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Mario DeMatteo

Professor Lush

LTWR MA Thesis

November 12, 2014

Speculative Fiction and the Graphic Novel: Violence + Empire

Violence permeates many aspects of American culture, perhaps increasingly so within the children’s entertainment industry. Movies, TV shows, and comic books for children often depict violence and warfare as a means for obtaining or maintaining justice in the world. The toy aisles are filled with plastic guns, militant action figures, and other faux-weaponry, while popular video games teach children strategic ways to kill their enemies and save the world from tyrannical villains. The children’s entertainment industry often portrays the villain as less than human, usually alien, or monster, bloodthirsty and primitive, not from around here, and most definitely

“Other,” thus subject to be killed. In popular children’s narratives, a common trope depicts the hero as “savior” or “redeemer,” inflicting a questionably just, though unrelenting punishment on the villain. In other words, violence is heroic and necessary in children’s entertainment if the hero’s intentions are “pure,” if she/he protects freedom, or liberates those without, if the hero is one of the “good guys.”

These heroic fight narratives reflect how American society indoctrinates all audiences, including children, in the values of patriotism. American exceptionalism,

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and justified war rationalizes the nation’s “right” to “defend” the freedoms we are blessed with in this country.

Of particular note, children’s speculative fiction emphasizes violence and justified war for entertainment within the medium of comic books and graphic novels.

Since young readers consume a significant number of heroic narratives in comic books and graphic novels, the time is ripe for further critical reflection on the ethical dimensions of how violence functions in speculative narratives for children. Scholars have long noted the pervasive violence in comic books dating back to the earliest incarnations of the medium (Radecki). In 1954, a series of hearings known as the

Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, spearheaded by Dr. Fredric Wertham, were conducted to discuss the need for censorship and regulation of violent and sexualized comic books, resulting in the controversial formation of the Comics

Authority Code, a self-regulating organization that forced the major publishing companies to submit all future comic books to be approved by the committee (Nyberg

58). The Comic Authority Code enforced their censorship and rating system up until

2005, when the major publishers systematically decided they could rate their books in house and no longer needed an outside entity to tell them what could and could not be included in comic books.

Whether the violence in comic books promotes and justifies violence used against those perceived as a common enemy such as the Nazis in Captain America, or to further subjugate a historically marginalized group and promote revolutionary violent reaction like the mutants in X-Men, this genre continually looks to solve

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problems nearly exclusively through violence. The binary of good vs. evil within popular children’s speculative fiction comic books is just one manifestation of how

American society constructs narrative binaries to cultivate a sense of shared national identity, of which the most recent example is the misrepresentation in popular media of Muslim fundamentalists as blood thirsty terrorists. In Noam Chomsky’s book

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, Chomsky argues that American media has consistently vilified supposed threats to American freedom and well-being, while at the same time upheld and celebrated U.S. violent intervention around the world. He writes:

This bias is politically advantageous to U.S. policy-makers, for focusing on

victims of enemy states shows those states to be wicked and deserving of U.S.

hostility; while ignoring U.S. and client-state victims allows ongoing U.S.

policies to proceed more easily, unburdened by the interference of concern

over the politically inconvenient victims. (xx)

Just as current news media in the U.S. often dehumanizes those perceived as

America’s “common enemy,” comic books also employ a similar rhetorical strategy.

In many comic books, the villain is indeed “monstrous,” thus must be “dealt with” through violence; superheroes use violence to thwart an imminent threat or avenge an

“evil” plotting villain. Peaceful alternatives or even realistic renderings of the catastrophic damage caused by war, for instance collateral civilian death tolls caused by the “hero,” are suspiciously absent from the vast majority of popular speculative fiction comic books. A hero vs. villain comic book battle, in which buildings and

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other infrastructures are destroyed in densely populated areas, rarely includes realistic renderings of the aftermath, just as the U.S. popular media rarely covers the collateral damage caused by drone missiles or military air strikes. Interrogating whether violence enacted by “heroes” is the only solution, if it muddles their reputation, and/or risks placing them closer to their antagonists, often doesn’t enter the picture.

My creative thesis seeks to take this under-utilized critical approach.

My creative thesis titled Boobop Series: Invasion Dayz, provides the narrative and text (no art included) for the first installment in a 3 part science-fantasy graphic novel series, which interrogates, exposes, and re-imagines some of the status-quo renderings of violence and justified war. Set in a fantastical archipelago, the story follows Boobop and his brother Boobonic, two fantastical creatures, in their struggle to save their family and friends from the clutches of the misguided slave-trading pirate, Scour Ideal. At the core of the story is the relationship between the two brothers and their reactions to the violence and destruction caused by the colonization and imperialism of Scour Ideal’s society. On an allegorical level, the story loosely reworks the violent history of Caribbean and Polynesian colonization and early forms of empire building in the Americas and the Polynesian Islands. On their quest, the boys are confronted with various forms of violence, slavery, exploitation, propaganda, and resistance. They also encounter radical political and philosophical ideologies that force them to question their own motivations and reactions to violence. The narrative makes clear that even the most remote regions of the Boobop universe have felt the chilling effects of empire.

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While this thesis is creative, the Boobop Series incorporates theoretical principles from colonial theory, post-colonial theory, just war theory, and explores the intersections between violence and speculative fiction. In this critical introduction, I contextualize my creative thesis in relation to the historical, theoretical, and critical frameworks by which my project is informed. I provide a brief history of the genre of science-fantasy and speculative fiction comic books, and go on to examine the role colonization and imperialism play in the narrative structure of popular science-fantasy works. In particular, I examine the use of violence and justification of violence, in addition to considering non-violent alternatives. I also discuss how Boobop challenges the long history of justified violence in speculative fiction comic books for children and consider how Boobop reproduces aspects of the very same traps I criticize.

As a disclaimer, it is important for me to note that the Boobop Series is an action adventure story, first and foremost, written to entertain and inspire children, not a socio-political allegory or self-righteous manifesto about colonization. The close reading of my creative work in this introduction I conducted after the fact. In

J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous essay “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” he writes,

The significance of a myth is not easily to be pinned on paper by analytical

reasoning. It is at its best when it is presented by a poet who feels rather than

makes explicit what his theme portends; who presents it incarnate in the world

of history and geography, as our poet has done. Its defender is thus at a

disadvantage: unless he is careful, and speaks in parables, he will kill what he

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is studying by vivisection, and he will be left with a formal or mechanical

allegory, and, what is more, probably with one that will not work. For myth is

alive at once and in all its parts, and dies before it can be dissected. (15)

While issues of colonization, imperialism, and justified violence play a major part of my thought process and consciousness in the creation of the Boobop Series, these socio-political issues do not act as the driving force behind the story. The driving force has always been the characters, their relationships with each other, and their transformation over the course of their heroic quest. Simply put, I want to create an enjoyable narrative first and foremost.

Science-Fantasy: A Brief Introduction

Literatures falling under the genre of science fiction, fantasy, or science- fantasy arguably date back to the Sumerian epic Gilgamesh and are woven into the fabric of many cultures, ranging from Egyptian creation myths, to the Judeo-Christian

Bible, to Norse mythology, to the adventure tales of Jules Verne. Scholars cannot agree on an all-encompassing definitive definition of science fiction and/or fantasy, though most can attest to particular tropes and devises that are generally present in science fiction and/or fantasy texts. In Colonialism and the Emergence of Science

Fiction, Rieder calls this a web of resemblances, which he argues, are groupings of various tropes, motifs, and devices that are common to the genres (17). Paul Kindkaid writes,

…science fiction is not one thing. Rather, it is any number of things – a future

setting, a marvelous devise, an ideal society, an alien creature, a twist in time,

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an interstellar journey, a satirical perspective, a particular approach to the

matter of story, whatever we are looking for when we look for science fiction,

here more overt, here more subtle – which are braided together in an endless

variety of combinations. (qtd. in Rieder 17)

Using Rieder’s notion of a web of resemblances, one can begin to examine the commonalities that comprise these unique genres of speculative fiction.

Both science fiction and fantasy address the impossible and speculate on what the world might look like in the future, the distant past, or in brand new imaginary worlds. Violence generally plays a significant role in both genres. In Flights of

Fancy: Armed Conflict in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Eric Rabkin writes:

Traditionally, SF has transposed individual deeds of valor and decisive battles

to the broader framework of outer space. And traditional fantasy relocates

these same deeds in alternate and ‘other’ worlds. Both forms sing of arms and

the men in vistas that are not just national or eschatological but cosmic and

evolutionary. (1)

Science fiction, as the name implies, involves some type of science or pseudo- science and notions of the impossible are generally grounded in scientific fact or theory. For example, colonizing other universes in outer space might be impossible at this precise moment in history, but advances in technology could make such an idea plausible. Oftentimes in science fiction, fantastical occurrences have a logical explanation within the world of the story. Fantasy on the other hand, deals with notions of the impossible from a completely imaginative perspective, with no

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required or expected grounding in anything factual or scientific. In fantasy, fantastical occurrences can frequently be explained by magic, not technology or other rationalizing discourses. Fairies, murderous goblins, magical swords, deadly amulets, and flying monkeys are all acceptable, and sometimes even commonplace, within the fantasy genre.

The sub-genre of science-fantasy draws from tropes, devices, and themes from both the science fiction and the fantasy genres. As a hybrid genre that is part of the broader category of speculative fiction, science-fantasy combines fictional science aspects, such as space travel or robotics with supernatural/fantastic tropes, such as sorcery or dragons. Elements from both science fiction and fantasy find a balance and ultimately coexist in an imaginary world. A key structural element to creating a convincing science-fantasy work that resonates with the audience is to clearly define the natural laws of physics and the limitations of magic and/or supernatural phenomena within this speculative world, as well as defining how these two elements will interact and/or contradict each other in believable ways (Card 23). The most popular example of science-fantasy is the Star Wars franchise. While the story takes place in a highly advanced technological universe with interstellar space travel and sentient alien species, an ancient magical religion known as the Force also exists within the Star Wars universe, which gives those that practice/master the religion supernatural powers, including telekinesis, mind control, levitation, and everlasting life.

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In the Boobop Series, as in Star Wars and many science-fantasy stories, the lines between science fiction and fantasy are often blurred. The imaginary fantastical world in the Boobop Series is literally separated into two geographic regions, split in half by a massive system of waterfalls known as the Great Divide. The Great Divide acts as an allegorical “contact zone,” which Mary Louise Pratt describes as:

…the space of colonial encounters, the space in which peoples geographically

and historically separated come into contact with each other and establish

ongoing relations, usually involving conditions of coercion, racial inequality,

and intractable conflict. (6)

Both sides of the Divide have unique forms of science, technology, and supernatural phenomena. In the West, the Polluto Empire, an advanced technological nation state with advanced military weaponry, robotics, cloning technology, and forced mutations, dominates the Western side of the Divide and has expanded across the region, conquering lands and cultures, exploiting resources, destroying the environment, and enslaving sentient beings. The Western side of the divide uses oil, coal, and other scarce minerals for fuel and steel for manufacturing. While magic and supernatural phenomena are considered myth in the West by the general population, the most powerful leaders of the Empire belong to a secret cult that believes the blood of the lost race of Enon (Boobop’s race) can unlock a magical portal, containing immortal power for those that enter. Some of the leaders of this group also practice a form of sorcery and divination.

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On the Eastern side of the divide, a vast archipelago is shared by a great number of races and civilizations, all with various forms of science, technology, and supernatural phenomena. A form of natural oil called Goop is used as a power source, as well as innovative wind, solar, magnetic, and pulley technologies, though steel does not exist as a malleable resource. Technology and science are advanced and effective, though not to the level of the West. It can best be compared to the technological systems used in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Flintstones or keeping with the Star Wars theme, the Ewoks in the Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, in which a symbiotic balance exists between technology and nature. A great deal of superstition also exists in the East. Magic and supernatural phenomena are accepted in the East, though not entirely commonplace. While the Great Divide might act as a sort of loose “contact zone” between diverse cultures, science and magic, and technology and nature, the complex and diverse universe of the science-fantasy epic Boobop is a mixture of advanced technology, advanced warfare, primitive technology, alternate dimensions, supernatural phenomena, and magic, very similar to the science-fantasy universe of Star Wars, though lacking interstellar space travel.

Science-Fantasy, Sequential Art, and Violence: A Brief Introduction

Within the medium of comic books, graphic novels, and the earlier incarnation of comic strips, both science fiction and fantasy have had a long history of representing violent narratives dating back to the earliest representations of the comic medium in popular culture. In A History of the Comic Strip, Pierre Couperie labels one of the earliest successful comic strips to be the fantasy strip by Windsor

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McCay titled Little Nemo in Slumberland syndicated in 1905 (27). The strip follows a little boy named Nemo who falls asleep and is swept away to Slumberland, a magical realm filled with kings and queens, advanced technology and robots, dangerous monsters, and grandiose adventure. McCay created an entire universe and a pantheon of characters that came to life each week in print. The world had never encountered anything quite like it. The first episode of Little Nemo in Slumberland, depicted below, tells the story of the Slumberland Imps, who have been sent out by

King Morpheus of Slumberland to bring the human child Nemo to the palace. The

Imps are unable to successfully travel all the way to Slumberland before morning arrives and are destroyed by the dawn. The violence depicted in this first episode is caused by nature, specifically the coming of the Sun, who is a sentient being within

Slumberland. Over the course of Little Nemo in Slumberland’s twenty one years in print, from 1905 to 1926, McCay’s storylines became increasingly more violent.

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Figure 1: Little Nemo in Slumberland #1, 1905, http://www.comicstriplibrary.org

In 1929, the world saw its first science fiction comic strip titled Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D. (Couperie 57). The strip follows a naval officer who is frozen for nearly 500 years, later to awake in a dangerous world of great scientific advancement. Similar to Nemo, Buck Rogers is forced to confront his fears and overcome dangerous obstacles, which invariably results in the use of violence to

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defend and spread justice. Both Little Nemo in Slumberland and Buck Rogers were widely successful within the comic strip medium, especially within the U.S., influencing the birth of other violent comic strips such as George Herriman’s fantasy strip titled Krazy Kat in 1911 (Couperie 35) and Alex Raymond’s science fiction strip titled Flash Gordon in 1934 (Couperie 61). These early comics helped establish genre conventions that would become increasingly violent; yet these early comic masterpieces demonstrate that violence was not necessarily essential to commercial and critical success.

The popularity of violent speculative fiction within the comic strip medium spread to the later development of the comic book medium. With commercially successful creations such as Superman in 1938, Batman in 1939, Captain America in

1940, and other American speculative fiction properties in later years, it became clear to comic book publishers there existed a large readership for speculative fiction comic books depicting superheroes battling it out against evil forces, inflicting extreme acts of violence on evil villains, and keeping America free and prosperous (Coogan 77-

78). While Superman, Batman, Captain America, Spiderman, Iron Man, The

Fantastic Four, to name just a few, have unique and complicated origin stories and mythologies in their own right, they all possess the common trope of defending justice in America through the use of extreme violence.

In The Myth of the American Superhero, Robert Jewett and John Lawrence assert that a formulaic narrative structure emerged in American popular entertainment, which depicted and promoted a version of American exceptionalism

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that goes as far back as the colonial period with Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (26). Jewett and Lawrence call this formulaic narrative the “American monomyth,” describing the formula as follows:

A community in a harmonious paradise is threatened by evil; normal

institutions fail to contend with this threat; a selfless superhero emerges to

renounce temptations and carry out the redemptive task; aided by fate, his

decisive victory restores the community to its paradisiacal condition; the

superhero then recedes into obscurity. (6)

The narrative paradigm put forth in The Myth of the American Superhero re-imagines

Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, which theorizes a narrative pattern present in heroic journey narratives from around the globe. Campbell’s monomyth features a hero, confronted with a call to adventure, who ventures forth from the known world into a land of the unknown, at which time the hero must face trials and tribulations to ultimately gain the boon of treasure or knowledge and return home a transformed individual (Campbell 28-29). In many science-fantasy stories where a hero travels the course of Campbell’s monomyth, the narrative often culminates in some form of violence (Schwartz 83). During these stages, the hero is often forced to confront evil through violence, often times fueled by revenge, greed, and/or hatred. In many, though not all cases, victory over evil through violence becomes an idealized aspect of the narrative. An example of this idealized violence can be seen in Jeff Smith’s popular children’s fantasy graphic novel series Bone, published by Scholastic Books.

