Using theoretical science within my book (graphic novel) ADVISE

[cruggero]

Yes, well my setting is during the early onsets of humanities expanse into the Sol system and outlaying systems. Humanity is still based "near" solely on Earth. Basically the population as grown far beyond a sustainable number on Earth and's drying up its resources. When governing authorities begin rationing food, water, and fuel there's a tipping point at which citizens have grown increasingly disgruntled. A riot here and demonstration there stresses the U.N. and every nation on Earth. During this time a "Company" who's devoted to aerospace technology supported by elite private investors has thrived and merged many of the prominent engineering and scientific market powers under its umbrella. They see opportunity in the chaos. They push for approval by the U.N. and the U.N. resource committee to subsidize and pass a "Extraterrestrial Resource Utilization Program" which is eventually passed. It commissions them to terraform moons and planets elsewhere in the Sol system and lift the burden of overpopulation from Earth and also gather resources to support humanity's continuing growth. Keep in mind this is during a time when the world economy has crashed, unemployment is rampant. Due the "Company's" success the gain renown and begin drawing masses of the unemployed into a colonization program. Over time they establish themselves as the worlds foremost economic power and branch out of the Sol system also comprising over a third of the world's job market. Meanwhile Earth erupts in a worldwide civil war between its peoples and their governments. Unannounced to Earth's nations, who are preoccupied by infighting, the "Company" builds a ship construction yard/research station orbiting Jupiter. Using the planets massive magnetic field and "orbital anchors" they hide the station on the planet's dark side where they build hundreds of gargantuan battleships armed with NNEMP weapons. They launch a massive take over on Earth and use the NNEMP bursts in a coordinated assault that blankets Earth's landmasses and sends Earth into a modern dark age. They then systemically wipe out every governmental and economic industry leaving them the sole central entity. However Earth's various national military forces and the citizens they'd been fighting unite to form a resistance. Aided by turncoats within the "Company's" forces they fight a long war that eventually pushes them out of the Sol system. In the aftermath untold hundreds of millions of people have died either due to war, starvation, dehydration, or sickness. Society's in shambles. A few people who aren't settled with a constant state of "survival of the fittest" impose order either by name of joint preservation, money and influence, or force. Now while the "Company" still exists outside of the Sol system, due to a treaty that disbars them from entry, they are allowed business trade with whomever can afford it. It so happens that they have a station where the Nanotechnology is perfected which, per chance, also houses my protagonist whom had left his prior life (in present time) due to the death of his son and dissolved marriage. He had once been a firefighter and responded to a call in which he was blinded but managed to save a scientist who was pioneering this Nano-cell tech. As repayment for a life debt and due his lost will to live in his current circumstance the protagonist accepts the scientists offer to be placed in cryonic stasis until a time in which he can gain his sight back, via the tech. The aforementioned timeline of war and chaos happens over a three-hundred year period in which the protagonist is unconscious for and awakens to the disheveled state of humanity at the end of all the war and famine.

 

[cruggero]

The advancement of technology to progress humanity where it had before the war is why it's "advanced" yet, due the war's killing of many whom had known how to maintain it, has decayed since then.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Last year I read a http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/07/insufficient-data.html" that summarised my thoughts on this topic very well. As technology develops we require an increasingly specialised and complex labour pool. This lends itself to the situation that if the population falls bellow a certain level technology levels drop drastically. It's not just a case of dropping from the 1990s to the 1980s, your society will fail spectacularly because the infrastructure is built around a specific level of technology. If it fails you have no time to tear it down and rebuilt it into something similar (bearing in mind that getting to that level in the first place was a long incremental process requiring huge investment of capital and labour).

Long story short if you cut the population or loose the critical groups that have the expertise to keep the system going your society is going to bomb to less than a 3rd world country living amongst the ruins of decaying technology. There will be no primitives stumbling into a factory and getting it running again as that takes a large group of specialists with support from other industries made up of large groups of specialists. After the plagues (due to the collapse of healthcare infrastructure), famine (due to the collapse of agriculture infrastructure) and riots (due to economic and political collapse) eventually the small groups of individuals left may begin the slow climb back to technology. Potentially this climb will be quicker if they can find information left behind in the form of relics and books (providing little degradation or loss of reading) but slower due to the previous exhaustion of easily accessible resources.

Sorry for the rant but the amount of hand-waving seen in most post-civilisation-collapse fiction (TV/film/literature) is enough to cause a thousand hurricanes on the far side of the Earth. The reality is society is a dynamic thing and it takes most of our energy just to maintain it, loose that and you loose everything.

Pournelle's treatment is actually fairly good. Since he was describing society on the order of several colonies over several solar systems there are whole planets that were relatively untouched by the war. In his book with Niven "The Mote in God's Eye" they refer reverentially to the "Old Empire Technology" which was apparently more advanced than they had been capable of reproducing over the thousands of years since the war. In the first book of his I read "A Spaceship for the King" we start out on a planet that has only recently arrived at a social and technological level approximately paralleling Earth just before the industrial revolution and (until the New Empire showed up) the idea that there had ever been such things as spaceships had largely been considered myth and legend.



cruggero: Your story sounds interesting. I wish you luck with it.

 

[Pythagorean]

the specialist are simply tools of the adapter. If I can't hop in my car and go buy dinner and a movie, I'll get off my lazy *** and pull my guns off the wall. Whatever's left of tech support will male good eating.

