Chapter 3 – Page 001
Chapter three begins! In glorious sepia!
This is a story that’s been percolating in my head for a long while. In fact, ever since I moved to London and became familiar with the Underground and all its fascinating aspects.
Fascinating if you’re a massive nerd, anyway.
We begin back in the mists of forgotten yore. Don’t worry, I haven’t returned to greyscale, this is just flashback greyscale. Flashscale.
↓ Transcript
Panel 1 (wide):
A sepia-toned view of Bond Street in Edwardian days - horse-drawn carts mixed with omnibuses and trams. The windows of the New Electric Railway Company’s second-floor offices are lit.
CAPTION (cursive font): New Electric Railway Company
381 Oxford Street, London
September 1901
JACK (off-panel): I tell ya, Chuck...can I call ya Chuck?
CHARLES (off-panel): Please don’t.
JACK (off-panel): Chuck, this is an opportunity that comes once in a million years and I’m offering you lucky fella a front-row seat!
Panel 2 (wide):
Inside the NERC offices, John “Jack” Johnson “Joey” IV, mutton-chopped American entrepreneur, is showing off a projected map of the “Fleet Line” to a weedier potential investor, Charles Laughton-Smith. In a corner, Jack’s young and distressingly thin stenographer Enid is taking minutes.
CHARLES: It’s...ambitious, to be sure, but I’ve heard concerns about the return of investment from schemes like this…
JACK: Pfft! Ya gonna let some ol’ fogeys in the Tuesday Club tell ya how to spend your money? I got guys linin’ up round the block to back the Fleet Line, it’s a surefire gold mine!
Panel 3:
Enid’s ears flick up at something Charles says as the two older gentlemen haggle.
CHARLES: Really? You don’t think Londoners have enough ways of getting around already?
JACK: You’re standing in one of the biggest cities in the world, Chuck! It’s a bottomless barrel!
CHARLES: And their pockets, “Jack,” are they bottomless as well?
Panel 4:
Enid pipes up to offer advice, but Jack cuts her off.
ENID: We’ll need to sell tickets at a loss at first to establish footfall, but once the market is-
JACK: The streets outside are packed, Chuck! Just imagine all those folks ridin’ underground in a car you funded! It’s a license to print money!
A sepia-toned view of Bond Street in Edwardian days - horse-drawn carts mixed with omnibuses and trams. The windows of the New Electric Railway Company’s second-floor offices are lit.
CAPTION (cursive font): New Electric Railway Company
381 Oxford Street, London
September 1901
JACK (off-panel): I tell ya, Chuck...can I call ya Chuck?
CHARLES (off-panel): Please don’t.
JACK (off-panel): Chuck, this is an opportunity that comes once in a million years and I’m offering you lucky fella a front-row seat!
Panel 2 (wide):
Inside the NERC offices, John “Jack” Johnson “Joey” IV, mutton-chopped American entrepreneur, is showing off a projected map of the “Fleet Line” to a weedier potential investor, Charles Laughton-Smith. In a corner, Jack’s young and distressingly thin stenographer Enid is taking minutes.
CHARLES: It’s...ambitious, to be sure, but I’ve heard concerns about the return of investment from schemes like this…
JACK: Pfft! Ya gonna let some ol’ fogeys in the Tuesday Club tell ya how to spend your money? I got guys linin’ up round the block to back the Fleet Line, it’s a surefire gold mine!
Panel 3:
Enid’s ears flick up at something Charles says as the two older gentlemen haggle.
CHARLES: Really? You don’t think Londoners have enough ways of getting around already?
JACK: You’re standing in one of the biggest cities in the world, Chuck! It’s a bottomless barrel!
CHARLES: And their pockets, “Jack,” are they bottomless as well?
Panel 4:
Enid pipes up to offer advice, but Jack cuts her off.
ENID: We’ll need to sell tickets at a loss at first to establish footfall, but once the market is-
JACK: The streets outside are packed, Chuck! Just imagine all those folks ridin’ underground in a car you funded! It’s a license to print money!