The Better Angels of Our Supernature

Because I’ve heard from some of you, I’ve realized many of you might want advice on how to write a comic book script. Well, I can’t teach you how to write a comic script, because there are an infinite number of right ways to do it and of wrong ways to do it. But what I can do is maybe teach you a bit about how I write comic scripts. Will that do?

Today’s example comes from my short, but interesting run on IDW’s licensing of the Angel property, from that old TV show some of you might have seen, or heard about.

Here’s how it came about: Back in the days the comic series Fables was enjoying its flush of popularity, my status of a writer was also riding pretty high along with it. I’d get offers from many publishers and entertainment companies, to write novels, to write screenplays, and to write comics.

If I recall correctly, somewhere around 2008 or ‘9, IDW honcho Chris Ryall called me out of the blue to see if I wanted to take over the Angel comic series. “Oh no,” says I. “You can’t do the continuing adventures of Angel, since it was the one TV series that ended perfectly. It cannot be continued, and any attempt to do so would undermine something splendid.”

“Uh… sure,” Chris replies, “but we’re already doing it. We’ve published many Angel comics. Would you like to continue it for us?”

We discussed it for a time, perhaps over a span of days, but my memory is iffy on that.

In any case, I eventually agreed to take over writing Angel for IDW, I think mostly because I thought of a good title, Immortality for Dummies, and wanted to use it somewhere apt. So then, here, below, is the first result of that undertaking.

Here then, warts and all, is my first script for Angel. Note that this isn’t a challenge to anyone’s copyright or intellectual property. I offer this merely for instructional purposes:

Issue A

Title: The Crown Prince Syndrome

Subtitle: Part One of Immortality for Dummies

By Bill Willingham

18 Pages

Editorial Note: Because I don’t know exactly what issue number this will be, we’ll call these first few Angel scripts A, B, C, and so on.

Lettering Note: In most of this issue, all captions, unless otherwise noted, are Connor’s narration. Then, in the last page or two, we switch to the captions being Angel’s narration. Any caption that isn’t one of these character’s narration will be called a: Non Narration Cap. Thanks.

Artist Note: As you will find out, I tend to default to a five-panel page as a general rule. It’s not too crowded and the odd number of panels keeps us from falling into a standard grid – forces us to come up with interesting page structures each time. Of course, in fight scenes and such, anywhere we might need a bit more room, the panel number gets reduced as needed. For example, the following extended fight scene is done almost entirely in four-panel pages, just to let the scene breathe a bit more. But five panel pages are the norm.

Page One (four panels)

Panel One

We open this issue with an establishing shot of the LA skyline. It’s daytime and rainy. Grey clouds completely obscure the sky.

1) Non Narration Cap: The City of Angels

2) Cap (Connor): My name is Connor. That’s one of the few things about me, about my life, that’s entirely mine, completely real.

Panel Two

Now we move down into the city. We’re in a pretty generic back-alley, warehouse sort of area, old and rundown. Connor is fighting alone against a trio of demons. They are Horager Demons (a new variety that hasn’t appeared in previous Angel episodes or comics – so make them up, within the confines of the following description, please). Horagers look like a cross between hairless gorillas and crocodiles, with a few extra features. They stand on two short hind legs, supporting thick, stout bodies. They have four arms, rather than the usual two, and all of the arms are huge and long – compared to the legs, which is why they look sort of gorilla(ish). The upper set of the arms end in big bruiser hands with clawed fingers. The lower set of arms end with one giant curved killing talon, one on each arm. They have a crocodile’s reptilian tail, thick and spiked that can be used to sweep and crush a victim, and also impale him on the big spikes. They have reptilian heads that have mouths full of very sharp teeth. They are basically built to kill and maim. In this panel Connor is holding his own against the demons, but we want to be able to very clearly see he is overmatched. Connor is dressed in standard blue jeans, tennis shoes and hoody sweatshirt. Connor has a broadsword – one of his father’s basic arsenal of weapons. The rain is starting to come down.

