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Issue 07 · Print view

WITHOUT RAIN

20 pages · 68 panels

Splash · 1 panel

Page 1/ 20

Layout — Splash — Day 1

[art pending]

The warehouse interior, mid-morning of Day 1. The whole band and the brothers spread across the space, doing different things at once. Lou putting a record on the turntable. Jesse cross-legged on the floor in front of a tube amp, watching the tubes warm up. Dev on a borrowed kit beside Moe, the two of them mid-conversation, sticks moving slowly through a count. Sunny against a workbench, sketching in a notebook. Nico in the corner, smoking, looking out a high window. The musical-staff motif in the margin: an empty staff with a single drawn key signature — the lesson is starting. Allred — Romantic register. This is the warehouse the reader needs to wish they could live in.

Page · 5 panels

Page 2/ 20

Layout — 5 panels

[art pending]

Lou drops the needle onto a Lightnin' Hopkins record. The opening shuffle starts.

  • LOUThis is Lightnin' Hopkins.
  • LOUHe was born in 1912 in Texas. He picked cotton. He learned guitar from his cousin Texas Alexander when he was eight.
  • LOUHe plays in keys nobody else plays in because he can't be bothered to retune.

[art pending]

Jesse, listening, fingers already finding the rhythm on his thigh.

  • JESSEHis timing is — off.
  • LOUHis timing is correct.
  • LOUHe's playing the bar the way he means it. Not the way the metronome wants him to.
  • LOUThat's the blues, kid.
  • LOUThe blues is what a man plays when he has the chord and the metronome can fuck off.

[art pending]

Across the room. Moe and Dev at the kit. Moe demonstrating a slow shuffle on the snare.

  • MOEListen. Not one — two — three — four.
  • MOEOne. … And-two. … And-three. … And-four.
  • MOEThe space between is where the music lives.
  • MOEYou drum on industrial parts. You have space. You don't know what space is.

[art pending]

Dev, trying it. Slowing his pattern. The space opens up.

  • DEV…Oh.
  • MOEYeah.
  • DEVOh.
  • MOEYeah, brother.

[art pending]

Sunny, watching Dev from across the room, smiling.

  • No copy.

Page · 4 panels

Page 3/ 20

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

Lou, putting on a second record — Robert Johnson now.

  • LOUThis is Robert Johnson.
  • LOUHe died in 1938. He recorded twenty-nine songs.
  • LOUThat is the entire body of work.
  • LOUTwenty-nine songs and he changed every guitar player who ever heard him.

[art pending]

Jesse, listening to the first notes. He stops breathing.

  • JESSE…
  • JESSE…Lou.
  • JESSEHe plays like the guitar is angry at him.
  • LOUHe plays like he made a deal, kid.

[art pending]

Jesse, looking at the green guitar leaning against the wall. The pickups faintly glowing.

  • JESSE(very quiet)I think I made a deal too.
  • LOUNo, Jesse.
  • LOUYou inherited one.

[art pending]

Sunny, with Dev now. They have walked across the warehouse to a corner with a window. They are sitting on a stack of milk crates, drinking coffee out of mugs, watching the light change.

  • DEVSo why did you join Lou's band.
  • SUNNYI didn't join. I just stopped leaving.
  • DEV…That's a better way to be in a band.
  • SUNNYI think so.

Page · 4 panels

Page 4/ 20

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

Sunny, looking at Dev.

  • SUNNYYou're easy to be next to.
  • DEV…
  • DEVNobody's said that to me before.
  • SUNNYThat's because nobody from your time talks, right?
  • DEVRight.
  • SUNNYYeah. I figured.

[art pending]

She holds out her mug. He clinks his against it. They sit. The light on the brick wall.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Across the warehouse, on a different time-axis: a quick montage panel divided into four — Jesse and Lou at the turntable, hours apart, three different records on, Lou demonstrating different chord voicings, Jesse trying them on the green guitar. Allred — montage frame.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Across the warehouse, mirror montage: Dev at the kit, Moe behind him, four different drum patterns being walked through. Sweat on Dev's forehead.

