PANEL 1: SPLASH. Resurrected Jesus. I imagine a combination of these:
PANEL 1: Springtime in Jerusalem, Sunday at dawn, very minimal light. The whole mood is dark blue/gray. (This color theme and mood will be used throughout the Sorrowful Mystery.) Think “Batman” when developing these panels. Terrain is like this, https://goo.gl/6au4Be, but lighting is dawn/blue/gray. The tomb should be like this, but in a more natural terrain/environment/build: https://goo.gl/CMt2jA. Three Roman guards are standing watch in front of the cave where Jesus was buried. Two talking, one looking up. Something far off seems to be coming down from the sky, looks like a shooting star coming to earth.
LOCATOR: Jerusalem, 33 A.D.
SOLDIER 1: It’s the third day, and no one has come.
SOLDIER 2: Hm, maybe the Jewish high priests got it wrong about someone trying to steal His body.
SOLDIER 3 (thought): What’s that sound?
PANEL 2: Big panel, or this scene can be turned into 2 panels. There is a great earthquake caused by an angel coming down from heaven. See image links provided. Angel’s appearance is like lightning (bluish white light?) and his clothing is white as snow. The soldiers are so freaked out they turn dead pale. They are trying to run away but trip all over themselves. Get closeup of one soldier looking petrified. Antman landing pose, Superman landing pose 1, Superman landing pose 2, Ironman landing pose
SFX: BOOM!
SOLDIER 2: Ruuuuuun!
SOLDIER 3: Wha…?!
PANEL 3: ANGEL’S POV. It’s daybreak, the light of the sun is coming out. Transition away from blue/gray color theme. The angel has rolled back the stone from the cave. Three somber Jewish women (Mary Magdalene, Mary, Salome) in the distance don’t know what happened moments ago, when it was still dark.
MARY MAGDALENE: Who will help us roll back the stone from the cave?
PANEL 4: Angel is sitting on the stone. You can see into the cave, now empty. He’s speaking to the women. Women are carrying spices in jars, walking towards a cave in the distance where Jesus was buried.
ANGEL: Do not be afraid. I know you are seeking Jesus, who was crucified...
ANGEL: ...but He is no longer here.
ANGEL: Now go and tell his disciples that He has risen from the dead!
PANEL 5: The soldiers are receiving money from the Jewish high priests. Dark blue/gray panel
HIGH PRIEST: You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.
PANEL 6: The 3 women run back to tell the disciples what happened. Faces fearful yet overjoyed. At this point, we’ve fully transitioned dark blue/grays to bright golden yellows. See example of contrast: https://goo.gl/4dPXm7
CAPTION: But will the disciples believe?
OFF PANEL: None of this is making sense…
CLEOPAS: ...wasn’t he supposed to be the Messiah who would redeem Israel?
PANEL 1: A few hours later. Two downcast disciples slowly walking (towards the camera) with the Jerusalem skyline (see images here) behind them. On the same road, you see a man approaching them. They don’t recognize that it’s Jesus.
CAPTION: Road to Emmaus. Three hours later. The disciples don’t recognize Jesus
JESUS: What are you discussing?
DISCIPLE 2 (LUIS): Are you the only one in Jerusalem who doesn’t know what’s happened in recent days?
JESUS: What sort of things?
PANEL 2: See image: https://goo.gl/TW7Rbn.
CLEOPAS: Local leaders handed over Jesus the Nazarene to a sentence of death and crucified him.
LUIS: Yet he was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.
LUIS: But some women are saying they saw angels who told them he was alive!
CLEOPAS: It’s almost impossible to believe...
PANEL 3: Still walking on the road, the village of Emmaus is getting closer.
JESUS: Can’t you see?!
JESUS: Don’t you believe?!
JESUS: From Moses through the prophets, the Scriptures prophesied that the Messiah must suffer before entering into his glory.
PANEL 4: They’ve arrived at the edge of the village and about to enter into one of the homes.
LUIS: It’s getting late, why don’t you stay with us?
PANEL 5: The three are seated at a table. Jesus takes the bread, blesses it by raising it up, and begins breaking the bread to share with them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him.
PANEL 6: Jesus vanishes. Same shot as panel 5, but without Jesus. Use “poof” asterisks/symbols where he was. The disciples are now looking at each other.
CLEOPAS: He vanished? How is it possible?! It was Him!
LUIS: Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us?
CLEOPAS: Let’s go tell the others!
CAPTION: But the disciples would not believe...
PANEL 1: They are all seated around a table, while Luis is bent over holding his knees trying to catch his breath and Cleopas is emphatically trying to convince the other disciples.