3) Cap (Connor): Yeah, I have a last name – two in fact – but they’re both false, so don’t worry about it. I don’t.

Panel Three

Same scene. One of the demons takes a swipe at Connor with one of the fighting talons in his lower arm set. It rips a gash in the front of Connor’s hoody and draws blood – not a lot – just enough to make Connor (and the readers) realize he’s in a real fight.

4) Cap (Connor): At least I try not to.

5) Connor: Ow!

Panel Four

This isn’t really a panel. It’s the space you need to leave at the bottom of the page for this issue’s title and credits.

6) Title (display lettering): The Crown Prince Syndrome

7) Subtitle (display lettering): Part One of Immortality for Dummies

8) Credits

Page Two (four panels)

Panel One

Same scene. The fight continues. Connor steps back for a second, sparing a glance down at his bleeding chest. The demon looks pleased with its work.

1) Cap (Connor): In my second year of junior high school, I was struggling with math, had a minor crush on a girl named Heather, and tried out for swim team…

2) Demon # 1: Smarts, doesn’t it?

Panel Two

Same scene. The fight continues. Connor slashes out with the sword and cuts one of the “fighting talon” hands off of the demon’s lower arms. It’s the same taloned hand that cut him just two panels back.

3) Cap (Connor): …mostly because our school didn’t have its own pool, so we got to go across the street to the senior high school every day. I thought that was so cool.

4) Connor: You tell me.

5) Demon # 2: Yrrrgg!

Panel Three

Same scene. The fight continues. The demon holds the bleeding stump of his missing hand in agony and rage.

6) Cap (Connor): Of course none of that really happened. Those were false memories, implanted by an evil organization, at my father’s insistence.

7) Connor: Smarts, doesn’t it?

Panel Four

Same scene. The fight continues. The wounded demon leaps at Connor in rage. Connor ducks under the leap in some sort of graceful martial arts move. He looks more confident now than in previous panels.

8) Cap (Connor): Don’t ask. Long story. The one thing you have to know is that dad did it for my own good, trying to give me a normal life.

9) Demon # 1: Kill you for that!

10) Connor: As opposed to what you intended to do to me in the first place? Duly noted.

Page Three (four panels)

Panel One

Now, right in the middle of the damned fight, we’re going to have a page of flashback panels. Why? Because this is comic books and we are the lords of comic books, and because we can. In this panel we have a one-panel flashback scene more or less taken from the final season of the Angel TV series (or was it the last episode of the previous season? Mariah, help me out here). We see Connor in the Normal Rockwell family scene with his adopted/fabricated family – the scene that showed how Angel set his son up with a normal, perfect, wholesome life. They are around the dinner table, enjoying a peaceful and lovely night together.

1) Cap (Connor): And the funny thing is, it was good. I did finally get to live a normal life – even if it was only a fabricated one.

Panel Two

Another flashback panel. Now we see a scene we never actually saw in the Angel TV series, or anywhere else before now. Connor is about junior high school age. He is in the demon world in which he was actually raised for most of his life. He is on his own, wearing improvised clothes of rough leather, and carrying a crudely fashioned knife and spear – one in each hand. He is ducking low in the high grass, and looks worried – not in a panic, but worried. He’s clearly on the run from something.

2) Cap (Connor): In actuality, at about the time I would have been in junior high, I was lost in another world, on the run from a hunting pack of Horager Demons.

Panel Three

Same flashback scene. Still in that demon world, Connor peeks out above a mossy rock, wide eyed at a bunch of reptilian feet that are passing right near him. These are the feet of a group of Horager Demons, but we can only see the feet at this time – almost as if, like the very young Connor, we are too scared to risk glancing up at the rest of them.

3) Cap (Connor): They’d cut me off from my route home – well, back to the improvised cave-slash-fortress that was the closest thing to a home I had in that place.

Panel Four

Same flashback scene. Now we widen the shot. Connor ducks back down, behind the big rock, sweating bullets and almost cowering in a ditch as the hunting group of Horager Demons passes by on the game trail overhead. Now we can see the entire hunting pack and there are six or seven of them.