  • No copy.

Splash · 1 panel

Page 5/ 20

Layout — Splash — End of Day 1

[art pending]

End of Day 1. Sunset light through the high warehouse windows. The whole crew, exhausted, in a loose circle on the floor of the warehouse, sharing takeout cartons of Chinese food. Jesse cross-legged with the green guitar across his lap, picking a slow blues. Dev next to Sunny, leaning against the workbench, eating with one hand. Lou stretched out on his back. Moe rolling a cigarette. Nico looking out the window at the river. Allred — paint this one. Truly. The Romantic register at maximum. This is the panel that goes on the back cover of the trade.

Page · 5 panels

Page 6/ 20

Layout — 5 panels

[art pending]

DAY 3. Caption card at top of page. Daytime. The workshop. Dev at a workbench with the USB on a small magnifier. He is now in full engineer mode, deep in concentration. A tube amp's chassis open in front of him. He is rebuilding it from the inside out.

[art pending]

Sunny brings him a sandwich. Sets it next to the chassis. Doesn't speak. Walks away. He doesn't look up. He smiles.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Across the warehouse — Jesse and Lou onstage. The warehouse has a small raised stage at one end, where the band rehearses. Jesse and Lou trading a guitar lick — Lou plays it, Jesse plays it back, Lou plays a variation, Jesse plays the variation back with a twist. Call and response.

  • LOUYes!
  • JESSE(small smile)That's the variation in fourths.
  • LOUYes!
  • LOUDon't explain it, Jesse. Play it.

[art pending]

Lou, leaning in.

  • LOUThe problem with you, Jesse, is you understand music too well.
  • LOUYou play it like you're reading a textbook out loud.
  • LOUI want you to play it like you don't know what's going to happen next.
  • LOULike you're finding out at the same time as the rest of us.

[art pending]

Jesse, looking at his hand on the fretboard. Quiet.

  • JESSEI don't know how to do that, Lou.
  • LOU…
  • LOUI know.
  • LOUThat's why we have a week and a half.

Page · 4 panels

Page 7/ 20

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

DAY 5. The warehouse at night. Just Dev at the bench, soldering. The Amp-Sim Mark IV taking shape — wooden chassis Dev has built from a scavenged radio cabinet, hand-wound transformers, the USB port central. A small monitor on a stand beside him, scavenged from a TV. The whole thing is gorgeous in the way only an engineer can see.

[art pending]

Sunny, in a sweatshirt, walks in with two mugs of cocoa. Hands him one.

  • SUNNYIt's three in the morning.
  • DEVI know.
  • SUNNYYou've been at this for nine hours straight.
  • DEVI know.
  • SUNNYTake the mug.
  • DEV(taking it)Yes ma'am.

[art pending]

She sits on a stool beside him. Watches him work.

  • SUNNYYou don't talk a lot.
  • DEVNo.
  • SUNNYI like that about you.
  • DEV…
  • DEVWhy.

[art pending]

Sunny.

  • SUNNYBecause when you do talk, it means something.
  • SUNNYLou talks all day and means nothing.
  • SUNNYI love Lou. He's my brother. But the man does not land a sentence.
  • SUNNYYou land every sentence you say.
  • SUNNYI like a man who lands a sentence.

Page · 4 panels

Page 8/ 20

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

Dev, setting the soldering iron down. Looking at her. His face is open in a way the reader has not seen before. Allred — give us this. Dev cracking. Just a millimeter. Just for her.

  • DEVSunny.
  • SUNNYMm.
  • DEVI am going to leave in six days.
  • DEVI am going home to a year you will not live to see.

[art pending]

Sunny, looking at him. Calm. Direct.

  • SUNNYI know.
  • DEVI just want to be clear.
  • SUNNYI know, Dev.
  • SUNNYI know what you are.
  • SUNNYI am sitting here anyway.

