I got married last May (this week is actually our one year anniversary), and Kurt and I did an 8 page comic about how Brooke and I met that was passed out at the ceremony. Here's the script that Kurt turned into beautiful pictures. The actual finished pages can be seen at http://www.imaginarytales.com/.
PAGE 1
PAGE 1
Page 1, Panel One
The interior of a bridal shop. Think a David’s Bridal type store with dresses everywhere, shoe boxes stacked up, and other wedding accessories littering the expanse of the shop. Sitting on a couch near the dressing rooms are Kevin, (yes, I AM referring to myself in the third person for this. It’s easier), and Brooke. Kevin looks very relaxed, excited to tell his story to his invisible audience, but Brooke seems antsy, as if there are a lot of different, and obviously more important, things she needs to get accomplished. She’s glaring at Kevin, not angry, but distracted. A notebook of things to do for the wedding dangles haphazardly from her right hand.
1. Kevin: Hi everyone!
2. Brooke: Uhh honey, who are you talking to?
3. Kevin: Them.
4. Brooke: Them who?
5. Kevin: The people who’re gonna be reading this.
Page 1, Panel Two
Brooke turns her gaze to the ‘reader’ that Kevin is staring so intently at. She apparently does not see what he is seeing. Kevin is waving at the ‘reader’.
1. Brooke: Reading this.
2. Kevin: Yeah, this wedding comic.
3. Brooke: Right…
4. Brooke: Are you acting like this because you didn’t wanna come here today?
5. Kevin: You mean you can’t see them? They’re right there. Say hi to your family.
6. Kevin: Hi new family! Hi old family!
Page 1, Panel Three
Kevin and Brooke look at each other. Brooke has a very quizzical look on her face, but she’s smiling nonetheless. She is making the famous ‘quote, unquote’ signs that I do so love. Kevin just glances at her, half amused, half serious.
1. Kevin: What?
2. Brooke: You are so weird sometimes, you know that?
3. Kevin: Am not.
4. Brooke: OK, so, what exactly are we telling our ‘family and friends’?
5. Kevin: Our story. In eight pages or less of course.
6. Brooke: Oh, of course. Well, go ahead I guess.
Page 1, Panel Four
Kevin turns back to the reader, casually crossing his leg and propping his elbows on it. Brooke just looks at her wedding notebook, a look of insurmountable stress washing over her face. She has a lot of stuff to do, and Kevin’s not helping.
1. Kevin: AHEM! It all started back in October of 1979, when…
Page 1, Panel Five
Brooke launches up from her seat next to Kevin on the couch and makes her way to the changing rooms on the right side of the panel. Speed lines materialize behind her. Brooke’s moving quickly. She doesn’t have time to sit around while Kevin goes that far back into their story. She needs to try on dress and accessories. Kevin, obviously, does not. Kevin looks bewildered as to why she doesn’t want to help him continue his story.
1. Brooke: I’m so out of here.
2. Kevin: What’s wrong? Where’re you going?
3. Brooke: I have to try on dresses and stuff. I’ll listen from here.
4. Brooke: Make sure you don’t lie too much.
5. Kevin (quiet): You lie.
6. Brooke: I heard that!
PAGE 2
Page 2, Panel One
Kevin sprawls out on the couch and resumes his tale. There is an attendant from the bridal store that follows Brooke into the changing room. She gives Kevin a curious glance as she passes by.
1. Kevin: OK, I’ll fast forward a little bit. It was late October, 2003, and I was celebrating my 24th birthday at the BBC, an Eastside bar.
2. Brooke (OP): Umm…honey? It wasn’t a bar. I mean, I would’ve only been 19 then, and I never stepped foot in a bar until I was 21.
