monster-under-the-bed
Original: monster-under-the-bed on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: A child (curly orange hair, blue shirt) calls out from his bed in a dark room.
Child: DAD! THERE'S A MONSTER UNDER MY BED!
Panel 2: A bald, bespectacled father, irritated, in the doorway.
Father: I TOLD YOU! THERE'S NO SUCH THING! IT'S 3AM! GO TO SLEEP!
Panel 3 (caption bar): 5 HOURS LATER...
Panel 4: The father, in a yellow shirt, stands shocked.
Father: SON, YOU'RE... COVERED IN BLOOD.
Panel 5: The child, now narrating gravely.
Child: THE NIGHT WAS UNKIND, FATHER.
Panel 6 (caption over a scene of glowing-eyed monsters in darkness): THEY CAME LIKE STORM-WOVEN WAVES. THE BLANKET WAS NO BARRIER. (The child is seen clutching his blanket, surrounded by yellow monstrous shapes.)
Panel 7 (caption): I PULLED A CHAIR-LEG FROM ITS SOCKET. THE NAIL WAS RAZOR-SHARP. THE MONSTERS' BACKS WERE HARD AND SCALEY, BUT THEIR EYES WERE SOFT AS JELLY. (The child stabs a snarling green monster in the eye with a chair leg.)
Panel 8: Close on the father's face; the child in the foreground.
Child: SOFT AS JELLY, FATHER.
Panel 9 (caption): I CUT THEM DOWN! MEN, WOMEN, CHILDREN! EACH RETALIATION COST ME LESS CONSCIENCE THAN THE LAST! (The child stands holding two glowing severed monster heads aloft.)
Panel 10 (caption over a silhouette of a mound): WHEN DAWN CAME, I STOOD ATOP THAT CAIRN OF CORPSES! ALIVE! ALIVE BY GOD! ALONE AGAINST THE DARKNESS!
Panel 11: The stunned father.
Father: WOW.
Panel 12: The father, wide-eyed.
Father: GUESS I SHOULD'VE BELIEVED YOU ABOUT THE MONSTERS.
Child (now with a fierce, fiery-haired look): I AM THE MONSTER NOW!
Votey:
The child (now drawn with a flat, blank stare).
Child: ANYWAY CAN WE HAVE PANCAKES FOR BREAKFAST?
Child: DAD! THERE'S A MONSTER UNDER MY BED!
Panel 2: A bald, bespectacled father, irritated, in the doorway.
Father: I TOLD YOU! THERE'S NO SUCH THING! IT'S 3AM! GO TO SLEEP!
Panel 3 (caption bar): 5 HOURS LATER...
Panel 4: The father, in a yellow shirt, stands shocked.
Father: SON, YOU'RE... COVERED IN BLOOD.
Panel 5: The child, now narrating gravely.
Child: THE NIGHT WAS UNKIND, FATHER.
Panel 6 (caption over a scene of glowing-eyed monsters in darkness): THEY CAME LIKE STORM-WOVEN WAVES. THE BLANKET WAS NO BARRIER. (The child is seen clutching his blanket, surrounded by yellow monstrous shapes.)
Panel 7 (caption): I PULLED A CHAIR-LEG FROM ITS SOCKET. THE NAIL WAS RAZOR-SHARP. THE MONSTERS' BACKS WERE HARD AND SCALEY, BUT THEIR EYES WERE SOFT AS JELLY. (The child stabs a snarling green monster in the eye with a chair leg.)
Panel 8: Close on the father's face; the child in the foreground.
Child: SOFT AS JELLY, FATHER.
Panel 9 (caption): I CUT THEM DOWN! MEN, WOMEN, CHILDREN! EACH RETALIATION COST ME LESS CONSCIENCE THAN THE LAST! (The child stands holding two glowing severed monster heads aloft.)
Panel 10 (caption over a silhouette of a mound): WHEN DAWN CAME, I STOOD ATOP THAT CAIRN OF CORPSES! ALIVE! ALIVE BY GOD! ALONE AGAINST THE DARKNESS!
Panel 11: The stunned father.
Father: WOW.
Panel 12: The father, wide-eyed.
Father: GUESS I SHOULD'VE BELIEVED YOU ABOUT THE MONSTERS.
Child (now with a fierce, fiery-haired look): I AM THE MONSTER NOW!
Votey:
The child (now drawn with a flat, blank stare).
Child: ANYWAY CAN WE HAVE PANCAKES FOR BREAKFAST?
Alt text
A 12-panel SMBC comic. A curly-haired boy in bed tells his bespectacled dad, 'Dad! There's a monster under my bed!' The annoyed father replies, 'I told you! There's no such thing! It's 3am! Go to sleep!' A caption reads '5 hours later...' The father finds the boy covered in blood and says, 'Son, you're... covered in blood.' The boy narrates grimly, 'The night was unkind, father.' In an overwrought epic-monologue style, captions over scenes of glowing-eyed monsters describe how they came 'like storm-woven waves,' how he pulled a chair-leg from its socket and stabbed the monsters through their jelly-soft eyes ('Soft as jelly, father'), cutting down 'men, women, children,' each kill costing less conscience, until at dawn he 'stood atop that cairn of corpses, alone against the darkness.' The shocked father says 'Wow' and 'Guess I should've believed you about the monsters,' and the boy, now wild-eyed with fiery hair, declares 'I AM THE MONSTER NOW!' Votey aftercomic: the same boy, with a flat blank expression, asks, 'Anyway can we have pancakes for breakfast?'
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.