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In Bone, the Bone cousins are swept into a distant, unfamiliar land that is on the verge of a violent war. In their attempts to get home, the three cousins fall in love with the village of humans and decide to help the humans defeat the evil Lord of Locusts and the rat creatures. The cousins’ time among the village of humans becomes a version of the hero’s journey for the group. In the final battle with the Lord of Locusts, Fone

Bone, the main protagonist, comes to assist Princess Thorn and destroys the Lord of

Locusts. During his violent attempt to assist the Princess in her own violent battle, he also kills his friend Lucious, which is a good example of depicting the collateral damage of war, though Lucious’ death is celebrated as a necessary loss and something Lucious would do again if given the chance. In the end, the Bone cousins are celebrated for their violent part in saving the world from evil. Violence is not only promoted as the only solution, but also celebrated as the just solution. To Jeff

Smith’s credit, one of the last scenes depicts Fone Bone, in a gesture of compassion, offering a few of the remaining enemy rat soldiers a platter of food on Christmas, which confuses the enemy, but also suggests that forgiveness and reconciliation is possible, even after war.

Similar to Campbell’s monomyth, the American monomyth is inherently violent by nature, generally celebrating the bravery and valor of the hero, while excluding the aftermath of “justified” war. These violent narratives “forget that every gain entails a loss, that extraordinary benefits exact requisite costs, and that injury is usually proportionate to the amount of violence employed” (Lawerence 47).

The Myth of the American Superhero argues the American monomyth is separate and

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unique from Campbell’s monomyth in its propagation of American exceptionalism and the fact these narratives take place exclusively on American soil. I agree the

American monomyth can be assigned to a great number of American produced heroic narratives, especially comic books like Batman, Superman, and Spiderman for instance, in which the superhero generally protects his/her home city (Gotham,

Metropolis, and New York respectively). However, The Myth of the American

Superhero deals strictly with domestic conflict and does not consider a version of

Campbell’s monomyth, in which a hero must leave the safety of home in order to destroy a threat from abroad, such as a narrative that reflects American interventionalist policies and preemptive war, as seen in Jeff Smith’s Bone. I would argue the American monomyth can be extended to heroic narratives in which the hero learns of injustices abroad while on her/his journey and is compelled to help spread justice in foreign lands through justified violence, which leads me to the role colonialism, imperialism, and justified war plays in speculative fiction.

Science-Fantasy, Colonialism, and the “Other”

In Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, John Rieder develops a detailed history of the relationship between science fiction and colonialism and offers a plethora of examples of speculative fictions injected with narrative tropes dealing with colonialism and imperialism. While the primary focus of his book deals with science fiction, the concepts and theories can be applied to fantasy and science- fantasy as well. Rieder writes:

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It is not a matter of asking whether, but of determining precisely how and to

what extent the stories engage colonialism. The work of interpreting the

relation of colonialism and science fiction really gets under way, then, by

attempting to decipher the fiction’s often distorted and topsy-turvy references

to colonialism. Only then can we properly ask how early science fiction lives

and breathes in the atmosphere of colonial history and its discourses, how it

reflects or contributes to ideological production of ideas about the shape of

history, and how it might, in varying degrees, enact a struggle over

humankind’s ability to reshape it. (3)

Rieder argues that the intended meanings behind many speculative texts dealing with colonialism and imperialism are often blurred by the complexities of the alternate worlds created and the mixed intentional/unintentional motivations of the writer.

Writers of science fiction and fantasy are able to create alternate realities in which various aspects of colonialism and imperialism are mixed together, reimagined, and juxtaposed against the life and goals of the protagonist, ultimately creating subversive visions of the past, present, and/or future.

Speculative fiction offers a unique platform for writers to interrogate, criticize, protest, reimagine, and even promote real-life historical, current, or future socio- political and socio-economic events in ways that create space between the writer and the controversial issues. In Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics, and

Popular Culture, Eric Greene writes:

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One of the characteristics of fiction is the ability to extract controversial

problems from their social circumstances and reinscribe them onto fictional,

even outlandish, contexts. The acceptability of introducing new worlds and

even new forms of life in science fiction and fantasy may make these genres

especially flexible in this regard. Difficult issues can be located safely distant,

even light years away, from the real ground of conflict and thereby rendered

less obvious and less psychologically or politically threatening. Science

fiction’s distance provides deniability for both the filmmakers and the

audience (Greene 18) .

Greene argues the separation created between the author and socio-political issues is an important method for writers to create entertaining, yet subversive stories that allow audiences to interact with controversial and/or painful real world problems, without feeling overwhelmed or preached at. The imaginative worlds and outlandish occurrences of many speculative fiction texts act as a buffer zone for loose allegory or metaphor for real world events. Rosemary Jackson writes, “The fantastic traces the unsaid and the unseen of culture: that which has been silenced, made invisible, covered over and made ‘absent’” (4). The ability to uncover that which has been hidden gives speculative fiction a great deal of potential for interrogating the status quo renderings of colonial and imperial realities.

While a vast array of speculative fiction texts deal with various aspects of the complexities of colonialism and imperialism, for my creative thesis, I am most interested in stories dealing with the “Othering” of marginalized people groups with

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the intention of justifying violence. In many colonial accounts, such as the writings of John Smith and Christopher Columbus, European explorers sanctioned by an empire and armed with advanced technologies of the day, set out on a voyage/adventure to discover new lands, acquire resources, convert, and/or enslave humans that are believed to be “alien” or described as such to justify the violence inflicted upon them. As portrayed by the colonizer, the “Other,” found to inhabit these newly discovered lands possess little to no agency and become subject to the will of the colonizer. In The Conquest of America Todorov writes:

The desire for wealth and the impulse to master – certainly these two forms of

aspiration to power motivate the Spaniards’ conduct; but this conduct is also

conditioned by their notion of the Indians as inferior beings, halfway between

men and beasts (146).

In many cases within speculative fiction, especially within those that can be classified as American monomyth, the “Othered” characters are vilified and rarely given a voice or a complex back story that might explain what has influenced them to act in ways contrary to Western practices and ideologies. The vilified “Other” is often rendered barbaric and savage in their brutal violence. And the “Other’s” methods of government are rendered as primitive, fascist, or totalitarian. An example of this can be found in the now famous rendition of Batman in Frank Miller’s The Dark Night

Returns. The mutants are a gang of violent murders who attempt to take over the city of Gotham. They have sharp sets of teeth, mohawks, and wear unique metal head

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gear covering their eyes, making them look monstrous and non-human. Just before an epic fist fight with Batman, the leader cries out to his gang:

They call us a gang. They call us a mob. They think we just noisy kids. Only

when they die by our hands and see their woman raped will they know we

have the strength – we have the will – and now we have the guns. Gotham

City belongs to the mutants (73) .

Batman has little choice but to deal with these barbaric villains through extreme acts of violence.

The hero in many speculative fiction comic books often looks at the villain and creates her/his own narrative about the villain, rather than the villain being able to tell her/his own story, similar to the way colonizers created narratives about and for the colonized “Other” through what has become known as the colonial gaze, which

“distributes knowledge and power to the subject who looks, while denying or minimizing access to power for its object, the looked at” (Rieder 7). Mary Louise

Pratt calls the colonizer in this instance the “‘seeing-man,’ an admittedly unfriendly label for the European male subject of European landscape discourse – he whose imperial eyes passively look and possess” (7). Furthermore, in Culture and

Imperialism, Edward Said writes,

…stories are at the heart of what explorers and novelists say about strange

regions of the world; they also become the method colonized people use to

assert their own identity and the existence of their own history. The main

battle in imperialism is over land, of course, but when it came to who owned

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the land, who had the right to settle and work on it, who kept it going, who

won it back, and who now plans its future – these issues were reflected,

contested, and even for a time decided in narrative. (Said xii)

By controlling the historical account and the colonial narrative, the colonizer is able to shape the way the “Other” is perceived for the colonizer’s own benefit, ultimately justifying misconduct, exploitation, theft, and atrocities caused by colonialism.

Through misrepresentation and control of the story, the colonized “Other” is given little chance of self-representation.

A common speculative fiction narrative formula that pertains to my own creative thesis often begins with the invasion of a democratic nation by an “Othered” villain or group of villains. The story will focus on the violent conflict and aftermath between the two groups. The 1996 film Independence Day starring Will Smith, tells the story of a ruthless army of aliens, assuming the role of colonizer, and invading the

Earth. What makes this film problematic as an allegory for colonialism is the subsequent unification of all humans, under the leadership of America, fighting back and eventually destroying the villainous invaders. The film allows past colonizers

(the U.S.) to assuage their guilt for past atrocities by switching the roles of subaltern/colonizer. Through this switch, the potential subaltern (the U.S. and rest of the world) is victorious allowing for a false attempt at reconciliation.

Another common speculative fiction narrative tells the story of a democratic society being threatened by outside alien forces, necessitating preemptive action to maintain a free democratic society. The hero’s violent actions against the impending

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threat are then justified to defend freedom. Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, fits into this narrative trope when the idea of the far off and unlikely alien threat is transformed, through propaganda, into impending and immediate danger. Card complicates the typical colonial/imperial war narrative when the main character protests the violence of war after he unknowingly develops a relationship with the

“villainous” alien queen and is later tricked by his commanders into destroying her planet. Ender’s Game also critiques the indoctrination of children to the concept of war and patriotism. The main character, Ender, is just an 8-year-old boy when he begins training on war simulation machines, preparing him for future war with the alien forces. In the 2013 film adaptation, Ender and his brother play a game, similar to the American childhood game “cowboys and Indians,” but in this case, Ender puts on a grotesque mask that resembles the alien forces, which further criticizes the powerful impact war games for children might have on their future perspective of war and the “Other.”

Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet: A Case Study in Imperialism and Justified War

Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet is a #1 New York Times best-selling children’s science-fantasy graphic novel series rich in depictions of imperialism, racial conflict, violence, and resistance. The series is published by Graphix (the graphic novel arm of Scholastics Books), and is heavily endorsed and promoted by major bookstores, librarians, the educational system, and parents. There are a number of reasons why

Amulet will act as a roadmap for my Boobop project. Next to the fact I fell in love with the main group of protagonists and am completely invested in their lives and the

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outcome of their quest, Kibuishi creates a diverse world of politics and power relations, centered around the amulet stone - an immeasurable force of violent power that commands fear and respect. Through his young characters and their fantastic quest, Kibuishi tells a wildly entertaining story for children and adults, while at the time depicting the brutal realities of imperialism, extreme acts of violence, and justified war.

The Amulet series begins with Emily, her mother, and father getting into a terrible car crash, resulting in the death of her father. Emily witnesses the car fall off a cliff with her father still inside. Flash forward a year, Emily, her brother Navin, and her mom move out to the country, into the empty house of Emily’s grandfather who mysteriously disappeared before Emily was born. Emily discovers a ruby necklace inside a secret book in her Grandfather’s library and puts it on, unknowingly activating its deadly power. That night a mysterious creature sneaks into the house through a secret portal in the grandfather’s library and kidnaps Emily’s mother, forcing Emily and Navin to chase the creature through the portal, initiating the beginning of their grand adventure, to first save their mother from a monstrous crab- like creature and then to save the land of Alledia from the imperial nation state of the

Elf King.

The complex alternate world Kibuishi creates in Amulet is controlled by the tyrannical and murderous Elf King and his imperial empire. The Elf King ultimately represents the archetypal “evil” villain, “Othered” by narration and imagery, who uses extreme acts of violence and treachery to achieve his ends, including the

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attempted murder of his own sons. The Elf King wears a mask throughout the entire series, never allowing other characters or the reader to see his actual face, further alienating him as “Other.” In Amulet: Book 3, his own son Trellis speaks of his father’s face behind the mask, “ ‘His features were gaunt and gray, with skin like stone. His eyes glazed over by a milky white substance, and nothing but a cold emptiness behind them. He was dead’” (Kibuishi 139). By implying the Elf King is already dead, Trellis further vilifies his father and removes any possibility of reconciliation, ultimately justifying the mission to kill the Elf King. Kibuishi poses the question is it is really murder if the person is already dead? In Hero with a

Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell writes about archetypal villains:

Wherever he sets his hand there is a cry (if not from the housetops, then –

more miserably – within every heart): a cry for the redeeming hero, the carrier

of the shining blade, whose blow, whose touch, whose existence, will liberate

the land (11).

As the story develops through the first six books, the reader is given more information regarding the widespread effects of the Elf King’s imperial conquests.

The Elf King’s reign has spread across the land and has affected all aspects of life. In

Amulet: Book 2, Emily passes a long line of despondent looking characters headed toward a soup kitchen controlled by elf military. Emily’s companion Leon Redbeard explains, “‘They’re farmers. The elves took their land and left them with nothing.

Now they’re forced to beg for the very same food they used to harvest’ ” (Kibuishi

34). The elves control food, commerce, and transportation. In Amulet: Book 3,

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Redbeard discusses the transportation embargos placed on the city of Nautilus. He says, “ ‘Since gaining power, the elves have forced pilots to fly for much lower wages than they’re accustomed to. It’s an unfortunate situation, but one that works to our advantage’ ” (Kibuishi 29). Kibuishi does a fantastic job at subtly weaving in a socio-political critique on empire and the effects it has on all facets of life.

One interesting and exciting issue to note in regards to the villains of Amulet is the transformation from the “evil” side to the “good” side that takes place in Trellis,

Luger, and Max, which offers hope that the Elf King might also be transformed, rather than murdered by Emily. Kibuishi’s current storyline is set up in such a way however, that it seems improbable that dealing with the Elf King and his pawns will result in anything other than extreme acts of violence at the hands of the “savior” of

Alledia, who happens to be Emily.

Emily is one of the few chosen to be a Stonekeeper, the most powerful beings in the land of Alledia. Stonekeepers are able to use their stones as a weapon of mass destruction, emitting a powerful shock wave of energy that can be used to do the bidding of the stonekeeper. The order of stonekeepers in Amulet is very similar to the

Jedis in Star Wars, especially in the fact there are those that use the power of the stone for “good” and “justified” violence, while others, such as the Elf King, use the power for pure evil. In the beginning of Emily’s relationship with her amulet, both

Emily and the reader are under the impression the amulet has Emily’s best interests in mind. The amulet speaks to Emily, warns her of impending danger, and manifests itself into physical form within her dreamscape. As the series progresses, it becomes

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clear the amulet is a dark force vying for complete control of Emily and all those processing an amulet stone. The stone frequently tries to convince her to completely give herself over to the power of the stone, so that she will be the most powerful stonekeeper of all. In Amulet: Book 3, the stone warns Emily of the Elf King’s ultimate goal of crossing through the portal into Emily’s world to conquer it as well.

This prophesy gives Emily further reasons to seek out, fight, and kill the Elf King in a manner of preemptive war.

The violence depicted thus far in the Amulet Series falls in line with the status quo renderings of justified violence in children’s speculative fiction. One of the problems with trying to analyze the violence across the volumes published to date, is the fact the series is not complete, so I cannot speak to how the story will be completed and the main conflicts resolved. At this point in the narrative, I would argue that Emily and her friends are completely convinced that violence against evil is justified and the only plausible way to liberate the land from the Elf King. There are rare moments in which violence and the aftermath of violence are questioned, such as when the elves invade Kanalis in Amulet: Book 2 and the Elf King’s son

Trellis questions the violent tactic of bombing a hospital. Trellis asks General Luger,

“ ‘What about the patients? They have no part in this’ ” (Kibuishi 47). Luger responds, “ ‘Sometimes sacrifices must be made for the greater good’ ” (Kibuishi 47).

This example of questioning excessive violence is not the norm and suggests that not all the villains in Amulet are the same. The character Trellis, though violent and destructive in his own right, is able to separate the means from the ends and seems to

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follow a certain moral obligation to innocent civilians. Generally, the way violence is portrayed in Amulet however, creates a clear binary between good and evil, always celebrating the justified violence of the “good” characters.

As an experiment, I listed every time Emily uses the stone in a violent way in the first three books of the Amulet Series and briefly describe the scenario, what was accomplished, and if Emily ever considers non-violent alternatives or questions the aftermath of the stone’s destruction (see appendix 1). In my list I only indicated the first page number where each new scene begins, though each instance of violence generally represents a fight scene of 3 or more pages. The data I gathered shows not one instance in which Emily questioned the use of her violence, questioned the aftermath inflicted on the enemy and innocent civilians, or offered a potential peaceful non-violent solution.

After looking at these violent scenes featuring Emily more closely, it appears obvious that violence as a means for defeating evil and liberating the world from tyranny is most definitely justified and celebrated in the first six books of Amulet, in the same way justified violence is often celebrated in other superhero comic books.

As a series so heavily promoted by librarians, teachers, and parents, I question the excessive depiction of justified violence, with not one example of a peaceful alternative. What does this say about the current state of children’s entertainment when Scholastic Books, one of the most reputable publishing companies for children, endorses such stories? My simple answer would be that the story is amazing and the violence does not override the other important moral lessons that the story promotes

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such as loyalty, friendship, forgiveness, teamwork, and standing up against injustice.

