Friday, April 30, 2010

Eureka!

A solution, of sorts, has presented itself. Watch this space for something resembling comics in May.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Year in Review?

I have found this month to be somewhat frustrating. This blog was started a year ago, and I felt the need to post a summary or review of the year. I couldn't do it. It just all seemed depressing.

A year ago people were drawing some of the stuff I had written. As the year progressed there was more interest, more artists, more excitement.

Then nothing.

A year in to this attempt to get back into comics and things seem to be going backwards. No-one is drawing anything. I'm still writing, but to what end?

I attended an event recently where there was a mock debate about what was more important in a comic; the art of the writing. I'm in no doubt as to the answer.

A comic drawn without concern for the writing is still a comic. No matter how bad the plot, story, characters etc., it's still a comic.

A script is not a comic unless it is drawn.

This had made me conclude that I am not currently a comic book writer, as nothing is being drawn.

So what to do? I could learn to draw? It seems a little late in life to start now, but I'm desperate enough to consider it. I'll start out small. If I ever produce something worth viewing I'll post it.

The last time I tried to draw a comic it was in 'competition' with a class of 12-year olds (I'd gone to talk about comics). Mine was voted worse in class. It was a fair cop.

I could write prose? The writing that doesn't require artwork. Except I do not enjoy that as much. I still have a bunch of prose stories I want to convert to comic scripts, as I think they will be improved by the transition.

I could give up? Nah. Too stubborn for that.

I could soldier on? Atten-shun!

Starting next month, some more comic scripts will be posted ...

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Caught a bug

It's been a year since I started this blog, and this has been the worst month for posts. It may have had something to do with it being my girl's first school holidays. Just a little. She's so enjoying school. It's contagious.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Script: AFTER, story seven

I've been busy writing lately, it's just not stuff I could blog. It was a submission for a comic anthology that is using the theme 'Eden Can Be Seen Through Barbed Wire'. I've sent the story off, and if it doesn't make it I'll post it some time in the future.

The theme inspired me to write a seventh AFTER script. Here it is.

AFTER story seven
Eden can be seen through barbed wire



Page ONE

1/1
Large Title frame to start with, to set the scene.
Night. A church, boarded up, fenced off, barbed wire at the top of the fence.
Two young adults approach the fence. One male, One female. The female is Connie from previous episodes. Let's call the boy Ian.
AFTER story seven
Eden can be seen through barbed wire

by David Tulloch and (your name here)

1/2
The two of them looking at the church through the fence.
Ian: "You used to come here?"

1/3
Connie: "Every Sunday. Seems like a lifetime ago."
Ian: "Yeah. I know what you mean."


Page TWO

2/1
Ian climbing up the fence, throwing his jacket over the top the fence so the barbed wire at the top is covered.
Ian: "At least they were too cheap to spring for razor wire."

2/2
They climb over the fence ...

2/3
They walk toward the church, toward a side or back door.

2/4
Ian pulls open the door ...

2/5
... and they go inside.


Page THREE


3/1
Inside the church. A nice big panel of them walking around in the poorly lit interior of the church.

3/2
Connie sits down on one of the pews.

3/3
Ian stands nearby.
Ian: "You okay, Connie?"
Connie: "Yeah. I'm fine."


Page FOUR


4/1
Ian: "You just seem ... distant."
Connie: "Yeah. I guess my head's elsewhere."

4/2
Ian: "You miss them? This?"
Connie: "Huh? Oh ... I guess."

4/3
Connie: "Well, no. Not really."

4/4
Connie: "I just don't get it."

4/5
Connie: "Why he was taken and not me?"
Ian: "Who?"

4/6
Connie: "My dad."


Page FIVE
A page of Connie talking in small panels. The lighting should be dark to contrast with the words of the ninth panel.

5/1
Connie: "He was born again. Right here in this church."

5/2
Connie: "So he gets taken with all the others."

5/3
Connie: "I get left here."

5/4
Connie: "The things is ... "

5/5
Connie: "The thing is I did believe once. Before."

5/6
Connie: "He made me stop believing."

5/7
Connie: "He was the one who made sure I'd stay behind."

5/8
Connie: "He saw the light."

5/9
Connie: "Everything was bright for him."


Page SIX

6/1
Ian leans in to kiss Connie.

