A peek at the comic script I am working on.

Excerpt from
Dirty Detective #1 The Finding Part 1
By Seth Franklin Copyright sethfrank@sbcglobal.net, (310) 351-9395 1/24/2009 All rights reserved

Page 1
Panel 1
A street filled with garbage and no cars. It is pre-dawn. A lot of the garbage is made of strange creatures that are half animal and half appliance. It is as quiet as a big city street can be before people wake up.

Panel 2
A yellow sign begins flashing

“Warning: Goats! Warning: Goats! Please clear the street.”

Panel 3
A man is running out of the door of his apartment building. He is wearing only a fuzzy bathrobe. He is carrying an overloaded trashcan.

Man
shitshitshitshitshitshitshit!

Panel 4
He hurriedly throws the contents of the trashcan onto a pile of trash that is already on the street. The door to his apartment slams closed behind him.


Door
SLAM!

Panel 5
The man turns back to his door to find that he has locked himself out. The yellow sign has turned red. Noises are beginning to float down the street.

Noises
Clip clop clip clop Bahh-h-h-h. Munch. Crunch M-m-mmehhhhh

The sign reads in red flashing letters
“Warning: Goats! Warning: Goats!.”

Man
Oh SHIT.
Locked!
OH SHITTT!!

Panel 6
The man turns to look down the street with fear and apprehension bordering on panic.

Background noise grows louder
BAH-H-H-H-H!CLIP CLOP! M-M-MEH-H-H-H! MUNCH! CLOP CLIP!

Man
shit

Page 2

Panel 1
Large panel. A group of bioengineered goatlike creatures ranging form the very large to the very small are swarming down the streets. Their feet are brush like. The hair on their chins has been converted into shovels of varying narrowness to get into corners. On the goats spotted flanks is written “Transgenic Goat Trash Consumption: Property of the City of Los Angeles Department of Sanitation and Hair Removal. DO NOT FEED.” They are eating all the trash. The man is looking back and forth in a panic trying to get out of the way.

Panel 2
The man is subsumed in the swarm of goats. They are eating his bathrobe and his hair. He is cowering trying to reach out, but he is literally drowning in trash eating goats.

Man
SHIIIIITTTITTT!!!!


Page 3
Panel 1
Large panel - The street is now pristine. All of the trash has been eaten by the goats. And even licked clean. A single, very small goat is rushing to catch up with its siblings. A piece of what looks like the man’s hair sticking out of its mouth.

The sign is green and now reads
“ALL CLEAR. TRANSGENIC GOAT TRASH CONSUMPTION IS COMPLETE.”

The man is standing in front of his door. He is naked, covered in goat saliva. The goats have eaten his clothes and his hair, but left him untouched. He is spitting out goat saliva, and hair, and shaking himself off. He is holding the trashcan over his privates.

Panel 2
The man suddenly stops and stares at something on the ground a few feet away.

Man (quietly)
Shit

Panel 3
Large panel - Where one of the drifts of garbage had been, there is now exposed a naked woman’s body, facedown. She is absolutely and completely naked, even including her hair, because the goats ate it all. There are bruises all over her face, and one small deep hole between here eyes. Her arms are cut in a weird pattern of very very thin horizontal lines, almost like fish gills. There is some burnt crispiness around some of the thin cuts. There is also a similar pattern of cuts on her legs. The back of her chest has several ragged round wounds, and one flat wound. Her back is slightly caved in around the large wounds. One hand is badly broken. She was attractive, but not unusually so. She had a slight sag to her stomach, and her breasts were not perky. She has several Wicca symbol tattoos,and a pair of cherubs on either side of lower back over her but. The cherubs are holding up a ribbon a la the birth of Venus. She is definitely dead.





Page 4
Panel 1
A homeless man is walking down the street approaching a corner. His age is hard to determine, call it middle aged, but with many many lines on his face. He is very short, about 4 ft 10, dark skinned with a long, thick messy beard, the kind you might lose things in. He is wearing a long trench coat with many huge pockets. All of the pockets are filled with odds and ends. He is wearing a fedora that looks like it was pulled out of the trash (which it sort of was). He has on combat boots and workman’s pants. This is our hero The Dirty Detective. Around his neck he is wearing a symbol composed of crossed directional arrows. He is absent mindedly flipping a coin. He is ALWAYS lost. He can know what he is looking for, but never knows where he is in relation to the world. His name is lost to the world and to him.

DD mumbles
Where…?

Damnit been down this street a hundred times always found it before….damn city always moving.. shifting….

Panel 2
The naked man, clearly in a panic is still frozen staring wide eyed at the dead girl. DD, unaware, is still coming up to the corner a few feet away. He drops the coin. We are seeing it from the side, so that we can see both of them, but they have not yet seen each other.

DD
A good breakfast place is hard to find … but then everything is hard to find isn’t it…

Panel 3
The coin improbably rolls around the corner.

Panel 4
DD follows the coin trying to pick it up as it rolls. He is coming around the corner. He is doubled over reaching for the coin on the ground. He has not seen the naked man.

Panel 5
His hand catches the coin.

Panel 6
He looks up to come face to cheek with the naked man’s but. He is momentarily nonplussed. The man has a tattoo “Kiss here” ala spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan.

DD
??


Page 5
Panel 1
DD approaches the man, somewhat cautiously.

DD
You lose something son? Maybe I can help.

Panel 2
The man turns around and points at the girl. DD looks past him to the dead girl.

Naked Man
shit.

DD
Yes, Shit indeed.

Panel 3
The man seems to shake off his haze. DD, speaking to the man points at a door and mimes calling, he is treating the man like he is an idiot. The man is facing his body towards DD but can’t take his eyes off of the dead woman.

DD
You need to go call the Police… ok?

Man
can’t. locked out.

DD
Lost keys huh?
Panel 4
DD searches through his many pockets

DD
What’s your address?

Man
56 Dalkieth ave. apt 2B

DD
Ahh, no problem then.

Panel 5
DD produces from his pocket the key to the man’s apartment and holds it out. It is labeled 2B.


DD
Now, go inside and call the police.

Man
How do you have my key?

Page 6
Panel 1
DD smiles. It is the smile of someone who has been asked this question many many times. It is filled with understanding, and DD’s basic love of humanity.

DD
You ever lose your keys?

Man
Of course.

DD
I’m the one who found them. Now go call the police so we can sort out this poor dead girl. And…

Man
Yes?

DD
Pants. You want some pants.

Panel 2
DD kneels over the girl. He is very careful not to touch her. He has pulled something from one of his voluminous pockets. It is a hand sized, rectangular, insectile creature which has a huge multifaceted eye on its front and a flat, shiny carapace on its back. It has antennae or legs that act as buttons It looks like a cross between a fly and a camera. It in fact is a cross between a bug and a camera. It has a camera company’s name and the logo “Shutterbug” above the eye. He aims it at the girl.

DD thinks
Must be a runaway. Someone’s lost child.
That’s why the goddess brought me here.
I guess I have a new case.