Comic Scripts

Stranded on Saxon (32 pages)

Stranded on Saxon

Page 1: splash page (1 full page panel)
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Panel One: Caption: Astronaut Darren Dale was sent to retrieve a satellite in Earth orbit launched by a hostile force. In space he encountered an adversary with technology utterly beyond the scope of comprehension…

Darren’s top-secret space plane was sent on a trajectory that would strand him in a parallel reality on a world of giants. Now he must try to find a way back to Earth, defying nearly impossible odds!

Page 2: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: Darren Dale entered his motel room and left the door open as he flipped on the television.

[He has a cardboard box of cheeseburgers from a nearby mini-mart and a quart of chocolate milk.]

Darren: (thinking) “I would’ve preferred a beer, but I’m a military astronaut flying a top secret space plane in the morning, and I’m forbidden to drink alcohol before a flight.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: As he tore open the wrapper of one of his cheeseburgers, he was astonished at what he saw on the television.

Panel Three: (wide panel) Caption: He only caught the tail end of it. A huge starship flew in over the Washington monument, and miniaturized it down to a tiny size. A close-up revealed that it was about six inches high, then the transmission repeated itself.

Page 3: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: A woman in her mid-twenties with blonde hair was facing the camera. A sophisticated control console could be seen on either side of her, with blinking green and red lights. The woman introduced herself.

"People of Earth, I am Raleigh. I am a time traveler from a parallel universe where the Nazis emerged victorious from World War Two.”

Panel Two: (wide panel) Raleigh: “I live in the 221st century, and imagine my dismay when I learned that some worlds such as yours had a different outcome during the second world war. I am here to correct that mistake!”

Panel Three: (wide panel) Raleigh: “This Friday, on April twentieth at 7:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, my satellites will miniaturize every man and woman who possess less than fifty percent Caucasian ancestry. Within ten generations, all of the inhabitants of this world shall be Aryan!”

Page 4: 4 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Raleigh: “To prove this is not a hoax, I will now shrink the Washington monument down to six inches in height. I will also set up collection centers, where you can acquire transparent titanium containers to keep your captives in!"

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: At this point, the television showed the Washington monument being shrunk again, then the transmission repeated itself. Darren flipped the channels, but the message from Raleigh was on every station. As Darren resumed eating his cheeseburgers, his cell phone rang.

Panel Three: Darren: “Hello?"

Panel Four: Caption: The phone call was brief. The director of NASA wanted Darren at Kennedy Space Center immediately.

Page 5: 4 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: Darren was going to pilot a space plane the next morning, and wasn't due to arrive until five in the morning.

Panel Two: Caption: He got in his car and drove to Kennedy, then met with the director.

Panel Two: Darren: “What's up, Ken?"

Panel Four: (wide panel) Ken: “The President wants us to retrieve one of those satellites that Raleigh put in orbit. You and Randy are going up in the TX-238 tomorrow, and we scrubbed the rest of the crew."

Page 6: 4 panels
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Panel One: Darren: I thought six of us were going up together tomorrow!"

Panel Two: Ken: “We're in a unique situation,"

Panel Three: (wide panel) Ken: “Washington wants us to bring down one of those satellites. We might not be able to reverse-engineer it, but if we don't at least try, three quarters of the world's population will be miniaturized on Friday. We might be able to plant a computer virus that can infect all of the satellites, rendering them inoperable."

Panel Four: (wide panel) Darren: “How are we going to retrieve one of the satellites? You know I've never done an EVA, I'm just a pilot!"

Page 7: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Ken: “That's why Randy is going up with you. He'll be the commander, and he'll do the EVA and bring the satellite into the cargo bay while you pilot the orbiter.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Ken: “Spy satellites have picked up millions of Raleigh's satellites in low-earth orbit. They're at just the right altitude for an orbiter to reach one of them."

Panel Three: (wide panel) Darren: “Why just me and Randy, though? Why aren't Pete and Roger going with us?"