 

[cruggero]

Please help with this. Its been a very large problem. I've been researching VASIMR engines, magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters, Ion thusters, and so on. Additionally I've looked into hypothetical methods for space travel within a reasonable time frame. I want something that perhaps is being pioneered currently or some real world adaptation. I remember hearing about a impetus system that could get a shuttle from Earth to Mars in 23 days? What is this and how does it work? Is it even real?

 

[cruggero]

Ok, say you take the VASIMR. Add "thermal syncs" (due the heating problem) and "cyclical cyclotron resonance" (due narrow discharge problem) for a very wide energy distribution. Is that completely asinine concept?

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I would suggest asking specific questions about spacecraft propulsion in one of the physics subforums, you more likely to attract an expert on the subject. I'm no expert on VASIMR but it would be a good contender for what you want, though that depends on what you mean by "reasonable time frame" and the distances you want to travel. You've mentioned interstellar travel which is a hugely different kettle of fish. No VASIMR drive is going to get you out of the system, not to mention the complexity required for the ship.

 

[cruggero]

I'm not strictly referencing the VASIMR as what is used to propel ships through space. It's cited as the precursor to what allows interstellar travel at a rapid interval. Say Mar's to Earth in 48 hours. I made it a kind of self sustaining and renewable impetus system. So say refueling was required, and the VASIMR was built with a hybrid drive core of sorts.

 

[cruggero]

With all the expertise levels of advice I've been seeing I was wondering if there any whom may know good publishers or publishing agents that I could forward my materials to?

 

[EWH]

Please help with this. Its been a very large problem. I've been researching VASIMR engines, magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters, Ion thusters, and so on. Additionally I've looked into hypothetical methods for space travel within a reasonable time frame. I want something that perhaps is being pioneered currently or some real world adaptation. I remember hearing about a impetus system that could get a shuttle from Earth to Mars in 23 days? What is this and how does it work? Is it even real?

Well, that would be about 0.01 gravity constant acceleration, I think, which is more than any currently proposed drive. The problem is that high-Isp (high exhaust v, low propellant fraction of total mass) means either low thrust or unbelievable power requirements. I saw a PDF recently for a colliding-beam aneutronic fusion drive that would put out IIRC 100MW, but delivered a few 10s of milliNewtons of thrust (and massed several tons, and even so is basically science fiction). There is nothing plausible that would allow interstellar travel in less than centuries. Using giant fixed solar or nuclear power plants and sending plasma beams (aka magbeam) to hit a mini-magnetospheric plasma sail on a ship could possibly do it. Antimatter drive would potentially have the self-contained energy-ensity, but it has some radiation and efficiency issues. Your "impetus system" might be a reactionless drive (violates Newton's laws). There are claims that a microwave in an asymmetrical resonating cavity produces such a reactionless thrust, but it is thought to be impossible by physicists. Even its proponents don't claim enough thrust to mass ratio to enable that fast an earth-mars transit. Then you get into really speculative stuff like warp drives (compress the space in front of the ship, expand it behind and voila!)

Very long (100s of 1000s of km at 1g+) launch tethers/accelerators could potentially do it.

Mostly SF authors use magic drives. You get 1 or 2 free passes in each book, even in "hard" SF.
***
"With all the expertise levels of advice I've been seeing I was wondering if there any whom may know good publishers or publishing agents that I could forward my materials to?"

As a new author they do not want to see your work until it is in publishable form. It is unlikely that much of your first 200,000 words of completed writing will be publishable. It's harsh, but there are only a few dozen people who make anything approaching a living at writing SF, and only a few hundred who make any money at all. Look at writer's workshops such as Clarion. Try to network at SF conventions if any are nearby. Reading other people's work, particularly new writers' is a thankless task - try not to pester authors or editors, and if they agree to read any of your work, be profuse with thanks and accepting of any comments they may make. Your ideas look interesting, well developed and potentially entertaining (1% down, 99% to go!). Keep at it.

 

[cruggero]

I appreciate the interest. The format is aside from traditional SF. I'm using the comic medium mainly for the artistic quality. Forming panel descriptions is, different, not easy. I really drew a lot of inspiration from Josh Weldon's "Firefly" series. That gritty frontier spacey feel. I'd sent submissions to Radical publishing, sadly the format got messed up when I reformatted the file into adobe, I lost my 1st and 2nd draft revisions due it. I don't know how. I'm looking to dark horse now. I'm working through the 2nd draft on the first book as I type, and I've finished rough & 1st drafts for the second book. It's all just so time consuming.

 

[cruggero]

I could use a publishing agent to front living costs and further my motivation. I just don't know where or how to look for them.

 

[Thetom]

What would a connection between a Nano-brain, like a synthetic intelligence, and a human entity be called? I know its not telepathy. In dialogue I refer to it as shared networking. That seems clear, but may have a loaded jargon to it.

Egonics!

Like bionics but with more ego.

 

[Thetom]

I could use a publishing agent to front living costs and further my motivation. I just don't know where or how to look for them.

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/aspiring-writers/
http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/publishers-and-industry/

Lots of talent spotters on the above boards I think. I doubt it is limited to the UK either. I also think money is a terrible motivator and it will be hard to get someone to pay your living expenses while you write... unless you have a proven track record.

Also, can we see some of your work?

Please?

 

[cruggero]

Absolutely, I'd be honored. Please keep in mind that this is a 2nd draft requiring further revision and proofing. It'll be the "intro".

 

[cruggero]

This is the first 13pgs. It introduces the character as he recalls the event that "motivated" him to leave his past life behind and venture to where he's currently some 300 years in the future. Please note aforementioned post, this is 2nd draft.

