A black-and-white comic. A stippled, realistically-proportioned hand hangs from the top of the image. A caption reads, "About nine years ago I started college." One hand clenches, angular, while another contorts itself to grip the first hand's wrist. The next caption reads, "Eight and a half years ago I dropped out because of my increasingly disabling anxiety disorder." A hand grips the caption, "Then a lot of stuff happened." A hand gently reaches up. "Yesterday I opened a website," a hand clutches. "And saw that I passed all my classes this semester, Spring 2025." A hand grips a pen. "After a decade of part-time, and isolation," a closed, warped fist, "and panic attacks, and failures," two hands grip one another desperately and unevenly like a root system or a dead octopus. "I now have a B.A. in Applied Math." A hand hangs loosely, relaxed. "I did it." Then, in blank space, "Now all that's left is the rest."
PAGE 1 - A fellow decides to make a dinner, even if it seems impossible to others. Panel 1 - Fellow: "Hmm... Yes... Yes, I think I will..." Panel 2 - Fellow: "I will make a dinner." Panel 3 - Guest A: "Did he say a dinner?" Guest B: "It just can't be... dinners are so hard to make!" Guest C: "And the easy dinners are depressing..." Guest D: "It's the most expensive meal of the day!" Panel 4 - Fellow: "OH! My sweet people." Panel 5 - Fellow: "Comrades." Panel 6 - Fellow: "Friends!"
PAGE 2 - The fellow assures his comrades of the dinner, then serves it to the pleasure of all. Panel 1 - Fellow: "This very evening, I will prepare a roast chicken, spinach salad with chickpeas, and fried plantains as a treat." Panel 2 - Fellow: "To you all, I will serve this dinner," Panel 3 - Fellow: "for free." Panel 4 - Narration: And so like their ancestors before them and their ancestors' ancestors and so on, the gathered companions partook in that joyous hominin habit of the feast. One after another, they thought to themselves, How strange. While Kronos's spiral guarantees my descent into lonesome perdition, so too does it assure a sweet return to this moment of peace, plenitude, & goodwill.