[art pending]

Dev. Long beat.

  • DEV(very quiet)Why.

[art pending]

Sunny. Smiling.

  • SUNNYBecause I am twenty-two years old and a man from the future is sitting in my warehouse in the middle of the night soldering a time machine.
  • SUNNYAnd I am not going to bed and missing this.
  • SUNNYThat's why.

Page · 4 panels

Page 9/ 20

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

He looks at her. She looks at him. They do not kiss. Not yet. Allred — the panel where they don't. Hold it. Charge it. Make the reader want it.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Dev picks up the soldering iron again.

  • DEVStay.
  • SUNNYI'm staying.
  • DEVPass me the third resistor from the left.
  • SUNNY(passing it)Here.
  • DEVThank you.

[art pending]

They work together. The light over the bench. The Amp-Sim Mark IV slowly assembling between them. Sunny handing tools. Dev placing components. Their hands brushing accidentally. Not accidentally. Allred — montage frame. Multiple beats in one panel.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

The warehouse, in wide. Almost dawn. The two of them at the bench, small in the frame. The light on. The river outside the window.

  • No copy.

Page · 4 panels

Page 10/ 20

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

DAY 7. Morning. The warehouse alive again. Lou on a stool, acoustic in his lap, teaching Jesse a chord shape Jesse has clearly never seen before. Jesse copying, frustrated.

  • LOUDrop-D.
  • JESSEI know what drop-D is.
  • LOUThen play it without looking at your hand.
  • JESSEI can't.
  • LOUYou can.

[art pending]

Jesse, eyes closed. Hand finding the chord. Plays it. Misses a string. Tries again.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Lou, watching Jesse.

  • LOUJesse.
  • LOUYou play like you're trying not to be wrong.
  • JESSEI am trying not to be wrong.
  • LOUI know.
  • LOUStop.
  • LOUBe wrong.
  • LOUWrong is a note, Jesse. Wrong is a note you haven't met yet.

[art pending]

Jesse, looking at him. Allred — the panel where the idea actually lands. Jesse's face has been holding tension for seven issues. A little of it leaves.

  • No copy.

Page · 4 panels

Page 11/ 20

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

DAY 9. Late afternoon. Moe and Dev at the kit. Moe sitting on a flight case with a coffee. Dev behind the kit, alone, playing — a long, expressive, human drum solo. Allred — let his hands fly.

[art pending]

Moe, watching. Sipping coffee.

  • MOEStop.
  • DEV(stopping mid-fill)…Did I —
  • MOEYou're done.
  • DEV…Done?
  • MOEI have nothing left to teach you, Dev.
  • MOEYou play like a man who has been waiting his whole life to play.
  • MOEBecause you have.

[art pending]

Dev, sticks across his knees, breathing.

  • DEVMoe.
  • DEVI'm going to come back and visit.
  • MOE…
  • MOEI would like that.
  • MOEI will save you a seat.

[art pending]

Across the warehouse — Sunny watching Dev play. Her face. She knows what he just heard.

  • No copy.

Page · 4 panels

Page 12/ 20

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

DAY 10. Night. The warehouse stage. The whole band, plus Jesse on the green guitar, plus Dev on a real kit. Lou nods to Moe. They start a song.

  • JESSEWait — what song —
  • LOUImprov.
  • LOUListen and play.
  • LOUBe wrong, Jesse.

[art pending]

Lou hits the first chord. A slow, dirty blues progression. Moe lays down a backbone. Nico starts a wandering, sad vocal line in a language she may have made up. Sunny shakes a tambourine, eyes closed. Jesse stands there with the green guitar, paralyzed for a second.

[art pending]

Dev, from the kit, looks at his brother. Holds his eye. Counts off softly into the song.

  • DEV(small)Jesse.
  • DEVPlay.

[art pending]

Close on Jesse. His hand on the fretboard. He closes his eyes. He plays. He does not play the right thing. He plays a note he has not met yet.

  • No copy.