4) Cap (Connor): I was content to run, hide, and lay low, until the pack moved on, because I knew, and followed, the absolute rules about Horager Demon encounters.

Page Four (four panels)

Panel One

Now we return to LA and the present day, where the fight continues. The three demons, including the one missing a hand, are moving in on Connor all at once. Connor makes some defensive moves to hold them off – buying time. He kicks out at one of them, while slashing out with the sword at another – missing, but keeping them back for now.

1) Cap (Conner): One Horager: Make it die.

2) Cap (Conner): Two Horagers: You might give them a try.

Panel Two

Same scene. The fight continues. Suddenly one of the uninjured demons lashes out with one of his top set of hands and whaps Connor a mighty whap! The blow sends Connor flying up and away, dropping his sword along the way.

3) Cap (Connor): Three Horagers: Definitely pass them by.

4) Cap (Connor): Four or more: Kiss your ass goodbye.

Panel Three

Same scene. The fight continues. Connor’s flailing body impacts high on a brick wall, partially caving in the bricks where he impacted. This should look like it hurts – a lot.

5) Cap (Connor): My foster father came up with the dumb rhyme. But the rules they spelled out were golden, and absolute. Part of my martial training regimen.

Panel Four

Same scene. The fight continues. Stunned – Conner slides/falls down off of the high wall, down from the impact crater, down towards the filthy alley below. Two of the three demons wait for him there, content to finish him off at leisure now.

6) Cap (Connor): Foster father, you ask? No, not the fabricated Norman Rockwell family one. The first of my two foster fathers. Another long story for another time.

7) Demon # 2: Be eating you now, boy.

Page Five (four panels)

Panel One

Same scene. The fight continues. Instead of landing helpless though, Connor hits the alley floor in a deft, practiced martial arts style tumble, rolling right under one of the demon’s legs. His dropped broadsword is on the ground, right beyond the demon – right where Connor is rolling.

1) Cap (Connor): The point is, Horager Demons were tough, deadly and vicious. Stone killers. Luckily they were entirely native to that other world.

2) Connor: Sorry. Can’t stay for dinner.

3) Demon # 2: Huh?

Panel Two

Same scene. The fight continues. Connor picks up the sword at the same time he comes up in a graceful fighting stance behind the two demons.

4) Cap (Connor): They can’t survive outside of it – something to do with an environmental necessity that can only be found in their native habitat.

5) Connor: I’m expected at home.

Panel Three

Same scene. The fight continues. With one swipe of his blade, Connor completely beheads one of the demons. The severed head goes flying.

6) Cap (Connor): So why then are there suddenly three of them here in LA?

7) Cap (Connor): This trio jumped me, surprising me completely – almost as if they were lying in wait. No chance to pass them by.

8) Connor: Family dinner night.

Panel Four

Same scene. The fight continues. Now Connor runs the sword deep into the chest of the second of the two previously uninjured demons. Unfortunately, at the same time the first demon – the one without one hand – is able to close on Connor and knocks him down. The sword was left behind in the one demon’s chest.

9) Cap (Connor): I may be in some trouble here.

10) Demon # 1: Enough!

Pages Six and Seven (double page spread, with one inset panel)

Panel One

This is a small inset panel, inset into the top left-hand corner of the double page spread. We see Connor helpless on his back, on the ground, looking up at the last surviving demon, who rears over him, about to plunge all remaining claws into his unprotected chest. Connor looks grimly resigned to his fate.

1) Cap (Connor): I did remarkably good, all things considered. Killed two of them. No one, not even my dad, could expect to survive three Horagers on his own.

2) Demon # 1: Will end this now!

3) Conner: Stop boasting then, and do it.

