The script for the nineteenth issue of my superhero comic book, Rapid City, has now been posted.

SWITCHBOARD

Just keep your eyes open, ok?

VECTOR

For monster tracks?

KINETIC

It’s not a monster, ok? It’s a gorilla. Can we stop making this into more than it is?

Panel 4. Desperado turning to face Kinetic. Not quite “in his face” but certainly confrontational.

DESPERADO

Hey, you get face to face with one of these hairy bastards….

DESPERADO

you look him right in the eyes….

DESPERADO

and then you tell me there’s a difference between a monster and a gorilla.

Panel 5. Kinetic pausing on the embankment, stunned, as Desperado walks away to catch up with the other two.

Panel 6. Switchboard looking at Desperado, surprised. Kinetic is coming up behind them.

SWITCHBOARD

Have you fought a gorilla?

Read and discuss this issue of Rapid City, plus all of the previous issues, for free here.

The script for the sixteenth issue of my superhero comic book, Rapid City, has now been posted.

Panel 5: Pulling in tighter on Desperado. Still standing there like a gunslinger. His fists are clenched, through his mask, we can see hard determination. Behind him we can see cops and bystanders.

SWITCHBOARD

It’s not just the two of you. While you are shrugging off his effects, he can be killing hostages. Killing police. Killing bystanders.

Panel 6: Tight on Desperado’s face, or even his eyes. He is looking determined. We can see his hand reaching up to the ear-piece.

SWITCHBOARD

He’s already desperate. If you aren’t careful, you’ll just make things worse.

DESPERADO

Ok. Careful. Switchboard….

Panel 7: Low shot of Desperado from behind. He is clearly walking toward the door now. We can see that he is holding the ear-piece in his hand.

DESPERADO

I can do this.

Read and discuss this issue of Rapid City, plus all of the previous issues, for free here.

The script for the ninth issue of the superhero comic book, Rapid City, has now been posted.

Read and discuss it here.

Panel 1 Large panel of Coil stepping in to the apartment. The wires from his hand that unlocked the door are retracting back to his glove. He is being as intentionally non-threatening as he can be in this situation.

COIL

It’s ok. I’m a friend. I’m… I was a friend of Hourglass.

COIL

We need to talk.

Panel 2 Kinetic and Coil in the panel as Coil closes the door behind him.

COIL

You go by Kinetic, right?

KINETIC

Yeah.

COIL

It’s nice to meet you. I’m called Coil. I wish this had been under better circumstances, but it is what it is.

Panel 3 Close on Coil’s foot as he steps among some small pieces on the broken phone.

COIL

This kind of thing happens from time to time. And when it does, we need to sort it out. Figure out what happened.

I am really struggling with issue 9.
Part of that struggle has manifested as procrastination. And that procrastination is born of fear. That fear comes from the sense that this issue is just wrong-footed.
Something about it has seemed… off.

So I started casting about for different guideposts.
I opened a book I have by Syd Field to a random page and just started reading his advice. When I found something that sounded right, I tracked it down.

That left me with a method by which I was able to dig into my character’s past and establish an incident which acts as a psychological motivation for everything that has happened in the first eight issues.

From this new perspective, the first two story arcs act perfectly as acts I and II. This leaves my current issue as the turning point between acts II and III.

The Dark Cave of Despair from which the hero seizes the sword and claims his destiny.

It is a bit exciting how well this metaphor is working. Because, as my hero finds himself despondent with his failures and unsure how to proceed, I find myself written into a corner from which I do not know how to proceed.

There is something there in that cave which will be his salvation. It is laying there, and has been laying there all along. He can’t see it yet, and neither can I. But, in just a moment, it will suddenly be illuminated.

With three days to my deadline, I don’t see how I can realistically make it.

On the other hand….. that is exactly how Caves of Despair work. Just when it seems you are furthest from hope, something happens.

So… how ’bout it? Any Deuses out there wanna spring Ex a Machina for me?

Red Lion is a character form the original Rapid City comics I was working on a few years ago.  I needed a character in a certain time and place for this new story and he fit the bill perfectly.

I like seeing how characters change depending on their settings.

Because each of the stories represent different points in my life, the symbolic value of the characters changes completely.

Without warning, he suddenly became a major player in this current story arc. I realized that I did not have a character sheet written up, so I took a few minutes and put one together. Enjoy.

This is not disastrous.
That bump I took last month threw my schedule off by about 15 days.

I am recovering from it, but I think that I will probably miss my upcoming deadline by a few days. I don’t like that, but I can live with it.

See, what I am doing here is writing a monthly superhero comic book. I have set my monthly deadline for the 15th. That avoids all of the other end of the month pressure and every recognized month has a 15th.

This writing project is my attempt to learn how to write superhero comics, and the story is about a guy learning to actually be a superhero. We are following the same learning curve.

Maybe the next story arc will feature him busting his ass, but still being just a little too late to save the day.

Josh