“Broken hearts are a fickle thing, and complicated too.

I thought I believed in love, but I’ve never seen it through.

Oh, I didn’t marry the girl I loved.

I saw my world cave in, felt like  giving up.

But I’ll be laughing.

Oh, I’ll be laughing.

Oh, I’ll be laughing…again.”

- “My Broken Heart” by Noah and the Whale

When I launched Over this past June, I knew I wanted to include a Felix’s Playlist component covering all the songs- from the sappy to the sublime- that soothe a broken heart.  I didn’t expect to be covering an entire album however.  Well, The First Day of Spring by London-based Noah and the Whale is a break-up album.  And it’s damn good.  Over could have an unofficial soundtrack, boys and girls.

NPR recently did a review of the album and has made the entire album available to listen to for free.

From the NPR Review:

Noah and the Whale’s The First Days of Spring is the breakup album of the year — maybe even the album of the year — and it comes out Oct. 6. Which means that, as of this writing, you have exactly seven days to torpedo a personal relationship in such a way that these songs can nurse your psychic wounds. The First Days of Spring is more than just a concept album about emotional survival: It navigates a process and a journey to a specific destination.  (Read the rest of the article HERE.)

And the reviewer gets it right.  Much like my graphic novel attempts to capture the process of getting over a break up, the ups and for sure the downs, this album consistently hits notes that resonate with anyone who’s had their heart broken.  The music varies from somber and soul-crushing to undeniably uplifting and is pretty much therapy.  From the opening line of  “It’s the first day of spring, and my life is starting over again” to the closing line “I love with my heart and hold it in my hand, but you know my hearts not yours” the album grabs you and doesn’t let go.

Particular gems include:

• The opening song First Days of Spring sets the table for what’s to come.  This is a brutally honest album, and lines like, “For I do believe that everyone has one chance to fuck up their lives” really resonate.
• Our Window, the second track on the album captures perfectly that moment of realization prior to a breakup when you know what’s coming but don’t want to admit it-  “We both know its over, but we both are not ready/ and you’re talking like a stranger, so I don’t know what to do.”
  
• If ever there was a bargaining song, it’s I Have Nothing- “Come back to me my darling/ I’d do anything to be at your side/ I’d be anyone to be at your side.” Yeah, that’s about right.
• Stranger is a song about that first person you sleep with after losing a great love.  Reminds me a bit of the scene in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” when Jason Segel starts crying after having sex with a girl he picked up at a bar.  (Not even Felix goes there, thank God.)  And while they always say the best way to get over the last one is to find the next one, it’s true that means more than sex.  In fact, lying there, with a stranger in the place where she used to be, can be an awful reminder “Everything I love has gone away.”
• But it’s not all bleak.  In fact, both Love of an Orchestra and Blue Skies is one of the more uplifting tunes you’ll hear this year.  In the first song, they sing,  “I know I’ll never be lonely/ I’ve got songs in my blood/ I’m carrying all the love of an orchestra.” Sound familiar.  Music is to Noah and the Whale what comics were to Felix (and me, apparently.)  And in Blue Skies, they resolve that “This is the last song/ That I write/ While still in love with you…’Cause blue skies are calling.”

Alright, enough of me yapping.  Give it a listen yourself!

Here’s the song that kicks off the album, The First Days of Spring.

Listen to the ENTIRE ALBUM here.

INT. TONY’S OFFICE – DAY

TONY
It was clear from that point on,
you two weren’t going to make it.

FELIX
She said she’d marry me regardless?

TONY
What was she supposed to say?

Felix doesn’t have an answer.

INT. BLAM! COMICS – RECEPTION – MOMENTS LATER

Felix leaves Tony’s office.  Gwen looks up from doodling in a sketchbook.

TONY (OS)
Issue twelve, Felix. I need it
yesterday.

FELIX
Yeah, yeah.

Gwen smiles at Felix, who walks past her, missing it.

GWEN
Um, Felix?

Felix stops at the door.