6/2
Connie jumps up, startled and uncomfortable.
Connie: "What are you doing?"
Ian: "Sorry ... I just thought."

6/3
Connie is angry.
Connie: "Don't you get it?"

6/4
She runs off ...

6/5
Ian follows ...

6/6
... and he watches her through the barbed wire, as she has already climbed over.
Ian: "No. I guess I don't."

END

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Script: Plenty More Fish in the Sea (3 of 3)

Concluded from last post ...

PAGE TWENTY-ONE

21/1
[ The next day ... ]
At the breakfast table.
Steve: “Have you ever tried a threesome?”
Laura: “Oh, for christsake!”

21/2
Steve: “I’m just asking.”
Laura; “And I’ve asked you to stop talking on the subject.”

21/3
Steve: "It’s not like I want the normal male threesome fantasy. This would be something for you.”

21/4
Laura: “I don’t want it!”

21/5
Steve: "But It would be just like having two of me. Wouldn’t that be great?”



PAGE TWENTY-TWO

22/1
Steve: “In fact, why not three, or four, or more of us?"

22/2
Laura getting angry.
Laura: "Grrrr!"

22/3
Large panel.
Laura: “I don’t want any filthy ‘roaches looking at me! I don’t want them touching me, or even living in the same apartment building with me. I don’t like ‘roaches!”

22/4
Silent frame, Laura and Steve both still, and a little stunned.

22/5
Steve: “So that’s how it is then.... I’m filthy?”


PAGE TWENTY-THREE
23/1
Laura: “No, no. Sorry. Not you … just your friends.”

23/2
Steve: “This works the other way you know. You humans aren't as clean as you like to think”

23/3
Laura: “I don’t think of YOU as filthy, Steve. Honest.”
Steve: “No. Just my entire species!”

23/4
Laura: “It was just a phrase.”
Steve: “What, like the phrase 'frigid bitch'?”


PAGE TWENTY-FOUR
24/1
One page of Laura losing it and swatting Steve with a magazine.
Laura: "DON"T CALL ME THAT!!!!"
(SPLAT)


PAGE TWENTY-FIVE
Lots of small panels on this page. 3x3 or some other format.

25/1
Laura holding still, the magazine in place, not wanting to look under it.

25/2
Slowly lifting the magazine ...

25/3
... and peeking under it.

25/4
Laura running to the kitchen sink...

25/5
... and throwing up in it.

25/6
Laura slumped on the floor near the sink, crying. Head in hands.

25/7
Similar to 6.

25/8
Looking over at the table where she killed Steve

25/9
Back to crying.


PAGE TWENTY-SIX

26/1
[ Laura cleaned the table top eleven times ... ]
Laura scrubbing the table with steel wool and a bottle of industrial strength cleaner. There is an obvious patch on the table that is now so clean it is a different colour from the rest of the table.

26/2
[ ... and stayed inside for three days eating ice cream, sobbing, and watching trash tv. ]
Laura sitting on a couch watching tv while eating ice cream, with a packet of tissues close by, and lots of used tissues everywhere.

26/3
[ Like so many of her relationships the end had come suddenly and unexpected. ]
Lying on the same couch thinking.
[ She wondered if Steve's friends would seek revenge... ]

26/4
[... so she started carrying a can of heavy-duty bug spray with her. ]
Make sure there's always a can of bug spray near her in all the remaining panels.

26/5
[ But she never saw any cockroaches. ]

26/6
[ Not one. ]


PAGE TWENTY-SEVEN

27/1
[ Her mother rang, asking her if she wanted to come over for Sunday dinner. ]
Laura on the phone. From the phone comes a speech bubble.
Phone: “What’s wrong, dear?”

27/2
[ Laura confessed to relationship troubles. ]
Phone: “Plenty more fish in the sea.”
[ Her mother always said that. ]

27/3
Laura reading a magazine, but looking away from the page, thinking.
[ But then again ... ]

27/4
[ Laura hadn't seen a single bug since ... the breakup. But she knew they had to be there. ]
Laura holding a can of bug spray, walking determinedly to the kitchen.

27/5
[ Hiding. ]
Wider panel. Laura in the kitchen, looking around.


PAGE TWENTY-EIGHT


28/1
[ Steve hadn't been so bad. ]
Laura shaking the can.

28/2
[ He'd just been a little fixated. ]
Laura crouching down on the kitchen floor.

