Satin Brass, Bounty Hunter™ comic script
Satin Brass is a high-tech bounty hunter. She's beautiful yes, but also hard, like the golden, metallic alloy for which she is named. Here is Walt Jaschek's script for issue #1 of her upcoming comic.
This post contains character introductions and the first few pages of the SCRIPT by Walt Jaschek for the first issue of a proposed, new comic book series, SATIN BRASS: BOUNTY HUNTER.™
The entire script can be downloaded as a PDF at the bottom of this post! It’s free to subscribers.
Walt says: I’m putting the script under covers and publishing it for readers curious about this project; artists who might want to collaborate on it; publishers who might want to help move it forward; and more broadly, readers curious about comic book writing and (at least my) comic book scriptwriting style.
Book one’s title is “In It to Quit It.” It’s a 25-page, action-packed opener to the series. In it, bounty hunter Satin Brass confronts an ex-boss trying to extort her. Against all odds (and against his menacing, robotic Goons,) she wants to leave her job with her severance pay. And her life.
The following pages contain descriptions of this issue’s three main characters, followed by the script itself.
I have enough “brass” to say: I hope you enjoy. – Walt Jaschek
Meet Satin Brass. A beautiful kind of tough.
Satin Brass is a high-tech bounty hunter in a glistening city of the near future.
Satin Brass is beautiful yes, but also hard like the golden, metallic alloy for which she is named. She’s half-Italian (Dad) and half-Latina (Mom,) and her light brown skin sheens. But never sweats.
Clad in thin, chain-mail fabric-armor, with circuit—laced gloves controlling her tech, Satin Brass is brash. An athletic 26-year-old with ninja training, Satin’s strength and agility is enhanced with injections of Martian vitamins given to her by her Mars-born lover, D’Arx D’Rax (more on him to follow.)
Satin is known as the most persistent finder in the field. She doesn’t like the term “bounty hunter,” though. She prefers to call herself an “overdue accounts collector.” Makes a whooooole lot of commission$ for it. Her most recent employer: Bigg Bounty, a skyscraper-dwelling corporation whose sole service is bounty hunting on a global scale.
Satin is one of Bigg Bounty’s star hunters. But as we shall see in this first story, she’s trying to quit Bigg to go freelance. She has already resigned, but now she must collect the hundred grand in severance pay Bigg’s contract promised her. She’ll get it. Or die trying.
Standing in Satin’s way:
Benjamin J. Bigg. Chief Executive Oaf.
If you’re going to run the biggest bounty-hunting corporation in the world, it helps to be completely ruthless.
Benjamin J. Bigg is all that and less, with a moral compass pointing permanently South. Short, round, blonde, and commanding a small army of cybernetic assistants called Goons, Bigg is CEO of Bigg Bounty, Incorporated. It was his father who saw that in this lawless America, bounty hunting could be franchised.
But it was Ben who took it global. It was Ben who learned how to use Zombies as free interns. And it was Bigg who hired the brilliant Satin Brass, lo, those three years ago. Now his star employee wants out. Out? Not going to happen, Bigg says. He has a new contract for our Satin. And won’t let her out the door until she signs it. Literally. With the help of his robotic Goons, he won’t let her out of the door.
But helping Satin out from street level:
Satin’s boyfriend: D’arx Drax
A beautiful man-thing. Half-human, half Martian, D’arx D’rax (pronounced “darks dracks”) is way into Satin. The tall, beautiful D’Arx was born to love her. Though he wasn’t actually “born” at all. In a secret lab under Mars’ surface, a group of scientists had been growing physically perfect humans from cell tissue. These experimental people became the first – and only – generation of native Martians. The experiment was exposed, discontinued and blown up shortly after D’Arx achieved sentience. He migrated to Earth orbit shortly after law school, mostly to be with his native Earthling girlfriend…
…Satin Brass.
The Script
PAGE 1
Panel 1
A dreamy world that seems to be under the sea. Lit from above, strange saltwater creatures pass each other in hazy green water and emit bubbles that undulate as they rise to the surface.
Captions on this page (and throughout the book) are in voice of Satin, narrating.
Caption: Officious little prick.
Panel 2
We still seem to be under the sea, but sudden weirdness: Beyond the sea creatures, we see the head and torso of… a man. It’s indistinct, but it’s our bad guy, Benjamin J. Bigg. Overweight in his expensive suit, Bigg sports an oversize blonde toupe’
Caption: That’s what I’d call him, my sleazy, former boss.
Panel 3
Reverse angle to reveal where we actually are. Bigg is looking at a giant aquarium the size of a picture window, built into the back wall of his office. We see him from behind as he watches the sea creatures, hands held behind his back.
Caption: But “officious little prick” is of course the opening lines to The Shining by Steven King.
Panel 4
Now in a wider shot, Bigg turns from the aquarium and paces back to his desk, which is in the center of the room. We get a better sense of this combination office and lair. There seem to be multiple doors. Kirbyesque monitors and sensors hang from the ceiling. The room is dark and monotone: the light sources are the monitors and aquarium on the rear wall.
Caption: That’s a different book.
Caption: And copyrighted out the wazoo.
Bigg’s watch is beeping.
Sound effect: BEEP BEEP
Panel 5
Reverse angle from behind Bigg. He head is down, looking at his watch. Hologram numerals hovering above it read “3:03.”
Caption: So let’s call Benjamin J. Bigg exactly what he is:
Explosive word balloon, from off: KNOCK KNOCK!
Panel 6
In a medium close-up, Bigg whirls in the direction of the off-camera “knock” – and us. His frown is cold.
CAPTION (finishing the thought:) An asshole.
PAGE 2
FULL-PAGE SPLASH
In a reverse angle, we see past Bigg’s head as we see who he sees: It’s Satin Brass herself, leaning against the frame of his office front door. She is striking, back-lit, in full Satin gear. She is pulling a stick of gum from a pack. (The gum will be important later.) She is rolling her eyes at the thought of being “three minutes late.”
BIGG: SATIN BRASS! [The Satin Brass logo inside a big exclamation balloon.]
BIGG 2: You are three minutes late!
Caption: See what I mean?
Along the bottom fifth of the page, story title and credits.
Story title:
“IN IT TO QUIT IT!
[Continued in full script, available below as a free PDF to subscribers.]
Directly below is a PDF file containing the entire script to issue #1 of SATIN BRASS: BOUNTY HUNTER. It is free to subscribers! Read it an let me know what you think. Even better, let me know you’d like to draw it and/or publish it! - Walt