Panel Two

This is the double page spread. Now, just as the remaining demon is about to finish Connor off, four warrior women demons jump into the scene, leaping down from the buildings above. These are also a new class of demons, which I will describe now, and which will be important in many issues to come. They look like normal, very attractive, human women, except for skin color and the fact that they are a bit taller than normal women – each about six and a half to seven feet tall. Their skin color ranges from golden, to yellow ochre, do dusky golden-brown. Color Note: Since we have four of them here, let’s please show the entire range of skin colors (as detailed above), just to establish the color range from the get go. Thanks. All of the warrior women demons are clothed head to toe in some sort of tightly articulated gleaming metal armor – similar to medieval armor (although more form-fitting), but also with an alien demonic look to it. All sets of armor are identical, to show that these four are members of a disciplined and uniform army. But the lead warrior woman – we’ll call her Tyndara – will have some decoration or addition to her armor that the others don’t have (a sash, or half-cape, or plume, or emblem of some kind), to show us that she is the group’s commander. The armor is gleaming red-gold. We want to make these characters look as heroic and good-guy as possible, so that later, when certain disturbing facts about them are revealed, it might come as a surprise. Each warrior woman is armed with identical twin swords, which they each wield on in each hand. One of the arriving women (not the leader) cuts off the remaining demon’s head, with a deft stroke of one of her blades. The other two warriors leap down near the bodies of the two other Horager Demons to make sure they’re dead. One of the Horagers is also missing a head and the other has Connor’s sword through it, so they are indeed well and truly dead. The leader directs the three others in their individual tasks. They all look deadly, efficient and competent. Connor looks both relieved and surprised to be saved at the last possible second.

4) Cap (Connor): And then, just in the nick of time, the cavalry arrived.

5) Tyndara (leader): Denyl, dispatch that demon!

6) Warrior Woman # 2 (the one chopping the demon’s head off): Done!

7) Tyndara: Make sure the other two are dead!

8) Warrior Woman # 3: This one’s finished.

9) Warrior Woman # 4: As is this one, Commander.

Page Eight (five panels)

Panel One

Same scene. The leader of the warrior women calmly puts out a hand and helps a still-surprised Connor to his feet. In the background one of the warrior women has set her blades down and is using both hands to yank Connor’s broadsword out of the one demon’s chest.

1) Tyndara: You almost didn’t need our help, Promised One. Two of them killed on your own? Impressive. Then again, you’re destined to be the greatest of warriors.

2) Connor: Excuse me?

Panel Two

Same scene. Connor is on his feet now, as Tyndara almost towers over him. She looks respectful at him. So do two of the other warrior women, one of whom is the one who dispatched the last demon. She wipes her blade clean with a cloth. The other of the three women we can see in this panel very respectfully holds Connor’s sword out for him, handle first. All three of the armored, lovely women are taller than Connor. He still looks a bit befuddled.

3) Connor: Promised One? Who are – ?

4) Warrior Woman # 2: You’re Connor, son of Angel and Darla, are you not?

5) Warrior Woman # 3: The miracle child, born of two vampires?

Panel Three

Same scene. Connor almost absently takes the sword being offered to him. He does indeed look embarrassed at the attention he is getting from these amazing warrior goddesses.

6) Connor: Yeah, but –

7) Tyndara: Then you are indeed the Promised One. But you seem embarrassed to be so addressed.

Panel Four

Same scene. All three warrior women are standing near Connor now. All three look at him with respect bordering upon awe. This just adds to Connor’s discomfort.

8) Connor: I guess I’d sort of prefer to be called Connor.

9) Tyndara: To address you so informally would be a liberty quite above our station.

10) Warrior Woman # 2: Disrespectful.

Panel Five

Same scene. The other two warrior women weigh in with their opinions.

11) Warrior Woman # 3: Contrary to proper military comportment.

12) Warrior Woman # 4: Simply not done.

Page Nine (five panels)

Panel One

Same scene. Tyndara gently takes the still-confused Connor under one arm and deftly guides him out of the alley, away from the scene of battle, still littered with the bodies of the three demons. Behind them the other three women already begin cleaning up the evidence.

1) Tyndara: Excuse me, honored one, but we haven’t much time. We need to clean up this mess before the authorities of this world arrive.

2) Tyndara: And I believe you won’t want to be here, to be bothered by them when they do arrive. Is my understanding correct?

