingly, taking up the upper half of the page. Hat Man might have his hands to the sides of Art, as if Art is inside an invisible crystal ball that Hat Man is grasping. Dante stares at Pizarro in distress. Pizarro has gritted teeth and a clenched fist. It seems pretty certain now that Hat Man is not a figment of Art’s imagination. That’s all for this issue. 1 DANTE: What? Why? 2 PIZARRO: I never noticed in all the excitement, but this one is off-limits to me or you. 3 PIZARRO: Your friend has been marked! THE END
Welcome to a blog packed with comics scripts, genres ranging from fantasy to sci-fi to drama to total comedy. If you at any point feel an urge to throw all your money at me, please do NOT resist it.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Hidden World (Part 2)
The below is printed here for posterity and as evidence of my ownership of this proposed work of comics fiction:
Hidden World Character Profiles
Pizarro
Age: Ageless (Appears to be in mid-twenties) Eye Color: Amber Hair Color: Black Personality/Mannerisms: Pizarro is a quintessential good guy, exuding positivity and confidence in his expression at all times. He only wants the best for his friends and is eternally loyal to them like a genie. Nonetheless, Pizarro tends to approach all activities in a scatter-brained and eccentric manner. He will exaggerate his facial features and use his hands to express anything he has to say, and he has a particular tendency to put his hands behind his head whenever he is distressed.
Physical Description: Pizarro’s waist-length hair is so thick that it almost functions like a cape. He wears a pristine white trench coat with golden trim that would be heavy and cumbersome if worn by a normal person. Matching gloves and boots complete the look. A faint aura surrounds him most of the time to demonstrate his supernatural origin.
Dante
Age: 15 Eye Color: Brown Hair Color: Black
Personality/Mannerisms: Dante is the hero of the story. He is not popular and most likely will never become popular, but Dante is accepting and comfortable with his position in the social order. Dante is an optimist by nature, choosing to highlight the good in even the worst situations, but he is also realistic. Courage and conviction are important to Dante, and no one will stop him from doing what he believes is right. Dante’s failing is that he is freezes up around women, pathologically unable to sustain a conversation. This problem is so severe for him that he is convinced he will never marry—especially now that Pizarro has ruined his fairy tale romance, but he tries to pretend that it does not bother him. Dante has a compulsive quirk that drives him to wipe himself with his hand any time he is touched on the skin. This quiet quirk suggests his aversion to physical intimacy. On the flip side, Dante melts at the sight of a cat and adores them profusely.
Physical Description: Dante is tall and slender for his age, with messy, shoulder-length hair. He wears rectangle-frame glasses and is comfortable in a t-shirt and jeans. Dante has no fashion sense, but for inexplicable reasons, he would not be caught dead wearing a hoodie. If this were a movie or a manga, Dante would fit the “handsome nerd” archetype in his physical appearance, in that he acts like a nerd but still looks kind of attractive. A reader should see him and feel instantly endeared to root for him.
Art
Age: 15 Eye Color: Brown Hair Color: Brown
Personality/Mannerisms: Art is Dante’s best friend, and they are equally unpopular. Art is distressed by his social status and wishes he could find a way for both himself and Dante to get noticed. He is also a worrier and a pessimist by nature, which is what draws Hat Man to him. In essence, Art has all the attributes that Dante does not have. Art is much better at talking to girls than Dante, having had a couple girlfriends in the past, but he is still no Casanova. In actuality, Art has a massive unrequited crush on Melody, and he would want nothing more than to be with her. Art instinctively adjusts his collar or fixes up his hair any time Melody appears.
Physical Description: Art is short for his age but broad-shouldered, strong, and handsome. In stature, he is essentially the opposite of Dante, making the two of them a Bert & Ernie sort of best buddies duo. Art has short hair and studded earrings. He has a tendency to wear thicker clothes, like sweaters or hoodies, but sometimes he’ll just wear a small t-shirt to flaunt the muscles that puberty gave him.
Melody
Age: 17 Eye Color: Blue Hair Color: Blonde
Personality/Mannerisms: Melody is Dante’s extremely popular older sister. She is a talented painter with strong artistic inclinations and eclectic taste. Her upbeat personality and trendsetting style provide easy charisma around women, but it is her blatant attractiveness that draws all men to her. She has a very good relationship with her brother, being the only woman Dante can talk to with any success. She even likes and welcomes Art, but not in the romantic capacity that Art would want. Melody’s failing is her gullibility; she is unable to discern her friends from her enemies. In terms of mannerisms, Melody likes to play with her hair, and she will play with her hair proportionate to how excited she is about something. She will nearly pull her hair out if she is ecstatic. Like Dante, Melody goes crazy for cats.
Physical Description: Melody is bosomy and curvaceous and not afraid to flaunt it. While she does not dress like a slut, she has no problem wearing something with a little extra cleavage. She has straight waist-length hair and a tendency to wear big earrings or necklaces. Melody prefers to wear bold colors but she always looks very fashionable. It is her artistic spirit that drives her to go big with her look.
