Prophet - A Real Reign Will Come - Niel Jacoby

Full splash: Wide shot as John Prophet has walked into a large abandoned atrium, full of decay and moss. In the center a large figure sits in a throne, its head hanging low, its hair white, its red and white jumpsuit tattered and faded. There is an inscription on the wall behind the throne, but in this splash it is in an alien language.

NO COPY

Inset panel, wide at the bottom of the page: We see through a handheld visual translation device as Prophet reads an inscription on the wall behind the throne, which we do not see clearly in the previous panel. It says:

A GOD THE SIZE OF MOUNTAINS

AS FAST AS RUSHING STREAMS

AS STRONG AS 50 HORSES

UNKNOWN AS COSMIC BEAMS

HE LIES HERE IN HIS BURIAL PLOT

FOR THOSE WHO CRY IN NEED

HE WAS, AND IS, AND ERE SHALL BE

THE ONE WHO REIGNS

SUPREME

Prophet - Famous Last Words - R.A. Wonsowski

Set-up: One billion billion years from now, the last John Prophet oversees the last surviving sentient life on his security dreadnought warship, the solitary witness to the heat death of the universe.  It is in a slow orbit around the last star shining, a pulsar whose last heartbeats are eating itself as it dies.  The survivors have killed each other and themselves in a final attempt to forestall the inevitable, until only John Prophet is left.  In deep sorrow, he has overloaded the great Kaiku drives of the cathedral engines, and awaits his own grand fiery death.

Layout:
111
111
234

Panel 1 - JOHN PROPHET sits in profile on his great captain's throne of technology and steel, his head barely visible from the top of his hulking war-titan armor.  His hair is a white spiky mane, his Liefeld-ian braided ponytail in a giant coil at his feet, his face clean-shaven, revealing the last cruel million years of warfare and age. He is the Methuselah of the far future writ in blood, silicon, and iron, head hung in exhaustion, his gauntleted hands barely gripping the control arms of his throne.  Background, an ornate triangular porthole reveals the last pulsar's entropic dying beats on a velvet sea of black, lighting the depowered bridge in a dim cast.  His two-bladed cleaver-sword sticks out of the primary control panel in the foreground, no sparks, only slender wisps of smoke.

CAPTION:  Surrender, John.  You earned your rest, after how many lifetimes of war.

CAPTION:  In the last thousand years alone, you defeated the plans of the Hierophant, taken bloody revenge on the Ho'P'Lo elders, and killed the monstrous Bendix with your hands around its throat.

CAPTION:  It's over.

Panel 2 - Zoom in, JOHN's head and shoulders in profile, eyes closed, an old man in his chair.  The pulsar in the window begins to fall apart like a dandelion in the wind, its core small and tenuous.

CAPTION:  For you. For the universe. It's all the same.

CAPTION:  Rest in peace.

Panel 3 - Zoom in, only JOHN's facial features in profile, his weakened eyes defiantly open, looking straight ahead again.  The pulsar on the window is a faint spark.  Double over the lines to show the dying tremors of the ship.  Colors should be darker.

CAPTION:  And yet...

CAPTION:  ...there is still a hint of defiance in you.  And if you cannot strangle all Creation yourself, you will at least give its epitaph.

Panel 4 - Zoom in, JOHN's cracked lips and teeth, barely visible in the near dark and vibration, gritting and spitting his last.

CAPTION:  The last words of lonely John Prophet, lovingly hissed on his final breath, the name of his great ship...

JOHN (small lettering):  FIAT LUX.

//the next two pages nothing but whiter than white as the ship explodes//

Prophet – Stop Killing Yourself – MK Stangeland Jr.

(Yeah, I know, I am so mature.)

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: JOHN PROPHET, the original, is on the center of a narrow, naturally formed rock bridge facing off against a hoard of his clones. He has just cut across the chest of one of them.

SFX: ShlIK!

PROPHET: Quit killing yourself!

Panel 2: PROPHET kicks one of the clones off the bridge as he stabs his sword into another one.

KICKED CLONE: AHHH!

PROPHET (1): Quit killing yourself!

SFX: shink

PROPHET (2): Quit killing yourself!

Panel 3: A CLONE blocks PROPHET’s sword with his own blade.

SFX: TING!

CLONE: Would you stop saying…!

Panel 4: PROPHET hits the CLONE in the gut with his fist.

CLONE: Ugh!