CAPTION: Back in Jerusalem. Disciples are hiding in fear of the Jewish leaders, and have locked themselves in a room on the second floor of a building.
LUIS: ...and then... we sat down... to eat...
CLEOPAS: And as soon as he blessed the bread, we knew it was him but...
LUIS: He vanished!
PANEL 2: Street view, with a disciple looking out the window with a worried look on his face.
DISCIPLE 2: Did anyone recognize you or see you come here?
PANEL 3: While they’re talking, Jesus walks through the wall like Kitty Pryde. The disciples are terrified, thinking they’ve seen a ghost, still not believing that he rose from the dead.
DISCIPLE 2 (thought): Is that his ghost?!
JESUS: Why are you afraid?
PANEL 4: He shows them the scars in his hands and feet, motioning the disciples to see that he is real. Possibly do a close-up of his pierced hand.
JESUS: Look at my hands and feet, and know that I Am.
JESUS: Have you anything to eat?
PANEL 5: Jesus is sitting at the table. A disciple brings him a baked fish. The other disciples are no longer frightened but excited/energetic that he is alive, and they are attentive to his every word.
JESUS: Why are you afraid? Your hearts have hardened and you didn’t believe when those who saw me told you...
JESUS: Everything I’ve taught you is written about me in the Scriptures,
JESUS: That I would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.
PANEL 6: The disciples look ecstatic to see Jesus. As He speaks to them, his breath starts wrapping around them, like a thin mist. (String together the speech bubbles.)
JESUS: Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
JESUS: Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven...
JESUS: and whose sins you retain are retained.
PANEL 7: Use a different camera angle from panel above.
JESUS: And teach others what I have taught you. I am with you always, until the end of the age.
JESUS: But first, stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
PANEL 1: The disciples are all gathered in the same room, some of them are in prayer, some of them are in in conversation with one another.
CAPTION: The next day
DISCIPLE: Thomas, we’ve seen him!
THOMAS: I don’t believe you…
THOMAS: Not until I see and feel the nail marks in his hands and feet
PANEL 2: Jesus’s disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus walks through the wall like Kitty Pryde, although the doors are locked.
CAPTION: One week later. The disciples are gathered behind locked doors.
PANEL 3: Jesus is standing in their midst,
JESUS: Peace be with you brothers.
PANEL 4: Jesus looks at Thomas sternly, gesturing to the scars on his hand.
JESUS: Thomas, see and feel the scars where the nails were driven through my hands!
PANEL 5: Close up. The wound on Jesus torso, big enough to fit a hand..
JESUS: See the scar in my side, where I was pierced by the soldier’s lance,
JESUS: and do not be unbelieving, but believe
PANEL 6: Thomas is kneeling, head to the ground, at the feet of Jesus. You can see scars on Jesus's feet.
THOMAS: My Lord and my God!
PANEL 7: Zoom out so we can see both of them from head to toe.
JESUS: You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.
PANEL 1: Seven disciples are in a boat fishing with nets. The time of day is evening. Photograph 1, Photograph 2, Photograph 3
CAPTION: The Sea of Tiberias. Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael, Zebedee’s sons, and two others go out to fish.
PANEL 2: It’s night time. They look discouraged because they haven’t caught anything. Maybe show them pulling up an empty net, or a close up of their faces looking bummed out.
NATHANAEL: We’ve been fishing all night and still haven’t caught anything!
PANEL 3: It’s now dawn. Jesus is standing on the shore; but the disciples don’t realize that it’s Jesus.
CAPTION: Jesus stands by the shore, but the disciples don’t realize it’s Him.
JESUS: Children, have you caught anything to eat?
SEVERAL: No
JESUS: Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something
PANEL 4: The net is teeming with fish. Five disciples are trying to pull the net onto the boat. John is talking to Peter, and is pointing to Jesus.
DISCIPLE 1: There's so many fish!
DISCIPLE 2: We won’t be able to pull the net into the boat.
JOHN: It’s the Lord!
PANEL 5: Four disciples are rowing, two are holding the net, and Peter dives into the water, causing a splash. They are 100 yards from the shore.
CAPTION: The boat is moving too slow because of the net full of fish. Peter decides to swim to shore. Later they would learn it was 153 fish, and yet the net did not tear.
PANEL 6: The boat is now on the shore and the disciples are climbing out. Peter is helping drag the net out of the water. There’s a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. . Images of ancient grills
JESUS: Bring some of the fish you just caught, and come have breakfast.
PANEL 7: Jesus is holding a fish and bread in his hands, in a gesture that suggests he is offering it to the disciples..
CAPTION: This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples after being raised from the dead.
PANEL 1: SPLASH. The Ascension. Then he led them \[out\] as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.