Titania
Age: 15 Eye Color: Sapphire Hair Color: Black
Personality/Mannerisms: Titania is the sheltered daughter of the television psychic Madame Wanda. While Wanda is obsessed with fame and fortune, she is equally obsessed with keeping her precious daughter away from media vultures and other bad influences. As a result, Titania goes to an all-girls school. She is well liked by all of her classmates, but Titania is too modest to consider herself popular. She has had very limited contact with boys in her life and has never learned how to act around them. Titania is supposed to have an epic romance with Dante, but Pizarro ruins it and sends Titania off a ledge at the mall. For most of the story, Titania will be presumed dead. In actuality, she is only in a coma.
Physical Description: Titania looks like a Precious Moments doll, big-eyed and beautiful with a bashful demeanor. She has wavy breast-length hair and wears cute, conservative dresses with an accompanying purse. Titania is always the most beautiful person in the room, but Melody would not look unattractive standing next to her.
Hat Man
Age: Ageless Eye Color: White Hair Color: None
Personality/Mannerisms: By his very nature, Hat Man is an embodiment of fear and desolation. His sole motivation is to feed on the negative, deprecating thoughts of his victims. Hat Man has little personality outside of this drive to feed, and he is completely humorless. He seldom speaks, but when he does, the voice is simultaneously muffled and booming. Typically, Hat Man maintains an erect standing posture, even after he has moved across a room. In this way, it appears Hat Man does not move so much as he “materializes” in a given spot, causing victims to question whether Hat Man is real.
Physical Description: Hat Man is a three-dimensional solid black entity that wears a trench coat and fedora hat, Dick Tracy style. Bits of jagged blackness hover or smear around the outline of his body to suggest his ethereal nature. His eyes are intense and malevolent.
Incubus
Age: Ageless (Appears to be approximately age 30) Eye Color: Purple Hair Color: White
Personality/Mannerisms: Incubus is a demon that seduces his female victims into intercourse at night, draining a small piece of the victim’s life force in the process. This is not something that Incubus particularly enjoys, but he has continued this activity for thousands of years to get back at his girlfriend Succubus for an argument that he can no longer remember. Although Incubus loves sex above anything, only Succubus can give him the thrill he really desires, but Incubus is too stubborn to be the one to apologize and reconcile. All living women suffer as a result. Incubus’s eyes become dilated whenever he comes in contact with a beautiful woman, such as Melody.
Physical Description: Incubus has pastel blue skin with long straight hair. His body is flawless like a Greek statue to entice potential lovers. In general, Incubus is the definition of what women want. The most he wears is a loin cloth around his waist and genitalia.
Succubus
Age: Ageless (Appears to be approximately age 30) Eye Color: Purple Hair Color: Black
Personality/Mannerisms: Succubus is a demon that seduces her male victims into intercourse at night, draining a small piece of the victim’s life force in the process. This is not something that Succubus particularly enjoys, but she has continued this activity for thousands of years to get back at her boyfriend Incubus for an argument that she can no longer remember. Although Succubus loves sex above anything, only Incubus can give her the thrill she really desires, but Succubus is too stubborn to be the one to apologize and reconcile. All living men suffer as a result. Succubus tends to salivate whenever she comes in contact with a handsome man. So, to reiterate, Incubus and Succubus are exactly the same. They absolutely belong together, but they are too stubborn and vindictive to do anything about it.
Physical Description: Succubus has red skin with incredibly thick and wavy hair that hangs past her butt. Her body is an endless stream of intoxicating curves that drives a man to madness. Succubus is a menacing symbol of sexuality. Her butt is covered by her long hair, and a black leaf covers her genitalia. More of her thick head of hair covers her breasts. If this design is too extreme, she can wear something more conventional while maintaining her seductive elements.
Hidden World Character Profiles
Pizarro
Age: Ageless (Appears to be in mid-twenties) Eye Color: Amber Hair Color: Black Personality/Mannerisms: Pizarro is a quintessential good guy, exuding positivity and confidence in his expression at all times. He only wants the best for his friends and is eternally loyal to them like a genie. Nonetheless, Pizarro tends to approach all activities in a scatter-brained and eccentric manner. He will exaggerate his facial features and use his hands to express anything he has to say, and he has a particular tendency to put his hands behind his head whenever he is distressed.
Physical Description: Pizarro’s waist-length hair is so thick that it almost functions like a cape. He wears a pristine white trench coat with golden trim that would be heavy and cumbersome if worn by a normal person. Matching gloves and boots complete the look. A faint aura surrounds him most of the time to demonstrate his supernatural origin.
