Commentary from Published August 23, 2016
The 300th strip is some sort of milestone. I have never gotten 300 of anything done in my life, so this should be really kind of special for me. But the thing is, with deadlines and everything, I couldn’t spend too much time thinking about it because the deadline for #301 approaches, and #302, and #303 and so on.
So what to do with #300? With #100 and #200 I didn’t really do anything special. With Sexy Losers, anniversary strips were different in that they were 4th wall breakers and included as many characters as possible. But depression comix isn’t a funny comic, and I believe that kind of thing would be out of place. Same with any self-congratulatory pats on the back… believe me, I’d rather be doing a funny comic or a horror comic or something different, but depression comix is the comic I have to do. I can’t congratulate myself on that. I wish I didn’t have the experience I had to have in order to do this comic. So the best thing for me I think is to do is business as usual.
However, for this comic, I went back to old sketchbooks and looked up ideas that never got used. This idea was sketched out around the same time as #40, but I didn’t think I had the patience to draw it, and at the time I didn’t think anyone would understand it. I thought it would be a good strip for me to do for #300, because it returned me back to the mental state I was in earlier in the comic when things were more symbolic and there was less dialogue.
After it was published, people interpreted it in various ways — some positive and some negative. Some saw it as a kind of solidarity, we may seem alone but the truth is we aren’t. Some saw it as a sign that we are truly alone. For me, this was a great reaction, because the ambiguity helped create some interesting responses.
At one point I considered using “I’m alone” in different languages in final panel, but scrapped it because it was too much work.
Also, in the last panel I cheated again and used Photoshop to make the Earth look a little better and added stars. Oops.
So what to do with #300? With #100 and #200 I didn’t really do anything special. With Sexy Losers, anniversary strips were different in that they were 4th wall breakers and included as many characters as possible. But depression comix isn’t a funny comic, and I believe that kind of thing would be out of place. Same with any self-congratulatory pats on the back… believe me, I’d rather be doing a funny comic or a horror comic or something different, but depression comix is the comic I have to do. I can’t congratulate myself on that. I wish I didn’t have the experience I had to have in order to do this comic. So the best thing for me I think is to do is business as usual.
However, for this comic, I went back to old sketchbooks and looked up ideas that never got used. This idea was sketched out around the same time as #40, but I didn’t think I had the patience to draw it, and at the time I didn’t think anyone would understand it. I thought it would be a good strip for me to do for #300, because it returned me back to the mental state I was in earlier in the comic when things were more symbolic and there was less dialogue.
After it was published, people interpreted it in various ways — some positive and some negative. Some saw it as a kind of solidarity, we may seem alone but the truth is we aren’t. Some saw it as a sign that we are truly alone. For me, this was a great reaction, because the ambiguity helped create some interesting responses.
At one point I considered using “I’m alone” in different languages in final panel, but scrapped it because it was too much work.
Also, in the last panel I cheated again and used Photoshop to make the Earth look a little better and added stars. Oops.
You are not alone, there are 300 of you 🙂
I think you need to multiply that by about 10 million.
All of us get lost in the darkness;
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
All of us do time in the gutter;
Dreamers turn to look at the cars.
Turn around and turn around and turn around.
Turn around and walk the razor’s edge.
Don’t turn your back and slam
The door on me.
– from the Pass
by Rush
(300 is a reference to how many strips have been done so far)
I think about this a lot. So many people like me trapped in a painful sense of isolation, yet it being incredibly difficult to bridge the gap between us.
We’re together alone.
a terrible poetic irony
Yep, we are ultimately all alone out there. Be safe peeps.
That is so meaningful and true. I admire your creativity and I find comfort in your comics.
Du är inte ensam att känna så
This one is so true for me .. If there was a secret signal or a different handshake or something, we might not feel so alone. Support groups are okay, but often depressed people avoid those social situations. All I want is to just have a cup of coffee with someone who gets the real me.
“All the lonely people…”
“Wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door” — Sounds like the fake smiles that appear in the comic.
“My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it’s not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they’re too busy with their own”
BFTs, earshot
Spike: Life’s not a song.
Life isn’t bliss.
Life is just this:
It’s living.
You’ll get along.
The pain that you feel
You only can heal
By living.
You have to go on
Living
So one of us is
Living.
Dawn: The hardest thing in this world
Is to live in it.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer S6E7 “Once More With Feeling”
I was just going to write a simple “And we all die alone” but damn, someone else watched Buffy back in the day.
I’m old. I’m going for 40 but I feel like four hundred years. And I’m afraid I can’t even kill myself now properly.
Wow I really wish I would kill myself today, but I know I still won’t. Cheers to this comic. We’re all alone.
I like the way his shirt mirrors the bricks on the wall. As if he is fading into the background.
I was writing about this very thing in my journal this morning.
Thank you, I forgot others feel this way too. It helps to know I’m not alone out there even if it feels like it sometimes.
But everyone’s gotten so good at hiding it that they believe they’re the only one who’s alone.
Yep. But to all of you out there thinking you’re alone….I’m right there with you…and sometimes I feel I’m alone too.