X-Files - Geese? - P. A. Nolte

1/ A backwoods road through Vancouver.  A sleek, government-issue car tears away from the small gathering of lights indicating a small town.  In the driver's seat is Fox Mulder.  Riding shotgun is Dana Scully.

Scully: Another dead end.

Mulder: Careful, Scully.  You almost sound upset.

2/ Inside the car.  She gives him a disdainful look.

Scully: Everything at stake, and these are the things you're choosing to pursue.

Scully: It's reckless.  Even for you.

3/ From the backseat, their conversation continues.  The road ahead is quiet.  Mulder and Scully are silhouetted.

Scully: Just how many more of these small town goose chases do you expect to go on?

Mulder: I don't know, how many has it been?  I mean, you see one, you see 'em all, right?

4/ Her disdainful look has gone full glower.  Silence.  She stares out the window.  By now, she could never be partners with anyone else, but would she?  It takes some thought.

5/ Deep in the forest they're driving through is a small cave.  Secluded, dark, and mostly hidden by underbrush and other foliage.

Scully: That's not funny, Mulder.

6/ From within the cave, half a dozen pairs of eyes light up.

Mulder (Cap): It was kinda funny.

X-Files - The Possum-Man - Perry Kent

Panel 1

Exterior, night, suburban neighborhood. Scully and Mulder walk quietly through the night, flashlights in hand. The street and sidewalks are deserted except for the two of them.

1. Scully: This is hopeless, Mulder. It was probably just some voyeur with a strange predilection for dressing as an animal.

2. Scully: There is no “possum-man”. Just a sad man, with a sad compulsion that probably skipped town as soon as the authorities showed up.

3. Mulder: Perhaps, Scully.

Panel 2

Mulder looks out into the darkness as he talks at Scully. Scully rolls her eyes as she listens.

4. Mulder: But there are legends of skin-walkers. Men who could adopt the guise of the very animals they worshiped. Those who weren't constrained to the likeness of man. They--

Panel 3

Mulder and Scully both turn toward a noise that was coming from a nearby house, shining their flashlights in the direction.

5. SFX (op): Clang!

Panel 4

The light of the flashlights illuminates a possum. The possum sits atop a metal garbage can staring back at the flashlight source, eyes glowing from the light. There are also some large hedges near the trashcan.

6. Scully (op): See Mulder. No skin-walkers here. Just regular old vermin.

Panel 5

Viewed from the direction of the possum. Mulder and Scully walk away from the house. Behind the hedges of the previous panel can be seen the silhouette of a large man-shaped creature, with a pointed face and hands with claws.

7. Mulder: Maybe you're right. Nothing here but picket fences and bored suburbanites.

-END-

X-Files – Agents in Black – MK Stangeland, Jr.

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: AGENT MULDER and AGENT SCULLY turn to see the arrival of a black car driven by AGENT J and AGENT K (of MEN IN BLACK) outside the scene of an ‘incident’.

Panel 2: AGENT J and AGENT K get out of the vehicle.

AGENT K: Agent Jones, Agent Smith, we’re here on behalf of Homeland Security to oversee operations here.

MULDER: Really? We hadn’t been informed any other departments would be involved here.

Panel 3: AGENTs J and K try to dissuade MULDER and SCULLY.

AGENT J: It’s a last minute thing. We were just given the heads up.

AGENT K: We’ll need your team to clear out in a prompt and orderly manner so we can begin our own work.

Panel 4: MULDER isn’t convinced, SCULLY isn’t as dissuaded, but isn’t interested in being shipped off by a mere claim of jurisdiction superiority.

MULDER (1): I’m perfectly happy to try to work together on whatever it is that went on in there, but I’m going to need something more official before I just hand things over.

MULDER (2): Who called you in on this?

Panel 5: AGENT K is a mix of impressed and annoyed at MULDERS response.

AGENT K (1): Agent…?

MULDER: Agent Mulder, this is Agent Scully.

AGENT K (2): Agent Mulder, I can assure you that we’ll get you the proper documentation and paperwork in due time, but believe me when I say that it is in your best interests at this moment to let us take over here.

AGENT K (3):  You can’t begin to imagine what’s going on here.

Panel 6: MULDER has put on a pair of sunglasses.

MULDER: Believe me, I can imagine quite a bit.

(END PAGE)

X-Files - Making Tracks - Grant McLaughlin

1 - Joe, a farmer in the American mid-West, walks alongside the outer edge of his crops with Mulder and Scully in tow.  Mulder walks beside Joe, listening intently, while Scully trails a few steps behind, not super into this conversation.

JOE: At first I thought it must have been a prank by some of the local kids.

