--So you've got a new idea for a comic?
--That's right, boss.
--Have you got someone to draw it?
--I'm going to draw it.
(Sound of desk chair creaking)
--Hmmn. I wasn't that happy with your drawings for Ratman. He was supposed to look handsome and slightly menacing. You made him look funny.
--Believe me, it's not that easy to make a rat look handsome.
--Epstein didn't have any trouble in Ratman one through three.
--But Epstein made him look like a squirrel. That's why you took him off it. Don't you remember?
(Sound of chair creaking)
--Hmmn. But he was a handsome squirrel. Quite handsome.
--Well, it doesn't matter. I don't have to draw any rodents for this new comic. It's all people. The people in Ratman looked okay, didn't they?
--Yeah ... I suppose they were ... okay. But now you've got me thinking. Maybe you were on to something with Ratman. Maybe we should have made him funny. You know, tongue-in-cheek. Very popular these days.
--I'm not here to talk about Ratman. Ratman is history. I want to talk about Cloakman.
--Cloakman? That's your new idea?
--That's right.
--Makes me think of cloakroom. Does he wear a cloak?
--Sure, he could wear a cloak. He probably should wear a cloak. But the name doesn't refer to what he wears, it refers to his power. He can cloak things.
--You mean he can make them invisible?
--No, not invisible. He can cloak them with other images. Make them look like something else. You see that pencil on your desk. He could make it look like a pen.
--Would it be a pen?
--Well ... no. It would just look like one.
--You mean if I picked it up, it would still write like a pencil and feel like a pencil?
--Yeah.
--Doesn't seem like much of a power to me.
--You'd be surprised. Consider the possibilities. Suppose Cloakman needed to smuggle a diamond across an international border. He could just make it look like a tie clip or a boutonniere and wear it through.
--What's a boutonniere?
--You know, it's like a spray flowers you put in a buttonhole ... in your lapel.
(Pause)
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