Low Light Buddy Of Mine - New Fruit - P. A. Nolte

1/ Sitting outside a row of brownstones is a man in an idling white car.  The sky is dark.  It's drizzling lightly.  Just enough to set the mood.  The driver's attention is on the brownstones.

2/ A second story window lights up and the silhouette of a woman passes through the illuminated frame.  Behind her, the shadow of an arm reaches out.

3/ Before she makes it all the way out of sight, the arm has grabbed her, spun her around, and pulled her close.  The woman has been joined by a man, also in silhouette.  They embrace lovingly.  At least, that's what it looks like from across the street.

4/ The man in the white car focuses his attention forward, through the windshield, away from the scene in progress. Behind him, the light has gone off, but he can't care anymore.

5/ With the last flash of his taillights exiting the panel, the street is empty.  The window is dark.

Iron and Wine--"Low Light Buddy of Mine"--David Press.

I guess I'm the only one who took a literal interpretation of the prompt. 

PAGE FOUR.

4.1: The Singer extends his hand down to Sax Man.

1. SINGER:           I love you and you love me.

4.2: The SAX player is up to the stage and let’s make this a big, wide panel because we’re going to slowly pan out of the scene as the band plays the song.

2. DISPLAY:          And there's a new fruit humming in the old fruit trees

4.3: Panning wider out and we can see the wreckage of the bar. However there is still the occasional hipster, who probably hid under a table, dancing in this panel.

3. DISPLAY:          In the wake I'm waiting in a parking lot

4.4: Out of the bar and back to the street. The bar’s sign looking down at the white car.

DISPLAY:             He's jealous of me and what we've got. He can rattle his bell in shining shoe
and never in doubt where I found you

Low Light Buddy of Mine - Unpredictable Savior - Perry Kent

Panel 1

Exterior, night, city park. A couple, man and woman in their late twenties, have been cornered in a dark city park. A street gang of about four thugs surrounds them, a two of them holding sticks like clubs. The couple looks scared as the thugs menace them.

1. THUG 1: Bet you thought you'd cut through our park without paying for it.

2. THUG 2: That shit don't fly.

Panel 2

Two thugs viciously attack the man, punching him, as he calls for help. Another thug grabs onto the woman's wrist. The remaining thug watches.

3. MAN : Help--

4. MAN (sfx): Oof!

Panel 3

Tendrils of ill-defined shadow pull the thugs away from the couple and into the darkness. The couple huddle close to each other on the ground.

5. THUG 1: Aaaahhh!

6. THUG 2: Gaaah!

Panel 4

The couple look out quietly into the suddenly quiet night as they hold each other. The thugs have completely disappeared.

Panel 5

The woman helps the man to walk as she keeps an alert look out into the darkness.

7. WOMAN: T-thank you. Whoever you are…

Panel 6

The woman and man limp through the park, as a response sounds around them.

8. SHADOWS (dark lettering): You're welcome.

-END-

Low Light Buddy of Mine – You Are Likely To Be Eaten By Your Friend – MK Stangeland Jr.

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: A man is sitting in a darkly lit area. Only a small campfire keeps back the dark, and just barely. The man in question is in a bit of a country music performer look to him, and he’s playing a guitar.

SFX: [Music Notes]

Panel 2-3: Continuation of PANEL 1, as the light dims in PANEL 2 and goes out in PANEL 3, leaving him in full darkness.

Panel 4: Darkness.

GRUE: Grrrrrr…

MAN: No, bad Grue!

Panel 5: The light is back, the man is positioned as having just relit the fire.

Panel 6: Panel should line up closely with PANEL 1.

SFX: [Music Notes]

GRUE: grr…

MAN: That’s more like it.

(END PAGE)

Low Light Buddy of Mine - Get Free - Grant McLaughlin

Trying something slightly different here.  If the descriptions aren't clear, there should be no characters visible on the page - just their shadows.

