Blackwood

[NAPosey]

(This is the first two issues of 'Blackwood'. I have four more issues already written, but I desperately need an artist. Let me know what you think, and if you're an artist let me know if you're interested in collaborating.)

Just for a little visual effect I'm putting up one of the sketches my brother did. It's of the opening shot.



Blackwood – Issue 1
©Copyright 2006

Begins with Nehemiah standing in the rain looking down and bleeding from
his chest

[I’ve lost everything.]

[Life has become a burden. A painful memory that will soon end.]

[But first . . . ]

---

Shot of Nehemiah’s hand stroking a knife, his knuckles are black and a light
smoke is coming off of them

[ . . . I have some business to care for.]

---
Opens at a large-scale boxing match. Crowd is going wild as two young boxers in their prime go toe-to-toe matching blow for blow.

----

[The ring sounds and a girl dances across the canvas sporting the number 9]

---

At the announcer’s table:

Announcer: If there were any doubts that two would be able to bout with each other it has been quickly dispersed.

Commentator: It’s no secret these two are close friends. They came up rooming together while making their way through the amateur ranks.

Announcer: And it’s all been leading up to this point. These are two supreme professionals.

Bell rings and round 10 begins

---

Announcer: Here we go into round ten. It’s been a close one so far but Blackwood looks like he’s tiring. This might be as good an opening as any for Kirkland to make his move.

Commentator: And there it is!

Announcer: A hard jab and a right hook have got Blackwood stumbling! He’s on the ropes!

Commentator: Kirkland is ripping into Blackwood showing no mercy.

---

Kirkland throws a big left hook and seems to stand still in surprise when Blackwood bobs around the blow

*shw*

---

Commentator: Kirkland’s down, Kirkland’s down!

Announcer: That may be the hardest hit we’ve ever seen in professional boxing!

---

[Nehemiah Blackwood stands in horrified awe, his right arm weighing heavily straight down as if dead, while he watches paramedics rush in to aid his opponent and friend who lies lifelessly on the canvas floor]

---

Gruff old man: Hey. Hey! Get your *%@#%$#% head back over here or it’s going to get ripped off! Quit head-achin’ over your past or you’re gunna have the living #@$%^ knocked out of your future.

{This is real-time, this is real life, and this is now. This is where I am, what I am. A washed up boxer who’s got no right to whine, no right to live!}

Gruff old man: Damn it kid I told you to get outta that head of yours.

---

Blackwood stands up off the stool in the corner of the concrete ring. Looks down at the man who’s been edging him on and spits in the bucket next to him

Gruff old man: Damn it kid I don’t care what kindda angry you are at me, this is bare-knuckle boxing not damn patty-cakes!

---

Blackwood turns towards his opponent and tilts his neck to crack it and walks to meet his opponent in the center of the ring

Boxer: My wife and I loved your work on that Kirkland guy. She’s sitting right over there, gunna watch me demolish a monster. We didn’t know they let serial killers box. Gotta thank you though, I used some of your moves from that fight working over your sister last night!

*shw*

---

Black Square

---

Shot of the boxer’s blood.

---
Chaos ensues in the dingy old gym

Boxer’s Wife: Somebody call the police! MURDERER!

Gruff old man: Someone shut her up! Ya gotta get outta here kid.

Boxer’s Wife: You’ll pay for it, do you know who his father was?!

Gruff old man: Go kid, go!

---

Blackwood runs out the door and into the alley behind the gym and heads towards his family’s apartment

---

[Meanwhile in an upscale Manhattan home . . . ]

Mob boss: What’s his name?

Voice on the phone: He’s a boxer, name’s Nehemiah Blackwood.

Mob boss: I’ll send a couple of boys to bring him in. Saundra, if my boy’s gone I’m going to hold his encourager to some standards of responsibility. My boy never should have been boxing.

---

A block away from Nehemiah’s home in one of the back alley’s two men step in front of the hurrying man

Mobster 1: In a hurry boyo?

Mobster 2: Gotta be carefully running around some of these back alleys, never know what kinda people you might run into. Not always safe.

--

A police light flashes and all three men turn in surprise

Police Officer 1: Hold it boys!

Police Officer 2: This is car JIM – 149, we got a man matching the description of the suspect from the gym on Jacobs Road. Requesting back-up.
---

Nehemiah runs past the mobsters, pushing them towards the police officers

{Gotta get home before they get there!}

--

At the front door of Nehemiah’s home

{Please god . . . }

--

Runs into house and to his son’s bedroom. Opens his son’s door to see him
asleep in bed

Son: Daddy did you win? Did you beat the bad guy?

