Hangover sneaks up from behind Dream Lord and thrusts a huge hand onto his face. He forces excruciating pain into the Dream Lord's body and laughs.
Hangover: ...I can barely squash your skull like a tomato! Ha ha ha ha ha! I am goin' to enjoy this, you twerp! I'll get a damn medal for splatterin' you!
Dream Lord: Aaarrr...
Page 24 panel 3
Suddenly, Lullaby darts into the fray, smacking Hangover across the back of the head with a shovel she has conjured out of dream matter.
Lullaby: I guess that means I get a tickertape parade for wallopin' a big ugly warthog like you!
Page 24 panel 4
The Dream Lord leaps away from Hangover, who is momentarily dazed by Lullaby's blow.
Dream Lord: I thought I told you...you fat moron...
Page 24 panel 5
Dream Lord: Off-limits!!!
The Dream Lord fires a final, huge beam at Hangover, who disappears in red light, looking startled and enraged.
Lullaby: Way to do it, Dream Lord!
Page 24 panel 6
With the Night Brigade gone, Dream Lord pauses and catches his breath. Lullaby hovers by his side, delighted that the battle is won.
Lullaby: Nice work, buddy! You were too hot! I knew you could blast those goofballs!
Dream Lord: Thanks. It's not so tough, once you figure things cut. My new power didn't hurt, either.
Page 24 panel 7
Dream Lord: And as for you...I'm still not sure what your story is, but I'm grateful for your help. You've saved my life twice, and without you the Dream Zone would be doomed.
Lullaby: Aw, it's nothin'! I do this stuff every day, some days two or three times! Just remember me at Christmas.
Page 24 panel 8
Dream Lord: Things have been bad lately. I've been torn apart and degraded in every imaginable way--nearly killed twice. I've seen things, remembered things, that seem to contradict everything I know, my entire life. Nothing makes any sense anymore.
Page 24 panel 9
Dream Lord: Only one person seems to know what's really happened...all the secrets, all the truth. I've got to find him.
Page 25 (5 panels)
Page 25 panel 1
Dream Lord: The Night Brigade reminded me that the Dream Lord is important! He has a mission, a duty to the entire world! I guess...that's what I forgot most of all before now. In order for the Dream Lord to carry out his duty, he has to know the truth about himself.
Page 25 panel 2
The Dream Lord concentrates and begins to glow yellow.
Dream Lord: He has to become a new force...
Page 25 panel 3
The yellow glow flares, surrounding the Dream Lord. We can only see his vague outline through the light.
Dream Lord: ...a new man...
Page 25 panel 4
Large panel with a medium shot of the Dream Lord standing revealed in a new (purple-and-white?) uniform, surrounded by bright lights and sparks. He is grim yet satisfied -- his life again has meaning of a sort.
Dream Lord: ...a new dream!
Page 25 panel 5
The Dream Lord takes Lullaby's hand in his own.
Dream Lord: Come on. Let's go spook the Bogeyman.
CONTINUED....
END OF PART THREE
Part IV: Mister Dream Lord, Bring Me A Dream
Page 1 (9 panels)
Page 1 panel 1
The Bogeyman is holding a croquet mallet, carefully aiming at balls and wire hoops which are not visible in the panel. Bogeyman is his usual convivial self, enjoying the fact that he is conquering and corrupting the entire Dream Zone as he plays his lawn game. He is wearing a casual tweed jacket and dark brown turtleneck sweater, and an Irish cap tilted a bit to one side.
Bogeyman: ...told the king "no, you can't have it!" which of course made him want it all the more. Nothing tweaks a monarch so much as a single "no," a resistance or refusal. In their eyes, such denial constitutes a crime against God, what with divine right and all that. Bit to the left, please.
Page 1 panel 2
Bogeyman (raising his croquet mallet in the air): If you tell a king, or any leader, that he cannot have or do something, he will immediately set about getting or doing that very thing, just out of petulant spite. He's really a big baby, you see, declaring wars and slaughtering peasants because someone or other has hurt his feelings. Ninety-nine percent of all human suffering results from bruised ego.
Page 1 panel 3
Bogeyman swings the mallet downward and hits the ball with a whack. The ball is still off-panel, however.
Bogeyman: Ha! Quite a strike, eh? Right down the middle--three hoops!--without scraping a flake of paint! My talent bounds like a gazelle across this field, it fairly pirouettes! I should embark on the professional circuit without delay!
Voice (from off-panel): Without a doubt, sir! Your grasp of this difficult gentleman's game is astounding!
Page 1 panel 4
Bogeyman (walking across the playing field, carrying his mallet--hoops may be visible, but no balls): I'm self-taught, as well. Quite a task it was, but no match for my expansive intellect and natural athletic prowess. Oh, I'm sorry--I was speaking of the king, wasn't I?