Dante
Age: 15 Eye Color: Brown Hair Color: Black
Personality/Mannerisms: Dante is the hero of the story. He is not popular and most likely will never become popular, but Dante is accepting and comfortable with his position in the social order. Dante is an optimist by nature, choosing to highlight the good in even the worst situations, but he is also realistic. Courage and conviction are important to Dante, and no one will stop him from doing what he believes is right. Dante’s failing is that he is freezes up around women, pathologically unable to sustain a conversation. This problem is so severe for him that he is convinced he will never marry—especially now that Pizarro has ruined his fairy tale romance, but he tries to pretend that it does not bother him. Dante has a compulsive quirk that drives him to wipe himself with his hand any time he is touched on the skin. This quiet quirk suggests his aversion to physical intimacy. On the flip side, Dante melts at the sight of a cat and adores them profusely.
Physical Description: Dante is tall and slender for his age, with messy, shoulder-length hair. He wears rectangle-frame glasses and is comfortable in a t-shirt and jeans. Dante has no fashion sense, but for inexplicable reasons, he would not be caught dead wearing a hoodie. If this were a movie or a manga, Dante would fit the “handsome nerd” archetype in his physical appearance, in that he acts like a nerd but still looks kind of attractive. A reader should see him and feel instantly endeared to root for him.
Art
Age: 15 Eye Color: Brown Hair Color: Brown
Personality/Mannerisms: Art is Dante’s best friend, and they are equally unpopular. Art is distressed by his social status and wishes he could find a way for both himself and Dante to get noticed. He is also a worrier and a pessimist by nature, which is what draws Hat Man to him. In essence, Art has all the attributes that Dante does not have. Art is much better at talking to girls than Dante, having had a couple girlfriends in the past, but he is still no Casanova. In actuality, Art has a massive unrequited crush on Melody, and he would want nothing more than to be with her. Art instinctively adjusts his collar or fixes up his hair any time Melody appears.
Physical Description: Art is short for his age but broad-shouldered, strong, and handsome. In stature, he is essentially the opposite of Dante, making the two of them a Bert & Ernie sort of best buddies duo. Art has short hair and studded earrings. He has a tendency to wear thicker clothes, like sweaters or hoodies, but sometimes he’ll just wear a small t-shirt to flaunt the muscles that puberty gave him.
Melody
Age: 17 Eye Color: Blue Hair Color: Blonde
Personality/Mannerisms: Melody is Dante’s extremely popular older sister. She is a talented painter with strong artistic inclinations and eclectic taste. Her upbeat personality and trendsetting style provide easy charisma around women, but it is her blatant attractiveness that draws all men to her. She has a very good relationship with her brother, being the only woman Dante can talk to with any success. She even likes and welcomes Art, but not in the romantic capacity that Art would want. Melody’s failing is her gullibility; she is unable to discern her friends from her enemies. In terms of mannerisms, Melody likes to play with her hair, and she will play with her hair proportionate to how excited she is about something. She will nearly pull her hair out if she is ecstatic. Like Dante, Melody goes crazy for cats.
Physical Description: Melody is bosomy and curvaceous and not afraid to flaunt it. While she does not dress like a slut, she has no problem wearing something with a little extra cleavage. She has straight waist-length hair and a tendency to wear big earrings or necklaces. Melody prefers to wear bold colors but she always looks very fashionable. It is her artistic spirit that drives her to go big with her look.
Titania
Age: 15 Eye Color: Sapphire Hair Color: Black
Personality/Mannerisms: Titania is the sheltered daughter of the television psychic Madame Wanda. While Wanda is obsessed with fame and fortune, she is equally obsessed with keeping her precious daughter away from media vultures and other bad influences. As a result, Titania goes to an all-girls school. She is well liked by all of her classmates, but Titania is too modest to consider herself popular. She has had very limited contact with boys in her life and has never learned how to act around them. Titania is supposed to have an epic romance with Dante, but Pizarro ruins it and sends Titania off a ledge at the mall. For most of the story, Titania will be presumed dead. In actuality, she is only in a coma.
Physical Description: Titania looks like a Precious Moments doll, big-eyed and beautiful with a bashful demeanor. She has wavy breast-length hair and wears cute, conservative dresses with an accompanying purse. Titania is always the most beautiful person in the room, but Melody would not look unattractive standing next to her.
Hat Man
Age: Ageless Eye Color: White Hair Color: None
Personality/Mannerisms: By his very nature, Hat Man is an embodiment of fear and desolation. His sole motivation is to feed on the negative, deprecating thoughts of his victims. Hat Man has little personality outside of this drive to feed, and he is completely humorless. He seldom speaks, but when he does, the voice is simultaneously muffled and booming. Typically, Hat Man maintains an erect standing posture, even after he has moved across a room. In this way, it appears Hat Man does not move so much as he “materializes” in a given spot, causing victims to question whether Hat Man is real.
Physical Description: Hat Man is a three-dimensional solid black entity that wears a trench coat and fedora hat, Dick Tracy style. Bits of jagged blackness hover or smear around the outline of his body to suggest his ethereal nature. His eyes are intense and malevolent.