1 - The entrance hallway of a well-appointed home.  It's night time and the light is off.  The front door is open, and while we can't see, Eric, the man entering, his shadow spills onto the floor in the light coming from the door.
LETTERING NOTE: All word balloons should be tailless.

ERIC: Katie, I'm home!

2 - On two pictures hanging on the hallway wall.  In the first, Eric and Kate are a young couple, posing in silly fashion on the beach.  Both look to have no cares in the world - Eric in particular has a wild beard and long hair.  They look happy.  In the second, Eric and Kate wear professional clothing and pose in an equally professional way.  Eric is clean-shaven and his hair is cropped close to his head.  He looks serious; Kate looks kind of sad.  The hall lights are on now, and Eric's shadow falls on the first picture, darkening it.

ERIC: I know, another late night, but the sacrifices are paying off.

3 - On a side table in the hallway.  A big glass jar with "VACATION FUND" written in tidy handwriting sits on the table.  There is not a lot of money in the jar.  Maybe it's dusty.  Eric's shadow falls on this, too.

ERIC: Mr. Peterson told me that another few months of this - a year or two, at most - and I'll make partner.

4 - In the living room.  The lights are off once again, although some spills in from the entrance hallway.  On the coffee table is a large, collage-style sheet of paper with all manner of notes written on it in that same tidy handwriting and related images glued to the paper.  The page reads as follows:
See friends on the regular when we can
Get a dog cat fish
Play soccer together
Weekly Biweekly Occasional Date nights
Start our life together

That final entry is written in different ink and underlined multiple times.  As I tried to demonstrate with the strikethroughs, entries have been changed and modified over time.  Another hint at the sheet's age is that it is yellowing, curling, and the glued pictures are coming off.  Eric's shadow spills over parts of this paper.

ERIC: Once I've done that, we can finally get going on everything else, you know?

5 - On the kitchen.  It's as well appointed as the rest of the house, but in the dark it looks kind of sparse.  The kitchen table is the focus of the panel - there's a note on it.

ERIC: Kate?

6 - Close on the note.  We're looking at the end of it.  Written in the same tidy handwriting is "I love you, but I can't keep waiting" and a fancy signature that reads "Katherine".  Below her signature is a wedding / engagement ring.  The kitchen lights are on, but Eric's shadow is not visible on this page.

ERIC: Honey?

Low Light Buddy of Mine - Self-Titled - Luke Babad

1. Detective Beam on the left of the panel with a police officer. They are on a mountain road where a white car has hit a black car in a t-bone collision and both are tilting precariously over the edge. The black car’s door is ajar.

Detective Beam: I hate Mondays. Two totaled cars... no bodies... looks like they fell into the canyon...those poor bastards.

2. Zoom in on Detective Beam, now frowning

Constable Sam: Detective - we’re still searching but so far all we’ve found is a bottle of iron pills in one car and a smashed bottle of red wine in the other.

Detective Beam: Get me something – I can’t ID the white car because the license plate is rusted so right now we have nothing to go on.

3. The two men are seen standing together looking at the wreckage. Another policeman can be seen next to the cars holding a piece of paper in his outstretched hand.

Detective Beam: Certainly looks like an accident – but it will take until morning to find the bodies in the canyon. I definitely have a strange fee-

Constable Noteworthy: Detective! You’d better come see this!

4. Over Detective Beam’s shoulder, we can see he is holding a wedding photo

Detective Beam: We already ID’d the driver of the black car from his license plate. Why should I care about an old wedding photo?

Constable Noteworthy: Because we found the same exact picture in both cars.

Why Low Light Buddy of Mine? - Luke Babad

Iron & Wine is one of my top six all-time favourite musicians. Usually I like him for his soft, relaxing vibe, but his 2013 album, Ghost on Ghost, had a very different feeling to it. My unknowledgeable read of the song ‘Low Light Buddy of Mine’ is that it seems to take a typical discussion of fraught relationships and puts it in a somewhat sinister context. So I figured it would be fun to see how it inspires the talented Thought Balloon writers!