The beginning of Soaked Shells and a journey into the Amazon’s heart of darkness.
Artwork by Jeff McComsey!
Soaked Shells first appeared in Arcana Studio’s Velvet Rope Anthology.
↓ Transcript
Page 1
Panel 1
The story opens in a South American jungle. The panel contains a close up of 4 very different looking men. The first is John Ford. Ford is wearing a safari hat with a folded brim on the right side. Beneath the hat his long hair is pulled into a loose pony tail. He has a thick, long mustache. Picture Sean Connery at age fifty. Ford is holding a large double barrel Remington shotgun. Beside Ford is Dr. Ryland, wearing a similar safari outfit, except his hat has a wide circular brim and he wears bifocals. Dr. Ryland looks like Dustin Hoffman. Beside him is their guide Pablo, an indigenous Indian of the Amazon River. He wears a thin cotton button up shirt. Following in the rear is a Matis Indian. He has dark skin, wears a loin cloth, has a thin bone through his nose, wears lots of bead necklaces with feathers hanging off them and his face has dark lines painted on it.
Caption: Ryland. You were right in the end. Some things man was not meant to hunt.
Ford: My God. The stink. Is this the place?
Matis: [translated from Matis] This where my father met the man of many scales.
Pablo: The Matis says this is the lagoon.
Panel 2
View shifts so that we are looking down at the dark lagoon, surrounded by dense jungle vegetation. The surface of the water is still, except for a large snake swimming across the surface. Branches and vines hang low to the water. The view comes from over the shoulders of the men.
Caption: I’d killed everything that walked the Earth but I wasn’t satisfied. I needed one last trophy for my walls. One had by no other.
Caption 2: I was memorized with thoughts of the hunt that day in your office…
Panel 3
The scene shifts to the cluttered office of Dr. Ryland, Professor of Anthropology. Without his hat you can see that Dr. Ryland is bald except for a ring of hair just above the ears. Standing by the shelf is Ford, dressed in a suit and wearing a fedora. Ford is pointing at a skull of an amphibian man living in the lagoon. The amphibious man looks similar to the creature from the black lagoon.
Caption: when I saw the skull for the first time.
Ford: Where did you dig up this fossil?
Dr. Ryland: That’s no fossil John. In fact my analysis shows it to be of recent age.
Ford: You’ve spent too much time cloistered among these dusty books if you think I’m going to believe that rubbish.
Dr. Ryland: Think what you will.
Panel 4
Ford is holding the skull in his hands. Dr. Ryland is standing behind him, looking over his shoulder.
Dr. Ryland: I found it in the possession of the Matis tribe living near the Amazon river. My interest was peaked the moment I saw it but the Matis would not speak of it. It was taboo.
Dr. Ryland: Why? Don’t tell me you’re going to hunt for the bloody thing? If that’s the case…
Panel 1
The story opens in a South American jungle. The panel contains a close up of 4 very different looking men. The first is John Ford. Ford is wearing a safari hat with a folded brim on the right side. Beneath the hat his long hair is pulled into a loose pony tail. He has a thick, long mustache. Picture Sean Connery at age fifty. Ford is holding a large double barrel Remington shotgun. Beside Ford is Dr. Ryland, wearing a similar safari outfit, except his hat has a wide circular brim and he wears bifocals. Dr. Ryland looks like Dustin Hoffman. Beside him is their guide Pablo, an indigenous Indian of the Amazon River. He wears a thin cotton button up shirt. Following in the rear is a Matis Indian. He has dark skin, wears a loin cloth, has a thin bone through his nose, wears lots of bead necklaces with feathers hanging off them and his face has dark lines painted on it.
Caption: Ryland. You were right in the end. Some things man was not meant to hunt.
Ford: My God. The stink. Is this the place?
Matis: [translated from Matis] This where my father met the man of many scales.
Pablo: The Matis says this is the lagoon.
Panel 2
View shifts so that we are looking down at the dark lagoon, surrounded by dense jungle vegetation. The surface of the water is still, except for a large snake swimming across the surface. Branches and vines hang low to the water. The view comes from over the shoulders of the men.
Caption: I’d killed everything that walked the Earth but I wasn’t satisfied. I needed one last trophy for my walls. One had by no other.
Caption 2: I was memorized with thoughts of the hunt that day in your office…
Panel 3
The scene shifts to the cluttered office of Dr. Ryland, Professor of Anthropology. Without his hat you can see that Dr. Ryland is bald except for a ring of hair just above the ears. Standing by the shelf is Ford, dressed in a suit and wearing a fedora. Ford is pointing at a skull of an amphibian man living in the lagoon. The amphibious man looks similar to the creature from the black lagoon.
Caption: when I saw the skull for the first time.
Ford: Where did you dig up this fossil?
Dr. Ryland: That’s no fossil John. In fact my analysis shows it to be of recent age.
Ford: You’ve spent too much time cloistered among these dusty books if you think I’m going to believe that rubbish.
Dr. Ryland: Think what you will.
Panel 4
Ford is holding the skull in his hands. Dr. Ryland is standing behind him, looking over his shoulder.
Dr. Ryland: I found it in the possession of the Matis tribe living near the Amazon river. My interest was peaked the moment I saw it but the Matis would not speak of it. It was taboo.
Dr. Ryland: Why? Don’t tell me you’re going to hunt for the bloody thing? If that’s the case…
[...] positive. One of those successful ventures was with the prolific Jeff McComsey, illustrator of Soaked Shells. Recently Jeff posted on twitter for writers interested in putting together some short scripts for [...]