28/3
[ In many ways he'd been the ideal boyfriend... ]
Wide panel showing the view from under the fridge out into the kitchen, where Laura is on her hands a knees looking, the spray can in her hand.
[ ... the problem had been that she'd lost the initiative in the relationship. ]

28/4
[Just like that book Steve had slept under said ... one type of flower should always be the centerpiece of an arrangement, or a relationship. ]
The book that Steve had slept under, reprised.

28/5
[ She just had be the main flower. ]
Laura on the kitchen floor, shaking the can again.
Laura: "I know you are all out there... "

28/6
Laura: " ... and I'm guessing you can hear me ... understand me."


PAGE TWENTY-NINE

29/1
"You all know what I have to offer ... "

29/2
"... and you all know what I'm capable of."

29/3
Large panel to finish showing Laura with a somewhat evil smile, pointing the can at the gap under the fridge.
"Well have I got the deal of a lifetime for one, and only one, of you!"

###END###


There you go. A love story (of sorts) between a woman and a cockroach. It's a script without a home, like so many others on this blog. So if there's an artist out there who's interested, drop me a line.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Script: Plenty More Fish in the Sea (2 of 3)

Continued from the previous post ...

PAGE ELEVEN
Montage page of them on various dates. The symphony, a movie, an art gallery, and at a restaurant.
[Steve was a great date.]
[Laura never had to pay for him, because he just hid in her pocket or collar.]
[At meals he only ate a few morsels.]
[They had similar tastes in music, films, art and food.]
[And he was the perfect gentleman.]


PAGE TWELVE
12/1
[And even though Steve never paid ... he did have ways to save Laura money.]
Steve and Laura at a fancy restaurant. Steve peering out of her collar.
Steve: "Nineteen ninety-five for lemon and watercress soup ... watercress is a weed!"
Laura: "I like it."

12/2
Steve: "So do I, so do I ... but you shouldn't have to pay that much for it."

12/3 Steve leaps through the air ...

12/4 ... does a somersault ...

12/5 ... and lands with a splash in the soup.

12/6
Laura; Are you okay?
Steve: "I'm fine,. Now call the waiter over."

12/7
Laura: "Um, waiter. Waiter. Waiter!!! There's a bug in my soup."


PAGE THIRTEEN
13/1
[ A coupe of dates later Steve finally made his big move.]

[ He’d got his feelers on opera tickets. Carmen, which was Laura’s second favorite. And he arranged a meal. ]

13/2
[ He didn’t cook at all – “Never bothered to learn” – but he could order takeaways if there was a push button phone. ]

13/3
[ He got a few hundred friends to help him, and when Laura arrived home from work she stepped into a candlelit wonderland ... ]
Flowers, chilled bottle of champagne, table set and waiting.


PAGE FOURTEEN
14/1
[ Dinner arrived at the door before she could catch her breath. Thai. ]

14/2
[ The money for it was taped to the door in an envelope. Steve wasn’t leaving anything to chance...]

Rest of the page is a wordless series of panels of the eating, drinking, etc. that lead to their first kiss.


PAGE FIFTEEN
15/1
Laura and Steve lying in bed, in post-coital bliss. Tricky to do, but don't show anything.
Laura: "Wow!"

15/2
Laura: "How did you do all that?"
Steve: "I may be small, but I know what Im doing."

15/3
Laura: "He he ... No, silly. I meant the dinner, the flowers, all that."

15/4
Steve: "Some friends helped."
Laura: "Friends?"

15/5
Laura looking shocked
"Yeah. Other cockroaches."

15/6
Laura pulling the covers all the way up over her so only her eyes and top of her head are showing.
[Other cockroaches!?]


PAGE SIXTEEN
16/1
[Steve moved in.]
Laura's bedroom, which has a large bed with a bookcase built in as a headboard, so there are books above and behind the pillow area of the bed.

16/2
[He'd lived close by anyway, ... under the fridge.]
[But now it was more official. A spot under a book on a shelf above Laura's bed.]
a little nest in the bookshelf Laura had above her bed, under a book called Flower-Arranging Your Soul.

16/3
[Life was pretty good...]
Happy Laura and Steve.

16/4
[But it could always be better.]
Steve: “Mind if I have some friends ‘round occassionally?”

