Mirror Universe--"The Worst Writer Ever"--David Press.

In which two different parallel versions of me take on different literary lives. This takes place after a the school psychiatrist has told me that a "learning disability" will never make me a good writer and attributes it to something completely stupid. 

7.1: On the left side is MU DAVE [Mirror Universe Dave], who stays and listens to the COUNSELOR in sixth grade.

1. COUNSELOR [O.P.]: If only you would stop focusing on comics you could get better as a student. 

7.2: And on the right side is EARTH-1 DAVE [real me] who is standing up and leaving the panel. He’s walking out of the room, refusing to listen to the counselor.

2. COUNSELOR [O.P.]: Dave? Where are you going?

7.3: Again, on the left side, we see HIGH SCHOOL MU DAVID as he writes for the school paper. The caption is what he’s writing.

3. CAPTION:          … Ms. Blanco was not convicted for murdering her husband, but administration doesn’t buy it.

7.4: On the right side, EARTH 1 DAVE sits in the computer lab with a bunch of grungy kids wearing Pantera and Slipknot t-shirts reading Watchmen and the Dark Knight Returns.

4. KID 1:           Man, Frank Miller or what, dude?

5. ME:               Yeah, you gotta read Ronin, Jeff.

7.5: Back to the left side: MU DAVE sits at a plywood desk with several other people typing furiously into Macbooks. Above all of their heads is the rainbow colored logo of GAWKER, and a big screen television display numbers that mean unique hit counts.

NO DIALOGUE.

7.6: E1 DAVE delivering a pitch to JIM VALENTINO at a convention floor.

6. E1 DAVE:          The comic is called WORTHY’S CAUSE, and I hope you like it, Mr. Valentino.

7. VALENTINO:        Thanks, I’ll take a look at it.

7.7: Back to the left side and MU DAVE is holding up a letter with the SIMON AND SCHUSTER logo in the corner of it. He’s shouting off-panel.

8. MU DAVE:          NIKKI! Simon and Schuster gave me a three-book deal!

7.8: Back to the right side and E1 DAVE is holding up a rejection letter from IMAGE: SHADOWLINE. We can see a little bit of the FORM LETTER.

9. DISPLAY:          Dear Mr. Press, I regret to inform you that   WORTHY’S CAUSE does not conform to our current needs.

Mirror Universe - A.I.M. Higher - Ray Wonsowski

Layout :
1111
2222
2222

Panel 1- on a large video monitor, we are given a view of a beautiful day, a lush fruit orchard, the citrus ripe  and the colors vibrant.

CAPTION : Sub-Saharan Africa.

Panel 2- interior, the command center of Advanced Idea Mechanics, computers monitored by various A.I.M. scientists. Hovering in the center, looking up beatifically at the monitor, is M.O.D.O.C (Mechanical Organism Designed Only for Creation), humbly pleased with his work.

AIM SCIENTIST 1: Project EDEN is ready for its second harvest!

AIM SCIENTIST 2: We are go for human cancer cure trials, sir!

CAPTION (M.O.D.O.C): Dear Johann, these wonders are only the beginning...

Mirror Universe - One Way Reunion - Nicholas O'Gorman

PANEL 1: Establishing shot of a bedroom, clothes lying wanton here-and-there. On the bed a hetero sexual pair (ALISON and SEBASTIAN) in the heat of it and reaching climax.

PANEL 2: Done the deed, they collapse in exhaustion, lazily caressing each other.

SEBASTIAN:
Wow, we’ve never been in sync like that before!

PANEL 3: Close up of Alison, looking quizzically.

ALISON:

We.. b-before?

PANEL 4: FLASH BACK: Alternate Universe ALISON and the self-same SEBASTIAN. They are sitting in an intimate restaurant, but there is miles of emotional distance separating the pair: SEBASTIAN is obviously being dumped.

CAP:
BEFORE.

PANEL 5: FLASHBACK [CONT.] SEBASTIAN is left alone and distraught at the restaurant table, collapsing in on himself. A bottle of wine sits on the table, fully drank, with a second bottle in SEBASTIAN's hand.