3. Kevin: No, it was the BBC. Don’t you remember, I thought you were older, but you showed me your fake ID?
4. Brooke (OP): No, no, I never had a…I mean…why would I have…that’s just…
5. Kevin: Honey, they had to find out sometime. It lessens the brunt if it’s in comic book form. Trust me.
Page 2, Panel Two
Brooke’s head pops out from the changing room area. The veil on her head is crooked, and part of it is covering her eyes. She looks toward the ‘reader’, a nervous over exaggerated smile plastered across her face. Kevin also looks at the reader, winking. He is obviously amused by the whole situation.
1. Brooke: I love you Mom!
Page 2, Panel Three
Brooke pulls the veil out of her eyes and shoots a menacing glare toward Kevin. He just smiles back at her.
1. Brooke (quiet): You are so dead when we get home…
2. Kevin: I love you too baby! Good luck in there!
Page 2, Panel Four
Flashback panel. I’m thinking that the flashback panels would work best with rounded edges instead of square ones, but it’s artist’s choice. The interior of the BBC. It’s your typical college area bar, packed with people drinking, playing pool, putting money in the jukebox, etc. There is a banner over the pool table area that reads “Happy 25th Jason, and Happy 24th Kevin!!!”. Kevin is standing in the middle of the panel, talking to Jessica and a handful of other people. One of them is Brooke.
1. Kevin Caption: So anyway, my friend Jessica comes to the party with a group of people, and introduces me to the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in my life.
2. Jessica: Happy birthday Kevin! I want to introduce you to someone. This is Brooke. Brooke, this is Kevin.
3. Brooke: Hi.
4. Kevin: Hey.
Page 2, Panel Five
Flashback panel. Kevin and Brooke embrace each other in a passionate kiss in front of the entire bar. The people surrounding them look surprised and a few of them begin to clap.
1. Kevin Caption: And I guess things just escalated from there.
PAGE 3
Page 3, Panel One
In the bridal shop, Kevin is sitting there with his hands folded behind his head, a dreamy glaze washed over his eyes. Brooke’s hand has emerged from the changing room, and is pointing an accusatory finger Kevin’s way.
1. Brooke (op): That’s not the way it happened and you know it!
2. Kevin: I know. Would’ve been hot though huh?
3. Brooke (op): Just tell the truth!
4. Kevin: OK, OK. Jeez…haven’t you ever heard of using a little artistic license?
Page 3, Panel Two
Flashback panel. Kevin and Brooke share a quiet moment in a corner, away from all the buzz of the bar. Brooke is brushing her hair out of her eyes, and Kevin is looking at the floor unable to make eye contact.
1. Kevin Caption: Still, I laid the groundwork that night. Jessica told me Brooke already had a boyfriend, so what did I have to lose right? Anyway, I was a bit tipsy.
2. Brooke Caption: You were drunk.
3. Kevin Caption: I was drunk.
4. Kevin: Hey, uhh…when you realize your boyfriend’s a tool, have Jessica give you my phone number, OK?
5. Brooke: Yeah…yeah, I will.
Page 3, Panel Three
Flashback panel. Yet another drinking establishment. Kevin is sitting with a few friends at the bar, notably Jessica. Kevin sticks his hand out to Jessica.
1. Kevin Caption: Flash forward a little bit over a year. Brooke and I had seen each other numerous occasions since our initial meeting, but she was still with her boyfriend, and I had had some…colorful relationships…
2. Brooke Caption: To say the least.
3. Kevin Caption: …and we hadn’t seen each other for a while.
4. Kevin: Hey, have you talked to Brooke?
5. Jessica: Yeah, her and her boyfriend broke up.
6. Kevin Your phone please…
Page 3, Panel Four
Flashback panel. Kevin is using Jessica’s cell phone to call Brooke. He looks a little nervous, but there is a fire in his eyes as he dials.
