Thursday 30 August 2007

The first of the Strip Stories

Anyway, moving on, here is the synopsis of the first of the two strip stories. Fugitoid & Zorklord have volunteered to do the artwork so feel free to decide which one to do.

THE ZRANTI BEAST

Ben is alone in his Cambridge apartment sipping an absinthe and reading the Telegraph when the phone rings. He is surprised to hear that its an old friend from uni Chris Jennings, a science graduate.
"Hi Ben, long time no see. Look I know this might seem a bit odd, but can you come round now. I'm still living in the same house."
Ben finds this an unusual request as he never liked Chris that much, he was a friend of a friend, and Ben disliked his sarcastic manner. He tries to get out of it:
"No",
However Chris is insistent:
"Please Ben. Look I know this might seem strange coming out of the blue like this but I've heard about your interest in... well the extraterrestrial. I need to talk to someone.Please."
Ben is still reluctant:
"I never liked you. I presume this is a wind up. Goodbye."
He slams the phone down and goes back to his sofa.

Next day, Ben is shocked to see on the local news that Chris has been found dead in his rented house, suspected murder. Feeling slightly guilty he heads round there in his car and finds the place sealed off and the police around. Luckily he has contacted Torchwood who have fixed it with the police for Ben to see the house. He is intrigued to see it full of sophisticated scientific equipment . The police inform him that Chris died of a massive dose of microwave energy,
"As if he'd been put in a giant oven."
Ben is concerned and he calms himself by having a Foxes Glacier Mint. Inspecting the back garden he sees strange burn marks in the grass almost footprint shaped.

Meanwhile Chris' girlfriend Tara has turned up and is making an hysterical scene and shouting at the police.
"Look what happened to him, why arn't you telling us anything."
Ben offers her a mint and tells her to 'deal with it'. Tara slaps him, however when she then collapses in floods of tears she lets Ben hug & console her .
Ben takes Chris' journal which he finds on his desk & he and Tara go to a wine bar tound the corner for a drink & to calm down. Rrading the journal, Ben finds that Chris was working on a device to transmit microwaves huge distances in an instant, beyond even the milky way. Tara adds that Chris had told her that he was onto something that could revolutionise space communication. Ben is worried.
"What if something transmitted back.... some kind of force?"

Suddenly there is a scream from outside. Ben & Tara tush out to see a strange glowing, tansluscent thing walking down the street transmitting energy which is burning people.Tara screams and Ben shouts
"Run"
as the thing moves towards them and they run as cars spontaneously combust. Ben tells Tara that Chris must have inadvertantly brought an energy creature to earth. The thing walks into a MacDonalds and people in it catch fire, screaming in agony. A group of children run out on fire and collapse in smouldering heaps in the street. Ben suggests that they head back to Chris' house for an answer.Running round the block they manage to get back in the house and find more of Chris' papers. It turns out that by reversing the polarity of Chris' machine they can reverse whatever effect it has had. Ben flicks the requisite switches and the thing disappears.

Later, back at Ben's flat, Tara and he are lying on the sofa enjoying a drink. Ben had told her about himself & his relationship with Carl. Tara is crying over Chris.
"Look, I know you're gay, but I really can't bear to be alone tonight..."
"Thats ok, stay here."
They kiss and then Ben leads her to the bedroom.....

24 comments:

Youth of Australia said...

I wish you'd read my comments.

I just did a comic strip of this, if you would be bothered to look...

The Zranti Beast Comic Strip

Comments WOULD be nice...

sparacus said...

Excellent work YOA - apart from the 'Chatham the scumbag' line.

Love to see more.

Youth of Australia said...

The 'Chatham the Scumbag' line is crucial to the plot, emphasizing Ben's callous disregard for his fellow man.

You came up with the plot and dialogue, not me.

Besides, you could always save a copy of the page and erase the offending dialogue using paintbox, and type in a replacement...

Might be a good idea anyway, as my lettering is not as good as I wish it were.