CAP:
BEFORE.

PANEL 6: FLASHBACK [CONT.] ALISON’S wedding, SEBASTIAN watching the newlyweds leave the church to much fanfare, but he across the street is sitting in his car, idling, and obviously crushed. A torn up or crumpled invitation (PLUS 1 visible on the invite if possible) and a gun is on the dashboard.

CAP:
BEFORE.

PANEL 7: FLASHBACK [CONT.] SEBASTIAN is in a top level security military compound. Around the room are dead military men and women, he is standing on a teleporter of sorts, and energy encases him as he teleports to another dimension. On the terminal screen we see a different dimensional earth is selected, amid a host of other different dimensional earth options.

CAP:
BEFORE.

PANEL 8: We have a close up of SEBASTIAN.

SEBASTIAN V.O.:
(1): ‘BEFORE’…
(2): The word turns to bitter in my mouth realizing I have fucked up this relationship…
(3): Again.

PANEL 9: Extradimensional law enforcers burst into the room, detaining SEBASTIAN, ALISON covers her body under the covers and looks truly mortified.

Mirror Universe - Great Minds - Grant McLaughlin

1 - On a high-tech portal machine.  Well, high-tech might be strong.  Basically, I'm thinking something that looks like the circular part of a Stargate machine (please note, I've never watched the show) - it can be more hastily made, oblong, or whatever you'd like.  The important thing is that the portal portion should be silvery and sheeny (almost certain that's a word) in a manner similar to the element of mercury.  If you deem it appropriate, Patrick (who will get more facetime next panel) can be off to the side here, looking at the portal, but the portal should be the focus.

CAPTION (PATRICK) (1): There are infinite worlds beyond our own.

CAPTION (PATRICK) (2): Ergo, there must be some where I didn't screw everything up.

CAPTION (PATRICK) (3): Thankfully, I only need to find one.

2 - Patrick stands in front of the portal, preparing to walk through it.  He wears a lab coat, a five o'clock shadow (that's potentially onto 6 or 7 o'clock), and is generally not super kempt.

PATRICK: Here goes--

3 - A man who looks identical to Patrick (save for the fact that he wears a traditional mirror-universe mustache - let's call him Mirror Patrick) stumbles out of the portal and right into Patrick, taking him out with a pseudo-shoulder tackle to the gut.  Patrick is taken completely by surprise by Mirror Patrick's unexpected appearance.

MIRROR PATRICK: -- nothing!

4 - Patrick and Mirror Patrick lie tangled on the ground, both trying to shake off the cobwebs of the sudden impact.

NO COPY

5 - The Patricks make eye contact, realizing what has happened.  They wear identical expressions of frustration / annoyance.
LETTERING NOTE: Have Patrick and Mirror Patrick share a word balloon as they speak the same words at the same time.

PATRICK & MIRROR PATRICK: What are you doing?!  This is my idea!

Mirror Universe – Mega Wily – MK Stangeland Jr.

(Some time back I wound up doing an art piece that toyed with an idea I never further developed. Well, now I’m further developing it a little.)

(In the year 200X, the robots ROCK LIGHT and ROLL LIGHT rebelled against their creator, DR. THOMAS LIGHT. They imprisoned him and launched a robot uprising with the help of the eight ROBOT MASTERS.

In this time of chaos, the world found hope from an unexpected hero. A scientist, DR. ALBERT WILY, wanted by the law for crimes he did not commit, armed himself with the MEGA SUIT. With this weapon, a man the world turned its back on it became its last hope. A man the world will know as…MEGA WILY!)

(5 Panels)

Panel 1: WILY lowers his arm as he looks up at ROCK and his miniature floating BATTLE FORTRESS.

WILY (1): I don’t have to defeat you.

WILY (2): You’ve already done that yourself.

ROCK: I fail to understand.

Panel 2: ROCK looks a touched confused by WILY’s action and statement.

WILY (1): (Off-Panel) Query, Rock: Why do you have facial hair?

ROCK (1): …

ROCK (2): That is irrelevant.

