Top Cow - The Madding Crowd, Part 10 - R.A. Wonsowski

Believe it or not, the general seed of this story started as my first Top Cow submission. Particularly my villain of choice, in a way... Hopefully this answers a few mysteries...Happy Halloween!

Synopsis: Jack Ryder has been separated from the Creeper, with the wrong mind in the wrong body. Jack goes to investigate the pharma labs responsible, where multiple subjects have been separated from their "shadow aspects" by mysterious black diamonds., when he is suddenly ambushed...

All backgrounds are flat black. Layout:
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Panel 1- Off-kilter POV. The CREEPER is being dragged down to the ground at the legs by a swarm of DARKLINGS. Their teeth and claws are bared and the CREEPER is feeling both tear at him.

(Off-Panel): Well, well...I knew I had tasted your madness before...

CREEPER: ...rrRRRGh...

(Off-Panel):....didn't I kill you once?

Panel 2- Foreground, the CREEPER is now swarmed to the waist by rabid DARKLINGS; some at the fringes are licking their chops. Behind, the shapes of Drs. SKOLOS and YATZ merge into one, like the weaving of gelatinous tendrils.

SKOLOS: Ah, you and your ilk have an annoying knack for not staying dead.

YATZ: But that will soon change. I see you've met the Darklings.

Panel 3- Foreground, the CREEPER is now dragged lower, and DARKLINGS now clutch about as high as his chest and shoulders; one scratches at his face and his expression is one of fear. Background, the two forms have coalesced into the DARKNESS, approaching from behind; we see his carapace-like armor, but only the glowing blue and pupilless eyes are visible of the head.

DARKNESS: They are an outward extension of the Darkness within Jackie Estacado.

DARKNESS: With him fully in the thrall of the Black Diamond, they are the willing cannon fodder for my army.

Panel 4- Foreground, the CREEPER is now brought to his knees, eyes shut as he starts to panic, the DARKLINGS completely covering him except for his head, and one DARKLING has clamped his mouth shut. Background, the DARKNESS is fully visible, towering over the grand guignol. His faceplate is in place, but instead of Jackie's long black hair, there is a black medieval leather skull-cap with stitching down the middle and two long and thick leather thongs dangling to the chestplate, one in front of each pointed ear.

DARKNESS: I can now hunt the I-Am and mount His head on the topmost spire of my castle. I can raze His creation in the Seven directions.

DARKNESS: Such is the power of the Darkness.

Panel 5- Close-up, the CREEPER's face, eyes wide with the terror of recognition, mouth still clamped by Darkling hands. From behind, the faceplate pulls apart and away from a face, 2/3 darkened, the other third an ashen grey, fiery violet eyes from below the skull-cap, our villain is finally revealed as he grinningly nibbles seductively on the CREEPER's ear. A Darkness-gauntleted  hand holds a Black Diamond in front of their gaze.

ECLIPSO: And whose hands are better to wield it than mine.

Why Top Cow Talent Hunt 2015?

It's that time of year again.  The third Top Cow Talent Hunt is on NOW and runs through until March 2015.  Last year's Top Cow Talent Hunt had 1,500 entries, and is a fantastic opportunity for creators to get seen.

Below is what Matt Hawkins of Top Cow had to say about the Talent Hunt to CBR:

"Getting published in comics has never been simultaneously easier and harder than it is now," Matt Hawkins told CBR. "The barrier to entry is lower than it ever has been for self-publishing with digital, crowd funding and print-on-demand technologies, but this is a hard road to make a living at."

Being aspiring writers here at Thought Balloons we could not pass up the opportunity to focus on the Talent Hunt once again.  Our goal for this week is to give a tease - will it be a single page of script from a previous year hunt?  Or will it be focusing on a character from this year's hunt.  Due to the rules we will NOT be posting anything from this years competition.  

The list of characters that can be used are;

Witchblade
The Darkness
The Angelus
Heart Stone
Wheel of Shadows
Coin of Solomon
Ember Stone
Pandora's Box
The Glacier Stone
Spear of Destiny
The Thirteenth Artifact
The Rapture
The Blood Sword
Aphrodite XI
Cyber Force

Script should be twenty-two pages long, no synopsis to be submitted.