Youth of Australia said...

And page 2 is up, with three more in the pipeline.

Bernie Fishnotes said...

Try leaving the text until after you've scanned it, then add it on the computer. I recommend Digitalstrip (http://www.filemouse.com/files/ft/digitalstrip.zip), as it's what the professionals seem to use.

Youth of Australia said...

Oooh!

I thought I gained more kudos from writing the dialogue myself...

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

On the thread on OG it seems like Zorklord is also planning to do Zranti Beast.

Is there room for two versions of the story? Or will it be like those two Truman Capote films that came out 2 months apart?

Youth of Australia said...

Dunno. Quick, put my pictures up there! I'd do it myself but for obvious reasons, least of all I have no idea how.

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

Wasn't sure how to do the pics, but I posted the links. They seem well-received.

sparacus said...

Fine work YOA.

However the 'scumbag'term is inappropriate and Ben would never urinate in a garden.

Youth of Australia said...

Fine work YOA.
Thank you. That means something, it really does.

However the 'scumbag'term is inappropriate
He is only referred to as such in the captions. Doctor Who Annuals thrived on such mistakes. Look at Freedom by Fire.

Besides, apparently Zork Lord is doing another comic strip, and chances are it'll be better than mine, so it's all so much of muchness.

and Ben would never urinate in a garden.
Hmmm.

I suppose that's true.

Actually, I wanted to draw him just standing in the garden with his hands his in his pockets, and for variety I drew him from the back. Then, when I was rewriting all the captions, I decided to add the "joke". Like a crazy caption.

Seriously, if your computer can get onto blogger, it can rewrite any captions on my artwork.

I could post the text free pages if you want. And page three will be worked on today. I promise no more than one scumbag caption.

Youth of Australia said...

Page 3 is up!

Youth of Australia said...

Page 4 is up folks, only 1 1/2 to go!

sparacus said...

YAY - Excellent work. Page 4 is superb - I love the Zranti Beast.

Youth of Australia said...

Thanks, Spara.

BTW, I was wondering if you could help out?

For various reasons, the plot will be resolved in the next page, but I was hoping to make it six parts.

So, what I was hoping for is that when Ben sees the Zranti Beast, he flashes back to when he was travelling with the Tenth Doctor and Rose.

I just need a quick scene of them working as a group, ideally set inside the TARDIS.

sparacus said...

OK - here goes.


Ben & Tara rush out to see a strange transluscent thing coming down the street. Ben is shocked and has a Fox's Glacier Mint to calm down. A state of calm contentment rushes through his brain and he sees a vision of when he travelled with the Doctor & Martha in the TARDIS. The Doctor is trying to set the co-ordinates while Martha waffles on and moans about some pointless matter. It is putting Ben off his reading so he tells Martha to shut up and let the Doctor get on with it. Martha is angry and begins to glare at Ben so he flicks back his hair and throws his book at her.
As the vision subsides, Ben thinks calmly to himself: "If I can handle Martha , I can handle this situation."

Youth of Australia said...

I admit, I was hoping for some stuff with Rose in it, but in all other respects, it was what I needed.

Thanks, especially for the quick reply.

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

Spara - that is the single funniest thing that you have ever written. Congratulations.

Youth of Australia said...

I'll try to do it justice, Jared.

Youth of Australia said...

OK, quick summary. The remaining pages

5: the flashback
6: the defeat of the beast
7: Tara/Ben

Page 6 is now up and I am working on the others in due course.

Youth of Australia said...

The Zranti Beast Comic Strip page five is finished, consisting of Spara's above synopsis (though little details about coordinates and hair flicking have been lost).

Youth of Australia said...

Hey, Spara!

Just need to know one more thing and I can finish the strip.

WHAT IS THE TITLE OF THE OTHER COMIC STRIP?

Thanks in advance.

sparacus said...

Hi YOA

The next strip story will be:

'The Lindigg Valley Mystery'

Youth of Australia said...

BRILLIANT!

Thanks so much!