PAGE ONE:

PANEL ONE:

Splash page! Jakob, the hero (?) of our story, is running for his life along the side of a large red brick apartment building. There aren't any particular distinguishing features. I've got a mind's eye of Jakob being fairly small – running along the bottom quarter of the page, tops – and vaguely Arabic-looking but not over the top. He's a tallish fellow in his forties with black curly hair, a hook nose, and dark eyes. He looks nice enough, but not handsome...a long sad face, although for most of this story it'll be panicked. He wears a white button-up shirt, open at the collar, threadbare black pants, black dress shoes and socks. Looks sort of like he just got off duty as a maitre'd, or perhaps from his own funeral, mwah ha ha. Very important: Jakob, as he runs, has little puffs of steam coming up from his mouth and hanging behind him – they'll vanish on page two, when he stops breathing.

Jakob: Huff – huff – huff

CAPTION:

DEADIES 1.2

Jakob RUNS

by Shepherd and Boney

PAGE TWO:

Four panels, with each panel longish and thinnish...we're showing Jakob's progress down the street, but also have to leave a lot of play to show those little puffs of steam behind him that then disappear. The “focus” of this page is Jakob realizing he doesn't need to breathe.

PANEL ONE:

Close on Jakob's head as he runs along. Little white puffs of steam.

Jakob: Huff – huff – h –

PANEL TWO:

Jakob keeps running; we're pulling back to create a bit more distance. Jakob's puzzled, though. Only one puff of smoke

Jakob: Huff?

PANEL THREE:

Jakob doesn't breathe, but keeps running.

PANEL FOUR:

Jakob hears a voice behind him and turns in panic.

Eli (off): ANSCHLAG!

PAGE THREE:

Four panels again, but no fixed structure in my brain. Just moving the plot forward.

PANEL ONE:

Jakob has turned to face ELI, Jakob's brother, former business partner, also in his forties but redheaded, hairy and pot-bellied, dressed in a pale blue shirt, black tie, etc. Think “owner of a vacuum cleaner repair shop” and you're on the right track. Eli, of course, has steam coming from his mouth. He is aiming a rifle directly at Jakob; hastily, from the chest, as he has just been running and has raised the rifle as quickly as possible.

Eli: I have you, toter mann...

PANEL TWO:

Jakob is backing away.

Jakob: Eli! It's ME! Jakob!

Eli: (off) You are NOT Jakob.

PANEL THREE:

Eli lifts the rifle further, to his eye. He is very serious about shooting.

Jakob: For God's sake, Eli –

Eli: Do not speak of God.

PANEL FOUR:

Jakob takes a bullet in the chest.

Jakob: HUNNNGH!

PAGE FOUR:

Six panels. My only real “size” idea is that the last panel should be very small, as it is a very intimate revalation on Jakob's part.

PANEL ONE:

Jakob is lying prone on the ground, his shirt torn open and chest smoking. Eli walks up to the body.

Eli: Jakob?

PANEL TWO:

Eli keeps the gun pointed at Jakob, prodding the body with his foot. The gun is lowered towards Jakob's chest, so Jakob can grab it in Panel Three.

Eli: The Chancellor said on the news...something about shooting them...

PANEL THREE:

Jakob grabs the barrel of the gun.

Jakob: Shoot them in the HEAD.

PANEL FOUR:

Jakob has twisted the gun away from his body, rising up while Eli reels back.

Eli: N..no...

Jakob: You actually shot me...

PANEL FIVE:

Jakob has Eli held up against the wall by the throat, his face furious, smoke rising from his chest. Eli is still holding the gun by the stock, but Jakob is holding the barrel up against the wall as well. You amy not want to show all this, but it's important on the next page that Eli is still holding the gun. You may want to go balls-out with the chest wound, but it's up to you.

Jakob: And it has been some time coming. Listen to me, Eli.

PANEL SIX:

Jakob is in close, practically in Eli's face. Eli is horrified.

Jakob: I have been a TERRIBLE brother.