Page 8: 4 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Ken: “You speak fluent German and Dutch, and Washington thinks that may offer us an advantage in case the satellite tries to communicate to you in German. You are vital to this mission!"

Panel Two: Darren: “When do you plan for us to do this?"

Panel Three: Ken: “In about an hour. Randy is already here. We want to take Raleigh by surprise."

Panel Four: (wide panel) Caption: The director turned and walked away. Moments later, Darren ran into Randy Jimenez, the commander of the mission.

Darren: “Hey Randy, what's up?"

Page 9: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Randy: “I think it's a suicide mission. The only reason I'm going up to retrieve one of those satellites is because if we don't find a way to reverse-engineer it and upload a virus that will disable all of the satellites, I'll be shrunk on Friday!"

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: Twenty minutes later, Darren and Randy were dressed in their flight suits, and sitting in their chairs in the orbiter.

Panel Three: (wide panel) Caption: The countdown commenced, and soon they were blasting off. The early launch had been reported to the different news broadcasters, and loads of people were gathered to watch the space plane blast off.

Page 10: 4 panels
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Panel One: Caption: It was a text-book perfect launch.

Panel Two: Caption: Everything went as planned.

Panel Three: (wide panel) Caption: Two minutes after the launch, the solid rocket boosters detached and parachuted to the ocean below. Soon, the orbiter was free of Earth's gravity.

Panel Four: (wide panel) Darren deftly maneuvered the orbiter through space once they reached the low-earth orbit they had been aiming for.

Page 11: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: Looking through the forward window, Darren could see some of the satellites that had been placed in orbit by Raleigh, the invader from a parallel universe.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: He maneuvered the orbiter toward the satellite that was closest, and he could soon see a swastika emblazoned on the side of the satellite.

Panel Three: (wide panel) Darren: It looks like we're in luck! That satellite is small enough to fit inside the cargo bay!"

Page 12: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: Randy got suited up to do the EVA as Darren piloted the space plane close enough to Raleigh's satellite so Randy would be able to grasp it with the robotic arm.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: Darren helped him inside the suit, and went to the cockpit to monitor Randy's progress.

Panel Three: (wide panel) Caption: Within fifteen minutes, the cargo bay doors were open and Randy was floating outside the orbiter, trying to connect the robot arm to Raleigh's satellite.

Page 13: 2 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: As he got close to the satellite, a white flash of light appeared, and Randy was gone.

Panel Two: (two-thirds page panel) Caption: A holographic image of Raleigh's face appeared in the cockpit, above the main control console.

Raleigh: “I have sent your friend to the world of Saxon! It is a world where the Dutch are the master race and everything is seventy-two times bigger than normal, because the sub-atomic matrix of the atoms on that world are different. That is the penalty for tampering with one of my satellites! My mind-scan reveals that you happen to speak Dutch, so I'm sending you there as well!"

Page 14: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Darren: “How can there be people seventy-two times bigger than normal?"

Caption: He really didn't know what he was saying; he was just trying to keep Raleigh occupied so he could talk her out of this madness.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Raleigh: “Higher dimensions interact with the sub-atomic particles of that universe, allowing anti-graviton particles to stay locked into the sub-atomic matrix. This allows the people of Saxon to have increased mass, while reducing their body weight. That is where I'm now sending you!"

Panel Three: (wide panel) Darren: “And the Dutch are the master race?"

Raleigh: “I traveled back to the eighteenth century of that world, and reduced all non-Aryans to our size. The Dutch at that time were already the rulers of the seas. As a race of giants, they subdued and enslaved the rest of humanity. For some reason, even now, their technology is at the level of the eighteenth century. That is where I'm sending you now!"

Page 15: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: The image disappeared, and a flash of light like the one that engulfed Randy appeared all around the orbiter.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: When the light was gone, Darren saw that he had entered the atmosphere. He quickly closed the cargo bay doors, and guided the orbiter for a landing.

Panel Three: (wide panel) Caption: He saw that he was above Northern Europe, heading directly for a region somewhere in the Netherlands. It was impossible to try to reach a higher altitude, all Darren could try to do was make a landing.

