PAGE ONE
PANEL 1
NARRATION:
It's early morning in his big, expensive home in the suburbs
of New York. HARRY CLARK sits alone, endlessly chain-smoking one
cigarette after another and gulping the drink at his elbow. You
wouldn't think it to look at him, but at only twenty-nine, Harry
has a comfortable bank account, a large circle of warm friends,
and stands at the head of his profession. Why then has he had no
sleep in the past thirty-one hours?
PICTURE:
Harry, in a dressing gown, stubbing a cigarette into a messy,
overflowing ash-tray. His face looks rumpled and unshaven.
HARRY:
I'm awake!
PANEL 2
PICTURE:
Harry, thinking, picks up a decanter of sherry and prepares
to refill his glass. A balloon intrudes from the right-hand panel
into the bottom of the block.
HARRY (Thought balloon):
Only an hour or two more and I'll be able to go to the
office. Plenty of work there! I'll have lots of things to occupy
me, lots of things to keep me awake ! Oh, WHY won't they let me
ALONE? If I can just get through the next... WHA..??
BALLOON:
Did you think I wouldn't find you here, Harry?
PANEL 3
PICTURE: SPLASH, filling the whole rest of the page: the
sumptuous living-room of a rich bachelor. HARRY at left has
dropped decanter in surprise and stares at the doorway, where
MISS KITTEN has just entered.. She is a costumed comic heroine,
sinuously sexy in revealing leotards, boots, and a broad pair of
cat's-eye glasses with no pupils showing. There is an elaborate
zap-gun holstered at her hip. She stands haughty and menacing,
cape aswirl behind her, dominating the panel.
MISS KITTEN:
Harry, I WARNED you what I'd do if you didn't start treating
me differently. How can you expect a girl like me to stay a
virgin forever? I want a SEX-LIFE Harry, just a NORMAL sex-life!
Is that too much to ask?
PAGE 2
PANEL 1
PICTURE:
Harry has fallen back on the couch in terror. We see over his
shoulder MISS KITTEN, larger than life, drawing her zap-gun.
There is something feverishly unreal about all this.
HARRY:
No! No! Leave me alone, can't you!!!
MISS KITTEN:
When are you going to give me a break and make a REAL WOMAN
of me, Harry? If you don't promise to come across, I'll just have
to give you a shot with my little laser...
PANEL 2
PICTURE:
Shot past Harry's terrified right ear as a laughing Miss
Kitten shoots him point-blank in the face with her ray-gun. The
swirls of her hair and her cape have taken on an Art Nouveau
intensity.
MISS KITTEN;
Ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaa!!!!!
THE GUN emits a sizzling, high-pitched ZZZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
PANEL 3
PICTURE:
Head and shoulders shot of Harry waking up. He has rolled off
the couch onto the floor, face down. The sound of the laser has
snaked around and whips through the top of the panel.
HARRY:
What's that!.. Oh, it must be my ALARM CLOCK in the bedroom!
I've been ASLEEP again!
CAPTION OVER FINAL TWO PANELS:
Harry Clark shaves and showers and, refreshed, drives in to
work...
PANEL 4
PICTURE:
Harry has shaved most of the lather from his face, but has
put down the razor and talks to himself in the mirror.
HARRY:
Those dreams are so REAL! So VIVID! I'll have to talk to
Dr.Zucker about them again this noon...
PANEL 5
PICTURE:
Harry at the wheel of a spiffy sports-car, driving out of a
garage. A lush lawn, with trees and hedges, and part of his big
house are in deep background.
PAGE 3
PANEL 1
PICTURE:
View forward alongside Harry's car, showing he has stopped in
a long traffic-jam around a toll-gate. At the extreme left of the
panel, a stirrup hangs from the bulge of a horse's belly, a mailed
foot with a wicked spur poised in it. Ballon at panel-bottom
comes from the owner of the foot.
HARRY;
Damn it, why do they always have their morning traffic-jam at
MY particular toll-gate?
BALLOON:
To put thee in my POWER, Varlet!
PANEL 2
PICTURE:
Harry looking out his window. We see, past him, a knight in
full armor mounted on a tall, menacing steed. The knight's shield
is a black oblong with perfectly square corners, and three strings
dangling from three places along one long edge. His sword is a
long, blunt-pointed broadsword with a wide square-cornered oblong
across the hilt.
BARON BROADSWORD:
Did you think to outrun ME, Sir Harry? You, who have broken
every law of chivalry? You, whose very HONOR lies in SHREDS???
PANEL 3
SPLASH: Again, a shot past Harry's ear. The Baron's horse
rears, with hugely menacing hooves and fearsomely neighing face,
while the Baron has drawn back for a coup-de-grace . It is all a
little larger than life. The Horse's NEIGHHHHHHHH whips through
the panel.
