HOPE--David Press.

PAGE ONE.

1.1: Opening on a perfectly normal suburban house in a flat suburban street.

CAPTION:                             Everything changes and recycles.

1.2: Inside the house, in the living room to be precise a family plays with an INFANT on a play mat. GRANDMA, GRANDPA, and MOM sit around the baby on the mat. The baby is kicking and cooing and generally being happy.

CAPTION:                             But certain things stay the same. That’s where hope lives.

1.3: Pan to the left of the previous panel and there is an UNCLE, AUNT, and FATHER of the infant. They’re watching the infant’s 1-YEAR-OLD cousin stomp around like Godzilla through some blocks.

CAPTION:                             In the sameness. When you feel like change you throw out what didn’t work and try something new.

Hope - Fight the Darkness - Perry Kent

I thought this might make a good story of hope. It warms my heart every time I see something like this in the news.  

Panel 1

Exterior, day. A man, wearing a kippah, walks along a city sidewalk in a suit. He is on his way to his synagogue.

1. Man (caption): Things have gone so wrong lately.

Panel 2

The man steps around the corner, his back facing the reader. In front of him is a large group of people gathered outside of his synagogue. They are holding signs that can't quite be made out.

2. Man (caption): Sometimes it feels like we're moving backward, into the darkness.

Panel 3

The man holds his head high, ready to plunge into the sea of "protestors". The "protestors" are still very indistinct, so we can't tell their emotions or why they're there.

3. Man (caption): We've made it through before.

Panel 4

The people make a path through the crowd that the man walks through. We can't tell the crowd's emotions or why they're there.

[No Copy]

Panel 5

The man faces the crowd of people. He is standing on the steps of his synagogue.

4. Man: Thank you all.

Panel 6

The crowd is revealed. They are a happy group of people there to support the synagogue attendees. They are holding signs with slogans such as "We Stand Together", "Friends of all Faiths", and "Peace and Goodwill". A strong multi-cultural mix to the crowd to show this isn't just one community or religion, but a large gathering of many groups.

5: Man (caption): But it's easier to face the darkness with friends.

- END -

Hope – Keep Hoping – MK Stangeland Jr.

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: A Flying ‘DOOM CASTLE’ sits in the air not far from a ye old style city.

LORD VILLAIN (1): (From Castle) Muah ha ha!

LORD VILLAIN (2): (From Castle) Once the city of Rigor falls, what can stand between me and the conquest of all cities beyond it?!

LORD VILLAIN (3): (From Castle) FIRE THE CANNON OF DESPAIR!

Panel 2: A beam of energy fires from the castle toward the city. The beam is made up of dark, foreboding, energy, but it stopped before it can hit the city by a brightly lit barrier of light and counter-energy.

SFX: (From dark energy) DESPAAAAAAAAAAAIR!!!

Panel 3: LORD VILLAIN, looking down from a balcony on the Doom Castle at the beam of despair as it’s blocked by the energy barrier.

LORD VILLAIN (1): What?!

LORD VILLAIN (2): What is the meaning of this!?

LORD VILLAIN (3): I demand an explanation!

Panel 4: Inside RIGOR, where SIR HEROIC and GOVERNOR FLYNN stand on top of a building watching as the beam of despair continues to hit the energy barrier.

GOVERNOR FLYNN: You’ve done it, Sir Heroic! We’re saved!

SIR HEROIC: All in a days work, Governor!

Panel 5: GOVERNOR FLYNN continues to converse with SIR HEROIC.

GOVERNOR FLYNN (1): So how do you plan to stop Lord Villain and his Cannon of Despair for good?

SIR HEROIC (1): Uh…I don’t actually have a plan for that yet.

GOVERNOR FLYNN (2): What?!

SIR HEROIC (2): I was mostly focused on saving the city and figured I work out the next part later.

Panel 6: SIR HEROIC places a hand on GOVERNOR FLYNN’s shoulder as he puts on a look of determination.

SIR HEROIC: But I’m sure that if you and the citizens of this town hope for a solution to present itself hard enough, it’ll be more than enough to keep this Shield of Hope operational until I’ve figured out a solution to the problem!

(END PAGE)

Hope - Seeds - Grant McLaughlin

1 - Inside a cozy home.  A little girl stands at the window, looking outside.  Her mother comes up behind her, wondering what's up.

DAUGHTER: Where are they?

MOTHER: Where are what?

DAUGHTER: The flowers!

2 - Outside the home, looking at the same window, the daughter and mother both visible in the window.  The mother looks at her daughter with a warm smile; the daughter looks up, curious.  Below the window is a nascent garden before them, by which I mean a patch of dirt with a little border around it.

MOTHER (1): Honey, we planted them yesterday.  Some things take time.

MOTHER (2): Putting them in the ground was only the first step.

3 - Flashforward to a day or two later.  The daughter holds a watering can and waters the dirt.  The mother looks on approvingly.

CAPTION (MOTHER): "We'll need to take care of them."

4 - Flashforward to a bit further down the line.  The daughter and mother are weeding together, but it's also clear the flowers are starting to grow as little stalks of green are rising up towards the sky.

CAPTION (MOTHER): "Nurture them."

5 - Flashforward a little bit further.  The mother chases after a cat that was snacking on some budding flowers (just this side of blooming).  The mother holds a broom and the daughter chases after her as well.  Maybe there's some damage to the garden border where the cat came in.

CAPTION (MOTHER): "Maybe even protect them."

6 - Flashforward to an honest to goodness garden.  It's pretty modest, with a smattering of flowers here and there, but the daughter is over the moon with it.  She skips about, absolutely thrilled.  The mother looks on, beaming.

CAPTION (MOTHER): "It'll take work."

DAUGHTER: Look, Mom!  The flowers!  You did it!

MOTHER: Oh, no, honey.

7 - Close up on one of the flowers.  It's maybe a bit smaller than a platonic flower, but it has a clear beauty to it.

MOTHER (off-panel): ...We did it.

CAPTION (MOTHER): "But it will be worth it."

Why Hope?

I mean, you really only need to look out the window, right?

If there's ever been a time for hope, it feels like 2016 is definitely it.  The world has always had its problems, but it's hard not to feel like this year has seen a sharp turn for the worse.  For the harder.  For the meaner.

I won't bother listing headlines, but the extensive list does lend itself to the kind of feeling of dread and seeming futility that is hard to shake.  Hell, it can be hard to do anything in the face of the sheer amount of awfulness that just keeps coming.  It can feel to the point where hoping things will get better can feel impossible.  Where it would be easier to do nothing.

However, I think we also know - in our heart of hearts - that that's wrong.  As bleak as things may feel, they can get better.  But just as sitting around in fear is not a long-term solution, neither is sitting around in hope.

So often when we think of hope, it's in the sense of believing that something will occur.  But it cannot be passive.  Hope must be active.  We have to get out and make it happen.  Change won't come and things won't improve if we don't.  Whether it's attending protests and demonstrations, participating in community organizing, helping those in need, being an ally, or any number of a long, long list - a list that includes making art - it's up to us to act in the face of hope.  To make our hopes a reality, big or small, every action helps.

I'm under no illusion that some comic scripts will save the world.  But they might make it a little bit better.

I hope you'll agree.