WORDS
Astral Light
Eternal life and eternal happiness are not the same thing.
Astral Light |
PAGE 1 | 4 PANELS
PANEL 1
A large wooden cross is being carried by Roman soldiers to the crucifixion site at the top of a hill.
PANEL 2
The cross has been erected upright, with JESUS affixed to it. A crowd gathers below. THE IMMORTAL catches the blood of Christ in a carpenter’s cup as it drips from his ankles and wrists.
PANEL 3
The Immortal lifts the cup to his dried and cracked lips and drinks.
PANEL 4
The Immortal has dropped the chalice. He is hunched over, holding his stomach with one hand – in obvious discomfort – and reaching out with the other. He stares into an illuminating light.
PAGE 2 | 4 PANELS
PANEL 1
The Immortal stands in the center of a room in ancient Rome – arms spread like the Vitruvian Man – in the early morning aftermath of an all-night orgy. Naked women, and men, surround him. They litter the floor, are draped over furniture like a Dali painting, still nude but fast asleep.
PANEL 2
Molecular view of cellular division, with the new cell expressing an obvious deformity.
PANEL 3
In a modern hospital The Immortal lies in a hospital bed, wearing a hospital gown. He is attached to a heart monitor and an IV.
PANEL 4
The Immortal flies headfirst through the windshield of a car that is wrapped around an object (illustrators’ choice… e.g., another vehicle, a fire hydrant, a telephone pole, etc.).
PAGE 3 | 3 PANELS
PANEL 1
Sitting in a wheelchair at the top of a hill, the Immortal looks out over the world as he figuratively and literally watches the sun set on civilization. The shadow of a massive city can be seen, as it gets drowned out by the light of a distant mushroom cloud.
PANEL 2
The Immortal wheels himself into an elaborate, underground bunker built in the hillside. It is full of supplies, the kind a survivalist would stock to live underground for decades.
PANEL 3
The Immortal has emerged back into the world, and now sits in his wheelchair atop the same hill (page 3, panel 1), but all living things – including plants – are dead. The city is a pile of rubble.
PAGE 4 | 5 PANELS
PANEL 1
The Immortal is in the dilapidated ruins of what may have once been a gas station. He is leaning over in his wheelchair to pick up a Twinkie.
PANEL 2
The Immortal sits in his wheelchair near a small, perfect house, on the edge of a pond that generates power with a watermill. There are windmills in the distance. A lush garden grows nearby.
PANEL 3
The Immortal sits in his wheelchair, arm raised, pointer-finger outstretched. Something resembling a dragonfly sits atop it.
PANEL 4
The Immortal sits on a hilltop in the middle of a lightning storm, pointing his finger at the sky and cursing the gods in anger.
PANEL 5
The Immortal tightens the last bolt in the fuselage of a large rocket.
PAGE 5 | 4 PANELS
PANEL 1
The sun explodes into a red giant, consumes the earth, and rips apart the bottom half of the rocket that is barreling through space.
PANEL 2
The Immortal – wearing a helmet – floats through space. His legs are missing from the middle of the thigh down. His torso is frozen. His arms have been shattered by meteors. A small meteor pelts off his dented helmet.
PANEL 3
Flashback of The Immortal drinking from the chalice.
PANEL 4
Close up of The Immortal’s face – and his eyes in particular – through the shield of the helmet. He has an anguished expression… part fear, part pain, and all madness.
END
PANEL 1
A large wooden cross is being carried by Roman soldiers to the crucifixion site at the top of a hill.
- CAPTION: I was not born immortal.
PANEL 2
The cross has been erected upright, with JESUS affixed to it. A crowd gathers below. THE IMMORTAL catches the blood of Christ in a carpenter’s cup as it drips from his ankles and wrists.
- CAPTION: But I was there at the crucifixion, and drank from the chalice.
PANEL 3
The Immortal lifts the cup to his dried and cracked lips and drinks.
- CAPTION: That changed everything.
PANEL 4
The Immortal has dropped the chalice. He is hunched over, holding his stomach with one hand – in obvious discomfort – and reaching out with the other. He stares into an illuminating light.
- CAPTION: From that day forth, I did not age.
PAGE 2 | 4 PANELS
PANEL 1
The Immortal stands in the center of a room in ancient Rome – arms spread like the Vitruvian Man – in the early morning aftermath of an all-night orgy. Naked women, and men, surround him. They litter the floor, are draped over furniture like a Dali painting, still nude but fast asleep.
- CAPTION: For 2,000 years I was invincible. A god among men.
- CAPTION: There were no consequences. Or if there were, they were finite by their very nature.
