Monday, July 6, 2015

24:00:01 - Fear Fear Itself - P.A. Nolte

1/ An elderly man in a dusty, old recliner sits in front of his rabbit-eared television. Whether this is period, or the man is just THAT hard-up is uncertain. He turns the TV on.

SFX: click

2/ The screen shows a car wreck. A nasty affair on a modern thoroughfare with seven or eight vehicles in a nasty pile of twisted metal, dripping fluids, and just extinguished flames. 

TV: --on 435 this morning. Three people were hospitalized. No word yet on the cause of the accident, but local police-- 

Man (OP): No. 

SFX: click 

3/ The screen flickers to show a reporter in a war-torn country. The buildings behind are hollow shells. The locals no longer rush to be on camera. These people can't/won't do anything to really help them, and they know it. 

Reporter: --seen interference in the city's pro-democracy protests from outside forces and called on international journalists to report-- 

Man (OP): No. 

SFX: click 

4/ We look again at the man. Closer, this time, but mostly unchanged. The light from the TV bathes him in eerie light. 

TV (OP):  --it always knows the flavor of fruit, wherever it grows! Now with--

5/ The man looks to his right. On the table beside him is a small, framed photograph of a woman. Behind that, the door, but it's not the focus. 

6/ This time, it is, and the photo and the table are eclipsed by how imposing an ordinary front door can be. 

7/ The man returns his attention to the TV. 

SFX: click

TV (OP): --stabbed in the leg near Rivermonte Cemetary and South Avenue. Suspects fled, and police were forced to erect a perimeter in an effort to--

3 comments:

  1. Neat done-in-one that really plays with mood really well. Don't know which is more terrifying, the outside world, or the one this guy has made for himself. Cool page...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love how much you manage to say with so little dialogue. The TV captions add up to a haunting world that is put into stark focus in panels 5 and 6. Morose as heck, but I really dig it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I loved this one. It reminds me of scenes with "The Entertainment" from David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. This page really helped me figure out what to do with this prompt. It was a challenging prompt, Grant, and I had fun thinking outside of the box.

    ReplyDelete

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