1. Kevin: Hey, Brooke?
2. Kevin: Hey, it’s Kevin. What’s up?
3. Kevin: So…how’ve you been?
Page 3, Panel Five
Flashback panel. Split panel. In one half of the panel, Kevin is laying on his bed, kicking his legs around in a circular pattern as he talks on his cell phone. As this is his old apartment, various comic book posters adorn the walls, and there are action figures strewn about the room. In the other half of the panel, Brooke is sitting cross-legged on her bed, with a pillow in her lap also talking on her cell phone. There are Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp posters on her walls.
1. Kevin Caption: For the next few weeks we talked every night, sometimes for hours. But, neither of us could work up the courage to ask the other out on a date.
2. Brooke Caption: I never had Johnny Depp posters on my walls!
3. Kevin Caption: I imagined you did. Depp and me have so much in common.
4. Brooke Caption: Like I have a lot in common with Natalie Portman?
5. Kevin Caption: Touché.
Page 3, Panel Six
Flashback panel. Close up of Kevin’s cell phone.
1. Kevin Caption: Finally, one of us took the initiative.
2. Brooke Caption: You’re really admitting it was me that asked you out? Finally?
3. Kevin Caption: What can I say? I’m a non-traditionalist.
4. Cell Phone Text: To: Kevin
From: Brooke
When are we gonna go out on a date?
PAGE 4
Page 4, Panel One
Back at the bridal shop. Kevin is standing up carrying about ten boxes of shoes over to the dressing rooms. He’s visibly having trouble maintaining his balance as he sets them down by the door.
1. Kevin: Here you go baby!
2. Brooke (op): Thanks hon! Don’t come in here though, you can’t see the dress.
3. Kevin: OK, I’ll just continue the fairy tale then?
4. Brooke (op): You are so weird…
5. Kevin: And you love it!
6. Kevin Caption: Anyway, we went on our first date…
Page 4, Panel Two
Flashback panel. The interior of an Alterra coffee shop. Customers are working on laptops or enjoying the company of their friends. It is a double level coffee shop, and in the upper right hand corner, Kevin and Brooke are sitting at a small table conversing with each other.
1. Kevin Caption: We went out for coffee at Alterra, and then we went to the Vox for a couple of drinks afterwards.
2. Brooke Caption: And I was of age now!
3. Kevin: Blah, blah, comics, blah, blah…
4. Brooke: Blah, blah, psychology, blah, blah…
Page 4, Panel Three
Flashback panel. Kevin and Brooke are sitting at the Vox with a few drinks covering the expanse of the tabletop. There are various patrons all around them, but our protagonists are obvious to them all. If possible, maybe have the crowd surrounding them just be sketched or faded somewhat to show that their main focus is just on each other. However, Brooke has a bit of drool coming out of the right corner of her mouth. Either she is wiping it away, or the light in the bar is glinting off of it.
1. Brooke Caption: I even drooled on myself at the Vox! I was so embarrassed!
2. Brooke Caption: I thought that I would never see this boy again!
3. Kevin Caption: To no one’s surprise, I thought it was the cutest thing ever. I’m cool like that…
4. Brooke Caption: Or severely disturbed…
Page 4, Panel Four
Flashback panel. The interior of Kevin and Ryan’s apartment. There are action figures and comic books everywhere. Like, everywhere. Brooke is sitting on Kevin’s couch, and he has his head in her lap. They are still talking.
1. Kevin Caption: After we left the Vox, we came back to my house for a little bit.
2. Brooke Caption: You totally thought you were gonna get some.
3. Kevin Caption: Did not! I was playing it cool as a cucumber.
4. Kevin: Blah, blah, zombies, blah, blah…
5. Brooke: Blah, blah, Hanson, blah, blah…
6. Brooke Caption: I did not bring up my love of Hanson on our first date. It…it was like the second or third…
Page 4, Panel Five
Flashback panel. Interior of Kevin’s super-awesome Dodge Neon. Kevin and Brooke are sitting in the front seats, and Kevin has just pulled the car into park at the front door of Brooke’s apartment. Both look extremely nervous.
