Early Shit Happens - strip one

For some reason, I decided it was important in the first strip to explain that they weren't a gay couple, which some of the early test scripts read like. I didn't realise at the time that this would be the first in a long line of 'Halifax gets some random girl, while Shakra gets disappointment' strips.

Reproduced below, in its entirety, for those interested in this sort of thing, is the script for the first strip.

(‘Shit Happens…’

1.
Shakra and Halifax are both sitting on the sofa, looking bored. The telephone conspicuously sits next to Halifax.

SHAKRA
I can’t believe it’s Friday night and neither of us have a date.

HALIFAX
I can believe that you don’t, Shakra. It’s the fact that I haven’t that’s confusing me.

SHAKRA
Eh, shit happens.

2.
Halifax is smiling, while Shakra still looks bored.

HALIFAX
I’ve got a joke for you.

HALIFAX
There’s this guy walking down the street, and he sees a man with an orange instead of a head.

HALIFAX
So he says, ‘Excuse me, but I have to ask: why do you have an orange where your head should be?’

3.
Shakra is looking strangely at Halifax.

HALIFAX
So the man with the orange for a head says, ‘Well, I found this lamp, and when I rubbed it, a Genie came out and said I could have three wishes.’

HALIFAX
‘For my first wish, I asked for a billion pounds in the bank, and it came true! So, for my second wish, I asked for a supermodel nymphet girlfriend who only has eyes for me, and it came true!’

HALIFAX
So the first bloke asks him, ‘Well, what was your third wish?’ And the man says—

SFX
Brrring Brrring!

4.
Halifax answering the phone.

HALIFAX
Hello? Yeah, this is Halifax.

HALIFAX
Hi, Cate! Yeah, I’d love to!

HALIFAX
I’ll be there in ten minutes!

5.
Halifax standing up, grinning.

HALIFAX
That was Cate! Looks like I’ve got a date after all!

6.
Shakra sitting alone on the couch, looking surprised.

HALIFAX
(o/s)
Don’t wait up!

SFX
Slam!

7.

A long panel, right out to bleed. Shakra in exactly the same position as on the last panel.

SHAKRA
(small lettering)
…so what was his third wish?

As you can see, my scripts aren't particularly complex. If you compare that one to the finished strip then you can see I even made minor changes to something that simple -- I think I cut the joke down a bit, and also moved the text of two panels into one panel. The gun gesture he's doing is ad-libbed, for want of a better term, and it's one that cropped up another few times. It's one of Halifax's pieces of body language that he does for no particularly good reason.

Leaving the joke without telling him the punchline still ranks as one of the most annoying things Halifax has ever done to Shakra.

You'll note I conspicuously mentioned the character's names in this strip. It passes unnoticed unless you're looking for it, in which case they really are quite obviously put into the speech for no good reason other than to introduce the characters.

This strip was set up using the furniture arrangement I'd done in an earlier picture, when I was setting out a document as a colour guide to use as a palette. It's the two flatmates, the horrible orange sofa, a weird red double-ended table thing, an old rotary dial phone, and a framed, blown-up copy of the first edition of Robert Chalmers's first novel 'Who's Who In Hell,' which I appear to be the only fan of in the world, which is why I try to pimp it when I can. Everyone should read it. It's very very good. And a lot funnier than I am.