2 - Joe, Mulder, and Scully wade into the crops, the plants coming up a little over their waists.  Joe looks towards Mulder apologetically, Mulder waves off his concern.

JOE (1): You know, crop circles and all that hooey.

JOE (2): Begging your pardon, of course.

MULDER: Of course.

3 - Worm's eye view as Joe, Mulder, and Scully come to a break in the crop within the field.  The three stand at said break, looking down towards the reader / camera.  Joe wears the same apologetic expression, Mulder is intrigued, and Scully is surprised.

JOE (1): But when I went to take a closer look--

JOE (2): Well...

4 - Bird's eye view looking down on the field.  Joe, Mulder, and Scully are looking down at a huge footprint.  It's T-Rex-esque, but way bigger - the three figures are dwarfed next to it.  There may be one or two other footprints on either side, giving the impression that whatever created this was headed somewhere.

JOE: That's about when I figured there might be something more to it.

X-Files - Where’s The Truth? Where is it? - Jonathan Morel

Panel 1 - The first panel should take about a fifth of the top page. A foggy night, but not cloudy, with a few trees. Rural type background. A car (rental) is pulling up in front of a gate (the shot should be from whatever/whoever is behind the gate, with the gate itself between the reader and the car). The headlights from the car should show that it’s raining, in typical “Vancouver” fashion. The text box should be in the upper right or left corner.

1 - CAPTION (MULDER): I don’t know what I am doing here…

Panel 2 - A man (Mulder, circa season 5) in a 90s style suit and trench coat comes out, his flashlight already on. He is standing behind the car door as he is exiting the vehicle. He is looking in the direction of the reader (camera). The gate is once again between the reader and the car. Text box.

2 - CAPTION (MULDER): I find myself on the trail of another urban legend, one that must lead to the unknown truths spoken only by the shady underbelly of society. Or so my anonymous source tells me…

Panel 3 - The classic X-files office. Pencils are stuck on the ceiling, the “I want to believe” poster prominent in the shot. Mulder dressed exactly the same, is standing near the door (at the right of the shit), about to leave. A woman (Scully) is sitting at her (very 90s) computer, wearing her glasses, and a very shoulder-paddy dark red suit.

Textbox: “Then…”

3 - SCULLY: Mulder, where are you going?

4 - MULDER: There is an X-File here, Scully. Too many unexplained phenomena.

Panel 4 - Close up of Mulder’s face, still in the office.

5 - MULDER: Men…violent men, organized crime bosses, street thugs, all hospitalized across this city, refusing to tell the authorities what’s happened to them. The legends of…

Panel 5 - Scully, still at her computer, is removing her glasses, looking annoyed.

6 - SCULLY: You’ve read too many comic books, Mulder. There is a perfectly good explanation for it, police brutality being the first one. If you simply asked Skinner for the FBI’s reports on…

Panel 6 - Mulder is no longer in the office, the door is ajar. Scully remains seated, her hand on her forehead, like a mother who can no longer deal with her child. Annoyed despair, really.

7 - MULDER: Do not fight me on this Scully. There isn’t anything to debunk here, only the truth. There is something there!

Panel 7 - Mulder is back outside the car, his head bowed, his flashlight aiming at the ground, dejected.

8 - CAPTION (MULDER): There is nothing here. Perhaps she’s right. Some things are just stories. Myths. Legends.

Panel 8 - Bottom right corner. Mulder is back in the driver’s seat, speeding away from the gate. The camera is flipped so we can see what’s behind the gate: what appears to be a gothic style mansion, or institution. The entrance to the gate can be seen, with a sign (or as part of the gate) that is partially seen to the reader reads: “ARKH”, before being cut off by the panel.

Behind the building, in the cloudy sky, is the Bat-Signal.

9 - CAPTION (MULDER): Besides, this place is spooky.

Why X-Files? - Jonathan Morel

Before comic books, before Netflix and streaming, 8 year-old Jonathan stayed up one Friday night with his older brother and watched a terrifying show (to him) about aliens on FOX. The next 9 years of his life became very much consumed, just like our television screens, with aliens, their autopsies and interviews. Along with boy bands, grunge, saxophone playing Presidents and plaid shirts (that seemed REALLY comfortable unlike today's), aliens are an identifiable part of the 90s on television.

I've loved the X-Files my whole life because it has everything: special effects, monsters, humour, love, loss, guys called William and Emmy nominations/wins for a Science Fiction show! This was before the huge comic boom post 2007 on television and, more importantly, before there was thousands of television channels. It was my first foray into continuity nerdom, and its recent revival, both in comic form and on television, made me choose it.