Plot by 3C Robles-Jackson
Panel Breakdown by J. L. Bell
Character Designs by
Pencils by
Inks by
Dialogue by
Lettering by
Original concept: “Julian Jimenez is a boogeyman, a normal person that people hire because they want to be scared. He enters the house of a first time scare while reflecting on his job. This new client is an elderly white man. Just as Julian is getting set up to spook the man in his bed, he notices a scrap of paper poking out from below his pillow. Julian reads it, discovering it to be a suicide note, and that the client wanted to go out with a bit of excitement, being scared to death, and that he was worried that he might not be able to kill himself. Disgusted, Julian turns to leave. The client wakes up as he’s going and begs him to stay. Julian tells him it’s not his job to do somebody else’s dirty work that they are too scared to do. As he stands in the doorway, there’s a loud bang and a police officer shouting outside. Julian turns around and the client is dead, shocked into a heart attack. Julian puts his hands up, and the police officer searches him, finding his boogeyman contract and the man’s suicide note. The police officer threatens to tear up both and arrest Julian anyway, but lets him go. As Julian leaves, he reflects that without nightmares and fear, nobody would be afraid of police and politicians either.”
The characters are:
JULIAN JIMENEZ, our main character and narrator, is a boogeyman for hire. He dresses up and scares people for Halloween parties, escape rooms, the occasional kink—all harmless fun. He’d really like to be a full-time actor, but he’s pushing forty and no steadier gigs are coming his way. His narrative captions are part explanation of what’s going on, part reflection on this weird side hustle he’s made for himself.
- ARTHUR HIGSBY, retired accountant. Unpartnered with no close relatives. He took early retirement because the financials checked out, but now he’s discovered he has nothing to live for.
TOM MALONE, police officer, five years on the force. Big redhead, played football in high school, still keeps in shape.
SANDRA DECASIO, police officer, seven years on the force. Filipina, tall for a woman but still short next to Malone. Her girlfriend is expecting their first child.
PAGE ONE (five panels)
Panel 1. A door creaks open. The room is dark, but what’s on the other side of the door is even darker. Title and credits in this panel or the next in the top tier of this page.
Panel 2. Big panel. JULIAN JIMENEZ looms in the doorway in his full boogeyman costume, including a mask that covers and distorts the top half of his face. His mouth is uncovered, but he’s making a terrible grimace. The dark room is revealed to be an unimaginative living room in a duplex.
Panel 3. Shown from behind, JULIAN tiptoes through the dark room toward G. ARTHUR HIGSBY, asleep on his sofa.
Panel 4. From JULIAN’s point of view, his hand reaches out toward ARTHUR, but (as signaled by a narrative caption) his attention is caught by a piece of paper under ARTHUR’s pillow.
Panel 5. JULIAN has tipped the boogeyman mask back onto the top of his head and is reading the note, puzzled.
PAGE TWO (six panels)
Panel 1. JULIAN is now exasperated by the note.
Panel 2. JULIAN stomps toward the door. ARTHUR calls out for him to wait, either visibly or off-panel through a balloon.
Panel 3. Propping himself up on the sofa, ARTHUR explains himself.
Panel 4. Sitting on the sofa with his head bowed, ARTHUR sadly completes his explanation.
Panel 5. JULIAN sits beside ARTHUR and scolds him, dropping the note onto the floor.
Panel 6. The door to the room bursts open with a loud bang, revealing police officers TOM MALONE and SANDRA DECASIO shouting and pointing their guns.
PAGE THREE (six panels)
Panel 1. ARTHUR and JULIAN are shocked by the sight of the police officers as SANDRA (perhaps off panel) shouts that a neighbor’s reported someone breaking in.
Panel 2. ARTHUR keels over onto the floor right in front of JULIAN, TOM, and SANDRA.
Panel 3. TOM and JULIAN perform CPR on ARTHUR. SANDRA picks up the suicide note from the floor.
Panel 4. Having given up on resuscitating ARTHUR, TOM demands to know why JULIAN was in this house, but SANDRA holds up one finger while reading the note.
Panel 5. SANDRA examines the suicide note together with paperwork JULIAN has handed her—the contract that ARTHUR signed, including a waiver of liability. TOM looks on, annoyed but deferring to his partner.
Panel 6. In the background, TOM and SANDRA are letting JULIAN go, TOM none too pleased. In the foreground JULIAN nervously but quickly walks out. A final narrative caption sums up the tale.