[ID: A comic about video rentals. It opens outside a Blockbuster in 1998, late at night. A clerk stands at the counter, processing the movie "Crater". Its cover shows a guy at night with a light shining from his head.
Clerk: So, um… Crater, once again.
Ed: /Once again/, yes. This one's /easily/ my favorite movie right now.
Clerk (narrating): Hunter, Ed, member No. 9532, rents the same movie every week.
Ed: I'm not entirely sure /why/. I guess it's /the effect/ it has on me every time. The /ideas/ it sparks-- /things/ growing in the shadow of the brain. Feral thoughts. And I no longer know if that's actually the /intention/ of the film -- or just my own /interpretation/.
As he monologues, panels show disconnected images of Ed's eyes behind his glasses and his seated figure at his television, one reflected back at him as the credits start rolling. Back in the present, the clerk stares at him with the dark eyes of a realistic deer head.
Clerk: Fascinating. It's 2.99.
Narration: Every other week, however, Hunter can't find the movie. And that's because /another/ customer rents it, over and over again.
Leonard: There's nothing like this movie.
Narration: He's client number 3670, Rodriguez, Leonard.
Clerk: The reviews aren't great…
Leonard: Critics often overlook the most important kind of art. The kind that open doors to /unknown places/. Observation goes from being a /passive act/ to one of /exploration/. Movies that alienate most of the audience and critics, but eventually /find their audience/.
During his monologue, he climbs through a panel and investigates with a flashlight, then dives down past an anglerfish, finding an access tunnel. When he surfaces, his eyes are filled with revelation.
Leonard: An experience /worth repeating/, definitely.
Clerk: I see.
Narration: It had to happen eventually.
Ed (spotting Leonard): That's /my movie/. You're /the other/!
Narration: The meeting of these two aficionados could have been very different. The beginning of a friendship, maybe; or a romance even. That's what would happen in a film.
Ed: Give it back!
Leonard: No! Every frame of this film, /ignored by the world/, has been studied meticulously -- by me! No one else has shown the /exact sensitivity/ to understand its symbols! Its tragedy! Its humor! Not only am I the biggest fan of this work -- I'm the /only one/!
Narration: Are two strangers who share an obsession for a niche work /destined to get along/? Are they /connected/ in some way? Or is it just /the same kind of loneliness/?
The drawings regress into lineart as their struggle continues, and then come crashing into color, as Ed brings Leonard down right as the VHS case pops open, cracking the tape beneath their bodies.
Clerk: That was… the only copy.
Narration: After that, they didn't return. But I saw their names once again, years later, on the cover of a little-known movie.
Customer: Did you know the director and screenwriter used to come here? They mentioned it in an interview.
Clerk: Oh really?
Customer: Apparently, they met here.
The clerk looks at the cover of a movie called "Abyssal" -- directed by Lenny Rodriguez with a script by Ed Hunter. Its cover shows a crimson anglerfish, along with some other figures to shadowy to identify.
Clerk: Is it any good?
Customer: Ehh. /Weird/.
Narration: And that was all. Maybe one day it would be someone's favorite movie. Or not. It's the same to me. When I get home at night, I'm tired of titles, reviews, genres. I just sit in silence. And the darkness takes over.
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
blakekathryn
pixelskylines
snowghoul
