PSI Judge Anderson in THE SUBTLE ART OF INTERROGATION

Here we go, as palette cleanser after those big chunks of 'Big Two' I've been serving up since the old Coverband blog kicked off - how about a little bit from 2000AD

Specifically the lovely PSI Judge Anderson.

I actually had this six page strip published in the British 2000AD fanzine Zarjaz.

It was a while back now. Reading it back I remember having a lot of fun writing this one.

Check it out...

NOTE TO ARTIST: I’ve included a suggestion for panel layout at the start of each page. This is nothing more than a suggestion to give you a feel for why I’ve paced the dialogue the way I have. I’m not expecting you to use it. Feel free to lay the pages and panels out what ever way you think works best.

 

PAGE ONE

 

This page is divided into two tiers. The first four panels across the top tier are tall, narrow and equally sized. The rest are on the bottom tier. Give the fifth plenty of room with the sixth as an inset on the bottom right.

 

1. The b/g is blackness. We are looking at a young, attractive, female PSI Judge. She has oriental features and her long, dark hair is pulled back tight in a ponytail. Her name is JUDGE CHO. Position her on the extreme left of the f/g so that only one side of her face is on panel. Her eyes are darting back and forth, she looks extremely nervous. Behind her in the darkness we can see a pair burning reds eyes and a cheshire cat smile of bright, white teeth, sharpened into vicious looking fangs. This sequence of panels is taking place in Judge Cho’s mind so give the speech balloons a floaty, dreamlike quality (no tails and multiple wiggly borders).

 

JUDGE CHO:

YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM ME HERE

 

2. Same POV. The gaunt, ghostly-white face attached to the red eyes and the fang-filled grin has emerged from the darkness. It’s fanged filled mouth is open, about to bite into Judge Cho’s throat. She feels the hot breath on her neck and let’s out a gasp. Her ghostlike assailant is JOHNNY ‘PIECES’ PALMOTTI. His thin face gives him the look of a junkie and the thinning, greasy black hair which is slicked back from his face doesn’t make him look any better. Like Cho, his speech should be dreamlike.

 

PIECES:

I’M NOT HIDING PRETTY.

 

3. Keep the same POV. This panel should be stomach churning. Pieces is tearing a big, bloody chunk of flesh out of Cho’s neck with his teeth. He’s pulling his head away snapping the thin strands of flesh which are still attached to the chunk of flesh in his mouth. Blood oozes from between his teeth onto his chin, his lips and face are red and dripping. Thick gouts of blood spray out of the wound and Cho screams out in pain. Cho’s speech bubble here should straddle the gutter between this panel and the next one. The part of the speech bubble in this panel remains floaty and dreamlike, the part that crossed into the next panel should have a jagged border as she is snapped back to reality.

 

CHO:

NOOOOOOOOOOOO - -

 

4. Same POV again. Cho has a hand to her neck and is still screaming in horror. The black b/g has disappeared to be replaced with the featureless, grey, metal walls of a holding cell in the Hall of Justsce. No blood is visible anywhere in this panel – we’ve snapped back to reality but Cho has brought her terror out with her.

 

CHO (jag):

- -OOOOOOOOOO!!

 

5. Big establishing panel, big enough for title and logo. We’re in the corridor outside the holding cell as Cho emerges from inside and goes screaming past us, her hand still pressed to her completely uninjured neck. In the extreme f/g is the PSI Division’s CHIEF JUDGE in head and shoulders close up. He massages the bridge of his nose with a finger and thumb, trying to stave off the migraine he feels coming on. It’s been a long day!

 

CHO:

NOOOOOOOO!

 

CHIEF JUDGE:

LORD HAVE MERCY.

 

6. Small inset panel. Anderson is walking down the corridor toward us as Cho goes screaming past her, bumping her shoulder on the way through. Anderson looks peeved, and gives a Cho a ‘watch where you’re going’ glare.

 

ANDERSON:

HEY WATCH IT!

 

PAGE TWO

 

This page is a three tier, six panel grid.

 

1. Cut to a mid figure shot of Anderson and the Chief Judge who are now standing face to face. The Chief looks harried and upset jabbing a finger toward the holding cell’s door in the b/g. Anderson looks like she’s sorry that she asked as he goes off on one.

 

ANDERSON:

WHAT’S UP C J?

 

CHIEF JUDGE:

JOHNNY ‘BLOODY PIECES’ PALMOTTI IS WHAT’S UP!

 

CHIEF JUDGE:

WE FINALLY GOT HIM LAST NIGHT! BANG TO RIGHTS. RAPE, ABDUCTION MURDER – THE LOT!

 

2. Our focus for this panel is the handful of photographs that the Chief is holding up. All of them showing a pretty, young girl . She’s in her underwear and covered in grime. She is lying on a stone floor in the fetal position. Her hands and feet are bound and she has a gag in her mouth and a blindfold over her eyes. Pieces is holding her hostage and won’t give up her location. If there’s room show Anderson’s face in the left f/g looking at the pictures in disgust.

 

CHIEF JUDGE:

THEN WE FOUND THESE ON HIM. WON’T TELL US WHO OR WHERE SHE IS. SAYS HE’D RATHER

SHE STARVES.

 

3. Reverse angle. We are facing Anderson who is now holding the photographs. She is looking down, leafing through them, her expression grim and solemn.

 

ANDERSON:

CAN’T YOU GET IT FROM HIM?