Page 16: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: Darren could see settlements below, so he tried to avoid them so he wouldn't injure anyone.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: He saw sunlight reflecting on the water of a massive lake near a town, so he aimed for it.

Darren: “I’m coming in too steep!”

Panel Three: (wide panel) Caption: The surface came rushing up at him, and the orbiter splashed down in the lake.

Page 17: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: Darren unfastened his seatbelt and made his way to the door hatch before the orbiter sank, and jumped in.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: The cold water of this northern latitude shocked him at first, but he stayed under water until he was clear of the heat of the orbiter.

Caption: Normally, the exterior of the orbiter was too hot right after landing, so Darren had to be careful. He swam under water until he was pretty far away from the orbiter before he came up for air…

Panel Three: (wide panel) Caption: Upon surfacing, Darren saw that Raleigh had been correct when she informed him that the planet Saxon was a world of giants. Darren could see the trees and bushes on the shore of the huge lake, and they were huge…

Page 18: 2 panels
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Panel One: (two-thirds page panel) Caption: Pine trees the size of sequoias were everywhere, and the bushes were the size of average-sized trees. Darren found himself wondering what the people of this massive world must look like. He walked up onto the shore, shivering from the cold.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: As Darren explored the dense wilderness of this massive world, he saw insects and birds that were on a larger scale than birds and insects back on Earth

Page 19: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: He saw a trail of ants, and noted that each ant was nearly eight centimeters long. This was proportionate to the scale mentioned by Raleigh when she said everything on the planet Saxon was seventy-two times bigger than normal.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: As Darren cradled his arms in front of him to shake off the cold, he became concerned about the birds of this strange world. Darren was exactly six feet tall, so a quick calculation informed him that his proportionate size here on Saxon was exactly one inch tall.

Panel Three: (wide panel) Caption: As Darren followed a trail through the forest, it boggled his mind that a world this massive could possibly exist. Darren knew of the square-cube law, the geometric rule that stated that every time size is doubled, mass increases eight-fold.

Caption: This would mean that a person who was four-hundred feet tall would be so massive that they would be crushed by their increased mass. Raleigh had mentioned that the sub-atomic matrix of the atoms of this universe were somehow different. Maybe this allowed for a difference in scale.

Page 20: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: The smaller path led to a trail that was bigger, at least two-hundred yards wide. Darren followed it.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: There were shoe-prints that were close to sixty feet long. They were human shoe-prints. As Darren got closer to the town that was not far from the lake, the dirt path gave way to a more formal road that was much wider and made of cobblestones.

Caption: Each cobblestone was about thirty feet in diameter. Darren pondered how massive the giants of this world must be in order to have forged such a mighty road.

Panel Three: (wide panel) Caption: When Darren looked to a dirt path that branched off from the main road, he saw a massive house and smoke from a chimney.

Caption: He scurried from the road and took cover in the brush between two trees, to spy out these people, so he could see what he was up against.

Page 21: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: As he peered between two colossal blades of grass, he could see the house. Architecturally, it was identical to German or Dutch houses prior to the twentieth century, with the exception that it was bigger than the Oakland Coliseum.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: There was a well constructed of boulders in the old European tradition, with a wooden frame and a roof, and a bucket attached to a shaft with a handle for drawing water.

Panel Three: (wide panel) Caption: A cobblestone walkway led from the dirt driveway to the front porch, and Darren spotted a bench with a huge butter churn in front of it.

Page 22: 2 panels
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Panel One: (two-thirds page panel) Caption: A blonde-haired teenage girl exited the house and sat down at the bench, and began churning the butter churn. She was about eighteen years old…

[With the exception of her short skirt, her clothing was the type worn by Dutch girls during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She had a dark bodice strapped over a short-sleeved white blouse. Her two flaxen braids fell halfway down her back]

Caption: Darren could tell when she had been standing that she was about a three hundred and sixty feet tall.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: Darren was still in shock from the cold water that had drenched him, so he backed away into a bush for concealment. He needed to get warm before nightfall, or he would freeze to death.