16/5
Laura: “No, of course not,”
[ ...she said without thinking. ]

16/6
[ She woke up three hours later from a panicked dream about being lost in the mall as a child, calling frantic and hopeless for her mother, while crowds of shoppers looked on with scorn.]
Laura waking up with a start.


PAGE SEVENTEEN
17/1
Laura sitting up in bed, tousled blankets, cold sweat.
Laura: "Wow, that was a weird and horrible dream."

17/2
Laura looking at the bookcase nest where Steve sleeps.
Laura: "You there, Steve?"

17/3
Laura lifting up the book he lives under.
Laura: "Steve?"

17/4
Large panel. Under the book are four cockroaches (one of them Steve, but don't worry if they all look the same). They all 'look' surprised. Laura is also surprised, but angry.
Laura: "What the ... ?"


PAGE EIGHTEEN
18/1
Laura talking to Steve. Steve on a table or counter. Laura talking down at him
Laura: "What the hell were they doing in my bedroom?”
Steve: “Just looking.”

18/2
Laura: “At what!”
Steve: “At my nest, ... just at my nest.”

18/3
Laura with folded arms.
Steve: "You really know how to break up a party.... You gave them quite a scare.”

18/4
Laura: “They were looking at me.”
Steve: “No, not at all.”

18/5
Laura “Don’t lie to me, Steve.”
Steve: “Well, maybe DeShaun had a bit of a look."

18/6
Steve: “It won’t happen again."
[Of course it did.]


PAGE NINETEEN
19/1
[ At first Steve tried to refuse the requests a of his fellow ‘roaches. But when the bribes started to come in he caved. ]
A cockroach giving Steve something nice, food or something.

19/2
[Steve knew it was wrong. He knew it could only lead to trouble. But all his lives he had been searching for respect. ]
Steve with admiring fellow roaches.

19/3
[ Now he had it all ... he wanted more. ]
Steve and Laura.
Steve: “I wish I was bigger.”

19/4
Laura: “You’re like every guy I’ve ever been with. Worried about your size.”
Steve: “Well, I have a right to be.”


PAGE TWENTY
20/1
Laura; "You have absolutely nothing to worry about. I’ve never been so satisfied.”
Steve: “Thanks, but…”

20/2
Steve: “... It’s just that I can’t be in two places at once."
Laura: “So?”

20/3
Steve:“It means I can’t do all the things I want to do to … to do with you when we are, you know, … doing … stuff.”

20/4
Laura: “Are you blushing?”
Steve: “If it was possible I would be.”

20/5
Laura; “It really doesn’t bother me.”
Steve: “But it could be so much better."

20/6
Steve: “If only there was more than one of me.”
[ That night Laura had a headache. ]


to be concluded next post ...

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Script: Plenty More Fish in the Sea (1 of 3)

The next three posts will be a comic book script about a romance between a woman and a cockroach. It's not as bad as it sounds. Promise.

Again, this script has no home, so if there's anyone out there interested in it please drop me a line.


PLENTY MORE FISH IN THE SEA
by David Tulloch

This is a love story, of sorts, between a woman and a cockroach. Having said that, nothing is shown, but plenty is implied. Really it is a story about how some people are never happy with what they have, but always want to go beyond their current situation.

Some pages have suggested layouts, but feel free to be inventive. It is twenty-nine pages, but could be condensed or expanded a couple either way. Possibly add a splash page to start with and it's a nice 30 pages, which seems about right.


PAGE ONE
1/1
A cockroach on a kitchen counter.

1/2
A cockroach about to be hit by a rolled up magazine, just missing.

1/3
Large panel. A woman, Laura, about to have another swing at the cockroach. The cockroach, whose name is Steve, speaks ...
Steve: "Don't kill me!"
TITLES


PAGE TWO

2/1
The woman, cocking her head to one side in puzzlement
Laura: Um ... did you just speak?

2/2
Cockroach
Steve: "Yes. I'd be very grateful if you didn't squash me."

2/3
Laura and the cockroach
Laura: "You're very polite for a cockroach."

2/4
Laura and the cockroach
Steve: "My mother always said politeness costs you nothing."
Laura: "Your mother?"

2/4
Laura and the cockroach
Steve: "Sure, everyone has a mother."
Laura: "I guess."

2/5
Steve: "Thanks for not squashing me."
Laura: "Yeah ... sorry about trying."

