C. M. Rosens

The Condemnation of Starling Lane (Comic Format)

cmrosens
1–2 minutes
An orange slide with a sunset behind a row of terraces houses with chimney stacks and attic windows. The title reads: The Condemnation of Starling Lane in creepy, wavy capital letters..
Slide #1: 2 panels. The top panel is a photograph of narrow wood panels painted a rich magnolia, lamplit. Text: My neighbour has been dead for days, but I can still hear him coughing through the wall. Panel 2: a photo of a white-painted room angled upwards to include the paper spherical lightshade, the cobwebs in the corner, and the curtains hanging unevenly from the rod. Text: It is a hollow, hard bark of a cough, forced from his chest cavity and vibrating over his voice box, but it isn't him doing the breathing.
An 8-panel slide. 1: the terrace of houses at sunset from the cover. Text I moved here in 2007.2. a photo of a mouldy wall. A silhouette of a woman with short hair has a speech bubble above her. Text: ... is that mould?3. Photo of the mouldy wall, with a speech bubble on the mould, Text: don't worry about it. 4. Photo of a dark alley with damp and stains running up the walls of the houses. 5. Photo of a house with a for sale sign. 6. Photo of a different for sale sign. 7. Photo of a skip filled with rubble.8. Repeat of the photo of the dark alley and stained houses. A woman's head and shoulder silhouette is in the foreground with a speech bubble. Text: It's so quiet... where is everyone going?
Slide with 7 panels. 1: A black and white photo of a house with a skip full of furniture and rubbish outside on the drive.2. the woman's silhouette with a thought bubble above it. Text: I could take some of that home. Nobody will mind. 3. A photo of a close-up of mould on canvas. A speech bubble is above the mould. Text: Pick me, pick me.4. A smudge-effect photo of a mouldy radiator covered in grime. A text box is in the corner. Text: Number 11 was empty, unsold. The people at Number 12 moved out six months later, then Number 23. I never knew them.5. A photo of a damp-ridden corner of a plainly decorated room. A starburst with text is in the corner. Text: I saw a specialist when my skin began to change, when it began to harden, when small growths appeared.6. A long horizontal panel with the silhouette of the woman manipulated 3x, becoming more and more distorted and wobbly each time. 7. A panel of text on a plain background. Text reads They were like boils, but solid, and underneath the hump of hard, bleach-white skin, was a layer of translucent jelly that clung into my flesh with tiny fibres. I managed to peel one off with a butter knife, the flat blade slipping in the gap and prising it away, leaving a shallow, bloody pit. It hurt, but it healed. I didn’t want to see another doctor. My skin didn’t want me to, so I didn’t go.
9 panel slide. 1. Photo of people in hi-viz pointing at a map. 2. Man in hi-viz with a clipboard.3. Distorted silhouette of woman with cartoon effect sounds: Ding Dong and Knock Knock in bold colours. 4. Photo of a white-painted wooden front door from the inside. A mess of post is on the lino underneath it. Text box. Text reads: We had inspectors come to visit the other properties from Environmental Health, but I refused to let them in. They wanted to know if I had a skin condition. I shut the door. My skin stopped hurting after that, like it was rewarding me.Two panels with plain background. In one, the distorted silhouette is further warped. In the other, a black hole emanates from the centre. A text box bridges the two panels. Text reads: I noticed now that the patches were changing colour. There was a greenish-grey tinge to the skin. Some of those bleach-white patches were darkening to a kind of mushroom taupe, while others mottled into shades of light and dark, slate and lichen. A square box with grimy overlay. When I could not get out of bed any more, I knew that they would condemn our houses too, (continues in next panel's text box) - that it was not just me - Image: three shadow figures with only eyes white against the grey(continues in next panel's text box) - it was the whole street. panel image is a big group of these shadowy humanoid figures with white dots for eyes.
Two panel slide. Top panel is the same photo as the first comic slide (after the title slide), a magnolia panelled wall lit by a lamp. Text box in the corner reads that was how I knew my neighbour was dead. Bottom panel is a close up of fleshy wormy fibres of fungi. A starburst of text reads: we are all connected, I could taste him if I tried.
A 6-panel slide. Panel 1: a black and white photo of a UK police car and striped police tape. Panel 2: a black and white photo of caution tape on grass. Panel 3: a photo of traffic cones in a line on a road. Text box reads: Environmental Health are back. They have erected a cordon.Panel 4: the shadowy group from the previous slide stand against a grimy, foggy plain background. Text: It is strange that, in those final moments, we never exchanged words but we were more in community than we ever had been on our little street.Panel 5: the silhouette of the woman is now blue and sliced and warped. I am ripe and ready. My hide is bursting with nuggets of life. Panel 6: the same fleshy image of fungal fibres. White text stretched across it reads: things like us always find a way.