PANEL 1: Mary is outside the tomb weeping. See page 2 for description of the location.
CAPTION: Jesus continues to appear to the disciples. Many of them continue to have doubt, while others don’t realize that he needs to ascend into heaven.
PANEL 2: Still weeping, she bends over into the tomb and sees two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been.
ANGEL 1: Woman, why are you weeping?
MARY MAGDALENE: They have taken my Lord...
PANEL 3: Pull the camera further back on the same scene, with just a few changes. Additionally, Jesus is now in the scene standing behind Mary Magdalene.
MARY MAGDALENE: ... and I don’t know where they laid him.
PANEL 4: She turns around and sees Jesus, but it is visible on her face that she doesn’t recognize him.
JESUS: Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?
MARY MAGDALENE: Are you the gardener?
MARY MAGDALENE: Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.
JESUS: Mary!
PANEL 5: Mary Magdalene finally recognizes Jesus and is hugging him tightly, gripping him almost forcefully not wanting to let go for fear of losing him again.
MARY MAGDALENE: Rabbouni! (which means Teacher.)
JESUS: Stop clinging on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
JESUS: But go to my brothers and tell them,
JESUS: I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’
PANEL 6: Mary Magdalene is standing before the disciples and is ecstatic. Most of the disciples appear to have disbelief, while the expressions on 2-3 of them begin showing that they believe.
MARY MAGDALENE: I have seen the Lord! He told me he is returning to the Father, to our God.
PANEL 1: The eleven disciples are gathered in Galilee at the Mount of Olives (photo), (Same location as the Transfiguration. See drawing of Mount of Olives). Consider a bird’s eye view.
CAPTION: The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
PANEL 2: Jesus appears to the 11 disciples. Some are kneeling, some are prostrate, while others are in the process of kneeling but look unsure.
JESUS: All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me
JESUS: Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
PANEL 3: Do something cool and off camera here with the 3 persons of the Holy Trinity. Maybe a picture based on this painting or this painting. This could even be a splash page, or a splash page alternate.
JESUS: (OFF PANEL) baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit
PANEL 4: Jesus sitting on a rock. The disciples are cross legged around him listening attentively. Mid to close shot.
JESUS: teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
JESUS: And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.
PANEL 5: The city of Old Jerusalem in the background. Zoom out on this one so that it’s obvious that the disciples need to head back to the city in the background.
JESUS: But as I have told you before
JESUS: Do not depart from Jerusalem
JESUS: The promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak
PANEL 6: Flashback to John baptizing Jesus at the Jordan River. See this photo
JESUS: (OFF PANEL) John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the holy Spirit
PANEL 1: Disciples gathered at Mount of Olive.
DISCIPLE: Lord, are you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
JESUS: It is not for you to know the times or seasons
JESUS: that the Father has established by his own authority.
PANEL 2: They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.
JESUS: But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you,
JESUS: and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
PANELS 3-5: A sequence depicting motion as Jesus is ascending. Caption spans all three panels.
CAPTION: When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
PANEL 6: They are looking intently at the sky as he was going
PANEL 7: Similar panel as above, but now suddenly two men dressed in white garments stand beside them.
ANGEL: Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?
PANEL 8: Bird’s eye view. 11 disciples returning to Jerusalem from Mount Olive.
ANGEL: (OFF PANEL) This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.
PANEL 1: This panel is a continuation of Panels 3-5 in the previous page. It picks up where the apostles left off. They see him ascend into heaven in the previous panels, but only the readers know what will happen next. In this panel, we see Jesus seated in a thrown to the right of the Father and a depiction of the Holy Spirit to the left of the Father. All the angeles in heaven are standing to the right and left of the throne. Here are a few ideas for this: Image 1, Image 2, Image 3
CAPTION: As it was prophesied by the prophet Daniel, Jesus ascended into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of the Father
PANEL 2: Flashback to Daniel. He is sleeping and appears visibly perturbed, as you might imagine someone who is having a restless dream.
PANEL 3: We are now in the dream. Daniel is in his own dream watching Jesus coming to heaven in a cloud.
PANEL 4: Jesus is sitting down at his place on the throne
GOD THE FATHER: Receive sovereignty, splendor and kingship
GOD THE FATHER: All the nations, peoples, and tongues will serve you.
PANEL 5: Jesus is now wearing a crown on his head.
GOD THE FATHER: Your reign is an everlasting one, and shall not pass away and shall never be destroyed.
PANEL 1: Jerusalem. The disciples are gathered in the upper room praying. Peter is standing in the midst of the brothers, a group of about one hundred and twenty people in one place.
PETER: My brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled concerning Judas.