{Innocence of a child}

Nehemiah: I’m working on it Alex. Now go back to sleep . . . stay in your room.

--

{Where is my baseball bat? Why can’t I find it! Elizabeth’s father has a dagger set in the basement!}

--

Nehemiah finds a mounted set of daggers and an all metal mace

--

He looks out the basement window and sees two cars pull up

--

Nehemiah grabs the daggers and cuts the lights at the circuit breaker

--

Eight men step out of the two cars and walk toward the house

--

Nehemiah walks up the stairs and hides behind a wall in the kitchen when he
sees the door begin to open

--

Nehemiah sees a flash of light and hears a *thud*. He turns to see four more
men had been in another car he didn’t see before, two of which are the men he
ran into earlier. Now those men stand behind him with a flashlight and several
bats

Mobster 1: You don’t look joyous to see us lad.

--

On the other side of the hall eight men have entered the house

Mobster 3: Hey look at this picture! Is that his wife? I call first shot with her!

From the other side of the hall in the kitchen

Jimmy: We go by rank here, and I’m not having your sloppy seconds. Don’t worry though, she won’t be too raw by the time she gets to you.

Mobster 4: I like’em raw, scream more.

--

Jimmy: Has it coming to her, I don’t mind messing with a black, but you don’t marry a ni—

Nehemiah stabs Jimmy in the calf and then in his groin

--

Jimmy: Kill that @#$%@#%!!!

--

Mobster swings a flash light at Nehemiah

*shw*

A light black smoke comes off of Nehemiah’s now black knuckles that meet the
flashlight head on with devastating force

--

Mobster 5: Danny go turn the lights back on! He cut the fuse in the basement.

Danny: Gimme a light.

Mobster 5: Get your !@#$ down there we need the lights up here!

--

A brawl ensues in which another flashlight is broken

--

Nehemiah’s wife walks out of her room

Elizabeth: Nehemiah wha—

Elizabeth is struck in the head with the bat of a surprised mobster

--

The mobster who hit her looks at Nehemiah in shock

Mobster 5: One less to deal with.

Mobster 4: I still want my round.

--

Nehemiah charges at the mobster who killed his wife breaking the last flashlight
along the way

--

Black square

--

Black square with text

Danny (from basement): Yo, I think I got it!

--

Lights come on to see the mobster who killed Elizabeth dead, his face crushed in

--

Nehemiah is holding his dead wife’s body

--

Nehemiah’s son walks out of his room and turns to his father

Alex: Daddy I’m scared.

--

Mobster 1 walks up to the child and bends down in front of him

Mobster 1: Don’t worry son, it’s just a game. Look I got your nose.

--

Nehemiah jumps up to charge the mobster but is slapped over the back of the
head with a slap-jack

Mobster 4: I hate not being allowed to kill. No guns means more bruises.

Mobster 5: Grab the boxer, his sister, and his boy. Raze the house.

Mobster 3: What about gramps?

Mobster 5: Lock’em in, the boss said “the old man stays in the house”!

--

Jimmy: Somebody help me out over here.

Mobster 5: Sorry Jimbo, boss said no more screw-ups, and you got screw-up written all over you.

Jimmy: I’ll kill you Jack, I’m your gaw damn cousin! You can’t leave me here!

Jack: Bye-bye Jimbo. Don’t worry I won’t tell Auntie Carol how you pissed your pants before leaving this world without a package.

--

Mobsters load Alex and Nehemiah’s sister into one car and Nehemiah into another. Then torch the house before taking off.

--

Voice over the phone: We got him and his kid, even picked up a girl boss. We’re on our way back.

Mob Boss (don’t see him): Ah, good, someone must enforce justice around this broken city.

--

Mob Boss (still don’t see him): Now where were we? Ah yes, you were beginning to pay off your debts.

Mob Boss’ son’s widow walks into the room wearing a teddy

END



Blackwood – Issue 2
© Copyright 2006

Opening shot of Blackwood sitting, everything else is pitch black

[For three days the man named Nehemiah Blackwood has lived in this tiny dungeon.]

[In and out of consciousness, he manages his time between beating his knuckles raw on his confines and fantasizing over what he will do when he is face to face with the men that did this to his family.]

[A fantasy that seemed impossibly far away . . . ]

--

The door opens

[ . . . Until now.]

