DICK RUBY AND THE CASE OF
THE LITTLE GREEN MEN PAGE 14
This being
our first story, I scripted this page to be a single panel splash page with
titles, etc. But when Matt started to draw it he called me and said, "A
single panel page seems like a cheat for a weekly comic. A reader waits all
week and only gets one panel, I think we should do more than that." I
hadn't thought of it that way so, after he told me what he had in mind, it was
fine by me. The dialogue played out the same. The only difference from the
script was that Matt decided to hammer home the fact that the cop was an alien
with the in-between-eye transformation. Since I had just played that beat with
Betty in my initial script, I described it as "his mouth has morphed to display the sharp teeth." While we had also played that beat earlier, I thought it would be more scary. Again apples and oranges. His way worked just as well.
From the beginning I knew I
wanted a dark ironic ending. We had no intention of doing another Dick Ruby
tale, so it could be assumed that, the aliens killed our dear Mr. Ruby and
everything he went through was for nothing.
But...
Somewhere
during the process I really started to like the guy. Add to that, characters become real to me. I
have to know them completely. While the ending was exactly as planned, (minor
details like the mouth/eye aside) I will admit I did cut a line of description
to leave a possible dangling plot point for a future story. I had already
figured out what happened next. I also figured out who he would marry, when he
would retire and his child's name. Not just what came after this case but what
came before. I know what got him to start his detective agency. His whole life
came to me in a blinding flash. Since writing the story, I have come up with at
least 22 other story ideas as well as a spin-off. Dick Ruby is alive and well
in my head. Fates willing, maybe we can tell more tales of Mr. Ruby. Until then you'll just have to assume he died
a painful death in the police station on January
4th 1948 . Or maybe he didn't, and he will live on in your
imagination.
Either way if you want more of Dick Ruby cases let us know!
You can follow us individually on twitter @BrettTHarris and @mattcdrawsalot. Adventures in Pulp also has a twitter account @AdventureinPulp (no s). Our next new story "Four Horsemen" will start on March 20, but until then Matt will be posting some designs for characters many will only appear in pages exclusive to the print editions of "Dick Ruby/Hawk and A Handsaw." Both of us will continue posting commentaries over the next few weeks.
Tomorrow: Commentary for "Hawk and A Handsaw" Page 1
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