Le Boxeur casqué

One row of four panels across the top of the page, followed by a single panel that takes up the rest of the page.

1 - Two guys sit across from each other in a dinner-type restaurant.  From the lack of light outside, it's clear that it's late night (or early morning).  Also, it's raining.  The guys both look pretty rundown.  They're tired and worn, but it feels like they've been this way for a long time.  One guy is tall and lean.  The other is short and stocky.  Tall is smoking, and judging by the ashtray, has been going at it for a while.  They nurse drinks, but there's no sign of food at the moment.

TALL: I still don't see what' so impressive about it.

2 - Focus in on Tall as he takes a drag and continues on his oral contemplations.

TALL: I mean, doesn't running around wearing a helmet take most of the risk out of it?

3 - Switch back out to the two.  Short takes a hard look at Tall (who continues that drag).  No dialogue.

4 - Focus in on Short.  He leans in a bit to emphasize his words.

SHORT: Does it?

5 - Switch locations completely.  We're now in a shady back alley.  Still night time.  This alley is even more run down than Tall and Short.  Windows are mostly boarded, broken, or missing.  Few, if any, are whole.  Doors are barred or likewise missing.  The rain falls hard against the pavement.  Puddles pool everywhere.  There's plenty of garbage cans, a number of them overturned, spilling their contents across the sidewalk and street.  In the centre of all this is a lone figure.  His back to the reader, he walks up the street.  It is Le Boxeur casqué.  It looks like he's wearing a trench coat, but it's actually one of those boxing robe / coat things that boxers wear on their way up to the ring.  He also has boxing boots and gloves on.  And, of course, true to his name, he wears a helmet on his head.  It's a round, open face helmet (kind of like this, but without the visor and with two stripes going from across the top from the back of the neck to the forehead).  He is the only figure on the page.

CAPTION (SHORT): Then how come you aren't out there every night like he is?

This is based off of a sketch that I came across by chance.  A boxing-type who was wearing a helmet (with Le Boxeur casqué written across the top because it was a French sketch).  I really like the idea of a dude dressed up as a boxer with a motorcycle helmet running around the streets of a city at night trying to right wrongs.  It sounds super fun in my books.

I also like this page, because I think it could act as a solid first or last page in a book about LBC.