Page 23: 5 panels
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Panel One: Caption: While Darren pondered whether or not to turn himself over to the mighty maiden, he took his eyes off her.

Panel Two: Caption: When he turned to look at her again, she wasn't there; only the bench and the butter churn were there.

Panel Three: Caption: Darren couldn't imagine how such a human colossus could move so swiftly without making enough noise to alert him.

Panel Four: Caption: Darren turned and ran, afraid that she might somehow know he was there.

Panel Five: (wide panel) Caption: He ran deeper into the woods, away from the main road. After turning to avoid a tree, Darren was startled when he encountered a squirrel.

Page 24: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: It moved toward him, and Darren turned and ran back the way he had came.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: When Darren rounded a tree, the giantess was standing there with a jar in her hand.

Panel Three: Caption: Darren faked to the left and ran to the right, but the girl was much faster than him. Her left foot came crashing down a few feet in front of him.

Page 25: 4 panels
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Panel One: Caption: He tried to run underneath her…

Panel Two: Caption: her right foot rose into the air and came crashing down, blocking his path momentarily.

Panel Three: (wide panel) Caption: In the split second Darren hesitated, the blonde titaness knelt down and slammed the jar down over him, upside-down.

Caption: The glass jar was nearly forty feet high, and the glass walls were nearly thirty-six inches thick.

Panel Four: (wide panel) Caption: The girl tilted the jar slightly, and forced her hand under the mouth of the jar, until her entire palm covered the lid of the jar.

Page 26: 2 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: Darren was standing on her palm for a second, but then she carefully and gently tilted the jar until it was right-side up, and Darren slid to the bottom of the jar.

Panel Two: (two-thirds page panel) Caption: Darren looked through his glass prison and saw the blue eyes of his captor. She was smiling, obviously happy to have captured a new pet.

Page 27: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: At that moment it occurred to Darren that Saxon was an apt name for this world of titans; they were in every way as powerful as the Nordic race that dominated Europe throughout history, as Darren had learned in high school.

Panel Two: (two-thirds page panel) Caption: As the 18-year-old giantess made her way to the front door of her house, Darren suddenly felt very disposable.

Page 28: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: From his proportionate size of one inch tall, it wouldn't be difficult for the maiden to simply put him in her mouth and swallow him.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Caption: Darren could only hope that the girl wasn't evil.

Panel Three: (wide panel) Caption: Darren was taken immediately into the home of the giantess, to the dining room. The home was typical of Dutch homes in the 18th century. A large fireplace dominated the room, with a mantel made of a wooden beam that was at least fifty feet thick.

Page 29: 5 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: The giantess set Darren's jar on the dining room table, and her mother rushed over to look.

Panel Two: (wide panel) Mother: “He probably escaped from someone. We'll have to take him into town immediately to get him registered in your name."

Caption: These giants spoke a variation of Dutch that Darren was able to understand.

Panel Three: (wide panel) Aleena: “What if his former owner challenges my registration?"

Page 30: 4 panels
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Panel One: Mother: “As long as nobody claims him thirty days after you register him, then he's yours! That's why we need to get him registered as soon as possible!"

Panel Two: Caption: The mother went to a high shelf and pulled down a black cast-iron cage.

Panel Three: Caption: When she set it on the table, Darren could see that there was a huge keyhole built into the door hatch.

Page 31: 3 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: The mother went to a jewelry box on the same shelf the cage had been on, and retrieved the key to the cage.

Panel Two: Caption: She unlocked it and turned it on its side, so the door was facing the ceiling.

Panel Three: Caption: She took Darren's jar and tilted it gently upside-down, and Darren fell into the cage.

Page 32: 2 panels
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Panel One: (wide panel) Caption: Once Darren was safely inside, the mother closed the door hatch and locked it, then turned the cage right-side up.

Panel Two: (two-thirds page panel) Aleena: “My name is Rianna! My mother's name is Greta. From this day forward, I shall be your mistress!"