My second answer would be that violence is normalized within the 21st century U.S. society and the caliber of violence within Amulet is completely acceptable in the current market. My point in this critique is not to whine about the fact that Amulet is violent (I am not against depicting violence because we live in a violent world so children are already exposed to it before they read Amulet), my goal is to point out the fact that non-violent alternatives are never considered and to question why this invariably is the case in a number of popular speculative traditions aimed at younger readers. Can a children’s speculative fiction graphic novel depict non-violent resistance as a legitimate alternative to justified violence and be successful in a violent world?

Boobop and the Colonial Impact: Children in a War Torn Country

In the Boobop Series, Boobop’s home on the eastern side of the Divide has never experienced the brutality of colonialism. Though the land has experienced tribal war and other dangerous environmental threats, killing in Boobop’s culture is a sacred rite, acceptable only for hunting and self-defense (which becomes problematic as the story progresses and preemptive war becomes an ideological option, where is wasn’t before colonialism touched their shores). When Scour Ideal’s henchmen attack the Poogies, first by kidnapping the children and then by invading the village killing some and enslaving the rest, an important paradigm shift takes place in the consciousness of Boobop and Boobonic. Their mother and sister are kidnapped and the village is completely destroyed. I am very interested in this traumatic epicenter

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and the initial and lasting impression this day will have on the boys. There is no doubt, the trauma of this day will create an on-going episode of Post-traumatic Stress

Disorder (PTSD). The notion of PTSD in children of war torn countries is a thread running through the entire story. What does the kidnapping of loved ones and the destruction of a village do to the psychology of a child? And how does this affect the child’s future relationship with the invader and the invader’s race/culture?

On their respective quests, the boys and their sister Lucy will frequently be thrown into direct conflict with the causes, effects, and reactions of colonialism and empire building. One of the main motifs described in Colonialism and the

Emergence of Science Fiction that I use as a jumping off point is the “map in the lost race motif” (Rieder 21). Boobop is part of a lost race of creatures, and from the perspective of the slave-trading pirate Scour Ideal, represents a place and people lost in time, which is reminiscent of the “vanishing race” motif used to falsely conceptualize Native peoples within the U.S. Boobop’s people and all the newly discovered races in the east are ripe for the picking in Scour’s mind. Not only does he see the Poogie enslavement as a means for immense financial gain, but more importantly to Scour, he sees the Poogies as a way for him to enter the annals of

Polluto history as the first Polluto to cross the Great Divide and capture the lost race of Enon.

The story is told from the perspective of the colonized children, rather than the colonizer. Though my story places Boobop and his people in the role of victim early on in the story, it will quickly become clear that my project is a story of survival and

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resistance, loosely working off Gerald Vizenor’s theory of “survivance,” which argues for native presence over absence within narrative histories and culture (17).

Boobop and his people hold on to their history and culture as a way to face and resist potential obliteration. Throughout the series, Boobop will cling to the God of his homeland, the stories passed down through the ages regarding the Poogie race, and the rites and rituals taught to him by his parents. My ultimate challenge will be to avoid ethnocentric and Orientalist pitfalls in creating these native traditions and rituals.

One of my goals in the Boobop Series is to create well-rounded villains that have the ability to change, as well as creating protagonists that might end up becoming villains. In the first book, Scour Ideal is a cold, calculating, ruthless pirate/slave trader, with a bit of religious zeal. I tried to blend Cortez, Captain Henry

Morgan, and the religiosity of Columbus. He comes from the Polluto Empire, a place where the few control the many. One can’t totally blame him for his ruthless ways.

His dad was a ruthless slave ship captain, his granddad a ruthless slave ship captain, his great granddad and so on. In his mind, it was Scour’s destiny to become the ruthless captain of “Ship X,” a notorious vessel known for employing the most innovative and scandalous capturing techniques on the Western seaboard. Working for him are two henchmen collectively called Inept Taxiloo. On a recent voyage, he found a map to the lost race of Enon and decided it was his destiny to capture them and ultimately unlock the portal imprisoning Rupe Veil. To cross the divide, he captures a few Inventors to help guide him, one of which is Lazlo. For weeks they

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traveled through complete nothingness, eventually reaching the other side of the

Divide, a place traveled by no Polluto before him. This scene, partially told by Lazlo around the campfire, is reminiscent of the voyage of Columbus and later voyages in which Columbus captured/employed natives to help him push further into the

“unknown” New World. Another important aspect of Scour Ideal that mirrors

Columbus is Scour’s belief that he is doing the will of God, or in his case, the will of the immortal Rupe Veil.

While the east side of the Divide is devoid of the brutal violence witnessed during Scour’s invasion of the Poogies, it is introduced early on that violence and slavery do play a role in the Poogie culture. Early on in the book, Boobonic captures a beautiful dragonfly and enslaves it by way of tree vine leash. Boobonic says, “Got myself a brand new spankin’ slave.” This is clearly not the first time Boobonic or

Boobop have encountered the idea of slavery and its ramifications. The dragonfly speaks a different language, but is clearly a sentient being that does not deserve slavery or domestication. Boobop protests, “Let him go Boobonic!” which leads to a knife threat from Boobonic, establishing the motif of the two boys’ differing worldviews in constant conflict. When Boobop finally cuts the dragonfly free using his own knife, it implicitly suggests that slaves can be captured through violence and freed through the exact same methodology of violence. The conflict between Boobop and Boobonic over slavery, violence, and revenge is a consistent theme throughout the story. Boobonic wants to react and deal with Scour Ideal through extreme acts of violence. He carries around the hand of Meatloaf, which was chopped off by

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Boobonic’s mother, as a reminder that his own mother fought by the knife and she would have wanted the boys to save Lucy and seek revenge on the invaders.

Boobop’s idea of violence and his willingness to kill is not as clear-cut as

Boobonic’s. Boobop constantly struggles with the idea that a peaceful solution exists, even though he has no idea how such a dream is even possible. In the end of the first book, Boobop accidently uses the power from his magical helmet to destroy Scour’s ship and send it over the falls. This is a very violent scene, as are many of the scenes, though at the end of the scene Boobop is horrified with the aftermath and implications of his violent reaction.

Final Thoughts

The first installment of the Boobop Series, essentially lays the foundation for the entire three book series and sets up a number of opportunities for me to interrogate and re-imagine aspects of colonialism, imperialism, and justified war. In this critical introduction, I have talked extensively on the excessive use of violence in comic books and by page 10 in Boobop, extensive violence has already occurred. My goal is not to promote the eradication of violence from comic books or reinstate the comic book code or any other censorship mechanism. Violence is real in the world.

Violence becomes problematic when it is glorified or positioned as a just solution to socio-political conflict. Whether children are completely sheltered from all violence in the media or desensitized to violence via video games, TV, movies, toys, or comic books, the fact remains that violence will be a part of their lives at some point.

Beyond my main objective of creating an enjoyable narrative that inspires and

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entertains children, my goal is to create a story that encourages children to start questioning the way villains are portrayed in children’s entertainment, which might transition into them questioning the way real people are portrayed as villains on the news and in the history books. I would also like to introduce the idea of non-violence as a means to solving various conflict, from international war to schoolyard bullies.

Violence is too often represented as the only option when dealing with a “villain.”

Maybe violence is not the only way to successfully conquer injustice. Maybe violence only begets violence.

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Appendix 1: Violent Moments featuring Emiliy from Kibuishi’s Amulet Series

1. Book 1: Page 128 – In pursuit of Emily’s captured mother, Emily uses the

stone to blast the evil tentacles attacking her ship so their aircraft can make it

through the cave and continue pursuing the octopus creatures.

2. Book 1: Page 150 – In an attempt to save her mother, Emily uses the stone to

kill three octopus creatures by cutting them into a million pieces.

3. Book 1: Page 166 – Emily is being held captive by a stonekeeper elf named

Trellis and uses the stone to blast the elf off her, nearly killing Trellis by

losing control of the stone’s power. The stone says to Emily, “He took your

mother from you. Make him pay!!!” (Kibuishi 169).

4. Book 2: Page 63 – Emily is being attacked by a fierce elf holding two swords.

She blasts him off the roof of the building.

5. Book 2: Page 67 – Emily’s friend Leon is in a sword fight with an elf. She

blasts the elf with a supercharged explosion, practically disintegrating the elf

in mid-air. Just before using the Amulet, Emily’s robot friend Miskit

questions her in saying, “ ‘But what if you can’t control it? What if you hit

Leon by accident’ ” (Kibuishi 64). She disregards his concerns.

6. Book 2: Page 157 – Emily is being attacked by a monstrous dog and slices

through the air with her Amulet charged staff, sending the creature running.

7. Book 2: Page 195 – Emily and her friends are being attacked by a giant sized

Luger. She uses the Amulet to animate a large stone fist and punches Luger

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off an enormous cliff, ultimately destroying Luger’s amulet and freeing him

from its curse.

8. Book 3: Page 45 - Emily and her friends are looking for a pilot to fly them to a

hidden city in the sky. Unbeknownst to Emily, Trellis and Luger are also in

the bar. They are confronted by a group of military elves who have been

commanded by the Elf King to bring Trellis and Luger in for failing to kill

Emily. Emily decides to help them and blasts the commanding elves into the

wall. On her second strike, she blows the three military elves through the roof

of the bar, sending them flying thirty feet into the air.

9. Book 3: Page 61 – Emily and her friends are escaping an elf attack via a flying

zeppelin. She blasts a shockwave of energy at an elf driven robot death

machine, ultimately destroying an entire airport landing pad.

10. Book 3: Page 186 – Emily and her friends are being threatened by a bounty

hunter/assassin of the Elf King. She blasts him off a thousand foot cliff with

the intention of killing him. He is barely saved by his flying bird

unbeknownst to her.

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Works Cited and/or Consulted

Eisner, Will. Comics and Sequential Art. New York: W.W Norton & Company, 2008. Print. Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: Princeton University Press, 1968. Print Card, Orson Scott. How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1990. Print. Cesaire, Aime. Discourse on Colonialism. 1955. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000. Print. Chompsky, Noam. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books, 1988. Print. Coogan, Peter. “The Definition of the Superhero.” The Comics Studies Reader. Eds. Jeet Heer and Kent Worcester. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009. 77-94. Print. Couperie, Pierre. A History of the Comic Strip. New York: Crown Publishers, 1968. Print. DiMartino, Michael Dante. Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Complete Book 1-3 Collection. Nickelodean, 2005. DVD. Gaiman, Neil. Sandman Omnibus Vol. 1. New York: Vertigo, 2013. Print. Gandhi, M.K.. Non Violent Resistance (Satyagraha). New York: Schocken Books, 1961. Print. Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. Staring: How We Look. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print. Greene, Eric. Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture. New York: Wesleyan, 1998. Print. Groth, Gary. Interview with Dr. Thomas Radecki. The Comics Journal 133 (1989): 67-78. Print. Hall, Stuart, ed. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 1997. Print.

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Jackson Rosemary. Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion. New York: Routledge, 1981. Print. Jameson, Fredric. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. 2005. New York: Verso, 2007. Print. Kelly, Walt. Pogo Vol. 1 & 2 Box Set. New York: Fantagraphics Books, 2012. Print Kibuishi, Kazu. The Amulet Box Set. New York: Scholastic Books, 2012. Print. Kunzle, David. The Early Comic Strip. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. Print. Mendlesohn, Farrah. “Introduction.” The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. Eds. Edward James and Farrah Mendlesohn. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print. McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994. Print. McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964. Print. McKay, Windsor. Little Nemo in Slumberland. 1905. Comic strip in newsprint. http://www.comicstriplibrary.org/display/1017 . Miller, Frank, et al. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. 1986. New York: DC Comics, 1996.Print. Nikolajeva, Maria. “The development of children’s fantasy.” The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. Eds. Edward James and Farrah Mendlesohn. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 50-61. Print. Nyberg, Amy Kiste. “William Gaines and the Battle over EC Comics.” The Comics Studies Reader. Eds. Jeet Heer and Kent Worcester. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009. 58-69. Print. Pratt, Mary Louise. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Sculturation. 1992. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print. Rabkin, Eric, and George Slusser, eds. Flights of Fancy: Armed Conflict in Science

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Fiction and Fantasy. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1993. Print. Reid, Michelle. “Postcolonialism.” The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction. Ed. Mark Bould. New York: Routledge, 2011. 256-266. Print. Rieder, John. Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction. Connecticut: Weslyan University Press, 2008. Print. Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books, 1982. Print. Schwartz, Sheila. “The Idea of the Hero.” The English Journal 58.1 (1969): 82-86. Print. Schwartz, Tony. Media: The Second God. New York: Anchor Books, 1983. Print. Smith, Jeff. Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume. New York: Cartoon Books, 2012. Print Spiegelman, Art. MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic. New York: Pantheon Books, 2011. Print. Spiegelman, Art. Maus I and II Box Set. 1991. New York: Pantheon Books, 2000. Print. Tenapel, Doug. Ghostopolis. New York: Graphix Books, 2010. Print. Todorov, Tzvetan. The Conquest of America. New York: Harper Perennial, 1982. Print. Tolkien, J.R.R. “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.” The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays. New York: Harper Collins, 2007. Print. Tolstoy, Leo. The Kingdom of God is Within You. Virginia: Wilder Publications, 2008. Print. Verri, Pietro. Dictionary of the International Law of Armed Conflict. Geneva: International Committee of the Red Cross, 1992. Print. Vizenor, Gerald. Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance. New York: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. Print.

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Boobop: Invasion Dayz

Scene 1: Lazlo Escape

New Page: 1

Panel 1: Wide panel (Half-page). It’s night. There’s a massive storm on the oceanfront. A medium sized steampunk pirate battle ship/submarine barely makes it over a crashing wave . The red “Ideal Industries” logo is blurry from waves, but visible on side of ship. Large sharp rocks stick out of the water in the left corner foreground of panel.

Panel 2: Wide panel. Tighten in on boat getting hit by massive waves that almost have monster like personified characteristics. A set of barred windows/portals are visible on the side of ship. Lights are on.

New Page: 2

Panel 1: Wide panel. Establishing shot of inside of ship. The barred portals from the previous panel are along the wall and inside a set of 3 thick rusted iron prison cells.

Dim ceiling lights are buzzing green in the room and in the cells. Through the windows an eerie light is cast on the walls, creating a silhouette of the cellmates.

Lazlo’s two huge hands are gripping onto the bars of his cell door. A thick metal forearm bracelet is connected to Lazlo’s right arm. The panels are crooked and jagged to show the intense movement of the boat being hit by waves. There are various tools hanging from the walls. Water is leaking in from ceiling. A sealed door

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is also on the opposite wall with a barred window. There are multiple 1980s style surveillance cameras hanging from the ceiling.

Panel 2: The tools on wall are swinging violently.

Panel 3: Outside, a huge wave is crashing into the side of the boat.

Panel 4: Lazlo’s silhouette crashes against the wall of the cell. A foot of water is filling the cell. Lazlo’s face is still not visible, but his body is immense.

Panel 5: He grips onto the window and looks out through the bars.

Panel 6: A huge outcropping of sharp stones are a hundred yards away.

New Page: 3

Panel 1: Wide Panel. Mid-shot of Scour Ideal looking out the main command center window at the approaching rocks. Multiple 1980s style TV sets are stacked to the left of the window and act as computer screens. The entire control panel is clearly not visible, but it is fairly obvious the ship is made from recycled technology. Scour’s back is visible in a shadowy silhouette, his hands gripping the steering wheel. He has spiked shoulder pads on, one spike on the left shoulder and two on the right.

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Reference: Waterworld and Mad Max for outfits for all of Scour’s crew. Leather, metal, punk rock, worn and tattered, with a gang insignia patch.

Scour: Strap in for impact you scurvy rats!!!

Panel 2: Wide Panel. Close-up of Chopo, Meatloaf, and Mammaluke’s hands clicking into their seatbelts. Heavy shadows and eerie lighting surround the room.

The hands and colors of hands are visible, but the heads are not. Chopo’s hand is gripping onto an I Love Lucy pendant hanging from his neck.

Chopo: All Hail Rupe Veil!

Panel 3: Wide Panel. The boat violently smashes against the rocks on the side of the boat with the barred windows.

New Page: 4

Panel 1: One sharp rock penetrates through, puncturing a 6-foot-long hole running along the wall and partially into Lazlo’s cell. The hole is not big enough for Lazlo to fit through.

Panel 2: Water rushes in like a fire hydrant. Lazlo slams against the cell door. The rush of water is shooting into his face. Lazlo’s face is still not visible.

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Panel 3: A bunch of tools are being carried back and forth outside of the cell by the waves of water inside.

Panel 4: Lazlo struggles to reach through the bars. The bracelet is visible. The same logo on the side of the ship is also visible on the bracelet.

Panel 5: The boat slams into another rock.

Panel 6: Lazlo slams against the wall.