Panel 3: WILY looks up at ROCK – the look on his face makes clear he knows exactly what he’s doing.

WILY (1): Is it, Rock?

WILY (2): It was never part of your original design. That much I know for sure. You’ve added it yourself, for the same reason you’ve failed to abandon your current form.

Panel 4: Close up on WILY as he prepares to deliver the final knockout blow of his logic bomb.

WILY (1): Thomas may not have succeeded in giving you the true self-awareness and freedom of choice he longed for, Rock, but he came far closer than he realized.

WILY (2): Because deep down inside, you yourself are the very thing you claim to be inferior and seek to destroy.

Panel 5: ROCK looks like he’s about ready to freeze up as his brain fails to compute what WILY is telling him with his existing data.

WILY (1): Somewhere inside that metal shell of yours, you are, in fact…

WILY (2): …human.

ROCK: …

(END PAGE)

Why Mirror Universe?

What if life as we knew it were inverted?

What if heroes fought for evil and villains fought for good?

What if peaceful explorers were instead power-hungry conquerors?

What if intergalactic conquerors and the forces that fought to destroy them traded places?

Ever since the creation and popularization of the concept by through the work of Star Trek and DC comics, the idea of the ‘Mirror Universe’ has become one of the most popular alternate-universe tropes out there. It’s not hard to imagine why – beyond getting a built-in universe where things can be expected to be badly in need of fixing (a popular trope in its own right), you also get perhaps the most challenging foe a hero could face. After all, what possible foe could be more difficult to overcome than ones self, to be forced to face yourself at your worst and defeat them?

Plus there’s something fun about seeing the worst of the worst and imagining what they might be like if they weren’t so dedicated to the pursuit of villainy. Bonus points when you get to see them team up with the hero.

So break out those mirrors and imagine what’s on the other side. And don’t forget to bring along the goatees!

Adventure Time – Time for ADVENTURE! With the King of Ice and Gunter – MK Stangeland Jr.

(7 Panels)

Panel 1: KING OF ICE - a heroic mirror universe version of the ICE KING, who looks mostly like his counterpart aside from having a far more clean-cut beard - is standing atop a wall of his ice fortress. He’s currently rolling his eyes.

Standing next to him, and looking about the same, is GUNTER the penguine.

KING OF ICE (1): Ah cripes. It’s you two again.

KING OF ICE (2): What do you want…

Panel 2: Standing outside the KING OF ICE’s fortress are SINISTER FINN and BAD DOG JAKE, the evil mirror universe versions of FINN the HUMAN and JAKE the DOG. The most notable features that distinguish them from their heroic counterparts are that FINN has an evil looking mustache (naturally) and scar while JAKE has an evil looking goatee (also naturally) and wears an eye-patch. Not because he needs the eye-patch, mind you, but because it looks cool and he thinks it makes him look kind of evil.

KING OF ICE: (From off panel, continued from PANEL 1. Should be enlarged for emphasis.) …SINISTER FINN and BAD DOG JAKE?

Panel 3: SINISTER FINN, holding his sword, points up at the KING OF ICE. BAD DOG JAKE shakes his fist at him.

SINISTER FINN: We heard you’re giving refuge to a princess!

BAD DOG JAKE: So we came to kidnap her!

Panel 4: KING OF ICE gives an offhanded wave of dismissal.

KING OF ICE (1): Bah!

KING OF ICE (2): I don’t know what you’re talking about!

Panel 5: KING OF ICE leans down to whisper in GUNTER’s ear.

KING OF ICE: Show our guest out through the back exit, and make sure she gets there safely.

Panel 6: BAD DOG JAKE points up at KING OF ICE and shouts angrily.

BAD DOG JAKE: I heard that!

KING OF ICE (1): I don’t care what you heard!

KING OF ICE (2): Now bug off or else I make you bug off!

Panel 7: SINISTER FINN charges at KING OF ICE’s castle with his sword up and at the ready. BAD DOG JAKE runs right behind him.

SINISTER FINN (1): NO!

SINISTER FINN (2): HYAAAA!

(END PAGE)