Mobster: Get up it’s time to go.

--

Nehemiah gets up and goes without a fight. He is brought before the Mob Boss
and sat down. The Mobster Jack stands at the right hand side of the Mob Boss

--

Mob Boss: Are you feeling well Mr. Blackwood? I hope you understand the necessity of your imprisonment. You’ll understand if I wasn’t in the right state of mind when you first arrived. I had received some disturbing news about my son. I’m sure you understand the bond between father and son.

--

Nehemiah looks over to Jack seeing that he’s wearing the knives used to stab
Jimmy.

Jack: They’re nice; I hope you don’t mind I didn’t think you’d be using them anymore.

--

Nehemiah: Where is my family? Where’s my son!

Mob Boss: Your son is fine, no doubt playing carefree while your sister watches him. I’m afraid the outcome wasn’t as pleasant for your father-in-law, nor your wife, but you knew that.

Nehemiah: I asked where is my son.

Mob Boss: Now-now Mr. Blackwood, what kind of fool would I be if I told you that? You see Mr. Blackwood you have become a desperate man, and in my experience desperation causes men to act without thought of consequence, and there is no room for that here.

Nehemiah: One last time, where is my family!

Mob Boss: You are not hearing me, Blackwood. Your boy is unharmed and your sister fine with little more than four “visits” from my men.

--

Nehemiah jumps up, punches the mobster right behind him and grabs his gun.
Three of the four other mobsters pull their weapons.

--

Nehemiah: Tell your men to put down their weapons or I swear I’ll end you!

Mob Boss: Go ahead boys, put’em down. We have no need for guns here.

Nehemiah: Now you’re going to tell me where my son is or so help me god I’ll kill you right here.

Mob Boss: I do not presume so.

--

Nehemiah: Fine, then we’ll do it your wa—

Nehemiah is electrocuted, drops the gun, and falls to his knees

--

Mob Boss: You see Mr. Blackwood I am not an idiot. I had a shock device implanted into your neck.

Nehemiah: It won’t prevent me from trying to kill you again.

Mob Boss: No, I don’t suppose it would. For one that was a level six shock. There are twenty levels, the last of which is very much lethal.

--

Nehemiah: That still won’t stop me.

Mob Boss: I would not under-estimate you so gravely. The electro-shock is only phase one. You see I could use a man of your talents. My laws can be bent, when that happens justice must be enforced!

Nehemiah: And how do you plan on getting me to work for a piece of #$@% like you?!

Mob Boss: Phase two of course. You see, I like all my work done in a timely fashion. I have had my doctors implant a small vile into you, your sister, and your son. At the push of a button a timer is set, if you are not back, my law enforced, inside of the allotted time said vile will release a poison into one of your family members blood stream. They will bleed, they will suffer, and they will die. I will save you for last Mr. Blackwood.

--

Nehemiah: And if I do this you will return my son?

Mob Boss: Mr. Blackwood, I provide you the mercy of knowing your boy lives. I already told you we live by a law here, “An eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth”. You took my son Mr. Blackwood—

--

Mob Boss: --It’s only fair you give me yours in return.

The mobster Nehemiah punched earlier kicks him in the face knocking Nehemiah
Out

--

Black Square with text

Mobster 1: Wakey-wakey Blackwood. We’re almost there.

--

Nehemiah is in the back seat of a sedan. With him are three mobsters, one in
back, one driving, and Jack in the passenger’s seat

Jack: You’re the enforcer here Blackwood. This man has disrespected the boss and must make sacrifices.

--

Jack: If I walk out of the room you have to finish it. Do you understand?

Nehemiah: When I get my knives back I’m going to kill you.

Mobsters laugh

Jack: Blackwood, the only way you’re getting these knives back is embedded in your body.

--

Mobster 1: We’re here boyos.

Jack: Let’s go boys it’s playtime.

--

The men get out of the car and walk into a small convenience store called “Chen’s
Groceries”. They walk straight past the attendant and into the back which is a
small apartment. A mid-30s aged woman is standing in the living room.

--

Jack: Hello Mrs. Chen, how are you? Is your husband home?

Mrs. Chen: Yes, he is in the back fixing—

Jack: Are you cooking something?

Mrs. Chen: Just a small diner for my family.

Jack: A bowl of rice ma’am.

Mrs. Chen: Yes, sir.

--

Jack: Oh Mr. Chen! The rent is due!

Mr. Chen comes out from the back, his arms and legs soaked.