BARON BROADSWORD:
There can BE no escape for a villain such as you! My horse
will trample you like the dog you are!
PANEL 4
PICTURE:
A huge, blunt-fronted truck with an angry driver looms over
Harry's tiny VW. Harry inside looks astonished. The NEIGH, turned
to EEEP-BEEEP-BEEP-BEEEEEEEEP!!! whips through the top of the
panel.
DRIVER:
Hey Mac! Can't you see the road's clear!
HARRY:
Oh my God! I must have dozed off right at the wheel!
PAGE 4
PANEL 1
PICTURE:
SPLASH: Harry steps through a door into a huge office filled
with people at desks and drawing-boards. The glass panel of the
door reads:
BILL BROCK PUBLICATIONS
"Comics with a Difference!"
On the walls are four huge "personality posters" of MISS KITTEN,
BARON BROADSWORD, THE BULK, and DR. SINISTER. Just inside the
door, Marie looks up through cat's-eye glasses from the bottles
of paints at her colorist's desk.
CAPTION:
It's a relief when Harry finally gets to the office...
MARIE:
Well! Welcome home boss! Say, you look really dragged! Want
to check some color-separations for me? Oh hell I forgot! Brock
has been bellowing for you for about fifteen minutes already.
HARRY:
Ever known him not to? Maybe you'd better have a strong black
coffee waiting for me when I come out! Thanks, Marie.
PANEL 2
PICTURE:
Harry and Brock face each other across a desk in Brock's
office. He is a gruff, squat line-backer type.
BROCK:
The reports are in from our market-survey team, and sales
have never been stronger. We're going ahead with that quarterly
giant-issue, but it's got to be on a rush basis! Think you can
crank out a new script for each of your characters by next week? I
know it's a lot of extra work, but...
HARRY:
That's what you have editors for, isn't it Bill? Sure, I'll
make the try. But I haven't been getting much sleep lately...
PANEL 3
PICTURE:
Harry leaves Brock's office and passes Dave's drawing-table
on his way to his own desk. Dave holds a long T-square. Brock's
baloon projects from the office.
BROCK:
Well, get right on it then. If you get bogged, let me know.
DAVE:
Oh say, Harry, have you got a minute to look at some truly
STUNNING pencils?
PAGE 5
PANEL 1
PICTURE:
Harry turns to go to his desk, while Dave holds up his black
portfolio and brandishes his T-square.
HARRY:
Wish I did, Dave. I've just been given a whole mess of new
stories to write.
DAVE:
New?? Hah! To STEAL, you mean! What from this time? Norse
legends? Or something from India? Come on Clark! Just how long has
it been since you wrote an original sentence? Hmmmn?
PANEL 2
PICTURE:
Harry is at his desk. Marie has come up behind him and put a
steaming coffee-cup at his elbow, then stops to give him a cuddle.
MARIE:
Don't mind Dave. He rags everybody! But man, you really look
bushed! I keep telling you, things would get a lot better if your
life had a feminine touch to it. When you going to give little
Marie a chance, humnh? I'm a specialist in BACK-RUBS!
HARRY:
I'd better take a rain-check, sweetheart. If you get me any
more relaxed I won't wake up till Monday!
PANEL 3
PICTURE:
Harry hunches over his desk, pen and pad in hand. There is a
shadow across the desk, and a balloon from the invisible figure
casting it.
HARRY:
Okay, where can we start...? The Doctor will have to menace
the world again. Maybe this time with....
BALLOON:
WHY must you always MISCAST me!!
PANEL 4
PICTURE:
Harry looks up to find DR. SINISTER lunging at him, a Bowie-
knife in his left hand.
DR. SINISTER:
You always think of me as a crafty villain, and I'm NOT! You
must show me REFORMED, fighting villains alongside the OTHER
heroes! Rejuvenate me, Harry! Turn me into a hero, or... I'LL CUT
YOUR TRIPES OUT!!!
PAGE 6
PANEL 1
PICTURE:
Harry slumped across his pad, suddenly jolted awake, looks at
his watch.
HARRY:
Wha..!! Oh shit, another damn DREAM! I've dozed off again.
And if I don't hurry I'll be late for Dr. Zucker!
PANEL 2
PICTURE:
Reasonably tight shot of Harry sitting on a subway, pad and
pen still in hand. Into the panel projects a huge paw-like hand,
and a balloon from its unseen owner.
HARRY:
Ideas, ideas! Got to have these new scripts by next week...
BALLOON:
Damn right you have to have them by next week!