PAGE FIVE:

PANEL ONE:

Jakob: I stole the business...stole ANNA...from you. How it goes in this hard world. So I thought.

PANEL TWO:

Jakob strives to explain his post-death experience.

Jakob: But two days ago, Eli, two days ago there was a burning in my chest, and I fell. I felt my heart stop, lying there – and there was only one thought as the light faded.

PANEL THREE

Jakob continues his confession.

Jakob: I was a fool not to have made things right with my brother.

PANEL FOUR:

Jakob starts to slacken his grip on his brother. Eli begins to shrink away.

Jakob: And I am granted a second chance. This happens now to what, one in three, four hundred of the freshly dead? Your face when you saw me at your door...heh. I should have called. Written. No matter now, mm?

PANEL FIVE:

Jakob releases Eli and steps back. Eli still has the gun, which is sagging at his side.

Jakob: Take everything, Eli. I will leave town forever. Take the business, take the family name. It is my heartfelt penance. Just let me collect some books.

PANEL SIX:

Jakob smiles ruefully, looking at his ruined chest.

Jakob: And perhaps a new shirt.

PANEL SEVEN:

Eli raises the gun to Jakob.

Eli: Untot!

Jakob: NO!

PAGE SIX:

PANEL ONE:

Eli shoots at Jakob again, who ducks under the blast.

Eli: TOTER MANN!

Jakob: DAMN you!

PANEL TWO:

Jakob hits Eli really, really hard. Hard enough to kill him.

Jakob: CAN'T YOU BE MY BROTHER?

PANEL THREE:

Eli is dead, alas. Jakob is kneeling behind him, doing the ole fingers-to-the-throat pulse check.

Jakob: Oh no. Oh, no, no, no.

PANEL FOUR:

Jakob staggers away, leaving Eli and the gun behind, horrified.

Jakob: No...

PANEL FIVE:

Black panel. Hey, it's the passage of time, so we may as well make it a theme from 1.1, right?

PAGE SEVEN:

PANEL ONE:

Close of a hand (Jakob's) pulling a book off a shelf. Samuel Beckett's WATT springs to mind as something thematically cool while not being too overt. “Samuel Becketts Roman "Watt" : eine Untersuchung des gnoseologischen Grundzuges." is the title in German, according to Amazon.com, anyway.

PANEL TWO:

Jakob, now dressed to travel, is putting the book in a backpack.

Jakob: ...enough. You'd think eight hours would be enough to pick a dozen or so books.

PANEL THREE:

Jakob lights a match.

Jakob: Oh, Eli. I am sorry.

PANEL FOUR:

Jakob leaves the library in flames.

PANEL FIVE:

Jakob leaves the house, with flames beginning to lick out the window. It's a nice but not CRAZY nice house, think upper-middle-class bordering on Pretty Wealthy, but not Ridiculously Rich. There are no servants, for one thing. Eli is waiting outside with the same shotgun. He's having some trouble holding his head up, for reasons that should be obvious.

Eli: I think you have killed me, Jakob.

Jakob: Oh.

PAGE EIGHT:

PANEL ONE:

Eli stands in front of his brother (a fair distance; 10-15 feet)

Eli: And do you know what my last thought was?

PANEL TWO:

A glimmer of hope in Jakob's eyes.

Jakob: Eli, the odds of this happening...to both of us...

PANEL THREE:

Close on Eli pulling the trigger.

Eli: Shoot them in the HEAD.

PANEL FOUR:

Eli stands over Jakob's dead body, head gone, the house aflame behind him.Eli is looking at himself.

Eli: It was too late for sorry years ago, Jakob.

PANEL FIVE:

Seen from a greater distance; Eli walks up the steps of the house, into the flames.

Eli: It is too late to forgive.

PANEL SIX:

Not quite from “space,” but a distant view of the house burning, one of a great many similar houses on the street, small and insignificant against the weight of its neighbours...but the only one marked by a trail of smoke staining the darkening sky.