Panel 7: Lazlo reaches again and grabs the sledgehammer that is in the water.

Lazlo: Anja!!!

New Page: 5

Panel 1: Lazlo is up to his waist now in water. He awkwardly swings at the hole in the wall.

Panel 2: Close-up of sledgehammer smashing into hole that is gushing water. The metal bends a bit. The sledgehammer has intricate carvings on the handle.

Panel 3: He swings again. He is able to make the hole bigger.

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Panel 4: As the water fills up the cell, things from his cell wash out: a bench, random stuff from his desk, and a black-and-white picture of his family.

Panel 5: Lazlo finally takes a breath and struggles through the hole.

Panel 6: A piece of metal cuts Lazlo from his chest to his rib-cage.

Panel 7: Silhouette of Lazlo rising up from under water, holding the sledgehammer with both hands fully extended over his head similar to how Superman flies over cities. Blood is coming from his side, dissipating in the ocean water. Reference: Sin

City action silhouettes. There are various pieces of the ship that are sinking from the impact.

Scene 2: Boobop’s Room

New Page: 6

Panel 1: Wide panel. Boobop is quickly getting ready in his room. The room is decorated with normal stuff you’d see in a 10-year-old’s room: rock posters, surfing/skateboard posters, action figures, maybe some sort of comic book superhero poster. The culture clearly has printing capabilities. Surfboards are on a rack by the door. The room is made of wood, in the fashion of an elaborate tree house. The entire inside of the house will be designed like this. Reference: the Ewok Village

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from Star Wars and Smith Family Robinson. Boobonic is still asleep. The sun is starting to rise outside their window.

Panel 2: Mid-shot of Boobop.

Boobop: Wake up, wake up Boobonic. We’re gonna be late to the race.

Panel 3: Close-up of Boobonic in bed, eyes still closed.

Boobonic: Ten more minutes. I’m right about to get a big juicy kiss from Keilani.

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobop with a grossed out face. He grabs his satchel from the desk.

Panel 5: Close-up of Boobop securing his knife to his waste.

Boobop: Boobonic!

Panel 6: Mid-shot of Boobop grabbing his board looking over at Boobonic sleeping.

Boobop smiles like he is plotting something.

Boobop: Boobonic!

New Page: 7

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Panel 1: Wide panel: Boobop is jumping through the air, headed right for Boobonic’s bed. Boobop is smiling. His legs are elongated to show how stretchy/cartoony the

Poogies are.

Panel 2: Wide panel. Boobop lands on the bed, sinks into the sheets, and sends

Boobonic flying into the air.

Boobonic: What the goop, Boobop?

Panel 3: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: Be ready in 5 minutes or I’m bailing without you. I’m in the zone.

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobonic.

Boobonic: You just can’t wait to watch me claim my victory smooch from Keilani can you?

Panel 5: Mid-shot. Boobop grabs his board.

Boobop: Whatever.

Panel 6: Close-up of door slamming as Boobop leaves.

New Page: 8

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Panel 1: Wide shot. Inside main house. Boobonic is rushing out the bedroom door.

Boobop is at bottom of staircase. The inside of house is made of a nice shiny red wood.

Boobonic: Wait up, guy.

Panel 2: Boobonic emerges from the room and board slides down the staircase. His face has a sinister expression. Boobop looks scared. (I like the idea of showing a sequence of Boobonic’s movement in one panel, almost like an animation. Basically, the key frames of the movements would be translucent to show how fast he is going across the panel. If this can be perfected and look cool, we will use this technique in a other action panels to squeeze more action and movement into each scene. If this doesn’t look and feel right then this particular panel will have to be split into two panels to show the various stages of Boobonic’s movement down the banister.)

Boobonic: Chawhooeewwww!!

Panel 3: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: You’re gonna wake…

Panel 4: Boobonic crashes into Boobop.

New Page: 9

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Panel 1: Wide panel. The boys tumble into a big green belly. Their faces look distorted from the excess blubber on Mamma’s belly.

Boobop: …Mamma.

Panel 2: Wide panel. Both boys are sitting on their butts looking up at Mamma. The boys’ boards are on each side. Mamma is standing firmly with her arms on her hips looking down at the boys. The low angle viewpoint makes her look bigger than she actually is.

Mamma: Where you lil' Poogies think you’re off to this early in the morning?

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Boobop and Boobonic.

Boobop: To the race, Mamma.

Boobonic: Yeah to the race.

Panel 4: Closeup of Boobonic.

Boobonic: You know the one, Mamma. The race yours truly is about to win with flying colors.

Panel 5: Close-up of Mamma.

Mamma: You lil' Poogies aren’t going anywhere without sittin' roun' that table, giving your morning thanks, and putting a lil' goop in your bellies.

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New Page: 10

Panel 1: Mid shot of Boobop

Boobop: But we don’t have time to give thanks. I’m in the zone.

Panel 2: Close-up of Mamma.

Mamma: Boobop Thelonius Poogie, there is always enough time to give thanks.

Panel 3: Mid shot of Boobonic pointing and laughing at Boobop looking sad.

Boobonic: Hahaha, Boobop Thelonius.

Panel 4: Wide panel. The Poogies are at the table. They each have their right hand resting on the left shoulder of the person sitting next to them creating unity. The

Poogies have different prayers for different occasions. Each Poogie prayer is directed at a monotheistic creator God, at this point named the Creator.

Mamma: Please lead us in giving thanks Boobop.

Boobonic: Yes Boobop Thelonius, please lead us.

Panel 5: Close-up of Boobop looking frustrated at his brother.

Panel 6: Close-up of Boobop closing his eyes.

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Boobop: Oh great Creator, thank you for our lives, thank you for the goop, thank you for the buzolga wood above our heads, thank you for Lucy, and Mamma, and even for

Boobonic and thank you for…

Panel 7: Close-up of Boobonic.

Boobonic: …Poppa and please bring him home safe.

New Page: 11

Panel 1: Wide panel. Long shot of entire kitchen with little Lucy Poogie standing in the hallway. She is just waking up. She is holding a stuffed animal.

Lucy: All the Poogies at school say dad and his hunting party got eaten by Del

Nillipez.

Panel 2: The boys look at each other concerned.

Panel 3: Close-up of Boobonic.

Boobonic: Don’t listen to those knuckleheads Lucy, they don’t know anything about anything.

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobop.

DeMatteo 50

Boobop: Yeah, dad probably just caught the biggest guzunga shark in the history of guzunga sharks. That’s why they’re still not back yet.

Panel 5: Close-up of Lucy.

Lucy: Everyone’s afraid of Del Nillipez. But not me. I’ll bop that ol’ Del Nillipez right on the nose if I see him.

New Page: 12

Panel 1: Close-up of Mamma.

Mamma: Come have some breakfast Lucy.

Panel 2: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: We really gotta go Mamma or we’ll miss the race.

Panel 3: Close-up of Lucy holding her stuffed toy.

Lucy: Can I go with? Can I go with? I’m going with.

Panel 4: Close-up of Lucy in her swim trunks with floating tube around her waist holding her board. Maybe put some trailing movement lines to show she just changed with rapid speed.

Lucy: I’m ready!

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Panel 5: Close-up of Mamma.

Mamma: No Lucy, today is a race for the big Poogies. You can join the race when you are Boobop and Boobonic’s age.

Panel 6: Close-up of Lucy. Her smile is gone.

Lucy: I’ll never be their age! They just keep getting older!

Panel 7: Close-up of Mamma.

Mamma: She’ll be fine, you two better get a move on. Now remember you two are brothers. And you’re probably the only brother each of you will ever have. So look out for each other out there. And it doesn’t matter who wins.

Panel 8: Mid-shot of Boobop, Boobonic, and Mamma hugging.

Boobop: OK Mamma.

Boobonic: Bye Mamma..

Scene 3: Travel to Race

New Page: 13

Panel 1: Wide Panel. Long shot of the outside of Boobop’s house and surrounding homes. The Downtown/Main Street of the village is in the distance. This is a birds- eye view. The ocean is visible. Boobop and Boobonic are standing out front. Early

DeMatteo 52

morning. It’s a Caribbean-esque tropical paradise. Other houses can be seen in the distance, with a path to what looks like a central downtown area.

Panel 2: Close-up of Boobop flipping his board over.

Panel 3: Close-up of bottom of board reveals a stone/gem in the middle of the board enclosed by a non-steel cage, with notches on all 4 sides. The notches read “surf” and

“skate”. Reference the logo for the band Slayer for the typography of hand written surf/skate. Near the bottom, two fins are tucked in flush with bottom of board.

Panel 4: Boobop casually turns the cage counter clockwise two notches to “skate” and the gem lights up green.

Panel 5: Boobop drops the board toward the ground.

Panel 6: Before it hits the ground, the board catches about a foot off the ground where it remains hovering. Slight gusts of dust can be seen stirring up from beneath the board.

New Page: 14

Panel 1: Mid-shot of Boobop and Boobonic. Boobop begins putting on his soft helmet, similar to a soft motorcycle helmet

DeMatteo 53

Boobonic: Don’t think I’m gonna bail you out during the race. It’s all for one and one for all.

Panel 2: Mid-shot of Boobop.

Boobop: I can take care of myself.

Panel 3: Boobonic starts running down the path.

Boobonic: Enjoy thy dust.

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobonic switching on his board.

Panel 5: Boobonic drops the board as he’s running.

Panel 6: Boobonic jumps in the air onto the board while it’s moving.

Panel 7: Boobonic on the board kicking up a cloud of dust as he begins down the path.

Boobonic: Chah-hooweeeee!!

New Page: 15

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Panel 1: Wide panel. Long shot of Boobonic flying down the path into the lush tropical forest. Boobop is standing at the top of hill watching his brother.

Panel 2: Boobop kick pushes his board.

Panel 3: Close-up of Boobop’s foot pushing off the ground.

Panel 4: Boobop is flying down the path, taking a slightly different line than

Boobonic.

Panel 5: Wide Panel. The boys have now entered the village. Boobonic launches off a berm (a raised dirt pathway that resembles a stationary dirt waves) leading into the village. There is some activity with vendors setting up a farmers market, but it is still early morning. The village is similar to the homes in that they have a unique hand crafted wooden/natural aesthetic. The visible technology is largely pulley based. The statue of Enon and Suzion is clearly visible in the middle of the square. A sign advertising the festival of the Great Race is visible. There is a lot of light shining through the jungle canopy above them. The Panels are all slanted and/or slightly tweaked on this page to promote the idea of movement.

DeMatteo 55

New Page: 16

(Each boy’s skating style is unique to his personality. Boobonic is aggressive and leaves a trail of destruction everywhere he goes. He is a new school skater; he likes flip trips, radical grinds, and big airs. Boobop is more of the Dogtown Z-boys era, with clean stylish turns, old school grabs, and clean air to land transitions.)

Panel 1: Wide Panel: Boobonic lands on the branch of a tree and board slides it. The market is below him in the distance.

Panel 2: Close-up of board sliding on wood with trail of destruction.

Panel 3: Close-up of Boobonic’s face with an evil grin.

Panel 4: Wide shot. Boobonic landing back down on the path.

New Page: 17

Panel 1:Boobop approaching the same berm/hill.

Panel 2: Close-up of his foot planting into the top of it in preparation for the old school skate trick the “boneless”.

Boobop: Cheewwwww.

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Panel 3: Boobop launching off his foot (his leg really extended and stretched out to show the Poogie’s elasticity and agility) grabbing his board, launching into the air.

He does a Christ air as an homage to pro-skater Christian Hosoi.

Panel 4: Wide shot of Boobop airing over the same branch Boobonic destroyed with his grind. He is grabbing his board with one hand. Boobonic is visible a little further down the path.

Panel 5: The boys are skating fast through the village. Boobonic is in the lead still.

Grogo’s fish cart is off to the right of panel. Grogo is a different race than the

Poogies. He has wings and looks a lot like Grito from Star Wars. His cool looking fish sign is set up already. Boobop is just whizzing by Grogo, whose back is turned, sending a gush of wind by Grogo.

Boobop: Hey Grogo!

Panel 6: Grogo turns to see Boobop looking back smiling at Grogo.

Grogo: Hey, my man! Good luck at the race!

New Page: 18

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Panel 5: Wide Panel. Boobonic is ahead of Boobop and is doing a powerful left hand turn, riding up the side of a dirt berm. A clean wave of dirt spray is made by his turn.

The sign at the fork reads “Mahooka Pooka Bay”.

Panel 2: Close-up of Boobonic’s determined face as he continues down the path, the wind blowing his face skin.

Panel 3: Mid-shot of a dragonfly going down the same path, headed right for

Boobonic. The dragonfly looks more like a Chinese flying dragon with dragonfly wings. He is holding a basket of something he has collected.

Panel 4: Mid-shot of Boobonic still charging down path.

Panel 5: Close-up of dragonfly’s face looking really scared.

Panel 6: Wide Panel. The two characters collide, creating a massive explosion of dirt.

Boobonic’s board goes flying in air, as well as whatever the dragon was holding.

Panel 7: Wide Panel. Boobonic sits up covered in the dirt. He is looking over at the dragonfly dragging himself to safety. Dust is still in the air.

Boobonic: Stupid dragonfly. Don’t you watch where you’re going?

Dragon: Ugggghhhhh.

DeMatteo 58

New Page: 19

Panel 1: Close-up of Boobonic’s evil grin.

Panel 2: Close-up of him pulling his knife.

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Boobonic reaching up with his knife in a threatening way, like he is going to kill the dragonfly.

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobop with a disgusted angry face.

Boobop: Nooooo Boobonic!!!

Panel 5: Boobonic lifts up his knife and he cuts off a stringy green vine hanging from the forest trees.

Panel 6: Boobonic reaches down and ties it around the dragonfly.

Boobonic: What’d you think I’d kill a perfectly good dragonfly? This here is my new slave.

Panel 7: Close-up of dragonfly with a muzzle around its head.

New Page: 20

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Panel 1: The dragonfly tries to fly, away but is on a fairly short leash.

Boobop: Let him go Boobonic.

Panel 2: Boobonic holds his knife in one hand and the dragonfly in the other.

Boobonic: Make me.

Panel 3: The two boys square off for a few frames. Ref: Scott Pilgrim fight scenes or

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly when the main character is about to square off with another character. In both properties, the directors use extreme close-ups of eyes and quick cuts between each fighter.

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobonic.

Panel 5: Close-up of Boobop.

Panel 6: Boobop grabs his board and heads back down the path.

Boobonic: That’s what I thought.

Scene 4: Lazlo on Beach

New Page: 21

Panel 1: Wide panel. Lazlo wading up on the shore. He is covered in seaweed and barnacles. His face is not fully visible. The sledgehammer is slung across his back.

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He is holding onto a piece of driftwood, maybe the bench from his cell. Other stuff is floating near him. There is a crab crawling on him.

Panel 2: Wide Panel. The tide recedes and he is on the sandy beach. He is a large dude. There is a large metal bracelet/shackle on his forearm with a logo and a circular red glass piece that is a beacon signal. We have seen this in Scene 1. It is a tracking devise. It looks like he is on a deserted island. The stone forest of Nillipez

Island emerges out of the forest in the background. The monolithic rock forest has carvings on them.

Panel 3: Wide Panel. Long shot of the entire island. Lazlo is alone, face down on the beach.

Scene 5: The Race

New Page: 22

Panel 1: Wide Panel. The beach is scattered with Poogies and their boards. Maybe fifteen total. Keilani and four other female Poogies are standing together talking to each other laughing. I like the idea of seeing a silhouette of Boobop and Boobonic holding their boards and the flying dragonfly on the leash, looking down on the crowd.

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Panel 2: Close-up of Keilani looking up at Boobop and smiling.

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Boobop blushing and Boobonic looking pissed.

Panel 4: Mid-shot of Boobonic stepping in front of Boobop as he is looking at Keilani.

Boobonic shoves the dragonfly leash into Boobop’s chest.

Boobonic: Hold this. I’m gonna go claim myself a pre-victory kiss from Keilani.

She’s like you and thinks all creatures are equal. Blah blah blah.

Panel 5: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: You hold your own slave.

Panel 6: Boobonic slams the dragon fly leash into Boobop’s chest. Boobop grabs the leash.

Boobonic: Hold it, or I’ll make you hold it.

New Page: 23

Panel 1: As Boobonic walks toward Keilani with chest puffed out, he says,

Boobonic: Now about that kiss.

Panel 2: Boobop draws his knife.

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Panel 3: Boobonic turns around hearing the knife.

Panel 4: Boobop begins to cut the tie that is around the dragonfly’s neck.

Boobonic: Don’t do it, I’m warning you.

Panel 5: Boobop continues to cut.

Panel 6: Close-up of Boobonic’s furious face.

Boobonic: Boobop!

Panel 7: Boobop cuts the tie and the dragonfly flutters up and zooms away.

