Pitch by Sully (a day in the life of a stray animal)
Script by Patrick Flaherty; May 5 2019
A submission for the Boston Comics Roundtable’s “Assembly Line Comics” project
PAGE ONE (five panels)
Panel one:
A stray cat sleeps, under the shelter of a cardboard box, in dim early morning light.
Panel two:
A bit brighter now. Two eyes slowly open. Mostly a black face, but with white around the nose and mouth.
Panel three:
Pulling back, we see the box is in a dingy, brick-lined alley. ‘Alley’, as it will be known, stretches its front half, part way out of the box.
Panel four:
Alley is fully out of the box now, stretching its back half. A name is now visible on the box: Amazin’ Yes, a parody of our corporate overlord, Amazon.
Panel five:
Alley lightly makes its way to the alley entrance. Out of the shadows. Into the light.
PAGE TWO (six panels)
Panel one:
Alley laps up water, from a bowl left out for stray cats. A brighter, airier feel here.
Panel two:
The sound of another cat freezes Alley, in mid-lap. Ears turn back. Eyes widen. The sound bubble indicates the noise comes from above. The other cat doesn’t sound happy.
SFX: Mmmrrrh!
Panel three:
Alley slowly backs away from the water dish. Looks up, to get a better view of what’s arrived on the scene.
Panel four:
From Alley’s POV, we see a grey cat, framed by a window. It lies horizontally, taking up the windowsill. Its head, to the left, is surrounded by a plastic cone, aka a ‘lampshade’, intended to keep it from pulling stitches out. It’s just had an operation. From here on, it will be called Cone.
Panel five:
Cone awkwardly turns its head, to look down to the path below. The building has a cozy feel, like a small business inviting customers in. Wooden shutters are visible to the left.
Panel six:
Cone’s eyes widen. It knows the cat down there.
PAGE THREE (six panels)
Panel one:
Alley knows this one, too. It tenses its rear end, getting ready to jump.
Panel two:
Alley launches itself into the air.
Panel three:
Alley lands lightly, on the outer windowsill. Cone’s eyes are still wide open.
Panel four:
Cone and Alley eye each other, tension unwinding in their posture.
Panel five:
The two cats sit upright on the windowsill. Eyes closed. Nothing but a pane of glass between them. One would almost think they were meditating.
Panel six:
Pulling back, we see a sign to the left of the window: SPCA. Stands for: Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Cone has been spaded, or neutered, to reduce the number of unwanted kittens hitting the streets. A public service. But what do these creatures know about that? Pain. Isolation. That’s all.
Notes:
I saw a video about stray cats. Turns out, the SPCA in Louisiana does the operations, then returns the animals to the streets. They’re too feral for life in the great indoors. The SPCA sees it as the best use of limited resources.
I would recommend that the artist read a science article, that appeared on the website of The Atlantic magazine. Entitled “Why we think cats are psychopaths”, it takes a look at feline body language, and facial expressions, and the misconceptions we humans have about them. It is by Sarah Zhang, and dated Feb 22 2019. www.theatlantic.com