Splash · 1 panel

Page 13/ 20

Layout — Splash

[art pending]

Jesse, playing wrong on purpose for the first time in his life. The warehouse stage. The whole band locked into a slow, raw blues. Jesse, head back, hand on the green guitar's neck, hitting a note that should not work and does. His face — Allred — let it be open. Let it be terrified. Let it be alive. The musical-staff motif in the margin: the staff is smeared — notes bleeding into each other, deliberate, expressive, alive.

Page · 4 panels

Page 14/ 20

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

After the song. The warehouse. The band ringing the silence. Jesse standing in front of the green guitar, breathing. Lou setting down his guitar carefully — for him, that is a significant gesture.

  • LOUJesse.
  • JESSEYeah.
  • LOUI will see you in the dead-zone broadcasts.
  • LOUMake sure they play that one.

[art pending]

Dev, behind the kit. Sticks across his knees. His face is calm in a way that says I have been waiting ten years to hear my brother do that.

  • DEV(quiet)Hey.
  • JESSEYeah.
  • DEVHey.

[art pending]

Jesse, looking at his brother across the stage. The smile they share is the smile of two men who have just realized they might actually win.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Long shot of the stage. The band exhausted. Sunny crossing to Dev. She kisses him. Quickly. Once. Then she walks away. Dev, frozen behind the kit, sticks still in his hands.

  • No copy.

Page · 4 panels

Page 15/ 20

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

DAY 11. Dawn. The warehouse. The Amp-Sim Mark IV is finished on Dev's bench. It is beautiful — wooden chassis, brass knobs, a small monitor with a hand-painted bezel, the USB port central, a single green LED. Allred — Dev's craftsmanship made visible. Make the box look like an object Brian Eno would steal.

  • DEV(off-panel)It's done.

[art pending]

The crew gathered around the bench. Lou, Moe, Nico, Sunny, Jesse. Dev presenting the box.

  • DEVAmp-Sim Mark Four.
  • DEVIt reads the USB. It modulates the signal. It plugs into any tube amp on this side of 1980.
  • DEVThe destination chord is set. The shuffle is set.
  • DEVWe are going to land in 2026.

[art pending]

Jesse, surprised.

  • JESSE…2026? Not 2220?
  • DEV2220 needs a chord I cannot voice with this rig.
  • DEVThe USB encodes 2220 but the destination's harmonic structure is too complex for the components I had in this warehouse.
  • DEV2026 is adjacent. We jump there. We use 2026 equipment to refine the rig. Then we jump 2026 to 2220.
  • DEVTwo hops.

[art pending]

Jesse, processing.

  • JESSETwo hops.
  • JESSE2026 is when the green guitar was built.
  • JESSEIt's the year of origin.
  • DEVThat is not a coincidence.
  • DEVThe USB knows where the guitar wants to go home to.
  • DEVIt is calibrated toward the year of its own birth.

Page · 4 panels

Page 16/ 20

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

Lou, leaning on the bench. Looking at the box.

  • LOUWhen do you go.
  • DEVTonight.
  • LOUWhere.
  • DEVHere.
  • DEVRight here. On the stage. With one of your tube amps.
  • DEVIt needs the volume.

[art pending]

Sunny. Quiet.

  • SUNNYTonight.
  • DEVTonight.
  • SUNNY…
  • SUNNYOkay.

[art pending]

Lou, decisively.

  • LOUThen we play a show.
  • LOUYou boys play one last set on our stage before you go.
  • LOUOne song. Yours.
  • LOUThen you jump from the last chord.
  • JESSELou —
  • LOUThat's the deal, Jesse. You play one song. Then you go.

[art pending]

Jesse, after a beat.

  • JESSEOkay.
  • JESSEWe'll play "Without Rain."
  • JESSEIt's the only song we've written this trip.
  • JESSEIt's about you.
  • LOU…
  • LOUOf course it's about us.