- CAPTION: And I was infinite.
PANEL 2
Molecular view of cellular division, with the new cell expressing an obvious deformity.
- CAPTION: Then it changed. My body turned against me.
PANEL 3
In a modern hospital The Immortal lies in a hospital bed, wearing a hospital gown. He is attached to a heart monitor and an IV.
- CAPTION: An autoimmune disorder took away my ability for regenerative healing.
- CAPTION: This left me immortal but susceptible to injury.
- CAPTION: I had to learn to live with pain.
- SFX: BEEP BEEP
PANEL 4
The Immortal flies headfirst through the windshield of a car that is wrapped around an object (illustrators’ choice… e.g., another vehicle, a fire hydrant, a telephone pole, etc.).
- CAPTION: Then came the car accident. It severed my spine and confined me to a wheelchair.
- CAPTION: I was eternal, but also a cripple.
- CAPTION: How cruel the gods can be.
- SFX: KRASH
PAGE 3 | 3 PANELS
PANEL 1
Sitting in a wheelchair at the top of a hill, the Immortal looks out over the world as he figuratively and literally watches the sun set on civilization. The shadow of a massive city can be seen, as it gets drowned out by the light of a distant mushroom cloud.
- CAPTION: Sitting on my perch, I watched the world decay.
- CAPTION: First the rising temperatures brought the flood, and then the drought, which finished off the food supply.
- CAPTION: After that, it was pure chaos.
PANEL 2
The Immortal wheels himself into an elaborate, underground bunker built in the hillside. It is full of supplies, the kind a survivalist would stock to live underground for decades.
- CAPTION: I survived in a bunker.
PANEL 3
The Immortal has emerged back into the world, and now sits in his wheelchair atop the same hill (page 3, panel 1), but all living things – including plants – are dead. The city is a pile of rubble.
- CAPTION: When I emerged, it was all gone. Even the grass.
PAGE 4 | 5 PANELS
PANEL 1
The Immortal is in the dilapidated ruins of what may have once been a gas station. He is leaning over in his wheelchair to pick up a Twinkie.
- CAPTION: I spent the next 4 billion years in quiet solitude.
- CAPTION: I’d scavenge things. Parts. Food. Anything that might be useful.
PANEL 2
The Immortal sits in his wheelchair near a small, perfect house, on the edge of a pond that generates power with a watermill. There are windmills in the distance. A lush garden grows nearby.
- CAPTION: Gradually, I built an oasis. Harnessed hydropower, then configured an electrical grid. After that, I learned how to split an atom.
- CAPTION: I created utopia. Then destroyed it. Then built it again.
PANEL 3
The Immortal sits in his wheelchair, arm raised, pointer-finger outstretched. Something resembling a dragonfly sits atop it.
- CAPTION: In time, new life emerged. Simple organisms.
- CAPTION: I watched them evolve, ever so slowly.
PANEL 4
The Immortal sits on a hilltop in the middle of a lightning storm, pointing his finger at the sky and cursing the gods in anger.
- CAPTION: But it wasn’t enough. The earth had become a prison. I needed to break free from my cage.
- SFX: KRAK
PANEL 5
The Immortal tightens the last bolt in the fuselage of a large rocket.
- CAPTION: So I built a rocket.
PAGE 5 | 4 PANELS
PANEL 1
The sun explodes into a red giant, consumes the earth, and rips apart the bottom half of the rocket that is barreling through space.
- CAPTION: I broke the atmosphere just as the sun swallowed the earth.
- CAPTION: By then I was far enough away that it only took my legs.
- SFX: KABOOM
PANEL 2
The Immortal – wearing a helmet – floats through space. His legs are missing from the middle of the thigh down. His torso is frozen. His arms have been shattered by meteors. A small meteor pelts off his dented helmet.
- CAPTION: My torso – exposed to the elements – instantly froze.
- CAPTION: My arms were shattered by passing meteors.
- CAPTION: While my head remained protected in the helmet.
- SFX: TINK
PANEL 3
Flashback of The Immortal drinking from the chalice.
- CAPTION: Eternal life was my gift, my curse.
- CAPTION: I am doomed to float through space, into an ever-expanding universe.
- CAPTION: Alone with my thoughts.
- CAPTION: Unable to breathe, to eat, to die.
PANEL 4
Close up of The Immortal’s face – and his eyes in particular – through the shield of the helmet. He has an anguished expression… part fear, part pain, and all madness.
- CAPTION: I can only think. But I feel even that slipping from my grasp.
- CAPTION: The madness takes me now.
END
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