New Page: 24

Panel 1: Wide Panel: Boobop and Boobonic look up at the dragonfly as it skids to a stop right above Boobonic’s head.

Panel 2: The dragonfly shoots a fireball into Boobonic’s face.

Panel 3: Close-up of Boobop laughing hysterically.

DeMatteo 63

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobonic all burnt.

Panel 5: Shot from behind Boobop who is facing Boobonic. Boobop is still holding his knife. Boobonic is furious.

Panel 6: Wide panel. Boobonic attacks Boobop and tackles him, sending him, the knife, and Boobop’s satchel flying everywhere. The other Poogies turn to look, maybe even surround the fight.

New Page: 25

Panel 1: Arms and legs are visible in the dust pile. This is a classic cartoon fight when the only thing visible is the arms, legs, and dust.

Panel 2: Mid-shot of an older Poogie blowing a conch horn suddenly blares from the podium. The podium is a monolithic stone podium raised ten feet about ground. An older Poogie, at this point named MC, is blowing the horn. He is mounted on top of his bird.

Panel 3: The boys keep fighting.

Panel 4: Mid-shot of the MC Poogie on top of the tree.

MC: We are gathered here today.

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Panel 5: He looks over at the fighting with one eye raised.

MC: We are gathered here today.

Panel 6: The boys roll into a group of Poogies and knock over other Poogies or a table of some sorts.

Panel 7: The leader slams his gavel into the podium and yells.

MC: Boobonic Claudius Poogie and Boobop Thelonius Poogie!

New Page: 26

Panel 1: The boys are sitting on the ground covered in dirt. They are both looking up at the MC.

MC: I’m glad you decided to grace us with your presence.

Panel 2: The boys look up at the MC. Boobop is embarrassed. Boobonic looks pissed.

Panel 3: Wide Panel. The group of Poogies are all looking up at the MC.

MC: Now where was I? Oh yes, we are gathered here on this grand and glorious day for the annual Poogie Race to Nillipez Island. Now who can tell us why we race?

DeMatteo 65

Panel 4: Boobonic raises his board high into the air with both hands.

Boobonic: We race to win. This year Boobonic will win.

Panel 5: The MC glares at Boobonic with a warning eye.

MC: There will be a winner, yes, but that’s not why we race.

Panel 6: Keilani raises her hand.

MC: Keilani.

Panel 7: Close-up of Keilani smiling.

Keilani: We race because hundreds of years ago, our great great- great- great- great- great- grandparents, Suzion and Enon Violcon, the first Poogies and the Guardians of the Goop, raced across the Great Divide to escape the merciless Rupe Veil, emperor of the Poluto Empire. Del Nillipez Island became their home and the beginnings of the Poogie race.

Panel 8: Mid-shot of Boobop and Boobonic.

Boobonic: Suck up.

Boobop: Be quiet, Boobonic.

New Page: 27

Panel 1: Close-up of Keilani smiling.

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Keilani: We race to honor them. We race to honor all those that have come before.

Panel 2: Close-up of MC.

MC: Thank you, Keilani. We race to honor them. Say it with me. “We race to honor them.”

Panel 3: The crowd of Poogies smiles and yells.

Poogies: We race to honor them.

Panel 4: Mid-shot of MC.

MC: The first Poogie to make it to Del Nillipez Island will hold the fire and begin the story tonight at the ceremony.

Panel 5: Close-up of Boobonic whispering to Boobop.

Boobonic: I will hold the fire. Me, Boobonic.

Panel 6: The MC is up in the air, riding on the osprey.

MC: As you race today, remember that you are all perfectly designed Poogies, created with purpose, like all the creatures, and the universe and the stars. Now are all you Poogies ready?

Panel 7: The Poogies cheer and scream. They get into position.

DeMatteo 67

New Page: 28

Panel 1: The Osprey flies into the air and above the water.

MC: Poogie woogie!

Panel 2: Close-up of Boobonic switching the stone on bottom of board to “water.”

Panel 3: The stone light turns off and two fins pop out.

Panel 4: He holds the horn up in the air with one arm.

MC: Poogie woogie! Poogie Woogie!

Panel 5: He blows the horn.

Panel 6: Wide Panel. The bird flies up above the pack and follows the Poogies as they all run down the beach and jump into the water like mad little Poogies. The boards all have the fins popped out. Nillipez Island is visible in the distance. The recognizable rock forest from the earlier scene with Lazlo is visible. The waves look pretty treacherous.

New Page 29:

Panel 1: Mid-shot of Boobonic paddling ferociously, he is passing another Poogie.

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Panel 2: Mid-shot of Boobop hitting the water for the first time.

Panel 3: Wide panel. Long shot of the Poogies racing out into the big surf. The MC is flying above them on the bird.

MC: We honor them.

New Page: 30

Panel 1: Shot of Boobonic paddling and Boobop just behind him. In front of them a big wave is popping up.

Panel 2: The wave is now huge.

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Boobonic and Boobop both duck diving under the wave with perfect timing. This is an underwater shot of the Poogies duck diving. Some of the other Poogies are getting swept back by the tumbling wave underwater.

Panel 4: The boys emerge and Boobop is out in front.

Panel 5: Wide Panel. Boobop is in the lead paddling with determination. Boobonic looks pissed. Boobop’s trunks are flying in the wind.

Boobonic: The race is mine.

DeMatteo 69

Panel 6: Close-up of Boobonic’s hand grabbing the trunks and part of Boobop’s butt cheek shows.

Panel 6: Close-up. Boobop looks back with an angry face, slaps Boobonic’s hand that forces him to lose his grip.

Boobop: Cheater!

New Page: 31

Panel 1: A huge wave begins to form.

Panel 2: Boobop breaks away again.

Panel 3: Boobonic reaches for Boobop’s foot.

Boobonic: You are not beating me.

Panel 4: Boobop kicks his hand away and splashes water in Boobonic’s eye.

Panel 5: Boobonic is blinded for a second and loses momentum.

Panel 6: Boobop barely makes it over the cresting wave.

DeMatteo 70

Panel 7: Boobop looks back, he is smiling. Boobonic is getting sucked over the falls.

He looks really scared. Boobop is smirking.

Boobop: Sucker.

New Page 32

Panel 1: Boobop is now paddling fast toward the finish line. He has another hundred yards.

Panel 2: He looks back again. There are Poogies headed toward him.

Panel 3: He looks further and sees Boobonic getting thrashed around in the rocks. It looks bad for Boobonic.

Panel 4: Boobop looks at the island.

Panel 5: Boobop looks back at Boobonic.

Panel 6: Boobop looks back to the island. His facial expression starts to change as he looks back and forth. There is a big wave looming that he has to either get over or catch.

DeMatteo 71

Panel 7: He finally shakes his head and smashes his hand into the water.

Panel 8: Boobop paddles for a big wave.

New Page: 33

Panel 1: Boobop bottom turns down into a big barrel, and is smiling.

Boobop: Wahooooooo!!!! I’m coming Boobonic Claudius.

Panel 2: Boobop in a classic barrel riding position slightly bent, tucking into the barrel.

Panel 3: POV of Boobop. He is inside the barrel. He is racing toward the rocks. The wave is barreling in front of him.

Panel 4: The wave starts to get scary and almost comes alive. Boobop can’t stop or slow down.

Panel 5: Boobonic is getting thrashed around in the rocks.

Boobonic: Boobop, help me!!!

Panel 6: Boobop loses control as the wave turns into a monstrous mouth.

Boobop: I can’t stop. It won’t let me!

DeMatteo 72

Panel 7: The wave crashes into the rocks, sending Boobop flying right into Boobonic.

The two Poogie heads crash into each other. They both get knocked out. Boobop goes into a dream vision.

Scene 6: Dream Sequence

New Page: 34

Panel 1: (The coloring of dream sequence is important. A sepia tone with some blur effects will work.) Boobop is climbing up a steep hill overlooking the village. He is pushing a shrouded person in a wheelchair up the hill. The wheelchair has to go over rocks and plants. It is not an easy endeavor. The wheelchair should be made of wood.

Panel 2: Sweat is pouring out of his face. His feet look dusty and worn.

Panel 3: Close-up of Boobop’s feet.

Panel 4: Out across the ocean is a small, dark tornado-like mass headed for the village.

Panel 5: Boobop uses his hands as a visor to look out over the ocean.

Panel 6: The tornado is a whirlwind of spiraling empty soda cans and metal garbage.

It’s getting bigger and bigger.

DeMatteo 73

New Page: 35

Panel 1: Boobop struggles to the top of the mountain.

Boobop: Noooooo!

Panel 2: The tornado of trash starts firing the soda cans and other scraps toward the village.

Panel 3: The cans crash into the village, first skidding and exploding on the beach.

The cans have the Ideal Industries logo on them.

Panel 4: Close-up of cans flying into houses and trees. Poogies are frantic and running every which way.

Panel 5: Boobop is holding onto the back of the wheelchair.

Boobop: Help us!

Panel 6: A child is running toward the mountain looking up toward Boobop and a huge piece of trash is skidding right toward her. Boobop wakes up.

Scene 7: Poogie Capture

New Page: 36

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Panel 1: Boobop wakes up slowly. He’s on the rocks. His board is nearby.

Panel 2: He sees Boobonic face down in the water holding onto his board.

Panel 3: Boobop pulls him onto the rock shelf. They are temporarily safe from waves.

Panel 4: Boobonic coughs up a bunch of water.

Boobop: Are you OK Boobonic? I’m so sorry Boobonic.

Panel 5: Boobonic is still passed out.

Boobop: Hold on Boobonic, I’ll get help.

Panel 6: Boobop climbs to the top of rock and can see the race still happening. The

MC is still visible. There are about 150-200 yards between the race and the rocks where Boobop and Boobonic are.

New Page: 37

Panel 1: Wide Panel. The rest of the Poogies are rapidly approaching the island.

Something begins happening ahead of them. Bubbles begin erupting from the water.

Panel 2: Close-up of bubbles.

DeMatteo 75

Panel 3: Close-up of the bubbles with a metal sphere emerging.

Panel 4: Wide Panel. Out of the bubbles, a circular sphere-like scrap metal machine/ship emerges out of the water, hovering over the group of Poogies. This is not the ship we saw in the opening scene with Lazlo escaping. It is much smaller.

It’s a recon or small operations vessel. The ship looks like it has gone through a lot.

It’s a bit rusty and the panels look like corrugated metal. Water is still dripping down from it. The hovering device at the bottom of the ship is creating circular ripples in the water like a helicopter makes when flying above water. The same logo from the opening scene is visible. The bird and MC are flying near the hovering craft in a frantic matter. The MC looks very confused.

MC: Stay calm little Poogies.

Poogies: Whoa. What is that?

New Page: 38

Panel 1: Wide panel. The camera is looking down at the Poogies who are looking up at the ship. There is a logo on the side of the ship. Everyone is alarmed and in a trance. There are small closed portholes all around the ship. The window of the ship is tinted black.

Panel 2: Close-up of one of the small holes as it pops open from the side of ship.

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Panel 3: A slithering metal arm comes out of the hole.

Panel 4: The hand grabs the MC and bird in mid-air.

MC: Do not make any sudden movements.

Panel 5: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: Boobonic wake up!

Panel 6: Close-up of bird. The metal hand squeezes the bird tighter. The Poogie struggles to breath.

MC: Stay calm, Poogies!

Panel 7: The hand drags the MC into the ship.

New Page: 39

Panel 1: Wide Panel. The Poogies panic and paddle every which way.

Keilani: Paddle everyone!

Other Poogie: Help!

Poogie: Someone help us!!!

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Panel 2: More holes pop open and more arms emerge from the ship.

Panel 3: All the Poogies are at different stages of being captured.

Poogies: Oh great creator!

Panel 4: Close-up of Keilani.

Panel 5: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: Keilani!!!!

Panel 6: All the Poogies are sucked into the ship.

Panel 7: The ship disappears underwater.

Scene 8: Taxiloo Ship Underwater.

New Page: 40

Panel 1: The ship is submerged underwater.

Panel 2: Close-up of jets that emerge out of the side. The Ideal Industries logo is visible on the side.

DeMatteo 78

Panel 3: Wide Panel. Inside of ship. Meatloaf is on the wheel. Chopo is to his right looking at a screen and typing. Both are dressed in punk rock/heavy metal garb. The dashboard/control panel is visible. This needs to be really original. Imagine a punk rock / diesel punk version of Jetson’s technology. The ship is broken down and has clearly been through a lot. It is plastered on the walls with stains, dents, and scars.

There is a bobble head of Lucile Ball in a blue polka dot dress on the dash. It looks like a Virgin Mary statue. There are pictures of family and a dog-like creature on the visor. Take a look at the inside of the Hans Solo’s ship or the dog from Space Balls for reference. There is a punk rock / geek edge to the inside of ship. Behind them in a cage is a pile of Poogies and the bird. They are all groggy.

Meatloaf: He’s gonna have our heads if we don’t find the Prisoner Lazlo.

Panel 5: Chopo slams his hand on the GPS screen.

Chopo: This incompetent garbage. It got destroyed during the storm.

Meatloaf: The piece a junk has been damaged since before we even came to this forsaken land of wretched greenery.

New Page: 41

Panel 1: Wide Panel. The Poogies wake up and some of them look out of their cell.

Poogie: Uggg, what happened?

Poogie: Where are we?

Keilani stands up: Hey, who are you? Where are you taking us?

DeMatteo 79

Panel 2: Chopo and Meatloaf look at each other.

Chopo: I’ll deal with the savages.

Panel 3: Chopo downs an energy drink, the same kind that was in Boobop’s dream.

Panel 4: Close-up of Chopo as he crushes the can in his hand.

Panel 5: Close-up of can flung into the corner of the ship where a pile of them are.

Panel 6: Chopo approaches the cage. He holds a ray gun and black cartridge from his waste belt. There are 3 cartridges on his belt. On each drive it reads “S-D,” with a serial number below it. Chopo is smiling.

Chopo: How I love the smell of fresh savage in the morning.

New Page: 42

Panel 1: Wide Panel. Chopo is in front of the cage.

MC: What is this? I demand an answer.

Chopo: Alright savages, don’t mind the sting.

Panel 2: He drops the cartridge on the ground.

DeMatteo 80

Panel 3: He presses a button on the gun.

Panel 4: A tube slithers out of the back of the gun and connects to the cartridge on the ground.

Panel 5: He aims the gun at them and fires. A beam of colorful lights shoot out of the gun and surrounds the Poogies. It looks a lot like the Ghostbuster gun sucking the ghosts into the box. Chopo is smiling.

Chopo: Hahahaaa!!!!

Panel 6: The Poogies get sucked up into the box. A trail of smoke lingers in the air.

Chopo smiles a huge gross evil grin.

Chopo: From savage to slave!

New Page: 43

Panel 1: Close-up of Meatloaf.

Meatloaf: Should we keep looking for the Prisoner Lazlo?

Panel 2: Close-up of Chopo.

Chopo: Follow the coastline for another 2 miles and then head back.

Panel 3: Close-up of Meatloaf.

DeMatteo 81

Meatloaf: It’ll be our heads if we only bring back ten stupid looking green savages.

Panel 4: Wide Panel. They make their way underwater. A periscope scans the coast.

Panel 5:Chopo looks through the periscope.

Panel 6: The panel is the shape of the periscope eyes. The Poogie village is in sight.

It looks busy.

Chopo: Then we bring ‘em back 40 stupid looking green savages.

Scene 9: Boys on Nillipez Island

New Page: 44

Panel 1: Wide panel. The boys are on Nillipez Island. Boobonic is sitting in the sand. Boobop is frantic on the beach. His arms are stretched out to the sky. The rock forest is visible in the background. The boy’s boards are in the sand.

Boobop: They were paddling. Then this big shiny octopus thingy shot out of the water and then did three spins then…

Panel 2: Close-up of Boobonic.

Boobonic: Yeah, yeah, and then a bunch of shiny arms popped out, grabbed all the

Poogies, and vanished under water.

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Panel 3: Close-up of Boobop looking frantic.

Boobop: But it really happened Boobonic. Why would I make that up?

Panel 4: Mid-shot of Boobonic and Boobop.

Boobonic: You were dreaming. You even said it yourself.

Boobop: It wasn’t a dream. I had a dream, a really weird one, but then I woke up and then it happened. Where is everyone then? They should all be here.

Panel 5: Close-up of Boobonic.

Boobonic: All I know is that you cost me the race and worst of all, you cost me my victory kiss.

Panel 6: Boobop looking frantic.

Boobop: I’m being serious Boobonic, we have to get back to the village.

Boobonic: Why, so we can collect the biggest loser trophies? We came in last place.

Panel 7: Close-up of Boobonic frantic with bulging eyes.

Boobonic: Last place!!!

