Home - Duel - P. A. Nolte

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1/ July 21, 1865.  Springfield, MO

2/ With his back turned, Wild Bill Hickock holsters his gun.  A Colt .  Running the other direction, towards the steps of the courthouse, is Davis Tutt.  He holds his bleeding left side as his men swarm to him.

Tutt: Boys, I'm killed!

3/ July 24, 1865.  Springfield, MO

4/ At a bar, nursing a whiskey, is Wild Bill.  On the bar in front of him is a gold pocket watch.   It's the Waltham repeater that started this nasty business.  Through the doors of the bar come two officers of the law.

Officer: Haycocke?

Hickock: Yeah.

5/ The officer, resolute but still a little timid.

Officer: Your presence has been requested at the courthouse for questioning as regards the manslaughter of one Davis Tutt.

6/ At the bar, Wild Bill's face is partially reflected in the glass of the watch.

Hickock (OP): Reckon so.

HOME: "Nowhere"--David Press.

Just for clarity purposes, I kinda went nuts with this one because the idea of "home" is something I've always struggled with so I wrote a longgggg script on the various places that have been called "home" over the years. This one starts when we moved to Connecticut.

PAGE EIGHT.

8.1: A wide panel of a big HOUSE and a large yard: A three-story house. A moving truck is parked in the driveway and things are being moved into the garage.

Lettering note: Captions are my narration; I’ll indicate them, but locations and years will be un-enclosed (“Display Lett” in Warren Ellis’s style for that sort of thing), and just sit on the bottom of the panel.

1.CAPTION (me):        You could say I’m a yuppie, a New Yorker, a prep school snob, but the truth is I’m a mutt.

2.CAPTION (me):        Home is all over the tri-state area.

3.CAPTION:           …So we moved to Connecticut in 1992.

8.2: A wide shot of a hallway.

            It’s the first day of sixth grade in Weston Middle School and I’m wearing a Flash trucker hat and I’m walking through a sea of kids with popped collars and skirts and dresses; barely a ripped jean or t-shirt in sight. Quite different from my New Jersey upbringing. It’s like I’ve gone to private school, but in Weston, Connecticut a public school is a private school anywhere else.

            Everyone is staring at me and what I’m wearing.

2.DISPLAY LETT:      Weston Middle School.

8.3: We’re in a gym, and I’m surrounded by a bunch of kids. I’m still wearing my Flash baseball hat. The dangling balloons can be the insults being flung in my direction.

3.KID 1 [unattached]:     Are you supposed to be the Flash?

4.KID 2:             Yeah, why are you wearing that?

5.KID 3:             Is it to protect against your receding hairline?

8.4: The Gym teacher spreads the kids apart from ridiculing me, I’ve taken off my hat and my hair is matted down from my hat showing my large forehead. The kids are all laughing.

6.KIDS:              Hahahaha!

7.GYM TEACHER:       That’s enough.

8.5: I’m in a bathroom stall, reading Generation X, with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a juicebox off to the left of the toilet.

8.CAPTION:             To say the least, Connecticut was never for me.

Home - Unceremonious Return - Perry Kent

Panel 1

Exterior, night, outside a bar. Howard, a man in his thirties, stands outside on the sidewalk. He watches the commotion in the bar through one of the windows. The building is made of aged wood, like it's been standing for the better part of the last century. The sources of light are what's coming from the windows and the lights on a faded sign which reads “Minerva's”.

1. HOWARD (caption): It's been nearly five years. You'd think time would make it easier to return to a place you stormed out of.

2. HOWARD (caption): It doesn't.

Panel 2

Interior, bar. Howard enters the bar. The interior is utter chaos. There are groups of people milling around, holding beer. People are laughing, enjoying their time. Behind the bar is a woman about two decades older than Howard. There are a few empty spots at the bar.

Panel 3

Howard stands awkwardly in front of the door. Cindy, a gruff looking woman in her forties, approaches Howard. She is carrying a tray of empty mugs.

3. CINDY: Hey, ain't you Minerva's boy? Howie or something?

4. HOWARD: Uh...Yeah. Howard, actually.

Panel 4

Cindy walks away from Howard as she shouts over her shoulder at him.

5. CINDY: Well, Howie, quit blockin' the door. Either grab a stool or a broom.

Panel 5

Howard sits down at the bar, a small little smile on his face.

6. HOWARD (caption): But some parts are easier than others.

-END-

Home - Home – MK Stangeland, Jr.

(1 Panel)

Panel 1: A single artistically arranged image showing a number of ship captains and closely associated crew alongside their vessels as they push forward, including CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW and the BLACK PEARL, HAN SOLO and CHEWBACCA with the MILLENIUM FALCON (Original Trilogy era appearance), CAPTAIN KIRK and SCOTTY with the ENTERPRISE, CAPTAIN PICARD with the ENTERPRISE-D, one or more versions of DOCTOR WHO with the TARDIS, as well as perhaps a few other captain/crew and ship combinations that would be appropriate and fit.

TEXT (1): For all the burdens that come with it, there is one key to happiness that the great Captains can all call upon…

TEXT (2): …if home is where the heart is, then neither are ever far away.

(END PAGE)

Home - Interlude - Grant McLaughlin

1 - Night time.  Focus on a deep puddle in the sidewalk, raining pelting down on it.

DAVID (tailless): Sorry...

2 - David and Kendra stand under an awning on said sidewalk.  Both are completely drenched.  They stand close to each other, but are not touching or looking at each other.  David looks down towards the puddle from the previous panel, looking sad and embarassed.  Kendra mostly looks uncomfortable that David is so put out, unsure what to do about it.

DAVID: I thought we were closer.

3 - Kendra reaches out and touches David's arm, a small smile on her face.  David starts to look over towards her.

NO COPY

4 - Kendra leans over and lays a peck on David's cheek.  Both blush.

SFX: smek!

5 - Kendra grabs David's arm and pulls him out from under the awning and back into the rain.  She wears a big smile; he's warming to the situation.

KENDRA: Come on...

6 - Kendra and David run down the middle of the street in the rain, hand in hand.  They smile and laugh as they race through the downpour.

KENDRA (tailless): A little rain never hurt anyone.

Six Years of Thought Balloons

Six years, eh?

Six years is a long time, and with one page of comic script from our various writers, it makes for a lot of words.  I thought about trying to count them all up, but in considering the best approaches for such a course of action, I deemed it enough to recognize the total as a lot.

Because while the sheer volume of work we've produced here is something worth celebrating, I think it's worth remembering that Thought Balloons is more than the sum of its parts.  We have a dedicate group of tenures throwing down quality scripts week in and week out.  We have some absolutely amazing alumni doing all kinds of exciting things, both in comics and without.  And a combination of both groups are working on a pretty exciting project that we can't wait to tell you all about once it's a little further along.

It's all come from this little website.  Ryan's hope to have a place to script and level-up has continued to grow and blossom, chugging away six years after the fact.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I love Thought Balloons.  This place means the world to me, and with the amount of time I've spent writing, commenting, and thinking about it, I hope you'll understand when I say that this place is a digital home for me.

Like any good home, it's a place to learn and to grow.  Everyone's welcome, and it'll take you places and show you things you'd never expect.  And when you're really lucky (and I think we have been), you'll meet some of the most excellent people around.

So to help celebrate our sixth anniversary, we're going to be writing about Home and what that means to each and every one of us.  It might be where we were born, where we live, where our hearts are, or any other interpretation that may tickle our fancy.  As always, we'd love to see your take in the comments below.  Like any good home, there's always room for more here, you know?