Panel One.
Night time. A haggard-looking, middle-aged man sits across the table from us in a diner. He's Jerry, and he's telling his shameful story. He looks like a man on the verge of a breakdown, running shaky fingers through his thinning hairline, unable to make eye contact with us. We can’t yet see what's on the table in front of him.
JERRY: Fourteen years – what is that, the seven year itch times two? But me and Sooze, we just weren’t connecting any more, you know?
JERRY: I can’t remember the last time we went out on a date or even sat and watched a DVD together… and as for sex…
JERRY: I’m not making excuses. I know it was wrong. I knew it every second I was with Kelly… but she made me feel good again. Even when I was feeling bad about going behind Sooze’s back, I still felt better… more alive that I had in years.
Panel Two.
Wider angle so we can see the table now. Jerry’s coffee sits untouched. He pushes a gun towards us. He’s looking at us now, imploring us…
JERRY: I bought this gun to make amends. Not to protect myself from Sooze – she’s past trying to hurt me. That one time she did, she’d just found out about the affair… she wasn’t thinking straight.
JERRY: If that little kid hadn’t got in the way, I’d have got what was coming to me right then and there. But he did. And now we both have to live with the consequences.
Panel Three.
Now we see the diner table from side on. Jerry pushes the gun towards the man sitting across from him: Frank Castle, the Punisher. We can just make out his skull shirt peeping out from under his trenchcoat. He’s frowning: stock Frank Castle expression #1. He reaches to take the gun.
JERRY: But I can’t do it. I just… I don’t have the strength. That’s why I came to you.
Panel Four.
Close on the Punisher. He stares at Jerry’s gun in his hand.
FRANK: You did the right thing.
Panel Five.
Castle stands up and steps out of the booth, away from Jerry, slipping the gun into his belt as he goes. Jerry calls after him, shocked.
JERRY: What… wait… where are you going? You can’t just…
Panel Six.
Close on Jerry, distraught, in the doorway of the diner now, calling after the Punisher.
JERRY: You… You’re the Punisher…
JERRY: Punish me!
Panel Seven.
The Punisher walks away, leaving Jerry behind him in the diner doorway, a broken man.
FRANK: I am.
Wow, I really liked this one! Make that guy suffer!! haha
ReplyDeleteHaha, talk about cruel and unusual punishment. Well done!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. That's all I got. Awesome work ROl.
ReplyDeleteDamn, that's very well done, Rol. A nice turn of the phrase, in a way, and some very neat justice from Castle. Nicely worked into just one page, not a panel watsed but nothing feels crammed either.
ReplyDeleteSuperb stuff again, Rol. I'm so used to Castle punishing guys with the squeeze of a trigger, it's nice to see he's capable of alternate forms of torture.
ReplyDelete