Incubus
Age: Ageless (Appears to be approximately age 30) Eye Color: Purple Hair Color: White
Personality/Mannerisms: Incubus is a demon that seduces his female victims into intercourse at night, draining a small piece of the victim’s life force in the process. This is not something that Incubus particularly enjoys, but he has continued this activity for thousands of years to get back at his girlfriend Succubus for an argument that he can no longer remember. Although Incubus loves sex above anything, only Succubus can give him the thrill he really desires, but Incubus is too stubborn to be the one to apologize and reconcile. All living women suffer as a result. Incubus’s eyes become dilated whenever he comes in contact with a beautiful woman, such as Melody.
Physical Description: Incubus has pastel blue skin with long straight hair. His body is flawless like a Greek statue to entice potential lovers. In general, Incubus is the definition of what women want. The most he wears is a loin cloth around his waist and genitalia.
Succubus
Age: Ageless (Appears to be approximately age 30) Eye Color: Purple Hair Color: Black
Personality/Mannerisms: Succubus is a demon that seduces her male victims into intercourse at night, draining a small piece of the victim’s life force in the process. This is not something that Succubus particularly enjoys, but she has continued this activity for thousands of years to get back at her boyfriend Incubus for an argument that she can no longer remember. Although Succubus loves sex above anything, only Incubus can give her the thrill she really desires, but Succubus is too stubborn to be the one to apologize and reconcile. All living men suffer as a result. Succubus tends to salivate whenever she comes in contact with a handsome man. So, to reiterate, Incubus and Succubus are exactly the same. They absolutely belong together, but they are too stubborn and vindictive to do anything about it.
Physical Description: Succubus has red skin with incredibly thick and wavy hair that hangs past her butt. Her body is an endless stream of intoxicating curves that drives a man to madness. Succubus is a menacing symbol of sexuality. Her butt is covered by her long hair, and a black leaf covers her genitalia. More of her thick head of hair covers her breasts. If this design is too extreme, she can wear something more conventional while maintaining her seductive elements.
Hidden World (Part 1)
The below is printed here for posterity and as evidence of my ownership of this proposed work of comics fiction:
Hidden World: A Proposed First Story Arc Synopsis
“Hidden World” is a proposed ongoing series for Shot in the Dark Comics. The premise is that beings called “celestials” operate invisibly and (usually) silently throughout the universe and beyond, collectively affecting life across all of space and time. Celestials can come in three varieties. There are celestials that have always existed and helped to shape the universe. The second type of celestial is a being that is a physical manifestation of desire or emotion expressed by living creatures. The celestial who factors most greatly into the plot, Pizarro, is the physical manifestation of positive wishes and desires. The final type of celestial is a being who used to be a living mortal but did not leave the mortal world upon death. Ghosts and demons fall into this third category.
The story begins in the present day city of Grand Hill, as Pizarro puts his finest plan in millennia into action. Normally, celestials of Pizarro’s type are omnipresent and have no need to take a physical form, but Pizarro is so excited by his plan that he decides to enact it in person. He plans to have two 15-year olds, Titania and Dante, meet at the Grand Hill Mall and fall in love. Their romance is supposed to be so spectacular that it becomes a legend recorded in film and all other media, and it will encourage people in the United States and around the world to stop being afraid to pursue love and marriage amidst rampant adultery and divorce. The desires of many people to find true love could be fulfilled potentially from this one successful romance. However, Pizarro accidentally ruins this plan by knocking Titania off the second level railing of the mall, seemingly to her death. In actuality, Titania is only in a coma and will reenter the plot toward the final conclusion of the narrative, but for all intents and purposes, the reader and Pizarro believe Titania is dead.
According to the comically enormous rule book that governs what celestials can and cannot do, Pizarro becomes legally bound to meet Dante and become his friend/sidekick for the remainder of Dante’s natural life span. The rule is set this way so that Pizarro can attempt to make Dante as happy in life as he would have been if he had been able to meet Titania. When Pizarro does meet Dante (in a bathroom in the mall, of all places) and tries to explain his situation, it does not go well, and a miscommunication leads Dante to believe that Pizarro intentionally murdered Titania. When Dante attempts to flee, the celestials fear that Dante will reveal their existence to humans, so the celestial Cutie is dispatched to kill Dante and punish Pizarro. Cutie is a beautiful woman but also an executioner, driven largely by bloodlust, and will not hesitate to kill Dante.
As Pizarro creates an army of exact physical duplicates of himself to slow down Cutie’s death march, the original Pizarro teleports Dante to a deserted island and is finally able to explain the truth to him. Pizarro reveals that his power is nearly infinite, that he can read minds, and that he even knows the secrets of the universe, and all of this can be at Dante’s disposal for his entire life as long as he keeps his mouth shut about the celestials. Dante happily agrees to these conditions, and Cutie leaves Dante in peace.