There are sample scripts included for artists, but obviously I can't re-post those here. However, if you're a writer and are having trouble downloading, that should be enough to go on for the moment. The pdf is pretty similar to the previous versions of the Talent Hunt. If anything, there are more characters and less restrictions.

Want to know more about the Talent Hunt?  Click the link below for rules, guidelines and submission details.
And enjoy!

http://images.comicbookresources.com/topcow/TopCowTalentHunt-2014.zip

Top Cow Talent Hunt - Flame Licked - Grant McLaughlin

Sorry I'm late to the party, everyone.  While I'm definitely interested by the Talent Hunt, I haven't gotten a lot of time to work on my pitch yet, so this page is more of a feeling out of one of the characters I'm considering exploring further.  Nothing fancy here, I just really liked the imagery.

I like the idea of the gutters filling with smoke, which turns into a bigger and bigger fire towards the bottom of the page, but that might be a little much (and perhaps too much of a riff on J.H. Williams III's brilliant work on Batwoman).

1 - An ancient looking temple room.  A pedestal sits in the middle of the room, the Ember Stone sitting on top of it, glowing brightly.  Glorianna Silver stands before the pedestal, reaching towards the stone.  She wears a satisfied grin.  A few nameless assistants / grunts look on from behind her, looking concerned.

GLORIANNA: I can feel its warmth...

ASSISTANT: Be careful!

2 - Glorianna looks behind her towards her assistants, irritation on her face.  In her half turn, Glorianna has one hand on the Ember Stone.  The Ember Stone's bright glow has erupted into a fire that licks her hand (something she cannot see yet).

GLORIANNA: Careful?  The Ember Stone is finally mi-- !!

3 - Glorianna turns to face her assistants.  The fire dances up her arm, already past her shoulder.  Her face twists in an awful combination of horror and pain.  Her assistants are surprised and terrified, some moving to help, others not knowing what to do.

ASSISTANT: Mistress!

4 - Money shot for the page.  Pulled back far enough to see Glorianna's entire body, which is completely engulfed by the spreading flames.  The burning inferno is bright, making the rest of the room seem darkened in comparison.

GLORIANNA: AAARGGHGHHH!

Top Cow Talent Hunt - Raymond Wonsowski

ok...fully aware this is breaking the rules a little bit...but the pieces all came together way late last night, especially this spread, and I really want to know if I'm on the right track...especially Tom Judge's voice, I'm not sure if I got him right...let me know...Note: page one has the embassy exploding, and this takes place roughly a year after...

PAGE 2 & 3

(double-page spread)

The left half of page 2 should be three panels, one on top of the other. Lower right hand corner of page 3 should be a small panel by itself. The rest is a giant splash.

Left Panel 1 – Checkpoint barricade. On our side, two Marines in full armor flak and rifles slung. One pushes his helmet back a little to get a better look at the Passport and FBI ID flashed by the man on the other side of the barricade, TOM JUDGE (dressed as usual: black suit, a robin's-egg blue shirt with his priest's collar undone). The other Marine is calling in on his radio. Note: No buildings, no trees, no background scene, only the light violet-grey sky.

CAPTION 1 – Most embassy incidents, whether criminal or terrorist, are usually handled by the State Department in-house by the Diplomatic Security Service.

CAPTION 2 – After Nine-Eleven, though, DSS started sharing the investigative workload. Incidents on embassy grounds get passed along to the FBI.

Left Panel 2 – TOM, now past the barricade, is walking (towards us), hands in his pants pockets. The bottom, and some of the foreground should be a faint purple-ish smoke, but the very bottom is pure white.

CAPTION 3 – Reading the initial redacted reports, I wondered why fly me down here. Scans like a terrorist attack, or local insurgents like the E.P.P. Except...

CAPTION 4 – Paraguay's a rinky-dink third world nation bullied by it's South American neighbors. And the “People's Army” can barely afford machetes. This kind of destruction's beyond them.

Left Panel 3 – TOM gets on one knee looking over the edge of the smoky white at the bottom of the page. He runs a single finger along the white.