PETER: He betrayed Jesus and handed him to his enemies.
PANEL 2: Judas is hanging from a tree already dead. The rope looks like it’s tearing. There is a large jagged boulder just under Judas. The mood is somber so use blueish gray colors here. Let’s aim for TEEN rating here. Nothing gory. One way to accomplish this may be to zoom out a lot on this one.
PETER: (OFF PANEL) He then bought a piece of land with the money he received after turning Jesus over.
PETER: (OFF PANEL) On that same land, he hung himself and fell headlong, bursting open in the middle, and all his insides spilled out.
PANEL 3: The rope is snapped and frayed. Judas is slumped over the boulder
PETER: (OFF PANEL) As it is written in the Book of Psalms, ‘May another take his office.’ Because of this, one of you will take his place.
PANEL 4: Back to the upper room. Peter is holding a scroll addressing the disciples. Two of the disciples are separated from the rest and standing in front of Peter.
CAPTION: So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.
PETER: “Lord, you know the hearts of all. Show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place as an apostle, a calling which Judas rejected.”
LOWER CAPTION: Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles.
PANEL 1: The 12 disciples and Mary are in the room. This splash page should depict this group of thirteen with flames over their heads. This is a great example. This is another example.
PANEL 1: The disciples are gathered together in the upper room, similar to Page 12, Panel 1.
SPEAKER: Remember what Christ said to us before his resurrection, even before his death on the Cross
SPEAKER: That he would not leave us orphans.
PANEL 2: Flashback to Jesus during the last supper.
JESUS: If you love me, you will keep my word
JESUS: My Father will love you, and we will come to you and make our dwelling with you.
PANEL 3:
JESUS: The Father will send the Advocate to you.
JESUS: The Holy Spirit will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.
PANEL 4:
JESUS: Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
JESUS: Rejoice that I am going to the Father because he is greater than I
PANEL 5:
SPEAKER: Did he not tell us that it is better for us that He go. Otherwise, the Advocate cannot come to us.
SPEAKER: Jesus wanted to tell us more, but we could not yet bear it.
SPEAKER: But the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.h He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.
Acts 2:1-13
PANEL 1: Continuation of the upper room from Page 13. The whole group is gathered in prayer at dawn — the Twelve (Matthias now among them), Mary at the center, the women, about 120 in all. Quiet, warm candlelight, pre-dawn stillness. Calm before the storm.
CAPTION: The morning of Pentecost. Fifty days after the Resurrection.
PANEL 2: SUDDENLY. A violent rush of wind tears through the room, though the windows are shut. Robes and hair blown back, a scroll scatters, everyone startles and looks up. The room shakes. This is a "power" beat -- big, dynamic.
SFX: WHOOOOOSH
DISCIPLE: What — what is that?!
PANEL 3: Close on the group. Small flames, like tongues of fire, part and settle above each person's head -- Mary serene with eyes closed, the apostles wide-eyed. Light shifts to warm gold. (Full transition into the "glory" palette.)
CAPTION: And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them.
PANEL 4: The apostles are on their feet, faces lit, speaking. Overlapping speech bubbles in different scripts/alphabets to show the miracle of tongues. Peter looks at his own hands, stunned at what's coming out of his mouth.
PETER (thought): These aren't my words...
PANEL 5: Exterior. A Jerusalem street fills with a diverse crowd -- pilgrims from every nation, every kind of dress -- all turning toward the house, drawn by the sound.
CAPTION: Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem devout men from every nation under heaven.
PANEL 6: In the crowd, amazed faces. Each person hears his own language coming from the house. Speech bubbles in different tongues, all pointing back to the same doorway.
PILGRIM 1: Aren't these men all Galileans?
PILGRIM 2: Then how do I hear my own language?
SCOFFER: (smirking) They've just had too much new wine.
Acts 2:14-41
PANEL 1: Peter steps out onto a threshold above the crowd, the other eleven rising behind him. He is transformed -- this is not the man who denied Christ; he is bold now. Low, heroic angle.
PETER: These men aren't drunk — it's nine in the morning!
PETER: No... this is what the prophet Joel promised.
PANEL 2: A vision-inset opens above the crowd: God pouring out the Spirit like light/water over people of every age -- sons and daughters, young and old -- beneath an opened sky.
PETER (caption): "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy."
PANEL 3: Back to Peter, pointing -- but pleading more than accusing. A faint Cross stands behind him.
PETER: Jesus of Nazareth — proven to you by God through mighty works —
PETER: you handed over and crucified.
PANEL 4: Behind Peter, the faint Cross gives way to the risen Christ in soft glory-light (Akiane likeness). The crowd's faces lift toward it.