GWEN
I was wondering- I um, was hoping
that you would take a look at a
pitch for a comic I’m working on.
It’s sort of a cross between Gossip
Girl and Night of the Living-

FELIX
I really don’t have the time, Gwen.

GWEN
Oh. Okay. No problem, I know
you’re busy with Pendragon. The
next issues going to be great, I
just know it is. So, maybe some
other-

Gwen realizes she’s been babbling to herself.  Felix is already gone.

EXT. FELIX’S NEIGHBORHOOD – DAY

The boys are at it again, tossing the pigskin.

TROY
Sootch, go long!

Sootch takes off down the middle of the street. Troy throws a long pass, which goes through Sootch’s hands, hits him in the head and bounces toward Felix’s car.

Before it hits the car, Felix catches it.

Felix carries the ball to a nearby fence with metal spikes.

He pops the ball on a spike, then tosses it back to the boys who look on in horror.

MATT
Awww, man!

SOOTCH
Jerk-bag!

SKATE (OS)
Damn, Felix. That was cold!

Standing on Felix’s doorstep is SKATE, 22, African-American, whose style is a fusion of hip-hop and skater punk. Skate holds an art portfolio.

FELIX
Hey, Skate.

Felix unlocks his front door.

SKATE
Don’t “Hey, Skate” me.

INT. FELIX’S HOUSE – MOMENTS LATER

Felix enters, Skate follows.

SKATE
You can’t call a dude back?

FELIX
I don’t check my voicemail.

Stan Lee greets Felix. Felix ignores him.

SKATE
Don’t think I don’t know what
you’re doing.

FELIX
Huh?

Stan Lee goes to Skate instead, who kneels down to pet him.

SKATE
You ain’t replacing me on
Pendragon. That’s some ol’
bullshit, and I won’t stand for it.
(to Stan Lee)
No, I won’t.

FELIX
What?

Skate pulls away from the dog and confronts Felix in his living room.

SKATE
Who you want to work with instead?
Jack Rizzo?

FELIX
Rizzo?

SKATE
I saw the way you were drooling
over his stuff at Comic Con.
(talking white)
“Oh, look at the detail. You’re
crosshatching is incredible. We
definitely need to work together
soon.”
(back to normal)
Please. You were sweating him
harder than I’d sweat my bitch.
That is, if I had a bitch, which I
don’t, because I don’t have any
money, because I don’t have any
damn pages to draw!

FELIX
Skate, it’s not-

SKATE
I read the fan mail and troll the
message boards! Half the praise on
“Pendragon” is for the art. My
art. More than half!

FELIX
Skate, you’re doing a great-

SKATE
Yeah, I’m a raw talent, but the sky
is the limit for me. My shit is
getting tighter every time I pick
up a pencil and I will work for the
Big Two some day.

Skate opens his portfolio and shows Felix some comic art.

SKATE
Look here.

ON COMIC PAGE
A gorgeously rendered pencil drawing of a warrior princess fighting a dragon.

ANOTHER PAGE
A beautiful drawing of an army of knights charging into battle with dragons flying behind them.

ANOTHER PAGE
A drawing of a large dragon holding a cartoon Felix upside-down by it’s teeth. A cartoon Skate stands on the ground looking up at him. Skate’s word balloon reads, “Where the #$%! is the script, Felix?”

ANGLE ON FELIX AND SKATE
Felix flips through the portfolio. Skate looks at him, needing validation. Felix puts down the pages.

FELIX
I’m not trying to replace you,
Skate.

SKATE
Then what’s the deal? No calls, no
emails. It’s been months, man.

Felix picks up the copy of his graphic novel.

FELIX
I haven’t written it. I haven’t
done anything. For months. Except
this.

Felix hands Skate the book. Skate flips through it.

SKATE
Oh, shit. Is this you, Felix?

FELIX
No, it’s…yeah. It’s me.

SKATE
Damn. It’s thick.

Skate continues to flip through.

SKATE
That’s your old girl, isn’t it?
You guys broke up, what, a year
ago?