CAPTION 5 – Then I saw the uncensored version, and why they sent their favorite "Father Spooky Mulder".

CAPTION 6 – Across the street was a National Police precinct house and a hospital.  The other side of the avenue had a politician's campaign headquarters. Presidential residence and a bank further down the road.

Splash – Aerial view, Asuncion, the vicinity of the Embassy, except (if you assume the Embassy was ground zero) there is now a white bowl about 3 kilometers wide, smoky violet dust rising from the center. Outside the bowl, trees, houses, and office buildings are toppled outwards away from the bowl on all sides. Note: Nothing is burning, so the destruction should be evident. In the distance, a military helicopter hovers above the scene.

CAPTION 7 – Traffic cops, newspaper stands, fruit sellers, windshield squeegiers.  Everyone and everything was obliterated in the blast. 

CAPTION 8 – No fire, no heat. But lots of light and noise. And the sheer force of the event.

CAPTION 9 – And one other detail...

Lower Right Corner Panel – Close-up, TOM sucks on the finger he ran along the edge of the “bowl”, his nose scrunches at the taste.

CAPTION 10 – Yup.

CAPTION 11 – Salt.

Top Cow Talent Hunt - Pandora's Box - Niel Jacoby

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Panel 1- Half-page. We see our holder of Pandora's Box walking down a New York City street. His eyes are hidden by his hoodie and baseball cap. Pandora's Box is under his arm, about the size of a cigar box. The sidewalk is not packed, but it's not empty either.

CAPTION: HI.

CAPTION: I'M THE GUY HOLDING THE BOX.

Panel 2: Close on the box under his arm. He's put a few stickers on it, designs up to you, but we can see greek letters carved into the top.

CAPTION: THIS WOULD BE THE PART WHERE I TELL YOU WHO I AM, WHERE I'M COMING FROM, AND WHERE I'M GOING TO.

CAPTION: BUT LIKE THIS BOX...

Panel 3: Close up on his smirking mouth.

CAPTION: THAT'S A BOX I PLAN TO KEEP CLOSED FOR NOW.

Top Cow Talent Hunt - Interview Process - J.D. Coughlan

Two rows of three small panels, one long panel along the bottom.

Panel 1: Wally West as the Flash (mask off to show his red hair), sitting in a chair, looking at the reader. He looks fed-up.

VOICE (O.P.): Why do you want to work at Top Cow?

WALLY: Well, I was made redundant at my old company...

Panel 2: Shazam, sitting in same position, leaning forward.

SHAZAM: Nobody there even knew my name!

Panel 3: Norman Osborn, arms folded.

OSBORN: I was unfairly demoted...

Panel 4: Power Girl (old costume), shrugging.

POWER GIRL: ...dress code was very restrictive...

Panel 5: Deadpool, getting up to leave.

DEADPOOL: Oh, I'm sorry, I thought "Top Cow" was a burger joint...

Panel 6: Spider-Man, counting off on his fingers. His speech bubble can be larger than the panel if required, going out of it.

SPIDER-MAN: Zero possibility of advancement, absolutely no family benefits, poor pay, terrible hours, management has no idea how to utilise my skills, annoying co-workers, my workload has me stretched thin...

Panel 7: Long panel of the opposite POV. Sabine, Glorianna Silver, Michael Finnegan, Ian Nottingham, Ji Xi, and Tom Judge sitting behind a long desk, all looking exhausted.

FINNEGAN: This is gonna take a while...

END OF PAGE

Another busy week for me, plus my unfamiliarity with any of the available characters results in this cop-out, but rest assured I will give the actual talent hunt more consideration at a better time.

Top Cow Talent Hunt – Blood and Snow - Shaun Richens.

Ok these are the first two pages of the first draft of my script for the hunt.

PAGE ONE.

5 PANELS.

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234

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1.A page wide panel. A lone figure climbs the steep incline of a snow-covered mountain. The figure is wrapped in thick clothes with a hood up over his head,in his hand is a sword wrapped up with cloth. Snow falls heavily all around.The panel is almost entirely white; the figure a speck of black, the sword he carries has a faint red flow to it.

         CAPTION:

         Forty-eight hours from now.