 

[cruggero]

Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#1
PAGE ONE (two panels)
Panel 1. Medium length view from lowered perspective looked up facing Gunslinger stood within the interior of a wood constructed bar nearby seven ill-reputedly dressed men’s lifeless bodies strewn about the floor around him as he holds a refurbished “LeMat” revolver in right hand aimed over a man’s head who’s lying on the ground beneath him (edged on lower area). Gunslinger’s a tall man with a burly rust colored beard that covers his chin/jaw and a short stubbly moustache. He wears an “opened” double breasted dark khaki brown duster coat hung to shins with heavy stitched elbows, and heavy stitched “lose-fit” cargo pants to match, lengthened over blackish work boots. On hands, he wears full fingered blackish gloves padded by carbon fiber knuckling. A midnight blue bandanna tied round head and “Juliet” style sunglasses with plasma/grey frames, mirrored fire iridium lenses over eyes. Over torso, a contour fitted body armor with a hardened carbon fibered carapace over sternum’s length and a raised collar wrapped from sides to back of the neck over a midnight blue undershirt. A dark leather gun belt fastened around his waistline with holster on right hip, and tactical thigh holsters strapped to outer thigh holding twined silver colt45 pistols. He looks down at the man, expressed by cooled clam comfortable with fire enveloping the scene as its aura reflects off him. The man beneath him reaches a hand up towards the revolver seemingly for “mercy”. Backdrop looks out over the room’s subsequent expanse as it’s filled by thickened black smoke, flames consuming its walls causing burning embers to rain down from a flame clouded ceiling.
CAP:
Fire stirs a man’s quality. Before it, true merit cannot be hidden. For one man, a stranger, fire has both taken and given a path… A path led far from home…
CAP/GUNSLINGER:
Smell smoke, see fire, and in that one time you’ll never fail to recall it. Its nostalgia’s one of nightmares. One I can’t wake from.--
Panel 2. Close up looked down length of the revolver held in Gunslinger’s right hand, aimed ahead at the man lying on the ground. The man’s Ray Dumont, middle aged with dark medium length hair accompanied by a goatee and thinned moustache. He wears a dirty grey “relaxed fit” officer’s uniform and speaks with uncaring candor. His “aching” eyes widen at sight of the revolver’s aim, outstretched hand’s fingers tremble due a bleeding wound on right collar bone, and another on left shoulder. Fiery aura envelops scene, gleams off revolver’s silver metallic sheen while backdrop details the soot covered bar floor surrounding him as embers rain.
CAP/GUNSLINGER:
--It didn’t feel right, too much burden to bear. Death… killing. Doesn’t see fair, love, or mercy. It’s constant, constant as time.
RAY [comment]:
Do it…

Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#2
PAGE TWO (two panels)
Panel 1. Close up from lowered perspective looked up length of the revolver’s barrel where its handle’s held in Gunslinger’s right hand, angled up the distance of his outstretched arm, and facing his torso. He whispers to himself, gently pulls revolver’s trigger with index finger. The revolver’s hammer clacks igniting gunpowder in a vivid flash as flame spurts from its barrel. Backdrop details the bar’s flame consumed ceiling meshed within a thick black smoke as burning red embers rain down and reflect a fiery aura over the scene.
GUNSLINGER (whisper) [response]:
This’s for you…
SFX:
Clack!
Panel 2. Close up from subtly lowered perspective looked up facing Gunslinger’s head, focused in on his sunglass covered eyes, as flames surrounding him mirror off their lenses while their gunmetal frames soak up the light. His head’s slightly lowered, expressed by somber recollection, as sweat soaks into bandanna’s cloth along the rim just above his brow. Backdrop of an all-consuming inferno encompassing him while flames surmount above through the residual black haze clouding the ceiling while burning red embers rain down from above.
CAP/GUNSLINGER:
Not a moment’s passed that I’d forgotten that night. The night death held me down on my knees… took who I was, my life… and destroyed it. But for some unjust cause… kept me living.

Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#3
PAGE THREE (three panels)
Panel 1. It’s night time. Short length view within a truck interior from behind the driver’s seat (leftwards) and passenger seat (rightwards). Gunslinger drives while his nine year old son Alex sleeps in the passenger seat. Gunslinger stretches right hand towards the stereo tune dial past the tucks center console and looks over at Alex and speaks. A LED light on the stereo reflects outwards over characters and scene. Backdrop looks out the truck’s front windshield over an emptied and long stretching freeway lined with shallow concrete barriers rimmed by to light the way as the truck drives down the left lane. Note Gunslinger’s changed appearance. He wears a grey “DFD” firefighter shirt, navy work pants, and’s clean shaven. Note Alex’s short strawberry blonde hair as they’re both wearing fastened safety belts.
CAP/GUNSLINGER:
I’d just gotten off a three day shift, wanted to feel a cool pillow scented by my wife’s perfume. But Alex always got to me first. He’d wait up for me. That night, more excited than usual, reminded me of a promise. Said I’d take him to a ballgame… so, I did.
RADIO (static burst):
Fiscal period is… off… today in… twenty four to sevente…
GUNSLINGER (soft) [comment]:
Damned a.m.… Alex?
ALEX (snore) (soft) [response]:
Zzzzz…
Panel 2. Short length view facing Gunslinger’s left as he’s sat on driver’s seat with left hand atop steering wheel as he pulls right hand away from stereo tuner towards grip underneath the wheel and looks across his right at Alex who’s asleep in the passenger’s seat. He smiles “paternally” as he whispers. Backdrop looks out the truck’s passenger side window at the empty freeway over its middle to right lanes where a shallow concrete barrier whips by along with overarched street lights rimmed past it (left to right) due truck’s momentum, noting its front windshield’s angularly edged leftwards. Note the street light’s shine into the truck’s interior mixed with stereo’s LED light.
GUNSLINGER (whisper) [comment]:
Nice co-pilot…
Panel 3. Short length view from truck’s exterior looked through its driver side window facing Gunslinger’s left as he’s sat on driver’s seat, hands on steering wheel, and looked ahead “driving” while Alex’s seen past him, sleeping in the passenger seat with head slumped to right shoulder. Backdrop looks out the truck’s passenger side window at the empty freeway over its middle to right lanes where a shallow concrete barrier whips by along with overarched street lights rimmed past it (left to right) due truck’s momentum. Note the street light’s reflected “glimmering” off the truck’s exterior, streaked left to right due its forward momentum, as the truck’s LED stereo light radiates within its interior.
CAP/GUNSLINGER:
It’d been days since I’d gotten to see him. Cherished every instant I did. Only slept a few hours during rotation, holidays were hell. Was used to being tried, but … it got to me.

Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#4
PAGE FOUR (five panels)
Panel 1. Close up facing Gunslinger’s torso sat on driver’s seat behind the wheel. His eyes begin growing heavy “sleepy”, head drifts off/down towards left shoulder matched to his indolently wandering left hand steering the wheel along with his posture. Note steering wheel extended from lower edge before him. Backdrop of driver seat’s head/backrest outlining him looked out the truck’s rear windshield over an empty freeway while it’s apparent the truck rides towards outside line of the left lane foreshadowing the freeway’s shallow concrete barrier rimmed by overarched street lights drawing nearer. Note the street light’s shine into the truck’s interior mixed with stereo’s LED light.
CAP/GUNSLINGER:
Time’s value wasn’t plain to me then. I hadn’t stopped to envision how expensive seconds could be.
Panel 2. Short length view from lowered perspective atop the freeway’s street surface behind the truck’s rear and front driver side wheels as they ride on outside line of the left lane nearing caution bumps lined between it and the freeway’s shallow concrete barrier rimmed by overarched street lights (edged angularly leftwards). Backdrop looks ahead past the trucks forward area where as seen through/under the truck’s underbelly the freeway’s curving sharply rightwards at a moderate distance down its length. Note street lights shining over the scene and casting shadow underneath the truck’s underbelly.
No Dialogue
Panel 3. Short length view along outer side of the truck’s rear driver side tire (edged rightwards) with angle looked angularly across it to front tire as their treads rumble off caution bumps outside the freeway’s left lane while the truck’s nearing a shallow concrete barrier rimmed by overarched street lights (edged leftwards) and’s run parallel with tires. Backdrop looks ahead past the truck’s front bumper where the shallow concrete barrier’s curvature veers sharply rightwards and’s drawing dangerously close up ahead while the street lights shine down over scene, note light casts shadow under trucks underbelly.
SFX (tire treads hitting caution bumps):
Bumbbumbbumbbumbbumb--
Panel 4. Short length view looked through the truck’s front windshield into its interior cabin to face Gunslinger sat asleep on driver’s seat behind the wheel with left hand further steering left, nearing the freeway’s shallow concrete barrier rimmed by overarched street lights (edged rightwards) as insides of truck’s driver side tires run directly over the left lane’s caution bumps. Backdrop looked though truck’s rear windshield and over/past its backend detailing the emptied freeway’s subsequent expanse. Note street lights shine over scene and reflect out/over the truck’s body and streak across its front windshield.
SFX:
--bumbbumbbumbbumbbumb…
Panel 5. Close up behind Gunslinger’s head/shoulders as he’s sat in driver’s seat before the wheel. Note seat’s head/backrest. His head jerks up from left shoulder, looks straight ahead out the front windshield over front hood of the truck where just several feet away its momentum impends a head on collision with the freeway’s shallow concrete barrier as it curves sharply rightwards and off edge as backdrop. Note stereo plays low disrupted audio with LED light reflected over scene.
RADIO (soft) (static):
Fields was two for…three RBI’s…

Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#5
PAGE FIVE (four panels)
Panel 1. Intense close up fixedly facing Gunslinger’s torso, sat in driver’s seat behind steering wheel. He’s expressed by abrupt and utter shock as he clutches the steering wheel with both hands, tightened to “veer” the wheel to turn right and avoid collision. His eyes widened, mouth gaped open as he yells over screeching tires. Backdrop of the driver seat’s back/headrest outlining him with marginal depth given out the truck’s rear windshield looked out over the empty freeway. Note stereo’s LED meshed with (exterior) street lights shining over scene.
GUNSLINGER (yell):
Shi-
SFX:
Eeeerrr!
Panel 2. Close up from slightly overhead perspective looked down at the truck’s front hood/bumper (stretched off upper area) collapsing in on itself as it smashes through the freeway’s shallow concrete barrier, severely damaging its construction, while the collision’s force dislodges bits of concrete debris outwards as it begins to crumble. Note barricade’s curvature ran sharply off side edges as impact initiates the truck’s backend to pick up off the street.
SFX:
Crraaaccck!
Panel 3. Short length from subtly lowered perspective looked up facing outer walls of the freeway’s concrete barrier crumbling as the truck’s wrecked front hood/bumper rips through it and jut dislodged concrete debris out towards view while the truck bed lifts up, tilting its inner cabin pointed straight down over the lofty embankment. Seen through the front windshield Gunslinger (sat on driver’s seat) and Alex’s (sat on passenger seat) bodies are violently jolted around within its interior cabin while somewhat restricted by fastened safety belts around them.
SFX:
Verroom!
Panel 4. Medium length view from outer walls of the freeway’s shallow concrete barrier where the truck’s launched through and out over the embankment becoming airborne as the barricade’s utterly demolished. Truck bed flips up “end over end” beginning to fall upside down accompanied by large chunks of concrete debris broke from the barrier and surrounding it. The truck’s underbelly scrapes against the barrier’s jagged broken base and’s ignited by a flash as the gas tank’s severed open, spilling gasoline. The fall’s distance is unknown as the truck descends with no bottom in sight. The barrier’s ran off right edge and curves off left edge, embankment’s decline stretched to darkness off lower area, support pillars under the freeway edged on lower/side areas, while backdrop looks past the truck to other side of the freeway where overarched lampposts rimming the barrier light the scene.
SFX:
Srceeheeak!

Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#6
PAGE SIX (four panels)
Panel 1. Short length view from within the truck’s inverted interior looked behind Gunslinger left and Alex right as they’re risen up from their respective seats with heads/shoulder thrown against cabin’s ceiling. Alex’s awakens, arms slung about uncontrollably, and caught in an expression of utter panic while Gunslinger braces his hands against the ceiling to keep his head from hitting it. Note safety belts strapped around them. Backdrop looked out the truck’s front windshield beyond its destructed front hood/bumper detailing a chaotically overturned display of the freeway’s support pillars and a narrowly approaching pavement as the truck’s falling around a cascade of crumbled concrete debris and dust.
No Dialogue
Panel 2. Medium length view facing the truck’s driver side impacting upside down with the pavement, collapsing its roof inwards, protruding crunched/shattered glass outwards from passenger side window/rear windshield/cracked driver side window/cracked front windshield reverberated off the immediate area. Truck’s front hood becomes dislodged, slams off the pavement. Its bed comes down overtop it, sliding along pavement igniting sparks between frictions of the two grinded against one another. Backdrop details the surrounding area as a fenced enclosure (ran off side edges) far below the freeway’s support pillars stood outside the fence.
SFX:
Krack!
Panel 3. Short length view from heightened perspective looked down facing the truck’s passenger side as its come to a rest “upside down”, balanced between its bed and cabin, as its destructed front hood/bumper is raised up from the pavement. Its hood’s opened wide narrowly pinned its shattered front windshield while the engine smokes and leaks fluid onto the pavement below. The interior cabin’s heavily disfigured nearly beyond recall. The trucks underbelly leaks gasoline from gas tank and’s laden by crumbled concrete debris while it’s surrounded by shattered glass strewn about the pavement. Through “shattered” passenger window Alex’s seen with back bent up awkwardly upside down against its doorframe. His head’s pinned uneasily between it and his shoulders. From within the cabin an emergency operator speaks with Gunslinger who’s seen upside down with hands pressed against interior cabin’s ceiling. Backdrop of pavement enclosed by glass shards encircled the truck.
EMERGENCYOPERATOR [comment]:
Mr. Thorsten? This is Jane from Pin-Point. You’ve been in a collision, are you ok?
GUNSLINGER (soft) [response]:
Uuhhh… send help.
EMERGENCYOPERATOR [counter-response]:
Help’s already on the way Sir, emergency services should be arriving shortly.
Panel 4. Close up looked across Gunslinger’s left where Alex’s seen past/adjacent his right as they’re within the truck’s upside down/disfigured interior cabin. Gunslinger’s (on diver’s side) lying with shoulders against cabin’s ceiling, propping himself up with palms pressed on it, head turned looking at Alex who’s bent up against passenger doorframe looked back at Gunslinger with waning eyes, bloody cut on forehead, struggling to speak. Backdrop looks out busted passenger side window detailing glass shards strewn about the surrounding pavement.
ALEX (soft) [response]:
Daddy, my neck hurts… I can’t move.

Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#7
PAGE SEVEN (four panels)
Panel 1. Close up facing Alex’s tangled upside-down body, strapped by fastened seat belt, with neck pinned against cabin’s roof rested between dislocated shoulders. Cut on his forehead bleeds a slim trail of blood into his hair, staining his hairline. Broken passenger side window’s edged on lower/left area past him as he’s surrounded by broken glass shards while passenger seat’s edged rightwards. He’s utterly dazed/confused looked ahead with waning eyes in reference to Gunslinger (OP) and struggles to talk with Gunslinger. Backdrop looks out the broken passenger side window where broken glass shards are strewn about the pavement as further depth’s given across its surface to the chain link fence enclosing the area.
GUNSLINGER (OP) [comment]:
Hang on Alex, Daddy’s gonna’ get you out. You’re ok, nothings bad, you’re gonna’ be just fine.
ALEX (soft) [response]:
What happened?
Panel 2. Close up on the safety belt buckle lock securing Gunslinger as his hands grip round it and right thumb pressing its button in “unlocking it” as the buckle’s head comes undone and begins separating. Backdrop of Gunslinger’s left hip (upside-down) noting the driver seat’s cushioning beside door.
SFX (safety belt unlocking):
Click.
Panel 2. Short length view facing Gunslinger fallen free from driver’s seat with safety belt pulled back off him lying on backs of his shoulders while Alex’s seen past him in respective posture on passenger side. He brings his feet down towards the cracked (not broken) diver side window while he picks his head up looking at his feet. Note his movement displacing fragments of broken glass littering cabin’s ceiling. Backdrop of the cabin’s ceiling noting dashboard ridden along bottom area to upper/left edge.
SFX:
Thud!
Panel 3. Short length view behind Gunslinger’s head/shoulder with the top of his head pointed to view as he lies back first on the trucks ceiling. His head’s pick up looking ahead at cracked driver side window where his left foot’s pressed up against it and retracts right leg to torso while stabilizing his posture with hands sprawled at sides atop broken glass. Driver windshields angularly seen on lower/right edge beneath dashboard with backdrop of area outside driver side window noting its distortion via cracked glass.
ALEX (soft) (OP) [comment]:
Eenh…
Panel 4. Close up atop the truck’s underbelly edged leftwards while the driver side windshield’s busted out by Gunslinger’s right foot crashing through it from inside shooting broken glass out rightwards across the pavement.
SFX: Clash!