2/6
Steve: "Maybe I could take you out for coffee, to thank you properly?"


PAGE THREE
3/1
Laura: "Are you asking me out?"
Steve: "Sure, why not?"

3/2
Laura: "Because you're a cockroach!"
Steve: "You've dated worse."

3/3
Silent panel of Laura thinking about that last statement and deciding maybe it's true.

3/4
Laura and Steve.
Laura: "You don't smoke, do you?"
Steve: "Never have."

3/5
Laura: "Okay then, let's have coffee sometime."
Steve: "Great! My name's Steve."

3/6
Laura holding out her hand, but looking a little puzzled as to what to do, Steve holding out a feeler.
Laura: "Um, Laura. I'm Laura."


PAGE FOUR
4/1
[ Steve waited a couple of days. He didn't want to seem too eager.]
Large panel showing Laura's kitchen, Laura doing the dishes. Steve coming out from under the fridge.
Steve: "So would you like that coffee?"

4/2
Laura shrieking, dropping a plate.
Laura: Eeeeeep!

4/3
The plate smashing, Steve fleeing back under the fridge.

4/4
Laura: "Oh, it was you. You scared the life out of me."

4/5
Laura looking under the fridge ... which is a view that reoccurs later in the story.
Laura: "You can come out. Just don't sneak up on me like that."

4/6
Steve peeking back out.
Steve: "Sorry, but it's not like I can knock."


PAGE FIVE
5/1
Steve: "Um ... I don't s'pose you want that coffee then?"

5/2
Laura: "Well,... it is late."
Steve: "Really? Seems early to me."

5/3
Laura: "Oh. I guess your a bit of a night owl."
Steve: "Yeah."

5/4 Laura thinking, looking a Steve.
Laura: "Oh, what the hell. It's Saturday tomorrow, I can sleep in. Let's get that coffee."

5/5
One happy cockroach.
Steve: "Great!"


PAGE SIX
6/1
Laura: "Um, so how do we do this? Do I follow you?"
Steve: "You'd have to tread very carefully."

6/2
Laura: "You could ride on my shoulder."
Steve: "Really!?!"

6/3
Laura: "Just make sure you stay on my shirt."

6/4
Steve: "Don't worry. I won't get fresh on a first date."


PAGE SEVEN
7/1
Laura: "So where are we going?"
Steve: "I know a place close by."

7/2
Laura: "There's a coffee place close by?"
Steve: "Yup. Best coffee in the neighbourhood."

7/3 Walking down the hallway of the apartment building.
Steve: "Just down here a bit ... "

7/4
Steve: " ... and around this corner... "


PAGE EIGHT
8/1
Outside of apartment 109.
Laura: "This is just the apartment where Old Mr. Phelps lives."
Steve: "Yeah, he has a Coffeemaster 5000, and he knows how to use it."

8/2
Laura: "So we just knock?"
Steve: "No ... !"

8/3
Steve: "Don't knock, you'll wake him up!"

8/4
Laura with her hands on her hips.
Laura: "You're taking me out for coffee to the apartment of a sleeping man?"

8/5
Steve: "Well, if he was awake he would notice us drinking his coffee."

8/6
Laura reaching up to her shoulder, where Steve is.
Laura: "(sigh) This isn't going to work out, is it. I should have known better."



PAGE NINE
9/1
Laura picking up Steve with thumb and finger.
Steve: “What? Hang on. At least give it a try!"

9/2
Laura: "You're asking me to break into another person's place and use their coffee machine!"
Steve: "No, no, no, ...

9/3
Steve: "... you don't have to use the machine. Phelps usually nods off with most of his cappuccino un-drunk. We just hide under the sofa until we hear him snoring."

9/4
Laura: "You want me to drink someone else's cold coffee?"
Steve: "It's usually a little warm."

9/5
Laura; "You call this a date?"
Steve "I was hardly going to take you to the symphony, was I ..."

9/6
Laura still holding Steve, looking a bit surprised by what he is saying.
Steve: "... those ticket prices are steep, and I'm on a budget."


PAGE TEN
10/1
Laura: "You like classical music?!?"

10/2
Steve: "Well, none of that modern stuff, but Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz ... "

10/3
Laura: "Maybe this could work out ... "

10/4
Laura: "... but I think I should organize our dates from now on."

Continued in next post ...