To fully appreciate this story, a certain knowledge of the cultural history of the United Kingdom is required. Being a tiny backwater little nation whose best years are about three centuries behind us, I’m never entirely sure how much the rest of the world knows – or cares – about out folklore. Anyone who’s read or watched V For Vendetta will know what I’m talking about, but if you’ve never heard of Guy Fawkes and The Gunpowder plot, you might want to click here for an intro. That’s all the help I’m giving you.
Panel One.
Splash page. A huge explosion fills the entire page. Perhaps it’s made up of many mini-explosions, like fireworks on the 4th of July (or November 5th for those of you who’ve clicked that link). An enormous sound effect crashes across the page too – I’m thinking John Workman lettering Walt Simonson.
SFX: KRAK-A-BANG-BOOM-BZANG!
CAPTION: WHAT IF JUBILEE AND BOOM-BOOM WERE SENT BACK IN TIME BY KANG THE CONQUEROR TO NOVEMBER 5th, 1605... TO DO BATTLE WITH NITRO, THE EXPLODING MAN AND BLASTARR, THE LIVING BOMB-BURST IN THE CELLARS BENEATH THE UK HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT?
Panel Two.
Inset over the bottom right corner of the explosion. Present day UK. A small girl in a duffel coat pushes a life-sized rag-doll effigy of Jubilee down a suburban street in a wheelbarrow.
CAPTION: FOUR HUNDRED YEARS LATER…
GIRL: Penny for the Jubilee, Penny for the Jubilee…
Oh Rol you clever fellow, british history, Boom Boom AND Jubilee all combined into one page? Just... Well done. Well bloody done.
ReplyDeleteThough this immediately becomes a thought balloons script rather than a out and out script when you reference the link you had at the top. although if you sending this to an artist or editor i suppose you'd do the same thing... Disregard what I just said, it's unimportant
I don't get the "Penny for the Jubilee" line :-/
ReplyDeleteBritish children build ragdoll effigies of Guy Fawkes (the actual culprit / scapegoat of the original Gunpowder Plot) and push them round near November 5th scrounging for money by calling out "Penny for the Guy!"
ReplyDeleteWhich only goes to prove that the idea doesn't travel well! ;-)
Ha, what a simple one page, perfect for Strange Tales - Marvel should jump on this one. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteI figure each week, Rol, you just list the major defining elements of the character and then work from there. Fireworks is cerainly used well here.
I think that works two ways, Ryan. When it's a character I like and know well, I have this desire to capture all the elements I love about that character in my 1-pager. When it's a character I'm not that familiar with, I just pick on one of the basic elements (as here) and try to build a scenario around it. As mentioned in other comments this week, I rejected ideas based on Jubilee's mallrat personality and complicated history (fortunately those elements were dealt with far better by others) and went for a story about fireworks instead.
ReplyDeletePlus, I figured if I managed a two-panel strip this week, people might forgive my 9-panel talkathon when it came to Constantine!