More on STRANGLE/SWITCH

In the interest of saving time and being prepared, I try to work as far ahead as possible on any given project. Even though S/S was an eight-page pitch, I had initially planned to finish it on ACT-I-VATE, and in the interest of expediting that, I had written an additional 12 pages of script.

More than that, I decided to rework the entire beginning, in traditional comic proportions. After the cut is the script and the VERY NSFW (serious nudity) reworked pages.



So, as I mentioned last week, Geoff's niece Jenny arrives to live with him, and immediately discovers his fixation on a Hannah Montana-like pop singer named Lola Belle, who's about 10 years old. There was going to be a very uncomfortable sub-plot involving Geoff becoming romantically involved with Lola as his fame and power grows, with the catch being that Lola is really in her 30's. She takes advantage of a growth-hormone deficiency to make gobs of money pretending to be a child prodigy.

When I needed to figure out where I Rule the Night was headed, I cannibalized the perpetual child angle for the Lainey Lord character. I think I made the right choice there.

We also didn't have a chance to get in to the root of Geoff's bizarre way of speaking, which is commonly a symptom of schizophrenia called echolalia. It was set up to subtly imply that the more magical elements of the comic might be his delusions as opposed to reality.

Upon re-reading this script I see that the character of Jenny is a little too close to the character of Angelica in Fishtown for my comfort, and I think I realized that at the time. In fact, I likely killed the entire project because of that. Who wants to repeat themselves?

Without further ado, script for pages 9-20 of Strangle/Switch mk1:


PAGE 9

Geoff’s head whips around.

CAPTION
Is that real?

He puts his hand on the knob and opens the door. Standing there is Jenny, smiling, a guitar bag slung over her shoulder

CAPTION
Who the hell is she?

GEOFF
Who the hell are you?

GEOFF
I’m Jenny, your niece. Why are
you repeating yourself?

CU Geoff’s startled eyes.



PAGE 10

CAPTION
Upper Darby, PA.
2 Months ago.

We are on a high school campus, near a dirt track. Jenny is sitting on the bleachers smoking a joint with her friend Rob.She has her guitar next to her, an acoustic, out of its case.

JENNY
Jesus, where did you get this shit?

ROB
S.good, right?

PAGE 11

JENNY
No, it’s fucking awful.

She coughs and passes it back to him.

ROB
If you don’t want to pay for it, don’t bitch about it.


JENNY
Fair enough.

She takes another hit.

JENNY
Let’s fuck.

PAGE 12
Jenny and Rob are having sex in the woods behind the bleachers. She is on top of him, holding her guitar behind her neck as she leans back. She’s more experienced than him.

They lay next to each other briefly. Jenny gets up, puts on her clothes and walks away.

ROB
Is that it? No snuggling?

She smirks at him and walks away.



PAGE 13
Jenny is at her locker. The school day is just beginning. A voice comes up from behind her.

MARLA (off-panel)
Have you accepted Jesus as your lord and savior yet?

Marla is a mousey-looking girl wearing a large cross and an eyepatch.

JENNY
Thanks for your concern, Marla, but no, I haven’t.

MARLA
It’s never too late, you know.

JENNY
I know. We go over this every morning.

JENNY
You ask if I’ve found Jesus, I tell you to go fu-

Marla suddenly grabs Jenny’s arm.



PAGE 14

We see that Marla now has sharp teeth and a long tongue like the man in the bar that met Geoff.

MARLA
You’re going to hell, Jenny. I’m trying to save you.

Jenny recoils a little, but shakes off Marla’s grip.

JENNY
Listen, it’s been real, but I gotta go.

Jenny walks away muttering under her breath.

JENNY
Freak.

PAGE 15

Jenny is sitting in study hall, falling asleep. The minutes pass slowly. We see a tall man walk over and stand over her in silhouette.

MAN
Jennifer Angela Blake?

Jenny wakes up.

JENNY
Yeah?

The man shows her a badge.

MAN
You’re under arrest for breaking and entrering.

JENNY
Shit.

PAGE 16

Cut back to Geoff’s apartment in the present day.

CAPTION
She can read my thoughts!

GEOFF
My thoughts.

Jenny smiles.

JENNY
No, I can’t. You’re not thinking, You’re muttering under your breath.

JENNY
And you keep repeating yourself.

She pushes her way into her apartment.

JENNY
Mom sent me here after I got arrested. She said you were
a little fucked up, but I didn’t think she meant this fu-

She sees the pictures plastered all over the walls.

JENNY
Holy shit.

JENNY
Now that’s fucked up.

PAGE 17

Jenny puts down her bag and guitar. She’s transfixed by the photos, which all seem to be of the same girl.

JENNY
Holy Christ, Geoff. Obsessed much?

She looks at a headshot of Lola Belle. She’s a little unnerved.

JENNY
Are you a kid toucher?

PAGE 18

GEOFF
Kid toucher! I’m not a kid toucher!

JENNY
Well, you certainly do like this one kid a lot. Like
creepy a lot. Lola Belle.

GEOFF
Lola Belle.

JENNY
Well, she’s kinda everywhere lately, so I
guess a lot of people like her.

GEOFF
People like her. I just like her... music.


JENNY
Right...

PAGE 19

JENNY
I’d respect you more if you wanted to fuck her little
12-year-old bean body than listen to that shit she sings.

GEOFF
Not shit she sings.

JENNY
Whatever.

-BEAT-

JENNY
Aren’t you a musician?

PAGE 20

Geoff grabs his guitar.

GEOFF
Yeah. I need a new guitar.

JENNY
New guitar?

GEOFF
New guitar?

-BEAT-

JENNY
Jesus, you’re a goddamn mess.

She picks up the Moira guitar store card.

JENNY
Well, I know what we’re doing tomorrow. Got any scotch?

---------

Now, until the advent of the iPad, I was never really into the 4:3 format for comics. There, I said it. I don't really enjoy reading printed books in that format (and print was sort of the ultimate goal at the time I initially drew this), and I find it way more difficult to lay out pages for the widescreen dimensions. I like using lots of thin panels to delineate moments in time, and the page just doesn't break up very easily in to small, skinny rectangles when it's that wide. I've learned to adapt, but generally, I still prefer the traditional proportion.

So, when it became clear that S/S wasn't going to picked up by Zuda, I reworked the beginning to be more of a slow build, and changed the format to the traditional page proportion.

What follows is the somewhat more obtuse, somewhat racy new opening for the project. It begins at the end, with the corpses of our protagonists, killed violently in differing circumstances. There was some symbolic point to the uncomfortable nudity, but I can't remember what it was at this point. It was supposed to invoke a feeling of vulnerability and the two images were intended to invoke some sort of yin/yang symmetry.

Bear in mind, some of the pages are unfinished, and none of the voiceover-heavy text is included. Also, there were two more pages penciled, but I never scanned them, and they have been lost in the vortex of my finished-art cabinet, possibly never to return.

Note also, that I re-purposed the entire figure from page 2 for Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper as the iconic cover to issue #1, as well as the trade collection.