 

[cruggero]

Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#8
PAGE EIGHT (four panels)
Panel 1. Short length from perspective atop the back of Gunslinger’s torso as he’s turned over on his belly with legs stretched out off bottom edge with head pick up looked ahead at Alex postured (as previous) upside down under passenger seat. Gunslinger’s hands are beside his shoulder with motion “shimming” out through broken driver side window frame (OP). Note concaved driver windshield edged angularly along lower left edge under dashboard back towards Alex while he and Gunslinger speak, noting Alex in pain and broken glass littering truck cabin’s ceiling.
GUNSLINGER [comment]:
Ok… Alex. Daddy’s comin’ to get ya’--
ALEX (soft) [response]:
It hurts…
GUNSLINGER [counter-response]:
I know it does baby but Daddy needs ya’ to say everything’s gonna’ be fine. Ok kiddo?--
Panel 2. Short length view behind Alex’s upside down and contorted body wholly on leftward area looked ahead at past him Gunslinger as he shimmies back through the truck’s broken driver side window frame with torso still in the interior. His head’s picked up looking at Alex with a nervous/concerned expression as he speaks with Alex. Note Alex’s hair further soaked by blood. The collapsed driver windshield’s edged on lower right area stretched angularly back under dashboard towards Gunslinger noting broken glass/debris scattered over the cabin’s ceiling. Backdrop of paved lot through busted driver side window frame beyond Gunslinger as it’s littered by broken glass.
GUNSLINGER [comment]:
--Say it for me Alex.
ALEX (soft) [counter-response]:
Everything’s fine… I’m… I’m… goin…
Panel 3. Close up facing Gunslinger’s head/shoulder’s as he’s lying belly down on the truck cabin’s ceiling with an expression of dread screaming towards Alex (OP). His torso leans out broken driver side window frame with right hand obscured by the truck exterior doorframe that encircles him. Backdrop of paved area littered by broken glass as the pavement stretches back to a chain link fence.
GUNSLINGER (yell) [comment]:
Alex!
Panel 4. Close up on Alex’s eye’s (upside down) falling shut, slowly losing consciousness as the cut on his forehead bleeds sopping into in his hairline while he whispers indolently.
ALEX (whisper) [comment]:
…be ok…Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#9
PAGE NINE (five panels)
Panel 1. Short length view behind Gunslinger’s torso favorably on left side as he ducks his head out from under the broken driver side window frame and’s looking ahead at the trucks busted open front hood with right hand pressed on side of the door as he speaks loudly to Alex (OP). From under the hood engine block’s seen swathed by thickening grey smoke as fluids leaked from it accumulate a large puddle on the pavement beneath. Backdrop of broken glass trailed from the trucks prior point of impact on the pavement down to where the truck now rests.
GUNSLINGER (loud) [comment]:
Alex, open your eyes! Alex!
Panel 2. Short length vie facing Gunslinger walking towards the truck’s passenger side beside its front bumper under busted open hood pinned down to the driver windshield while he shields his mouth with cupped right hand from the thickening fumes leaked out from the engine block as fluids leaked from it form an ever widening puddle on the pavement. Note broken glass under his feet and trucks form seen edged leftwards. Backdrop of paved lot stretched out towards the chain link fence enclosing the lot where on the other side of it’s a concrete pillar supporting the freeway.
No Dialogue
Panel 3. Short length view facing Gunslinger come walking around the trucks front bumper towards the passenger side door where Alex’s body’s (faced by rear) bent awkwardly upside down within the interior passenger window frame area, seen angularly leftwards. Atop the passenger side the tuck’s underbelly’s seen leaking gasoline over/down the sides of the door. Backdrop of the truck’s busted open front hood past Gunslinger’s right side as the engine’s swathed by thick grey smoke and leaks fluid on the pavement below forming a widening puddle. Note broken window glass scattered around the area.
No Dialogue
Panel 4. Short length view facing Alex’s right side as he’s lying unconscious upside down within the truck’s passenger side cabin with view looked past him at Gunslinger lying on left side and reaching arms through passenger window frame to unbuckle Alex’s safety belt. Gunslinger’s appearance’s determined with narrowed eyes focused on task at hand. Backdrop of cabin interior noting shattered windshield on lower left area below dashboard.
No Dialogue
Panel 5. Short length view facing Gunslinger lying on left side, leaned in through the trucks passenger door window frame behind Alex’s contorted body that’s lied awkwardly upside down atop head/shoulders. Gunslinger wraps his arms around Alex working tediously at safety belt buckle as he speaks to Alex. Alex’s hairline’s drenched in blood with eyes looked up helplessly at Gunslinger’s hands. Marginal backdrop beyond Gunslinger and Alex detailing a fire engine’s (OP) red siren lights illuminating the surrounding area and reflecting off both characters.
GUNSLINGER:
Daddy’s here, hang on buddy.
Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#10
PAGE TEN (four panels)
Panel 1. Close up on Gunslinger’s hands grasped around Alex’s seat belt buckle with inverted positioning as Gunslinger’s fingers press onto the button with no avail as the buckle head remains locked in place while tries pulling it loose with his other hand. Backdrop of the passenger seat cushion’s siding adjacent passenger door frame (likewise inverted detail).
