Bandette - Mischief - Brian Manton

1.
French streets.

Bandette running left to right, toward a corner. She carries a map bag. Ref -http://www.applegazette.com/wp-content/uploads/5796.jpg

Around the corner, running right to left, we see Amelie  - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211915/

She carries a red bag, ref http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_G79641pYnF0/S-RFcXn9LZI/AAAAAAAABlw/eHYF466PM_M/s1600/DSCF2706.JPG

2.
The two reach the corner at the same time and crash into each other. Their bags fly from their shoulders with the impact.

3.
The two sit on the ground. Little red birds fly around Bandette's head, little blue ones around Amelie's. One red and one blue bird have a cheerful conversation in the foreground.

From Amelie's bag has fallen a photo album full of reconstituted torn-up photobooth pictures - all of different people. One photo of a garden gnome in front of the Eiffel Tower pokes out from another page.

From Bandette's bag has fallen some documents in manilla folders marked "TOP SECRET"

4.
Bandette looking down at the photo album.

5.
Amelie eyeing the "TOP SECRET" papers.

6.
Tight cropped shot, forehead to chin. Both look at eachother and smirk.

7.
Both run off in opposite directions - Amelie with Bandette's bag and vice versa.

Bandette - Who Has Trapped The Great Thieves Of Europe? - Niel Jacoby

Panel 1: Full splash: Bandette, Fantomas, Arsene Lupin, Diabolik, and A.J. Raffles have all run into each other while trying to steal the Ruby Rings Of Dallamano in the prestigious Bava estate, and are talking with each other.

Fantomas: SO IT SEEMS WE WERE ALL DELIVERED A MYSTERIOUS MISSIVE UNDER COVER OF NIGHT, NOTIFYING US THAT THE RUBY RINGS WOULD BE ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE TONIGHT.

Bandette: SOMEONE MUST HAVE MEANT FOR US TO MEET HERE, AT THIS TIME... BUT WHY?

Panel 2: Inset panel. Bars shoot up from the windowsills, making all windows impassable

SFX: SHHHHHHRRRRNNNNNNNGGGG

Panel 3: Inset panel. All the thieves are startled by the noises happening.

Panel 4: Inset panel. Metal panels slam over the outside doors

KNNNNNNNNNNNG

Panel 5: All the thieves have realized that they are trapped, and a mysterious voice emanated from an unseen speaker.

ALL: A TRAP!

SPEAKER(OP): I SEE YOU'VE REALIZED MY INTENTIONS. I HAVE IMPLANTED A SERIES OF TRAPS IN THIS MANSION, AND THE ONLY WAY TO ESCAPE WITH YOUR LIVES IS TO PROVE THAT THERE IS INDEED... HONOR AMONG THIEVES.

Bandette - ...too soon? - R.A. Wonsowski

Panel 1 - BANDETTE running around the corner, (l to r) jauntily evading the local gendarmerie, the Mona Lisa under her arm.  Eiffel Tower stands in the background.

GENDARMES - STOP!! THIEF!!!

Panel 2 - BANDETTE skidding (l to r) to a smiling stop on her heels behind a high brick wall. The gendarmes cannot see her over the wall

SoundFX - skiddd!!

GENDARMES - (behind wall) STOP!! THIEF!!!

Panel 3  - BANDETTE looks to the right side of the panel. Something has caught her attention...

OFF PANEL (right) - STOP!! THIEF!!!

Panel 4 - BANDETTE looks on surprised as SHIA LaBOEUF (r to l) enters from the right side of the panel.

OFF PANEL (right) - STOP!! THIEF!!!

Panel 5 - BANDETTE sticks out her leg, tripping SHIA.

SoundFX - trip!

OFF PANEL (right) - STOP!! THIEF!!!

Panel 6 - DANIEL CLOWES is beating the ever-loving $#!t out of SHIA, blood and hair flying everywhere.  BANDETTE stands over the two, yelling haughtily at SHIA.  The GENDARMES look over the wall perplexed at the scene.  The AMERICAN ZOMBIE peeks in fromthe lower right hand corner, winking at the reader, giving a thumbs up.

BANDETTE - ...and that is for being such an unlikable protagonist in Transformers!