PETER: But God raised him from the dead — and we are all witnesses.
PETER: God has made him both Lord and Christ — this Jesus whom you crucified.
PANEL 5: The crowd, "cut to the heart." A man clutches his chest; a woman covers her mouth; a young man steps forward.
CROWD: What are we to do?
PETER: Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ — and you will receive the Holy Spirit.
PANEL 6: Wide shot. People being baptized -- apostles laying on hands, water, joy spreading through a crowd that stretches down the street. Pull back so the scale is felt.
CAPTION: There were added that day about three thousand souls.
CAPTION: The Church was born.
Acts 2:42-47
PANEL 1: Interior, a modest Jerusalem house, evening. A crowded table. The apostles teaching, people leaning in to listen -- old, young, rich robes and poor ones at the same table. Warm lamplight. The awe from the street has become something steadier.
CAPTION: And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
PANEL 2: Close on hands. Bread being broken and passed. Deliberate echo of the Last Supper -- same framing, different hands. This should land quietly, not be spelled out.
CAPTION: The breaking of the bread.
PANEL 3: Outside a doorway. A woman hands over a deed or a purse to one of the apostles. Behind her, her house. She is not sad about it. Another man is already carrying sacks of grain to a family in the street.
CAPTION: All who believed were together and had all things in common.
CAPTION: They sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need.
PANEL 4: Street level. Peter mid-stride, reaching a hand toward someone we cannot see yet. Bystanders stopping to stare. Something has just happened.
CAPTION: And fear came upon every soul; and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
PANEL 5: The temple steps at morning. The believers arriving together, greeted warmly by ordinary Jerusalemites. No hiding anymore -- the doors that were locked in Panel 1 of Page 15 are wide open now.
CAPTION: And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes,
CAPTION: they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God.
PANEL 6: A young couple with a child steps into the group, hesitant, welcomed. Others behind them in the street, watching, deciding.
CAPTION: And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Acts 1:8; the sending of the Apostles
PANEL 1: The upper room again, but changed. Bags packed. Sandals being tied. The apostles preparing to leave the city. Morning light through the same window the wind came through.
CAPTION: The room where they had hidden became the room they were sent from.
PANEL 2: Flashback panel, cooler palette, thin border to mark it as memory. Jesus on the Mount of Olives, the moment before the Ascension, speaking directly to them.
JESUS: You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
JESUS: And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
PANEL 3: Back to the present, full color. The apostles at the city gate, splitting off in different directions. Peter one way, Thomas another, Andrew another. Roads leading out to the horizon.
CAPTION: They went.
PANEL 4: A tight row of small vignettes across the panel, almost like a filmstrip: an apostle preaching in a foreign market, another baptizing at a riverbank, another before a hostile crowd, another writing by lamplight. Different lands, different faces, the same fire.
CAPTION: To places whose names they did not know. To people who had never heard it.
PANEL 5: Back in Jerusalem. Mary, in the doorway of the upper room, watching the last of them go. She is not diminished here -- she is the still center. The one who said yes first, and is still saying it.
CAPTION: And she who first received him remained, praying, in the heart of the Church her Son had built.
PANEL 6: Pull way back and up. Jerusalem from above, roads running out from it in every direction like rays. Small figures on each road.
CAPTION: The fire did not stay in the room.
Draft 2026-07-26. Hybrid approach: the Dormition on earth rising into the Revelation 12 vision. Sourced against Munificentissimus Deus §44, CCC 966, John Damascene, and Revelation 12. See 01-sources.md.
Theology watch: the Church defined that Mary was assumed, never that she died. Captions use the definition's own neutral wording. She is shown asleep, never dead. No burial, no empty tomb. Flag this page for the priest reviewer.
PANEL 1: The Assumption. Mary rising, but not floating passively upward like a balloon. She is being received — drawn up. Arms open, head tilted back, eyes open and full of light. Not a girl anymore; a woman who has carried everything and is finally being carried.
Below her, small at the bottom of the frame, the apostles on a hillside, faces upturned, one shielding his eyes. Above and around her the light does not come from the sun in the sky. It comes from further up, out of frame.
Composition note: keep her the whole vertical axis of the page. This is the counterpart to the Resurrection splash on page 1 — there, Christ rising by his own power; here, Mary raised by his. The two images should rhyme and never be mistaken for each other.
Style: the "gritty but soft" bar applies. Not a pastel holy card. See ../../../references/style.md.
CAPTION: When the course of her earthly life was finished, she was taken up, body and soul, into heavenly glory.
PANEL 1: Years later. A small house, plain and clean. Mary is old now — lined face, gray hair under a simple veil, hands worn. She is grinding grain or mending, doing something ordinary. Sunlight through a doorway. Draw her age honestly; do not soften her back into a young woman.