1. Kevin Caption: We talked for a really long time, but I knew I had to drop her off at her house eventually. I drove her home, and then came the inevitable awkward silence…
2. Brooke Caption: I didn’t think he wanted to kiss me…
3. Kevin Caption: So she just got out of the car. Yup. Just left.
4. Brooke Caption: I was waiting for you to make a move!
5. Kevin Caption: I have no moves!!!
Page 4, Panel Six
Back at the bridal shop. Kevin is looking at the price tags on the various items that have accumulated on the couch next to him. His mouth is agape. Brooke is walking out of the changing rooms, all smiles as she has her hands full with even more highly expensive items from the store. She is also looking at the ‘reader’, now able to see them properly.
1. Brooke: K, baby! I think I’m all set here for now. But we have to come back to get the signature book and ring bearer pillow and other stuff in a few weeks.
2. Kevin (Quiet): $150 for a bra?!...
3. Brooke: We should probably go home and address some of the invitations anyway…
4. Brooke: Oh hey! I didn’t even see you guys there!
PAGE 5
Page 5, Panel One
The interior of Kevin and Brooke’s house. You’ve been here before, but feel free to draw it however you want to. Kevin and Brooke are sitting on their couch in a similar fashion to the way they were sitting on the couch in the bridal shop. Brooke, sitting with her hands folded in her lap, is still extremely happy-go-lucky. Kevin looks absolutely exhausted, a five o’clock shadow covering his face. He is shaking slightly. On the coffee table in front of them are mountains of wedding invitations and envelopes.
1. Caption: Six hours later…
2. Brooke: Awesome! We got all our invitation stuff done. You can finish up your story now hon!
3. Kevin: So…so cold…mouth so…dry…
Page 5, Panel Two
Flashback panel. Interior of Kevin’s car. Same style shot as Page 4, Panel Five. Brooke is quickly exiting the car, with Kevin helplessly watching.
1. Kevin Caption: Cough! So yeah, the first date ended with no goodnight kiss. Nada.
2. Kevin Caption: So, I called her up the next night and told her to stop by the house…and bam!
3. Brooke: Bye!
Page 5, Panel Three
Flashback panel. Big panel focusing on Kevin and Brooke as they share their first passionate kiss. There are a bunch of different comic book characters (Spidey, Superman, etc.) flying around them with Cupid bows and arrows. Think geek romantic.
1. Kevin Caption: First kiss!
2. Brooke Caption: Which I, yet again, initiated.
3. Kevin Caption (Quiet): You always take the credit for everything…
4. Brooke Caption: What?
5. Kevin Caption: Nothing!
6. Kevin Caption: And from there, I knew this was the girl for me!
Page 5, Panel Four
Flashback panel. It’s Christmas time, and Kevin and Brooke are sitting by their tree in the dining room. Kevin is down on bended knee, holding out an engagement ring. Brooke is sitting cross legged on the floor, her hands cupped over her mouth and nose.
1. Kevin Caption: So much so that I figured there was no point in trying to fight it. So I proposed.
2. Brooke Caption: It was so sweet! He led me on a treasure hunt throughout the whole house, and the final clue was all about him. When I looked at him…
3. Kevin Caption: …I did the whole bended knee thing. Yeah, I’m that good.
PAGE 6
Page 6, Panel One
Back in the living room. Brooke is lying on the couch with her feet in Kevin’s lap. He is playing with her toes.
1. Brooke: Don’t let it go to you head.
2. Kevin: But it was pretty cool. That’s all I’m saying.
3. Kevin: No conceit.
4. Brooke: Anyway, we decided it was probably for the best to move it together.
Page 6, Panel Two
Flashback panel. Brooke is moving in to Kevin’s house. Kevin is trying to lift Brooke’s dresser off of his foot as Brooke watches helplessly, trying not to laugh. Kevin has a look of extreme pain on his face in the form of a grimace.
