Matty Roth – Rules of Engagement – MK Stangeland Jr.

(5 Panels)

Panel 1: A soldier, SGT. HALLS (new character), is standing next to MATTY ROTH and handing him a rifle.

MATTY ROTH: What’s this?

SGT. HALLS: A gun, dumb-@#$

Panel 2: MATTY ROTH looks at SGT. HALLS. His face says ‘I KNOW what a gun is’.

MATTY ROTH: No, I mean…why are you giving it to me?

SGT. HALLS (1): Because I’m going to train you to use it.

SGT. HALLS (2): I’m going to teach you how to fight.

Panel 3: MATTY ROTH tries to reject the weapon, but SGT. HALLS pushes it to his chest.

MATTY ROTH: I don’t understand. I’m just a photojournalist.

SGT. HALLS: Not anymore.

Panel 4: MATTY ROTH reluctantly holds the weapon.

SGT. HALLS (1): War’s ugly. This war especially.

SGT. HALLS (2): It’s not just the USA and the FSA. There’s also the d-@&# militias and PMCs.

SGT. HALLS (3): Then there’s the gangs.

Panel 5: SGT. HALLS turns, but still looks at MATTY ROTH as he expect him to follow.

SGT. HALLS (1): Regardless of how the F’*** intellectuals try to talk about the &$#@ rules of warfare, those rules are always going to get broken.

SGT. HALLS (2): You either learn how to fight, or you forever leave yourself at the mercy of those who already do.

(END PAGE)

Matty Roth - Eye of the Beholder - Grant McLaughlin

Matty and Zee are lounging in Zee's apartment.  No particular point in continuity in mind.

1 - Matty is cleaning his camera lens.

CAPTION (MATTY): People generally feel that there isn't much to taking a good photo.

2 - He brings the camera up to his face, the classic picture taking pose.

CAPTION (MATTY): You just need to point and shoot, right?

3 - Pull out a bit.  Matty is aiming the camera at Zee.  She is packing her medic supplies and looking over her shoulder at Matty.  She wears an expression that is a mixture of happiness and mild exasperation.

CAPTION (MATTY): I won't argue that that's a pretty important part of it.

MATTY: Hey, Zee --

SFX: FLASH!

ZEE: Quit messing around, Matty.

4 - This last panel is a developed photograph.  It's at a slight angle so that it overlaps into the panel above and off of the page below.  It is the picture that Matty just took.  Zee looks towards the reader, smiling and looking genuinely happy.

CAPTION (MATTY): But I like to think there's a little more to it than that.

Matty Roth - OMFUG - Matt Duarte

Matty Roth in “OMFUG” by Matt Duarte

Note: Sorry, I haven't read any DMZ. Hope this doesn't go straight into the face of something established in the comic.

Panel 1

Description: Matty Roth stands in a crowd, holding his camera. We can't see many of the features of the people around him just yet.

CAPTION: Deep within the DMZ, there's a place that has remained unchanged by the upheavals going on outside.

Panel 2

Description: A photo. A bathroom is in a terrible condition, semi destroyed, with graffiti on the wall, and very unclean.

CAPTION: Precocious conditions. Wanton violence. Military boots stomping all over the place.

Panel 3

Description: Matty Roth again, taking a photo of a group of young people that seem to be in the middle of a fight, pushing each other. They are wearing ragged clothes with metal studs and tattered patches.

CAPTION: One would think that there is a war going on in here. It's not war...

Panel 4

Description: A photo. The same group from before, this time all within each other's arm, posing for a photo like the friends they are. We can see their shirts before, which sport logos of bands like Ramones, Youth of Today, Crass, Dead Kennedy's, etc.

CAPTION: It's just punk rock.

Panel 5

Description: Matty is leaving a building. Outside of it, there are more teenagers and young adults that look like the ones from the previous panels. He is waving to the doorman, who is waving back. Above him, we can see the sign that reads “CBGB”.

The End.

Matty Roth - Duel - Rol Hirst

Panel One.

Extreme close-up on Matty’s finger, hovering over the shutter release button on his camera. His hand is shaking. He’s scared to press that button.

Voice (O/P): You come here looking for a picture, boy?

Panel Two.

Another close-up, though not as extreme. This time it's Arturo Knowles (new character), the leader of a prominent gang in the DMZ. We can see more of his face than we saw of Matty in the last panel. A gold tooth showing where his lips crack into a grin. A thinly trimmed moustache just below his nose. His smiling eyes, sliced in two by the top border of the panel. He's in his late 20s, but that makes him an old man in his business.

Arturo: A pretty picture to make you famous?

Panel Three.

Pull out from panel one to reveal more of Matty’s face, with the camera held up to his eye so he can focus on the picture he’s about to take. His hand is still shaking. Beads of sweat on his forehead.

Arturo (O/P): I'll give you a picture.

Panel Four.