CAPTION: The years went by, the way years do.
PANEL 2: The young Church in her house. A handful of believers seated on the floor around her, a child in her lap, John nearby. She is talking, and they are listening the way people listen to the last person alive who was actually there.
BELIEVER: Tell us again. About the angel.
MARY: (smiling) You have heard it a hundred times.
BELIEVER: Tell us anyway.
PANEL 3: Close on Mary's face as she begins. Her eyes go somewhere far off. Behind her, faint and unbordered, the ghost of the Annunciation — a suggestion of wings and light, no more than a watermark.
MARY: I said yes.
MARY: I did not understand any of it. I said yes anyway.
PANEL 4: Exterior, dusk. Roads from several directions. On each one, a traveler — the apostles, older now, weathered from years of missions, converging on the same town. No one sent for them. Each is simply coming.
CAPTION: They came from wherever they had been sent. No one had sent for them.
PANEL 5: The apostles in the doorway of the house, dusty from the road, seeing her. Peter's face. These are men who have grown old preaching, and they look like sons walking into their mother's room.
PETER: Mother.
Note: this is the doctrinally delicate page. She falls asleep. She is not shown dead.
PANEL 1: The room, lamplit, night. Mary lying on a simple bed, the apostles kneeling and standing around her in a loose circle. John at her right hand. The composition should quietly echo the Last Supper — a gathering around one person, everything about to change.
CAPTION: The Church has a word for what happened next, and the word is not "died."
PANEL 2: Mary's face, eyes closing. Utterly peaceful. This is sleep. Warm light on her skin, not pallor. Her hand is in John's.
CAPTION: The Dormition. The falling asleep.
PANEL 3: Her hands folded. The rest of the frame goes soft and out of focus. Very quiet panel — almost no detail. Let the page breathe here.
MARY: (small, barely a whisper) Behold... the handmaid of the Lord.
PANEL 4: The apostles. Nobody moves. Thomas has a hand over his mouth. James is looking at the floor. John has not let go of her hand. Grief, but not despair — these men have seen a tomb come up empty before.
PANEL 5: Wide, from above, looking down on the room. The circle of them around her. The lamp flames all lean the same direction, though there is no wind. First hint that something is coming.
CAPTION: In your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life.
PANEL 1: The light in the room changes. Everyone turns toward the source. Shadows swing hard across the walls. Same room, same night, but the palette is going gold.
PANEL 2: Mary, still asleep, beginning to rise from the bed. Weightless. The apostles scrambling back, John reaching for her.
JOHN: No — wait —
PANEL 3: Her eyes open. And she is not old anymore. Not young either — she is whole, the way the risen Christ was whole on page 2. Same visual logic, deliberately: the risen body. She is fully herself and fully alive.
CAPTION: Body and soul. Not her spirit only. Her.
PANEL 4: Through the roof, the ceiling opening the way the sky opened at the Baptism, or the way the wind came through at Pentecost. Mary rising into it. Below, the apostles on their knees, faces lit gold from above.
CAPTION: It was fitting that she who carried the Creator should not see corruption.
PANEL 5: Exterior, wide. The house from outside, a column of light standing straight up out of it into the night sky. The town asleep and unaware. Only these eleven men know what is happening.
CAPTION: The Church would take nineteen centuries to define it. They watched it happen.
Revelation 12:1-6. Register shift: cosmic. This is the biggest visual swing in the book after the Resurrection splash.
PANEL 1: Hard cut. No transition. We are outside the world now. A woman standing in the sky, clothed with the sun — light pouring off her — the moon beneath her feet, twelve stars circling her head like a crown.
CAPTION: A great sign appeared in heaven.
CAPTION: A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
PANEL 2: Below and facing her, filling the bottom of the frame, the dragon. Huge, red, seven heads, ten horns, seven diadems. Its tail sweeping stars out of the sky like sparks. Genuinely frightening — but rated TEEN, so: menace and scale, no gore.
CAPTION: And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon.
CAPTION: His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth.
PANEL 3: The dragon coiled and waiting beneath her, mouth open, ready for the child. She is with child, and unafraid.
CAPTION: And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child.
PANEL 4: The child caught up to God and the throne — a streak of light out of the dragon's reach, upward, gone. The dragon's heads all snapping after it and missing.
CAPTION: Her child was caught up to God and to his throne.
PANEL 5: Bottom of the page, small inset, cool palette, the oldest promise: the garden. A heel above a serpent's head. Eve turned away in shadow; the woman in the sky above blazing.
CAPTION: He said it in the garden, at the very beginning. That the woman's offspring would crush the serpent's head.