AZ - Hey, kids!  Give a hoot - Don't plagiarize!

Bandette - The Unveiling - JD Coughlan

Panel 1: Full-page splash. An unveiling at a very expensive art gallery. Except, instead of their priceless artwork, there is a portrait of Bandette half out of a window with the actual painting under her arm. She is winking at the viewer. This is the main focus of the page, with gasping patrons looking on, one of whom still holds the curtain that was over the painting. Inspector BD Bélgique stands in the foreground, raising his fist and shouting at the sky.

BELGIQUE: BAAAAAAANDEEEEETTTTTEEEEE!!!

END OF PAGE

Bandette – Voleur De Performance - Shaun Richens

PAGE ONE – 6 PANELS.

1.1

Ext. The rooftops of Paris late at night during a beautiful full moon. Our young heroine BANDETTE, in full get up gives chase to a striking woman, MISS MIME, as she dashes gracefully across the tiled roofs towards us.

Miss Mime is a slender young woman. She wears a black and white mimes outfit with full white face make up. Her lips are bright red however and she has a small red love heart beauty spot on her cheek. Her hands are gloved and she carries a small brown pouch.

BANDETTE:

Madam, you are sure of foot and have the grace of a dancer for sure.

1.2

Close up on Bandette, a sly smile on her face.

BANDETTE:

But you are not sly like a fox or cunning as a cat like little old me.

1.3

Two shot of Bandette and Miss Mime, they have both both stopped running and now face each other on the rooftop.

BANDETTE:

Very sensible my dear. You have decided to give yourself up, no? And return the goods you stole from me.

BANDETTE:

It was a bother trying to acquire that pouch of goods you now hold.

1.4

Close up on Miss Mime. She holds her index finger up to her lips telling Bandette to be silent.

NO COPY.

1.5

Miss Mime tosses the pouch over the side of the building and turns to run in the other direction.

NO COPY.

1.6

Close up on a smiling Bandette.

BANDETTE:

Such a shame. You are a feisty vixen. We could have been such great pals.

BANDETTE:

ça ne fait rien

Bandette – It’s What She Does – MK Stangeland Jr.

(7 Panels)

Panel 1: Three guys are in a comic book store – TYLER, BRIAN, and JEFF. They stand on two sides of a table holding Longboxes, with JEFF on one side and TYLER and BRIAN on the other. JEFF looks disheartened.

JEFF: Did you hear about the Eisner Awards?

TYLER: What about ‘em?

Panel 2: JEFF holds up a comic book with the title “THE GREATEST COMIC EVER (IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD)”. The cover art looks like it would belong on the kind of comic book that wins a lot of awards.

JEFF (1): The greatest comic book ever, and it lost.

BRIAN: Just because it calls itself the greatest ever doesn’t mean it is.

TYLER: Yeah, I’m not much a fan of whoever’s ego wrote that thing.

JEFF (2): Have you read this? It’s better than Watchmen!

Panel 3: The discussion between JEFF, BRIAN, and TYLER is getting more heated.

TYLER (1): Impossible. Nothing beats Watchmen.

BRIAN: Meh, Watchmen is overrated. Plenty of things beat Watchmen.

TYLER (2): Lies.

Panel 4: JEFF looks through a section of the longbox as he looks for a copy of a certain title.

JEFF (1): Whatever. My point is that this book got robbed!

JEFF (2): It got robbed hard!

BRIAN: Why? What beat it?

JEFF (3): Uh…let me see if there’s any copies of it here…Ah!

Panel 5: JEFF holds up a printed copy of a BANDETTE comic, with BANDETTE on the cover. Strangely, the BANDETTE on the cover of this issue appears to be holding what looks like a miniature version of the EISNER AWARDS logo.

JEFF (1): This. This “Bandette” thing.

JEFF (2): This is what beat out the greatest comic the world has or will ever know.

Panel 6: Close up on the image of BANDETTE from the cover. It looks like she’s looking directly at whoever’s looking at the comic cover and winking, as to suggesti that the character herself literally stole the award in the most literal sense possible.

Panel 7: TYLER looks at the comic with a confused look, not quite sure what just happened. BRIAN looks at TYLER as he points at the comic.

BRIAN (1): Did you see that?

