I don't think anyone should be surprised when I say that I imagine this page being drawn by Francis Manapul. At this point, I don't want anyone else to draw the Flash ever again. His work is too beautiful and too perfect. In my mind, his style is exactly how the Scarlet Speedster should look. But enough about my crush on Manapul. Here's a script for your reading pleasure.
Three rows of panels. Row 1 has three panels of equal size. Row 2 has two panels. Panle four is the size of two panels. Panel five is the size of a single panel. The third row is a single panel.
1 – A close-up of a handwritten “To Do” list. It's really full – excessively full. The reader can't even see all the items on the list it's so long. It's titled “TO DO – TODAY!!!” and “today” is underlined three times. Items on the list include Silence the Shade, Repel the Rogues, Put a stop to Grodd, Date with Iris, Close five cases, Get dry-cleaning, Finish that book, and so forth. The first item is crossed off. If desired, you could have some of the Flash's gloved fingers on-panel, holding the list.
CAPTION (BARRY): “Not enough hours in the day.”
BARRY (off-panel): Okay, Barry. You can do this.
CAPTION (BARRY): It's a truism we all face, but as the Fastest Man Alive, I discovered that I have a bit more wiggle room than most.
2 – The Flash running towards the lefthand side of the panel (to denote he's going backwards in time). Have a whackload of speed-lines here, some lightning bolts emanating from his person, and some “shadow” Flashes to show how quickly the Flash is going.
CAPTION (BARRY): It's pretty crazy when you realize for the first time that you can literally run back in time.
3 – The same close-up of the “To Do” list. The first two items are crossed off.
CAPTION (BARRY): That's something that comes in handy pretty often.
BARRY (off-panel): *sigh* This is going to take a while.
4 – Another panel of the Flash running back in time. Same idea as panel two, but this time, there are lots and lots of Flashes. Like, way too many. They are all generally going towards the lefthand side of the page, but their routes, positions, and closesness to the “camera” on the page are all different. There's enough of them that it's getting pretty chaotic. Additionally, show the Flash running harder and harder, exhausting himself with the effort.
CAPTION (BARRY): And while I realized that I was depending on it more and more.
5 – Switch angles to show Barry (still in Flash costume) standing in a nondescript room, next to one of the walls. Visibly drained, he's looking down at his “To Do” list, which is now clearly all crossed off.
CAPTION (BARRY): I had no idea to what extent I relied on it to fit everything in.
BARRY: There. All done.
(off-panel): Barry...
6 – Switch angle. We see that the room is full of dozens of Flashes, all of them holding their own “To Do” lists.
BARRYS: I think we have a problem
The exponential problems of time travel, damn interesting. The page feels a bit full in the setting up of this, and the final panel really feels like it should be it's own splash. The issue becomes, would you have fit everything you needed into here if you did it that way...I think, yes. We can set up our page to a degree, just say Flash has been using his time travel speed skills to get more things done.
ReplyDeleteThe page does feel a bit 'heavy' in terms of what it's trying to say but I still think it works. Especially that final panel.
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