Doctor Crowe – LEATHER APRON – Derek Adnams

Page 1 – (6 Panels)

1.1:  Interior, night, a pitch-black Victorian era house.  Doctor Crowe is walking through an open door, the misty night behind him lit by a lone gas light.  He is holding what appears to be a “Genie’s Lamp”, a mystical device he is using to light his way.  The hand not holding the lamp is closing the door behind him.

Caption:  The Whitechapel District of London, 1888.

Doctor Crowe (caption):  I took on this case secretly, with no companion, protégé or accomplice.

Doctor Crowe (caption):  There was a compulsion to complete this mission alone, though Nora has been with me for so much and seen more than anyone before her.

1.2:  Doctor Crowe walking through a hall, the lamp he is holding casting shadows and vaguely illuminating what appear to be slabs of meat hanging from hooks chained to the ceiling, like he’s in a huge meat locker.  Nothing is explicit, but there is a feeling of subdued dread.

Doctor Crowe (caption):  Still, I feel the need to shield her from some horrors.

Ripper (from off panel):  Croooowe . . .

1.3:  Doctor Crowe turning around quickly, the light from his lantern glinting off of a knife in the darkness.

Ripper (from the darkness):  I feel honored and disappointed simultaneously.

Ripper (from darkness):  Honored that I am monster enough to garner your attention . . .

1.4:  The Ripper turning up a lantern on a desk, revealing that the “slabs of meat” from Panel 1.2 are really dismembered torsos, legs and arms!  The Ripper, however, is clad in Victorian finery, top hat and tails, white gloves and pocket-watch.  Immaculate.

Ripper:  . . . yet disgusted with myself for not better concealing my identity. 

Ripper:  Had I anticipated your involvement, well, I would have taken better precautions.

1.5:  The Ripper, knife drawn, approaching Doctor Crowe, who has his crossbow out and is about to fire.  Doctor Crowe is dropping the “Genie’s Lamp”, the falling light source casting a huge shadow of the scene on the wall behind the two principal figures.  In the foreground is the desk with the lantern on it from Panel 1.4, and there is a piece of paper with some writing sitting near the lantern.

Ripper:  But no bother, I have my Disciples who will carry on my good work for all of time!

Doctor Crowe (caption):  I think of Nora.

1.6:  The shadow behind the desk and we can clearly see Doctor Crowe pointing the now empty crossbow at The Ripper, the arrow from the crossbow jutting from The Ripper’s throat, blood spurting from the wound.  In the foreground still are the desk and the piece of paper, now splattered with blood.  The only words written that we can see are, in lavish handwritten font - “From Hell”!

Doctor Crowe (caption):  The rest is easy.