Free Cat

This week’s new Dustinland comic is the story of how we got our cat. I’ve told this story to many people in real life, but now here it is in comic form. I think it was probably more entertaining when I was telling friends as it was happening. Like, when the cat was just living with us but wasn’t ours yet. That was pretty weird.

Great cat though. Worth the allergies. I think.

Absurdthday

This week’s new Dustinland comic is obviously just some silly nonsense, since my wife did not get me new and for my birthday, although that would have been a very sweet gesture. This was actually partially inspired by old Ren and Stimpy cartoons, since Ren was obsessed with getting pectoral implants. I believe the cartoon’s creator has been cancelled for some truly sketchy behavior, but man, it was a great show that was incredibly influential. That sort of weirdo bizarro grotesque take on classic cartooning… honestly, where would Cartoon Network and Adult Swim be without it?

Manic Mundane

This week’s new Dustinland comic is a collection of thematic annoyances. Nothing too profound, just little daily things we can all relate to, with a sprinkling of existential dread at the very end.

I do really get worried when I find a random screw at home though. I keep thinking I’m going to be sitting on a chair that suddenly collapses, sending a wooden shard into my spleen, or something like that. That would be an actual first world problem.

Too Cool For Pool

This week’s new Dustinland comic is a a light distraction from our horrible universe of suffering and chaos. It’s about summer, and what’s better, pools or beaches. I’m on the beach side. Not that I don’t enjoy the pool, but there’s just something about the beach that can’t be beat. Just sitting there, feeling the salty breeze, hearing the annoying seagulls, just that alone is better than being at the pool, where all you can hear is the sound of children screaming and lifeguards scolding. Plus you never get to see weird sea creatures wash up on the shore and poke their lifeless carcasses with sticks. And if you do, then you should definitely find a new pool.

Drunk With Power

I’ve covered this topic before, but in this week’s new Dustinland comic I discuss what happens when parents try to crack down on their kids’ entitled behaviors. I think a lot of this is an age thing. Unless you raise your kids all strict and stuff (which is probably awesome), they reach a certain age where they are in the middle — old enough to want to do stuff on their own, but young enough to still cling to the convenience of childhood when mommy gets them what they need because if they try to do it on their own it will just create a huge disaster for everyone. Either way though, I wind up drinking by the end.

Under Estimated

This week’s new Dustinland comic is the underwear comic I promised in last week’s strip about the war in Ukraine. I think it’s still hard for me to put out silly comics while WWIII is essentially happening, but people do seem in need of some levity and distraction, so here you go. Next week? Not sure — maybe I’ll have to alternate between war and… peace?

P.S. I have now unintentionally released a men’s underwear comic on International Women’s Day. Oops!

2/22/22

This new Dustinland comic is about how it’s Twosday today. 2/22/22. And at 2:22 it’ll be 2:22, Tuesday, 2/22/22. I mean, that’s a lot of twos. Some might say two many. And think about it, at 2:20 it’ll be two to 2:22, 2/22/22. The only thing better will be in 200 years when it’s 2/22/2222. Until then, I just don’t know what 2 do.

Modern Parenting

This week’s new Dustinland comic is about how hard parenting is. And actually beyond that — it’s not just that it’s hard to be a parent, it’s also hard being a parent in a time where you are always being told “the right way” to parent by a wide variety of professional parenting sources that get paid to help you / inform you that you’re wrong.

I do think these parenting guides are helpful — 100%. That being said, they definitely can also make you feel like your intuition is always wrong, and that the “right way” of parenting requires an impossible degree of emotionless calm focus. On the other hand, no one wants to turn into the grumpy old man who says “when I was your age they used to hit me in the mouth with a wrench!”

Hangry

This week’s new Dustinland comic is a quick in and out. One panel. One zinger. It’s very New Yorkery. I usually don’t write this way but every once in a while I do. And then people say “you should send this to the New Yorker, you should get this published, you should do XYZ.” All very nice comments that mean well, but would require me to put in effort and engage with other humans in a way that would involve submitting my art for judgement, and those are all things I dislike. I like creating. I like sharing my work. The business of that is something I don’t enjoy.

But oh yeah, the comic. It’s about being depressed. But it’s like, a totally hilarious take on it. Just a quick little zinger, a sharp little jab, a tiny barb. Maybe I should submit it to The New Yorker.

Stall Tales

My 1001th Dustinland comic is about my child frustrating me around bedtime, and features Stephen Hawking’s ghost. Not too much to add to this one — the kids are just amazing at stalling when it comes to staying up an extra minute, or hour. Sleep is just the enemy to them, which is funny, because when you grow up, it’s the best thing ever.