WAR DOG
Script by Matthew Craig
mattscrew@hotmail.com

PAGE ONE

Panel One

We open with a FATHER and SON, stood waiting by an idling bus on a breezy autumn day. The son scuffs his heels impatiently, while the father watches the passengers disembark.

1. SON:	…I don't see why we have to come with him. You'd have thought that he'd gotten over it by now.

Panel Two

The father tuts disapprovingly.

2. FATHER:	Try and have a bit of consideration, son. Some things you don't get over.

Panel Three

The son waves dismissively across at something off-panel, across the street. Meanwhile, a figure steps down off the bus behind him.

3. SON:			But it's just a stupid bit of stone! Who cares?
4. FIGURE (off-panel):	I care, son.

Panel Four

The boy turns to see his GRANDAD behind him, a sad look on his face. The old man, just cresting his eighties, clearly looks like both son and grandson, but with rheumy eyes behind old man’s glasses. His overcoat hides a jacket decorated with medals.

5. SON:	Grandad!

Panel Five

The boy’s father makes to apologise to his grandad, but the old man waves him off.

6. FATHER:		Listen, Dad, he doesn't mean - -
7. GRANDAD:	Oh, I know what he means. War's just a thing he sees on the telly, or in his PlayStation game.

Panel Six

The old man makes for the pedestrian crossing, pointing at the same off-panel things that the boy was so keen to dismiss

8. GRANDAD:	But I'll tell you something. Both of you: if it weren't for these lads, you wouldn't be stood here today, complaining.

PAGE TWO

Panel One

Splash image, revealing the Animals In War memorial.

The son, father and grandad probably ought to be in the front of shot, to frame the scene.

1. GRANDAD:	And neither would I.

TITLE:		WAR DOG
Script by Matthew Craig
Art by Simon Mackie

Panel Two

Grandad presses the WAIT button at the crossing. The boy looks up at him (although, there’s probably not much of a size difference).

2. SON:	But they're ANIMALS! How could THEY do any fighting?
3. GRANDAD:	There's more to war than fighting, son.

Panel Three

Close up on Grandad's face.

4. GRANDAD:	A lot more...

PAGE THREE

Panel One

Flashback: the years fall away, and Grandad finds himself back in the war that made him. Same pose as previous close-up, but decades younger. Private GODDARD, aged nineteen.

1. SARGE (off-panel):	Stop DAYDREAMING, Goddard!

Panel Two

Pull back to reveal that he's wearing a Medical Corps uniform. He snaps out of whatever reverie he was in as the SARGE looms over him, Windsor Davies-style.

2. GODDARD:	Sorry, Sergeant! Mind must've wandered for a minute.

Panel Three

Sarge grabs him, and shoves him into the street.

3. SARGE:	Never mind that, you plum! Get out there, and see to that man before Jerry finishes him off!

Panel Four

Goddard dashes out into the street, which is under bombardment by German forces. Fires rage in the shells of burned-out buildings. A mortar lands some way behind him.

	NO COPY

Panel Five

He kneels next to a fallen soldier, bleeding out in an alcove or recess into the wall of a three-storey building, but it's too late. From above: Goddard takes the man's pulse at his neck, while the dead man's eyes stare into forever.

	4. GODDARD:	Come on, come on…Damn it!

Panel Six

Goddard closes the dead man's eyes for him.

5. GODDARD:				I'm sorry, old son. I wish I'd - -
6. SFX (across Panels Six and Seven):	 iiiiiiieeeeEEEEEEE

Panel Seven

Shock panel: suddenly, Goddard hears a loud whistling sound. He wheels around, trying to find the source.

.7. GODDARD:	Wait a minute... what's that - -

PAGE FOUR

Panel One

A mortar lands on the top of the building above him. Goddard flinches (!).

	NO COPY

Panel Two

From above: A shadow falling across him, Goddard looks up to see...

1. GODDARD:	Oh, Christ!

Panel Three

Reverse angle: ...the outer wall of the building peeling off the rest of the structure, and looming down over him like the wings of the Angel of Death.

	NO COPY

Panel Four

As the bricks and mortar fall around him, Goddard ducks into the alcove, pulling the dead man with him.

	NO COPY

Panel Five

From inside the alcove: the bricks cover the alcove completely, a man-made avalanche, filling up the panel with blackness.

2. GODDARD:	Oh no, oh Christ Jesus no...

Panel Six

Blackness swallows our plucky medic.

3. GODDARD:	Not like this...

PAGE FIVE

Panel One

Returning to the present day: the grandson looks up at his grandad.

1. SON:		I don't get it. What about the dogs?
2. GRANDAD:	Here, who's telling this story, anyway?

Panel Two

Grandad takes his hat off and starts wiping his brow (camera right to...)

3. GRANDAD:	I was only under there a few hours, but it felt like a hundred years…

Panel Three

Back to the flashback. Same transition as before: young Private Goddard completes the wiping motion (...camera left), in the dark, cramped alcove.