CAPTION: The dragon has known her name a long time.
PANEL 1: Back on earth. Dawn in the empty room. The bed is empty, the lamp burned out, morning light coming in level through the doorway. The apostles are still there, sitting on the floor where they knelt all night.
CAPTION: They stayed until morning.
PANEL 2: Peter and John in the doorway looking out at the sunrise. Neither of them is grieving. Something has settled in their faces.
JOHN: She is the first.
PETER: The first?
JOHN: The first of us.
PANEL 3: The theological beat, done visually rather than stated. A wide panel: Christ risen on the left edge, Mary assumed on the right edge, and between them a long line of ordinary people — every age, every century, every kind of face, including faces that look like the reader's — rising.
Art note: this is the most important panel on the page. Put people in it who look like the audience. Not robed saints. Kids, grandmothers, teenagers.
CAPTION: Christ rose first, by his own power. Then his mother, by his.
CAPTION: Then everyone who belongs to him.
PANEL 4: Tight on one of those ordinary faces in the line — a teenage girl, present day, looking up. Hold on her for a beat.
CAPTION: What happened to her is not a story about how different she was from you.
PANEL 5: Pull back to the sky above the sunrise. High and small, almost lost in the light, the woman crowned with stars. And beside her, not yet clearly seen, the suggestion of a throne.
CAPTION: It is a promise about what is going to happen to you.
CAPTION: But she was not finished being honored.
Draft 2026-07-26. Hybrid approach, closing the Revelation 12 vision opened on page 23. Sourced against CCC 966, Ad Caeli Reginam, 1 Kings 2:19-20, Psalm 45, and the Magnificat. See 01-sources.md.
Theology watch: her queenship is derivative. Christ crowns her; she never crowns herself. Only Christ is King (Ad Caeli Reginam §39). Her power on the page is intercession, never authority of her own. Flag this page for the priest reviewer.
This is the last mystery. Page 30 closes the book.
PANEL 1: The Coronation. Christ enthroned, and Mary kneeling before him as he sets the crown of twelve stars on her head. The action is his. His hands, her bowed head. She is receiving, not claiming.
She is not a girl and not an old woman. She is the whole woman, the way she was on page 22 when she woke. Robed in gold, but the gold should read as given rather than owned.
Around and behind the throne, out of focus and vast, the communion of saints. Angels. Depth going back forever. Keep them soft so the two figures hold the eye.
Composition note: this is the third and last of the book's big vertical images. Page 1 was Christ rising by his own power. Page 19 was Mary raised by his. Here they are in one frame and the relationship is unmistakable: he is seated, she is kneeling. A reader who knows nothing about Catholicism should be able to look at this page and correctly guess who is God.
Style: gritty but soft. Weight and grain. Not a holy card. See ../../../references/style.md.
CAPTION: At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.
1 Kings 2:19-20. Old Testament flashback. Cooler palette, thin borders to mark it as history.
PANEL 1: Hard cut backward, a thousand years. Jerusalem, Solomon's court. Stone, torchlight, hard-eyed men along the walls. A young king on a throne.
CAPTION: To understand the crown, you have to know what a crown meant in her family.
PANEL 2: A woman enters the hall. Older, composed, unescorted. Every man in the room turns. Note for the artist: she is not being announced. She does not need to be.
CAPTION: In the kingdom of David the queen was never the king's wife. Kings had many wives.
PANEL 3: The moment that matters. Solomon rises from his throne and bows to her. The king. Bowing. Draw the shock of it on the courtiers' faces.
CAPTION: The queen was the king's mother.
PANEL 4: A second throne is carried in and set at the king's right hand. She sits. The two of them side by side, him slightly higher.
CAPTION: And the king had a seat brought for the king's mother, and she sat on his right.
PANEL 5: She leans toward him and speaks. He is already nodding before she finishes.
BATHSHEBA: I have one small request to make of you. Do not refuse me.
SOLOMON: Make your request, my mother. I will not refuse you.
PANEL 6: Snap back to the throne room of page 25. Same composition as panel 4 above, but transfigured, full color and glory. Mary seated at Christ's right.
CAPTION: The angel told her that her son would be given the throne of his father David.
CAPTION: This is what came with it.
Luke 1:46-55. The emotional center of the mystery. Two timelines, intercut.
PANEL 1: Sixty years earlier. A dirt road in the hill country. Mary, a pregnant teenager, dusty, sandals barely worth the name, walking fast toward her cousin's house. Nothing about her looks important.
CAPTION: She was maybe fifteen when she said it.