 

ANDERSON:

WE’VE GOT A BUILDING FULL OF MIND READERS DON’T WE?

 

4. Reverse angle so that we are facing the Chief. He is bellowing at us, pointing down the corridor behind him. Lined on either side of the corridor we can see the other PSI Judges who attempted to crack the perp in the holding cell before Cho did. They don’t look so good. All are pale and sickly looking. Some are weeping, some are throwing up into sick bags and others are desperately trying not to do either.

 

CHIEF JUDGE:

YEAH BUT THIS CREEP’S IMPOSSIBLE TO BREAK. I’VE SENT IN OUR BEST PSI INTERROGATORS

THEY ALL CAME OUT JELLYFISH!

 

5. Reverse angle again. We are looking past the Chief Judge at Anderson who has turned her attention from the photographs in her hands to the closed holding cell door. She has a thoughtful look on her face.

 

CHIEF JUDGE:

THIS SICKO’S BRAIN IS LIKE A PSYCHIC MINDFIELD.

 

ANDERSON:

YOU MIND IF I TAKE A CRACK AT HIM?

 

CHIEF JUDGE:

BE MY GUEST

 

6. Cut to inside the holding cell. Keep our perp out of sight until after the page turn. We are looking from his POV across the room as Anderson enters through the cell door. She looks completely casual and unafraid despite the leering voice goading her.

 

PIECES:

AAAHHH FRESH MEAT.

 

ANDERSON:

HELLO JOHNNY.

 

PIECES:

CALL ME ‘PIECES’ PRETTY. ALL THE LADIES DO – THOSE I LEAVE WITH LIPS AT LEAST.

 

PAGE THREE

 

Two tiers I think for this page. First two panels along the top, give them a quarter of the page. Panel three can take up the bottom left three quarters of the page with the remaining two panels stacked on the bottom right.

 

1. Establishing shot. Anderson is in the f/g with her back to us. She is standing confidently with her hands on her hips. Johnny ‘Bloody Pieces’ Palmotti is standing opposite her in restraints. He is trussed up like Hannibal Lecter. A mask covers the lower half of his face. A straightjacket, attached to the wall by chains, pins his arms across his chest. The chains keep him on a short lease – a good few feet away from his visitor. He is tall and very skinny, almost unnaturally so. He is dressed in drab prison overalls. His body language is that of a predator, he’s glad to see another fly come into his web.

 

 

PIECES:

HAVE YOU COME TO SLITHER INSIDE MY BRAIN TOO PRETTY? I GOT ALL KINDS OF ‘FUN’ GAMES

IN MIND FOR YOU.

 

ANDERSON:

UM, NO THANKS. HOW ABOUT INSTEAD YOU JUST TELL ME WHERE YOU HID THE GIRL HUH?

2.  Cut to a mid figure shot, same POV. Anderson has turned to face us, turning her back on Pieces. She retains up her aloof, unimpressed composure. She taps her temple with her finger as she goads him further. We can see him over her shoulder leering at her a perverse, sneer of a grin on his face.

 

PIECES:

TOO SCARED PRETTY? YOU SHOULD BE. I’D EAT YOUR PUNY BRAIN FOR BREAKFAST AND THAT

WOULD JUST BE FOR STARTERS.

 

ANDERSON:

SEE YOU’RE MAKING THE SAME MISTAKE THOSE OTHER PSI JUDGES MADE, FOCUSING ONLY ON

THE BRAIN

 

ANDERSON:

FORGETTING ALL THOSE OTHER BODY PARTS THAT ARE JUST AS IMPORTANT.

 

4. Big action shot. Suddenly Anderson has whirled around and delivered a bone-crunching punch to the unsuspecting perp’s groin. OUCH! Pieces’ whole body contorts, going rigid with pain. His mouth is wide open in a silent scream of agony. We really want to feel the impact of that punch. We want every male reader to have to cross his legs at the sight of this panel. Maybe drop the b/g to give this panel maximum impact.

 

ANDERSON (jag):

LIKE THIS ONE!

 

FX:

KRUNCH!

 

PIECES (gasp):

OOMFFPH!

 

5. A really tight close up of Piece’s face (maybe show only half of his face in an echo of the panels on the first page – except now the tables have turned). What color he had in his face has drained and he suddenly looks even more gaunt, pathetic and very afraid. Big beads of sweat roll down his forehead and a tear slips down his cheek. He is trembling partly in fear, partly in agony. Anderson’s lips are seductively close to his ear as she whispers him an ultimatum.

 

ANDERSON:

I’M SURE A GUY WITH YOUR “EXOTIC TASTES” HAS GROWN QUITE ATTACHED TO THAT

PARTICULAR BODY PART.

 

ANDERSON:

YOU WANT TO STAY ATTACHED? YOU’LL TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO KNOW.

 

6. Cut back to the corridor. The Chief Judge is in the f/g holding a piece of paper covered in scrawled handwriting. At the top is the word ‘CONFESSION’ in big letters at the bottom is the spider-like signature of Johnny Palmotti. The Chief Judge looks dumbfounded as he scans the confession. In the b/g Anderson is walking away from him, down the corridor, waving a dismissive hand back over her shoulder.

 

CHIEF JUDGE:

HE GAVE UP EVERYTHING! HOW DID YOU DO THIS ANDERSON?

 

ANDERSON:

SIMPLE C J. TO GET AT THE BRAIN OF A GUY LIKE THAT YOU GOTTA AIM A LITTLE LOWER!

 

BOX:

THE END