Panel Two

Same scene. Entirely courteous, Tyndara continues leading Connor away from the alley. Now, with her other hand, she holds out a standard business card to him, just like a normal person might do, which looks doubly odd, since this is no normal woman, by any stretch of the imagination.

3) Connor: Uhm… sure, yes, but –

4) Tyndara: But you have many questions. Here’s my card. Call me at your pleasure. All you need to know for now is that there are vast numbers of us. An army.

5) Tyndara: And we’re at your beck and call.

Panel Three

Same scene. Connor has taken the card – he still has his sword in the other hand – as Tyndara gently, respectfully nudges/pushes him on his way. She very much looks and acts like the helpful, loyal underling, determined to sacrifice herself in order to spare her superior any possible discomfort. Connor goes as directed, but still looks overwhelmed.

6) Tyndara: Go now, honored prince. Let us be about your work.

7) Conor: Okay, but –

8) Tyndara: Call me later. We’ll talk.

Panel Four

Same scene. In the foreground Connor walks away, looking down at the card she handed him, as if all of his confusion might be cleared up, if only he deciphers the information on the card correctly. In the background we can see Tyndara turn to rejoin the others, who’ve stopped working for now. All of them, unseen by Connor, are standing there, curiously watching Connor walk away from them. Connor is too far away by now to overhear the one woman’s comment.

9) Warrior Woman # 2: Funny.

Panel Five

Same scene, but now Connor has gone on his way, and we move closer to the women, who still stand there, watching him go. Now they don’t look at all filled with awe or respect. They just look curious, but in a grim way, like battle-hardened soldiers might look at an odd sight they didn’t expect to see, but one which doesn’t at all impress them.

10) Warror Woman # 2: I thought he’d be taller.

Page Ten (five panels)

Panel One

Now we switch scenes to an exterior shot of a yellow taxi cab driving along in the rain, in LA city traffic.

1) Cap (Connor): My name is Connor, impossible son of two vampires. I have two complete sets of childhood memories.

2) Voice (from front of taxi): Hey, buddy, is that a sword you got there?

Panel Two

Now we move inside the taxi to see a cabby driving the thing and Conner alone in the back passenger section. He’s absently holding the sword, resting point-down in the cab, where we can see it in this panel.

3) Cap (Connor): In one version I was raised in a normal, loving family, and enjoyed every possible benefit of being one of the lucky ones in this wonderful world.

4) Connor: Yeah. One of the tools of my trade.

5) Connor: I’m a demon-fighting superhero, coming home from my latest in a long line of battles, keeping your kind safe from their kind.

Panel Three

Same scene. Still in the interior of the cab.

6) Cap (Connor): In the other version I lived in a hell world, fighting for my very existence every day.

7) Cabby: No, seriously. What’s with the sword? I don’t think we allow them in the cab.

Panel Four

Same scene. Connor looks weary, his mind on many other things, and doesn’t even try to sound convincing, which of course is exactly what makes him convincing.

8) Cap (Connor): Oddly enough, I cherish both sets of memories, both lives I’ve lived.

9) Connor: Actually I was at a geek gamers’ convention today. Picked this up at one of the dealers’ tables. It’s not real. Just a shiny toy. A wall trophy.

Panel Five

Now we move outside again for another exterior shot of the cab, making its way through the rainy streets of LA.

10) Cap (Connor): At the same time, some part of me knew even then, that my life didn’t truly get weird until that day in that filthy LA alley, when I met my army.

11) Voice (from front of taxi): Oh, okay. I knew it had to be something like that.

Page Eleven (two panels)

Panel One

We switch scenes to an exterior shot of the Hyperion Hotel. This is the hotel in which the Angel crew made their headquarters throughout most of the TV series. The cab from the previous page has just shown up outside of it. It’s still daytime and still raining.

1) Non Narration Cap: About an hour later…

2) Voice (from back of cab): Keep the change.

3) 2^nd Voice (from inside – ground floor – of hotel): No, they weren’t cub scouts. They were Lis demons disguised as a pack of cub scouts.

