AMERIKAN ZER0!: "THE GENERATION GASH!"
Episode One of an illustrated Action Freak-Out
Scripted by JASON SQUAMATA
Illustrated by ANDREW Mc KENZIE
...
AMERIKAN ZER0! #1: “THE GENERATION GASH!”
script by Jason Squamata
FRONTISPIECE:
"I pledge obedience to the brand
of the United Syndicates of Amerikorps
and to the conglomerate for which it stands:
One enterprise, under surveillance
omnipotent and invisible
with security and commerce for all."
PAGE ONE (splash page):
A splashy advertizement, like an evocative movie poster or an advert for a video game, advertising the life of Adam Zer0, perhaps patterned on those "Army of One" military ads, pastiched or psychedelicized into an "Army of Zero" ad. The narration is in the second person, inviting the player (or reader) into total immersion. There are images of Adam Zer0 layered over one another, at various scales.
-Adam Zer0 shaved and bald and blank before a circular static-filled fisheye tv screen, in a completely blank room.
-Adam Zer0 in Steve McQueen “Bullitt” mode: a lean, mean piece of work, cleaning his guns.
-Adam Zer0 engaged in a feverish tantric kung-fu battle with Kali-Ma Kaligula, the femme fatale/lunatic supervillain of his mythos. an image that splices absolute elegance and absolute brutality.
AMERIKAN ZER0! #1...script by Jason Squamata...Page 2
CAPTION:
YOU ARE NOT WHO YOU ARE.
CAPTION:
FOCUS YOUR UNWAVERING GAZE ON THE SPIRALLING HYPNO-DISC. LISTEN TO THE HISS OF BLACK STATIC, A DEAD FREQUENCY BETWEEN IDENTITIES. BREATHE THE STINK OF GUNPOWDER AND LEATHER AND CYANIDE. TASTE ALIEN SWEAT AND THE STEAMING MEAT OF YOUR ENEMIES. FEEL THE LATEX FLEX OF A SKIN MADE FOR KILLING.
CAPTION:
YOU ARE NOT WHO YOU ARE.
CAPTION:
YOU ARE THE SECRET POLICEMAN. YOU ARE WHOEVER YOU NEED TO BE TO KEEP THE PEACE. YOU KEEP THE PEACE...WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE.
CAPTION:
YOU ARE ADAM ZER0. YOU ARE EVERYONE AND NO-ONE. YOU ARE DEEP UNDER COVER.
CAPTION:
AND EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL.
TITLES:
ADAM ZER0!... THE GENERATION GASH!
PAGE TWO (splash page):
Diorama of ritualized teen angst. centering on Joe Nuthing, an emotionally empty and alienated seventeen year old high school student. Listening to demonic glitchy nightmare muzik. Casually watching gruesome action movies. Playing ultraviolent Adam Zer0 video games. His only friend is another misfit named Damian. They spend their free time popping Ritalin, learning the way of the ninja, and reading “Guns'n'Ammo” magazines like other kids read comics or playboys. The narration is still in the second person, inviting you into the life of Joe Nuthing, a ticking teenage timebomb waiting to go off on every living thing it sees. Like a CGI setup for the Columbine video game. Maybe the scene is suffused with LABRATZ merchandise. LABRATZ is a cartoon screwed-up kids get obsessed with. It’s set in a laboratory. The experimental rat characters are identically blank and miserable, except for one. In every episode, one rat rouses the rabble and brings the lab to the brink of revolution, with a career path modeled on a modern dictator. Hitler or Stalin or Dick Cheney or Idi Amin. Then the fluorescent bulbs come on like a sickly flickering sun and the scientist enters, grabs the rat in question, shoots it full of ome brain-melting chemical, and leaves the rats in a disappointed, dreamless stupor. The LABRATZ Empire is comparable to Disney. Their themepark is called LABRATZ AMERIKA. All of Joe’s fashions and toys should be based on LABRATZ.
CAPTION:
MAYBE YOU'RE AN ALIENATED, RITALIN-FRIED HIGH SCHOOL KID NAMED JOE NUTHING, TRAPPED IN A WORLD YOU NEVER MADE.
CAPTION:
YOU BARELY KNOW YOUR PARENTS. YOU BARELY REMEMBER YOUR EARLY CHILDHOOD AND ALL THEIR OLD PHOTOGRAPHS OF YOU LOOK LIKE THEY WERE FAKED.
AMERIKAN ZER0! #1...script by Jason Squamata...Page 4
CAPTION:
YOUR ONLY JOY LIES IN DREAMS OF APOCALYPSE, FANTASIES OF EPIC CARNAGE, TAKING REVENGE ON A WORLD THAT WON'T LISTEN.
CAPTION:
YOU LISTEN TO DEMONIC MISANTHROPIC GLITCH-HOP MUZIK. YOU STUDY GUNS WITH YOUR ONLY FRIEND DAMIAN. YOU PLAY ULTRAVIOLENT ADAM ZER0 VIDEO
GAMES. JUST TO FEEL. JUST TO FEEL...SOMETHING.
CAPTION:
YOU FLIP THROUGH THE YEARBOOK AND IMAGINE THE CORPSE OF EVERY AWKWARD PORTRAIT. YOU RECEIVE REPORTS ON THEIR THOUGHTCRIMES THROUGH ADVERTS, RANDOM CONVERSATIONS, AND SLICES OF STATIC.
CAPTION:
YOU'RE WAITING FOR TODAY TO BE THE DAY. MAYBE YOUR NAME IS JOE NUTHING. MAYBE JOE NUTHING IS READY TO DIE.
PAGE THREE (splash page):
Damian comes over in the morning, like he always does, so they can walk to school together and maybe not get beat up or egged by passing cool kids. Joe is eating a bowl of Labratz Glo-in-the-dark Rit-a-Bitz. There's a gun on the table. His supine mother's legs might be visible through the doorway. She’s bleeding to death on the kitchen floor. There are four big camo dufflebags (full of guns and ammo) by the front door. Damian is confused. Joe says "today's the day". He hands the uzi to Damian. "santa came. everything we talked about. it's all coming true." Damian is confused, but intoxicated by the weight of the gun in his hand. It's like a dream he's having. He's afraid to ask questions. He might wake up. They stare at each other with something like love. "It's on" they say in unison. Joe grabs the lunch his dead mother packed for him. They grab the dufflebags. They're going to school.
CAPTION:
THIS DAY IS A SCHOOLDAY LIKE ANY OTHER, ALMOST. YOU WAIT FOR DAMIAN AND THEN HE GETS HERE AND THEN YOU WALK TO SCHOOL.
CAPTION:
BUT THERE'S SOMETHING DIFFERENT ABOUT TODAY. FIRST, THAT SPECIAL DELIVERY. THEN, THE WAY MOM JUST WOULDN'T STOP. UNTIL SHE DID.
CAPTION:
NOW, DAMIAN, LIKE ALWAYS. BUT IT'S DIFFERENT. NOT THE NAUSEA OF IMPENDING HELL. INSTEAD THE BUTTERFLIES OF IMPENDING ADVENTURE.
DAMIAN:
JOE. WHAT'S UP?
AMERIKAN ZER0! #1...script by Jason Squamata...Page 6
JOE:
what's UP? TODAY. TODAY'S THE DAY, SOLDIER.
JOE:
EVERYTHING WE TALKED ABOUT. SANTA CAME. IT'S ALL COMING TRUE.
JOE AND DAMIAN:
it's ON.
JOE:
LET'S GO TO SCHOOL.
...To Be Continued...
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