2.Pull in close on the figure. We are behind him as he grasps with his free hand to pull himself further on. Snow whips all around him

         NO COPY.

3.A close up on the wrapped up sword in the hooded figures hand. The red glow is growing stronger.

         NO COPY.

4.The hooded figure has just come over a peak, we are facing him but snow and the shade from the hood cover his face so we can’t see whom it is.

          NO COPY.

5.Over the shoulder shot of the hooded figure as he falls to his knees looking at the vast Shaolin temple that stands before him. The temple looks like this,it is crafted into the very rock of the mountain and is covered in snow. The stairs leading up to it roll out from the position of the hooded man.

         NO COPY.

PAGE TWO

A full-page splash.

Thedoors to the Temple have been kicked wide open, snow pours into the large central room of the temple, Shaolin monks look to the door in shock, the firepits all around the chamber blow as the mountain wind rushes in.

Standing in the doorway, hood now blown down, holding the Blood Sword in one hand and its wrappings in the other is a very cold and pissed off looking Ian Nottingham.

         NOTTINGHAM:

         Where the fuck is Michael Finnegan?

         (Linked)

         NOTTINGHAM:

         My sword told me he was here.

Top Cow Talent Hunt - Pandora’s Quest - MK Stangeland Jr.

Page 4

(7 Panels)

Panel 1: Smaller Panel. Four of the mercenaries approach JI XI with their weapons drawn.

JI XI stands and waits as they approach. He looks mostly harmless in his present position.

MERCENARY COMMANDER: (From Off-Panel) [Something]

JI XI: (Thought Box) <They choose to attack.>

Panel 2: Smaller Panel. Close up on JI XI’s face, with special attention paid to the symbol for the 13^th Artifact on his forehead. His eyes are now filled with aggression – you can tell things are about to get serious and that the mercenaries approaching are about to be destroyed.

JI XI: (Thought Box) <I am disappointed by their decision.>

Panel 3: Panel is positioned behind JI XI.

Combat starts as JI XI crouches and sweeps his arm across the ground in front of him. The force he does this with kicks up a wall of dirt and dust in front of him, obscuring the four mercenaries and making it impossible to see anything beyond them.

A smoky, steamy trail follows the movement of JI XI’s arm to represent the extra power the 13^th Artifact is granting his moves. This should continue throughout the fight with any other combat moves that JI XI performs.

SFX: (Accompanying the wall of dust that’s kicked up.) k-K-k-rrr-ii-sHhhh

JI XI: (Text Box) <The Artifact, it seizes upon the moment.>

13^th ARTIFACT: (Text Box) KILL THEM.

JI XI: (Text Box) <For now, I will oblige its demands.>

Panel 4: This is a very active panel - JI XI bursts through the wall of dust as it hits its climax. The back half of his body is still obscured as it hasn’t come through yet.

JI XI leads with a closed palm strike to the chest of the nearest mercenary (#1). The impact is clearly visible all across the mans body as he reacts to being hit with a force that is about to send him flying several feet backwards.

The smoky trail of JI XI’s movements should be mixed with some of the dirt and dust from the wall JI XI created in the previous panel as it gets caught up in the movements.

JI XI: <But I shall attempt to be merciful.>

JI XI (2): <Quick deaths. No suffering.>

JI XI (3): <They shall hardly even know what is happening.>

SFX: (From the point of impact on the mercenaries chest.) CRACK!

Panel 5: JI XI follows by swinging his other arm around to hit the next closest mercenary with a palms up spear hand to the throat of MERCENARY #2. The Mercenary is just starting to react to the blow in a way one might expect someone to react when being hit in the throat by an exceptionally powered martial arts master.

The smoky trail follows his movements from panel 4 to panel 5, showing that the two moves have happened in relatively short order – not super speed, but far faster than any normal human should be capable of.

Some of the dirt and dust that got mixed into the trail from the previous panel should follow the moves through into this panel as well, and while JI XI has passed the wall of dirt and dust he kicked up in panel 3, it hasn’t fully settled on the ground yet.

MERCENARY #2: GgGuUGg…

SFX: (From impact with throat) tthhuk

Panel 6: Panel set near the ground from behind MERCENARY #2’s position.

