ET PT-2
LJ is a talented but broke photographer in Baltimore who is desperate for a big break. He signs up with a mysterious firm, "Supernatural Success," run by the enigmatic Drac, which offers him lucrative but bizarre and dangerous jobs. His first assignment involves filming a manor owned by a polite vegan zombie, which quickly escalates to his next job: an off-world corporate shoot for an alien CEO aboard a starship. LJ must navigate these surreal and perilous situations, using his wit and camera skills to survive and, hopefully, get rich.
LJ sprawls on his bed, already daydreaming about spending his ten-thousand-dollar windfall, when his phone erupts with a call from Drac on a frequency that looks like shifting alien glyphs. Drac dangles a jaw-dropping offer: twenty thousand dollars for a corporate launch shoot aboard an off-world starship, capturing product footage for the Galactic Trade Network. LJ balks at the insanity of it—he's a Baltimore photographer, not an astronaut—until Drac explains that a bio-adaptive necklace called the Hakhol will let him breathe in the vacuum of space for twenty-four hours, and that teleportation will handle the trip despite its grueling physical toll. After a moment of hesitation, LJ's desperation and ambition override his survival instincts, and he agrees to the job, mentally calculating how twenty grand will transform his career. As LJ reluctantly agrees, Drac announces, 'Hold out your hands, LJ. The Hakhol is arriving.'
CHARACTERS
Mysterious Man
antagonist
Reed
supporting
Drac
supporting
LJ
protagonist
Eric Thomas
supporting
Intercom
minor
PAGE 1
Panel 1:LJ materializes aboard the spaceship with a violent lurch, his body still convulsing from the sub-quantum jump. He staggers, clutching his stomach as he gets sick on the polished metallic floor of the ship's corridor.
“LJ: Oh naw I have to do this every time. The money is good but this teleportation is crazy man.”
Narrator:“LJ slowly gets onto his feet, steadying himself against the corridor wall.”
Panel 2:A sweeping wide-angle view of the sleek alien spaceship floating in the cosmic void. Stars twinkle in the infinite black, and in the distance, a blue marble glows—Earth, his home, now impossibly far away.
Narrator:“LJ is no longer on Baltimore's streets. He is twenty thousand dollars richer, but also twenty thousand dollars in debt to the universe now.”