SFX:
Dit.
Panel 2. Close up on Gunslinger’s hands grasped around Alex’s seat belt buckle with inverted positioning as Gunslinger’s fingers rapidly press onto the button to no avail as the buckle head remains locked in place while tries ripping it loose with his other hand and yells from (OP). Backdrop of the passenger seat cushion’s siding adjacent passenger door frame (likewise inverted detail).
SFX:
Dit.dit.dit.
GUNSLINGER (yell) (OP) [comment]:
God Damnit!
Panel 3. Medium length view beside the fire engine edged leftwards while fire fighters in full gear (minus oxygen tanks/masks) drop from the sides of the engine while two are ahead of the group climbing over the chain link fence. Backdrop of Gunslinger kneelt in front of the trucks passenger side door window frame with his torso hunched inwards its broken window and arms wrapped around Alex’s body trying to pull him through whiles he’s restricted by safety belt. The truck’s underbelly continues leaking gasoline down sides of the vehicle onto the pavement where a puddle has formed and’s running down towards the fluid puddle formed under the smoking engine exposed by busted open front hood. A spark trickles from the engine smoke and’s ignited a flame over the fluid leaked from the engine threatening to meet with the spilled gasoline. Note the fire engine’s red siren lights casting their aura all over the surrounding area.
SFX:
Vroosh!
Panel 4. Short length view from heightened perspective facing Gunslinger knelt beside passenger door window frame (edged leftwards) with Alex’s contorted and limp torso in arms desperately trying to remove him through the frame however is restricted by safety belt still fastened around Alex’s body. Gunslinger looks down to Alex and’s able to turn him face up. Alex’s strawberry blonde hair’s soaked red by blood, his eyes near completely shut staring listlessly with jaw hung open. Note broken glass on the pavement surrounding them. Backdrop of gasoline spilled down the door frame where it links with flaming fluid spilled from the engine (lower/left area) and cast a brilliant orange glow over the scene.
SFX:
Veerosh!
Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#11
PAGE ELEVEN (four panels)
Panel 1. Short length view from perspective atop the pavement looked upwards to Gunslinger’s rear as he’s violently ripped backwards from knelt posture on the pavement and’s torn from his arm’s embrace around Alex’s torso by a booming explosion. Gunslinger throws his hands up to shield himself from the blast while Alex’s body limply falls down still within the passenger door’s broken window frame wrapped by safety belt still. Backdrop of the truck where gasoline spillage leaked down the doorframe from the truck’s under belly (upside down) had caught flame linking a inferno between the gas tank and fluid puddle under the engine both exploding a raining a ball of liquidly fire out, down, and over the vehicle beginning to consume Alex’s body as flames burn thick under the engine cooking the trucks front end. Note heavy hues of flame illumining the scene and casting Gunslinger’s shadow back to left edge.
SFX:
Kaboom!
Panel 2. Short length view facing Gunslinger landing and sliding backwards on his back while he props himself up with left elbow and’s bathed by residual light cast from the inferno consuming the truck (OP) ahead of him. He looks at the flames while its heat dampens his forehead with sweat. Backdrop of two fire fighters sprinting towards Gunslinger from behind as they distance themselves from the chain link fence enclosing the paved lot noting that the fire engine’s seen facing view through the chain link fencing as its siren lights glisten over the area meshing with the inferno’s aura. Note engine’ parked beside concrete pillar supporting the freeway’s underside looming above.
No Dialogue
Panel 3. Short length view behind Gunslinger lunging up from the pavement and’s looked ahead him at backdrop of the truck engulfed by an intense fireball ravaging its interior cabin and exterior form while Alex’s blackened body’s seen lying within the passenger side door’s window frame as flames rain down over him building in absorption as black smoke bellows from the engine and truck’s underbelly. Gunslinger yells out to Alex while the two firefighters pursue from behind him on lower area. Note the fire’s aura reflected over the surroundings.
GUNSLINGER (yell) [comment]:
Alex!
Panel 4. Short length view behind Gunslinger as the two firefighters grab on onto his shoulders halting his progress towards the truck and struggle to pull him away as he fights against them with arms outstretched towards Alex. Note firefighter’s yell with Gunslinger. Backdrop of the truck overwhelmed by an inferno lighted by merged gasoline/engine fluid puddles encircling it as Alex’s body’s seen hung out within passenger side door’s window frame being cooked/charred by fierce blaze.
FIREFIGHTER (yell) [comment]:
Lieutenant, stop It’s gonna’ blow!
GUNSLINGER (yell) [response]:
No! My son’s in there, Alex! Let me go!
Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#12
PAGE TWELEVE (three panels)
Panel 1. Short length view facing Gunslinger being dragged away by the two firefighters with arms hooked up under his armpits hoisting him up and straining to lunge backwards with Gunslinger fighting against their every movement. Gunslinger kicks and yells with the firefighters staring fretfully at the truck’s flaming wreckage as its inferno’s seen cooking the truck’s underbelly along bottom edge to side edges and casts its intensive aura outwards reflecting the character’s flickering shadows backwards. Backdrop of the paved lot stretched back to chain link fence enclosing the lot where on the other side of it the fire engine faces panel as its red siren lights reflect over the scene meshed with that of the fire.
