The Squeeze
Nocturnal Commissions. Script / McNamara. Art / Hinkle. 2020
PAGE TWENTY FOUR (five panels)
PANEL ONE
NIGHTTIME on a foggy pier in Scotland. MATHIAS in WEREWOLF form stands beside an impeccably dressed BRADFORD. The two are beside a fancy sports car arguing about something, they’ve probably been there for hours. A shopping bag lays at their feet. There is a ladder leading down into the water on the dock.
MATHIAS: She gave you her number and of course you didn’t call her?
BRADFORD: Mathias, if any human stares into my eyes long enough they hypnotize themselves.
SE: thump, thump.
PANEL TWO
A hand reaches out of the water and grabs a rung on a ladder leading up to the dock.
BRADFORD(off panel): It’s humiliating for both of us.
PANEL THREE
ALTON has risen out of the water and climbed the ladder. A giant sea snake is wrapped around him. A yellow bellied sea snake perhaps?
BRADFORD: Here’s your teen idol, right on time.
MATHIAS: Alton, welcome to Scotland!
PANEL FOUR
ALTON wrestles with the snake, pulling it away from his neck.
MATHIAS: Did you have a nice, uh, what do you got there?
PANEL FIVE
ALTON violently snaps the neck of the snake. MATHIAS holds out the shopping bag in hand.
SE: SNAP!!
MATHIAS: We did a little shopping for you.
BRADFORD: You are not getting in my car in those clothes.
PAGE TWENTY-FIVE (five panels)
PANEL ONE
The snake now draped around Alton’s neck begins to speak for him as he reaches for the bag.
ALTON (through snake): Bad ass snake, right? It’s been trying to kill me for a week. Oh man, are those for me?
BRAD: You can change behind the...
PANEL TWO
From behind we see ALTON tear off his gross wet zombie clothes as MATHIAS and BRAD look away from his disgusting body.
BRAD: Or right here. In front of us. That’s fine too.
PANEL THREE
ALTON slips into his leather jacket and thanks his new friends through the snake.
ALTON(through snake): Perfect fit, thank you gentlemen.
BRADFORD: And we have an update on your case.
PANEL FOUR
BRADFORD and MATHIAS lead ALTON toward the trunk of the car.
BRADFORD: We tracked down the werewolf that infected the Iron Gate crewmember.
ALTON (through snake): That’s great, what did they know?
SE: thump, thump.
PANEL FIVE
INTERIOR TRUNK opens. ALTON, MATHIAS and BRADFORD look in.
MATHIAS: You can ask him yourself. We were waiting for you.
PAGE TWENTY SIX (five panels)
PANEL ONE
A suave Norwegian man, IAN, is tied up in the trunk in silver chains. He looks up at the trio with fear, especially the talking snake.
IAN: Can someone tell me what this is all about?
PANEL TWO
MATHIAS and the trio look down upon the man, BRADFORD ready to shut the trunk closed at a moments notice.
MATHIAS: You remember a nice boy in uniform you laid a love bite on a few weeks back?
IAN: I got nothing to say to you freaks.
PANEL THREE
ALTON’S snake slithers onto IAN.
ALTON (through snake): Of course not--
PANEL FOUR
INTERIOR TRUNK. The snake curls around IAN as the trunk closes.
ALTON (through snake): You're going to talk to the snake.
SNAKE: And I want you to start at the beginning.
PANEL FIVE
PITCH BLACK PANEL
ALTON (through snake): Don’t make me squeeze it out of you.