PANEL 2: Split panel, hard vertical divide. LEFT: the girl on the road, head thrown back, laughing as she sings it. RIGHT: the crowned woman at the throne, the exact same tilt of the head. Same face, sixty years and one glory apart.
MARY (left): My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
PANEL 3: The girl again, on Elizabeth's doorstep, hands on her cousin's arms.
MARY: For he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.
MARY: For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
PANEL 4: Wide. Pull out from the throne to show who is actually there watching. Not only saints and angels. Ordinary people, century after century of them, in the clothes of every era right up to now. Thousands. All of them looking at her.
Art note: this panel is the literal fulfillment of the line above it. Every generation, in one frame. Put faces in modern dress near the front.
CAPTION: All generations.
PANEL 5: Close on the girl's face on the road, mid-song, eyes bright and a little fierce. She has no idea. Or she does.
MARY: He has put down the mighty from their thrones...
MARY: ...and exalted those of low degree.
PANEL 6: The crown settling onto her head. Tight, quiet, almost gentle after the size of panel 4.
CAPTION: She was not guessing. She was reporting.
John 2:1-5. Cana. Her office is intercession.
PANEL 1: Flashback again, warm this time. A village wedding at Cana. Crowded courtyard, music, lamps strung overhead. Jesus at a table with a few young men, laughing at something.
CAPTION: There is exactly one thing she is recorded doing with the influence she has.
PANEL 2: Mary at the edge of the courtyard. She has noticed something nobody else has: the servants clustered anxiously around empty jars. Nobody told her. She just saw it.
CAPTION: She notices before anyone asks.
PANEL 3: She crosses to him and says four words. Not a demand. A statement, laid in front of him.
MARY: They have no wine.
JESUS: O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.
PANEL 4: She does not argue with him. She turns to the servants and points at her son. This is the panel that carries the entire doctrine.
MARY: Do whatever he tells you.
PANEL 5: The miracle happening in the background, out of focus, behind her: water going dark in the jars, the steward's face. She is in the foreground, watching her son work, not looking at the wine at all.
CAPTION: Those are the last words anyone records her saying.
PANEL 6: Back to the throne. The crowned queen leaning toward her son the way Bathsheba leaned toward Solomon, saying something we cannot hear.
CAPTION: She has not changed her method.
CAPTION: She notices. She tells him. She points at him.
Revelation 12:13-17. The vision from page 23 closes here.
PANEL 1: Snap back to the cosmic register of page 23. The dragon, thrown down, on the earth now. Enormous and humiliated and furious. Looking up.
CAPTION: The dragon lost.
PANEL 2: It cannot reach her. Show it plainly: the woman in the sky, out of range, the dragon's rage breaking against nothing.
CAPTION: He could not reach the woman.
PANEL 3: So it turns. The dragon's heads swinging away from the sky and down toward the earth. Toward towns, roads, houses.
CAPTION: Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring.
PANEL 4: Ground level, present day. An ordinary street. A teenager walking home with earbuds in. A mother carrying groceries. A man leaving a church. Utterly normal. And the shadow of something enormous falling across the pavement behind them.
CAPTION: On those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus.
PANEL 5: The teenager stops. Does not turn around. Just stops, and reaches into a pocket.
PANEL 6: A hand closing around a rosary. That is all. No glow, no beam of light. A hand and some beads.
CAPTION: That is you.
Closing page of the book.
PANEL 1: Up. The queen at the throne, and she is not looking at her son now. She is looking down, out of the frame, at the street on the last page. At the reader.
CAPTION: She noticed.
PANEL 2: Her leaning in to say something to the King. Same posture as Bathsheba on page 26, panel 5. Same posture as Cana on page 28, panel 3. Third time the reader has seen it, and now they know what it means.
MARY: I have one small request.
PANEL 3: Christ's face. He is already listening. Warm, direct, entirely in command. Nothing in this panel should suggest she has power over him. Everything in it should suggest he likes being asked.
PANEL 4: Pull all the way back. The whole book in one image if it can be managed: the empty tomb, the ascending Christ, the fire over the upper room, the woman clothed with the sun, the throne. Five moments in one frame, small, strung together like beads.
CAPTION: Five mysteries. The tomb. The cloud. The fire. The woman. The crown.
PANEL 5: Down to the street again. The teenager walking on, rosary in hand, the shadow gone from the pavement behind them. Morning light. They are not special. That is the point.
CAPTION: You just prayed them.
PANEL 6: Last panel of the book. Small, quiet, bottom corner. The beads themselves, resting in an open palm, ordinary and worn.
CAPTION: Say the next one tomorrow.
The Ultimate Comic Book Rosary · Catholic Comix · generated 2026-07-26 from the working script. Do not edit this page; edit the script and rebuild.