FIREFIGHTER1 (yell) [comment]:
L.T. (abbreviated Lieutenant) it’s too late!
GUNSLINGER (yell) [response]:
Get your ****in’ hands off me!
FIREFIGHTER2 (yell) [response]:
There’s no time Lieutenant!
Panel 2. Medium length view fixed ahead on the truck while Gunslinger and the two firefighters with their arms hooked under each side of Gunslinger’s armpits are on lower/leftwards area facing the truck. The trucks gas tank combusts gushing flames shot wildly into air forming a plume over its immediate area with its intensive light reflected off all surfaces. The moves unconstrained flowing down through the entirety of the interior cabin and jutting out through the driver, passenger, front, and rear window areas while the engine kindles and doubles the explosions volume. The passenger side door unhinges violently propelled open while Alex’s body disappears within the fire. The firefighters duck their heads down falling forwards while pulling Gunslinger down with them with as he looks at the explosion and screams with intense rage as he falls.
SFX:
KaaKbooomm!
GUNSLINGER (yell) [comment]:
Alexxx!
Panel 3. Short length overhead view facing the torsos of Gunslinger and the firefighters as Gunslinger lies back first against the pavement beside the two fire fighters lying on their sides. Both firefighters hold Gunslinger down with arms hooked under his armpits as one turns over to look at the fire while the other holds his helmet on head with offhand. Gunslinger faces up to view and’s breathing heavily sweating due the flames heat as his eyes gaze hopelessly “vacantly” ahead. Note the fire casts its powerful light out across the forms of each character from bottom to top edge.
CAP/GUNSLINGER:
He was gone. I’d of thrown myself in and burned with him if they hadn’t stopped me. Buried the body, and any hope I had… was buried with it.Gunslinger: Birth of a Gunfighter, Issue #1 Chance Ruggeroli pg#13
PAGE THIRTEEN (four panels)
Panel 1. Medium length view within a house interior detailing a kitchen area where Gunslinger sat at a circular glass table wearing a black three piece suit and tie with white under shirt and black tie. A lamp hung overhead the table shines through its glass surface and onto the floor. He smokes a cigarillo in left hand with right forearm beside an ashtray atop the tabletop. Backdrop of an L-shaped kitchen countertop against sidewall with a sink dug out its surface below cabinets lining the area above spaced by a kitchen sink window displaying nighttime outside. Sam’s (Gunslinger’s wife) stood leaning against the countertop beside the sink and looks at Gunslinger. She’s an attractive dark haired woman wearing a black dress with her hair draped and parted to the sides of her head as its let down on backend.
CAP/GUNSLINGER:
Sam never got to see him again… couldn’t let her.--
Panel 2. Same scene exact seen as night turns to day out of the window. Sam sits with Gunslinger at the table now as she wears a form fitting blue t-shirt and light denim jeans with her hair down. She peers down into his eyes escaping her gaze stared down at the floor through the table’s glass surface. Gunslinger wears a grey firefighter t-shirt with navy blue work pants, his arms are folded and leaned on the table beside the ashtray atop the tabletop now filled with cigarillo roaches. Note overhead lamp’s light is off as the interior’s lit day daylight shown through the window above the sink.
CAPTION:
Two months later.
CAP/GUNSLINGER:
--Didn’t say a word to her, but it didn’t stop her from trying. I was unwilling…afraid she blamed me because I did. It was my fault. I was the only one that could have saved him. Let him die in front of my eyes.
Panel 3. Close up facing Sam’s torso sat in chair beside circular glass surface table as she’s favoring by right side. She picks her head up looking somberly in reference to Gunslinger off-panel. Tears welt in her eyes and shed down cheeks. Her lips clinch “trembling” as she speaks. With left index finger she soaks up a tear from cheek. Backdrop of the kitchen floor as sunlight shines through the kitchen sink window (OP) and casts its outline of the floor behind her left side.
SAM (soft) [comment]:
Babe please talk to me, I love you. I can’t lose you too so just, please say something…
Panel 4. Short length view facing Gunslinger’s left side as he’s sat on chair beside circular glass surface table staring solemnly at Sam after she’s turned and’s walking away from him adjacent a couch in the living room. Note couch’s backend stretched from her to right edge past Gunslinger. She heads towards the house’s front door in backdrop adjacent a window (above a T.V.) displaying a neighborhood lit by sunlight where there’s a SUV parked at the front curb with passenger door open to the sidewalk.
CAP/GUNSLINGER:
I couldn’t care anymore. She left. I wanted her to be happy. That wasn’t something I could give.

 

[cruggero]

Enjoy, even though this is supposed to be a traumatic scene.

 

[Thetom]

Hey not bad. Thanks for shairing. I recommend you get over to that forum i linked and show those guys. There is a section for graphic novels. You might want to break up the pannel descriptions and the text to make it easier to read.

And include the word 'Egonics' more

 

[cruggero]

Haha, I've played EVE for maybe three hours. It's a really cool game, I just don't have the time. Thank you, and I've created a thread on the links you've given me. Oh, also spaced everything out. Sorry about that.