1. Kevin Caption: It was purely for financial reasons.
2. Brooke Caption: Uhh…yeah. Financial.
3. Kevin: My piggy toe!!!
Page 6, Panel Three
Flashback panel. Brooke is holding one of their cats as Kevin is eye to eye with the other one. In the foreground, there is a pile of cat poop.
1. Kevin Caption: And from there, things just kinda fell into place.
2. Kevin Caption: We got some cats…
3. Brooke: Sorry babe, it’s your turn to clean it up.
4. Kevin: Grr…
Page 6, Panel Four
Flashback panel. Kevin and Brooke are sitting on the couch watching TV. Brooke is sitting with her knees up to her chin, with her hands covering her eyes. Kevin is intently starring at the television.
1. Kevin Caption: We watch a lot of movies.
2. Kevin Caption: We take turns. One day we watch a movie I want to watch, like Dawn of the Dead,
3. TV: You’ve got to shoot them in the head!
Page 6, Panel Five
Flashback panel. Kevin and Brooke are sitting on the couch watching TV. Kevin is sitting with his knees up to his chin, with his hands covering his eyes. Brooke is intently starring at the television.
1. Kevin Caption: …and the next day we watch a movie she wants to watch, like The Notebook.
2. Brooke Caption: Yea Notebook!
3. TV: It’s love, it’s as simple as that. It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.
Page 6, Panel Six
Flashback panel. Interior of Chili’s. Kevin and Brooke are sitting there with Kurt and Cori enjoying their wonderful, wonderful Chili’s meal.
1. Kevin Caption: We go to Chili’s a bunch…
2. Brooke Caption: Chili’s rocks!
PAGE 7
Page 7, Panel One
Flashback panel. Kevin and Brooke are leaning against the counters in their kitchen, arms crossed, not facing each other.
1. Kevin Caption: And yeah, we argue sometimes…
2. Brooke: I can’t believe you thought that was a funny thing to say…
3. Kevin: It was…it really was…was…not the right thing to say.
4. Kevin: Sorry.
5. Brooke: I’m sorry too.
6. Kevin Caption: …but we get over it really quick.
Page 7, Panel Two
Flashback panel. A bowling alley. Kevin is high-fiving Brooke as she walks down from throwing a gutter ball.
1. Brooke Caption: Yeah, we’re so lame we even go bowling!
2. Kevin: Good job baby! You got a 63 that game! You’re getting so much better!
3. Brooke Caption: We’re not that great though.
Page 7, Panel Three
Flashback panel. Kevin and Brooke are sitting on the floor of their living room kissing, with dinner and candles laid out before them. Their cats are curiously looking at them.
1. Kevin Caption: We even find a little time for romance…
2. Brooke: I love you.
3. Kevin: Love ya too!
Page 7, Panel Four
Back in their living room. Kevin and Brooke are both sitting up on the couch now, and Brooke has one of the cats in her lap.
1. Kevin: So there you have it. That’s pretty much our relationship.
2. Brooke: And in a tidy little 8 page comic book. Convenient, huh?
3. Kevin: Now’s the time when we open this up to a little Q and A session. So, who’s first?
4. Kevin: Anyone?
Page 7, Panel Five
Same panel as Page 7, Panel Four.
Page 7, Panel Six
Same panel.
1. Brooke: I don’t even think they read it this far.
PAGE 8
Page 8, Panel One
Kevin and Brooke get up from the couch. The cat jumps off of Brooke’s lap.
1. Kevin: Well, for those of you who stuck it out, thanks for listening!
2. Brooke: Yeah thanks! Have fun at our wedding, and thanks for coming!
3. Kevin: And for the gifts!
Page 8, Panel Two
Brooke glares at Kevin.
1. Kevin: Thanks!
Page 8, Panel Three
Large panel. Kevin and Brooke are both in their wedding attire facing each other, holding hands.
1. Caption: The beginning!
