92615_RAA_LooseCannon_Text_R1_PROOF

So, this year, I figured, why not issue a challenge? Want to do comics? Do a twelve page comic story and give it to me at the AiT/Planet Lar compound at APE. I’ll see it, publisher Mimi Rosenheim will see it, Brian Wood, Phil Amara and the Sky Ape boys, everyone. We’ll all see the fruits of your toil. At least it’s a deadline. And if you can’t work up twelve pages in two months, well, you really don’t want to do a comic, do you? So, I was telling the missus about the rash of email I got after issuing this challenge, from people who had all sorts of excuses. "I can’t draw, I can’t write, I don’t know what to do, help me." Ordinarily, I tell these people, "If you don’t have a story for which you will sweat blood on to a page, I can’t help you." I ordinarily think this is clever. But Mimi said, "Well, hell, yes, you can help them. I can see you not want ing to explain every intricacy of how the world works to everyone all the damn time when how the world works is not a secret, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help them." "You can’t help them with their stories, I understand, because you think that a story is a intimately personal thing. But what if there’s a really good artist out there, wanting to draw, and just can’t hook up with a writer with whom to collaborate? Throw that person a bone," Mimi said. "What?" I repeated, with the sort of incisive communications skills I’m known for when Mimi presents me with an idea that I would never have thought of on my own. "I know you don’t have time for a full script, and maybe somebody might take it the wrong way, thinking you’ll only look at minicomics from your script… but let’s just say somebody wants to draw something to show you at APE. Why not use a LOOSE CANNON to give everybody twelve pages of dialogue to work up however they see fit?" "What?" I said, rather poignantly, I thought.

And that, I thought, was a great idea.

So, here you go: no fancy formatting, no pressure, nothing. If you have some artistic talent, and you want to do a comic, but you don’t know what to do, here’s some dialogue, from me to you. Two people talking. The rest is up to you. Do what you want. Move it around, ignore it; I don’t care. Just make a comic. But. If you are into this:

It could be a My Dinner with Andre kinda thing; they could be two people who haven’t seen each other for years. Two old friends, one a stay-at-home-

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