Just as soon as Dante and Pizarro return to the mall, Pizarro explains that the rule book actually does allow Dante to tell three people about the celestials. These three people will in turn be able to see Pizarro and other celestials, whom would normally appear invisible to living mortals. Dante knows immediately that the first person he will tell is Art, his best friend whom accompanied Dante to the mall before the chaos with Pizarro began.
As they soon discover, Art has problems of his own. He has been marked by Hat Man, a celestial that is the physical manifestation of fear and desolation. “Hat Man” is a phenomenon that has been reported in real life as a three-dimensional, totally black entity with a trench coat and fedora hat that stalks unsuspecting people at night and in their day-to-day lives, and that is exactly how he appears in this story. The script written for and included with this submission ends with the cliffhanger revelation that Hat Man is stalking Art.
Due to Pizarro’s frantic warning of danger, Dante leaves Art at the mall without telling him about the celestials. Likewise, Art does not tell Dante that Art has been stalked by Hat Man for a couple of weeks now and is completely terrified. Art tries to convince himself that Hat Man is only a disturbing figment of his imagination, but as Hat Man starts to invade Art’s dreams and waking life more and more, Art starts to believe Hat Man is real. Hat Man is drawn to Art because Art is both a worrier and unpopular. It is easy for Hat Man to feed on Art’s fear in his dreams to create nightmares in which Dante, Art’s only close friend, is taken away or killed. Art has lived with these dreams silently, afraid to scare Dante or risk their friendship. What Art does not know, however, is that in people as prone as Art to experience pure terror, Hat Man’s stalking can prove fatal.
At school, Dante simultaneously adjusts to having access to Pizarro’s powers while trying to understand what danger has taken hold of Art. Dante goes on a misadventure using mind reading to learn about what really goes on in a girl’s head, since he is far too awkward around girls to get to know them well. Mind reading proves ineffective on Art, however. Pizarro explains that one celestial cannot actively affect a mortal that is already under the dominion of another celestial. Taking matters into his own hands, Dante uses Pizarro’s power to enter Art’s dreams at night. Dante comes to understand that Hat Man’s hold on Art is based on Art’s fear of losing his friendship with Dante.
As much as Dante wants to fight Hat Man, Pizarro explains that Hat Man is immune to all forms of harm. Art must ward off Hat Man himself if he wants to survive. The following day, Dante reassures Art throughout the day that he is the best friend Dante will ever have. Art takes this the wrong way, suspecting that Hat Man is now stalking Dante too. That evening, Dante and Pizarro sneak back into Art’s nightmare to see what will happen. At first, Hat Man continues to control Art’s emotions, and Art is close to death. Then Art thinks about what Dante would do if Dante really was being stalked by Hat Man—Dante would be brave enough to fight for Art. Thus, Art finds the courage to fight Hat Man and expel him from his life. With this crisis resolved, Dante finally is able to reveal the existence of celestials to Art, and Art meets Pizarro. Art is embarrassed when he realizes that Dante knew about his nightmares, but he gets over it quickly. Dante and Art’s friendship is stronger than ever.
Some time very shortly after they celebrate this victory, however, the handsome celestial Incubus looms over the bed of Dante’s beautiful older sister, Melody, lusting over her. Incubus is a celestial of the third type—a demon. For thousands of years, Incubus has come to women at night to have sexual intercourse with them and, in the process, steal a small piece of their life force. Melody is his intended next meal, but in their first encounter, Melody is able to fend off Incubus’s hypnotic power. She does not remember any of this, though.
As Dante selects Melody to be the second person to be able to see celestials, Pizarro once again informs him that Melody has become the dominion of someone else, Incubus in this case. Pizarro suspects that this is not coincidence and that a higher celestial is just giving them a rough time, but it is nothing he can prove. Dante, Art, and Pizarro soon meet Incubus, who turns out to be intelligent and articulate when he is not rabidly demanding sex. They plead with Incubus to leave Melody alone, and Incubus ignores the plea, but he reveals something of interest. Incubus once had a celestial lover thousands of years ago named Succubus. They were faithful to each other and made the most wild, passionate love in all of existence, but then they had an argument. Incubus cannot remember the argument, but ever since then, he has not spoken to Succubus. Since then, they have spent the past several thousand years having sex with every mortal in sight in a spiteful attempt to get revenge on the other person.
Dante and friends resolve to reunite Incubus and Succubus to save the piece of Melody’s life force that is being threatened. Dante and Art ask couples around school how they deal with their arguments, and in the process, they fix one couple who were on the verge of breakup. Armed with a slightly better understanding of relationships, Pizarro takes Dante and Art to Succubus, who gives the same speech that Incubus gave about their relationship. Ultimately, Succubus will not budge; she insists that Incubus apologize to her for the argument that neither one of the can remember.