Panel Two

This is the big panel of the page. Except for the small panel above, it is nearly a splash page. We switch scenes to the interior of the hotel lobby, where all of the regular cast is sitting about, putting away weapons, and generally talking things over. They include: Spike, just back from Vegas (and he can even have a suitcase still sitting next to him); Illyria; Gunn; Beta George, floating in the air as he does; Dez; Kate; and James the real (but fallen) angel. All look more or less as if they’ve each just gotten in from somewhere – individual missions or such – and are comparing notes, before heading off again on their own business. Note that Angel and Connor are both absent.

4) Spike: Ate the original cubbies to get their uniforms. I killed the lot of them of course.

5) Spike: But did their overly-attractive den mother give me a proper hero’s thank you? No she certainly did not.

6) Gunn: And Angel hasn’t called in the last two or three days? Where’s he been?

7) Beta George: Well, the phone did ring a few times, but I’m not equipped to pick up the phone. There could be a message on the machine.

8) Kate: Angel’s gone longer than that, without reporting in.

Page Twelve (five panels)

Panel One

Same scene, but closer on Spike and Kate now, each one ignoring the other, continuing on with his/her separate conversation.

1) Spike: Even though I clearly saved her from whatever horrific fate those little dastards had in mind for her, all she did was scream over and over.

2) Kate: He probably just met some new girl to brood over, and forgot to check in.

Panel Two

Same scene. We can get another panel out of this joke, so Spike and Kate continue to talk across each other.

3) Spike: “You killed the children! You killed the children!” Wouldn’t even hear that they were actually demons.

4) Kate: He’s famous now, so pretty new girls tend to make themselves known to him with disgusting regularity.

Panel Three

Same scene. But now we expand the panel a bit to take in another character. Spike is just finishing up his tirade, still unaware that no one seems to be listening to him.

5) Spike: Never mind that one of them had already started chewing on her leg when I burst in to save the bloody day.

6) Dez: Angel does seem to attract more than his fair share of women.

Panel Four

Same scene, once again featuring Spike and Kate. Kate continues discussing Angel’s absence, while Spike realizes for the first time that no one has been listening to him. He looks a bit put out not to be the center of attention.

7) Kate: All of whom he finds excuses to hang around with, for days on end, just to tell them over and over again that it can never go anywhere between them.

8) Spike: What? We’re talking about Angel again? I thought you wanted to hear about my time in Vegas?

Panel Five

Same scene. Now James the real angel weighs in, not realizing what he says may be considered insensitive to women.

9) James: Angel does do the tortured “I can never be your lover” act to perfection. Women can’t resist that approach.

10) James: It’s like catnip.

Page Thirteen (four panels)

Panel One

Same scene. Kate looks silent daggers at James. Others look on, some enjoying James’ discomfort to one extent or another. James has a “what did I say wrong?” innocent expression on his face.

No captions or dialogue in this panel.

Panel Two

Same scene. Now James tries to justify himself. Kate is still not amused, but some of the others clearly are.

1) James: Hey, don’t judge me for being observant. I was a real angel for ages beyond the dawn of time itself.

2) James: It was my job all those millennia to watch over you people. Can I help it if I picked up a few recognizable patterns along the way?

Panel Three

Same scene. With a wry smile on his face, Gunn gets up and gives James a comradely pat on the shoulder in passing.

3) James: Would it help if I switched to discussing universal male frailties for a while?

4) Gunn: Take some advice from one guy to another, James. Better quit while you’re behind.

Panel Four

This is the bigger panel of the page. Same scene, but now everyone looks over at the front door as Connor walks in, wet from the rain, still cut along his chest, still carrying the sword. He also still looks a bit overwhelmed from the events of his very odd day.

5) Kate: Connor. There you are. We were beginning to get worried.

6) Spike: No we weren’t. Don’t believe a word she says. They say they want to hear about my Vegas trip, but then all they do is talk about your dad.

7) Connor: Hi.

