This is a 7 page horror comic I wrote a few years ago. I gave it to my neighbor who was interested in illustrating it, but he has been busy and we haven't spoken for a while. This needs some rewrite work but I would love to find someone interested in illustrating it. It is kind of a shallow story, but my first attempt at writing a comic so back off. (Anyone not interested in gore will want to avoid this one.)
Red, White, and More Red
Page 1 consists of just 1 panel
A view out a second-story window. The lighting suggests that the sun is setting. The window sill is visible on all sides of the panel. We are looking out on the rubble that was a small French village after being bombed and war-torn. Broken buildings and houses are visible in the square below. There is a German regimen camped in the square. Triangular tents and bedrolls are bunched toward the center of the square. There are dead soldiers and dead civilians (women and children) in a pile on the right side of the square. The ruins of a small church is smoldering on left side of the square. There are a few solders with rifles who look to be guarding their camp. The rest of the soldiers are smoking, eating and laughing. One holds an American flag like a bull fighter in front of another.
Title: Red, White and More Red
Caption: October 25, 1944 – Jonquille, France
Caption: Just 14 days since troops of the 2nd SS Panzer Division 'Das Reich' massacred more than 600 people in the French town of Oradour-sur-Glane. While the men were shot immediately, the women and children are locked in a barn. The Germans then set the barn ablaze. Those who tried to escape the flames were shot.
Page 2 consists of 2 horizontal panels
Panel 1: As if a camera has been pulled back from the view in panel 1 we see a very young American soldier lying below the window sill. His body is directly under the window and his head is propped up by the wall. We can see just a small part of the view from page 1 above the window sill. He is lying in a small pool of blood which is coming from a wound bandaged by a rag above his knee. He is filthy… mud, blood. His eyes are very white. He is sweating and looks scared. He is holding his pistol over his heart.
Caption: Donald Hampton Wick is not really here. He did not see his platoon massacred. He did not hide in pig filth. He did not hear the screams of the raped, tortured and dying soldiers and villagers.
Caption: Sergeant Sands had screamed “2nd Panzer”. Then Sergeant Sands had been shot through his right eye. Private Lovell “Lovey” Quincy had been from his hometown. Lovey had told him just two days before that he thought the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre was “bullspit” sent as propaganda. Quincy had been gutted… after he had been shot twice in the head.
Caption: Donny knows they will find him. He holds his unfired gun and waits for a coward’s death.
Panel 2: Close up view of the pile of bodies as the sun sets. The red of the setting sun make the tangle of corpses seem to be covered with blood. The visible blood is black in the fading light.
Caption: The sun sets on the citizens and would-be protectors of Jonquille.
Page 3 consists of 4 panels (It is up to the artist to determine size and shape)
Panel 1: A form is materializing near the church. The glow of the fire from the church shows that it is a thin man with a flat top and what looks like an army knife in his hand. He is walking toward the German soldiers standing around the church. The form is dark. His features are difficult to see, with the exception of his shining, light blue eyes.
Caption: An American soldier appears within minutes of sunset.
Panel 2: We are looking over the shoulder of a German soldier who is firing a pistol point blank at the approaching soldier’s chest.
Caption: The first to see the American is a lookout by the name of Hans Kinske. He smiles when he sees that the fool is armed with a knife. The bullets from his sidearm pepper’s the Dummkopf’s chest…
Panel 3: We are looking from a view maybe 1 foot off the ground behind the American soldier being shot. We can see large, bloody exit wounds through his back. Because of the light from the fire to the right, we are able to see a glimpse of the German soldier’s face through the 6 holes in the American’s chest.
Caption: …and blow large exit wounds out his back.
Panel 4: We are now looking from a view above, but still behind the American soldier. He is now standing right in front of the German and has buried his knife in the side of the German’s head. Behind the two men we see several more German soldiers approaching.
Caption: The first to die doesn’t have time to scream.
Page 4 consists of 4 panels (It is up to the artist to determine size and shape)
Panel 1: A side view showing the American soldier on the left side of the panel, and a group of German soldiers on the right side. The soldiers are firing various guns at the American - machine guns and pistols. We see blood and bits of flesh spraying behind the American soldier as the bullets go through him.
Caption: The approaching soldier never speaks and never slows.
Caption: They only start screaming when they see him smile.
Panel 2: Close up of the American soldier, who we now see is a vampire. He has a dark countenance, but we see blood around his mouth, crooked, sharp teeth, and shining blue eyes (the whole eye is light blue and shines). In the lower corner of the panel we see that he has bitten so far through the throat of a soldier, that the soldier’s head is nearly resting on his back. The soldier’s mouth is open in a scream.
Caption: He only stops killing every few minutes to feed.
Panel 3: Private Wick’s huge, frightened eyes fill the panel.
Caption: At first Donny is frozen. He believes that the first few shots he hears signify that the Krauts have found his hiding place.
Panel 4: View from behind Donny, who is now in an uncomfortable sitting position peering over the window sill. He still holds his pistol in one hand and is holding the window sill with the other. Out the window we see dead solders from the light coming from the burning church. We see some fighting in the square from the light coming from the firing guns.
Caption: The piercing screams shake Donny from his paralysis and he painfully pulls himself to a sitting position where he can see.
Caption: His bleary eyes focus, and he begins to tremble.
Page 5 consists of 2 panels.
Panel 1: In the first panel we see several small scenes where the vampire is killing German soldiers. In one pose he is stabbing one in the back, in another he is holding a severed head above his upturned face and letting the blood drip into his mouth. In another he is getting shot. I’m sure you can think of other scenes.
Caption: Donny can’t look away.
Panel 2: A view from behind the vampire (we see the outline of his head in the bottom right side of the panel. He is looking up at Donny’s window. We see that Donny’s eyes are bulging. His mouth is open in a surprised “O”.
Caption: Suddenly all is quiet. There is nothing alive in the courtyard below. He scans the courtyard only to see two shining eyes burning up at him below.
Page 6 consists of one large panel. We are looking at a darkened doorway on the other side of the room Donny is in. Beyond the door frame it is very dark, but it is possible, if you look closely to see a darker shape of a man in the gloom.
Caption: Donny falls to the floor in an effort to hide, and jars his bad leg. The world turns grey for a minute.
Caption: When he comes to, Donny stays very still, like small mouse in a room full of cats. He listens. His heart thumps. He slowly opens his eyes. He listens and looks, but doesn’t move an inch. He forces himself to breathe slowly and quietly.
Caption: Donny hears a small noise, like a rustle of clothes from the doorway. Time seems to stop. He can’t tell if minutes or hours pass. Strangely, he begins to feel drowsy.
Page 7 consists of 4 panels.
Panel 1 shows the sun rising over the small, ruined French town.
Panel 2 shows a close up of Donny’s sleeping face. His eyes are closed. Tear marks have made tracks through the filth on his face.
Panel 3 shows a side view of from the waist up. He is sitting against the wall, and his eyes are now open.
Caption: Donny opens his eyes as the rising sun enters the room. He is disoriented and so very sore, but what he feels the most is shame. Shame for being a coward. Shame for being afraid to die. Shame for not facing the darkness.
Panel 4 shows a view through Donny’s eyes at his legs and the wooden floor he is sitting on. There is an American flag folded into a triangle on Donny’s left. A first aid kit and a canteen on Donny’s left, and an open gunny sack filled with food at Donny’s feet.
Caption: Donny’s shame begins to fade. He has been protected by a fellow soldier, a brother-in-arms. His mind will return, at times, to his cowardice, but will forever be overshadowed by the memory that he had been protected and forgiven by the damned.