Panel 5: PROPHET brings his sword down to stab the CLONE in the back.

Panel 6: View from below as the CLONE falls off the bridge while PROPHET keeps fighting up above.

PROPHET: Quit killing yourself!

(END PAGE)

Prophet - In Truth - Grant McLaughlin

Three rows of panels.  Rows one and two are made up of 3 panels each, with row three housing a single panel.

1 - A planet floats in the darkness of space.  It looks pretty desolate and empty.  The lightbeam that awoke the many different Johns in issue #23 comes from off-panel, going directly to the planet.

CAPTION: The signal traveled along the vastness of space.

2 - Planetside.  This is a planet of craggy mountains and rock.  One of those drill capsules has emerged from the ground.  John and the capsule are on the side of a tall and sheer cliff-face.  John Prophet has already emerged from the capsule and is in the process of throwing up the Ampa Micakane stimulant that every John Prophet seems to expel upon awaking.

CAPTION: Reaching yet another of its many destinations

3 - John injects himself with the stimulant.

CAPTION: As always, John Prophet awoke, ready for the task ahead.

4 - Two figures crest a nearby hill, walking towards John.  They are still a good distance off, but their appearance is visible.  They wear colourful robes that cover most of their long and skinny bodies, with almost comically large hats that look similar to the shells of hermit crabs crowning their heads.

CAPTION: But before he could begin, Truth Wizards of Oanra came to him.

5 - John and the Truth Wizards stand in conversation.  He listens as the Truth Wizards speak (in the indecipherable way that aliens speak in this series).

CAPTION: And they spoke.

6 - John Prophet looks towards the reader, a look of sadness and resignation on his face.  He is defeated.

CAPTION: Their words were unwelcome.

7 - Another far shot, like in panel 2.  John falls from the cliff-face, having leaped to his death after hearing what his interlocutors had to say.  The Truth Wizards are walking away, having already made some good distance.  The capsule and John's equipment lay on the ground, abandoned.

CAPTION: Yet undeniably true.

Prophet - Lore - Brian Manton

1.
A John Prophet sits on a throne, surrounded by small, somewhat humanoid (but not at all human-like) aliens. He wears a crown and jewellery fashioned from alien bones.

CAP: The Pretender reigned as God for untold years.

2.
A large space ship crashes into the alien palace.

CAP: Until the Saviour smote the palace down.

3.
Inside the wreckage of the throne room, another John Prophet (dressed for space travel) emerges from a hatch in the space ship. The Pretender stands from his throne, furious.

CAP: And emerged the perfect likeness of he we had worshipped for so long.

4.
The Pretender raises an axe and charges the new John, but new John simply shoots him with a laser pistol.

CAP: The Pretender thought to destroy him but the Saviour revealed his divine power

5.
New John carrying out repairs to his space ship. Aliens gather around him in awe but he pays them no attention.

CAP: He adorned his skyhammer with trophies from our lands.

CAP: When it began to growl again we knew the Saviour would return to the heavens.

6.
A small swarm of the aliens sexually pleasure John in the way only a swarm of small aliens can.

CAP: Not interested in worship, we feared he would leave us.

CAP: But the shemales reached out to the divine within him and he looked favourably upon us.

7.
Inside a starship. A huge window reveals a space-scape in the background.
An adult alien sits with a group of alien children, telling the story of their ascent to the heavens.

Alien: We have lived amongst the stars of the Gods from that day.
 

Why Prophet?

Giannis Milonogiannis

I've never read Rob Liefeld's original Prophet series but that doesn't matter for Brandon Grapham's epic sci fi reboot of the comic.

Simon Roy

Set ten thousand years in the future, there are countless clones of John Prophet throughout space, allowing for infinite variations of sci fi stories to be told with the character.

Farel Dalrymple

With such wide scope, there is room for much more than sci fi stories, with Graham noting one of the main aims of the series was to "out 'Conan' the current run of 'Conan'"

Simon Roy

The series seems to be greatly influenced by the European scifi found in Metal Hurlant by Moebius and Phillipe Druillet. 

Moebius

Phillipe Druillet

Prophet features an amazing lineup of talented artists including: Brandon Graham, Simon Roy, Giannis Milonogiannis, Farel Dalrymple, James Stokoe and even 2000AD's Dave Taylor.

James Stokoe

Space has no boundaries and there are innumerous John Prophets to be discovered. Stay tuned to Thought-Balloons this week to meet a few of them.

Simon Roy