FELIX
Seven months and thirteen days.

SKATE
You been working on this since you
broke up?

FELIX
Not exactly.

Continuing to crank out those Over #1- Artist’s Edition sketches.  Hoping to crank out a bunch more this weekend at the Baltimore Comic-Con where I’ll be tabling at Table 31 in Artist’s Alley.  If you’d like to get one before I burn through my inventory at the show, you can order one in the store. 

FLASHBACK SEQUENCE – FELIX CAN’T GET OVER HER

INT. FELIX’S APARTMENT – DAY

Felix stomps around, a man possessed. He tosses every last vestige of Faith- pictures, letters, a pair of panties- into a box as Stan Lee watches disapprovingly. He seals the box, and tosses it in the corner of his bedroom.

INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT

A depressed Felix half watches a talk show while writing a long letter to Faith. On the TV, a self-help GURU.

GURU (ON TV)
But if you can control your
thoughts, you can take back control
of your life! Here’s a trick…

Felix turns up the volume.

GURU (ON TV)
Take a rubber band and put it
around your wrist. Every time a
thought you don’t like pops in your
head, give it a little snap.

INT. RESTAURANT – DAY

Felix eats alone at a restaurant.

GURU (VO)
See, the body and mind hate pain,
and they’ll force you to stop
having those negative thoughts.

He looks over at a HAPPY COUPLE feeding each other. He snaps a rubber band on his wrist.

INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT

Felix slumps on the couch, the floor littered with empties, finishing a twelve pack by himself.  Stan Lee pushes his empty dog dish to Felix’s feet. Felix fills it up with beer.

INT. BATHROOM

Felix busts into the bathroom and vomits in the toilet. Stan Lee follows, and vomits all over the floor beside him.

INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT

A drunken Felix trips on the Faith box. He curses it, picks it up, and tosses it on the back porch.

INT. AT COMPUTER
Felix surfs a personal ad site.

ON MONITOR

A generic personal ad for a woman seeking a man. Included is a picture of a very attractive woman.

ANGLE ON FELIX

Felix types out an email response and sends it. A moment later, he gets a reply. He opens it, smiling in anticipation, but that smile quickly fades.

ON MONITOR

A generic email response, inviting Felix to check out “hot pics” and view a webcam.

INT. GROCERY STORE – DAY

Felix sees an ATTRACTIVE WOMAN picking out fruit. She looks up at him and smiles. Felix returns a weak smile, then-

An ATTRACTIVE MAN shoulders past Felix. He smiles and tosses a box of condoms and lubricant in the woman’s shopping cart.  They kiss.

Felix’s wrist sports twenty rubber bands and he starts snapping each one.

INT. STRIP CLUB – NIGHT

Felix sits in a dingy, nearly empty club, drinking a beer and hardly watching a STRIPPER in her early 40’s gyrate on her knees in front of him.

STRIPPER

Why the sad mug, handsome?

FELIX

You’re wearing her perfume.

STRIPPER

Makin’em forget about their girlfriends is my specialty, sugar.

The stripper shakes her fake tits in his face.

STRIPPER
Your lady have tits like these?

Felix looks up.

FELIX
No. Hers were real.
(takes a drink)
And she didn’t have a cesarean
scar.

EXT. STRIP CLUB – NIGHT

Felix is tossed out of the club by a large bouncer.

EXT. FELIX’S BACK PORCH – DAY

Felix exits the house with a bag of trash. He stops, the Faith box catching his eye.

EXT. BACK YARD – DAY

Felix digs a hole with a shovel. Stan Lee looks up at him like he’s nuts. Felix tosses the Faith box in the hole, and shovels dirt on top.

INT. MOVIE THEATER

Felix watches a romantic scene on the big screen. On his wrist is the world’s thickest rubber band. Felix pulls it back as far as it will go. He lets it snap, and screams in pain. The crowd barks at him to shut up.