Pizarro’s solution is to use his power to send himself, Dante, and Art far back in time to the moment of Incubus and Succubus’s argument. As it turns out, Incubus and Succubus were originally from a world far from Earth, before and after they died and became demons. Their argument, however, was about Earth. In the infancy of humanity, Incubus and Succubus had the power to dictate whether human sexuality would be driven by love or lust. Incubus favored love for its social stability; Succubus favored lust for its biological practicality. When they absolutely could not arrive at an agreement, they both exerted their influence over humanity at once, leaving humanity in a deadlock between love and lust. Incubus and Succubus were so outraged at each other afterward that they never spoke, even though they still only ever desired each other. They never left Earth either, so that they could make a spectacle of their escapades to each other.
Dante and Art are unsettled by all of this discussion. This talk only exacerbates Dante’s inability to communicate well with girls, and Art is particularly bothered because he has had a major crush on Melody for years. Before Pizarro can return them to the present, the younger Succubus spots them and attacks in a blind rage, the argument still too fresh in her mind for her to have any sense of reason. Succubus uses her power to charm Pizarro into a state of blithering idiocy, but not before Pizarro can impart some of his power on Dante and Art. The duo battles Succubus as best as they can, but they know they cannot win. They survive just long enough for Succubus’s rage to subside a little, which gives Pizarro time to return to his senses and send himself and the others back to the present.
Dante and friends return to Incubus to remind him of what caused the argument, and Incubus suddenly realizes that he has always tended to seek out women who were unmarried, most likely in accordance with his belief that love should prevail. Still, Incubus says he will not be the first one to apologize, and so Pizarro tricks Incubus and Succubus to arrive at the same spot at the same time. When they arrive, Pizarro demonstrates how well the dichotomy of love and lust has worked out for humanity, citing lust as what begins a relationship and love as what sustains it. Incubus and Succubus are finally persuaded, and they apologize in unison. The two go off to make passionate love for another thousand years, and Dante and friends have succeeded in ending the plight of the pair of demons. Dante proceeds to tell the freed Melody about the celestials, and now she too can see Pizarro.
The theme that runs through this first story arc, in which Dante seeks to introduce Pizarro to Art and Melody (the third person introduced, much later, will be Titania), is the utility of love and friendship in modern society. This story arc asks the characters—why do you value friendship and love? The fact that the main plot lines (the “A-stories”) take place in fantastical places like nightmares and in the past while the supplementary plot lines (the “B-stories”) take place at school serves to ground the story in reality while providing a dynamic and visually interesting reading experience. Hidden World has a premise that is expansive enough to allow for many different kinds of plot lines, ranging from adventures through time and space to the potential romance that might crop up between Art and Melody. Most importantly, though, Hidden World is a series with the ability to draw in readers and keep them reading.
Hidden World: A Proposed First Story Arc Synopsis
“Hidden World” is a proposed ongoing series for Shot in the Dark Comics. The premise is that beings called “celestials” operate invisibly and (usually) silently throughout the universe and beyond, collectively affecting life across all of space and time. Celestials can come in three varieties. There are celestials that have always existed and helped to shape the universe. The second type of celestial is a being that is a physical manifestation of desire or emotion expressed by living creatures. The celestial who factors most greatly into the plot, Pizarro, is the physical manifestation of positive wishes and desires. The final type of celestial is a being who used to be a living mortal but did not leave the mortal world upon death. Ghosts and demons fall into this third category.
The story begins in the present day city of Grand Hill, as Pizarro puts his finest plan in millennia into action. Normally, celestials of Pizarro’s type are omnipresent and have no need to take a physical form, but Pizarro is so excited by his plan that he decides to enact it in person. He plans to have two 15-year olds, Titania and Dante, meet at the Grand Hill Mall and fall in love. Their romance is supposed to be so spectacular that it becomes a legend recorded in film and all other media, and it will encourage people in the United States and around the world to stop being afraid to pursue love and marriage amidst rampant adultery and divorce. The desires of many people to find true love could be fulfilled potentially from this one successful romance. However, Pizarro accidentally ruins this plan by knocking Titania off the second level railing of the mall, seemingly to her death. In actuality, Titania is only in a coma and will reenter the plot toward the final conclusion of the narrative, but for all intents and purposes, the reader and Pizarro believe Titania is dead.
According to the comically enormous rule book that governs what celestials can and cannot do, Pizarro becomes legally bound to meet Dante and become his friend/sidekick for the remainder of Dante’s natural life span. The rule is set this way so that Pizarro can attempt to make Dante as happy in life as he would have been if he had been able to meet Titania. When Pizarro does meet Dante (in a bathroom in the mall, of all places) and tries to explain his situation, it does not go well, and a miscommunication leads Dante to believe that Pizarro intentionally murdered Titania. When Dante attempts to flee, the celestials fear that Dante will reveal their existence to humans, so the celestial Cutie is dispatched to kill Dante and punish Pizarro. Cutie is a beautiful woman but also an executioner, driven largely by bloodlust, and will not hesitate to kill Dante.