4. GODDARD:	Phew! Hot in here, innit?

Panel Four

Pull back to see that there's just enough room for Goddard and the dead man to sit together.

5. GODDARD:	Still, it's not helping matters, you smelling the way you do.

Panel Five

Goddard gently pats the dead man's cheek.

6. GODDARD:	Sorry, old fruit. Didn't mean it. I just...wish I knew how long we were going to have to sit here.

PAGE SIX

Panel One

Time passes. Goddard has opened his shirt, and is tucking into a strip of beef jerky.

1. GODDARD:	I tell you what, those Yanks eat some weird things. I think this might be made out of belts.

Panel Two

Goddard tucks the jerky into his top pocket.

2. GODDARD:	Where’d I get it? Well, I swapped it for a set of saucy postcards, last time I was home.

Panel Three

Close up. Goddard smiles a strange, half jealous smile.

3. GODDARD:	Those GIs: the girls loved those accents. I'll get back to Blighty, and all the kids'll be called bloody Hiram.

Panel Four

Goddard wipes his brow, again.

4. GODDARD:	Is it me, or is it getting harder to breathe in here?

Panel Five

Goddard starts tapping, gingerly, on the rubble above him.

5. SFX:		tap-tap-tap
6. GODDARD:	It's your fault, you chatterbox, you. I - -

Panel Six

The rubble moves. A loose stone falls past Goddard’s face, and he reacts, startled.

7. GODDARD (sotto voce):	Uh-oh.

Panel Seven

A large piece of rubble is pulled away, and a shaft of light sears through the hole. Goddard holds his hand up, shading his eyes.

8. GODDARD:	Ow! Oh thank God for that. I thought I was - -

PAGE SEVEN

Panel One

A German Shepherd DOG sticks his head through the hold, barking enthusiastically. Goddard rears up, terrified, and - -

1. DOG:		RAURAURAURAU!
2. GODDARD:	EeeeYAAAH!

Panel Two

- - punches the dog on the snout.

	NO COPY

Panel Three

Back to the present day: the grandson is mortified.

3. SON:	You PUNCHED the DOG?

Panel Four

Grandad looks away, embarrassed.

4. GRANDAD:	I'm not proud of it, but I saw a German dog, and I thought I'd been captured.

Panel Five

The grandson looks incredulous. Grandad holds his hand up, dismissing the cynicism.

5. SON:		You're having a laugh, right?
6. GRANDAD:	No, lad. Scout's honour!

PAGE EIGHT

Panel One

Back to the war: having been pulled from the rubble, Goddard dusts himself down. A fellow medic fusses about him, treating his (minor) wounds.

1. GODDARD:	Blimey! Where's that dog got to?

Panel Two

Goddard sees the dog, cowering behind another soldier.

2. GODDARD (off-panel):	Aw. Aw, poor dog...

Panel Three

Goddard's face softens, and he reaches for the remaining jerky...

3. GODDARD:	Here...

Panel Four

...which he feeds to the dog, who wags his tail approvingly.

4. GODDARD:	I'm sorry, boy. You're a real lifesaver.

Panel Five

The dog licks Goddard's face affectionately, his tail wagging furiously, while the other soldiers look on and laugh.

5. GODDARD:	Hey! Hey now, that'll do...I said, that'll do...

Panel Six

Back to the present. The boy and his forebears stroll across the road at a pedestrian crossing, heading for the monument.

6. SON:	So what happened to the dog?

PAGE NINE

Panel One

Grandad pats a giant bronze dog on the snout, tears in his eyes.

1. GRANDAD:	It turned out he was a stray. His family must have been killed before we took the town.

Panel Two

The boy’s father puts his arm around Grandad.

2. FATHER:	Normally, they train dogs up for rescue duty, but he was just looking for a new home. Isn't that right, Dad?

Panel Three

Grandad lifts his glasses, wiping tears away with a ratty old hanky.

3. GRANDAD:	That's right. I took that dog home with me, after the war, and he lived with me and me Mum for the rest of his days.

Panel Four

Grandad puts his arms around his son and grandson, as they stand in front of the memorial, amongst the green.

4. FATHER:	And if it hadn't been for Billy, none of us would be here today.

Panel Five

The boy reacts, pointing at himself in horror.

5. SON:	Billy? BILLY? But that's MY name? You named me after a DOG?

Panel Six

Grandad pulls his boys closer.

6. GRANDAD:	He named you after a HERO, son. Never forget that. Anyway, it could have been worse.
7. FATHER:	How?

Panel Seven

Pull all the way out. Punctuate the story with a shot of the monument, the family, and Private Goddard and Billy the Dog, shaking paws in a bombed Dutch street, set against the clouds.

8. GRANDAD:	Well, me Mum wanted to call him "Binky..."

END

Script, characters and situations © M.P.Craig 2006
War Dog strip © M.P. Craig & Simon Mackie 2006