Voice: Yes, sir, and I for one am delirious to hear more! You had just told him "no," and he wanted it all the more strongly.
Page 1 panel 5
Bogeyman (sizing up another croquet shot and taking aim with his mallet): Ah, yes! As I indicated, my refusal to cooperate simply enflamed his majesty! He huffed and swaggered and bellowed and beat the stone walls--but to no avail! I stood firm, secure in my own power and unafraid of his pompous, slobbering, hollow wrath. Pardon me, but could you move that right a notch?
Voice (off-panel): Absolutely, sir!
Page 1 panel 6
Bogeyman (still sizing up his next shot): And so, remaining steadfast, I said good-day and let myself out of the palace. Naturally, the old pouter went mad, called his archers, commandos and wives down on me. There was a relentless hail of shafts, bullets, and hairpins flung upon me, but I swept them aside with a breath. From a window, the king hurled nasty remarks...
Page 1 panel 7
Bogeyman (crouching and squinting along the line of his shot, leaning on his croquet mallet): Tired of the affair, I responded by casting a spell of flatulence upon them all. Forever after, they would be cursed with ceaseless and overpowering gas! I showed that spoiled ninny! He could not have my lucky rabbit's foot, and that was all there was to it! Could you move that back to the left, please?
Voice (off-panel): On the double, sir!
Page 1 panel 8
Closeup of the Bogeyman's mallet swinging down and whacking the "ball," which is finally shown to be a human head, painted bright blue. The head is the source of the "voice" that has been conversing with the Bogeyman all along.
Bogeyman: Funny thing is, those scoundrels profited! They turned their new condition into a weapon, and won every war they waged thereafter! So you see, I unknowingly started the Roman Empire! Why do you think they liked those spicy Italian dishes so very much?
Page 1 panel 9
The head/ball hurtles through some hoops and comes to a rest against a croquet pole. There are other heads like it scattered around the playing lawn.
Bogeyman (off-panel): Ah, another fine shot! I am a winner, aren't I?
Head: Indubitably, sir!
Bogeyman: I must keep in practice, you know. Soon, I'll be knocking around Kubla once again.
Page 2 (1 panel)
Page 2 panel 1
Layout: This page features a full-page splash panel, with a title along the bottom, and credits. The panel is a shot of the Bogeyman and the Dream Lord. On the left side is the right half of the Bogeyman's head and shoulders. On the right side is the left half of the Dream Lord's head and shoulders. The two halves are joined together as if to form a single being, but are distinctly separated down the middle by the difference between the two sets of features
. The visible setting behind Bogeyman is his quaint, twisted English croquet field and garden, and a blue sky. Behind the Dream Lord is nothing but dark, rolling, ominous clouds.
Bogeyman: I so enjoy tormenting that crotchety hobbit! He flutters and squeals so easily, at the jab of the bluntest needle. His propensity for amusing me is infinite, his ability to resist nonexistent. Really, he is somewhat like an eager, mindless puppy, who, after you swing it by the tail, poke it with sticks, and burn its fur, lovingly and stupidly returns to you for more. I had not anticipated this, but Adams has become important to me--my chief source of amusement and levity--my weepy and priceless Pagliacci. Initially, I planned merely to torture him some and destroy him...to accrue my vengeance and wipe the detestable insect from creation. Now, though, I have come to appreciate him, to look forward to his febrile antics. He provides some relief, in the midst of my grueling business. He lightens my mood, even as I go about twisting and sickening humanity! I hope he gets here soon.
Dream Lord (angrily): You see, Stacy? You see how evil one man can be? How much damage he can cause...how much death and hatred he can forge? Look what he did to me...how he tore me to shreds and desecrated every last bit of my dignity! He likes it, Stacy--it gets him off! He has no concept of decency or goodness--just perversion! I swear to you, we will stop this animal! I will grab this bastard by the throat and rip the stinking life out of him! Before he poisons another mind, before he infects another inch of the Dream Zone, I will kill him!
TITLE: Mister Dream Lord, Bring Me A Dream!
Page 3 (7 panels)
Page 3 panel 1
Closeup of the Dream Lord and Lullaby. Dream Lord is very upset, and Lullaby is still taking everything in and evaluating the situation.
Lullaby: Hey, take it easy, buddy. Don't get so worked up! We'll get that creep!
Dream Lord: I can't help it, Stacy! Don't you realize the significance of what he's done? Look around, for God's sake!
Page 3 panel 2
The Dream Lord gestures in one direction, and Lullaby looks there. In a wide, sweeping view, we see a land similar to that through which Bogeyman drove in his Model T in Part III: far into the distance, there are wide patches of land that are furrowed like farmers' fields; a wide, sparkling, golden river snakes through that land, winding over hills and past banks which slope into it on either side; at evenly-spaced intervals, there are high walls of gray cement block, stretching into the blue sky and fluffy white clouds above. It is all pristine and unspoiled, the natural condition of the Dream Zone.
