Black Thursday.
Synopsis
1929, London. Phillip Broadwood is a young, inexperienced stock broker working for a small brokerage house. Following the devastating market crashes of Black Thursday, and the following Black Tuesday October 28th, 1929 a burnt-out Broadwood stumbles along the streets of London in a daze, without his umbrella and being soaked by rain. All his fortunes and inherited wealth have been stripped away following the massive stock crashes in the US and London markets.
Samuel Baxter, Phillip Broadwood's mentor at the brokerage house, has been missing since the day of the crash. Broadwood had invested all of his money under the tutelage of Baxter, and now seeks him out, hoping to find a way to recover his investments, or at the very least find an explanation for Baxter's reckless actions with his money. The only clue that Broadwood has is the scribbled name of Edvard Branch and an address at the odd end of town, found on Baxter's vacant desk.
Broadwood meets Branch, an old occultist and pawnbroker, in his dank shop. Branch gives little indication as to the whereabouts of Samuel Baxter, but it seems that he knows much more than he is letting on. He leaves Broadwood with little information other than the suggestion that he search for his umbrella instead of Baxter.
Meanwhile at Broadwood's brokerage house, a cloud of utter doom hangs over all left behind in the wake of the monumental crash. The men are ruined, but it seems that an even more damnable fate awaits them.
Broadwood wanders the streets, trying in vain to remember where he left his umbrella and slowly inching his way towards the truth, finding clues and speaking to people about Baxter's whereabouts. He follows the trail of Samuel Baxter through the different strata of London, from the lavish last-hurrah party of a group of desperate aristocrats to the smoky halls of whorehouses and the last hidden opium dens, from the erstwhile glorious walls of his brokerage house to a solemn meeting with a broken man near the docks. The trail of clues is sparse and littered with odd objects, with many people speaking of a dog they saw instead of a man.
Halfway through the story, Broadwood finds Edvard Branch again, this time reclined and decomposing in the rear of an opium den. Hoping to gain his confidence and find out what happened to Baxter, Phillip Broadwood smokes opium with Branch. The opium fuels a fever dream, which intermittently obscures Broadwood's vision and thought processes throughout the rest of the story. Broadwood is finally given a few leads by Branch and continues on his quest.
Along the way, Broadwood learns more and more about the actions of Baxter: in a trance of unstoppable greed, the man has entered into an occult pact with Edvard Branch, participating in an ancient rite which has granted him the gift of prophecy regarding the rise and fall of the stock market. The contract is seemingly successful however, it requires blood; Baxter first furnishes his own, but everytime he used the gift of the pact, a tangible personification of the pact would grow, to the point that an (imagined?) demon dog follows him on the darkened streets of London. Forced to give the pact more and more blood, Baxter has turned to killing others as well. The murder has led to more madness, Baxter leading a double life at the brokerage, struggling with his inner demons.
As he continues his journey through the psychedlic bowels of London, Broadwood wonders what he hopes to gain from Baxter's explanation of his actionsor is it perhaps revenge that he seeks? Finally he finds Baxter, only to witness him killed by the demon dog before he can get the full story. Passing out from his opium overdose, he is found later by the authorities and it is assumed that he has killed Baxter in a fit of rage.
Though these are the general events of the story, the plot points are revealed out of order so that the revelation of certain facts will be of more surprise to the reader, in the fashion of a serial story. Ambiguity will be built into the story and artwork so that Broadwood will question what is real and what is his drug-induced vision: the demon dog, the people he meets, Samuel Baxter's final ravings, the accuracy of the occult prophecies, etc.
The significance of the title refers to first of two crashes (the other being the following 'Black' Tuesday) that devasted the New York stock exchange, leading to the immediate collapse of several world markets, including London's. Following the original Black Thursday, there were some attempts to rectify the situation and there was a short period of hope before the market completely crashed this parallels the journey of the hapless Phillip Broadwood, who encounters strange moments of hope along his downward spiral into damnation and oblivion. Also significant is the date of the crash, as Broadwood comes to his end on his own Black Thursday, as the clock strikes midnight and ushers in Halloween.
Thematically, the downfall of Phillip Broadwood mirrors the fall and crash of the stock market, and the hopes and dreams of these desperate men. Recurring visual elements will reinforce the idea of "falling" dripping rain, ink, dripping dog saliva, the world filtered through hazy opium visions, etc. In addition, the use of heavy vertical black bars in various parts of the artwork will reflect the fear of imprisonment and damnation as the men try in vain to escape the consequences of their actions.