X-Files - Where’s The Truth? Where is it? - Jonathan Morel

Panel 1 - The first panel should take about a fifth of the top page. A foggy night, but not cloudy, with a few trees. Rural type background. A car (rental) is pulling up in front of a gate (the shot should be from whatever/whoever is behind the gate, with the gate itself between the reader and the car). The headlights from the car should show that it’s raining, in typical “Vancouver” fashion. The text box should be in the upper right or left corner.

1 - CAPTION (MULDER): I don’t know what I am doing here…

Panel 2 - A man (Mulder, circa season 5) in a 90s style suit and trench coat comes out, his flashlight already on. He is standing behind the car door as he is exiting the vehicle. He is looking in the direction of the reader (camera). The gate is once again between the reader and the car. Text box.

2 - CAPTION (MULDER): I find myself on the trail of another urban legend, one that must lead to the unknown truths spoken only by the shady underbelly of society. Or so my anonymous source tells me…

Panel 3 - The classic X-files office. Pencils are stuck on the ceiling, the “I want to believe” poster prominent in the shot. Mulder dressed exactly the same, is standing near the door (at the right of the shit), about to leave. A woman (Scully) is sitting at her (very 90s) computer, wearing her glasses, and a very shoulder-paddy dark red suit.

Textbox: “Then…”

3 - SCULLY: Mulder, where are you going?

4 - MULDER: There is an X-File here, Scully. Too many unexplained phenomena.

Panel 4 - Close up of Mulder’s face, still in the office.

5 - MULDER: Men…violent men, organized crime bosses, street thugs, all hospitalized across this city, refusing to tell the authorities what’s happened to them. The legends of…

Panel 5 - Scully, still at her computer, is removing her glasses, looking annoyed.

6 - SCULLY: You’ve read too many comic books, Mulder. There is a perfectly good explanation for it, police brutality being the first one. If you simply asked Skinner for the FBI’s reports on…

Panel 6 - Mulder is no longer in the office, the door is ajar. Scully remains seated, her hand on her forehead, like a mother who can no longer deal with her child. Annoyed despair, really.

7 - MULDER: Do not fight me on this Scully. There isn’t anything to debunk here, only the truth. There is something there!

Panel 7 - Mulder is back outside the car, his head bowed, his flashlight aiming at the ground, dejected.

8 - CAPTION (MULDER): There is nothing here. Perhaps she’s right. Some things are just stories. Myths. Legends.

Panel 8 - Bottom right corner. Mulder is back in the driver’s seat, speeding away from the gate. The camera is flipped so we can see what’s behind the gate: what appears to be a gothic style mansion, or institution. The entrance to the gate can be seen, with a sign (or as part of the gate) that is partially seen to the reader reads: “ARKH”, before being cut off by the panel.

Behind the building, in the cloudy sky, is the Bat-Signal.

9 - CAPTION (MULDER): Besides, this place is spooky.