As Pizarro creates an army of exact physical duplicates of himself to slow down Cutie’s death march, the original Pizarro teleports Dante to a deserted island and is finally able to explain the truth to him. Pizarro reveals that his power is nearly infinite, that he can read minds, and that he even knows the secrets of the universe, and all of this can be at Dante’s disposal for his entire life as long as he keeps his mouth shut about the celestials. Dante happily agrees to these conditions, and Cutie leaves Dante in peace.
Just as soon as Dante and Pizarro return to the mall, Pizarro explains that the rule book actually does allow Dante to tell three people about the celestials. These three people will in turn be able to see Pizarro and other celestials, whom would normally appear invisible to living mortals. Dante knows immediately that the first person he will tell is Art, his best friend whom accompanied Dante to the mall before the chaos with Pizarro began.
As they soon discover, Art has problems of his own. He has been marked by Hat Man, a celestial that is the physical manifestation of fear and desolation. “Hat Man” is a phenomenon that has been reported in real life as a three-dimensional, totally black entity with a trench coat and fedora hat that stalks unsuspecting people at night and in their day-to-day lives, and that is exactly how he appears in this story. The script written for and included with this submission ends with the cliffhanger revelation that Hat Man is stalking Art.
Due to Pizarro’s frantic warning of danger, Dante leaves Art at the mall without telling him about the celestials. Likewise, Art does not tell Dante that Art has been stalked by Hat Man for a couple of weeks now and is completely terrified. Art tries to convince himself that Hat Man is only a disturbing figment of his imagination, but as Hat Man starts to invade Art’s dreams and waking life more and more, Art starts to believe Hat Man is real. Hat Man is drawn to Art because Art is both a worrier and unpopular. It is easy for Hat Man to feed on Art’s fear in his dreams to create nightmares in which Dante, Art’s only close friend, is taken away or killed. Art has lived with these dreams silently, afraid to scare Dante or risk their friendship. What Art does not know, however, is that in people as prone as Art to experience pure terror, Hat Man’s stalking can prove fatal.
At school, Dante simultaneously adjusts to having access to Pizarro’s powers while trying to understand what danger has taken hold of Art. Dante goes on a misadventure using mind reading to learn about what really goes on in a girl’s head, since he is far too awkward around girls to get to know them well. Mind reading proves ineffective on Art, however. Pizarro explains that one celestial cannot actively affect a mortal that is already under the dominion of another celestial. Taking matters into his own hands, Dante uses Pizarro’s power to enter Art’s dreams at night. Dante comes to understand that Hat Man’s hold on Art is based on Art’s fear of losing his friendship with Dante.
As much as Dante wants to fight Hat Man, Pizarro explains that Hat Man is immune to all forms of harm. Art must ward off Hat Man himself if he wants to survive. The following day, Dante reassures Art throughout the day that he is the best friend Dante will ever have. Art takes this the wrong way, suspecting that Hat Man is now stalking Dante too. That evening, Dante and Pizarro sneak back into Art’s nightmare to see what will happen. At first, Hat Man continues to control Art’s emotions, and Art is close to death. Then Art thinks about what Dante would do if Dante really was being stalked by Hat Man—Dante would be brave enough to fight for Art. Thus, Art finds the courage to fight Hat Man and expel him from his life. With this crisis resolved, Dante finally is able to reveal the existence of celestials to Art, and Art meets Pizarro. Art is embarrassed when he realizes that Dante knew about his nightmares, but he gets over it quickly. Dante and Art’s friendship is stronger than ever.
Some time very shortly after they celebrate this victory, however, the handsome celestial Incubus looms over the bed of Dante’s beautiful older sister, Melody, lusting over her. Incubus is a celestial of the third type—a demon. For thousands of years, Incubus has come to women at night to have sexual intercourse with them and, in the process, steal a small piece of their life force. Melody is his intended next meal, but in their first encounter, Melody is able to fend off Incubus’s hypnotic power. She does not remember any of this, though.
As Dante selects Melody to be the second person to be able to see celestials, Pizarro once again informs him that Melody has become the dominion of someone else, Incubus in this case. Pizarro suspects that this is not coincidence and that a higher celestial is just giving them a rough time, but it is nothing he can prove. Dante, Art, and Pizarro soon meet Incubus, who turns out to be intelligent and articulate when he is not rabidly demanding sex. They plead with Incubus to leave Melody alone, and Incubus ignores the plea, but he reveals something of interest. Incubus once had a celestial lover thousands of years ago named Succubus. They were faithful to each other and made the most wild, passionate love in all of existence, but then they had an argument. Incubus cannot remember the argument, but ever since then, he has not spoken to Succubus. Since then, they have spent the past several thousand years having sex with every mortal in sight in a spiteful attempt to get revenge on the other person.