JI XI drops to sweep MERCENARY #2’s legs out from under him before he’s even finished reacting to having his throat collapsed. Bullets fly over the heads of both JI XI and MERCENARY #2 as MERCENARY #3 and MERCENARY #4 shoot at JI XI from off-panel.

SFX: (From impact of leg sweep) Crrk

SFX: (From guns firing) thhw-thhw-thhw-thhw-thhw-thhw-thhw-thhw

Panel 7: The smoke trail follows JI XI’s leg as he completes the sweep and brings the leg behind him. He has used this same leg to help propel him up and forwards as he delivers a blow with both fists at once into the chest of MERCENARY #2, who is half-way to the ground and currently ‘lying’ horizontal in the air – the panel takes place right at the moment of impact as the fists hit the chest, allowing us to see the very beginning of the connection.

(END PAGE)

Top Cow Talent Hunt- Below the surface -Dan Hill

I decided to go against the grain and post a teaser page for my own effort for the Talent Hunt. This isn't from the actual script or pitch, but merely a teaser for the larger piece.

Hence the 50 shades of vague.

Page One

1.1
SPLASH PAGE: A CLOSE UP on the sidewalk somewhere in a busy city. We can see the feet of several PEDESTRIANS walking to and fro, oblivious to the activity beneath their feet.

Through several of the cracks in the sidewalk we can see a purplish, pink glow.

Something is stirring.

CAPTION

We see evil, anger, fear and hate on the street every day...

CAPTION

...woven into the fabric of our lives, feeding off each other over and over.

CAPTION

Their source has no name. Their source is everywhere.

CAPTION

Their source is awake.

CAPTION

The 13th Artefact.

CAPTION

No-one is safe.

Top Cow Talent Hunt - The Hunt - Ben Rosenthal

Panel 1 runs the top of the page.  Panels 2 and 3 are side by side on the grid.  Panel 4 runs the width of the page on the bottom of the grid.

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1.  Tom Judge is crouched on the ground, looking at foot prints.  There are signs of an obvious struggle.  He is investigating.

CAPTION

The Thirteen Artifacts of Power were gathered.

2.  Tom is now standing up, looking around.  He knows he is being watched.

CAPTION

Thirteen wielders were brought together, and they changed the world.

3.  Hiding in shadows, barely visible is Ian Nottingham.  He holds the Blood Sword in his hand.

CAPTION

If thirteen people can change the world when each holding an Artifact.

4.  Ian Is mid air, leaping towards Tom Judge, who is activating The Rapture.  He is mid transformation as Ian bares down on him.  Around Ian’s neck are the Ember, Glacier and Heart Stones.  He has killed the barres and is after The Rapture hanging from Tom’s neck.

CAPTION

Imagine the power one man holding all of them at once would wield.

Why Top Cow Talent Hunt?

Really?

REALLY?

I have to explain to you why a site in which the writers scribe a new page of comic script once a week would choose to write for a company currently looking for writers?

I have to explain that this is one of the biggest opportunities any writer or artist could ask for?

I have to keep on sounding like a prat by typing rhetorical questions?

In the very unlikely case that you have not heard, independent heavyweight Top Cow are holding a talent hunt competition looking to hire two unknown writers and two unknown artists.  The rules are simple: you must not have been published before, and must chose one (or two) characters from the following list:

Sabine (Wheel of Shadows)

Glorianna Silver (The Ember Stone)

Michael Finnegan (The Glacier Stone)

Ian Nottingham(Blood Sword)

Ji Xi (13thartifact)

Pandora’s Box wielder TBD

Tom Judge(Rapture)

Writer’s can use these characters and these characters only.  Use of any other character either within the Top Cow universe or creator owned will be ignored and discarded.  Submissions must be in by 31/12/2012.

Needless to say all of us here at Thought Balloons are taking part in this fantastic competition.  Will we privy you to the first page of the required 8 page sample script needed for the submission?  Or will the tenured writer’s keep their cards close to their chests and write another character?

Let us find out.

If YOU would like to submit a page of script and receive feedback from the tenured writers, simply post it in the comments below.  Who knows, you may be asked to join us one day!