New Page: 45

Panel 1: Boobop grabs Boobonic by the shoulders and shakes him.

Boobop: Please Boobonic, just trust me for once.

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Panel 2: Boobonic breaks free from the grip.

Boobonic: Alright, alright. But if we get back there and all the rest of the Poogies are on stage and we have to do some lame walk of shame. I will….

Boobop: Yeah, yeah, you’ll pummel me. Can we go now?

Panel 3: The boys head down toward the beach. In the distance is a pile of seaweed.

Panel 4: As they get closer to the water, they see Lazlo washed up on the shore.

Boobop: What the…

Boobonic: …goop?

Panel 5: Wide panel. The boys rush over to the pile of seaweed, Boobonic in the lead.

The pile of seaweed looks kind of funny. Seaweed sticks out of his nose and mouth.

A crab crawls on his head. Lazlo’s head is visible and his enormous hands and arms.

There is a lot of seaweed. A part of Lazlo’s hammer and strap sticks out of the pile.

Lazlo is on his side.

New Page: 46

Panel 1: Boobonic rushes toward the pile.

Panel 2: Boobonic uses his board as a catapult.

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Panel 3: Boobonic flings himself to the top of pile.

Panel 4: Boobonic stands victorious, arms raised, board held high in the air, as if he is about to stab it into the pile.

Boobonic: I declare this pile the property of Boobonic

Boobop: I wouldn’t do…

Panel 5: Boobonic stabs into Lazlo’s arm.

Panel 6: Lazlo’s big arm flings Boobonic into the air

Panel 7: Boobonic hits a tree hard. He drips/slides down it like an old cartoon.

New Page: 47

Panel 1: Boobop walks closer to Lazlo to examine the pile.

Boobonic: I wouldn’t get so close.

Panel 2: Boobop pokes the pile with a stick. Lazlo is on his side. Only a shadow of his face is visible. There is a picture floating around in the tidewater.

Boobop: Excuse me, sir?

DeMatteo 85

Panel 3: Close-up of a second jab with the stick. Lazlo is a massive man/creature.

More of his body and sledgehammer are visible. An intricate design is carved into the wood of the hammer. Lazlo has a prison number tattooed on his neck. Lazlo’s face is still not fully visible.

Boobop: Excuse me sir? Are you O.K?

Panel 4: Wide panel. Lazlo turns over in the sand. He flops over, sending dust in the air. This is the first time Lazlo’s face is visible.

Boobop: He’s alive!!!

Panel 5: The dust clears and Lazlo is revealed. He has a big gash on his side from the escape. It is oozing a bit. The security bracelet on his arm has the same “Ideal

Industries” logo that was on the ship and in Boobop’s dream.

New Page: 48

Panel 1:Wide panel. The boys look at the massive body of Lazlo. Boobop recognizes something.

Boobop: The symbol on his arm. That was on the side of the octopus that took

Keilani and it was in my…

Panel 2: Mid-shot of Boobonic with his knife out.

Boobonic: Should we kill it?

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Panel 3: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: What are you talking about? The dude is hurt.

Panel 4: Lazlo’s eyes open just a little bit.

Boobonic: If he was part of what mysteriously (the lettering should look all spooky) took Keilani, then he should pay the consequences.

Panel 5: Boobop pries open one of Lazlo’s eyes. Boobop looks closely into Lazlo’s face. Lazlo’s head is twice the size of Boobop.

Boobop: We need to help him Boobonic. We need to take him back to the village.

Mamma will know what to do.

New Page 49

Panel 1: Wide Panel. The boys push Lazlo onto the boards they have connected with their leashes to make a raft. Their little arms struggle to push the large creature.

Boobonic: I can’t believe you tricked me into this.

Panel 2: Wide Panel. They push the craft with Lazlo on top into the water.

Boobop: I told you, you can have full credit for finding him. You’ll be a hero.

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Panel 3: Wide Panel. The boys kick in the water with the raft in front of them. In the distance there are cliffs.

Boobonic: If he dies, I get the bracelet.

Panel 4: Wide panel. Silhouette of the boys and raft as they paddle out toward the village.

Boobop: Thanks for helping Boobonic.

Boobonic: He smells like rotten goop berries.

New Page 50

Panel 1: The boys approach cliffs in the distance that wrap around into a bay. They are still pretty far away, but a thin cloud of smoke rises from behind the cliffs.

Boobonic: Kick harder, we’re missing the bon-fire.

Panel 2: As the boys get closer to the cliffs, the smoke from the village becomes more prominent in the sky.

Boobop: They wouldn’t be having the bon-fire yet?

Panel 3: They continue to paddle right up against to the cliffs, headed for an opening up into the bay.

Boobonic: Paddling this tub of lard better get me a kiss from Keilani.

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Panel 4: They turn the corner and see the complete destruction. The village is burning to the ground. Their faces look horrified.

New Page 51:

Panel 1: Wide Panel. The boys and Lazlo arrive in the shallow water. The village is destroyed. The sun is starting to come down. The sky has an ominous reddish coloration from the fire and smoke. Boobop and Boobonic are standing next to the raft. Reference scenes from Apocalypse Now when the characters enter into the eerie aftermath of destroyed villages

Panel 2: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: Mamma!

Panel 3: Close-up of Boobonic.

Boobonic: Lucy!

Panel 4: Mid-shot of the two boys. Boobonic has his knife in hand.

Boobonic: I think we’re at war.

Boobop: There hasn’t been war since we were babies.

Panel 5: Wide Panel. The boys leave Lazlo on the sand, still connected to the raft.

Lazlo is still incoherent. The boys rush up the beach into the village.

DeMatteo 89

New Page 52:

Panel 1: The boys enter the village. Reference earlier image of the village in the morning when the boys are skating through the village. The village the boys saw in the morning no longer exists. The market is destroyed. Smoke fills the sky. It’s a destroyed ghost town. No one is in sight.

Panel 2: Mid-shot of the boys as they approach the market. Grogo’s booth is in sight.

The statue of Neon and Suzion is toppled over. Boobonic picks up Lucy’s hat. He has tears and rage in his eyes.

Boobonic: Lucy?

Panel 3: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: It’s the octopus.

Panel 4: Grogo’s fish cooler shakes.

Panel 5: The boys look over their shoulders at the cooler.

Panel 6: The cooler pops open. Grogo spills out on a pile of fish and ice.

Grogo: Uggggggg.

DeMatteo 90

New Page 53:

Panel 1: The boy’s rush to Grogo.

Boobop: Grogo what happened here?

Panel 2: Mid-shot of Grogo. He looks dazed, like he a saw a ghost. He’s still in the fish.

Grogo: They…they came and….and…monsters.

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Boobonic. He has rage in his eyes. He grips his knife tight.

Boobonic: Who Grogo? Who came?

Panel 4: Close-up of Grogo. His face is in his hands.

Grogo: They were monsters. Sucking everyone up. Shooting fire and balls of light from shiny tubes. They took everyone.

Panel 5: Boobop looks frantic.

Boobop: Where is our Mamma, Grogo? Did you see our Mamma and Lucy?

Panel 6: Close-up of Grogo as he cries hysterically.

Grogo: Lucy was helpless and I just stood there. I just stood there. They sucked her up.

DeMatteo 91

Panel 7: Boobonic grabs Grogo by the chest. Tears run down his face.

Boobonic: Why didn’t you do something?

New Page 54:

Panel 1: Mid-shot of Grogo. He is still crying.

Grogo: Your mom saw I was paralyzed with fear so she pushed me inside my cart.

Then she….

Panel 2: The boys both look at Grogo intently.

Grogo (off panel): She pulled her knife and attacked the monsters.

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Boobonic.

Boobonic: She what?

Panel 4: Close-up of Grogo.

Grogo: She jumped 10 feet in the air, over the rubble of my booth and landed directly in the middle of the two monsters. The big red monster shot a fireball right at her, but she dodged it and it hit the other monster. He flew into the trees.

Panel 5: Grogo making a slashing motion through the air with one of the fish.

Grogo: Then she jumped at the monster with the blaster, the one that took Lucy, and she sliced through the air. She chopped the monster’s arm off.

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Panel 6: Grogo holds up the arm, which still holds the gun.

Grogo: The arm flew into the rubble and the red monster fell to his knees screaming.

New Page 55

Panel 1: Mid-shot of Grogo with tears in his eyes.

Grogo: The other monster that got shot into the trees came back.

Panel 2: Grogo’s head buried in his hands.

Grogo: He shot a big ball of light at her and sucked her up, just like Lucy and everyone else.

Panel 3: Mid-shot of the boys. They are both crying.

Panel 4: Wide Panel. Bird’s-eye view of the destruction of the village. The boys hug each other and cry.

DeMatteo 93

Scene 10: Scour’s ship

New Page 56:

Panel 1: Underwater. The recon octopus ship approaches Scour’s main ship. It enters through an open hatch under water. This is the same ship that was in the opening crash scene.

Panel 2: The circular vessel enters a hatch still filled with water.

Panel 3: A platform rises up which lifts the vessel as the inside of the room drains.

Panel 4: Chopo and Meatloaf exit the vessel and make their way down onto the platform.

Panel 5: Chopo emerges first. He downs another energy drink.

Panel 6: Meatloaf emerges. His eyes are fixated on his missing arm, now covered by a bloody towel. This has to be done tastefully, because too much blood will not be acceptable for children. Meatloaf is red, so maybe the blood is purple or green.

New Page: 57

Panel 1: Close-up of Meatloaf.

Meatloaf: That savage got me good. It’s the bloody end. The bloody end I tell you.

DeMatteo 94

Panel 2: Close-up of Chopo. Chopo throws the can of energy drink. It’s in mid-air with trailing motion lines.

Chopo: Suck it up man we’re almost there.

Panel 3: Meatloaf looks sad.

Meatloaf: Suck it up?

Panel 4: Meatloaf’s face starts to change.

Meatloaf: Suck it up?

Panel 5: Meatloaf in a dramatic shift, holds onto the stump. His eyes are blood-shot and bulging.

Meatloaf: My hand was hacked off by a savage!!!

Panel 6: Chopo slaps the hysterical Meatloaf.

Panel 7: Meatloaf holds his cheek, but looks calmed down.

Chopo (Off camera): Get it together man. You’ll have a new hand soon enough.

New Page: 60

DeMatteo 95

Panel 1: Chopo and Meatloaf head down the corridor toward Scour’s door. The viewpoint is from behind, so the backsides of their entire bodies are visible.

Panel 2: Chopo grabs the small I Love Lucy pendant hanging from his neck.

Panel 3: Close-up of the I Love Lucy pendant gripped in Chopo’s hand.

Chopo (off camera) - Santa Lucile guide us in our quest for glory and power!

Panel 4: Chop kisses the pendant.

Panel 5: Chopo presses the button and the door slides open.

Chopo: Let me do the talking.

New Page: 59

Panel 1: The two enter the command center through a narrow corridor. Long shot of interior of command center. Scour ideal has his back turned. He is looking at a bunch of screens and yells at his nephew who stands to his right. Scour’s outfit has a lot of purple in it. Chopo and Meatloaf stand silhouetted in the left corner of frame. The room is made up of a diesel-punk aesthetic: slightly rusted scrap metal, overhanging pipes. There are various stations with a hexagonal overall shape and a metal captain’s chair in the center. A stack of old TV sets line the walls. A shelf filled with

DeMatteo 96

what looks like cassette tapes, all hand-labeled. lines the opposite wall. There is still damage to the inside of command center.

Scour: What do you mean the hover drive is still not working?

Panel 2: Close-up of Mammaluke.

Mammaluke: The minions have been working since the crash Uncle. They’re tired.

Can you afford them just a wink of sleep?

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Scour with a furious look on his face. He reaches out for

Mammaluke’s throat

Scour: Sleep? Sleep you say?

Panel 4: Mid-shot of Scour as he lifts Mammaluke up by the throat and holds him at arm’s length.

Scour: Sleep is the cousin of death!

Panel 5: Close-up of Scour as he chokes him harder. Mammaluke’s face is distorted and turns purple.

Chopo (off camera): Chopo and Meatloaf reporting for duty your Ruthless One.

New Page: 60

Panel 1: Scour’s eye is raised to look over at Chopo and Meatloaf.

DeMatteo 97

Scour: Tell me something. Why do I see one miniature moron and one big bumbling moron, but I don’t see one Prisoner Lazlo?

Panel 2: Mid-shot of Chopo and Meatloaf. Chopo looks up at Meatloaf with a pissed- off look.

Meatloaf: We failed you Dark Lord. The Prisoner Lazlo has esca….

Panel 3: Same shot as Panel 2. Chopo looks at Scour with a concerned look.

Chopo: The Prisoner Lazlo is dead. Fish food. Off to meet the maker.

Panel 4: Close-up of Scour.

Scour: I told you I want his head.

Panel 5: Close-up of Chopo

Chopo: There is no head Dark Excellency, but we brought back some other heads…and bodies, too. Slave bodies.

Panel 6: Mid-shot. Scour drops Mammaluke who is purple by now. A cartoon trail of motion follows Mammaluke as he is dropped. Scour looks directly at Meatloaf and Chopo with a sinister grin.

Scour: Slaves you say?

DeMatteo 98

New Page: 61

Panel 1: Close-up of Meatloaf. He is sweating and looks like he’s in a lot of pain.

Meatloaf: Yes, your darkness. We conquered the land and its savages in the name of

Rupe Veil.

Panel 2: Mid-shot of Scour and Mammaluke. They both look confused.

Scour: You look constipated my man?

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Chopo and Meatloaf. Chopo is looking up at the sweating, agonizing Meatloaf.

Chopo: Ruthless One, during the land invasion, Meatloaf underestimated the local savages and one feisty lil’ savage turned berserker and chopped off his hand. I caught her, but she is nearly dead from the blast I gave her.

Panel 4: Meatloaf collapses to his knees holding his hand.

Meatloaf: They took my hand your darkness!!!

Panel 5: Scour smiles and rubs his hands together.

Scour: Ahhhhh, violent savages…the plot thickens. Bring me the slave drive!

New Page: 62

Panel 1: Meatloaf grips hold of his hand.

DeMatteo 99

Meatloaf: But what about me hand your Darkness?

Panel 2: Scour reaches out toward Meatloaf.

Scour: Slaves first, hands later. The drive!

Panel 3: Wide panel. Scour puts the drive into the wall machine. This needs to be designed in greater detail. It looks advanced, but also old and outdated. The drive itself must be small enough for Boobop to be able to where around his neck in a later scene. The slave drive is basically a flash drive that holds slaves.

Panel 4: Wide panel. Close-up of the slave machine screen. It has a screen-grid with

20 or more Poogies and other creatures from the market. There are reports regarding how many slaves, the various species, etc. displayed on the screen. All the Poogies are of an unknown species and it says it is still processing.

Scour (off camera): My boys, my chum, you hit the jackpot. Let’s take a look here at one of them ferocious savages. Computer, send me out Slave #356A.

New Page: 63

Panel 1: Wide panel. A trail of greenish translucent light trails Lucy as she is shot into the center of the room. Lucy is surrounded by the light. She still holds her skateboard. Scour and Mammaluke are in the background smiling.

DeMatteo 100

Panel 2: Wide panel. Scour bends down to be eye level with Lucy.

Lucy: Where am I? Where’s my mamma? Who the….

Scour: Computer, do you have a reading on the unknown specimen.

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Lucy looking angry.

Computer (off-panel): Scanning…Scanning…Scanning…negative…computer will notify with success.

Panel 4: Scour lifts Lucy up and stretches out her arms. Lucy drops her board. Scour examines her like she is a specimen.

Lucy: Hey bum bum!

Scour: Stretchy specimen and green, just like this wretched land.

Panel 5: Scour throws Lucy up in the air.

Panel 6: Lucy lands very smoothly in a slightly crouched position almost like a frog.

Scour: Hoorah my dear agile and fearless specimen.

Panel 7: Mid-shot of Mammaluke.

Mammaluke: Can I have one for my collection uncle, before you transform it to a slave.

DeMatteo 101

New Page: 64

Panel 1: Scour looks over at Mammaluke. He laughs hysterically.

Scour: Pfffffffff. This here fine specimen is worth 100 of your collections. I might not even turn them to slave slaves and sell them as an exotic!

Panel 2: Mammaluke looks sad.

Panel 3: Close-up of Scour.

Scour: Computer, do you have a reading?

Panel 4: Wide panel. The computer screen with all the Poogies has a scanning bar below them that is slowly filling up. Each Poogie is at a different stage of the scan.

Lucy’s scanning bar is fully blue and is lit up. It says “POOGIE” below her image.

Computer: Scanning…scanning…success. Specimen #365A size 4 feet tall, 22 pounds. Amphibious reptile. Cold blooded. Specimen part of philo bacarameum nuphilium, also known as Poogie, distant relative to the mythological race of Enon.