BRIAN (2): Did that seem weird to you?

(END PAGE)

Bandette - She is the Night - Ben Rosenthal

1.  The inspector is sitting at his desk.  It is dimly lit.  He has a cigarette in his hand, his hair frazzled.  HE is looking very grim.

INSPECTOR
It's not the same any more.  They city has been plunged into darkness.  Filth walks the streets

BANDETTE (off panel)
Do not worry, Inspector.

2.  Reveal of Bandette - she is in a new costume which looks decisively noir-ish.  This is a darker Bandette who means business.

BANDETTE
I will bring the light back to our city.  I will clean up this town!

3. In the street Bandette is giving orders to two obvious criminals.  One is screwing in a new light bulb into a street light while another sweeps up rubbish in the street.

BANDETTE
Only twenty nine more streets to go, hoodlums.

Bandette - The Usual - Grant McLaughlin

Bandette should be smiling and jubilant throughout these different moments.. As ever, she is having a good time and won't let anything get in her way of doing so.

1 – Bandette is racing across a rooftop, pursued by a pair of men with pistols. They are firing their weapons, but of course, their bullets will not find their mark.

BANDETTE: I must say, you are both being quite rude!

2 - BD Bélgique is outside reading a newspaper. His nose is buried pretty deeply in the words, so he fails to notice Bandette sneaking up behind him and purloining his box of cigarettes. If it would be feasible, Bandette should be seen crushing them a bit in her hand to really make it clear she's going to simply get rid of them for BD.

BANDETTE (whispering): Worry not, inspector, I shall help to liberate you from this most horrible vice.

3 – Bandette, in a museum, approaches some small paintings, ready to remove them from their hangings. A security guard walks by in the background, unaware of what is transpiring.

BANDETTE: Be merry, my little artworks, for soon you will have a new home with Bandette, away from this dank, dark museum.

4 – Bandette traipses away from a conversation with Monsieur in a whimsical manner befitting her. She is as lively as ever. Monsieur may not look quite as impressed.

BANDETTE: I do not think I should be blamed if you fail to appreciate my genius.

5 - Bandette sits at a café, munching away at a chocolate croissant. She's as happy as a clam.

BANDETTE: Delightful!

6 - Bandette is sitting in an open dumpster, covered in garbage. She's probably removing some piece of detritus from her head (perhaps a banana peel?). That being said, she's probably still at least somewhat smiley about the whole thing – it is an adventure after all.

BANDETTE: Well, that certainly could have gone worse.

7 - Bandette prepares to jump from a window. Some unhappy thugs are advancing her way.

BANDETTE (1): Clearly you have overstayed my welcome.

BANDETTE (2): No matter, I will forgive you.

8 – Bandette walks down the spiral steps leading into one of her many hideouts. Pimento, her small dog, greets her at the bottom of the steps.

PIMENTO: Yip!

BANDETTE: Oh, Pimento!

9 – Bandette has picked up Pimento and is nuzzling him lovingly. Pimento returns the gesture in a doggy manner.

BANDETTE: I cannot wait to discover what excitement awaits me this afternoon!

PIMENTO: Yip!

Why Bandette?

I love comics.  They're an amazing and beautiful thing that can achieve most anything a creator can think of (and many a thing that they've yet to come up with).  I will happily read comics of any format, type, or genre as long as they conform to the one simple rule.

Comics should be fun.

I was smitten with Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover's Bandette from the moment I first laid eyes on her.  These brilliant creators have tapped into something magical with their reslendent master thief and her cast of colourful supporting characters.  There is a clear European bande dessinée influence in both the look and writing (the police inspector is named BD Bélgique, after all), which is just peachy in my view, but more than that, Tobin and Coover's main influence is telling wonderful, jaunty stories that are light yet substantial all at the same time.

While Bandette is a master thief, the only real crime this book commits is not coming out as much as I might like.  That being said, we have been blessed with five whimsical issues, some lovely short stories, and a gorgeous hardcover collection courtesy of Dark Horse.  If you haven't already, you should be reading them.

Because as you may have already gathered, Bandette is fun.  And that is a thing of vital importance.

She's already stolen my heart.  If you're lucky, she'll do the same to you.

Presto!