Dream Lord: Back there, everything is fine, untouched. The Dream Zone as it should be--peaceful, unblemished, a haven for the troubled souls of humanity. The Fields of Sleep are undisturbed and the Dream Stream flows softly under sunlight.
Page 3 panel 3
Closeup of Lullaby as the Dream Lord points in the other direction, and she turns to look that way.
Dream Lord: But over there, Stacy...over there it's all changed!
Page 3 panel 4
Dream Lord gestures at the new landscape before them--a dark and twisted version of the purified one on the other side. The sky is full of heavy, dark storm clouds, which block out all the light and blue sky; the river goes from bright gold to oily, bubbling black; the rolling fields are obscured by tangled, black jungle vegetation--like a high, huge briar patch. Lightning flashes far in the distance. Dream Lord and Lullaby are right at the edge of the change.
Dream Lord: Look at it! Look what he's done!! Somehow, he has managed to pollute the very fabric of this place! It's all dark and sick and dying--rotting away like an abandoned carcass. The Dream Stream is sludge, the sky is gone, and the Fields are overrun with weeds!
Page 3 panel 5
Lullaby (frowning): Yeah, it doesn't look too good.
Dream Lord (still furious): I had no idea it was this bad... that he was so powerful here. Stacy, he's trying to end it--mankind, life, everything. He can do it, too.
Page 3 panel 6
Wide shot of the polluted, dark regions.
Dream Lord: That was all once dream-fertile land--the Fields of Sleep, where dreams are grown and experienced. Between each set of walls, there is the garden of a single being, his or her private corner of the Dream Zone... in which all the dreams of that person's lifetime are acted out. Once a Field is contaminated, it disintegrates into chaos, into endless, horrible nightmares that I can only imagine.
Page 3 panel 7
Dream Lord (gazing out over the destruction): Each polluted Field represents a person...a mind afflicted with unbearable visions...or madness. Look out there, Stacy. They go on and on. There are hundreds, thousands of them already. Think about it--think of the catastrophe the Bogeyman has begun!
Lullaby: Wow... (She is amazed, taken aback by the staggering thought of the disaster.)
Page 4 (6 panels)
Page 4 panel 1
Wide shot of the Dream Lord and Lullaby, standing on the border of the change, between darkness and light. The border is uneven, flowing visibly past then like a dark liquid. It is clearly moving, the shadows already covering both observers as they stand on the bank of the Stream.
Dream Lord: And it's only the start. The darkness, the decay is expanding. it's moving out into the rest of the Dream Zone! We're on the edge of it and it's already rushing past us.
Lullaby: Hey, you're right! How can we stop it? What are we gonna do?
Page 4 panel 2
Dream Lord: Only one possibility, and you know it. Kill the bastard behind all this...if we can. Then clean it up, if we can. I've got the feeling it's already too late.
Lullaby: If you kill Bogeyman, how will you find out those secrets you need? You said it yourself--he's the only one who knows the whole truth about your life.
Page 4 panel 3
Dream Lord (staring anxiously into the distance): Of course I want my answers... but this all comes first. This is important. This is my duty. I'm the Dream Lord, and this is the world that I have to protect.
Lullaby: Things are tough all over, huh?
Page 4 panel 4
Suddenly, the Dream Lord bursts into motion, walking briskly past Lullaby along the bank of the Dream Stream. The water here (it's actually energy) is black and boiling.
Dream Lord: Come on! We've got to go now, before it's impossible to break through to his territory. The wreckage and overgrowth keep getting thicker.
Lullaby: Aw, don't tell me we have to walk through all this! Dream Lord, we've got a long way to go--and this is not my idea of a fun hike through the woods! This stuff is nasty!
Page 4 panel 5
Dream Lord frowns in concentration and focuses his right hand on a point outside the panel. His arm and hand glow with a yellow aura.
Dream Lord: Of course we can't walk through this. We need to save time...move fast...and save our strength for the Bogeyman. Since I banished the Night Brigade, my power has been restoring itself...regaining control over matter and energy...
Page 4 panel 6
Dream Lord: ...so I can do this!
In a flash of bright yellow energy, a big propeller boat appears on the dark slime of the Dream Stream. The boat is the type used to travel quickly through the brush and muck of swamps.
Lullaby: Hey, hey! Nice work, buster! We're goin' on a first-class cruise!
Page 5 (7 panels)
Page 5 panel 1
Dream Lord takes his seat on the right side of the boat and starts the engine and propeller. Lullaby starts to sit down on the left.
Lullaby: I might actually enjoy this trip! Just give me the porthole, the shuffleboard, my bikini...
Mr. Sandman Page 12