Market value $1 million Polluto grutos per specimen.

Panel 4: Close-up of Scour. He is about to break into a huge smile.

Scour: You found them. You blockheads actually found them!

New Page: 65

DeMatteo 102

Panel 1: Scour lifts Lucy up in the air like a small child. He has a huge greedy smile.

Scour: Years of searching the globe for your kind.

Panel 2: Close-up of Lucy as she squirms to break free.

Lucy: Let me down you gullunga head. Who are you? You’re Del Nillipez aren’t you!

Panel 3: Close-up of Scour.

Scour: Feisty lil’ savage, I like that. A few days in the simulacrum, you’ll forget all about Mamma and this disgusting land you live in.

Panel 4: Close-up of Scour.

Scour: No use hanging around this dump any longer. Set course for the Divide.

We’re going home, boys!

Panel 5: Close-up of Mammaluke.

Mammaluke: What about the hover drive? We’ll never be able to cross the divide.

Panel 6: Close-up of Scour.

Scour: We’ll have to hike it. The Inventors have hiked it for years.

Panel 7: Close-up of Chopo.

DeMatteo 103

Chopo: What about the Prisoner Lazlo, Your Darkness?

Panel 8: Mid-shot of Scour smiling.

Scour: Fish food, just like you said.

Scene 11: Boys on Beach Campfire Scene

New Page: 66

Panel 1: Wide Panel. It’s night. Boobop, Boobonic, Grogo, and Lazlo are around a fire on the beach. Fresh fish roasts in the fire. The ocean is glistening from the stars.

Lazlo is still out of it. He is on his side. A little smoke still rises from the village.

The boys’ surfboards stick out of the sand like tombstones.

Panel 2: Mid-shot of Boobonic and Boobop. Boobonic cuts away at a piece of wood with his knife. It looks like he is be making a spear.

Boobonic: I’m gonna destroy every last stinking one of them.

Panel 3: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: But what if Lucy and Mamma are still alive?

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobonic. He fastens an arrowhead to the tip of a piece of wood.

DeMatteo 104

Boobonic: Then we save Lucy and Mamma and then I destroy every last stinking one of them.

Panel 5: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: Fighting them might only make it worse. What if you’re captured? Or…

Panel 6: Close-up of Boobonic with a furious expression.

Boobonic: Are you serious? Lucy and Mamma are gone, the village is destroyed, how can it get any worse?

New Page: 67

Panel 1: Mid-shot of Boobonic.

Boobonic: I should start by destroying that worthless gulumph over there like I said in the first place.

Panel 2: Close-up of Lazlo passed out on the sand.

Boobonic: If it wasn’t for him, I could’ve been here and helped Mamma fight those monsters.

Panel 3: Grogo with head in his hands.

Grogo: I should have helped her. I’m sorry.

DeMatteo 105

Panel 4: Wide panel. Boobop jumps up on the chest of the passed out Lazlo.

Boobop: Are you one of them? Where did those monsters take our family?

Panel 5: Boobonic points to the gun, which is still connected to the hand.

Boobonic: Of course he is one them. The symbol on his arm is the same symbol on the blaster.

Panel 6: Boobop is still on Lazlo’s chest. He pries open both of Lazlo’s eyes. Tears rush down Boobop’s face.

Boobop: Where is our family?

New Page: 68

Panel 1: Wide panel. Lazlo’s eyes open just a sliver. The lettering of Lazlo’s dialogue needs to be smaller than regular letters and distorted to replicate a whisper.

Lazlo: The Diviiide.

Panel 2: Close-up of Boobop and Lazlo face-to-face.

Boobop: What did you say?

Panel 3: Close-up of Lazlo

Lazlo: The Divide.

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Panel 4: Mid-shot of Boobonic.

Boobonic: There is nothing at the Divide except certain death.

Panel 5: Lazlo sits up for the first time.

Lazlo: We crossed the Divide.

Panel 6: Boobonic jumps on his chest with his knife drawn.

Boobonic: He is one of them!

New Page: 69

Panel 1: Close-up of Lazlo.

Lazlo: I am Lazlo. Lazlo is slave. Lazlo escaped to be free.

Panel 2: Boobonic looks frustrated.

Boobonic: He’s lying!!!

Panel 3: Lazlo grabs his side. During the motion, Boobop and Boobonic are flung to the ground.

Lazlo: Ugggggh, Lazlo in pain. Lazlo dying.

Panel 4: Mid-shot of Grogo.

Grogo: I packed your wound with fermented goop, but the wound is badly infected.

DeMatteo 107

Panel 5: Wide Panel. Close-up of Lazlo. He shakes from a convulsion. Lazlo’s eyes roll back and turns cloudy. Sweat pours from his head.

Lazlo: Go to the divide. Find Scour.

Panel 6: Wide panel. Lazlo is completely passed out. Zzzzzzzzz’s come up to signal he’s sleeping.

Scene: Meatloaf and Chopo talk in bunk beds

New Page: 70

Panel 1: Wide Panel. Inside of Meatloaf and Chopo’s room. Meatloaf is sitting on bottom bed of a metal bunk. The room and their mini-boat have a similar internal aesthetic. The room looks old and worn and lived in. There are pictures, posters, and maps scotch-taped on the wall. A little bookshelf or stack of books are in the corner.

A strange looking altar is in one corner in dedication to Sante Lucille, the I Love Lucy icon.

Meatloaf wears a tank-top undershirt and polka dot boxer shorts. Chopo stands next to him with a towel around his waist and a toothbrush in his mouth. Meatloaf holds his new metal hand prosthetic made of scrap parts. This should be a unique design.

It is something like a hook, but a new take on a pirate hook.

Meatloaf: I can’t explain it Chopo.

DeMatteo 108

Panel 2: Close-up of metal hand.

Meatloaf (off-panel): If I’m not looking directly at my metal hand, I can still feel my old hand and my fingers…like a shadow.

Panel 3: Close-up of Chopo as he brushes his gross teeth.

Chopo: Don’t worry my old friend, I have a beautiful revenge plot brewing in thy old cranium to inflict on the savage that lopped off your hand.

Panel 4: Close-up of Meatloaf.

Meatloaf: I was bloodthirsty before, and would have surely celebrated some juicy revenge action, but losing my hand made me really contemplate why I lost my hand.

Panel 5: Chopo looks mad.

Chopo: You lost your hand in the line of duty serving the Ruthless One, who in turn serves the Almighty Rupe Veil. You are a loyal citizen of the Polluto Empire and rightfully deserve revenge. Eye for an eye.

New Page: 71

Panel 1: Meatloaf moves his hand in a unique position as if testing his abilities.

Meatloaf: That little green creature…

DeMatteo 109

Panel 2: Close-up of Chopo.

Chopo: You mean savage?

Panel 3: Close-up of Meatloaf.

Meatloaf: Yes, yes, of course. That little green savage was also doing her duty as a mother.

Panel 4: Chopo laughing.

Chopo: Pffffffff. The savage cannot know of duty, only primitive concepts like finding food and shelter and making more savages.

Panel 5: Mid-shot of Meatloaf. He picks up a blaster with his new hand.

Meatloaf: Maybe so, but still…

Panel 6: Meatloaf aims the blaster at the wall.

Meatloaf: Right before she went berserker, she looked me in the eyes and I felt like she was begging for me to forgive her for what she was about to do.

Scene 12: Boobop Finds Helmut

New Page: 72

Panel 1: Wide Panel. The boys and Grogo help load Grogo’s fishing boat. Lazlo is passed out on the deck. Grogo is in the foreground. His boat is made completely of

DeMatteo 110

wood. It doesn’t really have a deck, but sections of netting where a deck would go.

Reference Kevin Costner’s Waterworld boat.

Grogo: We’ll find those blasted monsters my boys.

Panel 2: Close-up of Grogo.

Grogo: My boat is the fastest and I’ve traveled the farthest.

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Boobonic.

Boobonic: I still don’t see why we’re taking that dying ogre. He’s dead weight.

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: He’s already helped us by pointing to the Divide.

Panel 5: Mid-shot of Grogo.

Grogo: The short cut we’ll take will get us there around the same time as the monsters.

Two days tops.

Panel 6: Grogo pats Boobop on the shoulder.

Grogo: Be a kindly chum and go get the extra toolbox back at my cart.

Panel 7:Close-up of Boobop smiling.

Boobop: Sure thing.

DeMatteo 111

New Page: 73

Panel 1: Boobop walks up the path toward the village.

Panel 2: Boobop passes the village that is now rubble and ashes.

Panel 3: Boobop passes by the toppled statue of Enon. There is something shining from beneath the rubble. Grogo’s broken cart is in sight.

Panel 4: Boobop moves a stone to uncover a crushed energy drink from Chopo.

Panel 5: Boobop bends down to pick it up. Something hidden within the statue starts falling from above Boobop’s head. It is wrapped in cloth.

Boobop: It’s from my…

Panel 6: Boobop holds the can. Something wrapped in cloth bonks Boobop on the head.

Boobop: …dream.

Panel 7: Boobop holds his head and looks down at a green WWII-esque U.S. army helmet that sits on the cloth. It has an intricate design on the inside of helmet. It shines with a bit of an aura.

DeMatteo 112

Boobop: Whoa! What the goop is that thing?

New Page: 74

Panel 1: Close-up of Boobop as he bends down to pick up the helmet.

Panel 2: Close-up. Boobonic’s hand comes into frame. He beats Boobop to the helmet.

Panel 3: Boobop stands triumphantly with the helmet in hand. This should be a low angle shot, looking up at Boobonic as he stands over Boobop.

Boobonic: Look what I found?

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobop. He is mad.

Boobop: It’s mine Boobonic.

Panel 5: Boobonic painfully tries the smash the helmet on his head, but it doesn’t fit because of his head spikes.

Boobonic: Stupid helmet! It doesn’t even fit.

Panel 6: Boobonic throws the helmet into Boobop’s chest.

Boobonic: You can keep it.

DeMatteo 113

Panel 7: Boobop looks down at the helmet. Boobonic walks away back toward the beach.

Boobonic: Hurry up! Grogo said we’re taking off in 10 minutes.

New Page: 75

Panel 1: Wide Panel. Boobop stands near the rubble with the helmet.

Boobop: Helllloooooo hidden helmet! Where have I seen you before?

Panel 2: Boobop begins to put the helmet on his head. The helmet comes alive with an aura of bluish greenish light.

Boobop: Let’s see if you fit.

Panel 3: The helmet suctions to Boobop’s head like it has a mind of its own. It pushes down on his head quite violently.

Boobop: Whoa, nelly!

Panel 4: Boobop gets pushed into Grogo’s cart by the helmet. Boobop has no control of the helmet. Maybe reference Jim Carrey’s movie The Mask, when he first uses the mask.

Boobop: This…is …not cool.

DeMatteo 114

Panel 5: Boobop struggles with the helmet and uses his elastic/cartoony feet to help pry at it.

Boobop: Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Panel 6: The helmet flies into the wall.

New Page: 76

Panel 1: Boobop picks up the helmet. It is no longer glowing.

Boobop: What the goop was that?

Panel 2: Mid-shot of Boobop as he looks at the inside of helmet. The inside is intricately carved with a number of different symbols, quite possibly a map.

Boobop: Wait a minute.

Panel 3: Boobop looks at the helmet.

Boobop: I saw you in my dream.

Panel 4: Boobop spins the helmet up in the air.

Boobop: You’re the helmet of Enon.

Panel 5: Boobop has a huge smile on his face. The helmet lights up again.

Boobop: You can hear me?

DeMatteo 115

Panel 6: Boobop looks super excited.

Boobop: I can’t wait to show…

New Page: 77

Panel 1: Boobop looks really sad.

Boobop: …Keilani.

Panel 2: Boobop plops down on the ground.

Boobop: Keilani loves telling the story of the Guardian Enon and how Queen Suzion saved him from certain death. That was always her favorite part.

Panel 3: Boobop looks directly at the helmet. He has tears in his eyes.

Boobop: Am I ever gonna see Keilani again or my sister and mom?

Panel 4: Boobop looks mesmerized as the helmet is surrounded by colors again.

Boobop: Aweeeeeeeeeeesome!

Panel 5: Boobop holds the helmet in one hand and picks up Grogo’s toolbox in the other. The silver energy drink can in still on the ground.

Boobop: We have to get back to the boat.

DeMatteo 116

Panel 6: Boobop walks back toward the village with the tool box in his hand and the helmet strapped to his back like a turtle shell.

Boobop: Don’t worry, I won’t tell Boobonic what you are.

New Page: 78

Panel 1: Wide Panel. Grogo’s boat sails through the high seas. Boobonic sits at the front of the boat. Boobop is with Grogo near the steering wheel. Lazlo is still passed out off to the side.

Panel 2: Mid-shot of Boobop and Grogo.

Grogo: Do you think Lazlo is going to make it?

Panel 3:Mid-shot of Lazlo.

Grogo: I hope so Boobop. If he doesn’t wake up before we make it to the divide, we will have no idea how to save the Poogies.

Panel 4: Mid-shot of Boobop.

Boobop: Do you think he is really from the other side of the Divide?

Panel 5: Mid-shot of Grogo.

Grogo: I have traveled the furthest reaches of this here archipelago and have never seen anything like him or those monsters.

DeMatteo 117

Panel 6: Boobop looks sad.

Boobop: What happens if they cross back over before we can stop them?

Panel 7: Boobonic looks back from the front of ship.

Boobonic: They’ll be dead before they cross.

New Page: 79

Panel 1: A big sea whale creature breaches off to the side of Grogo’s boat.

Grogo: A guzunga shark!

Panel 2: Grogo flies two feet above Boobop.

Grogo: You know what that means?

Panel 3: Boobop looks confused.

Boobop: What?

Panel 4: Grogo flies behind the ship. He is harnessed to a long rope connected to the back boat. He has a unique looking spear gun in his hand. He has a huge smile on his face.

Grogo: Grub time!!!!

DeMatteo 118

Panel 5: Wide Panel. A huge guzunga shark jumps out of the water and is about to engulf Grogo whole. Grogo looks up at the open mouth of the shark. He looks afraid.

New Page: 80

Panel 1: The guzunga shark disappears under water.

Panel 2: Close-up of Boobop with a horrified look on his face.

Boobop: Grogo!!!

Panel 3: Boobop and Boobonic look horrified at the back of the boat.

Boobop: What are we supposed to do now?

Panel 4: Boobonic grabs the crank to reel in the line.

Boobonic: Don’t just stand there. Help me reel him in.

Panel 5: The boys crank on the reel. Each boy is on a side. It looks a like a 2-person hand crank. The guzunga shark begins to emerge.

Panel 6: Mid-shot of the guzunga shark. A spear shoots right through his eye. It splatters on Boobop and Boobonic.

Grogo (from inside fish) – Grub…

DeMatteo 119

New Page: 81

Panel 1: It’s almost dark out. Grogo hands Boobonic a plate with a chunk of fresh fish. Lazlo is still passed out.

Grogo: …is served.

Panel 2: Close-up of Boobop. He holds fresh fish to his mouth.

Boobop: Do you think Mamma and Lucy are OK?

Panel 3: Close-up of Boobonic.

Boobonic: What kinda stupid question is that?

Panel 4: Boobop looks sad.

Boobop: I’m just scared for them that’s all.

Panel 5: Boobonic slams his food on the ground, sending scraps everywhere.

Boobonic: They only have you to thank and that half dead galumph.

Panel 6: Boobonic makes his way back to the front of the ship. Grogo and Boobop in the foreground.

Grogo: He has to deal with it in his own way.

Panel 7: Mid-shot of Grogo and Boobop.

DeMatteo 120

Grogo: Get some sleep Boobop. Tomorrow is going to be another long one.

Scene: Boobop Dream Sequence #2

New Page: 82

Panel 1: Wide panel. Boobop is at the top of the mountain with the shrouded figure in the wheelchair. Boobop has a panicked look on his face. He is drenched in sweat and has tears in his eyes. Boobop shakes the wheelchair from the push handles. In the previous dream sequence, it ended with a young girl Poogie running toward him on the mountain. She was carrying a stuffed animal. In this opening panel, the girl is gone, but the stuffed animal remains and there are skid marks in its place. The destruction continues as the tornado gets closer to the village. This is a continuation of the first dream. Keep the same exact landscape and sepia coloration.

Boobop: Please!!!!! Stop it!!!

Panel 2: The shrouded figure falls out of the wheelchair and lands face first. He is still completely shrouded, except for his legs that are clearly those of a Poogie.

Panel 3: The shrouded figure drags his body to the edge of the cliff.

Panel 4: The shrouded figure gets on his knees and has his hands in the ritual prayer position. The character has Poogie hands.

Shrouded man: Great creator…Humble us!!!