Dante and friends resolve to reunite Incubus and Succubus to save the piece of Melody’s life force that is being threatened. Dante and Art ask couples around school how they deal with their arguments, and in the process, they fix one couple who were on the verge of breakup. Armed with a slightly better understanding of relationships, Pizarro takes Dante and Art to Succubus, who gives the same speech that Incubus gave about their relationship. Ultimately, Succubus will not budge; she insists that Incubus apologize to her for the argument that neither one of the can remember.
Pizarro’s solution is to use his power to send himself, Dante, and Art far back in time to the moment of Incubus and Succubus’s argument. As it turns out, Incubus and Succubus were originally from a world far from Earth, before and after they died and became demons. Their argument, however, was about Earth. In the infancy of humanity, Incubus and Succubus had the power to dictate whether human sexuality would be driven by love or lust. Incubus favored love for its social stability; Succubus favored lust for its biological practicality. When they absolutely could not arrive at an agreement, they both exerted their influence over humanity at once, leaving humanity in a deadlock between love and lust. Incubus and Succubus were so outraged at each other afterward that they never spoke, even though they still only ever desired each other. They never left Earth either, so that they could make a spectacle of their escapades to each other.
Dante and Art are unsettled by all of this discussion. This talk only exacerbates Dante’s inability to communicate well with girls, and Art is particularly bothered because he has had a major crush on Melody for years. Before Pizarro can return them to the present, the younger Succubus spots them and attacks in a blind rage, the argument still too fresh in her mind for her to have any sense of reason. Succubus uses her power to charm Pizarro into a state of blithering idiocy, but not before Pizarro can impart some of his power on Dante and Art. The duo battles Succubus as best as they can, but they know they cannot win. They survive just long enough for Succubus’s rage to subside a little, which gives Pizarro time to return to his senses and send himself and the others back to the present.
Dante and friends return to Incubus to remind him of what caused the argument, and Incubus suddenly realizes that he has always tended to seek out women who were unmarried, most likely in accordance with his belief that love should prevail. Still, Incubus says he will not be the first one to apologize, and so Pizarro tricks Incubus and Succubus to arrive at the same spot at the same time. When they arrive, Pizarro demonstrates how well the dichotomy of love and lust has worked out for humanity, citing lust as what begins a relationship and love as what sustains it. Incubus and Succubus are finally persuaded, and they apologize in unison. The two go off to make passionate love for another thousand years, and Dante and friends have succeeded in ending the plight of the pair of demons. Dante proceeds to tell the freed Melody about the celestials, and now she too can see Pizarro.
The theme that runs through this first story arc, in which Dante seeks to introduce Pizarro to Art and Melody (the third person introduced, much later, will be Titania), is the utility of love and friendship in modern society. This story arc asks the characters—why do you value friendship and love? The fact that the main plot lines (the “A-stories”) take place in fantastical places like nightmares and in the past while the supplementary plot lines (the “B-stories”) take place at school serves to ground the story in reality while providing a dynamic and visually interesting reading experience. Hidden World has a premise that is expansive enough to allow for many different kinds of plot lines, ranging from adventures through time and space to the potential romance that might crop up between Art and Melody. Most importantly, though, Hidden World is a series with the ability to draw in readers and keep them reading.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Setting the Record Straight
I'm not pretentious or famous enough to warrant having a blog (yet), so it is unlikely you will be reading about my thoughts on dental floss or Israeli martial arts in this place. Rather, I intend to treat this place like the mailman. See, in the old days (and maybe still today), if you were a musician, you would record your music, get it on something physical like a cassette tape or a CD, and mail it to yourself. If the endeavor was undergone successfully, you could then show this sealed, postmarked item to others and beam with pride as you declare, "This is my intellectual property!" In other words, yeah, it was the cheap way to claim a copyright on something.
This blog is my cheap way to claim a copyright on something--more specifically, to claim a copyright on all of my writings. A blog seems to be the most swift and convenient way to say, "I am the writer of the things of which I have written." You would think this would be a common sense thing, but copyright law is kinda quirky, so I think it is best to protect myself.
I don't want to let you guys down though. "The Full Spectrum" is no misnomer. Heck no! Every piece of fiction writing I set down here will fulfill the titular promise beyond any shadow of a doubt, so stay tuned, and enjoy yourself. Heck, even better, find something you like and publish it! But please, seek my permission before ever placing any of my written works on display anywhere other than this blog. Thanks for stopping by, guys.
This blog is my cheap way to claim a copyright on something--more specifically, to claim a copyright on all of my writings. A blog seems to be the most swift and convenient way to say, "I am the writer of the things of which I have written." You would think this would be a common sense thing, but copyright law is kinda quirky, so I think it is best to protect myself.
I don't want to let you guys down though. "The Full Spectrum" is no misnomer. Heck no! Every piece of fiction writing I set down here will fulfill the titular promise beyond any shadow of a doubt, so stay tuned, and enjoy yourself. Heck, even better, find something you like and publish it! But please, seek my permission before ever placing any of my written works on display anywhere other than this blog. Thanks for stopping by, guys.
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