Mr. Chen: I apologize to you and your men, Mr. Jack. I was in the back fixing the –

Jack: What is that god-awful smell?

Mr. Chen: I was fixing—

Jack: Where is my rice?

--

Mrs. Chen walks into the room, hands Jack a bowl of rice, and phases out of the
room

Jack: Ah, thank you, I love a bowl of warm rice. Mr. Chen do you have our money?

Mr. Chen: I paid your boss on the first of the month Mr. Jack.

Jack: That you did, Mr. Chen, but I’m afraid you didn’t factor in the interest.

Mr. Chen: Please Mr. Jack I paid all I could. I have a wife and—

Jack: See that’s where you’re losing us Mr. Chen. Justice is blind, Mr. Chen, you borrowed now you have to pay.

Mr. Chen: I have nothing left to give.

Jack: I was hoping you might say that.

--

Jack hands the bowl of rice to Mobster 1 along with one of Nehemiah’s knives.

Jack: Make sure he does his job.

--

Jack walks out of the building. Mobster 1 hands the knife to Nehemiah.

Mobster 1: Now Mr. Chen, I think it’s time you met my associate Mr. Blackwood. He’ll be finalizing our business with you today.

Mr. Chen: Please, I only borrowed enough to keep the shop to feed my family! I paid it back, give me time I’ll pay the interest!

Mobster 1: ‘Fraid I can’t. It’s time you served your sentence. Mr. Blackwood . . .

Nehemiah walks toward Mr. Chen. He knocks Chen around the house, shattering
glass and breaking furniture leaving the man bloodied. Nehemiah lifts his knife to
a kill position.

Nehemiah: I’m sorry.

--

Mr. Chen’s nine year old son runs out and hugs his father’s neck.

Child: Leave him alone!

Mr. Chen is too weak to either shew the boy away or even speak. Nehemiah puts
the knife down and stands up.

--

*Bang*

--

Mobster 4 shot Mr. Chen in the head. Both Nehemiah and the child look in horror

Mobster 1: Time to go, we got a schedule to keep.

Nehemiah slowly turns and walks out with Mobster 4

Mobster 1: Rice is stale.

Mobster 1 throws the bowl of rice on the child and his dead father

--

The three men join Jack in the car. Nehemiah looks over at Jack.

Jack: Knife please.

Nehemiah: You had an innocent man killed, a father and a husband.

Jack: Yeah, but we’ll have you back in time. Knife please.

--

Nehemiah reluctantly hands over the knife. And is surprised when he is injected
with a syringe.

Jack: Sorry, but we don’t want just anyone knowing where we are.

--

Black Square

--

Nehemiah wakes up in front of the Mob Boss

Mob Boss: Back with us Mr. Blackwood?

Nehemiah: Dizzy . . .

Mob Boss: Yes that would be the after effect of the drug.

Nehemiah: Sister . . . son?

Mob Boss: Yes, according to my watch you did make it on time. The room behind you holds your sister and you’ll see your boy.

--

The door opens and Nehemiah stumbles into the room. His sister rushes up to
catch him.

Samantha: Nehemiah, I thought I was going to die!

Nehemiah: It’s okay. I’m here now Samantha.

Samantha: Don’t leave me here! I don’t want to die!

Nehemiah: Don’t worry I have you now. Have you seen Alex?

Samantha: Everyday, he plays in a park with a woman. There look.

--

Nehemiah looks at one of the walls which is a one way mirror over looking a park

Nehemiah: I’ve found you two. I’m going to get you out of here!

Mob Boss (from outside the door): Mr. Blackwood I’m afraid I’ve been made aware you broke one of our rules today. One of my men had to finish your job.

Samantha: Nehemiah . . .

Nehemiah’s sister touches Nehemiah’s face leaving a handprint in blood. She
begins to convulse as blood drips from her pours. Nehemiah drops to his knees
holding his dead sister and watching his son play.

--

*shw*

Nehemiah knuckles turn black, he clenches his teeth and all the metal in the room
begins to tremble and crush

Mob Boss: Interesting.

Nehemiah: I’m going to—

Mob Boss: Once again, that would be the drug.

--

Nehemiah begins to go limp and starts to pass out

--

Outside in the park

Boxer’s widow: Come here Alexander, I don’t want you playing by that wall.

Alex: Yes mommy.


End

[Pod]

Once you make a full finished comic out of this, it'll be really big. Right now, no one really just wants to read scripts.