INT. BAR – NIGHT

Felix sits alone at the bar. The bartender pours him a shot of whiskey. Felix grabs the bottle, not the shot glass, from the bartender and chugs the whole thing. He then spits it up, all over himself and the bartender.

EXT. BAR EXTERIOR – NIGHT

Felix gets tossed by another large bouncer.

INT. FELIX’S BEDROOM – NIGHT

Felix hangs up the phone. On his lap is a local magazine, opened to the erotic services section.

EXT. FELIX’S FRONT DOOR – NIGHT

We see the back of a sexy woman in a tight red dress knocking on Felix’s door.  Felix opens the door, pleasantly surprised.

EXT. FRONT DOOR – NIGHT

Standing there is the ESCORT, a bombshell blond, extremely attractive.

ESCORT
Hey, cutie. You must be Felix?

FELIX
Wow. You’re actually-

BODYGUARD (OS)
A nice piece of stank, ain’t she
slim?

A hulking BODYGUARD, mid-30’s, stands to the side of the door.  He’d be thoroughly intimidating, were it not for the INFANT sucking on a pacifier, strapped to a baby bjorn on his chest.

FELIX
Who’re-

BODYGUARD
I’m the guy gonna lay down the
ground rules, homes. Here’s the
deal. It’s a pay-per-hole policy.

ESCORT
You said you’d stop calling it
that.

BODYGUARD
I’m handlin’ this, babe.
(to Felix)
A hundred per hole, per hour. Hour
minimum. Half up front, cash
money.

The baby’s pacifier falls out.

BODYGUARD.
Oopsie, daisy.

He pops it back in the baby’s mouth.

BODYGUARD
There you go.
(looking Felix over)
You look like a three input kinda
guy, aren’t you slim? You dirty
fuck. That’ll run you one-fifty
upfront.

Felix looks to the escort.

FELIX
Is this guy for real?

BODYGUARD
Am I for real? Did he just ask-
Alright, tough guy.

The bodyguard lifts the infant in the baby bjorn away from his chest to reveal a GUN tucked underneath the baby!

BODYGUARD
What do you think?

FELIX
Jesus!

ESCORT
Damn it, Clint! I told you not to
bring that on any more calls.

BODYGUARD
Try doin’ something freaky you
ain’t paid for in there with my
girl and we’ll see if I’m for real.

ESCORT
I’m so sorry. I thought once I gave
him a kid he’d mellow out a bit,
but-

FELIX
That’s your kid?!

ESCORT
Go back to the car, honey. Let me
handle this, he seems like a nice-

BODYGUARD
It’s always the nice ones that are
trouble. You remember that dude
drove the ice cream-

The door SLAMS on the escort and bodyguard.  Felix is gone.

INT. FRONT DOOR – MOMENTS LATER

Felix catches his breath and shakes his head. We hear muffled arguing, and then, GUNSHOT!

A look of horror crosses Felix’s face, until he hears a BABY CRYING.

BODYGUARD (OS)
It’s all good. Just blanks!

ESCORT (OS)
Give me the fucking baby!

Felix lets out a sigh of relief.

Hey everybody! I’m finally back from the Baltimore Comic-Con.  What a show!  I had a fabulous time meeting new comics fans, great new creators in artists alley, connecting with people I’ve been interacting with online, and selling books and sketches- lots of them!

I was very pleased with how well Over sold.  For a relatively new title, and one that is a little unconventional by comic book standards, there definitely was a strong response to it from a certain audience.  I was also surprised that despite the $7 price difference, the Over- Artist’s Edition sold just as well as the bargain priced standard edition.  Lesson learned- If people like your comic concept (and like you) they’ll be willing to shell out a few extra bucks for a premium version of the product.

I handed out a TON of Over postcards and did plenty of sketches in the Artist’s Edition books.  In fact, things were moving so fast, I forgot to take pictures of some of the original sketches I did.  Oh well.

I did manage to capture this Sootch sketch I put in one book.  I hope everyone who purchased the book enjoys it and I hope they come and join us over here at Overcomic.com.