Page Fourteen (five panels)

Panel One

Same scene. Close on Spike who starts talking about himself again.

1) Spike: As if Angel is cock of the walk? As if we’re all just bit players in his show?

2) Spike: I don’t think so. As long as I’m around he’s not even the prettiest vampire in the room.

Panel Two

Same scene. Bigger panel. Wider shot. In the foreground we see Spike, looking around, silently realizing he’s all alone. Everyone else is in the background of this panel, over where Connor just came in, fussing and fretting about him.

3) Gunn: What happened to you? Is that a gash on your chest?

4) Connor: It’s already healing. Special recuperative powers, remember?

5) Illyria: You received an injury disposing of a simple nest of Lake Demon larva?

Panel Three

Same scene, but closer on Connor and those around him. Illyria looks a bit disappointed in Connor, in her detached, alien way. Connor looks a bit peeved at her implied insult.

6) Illyria: I understood your abilities to be more formidable than that. Should you no longer be allowed to venture out on your own for easy tasks?

7) Connor: No, the Lake Demons didn’t give me any trouble. I can handle the things I can handle just fine.

Panel Four

Same scene. Closer on Connor as he gestures down at his torn shirt and the cut that is healing underneath.

8) Connor: I got this afterwards. Some other things jumped me on the way home from the first mission.

9) Connor: Three Horager Demons.

Panel Five

Same scene. We need to see Gunn and Illyria in this shot. Gunn looks confused. Illyria looks detached and calculating, as usual.

10) Gunn: Horager, wha? Never heard of ‘em.

11) Illyria: I stand corrected. If you survived an encounter with three such creatures, then your powers and abilities have grown far beyond my initial estimation.

Page Fifteen (five panels)

Panel One

Same scene. Illyria, still detached, looks like she’s reevaluation Connor, computing a new impression of him as new facts click into place. She looks more alien than ever in this scene. Connor still looks a bit abrupt with her.

1) Illyria: I should reevaluate you in this new light.

2) Connor: Don’t jump the gun. I didn’t kill them all on my own. I had some last-minute help. Last second, actually.

Panel Two

Same scene. Connor moves down into the lobby, and the others follow. Dez needs to also be seen in this panel.

3) Connor: In fact, we should talk about the nature of the help I received. Where’s my dad? He should be here for this.

4) Dez: Gone.

Panel Three

Same scene. Down in the lobby, Connor is racking the broadsword back in Angel’s weapons rack, as Kate talks to him. Connor doesn’t look at all worried about the news he hears from her.

5) Kate: He hasn’t been around in a few days, Connor.

6) Connor: Why? Did he meet a new girl?

Panel Four

Same scene. Everyone looks at Connor and each other. Most of them try to hide smiles and smirks. Connor looks at them knowing he’s on the outside of a shared joke. Of course Illyria doesn’t smile and Beta George is a fish, so no particular grinning action there.

7) Connor: What?

Panel Five

Same scene. Now they really have trouble not laughing, Illyria and Beta George excepted of course. Connor still looks puzzled.

8) Connor: Did I say something funny?

Page Sixteen (five panels)

Panel One

Same scene. Gunn thinks James might be overstating the situation just a bit.

1) James: We were just considering whether we should be worried about Angel’s disappearance.

2) Gunn: That’s overstating it a bit, don’t you think? I wouldn’t call it a “disappearance” just yet.

Panel Two

Same scene. Connor has finished racking his weapon and is stripping off the damaged hoody and the shirt underneath.

3) Connor: I agree. No need to panic yet. My dad can take care of himself. In the meantime we should continue on with business here.

4) Connor: Show him that everything doesn’t always have to fall apart in his absence.

Panel Three

Same scene, and now Spike is inspired. Kate takes exception to Spike’s characterization of her true feelings about Connor.

5) Spike: Brilliant idea, kid. You probably aren’t nearly as dumb as these others secretly think.

6) Kate: Hey! I don’t – !

7) Spike: I’m in charge, of course.

