Digger Jones: Terror of the Deadly Oasis.

Our hero, the famed scientist-hunter Digger Jones, is on the run from another miss-adventure while searching for the elusive forward-walking crab to add to his research collection.

The cannibal natives stop and will not follow Digger into this area of jungle.

Digger uses their fear this area to his advantage.

…but he has no choice as he is thirsty going without water for a day.

He knows he is heading straight to the Deadly Oasis.

Knowing the legends are based on something in fact, Digger to his dismay, finds skulls/bones on the path leading to the Oasis. Eventually Digger finds and recons the site carefully high up from a jungle tree.

It is a truly paradise of flowing water in small nature spring wells…

With one way in due is a narrow u-shaped area of the jagged stone cliff wall leading in and out.

There was with no signs of life typical to a watering hole -

…just deadly silent and dry skulls and bones are all about.

Fighting thirst through the hot jungle night, long hours are spent reconning the area in silence. He finally jumps down for his jungle tree perch heading to the water. Taking a slow long much-needed drink, Digger has a second to relax. A slight sound brings him back to full attention. The “Terror” is real.

A T-Rex crashes in through the growth. The oasis is his den.

Digger runs but quickly is trapped against the high wall of the rocks. “Why hunt when the food comes to you…” muses Digger Jones as he pulls his jungle knife and turns surveying his options.

T-Rex towers over Digger. It bends down to eye and enjoy the wonderful smell of another thirsty traveler. Easy meat.

Digger braces and jumps as the T-Rex’s head is still lowered. He stabs the knife deep with all his weight into the T-Rex’s left eye. Digger is thrusted up and over from the shrieking dino’s head which bolts suddenly upright in pain… Digger lands higher up the cliff wall ledge as planned.

However not high enough! He finds the large overhang prevents further escape. Digger keeps to the left (the now blind side) of the T-Rex’s mad thrashing head just out of reach below. The T-Rex will never stop its attack. Digger is momentary safe however he is trapped without supplies.

Saying “Oh what the hell…for Scotland and Mum!” Digger Jones, men of men,

jumps heroically off the edge with knife flying into the T-Rex below. (silhouette shot)

*

Snoring as the scene cuts to an old gentleman just falling sleep in a huge gothic estate reading room. He has a cocktail in hand. Two bored/skeptic kid from next door are sitting on the floor. They wanted the ball that was kicked over the fence, but were side-tracked by his odd ramblings before they could go home.

The old man snores as they explore the room on their way out. They find a few photos on the mantle among the hundreds filled the huge walls in-between the rustic books and strange artifacts. Shocked look from the both kids.

The scene ends with the close up of the old B & W photo:

Digger Jones posed with one foot on his kill (T-Rex.) surrounded by happy cannibals.

And over the photo is a jungle knife hanging displayed on the wall.

END

In the voice-over character narrative:

Think of a mix: James Mason – The 60’s cartoon “Commander McBragg” and the Dos Equis man.

The thumbnails shown is how I work: small and cryptic pages. 6 are planned for now. As the layouts go full scale, more refinements to story and camera angles will follow.

Fun stuff. ;)

-Mach

Storyboard Thumbs!

Hey all, checking in with a progress/process update. In working on my story I've made some changes since the initial idea posting. I've gone through a number of story outline variations and now have moved on to roughing out the story with a pinch more detail in rough storyboard form. With this exercise I'm not worrying about the layout of panels on pages just yet. I started by breaking up the outline into big scenes. Within each scene I drew thumbnails that begin to think about what the actual panels will need to communicate. I still have one more scene to finish, and then I'll read back over it and work out another quick set based on edits that I think need to happen.

I'm feeling a little bit behind schedule, but hopefully I'll still meet our May 28th script and thumbs deadline! How are you all doing?

Quote of the Week

“Even talent is … indistinguishable, over the long run, from perseverance and lots of hard work.”