Page · 5 panels

Page 17/ 20

Layout — 5 panels

[art pending]

Late afternoon. Dev and Sunny in a corner of the warehouse, sitting on the milk crates from Day 1.

  • DEVSunny.
  • SUNNYDon't.
  • DEVI have to say one thing.
  • SUNNYThen say one thing.

[art pending]

Dev.

  • DEVEleven days from now in my own time is eleven days from now in yours.
  • DEVI want you to know that. There is a part of me that will, every year for the rest of my life, count to eleven and think about this.
  • DEVEven if I never get to see you again. Even if the math says I shouldn't.
  • DEVI am going to count to eleven.

[art pending]

Sunny. She doesn't speak. She reaches into her jacket. She pulls out the daisy — actually the daisy, the one embroidered on her jacket, sewn loose with thread so she could take it off. She holds it out.

  • SUNNYTake this.
  • DEV(taking it)Sunny —
  • SUNNYIt's a flower.
  • SUNNYI sewed it on. I can sew another one.
  • SUNNYTake it.

[art pending]

He takes it. He looks at it. He folds it carefully and puts it in the inside pocket of his jacket — same pocket where the crayon drawing from Issue 2 is.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

She stands. She kisses him — properly this time, slowly, not for show. She pulls back.

  • SUNNYGo play your song.
  • SUNNYBe a star.
  • SUNNYThat's an order.

Splash · 1 panel

Page 18/ 20

Layout — Splash

[art pending]

Scouter, last show in 1966. Wider than the Issue 6 stage panel. Bigger. Jesse front and center, green guitar in mid-strum, head back, mouth open singing. Dev behind a real kit, in motion. Lou off to the side, leaning on a pillar, watching with the expression of a man hearing his own apprentices say goodbye. Moe beside Lou. Nico in the wings, smoking, watching Sunny. Sunny on the side of the stage, tambourine raised, mid-shake, eyes closed. The warehouse is empty except for the band and a small crew Lou let in — a handful of friends, maybe twenty people. But the room is full anyway. The musical-staff motif in the margin: a full notated melody — Without Rain. Final lyrics will be conformed to art once Darrell Thorp's mix is locked. Allred — Romantic register pushed past Romantic. This is the goodbye.

  • SFXRRRRRRAAAAANNNGGGGGG(woven into the art, lettered like a chord ringing)

Page · 4 panels

Page 19/ 20

Layout — 4 panels

[art pending]

The chord lands. The portal opens. Wider this time — the back wall of the warehouse stage bows outward with the displacement, a circle of green light blooming around the band. The Amp-Sim Mark IV on its stand at the back of the stage, USB plugged in, LED green. Lou, Moe, Nico, Sunny — frozen in tableau, watching.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

Jesse, mid-chord, turning his head to look at Lou. They lock eyes. Lou raises one hand — a tiny salute.

  • LOU(mouthed, no balloon)Go.

[art pending]

Dev, mid-tap, locks eyes with Sunny. She kisses her fingertips and presses them flat against the air. He does the same.

  • No copy.

[art pending]

The portal takes them. The wave of green collapses inward. The brothers are gone. The stage is empty. The band stands in a stunned silence, blinking.

  • No copy.

Splash · 1 panel

Page 20/ 20

Layout — Splash — final page

[art pending]

The warehouse. The band on the stage. The empty space where the brothers were. The Amp-Sim Mark IV scorched and smoking on its stand. The afternoon light through the high windows beginning to turn evening. Lou, very small in the frame, sitting down on the edge of the stage and lighting a cigarette. Sunny, walking off the stage and out of the panel toward the milk crates. Nico, climbing onto an amp and looking out the window. Moe, just standing at his kit, sticks in his hands, looking at the empty drum throne where Dev was. In the deep background — through the high warehouse window, four blocks away, walking calmly down a Brooklyn street, fedora silhouetted against a streetlight — the DeciBot. Eleven days late. Following a signal that has just gone cold.

Issue 7 — All pages · Time Traveler — Scouter