PANEL 3
PICTURE:
SPLASH:
Subway car full of terrified people. THE BULK -- an
exaggeration of Brock -- has torn a chrome rod from its moorings
in floor and ceiling and is about to bash Harry's brains out with
it.
THE BULK:
And they better be GOOD this time, Harry Clark, or you won't
have anything left to think them up with any more! I'll see to
that!
PANEL 4
PICTURE:
Psychiatrist's office. Dr Zucker gestures to a couch, with
his left hand, but a distraught Harry sits in a chair.
DR. ZUCKER:
Ah, Mr. Clark! Shall we begin..?
HARRY:
I don't think I should use the couch today, doctor, or I'll
fall right asleep! It's these dreams! They've been getting worse.
And they're so REAL! I don't know what I'm going to do!
PANEL 5
PICTURE:
Dr.Zucker sits at his desk, taking notes with his left hand.
DR. ZUCKER:
Still the dreams, eh? Perhaps you'd better try to explain...
PAGE 7
PANEL 1
PICTURE:
Dr Zucker calmly explains to a wilted Harry Clark.
CAPTION:
And, at the end of the hour...
DR ZUCKER:
It's apparent that our sessions bring to the surface many
things you can handle INTELLECTUALLY but not EMOTIONALLY. You can
talk to ME of ambivalent feelings toward Marie, but not to HER.
You want to accept ME as a hero, but cast me as a VILLAIN. You
face your thirtieth birthday feeling that your scripts have been
shallow and untruthful hack-work, and perhaps you make your
publisher into an exaggerated father-figure!
PANEL 2
PICTURE:
Close-up of Harry's face, disshevelled and depressed.
HARRY:
But I KNOW all that! You're just telling me what I've told
YOU in the last four or five sessions. But KNOWING it doesn't
HELP! It hasn't made the dreams go away, it doesn't make them less
real, and it doesn't Let Me SLEEP!!!
PANEL 3
PICTURE:
Dr. Zucker opens a drawer in his desk and fills a bottle with
some capsules.
DR. ZUCKER:
Yes, and it seems to me that sleep is PRECISELY what would
help right now, Mr. Clark! I'm going to give you some mild
sedatives. They will help you sleep for three or four hours,
probably without dreaming. But if you DO dream, try to see your
dreams as symbolic PROJECTIONS of reality, not reality itself. If
you try to think of what they MEAN, perhaps something useful will
develop from them. If I were you, I'd go directly home and try
them. If your Mr. Brock has anything to say, tell him to phone me!
HARRY:
Oh, thank you Doctor!
PANEL 4
PICTURE;
Harry leaving the office, Marie, Dave, and Brock waving him
off.
CAPTION:
And so Harry took the afternoon off...
BROCK:
Of COURSE I understand! Get some rest for God's sake! And
don't think about work till Monday! Hell, if you don't get some
rest, you may not LIVE to celebrate your BIRTHDAY tomorrow!
MARIE:
You know what you really need, Harry? A complete CHANGE OF
PACE! Something GOOD ought to happen to you, Harry!
DAVE:
Give it a rest, old sport! You'll come through for us! You
always do!
PANEL 5
PICTURE:
Harry in bed, takes a capsule. The bedside clock reads five
minutes past two.
HARRY:
Okay, let's hope these damn things work!
PAGE 8
PANEL 1
PICTURE:
Harry, in bed, rising refreshed and happier. The clock now
reads eight forty-five. A RING-RING-RING floats in from the
doorway.
HARRY:
It worked! I've slept for hours ... and Not One DREAM! And
now I'm awake, and feeling... Who can that be?
PANEL 2
PICTURE:
Harry in his dressing gown, goes to his front door.
HARRY:
Coming.. Coming! Who could it be at this hour?
PANEL 3
PICTURE:
SPLASH: Harry throws open the door, and Miss Kitten, The
Bulk, and Baron Broadsword eagerly fling themselves in at him, all
smiling at him, all shouting "SURPRISE!!!" Harry faunches back in
abject horror.
HARRY:
No! No, you can't be here! I'm awake! I'm AWAKE I tell you!!
I'm AWAKE!!!!!!!!
PANEL 4
PICTURE:
The living-room. In deep right background Harry sits, in a
strait-jacket, Dr. Zucker next to him, hypodermic in hand. In
foreground, Marie, Brock, and Dave -- costumed as Miss Kitten, The
Bulk, and Baron Broadsword -- are explaining things to a
policeman.
BROCK:
We were just trying to cheer him up with a surprise birthday-
party! I have no idea what happened, officer. Of course, he's been
working pretty hard these days. And he's had some trouble
sleeping...
Love,
===Anon.
Once you've read my stories, please send your thoughts about
them to me at
larry@theatermirror.com
or call
1(617)524-1768.