Pull out from panel two to show more of Arturo. Head and shoulders. He’s grinning. His right arm is up, held towards us, though his hand reaches out of the panel.

Arturo: Come on, boy...

Panel Five.

Full shot now, across the bottom of the page. On a flat rooftop in the DMZ – the damaged New York Skyline is our backdrop – Matty stands to one side of the panel, camera held up, frozen, unable to take his photo. On the other side, Arturo holds a gun on him. Arturo is wearing gang colours and holding his gun sideways on. He’s grinning, taunting, dangerous.

Arturo: Shoot.

Matty Roth - Full Stop - Simon McDonald

PANEL ONE

It's the middle of winter in Brooklyn. Heavy snow has, and continues, to fall. The desecrated city is cast in a gray haze and appears eerily empty, lifeless. In this case, the calm after the storm. The battle has come and gone, the fires have been extinguished, life is reverting to what counts as normal in this world.

CAPTION

There is a story here that needs to be told.

PANEL TWO

A mass burial site has been developed, bodies from both sides of the conflict of varying age and sex buried in individual unmarked graves, dutifully being filled by expressionless men and women dressed snugly for the weather. Matty Roth stands amongst them, arms hanging loosely by his side, unmarked notepad in one hand, pen in the other. He's holding back the emotion of the moment, but his neutral facade shows signs of cracking.

CAPTION

For the first time, in a long time...

PANEL THREE

Tight on Matty, his mouth creased into a frown, eyes wet with tears.

CAPTION

...I'm not sure I can write it.

Matty Roth - The Land of the Free - Ben Rosenthal

1. A tight shot of a pair of legs, walking through what looks to be a bombsite. Debris is everywhere, covered with dust. Think post Sept 11 level of decimation. Parts of building walls are still standing. Nothing is left alive.

CAPTION (Matty)

They blew up the bridges a few hours ago.

2. The fees have stopped in front of what looks to be a notebook, its corner jutting out from a pile of dirt.

CAPTION (Matty)

Some bartered their way onto ship, others just tried to swim.

2. A hand is wiping away the dust off a note pad. On the black, well used black cover are the words ‘PRESS’ scrawled on with white out.

CAPTION (Matty)

I stayed.

3. The notebook is open as the unseen figure opens it up to the last entry. We can see the previous captions written on the pages. What would be the next caption is written on the dirty page. The next caption in the next panel is only slightly visible. Perhaps the first two words.

Notebook reads: If this is going to be the end, I’m going to see it through.

4. An aerial view of the DMZ, decimated. It has been levelled by many missiles. Nothing is left of the former Manhattan Island. The Statue of Liberty is the only structure left standing.

CAPTION (Matty)

I can hear the planes now.

Matty Roth – A Favour To Ask, A Menial Task – Ryan K Lindsay

PAGE 1 - 4 PANELS

1. New York. Nice wide establishing shot, we’re about the corner of Central Park West and W 75th Street. A lone room of a building burns amongst the others – flames lick out the window.. We are in Winter so the flames stand out from the rest of the panel. Snow drifts down softly. From this angle we can see the New York Historical Society a few blocks down.

Caption: I had to call in a lot of favours.
Caption: Not all of them.
Caption: Just the most powerful ones.

2. Matty Roth sits on a bench, a thick jacket protects him from the cold. PRESS stands out on his back. He is looking at the fire.

Caption: Wilson had a stockpile of Shi Gao like it was blow and he was Senor Montana.

3. We see over Matty’s shoulder, he’s writing in a notepad.

Caption: The gypsum found in Shi Gao is what’s stopping that fire from engulfing this whole apathetic block.
Caption: We’re safe.

4. We now look up at Matty, eyes concentrated on his notepad, and behind him is a Central Park Ghost creeping up on him, rifle in hand, identity concealed. He should look like a real ghost coming out of the snow. He should look scary as hell.

Caption: But they don’t know that and I need their attention.

 

Why Matty Roth?

Because he’s one damn fine character.

And maybe I’m man-crushing on him just a little.

Maybe.

DMZ is one of my Top 10 All Time favourite books. It’s simply amazing how well Brian Wood, and his wide cast of artists, made this book. It’s smart, beautiful, heartbreaking, smart, funny, gory, and so damn smart. This is the sort of book you want to read again and again because the plot is so tight but the characters carry the heart of the book every time.

Matty Roth is this heart and he’s been broken for some time now.

DMZ is also the kind of book you wish you wrote. I wish I had written it. It’s the sort of sprawling saga that doesn’t pad a tale and does its own thing that I love, and love to write.

DMZ just came to an end. The trades are all out there but I have a feeling some deluxe HCs will be on the way – and my wallet will be opening for such an event, you better believe it.

For now, think about checking out the book, enjoy our scripts today, and look after one another. That’s what it’s really all about, right?*

* Wrong it’s about looking after yourself. Then you can more properly look after others.