~David Bayles

Early Concept Sketches

Here's a first concept sketch to share of my story's hero, Honovi and his dog Noku.

Noorius I was once called.

"Noorius I was once called." This is the title and the first line for my part of the anthology. It will focus on a side-character from a larger story I am developing about a warring angel inadvertently trapped in our modern-day world; and the repercussions her existence effect on modern society, media, religion, and politics, etc. But the short story of this side character, Noorius (a former warring angel living among humans on Earth), will take place in 1850's America. He reflects on his attempt to adapt and live as a human; even marrying and having a child. But unlike most humans, he can still clearly see through the dimensional barriers placed on Earth. He sees the other creatures, gargantuan and petite, that observe and swarm around the humans affecting their lives. Now human, he can do little but observe as well. In fact, a century of guilt and complacency has penetrated his heart and mind to the point where he has striven to simply find some measure of happiness on this Earth by trying to live as a human. Since he has lost all power to do what warring angels do, he has eventually found peace and contentment in the novelties of human life. But his complacency is challenged when he begins to see a dark figure, one of these other creatures, lingering around his young child.

Brown Horse, Black Cow

This is a story I've mused about for sometime. Some years ago my family and I attended church out in the country. Every Sunday we would pass by a spacious pasture with a brown horse and black cow in it. It was evident the two were inseparable as week after week we'd see them grazing together in different parts of the field. One Sunday we were shocked to find them on opposite sides of the pasture. We speculated on the events which led to their rift. Was there a misunderstanding? An argument? Had the neighboring livestock gossiped and driven them apart? My short story will fill in the blanks. ~Mario

Rich Lee

Rough idea: a boy looking for his dog with a current events twist.  I like the idea, but there's a few areas I need to massage over and fine tweak.  Will post stuff up as it comes.

From Mach

With a nod to “The Naked Prey”, we find a chase already under way.

Stumbling from Dinosaurs to giant man-eating plants, our protagonist is being pursued in the run of his life. Out of breath and mind racing, his only hope is to run deeper into the dense dark jungle…and just perhaps turn the obstacles dead-ahead obstacles into a slight dangerous advantage to distance him from armed pursuers. Can our adventurer stay ahead of certain death? Who is he and where can a place like this exist? Why is he running? What Is this a nightmare or a terrible reality?

Stay tuned for the exciting next chapter!

The Rising of Reoled

Reoled is a futuristic warrior, who suddenly had to exist on the other side – on the enemy side – being forced to understand them. He goes through a series of awakenings, for example suddenly opens his eyes and he is in the middle of a battle (medieval style), fighting and killing his old best friend, who's face in agony gets planted on his memory; then his memory blanks off until the next awakening happens. His "mind" has been kidnapped and taken away on an unimaginable journey. I want to present a series of scenes 6 total that will move through the warrior's new persona's life cycle (re-birth to death). There is many ways in which I could approach this story (scenes of the future supported by scenes of the past) but due to a page limit, I want to concentrate on the short life the futuristic warrior gets to live, I want the reader to experience the world he is living in and the warrior's strive to make "peace" which is the only way to save his friends and family on the other side.

White Lady

Hello all. The story I'm developing is based on the White Lady stories I've been told as a kid by my older cousins who were born in the Philippines. After some research, it seems many cultures have stories based on the "White Lady." An excerpt from Wikipedia, "White Ladies are popular ghost story topics in the Philippines. Along with other Philippine mythological creatures and ghostly beings like the Manananggal, Tiyanak, Kapre and Wak-Wak, White Ladies are often used as subjects that tend to convey horror and mystery usually aimed at young children for storytelling purposes. Sightings of white ladies are common among folk from around the country, and usually every town and barrio has its own "White Lady" story to tell." I remember being super scared when they told of sightings and such...so...hopefully I can carry that over. I may be a little late on the next deadline, as I will be in Hawaii for a week, but it'll be on my mind...and so the process begins. Bwahahahahaha.