DeMatteo 121

Panel 5: The shrouded character’s arms are outstretched to the sky and out of his chest blasts an enormous light of many colors that hits the tornado and begins to repel it. The character is shaking, but his face is still not visible.

New Page: 83

Panel 1: Wide panel. The tornado explodes.

Panel 2: The shrouded character goes limp.

Panel 3: The shrouded character falls face first in the dirt.

Panel 4: Boobop rushes toward him and begins to flip him over.

Panel 5: The shroud is removed and the shrouded character is revealed. The shrouded character is Boobop without the helmet on. Boobop is holding himself.

Panel 6: Boobop wakes up and Lazlo is sitting in a crossed legged position looking directly at Boobop.

Scene: Boobop and Lazlo at night.

New Page: 84

DeMatteo 122

Panel 1: Mid-shot of Boobop and Lazlo. Boobop is smiling. Grogo is visible in a hammock. I like the idea of having Grogo sleep upside down like a bat.

Boobop: Did I wake you? Sometimes I yell in my sleep.

Panel 2: Close-up of Lazlo.

Lazlo: How long has Lazlo slept?

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Boobop.

Boobop: You’ve been out for 2 days. We thought you were going to die.

Panel 4: Lazlo looks down at his wound. It is filled with a purple hardened crust.

Lazlo: Lazlo’s uncle and best friend on Scour’s ship.

Panel 5: Mid-shot of Boobop.

Boobop: You said the name Scour when you first woke up and have mumbled the name for the past two days.

Panel 6: Close-up of Lazlo.

Lazlo: Scour is a slaver. He lives to hunt mind-creatures, then turns them into slave slaves.

Panel 7: Boobop looks confused.

DeMatteo 123

Boobop: What’s a slave slave.

New Page 85

Panel 1: Close-up of Lazlo.

Lazlo: There are regular slaves like Lazlo who are forced to work for Scour.

Panel 2: Mid-shot of Lazlo and Boobop.

Lazlo: Lazlo’s been a slave since Scour invaded Oettam village. Lazlo is Oettam.

We are the Inventors.

Panel 3: Close-up of Lazlo.

Lazlo: Then there are slave slaves. They are mind-creatures until Scour transforms them into mindless laborers, programmed to complete labor functions in the empire.

Panel 4: Mid-shot of Lazlo.

Lazlo: Scour is #1 slave slave trader.

Panel 5: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: Did he turn the Poogies into slave slaves?

Panel 6: Lazlo looks terrified.

Lazlo: Scour has other plans for Poogies.

DeMatteo 124

New Page: 86

Panel 1: Wide panel. Boobonic is frustrated and yells at Lazlo and Boobop.

Boobonic: So you’re saying that this crazy slaver named Sour O’Doule

Panel 2: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: Scour Ideal.

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Boobonic.

Boobonic: Scour Ideal…found an ancient map that showed him how to cross the

Great Divide and locate the Poogies. Then he captured them and has them stored in a little box the size of my first.

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: And that’s not all. Tell him Lazlo.

Panel 5: Mid-shot of Lazlo.

Lazlo: Scour believes it only takes eight Poogies to release Rupe Veil and become the most powerful Polluto alive.

Panel 6: Mid-shot of Boobonic.

DeMatteo 125

Boobonic: So if all this is true, which sounds stupid and ridonkulous, we need to attack them as soon as we see them, so that they don’t cross over.

New Page: 87

Panel 1: Mid-shot of Lazlo.

Lazlo: Scour is too strong on his ship. Best to wait until he crosses by foot.

Panel 2: Close-up of Boobop.

Boobop: But why would he abandon his ship?

Panel 3: Close-up of Lazlo.

Lazlo: His hover drive was destroyed during the crash. It was sinking to the bottom when Lazlo was escaping.

Panel 4: Boobonic looks pissed off.

Boobonic: He hasn’t spoken since we saved this tub of lard from Nillipez Island and now all of sudden he is commander and chief. I don’t believe a word this guy is dealing.

Panel 5: Close-up of Grogo.

Grogo: This is my ship and on my ship, I am the commander and chief.

DeMatteo 126

Panel 6: Mid-shot of Grogo.

Grogo: And I vote we listen to Lazlo and follow those monsters into the divide on foot.

Panel 7: Boobonic is now furious.

Boobonic: I can’t believe the life of Mamma, and Lucy, and your precious Keilani are in the hands of complete barf heads.

Scene: Boobonic Attacks Scene

New Page: 88

Panel 1: Everyone is asleep on the boat. It’s night.

Panel 2: Boobonic’s eye opens.

Panel 3: Boobonic is slow to raise his chest.

Panel 4: He tiptoes off.

Panel 5: Boobonic takes black tar grease from side of boat.

Panel 6: Close-up of Boobonic as he smears it on his face.

DeMatteo 127

Panel 7: Boobonic sneaks over the side of the boat. His face is smeared black.

New Page: 89

Panel 1: Boobonic is in water looking up at Grogo’s boat.

Panel 2: Bird’s-eye-view. He swims across toward Scour’s boat. His body is barely visible in the dark water.

Panel 3: Close-up of just the slits of his eyes.

Panel 4: Boobonic climbs up the side of Scour’s ship.

Panel 5: Boobonic looks in the hole where Lazlo escaped and sees the other Inventors.

Panel 6: Boobonic climbs in through the window.

New Page: 90

Panel 1: The two prisoners are asleep. Boobonic looks down at them. The prison cell is extremely fortified.

Boobonic: Pssssst. Hey you.

DeMatteo 128

Panel 2: Boobonic bends down closer to the cell.

Boobonic: Psssst. Lazlo sent me.

Panel 3: Both the prisoners are immediately awake and look out at Boobonic.

Prisoner: Lazlo is alive?

Panel 4: Mid-shot of Boobonic.

Boobonic: The old galumph is alive and well. He sent me here to save you. But first tell me where Sour Odoul keeps the slave drives.

Panel 5: Mid-shot of prisoner in the cell.

Prisoners: He keeps them in the command center.

Panel 6: Close-up of Prisoner.

Prisoner: Go out the door and follow the corridor until you hit a wall. Turn right and follow that all the way to the command center.

Panel 7: Boobonic rushes off with an evil smile.

Boobonic: I’ll be back for you.

New Page: 91

Panel 1: Boobonic makes his way down the corridor.

DeMatteo 129

Panel 2: A door opens in front of him.

Panel 3: Boobonic glues himself to the wall like a Mission Impossible scene.

Mammaluke emerges from the door dressed like Scrooge in Christmas Carol, in a robe and nightcap. He is holding a lantern.

Panel 4: Mammaluke heads toward the command center.

Panel 5: Mammaluke opens a door on left side of corridor, a few doors before the command center.

Panel 6: Boobonic sneaks in after Mammaluke.

New Page: 92

Panel 1: Wide panel. Mammaluke rummages through a cupboard. It looks like he has already grabbed a glass jar of milk. The room he entered looks like a kitchen. It is pretty gross looking. The walls are old, aged, rusted metal.

Panel 2: Mammaluke turns around to face Boobonic. The camera is behind

Boobonic’s shoulder. Mammaluke’s arms are full: box of cereal, milk, bowl, and spoon. Mammaluke’s eyes are wide.

DeMatteo 130

Panel 3: Close-up of all the things in Mammaluke’s arms as they fall to the ground.

The glass jar breaks.

Panel 4: Boobonic jumps on the counter and onto Mammaluke’s back. (I want to see a trail of Boobonic’s translucent body as it jumps from counter to back in one panel.

This is an effect used a few times earlier in the book to establish this animated effect.)

His knife is drawn and held up to Mammaluke in a threatening way.

Boobonic: Take me to the command center or I start cutting things off.

Panel 5: Mammaluke looks scared.

Mammaluke: No need to cut anything off lil’ fella.

Panel 6: The two enter the command center in semi-silhouette. The camera is 15 feet away. Only the backs are visible.

New Page: 93

Panel 1: The same establishing shot of internal command center in earlier scene, but this panel dark and filled with eerie shadows. Some of the machines have lights on, but the lights are dim as if they are in sleep mode.

DeMatteo 131

Panel 2: Mid-shot of Boobonic on top of Mammaluke’s shoulders with his knife pointed at Mammaluke.

Boobonic: Give me the slave drive with the Poogies on it.

Panel 3: Mid-shot of Mammaluke.

Mammaluke: Silly little savage. You’re not making it out alive.

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobonic.

Boobonic: The drive!

Panel 5: Mammaluke pulls down the drive.

Panel 6: Boobonic looks evil.

Boobonic: Now free them.

New Page: 94

Panel 1: Mammaluke smiles nervously. He is holding the drive up to the slot with his left hand, while hovering his right hand over a circular red button.

Mammaluke: Sure thing little friend.

Panel 2: Close-up of Mammaluke’s hand slamming down on the red button.

DeMatteo 132

Panel 3: Wide Panel. Boobonic’s face looks startled as flashing lights and sirens come alive. Mammaluke is laughing.

Mammaluke: Whoops.

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobonic.

Boobonic: What did you do? Turn it off!!!

Panel 5: Mammaluke laughing and swinging Boobonic around on his back.

Boobonic reaching for the slave drive.

Mammaluke: Har har harrrrr!

Boobonic: Give me that!

Panel 6: Boobonic has the drive and is on the ground headed toward the door.

Boobonic is looking back.

Boobonic: You’ll pay for this.

New Page: 95

Panel 1: Boobonic rushes down the corridor.

Panel 2: Boobonic turns the corner to meet a sleepy looking Meatloaf. Meatloaf yawns. The robot hand is over his mouth and the other hand is holding a blaster.

DeMatteo 133

Panel 3: Meatloaf looks startled when he sees Boobonic.

Meatloaf: Savage escape!!!

Panel 4: Boobop runs toward Meatloaf with his knife ready to strike. Meatloaf blasts his gun toward Boobop. The blast is off balance and flies over Boobonic.

Panel 5: Boobonic slides underneath Meatloaf’s legs.

Panel 6: Boobonic is looking down back toward Meatloaf as he enters the prison room.

New Page: 96

Panel 1: Boobonic pushes the prison door closed.

Panel 2: The two prisoners are both looking out their cell with panicked faces.

Prisoner: Friend of Lazlovitch, please help us.

Panel 3: Boobonic is slipping out the window.

Boobonic: I am no friend of Lazlo!

DeMatteo 134

Panel 4: Boobonic is now outside. It’s early morning. He slips the slave drive in his satchel.

Panel 5: Boobonic dives into the water.

Panel 6: Boobonic swims toward Grogo’s boat.

Panel 7: Boobop and Grogo wake up from the sound of the alarm. Boobop looks out toward Scour’s ship and sees Boobonic swimming toward them.

Boobop: Oh no Boobonic! What have you done?

Scene: Final Battle

New Page: 97

Panel 1: Boobonic swims frantically toward the ship. Behind him about 30 yards away, bubbles form in the water near Scour’s ship

Panel 2: Boobonic looks back to see the Scour’s recon vessel emerge from the bubbles.

Panel 3: Grogo is flying a little above Boobop.

Grogo: Ohhh no, this is not good.

DeMatteo 135

Panel 4: Close-up of Boobop yelling.

Boobop: Paddle Boobonic!!! Paddle faster.

Panel 5: Lazlo stumbles toward his hammer.

Lazlo: Start the ship Grogo!!! Bring us closer!!!

Panel 6: Lazlo falls to his knees and grabs his side. He has an agonizing look on his face. He sees his hammer is next to Meatloaf’s hand, which is still holding the gun.

Lazlo: Arrrrrrrr.

New Page: 98

Panel 1: Wide panel. The silver octopus is hovering above Boobonic. A huge helicopter spray is being made, just like in earlier scene.

Panel 2: The holes start opening on the octopus ship.

Panel 3: Arms start emerging from the ship.

Panel 4: Boobonic looks terrified and is looking toward Boobop.

Boobonic: Help me Boobop!!!

DeMatteo 136

Panel 5: Close-up of Lazlo’s metal arm band as it smashes into the gun, breaking it into smaller pieces.

Panel 6: One of the arms of the octopus head down toward Boobonic to scoop him up.

New Page: 99

Panel 1: Boobonic is held in mid-air by the octopus arm.

Panel 2: A mid-shot of a piece of metal flying into the hand of the octopus, which forces it to lose its grip.

Panel 3: Inside of octopus. Meatloaf and Chopo are at the controls.

Chopo: Ohhhhh, now you’re just making me mad. Zoom in on the boat.

Panel 4: On the computer screen is Lazlo. He has created a sling shot by wedging his sledgehammer into the corner of Grogo’s ship and using the strap as the sling. He is about to fire another piece of metal at the octopus.

Meatloaf: It’s that blasted Prisoner Lazlo!

Panel 4: Lazlo releases the piece of metal.

DeMatteo 137

Panel 5: The piece of metal hits the camera, destroying their computer visuals.

Chopo: Forget the savage, fire on the boat.

Panel 6: Close-up of the guns shooting a barrage of bullets at the ship.

Panel 7: The boat is getting riddled with bullets. Grogo flies into the side of boat.

New Page: 100

Panel 1: Lazlo dives into Boobop, pushing him to the side, the helmet flies off his back.

Lazlo: Lazlo save you!

Panel 2: Scour and Mammaluke are on the deck of Scour’s ship. Scour is yelling into his radio looking furious.

Scour: Stop shooting at them you morons, one of them has the Poogie drive!!!

Panel 3: Chopo yelling into the intercom on his ship.

Chopo: Copy that! Retrieving the thief as we speak.

Panel 4: Boobop looks over at the helmet, it is glowing.

Panel 5: The hand scoops up Boobonic.

DeMatteo 138

Panel 6: Boobonic is high up in the air, being squeezed by the octopus.

Boobonic: Please!!!!

Panel 7: Close-up of Boobop grabbing the glowing helmet.

New Page: 101

Panel 1: Wide panel. Boobop slams the glowing helmet on his head similar to the first time he did it back on land. This time, the helmet creates a massive ball of light that surrounds Boobop. Reference the animated show The Last Airbender when

Aang transforms into the Avatar state.

Panel 2: Close-up of Scour looking mesmerized.

Scour: He’s a guardian!

Panel 3: Boobop is in the middle of the ball of light. He is on his knees in the prayer position he saw in his dream.

Boobop: Great creator…Humble us!

Panel 4: The ball of light explodes, sending a wave of light across the water.

DeMatteo 139

Panel 5: Inside of the octopus, sparks are flying everywhere.

Panel 6: The octopus hand drops Boobonic. He falls in mid-air.

New Page: 102

Panel 1: Scour and Meatloaf are looking out toward the wave of light that is about to hit them.

Panel 2: The wave rushes over them. Scour and Mammaluke both have blissful smiles on their faces and beautiful colors swirling in the eyes.

Panel 3: Close-up of Scour looking so happy and at peace. For a split second, he is able to contemplate the miracle of creation.

Scour: Oh please, don’t let it stop!

Panel 4: A ripple of waves form in the water around the epicenter near Grogo’s boat.

Panel 5: The wave gets bigger and is about to crash into the octopus.

Panel 6: Boobonic dives as the wave hits. It is unclear if he made it under.

New Page:103

DeMatteo 140

Panel 1: Scour and Mammaluke come to, just as the wave is about to smash into the boat. The octopus gets pushed by the wave and is headed right for them. Scour and

Mammaluke look terrified.

Panel 2: The wave crashes into Scour’s ship. There is some sort of explosion of scrap metal.

Panel 3: The ship gets pushed over the Great Divide.

Panel 4: Mid-shot of Lazlo with his arms gripping onto the rail of the boat screaming out to the ship in agony. He has tears in his eyes.

Lazlo: Liderk!!!! Sarkany!!!

Panel 5: Boobop is laid out on the ground with his arms stretched out. The helmet has fallen off to the side.

Panel 6: Grogo is kneeling down next to Boobop holding his shoulder.

Grogo: Boobop? Boobop wake up!

Scene: Lucy in desert or Simulacrum

New Page: 104

DeMatteo 141

Panel 1:Wide Panel. Mid-shot of Lucy as she sits on a grey desert ground. She is her normal green color, but everything around her is grey. She has her skateboard with her and her satchel.

Panel 2: She makes her way down a dirt path. There are tumbleweeds and a skull from some type of cattle creature with horns. There is no one in sight.

Panel 3: She can see a town in the distance, but it’s blurry like a mirage.

Panel 4: Close-up of her feet trudging through the thick grey sand of the desert.

Panel 5: Mid-shot of her face covered in dirt and sweat. She looks tired.

Panel 6: Wide Panel. Low angle from behind Lucy. She stands with her board and satchel in front of the main street of a Western ghost town. The sign reads

“Simulacrum.” The entire surrounding landscape is grey, except for this mysterious village, which is completely painted blood red.