Panel Four

Same scene, but now, while Spike immediately goes into a fantasy monologue, Connor quietly cuts him off. Connor’s bare chest now shows the cut nearly gone.

8) Spike: First thing to do: organize all requests for help in a ranking of “how hot is the client?” And does she need immediate comforting?

9) Connor: Actually I was thinking that I’d try to run things while dad is away.

Panel Five

This is the bigger panel of the page. Same scene. Wide shot, showing the entire cast currently present. Everyone shows some degree or another of surprise at Connor’s declaration. Illyria is detached, logical and unfazed. Spike is visibly upset. Dez and Gunn look openly dubious, as does Kate. James looks contemplative and maybe a bit worried. Connor simply looks tired and dispassionate.

10) Gunn: Really?

11) Dez: No offense, Connor, but why you?

12) Connor: It’s my father’s business after all. He even spoke once – granted it was long ago – about changing the name to “Angel and Son Investigations.”

13) Illyria: This is rational. If Angel is the king of our company, Connor is the only possible crown prince and heir.

Page Seventeen (five panels)

Panel One

We switch scenes to a nighttime shot of the LA skyline. The rain is gone and the city is lit up like a glittering jewel. Lettering Note: Now, as promised, we switch narrators to Angel in the captions for the remainder of this issue.

1) Non Narration Cap: That night, after the rain had cleared…

2) Cap (Angel): I was trapped in Hell once for a very long time.

Panel Two

Now we move down into the city to see an exterior shot of a modern looking medical clinic type of building, in a good neighborhood. The cars parked in the lot are all expensive, rich-people’s cars. A sign outside the building reads: Innovation Labs Inc. And under that it reads: Building a better tomorrow today.

3) Cap (Angel): It was pure torture – literally – for ages without end. But it wasn’t boring.

Panel Three

Now we move inside the building, to see it is indeed some sort of medical clinic. But everyone is dressed nice, like it was a high-powered law office. Men and women in civilian dress are dressed in suits. Others are dressed in white lab coats and such. It is a very expensive, posh place. Armed, uniformed security guards can be seen everywhere, and they are all mean looking bastards – as if every one is ex-special-forces. There’s not an old retiree or fatty amongst them. The place is well lit and looks busy. There are no patients or customers though. This is strictly a research facility.

4) Cap (Angel): Then my own son once trapped me in a steel coffin and sank me to the bottom of the sea.

5) Cap (Angel): That was pretty bad too. But at least there was a window, and once in a great while a fish would swim by, to break the monotony.

Panel Four

Same scene, but now we are “traveling” down one of the corridors, looking at a seriously locked door down at the end of the hallway. This door could double as a bank vault, except that bank vaults aren’t this high tech. A big No Admittancesign is on the door.

6) Cap (Angel): This is worse. No window. No view. Not even a bad one.

7) Cap (Angel): No sound except the occasional gurgle of fluids passing through tubes.

Panel Five

Now we have magically moved past the big vault door, to look into the room within. It is a modern, very high tech clinic room. There is a metal wheeled table in the center of the room, with a body on it. We can’t see all of the table at this point, just the rear foot or so, just enough to show the legs of the body on the metal hospital gurney. The details of the body will be described in the following panel when we can see it more clearly.

8) Cap (Angel): The animal blood to keep me fed comes in through one tube. My processed, vampire-infected blood goes out through another.

9) Cap (Angel): Every minute of every hour of every day. Drip by drip.

Page Eighteen (one panel)

Panel One

This is a full-page splash. Now we can see the body on the gurney unobstructed. We are looking at it from slightly overhead. This is Angel, but how would we know that, if not for the narration? The body is entirely encased in a hard plaster cast – just like the casts one puts on a broken leg. Two high-tech IV devices are connected to the body, one with a tube running in to where the mouth should be (if we could see a mouth) and another running out from where one of his arms should be. Lots of high tech equipment is in this room, and various sensor wires and such are plugged into the full body cast we can see on the gurney. This room is well lit. No one else is in here with the body in the cast.

1) Cap (Angel): God, I’m bored.

2) Next: What happened.